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
The Club-house consists of two wings and a centre, with four
Corinthian pilasters, and entablature, and a balustrade throughout;
the ground-floor has Venetian windows, and the upper story, large
French windows. The entrance-hall had a screen of Roman-Ionic
scagliola columns with gilt capitals, and a cupola of gilding and
stained glass. The library has Sienna columns and antæ of the Ionic
order, from the Temple of Minerva Polias; the staircase is panelled
with scagliola, and enriched with Corinthian columns. The grand
drawing-room is in the style of Louis Quatorze: azure ground, with
elaborate cove; ceiling enrichments bronze gilt; door-way paintings _à
la Watteau_; and panelling, masks, terminals, heavily gilt. Upon the
opening of the Club-house, it was described in the exaggerated style,
as "the New Pandemonium"; the drawing-rooms, or real Hell, consisting
of four chambers; the first an ante-room, opening to a saloon
embellished to a degree which baffles description; thence to a small,
curiously-formed cabinet, or boudoir, which opens to the supper room.
All these rooms are panelled in the most gorgeous manner, spaces
being left to be filled up with mirrors, silk or gold enrichments; the
ceilings being as superb as the walls. A billiard-room on the upper
floor completes the number of apartments professedly dedicated to the
use of the members. Whenever any secret manoeuvre is to be carried
on, there are smaller and more retired places, both under this roof
and the next, whose walls will tell no tales.
The _cuisine_ at Crockford's was of the highest class, and the members
were occasionally very _exigeant_, and trying to the patience of M.
Ude. At one period of his presidency, a ground of complaint, formally
addressed to the Committee, was that there was an admixture of onion
in the _soubise_. Colonel Damer, happening to enter Crockford's one
evening to dine early, found Ude walking up and down in a towering
passion, and naturally inquired what was the matter. "No matter,
Monsieur le Colonel! Did you see that man who has just gone out? Well,
he ordered a red mullet for his dinner. I made him a delicious little
sauce with my own hands. The price of the mullet marked on the _carte_
was 2_s._; I asked 6_d._ for the sauce. He refuses to pay the 6_d._
That _imbécille_ apparently believes that the red mullets come out of
the sea with my sauce in their pockets!" The _imbécille_ might have
retorted that they do come out of the sea with their appropriate sauce
in their pockets; but this forms no excuse for damaging the consummate
genius of a Ude.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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