DA CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY DATE DUE ''^"s^i^; 'r»-v,i.;. "NSuss-ar" ^(-^ PRINTED IN U.S.A. Cornell University Library DA 686.T58 3 1924 028 067 076 The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028067076 CLUBS AND CLUB LIFE IN LONDON ?!.■ CLUBS AND CLUB LIFE IN LONDON WITH ANECDOTES OF ITS FAMOUS COFFEE HOUSES, HOSTELRIES, AND TAVERNS FROM THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY TO THE PRESENT TIME BY JOHN TIMES, F.S.A. AUTHOR OF "ENGLISH ECCENTRICS AND ECCENTRICITIES" A NEW EDITION WITH FORTY-ONE ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON CHATTO & WINDUS 1899 ,■ \ \ ?.; I r^ 'f VIA J. ;. ■■ - .<.:•. i- o ^^ ii -> ■ ~ ■ ' ^rj H'i ■ ■/'■ ■- ■ ') ■iM't "iH ' ': ■ '■ . _ f .'1 '/l ■ : ' :-q ailT '/I ,. ,^ .-'H! /ri K- i-:; ,,-:.; -HjJ.rJ il;:ij. .;-.■: ■ 3 ^ 6'i'7A & Uc PRELIMINARY. O IX years ago the publisher of the present work issued a " History of Signboards," which met with so much approval from the critical press and from general readers, that the authors might not unreasonably have been accused of vanity — or some- thing very like vanity — at their achievement. A companion volume was then contemplated under the title of " A History of the Clubs, Tavern Coteries, and ' Parlour Companies ' of Old London." Material was gathered, and the late William Pinkerton, Esq., F.S.A., of Hounslow, undertook the preparation of the book. But in the meantime another active antiquary had prepared a work of similar character to the one we had proposed, and this interesting book, with numerous illustrations, prepared expressly for the present edition, is now issued as a sequel to the " History of Signboards." Piccadilly, Novemier J, 1872. CONTENTS. Origin of Clubs The Mermaid Club . Tue Apollo Club Early Political Clubs The October Club . The Saturday, and Brothers Clubs The Scriblerus Club . The Calved Head Club . The King's Head Club Street Clubs The Mohocks . Blasphemous Clubs Mug-house Clubs The Kit-Kat Club The Tatter's Club in Shire-lane The Royal Society Club The Cocoa-Tree CM AlmacKs Club .... AlmacHs Assembly Rooms Brookeis Club . " Fighting Fitzgerald" at Brookes' s Arthur's Club .... Whitis Club .... Boodles Club . F.\GB I r ? 14 16 20 21 30 52 35 3& 3& 47 54 56' 691 7 1' 75 76 8r 91 92- 10$ CONTENTS. The Beef-steak Society I'AGE Captain Morris, the Bard of the Beefsteak Society 127 Beef-steak Clubs • • • • 135 Club at Tom's Coffee-house 136 The King of Clubs . . 140 Watier's Club . , 143 Mr. Canning at the Clifford-street Club 144 Eccentric Clubs 146 Jacobite Club . . ' 152 The Wittinagemot of the Chapter Coffee-hous e 153 The Roxburghe Club Dinners 159 The Society of Bast Overseers, Westminster 16s The Robin Hood . 168 The Blue-stocking Club 169 The Ivy Lane Club . 171 The Essex Head Club 173 The Literary Club . 174 Goldsmith's Clubs . 187 The Dilettanti Society 189 The Royal Naval Club 196 The Wyndham Club . 198 The Travellers' Club 198 The United Service Club 201 The Alfred Club . 202 The Oriental CM . 204 The Athenceum Club 205 The University Club "11 Economy of Clubs , . 211 The Union Club 216 The Garrick Club . . 218 The Reform Club . . 227 CONTENTS. XX PAGH The Carlton Club . . ... . . 233 The Cotiservative Club . ... . . . 234 The Oxford and Cambridge Club . , . . . 23$ The Guards Club , , , ^ 237 The Army and Navy Club . :, .. , . »37 Theyunior United Service Club . . . . 239 Crockfords Club . . . . . .240 " King Allen" " The Golden Ball" and Scrope Davies . 244 The Four-in-ITand Club . . . . . .246 Whist Clubs .251 Princes Club Racquet Courts 254 An Angling Club . : . ^ . . . .257 The Red Lions . . . '.■ . . . .258 The Coventry, Erectheum, and Partlimon Clubs . .260 Antiquarian Clubs, — The Noviomagians . . .261 The Eccentrics . . . . . . . ,262 Douglas Jerrold's Clubs 263 Cltess Clubs 267 COFFEE-HOUSES. Early Coffee-houses .... Gwrraway's Coffee-house . •; ■ . v Jonathan's Coffee-house Rainbow Coffee-house ... Nandds Coffee-house . . . DicKs Coffee-house .... The ''Lloyd's " of the Time of Charles TL Lloyd^s Coffee-house .... The Jerusalem Coffee-house Baker's Coffee-house .... Coffee-houses in Ned Ward's Time 269 273 278 280 284 285 286 289 293 294 294 CONTENTS. Coffee-houses of the Eighteenth Century Coffee-house Sharpers in \ii(t . Don Saltero's Coffee-house Sahop-houses . The Smyrna Coffee-house St. James's Coffee-house Tlu British Coffee-house Will's Coffee-house . Button's Coffee-house Dean Swift at Button's Tonis Coffee-house 2^e Bedford Coffee-house, in Covent Garden Macklin's Coffee-house Oratory . Tom Kin^s Coffee-house , Piazza Coffee-house .... The Chapter Coffee-house . Child's Coffee-house .... London Coffee-house .... Turk's Head Coffee-house in Change Alley Squires Coffee-house Slaughter's Coffee-house Will's and Series Coffee-houses . The Grecian Coffee-house . Georgis Coffee-house The Percy Coffee-house Peel^s Coffee-house . 297 304 305 309 3°9 310 3f5 315 323 331 332 333 338 340 342 343 345 345 347 349 352 356 357 359 360 361 CONTENTS. TAVERNS. "Die Taverns of Old London The Bear at the Bridge Foot Mermaid Taverns ... T%e Boar's Head Tavern . Three Cranes in the Vintry London Stone Tavern The Robin Hood PontacKs, Abckurch-lane . Popis Head Tavern The Old Swan, Thames-street . Cock Tavern, Threadneedle-street Crown Tavern, Threadneedle-street The King's Head Tavern, in the Poultry The Mitre, in Wood-street . . The Salutation and Cat Tavern "Salutation" Taverns Queen's Arms, St. PauPs Churchyard Dollfs, Paternoster Row . Aldersgate Taverns .... " The Mourning Crown " Jerusalem Taverns, Clerkenwell . White Hart Tavern, Bishopsgate Without The Mitre, in Fenchurch-street The Kings Head, Fenchurch-street The Elephant, Fenchurch-street TTu African, St. MichaePs Alley The Grave Maurice Tavern Mathematical Society, Spitalfields Globe Tavern, Fleet-street . PAGE 362 373- 374 37+ 377 378- 37& 379 380 381 381 382- 383 388 389 390 391 392 393 395 395 397 39» 400 400 401 402 4°3 404 xii CONTENTS. FAGB The Devil Tavern 40S The Yeung Devil Tavern . 411 Cock Tavern, Fleet-street . 411 The Hercules' Pillars Taverns . • • • . 413 Hole-in-the- Wall Taverns . . 415 The Mitre, in Fleet-street . . ,> 416 Ship Tavern, Temple Bar . • . 417 The Palsgrave Head, Temple Bar 418 Heycock's, Temple Bar .... 419 The Crown and Anchor, Strand 419, The Canary-House, in the Strand 420 The Fountain Tavern 421 Tavern Life of Sir Richard Steele 422 Clare Market Taverns .... 423 The Craven Head, Drtiry Lane 424 The Cock Tavern, in Bow-street 425 The Queen's Head, Bow-street . 427 The Shakspeare Tavern .... 427 Shuter, and his Tavern Places . . . . 429 The Pose Tavern, Covent Garden 429 Evan^s, Covent Garden . . . . ' 431 The Fleece, Covent Garden 433 The Bedford Head, Covent Garden , 434 The Salutation, Tavistock-street . 434 The Constitution Tavern, Covent Garden . 435 The Cider Cellar . . . ... 436 Offley's, Henrietta^street . . . . • 437 The Rummer Tavern . . 438 Spring Garden Taverns .... 439 ^' Heaven" and " Hell" Taverns, Westminster 441 "Bellamy's Kitchen" • . 443 CONTENTS. xiii PAGE A Coffee-house Canary-bird 444 Star and Garter, Pall Mall . . . o . 445 Thatched Howe Tavern, St. yarned s-street . 450 ^^ The Running Footman" May Fair , . , 452 Piccadilly Inns and Tatems . . - « 453 Islin^on Taverns 456 Copenhagen House 460 Topham, the Strong Man, and his Taverns . .463 The Castle Tavern, Holborn 464 Marylebone and Padditigton Taverns . . , 466 Kensington and Brompton Taverns : . . .472 Knightsbridge Taverns .477 Ranelagh Gardens .... • . 483- Cremome Tavern and Gardens 484 The Mulberry Garden 485 Pimlico Taverns 485 Lambeth, — Vauxhall Taverns and Gardens, etc, . .487 Freemason^ Lodges 489 Whitebait Taverns 492 The London Tavern .... . 498 The Clarendon Hotel .... 502 Freemasons^ Tavern, Great Queen' s-streef . -504 The Albion, Aldersgate-slreet . , , , - S°^ St. Jame^s Hall 5°7 Theatrical Taverns ... . ^ . 508 APPENDIX. AlmacKs .... . . • S^P Clubs at the Thatched House . . . • S'^ The Kit-kat Club ... ... 511 CONTENTS. Watier's Club .... Clubs of 1814 Gaming-Houses kept by Ladies . Beef-sieak Society .... Whitis Club ... The Royal Academy Club . Destruction of Taverns by Ftre . The Tzar of Muscovy's Head, Tower-street Hose Tavern, Tower-street The Nag's Head Tavern, Cheapside . The Hummums, Covent Garden Origin of Tavern Signs Index . . ... PAGE 5" S13 S14 S16 517 518 5^9 519 520 522 523 524 533 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON THE BELL A T EDMONTON. Famous in connexion witli John Gilpin's Ride, and more recently as i favourite resting-place of Charles Lamb when out walking. CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. Origin of Clubs. THE Club, in the general acceptation of the term, may- be regarded as one of the earliest offshoots of Man's habitually gregarious and social inclination ; and as an instance of -that remarkable influence which, in an early stage of society, .tiie powers of Nature exercise over the fortunes of mankind. It may not be traceable to the time Wlien Adam dolve, and Eve span ; but, it is natural to^imagine that concurrent with the force of nu^iibers must Tiavfe incre?ised the tepde;ncy of men to associat,^ for, some common , object, T)iig ma,y have been the enjoyment of the staple of life ; for, our elegant Essayist, writing with , ages . of experience at his beck, has truly said " all celebrated Clubs were founded upqn eating and drinking, which are points where most men agrep, and in which the learned and the illiterate, the dull and the airy, the philosopher and the buffoon, can all of them bear a part." For special proof of the antiquity of the practice -it may suffice to refer to the polished Athenians, who had, besides their general symJ>osia, {nendly meetings, where every one sent his own portion of the feast, bore a proportionate part of the expense, or gave a pledge at a fixed price. A regard for clubbism existed even in Lycurgan Sparta : the public tables consisted generally of fifteen persons each, and all vacancies 2 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. were filled up by ballot, in which unanimous consent was indispensable for election ; and the other laws, as described by Plutarch, differ but slightly from those of modern Clubs. Justus Lipsius mentions a bonS. fide Roman Club, the members of which were bound by certain organised rules and regulations. Cicero records {De Senedute) the pleasure he took in frequentipg tlje meetings of "those social Jarties of his time, termed confraternities, where, according to a good old custom, a president was appointed j and he adds that the principal satisfaction he received from such enter- tainments, arose much lesfe "from the pleasures of the palate than from the opportunity thereby afforded him of enjoying excellent company and conversation.* .' The cognomen Club claims descent from the Anglo- Saxon ; for Skinner derives it from clifian, cleofiah (our cleave), from the division of the reckoning amoiig the guests around the table. The word signifies uniting to divide, like clave, including the correlative meanings to adhere and to separate. " In conclusion, Club is evidently^ as faras form is concerned, derived from cleave " (to split), but in signifi- cation it would seem to be more . closely alied to cleave (to adhere). It is not surprising that two verbs, identical in form (in Eng.) and connected in signification, should sorno- ticnes coalesce.t To the Friday-street or more properly Bread-street Club, said to have been originated by Sir Walter. Raleigh, was long assigned the priority of date in England ; but we have an instance of two centuries earlier. In the reign of Henry IV., there was a Club called " La Court de bone * Sketch of the Rise and Progress of the Royal Society Club. i860. (Not published.) t Notes and Queries, 3rd S. i. p. 295, in which is noted : — "A good illustration of the coiinexion between the ideas of division and union is afforded by the two equivalent words partner and associi, the former pointing especially to thetfivision of profits, the latter to the community of interests." ORIGIN OF CLUBS. 3 Compagnie," of which the worthy old poet Occleve was a member, and probably Chaucer. In the works of the former are two ballads, written about 1413 ; one, a congratu- lation from the brethren to Henry Somer, on his appoint- ment of the Sub-Treasurer of the Exchequer, ajid who received Chaucer's pension for him. In the other ballad, Occleve, after dwelling on some of, their rules and obser- vances, gives Somer notice that he is expected to be in the chair at their next meeting, and that the " styward " has warned him that he is for the dyiier arraye Ageyn Thirsday next, and nat is delaye. That there were certain conditions to be observed- by this Society, appears from the latter . epistle,, which com- mences with an answer to a letter of remonstrance the " Court " has received from Henry Somer, against some undue extravagance, and a- breach of their rules:* This Society of four centuries and a half since was evidently a jovial company. ,;,.,, Still, we do not yet find the term '.' Club J' Mr. Carlyle, in his History of Frederick the Great, assumes that the vow of the Chivalry Orders — Geliibde — in vogue about A.b. 1190, " passed to us in a singularly dwindled condition : Club we now call it." To this it is objected that^ the mere re- semldance in sound of Geliibde scaAClubAs inconclusive, for the Orders of Templars, HospitaUets, and Prussian Knights, were never called clubs in England ; and the origin of the noun need not be sought for beyond its verb to f/«^i when persons joined in papng the cost of the mutual entertain- ment. Moreover, .^/«^^ in German means the social (r/«^ ; and that word is borrowed from the English, the native word being Zeche, which, from its root and compound. * Notes and Queries, No. 234, p. 383. Communicated by Mr Edward Foss, F,S.A. B 2 4 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON conveys the idea generally of joint expenditure, and sp^ecially in drinking.* ' ' ■- . . i Aljout the end of the Sixteenth or the beginning of the seventeenth century, there was established the fanltfus Club at the Mermaid Tkvem, in Br^id-street, of which Shak- speare, Beaumont^ Fletcher, Raleigh, Selden, Donne, &c., were members. Ben Jonson had a Club, of which he appears to have been the founder, that met at the Devil Tavern, between Middle-Temple gate and Temple Bar. Not until shortly after this date do we find the word Club. Aubrey says : " We now use the word dvbbe for a sodality in a taveme." In 1659, Aubrey became a member of the Rota, a political Glut), which met at the Turk's Head, in New Palace Yard : " here we had," says Aubrey, " (very formally) a balloting box, and balloted how things should be carried, by way of "Tentamens. The room was every even- ing as full as it could be crammed. "f Of this Rota political Club we shall presently say more. It is worthy of notice that politics were thus early introduced in English Club-lifg. Dryden, some twenty years after the above date, asks : "What right has. any man to meet in factious Clubs to vilify the Govemnient ?" ' Three years after the • Great Fire, in 1669, there was established in: the City,- the Civil Club, whicli exists to this day. All the members are citizens, and are proud of their Society, oh account of its ! antiquity, and of its being the only Club which attaches to its staff the reputed office of a chaplain. The members appealr to have first clubbed together foi the sake of mutual aid and support ; but the name of the founder of the Club, and the circumstances of its origin, have unfortunately been lost with its early records. The time at which it was established was one * Notes and Queries, 2nd S. vol. xii. p. 386. Communicated by Mr. Buckton. t Memoir of Aubrey, by John Britton, 410, p. 36. ORIGIN OF CLUBS. S of severe trials^i when the Great Plague and the, Great Eire had broken up much society, and many old assbqiations ; the object and recommendation 'being, as one of the rules expresses it, "that members should. give preference. to each other in their respective callings;" and,, that "but one person of the same trade or profession should be a member of the Club." This is the rule of ±e old middle>-class clubs called "One of a Trade." The Civil Club met for many years at the Old ^Ship Tavern, in Water-lane, upon which being takeri.down, the Club removed to the New Corn Exchange, .Tavern, in Mark- lane. The records, which are extant, show among former members Parliament men, baronets, and aldermen ; , the chaplain is the incumbent of St. Olave-by-the-Tower, Hart- street Two high ' carved chairs, be;aring date 1669, are used by the stewards. . . : , , ; - At the time of th§ Revolution, the fTre^pn : Club, as it was commonly called, 'met at the Rosp Tavern, in Covent GaFden; to consult with, Lord .Colchestej, Mr. Thpmas Whaiton, Colonel Talmash, Colonel Godfrey, and, many Oitherg cff their party ; and tit was .thfre resqlved that the regiment. under Lieutetfant-.Colonel Lapgstone's con)n>and, should desert, en tire,, as they did, on Sunday, Npv., i§§8.* In Friday-street, Cheapside, was held .tji? 'Wednesday Club, at which, in 1695, certain .conferences, tpok Tilace under 4he, direction of Willijim ,Pa,ter?pjn,-whiplji;;iultima,tely Ipd to the, establishment of the; Baaks.^pfr, England. Such, is the general belief j.butlMn.'Saxe. Bannister, in .his ,Z«/^ of Pater-^on, p. 93, obsicrves :,'," It >as,been 3,,niatter .of much doubt whether the .'Bank of England was originally proposed from a Club or Society ;in the City oil^ndon. .jTJie Dialogue Conferences of the Wedmdaj! . GM, '\n Friday-street, have been quoted as if first, published ipL,,,i$9S, No auch publication has been met with of a date: before, J 7°^ '" ^Pd • Macphersdn's History of tnglaml, Vol;, iiu— Original jpajjcrs. 6 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. Mr. Bannister states his reasons for supposing it was not preceded by any other book. Still, Paterson wrote the papers entitled the Wednesday Club Conferences. Club is defined by Dr. Johnson to be " an assembly of good fellows, meeting under certain conditions;" but by Todd, "an association of persons subjected to particular rules." It is plain that the latter definition is at least not that of a Club, as distinguished from any other kind of association; although it may be more comprehensive than is necessary, to take in all the gatherings that in modern times' have' assumed the name of Clubs. Johnson's, how- ever, is the more exact account of the true old Enghsh Club. The golden period of the Clubs was, however, in the time of the Spectator, in whose rich humour their memories are embalmed. " Man," writes Addison, in No. 9, "is said to be a sociable animal \ and as an instance of it we may ' ob- serve, that we take all occasions and pretences of forming ourselves into those little nocturnal assemblies, which are commonly known by the name of Clubs. When a set of men find themselves agree in any particular, though never so trivial, they establish themselves into a kind of fraternity, and meet once or twice a week, upon the account of such a fantastic resemblance." Pall Mall was noted for its tavern Clubs more than two centuries since. " The first time that Pepys mentions Pell Mell," writes Cunningham, "is under the 26th of July, 1660, where he says 'We went to Wood's (our old house foi clubbing), and there we spent till ten at night.' This is not only one of the earhest references to Pall Mall as an in- habited locality, but one of the earhest uses of the word ' clubbing,' in its modern signification of a Club, and ad- ditionally interesting, seeing that the street still maintains what Johnson would have called its ' clubbable ' character."' Ixi Spends Anecdotes {Supplemental), we read: "There was a Club held at the King's Head, in Pall Mall, that THE MERMAID CLUB. 7 arrogantJy called itself ' The World.' Lord Stafihope, then (now Lord Chesterfield), Lord Herbert, &c., were members. Epigrams were proposed to be written on the glasses, by each member after dinner; once, when Dr. Young was invited thither, the Doctor would have declined writing, because he had no diamond : Lord Stanhope lent him his, and he wrote immediately — Accept a miracle, instead of wit ; See two dull lines with Stanhope's pencil writ. The first modem Club mansion in Pall Mall was No. 86, opened as a subscription house, called the Albion Hotel. It was originally built for Edward Duke of York, brother of George IIL, and is now the office of Ordnance. (Correspondence.) The Mermaid Club. This fainous Club was held at the Mermaid Tavern, which was long said to have stood in Friday-street, Cheapside ; but Ben Jonson has, in his own verse, settled it in Bread- street : At Bread-street's Mermaid having dined and merry, Proposed to go to Holbom in a wherry. Ben Jonson, ed. Gifford, viii. 342. Mr. Hunter also, in his Notes on Shakspeare, tells us that Mr. Johnson, at the Mermaid, in Bread-Street, vintner, occurs as creditor for I'js. in a schedule annexed to the will of Albain Butler, of CliflFord's Inn, gentleman, in 1603. Mr. Bum, in the Beaufoy Catalogue, also explains : " the Mermaid in Bread-street, the Mermaid in Friday-street, and the Mermaid in Cheap, were all one and the same. The tavern, situated behind, had a way to it from these thorough- fares, but' was nearer to Bread-street than Friday-street" In a note, Mr. Burn adds : " The site of the Mermaid is clearly defined firom the circumstance of W. R., a haberdasher ol small wares, ' twixt Wood-street and Milk-street,' adopting 8 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. the same sign ' over against the, Mermaid Tavern in Cheap- side.' " The Tavern was destroyed in the Great Fire. Here Sir Walter Raleigh is traditionjilly, said to have in- stituted " The Mermaid Club." Gifford has thus described the Club, adopting the tradition and the Friday-street loca- tion : " About this time [1603] Jonson probably began to acquire that turn for conviviality for which he was afterwards noted. Sir Walter Raleigh, previously to his unfortunate engagement with the wretched Cobham and others, had instituted a meeting of beaux esprits at the Mermaid, a celebraVed' tavern in Friday-street. ' Of this Club, which combined more talent aiid genius than ever met together before or since^ our 'author was a member; and here for many years he regularly repaired, ' 'with ' Shakspeare, Beaumont, Fletcher, Selden, Cotton, Carew, Martin, Doririe, and many others, whose names, even at this distant period, call up a mingled feeling of reverence and respect." But this is doubted. : A writer in the Athenceum, Sept. 16, 1.S65, states; "The origin of the common tale of R.aleigli founding the . Mermaid Club, of which Shakspeare is paid to have been a member, has not been traced. Is it older than Gifford?" Again : " Gifford's apparent- invention of the Mermaid Club. Prove to us that Raleigh founded the Mermaid Club, that the wits alteridfed it under his presidency, and you will have made a real contribution to our knowledge of Shakspeaie's time, even if you fail to shovy. that our Poet was a member-; of that Club.!', The. tradition, it is thought, must be added to the long list of Shakspearian dpnbts. Nevertheless, Fuller has described the wit-comba,ts be-^' tween Shakspeare and Ben Jon$pn, "which he beheld," meaning with his mind's eye, for he was only eight years of - age when , Shakspearp :died; "a circumstancej" says Mr.^ Charles Knight, .'^whi^ appears to- have been forgotten by some wh.o,have written, of ,thfse-; matters.",, But we have a noble jrecjprd left of the wit-combats in the celebrated epistle of Beaumont,^o Jonson -i^ , , -.- , THE APOLLO CLUB. 9 Methinks the litfle wit I had is lost ■ ^ Since I saw you.; for wit is like a rest Held up at tennis, which men do the best With the best gamesters : what things have we seen Done at the Mermaid. ! heard, wor^s that have been So nimble, a^d so full of subtile flame. As if that every one from whence they came Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest. And had fesolv'd to live a fool the rest ; Of his dull life j then when there hath been thrown Wit able enough to justify the town For three days past, wit that might warrant be For the whole city to talk foolishly 'Till that were cancell'd ; and when that was gone We left an air behind us, which alone Was able to make the two next companies Right witty ; though but downright fools, -mere wise. The Apollo Club. The noted tavern, with the, sign of St. Dunstan pulling the Devil by the nose, stood between Temple Bar and the Middle Temple gate. It was a bouse of great resort in the reign of James I., and then kept by Simon Wadloe. In Ben Jonson's Stable of News, played in 1625, Penny- boy Canter advises, to Dine in Apollo, with Pecunia At brave Duke Wadloe's. Pennyboy junior replies — Content, i'th' faith; ; . , • . i ,Our meal shall be brought thither \ Simon the King Will bid us welcome. At whatr period Ben Jonson began to frequent ;this tavern is not certain; but we have his record that he wrote The DeviLis an Asse^ -p^ysA '^^ 1,616, when he and his .boys (adopted sons) "drank bad wine at the Devil." The principalroom was called ',' the Oracle of. Apollo," a large room evidently built apart, from the tavern ; and from Prior's 10 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. and Charles Montagu's Hind and Panther Transversed it is shown to have been an upper apartment, or on the first story : — Hence to the Devil — Thus to the place where Jonson sat, we climb, Leaning on the same rail that guided him. Above the door was the bust of Apollo; and the following verses, " the Welcome," were inscribed in gold letters upon a black board, and "placed over the door at the entrance into the Apollo Welcome all, who lead or follow, To the Oracle of Af olio — Here he speaks out of his pottle, Or the tripos, his Tower bottle ; All his answers are divine. Truth itself doth flow in wine. Hang up all the poor hop-drinkers, Cries old Sim the king of skinkers ; He that half of life abuses, That sits watering with the Muses. Those dull girls no good can mean us ; Wine it is the milk of Venus, And the Poet's horse accounted : Ply it, and you all are mounted. 'Tis the true Phoebeian liquor. Cheers the brain, makes wit the quicker, Pays all debts, cures all diseases. And at once three senses pleases. Welcome all, who lead or follow, To the Oracle of A folio. Beneath these verses was the name of the author, thus inscribed — " O Rare Ben Jonson," a posthumous tribute from his grave in Westminster Abbey. The bust appears modelled from the Apollo Belvedere, by some skilful person of the olden day, but has been several times painted. " The Welcome," originally inscribed in gold letters, on a thick black-painted board, has since been wholly repainted and gilded ; but the old thickly-lettered inscription of Ben's day may be seen as an embossment upon the modern painted ■ THE APOLLO CLUB. n background. These poetic memorials are both preserved in the banking-house of the Messrs. Child. " The Welcome," says Mr. Burn, "it may be inferred, \vas placed in the interior of the room j so also, above the fireplace, were the Rules of the Club, said by early writers to have been inscribed in marble, but were in truth gilded letters upon a black-painted board, similar to the verses of the Welcome. These Rules are justly admired for the con- ciseness and elegance of the Latinity.'' They have been felicitously translated by Alexander Broome, one of the wits who frequented the Devil, and who was one of Ben Jonson's twelve adopted poetical sons. Latin inscriptions were also placed in other directions, to adorn the house. Over the clock in the kitchen, in 1731, there remained " Si nocturna tibi noceat potatio vini, hoc in mane hibes iterum, et fuerit medicina.'' Aubrey reports his uncle Danvers to have said that " Ben Jonson, to be near the Devil tavern, in King James's time, lived without Temple-barre, at a combe- maker's shop, about the Elephant and Castle /' and James Lord Scudamore has, in his Homer d la Mode, a travesty, said — Apollo had a flamen, Who in 's temple did say Amen. This personage certainly Ben Jonson represented in the great room of the Devil Tavern. Hither came all who desired to be " sealed of the tribe of Ben." " The Leget Conviviales,'' says Leigh Hunt, "which Jonson wrote for his Club, and which are to be found in his works, are composed in his usual style of elaborate and compiled learning, not without a taste of that dictatorial self-sufficiency, which, notwith- standing all that has been said by his advocates, and the good qualities he undoubtedly possessed, forms an indelible part of his character. ' Insipida poemata,' says he, ' nulla recitaniur' (Let nobody repeat to us insipid poetry) ; as if all that he should read of his own must infallibly be other- wise. The Club at the Devil does not appear to have 12 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. resembled the higher one at the Mermaid, where Shakspeaie and Beaumont used to meet him. He most probably had it aU to himself." In the Rules of the Apollo Club, women of character were not excluded from attending the meetings— /'/-(7iJ« feminee non repudiantur. Marmion, one of Jonson's con- temporary dramatists, describes him in his presidential chair, as " the boon Delphic god :" — Careless. I am full Of Oracles. I am come from Apollo. Emilia. From Apollo ! Careless. From the heaven Of my delight, where the boon Delphic god Drinks sack, and keeps his bacchanalia, And has his incense and his altars smoaking, And speaks in sparkling prophecies ; thence I come, My brains' perfutiied with the rich Indian vapour, And heightened with conceits. From tempting beauties, From dainty music and poetic strains. From bowls of nectar and ambrosial dishes. From witty varlets, 'fine coinpanion's, And froni a mighty continent of pleasilre. Sails thy brave Careless. Randolph was by Ben- Jonson- adopted for his son, and that upon the following occasion. "Mr. Randolph having, been at London so l6hg as that he might truly have had a parley with his Empty Purse, was resolved to see Ben Jonson, with his associates, which, as he heard, at a set time kept a Club together at the Devil Tavern, neere Temple Ban accordingly, at the time appointed, he went thither, but beifig unknown to therh, and wanting money, which to an ingenious spirit is the most daunting thing in the world, he peeped in the room where they were, which being espied by Ben Jonson, and seeing him in a scholar's, threadbare habit, ' John Bo-peep,' says he, ' come in,' which accordingly he did ; when immediately they began to rhyme upon the meanness of liis clothes, asking him if he could not make a EARLY POLITICAL CLUBS. 13 verse ?' and without to call for a quart of sack : there being four of them, he immediately thus replied, " I, John Bo-peep, to you four, sheep, — With each one his go6d fleece ; If that you are willing to give me five shilling, "Ilis fifteen-pence aTpiece." " By Jesus !" quoth Ben Jonson (his usual oath), " I believe this is my son Randolph;" which being made known to them, he was kindly entertained into their company, and Ben Jonson ever after called him son. He wrote The Muses' Looking-glass, Cambridge Duns, Parley with his. Empty Purse, and other poems. We shall have more to say of the Devil Tavern, which has other celebrities besides Jonson. Early Political Clubs. Our Clubs, or social gatherings, which date from the Restoration, were exclusively political. The first we hear of was the noted Rota, or Coffee Club, as Pepys calls it, which was founded in 1659, as a kind of debating society for the dissemination of Repubhcan opinions, which Harrington had painted in his fairest colours in his Oceana. It met in New Palace Yard, " where they take water at one Miles's, the next house to the stares, at one Miles's, where was made purposely a large ovall table, with a passage in the middle for Miles to deliver his coffee." Here Harrington gave - nightly lectures on the advantage of a commonwealth and of the ballot. The Club derived its name from a plan, which it was its design to promote, for changing a certain number of Members of Parliament annually by rotation. Sir William Petty was one of its members. Round the table, "in a room every evening as full as it could be crammed," says Aubrey, sat Milton and Marvell, Cyriac Skinner, Harring- ton, Nevill, and their friends, discussing abstract political questions. Aubrey calls them " disciples and virtuosi." 14 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. The place had its dissensions and brawls : ",one time Mr. Stafford and his friends came in dnmk from the tavern, and affronted the Junto ; the soldiers offered to kick them down stayres, but Mr. Harrington's moderation and persuasion hindered it." To the Rota, in January, 1660, came Pepys, and "heard very good discourse in answer to Mr. Harrington's answer, who said that the state of the Roman government was not a settled government ; and so it was no wonder the .balance of prosperity was in one hand, and the command in another, it being therefore always in a posture of war: but it was carried by ballot that it was a steady government ; though, it is true, by the voices it had been carried before that, that it was an unsteady government. So to-morrow it is to be proved by the opponents that the balance lay in one hand and the government in another." The Club was broken up after the Restoration ; but its members had become marked men. Harrington's Oceana is an imaginary account of the construction of a commonwealth in a country, of which Oceana is the imaginary name. " Rota-men" occurs by way of comparison in Hudibras, part ii. canto 3 : But Sidrophel, as full of tricks As Rota-men of politics. Besides the Rota, there was the old Royalist Club, "The Sealed Knot," which, the year before the Restoration, had organized a general insurrection in favour of the King. Unluckily, they had a spy amongst them — Sir Richard Willis, — who had long fingered Cromwell's money, as one of his private " intelligencers ;" the leaders, on his mforma- tion, were arrested, and committed to prison. The October Club. The writer of an excellent paper in the National Review, No. VIII., well observes that "Politics under Anne had grown a smaller and less dangerous game than in the pre- THE OCTOBER CLUB. 15 ceding century. The original political Clubs of the Common- wealth, the Protectorate, and the Restoration, plotted revo- lutions of government. The Parliamentary Clubs, after the Revolution of 1688, manoeuvred for changes of administra- tion. The high-flying Tory country gentleman and country member drunk the health of the King — sometinies over the water-decanter, and flustered himself with bumpers in honour of Dr. Sacheverell and the Church of England, with true- blue spirits of his own kidney, at the October Club, which, like the Beef Steak Club, was named after the cheer for which it was i^x&t^,-^October ale; or rather, on account of the quantities of the ale which the members drank. The hundred and fifty squires, Tories to tlie backbone, who, under the above name, met at the Bell Tavern, in King Street, Westminster, were of opinion that the party to which they belonged were too backward in punishing and turning out the Whigs ; and they gave uifinite trouble to the Tory administration which came into office under the leadership of Harley, St. John, and Harcourt, in 17 10. The Adminis- tration were for proceeding moderately with their rivals, and for generally replacing opponents with partisans. The October Club were for immediately impeaching every member of the Whig party, and for turning out, without a day's grace, every placeman who did not wear their colours and shout their cries." Swift was great at the October Club, and he was employed to talk over those who were amenable to reason, and to appease a discontent which was hastily ripening into mutiny. There are allusions to such negotiations in more than one passage of ^t Journal to Stella, in 1711. In a letter, February 10, 1710-11, he says : "We are plagued here with an October Club ; that is, a set of above a hundred Parlia- ment men of the country, who drink October beer at home, and meet every evening at a tavern near the Parliament, to consult affairs, and drive thmgs on to extremes against the Wings, to call the old ministry to account, and get off five . i6 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. or six heads." Swift's Advice humbly offered, to the Members of the' October: Club, had the desired effect of softening some, and convincing others, until the whole body of malcontents was first divided and finally dissdIVed. The treatise is a masterpiece- of Silirift's political skill, judiciously palliating those ministerial errors which could not be denied, and artfully intimating those excuses, which, resting upon the disposition of Queen Anne herself, could; not, in policy or decency, be openly pleaded. The red-hot " tantivies," for whose loyalty the October Club was not thorough-going enough, seceded from the original body, and formed " the March Club," more Jaco- bite and rampant in its hatred of the Whigs, than the Society from which it branched. King Street would, at this time, be a strange location for a Parliamentary Club, like the October j narrow and obscure as is the street, we must remember that a century ago, it was the only thoroughfare to the Palace at Westminster and the Houses of Parliament. When the October was broken up, the portrait of Queen Arine, by Dahl,^ which ornamented the club-room, was bought of the .Club, after the Queen'Scdeath, by the Corporation of Salisburj*, and may still bfe seen' in their Council-chamber. (■' arid I bespoke it in order to beeheap. Yet I could not prevail to change ' the house.' L"Ord Treasurer is in a rage with us for being so extragaivarit ; and the wine was not reckoned neither, for that is always' brought in by- him that is- president." '■' - Nftt long after thisj Swift' writes : "'Our Society does not meet' now as -aSUal';' for which I am blamed; but till c ig CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. Treasurer will agree to give us money and employments to bestow, I am averse to it, and he gives us nothing but promises. We now resolve to meet but once a fortnight, and have a committee every other week of six or seven, to consult about doing some good. I proposed another message to Lord Treasurer by three principal members, to give a hundred guineas to a certain person, and they are to urge it as well as they can." One day. President Arbuthnot gives the Society a dinner, dressed in the Queen's, kitchen : " we eat it in Ozinda's Coifee-house just by St. James's. We were never merrier or better company, and did not part till after eleven." In May, we hear how " fifteen of our Society dined together under a canopy in an arbour at Parson's Green last Thurs- day. I never saw anything so fine and romantic." Latterly, the Club removed to the Star and Garter, in Pall Mall, owing to the dearness of the Thatched House ; after this, the expense was wofuUy complained of At these . meetings, we may suppose, the literature of politics fomied the staple of the conversation. The last epigram, the last, pamphlet, the last Examiner, would be discussed with keen; relish; and Swift mentions one occasion on which an im- promptu subscription was got up for a poet, who had lampooned Marlborough : on which occasion all the com- pany subscribed two guineas each, except Swift himself,' Arbuthnot, and Friend, who only gave one. Bolingbroke, who was an active member, and Swift were on a footing of great familiarity. St. John used to give capital dinnel-s and plenty of champagne and burgundy to his hterary coadjutor, who never ceased to wonder at the ease with which our Secretary, got through his labours, and who worked for him in turn with the sincerest devotion, though always, asserting his equality, in the sturdiest manner. Many pleasant glimpses of convivial meetings are afforded in the Journal to Stella, when there was " much drinking, little thinking," and the business which they had met to THE SATURDAY, AND BROTHERS CLUBS. 19 consider was deferred to a more convenient season. Whether (observes a contemporary) the power of conversa- tion has declined or not, we certainly fear that the power of drinking has ; and the imagination dwells with melancholy fondness on that state of society in which great men were not forbidden to be good fellows, which we fancy, whether rightly or wrongly, must have been so superior to ours, in which wit and eloquence succumb to statistics, and claret has given place to coffee. The Journal to Stella reveals Swift's sympathy for poor starving authors, and how he carried out the objects of the Society, in this respect. Thus, he goes to see " a poor poet, one Mr. Diaper, in a nasty garret, very sick," described in the Journal as " the author of the Sea Eclogues, poems of Mermen, resembling pastorals and shepherds ; and they are very pretty and the thought is new." -Then Swift tells us he thinks to recommend Diaper to the Society ; he adds, "I must do something for him, and get him out of the way. I hate to have any new wits rise; but when they do rise, I would encourage them ; but they tread on our heels and thrust us off the stage." Only a few days before. Swift had given Diaper twenty guineas from Lord Bolihg- broke. Then we get at the business of " the Brothers," when we learn that the printer attended the dinners ; and the Journal tells us : "There was printed a Grub-street speech of Lord Nottingham, and he was such an owl to complain of it in the House of Lords, who have taken up the printer for it. I heard at Court that Walpole, (a great Whig member,) said that I. and my whimsical Club writ it at one of our meetings, and that I should pay for it. He will find he lies ; and I shall let him know by a third hand my thoughts of him." . . . "To-day I published The Fable of Midas, a poem printed on a loose half-sheet of paper. I know not how it will take; but it passed wonderfully at our Society to- night." At one dinner, the printer's news is that the c 2 20 CLUB LIFE OF J.0NO0N. Chancellor of the Exdiequerhad sent Mr* Adisworth,. the author of the Examiner, .tvicenty guineas. There were gay sparks among " the Brothers," as Colonel or "Duke " Disney, "a fellow of abundance of humour, an old battered rake, but very honest ; not an old man, -but an old rake. It was he that said of Jenny Kingdown, the maid of honour, who is a little old, ' that since she could not get a husband, the Queen should give her a brevet to act as a married woman.'" — Journal to Stella. The Scriblefus Club. " The Brothers,'' as we have already seen, was a political Club, which, . having in great measure served its purpose, was broken up. Next year,. I7i4', Swift ; was again in London, and in place of "the Brothers,". formed the cele- brated "Scriblenis Qub," an association lather of a liteiary than a political character. Oxford and St. , John^ Swift, Arbuthnot, Pope, . and Gay, were members. ^ Satire uponjthe abuse of human learning was their leading object T9ie name originated as follows. - Oxford used playfully to; call Swift Martin, and from/this sprung ,Martimis Scriblerus.. Swift, as is well known, is the name of one species' of swallow, (the largest and most, powerful flier of theTtribe,) and .Martin is the name of another species, .the wall-swallow, which constructs its Jiest in buildings. Part of ;the labours of the Society has been preserved in P. P., Clerk: of the, Parish, the most memorable satire upon Burnet's History of his Omn.:>Time, and part has been rendered immortal by the Travels of Lemuel Gulliver:, but, says Sir Walter Scott, in his Life ofSmift, "the violenceiof political faction, -like a storm that spares the laurel no more than the cedar, dispersed this little band of literary brethren, and prevented the accomplishment of a task for which talents :so various, so extended, and so brilHant, can never again be united." THE CALVES HEAD CLUB. 21 Oxford and ' Bolingbfoke, themselves accomplished scholars, patrions and friends both of the persons and to genius' thus assbciated, led the wSy, by their mutual ani- mosity, to the dissolution of the confraternity. Their discord had now risen to the highest pitcK '^ Swift tried the force of ^ humorous expostulation in his fable of the Fagot, where the ministers are called upon to contribute their ▼arious badges of office, to make the bundle strong and secure. But all was in vain ; and, at length, tired with this scene of murmuring and discontent,- quarrel, ihisuriderstand- ing, and halted, the 'Dean, who was almost the only common friend who laboured to 'Compose these differences, made a final effort' at reconciliation ; but his scheme came to nothing, and Swift-' retreated from the ' scene ' of 'discord, ' without taking part with either of his contending friends, and went to the house of the Reverend Mr. Gery, at Upper Letcombe, Berkshire, where he resided for some weeks in the strictest seclusioUf; This secession of Swift from the " political w'orld excited the ^greatest surprise : the public wondered, — the party writers* exulted in a- thousand ineffectual libels agkinst the retreating chanipion of the ■ 'high church, — and his friends conjured him in numerous letters to return and reassume the task 'of a peacernaker; this, he positively declined. The Calves' Head Club. The Calves' Head Club, in '^ridiciile of the memory of Charles I.,^' has a strange history. It is first noticed in a tract reprinted in the Harleian Miscellany. It is entitled " The Secret History of the Calves' Head Cliib; or the Re- publican unmasked. Wherein is fully shown the Religion of the Calved Head Heroes, in their Anniversary Thanksgiving Songs on the 2,0th of J^anuary, by them called Anthems, for the years i6^^,' i6<)/^, 1695, 1696^ 1697. Now published to demonstrate the restless implacable Spirit of a certain party still 22 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. amongst us, who are never to be satisfied until the present Establishment in Church and State is subverted. The Second Edition. London, 1 703." The Author of this Secret History, supposed to be Ned Ward, attributed the origin of the Club to Milton, and some other friends of the Commonwealth, in opposition to Bishop Nixon, Dr. Sanderson, and others, who met privately every 30th of January, and compiled a private form of service for the day, not very different from that long used. "After the Restoration," says the writer, " the eyes of the government being upon the whole party, they were obliged to meet with a great deal of precaution ; but in the reign of King William they met almost in a public manner, apprehending no danger." The writer further tells us, he was informed that it was kept in no fixed house, but that they moved as they thought convenient. The place where they met when his informant was with them was in a blind alley near Moorfields, where an axe hung up in the club- room, and was reverenced as a principal symbol in this diabolical sacrament. Their bill of fare was a large dish of calves' heads, dressed several ways, by which they repre- sented the king and his friends who had suffered in his cause; a large pike, with a small one in his mouth, as an emblem of tyranny ; a large cod's head, by which they intended to represent the person of the king singly; a boar's head with an apple in its mouth, to represent the king by this as bestial, as by their other hieroglyphics they had done foolish and tyrannical. After the repast was over, one of their elders presented an Icon Basilike, which was with great solemnity burnt upon the table, whilst the other anthems were singing. After this, another produced Milton's Defensio Fopuli Anglicani, upon which all laid their hands, and made a protestation in form of an oath for ever to stand by and maintain the same. The company only consisted of Inde- pendents and Anabaptists ; and the famous Jeremy White, formerly chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, who no doubt came to sanctify with his pious exhortations the ribaldry of the THE CALVES' HEAD CLUB. 23 day, said grace. After the table-cloth was removed, the anniversary anthem, as they impiously called it, was sung, and a calf s skull filled with wine, or other liquor ; and then a brimmer went about to the pious memory of those worthy patriots who had killed the tyrant and relieved their country from his arbitrary sway : and, lastly, a collection was made for the mercenary scribbler, to which every man contributed according to his zeal for the cause and ability of his purse. The tract passed, with many- augmentations as valueless as the original trash, through no less than nine editions, the last dated 1716. Indeed, it would appear to be a literary fraud, to keep alive the calumny. All the evidence produced concerning the meetings is from hearsay : the writer of the Secret History had never himself been present at the Club ; and his friend from whom he profe'sses to have received his information, though a Whig, had no personal knowledge of the Club. The slanderous rumour about Milton having to do with the institution of the Club may be passed over as unworthy of notice, this untrustworthy tract being the only authority for it. Lowndes says, " this miserable tract has been attributed to the author oilludibrds;" but it is altogether unworthy of him. Observances, insulting to the memory of Charles I., were not altogether unknown. Heame tells us that on the 30th of January, 1706-7, some young men in All Souls College, Oxford, dined together at twelve o'clock, and amused them- selves with cutting off the heads of a number of woodcocks, " in contempt of the memory of the blessed martyr." They tried to get calves-heads, but the cook refused to dress them. Some thirty years after, there occurred a scene which seemed to give colour to the truth of the Secret History. On January 30, 1735, "Seme young noblemen and gentle- men met at a tavern in SuffglkTStreet,, called themselves the Calves' Head Club, dressed- ftR\ft.ealfs head in a napkin, and after some hurras threw ;it, into a bonfire, and dipped 24 , CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. napkins, in .their red wine and waved them out of the window. The mob had strong beer given them, and for a time hallooed as well as the best, but .taking disgust at some healths proposed^ grew so outrageous that they broke all the windows, and forced themselves into the house; but the guards being sent for, prevented further mischief. The Weekly Chronicle oi'SehiMaxy i, 1735, states that the damage was estimated at 'some hundred pounds,' and -that the guards were posted all night in the street, for the security of the neighbourhood." In L'Abbd Le Blanc's Letters we find this account of the affair,: — ;"Some young men of quality chose to abandon themselves to the debauchery of drinking, healths on the 30th of January, a day appointed by the Church of England for ageneral fast, to expiate the murder of Charles I., whom they honour as a martyr. As soon as they were heated with wine, they began to: sing. This gave great offence to the people, who stopped - before the tavern, and gave them abusive language. One of these rash young men put his head out of the window and drank to the memory of the army which dethroned this King, and to the rebels which cut off his head upon a scaffold. The stones^ immediately flew from all parts, thie furious populace broke the windows 'of the house,- arid would haVe^et fire to it; and these silly young men had a great deal of difficulty to save themselves." Miss Banks tells us that " Lord-Middlesex, Lord Boyne, and Mr. SeawalHs Shirley, were certainly present ; probably. Lord John Sackville, Mr. Ponsonby, afterwards Lord Bes- borough, was not there. Lord Boyne's finger was broken by a stone which came in at the window. Lord Harcourt was supposed to be present.'' Horace Walpole adds : " The mob destroyed part of the house ; Sir William (called- Hell- fire) Stanhope was one of the members." This riotous occurrence was the occasion of some verses in The Gmb-sireef Journal, from which the following lines may be quoted as throwing additional light on the scene:— THB CALVES HEAD CLVB. 2% Strange times. !^ when noble peers, secure from riot. Can't keep NolJ's atmual festival in quiet, Through sasheis, brojte,, dirt,, stones, and brands thrown at 'em, Which, if not sc^d- wais brandralu^ magnatitm. Forced to run dovifn .to vaults for s^er quarters. And in coal-holj^s their, ribbons hide and garters. They thought their feast in dismal fray, thus, ending. Themselves to shades of death and hell descending ; This might have been, had stout Clare Market mobsters. With cleavers arm'd, outmarch'd St. James's lobsters ; .Numskulls they'd split, to furnisl^ other revels, And make a Calves' -head Feast ^r worms and devils. The manner in which Noll!s. (Oliver Gromwell's) "annual festival" is here alluded to, seems to show that the bonfire with the calf s-head and other accompaniments, had been exhibited .in previous years. In confirmation of this fact, there exis^^ a priat; entitled. J%e True E-ffigies. of the Members of the Calve£-Head Club, held on the ■^oth of January, 1734, in Suffolk Street, in the County of Middlesex ; being the year before the riotous ' occurrence above related. This print show,s. a.ibOjnfire.in the, centre; of the foreground, with the mobij iin the :background, a house with three windows, the central, wJpdQw, exhibiting two men, one, of whom is about to. throw the caiPs-head into- the bonfire below. The window on 'the right shows three persons drinking healths ; that on the left, two other persons, one of whom wears, a mask, and, has an axe in his .hand. There are two other prints^ one engraved by the father of Vandergucht, from a drawing by Hogarth. After the tablecloth was removed (says the author), an anniversary anthem was sung, and a calf s skull filled with wine or other liquor, and out of which the company drank to the pious memory of those worthy patriots who had, killed the tyrant; and; lastly, a collection was made for the. writer pf the, anthem, to which, every man contributed according to his zeal or his means. The concluding lines of the .anthem for the year 1697 are a:s follow ;-— 26 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. Advance the emblem of the action, Fill the calPs skull full of wine ; Drinking ne'er was counted faction, Men and gods adore the vine. To the heroes gone before us, Let's renew the flowing bowl ; While the lustre of their glories Shines like stars from pole to pole. The laureate of the Club and of this doggrel was Benjamin Bridgwater, who, alluding to the observance of the 30th of January by zealous Royalists, wrote : — They and we, this day observing. Differ only in one thing ; They are canting, whining, starving ; We, rejoicing, drink, and sing. Among Swift's poems will be remembered " Roland's Invitation to Dismal to dine with the Calf s-Head Club" : — While an alluding hymn some artist sings. We toast " Confusion to the race of kings." Wilson, in his Life of De Foe, doubts the truthfulness of Ward's narrative, but adds : " In the frighted mmd of a high-flying churchman, which was continually haunted by such scenes, the caricature would easily pass for a likeness." " It is probable," adds the honest biographer of De Foe, " that the persons thus collected together to commemorate the triumph of their principles, although in a manner dictated by bad taste, and outrageous to humanity, would have con- fined themselves to the ordinary methods of eatilig and drinking, if it had not been for the ridiculous farce so generally acted by the Royalists upon the same day. The trash that issued from the pulpit in this reign, upon the 30th of January, was such as to excite the worst passions in the hearers. Nothing can exceed the grossness of language employed upon these occasions. Forgetful- even of common decorum, the speakers ransacked the vocabulary of the vulgar for terms of vituperation, and hurled their anathemas THE CALVES HEAD CLUB. 37 with wrath and fury against the objects of their hatred. The terms rebel and fanatic were so often upon their lips, that they became the reproach of honest men, who preferred the scandal to the slavery they attempted to estabUsh. Those who could profane the pulpit with so much rancour in the support of senseless theories, and deal it out to the people for religion, had little reason to complain of a few absurd men who mixed politics and calves' heads at a tavern ; and still less, to brand a whole religious community with their actions." The strange story was believed till our own time, when it was fully disproved by two letters written a few days after the riotous occurrence, by Mr. A. Smyth, to Mr. Spence, and printed in the Appendix to his Anecdotes, 2nd edit. 1858 : in one it is stated, " The affair has been grossly mis- represented all over the town, and in most of the public papers : there was no calf's-head exposed at the window, and afterwards thrown into the fire, no napkins dipt in claret to represent blood, nor nothing that could give any colour to any such reports. The meeting (at least with regard to our friends) was entirely accidental," etc. The second letter alike contradicts the whole story ; and both attribute much of the disturbance to the unpopularity of the Adminis- tration; their health being unluckily proposed, raised a few faint claps but a general hiss, and then the disturbance began. A letter from Lord Middlesex to Spence, gives a still fuller account of the affair. By the style of the letter one may judge what sort of heads the members had, and what was reckoned the polite way of speaking to a waiter in those days ; — " Whitehall, Feb. y« 9th, 1735. " Dear Spanco, — I don't in the least doubt but long before this time the noise of the riot on the 30th of January has reached you at Oxford ; and though there has been as many lies and false reports raised upon the occasion in this good city as any reasonable man could expect, yet I fancy eveh 28 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. those may be improved or increased before they come to you. Now, that you may be able to defend your friends (as I don't in the least doubt you have an inclination to do), 111 send you the matter of fact literally and truly as it happened, upon my honour. Eight of us happened to meet together the 30th of January, it might have been the loth of June, or any other day in the year, but the mixture of the company has convinced most reasonable people by this time that it was not a designed or premeditated affair. We met, then, as I told you before, by chance upon this day, and after dinner, having drunk very plentifully, especially some of the company, some of us going to the window un- luckily saw a little nasty fire made by some boys in the street, of straw I think it was, and immediately cried out, ' D — n it, why should not we have a fire &s well as anybody else ?' Up comes the drawer, ' D — ^n you, you rascal, get us a bonfire.' Upon which the imprudent puppy runs down,; and without making any difficulty (which he- might have' done by a thousand excuses, and which if he had,' in all probability, some pf us would have come more to our senses), sends for the faggots, and in an instant behold a large fire blazing before the door. Upon which some of us> wiser, or rather soberer than the rest, bethinking themselves then, for the first time, what day it was, and fearing the consequences a bonfire on that day might have, proposed drinking loyal and popular healths to the mob (out of the window), which by this time was very great, in order to convince them we did not intend it as a ridicule upon that day. The healths that were drank out of the window were these, and these only: the King, Queen, and Royal Family, the Protestant Succes- sion, Liberty and Property, the present Administration. Upon which the first stone was flung, and then began our siege : which, for the time it lasted j was at least as furious as that of Philipsbourg ; it was more than an hour before we got any assistance; the more sober part of us, doing this, had a fine time of it, fighting to prevent fighting ; in danger THE CALVES HEAD CLUB. 29 of being knocked on the head by the stones that came in at the windows ; in danger of being run through by our mad friends, who, sword in hand, swore they would go out, though they first made their way through us. At length the justice, attended by a strong body of guards, came and dispersed the populace. The person who first stirred up the mob is known ; he first gave them money, and then harangued them in a most violent manner ; I don't know if he did not fling the first stone himself. He is an Irishman and a priest, and belonging to Imberti, the Venetian Envoy. This is the whole story from which so many calves' heads, bloody napkins, and the Lord knows what, has been made ; it has bieen the talk of the town and the country, and small beer and bread and cheese to my friends the gatretteers in Grub- street, for these few days past. I, as well as your fiiends, hojje to see yoii soon in town. After so much prose, I can't help ending witli a few verses : — O had I lived; in merry Charles's days. When dull the wise were called, and wit had praiSe ; When deepest politics could never pass For aught; but surer tokens of an ass ; ' When >nbt the frolicks of one drunken night Couldjtouch your honour, make your ,£ime- less bright ; . , . Tho' mob'form'd scandal rag'd, and Papal spi^ht. n, " Middlesex." To sum up, the whole affair was a hoax, kept klive by the pretended "Secret Histoiy." An accidental riot, fellowing a debauch on one 30th of Ja;iuary, has been distributed be- tween two successive years, owjrig-tQ a misappteheftSipn of the niodb of reckoniijg ):itiie' pre^al^nt in theearlyjiart dfthe lasi cejituiT^'; ■and,'ftere'is''%ci' ihbre- reason' for, belie\ang in the eHstepcf'ofTCalVe^^'ftfea^Cliib in ^734-5' than there isforbe\i'e\dn|it'Vxisflat'.the'pr^s,eiit,tim'e. ^ 3P CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. The King's Head Club. • Another Club of this period was the " Club of Kings," or " the King Club," all the members of which were called " King." Charles himself was an honorary member. A more important Club was " the King's Head Club," instituted for affording the Court and Government support, and to influence Protestant zeal : it was designed by the unscrupulous Shaftesbury : the members were a sort of De- cembrists of their day; but they failed in their aim, and ultimately expired under the ridicule of being designated " hogs in armour." " The gentlemen of that worthy Society," says Roger North, in his Examen, "held their evening sessions continually at the King's Head Tavern, over against the Inner Temple Gate. But upon the occasion of the signal of a green ribbon, agreed to be worn in their hats in the days of street engagements, like the coats-of-arms of valiant knights of old, whereby all warriors of the Society might be distinguished, and not mistake friends for enemies, they were called also the Great Ribbon Club. Their seat was in a sort of Carfour at Chancery-lane end, a centre of business and company most proper for such anglers of fools. The house was double balconied in the front, as may be yet seen, for the clubsters to issue forth in fresco with hats and no peruques ; pipes in their mouths, merry faces, and diluted throats, for vocal encouragement of the canaglia below, at bonfires, on usual and unusual occasions. They admitted all strangers that were confidingly intro- duced ; for it was a main end of their Institution to make proselytes, especially of the raw estated youth, newly come to town. This copious Society were to the faction in and about London a sort of executive power, and, by corre- spondence, all over England. The resolves of the more retired councils of the ministry of the Factioii were brought in here, and orally insinuated to the company, Vhether it THE KING'S HEAD CLUB. 31 were lyes, defamations, commendations, projects, etc., and so, like water diffused, spread all over the town ; whereby that which was digested at the Club over night, was, like nourishment, at every assembly, male and female, the next day : — and thus the younglings tasted of political adminis- tration, and took themselves for notable counsellors." North regarded the Green Ribbon Club as the focus of disaffection and sedition, but his mere opinions are not to be depended on. Walpole calls him " the voluminous squabbler in behalf of the most unjustifiable excesses of Charles the Second's Administration." Nevertheless, his relation of facts is very curious, and there is no reason to discredit his account of those popular " routs,'' to use his own phrase, to which he was an eye-witness. The conversation and ordinary discourse of the Club, he informs us, "was chiefly upon the subject of Braveur, in defending the cause of Liberty and Property; what every true Protestant and Englishman ought to venture to do, rather than be overpowered with Popery and Slavery." They were provided with silk armour for defence, " against the time that Protestants were to be massacred," and, in order "to be assailants upon fair occasion," they had recommended to them, " a certain pocket weapon which, for its design and efficacy, had the honour to be called a Protestant Flail. The handles resembled a farrier's blood- stick, and the fall was joined to the end by a strong nervous ligature, that, in its swing, fell just short of the hand, and was made of Lignum Vita, or rather, as the poets termed it, Mortis.'' This engine was " for street and crowd-work, and lurking perdue in a coat-pocket, might readily saUy out to execution ; and so, by clearing a great Hall or Piazza, or so, carry an Election by choice of Polling, called knocking down!" The armour of the hogs is further described as " silken back, breast, and potts, that were pretended to be pistol-proof, in which any man dressed up was as safe as in a house, for it was impossible any one would go to strike 32 CLUB LIFE OM LONDON. him for laughing, so ridiculous was the figure, as they say, oi hogs in armour." In describing the Pope-burning procession of the 1 7th of November, 1680, Roger North says, that "the Rabble first changed their title, and were called the Mob in the assemblies of this Club. It was their Beast of Burthen, and called first, mobile vtdgiis, but fell naturally into the contraction of one syllable, and ever since is become proper English." We shall not describe these Processions : the grand object was the burning of figures, prepared for the occasion, and brought by the Mob in procession, from the further end of London with " staffiers and link-boys sounding,'' and " coming up near to the Club-Quality in the balconies, against which was provided a huge boniire ;" " and then, after numerous platoons and volleys of squibs discharged, these Bamboches were, with redoubled noise, committed to the flames." These outrageous celebrations were suppressed in 1683. Street Clubs. During the first quarter of the last century, there were formed in the metropolis " Street Clubs," of the inhabitants of the same street ; so that a man had but to stir a few houses from his own door to enjoy his Club and the society of his neighbours. There was another inducement: the streets were then so unsafe that " the nearer home a man's club lay the bettei; for his clothes and his purse. Even riders in coaches were not safe from mounted footpads, and from the danger of upsets in the huge ruts and pits which intersected the streets. The passenger who could not afford a coach had to pick his way, after dark, along the dimly-lighted, ill-paved thoroughfares, seamed by filthy open kennels, besprinkled from projecting spouts, bordered by gaping cellars, guarded by feeble old watchmen, and beset with daring street-robbers. But there were worse terrors of the THE MOHOCKS. 33 night than the chances of a splashing or a sprain, — risks beyond those of an interrogatory by the watch, or of a 'stand and deliver' from a footpad." These were the. lawless rake-hells who, banded into clubs, spread terror and dismay through the streets. Sir John Fielding, in his cautionary book, published in 1776, described the dangerous attacks of intemperate rakes in hot blood, who, occasionally and by way of bravado, scour the streets, to show their manhood, not their humanity ; put the watch to flight ; and now and then murdered some harailess, inoffensive person. Thus, although there are in London no ruffians and bravos, as in some parts of Spain and Italy, who will kill for hire, yet there is no resisting anywhere the wild sallies of youth, and the extravagances that flow from debauchery and wine. One of our poets has given a necessary caution, especially to strangers, in the following lines : — Prepare for death, if here at night you roain, And sign your -ivill before you sup from home ; Some fiery fop with new commission vain, Who sleeps on brambles 'till he kills his man ; Some frolic druiikard, reeling from a feast, Provokes a broil, and stabs you iii a jest. Yet, ev'n these heroes, mischievously. gay, Lords of the street, and terrors of the way ; Flush'd as they are with folly, youth,, and wine, Their prudent insults to the poor confine ; Afar they mark the flambeau's bright approach, And shun the shining train and gilded coach. The Mohocks. This nocturnal fraternity met in the days of Queen Anne : but it had been for many previous years the favourite a;muse- ment of dissolute young men to form themselves into Clubs and Associations for committing all sorts of excesses in the public streets, and alike attacking orderly pedestrians^ and even defenceless women. These Cltibs took various slang' D 34 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. designations. At the Restoration they were " Mums " and " Tityre-tus." They were succeeded by the " Hectors " and " Scourers," when, says Shadwell, " a man could not go from the Rose Tavern to the Piazza once, but he must venture his life twice." Then came the " Nickers," whose delight it was to smash windows with showers of halfpence ; next were the " Hawkabites ;" and lastly, the " Mohocks." These last are described in the Spectator, No. 324, as a set of men who have borrowed their name from a sort of cannibals, in India, who subsist by plundering and devouring all the nations about them. The president is styled " Emperor of the Mohocks j" and his arms are a Turkish crescent, which his iinperial majesty bears at present in a very extraordinary manner engraven upon his forehead ; in imitation of which the Memfcers prided themselves in tattooing ; or slashing people's faces with, as Gay wrote, " new invented wounds." Their avowed design was mischief, and upon this foundation all their rales and orders were framed. They took care to drink themselves to a pitch beyond reason or humanity, and then made a general sally, arid attacked all who were in the streets. Some were knocked down, others stabbed, and others cut and carbonadoed. To put the watch to a total rout, and mortify some of those inoffensive militia, was reckoned a coup d'klat. They had special barbarities, which they executed upon their prisoners. " Tipping the • lion " was squeezing the nose flat to the face and boring out the eyes with their fingers. " Dancing-masters " were those who taught their scholars to cut capers by running swords through their legs. The " Tumblers " set women on their heads. The " Sweaters " worked in parties of half-a-dozen, surrounding their victims with the points of their swords. The Sweater upon whom the patient turned his back, pricked him in " that part whereon schoolboys are punished ;'' and as he veered round from the smart, each Sweater repeated this pinking operation ; " after this jig had gone two or three times round, and the patient was thought to have sweat THE MOHOCKS. 35 sufficiently, he was very handsomely rubbed down by some attendants who carried with thtem instruments for that pur- pose, when they discharged him. An adventure of this kind is narrated in No. 332 of the Spectator: it is there termed a bagnio, for the orthography of which the writer consults the sign-posts of the bagnio in Newgate-street and that in Chancery-lane. Another savage diversion of the Mohocks was their thrust- ing women into barrels, and rolling them down Snow or Liidgate Hill, as thus sung by Cay, in his Trivia : — Now is the time that rakes their revels keep ; Kindlers of riot, enemies of sleep. His scattered pence the flying Nicker flings, And with the copper shower the casement rings. Who has not heard the Scourer's midnight fame? ^ Who has not trembled at the Mohock's name ? Was there a watchman took his hourly rounds Safe from their blows or new-invented wounds ? I pass their desperate deeds and mischiefs, done Where from Snow-hill black steepy torrents run ; How matrons, hooped within the hogshead's womb. Were tumbled furious thence ; the rolling tomb O'er the stones thunders, bounds from side to side ; So Regulus, to save his country, died. Swift was inclined to doubt these savageries, yet went ion some apprehension of them. He writes, jnst at the date of the above Spectator : " Here is the devil and all to do with these ^ Mohocks. Grub-street papers about them fly like lightning, and a list printed of near eighty put into several prisons, and all a lie, and I begin to think there is no truth, or very little in the whole story. He that abused Davenant was a drunken gentleman ; none of that gang. My man tells me that one of the lodgers heard in a coffee-house, publicly, that one design of the Mohocks was upon me, if they could catch me ; and though I believe nothing of it, I forbear walking late ; and they have put me to the charge of some shillings already." — yourtial to Stella, 1712. D 2 36 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. Swift mentions, among the outrages of the Mohocks, that two of them caught a maid of old Lady Winchilsea's at the door of her house in the Park with a candle, and had just lighted out somebody. They cut all her face, and beat her without any provocation. At length the villanies of the Mohocks were attempted to be put down by a Royal proclamation, issued on the i8th of March, 1712 : this, however, Ijad very little effect, for we soon find Swift exclaiming: "They go on still and cut people's faces every night ! but they shan't cut mine ; I like it better as it is." Within a week after the Proclamation, it was proposed that Sir Roger de Coverley should go to the play, where he had not been for twenty years. The Spectator, No. 335, says : " My friend asked me if there would not be some danger in coming home late in case the Mohocks should be abroad. ' I assure you,' says he, ' I thought I had fallen into their hands last night; for I observed two or three lusty black men that followed me half-way up Fleet-street, and mended their pace behind me in proportion as I put on to get away from them.' " However, Sir Roger threw them out, at the end of Norfolk Street, where he doubled the corner, and got shelter in his lodgings before they could imagine what was become of him. It was finally arranged that Captain Sentry should' make one of the party for the play, and that Sir Roger's coach should be got ready, the fore wheels being newly mended. " The Captain," says the Spectator, " who did not fail to meet rne at, the apppinted hour, bid Sir Roger fear nothing, for that he had put on the same sword which he made use of at the battle of Steenkirk. Sir Roger's servants, and among the rest,- my old friend the butler, had, I found, provided themsdves with good oaken plants, to attend their master upon this occasion. When he placed him in his coach, with myself at his left hand, the Captain before him, and his butler at the head of ■ his footmen in the rear, we convoyed him in safety to the play- THE MOHOCKS. 37 house." The play was Ambrose Phillips's new tragedy of The Distressed Mother: at its close, Sir Rogelr went out fully satisfied with his entertainment; and, says the Spectator, "we guarded him to his lodging in the same manner that we guarded him to the playhouse;" The subject is resumed with much humour, by Budgell, in the Spectator, No. 347, where the doubts as to the actual existence of Mohocks are examined. " They will have it," says the Spectator, "that the Mohocks are like those spectres and apparitions which frighten several towns and villages in Her Majesty's dominions, though they were never seen by any of the inhabitants. Others are apt to think that these Mohocks are a kind of bull-beggars, first invented by prudent married men and masters of families, in order to deter their wives and daughters from taking the air at un- seasonable hours ; and that when they tell them ' the Mo- hocks will catch them,' it is a caution of the same nature with that of our forefathers, when they bid their children have a care of Raw-head and Bloody-bones." Then we have, from a Correspondent (A tiie Spectator, " the manifesto of Taw Waw Eben Zan Kaladar, Emperor of the Mohocks," ' vindicating his imperial dignity from the false aspersions cast on it, signifying the imperial abhorrence and detestation of such tumultuous and irregular proceedings ; and notifying that all wounds, hurts, damage, or detriment, received in limb or limbs, otherwise than shall he hereafter specified, shall be committed to the care of the Emperor's surgeon, and cured at his own expense, in some one or other of those hospitals which he is erecting for that purpose. Among other things it is decreed "that they never tip the lion upon man, woman, or child, till the clock at St. Dunstan's shall have struck one ;" " that the sweat be never given till between the hours of one and two ;" " that the sweaters do establish their hummums in such close places, alleys, nooks and corners, that the patient 01 patients may not be in danger of catching cold ;" " that the tumblers, to 38 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. whose care we chiefly commit the female sex, confine them- selves to Drury Lane and the purlieus of the Temple," etc. "Given from our Court at the Devil Tavern," etc. .: The Mohocks held together until nearly the end of the reign of George the First. Blasphemous Clubs. The successors of the Mohocks added blasphemy to riot. Smollett attributes the profaneness and profligacy of the period to the demoralization produced by the South Sea Bubble ; and Clubs were formed specially for the indulgence of debauchery and profaneness. Prominent among these was " the Hell-fire Club," of which the Duke of Wharton was a leading spirit : — Wharton, the scorn and wonder of our days, Whose ruling passion was the lust of praise. Born with whate'er could win it from the wise, Women and fools must like him, or he dies. Though wondering senates hung on all he spoke. The club must hail him master of the joke. — Pope. So high did the tide of profaneness run at this time, that a Bill was brought into the House of Lords for its suppression. It was in a debate on this Bill that the Earl of Peterborough declared, that though he was for a Parliamentary King, he was against a Parliamentary religion ; and that the Duke of Wharton pulled an old family Bible out of his pocket, in order to controvert certain arguments delivered from the episcopal bench. Mug-house Clubs. Among the political Clubs of the metropolis in the early part of the eighteenth century, one of the most popular was the Mug-house Club, which met in a great Hall in Long Acre every Wednesday and Saturday, during the winter. The house received its name from the simple circumstance MUG-HOUSE CLUBS. .39 that each member drank his ale (the only liquor . used) , out of a separate mug. The Club is described as a mixture of gentlemen, lawyers, and statesmen, who met seldom .under a. hundred. In A journey through England, 1732, we read of this Club : " But the most diverting and amusing of all is the Mug- house Club in Long Acre. "They have a grave old Gentleman, in his own gray Hairs, now within a few months of Ninety years old, .who is their President, and sits in an arm'd chair some steps higher than the rest of the company to keep the whole Room in order. A Harp plays all the time at the lower end of the Room ; and every now and then one or other of the Com- pany rises and entertains the rest with a song, and (by the by) some are good Masters. Here is nothing drunk but Ale, and evary Gentleman hath his separate Mug, which he chalks on the Table where he sits as it is brought in; and every one retires when he pleases, asJrom.a Coffeerhouse. " The Room is always so diverted with Songs, and drinking from one Table to another to one . another's Healths, that there is no room for Politicks, or anything that can sow'r conversation. . _ . " Dpe must be there by seven to get Room, and after ten the Company are for the most part gone. . ,! '^ This is a Winter's Amusement, that is agreeable enough ,to, a Stranger for once or twice, and he is well, diverted with the.different Humours, when the Mugs overflow." ■ Although in the early days of this Club there was no room for politics, or anything that could sour conversation, the Mug-house subsequently became a rallying-place for the most virulent political antagonism, arising.. out of the change of dynasty, a weighty matter to debate over mugs of ale. The death of Anne brought on the Hanover succession. The Tories had then so much the better of the other party, that they gained the mob on all public occasions to their side. It then became necessary for King George's friends 40 CLUB LIFE OF L0NJ30N. to do something to counteract this tendency. Accordingly, they established Mug-houses, like that of Long Acre, through- out the metropolis, for well-afifected tradesmen to meet and keep up the spirit of loyalty to the Protestant succession. First, they had one in St. John's-lane, chiefly under the patronage of Mr. Blenman, member of the Middle Temple, who took for his motto, " Pro rege et lege." Then arose the Roebuck Mug-house, in Cheapside, the haunt of a fraternity of young men, who had been organized for political action before the end of the late reign. According to a pamphlet on the subject, dated in 17x7, " the next Mug-houses opened in the City were at Mrs. Read's, in Salisbury-court, in Fleet-street, and at the Harp in Tower-street, and another at the Roebuck in Whitechapel. ■ About the same time several other Mug-houses were erected in the suburbs, for the reception and entertainment of the like loyal Societies : viz. one at the Ship, in Tavistock-street, Coveiit Garden, which is mostly frequented by royal officers of the army, another at the Black Horse, in Queen-street near Lincoln's Inn Fields, set up and carried on by gentle- men, servants to that noble patron of loyalty, to whom this vindication of it is inscribed [the Duke of Newcastle] ; a third was set up at the Nag's Head, in James-street, Covent Garden ; a fourth at the Fleece, in Burleigii-street, near Exeter Change ; a fifth at the Hand and Tench, near the Seven Dials; several in Spittlefields, by the French refugees ; one in Southwark Park; and another in the Artillery- ground." Another rioted Mug-house was the Magpie, with- out Newgate, which house still exists as the Magpie and Stump, in the Old Bailey. At all these houses it was customary in the forenoon to exhibit the whole of the mugs belonging to the estabhshment, in a row in front of the house. ' The frequenters of these several Mug-houses formed them- selves into " Mug-house Clubs," known severally by some distinctive name, and each Club had its President to rule its MUG-HOUSE CLUBS. 41 meetings and keep ordeh The President was treated with great ceremony and respect : he was conducted to his chair every evening at about seven o'clock, by members carrying candles before and behind him, and accompanied with music. Having taken a seat, he appointed a Vice-president, and drank the health of the company assembled, a compli- ment which the company returned. The evening was then passed in drinking successively loyal and other healths, and in singing songs. Soon after ten they broke up, the Presi- dent naming his successor for the next evening ; and before he left the chair, a collection was made for the musicians. We shall now see how these Clubs took so active a part in the violent political struggles of the time. The Jacobites had laboured with much zeal to secure the alliance of the street mob, and they had used it with great effect, in con- nexion with Dr. Sacheverell, in overturning Queen Anne's Whig Government, and paving the way for the return of the exiled family. Disappointment at the accession of George I. rendered the party of the Pretender more unscrupulous ; the mob was excited to greater excesses, and the streets of the metropolis were occupied by an infuriated rabble, and pre- sented a nightly scene of riot. It was under these circum- stances that the Mug-house Clubs volunteered, in a very disorderly manner, to be champions of order ; and with this purpose it became part of their evening's entertainment to march into the street, and fight the Jacobite mob. This practice commenced in the autumn of 17 15, when the Club called the Loyal Society, which met at the Roebuck in Cheapside, distinguished itself by its hostility to Jacobitism. On one occasion this Club burned the Pretender in effigy. Their first conflict with the mob, recorded in the newspapers, occurred on the 31st of January, 1715, the birthday of the Prince of Wales, which was celebrated by illuminations and bonfires. There were a few Jacobite alehouses, chiefly on Holbom Hill, in Sacheverell's period ; and on Ludgate-hill : the frequenters of the latter stirred up the mob to raise a 42 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. riot there, put out the bonfire, and break the windovfs which were illuminated. The Loyal Society, meij, receiving in- telligence of what was going on, hurried to the spot, and thrashed and defeated the rioters. On the 4th of November in the same year, the birthday of King William III., the Jacobite mob made a large bonfire in the Old Jewry, to bum an effigy of the King ; but the Mug-house men came upon them again, gave them " due chastisement with oaken plants," extinguished their bonfire, and carried King William in triumph to the Roebuck. Next day was the commemoration of Gunpowder Treason, and the loyal mob had its pageant. A long procession was formed, having in front a figure of the .infant .Pretender, accompanied by two men bearing each a warming-pan, in allusion to the story about his birth ; and followed by effigies in gross caricature of the Pope, the Pretendejr, the Diike of Ormond, Lord Bolingbroke, and the Earl of Marr, with halters round their necks ; and all of them were to be burned in a large bonfire made in Cheapside. The pro- cession, starting from the Roebuck, went through Newgate- street, and up Holbom-hill, where they compelled the bells of St. Andrew's church, of which SachevereU wa? rector, to ring; thence through Lincoln's Inn Fields and Coyent Garden to the gate of St. James's Palape ; returning by way .of Pall Mall and the Strand, and through St. Paul's Churchyard. They had met with no interruption, on their way, but on their return to Cheapside, they found that, during their absence, that quarter had been invaded by the Jacobite mob, who had carried away all the fuel which had been collected for the bonfire. On November 17, in the same year, the Loyal Society met at the Roebuck to celebrate the anniversary , of the Accession of Queen Elizabeth ; and, while busy with their mugs, they received information that the Jacobites were assembled in great force, in St. Martin's-le-Grand, and were preparing to burn the effigies of King William and King MUG-HOUSE CLUBS. 