other man of what quality soever, till he thinks fit to leave it.
And as many people meet here upon business, at least an equal-number
resort hither purely for pleasure, or to refresh themselves in an
evening after a day's fatigue.

And though the taverns are very numerous, yet ale-houses are much
more so, being visited by the inferior tradesmen, mechanics,
journeymen, porters, coachmen, carmen, servants, and others whose
pockets will not reach a glass of wine. Here they sit promiscuously
in common dirty rooms, with large fires, and clouds of tobacco,
where one that is not used to them can scarce breathe or see; but as
they are a busy sort of people, they seldom stay long, returning to
their several employments, and are succeeded by fresh sets of the
same rank of men, at their leisure hours, all day long.

Of eating-houses and cook-shops there are not many, considering the
largeness of the town, unless it be about the Inns of Court and
Chancery, Smithfield, and the Royal Exchange, and some other places,
to which the country-people and strangers resort when they come to
town. Here is good butcher's meat of all kinds, and in the best of
them fowls, pigs, geese, &c., the last of which are pretty dear; but
one that can make a meal of butcher's meat, may have as much as he
cares to eat for sixpence; he must be content indeed to sit in a
public room, and use the same linen that forty people have done
before him. Besides meat, he finds very good white bread, table-
beer, &c.

Coffee-houses are almost as numerous as ale-houses, dispersed in
every part of the town, where they sell tea, coffee, chocolate,
drams, and in many of the great ones arrack and other punch, wine,