Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1871-02-13
A Famous London club House.


All readers of the lighter literature Of
England must needs have met with fire.
quent mention Of White s, and few
strangers in London have failed to have
pointed out to them the famous club
house at whose bow window the idle
men of fashion of so many generations
have passed their listless morning hours.
Here it was that Major Pendennis was
supposed to sit and look out at the Lon
don world. A rigorous exclusivism has
always guarded "White' " from the in
vasion Of men from the city" and it
was even whispered, some years ago,
that the Prince of Wales was blackballed
there, though he was afterward admitted
to membership. In the changes of time
white s is in the market, that is to
say, the building is to be sold. The
London Daily News makes the prospect
i've sale the occasion of relating some OF
the stories connected with the club. 1t
says fl
whites existed as a chocolate.house
nearly two hundred years ago. It was
situated then, as now, in st. James
street, and was a place of public enter
tainment with a garden attached, and
became so wellknown and fashionable
that when it was burnt to the ground in
the first half of the last century, the
newspapers and periodicals of the time
describe the event as one of public inn
portance. Some readers will be amused
to learn that the burning of club house
to which the present Prince of Wales
and the Duke Of Edinburgh belong, at
tracted King George ii and the Prince
of Wales of 1888 to its fire, where they
encouraged the fremen and people to
work at the engines, His Majesty after
ward giving twenty guineas to be divided
among the fremen, and His Royal High
nees ten guineas. After this, White s
was transferred to the site it occupies
now. where it hourished exceedingly and
became the house of call of more men OF
name and fashion than we can quote.
"Few places are mentioned more fre-
ouently in the letters and memoirs OF
the celebrities Of the last century. Ac-
cording to Walpole, the great Earl OF
Chesterfield lived at Whites, gaming,
and pronouncing witticisms among the
bows of quality; and it is of White s
that the same authority tells the good
story of a man dropping down at the
door, when the club Immediately made
bets whether he was dead or not, and
when they were going to bleed him the
wagerors for his death interposed, and said
il would affect the fairness of the bet.
They had Wagers on every conceivable
subject at Whites in the wild days Of
old, all of which were entered in man
uscript book kept in the club. 1t was
once quoted in proof of the infamous
character of notorious baronet that II
was entered in the bet-book at White s
chat the first baronet hanged would be
Sir William Burditt. Steele, in the Tat.
Ter. promises that all accounts of gal.
lantry, pleasure and entertainment shall
be under the article of White
Chocolate House; while Swift
speaks Of the same place sourly as
the common rendezvous of sharpers
and noble cullies, and says that the
Earl of Oxford in the time of his min
istry. never passed by Whites without
bestowing a curse upon that famous
academy as the bane of half the English
nobility Lord Lyttleton, in letter to
Doctor Doddridge, sometimes trembles
TO think that the rattling of dice box
at Whites (if my son is memberl may
one day or other shake down all our fine
oaks; and the author or Pamela
makes the club the text OF story he
tells to prove the habit of running after
diversions to be not always due to the
pleasure taken in them, but often to un'
easiness at home. A gentleman over
looking them at Whites at piquet, he
writes, till three or four in the morning
on a dispute they referred to him, when
he protested he knew nothing about
the game. Zounds, say they, and
sit here till this time2 Gentlemen
am married oh, sir, We bee. par
don. But the stories to which White
and its members have given rise are
endless; and every record shows It to
have been the faYorite resort OF the roy
sterers among the upper classes OF g
roystering age. Its archives contain
truthful and unconscious pictures OF so
cial habits in the Georgian era. Before
the close Of the last century il was or
dered BY the club that a dinner should
be on the table every night atsix o'clock
at ten shillings and sixpence a head
malt LIQUOR, apples, oranges and olive
included and that the wine bill shoul,
he brought in at nine o clock; and tha
the dice used at hazard should be pai'
| for by boxes, that is, every player VIII
holds in three hands to pay a guinel
for dice. Whites ceased 70 be a coffee
! " - -. cc,vo-fad info what 4