The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1905-10-15
I THE T | Il, \
kYTN BONA
BY w. P. Kirkwood.

IN a back alley, off Fleet street, in
the very heart of old London,
stands a $250,O00 hotel, in its way
u 1neof the best things London 2I4c holds Id.
court, once the favorite resort of wine
merchants. The "hotel'' is in reality
the chief remaining representative of
those old taverns whose history would
make q literary history of England. It's
present-day valuation is perhaps under
estimated rather than otherwise. The
father of the present proprietor bought
che tavern back in the fifties for $780,
offered 100000 for it and refused the
added $4,000. 80, =
st.This old tavern,'' says L. H. Wells
of the Powers Mercantile company's
book department, who visited the place
in the course of a recent trip to Eng
of attraction for the tourist, but il. still
serving, and serving nobly, the purpose
for which it was originally created--the
purpose of purveying to the appetites
of the good-feeding. Britons. It is IA
nous all over England for it's lark
buildings served Saturdays from 1880
to s pm; These Psud lhd are e mon
They have been made to weigh hun
dred pounds, and that not because Of
their great specific gravity, but be-
cause of their enormous size. Those
who have tasted once seldom failed to
wish for another chance at one of
these buildings. Lark buildings have
been shipped even to America from. this
tavern. One was shipped to gentle
man in New York, who, having partak-
en- of portion Of one at the tavern,
after his return home wanted to give
his friends a treat. The pudding came
across all right, but at the .customhouse
it ran against the Mckinley tariff law,
dings and therefore could not let the
piece de resistance Of the New York
er's feast thru. It took a week for
the customhouse officials to decide what
to do, and in the meantime the feast g
guests had gone home and the pudding
had soured:
fed Welsh rarebit, as 1t has been called,
is another dish for which the tavern is
famous. -
- To the tourist, however, the tavern,
which still bears it's ancient name Ye
Olde Cheshire Cheese modernized into
sThe Old Cheshire Cheese, is chiefly,
and very properly, Interesting because
Of it's literary associations. Its prede-
and SHAKESPEARE doubtless made merry at
its board with Ben johnson and others
of his time. It. was at the Old Che
shire Cheese that the dispute arose
about who could most quickly make the
best couplet, whereupon was offered:
I, Sylvester, .
- Kissed your sister.
= The retort came promptly:
ar I, Ben Jonson,
Kissed your wife.
* But that s not ryhme,' said Syl-
vester. NO. said Jonson, 'but it s
true :, :; ..-> -.
nThe tavern Of that day was burned,
however, in the great London fire. The
present tavern, tho, dates back before
Samuel johnson IS time, and from that
day to the present it's history is traced
without great difficulty. It was IA
vorite haunt Of johnson g in the early
part of the eighteenth century, and the
dictionary maker, with Goldsmith, who
in his lodgings across the street wrote
down at it's tables together. johnson 8
favorite seat is marked by tablet, and
his chair is preserved as one Of the sa-
cred relics Of the place,
"In later days: the, tavern's dining
the laughter Of Tom Hood. Wilkie
Collins vas asfreqneater still Liter. also
$50 deeply attached to the old place