Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/561

 ii. DEC. 10, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

461

LONDON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1901,.

CONTENTS. No. 50.

NOTES : Will's Coffee-House, 461 Punctuation in MSS. and Printed Books, 462 Shakespeare's Books Rossetti Bibliography, 464 ' Sycamore " : " Sycomore " Cer- vantes and Burns, 465-" Guith " in Old Welsh, 466.

QUERIES : Vincent Stuckey Lean, 466 McDonald Family of Ireland Audience Meadow " Freshman "Mercury in Tom Quad, Oxford Rule of the Road Lady Jean Douglas " Calf's gadyr," 467 Three Tailors of Tooley Street Anthony Brewer Victoria Modern Italian Artists Samuel Pope's Marbled Paper Motor Index Marks Pettus, 468 Royal Hunting Ben Jonson and Bacon Cross in the Greek Church Roman Guards removed from Palestine to Lincoln Phumicians at Fal- mouth, 469.

REPLIES : Dog-names. 469 Angles: England, Original Meaning Bacon or Usher? 471 Daniel Webster High Peak Words, 472 Shakespeare's Wife Step-brother, 473 Antiquary v. Antiquarian Cosas de Kspafia Witham Epitaphiana, 474 Battle of Bedr, 475 Parish Docu- ments : their Preservation ' Reliquiae Wottonianse ' Quotations Anahuac Cricklewood Bananas, 476 Tithing Barn Isabelline as a Colour Authors of Quota- tions Wanted Joannes v. Johannes, 477.

NOTES ON BOOKS : Bain's 'The Great God's Hair' Worthington Smith's 'Dunstable ' 'The Flemings in Oxford' 'Inquisitions post Mortem: Henry III.' Farmar's 'Place-name Synonyms Classified 'Johnston's Place-names of Stirlingshire ' ' Burlington Magazine ' Reviews and Magazines.

Notices to Correspondents.

Stole**

WILL'S COFFEE-HOUSE.

THE impression is conveyed in the query concerning the Grievance Office (ante, p. 207) that the Will's Coffee-House in Scotland Yard was identical with the famous wits' resort in Bow Street, Covent Garden. But there is no reason, apparently, to suppose that the club-tavern known to Pope, Dryden, &c., as Will's Coffee-House, was ever transferred, even in respect to ownership, to Scotland Yard. The fact is there were no fewer than five coffee-houses in the middle of the eigh- teenth century known in London as Will's, and the frequency of the name is no doubt to be accounted for in its adoption with a view to attract the custom of those to whom the fame and popularity of the house in Covent Garden were proverbial.

William Urwin, who kept the Bow Street house, was, according to Cunningham, alive in 1695 ; but it retained its name long after his death. Will's Coffee-House, opposite the Admiralty, appears to have been originally called Wells's-in 'Old and New London' wrongly spelt "Well's" and in Salusbfrn/s Filling Post of 27 Oct., 1696 (not "Salis- bury's," as in ' Old and New London '), is an extraordinary advertisement inserted by a

victim to a highway robbery near Kentish Town. In Will's Coffee-House in Covent Garden, which stood on the north side of the west-end corner of Bow Street in Russell Street, the wits' room was upstairs, the lower part being let in 1693 to a woollen draper (London Gaz., No. 2957); and in 1722 it was occupied by a bookseller, " James Woodman, at Camden's Head." Ned Ward, in his 4 London Spy,' speaks of going upstairs, where the company was to be found. But in the case of the Scotland Yard Will's, opposite the Admiralty, the conditions were reversed, and the tavern part was on the ground floor, as the following advertisement indicates :

To be Lett, unfurnish'd

Over Will's Coffee House, facing the Admiralty, up one and two Pair of Stairs, Very good Chambers, with handsome Closets, fit for a single Gentleman, with good Garrets for Servants. Please to enquire at the Bar of Will's Coffee House.- Daily Advert., 28 June, 1742.

Other advertisements show that it was something of a fashionable resort :

o'Clock, in a Hackney Coach that took up a Gentle- man in Villers-[szV]Street, and set him down at Capt. Long's, in Holies-Street, Cavendish Square, a Silver-hilted Sword. Whoever brings it to Capt. Long's aforesaid, or to the Bar at Will's Coffee- House, Scotland Yard, shall have Half a Guinea Reward, and no Questions ask'd." Daily Adv., 22 Dec., 1741.
 * ' Left on Thursday Night last, about Nine

"A Person is Wanted who Draws and Designs, and is willing to go abroad ; let him enquire for Particulars at the Bar at Will's Coffee House in Scotland Yard, over against the Admiralty." Ibid., 2 July, 1742.

" Dropt the 4 th instant, about One o'Clock in the Bank, two Notes ; one No. 207, for 50/., the other No. 208, for 40^., in the Name of William Scobie. Whoever brings them to Will's Coffee-House, in Scotland Yard, shall receive Ten Guineas Reward, and no Questions ask'd. Payment is stopt at the Bank." Ibid., 13 March, 1742.

Will's Coffee-House in Cornhill was " to be Lett at Midsummer next," on inquiry of Mr. John Drinkwater, a tinman in Bread Street (ibid., No. 3612). Inquiries about the letting of a " Handsome House, well wainscotted and sashed, with large Warehouses and Lofts over them situate in Thames Street, op- posite Fishmongers' Hall," were to be made at the bar of Will's Coffee-House in Cornhill at Change-time (ibid., 25 March, 1742).

At Will's Coffee-House in Bow Lane in- quiries were to be made concerning the letting of another " First Floor " near the Royal Exchange (ibid., 17 June, 1742).

Inquiries about the sale of the "Mansion House of Francis Fysher, Esq., adjoining to Grantham in Lincolnshire," were to be made