LONDON INNS AND TAVERNS. By Leopold Wagner. (Allen and Unwin.
7s. 6d. net.) LONDON INNS AND TAVERNS. By Leopold Wagner. (Allen and Unwin. 7s. 6d. net.) There is almost too much information in Mr. Wagner's new book. He has been exploring London minutely and devotedly for forty-five years, and he must have filled mountains of note-books. He traces the convivial places of London from the guest-houses at monasteries right through to the cinema tea-lounges and theatre bars, and, of course, gives most space to the inns and taverns which have a tradition of great literary frequenters. There is an inexhaustible treasury of odd pieces of knowledge in the book—the derivation of the inn-sign,' The Bag o' Nails' from—what would you guess 7—The Bacchanals; the record of the Dutchman Van Ham, who in the course of; his life drank at The Bull Inn,' Bishopsgate, 35,680 bottles of wine ; the tale of the Whistling Oyster, a genuine oyster with a genuine whistle, which gave a name to the public-house where it was discovered. Even the paragraph headings have an attraction : "Coffee-house keepers invariably men of culture," for example, a most intriguing statement. There is a good index, and almost all the inns and public-houses of London which are not mere mushrooms will be found in it.
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