INTRODUCTION INTO EUROPE. 13 



appeared, stating that " In Bartholmew Lane on the 

 back of the old Exchange the drink called Cophee is 

 sold in the morning and at three o'clock in the after- 

 noon." The first mention of coffee on the statute books 

 was in 1660 when a duty of four pence was laid on 

 every gallon of coffee made and sold, to be paid by the 

 maker thereof, another particular statute, in 1663, direct- 

 ing that " all coffee-houses should be licensed at the 

 general quarter sessions of the peace for the county in 

 which they are kept." While another advertisement in 

 that year, says of coffee: " It much quickens the spirits, > 

 and makes the heart lightsome, suppresseth the fumes / 

 exceedingly, and therefore, is good against headache, / 

 prevents cough and consumption, and is excellent for 

 the cure of gout, dropsy, scurvey, hypocondria and. the 

 like." 



In London, as in the other cities where Coffee was 

 first introduced, coffee-houses multiplied rapidly, not 

 only in the capital, but in all the larger cities of Eng- 

 land, there being in 1688, according to Ray, as many 

 coffee-houses in London alone as in grand Cairo itself, 

 Coffee becoming a beverage of general consumption 

 throughout the entire country. Long antedating news- 

 papers, the coffee-houses became news-centres, where the 

 intelligent men of the times gathered to learn what was 

 occurring in the literary and political world, to discuss 

 public affairs, governmental measures, and form public 

 opinion. Wits and poets, essayists and philosophers, 

 daily gathered in the coffee-houses of London, during 

 several generations, to quote from favorite authors. How 

 faithfully they harangued and button-holed each other 

 in that fashion so common to all ages, and within their 

 precincts, what fear and folly, what foolishness and wis- 

 dom, has been uttered over steaming cups of Mocha. 



