Transcriber's Note:
Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have
been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
On page 47, "Mrs. Read's" should possibly be "Mr. Read's".
Martin Folkes is also spelled Martin Foulkes.
On page 100, "Sheridan had no personal dislike" should possibly be
"Selwyn had no personal dislike".
On page 177, "set in half-a-dozen barbers" should possibly be
"sent in half-a-dozen barbers".
On page 287, "Woolbidding" should possibly be "Woolbeding".
CLUB LIFE OF LONDON.
[Illustration: CAPTAIN CHARLES MORRIS.
_Engraved by W. Greatbatch from the Original Picture in the
Possession of the Family._]
CLUB LIFE OF LONDON
WITH
ANECDOTES OF THE CLUBS, COFFEE-HOUSES
AND TAVERNS OF THE METROPOLIS
DURING THE 17TH, 18TH, AND 19TH CENTURIES.
BY
JOHN TIMBS, F.S.A.
[Illustration: See Beef-steak Society, p. 143.]
IN TWO VOLUMES.--VOL. I.
LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY, PUBLISHER IN ORDINARY TO HER MAJESTY.
1866.
PRINTED BY
JOHN EDWARD TAYLOR, LITTLE QUEEN STREET,
LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS.
PREFACE.
Pictures of the Social Life of the Metropolis during the last two
centuries are by no means rare. We possess them in Diaries, Memoirs,
and Correspondence, in almost countless volumes, that sparkle with
humour and gaiety, alternating with more serious phases,--political or
otherwise,--according to the colour and complexion, and body of the
time. Of such pictures the most attractive are Clubs.
Few attempts have, however, been made to _focus_ the Club-life of
periods, or to assemble with reasonable limits, the histories of the
leading Associations of clubbable Men,--of Statesmen and Politicians,
Wits and Poets, Authors, Artists, and Actors, and "men of wit and
pleasure," which the town has presented since the days of the
Restoration; or in more direct succession, from the reign of Queen
Anne, and the days of the _Tatler_ and _Spectator_, and other
Essayists in their wake.
The present Work aims to record this Club-life in a series of sketches
of the leading Societies, in which, without assuming the gravity of
history or biography, sufficient attention is paid to both to give the
several narratives the value of trustworthiness. From the multitude of
Clubs it has been found expedient to make a selection, in which the
Author has been guided by the popular interest attached to their
several histories. The same principle has been adopted in bringing the
Work up to our own time, in which the customary reticence in such
cases has been maintained.
Of interest akin to that of the Clubs have been considered scenes of
the Coffee-house and Tavern Life of the period, which partake of a
greater breadth of humour, and are, therefore, proportionally
attractive, for these sections of the Work. The antiquarianism is
sparse, or briefly descriptive; the main object being personal
characteristics, the life and manners, the sayings and doings, of
classes among whom conviviality is often mixed up with better
qualities, and the finest humanities are blended with the
gladiatorship and playfulness of wit and humour.
With a rich store of materials at his command, the Author, or
Compiler, has sought, by selection and condensation, to avoid the
long-windedness of story-telling; for the anecdote should be, like the
viand,--"'twere well if it were done quickly." Although the staple of
the book is compiled, the experience and information which the Author
has gathered by long familiarity with the Metropolis have enabled him
to annotate and illustrate in his own progress, notwithstanding the
"lion's share" of the labour is duly awarded to others.
Thus, there are grouped in the present volume sketches of One Hundred
Clubs, ranging from the Mermaid, in Bread-street, to the Garrick, in
Covent Garden. Considering the mixed objects of these Clubs, though
all belonging to the convivial or jovial system, strict classification
was scarcely attainable: hence chronological sequence has been
adopted, with the advantage of presenting more connected views of
social life than could have been gained by the former arrangement.
The Second Volume is devoted to the Coffee-house and Tavern Life, and
presents a diversity of sketches, anecdotes, and reminiscences, whose
name is Legion.
