Memorials of St. James's street, together with the annals of Almack's

&\

MEMORIALS OF ST JAMES'S STREET

By the Same Author

THE HISTORY OF THE SQUARES OF

LONDON

THE PRIVATE PALACES OF LONDON
KNIGHTSBRIDGE AND BELGRAVIA
WANDERINGS IN PICCADILLY AND

PALL MALL

THE ANNALS OF FLEET STREET
THE ANNALS OF THE STRAND
WALKS AMONG LONDON'S PICTURES
LIVES OF THE BRITISH ARCHITECTS
LIVES OF THE BRITISH SCULPTORS

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY IN
LONDON

Etc.

ST. JAMES'S PALACE

From a drawing fry T. S. Boys

MEMORIALS OF
ST JAMES'S STREET

TOGETHER WITH

THE ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

: /,

BY

E. BERESFORD CHANCELLOR, M.A.

WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS

" Behold that street — the Omphalos of Town !
Where the grim palace wears the prison's frown.
What tales — what morals of the elder day —
If stones had language — could that street convey.'
The New Timon,

LONDON

GRANT RICHARDS LTD.

ST MARTIN'S STREET

1922

.0

Dfl

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY THE RIVERSIDE PRESS LIMITED
EDINBURGH

NOTE

THIS attempt to trace the history of one of London's
most notable thoroughfares has been undertaken because
nobody has done it before. White's and Brooks 's have
both had their historians ; the ana concerning the social
and political aspect of St James's Street are endless ;
but, curiously enough, a volume concerned solely with the
annals of the street — topographical and historical, social
and political — has not hitherto been attempted. Simi-
larly nothing of a complete character has before been
published about Almack's, an institution which occupied
a dominating position in fashionable London life during
more than half-a-century of that life's gayest and most
festive career. Under these circumstances an apology for
swelling, by yet another book, the already vast library of
Londoniana seems hardly necessary.

I have refrained from touching, except indirectly, on
St James's Palace, because that historic pile has already
been fully dealt with by the late Canon Edgar Sheppard.

As on former occasions I have been generously assisted
by many in whose power it was to give me special help ;
and I take this occasion of here tendering a general
expression of gratitude — gratitude that is particularly
due to Mr Harvey, the well-known book and print seller
of St James's Street, for information concerning his in-
teresting property in Pickering Place ; as well as to the
custodians of the Rate Books at the St Martin's Town Hall,
whose courtesy has not by any means been shown me for
the first time.

E. B. C.

CONTENTS

PART I
ST JAMES'S STREET

PACK

I. ST JAMES'S STREET IN THE PAST . . 13

II. EAST AND WEST SIDES OF STREET . . 38

III. TRIBUTARY STREETS (EAST SIDE) . . 55

IV. TRIBUTARY STREETS (WEST SIDE) . . 78
V. THE CLUBS ..... 121

VI. THE CLUBS — continued . . . 138

VII. FAMOUS MEN AND WOMEN . . . 176

PART II

THE ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

I. EARLY HISTORY OF ALMACK'S . . . 195

ii. ALMACK'S IN THE EARLY YEARS OF THE NINE-
TEENTH CENTURY . . . 208

III. THE LADY PATRONESSES . . . 228

IV. THE WITS AND THE DANDIES . . . 235
V. THE LATER HISTORY OF ALMACK'S . . 261

vi. ALMACK'S IN FICTION .... 267

INDEX . ... 281

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

ST JAMES'S PALACE . . . Frontispiece

By T. S. Boys

TO FACE PAGE

ST JAMES'S CONDUIT . . . .14

TALLIS'S ELEVATION OF EAST AND WEST SIDE OF

ST JAMES'S STREET . . . .40

NO. 4 ST JAMES'S STREET . . . .42

ST JAMES'S STREET: LORD PETERSHAM RIDING . 48
PICKERING PLACE AS IT IS TO-DAY . . 56

JAMES CHRISTIE'S AUCTION ROOM, 1803 . . 58

OLD WHITE'S CLUB ..... 122
ST JAMES'S STREET .... 124

From Hogarth's " Rake's Progress"

"THE BRITISH PATRIOTS' PROCESSION," SHOWING

WHITE'S ..... 126

ST JAMES'S STREET .... 130

After a Caricature by Gillray

THE CARD ROOM AT BROOKS'S . . . 146

D'ORSAY THROWING A MAIN AT CROCKFORD'S . 164

" SEQUEL TO BATTLE OF TEMPLE BAR " . . 170

" GOING TO WHITE'S " 190

BALL AT ALMACK'S . . 196

ST JAMES'S STREET IN THE PAST

(1) EARLY PLANS ; (2) RATE BOOKS ; (3) THE
HISTORICAL MANUSCRIPTS COMMISSION

ALTHOUGH the portion of the West End of London com-
prised in the area around St James's Palace may properly
be said to owe its fashionable existence to Henry Jermyn,
Earl of St Albans, who created St James's Square on
ground granted him by Charles II. in 1664, the presence
of the Palace, converted by Henry VIII. from the Leper
Hospital originally standing here, in or about 1528, must
have given this district a cachet even at this early period,
and obviously marked it out for that building develop-
ment which invariably takes place around any royal
edifice.

It is unfortunate that Agas's great plan of London,
circa 1560, does not extend sufficiently westward to in-
clude this then outlying portion of the Metropolis.
Especially is this regrettable because Agas is the first
cartographer who attempted to deal carefully with his
subject and marked; with no little precision, the roads and
streets of the London that then existed. Wyngaerde,
who produced his famous " view " some ten years earlier,
has left us a most interesting general picture of the city,
but his production was inevitably rough and ready,
particularly when it dealt with outlying areas, so that
although he shows us St James's Church and marks the
"King's Palace," by a note, on his picture (there is no
indication, architecturally, of the building), he shows us

13

ST JAMES'S STREET

nothing else but open country. The perspective (not very
well understood then) of his view is responsible for this
to a large extent, and we might be inclined to think that
in those days no precursor to the St James's Street, which
here specially interests us, was in existence, if we relied
too much on what Wyngaerde has set down.

There is little doubt, however, that at least a roadway
of some sort ran up from the Palace gate to the important
way to Readinge, as Piccadilly was then called, during
Tudor days, and that such a roadway, with hedges on
both sides and having all the characteristics of a country
lane, was the first step towards the St James's Street of
fashionable, political and convivial associations, which it
became in the eighteenth century and which it so largely
remains to-day.

At first all the area through which the thoroughfare
runs was known as St James's Fields, which roughly
extended from the Haymarket westward. Here, where
is now St James's Square, stood a conduit built of bricks,
and adjoining it a round house of stone. Bacon mentions
these in his Historia Naturalis, and evidently was person-
ally acquainted with the two structures, for he remarks
that " in the brick conduit there is a window, and in the
round house a slit or rift of some breadth, " and he tells how
" if you cry out in the rift it will make a fearful roaring at
the window. ' ' x That building development must have been
begun with some activity even under the Commonwealth
is proved by the fact that Cromwell, on llth August 1656,
issued a proclamation for " a stay of all further buildings
in the fields commonly called St James's Fields. "

It is not easy to say exactly whereabouts this building
took place, but from the usual course we may presume it
to have begun on the east side of the area in question and

1 A good view of the conduit is shown in Hollar's view of St
James's Palace.

14

IN THE PAST

to have progressed westwards. The Rate Books for this
early period are at best uncertain guides. The different
methods pursued by various rate-collectors, the extremely
puzzling way in which they made their rounds, the
absence of exact particularisation as to the streets, etc.,
visited, all help to render these records hazy. A careful
examination of them from the year 1599 (before which
the name of St James's does not appear) leads one to
suppose, however, that in that year two people were
living along the road which is now St James's Street, their
names being Mrs Anne Poulteney and Mr Baldwin. Why
I am inclined to think that these two precursors resided in
this particular quarter of the parish is because the name
of Poulteney (later written Pulteney) is traceable, with
different Christian names, in St James's Street down to a
period long after this name is given to the roadway in the
Rate Books, and there seems to be, for at least over a
hundred years, no break in this kind of apostolic succes-
sion, the simple Poulteney, which I take to be the Mrs
Anne of 1599, continuing till it gives place to Michael
Poulteney in 1638,1 which in turn is changed to William
Poulteney in 1654, the latter becoming Sir William in
1660 onwards. We may thus, I think, regard the name
of Pulteney as being the one earliest and longest associ-
ated with "our street." Baldwin, who started equal in
the race, does not appear to have survived beyond 1629,
after which year we know him no more ; but as, in 1603,
he is found paying twenty shillings in rates, he must be
considered as a person of some importance in his day.

Whereabouts these forerunners lived can be purely but
a matter of conjecture. In 1660 Sir William Pulteney 2

1 In 1622 it is incorrectly given as Mounteney.

1 He married the youngest daughter of Sir John Corbett, and
was grandfather to William, Earl of Bath. Corbett, as we shall
see, was a resident in St James's Street.

15

ST JAMES'S STREET

is given as residing then on the west side of St James's
Street. If, therefore, he occupied ancestral property, we
may suppose such property to have been situated in this
position and to have been that in which Mrs Anne
Poulteney was living in 1599.

For some years Mrs Poulteney and Mr Baldwin appear
to have had no neighbours, but in 1609 one Walker is
added to them. Ten years later a Mr Henn and a Mr
Hunt join them, both of whom are found continuing for a
number of years. In 1621 it is interesting to find the
name of Waller for the first time, although this could
hardly have been the poet (he was only born in 1605), who,
however, did subsequently live in St James's Street, as
we shall see. In 1627 we have a John Gladston given as
residing in this quarter, and an interesting name for the
following year is that of Mr Richard Middleton, with
whom we find, for the first time, the Earl of Berkshire.
In 1629 "Sir Archibald Dowglass Kt." appears, and in
1632, Lord Aston. A certain Crofts, whose presence has
been for some time indicated, blossoms into Sir W. Crofts
in 1634.

The Rate Books prove pretty conclusively not only
the growing population of St James's Street but also the
fashionable character it was assuming. Sir Ralph Clare,
in 1635, is joined in the following year by Sir John Bingley,
who, as Lord Andover, is found in succeeding entries.
The number of residents about this time seems to have
been from fifteen to seventeen. In 1641 we find, besides
Lord Berkshire and Sir R. Clare, Pulteney and Henn,
Sir David Cunningham, the Earl of Danby and Lord
Gorringe. Three j^ears later (1644), owing, no doubt, to
the outbreak of the Civil War, the number of inhabitants
has dwindled to eight : Henn (become Sir Henry Henn),
Sir John Corbett and Sir Thomas Peyton among them.
To these, in 1645, is added the Earl of Lincoln ; and, in

16

IN THE PAST

1646, Lady Lumley, Lord Reynolds, Lord Howard, and a
certain Captain Scares who pays six shillings for a garden.
The only new name of note in 1647 is that of Lord
Skydimore, and Captain Scares is found entered as
" Capt. Scares for old Perkins his garden house," probably
a tenement on the as yet only sparsely built-over west side
of the road.

In 1648 the new names are those of Lady Lumley and
the Countess of Carlisle, who are joined in the following
year by Lord " Raynalow " (sic), that nobleman paying one
pound in rates and becoming later Lord "Rany lough."1
A little later, about the year 1652, we are first, I think,
able to distinguish to some extent on which side of the
roadway the people mentioned in the Rate Books resided.
The supposition is only relative, and I give it with all
reservation. Thus for the year mentioned I incline to
place Michael Poulteney, Sir John Corbett, Lord Rayna-
laugh and Mr John Hooke, with the Earl of Berkshire, at
the bottom of the roadway, on the west side, and Mr
Champion Lane, Mr Kynollis, Li cut. -Col. Mason and Lady
Pickering on the east. There is the added probability, by
this arrangement, that Pickering Place takes its name
from the fact of its running into what was once the
property or temporary residence of the last-named tenant
or owner. In 1654 a new name appears — one Mr Richard-
son— but he could hardly have been an acquisition, at
least not in a monetary way, to the authorities, as against
him is significantly written: "Will not pay." As he subse-
quently disappears, he apparently could not be made to,
and was turned out. In the following year the name of
Waller again appears, this time indicating the poet, who
is given as "Waller Esq. " in 1658, and as "Edmund

1 Lord Ranelagh was living at No. 7 St James's Square from 1678
to 1693, and is found at No. 13 in 1694 ; see Dasent's St James's
Square.

B 17

ST JAMES'S STREET

Waller Esq. " x in 1659, being then domiciled " In the
Pavement," which I imagine was that part of the east
side which had by now been formed into something more
analogous to the modern street than the rough and ready
earlier road could be said to be.

As a matter of fact, although St James's Street is stated
by various topographers to have been formed in 1670, it
dates from at least ten years earlier. The Rate Books for
1658 give the names of inhabitants under the general
heading of " St James's." In the following year no name
of district or street (so far as these particular names are
concerned) is entered, but in 1660 we find the heading
" St James's Street." From this the deduction is fairly
obvious that the roadway was made into a regular street
in or about 1659, or just eleven years earlier than has
hitherto been assumed. The fact that by a Statute of
13 & 14 Charles II. (1661-1662) St James's Street was
ordered to be paved, not only proves that the street had
already been formed, but also indicates that it was then
regarded as a potentially important thoroughfare. In
this connection it is interesting to remember that John
Evelyn was one of the Commissioners for the improvement
of the streets, and under date of 31st July 1662 thus refers
to the matter : "I sate with ye Commiss™ about re-
forming buildings and streetes of London, and we ordered
the paving of the way from St James's North, which was
a quagmire, and also of the Hymarket about Pigadillo
[Piccadilly], and agreed upon instructions to be printed
and published for the better keeping the streetes
cleane."

I may mention here that Hare 2 and others have stated
that at first St James's Street was known as " The Long
Street." I have been at some pains to verify this

1 He is then rated at sixteen shillings.
a Walks in London.

18

IN THE PAST

statement, but confess to have been baffled. I can
find no indication in the Rate Books or elsewhere
of the fact. Nor does there seem any adequate
reason why this particular thoroughfare should have
been popularly so called. It is not specially lengthy;
even compared with other then existing streets, it
hardly merited this distinctive title. If an adjective
was required to designate a new thoroughfare, in this
case " steep " would have been far more natural and
descriptive.

We may thus date the formation of St James's Street
from the year 1659 and allow its proper and present
name to have been given it at its inception. Officially
this was evidently so, although I am not prepared to
deny that some individuals may have called it The
Long Street, or that such a title may appear in some
contemporary document with which I am unacquainted.

Assuming, then, the formation of St James's Street in
1659, we have the interesting fact that the notable year of
Restoration, 1660, marks the first year of the new street's
existence. By the Rate Books we find, too, Edmund
Waller, who is so identified, practically, with the return
of sovereignty in England, given on an increased scale of
rating : one pound instead of sixteen shillings. We are
also first able to identify Sir William Pulteney's house,
which stood just before Stable Yard, going up the street,
or, roughly, about ten houses from Cleveland Row on the
west side. Some new names also appear : Lord Hughson
(who is first entered in 1658) Thomas Eliott, Madame
Tagg, Madame London, and Madame Palmer (whom one
would like to identify with Barbara Villiers, who married
Roger Palmer in 1658, joined the Court of Charles II. in
Holland in the following year, and returned in his train at
the Restoration, and not improbably took up her residence
in St James's Street in order to be near her royal admirer's

ST JAMES'S STREET

palace), and Major Gibbons, who was, doubtless, the pro-
prietor of the famous " Gibbons 's Tennis Court," in Vere
Street, Clare Market.

In the year 1663 I find but nine names given in the
Rate Books as representing the residents in St James's
Street ; in 1671 there are no fewer than twenty-eight.
Among the latter we find on the east side those of Col.
Thomas Howard, Mr Clutterbrooke, Sir Peter Collaton
and Lady Bassett ; on the west, Sir John Buncombe and
Sir Allan Apsley (both well-known men and subsequently
residents in St James's Square), and Lady Danvers. By
another dozen years a still further increase is found, to
the extent of thirty-nine names. Among them are Lady
Pike, Sir John Fenwick and Lady Burlard (all entered
at two pounds), and Lady Scrope, who pays three
pounds.

The street was now well established and, as Strype
is fond of phrasing it, "well inhabited." Its subsidiary
outlets, too, had mostly come into existence : King Street
was formed in 1673, although it was not till the nineteenth
century that what was at first but a passage-way into
St James's Street was enlarged into a regular roadway ;
Jermyn Street dates from 1667 ; Ryder Street from 1674 ;
Park Place was just being formed (1683), and Bennet
Street and St James's Place were to come, respectively
in 1689 and 1694. On the other hand there were many
small courts and alleys, which have now disappeared, on
both sides of the way, and these we shall come to in our
perambulation in a later chapter. Suffice it to say here
that on the east side, from north to south, were Villiers
Court, Crown and Sceptre Court, Fox Court, Gloucester
Court and Pickering Place, besides other unnamed open-
ings which gradually came into existence ; and on the
west side, Stable Yard, far more fashionably inhabited
than its name would suggest, and running out of the main

20

IN THE PAST

street between Park Place and St James's Place; and
Little St James's Street and Thatched House Court, south
of the latter turning.

I need not, now, follow the Rate Books further, as I
shall refer to them when speaking of the interesting in-
habitants of St James's Street and its tributary outlets ;
but it is curious, in going through these old records, to
note the uncertain way in which names are set down,
and the exceedingly unbusinesslike manner in which the
collectors seem to have gone about their rounds. Some
are found doing this with a certain amount of method,
but, as a rule, system is not their strong point. Some of
them have taken the trouble to state on which side of the
way the people lived ; but this is not often the case until
we come to later and more systematised entries. So far
as I can gather, the usual rule was to begin at the south-
west corner of the street and progress up it to the north
corner of Park Place, then to cross over to the south
corner of Ryder Street and continue down on the east side.
As for many years the west side was unbuilt over beyond
Park Place, there is reason for their leaving this large
corner unnoticed ; but I cannot understand their ignoring
the opposite north-east side, unless it be that it was taken,
in a haphazard kind of way, together with the portion of
Piccadilly on which it abutted.

As to the sketchy way in which names are spelt, that
is less to be wondered at when one considers that the
collectors were hardly likely to be better spellers than the
educated people of the period. It thus happens that we
get Lord Brunkhard for Lord Brouncker ; Lady Burly
Lace for Lady Borlase; and Edward, as often as Ed-
mund, Waller ; Sir Peter Collaton is sometimes Sir Peter
Collington and sometimes Sir Peter Colleton ; while it
was a good many years before the Pulteney family got its
surname correctly given.

21

ST JAMES'S STREET

In the year 1685 we find Edward Waller rated at twelve
pounds, his house being evidently on the east side of the
street. In those days Stable Yard, opposite, was a cul-de-
sac of not very important houses, judging from the fact
that the rates on them ranged from ten shillings down
to two shillings. By the beginning of the eighteenth
century, however, much rebuilding had taken place here,
with the result that the residences in this court became
fine houses and were occupied by fashionable people, as
we may see by Kip's plan of 1710-1720, and by the
names of the inhabitants in the Rate Books. Even
earlier than this, notwithstanding the small rateable value
placed on them, the houses in Park Place and the other
turnings out of St James's Street seem to have shared
the ever-increasing popularity of the main thorough-
fare as a desirable place of abode. This we shall see
more particularly when we come to deal with these
tributary streets. In St James's Street itself, on the west
side, we find the Earl of Castlehaven's name for the
first time in 1686, in addition to many of those previously
mentioned. In the following year Waller's Christian
name, Edmund, is given correctly ; but in 1688 it dis-
appears, the poet having died (at Beaconsfield) on 21st
October of the previous year. In 1695 Sir Csesar Oran-
more, Sir John Fenwick, Sir James How and Lady
Bellasis are given as residents.

Among other clues to past residents we have Philip
Musgrave, in 1688 ; Lord Townshend, in 1748 ; Sir Robert
Wilmot, in 1754 onwards ; W. Gerard Hamilton, in 1763 ;
and Governor Thomas Hutchinson, in 1775, either writing
from, or being addressed at, their lodgings or own houses
in St James's Street.

As we know, besides private houses there were several
famous chocolate- and coffee-houses in St James's Street
about this period, and these, no doubt, did no little In

22

IN THE PAST

turning the attention of commercial enterprise to the
thoroughfare.

So early as 1686 we find Messrs Nickson and Welch, on
the east side ; and Richard Russell, at The Cock, reminds
us that taverns were not absent.1 Here and there are
names, too, which suggest the lodging-house keeper, cheek
by jowl with names that are historic or at least were
famous in their day.

Some ten years later we find the Terrace first men-
tioned in the Rate Books for 1697, appearing in this

entry: "Lord Arundell Terrace." It is somewhat

difficult to identify the exact position of this terrace.
From certain internal evidence in the Rate Books I am
inclined to think it was on the east side, and, as we shall
see from Strype, it was at the upper end of the street ;
and that it was a raised pavement before certain houses,
for convenience of entering the then highly slung coaches
and also to avoid the splashing incident to the almost
perpetual badness of even the most fashionable streets
at that period.

