LONDON TAVERNS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XVII, Issue 986, 28 January 1909, Page 22

LONDON TAVERNS.

The history of London taverns provided a fascinating subject for Mr. Harold Griffiths, A.R.1.8.A., who read a paper, at the London Auctioneers’ Institute, which was an interesting link with the past. Having pointed out how certain “ houses” were at one time used by members of the auctioneer’s profession for conducting sales, he said, in considering the subject of the taverns, it was first necessary to properly appreciate the meaning of the word in the old-time sense. In olden days the tavern formed the home, the club, the business premises, and the address of the men of learning, the author, the wit, the poet, the doctor, the lawyer, the player, the painter, and the man of quality. It was the forum of phil-

osophical debate, the birth-place of wit and wisdom. Such were the habitual frequenters of the tavern, where they met with kindred spirits—and other spirits, perhaps! The keeper of a tavern was a man of some standing, often a man of some learning, and very frequently possessed of considerable wit, and one who not only mixed with the guests, but whose presence was courted by them. In order to show the standing a tavern possessed in the olden days, it was interesting to record that many of them were at one time marrying houses. Bartholomew Bassett rented the Fleet Cellars at £lOO a year, where marriages were solemnised. A few of the negotiations of wedlock were women, who had come into possession of a register and marrying business by inheritance; but, in the first instance, many of them had been simple innkeepers. The Cock and the Handand Pen, both near the oid Fleet Bridge, were very famous marrying houses. The Golden Lion, the Two Lawyers, the Wheatsheaf, the Horseshoe, the Magpie, the King’s Head, and the Swan and Hoop were some of the taverns in or near Fleet-street, provided w.th chaplains and chapels (or private rooms), in which marriages were solemnised on every day and night of the year. At the sign of the Angel, in Bishopgate-street, the parish clerks, who were incorporated in 1232 by Henry HI., kept their hall. Here they recorded the number of christenings, casualties, etc., and published the bills of mortality. In 1309 there were 354 taverns in London, and iater they became so numerous that Sir Walter Scott, writing of Whitefriars in the seventeenth century, said: “ The signs of the alehouses and taverns indicated that they were equa. in number to all the oilier houses. ’ Ale was very differe..t in these days to what was brewed now—it was not “hopped.” The best ale was no better than sweet wort. It was consumed immediately it was brewed, and was so thm that it might be drunk “pottle deep” without fear of inebriation.

In dealing with the customs associated wuh the caver-is, Mr. Griffiths pointed out that alehouses were in the olden days distinct from wine taverns. The former were generally brew houses as we.l. This double busmess of making and selling ale was almost entirely in the hands of women who were called brewesses, and were held in rather low estimation. As late as the close of the fifteenth century Fleet-street was tenanted almost entirely by brewesses or a.e-wives. The ale-wives had to be looked after very sharply, for we traced their delinquincies by fines, penalties, and imprisonmen.. No brewess or other retai.er ol ale was allowed to keep her house open after curfew under heavy penalties. It m.ght not be generally known that the hop was first cultivated in England about the year 1524. On its becoming known that brewers intended to use it in beer a vio.ent opposition sprang up, and petition after petition was presented to Parliament, urging that this “wicked weed that would spoil the dr.nk and endanger the lives of the people” should be forbidden. The result of the petitioning was unknown, but it was recorded that Henry VIII., in 1530, issued an order strictly prohibiting the use of hops in brewing. It was not until the year 1600. that the prohibition was withdrawn, from which time until the present the hop had increased in favour with the public as well as with the brewer.

An interesting part of the paper was that dealing with public-house signs. Mr. Griffiths said it was somewhat curious to note that those of taverns in the olden days were an infallible barometed of the fickleness of fortune, and the infidelities of political life were curiously exemplified

in the adaptation of signs to the shift-

ing phases of parties, and the fluctuations of personal popularity. For example, a tavern bearing the sign of Charles I. would be painted out to make room for the head of Cromwell, which, following the re\jlution of events, was transformed into a striking likeness of the Merry Monarch. In selecting taverns to which he should make reference. Mr. Griffiths admitted that difficulties arose, for the taverns of oid London, he said, was incrusted as thick with anecdotes, legends, and traditions, as an old ship was with barnacles. He then proceeded to give interesting stories concerning many oid houses. He pointed out that in Eastcheap there once stood a tavern of considerable renown, being commemorated by Shakespere, and known by the sign of the “Boar’s Head.” It was situated on the site of the present Worcester House, on the north side of Eastcheap, between Rood Lane and Philpot Lane. Destroyed by the Great Fire. It wad rebuilt immediately after and finally demolished in 1831 to allow for the new London Bridge approaches.

In 17’9, “one James Austin, Inventor of the Persian ink powder,” desiring to give his customers a substantial proof of his gratitude, invited them to the Boar’s Head to partake of an immense plum-pudding —this pudding weighed 1000 pounds —a baked puddirg of Ift square, and the best piece of ox roasted. The principal dish was put in the copper on Monday, May 12, at the Red Lion Inn, by the Mint —the copper at the Boar’s Head evidently not being sufficiently large—and had to boil 14 days. From there it was to be brought to the Swan Tavern, in Fish street Hill, accompanied by a band of music, playing “ what lumps of pudding ny mother gave me!” It was to be divided in St. George’s Fields, but apparently its smell was too r.uch for the gluttony of the Londoners, for whilst it was being conveyed to the fields the escort was routed, the pudding taken and devoured, and the whole ceremony brought to an end before Mr. Austin had a chance to regale his customers. Goldsmith visited the Boar’s Head, and has left a delightful essay upon his day dreams there, and Falstaff, and even Prince Henry, were amongst the regular customers who patronised this tavern.