To the whole is appended a copious Index, by which the reader may
readily refer to the leading subjects, and multitudinous contents of
the Work.
CONTENTS.
Page
ORIGIN OF CLUBS 1
MERMAID CLUB 8
APOLLO CLUB 10
EARLY POLITICAL CLUBS 15
OCTOBER CLUB 17
SATURDAY AND BROTHERS CLUBS 19
SCRIBLERUS CLUB 23
CALVES' HEAD CLUB 25
KING'S HEAD CLUB 35
STREET CLUBS 38
THE MOHOCKS 39
BLASPHEMOUS CLUBS 44
MUG-HOUSE CLUBS 45
KIT-KAT CLUB 55
TATLER'S CLUB IN SHIRE-LANE 63
ROYAL SOCIETY CLUB 65
COCOA-TREE CLUB 81
ALMACK'S CLUB 83
ALMACK'S ASSEMBLY-ROOMS 86
BROOKES'S CLUB 89
"FIGHTING FITZGERALD" AT BROOKES'S 102
ARTHUR'S CLUB 107
WHITE'S CLUB 108
BOODLE'S CLUB 121
THE BEEF-STEAK SOCIETY 123
CAPTAIN MORRIS 149
BEEF-STEAK CLUBS 158
CLUB AT TOM'S COFFEE-HOUSE 159
THE KING OF CLUBS 165
WATIER'S CLUB 168
CANNING AT THE CLIFFORD-STREET CLUB 169
ECCENTRIC CLUBS 172
JACOBITE CLUB 178
THE WITTINAGEMOT OF THE CHAPTER COFFEE-HOUSE 179
THE ROXBURGHE CLUB DINNERS 186
SOCIETY OF PAST OVERSEERS, WESTMINSTER 193
THE ROBIN HOOD 196
BLUE-STOCKING CLUB 198
IVY-LANE CLUB 200
ESSEX HEAD CLUB 202
THE LITERARY CLUB 204
GOLDSMITH'S CLUBS 219
THE DILETTANTI SOCIETY 222
ROYAL NAVAL CLUB 230
WYNDHAM CLUB 232
TRAVELLERS' CLUB 233
UNITED SERVICE CLUB 236
ALFRED CLUB 237
ORIENTAL CLUB 239
ATHENÆUM CLUB 241
UNIVERSITY CLUB 247
ECONOMY OF CLUBS 248
UNION CLUB 253
GARRICK CLUB 255
REFORM CLUB 266
CARLTON CLUB 273
CONSERVATIVE CLUB 275
OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE CLUB 277
GUARDS' CLUB 278
ARMY AND NAVY CLUB 278
JUNIOR UNITED SERVICE CLUB 280
CROCKFORD'S CLUB 281
"KING ALLEN," "THE GOLDEN BALL," AND SCROPE DAVIES 287
THE FOUR-IN-HAND CLUB 289
WHIST CLUBS 295
PRINCE'S CLUB RACQUET COURTS 298
AN ANGLING CLUB 301
THE RED LIONS 303
COVENTRY, ERECTHEUM, AND PARTHENON CLUBS 305
ANTIQUARIAN CLUBS,--THE NOVIOMAGIANS 306
THE ECCENTRICS 307
DOUGLAS JERROLD'S CLUBS 308
CHESS CLUBS 313
APPENDIX.
