London at the End of the Century:A Book of Gossip
a Beckett, Arthur William
1900
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CLUB.
OF course, everyone can give a history of the club movement. It is common knowledge that the magnificent palaces in and , and , grew out of the coffee houses kept by such men as White, Brookes and Boodles. These respected individuals (who appeared and disappeared in the last century) knew literally I suppose the latest survival of what may be termed was Evans's in -a hostelrie that long since has ceased being a name, and is (alas!) rapidly fading as a memory. Green has gone, and before he retired, with his kind wishes for everyone's fireside and his snuff-box, the collection of theatrical pictures in had been scattered far and wide by a sale by auction. The table, and the table, and | |
77 | the corner haunted by Lord Henry Lennox, Serjeant Ballantyne, and Mr. Lionel Lawson have vanished into air, and the glees and suppers and are visions of the past. It is true that a with a Bar-sounding title that was started some years ago in the neighbourhood of the Temple was of nearly as informal a character as Evans's, but in other respects the resemblance between the two establishments was not particularly remarkable. All sorts of stories are told about this club. One friend was treating another to numbers of whiskies-and-sodas. said the guest. suggested the host. urged the guest. was the prompt rejoinder. Then there were legends of the pockets of the waiters being deprived of their contents while they (the servants) were handing round coffee; and the marker complained that a member had walked off with half-a-dozen billiard balls while a star was being marked at pool. It was said that the committee refused to take any notice of the first offence because the property of the waiters did not belong to the club; but they put up a notice calling upon the ivory to return it to the house steward. I need scarcely say that many of these amusing stories formed a part of that magnificent collection of in the |
78 | possession of that most Mr. Ben Trovato. And another of these anecdotes possibly tells the tale of a gentleman who preferred to belong to instead of paying the full five guineas demanded from his companions as the regulation annual subscription. |
asked a friend. was the reply. | |
But of course such a state of things nowadays at the end of the century is utterly impossible. I suppose I must be writing of a time when the coffee house was maturing into the proprietary club, with its safeguards of committee, candidates' book, ballot box, entrance fees, and first year's donation payable in advance. | |