The gradual development of St James's Street is shown
by the appearance, in the Rate Book records, of new
courts without any further distinguishing title than "A
Court," "New Passage," etc. A Mr Stroud lived, in 1695,
on the west side ; so we have the alley abutting on his
house, given as Stroud 's Court — a name that has not sur-
vived. Russell's Court is another that has disappeared
(it was formerly on the west side, running into Cleveland
Row), as have Villiers Court, between Piccadilly and
Jermyn Street ; Crown and Sceptre Court and Fox Court,
between the latter thoroughfare and Ryder Street (the

JThe King Head, for instance, was next door (south) to the
present White's Clubhouse ; and at " The Bunch of Grapes," on
the west side, " extraordinary good cask Florence wine at 6s. a
gallon" was sold in 1711, according to an advertisement of that
date.

23

ST JAMES'S STREET

west end of which was then called Little Rider Street),
and Gloucester Court, between King Street and Pickering
Court. In fact, the last named is one of the few of these
little outlets that have survived successive building de-
velopments, and as such is of particular interest, as it
is (we shall see later) for other reasons.

Some of these courts no doubt took their names from
adjacent signs belonging to taverns or business premises,
such as Crown and Sceptre Court, Blue Ball Yard, Fox
Court, Catherine Wheel Yard. In 1685 King Street is
still designated " in the Fields," a reminiscence of the St
James's Fields which died hard in a neighbourhood which
was then recently more or less rural.

As to what were the taverns in St James's Street at the
close of the seventeenth century it is difficult to say. We
know with certainty of the Poet's Head, the poet probably
being Dryden ; also of the Horse-Shoe Ale House, because
in the Vernon MS. a certain Simon Weld, evidently a spy,
reports hearing one Cox, a plumber, speaking favourably
of James II. here in 1694. Weld, in the course of his
"business," frequented such resorts, but his incidental
mention of The Goal, and The Dolphin and Crown, " a
cook shop," do not interest us, as these places were merely
near St James's Street. A "Fox" is also traceable,
apart from Fox Court already referred to, as Captain
Scott, in his Dixonary of Persons in France (1695-1696,
Jan. 18), mentions that a Mrs Middlegast l in St James's
Street, "next doof to the Fox," befriended him on one
occasion. Whether The Dog and Duck, at which sign a
Mr Clement lodged with one Chasie, and there received
a letter from Rouen, dated 18th October 1722,2 was a
tavern or not is uncertain. There was a well-known inn
with this sign in Hertford Street, Mayfair, and a notorious

1 Evidently a lodger, as I cannot trace her in the Rate-Books.
8 Historical Manuscripts Commission.

24

IN THE PAST

one in St George's Fields, so their name may possibly
have been attached to a tavern in St James's Street.

In addition to the Rate Books, some further information
of a more or less general kind concerning the earlier
history of St James's Street can be gleaned from the
Calendar of State Papers and the Historical Manuscripts
Commission. In the earlier entries in the former of these
authorities we shall find nothing more particular to our
purpose than what is entered under the heading of St
James's Fields, so that when, for instance, John Sharpe
is mentioned as owning a house in St James's Fields in
1630, or when, five years later, Archibald Lumsden is
granted the sole right to sell "Malls," balls and scoops
" and other necessaries for the game of Pall Mall," within
his grounds in St James's Fields, we can only assume such
and similar entries to refer generally to the area on which
St James's Square and its adjacent thoroughfare stand,
and only possibly to that western portion which is now
St James's Street. But even if it cannot be proved that
such references are actually connected with the embryo
thoroughfare, at the same time they deal with its imme-
diate neighbourhood, and one or two of them, for this
reason, as well as for their intrinsic interest, deserve record
here.

Thus, on llth July 1603 we find an order for deferring
St James's Fair, then held in the open space near St
James's Palace, and afterwards in St James's Market, on
account of the Plague ; and, again, on 12th June 1636,
being put off, it then being "held on St James's Day,
near his Majesty's house at St James's."

In 1665 we know that this fair, which was carried on
" in the road near the House of St James's," but whether
in Pall Mall or St James's Street is a question (I rather
incline to the former), was ordered to be transferred to
St James's Market. It had become a nuisance to the

25

ST JAMES'S STREET

royal residence, and thus may have extended to the
junction of Pall Mall and St James's Street.

In Strype's time it had blossomed into the Mayfair of
many stories, having been transferred, according to that
authority, to " the road leading to Tyburn."

So much for the fair, which only indirectly interests us
here. Return we to the Calendar of State Papers, where,
under date of 26th October 1638, I find a communication
from Inigo Jones to the Council, in which the great archi-
tect reports that, " according to your order of the 19th
inst. concerning the divisions made in several parts of
St James's Fields, and a bridge of bricks begun for the
passage of carts into the said field, I have spoken with
Archibald Lumsdale [Lumsden, mentioned before], the
tenant, and showed him your order for demolishing the
bridge, &c., all of which he has undertaken shall be done
by Thursday next."

An entry more directly bearing on our subject is the
following: — "Aug. 14th, 1656. Order for staying of
building in Lincoln's Inn Fields and St James's Fields.
Gabriel Beck to see to this," as it is probable that part of
that building was the development of St James's Street
itself, which, as we have seen, first appears as a regular
street about three years later.

The forming of the street naturally required that the
water supply should be put on a proper footing, and on
16th May 1664 we accordingly have the "Petition of
Fras : Williamson and Ralph Wayne to the King, for
leave to convey to the inhabitants of Piccadilly, St
James's Fields, Hay market and the neighbourhood,
water from springs which they have found near, they
compounding with the inhabitants at reasonable rates, on
account of the great expense they have been at in the new
invention of an engine which by perpetual motion will
drain level or mines, though 50 fathoms deep, for which

26

IN THE PAST

they have already a licence." They duly received the
required powers, as is shown by an entry of 25th June of
the same year. On the previous 81st May another entry
referring to the same subject is interesting as introducing
the name of one of the earliest inhabitants in St James's
Street : " Certificate to Sir W. Pulteney, that Mr William-
son and Mr Wayne have agreed with him for the use of the
springs near Piccadilly which he holds for the Earl of St
Albans ; that the work will be very useful, and that there
will be no occasion to come on any man's land excepting
the Earl's, who consents thereto."

In July 1672 we have the first mention by name of St
James's Street in the Calendar of State Papers. It runs
thus : " Grant to Sir John Buncombe, in fee simple, of
four messuages with their gardens in St James's Street,
county of Middlesex, in reversion after the determination
of the existing leases thereof." Two years later a warrant
of 18th August, after reciting gifts of King's land in St
James's to Lord St Albans, proceeds : " The said warrant
also directs a grant to be made to my lord and Col. Villiers
of the inheritance of 19 small tenements in St James's
Street looking into St James's Park." The Colonel
Villiers here mentioned is the gentleman after whom
Villiers Court was named. When the warrant speaks of
the nineteen tenements ** looking Into St James's Park,"
it is clear that these houses were on the west side of the
street and abutted on what is now the Green Park, but
which, in those days, was part and parcel of St James's
Park. It is sometimes found referred to as the Upper
Park, St James's, and also as Upper St James's Park.

Two other entries of a later period, in the State Papers,
are also of interest : one, dated 27th January 1690, reveals
the existence of a pillory in St James's Street, in connec-
tion with one Peter Roman having been sentenced to
stand there, but whose punishment, for some reason or

27

ST JAMES'S STREET

other, was subsequently remitted. It is not quite clear
where this pillory stood ; when it was set up ; or when
removed. It may possibly have been but a temporary
erection and was in all probability fixed at the bottom of
St James's Street. At this period Jacobites were busy
concocting schemes for the restoration of the exiled king,
and as St James's is known to have been a hotbed of
sedition then and later, when the Stuart cause was again
to the front, the pillory may have been erected for such
breakers of the law. An entry in the State Papers for
15th August 1691 has, I think, some bearing on this
matter. It runs thus : " Caveat that no pass be granted
to Charles Caldecote, an infant about 15 years of age,
till notice be given to Madame Cartwright at Mr Huddle-
ston's house in St James's Street." Tristram Huddle-
stone is given as living on the west' side, two doors from
Stable Yard, in the Rate Books for 1685, and he had, later,
as neighbour, Sir John Fenwick.1 Both these names have
such a Jacobite ring about them that they may fitly
introduce certain references to such disloyal people who,
in those days, resided in or frequented St James's Street.
In the Buccleuch MSS. 2 we find allusions to the Nag's
Head in St James's Street as being coupled curiously with
the Prince of Orange's Head in Jermyn Street, as a resort
of Jacobite plotters at the close of the seventeenth
century ; and, later, letters from disaffected people can be
traced to St James's Street and its neighbourhood. It is
probable, therefore, that the pillory was kept fairly well
supplied with tenants at a period when spies were ram-
pant, and must have taken more than usual trouble to run
to earth malcontents at the very gates of the royal palace.
We know that on the death of Queen Anne, Atterbury
offered to go down in front of St James's Palace, in full

1 See later, for account of Fenwick.

2 Historical Manuscripts Commission.

28

IN THE PAST

Episcopal dress, and proclaim James III. as king,1 and
how, when the Tory ministry hesitated, the Bishop de-
plored, in anything but Episcopal language, the loss of an
opportunity which he regarded as in the highest degree
favourable to the Pretender's cause. Atterbury knew his
London well and, no doubt, was cognisant of the strong
Tory feelings of the inhabitants of St James's Street and
its vicinity.

When George I. had been safely proclaimed and in-
numerable arrests of disaffected people were taking place,
one of the houses visited was Ozinda's Chocolate House
at the bottom of the thoroughfare, near the Palace, and
the inhabitants saw with no little alarm Mr Ozinda led
away captive, followed by Captain Forde and Sir Richard
Vivyan, two well-known habitues of the place.

Having traced in a more or less general way the early
development of St James's Street, by the aid of the plans,
Rate Books, Calendar of State Papers and other sources,
which can, however, only be regarded as, at best, indirect
information, let us see what later London topographers
and cartographers have to say about it. In the case of
such authorities Stow always takes precedence. In the
present instance, of course, this can hardly be, as Stow
never knew St James's Street as such, although he may
possibly have wandered along the then rural road which
ran roughly over its present tracks. But Strype's edition
of Stow, brought down to the eighteenth century, suffers
under no such disabilities, and consequently we find not
only mention of the thoroughfare but some extremely
interesting and valuable references to it in the second of
those two weighty volumes, which first appeared in 1720,
and, in a more complete form, in 1754.

" St James's Street," writes Strype, " beginneth at the
Palace of St James's, and runs up to the Road against
1 Doran's London in the Jacobite Times.
29

ST JAMES'S STREET

Albemarle Buildings, being a spacious Street, with very
good Houses well inhabited by Gentry : At the upper
End of which towards the Road are the best, having be-
fore them a Terrace Walk ascended by steps, with a Free-
stone Pavement. Out of this Street, on the West Side,
it hath a Passage into these Places, fronting the Pall Mall.
A Passage to Cleveland Court, formerly one large House,
and called Berkshire House, which being purchased by
the Dutchesse of Cleveland, took her name ; now severed
into several Houses, the chief of which is now inhabited
by the Earl of Nottingham ; and here are two other small
Courts against the Earl of Baths. Then in the said Street
is a Yard for Stablings, with some Houses which run down
to St James's Park Walls."

From this passage we learn that St James's Street was,
in its early days, practically wholly a residential thorough-
fare ; we also observe that the Terrace, where we have
seen from the Rate Books that Lord Arundel was living
in 1697, was at the Piccadilly end of the street, and that
steps led to it from the roadway. There were, as we know,
several courts out of St James's Street on the east side ;
but the one specifically mentioned by Strype as leading
into places fronting the Pall Mall was probably Little King
Street, the buildings on the south side of which abutted
on the backs of the houses in Pall Mall, as they now do.

The difficulty about tracing any particular West End
street in early books on London is that, in the first place,
the writers generally restrict their investigations to
churches, public buildings and the general history of the
city, and content themselves with but a bare mention of
the streets ; and, secondly, that when they do enlarge on
these we find only streets in the east or central part of
London dealt with, the western area being then but
recently built, and thus not being deemed, apparently,
worthy of an antiquary's notice. The consequence is

30

IN THE PAST

that the early history of St James's Street is, at best,
vague and scrappy. Here and there we get glimpses, so
to speak, of it, however ; and with these we must, perforce,
be content. Thus, the Sieur de la Serre, a learned gentle-
man who came over to this country in the suite of Marie
de Medicis in 1638, in speaking of St James's Palace,
remarks that " its great gate has a long street in front,
reaching almost out of sight, seemingly joining to the
fields." This passage is interesting, as it is the earliest
reference we have to St James's Street as a roadway.

In Norden's Notes on London and Westminster, dated
1592, we get a vignette of the place under more rural con-
ditions, for, describing St James's Palace, the topographer
says : "It standeth from other buyldinges, about 2 fur-
longe, saving a ferme house opposite agaynste the north
gate," and, he adds, the prospect on the north is over
" grene feeldes." The mention of the farm is particularly
interesting, as it may possibly be identical with the build-
ings which stood at the south-east corner of St James's
Street and formed the nucleus of the building develop-
ment in that thoroughfare. The open fields spoken of
by Norden are indicated in Hollar's view of St James's
Palace as it appeared so much later as 1660, although by
that time some of its rural character must have departed
at the advent of houses and the formation of the street
proper, the Statute of 13 & 14 Charles II., dated 1661-1662,
already referred to, proving that man was here already
obliterating nature.

The fine series of London maps which we possess helps
us to some extent, although not so much as one could
wish, in tracing the gradual development of St James's
Street. We have already alluded to Wyngaerde's plan,
which is, at best, in this connection, but an uncertain
guide. In Faithorne's plan, dated 1658, however, we see,
for the first time, St James's Street well defined. By

ST JAMES'S STREET

this we observe Berkshire House at the south-west corner
of the thoroughfare, with its gardens running a little more
than half-way up the street, the remaining portion on the
west side being part and parcel of the Park. On the east
side, opposite Berkshire House, at the south-east corner,
a range of buildings extends up the street for a distance
equal to about a third of the length of Berkshire House
and its gardens. The remainder of the ground on this
side is shown as open fields (St James's Fields), bounded
by Piccadilly on the north and the Haymarket on the
east. At the south end of these fields a double row of
trees runs parallel with Pall Mall, and above them are
written the words " Pall Mall," which, I imagine, indicates
that here the game was then played. Porter's smaller
plan, dated 1660, is practically identical with Faithorne's,
except (which does not, however, really concern us) that
behind the double row of trees a wooden paling, running
their entire length and passing through about the centre
of St James's Square, is shown.

By the time Morden and Lea issued their large and
elaborate plan in 1682, the appearance of St James's Street
had greatly altered. Taking first the west side, we find
the grounds of Berkshire House entirely covered with
houses, the remaining portion on the north, however,
being still part of St James's Park (now the Green Park)
before the formation of Bennet and Arlington Streets
(1689) which were built on that part of this vacant land
granted by Charles II. to Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington,
by deed, dated 6th February 1681. l

On the east side of St James's Street we see, by Morden
and Lea, that houses had by now been erected along its

1 Lord Arlington sold this land, the same year, to a Mr Pym,
who apparently formed the streets, and himself occupied, for many
years, the largest house in Arlington Street. See Lives of the
Norths, vol. iii., p. 210.

32

IN THE PAST

entire length ; but although King Street and Jermyn Street
are shown, there is no connection indicated between them
and St James's Street. We know, however, that in both
cases a narrow passage joined them, this passage being
enlarged into the present continuation of the thorough-
fare. In 1682 the west portion of Jermyn Street was
called Little St Jermyn Street and the east Great St
Jermyn Street. In nearly every case the houses shown
by Morden and Lea have a space, probably a court or
garden, between their frontages and St James's Street.
This would account for Pickering Place not being marked,
as that court only came into existence apparently when
rebuilding brought the houses right up to the street, and
any of the older ones left standing behind were connected
with it by such alleys. This raises the interesting point :
that we may, I believe, regard the house in Pickering
Court, facing the entrance, as one of those originally
standing in St James's Street itself. Crown Court (no
longer existing, but then situated between Pickering
Court and what is now King Street) is shown and rather
confirms what I suggest.

From Kip's quasi bird's-eye view of London, published
in 1710-1720, we are able to judge, more or less, of the
effect produced by the completely built-over street — that
is, so far as concerns the fronts of the houses on the east
and the backs of those on the west side. We see the pass-
age into King Street, but hardly as narrow as is usually
supposed ; indeed, Kip makes it look like a continuation
of the thoroughfare as it is to-day. The garden, of which
we have not only written record, but a special picture, at
the back of the premises occupied by White's Club, on the
west side, is clearly shown, as are the houses in St James's
Place (Stable Yard then), a street then running straight
to the Park wall, with gardens behind those on the south
side. The houses in St James's Street itself are of regular
c 33

ST JAMES'S STREET

elevation, most of them having mansard roofs; one, at
the south-east corner of the thoroughfare, seems to have
the indication of a sign hanging before it, although in the
engraving it is not very clearly defined, and it is quite
impossible to distinguish what it represents.

By the time we reach Rocque's famous map (1741-1745)
we find the street in a matured state and its tributary
thoroughfares, as they exist to-day, clearly marked.

There is one plan about which I must say a word, be-
cause it directly concerns my subject, and also because it
shows very clearly the division of the two parishes through
which St James's Street runs. This is the plan of the
parish of St George's, Hanover Square, dated 1725, and
now in the possession of the Vestry, which caused it to be
reproduced in 1880. By it we see that the whole of St
James's Street is in the parish of St James's, except that
portion of the west side extending from Piccadilly to Park
Place (the line of demarcation running along the front of
the houses in the thoroughfare, turning into Park Place
and continuing in a straight line to the Park wall, from
which point it turns northward, skirting the wall until it
reaches Piccadilly, when it proceeds westward along the
railings of the Green Park), which is in the parish of St
George's, and forms a square cut out of the neighbouring
parish ; in which square are Arlington and Bennet streets
and the houses on the north side of Park Place.

The outlines of the parish of St James's are thus given
in the Statute which confirmed them. The parish then
comprehended " all the houses and grounds, including a
place heretofore called St James's Fields, and the -confines
thereof, beginning at a house at the south side of the east
end of Catherine (alias Pall Mall) street ; the south of
the roadway, called Tyburn road, westward, to a house,
being the sign of the Plough, at the north-west corner of a
lane, called Mary-le-bone Lane, including the said house ;

34

IN THE PAST

and from thence proceeding southward, on the east side
of the lane to the north- west corner of Crabtree Fields,
comprehending the same; and the ground from thence
westward, to the north-west corner of Ten Acre Field, in
the occupation of Richard, Earl of Burlington, or his
assigns, including that field, and the highway between the
same ; and the garden wall of the said Earl of Burlington,
to the north-west corner of the said garden wall, including
that garden, and the mansion house of the said Earl of
Burlington, fronting Portugal Street. Towards St James's
House, to the middle channel on the south side of a new
street called Park Place,1 comprehending all the east side
of St James's Street to St James's House, and all the west
side thereof, from the said middle downwards, as far as
the same extends, and including the south side of Park
Place to Cleveland gardens, comprehending the same, and
Cleveland House, and out-buildings; and also the street
which leads from the outward gate of the said house, and
thence to the said Pall Mall street, comprehending all the
buildings and yards backward to the wall, which encloses
part of St James's Park, which hath been lately made into
a garden, extending to a house inhabited by Anthony
Verrio, painter ; and the late Leonard Girle, gardener ;
and from thence to the house and garden of Thomas,
Earl of Sussex, including the same, together with the
south side of Warwick street to the White Hart Inn
there."

When, in 1725, the parish of St George's, Hanover

Square, was formed, it took in (as I have pointed out) the

west side of St James's Street, from Piccadilly to Park

Place, the boundary line running through the middle of

the latter and passing straight through to the Green Park,

where it returned northwards along the walls of the gardens

belonging to the houses in Arlington Street up to Piccadilly

1 Formed 1683.

35

ST JAMES'S STREET

again. The section of the plan of the parish, dated 1725,
here given will illustrate this.

