I remember twenty yeares since he inveighed much against sending youths to the universities—quaere if his sons there—because they learnt there to be debaucht; and that the learning that they learned there[442] they were to unlearne againe, as a man that is buttond or laced too hard, must unbutton before he can be at his ease. Drunkennesse he much exclaimed against, but he allowed wenching. When coffee first came-in he was a great upholder of it, and hath ever since been a constant frequenter of coffee houses, especially Mr. ... Farre at the Rainbowe by Inner Temple Gate, and lately John's coffee house in Fuller's rents.
☞ The first coffee house in London[XXIII.] was in St. Michael's Alley in Cornehill, opposite to the Church; which was sett up by one ... Bowman (coachman to Mr. Hodges, a Turkey merchant, who putt him upon it) in or about the yeare 1652. 'Twas about 4 yeares before any other was sett up, and that was by Mr. Far. Jonathan Paynter, opposite to St. Michael's Church, was the first apprentice to the trade, viz. to Bowman. Memorandum:—the Bagneo, in Newgate Street, was built and first opened in Decemb. 1679: built by ... (Turkish merchants).
[XXIII.] And the next was Mr. Farr's a barber, which was set up in anno....
He is a gentleman of a very clear judgement, great experience, much contemplation, not of very much reading, of great foresight into government. His conversation is admirable. When he was young, he was a great collector of bookes, as his sonne is now.
He was heretofore a great shammer, i.e. one that tells falsities not to doe any body any injury, but to impose on their understanding:—e.g. at Mr. Farre's; that at an inne (nameing the signe) in St. Alban's, the inkeeper had made a hogs-trough of a free-stone coffin; but the pigges, after that, grew leane, dancing and skipping, and would run up on the topps of the houses like goates. Two young gentlemen that heard Sir H. tell this sham so gravely, rode the next day to St. Alban's to enquire: comeing there, nobody had heard of any such thing, 'twas altogether false. The next night as soon as the<y> allighted, they came to the Rainbowe and found Sir H., looked louringly on him, and told him they wonderd he was not ashamed to tell such storys as, &c., 'Why, gentlemen,' (sayd Sir H.) 'have you been there to make enquiry?' 'Yea,' sayd they. 'Why truly, gentlemen,' sayd Sir H. 'I heard you tell strange things that I knew to be false. I would not have gonne over the threshold of the dore to have found you in a lye:' at which all the company laught at the two young gentlemen.
He was wont to say that he did not care to have his servants goe to church, for there servants infected one another to goe to the alehouse and learne debauchery; but he did bid them goe to see the executions at Tyburne, which worke more upon them then all the oratory in the sermons.
His motto over his printed picture is that which I have many yeares ago heard him speake of, viz.:—Loquendum est cum vulgo, sentiendum cum sapientibus.
He is now (1680) neer or altogether 80 yeares, his intellectualls good still, and body pretty strong.
This last weeke[443] of Sept. 1682, he was taken very ill at London, and his feet swelled; and removed to Tittinghanger.