Old and New London, A Narrative of its History, its People and its Places. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings from the Most Authentic Sources. vol 4
Thornbury, Walter
1872-78
St. James's Street.-Club-Land (continued).
St. James's Street.-Club-Land (continued).
| |
The spread and increase of our clubs are remarkable signs of the times; their uses and advantages are such as to make wonder not only why such things were not established very much earlier than they were, but how existed without them.
and were clubs of London for many years; being the oldest, and famous as a in the time of Hogarth. The origin of was the of | |
p.153 | Messrs. Boothby and James, at they established it as a rival, and it was at held at Sir Willoughby Aston subsequently originated but these clubs were clubs of amusement, politics, and play, not the matter-of-fact meeting-places of general society, nor did they offer the extensive and economical advantages of breakfast, dinner, and supper, now afforded by the present race of establishments. And, connected with this subject in some degree, what a wonderful change in the state of affairs has taken place since it was the custom of the king to play publicly at , on Twelfth Night. In the for is the following account of the result of this annual performance for that year :-- |
| |
The custom of hazard-playing was discontinued after the accession of George III.; but it is odd, looking back scarcely a century, to find the sovereign, after attending divine service with the most solemn ceremony in the morning, doing that in the evening which, in these days, subjects men to all sorts of pains and penalties, and for the prohibition and detection of which a bill has been passed through Parliament, arming the police with the power of breaking into the houses of Her Majesty's lieges at all hours of the day and night. | |
It is obvious that the gradual improvement of the club-houses, together with the changes which passed over West-end society, would almost of its own accord develop the club system out of that which preceded it. There is, therefore, little need for dwelling on the subject, in the way of explanation, and so we will at once pass on up . | |
At the south-west corner of , next door to the corner house, and commanding the view up , was the the great rendezvous of the Whig party for nearly a years, beginning with the reign of Queen Anne. Its very name has become classical, and indeed immortal, by being so repeatedly mentioned in the pages of the , &c. Thus we find, in a passage already quoted by us from the number of the - and thus Addison, in of his papers in the (No. ), remarks- This house was much frequented by Swift, who here used to receive his letters from and who tells us in his how in he christened the infant of its keepers, a Mr. and Mrs. Elliot, and afterwards sat down to a bowl of punch along with the happy parents. Being so close to the palace it was also frequented by the officers of the household troops, who, it is said, would lounge in to listen to the learned Dr. Joseph Warton, as he sat at breakfast in of the windows. Mr. John Timbs reminds us that,
| |
In there appeared a poem with the title of It begins thus:--
| |
It is evident from what follows that these coffeehouses soon became places of general resort-
| |
At the door of the St. James's Coffee-house, a globular oil-lamp, then described as was exhibited in , by its inventor, Michael Cole. To this house, in early life, the elder D'Israeli, as his son tells us, would repair to read the newspapers of the day, returning to his home at Enfield in the evening, sometimes
| |
p.154 | |
The St. James's Coffee House continued to exist for some few years into the present century, when, its Whig friends having deserted its doors, it passed quietly away, superseded, no doubt, in a great degree, by Brooks's Club. | |
The the name of which implies a very humble and rural origin, was probably an inn which had existed in the days when St. James's was a veritable hospital and not a palace. It stood near the bottom, on the western side of the street. When the Court settled at St. James's, it was frequented by persons of fashion, and grew gradually in importance, as did the suburb of which it formed part. We should like to have seen it in the days when the frolicsome maids of honour of the Tudor and Stuart days ran across thither from the Court to drink syllabub and carry on sly flirtations. In the absence of documents, it is impossible to trace its growth down to the days of Swift, who speaks in his in , of it was, however, a small hotel at that date, for the party were obliged to It was possibly on account of this and other proofs of its earlier stage of existence, that even when the had grown into a recognized rendezvous of wits, politicians, and men of fashion, Lord Thurlow alluded to it during of the debates on the Regency Bill as the By the time of Lord Shelburne, or at all events in the days of Pitt and Fox, it had become of the chief taverns at the West-end, and had added to its premises a large room for public meetings. | |
