I spent a week in late 2005 on a training course in London. Up early, home late, and some homework to do! So, no time for me to spend on Captain Cook.

However, the course was held at Clifford’s Inn, just a few yards from a site with Cook associations: Mitre Tavern in Fleet Street.

On 18th April 1776 Boswell dined at the Mitre Tavern with Sir John Pringle, Dr Solander, Joseph Banks and others of the Royal Society. He sat next to Cook who "candidly confessed… that he and his companions who visited the South Sea Islands could not be certain of any information they got, or supposed they got, except as to objects falling under the observation of the senses; their knowledge of the language was so imperfect they required the aid of their senses, and anything which they learnt about religion, government, or traditions might be quite erroneous." [See Cook’s Log, page 1843, vol. 24, no. 2 (2001)]

I took some photos of the plaque that commemorates the site of Mitre Tavern, on the side of a building near a road junction.

In 1746, John Rocque published a large-scale map of London that includes Fleet Street, Clifford’s Inn and Mitre Tavern. The extract reproduced [in Cook's Log] is from the CD (ISBN 0-9545080-4-1) published by Motco Enterprises Ltd. It is still available, along with several other map CDs at bookstores and through their web site at http://www.motco.com

Ian Boreham

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 28, volume 29, number 4 (2006).