Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1892-09-22

London tayerns of bygone days those
looking in upon Covent Garden or imme-
diately around about it, best retain that
nayor which has given English fictional
literature for the past 200 years one Of
Its most winsome and lasting charms.
used to haunt the apartment houses
OF London, up bloomsbury way, and
sklrmlsll 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
IN 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 the
money, 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"
nave never been so grateful for advice
IN all my life. Here are half score of
inns, genuine old tavcrns, most of them
built long before the century came in,
ana every one of modern make CON
structed and conducted on the old
fashioned plan. They are taverns at
winch the f1replaces are huge, cavernous,
and get-at-able; the bedrooms warm and
cozyi the balls low celinged, but broad
and full of real olden settles and sofas;
the smoking rooms snug and warm and
with plenty of papers and books; the
pictures yellow and old and dim and
hung in great, broad, odd frames, which
show they were there long before you
were born; the dining rooms ample and
quiet and richly Drowned" the ports,
clarets and sherries with the cobwebs of
the twentles and thirties upon them; the
1ood wholesome, fine and good; the
porters friendly and "talky" when you
wish to get down from your own pedestal
Tor little humanizing pattsr; and even
the misses III the office and bar and
rosy-faced chambermaids are not ayerse
on occasion to bit of innocent banter,
which, after all, anybody but prude, a
hermit or hypocrite at times truly
enjoys.
And so from coming and going often
these old Coyent Garden inns have
become sort of home to me. Their
associations, rich and mellow as the
very wines they serve, have taken their
place one by one in my heart, while the
market into which the windows of
nearly all of them look, like Slas
Wegg's "Our House" in Mutual
Friend" has become my market. Scores
of its folk are my intimate friends; for
you must know That most of them have
easy, all-night ways with them, and you
require no introduction whatever to get
upon eating and drinking terms and
into vows of lifelong intimacy with
yokel, coster, porter, and l was almost
about to say the Pince 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 forgiyable diver
sion by rousing 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 leyeliug
influence has always been peculiar to
the Covent Garden district. 1t is still
here as one of the best legacies of the
mellow olden time. And here is 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 "toyous
nelghberhood of Coyent Garden
though 1t was scarcely known at the be-
ginning OF the Seventeenth century.
From the middle of the Seventeenth
century TO the middle of the Nineteenth
century 1t was the best known rendel.
Vous OF authors, actors, painters, good
fellows generally and substantial coun-
try squlres and gentlemen visiting the
town in London. In Russell street, now
chiefly given over to green-grocers and
frulters, was the then social exchange
of the English capital, the mart of lis
news, politics, scandal and wit
In this one short thoroughfare stood
the most noted coffee houses of the
reigns OF William Ill. and Queen Anne,
familiar to oil conversant with the best
English literature. "Will's, ""Button's"
and "Tom's' were sacred to nolite
letters" All the English Sir Rogers dc
CoVerley also made these places their
London address Pepys and Evelyn,
the historians, visited and lodged here
The entire neighborhood, including thc
shady thoroughfares of Wych street
Great and Little Queen streets ,Lincoln's
Inn Fields, Portugal street, and on tho
south, Bedford, York, Tayistock. Hen.
rietta, King and the present Garrick and
Catherine streets were occupied bv tho
houses of the gentry. 'N
"WilPs" which stood at the west sido
of Bow street and the north side Of Rms.
sell street, was the most ancient and
noted of these resorts. Drvdan,s
patronage and frequent appe4ranco
there made the reputation of the honse
After the play the cream OF those who
knew London and whom London knew
gathered here for coffee, a pipe and
their nightly gossip. Macauley saws
Under no roof was greater variety of
figures to be seen; earls, stars and carriers.
clergYmen in cassocks and bands. pert
templars, sheepish lads from the univer-
eiL.s, translators and index makers in
ragged coats of frieze. The great pusb
was to get near the chair where John
Dryden sat- London is vastly greater
Z now, and the fine London clubs often
separate congenial men and interests:
but another Macauley could describe
quite as interesting groupings anu scenes
in the Coyent Garden inns, public
houses and cobwebbed old resorts of to.
day.
Addison and Steele were the most
brilliant OF the company to which the
hospitable doors of Buttons" opened.
buttons" 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 company for solace
where the wit smelled more of wine