down the Strand, Fleet Street, and in that part of the city adjoining
the Exchange, coffee-houses abounded in great numbers. Coffee, which
in this reign became a favourite beverage, was introduced into London
a couple of years before the restoration. It had, however, been brought
into England at a much earlier period. John Evelyn, in the year 1638,
speaks of it being drunk at Oxford, where there came to his college
"one Nathaniel Conoposis out of Greece, from Cyrill the patriarch of
Constantinople, who, returning many years after, was made Bishop of
Smyrna." Twelve good years later, a coffee-house was opened at Oxford
by one Jacobs, a Jew, where this beverage was imbibed "by some
who delighted in novelty." It was, however, according to Oldys the
antiquarian, untasted in the capital till a Turkey merchant named
Edwards brought to London a Ragusan youth named Pasqua Rosee, who
prepared this drink for him daily. The eagerness to taste the strange
beverage drawing too much company to his board, Edwards allowed the lad,
together with a servant of his son-in-law, to sell it publicly; whence
coffee was first sold in St. Michael's Alley in Cornhill by Pasqua
Rosee, "at the sign of his own head," about the year 1658.

Though coffee-drinkers first met with much ridicule from wits about
town, and writers of broadsheet ballads, the beverage became gradually
popular, and houses for its sale quickly multiplied. Famous amongst
these, in the reign of the merry monarch, besides that already
mentioned, was Garraway's in Exchange Alley; the Rainbow, by the Inner
Temple Gate; Dick's, situated at No. 8, Fleet Street; Jacobs', the
proprietor of which moved in 1671 from Oxford to Southampton Buildings,
Holborn; the Grecian in the Strand, "conducted without ostentation
or noise;" the Westminster, noted as a resort of peers and members
of parliament; and Will's, in Russell Street, frequented by the poet
Dryden.

These houses, the forerunners of clubs, were, according to their
situation and convenience, frequented by noblemen and men of quality,
courtiers, foreign ministers, politicians, members of learned
professions, wits, citizens of various grades, and all who loved to
exchange greetings and gossip with their neighbours and friends. Within
these low-ceilinged comfortable coffee-house rooms, fitted with strong
benches and oak chairs, where the black beverage was drunk from handless
wide brimmed cups, Pepys passed many cheerful hours, hearing