It stood in a commanding situation— the
high road from the Tower to Westminster.
All the royal processions—and there were
a many in its palmy days— passed the door of
the Old Boar's Head, before turning into
Grass-church Street, and on to the Conduit and
Standard on Cornhill. Behind it and near at
hand was the river, old London Bridge, Bilingsgate,
with its fishermen and watermen, who
had only to step a few yards up the gradual
ascent, and in at the back door of the tavern
to obtain whatever they pleased to call for,
from those obliging drawers, Tom, Dick, and
Francis: and from the latter they were sure
to obtain a civil " Anon, anon, sirs," however
busy he might be. Nor was it any great
distance from Leadenhall Market, where the
artificers worked who prepared the pageants;
and these, we may be sure, often dropped in
to pick up what news they could from the
followers of the Prince, and to ascertain
when they were likely to have a job to
repaint the Nine Worthies, silver the angels,
and gild the dragons, which had been but
little used during the reign of Richard the
Second, who passed the old tavern when
he was led a prisoner to the Tower by Hal's
father, the ambitious Bolingbroke. Host
Quickly was a man of business, and would
never lose an opportunity of contributing to
these pageants, and of showing his loyalty
—whoever might be king—by throwing over
the balustrades of his gallery the tapestry
that decorated his dining chambers, which
would hang down as low as the "red-lattice,"
where Bardolph often stood to cool his nose,
which was of the same colour as the painted
casement. He would not even allow his business
to be interrupted by so coveted a customer
as Prince Hal; for when he and Poins
were both calling the drawer at the same
time, and simple sugar-stick-loving Francis
stood amazed, not knowing which way to go,
Host Quickly stepped up with a brief sharp
"What! stand'st thou still, and hear'st such
a calling? Look to the guests within." Then
as if he had not seen their mad pranks with
the drawer, he politely acquainted the Prince
that Falstaff and some half-dozen more are
at the door, and asked if it was his pleasure
that they should be let in. Such-a man
was sure to get on, and deserved the encouragement
he received; for, the Prince when speaking of
him to Dame Quickly, said, " I love him
well; he is an honest man." And when Falstalf
complained of having had his pocket
picked in the tavern, he indignantly said,
"the tithe of a hair was never lost in my
house before." He allowed no Doll Tearsheets,
or swaggering Pistols, or butchers'
wives to come in and " borrow vinegar,"
hang about the tavern, or be familiar with
his wife, while he was alive; but made the
Old Boar's Head one of the most respectable
houses in the City of London, while his wife
was known far and wide as " a most sweet
wench," and was compared, by Hal himself,
no mean authority, to the " honey of Hybla."
His Pomegranate room was always kept a
rich warm orange colour, where, by the
winter fire, such guests as Smooth the
silk-man loved to congregate; while the
Halfmoon-parlour had a cool look in the hottest
day of summer, 'with its silver white walls;
and in the Dolphin-chamber you might sit for
the long hour together, and admire the
tapestry, on which Arion sat on the sea-green
monster's back, while the waves looked almost
as natural as those which were ever rolling
about the confined arches of old London Bridge.
No marvel that such a man had parcel-gilt
cups, plate of every description, rooms hung
with arras, and " noblemen of the court at the
door." He lived in days when the City was
the West-end, and the neighbourhood of the
Tower was covered with the mansions of the
nobility; and many of those, no doubt, like
Prince Hal, " loved him well," and knew him
to be an " honest man," though he did
occasionally, like the hosts of the present day,
adulterate his liquors, and put " lime in his
sack." He died before Prince Hal ascended
the throne, and, though the heir-apparent
still used the house occasionally, the Old
Boar's Head was never again what it had
been during the lifetime of Mine Host
Quickly.

After his death there was a great change
in the Old Boar's Head. Falstaff, who seldom
let slip the opportunity of ingratiating himself
in the good graces of Dame Quickly, even
in her husband's lifetime, called her his
"tristful queen," when enacting the part of
the king before Prince Hal, and otherways
complimented her on many similar occasions;
and now he not only lived at " rack and
manger " himself, but quartered his lawless
followers on the too-easy widow. After his
exploits at Shrewsbury, about which he used
to tell as many untruths as he formerly had
told of the men in buckram at Gadshill, he
sat where he liked, and not only called for
what he pleased without paying for it, but
getting the fond foolish woman into the
Dolphin-chamber, he would, while sitting at the
round table, at a sea-coal fire, borrow her
money, and talk about marrying her, then
spend it before her face on such disreputable
characters as Doll Tear-sheet. Then she
became irritable, maudlin, and fond to
foolishness; at one hour abusing him, the next
sueing him for what he owed her, and almost in
the same breath offering to pawn her very
gown to support him in his extravagance:
though at the same time, as she said, " he was
eating her out of house and home." Worse
than all, she sat down and drank with the
disreputable company Falstaff brought to
the tavern, talked sad nonsense over her cups
about what Master Tisick the deputy and
Master Dumb the minister said of her honesty
and respectability; and this to the very
persons who made her house infamous. As
for Falstatf, instead of pitying and protecting