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
Arthur, thus burnt out, removed to Gaunt's Coffee-house, next the St.
James's Coffee-house, and which bore the name of "White's"--a myth.
The _Tatler_, in his first Number, promises that "all accounts of
gallantry, pleasure, and entertainment, shall be under the article of
White's Chocolate-house." Addison, in his Prologue to Steele's _Tender
Husband_, catches "the necessary spark" sometimes "taking snuff at
White's."
The Chocolate-house, open to any one, became a private Club-house: the
earliest record is a book of rules and list of members of the old Club
at White's, dated October 30th, 1736. The principal members were the
Duke of Devonshire; the Earls of Cholmondeley, Chesterfield, and
Rockingham; Sir John Cope, Major-General Churchill, Bubb Dodington,
and Colley Cibber. Walpole tells us that the celebrated Earl of
Chesterfield lived at White's, gaming and pronouncing witticisms among
the boys of quality; "yet he says to his son, that a member of a
gaming club should be a cheat, or he will soon be a beggar," an
inconsistency which reminds one of old Fuller's saw: "A father that
whipt his son for swearing, and swore himself whilst he whipt him, did
more harm by his example than good by his correction."
Swift, in his _Essay on Modern Education_, gives the Chocolate-house a
sad name. "I have heard," he says, "that the late Earl of Oxford, in
the time of his ministry, never passed by White's Chocolate-house (the
common rendezvous of infamous sharpers and noble cullies) without
bestowing a curse upon that famous Academy, as the bane of half the
English nobility."
The gambling character of the Club may also be gathered from Lord
Lyttelton writing to Dr. Doddridge, in 1750. "The Dryads of Hagley are
at present pretty secure, but I tremble to think that the rattling of
a dice-box at White's may one day or other (if my son should be a
member of that noble academy) shake down all our fine oaks. It is
dreadful to see, not only there, but almost in every house in town,
what devastations are made by that destructive fury, the spirit of
play."
Swift's character of the company is also borne out by Walpole, in a
letter to Mann, December 16, 1748: "There is a man about town, Sir
William Burdett, a man of very good family, but most infamous
character. In short, to give you his character at once, there is a
wager entered in the bet-book at White's (a MS. of which I may one day
or other give you an account), that the first baronet that will be
hanged is this Sir William Burdett."
Again, Glover, the poet, in his _Autobiography_, tells us: "Mr. Pelham
(the Prime Minister) was originally an officer in the army, and a
professed gamester; of a narrow mind, low parts, etc.... By long
experience and attendance he became experienced as a Parliament man;
and even when Minister, divided his time to the last between his
office and the club of gamesters at White's." And, Pope, in the
_Dunciad_, has:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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