Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/13

 10* s. v. JAN. 6, 1906.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

The work was designed

" to direct any man with a delicate stomach and a full purse, or any man with a keen strong stomach and a lean purse, where he may dine well, and to the best advantage, in London."

Tiie itinerary commences with London "on its highest ground, in Pannier Court, between Paternoster Row and Newgate Street."

In (Queen's Head Passage, close to Pannier Court, the reader is directed to " Dolly's Chop House," in which

"that native dish, the beef steak, so much envied by the French, and classed by them among their

assiettes volantes is dressed in the best style

At this house the ingenious anatomist and chemical lecturer, Dr. George Fordyce, dined every day, for more than twenty years Atfouro'clock.his accus- tomed hour of dining, he entered, and took his seat at a table always reserved for him, on which was instantly placed a silver tankard full of strong ale ; a bottle of port wine, and a measure containing a quarter of a pint of brandy. The moment the waiter announced him, the cook put a pound and a half of rump steak on the gridiron, and on the table some delicate trifle as a bonne louche, to serve until the steak was ready. This morsel was some- times half a broiled chicken, sometimes a plate of tish : when he had eaten this, he took one glass of his brandy, and then proceeded to devour his steak. We say devour, because he always ate so rapidly that one might imagine he was hurrying away to a

patient, to deprive death of a dinner He thus

daily spent an hour and a half of his time, and then returned to his house in Essex Street, to give his six-o-clock lecture on chemistry. He made no other meal until his return next day at four o'clock to Dolly's."

When St. Paul's Churchyard is reached, there is a description of " that well-known and long - established house the Chapter Coffee House." This place, described as situated "in a passage which looks into Paternoster Row," appears to have been well supplied with files of all the British news- papers, also magazines, reviews, &c., "together with all the most popular pamphlets." There were compartments or boxes, and two of these appear to have been whimsically de- nominated '* Hell," owing, probably, to reports as to the conversation sometimes heard within them :

"In this house the magnificent and munificent booksellers of London hold their conclave. Whether or not there be also a board of grey-bearded reviewers, we have not hitherto discovered."

At Cornhill

" Let us not pass Alderman Birch's unique refec- tory without a tribute to the talents, literary

as well as culinary, of the worthy Alderman, who, having written and published on the theory of National Defence, has here illustrated his system practically, by providing a variety of superior soups, wherewith to fortify the stomachs, and stimulate the courage of all his Majesty's liege subjects."

Upon our arrival at Threadneedle Street we are told that

"The Bank of England seems to be the magna

parens of coffee houses and taverns Let them

[our enemies] send some spy to inspect the Bank of England and the avenues about it : John Bull may there be seen daily, waddling out of the front gate, and into one of the nearest places of replenish- ment, there to convert his paper into solid sup- plies for the service of the current day. Thus, while each new tax adds another feather to his load, he continues to widen and strengthen his shoulders to bear it, and now he looks like the fat alderman, on the back of whose coat a wag pinned a ticket, copied from the inscription at the corner of Old Jewry, k Widened at the expense of the Corporation of London.'"

The few extracts I have made from ' The Epicure's Almanack' will, I think, justify Mr. Courtney's opinion to the effect that "these volumes are still worth turning over." G. E. WE ARE.

Weston-super-Mare.

AN EARLIER CHARLES LAMB. An Ame- rican correspondent has directed my atten- tion to a most curious reference to a Charles Lamb, as presumablya champion ofchimney- s weepers, a hundred years and more before the Charles Lamb whom we know came for- ward to write those black imps' praise. The- book is * The Scourge : in Vindication of the Church of England,' by T. L. (Thomas Lewis), first published in 1717, and again in 1720. On p. 271 of the 1717 edition, and on p. 205 of the 1720 edition, as a corroborative search at the British Museum reveals, is this sentence in a letter dated " Button's, Sunday, September 1":

"Well, I shall live to be reveng'd of all the Chimney Sleepers in England, and only for Charles- Lamb, 1 do love that dear Fellow. I did not care if they were all hang'd and damri'cL

One can sirapty rub one's eyes in the pre- sence of so odd an anticipation.

E. V. LUCAS.

ZOUAVE UNIFORM. What M. P. says of German duelling (10 th S. iv. 388) reminds me of the military uniform of the Zouaves the light infantry in the French army. They wore baggy trousers, which were drawn in at and tied about the ankles ; and at the bottom they were joined together so near the ankles that they did not allow a man to take the regimental stride. It immediately occurred to the new man that he must slit them up a bit so that he could walk properly. His older comrades told him he would get " huit jours " if he did. On the other hand,. if he wanted to walk there was nothing to be done but slit them up a few inches, which he accordingly did. The officer came along