Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-11-25
AT eye ANTIENT INN"
Old Customs That Are Still Observed
at Famous Taverns in London.


From the London Mail.
The spirit of change which has lowered
over London the past few years, destroying
the old and setting up the new, has left I'M
tempered few customs that serve to re-
mind the interested of days when giants
lived in London. At several inns in the
neighborhood of Fleet street and the Strand
no amount of money could purchase the
recipe of the Cheese pudding. Mr.. Chas.
Moore, the present holder of the secret, has
been often tempted, but in vain. The hand
of the proprietor himself compounds the
Observation-Disclosures kidneys, oysters
tlarks ard mushrooms. Then there are vari-
Gus spices and gravieS known only to HIM
self The boiling process takes about six
teen to twenty hours.
But it is not in the making or eating Of
the pudding that any old practice survives
though 1t might be argued that one of these
operations antedates the first pudding that
ever was-but in the manner of it's serving.
Fitting ceremonial attends the appearance
Of the pudding in the dining room. The
head waiter, with stately step, bears in the
steaming deicacy, followed by all the other
walters in single file, the proprietor him
self bringing up the rear. Only a man of
exceptional trustworthiness and proved
fidelity is allowed to carry in the pudding.
1t is wisely regarded a position in which
temptation is ever before the man who oc
cupies it. The pudding-whlch weighs
about eighty pounds-is directly under his
nose, and the delicious steam is waited
into his face as he marches along. What
If some day he should be very hungry, and
succumb to the temptation! To assist at
one of these functions is inevitably to court
imagination's play. One peoples the sur
roundings with the greater men who fig
ured there.
The hungriest of mortals, for instance,
could not witness the apotheosiS of the
Cheshire cheese pudding-it is such
lannon's nuddinQ feels IL ought to be
spelled with a capital P-Without mentally
putting the bluff old DR.. Johnson back into
his seat and promising ones self a feast of
wisdom from that corner when the punch
and the long clay pipes are brought in.
Instead of which, as they used to say,
one in reality probably hears something
like this: Guess I'd fill the pudding bowl
with dollars for the secret of how it's made.
Only fancy these buildings at the Wal
dorf!'' 1t is doubtful, however, whether
always highly respectable man. with
wife and numerous family, the possibility
of such a disaster would not be as remote
as it is Moreover. it is suspected that the
head waiter is well fed before the pudding
is intrusted to him.
Only one accident has befallen the pud-
ding in the whole of it's long and dis
tinguished premiership over all other pud-
dings. Tom, the head waiter of former
days, tripped on the stairs and rolled to
the bottom. man and pudding and sawdust
cominglng at the footi
Mr.. B. A. Moore, the father of the present
proprietor, went to the wine Office and
said to his son, the tears the while gather
ing in his eyes:
Charles, the pudding is down"
We'll, replied Charles, why aren't you
carving it?''
Yes, but 1t is down on the floor. Tom
has dropped it down stairs"
Then the overcome proprietor sank into
chair, while a crowd Of disappointed
guests trooped dejectedly away.
'Oh. William" for many years the head
ding days. He would walk around the ia
bles urging the diners to have second or
a third helping.
Amy gentleman says pudden?' was his
repeated inquiry.
mo gentleman says 'pudden.'" was the
unkind retort of many customers.
But William died in happy oblivion of the
point of that joke.
himself has always carved the pudding.
The late Mr.. B. A. Moore was restrained
with difficulty from rising from his bed
when stricken down with illness and driving
to cheese" to serve out the pudding.
At Simpsons in Cheapside, century old
custom exists, known as guessing the
cheese" After the ''fish ordinary" the
guests are invited to say what height, girth
and weight they think the cheese on the
table is. A small round ticket is given to
each diner on which to record his calcula-
lations. If one Of the guests should be
exactly right in his estimate champagne is
supplied free to the company. Correct
guesses have only been made on four oc-
casions in the history of the establishment.
"Ye Antient Society of Cogers still sur
wives. The society was founded by Daniel
Mason in 1855. "Coger" is derived from
the Latin ''cogito," to think, and the mem
bers are exceedingly careful to pronounce
their name with long co.
The club Is really a tavern parliament
which for nigh upon a century and a half
has settled the affairs Of the nation In an
atmosphere inpregnated with eloquence
and tobacco smoke.
The society has produced not a few ora
tors. Curran made his first speech to the
Cogers. Daniel OConnell John Wilkes and
Goldsmith were Cogers: so, 1t Is believed,
were Samuel Johnson and Macaulay. For
a hundred years the society met at 15
Bride Lane. Then the hand Of the ''fm-
proven elected the members from their