43 George, along with the Duke of Marlborough. They were so near, in fact, that their party-shouts of High Church, Ormond, and King James, must have been audible at the Roebuck, which stood opposite Bow Church. The Jacobites were starting on their procession, when they were overtaken in Newgate-street, by the Mug-house men from the Roebuck, and a desperate encounter took place, in which the Jacobites were defeated, and many of them were seriously injured. Meanwhile the Roebuck itself had been the scene of a much more serious tumult. During the absence of the great mass of the members of the Club, another body of Jacobites, much more numerous than those engaged in Newgate Street, suddenly assembled, attacked the Roebuck Mug-house, broke its windows, and those of the adjoining houses, and with terrible threats, attempted to force the door. One of the few members of the Loyal Society who remained at home, discharged a gun upon , those of the assailants who were attacking the door, and killed one of their leaders. This and the approach of the Lord Mayor and city officers, caused the mob to disperse j but the Roebuck was exposed to attacks during several following . nights, after which the mobs remained tolerably quiet during the winter. Early in 17 16, however, these riots were renewed with greater violence, and preparations were made for an active campaign. The Mug-houses were re-fitted, and re-opened with ceremonious entertainments. New songs were com- posed to stir up the Clubs ; and collections of these Mug-house songs were printed. The Jacobite mob was heard beating with its well-known call, marrow-bones and cleavers, and both sides were well equipped with staves ot oak, their usual arms for the fray, though other weapons and missiles were in common use. One of the Mug-house songs thus describes the way in which these street fights were conducted : — 44 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. Since the Tories could not fight, And their master took his flight, They labour to keep up their faction ; With a bough and a stick. And a stone and a brick, They equip their roaring crew for action. Thus in battle array, At the close of the day, After wisely debating their plot, Upon windows and stall They courageously fall, And boast a great victory they've got. But, alas ! silly boys ! For all the mighty noise Of their " High Church and Ormond forever !" A brave Whig, with one hand. At George's command, Can make their mightiest hero to quiver. On March 8, another great Whig anniversary, the day of the death of WilUam III., commenced the more serious Mug-house riots of 1716. A large Jacobite mob assembled to their own watch-cry, and marched along Cheapside, to attack the Roebuck ; but they were soon driven back by a small party of the Royal Society, who then marched in procession through Newgate Street, to the Magpie and Stump, and then by the Old Bailey to Ludgate Hill. When about to return, they found the Jacobite mob had collected in great force in their rear ; and a fierce engagement ■took place in Newgate Street, when the Jacobites were again worsted. Then, on the evening of the 23rd of April, the anniversary of the birth of Queen Anne, there were great battles in Cheapside, and at the end of Giltspur Street ; and in the immediate neighbourhood of the Roe- buck and the Magpie. Other great tumults took place on the 29th of May, Restoration Day; and on the loth of June, the Pretender's birthday. From this time the Roebuck is rarely mentioned. The Whigs, who met in the Mug-house, kept by Mr, MUG-HOUSE CLUBS. 45 Read, in Salisbury Court, Fleet Street, appear to have been peculiarly noisy in their cups, and thus rendered themselves the more obnoxious to the mob. On one occasion, July 20, their violent party-toasts, which they drank in the parlour with open windows, collected a large crowd of persons, who became at last so incensed by some tipsy Whigs inside, that they commenced a furious attack upon the house, and threatened to pull it down and make a bonfire of its materials in the middle of Fleet Street. The Whigs immediately closed their windows and barricaded the doors, having sent a messenger by a back door, to the Mug-house — in Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, begging that the persons there assembled would come to the rescue. The call was immediately responded to ; the Mug-house men proceeded in a body down the Strand and Fleet Street, armed with staves and bludgeons, and commenced an attack on the mob, who still threatened the demolition of the house in Salisbury Court. The inmates sallied out, armed with pokers and tongs, and whatever they could lay their hands upon, and being joined by their friends froni Covent Garden, the mob was put to flight, and the Mug- house men remained masters of the field. The popular indignation was very great at this defeat; and for two days crowds collected in the neighbourhood, and vowed they would have revenge. But the knowledge that a squadron of horse was drawn up at Whitehall, ready to ride into the City on the first alarm, kept order. , On the third day, however, the people found a leader in the person of one Vaughan, formerly a Bridewell boy, who instigated the mob to take revenge for their late defeat. They followed him with shouts of " High Church and Ormond ! down with the Mug-house !" and Read, the landlord dreading that they would either burn or pull down his house, prepared to defend himself. He threw up a window and presented a loaded blunderbuss, and, vowed ,he -wrould discharge its contents into the body of the first man who 46 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. advanced agaiinst :his house. This threat exasperated the mob, who ran dgainst the door with furious yellsv Read was as good as his word, — ^he fired, and the unfortunate man Vaughan fell dead upon the spot. The people, now frantic, severe to hang up the landlord from his own sign- post. They forced the door, pulled down the sign, and entered the hotise, where Read would assuredly have beeri sacrificed to their fury, if they had found him. He, however, had with great risk escaped by a back-door. Disappointed at this, the mob broke the furniture to pieces, destroyed everything that lay in their way, and left only the bare walls of the house. They now threatened to burn the whole street, and were about to set fire to Read's house, when the Sheriffs, with a posse of constables, arrived. The Riot Act was read, but disregarded j and the Sheriffs sent to Whitehall for a detachment of the military. A squadron of horse sooii arrived, and cleared the streets, taking five of the most active rioters into custody. Read, the landlord, was captured on the following day, and tried for the wilful murder of Vaughan ; he was, however, acquitted of the capital charge, and found guilty of man- slaughter only. The five rioters were also brought to trial, and met with a harder fate. They were all found guilty of riot and rebellion, and sentenced to death at Tyburn. • This exMiple damped the courage of the rioters, and alarmed all parties; so that we hear no more of the Mug- house riots, until a few months later, a paihphlet appeared with the title, Down with the Mug; or Reasons for suppress^ ing the Mug-houses, by an author who only gave the initials Sir H — ^ — M , but who seems to have so much of what was thought to be a Jacobite spirit, that it provoked a reply, entitled the Mug Vi?idicated. The account of 1722 states that many an encounter they had, and many were the riots, till at last tke Government was obliged by an Act of Parliament to put an end to this strife, which had this good effect, that upon pulling down of THE KIT-KAT CLUB. 47 the Mug-house in Salisbury Court, for which some boys were hanged on this Act, the city has not been troubled with them since. There is some doubt as to the first use of the term "Mug. house." In a scarce Collection of One Hundred and Eighty Loyal Songs, all written since 1678^ Fourth Edition, 1694, is a song in praise of the " Mug," which shows that Mug- houses had that name previous to the Mug-house riots. It has also been stated that the beer-mugs were originally fashioned into a grotesque resemblance of Lord Shaftes- bury's face, or " ugly mug," as it was called, and that this is the derivation of the word. , The Kit-Kat Club. This famous Club was a threefold celebrity — political, literary, and artistic. It was the great Society of Whig leaders, formed about the year 1700, tenip. William III., consisting of thirty-nine noblemen and gentlemen zealously attached to the House of Hanover; among whom the Dukes of Somerset, Richmond, Grafton, Devonshire, and Marl- borough, and (after the accession of George I.) the Duke of Newcastle ; the Earls of Dorset, Sunderland, Manchester, Wharton, and Kingston ; Lords Halifax and Somers ; Sir Robert Walpole, Vanbrugh, Congreve, Granville, Addison, Garth, Maynwaring, Stepney, and Walsh. They are said to have first met at an obscure house in Shire-lane, by Temple Bar, at the house of a noted mutton-pieman, one Christopher Katt; from whom the Club, and the pies that formed a standing dish at the Club suppers, both took their name of Kit-Kat. In the Spectator, No. 9, however, they are said to have derived their title not from the maker of the pie, but from the pie itself, which was called a Kit-Kat, as we now say a Sandwich ; thus, in a prologue to a comedy of 1700 : A Kit-Kat is a supper for a lord ; but Dr. King, in his Art of Cookery, is for the pieman : Immortal made, as Kit-Kat by his pies. 48. CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. The origin and early history of the Kit-Kat Club is obscure. Elkanah Settle addressed, in 1699, a manuscript poem "To the most renowned the President and the rest of the Knights of the most noble Order of the Toast," in which verses is asserted the dignity of the Society ; and Malone supposes the Order of the Toast to have been identical with the Kit- Kat Club : this was in 1699. The toasting-glasses, which we shall presently mention, may have something to do with this presumed identity. Ned Ward, in his Secret History of Clubs, at once connects the Kit-Kat Club with Jacob Tonson, " an amphibious mortal, chief merchant to the Muses." Yet this is evidently a caricature. The maker of the mutton-pies, Ward main- tains to be a person named Christopher, who lived at the sign of the Cat and Fiddle, in Gray's Inn-lane, whence he removed to keep a pudding-pye shop, near the Fountain '• Tavern, in the Strand. Ward commends his mutton-pies, • cheese-cakes, and custards, and the pieman's interest in the sons of Parnassus ; and his inviting "a new set of Authors to a collation of oven trumpery at his friend's house, where they were nobly entertained with as curious a batch of pastry delicacies as ever were seen at the winding-up of a Lord Mayor's feast;'' adding that "there was not a mathematical figure in all Euclid's Elements but what was presented to the table in baked wares, whose cavities were filled with fine eatable varieties fit for the gods or poets." Mr. Charles Knight, in the Shilling Magazine, No. 2, maintains that by the above is meant, that Jacob Tonson, the bookseller, was the pieman's " friend," and that to the customary "whet" to his authors he added the pastry entertainment. Ward adds, that this grew into a weekly meeting, provided his, the bookseller's friends would give him the refusal of their juvenile productions. This " generous proposal was very readily agreed to by the whole poetic class, and the cook's name being Christopher, for brevity called Kit, and his sign ■ being the Cat and Fiddle, they very merrily derived a quaint Crockford's, St. James's Street. (Gaming Club, 1827-40.) White's Club, on the left of St. James's Palace. (From a Drawing of the time of Queen Anne.) THE KIT-KAT CLUB. 49 denomination from puss and her master, and from thence called themselves of the Kit-Cat Club." A writer in the Book of Days, however, states, that Christopher Cat, the pastry-cook, of King-street, West- minster, was the keeper of the tavern, where the Club met ; but Shire-lane was, upon more direct authority, the pieman's abode. We agree with the National Review, that " it is hard to believe, as we pick our way along the narrow and filthy pathway of Shire-lane, that in this blind alley [?], some hundred and fifty years ago, used to meet many of the finest gentlemen and choicest wits of the days of Queen Anne and the first George. Inside one of those frowsy and low-ceiled rooms, now tenanted by abandoned women or devoted to the sale of greengroceries and small coal, — Halifax has conversed and Somers unbent, Addison mellowed over a bottle, Congreve flashed his wit, Vanbrugh let loose his easy humour, Garth talked and rhymed." The Club was Hterary and gallant as well as political.. Tl,e nieir.beis subscribed 400 guineas for the encourage- ment of good comedies in 1 709. The Club had its toast- ing-glasses, inscribed with a verse, or toast, to some reigning beauty J among whom were the four shining daughters of the Duke of Marlborough — Lady Godolphin, Lady Sunder- land, Lady Bridgewater, and Lady Monthermer; Swift's friends, Mrs. Long and Mrs. Barton, the latter the lovely and witty niece of Sir Isaac Newton j the Duchess of Bolton, Mrs. Brudenell, and Lady Carlisle, Mrs. DL Kirk, and Lady Wharton. Dr. Arbuthnot, in the following epigram, seems to derive the name of the Club from this custom of toasting ladies after dinner, rather than from the renowned maker of tiutton-pies : — Whence deathless Kit-Kat took his name. Few critics can unriddle : Some say from pastrycook it came. And some from Cat and Fiddle. E Sa CLUB LIFE Of LONDON. From no trim beaus its name it boasts, Grey statesmen or green wits, But from this pell-mell pack of toasts Of old Cats and young Kits. Lord Halifax wrote for the toasting-glasses the following verses in 1703 ; — The Duchess of St, Albans. The line of Vere, so long renown'd in arms, Concludes with lustre in St. Alban's charms. Her conquering eyes have made their race complete : They rose in valour, and in beauty set. The Duchess of Beaujort. Offspring of a tuneful sire, Blest with more than mortal fire ; likeness of a Mother's face, Blest with more than mortal grace : You with double charms surprise. With his wit, and with her eyes. The Lady Mary Churchill. Fairest and latest of the beauteous race. Blest with your parent's wit, and her first blooming face ; Born with our liberties in William's reign. Your eyes alone that liberty restrain. The Lady Sunderland. All Nature's charms in Sunderland appear, Bright as her eyes, and as her reason clear ; Yet still their force to man not safely known, Seems undiscover'd to herself alone. The Mademoiselle Spankeim. Admir'd in Germany, ador'd in France, Your charms to brighten glory here advance : The stubborn Britons own your beauty's claim. And with their native toasts enrol your name. To Mrs. Barton. Beauty and wit strove, each in vain, To vanquish Bacchus and his train ; But Barton with successful charms, From both their quivers drew her arms. The roving God his sway resigns. And awfully submits his vines. THE KIT-KAT CLUB. 51 In Spence's Anecdotes (note) is the following additional account of the Club: "You have heard of the Kit-Kat Club," says Pope to Spence. " The master of the house where the club met was Christopher Katt; Tonson was secretary. The day Lord Mohun and the Earl of Berkeley were entered of it, Jacob said he saw they were just going to be ruined. When Lord Mohun broke down the gilded emblem on the top of his chair, Jacob complained to his friends, and said a man who would do that, would cut a man's throat. So that he had the good and the forms of the society much at heart. The paper was all in Lord Halifax's handwriting of a subscription of four hundred guineas for the encouragement of good comedies, and was dated 1709, soon after they broke up. Steele, Addison, Congreve, Garth, Vanbrugh, Manwaring, Stepney, Walpole, and Pulteney, were of it ; so was Lord Dorset and the present Duke. Manwaring, whom we hear nothing of now, was the ruling man in all conversations ; indeed, what he wrote had very little merit in it. Lord Stanhope and the Earl of Essex were also members. Jacob had his own, and all their pictures, by Sir Godfrey Kneller. Each member gave his, and he is going to build a room for them at Bam Elms." It is from the size at which these portraits were taken (a three-quarter length), 36 by 28 inches, that the word Kit- Kat came to be applied to pictures. Tonson had the room built at Barn Elms ; but the apartment not being sufficiently large to receive half-length pictures, a shorter canvas was adopted. In 18 17, the Club-room was standing, but the pictures had long been removed ; soon after, the room was united to a bam, to form a riding-house. In summer the Club met at the Upper Flask, Hampstead Heath, then a gay resort, with its races, ruffles, and private marriages. The pictures passed to Richard Tonson, the descendant of the old bookseller, who resided at Water-Oakley, on the banks of the Thames : he added a room to his villa, and E 2 52 CLUB LIFE. OF LONDON. here the portraits were hung. On his death the pictures were bequeathed to Mr. Baker, of Bayfordbury, the repre- sentative of the Tonson family : all of them were included in the Art Treasures Exhibition at Manchester and some in the International Exhibition of 1862. The poHtical significance of the Club was such that Walpole records that though the Club was generally men- tioned as "a set of wits," they were in reality the patriots that saved Britain. According to Pope and Tonson, Garth, Vanbrugh, and Congreve were the three most honest- hearted, real good men of the poetical members of the Club. There were odd scenes and incidents occasionally at the club meetings. Sir Samuel Garth, physician to George I., was a witty member and wrote some of the inscriptions for the toasting-glasses. Coming one night to the Club, Garth declared he must soon be gone, having many patients to attend; but some good wine being produced, he forgot them. Sir Richard Steele was of the party, and reminding him of the visits he had to pay. Garth immediately pulled out his list, which numbered fifteen, and said, " It's no great matter whether I see them to-night, or not, for nine of them have such bad constitutions that all the physicians in the world can't save them ; and the other six have such good constitutions that all the physicians in the world can't kill them." Dr. Hoadley, Bishop of Bangor, accompanied Steele and Addison to one of the Whig celebrations by the Club, of King WilUam's anniversary ; when Steele had the double duty of celebrating the day and drinking his friend Addison up to conversation pitch, he being hardly warmed by that time. Steele was not fit for it. So, John Sly, the hatter of facetious memory, being in the house, took it into his head to come into the company on his knees, with a tankard of ale in his hand, to drink off to the immortal memory , and to return in the same manner. Steele, sitting next Bishop THE KIl-KAT CLUB. S3 Hoadley, whispered him, " Do laugh : it is humanity to laugh." By-and-by, Steele being too much in the same con- dition as the hatter, was put into a chair, and sent home. Nothing would satisfy him but being carried to the Bishop of Bangor's, late as it was. However, the chairmen carried him home, and got him upstairs, when his great com- plaisance would wait on them downstairs, which he did, and then was got quietly to bed. Next morning Steele sent the indulgent bishop this couplet : Virtue with so much ease on Bangor sits, All faults he pardons, though he none commits. Mr. Knight successfully defends Tonson from Ward's satire, and nobly stands forth for the bookseller who identified himself with Milton, by first making Paradise Lost popular^ and being the first bookseller who threw open Shakspeare to a reading public. "The statesmen of the Kit-Kat Club," he adds, " lived in social union with tlie Whig writers who were devoted to the charge of the poetry that opened their road to preferment ; the band of orators and wits were naturally hateful to the Tory authors that Harley and Bolingbroke were nursing into the bitter satirists of the weekly sheets." Jacob Tonson naturally came in for a due share of invective. In a poem entitled Pactions Displayed, he is ironically introduced as " the Touchstone of all modern wit ;" and he is made to vilify the great ones of Bam Elms : I am the founder of your loved Kit-Kat, A club that gave direction to the State : 'Twas there we first instructed all our youth To talk profane, and laugh at sacred truth : We taught them how to boast, and rhyme, and bite. To sleep away the day, and drink away the night. ;'onson deserved better of posterity. 54 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. The Tatler's Club in Shire-lane. Shire-lane, alias Rogue-lane, (which falleth into Fleet- street by Temple Bar,) has lost its old name — it is now called Lower Serle's-place. If the morals of Shire-lane have mended thereby, we must not repine. Here lived Sir Charles Sedley; and here his son, the dramatic poet, was born, " neere the Globe." Here, too, lived Elias Ashmole, and here Antony \ Wood dined with him : this was at the upper end of the lane. Here, too, was the Trumpet tavern, where Isaac Bickerstaff met his Club. At this house he dated a great number of his papers ; and hence he led down the lane into Fleet-street, the. deputation of " Twaddlers " from the country, to Dick's Coffee-house, which we never enter without remembering the glorious humour of Addison and Steele, in the Tatter, No. 86. Sir Harry Quickset, Sir Giles Wheelbarrow, and other persons of quality, having reached the Tatler's by appointment, and it being settled that they should " adjourn to some public-house, and enter upon business,'' the pre- cedence was attended with much difficulty ; when, upon a false alarm of "lire," all ran down as fast as they could, without order or ceremony, and drew up in the street. The Tatler proteeds : " In this order we marched down Sheer-lane, at the upper end of which I lodge. When we came to Temple Bar, Sir Harry and Sir Giles got over, but a run of coaches kept the rest of us on this side of the street ; however, we all at last landed, and drew up in very good order before Ben Tooke's shop, who favoured our rallying with great humanity; from whence we proceeded again; until we came to Dick's Coifee-house, where I designed to carry them. Here we were at our old difficulty, and took up the street upon the same ceremony. We proceeded through the entry, and were so necessarily kept in order by the situation, that we were now got into the coffee-house THE TATLER'S CLUB IN SHIRE-LANE. 55 itself, where, as soon as we had arrived, we repeated our civilities to each other; after which we marched up to the high table, which has an ascent to it inclosed in the middle of the room. The whole house was alarmed at this entry, made up of persons of so much state and rus- ticity." The Taller' s Club is immortalized in his No. 132. Its members are smokers and old story-tellers, rather easy than shining companions, promoting the thoughts tranquilly bed- ward, and not the less comfortable to Mr. Bickerstaff, because he finds himself the leading wit among them. There is old Sir Jefirey Notch, who has had misfortunes in the world, and calls every thriving man a pitiful upstart, by no means to the general dissatisfaction ! there is Major Match- lock, who served in the last Civil Wars, and every night tells them of his having been knocked off his horse at the rising of the London apprentices, for which he is in great esteem ; there is honest Dick Reptile, who says little himself, but who laughs at all the jokes ; and there is the elderly bencher of the Temple, and, next to Mr. Bickerstaff, the wit of the company, who has by heart the couplets of Hudibras, which he regularly applies before leaving the Club of an evening ; and who, if any modern wit or town froUc be mentioned, shakes his head at the dulness of the present age, and tells a story of Jack Ogle. As for Mr. Bickerstaff himself, he is esteemed among them because they see he is something respected by others ; but though they concede to him a great deal of learning, they credit him with small knowledge of the world, "insomuch that the Major sometimes, in the height of his military pride, calls me philosopher; and Sir Jeffrey, no longer ago than last night, upon a dispute what day of the month it was then in Holland, pulled his pipe out of his mouth, and cried, ' What does the scholar say to that ?' " Upon Addison's return to England he found his friend Steele established among the wits : and they were both 56 CLUB LII'E OF LONDON. received with great honour at the Trumpet, as well as at Will's, and the St. James's. The Trumpet public-house lasted to our time; it was changed to the Duke of York sign, but has long disappeared : we remember an old drawing of the Trumpet, by Sam. Ireland, engraved in the Monthcy Magazine. The Royal Society Club. In Sir R. Kaye's Collection, in the British Museum, we find the following account of the institution of a Society which at one time numbered among its members some of the most eminent men in London, in a communication to the Rev. Sir R. Kaye by Sir Joseph Ayloffe, an original member :— " Dr. Halley used to come on a Tuesday from Greenwich, the Royal Observatory, to Child's Coflfee-house, where literary people met for conversation : and he dined with his sister, but sometimes they stayed so long that he was too late for dinner, and they likewise, at their own home. They then agree to go to a house in Dean's-court, between an ale-house and a tavern, now a stationer's shop, where there was a great draft of porter, but not drank in the house. It was kept by one Reynell. It was agreed that one of the company should go to Knight's and buy fish in Newgate-street, having first informed himself how many meant to stay and dine. The ordinary and liquor usually came to half-a-crown, and the dinner only consisted of fish and pudding. Dr. Halley never eat anything but fish, for he had no teeth. The number seldom exceeded five or six. It began to take place about 1731; soon afterwards Reynell took the King's Arms, in St. Paul's Churchyard; and desired Dr. Halley to go with him there. He and others consented, and they began to have a little meat. On Dr. Halley's death, Martin Foulkes took the chair. They afterwards removed to the Mitre (Fleet-street), for the convenience of the situation with respect to the Royal THE ROYAL SOCIETY CLUB. 57 Society, and as it was near Crane-court, and numbers wished to become members. It was necessary to give it a form. The number was fixed at forty members ; one of whom was to be Treasurer and Secretary of the Royal Society." Out of these meetings is said to have grown the Royal Society Club, or, as it was styled durmg the first half century of its existence, the Club of Royal Philosophers. " It was established for the convenience of certain members who lived in various parts, that they might assemble and dine together on the days when the Society held its evening meet- ings ; and from its almost free admission of members of the Council detained by business, its liberality to visitors, and its hospitable reception of scientific foreigners, it has been of obvious utility to the scientific body at large." (Rise and Progress of the Club, privately printed.) The foundation of the Club is stated to have been in the year 1743, and in the Minutes of this date are the following :^ " Jiules and Orders to be observed by the Thursday's Club, called the Royal Philosophers. — A Dinner to be ordered every Thursday for six, at one shilling and sixpence a head for eating. As many more as come to pay one shilling and sixpence per head each. If fewer than six come, the deficiency to be paid out of the fund subscribed. Each subscriber to pay down six shillings — viz. for four dinners, to make a fund. A pint of wine to be paid for by every one that comes, be the number what it will, and no more, unless more wine is brought in than that amounts to." In addition to Sir R. Kaye's testimony to the existence of a club of an earlier date than 1743, there are in the Minutes certain references to "antient Members of the Club ;" and a tradition of the ill omen of thirteen persons dining at the table said to be on record in the Club papers : "that one of the Royal Philosophers entering the Mitre Tavern, and finding twelve others about to discuss the fare, 58 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. retreated, and dined by himself in another apartment, in order to avert the prognostic." Still, no such statement is now to be found entered, and if ever it were recorded, it must have been anterior to 1743; curiously enough, thirteen is a very usual number at these dinners. The original Members were soon increased by various Fellows of the Society ; and at first the Club did not consist exclusively of Royals; but this arrangement not having been found to work well, the membership was confined to the Fellows, and latterly to the number of forty. Every Member was allowed to introduce one friend ; but the President of the Royal Society was not limited in this respect. We must now say a few words as to the several places at which the Club has dined. The Society had their Anniversary Dinner at Pontack's celebrated French eating-house, in Ab- church-lane. City, until 1746. Evelyn notes : "30 Nov. 1694. Much importuned to take the office of President of the Royal Society, but I again declined it. Sir Robert South- well was continued. We all dined at Pontac's, as usual." Here, in 1699, Dr. Bentley wrote to Evelyn, asking him to, meet Sir Christopher Wren, Sir Robert Southwell, and other friends, at dinner, to consider the propriety of purchasing Bishop Stillingfleet's library for the Royal Society. From Pontack's, which was found to be inconveniently situated for the majority of the Fellows, the Society re- moved to the Devil Tavern, near Temple Bar. The Minutes record that the Club met at the Mitre Tavern, in Fleet-street, " over against Fetter-lane," from the date of their institution j this house being chosen from its being handy to Crane-cOurt, where the Society then met. This, be it remembered, was not the Mitre Tavern now standing in Mitre-court, but "the Mitre Tavern, in Fleet- street," mentioned by Lilly, in his Life, as the place where he met old Will. Poole, the astrologer, then living in Ram- alley. The Mitre, in Fleet-street, Mr. J. H. Bum, in his THE ROYAL SOCIETY CLUB. 59 excellent Account of the Beatrfoy Tokens, states to have been originally established by a William Paget, of the Mitre in Cheapside, who removed westward after his house had been destroyed m the Great Fire of September, 1666. The house in Fleet-street was lastly Saunders's Auction-room, No. 39, and was demolished by Messrs. Hoare, to enlarge the site for their new banking-house, the western portion of which now occupies the tavern site. The now Mitre, in Mitrecourt, formerly Joe's, is but a recent assumption of name.* In 1780, the Club removed to the Crown and Anchor Tavern, in the Strand, where they continued to dine for sixty-eight years, until that tavern was converted, in 1848, into a Club-house. Then they removed to the Freemasons' Tavern, in Great Queen Street ; but, in 1857, on the removal of the Royal Society to Burlington House, Piccadilly, it was considered advisable to keep the Club meetings at the Thatched House, in St. James's Street, where they continued until that tavern was taken down. During the early times, the docketings of the Club ac- counts show that the brotherhood retained the title of Royal Philosophers to the year 1786, when it seems they were only designated the Royals ; but they have now settled into the " Royal Society Club." The elections are always an ex- citing matter of interest, and the fate of candidates is occasionally severe, for there are various instances of re- jections on two successive annual ballots, and some have been black-balled even on a third venture ; some of the defeated might be esteemed for talent, yet were considered unclubbable. Some of the entries in the earliest minute-book are very curious, and show that the Philosophers did not restrict themselves to " the fish and pudding dinner." Here is the • See Walks and Talks about London, p. 246. The Mitre in Fleet street was also the house frequented by Dr. Johnson. 6o CLUB LIFE "^ LONDON. bill of fare for sixteen persons, a few years after the Club was established : " Turkey, boiled, and oysters ; Calves' head, hashed ; Chine of Mutton ; Apple pye ; 2 dishes of herrings ; Tongue and udder ; Leg of pork and pease ; S'loin of beef j Plum pudding; butter and cheese." Black puddings are stated to have figured for many years at every dinner of the Club. The presents made to the Club were very numerous, and called for special regvilations. Thus, under the date of May 3, 1750, it is recorded: "Resolved nem. con., That any nobleman or gentleman complimenting this company annually with venison, not less than a haunch, shall, during the continuance of such annuity, be deemed an Honorary Member, and admitted as often as he comes, without paying the fine, which those Members do who are elected by ballot." At another Meeting, in the same year, a resolution was passed, " That any gentleman complimenting this Society annually with a Turtle shall be considered as an Honorary Member ;" and that the Treasurer do pay Keeper's fees and carriage for all venison sent to the Society, and charge it in his account. Thus, besides gratuities to cooks, there are numerous chronicled entries of the following tenour : — " Keeper's fees and carriage of a buck from the Hon. P. Yorke, 14^-. ; Fees, etc., for Venison and Salmon, j^i. \^s. ; Do., half a Buck from the Earl of Hardwick, £,1. 5s. ; Fees and carriage for a Buck from H. Read, Esq., ;£i. 3 J. 6d. ; Fees for Venison and Game from Mr. Banks, £1. gs. 6d; . . . August 15, 1751. The Society being this day entertained with halfe a Bucke by the Most Hon"" the Marquis of Rockingham, it was agreed, fiem. con., to drink his health in claret. Sept. 5th, 1751. — The Com- pany being entertained with a whole Bucke (halfe of which was dressed to-day) by Henry Read, Esq., his health was drunk in claret, as usual ; and Mr. Cole (the landlord) was desired to dispose of the halfe, and give the Company Venisons instead of it next Thursday.'' The following week THE ROYAL SOCIETY CLUB. 6r the largess is again gravely noticed : "The Company being this day regaled with the other halfe of Mr. Read's buck (which Mr. Cole had preserved sweet), his health was again drank in claret." Turtle has already been mentioned among the presents. In 1784, the circumnavigator Lord Anson honoured the Club by presenting the members with a magnificent Turtle, when the Club drank his Lordship's and other turtle donors' healths in claret. On one occasion, it is stated that the usual dining-room could not be occupied on account of a turtle being dressed which weighed 400 lb. ; and another minute records that a turtle, intended to be presented to the Club, died on its way home from the West Indies. James Watt has left the following record of one of the Philosophers' turtle feasts, at which he was present : — " When I was in London in 1785, I was received very kindly by Mr. Cavendish and Dr. Blagden, and my old friend Smeaton, who has recovered his health, and seems hearty. I dined at a turtle feast with them, and the select Club of the Royal Society ; and never was turtle eaten with greater sobriety and temperance, or more good fellowship." The gift of good old English roast-beef also occurs among the presents, as in the subjoined minute, under the date of June 27, 1751, when Martin Folkes presided: "William Hanbury, Esq., having this day entertained the company with a chine of Beef which was 34 inches in length, and weighed upwards of 140 pounds, it was agreed, nem. con., that two such chines were equal to half a Bucke or a Turtle, and entitled the Donor to be an Honorary Member of this Society." Then we have another record of Mr. Hanbury's mu- nificence, as well as his conscientious regard for minuteness in these matters, in this entry : "Mr. Hanbury sent this day another mighty chine of beef, and, having been a little de- ficient with regard to annual payments of chines of beef, added three brace of very large carp by way of interest." 62 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. Shortly after, we find Lord Morton contributing " two pigs of the China breed." In addition to the venison, game, and other viands, there was no end of presents of fruits for dessert. In 1752, Mr. Cole (the landlord) presented the company with a ripe water-melon from Malaga. In 1753, there is an entry showing that some tusks, a rare and savoury fish, were sent by the Earl of Morton ; and Egyptian Cos-lettuces were supplied by Philip Miller, who, in his Gardener's Dictionary; describes this as the best and most valuable lettuce known ; next he presented " four Cantaloupe melons, equal — if not superior — in flavour to pine-apples." In July, 1763, it is chronicled that Lord Morton sent two pine-apples, cherries of two sorts, melons, gooseberries of two sorts, apricots, and currants of two sorts. However, this practice of making presents got to be un- popular with the Fellows at large, who conceived it to be undignified to receive such gifts; and, in 1779, it was " resolved that no person in future be admitted into the Club in consequence of any present he shall make to it." This singular custom had been in force for thirty years. The \z.\z%\. formal thanks for " a very fine haunch of venison" were voted to Lord Darnley on the 17th of June, 1824. The Club Minutes show the progressive rise in the charges for dinner. From 1743 to 1756 the cost was is. 6d. a head. In the latter year it was resolved to give ^s. per head for dinner and wine, the cominons for absentees to remain at IS. 6d., as before. In 1775, ^^ price was increased to 4^. a head, including wine, and 2d. to the waiter; in 1801, to Sx. a head, exclusive of wine, the increased duties upon which made it necessary for the members to contribute an annual sum for the expense of wine, over and above the charge of the tavern bills. In 177s, the wine was ordered to be laid in at a price not exceeding £^s ^ W9^i or ^s- 6^. a bottle j to have a 7 HE ROYAL SOCIETY CLUB. 63 particular seal upon the cork, and to be charged by the landlord at 2s. 6d. a bottle. The Club always dined on the Society's meeting-day. Wray, writing of a Club-meeting in 1776, says that, "after a capital dinner of venison, which was absolutely perfect, we went to another sumptuous entertainment, at the Society, where five electrical eels, all alive, from Surinam, were exhibited ; most of the company received the electrical stroke ; and then we were treated with the sight of a sucking alligator, very lively." It has been more than once remarked that a public dinner of a large party of philosophers and men of science and letters generally turns out to be rather a dull affair ; perhaps, through the enibarras of talent at table. Not so, however, the private social Clubs, the offshoots of Public Societies, like the Royal Society Club, and others we could mention. The Royals do not appear to have been at all indifferent to these post-prandial wit-combats. " Here, my jokes I crack with high-born Peers," writes a Philosopher, alluding to the Club dinners ; and Admiral Smyth, in his unpubhshed Rise and Progress, tells us, that to this day "it unites hilarity, ahd the macrones verborum of smart repartee, with strictures on science, literature, the fine arts — and, indeed, every branch of human knowledge." The administration of the affairs of the Club was minutely attended to : when, in 1776, it was considered necessary to revise " the commons," a committee was appointed for the purpose, consisting of Messrs. Aubert, Cuthburt, Maskelyne, Russell, and Solander, who decided that "should the number of the company exceed the number provided for, the dinner should be made up with the beefstakes, mutton- chops, lamb-chops, veal-cutlets, or pork-stakes, instead of made dishes, or any dearer provisions." And " that two- pence per head be allowed for the waiter {which seems to have hem the regtilar gratuity for many years). Then, the General Committee had to report that the landlord was to charge for gentlemen's servants, "one shilling each for dinner 64 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. and a pot of porter ;" and " that when toasted cheese was called for, he was to make a charge for it." In 1784, the celebrated geologist, Faujas da Saint-Fond (Barthdlemy), with four other distinguished foreigners, partook of the hospitality of the Club, of which, in 1797, M. Faujas pubHshed an account. " He mentions the short prayer or grace with which Dr. Maskelyne blessed the com- pany and the food — the solid meats and unseasoned vege- tables — the quantities of strong beer called porter, drank out of cylindrical pewter pots d'u7i seul trait — the cheese to provoke the thirst of drinkers — the hob-a-nobbing of healths — and the detestable coffee. On the whole, however, this honest Frenchman seems to have been delighted with the entertain- ment, or, as he styles it, 'the convivial and unassuming banquet,'" and M. Faujas had to pay "seven livres four sols" for his commons. Among the lighter incidents is the record of M. Aubert having received a present from the King of Poland, begged to have an opportunity of drinking His Majesty's health, and permission to order a bottle of Hermitage, which being granted, the health was drank by the company present ; and upon one of the Club-slips of 1798, after a dinner of twenty-two, is written, "Seven shil- lings found under the table." The dinner-charges appear to have gradually progressed from \s. 6d. to ioj. per head. In 1858-9 the Club-dinners had been 25, and the number of diners 309, so that the mean was equal to 12-36 for each meeting, the visitors amounting to 49; and it is further computed, that the average wine per head of late, waste included, is a considerable fraction less than a pint, imperial standard measure, in the year's consumption. Among the distinguished guests of the Club are many celebrities. Here the chivalrous Sir Sidney Smith described the atrocities of Djezza Pasha j and here that cheerful baronet — ^Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin — by relating the result of his going in a jolly-boat to attack a whale, and in narra- tina: the advantages specified in his proposed patent for THE ROYAL SOCIETY CLUB. 65 fattening fowls, kept " the table in a roar." At this board, also, our famous circumnavigators and oriental voyagers met with countenance and fellowship — as Cook, Fumeaujt, Gierke, King, Bounty Bligh, Vancouver, Guardian Rioil, Flinders, Broughton, Lestock, Wilson, Huddart, BasS, Tuckey, Horsburgh, &c. ; while the Polar explorers, from the Hon. Constantine Phipps, in 1773, down to Sir Leopold M'Clintock,ini86o, were severally and individually welcomed as guests. But, besides our sterling sea-worthies, we find in ranging through the documents that some rather outlandish visitors were introduced through their means, as Chet Quang and Wanga Tong, Chinese; Ejutak and Tuklivina, Esqui- maux; Thayen-danega, the Mohawk chief; while Omai, of Ulareta, the celebrated and popular savage, of CooKs Voyages, was so frequently invited, that he is latterly entered on the Club papers simply as Mr. Omai." The redoubtable Sir John Hill dined at the Club in com- pany with Lord Baltimore on the 30th of June, 1748. Hill was consecutively an apothecary, actor, playwright, novelist, botanist, journalist, and physician ; and he published upon trees and flowers, Betty Canning, gems, naval history, religion, cookery, and what not. Having made an attempt to enter the Royal Society, and finding the door closed against him, — perhaps a pert vivacity at the very dinner in question sealed the rejection, — ^he revenged himself by publishing an impu- dent quarto volume, vindictively satirizing the Society. Ned Ward, in his humorous Account of the Clubs of London, published in 1709, describes "the Virtuoso's Club as first established by some of the principal members of the Royal Society, and held every Thursday, at a certain Tavern in Comhill, where the Vintner that kept it has, according to his merit, made a fortunate step from his Bar to his Coach. The chief design of the aforementioned Club was to propa- gate new whims, advance mechanical exercises, and to pro- mote useless as well as useful experiments." There is humour in this, as well as in his ridicule of the Barometer : " by this F .66 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. notable invention," he .says, "our gentlemen and ladies of the middle quality are infallibly told when it's a right season to put on their best clothes, and when they ought not-to venture an intrigue in the fields without their cloaks and unibrellas." His ridicule of turning salt water into fresh, finding a new star, a,ssigning reasons for a spot in the moon, and a' "wry step" in the sun's progress, were Ward's points^ laughed at in his time, but afterwards established as facts. There have been greater mistakes made since Ward's time ; but this does not cleanse him of filth and foulness. Ward's record is evidence of the existence of the Royal Society Club, in 1709, before the date of the Minutes. 'Dr. Hutton, too, records the designation of Halley's Glub — undoubted testimony; about 1737, he; Halley, though seized with paralysis, once a week, within a very short time of his death, met his friends in town, on Thursdays, the day of the Royal Society's ^meeting, at ■" Dr. Halley's Club." Upon this evidence Admiral Smyth establishes the claim that the Royal Society Club was actually established by a zealous philso- pher, " who was at once proudly eminent as an astronomer, a mathematician, a physiologist, a naturahst, a scholar, an antiquary, a poet, a meteorologist, a geographer, a navi- gator, -a nsiutical surveyor, and a truly social member- of the community — in a word, our founder was the illustrious Halley — the Admirable Crichton of science." A memorable dinner-party took place on August the nth, 1859, when among the visitors was Mr. Thomas Maclear (now Sir Thomas), the Astronomer-Royal at the Cape- of Gooci Hope, who had just anived in England from r; the southern hemisphere, after an absence of a quarter of a century. "On this day, were present, so to speak; the representa,tives of the three great applications by which the present age is distinguished, namely, of Railuuays, Mr. . Stephenson ;, of the Electric Telegraph, Mr. Wheatstone:; and of the Hentiy Fast, Mr. Rowland Hill — an assemblage never ae;ain to, occur.".. {Adntiral Smyth's History of the Club.) THE ROYAL SOCIETY CL UB. 6f Among thef anecdotes which float about, it iS related that the eccentric Hon. Henry Cavendish, "the' Chib-Croesus," attended the metetings with only money enough in his pocket to pay for his dinner, and that he may hkye dechned taking tavern-soup, may have picked his teeth with a fork, may invariably have hung his hat oil the same peg, and may have always stuck his cane in his right boot ; but' more apocryphal is the anecdote that one evening Cavendish observed a very pretty girl iodking out froni an upper window on the opposite side of the street, watching the philosophers at dihner. She attracted notice, and one by one they got up and mustered round the window to admire the fair one. Cavendish, who thought they Were looking at the moon, bustled up to them ' in his odd way, and when he saw the real object of their study, turned ■ away with intense disgust, and grunted out " Pshaw j" the amorous conduct of his brother Philosophers having horrified the woma.n-hating Cavendish. ' ' Another assertion is that he, Cavendish, left a thumping' le^cy to Lord Bessboiough, in gratitude for his Lordship's piqiiant conversation at the Club ; but no such reasoh can be found in the Will lodged at Doctors' Commons'. The Testator named therein three' of his' Club-mates, namel}', Alexander Dalrymple, to receive Spop/., Dr. Hunter, 5000/., and Sir Charles Blagd6n (coadjutor in the Water question), 15,000/. After certain other bequests, the will proceeds,— " The remainder of the funds (nearly 700,005/.) to be di-vided, one-sixth to the .Earl of Bessborough,' while the cousin. Lord George Henry Cavendish, had two-sixths, instead of one;" "it is therefore," says Admiral Smyth, " patent that the mbney thus passed over from uncle to nephew, was a mere consequence of relationship, aiid not at all owing to any flowers or powers of conversation at the Royal Society Club," Admiral Smyth, to whose SiAmiraMQ J»-ids of the History of the Club we' have to make acknov/ledgement, remarks that the hospitality of the'- Royal Society has been " of F a 68 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. material utility to the well-working of the whole machine which wisdom called up, at a time when knowledge was quitting scholastic niceties for the truths of experimental philosophy. This is proved by the number of men of note — both in ability and station — ^who have there congre- gated previously to repairing to the evening meeting of the body at large; and many a qualified person who went thither a guest has returned a candidate. Besides inviting our own princes, dukes, marquises, earls, ministers of state, and nobles of all grades to the table, numerous foreign grandees, prelates, ambassadors, and persons of distinction — from the King of Poland and Baron Munchausen, down to the smart little abbd and a 'gentleman unknown' — ^are found upon the Club records. Not that the amenities of the fraternity were confined to these classes, or that, in the Clubbian sense, they form the most important order ; for bishops, deans, archdeacons, and clergymen in general — astronomers — ^mathematicians — sailors — soldiers — engineers — medical practitioners — poets — artists — travellers — ^musi- cians — opticians — men of repute in every acquirement, were, and ever will be, welcome guests. In a word, t:he names and callings of the visitors offer a type of the philosophical discordia concors ; and among those guests possessed of that knowledge without which genius is almost useless, we find in goodly array such choice names as Benjamin Franklin, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Gibbon, Costard, Bryant, Dalton, Watt, Bolton, Tennant, Wedgwood, Abys- sinian Bruce, Attwood, Boswell, Brinkley, Rigaud, Brydone, Ivory, Jenner, John Hunter, Brunei, Lysons, Weston, Cramer, Kippis, Westmacott, Corbould, Sir Thomas Law- rence, Turner, De La Beche, et hoc genus omne." The President of the Royal Society is elected President of the Club. There were always more candidates for admission than vacancies, a circumstance which had some influence in leading to the formation of a new Club, in 1847, composed of eminent Fellows of the Society. The name of this new THE COCOA-TREE CLUB. 69 Association is " the Philosophical Club," and its object is " to promote, as much as possible, the scientific objects of the Royal Society, to facilitate intercourse between those Fellows who are actively engaged in cultivating the various branches of Natural Science, and who have contributed to its progress; to increase the attendance at the Evening Meetings, and to encourage the contribution and the dis- cussion of papers." Nor are the dinners forgotten; the price of each not to exceed ten shillings. The statistical portion of the Annual Statement of i86o,f shows that the number of dinners for the past year amounted to 25, at which the attendance was 312 persons, 62 o whom were visitors, the average being = 1 2 -48 each time : and the Treasurer called attention to the fact that out of the Club funds in the last twelvemonth, they had paid not less than 9/. (>s. for soda and seltzer water ; 8/. 2 j. i>d. for cards of invitation and postage; and 25/. for visitors, that is, 8j. o|^. per head. The Cocoa-Tree Club. This noted Club was the Tory Chocolate-house of Queen Anne's reign ; the Whig Coffee-house was the St. James's, lower down, in the same street, St. James's. The party distinction is thus defined : — " A Whig will no more go to the Cocoa-tree or Ozinda's, than a Tory will be seen at the ■coffee-house of St. James's." The Cocoa-tree Chocolate-house was converted into a Club, probably before 1746, when the house was the head- quarters of the Jacobite party in Parliament. It is thus referred to in the above year by Horace Walpole, in a letter to George Montagu :— " The Duke has given Brigadier Mordaunt the Pretender's coach, on condition he rode up to London in it. ' That I will, sir,' said he, ' and drive till it stops of its own accord at the Cocoa-tree.' " ■ Gibbon was a member of this Club, and has left this 70 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. entry in his journal of 1762 : — ^^"Nov. 24. I dined at the Cocoa Tree with* * *, who, under a great appearance of oddity, conceals more real humour, good sense, and even knowledge, than half those who laugh at him.: We went thence to the play {The Spanish Friar) ; and when it was . over, retired to the Cocoa-tree. That respectable body, of which I have the honour of being a member, affords every evening a sight truly English. Twenty or thirty, perhaps, of the first men in the kingdom in point of fashion and fortune supping at little tables covered with a nalpkin, in the middle of a coffee-room, upon a bit of cold meat, or a sandwich, and drinking a glass of punch. At present we are full of King's counsellors and lords of the bedchamber ; 'v\ho, having jumped into the ministry, make a very singular medley of their old principles and language with their modern ones." At this time, bribery was in full swing : it is alleged that the lowest bribe for a vote upon the Peace of Fontainebleau, was a bank-note of 200/. ; and that the Secretary of the Treasury afterwards acknowledged 25,000/. to have been thus expended in a single morning. And in 1765, on the debate in the Commons on the Regency Bill, we read in the Chatham Correspondence : " The Cocoa-tree have thus capacitated Her Royal Highness (the Princess of Wales) to be Regent : it is well they have not given- us a King, if they have not ; for many think, Lord Bute is King." Although the Cocoa-tree, in its conversion from , a Chocolate-house to a Club, may have bettered its reputation in some respects, high play, if not foul play, was known there twenty years later. Walpole, writing to Mann, Feb. 6, 1 780, says : ' Within this week there has been a cast at hazard at the Cocoa-tree, (in St. James's Street,) the differ- ence of which amounted to one hundred and fourscore thousand pounds. Mr. O'Birne, an Irish gamester, had won one hundred thousand pounds of a young Mr. Harvey of Chigwell, just started into an estate by his elder,, brother's ALMACK'S ClUB. fi dfeath. O'Bliliesiid, "You can never pay me." "I can," said the youth': "my estate will 'sell for the debt." '" No," said O. : " I will win ten thousand— you shall throw foi' the odd ninety."^ They did, and Harvey won." The C&coa-iree was one of the^ Clubs to wHich' Lord Byron belonged. Almack's Club. Almack's, the original Brookes's, on the south side of the Whig Club-house, was established in Pall Mall, on the site of the British Institution, in 1764, by twenty-Seven notilem^n and ge'ntlehifen, including the Duke of Rdxbilrghe, the Duke of Portland, the Earl of Strathmore, Mr. Crewe (afterwards Lord Crewe), and Mr. C. J. Fox. Mr. Cunningham was perniitted to inspect the original Rules of the Cliib, which show its nature ; here are "a fevV. " "21. No gaming in the eating-room, except tossing up for reckonings, on penalty of paying the whole bill of the members present. " 22. Dinner shall be served up exactly at half-past four o'dock, and the bill shall be brought in at s'even. "26. Almack shall sell no wines in bottles that the Club approves of, out of the house. . i- " 30. Any member of this Society that shall become a candidate for any other Club, (Old White's excepted,) shall be ipso facto excluded, and his name struck out of the book. "40. That every person playing at the new guinea table do keep fifty guineas before him. "41. That every person playing at the twenty guinea table do not keep: less than twenty guineas before him." That the play ran high may be inferred from a note against the name of Mr. Thynne, in the Club-books: " Mr. Thynne having won only 1 2,000 guineas during the last two months, retired in disgust, March 2ist, 1772." Some of its members were Maccaronis, the "curled 72 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. darlings " of the day : they were so called from their affecta- tion of foreign tastes and fashions, and were celebrated for their long curls and eye-glasses. Much of the deep play was removed here. "The gaming at Almack's," writes Walpole to Mann, February 2, 1770, "which has taken the fas of White's, is worthy the decline of our empire, or com- monwealth, which you please. The young men of the age lose ten, fifteen, twenty thousand pounds in an evening there. Lord Stavordale, not one-and-twenty, lost 11,000/. there last Tuesday, but recovered it by one great hand at hazard. He swore a great oath, ' Now, if I had been play- ing deep, I might have won millions.' His cousin, Charles Fox, shines equally there, and in the House of Commons. He was twenty-one yesterday se'nnight, and is already one of our best speakers. Yesterday he was made a Lprd of the Admiralty." Gibbon, the historian, was also a member, and he dates several letters from here. On June 24, 1776, he writes : " Town grows empty, and this house, where I have passed many agreeable hours, is the only place which still invites the flower of the English youth. The style of living, though somewhat expensive, is exceedingly pleasant ; and, notwithstanding the rage of play, I have found more entertainment and rational society than in any other club to which I belong." The play was certainly high — only for rouleaus of 50/. each, and generally there was 10,000/. in specie on the table. The gamesters began by pulling off their embroidered clothes, and put on frieze greatcoats, or turned their coats inside outwards for luck. They put on pieces of leather (such as are worn by footmen when they clean the knives) to save their laced rufiSes ; and to guard their eyes from the light, and to prevent tumbling their hair, wore high- crowned straw hats with broad brims, and adorned with flowers and ribbons ; masks to conceal their emotions when they played at quinz. Each gamester had a small neat ALMA CK'S ASSEMBL Y ROOMS. 73 Stand by him, to hold his tea ; or a wooden bowl with an edge of ormolu, to hold the rouleaus. Almack's was subsequently Goosetree's. In the year 1780, Pitt was then an habitual frequenter, and here his personal adherents mustered strongly. The members, we are told in the Life of Wilberforce, were about twenty-five in number, and included Pratt (afterwards Lord Camden), Lords Euston, Chatham, Graham, Duncannon, Althorp, Apsley, G. Cavendish, and Lennox; Messrs. Eliot, Sir Andrew St. John, Bridgeman (afterwards Lord Bradford), Morris Robinson (afterwards Lord Rokeby), R. Smith (afterwards Lord Carrington), W. Grenville (afterwards Lord Grenville),_ Pepper Arden (afterwards Lord Alvanley), Mr. Edwards, Mr. Marsham, Mr. Pitt, Mr. Wilberforce, Mr. Bankes, Mr. Thomas Steele, General Smith, Mr. Windham. In the gambling at Goosetree's, Pitt played with charac- teristic and intense eagerness. When Wilberforce came up to London in 1780, after his return to Parliament, his great success coloured his entry into public life, and he was at once elected a member of the leading clubs — Miles's and Evans's, Brookes's and Boodle's, White's and Goosetree's. The latter was Wilberforce's usual resort, where his friend- ship with Pitt, whom he had slightly known at Cambridge, greatly increased : he once lost 100/. at the faro-table, and on another night kept the bank, by which he won 600/. ; but he soon became weaned from play. Almack's Assembly Rooms. In the year following the opening of Almack's Club in Pall Mall, Almack had built for him by Robert Mylne, the suite of Assembly Rooms, in King-street, St. James's, which was named after him, " Almack's," and was occasion- ally called "Willis's Room's," after the next proprietor. Almack likewise kept the Thatched House Tavern, in St. James's-street 74 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. ■ ^Alifiack'S was Op'efied Feb.- 20, 1765, and was advertised to have been built with hot bricks and boiling water : the ceilings were dripping with wet ; but the Duke of Cumberland, the Hero of CuUoden, was there. Gilly Williams, a few days after the opening, in abetter to George Selwyn, >vrites : " There is now opened at Almack's, in three very elegant new-built rooms, a ten-guinea subscription, for which you have a ball and supper once a week, for twelve weeks. You may imagine by the sum the company is chosen ; though, refined as it is, it will be scarce able to put out old Soho (Mrs. Comeleys) out of countenance! The men's tickets are not transferable, so, if the ladies do not like us, they have no oppoirtUhity of changing us, but must see the same persons for ever." ..." Our female Almack's flourishes beyond description. Almack's Scotch face, in a bag-wig, waiting at supper, would divert you, as would his lady, in a sack, making tea and curtseying to the duchesses." Five years later, in 1770, Walpole writes to Montagu: ■" There is a new Institution that begins to make, and if it proceeds, will make a considerable noise. It is a Club of both sexes, to be erected at Almack's, on the model of that of the men of White's. Mrs. Fitzroy, Lady Pembroke, Mrs. Meynell, Lady Molyneux, Miss Pelham, and Miss Lloyd, are the foundresses. I am ashamed to say I am of so young and fashionable society ; but as they are people I live with, I choose to be idle rather than morose. I can go to a young supper without forgetting how much sand is run out of the hour-glass." Mrs. Boscawen tells Mrs. Delany of this Club of lords and ladies who first met at a tavern, but subsequently, to satisfy Lady Pembroke's scruples, in a room at Almack's. " The ladies nominate and choose the gentlemen and-wV^ versA, so that no lady can exclude a lady, or gentleman a gentletnan." Ladies Rochford, Harrington, and Holderness were black-i balled, as was the Duchess of Bedford, who was subsequently admitted ! Lord March and Brook Boothby were black. ALMA CK 'S ASSEMBL Y ROOMS. 73 balled- by the ladies, ^ to their great astonishment. There was a dinner*'- then supper at eleven, and, says Mrs. Boscawen, "play will be deep and constant, probably." The frenzy for play was then at its height. "Nothing within my memory comes up to it 1" exclaims Mrs. Delany, who attributes it to the prevailing "avarice and extraga- ^'ance." Some men made profit out of it, like Mr. Thyrine. "who has won this year so considerably that he has paid off all his debts, bought a house and furnished it, disposed of his horses, hounds, etc., and struck his name out of all expensive subscriptions. But what a horrid r^ection'w. must be to an honest mind to build his fortune on the ruin of others." Almack's large ball-room is about one hundred feet in length, by forty feet in width ; it is chastely decorated with gilt columns and pilasters, classic medallions, mirrors, etc., and is lit with gas, in cut-glass lustres. The largest number of persons ever present in this room atone ball was 1700. The rooms are let for public meetings, dramatic readings, concerts, balls, and occasionally for dinners. Here Mrs. Billington, Mr. Braham, and Signer Naldi, gave concerts, from 1808 to 18 10, in rivalry with Madame Catalan!, at Hanover-square Rooms ; and here Mr. Charles Kemble gave, in 1844, his Readings from Shakspeare. The Balls at Almack's are managed by a Committee of Ladies of high rank, and the only mode of admission is by vouchers or personal introduction. Almack's has declined of late years ; " a clear proof that the palmy days of exclusiveness are gone by in England; and though it is obviously impossible to prevent any given number of persons from congregating and re-establishing an oligarchy, we are quite sure that the attempt would be ineffectual, and that the sense of their importance would extend little beyond the set."* In 1831 was published * Quart ei'ly Review ^ 1840; ■?6 . CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. AlmacMs, a novel, in which the leaders of fashion were sketched with much freedom, and identified in A Key to AlmacKs, by Benjamin Disraeli. Brookes's Club. We have just narrated the establishment of this Club — how it was originally a gaming club, and was farmed at first by Almack. It was subsequently taken by Brookes, a wine- merchant and money-lender, according to Selwyn ; and who is described by Tickell, in a copy of verses addressed to Sheridan, when Charles James Fox was to give a supper at his own lodgings, then near the Club : — Derby shall send, if not his plate, his cooks, And know, I've brought the best champagne from Brookes, From liberal Brookes, whose speculative skill Is hasty credit and a distant bill ; Who, nursed in clubs, disdains a vulgar trade, Exults to trust, and blushes to be paid. From Pall Mall Brookes's Club removed to No. 60, on the west side of St. James's-street, where a handsome house was built at Brookes's expense, from the designs of Henry Holland, the architect ; it was opened in October, 1778. The concern did not prosper ; for James Hare writes to George Selwyn, May 18, 1779, "we are all beggars at Brookes's, and he threatens to leave the house, as it yields him no profit." Mr. Cunningham tells us that Brookes retired from the Club soon after it was built, and died poor about the year 1782. Lord Crewe, one of the founders of the Club in Pall Mall, died in 1829, after sixty-five years' membership of Brookes's. Among its celebrities were Burke and Sir Joshua Reynolds, Garrick and Hume, Horace Walpole, Gibbon, and Sheridan and Wilberforce. Lord March, afterwards Duke of Queens- berry, was one of its notorieties — " the old Q., whom many now living can remember, with his fixed eye and cadaverous BROOKES'S CLUB. >ji fe.ce, watching the flow of the human tide past his bow- window in Pall M.a\\."—Mitional Review, 1857. [This is hardly correct as to locality, smce the Club left Pall Mall in 1778, and a reminiscent must be more than 80 years of age.] Among Selwyn's correspondents are Gilly Williams, Hare, Fitzpatrick, the Townshends, Burgoyne, Storer, and Lord Carhsle. R. Tickell, in "Lines from the Hon. Charles Fox to the Hon. John Townshend cruising," thus describes the welcome that awaits Townshend, and the gay life of the Club :— Soon as to Brookes's thence thy footsteps bend, What gratulations thy approach attend ! See Gibbon tap his box ; auspicious sign, That classic compliment and evil combine. See Beauclerk's cheek a tinge of red surprise, And friendship gives what cruel health denies. Important Townshend ! what can thee witlistand ? The ling'ring blackball lags in Boothby's hand. E'en Draper checks the sentimental sigh ; And Smith, without an oath suspends the die. Mr. Wilberforce has thus recorded his first appearance at Brookes's : " Hardly knowing any one, I joined, from mere shyness, in play at the faro-tables, where George Selwyn kept bank. A friend, who knew my inexperience, and regarded me as a victim decked out for sacrifice, called to me, 'What, Wilberforce, is that you?' Selwyn quite resented the interference, and, turning to him, said, in his most expressive tone, ' Oh, Sir, don't interrupt Mr. Wilberforce ; he could not be better employed !' " The Prince of Wales, one day at Brookes's, expatiating on that beautiful but far-fetched idea of Dr. Darwin's, that the reason of the bosom of a beautiful woman being the object of such exquisite delight for a man to look upon, arises from the first pleasurable sensations of warmth, sustenance, and repose, which he derives therefrom in his infancy ; Sheridan replied, " Truly hath it been said, that there is only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous. j;S CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. All children who are brought up by hand must derive their pleasurable sensations from a very different source ; yet I believe no one ever heard of any such, when arrived at manhood, evincing any very rapturous Or amatory emotions at the sight of a wooden spoon." This clever exposure of an ingenious absurditity shows the folly of taking for granted every opinion w^hich may be broached under the sanction of a popular name. The conversation at Brookes's, one ' day, turning on Lord Henry Petty's projected tax upon iron, one member said, that as there was so much opposition to it, it would be better to raise the proposed sum upon coals. " Hold ! my dear fellow," said Sheridan, " that would be out of the frying pan into the fire, with a vengeance." Mr. Whitbread, one evening at Brookes's, talked loudly and largely against the Ministers for laying what was called the war tax upon malt : every one present concurred with him in opinion, but Sheridan could not resist the gratifica- tion of a hit at the brewer himself. He wrote with his pencil upon the back of a letter the following lines, which he handed to Mr. Whitbread, across the table : — They've raised the price of table drink ; What is the reason, do you think ? The tax on malt's the cause I hear — But what has malt to do with beer ?" Looking through a Number of the Quarterly Review, one day, at Brookes's, soon after its first appearance, Sheridan said, in reply to a gentleman who observed that the editor, Mr. Gifford, had boasted of the power of conferring and distributing literary reputation : " Very likely ; and in the present instance I think he has done it so profusely as to have left none for himself." Sir Philip Francis was the convivial companion of Fox, and during the short administration of that statesman was made a Knight of the Bath. One evening, Roger Wilbfaham BROOKES' S CLUB. 79 came up to a whist-table at Brookes's, where Sk PhiUp, who for the first time wore the ribbon of the Order, was engaged in a rubber, and thus accosted him. Laying hold of the ribbon and examining it for some time, he said : "So, this is the way they have rewarded you at last : they have ' given you a little bit of red ribbpn for your services. Sir Philip, have they ? A pretty bit of red ribbon to hang about your neckj and that satisfies you, does it? Now, I wonder what I shall have. — ^What do you think they will give me Sir Philip ?" The newly-made Knight, who had twenty-five guineas depending on the rubber, and who was not very well pleased at the interruption, suddenly turned round, and looking at him fiercely, exclaimed, " A halter, and be d^ — d to you ! " • George III., invariably evinced a strong aversion to Fox, the secret of which it is easy to understand. His son, the Prince of Wales, threw himself into the arms of Fox, and this in the most undisguised manner. Fox lodged in St. James's-street, and as soon as he rose, which was very late, had a levee of his followers, and of the members of the gaming club, at Brookes's, all his disci- ples. His bristly black person, and shagged breast quite open, and rarely purified by any ablutions, was wrapped in a foul linen night-gown, and his bushy hair dishevelled. In these cynic weeds, and with epicurean good-humour did he dictate his politics, and in this school did the heir of the Crown attend his lessons, and imbibe them. .. Fox's. , love pf play was desperate. A few evenings before he moved the repeal of the Marriage Act; in Feb- ruary, 1772, he had been at Brompton on two errands: one -to consult 'Justice Fielding on the penal laws; the other to.borrow ten thousand pounds, which he brought to town at the hazard of being robbed. Fox played admi- rably . both, at whist and ■ piquet ; with such skill, 'indeed, that by the general admission of Brookes's Club, he So CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. might have made four thousand pounds a-year, as they calculated, at those games, if he could have confined himself to them. But his misfortune arose from playing games at chance, particularly at Faro. After eating and drinking plentifully, he sat down to the Faro table, and inevitably rose a loser. Once, indeed, and once only, he won about eight thousand pounds in the course of a single evening. Part of the money he paid away to his cre- ditors, and the remainder he lost almost immediately. Before he attained his thirtieth year, he had completely dissipated everything that he could either command, or could procure by the most ruinous expedients. He had even undergone, at times, many of the severest privations annexed to the vicissitudes that mark a gamester's progress ; frequently wanting money to defray the common daily wants of the most pressing nature. Topham Beauclerc, who lived much in Fox's society, affirmed, that no man could form an idea of the extremities to which he had been driven in order to raise money, after losing his last guinea at the Faro table. He was reduced for successive days to such distress, as to borrow money from the waiters of Brookes's. The very chairmen, whom he was unable to pay, used to dun him for their arrears. In 1781, he might be considered as an extinct volcano, for the pecu- niary aliment that had fed the flame was long consumed. Yet he then occupied a house or lodgings in St. James's- street close to Brookes's, where he passed almost every hour which was not devoted to the House of Commons. Brookes's was then the rallying point or rendezvous of the Opposition ; where, whUe faro, whist, and supper prolonged the night, the principal members of the Minority in both Houses met, in order to compare their information, or to concert and mature their parliamentary measures. Great sums were then borrowed of Jews at exorbitant premiums. Fox called his outward room, where the Jews waited till he rose, the yeruscUem Chamber. His brother Stephen was White's Club, St. James's Street. (Tory.) {The Modern Building by Wyatt, 1851.) Brookes' (Whig) and White's (Tory) Clubs, 1796. {Tlie Ariisfs perspective is slightly faulty.) BROOKESS CLUB. 8i enormously fat] George Selwyn said he was in the right to deal with Shylocks, as he could give them pounds of flesh. When Fox lodged with his friend Fitzpatrick, at Mackie's, some one remarked that two such inmates would be the ruin of Mackie, the oilman ; " No," said George Selwyn ; "so far from ruining him, they will make poor Mackie's fortune J for he will have the credit of having the finest pickles in London." The ruling passion of Fox was partly owing to the lax training of his father, who, by his lavish allowances, fos- tered his propensity for play. According to Chesterfield, the first Lord Holland " had no fixed principles in religion or morality," and he censures him to his son for being " too unwary in ridiculing and exposing them." He gave full swing to Charles in his youth : " let nothing be d9ne," said his Lordship, " to break his spirit ; the world will do that for him." {Selwyn.) At his death, in 1774, he left him 154,000/. to pay his debts ; it was all bespoke, and Fox soon became as deeply pledged as before. Walpole, in 1 78 1, walking up St. James's-street, saw a cart and porters at Fox's door ; with copper and an old chest of drawers, loading. His success at faro had awakened a host of creditors ; but, unless his bank had swelled to the size of the Bank of England, it could not have yielded a sou apiece for each. Epsom, too, had been unpropitious ; and one creditor had actually seized and caried oS Fox's goods, which did not seem worth removing. Yet shortly after this, whom should Walpole find saun- tering by his own door but Fox, who came up and talked to him at the coach-window, on the Marriage Bill, with as much sang froid as if he knew nothing of what had happened. It was at the sale of Fox's library in this year that Walpole made the following singular note : — "lySt, June 20. Sold by auction, the library of Charles Fox, which had been taken in execution. Amongst the books was 82 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON: Mr. Gibbon's first volume of 'Roman History,' which appeared, by the title-page, to have been given by the author to .Mr.,. Fox, who had written in it the following anecdote: — 'The author at Brookes's said there was no salvation for the country till six heads of the principal persons in the administration were laid on the table ; eleven, days later, the same gentleman accepted the place of Lord of Trade under those very ministers, and ha,s acted with them ever since!' Such was the avidity. of bidders for the smallest production of so wonderful a genius, that by the, addition of this httle record, the book sold for three guineas." Lord Tankerville assured Mr. Rogers that Fox once played cards with Fitzpatrick at Brookes's from ten o'clock at night till near six o'clock the next afternoon, a waiter standing by to tell them " whose deal it was," they being too sleepy to know. Fox once -yvon about eight thousand pounds ; and one of his bond-creditors, who soon heard of his good luck, presented himself, and asked for payment, " Impossible, Sir," replied Fox ; " I must first discharge my debts of honour." The bond-creditor remonstrated. " Well, Sir, give me your bond." It was delivered to Fox, who tore it in pieces, and threw them into the fire. " ,Now, Sir," said Fox, "my debt to you is a debt of honour;" and immediately paid him. Amidst the , wildest excesses of youth, even wWle the perpetual victim of his passion for play, Fox eagerly culti- vated at intervals his taste for letters, especially the Greek and Roman historians and poets ; and he found resources in their works, under the most severe depressions occa- sioned by ill-success at the gaming-table. One morning, after Fox had passed the whole night in company with Topham Beauclerc at faro, the two friends were about to separate. Fox had, lost throughout the night, and was in a frame of mind approaching desperation. Beauclerc's an- xiety for the consequences which might ensue led him to be BROOICES'S CLUB. S3 early at Fox's lodgings ; and on arriving, lie inquired, not without apprehension, whether he had risen. The servant replied that Mr. Fox was in the dr'awihg-room, When Beau- clerc walked upstairs, and cautiously opened the door, expecting to behold a frantic gamester stretched on the floor, bewailing his losses, or -plunged in moody despair ; but he was astonished to find him reading a Greek Hero- dotus. " What would you have me do ? " said Fox, "I have lost my last shilling," Upon other occasions, after staking and losing all that he could raise at faro, infetead of ex- claiming against fortune, or manifesting the agitation natural under such circumstances, he would lay his head on the table, and retain his place, but exhausted by mental and bodily fatigue, almost immediately fall into a profound sleep! • . . ,. One night, at Brookes's, Fox made sonle rettiark on Government powder, in allusion to something that had happened. Adams considered it a reflection, and sent Fox a challenge. FOx wdnt out, and took his station, giving a full front. Fitzgerald said, "You iftust stand sideways." Fox said, "Why I am as- thick one way as the nther." — " Fire," was given : Adams fired, Fox did not, and when they said he must, he said, " I'll be d-^d if I do. I have -no qiiarrel." They then advanced to shake hands'. Fox said, " Adams, you'd have killed ■ me if it had not been Government powder." The ball hit him in the groin. - Another celebrated character; who frequented Brookes's in the days of Selwyn, was Dunning, afi:erwards Lord Ash- burton ; and many keen encounters passed between themi. Dunning was a short, thick man, with a turn- up nose, a ■constant shake of the head, and latterly a distressing hectic cough — but a wit of the first water. Though he died at the comparatively' early age of fifty-two,- he amassed 'a fortune of '150,000/. during twenty-five years' practice at the bar; and lived -notwithstanding, so liberally, that his mother, an attorney's widow, some of the wags at Brookes's wickedly G a 84 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. recorded, left him in dudgeon on the score of his extrava- gance, as humorously sketched at a dinner at the lawyer's country-house near Fulham, when the following conversation was represented to have occurred : — " John," said the old lady to her son, after dinner, during which she had been astounded by the profusion of the plate and viands, — " John, I shall not stop another day to witness such shameful extravagance." " But, my dear mother," interrupted Dunning, " you ought to consider that I can afford it : my income, you know " "No income," said the old lady impatiently, "can stand such shameful prodigality. The sum which your cook told me that very iurbot cost, ought to have supported any reasonable family for a week." " Pooh, pooh ! my dear mother," replied the dutiful son, " you would not have me appear shabby. Besides, what is a turbot ?" " Pooh, pooh ! what is a turbot ?" echoed the irritated dame : " don't pooh me, John : I tell you such goings-on can come to no good, and you'll see the end of it before long. However, it sha'n't be said your mother encouraged such sinful waste, for I'll set off in the coach to Devonshire to-morrow morning." " And notwithstanding," said Sheridan, " all John's rhe- torical efforts to detain her, the old lady kept her word." Sheridan's election as a member of Brookes's took place under conflicting circumstances. His success at Stafford met with fewer obstacles than he had to encounter in St. James's-street, where Selwyn's political aversions and personal jealousy were very formidable, as were those of the Earl of Bessborough, and they and other members of the Club had determined to exclude Sheridan. Conscious that every exertion would be made to ensure his success, they agreed not to absent themselves during the time allowed by the regulations of the Club for ballots ; and as one black ball sufficed to extinguish the hopes of a candidate, they BROOKES'S CLUB. 8s repeatedly prevented his election. In order to remove so serious an impediment, Sheridan had recourse to artifice. On the evening when it was resolved to put him up, he found his two inveterate enemies posted as usual. A chair- man was then sent with a note, written in the name of her father-in-law. Lord Bessborough, acquainting him that a fire had broken out in his house in Cavendish Square, and entreating him immediately to return home. Unsuspicious of any trick, as his son and daughter-in-law lived under his roof. Lord Bessborough unhesitatingly quitted the room, and got into a sedan-chair. Selwyn, who resided not far from Brookes's in Cleveland-row, received, nearly at the same time, a verbal message to request his presence, in consequence of Miss Fagniani, (whom he had adopted as his daughter,) being suddenly seized with alarming indis- position. This summons he obeyed ; and no sooner was the room cleared, than Sheridan being proposed a member, a ballot took place, when he was immediately chosen. Lord Bessborough and Selwyn returned without delay, on dis- covering the imposition that had been practised on their credulity, but they were too late to prevent its effects. Such is the story told by Selwyn, in his Memoirs; but the following account is more generally accredited. The Prince of Wales joined Brookes's Club, to have more frequent inter- course with Mr. Fox, one of its earliest members, and who, on his first acquaintance with Sheridan, became anxious for his admission to the Club. Sheridan was three times pro- posed, but as often had the back ball in the ballot, which disqualified him. At length, the hostile ball was traced to George Selwyn, who objected, because his (Sheridan's) father had been upon the stage. Sheridan was apprised of this, and desired that his name might be put up again, and that the further conduct of the matter might be left to himself. Accordingly, on the evening when he was to be balloted for, Sheridan arrived at Brookes's arm-in-arm with the Prince of Wales, just ten minutes before the balloting began. They 85 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. were shown into the candidates' waiting-room, when one of the dub-waiters was ordered to tell Mr. Selwyn that the Prince desired to speak with him immediately. Selwyn obeyed the summons, and Sheridan, to whom this version of the affair states, Sheridan had no personal dislike, enter- tained him for half-an-hour with some political story, which interested him very much, but had no foundation in truth. During Selwyn's absence, the ballO;ting went on, and Sheridan was chosen ; and the result was announced to himself and the Prince by the waiter, with the preconcerted signal of stroking his chin with his hand. Sheridan immediately rose from his seat, and apologizing for a few minutes' absence, told Selwyn that " the Prince would finish the narrative, the catastrophe of which he would find very remarkable." .Sheridan now went upstairs, was introduced to the Club, and was soon in all his glory. . The Prince, in the mean- time, had not the least idea of being left to conclude a story, the thread of which (if it had a thread) he had entirely forgotten. Still, by means of Selwyn's occasional assistance, the Prince got on pretty well for a few minutes when a question from the listener as to the flat contra- diction of a part of His Royal Highness' story to that of Sheridan, completely posed the narrator, andjie stuck fast. After much floundering, the Prince burst into a loud laugh, saying, " D — n the fellow, to leave me to finish the infernal story, of which I know as much as a child unborn 1 But, never mind,. Selwyn; as Sheridan does not seem inclined to come back, let me go upstairs, and I dare say Fox or some of them will be able to tell you all about it." They adjourned to the club-room, and Selwyn now detected the manoeuvre. Sheridan then rose, made a low bow, and apologized to Selwyn, through his dropping into such good company, adding, "They have just been making me a member, without even one Mack ball, and here I am." " The devil they have !" exclaimed Selwyn. — " Facts speak for themselves," said Sheridan j "and I thank you for your " FIGHTING FITZGERALD " A T BROOKES' S. 87 friendly suffrage 3 and now, if you will sit down by us, I will finish my story." — " Your story ! it is all a lie from beginning to end," exclaimed Selwyn, amidst loud laughter from all parts of the room. Among the members who indulged in high play was Alderman Combe, who is said to have made as much money in this way as he did by brewing. One evening, whilst he filled the office of Lord Mayor, he was busy at a full hazard table at Brookes's, where the wit and the dice-box circulated together with great glee, and where Beau Brammell was one of the party. "Come, Mashtub," said Brummell, who was the caster, "what do you set?' — "Twenty-five guineas," answered the Alderman. — " Well, then," returned the Beau, " have at the mare's pony " (25 guineas). He continued to throw until he drove home the brewer's twelve ponies, running ; and then, getting up, and making him a low bow, whilst pocketing the cash, he said, "Thank you, alderman ; for the future, I shall never drink any porter but yours." — " I wish, Sir," repUed the brewer, " that every other black- guard in London would tell me the same." " Fighting Fitzgerald " at Brookes's. This notorious person, George Robert Fitzgerald, though nearly related to one of the first families in Ireland (Leinster), was executed in 1786, for a murder which he had coolly premeditated, and had perpetrated in a most cruel and cowardly manner. His duelling propensities had kept him out of all the first Clubs in London. He once applied to Admiral Keith Stewart to propose him as a candidate for Brookes's ; when the Admiral, knowing that he must either fight or comply with his request, chose the latter. Accordingly, on the night when the ballot was to take place (which was only a mere form in this case, for even Keith Stewart had resolved to black ball him), the duellist accompanied the Admiral to St. James's- 88 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. street, and waited in the room below, while the ballot was taken. This was soon done ; for, without hesitation, each member threw in a black ball; and when the scrutiny came, the company were not a little amazed to find not even mie white ball among the number. However, the rejection being carried mm. con., the question was, which of the members had the hardihood to announce the result to the expectant candidate. No one would undertake the office, for the announcement was thought sure to produce a challenge ; and a duel with Fitzgerald had, in most cases, been fatal to his opponent. The general opinion was that the proposer. Admiral Stewart, should convey the intelli- gence. " No, gentlemen," said he, " I proposed the fellow because I knew you would not admit him ; but, by Jove, I have no inclination to risk my life against that of a madman." " But, Admiral," replied the Duke of Devonshire,* " there being no white ball in the box, he must know that you have black-balled him as well as the rest, and he is sure to call you out at all events." This posed the Admiral, who, after some hesitation, proposed that the waiter should tell Fitzgerald that there was me black ball, and that his name must be put up again if he wished it. All concurred in the propriety of this plan, and the waiter was despatched on the mission. In the mean- time, Fitzgerald had frequently rung the bell to inquire " the state of the poll," and had sent each waiter to ascertain, but neither durst return, when Mr. Brookes took the message from the waiter who was descending the staircase, and boldly entered the room, with a coffee equipage in his hand. " Did you call for coffee. Sir ?" said Mr. Brookes, smartly. " D — n your coffee, Sir ! and you too," answered Mr. Fitzgerald, in a voice which made the host's blood run cold. * This, was the bon-vivant Duke who had got ready for him every night, for supper, at Brookes's, a broiled blade-bone of mutton. "FIGHTm G FITZGERALD "AT BROOKES S. 89 " I want to know, Sir, and that without one moment's delay, Sir, if I am chose yet ?" " Oh, Sir !" replied Mr. Brookes, attempting to smile away the appearance of fear, " I beg your pardon, Sir, "but I was just coming to announce to you. Sir, with Admiral Stewart's compliments, Sir, that unfortunately there was one black ball in the box. Sir ; and consequently, by the rules of the Club, Sir, no candidate can be admitted without a new election, Sir; — which cannot take place, by the standing regulations of the Club, Sir, until one month from this time, Sir." During this address, Fitzgerald's irascibility appeared to undergo considerable mollification ; and at its close, he grasped Brooke's hand, saying, " My dear Brookes, Pm chose ; but there must be a small matter of mistake in my election :" he then persuaded Brookes to go upstairs, and make his compliments to the gentlemen, and say, as it was only a mistake of one black ball, they would be so good as to waive all ceremony on his account, and proceed to re-elect their humble servant without any more delay at all." Many of the members were panic-struck, forseeing a disagreeable finale to the farce which they had been playing. Mr. Brookes stood silent, waiting for the answer. At length, the Earl of March, (afterwards Duke of Queensberry) said aloud " Try the efiect of two balls : d — n his Irish impu- dence, if two balls don't take effect upon him, I don't know what will." This proposition was agreed to, and Brookes was ordered to communicate the same. On re-entering the waiting-room, Mr. Fitzgerald eagerly inquired, " Have they elected me right, now, Mr. Brookes ?" the reply was, '-Sorry to inform you that the result of the second balloting is— that two black balls were dropped. Sir." — "Then," exclaimed Fitzgerald, "there's now two mistakes instead of one." He then persuaded Brookes again to proceed upstairs, and tell the honourable members to " try again, and make no more mistakes." General go CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. Fitzpatrick proposed that Brookes should reply, "His cause was all hopeless, for that he was black-balled all mier, from head to foot, and it was hoped by all the members that Mr. Fitzgerald would not persist in thrusting himself into society where his company was declined." This message was of no avail : no sooner had Fitzgerald heard it than he exclaimed ; "OTi, I perceive it is a mistake altogether, Mr. Brookes, and I must see to the rectifying of it myself, there's nothing like dating with principals ; so, I'll step up at once, and put this thing to rights, without any more unnecessary delay.'' In spite of Mr. Brookes's remonstrance, that his entrance into the Club-room was against all rule and etiquette; Fitzgerald flew upstairs, and entered the room without any further ceremony than a bow, saying to the members, who indignantly rose at the intrusion, "Your servant, gentlemen — I beg ye will be sated." Walking up to the fireplace, he thus addressed Admiral Stewart : — " So, my dear Admiral, Mr. Brookes informs me that I have been elected three times." " You have been balloted for, Mr. Fitzgerald, but I am sorry to say you have not been chosen," said Stewart. "Well, then," replied the duellist, " Aid you black ball me ?" — " My good Sir," answered the Admiral, " how could you suppose such a thing ?" — " Oh, I sup-posed no such things my dear fellow j I only want to know who it was that dropped the black balls in by accident, as it were !" Fitzgerald now went up to each individual member, and put the same question seriatim, "Did you black-ball me, Sir?" until he made the round of the whole Club; and in each case he received a reply similar to that of the Admiral. When he had finished his inquisition, he thus addressed the whole body : " You see, Gentlemen, that as none of ye have black-balled me, / must be chose; and it is Mr. Brookes that has made the mistake. But I was convinced of it from the beginning, and I am only sorry that so much time has been ARTHUiaS CLUB. 91 lost as to prevent honourable gentlemen from enjoying each other's company sooner." . He then desired the waiter to bring him a bottle of champagne, that he might drink long life to the Club, and wish them joy of their unanimous election of a rael gentleman by father and mother, and who never missed his man." The members now saw that there was nothing to be done but to send the intruder to Coventry, which they appeared to do by tacit agreement ; for when Admiral Stewart de- parted, Mr. Fitzgerald found himself cut by all his " dear friends." The members now formed parties at the whist- table ; and no one replied to Fitzgerald's observations nor returned even a nod to the toasts and healths which he drank in three bottles of champagne, which the terrified waiter placed before him, in succession. At length, he arose, made a low bow, and took leave, promising to "come earlier next night, and have a little more of it." It was then agreed that half-a-dozen stout constables should be in waiting the next evening to bear him off to the watch-house, if he attempted again'tb intrude. Of this measure, Fitzgerald seemed to be aware ; for he never again showed himself at Brookes's ; though he boasted everywhere that he had been unanimously chosen a member of the Club. Arthur's Club. This Club, established more than a century since, at No. 69, St. James's-street, derives its name from Mr. Arthur, ' the master of White's Chocolate-house in the same street. , Mr. Cunningham records : "Arthur died in June, 1761, in St. James's-place j and in the following October, Mr. Mackreth married Arthur's only child, and Arthur's Chocolate-house, as it was then called, became the property of this Mr. Mackreth." Walpole, writing in 1759, has this odd note: "I stared to-day at Piccadilly like a country squire ; there are twenty 92 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. new stone houses : at first I concluded that all the grooms that used to live there, had got estates and built palaces. One young gentleman, who was getting an estate, but was so indiscreet as to step out of his waj; to rob a comrade, is convicted, and to be transported ; in short, one of the waiters at Arthur's. George Selwyn says, ' What a horrid idea he will give us of the people in Newgate !' " Mackreth prospered ; for Walpole, writing to Mann, in 1774, speaking of the New Parliament, says: "Bob, formerly a waiter at White's, was set up by my nephew for two boroughs, and actually is returned for Castle Rising with Mr. Wedderbume ; ' Servus curru portatur eodem ;' which I suppose will offend the Scottish Consul, as most of his countrymen resent an Irishman standing for Westminster, which the former reckon a borough of their own. For my part, waiter for waiter, I see little difference ; they were all equally ready to cry, ' Coming, coming, Sir.' " Mackreth was afterwards knighted ; and upon him ap- peared this smart and well-remembered epigram : When Mackreth served in Arthur's crew, He said to Rumbold, " Black my shoe ;" To which he answer'd, " Ay, Bob." But when retum'd from India's land, And grown too proud to brook command, He sternly answer'd, " Nay, Bob." The Club-house was rebuilt in 1825, upon the site of the original Chocolate-house, Thomas Hopper, architect, at which time it possessed more than average design : the front is of stone, and is enriched with fluted Corinthian columns. White's Club. This celebrated Club was originally established as "White's Chocolate-house," in 1698, five doors from the bottom of the west side of St. James's-street, " ascending from Sfc WHITE'S CLUB. 93 James's Palace." (Hatton, 1708.) A print of the time shows a small garden attached to the house : at the tables in the house or garden, more than one highwayman took his chocolate, or threw his main, before he quietly mounted his horse, and rode down Piccadilly towards Bagshot." (Doran's Table Traits.) It was destroyed by fire, April 28^ i733> when the house was kept by Mr. Arthur, who sub- sequently gave his name to the Club called Arthur's, still existing a few doors above the original White's. At the fire, young Arthur's wife leaped out of a second floor window, upon a feather-bed, without much hurt. A fine collection of paintings, belonging to Sir Andrew Fountaine, valued at 3000/., was entirely destroyed. The King and the Prince of Wales were present above an hour, and encouraged the firemen and people to work at the engines j a guard being ordered from St. James's to keep off the populace. His Majesty ordered twenty guineas to be distributed among the firemen and others that worked at the engines, and five guineas to the guard ; and the Prince ordered the firemen ten guineas. "The incident of the fire," says Mr. Cunningham, " was made use of by Hogarth, in Plate VI. of the Rake's Progress, representing a room at White's. The total ab- straction of the gamblers is well expressed by their utter inattention to the alarm of the fire given by watchmen, who are bursting open the doors. Plate IV. of the same pictured moral represents a group of chimney-sweepers and shoe-blacks gambling on the ground over-against White's. To indicate the Club more fully, Hogarth has inserted the name Black's. Arthur, thus burnt out, removed to Gaunt's Cofifee-house, next the St. James's Cofifee-house, and which bore the name of " White's " — a myth. The Tailer, in his first Number, promises that " all accounts of gallantry, pleasure, and entertainment, shall be under the article of White's Choco- late-house," Addison, in his Prologue to Steele's Tender Husband, catches " the necessary spark " sometimes " taking snuff at White's." 94 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. The Chocolate-house, open to any one, became a private Club-house : the earliest record is a book of rules and list of members of the old Club at White's, dated October 30th, 1736. The principal members were the Duke of Devon- shire ; the Earls of Cholmondeley, Chesterfield, and Rock- ingham ; Sir John Cope, Major-General Churchill, Bubb Dodington, and Colley Cibber. Walpole tells us that the celebrated Earl of -Chesterfield lived at White's, gaming and pronouncing witticisms among the boys of quality; "yet he says to his son, that a member of a gaming club should be a cheat, or he will soon be a beggar," an inconsistency which reminds one of old Fuller's saw : " A father that whipt his son for swearing, and swore himself whilst he whipt him, did more harm by his example than -good by his correction." Swift, in his Essay on Modern Education, gives the Chocolate-house a sad name. " I have heard," he says, " that the late Earl of Oxford, in the time of his ministry, never passed by White's Chocolate-house (the common rendezvous of infamous- sharpers and noble cullies) without bestowing a curse upon that famous Academy, as the bane of half the English nobility." The gambling character of the Club may also be gathered from Lord Lyttelton writing to Dr. Doddridge, in 1750. " The Dryads of Hagley are at present pretty secure, but I tremble to 'think that the rattling of a dice-box- at White's may one day or other (if my; son should be a member of that noble academy)- shake down all our fine oaks; It is dread- ful to see, not only there, but almost in every house in town what devastations are made by that destructive fury, the spirit of play." Swift's character of the company is also borne out by Walpole, in a letter to Mann, December 16, 1748 : "There is a man about town, Sir William Burdett, a man of very good family; but most infamous character. In short, to give you his character at once, there is a wager entered in the WHITirs CLUB. 95 bet-book at M'^hite's (a MS. of which I may one day or other give you an account), that the first baronet that will be hanged is this Sir William Burdett." Again, Glover, the poet, in his Autobiography, tells us: "Mir. Pelham (the Prime Minister) was originally an officer in the army, and a professed gamester • of a narrow mind, low parts, etc. . . . Bylong experience and attendance he became experienced as a Parliament man ; and even when Minister, divided his time to the last between his office and the club of gamesters at White's." And, Pope, in the Dunciad, has : Or chair'd at White's, amidst the doctors sit, Teach oaths to gamesters, and to nobles wit. The Club removed, in 1755, to the east side of St. James's- street. No. 38. The house had had previously, a noble and stately tenant ; for here resided the Countess of Northum- berland, widow of Algernon, tenth Earl of Northumberland, who died 1688. " My friend Lady Suffolk, her neice by marriage," writes Wa^ole, " has talked to me of her having, on that alHance, visited hen She then lived in the house now White's, at the upper end of St. James'srstreet,-and was the last who kept up the ceremonious state of the old peer- age. When she went out to visit, a footman, bareheaded, walked on each side of her coach, and a second coach \vith her women attended her. I think, too, that Lady Suifolk) told me that her granddaughter-in-law, the Duchess of Somerset, never sat down before her without leave to do so. I suppose, the old Duke Charles [the proud Duke] had imbibed a good quantity of his stately pride in such a school." {Letter to the Bishop of Dromore, September 18; 1792.) This high-minded dame had published a "Volume of Prayers.'' ' Among the Rules of the Club,, every, member was to pay one guinea a year towards having a good cook ; the names of all candidates were to be deposited with Mr. Arthur or Bob [Mackreth]. In balloting, every member was to put 96 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. in his ball, and such person or persons who refuse to com- ply with it, shall pay the supper reckoning of that night and, in 1769, it was agreed that ' every member of this Club who is in the Billiard-Room at the time the Supper is declared upon table, shall pay his reckoning if he does not sup at the Young Club.' " ''■ Of CoUey Gibber's membership we find this- odd account in Davies's Life of Garrick: — "Colley, we told, had the honour to be a member of the great Club at White's ; and so I suppose might any other man who wore good clothes, and paid his money when he lost it. But on what terms did Gibber live with this society ? Why, he feasted most sumptuously, as I have heard his friend Victor say, with an air of triumphant exultation, with Mr. Arthur and his wife, and gave a trifle for his dinner. After he had dined, when the Club-room door was opened, and the Laureate was introduced, he was saluted with loud and joyous acclama- tion of ' O King Coll ! Come in King Coll !' and ' Welcome, welcome. King Colley !' and this kind of gratulation, Mr. Victor thought, was very gracious and very honourable.'' In the Rules quoted by Mr. Cunningham, from the Club- books, we find that in 1780, a dinner was ready every day during the sitting of Parliament, at a reckoning of \2S. per head; in 1797, at xos. 6d. per head, malt liquors, biscuits, oranges, apples, and olives included ; hot suppers provided at 8j-. per head; and cold meat, oysters, etc., at 4J., malt liquor only included. And, "that Every Member who plays at Chess, Draughts, or Backgammon do pay One Shilling each time of playing by daylight, and half-a-crown each by candlelight." White's was from the beginning principally a gaming Club. The play was mostly at hazard and faro ; no member was to hold a faro Bank. Whist was comparatively harmless. Professional gamblers, who lived by dice and cards, provided they were free from the imputation of cheating, procured admission to White's. It was a great supper-house, and there Don Saltero's Cofifee House, Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. (See Tatler, No. 34. ) feTi.j-.r ' *m '-:.^ f W : *'.i%>i Subscription Rooms, Brookes' Club, (Whig.) WHITES CLUB. 97 was play before and after supper, carried on to a late hour and heavy amounts. Lord Carlisle lost 10,000/. in one night, and was in debt to the house for the whole. He tells Selwyn of a set, in which at one point of the game, stood to win 50,000/. Sir John Bland, of Kippax Park, who shot himself in 1755, as we learn from Walpole, flirted away his whole fortune at hazard. " He t'other night exceeded what was lost by the late Duke of Bedford, having at one period of the night, (though he recovered the greater part of it,) lost two-and-thirty thousand pounds." Lord Mountford came to a tragic end through his gambling. He had lost money; feared to be reduced to distress; asked for a Government appointment, and determined to throw the die of life or death, on the answer he received from Court. The answer was unfavourable. He consulted several persons, indirectly at first, afterwards pretty directly — on the easiest mode of finishing life ; invited a dinner-party for the day after ; supped at White's, and played at whist till one o'clock of the New Year's morning. Lord Robert Bertie drank to him " a happy new year ;" he clapped his hand strangely to his eyes. In the morning he sent for a lawyer and three witnesses ; executed his will ; made them read it twice over, paragraph by paragraph; asked the lawyer if that will would stand good though a man were to shoot himself? Being assured it would, he said, " Pray stay, while I step into the next room," — ^went into the next room, and shot himself. Walpole writes to Mann: "John Damier and his two brothers have contracted a debt, one can scarcely expect to be believed out of England, — of 70,000/. . . . The young men of this age seem to make a law among themselves for declaring their fathers superannuated at fifty, and thus dispose of their estates as if already their own." " Can you believe that Lord Foley's two sons have borrowed money so extrava- gantly, that the interest they have contracted to pay, amounts to 18,000/. a year." 98 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. ' Fox's love of play was frightful : his best friends are said to have been half-ruined in annuities, given by them as securities for him to the Jews. Five hundred thousand a year of such annuities, of Fox and his Society, were adver- tised to be sold, at one time : Walpole wondered what Fox would do when he had sold the estates of all his friends. Here are some instances of his desperate play. Walpole further notes that in the debate on the Thirty-nine Articles, February 6, 1772, Fox did not shine, "nor could it be wondered at. He had sat up playing at hazard at Almack's, from Tuesday evening the 4th, till five in the afternoon of Wednesday, sth. An hour before he had recovered 12,000/. that he had lost, and by dinner, which was at five o'clock, he had ended losing 11,000/. On the Thursday, he spoke in the above debate; went to dinner at past eleven at night; from thence to White's, where he drank till seven the next morning ; thence to Almack's, where he won 6,000/. ; and between three and four in the afternoon he set out for New- market. His brother Stephen lost 11,000/. two nights after, and Charles 10,000/ more on the 13th ; so that, in three nights, the two brothers, the eldest not twenty-five, lost 32,000/" Walpole and a party of friends^ (Dick Edgecumbe, George Selwyn, and Williams,) in 1756, composed a piece of heraldic satire — a coat-of arms for the two gaming-clubs at White's, — which was " actually engraving from a very pretty painting of Edgecumbe, whom Mr. Chute, as Strawberry King at arms," appointed their chief herald-painter. The blazon is vert (for a card-table) ; three parohs proper on a chevron sable (for a hazard-table) ; two rouleaux in saltire between two dice proper, on a canton sable ; a white ball (for elec- tion) argent. The supporters are an old and young knave of clubs ; the crest, an arm oiit of an earl's coronet shaking a dice-box ; and the motto, " Cogit amor nummi." Round the arms is a claret-bottle ticket by way of order. The painting above mentioned by Walpole of "the Old and WHITE'S CLUB. 99 Young Club at Arthur's." was bought at the sale of Straw- berry Hill by Arthur's Club-house for twenty-t^vo shillings. At White's, the least difference of opinion invariably ended in a bet, and a book for entering the particulars of all bets was always laid upon the table ; one of these, with entries of a date as early as 1744, Mr. Cunningham tells us, had been preserved. A book for entering bets is still laid on the table. In these betting books are to be found bets on births, deaths, and marriages ; the length of a life, or the duration of a ministry ; a placeman's prospect of a coronet ; on the shock of an earthquake ; or the last scandal at Ranelagh, or Madame Cornelys's. A man dropped down at the door of White's ; he was carried into the house. Was he dead or not ? The odds were immediately given and taken for and against. It was proposed to bleed him. , Those who had taken the odds the man was dead, protested that the use of a lancet would affect the fairness of the bet. Walpole gives some ot these narratives as good stories " made on White's." A parson coming into the Club on the morning of the earthquake of 1750, and hearing bets laid whether the shock was caused by an earthquake or the blowing-up of powder-mills, went away in horror, protesting they were such an impious set, that he believed if the last trump were to sound, they would bet puppet-show against Judgment." Gilly Williams writes to Selwyn, 1764, "Lord Digby is very soon to be married to Miss Fielding." Thou- sands might have been won in this house (White's), on his Lordsliip not knowing that such a. being existed. Mr. Cunningham tells us that "the marriage of a young lady, of rank would occasion a bet of a hundred guineas, that she would give butli to a live child before the Countess of —,—. — -, who had been married three or even more months before her. Heavy bets were pending, that Arthur, who was then a widower, would be married before a member of the Club of about the same age, and also a widower ; and that H 2 icx) CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, would outlive the old Duchess of Cleveland." " One of the youth at White's," writes Walpole to Mann, July lo, 1744, "has committed a murder, and intends to repeat it. He betted 1500/. that a man could live twelve hours under water ; hired a desperate fellow, sunk him in a ship, by way of experiment, and both ship and man have not appeared since. Another man and ship are to be tried for their lives, instead of Mr. Blake, the assassin." Walpole found at White's, a very remarkable entry in their very — very remarkable wager-book, which is still pre- served. "Lord Mountford bets Sir John Bland twenty guineas that Nash outlives Gibber." "How odd," says Walpole, " that these two old creatures, selected for their antiquities, should live to see both their wagerers put an end to their own lives ! Gibber is within a few days of eighty-four, still hearty, and clear, and well.. I told him I was glad to see him look so well. ' Faith,' said he, ' it is very well that I look at all.'" Lord Mountford would have been the winner : Gibber died in 1757 ; Nash in 1761. Here is a nice piece of Selwyu's ready wit. He arid Charles Townshend had a kind of wit combat together. Selwyn, it is said, prevailed ; and Charles Townsend took the wit home in his carriage, and dropped him at White's. " Remember " said Selwyn, as they parted, " this is the first set-down you have given me to-day." " St. Leger," says Walpole, " was at the head of these luxurious heroes — he is the hero of all fashion. I never saw more dashing vivacity and absurdity with some flashes of parts. He had a cause the other day for ducking a sharper, and was going to swear ; the judge said to him, ■ ' I see. Sir, you are very ready to take an oath.' ' Yes, my Lord,' replied St. Leger, ' my father was a judge.' " St. Leger was a lively club member. " Rigby," writes the Duke of Bedford, July 2, 1751, "the town is grown extremely thin within this week, though White's continues numerous WHires CLUB. loi enough, with young people only, for Mr. St. Leger's vivacity, and the idea the old ones have of it, prevent the great chairs at the Old Club from being filled with their proper drowsy proprietors." In Hogarth's gambling scene at White's, we see the highwayman, with the pistols peeping out of his pocket, waiting by the fireside till the heaviest winner takes his departure, in order to " recoup " himself of his losings. And in the Beaux' Straiegem, Aimwell asks of Gibbet, " Ha'nt I seen your face at White's ?" — " Ay, and at Will's too," is the highwayman's answer. M 'Clean, the fashionable highwayman, had a lodging in St. James's-street, over against White's ; and he was as well known about St. James's as any gentleman who lived in that quarter, and who, perhaps, went upon the road too. When M'Clean was taken, in 1750, Walpole tells us that Lord Mountford, at the head of half White's, went the first day ; his aunt was crying over him ; as soon as they were withdrawn, she said to him, knowing they were of White's, " My dear, what did the Lords say to you ? Have you ever been concerned with any of them ? Was it not admirable ? What a favourable idea people must have of White's ! — and wTiiit if White's should not deserve a much better?" A waitership at a club sometimes led to fortune. Thomas Rumbold, originally a waiter at White's, got an appointment in India, and suddenly rose to be Sir Thomas, and Governor of Madras. On his return, with immense wealth, a bill of pains and penalties were brought into the House by Dundas, with the view of stripping Sir Thomas of his ill-gotten gains. This bill was briskly pushed through the earlier stages ; suddenly the proceedings were arrested by adjournment, and the measure fell to the ground. The rumour of the day attributed Rumbold's escape to the corrupt assistance of Rigby; who, in 1782, found himself, by Lord North's retirement, deprived of his place in the Pay Office, and called upon to refund a large amount of public 102 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. moneys unaccounted for. In this strait, Rigby was believed to have had recourse to Rumbold. Their acquaintance had commenced in earlier days, when Rigby was one of the.' boldest " punters " at White's, and Rumbold bowed to him for half-crowns. Rumbold is said to have given Rigby a large sum of money, on condition of the former being released from the impending pains and penalties. The truth of this report has been vehemently denied ; but the circumstances are suspicious. The bill was dropped : Dun- das, its introducer, was Rigby's intimate associate. Rigby's nephew and heir soon after married Rumbold's daughter. Sir Thomas himself had married a daughter of Dr. Law, Bishop of Carlisle. The worthy Bishop stood godfather to one of Rumbold's children; the other godfather was the Nabob of Arcot, and the child was christened "Mahomet." So, at least, Walpole informs Mann.* Rigby was a man of pleasure at White's. Wilkes, in the North Briton, describes Rigby as "an excellent bon- vivant, amiable and engaging; having all the gibes and gambols, and flashes of merriment, which set the table in a roar." In a letter to Selwyn, Rigby writes : " I am just got home from a cock-match, where I have won forty pounds in ready money; and not having dined, am waiting till I hear the rattle of the coaches from the House of Commons, in order to dine at White's. , . . The next morning I heard there had been extreme deep play, and that Harry Furnese went drunk from White's at six o'clock, and with the ever memorable sum of looo guineas. He won the chief part of Doneraile and Bob Bertie." The Club has had freaks of epicurism. In 1751, seven young men of fashion, headed by St. Leger, gave a dinner at White's ; one dish was a tart of choice cherries from a hot-house ; only one glass was tasted out of each botde of champagne. "The bill of fare has got into print," writes 'National Review," No, 8. BOODLES CLUB. 103 Walpole, to Mann j " and Avith good people has produced the apprehension of another earthquake." From Mackreth the property passed in 1784, to John Martindale, and in 1812, to Mr. Raggett, the father of the the present proprietor. The original form of the house was designed by James Wyatt. From time to time, White's underwent various alterations and additions. In the autumn of 1850, certain improvements being thought necessary, it came to be considered that the front was of too plain a character, when contrasted with the many elegant buildings which had risen up around it. Mr. Lockyer was consulted by Mr. Raggett as to the possibility of improving the facade ; and under his direction, four bas-reliefs, representing the four seasons, which occupy the place of four sashes, were designed by Mr. George Scharf, jun. The interior was redecorated by Mr. Morant. The Club, which is at this time limited to 500 members, was formerly composed of the high Tory party, but though Conservative principles may probably prevail, it has now ceased to be a political club, and may rather be termed "Aristocratic." Several of the present members have belonged to the Club upwards of half a century, and the ancestors of most of the noblemen and men of fashion of the present day who belong to the Club were formerly members of it. The Club has given magnificent entertainments in our time. On June 20, 18 14, they gave a ball at Burlington House to the Emperor of Russia, the King of Prussia, and the allied sovereigns then in England ; the cost was 9849/. 2s. 6d. Three weeks after this, the Club gave to the Duke of Wellington a dinner, which cost 2480/. los. <)d. Boodle's Club. This Club, originally the "Savoir vivre," which with Brookes's and White's, forms a trio of nearly coeval date, and each of which takes the present name of its founder, is 104 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. No. 28, St. James's-street. In its early records it was noted for its costly gaities, and the Heroic Epistk to Sir William Chambers, 1773, commemorates its epicurism : For what is Nature ? King her changes round, Her three flat notes are water, plants, and ground ; Prolong the peal, yet, spite of all your clatter, The tedious chime is still ground, plants, and water ; So, when some John his dull invention racks, To rival Boodle's dinners or Almack's, Three uncouth legs of mutton shock our eyes. Three roasted geese, three buttered apple-pies. In the following year, when the Clubs vied with each other in giving the town the most expensive masquerades and ridottos, Gibbon speaks of one given by the members of Boodle's, that cost 2000 guineas. Gibbon was early of the Club; and, "it must be remembered, waddled as well as warbled here when he exhibited that extraordinary person which is said to have convulsed Lady Sheffield with laughter ; and poured forth accents mellifluous like Plato's from that still more extraordinary mouth which has been de- scribed as 'a round hole ' in the centre of his face."* Boodle's Club-house, designed by Holland, has long been eclipsed by the more pretentious architecture of the Club edifices of our time ; but the interior arrangements are well planned. Boodle's is chiefly frequented by country gentle- men, whose status has been thus satirically insinuated by a contemporary : " Every Sir John belongs to Boodle's — as you may see, for, when a waiter comes into the room arid says to some aged student of the Morning Herald, ' Sir John, your servant has come,' every head is mechanically thrown up in answer to the address.' " Among the Club pictures are portraits of C. J. Fox, and the Duke of Devonshire. Next door, at No. 29, resided Gillray, the caricaturist, who, in 1815, threw himself from an upstairs window into the street, and died in consequence. London Clubs, 1853, p. 51. los The Beef-steak Society. In Hie Spet;(afor, No. 9, March 10, 1710-11, we read: " The Beef-steak and October Clubs are neither of them averse to eating or drinking, if we may form a judgment of them from their respective titles." This passage refers to the Beef-steak Club, founded in the reign of Queen Anne ; and, it is believed, the earliest Club with that name. Dr. King, in his Ari of Cookery, humbly inscribed to the Beef- steak Club, 1709, has these lines : He that of hon:)ur, wit, and mirth partakes, May be a fit companion o'er Beefsteaks : His name may be to futm'e times enrolled In Estcourt's book, whose gridiron's framed with gold. Estcourt, the actor, was made Providore of the Club ; and for a mark of distinction wore their badge, which was a small gridiron of gold, hung about his neck with a gi-een silk ribbon. Such is the account given by Chetwood, in his History of the Stage, 1749 ; to which he adds : " this Club was composed of the chief wits and great men of the nation." The gridiron, it will be seen hereafter, was as- sumed as its badge, by the " Society of Beef-steaks, estab- lished a few years later : they call themselves ' the Steaks,' and abhor the notion of being thought a Club.'' Though the National Review, heretical as it may appear, cannot consent to dissever the Society from the earlier Beef-steak Club ; which, however, would imply that Rich and Lambert were not the founders of the Society, although so circum- stantially shown to be. Still, the stubbornness of facts must prevail. Dick Estcourt was beloved by Steele, who thus introduces him m the Spectator, No. 358 : " The best man that I know of for heightening the real gaiety of a company is Estcourt, whose jovial humour diffuses itself from the highest person at an entertainment to the meanest waiter. Merry tales, accom- io6 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. panied with apt gestures and lively representations of circum- stances and persons, beguile the gravest mind into a consent to be as humorous as himself. Add to this, that when a man is in his good graces, he has a mimicry that does not debase the person he represents, but which, taken from the gravity of the character, adds to the agreeableness of it." Then, in the Spectator, No. 264, we find a letter from Sir Roger de Coverley, from Coverley, " To Mr. Estcourt, at his House in Covent Garden," addressing him as " Old Comical One," and acknowledging " the hogsheads of neat port came safe," and hoping next term to help fill Estcourt's Bumper " with our people of the Club." The Bumper was the tavern in Covent Garden, which Estcourt opened about a year before his death. In this quality Pamell speaks ot him in the beginning of one of his poems : — Gay Bacchus liking Estcourt's wine A noble meal bespoke us, And for the guests that were to dine Brought Comus, Love, and Jociis. The spectator delivers this merited eulogy of the player, just prior to his benefit at the theatre : "This pleasant fellow gives one some idea of the ancient Pantomime, who is said to have given the audience in dumb-show, an exact idea of any character or passion, or an intelligible relation of any public occurrence, with no other expression than that of his looks and gestures. If all who have been obliged to these talents in Estcourt will be at Love for Love to-morrow night, they will but pay him what they owe him, at so easy a fate as being present at a play which nobody would omit seeing,' that had, or had not, ever seen it before." Then, in the Spectator, No. 468, August 27, 17 12, with what touching pathos does Steele record the last exit of this choice spirit : " I am very sorry that I have at present a circumstance before me which is of very great importance to all who have' a relish for gaiety, wit, mirth, or humour : I m.ean the death of poor Dick Estcourt. I have been obliged to him for so THE BEEF-STEAK SOCIETY. jo? many hours of jollity, that it is but a small recompense, though all I can give him, to pass a moment or two in sadness for the loss of so agreeable a man. . . . Poor Estcourt ! Let the vain and proud be at rest, thou wilt no more disturb their admiration of their dear selves ; and thou art no longer to drudge in raising the mirth of stupids, who know nothing of thy merit, for thy maintenance." Having spoken of him " as a companion and a man qualified for conversation," — his fortune exposing him to an obsequiousness towards the worst sort of company, but his excellent qualities rendering him capable of making the best figure in the most refined, and then havmg told of his maintaining " his good humour with a countenance or a language so delightful, without offence to any person or thing upon earth, still preserving the distance his circumstances obliged him to," — Steele con- cludes with " I say, I have seen him do all this in such a charming manner, that I am sure none of those I hint at will read this, without giving him some sorrow for their abundant mirth, and one gush of tears for so many bursts of laughter. I wish it were any honour to the pleasant creature's memory, that my eyes are too much suffused to let me go on " We agree with Leigh Hunt that Steele's " overfineness of nature was never more beautifully evinced in any part of his writings than in this testimony to the merits of poor Dick Estcourt." Ned Wardj in his Secret History of Clubs, first edition, 1709, describes the Beef-steaks, which, he coarsely contrasts with " the refined wits of the Kit-Cat." This new Society griliado'd beef eaters first settled their meeting at the sign of the Imperial Phiz, just opposite to a famous conventicle in the Old Jury, a publick-house that has been long eminent for the true British quintessence of malt and hops, and a broiled sliver offthejuicyrumpofafat, well-fed bullock. . . . This noted boozing ken, above all others in the City, was chosen out by the Rump-steak admirers, as the fittest mansion to entertain the Society, and to gratify their loS CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. appetites with that particular dainty they desired to be dis- tinguished by. [The Club met at the place appointed, and chose for Prolocutor, an Irish comedian]. No sooner had they confirmed their Hibernian mimic in his honourable post, but to distinguish him from the rest, they made him a Knight of St. Lawrence, and hung a silver gridiron (?) about his neck, as a badge of the dignity they had conferred upon him, that when he sung Pretty Parrot, he might thrum upon the bars of his new instrument, and mimic a haughty Spaniard serenading his Donna with guitar and madrigal. The Zany, as proud of his new fangle as a German mounte- bank of a prince's medal, when he was thus dignified and distinguished with his cuKnary symbol hanging before his breast, took the highest post of honour, as his place at the board, where, as soon as seated, there was not a bar in the silver kitchen-stuff that the Society had presented him with, but was presently handled with a theatrical pun, or an Irish witticism. . . . Orders v/ere despatched to the superinten- dent of the kitchen to provide several nice specimens of their Beef-steak cookery, some with the flavour of a shalot or onion; some broil'd, some fry'd, some stew'd, some toasted, and others roasted, that every judicious member of the new erected Club might appeal to his palate, and from thence determine whether the house they had chosen for their rendezvous truly deserved that public fame for their inimitable management of a bovinary sliver which the world had given them. . . . When they had moderately supplied their beef stomachs, they were all highly satisfy'd with the choice they had made, and from that time resolved to repeat their meeting once a week in the same place." [At the next meeting the constitution and bye-laws of the new little commonwealth were settled ; and for the further encouragement of wit and pleasantry thoughout the whole Society, there was provided a very voluminous paper book, " about as thick as a bale of Dutch linen, into which were to be entered every witty saying that should be spoke in the THE BEEF-STEAK SOCIETY. 109 Society :" this nearly proved a failure ; but Ward gives a taste of the performances by reciting some that had been stolen out of their Journal by a false Brother; here is one : — ] ON AN ox. Most noble creature of the horned race, Who labonrs at the plough to earn thy grass, And yielding to the yoke, shows man the way 1 To bear his servile chains, and to obey More haughty tyrants, who usurp the sway. Thy sturdy sinews till the farmer's grounds. To thee the grazier owes his hoarded pounds ; 'Tis by thy labour, we abound in malt. Whose powerful juice the meaner slaves exalt ; And when grown fat, and fit to be devour'd, The pole-ax frees thee from the teazing goard : Thus cruel man, to recompense thy pains, First works thee hard, and then beats out thy brains. Ward is very hard upon the Kit-Cat community, and tells us that the Beef-steaks, " like true Britons, to show their resentment in contempt of Kit-Cat pies, very justly gave the preference to a rump-steak, most wisely agreeing that the venerable word, beef, gave a more masculine grace, and sounded better in the title of a true English Club, than either pies or Kit-Cat ; and that a gridiron, which has the honour to be made the badge of a Saint's martyrdom, was a nobler symbol of their Christian integrity, than two or three stars or garters ; who learnedly recollecting how great an affinity the word bull has to beef, they thought it very con- sistent with the constitution of their Society, instead of a Welsh to have a Hibernian secretary. Being thus fixed to the great honour of a little alehouse, next door to the Church, and opposite to the Meeting, they continued to meet for some time ; till their fame spreading over all the town, and reaching the ears of the great boys and little boys, as they came in the evening from Merchant Taylors' School, they could not forbear hollowing as they passed the door ; ^tnd being acquainted with their nights of meeting, they no CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. seldom failed when the divan was sitting, of complimenting their ears with ' Huzza ! Beef-steak i' — that they might know from thence, how much they were reverenced for men of learning by the very school-boys." " But the modest Club," says Ward, " not affecting popularity, and choosing rather to be deaf to all public flatteries, thought it an act of prudence to adjourn from thence into a place of obscurity, where they might feast knuckle-deep in luscious gravy, and enjoy themselves free from the noisy addresses of the young scholastic rabble ; so that now, whether they have healed the breach, and are again returned into the Kit-Cat community, from whence it is believed upon some disgust, they at first separated, or whether, like the Calves' Head Club they remove from place to place, to prevent discovery, I sha'n't presume to determine ; but at the present, like Oates's army of pilgrims, in the time of the plot, though they are much talk'd of they are difficult to be found." The " Secret history " concludes with an address to the Club, from which these are specimen lines : Such strenuous lines, so cheering, soft, and sweet, That daily flow from your conjunctive wit, Proclaim the power of Beef, that noble meat. Your tuneful songs such deep impression make, And of such awftil beauteous strength partake, Each stanza seems an ox, each line a steak. As if the rump in slices, broil'd or stew'd In its own gravy, till divinely good, Turned all to powerful wit, as soon as chew'd. To grind thy gravy out their jaws employ, O'er heaps of reeking steaks express their joy, And sing of Beef as Homer did of Troy. We shall now more closely examine the origin and history of the Sublime Society of the Steaks, which has its pedigree, its ancestry, and its title-deeds. The gridiron of 1735 is the real gridiron on which its first steak was broiled. Henry Rich (Lun, the first Harlequin) was the founder, to whotn THE BEEF-STEAK SOCIETY. 1 1 1 Garrick thus alludes in a prologiie to the Irish experiment of a speaking pantomime : When Lun appeared, with matchless art and whim, He gave tlie power of speech to every limb. Though maslced and mute conveyed his true intent, And told in ifrolic gestm-es what he meant ; But now the motley coat and sword of wood, Requii'e a tongue to make them understood. There is a letter extant, written by Nixon, the treasurer, probably to some artist, granting perinission by the Beef- steak Society " to copy the original gridiron, and I have wrote on the other side of this sheet a note to Mr. White.at the Bedford, to introduce you to our room for the purpose making your drawing.' The first spare moment I can take from my business shall be employed in making a short statement of the rise and establishment of the Beef-steak Society." Rich, in 1732, left the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre for Covent Garden, the success of the Beggar^ Opera having " made Gay rich and Rich gay:" He was accustomed to arrange the coihic business and construct thd iModels of tricks for his pantomimes in his private room at Covent Garden. Here resorted men of rank and wit, for Rich's colloquial oddities were much relished. Thither came Mordaunt, Earl of Peterborough, the friend of Pope, and thus commemorated by Swift: Mordanto iills the trump of fame ; The Christian world his death proclaim ; And prints are crowdjed with his name. In journeys he outrides the post ; Sits up till midnight with his host ; Talks politics and gives' the toast, A skeleton in outward tigiire ; . ,■ His meagi-e corpse, though full ol vigour. Would halt behind him, were it bigger, So wonderful his expedition ; When you havB not the least suspicion, He'smth you, like an apparition ; 112 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. Shines in all climates like a star ; In senates bold, and fierce in war ; A land-commandant and a tar. He was then advanced in years, and one afternoon stayed talking with Rich about his tricks and transformations, and listening to his agreeable talk, until Rich's dinner-hour, two o'clock, had arrived. In all these colloquies witii his visitors, whatever their rank. Rich never neglected his art. Upon one occasion, accident having detained the Earl's coach later than usual, he found Rich's chat so agreeable, that he was quite unconscious it was two o'clock in the afternoon; when he observed Rich spreading a cloth, then coaxing his iire into a clear cooking flame, and proceeding, with great gravity, to cook his own beef-steak on his own gridiron. The steak sent up a most inviting incense, and my Lord could not resist Rich's invitation to partake of it. A further supply was sent for ; and a bottle or two of good wine from a neighbouring tavern prolonged their enjoyment to a late hour. But so delighted was the old Peer with the entertain- ment, that, on going away, he proposed renewing it at the same place and hour, on the Saturday following. He was punctual to his engagement, and brought with him three or four friends, " men of wit and pleasure about town," as M. Bouges would call them ; and so truly festive was the meet- ing that it was proposed a Saturday's club should be held there, whilst the town remained full. A sumptuary law, even at this early period of the Society, restricted the bill of fare to beef-steaks, and the beverage to port-wine and punch. However, the origin of the Society is related with a difference. Edwards, in his Anecdotes of Painting, relates that Lambert, many years principal scene-painter at Covent Garden Theatre, received, in his painting-room, persons of rank and talent ; where, as he could not leave for dinner, he frequently was content with a steak, which he himself broiled upon the fire in his room. Sometimes the visitors partook of the hasty meal, and out of this practice grew the Beef- THE BEEF-STEAK SOCIETY. 1 13' Steak Society, and the assembling in the painting-room. The members were afterwards accommodated with a room in the playhouse ; and when the Theatre was rebuilt, the place of meeting was changed to the Shakespeare Tavern, where was the portrait of Lambert, painted by Hudson, Sir Joshua Reynolds's master. In the Connoisseur, June 6th, 1754, we read of the Society, " composed of the most ingenious artists in the Kingdom," meeting " every Saturday in a noble room at the top of Covent Garden Theatre," and never suffering "a:ny diet except Beef-steaks to appear. These, indeed, are most glorious examples : but what, alas ! are this weak endeavours of a few to oppose the daily inroads of fricassees and soup- maigres f However, the apartments in the theatre appropriated to the Society varied. Thus, we read of a painting-room even with the stage over the kitchen, which was under part of the stage nearest Bow-street. At one period, the Society dined in a small room over the passage of the theatre. The steaks were dressed in the same room, and when they found it too hot, a curtain was drawn between the company and the fire. We shall now glance at the celebrities who came to the painting-room in the Lincoln's Inn Fields theatre, and the later locations of the Club, in Covent Garden. To the former came Hogarth and his fathfer-in-law, Sir James Thomhill, stimulated by their love of the painter's art, and the equally potent charm of conviviality. Churchill was introduced to the Steaks by his friend Wilkes ; but his irregularities were too much for the Society, which was by no means particular ; his desertion of his wife brought a hornets' swarm about him, so that he soon resigned, to avoid the disgrace of expulsion. Churchill attributed this flinging of the first stone to Lord Sandwich ; he never for- gave the peccant Peer, but put him into the' pillory of his fierce satire, which has outlived most of his other writinjgs, and here it IS : I XI4 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. From his youth upwards to the present clay, When vices more than years have made liim grey ; When riotous excess with wasteful hand Shakes life's frail glass, and hastes each ebbing sand ; Unmindful from what stock he drew his birth, Untainted with one deed of real worth — Lothario, holding honoitr at no price. Folly, to folly, added vice to vice. Wrought sin with greediness, and courted shame With greater zeal than good men seek for fame. Churchill, in a letter to Wilkes, says, "Your friends at the Beef-steak inquired after you last Saturday with the greatest zeal, and it gave me no small pleasure that I was the person of whom the inquiry was made.'' Charles Price was allowed to be one of the most witty of the Society, and it is related that he and Churchill kept the table in a roar. Formerly, the members wore a blue coat, with red cape and cuffs ; buttons with the initials B. S. ; and behind the , President's chair was placed the Society's halbert, which, with the gridiron, was found among the rubbish after the Covent Garden fire. Mr. Justice Welsh was frequently chairman at the Beef- steak dinner. Mrs. NoUekens, his daughter, acknowledges that she often dressed a hat for the purpose, with ribbpns , similar to those worn by the yeomen of the guard. The Justice was a loyal man, but discontinued his membership when Wilkes joined the Society ; though the latter was the man at the Steaks. To the Steaks Wilkes sent a copy of his infamous Essay on Women, first printed for private circulation ; for which Lord Sandwich — ^Jemmy. Twitcher — ^himself, as we have seen, a member of the Society — moved in the House of Lords that Wilkes should be taken into custody; a, piece of treason as the act of one brother of the Steaks; j against another, fouler than even the trick of "dirty. Kidgell," the parson, who, as a friend of the author, got a,, copy of the Essay from the printer, and then felt it his duty-. THE BEEF-STEAK SOCIE TV. 115 to denounce the publication ; he had been encouraged to inform against Wilkes's Essay by the Earl of March, after^ wards Duke of Queensbeny. However, Jemmy Twitcher himself was expelled by the Steaks the same year he assailed Wilkes for the Essay ; the gfossness and blasphemy of the poem disgusted the Society ; and Wilkes never dined there after 1763; yet, when he went to France, they hypocritically made him an honorary member. Garrick was an honoured member of the Steaks ; though he did not affect Clubs. The Society possess a hat and sword which David wore, probably on the night when he stayed so long with the Steaks, and had to play Ranger, at Drury-lane. The pit grew restless, the gallery bawled " Manager, manager !" Garrick had been sent for to Covent Garden, where the Stea,ks then dined, Carriages blocked up Russell-street, and he had to. thread his way between them ; as he came panting into the theatre, " I think, David," said Ford, one of the anxious patentees, " considering the stake you and I have in this house, you might pay more attention to the business."-^" True, my good friend," returned Garrick, " but I was thmking of my steak in the other house." , Many a reconciliation of parted friends has taken place at this Club. Peake, in his Memoirs of the Colman Faintly, thus refers to a reconciliation between Garrick and Colman the elder, through the Sublime Society : — "Whether Mr. Clutterbuck or other, friends interfered to reconcile the two dramatists, or whether the considerations of mutual interest may not in a great measure have aided in healing the breach between Colman and Garrick, is not pre- cisely to be determined ; but it would appear, from the sub- joined short note from Garrick, that Colman must have made some overture to him. " ' My dear Colman, — Becket has been with me, and tells me of your friendly intentions towards me. I should have been beforehand with you, had I not been ill with the beef- I 2 Il6 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. Steaks and arrack punch last Saturday, and was obliged to leave the play-house. " ' He that parts us shall bring a brand from Heav'n, And fire us hence. " ' Ever yours, old and new friend, '"D. Garrick.'" The beef-steaks, arrack punch, and Saturday, all savour very strongly of a visit to the Sublime Society held at that period in Covent Garden Theatre, where many a clever fellow has had his diaphragm disordered, before that time and since. Whoever has had the pleasure to join their convivial board ; to witness the never-failing good-humour which predominates there ; to listen to the merry songs, and to the sparkling repartee; and to experience the hearty welcome and marked attention paid to visitors, could never have cause to lament, as Garrick has done, a trifling illness the following day. There must have been originally a wise and simple code of laws, which could have held together a convivial meeting for so lengthened a period. Garrick had no slight tincture of vanity, and was fond of accusing himself, in the Chesterfield phrase, of the cardinal virtues. Having remarked at the Steaks that he had so large a mass of manuscript plays submitted to him, that they were constantly' liable to be mislaid, he observed that, un- pleasant as it was to reject an author's piece, it was an affront to his feelings if it could not be instantly found ; and that for this reason he made a point of ticketing and labelling the play that was to be returned, that it might be forth- coming at a moment. '' Afig for your hypocrisy," exclaimed Murphy across the table; "you know, Davy, you mislaid my tragedy two months ago, and I make no doubt you have lost it." — "Yes," replied Garrick; "but you forgot, you ungrateful dog, that I offered you more than its value, for you might have had two manuscript farces in its stead." This is the right paternity of an anecdote often told of other parties. J HE BEEF-STEAK SOCIF/ry. 117 Jack Richards, a well-known' presbyter of the Society, unless when the " fell serjieant," the gout, had arrested him, never absented himself from its board. He was recorder, and there is nothing in comedy equal to his passing sentence on those who had offended against the rules and observances of the Society. Having put on Garrick's hat, he proceeded to inflict a long, wordy harangue upon the culprit, who often endeavoured most unavailingly to stop him. Nor was it possible to see when he meant to stop. But the imperturbable gravity with which Jack performed his office, and the fruit- less writhings of the luckless being on whom the shower of his rhetoric was discharged, constituted the amusement of the scene. There was no subject upon which Jack's exu- berance of talk failed him ; yet, in that stream of talk there was never mingled one drop of malignity, nor of unkind censure upon the erring or unhappy. He would as soon adulterate his glass of port-wine with water, as dash that honest though incessant prattle with one malevolent or un- generous remark. William Linley, the brother of Mrs. Sheridan, charmed the Society -ivith his pure, simple English song : in a melody of Ame's, or of Jackson's of Exeter, or a simple air of his father's, lie excelled to admiration, — faithful to the charap- teristic chastity of the style of singing peculiar to the Linley family. Linley had not what is called a fine voice, and port- wine and late nights did not improve his organ; but you forgot the deficiencies of his power, in the spirit and taste of his manner. He wrote a novel in three volumes, which was so schooled by the Steaks that he wrote no more : when the agony of wounded authorship was over, he used to exclaim to his tormentors : — This is no flattery ; these are the counsellors That feelingly persuade me what I am. His merciless Zoilus brought a volume of the work in his pocket, and read a passage of it aloud. Yet, Linley never betrayed the irritable sulkiness of a roasted author, but took Ii8 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. the pleasantries that played around him with impertivrhable good-humour : he laughed heartily at his own platitudes, and thus the very martyr of the joke became its auxiliary. Ijnley is said to have furnished Moore, for his Life of Sheridan, with the common-place books in which his brother- in-law was wont to deposit his dramatic sketches, and to bottle up his jokes he had collected for future use ; but many pleasantries of Sheridan were deeply engraved on his recollection because they had been practised upon himself, or upon his brother Hozy (as Sheridan called him), who was an unfailing butt, when he was disposed to amuse himself with a practical jest. Another excellent brother was Dick Wilson, whose volcanic complexion had for many years been assuming deeper and deeper tints of carnation over the port-wine of the Society. Dick was a wealthy solicitor, and many years Lord Eldon's " port-wine-loving secretary." His • fortunes were very singular. He was first steward and solicitor, and afterwards residuary legatee, of Lord Chedworth. He is said to have owed the favour of this eccentric nobleman to the legal acumen he displayed at a Richmond water-party; A pleasant lawn, under a spreading beech-tree in one of Mr. Cambridge's meadows, was selected for tlie dinner ; but on pulling to the shore, behold a board in the tree pro- claiming, "All persons landing and dining here will be prosecuted according to law." Dick Wilson contended that the prohibition clearly applied only to the joint act of " landing and dining " at the particular spot. If the party landed a few yards lower down, and then dined under the tree, only one member of the condition would be broken ; which would be no legal infringement, as the prohibition — being of two acts, linked by a copulative — was not severable. This astute argument carried the day. The party dined under Mr. Cambridge's beech-tree, and, it is presumed, were not "prosecuted according to law." At all events, Lord Chedworth, who was one of the diners, was so charmed with THE BEEF-STEAK SOCIE TV. 119 Dick's ready application of his law to practice, that he com- mitted to him the management of his large and accumulating property. Dick stood the fire of the Steaks with good humour ; but he was sometimes unmercifully roasted. He had just re- turned from Paris, when Arnold, with great dexterity, drew him into some Parisian details, with great glee j for Dick was entirely innocent of the French language. Thus, in enumerating the dishes at a French table, he thought the 3m/evards delicious; whenCobbecalledout, "Dick,it was well they did not serve you at the Palais Royal for sauce to yoiir boulevards" The riz de vcan he called 2. rendezvous ; and he could not bear partridges served up in 'shoes ; and once, intending to ask for a pheasant, he desu-ed the waiter to bring him ■& paysannc ! Yet, Dick was shrewd : calling one day upon Cobbe at the India House, Dick was left to him- self for a few minutes, when he was found by Cobbe, on his return, exploring a map of Asia suspended on the wall : he was measuring the scale of it with compasses, and then applying them to a large tiger, which the artist had intro- duced as one of the animals of the country. " By heavens, Cobbe," exclaimed Dicli, " I should never have believed it ! Surely, it must be a mistake. Observe now^ — here," pointing to the tiger, " here is a tiger that measures two-and-twenty leagues. By heavens, it is scarcely credible." Another of the noteworthy Steaks was "Old Walsh," commonly called " the Gentle Shepherd :" he began life as a servant of the celebrated Lord Chesterfield, and accom- panied his natural son, Philip Stanhope, on the grand tour, as valet : after this he was made a. Queen's messenger, and subsequently a Commissioner of Customs ; he was a good- natured butt for the Society's jokes. Rowland Stephenson, the banker, was another Beef-Steaker, then respected for his clear head and warm heart, years before he became branded as a forger. At the same table was a capitalist of very high character — ^William Joseph Denison, who sat many years in 120 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. Parliament for Surrey, and died a inillionnaire : he was a man of cultivated tastes, and long enjoyed the circle of the Steaks. We have seen how the corner-stone of the sublime So- ciety was laid. The gridiron upon which Rich had broiled his solitary steak, being insufficient in a short, time for the supernumerary guests, the gridiron was enshrined as one of the tutelary and household emblems of the Club. For- tunately, it escaped the fire which consumed Covent Garden Theatre in 1808, when the valuable stock of wine of the Club shared the fate of the building ; but the gridiron was saved. " In that fire, alas !" says the author of 71ie Clubs of London, " perished the original archives of the Society. The lovers of wit and pleasantry have much to deplore in that loss, inasmuch as not only the names of many of the early members are irretrievably gone, but what is more to be regretted, some of their happiest effiisions ; for it was then customary to register in the weekly records anything of striking excellence that had been hit off in the course of the evening. This, however, is certain, that the Beaf-steaks, from its foundation to the present hour, has been — ' native to famous wits Or hospitable.' That as guests or members, persons distinguished for rank, and social and convivial powers, have, through suc- cessive generations, been seated at its festive board — Bubb Dodington, Aaron Hill ; Hoadley, author of The Suspicious Husband, and Leonidas Glover, are only a few names snatched from its early list. Sir Peere Williams, a gen- tleman of high birth and fashion, who had already shone in Parliament, was of the Club. Then came the days of Lord Sandwich, Wilkes, Bonnell Thornton, Arthur Murphy, Churchill, and Tickell. This is generally quoted as the golden period of the Society." Then there were the Col- mans and Garrick; and John Beard, the singer, was president of the Club in 1784. THE BEEF-STEAK SOCIETY. 121 The number of the Steaks was increased from twenty- four to twenty-five, in 1785, to admit the Prince of Wales, an event of sufficient moment to find record in the Anniial Register of the year,: " On Saturday, the 14th of May, the Prince of Wales was admitted a member of the. Beef-steak Club. His Royal Highness having signified his wish of be- longing to that Society, and there not being a vacancy, it was proposed to make him an honorary member ; but that being declined by his Royal Highness, it was agreed to increase the number from twenty-four to twenty-five, in consequence of which His Royal Highness was unanimously elected. The Beef-steak Club has been instituted just fifty years, and consists of some of the most classical and sprightly wits in the kingdom.'' It is curious to find the Society here termed a Club, contrary to its desire, for it stickled much for the distinction. Arthur Murphy, the dramatist, John Kemble, the Dukes of Clarence and of Sussex, were also of the Steaks : these princes were both attached to the theatre ; the latter to one of its brightest ornaments, Dorothy Jordan. Charles, Duke of Norfolk, was another celebrity of the Steaks, and frequently met here the Prince of Wales. The Duke was a great gourmand, and, it is said, used to eat his dish of fish at a neighbouring tavern — the Piazza, or the Grand — and then join the Steaks. His fidus Achates was Charles Morris, the laureate-lyrist of the Steaks. Their attachment was unswerving, notwithstanding it has been impeached. The poet kept better hours than his ducal friend : one evening, Morris having left the dinner-table early, a friend gave some significant hints as to the im- provement of Morris's fortunes : the Duke grew generous over his wine, and promised ; the performance came, and Morris lived to the age of ninety-three to enjoy the realization. The Duke took the chair when the cloth was removed. It was a place of dignity, elevated some steps above the table, and decorated with the insignia of the Society, 122 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. amongst which was suspended Garrick's Ranger hat. As the clock struck five, a curtain drew up, discovering the kitchen, in which the cooks were seen at work, through a sort of grating, with this inscription from Macbeth ': — ■ If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well It were done quickly. The steaks themselves were in the finest order, in devouring them no one surpassed His Grace of Norfolk : two or three steaks, fragrant from the gridiron, vanished, and when his labours were thought, to be over,, he might' te seen rubbing a clean plate with a shalot for the reception of another. A pause of ten minutes ensued, and His Grace rested upon his knife and fork : he was tarrying for a steak from the middle of the rump of beef, where lurks a fifth essence, the perfect ideal of tenderness and flavour. The Duke was an enormous eater. He would often eat between three and four pounds of beef-steak ; and after that take a Spanish onion and beet-root, chop them together with oil and vinegar, and eat them. After dinner, the Duke was ceremoniously ushejred to the chair, and invested with ah orange-coloured ribbon, to which a small silver gridiron* was appended. In the chair he comported himself with urbanity and good humour. Usually, the president was the target, at which all the jests and witticisms were fired, but moderately ; for though a characteristic equality reigned at the Steaks, the influences of rank and station were felt there, arid courtesy stole insensibly upon those who at other times were merciless assailants on the chair. The Duke's conversation abounded with anecdote, terseness of phrase, and evidence of extensive reading, which were rarely im- paired by the sturdy port-wine of the Society. Charles Morris, the bard of the Club, sang one or two of his o>vn * At tlie sale of the curiosities belonging to Mr. Harly, the comedian, at Gower-street, in November, 1858, a silver gridiron, worn by a mem- ber of the Steaks, was sold for \l. y. • THE BEEF-STEAK SOCIETY. 123. songs, the quintessence of convivial mirth and fancy ; at nine o'clock the Duke quitted the chair, and was succeeded by Sir John Hippisley, who had a terrible time of it : a storm of "arrowy sleet and iron shower" whistled from all points in his ears : all rules of civilized warfare seemed suspended, and even the new members tried their first timid essays upon the Baronet, than whom no man was more prompt to attack others. He quitted the Society in conse- quence of an odd adventure which really happened to him, and which, being related with malicious fidelity by one of the Steaks, raised such a shout of laughter at the Baronet's expense that he could no longer bear it. Here is the story. Sir John was an intelligent man ; Windham used to say of him that he was very near being a clever man. He was a sort of busy idler; and his ruling passion was that of visiting remarkable criminals in prison, and obtaining their histories from their own lips. A murder had been com- mitted, by one Patch, upon a Mr. Bligh, at Deptford ; the evidence was circumstantial, but the inference of his guilt was almost irresistible; still many well-disposed persons doubted the man's guilt, and amongst them was Sir John, who tlioiight the anxiety could only be relieved by Patch's confession. For this end. Sir John importuned the poor wretch incessantly, but in vain. Patch persisted in asserting his innocence, till wearied with Hippisle/s applications, he assured the Baronet thkt he would reveal to him, on the scaffold, all that he knew of Mr. Bligh's death. Flattered with being made the depository of this mysterious commu- nication. Sir John mounted the scaffold with Patch, and was seen for some minutes in close conference with him. It happened that a simple old woman from the country was in the crowd at the execution. Her eyes, intent upon the ^wful scene, were fixed, by an accidental misdirection upon Sir John, whom she mistook for the person who was about to be executed; and not waiting till the criminal was actually turned off, she went away with the wrong impres- 124 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. sion j the peculiar face, aiid above all, the peculiar nose (a most miraculous organ), of Hippisley, being indelibly im- pressed upon her memory. Not many days after, the old lady met Sir John in Cheapside ; the certainty that he was Patch seized her so forcibly that she screamed out to the passing crowd, " It's Patch, it's Patch ; I saw him hanged ; Heaven deliver me ! " — and then fainted. When this incident was first related at the Steaks, a mock inquest was set on foot, to decide whether Sir John was Patch or not, and unanimously decided in the affirmative. Cobb, Secretary of the East India Company, was another choice spirit at the Steaks : once, when he filled the vice- chair, he so worried the poor president, an Alderman, that he exclaimed, " Would to Heaven, I had another vice-president, so that I had a gentlevian opposite to me !" — " Why should you wish any such thing?" rejoined Cobb; "you cannot be more opposite to a gentleman than you are at present" After the fire at Covent Garden, the Sublime Society were re-established at the Bedford, where they met until Mr. Arnold had fitted up apartments for their reception in the English Opera House. The Steaks continued to meet here until the destruction of the Theatre by fire, in 1830 ; after which they returned to the Bedford; and, upon the re-building of the Lyceum Theatre, a dining-room was again provided for them. " The room they dine in," says Mr. Cunningham, " a Uttle Escurial in itself, is most appro- priately fitted up — the doors, wainscoting, and roof, of good old English oak, ornamented with gridirons as thick as Henry the Seventh's Chapel with the portcullis of the founder. Everything assumes the shape, or is distinguished by the representation, of their emblematic implement, the gridiron. The cook is seen at his office through the bars of a spacious gridiron, and the original gridiron of the Society, (the survivor of two terrific fires), holds a con- spicuous position in the centre of the ceiling. Every member has the power of inviting a friend." The portraits THE BEEF-STEAK SOCIETY. 125 of several worthies of the Sublime Society were painted : one brother "hangs in chain," as Arnold remarked in alluding to the civic chain in which he is represented ; it was in allusion to the toga in which he is painted, that Brougham, being asked whether he thought it a likeness, remarked that it could not fail of being like him, " there was so much of the^ fur (thief) about it." The author of the Clubs in London, who was a member of the Sublime Society, describes a right in favouring them, "a brotherhood, a sentiment of equality. How you would laugh to see the junior member emerging from the cellar, with half-a-dozen bottles in a basket ! I have seen Brougham employed in this honourable diplomacy, and executing it with the correctness of a butler. The Duke of Leinster, in his turn, took the same duty. " With regard to Brougham, at first siglit you would not set him down as having a natural and prompt alacrity for the style of humour that prevails amongst us. But Brougham is an excellent member, and is a remarkable instance of the peculiai influences of this peculiar Society on the human character. We took him just as the schools of philosophy, the bar, the senate, had made him. Literary, forensic, and parliamentary habits are most intractable materials, you will say, to make a member of the Steaks, yet no man has imbibed more of its spirit, and he enters its occasional gladiatorship \vith the greatest glee." Admirable were the offhand puns and passes, which, though of a legal character, were played off by Bolland, another member of the Society. Brougham was putting hypothetically the case of a man convicted of felony, and duly hanged according to law; but restored to life by medical appliances; and asked what would be the man's defence if again brought to trial. " Why," returned Bolland, " it would be for him to plead a cord and satisfaction." [" Accord and satisfaction " is a common plea in legal practice.] The same evening Tt-ere "Iked over Dean t26 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. Swift's ingenious but grotesque puns upon the names of antiquity, such as Ajax, Archimedes, and others equally well known. BoUand remarked that when Swift w^as look- ing out for those humorous quibbles, it was singular that it should never have occurred to him that among the shades that accost ^neas in the sixth book of the ^neid, there was a Scotchman of the name of Hugh Forbes. Those who had read Virgil began to stare. "It is quite plain," said Bolland : " the ghost exclaims, ' Olim Euphorbus eram.' " The following are the first twenty-four names of the Club, copied from their book:* — George Lambert. William Hogarth. John Rich. Lacy Ryan. Ebenezer Forrest. Robert Scott. Thomas Chapman. Dennis Delane. John Thomhill. Francis Niveton. Sir William Saunderson. Richard Mitchell. The following were subsequent Francis Hayman. Theo. Gibber. Mr. Saunders Welsh. Thomas Hudson. John Churchill. Mr. Williamson. In 1805 the members were — Sir J. Boyd. Estcourt. J. Travanion, jun. Earl of Suffolk. Crossdill. J. Kemble, expelled for his mode of conduct. John Boson. Henry Smart. John Huggins. Hugh Watson. William Huggins. Edmund Tuffnell. Thomas Salway. Charles Neale. Charles Latrobe. Alexander Gordon. William Tathall. Gabriel Hunt. members : — Mr. Beard. Mr. Wilkes. Lord Sandwicli, Prince of Wales. Mr. Havard. Chas. Price. Prince of Wales, Charles Howard, Duke of Norfolk. Mingay. Johnson. Scudamore. Haworth. * TTiis and the subsequent lists have been printed by Mr. John Green. TI1£ BEEF-STEAK SOCIE TV. 1 27 November 6th, 1814 :-t- Stephenson. Wilson. Cobb. Ellis. Richards. Walsh. Sir J. Scott, Bart. Linley. Foley. Duke of Norfolk. Arnold. Mayo. Braddyll. Duke of Sussex. Nettleshipp. Morrice. Middleton. Bolland. Denison. Lord Grantley. Johnson. Peter Moore. Scudamore. Dunn, Treasurer of Drury Nixon. Lane Theatre. T. Scott. When the Club dined at the Shakspeare, m the room with the Lion's head over the mantelpiece, these popular actors were members : — Lewis. Pope. Irish Johnson. Holman. Munden. Simmonds. Fawcett. Formerly, the table-cloths had gridirons in damask on them; their drinking-glasses bore gridirons; as did the plates also. Among the presents made to the Society are a punch- ladle, from Barrington Bradshaw; Sir John Boyd, six spoons; mustard pot, by John Trevanion, M.P. ; two dozen water- plates and eight dishes, given by the Duke of Sussex ; cruet- stand, given by W. Bolland; vinegar-glasses, by Thomas Scott. Lord Suffolk gave a silver cheese-toaster ; toasted or stewed cheese being the wind-up of the dinner. Captain Morris, . THE BARD OF THE BEEF-STEAK SOCIETY. Hitherto we have mentioned but incidentally Charles Morris, the Nestor and the laureate of the Steaks ; but he merits fullei record. " Alas ! poor Yorick ! we knew him well;" we remember his "political vest," to which he 128 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON: addressed a sweet lyric — ^" The Old Whig Poet to his Old Buff Waistcoat."* Nor can we forget his courteous manner and his gentlemanly pleasantry, and his unflagging cheerful- ness, long after he had retired to enjoy the delights of rural life, despite the early prayer of his racy verse : — In town let me live then, in town let me die ; For in truth I can't relish the country, not I. If one must have a villa in summer to dwell, Oh ! give me the sweet shady side of Pall Mall. This " sweet shady side" has almost disappeared ; and of the palace whereat he was wont to shine, not a trace remains, save the name. Charles Morris was born of good family, in 1745, and appears to have inherited a taste for lyric com- position ; for his father composed the popular song of Kitty Crowder. For half a century, Morris moved in the first- circles of rank and gaiety : he was the " Sun of the table," at Carlton House, as well as at Norfolk House ; and attach- ing himself politically as well as convivially to his table companions, he composed the celebrated ballads of " Billy's too young to drive us," and " Billy Pitt and, the Farmer," which were clever satires upon the ascendant politics of their day. His humorous ridicule of the Tories was, however, but ill repaid by the Whigs ; at least, if we may trust the Ode to the Buff Waistcoat, written in 1815. His "Songs Political and Convivial," many of which were sung at the Steaks' board, became very popular. In 1830, we possessed a copy of Ihe 24th edition, with a portrait of the author, half- masked; one of the ditties was described to have been "sung by the Prince of Wales to a certain lady," to the air of " There's a difference between a Beggar and a Queen j" some of the early songs were condemned for their pruriency, and were omitted in subsequent editions. His best Ana- creontic is the song Ad Poculum, for which Morris received the Gold Cup from the Harmonic Society: * See Century of Anecdote, vol. i. p. 321. United University Club, Pall Mall. Oxford and Cambridge Club, Pall Mall. CAPTAIN MORRIS. 129 Come, thou soul-reviving cup ; Try thy healing art ; Stir the fancy's, visions up, And warm my wasted heart. Touch with freshening tints of bliss Memory's fading dream. Give me, while thy lip I kiss. The heaven that's in thy stream. As the witching fires of wine Pierce through Time's.past reign. Gleams of joy that once were mine. Glimpse back on life again. And if boding terrors rise O'er my melting mind, Hope still starts to clear my eyes, And drinks the tear behind. Then life's wintry shades new drest, Fair as summer seem ; Flowers I gather from my breast. And sunshine from the stream. As the cheering goblets pass. Memory culls her store ; Scatters sweets around my glass,. And prompts my thirst for more. Far from toils the great and grave To proud ambition give. My little world kind Nature gave. And simply bade me live. On me she fix'd an humble art. To deck the Muse's groves. And on the nerve that twines my heart The touch of deathless love. Then, rosy god, this night let me Thy cheering, magic share ; Again let hope-fed Fancy see Life's picture bright and fair. Oh ! steal from care my heart away. To sip thy healing spring ; And let me taste'that bliss to-day To-morrow may not bring. 130 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. The friendship of the Duke of Norfolk and Charles Morris extended far beyond the Steaks meetings ; and the author of the Clubs of London tells us by what means the Duke's regard took a more permanent form. It appears that John Kemble had sat very late at one of the night potations at Norfolk- House. Charles Morris had just retired, and a very small party remained in the dining- room, when His Grace of Norfolk began to deplore, somewhat pathetically, the smallness of the stipend upon which poor Charles was obliged to support his family; observing, that it was a discredit to the age, that a man who had so long gladdened the lives of so many titled and opulent associates, should be left to struggle with the difficulties of an inadequate income at a time of life when he had no reasonable hope of augmenting it. Kemble listened with great attention to the Duke's jeremiade : but after a slight pause, his feelings getting the better of his deference, he broke out thus, in a tone of peculiar emphasis : — " And does your Grace sincerely lament the destitute con- dition of your friend, with whom you have passed so many agreeable hours ? Your Grace has described that condition most feelingly. But is it possible, that the greatest Peer of the realm, luxuriating amidst the prodigalities of fortune, should lament the distress which he does not relieve ? the empty phrase of beneyolence^-the mere breath and vapour of generous sentiment, become no man ; they certainly are unworthy of your Grace. Providence, my Lord Duke, has placed you in a station where the wish to do good and the doing it are the same thing. An annuity from your over- flowing coffers, or a small nook of land, clipped from your unbounded domains, would scarcely be felt by your Grace ; but you would be repaid, my Lord, with usury ; — with tears of grateful joy ; with prayers warm from a bosom which your bounty will have rendered happy." Such was the substance of Kemble's harangue. Jack Bannister used to relate the incident, by ingeniously putting CAPTAIN MORRIS. 131 the speech into blank verse, or rather the species of prose into which Kemble's phraseology naturally fell when he was highly animated. But, however expressed, it produced its effect. For though the Duke (the night was pretty far gone, and several bottles had been emptied)' said notiiirag- ^t the time, but stared with some astonishment at so unexpected a lecture J riot a month elapsed before Charles Morris was invested with a beautiful retreat at Brockham, in Surrey, upon the bank of the river Mole, and at the foot of the noble range of which Box Hill forms the most picturesque point. The Duke went to his rest in 1815. Morris continued to be the laureate of the Steaks until the. year 1831, when he thus bade adieu, to the Society in his eighty-sixth year ; — Adieu to the world I where I gratefully own, Few men more delight or more comfort have known : To an age far beyond mortal lot have I trod The path of pure health, that best blessing of God ; And so mildly devout Nature temper'd my frame, Holy patience still sooth'd when Adversity came ; Thus vrithmind ever cheerful, and tongue never tired, I sung the gay strains these sweet blessings inspired ; ; And by blmding light mirth with a moral-mix'd stave. Won the smile of the gay and the nod of the grave. But at length the dull languor of mortal decay Throws a weight on its spirit too light for its clay ; r And the fancy, subdued, as the body's opprest. Resigns the faint flights that scarce wake in the breast. A painfiil memento that man 's not to play A game of light ffrlly throughXife's sober day ; . A just admonition, though viewed with regret, ■ Still blessedly offered, though thanklessly met. Too long, I perhaps, like the many who stray, Have upheld the gay themes of the Bacchanal's day ; But at length Time has brought, what it ever will bring, A shade that excites more to sigh than to smgii In this close of Life's chapter, ye high-fivour'd few, Take my Muse's last tribute — this painful adieu 1 Take my w3sh, that your bright social circle on earth For ever may flourish in concord and mirti: K 2 132 CtUB LIFE OF LONDON. For the long yeats of joy I have shared at your board, i Take the thanks of my heart — yirhere ,they long have been stored ; And remember, vi-hen Time tolls my last parting (cnell. The " old bard " dropp'd a tear, and then bade yfr;— Farewell 1 In 1835,, however, Mprris revisited the Society, wjio then presentedhim with a large silver bowl,,appropriatelyinscribed, as a testimonial of- their a^ectionate ssteem ; aivd th.e vene- rable bard thus addressed the brotherhood : — Well, I'm come, my dear fMends,' your kind wish to obey. And drive, by light mirth, all Life's shadows away ; And turn the heart's sighs to the throbbings of joy. And a grave aged man to a merry old boy. 'Tis a bold transformation, a daring design. And not past the power of Friendship and Wine ; ' ' ' And I trust that e'en yet this warm mixture will raise A brisk spark of light o'er the shade of my days. Shortly after this effusion, he thus alluded to the treasured gift of the Society :— When my spirits are low, for relief and delight, I still place your splendid Memorial in sight ; And call to my Muse, when care strives to pursue, "Bring the Steaks to my Memory and the' Bowl to my view." When brought, at its sight all the blue devils fly, And a world of gay visions rise bright to my eye ; . Cold Fear Shuns the cup where warm Meinory flows ; And Grief, shamed by Joy, hides his budget of Woes. 'Tis a pure holy fount, where for ever I find A sure double charm for the Body and Mind ; For I feel while I'm cheer'd by the drop that I lift, r I'm Blest by the Motive that hallows the Gift. How nicely teiftpered is this chorus to our Bard's " Life's a Fable:"— Then roll aloi^, , my lyric song ; It seasons well the table. And tells: a truth to Age and Youth, That Life's a fleeting fable. Thus Mirth and Woe the brighter show From rosy wine's reflection ; - ' ^ CAPTAIN MORRIS. 133 From first to last, this truth hath past-;- ; , 'Twas wia4e for Care's correction. Noyr what those think who water drinlc,. Of these old rules of Horafce, I sha Vt now Show ; but this I know, • His rules do well for -^"n"". Old Horace, when he dippd his pen, . 'Tw^s wine he had resort to ; He chose for use Falernian juice,. As I choose old Oporto ; At everjr boiit an odecSme out, " ' Yet Bacchus kept him twinkling ; As well aware more .fir^ was there. Which wa^itfd but the sprinkling. At Biockham, Mdn;i? "drank thei pure pleasures of the rural life," long after many a gay Ijght of his own time had flickered out, and becpme^almost forgotten. At length, his course ebbed away, July 11, 1838, in his ninety'third year; his, illness, which was only of four days, was internal inflam- mation. The attainment qf so great an age, and the recollection of* Morris's associations, show him to have pre- sented a rare combmation of mirth and prudence. He retained his gaieti de cmur tp the last ; so that with equal truth he remonstrated : ' When Life charms' my heart, must I Wndly be told, . J.'m too gay and too happy for one that's so old ? The venerable Batd's remains rest near the east end of his parish church of Betchwortb, in the burial ground ; the grave is simply -marked by a head and foot-stone, with an inscription of three or -four lines :• he who had sung the praises of so many choice spririts, has not here a stanza to his own memory : such is, to some extent, the natural sequitur with men who outlive: their companions. Morris was; staid and grave in his general deportment. Moore, in bis Diary, has this odd note : " Lin<31ey describes Colman at ■ the . Beefsteak Club quite drunk, making extraordinary noise while Captain Morris was singing, which disconcerted 134 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. the latter (who, strange to say, is a very grave, steady person) considerably." Yet, Morris could unbend, witii great simplicity and feeling. We have often met him, in his patriarchal "blue and buff" (blue coat and buff waist- coat), in his walks about the lovely country in which he resided. Coming, one day, into the bookseller's shop, at Dorking, there chanced to be deposited a pianoforte ; when the old Bard having looked around him, to see there were no strangers present, sat down to the instrument, and played and sang with much spirit the air of " The girl I left behind me :" yet he was then past his eightieth year. " Morris's ancient and rightful office at the Steaks was to make the ^unch, and it was amusing to see Jiim at his laboratory at the sideboard, stocked with the various pro- ducts that enter into the composition of that nectareous rtiixture : then smacking an elementary glass or two, and giving a significant' nod, the fiat, of its excellence; and what could exceed the ecstasy with which he filled the glasses that thronged around the' bowl; joying over its mantlinjg beauties, and. distributing the fascinating draught That flames and dances in its crystal bound ? " Well has our laureate earned his wreath," (says the author of The Clubs of London, who was often a participator in these delights). "At that table, his best songs have been s;j.ngj for that table his best songs were written. His allegiance has been undivided. Neither hail, nor shower, nor snowstorm have kept him away : no engagement, no invitation seduced him from it I have seen him there, ' outwatching the bear,' in his seventy- eighth year; for as yet nature had given no signal of decay in frame or faculty ; but you saw him in a green and -vigorous old age, tripping mirthfully along the downhUl of existence, without languor, or gout, or any of the privileges exacted by time for the mournful privilege of living. His face is still: resplendent BEEFSTEAK CLUBS. 