Only recently has the regulation which prohibited visitors from being admitted to dinner here been repealed. A room on the ground-floor (the one reputed to have been the old gambling-room of White’s) is now set aside as a dining-room for those privileged to be the guests of a member of this very charming club. There is no tradition at Arthur’s of high play at hazard, but whist was once very popular. “Sheep points and bullocks” on the rubber were, it is said, quite common in the days when so many country gentlemen were members. Arthur’s, it should be added, has always been a very popular club with Wiltshire men, and its close connection with that county is still maintained. As has been said, the chocolate-house in St. James’s Street, started by Francis White in 1697, seems to have stood on the site of part of what is now Arthur’s Club. John Arthur at this time was White’s assistant. Here White carried on business till he died in 1711. His widow continued to prosper as proprietress of the house, which became the centre of the fashionable life of the day, and the place from which its amusements were directed. Advertisements in the papers show that “Mrs. White’s Chocolate-House, in St. James’s Street,” was the place of distribution of tickets for all the fashionable amusements of the early years of the eighteenth century. Opera was being produced at the Haymarket, and the announcement of the performance of each new piece is accompanied by the notice that tickets are to be obtained at Mrs. White’s. A little later, Heidegger was taking the town by storm with his masquerades, ridottos, and balls. He was quick to see that Mrs. White’s was an advantageous ground from which to reach his patrons of the aristocracy. He accordingly issued his admissions for these entertainments from White’s, and requested those who were not using them to return them there, in order to prevent their falling into bad hands, and so spoiling the select character of his assemblies. John James Heidegger was a clever Swiss who, after leading a Bohemian life all over Europe, had come to London, where he had for a time co-operated with Handel in producing opera. His celebrity was chiefly due to a remarkable ability for organizing masquerades. He was a very ugly man, and knew it. Consequently he would not have his portrait painted. The Duke of Montagu, however, determined to obtain a likeness, in order to play a trick at a masquerade.