Part 1
Transcriber's Note:
Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
On page 31, either 1660 or 1669 is a possible typo.
On page 131, "The 4th Edward IV." is possibly a typo.
On page 154, "Dan Rowlandson" should possibly be "Dan Rawlinson".
On page 262, "Belvidere" is a possible typo for "Belvedere".
CLUB LIFE OF LONDON
WITH
ANECDOTES OF THE CLUBS, COFFEE-HOUSES AND TAVERNS OF THE METROPOLIS DURING THE 17TH, 18TH, AND 19TH CENTURIES.
BY JOHN TIMBS, F.S.A.
IN TWO VOLUMES.--VOL. II.
LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET
Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty. 1866.
PRINTED BY JOHN EDWARD TAYLOR, LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS.
CONTENTS.
Coffee-houses.
Page EARLY COFFEE-HOUSES 1
GARRAWAY'S COFFEE-HOUSE 6
JONATHAN'S COFFEE-HOUSE 11
RAINBOW COFFEE-HOUSE 14
NANDO'S COFFEE-HOUSE 18
DICK'S COFFEE-HOUSE 20
THE "LLOYD'S" OF THE TIME OF CHARLES II 21
LLOYD'S COFFEE-HOUSE 24
THE JERUSALEM COFFEE-HOUSE 30
BAKER'S COFFEE-HOUSE 30
COFFEE-HOUSES OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 31
COFFEE-HOUSE SHARPERS IN 1776 42
DON SALTERO'S COFFEE-HOUSE 44
SALOOP-HOUSES 48
THE SMYRNA COFFEE-HOUSE 49
ST. JAMES'S COFFEE-HOUSE 50
THE BRITISH COFFEE-HOUSE 55
WILL'S COFFEE-HOUSE 56
BUTTON'S COFFEE-HOUSE 64
DEAN SWIFT AT BUTTON'S 73
TOM'S COFFEE-HOUSE 75
THE BEDFORD COFFEE-HOUSE, IN COVENT GARDEN 76
MACKLIN'S COFFEE-HOUSE ORATORY 82
TOM KING'S COFFEE-HOUSE 84
PIAZZA COFFEE-HOUSE 87
THE CHAPTER COFFEE-HOUSE 88
CHILD'S COFFEE-HOUSE 90
LONDON COFFEE-HOUSE 92
TURK'S HEAD COFFEE-HOUSE, IN CHANGE ALLEY 93
SQUIRE'S COFFEE-HOUSE 96
SLAUGHTER'S COFFEE-HOUSE 99
WILL'S AND SERLE'S COFFEE-HOUSES 104
THE GRECIAN COFFEE-HOUSE 105
GEORGE'S COFFEE-HOUSE 107
THE PERCY COFFEE-HOUSE 108
PEELE'S COFFEE-HOUSE 109
Taverns.