135 with cheerfulness. 'Die when you will, Charles,' said Curran to him, ' you will die in your youth.'" Beef-Steak Clubs. There are other Beef-steak Clubs to be chronicled; Pynej in his rF;«^ and Walnuts, says : " At the same time the social Club flourished in England, and about the yeai 1 749, a Beef-steak Club was established at the Theatre Royal, Dublin, of which the celebrated Mts. Margaret Woffiiigton was president. It was begun by Mr. Sheridan, but on a very different plaii to that in London, no theatrical per- former, save on& female, being admitted; and though eallea a Club, the manager alone bore all the expenses. The plan was, by making a list of about fifty or sixty persons, chiefly noblemen and members of Parliament, who were invited. Usually about half that number attended, and dined in the manager's apartment in the theatre. There was no female adniitted but this Peg' Wcffington, so d^nomi- tiated by all her contemporaries, who was seated in agreat chair at the head of the table, and elected president for the season. • "'It will readily be believed,' says Mr. -Victor,- in his History of the Theatres, who was joint proprietor of the house, ' that a club where there were good accommodations, such a lovely p-esident, full of wit and spirit, and nothing to pay, must soon grow remarkably fashionable.' It did so ; but we find it subsequently caused the theatre to" be p'uUed to pieces about the inanager's head. "Mr. Victor says of Mrs. Margaret, "she possessed captivating charms as a jovial, witty bottle companion, but few remaining as a mere female.' We have Dr. Johnsbii's testiinony, however, who had often gossipped with Mrs. Margaret in the green-room at old Drury, more in the lady's favour. "This author (Victor) says, speaking of the Beef-Steak i 136 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. Club, 'It was a dub of ancient institution- in every theatre when the principal performers dined one day in the week together (generally Saturday), and authors and other geniuses were admitted members.'" The Club in Ivy-lane, of which Dr. Johnson was a member, was joriginally a Beef-s,teak Club, . , , There was also a political Club, called " the Rump Steak, or, Liberty Club," in existence in, 1733-4. . The members were in ea,ger opposition to, Sir Robert .Walpole. At the Bell TayerUj Church-row, Houndsditch, was held the Beef-steak Club, instituted by Mr. Beard, Mr. Dunstall, Mr. Woodward, Stoppalear, , Bencroft, Qifford, etc. — -See Memoirs of Charles Lee Lewis, .yo\. ii. p.. 1,96. , - . Club at Tom's Cofifee-house. Covent-garden has lost many of its hpuses " studded with anecdote and history;" and tlie mutations among what Mx. Thackeray affectionately called its "rich cluster of brown taverns " are sundry and manifest. Its coffee-houses proper have almost disappeaxed, even in name. Yet, in the last century, in one short street of Covent-Gardeft — Russell-street — flourished three of the most celebrated coffee-houses in the metropolis : Will's, Button's, and Tom's. The reader need not be reminded of Will's, with Dryden, the Tatler apd Spiectator, a,nA its wits' room on the first floor ; or Button's, with its lion's head letter-box, and the young poets in the back room. Tom's, No. 17, on the iiorth side of Russell-street, and of a somewhat later date, was taken down in 1865. The premises remained with but little alteration, long after they ceased to be a coffee-house. It was named after Its origina;l proprietor, Thomas West, who, Nqv. 26, 1722, threw himself, in a delirium, from the second-floor .window into the street, and died immediately (Historical Register for r722). The upper portion of the premises was the coffee-house, under which lived T. Lewi's, the bookseller, the original pubhsher, in r7ii, of Pope's CLUB AT TOM'S COFFEE-HOUSE. 137 Essay on Criticism. The usual frequenters upstairs may be judged of by the following passage in the Journey through England, first edit., 17 14 : — "After the play, the best com^ pany generally go to Tom's and Will's coffee-houses, near adjoining, where there is playing at piquet and the best conversation till midnight. Here you will see blue and green ribbons, with stars, sitting familiarly and talking with the same freedom as if they had left their quality and degrees of distance at home ; and a stranger tastes with pleasure the universal liberty of speech of the English nation. And in all the coffee-houses you have not only the foreign prints, but several English ones, with the foreign occurrences, besides papers of morality and party disputes." Such were the Augustan delights of, a memorable coffee- house of the reign of Queen Anne. Of this period is a recollection of Mr. Grignon, sen., having seen the "balcony of Tom's crowded with npjjlemen in their stars and garters, drinking their tea and coffee exposed to the people." We find an entry in Walpole's Letters, 1745 : — "A gentlenian, I don't know who, the other night at Tom's coffee-house, said, on Lord Baltimore refusing to corne into the Admiralty because Lord Vere Beaucjerk had tiie pi;ecedence, ' it put hirti in mind of Pinkethman's petition in the Spectator, where he complains that formerly he used to act second chair in " Dio- cletian," but now he was reduced to dance fifth flower-pot.' " In 1764 there appears to have been formed here, by a guinea subscription, a Club of nearly 700 members — the nobility, foreign ministers, gentry, and men of genius of the age ; the large room on the first floor being the card-room. The Club flourished, so that in 1768, "having considerably enlarged itself of late," Thomas Haines, the then proprietor, took in the front room of the next house westward as a coffee-room. The front room of No. 17 was then appro- priated exclusively as a card-room for the subscription club, each member paying one guinea annually; the adjoining apartment being used as a conversation-room. The sub- 138 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. scription-books are before us, and here we find in the long list .the names of , Sir Thonias Robinson, Bart., who was designated " Long Sir Thomas Robinson," to distinguish him from his namesake, Sir, Thomas Robinson, created Lord Grantham in 1761. "Long Tom," as the former was familiarly called, was a Commissioner of Excise and Governor of Barbadoes. He was a sad bore, especially to the Duke of, Newcastle, the minister, who resided in Lincoln's Inn Fields. However, he gave rise to some smart things. Lord Chesterfield being asked by, the latter Baronet to write some verses upon him, immediately produced this epigram : — Unlike my subject now shall:be my song, It shall lie wittyi and it shan't be long. Long Sir Thomas distinguished himself in this odd manner. When pur Sovereign had not dropped the folly of calling himself " King of France," and it was customary at the Coronation of an EngUsh Sovereign to have fictitious Dukes of Aquitaine and Normandy to represent the vassalage of France, Sir Thomas was selected to fill the second mock dignity at. the coronation of George III., to which Churchill alludes in his Ghost; but he assigns a wrong dukedom to Sir Thomas : Could Satire not (though doubtful since Whether he plumbel: is or prince) Tell of a simple Knight's advance, To be a doughty peer of France ? Tell how he did a dukedom gain, And Robinson was Aquitain. Of the two Sir Thomas Robinsons, one was tall and thin, the other short and fat: "I can't imagine," said Lady Townsend, "why the one should be preferred to the other; I see but little difference hetween them : the one is as broad as the other is long." Next on the books is Samuel Foote, who, after the decline of Tom's, was mostly to be seen at the Bedford. CLUB AT TOM'S COFFEE-HOUSE. 139 Then comes Arthur Murphy, lately called to the Bar; David Garrick, who then lived in SouthamptonrStreet (though he was not a clubbable man) ; John Beard, the fine tenor singer; John Webb; Sir Richard Glynne; Robert Gosling, the banker ; Colonel Eyre, of Marylebone ; Earl Percy; Sir John Fielding, the justice; Paul Methuen, of Corsbam; Richard Clive; the great Lord Cliye;. the eccentric Duke of Montagu; Sir Fletcher Norton, the ill- mannered ; Lord Edward Bentinck ; Dr. Samuel Johnson ; the celebrated Marquis of Granby ; Sir F. B. Delaval, the friend of Foote; William Tooke, the solicitor; the Hon. Charles Howard, sen. ; the Duke . of Northumberland ; Sir Francis Gosling; the Earl of Anglesey ; Sir George Brydges Rodney (afterwards Lord. Rodney) ; Peter Burrel; Walpole Eyre ; Lewis Mendez ; Dr. Swinney ; Stephen Lushington ; John Gunning; Henry Brougham, father of Lord Brougham.; Dr. Macnamara ; Sir John Trevdyan ; Captain Donellan ; Sir W. Wolseley; Walter Chetwynd; Viscount Gage, etc.; — Thomas Payne, Esq., of Leicester House; Dr. Schomberg, of Pall-Mall; George Colman, the dramatist, then living in Great' Queen Street; Dr. Dodd, in Southampton-rowi; "James Payne, the architect,. Salisbury-street^ whiqh he rebuilt ; William Bowyer, the printer, Bloomsbury-square ; Count Bruhl, the Polish Minister; Dr. Goldsmith, Temple (1773), etc. • Many a noted name in the list of 700 is very sugges- tive of the gay isociety of the period. Among the Club musters, Samuel Foote, Sir Thomas Robinson, and Dr. Dodd are very frequent : indeed. Sir Thomas seems to have been something like a proposor-general.. Tom's appears to have been a general Lcoffee-hpuse ; for in the parish books of St. Paul's, Covent Garden, is the entry ,: . ... £. s. d. i(fi Dishes of chocolate . . . ..'.". I 3 o - 34jelleys . . :. •,.017 .0 Biscuits 023 Mr. Haines, the landlord, was succeeded by his son, 140 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. Thomas, whose daughter is livings at the age of eighty-four, and' possesses a portrait, by. Dance, of the elder Haines, who,'froin his polite addressywas called among the Club " Lord Chesterfield." The above lady has also a portrait, in oil, of the younger Haines^ by Grignon; The coffee-house business closed in 1814, about which time the premises were first occupied ' by Mr. William Till, the numismatist. The card-room remained in its original condition; "Andhfere," wrote Mr. Till, many years since, " the tables on which I exhibit my coins are those which were used by the exalted characters whose names are ex- tracted from books of the 'Club, still in possession of the proprietress of the house." On the death of Mr. Till, Mr. Webster succeeded to the tenancy and collection of coins and medals, which he removed to No. 6, Henrietta-street, shortly before the old premises in Russell-street were taken down. He possesses, ,by marriage with, the grand-daughter of the second Mr. Haines, the old Club books, as well as the curious memorial, the snuff-box of the Clubrroom. It is of large size, and fine tortoiseshell ; upon th^ lid, ; in high relief, in silver, are the portraits of Charles I. and Queen Anne; the Boscobel oak, with Charles II. amid its branches; and at the foot of the tree, on a silver plate-, is inscribed Thomas Haines. At Will's the small wits grew conceited if they dipped but into Mr. Dryden's snuffbox ; and at Tom's the box may have enjoyed a similar shrine-like reputation. It is nearly all that remains of the old coffee-house in Covent Garden, save the recollection of the names of the interesting personages who once thronged its rooms in stars and garters, but who bore more intellectual distinctions to entitle them to remembrance. . , ^ ; jii , . . , The King of Clubs. This ambitious title was given to a Club set on foot about the year 1801. Its founder was Bobus Smith, the brother of the great Sydney Smith. The Club at first consisted of a THE KING OF CLUBS. 14! small knot of lawyers, a few literary characters, and visitors generally introduced by those who took the, chief, part in the conversation, and seemingly selected for the faculty of being good listeners. The King of Clubs sat on Saturday of each month, at the Crown and Anchor Tavern, in the. Strand, which, at that time, was a nest of boxes, each, containing its Club, and affording excellent cheer,. though, latterly desecrated by in- different dinners and very, questionable wine. The Club was a grand talk, the, prevalent topics being books and authors; politics quite; excluded, Bobus Smith was a con- vivial member in every respect but that of wine ; he was but a frigid worshipper, of Bacchus, but he had great humour and a species of wit, that revelled amidst the strangest and most grotesque combinations. , His manner was somewhat of the bow-wow kind ; and when he pounced upon a disputa- tious and dull blockhead, he made sad work of him. Then there was Richard Sharp, a partner of Boddington's West India house, who subsequently, sat in Parliament for Port Arlington, in Ireland. He was a thinker and a reasoner, and occasionally controversial,: buti overflowed with useful and agreeable knowledge, and an unfailing stream of de- lightful information. He was . celebrated for his conversa- tional talents, and hence called " Conversation Sharp ;" and he often had for his guest Sir James Mackintosh, with whom he lived, in habits .(rf intimacy. Mr. Sharp published a volume of Letters and Essays in Frose and Verse, of which a third edition appeared in, 1834. Sharp was confessedly the first of the King of Clubs. He indulged, but rarely, in pleasajntryj but. when anything of the kind escaped him, it was sure to tell... One evening, at the club, there was a talk about Tweddel, .then a student in.the; Temple, who had greatly distinguished himself at . Cambridge, and was the Senior Wrangler and medalist, of his year. Tweddel was not a little intoxicated with his University .triumphs ; which led Sharp to remark, " Poor fellow 1- he will soon find that his 14^ CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. Cambridge medal will not pass as current coin in London." Other frequent attendants were Scarlett (afterwards Lord Abinger) ; Rogers, the poet ; honest John Allen, brother of the bluest of the blues. Lady Mackintosh ; M. Dumont, the French emigrant, who would sometimes recite his friend the Abbd de Lisle's verses, with interminable perseverance, in spite of yawns and other symptoms of dislike, which his own politeness (for he was a highly-bred man) forbade him to interpret into the absence of it in others. In this respect, however, he was outdone by Wishart, who was nothing but quotations, and whose prosing, when he did converse, was like the torpedo's touch to all pleasing and lively converse. Charles Butler, too, in his long life, had treasured up a considerable assortment of reminiscences, which, when once set going, came out like a torrent upon you; it was a sort of shower-bath, that inundated you the moment you pulled the string. Curran, the boast of the Irish bar, came to the King of Clubs, during a short visit to London; there he met Erskine, but the meeting was not congenial. Curran gave some odd sketches of a Serjeant Kelly, at the Irish bar, whose whimsical peculiarity was an inveterate b^bit of drawing conclusions directly at variance with his premises. He had acquired the.name of. Counsellor. .Therefore. Curran said he was a perfect human personification of a w« j^^wiVzar. For instance, meeting Curran on Sunday, near St. Patrick's, he said to him, " The Archbishop 'gave us an excellent dis^ course this morning. It was well, written and well delivered, therefore, I shall make a point of being -at the Four Courts to-morrow at ten." At another time, observing to a person whom he met in the street, " What a delightful morning this is for walking !" he finished his remark on the weather by saying, "Therefore I will go home as soon as I can, and Btir out no more the wliole day;" His speeches in Court were interminable, and his tKereforje kept him going on, though; every one thought he had done. "This is so clear WALTERS CLUB. 143 a point, gentlemen," he would tell the jury, "that I am con- vinced you felt it to be so the very moment I stated it. I should pay your understandings but a poOr compliment to dwell on it for a minute ; therefore, I will now proceed to explain it to you as minutely as possible." Curran seemed to have no very profound respect for the character and talents of Lord Norbiiry. Curran went down to Carlow on a special retainer ; it was in a case of eject- ment A new Court-house had been recently erected, and it was found extremely inconvenient, froni the echo, which reverberated the mingled voices of judge, 'counsel, crier, to such a degree, as to produce constant 'confusion, and great interruption of business. Lord Norbury had been, if possible, more noisy that morning than ever. Whifct he-was^ arguing a point with the counsel, and talking very loudly, an ass brayed vehemently from the street, adjoining- the Court- house, to the instant interruption of the Chief-Justice, " What noise is that ?" exclaimed his Lordship. " Oh, my Lord," retorted Curran, " it is merely the echo of the Court." Watier's Clut. This Club was ther grfeat Macao gambling-house of a very short period. Mr. Thomas Raikes, who understood all its mysteries, describes it as very genteel, adding that no one ever quarrelled there. ' "The Club did not endtire for twelve years altogether ; the pace was too quick to last : it died a natural death in 18 19, "froni the paralysed state of its mem- bers ; the house was then taken by a set of blacklegs, who instituted a common bank for gambling. To form an idea of the ruin produced by this short-lived establishment among men whom I have so intimately known, a cursory glance to the past suggeststhe following melancholy list, which onljr forms a part of its deplorable results. . . . None of the dead reached the average age of man." Among the members -was Bligh, a notorious madman, of 144 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. whom Mr. Raikes relates : — " One evening at the Macao table, when the play was very deep, Brummell having lost a considerable stake, affected, in his farcical way, a very tragic air, and cried put,,' Waiter, bring, me a flat candlestick and a pistol.' Upon which Bligh, who was sittipg opposite to him, calmly produced . two loaded pistols from his coat pocket, which he placed on the table, and said, ' Mr. Brummell, if you are really desirous to put a period to your existence, I am extremely happy to offer you the means without troubling the waiter.' The effect upon those present may easily be imagined, at finding themselves in the com- pany of a known madman who had . loaded weapons about him.'' Mr. Canning at the Clifford-street Club. There was in the last century a deba,ting Club, wliich boasted for a short time, a brighter assemblage of talent than is usually found to fl.ourish in societies of this descrip- tion. Its meetings, which took place once a month, were held at the Clifford-street Coffee-house, at the comer of Bond-street. The debaters were chiefly Mackintosh, Richard Sharp, a Mr. OUyett Woodhouse ; Charles Moore, son of the celebrated, traveller ; and Lord, Charles, Town- shend, fourth son of the facetious and eccentric Marquis. The great primitive principles of civil government were then much discussed, It was before ,the French Revolu; tion ;had " brought death into the world and. all its woe." At the Clifford-street Society, Canning generally took " the liberal side " of the above questions. His earliest prepossessions are well known to have inclined to this side; but he evidently considered the Society rather as a school of rhetorical exercise, where he might acquire the use 0/ his weapons, than a forum, where the serious professions of opinions, , and a consistent adherence to them, could be fairly expected of him. pne evening, , the question for debate was "the justice, and expediency of resuming the THE GlIFFORD-STREET CLUB. 145 ecclesiastical property of Frdnce." Before: the debate began, Canning had taken some pains to ascertain on which side the majority of the mernbers seemed inclined to speak J and finding that they were generally in favour of "the resumption, he expressed his fears that theunanimity of sentiment would spoil the discussion ; so, he volunteered to speak against it. He did so, and it was a speech of con- siderable power, chiefly in reply to the opener, who in a set discourse of some length, had asserted the revocable con- ditions of the property of the church, which, being created, he said, by the state, remained ever after at its disposition. Canning denied the proposition that ecclesiastical property was the creature oi the state. He contended that though it might be so in a new government, yet, speaking his- torically, the great as well as the lesser ecclesiastical fiefs were coeval with the crown of France, frequently strong enough to maintain fierce and not unequal conflicts with it, and certaihfy not in their origin emanations from its bounty. The church, he said, came well dowered to the state, who was now suing for a divorce, in order to plunder her pin- money. He contended that the church property stood upon the same basis, and ought to be protected by thei same sanctions, as private property. It was originally, he- said, accumulated from the successive donations with which, a pious benevolence sought to enrich the fountains, from- which spiritual comfort ought to flow to the wretched, the poor, the forsaken. He drew an energetic sketch of Mirabeau, the proposer of the measure, by whose side, he remarked, the worst characters in history, the Cleons, the Catilines, the Cetheguses, of antiquity, would brighten : into virtue. He said that the character of the lawgiver- tainted the law. It was proffered to the National Assembly^ by hands hot and reeking from the cells of sensuality and vice ; it came from a brain inflamed and distended into frenzy by habitual debauchery. These are, of course, but faint sketches of this very early specimen of Canning as Missing Page Missing Page 148 CLVB LIFE OF LONDON. most of his time over a bottle, he Vvas, in derision, Said' to belong. ' " The Everlasting Club consists of an hundred members, who divide the whole twenty-four hours among them in such a manner that the Club sits day and night, from one end of the year to another : no party presuming to rise till they are relieved by those who are in course to succeed them. By this means, a member of the Everlasting Club never wants company ; for though he is not upon duty himself, he is sure to find some who are ; so that if he be disposed' to take a whet, a nooning, an evening's draught, or a bottle after mid- night, he igoes to the Club, and finds a knot of friends to his mind. " It is a maxim in this Club that the Steward never dies ; for as they succeed one another by way of rotation, no man is to quit the great elbow-chair, which stands at the upper end of the table, till his successor is ready to fill it ; inso- much that there has not been a sede vacante in their memory. " This Club was instituted towards the end; or, as some of them say, about the middle of the Civil Wars, and con- tinued with interruption till the time of the Great Fire, which burnt them out and dispersed them for several weeks. The Steward all that time maintained his post till he had like to have been blo'wn up with a neighbouring house, which was demolished in order to stop the fire : and would not leave the chair at last^ till he had emptied the bottles upon the table, and received repeated directions from the Club to withdraw himself. This Steward is frequently talked of in the Club; and looked upon by every member of it as a greater man than the famous captain mentioned in my Lord Clarendon, who was birnit in his ship, because he would not quit it 'without orders. It is said that towards the close of 1700, being the great year of jubilee, the Club had it under consideration whether they should break up or con- tinue their session ; but after many speeches and debates, it ECCENTRIC CLUBS. 149 was at length agreed to sit out the other century. This resolution passed in a general club nemine contradicente. " It appears, by their books in general^ that, since their first institution, they have smoked fifty tons of tobacco, drank thirty thousand butts of ale, one thousand hogsheads of red port, two hundred barrels of, brandy, and one kilder- kin of small been There had been likewise a great consumption of cards. It is also said that they observe the law in Ben Jonson'sCIub, which orders the fire to be always kept in (focus perennis esto), as well for the convenience of lighting their pipes as to cure the dampness of 'the club- room. They have an old woman, in the nature of a vestal, whose business is to cherish and perpetuate the fire, which bums from generation to, generation, and has seen the glass- house fires in and out above an hundred times.! " The Everlasting: Club treats all other clubs with an eye of contempt, aivd talks even of the Kit-Cat and October as a couple of upstarts. Their ordinary discourse, as much as I have been able to learn of it, turns. altogether upon such adventures as have passed in their own assembly ; of members who have taken the glass in their turns for a week together, without stirring out of the Club.; of others who have not missed their morning's draught for twenty years together ; sometimes they speak in rapture of a run of ale in King ■ Charles's reign ; and sometimes reflect with astonishment upon games at whist, which have been miraculously recovered by members of the Society, when in all human probability the case was desperate. " They delight in several old catches, which they sing at all hours, to encourage one another to moisten their clay, and grow immortal by drinking, with many other edifying exhortations of the like nature. "There are four general Clubs held in a year, at which time they fill up vacancies, appoint waiters, confirm the old fire-maker or elect a new one, settle contributions for coals, pipes, tobacco, and other necessaries. ijo CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. ,. '1 The senior member has outlived the whole Club twice over,. and has been drunk with the grandfathers of some of the sitting members-." - The Lawyer's: Club is thus described in the Spectator, No. 372 :^" This Club consists only of attorneys, and at this meeting every one proposes to the board, the cause he has then in hand, upon which each member gives his judg' ment, according to the experience he has iilet with. If it happens that any one puts a case of which they have no precedent, it is noted down by their chief clerk. Will Goosequill (who registers all their proceedirigs),i that one of them may go with it next day to a counsel. This is; indeed, commendable, and ought to be the 'pdncipal end of their meeting ; but had you been there to. have heard them relate their methods of managing a cause, their manner of drawing out their bills, and, in short, their .arguments upon the several ways of abusing, their clients, with the applause iJiat is given to him who has done, it most artfully, you would before now have given yout remarks, i '.'. . ■ ■. '" They are so conscious that their discourses ought to be kept a -secret, that -they are- very cautious of admitting any person who is not in the profession. When any who are not of the law are let in^ the person who introduces him says, he is a very honest gentleman, and he is taken, as their cant is, to pay costs." The writer adds, "that he is admitted upon the recom- mendation of one of their principals, as a very honest, good- natured fellow, that will never be in a plot, and only desires to drink his bottle and smoke his pipe." : : : 77ie Little Club, we are told in the Guardian, No* 91, began by isending invitations to those not exceeding five feet in height to repair to the assembly, but many sent excuses, or pretended a non-application. They proceeded to fit up a- room for their accommodation, and in the first place had all the chairs, stools, and tables removed, which had served; the more bulky portion of mankind for many. years, previous to which they laboured under very great disadvantages. The • ECCENTRIC CLUBS. 151 Fresideat's ■whole person was, sunk in the elbow-chair, and when his ai-ms were spread over it, he appeared (to the great lessening of his dignity) like a child in a go-cart. It was also so wide in the seg,t,j?is to give a, wag occasion of saymg, that " notwithstanding the President sat in it, there was a sede vacante." " The. table was so high, that one who came by change to the door, ' seeing our chins just above the pewter dishes, took us for a circle of men that sat ready to be shaved, and sent in half-a-dozen of barbers. Another time, one of the Club spoke contumeliously of the. President, imagining he had been absent, when he was only ieclipsed by a flask of Florence, which stood on the table in a parallel line before hig face. We therefore .new-fi^mished the room, in all respects propprtionably. to us, and had the door made lower, so as to admit no man above five feet high without- brushing his foretop; which, whoever does, , is utterly un- qualified to git amongst us." , : Mr. Daniel, in Y^s^Merrie England in the. Olden Time, has dollect^d a farther list of Clubs eifisting in London in 1790., He enumerates the following : — The Odd Fellows' Club ; the Humbugs (held at the Bllie ifosts, in Covent-garden) ; the Samsomc Society ; . the. Society pf Bucks ; the Purl Drinkers ; the Society of Pilgrims (held at tlie Woojpack, in the Kingsl^d-road). ; the" Thespian Club; the Great Bottle Club'; the Je ne, sgai quoi Club (held at tlje Star and Garter in^ Pall-Mall, and of which the Prince of Wales, and the Dukes of York, Clarence, Orleans, Norfolk, Bedford, etc., were meniberp) ; the Sons of the Thames Society ; the Blue Stocking Club ; the No Pay No Liquor Club (held at the Queen an 50 lbs. Turtle . 12 4 Dressing do. . . 2 2 H6 Ice for Wine . . 6 > 18 Rose Water . . .') ) 18 Soda Water . . 12 ) 16 Lemons and Sugar for 7 do S II Broken Glass . .S 6 9 Servants' dinners 7 4 Waiters . ■ • I n 10 ;^8S 9 6 ) 6 " Consider, in the bird's-eye view of the banquet (says Mr. Haslewood), the trencher cuts, foh ! nankeen displays ; as iatersticed with many a brilliant drop to friendly beck and clubbish hail, to moisten the viands, or cool the incipient cayenne. No unfamished liveryman would desire better dishes, or high-tasted courtier better wines. With men that meet to commune, that can converse, and each willing to give and receive information, more could not be wanting to promote well-tempered conviviality j a social compound of mirth, wit, and wisdom ; — combining all that Anacreon was famed for, tempered with the reason of Demosthenes, and intersected with the archness of Scaliger. It is true we had not any Greek verses in praise of the grape ; but we had as a tolerable substitute the ballad of the Bishop of Hereford, and Robin Hood, sung by Mr. Dodd ; and it was of his THE ROXBURGHE CLUB DINNERS. 163 own composing. It is true we had not any long oration denouncing the absentees, the Cabinet council, or any other set of men, but there was not a man present that at one hour and seventeen minutes after the cloth was removed but could not have made a Demosthenic speech far superior to any record of antiquity. It is true no trait of wit is going to be here preserved, for the flashes were too general ; and what is the critical sagacity of Scaliger, compared to our chairman? Ancients, beHeve it we were not dead drunk, and therefore lie quiet under the table for once, and let a few modems be uppermost. " According to the long-established principles of ' May- sterre Cockerre,' each person had 5/. 14J. to pay — a tremen- dous surn, and much may be said tliereon." Earl Spencer presided at the dinner which followed the sale of the Valdarfer Boccaccio : twenty-one members sat down to table at Jaquifere's (the Clarendon), and the bill was comparatively moderate, 55/. 13^. Mr. Haslewood says, with characteristic sprightliness : " Twenty-one mem- bers met joyfully, dined comfortably, challenged eagerly, tippled prettily, divided regretfully, and paid the bill most cheerfully." The foUowrng is the list of " Tostes,'' given at the first Dinner, in 181 2 : — Vs^t ®xii!X of ije %a%ivi. The Immortal Memory of John Duke of Roxburghe. Christopher Valdarfer, Printer of the Decameron of 1471. Gutemberg, Fust, and Schseffher, the Inventors of the Art of Printing. William Caxton, the Father of the British Press. Dame Juliana Barnes, and the St. Alban's Press. Wynkyn de Worde and Richard Pynson, the Illustrious Successors of William Caxton. The Aldine Family at Venice. The Giunta Family at Florence. The Society of the Bibliophiles at Paris. The Prosperity of the Roxburghe Club. The Cause of Bibliomania all over the World M 2 1(54 CLUB LIFE OF LOAWON: To show that the pursuits of the Roxburghe Club have been estimated with a difference, we quote what may be termed " another side of the question ": — " Among other follies of the age of paper, which took place in England at the end of the reign of George III., a set of book-fanciers, who had more money than wit, formed them- selves into a club, and appropriately designated themselves the Bibliomaniacs. Dr. Dibden was their organ ; and among the club were several noblemen, who, in other respects, were esteemed men of sense. Their rage was, not to estimate books according to their intrinsic worth, but for their rarity. Hence, any volume of the vilest trash, which was scarce, merely because it never had any sale, fetched fifty or a hundred pounds ; but if it were but one of two or three known copies, no limits could be set to the price. Books altered in the title-page, or in a leaf, or any trivial circumstance which varied a few copies, were bought by these soi-disant maniacs, at one, two, or three hundred pounds, though the copies were not really worth more than threepence per pound. A trumpery edition of Boccaccio, said to be one of two known copies, was thus bought by a noble marquis for 1475/., though in two or three years after- wards he resold it for 500/. First editions of all authors, and editions by the first clumsy printers, were never sold for less than 50/., 100/., or 200/. " To keep each other in countenance, these persons formed themselves into a club, and, after a Duke, one of their fraternity, called themselves the Roxburghe Club. To gratify them, facsimile copies of clumsy editions of trumpery books were reprinted ; and, in some cases, it became worth the while of more ingenious persons to play off forgeries upon them. This mania after awhile abated ; and, in future ages, it will be ranked with the tuhp and the picture mania, during which estates were given for single flowers and pictures.'' The Roxburghe Club still exists; and, with the Dilet- THE SOCIE ry OF PAS T VERSEEKS. 1 65 tanti Society, may justly be said to have suggested tlie Publishing Societies of the present day, at the head of which is the Camden. The late Duke of Devonshire was a mu- nificent member of the Roxburghe. The Society of Past Overseers, Westminster. There are several parochial Clubs in the metropolis ; but that of the important parish of St. Margaret's, Westminster, with " Past Overseers " for its members, has signalized itself by the accumulation and preservation of an unique heirloom, which is a very curious collection of memorials of the last century and a half, exhibiting various tastes and styles of art in their respective commemorations, in a sort of chronology in silver. Such is the St. Margaret's Overseer's Box, which origin- ated as follows. It appears that a Mr. Monck purchased, at Horn Fair, held at Charlton, Kent, a small tobacco-box for the sum of fourpence, from which he often replenished his neighbour's pipe, at the meetings of his predecessors and companions in the office of Overseers of the Poor, to whom the Box was presented in 17 13. In 1720, the Society of Past Overseers ornamented the lid with a silver rim, com- memorating the donor. In 1726, a silver side case and bottom were added. In 1740, an embossed border was placed upon the lid, and the under part enriched with an emblem of Charity. In 1 746, Hogarth engraved inside the lid a bust of the Duke of Cumberland, with allegorical figures, and scroll commemorating the Battle of Culloden. In 1765, an interwoven scroll was added to the lid, enclos- ing a plate with the arms of the City of Westminster, and inscribed : " This Box to be delivered to every succeeding set of Overseers, on penalty of five guineas." The original Horn box being thus ornamented, additional cases were provided by the Senior Overseers for the time being, — namely, silver plates engraved with emblematical 155 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. and historical subjects and busts. Among the first are a View of the Fireworks in St. James's Park, to celebrate the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1749; Admiral Keppel's Action off Ushant, and his acquittal after a court-martial ; the Battle of the Nile; the Repulse of Admiral Linois, 1804; the Battle of Trafalgar, 1805 ; the Action between the San Fiorenzo and La Pi6montaise, 1808; the Battle of Water- loo, 1815 ; the Bombardment of Algiers, 181 6; View of the House of Lords at the Trial of Queen Caroline ; the Coronation of George IV. ; and his Visit to Scotland, 1822. There are also — Portraits of John Wilkes, Churchwarden in 1759 ; Nelson, Duncan, Howe, Vincent; Fox and Pitt, 1806; George IV. as Prince Regent, 181 1; the Princess Charlotte, 1817; and Queen Charlotte, 1818. But the more interesting representations are those of local circum- stances ; as the Interior of Westminster Hall, with the Westminster Volunteers, attending Divine Service at the drum-head on the Fast Day, 1803 ; the Old Sessions House ; a view of St. Margaret's, from the north-east ; and the West Front Tower, and altar-piece. In 1813, a large silver plate was added to the outer case, with a portrait of the Duke of Wellington, commemorating the centenary of the agglomeration of the Box. The top of the second case represents the Governors of the Poor, in their Board-room, and this inscription : " The original Box and cases to be given to every succeeding set of Overseers, on penalty of fifty guineas, 1783." On the outside of the first case is a clever engraving of a cripple. In 1785, Mr. Gilbert exhibited the Box to some friends after dinner : at night, thieves broke in, and carried off all the plate that had been in use; but the box had been removed beforehand to a bedchamber. In 1793, Mr. Read, a Past Overseer, detained the Box, because his accounts were not passed. An action was brought for its recovery, which was long delayed, owing to two members of the Society giving Read a release, which THE SOCIETY OP PAST OVERSEERS. 167 he successfully pleaded in bar to the action. This rendered it necessary to take proceedings in equity : accordingly, a Bill was filed in Chancery against all three, and Read was compelled to deposit the box with Master Leeds until the end of the suit. Three years of litigation ensued. Eventu- ally the Chancellor directed the Box to be restored to the Overseers' Society, and Mr. Read paid in costs 300/. The extra costs amounted to 76/. 13^. i\d., owing to the illegal proceedings of Mr. Read. The sum of 91/. 7J. was at once raised; and the surplus spent upon a third case, of octagon shape. The top records the triumph : Justice trampling upon a prostrate man, from whose face a mask falls upon a writhing serpent. A second plate, on the outside of the fly- lid, represents the Lord Chancellor Loughborough, pro- nouncing his decree for the restoration of the Box, March 5, 1796. On the fourth, or outer case, is the Anniversary Meeting of the Past Overseers' Society, with the Churchwardens giving the charge previous to delivering the Box to the suc- ceeding Overseer, who is bound to produce it at certain parochial entertainments, with three pipes of tobacco at the least, under the penalty of six bottles of claret ; and to return the whole, with some addition, safe and sound, under a penalty of 200 guineas. A tobacco-stopper of mother-of-pearl, with a silver chain, is enclosed within the Box, and completes this unique Memorial of the kindly feeling which perpetuates year by year the old ceremonies of this united parish ; and renders this traditionary piece of plate of great price, far outweighing its intrinsic value.* * " Westminster." By the Rev. Mackenzie S. C. Walcott, M.A., Curate of St. Margaret's, 1849, pp. 105-107. t6S The Robin Hood. In the reign of George the Second there met, at a house in Essex-street, in the Strand, the Robin Hood Society, a debating Club, at which, every Monday, questions were proposed, and any member might speak on them for seven minutes; after which the "baker," who presided with a hammer in his hand, summed up the arguments. Arthur Mainwaring and Dr. Hugh Chamberlain were among the earliest members of this Society. Horace Walpole notices the Robin Hood as one of the celebrities which Monsieur Beaumont saw in 1761 : " It is incredible," says Walpole, " what pains he has taken to see :" he breakfasted at Straw- berry Hill with Walpole, who was then "as much a curiosity to all foreigners as the tombs and lions." The Robin Hood became famous as the scene of Burke's earliest eloquence. To discipline themselves in pubUc speaking at its meetings was then the custom among law- students, and others intended for public life ; and it is said that at the Robin Hood, Burke had to encounter an oppo- nent whom nobody else could overcome, or at least silence : this person was the president. Oliver Goldsmith was intro- duced to the Club by Samuel Derrick, his acquaintance and countryman. Struck by the eloquence and imposing aspect of the president, who sat in a large gilt chair, Goldsmith thought Nature had meant him for a lord chancellor : " No, no," whispered Derrick, who knew him to be a wealthy baker from the city, "only for a master of the rolls." Goldsmith was little of an orator; but, till Derrick went away to succeed Beau Nash, at Bath, seems to have continued his visits, and even spoke occasionally ; for he figures in an account of the members published at about this time, as "a candid disputant, with a clear head and an honest heart, though coming but seldom to the society." One of the members of this Robin Hood was Peter THE BLUE-STOCKING CLUB. 169 Annet, a man who, though ingenious and deserving in other respects, became unhappilly notorious by a kind of fanatic crusade against the Bible, for which (published weekly papers against the Book of Genesis,) he stood twice in one year in the pillory, and then underwent imprisonment in the King's Bench. To Annet's room in that prison went Goldsmith, taking with him Newbery, the publisher, to conclude the purchase of a Child's Grammar from the pri- soner, hoping so to relieve his distress ; but on the prudent publisher suggesting that no name should appear on the title-page, and Goldsmith agreeing that circumstances made this advisable, Annet accused them both of cowardice, and rejected their assistance with contempt.* The Blue-stocking Club. The earliest mention of a Blue-Stocking, or Bas Bleu, occurs in the Greek comedy, entitled the Banquet of Plu- tarch. The term as applied to a lady of high literary taste, has been traced by Mills, in his History of Chivalry, to the Society de la Calza, formed at Venice in 1400, " when, consistently with the singular custom of the Italians, of marking academies and other intellectual associations by some external sign of folly, the members, when they met in literary discussion, were distinguished by the colour of their stockings. The colours were sometimes fantastically blended ; and at other times one colour, particularly blue, prevailed." The Society de la Calza lasted till 1590, when the foppery of Italian literature took some other S3maboI. The rejected title then crossed the Alps, and found a con- genial soil in Parisian society, and particularly branded female pedantry. It then diverted from France to England, and for awhile marked the vanity of the small advances in literature in female coteries. * Forster's Life of Goldsmith, p. 253. £70 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. But the Bluestocking of the last century is of home- groAvth; for Boswell, in his Life of Johnson, date 1781, records : " About this time it was much the fashion for several ladies to have evening assemblies, where the fair sex might participate in conversation with literary and ingenious men, animated by a desire to please. One of the most eminent members of these societies, when they first com- menced, was Mr. Stillingfleet (grandson of the Bishop), whose dress was remarkably grave ; and in particular it was observed that he wore blue stockings. Such was the excel- lence of his conversation, that his absence was felt so great a loss that it used to be said, ' We can do nothing without the blue stockings ;' and thus by degrees the title was estab- lished. Miss Hannah More has admirably described a Blue-Stocking Club, in her Bas-Bleu, a poem in which many of the persons who were most conspicuous there are men- tioned. And Horace Walpole speaks of this production as " a charming poetic familiarity called ' the Blue-Stocking Club.' " The Club met at the house of Mrs. Montagu, at the north- west angle of Portman-square. Forbes, in his Life of Beattie, gives another account : " This Society consisted originally of Mrs. Montagu, Mrs. Vesey, Miss Boscawen, and Mrs. Carter, Lord Lyttelton, Mr. Pulteney, Horace Walpole, and Mr. Stillingfleet. To the latter gentleman, a man of great piety and worth, and author of some works in natural history, etc., this constellation of talents owed that whimsical ajjpel- lation of ' Bas-Bleu.' Mr. Stillingfleet being somewhat of an humourist in his habits and manners, and a little negli- gent in his dress, literally wore gi-ay stockings ; from which circumstance Admiral Boscawen used, by way of pileasantry, to call them " The Blue-Stocking Society,' as if to intimate that when these brilliant friends met, it was not for the pur- pose of forming a dressed assembly. A foreigner of distinc- tion hearing the expression, translated it literally, 'Bas- Bleu,' by which these meetings came to be afterwards dis- THE IVY-LANE CLUB. 171 tinguished." Dr. Johnson sometimes joined the circle. The last of the Club was the lively Miss Monckton, after- wards Countess of Cork, " who used to have the finest bit of blue at the house of her mother, Lady Galway." Lady Cork died at upwards of ninety years of age, at her house in New Burlington-street, in 1840. The Ivy Lane Club. This was one of the creations of Dr. Johnson's clubbable nature, which served as recreation for this laborious worker. He was now " tugging at the oar " in Gough-square, Fleet- street. Boswell describes him as " engaged in a steady, continued course of occupation." " But his enlarged and lively mind could not be satisfied without more diversity of emplo}Tnent, and the pleasure of animated relaxation. He, therefore, not only exerted his talents in occasional compo- sition, very different from lexicography, but formed a Club in Ivy-lane, Paternoster-row, with a view to enjoy literary discussion, and amuse his evening hours. The members associated with him in this little Society were — his beloved friend, Dr. Richard Bathurst ; Mr. Hawkesworth, afterwards well known by his writings ; Mr. John Hawkins, an attor- ney ; and a few others of different professions." The Club met every Tuesday evening at the King's Head, a beef-steak house in Ivy-lane. One of the members, Hawkins, then Sir John, has given a very lively picture of a celebration by this Club, at the Devil Tavern, in Fleet-street, which forms one of the pleasantest pages in the Author's Life of Johnson. Sir John tells us : " One evening at the [Ivy-lane] Club, Dr. Johnson pro- proposed to us celebrating the birth of Mrs. Lennox's first literary child, as he called her book, by a whole night spent in festivity. The place appointed was the Devil Tavern ; and there, about the hour of eight, Mrs. Lennox, and her husband, and a lady of her acquaintance now living [1785], 172 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. as also the Club and friends, to the number of nearly twenty, assembled. Our supper was elegant, and Johnson had directed that a magnificent hot apple-pye should make a part of it, and this he would have stuck with bay-leaves, because, forsooth, Mrs. Lennox was an authoress, and had written verses ; and further, he had prepared for her a crown of laurel, with which, but not until he had invoked the Muses by some ceremonies of his own invention, he encircled her brows. The night passed, as must be ima- gined, in pleasant conversation and harmless mirth, inter- mingled, at different periods, with the refreshments of coffee and tea. About five, Johnson's face shone with meridian splendour, though his drink had been only lemonade ; but the far greater part of us had deserted the colours of Bacchus, and were with difficulty rallied to partake of a second refreshment of coffee, which was scarcely ended when the day began to dawn. This phenomenon began to put us in mind of our reckoning ; but the waiters were all so overcome with sleep, that it was two hours before we could get a bill, and it was not till near eight that the creaking of the street-door gave the signal for our depar- ture." When Johnson, the year before his death, endeavoured to re-assemble as many of the Club as were left, he found, to his regret, he wrote to Hawkins, that Horseman, the landlord, was dead, and the house shut up. About this time Johnson instituted a Club at the Queen's Arms, in St. Paul's Churchyard. " He told Mr. Hook," says Boswell, " that he wished to have a City Club, and asked him to collect one ; but," said he, " don't let them be patriots." (" Boswell's Life," 8th edit. vol. iv. p. 93.) This was an allusion to the friends of his acquaintance Wilkes, oswell accompanied him one day to the Club, and found the members '•' very sensible, well-behaved men." 173 The Essex Head Club. In the year before he died, at the Essex Head, now No. 40, in Essex-street, Strand, Dr. Johnson established a little evening Club, under circumstances peculiarly interesting as described by Boswell. He tells us that, " notwithstanding the complication of disorders under which Johnson now laboured, he did not resign himself to despondency and discontent, but with wisdom and spirit endeavoured to console and amuse his mind with as many innocent enjoy- ments as he could procure. Sir John Hawkins has men- tioned the cordiality with which he insisted that such of the members of the old Club in Ivy-lane as survived, should meet again and dine together, which they did, twice at a tavern, and once at his house ; and, in order to ensure him- self in the evening for three days in the week, Johnson instituted a Club at the Essex Head, in Essex-street, then kept by Samuel Greaves, an old servant of Mr. Thrale's : it was called " Sam's." On Dec. 4, 1783, Johnson wrote to Sir Joshua Reynolds, giving an account of this Club, of which Reynolds had desired to be one ; " the company," Dr. J. says, " is nume- rous, and, as you will see by the list, miscellaneous. The terms are lax, and the expenses hght. Mr. Barry was adopted by Dr. Brocklesby, who joined with me in forming the plan. We meet twice a week, and he who misses forfeits twopence." It did not suit Sir Joshua to be one of this Club ; " but," says Boswell, " when I mention only Mr. Daines Barrington, Dr. Brocklesby, Mr. Murphy, Mr. John Nichols, Mr. Cooke, Mr. Joddrel, Mr. Paradise, Dr. Horsley, Mr. Windham, I shall sufficiently obviate the misrepresentation of it by Sir John Hawkins, as if it had been a low ale-house association, by which Johnson was degraded. The doctor himself, like his namesake. Old Ben, composed the Rules of his Club. Boswell was, at this 174 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. time, in Scotland, and during all the winter. Johnson, however, declared that he should be a member, and invented a word upon the occasion : " Boswell," said he, " is a very clubbable man ;" and he was subsequently chosen of the Club. Johnson headed the Rules with these lines ; — To-day deep thoughts with me resolve to drench In mirth, which after no repenting draws. — Milton, Johnson's attention to the Club was unceasing, as appears by a letter to Alderman Clark, (afterwards Lord Mayor and Chamberlain,) who was elected into the Club : the post- script is : " You ought to be informed that the forfeits began with the year, and that every night of non-attendance incurs the mulct of threepence; that is, ninepence a week." Johnson himself was so anxious in his attendance, that going to meet the Club when he was not strong enough, he was seized with a spasmodic asthma, so violent, that he could scarcely return home, and he was confined to his house eight or nine weeks. He recovered by May 15, when he was in fine spirits at the Club. Boswell writes of the Essex : " I believe there are few Societies where there is better conversation, or more de- corum. Several of us resolved to continue it after our great founder was removed by death. Other members were added ; and now, above eight years since that loss, v/e go on happily." The Literary Club. Out of the casual, but fi'equent meetings of men of talent at the hospitable board of Sir Joshua Reynolds, in Leicester- square, rose that association of wits, authors, scholars, and statesmen, renowned as the Literary Club. Reynolds was the first to propose a regular association of the kind, andwa,s eagerly seconded by Johnson, who suggested as a model the Club which he had formed some fourteen years previously, THE LITERARY CLUB. ,-75 in Ivy-lane j* and which the deaths or dispersion of its members had now interrupted for nearly seven years. On this suggestion being adopted, the members, as in the earlier Club, were limited to nine, and Mr. Hawkins, as an original member of the Ivy-lane Club, was invited to join. Topham Beauclerk and Bennet Langton were asked and welcomed earnestly ; and, of course, Mr. Edmund Burke. The notion of the Club delighted Burke ; and he asked admission for his father-in-law, Dr. Nugent, an accomplished Roman Catholic physician, who lived with him. Beauclerk, in like manner, suggested his friend Chamier, then Under-Secretary- at-War. Oliver Goldsmith completed the number. But another member of the original Ivy-lane, Samuel Dyer, making unexpected appearance from abroad, in the follow- ing year, was joyfully admitted; and though it was resolved to make election difficult, and only for special reasons permit addition to their number, the limitation at first proposed was thus, of course, done away with. Twenty was the highest number reached in the course of ten years. The dates of the Club are thus summarily given by Mr. Hatchett, the treasurer: — It was founded in 1764, by Sir Joshua Reynolds.and Dr. Samuel Johnson, and for some years met on Monday evenings, at seven. In 1772, the day of meeting was changed to Friday, and about that time, instead of supping, they agreed to dine together once in every fortnight during the sitting of Parliament. In 1773, the Club, which soon after its foundation consisted of twelve members, was enlarged to twenty; March ti, 1777, to twenty-six; November 27, 1778, to thirty; May 9, 1780, to thirty-five ; and it was then resolved that it should never exceed forty.: It met originally at the Turk's Head, in Gerard-street, and continued to meet there till 1783, when * The house in Ivy-lane, which bore the name of Johnson, and where Ih?. Literary Chib is said to have been held, was burnt down a few years since : it had long been a chop-house. 176 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. their landlord died, and the house was soon afterwards shut up. They then removed to Prince's in Saville-street ; and on his house being, soon afterwards, shut up, they removed to Baxter's, which afterwards became Thomas's, in Dover- street. In January, 1792, they removed to Parsloe's, in St. James's-street ; and on February 26, 1799, to the Thatched House, in the same Street. "So originated and was formed," says Mr. Forster, " that famous Club, which had made itself a name in literary history long before it received, at Garrick's funeral, the name of the Literary Club, by which it is now known. Its meetings were noised abroad ; the fame of its conversations received eager addition, from the difficulty of obtaining admission to it ; and it came to be as generally understood that Literature had fixed her head-quarters here, as that Politics reigned supreme at Wildman's, or the Cocoa-tree. With advantage, let me add, to the dignity and worldly consideration of men of letters themselves. ' I believe Mr. Fox will allow me to say,' remarked the Bishop of St. Asaph, when the Society was not more than fifteen years old, ' that the honour of being elected into the Turk's Head Club, is not inferior to that of being the representative of West- minster or Surrey.' The Bishop had just been elected ; but into such lusty independence had the Club sprung up thus early, that Bishops, even Lord Chancellors, were known to have knocked for admission unsuccessfully; and on the night of St. Asaph's election, Lord Camden and the Bishop of Chester were black-balled." Of this Club, Hawkins was a most unpopular member : even his old friend, Johnson, admitted him to be out of place here. He had objected to Goldsmith, at the Club, " as a mere literary drudge, equal to the task of compiling and translating, but little capable of original, and still less of poetical composition." Hawkins's " existence was a kind of pompous, parsimonious, insignificant drawl, cleverly ridiculed by one of the wits in an absurd epitaph: 'Here lies Sir Jonn The Trumpet, Shire Lane, Temple Bar. [Receiving Hoiiseof" The Taikr.") The Cock, Tothill Street, Westminster. [Dating from ffeniy Vf.) THE LITERARY CLUB. 177 Hawkins, without his shoes and stauckin?.' " He was as mean as he was pompous and conceited. He forbore to partake of the suppers at the Club, and begged therefore to be excused from paying his share of the reckoning. " And was he excused?" asked Dr. Burney, of Johnson. "Oh yes, for no man is angry at another for being inferior to himself. We all scorned him, and admitted his plea. Yet I really believe him to be an honest man at bottom, though, to be sure, he is penurious and he is mean, and it must be owned that he has a tendency to savageness." He did not remain above two or three years in the Club, being in a manner elbowed out in consequence of his rudeness to Burke. Still, Burke's vehemence of will and sharp impetuosity of temper constantly exposed him to prejudice and dislike ; and he may have painfully impressed others, as well as Hawkins, at the Club, with a sense of his predominance. This was the only theatre open to him. " Here only," says Mr. Forster, " could he as yet pour forth, to an audience worth exciting, the stores of argument and eloquence he was thirsting to employ upon a wider stage ; the variety of knowledge, the fund of astonishing imagery, the ease of philosophic illustra- tion, the overpowering copiousness of words, in which he has never had a rival." Miss Hawkins was convinced that her father was disgusted with the overpowering deportment of Mr. Burke, and his monopoly of the conversation, which made all the other members, excepting his antagonist, John- son, merely listeners. Something of the same sort is said by that antagonist, though in a more generous way. " What I most envy Burke for," said Johnson, "is, that he is never what we call humdrum ; never unwilling to begin to talk, nor in haste to leave off. Take up whatever topic you please, he is ready to meet you. I cannot say he is good at listening. So desirous is he to talk, that if one is speaking at this end of the table, he'll speak to somebody at the other end." The Club was an opportunity for both Johnson and Burke ; and for the most part their wit-combats seeih not only to N 178 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. have instracted the rest, but to have improved the temper of the combataxits, and to have made them more generous to each other. " How very great Johnson has been to-night !" said Burke to Bennet Langton, as they left the Club together. Langton assented, but could have wished to hear more from another person. " Oh no !" replied Burke, " it is enough for me to have rung the bell to him.'' One evening he observed that a hogshead of claret, which had been sent as a present to the Club, was almost out; and proposed that Johnson should write for another, in such am- biguity of expression as might have a chance of procuring it also as a gift. One of the company said, " Dr. Johnson shall be our dictator." — "Were I," said Johnson, "your dictator, you should have no wine : it would be my business cavere ne quid detrimenti respublica caperet : — wine is dan- gerous ; Rome was ruined by luxury." Burke replied : " If you allow no wine as dictator, you shall not have me for master of the horse.'' Goldsmith, it must be owned, joined the Club somewhat unwillingly, saying : " One must make some sacrifices to ob- tain good society ; for here I am shut out of several places where I used to play the fool very agreeably." His simplicity of character and hurried expression often led him into ab- surdity, and he became in some degree the butt of the com- pany. The Club, notwithstanding all its learned dignity in the eyes of the world, could occasionally unbend and play the fool as well as less important bodies. Some of its j,ocose conyersadons have at times leaked out; and the Society in which Goldsiriith could venture to sing his song of "An Old Woman 1^o,sse.d in a Blanket " could not be so very staid in its gravity. Benn6t Langton and Topham Beauclerk were doubtless induced to join the Clu]3^through their devotion to Johnson, and the intimacy of these two ' very young and aristocratic young men with the stern and somewhat meilan- choly moralist. Bennet Langton, was of an ancient family, who held their ancestral estate of Langton in Lincolnshire, a THE LITERARY CLUB. 179 great title to respect with Johnson. "Langton, Sir," he would say, "has a grant of free warren from Henry the Second; and Cardinal Stephen Langton, in King John's reign, was of this family." Langton was of a mild, contemplative, enthusiastic nature. When but eighteen years of age, he was so delighted with reading Johnson's Rambler, that he came to London chiefly with a view to obtain an introduction to the author. Langton went to pursue his studies at Trinity College, Oxford, where Johnson saw much of him during a visi. which he paid to the University. He found him in close intimacy with Topham Beauclerk, a youth two years older than himself, very gay and dissipated, and wondered what sympathies could draw two young men together of such opposite characters. On becoming acquainted with Beau- clerk, he found that, rake though he was, he possessed an ardent love of literature, an acute understanding, polished wit, innate gentility, and high aristocratic breeding. He was, moreover, the only son of Lord-Sidney Beauclerk, and grand- son of the Diike of St. Albans, and was thought, in some particulars, to have a resemblance to Charles the Second. These were high recommendations with Johnson ; and when the youth testified a profound respect for him, and an ardent admiration of 'his talents, the conquest was- Complete ; so that in a "short time," says Boswell, "the moral, pious Johnson and the gay dissipated Beauclerk were companions.'' When these two young men entered the Club, Langton was about twenty-two, and Beauclerk about twenty-four years of age, and both were launched on London life. Langton, however, was still the mild, enthusiastic scholar, steeped to the lips in Greek, with fine conversational powers, and an invaluable talent for listening. He was upwards of six feet high, and very spare. " Oh that we could sketch him !" ex^ claims Miss Hawkins, in her Memoirs, "with his mild countenance, his. elegant features, and his sweet smile, sitting with one leg twisted round the other, as if fearing to N 2 l8o CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. occupy more space than was equitable ; his person inclining forward, as if wanting strength to support his weight ; and his arms crossed over his bosom, or his hands locked to- gether on his knee." Beauclerk, on such occasions, sportively compared him to a stork in Raphael's cartoons, standing on one leg. Beauclerk was more a " man upon town," a lounger in St. James's-street, an associate with George Selwyn, with Walpole, and other aristocratic wits, a man of fashion at court, a casual frequenter of the gaming- table ; yet, with all this, he alternated in the easiest and happiest manner the scholar and the man of letters ; lounged into the Club with the most perfect self-possession, bringing with him the careless grace and pohshed wit of high-bred society, but making himself cordially at home among his learned fellow-members. Johnson was exceedingly chary at first of the exclusive- ness of the Club, and opposed to its being augmented in number. Not long after its institution. Sir Joshua Reynolds was speaking of it to Garrick. " I like it much," said little David, briskly, "I think I shall be of you." "When Sir Joshua mentioned this to Dr. Johnson,'' says Boswell, "he was much displeased with the actor's conceit. ' Hill be of us !' growled he ; ' how does he know we will permit him ? The first duke in England has no right to hold such lan- guage.'" When Sir John Hawkins spoke favourably of Gamck's pretensions, " Sir,'' replied Johnson, " he will disturb us by his buffoonery." In the same spirit he declared to Mr. Thrale, that if Garrick should apply for admission, he would black-ball him. "Who, Sir?" exclaimed Thrale, with sur- prise : " Mr. Garrick — ^your friend, your companion — black- ball him ?" " Why, Sir," replied Johnson, " I love my Uttle David dearly — better than all or any of his flatterers do ; Dut surely one ought to sit in a society like ours, Unelbowed by a gamester, pimp, or player. THE LITERARY CLUB. iSl The exclusion from the Club was a sore mortification to Garrick, though he bore it without complaining. He could not help continually asking questions about it — what was going on there ? — whether he was ever the subject of con- versation? By degrees the rigour of the Club relaxed, some of the members grew negligent. Beauclerk lost his right of membership by neglecting to attend. On his mar- riage, however, with Lady Diana Spencer, daughter of the Duke of Marlborough, and recently divorced from Viscount Bolingbroke, he had claimed and regained his seat in the Club. The number of the members had likewise been augmented. The proposition to increase it originated with Goldsmith. " It would give," he thought, "an agreeable variety to their meetings ; for there can be nothing new amongst us," said he ; "we have travelled over each other's minds." Johnson was piqued at the suggestion. "Sir," said he, " you have not travelled over my mind, I promise you." Sir Joshua, less confident in the exhaustless fecundity of his mind, felt and acknowledged the force of Goldsmith's suggestion. Several new members, therefore, had been added ; the first, to his great joy, was David Garrick. Goldsmith, who was now on cordial terms with him, had zealously promoted his election, and Johnson had given it his warm approbation. Another new member was Beauclerk's friend, Lord Charlemont ; and a still more important one was Mr., afterwards Sir William Jones, the linguist. George Colman, the elder, was a lively Club-man. One evening at the Club he met Boswell ; they talked of Johnson's y^z^^wf)' to the Western Islands, and of his coming away "willing to believe the second sight," which seemed to excite some ridicule. " I was then," says Boswell, " so impressed with the truth of many of the stories which I had been told, that I avowed my conviction, saying, " He is only willing to be- lieve — I do believe ; the evidence is enough for me, though not for his great mind. What will not fill a quart bottle will i82 CLUB LIFE OF LONDOM. fill a pint bottle ; I am filled with belief." — " Are you?" said Colman ; " then cork it up." Five years after the death of Garrick, Dr. Johnson dined with the Club for the last time. This is one of the most melancholy entries by Boswell. . "On Tuesday, June 22 (1784), I dined with him (Johnson) at the Literary Club, the last time of his being in that respectable society. The other members present were the Bishop of St. Asaph, Lord Eliot, Lord Palmerston (father of the Premier), Dr. Fordyce, and Mr. Malone. He looked ill ; but he had such a manly fortitude, that he did not trouble the company with melan- choly complaints. They all showed evident marks of kind concern about him, with which he was much pleased, and he exerted himself to be as entertaining as his indisposition allowed him." From the time of Garrick's death the Club was known as " The Literary Club," since which it has certainly lost its claim to this epithet. It was originally a club of authors by profession; it now numbers very few except titled members (the majority having some claims to literary distinction), which was very far from the intention of its founders. To this the author of the paper in the National Review demurs. Writing in 1857, he says : " Perhaps it now numbers on its list more titled members and fewer authors by profession, than its founders would have considered desirable. This opinion, however, is quite open to challenge. Such men as the Marquis of Lansdowne, the late Lord Ellesmere, Lords Brougham, CarHsle, Aberdeen, and Glenelg, hold their place in ' the Literary Club ' quite as much by virtue of their con- tributions to literature, or their enlightened support of it, as by their right of rank." [How many of these noble members have since paid the debt of natiire !] " At all events," says Mr. Taylor, " the Club still acknow- ledges literature as its foundation, and love of literature as the tie which binds together its members, whatever their rank and callings. Few Clubs can show such a distinguished THE LITERARY CLUB. 183 brotherhood of members as 'the Literary.' Of authors proper, from 1764 to this date (1857), may be enumerated, besides its original members, Johnson and Goldsmith, Dyer, and Percy, Gibbon and Sir William Jones, Colman, the two Wartons, Parmer, Steevens, Burney, and Malone, Frere and George Ellis, Hallam, Milman, Mountstuart Elphinstone, and Lord Stanhope. "Among men equally conspicuous in letters and the Senate, what names outshine those of Burke and Sheridan, Canning, Brougham, and Macaulay ? Of statesmen and orators proper, the Club claims Fox, Windham, Thomas Grenville, Lord Liverpool; Lords Lansdowne, Aberdeen, and Clarendon. Natural science is represented by Sir Joseph Banks, in the last century ; by Professor Owen in this. Social science can have no nobler representative than Adam Smith ; albeit, Boswell did think the Club had lost caste by electing him. Mr. N. W. Senior is the political economist of the present Club. Whewell must stand alone as the embodi- ment of omniscience, which before him was unrepresented. Scholars and soldiers may be equally proud of Rennel, Leake, and Mure. Besides the clergymen already enumerated" as authors, the Church has contributed a creditable list of bishops and inferior dignitaries : Shipley of St. Asaph, Barnard of Killaloe, Marley of Pomfret, HinchclifFe of Peterborough, Douglas of Salisbury, Blomfield of London, Wilberforce of Oxford, Dean Vincent of Westminster, Arch- deacon Burney ; and Dr. Hawtrey, late master and present provost of Eton. " Sir Joshua Reynolds and Sir Charles Eastlake are its two chief pillars of art, slightly unequal. With them we may associate Sir 'William Chambers and Charles Wilkins. The presence of Drs. Nugent, Blagden, Fordyce, Warren, Vaughan, and Sir Henrj' Halford, is a proof that in the Club medicine has from the first kept up its kinship with literature. " The profession of the Lrav has given the Society Lord i84 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. Ashburton, Lord Stowell, and Sir William Grant, Charles Austin, and Pemberton Leigh. Lord Overstone may stand as the symbol of money; unless Sir George Cornewall Lewis is to be admitted to that honour by virtue of his Chancellorship of the Exchequer. Sir George would, probably, prefer his claims to Club membership as a scholar and political writer, to any that can be picked out of a Budget. " Take it all in all, the Literary Club has never degene- rated from the high standard of intellectual gifts and personal qualities which made those unpretending suppers at the Turk's Head an honour eagerly contended for by the wisest, wittiest, and noblest of the eighteenth century." Malone, in 1810, gave the total number of those who had been members of the Club from its foundation, at seventy- six, of whom fifty-five had been authors. Since 1810, how- ever, literature has far less preponderance. The designation of the Society has been again changed to "the Johnson Club." Upon the taking down of the Thatched House Tavern, the Club removed to the Clarendon Hotel, in Bond-street, where was celebrated its centenary, in September, 1864. There were present, upon this memorable occasion, — in the chair, tlie Dean of St. Paul's ; his Excellency M. Van de Weyer, Earls Clarendon and Stanhope ; the Bishops of London and Oxford ; Lords Brougham, Stanley, Cranworth, Kingsdown, and Harry Vane ; the Right Hon. Sir Edmund Head, Spencer Walpole, and Robert Lowe; Sir Henry Holland, Sir C. Eastlake, Sir Roderick Murchison, Vice-Chancellor Sir W. Page Wood, the Master of Trinity, Professor Owen, Mr. G. Grote, Mr. C. Austen, Mr. H. Reeve, and Mr. G. Richmond. Among the few members prevented from attending were the Duke of Argyll (in Scotland), the Earl of Carhsle (in Ireland), Earl Russell, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Overstone (at Oxford), Lord Glenelg (abroad), and Mr. W. Stirling (from indisposition). Mr. N. W. Senior, THE LITERARY CLUB. 1S5 who was the pohtical economist of the Club, died in June, preceding, in his sixty-fourth year. Hallam and Macaulay were among the constant atten- dants at its dinners, which take place twice a month during the Parliamentary season. The custody of the books and archives of the Club rested with the secretary, Dr. Milman, the Venerable Dean of St. Paul's, who took great pride and pleasure in showing to literary friends the valuable collection of autographs which these books contain. Among the memorials is the portrait of Sir Joshua Reynolds, with spectacles on, similar to the picture in the Royal Collection : this portrait was painted and presented by Sir Joshua, as the founder of the Club. Lord Macaulay has grouped, with his accustomed felicity of language, this celebrated congress of men of letters. " To discuss questions of taste, of learning, of casuistry, in language so exact and so forcible that it might have been printed without the alteration of a word, was to Johnson no exertion, but a pleasure. He loved, as he said, to fold his legs and have his talk out. He was ready to bestow the overflowings of his full mind on anybody who would start a subject, on a fellow-passenger in a stage-coach, or on the person who sat at the same table with him in an eating- house. But his conversation was nowhere so brilliant and striking as when he was surrounded by a few friends, whose abilities and knowledge enabled them, as he once expressed it, to send him back every ball that he threw. Some of these, in 1764, formed themselves into a Club, which gradually became a formidable power in the commonwealth of letters. The verdicts pronounced by this conclave on new books were speedily known over all London, and were sufficient to sell off a whole edition in a day, or to condemn the sheets to the service of the trunk-maker and the pastry- cook. Nor shall we think this strange when we consider what great and various talents and acquirements met in the little fraternity. Goldsmith was the representative of poetry 1 86 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. and light literature, Reynolds of the Arts, Burke of political eloquence and political philosophy. There, too, were Gibbon, the greatest historian, and Jones, the greatest linguist of the age. Garrick brought to the meetings his inexhaustible pleasantry, his incomparable mimicry, and his consummate knowledge of stage effect. Among the most constant attendants were two high-born and high-bred gentlemen, closely bound together by friendship, but of widely different characters and habits, — Bennet Langton, distinguished by his skill in Greek literature, by the ortho- doxy of his opinions, and by the sanctity of his life ; and Topham Beauclerk, renowned for his amours, his knowledge of the gay world, his fastidious taste, and his sarcastic wit. To predominate over such a society was not easy. Yet even over such a society Johnson predominated. Burke might indeed have disputed the supremacy to which others were under the necessity of submitting. But Burke, though not generally a very patient listener, was content to take the second part when Johnson was present; and the Club itself, consisting of so many eminent men, is to this day popularly designated as Johnson's Club." To the same master-hand we owe this cabinet picture. " The [Literary Club] room is before us, and the table on which stand the omelet for Nugent, and the lemons for Johnson. There are assembled those heads which live for ever on the canvas of Reynolds. There are the spectacles of Burke, and the tall thin form of Langton ; the courtly sneer of Beauclerk, the beaming smile of Garrick, Gibbon tapping his snufif-box, and Sir Joshua with his trumpet in his ear. In the foreground is that strange figure which is as familiar to us as the figures of those among whom we have been brought up — the gigantic body, the huge massy face, seamed with the scars of disease ; the brown coat, the black worsted stockings, the grey wig with the scorched foretop ; the dirty hands, the nails bitten and pared to the quick. We see the eyes and the nose moving with convulsive twitches ; GOLDSMITH'S CLUBS. 187 we see the heavy form rolling ; we hear it puffing ; and then comes the 'Why, Sir?' and the 'What then, Sir?' and the ' No, Sir ! ' and the ' You don't see your way through the question, Sir ! '" Goldsmith's Clubs. However Goldsmith might court the learned circle of the Literary Club, he was ill at ease there : and he had social resorts in which he indemnified himself for this restraint by indulging his humour without control. One of these was a Shilling Whist Club, which met at the Devil Tavern. The company delighted in practical jokes, of which Goldsmith was often the butt. One night he came to the Club in a hackney-coach, when he gave the driver a guinea instead of a shilling. He set this down as a dead loss ; but on the next club-night he was told that a person at the street-door wanted to speak to him ; he went out, and to his surprise and delight, the coachman had brought him back the guinea ! To reward such honesty, he collected a small sum from the Club, and largely increased it from his own purse, and with this reward sent away the coachman. He was still loud in his praise, when one of the Club asked to see the returned guinea. To Goldsmith's confusion it proved to be a counterfeit : the laughter which succeeded showed him that the whole was a hoax, and the pretended coachman as much a counterfeit as the guinea. He was so disconcerted that he soon beat a retreat for the evening. Another of these small Clubs met on Wednesday evening, at the Globe Tavern, in Fleet-street; where songs, jokes, dramatic imitations, burlesque parodies, and broad sallies of humour, were the entertainments. Here a huge ton of a man, named Gordon, used to delight Goldsihith with singing the jovial song of " Nottingham Ale," and looking like a butt of it. Here, too, a wealthy pig-butcher aspired to be on the most sociable terms with Oliver ; and here was Tom King, the comedian, recently risen to eminence by his per- i88 CLLB LIFE OF LONDON. formance of Lord Ogleby, in the new comedy of The Clan- destine Marriage. A member of note was also one Hugh Kelly, who was a kind of competitor of Goldsmith, but a low one ; for Johnson used to speak of him as a man who had written more than he had read. Another noted fre- quenter of the Globe and Devil taverns was one Glover, who, having failed in the medical profession, took to the stage; but having succeeded in restoring to hfe a malefactor who had just been executed, he abandoned the stage, and resumed his wig and cane, and came to London to dabble in physic and literature. He used to amuse the company at the Club by his story-telling and mimicry, giving capital imitations of Garrick, Foote, Colman, Sterne, and others. It was through Goldsmith that Glover was admitted to the Wednesday Club ; he was, however, greatly shocked by the free-and-easy tone in which Goldsmith was addressed by the pig-butcher ; " Come, Noll," he would say as he pledged him, " here's my service to you, old boy." The evening's amusement at the Wednesday Club was not, however, limited; it had the variety of epigram, and here was first heard the celebrated epitaph (Goldsmith had been reading Pope and Swift's Miscellanies^ on Edward Purdon : — Here lies poor Ned Purdon, from misery freed, Who long was a bookseller's hack ; He bad led such a damnable life in this world, I don't think he'll wish to come back. It was in April of the present year that Purdon closed his luckless life by suddenly dropping down dead in Smithfield ; and as it was chiefly Goldsmith's pittance that had saved him thus long from starvation, it was well that the same friend should give him his solitary chance of escape from oblivion. " Doctor Goldsmith made this epitaph," says William Ballantyne, " in his way from his chambers in the Temple to the Wednesday evening Club at the Globe. / think he will never come back, I believe he said ; I was THE DILETTANTI SOCIETY. 189 sitting by him, and he repeated it more than once. / think he will never come back ! Ah ! and not altogether as a jest, it may be, the second and the third time. There was some- thing in Purdon's fate, from their first meeting in college to that incident in Smithfield, which had no very violent con- trast to his own ; and remembering what Glover had said of his frequent sudden descents from mirth to melancholy, some such faithful change of temper would here have been natural enough. ' His disappointments at these times,' Glover tells us, ' made him peevish and sullen, and he has often left his party of convivial friends abruptly in the even- ing, in order to go home and brood over his misfortunes.' But a better medicine for his grief than brooding over it, was a sudden start into the country to forget it ; and it was probably with a feeling of this kind he had in the summer revisited Islington ; he laboured during the autumn in a room of Canonbury Tower; and often, in the evening, presided at the Crown tavern, in Islington Lower-road, where Goldsmith and his fellow-lodgers had formed a kind of temporary club. At the close of the year he returned to the Temple, and was again pretty constant in his attendance at Gerard-street." * The Dilettanti Society. The origin of this Society, which has now existed some 130 years, is due to certain gentlemen, who had travelled much in Italy, and were desirous of encouraging at home a taste for those objects which had contributed so much to their intellectual gratification abroad. Accordingly, In the year 1734, they formed themselves into a Society, under the name of Dilettanti (literally, lovers of the Fine Arts), and agreed upon certain Regulations to keep up the spirit of • See Forster's Life of Goldsmith, pp. 422-424. igo CLUB LIFE OF LOyDON. their scheme, which combined friendly and social inter- course, with a serious and ardent desire to promote the Arts. In 1751, Mr. James Stuart, "Athenian Stuart," and Mr. Nicholas Revett, were elected members. The Society liberally assisted them in their excellent work, " The Anti- quities of Athens.'' In , fact it was, in great measure, owing to this Society that after the death of the above two eminent architects, the work was not entirely relinquished; and a large number of the plates were engraved from drawings in the possession of the Dilettanti. Walpole, speaking in 1743, of the Society, in connexion with an opera subscription, says, " The nominal qualification [to be a member] is having been in Italy, and the real one, being drunk ; the two chiefs are Lord Middlesex and Sir Francis Dashwood, who were seldom sober the whole time they were in Italy." We need scarcely add, that the qualifications for election are no longer what Walpole described them to have been. In 1764, the Society, being possessed of a considerable sum above what their services required, various schemes were proposed for applying part of this, money ; and it was at length resolved " that a person or persons properly quali- fied, should be sent, with sufficient appointments, to certain parts of the East, to collect information relative to the former state of those countries, and particularly to procure exact descriptions of the ruins of such monuments of antiquity as are yet to be seen in those parts." Three persons were elected for this undertaking, Mr. Chandler, of Magdalen College, Oxford, editor of the Mar- tnofa Oxoniensia, was appointed to execute the classical part of the plan. Architecture was assigned to Mr. Revett ; and the choice of a proper person for taking views and copying the bas-rdiefs, fell upon Mr. Pars, a young painter of promise. Each person was strictly enjoined to keep a regular journal, and hold a constant correspondence with the Society. The party embarked on June 9, 1764, in the AngJicana, THE DILETTANTI SOCIETY. 191 bound for Constantinople, and were just at the Dardanelles on the zsth of August. Having visited the Sigasan Pro- montory, the ruins of Troas, with the islands of Tenedos and Scio, tliey arrived at Smyrna on the nth of Septem- ber. From that city, as their head-quarters, they made several excursions. On the 20th of August, 1765, they sailed from Smyrna, and arrived at Athens on the 30th of the same month, having touched at Suniura and ^gina on their way. They stayed at Athens till June 11, 1766, visiting Marathon, Eleusis, Salomis, Megaia, and other places in the neighbour- hood. Leaving Athens, they proceeded by the little island of Calauria to Trezene, Epidaurus, Argos, and Corinth. From this they visited Delphi, PatrSj Ehs, and Zante, whence they sailed on the 31st of August, and arrived in England on the 2nd of November following, bringing with them an immense number of drawings, etc., the result of which was the publication, at the expense of the Society, of two magnificent volumes of " Ionian Antiquities." The results of the expedition were also the two popular works, " Chandler's Travels in Asia Minor," 1775 ; and his " Travels in Greece," in the following year ; also, the volume of " Greek Inscriptions," 1774, containing the Sigaean inscrip- tion, the marble of which bas been since brought to England by Lord Elgin ; and the celebrated documents containing the reconstruction of the Temple of Minerva Polias, which Professor Wilkins illustrated in his "Prolusiones Archi- tectonicse, 1837." Walpole, in 1791, has this odd passage upon the Ionian Antiquities: "They who are industrious and correct, and wish to forget nothing, should go to Greece, where there is nothing left to be seen, but that ugly pigeon-house, the Temple of the Winds, that fly-cage, Demosthenes's Lantern, and one or two fragments of a portico, or a piece of a column crushed into a mud wall ; and with such a morsel, and many quotations, a lirue classic antiquary can compose a whole folio, and call it " Ionian Antiquities." 