The record-union., 1892-09-17
and comfortable as when the centur

until supplanted by the United States
Service Club. The Piazza Tavern, where
Macklin had his old academy of Bellies
Iettres, was next to the Tavistock. The
bedford Coffee house" and tavern was
the great resort of actors. OF these Gar
rick, Quln, Foote, Murphy, Macklin,
Fawcett, Charles and John Philip KEN
bic will be the best remembered. And
the Shakespeare.o the first tavern set up
IN the Garden, stood at the corner of the
PlazZa and Russell street. It was here
the famous Lions Head Letter-boX"
was placed to receive extraordinary in
quirles, iampoons, prophecies. scandals
and all the odd pasquinades of that time
OF tree thinking and writing.
Ot the more noted Covent Garden re-
sorts OF the present time, perhaps the
most unique, something like old-time
"Cobweb Hall" in New York. is Jack
Harris, 9 Russell street. 1t is practically
an al! night house for printers, report
ers, night editors and men of the town
VINO drop in before daylight for a parting
glass or cup of coffee. The costers and
market porters resort here later in the
day. Around in Maiden Lane is the
welsh House, former haunt of Dick
ems and the wits and epicures Of his time.
have already mentioned Rules" just
OIL southampton street. 1t is the most
famous oyster house OF London, and the
occasional presence of the Prince of
Wales brings to the place every swell and
nobleman OF the great metropolis, while
on the eastern side of the market is the
National Sporting Club and the Pelican
Club. The former was the notorious
Evans Rooms of an earlier date. In
these two club-houses occur the greatest
glove fights of Britain
OF all the intellectual giants who knew
and loved the Covent Garden region
Ihackeray has left by far the most
charming picture. "a pleasant land,' he
says, mot fenced with drab stucco like
Tyburnia or Belgravia; not guarded by
large army of footmen; not echoing with
noble chariots; not replete with chintz
draWlng-rooms and neat tea-tableS; a
land over which hangs an endless fog oc-
caSloned by much tobacco; a land of
chambers, billiard-rooms, supper-rooms
and oysters; land of song; land where
Soda-Water flows freely in the morning;
land of tin dish covers from taverns
and lrothing porter; land Of lotus-eat-
ing with lots Of pepper; a land where
men call each other by their Christian
names; where many are poor, where al
most all are young, and where, ii few
oldsters do enter, il is because they have
preserved more carefully and tenderly
than other folk their youthful spirits, and
the delightful capacity to be idle"
1t Is also the land Of Covent Garden
Market, If not the largest known market
IN area, certainly that market through
which daily passes from grower to buyer
greater amounts Of fruits, flowers and
vegetables than at any other market IN
the world. The constant production Of
more than $4,000 acres contiguous to Lon
don, much Of which is forced gardening
under glass, is required for its constant
replenishing. There are yearly sold at
this one market more than 60,000,000
cabbages, 100000 cauliftowers, 1,l25,0O0
pottles of Strawberries, about the same
number of lettuce heads, 100000 bushels
OF shelled peas and about 650,O00 bushels
Of onions.
II you are stopping at one of the old
inns overlooking the market you are GER
tain to be awakened by the steadily in
creaslng hum of the place, which begins
shortly after midnight with the first arri-
walls of the carts of produce from the
country. This has grown into subdued
roar, though there is never any yelling or
hallooing permitted. If the sun is up
and throwing its saffrony light through
the hazy atmosphere you will see as pref
ty a sight down there as eyes may look
upon. Every cross street leading to the
market, from Long Acre, from Drury
Lane and from the Strand, which, by reg
ulatlon, is completely given up to this
traffic until O'Clock, is damned and
packed to house doors with four, five and
sometimes six lines of carts, wagons and
barrowS, headed in or out, each vehicle in
process of loading or unloading with
every manner of fruit, flower and vegeta-
bic known to London markets, while the
seven acres Of the market itself, most of
which is uncovered space, is apparently
a solid mass of donkeys, carts, hampers,
stacks Of vegetables and writhing, Wrig-
Cling human beings.
The rays of the morning sun bring ont
the vivid colors Of the fruit and vegeta-
bles wonderfully. You descend to the
market and risk your temper, if not your
life, in forcing your way through the OBJ
stinate masses to the booths and stalls.
In this effort you get somewhat acquaint-
ed with Covent Garden porters. They
are huge, hairy, rum breathed lot. Ev-
erything is carried from market to wait
ing wagons on their headS--from 100 to
100 pounds being considered an ordinary
load. Their headgear is padded woke
encircling the forehead and resting upon
the shoulders. Carrying the pad
which was once the occupation of Sims
Reeves, the famous tenor, is portering
Doing a turn is making one trip laden.
from market stall to wagon, often as far
as the strand. Each porter is licensed.
receives twopence per ''turn,'' and usu-
ally does from eight to fifteen turns Of
a morning.
Another interesting class which is often
overlooked by visitors is the Covent Gar
den whip minders." These are usually
women, who, for halfpenny a wagon,
take charge Of the drivers whips, rugs
and the like. They also keep teams in
line, lift at wheels, yank refractory horses
about like trainers and adjudicate all diff
ferences regarding street. rights and team
SterS. l saw one sOundly trounce team
ster twice her size for disobedience At
the corner of Southampton street and
Strand there is one that is Of Amazonian
size, and with voice easily heard at
Charing Cross.
has the west half of Southampton street
in charge. | became quite her favorite.
and she told me in confidence that she
was really not Jenny" any longer, but
genuinely Mrs. Genevieve Brown, though
the marketmen must not know of it for
the world, for said she with know
ing look, ''they 'as no pashuns along O,
missuses." Her father, Joseph Williams.
minded the w'ps" for more than forty
years. Her mother took his place when
the ''old man" gave out, and Jenny
the minder' is still here by the right of
heritage.
The two most interesting places, aside
from positions for character study, to be
found in the market are undoubtedly in
the fruit and flower arcades. The flowers
are in such abundance and variety that
one wonders if even in London a sale can
be found for them all Yet the flower
market is the very first to be wholly
cleared of its contents. The flowers are
crammed together in such dense masses
that one might almost walk upon them.
Asters of all colors and of luxuriant
growth are the most plentiful and strik-
ing. Roses, stocks, mulleins, Iupins,
beautiful bundles of heath, the hibiscus.
lobelia, pinks, carnations, dahlias, math-
iolas, marigolds, calcolarias and splendid
fuchsias charm and intoxicate, and CON
trast strangely with all else in the dinful
place.