A bust of the late Queen Victoria is on the landing of the very handsome staircase of the Conservative Club, and on the first-floor are other busts, together with a full-length statue of Lord Beaconsfield. A picture of the Piazza San Marco at Venice, by Canaletto, hangs in the large smoking-room upstairs. A feature of this club is the excellent library, which is especially rich in county histories. It is a quiet, restful room, and has everything necessary to render it an ideal resort for lovers of books. The dining-tables in the Conservative Club date from its foundation, and are of mahogany. The pleasing old custom of removing the tablecloth after dinner still prevails. Unfortunately, about eleven years ago the great majority of these little tables were sent to have their surfaces planed down! The committee of that day (who must have been totally devoid of any vestige of taste) were of opinion that the surface was becoming too “old-looking.” The result is, that it will require a great number of years before these tables regain the beautiful _patine_ which still distinguishes those—about eight in number—which happily escaped renovation. The Devonshire Club, in St. James’s Street, though originally a Liberal or rather a Whig Club, now includes many shades of opinion, Liberal Unionists being plentiful. There is a good library here. The club-house, it is interesting to remember, was once a magnificent Temple of Chance, over which presided the celebrated Crockford. [Illustration: CROCKFORD’S IN 1828. From a drawing by T. H. Shepherd. ]