THE TAVERNS OF OLD LONDON 110
THE BEAR AT THE BRIDGE-FOOT 122
MERMAID TAVERNS 124
THE BOAR'S HEAD TAVERN 124
THREE CRANES IN THE VINTRY 128
LONDON STONE TAVERN 128
THE ROBIN HOOD 129
PONTACK'S, ABCHURCH LANE 130
POPE'S HEAD TAVERN 131
THE OLD SWAN, THAMES-STREET 132
COCK TAVERN, THREADNEEDLE-STREET 133
CROWN TAVERN, THREADNEEDLE-STREET 134
THE KING'S HEAD TAVERN, IN THE POULTRY 135
THE MITRE, IN WOOD-STREET 141
THE SALUTATION AND CAT TAVERN 142
"SALUTATION" TAVERNS 144
QUEEN'S ARMS, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD 145
DOLLY'S, PATERNOSTER ROW 146
ALDERSGATE TAVERNS 147
"THE MOURNING CROWN" 150
JERUSALEM TAVERNS, CLERKENWELL 150
WHITE HART TAVERN, BISHOPSGATE WITHOUT 152
THE MITRE, IN FENCHURCH-STREET 154
THE KING'S HEAD, FENCHURCH-STREET 155
THE ELEPHANT, FENCHURCH-STREET 156
THE AFRICAN, ST. MICHAEL'S ALLEY 157
THE GRAVE MAURICE TAVERN 159
MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY, SPITALFIELDS 160
GLOBE TAVERN, FLEET-STREET 161
THE DEVIL TAVERN 162
THE YOUNG DEVIL TAVERN 169
COCK TAVERN, FLEET-STREET 170
THE HERCULES' PILLARS TAVERNS 171
HOLE-IN-THE-WALL TAVERNS 173
THE MITRE, IN FLEET-STREET 175
SHIP TAVERN, TEMPLE BAR 177
THE PALSGRAVE HEAD, TEMPLE BAR 178
HEYCOCK'S, TEMPLE BAR 178
THE CROWN AND ANCHOR, STRAND 179
THE CANARY-HOUSE, IN THE STRAND 180
THE FOUNTAIN TAVERN 181
TAVERN LIFE OF SIR RICHARD STEELE 182
CLARE MARKET TAVERNS 184
THE CRAVEN HEAD, DRURY LANE 185
THE COCK TAVERN, IN BOW-STREET 187
THE QUEEN'S HEAD, BOW-STREET 188
THE SHAKSPEARE TAVERN 189
SHUTER, AND HIS TAVERN PLACES 191
THE ROSE TAVERN, COVENT GARDEN 192
EVANS'S, COVENT GARDEN 194
THE FLEECE, COVENT GARDEN 196
THE BEDFORD HEAD, COVENT GARDEN 197
THE SALUTATION, TAVISTOCK STREET 197
THE CONSTITUTION TAVERN, COVENT GARDEN 199
THE CIDER CELLAR 199
OFFLEY'S, HENRIETTA-STREET 201
THE RUMMER TAVERN 202
SPRING GARDEN TAVERNS 204
"HEAVEN" AND "HELL" TAVERNS, WESTMINSTER 206
"BELLAMY'S KITCHEN" 208
A COFFEE-HOUSE CANARY BIRD 210
STAR AND GARTER, PALL MALL 211
THATCHED HOUSE TAVERN 217
"THE RUNNING FOOTMAN," MAY FAIR 219
PICCADILLY INNS AND TAVERNS 221
ISLINGTON TAVERNS 224
COPENHAGEN HOUSE 229
TOPHAM, THE STRONG MAN, AND HIS TAVERNS 232
THE CASTLE TAVERN, HOLBORN 234
MARYLEBONE AND PADDINGTON TAVERNS 236
KENSINGTON AND BROMPTON TAVERNS 242
KNIGHTSBRIDGE TAVERNS 249
RANELAGH GARDENS 255
CREMORNE TAVERN AND GARDENS 257
THE MULBERRY GARDEN 258
PIMLICO TAVERNS 259
LAMBETH,--VAUXHALL TAVERNS AND GARDENS, ETC. 260
FREEMASONS' LODGES 263
WHITEBAIT TAVERNS 267
THE LONDON TAVERN 274
THE CLARENDON HOTEL 279
FREEMASONS' TAVERN, GREAT QUEEN-STREET 280
THE ALBION, ALDERSGATE-STREET 283
ST. JAMES'S HALL 284
THEATRICAL TAVERNS 285
APPENDIX.
BEEFSTEAK SOCIETY 286
WHITE'S CLUB 287
THE ROYAL ACADEMY CLUB 289
DESTRUCTION OF TAVERNS BY FIRE 290
THE TZAR OF MUSCOVY'S HEAD, TOWER-STREET 291
ROSE TAVERN, TOWER-STREET 292
THE NAG'S HEAD TAVERN, CHEAPSIDE 293
THE HUMMUMS, COVENT GARDEN 295
ORIGIN OF TAVERN SIGNS 296
INDEX TO THE FIRST VOLUME 305
INDEX TO THE SECOND VOLUME 313
CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
Coffee-houses.