192 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. But, it may be asked, how came the Society to associate so freely pleasure with graver pursuits ? To this it may be replied, that when the Dilettanti first met they avowed friendly and social intercourse the first object they had in view, although they soon showed that they would combine with it a serious plan for the promotion of the Arts in this country. For these persons were not scholars, nor even men of letters ; they were some of the wealthiest noblemen and most fashionable men of the day, who would naturally sup ■\vith the Regent as he went through Paris, and find them, selves quite at home in the Carnival of Venice. These, too, were times of what would now be considered very licentious merriment and very unscrupulous fun, — times when men of independent means and high rank addicted themselves to pleasure, and gave vent to their full animal spirits with a frankness that would now be deemed not only vulgar but indecorous, while they evinced an earnestness about objects now thought frivolous which it is very easy to represent as absurd. In assuming, however, the name of "Dilettanti" they evidently attached to it no light and superficial notion. The use of that word as one of disparagement or ridicule is quite recent. The same may be said of " Virtli," which, in the artistic sense, does not seem to be strictly academical, but that of " Virtuoso " is so, undoubtedly, and it means the " capable " man, — the man who has a right to judge on matters requiring a particular faculty : Dryden says : "Virtuoso the Italians call a man ' who loves the noble arts^ and is a critic in them,' or, as old Glanville says, ' who dwells in a higher region than other mortals.' " Thus, when the Dilettanti mention ' the cause of virtue as a high object which they will never abandon, they express their belief that the union into which they had entered had a more important purpose than any personal satisfaction could give it, and that they did engage themselves thereby in some degree to promote the advantage of their country and of mankind. THE DILETTANTI SOCIETY. 193 "Of all the merry meetings these gay gentlemen had together, small records remain. We, looking back out of a graver time, can only judge from the uninterrupted course of their festive gatherings, from the names of the statesmen, the wits, the scholars, the artists, the amateurs, that fill the catalogue, from the strange mixture of dignities and accessions to wealth for which, by the rules of the Society, fines were paid, — and above all, by the pictures which they possess^ — how much of the pleasantry and the hearty enjoy- ment must have been mixed up with the more solid pursuits of the Members. Cast your eye over the list of those who met togetherat the table of the Dilettanti any time between 1770 and 1790."* Here occur the names of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Earl Fitzwilliam, Charles James Fox, Hon. Stephen Fox (Lord Holland), Hon. Mr. Fitzpatrick, Charles Howard (Duke of Norfolk), Lord Robert Spencer, George Selw)m, Colonel Fitzgerald, Hon. H. Conway, Joseph Banks, Duke of Dorset, Sir William Hamilton, David Garrick, George Colman, Joseph Windham, R. Payne Knight, Sir George Beaumont, Towneley, and others of less posthumous fame, but probably of not less agreeable com- panionship. The funds must have largely benefited by the payment of fines, some of which were very strange. Those paid " on increase of income, by inheritance, legacy, marriage, or pre ferment," are very odd ; as, five guineas by Lord Grosvenor on his marriage with Miss Leveson Gower ; eleven guineas' by the Duke of Bedford, on being appointed First Lord of the Admiralty ; ten guineas compounded for by Bubb Dodington, as Treasurer of the Navy ; two guineas by the Duke of Kingston for a Colonelcy of Horse (then valued at 400/. per annum) ; twenty-one pounds by Lord Sandwich on going out as Ambassador to the Congress at Aix-la-Chapelle > and twopence three-farthings by the same nobleman, on * Edinburgh Review, No. 214, p. ^00. O 194 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. becoming Recorder of Huntingdon ; thirteen shillings and fourpence by the Duke of Bedford, on getting the Garter ; and sixteen shillings and eightpence (Scotch) by the Duke of Buccleuch, on getting the Thistle ; twenty-one pounds by ; the Earl of Holdemesse, as Secretary of State ; and nine pounds, nineteen shillings and sixpence, by Charles James Fox, as a Lord of the Admiralty. In 1814, another expedition was undertaken by the Society, when Sir William Gell, with Messrs. Gandy and Bedford, professional architects, proceeded to the Levant. Smyrna was again appointed the head-quarters of the mission, and fifty pounds per month was assigned to Gell, and two hundred pounds per annum to each of the architects. An additional outlay was required ; and by this means the classical and antique literature of England was enriched with the fullest and most accurate descriptions of important remains of ancient art hitherto given to the world. The contributions of the Society to the sesthetic studies of the time also deserve notice. The excellent design to publish " Select Specimens of Antient Sculpture preserved in the several Collections of Great Britain " was carried into effect by Messrs. Payne Knight and Mr. Towneley, 2 vols, folio, 1809 — 1835. Then followed Mr. Penrose's "Investi- gations into the Principles of Athenian Architecture," printed in 1851. About the year 1820, those admirable monuments of Grecian art, called the Bronzes of Siris, were discovered on the banks of that river, and were brought to this country by the Chevalier Brondsted. The Dilettanti Society immediately organized a subscription of 800/., and the Trustees of the' British Museum completed the purchase by the additional sum of 200/. It was mainly through the influence and patronage of the Dilettanti Society that the Royal Academy obtained a Charter. In 1774, the interest of 4000/. three per cents, ■vas appropriated by the former for the purpose of sending THE DILETTANTI SOCIETY. 195 two Students, recommended by the Royal Academy, to study in Italy or Greece for three years. In 1835 appeared a Second Volume on Ancient Scvilpture. The Society at this time included, among a list of sixty-four names of the noble and learned, those of Sir William Gell, Mr. Towneley, Richard Westmacott, Henry Hallam, the Duke of Bedford, Sir M. A. Shee, P.R.A., Henry T. Hope; and Lord Prudhoe, afterwards Duke of Northumberland. That a Society possessing so much wealth and social importance as the Dilettanti should not have built for them- selves a man&ion is surprising. In 1747 they obtained a plot of ground in Cavendish Square, for this purpose j but in 1760, they disposed of the property. Between 1761 and 1764 the project of an edifice in Piccadilly, on the model of the Temple of Pola, was agitated by the Committee ; two sites were proposed, one between Devonshire and Bath Houses, the other on the west side of Cambridge House. This scheme was also abandoned. Meanwhile the Society were accustomed to meet at the Thatched House Tavern, the large room of which was hung with portraits of the Dilettanti. Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was a member, painted for the Society three capital pictures : — i. A group in the manner of Paul Veronese, containing the portraits of the Duke of Leeds,, Lord Dundas, Constantine Lord Mulgrave, Lord Seaforth, the Hon. Charles Greville, Charles Crowle, Esq., and Sir Joseph Banks. 2. A group in the manner of the same master, containing portraits of Sir William Hamilton, Sir Watkin W. Wynne, Richard Thomson, Esq., Sir John Taylor, Payne Galway, Esq., John Smythe, Esq., and Spencer S. Stanhope, Esq. 3. Head of Sir Joshua, dressed in a loose robe, and in his own hair. The earlier portraits are by Hudson, Reynolds's master. Some of these portraits are in the costume familiar to us through Hogarth; others are in Turkish or Roman dresses. There is a mixture of the convivial in all these pictures o 2 ige CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. many are using wine-glasses of no small size : Lord Sand- wich, for instance, in a Turkish costume,- casts a most un- orthodox glance upon a brimming goblet in his left hand, while his right holds a flask of great capacity. Sir Bouchier Wray is seated in the cabin of a ship, mixing punch, and eagerly embracing the bowl, of which a lurch of the sea would seem about to deprive him : the inscription is Duke est desipere in loco. ■ Here is a curious old portrait of the Earl of Holdemesse, in a red cap, as a gondolier, ^with the Rialto and Venice in the background : there is Charles Sackville, Duke of Dorset, as a Roman senator, dated 1738; Lord Galloway, in the dress of a cardinal ; and a very singular likeness of one of the earliest of the Dilettanti, Lord Le Despencer, as a monk at his devotions : his Lordship is clasping a brimming goblet for his rosary, and his eyes are not very piously fixed on a statue of the Venus de' Medici. It must be conceded that some of these pictures remind one of the Medmenham orgies, with which some of the Dilettanti were not unfamiliar. The ceiling of the large room was painted to represent sky, and crossed by gold cords in- terlacing each other, and from their knots were hung three large glass chandeliers. The Thatched House has disappeared, but the pictures have been well cared for. The Dilettanti have removed to another tavern, and dine together on the first Sunday in every month from February to July. The late Lord Aber- deen, the Marquises of Northampton and Lansdowne, and Colonel Leake, and Mr. Broderip, were members; as was also the late Lord Northwick, whose large collection of pictures at Thirlestane, Cheltenham, was dispersed by sale in 1859. The Royal Naval Club. About the year 1674, according to a document in the possession of Mr. Fitch of Norwich, a Naval Club was started " for the improvement of a mutuall Society, and an THE ROYAL NAVAL CLUB. 197 encrease of Love and Kindness amongst them ;" and that consummate seaman, Admiral Sir John Kempthorrie, was declared Steward of the institution. This was the precursor of the Royal Naval Club of 1765, which, whether considered for its amenities or its extensive charities, may be justly cited as a model establishment (Admiral Smyth's "Rise and Progress of the Royal Society Club, p. 9.) The members of this Club annually distribute a considerable sura among the distressed widows and orphans of those who have spent their days in the naval service of their country. The Cliib was accustommed to dine together at the Thatched House Tavern, on the anniversary of the battle of the Nile. " Founded on the model of the old tavern or convivial Clubs, but confined exclusively to members of the Naval Service, the Royal Naval Club numbered among its mem- bers men from the days of Boscawen, Rodney, arid 'tiie first of June' downwards. It was a favourite retreat for Wil- liam IV. when Duke of Clarence ; and his comrade Sir Philip Durham, the survivor of Nelson, and almost the last of the 'old school,' frequented it. Sir Philip, however, was by no means one of the Trunnion class. Coarseness and profane language, on the contrary, he especially avoided; but in 'spinning a yam' there has been none like him :since the days of Smollett. The loss of the Royal George, from which he was one of the few, if, indeed, not the only officer, who escaped, was a favourite theme ; and the Admiral, not con- tent with having' made his escape, was wont to maintain that he swam ashore with his midshipman's dirk in his teeth. Yet Sir Philip would allow no one to trench on his manor. One day when a celebrated naval captain, with the view of quizzing him, was relating the loss of a merchantman on the coast of South America, laden with Spitalfields products, and asserting that silk was so plentiful, and the cargo so scattered, that the porpoises were for some hours enmeshed in its folds: 'Ay, ay,' replied Sir Philip, 'I believe you; for I was once cruising on that coast myself, in search of a pri- igS CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. vateer, and having. lost our fore-topsail one morning in a gale of wind, we next day found it tied round a whale's neck by way of a cravat.' Sir Philip was considered to have the best of itj and the novehst was mute."* The Wyndham Club. This Glub, which partakes of the character of Arthur's and Boodle's, was founded by Lord Nugent, its objects being, as stated in Rule i, "to secure a convenient and agreeable place of meeting for a society of gentlemen, all connected with each other by a common bond of literary or personal acquaintance.!' The Club, No. ii, St. James's-square, is named from the mansion having been the residence of William Wyndham, who has been described, and the description has been gene- rally adopted as appropriate, as a model of the true English gentleman; and the fitness of the Club designation is equally characteristic. He was an accomplished scholar and mathematician. Dr. Johnson writing of a visit which W5Tid- ham paid him, says : "Such conversation I shall not have again till I come back to the regions of Hterature, and there Wyndham is 'inter Stellas luna minores.' " In the mansion also lived the accomplished John Duke of Roxburghe; and here the Rdxburghe Library was sold in 1812, the sale extending to forty-one days. Lord Chief Justice EUenborough lived here in 1814; and subsequently, the Earl of Blessington, who possessed a fine collection of pictures. The Travellers' Club. , This famous Club was originated shortly after the Peace of 1814, by the Marquis of Londonderry (then Lord Castle- reagh), with a view to a resort for, gentlemen who had re- sided or travelled abroad, as well as with a view to the "London Clubs," 1853. THE TRAVELLERS CLUB. 199 -accommodation ■ of foreigners, wlio, when properly' recom- mended, receive an invitation for the period of their stay. One of the Rules directs " That no person' be considered eligible to the Travellers' Club who shall not have travelled out of the British Islands to a distance of atleast 500 miles from London in a direct line." Another Rule directs "That no dice and no game of hazard be allowed in the rooms of the Club, nor any higher stake than guinea points, and that no cards be introduced before dinner." Prince Talleyrand, during his residence in Londoti, generally joined the muster of whist-players at the Travellers'; probably, here was the scene of this felicitous rejoinder. The Prince was enjoying his rubber, when the conversation turned on thcTCcent union of an elderly lady of respectable rank. " How ever could Madame de S make such a match ? — a person of her birth to marry a valet-de-chambreP' "Ah," replied Talleyrand, "it was late in the game: at nine we don't reckon honoiirs." The present Travellers' Club-house, which adjoins the Athenaeum in Pall Mall, was designed by Barry, R.A., and built in 1832. It is one of the architect's most admired works. Yet, we have seen it thus treated, with more smart- ness than judgment, by a critic who is annoyed at its disad. vantageous comparison with its more gigantic neighbours : — " The Travellers' is worse, and looks very like a sandwich at the Swindon station — a small stumpy piece of beef be- tween two huge pieces of bread, i.e. the Athenaeum and the Reform Clubs, which look as if they were urging their migratory neighbour to resume the peregrinations for which its members are remarkable. Yet people have their names down ten years at the Travellers' previous to their coming up for ballot. An election reasonably extended would supply funds for a more advantageous and extended position." The architecture is the nobler Italian, resembling a Roman palace : the plan is a quadrangle, with an open area in the middle, so that all the rooms are well lighted. . The 200 CLUB LIFE OF LONI>ON. Pall Mall front has a bold and rich cornice, and . the windows are decorated with Corinthian pilasters : the garden front varies in the windows, but the Italian taste is preserved throughout, with the most careful finish : the roof is Italian tiles. To be more minute, the consent of all competent judges has assigned a very high rank to this building as a piece of architectural design; for if, in point of mere quantity, it fall greatly short of many contemporary structures, it sur- passes nearly every one of them in quality, and in the artist- like treatment. In fact, it marks an epoch in our metro- politan architecture ; for before, we had hardly a specimen of that nobler Italian style which, instead of the flutter and flippery, and the littleness of manner, which pervade most of ihe productions of the Palladian school, is characterized by breadth and that refined simplicity arising from unity of idea and execution, and from every part being consistently worked up, yet kept subservient to one predominating effect. Unfortunately, the south front, which is by far the more striking and graceful composition, is comparatively little seen, being that facing Carlton Gardens, and not to be approached so as to be studied as it deserves ; but when examined, it certainly must be allowed to merit all the admiration it has obtained. Though perfect, quiet, and sober in effect, and unostentatious in character, this building of Barry's is re- markable for the careful finish bestowed on every part of it. It is this quality, together with the taste displayed in the design generally, that renders it an architectural bijou. Alinost any one must be sensible of this, if he will but be at the pains to compare it with the United Service Club, eastward of which, as far as mere quantity goes, there is much more. Another critic remarks : " The Travellers' fairly marks an epoch in the architectural history of Club-houses, as being almost the first, if not the very first, attempt, to introduce into this country that species of rich astylar composition which has obtained the name of the Italian palazzo mode, by way of contradistinction from Palladianism and its orders. THE UNITED SERVICE CLUB. 201 This production of Barry's has given a. fresh impulse to architectural design, and one in a more artistic direction ; and the style adopted by the architect has been, applied to various other buildings in the provinces as well as in the metropolis ; and its influence has manifested ' itself in the taste of our recent street architecture." The Travellers' narrowly escaped destructionon October 2 4: 1850, when a fire did great damage to the biUiard-roomsj which were, by the way, an afterthought, and addition to the original building, but by no means an improvement upon the first design, for they: greatly impaired the beauty of the garden-front. The United Service Club, One of the oldest of the modern Clubs, was instituted the year after the Peace of 1815, when a few officers of influence in both branches of the Service had built for them, by Sir R. Smirke, a Club-house at the comer of Charles-street and Regent-street, — a frigid design, somewhat relieved by sculp- ture on the entrance-front, of Britannia distributing laurels to her brave sons by land and sea. Thence the Club re- moved to a more spacious house, in Waterloo-place, facing the Athenjeumj the Club-house in Charles-street being entered on by the Junior United Service Club ; but Smirke's cold design has been displaced by an edifice of much more ornate exterior and luxurious internal appliances. The United Service Club (Senior) was designed by Nash, and has a well-planned interior, exhibiting the architect's well-known excellence in this branch of his profession. The principal front facing Pall Mall has a Roman-Doric portico ; and above it a Corinthian portico, with pediment. One of the patriarchal members of the Club was Lord Lyne- doch, the hero of the Peninsular War, who lived under five sovereigns : he died in his 93rd year, leaving behind him a name to be held in honoured reinembrance, while loyalty is considered to be a real virtue, or military renown a passport 202 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. to fame. It is a curious fact that the Duke of Wellington fought his last battle at an earlier period of life than that in which Lord Lynedoch "fleshed his maiden sword;" and though we were accustomed to regard the Duke himself as preserving his vigour to a surprisingly advanced age, Lord L)Tiedoch was at his death old enough to have been the father of his Grace. The United Service was the favourite Glub of the Duke, who might often be seen dining here on a joint J and on one occasion, when he was charged \s. %d. instead of u. for it, he bestirred himself till the threepence was struck off. The motive was obvious : he took the trouble of objecting, so that he might sanction the principle. Among the Club pictures is Jones's large painting of the Battle of Waterloo j and the portrait of the Duke of Wellington, painted for the Club by W. Robinson. . Here also are Stanfield's fine picture of the Battle of Trafalgar ; and a copy, by Lane, painted in 1851, of a contemporaiy portrait of Sir Francis Drake, our " Elizabethan Sea-King." The Club-house has of late years been considerably en- larged. The Alfred Club. In the comparatively quiet Albemarle-street was instituted, in 1808, the Alfred Club, which has, ab initio, been remark- able for the number of travellers and men of letters, who form a considerable proportion of its members. Science is handsomely housed at the Royal Institution, on the east side of the street ; and literature nobly represented by the large publishing-house of Mr. Murray, on the west ; both circum- stances tributary to the otitmi enjoyed in a Club. Yet, strangely enough, its position has been a frequent Source of banter to the Alfred. First it was known by its cockney- appellation of Half-read. Lord Byron was a member, and he tells us that " it was pleasant, a little too sober and literary, and bored with Sotheby and Francis DTvernois; but one met Rich, and Ward, and Valentia, and many Other THE ALFRED CLUB. 203 pleasant or known people; and it was,, in the whole, a decent resource in a rainy day, in a dearth of parties, or Parliament, or in an empty season." Lord Dudley, writing to the Bishop of LlandafT, says : " I am glad you mean to come into the Alfred this time. We are the most abused, and most envied, and most canvassed Society that I know of, and we deserve neither the one nor the other distinction. The Club is not so good a resource as many respectable persons would believe, nor are we by any means such quizzes or such bores as the wags pretend. A duller place than the Alfred there does not exist. I should not choose to be quoted for saying so, but the bores prevail there to the exclusion of every other interest. You hear nothing but idle reports and twaddling opinions. They read the Morning Post and the British Critic. It is the asylum of doting Tories and drivelling quidnuncs. But they are civil and quiet. You belong to a much better Club already. The eagerness to get into it is prodigious.'' Then, we have the Quarterly Review, with confirmation strong of the two Lords : — " The Alfred received its coup- de-gr&ce from a well-known story, (rather an indication than a cause of its decline,) to the effect that Mr. Canning, whilst in the zenith of his fame, dropped in accidentally at a house dinner of twelve or fourteen, stayed out the evening, and made himself remarkably agreeable, without any one of the party suspecting who he was." The dignified clergy, who, with the higher class of lawyers,, have long ago emigrated to the Athenaeum and University Clubs, formerly mustered in such great force at the Alfred,, that Lord Alvanley^ on being asked in the bow window at White's, whether he was still a member, somewhat irre- verently repHed : " Not exactly : I stood it as long as I could, but when the seventeenth bishop was proposed I gave in. I really could not enter the place without being put in mind of my catechism." " Sober-minded people," says the Quarterly Review, "may be apt to think this 204 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. fonned the best possible reason for his. lordship's remaining where he was. It is hardly necessary to say that the pre- sence of the bishops and judges is universally regarded as an unerring test of the high character of a Club." ■ ■ The Oriental Club. Several years ago, the high dignitaries of the Church and Law kept the Alfred to themselves ; but this would not do : then they admitted a large number of very respectable good young men, who were unexceptionable, but not very amusing. This, again, would not do. So, now the Alfred joined, 1855, the Oriental, in Hanover-square. And curiously enough, thQ latter Club has been quizzed equally with the Alfred. In the merry days of the New Monthly Magazine of some thirty years since, we read : — " The Oriental — or, as the hackney-coachmen call it, the Hori- zontal Club— in Hanover-square, outdoes even Arthur's for quietude. Placed at the. comer of a cul-de-sac — at least as far as carriages are concerned, and in; a part of the square to which nobody not proceeding to one of four houses which occupy that particular side ever thinks of going, its little windows, looking upon nothing, give the idea of mingled dulness and inconvenience. From the outside it looks like a prison; — enter it, it looks like an hospital, in which a smell of curry-powder pervades the ' wards, '-^wards filled with venerable patients dressed in nankeen shorts, yellow stockings, and gaiters, and faces to match. There may still be seen pigtails in all their pristine perfection. It is the region of calico shirts, returned writers, and guinea-pigs grown into bores. Such is the nabobery, into which Harley- street, Wimpole-street, and Gloucester-place, daily empty their precious stores of bilious humanity." Time has blunted the point of this satiric picture, the individualities of which had passed away, even before the amalgamation of the Oriental with the Alfred. THE A THEN^UM CL UB. 205 The Oriental Club was established in 1814, by Sir Jchn Malcolm, the traveller and brave soldier. The members, were noblemen and gentlemen associated with the admi- nistration of our Eastern empire, or who have travelled or resided in Asia, at St. Helena, in Egypt, at the Cape of Good Hope, the Mauritius, or at Constantinople. The Oriental was erected in 1827-8, by B. and P. Wyatt, and has the usual Chib characteristic of only one tier of windows above the ground-floor ; the interior has since been redecorated and embellished by CoUman. The Athenaeum Club. The Athenseum presents a good illustration of the present Club system, of which it was one of the earliest instances. By reference to the accounts of the Clubs existing about the commencement of the present century, it will be seen how greatly they differed, both in constitution and purpose, from the modem large subscription-houses, called Clubs ; and which are to be compared with their predecessors only in so far as every member must be balloted for, or be chosen by the consent of the rest. Prior to 1824 there was only one institution in the metropolis particularly devoted to the association of Authors, Literary Men, Members of Parlia- ment, and promoters generally of the Fine Arts. AH other establishments were more or less exclusive, comprising gentle men who screened themselves in the windows of White's, or Members for Counties, who darkened the doors ov Brookes's ; or they were dedicated to the Guards, or " men of wit and pleasure about town." It is true that the Royal Society had its convivial meetings, as we have already narrated ; and small Clubs of members of other learned Societies were held ; but with these exceptions, there were no Clubs where individuals known for their scientific or literary attainments, artists of eminence in any class of the Fine Arts, and noblemen and gentlemen distinguished as 2o6 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. patrons of science, literature, and the arts, could unite in friendly and encouraging intercourse ; and professional men were compelled either to meet at taverns, or to be confined exclusively to the Society of their particular profes- sions. To remedy this, on the 17th of February, 1824, a pre- liminary meeting, — comprising Sir Humphry Davy, the Right Hon. John Wilson Croker, Sir Francis Chantrey, Richard Heber, Sir Thomas Lawrence, Dr. Thomas Young, Lord Dover, Davie Gilbert, the Earl of Aberdeen, Sir Henry Halford, Sir Walter Scott, Joseph Jekyll, Thomas Moore, and Charles Hatchett, — ^was held in the apartments of the Royal Society, at Somerset House; at this meeting Pro- fessor Faraday assisted as secretary, and it was agreed to institute a Club to be called " The Society," subsequently altered to " The Athenaeum." " The Society " first met in the Clarence Club-house ; but, in 1830, the present mansion, designed by Decimus Burton, was open to the members. The Athenaeum Club-house is built upon a portion of the court-yard of Carlton House. The architecture is Grecian, with a frieze exactly copied from the Panathenaic procession in the frieze of the Parthenon, — the flower and beauty of Athenian youth, gracefully seated on the most exquisitely sculptured horses, which Flaxman regarded as the most precious example of Grecian power in the sculpture of animals. Over the Roman Doric entrance-portico is a colossal figure of Minerva, by Baily, R.A. ; and the interior has some fine casts of chefs-d'oeuvre of sculpture. Here the architecture is grand, massive, and severe. The noble Hall, 35 feet broad by 57 feet long, is divided by scaglidla columns and pilasters, the capitals copied from the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates. This is the Exchange, oi- Lounge, where the members meet. The floor is the Marmorato Veneziano mosaic. Over each of the two fire-places, in a niche, is a statue — the Diana Robing and the. Venus Victrix, selected by Sir Thomas Lawrence — a very fine THE ATffEN^UM CLUB. 207 contrivance for sculptural display. . The Library is the best Club Library in London : it comprises the most rare and valuable works, and a very considerable sum is annually expended upon the collection, under the guidance of members most eminent in literature and science. Above the mantelpiece is a portrait of George IV., painted by Lawrence, upon which he was engaged but a few hours previous to his decease ; the last bit of colour this celebrated artist ever put upon canvas being that of the hilt and sword- knot of the girdle ; thus it remains unfinished. The book- cases of the drawing-rooms are crowned with busts of British worthies. Among the Club gossip it is told that a inember who held the Library faith of the promise of the Fathers, and was anxious to consult their good works, one day asked, in a somewhat fahiiliar tone of acquaintance with these respectable theologians, " Is Justin Martyr here ?" — "I do not know," was the reply; "I will refer to the list; but I do not think that gentleman is one of our members " Mr. Walker, in his very pleasant work, "The Original,'' was one of the first to show how by the then new system of Clubs the facilities of living were wonderfully increased, whilst the expense was greatly diminished. For a few pounds a year, advantages are to be enjoyed which no fortunes, except the most ample, can procure. The only Club (he continues) I belong to is the Athenaeum, which consists of twelve hundred members, amongst v/hom are to be reckoned a large proportion of the most eminent persons in the land, in every line, — civil, military, and ecclesiastical, — ^peers spiritual and temporal (ninety-five noblemen and twelve bishops), commoners, men of the learned professions, those connected with science, the arts, and commerce, in all its principal branches, as well as the distinguished who do not belong to any particular class. Many of these are to be met with every day, living with the same freedom as in their •own houses, for 25 guineas entrance, and 6 guineas a year. 2o8 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON: - Every member has the command of an excellent library, with maps ; of newspapers, English and foreign ; the prin- cipal periodicals ; writing materials, and attendance. The building is a sort of palace, and is kept with the same exact- ness and comfort as a private dwelling. Every member is master, without any of the trouble of a master : he can come when he pleases, and stay away when he pleases, without anything going wrong; he has the command of regular servants, without having to pay or manage them ;. he can have whatever meal or refreshment he wants, at all hours, and served up as in his own house. He orders just what he pleases, having no interest to think of but his own. In short, it is impossible to suppose a greater degree of liberty in: living. " Clubs, as far as my observation goes, are favourable to economy of time. There is a fixed place to go to, every- thing is served with comparative expedition, and it is not customary in general to remain long at table. They are favourable to temperance. It seems that when people can freely please tliemselves, and when they have an oppor- tunity of living simply, excess is seldom committed. From an account I have of the expenses at the Athenaeum in the year 1832, it appears that 17,323 dinners cost, on an average, 2s. g%d. each, and that the average quantity of wine for each person was a small fraction more than half- a-pint. "The expense of building the Club-house was 35,000/., and 5,000/. for furnishing ; the plate, Hnen, and glass cost 2,500/. ; library, 4,000/, and the stock of wine in cellar is usually worth about 4,000/ : yearly revenue about 9,000/ The economical management of the Club has not, how- ever, been effected without a few sallies of humour. In 1834, we read : " The mixture of Whigs, Radicals, savants, foreigners, dandies, authors, soldiers, sailors, lawyers, artists, doctors, and Members of both Houses of Parliament, toge- ther with ar exceedingly good average supply of bishops, Lion-s Head Box at Button's Coffee House. {Designed by Hogarth.) White Horse, Chelsea. (Built about 1 5 50. ) THE ATHENMUM CLUB. 209 render the ni'elange very agreeable, despite of some two or three bores, who ' continually do dine ; ' and who, not satis- fied with getting a f)S. dinner for 3^. 6^., ' continually do complain.' " Mr. Rogers, the poet, was one of the earliest members of the Athenffium, and innumerable are the good things, though often barbed with bitterness, which are recorded of him. Some years ago, judges, bishops, and peers used to con- gregate at the Athenaeum ; but a club of twelve hundred members cannot be select. " Warned by the necessity of keeping up their number and their funds, they foolishly set abroad a report that the finest thing in the world was to belong to the Athenseum ; and that an opportunity offered for hobno bbing with archbishops, and hearing Theodore Hook's jokes. Consequently all the little crawlers and parasites, and gentility-hunters, from all corners of London, set out upon the creep ; and they crept in at the windows, and they crept down the area steps, and they crept in unseen at the doors, and they crept in under bishops' sleeves, and they crept in in peers' pockets, and they were blovm in by the winds of chance. The consequence has been, that ninety- nine hundredths of this Club are people who rather seek to obtain a sort of standing by belonging to the Athenseum, than to give it lustre by the talent of its members. Nine- tenths of the intellectual writers of the age would be cer- tainly black-balled by the dunces. Notwithstanding all this, and partly on account of this, the Athenseum is a capital Club : the library is certainly the best Club library in London, and is a great advantage to a man who writes." * Theodore Hook was one of the most clubbable men of his time. After a late breakfast^ he would force and strain himself at large arrears of literary toil, and then drive rapidly from Fulham to town, and pay a visit " first to one * New Quarterly Revtew. P 210 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. Club, where, the centre of an admiring circle, his intellec- tual faculties were again upon the stretch, and again aroused and sustained by artificial means : the same thing repeated at a second — the same drain and the same supply — ballot or general meeting at a third, the chair taken by Mr. Hook, who addresses the members, produces the accounts, audits and passes them — gives a succinct statement of the pro- spects and finances of the Society — parries an awkward question — extinguishes a grumbler — confounds an opponent — proposes a vote of thanks to himself, seconds, carries it, — and returns thanks, with a vivacious rapidity that entirely confounds the unorganised schemes of the minority — then a chop in ; the committee-room, and just one tumbler of brandy-andrwater, or two, and we fear the catalogue would not always close there." At the A.thenseum, Hook was a great card ; and in a note to the sketch of him in the Quarterly Review, it is stated that the number of dinners at this Club fell off by upwards of three hundred per annum after Hook disappeared from his favourite corner, near the door of the coffee-room. That is to say, there must have been some dozens of gentlemen who chose to dine there once or twice every week of the season, merely for the chance of Hook's, being there, arid permitting them to draw their chairs to his little table in the course of the evening. Oftheextent to which he suffered < from this sort of invasion, there are several bitter oblique complaints in his novels. The corner alluded to will, we suppose, long- retain the name which it derived from him — Temperance Corner. Many grave and dignified persons,ges being frequent guests, it would hardly have been seemly to be calling for repeated supplies of a certain description; but the waiters well understood : what the oracle, of the corner meant by "Another glass of toast-and-water," or, " A little more lemonade." ;; The University Club, In Suffolk-street, Pall Mali- East; was instituted in 1824, and the Club-house, designed by Deering and Wilkins, architects, was opened 1826. It is of the Grecian Doric and Ionic orders ; and the staircase walls have casts from the Parthenon frieze. The Club consists chiefly of Members of Parliament who have received University education ; several of the judges, and a large number of beneficed clergymen. This Club has the reputation of possessing the best stocked wine-cellar in London, which is of no small importance to Members, clerical or lay. Economy of Clubs. Thirty years ago, Mr. Walker took some pains to disabuse the public mind of a false notion that feiriale society was much affected by the multiplication of Clubs.,« He remarks that in those hours of the evening, which are peculiarly dedicated to society, he could scarcely count twenty mem- bers in the suite of rooms upstairs at the Athenaeum Club. If female society be neglected, he contended that it was not owing to the institution of Clubs, but more probably to the long sittings of the House, of Commons, and to the want of easy access to family circles. At the Athenaeum he never heard it even hinted, that married men frequented it to the prejudice of their domestic habits, or that bachelors were kept from general society. Indeed, Mr. Walker maintains, that Clubs are a preparation and not a substitute for domestic life. Compared with the previous system of living, they induce habits of economy, temperance, refinement, regularity, and good orden ., Still, a Club only offers an imitation of the comforts of home, but only an imitation, and one which will never supersede the reality. However, the question became a subject for pleasant p a 212 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. satire. Mrs. Gore, in one of her clever novels, has these shrewd remarks : — " London Clubs, after all, are not bad things for family men. They act as conductors to the storms usually hovering- in the air. The man forced to remain at home and vent his crossness on his wife and chil- dren, is a much worse animal to bear with, than the man who grumbles his way to Pall Mall, and not daring to swear at the Club-servants, or knock about the club-furniture, becomes socialized into decency. Nothing like the subordination exer- cised in a community of equals for reducing a fiery temper." Mr. Hood, in his Comic Anmtal for 1838, took up the topic in his rich vein of comic humour, and here is the amusing result: — CLUBS. TURNED UP BY A FEMALE HAND. Of all the modem schemes of Man That time has brought to bear, A plague upon the wicked plan That parts the wedded pair ! My female friends they all agree They hardly know their hubs ; And heart and voice unite with me, " We hate the name of Clubs !" One selfish course the Wretches keep ; , They come at morning chimes ; To snatch a few short hours of sleep — Rise — breakfast — read the Times — Then take their hats, and post away, Like Clerks or City scrubs, k. And no one sees them all the day, — They live, eat, drink, at Clubs ! With Rundell, Dr. K., or Glasse, And such Domestic books. They once put up, but now, alas ! It's hey ! for foreign cooks, " When will you dine at home, my dove f I say to Mr. Stubbs. " When Cook can make an omelette, love— An omelette like the Clubs 1" ECONOMY OF CL UBS. i< \ 3 Time was, their hearts were only placed On snug domestic schemes, The book for two — united taste, And such connubial dreams, — Friends, dropping in at close of day, To singles,- doubles, rubs, — A little music, — then the tray, — And not a word of Clubs ! But former comforts they condemn ; French kickshaws they discuss, And take their wine, the wine takes them, And then they favour us ; — From some offence they can't digest. As cross as bears with cubs. Or sleepy, dull, and queer, at best — That's how they come from Clubs ! It's veiy fine to say, " Subscribe To Andrews' — can't you read ?" When wives, the poor neglected tribe, Complain how they proceed ! They'd better recommend at once Philosophy and tubs, — A woman need not be a dunce. To feel the wrong of Clubs. A set of savage Goths and Picts Would seek us now and then, — They're pretty pattern- Benedicts To guide our single men ! Indeed, my daugliters both declare " Their Beaux shall not be subs To White's, or Black's, oi" anywhere, — They've seen enough of Clubs !" They say, without the marriage ties. They can devote their hours To catechize, or botanize — Shells, Sunday Schools, and flow'rs — Or teach a Pretty Poll new words, Tend Covent Garden shrubs. Nurse dogs and chirp to little birds — As Wives do since the Clubs. 214 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. Alas ! for those departed days Of social wedded life, When married folks had married ways, And liv'd like Man and Wife ! Oh ! Wedlock then was pick'd by none — As safe a lock as Chubb's ! But couples, that should be as one, Are now the Two of Clubs ! Of all the modern schemes of Man That time has brought to bear, A plague upon the wicked plan. That parts the wedded pair ! My wedded friends they all allow They meet with slights and snubs. And say, " They have no husbands now. They're married to the Clubs !" The satire soon reached the stage. About five-and- twenty years since there was produced, at the old wooden Olympic Theatre, Mr. Mark Lemon's farce, The Ladies^ Club, which proved one of the most striking pieces of the time. "Though in 1840 Clubs, in the modern sense of the word, had been for some years established, they were not quite recognised as social necessities, and the complaints of married ladies and of dowagers with marriageable daughters, to the effect that these institutions caused husbands to desert the domestic hearth and encouraged bachelors to remain single, expressed something of a general feeling. Public opinion was ostentatiously on the side of the ladies and against the Clubs, and to this opinion Mr. Mark Lemon responded when he wrote his most successful farce."* Here are a few experiences of Club-life. "There are many British lions in the coffee-room who have dined off a joint and beer, and have drunk a pint of port wine after- wards, and whose bill is but 4J. 3(/. One great luxury in a modem Club is that there is no temptation to ostentatious * Times journal. ECONOMY OF CLUBS. 215 •expense. At an hotel there is an inclination in some natures to be 'a good custumer.' At a Club the best men are generally the most frugal — they are afraid of being thought like that little snob, Calicot, who is always sur- rounded by fine dishes and expensive \rtnes (even when aJone), and is always in loud talk with the butler, and in correspondence with the committee about the cook. Calicot is a rich man, with a large bottle-nose, and people black- ball his friends. " For a home, a man must have a large Club, where the members are recruited from a large class, where the funds are in a good state, where a large number every day break- fast and dine, and where a goodly number think it necessary to be on the books and pay their subscriptions, although they do not use the Club. Above all, your home Club should be a large Club, because, eveii if a Club be ever so select, the highest birth and most unexceptionable fashion do not prevent a man from being a bore. Every Club must have its bores ; but in a large Club you can get out of their way."* " It is a vulgar error to regard a Club as the rich man's public-house: it bears no analogy to a public-house : it is as much the private property of its members as any ordinary •dwelling-house is the property of the man who built it. " Our Clubs are thoroughly characteristic of us. We are -a fraud people, — it is of no use denying it,— and have a horror of indiscriminate association ; hence the exclusive- ness of our Clubs. "We are an economical people, and love to obtain the -greatest possible amount of luxury at the least possible ex- pense : hence at our Clubs we dine at prime cost, and -drink the finest wines at a price which we should have to -pay for slow poison at a third-rate inn. " We are a domestic people, and hence our Clubs afford us ^11 the comforts of home, when we are away from home, or * New Quarterly Review. 8I6 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. when we have none. Finally, we are a quarrelsome people, and the Clubs are eminently adapted for the indulgence of that amiable taste. A book is kept constantly open to receive the out-pourings of our ill-humour against all persons and things. The smokers quarrel with the non-smokers; the billiard-players wage war against those who don't play ; and, in fact, an internecine war is constantly going on upon every conceivable trifle ; and when we retire exhausted from the fray, sofas and chaises longues are everywhere at hand, whereon to repose in extenso. The London Clubs are cer- tainly the abodes of earthly bliss, yet the ladies won't think so."* The Union Club. This noble Club-house, at the south-west angle of Trafal- gar-square, was erected in 1824, from designs by Sir Robert Smirke, R.A. It is much less ornate than the Club-houses of later- date; but its apartments are spacious and handsome, and it faces one of the finest open spaces in the metropolis. As its name implies, it consists of politicians, and professional and mercantile men, without reference to partj opinions ; and, it has been added, is "a resort of wealthy citizens, who just fetch Charing Cross to inhale the fresh air as it is drawn from the Park through the funnel, by Berkeley House, out of Spring Gardens, into their bay-window." James Smith, one of the authors of the " Rejected Ad- dresses," was a member of the Union, which he describes as chiefly composed of merchants, lawyers, members of Parlia- ment, and of " gentlemen at large." He thus sketches a day's life here. " At three o'clock I walk to the Union Club, read the journals, hear Lord John Russell deified or diablerized, do the same with Sir Robert Peel or the Duke of Wellirigton, and then join a knot of conversationists by -the fire till six o'clock. We then and there discuss the Three per Cent. The Builder. THE UNION CLUB. 217 Consols (some of us preferring Dutch Two-and-a-half per Cents.), and speculate upon the probable rise, shape, and cost of the New Exchange. If Lady Harrington happen to drive past our window in her landau, we compare her equipage to the Algerine Ambassador's ; and when politics happen to be discussed, rally Whigs, Radicals, and Conserva- tives alternately, but never seriously, such subjects having a tendency to a-eate acrimony. At six, the room begins to be deserted; wherefore I adjourn to the dining-room, and gravely looking over the bill of fare, exclaim to the waiter, ' Haunch of mutton and apple-tart !' These viands dis- patched, with the accompanying liquids and water, I mount upward to the library, take a book and my seat in the arm- chair, and read till nine. Then call for a cup of coffee and a biscuit, resuming my book till eleven ; afterwards return home to bed." The smoking-room is a very fine apartment. One of the grumbling members of the Union was Sir James Aylott, a two-bottle man; one day, observing Mr. James Smith furnished with half-a-pint of sherry. Sir James eyed his cruet with contempt, and exclaimed: "So, I see you have got one of those d — d Ufe preservers." The Club has ever been famed for its cuisine, upon the strength of which, we are told that next door to the Club- house, in Cockspur-street, was established the Union Hotel, which speedily became renowned for its turtle ; it was opened in 1823, and was one of the best appointed hotels of its day ; and Lord Panmure, a gourmet of the highest order, is said to have taken up his quarters in this hotel, for several successive seasons, for the sake of the soup.* 'London Clubs, 1853," p. 75. 2l8 The Garrick Club. Mr. Thackeray was a hearty lover of London, and has left us many evidences of his sincerity. He greatly favoured Covent Garden, of which he has painted this clever picture, sketched from "the Garden," where are annually paid for fruits and vegetables some three millionf sterling :— " The two great national theatres on one side, a church- yard full of mouldy but undying celebrities on the other ; a fringe of houses studded in every part with anecdote and history ; an arcade, often more gloomy and deserted than a cathedral aisle ; a rich cluster of brown old taverns — one of them filled with the counterfeit presentment of many actors long since silent, who scowl or smile once more from the canvas upon the grandsons of their dead admirers ; a some- thing in the air which breathes of old books, old pictures, old painters, and old authors; a place beyond all other places one would choose in which to hear the chimes at midnight; a crystal palace — the representative of the present — ^which peeps in timidly from a comer upon many things of the past ; a withered bank, that has been sucked dry by a felonious clerk; a squat building, with a hundred columns and chapel-looking fronts, which always stands knee-deep in baskets, flowers, and scattered vegetables ; a common centre into which Nature showers her choicest gifts, and where the kindly fruits of the earth often nearly choke the narrow thoroughfares ; a population that never seems to sleep, and that does all in its power to prevent others sleeping ; a place where the very latest suppers and the earliest breakfasts jostle each other on the footways — such is Covent-Garden Market, with some of its surrounding features." About a century and a quarter ago, the parish of St. Paul was, according to John Thomas Smith, the only fashionable THE GARRICK CLUB. 219 part of the town, and the residence of a great number of persons of rank and title, and artists of the first eminence ; and also from the concourse of wits, literary characters, and other men of genius, who frequented the numerous coffee- houses, wine and cider cellars, jelly-shops, etc., within its boundaries, the list of whom particularly includes the eminent names of Butler, Addison, Sir Richard Steele, Otway, Dryden, Pope, Warburton, Gibber, Fielding, Churchill, Bdlingbroke, and Dr. Samuel Johnson; Rich, Woodward, Booth, Wilkes, Garrick, and Mackhii'j Kitty Glive, Peg Woffington, Mrs. Pritchard, the Duchess of Bolton, Lady Derby, Lady Thurlow, and the Duchess of St Alban's ; Sir Peter Lely, Sir Godfrey Kneller, and Sir James Thornhill ; Vandevelde, Zincke, Lambert, Hogarth, Hayman, Wilson, Dance, Meyer, etc. The name of Samuel Foote should be added. Although the high fashion of the old place has long since ebbed away, its theatrical celebrity remains ; and the locality is storied with the dramatic associations of two centuries. The Sublime Society of Steaks have met upon this hallowed ground through a century ; and some thirty years ago there was established in the street leading from the north-west angle of Covent-Garden Market, a Club, bearing the name of our greatest actor. Such was the Garrick Club, instituted in 1831, at No. 35, King-street, "for the purpose of bringing together the ' patrons ' of the drama and its professors, and also for offering literary men a rendezvous ; and the mana- gers of the Club have kept those general objects steadily in view. Nearly all the leading actors are members, and there are few of the active literary men of the day who are not upon the list. The large majority of the association is composed of the representatives of all the best classes of society. The number of the members is limited, and the character of the Club is social, and therefore the electing committee is compelled to exercise very vigilant care, for it is clear that it would be better that ten unobjectionable men 220 CLUB LIFE QF LONDON. should be excluded than that^ one terrible bore should be admitted. The prosperity of the Club, and the eagerness to obtain admission to it, are the best proofs of its healthy management ; and few of the cases of grievance alleged against the direction will bear looking into." The house in King-street was, previous to its occupation by the Garrick men, a family hotel: it was rendered toler- ably commodious, but in course of time it was found insufficient for the increased number of members ; and in 1864 the Club removed to a new house built for them a little more westward than the old one. But of the old place, inconvenient as it was, will long be preserved the interest of association. The house has since been taken down ; but its memories are embalmed in a gracefully written paper, by Mr. Shirley Brooks, which appeared in the Illustrated London News, immediately before the re- moval of the Club to their new quarters; and is as follows: "From James Smith (of "Rejected Addresses") to Thackeray, there is a long series of names of distinguished men who have made the Garrick their favourite haunt, and whose memories are connected with those rooms. The visitor who has had the good fortune to be taken through them, that he might examine the unequalled collection of theatrical portraits, will also retain a pleasant remembrance of the place. He will recollect that he went up one side of a double flight of stone steps from the street, and entered a rather gloomy hall, in which was a fine bust of Shakspeare, by Roubiliac, and some busts of celebrated actors ; and he may have noticed in the hall a tablet recording the obliga- tion of the Club to Mr. Dujrrant, who bequeathed to it the pictures collected by the late Charles Mathews. Conducted to the left, the visitor found himself in the strangers' dining- room, which occupied the whole of the ground-floor. This apartment, where, perhaps, more, pleasant dinners had been given than in any room in London, was closely hung with pictures. The newest was Mr. O'Neil's admirable likeness THE GARRICK CLUB. 221 of Mr. Keeley, and it hung over the fireplace in the front room, near Sir Edwin Landseer's portrait of Charles Young. There were many very interesting pictures in this room, among them a Peg Woffington ; Lee (the author of the Bedlam Tragedy, in nineteen acts) ; Mr. Pritchard, and Mr. Garrick, an admirable illustration of Pritchard's genteel, and Garrick six feet liigh ; a most gentlemanly one of Pope the actor, Garrick again as Macbeth in the courtrdress, two charming little paiiitings of Miss Poole when a child-performer, the late Frederick Yates, Mrs. Davison (of rare beauty), Miss Lydia ICelly, and a rich store besides. The stranger Would probably be next conducted through a long passage until he reached the smoking-rooni, which was not a cheerful apartmeint by day- light, and empty ; but which at night, and full, was thought the most cheerful apartment in town. It was adorned with gifts from artists who are members of the Club. Mr. Stanfield had given a splendid sea-piece, with a wash of waves that set one coveting an excursion ; and Mi. David Roberts had given a large and noble painting of Baalbec, one of his finest works. These great pictures occupied two sides of the room, and the other walls were similarly orna- mented. Mrs. Stirling's bright face looked down upon the smokers, and there was a statuette of one who loved the room — the author of * Vanity Fair.' "The visitor was then brought back to the hall, and taken upstairs to the drawing-room floor. On the wall as he passed he would observe a vast picture of Mr. Charles Kemble (long a member) as Macbeth, and a Miss O'Neil as Juliet. He entered the coffee-room, as it was called, which was the front room, looking into King-street, and behind which was the morning-room, for newspapers and writing, and in which was the small but excellent library, rich in dramatic works. The coffee-room was devoted to the members' dinners ; and the late Mr. Thackeray dined for the 222 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. last time away from home at a table in a niche in which hung the scene from The Clandestine Marriagtj where Lord Ogleby is preparing to join the ladies. Over the fireplaide was another scene from the same play ; and on the mantel- piece were Garrick's candlesticks, Kean's ring, and some other relics of interest. The paintings in this room were very valuable. There was Foote, by Reynolds ; a Sheridan ; John Kemble ; Charles Kemble as Charles II. (under which picture he often sat in advanced life, when he in no degree resembled the audacious, stalwart king in the painting); Mrs, Charles Kemble, in male attire; Mrs. Fitzwilliam; Charles Matthews, plre; a fine, roystering Woodward, reminding one of the rattling times of stage chivalry and ' victorious Burgundy ;' and in the moming-room was a delightful Kitty Clive, another Garrick, and, near the ceiling, a row of strong faces of by-gone days — Cooke the strongest. ' ' On the second floor were numerous small and very charac- 1;ej:istic portraits ; and in a press full of large folios was one of the completest and most valuable of collections of theatrical prints. In the card-room, behind this, were also some very quaint and curious likenesses, one of Mrs. Liston, as DollaloUa. There was a sweet face of ' the Prince's ' Perdita, which excuses his infatuation and aggravates his treachery. When the visitor had seen these things and a few busts, among them one of the late Justice Talfourd (an. old member), he was informed that he had seen the collection and he could go away, unless he were lucky enough to have an iftvitation to dine in the strangers' room. . " The new Club-house is a little more westward than the old on.e,rbut not much, the Garrick having resolved to cling to the classic region around Covent-Garden. It is. in Garrick-gtreet from the west end of King-street to Cran- bourn-street. It has a frontage of ninety-six feet to the street ; but the rear was very difficult, from its shape, to manage, and Mr. Marrable, the architect, has dealt very THE GARRICK CLUB. 223 cleverly with the quaint form over which he had to lay out his chambers. The house is Italian, and is imposing from having been judiciously and not over-enrfched. In the hall is a very beautiful Italian screen. The noble staircase is of carved oak; at tlie top, a landing-place, from which is entered the morning-room, the card-toom, and the. library. All the apartments demanded by the habits of the day-^ some of them were not thought necessary in the days of' Garrick — are, of course, provided. The kitchens and all their arrangements are sumptuous, and the latest culinary improvements are introduced. The system of sunlights appears to be very complete, and devices for a perfect ventilation have not been forgotten." The pictures have been judiciously hung in the new rooms : they include — EUiston as Octavian, by Singleton ; Macklin (aged 93), by Opie ; Mrs. Pritchard, by Hayman ; Peg Woffington, by R. Wilson; Nell Gwynne, by Sir Peter Lely; Mrs. Abington; Samuel Foote, by Sir Joshua Reynolds ; CoUey Gibber as Lord Foppington ; Mrs. Bracegirdle; Kitty Clive; Mrs. Robinson, after Reynolds; Garrick as Macbeth, and Mrs. Pritchard,. Lady Macbeth, by Zoffany ; Garrick as Richard III., by Morland, sen. ; Young Roscius, by Opie ; Quin, by Hogarth; Rich and his family, by Hogarth ; iCharles Mathews, four characters, by Harlowe ; Nat Lee, painted in Bedlam ; Anthony Leigh as the Spanish Friar,, by Kneller; John Liston, by Clint; Munden,. by Opie ; John Johnston, by Shee ; Lacy in three characters, by Wright ;; Scene from Charles II., by Clint; Mrs.,Siddons as Lady Macbeth, by Harlowe; J. P. Kemble as Cato, by Lawrence ; Macready as Henry IV., by Jackson ; Edwinj by ;Qainsborough ; the - twelve of the School of Gamck ; Kean, Young, EUiston, and Mrs. Inchbald, by Harlowe; Garrick as Richard III., by Loutherbourg ; Rich as Harle- quin ; Moody and Parsons in The Committee, by Vander- gucht ; King as Touchstone, by Zoffany ; Thomas Dogget ; Henderson, by Gainsborough ; Elder Colman, by Reynolds ; 224 CLUB LIIE OF LONDON. Mrs. Oldfield, by Kneller ; Mrs. Billington ; Nancy Dawson; Screen Scene from The School for Scandal, as originally cast; Scene from f^«/(ri?Pr^j(?rz/i?^(Garrick and Mrs. Gibber), by Zoffany ; Scene from Macbelh (Henderson) ; Scene from Love, Law, and Physic (Mathews, Liston, Blanchard, and Emery), by Clint; Scene from The Clandestine Marriage (King and Mr. and Mrs. Baddeley), by Zoffany ; Weston as Billy Button, by Zoffany. The following have been presented to the Club : — Busts of Mrs. Siddons and J. P. Kemble, by Mrs. Siddons ; of Garrick, Captain Marryat, Dr. Kitchiner, and Malibran; Garrick, by RoubiUac ; Griffin and Johnson in The Alchemist^ by Von Bleeck ; Miniatures of Mrs. Robinson and Peg Woffington ; Sketch of Kean, by Lambert ; Garrick Mulberry- tree Snuff-box ; Joseph Harris as Cardinal Wolsey, from the Strawberry Hill Collection; Proof Print of the Trial of Queen Katherine, by Harlowe. The Garrick men will, for the sake of justice, excuse the mention of a short-coming : at the first dinner of the Club, from the list of toasts was omitted " Shakspeare," who, it must be allowed, contributed to Garrick's fame. David did not so forget the Bard, as is attested in his statue by Roubiliac, which, after adorning the Garrick grounds at Hampton, was bequeathed by the grateful actor to the British Museum. The Club were entertained at a sumptuous dinner by their brother member. Lord Mayor Moon, in the Egyptian Hall of the Mansion House, in 1855. The Gin-punch made with iced soda-water is a notable potation at the Garrick ; and the rightful patentee of the invention was Mr. Stephen Price, an American gentleman, well known on the turf, and as the lessee of Drury-lane Theatre. His title has been much disputed — Grammatici certant et adhuc sub judice lis est ; and many, misled by Mr. Theodore Hook's frequent and liberal application of the discovery, were in the habit of THE GARRICK CLUB. 225 ascribing it to him. But Mr. Thomas Hill, the celebrated " trecentenarian " of a popular song, who was present at Mr. Hook's first introduction to the beverage, has set the matter at rest by a brief narration of the circumstances. One hot afternoon, in July, 1835, the inimitable author of " Sayings and Doings " (what a book might be made of his own !) strolled into the Garrick in that equivocal state of thirstiness which it requires something more than common to quench. On describing the sensation, he was recom- mended to make a trial of the punch, and a jug was compounded immediately under the personal inspection of Mr. Price. A second followed — a third, with the accom- paniment of some chops — a fourth — a fifth — a sixth— at the expiration of which Mr. Hook went away to keep a dinner engagement at Lord Canterbury's. He always ate little, and on this occasion he ate less, and Mr. Horace Twiss inquired in a fitting tone of anxiety if he was ill. " Not exactly," was the reply ; " but my stomach won't bear trifling with, and I was tempted to take a biscuit and a glass of sherry about three." The receipt for the gin punch is as follows : — Pour half a pint of gin on the outer peel of a lemon, then a little lemon- juice, a glass of maraschino, about a pint and a quarter of water, and two bottles of iced soda-water ; and the result will be three pints of the punch in question. Another choice spirit of the Garrick was the aforesaid Hill, " Tom Hill," as he was called by all who loved and knew him. He " happened to know everything that was going forward in all circles — ^mercantile, political, fashionable, literary, or theatrical ; in addition to all matters connected with military and naval affairs, agriculture, finance, art, and science — everything came alike to him." He was born in J 760, and was many years a drysalter at Queenhithe, but about 1 8 10 he lost a large sum of money by a speculation in indigo; after which he retired, upon the remains of his property, to chambers in the Adelphi. While at Queen- Q 226 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. hithe, Jie found leisure to make' a fine coUeiction of old books, chiefly old poetry, which were valued at six thousand pounds. He greatly assisted' two friendless poets, Bloom^ field and Kirke White ; he also established The Monthly Mirror, which brought, hirn much into connexion ' with dramatic poets, actors, and managers, when he collected theatrical curiosities and relics. Hill was the Hull ol Hook's clever novel, " Gilbert Gurney," and the reputed, original of Paul Pry, though, the latter is doubtful. The standard joke about him was his age. He died in 1841, in his eighty-first year, though Hook and all his friends always affected to consider him as quite a Methuselah. James Smith once said that it was impossible to discover his age, for the parish register had been burnt in the fire of London ; but Hook capped this: — ^^ Pooh, pooh I — (Tom's habitual exclamation) — he's one of the Little HiUs that are spoken of as skipping in the Psalms." As a mere octogenarian he was wonderful enough. No human being would, from his appearance, gait, or habits, would have guessed him to be sixty. Till within three months of his death, Hill rose at five usually, and brought the materials of his breakfast home with him to the Adelphi from a walk to Billingsgate ; and at dinner he would eat and drink like an adjutant -of fiveTand- twenty: One secret was, that a " banyan-day " uniformly followed a festivity. He then nursed himself most carefully on tea and dry toast, tasted neither meat nor wine, and went to bed by eight o'clock. But perhaps the grand secret was, the easy, imperturbable serenity of his temper. .He had been kind and generous in die day of his wealth ; and though his evening was comparatively poor, his cheerful heart kept its even beat. > Hill was a patierit collector throughout his long life. His old English pofetry, which Southey considered the rarest assemblage in existence^ was dispersed in 1810 jaild, after Hill's jdeath, his literary rarities and memorials occupied Evans, of Pall Mall, a clear week to sell by auction: the THE REFORM CLUB. zzj autograph letters were very interesting, and among' the hiemorials were Garrick's Shakspfiare Cup and a vase curved from the Bard's mulberry-tree ; and a block of wood from Pope's willow, at Twickenham. Albert Smith was also of the Garrick, and usually dined here before commencing his evening entertainments at the Egyptian Hall, in Piccadilly. Smith was very clubbable, and with benevolent aims : he was a leader of the Fielding Club, in Maiden-lane, Covent Garden, which gave several amateur theatrical representations towards the establishment of " a Fund for the immediate relief of emergencies in the Literary or Theatrical world ;" having already devoted a considerable sum to charitable piuposes. This plan of relieving the woes of others through our own pleasures is a touch of nature which yields twofold gratification. The Reform Club. This political Club was established by Liberal Members of the two Houses of Parliament, to aid the carrying of the Reform Bill, 1 830-1 83 z. It was temporarily located in Great George-street, and Gwydyr House, Whitehall, until towards the close of 1837, when designs for a new Club-house were submitted by the architects, Blore, Basevi, Cockerell, Sydney SmirkCj and Barry. The design of' the latter was preferred, and the site selected in Pall Mall, extending from the spot formerly occupied by the temporary National Gallery. (late the residence of Sir Walter Stirling), on one side of the temporary Reform Club-house, over, the vacant plot of ground oh the other side. The instructions were to produce I a Club-house which would surpass all others in size and magnificence; one which should combine all the attractions of other Clubs, such as baths, billiard-rooms, smoking-rooms, with the ordinary accommodations ; besides the additional novelty of private chambers, or dormitories. Q 2 228 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. The frontage towards Pall Mall is about 135 feet, or nearly equal to the frontage of the Athenaeum (76 feet) and the Travellers' (74 feet); The style of the Reform is pure Italian, the architect having taken some points from the celebrated Famese Palace at Rome, designed by Michael Angelo Buonarroti, in 1545, and built by Antonio Sangallo; However, the resemblance between the two edifices has been greatly overstated, it consisting only in both of them being astylar, with columnar-decorated fenestration. The exterior is greatly admired ; though it is objected, and with reason, that the windows are too small. The Club-house contains six floors and 134 apartments : the basement and mezzanine below the street pavement, and the chambers in the roof are not seen. The points most admired are extreme simplicity and unity of design, combined with very unusual richness. The breadth of the piers between the windows contributes not a little to that repose which is so essential to simplicity, and hardly less so to stateliness. The string-courses are par- ticularly beautiful, while the cornicione (68 feet from the pavement) gives extraordinary majesty and grandeur to the whole. The roof is covered with Italian tiles ; the edifice is faced throughout with Portland stone, and is a very fine specimen of masonry. In building it a strong scaffolding was constructed, and on the top was laid a railway, upon which was worked a traversing crane, movable along the building either longitudinally or transversely; by which means the stones were raised from the ground, and placed on the wall with very little labour to the mason, who had only to adjust the bed and lay the block.* In the centre of the interior is a grand hall, 56ft. by 50, (the entire height of the building,) resembling an Italian cortile, surrounded by colonnades, below Ionic, and above Corinthian ; the latter is a picture-gallery, where, inserted in Civil En^neer and Architects' yoiirnal, 184^, THE REFORM CLUB. 229 the^ scagliola walls, are whole-length portraits of emment political Reformers ; while the upper colonnadehas rich floral mouldings, and frescoes of Music, Poetry, Painting, and Sculpture, by Parris. The floor of the hall is tessellated ; and the entire roof is strong diapered flint-glass, executed by Pellatt, at the cost of 600/. The staircase, like that of an Italian palace, leads to the upper gallery of the hall, opening into the principal drawing-room, which is over the coffee- room in the garden-front, both being the entire length of the building ; adjoining are a library, card-room, etc., over the library and dining-rooms. Above are a billiard-room and lodging-rooms for members of the Club ; there being a separate entrance to the latter by a lodge adjoining the Travellers' Club-house. The basement comprises two-storied wine-cellars beneath the hall ; besides the kitchen department, planned by Alexis Soyer, originally chef-de-cuisine of the Club : it contains novel employments of steam and gas, and mechanical applications of practical ingenuity ; the inspection of which was long one of the privileged sights of London. The cuisine, under M. Soyer, enjoyed European fame. Soyer first came to England on a visit to his brother, who vras then cook to the Duke of Cambridge ; and at Cambridge House, Alexis cooked his first dinner in England, for the then Prince George. Soyer afterwards entered the service of various noblemen, amongst others of Lord Ailsa, Lord Panmure, etc. He then entered into the service of the Reform Club', and the breakfast given by that Club on the occasion of the Queen's Coronation obtained him high commendation. His ingenuity gave a sort of celebrity to the great political ban- quets given at the Reform. In his O'Connell dinner, the soufflts d, la Clontarf wreiQ considered by gastronomes to be a rich bit of satire. The banquet to Ibrahim Pacha, July 3, 1846, was another of Soyer's great successes, when Merlans a I'Egyptienne, la Creme d'Egypte and \ I'Ibrahim Pacha, mingled with Le Gateau Britannique k I'Amiral (Napier). 230 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. Another famous banquet was that given to Sir C. Napier, March 3, 1854, as Commander of the Baltic Fleet; and.the banquet given July 20, 1850, to Viscount Palmerston, who was a popular leader of the Reform, was, gastronomically as well as politically, a brilliant triumph. It was upon this memorable occasion that Mr, Bernal Osborne characterized the Palmerston policy in this quotation : — Warmed by the instincts of a knightly heart, That roused at once if insult touched the realm. He spumed each State-craft, each deceiving art, And met his foes no vizor to his helm. This proved his worth, hereafter be our boast — Who hated Britons, hated him the most. Lord Palmerston was too true an Englishman to be in- sensible to " the pleasures, of the table," as attested by the hospitahties of Cambridge House, during his administration. One of his Lordship's political opponents, writing in 1836, says: "Lord Palmerston is redeemed from the last extremity of political degradation by his cook." A distinguished member of the diplomatic body was once overheard- re- marking to an Austrian nobleman upon the Minister's short- comings in some respects, adding, " mais on dine fort bien chez lui." It is always interesting to read a foreigner's opinion of English society. The following observations, by the Vis- countess de Malleville, appeared originally in the Courrier de r Europe, and preceded an account of the Reform. Com- mencing with Clubs, the writer remarks : " It cannot be denied that these assemblages, wealthy and widely extended in their ramifications, selfish in principle, but perfectly adapted to the habits of the nation, oifer valuable advantages to those who have the good fortune to be enrolled in them. , . . The social state and manners of the country gave the first idea of them. The spirit of associa- tion which is so inherent in the British character, did the rest. It is only within the precincts of these splendid THE REFORM CLUB. 231 edifices, where all the requirements of opulent life, all the comforts and luxuries of princely habitations, are combined, that we can adequately appreciate the advantages and the complicated -results produced by such a system of associa- tion. For an annual subscription, comparatively of small amount, every member of a Club is admitted into a circle, which is enlivened and renewed from time to time by the accession of strangers of distinction. A well-selected and extensive library, newspapers and pamphlets from all parts of the world, assist him to pass the hours of leisure and digestion. According as his tastes incline, a man may amuse himself in the saloons devoted to play, to reading, or to conversation. In a word, the happy man, who only goes to get bis dinner, may drink the best wines out of the finest cut-glass, and may eat the daintiest and best-cooked viands ofi" the most costly plate, at such moderate prices as no Parisian restaiirateur could afford. The advantages of a Club do not end here : it becomes for each of its members a second dcwnestic hearth, where the cares of business and household annoyances cannot assail him. As a retreat especially sacred against the visitations of idle acquaintances and tiresome creditors — a sanctuary in which each member feels himself in the society of those who act and sympathize with him— the Club will ever remain a resort, tranquil, elegant, and exclusive ; interdicted to the humble and to the insignificant." The writer then proceeds to illustrate the sumptuous character of our new Club-houses by reference to the Reform. " Unlike in most English buildings, the staircase is wide and commodious, and calls to mind that of the Louvre. The quadrangular apartment which terminates it, is surrounded by spacious galleries ; the rich mosaic pavement, in which the brilliancy of the colour is only surpassed by the variety of the design — the cut-glass ceiling, supported by four rows of marble pillars — all these things call to remembrance the most magnificent apartments of Versailles in the days of the 232 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. great king and his splendours. This is the vestibule, which is the grand feature of the mansion." The kitchen is then described — "spacious as a ball-room, kept in the finest order, and white as a young bride. All-powerful steam, the noise of which salutes your ear as you enter, here per- forms a variety of offices : it diffuses a uniform heat to large rows of dishes, warms the metal plates upon which are dis- posed the dishes that have been called for, and that are in waiting to be sent above : it turns the spits, draws the water, carries up the coal, and moves the plate like an intelligent and indefatigable servant. Stay awhile before this octagonal apparatus, which occupies the centre of the place. Around you the water boils and the stew-pans bubble, and a little further on is a movable furnace, before which pieces of meat are converted into savoury rdtis; here are sauces and gravies, stews, broths, soups, etc. In the distance are Dutch ovens, marble mortars, lighted stoves, iced plates of metal for fish ; and various compartments for vegetables, fruits, roots, and spices. After this inadequate, though prodigious nomenclature, the reader may perhaps picture to himself a state of general confusion, a disordered assemblage, re- sembling that of a heap of oyster-shells. If so, he is mis- taken ; for, in fact, you see very little, or scarcely anything of all the objects above described. The order of their arrangement is so perfect, their distribution as a whole, and in their relative bearings to one another, are all so intelli- gently considered, that you require the aid of a guide to direct you in exploring them, and a good deal of time to classify in your mind all your discoveries. " Let all strangers who come to London for business, or pleasure, or curiosity, or for whatever cause, not fail to visit the Reform Club. In an age of utilitarianism, and of the search for the comfortable, like ours, there is more to be learned here than in the ruins of the Coliseum, of the Parthenon, or of Memphis." 233 The Carlton Club. The Carlton is purely a political Club, and was founded by the great Duke of Wellington, and a few of his most intimate political friends. It held its first meeting in Charles-street, St. James's, in the year 1831. In the follow- ing year it removed to larger premises, Lord Kensington's, in Carlton Gardens. In 1836, an entirely new house was built for the Club, in Pail-Mall, by Sir Robert Smirke, R.A. : it was of small extent, and plain and inexpensive. As the Club grew in numbers and importance, the building became inadequate to its wants. In 1846, a very large addition was made to it by Mr. Sydney Smirke; and in 1854, the whole of the original ediiice was taken down, and rebuilt by Mr. Smirke, upon a sumptuous scale j and it will be the largest, though not the most costly Club-house, in the metropolis. It is a copy of Sansovino's Library of St. Mark, at Venice : the entablature of the Ionic, or upper order, is considerably more ponderous than that of the Doric below, which is an unorthodox defect. The faQade is highly enriched, and exhibits a novelty, in the shafts of all the columns being e£ red Peterhead granite, highly polished, which, in contrast with the dead stone, is objectionable : " cloth of frieze and cloth of gold " do not wear well together. In the garden front the pilasters, which take the place of columns in the entrance front and flank, are of the same material as the latter, namely, Peterhead granite, polished. Many predic- tions were at first ventured upon as to the perishable nature of the lustre of the polished granite shafts ; but these pre- dictions have been falsified by time ; nine years' exposure having produced no effect whatever on the polished surface. Probably the polish itself is the protection of the granite, by preventing moisture from hanging on the surface. The Carlton contains Conservatives of every hue, from the good old-fashioned Tory to the liberal progressist of the 234 CLUB LIFE OF LONDUiV. latest movements, — ^men of high position in fortune and politics. Some thirty years ago, a Qtiarterly reviewer wrote : " The improvement and multiplication of Clubs is the grand feature of metropolitan progress. There are between twenty and thirty of these admirable establishments, at which a man of moderate habits can dine more comfortably for three or four shillings (including half a pint of wine), than he could have dined for four or five times that amount at the coffee-houses and hotels, which were the habitual resort of the bachelor class in the coixesponding rank of life during the first quarter of the century. At some of the Clubs — the Travellers', tlie Coventry, and the Carlton, for example — the most finished luxury may be enjoyed at a very mode- rate cost . The best judges are agreed that it is utterly impossible to dine better than at the Carlton, when the cook has fair notice, and is not 'hurried, or confused by a multi- tude of orders. But great allowances must be made when a simultaneous rush occurs from both Houses of Parliament; and the caprices of individual members of such institutions are sometimes extremely trying to the temper and reputation of a chef." The Conservative Club. This handsome Club-house, which occupies a portion of the site of the old Thatched House Tavern, 74, St. James's- street, was designed by Sydney Smirke and George Basevi, 1845. The upper portion is Corinthian, with columns and pilasters, and a frieze sculptured with the imperial crown and oak-wreaths ; the lower order is Roman-Doric ; and the wings are slightly advanced, with an enriched entrance- porch north, and a bay-window south. The interior was superbly decorated in colour by Sang : the coved hall, with a gallery round it, and the domed vestibule above it, is a fine specimen of German encaustic embellishment, in the arches, soffites, spandrels, and ceilings ; and the hall-floor is THE CONSERVATIVE CLUB. 235 tessellated, around a noble star of marqueterie. The even- ing room, on the first floor, has an enriched coved ceiling, and a beautiful frieze of the rose, shamrock, and thistle, supported by scagliola Corinthian columns: the morning room, beneath, is of the same dimensions, with Ionic pillars. The library, in the upper story north, has columns and pilasters with bronzed capitals. Beneath is the coffee-room. Tlie kitchen is far more spacious than that of the Reform Club. In the right wing is a large bay-window, whicli was introduced as an essential to the morning room, affording the lounger a view of Pall Mall and St. James's-street, and the Palace gateway -, this introduction reminding us, by the way, of Theodore Hook's oddly comparing the bay-window of a coffee-house nearly on the same spot, to an obese old gentleman in a white waistcoat. Hook lived for some time in Cleveland-row : he used to describe ^e^ real London as the space between Pall Mall on the south, Piccadilly north, St. James's west, and the Opera-house east. This is the second Club of the Conservative party, and many of its chiefs are honorary members, but rarely enter it : Sir-Robert Peel is said never to have entered this Club- house except to view the interior. Other leaders have, however, availed themselves of the Club influences to recruit their ranks from its working strength. This has been political ground for a century and a half; for here, at the Thatched House Tavern, Swift met his political Clubs, and dined with Tory magnates ; but with fewer appliances than in the present day ; in Swift's time " the wine being always brought by him that is president."* * The Palace clock has connected with it an odd anecdote, which we received from Mr. Vulliamy, of Pall Mall, who, with his family, as predecessors, had been the royal clockmakers since 1743. When the Palace Gate-house was repaired, in 1831, the clock was removed, and not put up again. The inhabitants of the neighbourhood, mlissing the clock, memorialized William IV. for the replacement of the time- 236 The Oxford and Cambridge Club. The Oxford and Cambridge Club-house, 71, Pall Mal^ for members of the two Universities, was designed by Sir Robert Smirke, R.A., and his brother, Mr. Sydney Smirke, 1835-8. The Pall Mall fagade is 80 feet in width by 75 in height, and the rear lies over-against the court of Marlborough House. The ornamental detail is very rich : as the entrance-portico, with Corinthian columns ; the bal- cony, with its panels of metal foliage ; and the ground-storey frieze, and arms of Oxford and Cambridge Universities over the portico columns. The upper part of the build- ing has a delicate Corinthian entablature and balustrade; and above the principal windows are bas-reliefs in panels, executed in cement by Nicholl, from designs by Sir R. Smirke, as follows: — Centre panel: Minerva and Apollo presiding on Mount Parnassus ; and the River Helicon, surrounded by the Muses. Extreme panels : Homer singing to a warrior, a female and a youth; Virgil singing his Georgics to a group of peasants. Other four panels : Milton reciting to his daughter ; Shakspeare attended by Tragedy and Comedy; Newton explaining his system ; Bacon, his philosophy. Beneath the ground-floor is a basement of offices, and an entresol or mezzanine of chambers. The principal apartments are tastefully decorated ; the drawing- room is panelled with papier m&cM ; and the libraries are filled with book-cases of beautifully marked Russian birch- keeper, when the King inquired why it was not restored ; the reply was that the roof was reported unsafe to carry the weight, which His Majesty having ascertained, he shrewdly demanded how, if the roof were not strong enough to carry the clock, it was safe for the number of persons occasionally seen upon it to witness processions, and the com- pany on drawing-room days? There was no questioning the calcula- tion ; the clock was forthwith replaced, and a minute-hand was added, with new dials. (" Curiosities of London," p. 571.) THE GUARDS CLUB. 237 wood. From the back library is a view of Marlborough House and its gardens. The Guards Club Was formerly housed in St. James's-street, next Crockford's, north; but, in 1850, they removed to Pall Mall, (No. 70.) The new Club-house was designed for them by Henry Harrison, and remarkable for its compactness and con- venience, although its size and external appearance indicate no more than a private house. The architect has adopted some portion of a design of Sansovino's in the lower part or basement. The Army and Navy Club. The Army and Navy Club-house, Pall Mall, corner of George-street, designed by Pamell and Smith, was opened February, 1851. The exterior is a combination from San- sovino's Palazzo Cornaro, and Library of St. Mark at Venice ; but varying in the upper part, which has Corinthian columns, with windows resembling arcades filling up the intercolumns ; and over their arched headings are groups of naval and military symbols, weapons, and defensive armour — ^very picturesque. The frieze has also effective groups symbolic of the Army and Navy ; the cornice, likewise very bold, is crowned by a massive balustrade. The basement, from the Cornaro, is rusticated ; the entrance being in the centre of the east or George-stroet front, by three open arches, similar in character to those in the Strand front of Somerset House ; the whole is extremely rich in ornamental detail. The hall is fine ; the coffee-room is panelled with scaghola, and has a ceiling enriched with flowers, and pierced for ven- tilation by heated flues above ; adjoining is a room lighted by a glazed plafond j next is the house dining-room, deco- rated in the Munich style ; and more superb is the morning- room, with its arched windows, and mirrors forming arcades 238 CZ UB LIFE OF L ONDVJsr. and VistaS' inilumerable. A ihagiiificent stone staircase leads to the library and reading-rooms'; and in the third storey are billiard and card rooms ; and a smoking-room with a lofty dome elaborately decorated in traceried Moresque. The apartments are adorned with an equestrian por- trait of Queen Victoria, painted by Grant, R.A. ; a piece ot Gobelin tapestry (Sacrifice to Diana), presented to the Club in 1849 by Prince Louis Napoleon; marble busts of Wil- liam IV. and the Dukes of Kent and Cambridge; and several life-size portraits of naval and military heroes. The Cliib-house is provided with twenty lines of Whishaw's Telekouphona, or Speaking Telegraph, which communicate from the Secretary's room to the various apartments. The cost of this superb edifice, exclusive of fittings, was 35,000/. ; the plot of ground on which it stands cost the Club 52,000/. The Club system has added several noble specimens of ornate architecture to the metropolis ; to the south side of Pall Mall these fine edifices have given a truly patrician air. But, it is remarkable that while both parties political have contributed magnificent edifices towards the metropolis and their opinions ; while the Conservatives can show with pride two splendid piles, and the Liberals at least one handsome one; while the Army and Navy have recently a third palace — the most successful of the three they can boast ; while ' the Universities, the ' sciences, even our Lidian empire, come forward, the fashionable clubs, the aristocratic clubs, do nothing for the general aspett of London, and have made no move in a direciiOn where they ought to have been first. Can anything be more paltry than that bay-window from which the members of White's contemplate the cabstand and the Welliiigton Tavern ? and yet a little management migfht make that house worthy of its unparalleled situation; and if it were extended to Piccadilly, it would be the finest thing of its kind in Europe. 