fee had not been seen at Paris, except at M. Thevenot's,
and some of his friends'; nor scarce heard of but from the account of
travellers. In that year, Soliman Aga, ambassador from the Sultan
Mahomet the Fourth, arrived, who, with his retinue, brought a
considerable quantity of coffee with them, and made presents of it to
persons both of the court and city, and it is supposed to have
established the custom of drinking it.

Two years afterwards, an Armenian of the name of Pascal, set up a
coffee-house, but meeting with little encouragement, left Paris and came
to London.

From Anderson's _Chronological History of Commerce_, it appears that the
use of coffee was introduced into London some years earlier than into
Paris. For in 1652 one Mr. Edwards, a Turkey merchant, brought home with
him a Greek servant, whose name was Pasqua, who understood the roasting
and making of coffee, till then unknown in England. This servant was the
first who sold coffee, and kept a house for that purpose in George Yard
Lombard Street.

The first mention of coffee in our statute books is anno 1660 (12 Car.
II. c. 24), when a duty of 4d. was laid upon every gallon of coffee made
and sold, to be paid by the maker.

The statute 15 Car. II. c. 11. Sec. 15. an. 1663, directs that all
coffee-houses should be licensed at the general quarter sessions of the
peace for the county within which they are to be kept.

In 1675 King Charles II. issued a proclamation to shut up the
coffee-houses, but in a few days suspended the proclamation by a second.
They were charged with being seminaries of sedition.

The first European author who has made any mention of coffee is
Rauwolfus, who was in the Levant in 1573.

* * * * *

DR. DRYASDUST.

Sir,--Do you or any of your readers know anything of the family of that
celebrated antiquary, and do you think it probable that he was descended
from, or connected with, the author of a work which I met with some time
ago, intituled "Wit Revived, or A new and excellent way of
Divertisement, digested into most ingenious Questions and Answers. By
ASDRYASDUST TOSSOFFACAN. London: Printed for T. E. and are to be sold by
most Booksellers. MDCLXXIV." 12mo. I do not know anything of the
author's character, but he appears to have been a right-minded man, in
so far as he (like yourself) expected to find "wit revived" by its
digestion into "most ingenious questions and answers;" though his notio