Volume Ii Part 13 (1/2)
At Dolly's and Horsman's beef-steaks were eaten with gill-ale.
ALDERSGATE TAVERNS.
Two early houses of entertainment in Aldersgate were the Taborer's Inn and the Crown. Of the former, stated to have been of the time of Edward II., we know nothing but the name. The Crown, more recent, stood at the End of Duck-lane, and is described in Ward's _London Spy_, as containing a n.o.ble room, painted by Fuller, with the Muses, the Judgment of Paris, the Contention of Ajax and Ulysses, etc. ”We were conducted by the jolly master,” says Ward, ”a true kinsman of the baccha.n.a.lian family, into a large stately room, where at the first entrance, I discerned the master-strokes of the famed Fuller's pencil; the whole room painted by that commanding hand, that his dead figures appeared with such lively majesty that they begat reverence in the spectators towards the awful shadows. We accordingly bade the complaisant waiter oblige us with a quart of his richest claret, such as was fit only to be drank in the presence of such heroes, into whose company he had done us the honour to introduce us. He thereupon gave directions to his drawer, who returned with a quart of such inspiring juice, that we thought ourselves translated into one of the houses of the heavens, and were there drinking immortal nectar with the G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses:
”Who could such blessings when thus found resign?
An honest vintner faithful to the vine; A s.p.a.cious room, good paintings, and good wine.”
Far more celebrated was the Mourning Bush Tavern, in the cellars of which have been traced the ma.s.sive foundations of Aldersgate, and the portion of the City Wall which adjoins them. This tavern, one of the largest and most ancient in London, has a curious history.
The Bush Tavern, its original name, took for its sign the _Ivy-bush_ hung up at the door. It is believed to have been the house referred to by Stowe, as follows:--”This gate (Aldersgate) hath been at sundry times increased with building; namely, on the south or _inner side_, a great frame of timber, (or house of wood lathed and plastered,) hath been added and set up containing divers large rooms and lodgings,”
which were an enlargement of the Bush. Fosbroke mentions the Bush as the chief sign of taverns in the Middle Ages, (it being ready to hand,) and so it continued until superseded by ”a thing to resemble one containing three or four tiers of hoops fastened one above another with vine leaves and grapes, richly carved and gilt.” He adds: ”the owner of the Mourning Bush, Aldersgate, was so affected at the decollation of Charles I., that he _painted his bush black_.” From this period the house is scarcely mentioned until the year 1719, when we find its name changed to the Fountain, whether from political feeling against the then exiled House of Stuart, or the whim of the proprietor, we cannot learn; though it is thought to have reference to a spring on the east side of the gate. Tom Brown mentions the Fountain satirically, with four or five topping taverns of the day, whose landlords are charged with doctoring their wines, but whose trade was so great that they stood fair for the alderman's gown. And, in a letter from an old vintner in the City to one newly set up in Covent Garden, we find the following in the way of advice: ”as all the world are wholly supported by hard and unintelligible names, you must take care to christen your wines by some hard name, the further fetched so much the better, and this policy will serve to recommend the most execrable sc.u.m in your cellar. I could name several of our brethren to you, who now stand fair to sit in the seat of justice, and sleep in their golden chain at churches, that had been forced to knock off long ago, if it had not been for this artifice. It saved the Sun from being eclipsed; the Crown from being abdicated; the Rose from decaying; and the Fountain from being dry; as well as both the Devils from being confined to utter darkness.”
Twenty years later, in a large plan of Aldersgate Ward, 1739-40, we find the Fountain changed to the original Bush. The Fire of London had evidently, at this time, curtailed the ancient extent of the tavern.
The exterior is shown in a print of the south side of Aldersgate; it has the character of the larger houses, built after the Great Fire, and immediately adjoins the gate. The last notice of the Bush, as a place of entertainment, occurs in Maitland's _History of London_, ed.
1722, where it is described as ”the Fountain, commonly called the Mourning Bush, which has a back door into St. Anne's-lane, and is situated near unto Aldersgate.” The house was refitted in 1830. In the bas.e.m.e.nt are the original wine-vaults of the old Bush; many of the walls are six feet thick, and bonded throughout with Roman brick. A very agreeable account of the tavern and the antiquities of neighbourhood was published in 1830.
