THE HISTORY OF COFFEE. 27 



coffee at the " Grecian," became enemies in argument, the subject 

 of which was the accent of a Greek word. Whatever the accent 

 ought to have been, the quarrel was acute , and its conclusion 

 grave. The scholars rushed into Devereux Court, drew their 

 swords, and as one was run through the body and killed on the 

 spot, it is to be supposed that he was necessarily wrong. A 

 duel, however, was certainly a strange way of settling a ques- 

 tion in grammar. The " coffee-houses " which were resorted to 

 for mere conversation as well as coffee began on a first floor ; 

 they were the seed, as it were, whence has arisen the political 

 and exclusive " club " of the present day. The advantages of 

 association were first experienced in coffee-houses ; but at the 

 same time it must be admitted that there also was felt the 

 annoyance caused by intrusive and unwelcome strangers. 

 " Wills's Coffee-house," also known as the " Wits " from its com- 

 pany, w^as situated at the west corner of Bow Street, Covent 

 Garden. In the last half of the seventeenth century, its 

 popularity w^as at its height. It was at Wills's that Dryden 

 " pedagogued " without restraint, and accepted without a blush 

 any amount of flattery on his literary productions. He was the 

 great literary luminary around which lesser orbs and satellites 

 revolved. He had the good sense, however, to retire early, 

 when the tables were full, and he knew he had made a favora- 

 ble impression ; but Addison, more given to jolly fellowship, 

 sat late with those who stayed to indulge " libations deep." Of 

 the disputes that there arose, " Glorious John " was arbiter : for 

 his particular use a chair was especially reserved ; therein 

 enthroned he sat by the hearth or the balcony, according to the 

 season, and delivered his decisions. Another of the renowned 

 London coffee-houses was " Button's," in Great Russell Street ; 

 this was Addison's favorite rendezvous, although the fruit of the 

 vine was, in his case, preferred to the infusion of the berry. 

 There, after writing during the forenoon at his house in 



