n: PLATE 1--COFFEE-HOUSE KEEPERS' TOKENS OF THE 17TH
CENTURY

Drawn for this work from the originals in the British Museum, and in the
Beaufoy collection at the Guildhall Museum]

A royal proclamation at the close of 1674 enjoined the prosecution of
any who should "utter base metals with private stamps," or "hinder the
vending of those half pence and farthings which are provided for
necessary exchange." After this, tokens were issued stamped "necessary
change."

[Illustration: A BROAD-SIDE OF 1663]

_Opposition to the Coffee House_

It is easy to see why the coffee houses at once found favor among men of
intelligence in all classes. Until they came, the average Englishman had
only the tavern as a place of common resort. But here was a public house
offering a non-intoxicating beverage, and its appeal was instant and
universal. As a meeting place for the exchange of ideas it soon attained
wide popularity. But not without opposition. The publicans and ale-house
keepers, seeing business slipping away from them, made strenuous
propaganda against this new social center; and not a few attacks were
launched against the coffee drink. Between the Restoration and the year
1675, of eight tracts written upon the subject of the London coffee
houses, four have the words "character of a coffee house" as part of
their titles. The authors appear eager to impart a knowledge of the
town's latest novelty, with which many readers were unacquainted.

One of these early pamphlets (1662) was entitled _The Coffee Scuffle_,
and professed to give a dialogue between "a learned knight and a
pitifull pedagogue," and contained an amusing account of a house where
the Puritan element was still in the ascendant. A numerous company is
present, and each little group being occupied with its own subject, the
general effect is that of another Babel. While one is engaged in quoting
the classics, another confides to his neighbors how much he admires
Euclid;

A third's for a lecture, a fourth a conjecture,
A fifth for a penny in the pound.

Theology is introduced. Mask balls and plays are condemned. Others again
discuss the news, and are deep in the store of "mercuries" here to be
found. One cries up philosophy. Pedantry is rife, and for the most part
unchecked, when each 'prentice-boy "doth call for his coffee in Latin"
and all are so prompt with their learned quotations that "'t would make
a poor Vicar to tremble."

The first noteworthy effort at