Here the Earl of Sunderland, the great Duke of Marlborough's son-in-law, having shaken off the cares of state, would dine off a chop or steak, in a quiet way, along with Lord Townshend, or his constant companion, Dr. Monsey. The tavern was for many years the head-quarters of the annual dinners or other convivial meetings of the leading clubs and literary and scientific associations. Mr. Timbs gives the following as the list of such gatherings in , on the authority of the late Admiral W. H. Smyth-The Institute of Actuaries, the Catch Club, the Johnson Club, the Dilettanti Society, the Farmers', the Geographical and the Geological, the Linnaean and Literary Societies, the Navy Club, the Philosophical Club, the Club of the Royal , the Political Economy Club, the Royal Academy Club, the Royal Astronomical Society, the Royal Institution Club, the Royal London Yacht Club, the Royal Naval Club, the Royal Society Club, the St. Alban's Medical Club, the St. Bartholomew's Cotemporaries, the Star Club, the Statistical Club, the Sussex Club, and the Union Society of St. James's. | |
The Literary Society (or Club) was limited to members, and its meetings in were held here. At that time Canning was a member of it; so were Sir William Scott (Lord Stowell), Sir William Grant, and Mr. J. H. Frere. | |
Mr. Cradock tells us in his that evening he dined with the club, being introduced by Dr. Percy, and met, , Edmund Burke and Oliver Goldsmith. He adds an amusing story which brings in both Burke and Johnson, and may therefore well bear telling here :-- | |
| |
Here, in the beginning of the present century, the used to dine, the Prince of Wales or the Duke of Sussex taking the chair. Beckford was frequently a guest, and so were Brummell, Sir Sidney Smith, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and Tommy Moore, then quite a young man. Here, too, the members of the Old Royal Naval Club--not a club in the modern Westend sense, but a charitable institution for the dispensing of charity among old and their families-used to dine on the anniversary of the battle of the Nile. | |
At the were formerly held, on Sunday evenings during the London season, the dinners of the Dilettanti Society, the portraits of whose members-many of them painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds-adorned the walls of a room which was devoted exclusively to their accommodation. | |
This society, composed of lovers of the fine arts, was founded in by some gentlemen who had travelled in Italy, and who thought that that fact, coupled with a taste for the beautiful and for the remains of antiquity, was a sufficient bond of union. The members, though they have enjoyed a for a century and a half, have never had a They met originally at Parsloe's, in , but removed to the in . By the time that the society was years old, its finances were found to be so prosperous, that its members resolved to send out properly-qualified persons to the East, in order to collect information as to such antiquities as the hands of time and of man had spared, and to bring back their measurements, and correct drawings and elevations. The persons so sent abroad were Mr. Chandler, a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, an architectural draughtsman named Rivett, and Mr. J. Stuart, whose name will long be remembered as the author of This noble work, published under the auspices of the Dilettanti Society, in instalments, had the effect of rescuing Grecian architecture and art from the contempt into which it had fallen, and to revive a taste for the majestic and beautiful. This book was followed, at distant intervals, by similar works, magnificently illustrated; among these were published in ; in ; a large treatise on in ; and Professor Cockerell's elaborate work on published in . It was, no doubt, the interest excited by the early meetings of the Dilettanti Society which woke up the Earl of Aberdeen, or, to give him Lord Byron's title- to write and publish his Sir William Gell to explain the Troad, Argolis, and Ithaca; whilst the Earl of Elgin, our ambassador at Constantinople, rescued from destruction and sent over to England that collection of Athenian sculpture which is known to every visitor to the as the Elgin Marbles. Among the best-known members of the Dilettanti Society, besides those above-mentioned, were Sir William Chambers, Mr. John Towneley, the Marquises of Northampton and Lansdowne, Sir Richard Westmacott, Henry Hallam, the Duke of Bedford, Mr. H. T. Hope, Sir Martin Archer Shee, Mr. Richard Payne Knight, the Earl of Holderness, Sir Bourchier Wrey, Sir Henry Englefield, and Lord Le Despencer (better known by his former name of Sir Francis Dashwood), Lord Northwick, George Selwyn, Charles James Fox, Garrick, Colman, Lord Holland, Lord Fitzwilliam, Sir William Hamilton, and the Duke of Dorset. | |
Mr. Peter Cunningham says that the original stood on the site of the present Conservative Club, to build which it was pulled down in , when it was moved to another house a few doors nearer to the gate of the palace. When he wrote, in , the Dilettanti still numbered members, and continued to hold their Sunday evening meetings. Horace Walpole, in , had described it in of his letters to Sir H. Mann, as he adds, Mr. Cunningham, however, assures us, that in the middle of the present century --it may be hoped and believed for the better. If Horace Walpole's words are true, it could not well be for the worse. | |
