ip. The
poem itself contains one charming passage on coffee.[83]

Another frequenter of the coffee houses of London, when he had the money
to do so, was Daniel Defoe, whose _Robinson Crusoe_ was the precursor of
the English novel. Henry Fielding, one of the greatest of all English
novelists, loved the life of the more bohemian coffee houses, and was,
in fact, induced to write his first great novel, _Joseph Andrews_,
through coffee-house criticisms of Richardson's _Pamela_.

Other frequenters of the coffee houses of the period were Thomas Gray
and Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Garrick was often to be seen at Tom's in
Birchin Lane, where also Chatterton might have been found on many an
evening before his untimely death.

_The London Pleasure Gardens_

The second half of the eighteenth century was covered by the reigns of
the Georges. The coffee houses were still an important factor in London
life, but were influenced somewhat by the development of gardens in
which were served tea, chocolate, and other drinks, as well as coffee.
At the coffee houses themselves, while coffee remained the favorite
beverage, the proprietors, in the hope of increasing their patronage,
began to serve wine, ale, and other liquors. This seems to have been the
first step toward the decay of the coffee house.

[Illustration: A TRIO OF NOTABLES AT BUTTON'S IN 1730

The figure in the cloak is Count Viviani; of the figures facing the
reader, the draughts player is Dr. Arbuthnot, and the figure standing is
assumed to be Pope]

The coffee houses, however, continued to be the centers of intellectual
life. When Samuel Johnson and David Garrick came together to London,
literature was temporarily in a bad way, and the hack writers of the
time dwelt in Grub Street.

It was not until after Johnson had met with some success, and had
established the first of his coffee-house clubs at the Turk's Head, that
literature again became a fashionable profession.

This really famous literary club met at the Turk's Head from 1763 to
1783. Among the most notable members were Johnson, the arbiter of
English prose; Oliver Goldsmith; Boswell, the biographer; Burke, the
orator; Garrick, the actor; and Sir Joshua Reynolds, the painter. Among
the later members were Gibbon, the historian; and Adam Smith, the
political economist.

Certain it is that during the sway of the English coffee house, and at
least partly through its influence, England produced a better prose