Volume Ii Part 1 (2/2)

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 cla.s.s 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 a.s.sign 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 s.h.i.+llings, 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 quant.i.ty 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 n.o.blemen, 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 s.h.i.+llings per pound.” (See the doc.u.ment 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 h.e.l.l, '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 s.h.i.+pwrecks 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.”

As a Coffee-house, and one of the oldest cla.s.s, which has withstood, by the well-acquired fame of its proprietors, the ravages of time, and the changes that economy and new generations produce, none can be compared to Garraway's. This name must be familiar with most people in and out of the City; and, notwithstanding our disposition to make allowance for the want of knowledge some of our neighbours of the West-end profess in relation to men and things east of Temple Bar, it must be supposed that the n.o.ble personage who said, when asked by a merchant to pay him a visit in one of these places, ”that he willingly would, if his friend could tell him where to change horses,” had forgotten this establishment, which fostered so great a quant.i.ty of dishonoured paper, when in other City coffee-houses it had gone begging at 1_s._ and 2_s._ in the pound.[2]

Garraway's has long been famous as a sandwich and drinking room, for sherry, pale ale, and punch. Tea and coffee are still served. It is said that the sandwich-maker is occupied two hours in cutting and arranging the sandwiches before the day's consumption commences. The sale-room is an old fas.h.i.+oned first-floor apartment, with a small rostrum for the seller, and a few commonly grained settles for the buyers. Here sales of drugs, mahogany, and timber are periodically held. Twenty or thirty property and other sales sometimes take place in a day. The walls and windows of the lower room are covered with sale placards, which are unsentimental evidences of the mutability of human affairs.

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