“Upon one occasion some gentlemen of both White’s and Brookes’s had the honour to dine with the Prince Regent, and, during the conversation, the Prince inquired what sort of dinner they got at their clubs, upon which Sir Thomas Stepney, one of the guests, observed, ‘that their dinners were always the same, the eternal joints or beefsteaks, the boiled fowl with oyster sauce, and an apple-tart; this is what we have at our clubs, and very monotonous fare it is.’ The Prince, without further remark, rang the bell for his cook, Watier, and in the presence of those who dined at the Royal table, asked him whether he would take a house and organize a dinner-club. Watier assented, and named Madison, the Prince’s page, manager, and Labourie, from the Royal kitchen, the cook.” It was here that once, on Brummell’s calling with a tragic air to a waiter to bring a pistol, for he had been losing heavily, one of the members, Bob Leigh, who proved to be mad, said, “Mr. Brummell, if you really wish to put an end to your existence, I am extremely happy to offer you the means,” at the same time producing two loaded pistols from his pockets and laying them on the table; and here, too, Jack Bouverie threw his bowl of counters at the head of Raikes who had been making some ill-timed jests at his losses. [Sidenote: BOLTON STREET.] Bolton Street here joins Piccadilly. Formed in 1699, it was described by Hatton, a few years later, as “the most westerly street in London, between the road to Knightsbridge, south, and the Fields, north.” Here both Martha and Theresa Blount once lived, and were called the “Young Ladies in Bolton Street” by their admirer, Pope. The poet not only visited them here, but was also occasionally the guest of the eccentric Earl of Peterborough, who lived in the same street for fourteen years, from 1710. George Grenville, also resided in Bolton Street, as did another politician, Lord Melbourne; and at least three notable ladies are connected with this vicinity, Fanny Burney (Madame D’Arblay), who came to live in the street in 1818, shortly after the death of General D’Arblay, and was visited by Scott and Rogers and many another fashionable and literary notabilities; Mrs. Delany, who lived in the adjoining Bolton Row in 1753; and Mrs. Vesey, whose evening parties probably kept the quieter denizens of the street awake o’nights. If, as is sometimes reported, Prince Charles Edward really did pay a visit to London in 1760, and was present at the Coronation, then he set out for the Abbey from a house in Bolton Street, for here he is said to have lodged, without even “the semblance of a kingly crown” about his brows. [Sidenote: BATH HOUSE.]