Volume Ii Part 11 (2/2)
The Old Swan Tavern and its landing-stairs were destroyed in the Great Fire; but rebuilt. Its Token, in the Beaufoy Collection, is one of the rarest, of large size.
c.o.c.k TAVERN, THREADNEEDLE-STREET.
This noted house, which faced the north gate of the old Royal Exchange, was long celebrated for the excellence of its soups, which were served at an economical price, in silver. One of its proprietors was, it is believed, John Ellis, an eccentric character, and a writer of some reputation, who died in 1791. Eight stanzas addressed to him in praise of the tavern, commenced thus:--
”When to Ellis I write, I in verse must indite, Come Phoebus, and give me a knock, For on Fryday at eight, all behind 'the 'Change gate,'
Master Ellis will be at 'The c.o.c.k.'”
After comparing it to other houses, the Pope's Head, the King's Arms, the Black Swan, and the Fountain, and declaring the c.o.c.k the best, it ends:
”'Tis time to be gone, for the 'Change has struck one: O 'tis an impertinent clock!
For with Ellis I'd stay from December to May; I'll stick to my Friend, and 'The c.o.c.k!'”
This house was taken down in 1841; when, in a claim for compensation made by the proprietor, the trade in three years was proved to have been 344,720 basins of various soups--viz. 166,240 mock turtle, 3,920 giblet, 59,360 ox-tail, 31,072 bouilli, 84,128 gravy and other soups: sometimes 500 basins of soup were sold in a day.
CROWN TAVERN, THREADNEEDLE-STREET.
Upon the site of the present chief entrance to the Bank of England, in Threadneedle-street, stood the Crown Tavern, ”behind the 'Change:” it was frequented by the Fellows of the Royal Society, when they met at Gresham College hard by. The Crown was burnt in the Great Fire, but was rebuilt; and about a century since, at this tavern, ”it was not unusual to draw a b.u.t.t of mountain wine, containing 120 gallons, in gills, in a morning.”--_Sir John Hawkins._
Behind the Change, we read in the _Connoisseur_, 1754, a man worth a plum used to order a twopenny mess of broth with a boiled chop in it; placing the chop between the two crusts of a half-penny roll, he would wrap it up in his check handkerchief, and carry it away for the morrow's dinner.
THE KING'S HEAD TAVERN, IN THE POULTRY.
This Tavern, which stood at the western extremity of the Stocks'
Market, was not first known by the sign of the King's Head, but the Rose: Machin, in his Diary, Jan. 5, 1560, thus mentions it: ”A gentleman arrested for debt; Master Cobham, with divers gentlemen and serving-men, took him from the officers, and carried him to the Rose Tavern, where so great a fray, both the sheriffs were feign to come, and from the Rose Tavern took all the gentlemen and their servants, and carried them to the Compter.”
The house was distinguished by the device of a large, well-painted Rose, erected over a doorway, which was the only indication in the main street of such an establishment. In the superior houses of the metropolis in the sixteenth century, room was gained in the rear of the street-line, the s.p.a.ce in front being economized, so that the line of shops might not be interrupted. Upon this plan, the larger taverns in the City were constructed, wherever the ground was sufficiently s.p.a.cious behind: hence it was that the Poultry tavern of which we are speaking, was approached through a long, narrow, covered pa.s.sage, opening into a well-lighted quadrangle, around which were the tavern-rooms. The sign of the Rose appears to have been a costly work, since there was the fragment of a leaf of an old account-book preserved, when the ruins of the house were cleared after the Great Fire, on which were written these entries:--”Pd. to Hoggestreete, the d.u.c.h.e Paynter, for ye Picture of a Rose, with a Standing-bowle and Gla.s.ses, for a Signe, xx_li._ besides Diners and Drinkings. Also for a large Table of Walnut-tree, for a Frame; and for Iron-worke and Hanging the Picture, v_li._” The artist who is referred to in this memorandum, could be no other than Samuel Van Hoogstraten, a painter of the middle of the seventeenth century, whose works in England are very rare. He was one of the many excellent artists of the period, who, as Walpole contemptuously says, ”painted still-life, oranges and lemons, plate, damask curtains, cloth-of-gold, and that medley of familiar objects that strike the ignorant vulgar.”
But, beside the claims of the painter, the sign of the Rose cost the worthy tavern-keeper, a still further outlay, in the form of divers treatings and advances made to a certain rather loose man of letters of his acquaintance, possessed of more wit than money, and of more convivial loyalty than either discretion or principle. Master Roger Blythe frequently patronized the Rose Tavern as his favourite ordinary. Like Falstaff, he was ”an infinite thing” upon his host's score; and, like his prototype also, there was no probability of his ever discharging the account. When the Tavern-sign was about to be erected, this Master Blythe contributed the poetry to it, after the fas.h.i.+on of the time, which he swore was the envy of all the Rose Taverns in London, and of all the poets who frequented them. ”There's your Rose at Temple Bar, and your Rose in Covent-garden, and the Rose in Southwark: all of them indifferent good for wits, and for drawing neat wines too; but, smite me, Master King,” he would say, ”if I know one of them all fit to be set in the same hemisphere with yours! No!
for a bountiful host, a most sweet mistress, unsophisticated wines, honest measures, a choicely-painted sign, and a witty verse to set it forth withal,--commend me to the Rose Tavern in the Poultry!”
Even the tavern-door exhibited a joyous frontispiece; since the entrance was flanked by two columns twisted with vines carved in wood, which supported a small square gallery over the portico surrounded by handsome iron-work. On the front of this gallery was erected the sign, in a frame of similar ornaments. It consisted of a central compartment containing the Rose, behind which appeared a tall silver cup, called in the language of the time ”a standing-bowl,” with drinking-gla.s.ses.
Beneath the painting was this inscription:--
”THIS IS THE ROSE TAVERNE IN THE POULTREY: KEPT BY WILLIAM KING, CITIZEN AND VINTNER.
”This Taverne's like its Signe--a l.u.s.tie Rose, A sight of joy that sweetness doth enclose: The daintie Flow're well-pictur'd here is seene, But for its rarest sweetes--Come, Searche Within!”
The authorities of St. Peter-upon-Cornhill soon determined, on the 10th of May, 1660, in Vestry, ”that the King's Arms, in painted-gla.s.s, should be refreshed, and forthwith be set up by the Churchwarden at the parish-charges; with whatsoever he giveth to the glazier as a gratuity, for his care in keeping of them all this while.”
The host of the Rose resolved at once to add a Crown to his sign, with the portrait of Charles, wearing it in the centre of the flower, and openly to name his tavern ”The Royal Rose and King's Head.” He effected his design, partly by the aid of one of the many excellent pencils which the time supplied, and partly by the inventive muse of Master Blythe, which soon furnished him with a new poesy. There is not any further information extant concerning the painting, but the following remains of an entry on another torn fragment of the old account-book already mentioned, seem to refer to the poetical inscription beneath the picture:-- ... ”_on ye Night when he made ye Verses for my new Signe, a Soper, and v. Peeces_.” The verses themselves were as follow:--
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