Of Eating-Houses And Cook-Shops There Are Not Many, Considering The
Largeness Of The Town, Unless It Be About The Inns Of Court And
Chancery, Smithfield, And The Royal Exchange, And Some Other Places,
To Which The Country-People And Strangers Resort When They Come To
Town.
Here is good butcher's meat of all kinds, and in the best of
them fowls, pigs, geese, &c., the
Last of which are pretty dear; but
one that can make a meal of butcher's meat, may have as much as he
cares to eat for sixpence; he must be content indeed to sit in a
public room, and use the same linen that forty people have done
before him. Besides meat, he finds very good white bread, table-
beer, &c.
Coffee-houses are almost as numerous as ale-houses, dispersed in
every part of the town, where they sell tea, coffee, chocolate,
drams, and in many of the great ones arrack and other punch, wine,
&c. These consist chiefly of one large common room, with good fires
in winter; and hither the middle sort of people chiefly resort, many
to breakfast, read the news, and talk politics; after which they
retire home: others, who are strangers in town, meet here about
noon, and appoint some tavern to dine at; and a great many attend at
the coffee-houses near the Exchange, the Inns of Court, and
Westminster, about their business. In the afternoon about four,
people resort to these places again, from whence they adjourn to the
tavern, the play, &c.; and some, when they have taken a handsome
dose, run to the coffee-house at midnight for a dish of coffee to
set them right; while others conclude the day here with drams, or a
bowl of punch.
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