(Vol. viii., pp. 315. 480.)
The Calves' Head Club existed much earlier than the time when their doings
were commemorated in the _Weekly Oracle_ (Vol. viii., p. 315.) of February
1, 1735, or depicted in the print of 1734 (Vol. viii., p. 480.). There is a
pamphlet, {16} the second edition of which was published in small 4to., in
1703, entitled:
"The Secret History of the Calves' Head Club, or, the Republican
Unmasqu'd, wherein is fully shewn the Religion of the Calves-Head
Heroes in their Anniversary Thanksgiving Songs on the Thirtieth of
January, by their Anthems," &c. &c.
We are told in the latter part of the long title-page that the work was
published "to demonstrate the restless, inplacable spirit of a certain
party still among us," and certainly the statements therein, and more than
all the anthems at the end, do show the bitterest hatred--so bitter, so
intense and malignant, that we feel on reading it that there must be some
exaggeration.
The author professes to have at first been of opinion "that the story was
purely contrived on purpose to render the republicans more odious than they
deserv'd." Whether he was convinced to the contrary by ocular demonstration
he does not tell us, but gives us information he received from a
gentleman--
"Who, about eight years ago, went out of meer curiosity to see their
Club, and has since furnish'd me with the following papers. I was
inform'd that it was kept in no fix'd house, but that they remov'd as
they saw convenient; that the place they met in when he was with 'em
was in a blind ally, about Morefields; that the company wholly
consisted of Independents and Anabaptists (I am glad for the honour of
the Presbyterians to set down this remark); that the famous Jerry
White, formerly Chaplain to Oliver Cromwell, who no doubt on't came to
sanctify with his pious exhortations the Ribbaldry of the Day, said
Grace; that after the table-cloth was removed, the anniversary anthem,
as they impiously called it, was sung, and a calve's skull fill'd with
wine, or other liquor, and then a brimmer went about to the pious
memory of those worthy patriots that kill'd the tyrant, and deliver'd
their country from arbitrary sway; and lastly, a collection made for
the mercenary scribler, to which every man contributed according to his
zeal for the cause, or the ability of his purse.
"I have taken care to set down what the gentleman told me as faithfully
as my memory wou'd give me leave; and I am persuaded that some persons
that frequent the Black Boy in Newgate Street, as they knew the author
of the following lines so they knew this account of the Calves' Head
Club to be true."
The anthems for the years 1693, 1694, 1695, 1696, and 1697, are given; but
they are too long and too stupidly blasphemous and indecent to quote here.
They seem rather the satires of malignant cavaliers than the serious
productions of any Puritan, however politically or theologically heretical.