This chapter may suitably be concluded with the follow-
ing reference to St James's Street as it was at this
period, together with a letter facetiously indicative of its
desagremens half-a-century earlier, taken from Malcolm's
Anecdotes, published in 1810 : —

"As St James's Street now is, nothing can be more
convenient than the gradual declination from Piccadilly
to the Palace. That the houses on each side of the way
have been almost entirely rebuilt since the year 1765,
will pretty plainly appear from the ensueing lively paper
inserted in 'The London Chronicle,' Aug. 15, 1765 :

" 'We have read a great deal in your paper about Liberty,
Mr Printer ; give me leave to say a word or two about
Property, which, talk as they please, the greatest part of
mankind reckon the most valuable of the two. Our
sensible forefathers, in framing the Streets of this great
City, preferred utility to ornament ; and, in St James's
Street, they were very industrious, that the paving of that
uneven ground should not prejudice the property of any
individual. — Their wiser sons have wished to reverse this
practice, and have been full as industrious in conforming
the buildings to the Scotch paving. The descent from the
upper to the lower end of this street being so very steep,
has brought very whimsical distresses upon many of the
inhabitants — some of the ground floors, that were almost
level with the street, are now eight, nine, and some ten
steps, and those very steep, from the ground ; while
others, to which you used to ascend by three or four steps,
are now as many below the surface. Cellars are now
above ground and some gentlemen are forced to dive into
their own parlours. Many laughable accidents, too, have
happened from this new method of turning the world

36

IN THE PAST

upside down : some persons, not thinking of the late altera-
tions, attempting to knock at their own door, have fre-
quently tumbled up their new-erected steps, while others,
who have been used to ascend to their threshold, have as
often, for the same reason, tumbled down ; and their fall
had been the greater, from their lifting up their legs to
ascend as usual. An old gouty friend of mine complains
heavily ; he has lain, he says, upon the ground-floor for
these ten years, and he chose the house he lives in because
there was no step to the door ; and now he is obliged to
mount at least nine, before he can get into his bedchamber,
and the entrance into his house is at the one pair of stairs.
A neighbour, too, complains he has lost a good lodger, be-
cause he refused to lower the price of his first floor, which
the gentleman insisted he ought, as the lodgings are now
up two pair of stairs. Many of the street doors are not
above five feet high ; and the owners, when they enter
their houses, seem as if they were going into a dog-kennel
rather than their own habitations. To say the truth, no
fault can be imputed to the trustees : but many are great
sufferers ; and this method of making the houses conform
to the ornamental paving, is something like the practice
of Procrustes, the robber, who made a bed of certain
dimensions, and whoever was put into it, had his legs cut
shorter if they were too long, or stretched out if they were
too short, till the poor wretch was precisely of the length
with the bed.
• " ' I am, Sir, Yours &c.

" ' ANTI-PROCRUSTES.' "

37

EAST AND WEST SIDES OF STREET
I. THE EAST SIDE OF THE STREET

As we have seen, the earliest erections in St James's Street
were on the east side, and consisted of the row of low-built
houses which ran up from the south-east corner opposite
the gardens of Berkshire House. I have mentioned that
in Kip's Plan of 1710 the corner house appears to have a
sign hanging from its front. Although it is not clear what
this represents, I think we may assume from the position of
the building at the street corner that it was in all prob-
ability the sign of a tavern. This being so, conjecture can,
perhaps, identify it with the Poet's Head, which was kept
by one Edward Smith, who duly issued a token in the
year 1693. As this token exhibits a head crowned with
bays it has been assumed that it perpetuates the features
of Dryden. At the same time we may suppose that any
representation of a poet would have borne this distinctive
characteristic ; and a better reason for its being identified
with Dryden is the fact that, at this period, he was the
great literary figure in London and was more likely to be
selected as a " sign " than any other bard.

In 1691 another tradesman issued a token in St James's
Street, notably one Robert Noris, a glover, whose trade-
mark was, appropriately, a glove. I am inclined to place
his shop somewhere at the lower end of the street, on the
east side ; but greater particularity is impossible.

In the year 1793 No. 3 St James's Street is given as being
in the occupation of Messrs Brown & Willes. Later

38

EAST SIDE

C. Berry's name appeared over the doorway (with
its fanlight), flanked by two Georgian windows, as it
appears in a caricature dated 1810, and redolent of
those Regency days which Deighton and others have so
well perpetuated. The premises next door, No. 2, were at
this time kept by Thomas Williams, china-man. No. 4,
until a few years since the well-known business premises
of Mr Francis Harvey, the book and print seller, so
familiar to what the French call amateurs in fine books
and extra illustrated editions, as well as in prints and
engravings, was in 1740 the home of William Pickering, a
prosperous merchant, who acquired much of the adjoining
property and whose name is perpetuated in Pickering
Place, one of the most interesting byways in the West
End of London. It was Pickering who employed Francis
Hayman, the portrait painter, to decorate his private
rooms in this house, with frescoes representing scenes
from Don Quixote (since destroyed). After Pickering
No. 4 came into the occupation of James Neild, who is
given as living here in Kent's Directory for 1792. In a
later chapter I shall return to Neild, and his eccentric son,
who was born in this house and whose bequest of £50,000
to Queen Victoria in 1852, has largely helped to make his
name famous. In the Patent Directory of 1793 Mr Neild,
senior, is entered as a " silversmith."

Two notable names appear in an abstract of title, dated
1710, of these premises. I need only give the extract
which relates to " all that annual Fee Farm Rent of £80
arising out of divers pieces and slips of ground then within
St James's Parish and late within the Parish of St Martin's
in the Fields, granted by letters patent of his late majesty,
King Charles 2nd in the 17th year of his reign to Baptist
May and Abraham Cowley, in trust for Henry, Earl of
St Albans."

Baptist May was the well-known architect, the friend of

39

ST JAMES'S STREET

John Evelyn and Keeper of the Privy Purse to Charles II. ;
his combined names survive in Babmaes (or, more properly,
Babmay 's l) Mews, in Wells Street, Jermyn Street. Abraham
Cowley was, of course, the famous poet whose name reads
strangely in the dry phraseology of a lawyer's office.

An interesting reminder of what the front of No. 4 St
James's Street looked like forty odd years ago, is shown by
the little etching which George Cruikshank produced for
Mr Harvey, which still remains in the possession of his
son and successor.

Two doors farther up the street, notably at No. 6, we
come to the premises of Messrs Lock, the hatters. In 1793
James Lock's name appears in the Directory, and the
shop front which most of us know to-day probably looks
exactly as it must have done to our forbears when
George III. was king.

Next door (No. 7) to Messrs Lock's was, in 1793, the
shop of W. Walker, perfumer. As Francis Kelsey, con-
fectioner, is also given as at No. 7, he probably occupied
the ground floor, while Walker was upstairs. The James
Matthias who kept an ostrich feather warehouse in St
James's Street, in 1793, and Mr Richard Wetenhall, a stock-
broker, both possibly occupied premises on the same side, at
the south end, although no numbers are given in their case.

No. 8 has a far more notable connection, for it was when
lodging there, at the close of 1811 and in 1812, that Lord
Byron, in his own words, " awoke one morning to find
himself famous," after the publication of the second and
third cantos of Childe Harold. Since those days a story
has been added to the house, and it has been otherwise
altered, but a large medallion on its front commemorates its
connection with the poet. This was not the first time that
Byron had lodged here, for so early as 1808 we find him

1 So given by Elmes in his Topographical Dictionary of London,
1831.

40

EAST SIDE

at this address, and it was from this house, in 1809, that he
went for the first time to take his seat in the House of Lords.

Dallas has left the following account of the incident : —
"On that day [March 13th], passing down St James's Street,
but with no intention of calling, I saw his chariot at his
door, and went in. His countenance, paler than usual,
showed that his mind was agitated, and that he was
thinking of the nobleman l to whom he had once looked
for a hand and countenance in his introduction to the
House. He said to me : 'I am glad you happened to
come in ; I am going to take my seat, perhaps you will
go with me.' I expressed my readiness to attend him;
while, at the same time, I concealed the shock I felt on
thinking that this young man, who, by birth, fortune, and
talent, stood high in life, should have lived so unconnected
and neglected by persons of his own rank, that there was
not a single member of the senate to which he belonged,
to whom he could or would apply to introduce him in
a manner becoming his birth. I saw that he felt the
situation, and I fully partook his indignation." 2

We find letters from Byron, to his mother and others,
dated from No. 8, during 1809. At a later period, as we
shall see, he was living in Bennet Street.

No. 10, which has recently been converted into the
headquarters of Messrs Peters, the carriage builders, but
was formerly Rumpelmeyers and before that a club and
a coachbuilder's in turn, was in the early days of Queen
Victoria's reign the St James's Bazaar, which Crockford
had built, looking, as we can see from Tallis's elevation,
not unlike it does to-day.

The mention of Tallis brings me naturally to a con-
sideration of this portion of St James's Street as it ap-
pears in his London Street Views. From this source we see

1 Lord Carlisle.

a See Moore's Lift of Byron.

41

ST JAMES'S STREET

that at that period (roughly, 1835-1840) the corner house,
No. 1, was Sams's, the well-known book and print shop.
No. 2, previously, as we have seen, the establishment of
Thomas Williams, china-man, was occupied by one Hance,
a hatter. No. 3, at that time a large, double-fronted
establishment, was jointly inhabited by Berry, the grocer,
whose sign was the coffee-mill, and Weigall, the engraver.
Next door (No. 4, Mr Harvey's) was then Crellins', the
tailor. The Imperial Fire and Life Office was at No. 5 ;
Lock's, then as now, at No. 6 ; at No. 7, Adam, allitera-
tively described as a bread and biscuit baker ; at No. 8,
Osman Giddy, a chemist ; at No. 9, Slater & Son ; and
then the St James's Bazaar.

Most of the elevations of these houses indicate that they
had come down from a much earlier day. No. 8 seems
to have had a story added to it, but Nos. 1 and 10 are the
only ones which show marked evidence of rebuilding.

This particular portion of the roadway is, in some re-
spects, the most interesting, in that it represents the first
systematic development of the thoroughfare, and although
it contains none of the clubs for which St James's Street
is famous, it may be said to form the nucleus of the street.
For this reason it is probable that it was in one of these
houses that Maclean, the highwayman, lodged. We know
his " diggings " were opposite " White's," at that time a
few doors from the end of the street on the west side.
Mrs Letitia Pilkington, the friend of Swift, after being
separated from her husband, the Rev. Matthew Pilkington,
opened a small shop, also opposite White's, and therefore
in one of the houses mentioned above. Her venture was
not, however, a success, and she was obliged soon after
to move into a less fashionable quarter. Another shop-
keeper here was Ridley, the bookseller, who made prob-
ably more by the sale of Sir John Hill's quack medicines
than he did by the dissemination of literature.

42

F, HARVEY, |J p-^j !' M'jJAMES'S STRKU

°S°E LLER*T . j^S^^TTT^TT"

''\, .1

NO. 4 ST. JAMES'S STREET

Frotn a drawing by George Cruikshank

EAST SIDE

Continuing our progress up the street, we come to No. 10,
which stands at the corner of King Street, which had, when
Tallis executed his view, only recently (1830) become a
regular thoroughfare, so far as its western end is concerned.

Between King Street and Ryder Street Tallis shows
nine houses (Nos. 14 to 22). In the 1793 Patent Directory.
No. 15 is given as occupied by William Kendall, a glass-
man. By the by, the No. 12 there set down under the
name of William Stinton, grocer, must have disappeared
when King Street was extended over the site of the court
which formerly connected it with St James's Street.
Tallis gives No. 14 in his elevation with the name of Pike,
Breeches-Maker, over it ; but in his Directory ignores it
altogether and places Pike at No. 15. Probably the tailor
occupied both houses. Hatters seem specially to have
favoured St James's Street at this time, and we come
to another at No. 16, notably one named Caterer. The
next two houses, Nos. 16 1 and 17, formed the large
double-fronted building then occupied by the bank of
Messrs Herries, Farquhar, Davidson & Co., whose firm,
under the name of Sir Robert Herries & Co., is found in
the Rate Books for 1785 paying rates on a rental of £150.

At No. 18 we find Willis & Co., tailors; at No. 19,
Brumley, glass manufacturer; at No. 20, Nugee, tailor
(whom Thackeray mentions, by the by) ; Nicholls &
Housley, silk mercers, at No. 21 ; and Lewis, silversmith
and jeweller, at No. 22.

The houses of this block, between King Street and
Ryder Street, are of higher elevation than those lower
down, and although some of them, notably Nos. 18, 19
and 20, exhibit characteristically Georgian fronts, the

1 Tallis is here contradictory. In his view he gives Nos. 16 and
17 as the bank ; but in his Directory he places Caterer at No. 16,
and the bank at No. 17. Probably, during the preparation of his
work, the bank had absorbed Caterer's establishment.

43

ST JAMES'S STREET

majority have evidently been refaced to suit the taste of
a later period.

The numbers of the houses forming the next block, be-
tween Ryder and Jermyn Streets, run from 23 to 35. In
1793 No. 25 was occupied by one Baux, a shoemaker.
Nos. 26 and 27 formed, till recently, the double-fronted
shop of Banting, undertaker and upholsterer, whose
name is famous in the annals of the anti-fat campaign ;
William Banting, a man of vast proportions, having
adopted the method of reducing his bulk by a meat diet
and abstinence from beer, farinaceous foods and vege-
tables. He died in 1878, aged eighty- two, so that his
scheme did not, at any rate, shorten his life. No. 26 was
once a noted gambling hell miscalled the Athenaeum, and
was kept by Messrs Bond, who made a fortune out of the
enterprise. No. 28 l was inhabited, jointly, by John Abbot,
silversmith, and James Turner, jeweller, and No. 33, by
William Middleton, mercer and draper.

Tallis shows us Messrs Briggs at No. 23, as they are
to-day, and next door Messrs Welch & Gwynne, print-
sellers and publishers. One Garcia, a fruiterer, has taken
Baux's place at No. 25, and No. 26 was then occupied by
Charles Jones, gunmaker, and Bromley's auction rooms.
Next door to No. 27 comes Boodle's Club, with its beautiful
Adams front. Nos. 29, 30 and 31 were respectively
occupied by Hummel & Co., hosiers, Bryant, a picture
dealer, and Dodd, a tailor. At No. 32 we have another
double tenancy, for Tallis gives H. J. M'Clary, librarian
and stationer, and Angelo's School of Arms, as being here.
A book label which I possess bears the name of Ann
M'Gary as being at No. 32, so it is probable that the

1 There has been renumbering, for Boodle's was established here
in 1765, and in 1877 is given (by Leigh, in his New Picture of
London), as being at No. 31, while White's, now No. 37, is set down
as at No. 43.

44

H. J. M'Clary was a son of this lady. It was, earlier, at
No. 29, then the shop of Miss Humphrey, that the carica-
tures of Gillray were exhibited, and collected such crowds
on the pavement in front. Here the artist himself lodged,
and in a fit of insanity ended his life by throwing himself
from an upper window. At No. 32, the once well-known
bookseller, Robert Triphook, had his shop, over which
Cam Hobhouse lodged at one time. Triphook was a kind
of literary assistant to Sir Walter Scott, and collected in-
formation for him, notably when he was engaged on The
Pirate. As Hobhouse was the intimate friend of Byron,
No. 32 is indirectly identified with the two leading literary
men of that period. Of Angelo's famous academy I
shall say more in another chapter, but I may state here,
that the premises occupied by it were first built as part of
Colonel Redham's celebrated riding-school, and were taken
by the grandson of the original Angelo in 1830. Angelo's
partner, William M'Turk, and his two sons had their
salle d'armes here later (from 1866).

Next door (No. 33) G. Walker, tailor and habit-maker,
carried on his business. Walker seems to have been a
pioneer and to have discovered a new method of making
trousers, like Mr Goren, in Evan Harrington, whom Mere-
dith x may have modelled on the St James's Street artist.
His advertisement is worth reproducing : " Trousers on
a New Principle. — Walker, 33 St James's Street, has
discovered an entirely new principle of Cutting Trousers,
and offers to furnish the Nobility, Gentry, and the Public,
with this important article of dress, admirably adapted
to the display of the figure, and at the same time affording
such comfort in all exercises as to insure the highest satis-

1 By the by, the great novelist himself once lodged in St James's
Street, and it would be interesting if it could be established that
he did so at No. 33. His own father was, it will be remembered, a
tailor.

45

ST JAMES'S STREET

faction to those who honour him with orders. If Art can
give ornament to Nature, if any thing can surpass her in
the contour of a limb, it is when cloth is made elegantly to
fit the same, then it may fairly be admitted that Art has
added a charm even to Nature. — G. W. begs to add, that
he continues to supply Uniforms for Officers of the Army
and Navy, also Deputy Lieutenants' and Court Dresses,
in the most tasteful style and at moderate charges for
Ready Money."

Next to this great artist, T. I. Mortimer had his gun
and pistol manufactory, and at No. 35 (the corner of
Jermyn Street) still another firm of hatters appear, notably
Messrs I. & F. Evans, who combined a hosiery business
with their other branch. The feature of this block of St
James's Street is, of course, Boodle's Club-house, which
was designed by the Adams and erected by John Crunden
about 1765. In 1821-1824 large improvements and
additions were made (a new reading-room was one of
them) under the direction of J. B. Papworth.1 Of the
other houses between Ryder Street and Jermyn Street I
would draw attention to Messrs Briggs', at the corner of
the former thoroughfare, as being probably, from its much
lower elevation (in Tallis's view) than the rest, a survival
of the first buildings erected on this side of St James's
Street. To-day everything has, of course, become altered
except the front of Boodle's, which remains essentially as
it first appeared when the Adams designed it.

From Jermyn Street to Piccadilly the street is
numbered from 36, at the north corner of the former
thoroughfare, to 42. Among these houses given in the
Patent Directory for 1793 are No. 37, then occupied by
John Wilson, perfumer; No. 38, the shop of Francis
Knight & Son, stationers; and No. 41, in the occupa-
tion of William Jones, saddler. According to Tallis, the
1 For Boodle's Club, see Chapter VI.
46

EAST SIDE

inhabitants in this portion of St James's Street were as
follows: — No. 36, a double house, was jointly occupied
by Thomas, bootmaker, on the south portion, and Eley,
whose premises are described as the " Patent Wire Cart-
ridge Warehouse." It is interesting to read Eley's ad-
vertisements, addressed " To Sportsmen," and headed by
a diagram showing five birds (presumably grouse) rising
amid a shower of shot. This is what Eley has to say about
the merits of his patent :

" Eley's patent wire cartridges, for shooting game, &c.,
at long distances, are warranted to make all guns kill from
twenty to forty yards further than a loose charge. They
are strongly recommended by the following eminent sport-
ing authors: — Colonel Hawker, author of 'Instructions
to Sportsmen ' ; T. B. Johnson Esq., author of the ' Game-
keeper's Directory,' &c. ; Nimrod ; J. Oakleigh Esq.,
author of * The Oakleigh Shooting Code ' ; James Tyler
Esq., author of 'The Shooter's Manual ' ; W. Watt Esq.,
author of 'Remarks on Shooting, inverse.' A prospectus
containing the testimonials of the above-named authors,
and further information may be had on application at the
warehouse, 36 St James's Street. They are well worth
the attention of merchants and captains. To be had of
all gunmakers."

No No. 87 is given, it obviously being included with
No. 38, the famous White's Club-house, about which I
shall have a good deal to say later on. No. 39 was then
occupied by Messrs Moore & Co., hatters; No. 40 by
E. Hogg, military tailor; No. 41, by M'Dowall, watch
and clock maker, whose advertisement tells us that he was
the inventor of the " Helix Lever and Revolving Endless
Gravitating Time Piece, without springs, chains, Barrels,
fusees, and keys, and Quiescent Armillary Escape ! "

Over the shop of this inventive genius were the York
Chambers (also numbered 41), where Campbell the poet

47

ST JAMES'S STREET

once lived, and next door, at the corner of Piccadilly, at
No. 42, Barclay had his furrier and hat establishment ;
premises now rebuilt and occupied by the Union of
London and Smith's Bank.

We thus see that, at the beginning of Queen Victoria's
reign, St James's Street had practically the same character
as it enjoys to-day. Then, as now, business establish-
ments occupied most of its houses, a famous bank among
them; then, as now, two well-known clubs were here
(to-day, by the by, the Sandown Park Gub occupying
part of No. 4 and the Kempton Park Club at No. 23A are
additions). What taverns or coffee-houses there may
have been here in earlier days had by then disappeared,
such as the King's Head, next to White's, and Parsloe's,
which adjoined Pickering Place, in 1796, then carried on
by Jane Parsloe and known for its literary associations,
where the Johnson Club once held its meetings, and the
Chess Club, of which the great Philidor was a member.
The elevations of the houses on the east side of the street
have been altered for the most part out of all recognition.
The two well-known fronts, which are, however, essentially
as they were when Tallis made his drawings, are those of
White's and Boodle's, and there are one or two houses at
the lower end of the street which are of an earlier date.
But rebuilding has been rampant. The north and south
corners have both been reconstructed, the former especi-
ally, on a splendid scale. The bank, whose old front we
remember (as it looked in Tallis's plan) has been converted
into a fine building and has embraced the formerly separ-
ate house at the corner of King Street. The St James's
Bazaar has undergone several metamorphoses, although
its area has not been extended. Just as brick gave way
to stucco under the eegis of Nash, so has stucco now dis-
appeared in favour of stone, and St James's Street is
exhibiting evidences of that great rebuilding of London

48

WEST SIDE

which, when completed, should leave it the most beautiful,
as it is the largest, city in the world.

