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 _Tatler's_ Club is immortalized in his No. 132. Its members are
smokers and old story-tellers, rather easy than shining companions,
promoting the thoughts tranquilly bedward, and not the less
comfortable to Mr. Bickerstaff because he finds himself the leading
wit among them. There is old Sir Jeffrey Notch, who has had
misfortunes in the world, and calls every thriving man a pitiful
upstart, by no means to the general dissatisfaction; there is Major
Matchlock, who served in the last Civil Wars, and every night tells
them of his having been knocked off his horse at the rising of the
London apprentices, for which he is in great esteem; there is honest
Dick Reptile, who says little himself, but who laughs at all the
jokes; and there is the elderly bencher of the Temple, and, next to
Mr. Bickerstaff, the wit of the company, who has by heart the couplets
of _Hudibras_, which he regularly applies before leaving the Club of
an evening; and who, if any modern wit or town frolic be mentioned,
shakes his head at the dulness of the present age, and tells a story
of Jack Ogle. As for Mr. Bickerstaff himself, he is esteemed among
them because they see he is something respected by others; but though
they concede to him a great deal of learning, they credit him with
small knowledge of the world, "insomuch that the Major sometimes, in
the height of his military pride, calls me philosopher; and Sir
Jeffrey, no longer ago than last night, upon a dispute what day of the
month it was then in Holland, pulled his pipe out of his mouth, and
cried, 'What does the scholar say to that?'"
Upon Addison's return to England, he found his friend Steele
established among the wits; and they were both received with great
honour at the Trumpet, as well as at Will's, and the St. James's.
The Trumpet public-house lasted to our time; it was changed to the
Duke of York sign, but has long disappeared: we remember an old
drawing of the Trumpet, by Sam. Ireland, engraved in the _Monthly
Magazine_.
THE ROYAL SOCIETY CLUB.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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