ALMACK'S 316
CLUBS AT THE THATCHED HOUSE 318
KIT-KAT CLUB 319
WATIER'S CLUB 320
CLUBS OF 1814 321
GAMING-HOUSES KEPT BY LADIES 323
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, the powers of Nature exercise
over the fortunes of mankind. It may not be traceable to the time
"When Adam dolve, and Eve span;"
but, it is natural to imagine that concurrent with the force of
numbers must have increased the tendency of men to associate for some
common object. This may 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 upon eating
and drinking, which are points where most men agree, 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
_symposia_, friendly 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 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 bonâ fide Roman Club, the members of which were
bound by certain organized rules and regulations. Cicero records (_De
Senectute_) the pleasure he took in frequenting the meetings of those
social parties of his time, termed confraternities, where, according
to a good old custom, a president was appointed; and he adds that the
principal satisfaction he received from such entertainments, arose
much less from the pleasures of the palate than from the opportunity
thereby afforded him of enjoying excellent company and conversation.[1]
The cognomen Club claims descent from the Anglo-Saxon; for Skinner
derives it from _clifian, cleofian_ (our cleave), from the division of
the reckoning among 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 far
as form is concerned, derived from _cleave_" (to split), but in
_signification_ it would seem to be more closely allied to _cleave_
(to adhere). It is not surprising that two verbs, identical in form
(in Eng.) and connected in signification, should sometimes
coalesce.[2]
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
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 congratulation from the brethren to Henry Somer, on
his appointment of the Sub-Treasurer of the Exchequer, and who
received Chaucer's pension for him. In the other ballad, Occleve,
after dwelling on some of their rules and observances, 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 dyner 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 commences 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.[3] This
Society of four centuries and a half since was evidently a jovial
company.
Still, we do not yet find the term "Club." Mr. Carlyle, in his
_History of Frederick the Great_, assumes that the vow of the Chivalry
Orders--_Gelübde_--in vogue about A.D. 1190, "passed to us in a
singularly dwindled condition: Club we now call it." To this it is
objected that the mere resemblance in sound of _Gelübde_ and _Club_ is
inconclusive, for the Orders of Templars, Hospitallers, and Prussian
Knights, were never called clubs in England; and the origin of the
noun need not be sought for beyond its verb to _club_, when persons
joined in paying the cost of the mutual entertainment. Moreover,
_Klubb_ in German means the social _club_; and that word is borrowed
from the English, the native word being _Zeche_, which, from its root
and compound, conveys the idea generally of joint expenditure, and
specially in drinking.[4]
About the end of the sixteenth or the beginning of the seventeenth
century, there was established the famous Club at the Mermaid Tavern,
in Bread-street, of which Shakspeare, 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 _clubbe_ for a sodality in a taverne." In
1659, Aubrey became a member of the Rota, a political Club, 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 evening as full as
it could be crammed."[5] Of this Rota political Club we shall
presently say more. It is worthy of notice that politics were thus
early introduced into English Club-life. Dryden, some twenty years
after the above date, asks: "What right has any man to meet in
factious Clubs to vilify the Government?"
Three years after the Great Fire, in 1669, there was established in
the City, the Civil Club, which exists to this day. All the members
are citizens, and are proud of their Society, on account of its
antiquity, and of its being the only Club which attaches to its staff
the reputed office of a chaplain. The members appear to have first
_clubbed_ together for 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 of severe trials, when the Great Plague and
the Great Fire had broken up much society, and many old associations;
the object and recommendation being, as one of the rules express 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 the 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 taken 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, bearing date 1669, are used by the stewards.
At the time of the Revolution, the Treason Club, as it was commonly
called, met at the Rose tavern, in Covent Garden, to consult with Lord
Colchester, Mr. Thomas Wharton, Colonel Talmash, Colonel Godfrey, and
many others of their party; and it was there resolved that the
regiment under Lieutenant-Colonel Langstone's command should desert
entire, as they did, on Sunday, Nov. 1688.[6]
In Friday-street, Cheapside, was held the Wednesday Club, at which, in
1695, certain conferences took place under the direction of William
Paterson, which ultimately led to the establishment of the Bank of
England. Such is the general belief; but Mr. Saxe Bannister, in his
_Life of Paterson_, p. 93, observes: "It has been a matter of much
doubt whether the Bank of England was originally proposed from a Club
or Society in the City of London. The _Dialogue Conferences of the
Wednesday Club_, in _Friday-street_, have been quoted as if first
published in 1695. No such publication has been met with of a date
before 1706;" and 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, however, is the more exact
account of the true old English 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 observe, 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 for clubbing), 'and there we spent till ten
at night.' This is not only one of the earliest references to Pall
Mall as an inhabited locality, but one of the earliest uses of the
word 'clubbing,' in its modern signification of a Club, and
additionally interesting, seeing that the street still maintains what
Johnson would have called its 'clubbable' character."
