Tripe and Onions

For the gentlemen of Edinburgh (circa 1800), the late afternoon and early evening is spent in John’s Coffee House, reading and debating the news in the London papers which have just arrived by stage coach two days after publication. The women are at home, drinking tea and playing cards. Sometimes the men join them, but here, in the warm den of the coffee house, there is the tempting allure of wafting aromas, and other enticements.