'All accounts of POETRY, under Will's Coffee House,' says the _Tatler_; it was situated No. 1 Bow Street, at the corner of Russell Street, and took its name from its proprietor, William Urwin. If Ward can be trusted, gamblers as well as wits frequented it, for he says[313] there was 'great shaking of the Elbow at _Will's_ about Ten.' Still it was, _par excellence_, the _Wits_ coffee-house, a class who are very happily described by a contemporary writer:[314] 'All their words go for Jests, and all their Jests for nothing. They are quick in the Fancy of some ridiculous Thing, and reasonable good in the Expression. Nothing stops a Jest when it is coming; and they had rather lose their Friend than their Wit.' And they are also written of as being 'Conceited, if they had but once the Honour to dip a finger and thumb in Mr. D----'s[315] snush box, it was enough to inspire 'em with a true Genius of Poetry, and make 'em write Verse, as fast as a Taylor takes his stitches.' In fact, it was on Dryden's reputation that Will's coffee-house was then living; and his going there is noticed by Pepys, 'Feb. 3, 1664--In Covent Garden to-night, going to fetch my wife, I stopped at the great Coffee house there, where I never was before: where Dryden, the poet, I knew at Cambridge, and all the wits of the town, and Harris the player, and Mr. Hoole, of our College. And, had I time then, or could at other times, it will be good coming thither, for there, I perceive, is very witty and pleasant discourse. But I could not tarry, and, as it was late, they were all ready to go away.' Here also Pope saw the old man, whom he described as 'a plump man with a down look, and not very conversible.' [Footnote 313: _A Comical View of London and Westminster._] [Footnote 314: _Hickelty Pickelty._] [Footnote 315: Dryden's.] Such, then, were some of the principal coffee-houses. What were the taverns like? There were then no hotels proper, such as we know them: a man had to live in private apartments, and, when he wanted dinner, he had to betake himself to a tavern, or ordinary. As Misson remarks, 'At London they hardly so much as know what an _Auberge_ is: There are indeed a thousand and a thousand Taverns, where you may have what you please got for you.' A tavern was a far more free-and-easy place than a coffee-house--in fact, it is a question whether the _convenances_ of a coffee-house would admit of a man 'washing his teeth at a tavern window in Pall Mall';[316] indeed, the keeping of them was hardly considered reputable, for we find[317] that 'Her Majestie sign'd a warrant for continuing the salaries of the prince's servants during her life, provided they kept no publick houses.' [Footnote 316: _Tatler_, 11.] [Footnote 317: _Luttrell_, Jan. 1, 1709.]