"The cross-bow makers used to exercise themselves in shooting at the popinjay, or artificial parrot, in a field called Tassal Close in London, from the number of thistles growing there, now called the Old Artillery Ground. Maitland's History. "According to Sir John Smith, a cross-bow would kil point blank 60 yards, and if elevated, above 160. "The pay of a cross-bow man, temp. Edward II. was six-pence. 66 King Henry VIII. to preserve the manly exercise of archery, instituted a company of archers, called the Fraternity of St. George, who were authorised to shoot with long and cross-bows at all manner of marks, and in case any one was slain by arrows shot by these archers, if it was proved the party who shot the arrow had first given the word Fast, he was not liable to be sued or molested. Chamberlain's History of London. "So much for the cross-bow, of which you will find many particulars in our ancient Chronicles, particularly Froissart." 1784, April. C. Particulars respecting the first Coffee House in England. MR. URBAN, I HERE send you some historic matter respecting the use of coffee, tea, and chocolate in this kingdom. Little could our ancestors of two centuries back suppose that their descendants would be reduced to the necessity of sending to the East and West Indies for the materials for a comfortable breakfast. There is a gradation in customs, which often originates from individuals. Tradition ascribes the smoaking of tobacco to Sir Walter Raleigh. It is observed by Ant. a Wood (Ath. Oxon. II. 1140,) that while Nathaniel Conopius, a Cretan born, continued in Balliol College in Oxford, which he left in 1648, he made the drink for his own use called coffee, and usually drank it every morning, being the first, as the ancients of that house informed him, that was ever drunk in Oxon. In the year 1650, we learn from the same author (Life, 8vo. v. Index,) "Jacob a Jew opened a coffey-house at the Angel in the parish of St. Peter in the East, Oxon, and there it was by some, who delighted in noveltie, drank. In 1654, Cirques Jobson, a Jew and Jacobite, borne near Mount-Libanus, sold coffey in Oxon; and in 1655, Arth. Tillyard, apothecary, sold coffey publicly in his house against All Soules Coll. This coffey house continued till his majesties returne and after, and then they became more frequent, and had an excise set upon coffey." The author of the "New View of London” (1708, p. 30.) found it recorded, "that one James Farr, a barber, who kept the coffee-house which is now the Rainbow, by the Inner Temple Gate (one of the first in England), was in the year 1657 presented by the inquest of St. Dunstan's in the West, for making and selling a sort of liquor called coffee, as a great nuisance and prejudice of the neighbourhood, &c. And who could then have thought London would ever have had near 3000 such nuisances, and that coffee would have been (as now, 1708) so much drunk by the best of quality and physicians!" The frequency of coffee-houses at and soon after the Restoration is apparent from several authorities. In the "Kingdom's Intelligencer," a weekly paper, published by authority, in 1662, are inserted four advertisements of these articles, of which I have selected the last as being the fullest; which is the paper from Monday Dec. 22, to Dec. 29, 1662. "At the coffee-house in Exchange-alley, is sold by retail the right coffee-powder from 4 to 6s. 8d. per pound, as in goodness; that pounded in a morter at 2s. 6d. per pound; also that termed the East India berry at 18d. per pound; and that termed the right Turkie berry well garbled at 3s. per pound, the ungarbled for lesse, with directions gratis how to make and use the same: likewise there you may have chocolatta, the ordinary pound boxes at 2s. 6d. per pound, the perfumed from 4 to 10s. per pound; also sherbets made in Turkie of lemons, roses, and violets perfumed; and tea according to its goodness. For all which, if any gentlemen shall write or send, they shall be sure of the best as they shall order, and to avoid deceit, warranted under the house seal, viz. Morat the Great, &c. Further, all gentlemen that are customers and acquaintance are (the next New-year's day) invited at the signe of the Great Turk at the new coffee-house in Exchange-alley, where coffee will be on free-cost." And so may be to the world's end, was added in the preceding of Dec. 20. In the two former of Aug. 4, and Oct. 13, the terms are, "tea or chaa, according to its goodness;" unluckily no price is any where mentioned to this article; in the others it considerably varies. Coffee in the first advertisement was from 2s. 6d. to 5s. In the second the same, a better sort at 4s. and the best of all at 6s. per pound. The right Turkey berry at 2s. 8d. The India berry, sweet and good, at 18d. per pound, of which at present in divers places there is musty, bad, which the ignorant for cheapness do buy, and is the cause of such bad