CONSERVATIVE CLUB 275 OXFORD AND CAMBRIDGE CLUB 277 GUARDS' CLUB 278 ARMY AND NAVY CLUB 278 JUNIOR UNITED SERVICE CLUB 280 CROCKFORD'S CLUB 281 "KING ALLEN," "THE GOLDEN BALL," AND SCROPE DAVIES 287 THE FOUR-IN-HAND CLUB 289 WHIST CLUBS 295 PRINCE'S CLUB RACQUET COURTS 298 AN ANGLING CLUB 301 THE RED LIONS 303 COVENTRY, ERECTHEUM, AND PARTHENON CLUBS 305 ANTIQUARIAN CLUBS,--THE NOVIOMAGIANS 306 THE ECCENTRICS 307 DOUGLAS JERROLD'S CLUBS 308 CHESS CLUBS 313 APPENDIX. ALMACK'S 316 CLUBS AT THE THATCHED HOUSE 318 KIT-KAT CLUB 319 WATIER'S CLUB 320 CLUBS OF 1814 321 GAMING-HOUSES KEPT BY LADIES 323 CLUB LIFE OF LONDON. ORIGIN OF CLUBS. The Club, in the general acceptation of the term, may be regarded as one of the earliest offshoots of Man's habitually gregarious and social inclination; and as an instance of that remarkable influence which, in an early stage of society, the powers of Nature exercise over the fortunes of mankind. It may not be traceable to the time "When Adam dolve, and Eve span;" but, it is natural to imagine that concurrent with the force of numbers must have increased the tendency of men to associate for some common object. This may have been the enjoyment of the staple of life; for, our elegant Essayist, writing with ages of experience at his beck, has truly said, "all celebrated Clubs were founded upon eating and drinking, which are points where most men agree, and in which the learned and the illiterate, the dull and the airy, the philosopher and the buffoon, can all of them bear a part."