Dr. Johnson for a time completely dominated the club, and once, in his usual grandiloquent manner, said to Boswell: “Sir, you got into the club by doing what a man can do. Several of the members wished to keep you out; Burke told me he doubted if you were fit for it. Now you are in, none of them are sorry.” _Boswell_: “They were afraid of you, sir, as it was you proposed me.” _Johnson_: “Sir, they knew that if they refused you they would probably have never got into another club—I would have kept them all out.” At last, owing to his ill-temper and rudeness, the great lexicographer’s influence in the club sensibly decreased. The club possesses a very valuable collection of autographs of former distinguished members, and amongst its memorials is a portrait of Sir Joshua Reynolds, with spectacles on, similar to the picture in the Royal Collection; this portrait was painted and presented by Sir Joshua, as the founder of the club. Another club which was once the resort of many clever and distinguished men was the Cosmopolitan, in Charles Street, Berkeley Square. This ceased to exist not very many years ago. The house in which it held its meetings had been pulled down, and though the Cosmopolitan migrated to the Alpine Club, it did not long survive the change. Its meetings were held twice a week, in the evening, no meals whatever being served, though light refreshments were supplied. The house in Charles Street had previously contained the studio of Watts the painter, and a great feature of the club-room was a very large picture representing a scene from the “Decameron,” which had been painted by that artist. This is now in the Tate Gallery. When the Cosmopolitan was dissolved, a certain sum of money remained, and this, on the suggestion of a former leading member, is gradually being spent in dinners at which former members from time to time foregather.