An interesting account of the Dilettanti Society will be found in , vol. . Since the demolition of their old house, the Dilettanti have held their weekly festive gatherings at Willis's Rooms, where the pictures belonging to the society now grace the walls. Their publications, however, are no longer such as those which were produced under their auspices in the last century. | |
p.156 | |
The original was taken down in . says Mr. John Timbs,
| |
On the site of the new was built, in , the which was modified in , and changed its name to the It is still, however, mainly recruited from the Civil Service of the Crown, including county magistrates, ex-high sheriffs, and deputy-lieutenants. | |
Adjoining the on the south, is of the most recent additions to clubland, in an institution styling itself the It occupies a portion of the house No. . | |
Higher up, at the corner of , stands the This was established in , in order to supply accommodation for those who could not procure admission into the The building was erected from the designs of Messrs. Basevi and Sydney Smirke. It is at once ornate and stately in its external appearance, and the interior is well arranged, but the club is not rich in anecdote or in incident. | |
On the same side of the street, only or houses intervening, is This club was so named after its founder, who was [extra_illustrations.4.156.3] | |
p.157 | also, at time, the keeper of Dr. King, in his alludes to these clubs in the following terms, which imply that they were both addicted to high play:-- Here used to meet an inner club--an -called Lady Lepel Hervey gives a clue to its name when she laments, in a letter dated , that By way of a sneer at the wide-spread habit of presenting civic freedoms to Mr. Pitt and his colleagues in office, this same Lady Hervey writes, under date ,
|
Some of Horace Walpole's dilettante friends at Strawberry Hill once beguiled a dull and wet day by devising for this club a satirical coat of arms. The shield was devised by Walpole, Sir C. H. Williams, George Selwyn, and the Hon. R. Edgecumbe, and drawn by the last. The drawing formed a lot in the Strawberry Hall sale; and a copy of it, with an explanation of its punning or allusions to card-playing, the great end and object of the club, will be found in Chambers'
| |
has always embraced a goodly list of members of the titled classes and the heads of the chief county families, though less aristocratic than or A most painful circumstance, however, took place within it in the year . To use the words of Captain Gronow's
| |
At No. , on this side of the street, is the In the reign of Queen Anne there was a famous chocolate-house known as the a favourite sign to mark that new | |
p.158 | and fashionable beverage. Its frequenters were Tories of the strictest school. De Foe tells us in his that In course of time, the developed into a gaming-house and a club. In its former capacity, Horace Walpole, writing in , mentions an amusing anecdote connected with it : It is to be hoped that he left the gaminghouse a wiser man thenceforth. |
The anecdotes connected with the when it was really would fill a volume. of them may be quoted here. Dr. Garth, who used often to appear there, was sitting morning in the coffee-room conversing with persons of when the poet Rowe, who was seldom very attentive to his dress and appearance, though fond of being noticed by great people, entered the door. Placing himself in a box nearly opposite to that in which the doctor sat, Rowe looked constantly round with a view to catch his eye, but not succeeding, he desired the waiter to ask him for the loan of his snuff-box, which he knew to be a very valuable , set with diamonds,. and the gift of royalty. After taking a pinch he returned it, but again asked for it so repeatedly that Garth, who knew him well, and saw through his purpose, took out a pencil and wrote on the lid Greek characters, and , The poet's vanity was mortified, and he left the house. | |
As an instance of the familiarity that would sometimes show itself between the menials and the aristocratic visitors at these fashionable rendezvous, this anecdote may be given. A waiter named Samuel Spring having on occasion to write to George IV., when Prince of Wales, commenced his letter as follows :-- &c. His Royal Highness next day saw Sam, and after noticing the receiving of his note, and the freedom of the style, said,
| |
As a club, the did not cease to keep up its reputation for high play. Although the present establishment bearing the name dates its existence only from the year , the old chocolatehouse was probably converted into a club as far back as the middle of the last century. Lord Byron was a member of this club; and so was Gibbon, the historian. | |
pre-eminently the club-house of the Whig aristocracy, occupies No. on the west side of the street. It was originally established at in , in , by the Duke of Portland, Charles James Fox, and others. They afterwards removed it to , and the club-house, designed by Holland, was opened in . The early history of this club, so long the head-quarters of the leaders of the old Whig party, is thus told in the --
| |
If we may trust Captain Gronow's at for nearly half a century, the play was of a more gambling character than at Faro and macao were indulged in to an extent which enabled a man to win or to lose a considerable fortune in night. It was here that Charles James Fox, Selwyn, Lord Carlisle, | |
