Volume I Part 1 (2/2)

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 circ.u.mstances 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 a.s.sociations; 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-cla.s.s clubs called ”One of a Trade.”

The Civil Club met for many years at the Old s.h.i.+p 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 inc.u.mbent 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 G.o.dfrey, 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 ent.i.tled the _Wednesday Club Conferences_.

Club is defined by Dr. Johnson to be ”an a.s.sembly of good fellows, meeting under certain conditions;” but by Todd, ”an a.s.sociation 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 a.s.sociation; although it may be more comprehensive than is necessary, to take in all the gatherings that in modern times have a.s.sumed 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 a.s.semblies, 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 gla.s.ses, 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 ill.u.s.tration of the connexion between the ideas of _division_ and _union_ is afforded by the two equivalent words _partner_ and _a.s.socie_, 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_:

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