To 'Will Waterproof's Lyrical Monologue', first published in 1842, Tennyson added the words 'Made at the Cock', i.e. the Cock chophouse in Fleet Street. The opening lines are addressed to the head waiter:
O plump head-waiter at the Cock,
To which I most resort,
How goes the time? 'Tis five o'clock.
Go fetch a pint of port . . .
On Sunday 5 August 1849, William Allingham, who was to become a sort of Boswell to Tennyson, went to the Cock to see what biographical scraps he could pick up, and noted the results in his diary.