p.159 | Lord Robert Spencer, General Fitzpatrick, and other great Whigs won and lost hundreds of thousands, frequently remaining at the table for many hours without rising. On occasion Lord Robert Spencer contrived to lose the last shilling of his considerable fortune given him by his brother, the Duke of Marlborough. General Fitzpatrick being much in the same condition, they agreed to raise a sum of money, in order that they might keep a faro bank. The members of the club made no objection, and ere long they carried out their design. As is generally the case, the bank was a winner, and Lord Robert bagged, as his share of the proceeds, . He retired, strange to say, from the fetid atmosphere of play, with the money in his pocket, and never again gambled. George Harley Drummond, of the famous banking-house at , played once only in his whole life at at whist, on which occasion he lost to Brummell. This event caused him to retire from the banking-house of which he was a partner. Lord Carlisle was of the most remarkable victims amongst the players at and Charles Fox was not more fortunate, being subsequently always in pecuniary difficulties. |
The membership of in the days of Pitt and Fox, was a sort of crucial test by which the members of the Whig party of the time were distinguished. It was a passport to Holland and , and also to Carlton House, while the Prince of Wales was at war with his father and his ministers. Hence, on Sheridan's entrance into the , in , of the objects of Fox and his friends was to procure his admission inside the doors of But he was, personally, most unpopular with of the leaders of the Whig , George Selwyn and Lord Bessborough, who were resolved to keep him out. As black ball at that time excluded a candidate, the Foxites resolved to get him in by a . Aided by Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, the presiding genius of the Whig party, when the time for the ballot came on, they sent false messages, conveying alarming news of the illness of near relatives, to both of the dissentients. The bait took in both cases, each no doubt supposing that the other would be in his place to give the black ball; and the result was the election of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, wit, dramatist, orator, and statesman in . | |
Even after he had published the volume of his Gibbon observes that his forced residence in London was sad and solitary.
| |
Unlike his proud and haughty rival Pitt, it was in the nature of Fox to unbend in social intercourse. The latter, when away from London or from his club, found his home at St. Anne's Hill, at Chertsey, where he derived amusement from his library, from his garden, from conversation, and from a variety of domestic and literary avocations. | |
Here, William, the Duke of Devonshire, would spend his evenings, at whist or faro, whilst [extra_illustrations.4.159.1] , was laying down the law to her political allies in the saloons of . At time O'Connell was a member; but he was not at all a man after the hearts of the old English Whigs, who on occasion, if we may believe Mr. Raikes' had serious thoughts of expelling him. | |
Mr. Raikes, under date of , recording the defeat of the Reform Bill in the , and the refusal of the king to create fresh peers, writes:
he adds, This Mr. Stanley, it may be added, is the same individual who became afterwards the Tory premier, as the [extra_illustrations.4.159.2] . | |
Like of which we have spoken above, contains a sort of in the an association of the admirers of the statesman whose name it perpetuates. The members of the Fox Club dine together constantly during the London season. Though nearly years have passed away since the death of Charles James Fox, in the upper room at Chiswick House, yet his name and memory are fresh among the sons and grandsons of his old personal and political friends. It may be asked why there is not still equally green and fresh amongst us a as once there was? Englishmen as a rule are as well as in their tastes and likings; but, as a matter of fact, the is particularly extinct, while that named after the great Premier's rival, Fox, still exists. Can the reason be after all that while Pitt was stern and haughty, Fox was pleasant and genial, and made friends instead of repelling them? If so, [extra_illustrations.4.159.3] | |
p.160 | it is good to know that amiable traits of character are not soon forgotten. |
according to Mr. Rush, the American Minister, at the time of the Regency, consisted of members. | |
A little below is the founded in . The house, which is semi-Gothic in its style of architecture, reaches back into . It consists mainly of the younger members of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. | |
At the corner of , the house No. has been, since , the home of the and next door, occupying part of the extensive building formerly known as is the Like its neighbour, this club is of quite recent origin (), but it nevertheless numbers among its members most of the of the Liberal party. It was at time proposed that its name should be altered to the so as to place it in direct antagonism to the but this proposal was ultimately negatived. Whenever the club begins to build, it will probably take the site hitherto occupied by the late Duke of Buckingham's house on the south side of adjoining to the War Office, and at present used for some of the clerks of that department. | |