EARLY COFFEE-HOUSES.
Coffee is thus mentioned by Bacon, in his _Sylva Sylvarum_:--"They have in _Turkey_ a _drink_ called _Coffee_, made of a _Berry_ of the same name, as Black as _Soot_, and of a _Strong Sent_, but not _Aromatical_; which they take, beaten into Powder, in _Water_, as Hot as they can _Drink_ it; and they take it, and sit at it in their _Coffee Houses_, which are like our _Taverns_. The _Drink_ comforteth the _Brain_, and _Heart_, and helpeth _Digestion_."
And in Burton's _Anatomy of Melancholy_, part i., sec. 2, occurs, "Turks in their coffee-houses, which much resemble our taverns." The date is 1621, several years before coffee-houses were introduced into England.
In 1650, Wood tells us, was opened at Oxford, the first coffee-house, by Jacobs, a Jew, "at the Angel, in the parish of St. Peter in the East; and there it was, by some who delighted in novelty, drank."
There was once an odd notion prevalent that coffee was unwholesome, and would bring its drinkers to an untimely end. Yet, Voltaire, Fontenelle, and Fourcroy, who were great coffee-drinkers, lived to a good old age. Laugh at Madame de Sévigné, who foretold that coffee and Racine would be forgotten together!
A manuscript note, written by Oldys, the celebrated antiquary, states that "The use of coffee in England was first known in 1657. [It will be seen, as above, that Oldys is incorrect.] Mr. Edwards, a Turkey merchant, brought from Smyrna to London one Pasqua Rosee, a Ragusan youth, who prepared this drink for him every morning. But the novelty thereof drawing too much company to him, he allowed his said servant, with another of his son-in-law, to sell it publicly, and they set up the first coffee-house in London, in St. Michael's alley, in Cornhill. The sign was Pasqua Rosee's own head." Oldys is slightly in error here; Rosee commenced his coffee-house in 1652, and one Jacobs, a Jew, as we have just seen, had established a similar undertaking at Oxford, two years earlier. One of Rosee's original shop or hand-bills, the only mode of advertising in those days, is as follows:--
"THE VERTUE OF THE COFFEE DRINK,
"_First made and publickly sold in England by Pasqua Rosee._
"The grain or berry called coffee, groweth upon little trees only in the deserts of Arabia. It is brought from thence, and drunk generally throughout all the Grand Seignour's dominions. It is a simple, innocent thing, composed into a drink, by being dried in an oven, and ground to powder, and boiled up with spring water, and about half a pint of it to be drunk fasting an hour before, and not eating an hour after, and to be taken as hot as possibly can be endured; the which will never fetch the skin off the mouth, or raise any blisters by reason of that heat.
"The Turks' drink at meals and other times is usually water, and their diet consists much of fruit; the crudities whereof are very much corrected by this drink.
"The quality of this drink is cold and dry; and though it be a drier, yet it neither heats nor inflames more than hot posset. It so incloseth the orifice of the stomach, and fortifies the heat within, that it is very good to help digestion; and therefore of great use to be taken about three or four o'clock afternoon, as well as in the morning. It much quickens the spirits, and makes the heart lightsome; it is good against sore eyes, and the better if you hold your head over it and take in the steam that way. It suppresseth fumes exceedingly, and therefore is good against the head-ache, and will very much stop any defluxion of rheums, that distil from the head upon the stomach, and so prevent and help consumptions and the cough of the lungs.
"It is excellent to prevent and cure the dropsy, gout,[1] and scurvy. It is known by experience to be better than any other drying drink for people in years, or children that have any running humours upon them, as the king's evil, &c. It is a most excellent remedy against the spleen, hypochondriac winds, and the like. It will prevent drowsiness, and make one fit for business, if one have occasion to watch, and therefore you are not to drink of it after supper, unless you intend to be watchful, for it will hinder sleep for three or four hours.
