Had he, as he was once minded to do, taken up acting as a profession he would have been as famous as Garrick. Would the gaiety of nations have been as darkly eclipsed as it was when he died and “Edwin Drood” remained a mystery? Lady Molesworth was a great figure-head in London society. At her house were to be met all the prominent personages in the great world, from the Prince of Wales downwards, and there was always a goodly leaven of Art and Literature. She had herself been a singer in early life, and was very kind to young and struggling professional musicians. When she married Sir William Molesworth she was the widow of Mr. Temple West, and it was her influence which converted Sir William, a mathematician, philosopher, and as much a recluse as a Parliamentarian and Secretary of State could be, into a man of the world. Their dinners under her auspices became famous, and when he died his last injunction to her was said upon her authority to have been “Keep up the little dinners.” He left his place in Cornwall, Pencarrow, to her for her lifetime, and in her hospitality there and in Eaton Place she liberally and loyally carried out his behests. The “little dinners” did more to keep the dead philosopher’s memory green than his great edition of “Hobbes” in sixteen volumes. * * * * * Here I may say a word about the early days of the Marlborough Club. The Prince of Wales was above all things a man of the most social habits; the companionship of congenial friends was a necessity to him; he was essentially what Dr. Johnson called a clubable man, and so there came a moment when he felt the need of a club where he might go and play a rubber and smoke a cigar with his intimates without formality, as the spirit moved him. He made inquiries as to what club would best suit his purpose. White’s, then the smartest club in London, was suggested. Would he be free to smoke where he pleased? The old curled dandies of the terrible bay window, to walk below which was a terror to the young and innocent, said No!—there must be no smoking except in the appointed place. To them tobacco was as great an abomination as Ashtaroth to the Sidonians. That sealed the fate of White’s. There was a freehold plot of land opposite Marlborough House. The site was bought, the house was built, and the Prince founded the club, himself becoming President. I was not an original member, for I was in the Far East when it was opened in the late autumn of 1869, but I was elected in the following May, immediately on my return home. Lord Tweeddale, then Lord Walden, was Chairman of the Committee, of which I became a member in 1871. At Lord Tweeddale’s death in 1878 Lord Colville of Culross was elected chairman, and when he died in 1902 I received the following letter from the secretary of the club. “July 16th, 1902. “MY LORD,