The record-union., 1892-09-17
COvent Garden and It's Joyous
NeighborhOod."
Famous Inns OF OIden Times and
Noted Resorts of o-Day-Rich and
Mellow Memories Charmingly Re-
caIled-The Market in Early Morn
ing Hours-Interesting Types and
Especial Correspondence of the RECORD
UNION. Copyright, 1921


bygone days those looking in upon Cow
ent Garden, or Immediately around about
it, best retain that flavor which has given
English fictional literature for the past
200 years one of the most winsome and
lasting charms.
L used to haunt the apartment houses
of London, up Bloomsbury way, and
skirmish with their sad-eyed, funereal-
voiced, widowed, nimble-fngered keep
ers in dismay and desperation, or waste
my energies upon the austerities of the
great hotels along the Strand. But one
day of grace succor came, and good old
SAINT Mathews, the London actor, said:
my dear boy, don't be cad any longer
and waste your gold among the hotel
Bedouins of London. Live like gentle
man of the old school on half of the mon
ey, and take your ease at your inn in the
very heart of that precinct where all our
literature worth reading was made. Go
TO any of the quiet old inns about Covent
Garden and be always at rest, even in
restless London
/ have never been so grateful for adj
vice in all my life. Here are half score
OF inns, genuine old taverns, most of
them built long before the century came
IN, and every one of modern make, con-
structed and conducted on the old-fash-
Toned plan. They are tayerns at which
the hreplaces are huge, cavernous and
get-at-abIe; the bedrooms warm and
coy; the walls low ceilinged, but broad
and full of real olden settles and sofas;
the smoklng-rooms snug and warm and
with plenty OF papers and books; the pict-
ures yellow and old and dim and hung in
great broad, odd frames, which show they
were there long before you were born:
n ITlIr fayNln 81 Il
richly Drowned; the ports, clarets and
sherries with the cobwebs of the twenties
and thlrties upon them; the food whole
some, fine and good; the porters friendly
and "talky" when you wish TO get down
from your own pedestal for little hui
manlZing patter; and even the misses in
the office and bar and rOsy-faced cham
bermaids are not averse on occasion to a
bit of innocent banter, which, after all,
anybody but prude, hermit or a hypo-
critic at times truly enjoys.
And so from coming and going often
these old Covent Garden inns have be-
come a sort of home to me. Their asso-
cations, rich and mellow as the very
wines they serve, have taken their place
one by one in my heart, while the mark ct
into which the windows of nearly all of
them look, like Silas Wego's "Our
House" in Mutual Friend" has become
my market. Scores of its folk are my in
innate friends. for you must know that
most OF them have easy, all-night ways
with them, and you require no introduce
ton whatever to get upon eating and
drinking terms and into vows of lifelong
intimacy with yokel, coster, porter, and,
! was almost about to say, the Prince of
Wales himself
That really human and clever man of
the world often comes to "Rule's" but
stones throw from the market, where
he makes night of it peaceably and like
gentleman with the wits of the town.
ending his little forgivable diversion by
Touslng JoStlIng among the early porterS
costers and green grocers. and taking the
badinage given all who come with royal
philosophy and CHEEKY good will. This
large human leveling influence has al
ways been peculiar to the Covent Garden
district. 1t is still here as one OF the best
1egacies of the mellow olden time And
here1s the only place in London or in all
England where you can find it changeless
to enjoy.
What host of rich associations crowd
within this little Covent Garden district!
Thackeray called it the Joyous neighbour
hood of Covent Garden" though it was
scarcely known at the beginning of the
seventeenth century. From the middle
OF the seventeenth century TO the middle
OF the nineteenth century it was the best
known rendezvous of authors, actors,
painters, good fellows generally, and sub
stantIal country squires and gentlemen
visiting the town in London. In Russell
street, now chiefly given over to green
grocers and fruiterers, was the then social
exchange of the English capital, the mart
OF its news, politics, scandal and wit.
In this one short thorougnfare stood the
most noted cotfee-houSes of the reipns of
William III. and Queen Anne, familiar
To all converSant with the best English
literature. ''WilFs," Buttons" and
TOMS were sacred to polite letters"
All the English Sir Rogers de Coverley
also made these places their London adj
dress. Pepys and Evelyn, the historians.
visited and lodged here. The entire
neighborhood, including the shady thor
oughtareS of Wych street, Great and Lit
tie Queen streets. Lincoln's Inn Fields.
Portugal street, and on the SOUTH Bed
ford, York, Tavistock, Henrietta, King
and the present Garrick and Catherine
streets were occupied by the houses of
the gentry.
WHIPS" which stood at the west side
of Bow street and the north side of Rus
sell street, was the most ancient and noted
OF these resorts. Dryden's patronage
and frequent appearance there made the
reputation of the house. After the play
the cream of those who knew London and
whom London knew, gathered here for
coffee, pipe and their nightly gossip
Macauley says Under no roof was a
greater variety Of figures to be seem
earls, stars and carriers, clergymen in
cassocks and bands, pert tempIars, sheep
1Sh lads from the universities, tranSlat-
ors and index makers in ragged coats of
trieze. The great push was to get near
the chair where John Dryden sat-" Lon
don is vastly greater now, and the fine
London clubs often separate congenial
men and interests, but another Macauley
could describe quite as interesting group
1ngs and scenes in the Covent Garden
inns, public houses and cobWebbed old
resorts of to-day.
Addison and Steele were the most bril-
liant of the company to which the hos
pitable doors OF 'Button'sn opened. But
toms" was on the north side of Russell
street. Addison's wife, the countess. was
lady of vinegary tastes and temper, and
he gladly withdrew much from her COM
pany for solace where the wit smelIed
more of wine. Buttons is gone, but
the picture will always remain as Steele
painted it: Dear Addison, drunk, DELHI
crate, moral, sentimental, foaming over
with truth and virtue, with tenderness
and friendship, and only worse in one
ruffie for the wine." Gay and Prior and
Pope were other famous frequenters of
this resort.
stToln'sr stood at the corner of the Pr
azza. 1t was on the north side over
against Buttons" 1t was started in
I764 by subscription. Its most famous
frequenters were Garrick, Goldsmith, Sir
Joshua Reynolds, Moody, Foote, Sir
Philip Francis and DR.. Johnson. Near
''Tom's,'' at Russell street, was the book
shop of Tom Davies, in whose tiny
back parlor Boswell first met DIR. john
son.
Then followed the era of famous Gov
ent Garden taverns. There was Hum
nums,' two doors from Buttons, "most
comfortable of old London hostelries, sa-
cred to the memory of College Dom