239 The Junior United Service Club, At the comer of Charles-street and Regentstreet, was erected in 1855-57, Nelson and James, architects, and has a most embellished exterior, enriched with characteristic sculpture by John Thomas. The design is described in the Builder as in the Italian style of architecture, the bay- window in Regent-street forming a prominent feature in the composition, above which is a sculptured group allegorical of the Army and Navy. The whole of the sculpture and ornamental details throughout the building are characteristic of the profession of the members of the Club. The exterior of the building is surmounted by a richly-sculptured cornice, with modillion and dentils, and beneath it an elaborate frieze, having medallions with trophies and other suitable emblems, separated from each other by the rose, shamrock, and thistle. The external walls of the building are of Bath stone, and the balustrade around the area is of Portland stone ; and upon the angle-pieces of this are bronze lamps, supported by figures. The staircase is lighted from the top by a hand- some, lantern, filled with painted glass, with an elaborate coved and ornamented ceiling around. On the landing of the half space are two pairs of caryatidal figures, and single figures against the walls, supporting three semicircular arches, and the whole is reflected by looking-glasses on the landing. On . the upper landing of the staircase is the celebrated picture, by Allan, of the Battle of Waterloo. Upon the first floor fironting JRegent-street, and over the morning-room, and of the same dimensions, is the evening-room, which is also used as a picture-gallery, 24 feet high, with a bay- window fronting Regent-street. In the gallery are portraits of military, and naval commanders; Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, and the Emperor Napoleon ; and an alle- gorical group in silver, presented to the Club by his Imperial Majesty. 240 Crockford's Club. This noted gaming Club-house, No. 50, on the west side of St. James's-street, over against White's, was built for Mr. Crockford, in 1827 ; B. and P. Wyatt, architects. Crockford started in life as a fishmonger, at the old bulk- shop next-door to Temple Bar Without, which he quitted for play in St. James's. " For several years deep play went on at all the Clubs — ^fluctuating both as to locality and amount — till by degrees it began to flag. It was at a low ebb when Mr. Crockford laid the foundation of the most colossal fortune that was ever made by play. He began by taking Watier's old Club-house, in partnership with a man named Taylor. They set up a hazard-bank, and won a great deal of money, but quarrelled and separated at the end of the first year. Taylor continued where he was, had a bad year, and failed. Crockford removed to St. James's- street, had a good year, and immediately set about building the magnificent Club-house which bears his name. It rose like a creation of Aladdin's lamp ; and the genii themselves could hardly have surpassed the beauty of the internal deco- rations, or furnished a more accomplished moltre d'hdtel'&iwi Ude. To make the company as select as possible, the establishment was regularly organized as a Club, and the election of members vested in a committee. ' Crockford's ' became the rage, and the votaries of fashion, whether they liked play or not, hastened to enrol themselves. The Duke of Wellington was an original member, though (unlike Bliicher, who repeatedly lost everything he had at play) the great Captain was never known to play deep at any game but war or politics. Card-tables were regularly placed, and whist was played occasionally; but the aim, end, and final cause of the whole was the hazard-bank, at which the proprietor took his nightly stand, prepared for all comers. Le Wellington des Joueurs lost 23,000/, Dolly, Mistress of " Dolly's Chop House," St. Paul's Cliurcliyard, 1700. ir' j_ rrrr frrf rrn Tr frrr rrl-Lrrrr The Rose, Fenchurch Street. {From an Original Drawing injhi Kin^s Library.) CROCKFORD-S CLUB. 241 at a sitting, beginning at twelve at night, and ending at seven the following evening. He and three other noble- men could not have lost less, sooner or later, than 100,000/. apiece. Others lost in proportion (or out of proportion) to their means j but we leave it to less occupied moralists, and better calculators, to say how many ruined families went to make Mr. Crockford a millionnairc — for a millionnaire he ft-as in the English sense of the term, after making the largest possible allowance for bad debts. A vast sum, perhaps half a million, was sometimes due to him ; but as he won, all his debtors were able to raise, and easy credit was the most fatal of his lures. He retired in 1840, much as an Indian chief retires from a hunting country where there is not game enough left for his tribe, and the Club is now tottering to its fall."* The Club-house consists of two wings and a centre, with four Corinthian pilasters, and entablature, and a balustrade throughout; the ground-floor has Venetian wmdows, and the upper story, large French windows. The entrance-hall Iiad a screen of Roman-Ionic scagliola columns with gilt capitals, and a cupola of gilding and stained glass. The library has Sienna columns and antae of the Ionic order, from the Temple of Minerva Polias; the staircase is panelled with scagliola, and enriched with Corinthian columns. The grand drawing-room is in the style ot Louis Quatorze : azure ground, with elaborate cove ; ceiHng enrichments bronze gilt; door-way paintings d, la Watteau; and panelling, masks, terminals, heavy gilt. Upon the opening of the Club-house, it was described in the exaggerated style, as " the New Pan- demonium J the drawing-rooms, or real Hell, consisting of four chambers ; the first an ante-room, opening to a salooii embellished to a degree which baffles description ; thence to a small, curiously-formed cabinet, or boudoir, which opens to the supper-room. All these rooms are panelled in the most gorgeous manner, spaces being left to be filled up with Edinburgh Review, 248 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. mirrors, silk or gold enrichments ; the ceilings being as superb as the walls. A billiard-room on the upper floor completes the number of apartments professedly dedicated to the use of the members. Whenever any secret manoeuvre is to be cai-ried on, there are smaller and more retired places, both under this roof and the next, whose walls will tell no tales." . The cuisine at Crockford's was of the highest class, and the members were occasionally very exigeant, and trying to the patience of M. Ude. At one period of his presidency, a ground of complaint, formally addressed to the Com- mittee, was that there was an admixture of onion in the souUse. Colonel Damer, happening to enter Crockford's one evening to dine early, found Ude walking up and down in a towering passion, and naturally inquired what was the matter. "No matter. Monsieur le Colonel ! Did you see that man who has just gone out ? Well, he ordered a red mullet for his dinner. I made him a delicious little sauce withmy own hands. The price of the mullet marked on the carte was 2s, ; I asked dd. for the sauce. He refuses to pay the dd. The imb'ecile apparently believes that the red mullets come out of the sea with my sauce in their pockets !" The imbkile might have retorted that they do come out of the sea with their appropriate sauce in their pockets ; but this forms no excuse for damaging the consummate genius of a Ude. The appetites of some Club members appear to entitle them to be qz!^^ gourmands rather than\§»«mi?/.f. Of such a member of Crockford's the following traits are related in the Quarterly Review, No. no: — "The Lord-lieutenant of one of the western counties eats a covey of partridges for breakfast every day during the season; and there is a popular M.P. at present [1836] about town who would eat a covey of partridges, as the Scotchman ate a dozfen of beca- ficos, for a whet, and feel himself astonished if his appetite was not accelerated by the circumstance. Most people CROCJCFORD'S CLUB. 243 must have seen or heard of a caricature representing a gentleman at dinner upon a round of beef, with the landlord looking on. 'Capital beef, landlord!' says the gentleman; ' a man may cut and come again here.' 'You may cut, sir,' responds Boniface; 'but I'm blow'dif you shall come again.' The person represented is the M.P. in question; and the sketch is founded upon fact. He had Occasion to stay late in the City, and walked into the celebrated Old Bailey beef- shop on his return, where, according to the landlord's com- putation, he demolished about seven pounds and a half of solid meat, uith a proportionate allowance of greens. His exploits at Crockford's have been such, that the founder of that singular institution has more than once had serious thoughts of giving him a guinea to sup elsewhere : and has only been prevented by the fear of meeting with a rebuff similar to that mentioned in 'Roderick Random' as received- by the master of an ordinary, who, on proposing to buy off an ugly customer, was informed by him that he had already been bought off' by all the other ordinaries in town, and was consequently under the absolute necessity of continuing to patf6ni2ie the establishment" Theodore Hook was a frequent visitor at Crockford's, where play did not begin till late. Mr. Barbara describes him, after going the round of the Clubs, proposing, with some gay companion, to finish with half-an-hour at Crock- ford's : " The half-hour is quadrupled, and the excitement of the preceding evening was nothing to that which now ensued." He had a receipt of his own to prevent being exposed to the night air. "I was very ill," he once said, " some months ago, and my doctor gave me particular orders not to expose niyself to it ; so I come up [from Fulham] eVery day to'Crbckford's, or some other place to dinner, and I make it a rule on no account to go hoine again till about four or five o'clock' in the morning." After Crockford's dSath,* the Club-house was sold by his executors for 2,900/:'; held on lease, of which thirty-two R a 244 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. years were unexpired, subject to a yearly rent of 1,400/. It is said that the decorations alone cost 94,000/. The in- terior was re-decorated in 1849, and opened for the Military, Naval, and County Service Club, but was closed again in 1 85 1. It has been, for several years, a dining-house— " the Wellington." Crockford's old bulk-shop, west of Temple-bar, was taken down in 1846. It is engraved in " Archer's Vestiges of London," part i. A view in 1795, '^ ^^ Crowle Pennant, presents one tall gable to the street ; but the pitch of the roof had been diminished by adding two imperfect side gables. The heavy pents originally traversed over each of the three courses of windows ; it was a mere timber frame, filled up with lath and plaster, the beams being of deal, with short oak joints : it presented a capital example of the old London bulk-shop (sixteenth century), with a heavy canopy projecting over the pathway, and turned up at the rim to carry off the rain endwise. This shop had long been held by a succession of fishmongers ; and Crockford would not permit the house-front to be altered in his lifetime. He was known in gaming circles by the sobriquet of "the Fishmonger." '* King Allen," " The Golden Ball," and Scrope Davies, In the old days when gaming was in fashion, at Waller's Club, princes and nobles lost or gained fortunes between themselves. It was the same at Brookes's, one member of which. Lord Robert Spencer, was wise enough to apply wha) he had won to the purchase of the estate of Vfoolbidding, Suffolk. Then came Crockford's hell, the proprietor of which, a man who had begun life with a fish-basket, won the whole of the ready money of the then existing genera- tion of aristocratic simpletons. Among the men who most suffered by play was Viscount Allen, or " King Allen," as " KING ALLEN" " GOLDEN BALL," ETC. 245 he was called. This efifeminate dandy had fought like a young lion in Spain ; for the dandies, foolish as they looked, never wanted pluck. The "King" then lounged about town, grew fat, lost his all, and withdrew to Dublin, where, in Merrion-square, he slept behind a large brass plate with " Viscount Allen " upon it, which was as good to him as board wages, for it brought endless invitations from people eager to feed a viscount at any hour of the day or night, although " King Allen" had more ready ability in uttering disagreeable than witty things. Very rarely indeed did any of the ruined gamesters ever get on their legs again. The " Golden Ball," however, was an exception. Ball Hughes fell from the very top of the gay pagoda into the mud, but even there, as life was nothing to him without the old excitement, he played pitch and toss for halfpence, and he won and lost small ventures at battle- dore and shuttlecock, which innocent exercise he turned into a gambling speculation. After he withdrew, in very reduced circumstances, to France, his once mad purchase of Oatlands suddenly assumed a profitable aspect. The estate was touched by a railway and admired by building speculators, and between the two the " Ball," in its last days, had a very cheerful and glittering aspect indeed. Far less lucky than Hughes was Scrope Davies, whose name was once so familiar to every man and boy about town. There was good stuff about this dandy. He one iiight won the whole fortune of an aspiring fast lad who had come of age the week before, and who was so prostrated by his loss that kindly-hearted Scrope gave back the fortune the other had lost, on his giving his word of honour never to play again. Davies stuck to the green baize till his own fortune had gone among a score of less compassionate gentlemen. His distressed condition was made known to the young fellow to whom he had formerly acted with so much generosity, and that grateful heir refused to lend him even a guinea. Scrope was not of the gentlemen-ruffians of the day 446 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. who were addicted to cruelly assaulting men weaker than themselves. He was well-bred and a scholar; and he bore his reverses with a rare philosophy. His home was on a bench in the Tuileries, where he received old acquaintances who visited him in exile ; but he admitted only very tried friends to the little room where he read and slept. He was famed for his readiness in quoting the classical poets, and for his admiration of Moore, in whose favour those quota- tions were frequently made. They were often most happy. For example, he translated 'Ubi//«ra nitent non tgo paucis ofifendar maculis,' by ' Moore shines so brightly that I cannot Jind fault with Little's vagaries/' He also rendered 'Ne plus ultra,' ' Nothing is better than Moore I' "* The Four-in-Hand Club. Gentleman-coaching has scarcely been known in England seventy-five years. The Anglo-Erich thonius, the Hon. Charles Finch, brother to the Earl of Aylesford, used to drive his own coach-and-four, disguised in a livery great coat. Soon after his d3ut, however, the celebrated " Tommy Onslow," Sir John Lacy, and others, mounted the box in their own characters. Sir John was esteemed a renowned judge of coach-horses and carriages, and a coachman of the old school ; but everything connected with the coach-box has undergone such a change, that the Nestors of the art are no longer to be quoted. ' Among the celebrities may be men- tioned the " B. C. D.," or Benson Driving Club, which held its rendezvous at the " Black Dog," Bedfont, as one of the numerous driving associations, whose processions used, some forty years ago, to be among the most imposing, as well as peculiar spectacles in and about the metropolis. On the stage, the gentlemen drivers, of whom the mem- bers of the Four-in-Hand Club were the exclusive Slite, were ? Athenaum review of "Captain GronoVs Anecdotes." THE FOUR-IN-HAND CLUB. 447 illustrated rather than caricatured in Goldfinch, in Holcroft's comedy The Read to Ruin. Some of them who had not "drags" of their own, "tipped" a weekly allowance to stage coachmen, to allow them to " finger the ribbons," and " tool the team." Of course, they frequently " spilt " the passengers. The closeness with which the professional coachmen were imitated by the " bucks," is shown in the case of Wealthy young Ackers, who had one of his front teeth taken out, in order that he might acquire the true coachman-like way of " spitting." There were men of brains, nevertheless, in the Four-in-Hand, who knew how to ridicule such fellow-members as Lord Onslow, whom they thus immortalized in an epigram of that day : — What can Tommy Onslow do ? He can drive a coach and two. Can Tommy Onslow do no more ? He can drive a coach and four. It is a curious fact, that the fashion of amateur cha- rioteering was first set by the ladies. Dr. Young has strikingly sketched, in his satires, the Delia who was as good a coachman as the man she paid for being so : — Graceful as John, she moderates the reins, And whistles sweet her diuretic strains. The Four-in-Hand combined gastronomy with eques- trianism and charioteering. They always drove out of town to dinner, and the ghost of Sgrope Davies will pardon our suggesting that the club of drivers and diners might well have taken for their motto, " Quadrigis, petimus bene vivere ! "* There is another version of the epigram on Torn Onslow : — Say, what can Tommy Onslow do? Can drive a curricle and two. Can Tommy Onslow do no more ? Yes, — drive a curricle and four. • Athenaum, No. 1739' 248 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. This is the version current, we are told, among Onslow's relations in the neighbourhood of Guildford. Lord Onslow's celebrity as a whip long preceded the existence of the Four-in-Hand Club (the palmy days of which belong to the times of George the Fourth), and it was not a coach, but a phaeton, that he drove. A corre- spondent of the AihencBum writes : "I knew him personally, in my own boyhood, in Surrey, in the first years of the present century ; and I remember then hearing the epigram now referred to, not as new, but as well known, in the fallowing form : — What can little T. O. do ? Drive a phaeton and two. Can little T. O. do no more ? Yes, — drive a phaeton and four. Tommy Onslow was a little man, full of life and oddities, one of which was a fondness for driving into odd places ; and I remember the surprise of a pic-nic party, which he joined in a secluded spot, driving up in his ' phaeton and four ' through ways that were hardly supposed passable by anything beyond a flock of sheep. An earlier exploit of his had a less agreeable termination. He was once driving through Thames-street, when the hook of a crane, dangling down in front of one of the warehouses, caught the hood of the phaeton, tilting him out, and the fall broke his collar-bone." The vehicles of the Club which were formerly used are described as of a hybrid class, quite as elegant as private carriages and lighter than even the mails. They were horsed with the finest animals that money could secure. In general the whole four in each carriage were admirably matched ; grey and chestnut were the favourite colours, but occasion- ally very black horses, or such as were freely flecked with white, were preferred. The master generally drove the team, often a nobleman of high rank, who commonly copied the dress of a mail coachman. The company usuftlly rode THE FOUR-IN-HAND CLUB. 249 outside, but two footmen in rich liveries were indispensable on the back seat, nor was it at all uncommon to see some splendidly-attired female on the box. A rule of the Club ■was that all members should turn out three times a week ; and the start was made at mid-day, from the neighbourhood of Piccadilly, through which they passed to the Windsor- road, — the attendants of each carriage playing on their silver bugles. From twelve to twenty of these handsome vehicles often left London together. There remain a few handsome drags, superbly horsed. In a note to Nimrod's life-like sketch, " The Road,"* it is stated that "only ten years back, there were from thirty-four to forty four-in-hand equipages to be seen constantly about town." Nimrod has some anecdotical illustrations of the taste for the whif, which has undoubtedly declined; and at one time, perhaps, it occupied more attention among the higher classes of society than we ever wish to see it do again. Yet, taken in moderation, we can perceive no reason to condemn this branch of sport more than others. "If so great a personage as Sophocles could think it fitting to dis- play his science in public, in the trifling game of ball, why may not an English gentleman exercise his skill on a coach- box? If the Athenians, the most polished nation of all antiquity, deemed it an honour to be considered skilful charioteers, why should Englishmen consider it a disgrace ? To be serious, our amateur or gaitlemen-coachmen have done much good: the road would never have been what it now is, but for the encouragement they gave by their notice and support to all persons connected with it. Would the Holyhead road have been what it is, had there been no such persons as the Hon. Thomas Kenyon, Sir Henry Pamell, and Mr. Maddox ? Would the Oxford coachmen * Written, it must be recollected, some five-and-thirty years since. Reprinted in Murray's "Reading for tlie Rail." 2SO CLVB LIFE OF LONDON. have set so good an example as they have done to their brethren of ' the bench,' had there been no such men oh their road as Sir Henry Peyton, Lord Clonmel, the late Sir Thomas Mostyn; that Nestor of coachmen, Mr. Annesley; and the late Mr. Harrison, of Shelswell ? Would not the unhappy coachmen of five-and-twenty years back have gone on, wearing out their breeches with the bumping of 'the old coach-box, and their stomachs with brandy, had not Mr. Warde, of Squerries, after many a weary endeavour, per- suaded the proprietors to place their boxes upon springs — the plan for accomplishing which was suggested by Mr. Roberts, nephew to the then proprietor of the White Horse, Fetter Lane, London, but now of the Royal Hotel, Calais ? What would the Devonshire road have been, but for the late Sir Charles Bamfylde, Sir John Rogers, Colonel Prouse, Sir Lawrence Palk, and others ? Have the advice and th6 practice of such experienced men as Mr. Charles Buxton, Mr. Heniy Villebois, Mr. Okeover, Sir Bellingham Graham, Mr. John Walker, Lord Sefton, Sir Felix Agar,* Mr. Ackers, Mr. Maxse, Hon. Fitzroy Stanhope, Colonel Spicer, Colonel Sibthorpe, cum multis aliis, been thrown away upon persons who have looked up to them as protectors ? Certainly not : neither would the improvement in carriages — stage-coaches more especially — have arrived at its present heighl^ but for the attention and suggestions of such persons as we have been speaking of." A commemoration of long service in the coaching depart- ment may be related here. In the autumn of 1835, a hand- some compliment was paid to Mr. Charles Holmes, the * Perhaps one of the finest specimens of good coachmanship was performed by Sir Felix Agar. He made a bet, which he won, that he would drive his own four-horses-in-hand up Grosvenor-place, down the passage into Tattersall's Yard, around the pillar which stands in the centre of it, and back again into Grosvenor-place, without either of hit horses going at a slower pace than a trot. WHIST CLUBS. 251 driver and part proprietor of the Blenheim coach (from Woodstock to London) to celebrate the completion of his twentieth year on that well-appointed coacli, a period that had elapsed without a single accident to his coach, his pas- sengers, or himself; and during which time, \vith the ex- ception of a very short absence from indisposition, he had driven his sixty-five miles every day, making somewhere about twenty-three thousand miles a year. The numerous patrons of the coach entered into a subscription to present him with a piece of plate; and accordingly a cup, bearing the shape of an antique vase, the cover surmounted by a beautifully modelled horse, with a coach and four horses on one side, and a suitable inscription on the other, was presented to Mr. Holmes by that staunch patron of the road. Sir Henry Peyton, Bart., in August, at a dinner, at the Thatched House Tavern, St James's-street, to which between forty and fifty gentlemen sat down. The list of subscribers amounted to upwards of two hundred and fifty, including among others the Duke of Wellington. Whist Clubs. To Hoyle has been ascribed the invention of the game of ■\Vhist This is certainly a mistake, though there can be no doubt that it was indebted to him for being first specially treated of and introduced to the public in a scientific man- ner. He also wrote on piquet, quadrille, and backgammon, but little is known of him more than that he was bom in 1672, and died in Cavendish-square on 29th August, 1769, at the advanced age of ninety-seven. He was a barrister by pro- fession, and Registrar of the Prerogative in Ireland, a post worth 600/. a year. His treatise on Whist, for which he received from the publisher the sum of 1000/., ran through five editions in one year, besides being extensively piratbd. Whist, Ombre, and Quadrille, at Court were used. And Bassett's power the City dames amused, a52 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. Imperial Whist was yet but slight esteemed, And pastime fit for none but rustics deemed. How slow at first is still the growth of fame'! And what obstructions wait each rising name 1 Our stupid fathers thus neglected, long. The glorious boast of Milton's epic song ; But Milton's muse at last a critic found. Who spread his praise o'er all the world around ; And Hoyle at length, for Whist performed the same, And proved its right to universal fame. Whist first began to be popular in England about 1 730, when it was very closely studied by a party of gentlemen, who formed a sort of Club, at the Crown Coffee-house, in Bedford-row. Hoyle is said to have given instructions in the game, for which his charge was a guinea a lesson. The Laws of Whist have been variously given.* More than half a century has elapsed since the supremacy of "long whist," was assailed by a reformed, or rather revolutionized form of the game. The champions of the ancient rules and methods did not at once submit to the innovation. The conservatives were not without some good arguments on their side ; but "short whist " had attractions that proved irre- sistible, and it has long since fully established itself as the only game to be understood when whist is named. But hence, in the course of time, has arisen an inconvenience. The old school of players had, in the works of Hoyle and Cavendish, manuals and text-books of which the rules, cases, and decisions were generally accepted. For short whist no such " volume paramount " has hitherto existed. Hoyle could' not be safely trusted by a learner, so much con- tained in that venerable having become obsolete. Thus, doubtful cases arising out of the short game had to be re- ferred to the best living players for decision. But there was some confusion in the " whist world," and the necessity of a code of the modern laws and rules of this " almost perfect " Abridged £rom the Times journal. WHIST CLUBS. 2S3 game had become apparent, when a combined effort was made by a committee of some of the most skilful to supply the deficiency. The movement was commenced by Mr. J. Loraine Bald- win, who obtained the assistance of a Committee, including members of several of the best London Clubs well known as whist players. They were deputed to draw up a code of rules for the game, which, if approved, was to be adopted by the Arlington Club. They performed their task with the most de- cided success. The rules they laid down as governing the best modern practice have been accepted, not only by the Arhngton, but the Army and Navy, Arthur's, Boodle's,, Brookes's Carlton, Conservative, Garrick, Guards, Junior Carlton, Portland, Oxford and Cambridge, Reform, St. James's, White's, etc. To the great section of the whist world that do not frequent Clubs, it maybe satisfactory to knov/the names of the gentlemen composing the Committee of Codifi- cation, whose rules have become law. They are Admiral Rouse, chairman; Mr. G. Bentinck, M.P. ; Mr. J. Bushe; Mr. J. Clay, M.P.; Mr. C. Greville; Mr. R. ICnightley, M.P.; Mr. H. B. Mayne; Mr. G. Payne; and Colonel Pipon. The "Laws of Short Whist"* were in 1865 published in a small volume ; and to this strictly legal portion of the book is apr pended " A Treatise on the Game," by Mr. J. Clay, M.P. for Hull. It may be read with advantage by the commencing student of whist and the advanced player, and with pleasure even by those who are totally ignorant of it, and have no wish to learn it. There are several incidental illustrations and anecdotes, that will interest those not gifted with the faculties good whist requires. Mr. Clay is reported to be one of the best, if not the very best, of modem players. The Dedication is as follows: "To the Members of the Portland Club, admitted among wliona, as a boy, I have • "The Laws of Short Whist," edited by J. L. Baldwin, and "A Treatise on the Game," by J. C. Harrison, 59, Pall Mall. aS4 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. passed many of the pleasantest days , of my life, I have learned what little I know of Whist, and have formed many of my oldest friendships, this Treatise on Short Whist is dedicated with feelings of respect and regard, by their old playfellow, J. C." Leaving his instructions, like the rules of the committee, to a more severe test than criticism, we extract from his first chapter a description of the incident to which short whist owes its origin. It will probably be quite new to thousands who are familiar with the game. " Some eighty years back. Lord Peterborough, having one night lost a large sum of money, the friends with whom he was playing proposed to make the game five points instead often, in order to give the loser a chance, at a quicker game, of recovering his loss. The new game was found to be so lively, and money changed hands with such increased rapidity, that these gentlemen and their friends, all of them, leading members of the Clubs of the. day, continued to play it. It became general in the Clubs, thence was introduced to private houses, travelled into the country, went to Paris, and has long since so entirely superseded the whist of Hoyle's day, that of short whist alone I propose to treat. I shall, thus spare the reader, the learning much in the old works that it is not necessary for him to know, and not a little which, if learned, should be at once forgotten." Graham's, in St. James's-street, the greatest of Card Clubs, was dissolved about thirty years back. Prince's Club Racquet Courts. In the early history of the metropolis we find the ,Lon- , doners warmly attached to outdoor sports and pastimes,; although time and the spread of the great, city have long obliterated the sites upon which these popular amusements were enjoyed. Smithfield, we know, was the town-green foi: centuries before it became the focus of its fanatic fires : PRINCE'S CLUB RACQUET COURTS. 255 Maypoles stood in various parts of the City e^ikI .sub,urbs, as kept in remembrance by name to this day ; football was played in the main artery of the town — Fleet-street and the Strand, for instance ; faille malle was played in St. James's Park, and the street which is named after the game ; and tennis and otlier games at ball were enjoyed on open grounds long before they were played in covered courts ; while the bowling-greens in the environs were neither few nor far between, almost to our time. Tennis, we need scarcely state here, was originally played with the hand, at first naked, then covered with a thick glove, to which succeeded the bat or racquet, whence the present name of the game. A few of our kings have been tennis-players. In the sixteenth century tennis courts were common in England, being attached to country mansions. Later, pla)dng-courts were opened in the metropolis : for example, to the houses of entertainment which formerly stood at the opposite angles of Windmill-street and the Haymarket were attached tennis-courts, which lasted to our time : one of these courts exists in James-street, Haymarket, to this day. To stroll out from the heated and crowded streets of the town to the village was a fashion of the last century, as we read in the well-remembered line-^ Some dukes at Marybone bowl time away. . Taking into account the vast growth of the metropolis, we are not surprised at so luxurious a means of healthful enjoyment as a racquet court presents being added to the establishments or institutions of this very clubbable age. Hitherto Clubs had been mostly appropriated to the pur- poses of refection ; but why should not the social refinement he extended to the enjoyment of so hea,lth-giving a sport and manly a pastime as racquet ? The experiment was made, and with perfect success, immediately upon the confines of one of the most recent settlements of fashion— Belgravia. It 2S6 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. is private property, and bears the name of Prince's Club Racquet Courts. The Club, established in 1854, is built upon the Pavilion estate, in the rear of the north side of Sloane-street, the principal entrance being from Hans-place. The grounds are of considerable extent, and were originally laid out by Capability Brown. They were almost environed with lofty timber-trees ; and the genius of landscape gardening, fos- tered by wealth, rendered this glade in the Brompton groves of old a sort of rural elysium. The Pavilion estate was once the property of Holland, the well-known architect, who planned Slcane-street and Hans-place, as a building speculation ; and, in the grounds nearly between them, built himself what was then considered a handsome villa, the front of which was originally designed by Holland as a model for the Prince of Wales's Pavilion at Brighton ; hence the name, the Pavilion estate. In the grounds, among the remains of Brown's ornamental work, was an icehouse, amidst the imitative ruins of a priory. Here, also, were the Ionic columns (isolated) which were formerly in the screen of Carlton House. The Club buildings comprise seven closed courts ; a tennis court ; gallery and refreshment rooms ; baths, and a Turkish bath. Prince's Club is a subscription establishment; and its government is vested in a committee. Gentlemen desirous of becoming members of the Club must be proposed and seconded by two of its members. Two of the rules enact — that members have the privilege of introducing two friends, but that such visitors, if they play, be charged double the rate charged to members ; and that no hazard, dice, or game of chance be allowed in this Club. Their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge are members. as7 An Angling Club. Professor Owen is accustomed to relate the following very amusing incident, which occurred in a Club of some of the working scientific men of London, who, with a few others, after their winter's work of lecturing is over, occasionally sally forth to have a day's fishing. "We have," says Pro- fessor Owen, " for that purpose taken a small river in the neighbourhood of the metropolis, and near its banks there stands a little public-house, where we dine soberly and sparingly, on such food as old Izaak Walton loved. We have a rule that he who catches the biggest fish of the day shall be our president for the evening. In the course of one day, a member, not a scientific man, but a high political man, caught a trout that weighed 3^ lb. ; but earlier in the day he had pulled out a barbel of half a pound weight. So while we were on the way to our inn, what did this pohtical gentleman do but, with the butt-end of his rod, ram the barbel down the trout's throat, in which state he handed his fish to be weighed. Thus he scored four pounds, which being the greatest weight he took the chair. " As we were going away from home, a man of science, — it was the President of the Royal Society, — said to the man of politics, ' If you don't want that fine fish of yours, I should like to have it, for I have some friends to dine with me to- morrow.' My Lord took it home, and I heard no more until we met on the next week. Then, while we were pre- paring our tackle, the President of the Royal Society said to our high political friend, ' There were some very extra- ordinary circumstances, do you know, about that fish you gave me. I had no idea that the trout was so voracious ; but that one had swallowed a barbel.' — ' I am astonished to hear your Lordship say so,' rejoined an eminent naturaHst ; ' trout may be voracious enough to swallow minnows — but a barbel, my Lord ! There must be some mistake.' — ' Not s 258 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. at all,' replied his lordship, ' for the fact got to my family that the cook, in cutting open the throat, had found a barbel inside ; and as my family knew I was fond of natural history, I was called into the kitchen. There I saw the troiit had swallowed a barbel, full half a pound weight.' — ' Out of the question, my Lord,' said the naturalist; 'it's altogether quite unscientific and unphilosophical.' — ' I don't ' know what may be philosophical in the matter — I only know I am telling you a matter of fact,' said his Lordship ; and the dispute having lasted awhile, explanations were giyen, and the practical joke was heartily enjoyed. And " (continued Professor Owen) "you will see that both were right aiid both were wrong. My Lord was right in his fact — the barbel was inside the trout ; but he was quite wrong in his hypothesis founded upon that fact, that the trout had there- fore swallowed the barbel, — the last was only matter of opinion." The Red Lions. In 1839, when the British Association met in Birmingham, several of its younger members happened, accidentally, to dine at the Red Lion, in Church-street. The dinner was pleasant, the guests well suited to each other, and the meet- ing altogether proved so agreeable, that it was resolved to continue it from year to year, wherever the Association might happen to meet. By degrees the " Red Lions " — the name was assumed from the accident of the first meeting- place— became a very' exclusive Club ; and under the presidency of Professor Edward Forbes, it acquired a celebrity which, in its way, almost rivalled that of the Association itself. Forbes first drew around him the small circle of jovial philosophers at the Red Lion. The names of Lankester, Thomson, Bell, Mitchell, and Strickland are down in the old muster-roll. Many were added afterwards, as the Club was kept up in London, in meetings at Anderton's, in Fleet-street. The old cards of invitation were very droll: they THE RED LIONS. 259 were stamped with the figure of a Red Lion erect, with a pot of beer in one paw, and a long day pipe in the other, and the invitation commenced with " The camivora will feed " at such an hour. Forbes, who as pater omnipotens, always took the chair, at the first chance meeting round the plain table of the inn, gave a capital stock of humour to this feed- ing of the naturalists by taking up his coat-tail and roaring whenever a good thing was said or a good song sung ; and, of course, all the other Red Lions did the same. When roaring and tail-wagging became so characteristic an institu- tion among the members, Mr. Mitchell, then secretary of the Zoological Society, presented a fine lion's skin to the Club ; and ever after the President sat with this skin spread over his chair, the paws at the elbows, arid the tail handy to be wagged. Alas ! this tail no longer wags at Birmingham, and after vibrating with languid emotion in London, has now- ceased to show any signs of life. The old Red Lion has lost heart, and has slumbered since the death of Forbes. At the Meeting of the British Association at Birmingham, in 1865, an endeavour was made to revive the Red Lion dinner on something like its former scale ; the idea being probably suggested by the circumstance of the Club having been originated in Birmingham. Lord Houghton, who is, we believe, " an old Red," presided ; but the idiosyiicrasy of the real Red Lion, and his intense love of plain roast and boiled, were missed : some sixty guests sat down, not at the Red Lion, but at a hotel banquet. Not one of the cele- brants on this occasion had passed through his novitiate as a Red Lion cub : he was not asked whether he could roar or sing a song, or had ever said a good thing, one of which qualifications was a, sine qu& non in the old Club. There were, however, some good songs : Professor Rankme sang " The Mathematician in Love," a song of his own. Then, there are some choice spirits among these philosophers. After the banquet a section adjourned to the B. Club, members of which are chiefly chemical in their serious S a 36o CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. moments. Indeed, all through the meeting there was a succession of jovial parties in the identical room at the Red Lion.* The Coventry, Erectheum, and Parthenon Clubs. The Coventry, or Ambassadors' Club, was instituted about twenty years since, at No. io6, Piccadilly, facing the Green Park. The handsome stone-fronted mansion occupies the site of the old Greyhound inn, and was bought by the Earl of Coventry of Sir Hugh Hunlock, in 1764, for 10,000/., subject to the ground-rent of 75/. per annum. The Club enjoyed but a brief existence : it was closed in March, 1854. The Erectheum Club, St. James's-square, corner of York- street, was established by Sir John Dean Paul, Bart., and became celebrated for its good dinners. The Club-house was formerly the town depot of Wedgwood's famous " ware /' and occupies the site of the mansion built for the Earl of Romney, the handsome Sydney of De Grammont's Memoirs. The Parthenon Club-house (late Mr. Edwards's), east side of Regent-street, nearly facing St. Philip's Chapel, was de- signed by Nash ; the first floor is elegant Corinthian. The south division was built by Mr. Nash for his own residence ; it has a long gallery, decorated from a log^a of the Vatican at Rome : it is now the Gallery of Illustration. " The Coventry Club was a Club of most exclusive ex- quisites, and was rich in diplomacy ; but it blew up in admired confusion. Even so did Lord Cardigan's Club, founded upon the site of Crockford's. The Clarence, the Albion, and a dozen other small Clubs have all dissolved, some of them with great loss to the members, and the Abridged from the Doily Nnws, ANTIQUARIAN CLUBS. 261 Erectheum and Parthenon thought it prudent to join their forces to keep the wolf from the door."— New Quarterly Review. Antiquarian Clubs, — The Noviomagians. We have already seen how the more convivially disposed members of Learned Societies have, from time to time, formed themselves into Clubs. The Royals have done so, ab initio. The Antiquaries appear to have given up their Club and their Anniversary Dinner; but certain of the Fellows, resolving not to remain impransi, many years since, formed a Club, styled " Noviomagians," from the identifica- tion of the Roman station of Noviomagus being just then discovered, or rather Rife and celebrated in the mouths Of wisest men. One of the Club-founders was Mr. A. J. Kempe ; and Mr. Crofton Croker was president more than twenty years! Lord Londesborough and Mr. Comer, the Southwark antiquary, were also Noviomagians ; and in the present Club-list are Sir William Betham, Mr. Fairholt, Mr. Godwin, Mr. S. C. Hall, Mr. Lemon, etc. The Club dine together once a month during the season at the old tavern next the burial-place of Joe Miller in Portugal Street. Here the Fellows meet for the promotion of good fellowship and antiquarian pursuits. " Joking minutes are kept, in which would be found many known names, either as visitors or associates, — Theodore Hook, Sir Henry ElUs, Britton, Dickens, Thackeray, John Bruce, Jerdan, Planchd, Bell, Maclise, etc." The Club and its visitors may have caught inspiration here ; for in their sallies movere jocum, they have imitated the wits at Strawberry Hill, and found Arras for the Club, with a butter-boat rampant for the crest, which is very significant. 262 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. In 1855, Lord Mayor Moon, F.S.A., entertained at the Mansion House the Noviomagians, and the^office-bearers of the Society of Antiquaries to meet them. After dinner, some short papers were read, including one by Mr. Lemon, of the State Paper Office, presenting some curious illus- trations of the state of society in London in the reign of James I., showing the Migration of Citizens Westward" (See "Romance of London," vol. iii. pp. 315-320.) The Eccentrics. Late in the last century there met at a tavera kept by one Fulham, in Chandos Street, Covent Garden, a convivial Club called "The Eccentrics," which was an offshoot of " The Brilliants." They next removed to Tom Rees's, in May's-buildings, St. Martin's-lane, and here they were flourishing at all hours, some thirty years since. Amongst the members were many celebrities of the literary and political world; they were always treated with indulgence by the authorities. An inaugural ceremony was performed upon the making of a member, which terminated with a jubilation from the President. The books of the Club up to the time of its removal from May's-buildings are stated to have passed into the possession of Mr. Lloyd, the hatter, of the Strand, who, by the way, was eccentric in his business, and published a small work descriptive of the various fashions of hats worn in his time, illustrated with charac- teristic engravings. From its commencement the Eccentrics are said to have numbered upwards of 40,000 members, many of them hold- ing high social possition : among others, Fox, Sheridan, Lord Melbourne, and Lord Brougham. On the same memorable night that Sheridan and Lord Petersham were admitted, Hook was also enrolled j and through this Club ijiembership, Theodore is believed to have obtained some of his high connexions. In a novel, published in numbers, DOUGLAS JERROLD'S CLUBS. ?63 some thirty years siace, the author, F. W, N. Bayley, sketched with graphic vigour the meetings of the Eccentrics at the old tavern in May's-buildings. Douglas Jerrold's Clubs. One of the chapters in "The Life and Remains of Douglas Jerrold," by his son Blanchard Jerrold, discourses most pleasantly of the several Clubs to which Mr. Jerrold became attached. He was of a clubbable nature, and delighted in wit combats and brilliant repartees, the flash of which was perfectly electric. In this very agreeable prkis, we find that towards the end of theyear 1824, some young men met at a humble tavern, the Wrekin, in the genial neighbourhood of Covent Garden, with Shakspeare as their common idol ; and " it was a regu- lation of this Club that some paper, or poem, or conceit, bearing upon Shakspeare, should be contributed by each member. Hither came Douglas Jerrold, and he was soon joined by Laman Blanchard. Upon Jerrold's suggestion, the Club was called the Mulberries, and their contributions were entitled Mulberry Leaves. In the Club were William Godwin ; Kenny Meadows, the future illustrator of Shak- speare; W. Elton, the Shakspearean actor; and Edward Chatfield, the artist. Mr. Jerrold wrote, in the "Illuminated Magazine," a touching memoir of the Society — " that knot of wise and jocund men, then unknown, but gaily struggling." The Mulberry Club lived many years, and gathered a valuable crop of leaves — contributions from its members. They fell into Mr. Elton's hands, and are now in the pos- session of his family. They were to have been published, but no one would undertake to see them through the press — an office which, in most cases, is a very unthankful one. The Club did not, however, die easily : it was changed and grafted. " In times nearer the present, when it was called the Shakspeare Club, Charles Dickens, Mr. Justice Talfourd, 254 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. Daniel Maclise, Mr. Macready, Mr. Frank Stone, etc. belonged to it. Respectability killed it." But some de- lightful results of these Mulberry Club meetings are em- balmed in Mr. Jerrold's " Cakes and Ale," and their life reminds one of the dancing motes in the latter. Then we hear of other clubs — the Gratis and the Rationals, of which Jerrold was a member. "But," says the gentle Memoir, "with clubs of more recent date, with the Hooks and Eyes, and lastly with Our Club, Douglas Jerrold's name is most intimately associated. It may be justly said that he was the life and soul of these three gatherings of men. His arrival was a happy moment for members already present. His company was sought with wondrous eagerness whenever a dinner or social evening was contemplated ; for, as a club associate said of him, ' he sparkled whenever you touched him, like the sea at night.' A writer in the " Quarterly Review " well said of him : ' In the bright sallies of conversational wit he has no surviving equal.' " He was thus greatly acceptable in all social literary Clubs. In the Museum Club, for instance, (an attempt made in 1847 to estabUsh a properly modest and real literary Club,) he was unquestionably the member ; for he was the most clubbable of men." When members dropped in, sharp shots were possibly exchanged : here are a few that were actually fired within the precincts of the Museum Club — fired care- lessly and forgotten : Jerrold defined dogmatism as " puppyism come to ma- turity ; " and a. flaming uxorious epitaph put up by a famous cook, on his wife's tomb, as " mock turtle." A prosy old gentleman, meeting him as he was passing at his usual quick pace along Regent-street, poised himself into an attitude, and began : " Well, Jerrold, my dear boy, what is going on?" — "I am," said the wit, instantly shootmg off. At a dinner of artists, a barrister present, having his , ealth drunk in connexion with the law, begaii an embarrassed DOUGLAS yESROLD'S CLUBS. 265 answer by saying that he did not see how the law could be considered one of the arts, when Jerrold jerked in the word black, and threw the company into convulsions. A bore remarking how charmed he was with a certain opera, and that there was one particular song which always carried him quite away — " Would that I could sing it !" ejaculated the wit. A dinner is discussed. Douglas Jerrold listens quietly, possibly tired of dinners, and declining pressing invitations to be present. In a few minutes he will chime in, " If an earthquake were to engulf England to-morrow, the English would manage to meet and dine somewhere among the rubbish, just to celebrate the event." A friend is anxious to awaken Mr. Jerrold's sympathies in behalf of a mutual acquaintance who is in want of a round sum of money. But this mutual friend has already sent his hat about among his literary brethren on more than one occasion. Mr. 's hat is becoming an institution, and friends were grieved at the indelicacy of the proceeding. On the above occasion, the bearer of the hat was received with evident dissatisfaction. " Well," said Douglas Jerrold, " how much does want this time ?" — " Why, just a four and two noughts will, I think, put him straight," the bearer of the hat replied. Jerrold — "Well, put me down for one of the noughts." " The Chain of Events," playing at the Lyceum Theatre, though unsuccessful, is mentioned. " Humph," said Douglas Jerrold, "I'm afraid the manager will find it a door-chain strong enough to keep everybody out of the house," — and so it proved. Douglas Jerrold is seriously disappointed with a certain book written by one of his friends, and has expressed his disappointment. Friend—"! have heard that you said was the worst book I ever wrote." Jerrold— "^ No, I didn't ; I said it was the worst book anybody ever wrote." "A supper of sheep's-heads is proposed, and presently 266 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. served. One gentleman present is particularly enthusiastic on the excellence of the dish, and, as he throws down his knife and fork, exclaims, " Well, sheeps'-'heads for ever, say I!" /drw/(f—« There's egotism !" During a stormy discussion, a gentleman rises to settle the matter in dispute. Waving his hands majestically over the excited disputants, he begins : — " Gentlemen, all I want is common sense." — "Exactly," says Douglas Jerrold, "that is precisely what you do want." But the Museum Club was broken up by troubled spirits. Then succeeded the Hooks and Eyes; then the Club, a social weekly gathering, which Jerrold attended only three weeks before his death. Hence some of his best sayings went forth. Jerrold ordered a bottle of old port ; " not elder port," he said. Walking to his Club with a friend from the theatre, some intoxicated young gentleman reeled up to the dramatist and said, " Can you tell me the way to the Judge and Jury ?" — " Keep on as you are, young gentleman," was the reply ; "you're sure to overtake them." Asking about the talent of a young painter, his companion declared that the youth was mediocre. "Oh!" was the reply; " the very worst ochre an artist can set to work with." " The laughing hours, when these poor gatherings," says Mr. Blanchard Jerrold, " fell firom the welWoaded branch, are remembered still in the rooms of Our Club ; and the hearty laugh still echoes there, and will, it is my pride to believe, always live in the memory of that genial and refined circle." The Whittington Club originated in 1846, with Douglas Jerrold, who became its first President. It was established at the Crown and Anchor Tavern in the Strand ; where, in the ball-room, hung a picture of Whittington listening to Bow-bells, painted by Newenham, and presented to the Club by the President. All the Club premises were CffESS CLUBS. 267 destroyed by fire in 1854 ; the picture was not saved, but fortunately it had been cleverly engraved. The premises have been rebuilt, and the Club still flflurishes. Chess Clubs. The Clubs in various parts of the Meti'opolis and the suburbs, where Chess, and Chess only, forms the staple recreation of the members, are numerous. We must, how- ever, confine ourselves to the historical data of the early Clubs, which record the introduction of the noble game in the Metropolis. In 1747, the principal if not the only Chess Club in the Metropolis met at Slaughter's Coffee-house, St. Martin's-lane. The leading players of this Club were — Sir Abraham Janssen, Philip Stamma (from Aleppo) j Lord Godolphin, Lord Sunderland, and Lord Elibank ; Cunningham, the historian ; Dr. Black and Dr. Cowper ; and it was through their invita- tion that the celebrated Philidor was induced to visit England. Another Club was shortly afterwards founded at the Salopian Coifee-house, Charing Cross : and a few years later, a third, which met next door to the Thatched House Tavern, in St. James's-street. It was here that Philidor exhibited his wonderful faculty for playing blindfold ; some instances of which we find in the newspapers of the period : — "Yesterday, at the Chess-Club in St. James's-street, Monsieur Philidor performed one of those wonderful exhi- bitions for which he is so much celebrated. He played three different games at once without seeing either of the tables. His opponents were Count Bruhl and Mr. Bowdler (the two best players in London), and Mr. Maseres. He defeated Count Bruhl in one hour and twenty minutes, and Mr. Maseres in two hours ; Mr. Bowdler reduced his games to a drawn battle in one hour and three-quarters. To those who understand Chess, this exertion of M. Philidor's abilities 268 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. must appear one of the greatest of which the human memory is susceptible. He goes through it with astonishmg accu- racy, and often corrects mistakes in those who have the board before them." In 1795, the veteran, then nearly seventy years of age, played three bUndfold matches in public. The last of these, which came off shortly before his death, we find announced in the daily newspapers thus : — "Chess-Club, 1795. Parsloe's, St. James's Street. " By particular desire, Mons. PhiUdor, positively for the last time, will play on Saturday, the 20th of June, at two o'clock precisely, three games at once against three good players ; two of them without seeing either of the boards, and the third looking over the table. He most respectfully invites all the members of the Chess-Club to honour him with their presence. Ladies and gentlemen not belonging to the Club may be provided with tickets at the above- mentioned house, to see the match, at five shillings each.'' Upon the death of Philidor, the Chess-Clubs at the West-end seem to have declined ; and in 1807, the strong- hold and rallying-point for the lovers of the game was " The London Chess-Club," which was established in the City, and for many years held its meetings at Tom's Coffee-house, in Comhill. To this Club we are indebted for many of the finest chess-players of the age. About the year 1833, a Club was founded by a few amateurs in Bedford-street, Covent Garden. This establish- ment, which obtained remarkable celebrity as the arena of the famous contests between La Bourdonnais and M'Donnell, was dissolved in 1840 ; but shortly afterwards, through the exertions of Mr. Staunton, was re-formed under the name of the " St. George's Club," in Cavendish-square. 269 Early Coffee- Houses. GOFFEE is thus mentioned by Bacon, in his " Sylva Syl- varum": — "They have in Turkey a drink called Coffee, made of a Berry of the same name, as Black as Soot, and of a Strong Sent, but not Aromatical; which they take, beaten into Powder, in Water, as Hot as they can Drink it ; and they take it, and sit at it in their Coffee Houses, which are like our Taverns. The Drink comforteth the Brain, and Heart, and helpeth Digestion" And in Burton's "Anatomy of Melancholy," part i., sec. 2, occurs, " Turks in their coffee-houses, which much resemble our taverns." The date is 162 1, several years before coffee-houses were introduced into England. In 1650, Wood tells us, was opened at Oxford, the first coffee-house, by Jacobs, a Jew, " at the Angel, in the parish of St. Peter in the East ; and there it was, by some who delighted in novelty, drank." There was once an odd notion prevalent that coffee was unwholesome, and would bring its drinkers to an untimely end. Yet, Voltaire, Fontenelle, and Fourcroy, who were great coffee-drinkers, lived to a good old age. Laugh at Madame de Sevignd, who foretold that coffee and Racine would be forgotten together ! A manuscript note, written by Oldys, the celebrated antiquary, states that " The use of coffee in England was first known in 1657. [It will be seen, as above, that Oldys is incorrect.] Mr. Edwards, a Turkey merchant, brought from Smyrna to London one Pasqua Rosee, a Ragusan youth, who prepared this drink for him every morning. But the novelty thereof drawing too much company to him, 270 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. he allowed his said servant, with another of his son-in-law, to sell it publicly, and they set up the first coffee-house in London, in St. Michael's-alley, in Cornhill. The sign was Pasqua Rosee's owii head." '■ Oldys is slightly in error here j Rosee commenced his coffee-house in 1652, and one Jacobs, a Jew, as we have just seen, had established a similar under- taking at Oxford, two years earlier. One of Rosee's original shop or hand-bills, the only mode of advertising in those days, is as follows : — "THE VERTUE OF THE COFFEE DRINK, ^^ First made and puilickly sold in England by Fasqua Rosee. " The grain or berry called coffee, groweth upon httle trees only in the deserts of Arabia. It is brought from thence, and drunk generally throughout all the Grand Seigneur's dominions. It is a simple, innocent thing, com- posed into a drink, by being dried in an oven, and ground to powder, and boiled up with spring water, and about half a pint of it to be drunk fasting an hour before, and not eating an hour after, and to be taken as hot as possibly can be endured ; the which will never fetch the skin oft the mouth, or raise any blisters by reason of that heat. " The Turks' drink at meals and other times is usually water, and their diet consists much of fruit ; the crudities whereof are very much corrected by this drink. " The quality of this drink is cold and dry ; and though it be a drier, yet it neither heats nor inflames more than hot posset. It so incloseth the orifice of the stomach, and fortifies the heat within, that it is very good to help digestion; and therefore of great use to be taken about three or four o'clock afternoon, as well as in the morning. It much quickens the spirits, and makes the heart lightr some ; it is good against sore eyes, and the better if you hold your head over it and take in the steam that way. It suppresseth fumes exceedingly, and therefore is good against the head-ache, and will very much stop any de- EARLY COFFEE-HOUSES. 2-/1 fluxion of rheums that distil from the head upon the stomach, and so prevent and help consumptions and the cough of the lungs. "It is excellent to prevent and cure the dropsy, gout,* and scurvy. It is known by experience to be better than any other drying drink for people in years, or children that have any running humours upon them, as the king's evil, &c. It is a most excellent remedy against the spleen, hypochondriac winds, and the like. It will prevent drow- siness, and make one fit for business, if one have occasion to watch, and therefore you are not to drink of it after supper, unless you intend to be watchful, for it will hinder sleep for three or four hours. " It is observed that in Turkey, where this is generally drunk, that they are not troubled with the stone, gout, dropsy, or scurvy, and that their skins are exceeding clear and white. It is neither laxative nor restringent. " Made and sold in St. Michael' s-alley, in Cornhill, by Pasqua Rosee, at th^ sign of Ms own head." The new beverage had its opponents, as well as its advo- cates. The following extracts from "An invective against Coffee," published about the same period, informs us that Rosee's partner, the servant of Mr. Edwards's son-in-law, was a coachman ; while it controverts the statement that hot coffee will not scald the mouth, and ridicules the broken English of the Ragusan : — " A BROADSIDE AGAINST COFFEE. "A coachman was the first (here) coffee made. And ever since the rest drive on the trade : ' Me no good EngcUash 1 ' and sure enough. He played the quack to salve his Stygian stuff ; ' Ver boon for de stomach, de cough, de phthisicky And I believe him, for it looks hke physic. * In the French colonies, where Coffee is more used than in the English, Gout is scarcely known. ajz CLUB LIFE OF LONDON: Cofifee a crust is charred into a coal, The smell and taste of the mock china bowl ; Where huff and puff, they labour out their lungs. Lest, Dives-like, they should bewail their tongues. And yet they tell ye that it will not bum, Though on the jury blisters you return ; Whose furious heat does make the water rise, And still through the alembics of your eyes. Dread and desire, you fall to 't snap by snap, As hungry dogs do scalding porridge lap. But to cure drunkards it has got great fame ; Posset or porridge, will 't not do the same ? Confusion hiirries all into one scene. Like Noah's ark, the clean and the unclean. And now, alas ! the drench has credit got, And he's no gentleman that drinks it not ; That such a dwarf should rise to such a stature ! But custom is but a remove from nature. A little dish and a large coffee-house. What is it but a mountain and a mouse f Notwithstanding tliis opposition, coffee soon became a favourite drink, and the shops where it was sold, places of general resort. There appears to have been a great anxiety that the Coffee-house, while open to all ranks, should be conducted under such restraints as might prevent the better class of customers from being annoyed. Acpordingly, the following regulations, printed on large sheets of paper, were hung up in conspicuous positions on the walls :— " EntfT, Sirs, freely, but first, if you please, Peruse our civil orders, which are these. First, gentry, tradesmen, all are welcome hither, And may without affront sit dovrn together : Pre-eminence of place none here should mind. But take the next fit seat that he can find ; Nor need any, if finer persons come, Rise up for to assign to them his room ; , To limit men's expense, we think not fair. But let him forfeit twelve-pence that shall swear Four Swans Inn, Bishopsgate Stieet Within. m -^ ■--1 :;■/. ~^1^ >T'»^ Homsey Wood House. {Gun Clubs and Bean Feasts.) GAKRA IVA Y'S COFFEE-HOVSZ. 273 He that shall any quarrel here begin, •» Shall give each man a dish t' atone the sin ; And so. shall he, whose compliments extend So far to drink in coffee to his friend ; Let noise of loud disputes be quite forborne. Nor maudlin lovers here in comers mourn, But all be brisk and talk, but not too much ; On sacred things, let none presume to touch, Nor profane Scripture, nor saucily wrong Affairs of state with an irreverent tongue : Let mirth be innocent, and each man see That all his jests without reflection be ; To keep the house more quiet and from blame. We banish hence cards, dice, and every game ; Nor can allow of wagers, that exceed Five shillings, which ofttimes do troubles breed ; Let all that's lost or forfeited be spent In such good liquor ss the house doth vent. And customers endeavour, to their powers. For to observe still, seasonable hours. Lastly, let each man what he calls for pay, A nd so you're welcome to come every day. In a print of the period, five persons are shown in a coffee-house, one smoking, evidently, from their dresses, of different ranks of hfe : they are seated at a table, on which are small basins without saucers, and tobacco-pipes, while a waiter is serving the coffee. Garraway 's Coffee- H ouse. This noted Coffee-house, situated in Change-alley, Corn- hill, has a threefold celebrity : tea was first sold in England, here ; it was a place of great resort in the time of the South Sea Bubble ; and has since been a place of great mercantile transactions. The original proprietor was Thomas Garway, tobacconist and coffee-man, the first who retailed tea, recommending for the cure of all disorders. The following is the substance of his shop bill : — " Tea in England hath been sold in the leaf for six pounds, and sometimes for ten T 274 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. pounds the pound weight, and in respect of 'its former scarceness and dearness, it hath been only used as a regalia in high treatments and entertainments, and presents made thereof to princes and grandees till the year 1651. The said Thomas Garway did purchase a quantity thereof, and first publicly sold the said tea in leaf and drink, made according to the directions of the most knowing merchants and travellers into those Eastern countries j and upon knowledge and experience of the said Garway's continued care and industry in obtaining the best tea, and making drink thereof, very many noblemen, physicians, merchants, and gentlemen of quality, have ever since sent to him for the said leaf, and daily resort to his house in Exchange- alley, aforesaid, to drink the drink thereof; and to the end that all persons of eminence and quality, gentlemen, and others, who have occasion for tea in leaf, may be supplied, these are to give notice that the said Thomas Garway hath tea to sell from ' sixteen to fifty shillings per pound.' " (See the document entire in Ellis's "Letters," series iv., 58.) Ggilby, the compiler of the Britannia, had his standing lottery of books at Mr. Garway's Coffee-house from April 7, 1673, till wholly drawn oif. And, in the "Journey through England," 1722, Garraway's, Robins's, and Joe's, are de- scribed as the three celebrated Coffee-houses : in th'e first, the People of Quality, who have business in the City, and the most considerable and wealthy citizens frequent. In the second the Foreign Banquiers, and often even Foreign Ministers. And in the third, the Buyers and Sellers of Stock. Wines were sold at Garraway's in 1673, "by the candle," that is, by auction, while an inch of candle bums. In the Tatler, No. 147, we read : " Upon my coming home last night, I found a very handsome present of French wine left for me, as a taste of 216 hogsheads, which are to be put to sale ' at 20/. a hogshead, at Garraway's Coffee-house, in Exchange-alley," &c. The sale by candle is not, however, GARRAWAY'S COFFEE-HOUSE. 275 by candle-light, but during the day. At the commencement of the sale, when the auctioneer has read a description of the property, and the conditions on which it is to be dis- posed of, a piece of candle, usually an inch long, is lighted, and he who is the last bidder at the time the light goes out is declared the purchaser. Swift, in his "Ballad on the South Sea Scheme," 1721, did not forget Garraway's : — There is a gulf, where thousands fell, Here all the bold adventurers came, A narrow sound, though deep as hell, 'Change alley is the dreadful name. Subscribers here by thousands float, And jostle one another down, Each paddling in his leaky boat, And here they fish for gold and drown. Now buried in the depths below, Now mounted up to heaven again, They reel and stagger to and fro, At their wits' end, like drunken men. Meantime secure on Garway cliffs, A savage race, by shipwiecks fed, Lie waiting for the founder'd skiffs, And strip the bodies of the dead. Dr. Radclifte, who was a rash speculator in the South Sea Scheme, was usually planted at a table at Garraway's about Exchange time, to watch the turn of the market ; and here he was seated when the footman of his powerful rival, Dr. Edward Hannes, came into Garraway's and inquired, Ity way of a puff, if Dr. H. was there. Dr. RadclifFe, who was surrounded with several apothecaries and chirurgeons that flocked about him, cried out, " Dr. Hannes was not there," and desired to know "who wanted him?" the fellow's reply was, " such a lord and such a lord ;" but he was taken up with the dry rebuke, " No, no, friend, you are mistaken ; the Doctor wants those lords." One of Rad- cliffe's ventures was five thousand guineas upon one South T 3 276 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. Sea project. When he was told at Garrawa/s that 'twas all lost, " Why," said he, " 'tis but going up five thousand pair of stairs more." " This answer," says Tom Brown, " deserved a statue." As a Coffee-house, and one of the oldest class, which has withstood, by the well-acquired fame of its proprietors, the ravages of time, and the changes that economy and new generations produce, none can be compared to Garraway's. This name must be familiar with most people in and out of the City ; and, notwithstanding our disposition to make allowance for the want of knowledge some of our neighbours of the West-end profess in relation to men and things east of Temple Bar, it must be supposed that the noble person- age who said, when asked by a merchant to pay him a visit in one of these places, " that he willingly would, if his friend could tell him where to change horses," had forgotten this establishment, which fostered so great a quantity of dis- honoured paper, when in other City coffee-houses it had gone begging at \s. and 2s. in the pound.* Garraway's has long been famous as a sandwich and drinking-room, for sherry, pale ale, and punch. Tea and coffee are still served. It is said that the sandwich- maker is occupied two hours in cutting and arranging the sandwiches before the day's consumption commences. The sale-room is an old-fashioned first-floor apartment, with a small rostrum for the seller, and a few commonly grained settles for the buyers. Here sales of drugs, mahogany, and timber are periodically held. Twenty or thirty property and other sales sometimes take place in a day. The walls and windows of the lower room are covered with sale placards, which are unsentimental evidences of the muta- bility of human affairs. " In 1840 and 1841, when the tea speculation was at its height, and prices were fluctuating dd. and Zd. per pound, on * The City, 2nd edition. GARRAWAY'S COFFEE-HOUSE. 277 the arrival of every mail, Garraway's was frequented every night by a host of the smaller fry of dealers, when there was more excitement than ever occurred on 'Change when the most important intelligence arrived. Champagne and an- chovy toasts were the order of the night ; and every one came, ate and drank, and went, as he pleased, without the least question concerning the score, yet the bills were discharged ; and this plan continued for several months."— The City. Here, likewise, we find this redeeming picture : — " The members of the little coterie, who take the dark corner under the clock, have for years visited this house ; they number two or three old, steady merchants, a solicitor, and a gentleman who almost devotes the whole of his time and talents to philanthropic objects, — for instance, the getting up of a Ball for Shipwrecked Mariners and their families ; or the organization of a Dinner for the benefit of the Distressed Needlewomen of the Metropolis ; they are a very quiet party, and enjoy the privilege of their seance, uninterrupted by visitors." We may here mention a tavern of the South Sea time, where the " Globe permits " fraud was very successful. These were nothing more than square pieces of card on which was a wax seal of the sign of the Globe Tavern, situated in the neighbourhood of Change-alley, with the in- scription, "Sail-cloth Permits.'' The possessors enjoyed no other advantage from them than permission to subscribe at some future time to a new sail-cloth manufactory pro- jected by one who was known to be a man of fortune, but who was afterwards involved in the peculation and punish- ment of the South Sea Directors. These permits sold for as much as sixty guineas in the Alley. 278 Jonathan's Coffee-Chouse. This is another Change-alley Cofifee-house, which is de- scribed in the Toiler^ No. 38, as " the general mart of stock- jobbers j" and the Spectator, No. i, tells- us that he " some- times passes for a Jew in the assembly of stock-jobbers, af Jonathan's." This was the rendezvous, where gambling of all sorts was carried on, notwithstanding a former prphibi- tion against the assemblage of the jobbers, issued by the City of London, which prohibition continued unrepealed until 1825. In the "Anatomy of Exchange Alley," 17 19, we read : — " The centre of the jobbing is in the kingdom of Exchange- alley and its adjacencies. The limits are easily surrounded in about a minute and a half — Viz., stepping out of Jona- than's into the Alley, you turn your face full south ; moving on a . few paces, ■ and then turning due east, you advance to Garraway's ; from thence going out at the other door, you go on still east into Birchin-lane ; and then halting a little at the Sword-blade Bank, to do much mischief in fewest words, you immediately face to the north, enter Cornhill, visit two or three petty provinces there in your way west j and thus having boxed your compass, and sailed roimd the whole stock-jobbing globe, you turn into Jona- than's again.; and so, as most of the great follies of life oblige us to do, yovi end, just where you began." Mrs. Centlivre, in her comedy of A Sold Stroke for a Wife, has a scene from Jonathan's at the above period : while the stock-jobbers are talking, the coffee-boys are crying " Fresh coffee, gentlemen, fresh coffee ! Bohea tea, gentlemen 1" Here is another picture of Jonathan's, during the South Sea mania ; though not by an eye-witness, it groups, from various authorities, the life of the place and the time: — "At JONATHAN'S COFFEE-HOUSE. 279 a table a few yards off sat a couple of men engaged in the discussion of a newly-started scheme. Plunging his hand impatiently under the deep silver-buttoned flap of his frock- coat of cinnamon cloth and drawing out a paper, the more business-looking of the pair commenced eagerly to read out figures intended to convince the listener, who took a jewelled snufF-box from the deep pocket of the green brocade waistcoat which overflapped his thigh, and, tapping the lid, enjoyed a pinch of perfumed Turkish as he leaned back lazily in his chair. Somewhat further oif, standing in the middle of the room, was a keen-eyed lawyer, counting on his fingers the probable results of a certain speculation in human hair, to which a fresh-coloured farmer from St. Albans, on whose boots the mud of the cattle market was not dry, listened with a face of stolid avarice, clutching the stag-horn handle of his thonged whip as vigorously as if it were the wealth he coveted. There strode a Nonconformist divine, with S. S. S. in every line of his face, greedy for the gold that perisheth ; here a bishop, whose truer place was Garraway's, edged his cassock through the crowd ; sturdy ship-captains, whose manners smack of blustering breezes, and who hailed their acquaintance as if through a speaking- trumpet in a storm — bookseller's hacks from Grub-street, who were wont to borrow ink-bottles and just one sheet of paper at the bar of the Black Swan in St. Martin's-lane, and whose tarnished lace, when not altogether torn away, showed a suspicious coppery redness underneath — ^Jews of every grade, from the thriving promoter of a company for import- ing ashes from Spain or extracting stearine from sunflower seeds to the seller of sailor slops from Wapping-in-the-Wose, come to look for a skipper who had bilked him — a sprinkling of well-to-do merchants — and a host of those flashy hangers- on to the skirts of commerce, who brighten up in days of maniacal speculation, and are always ready to dispose of shares in some unopened mine or some untried invention — passed and repassed with continuous change and murmur aSo CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. before the squire's eyes during the quarter of an hour tnat he sat ^ert."— Pictures of the Periods, by W. F. Collier, LL.D. Rainbow Coffee-house. The Rainbow, in Fleet-street, appears to have been the second Coffee-house opened in the metropolis. " The first Coffee-house in London," says Aubrey (MS. in the Bodleian Library), " was in St. Michael's-alley, in Comhill, opposite to the church, which was set up by one Bowman (coachman to Mr. Hodges, a Turkey mer- chant, who putt him upon it), in or about the yeare 1652. 'Twas about four yeares before any other was sett up, and that was by Mr. Farr." This was the Rainbow. Another account states that one Edwards, a Turkey merchant, on his return from the East, brought with him a Ragusian Greek servant, named Pasqua Rosee, who pre- pared coffee every morning for his master, and with the coachman above named set up the first Coffee-house in St. Michael's-alley ; but they soon quarrelled and separated, the coachman establishing himself in St Michael's churchyard. ■ — (See pp. 270 and 271, ante.) Aubrey wrote the above in 1680, and Mr. Farr had then become a person of consequence. In his "Lives" Aubrey notes : — "When coffee first came in, Sir Henry Blount was a great upholder of it, and hath ever since been a great frequenter of coffee-houses, especially Mr. Farre's, at the Rainbowe, by Inner Temple Gate." Farr was originally a barber. His success as a coffee- man appears to have annoyed his neighbours ; and at the inquest at St. Dunstan's, Dec. 21st, 1657, among the pre- sentments of nuisances were the following : — " We present James Farr, barber, for making and selling of a drink called coffee, whereby in making the same he annoyeth his neigh- bours by evill smells ; and for keeping of fire for the most part night and day, wherebv his chimney and chamber hath RAINBOW COFFEE-HOUSE. 28t been set on fire, to the great danger and affrightment of his neighbours." However, Farr was not ousted ; he probably promised reform, or amended the alleged annoyance : he remained at the Rainbow, and rose to be a person of emi- nence and repute in the parish. He issued a token, date 1666 — an arched rainbow based on clouds, doubtless, from the Great Fire — to indicate that with him all was yet safe, and the Rainbow still radiant. There is one of his tokens in the Beaufoy collection, at Guildhall, and so far as is known to Mr. Burn, the rainbow, does not occur on any other tradesman's token. The house was let off into tene- ments : books were printed here at this very time " for Samuel Speed, at the sign of the Rainbow, near the Inner Temple Gate, in Fleet-street." The Phoenix Fire Office was established here about 1682. Hatton, in 1708, evidently attributed Farr's nuisance to the coffee itself, saying : " Who would have thought London would ever have had three thousand such nuisances, and that coffee would have been (as now) so much drank by the best of quality, and physi- cians ?" The nuisance was in Farr's chimney and careless- ness, not in the coffee. Yet, in our statute-book anno 1660 (12 Car. II. c. 24), a duty of 4(/. was laid upon every gallon of coffee made and sold. A statute of 1663 directs that all Coffee-houses should be licensed at the Quarter Sessions. And in 1675, Charles II. issued a proclamation to shut up the Coffee-houses, charged with being seminaries of sedition; but in a few days he suspended this proclamation by a second. The Spectator, No. 16, notices some gay frequenters of the Rainbow : — " I have received a letter desiring me to be very satirical upon the little muff that is now in fashion ; another informs me of a pair of silver garters buckled below the knee, that have been lately seen at the Rainbow Coffee- house in Fleet-street." Mr. Moncrieff, the dramatist, used to tell that about 1780, this house was kept by his grandfather, Alexander Moncrieff, 282 CLUB LIFE OF LOJ^DON. when it retained its original title of "The Rainbow Coffee- house." The old Coffee-room had a lofty bay-window, at the south end, lookmg into the Temple : and the room was separated from the kitchen only by a glazed partition : in the bay was the table for the elders. The house has long been a tavern ; all the old rooms have been swept away, and a large and lofty dining-room erected in their place. In a paper read to the British Archaological Association, by Mr. E. B. Price, we find coffee and canary thus brought into interesting comparison, illustrated by the exhibition of one of Farr's Rainbow tokens ; and another inscribed " At the Canary- House iii the Strand, id., 1665," bearing also the word " Canary " in the monogram. Having noticed the prosecution of Farr, and his triumph over his fellow-parish- ioners, Mr. Price says : — " The opposition to coffee con- tinued j people viewed it with distrust, and even with alarm • and we can sympathize with them in their alarm, when we consider that they entertained a notion that coffee would eventually put an end to the species ; that the genus homo would some day or other be utterly extinguished. With our knowledge of the beneficial effect of this article on the com- munity, and its almost universal adoption in the present day, we may smile, and wonder while we smile, at the bare possi- bility of such a notion ever having prevailed. That it did so, we have ample evidence in the " Women's Petition against Coffee," in the year 1674, cited by DTsraeli, "Curiosities of Literature," vol. iv., and in which they complain that coffee " made men as unfruitful as the deserts whence that un- happy berry is said to be brought : that the offspring of our mighty ancestors would dwindle into a succession of apes and pigmies," &c. The same authority gives us an extract from a very amusing poem of 1663, in which the writer wonders that any man should prefer Coffee to Canary, tenn- ing them English apes, and proudly referring them to the days of Beaumont and Fletcher and Ben Jonson. They, says he, RAINBOW COFFEE-HOUSE. 283 Drank pure nectar as the gods drink too Sublimed with rich Canary ; say, shall then These less than coffee's self, these coffee-men, These sons of nothing, that can hardly make Their broth for laughing how the jest does take. Yet grin, and give ye for the vine's pure blood A loathsome potion — not yet understood, Syrup of soot, or essence of old shoes, Dasht with diumals or the book of news ? One of the weaknesses of "rare Ben" was his penchant for canary. And it would seem that the Mermaid, in Bread- street, was the house in which he enjoyed it most : But that which most doth take my muse and me. Is a pure cup of rich Canary wine, Which is the Mermaid's now, but shall be mine. Granger states that Charles I. raised Ben's pension from 100 marks to 100 pounds, and added a tierce of canary, which salary and its appendage, he says, have ever since been continued to poets laureate. Reverting to the Rainbow (says Mr. Price), "it has been frequently remarked by ' tavern-goers,' that many of our snuggest and most comfortable taverns are hidden from vulgar gaze, and unapproachable except through courts, blind alleys, or but half-lighted passages." Of this descrip- tion was the house in question. But few of its many nightly, or rather midnightly patrons and frequenters, knew aught of it beyond its famed " stewed cheeses," and its " stout," with the various " et ceteras" of good cheer. They little dreamed, and perhaps as little cared to know, that, more than two centuries back, the Rainbow flourished as a bookseller's shop ; as appears by the title-page of Trussell's " History of England," which states it to be "printed by M.D., for Ephraim Dawson, and are to bee sold in Fleet Street, at the signe of the Rainbowe, neere the Inner-Temple Gate, 1636." 