Chapter I: Front Matter

LONDON CLUBS

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THE ST. JAMES’ CLUB
(FORMERLY COVENTRY HOUSE)
_From a Water-colour Drawing by W. Walcot_
]

LONDON CLUBS

THEIR HISTORY & TREASURES

_By_

RALPH NEVILL

AUTHOR OF “THE MERRY PAST,” “LIGHT COME, LIGHT GO,” ETC.

LONDON: CHATTO & WINDUS

MDCCCCXI

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WITH NINE PLATES

_All rights reserved_

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NOTE

The Author wishes to acknowledge the valuable assistance he has received from several Secretaries of Clubs mentioned in this volume, particularly Captain CHARLES PERCY SMITH, who supplied him with information of considerable interest.

His best thanks are also due to the Committee of the St. James’ Club for having courteously allowed him to reproduce the water-colour drawing shown in the Frontispiece.

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

PAGES

The Origin of Clubs in 1–32
Coffee-houses and Taverns.

CHAPTER II

Curious Clubs of the 33–62
Past—Pratt’s—Beefsteak
Clubs, Old and New

CHAPTER III

Clubs of St. James’s 63–98
Street—Boodle’s, Arthur’s,
and White’s

CHAPTER IV

Brooks’s, the Cocoa-tree, and 99–134
the Thatched House

CHAPTER V

Changes in Club-Life and Ways 135–155

CHAPTER VI

Elections—Committees—Regulations—Rules 156–177

CHAPTER VII

Late 178–208
Sittings—Fines—Cards—Characters—Supper
Clubs

CHAPTER VIII

The Travellers’—Oriental—St. 209–236
James’—Turf—Marlborough—Isthmian
—Windham—Bachelors’—Union—Carlton—Junior
Carlton—Conservative—Devonshire—Reform

CHAPTER IX

The National—Oxford and 237–256
Cambridge—United
University—New
University—New Oxford and
Cambridge—United
Service—Army and Navy—Naval
and Military—Guards’—Royal
Naval Club—Caledonian—Junior
Athenæum

CHAPTER X

The Dilettanti—The 257–284
Club—Cosmopolitan—Kit-Kat—Royal
Societies’—Burlington Fine
Arts—Athenæum—Alfred