In _Spence's Anecdotes_ (_Supplemental_,) we read: "There was a Club
held at the King's Head, in Pall Mall, that arrogantly called itself
'The World.' Lord Stanhope, 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 modern 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 III., and is now the office
of Ordnance, (correspondence.)
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Sketch of the Rise and Progress of the Royal Society Club. 1860.
(Not published.)
[2] _Notes and Queries_, 3rd S. i. p. 295, in which is noted:--"A good
illustration of the connexion between the ideas of _division_ and
_union_ is afforded by the two equivalent words _partner_ and
_associé_, the former pointing especially to the _division_ of
profits, the latter to the community of interests."
[3] _Notes and Queries_, No. 234, p. 383. Communicated by Mr. Edward
Foss, F.S.A.
[4] _Notes and Queries_, 2nd S., vol. xii. p. 386. Communicated by Mr.
Buckton.
[5] Memoir of Aubrey, by John Britton, qto., p. 36.
[6] Macpherson's History of England, vol. iii.--Original papers.
THE MERMAID CLUB.
This famous 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 Holborn in a wherry."
_Ben Jonson_, ed. _Gifford_, viii. 242.
Mr. Hunter also, in his Notes on Shakspeare, tells us that "Mr.
Johnson, at the Mermaid, in Bread-street, vintner, occurs as creditor
for 17_s._ in a schedule annexed to the will of Albain Butler, of
Clifford's Inn, gentleman, in 1603." Mr. Burn, 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 thoroughfares,
but was nearer to Bread-street than Friday-street." In a note, Mr.
Burn adds: "The site of the Mermaid is clearly defined from the
circumstance of W. R., a haberdasher of small wares, 'twixt
Wood-street and Milk-street,' adopting the same sign 'over against the
Mermaid Tavern in Cheapside.'" The Tavern was destroyed in the Great
Fire.
Here Sir Walter Raleigh is traditionally said to have instituted "The
Mermaid Club." Gifford has thus described the Club, adopting the
tradition and the Friday-street location: "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 celebrated
tavern in Friday-street. Of this Club, which combined more talent and
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, Donne,
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 _Athenæum_, Sept. 16, 1865, states: "The origin of the
common tale of Raleigh founding the Mermaid Club, of which Shakspeare
is said 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
attended it under his presidency, and you will have made a real
contribution to our knowledge of Shakspeare's time, even if you fail
to show that our Poet was a member of that Club." The tradition, it is
thought, must be added to the long list of Shakspearian doubts.
Nevertheless, Fuller has described the wit-combats between Shakspeare
and Ben Jonson, "which he beheld," meaning with his mind's eye, for he
was only eight years of age when Shakspeare died; "a circumstance,"
says Mr. Charles Knight, "which appears to have been forgotten by some
who have written of these matters." But we have a noble record left of
the wit-combats in the celebrated epistle of Beaumont to Jonson:--
"Methinks the little 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 words that have been
So nimble, and 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 resolv'd to live a fool the rest
Of his dull life; 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 house of great resort in the reign of James I., and then kept by
Simon Wadloe.
In Ben Jonson's _Staple of News_, played in 1625, Pennyboy Canter
advises, to
"Dine in Apollo, with Pecunia
At brave Duke Wadloe's."
Pennyboy junior replies--
"Content, i' th' faith;
Our meal shall be brought thither; Simon the King
Will bid us welcome."
