[Club is defined by Johnson to be "an assembly of good fellows, meeting under certain conditions." The present system of clubs may be traced in its progressive steps from those small associations, meeting (as clubs of a lower grade still do) at a house of public entertainment; then we come to a time when the club took exclusive possession of the house, and strangers could be only introduced, under regulations, by the members; in the third stage, the clubs build houses, or rather palaces, for themselves. The club at the Mermaid Tavern in Friday Street was, according to all accounts, the first select company established, and owed its origin to Sir Walter Raleigh, who had here instituted a meeting of men of wit and genius, previously to his engagement with the unfortunate Cobham. This society comprised all that the age held most distinguished for learning and talent, numbering amongst its members Shakspeare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, Selden, Sir Walter Raleigh, Donne, Cotton, Carew, Martin, and many others. There it was that the "wit-combats" took place between Shakspeare and Ben Johson, to which, probably, Beaumont alludes with so much affection in his letter to the old poet, written from the country: "What things have we seen Done at the Mermaid! heard words that have been So nimble and so full of subtle flame, As if that every one from whom they came Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest." Ben Jonson had another club, of which he appears to have been the founder, held in a room of the old Devil Tavern, distinguished by the name of the "Apollo." It stood between the Temple Gates and Temple Bar. It was for this Club that Jonson wrote the "Leges Convivales," printed among his works.] _Royal Arms in Churches._--When were the Royal Arms first put up in churches? Are churchwardens compelled to place them over the chancel arch, or in any part of the building over which their jurisdiction extends? In a church without an heraldic coat of Royal Arms, can a churchwarden, or the incumbent _refuse_ legally to put up such a decoration, it being the gift of a parishioner? AZURE. [For replies to AZURE'S first Query, see our Sixth Volume _passim_. The articles at pp. 227. and 248. of the same volume incidentally notice his other queries.] _Odd Fellows._--What is the origin of Odd Fellowship? What gave rise to the title of Odd Fellows? Are there any books published on the subject, and where are they to be had? Is there any published record of the origin and progress of the Manchester Unity? C. F. A. W.