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Second, and admitted into it men of all qualities and professions, provided they agreed in this surname of King, which, as they imagined, sufficiently declared the owners of it to be altogether untainted with Republican and anti- monarchical principles.

A Christian name has likewise been often used as a badge of distinction, and made the occasion of a club. That of the Georges, which used to meet at the sign of the George on St. George's Day, and swear before George, is still fresh in every one's memory.

There are at present in several parts of this city what they call Street Clubs, in which the chief inhabitants of the street converse together every night. I remember, upon my inquiring after lodgings in Ormond Street, the landlord, to recommend that quarter of the town, told me there was at that time a very good club in it; he also told me, upon further discourse with him, that two or three noisy country squires, who were settled there the year before, had considerably sunk the price of house-rent, and that the club, to prevent the like inconveniences for the future, had thoughts of taking every house that became vacant into their own hands till they had found a tenant for it of a sociable nature and good conversation.

The Humdrum Club, of which I was formerly an unworthy member, was made up of very honest gentlemen, of peaceable dispositions, that used to sit together, smoke their pipes, and say nothing till midnight. The Mum Club, as I am informed, is an institution of the same nature, and as great an enemy to noise.

After these two innocent societies, I cannot forbear

mentioning a very mischievous one that was erected in the reign of King Charles the Second; I mean the Club of Duellists, in which none was to be admitted that had not fought his man. The president of it was said to have killed half-a-dozen in single combat, and as for the other members, they took their seats according to the number of their slain. There was likewise a side-table for such as had only drawn blood, and shown a laudable ambition of taking the first opportunity to qualify themselves for the first table. This club, consisting only of men of honour, did not continue long, most of the members of it being put to the sword, or hanged, a little after its institution.

Our modern celebrated clubs are founded upon eating and drinking, which are points wherein most men agree, and in which the learned and illiterate, the dull and the airy, the philosopher and the buffoon, can all of them bear a part. The KitCat itself is said to have taken its original from a

1 The Kit-Cat Club, founded about 1700 by Jacob Tonson, Dryden's bookseller, first met at a house in Shire Lane. Afterwards statesmen and persons of rank joined the wits, and meetings were held at the Upper Flask, Hampstead, or at Barn Elms, where Tonson had a villa. The portraits of the members, painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller, were placed in a room built for the purpose at Barn Elms; they are now in the possession of Tonson's descendant, Mr. R. W. Baker, of Bayfordbury, Herts. In 1725 Vanbrugh wrote to Tonson of pleasant Kit-Cat days, and proposed a meeting of such members as were living, not as a club, but as old friends that have been of a club, and the best club that ever met.' Addison suggests that the name Kit-Cat was taken from that of a mutton-pie; others derive it from Christopher Katt, the pastry-cook who made those pies. Dr. William King (Art of Cookery') says, 'Immortal made as Kit-Cat by his pies.' Ned Ward said the name came from a man named Christopher, who lived at the Cat and Fiddle;

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mutton-pie. The Beef-Steak and October clubs 2 are neither of them averse to eating and drinking, if we may form a judgment of them from their respective titles.

When men are thus knit together by a love of society, not a spirit of faction, and don't meet to censure or annoy those that are absent, but to enjoy one another; when they are thus combined for their own improvement, or for the good of others, or at least to relax themselves from the business of the day, by an innocent and cheerful conversation, there may be something very useful in these little institutions and establishments.

I cannot forbear concluding this paper with a scheme of laws that I met with upon a wall in a little alehouse: how I came thither I may inform my reader at a more convenient time. These laws were enacted by a knot of artisans and mechanics, who used to meet every night, and as there is something in them which gives us a pretty picture of low life, I shall transcribe them word for word.

and Arbuthnot suggests that the title was derived from none of these, But from this pell-mell pack of toasts,

Of old cats and young kits.'

The custom of toasting' ladies was prevalent at the Kit-Cat Club, and some of the verses engraved on the glasses have been preserved. The portraits of the members of this brilliant Whig club were engraved by Faber in 1735.

1 The original Beef-Steak Club, founded in Queen Anne's reign, had Richard Estcourt, the actor, for provitore. He wore round his neck, as badge, a small gridiron of gold. King wrote in 1709

He that of honour, wit, and mirth partakes,
May be a fit companion o'er beefsteaks.'

2 The October Club consisted of above 150 High Tories, mostly country members of Parliament. They met first at the Bell, in King Street, Westminster, and there drank October ale.

RULES to be observed in the Twopenny Club, erected in this place, for the Preservation of Friendship and Good Neighbourhood.

I. Every member at his first coming in shall lay down his twopence.

II. Every member shall fill his pipe out of his own box.

III. If any member absents himself he shall forfeit a penny for the use of the club, unless in case of sickness or imprisonment.

IV. If any member swears or curses, his neighbour may give him a kick upon the shins.

V. If any member tells stories in the club that are not true, he shall forfeit for every third lie an halfpenny.

VI. If any member strikes another wrongfully, he shall pay his club for him.

VII. If any member brings his wife into the club, he shall pay for whatever she drinks or smokes.

VIII. If any member's wife comes to fetch him. home from the club, she shall speak to him without the door.

IX. If any member calls another cuckold, he shall be turned out of the club.

X. None shall be admitted into the club that is of the same trade with any member of it.

XI. None of the club shall have his clothes or shoes made or mended but by a brother member. XII. No non-juror shall be capable of being a

member.

The morality of this little club is guarded by such wholesome laws and penalties that I question not but my reader will be as well pleased with them

as he would have been with the leges convivales of Ben Jonson,' the regulations of an old Roman club cited by Lipsius, or the rules of a symposium in an ancient Greek author.

No. 10.

C.

Monday, March 12, 1711

[ADDISON.

Non aliter quam qui adverso vix flumine lembum
Remigiis subigit: si brachia forte remisit,
Atque illum in præceps prono rapit alveus amni.
-VIRG., Georg. i. 201.

T is with much satisfaction that I hear this great

Icity inquiring day by day after these my papers,

and receiving my morning lectures with a becoming seriousness and attention. My publisher tells me that there are already three thousand of them distributed every day, so that if I allow twenty readers to every paper, which I look upon as a modest computation, I may reckon about threescore thousand disciples in London and Westminster, who, I hope, will take care to distinguish themselves from the thoughtless herd of their ignorant and unattentive brethren. Since I have raised to myself so great an audience, I shall spare no pains to make their instruction agreeable, and their diversion useful, for which reasons I shall endeavour to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality, that my

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1 Twenty-four Latin sentences engraved over the chimney of Ben Jonson's club-room in the Apollo' or 'Old Devil' Tavern at Temple Bar. These club rules are described in the Tatler as in gold letters.' They are still preserved at Messrs. Childs'

bank.

2 Justus Lipsius's 'Opuscula, quae antiquitates Romanas spectant, selectissima,' were published in collected form in 1693.

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