284 Nando's Coffee-house Was the house at the east comer of Inner Temple-lane, No. 17, Fleet-street, and next door to the shop of Bernard Lintot, the bookseller ; though it has been by some con- fused with Groom's house. No. 16. Nando's was the favourite haunt of Lord Thurlow, before he dashed into law practice. At this Coffee-house a large attendance of pro- fessional loungers was attracted by the fame of the punch and the charms of the landlady, which, with the small wits, were duly admired by and at the bar. One evening, the famous cause of Douglas v. the Duke of Hamilton was the topic of discussion, when Thurlow being present, it was suggested, half in earnest, to appoint him junior counsel, which was done. This employment brought him acquainted with the Duchess of Queensberry, who saw at once the value of a man like Thurlow, and recommended Lord Bute to secure him by a silk gown. The house, formerly Nando's, has been for many years a hairdresser's. It is inscribed "Formerly the palace of Henry VIII. and Cardinal Wolsey." The structure is of the time of James I., and has an enriched ceiling inscribed P (triple plumed). This was the office in which the Council for the Manage- ment of the Duchy of Cornwall Estates held their sittings ; for in the Calendar of State Papers, edited by Mrs. Green, is the following entry, of the time of Charles, created Prince of Wales four years after the death of Henry: — "1619, Feb. 25 ; Prince's Council Chamber, Fleet-street. — Council of the Prince of Wales to the Keepers of Brancepeth, Raby, and Barnard Castles : The trees blown down are only to be used for mending the pales, and no wood to be cut for fire- wood, nor browse for the deer." 28s Dick's Coffee-house. This old Coffee-house, No. 8, Fleet-street (south side, near Temple Bar), was originally " Richard's," named from Richard Tomer, or Turner, to whom the house was let in 1680. The Coffee-room retains its olden paneling, and the staircase its original balusters. The interior of Dick's Coffee-house is engraved as a frontispiece to a drama, called The Coffee-house, performed at Drury-lane Theatre in 1737. The piece met with great opposition on its representation, owing to its being stated that the characters were intended for a particular family (that of Mrs. Yarrow and her daughter), who kept Dick's, the coffee-house which the artist had inadvertently selected as the frontispiece. It appears that the landlady and her daughter were the reigning toast of the Templars, who then frequented Dick's; and took the matter up so strongly that they united to con- demn the farce on the night of its production ; they suc- ceeded, and even extended their resentment to everything suspected to be this author's (the Rev. James Miller) for a considerable time after. Richard's, as it was then called, was frequented by Cowper, when he lived in the Temple. In his own account of his insanity, Cowper tells us : " At breakfast I read the newspaper, and in it a letter, which, the further I perused it, the more closely engaged my attention. I cannot now recollect the purport of it ; but before I had finished it, it appeared demonstratively true to me that it was a libel or satire upon me. The author appeared to be acquainted with my purpose of self-destruction, and to have written that letter on purpose to secure and hasten the execution of it. My mind, probably, at this time began to be disordered ; however it was, I war, certainly given to a strong delusion. I said within myself, ' Your cruelty shall be gratified ; you 286 CL UB LIFE OF LONDON. shall have your revenge,' and flinging down the paper in a fit of strong passion, I rushed hastily out of the room; directing my way towards the fields, where I intended to find some house to die in ; or, if not, determined to poison myself; in a ditch, where I could meet with one sufficiently, retired." It is worth while to revert to the earlier tenancy of the Coflfee-house, which was, wholly or in part, the original printing-office of Richard Tottel, law-printer to Edward VI., Queens Mary and Elizabeth ; the premises were attached to No. 7, Fleet-street, which bore the sign of " The Hand and Starre," where Tottel lived, and published the law and other works he printed. No. 7 was subsequently occupied by Jaggard and Joel Stephens, eminent law-printers, temp. Geo. I. — III. ; and at the present day the house is most appropriately occupied by Messrs. Butterworth, who follow the occupation Tottel did in the days of Edward VI., being law-pubUshers to Queen Victoria; and they possess the original leases, from the earliest grant, in the reign of Henry VIII., the period of their own purchase. The "Lloyd's" of the Time of Charles II. During the reign of Charles II., Coffee-houses grew into such favour, that they quickly spread over the metropolis, and were the usual meeting-places of the roving cavaliers, who seldom visited home but to sleep. The following song, from Jordan's "Triumphs of London, 1675," affords a very curious picture of the manners of the times, and the sort of conversation then usually met with in a well-frequented house of the sort, — the " Lloyd's " of the seventeenth century : — You that delight in wit and mirth, And love to hear such news That come from all parts of the earth, Turks, Dutch, and Danes, and Jews ; "LLOYD'S" IN. THE TIME OF CHARLES IL 187 I'll send ye to the rendezvous, Where it is smoaking new ; Go hear it at a coffee-house. It cannot but be true. There battails and sea-fights are fought, And bloudy plots displaid ; They know more things than e'er was thought, Or ever was bewray'd : No money in the minting-house Is half so bright and new ; And coming from the Coffes-Hotise, It cannot but be true. Before the navies fell to work, They knew who should be winner ; They there can tell ye what the Turk Last Sunday had to dinner. Who last did cut Du Ruiter's* corns, Amongst his jovial crew ; Or who first gave the devil horns, AVhicli cannot but be true. A fisherman did boldly tell, And strongly did avouch, He caught a shole of mackerell. They parley'd all in Dutch ; And cry'd out. Yaw, yaw, yaw, mine hare. And as the draught they drew. They stunk for fear that Monkt was there : This sounds as if 'twere true. There's nothing done in all the world, From monarch to the mouse ; But every day or night 'tis hurl'd Into the coffee-house : • The Dutch admiral who, in June, 1667, dashed into the Downs with a fleet of eighty sail, and many fire-ships, blocked up the mouths of the Medway and Thames, destroyed the fortifications at Sheemess, cut away the paltry defences of booms and chains drawn across the rivers, and got to Chatham, on the one side, and nearly to Gravesend on the other, the king having spent in debauchery the money voted by Parliament for the proper support of the English navy. + General Monk and Prince Rupert were at this time commanders of the English fleet. a»8 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. What Lilly* or what Bookert cou'd By art not bring about, At Coffee-house you'll find a brood, Can quickly find it out. They know who shall in times to come, Be either made or undone, From great St. Peter's-street in Rome, To Tumbal-streett ™ London. They know all that is good or hurt, To damn ye or to save ye ; There is the college and the court, The country, camp, and navy. So great an university, I think there ne'er was any ; In which you may a scholar be. For spending of a penny. Here men do talk of everything. With large and liberal lungs. Like women at a gossiping, With double tire of tongues. They'll give a broadside presently, 'Soon as you are in view : With stories that you'll wonder at, Which they will swear are true. • Lilly was the celebrated astrologer of the Protectorate, who earned great fame at that time by predicting, in June, 1645, " if now we fight, a victory stealeth upon us :" a lucky guess, signally verified in the King's defeat at Naseby. Lilly thenceforth always saw the stars favourable to the Puritans. t This man was originally a fishing-tackle-maker in Tower-street, during the reign of Charles I. ; but turning enthusiast, he went about prognosticating " the downfall of the King and Popery;" and as he and his predictions were all on the popular side, he became a great man with the superstitious "godly brethren" of that day. % Turnbal, or TurnbuU-street, as it is still called, had been for a century previous of infamous repute. In Beaumont and Fletcher's play, the Knight of the Burning Pestle, one of the ladies who is undergoing penance at the barber's, has her character sufficiently pointed out to the audience, in her declaration, that she had been "stolen from her friends in Turnbal-street. " LLOYDS COFFEE-HOUSE. 289 You shall know there what fashions are, How periwigs are curl'd ; And for a penny you shall hear All novels in the world ; Both old and young, and great and small. And rich and poor you'll see ; Therefore let's to the Coffee all, Come all away with me. Lloyd's Coffee-house. Lloyd's is one of the earliest establishments of the kind j it is referred to in a poem printed in the year 1700, called the Wealthy Shopkeeper, or Charitable Christian : Now to Lloyd's coffee-house he never fails, To read the letters, and attend the sales. In 1 7 10, Steele (Taller, No. 246) dates from Lloyd's his Petition on Coffee-house Orators and Newsvendors. And Addison, in Spectator, April 23, 17 11, relates this droll incident : — " About a week since there happened to me a very odd accident, by reason of which one of these my papers of minutes which I had accidentally dropped at Lloyd's Coffee-house, where the auctions are usually kept. Before I missed it, there were a cluster of people who had found it, and were diverting themselves with it at one end of the coffee-house. It had raised so much laughter among them before I observed what they were about, that I had not the courage to own it. The boy of the coffee-house, when they had done with it, carried it about in his hand, asking everybody if they had dropped a written paper ; but nobody challenging it, he was ordered by those merry gentlemen who had before perused it, to get up into the auction pulpit, and read it to the whole room, that if anybody would own it they might. The boy accordingly mounted the pulpit, and with a very audible voice read what proved to be minutes, which made the whole coffee-house very merry : some of them concluded it was written by a 29° CLUB LIFE OF LOh'DON. madman, and others by somebody that had been;taking notes out of the Spectator. After it was read, and the boy was coming out of the pulpit, the Spectator reached his arm out, and desired the boy to give it him; which was done according. This drew the whole eyes of the company upon the Spectator ; but after casting a cursory glance over it, he shook his head twice or thriceat the reading of it, twisted it into a kind of match, and lighted his pipe with it. 'My profound silence,' says the Spectator, ' together with the stea,diness of my countenance, and the gravity of my be- haviour during the whole transaction, raised a very loud laugh on all sides of me ; but as I had escaped all suspicion of being the author, I was very well satisfied, and applying myself to my pipe and \h.s. 8ci. per pound ; that pounded in a mortar, 2s. ; East India berry, is. dd. ; and the right Turkic berry, well garbled, at 3^. " The ungarbled for lesse, with directions how to use the same." Also Chocolate at 2.3. 6d. per pound ; the perfumed from 4s. to los. ; " also,. Sherbets made in Turkic, of lemons, roses, and violets perfumed ; and Tea, or Chaa, according to its goodness. The house seal was Morat the Great. Gentlemen customers and acquain- tances are (the next New Year's Day) invited to the sign of the Great Turk at this new Coffee-house, where Coffee will be on free cost." The sign, was also Morat the Great. Morat figures as a tyrant in Dryden's "Aurung Zebe." There is a token of this house, with the Sultan's head, in the Beaufoy collection. Another token in the same collection, is of unusual ex- cellence, probably by John Roettier. It has on the obverse, Morat y" Great Men did mee call, — Sultan's head ; reverse, Where care I came I conquered all. — In the field, Coffee, Tobacco, Sherbet, Tea, Chocolate, Retail in Exchange Alee. " The word Tea," says Mr. Burn, " occurs on no other tokens than those issued from ' the Great Turk ' Coffee-house, in Exchange-alley;" in one of its advertisements, 1662, tea is from 6s. to 6oj. a pound. Competition arose. One Constantine Jennings in Thread- needle-street, over against St. Christopher's Church, ad- vertised that coffee, chocolate, sherbet, and tea, the right Turkey berry, may be had as cheap and as good 345 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. of him as is any where to be had for money; and that people may there be taught to prepare the said liquors gratis. Pepys, in his "Diary," tells, Sept. 25, 1669, of his sending for "a cup of Tea, a China Drink, he had not before tasted." Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington, about 1666, in- troduced tea at Court. And, in his " Sir Charles Sedley's Mulberry Garden," we are told that " he who wished to be considered a man of fashion always drank wine-and-water at dinner, and a dish of tea afterwards." These details are con- densed from Mr. Burn's excellent " Beaufoy Catalogue." and edition, 1855. In Gerard-street, Soho, also, was another Turk's Head Coffee-house, where was held a Turk's Head Society; in 1777, we find Gibbon writing to Garrick : " At this time of year, (Aug. 14,) the Society of the Turk's Head can no longer be addressed as a corporate body, and most of the individual members are probably disperssd: Adam Smith, in Scotland; Burke in the shades of Beaconsfield ; Fox, the Lord or the devil knows where." This place was a kind of head-quarters for the Loyal Association during the Rebellion of 1745. Here was founded "The Literary Club," already described in pp. 174—187. In 1753, several artists met at the Turk's Head, and from thence their Secretary, Mr. F. M. Newton, dated a printed letter to the Artists to form a select body for the Protection and Encouragement of Art. Another Society of Artists met in Peter's-court, St. Martin's-lane, from the year 1739 to 1769. After continued squabbles, which lasted for many years, the principal Artists met together at the Turk's Head, where many others having joined them, they petitioned the King (George III.) to become patron of a Royal Academy of Art. His Majesty consented ; and the new Society took a room in Pall Mall, opposite to Market- lane, where they remained until the King, in the year 1771, SQUIRE'S COFFEE-HOUSE. 349 granted them apartments in Old Somerset House.—/. T. Smith. The Turk's Head Coffee-house, No. 142, in the Strand, was a favourite supping-house with Dr. Johnson and Boswell, in whose Life of Johnson are several entries, commencing with 1763 — "At night, Mr. Johnson and I supped in a private room at the Turk's Head Coffee-house, in the Strand; ' I encourage this house,' said he, 'for the mistress of it is a good civil woman, and has not much business.' " Another entry is — "We concluded the day at the Turk's Head Coffee-house very socially." And, August 3, 1673 — "We had our last social meeting at the Turk's Head Coffee-house, before my setting out for foreign parts." The name was afterwards changed to "The Turk's Head, Canada and Bath Coffee-house," and was a well-frequented tavern and hotel : it was taken down, and a very handsome lofty house erected upon the site, at the cost of, we believe, eight thousand pounds ; it was opened as a tavern and hotel, but did not long continue. At the Turk's Head, or Miles's Coffee-house, New Palace- yard, Westminster, the noted Rota Club met, founded by Harrington, in 1659 : where was a large oval table, with a passage in the middle, for Miles to deliver his coffee. (See pp. 13, 14), Squire's Coffee-house. In Fulwood's {vulgo Fuller's) Rents, in Holbom, nearly opposite Chancery-lane, in the reign of James I., lived Christopher Fulwood, in a mansion of some pretension, of which an existing house of the period is said to be the remams. "Some will have it," says Hatton, 1708, "that it is called from being a woody place before there were buildings here; but its being called Fullwood's Rents (as it is in deeds and leases), shows it to be the rents of one called FuUwood, the owner or builder thereof." Strype describes the Rents, 3is« CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. or court, as running up to Gra/s-Inn, " into which it has an entrance through the gate; a place of good resort, and taken up by cofifee-houses, ale-houses, and houses of entertainment, by reason of its vicinity to Gray's-Inn. On the east side is a handsome open place, with a handsome freestone pave- ment, and better , built, and inhabited by private house- keepers. At the upper end of this court is a passage into the Castle Tavern, a house of considerable trade, as is the Golden Griffin Tavern, on the west side." Here was John's, one of the earliest Coffee-houses ; and adjoining Gray's-Inn gate is a deep-coloured red-brick house, once Squire's Coffee-house, kept by Squire, " a noted man in Fuller's Rents," who died in 1717. The house is veiy roomy; it has been handsome, and has a wide staircase. Squire's was one of the receiving-houses of the Spectator: in No. 269, January 8, 1711— 1712, he accepts Sir Roger de Coverley's invitation to "smoke a pipe with him over a dish of coffee at Squire's. As I love the old man, I take delight in complying with everything that is agreeable to him, and accordingly waited on him to the Coffee-house, where his venerable figure drew upon us the eyes of the whole room. He had no sooner seated himself at the upper end of the high table, but he called for a clean pipe, a paper of tobacco, a dish of coffee, a wax candle, and the Supplement [a periodical paper of that time], with such an air of cheerfulness and good humour, that all the boys in the coffee-room, (who seemed to take pleasure in serving him,) were at once em- ployed on his several errands, insomuch that nobody else could come at a dish of tea, until the Knight had got all his conveniences about him." Such was the cofifee-room in the Spectator's day. ; Gray's-Inn Walks, to which the Rents led, across Field- court, were then, a fashionable promenade; and here Sir Roger could " clear his pipes in good air ;" for scarcely a house intervened thence to Hampstead. Though Ned Ward, in his " London Spy," says — " I found- none but a SQUIRE'S COFFEE-HOUSE. 351 parcel of superannuated debauchees, huddled up in cloaks, frieze coats, and wadded gowns, to protect their old carcases from the sharpness of Hampstead air; creeping up and down in pairs and leashes no faster than the hand of a dial, or a county convict going to execution ; some talking of law, some of religion, and some of politics. After I had walked two or three times round, I sat myself down in the upper walk, where just before me, on a stone pedestal, we fixed an old rusty horizontal dial, with the gnomon broke short off." Round the sun-dial, seats were arranged in a semicircle. Gra/s-Inn Gardens were resorted to by dangerous classes. Expert pickpockets and plausible ring-droppers found easy prey there on crowded days ; and in old plays the Gardens are repeatedly mentioned as a place of negotiation for clan- destine lovers, which led to the walks being closed, except at stated hours. Eetuming to Fulwood's Rents, we may here describe another of its attractions, the Tavern and punch-house, within one door of Gray's-Inn, apparently the King's Head. From some time before 1699, until his death in 1731, Ward kept this house, which he thus commemorates, or, in another word, puffs, in his " London Spy :" being a vintner himself, we may rest assured that he would have penned this in praise of no other than himself : To speak but the truth of my honest friend Ned, The best of all vintners that ever God made ; He's free of the beef, and as free of his bread, And washes both down with his glass of rare red, That tops all the town, and commands a good trade j Such wine as will cheer up the drooping King's head. And brisk up the soul, though our body's half dead ; He scorns to draw bad, as he hopes to be paid ; And now his name's up, he may e'en lie abed ; For he'll get an estate — there's no more to be said. We ought to have remarked, that the ox was roasted, cut up., and distributed gratis ; a piece of generosity which, by a 3S2 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. poetic fiction, is supposed to have inspired the aboti limping balderdash. Slaughter's Coffee-house. This Coffee-house, famous as the resort of painters and sculptors, in the last century, was situated at the upper end of the west side of St. Martin's-lane, three doors from Newport-street. Its first landlord was Thomas Slaughter, 1692. Mr. Cunningham tells us that a second Slaughter's (New Slaughter's), was established in the same street about 1760, when the original establishment adopted the name of " Old Slaughter's," by which designation it was known till within a few years of the final demolition of the house to make way for the new avenue between Long-acre and Leicester-square, formed 1843-44. For many years pre- vious to the streets of London being completely paved, " Slaughter's " was called " The Coffee-house on the Pave- ment." In like manner, "The Pavement," Moorfields, received its distinctive name. Besides being the resort of artists, Old Slaughter's was the house of call for Frenchmen. St. Martin's-lane was long one of the head-quarters of the artists of the last century. " In the time of Benjamin West," says J. T. Smith, " and before the formation of the Royal Academy, Greek-street, St. Martin's-lane, and Gerard-street, was their colony. Old Slaughter's Coffee-house, in St. Martin's-lane, was their grand resort in the evenings, and Hogarth was a constant visitor." He lived at the Golden Head, on the eastern side of Leicester Fields, in the northern half of the Sabloniere Hotel. The head he cut out himself from pieces of cork, glued and bound together ; it was placed over the street-door. At this time, young Benjamin West was living in chambers, in Bedford-street, Covent Garden, and had there set up his easel; he was married, in 1765, at St. Martin's Church. Roubiliac wv)s often to be found at Slaughter's in early life; probably SLAUGHTER'S COFFEE-HOUSE. 353 before he gained the patronage of Sir Edward Walpole, through finding and returning to the baronet the pocket- book of bank-notes which the young maker of monuments had picked up in Vauxhall Gardens. Sir Edward, to remunerate his integrity, and his skill, of which he showed specimens, promised to patronize Roubiliac through life, and he faithfully penormed this promise. Young Gains- borough, who spent three years amid the works of the painters in St Martin's-lane, Hayman, and Cipriani, who were all eminently convivial, were, in all probability, frequenters ol Slaughter's. Smith tells us that Quin and Hayman were inseparable friends, and so convivial, that they seldom parted till daylight Mr. Cunningham relates that here, " in early life, Wilkie would enjoy a small dinner at a small cost I have been told by an old Irequenter ot the house, that Wilkie was always the last dropper-in for a dinner, and that he was never seen to dine in the house by daylight The truth is, he slaved at his art at home till the last glimpse of daylight had disappeared." Haydon was accustoined, in the early days of his fitful career, to dine here with Wilkie. In his " Autobiography," in the year 1808, Haydon writes : " This period of our lives was one of great happiness : painting all day, then dining at the Old Slaughter Chop-house, then going to the Academy until eight, to fill up the evening, then going home to tea — that blessing of a studious man — talking over our respective exploits, what he [Wilkie] had been doing, and what I had done, and then, frequently to relieve our minds fatigued by their eight and twelve hours' work, giving vent to the most extraordinary absurdities. Often have we made rhymes on odd names, and shouted with laughter at each new line that was added. Sometimes lazily inclined after a good dinner, we have lounged about, near Drury Lane or Covent Garden, hesitatmg whether to go in, and often have I (knowing first that there was nothing I wished to see) assumed a virtue I A A 354 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. . . did n6t possess, and pretending moral siiperiority, preached ' to Wilkie on the weakness of not resisting .such tempta- tions for the sake of our art and our duty, and marched him off to his studies, when he was longing to see Mother Goose." ' 1. T. Smith has narrated some fifteen pages of character- istic aiiecdbtes of the artistic visitors of Old Slaughter's, which he refers to as "formerly the rendezvous of Pope, Dryden, and other wits, and much frequented' by seveikl eminently clever men of his day." Thither came Ware, the architect, who, when a little sickly boy, was apprenticed to a chimney-sweeper, and was seen chalking the street-front of Whitehall, by a gentleman, who purchased the remainder of the boy's time; gave, him ah excellent education ; then sent him to Italy, and, upon his return, employed him, and introduced him to his friends = as an architect. Ware was "heai'd to tell this stbry while he v/as sitting- to Roubiliac for his bust. Ware built Chester- field House and several other noble mansions, and compiled a Palladio, in folio. : he retained the soot in his skin to the day of his death. He was very intimate with Roubiliac, who was an opposite eastern neighbour of Old Slaughter's. Another architect, Gwynn, who competed with Mylne for designing and building Blackfriars Bridge;- was also a frequent visitor at Old Slaughter's, as was Gravelot, who kept a drawing-school in the Strand, nearly opposite to Southampton-street. Hudson, who painted the Dilettanti portraits ; M'Ardell, the mezzotinto-scraper ; and Luke Sullivan, the engraver of Hogarth's March to Finchley, also frequented Old Slaugh- ter's ; likewise Theodore Gardell, the portrait painter, who was executed for the murder of his landlady ; and Old Moser, keeper of the Drawing Academy in Peter's-court. Richard Wilson, the landscape painter, was not a regular customer here : his favourite house was the Constitution, Bedford-street, Covent Garden, where he could indulge in a SLAUGHTERS COFFEE-HOUSE. 355 pot of porter more freely, and enjoy the fun of JMottimer,, the painter. Parry, the Welsh harper, though totally blind, was one of the first draught-players in England, and occasionally played wth the frequenters of Old Slaughter's; and here, 'in conse- quence of a bet, Roubiliac introduced Nathaniel Smith (father of John Thomas), to play at draughts with Parry ; the game lasted about half an hour : Parry, was much agitated, and Smith proposed to give in ; but as there were bets depending, it was played out, and -Smith won. This victory brought Smith numerous challenges ; and -the d6ns of the Bam, a public-house, in St. Martin's-lane, nearly opposite the church, invited him to become a member : but Smith declined. ■ The Barn, for many years, was frequented by all the noted players of chess and draughts j and it was there that they often decided games of the first importance, played between persons of the highest rank, living in diflferent parts of the world. T. Rawle,* the inseparable companion of Captain Grose, the antiquary, came often to Slaughter's. It was long asserted of Slaughter's Coffee-house that there never had been a person of that name as master of the house, but chat it was named from its having been opened for the use of the men who slaughtered the cattle for the butchers of Newport Market, in an open space then adjoin- * Rawle was one of his Majesty's accoutrement makers ; and after his death, his effects were 'sold by Hutchins, in King-street, Covent Garden. Among the lots were a helmet, a sword, and several letters, of Oliver Cromwell ; also the doublet in which Cromwell dissolved the Long Parliament. Another singular lot was a large black wig, with long flowing curls, stated to have been worn by King Charles 11. ; it was bought by Suett, the actor, who was a great collector of wigs. He continued to act in this wig for many years, in Tom. Thumb, and other pieces, tiU it was burnt when the theatre at Birmingham was destroyed by fire. Next morning, Suett, meeting Mrs. Booth, the mother of the lively actress S. feooth, exclaimed, "Mrs. Booth, my wig's gone 1" A A 2 3SS CLVB LIFE OF LONDON, ing. "This," says J. T. Smith, "may be the fact, if we believe that coffee was taken as refreshment by slaughtermen, instead of purl or porter ; or that it was so called by the neighbouring butchers in derision of the numerous and fashionable Coffee-houses of the day ; as, for instance, ' The Old Man's Coffee-house,' and 'The Young Man's Coffee- house.' Be that as it may, in my father's time, and also within memory of the most aged people, this Coffee-house was called ' Old Slaughter's,' and not The Slaughter, or The Slaughterer's Coffee-house." In 1827, there was sold by Stewart, Wheatley, and Adlard, in Piccadilly, a picture attributed to Hogarth, for 150 guineas; it was described A Conversation over a Bowl of Punch, at Old Slaughter's Coffee-house, in St. Martin's- lane, and the figures were said to be portraits of the painter, Dr. Monsey, and the landlord, Old Slaughter. But this picture, as J. T. Smith shows, was painted by Highmore, for his father's godfather, Nathaniel Oldham, and one of the artist's patrons; "it is neither a scene at Old Slaughter's nor are the portraits rightly described in the sale catalogue, but a scene at Oldham's house, at Ealing, with an old schoolmaster, a farmer, the artist Highmore, and Oldham himself." Will's and Series Coffee-houses. At the corner of Serle-street and Portugal-street, most invitingly facing the passage to Lincoln's Inn New-square, was Will's, of old repute, and thus described in the " Epi- cure's Almanack," 1815 : "This is, indubitably, a house of the first class, which dresses very desirable turtle and venison, and broaches many a pipe of mature port, double voyaged Madeira, and princely claret ; wherewithal to wash down the dust of making law-books, and take out the inky blots from rotten parchment bonds ; or if we must quote and parodize Will's ' hath a sweet oblivious antidote which THE GRECIAN COFFEE-HOUSE. 357 clears the cranium of that perilous stuff that clouds the cerebellum.'" The Coffee-house has some time been given up. Serle's Coffee-house is one of those mentioned in No. 49 of the Spectator : " I do not know that I meet in any of my walks, objects which move both my spleen and laughter so effectually as those young fellows at the Grecian, Squire's, Serle's, and all other Coffee-houses adjacent to the Law, who rise for no other purpose. but to publish their laziness." The Grecian Coffee-house, Devereux-court, Strand, (closed in 1843,) was named from Constantine, of Threadneedle street, the Grecian who kept it. In the Tatkr announcement, all accounts of learning are to be " under the title of the Grecian ;" and, in the Toiler, No. 6 : " While other parts of the town are amused with the present actions, [Marlborough's,] we generally spend the evening at this table [at the Grecian], in inquiries into antiquity, and think anything new, which gives us new know- ledge. Thus, we are making a very pleasant entertainment to ourselves in putting the actions of Homer's Iliad into an exact journal." The Spectatoi's face was very well known at the Grecian, a Coffee-house " adjacent to the law." Occasionally it was the scene of learned discussion. Thus Dr. King relates that one evening, two gentlemen, who were constant com- panions, were disputing here, concerning the accent of a Greek word. This dispute was carried to such a length, that the two friends thought proper to determine it with their swords : for this purpose they stepped into Devereux-court, where one of them (Dr. King thinks his name was Fitz- gerald) was run through the body, and died on the spot. The Grecian was Foote's morning lounge. It was handy, too, for the young Templar, Goldsmith, and often did it echo with Oliver's boisterous mirth ; for " it had become 3SS CLUB ni'E OF LONDON. the favourite^ resort of the Irish and Lancashire Templais, whom he -delighted in collecting aroundlhim, in ehtertaia- ing with a cordial and unostentatious hospitality, and/ in occasionally aniasing with: his. flute, or with whist, neither oi which he played very well !" Here Goldsmith occasionally ■wound up his " Shoemaker's Holiday " with. supper. . ;,, , It was at the Grecian that Fleetwood-Shephard told this memorable story to Dr. Tancred Robinson, who gave Richardson permission to repeat it. " The Earl of Dorset was in Little Britain, beating about for books to his taste ; there was ' Paradise. Lost.' He was surprised with some passages he struck upon, dipping here and there and bought if ; the bookseller begged him to speak in its favour, if he liked it, for they lay on his handsas waste paper. Jesus ! — Shephard was present. My Lord took it home, read it, and sent it to Dryden, who in.a short time returned it. '.'This man,' says Dryden, ' cuts us all out, and the ancieiits too !'" The Grecian Was also frequented by Fellows of tlie Royal Society. Thoresby, in his " Diary," tells us, 22nd May, 1712, that *' having bought each a. pair of black silk stockings in Westminster Hall, they returned by water, and then walked, to meefhis friend, Dr. Sloane, the Secretary of the Royal Society, at the Grecian Coffee-house, by the Temple." And, on June lath, same year, "Thoresby attended the Royal Society, where were present, the Presi- dent, Sir Isaac Newton, both the Secretaries, the two. Professors fromOxford, Dr. Halley and; Kell, with others,, whose compafty we after enjoyed at the Grecian Coffee- house." '■' • ■■ ■■■ ;..-.., -■ In Devereux-court, also, was Tom's Coffee-house, much resorted to by men of letters ; among whom; were- Dr. Birch, who wrote the History of the Royal Society ^ alsoAkenside, the poet ; and^tliere is in print a letter of Pope's, addressed to Fortescu'd, his, "counsel learned in the law," at this Goifee-house. - • 359 George's Coffee-house, No. 213, Strand, near Temple Bar, was a noted resort in the last and present century. . When it was a coifee-house, one day, there came in Sir James Lowther, who after changing a piece of silver with the coffee-woman, and paying two- pence for his dish of coffee, was'helped into his chariot, for he was very lame and iniirm, and went home : some little time afterwards, he returned to the same coffee-house, on purpose to acquaint the woman who kept it, that she had giyen him a bad half-penny, and demanded anofher in exchange for it. Sir James had about 40,000/. per annum, and was at a loss whom to appoint his heir. Shenstone, who found ■ THe warmest welcome at an inn, found George's to^ be economical., " What do you think," he writes, " must be my expense, who love to pry intoevery- thingpf the kind? Why, truly one shilling. My company goes to George's Coffee-house, where, for that small sub- scription . L read all pamphlets under a three shillings' dimension; and indeed, any larger would not be fit for coffee-house perusal." Shenstone relates that Lord Orford was at George's, when the mob, that were carrying his Lpr4§hip in effigy, came into the box, where he was, tp beg money- of him, amongst others : this story Horace Walpole contradict^, ; adding , that he supposes SJienstpne; thought that after Lord Orford quitted his place, he went to the co.ffeerhouse to learn news. Arthur Murphy frequented George's, " where the town wits met every evening." Lloyd, the law-student, sings : — By law let others toil to gain renown ! I'^orio's a gentleman, a man o' the town. He nor courts clients, or the law regarding, Hurries from Nando's down to Covent Garden, 36o CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. Yet, he's a scholar ; mark him in the pit, With critic catcall sound the stops of wit ! Supreme at George's, he harangues the throng. Censor of style, from tragedy to song. The Percy Coffee-house, Rathbone-place, Oxford-street, no longer exists ; but it will be kept in recollection for its having given name to one of the most popular publications, of its class in our time, namely, the " Percy Anecdotes, " by Sholto and Reuben Percy, Brothers of the Benedictine Monastery of Mont Benger," in 44 parts, commencing in 1820. So said the title pages, but the names and the locality were suppos'e. Reuben Percy was Thomas Byerley, who died in 1824; he was the brother of Sir John Byerley, and the first editor of the Mirror, commenced by John Limbird, in 1822. Sholto Percy was Joseph Clinton Robertson, who died in 1852 ; he was the projector of the Mechanics^ Magazine, which he edited from its commencement to his death. The name of the collection of Anecdotes was not taken, as at the time supposed, from the popularity of the " Percy Reliques," but from the Percy Coffee-house, where Byerley and Robertson were accustomed to meet to talk over their joint work. The idea was, however, claimed by Sir Richard Phillips, who stoutly maintained that it originated in a suggestion made by him to Dr. Tilloch and Mr. Mayne, to cut the anecdotes from the many years' files of the Siar newspaper, of which Dr. Tilloch was the editor, and Mr. Byerley assistant editor ; and to the latter overhearing the suggestion, Sir Richard contested, might the " Percy Anecdotes " be traced. They were very successful, and a large sum was realised by the work. 36i Peele's Coffee-house, Nos. 177 and 178, Fleet-street, east comer of Fetter-lane, was one of the Coffee-houses of tlie Johnsonian period ; and here was long preserved a portrait of Dr. Johnson, on the key-stone of a chimney-piece, stated to have been painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds. Peele's Avas noted for files of news- papers from these dates: Gazette, ij^^; Titnes, 1780; Morning Chronicle, 1773; Morning Post, 1773; Morning Herald, 1784; Morning Advertiser, 1794; and the evening papers from their commencement. The house is now a tavern. 362 The Taverns of Old London. The changes in the manners and customs of our metropolis may be agreea,bly gathered from such. gHmpses as we gain of the history of " houses of entertainment " in the long lapse of centuries. , Their records present innumerable, pictures in little of society and modes, the interest of which is increased by distance. They show us how the tavern was the great focus of news long before the newspaper fully supplied the intellectual want. Much of the business of early times was transacted in taverns, and it is to some extent in the present day. According to the age, the tavern reflects the manners, the social tastes, customs, and recreations j and there, in days when travelling was difficult and costly, and not unat- tended with danger, the traveller told his wondrous tale to many an eager listenerj and the man who rarely strayed beyond his own parish, was thus made acquainted with the life of the world. Then, the old tavern combined, with much of the comfort of an English home, its luxuries, with out the forethought of providiiig either. Its come-and-go life presented many a useful lesson to the man who looked beyond the cheer of the moment. The master, or taverner, was mostly a person of substance, often of ready wit and cheerful manners — to render his public home attractive. The " win-hous," or tavern, is enumerated among the houses of entertainment in the time of die Saxons ; and no doubt existed in England much earlier. The peg-tankard, a specimen of which we see in the Ashmolean Collection at Oxford, originated with the Saxons j the pegs inside denoted how deep each guest was to drink : hence arose the saying, TA VEENS OF OLD LONDON. 363 "lie is a peg too low," when a man was out of- spirits. -The. Danes -were even more .ctfnvivial , in their hatoits than the Saxons, and may be presumed to have multiplied the number of " guest houses," as the early taverns Avere callted. The Norman followers of the Conqueror soon fell into the good cheer of their predecessors in England. Although.wine was made at this period in great abundance from vineyards in various parts of England, the trade of the taverns was prin- cipally supplied from France. The- traffic for Bordeaux and the neighbouring provinces is said to have comnjenced about 1154, through the marriage of Henry II, with Eleanor of Aqui- taine. The Normans were great carriers, and Guienne the place whence most of our wines were brdUght j' and which are described in this reign, to;haye been sold -in the ships; and in the wine-cellars near the f>ubldc place of cookery, onj the banks of the Thames. We are now speaking of the. .customs of seven centuries since ; of which the public wine-cellar, known to our time as the Shades, adjoining old London Bridge, was unquestionably a relic. The earliest dealers in wines were "of two descriptions : the vintners, or importers 5 and the taverners, who kept taverns for them, and sold the wine by retail to such_.as came to the tavern to drink it,: or fetched it to their own hoitiesi ,i In a document of the reign of Edward II., we find, men- tioned a tenement called. Pin TaVern, situated in the Vintry, where the Bordeaux merchants craned their wines out of lighters, and other vessels on, _the, Thames ; and here wa$ the famous old tavern with the sign of the Three Cranes. Chaucer makes the apprentice of this period loving better the tavern than the shop: — ■ A prentis whilom dwelt in our citee,'— 1 . At ev'ry bridale- would he siflg-aad hoppe ; . He loved bet' the tavern than the slioppe,- For when ther any riding was in Chepe, Out of the shoppe thider woiild he lepe ; And til that he had all the sight ysein - - -. , And dancid wil, he wold not com agen. 364 CLUB LIFE OF LONDOiV. Thus, the idle City apprentice was a great tavern haunter, which was forbidden in his indenture ; and to this day, the ap- prentice's indenture enacts that he shall not "haunt taverns." In a play of 1608, the apprentices of old Hobson, a rich citizen, in 1560, frequent the Rose and Crown, in the Poultry, and the Dagger, in Cheapside. Enter Hobson, Two Prentices, and a Bov. 1 Pren. Prithee, fello.v Goodman, set forth the ware, and looke to the shop a little. I'll but drink a cup of wine with a customer, at the Rose and Crown in the Poultry, and come again presently. 2 Pren. I must needs step to the Dagger in Cheafic, to send a letter into the country unto my father. Stay, boy, you are the youngest prentice ; loolc you to the shop. In the reign of Richard II., it was ordained by statute that " the wines of Gascoine, of Osey, and of Spain," as well as Rhenish wines, should not be sold above sixpence the gallon ; and the taverners of this period frequently became very rich, and filled the highest civic offices, as sheriffs and mayors. The fraternity of vintners and taverners, anciently the Merchant Wine Tonners of Gascoyne, became the Craft of Vintners, incorporated by Henry VI. as the Vintners' Company. The curious old ballad of " London Lyckpenny," written in the reign of Henry V., by Lydgate, a monk of Bury, confirms the statement of the prices in the reign of Richard II. He comes to Cornhill, when the wine-drawer of the Pope's Head tavern, standing without the street-door, it being the custom of drawers thus to waylay passengers, takes the man by the hand, and says, — "Will you drink a pint of wine?" whereunto the countryman answers, "A penny spend I may," and so drank his wine. " For bread nothing did he pay" — ^for that was given in. This is Stow's account: the ballad makes the tavemer, not the drawer, invite the countryman j and the latter, instead of getting bread for nothing, complains of having to go away hungry ; — TA VERNS OF OLD LONDON. 365 The taverner took me by the sleeve, • " Sir," saith he, " will you our wine assay ?" I answered, " That cannot much me grieve, A penny can do no more than it may ;" I drank a pint, and for it did pay ; Yet, sore a-hungered from thence I yede, And, wanting money, I could not speed, etc. There was no eating at taverns at this time, beyond a crust to relish the wine ; and he who wished to dine before he drank, had to go to the cook's. The furnishing of the Boar's Head, in Eastcheap, with sack, in Henry IV., is an anachronism of Shakspeare's ; for the vintners kept neither sacks, muscadels, malmseys, bastards, alicants, nor any other wines but white and claret, until 1543. All the other sweet wines before that time were sold at the apothecaries' shops for no other use but foi medicine. Taking it as the picture of a tavern a century later, we see the alterations which had taken place. The single drawer or taverner of Lydgate's day is now changed to a troop of waiters, besides the under skinker, or tapster. Eating was no longer confined to the cook's row, for we find in FalstaflPs bill " a capon, 2s. 2d. ; sack, two gallons, 5^. SrtT. ; anchovies and sack, after supper, 2s. bd. ; bread, one halfpenny." And there were evidently different rooms* for the guests, as Francisf bids a brother waiter "Look * This negatives a belief common in our day that a Covent Garden tavern was the first divided into rooms for guests. + A successor of Francis, a waiter at the Boar's Head, in the last century, had a tablet with an inscription in St. Michael's, Crooked-lane churchyard, just at the back of the tavern ; setting forth that he died, "drawer at the Boar's Head Tavern, in Great Eastcheap," and was noted for his honesty and sobriety ; in that — Tho' nurs'd among' full hogsheads he defied The charms of wine, as well as others' pride. He also practised the singular virtue of drawing good wine and of 366 CLUB- LIFE OF ZONDON. down in the Pomgranite ;" fof which purpose they had windows, or loopholes, affording a view from the upper to the lower apartments. The custom of naming the principal rooms in taverns and hotels is usual to the present day. Taverns and wine-bibbing had greatly increased in the reign of Edward VI., when it was enacted by statute that no more than %d. a gallon should be taken for any French wines,; and the consumption limited in private houses to ten gallons each person yearly ; that there should not be " aiiy more or great number of .taverns in London of such tavernes or wine sellers by retaile, above the number of fouretye tavernes or wyne sellers," being less than two, ■upon an average, to each parish. Nor did this number, much increase afterwards; for in a return made^to the Vintners' Company, late in Elizabeth's reign, there were only one hundred and six'ty-eight taverns in the whole city and suburbs. . , It seems to have been the fashion among old ballad- mongers, street chroniclers, and journalists, to sing the praises of the taverns, in rough-shod verse, and that lively rhyme whiqh, in our day, is termed " patter." Here are a few specimens, of various periods. In a black-letter poem of Queen Elizabeth's reign, entitled "Newes from Bartholomew Fayre," there is this curious enumeration : There hath been great sale and utterance of Wine, Besides Beere, and Ale, aiid Ipocras fine, In every country, region, and nation, But chiefly in Billingsgate, at the Salutation ; And the Boris Head, near London Stone ; The Swan at Dowgate, a tavern well knowne ; The Mitel- in Cheape, and then the Bull Head ; And many like places; that make noses red ; talcing care to "fill his pots," as appears by the closing lines of the inscription: — .. Ye that ori Bacchus have a like dependance, Pray copy Bob iii measure and attendance. TA VERWS OF OLD ZVNnON. 367 The Bore's Head in Old Fish-street ; Three Cranes in the Vintry ; And now, of late, St. Martins in the Sentree ; The Windmill in Lothbury ; thsShip at th' Exchange ; King's Head in New Fish-street, where roysterers do range ; The Mermaid in Cor-nhill ; Red Lion in the Strand ; Three Tuns in Newgate Market ; Old Fish-street at the Swan. This enumeration omits ■ the Mourning Bush, adjoining Aldersgate, containing divers large rooms and lodgings, and shown in Aggas's plan of London, in 1560. There are also -omitted The Pope's Head,The London Stone, The Dagger, The Rose and Crown, ,etc. , Several of the above Signs have been continued to our time in the very places mentioned ; but nearly all the original buildings were destroyed in the Oreat Fire of 1666 ; and the few which escaped have been rebuilt, or so altered, that their former appearance has altogether vanished. The following list of taverns is given by Thomas Hey- -wood, the author of the fine old play of A Woman killed iwith Kindness. Heywood, who wrote in 1608, is telling us what particular houses are frequented by particular classes of people : — The Gentry to the King's Head, The nobles to the Crown, The Knights unto the Golden Fleece, And to the Plough the Clown. The churchman to the Mitre, The shepherd to the Star, The gardener hies him to the Rose, To the Drum the man of war ; To the Feathers, ladies youj the Globe The seaman doth not scorn ; The usurer to the Devil, and The townsman to the Horn. The huntsman to the White Hart, To the Ship the merchants go, But you who do the Muses love. The sign called River Po. The banquerout to the World's End, The fool to the Fortune Pie, 368 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. Unto the Month the oyster-wife, The fiddler to the Pie, The punk unto the Cockatrice, The drunkard to the Vine, The beggar to the Bush, then meet. And with Duke Humphrey dine. In the "British Apollo" of 1710, is the following dog- grel :— I'm amused at the signs. As I pass through the town. To see the odd mixture— A Magpie and Crown, The Whale and the Crow, The Razor and the Hen, The Leg and Seven Stars, The Axe and the Bottle, The Tun and the Lut^ The Eagle and Child, The Shovel and Boot. In " Look about You," 1600, we read that " the drawers kept sugar folded up in paper, ready for those who called for sack/" and we further find in another old tract, that the custom existed of bringing two cups of silva- in case the wine should be wanted diluted; and this was done by rose-water and sugar, generally about a pennyworth. A sharper in the Bell/nan of London, described as having decoyed a countryman to a tavern, " calls for two pintes of sundry wines, the drawer setting the wine with two cups, as the custome is, the sharper tastes of one pinte, no matter which, and finds fault with the wine, saying ' 'tis too hard, but rose-water and sugar would send it downe merrily' — and for that purpose takes up one of the cups, telling the stranger he is well acquainted with the boy at the barre, and can have two-pennyworth of rose-water for a penny of him : and so steps from his seate : the stranger suspects no harme, because the fawne guest leaves his cloake at the end of the table behind him, — ^but the other takes good care not to return, and it is then found that he hath stolen The Tabard Inn. (From Urry's Chaucer.) The Tabard Inn in 1780. TA VERNS OF OLD L ONDON. 369 ground, and out-leaped the stranger more feet than he can recover in haste, for the cup is leaped with him, for which the wood-cock, that is taken in the springe, must pay fifty shillings, or three pounds, and hath nothing but an old threadbare cloake not worth two groats to make amends for his losses." Bishop Earle, who wrote in the first half of the seven- teenth century, has left this "character" of a tavern of his time. " A tavern is a degree, or (if you will) a pair of stairs above an alehouse, where men are drunk with more credit and apology. If the vintner's nose be at the door, it is a sign sufficient, but the absence of this is supplied by the ivy-bush. It is a broacher of more news than hogsheads and more jests than news, which are sucked up here by some spungy brain, and from thence squeezed into a comedy. Men come here to make merry, but indeed make a noise, and this music above is answered with a clinking below. The drawers are the civilest people in it, men of good bringing up, and howsoever we esteem them, none can boast more justly of their high calling. 'Tis the best theatre of natures, where they are truly acted, not played, and the business as in the rest of the world up and down, to wit, from the bottom of the cellar to the great chamber. A melancholy man would find here matter to work upon, to see heads, as brittle as glasses, and often broken ; men come hither to quarrel, and come here to be made friends ; and if Plutarch will lend me his simile, it is even Telephus's sword that makes wounds, and cures them. It is the common consumption of the afternoon, and the murderer or the maker away of a rainy day. It is the torrid zone that scorches the face, and tobacco the gunpowder that blows it up. Much harm would be done if the charitable vintner had not water ready for the flames. A house of sin you may call it, but not a house of darkness, for the candles are never out ; and it is like those countries, far in the north, where it is as clear at midnight as at mid-day. After a B B 370 . CLUB LIFE OF LONDOlf. long fitting it, becomes like a street in a dashing shpwer, where the spouts are flushing above, and the conduits ruinniiig below, etc. To give you the total reckoning of. it, it is the busy man's recreation, the idle man's business; the melancholy man's sanctuary, the stranger's welcorne, the inns-of-court man's entertainment, the scholar's kindness, und the citizen's courtesy. '. It is the. study of sparkling vsfits, and a cup of comedy their book, whence we leave them." The conjunction of vintner and victualler had now become common, and would require other accommodation than those mentioned by the Bishop, as is shown in Massinger's New Way to pay Old Debts, where Justice Greedy makes Tapwell's keeping no victuals in his house as an excuse for pulling down. his sign : Thou never hadst in thy house to stay men's stomachs, A piece of SuffoUccheese, or gammon of bacon. Or any esculent as; the learned call jt, , For iheir emolument, but shea' drin\ only. For which gross fault I here do damn thy licence. Forbidding thee henceforth to tap or draw ; - ' "For instantly I will in mine own person Command the constable to pull down thy sign, And dq't before I eat. And the decayed vintner, who afterwards applies to Well- born for payment' of his tavern score, answers, on his inquiring who he is : '. A decay 'd vintner, sir, c , -. i^{ might have thriv'd, but that your Worship broke- me With trusfing you with muscadine and eggs, . ■ AnA Jive pound sappers, with your after-firinki^gSj . When you lodged, upon the Bankside. . , Dekker tells us, near this 'time, of regular prdin^es of three kinds ■ ist. An ordinary of the longest; reckonbg, whither :most of your courtly gallants do resort: ,2nd. A twelvepenny ordinary, frequented by the, justice pf the peace, a ybiing Knight ; and a threepenny ordinary, to which, your London usurer, your stale bachelor, and your thrifty attorney TAVEkNS OF OLD LONDON. ■yft doth resort. Then Dekker tells us of a custom, especially in the City, to send presents of wine from one room to another, as a complimentary mark of friendship. " Inquire," directs he, " what gallants sup in the next room ; and if they be of your acquaintance, do not, after the City fashion, send them in a pottle of wine and your name." Then, we read of Master Brook sending to the Castle Inn, at Windsor, a morning draught of sack. Ned Ward, in the " London Spy," i yog, describes several famous taverns, and among them the Rose, anciently the Rose and Crown, as famous for good wine. "There was no parting," he says, " without a glass ; so we went into the Rose Tavern in the Poultry, where the wine, according to its merit, had justly gained a reputation ; and there, in a snug room, warmed with brash and faggot, over a quart of good claret, we laughed over our nighf s adventure." " From hence,/ pursuant to my friend's inclination, we adjourned to the sign of the Angel, in Fenchurch-street, ■ where the vintner, like a double-dealing citizen, condescended as well to draw carman's comfort as the consolatory juice of the vine. • . • " Having at the King's Head well freighted the hold of our vessels with excellent food and delicious wine, at a small expense, we scribbled the following lines with chalk, upon the wall." (See page 350.) The tapster was a male vendor, not " a woman who had the c^re of thetap," as Tyrwbitt states. In the 17th century ballad, The Times, occurs : The bar-boyes and the tapsters Leave drawing of their beere, - And running forth in haste they cry, • - " See, where Mull'd Sack comes here !"'■ The ancient drawers and tapsters were now, superseded by the barmaid, and a number of waiters : Ward describes the barmaid as " all ribboS, lace, and feathers, and making such a noise with her bell and her tongue together, that had B B 2 372 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. half-a-dozen paper-mills been at work within three yards oi her, they'd have signified no more to her clamorous voice than so many lutes to a drum, which alarmed two or three nimble fellows aloft, who shot themselves downstairs with as much celerity as a mountebank's Mercury upon a rope from the top of a church-steeple, every one charged with a mouthful of coming, coming, coming.'' The bar- maid (generally the vintner's daughter) is described as " bred at the dancing-school, becoming a bar well, stepping a minuet finely, playing sweetly on the virginals, 'John come kiss me now, now, now,' and as proud as she was handsome." Tom Brown sketches a flirting barmaid of the same time, " as a fine lady that stood pulling a rope, and screaming like a peacock against rainy weather, pinned up by herself in a little pew, all people bowing to her as they passed by, as if she was a goddess set up to be worshipped, armed with the chalk and sponge, (which are the principal badges that belong to that honourable station you beheld her in,) was the barmaid." Of the nimbleness of the waiters. Ward says in another place — "That the chief use he saw in the Monument was, for the improvement of vintners' boys and drawers, who came every week to exercise their supporters, and learn the tavern trip, by running up to the balcony and down again." Owen Swan, at the Black Swan Tavern, Bartholomew Lane, is thus apostrophized by Tom Brown for the goodness of his wine : — Thee, Owen, since the God of wme has made Thee steward of the gay carousing trade. Whose art decaying nature still supplies, Warms the feint pulse, and sparkles in our eyes. Be bountiful like him, bring t'other _/?iU/{, Were the stairs wider we would have the hask. '' ■'■ This pow'r we from the God of wine derive, ' ""■ Draw such as this, and I'll pronounce thou'lt live. ; ' 373 The Bear at the Bridge Foot. This celebrated tavern, situated in Southwark, on the west side of the foot of London Bridge, opposite the end of St. Olave's, or Tooley-street, was a house of considerable antiquity. We read in the accounts of the Steward of Sir John Howard, March 6th, 1463-4 (Edward IV.), " Item, payd for red wyn at the Bere in Southwerke, ujd" Garrard, in a letter to Lord Strafford, dated 1633, intimates that " all back-doors to taverns on the Thames are commanded to be shut up, only the Bear at Bridge Foot is exempted, by reason of the passage to Greenwich," which Mr. Burn suspects to have been " the avenue or way called Bear Alley." The Cavaliers' Ballad on the funeral pageant of Admiral Deane, killed June 2nd, 1653, while passing by water to Henry the Seventh's Chapel, Westminster, has the following allusion : — From Greenwich towards the Bear at Bridge foot. He was wafted with wind that had water to't, But I think they brought the devil to boot, Which nobody can deny. Pepys was told by a waterman, going through the bridge, 24th Feb. 1666-7, that the mistress of the Beare Tavern, at the Bridge-foot, " did lately fling herself into the Thames, and drown herself." The Bear must have been a characterless house, for among its gallantries was the following, told by Wycherley to Major Pack, "just for the oddness of the thing." It was this: "There was a house at the Bridge Foot where persons of better condition used to resort for pleasure and privacy. The liquor the ladies and their lovers used to drink at these meet- ings was canary ; and among other compliments the gentle- men paid their mistresses, this it seems was always one, to take hold of the bottom of their smocks, and pouring the wine 374 CLUB LIFE QF LONDON. through that filter, feast their imaginations with the thought of what gave the zesto, and so drink a health to the toast." The Bear Tavern was taken down in December, 1761, when the labourers found gold and silver coins, of the time of Elizabeth, to a considerable value. The wall that enclosed the tavern was not cleared away until 1764, when the ground was cleared and levelled quite up to Pepper Alley stairs. There is a Token of the Bear Tavern, in the Beaufroy cabinet, which, with other rare Southwark tokens, was found under the floors in taking down St. Glave's Grammar School in 1839. Mermaid Taverns.. The celebrated Mermaid, in Bread-street, with the history of " the Mermaid Club," has been described in pp. 7-9 ; its interest centres in this famous company of wits. There was another Mermaid, in Cheapside, next to Paul's Gate, and still another in Cornhill. Of the latter we find in Bum's Beaufoy Catalogue, that the vintner, buried in St. Peter's, Cornhill, in 1606, "gave forty shillings yearly to the parson for preaching four sermons every year, so long as the lease of the Mermaid, in Cornhill, (the tavern so called,) should endure. He also gave to the poor of the said parish thirteen penny loaves every Sunday, during the aforesaid ease." There are tokens of both; these taverns in the Beaufoy Collection. The Boar's Head Tavern. This celebrated Shakspearean tavern was situated in Great Eastcheap, and is first mentioned in the time of Richard II.' ; the scene of the revels of Falstaff and Henry V., when Prmce of- Wales, in Shakspeare's Henry IV., part 2. Stow relates a riot in " the cooks' dwellings " here on St. John's eve, 1410, by Princes John and Thomas. The tavern was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, but was rebuilt in two THE BOARS HEAD TAVERN. i%. fears, as attested by a boar's head cut ifi stone, with the initials of the landlord, I.T., and the date 1668, above the first-floor window; this sign-stofie is now in the Guildhall library. The house stood ' between •Small-alley and St. Michael* s-lane, and in the rear looked upon St. Michd,ers churchyard, where was buried a drawer, or -waiteii", at the tavern, d. 1720 : in the church was interred John Rhodbway, " Vintner at the Bore's Head," 16^3. Maitland,. in 1739, mentions the Boar's Head, as "the chief tavern in London ", under, the sign. Goldsmith ("Essays"), Boswell ("Life of Dr. Johnson"), and Washing- ton Irving ("Sketch-book"), have idealized' the house as the identical place which Falstaff frequented, forgetting its destruction in the Great Fire. The site of the Boar's Head is very nearly that of the statue of King William IV. in 1834; Mr. Kempe, F.S.A., exhibited to the Society of Attticjuaries a carved oak figure of Sir John Falstaflf, in the costume of the ■ i6th century; it had supported 'an orna- mental bracket dver one side of the door of the Boar's Head, a figure of Prince Henry sustaining -that on the other. ■ The ' Falstaff was the property of one Shelton, a brazier,- whose an- cestors had lived in the shop he then occupied in Great Eastcheap, since the Great Fire. He well remembered the last Shakspeareaii grand dinner-party at the Boar's Head, about 1784 :' at an earlier partyi Mr. Wilberforee was pre- sent. A boar's head, with tusks, which had been suspended in a room of the tavern, perhaps the Half-Moon or Pome- granate, (see Henry IV; act il sc. 4,) at the Great Fire, fell ■down with ' the ruins of the house, and was conveyed to Whitechapel Mount, wh'ei-e, many years- after, it was re- covered, and identified with its former locality. At a pnblic house,' No, 12, Miles-lane, was long preserv'ed a tobacco-box, with a painting of the original Boar's Head Tavern on the lid.* "Curiosities of London," p. 265. 376 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. In High-street, South wark, in the rear of Nos. 25 and 26, was formerly the Boar's Head Inn, part of Sir John Falstolf's benefaction to Magdalen College, Oxford. Sir John was one of the bravest generals in the French wars, under the fourth, fifth, and sixth Henries ; but he is not the Falstaff of Shakspeare. In the " Reliquiae Hearnianse," edited by Dr. Bliss, is the following entry relative to this bequest : — 1721. June 2. — The reason why they cannot give so good an account of the benefaction of Sir John Fastolf to Magd. Coll. is, because he gave it to the founder, and left it to his management, so that 'tis sup- pos'd 'twas swallow'd up in his own estate that he settled it upon the college. However, the college knows this, that the Boar's Head in Southwark, which was then an inn, and still retains the name, tho' divided into several tenements (which bring the college about 150/. per ann.), was part of Sir John's gift." The above property was for many years sublet to the family of the author of the present Work, at the rent of 150/. per annum ; the cellar, finely vaulted, and excellent for wine, extended, beneath the entire court, consisting of two rows of tenements, and two end. houses, with galleries, the entrance being from the High-street. The premises were taken down for the New London Bridge approaches. There was also a noted Boar's Head in Old Fish-street Can he forget who has read Goldsmith's nineteenth Essay, his reverie at the Boar's Head ? — when, having con- fabulated with the landlord till long after " the watchman had gone twelve," and suffused in the potency of his wine a mutation in his ideas, of the person of the host into that of Dame Quickly, mistress of the tavern in the days of Sir John, is promptly affected, and the Uquor they were drinking seemed shortly converted into sack and sugar. Mrs. Quickly's re- cital of the history of herself and Doll Tearsheet, whose frailties in the flesh caused their being both sent to the house of correction, charged with having allowed the famed Boar's Head to become a low brothel; her speedy de- parture to the world of Spirits ; and Falstaff's impertinences THREE CRANES IN THE VJNTRY. yjl as affecting Madame Proserpine; are followed by an enume- ration of persons who had held tenancy of the house since her time. The last hostess of note was, according to Gold- smith's account, Jane Rouse, who, having unfortunately quarrelled with one of her neighbours, a woman of high re- pute in the parish for sanctity, but as jealous as Chaucer's Wife of Bath, was by her accused of witchcraft, taken from her own bar, condemned and executed accordingly ! — These were times, indeed, when women could not scold in safety. These and other prudential apophthegms on the part of Dame Quickly, seem to have dissolved Goldsmith's stupor of ideality ; on his awaking, the landlord is really the land- lord, and not the hostess of a former day, when " Falstaff was in fact an agreeable old fellow, forgetting age, and showing the way to be young at sixty-five. Age, care, wisdom, reflection, begone ! I give you to the winds. Let's have t'other bottle. Here's to the memory of Shak- speare, Falstaff, and all the merry men of Eastcheap."* Three Cranes in the Vintry. This was one of Ben Jonson's taverns, and has already been incidentally mentioned. Strype describes it as situate in "New Queen-street, commonly called the Three Cranes in the Vintry, a good open street, especially that part next Cheapside, which is best built and inhabited. At the lowest end of the street next the Thames, is a pair of stairs, the usual place for the Lord Mayor and Aldermen to take water at, to go to Westminister Hall, for the new Lord Mayor to be sworn before the Barons of the Exchequer. This place, with the Three Cranes, is now of some account for the coster- mongers, where they have their warehouse for their fruit." In Scott's " Kenilworth " we hear much of this Tavern. "Bum's Catalogue of the Beaufoy Tokens.' 37S London Stone Tavern. This tavern, situated in CannonrStreet, near the Stone; is ■■ stated, but not correctly, to have been the oldest in London. Here was formed a society, afterwards the famous Robin Hood, of which the history was published in 1 716, where it is stated to have originated in a meeting of the editor's : grandfather with the great Sir Hugh Myddelton, of New River memory. King Charles II. was introduced to the society, disguised, by Sir, Hugh, and the King liked it so wiell that he came ' thrice afterwards. " He had," coiitinues the narrative, "a piece of black silk over his left cheek, which almost' covered it; and his eyebrows, which were quite black, he had,. by some artifice or other, converted to alight brown, or rather flaxen colour; and had otherwise disguised himself so effectually in his apparel and his looks,' that nobody knew him but Sir Hugh, by whom he was in- troduced." This is very circumstantial, but is very doubtful ; since Sir Hugh Myddelton died when Charles was in his tenth year. The Robin Hood. Mr. Akerman- describes a Token of the Robin Hood Tavern : — " iohn thomlin.son at the. An archer fitting ■ an arrow to his bow; a small figure behind, holding an arrow. — JBt. in chiswell street, 1667. In the centre, his HALFE PENNY, and I. s. T. Mr. Akerman continues : "It is easy to perceive what is intended by the repre-' senitation on the obverse of this token. Though ' Littie John,' we are told,' stood upwards of six good English feet without his shoes, he is here depicted to suit the popular humour — a dwarf in size, 'compared with his friend and leader, the bold outlaw. The proximity of Chiswell-street to Finsbury-fieldS may have led to the adoption of the sign, which was doubtless at a time when archery was considered PONTACK'S, ASCHURCH-LANE. 379 an elegant as well as an indispensable accomplishment of an English gentleman. It is far from obsolete now, as several low public-houses and beer^shops in the vicinity of London testify: One of them exhibits Robin Hood and his companion dressed in the most approved style of ' Astley's,' and underneath the group is the following irresistible invita- tion to slake your thirst : — Ye archers bold and yeomen good, Stop and drink with Robin Hood : If Robin Hood is not at home. Stop and.drink with little John." " Our London readers could doubtless supply the variorum copies of this elegant distich^ which, as this is an age for ' Family Shakspeares,' modernized Chaucers, and new ver- sions of ' Robin , Hood's Garland,' we' recommend to the notice of the next editor of the ballads in praise of the Sherwood freebooter." Pontack'Sj Abchurch Lane. After the destruction of the White Bear Tavern, in the Great Fire of 1666, the proximity of the site for all purposes of business, induced M. Pontack, the son of' the President of Bordeaux, owner of a famous claret district, to establish a tavern, with all the novelties of French "cookery, with his father's head as a sign, whence it was popularly called "Pontack's Head," The .dinners were from four or five shillings a head " to a guinea, or what sum you pleased." .Swift frequented the tavern, and writes to" Stella : — "Pontack told us, although his wine was so good, he sold it dieaper than ojtUws J he took but seven shillings a flask. Are not these pretty rates ?" In the "Hind and Panther Transversed," we read of drawers : — Sure these honest fellows have no knack Of putting off stum'd claret for Pontack. 38o CLUB LIFE OP LONDON. The Fellows of the Royal Society dined at Pontack's until 1746, when they removed to the Devil Tavern. There is a Token of the White Bear in the Beaufoy Collection ; and Mr. Bum tells us, from " Metamorphoses of the Town," a rare tract, 1731, of Pontack's "guinea ordinary," "ragout of fatted snails," and " chickens not two hours from the shell." In January, 1735, Mrs. Susannah Austin, who lately kept Pontack's, and had acquired a considerable fortune, was married to William Pepys, banker, in Lombard-street. Pope's Head Tavern. This noted tavern, which gave name to Pope's Head Alley, leading from Cornhill to Lombard-street, is mentioned as early as the 4th Edward IV. (1464) in the account of a wager between an Alicant goldsmith and an English gold- smith ; the Alicant stranger contending in the tavern that " Englishmen were not so cunning in workmanship of gold- smithry as Alicant strangers ;'' when work was produced by both, and the Englishman gained the wager. The tavern was left in 16 15, by Sir William Craven, to the Merchant Tailors' Company. Pepys refers to "the fine painted room" here in 1668-9. I" the tavern, April 14, 1718, Quin, the actor, killed in self-defence his fellow-comedian, Bowen, a clever but hot-headed Irishman, who was jealous of Quin's reputation : in a moment of great anger, he sent for Quin to the tavern, and as soon as he had entered the room, Bowen placed his back against the door, drew his sword, and bade Quin draw his. Quin, having mildly remonstrated to no purpose, drew in his own defence, and endeavoured to disarm his antagonist. Bowen received a wound, of which he died in three days, having acknowledged his folly and madness, when the loss of blood had reduced him to reason. Quin was tried and acquitted. (" Cunning- ham, abridged.") The Pope's Head Tavern was in existence in 1756. 3Si The Old Swan, Thames-street, Was more than five hundred years ago a house for public entertainment: for, in 1323, 16 Edw. II., Rose Wrytell bequeathed " the tenement of olde tyme called the Swanne on the Hope in Thames-street," in the parish of St. Mary- at-hill, to maintain a priest at the altar of St. Edmund, King and Martyr, " for her soul, and the souls of her husband, her father, and mother :" and the purposes of her bequest were established ; for, in the parish book, in 1499, is entered a disbursement of fourpence, "for a cresset to Rose Wrytell's chantry.'' Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Glou- cester, in 1440, in her public penance for witchcraft and treason, landed at Old Swan, bearing a large taper, her feet bare, etc. Stow, in 1598, mentions the Old Swan as a great brew- house. Taylor, the Water-poet, advertised the professor and author of the Barmoodo and Vtopian tongues, dwelling " at the Old Swanne, neare London Bridge, who will teach them at are willing to leame, with agility and facility." In the scurrilous Cavalier ballad of Admiral Deane's Funeral, by water, from Greenwich to Westminster, in June, 1653, it is said: — The Old Swan, as he passed by, Said she would sing him a dirge, lye down and die : Wilt thou sing to a bit of a body ? quoth I, Which nobody can deny. The Old Swan Tavern and its landing-stairs were destroyed in the Great Fire ; but. rebuilt. Its Token, In the Beaufoy Collection, is one of the rarest, of large size. Cock Tavern, Threadneedle-street. This noted house, which faced the north gate of the old Royal Exchange, was long celebrated for the excellence of 382 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON: its soups, which were served at an economical price, in silver. One- of its proprietors was, it is believed, John Ellis, an eccentric character, and a writer of some reputation, who died in 1791. Eight stanzas addressed to him in praise of the tavern, commenced thus : — When to Ellis I write, I in verse must indite, Come Phoebus, and give me a knock, For on Friday at eight, all behind " the 'Change gate," : Master Ellis will be at " The Cock." After Comparing it to other houses, the Pope's Head, the King's Arms, the Black Swan, and the Fountain, and de- claring the Cock the best, it ends : 'Tis time to be gone, for the 'Change has struck one : O 'tis an impertinent clock ! • For with Ellis I'd stay from December to May ; I'll stick to my Friend, and " The Cock !" This house was taken down in 1841 ; when, in a claim' for compertsation made by the proprietor,- the trade in three years was proved to have been 344,720 basins of various soups — ^viz. 166,240 mock turtle, 3,920 giblet, 59,360 ox- tail, 31,072 bouilli, 84,1 28 gravy and other soups : sometimes 500 basins of soup were sold in a day. Crown Tavern, Threadneedle-street. Upon the site of the present chief entrance to the Bank of England, in Threadneedle-street, stood the Crown Tavern, " behind the 'Change :" it was frequented by the Fellows of the Royal Society, when they met at Gresham College ' hard by. The Crown was burnt in the Great Fire, but was rebuilt ; and about a centtiry ' since, at this tavern, " it was not unusual to draw a butt of mountain wine, containing \io gallons, in gills, in a morning."—- ^«V John Hawkins. Behind the 'Change, we read in the Connoisseur, 1754, a a man worth a plum used to order a twopenny mess of broth with a boiled chop in it; placing the chop between ; THE KING'S HEAD TA VERN. 583 the two crusts of a halfpenny roll, he would wrap it up in his clieck handkerchief, and carry it away for the morrow's dinner. The King's Head Tavern, in the Poultry. This Tavern, which stood at the western extremity, of the Stocks' Market, was not first known by the sign of the King's Head, but the Rose : Machin, in his Diary, Jan. 5, 1560, thus mentions it: "A gentleman arrested for debt; Master Cobham, with divers gentlemen and; serving-men, took him from the officers, and carried him to the -Rose Tavern, where so great a fray, both the sheriffs were feign to £ome, and from the Rose Tavern took all the gentlemen and their servants, and carried them to the Compter." The house was distiuguished by the device of a large, well-painted Rose, erected over a doorway, which was the only indication in the main street otisuch an establishment. In the superior houses of the metropolis in the sixteenth century, room was gained in the rear of the stjreet-line, the space in front being economized, so that the line of .shops might not be interrupted. Upon this, ,plan, , the larger taverns in the City were constructed, wherever the ground was sufficiently spacious behind: hence it was that., the Poultry tavern of which we are speaking, was approached .through a long, narrow, covered passage, opening into a .well-lighted quadrangle, around which were the tavern-rooms. The sign of the Rose appears to, have been a, costly work, since there was the fragment of a leaf of an old account- book preserved, when the ruins of the, house were pleared after tiie Great Fire, on which were written .these entries : — *'Pd. to Hoggestreete, tiie Duche Paynter, for y" Picture of a Rose, w*" a Standing-bowle and (glasses, for a.Signe, %xli. besides Diners and Drinkings. Also, for a large Table of Walnut-tree, for a .Frame ; and for liron-worke and Hanging ■the Picture, v/«," The artist who is ireferred to. in this 3S4 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. memorandum, could be no other than Samuel Van Hoog- straten, a painter of the middle of the seventeenth century, whose works in England are very rare. He was one of the many excellent artists of the period, who, as Walpole contemptuously says, " painted still-life, oranges and lemons, plate, damask curtains, cloth of gold, and that medley of familiar objects that strike the ignorant vulgar." But, beside the claims of the painter, the sign of the Rose cost the worthy tavemkeeper a still further outlay, in the form of divers treatings and advances made to a certain rather loose man of letters of his acquaintance, possessed of more wit than money, and of more convivial loyalty than either discretion or principle. Master Roger Blythe fre- quently patronized the Rose Tavern as his favourite ordinary. Like Falstaff, he was " an infinite thing " upon his host's score ; and, like his prototype also, there was no probability of his ever discharging the account. When the Tavern-sign was about to be erected, this Master Blythe contributed the poetry to it, after the fashion of the time, which he swore was the envy of all the Rose Taverns in London, and of all the poets who frequented them. " There's your Rose at Temple Bar, and your Rose in Covent Garden, and the Rose in Southwark : all of thera indifferent good for wits, and for drawing neat wines too ; but, smite me. Master King," he would say, " if I know one of them all fit to be set in the same hemisphere with yours ! No ! for a bountiful host, a most sweet mistress, unsophisti- cated wines, honest measures, a choicely painted sign, and a witty verse to set it off withal, — commend me to the Rose Tavern in the Poultry !" Even the tavern-door exhibited a joyous frontispiece; since the entrance was flanked by two columns twisted with vines carved in wood, which supported a small square gallery over the portico surrounded by handsome iron-work. On the front of this gallery was erected the sign, in a frame of similar ornaments. It consisted of a central compart. THE KINGS HEAD TA VERN. 385 ment containing the Rose, behind which appeared a tall silver cup, called in the language of the time " a standmg- bowl," with drinking-glasses. Beneath the painting was this inscription ; — THIS IS THE ROSE TA VERNE IN THE POULTREY : KEPT BY WILLIAM KING, Citizen and Vintner. This Taveme's like its Signe — a lustie Rose, A sight of joy that sweetness doth enclose : The daintie Flow're well-pictur'd here is seene, But for its rarest sweetes — Come, Searche Within ! The authorities of St. Peter-upon-Comhill soon deter- mined, on the loth of May, 1660, in Vestry, "that the King's Arms, in painted-glass, should be refreshed, and forthwith be set up by the Churchwarden at the parish- charges j with whatsoever he giveth to the glazier as a gratuity, for his care in keeping of them all this while." The host of the Rose resolved at once to add a Crown to his sign, with the portrait of Charles, wearing it in the centre of the flower, and openly to name his tavern " The Royal Rose and King's Head." He effected his design, partly by the aid of one of the many excellent pencils which the time supplied, and partly by the inventive muse of Master Blythe, which soon furnished him with a new poesy. There is not any fiirther information extant concerning the paint- ing, but the following remains of an entry on another torn fragment of the old account-book already mentioned, seem to refer to the poetical inscription beneath the picture :-^ . ..." on y' Night when he made y' Verses for my new Signe, a Sqper, and v. Peeces." The verses themselves were as follow : — Gallants, Rejoice ! — This Flow're is now fuU-blowne ; 'Tis a Rose-Noble better'd by a Crowne ; All you who love the Embleme and the Signe, Enter, and prove our Loyaltie and Wine. c c 386 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. Beside this inscription, Master King also recorded the auspicious event referred to, by causing his painter to introduce ii\to the picture a broad-sheet, as if lying on the table with the cup and glasses — on which appeared the title, "A Kalendar for this Happy Yeare of Restauratioit, 1660, now newly Imprinted." As the time advanced when Charles was to make his entry into the metropolis, the streets were resounding with the voices of ballad-singers pouring- forth loyal songs, and declaring, with the whole strength of their lungs, that The King shall enjoy his own again. Then, there were also to be heard, the ceaseless horns and proclamations of hawkers and. flying-station ers^ publishing the latest passages or rumours touching the royal progress ; which, wheither genuine or not, were bought and read, and circulated, by all parties. At length all ' the previous pamphlets and broad-sheets were swallowed up by a well- known tract, still extant, which the news-men of the time thiis proclaimed :— " Here is A True Accompt and Narra- tive — of his Majesties safe Arrival in England^as 'twas reported to the House of Commons, on Friday, the 'z^th day of this present May^-with the Resolutions of both Houses thereupon : — Also a Letter very lately writ from Dover — relating -divers remarkable Passages of his Majesties Recep- tion there." On eveiy side the signs and iron-work were either refreshed, or newly gilt and painted : tapestries and rich hangings, which had engendered moth and decay from long disuse, were flung abroad again, that they might be ready to grace the coming pageant. The paving of the streets was levelled and repaired for the expected cavalcade ; and scaffolds for spectators were in the course df erection throughout all the line of march. Floods of all sorts of wines were consumed, as well in the streets as in the THE KING'S HEAD TA VERN. 387 taverns ; and endless healths were devotedly and energeti- cally swallowed, at morning, noon, and night. At this time Mistress Rebecca King was about to add another member to Master King's household :, she received from hour to hour accounts of the proceedings as they occurred, which so stimulated her curiosity that she declared, first to her gossips, and then to her husband, that she "must see the King pass the tavern^ or matters might go cross with her." A kind of arbour was inade for Mistress Rebecca in the small iron gallery surmounting the entrance to the tavern. This arbour was of green boughs and flowers, hung round with tapestry and garnished with silver plate; and here, when the guns at the Tower announced that Charles had entered London, Mistress King took her seat, with her children and gossips around her. AH the houses in the main streets from London-bridge to Whitehall were deco- rated, like the tavern, with rich silks and tapestries, hung from every scaffold, balcony, and window; which, as Herrick says, turned the town into a park, "made green and trimmed with boughs." The road through London, so far as Temple-Bar, was lined on the north side by the City Companies, dressed in their liveries, and raeged in their respective stands, with ttheir banners ; and on the south by the soldiers of the trained-bands. One of the wine conduits stood on the south side of the Stocks' Market, over which Sir Robert Yiner . subsequerltly erected a triumphal statue of Charles II. Aboiit this spot; therefore,' the crowd collected in the Market-place, aided by the fierce loyalty supplied from the conduit, appears for a time to have brought the procession to a full stop, at the moment when- Charles, who; rode between his brothers, the Dukes of York and Gloucester, was nearly opposite to the newly-named King's Head Tavern. In- this most favourable interval. Master Blythe, who stood upon a scaffold in the doorway, took the opportunity of elevating a silver cup of wine and shouting oUt a health to his Majesty. His ener- c C 2 388 CLUB l-IFE OF LONDON. getical action, as he pointed upwards to the gallery, was not lost ; and the Duke of Buckingham, who rode immediately before the King witn General Monk, directed Charles's attention to Mistress Rebecca, saying, "Your Majesty's retimi is here welcomed even by a subject as yet unborn." As the procession passed by the door of the King's Head Tavern, the King turned towards it, raised himself in his stirrups, and gracefully kissed his hand to Mistress Rebecca. Immediately such a shout was raised from all who beheld it or heard of it, as startled the crowd up to Cheapside con- duit; and threw the poor woman herself into such an ecstasy, that she was not conscious of anything more, until she was safe in her chamber and all danger happily over.