The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-03-07


(White's), on his lordship not knowing that
such being existed.
mir. Cunningham tells us that the marriage
OF young lady of rank would occasion a bet OF
a hundred guineas that she would give birth to
a live child before the Countess Of -----, who
had been married three or even more months
before her. Heavy bets were pending that Ar
thur, who was then q widowcr, would be mar
ried before member of the club OF about the
same age, and also a widower: and that Sarah,
Duchess OF Maribprodgh, would outlve the old
Duchess OF Cleveland
to Mann, july 10, l7A, has committed MUIR
der, and intends to repeat it. He betted fl50O
that man could 1--we twelve hours under water;
hired desperate fellow, sunk him IN q ship,
by way of experiment. and both ship and man
have not appeared since. Another man and
ship are TO be tried Tor their lives, instead of Mr.
Blake, the assassin"
THE LATER CLUBS.
One of the earliest clubs of the modern period
Is "the Athen@um." 1t was started in 1924, at a
meeting in the rooms OF the Royal Society, Sir
Humphrey Dayy Sir Walter Scott, Cbantrey,
and Sir Thomas Lawrence beng among those
present and Professor Faraday acted as Secre-
tafy. II was then agreed to establish the club
as 'the Society," Its name was afterwards
changed to 1.-THE Athen@um,r and in 1880 1t was
lodged in the building iG now occupies, a build
ing designed by Decimus Burton according to
Greek Architecture, with frieze exactly copied
from the Panathenaic procession in the tTieze oil
the Parthenon, and with Baily's figure Of
Minerva over its Doric entrance portico,
The Reform Club was established by the liberal
members OF Parliament, who were working
together in l8S032 for the carrying of the Re-
form bill. 1t was lodged in Great George street
and in Gwydyr House, Whitehall, until the end
OF 1887, when Its present home was built from
the design Of Barry.
The Carlton, founded by the Duke of Yelling
ton in 1881, had, in 1886, new house built for
1t in Pail Mall from the designs of Sydney
Smirke, who rebuilt it in 1854 on q more sump-
tuous scale, as a copy OF Sansovino's Library OF
st. Mark at Venice. combination of Sanso-
yino's Library OF St. Mark and his Palazza Cor
marc was designed by Messrs Parnell & Smith,
for the Army and Navy Clubhouse, opened in
1851. --t
About all the later clubs, coming down to the
Wilmington, started in l846, with Douglas Jer-
rold for its first President Mr.. limbs has abun.
dance OF facts and anecdotes. He then tulns
back two hundred years TO talk ofthe.
OLD CoTFEE-HoUsEs.
A picture of the cofee-house life of England a
century and half since is given in the we'll
known Tourney through England" in liza, thus
quoted by Mr.. Timbs:-
81 am lodged, ;" says the tourist, 'in the street
called Pail Mall, the ordinary residence of all
strangers, because OF it's vicinity to the Queens
Palace, the Park, the Parliament House, the
theatres, and the chocolate and coffee houses,
where the best company frequent. If you would
know our manner OF living, tits thus rise
by nine, and those that frequent great mems
levees find entertainment at them till eleven, OF,
as in Holland, go to tea-tables; about twelve the
beau monde assemble in several coffee or choco-
late houses; the best of which are the Cocoa
Tree and Whites chocolate houses, st. James,
the Smyrna, Mrs. Rochford's and the British
coffee-houses; and all these SO near one another
that in less than an hour you see the company
OF them all. We are carried to these places in
chairs (or sedans), which are here very cheap,
guinea a week, or shilling per hour, and
your charmen serve you for porters to run on
errands, as your gondoliers do at Venice.
IF it be fine weather, we take turn into the
Park till two, when we go to dinner; and if il
be dirty, you are entertained at piquet or basset
AT Whites, or you may talk politics at the
Smyrna or st. James. | must not forget to tell
you that the parties have their different places,
where, however, stranger Is always well re-
ceiyed; but Wing will no more go to the
Cocoa-tree or Ozinda's, than Tory will be seen
at the coffee-house Of st. James.
"The Scots go generally to the British, and a
mixture of all sorts to the Smyrna. There are
other little cotleehouses much frequented in
this ghborhood-Young Mans for officers,
Old Mans for stockholders, ,paymasteTs and cour
tiers, and Little Mans for sharpers. never was
SO cOnfounded in nay life as when / entered into
this last; saw two or three tables full at faro,
heard the box and dice rattlng in the room
above stairs and was surrounded by set or
| sharp faces, that was afraid would have de-
| voured me with their eyes. l was glad to drop
| two or three hal-crowns at faro to get off with
clear skin, and l was overjoYed to get rid OF
| them.
"At two, we generally go to dinner; ordi.
naries are not so common here as abroad, yet
| the French have set up two or three good ones
for the convenience of foreigners in Suffolk
street, where one is toerably well served; but
the general way here is to make party at the
| cohee-house to 60 to dine at the tavern, there
| we SIT till six, when we 60 to the play; except
| you are invited to the table ofsome great man,
| which strangers are always courted to, and
| nobly entertained"
A curious chapter at the end of the book has
| these stories of
THE ORIGIN OF TAVERN SIGNS.
| 'The cognizances of many illustrious persons
| connected with the Middle Ages are still pre-
l served IN the signs atteched to our taYerns and
| inns. Thus the White Hart with the golden
! chain was the badge of King Richard IL; the
| Antelope was that OF King Henry ~; the
| Feathers was the cognizance of Henry vi, and
the Write Swan was the device of Edward OF
Lancaster, his illfated heir, slain at the battle o
| 1eWkesbury.
''Beiore the Great Fire of London in 1866,
| almost all the liveres of the great teudal lords
| were preserved at these houses of public resort.
! Many of their keraldic signs were then untortu-
| nately lost; but the Bear and Ragged Staff, the
ensign Of the famed Warwick, still exists as q
| sign; while the Star of the Lords OF Oxford, the
| brilancy of which decided the fate OF the battle
| of Barnet; the Lion of Norfolk, which sbone so
| conspleuOusly on Bosworth Field; the Sun OF the
| ill-omened house OF York together with the Red
| and White Rose, either simply or conformity
| carry the historian and the antiquary back to
distant period, although now disguised In the
gaudy coloring OF a freshly painted sign-board.
| 1.-The White Horse was the standard of the
| Saxons before and after their coming into Eng
triumph, as S we read In Ovid and elsewhere. The
White Horse is to this day the ensign OF the
county Of Kent, as we see upon hop pockets anc
bags; and throughout the county ii is fayorlt'
Inn sign.
"In Flecknoe's 177atgmaticdl Characters, 1865
in alluding 10 your ianatick reformers he says
as for the signs, they have pretty well begun