"Let hoarse Fitzgerald bawl His creaking couplets in a tavern-hall."--_Byron._
"Fitzgerald actually sent in an address to the Committee on the 31st of August, 1812. It was published among the other _Genuine Rejected Addresses_, in one volume, in that year. The following is an extract:--
"The troubled shade of Garrick, hovering near, Dropt on the burning pile a pitying tear."
"What a pity that, like Sterne's recording angel, it did not succeed in blotting the fire out for ever! That falling, why not adopt Gulliver's remedy?"
Upon the "Rejected," the _Edinburgh Review_ notes:--"The first piece, under the name of the loyal Mr. Fitzgerald, though as good we suppose as the original, is not very interesting. Whether it be very like Mr. Fitzgerald or not, however, it must be allowed that the vulgarity, servility, and gross absurdity of the newspaper scribblers is well rendered."
This extensive establishment has long been famed for its good dinners, and its excellent wines. Here take place the majority of the banquets of the Corporation of London, the Sheriffs' Inauguration Dinners, as well as those of Civic Companies and Committees, and such festivals, public and private, as are usually held at taverns of the highest class.
The farewell Dinners given by the East India Company to the Governors-General of India, usually take place at the Albion. "Here likewise (after dinner) the annual trade sales of the principal London publishers take place," revivifying the olden printing and book glories of Aldersgate and Little Britain.
The _cuisine_ of the Albion has long been celebrated for its _recherché_ character. Among the traditions of the tavern it is told that a dinner was once given here, under the auspices of the _gourmand_ Alderman Sir William Curtis, which cost the party between thirty and forty pounds apiece. It might well have cost twice as much, for amongst other acts of extravagance, they dispatched a special messenger to Westphalia to choose a ham. There is likewise told a bet as to the comparative merits of the Albion and York House (Bath) dinners, which was to have been formally decided by a dinner of unparalleled munificence, and nearly equal cost at each; but it became a drawn bet, the Albion beating in the first course, and the York House in the second. Still, these are reminiscences on which, we frankly own, no great reliance is to be placed.