coffee as is drunk in divers places. Chocolatta, in the first, pound boxes at 2s. the perfumed at 4s. 6s. 10s. 16s. and the very best at 20s. per pound. In the second, the perfumed at 4s. to 10s. per pound. In the last, coffee rose 8d. higher than in the preceding week. In the year 1665 appeared in 4to. a facetious poem, with the title of "The Character of a Coffee-house: Wherein is contained a description of the persons usually frequenting it, with their discourse and humours: as also the admirable vertues of coffee. By an Eye and Ear-witness" It begins: A Coffee-house, the learned hold It is a place where Coffee's sold; For where Ale's vended that's an Alehouse. The author mentions the signs, the Great Morat, the Sultan, Sultaness: John's admir'd curled pate, Or the great Mogul in's chair of state. Or Constantine the Grecian, Who fourteen years was th' onely man Fill'd from a Turkish pot, hung up He then proceeds to the company, and the several liquors : The Gallant he for Tea doth call, The Usurer for nought at all; Pragmatic he doth intreat, That they will fill him some Beau-cheat; The Virtuoso he cries hand me, Some Coffee mixt with Sugar-candy; Phanaticus (at last) says, come, Cries Ho, my Masters! what d'ye speak, That these houses soon became places of general resort is very evident: Of all some and all conditions, Even Vintners, Surgeons, and Physicians, I shall conclude this account with one line, which carries back the liquor farther than is generally known : Spic'd Punch (in bowls) the Indians quaff. Let us come now to tea with eggs. (Sir Kenelm Digby's Book of Receipts, Lond. 1669, 8vo. p. 155.) The Jesuite that came from China, ann. 1664, told Mr. Waller, that there they use it sometimes in this manner: "To near a pint of the infusion, take two yolks of new-laid eggs, and beat them very well with as much fine sugar as is sufficient for this quantity of liquor; when they are very well incorporated, pour your tea upon the eggs and sugar, and stir them well together. So drink it hot. This is when you come home from attending business abroad, and are very hungry, and yet have not conveniency to eat presently a competent meal. This presently discusseth and satisfieth all rawness and indigestion of the stomach, flyeth suddenly over the whole body and into the veins, and strengtheneth exceedingly, and preserves one a good while from necessity of eating. Mr. Waller findeth all those effects of it thus with eggs." It is certain that it was a favourite liquor with this poet, as we may infer from his verses on it: The Muse's friend, Tea, does our fancy aid; King William, it has been said, was fond of this beverage; and from the same authority of report, in his time it was three pounds a pound. 1785, Jan, Yours, &c. B. CI. A Query whether MIMICIS REGIS be not an error for INIMICIS REGIS, with an Answer. MR. URBAN, IN the first volume of Warton's History of English Poetry, I find the following passage: "Nicola, Uxor Gerardi de Canvill, reddit computum de centum marcis pro maritanda Matildi filia sua cuicunque voluerit exceptis Mimicis Regis." "Nicola, wife of Gerard of Canville, accounts to the King for 100 Marks for the Privilege of marrying her Daughter Maud to whatever person she pleases, the King's Mimics excepted."-Whether or no Mimici Regis are here a sort of players kept in the king's household for diverting the court at stated seasons, at least with performances of mimiery, I cannot indeed determine; yet we may remark an error, not unlikely to be made from the similarity of the I to the strokes that form the N, M, and U, in manuscripts of that date. If so the mistake must have arisen by reading mimicis instead of inimicis regis; and the king's enemies were the persons excepted. 1785, Jan. MR. URBAN, Y. Z. 1 LOOK upon the emendation of your friend Y. Z. in substituting inimicis for mimicis, to be so certain and indubitable as to want no confirmation. For the satisfaction, however, or rather the gratification of your correspondent, I shall briefly observe, 1st, that, though we currently use the word mimic, the Glossaries do not acknowledge the Latin mimicus. 2dly. That there is no reason why Nicola should be debarred from marrying her daughter to a mimic, as Maud, the daughter, was a great heiress, and the mother neither likely to think of disposing of her so meanly, nor the king to trouble himself about any such disposal of his ward, should the mother think proper to adopt it. 3dly. But what weighs most with me, and will with you, as I conceive, Mr. Urban, is, that I find a like clause in an old lease of the abbot and convent of Beauchief, A. D. 1641, where the demise is to the lessé and "such his assigns as to the same Abbot and Convent, and their successors, have not been enemies, nor hurtfull;" a case exactly parallel; the king being in the situation of the abbot and convent, and Nicola in that of the lessé. 1785, June. Yours, &c. T.Row. |