II. THE WEST SIDE OF THE STREET

The west side of St James's Street has never had quite

the same character as the east. In the first place, just as

its tributary streets have always been more residential

than those opposite, so the premises in the thoroughfare

itself have shared something of this characteristic. There

have been, and are, more clubs on this side : White's (in

its early days, although one must not forget that it was,

first of all, on the east side), The Thatched House, arising

out of the tavern of that name, Brooks's, Crockford's,

Arthur's, The Cocoa Tree, The Devonshire (Crockford's

successor), The New University, The Royal Societies and

The Conservative have all been here and nearly all still

remain. Unlike the east side, too, it has had its hotels :

Fenton's, at No. 63, and the St James's Royal Hotel, kept

by English, at No. 88, at the corner of Cleveland Row ;

Symon's Hotel at Nos. 57 and 58 ; Ellis's at Nos. 59 and 60,

and Graham's at No. 87, next door to English's. The

west side has thus had a more residential character than

the east ; but it has not been quite innocent of business

premises. In the Patent Directory for 1798, however, I

find only one name given between Piccadilly and Bennet

Street, notably that of Henry Holland, music- seller, at

No. 48, the corner house, which in Tallis's time was

occupied by Hoby, the famous bootmaker, and is now

absorbed in the splendid offices of the Royal Insurance

Company, and where, in 1788, Ozias Humphrey, the

miniature painter, lodged. Next door is given in Tallis's

Directory, as being occupied by the Guards' Club (until

recently in Pall Mall and now in Mount Street), and then

Crockford's long front (now the Devonshire Club) faces

D 49

ST JAMES'S STREET

the street till we come to No. 53, then owned and occupied
by " Crockford Esq.," the proprietor. Next door to him,
and at the corner of Bennet Street, is No. 54, which was
formerly the headquarters of another and smaller pro-
prietary club, notably Bond's, afterwards moved to
No. 26, on the opposite side.1 These last two houses
have for many years now been Messrs Harper's, coach-
builders, establishment, which, with the Devonshire Club
and the Royal Insurance Company, thus occupy jointly
the block between Piccadilly and Bennet Street.

Between the latter thoroughfare and Park Place the
houses are numbered 55 to 61. Of these the Directory of
1793 gives the former as being in the occupation of John
Thomas, goldsmith. By about 1835-1840, Richards, a
chemist, had replaced Thomas here, and next door (No. 56)
were J. Gurney & Co., tailors, the remainder of this
portion of the street 2 being filled by the double houses
occupied by Symon's and Ellis's hotels, and Brooks's
Club-house at the corner of Park Place. Tallis gives the
club as numbered 61 (it is now No. 60), but crossing Park
Place we find the house at its south corner also numbered
61, which is shown as being jointly occupied by R. Payn,
wine importer, and Mrs Geary, who kept here her
" Magasin de Nouveautes." Next door was J. Lauriere,
a jeweller. It was here that the famous Betty had her
fruit shop, the rendezvous of the wits and fine gentleman
of the period, where the queen of applewomen dispensed
opinions on politics as she served out her pears and pine-
apples. It is safe to say that, for a considerable period,
Betty (Mrs Neale was her proper name) was as much an
institution of St James's Street as White's or Brooks's.
We shall meet with her again in the chapter on famous

1 Mr Wheatley gives Lord Nelson as lodging at No. 54 in 1800 ;
in the same year he went to rooms in Arlington Street.
8 Nos. 57 and 58 are now the New University Club-house.

50

WEST SIDE

men and women, where I shall give some further details
of her and her customers.

Fenton's Hotel at No. 63 was in the street's early days
Peyrault's * Bagnio, established about 1699, a very fashion-
able lounge. It is interesting to know that the charge for
a cold bath was then two shillings and sixpence, and for
a warm one five shillings !

Between these premises and the next house were certain
mews. These occupied what, in a plan dated 1825, is
termed Stable Yard ; in Rhodes' map of 1770 and the
Rate Books for 1785, Blue Ball Yard 2; and in the Rate
Books (1685 and passim) Stable Yard.

Continuing from the south corner of these mews we
have (according to Tallis) Croker's Universal Literary
Cabinet at No. 64; Pulford, tailor, at No. 65; a rival
of the same trade, in Williamson, next door, and at 67
Philip & Whicker, cutlers and surgeons' instrument
makers, at the corner of St James's Place. In this block
the Royal Societies Club at No. 63, and the Cocoa Tree
Club at No. 64 occupy the site of the Universal Literary
Cabinet and its neighbouring house. In 1793 Lloyd
Thackeray & Co., wine merchants, were at No. 65.

At the other (south) corner of St James's Place the
house is numbered 67 by Tallis (as in the case of 61), and
in this building one Robertson carried on the trade of
"French Bread and Biscuit Baker." Next door was
R. Johnson, sword cutler, evidently a successor to Messrs
Bland & Foster, who were carrying on the same business
here in 1793. In this year Peter Wirgman is given as
jeweller at No. 69, where Johnson once bought a pair of
shoe-buckles, by the by ; but in Tallis's time that house
had been incorporated in Arthur's Club, which comprised
both this and the next house (No. 70). At 71, Tallis

1 It is sometimes called Pierault's and sometimes Pero's.
8 As given in Elmes's Topographical Dictionary, 1831.

51

ST JAMES'S STREET

gives one Haynes, probably a letter of apartments, and
Deighton, a tailor. Smith & Co., fruiterers, are at No. 72,
where, in 1793, John Jollyfe had had a bookshop, and at
No. 73, Halpin, tailor and breeches-maker.

A very narrow alley shown in Tallis's view is Little St
James's Street, which, in Rhodes's plan of 1770, is given
as Catherine Wheel Yard, not to be confounded with
Little Catherine Wheel Yard, which was at the bottom of
the street and ran into Cleveland Row.

No. 76 St James's Street, at the south corner of this
yard, was occupied during the early years of Queen
Victoria's reign by one Boss, a gun-maker, as well as
by Miss Bidney, who enjoyed the distinction of being
" Honiton Lace Manufacturer to Her Majesty." Two
doors off, at No. 74, the Conservative Club is to-day
established. Continuing down the street we find, accord-
ing to Tallis, No. 77 occupied by Charles Moore, gun-
maker; No. 78, by Messrs Strong, hatters and hosiers.
No. 79, which in 1793 was the shop of another hatter,
named Moneys, is found to be occupied by one Mimpress,
a jeweller; and next door was the Thatched House
Club (now No. 86 1), kept by Messrs J. and W. Willis.
Nos. 81 to 83 are given by Tallis as the shops of
Harrison, tobacconist, Martin, tailor, and Page, wig-
maker, respectively ; while at No. 84 Fisher, hosier, is
found replacing Jane Hatch, jeweller, who was there in
1793. The Albion Club — a proprietary establishment of
which little seems to be known — occupied what was then
No. 84. Next door (No. 86) was the shop of Messrs G. and
J. Gary, map and globe publishers, and at No. 87, Graham's
Club-house, a once notable gambling centre, which came
to an end in the early forties. It was a great place for
whist, and Lord Henry Bentinck is here said to have

1 C. Dyer, print-seller, is mentioned by J. T. Smith (Nollekens and
his Times) as carrying on his business at a shop close to this club.

52

WEST SIDE

initiated that particular call for trumps known as the
"Blue Peter." With the double-fronted corner house
(No. 88), in Tallis's day known as the St James's Royal
Hotel and kept by C. G. English, we come to the end of
the buildings on the west side of St James's Street.

Among them those that stood out architecturally were
Crockford's (replaced by the Devonshire Club), Brooks's
(still existing practically as it was a hundred years ago),1
Fenton's Hotel (No. 63), where the Royal Societies Club
is now, Arthur's, and English's Hotel which has not long
since been massively rebuilt. For the rest, although some
of the houses showed signs of rehabilitation, the majority
of them bore, at the beginning of the nineteenth century,
the characteristics, allowing for reconstruction, of an earlier
time.

To-day so much rebuilding has taken place on both
sides of the street, and is still gradually progressing, that
the views given by Tallis (here reproduced) will enable
the reader to see at a glance what a metamorphosis the
thoroughfare has undergone.

It is always difficult to reconstruct in one's mind the
earlier features of a street which has been so much rebuilt
as has the thoroughfare under consideration. For in-
stance, it would tax the memory in no slight degree if one
tried to remember the outlines of the building which, only
the other day, as it seems, gave place to the fine offices of

1 Brooks's is specifically referred to by Ralph (Critical Review of
the Public Buildings, etc., of London) in the following passage: —
•" St James's Street is much more remarkable for the natural
advantages and beauty of the ground, than from any addition it
has received from art. The house at the corner of Park Place is
well proportioned, and has considerable merit. The palace-gate,
notwithstanding its advantageous position at the end of this
street, has a very mean appearance."

If Ralph's ghost revisits the glimpses of the moon, it is possible
that it would see reason for amending this very wholesale criticism.

53

ST JAMES'S STREET

the Royal Insurance Company, at the north-west corner
of St James's Street. The houses at that point shown
by Tallis had in their turn been rebuilt, so that his eleva-
tions are of no assistance. But it so happens that E. J.
Gregory, R.A., in his picture of Piccadilly, shows the
immediate predecessors, not only of the insurance offices
named but also of the equally fine block on the north-
west side of the street ; for which reason I here reproduce
it through the courtesy of The Studio, in which publication
it appeared.

Something of the earlier St James's Street can be evoked
from the pencil of Hogarth and the caricaturists of the
eighteenth century, etc.,1 although in the famous plate
in The Rake's Progress the architectural detail is so
subsidiary to the story related that we can merely see in
that picture the straight, rather formal but wholly digni-
fied Georgian houses which were common to so many
London thoroughfares of the period. Indeed, with a few
exceptions, it is the human element that makes for the
fascination of St James's Street, and about that aspect
of it I shall have something to say in another chapter.
Architecturally its day is to come. There is ample
evidence that it is dawning even now, and it will not
apparently be long before, on either side, those splendid
stone-fronted buildings, of which a few are already in
existence, will be the rule, not, as now, the exception.
When this reconstruction is complete it will be still more
difficult to recall to mind those less ambitious but hardly
less picturesque red-brick structures of which so few have
survived.

1 1 may mention A Sequel to the Battle of Temple Bar, The
British Patriots'- Procession through London, and The Funeral
Procession of the Duke of York, inter alia, a reproduction of the
first being given in this volume.

54

Ill

THE TRIBUTARY STREETS

EAST SIDE

IN this chapter I want to speak of those streets and courts
which still run into St James's Street, or which once did so.
Most of them are both of the past and the present ; a few
have, however, disappeared. Before describing these I
must point out that I have thought it best to deal in
quite a general way with Jermyn Street : it has a history
of its own, so to speak ; its length carries it into a region
which, if fully dealt with, would make it necessary equally
to deal with an equivalent area on other sides of St James's
Street, with the result that, instead of writing the history
of this particular thoroughfare, I should, if I trespassed
so far outside its boundaries, be relating the history of a
large portion of the West End. With regard to King
Street, the other important tributary, the case is different,
as it extends but a relatively short way, and St James's
Square forms its natural limit.

One of the earliest detailed plans showing St James's
Street is the map of St James's Parish, published by
William Rhodes in 1770. By this we find, on the east side,
the following streets and courts marked : Pickering Place,
Gloucester Court, King Street, Little Rider Street, Fox
Court,1 Crown and Sceptre Court, Little Jermyn Street
and Villiers Court. I will take this side first before re-
ferring to the outlets on the opposite side of the way.

1 In 1698 three people were living here — viz. John Bennett,
Thomas Ealy and John Hurst.

55

ST JAMES'S STREET

PICKERING COURT

This court is now known as Pickering Place, and runs
up by the side of No. 4 St James's Street. It was origin-
ally called Strode's, or Stroud's,1 Court, no doubt taking
its name from a former ground landlord who lived close by
in St James's Street. When it first assumed its present
name is not clear. In Dodsley's London, 1761, it is re-
ferred to as Pickering Court ; while in a Directory for 1758
it is given, indifferently, both as Pickering Court and
Streuds (sic) Court. It is, therefore, probable that it was
about this time that its name was altered. William
Pickering, a prosperous merchant, is known to have
established himself at No. 4 St James's Street in 1740,
and to have gradually acquired most of the adjoining
property. When Rocque issued his plan of London a few
years later he called the place Pickering's Court ; and in
the Rate Books for 1785 it is so given ; four people were
then living in it— viz. Lord Kirkcudbright, Matthew
Hallagan, Josiah Winnock and James Parsloe.

There is extant a card-plate of the Georgian period on
which is engraved the following : — " 5 Pickering Place,
St James's Street, Rouge and Roulette, French and
English Hazard. Commence at one o'clock." No name
appears on the plate, for rather obvious reasons, this
house at the bottom of the court facing St James's
Street, and still in existence, being then one of the most
notorious gambling hells in London. Its fashionable
position, no less than its sequestered situation (you
may, to-day, easily pass its entrance court without
observing it), made it peculiarly fitted for its purpose.
How long its career of this character lasted, it is difficult
to say ; but it is probable that the place existed as a

1 It is so given in the Rate Books for 1695, etc. Maitland, in
1739, also gives it thus.

56

Jll

PICKERING PLACE, AS IT IS TO-DAY

GLOUCESTER COURT

gambling centre down to the beginning of the nineteenth
century.

To-day the " Place " has a quiet and retired air — there
is something almost cloistral about it — its little flagged
courtyard being reached by a passage, the sides of which
are half-timbered and are, no doubt, a relic of the earliest
buildings of St James's Street. It alone shares with the
neighbouring Palace something of the antiquity which
has no other survivals in this neighbourhood.

GLOUCESTER COURT

Gloucester Court no longer exists, but it was formerly
situated nine houses from the bottom of St James's Street,
in which position Elmes, in his Topographical Dictionary
of London (1831), gives it. Maitland, in 1739, does not
mention it, but as it is marked in Rhodes 's plan (1770) we
can trace its formation approximately. It was probably
swept out of existence when the St James's Bazaar was
built, as that building was next to No. 9 St James's
Street. This Bazaar was erected by Crockford, from the
design of G. Bond,1 in 1832. I may mention here that,
according to Timbs, this building (still in existence, but
internally reconstructed) had a saloon 200 feet long, and
that here were exhibited, in 1841, three dioramic tableaux
of the second funeral of Napoleon, to which we may be
sure Thackeray 2 was a visitor ; and that in 1844 the
first exhibition of the decorative works for the new Houses
of Parliament were here shown.

At a subsequent period the building was converted into
chambers, and between 1883 and 1884 it underwent
another transformation, the Junior Army and Navy Club

1 The designs were continued by Sir J. Pennethorne.

2 Who wrote The Second Funeral of Napoleon, it will be
remembered.

57

ST JAMES'S STREET

having acquired it. Under Wyatt Papworth, the archi-
tect, the interior was wholly reconstructed and made
suitable for its new purpose.

It is within recent years that the club gave up its home
here and that the premises were acquired by Rumpel-
meyer, whose tea-rooms (now moved to the opposite
side of St James's Street) were a fashionable lounge.
Since his removal the place was occupied as a carriage-
builder's, and at the time of writing is again undergoing
alteration for a like purpose. As the building occupies a far
longer frontage to King Street than it does to St James's
Street, and has its principal entrance there, it properly
takes its place in the account of the former, rather than in
that of the latter, thoroughfare.

It seems probable that Gloucester Court was so named
after the Duke of Gloucester, the brother of George III.,
although the fact cannot be substantiated.

KING STREET

King Street, apart from its being one of the more
important turnings out of St James's Street, is notable
as containing the site of the famous Almack's, as well
as the one-time residence of Napoleon III., and as, to-day,
being identified with the world-known establishment of
"Christie's."

King Street was made in 1673, and was one of the
thoroughfares which formed part of the development of
St James's Square, by Lord St Albans. At its north-east
comer stood Halifax House, whose occupier, George
Savile, Lord Halifax, the celebrated Trimmer, is entered
in the Rate Books as of "King's Street in St James's
Fields." His connection with this neighbourhood, how-
ever, is more properly associated with the Square itself,
on which his residence abutted, just as is that of the

58

JAMES CHRISTIES' AUCTION ROOM AS IT APPEARED IN 1803

From a drawing l<y T. H. Shepherd

KING STREET

Duke of Cleveland, who occupied the house opposite
(with an entrance in King Street), at the south-west
corner of the Square, in 1726.

In its earlier form King Street had no carriage com-
munication with St James's Street, a narrow court con-
necting the two, till 1830, when the roadway was made a
uniform width, as it is at present. This change may be
traced, I imagine, to the erection of the St James's Bazaar,
which rose some two years later, and which was responsible
for the pulling down of the small houses at the south-west
corner of the court.

Besides containing this large building, as well as Messrs
Christie's l at No. 8, which, by the by, stands on the site
of what was formerly Wilson's European Emporium or
Museum, that place in turn following a gambling hell
of unenviable notoriety, and Willis's Rooms (originally
Almack's) opposite, King Street has in it the St James's
Theatre, which was erected, in 1835, from the designs of
Samuel Beazley for Braham, the singer, whose fame has
been perpetuated in the inimitable prose of Lamb.

Under his aegis, however, the place was not an unquali-
fied success, and Kenney once told Alfred Bunn that,
hearing Braham express himself satisfied with the number
in the pit on a certain occasion, he took the trouble to
count them, and found the audience in that part of the

1 Messrs Christie's have been in King Street since 1823, moving
hence from Pall Mall in that year. The history of the great
house's foundation does not, therefore, properly belong to these
pages, nor is it necessary to set down the long list of famous sales,
from that of the Bernal collection in 1855, and the Hamilton
Palace dispersal in 1882 downwards, because a splendid record of
the initiation and gradual development of the firm, and an ex-
haustive list of its sales, with some of the special lots disposed of,
and the prices they fetched, has been compiled by Mr W. Roberts
in his Memorials of Christie's, 2 vols., 1879; wherein may be read
so much of the romance of that famous sale-room and not a little of
the vanity of human wishes.

59

ST JAMES'S STREET

house numbered exactly seventeen ! At a later date the
great Rachel electrified London at the St James's and
here scored some of her most notable triumphs. Much
later still, Ravel and Schneider played here to crowded
houses, and in our own days the theatre has been largely
associated with the successes identified with the names of
the Kendals, Sir John Hare and Sir George Alexander.
In 1879 the interior was completely remodelled, and from
that date to 1888 Hare and the Kendals occupied it.

At one time the street boasted an hotel — to wit, Nerot's,
at No. 19 — and I find it specifically mentioned in the year
1782 ; but it cannot claim to have a history except for the
fact that Nelson on his return to London, after the battle
of the Nile, stayed here for a short time, his wife and
father having come here previously to receive him.

Of distinguished residents King Street has had its share.
Here, in 1712, Theresa Blount was lodging "next door to
my Lord Salisbury's," as Pope addresses her in that year.
The Lord Salisbury referred to must have been the 5th
Earl, who succeeded to the title in 1694, and died in 1728.
Another one-time resident was Sir John Pringle, a Presi-
dent of the Royal Society, who died " at his apartments
in King Street, St James's Square," in January 1782. It
is Pringle, it will be remembered, whom Boswell describes
as "my own friend and my Father's friend," but whom
Johnson could not away with. On the famous journey
to Auchinleck, Boswell was at infinite pains to induce
Johnson to avoid three subjects of discussion with
his father, Sir John Pringle being one. A lady as much
forgotten to-day as the worthy President (who, indeed,
has a sort of fame in being frequently referred to in the
great biography) was Charlotte Smith, who was born in
King Street on 4th May 1749. She has been described as
a once celebrated novelist and sonneteer, but her fame is
distinctly of yesterday. She died in 1806, and all that

60

KING STREET

is remembered (if they be remembered) of her literary
activity are her two later works, The Old English
Manor House and Emmeline.

In view of the many beautiful things which have
changed hands at Christie's, it is interesting to find that
when, in 1783, Sir William Hamilton purchased the
famous Barberini vase, he took lodgings in King Street.
Miss Hamilton writes in her diary, under date of 31st
December 1783 : " We went to my uncle Sir W. H., at
the Hotel [? Nerot's] in King Street, St James's ; ye Dss
[of Portland] was already there ; saw ye fine Vase." *

At an earlier date, Swift speaks of Lady Worsley (a
beauty of the period, wife of Sir Robert Worsley and
daughter of Lord Weymouth) lodging " in the very house
in King St. where D. D. 's mother bought the sweetbread
when I lodged there, and M. D. came to see me." 2

King Street possesses one mural tablet. It is on the
small house, No. 3A, at the St James's Square end of the
street. Here Louis Napoleon lodged ; hence he set out
for his descent on Boulogne; and this house he pointed
out to his Empress, as they were driving down St James's
Street in triumph on the occasion of their State visit to
Queen Victoria. The "Man of Destiny" must have
had strange thoughts as he compared his humble style of
life as an adventurer whom few took seriously, with his
apotheosis as Emperor of a great people. Even his in-
scrutable eyes must have lighted up for a moment at the
revenges which Time had brought him.

