[252] In the address of Sergeant Hall's letter the Red Lettice is spelt according to the original, but this is a corruption of Red Lattice; it signifies a chequered or reticulated window of this colour, no uncommon sign of a public-house. A house with a red lattice is mentioned in "The Glass of Government," a tragi-comedy by Geo. Gascoigne, 1575.
The Chequers, at the date of this paper a very common sign of a public-house, was the representation of a kind of draught-board called "tables," signifying that that game might be played there. From their colour, which was red, and their similarity to a lattice, it was corruptly called the Red Lattice, which word is frequently used by ancient writers to signify an ale-house (Nichols). Mr. Dobson points out that Falstaff speaks of "red-lattice phrases" ("Merry Wives of Windsor," Act ii. sc. 2.), and Staunton says, "Ale-houses in old times were distinguished by red lattices, as dairies have since been by green ones."
[253] A narrow street between the back side of St. Clement's and Shipyard, in the Strand. There were butchers' shambles on the south side, and a market for meat, poultry, fish, &c. The Row was pulled down in 1813.
[254] Dominic Bouhours (1628-1702) and Nicholas Rapin (1535-1608), French critics.
[255] The bloody battle of Malplaquet, September 11, 1709.
[256] Mons was taken on October 21.
[257] On January 1, 1660, General Monck quitted his headquarters at Coldstream, to restore the monarchy. As Gumble puts it in his "Life of Monck," "This town hath given title to a small company of men whom God made the instruments of great things." See Mackinnon's "Origin and Services of the Coldstream Guards" (1833).
[258] The first of a long series of Government lotteries was started in 1709. There were 150,000 tickets at £10 each, making £1,500,000. Three thousand seven hundred and fifty tickets were prizes from £1000 to £5 a year for thirty-two years. There was a great demand for the tickets. See No. 124, and the Spectator, No. 191.
[No. 88. [Steele.]
From Saturday, Oct. 29, to Tuesday, Nov. 1, 1709.