Note 316 — Chapter XVIII · COFFEE-HOUSES AND TAVERNS.

Such, then, were some of the principal coffee-houses. What were the taverns like? There were then no hotels proper, such as we know them: a man had to live in private apartments, and, when he wanted dinner, he had to betake himself to a tavern, or ordinary. As Misson remarks, 'At London they hardly so much as know what an Auberge is: There are indeed a thousand and a thousand Taverns, where you may have what you please got for you.' A tavern was a far more free-and-easy place than a coffee-house—in fact, it is a question whether the convenances of a coffee-house would admit of a man 'washing his teeth at a tavern window in Pall Mall';[316] indeed, the keeping of them was hardly considered reputable, for we find[317] that 'Her Majestie sign'd a warrant for continuing the salaries of the prince's servants during her life, provided they kept no publick houses.'