He lived in King Street for two years, 1838-1840,
having, when he came here, been but recently expelled
from Switzerland. While here he was enrolled as a

1 Mrs Delany's Autobiography, vol. vi., p. 192.

"Journal to Stella. D. D. was Mrs Dingley; M. D., Stella
herself. When Swift speaks of lodging here, he evidently means
in Bury Street, where he had rooms.

61

ST JAMES'S STREET

special constable during the Chartist riots, and he also
took part, in August 1839, in the famous rain-spoilt
Eglinton Tournament.

Bishop Wilberforce, in his diary, describes the future
Emperor as he was at this time, and particularly mentions
his mean-looking appearance; he was small, "with a
tendency to embonpoint, and had a remarkable way of, as
it were, swimming up a room, with an uncertain gait ; a
small grey eye, looking cunning, but with an aspect of
softness in it too."

Notwithstanding many disabilities, however, and the
fact that he was a proscribed person, he, to use Archibald
Forbes's words, "at once made good his footing in the
best circles of the British capital, and he became immedi-
ately a personage of high social interest and importance."
He led the life of a man of fashion and was a persona grata
at Gore House ; but the more serious side of his character
was evinced by the publication, in 1839, of those Idees
Napoleoniennes, which have been described as " the
brightest and fullest expression " of his mind.

Although the house in King Street was his chief pied-d-
terre at this period, he seems, on his first arrival in London,
to have put up at Fenton's Hotel in St James's Street, and
to have spent some time both at Lord Cardigan's house
in Carlton House Terrace and Lord Ripon's in Carlton
Gardens.

Nearly opposite Napoleon III. 's old house is the quaint,
picturesque little building (No. 29) now occupied by the
Orleans Club, which was formed in 1877, and largely
identified with the sporting name of Sir John Astley — the
Mate — who so greatly interested himself in the club when
it had its suburban headquarters at Orleans House,
Twickenham.

62

BURY STREET

BUEY STREET

On the north side of King Street are two thoroughfares,
Bury and Duke Streets. The former (where Brummeirs
grandfather let lodgings, by the by) would be more pro-
perly written Berry, for it was named after a Mr Berry,1
the ground-landlord of most of the houses in it, and was
formed in 1672. It is chiefly notable as having once con-
tained a house in which Steele lived from 1707 to 1710,
and another where Swift lodged at various times. Fre-
quent references to the former, which was next door to
the residence of Lady Berkeley, are to be found in Steele's
letters. One to his wife, before their marriage, contains
the following : — "I believe it would not be amiss if some
time this afternoon you took a coach or chair and went
to see a house next door to Lady Berkeley's towards St
James's Street, which is to let." On other occasions he
mentions the position of the house with great particularity,
as thus : " Mrs Steele. At her house 3rd door from
Germain Street, left hand in Berry Street " ; and again,
" Mrs Steele. At her house the last house but two on the
left hand, Berry Street, St James's." Mrs Vanderput was
the Steeles' landlady here. We know that once she had
Dick arrested for arrears of rent, in November 1708, which
no doubt was the reason for his referring to her (as he
does in a letter to his wife) as " that insufferable brute."

Two years later Steele again came to lodge here, so I
suppose either that he had made it up with Mrs Vanderput
or that another landlady ruled in her place. It is inter-
esting in connection with this second sojourn to find the
following passage in a letter (dated 28th July 1710) from
Dennis the critic to Steele2: — "I should only, perhaps,
have advised you, in order to the preventing some trouble-

1 He died in 1735, and was then over one hundred years of age

2 Given in London Past and Present.

63

ST JAMES'S STREET

some visits, and some impertinent letters, to cause an
advertisement to be inserted in Squire Bickerstaff ' s next
Lucubrations, by which the world might be informed that
the Captain Steele who lives now in Bury Street is not the
Captain of the same name who lived there two years ago,
and that the acquaintance of the military person who in-
habited there formerly, may go look for their old friend,
e'en where they can find him." From what we know of
Dick Steele's history, the advice is suggestive.

Steele 's one-time residence, described by Cunningham
as " over against No. 20," was demolished in 1830. Swift
first came to lodge in Bury Street in September 1710. He
refers to it in a letter to Stella, thus: "I lodge in Berry
Street, where I removed a week ago. I have the first floor,
a dining-room, and a bed-chamber, at eight shillings a
week ; playing deep, but I spend nothing for eating, never
go to a tavern, and very seldom in a coach ; yet, after all,
it will be expensive." l It was not altogether satisfactory
apparently, for on 8th November he writes : " Impudence,
if you vex me ; I will give ten shillings a week for my

lodgings, for I am almost st k out of this with the sink,

and it helps me to verses in my ' shower. ' " a And again
in December he moans: "What is this? faith, I smell
fire ; what can it be ? this house has a thousand stinks
in it. I think to leave it on Thursday, and lodge over the
way." Apparently he did not go to a house opposite, for
although he bespoke it the landlord let it to someone else.
" I gave him no earnest, so it seems he could do it," writes
Swift.

The result was that he had to find apartments elsewhere,
and settled on some in St Albans Street, a thoroughfare

1 Journal to Stella, 2pth September 1710.

z " Returning home at night, you'll find the sink
Strike your offended sense with double stink."

Description of a City Shower.

64

BURY STREET

removed in 1815 to make way for Waterloo Place. At
a later period, however, Swift returned to Bury Street,
for on his last visit to England in 1726 we find him
lodging there, "next to the 'Royal Chair." Five doors
away Mrs Vanhomrigh and her daughter Vanessa lived,
and it was in their Bury Street lodgings that the latter,
as she told the Dean, saw "something in your looks so
awful that it strikes me dumb."

By the side of such great figures as those of Steele and
Swift we find others who give the street a distinctly
literary air. For instance, Tom Moore was here on various
occasions : in 1805, at No. 27 (numbered later 28), whence
he dedicated his Odes and Epistles to Lord Moira; and,
again, in 1810, where the advertisement to the fourth
number of his Irish Melodies was dated and whither he
brought his young wife in the following year ; in 1814 he
was at No. 33 ; ten years later at No. 24 ; and in 1830 at
No. 19. He seems to have been at the last house before, as
writing to Power, he remarks : "I would not go to him [the
landlord] but for my hatred of strange places and faces."

With reference to the first-named house we have the
following interesting note in Moore's diary for 19th
February 1828 : —

"Went with Keppel to his lodgings, 28 Bury Street
(formerly 27), for the purpose of seeing the rooms where
he lives (second floor) which were my abode off and on for
ten or twelve years. The sight brought back old times ;
it was there I wrote my Odes and Epistles from America,
and in the parlour Strangford wrote most of his Camoens.
In that second floor I had an illness of eight weeks, of
which I was near dying, and in that shabby little second
floor, when I was slowly recovering, the beautiful Duchess
of St Albans (Miss Mellon) to my surprise one day paid
me a visit."

E 65

ST JAMES'S STREET

The Keppcl spoken of was Major Keppel, a son of Lord
Albemarle. A new building has long replaced the house
where Moore carolled and Lord Strangford made known
to English readers the beauties of the unfortunate
Camoens.

Another poet who once lodged here was Crabbe who,
writing in his journal for 28th June 1817, notes seeking
lodgings at No. 37 Bury Street on that day. Only females
were visible and he found his new abode " a little mysteri-
ous," and was at a loss to know "whether my damsel is
extremely simple, or too knowing." The house in which
he occupied rooms was, at a later date, turned into an
hotel, in which capacity it was existing in 1885. l

It was here, by the by, that the Hon. W. Spencer,
about whom Lamb has that good story, and who wrote
Beth Gelert and translated Lenore, lived for a time in 1813.

Another of Moore's lodgings was once occupied by a
notable man, Daniel O'Connell staying at No. 19, what
time the struggle for Catholic Emancipation was being
fought out in 1829. I had almost written that G. F.
Cooke, the actor, who was living in Bury Street in 1802,
was the last famous inhabitant to be noticed, when I re-
membered that a still more notable person, and one whose
memory will last as long as any of those mentioned, once
resided here. I mean the immortal Major Pendennis.2

DUKE STREET

Duke Street has an interest apart from the notable
people with whom it is associated, for it was the first

1 Hutton's Literary Landmarks of London.

2 We must not forget that Soame Jenyns died in Bury Street, in
1787, and that it was here, on one occasion, that Horace Walpole
stood in the snow, with only slippers on, to watch a fire at five
o'clock in the morning. He had come across from Arlington Street
for that purpose.

66

thoroughfare in London in which pavements were laid.1
The list of its better-known inhabitants is headed by that
Sir Carr Scroope whom Rochester lashes in his poems, and
who was living here at the north end of the east side of
the street from 1679 to 1683. 3 He must have been one of
the earliest residents, as the thoroughfare was probably
formed not earlier than 1672. Just a hundred years after
Scroope's departure we find Mrs Bellamy, the actress,
writing to Dr Johnson from No. 10, asking for his patron-
age to one of her benefits, as she was then "reduced to
distress " through " a long chancery suit and a compli-
cated train of unfortunate events." 3

But a greater than Mrs Bellamy once gave distinction
to Duke Street, for here Edmund Burke was lodging at
No. 67, in 1790, and hence he dates letters to Sir Philip
Francis. The Duke Street rooms were the last Burke
occupied in London.

There seems to be some doubt about the exact date of
his residence here. In London Past and Present, which I
have followed, the year is given as above, and the letters
substantiate it. In Mr Wheatley's Round About Picca-
dilly, however, Burke is stated to have lodged at No. 6 in
1793, and at No. 25 in the following year ; while Old and
New London gives the date of his residence as 1795.

At an earlier period Sugden, the future Lord Chancellor
of Ireland and England, was born in the house of his
father, a barber, in Duke Street, on 12th February 1781.
As Lord St Leonards he died so late as 1875, and his will
was, it may be remembered, the subject of much litigation.

Just as in the case of Bury Street, so in that of
Duke Street, a literary flavour is discernible — Campbell,

1 A like claim has been made for York Street leading from
St James's Square to Jermyn Street. It is probable that both
streets were thus paved about the same time, as experiments.

8 London Past and[Present.

3 Boswell's Johnson.

67

ST JAMES'S STREET

Moore, and Marryat all having lived here. Campbell's
lodgings were (in 1832) at No. 10, subsequently known as
Sussex Chambers. At the time of the poet's residence
here the house, in which he occupied an upper room, was
the headquarters of the Polish Association, presided over
by Lord Dudley Coutts Stuart. Here Campbell led a life
that just suited him. " I am not," he writes, " dissatis-
fied with my existence as it is now occupied." He break-
fasted at nine and then went to his club till twelve.
'* Then I sit down," he adds, "' to my own studies and,
with many and also vexatious interruptions, do what I can
till four. I then walk round the Park, and generally dine
at six. Between nine and ten I return to chambers, read
a book or write a letter, and go to bed before twelve."

The house in which he lived, at a later date became the
home of the Catholic Union of Great Britain. It was a
fine mansion, with a notable staircase, ornamental ceilings
and mahogany doors. Below were spacious vaults, which
tradition carried on, by passage-way, under Pall Mall
and the Park, to the Houses of Parliament. Tradition
often did as much as engineering in a credulous age.
Another story was that the house had once been occupied
by that much-housed potentate, Oliver Cromwell.

Two doors away (at No. 8) Captain Marryat was lodging
from 1837 to 1839. The house still preserves much of the
outward appearance it bore in the novelist's time, and its
substantial, uncompromising front is redolent of the
domestic town architecture of a century ago. Marryat
was a Londoner born, but it has been rightly said of him
that "no better painter of English sailor-life has sought
the favour of the reading world since Smollett gave us
Trunnion and Pipes." Although some of the better-
remembef ed productions of his fertile pen appeared before
he came to live in Duke Street, to his residence there may
be traced Master-man Ready and Percival Keene, Joseph

68

RYDER STREET AND FOX COURT

Rushbrooke and The Phantom Ship, while Snarley-yow
was published in the year1 he took up his residence here.

The ubiquitous Tom Moore is traced as lodging at No. 15
Duke Street in 1833. From his diary I find that the poet
arrived here on the 6th of March and appears to have
stayed till the 24th of May, when he left for Buckhill.
While here he frequented Brooks 's, visited such old friends
as Lord Lansdowne and Rogers, and had his boy out from
the Charterhouse on various occasions, duly noted in his
journal.

Among other past residents in Duke Street was William
Jerrold, the naturalist, whose father was a newsvendor in
the thoroughfare. The son was faithful to the spot, for
he is recorded as dying, in 1861, in a house at the Duke
Street corner of Ryder Street. It was, no doubt, while
there that he was occupied with the preparation of those
great works on birds and fishes with which his name is
identified and which appeared during the years 1835-1843.

As in the case of Bury Street, so here I make an end of
the list with an immortal — namely, that " innocent piece
of dinner furniture that went upon easy castors, and was
kept over a livery stable-yard in Duke Street, St James's,"
and whose name, as readers of Our Mutual Friend will
not need reminding, was Twemlow. Here he underwent
fearful doubts and misgivings as to whether or not he was
really the oldest friend of those unspeakable Veneerings.1

RYDER STREET AND FOX COURT

In early days the western end of this thoroughfare — that
is, between Bury and St James's Streets — was known as
Little Rider Street, and it is so given in Rhodes 's plan of
the parish, dated 1770. It was formed in 1674, and

1 1 find that in 1748 a Colonel Russell, of the Coldstreams, was
living in Duke Street (R. Hist. MSS. Commission).

69

ST JAMES'S STREET

received its name from that of a Captain Ryder, who had,
in 1660, set up gates on the Parish Lammas Lands.1

In 1693 Thomas Dangan, brother of the Earl of
Limerick, is given as residing "at his lodgings in Rider
Street, near St James's." Not long after Swift was in
rooms (apparently in 1712) which he describes as "over
against the house in Little Ryder Street," where Mrs
Dingley also lived.

One of the Dean's letters, dated from Letcombe, near
Wantage, in 1714, is addressed to "Mrs Esther Vanhom-
righ, at her lodgings over against the Surgeon's in Great
Ryder Street, near St James's."

There must have been happy memories for this turbul-
ent spirit in the Ryder Street abode, either of himself or
Vanessa, for, at a later date (1722), when trying to raise
his fair friend's spirits, he remarks, "remember . . .
Rider Street."2

As this is the sum total of Ryder Street's history, it
will be seen that it compares unfavourably in this respect
with the neighbouring thoroughfares.

Fox Court was a tiny cul-de-sac, slightly north of Ryder
Street and divided from it by four houses, Nos. 26-29
St James's Street, as shown in Horwood's plan. J. T.
Smith mentions a certain Norman, a dog doctor, as having
a house in this passage, and here lodged John Keyse
Sherwin, in whose studio Smith served his apprenticeship.
Miss Hawkins, in her entertaining Memoirs, complains
that Sherwin was in the habit of firing pistols out of his
window half the night, and she adds : " He half-drowned
his pupils, for, sad to say, he had pupils in punch." Smith,
who ought to have known, controverts this statement and
takes occasion in doing so to say that he certainly was not

1 Rate Books.

2 London Past and Present. There is one club— The Eccentric —
housed in Ryder Street.

70

JERMYN STREET

a pupil in this sense. With regard to Norman, Smith
records an amusing dialogue between Mrs Norman and
Mrs Nollekens, on the subject of one of the latter's dogs.
It was in Sher win's studio that Smith met the beautiful
Mrs Robinson — the Perdita of George Prince of Wales 's
Florizel — and in his Book for a Rainy Day he tells how, as a
young man, he received a kiss from her here. Here, too,
he once saw Mrs Siddons sit " in an attitude of the highest
dignity, in the character of the Grecian Daughter." l

JERMYN STREET

Jermyn Street took form rather earlier than did the
other tributary thoroughfares on the east side of St
James's Street, having been laid out about the year 1667.
It was so named from Henry Jermyn, Earl of St Albans,
who developed the surrounding property in the early years
of Charles II. 's reign. In common with Charles Street,
King Street, and St Albans Street (now Waterloo Place), it
was one of the first thoroughfares completed north of Pall
Mall, as a part of this building scheme. The portion
between St James's Church and St James's Street was
originally known as Little Jermyn Street, the rest of it as
Great Jermyn Street.

One of the earliest residents was Sir William Stanley,
who in the year of the street's formation is rated at one
pound (which he did not pay, by the by), as being in
" Jarman Street, West End, North Side." This spelling
of the name reminds me that its orthography always seems
to have been a difficult matter. The ways (in spelling)

1 See also his Nollekens and His Times, where, by the by, he
mentions a certain Vevini, a figure maker, who was living in St
James's Street, as producing "a fine mould of the Laocoon."
When Smith wrote his book (1828), Vevini was in his eighty-ninth
year, and was then styled the " Father of the Painters.'1 He had
been a pupil of Francis Hayman.

71

ST JAMES'S STREET

of the old rate-collectors were proverbially weird and
wonderful, so that in the Rate Books one naturally expects
to find variants of all kinds, but even Shadwell, in his
Virtuoso, published in 1676, sets it down as Germin, and
Lord Arran calls it Jermain Street in 1681, while Sir John
Banks addresses a letter to Jerman Street in 1690, and
another correspondent, two years later, writes it German
Street.1

Another early resident was Colonel Churchill (after-
wards the great Duke of Marlborough), who occupied,
from 1675 to 1681 a house at the west end, south side,
about five doors down the thoroughfare. Lord Arran,
writing to the Duke of Ormond on 28th January 1682,
says : "I have this day removed to Col. Churchill's house
in Jermain Street." Lady Arran was expecting the birth
of a child, and her husband seems to have arranged for this
residence with a view to that event.2 About the same
time the Duchess of Richmond (La Belle Stuart of De
Grammont's Memoirs) was living on the north side of the
Street (1681-1683), where she was succeeded in the tenancy
(in 1684) by the Countess of Northumberland. Next door
to this house Henry Saville, the friend of Lord Rochester,
was residing for a period exactly equalling that of the
Duchess of Richmond. Three doors off was Simon
Verelst, the painter, of whose vanity Walpole has left us
several anecdotes. To this house Sir William Soames
came to live in 1684. Sir William hangs on to the skirts
of fame as having once produced a poem on the Art of
Poetry, which was revised by no less a person than Dryden.

1 In the autobiography of Dr George Clarke, among the Ley-
bourne-Popham MSS., I find the following reference to the street : —

" I was put to school at one Mr Gordon, a Scotsman who lived in
what is since called Jermyn Street."

Clarke was born in 1661, and stayed at Gordon's school till
somewhat over ten years of age.

a Hist. MSS. Commission.

72

JERMYN STREET

Another fashionable resident was the Earl of Westmor-
land, who is found writing to the Duke of Albemarle, on
28th November 1681 , from Jermyn Street. Some years later
Sir George Rooke dates a letter (25th May 1695) to Lord
Shrewsbury from here, and in 1692 an anonymous corre-
spondent of Sir Joseph Williamson directs the letter to "his
house in German Street," as does Sir John Banks two years
earlier, although he spells it differently, thus: "Jerman
Streete." Williamson was still in the street in 1696, as
letters to him there testify, and in this year one George
Stokefield writes to Madame Higgins "at Mr Greenvill's
in Jermyn Street, at the Two Blue Pyramids," an unusual
sign which has eluded the vigilance of Larwood and Hatton.

