[26] Rawle was one of his Majesty's accoutrement makers; and after his death, his effects were sold by Hutchins, in King-street, Covent Garden. Among the lots were a helmet, a sword, and several letters, of Oliver Cromwell; also the doublet in which Cromwell dissolved the Long Parliament. Another singular lot was a large black wig, with long flowing curls, stated to have been worn by King Charles II.: it was bought by Suett, the actor, who was a great collector of wigs. He continued to act in this wig for many years, in Tom Thumb, and other pieces, till it was burnt when the theatre at Birmingham was destroyed by fire. Next morning, Suett, meeting Mrs. Booth, the mother of the lively actress S. Booth, exclaimed, "Mrs. Booth, my wig's gone!"
[27] This negatives a belief common in our day that a Covent Garden tavern was the first divided into rooms for guests.
[28] A successor of Francis, a waiter at the Boar's Head, in the last century, had a tablet with an inscription in St. Michael's Crooked-lane churchyard, just at the back of the tavern; setting forth that he died, "drawer at the Boar's Head Tavern, in Great Eastcheap," and was noted for his honesty and sobriety; in that—
"Tho' nurs'd among full hogsheads he defied
The charms of wine, as well as others' pride."
He also practised the singular virtue of drawing good wine and of taking care to "fill his pots," as appears by the closing lines of the inscription:—
"Ye that on Bacchus have a like dependance,
Pray copy Bob in measure and attendance.'"
[29] Curiosities of London, p. 265.
[30] Burn's Catalogue of the Beaufoy Tokens.
[31] Abridged from an Account of the Tavern, by an Antiquary.
[32] Curiosities of London, p. 678.