Lord Hartington was chosen as the chairman of the so called after his father. Among its trustees and members of its committee appeared the names of the Duke of , Lords Huntly, Cork, Wolverton, Kensington, and Lansdowne; Mr. Gladstone and Mr. John Bright; the Right Hons. W. F. Cogan, H. C. E. Childers, and W. P. Adam; Sir Henry James, Q.C., Mr. A. D. Hayter, Sir William Drake, and several leading members of Parliament. | |
at which we have now arrived, was built for its founder, the late Mr. John Crockford, in , by Wyatt. It was erected at a vast cost, and in the grand proportions and palatial decorations of the principal floors, On the ground floor are the entrance-hall and inner-hall opening into a grand suite of rooms of noble proportions; on the principal floor are a suite of very lofty and splendid reception-rooms, gorgeously decorated , approached from a superb staircase, itself an architectural triumph, and a great feature of the building. | |
This club was founded by Mr. John Crockford, of whom we have already made mention in speaking of the shop just outside , where his money was made; and during the last years of his life-time it was frequented by wealthy and aristocratic gentlemen. It lost its character at his death in , and soon afterwards was closed. It was re-opened, after a few years' interval, as the it then was converted into a dining-room, called the and, lastly, it was taken by a Joint-Stock Company as an auction-room. | |
The death of Mr. Crockford, in , is thus mentioned in the of Mr. T. Raikes :--
| |
At the time of his decease Mr. Crockford was worth , if we may trust the abovementioned authority, though he had lost as much more in mining and other speculations. His death was accelerated by anxiety about his bets on the Derby; a proof of the inconsistency of human nature, which seeks the acquisition of wealth at the risk even of life and health, without which all is valueless. | |
In a work entitled with illustrations by Cruikshank, it is not obscurely hinted that Mr. Crockford made his fortune by keeping a in , St. James's, and that the fashionable club called after his name was in reality little or no better. No doubt very high play was carried on there, and the exact limits of a house so called have never, that we know of, been strictly defined. | |
Many stories are told about and most of them certainly not to the credit of its owner. For instance, Mr. B. Jerrold tells us that in the proprietor of
It is almost a satisfaction to read the fact which has been stated, that this same proprietor of became afterwards so reduced in circumstances that in he begged money of the emperor, at whose he had at all events connived. | |
Mr. Raikes writes in his from Paris, in -
| |
p.161 | |
near the top of the street, on the east side, occupies the site of the town-house of Elizabeth, Countess of Northumberland, daughter of Theophilus, Earl of Suffolk. Here she lived in her widowhood, if we may trust Horace Walpole, whose information came from the lady's niece by marriage. She was adds Horace Walpole,
| |
originally stood at the bottom of , on the eastern side, nearly opposite to where are now the Conservative and Thatched House Clubs. Gay, in his thus brings to the mind's eye the scene which in former times might here be witnessed--in the winter, of course :
| |
The history of the establishment of this club is related as follows in the --
| |
was the great Tory club, and in the days of the Regency, when Whig and Liberal peers could almost be counted on the fingers, it embraced -thirds, if not -fourths, of the among its members. Being so fashionable, it is not a matter of wonder that it should have been extremely difficult to gain entrance to it. Its doors were shut against anybody, however rich, who had made his money by mercantile industry. Its large bow window, looking down into , during the season, was very frequently filled by the leading dandies and beaux, who preferred lounging to politics: such as the Marquis of Worcester, the Duke of Argyll, Lord Alvanley, Lord Foley, Mr. G. Dawson Damer, Hervey Aston, Lloyd, &c. | |
Mr. Rush, the American ambassador, speaks of as the Tory Club established in the reign of Charles II., and consisting of members. He adds that it was generally so full that there was great difficulty in gaining admission; and that the place of head-waiter was said to be worth a year. The club was a great place of resort among the
said George Selwyn,
| |
This club was originally of the head-quarters of the Tories of the old school, who here; in , discussed the advisability of throwing out the Reform Bill. But from and after that day it adopted a neutral tint, being frequented by members of both sides of the house. | |
The records of are said to be perfect from . It may be questioned whether any entry on the books of (as Swift once described it) has more interest than that which records an event in the year -viz., when the leading members of the club gave a complimentary dinner to their fellow-member, the Duke of Cambridge, on his departure to take a command in the military expedition about to proceed to the East. | |
To this club belonged Sir Everard Fawkner, an official high in the Post Office department, who was celebrated for playing cards for high stakes, and very badly too. In allusion to his office, George Selwyn used to say, that some who played with him was
| |