"It is observed that in Turkey, where this is generally drunk, that they are not troubled with the stone, gout, dropsy, or scurvy, and that their skins are exceeding clear and white. It is neither laxative nor restringent.
"_Made and sold in St. Michael's-alley, in Cornhill, by Pasqua Rosee, at the sign of his own head._"
The new beverage had its opponents, as well as its advocates. The following extracts from _An invective against Coffee_, published about the same period, informs us that Rosee's partner, the servant of Mr. Edwards's son-in-law, was a coachman; while it controverts the statement that hot coffee will not scald the mouth, and ridicules the broken English of the Ragusan:--
"A BROADSIDE AGAINST COFFEE.
"A coachman was the first (here) coffee made, And ever since the rest drive on the trade: '_Me no good Engalash!_' and sure enough, He played the quack to salve his Stygian stuff; '_Ver boon for de stomach, de cough, de phthisick._' And I believe him, for it looks like physic. Coffee a crust is charred into a coal, The smell and taste of the mock china bowl; Where huff and puff, they labour out their lungs, Lest, Dives-like, they should bewail their tongues. And yet they tell ye that it will not burn, Though on the jury blisters you return; Whose furious heat does make the water rise, And still through the alembics of your eyes. Dread and desire, you fall to 't snap by snap, As hungry dogs do scalding porridge lap. But to cure drunkards it has got great fame; Posset or porridge, will 't not do the same? Confusion hurries all into one scene, Like Noah's ark, the clean and the unclean. And now, alas! the drench has credit got, And he's no gentleman that drinks it not; That such a dwarf should rise to such a stature! But custom is but a remove from nature. A little dish and a large coffee-house, What is it but a mountain and a mouse?"
Notwithstanding this opposition, coffee soon became a favourite drink, and the shops, where it was sold, places of general resort.
There appears to have been a great anxiety that the Coffee-house, while open to all ranks, should be conducted under such restraints as might prevent the better class of customers from being annoyed. Accordingly, the following regulations, printed on large sheets of paper, were hung up in conspicuous positions on the walls:--
"_Enter, Sirs, freely, but first, if you please, Peruse our civil orders, which are these._
First, gentry, tradesmen, all are welcome hither, And may without affront sit down together: Pre-eminence of place none here should mind, But take the next fit seat that he can find: Nor need any, if finer persons come, Rise up for to assign to them his room; To limit men's expense, we think not fair, But let him forfeit twelve-pence that shall swear: He that shall any quarrel here begin, Shall give each man a dish t' atone the sin; And so shall he, whose compliments extend So far to drink in coffee to his friend; Let noise of loud disputes be quite forborne, Nor maudlin lovers here in corners mourn, But all be brisk and talk, but not too much; On sacred things, let none presume to touch, Nor profane Scripture, nor saucily wrong Affairs of state with an irreverent tongue: Let mirth be innocent, and each man see That all his jests without reflection be; To keep the house more quiet and from blame, We banish hence cards, dice, and every game; Nor can allow of wagers, that exceed Five shillings, which ofttimes do troubles breed; Let all that's lost or forfeited be spent In such good liquor as the house doth vent. And customers endeavour, to their powers, For to observe still, seasonable hours. Lastly, let each man what he calls for pay, And so you're welcome to come every day."
In a print of the period, five persons are shown in a coffee-house, one smoking, evidently, from their dresses, of different ranks of life; they are seated at a table, on which are small basins without saucers, and tobacco-pipes, while a waiter is serving the coffee.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] In the French colonies, where Coffee is more used than in the English, Gout is scarcely known.
GARRAWAY'S COFFEE-HOUSE.
