OLD MANSIONS IN PICCADILLY, NOW CLUBS. From a drawing of 1807. ] A pleasant social club which has recently been structurally improved, bedrooms having been added, is the Windham, No. 11 St. James’s Square. This club owes its name to the fact that the mansion was once the residence of William Windham, who was considered a model of the true English gentleman of his day. Though William Windham was a great supporter of old English sports, including bull-baiting (which he defended with such success in the House of Commons that only after his death could a Bill against it be passed), he was at the same time an accomplished scholar and mathematician. Dr. Johnson, writing of a visit which Windham paid him, said: “Such conversation I shall not have again till I come back to the regions of literature, and there Windham is ‘inter stellas luna minores.’” In this house also lived the accomplished John, Duke of Roxburghe; and here the Roxburghe Library was sold in 1812. Lord Chief Justice Ellenborough lived in the mansion in 1814, and subsequently it was occupied by the Earl of Blessington, who possessed a fine collection of pictures. The Windham, it should be added, was founded by Lord Nugent for those connected with each other by a common bond of literary or personal acquaintance. The club-house, which is very comfortable, contains a number of prints, but, as the vast majority of these are modern, they scarcely call for mention. The Bachelors’, at the corner of Piccadilly and Park Lane, is essentially a young man’s club. Only bachelors can be elected, and any member who becomes a Benedict must submit himself to the ballot in order to be permitted to remain a member, being also obliged to pay a fine of £25. Ladies may be introduced as visitors, but, it is almost needless to add, their introducer is responsible for his guests being of a standing eligible for presentation at Court. The same hospitable usage prevails at the Orleans in King Street, a pleasant little club decorated with sporting engravings, which has always prided itself upon the excellence of its cuisine. The Wellington, like the Bachelors’ and Orleans, is another sociable club which offers its members the privilege of entertaining ladies in a portion of the building specially set aside for their use. In the club-house is a collection of fine heads, trophies of the successful big-game shooting expeditions of sporting members.