”THE MOURNING CROWN.”
In Phoenix Alley, (now Hanover Court,) Long Acre, John Taylor, the Water Poet, kept a tavern, with the sign of ”the Mourning Crown,” but this being offensive to the Commonwealth (1652), he subst.i.tuted for a sign his own head with this inscription--
”There's many a head stands for a sign; Then, gentle reader, why not mine?”
He died here in the following year; and his widow in 1658.
JERUSALEM TAVERNS, CLERKENWELL.
These houses took their name from the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, around whose Priory, grew up the village of Clerkenwell.
The Priory Gate remains. At the Suppression, the Priory was undermined, and blown up with gunpowder; the Gate also would probably have been destroyed, but for its serving to define the property. In 1604, it was granted to Sir Roger Wilbraham for his life. At this time Clerkenwell was inhabited by people of condition. Forty years later, fas.h.i.+on had travelled westward; and the Gate became the printing-office of Edward Cave, who, in 1731, published here the first number of the _Gentleman's Magazine_, which to this day bears the Gate for its vignette. Dr. Johnson was first engaged upon the magazine here by Cave in 1737. At the Gate Johnson first met Richard Savage; and here in Cave's room, when visitors called, he ate his plate of victuals behind the screen, his dress being ”so shabby that he durst not make his appearance.” Garrick, when first he came to London, frequently called upon Johnson at the Gate. Goldsmith was also a visitor here. When Cave grew rich, he had St. John's Gate painted, instead of his arms, on his carriage, and engraven on his plate. After Cave's death in 1753, the premises became the ”Jerusalem”
public-house, and the ”Jerusalem Tavern.”
There was likewise another Jerusalem Tavern, at the corner of Red Lion-street on Clerkenwell-green, which was the original; St. John's Gate public-house, having a.s.sumed the name of ”Jerusalem Tavern” in consequence of the old house on the Green giving up the tavern business, and becoming the ”merchants' house.” In its dank and cobwebbed vaults John Britton served an apprentices.h.i.+p to a wine-merchant; and in reading at intervals by candle-light, first evinced that love of literature which characterized his long life of industry and integrity. He remembered Clerkenwell in 1787, with St.
John's Priory-church and cloisters; when Spafields were pasturage for cows; the old garden-mansions of the aristocracy remained in Clerkenwell-close; and Sadler's Wells, Islington Spa, Merlin's Cave, and Bagnigge Wells, were nightly crowded with gay company.
In a friendly note, Sept. 11, 1852, Mr. Britton tells us: ”Our house sold wines in _full_ quarts, _i.e._ twelve held three gallons, wine measure; and each bottle was marked with four lines cut by a diamond on the neck. Our wines were famed, and the character of the house was high, whence the Gate imitated the bottles and name.”
In 1845, by the aid of ”the Freemasons of the Church,” and Mr. W. P.
Griffith, architect, the north and south fronts were restored. The gateway is a good specimen of groining of the 15th century, with moulded ribs, and bosses ornamented with s.h.i.+elds of the arms of the Priory, Prior Docwra, etc. The east bas.e.m.e.nt is the tavern-bar, with a beautifully moulded ceiling. The stairs are Elizabethan. The princ.i.p.al room over the arch has been despoiled of its window-mullions and groined roof. The foundation-wall of the Gate face is 10 feet 7 inches thick, and the upper walls are nearly 4 feet, hard red brick, stone-cased: the view from the top of the staircase-turret is extensive. In excavating there have been discovered the original pavement, three feet below the Gate; and the Priory walls, north, south, and west. In 1851, there was published, by B. Foster, proprietor of the Tavern, _Ye History of ye Priory and Gate of St.
John_. In the princ.i.p.al room of the Gate, over the great arch, meet the Urban Club, a society, chiefly of authors and artists, with whom originated the proposition to celebrate the tercentenary of the birth of Shakespeare, in 1864.
WHITE HART TAVERN, BISHOPSGATE WITHOUT.
About forty years since there stood at a short distance north of St.