At what period Ben Jonson began to frequent this tavern is not
certain; but we have his record that he wrote _The Devil is an Asse_,
played in 1616, when he and his boys (adopted sons) "drank bad wine at
the Devil." The principal room was called "the Oracle of Apollo," a
large room evidently built apart from the tavern; and from Prior's 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 Apollo_--
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 Apollo_."
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
skillful 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 background. These poetic memorials
are both preserved in the banking-house of the Messrs. Child.
"The Welcome," says Mr. Burn, "it may be inferred, was placed in the
interior of the room; 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
conciseness 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 bibes 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 combemaker's shop, about the Elephant and
Castle;" and James, Lord Scudamore has, in his _Homer à 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 _Leges 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,
notwithstanding 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 _recitantur_' (Let
nobody repeat to us insipid poetry); as if all that he should read of
his own must infallibly be otherwise. The Club at the Devil does not
appear to have resembled the higher one at the Mermaid, where
Shakspeare and Beaumont used to meet him. He most probably had it all
to himself."
In the Rules of the Apollo Club, women of character were not excluded
from attending the meetings--_Probæ feminæ non repudiantur_. Marmion,
one of Jonson's contemporary 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 perfumed 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 companions,
And from a mighty continent of pleasure,
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 long 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
Bar: accordingly, at the time appointed, he went thither, but being
unknown to them, 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 his clothes, asking him if he could not make a 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 good fleece;
If that you are willing to give me five shilling,
'Tis fifteen-pence a-piece."
"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 republican opinions,
which Harrington had painted in their fairest colours in his _Oceana_.
It met in New Palace Yard, "where they take water at one Miles's, the
next house to the staires, 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, Harrington, Nevill, and their friends, discussing abstract
political questions. Aubrey calls them "disciples and virtuosi." The
place had its dissensions and brawls: "one time Mr. Stafford and his
friends came in drunk 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 information,
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 preceding century. The original political
Clubs of the Commonwealth, the Protectorate, and the Restoration,
plotted revolutions of government. The Parliamentary Clubs, after the
Revolution of 1688, manoeuvred for changes of administration. The
high-flying Tory country gentleman and country member drank the health
of the King--sometimes 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
famed,--_October ale_; or rather, on account of the quantities of the
ale which the members drank. The hundred and fifty squires, Tories to
the 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 infinite trouble to the Tory administration which came into
office under the leadership of Harley, St. John, and Harcourt, in
1710. The Administration 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 the _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 Parliament 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 things
on to extremes against the Whigs, to call the old ministry to account,
and get off five 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 dissolved. The treatise is a masterpiece of
Swift'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 Jacobite 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; 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
Anne, by Dahl, which ornamented the club-room, was bought of the Club,
after the Queen's death, by the Corporation of Salisbury, and may
still be seen in their Council-chamber. (Cunningham's _Handbook_, 2nd
edit., p. 364.)
THE SATURDAY, AND BROTHERS CLUBS.
Few men appear to have so well studied the social and political
objects of Club-life as Dean Swift. One of his resorts was the old
Saturday Club. He tells Stella (to whom he specially reported most of
his club arrangements), in 1711, there were "Lord Keeper, Lord Rivers,
Mr. Secretary, Mr. Harley, and I." Of the same Club he writes, in
1713: "I dined with Lord Treasurer, and shall again to-morrow, which
is his day, when all the ministers dine with him. He calls it
whipping-day. It is always on Saturday; and we do, indeed, rally him
about his faults on that day. I was of the original Club, when only
poor Lord Rivers, Lord Keeper, and Lord Bolingbroke came; but now
Ormond, Anglesey, Lord Stewart, Dartmouth, and other rabble intrude,
and I scold at it; but now they pretend as good a title as I; and,
indeed, many Saturdays I am not there. The company being too many, I
don't love it."
