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
Curran, the boast of the Irish bar, came to the King of Clubs, during
a short visit to London; there he met Erskine, but the meeting was not
congenial. Curran gave some odd sketches of a Serjeant Kelly, at the
Irish bar, whose whimsical peculiarity was an inveterate habit of
drawing conclusions directly at variance with his premises. He had
acquired the name of Counsellor Therefore. Curran said he was a
perfect human personification of a _non sequitur_. For instance,
meeting Curran, on Sunday, near St. Patrick's, he said to him, "The
Archbishop gave us an excellent discourse this morning. It was well
written and well delivered; _therefore_, I shall make a point of being
at the Four Courts to-morrow at ten." At another time, observing to a
person whom he met in the street, "What a delightful morning this is
for walking!" he finished his remark on the weather by saying,
"Therefore I will go home as soon as I can, and stir out no more the
whole day." His speeches in Court were interminable, and his
_therefore_ kept him going on, though every one thought he had done.
"This is so clear a point, gentlemen," he would tell the jury, "that I
am convinced you felt it to be so the very moment I stated it. I
should pay your understandings but a poor compliment to dwell on it
for a minute; _therefore_, I will now proceed to explain it to you as
minutely as possible."
Curran seemed to have no very profound respect for the character and
talents of Lord Norbury. Curran went down to Carlow on a special
retainer; it was in a case of ejectment. A new Court-house had been
recently erected, and it was found extremely inconvenient, from the
echo, which reverberated the mingled voices of judge, counsel, crier,
to such a degree, as to produce constant confusion, and great
interruption of business. Lord Norbury had been, if possible, more
noisy that morning than ever. Whilst he was arguing a point with the
counsel, and talking very loudly, an ass brayed vehemently from the
street, adjoining the Court-house, to the instant interruption of the
Chief-Justice. "What noise is that?" exclaimed his Lordship. "Oh, my
Lord," retorted Curran, "it is merely the echo of the Court."
WATIER'S CLUB.
This Club was the great Macao gambling-house of a very short period.
Mr. Thomas Raikes, who understood all its mysteries, describes it as
very genteel, adding that no one ever quarrelled there. "The Club did
not endure for twelve years altogether; the pace was too quick to
last: it died a natural death in 1819, from the paralysed state of its
members; the house was then taken by a set of blacklegs, who
instituted a common bank for gambling. To form an idea of the ruin
produced by this short-lived establishment among men whom I have so
intimately known, a cursory glance to the past suggests the following
melancholy list, which only forms a part of its deplorable results....
None of the dead reached the average age of man."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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