A year later Sir Isaac Newton was living in a house near
St James's Church, and remained there till 1709. He
appears, however, to have lodged in the street at an earlier
date, for a letter written by Flamsteed and dated 2nd
January 1689, is addressed to "Mr Izaak Newton, at his
house in German Street, near St James's." Two years
after Newton had left, Lady Grendison came to live in
Jermyn Street, and the letter (from Miss E. Pitt to her
sister, the Hon. Mrs Pitt) giving this information tells us
of the presence here of another fashionable lady. "The
house," she writes, "that is taken for my Lady Grendison
is in Jermyn Street amost opeset to Lady Barrymore's.
I would have gone to see it but have had no coacth to go
anywhere."1

A better-remembered resident was, however, Mr
Secretary Craggs, who died here in 1720, so suddenly and
mysteriously, on the very day when the report incrimin-
ating him with complicity in the South Sea Bubble, was
read in the House of Commons. Pope's eulogistic and
friendly epitaph in Westminster Abbey can hardly be
regarded as impartially stating the case for Craggs.
1 Fortescue MSS.
73

ST JAMES'S STREET

A still more famous contemporary, in the person of
Bishop Berkeley, was lodging here in 1725, as we find
from the fact that he desires his correspondent to address
him at "Mr Bindon's, at the Golden Globe in Jermyn's
Street, near Piccadilly." Another resident (in 1737) was
the Dowager Duchess of Portland, who died at her house
here.1

Lord Carteret was staying in Jermyn Street in June
1734, as is proved by a letter he wrote at this time to the
Earl of March ; and just as he represents the political
world in the street, so the poets Gray and Shenstone give
it a poetical flavour. Gray was here in lodgings at the end
of 1753. On the 5th November of that year he writes to
Mason, asking him to look out for a lodging in Jermyn
Street, but that he won't give " more than half a guinea a
week for it, nor put up with a second floor, unless it has
a tolerable room to the street." The apartments were
found at Robert's the hosier, or Frisby's the oilman, in
Jermyn Street, both of which were situated at the east
end of the street, though on different sides of the way.
Gray used generally to take his dinner alone, it being sent
in to his lodgings from a neighbouring eating-house.

Shenstone, when he could tear himself away from his
beloved "Leasowes," used, in London, to occupy lodgings
here ; and here Dr Hunter began the formation of his
remarkable museum, which was eventually housed in
Windmill Street. His "residence here" extended from
1750 to 1768, and on his leaving the Jermyn Street house
his brother, John Hunter, came to live in it till 1783,
when he removed to Leicester Square.

Besides those I have mentioned other great and notable

people are identified with Jermyn Street : the Hon.

Charles Townshend writes to Lord Townshend from here

in 1748; Sir George Baker addresses letters hence in

1 Mrs Delany's Autobiography, vol. i., p. 597.

74

JERMYN STREET

1764-1765 ; Sir George Rooke writes to Mr Burchett in
1705 from Jermyn Street ; the elder Pitt was here in 1762,
having removed in that year from St James's Square, and
here had the meeting with Bute concerning a coalition
ministry to succeed the Grenville administration ; here
Sydney Smith lodged at No. 81 in 1811, and Tom Moore
at No. 58 in 1825. Sir Thomas Lawrence lodged at No. 42
in 1790, at which house he was succeeded by Sir Martin
Shee, who lived here till 1796. Lesser names are those of
Sir John Irvine, who is found dating letters from Jermyn
Street in 1777 and 1780 ; Richardson Pack, who writes to
Matthew Prior from here in 1719 ; Lord Kensington in
1781, and Governor Hamilton in the same year. In 1820
E. H. Locker asks permission, in a letter bearing the
Jermyn Street address, of Lord Dartmouth to publish
certain letters of George III.'s; and here, in 1832, Mr
Gladstone, on his first entering Parliament, took rooms
over the shop of a corn chandler named Crampern (a
relative of one of his Newark constituents), a few doors
west from York Street, as he once told Mr Dasent.1

In a list of " Persons who Paid Tax on Male Servants in
1780 " the names of Sir George Baker and the Hon. Mrs
Cooper appear as residents in Jermyn Street.

Jermyn Street has always been a street of hotels, not
of those vast caravanserai which have sprung up in other
parts of London, but of those smaller " family " resting-
places which seem to be redolent of the earlier years of
last century. There was, for instance, the Gun Tavern,
kept by Rouelle (afterwards an active member of the
French National Assembly), a great haunt of foreigners,
whose patronage it shared with Grenier's Hotel2 close by.

1 See History of St James's Square.

3 Lord Auckland writing to Lord Grenville, on 7th July 1793,
mentions a Mr Crawford -' who lodges at Conest's Hotel, in Jermyn
Street."

75

ST JAMES'S STREET

Of Grenier's Mr Storey, writing to Lord Auckland, on 24th
September 1789, remarks : " Saintefoy has been out of
town for these few days, but I believe he is shortly to
return to Grenier's Hotel, in Jermyn Street, the grand
resort of the illustrious fugitives from France, where,
amongst others, is Madame de Boufflers and the Countess
Emilie." One likes to think that it was from here that
Madame de Boufflers set out on her famous visit to Dr
Johnson in the Temple. There are plenty of hotels in
Jermyn Street to-day,1 but the place of one is now a
Turkish Baths and the Hammam Chambers, and this one
was the most famous of them all, for here, in July 1832,
Scott came on his return from the Continent a dying man,
and here he lay, half dreaming and half dead, for three
weeks before being carried, on his last sad journey, to his
own home beside the rippling Tweed.

The Museum of Practical Geology, whose other front
looks so strange in shop-lined Piccadilly, is in this street,
and is, indeed, sometimes known as " The Jermyn Street
Museum " ; and also here is St James's Church, or, rather,
that part of it that cannot be said to be in Piccadilly.

Erected by Lord St Albans in 1680 it owes much to the
combined genius of Wren and Grinling Gibbons. Its organ
once belonged to James II. ; three of its rectors have
become Archbishops of Canterbury : Tenison, Wake, and
Seeker. Here the Princess Anne used to attend divine
service when living at Berkeley House, and Defoe, who
was scandalised at the charges made for a seat, "where
it costs one almost as dear as to see a play, "according to
Mackay who, however, remarks on the "fine assembly

1 A quarter of a century ago there were Rawlings* at Nos. 37-38 ;
The Brunswick at Nos. 52-53 ; Cox's at No. 55 ; the Cavendish at
No. 8 1 ; the British at Nos. 82-83 ; the Waterloo at Nos. 85-86 ;
some of which survive. Jules is here, too, and the ubiquitous
Lyons !

76

JERMYN STREET

of beauties and quality " that came there, including my
Lord Foppington. The churchyard (where Gibbon once
stumbled and sprained his foot) as well as the church is
full of illustrious dead. Cotton, the friend and collabora-
tor of Izaak Walton, lies here, and Tom D'Urfey, whose
4 pills to purge melancholy ' formed a prescription that
many partook of; Van der Velde, the royal marine
painter, and Dahl and Hayman, once fashionable portrait
painters, and Harlowe, famous for his historical scenes.
Mrs Delany, who lived and died in St James's Place, is
buried here, and Akenside, who expired in Old Burlington
Street ; Dodsley was carried hither from 51 Pall Mall, and
Gillray from 29 St James's Street ; while that awful
" Old Q " rests within the sound of the Piccadilly of
which he was once the most notorious resident. At the
beautiful font, which the art of Gibbons adorned, the
great Chatham and the exquisite Chesterfield had been
held.

As one takes leave of Jermyn Street, with its pleasant
trees shading the churchyard, one remembers the curious
story (told by Dr William King and retold by Mr WThitten) 1
of the eccentric Mr Home, who, one day in the year 1706,
disappeared from his wife and family here and remained
securely hidden no farther off than Westminster for seven-
teen years ; after which he returned and apparently lived
happily ever after. The story only proves what anyone
(not wanted by the police) knows — viz. that London is
the easiest place in the world to hide oneself in, but it
seems also to indicate a kink in Mr Home.

1 Anecdotes of his Own Time and A Londoner's London.

77

IV

THE TRIBUTARY STREETS
WEST SIDE

BENNET STREET

THE first turning we come to in descending St James's
Street on the west side is Bennet Street. It takes its name
from Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington, one of the Cabal
ministry, who owned the ground on which it was formed in
1679. It is a small street and serves chiefly as a means of
communication between St James's Street and Arlington
Street. Yet it has its memories, for Byron, "Leonidas "
Glover, and Zoffany, the painter, have all lived in it.1

Zoffany was here (on his return from India) from 1795
to 1796, and by the Rate Books I find he paid forty pounds
rent. The house was empty during the quarter from
Christmas to Lady Day, after which the painter apparently
gave it up. He probably took it on a yearly tenancy.

When exactly Glover was living in Bennet Street I
cannot trace. He doubtless occupied lodgings, so the
Rate Books are no guide. His residence is said to have
been at No. 9, at the north-west corner of St James's
Street, where Messrs Hoopers' premises are now. As he
died in Albemarle Street in 1785 it is probable that he
went there from his Bennet Street lodging. Glover is
so absolutely the man of one book that the title of it is

1 In 1722 a Mr Wild was living there, and on igth October of
that year a letter was addressed " to Mr Fiord at Mr Wild's in
Bennet Street." It was one of the communications of Jacobites
concerned in Layer's conspiracy.

78

ARLINGTON STREET

invariably appended to his name — Leonidas Glover —
although he produced other poems, such as his London, in
1739 ; his Boadicea, in 1753 ; and a stupendous AtJienaid
in thirty books, brought out posthumously, in 1787, by his
daughter.

Byron's residence in Bennet Street was of an equally
short duration, for we find him living at No. 4, between
1813 and 1814. At that time a Miss Bayfield is given in
the Rate Books as occupying the house, and it was with
her, no doubt, that Byron lodged. At this period the
poet was composing The Giaour, The Bride of Abydos, and
The Corsair, parts of which were probably written in the
little house in what Byron used sometimes playfully to
call Benedictine Street.1

From the poet's journal it would appear that he
remained in Bennet Street till 28th March 1814, when
he records taking possession of his new apartments in
Albany.2 He had first gone to No. 4 in April 1813, appar-
ently, as a letter from him to Murray, dated the 21st of
that month, mentions that he " shall be in town by Sunday
next," and asks his publisher to "send in my account to
Bennet Street." We are thus able, approximately, to
trace Byron's residence here from April 1813 to March
1814.

The associations of Bennet Street are few though inter-
esting ; those of Arlington Street are as interesting and far
more numerous.

Arlington Street was formed in 1689, on ground which
had been granted to Lord Arlington by Charles II. eight
years earlier. Arlington, on becoming possessed of the

1 A letter to Moore, 8th July 1813, is so headed.

2 See Moore's Life of Byron.

79

ST JAMES'S STREET

property, almost immediately sold it to a Mr Pym who
proceeded to develop it, and for long inhabited one of the
larger houses erected in the street. The process of build-
ing was carefully watched by Sir Dudley North who,
according to his brother Roger's testimony, took special
interest in viewing the development of London. "Wher-
ever there was a parcel of building going on he went to
survey it, and particularly the high buildings in Arlington
Street, which were scarce covered in before all the windows
were wry-mouthed, fascias turned SS, and divers stacks
of chimnies sunk right down, drawing roof and floors with
them ; and the point was to find out whence all this decay
proceeded."1 Roger North adds that: "We (evidently
he was his brother's companion on many of these inquir-
ing rambles) had conversed so much with new houses
that we were almost turned rope-dancers and walked as
familiarly upon joists in garrets, having a view through
all the floors, down to the cellar, as if it had been plain
ground." It does not appear that the Norths satis-
factorily found out the cause of the subsidence in Arlington
Street. Whatever it was, it was, no doubt, rectified, as
the houses were almost immediately taken, and by persons
described in the manner of the period as "of the first
quality." For instance, the Duchess of Cleveland, find-
ing after Charles II. 's death that the upkeep of Berkshire
House was too heavy a drain on her purse, took a house
here and lived in it for five years (1691-1696). The year
after she had come into residence she had as a neighbour
the Duchess of Buckingham, widow of the second Duke
and daughter of Fairfax, the great Parliamentary general,
whose frivolities and eccentricities have been perpetuated
by Dryden in a famous passage. She remained here but
two years, and then the "little, round, crumpled woman,
very fond of finery," as Bishop Percy describes her, went
1 Lives of the Norths, vol. iii., p. 210.
80

ARLINGTON STREET

elsewhere till her death in 1705, just four years before her
one-time neighbour, the Duchess of Cleveland, expired at
Chiswick. Another distinguished resident in Arlington
Street was the Marquis of Dorchester, better known as
the Duke of Kingston, and best remembered as the father
of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. The Taller (for 5th
August 1710) contains an advertisement indirectly re-
ferring to Lord Dorchester's house, as follows: — "In
Arlington Street, next door to the Marquis of Dorchester,
is a large house to be let, with a garden and door into the
Park."

About this time Hatton * describes the thoroughfare as
being very graceful and pleasant, with excellent houses
inhabited by nobility and gentry, running parallel with
St James's Street, out of Portugal Street by which name
this end of Piccadilly was still known.

Not only was Arlington Street then "well inhabited,"
as Strype is fond of phrasing it, but it continued to be
and, as we all know, still is. In 1698 Lords Brook,
Cholmondeley, Guildford, Kingston and Peterborough
were all residing here ; a year earlier Lord Monmouth
was here, and Lord Dartmouth appears to have been one
of the earliest residents in 1691. A reference to Lord
Monmouth 's house is contained in a letter dated 28th April
1697, from its owner to Ulysses Browne, relative to an
assault on the Earl at Chelsea by Browne and others.8
Lord Dartmouth was inhabiting what were then termed
Arlington Buildings, a kind of forerunner of the modern
flats, I presume. In the Dartmouth MSS. I find Lord
Dartmouth complaining of his house in Arlington Street
being searched and his papers examined and impounded,
in 1691. He came up from the country with a Mr Ryley,
who was to make the inquisition which appears to have

1 New View of London, 1708.
8 Buccleuch MSS.

F 8l

ST JAMES'S STREET

been a very thorough one. The later history of Dart-
mouth's undoubted disloyalty to William III. is well
known ; he had plotted with James II. and was caught
and thrown into the Tower, where he died of apoplexy.1

The peers mentioned above as living in Arlington Street
in 1698, were all there ten years later, with the exception
of Lord Peterborough, and, in addition, the Duke of
Richmond, one of Charles II. 's sons, had come to live
there. He, together with Lord Cholmondeley and Lord
Guildford, were still residing there in 1724. The Duke of
Kingston's house (to anticipate dates a little) remained in
his family till 1770, when it was sold by the 2nd Duke
for nearly £17,000.

In 1711 the Earl of Stair was living here, and three years
later Lord Clarendon is found dating letters from his house
in Arlington Street, and in the same year Baron Bothmer
writes to Lord Dartmouth from here. But greater than
these have shed lustre on the street. Pulteney, Earl of
Bath, who occupied a house on the west side, from 1715
till he went to the larger mansion (now Bath House) in
Piccadilly ; and, a year later, Sir Robert Walpole, who
came to reside next door and remained there till 1742,
when he went over the way to No. 5. In the former of
these dwellings Horace Walpole was born in 1717. It
was on the ministerial side of the street, and only when
Sir Robert went out of office did he retire to the "non-
ministerial " side.2 In the smaller house he died in 1746,
leaving the property to Horace, who continued to make
it his London headquarters till his removal to Berkeley
Square in 1779. Horace Walpole's letters are full of
allusions to No. 5 Arlington Street. From one of them

1 See Macaulay's History, vol. iv., pp. 20-23.

2 In 1749 Sir William Codrington, M.P. for Beverley ; John Pitt,
Esq., M.P. for Wareham ; and C. H. Walpole, Esq., M.P. for
Callington, were among Arlington Street residents.

82

ARLINGTON STREET

(to Mann, dated 6th January 1743) it appears that No. 5
had belonged for some time to Sir Robert, who had let it
probably with a view to living there when he should have
given up the reins of Government. From another letter
(to Montagu, 1st December 1768) we find the street well
keeping up its aristocratic character :

"Nothing can bqfcmore dignified than this position,"
complacently remarks Horace. "From my earliest
memory Arlington Street has been the ministerial street.
The Duke of Grafton is actually coming into the house
of Mr Pelham, which my Lord President is quitting, and
which occupies, too, the ground on which my father lived ;
and Lord Weymouth has just taken the Duke of Dorset's :
yet you and I, I doubt, shall always be on the wrong side
of the wav."

*

In later days Sir Robert Walpole's second Arlington
Street house became the London residence of Edward
Ellice, Esq., M.P., and then of Sir R. G. Phillimore. On
its front a tablet informs the passer-by that here once lived
one of England's greatest Prime Ministers.

There seems to have been an idea of George Montagu's
coming to the house next door but one to No. 5, for Horace
Walpole writes to him (in the letter already quoted from)
thus :

"I like your letter, and have been looking at my
next door but one. The ground story is built, and the
side walls will certainly be raised another floor before you
think of arriving. I fear nothing for you but the noise of
workmen, and of this street in front, and Piccadilly on the
other side. If you can bear such a constant hammering
and hurricane, it will rejoice me to have you so near me ;
and then I think I must see you oftener than I have done
these ten years."

In the last house in the street on the Green Park side
John, Lord Carteret, afterwards Earl Granville, lived.

83

ST JAMES'S STREET

He writes from here to Swift in 1724, and again in 1737,1
and just ten years later he rebuilt the house. Mrs
Pendarves tells Ann Granville, afterwards Mrs Delany,
in August 1732, that : "Lady Carteret writes me word
that she has bought the ground her house stood on in
Arlington Street, and that my lord designs to build there."
At a later period Lord Gage occupied this residence. Ten
years later we find Mrs Pendarves informing Mrs Dewes
that she dined at Lord Granville 's on two consecutive
days.

Another resident, of whom we get a glimpse in Mrs
Delany 's Autobiography, was Lady Weymouth, who was
then (1769) busy moving from Pall Mall to the Duke of
Dorset's old house in Arlington Street,2 a piece of infor-
mation already supplied us by Horace Walpole.

Pelham's house afterwards became the property of
Lady Pomfret. It had been rebuilt,3 in the pseudo-Gothic
manner beloved of Walpole, by Kent, and is still a curious
feature and not a very congruous one in a street that was
never architecturally of much note. Later, W. Gerard
Hamilton (Single-Speech Hamilton) occupied it, and letters
from him dated from here in 1767 and 1772 are extant.
In his time an accident occurred here, thus referred to by
Walpole : " One of the Gothic towers of Lady Pomfret 's
house (now Single-Speech Hamilton's) in my street, fell
through the roof, and not a thought of it remains. " Later
the house (No. 17) passed into the hands of the Earl of
Yarborough, whose family still occupies it.

1 Mrs Delany 's Autobiography, vol. i., p. 599.

2 Mrs Delany to Lord Andover, 7th January 1769. In the List
of Persons Paying Taxes for Male Servants in 1780, Lord Aylesford
is given as paying for seventy-one (sic) and Mrs Clive for four, in
Arlington Street.

3 It had been rebuilt by Kent before Pelham came to live in it.
Letters of Pelham to Viscount Irwin, dated 1745, and from the
Duke of Grafton to the same in 1770, are headed Arlington Street.

84

ARLINGTON STREET

The house next door, No. 18, was at one time the
residence of Sir John Fender, Bart., M.P., who here
collected a fine gallery of pictures, chiefly of the modern
school. In 1906 the place was in possession of Sir
Alexander Henderson, Bart., M.P. No. 19 is the town
residence of the Marquis of Zetland, and No. 20 that of
the Marquis of Salisbury. The present house is a rebuilt
structure on the site of the former residence owned by
the Cecil family, its reconstruction having been carried out
about 1870. In the former house, in April 1786, George
III., with other members of the Royal family, attended
the christening of the daughter of the 1st Marquis of
Salisbury, a child who eventually became Lady Cowley.
Lady Salisbury of those days was a redoubtable leader of
fashion and was known to her intimates as " Old Sarum."
She is referred to in The New Monthly Magazine for 1821,
where the writer remarks : " The man of fashion . . .
lounges at the subscription house and votes Sunday a
complete bore until it is time to drop in at the Marchioness
in Arlington Street." Creevey, in 1821, calls her, not
without reason, "the head and ornament and patroness
of the beau monde of London for the last forty years. " In
Raikes' Journal and the innumerable memoirs and diaries
of the period, the name of Lady Salisbury is of almost
as frequent recurrence as that of Lady Jersey. The
Marchioness, it will be remembered, was burnt to death
at Hatfield in 1834. At No. 21, once the residence of
M. Van der Weyer, the Belgian minister, and for long that
of his son and daughter-in-law, Victor W. Van der Weyer
and Lady Emily Van der Weyer, Lord Sefton — "The
pet," as Creevey terms him — used to give those famous
dinners, produced under the superintendence of Ude,
at which most of the great ones of the time were guests.
Lord Sefton, that gigantic humpback, as Gronow calls
him, was not only a gourmet but a confirmed gambler,

85

ST JAMES'S STREET

and towards the close of his life became a great liabitue
of the neighbouring Crockford's. He was, besides, a fine
whip and was a power in the original Four-in-Hand Club
in the days of the Regent.

