Club Life of London Volume Ii Part 12

"Gallants, Rejoice!--This Flow're is now full-blowne; 'Tis a Rose--n.o.ble better'd by a Crowne; All you who love the Embleme and the Signe, Enter, and prove our Loyaltie and Wine."

Beside this inscription, Master King also recorded the auspicious event referred to, by causing his painter to introduce into the picture a broad-sheet, as if lying on the table with the cup and gla.s.ses--on which appeared the t.i.tle "_A Kalendar for this Happy Yeare of Restauration 1660, now newly Imprinted_."

As the time advanced when Charles was to make his entry into the metropolis, the streets were resounding with the voices of ballad-singers pouring forth loyal songs, and declaring, with the whole strength of their lungs, that

"The King shall enjoy his own again."

Then, there were also to be heard, the ceaseless horns and proclamations of hawkers and flying-stationers, publis.h.i.+ng the latest pa.s.sages or rumours touching the royal progress; which, whether genuine or not, were bought and read, and circulated, by all parties.

At length all the previous pamphlets and broad-sheets were swallowed up by a well-known tract, still extant, which the newsmen of the time thus proclaimed:--"Here is _A True Accompt and Narrative--of his Majestie's safe Arrival in England--as 'twas reported to the House of Commons, on Friday, the 25th day of this present May--with the Resolutions of both Houses thereupon:--Also a Letter very lately writ from Dover--relating divers remarkable Pa.s.sages of His Majestie's Reception there_."

On every side the signs and iron-work were either refreshed, or newly gilt and painted: tapestries and rich hangings, which had engendered moth and decay from long disuse, were flung abroad again, that they might be ready to grace the coming pageant. The paving of the streets was levelled and repaired for the expected cavalcade; and scaffolds for spectators were in the course of erection throughout all the line of march. Floods of all sorts of wines were consumed, as well in the streets as in the taverns; and endless healths were devotedly and energetically swallowed, at morning, noon, and night.

At this time Mistress Rebecca King was about to add another member to Master King's household: she received from hour to hour accounts of the proceedings as they occurred, which so stimulated her curiosity, that she declared, first to her gossips, and then to her husband, that she "must see the King pa.s.s the tavern, or matters might go cross with her."

A kind of arbour was made for Mistress Rebecca in the small iron gallery surmounting the entrance to the tavern. This arbour was of green boughs and flowers, hung round with tapestry and garnished with silver plate; and here, when the guns at the Tower announced that Charles had entered London, Mistress King took her seat, with her children and gossips around her. All the houses in the main streets from London-bridge to Whitehall, were decorated like the tavern with rich silks and tapestries, hung from every scaffold, balcony, and window; which, as Herrick says, turned the town into a park, "made green and trimmed with boughs." The road through London, so far as Temple-Bar, was lined on the north side by the City Companies, dressed in their liveries, and ranged in their respective stands, with their banners; and on the south by the soldiers of the trained-bands.

One of the wine conduits stood on the south side of the Stocks'

Market, over which Sir Robert Viner subsequently erected a triumphal statue of Charles II. About this spot, therefore, the crowd collected in the Market-place, aided by the fierce loyalty supplied from the conduit, appears for a time to have brought the procession to a full stop, at the moment when Charles, who rode between his brothers the Dukes of York and Gloucester, was nearly opposite to the newly-named King's Head Tavern. In this most favourable interval, Master Blythe, who stood upon a scaffold in the doorway, took the opportunity of elevating a silver cup of wine and shouting out a health to his Majesty. His energetical action, as he pointed upwards to the gallery, was not lost; and the Duke of Buckingham, who rode immediately before the King with General Monk, directed Charles's attention to Mistress Rebecca, saying, "Your Majesty's return is here welcomed even by a subject as yet unborn." As the procession pa.s.sed by the door of the King's Head Tavern, the King turned towards it, raised himself in his stirrups, and gracefully kissed his hand to Mistress Rebecca.

