Coffee-houses. 1 1 



stantinople, and from that time to the present 

 they have succeeded in holding their own in the 

 metropolis, ' the very word being replete with 

 pleasant associations of the literature and refine- 

 ment of the last two centuries. From the late 

 Mr. Timbs' work on " London Club-houses," I 

 take the following extract, being the original hand- 

 bill by which Pasqua Rosee advertised his Coffee- 

 house in St. Michael's Alley : 



"THE VERTUE OF THE COFFEE-DRINK, First 

 made and publicly sold in England by Pasqua Rosee. 

 The grain or berry called Coffee, groweth upon 

 little trees only in the deserts of Arabia. ... It 

 is a simple, innocent thing, composed into a drink, 

 by being dried in an oven, and ground to powder, 

 and boiled up with spring water, and about half 

 a pint of it to be drunk fasting an hour before, 

 and not eating an hour after, and to be taken 

 as hot as possibly can be endured ; the which 

 will never fetch the skin off the mouth, or raise 



any blisters by reason of that heat The 



quality of the drink is cold and dry (sic) ; and 

 though it be a drier, it neither heats nor inflames 

 more than hot posset. It so encloseth the orifice 

 of the stomach, and fortifies the heat within, that 

 it is very good to help digestion ; and therefore 

 of great use to be taken about three or four 

 o'clock, afternoon, as well as in the morning. 



