Club Life of London, Vol. 1 (of 2): With Anecdotes of the Clubs, Coffee-Houses and Taverns of the Metropolis During the 17th, 18th, and 19th CenturiesTimbs, John
History
Club Life of London, Vol. 1 (of 2): With Anecdotes of the Clubs, Coffee-Houses and Taverns of the Metropolis During the 17th, 18th, and 19th Centuries
Timbs, John
Clubs -- England -- London; Literary landmarks -- England -- London; London (England) -- Social life and customs
Then there was Richard Sharp, a partner of Boddington's West India
house, who subsequently sat in Parliament for Port Arlington, in
Ireland. He was a thinker and a reasoner, and occasionally
controversial, but overflowed with useful and agreeable knowledge, and
an unfailing stream of delightful information. He was celebrated for
his conversational talents, and hence called "Conversation Sharp;" and
he often had for his guest Sir James Mackintosh, with whom he lived
in habits of intimacy. Mr. Sharp published a volume of _Letters and
Essays in Prose and Verse_, of which a third edition appeared in 1834.
Sharp was confessedly the first of the King of Clubs. He indulged but
rarely in pleasantry; but when anything of the kind escaped him, it
was sure to tell. One evening, at the Club, there was a talk about
Tweddel, then a student in the Temple, who had greatly distinguished
himself at Cambridge, and was the Senior Wrangler and medallist of his
year. Tweddel was not a little intoxicated with his University
triumphs; which led Sharp to remark, "Poor fellow! he will soon find
that his Cambridge medal will not pass as current coin in London."
Other frequent attendants were Scarlett (afterwards Lord Abinger);
Rogers, the poet; honest John Allen, brother of the bluest of the
blues, Lady Mackintosh; M. Dumont, the French emigrant, who would
sometimes recite his friend the Abbé de Lisle's verses, with
interminable perseverance, in spite of yawns and other symptoms of
dislike, which his own politeness (for he was a highly-bred man)
forbade him to interpret into the absence of it in others.
In this respect, however, he was outdone by Wishart, who was nothing
but quotations, and whose prosing, when he did converse, was like the
torpedo's touch to all pleasing and lively converse. Charles Butler,
too, in his long life, had treasured up a considerable assortment of
reminiscences, which, when once set going, came out like a torrent
upon you; it was a sort of shower-bath, that inundated you the moment
you pulled the string.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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