Immediately such a shout was raised from all who beheld it or heard of it, as startled the crowd up to Cheapside conduit; and threw the poor woman herself into such an ecstasy, that she was not conscious of anything more, until she was safe in her chamber and all danger happily over.[31]

The Tavern was rebuilt after the Great Fire, and flourished many years. It was long a depot in the metropolis for turtle; and in the quadrangle of the Tavern might be seen scores of turtle, large and lively, in huge tanks of water; or laid upward on the stone floor, ready for their destination. The Tavern was also noted for large dinners of the City Companies and other public bodies. The house was refitted in 1852, but has since been closed.

Another noted Poultry Tavern was the Three Cranes, destroyed in the Great Fire, but rebuilt, and noticed in 1698, in one of the many paper controversies of that day. A fulminating pamphlet, ent.i.tled "_Ecclesia et Factio_: a Dialogue between Bow Church Steeple and the Exchange Gra.s.shopper," elicited "An Answer to the Dragon and Gra.s.shopper: in a Dialogue between an Old Monkey and a Young Weasel, at the Three Cranes Tavern, in the Poultry."

FOOTNOTE:

[31] Abridged from an Account of the Tavern, by an Antiquary.

THE MITRE, IN WOOD STREET,

Was a noted old Tavern. Pepys, in his _Diary_, Sept. 18, 1660, records his going "to the Mitre Tavern, in Wood-street, (a house of the greatest note in London,) where I met W. Symons, D. Scoball, and their wives. Here some of us fell to handicap, a sport I never knew before, which was very good." The tavern was destroyed in the Great Fire.

THE SALUTATION AND CAT TAVERN,

No. 17, Newgate-street (north side), was, according to the tradition of the house, the tavern where Sir Christopher Wren used to smoke his pipe, whilst St. Paul's was re-building. There is more positive evidence of its being a place well frequented by men of letters at the above period. Thus, there exists a poetical invitation to a social feast held here on June 19, 1735-6, issued by the two stewards, Edward Cave and William Bowyer:

"Sat.u.r.day, Jan. 17, 1735-6.

"Sir,

"You're desir'd on Monday next to meet At Salutation Tavern, Newgate-street.

Supper will be on table just at eight, [_Stewards_] One of St. John's [Bowyer], 'tother of St. John's Gate [Cave]."

This brought a poetical answer from Samuel Richardson, the novelist, printed _in extenso_ in Bowyer's _Anecdotes_:

"For me, I'm much concerned I cannot meet 'At Salutation Tavern, Newgate-street.'

Your notice, like your verse, so sweet and short!

If longer, I'd sincerely thank you for it.

Howe'er, receive my wishes, sons of verse!

May every man who meets, your praise rehea.r.s.e!

May mirth, as plenty, crown your cheerful board, And ev'ry one part happy--as a lord!

That when at home, (by such sweet verses fir'd) Your families may think you all inspir'd.

So wishes he, who pre-engag'd, can't know The pleasures that would from your meeting flow."

The proper sign is the Salutation and Cat,--a curious combination, but one which is explained by a lithograph, which some years ago hung in the coffee-room. An aged dandy is saluting a friend whom he has met in the street, and offering him a pinch out of the snuff-box which forms the top of his wood-like cane. This box-n.o.b was, it appears, called a "cat"--hence the connection of terms apparently so foreign to each other. Some, not aware of this explanation, have accounted for the sign by supposing that a tavern called "the Cat" was at some time pulled down, and its trade carried to the Salutation, which thenceforward joined the sign to its own; but this is improbable, seeing that we have never heard of _any_ tavern called "the Cat"

(although we _do_ know of "the Barking Dogs") as a sign. Neither does the _Salutation_ take its name from any scriptural or sacred source, as the _Angel and Trumpets_, etc.

