Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1894-02-15
The OTHER and
TOTHER PIPPERCHIRP
BY Edgar L. wakenan.

guarded Dy large army OF lOOtmen;
not echoing with noble chariots; not
replete with chintz drawing rooms and
neat ten tables; land over which hangs
An endless fog, occasioned by much
tobacco; a land Of chambers, billiard
rooms, supper rooms, oysters; a land of
song; land where soda water flows
freely in the morning; land Of tin dish
covers from taverns, and frothing porter;
b land of lotus eating with lots Of
pepper);-a land where men call each
other by their Christian names; where
many are poor; where almost all are
young, and where, if a few oldsters do
enter, it is because they have preserved
more carefully and tenderly than other
folk their youthful spirits, and the de-
lightful capacity to be idle"
This was "the joyous nelghborhood
of Covent Garden" London, as Thack-
cray knew it and wrote Of it in his time.
1t is pleasant land to-day, somewhat
fenced roundabout with mighty pillars
and Doric entablatures; rather stately
from venerable footmen; when the din
of the market and its clamorous custer-
mongers is hushed, it is now often
startled from its drowsiness by the roll
ing of princely carriages; land still
mist-hung with the wIeaths of much
tobacco smoke: still "a land of chambers,
billiard rooms, supper rooms, oysters"
of "reminiscences, Of tale and Of song; a
land now of ancient silver covers from
ancient taverns, but still a land of
humble ale and frothing porter; land
where men still call each other by their
Christian names; where few are poor,
where almost all are old, and where ii
few youngsters do enter, it is reveren-
TALLY and because they have learned to
love the olden spot for what it gave to
Pepys and Evelyn, to Dryden, Addison
and Steele, to Thackeray and to Dickens
and all that noble and inspired host
who gave the world the best and mel
lowest literature in our tongue, since
the time of royal Anne.
But the Covent Garden region now is
chiefly land of olden inns; of inns in
which the tireplaces are huge, cavern.
GUS and get-at.able; the chambers warm
and cozy; the halls low .ceiIinged, but
broad and full of fine old settles and
sofas; whose smoking rooms are snug
and warm and cheerful with papers and
books; whose pictures are yellow, old
and dim and hang in great broad, odd
frames, showing they were where they
are long before the century came in;
whose dining rooms are ample and quiet
and richly Drowned with comfortable
age; whose ports, clarets, and sherres
have the cobwebs of the twenties and
thirties upon them; whose food is whole
some, fine and good; whose servants are
friendly and "talky" when you wish to
get down from your own pedestal of
reserve or austerity for little humaniz.
ing patter; and even whose misses in
the office and bar and whose rosy-faced
chambermaids are not ayerse on &C.
casion to bit of innocent banter, which
after all anybody but prude, hermit
or a hypocrite at times truly enjoys.
One of the old ST and stateiest OF
these ancient inns, built many years ago
by the famous lingo Jones is the Slayis-
tork. II preserved in its polished ma
hoganies, its curious old plate, its heavy
cut glass decanters and glasses the mel
low heritage OF "Reminiscences of the days
of the three-bottle men of England
There is port wine flavor, an aroma of
juicy launches, suggestion of olden
cheer, hushed and restful amplitude,
from its brown old breakfast rooms, its
wide panneled dining room, its snug
little supper rooms where Prince George
used to meet the wits of the town,
through all its spacious, shining, low
cellinged halls, its curious and intricate
passages, past its large and restful
chambers, to its very tup-most dormi.
tories, from which the Surrey hills can
be seen, and where the late Sir Michael
Bass always preferred to lodge; for the
windows open upon the leads of a roof
most convenient for Il stroll and smoke,
roof which is still as sturdy and strong
as when laid and loaded i'll Charles the
Seconds reign.
Here came of old and still come the
Sir Rogers de Coverly of countryside
England. Here the great tragedians of
both continents aired their fine manners
before adoring and convivial friends,
Here it was that Boxing night" festivi-
ties were kept up for generations with
such olien fun and frolic as must have
made the very bones of the ancient bur-
ial-place OF the Abbots of Westminster,
below the cellars, rattle and clatter in
protest at the sacrilege. Diplomats have
here held secret meetings of import to
half dozen European powers. All the
Arctic and African explorers are found
registered upon its books. Crews of the
universities, the great ironmasters, mill
owners and architects, the scientists, the
naturalists and the archaeologists for
more than II century have gathered
beneath its hospitable roof.
Proyosts, balllies, prelates, MAYORS
and lord mayors, and big men with big
schemes to put through parliament, are
among the wraiths of its olden guests.
Stout squires and far-descended country
noblemen came here to go 1t q bit in
London town. Lords of the bench at
Westminster adjourned to the Slavlstork
for Kissing steaks and mellow port. And
most of all came, and still come, little,
stately men of mysterious, silent lives,
plethoric of pocket and meagre of
anatomy, garrulous and grooming in
their second childhood, loving the
CHEEKY old place and dwelling in it
until death steals in upon them as
peacefully as the moonlight into their
chambers; and all, old or young, titled
or unknown, loving the quaint old
hosiery with deeper and more pas
sionate attachment for Its strange
centurY-old record that no guest has
every seen the CLINT or heard the rustic
of skirts within its gray and moss
grown walls.
In an old inn so curious and strange
that the tlutter and rustic Of skirts are
not within it, it was not matter for
conjecture Or concern when old Mr..
Pipperchirp walked into the office, fol.
lowed by ships steward of Maiayan
face with an odor of the East Indian
docks about him, laden like drome.
dairy with oriental rugs, cages and
baskets, and carrying with great effort
q strong oaken box which suggested at