uses_ with
us; it is thought to be the old black broth used so much by the
_Lacedemonians_, and dryeth ill Humours in the stomach, comforteth
the Brain, never causeth Drunkenness or any other Surfeit, and is a
harmless entertainment of good Fellowship; for there upon Scaffolds
half a yard high, and covered with Mats, they sit Cross-leg'd after
the _Turkish_ manner, many times two or three hundred together,
talking, and likely with some poor musick passing up and down.

[Illustration: FIRST PRINTED REFERENCE TO "COFFEE" IN ENGLISH, IN ITS
MODERN FORM, 1601

Photographed from the black-letter original of W. Parry's book in the
Worth Library of the British Museum]

This reference to the Lacedaemonian black broth, first by Sandys, then
by Burton, again by Blount, and concurred in by James Howell
(1595-1666), the first historiographer royal, gave rise to considerable
controversy among Englishmen of letters in later years. It is, of
course, a gratuitous speculation. The black broth of the Lacedaemonians
was "pork, cooked in blood and seasoned with salt and vinegar.[57]"

[Illustration: REFERENCES TO COFFEE AS FOUND IN BIDDULPH'S TRAVELS 1609

From the black-letter original in the British Museum]

William Harvey (1578-1657), the famous English physician who discovered
the circulation of the blood, and his brother are reputed to have used
coffee before coffee houses came into vogue in London--this must have
been previous to 1652. "I remember", says Aubrey[58], "he was wont to
drinke coffee; which his brother Eliab did, before coffee houses were
the fashion in London." Houghton, in 1701, speaks of "the famous
inventor of the circulation of the blood, Dr. Harvey, who some say did
frequently use it."

Although it seems likely that coffee must have been introduced into
England sometime during the first quarter of the seventeenth century,
with so many writers and travelers describing it, and with so much
trading going on between the merchants of the British Isles and the
Orient, yet the first reliable record we have of its advent is to be
found in the _Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn, F.R.S._[59],
under "Notes of 1637", where he says:

There came in my time to the college (Baliol, Oxford) one Nathaniel
Conopios, out of Greece, from Cyrill, the Patriarch of
Constantinople, who, returning many years after was made (as I
understand) Bishop of Smyrna. He was the fir