* The Tavern was rebuilt after the Great Fire, and flourished many years. It was long a depot in the metropolis for turtle; and in the quadrangle of the Tavern might be seen scores of turtle, large and lively, in huge tanks of water ; or laid up- ward on the stone floor, ready for their destination. The Tavern was also noted for large dinners of the City Com- panies and other public bodies. The house was refitted in 1852, but has since been closed. Another noted Poultry Tavern was the Three Cranes, destroyed in the Great Fire, but rebuilt, and noticed in 1698, in one of the many paper controversies of that day. A ful- minating pamphlet, entitled "Ecclesia etFactio: a Dialogue between Bow Church Steeple and the Exchange Grass- hopper," elicited " An Answer to the Dragon and Grass- hopper: in a Dialogue between an Old Monkey and a Yoimg Weasel, at the Three Cranes Tavern, in the Poultry." The Mitre, in Wood- street. Was a noted old Tavern. Pepys, in his " Diary," Sept 18, 1660. records his going "to the Mitre Tavern, in Wood- * Abridged from an Account of the Tavern, by an Antiquary. THE SALUTA TION AND CA T TA VERN. 389 street, (a house of the greatest note in London,) where I met W. Symons, D. Scoball, and their wives. Here some of us fell to handicap, a sport I never knew before, which was very good." The tavern was destroyed in the Great Fire. The Salutation and Cat Tavern, No. 17, Newgate-street (north side), was, according to the tradition of the house, the tavern where Sir Christopher Wren used to smoke his pipe, whilst St. Paul's was re- building. There is more positive evidence of its being a place well frequented by men of letters at the above period. Thus, there exists a poetical invitation to a social feast held here on June 19, 1735-6, issued by the two stewards, Edward Cave and William Bowyer : Saturday, Jan. 17, 1735-6. Sir, You're desir'd on Monday next to meet At Salutation Tavern, Newgate-street. Supper will be on table just at eight, \Stewards\ One of St. John's [Bowyer], 'tother of St. John's Gate [Cave]. This brought a poetical answer from Samuel Richardson the novelist, printed in extenso in Bowyer's " Anecdotes :" For me, I'm much concerned I cannot meet "At Salutation Tavern, Newgate-street," Your notice, like your verse, so sweet and short I If longer, I'd sincerely thank you for it. Howe'er, receive my wishes, sons of verse ! May every man who meets, your praise rehearse ! May mirth, as plenty, crown your cheerful board. And e'vry one part happy — as a lord ! That when at home (by such sweet verses fir'd). Your families may think you all inspir'd. So wishes he, who pre-engag' d, can't know The pleasures that would from your meeting flow. The proper sign is the Salutation and Cat, — a curious combination, but one which is explained by a lithograph 390 CLUB LIFE OF, LONDON. which some years ago hung in the coffee-room. An aged dandy is saluting a friend whom he has met in the street, and offering him a pinch out of the snuff-box which forms the top of his wood-hke cane. This box-nob was, it appears, called a " cat " — hence the connexion of terms apparently so foreign to each other. Some, not aware of this explana- tion, have accounted for the sign by supposing that a tavern called " the Cat " was at some time pulled down, and its trade carried to the Salutation, which thenceforward joined the sign to its own ; but this is improbable, seeing that we have never heard of any tavern called " the Cat " (although we i/i7 know of "the Barking Dogs ") as a sign. Neither does the Salutation take its name from any scriptural or sacred source, as the Angel and Trumpets, etc. More positive evidence there is to show of the "little smoky room at the Salutation and Cat," where Coleridge and Charles Lamb sat smoking Oronoko and drinking egg-hot; the first discoursing of his. idol, Bowles, and the other re- joicing mildly in Cowper and Burns, or both dreaming of " Pantisocracy, and golden days to come on earth." " Salutation " Taverns. The sign Salutation, from scriptural or sacred source, remains to be explained. Mr. Akerman suspects the original sign to have really represented the Salutation of the Virgin by the TVngel — " Ave Maria, gratia plena " — a well-known legend on the jettons of the Middle Ages. The change of representation was properly accommodated to the times. The taverns at that period were the " gossiping shops " of the neighbourhood ; and both Puritan and Churchman fre- quented them for the sake of hearing the news. The Puritans loved the good things of this world, and relished a cup of Canary, or Noll's nose lied, holding the maxim — Though the devil trepan The Adamical man, The saint 'stands uninfected. QUEEN'S ARMS, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD. 391 Hence, perhaps, the Salutation of the Virgin was ex- changed for the "booin' and scrapin'"- scene (two men bowing and greeting), represented on a token which still exists ; the tavern was celebrated in the days of Queen Elizabeth. In some old black-letter doggrel, entitled "News from Bar- tholemew Fayre," it is mentioned for wine : — There hath been great sale and utterance' of wine, Besides beere, and ale, and Ipocras fine ; In every country, region, and nation. But chiefly in fiilhngsgate, at the Salutation. The Flower-pot was originally part of the symbol of the Annunciation to the Virgin. Queen's Arms, St. Paul's Churchyard. Garrick appears to have kept up his interest in the city by means of clubs, to which he paid periodicar visits. We have 'already mentioned the club of young merchants, at Tom's Coffee-house, in Coirrihill. 'Another Club was held at the Queen's Arms Tavern, in St. Paul's Churchyard, where used to assemble : Mr. Samuel Sharpe, the surgeon ; Mr. Pater- son, the City- solicitor ; Mr. Draper, the bookseller ; Mr. Clutterbuck, the mercer j and a few others. Sir John Hawkins tells us that " they were none of them drinkers, and in order to make a reckoning, called only for French wine." These were Garrick's standing council in theatrical affairs. At the Queen's Arms, after a thirty years' intei-val, Johnson renewed his intimacy with some of the members of his old Ivy-lane Club. Brasbridge, the old silversmith of Fleet-street, was a member of the Sixpenny Card-Club held at the Queen's Arms : among the members was Henry Baldwyn, who, under the auspices of Bonnel Thornton, Colman the elder, and Garrick, set up the Si. James's Chronicle, which once had the largest circulation of any evening paper. This 392 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. worthy newspaper-proprietor was considerate and generous to men of genius : " Often," says Brasbridge, " at his hospi- table board I have seen needy authors, and others con- nected with his employment, whose abilities, ill-requited as they might have been by the world in general, were by him always appreciated." Among Brasbridge's acquaintance, also, were John Walker, shopman to a grocer and chandler in Well-street, Ragfair, who died worth 200,000/., most assuredly not gained by lending money on doubtful security ; and Ben Kenton, brought up at a charity-school, and who realised 300,000/., partly at the Magpie and Crown in Whitechapel. Dolly's, Paternoster Row. This noted Tavern, established in the reign of Queen Anne, has for its sign, the cook Dolly, who is stated to have been painted by Gainsborough. It is still a well- appointed chop-house and tavern, and the coffee-room with its projecting fire-places, has an olden air. Nearly on the site of Dolly's, Tarlton, Queen Elizabeth's favourite stage-clown, kept an ordinary, with the sign of the Castle. The house, of which a token exists, was destroyed in the Great Fire, but was rebuilt ; there the " Castle Society of Music " gave their performances. Part of the old premises were subsequently the Oxford Bible Warehouse, destroyed by fire in 1822, and rebuilt. The entrance to the chop-house is in Queen's Head passage ; and at Dolly's is a window-pane painted with the head of Queen Anne, which may explain the name of the court. At Dolly's and Horsman's beef-steaks were eaten with gill-ale. 393 Aldersgate Taverns. Two early houses of entertainment in Aldersgate were the Taborer's Inn and the Crown. Of the former, stated to have been of the time of Edward II., we know nothing but the name. The Crown, more recent, stood at the end of Duck-lane, and is described in Ward's " London Spy," as containing a noble room, painted by Fuller, with the Muses, the Judgment of Paris, the contention of Ajax and Ulysses, etc. "We were conducted by the jolly master,'' says Ward, " a true kinsman of the bacchanalian family, into a large stately room, where, at the first entrance, I discerned the master-strokes of the famed Fuller's pencil ; the whole room painted by that commanding hand, that his dead figures appeared with such lively majesty that they begat reverence in the spectators towards the awful shadows. We accord- ingly bade the complaisant waiter oblige us with a quart of his richest claret, such as was fit only to be drank in the presence of such heroes, into whose company he had done us the honour to introduce us. He thereupon gave direc- tions to his drawer, who returned Avith a quart of such inspiring juice, that we thought ourselves translated into one of the houses of the heavens, and were there drinking immortal nectar with the gods and goddesses : Who could such blessings when thus found resign ? An honest vintner faithful to the vine ; A spacious room, good paintings, and good wine. Far more celebrated was the Mourning Bush Tavern, in the cellars of which have been traced the massive founda tions of Aldersgate, and the portion of the City Wall which adjoins them. This tavern, one of the largest and most ancient in London, has a curious history. The Bush Tavern, its original name, took for its sign the 394 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. Ivy-hush hung up at the door. It is believed to have been the house referred to by ,Stowe, as follows :— "This gate (Aldersgate) hath been at sundry times increased with build- ing ; namely, on the south Or inner side, a great frame of timber, (or house of wood lathed and plastered,) hath been added and set up containing divers large rooms and lodgings," which were an enlargement of the Bush. Fosbroke mentions the Bush as the chief sign of taverns in the Middle AgeSj (it being ready to hand,) and so it con- tinued until superseded by "a thing to resemble one containing three or four tiers of hoops fastened one above another with vine leaves and grapes richly carved and gilt." He adds : " the owner of the Mourning Bush, Aldersgate, was so affected at the decollation of Charles I,, that he painted his bush black." From this period the house is scarcely mentioned until the year 1719, when- we find ifs name changed to the Fountain, whether from political feel- ing against the then exiled House of Stuart, or the whim of the proprietor we cannot learn ; though it is thought to have reference to a spring on the east side of the gate. Tom Brown mentions the Fountain satirically, with four or five topping taverns of the day, whose landlords are charged with doctoring their wines, but whose trade was so great that they stood fair for the Alderman's gown. And, in a letter from an old vintner in the city to one newly set up in Covent Garden, we find the following in the way of advice : " as all the world are wholly supported by hard and unintel- ligible names, you must take care to christen your wines by some hard name, the further fetched so much the better, and this policy will serve to recommend the most execrable scum in your cellar. I could name several of our brethren to you, who now stand fair to sit in the seat of justice, and sleep in their golden chain at churches, that had been for^ ed to knock off long ago, if it had not been for this artifice. It saved the Sun from being eclipsed ; the Crown from being abdicated; the Rose from decaying; and the Fountain JERUSALEM TAVERNS, CLERKENWELL. 395 from being dry; as well as both the Devils from being confined to utter darkness." Twenty years later, in a large plan of Aldersgate Ward, 1739-40, we find the Fountain changed to the original Bush. The Fire of London had evidently, at this time, curtailed the ancient extent of the tavern. The exterior is shown in a print of the south side of Aldersgate ; it has the character of the larger houses, built after the Great Fire, and immediately adjoins the gate. The last notice of the Bush, as a place of entertainment, occurs in Maitland's " History of London," ed. 172s, where it is described as " the Fountain, commonly called the Mourning Bush, which has a back-door into St. Anne's-lane, and is situated near unto Aldersgate." The house was refitted in 1830. In the basement are the original wine-vaults of the old Bush ; many of the walls are six feet thick, and bonded throughout with Roman brick. A very agreeable account of the tavern and the antiquities of neighbourhood was published in 1830. " The Mourning Crown." In Phoenix Alley, (now Hanover Court,) Long Acre, John Taylor, the Water Poet, kept a tavern, with the sign of " the Mourning Crown," but this being offensive to the Commonwealth (1652), he substituted for a sign his own head with this inscription — There's inany a head stands for a sign ; Then, gentle reader, why not mine ? He died here in the following year ; and his widow in 1658. Jerusalem Taverns, Clerkenwell. These houses took their name from the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, around whose Priory grew up the village of Clerkenwell. The Priory Gate remains. At the Sup- 396 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. pression, the Priory was undermined, and blown up with gunpowder; the Gate also would probably have been destroyed, but for its serving to define the property. In 1604, it was granted to Sir Roger Wilbraham for his life. At this time Clerkenwell was inhabited by people of con- dition. Forty years later, fashion had travelled westward : and the Gate became the printing-office of Edward Cave, who, in 1 73 1, published here the first number of the Gentleman's Magazine, which to this day bears the Gate for its vignette. Dr. Johnson was first engaged upon the magazine here by Cave in 1737. At the Gate Johnson first met Richard Savage ; and here in Cave's room, when visitors called, he ate his plate of victuals behind the screen, his dress being " so shabby that he durst not make his appear- ance." Garrick, when first he came to London, frequently called upon Johnson at the Gate. Goldsmith was also a visitor here. When Cave grew rich, he had St John's Gate painted, instead of his arms, on his carriage, and engraven on his plate. After Cave's death in 1753, the premises became the " Jerusalem " public-house, and the " Jerusalem Tavern." There was likewise another Jerusalem Tavern, at the comer of Red Lion-street on Clerkenwell-green, which was the original St. John's Gate public-house, having assumed the name of " Jerusalem Tavern " in consequence of the old house on the Green giving up the tavern business, and becoming the " merchants' house." In its dank and cob- webbed vaults John Britton served an apprenticeship to a wine-merchant ; and in reading at intervals by candle-light, first evinced that love of literature which characterized his long life of industry and integrity. He remembered Clerken- well in 1787, with St. John's Priory-church and cloisters ; when Spafields were pasturage for cows ; the old garden- mansions of the aristocracy remained in Clerkenwell-close ; and Sadler's Wells, Islington Spa, Merhn's Cave, and Bag- Jiigge Wells, were nightly crowded with gay company. WHITE HART TAVERN, BISHOPSGATE WITHOUT. 397 In a friendly note, Sept 11, 1832, Mr. Britton tells us : " Our house sold wines in full quarts, i.e. twelve held three gallons, wine measure; and each bottle was marked with four lines cut by a diamond on the neck. Our wines were famed, and the character of the house was high, whence the Gate imitated the bottles and name." In 1845, t>y the aid of "the Freemasons of the Church," and Mr. W. P. Griffith, architect, the north and south fronts were restored. The gateway is a good specimen of groining of the 15th century, with moulded ribs, and bosses orna- mented with shields of the arms of the Priory, Prior Docwra, etc. The east basement is the tavern bar, with a beautifully moulded ceiling. The stairs are Elizabethan. The prin- cipal room over the arch has been despoiled of its window- mullions and groined roof. The foundation-wall of the Gate face is 10 feet 7 inches thick, and the upper walls are nearly. 4 feet, hard red brick. Stone-cased: the view from the top of the staircase-turret is extensive. In excavating there have been discovered the original pavement, three feet below, the Gate ; and the Priory walls, north, south, and west. In 185 1, there was published, by B. Foster, pro- prietor of the Tavern, " Ye History of ye Priory and Gate of St John." In the principal room of the Gate, over the great arch, met the Urban Club, a society, chiefly of authors and artists, with whom originated the proposition to cele- brate the tercentenary of the birth of Shakspeare, in 1864. White Hart Tavern, Bishopsgate Without. About forty years since there stood at a short distance north of St. Botolph's Church, a large old hostelrie, accordmg to the date it bore (1480,) towards the close of the reign of Edward IV. Stow, in 1598, describes it as "a fair inn for receipt of travellers, next unto the Parish Church of St Botolph without Bishopsgate." It preserved much of its original appearance, the main front consisting of three bays 398 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. of two Storeys, whicli, with the interspaces, had throughout casements ; and above which was an overhanging storey or attic, and the roof rising in three points. Still, this was not the original front, which was altered in 1787 : upon the old inn yard was built White Hart Court. In 1829; the tavern was taken down, and rebuilt, in handsome ' modem style; when the entrance into Old Bedlam, and formerly called Bedlam Gate, was widened, and the street re-named Liver- pool-street.' A iithographof the old tavern was pubhshed in 1829. Somewhat lower down is the residence of Sir Paul Pindar, now wine-vaults, with the sign of' Paul Pindar's Head, corner of Half-moon-alley, No. 160, Bishopsgate-street With- out. Sir Paul was a wealthy merchant, contemporary with Sir Thomas Gresham. The house was built towards the end of the i6th century, with' a wood-framed front and caryatid brackets ; and the principal windows bayed, their lower fronts enriched with panels of carved work. In the first-floor front room is a fine original ceiling in stucco, in which are the arms of Sir Paul Pindar. In the rear of these premises, within a garden, was formerly a lodge, of cor- responding date, decorated with four medallions, containing figures in Italian taste. In Half-moon-alley was the Half- moon Brewhbiise, of which there is a token in the Beaufoy: Collection. The Mitre, in Fenchurch-street, Was one of the political taverns of the Civil War, and was kept by Daniel Rawlinson, who appears to have been a staunch royalist: his token is preserved in the Beaufoy Col- lection. Dr. Richard Rawlinson, whose Jacobite principles are sufficiently on record, in a letter to Hearne; the honjuring antiquary at Oxford, says of " Daniel Rawlinson, who.kept th6 Mitre Tavern in Fenchurch-street, and-of whose being suspected in the Rump time, I have heard mtich. The THE MITRE, IN FENCHURCH STREET. 399 Whigs tell this, that upon the King's murder, January 3oth> 1649, he hung his sign in mourning: he certainly j udged right ; the honour of the mitre was much eclipsed by the loss of so good a parent to the Church of Eagland ; these rogues [the Whigs] say, this endeared him so much to the Churchmen, that he strove amain, and got a good estate." Pepys, who expressed great personal . fear of 1 the Plague, in his Diary, August 6, 1666, notices that notwithstanding Dan RowlaHdson!s being, all last year in the country, the sickness in a great measure past, one of his men was then dead at the Mitre of the pestilence ; his. wife and one of his maids both sick, and himself shut up, which, says Pepys, " troubles me. mightily. Godpreserve us !" Rawlinson's tavern, the Mitre, appears to have been destroyed in the Great Fire, and immediately after rebuilt ; as Horace Walpole,. from Vertue's notes, states that " Isaac Fuller was much employed to paint the great taverns in London ; particularly the Mitre, in Fenchurch-street, where he adorned all the sides of a great room, in panels, as was then the fashion ;" " the figures being as large as life; over the chimney, a Venus, Satyr, and sleeping Cupid ; a boy riding a goat, and a,nother fallen down :" this was, he adds, " the best part of the performance. Saturn devouring a child, the colouring raw aijd^the figure, of Saturn too mus- cular ; Mercury, Minerva, ■ Diana, and Apollo ; BacchuSr Venus, and Ceres, embracing; a young Selinus fallen down, and hpl4ing: a goblet into which a boy was pouring wine. The Seasons between the windows, and on the ceiling, in a large circle, two angels supporting a mitre." ; Yet, Fuller was a wretched painter, as borne out by Elsum's," Epigram on a Drunken Sot :" — J His head does on his shoulder lean, ' ' His eyes are sunk, and hardly seen : . , Who sees this sot in his own colour, Is apt to say, 'twas done by Fuller. :.,,,,,• Burn's Beaufoy CafalogM, ' 4CO The King's Head, Fenchurch-street. No. 53 is a place of historic interest ; for, the Princess Elizabeth, having attended service at the church of All- hallows Staining, in Langboum Ward, on her release from the Tower, on the 19th of May, 1554, dined off pork and peas afterwards, at the King's Head in Fenchurch Street, where the metal dish and cover she is said to have used are still preserved. The Tavern has been of late years enlarged and embellished, in taste accordant with its historical associa- tion ; the ancient character of the building being preserved in the smoking-room, 60 feet in length, upon the walls of which are displayed corslets, shields, helmets, and knightly arms. The Elephant, Fenchurch Street. In the year 1826 was taken down the old Elephant Tavern, which was built before the Great Fire, and narrowly escaped its ravages. It stood on the north side of Fen- church-street, and was originally the Elephant and Castle. Previous to the demolition of the premises there were removed from the wall two pictures, which Hogarth is said to have painted while a lodger there. About this time a parochial entertainment which had hitherto been given at the Elephant, was removed to the King's Head (Henry VIII.) Tavern nearly opposite. At this Hogarth was annoyed, and he went over to the King's Head, when an altercation ensued, and he left, threatening to stick them all up on the Elephant tap-room ; this he is said to have done, and on the opposite wall subsequently painted the Hudson's Bay Company's Porters going to dinner, representing Fen- church-street a century and a half ago. The first picture was set down as Hogarth's first idea of his Modem Midnight Conversation, in which he is supposed to have represented the parochial party at the King's Head, though it differs Old Queen's Head, Lower Road, Islington. {Pulled dotun 1820.) George and Blue Boar, Holborn. ( The Courtyard. THE AFRICAN, ST. MICHAEL'S ALLEY. 401 from Hogarth's print. There was a third picture, Harlequin and Pierrot, and on the wall of the Elephant first-floor was found a picture of Harlow Bush Fair, coated over with paint. Only two of the pictures were claimed as Hogarth's. The Elephant has been engraved ; and at the foot of the print, the information as to Hogarth having executed these paint- ings is rested upon the evidence of Mrs. Hibbert, who kept the house between thirty and forty years, and received her information from persons at that time well acquainted with Hogarth. Still, his biographers do not record his abode in Fenchurch-street. The Tavern has been rebuilt. The African, St. Michael's Alley. Another of the Cornhill taverns, the African, or Cole's GofTee-house, is memorable as the last place at which Professor Person appeared. He had, in some measure, recovered from the effects of the fit in which he had fallen on the 19th of September, 1808, when he was brought in a hackney-coach to the London Institution in the Old Jewry. Next morning he had a long discussion with Dr. Adam Clarke, who took leave of him at its close ; and this was the last conversation Porson was ever capable of holding on any subject Porson is thought to have fancied himself under restraint, and to convince himself of the contrary, next morning, the 20th, he walked out, and soon after went to the African, in St. Michael's Alley, which was one of his City resorts. On entering the coffee-room, he was so exhausted that he must have fallen had he not cailght hold of the curtain-rod of one of the boxes, when he was recognised by Mr. J. P. Leigh, a gentleman with whom he had frequently dined at the house. A chair was given him ; he sat down, and stared around with a vacant and ghastly countenance, and he evidently did not recollect Mr. Leigh. He took a little wine, which D D 402 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. revived him, but jpreviously to this his head lay upon his breast, and he was continually rnuttering something, but in so low and indistinct a tone as scarcely to be audible. He then took a little jelly dissolved in warm brandy-and-water, which considerably roused him. Still he could make no answer to questions addressed to him, except these words, which he repeated, probably, twenty times : — " The gentle- man said it was a lucrative piece of business, and / think so too," — but in a very low tone. A coach was now brought to take him to the London Institution, and he was helped in, and accompanied by the waiter ; he appeared quite senseless all the way, and did not utter a word ; and in reply to the question where they should stop, he put his head out of the window, and waved his hand when they came opposite the door of the Institution. Upon this Dr. Clarke touchingly observes : " How quick the transition from the highest degree of intellect to the lowest apprehen- sions of sense ! On what a precarious tenure does frail humanity hold even its choicest and most necessary gifts." Porson. expired on the night of Sunday, September 20th, with a deep groan, exactly as the clock struck twelve, in the forty-ninth year of his age. The Grave Maurice Tavern. There are two taverns with this name, — in St. Leonard's- road and Whitechapel-road. The history of the sign is curious. Many years ago the latter house had a written sign, " The Grave Morris," but this has been amended. But the original was the famous Prince of Orange, Grave Maurice, of whom we read in Howel's " Familiar Letters." In Junius's " Etymologicon," Grave is, explained to be Comes, or Count, as Palsgrave is Palatine Count; of which we have an instance in Palsgrave Count, or Elector Pala- tine, who married Princess Elizabeth, daughter of James I. Their issue were the Palsgrave Charles Louis, the Grave MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY, SPITALFIELDS. 403 Count or Prince Palatine Rupert^ and the Grave Count or Prince Maurice, who alike distinguished themselves in the Civil Wars. The two princes, Rupert and Maurice, for their loyalty and courage, were, after the Restoration, very popular; which induced the author of the " Tavern Anecdotes " to conjecture: "As we have an idea that the Mount at Whitechapel was raised to overawe the City, Maurice, before he proceeded to the west, might have the command of the work on the east side of the metropolis, and a temporary residence on the spot where his sign was so lately exhibited." At the close, of the troubles of the reign, the two princes retired. In 1652, they were endeavouring to annoy the enemies of Charles II. in the West Indies, when the Grave Maurice lost his life in a hurricane. The sign of the Grave Maurice remained against the house in the Whitechapel-road till the year 1806, when it was taken down to be repainted. It represented a soldier in a hat and feather, and blue uniform. The tradition of the neighbourhood is, that it is the portrait of a prince of Hesse, who was a great warrior, but of so inflexible a countenance, that he was never seen to smile in his life ; and that he was, therefore, most properly termed grave. Mathematical Society, Spitalfields. It is curious to find that a century and a half since, science found a home in Spitalfields, chiefly among the middle and working classes ; they met at small taverns in that locality. It appears that a Mathematical Society, which also cultivated electricity, was established in 1717, and met at the Mon- mouth's Head in Monmouth-street, until 1725, when they removed to the White Horse Tavern, in Wheeler-street; from thence, in 1735, to Ben Jonson's Head in Pelham- street ; and next to Crispin-street, Spitalfields. The mem- bers were chiefly tradesmen and artisans ; among those of D D 2 404 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. "higher rank were Canton', Dollond, Thomas Simpson, and Crossley. The Society lent their instruments (air-pumps, reflecting telescopes, reflecting microscopes, electrical ma- chines, surveying instruments, etc.) with books for the use of them, on the borrowers giving a note of hand for the value thereof. The number of members was not to exceed the square of seven, except such as were abroad or in the country ; but this was increased to the squares of eight and nine. The members met on Saturday evenings : each present was to employ himself in some mathematical exercise, or forfeit one penny ; and if he refused to answer a question asked by another in mathematics, he was to forfeit twopence. The Society long cherished a taste for exact science among the residents in the neighbourhood of Spitalfields, and accumulated a library of nearly 3000 volumes ; but in 1845, when on the point of dissolution, the few remaining members made over their books, records, and memorials to the Royal Astronomical Society, of which these members were elected Fellows.* This amalgamation was chiefly negotiated by Captain, afterwards Admiral Smyth. Globe Tavern, Fleet-street. In the last century, when public amusements were com- paratively few, and citizens dwelt in town, the Globe in Fleet-street was noted for its little clubs and card-parties. Here was held, for a time, the Robin Hood Club, a Wednesday Club, and later, Oliver Goldsmith and his friends often finished their Shoemaker's Holiday by supping at the Globe. Among the company was a surgeon, who, living on the Surrey side of the Thames (Blackfriars Bridge was not then built), had to take a boat every night, at ^s. or 4J. expense, and the risk of his life ; yet, when the bridge was built, he grumbled at having a penny to pay for crossing it. Other frequenters of the Globe were Archibald Hamilton, ' Curiosities of London," p. 678. THE DEVIL TAVERN. 405 '^ with a mind fit for a lord chancellor ;" Carnan, the book- seller, who defeated the Stationers' Company upon the almanac trial ; Dunstall, the comedian ; the veteran Macklin ; Akerman, the keeper of Newgate, who always thought it most prudent not to venture home till daylight ; and William Woodfall, the reporter of the parliamentary debates. Then there was one Glover, a surgeon, who restored to life a man who had been hung in Dublin, and who ever after was a plague to his deliverer. Brasbridge, the silversmith of Fleet- street, was a frequenter of the Globe. In his eightieth year he wrote his " Fruits of Experience," full of pleasant gossip about the minor gaieties of St. Bride's. He was more fond of following the hounds than his business, and failure was the ill consequence : he tells of a sporting party of four — that he and his partner became bankrupt ; the third, Mr. Smith, became Lord Mayor j and the fourth fell into poverty, and was glad to accept the situation of patrol before the house of his Lordship, whose associate he had been only a few years before. Smith had 100,000/. of bad debts on his books, yet died worth one-fourth of that sum. We remember the Globe, a handsomely-appointed tavern, some forty-five years since ; but it has long ceased to be a tavern. The Devil Tavern. This celebrated Tavern is described in the present work, pp. 9-13, as the meeting place of the Apollo Club. Its later history is interesting. Mull Sack, alias John Cottington, the noted highwayman, of the time of the Commonwealth, is stated to have been a constant visitor at the Devil Tavern. In the garb and character of a man of fashion, he appears to have levied contributions on the public as a pickpocket and highway- man, to a greater extent than perhaps any other individual of his fraternity on record. He not only had the honour of picking the pocket of Oliver Cromwell, when Lord Protector, 406 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. but he afterwards robbed King Charles II., then hving in exile at Cologne, of plate valued at 1500/. Another of his feats was his robbing the wife of the Lord General Fairfax. " This lady," we are told, " used to go to a lecture on a weekday, to Ludgate Church, where one Mr. Jacomb preached, being much followed by the precisians. Mull Sack, obsei-ving this, — and that she constantly wore her watch hanging by a chain from her waist, ^-against the next time she came there, dressed himself like an officer in the army ; and having his comrades attending him like troopers, one of them takes out the pin of a coachwheel that was going upwards through the gate, by which means, it falling off, the passage was obstructed ; so that the lady could not alight at ' the church-door, but was forced to leave her coach without. Mull Sack, taking advantage of this, readily presented him- self to her ladyship ; and having the impudence to take her from her gentlemen usher, who attended her alighting, led her by the arm into the church j and by the way, with a pair of keen or sharp scissors for the purpose, cut the chain in two, and got the watch clear away : she not missing it till sermon was done, when she was going to see the time of the day." At the Devil Tavern Mull Sack could mix with the best society, whom he probably occasionally relieved of their "watches and purses. There is extant a very rare print of him, in which he is represented partly in the garb of-a chimney-sweep, his original avocation, and partly in the fashionable costume of the period.* In the Apollo chamber, at the Devil Tavern', were re- hearsed, with music, the Court-day Odes of the Poets Laureate : hence Pope, in the " Dunciad :" Back to the Devil the loud echoes roll, And " Coll !" each butcher roars at Hockley Hole. The following epigram on the Odes rehearsals is by a wit of those times : * Jesse's " London and its Celebrities." THE DEVIL TAVERN. 407 When Laureates make Odes, do you ask of what sort ? Do you ask if they're good,, or are evil ? You may judge — ^from the Devil they come to the Court, And go from the Court to the Devil. St. Dunstan's, or the Devil Tavern, is mentioned as a house of old repute, in the interlude, Jacke Jugeler, 1563, where Jack, having persuaded his cousin jenkin. As foolish a knave v^ithall, As any is now, within London wall, that he was not himself, thrusts him from his master's door, and in answer to Jenkin's sorrowful question-^where his master and he were to dwell, replies, At the Devyll yf you lust, I can not tell ! Ben Johnson being one night at the Devil Tavern, a country gentleman in the company was obtrusively loquacious touching his land and tenements : Ben, out of patience, exclaimed, " What signifies to us your dirt and your clods ? Where you have an acre of land I have ten acres of wit !" " Have you so,'' retorted the countryman, " good Mr. Wise-acre ?" " Why, how now, Ben ?" said one of the party, " you seem to be quite stung !" " I was never so pricked by a hobnail before," grumbled Ben. There is a ludicrous reference to this old place in a song descnbing the visit of James I. to St. Paul's Cathedral on Sunday, 26th of March, 1620 : The Maior layd downe his mace, and cry'd, " God save your Grace, And keepe our King from all evill !" With all my hart I then viast, the good mace had been in my fist. To ha' pawn'd it for supper at the Devill I We have already given the famous Apollo " Welcome," but not immortal Ben's Rules, which have been thus happily translated by Alexander Brome, one of the wits who fre- 4o8 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. quented the Devil, and who left "Poems and Songs," 1661: he was an attorney in the Lord Mayor's Court : Bin yo!' son's Sociable Rules for the Apollo. Let none but guests, or clubbers, hither come. Let dunces, fools, sad sordid men keep home. Let learned, civil, merry men, b' invited, And modest too ; nor be choice ladies slighted. Let nothing in the treat offend the guests ; More for delight than cost prepare the feast. The cook and purvey'r must our palates know ; And none contend who shall sit liigh or low. Our waiters must quick-sighted be, and dumb. And let the drawers quickly hear and come. Let not our wine be mix'd, but brisk and neat, Or else the drinkers may the vintners beat. And let our only emulation be, JNot drinking much, but talking wittily. Let it be voted lawful to stir up Each other with a moderate chirping cup ; Let not our company be or talk too much ; On serious things, or sacred, let's not touch With sated heads and bellies. Neither may JFiddlers unask'd obtrude themselves to play. With laughing, leaping, dancing, jests, and songs, And whate'er else to grateful mirth belongs, Let's celebrate our feasts ; and let us see That all our jests without reflection be. Insipid poems let no man rehearse, Nor any be compelled to write a verse. All noise of vain disputes must be forborne, And let no lover in a comer mourn. To fight and brawl, like hectors, let none dare, Glasses or windows break, or hangings tear, Whoe'er shall publish what's here done or said From our society must be banishM ; Let none by drinking do or suffer harm, And, while we stay, let us be always warm. We must now say something of the noted hosts. Simon Wadlow appears for the last time, as a licensed rintner, iii. the Wardmote return, of December, 1626 ; and the buria THE DEVIL TAVERN. 409 register of St. Dunstan's records,: "March 3otli, 1627, Symon Wadlowe, vintner, was buried out of Fleet-street." On St. Thomas's Day, in the last-named year, the name of "the widow Wadlowe'' appears ; and in the following year, 1628, of the eight licensed victuallers, five were widows. The widow Wadlowe's name is returned for the last time by the Wardmote on December 21st, 1629. The name of John Wadlow, apparently the son of old Simon, appears first as a licensed victualler, in the Ward- mote return, December 21, 1646. He issued his token, showing on its obverse St. Dunstan holding the devil by his nose, his lower half being that of a satyr, the devil on the signboard was as usual, sable ; the origin of the practice being thus satisfactorily explained by Dr. Jortin : " The devils used often to appear to the monks in the figure of Ethiopian boys or men ; thence probably the painters learned to make the devil black," Hogarth, in his print of the Burning of the Rumps, represents the hanging of the effigy against the signboard of the Devil Tavern. In a ludicrous and boasting ballad of 1650, we read : Not the Vintry Cranes, nor St. Clement's Danes,, Nor the Devil can put us down-a. John Wadlow's name occurs for the. last time in the Ward- mote return of December, 1660. After the Great Fire, he rebuilt the Sun Tavern, behind the Royal Exchange : he was a loyal man, and appears to have been sufficiently wealthy to have advanced money to the Crown ; his auto- graph was attached to several receipts among the Exchequer documents lately destroyed. Hollar's Map of London, 1667, shows the site of the Devil Tavern, and its proximity to the barrier designated Temple Bar, when the house had become the resort of lawyers and physicians. In the rare volume of " Cambridge Merry Jests," printed in the reign of Charles II., the will of a tavern-hunter has the bequeathment of " ten pounds to be 410 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. drank by lawyers and physicians at the Devil's Tavern, by Temple Bar." The Tatter, October ii, 1709, contains Bickerstaff's ac- count of the wedding entertainment at the Devil Tavern, in honour of his sister Jenny's marriage. He hientions " the Rules of Ben's Club in gold letters over the chimney ;" and this is the latest notice of this celebrated ode. When, or by whom, the board was taken from " over the chimney,'' Mr. Burn has failed to discover. Swift tells Stella that Oct. 12, 17 10, he dined at the Devil Tavern with Mr. Addison and Dr. Garth, when the doctor treated. In 1 746, the Royal Society held here their Annual Dinner; and in 1752, concerts of vocal and instrumental music were given in the great room. A view of the exterior of the Devil Tavern, with its gable- pointed front, engraved from a drawing by Wale, was pub- lished in Dodsley's "London and its Environs," 1761. The sign-iron bears its pendent sign — the Saint painted as a half-length, and the devil behind him grinning grimly over his shoulder. On the removal of projecting signs, by authority, in 1764, the Devil Tavern sign was placed flat against the front, and there remained till the demolition of the house. Brush Collins, in March, 1775, deliverfed for several evenings, in the great room, a satirical lecture on Modem Oratory. In the following year, a Pandemonium Club was held here ; and, according to a notice in Mr. Burn's posses- sion, " the first meeting was to be on Monday, the 4th of November, 1776. These devils were lawyers, who were about commencing term, to the annoyance of many a nitherto happy bon-vivant." From bad to worse, the Devil Tavern fell into disuse, and Messrs. Child, the bankers, purchased the freehold in 1787, for 2800/. It was soon after demolished, and the site is now occupied by the houses called Child's-place. THE YOUNC DEVIL TAVEI^N. 411 We have selected and condensed these details from Mr. Burn's exhaustive article on the Devil Tavern, in the Beaufoy Catalogue. There is a token of this tavern, which is very rare. The initials stand for Simon Wadlpe, embalmed in Squire Western's favourite air " Old Sir Simon the Ring :": — "at THE D. AND DVNSTANS. The representation of the saint standing at liis anvil, and pulling the nose of the ' d.' with his pincers. — R. within temple barre. In the field, I. s. w." The Young Devil Tavern. The notoriety of the Devil Tavern, as common in such cases, created an opponent on the opposite side of Fleet- street, named " The Young Devil." The Society of Anti- quaries, who had previously met at the Bear Tavern, in the Strand, changed their rendezvous Jan. 9, 1707-8, to the Young Devil Tavern ; but the host failed, and as Browne Willis tells us, the Antiquaries, in or about 1709, "met at the Fountain Tavern, as we went down into the Inner Temple, against Chancery Lane.'' Later, a music-room, called the Apollo, was- attempted, but with no success : an advertisement for a concert, De- cember 19, 1737, intimated "tickets to be had at Will's Coffee-house, formerly the Apollo, in Bell Yard, near Temple Bar." This may explain the Apollo Court, in Fleet-street, unless it is found in the Cock Tavern below. Cock Tavern, Fleet-street. The Apollo Club, at the Devil Tavern, is kept in remem- brxnce by Apollo Court, in Fleet-street, nearly opposite ; next door eastward of which is an old tavern nearly as well known. It is, perhaps, the most primitive place of its kind in the metropolis : it still possesses a fragment of decoration of the time of James I., and the writer remembers the 412 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. tavern half a century ago, with considerably more of its original panelling. It is more than two centuries since (1665), when the Plague was raging, the landlord shut up his house and retired into the country ; and there is preserved one of the farthings referred to in this advertir.ement : — "This is to certify that the master of the Cock and Bottle, commonly called the Cock Alehouse, at Temple Bar, hath dismissed his servants, and shut up his house, for this long vacation, intending (God willing) to return at Michaelmas next ; so that all persons whatsoever who may have any accounts with the said master, or farthings belonging to the said house, are desired to repair thither before the 8th of this instant, and they shall receive satisfaction." Three years later, we find Pepys frequenting this tavern : " 23rd April, 1668. Thence by water to the Temple, and there to the Cock Alehouse, and drank, and eat a lobster, and sang, and mightily merry. So almost night, I carried Mrs. Pierce home, and then Knipp and I to the Temple again, and took boat, it being now night." The tavern has a gilt signbird over the passage door, stated to have been carved by Gibbons. Over the mantelpiece is some carving, at least of the time of James I. ; but we remember the entire room similarly carved, and a huge black-and-gilt clock, and settle. The head-waiter of our time lives in the verse of Laureate Tennyson— " O plump toead-waiter of the Cock !" apostrophizes the " Will Water- proof" of the bard, in a reverie wherein he conceives William to have undergone a transition similar to that of Jove's cup-bearer ; — And hence (says he) this halo lives about The waiter's hands, that reach j j j To each his perfect pint of stout, His proper chop to each. He looks not with the common breed, That with the napkin dally ; I think he came, like Gannymede, From some delightful valley. THE HERCULES' PILLARS TA VERNS. 413 And of the redoubtable bird, who is supposed to have per- formed tlie eagle's part in this abduction, he says : — The Cock was of a larger egg Than modern poultry drop, Stept forward on a firmer leg, And cramm'd a plumper crop. The Hercules' Pillars Taverns. Hercules Pillars Alley, on the south side of Fleet-street, near St. Dunstan's Church, is described by Stiype as " alto- gether inhabited by such as keep Publick Houses for enter- taiment, for which it is of note." The token of the Hercules Pillars is thus described by Mr. Akerman : — " ed. oldham at y hercvles. A crowned male figure standing erect, and grasping a pillar with each hand. — R. fillers in fleet street. In the field, his half PENNY, e. p. o." "From this example," illustratively observes Mr. Akerman, " it would seem that the locahty, called Hercules Pillars Alley, like other places in London, took its name from the tavern. The mode of representing the pillars of Hercules is somewhat novel; and, but for the inscription, we should have supposed the figure to represent Samson clutching the pillars of the temple of Dagon. At the trial of Stephen Colledge, for high-treason, in 1681, an Irish- man named Haynes, swore that he walked to the Hercules Pillars with the accused, and that in a room upstairs Col- ledge spoke of his treasonable designs and feeling. On another occasion the parties walked from Richard's coffee- house* to this tavern, where it was sworn they had a similar conference. Colledge, in his defence, denies the truth of the allegation, and declares that the walk from the coffee- house to the tavern is not more than a bow-shot, and that during such walk the witness had all the conversation to Subsequently "Dick's." 414 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. himself, though he had sworn that treasonable expressions had been niade use of on their way thither. "Pepys frequented this tavern : in one part of his 'Diary' he says, 'With Mr. Creed to Hercules Pillars, where we drank.' In another, ' In Fleet-street I met with Mr. Salis- bury, who is now grown in less than two years' time so great a limner that he has become excellent and gets a great deal of money at it. I took him to Hercules Pillars to drink.' " Again : " After the play was done, we met with Mr. Bateller and W. Hewer, and Talbot Pepys, and they fol- lowed us in a hackney-coach ; and we all supped at Her- cules Pillars ; and there I did give the best supper I could, and pretty merry j and so home between eleven and twelve at night." " At noon, my wife came to me at my tailor's, and I sent her home, and myself and Tom dined at Her- cules Pillars." Another noted •" Hercules Pillars " was at Hyde Park Corner, near Hamilton-place, on the site of what is now the pavement opposite Lord Willoughby's. " Here," says Cun- ningham, "Squire Western put his horses up when in pur- suit of Tom Jones ; and here Field Marshal the Marquis of Gransby was often found." And Wycherley, in his " Plain Dealer," 1676, makes the spendthrift Jerry Blackacre, talk of picking up his mortgaged silver " out of most of the ale- houses between Hercules Pillars and the Boatswain, in Wapping." Hyde Park Comer was noted for its petty taverns, some of which remained as late as 1805. It was to one of these taverns that Steele took Savage to dine, and where Sir Richard dictated and Savage wrote a pamphlet, which he went oi;t and sold for two guineas, with which the reckoning was paid. Steele then " returned home, having retired that day only to avoid his creditors, and composed a pamphlet only to discharge his reckoning." 4IS Hole-in-the-Wall Taverns. This odd sign exists in Chancery-lane, at a house on the east side, immediately opposite the old gate of Lincoln's- Inn ; " and," says Mr. Bum, " being supported by the de- pendants on legal functionaries, appears to have undergone fewer changes than the law, retaining all the vigour of a new establishment." There is another " Hole-in-the-wall " in St. Dunstan's-court, Fleet-street, much frequented by printers. Mr. Akerman says : — " It was a popular sign, and several taverns bore the same designation, which probably originated in a certain tavern being situated in some umbrageous re- cess in the old City walls. Many of the most popular and most frequented taverns of the present day are located in twilight courts and alleys, into which Phoebus peeps at Mid- summer-tide only when on the meridian. Such localities may have been selected on more than one account : they not only afforded good skulking ' holes ' for those who loved drinking better than work] but beer and other liquors keep better in the shade. These haunts, like Lady Mary's farm, were — In summer shady, and in winter warm. Rawlins, the engraver of the fine and much coveted Ox- ford Crown, with a view of the city under the horse, dates a quaint supplicatory letter to John Evelyn, ' from the Hole-in- liie-Wall, in St. Martin's ; ' no misnomer, we will be sworn, in that aggregation of debt and dissipation, when debtors were imprisoned with a very remote chance of redemption. In the days of Rye-house and Meal-tub plots, philanthropy over- looked such little matters ; and Small Debts Bills were not dreamt of in the philosophy of speculative legislators. Among other places which bore the designation of the Hole- in-the-Wall, there was one in Chandos-street, in which the famous Duval, the highwayman, was apprehended after an attack on — tv/o bottles of wine, probably drugged by a ' friend ' or mistress." 4i6 The Mitre, in Fleet-street. This was the true Johnsonian Mitre, so often referred to in " Boswell's Life ;" but it has earlier fame. Here, in 1640, Lilly met Old Will Poole, the astrologer, then living in Ram- alley. The Royal Society Club dined at the Mitre from 1743 to 1750, the Society then meeting in Crane-court, nearly opposite. The Society of Antiquaries met some time at the Mitre. Dr. Macmichael, in "The Gold-headed Cane," makes Dr. Radcliffe say : — " I never recollect to have spent a more delightful evening than that at the Mitre Tavern in Fleet-street, where my good friend Billy Nutly, who was indeed the better half of me, had been prevailed upon to accept of a small temporary assistance, and joined our party, the Earl of Denbigh, Lords Colepeper and Stowel, and Mr. Blackmore." The house has a token : — william paget at the. A mitre. — R. mttre in fleet street. In the field, w. e. p. Johnson's Mitre is commonly thought to be the tavern with that sign, which still exists in Mitre-court, over against Fetter-lane ; where is shown a cast of Nollekens' bust of Johnson, in confirmation of this house being his resort. Such was not the case ; Boswell distinctly states it to have been the Mitre Tavern in Fleet- street ; and the records by Lilly and the Royal Society alike specify " in Fleet-street," which Mr. Burn, in his excellent account of the Beaufoy Tokens, explains was the house. No. 39, Fleet-street, that Macklin opened, in 1788, as the Poet's Gallery; and lastly Saunders's auction-rooms. It was taken down to enlarge the site for Messrs. Hoare's new banking-house. The now Mitre Tavern, in Mitre-court, was originally called Joe's Coffee-house ; and on the shutting up of the old Mitre, in Fleet-street, took its name ; this being four years after John- son's death. The Mitre was Dr. Johnson's favourite supper-house, the SHIP TAVERN, TEMPLE BAR. 417 parties including Goldsmith, Percy, Hawkesworth, and Boswell; there was planned the tour to the Hebrides. Johnson had a strange neiTOus feeling, which made him uneasy if he had not touched every post between the Mitre and his own lodgings. Johnson took Goldsmith to the Mitre, where Boswell and the Doctor had supped together in the previous month, when Boswell spoke of Goldsmith's " very loose, odd, scrambling kind of life,'' and Johnson defended him as one of our first men as an author, and a very worthy man ; — adding, " he has been loose in his principles but he is coming right." Boswell was impatient of Goldsmith from the first hour of their acquaintance. Chamberlain Clarke, who died in 1831, aged 92, was the last surviving of Dr. Johnson's Mitre friends. Mr. William Scott, Lord Stowell, also frequented the Mitre. Boswell has this remarkable passage respecting the house : — " We had a good supper, and port-wine, of which he (Johnson) sometimes drank a bottle. The orthodox high-church sound of The Mitre — the figure and manner of the celebrated Samuel Johnson — the extraordinary power and precision of his conversation, and the pride arising from finding myself admitted as his companion, pro- duced a variety of sensations, and a pleasing elevation of mind, beyond what I had ever experienced." Ship Tavern, Temple Bar. This noted Tavern, the site of which is now denoted by Ship-yard, is mentioned among the grants to Sir Christopher Hatton, 1571. There is, in the Beaufoy Collection, a Ship token, dated 1649, which is evidence that the inner tavern of that sign was then extant. It was also called the Drake from the ship painted as the sign being that in which Sir Francis Drake voyaged round the world. Faithome, the celebrated engraver, kept shop next door to the Drake. E E 4lS CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. " The Ship Tavern, in the Butcher-row, near Temple Bar," occurs in an advertisement so late as June, 1756. The taverns about Temple Bar were formerly numerous ; and the folly of disfiguring signboards was then, as at a later date, a street frolic. " Sir John Denham, the poet, when a student at Lincoln's-Inn, in 1635, though generally temperate as a drinker, having stayed late at a tavern with some fellow-students, induced them to join him in ' a frolic,' to obtain a pot of ink and a plasterer's brush, and blot out all the signs between Temple Bar and Charing Cross. Aubrey relates that R. Estcourt, Esq., carried the ink-pot : and that next day it caused great confusion ; but it happened Sir John and his comrades were discovered, and it cost them some moneys.'' The Palsgrave Head, Temple Bar. This once celebrated Tavern, opposite the Ship, occupied the site of Palsgrave-place, on the south side of the Strand, near Temple Bar. The Palsgrave Frederick, afterwards King of Bohemia, was affianced to the Princess Elizabeth (only daughter of James I.), in the old banqueting house at Whitehall, December 27, 16 12, when the sign was, doubtless, set up in compliment to him. There is a token of the house in the Beaufoy Collection. (See "Burn's Catalogue," P- ^25-) Here Prior and Montague, in " The Hind and Panther Transversed," make the Country Mouse and the City Mouse bilk the Hackney Coachman : But now at Piccadilly they arrive, And taking coach, t'wards Temple Bar they drive^ But at St. Clement's eat out the back, And slipping through the Palsgrave, bilkt poor hack. 419 Heycock's, Temple Bar. Near the Palsgrave's Head Tavern, was Heycock's Ordi- nary, much frequented by Pariiament men and gallants. Andrew Marvell usually dined here : one day, having eaten heartily of boiled beef, with some roasted pigeons and as- paragus, he drank his pint of port ; and on the coming in of the reckoning, taking a piece of money out of his pocket, held it up, and addressing his associates, certain members of Parliament, known to be in the pay of the Crown, said " Gentlemen, who would lett himself out for hire, while the can have such a dinner for half-a-crown ?" The Crown and Anchor, Strand. This famous tavern extended from Arundel-street east- ward to Milford-lane, in the rear of the south side of the Strand, and occupied the site of an older house with the same sign. Strype, in 17^9, described it as "the Crown Tavern ; a large and curious house, with good rooms and other conveniences fit for entertainments." Here was instituted the Academy of Music in 1710J and here the Royal Society Club, who had previously met at the Mitre in Fleet-street, removed in 1780, and dined here for the first time on December 21, and here they continued until the tavern was converted into a club-house in 1847. The second tavern was built in 1790. Its first landlord was Thomas Simkin, a very corpulent man, who, in super- intending the serving of a large dinner, leaned over a balustrade, which broke, when he fell from a considerable height to the ground, and was killed. The sign appears to have been originally " The Crown," to which may have been added the Anchor, from its being the emblem of St. Clement's, opposite; or firom the Lord High Admiral having once resided on the site. The tavern contained a E E a 420 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. ball-room, 84 feet by 35 feet 6 inches; in 1798, on the birthday of C. J. Fox, was given in this house, a banquet to 2000 persons, when the Duke of Norfolk presided. The large room was noted for political meetings in the stormy Tory and Radical times ; and the Crown and Anchor was long the rallying-point of the Westminster electors. The room would hold 2500 persons : one of the latest popular orators who spoke here was Daniel O'Connell, M.P. There was originally an entrance to the house from the Strand, by a long passage, such as was the usual approach to our old metropolitan taverns. The premises were entirely destroyed by fire, in 1854, but have been rebuilt* Here Johnson and Boswell occasionally supped ; and here Johnson quarrelled with Percy about old Dr. Monsey. Thither was brought the altar-piece (St. Cecilia), painted by Kent for St. Clement's Church, whence it was removed, in 1725, by order of Bishop Gibson, on the supposition that the picture contained portraits of the Pretender's wife and children. The Canary-House in the Strand. There is a rare Token of this house, with the date, 1665. The locality of the " Canary House in the Strande," says Mr. E. B. Price, " is now, perhaps, impossible to trace \ and it is, perhaps, as vain to attempt a description of the wine from which it took its name, and which was so celebrated in that and the -preceding century. Some have erroneously identified it with sack. We find it mentioned among the various drinks which Gascoyne so virtuously inveighs against in his " Delicate Diet for daintie mouthde Droon- kardes," published in 1576 : " We must have March beere, dooble-dooble Beere, Dagger ale, Bragget, Renish wine. White wine, French wine, Gascoyne wine. Sack, HoUocke, Canaria wine, Vino greco, Vinum amabile, and al the wines * See Whittington Club, p. 266. THE FOUNTAIN TAVERN. 421 that may be gotten. Yea, wine of its selfe is not sufficient; but Sugar, Limons, and sundrj" sortes of Spices must be drowned therein." The bibbers of this famed wine were wont to be termed " Canary birds." Of its qualities we can perhaps form the best estimate from the colloquy between " mine hostess of the Boar's Head and Doll Tearsheet ;" in which the former charges the latter with having " drunk too much Canaries ; and that's a marvellous searching wine, and it perfumes the Hood ere one can say, What's this ?"* The Fountain Tavern, Strand, now the site of Nos. 10 1 and 102, Ries's Divan, gave the name to the Fountain Club, composed of political opponents of Sir Robert Walpole. Strype describes it as " a very fine Tavern, with excellent vaults, good rooms for entertainment, and a curious kitchen for dressing of meat, which, with the good wine there sold, make it well resorted to.'' Dennis, the Critic, describes his supping here with Loggan, the painter, and others, and that after supper they " drank Mr. Wycherley's health by name of Captain Wycherley.'' Here, Feb. 12, 1743, was held a great meeting, at which near 300 members of both Houses of Parliament were present, to consider the ministerial crisis, when the Duke of Argyll observed to Mr. Pulteney, that a grain of honesty was worth a cart-load of gold. The meeting was held too late to be of any avail, to which Sir Charles Hanbury Williams alludes in one of his odes to Pulteney, invoking his Muse thus : — Then enlarge on his cunning and wit ; Say, how he harang'd at the Fountain ; Say, how the old patriots were bit, And a mouse was produc'd by a Mountain. ♦ We learn from Collier's " Roxburghe Ballads " {Zit. Gaz. No. 1566) that in the reign of James I. " sparkling sack " was sold at is. dd. per quart, and " Canary — pure French wine," at "jd. 432 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. Upon the Tavern site was a Drawing Academy, of which Cosway and Wheatley were pupils ; here also was the lecture-room of John Thelwall, the political elocu- tionist. At No. loi, Ackermann, the printseller, illuminated his gallery with cannel coal, when gas-lighting was a novelty. In Fountain-court, named from the Tavern, is the Coal- hole Tavern, upon the site of a coal-yard; it was much resorted to by Edmund Kean, and was one of the earliest night taverns for singing. Tavern Life of Sir Richard Steele. Among the four hundred letters of Steele's preserved in the British Museum, are some written from his tavern haunts, a few weeks after marriage, to his " Dearest being on earth ;" Eight o'clock, Fountain Tavern, Oct. 22, 1707' My dear, I beg of you not to be uneasy ; for I have done a great deal of business to-day very successfully, and vi'ait an hour or two about my Gazette. In the next he does " not come home to dinner, being obliged to attend to some business abroad." Then he writes from the Devil Tavern, Temple Bar, January 3, 1707-8, as follows : — I have partly succeeded in my business, and enclose two guineas as earnest of more. DearPrue, I cannot come home to dinner; I languish for your welfare, and will never be a moment careless more. Your faithful husband, etc. Within a few days, he writes from a Pall Mall tavern : — Dear Wife, Mr. Edgecome, Ned Ask, and Mr. Lumley, have desired me to sit an hour with them at the George, in Pall Mall, for which I desire your patience till twelve o'clock, and that you will go to bed, etc. When money-matters were getting worse, Steele found it necessary to sleep away from home for a day or two, and he -(vrites : — CLARE MARKE T TA KERNS. 423 Tennis-court Coffee-house, May 5, 1 708. Dear Wife, I hope I have done this day what will be pleasing to you ; in the meantime shall lie this night at a baker's, one Leg, over against the Devil Tavern, at Charing Cross. I shall be able to confront the fools who wish me uneasy, and shall have the satisfaction to see thee cheerful and at ease. If the printer's boy be at home, send him hither ; and let Mr. Todd send by the boy my night-gown, slippers, and clean linen. You shall hear from me early in the morning, etc. He is found excusing his coming home, being " invited to supper at Mr. Boyle's." " Dear Prue," he says on this occasion, " do not send after me, for I shall be ridiculous." There were Caudles in those days.* Clare Market Taverns. Clare Market lying between the two great theatres, its butchers were the arbiters of the galleries, the leaders of theatrical rows, the musicians at actresses' marriages, the chief mourners at players' funerals. In and around the market were the signs of the Sun ; the Bull and Butcher, afterwards Spiller's Head; the Grange j the Bull's Head, where met " the Shepherd and his Flock Club," and where Dr. Radcliffe was carousing when he received news of the loss of his 5000/. venture. Here met weekly a Club of Artists, of which society Hogarth was a member, and he engraved for them a silver tankard with a shepherd and his flock. Next is the Black Jack in Portsmouth-street, the haunt of Joe Miller, the comedian, and where he uttered his time-honoured "Jests :" the house remains, but the sign has disappeared. Miller died in 1738, and was buried in St Clement's upper ground, in Portugal-street, where his grave- stone was inscribed with the following epitaph, written by Stephen Duck: "Here lie the remains of honest Joe Miller, who was a tender husband, a sincere friend, a " Lives of Wits and Humourists," vol. i. p. 134. 424 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. facetious companion, and an excellent comedian. He departed this life the 15th day of August, 1738, aged 54 years. " If humour, wit, and honesty could save The humorous, witty, honest, from the grave. This grave had not so soon its tenant found, With honesty, and wit, and humour crown'd. £^ Or could esteem and love preserve our health. And guard us longer from the stroke of Death, The stroke of Death on him had later fell, Whom all mankind esteem'd and loved so well. " The stone was restored by the parish grave-digger at the close of the last century; and in 1816, anew stone was set up by Mr. Jarvis Buck, chiurchwarden, who added S. Duck to the epitaph. The burial-ground has been cleared away, and the site has been added to the grounds of King's College Hospital. At the Black Jack, also called the Jump (from Jack Sheppard having once jumped out of a first-floor window, to escape his pursuers, the thief-takers,) a Club known as " the Honourable Society of Jackers," met until 1816. The roll of the fraternity " numbers many of the popular actors since the time of Joe MUIer, and some of the wits j from John Kemble, Palmer, and Theodore Hook down to Kean, Liston, and the mercurial John Pritt Harley. Since the dissolution of this last reUc of the sociality of the Joe Miller age, ' wit-combats ' have been comparatively unknown at the Old Black Jack."* The Craven Head, Drury-lane. This modem Tavern was part of the offices of Craven House, and the adjoining stabling belonged to the mansion ; the extensive cellars still remain, though blocked up. Craven House was built for William Lord Craven, the 'Jo. Miller;" a Biography, 18 THE COCK TAVERN, IN BOW STREET. 425 hero of Creutznach, upon part of the site of Drury House, and was a large square pile of brick, four storeys high, which occupied the site of the present Craven-buildings, built in 1723. That portion of the mansion abutting on Magpie alley, now Newcastle-street, was called Bohemia House, and was early in the last century, converted into a tavern, with the sign of the head of its former mistress, the Queen of Bohemia. But a destructive fire happening in the neighbour- hood, the tavern was shut up, and the building suffered to decay; till, at length, in 1802, what remained of the dilapi- dated mansion was pulled down, and the materials sold ; and upon the ground, in 1803, Philip Astley erected his Olympic Pavilion, which was burnt down in 1849. The Craven Head was some time kept by William Ox- berry, the comedian, who first appeared on the stage in 1807 ; he also edited a large collection of dramas. Another landlord of the Craven Head was Robert Hales, "the Norfolk Giant " (height 7ft. 6in.), who, after visiting the United States, where Bamum made a speculation of the giant, affd 28,000 persons flocked to see him in ten days, — in January, 1851, returned to England, and took the Craven Head Tavern. On April nth Hales had the honour of being presented to the Queen and Royal Family, when Her Majesty gave him a gold watch and chain, which he wore to the day of his death. His health had been much impaired by the close confinement of the caravans in which he exhibited. He died in 1863, of consumption. Hales was cheerful and well-informed. He had visited several Continental capitals, and had been presented to Louis Philippe, King of the French. The Cock Tavern, in Bow-street. This Tavern, of indecent notoriety, was situated about the middle of the east side of Bow-street, then consisting of very good houses, well inhabited, and resorted to by gentry for 426 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON: lodgings. Here Wycherley and his first wife, the Countess of Drogheda, lodged over against the Cock, "whither, if he at any time were with his friends, he was obliged to leave the windows open, that the lady might see there was no woman in the company, or she would be immediately in a down- right raving condition." (" Dennis's Letters.") The Cock Tavern was the resort of the rakes and Mohocks of that day, when the house was kept by a woman called " Oxford Kate." Here took place the indecent exposure, which has been told by Johnson, in his life of Sackville, Lord Dorset. " Sackville, who was then Lord Buckhurst, with Sir Charles Sedley, and Sir Thomas Ogle, got dnmk at the Cock, in Bow-street, by Covent-Garden, and going into the balcony, exposed themselves to the company in very indecent postures. At last, as they grew warmer, Sedley stood forth naked, and harangued the populace in such profane language, that the public indigna- tion was awakened ; the crowd attempted to force the door, and being repulsed, drove in the performers with stones, and broke the windows of the house. For this misdemeanour they were indicted, and Sedley was fined five hundred pounds ; what was the sentence of the others is not known. Sedley employed Killegrew and another to procure a remission of the King, but (mark the friendship of the dissolute !) they begged the fine for themselves, and exacted it to the last groat." Sir John Coventry had supped at the Cock Tavern, on the night when, in his way home, his nose was cut to the bone, at the corner of Suffolk-street, in the Haymarket, " for reflecting on the King, who, therefore, determined to set a mark upon him :" he was watched ; when attacked, he stood up to the wall, and snatched the flambeau out of the servant's hands, and with that in one hand, and the sword in the other, he defended himself, but was soon disarmed, and his nose was cut to the bone ; it was so wellsewed up that the scar was scarce to be discerned. This attempt at THE SHAKSPEAkE TA VERX. 427 assassination occasioned the Coventry Act, 22 and 23 Car. II. c. I, by which specific provisions were made against the offence of maiming, cutting off, or disabling, a limb or member. The Queen's Head, Bow-street. This Tavern, in Duke's Court, was once kept by a facetious person, named Jupp, and is associated with a piece of humour, which may either be matter of fact, or inter- preted as a pleasant satire upon etymological fancies. One evening, two well-known characters, Annesley Shay and Bob Todrington (the latter caricatured by Old Dighton), met at the Queen's Head, and at the bar asked for " half a quartern " each, with a little cold water. They continued to drink until they had swallowed four-and-twenty half-quarterns in water, when Shay said to the other, " Now, we'll go." " Oh, no," replied he, " we'll have another, and then go.'' This did not satisfy the Hibernians, and they continued drinking on till three in the morning, when they both agreed to GO : so that under the idea of going they made a long stay, and this was the origin of drinking, or calling for, goes of liquor ; but another, determined to eke out the measure his own way, used to call for a quartern at a time, and these, in the exercise of his humour, he called stays. We find the above in the very pleasant " Etymological Compendium," third edition, revised and improved by Merton A. Thorns, 1853- The Shakspeare Tavern. Of this noted theatrical tavern, in the Piazza, Covent Garden, several details were received by Mr. John Green, in 1815, from Twigg, who was apprenticed at the Shak- speare. They had generally fifty turtles at a rime; and upon an average from ten to fifteen were dressed every week ; and it was not unusual to send forty quarts of turtle soup a-week into the country, as far as Yorkshire. 42S CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. The sign of Shakspeare, painted by Wale, cost nearly 200/. : it projected at the comer, over the street, with very rich iron-work. Dick Milton was once landlord ; he was a great gamester and once won 40,000/. He would fre- quently start with his coach-and-six, which he would keep about six months, and then sell it. He was so much re- duced, and his credit so bad, at times, as to send out for a dozen of wine for his customers; it was sold at xds. a bottle. This is chronicled as the first tavern in London that had rooms ; and from this house the other taverns were supplied with waiters. Here were held three clubs — the Madras, Bengal, and Bombay. Twigg was cook at the Shakspeare. The largest dinner ever dressed here consisted of 108 made dishes, besides hams, etc., and vegetables j this was the dinner to Admiral Keppel, when he was made First Lord of the Admiralty. Twigg told of another dinner to Sir Richard Simmons, of Earl's Court, Mr. Small, and three other gentlemen ; it con- sisted of the following dishes : — A turbot of 401b., a Thames salmon, a haunch of venison, French beans and cucumbers, a green goose, an apricot tart, and green peas. The dinner was dressed by Twigg, and it came to about seven guineas a head. The Shakspeare is stated to have been the first tavern in Covent Garden. Twigg relates of Tomkins, the landlord, that his father had been a man of opulence in the City, but failed for vast sums. Tomkins kept his coach and his country- house, but was no gambler, as has been reported. He died worth 40,000/. His daughter manied Mr. Longman, the music-seller. Tomkins had never less than a hundred pipes of wine in his cellar ; he kept seven waiters, one cellar-man, and a boy. Each waiter was smartly dressed in his ruffles,' and thought it a bad week if he did not make 7/. Stacie, who partly served his apprenticeship to Tomkins, told Twigg that he had betted nearly 3000/ upon one of his race-horse, THE ROSE TAVERN, COVEN T GARDEN 429 of the name of Goldfinder. Stacie won, and afterwards sold the horse for a large sum. There was likewise a Shakspeare Tavern in Little Russell- street, opposite Drury-lane Theatre ; the sign was altered in 1828, to the Albion. Shuter, and his Tavern-places. Shuter, the actor, at the age of twelve, was pot-boy at the Queen's Head (afterwards Mrs. Butler's), in Covent Garden, where he was so kind to the rats in the cellar, by giving them sops from porter, (for, in his time, any person might have a toast in his beer,) that they would creep about him and upon him ; he would carry them about between his shirt and his waistcoat, and even called them by their names. Shuter was next pot-boy at the Blue Posts, op- posite Brydges-street, then kept by EUidge, and afterwards by Carter, who played well at billiards, on account of the length of his arms. Shuter used to carry beer to the players, behind the scenes at Drury-lane Theatre, and elsewhere, and being noticed by Hippisley, was taken as his servant, and brought on the stage. He had also been at the house next the Blue Posts, — the Sun, in Russell-street, which was frequented by Hippisley. Mr. Theophilus Forrest, when he paid Shuter his money, allowed him in his latter days two guineas per week, found him calling for gin, and his shirt was worn to half its original size. Latterly, he was hooted by the boys in the street : he became a Methodist, and died at King John's Palace, Tottenham Court Road. The Rose Tavern, Covent Garden. This noted Tavern, on the east side of Biydges-street, flourished in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and from its contiguity to Drury-lane Theatre, and close con- 43° CLUB LIFE OF LON/)ON. nection with it, was frequented by courtiers and men of letters, of loose character, and other gentry of no character at all. The scenes of The Morning Ramble, or the Town Humour, 1672, are laid "at the Rose Tavern, in Covent Garden," which was constantly a scene of drunken broils, midnight orgies, and murderous assaults by men of fashioni who were designated " Hectors," and whose chief pleasure lay in frequenting taverns for the running through of some fuddled toper, whom wine had made valiant. Shadwell, in his comedy of the Scowrers, 1691, written at a time when obedience to the laws was enforced, and these excesses had in consequence declined, observes of these cowardly ruffians : " They were brave fellows indeed ! In those days a man could not go from the Rose Tavern to the Piazza once, but he must venture his hfe twice." Women of a certain freedom of character frequented taverns at the commencement of the last century, and the Rose, doubtless, resembled the box-lobby of a theatre. In the Rake Reformed, 17 18, this tavern is thus noticed : Not far from thence appears a pendent sign, Whose bush declares the product of the vine, Whence to the traveller's sight the full-blown Rose, Its dazzling beauties doth in gold disclose ; And painted faces flock in tally'd clothes. Dramatists and poets resorted to the house, and about 1726 . Gay and other wits, by clubbing verses, concocted the well-known love ditty, entitled " Molly Mogg of the Rose," in compliment to the then barmaid or waitress. The Welsh ballad, "Gwinfrid Shones," printed in 1733, has also this tribute to Molly Mogg, as a celebrated toast : Some sing Molly Mogg of the Rose, And call her the Oakingham pelle ; Whilst others does farces compose, On peautiful MoUe Lepelle. Hogarth's third print of the Rake's Progress, published in 1735, exhibits a principal room in the Rose Tavern : Lether- EVANS'S, COVENT GARDEN. 431 coat, the fellow with a bright pewter dish and a candle, is a portrait ; he was for many years a porter attached to the house. Garrick, when he enlarged Drury-lane Theatre, in 1776, raised the new front designed by Robert Adam, took in the whole of the tavern, as a convenience to the theatre, and retained the sign of the Rose in an oval compartment, as a conspicuous part of the decoration, which is shown in a popular engraving by J. T. Smith. In D'Urfey's Songs, 17 19, we find these allusions to the Rose : A Song in Praise of Chalk, by W. Pettis. We the lads at the Rose A patron have chose, Who's as void as the best is of thinking ; And without dedication, Will assist in his station, And maintains us in eating and drinking. Song. — The Nose. Three merry lads met at the Rose, To speak in the praises of the nose : The flat, the sharp, the Roman snout, The hawk's nose circled round about. The crooked nose that stands awry, The ruby nose of scarlet dye ; The brazen nose without a face, That doth the learned college grace. Invention often ban-en grows, Yet still there's matter in the nose. Evans's, Covent Garden. At the north-west comer of Covent Garden Market is a lofty edifice, which, with the building that preceded it, possesses a host of interesting associations. Sir Kenelm Digby came to live here after the Restoration of Charles II. : here he was much visited by the philosophers of his day, and built in the garden in the rear of the house a laboratory. 432 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. The mansion was altered, if not rebuilt, for the Earl of Orford, better known as Admiral Russell, who, in 1692, defeated Admiral de Tourville, and ruined the French fleet. The fa9ade of the house originally resembled the forecastle of a ship. The fine old staircase is formed of part of the vessel Adriiiral Russell commanded at La Hoguej it has handsomely carved anchors, ropes, and the coronet and initials of Lord Orford. The Earl died here in 1727; and the house was afterwards occupied by Thomas, Lord Archer, until 1768; and by James West, the great, collector of books, etc., and President of the Royal Society, who died in 177a. Mr. Twigg recollected Lord Archer's garden (now the site of the singing-room), at the back of the Grand Hotel, about 1765, well stocked; njushrooms and cucumbers were grown there in high perfection. In 1774, the house was opened by David Low as an hotel j the first family hotel, it is said, in London. Gold, silver, and copper medals were struck, and given by Low, as advertisements of his house ; the gold to the princes, silver to the nobility, and copper to the public generally. About 1794, Mrs. Hudson, then proprietor, advertised her hotel, " with stabling for one hundred noblemen and horses." The next proprietors were Richardson and Joy. At the beginning of the present century, and some years afterwards, the hotel was famous for its large dinner- and coffee-room. This was called the " Star," from the number of men of rank who frequented it. One day a gentleman entered the dining-room, and ordered of the waiter two lamb-chops ; at the same time inquiring, " John, have you a cucumber ?" The waiter replied in the negative — it was so early in the season ; but he would step into the market, and inquire if there were any. The waiter did so, and returned with — " There are a few, but they are half-a-guinea apiece." " Half-a-guinea apiece ! are they small or large?" " Why, rather small." " Then buy two," was the reply. This The Swiss Cottage, Finchley Road. [House of Meeting for Gimans in London.^ The Catharine Wheel Inn, Southwarlc. THE FLEECE, COVENT GARDEN. 433 incident has been related of various epicures; it occurred to Charles Duke of Norfolk, who died in 1815. Evans, of Covent Garden Theatre, removed here from the Cider Cellar in Maiden-lane, and, using the large dining- room for a singing-room, prospered until 1844, when he re- signed the property to Mr. John Green. Meanwhile, the character of the entertainment, by the selection of music of a higher class than hitherto, brought so great an accession of visitors, that Mr. Green built, in 1855, on the site of the old garden (Digby's garden) an extremely handsome hall, to which the former singing-room forms a sort of vestibule. The latter is hung with the collection of portraits of cele- brated actors and actresses, mostly of our own time, which Mr. Green has been at great pains to collect. The sp'ecialitt of this very agreeable place is the olden music, which is sung here with great intelligence and spirit ; the visitors are of the better and more appreciative class, and often include amateurs of rank. The reserved gallery is said to occupy part of the site of the cottage in which the Kembles occasionally resided during the zenith of their fame at Covent Garden Theatre ; and here the gifted Fanny Kemble is said to have been born. The Fleece, Covent Garden. The Restoration did not mend the morals of the taverns in Covent Garden, but increased their licentiousness, and made them the resort of bullies and other vicious persons. The Fleece, on the west side of Brydges-street, was notorious for its tavern broils ; L'Estrange, in his translation of Quevedo's "Visions," i667,makesoneof the Fleece hectors declare he was never well but either at the Fleece Tavern or Bear at Bridgefoot, stuffing himself " with food and tipple, till the hoops were ready to burst." According to Aubrey, the Fleece was " very unfortunate for homicides ;" there were several killed there in his time ; it was a private house till F F 434 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. 1692. Aubrey places it in York-street, so that there must have been a back or second way to the tavern — a very con- venient resource. 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, znd Bk. When sharp with hunger, scorn you to be fed Except on pea-chicks at the Bedford Head ? Pope, Sobei- Advice. Walpole refers to a great supper at the Bedford Head, oxdered 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 dnim, beating up for a volunteer mob ; but it did not take. The Salutation, Tavistock-street. This was a noted tavern in the last century, at the corner of Tavistock-court, Covent Garden. Its original sign was taken down by Mr. Yerrel, the landlord, who informed J. T. Smith, that it consisted of two gentlemen saluting each other, dressed in flowing wigs, and coats with square pockets, large enough to hold folio books, and wearing swords, this being the dress of the time when the sign was put up, supposed to have been about 1707, the date on a stone at the Covent Garden end of the court. Richard Leveridge, the celebrated singer, kept the Saluta- tion after his retiriement from the stage; and here he brought out his " Collection of Songs," with the music, engraved and printed for the author, 1727. Among the frequenters of the Salutation was William THE CONSTITUTION TAVERN, COVENT GARDEN. 435 Cussans, or Cuzzons, a native of Barbadoes, and a most eccentric fellow, who lived upon an income allowed him by his family. He once hired himself as a potman, and then as a coal-heaver. He was never seen to smile. He personated a chimney-sweeper at the Pantheon and Opera- house masquerades, and wrote the popular song of Robinson Crusoe : He got all the wood That ever he could, And he stuck it together with glue so ; And made him a hut. And in it he put The carcase of Robinson Crusoe. He was a bacchanalian customer at the Salutation, and his nightly quantum of wine was liberal : he would some- times take eight pints at a sitting, without being the least intoxicated. The Constitution Tavern, Covent Garden. In Bedford-street, near St. Paul's church-gate, was an old tavern, the Constitution (now rebuilt), noted as the resort of working men of letters, and for its late hours ; indeed, the sittings here were perennial. Among other eccentric persons we remember to have seen here, was an ac- complished scholar named Churchill, who had travelled much in the East, smoked and ate opium to excess, and was full of information. Of another grade were two friends who lived in the same house, and had, for many years "turned night into dayj" rising at eight o'clock in the evening, and going to bed at eight next morning. They had in common some astrological, alchemical, and spiritual notions, and often passed the whole night at the Constitu- tion. This was the favourite haunt of Wilson, the landscape painter, who then lived in the Garden ; he could, at the Constitution, freely indulge in a pot of porter, and enjoy the F F 3 43t> CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. fun of his brother-painter, Mortimer, who preferred this house, as it was near his own in Church-passage. The Cider Cellar. This strange place, upon the south side of Maiden-lane, Covent Garden, was opened about 1730, and is described as a " Midnight Concert Room," in " Adventures Under- ground, 1750." Professor Person was a great lover of cider, the patronymic drink for which the cellar was once famed ; it became his nightly haunt, for wherever he spent the evening, he finished the night at the cider cellar. One night, in 1795, as ^^ ^^.t here smoking his pipe, with his friend George Gordon, he abruptly said, " Friend George, do you think the widow Lunan an agreeable sort of personage, as times go ?" Gordon assented. " In that case," replied Porson, " you must meet me to-morrow morning at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, at eight o'clock ;" and without saying more, Porson paid his reckoning and went home. Next morning, Gordon repaired to the church, and there found Porson with Mrs. Lunan and a female friend, and the parson waiting to begin the ceremony. The service being ended, the bride and her friend retired by one door of the church and Porson and Gordon by another. The bride and bride- groom dined together with friends, but after dinner Porson contrived to slip away and passed the rest of the day with a learned friend, and did not leave till the family were about to retire for the night, when Porson adjourned to the Cider Cellar, and there stayed till eight o'clock next morning. One of his companions here is said to have shouted before Porson, " Dick can beat us all : he can drink all night, and spout all day," which greatly pleased the Professor. We remember the place not many years after Porson's death, when it was, as its name implied, a cellar, and the fittings were rude and rough : over the mantel-piece was a large mezzotint portrait of Porson, framed and glazed, which OFFLEY'S, HENRIETTA STREET. 437 we take to be the missing portrait named by the Rev. Mr. Watson, in his Life of the Professor. The Cider Cellar was subsequently enlarged ; but its exhibitions grew to be too sensational for long existence. Offley's, Henrietta-street. This noted Tavern, of our day, enjoyed great and de- served celebrity, though short-lived. It was No. 23, on the south side of Henrietta-street, Covent Garden, and its fame rested upon Burton ale, and the largest supper-room in this theatrical neighbourhood ; with no pictures, placards, paper- hangings, or vulgar coffee-room finery, to disturb one's relish of the good things there provided. Offley, the proprietor, was originally at Bellamy's, and " as such, was privileged to watch, and occasionally admitted to assist, the presiding priestess of the gridiron at the exercise of her mysteries." Offley's chop was thick and substantial ; the House of Commons' chop was small and thin, and honourable Members sometimes ate a dozen at a sitting. Offley's chop was served with shalots shred, and warmed in gravy, and accompanied by nips of Burton ale, and was a delicious after-theatre supper. The large room at that hour was generally crowded with a higher class of men than are to be seen in taverns of the present day. There was excellent dining upstairs, with wines really worth drinking — all with a sort of Quakerly plainness, but solid comfort. The fast men came to the great room, where the spkialitk was singing by amateurs upon one evening of the week ; and to prevent the chorus waking the dead in their cerements in the adjoining churchyard, the coffee-room window was double. The "professionals" stayed away. Francis Crew sang Moore's melodies, then in their zenith \ sometimes, in a spirit of waggery, an amateur would sing " Chevy Chase " in full ; and now and then Offley himself trolled out one of Captain Morris's lyrics. Such was this right joyously con- 438 CLUB LI1