A MODERN INSTITUTION.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, 24 April 1913, Page 26

A MODERN INSTITUTION.

The public-house bar is ,a comparatively modern institution. Three centuries ago, when Ben Jonson and his merry crew met at the “Mermaid’’ in Cheapside or the “Devil Tavern,’’ near Temple Bar, there was no such thing as a bar, the bumpers of sack or canary being brought by the “drawer” into a room almost as private as a modern club room. Later on the mug-houses were established, which were said to have helped to keep the Hanoverians on the throne, and these were followed by the Geneva shop satirised by Hogarth in “Gin Lane.” The real era of the public-house dates from the prize fighting, roaring days of the Regency. And the saloon bar, the successor of the sanded parlour, where tradesmen sat and smoked their “churchwardens,” is more modern still. For it was introduced in the West End in the early seventies at a hostelry, which was frequented by the gilded youth of the period, and even occasionally patronised by Royalty.—“ Licensing