In the same year Swift framed the rules of the Brothers Club, which
met every Thursday. "The end of our Club," he says, "is to advance
conversation and friendship, and to reward learning without interest
or recommendation. We take in none but men of wit, or men of interest;
and if we go on as we began, no other Club in this town will be worth
talking of."
The Journal about this time is very full of _Brothers_ Arran and
Dupplin, Masham and Ormond, Bathurst and Harcourt, Orrery and Jack
Hill, and other Tory magnates of the Club, or Society as Swift
preferred to call it. We find him entertaining his "Brothers" at the
Thatched House Tavern, in St. James's Street, at the cost of seven
good guineas. He must have been an influential member; he writes: "We
are now, in all, nine lords and ten commoners. The Duke of Beaufort
had the confidence to propose his brother-in-law, the Earl of Danby,
to be a member; but I opposed it so warmly, that it was waived. Danby
is not above twenty, and we will have no more boys; and we want but
two to make up our number. I staid till eight, and then we all went
away soberly. The Duke of Ormond's treat last week cost £20, though it
was only four dishes and four without a dessert; and I bespoke it in
order to be cheap. Yet I could not prevail to change the house. Lord
Treasurer is in a rage with us for being so extravagant; and the wine
was not reckoned neither, for that is always brought in by him that is
president."
Not long after this, Swift writes: "Our Society does not meet now as
usual; for which I am blamed; but till 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 Coffee-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 Thursday.
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
wofully complained of. At these meetings, we may suppose, the
literature of politics formed 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
impromptu subscription was got up for a poet, who had lampooned
Marlborough; on which occasion all the company 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 dinners and plenty of
champagne and burgundy to his literary 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 consider was deferred to a more
convenient season. Whether (observes a contemporary) the power of
conversation 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 Bolingbroke.
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 Chancellor of
the Exchequer had sent Mr. Adisworth, the author of the _Examiner_,
twenty 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 SCRIBLERUS 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,
1714, Swift was again in London, and in place of "the Brothers,"
formed the celebrated "Scriblerus Club," an association rather of a
literary than a political character. Oxford and St. John, Swift,
Arbuthnot, Pope, and Gay, were members. Satire upon the abuse of human
learning was their leading object. The name originated as follows.
Oxford used playfully to call Swift _Martin_, and from this sprung
Martinus Scriblerus. _Swift_, as is well known, is the name of one
species of swallow, (the largest and most powerful flier of the
tribe,) and Martin is the name of another species, the wall-swallow,
which constructs its nest 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 Own Time_, and part has been rendered immortal by the
_Travels of Lemuel Gulliver_; but, says Sir Walter Scott, in his _Life
of Swift_, "the violence of 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 brilliant, can never
again be united."
Oxford and Bolingbroke, themselves accomplished scholars, patrons and
friends both of the persons and to genius thus associated, led the
way, by their mutual animosity, to the dissolution of the
confraternity. Their discord had now risen to the highest pitch. Swift
tried the force of humorous expostulation in his fable of the Fagot,
where the ministers are called upon to contribute their various 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, misunderstanding, and hatred, 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 seclusion. This secession of Swift, from
the political world excited the greatest surprise: the public
wondered,--the party writers exulted in a thousand ineffectual libels
against the retreating champion of the high church,--and his friends
conjured him in numerous letters to return and reassume the task of a
peacemaker; this he positively declined.
THE CALVES' HEAD CLUB.
The Calves' Head Club, in "ridicule 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 Club; or the Republican unmasked_. _Wherein is fully
shown the Religion of the Calves' Head Heroes, in their Anniversary
Thanksgiving Songs on the 30th of January, by them called Anthems, for
the years 1693, 1694, 1695, 1696, 1697. Now published to demonstrate
the restless implacable Spirit of a certain party still amongst us,
who are never to be satisfied until the present Establishment in
Church and State is subverted._ The Second Edition. London, 1703." 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
represented 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 Populi 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 Independents 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 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.