No. 22, now known as Wimborne House, is the resi-
dence of the present (2nd) Lord Wimborne, whose father
purchased it in 1867, while he was still Sir Ivor Guest.
Originally it was the property of the Marquis Camden,
son of the great judge, who died in 1840. l After him
came the 7th Duke of Beaufort, who, as Lord Worcester,
had been aide-de-camp to Wellington in the Peninsular
War and after Vittoria had nearly succeeded in capturing
Joseph Bonaparte as he fled from the field. He re-
christened the house after his own name and reconstructed
it, employing Owen Jones and Q. Latella to superintend
its decoration. In 1852, however, a year before his death,
he sold the house to the llth Duke of Hamilton, the price
paid being, it is said, £60,000. The latter in turn ex-
pended large sums on the mansion, in which evidences of
his ownership may still be seen in some of the iron fire-
backs which bear his coronet and the famous Hamilton
motto : "Thorough." The Duke died in July 1863, and
his widow, who had been Princess Marie of Baden, on the
question of whose precedence in this country, she not
being allied to one of royal birth, some interesting refer-
ences will be found in Queen Victoria's letters, continued
to reside here for a time.2

At the further end of Arlington Street is No. 16, the
last house on that side facing the Park, now the residence
of the Duke of Rutland. It formerly belonged to Lord
Gage, and here, in 1827, while occupied by a former duke,

1 A letter from him to Lord Lowther is dated 24th January 1806
from here.

2 See for a fuller account of the house and its contents, the
author's Private Palaces of London.

86

ARLINGTON STREET

occurred the death oi' the Duke of York, to whom the
house had been lent in the previous year.

Between the occupancy of the house by the former
Duke of Rutland and the present holder of the title (who
acquired it in 1897, when still Marquis of Granby) it was
tenanted by Lord Dudley, and was at one time the property
of Colonel John Sidney North, from whom it passed to
Lord North.

In the Park — then known as Upper St James's Park —
behind this house was fought the duel between Pulteney
and Lord Hervey, on 25th January 1731, as recorded by
Thomas Pelham in a letter to Lord Waldegrave. It has
been stated that the encounter actually took place in
the garden of No. 16, but this statement has not been
corroborated.

Returning to the smaller houses opposite, and it is an
interesting fact to remember that there is no record of
the numbers ever having been changed, we find that at
No. 6 once lived Lord Melville, First Lord of the Admiralty,
and friend of Pitt, and that appropriately in another
close by (the actual number of which is, unfortunately,
not ascertainable) Nelson lodged during the winter of
1800-1801. Mr Haslewood, one of Nelson's executors,
in a communication to Sir Harris Nicolas, described the
following scene as having taken place here : —

"In the winter of 1800-1801 (Jan. 13th), I was break-
fasting with Lord and Lady Nelson, at their lodgings
in Arlington Street and a cheerful conversation was pass-
ing on indifferent subjects, when Lord Nelson spoke of
something which had been done or said by 'dear Lady
Hamilton,' upon which Lady Nelson rose from her chair
and exclaimed with much vehemence : ' I am sick of
hearing of dear Lady Hamilton and am resolved that you
shall give up either her or me. ' Lord Nelson, with perfect

87

ST JAMES'S STREET

calmness, said : ' Take care, Fanny, what you say ; I
love you sincerely, but I cannot forget my obligations to
Lady Hamilton or speak of her otherwise than with
affection and admiration.' Without one soothing word
or gesture, but muttering something about her mind
being made up, Lady Nelson left the room and shortly
after drove from the house. They never lived together
afterwards."

At No. 14 lived and died General Fitzpatrick, the friend
of Fox, Sheridan (with whom he was concerned in some of
those practical jokes beloved by Sherry), and the wits of
that day. Fitzpatrick was a wit and a man of pleasure
himself, and many are the references to him in these
capacities, in Rogers 's Table Talk. One entry in that
amusing collection tells how Fitzpatrick remembered
the time "when St James's Street used to be crowded
with the carriages of the ladies and gentlemen who were
walking in the Mall — the ladies with their heads in full
dress and the gentlemen carrying their hats under their
arms." Another records how one day, immediately pre-
ceding Fitzpatrick's death, Rogers walked to his house in
Arlington Street to inquire after him, and just as he
reached the door Fox came out, sobbing violently.

This anecdote brings me to Fox's own one-time residence
here, which commenced in April 1804. The Opposition
Campaign in conjunction with the Grenvilles had opened
against the Addington Ministry, and Fox came to town
to direct affairs, his Arlington Street residence (No. 9) 1
becoming the centre of political activity. He retained
the house for two years, although he retired to the charms
of St Anne's Hill as often as possible. Rogers relates how,
on one occasion, he dined with Mr and Mrs Fox here and
afterwards went with them to see young Betty, "the
1 A tablet indicates Fox's residence here.
88

ARLINGTON STREET

infant Roscius," act Hamlet, and how Fox surprised him
during the performance by exclaiming: "This is finer
than Garrick." On his vacating his seat in Parlia-
ment Fox's address to his constituents was dated from
Arlington Street on 8th February 1806, but he evidently
soon afterwards gave up the place, for when his death
occurred in the following September his body was removed,
we are told, from Chiswick " to the house recently occupied
by him in the stable-yard, St James's."

Among other past residents in Arlington Street were
David Mallet, who was living here from 1746 to 1747, and
the 2nd Earl of Chatham ; while to come to later days,
John Motley, who was for a time at No. 17, and Prosper
Merimee, who was staying in 1860, at No. 18.

It will be seen that Horace Walpole's boast of the
street's political significance is well substantiated ; its
fashionable character is equally prominent, and the out-
look from the windows of the houses on the Park side
fully confirms what the writer of the New Review of the
Public Buildings of London says of it in the reign of George
II., when he describes it as "one of the most beautiful
situations in Europe for health, convenience and beauty,
and combining together the advantages of town and
country." The "want of uniformity" in its houses,
which he notes, is to-day further enhanced by the tower-
ing structure of the Ritz Hotel, which dwarfs the
adjacent buildings even more than did its predecessor,
Walsingham House.

In these days of rebuilding it is probable that further
alterations will come, so far as the elevations of the
Arlington Street houses are concerned. When, and if,
they do, one can only hope that No. 5, where the great
Sir Robert lived, and his equally well-remembered son,
Horace, so often gazed from the windows and noted the
passing fashions, will be spared, not only to perpetuate

89

ST JAMES'S STREET

their memory, but to recall what this side of the street
looked like in earlier Georgian days.

PARK PLACE

A little way down St James's Street from Bennet Street
is Park Place. It was formed in 1683, and in the
Act for creating the parish of St James's (1 James II.,
cap. 22) it is spoken of as a new street. A curious
fact about the thoroughfare is that its north side is in
the parish of St George's and its south in that of
St James's.

The earliest inhabitants I can trace from the Rate
Books were Mr John Pulteney, who was paying £1, 8s. ;
Lord Clifford, who was paying £2, and Lord Brouncker
(given as Lord Brounkhard), who was rated at £2, 10s.
All these were living here in 1683, so they must have
taken houses directly they were finished.

In the following year Lord Brouncker (this time the
name is spelt correctly) is given, with the addition of "or
tenant," in St James's Street, and is rated at £1, 10s. Of
these John Pulteney, no doubt one of the family so long
associated, as we have seen, with St James's Street, was
in 1707 made one of the commissioners of trade in the
place of a Mr Pryor.1 Of Lord Clifford, previously Sir
Thomas, at one time Lord Treasurer of the Household, the
reader will find abundant details in the pages of Evelyn
and Pepys, the former of whom records his leanings to-
wards Papacy and his unhappy death by his own hand.
He was the ;' C " in the notorious Cabal ministry and a
person of importance in the days of the Merry Monarch.
Lord Brouncker is as well known in a different direction,
for he was first President of the Royal Society, in which
connection he was much in the company of Evelyn who
1 Narcissus LuttrelTs Diary.
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PARK PLACE

may, or one likes to think so, have visited him in his house
in Park Place.

Another early resident here was Lady Orrery, and in
1685 I find, in addition, Colonel Fitzpatrick and Lord
Burlington. Two years later the Earl of Carberry is given
as residing here.1 He was also a President of the Royal
Society during his residence here. Before succeeding to
the earldom he was known as Lord Vaughan, in which
capacity he was a violent enemy of Clarendon and, accord-
ing to Pepys, "one of the lewdest fellows of the age, worse
than Sir Charles Sedley."

In the Rate Books for 1698 the following are the names
of the principal residents in Park Place : — Lady Tanker-
ville, the Earl of Orkney, the Duchess of Cleveland and
the Marchioness of Halifax. Three years earlier quite a
different set of names appear ; they include Lady Mary
Gray, Lord William Poulett, Colonel Pizza, Colonel John
Fitzpatrick, Francis Thatcher, Esq., and — Hophman,
Esq.

So much later as 1765 Sir George Baker is found writing
from Jermyn Street to Edward Weston and saying : "I
am desired to ask you, on behalf of Lady Middleton,
whether you will let your house (in Park Place) on a lease
of 12 years. Her Ladyship cannot afford to buy it ; but
would be glad to take it on the terms mentioned above."

Whether or not the negotiations were successful I am un-
able to say ; certainly I have not come across the name of
Lady Middleton as a tenant, so probably they fell through.
The house seems to have been sought after, as in the
previous December (1764) Lord Stanhope writes from
St James's Street to Edward Weston in this strain con-
cerning it: "Was my Brother in Town, I am sure he
would desire me to return you his thanks for your CiviLcy
in giving him the Preferance of your house in Park Place.
1 At that time there were but eight houses in Park Place.

91

ST JAMES'S STREET

... In the Time of my ever to be regretted Friend, Mr
Charles Stanhope, I should certainly have had it at any
price, if I was so happy to have a Family to inhabit it, but
it is much too large for a single man like me tho' I had it
for nothing."

To come to a still later period we find Lieutenant-
General Gage writing to John Robinson from Park Place
in 1776, and in 1785, according to the Rate Books, Sir
William Musgrave and Admiral Pigot were living there.
Sir William, who is remembered as a great print-collector,
was residing at No. 9, and to a small house three doors
off (No. 12) Pitt retired in 1801, after he resigned the
Treasury. Apparently he was then very poorly off, for
Jesse 1 remarks, apropos this residence, that, there, at any
time he might awake to find himself without a chair in his
drawing-room or a horse in his stables, for at any moment
an execution might be put in the small house he had taken
here.

Another resident here for a time, but probably only in
lodgings, was David Hume, who is recorded as living here
in 1769. 2 In 1813 I find Lord Vernon, Colonel Gibson and
Dr Paris among the street's inhabitants. Lord Vernon 's
house was the large one at the end of Park Place, which
at a later date became the property of Lord Redesdale.
According to the account of Dr Paris, in The Gold-Headed
Cane, he finally settled in London in 1817, which indicates
that he had been there at least temporarily before then,
and it was in Park Place that at this time he lived. He
was a distinguished doctor in town for a number of years,
and succeeded Halford in the Chair of the Royal College
of Physicians. It was at a house in Park Place, whither
she had retired, that Mrs Elizabeth Neale, the "Betty "
of St James's Street, about whom I have more to say in

1 Memoirs of George HI.

2 The famous Coke of Norfolk was once residing at No. 14.

92

PARK PLACE

another chapter, died on 30th August 1797, aged sixty-
seven, just fourteen years after she had given up her
active career as flower-woman and gossip in the larger
thoroughfare.

A far less worthy person is connected with Park Place
in the person of the notorious " Mother Needham," whom
Hogarth has pilloried in Plate 1 of The Harlot's Progress,
and Pope in The Dunciad. Two entries from contempor-
ary news-sheets sufficiently indicate the " business " of
this most undesirable resident.

In Fog's Weekly Journal for 1st May 1731 we read:
"The noted Mother Needham, convicted (April 20th, 1731)
for keeping a disorderly house in Park Place, St James's,
was fined Is., to stand twice in the Pillory — viz. once in
St James's Street over against the End of Park Place,
and once in the New Palace Yard, Westminster, and to
find sureties for her Good Behaviour for three years."

The other entry carries on the information a step. It
is from The Grub Street Journal, and reads thus :
"Yesterday (May 6th, 1731) the noted Mother Needham
stood in the Pillory in Park Place,1 near St James's Street,
and was roughly handled by the populace. She was so
very ill that she lay along on her face, and so evaded the
law which requires that her face should be exposed."
Before she could undergo the second part of her sentence
she died. The note to Pope's two lines about her in The
Dunciad reads thus :

" She was a matron of great fame, and very religious
in her way ; whose constant prayer it was, that she might
get enough by her profession to leave it off in time, and
make her peace with God. This, however, was not
granted to her, as she died from the effects of her exposure
in the pillory."

1 This shows us where the Pillory stood in St James's Street.

93

ST JAMES'S STREET

As a set-off to such a resident it is interesting to record
that in a dwelling near Vernon House,1 the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts had its head-
quarters, having removed from No. 79 Pall Mall about the
year 1870. Four years later the Road Club was estab-
lished at No. 4, so that the street may be said to have been,
in the past, decidedly eclectic.

Three other clubs are connected with Park Place. Of
these Pratts' was founded about 1841 and occupies
premises at No. 14. It is one of those clubs that delight
in preserving the old features which obtained at the period
of their inception, and in its arrangement, furniture and
decoration carries out this principle admirably. The
Primrose, occupying Nos. 4 and 5 Park Place, is, as its
name suggests, of a political origin, although there is
rather a social than a party air about it now. It was
formed in 1885, the late Duke of Beaufort largely interest-
ing himself in its success. The Pioneer, a ladies' club at
No. 9, was inaugurated in 1892, and certainly I am not
the one to draw aside the veil that hides its mysteries.
The fact is I can't, as I know nothing about it ; beyond
assuming that by its name it indicates those progressive
theories which obtained among a certain section of the
fairer sex, before more stern realities threw them into the
background.

ST JAMES'S PLACE

Passing Stable Yard 2 (not to be confounded with the
better-known place of that name within the precincts of
the Palace — where C. J. Fox once lived, at Godolphin

1 The residence of the Dowager Lady Hillingdon.

8 In 1685 it consisted of small tenements, the occupiers of which
paid from ten shillings down to two shillings in rates. In 1695
there were eight houses rated in it.

94

ST JAMES'S PLACE

House), known also as Blue Boar Yard,1 under which
title it appears in Rhodes' plan of 1770, and which it still
bears, we come to what is in many respects the most
interesting of the lesser streets which branch from the
main thoroughfare. It appears to have been built later
than most of them, the Rate Books indicating its forma-
tion about 1694. The number of its interesting, often
famous, inhabitants, and particularly the constellation of
wit and power which gathered round the board or admired
the works of art, of Samuel Rogers, combine in giving St
James's Place an almost unique character. Indeed, with
regard to the poet and his house, quite a little literature
has grown up, and therefore when I come to speak of his
residence, in this chapter, I shall simply state the fact,
leaving for that part of the book in which I deal more
particularly with the famous men and women of the past
the record of the house and its contents and the notice of
its benevolent but bitter-tongued owner.

Among the earliest residents in St James's Place were
Sidney, 1st Earl Godolphin, and his brother, Charles
Godolphin, who must have been two of the first residents.
In 1695 I find, by the Rate Books, that the following were
also here : — Colonel Venner, the Earl of Inchequin, the Earl
of Nottingham, George Pitt, Madame Hennage (Heneage),
Colonel Farrington, the Hon. John Smith, Sir Robert Rich,
Sir Robert Terrell, Captain South and — Molesworth, Esq.
(spelt Moldsworth). Three years later Robert Molesworth,
who afterwards became 1st Viscount Molesworth, addresses
a letter to his wife " at her house in St James's Place."

Another early resident was Thomas Coke, to whom
Lieutenant R. Pope writes "at his house in (3) St James's
Place," on 26th May 1696. With regard to this residence
we have some interesting details in the Cowper MSS. It

1 Stanford's large map of 1868 gives it as Blue Bell Yard, and it
is so called to-day.

95

ST JAMES'S STREET

would appear that Coke was making some additions to his
property which did not commend themselves to his neigh-
bours. The following letters from his clerk of the works,
Edward Goudge, and Luke Barrow, apparently a care-
taker, not only illustrate the difficulties Mr Coke had to
contend with, but also incidentally indicate the people
who were then living in St James's Place. Thomas Coke
was, of course, the famous " Coke of Norfolk," afterwards
1st Earl of Leicester, whom we have found staying in
Park Place. The letters tell their own tale, so I give them
as they appear in Earl Cowper's MSS., issued by the
Historical Manuscripts' Commission :

1698, June 28. Beaufort buildings. — EDWARD GOUDGE

to THOMAS COKE at Melbourne

On Saturday the carpenters having put up good part of
the frame of your building [in St James's Place] some of
the neighbourhood seemed to be much offended at it, and
yesterday Mr Stroud the bricklayer came to me from them
to desire me to desist, otherwise they would run up a wall
in the next garden to hinder your prospect. I told him
you build out of necessity, not curiosity : and that we
should have ten foot in our own ground to light us, not-
withstanding his blind. However I condescended to the
taking the carpenters from their work till I heard from
you. In the meantime I will take as good advice as I can
about it, but I cannot see what injury you can do your
neighbours by your building, nor can I believe any man
will be so mad as to lay out so much money as to build a
wall before you to so little purpose.

1698, July 9. London. — JOHN COKE to THOMAS COKE at

the EARL OF CHESTERFIELD'S at Breiby
Mr Nicholas Harding informed me yesterday that your
neighbours in St James's Place complain of those buildings

96

ST JAMES'S PLACE

which you are a going to make there. One Mrs Stroud is
the most concerned : she says that the apartment which
you are a going to make up will command her house and
garden : she threatens that if you go on as you design, she
will run up a wall 25 or 30 foot high, which will quite spoil
that little prospect, which you have, and very much darken
your rooms. ... Mr Harding told me he had desired
Mrs Stroud not to do anything in this matter till she
had made you acquainted how matters stand. Pray my
humble service to Lady Mary and the rest of my friends
and relations in Derbyshire.

1698, July 19. Beauford Buildings. — EDWARD GOUDGE
to THOMAS COKE, at Breiby Manor, by Burton bagg
I find the Lord Godolphin, Sir Robert Terrill, and
Mr Charles Godolphin are your neighbours. At first Mr
Stroud told me that they were the only persons disturbed,
but since I hear nothing from anybody but Mr Charles
Godolphin, I understand from the people I put into the
house that all this disturbance is occasioned by his lady,
who it seems cannot be satisfied till she sees your building
down. Their builder came to tell me they would pull
down our building on Monday. On Sunday I went and
laughed at him for his news. He told me seriously that
he had seen their lease, and they had so many foot of
ground as reached the inside of our wall. . . . To prevent
a law suit I have contented myself with the loss of about
five inches, and taken the timber off the wall? and set it
wholly on our own ground, for 10s. charge or less. . . . To
do as much mischief as they can another way, here hath
been one from your backside neighbour to let us know
that the wall was wholly theirs. ... If you have not your
lease, let me know where I can see it here in town, and
who your lawyer is, that I may advise with him. My
opinion is that they cannot hurt us, but that all this bustle
G 97

ST JAMES'S STREET

is to oblige the peevish proud temper of a woman. Mr
Stroud told me that there was a contract between the
builders that they should not make any addition above so
many foot high. I shall keep the men at work, and desire
a line or two.

1698, July 23. Beauford Buildings. — EDWARD GOUDGE
to THOMAS COKE, at Bretby Manor, by Burton bagg
I have had two meetings lately with an attorney who
acts for the ground landlord on the back side of our build-
ing, who says that the wall that our building stands upon
next Madame LuttrelPs ground is theirs, and not our own
as Mr Stroud, our ground landlord, told me it was. I,
therefore, desire that somebody belonging to the law may
be judges of their writings, which their attorney offers to
show at any time. I answered that if they proved the
wall to be theirs, Mr Coke would take the building off
the wall and set it further into his own ground, and that
whosoever employed him would miss of their aim for our
building would go forward. I do not think that the re-
moving the whole frame of our building will cost more
than forty shillings. I am now well assured Mr Charles
Godolphin's lady is the cause of all this trouble.

1698, August 6. Beauford Buildings in the Strand. —
EDWARD GOUDGE to THOMAS COKE, at Bretby Manor,
by Burton bagg

. . . The attorney, who is employed by the ground
landlord of the next ground, and I have had several meet-
ings and I hope on Monday shall make a final determina-
tion of the matter. But the ground landlord, Mr Waller,
lives in Buckinghamshire, who I understand is a very hot
man ; but I find the attorney quite the contrary ; other-
wise you would infallibly have entered into a law suit, or I
must have made a hasty submission. . . .

ST JAMES'S PLACE

1698, August 17. Rochester. — EDWARD GOUDGE to
THOMAS COKE, at Bretby

... I left the men once again in good order, with a
strict charge to go on with all speed imaginable, and after
a little time I shall be able to give a better guess what time
we shall finish. . . . Madam Godolphin is still as trouble-
some as she can, saying she hath bought Mr Waller's
ground as I am informed. But I took a note under the
attorney's hand to acquit you from any further trouble,
after the removing the encroachment, which is done, and
your building stands wholly within the walls.

