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
After the fire at Covent Garden, the Sublime Society were
re-established at the Bedford, where they met until Mr. Arnold had
fitted up apartments for their reception in the English Opera House.
The Steaks continued to meet here until the destruction of the Theatre
by fire, in 1830; after which they returned to the Bedford; and, upon
the re-building of the Lyceum Theatre, a dining-room was again
provided for them. "The room they dine in," says Mr. Cunningham, "a
little Escurial in itself, is most appropriately fitted up--the doors,
wainscoting, and roof, of good old English oak, ornamented with
gridirons as thick as Henry the Seventh's Chapel with the portcullis
of the founder. Everything assumes the shape, or is distinguished by
the representation, of their emblematic implement, the gridiron. The
cook is seen at his office through the bars of a spacious gridiron,
and the original gridiron of the Society, (the survivor of two
terrific fires) holds a conspicuous position in the centre of the
ceiling. Every member has the power of inviting a friend." The
portraits of several worthies of the Sublime Society were painted: one
brother "hangs in chain," as Arnold remarked in alluding to the civic
chain in which he is represented; it was in allusion to the toga in
which he is painted, that Brougham, being asked whether he thought it
a likeness, remarked that it could not fail of being like him, "there
was so much of the _fur_ (thief) about it."
The author of the _Clubs of London_, who was a member of the Sublime
Society, describes a right in favouring them, "a brotherhood, a
sentiment of equality. How you would laugh to see the junior member
emerging from the cellar, with half-a-dozen bottles in a basket! I
have seen Brougham employed in this honourable diplomacy, and
executing it with the correctness of a butler. The Duke of Leinster,
in his turn, took the same duty.
"With regard to Brougham, at first sight you would not set him down as
having a natural and prompt alacrity for the style of humour that
prevails amongst us. But Brougham is an excellent member, and is a
remarkable instance of the peculiar influences of this peculiar
Society on the human character. We took him just as the schools of
philosophy, the bar, the senate, had made him. Literary, forensic, and
parliamentary habits are most intractable materials, you will say, to
make a member of the Steaks, yet no man has imbibed more of its
spirit, and he enters its occasional gladiatorship with the greatest
glee."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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