5 Annotations

First Reading

Nix  •  Link

"Another of Ben Jonson's haunts was situated within easy distance of
the Mermaid. This was the Three Tuns, of the Guildhall Yard, which
Herrick includes in his list of taverns favoured by the dramatist.

"Ah Ben!
Say how or when
Shall we thy Guests,
Meet at those lyric feasts
Made at the Sun,
The Dog, the Triple Tunne;
Where we such clusters had
As made us nobly wild, not mad?"

Henry Shelley, Inns and Taverns of Old London (1908)

Sam Sampson  •  Link

Second Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

A contemporary view of life in London is offered by Cosmo, the future Grand Duke of Turin, who visited England in the Spring of 1669.

"It is a common custom with the lower order of people rather than with the nobility, who are less given to it, after dinner or at public houses, when they are transacting business of any kind, to take tobacco, and smoke, so that there does not pass a day in which the artisans do not indulge themselves in going to the public-houses, which are exceedingly numerous, neglecting their work, however urgent it may be; hence it is that the French make fortunes in London, for, being more attentive to their business, they sell their manufactures at a lower price than the English, who would fain derive the same profits as other artisans, however little they work."

@@@

From:
TRAVELS OF COSMO THE THIRD, GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY,
THROUGH ENGLAND,
DURING THE REIGN OF KING CHARLES THE SECOND (1669)
page 398
TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN MANUSCRIPT
https://archive.org/stream/travel…

His highness, Cosmo, must be considered only as a traveler. Under his direction, the narrator of the records was Count Lorenzo Magalotti, afterwards Secretary to the Academy del Cimento, and one of the most learned and eminent characters of the court of Ferdinand II.

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