26 THE HISTORY OF COFFEE. 



" You that delight in wit and mirth, and long to hear such news 



As come from all parts of the earth, Dutch, Danes, and Turks, and Jews ; 



I'll send you to a rendezvous, where it is smoking new ; 



And coming from the coffee-house, it cannot but be true ! " 



Doran, in his amusing volume, " Table Traits," nas gathered 

 some curious items and incidents connected with the old London 

 coffee-houses which are replete with interest, and which we 

 shall condense for the reader. The " Grecian " was one of the 

 most noted of the old establishments of this kind in London ; 

 it appears to have been the oldest of the better-known of the 

 coffee-houses, and to have lasted the longest. It was opened by 

 one Constantine, a Greek, living in the latter part of the seven- 

 teenth century, and its location was in the vicinity of St. Christo- 

 pher's Church. Its longevity is not a little remarkable, for its 

 career came to a close only in the year 1843, when the u Grecian 

 Coffee-house" became transformed into the " Grecian Chambers," 

 or lodgings for bachelors. The establishment did not exist in the 

 same locality, however, all the time; for at the time of its 

 transformation the " Grecian " was situated in Devereux Street, 

 Strand. In its palmy days it was the resort of the learned 

 and aristocratic, and its classic name seems not to have been 

 dishonored by its fame. Sparkling humor and genial repartee 

 would often flash responsive to the inspiring but non-inebriating 

 cup, and thus qualify the gravity of those learned pundits who 

 would gather there, not to discuss the trivialities of the day, but 

 those weightier matters that concern the rise and fall of dy- 

 nasties, such as the fate of Rome and the events which issued 

 from the Trojan war. Yet then, as now, satirists would seize 

 upon the points of humor ; and as there were pedants as well 

 as philosophers who convened at the " Grecian," so lampoons 

 and literary squibs were not wanting to enliven the scene. 



It w^as a time when both sages and sciolists w r ore swords ; 

 and it is on record that two friendly scholars, sipping their 