This noted Coffee-house, situated in Change-alley, Cornhill, has a threefold celebrity: tea was first sold in England here; it was a place of great resort in the time of the South Sea Bubble; and has since been a place of great mercantile transactions. The original proprietor was Thomas Garway, tobacconist and coffee-man, the first who retailed tea, recommending for the cure of all disorders; the following is the substance of his shop bill:--"Tea in England hath been sold in the leaf for six pounds, and sometimes for ten pounds the pound weight, and in respect of its former scarceness and dearness, it hath been only used as a regalia in high treatments and entertainments, and presents made thereof to princes and grandees till the year 1651." The said Thomas Garway did purchase a quantity thereof, and first publicly sold the said tea in leaf and drink, made according to the directions of the most knowing merchants and travellers into those Eastern countries; and upon knowledge and experience of the said Garway's continued care and industry in obtaining the best tea, and making drink thereof, very many noblemen, physicians, merchants, and gentlemen of quality, have ever since sent to him for the said leaf, and daily resort to his house in Exchange-alley, aforesaid, to drink the drink thereof; and to the end that all persons of eminence and quality, gentlemen, and others, who have occasion for tea in leaf, may be supplied, these are to give notice that the said Thomas Garway hath tea to sell from "sixteen to fifty shillings per pound." (See the document entire in Ellis's _Letters_, series iv. 58.)
Ogilby, the compiler of the _Britannia_, had his standing lottery of books at Mr. Garway's Coffee-house from April 7, 1673, till wholly drawn off. And, in the _Journey through England_, 1722, Garraway's, Robins's, and Joe's, are described as the three celebrated Coffee-houses: in the first, the People of Quality, who have business in the City, and the most considerable and wealthy citizens, frequent. In the second the Foreign Banquiers, and often even Foreign Ministers. And in the third, the Buyers and Sellers of Stock.
Wines were sold at Garraway's in 1673, "by the candle," that is, by auction, while an inch of candle burns. In _The Tatler_, No. 147, we read: "Upon my coming home last night, I found a very handsome present of French wine left for me, as a taste of 216 hogsheads, which are to be put to sale at 20_l._ a hogshead, at Garraway's Coffee-house, in Exchange-alley," &c. The sale by candle is not, however, by candle-light, but during the day. At the commencement of the sale, when the auctioneer has read a description of the property, and the conditions on which it is to be disposed of, a piece of candle, usually an inch long, is lighted, and he who is the last bidder at the time the light goes out is declared the purchaser.
Swift, in his "Ballad on the South Sea Scheme," 1721, did not forget Garraway's:--
"There is a gulf, where thousands fell, Here all the bold adventurers came, A narrow sound, though deep as hell, 'Change alley is the dreadful name.
"Subscribers here by thousands float, And jostle one another down, Each paddling in his leaky boat, And here they fish for gold and drown.
"Now buried in the depths below, Now mounted up to heaven again, They reel and stagger to and fro, At their wits' end, like drunken men.
"Meantime secure on Garway cliffs, A savage race, by shipwrecks fed, Lie waiting for the founder'd skiffs, And strip the bodies of the dead."
Dr. Radcliffe, who was a rash speculator in the South Sea Scheme, was usually planted at a table at Garraway's about Exchange time, to watch the turn of the market; and here he was seated when the footman of his powerful rival, Dr. Edward Hannes, came into Garraway's and inquired, by way of a puff, if Dr. H. was there. Dr. Radcliffe, who was surrounded with several apothecaries and chirurgeons that flocked about him, cried out, "Dr. Hannes was not there," and desired to know "who wanted him?" the fellow's reply was, "such a lord and such a lord;" but he was taken up with the dry rebuke, "No, no, friend, you are mistaken; the Doctor wants those lords." One of Radcliffe's ventures was five thousand guineas upon one South Sea project. When he was told at Garraway's that 'twas all lost, "Why," said he, "'tis but going up five thousand pair of stairs more." "This answer," says Tom Brown, "deserved a statue."