Club Life of London, Vol. 2 (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. 2 (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
"Here, too, may be seen the hasty arrivals of persons for the meetings
of the Mexican Bondholders on the second-floor; of a Railway assurance
'up-stairs, and first to the left;' of an asylum election at the end
of the passage; and of the party on the 'first-floor to the right,'
who had to consider of 'the union of the Gibbleton line to the
Great-Trunk-Due-Eastern-Junction.'
"For these business meetings the rooms are arranged with benches, and
sumptuously Turkey-carpeted; the end being provided with a long table
for the directors, with an imposing array of papers and pens,
"'The morn, the noon, the day is pass'd' in the reports, the speeches,
the recriminations and defences of these parties, until it is nearly
five o'clock. In the very same room the Hooping Cough Asylum Dinner is
to take place at six; and the Mexican Bondholders are stamping and
hooting above, on the same floor which in an hour is to support the
feast of some Worshipful Company which makes it their hall. The feat
appears to be altogether impossible; nevertheless, it must and will be
most accurately performed."
The Secretary has scarcely bound the last piece of red tape round his
papers, when four men rush to the four corners of the Turkey carpet,
and half of it is rolled up, dust and all. Four other men with the
half of a clean carpet bowl it along in the wake of the one displaced.
While you are watching the same performance with the remaining half of
the floor, a battalion of waiters has fitted up, upon the new half
carpet, a row of dining-tables and covered them with table-cloths.
While in turn you watch them, the entire apartment is tabled and
table-clothed. Thirty men are at this work upon a system, strictly
departmental. Rinse and three of his followers lay the knives; Burrows
and three more cause the glasses to sparkle on the board. You express
your wonder at this magical celerity. Rinse moderately replies that
the same game is going on in the other four rooms; and this happens
six days out of the seven in the dining-room.
When the Banquet was given to Mr. Macready in February, 1851, the
London Tavern could not accommodate all the company, because there
were seven hundred and odd; and the Hall of Commerce was taken for the
dinner. The merchants and brokers were transacting business there at
four o'clock; and in two hours, seats, tables, platforms, dinner,
wine, gas, and company, were all in. By a quarter before six
everything was ready, and a chair placed before each plate. Exactly at
six, everything was placed upon the table, and most of the guests were
seated.
For effecting these wonderful evolutions, it will be no matter of
surprise that we are told that an army of servants, sixty or seventy
strong, is retained on the establishment; taking on auxiliary legions
during the dining season.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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