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
Langton went to pursue his studies at Trinity College, Oxford, where
Johnson saw much of him during a visit which he paid to the
University. He found him in close intimacy with Topham Beauclerk, a
youth two years older than himself, very gay and dissipated, and
wondered what sympathies could draw two young men together of such
opposite characters. On becoming acquainted with Beauclerk, he found
that, rake though he was, he possessed an ardent love of literature,
an acute understanding, polished wit, innate gentility, and high
aristocratic breeding. He was, moreover, the only son of Lord Sidney
Beauclerk, and grandson of the Duke of St. Albans, and was thought in
some particulars to have a resemblance to Charles the Second. These
were high recommendations with Johnson; and when the youth testified a
profound respect for him, and an ardent admiration of his talents, the
conquest was complete; so that in a "short time," says Boswell, "the
moral, pious Johnson and the gay dissipated Beauclerk were
companions."
When these two young men entered the Club, Langton was about
twenty-two, and Beauclerk about twenty-four years of age, and both
were launched on London life. Langton, however, was still the mild,
enthusiastic scholar, steeped to the lips in Greek, with fine
conversational powers, and an invaluable talent for listening. He was
upwards of six feet high, and very spare. "Oh that we could sketch
him!" exclaims Miss Hawkins, in her Memoirs, "with his mild
countenance, his elegant features, and his sweet smile, sitting with
one leg twisted round the other, as if fearing to occupy more space
than was equitable; his person inclining forward, as if wanting
strength to support his weight; and his arms crossed over his bosom,
or his hands locked together on his knee." Beauclerk, on such
occasions, sportively compared him to a stork in Raphael's cartoons,
standing on one leg. Beauclerk was more a "man upon town," a lounger
in St. James's-street, an associate with George Selwyn, with Walpole,
and other aristocratic wits, a man of fashion at court, a casual
frequenter of the gaming-table; yet, with all this, he alternated in
the easiest and happiest manner the scholar and the man of letters;
lounged into the Club with the most perfect self-possession, bringing
with him the careless grace and polished wit of high-bred society, but
making himself cordially at home among his learned fellow-members.
Johnson was exceedingly chary at first of the exclusiveness of the
Club, and opposed to its being augmented in number. Not long after its
institution, Sir Joshua Reynolds was speaking of it to Garrick. "I
like it much," said little David, briskly, "I think I shall be of
you." "When Sir Joshua mentioned this to Dr. Johnson," says Boswell,
"he was much displeased with the actor's conceit. '_He'll be of us!_'
growled he; 'how does he know we will _permit_ him? The first duke in
England has no right to hold such language."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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