More positive evidence there is to show of the "little smoky room at the _Salutation and Cat_," where Coleridge and Charles Lamb sat smoking Oronoko and drinking egg-hot; the first discoursing of his idol, Bowles, and the other rejoicing mildly in Cowper and Burns, or both dreaming of "Pantisocracy, and golden days to come on earth."

"SALUTATION" TAVERNS.

The sign Salutation, from scriptural or sacred source, remains to be explained. Mr. Akerman suspects the original sign to have really represented the Salutation of the Virgin by the Angel--"Ave Maria, gratia plena"--a well-known legend on the jettons of the Middle Ages.

The change of representation was properly accommodated to the times.

The taverns at that period were the "gossiping shops" of the neighbourhood; and both Puritan and Churchman frequented them for the sake of hearing the news. The Puritans loved the good things of this world, and relished a cup of Canary, or Noll's nose lied, holding the maxim--

"Though the devil trepan The Adamical man, The saint stands uninfected."

Hence, perhaps, the Salutation of the Virgin was exchanged for the "booin' and sc.r.a.pin'" scene (two men bowing and greeting), represented on a token which still exists, the tavern was celebrated in the days of Queen Elizabeth. In some old black-letter doggrel, ent.i.tled _News from Bartholemew Fayre_ it is mentioned for wine:--

"There hath been great sale and utterance of wine, Besides beere, and ale, and Ipocras fine; In every country, region, and nation, But chiefly in Billingsgate, _at the Salutation_."

_The Flower-pot_ was originally part of a symbol of the Annunciation to the Virgin.

QUEEN'S ARMS, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD.

Garrick appears to have kept up his interest in the City by means of clubs, to which he paid periodical visits. We have already mentioned the Club of young merchants, at Tom's Coffee-house, in Cornhill.

Another Club was held at the Queen's Arms Tavern, in St. Paul's Churchyard, where used to a.s.semble: Mr. Samuel Sharpe, the surgeon; Mr. Paterson, the City solicitor; Mr. Draper, the bookseller; Mr.

Clutterbuck, the mercer; and a few others.

Sir John Hawkins tells us that "they were none of them drinkers, and in order to make a reckoning, called only for French wine." These were Garrick's standing council in theatrical affairs.

At the Queen's Arms, after a thirty years' interval, Johnson renewed his intimacy with some of the members of his old Ivy-lane Club.

Brasbridge, the old silversmith of Fleet-street, was a member of the Sixpenny Card-Club held at the Queen's Arms: among the members was Henry Baldwyn, who, under the auspices of Bonnel Thornton, Colman the elder, and Garrick, set up the _St. James's Chronicle_, which once had the largest circulation of any evening paper. This worthy newspaper-proprietor was considerate and generous to men of genius: "Often," says Brasbridge, "at his hospitable board I have seen needy authors, and others connected with his employment, whose abilities, ill-requited as they might have been by the world in general, were by him always appreciated." Among Brasbridge's acquaintance, also, were John Walker, shopman to a grocer and chandler in Well-street, Ragfair, who died worth 200,000_l._, most a.s.suredly not gained by lending money on doubtful security; and Ben Kenton, brought up at a charity-school, and who realized 300,000_l._, partly at the Magpie and Crown, in Whitechapel.

DOLLY'S, PATERNOSTER ROW.

This noted tavern, established in the reign of Queen Anne, has for its sign, the cook Dolly, who is stated to have been painted by Gainsborough. It is still a well-appointed chop-house and tavern, and the coffee-room, with its projecting fireplaces, has an olden air.

Nearly on the site of Dolly's, Tarlton, Queen Elizabeth's favourite stage-clown, kept an ordinary, with the sign of the Castle. The house, of which a token exists, was destroyed in the Great Fire, but was rebuilt; there the "Castle Society of Music" gave their performances.

Part of the old premises were subsequently the Oxford Bible Warehouse, destroyed by fire in 1822, and rebuilt.

The entrance to the Chop-house is in Queen's Head pa.s.sage; and at Dolly's is a window-pane painted with the head of Queen Anne, which may explain the name of the court.