In that year, Soliman Aga, ambassador from the Sultan
Mahomet the Fourth, arrived, who, with his retinue, brought a
considerable quantity of coffee with them, and made presents of it to
persons both of the court and city, and it is supposed to have
established the custom of drinking it.
Two years afterwards, an Armenian of the name of Pascal, set up a
coffee-house, but meeting with little encouragement, left Paris and came
to London.
From Anderson's _Chronological History of Commerce_, it appears that the
use of coffee was introduced into London some years earlier than into
Paris. For in 1652 one Mr. Edwards, a Turkey merchant, brought home with
him a Greek servant, whose name was Pasqua, who understood the roasting
and making of coffee, till then unknown in England. This servant was the
first who sold coffee, and kept a house for that purpose in George Yard
Lombard Street.
The first mention of coffee in our statute books is anno 1660 (12 Car.
II. c. 24), when a duty of 4d.
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