At this club, on the last night of the year , the Lord Montfort supped and played at cards, as usual, and on leaving told the waiter to send his lawyer to wait on him the next day at , as he had important business to transact. The important business was simply the work of blowing out his brains with a horse-pistol. Lady Hervey says that the sole cause of this rash act was a quite unaccountable in a man who had enjoyed all the success of public life. | |
Colley Cibber, not only an excellent actor, but the author of a treatise on the stage, which Horace Walpole terms was a member of Davies, in his tells us the following story about him :--
| |
is more than once alluded to by Pope, as a place where high play and loose morality prevailed in his day. In of Walpole's letters occurs the following rich bit of satire on the folly of betting, which we may imagine was here indulged in to a very large extent:--
| |
By common consent, as it would appear from Captain Gronow, the late Lord Alvanley was re- | |
garded as the author of the chief witticisms in the clubs after the abdication of the throne of dandyism by Brummell, who, before that time, was always quoted as the sayer of good things, as Sheridan had been some time before. Lord Alvanley had the talk of the day completely under his control, and was the arbiter of the in St. James's. A attributed to him gave rise to the belief that Solomon caused the downfall and disappearance of Brummell; for on some friends of the prince of dandies observing that if he had remained in London something might have been done for him by his old associates, Alvanley replied,
| |
Of Lord Russell tells in his an amusing story. In order to do this, he must at that time have been qualified by his patron with freehold land to the value of a year! Such was the representation of England in the good old days before the Reform Bill! | |
About the year this club was offered for auction, and changed hands, becoming the property of Mr. T. Percivall, of Wansford, in Northamptonshire. Since this period there has been, it is stated, a great falling off in the number of members proposed for election; and after being so many years the great resort of the dandies, it is rapidly becoming the stronghold of what may be called This is supposed to be the result of the establishment of the Marlborough Club, which has special attractions for the rising young men of the day. The club nevertheless still counts a goodly number of the wealthy portion of the aristocracy among its members, including the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Edinburgh. | |
is the last of the surviving clubs which have been identified with the names of individuals; it was so called after its founder, of whom, however, little or nothing is known. It is still the property of his representatives, though governed by a committee. Like it has a very modest and unpretending aspect when compared with some of the lordly edifices in its neighbourhood; but it is said to be marked by most agreeable and comfortable arrangements within. It is frequented mainly by elderly country gentlemen, chosen indifferently from both of the great political parties. Hence this club has never been identified with politics. It has been sarcastically said to be sacred to Boeotian tastes, but it has had distinguished persons on its list of members- Edward Gibbon, for instance, whose waddling gait and ugly visage convulsed with laughter not merely such fast friends as Lord and Lady Sheffield, but many of his literary friends and compeers. | |
Among the eccentric members of this club were the late Mr. Michael Angelo Taylor, M.P., and John, Earl of Westmorland. The former was a notorious gossip and retailer of news and small talk; in fact, quite a in his way: the latter was as thin as a lath. Coming in day, Taylor found Lord Westmorland, who had just dined off a roast fowl and a leg of mutton. said Taylor,
replied Lord Westmorland, His lordship, slim as was his figure, was remarkable for a prodigious appetite: in fact, it is said that he thought nothing of eating up a respectable joint or a couple of fowls at a single meal. | |
The original name of this club was the and along with and it formed a trio of nearly. coeval date. In its early years it was noted for its costly gaieties, and its epicurism is thus commemorated in the ;--
| |
A variety of clubs, past and present, have not been mentioned in this or the previous chapter: these, however, will be dealt with as we come to them in our future account of , , and other parts of the West-end of
| |
It may be remarked, by way of a conclusion to the present chapter, that there were from the too many aristocratic clubs and private mansions in to leave much room for plebeian inns and hostelries on either side of so highly respectable a thoroughfare. Still, Mr. Jacob Larwood is at the pains of reminding us, in his very amusing and entertaining that, in the century, there was in this street an inn known as He adds, however, The as such, has not been a favourite as the sign of an inn, though we fail to see why such should be the case if there be truth in the old saying of Horace, that
| |
Footnotes: [extra_illustrations.4.156.3] Thatched House Club--Dinner of Dilettante Society [extra_illustrations.4.159.1] his Duchess, the beautiful Georgiana [extra_illustrations.4.159.2] Earl of Derby [extra_illustrations.4.159.3] Lord Stanley |
