r' of cards followed the wine. Here the practised
player learnt to lose with endurance, and neither to tear the cards nor
crush the dice with his heel. Perhaps the jest may be true, and that men
sometimes played till they sold even their beards to cram tennis-balls
or stuff cushions. The patron often paid for the wine or disbursed for
the whole dinner. Then the drawer came round with his wooden knife, and
scraped off the crusts and crumbs, or cleared off the parings of fruit
and cheese into his basket. The torn cards were thrown into the fire,
the guests rose, rapiers were re-hung, and belts buckled on. The post
news was heard, and the reckonings paid. The French lackey and Irish
footboy led out the hobby horses, and some rode off to the play, others
to the river-stairs to take a pair of oars to the Surrey side."

The "Castle," where Tarleton has so often talked of Shakespeare and his
wit, perished in the Great Fire; but was afterwards rebuilt, and here
"The Castle Society of Music" gave their performances, no doubt aided by
many of the St. Paul's Choir. Part of the old premises were subsequently
(says Mr. Timbs) the Oxford Bible Warehouse, destroyed by fire in 1822,
and since rebuilt. "Dolly's Tavern," which stood near the "Castle,"
derived its name from Dolly, an old cook of the establishment, whose
portrait Gainsborough painted. Bonnell Thornton mentions the beefsteaks
and gill ale at "Dolly's." The coffee-room, with its projecting
fire-places, is as old as Queen Anne. The head of that queen is painted
on a window at "Dolly's," and the entrance in Queen's Head Passage is
christened from this painting.

The old taverns of London are to be found in the strangest nooks and
corners, hiding away behind shops, or secreting themselves up alleys.
Unlike the Paris _cafe_, which delights in the free sunshine of the
boulevard, and displays its harmless revellers to the passers-by, the
London tavern aims at cosiness, quiet, and privacy. It partitions and
curtains-off its guests as if they were conspirators and the wine they
drank was forbidden by the law. Of such taverns the "Chapter" is a good
example.

The "Chapter Coffee House," at the corner of Chapter House Court, was in
the last century famous for its punch, its pamphlets, and its
newspapers. As lawyers and authors frequented the Fleet Street taverns,
so booksellers haunted the "Chapter." Bonnell Thornton, in the
_Connoisseur_, Jan., 1754, says:--"The conversation here n