Government.

At Button's the leading company, particularly Addison and Steele,
met in large flowing flaxen wigs. Sir Godfrey Kneller, too, was a
frequenter.

The master died in 1731, when in the _Daily Advertiser_, October 5
appeared the following:

"On Sunday morning, died, after three days' illness, Mr. Button,
who formerly kept Button's Coffee-house, in Russell-street, Covent
Garden: a very noted house for wits, being the place where the Lyon
produced the famous _Tatlers_ and _Spectators_, written by the late
Mr. Secretary Addison and Sir Richard Steele, Knt., which works
will transmit their names with honour to posterity."

* * * * *

Among other wits who frequented Button's were Swift, Arbuthnot,
Savage, Budgell, Martin Folkes, and Drs. Garth and Armstrong. In
1720, Hogarth mentions "four drawings in Indian ink" of the
characters at Button's Coffee-house. In these were sketches of
Arbuthnot, Addison, Pope (as it is conjectured) and a certain Count
Viviani, identified years afterwards by Horace Walpole, when the
drawings came under his notice. They subsequently came into
Ireland's possession.

Jemmy Maclaine, or M'Clean, the fashionable highwayman, was a
frequent visitor at Button's. Mr. John Taylor, of the _Sun_
newspaper, describes Maclaine as a tall, showy, good-looking man. A
Mr. Donaldson told Taylor that, observing Maclaine paid particular
attention to the barmaid of the Coffee-house, the daughter of the
landlord, he gave a hint to the father of Maclaine's dubious
character. The father cautioned the daughter against the
highwayman's addresses, and imprudently told her by whose advice he
put her on her guard; she as imprudently told Maclaine. The next
time Donaldson visited the coffee-room, and sitting in one of the
boxes, Maclaine entered, and in a loud tone said, "Mr. Donaldson, I
wish to _spake_ to you in a private room." Mr. D. being unarmed,
and naturally afraid of being alone with such a man, said, in
answer, that as nothing could pass between them that he did not
wish the whole world to know, he begged leave to decline the
invitation. "Very well," said Maclaine, as he left the room, "we
shall meet again." A day or two after, as Mr. Donaldson was walking
near Richmond, in the eveni