Star.
London, England, 1824-08-27 00:00:00

ANCIENT TAVERNS.

The nature of our English inns and taverns, in early
ages, are to be gathered from various old writers.
Harrison, in his account of England, written in the reign
of Elizabeth, tells us, that in all chief towns, our inns
were " verie well furnished with naperie, bedding, and
tapestrie—had plentie of beere, ale, and sundrie kinds
of wine; and such was the capacities of some of them,
that they were able to ledge 200 or 300 persons. How-
beit," he adds, " of all England there are no worse inns
than in London, and yet made are there far better than
the best that I have ever heard of in anie forren coun-
tile if all circumstances be duly considered."
There is a well-known proverb, " Good wine needs
no bush," i. e. nothing to point out where it is to bei
sold. The subsequent passage, from a book published
in WM called Good News and Bad, seems' to prove,
that anciently tavern-keepers kept both a bush and a
sign : a host in speaking—
" I rather will take down my bask and sign,
Than live by means of riotous expense."
Shakspeare furnishes us with a specimen of the.
charges at the tavern of his time, in the bill which Peto
takes out of Falstilfs pocket, of the expenses of his supper
and night's drinking at the Boar's Head, in Eastcheap
--" Irvin, a capon, 2s. 2d. sauce, 4d. sack, two gallons, Ss. Bd.
anchovies and sack after supper, Od. bread. a halfpenny."
Ben Jrpson's favourite bruins appears to have been
canary, as sack is stated beim e to have been Falstaff's.
His principal place ofresort for indulging in this beverage
appears to have been the Swan Tavern, by Charing-cross;
the drawer at which had the art of pleasing him so
much, that he has commemorated his name in one of
his metrical jeu cresprits, with a benediction on him for
his attention to him in this respect.
The character given of our taverns, and the incorrect
manners of the company frequenting them, are most scur-
rilously overcharged in the accounts of some of the early
foreign travellers. In a work called A Character of
Ragland," Eic. 1659, addressed by oue of these in a series
of letters to a French Nobleman, the author, speaking of
taverns, says :•••." Your L. will not believe me that the
Ladies of greatest quality suffer themselves to be treated
iii one of these taverns ; but you will be more astonished
when I assure you that they drink their crowned cups
roundly, dance after the fiddle, kiss freely, and term it
an honourable treat." And M.Joreviii, another French
traveller, speaking of Worcester and the Stag Inn there,
tells his readers—" According to the custom of the
country, the landladies sup with the strangers and pas-
sengers, and if they have daughters, they are also of the
company, to entertain the guests at table with pleasant
conceits, where they drink as much as the men ; but
what is to me the most disgusting in all this is, that
when one drinks the health of any person in company,
the custom of the country does not permit you to drink
more than half She cup, which is illed up, and presented
to him or her whose health you have drank." He next
speaks of tribacco, which, as he says, the women
smoked as well as the men. 11I.Jorevin was here in
Charles the Second's reign.