THE BEDFORD HEAD COVENT GARDEN
Was a luxurious refectory, in Southampton-street, whose epicurism is commemorated by Pope:—
"Let me extol a cat on oysters fed,
I'll have a party at the Bedford Head."
2nd Sat. of Horace, 2nd Bk.
"When sharp with hunger, scorn you to be fed
Except on pea-chicks, at the Bedford Head?"
Pope, Sober Advice.
Walpole refers to a great supper at the Bedford Head, ordered by Paul Whitehead, for a party of gentlemen dressed like sailors and masked, who, in 1741, on the night of Vernon's birthday, went round Covent Garden with a drum, beating up for a volunteer mob; but it did not take.
John Timbs
Club Life of London Vol. II
London, 1866