May fortune ever bless the ‘Cheshire Cheese.’”
A reviewer in the City Press (October 30, 1875) says:—“Ben Jonson loved the ‘Cheese’; and at one time you had only to walk into a Fleet Street coffee-house to become familiar with all the choice spirits of the age. Dean Swift, Addison, and Steele affected the tavern; so did Sheridan, and so did Lord Eldon, and so, indeed, did all men of mark down to our own time.”
An article headed:—
“YE RUMPE STEAKE PUDDINGE”
in the Fort Worth (Texas) Daily Gazette opens as follows:—
“While I am on the subject of ‘food’ I must be permitted to mention that I enjoyed the privilege of partaking of ‘ye rumpe steake puddinge’ a few days since at no less celebrated board than ‘The Cheese,’ Wine Office Court, Fleet Street. ‘The Cheese,’ or, to give it its full title, ‘Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese,’ is now the most historical tavern of all the old taverns in London. Nearly all the other taverns have had to make way for the more modern restaurant or public-house. Little is known, it seems, of the very early history of the place. A brochure entitled ‘Round London,’ published in 1725, describes the house as ‘Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese tavern, near ye Flete Prison, an eating house for goodly fare.’ And now in 1883, or very near the beginning of the year 1884, I can bear cheerful witness to the fact that it still deserves to be classed with the very few public places in London where one can secure ‘goodly fare.’ The rump-steak pudding, which is the special feature of the place, is certainly toothsome, and is not apt to be speedily forgotten by the epicure. It has been served promptly at one o’clock p.m. every Saturday ‘since when the memory of man runneth not to the contrary,’ and the particular one that I assisted to dissect was enjoyed by quite a hundred persons. Though nominally a ‘steak pudding,’ there are very many other ingredients in the dish than rump steak. It is said that for more than 200 years the old tavern has changed hands but twice, and that it is now in the hands of the third family that has helped to keep up its ancient reputation. It is also said that the recipe by which the pudding is builded is a secret that belongs to the place, and is as sacred an heirloom as the old oil painting of Henry Todd, who, according to the inscription on the portrait, commenced waiter at the ‘Old Cheshire Cheese’ February 17, 1812. This picture was, according to the inscription again, ‘painted by Wageman, July, 1827, subscribed for by the gentlemen frequenting the coffee-room, and presented to Mr. Dolamore (the landlord) in trust, to be handed down as a heirloom to all future landlords of the Old Cheshire Cheese, Wine Office Court, Fleet Street.’”
“Henry Todd, ‘Old’ Harry as he was familiarly called by the visitors, had made a considerable sum of money while in his situation,” writes the compiler of the great work on which the British Museum so prides itself, “Signs of Taverns,” “but I am informed that a spendthrift son reduced his circumstances much. To a stranger he appears a morose, cynical kind of man, apparently not by any means adapted for the waitership of a tavern, although he is always attentive to the wants of his customers. Perhaps he was a different being when younger, and to those who were old customers of the house and who knew him well, he used more freedom probably.
“The portrait, I am informed, is the first attempt in oil by that exceedingly talented artist Wageman, and was painted at the instigation of a visitor to the house, a Mr. Thomas Morell, a well-known pen and quill dealer who resided in the Broadway, Ludgate Hill (a brother of the Morell also pen and ink dealer in Fleet Street), and who was well known to the public for his eccentricity by the name of Peculiar Tom Morell, from the singularity of his puffs and advertisements.”
“Old Harry” retired soon after the portrait-painting from age and infirmity, but was alive at Christmas, 1838.