EAELT HISTORY OF COFFEE, 55 



Atabia, that coffee stepped over the boundaries of Mohammedanism, 

 and was introduced among the Christian nations. The first coffee- 

 house in London was opened in Newman's Court, Comhill, in 

 1652, by a Greek named Pasqua Hossie. This Greek, says a writer 

 on the subject, " was the servant of an English merchant named 

 Edwards, who brought some coffee with him from Smyrna, and 

 whose house, when the fact became known, was so thronged with 

 friends and visitors to taste the new beverage, that, to relieve 

 himself from annoyance, Edwards established his servant in a 

 coffee-house." 



As early as 1658 the use of coffee had been revealed to the 

 inhabitants of Marseilles by merchants and travellers. About 

 that year, Thevenot, a citizen, on his return from his Eastern trav- 

 els, is said to have " regaled his guests with coffee after dinner." 



" This, however," says Le Grand d'Aussy in his " Yie Privee 

 des Fran9ais," "was but the eccentricity of a traveller, which 

 would not come into fashion among such people as the Parisians. 

 To bring coffee into credit, some extraordinary and striking cir- 

 cumstance was necessary. This circumstance occurred on the ar- 

 rival, in 1669, of an embassy from the Grand Seigneur Mahomet 

 rV. to Louis XrV. Soliman Aga, chief of the mission, having 

 passed six months in the capital, and during his stay having ac- 

 quired the friendship of the Parisians by some traits of wit and 

 gallantry, several persons of distinction, chiefly women, had the 

 curiosity to visit him at his house. The manner in which he re- 

 ceived them not only inspired a wish to renew the visit, but in- 

 duced others to follow the example. He caused coffee to be 

 served to his guests, according to the custom of his country ; for 

 since fashion had introduced the custom of serving this beverage 

 among the Turks, civility demanded that it should be offered to 

 visitors, as well as that these should not decline partaking of it. 

 If a Frenchman, in a similar case, to please the ladies, had pre- 

 sented to them this black and bitter liquor, he would have been 

 rendered forever ridiculous. But the beverage was served by a 

 Turk — a gallant Turk — and this was sufficient to give it inestima- 

 ble value. Besides, before the palate could judge, the eyes were 

 seduced by the display of elegance and neatness which accom- 

 panied it ; by those brilliant porcelain cups into which it was 



