ABSTRACT
An extract from an epistolary travel narrative describing a tour through England. This letter describes the coffee-houses, and theatres, of London. The narrator adopts the conceit that the traveller is describing his subject for the first time to a correspondent generally ignorant of the city and its manners. This is fictional, as Macky had considerable experience of the city, but not satirical, by contrast with the same device in Ward’s hands. Macky organises the coffee-houses according to two methods: the first geographical, and the second an assessment of their characteristic social and political allegiance. In this way he begins with coffee-houses in Westminster, moves on to Covent Garden, and ends up in Exchange Alley in the City. These three locations are then codified, so that the first group is analysed by political loyalty, the second as the home of the critics, and the third for commerce. Historical evidence suggests that this typology is neat and convenient, but not as unambiguous as Macky suggests.