1698, August 24. London. — LUKE BARROW to THOMAS

COKE at Bretby

... I am in your house at this time in 3 James Place,
being put in by Mr Goudge. Your building doth go on
now though it hath been three times hindred and caused to
be altered, by some unworthy and envious persons, con-
cerning which I suppose there hath been more malice than
matter in it, their aim and end that you might have no
building at all there. And especially one family near
neighbours, particularly the gentlewoman, of the house,
with her husband, Mr Godolphin, who lately, when one of
the workmen was nailing some boards on that end of the
building next to their garden, stood with a pistol ready
cocked, and said he would shoot any man that should dare
to put out his head or his hand over the garden to drive a
nail there. I never perceived so much envy appear in my
life as hath been ever since it began. . . .

1698, August 29. Rochester. — EDWARD GOUDGE to

THOMAS COKE at Bretby Manor

Since there were no thoughts of making a scaffold on
Mr Godolphin 's ground to plaister that end, I ordered it

99

ST JAMES'S STREET

to be weather boarded ; which when the carpenters were
going about to do by standing within our own building
and putting their heads between the quarters to nail the
boards, Mr Godolphin came out with a pistol and swore he
would shoot that man through the head that should offer
but to swing his hand over his ground to drive a nail,
whereupon the carpenters being scared from their work,
I ordered it to be bricked up between the quarters, which
is done ; and that side boarded next Madam LuttrelFs
garden, so that now I hope all the disturbance is over.
This surly troublesome neighbour of yours hath so hindered
us that it will be too hard a task for us to get the house
quite finished by the 27th of September. . . .

1698, September 3. St James's Place. — LUKE BARROW

to EDWARD GOUDGE

Mr Godolphin is now erecting his monument of malice ;
and he hath prevailed with our neighbour on the left hand
to build along that wall, and the end of his fabric is
fastened into his house : the manner of their building is
long poles, and they are preparing to board it. The gentle-
woman is very jocund, and full of laughter, and they all
seem to be much pleased with what they are doing. But
I told them all aloud, I believed they would have little
cause to rejoice in the end. . . .

What the result of this dispute was does not appear ;
at least there is no further correspondence concerning
it, and as by the following letter the faithful Goudge is
shown busying himself about the internal decorations
and furnishing of Mr Coke's house, it is probable that
an amicable settlement was arrived at.

100

ST JAMES'S PLACE

1698, September 22. London. — EDWARD GOUDGE to
THOMAS COKE, at the EARL OF CHESTERFIELD'S at
Bretby Manor, Burton Bagg

... I have taken care that your household necessaries
be as ready for you as your building, viz. : jack, jackwheel,
spits, racks, boiler, stoves, cistern, etc. I do not doubt
but some other things will come into my mind, supposing
you are not provided with any thing for this house but
hangings, beds, pictures, chaiis, etc. I desire you would
be pleased to answer these following queries, viz. : —

1. How must the Japan pictures be disposed of?

2. Shall there be a glass pier in the lower room in the

new building, as it is ordered above in the middle
storey ?

3. Would you have sash doors in the closet of that

storey for a library?

4. Would you have any prints pasted before you

come?

5. Would you have glass in the piers of the dining

room, as also over the marble chimney piece

there ?

It is a very dear ornament, therefore I do not advise it,
except it be mighty agreeable to yours, and my Lady's
inclinations.

In 1710 Addison was living in St James's Place, prob-
ably in lodgings, and two letters of his to Joseph Keally
are dated from here on 23rd and 27th April of that year.1
It appears that at this time Eustace Budgell, his relation
and secretary, was residing with him. According to
Spence, Addison used to have Davenant, Steele, Carey, and
Captain Brett to breakfast with him in St James's Place,
and that besides Budgell, Philips used to stay there.
1 They are given in Berkeley's Literary Relics, pp. 384-388

101

ST JAMES'S STREET

Another resident about the same time was Thomas
Parnell, the poet, who was also, it will be recalled, Arch-
deacon of Clogher in 1706, which gives point to the remark
of Jervas to Pope that he had "not yet seen the dear
Archdeacon, who is at his lodgings in St James's Place."
Other contemporary inhabitants were Admiral Churchill,
brother of the great Marlborough, who died in 1710;
Secretary Craggs, William Cleland, another of Pope's
friends — who in 1739 writes to Dr Birch, giving him the
following directions to find his lodgings: — "Come as far
up St James's Place, as you can, still keeping on the right
side, turn up at the end which lands you at a little court of
which the middle door is that of my house " — and White
Kennett, Bishop of Peterborough and author of Kennett's
Register, who is stated, in London Past and Present, to
have died in a house here on 19th December 1728.

But one more interesting than the poet's friend or the
learned bishop once resided in St James's Place, notably
the beautiful Molly Lepel, who became Lady Hervey, and
whose name is so closely associated with the Court and
fashionable life of George II. 's day. The history of her
house here is told in her Letters.1 She built it herself from
designs by Flitcroft, during 1747-1748. Writing on 10th
December of the former year, she says : "I have a dozen
plans, a compass, rules, &c., lying before me, and expect
Mr Flitcroft every instant," which indicates the approxi-
mate commencement of the work. On 2nd April 1748
we find her in the midst of it. "I must now quit you for
Mr Flitcroft, angles, feet, greystock bricks, cornice, fascias,
copeings and what not, only torments me at present but
I fear will undo me in the end. My old house is now a
heap of ruins and dust ; but I hope out of its ashes there
will soon arise a Phoenix house, where you will often eat
as plain a dinner, see as fine a prospect, and as beautiful
1 Published in 1821, and edited by J. W. Croker.
102

ST^ JAMES'S PLACE

a verdure as at Nursling. I build but part of my house at
present; time, economy, or my heir must finish it." It
will thus be seen that Lady Hervey's house was erected
on the site of a residence she already owned here. A year
later, she speaks of having paid dear to make her new
dwelling look as like the country as she can ; but surgit
amari aliquid, "I have been too much used to grass and
green trees to bear the changing them for brick walls and
dust," she moans. At the end of another year she writes
to a friend thus : " Pray go and visit my house, and then
tell me sincerely what you think of it. I must inform
you first that it is but two parts in three of it that is
carried up ; the rest remains to be done about two years
and a half hence ; so that the great stairs, an ante-
chamber to my great room, and a servant's room to the
bedchamber, are all as yet unbuilt : make these allow-
ances, and then tell me if you like it. If you say, as you
did once before, that you wish I had made a bow window,
consider what would have been the consequence of it ;
instead of those windows which now afford me as fine a
view as possible, I should have had but one window that
would have looked towards Chelsea and the country :
from one of the oblique windows I should have looked
into Sir John Cope's room, and have afforded him a view
of mine : from the other I should have seen the Duke of
Devonshire's house, when the dust of Piccadilly would
have permitted it."

After the death of Lady Hervey (2nd September 1768) 1
Lord Carlisle took her house. He writes to his friend
Selwyn, on the 13th October of that year : "By this time
you will be empowered to take Lady Hervey's house for
me, which I think is too good to lose for a little more

1 A year earlier, Lady Sarah Bunbury tells Selwyn that the
Princess Poniatowska was then residing -' next to Lord Spencer's '*
in St James's Place.

103

ST JAMES'S STREET

money " ; and in another letter, written six days later, he
adds : "I agree with you it is very extravagant to gives
two hundred a year to see a cow under my windows, but
still I am very happy to have the house, and hope you will
like the present owner as well as you did the last one." *
Subsequent letters indicate that about 1775 Lord Carlisle
thought of giving up the house, as his losses at cards made
it necessary for him to curtail his expenses, but he was
still there in 1780.

It seems that the Duke of Bedford once contemplated
purchasing the house, for Selwyn, writing to Lady Carlisle
in 1786, says that he (the Duke) "will buy a house near
Brooks 's, that he may not have so far to go from thence
at nights, as to Bloomsbury Square, and would have given
ten thousand pounds for that in St James's Place in which
you lived."

Subsequently Lady Hervey's house, "that charming
house — the Hotel de Miladi," as Lord March called it, was
occupied by the Earl of Moira, formerly Lord Rawdon,2
the Regent's friend; and at a later date still it was
divided into two residences.

At the time of Lady Hervey's occupation Sir John Cope,
as we gather from one of the letters just quoted, was her
next-door neighbour, and in 1756 John Walker was stay-
ing here "at Mrs Murray's — in very elegant lodgings."
In 1783 I find Lord Lucan writing to Mr Pery from here
and mentioning that "at this moment (19th April) there
are about 2000 sailors parading in St James's Street,"
and that "their grievances are ill-founded and therefore
difficult to settle."

Two years later the Rate Books prove that the fashion-
able character of St James's Place was well maintained.
Living there at that time were Lady Amelia Hervey, Lady

1 Selwyn and his Contemporaries, by Jesse, vol. ii., pp. 332-336.

2 He writes to William Knox from here, in 1790.

104

ST JAMES'S PLACE

Euphemia Stuart, Thomas Townshend,1 rented at £30;
Lord Spencer, paying £500 rental; Mr Rigby,2 paying
£150 ; the Earl of Northington, paying £180 ; Lord Vere,
paying £165 ; the Earl of Huntingdon, Lady Betty Fitz-
william, Sir Robert Gunning and, last but not least, Mrs
Delany, paying £80 rent.

We first find Mrs Delany here in 1749, in which year she
writes to Mrs Dewes, from Bulstrode, that her house is in
St James's Place, the landlady's name Lynch. The first
letter written by her from her new residence is also ad-
dressed to Mrs Dewes on 16th January 1750 ; but by the
following May she is back at Delville. I think, therefore,
that this sojourn was a temporary one, probably with a
view to see how she liked St James's Place as a permanent
residence, and that it had nothing to do with the house
she subsequently took there. Two years later Mrs Delany
tells her friends that she shall have a house secured for her
near St James's Chapel and the Park, and this she finally
did, in Suffolk Street apparently, at a higher rent than she
had paid for the St James's Place lodging.3

When exactly she entered into possession of the house
in St James's Place which was to be her London residence
for so many years is not quite clear ; she seems to have
been in one in Thatched House Court till June 1771, in

1 He was afterwards Lord Sydney, and is one of those mentioned
in Goldsmith's Retaliation.

2 Rigby was writing letters from here two years earlier. In a
list of persons paying tax on men-servants for 1780, I find General
de Buede, Hon. Ann Boscawen, the Hon. Mrs Beauclerk, Colonel
Peter, and the Earl of Carlisle given as living in St James's Place ;
while in the previous year (23rd December), Walpole, writing to
Lady Ossory, says (speaking of Lord Bristol's will), " Lord
Bristol has given his mother's (Lady Hervey's) house in St James's
Place to his brother. Col. Hervey."

* On 1 4th October 1752 she tells Mrs De\res that " cousin Foley
has another call to London, and the Maid of Honour has taken a
house for them in St James's Place.'5

105

ST JAMES'S STREET

which month she writes to Lady Andover thus : "I
suppose your ladyship cannot be ignorant of so important
a transaction as the present possessor of the 'little
Thatch ' having purchased some old walls in St James's
Place, in order to remove thither by the end of July. " So
that this approximately marks the date of the change.
She was busy with her workmen during June, as she tells
Lady Andover in a subsequent letter ; but the first letter
from the new house is dated 7th December 1771, so that
probably the alterations took longer than had been an-
ticipated. In the following January Mrs Delany felt two
earthquake-like shocks, and her maid, rushing into her
room, informed her that the house was coming down.
However, it was not so bad as that, and proved to be the
effects of an explosion of some powder-mills at Hounslow.1
The Hotel Delany, as Mrs Boscawen called it, continued
to be Mrs Delany 's winter headquarters till her death.
Here visited from tune to tune the blue-stocking Mrs
Montagu and the learned Mrs Chapone, Lady Bute, the
clever daughter of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, and
Mrs Carter, the translator of Epictetus, Mrs Boscawen
and Hannah More, the Duchess of Portland and Fanny
Burney (who has left a famous record of her first call on
dear Mrs Delany). Soame Jenyns came here, and Horace
Walpole's conversation is said never to have been more
pleasing or amusing than at his old friend's tea-table, and
here Lord North kept awake and was witty and mirthful.
Here, too, Mrs Delany, at the request of Dr Burney,
dictated her recollections of Anastasia Robinson, as well
.as the strange story of the marriage of that beautiful
singer with the eccentric Earl of Peterborough.

During the Gordon Riots there seems to have been no

little apprehension felt that the neighbourhood of St

James's would share the fate of Newgate and Bloomsbury

1 5th January 1772.

1 06

ST JAMES'S PLACE

Square, and Mrs Delany, writing to Mrs Port of Ham, on
8th June 1780, tells how the Duchess of Portland, leaving
London for Bulstrode, insisted on her accompanying the
party, "as some houses in St James's Place and Street
were threatened." By the 23rd of the month, however,
Mrs Delany was back in town, and writes from St James's
Place, where, she says : "I am come to see how the new
painting of my drawing-room comes on."

The last mention of the house is on 19th August 1785
before Mrs Delany went to the cottage prepared for her by
George III. and Queen Charlotte at Windsor in the follow-
ing September. The St James's Place house was, how-
ever, retained and Mrs Delany went up to it occasionally
or lent it (as she did to Mrs Granville in 1787) to friends.
In the winter of this year she was there, and letters dated
by her on 3rd February and 22nd March 1788 from here
are extant. On 15th April she breathed her last here.1
By her will she ordered the repayment of £400 which her
friend the Duchess of Portland had advanced to her for
the purchase of the house in St James's Place. Appar-
ently she left the residence to her niece, Miss Port of Ham,
as among the Delany correspondence is a letter from an
old friend, Mrs Weddell, endeavouring to persuade Miss
Port to leave the St James's Street house and to go and
reside with her in Stratton Street.

Fanny Burney has left us a long and minute description
of Mrs Delany's London house. It is dated 19th January
1783 and will be found in the Diary. Suffice it here to
say that the writer paid her visit in company with Mrs
Chapone ; that she found Mrs Delany alone in her drawing-
room, " which is entirely hung round with pictures of her
own painting and ornaments of her own designing " ; that
Mrs Delany showed her the new method she had invented
of cutting out designs in coloured paper so as to imitate
1 See Letters oj Mrs Delany, published in 1820.
107

ST JAMES'S STREET

flowers in a most life-like manner, as well as some portraits
(one of "Sacharissa" and one of Madame de Sevigne);
which seem to have struck the authoress of Evelina par-
ticularly. The Duchess of Portland came in later and
Fanny Burney sets down, with something of the precision
and ingenuousness of Pepys, the flattering things which the
great ladies said to her about her books and her genius.

At the time when Mrs Delany was occupying her house
we find Charles James Fox writing (1783) from St James's
Place, where he had a temporary lodging. About the
same period it appears that Warren Hastings was,
curiously enough, close by his future antagonist, having
come to lodge in the street on his arrival in England to
meet the charges subsequently brought against him at his
impeachment. In The Rolliad there is the following refer-
ence to the great proconsul's sojourn in St James's Place l :

" Or in thy chosen Place, St James,
Be carolled loud amid th 'applauding Imhoffs."

In a note to this passage we read : "He did not know
Mr Hastings's house to be in St James's Place ; he did not
know Mrs Hastings to have two sons by Mjiiheer Imhoff ,
her former husband, still living ; and, what is more shameful
than all, in a critical assessor, he had never heard of the
poetical figure by which I elegantly say the Place, St
James, instead of St James's Place."

In 1795 William Windham, writing to Lord Grenville,
speaks of a M. de Tuisaye, ' ' who will be to be heard of at any
time at Mr Saladin's at No. — St James's Place " ; and in
the same year Lord St Helens writes also to Lord Grenville
from here. In the following year the Rate Books reveal
the presence of the following residents : — Lady Amelia

1 Arthur, proprietor of White's Chocolate House, died at his
house in St James's Place, in June 1761.

108

ST JAMES'S PLACE

Hervey, General Mordaimt, Earl Stopford (?), Lord Maiden,
the Duke of St Albans, the Earl of Moira, General Johnson,
and Roger Wilbraham, Esq., at No. 11, from 1796 to 1800.
Another interesting inhabitant, probably only as a lodger,
was Isaac D 'Israeli, who writes a letter (undated) to Lady
Blessington from St James's Place. At No. 34 Lord
Cochrane, better known as the Earl of Dundonald, was
once living, and it was to this house, according to a writer
in London Past and Present, "that the swindler De
Berenger came on 21st February 1814, and obtained the
disguise by which he hoped to elude the agents of the Stock
Exchange." The same authority speaks of Mrs Robinson,
the actress, once living at No. 13, the assumption being
that this was the lady who became the mistress of George;
Prince of Wales. I am, however, more inclined to identify
her with Mrs Anastasia Robinson, the singer, who was
afterwards the wife of the eccentric Earl of Peterborough.1

Coming to later days we have Captain Marryat at No. 38,
in 1832, before he went to Duke Street, and Captain Basil
Hall at No. 4 in the previous year. At No. 25, the house
which had been built by Lord Guildford, Sir Francis
Burdett lived for a number of years, and died on 23rd
January 1844 ; while from 1822 to 1832 Sir John Lubbock
resided at No. 23.

But the two most famous houses in St James's Place
are Spencer House and Rogers' old home, No. 22. The
former was designed by J. Vardy for the 1st Earl Spencer;
and was begun about the end of 1755 or early in the follow-
ing year. "It will be superb when finished," writes Mrs
Delany, who, in September 1756, went to see the progress
of the place and then found the ground floor completed.

1 See Mrs Delany 's recollections of this lady, dictated at the
request of Dr Burney, and incorporated in his History of Music,
vol. iv., p. 247. Mr Wheatley in his Round About Piccadilly, says
Mrs Robinson was living at No. 14, in 1796.

109

ST JAMES'S STREET

Although Vardy was responsible for the body of the house,
the St James's Place facade was the work of James Stuart,
the architect, and so elaborate was the work that the house
was not habitable for several years. Elmes, speaking of
"this magnificent mansion," says: "I have heard it
asserted that the shell of Spencer House, consisting of
solid stone, cost alone 50,000 guineas," while Mr Blom-
field speaks of its internal arrangements as being "more
modern than any place of the time." l

Magnificent as is Spencer House, with its elaborate
decorations by Zucchi, and interesting from its political
memories, it can hardly vie with the small residence close
by, where Rogers lived and entertained all, or nearly all,
the notable men and women of his long-drawn-out day.

In was in 1802 that Rogers,2 in conjunction with Sir
John Lubbock, purchased a house in St James's Place,
overlooking the Green Park. As the friends divided the
residence I assume that one half of the original building
became the residence of Lubbock and the other that of
Rogers. This latter portion is numbered 22 and repre-
sents, from the beauty and rarity of its contents as well
as from the illustrious character of its many visitors in
the past, one of the most interesting of London's many
interesting dwellings. The care the poet expended on his
house is recorded in a variety of memoirs and letters of
the period. Clayden 3 tells us how Rogers set to work to
make his house worthy of the beautiful objects with which
he intended filling it. " He had made notes of household

1 1 have given a full account of Spencer House in my Private
Palaces of London, and therefore do not say more about the place
here.

2 Another banker once lived, circa 1790, in one of the houses on
the west side of St James's Place, notably Mr Robert Smith, M.P.
for Nottingham, and later created by George III. (very unwillingly)
Lord Carrington.

3 Early Life of Rogers.

no

ST JAMES'S PLACE

arrangements he had seen in houses in which he had
visited," writes his biographer, "had given much study
to questions of decoration and ornament, and had de-
signed the furniture himself, with the assistance of Hope's
work on the subject." The drawing-room mantelpiece
was designed by Flaxman; Stothard planned and painted
one of the cabinets ; the skilled hand of Chantrey carved
the dining-room sideboard, which the sculptor in after
days, when he had become famous and a guest of Rogers,
pointed out to his host as his work. Greek vases dotted
the house ; much of the furniture was modelled from the
same classic source ; the staircase was decorated with a
frieze copied from a famous original among the Elgin
Marbles. The pictures were worthy of their carefully
prepared setting. Examples of Titian and Raphael,
Correggio and Guido, Veronese and Barocchio, and even
of Giotto's tentative imaginings, rubbed shoulders with
the florid wonders of Rubens and Reynolds' distinguished
canvases. Here was the superb little Knight in Armour
which Scott admired so much ; there the small Raphael
which Rogers hoped he might have in the room in which
he died ; in a portfolio were preserved Flaxman 's original
designs from Homer ; in elaborate cases were rare and
beautifully bound books, and on them ornaments which
showed the artistic and selective character of their
collector. Well might Byron exclaim : "If you enter
his house, his drawing-room, his library, you of yourself
say, ' This is not the dwelling of a common mind. ' There
is not a gem, a coin, a book thrown aside on his chimney-
piece, his sofa, his table, that does not bespeak an almost
fastidious elegance in the possessor." Macaulay and
Sumner, Moore and Ticknor, and a hundred others, who
knew the host and his possessions, have combined in
recording the exquisite taste exhibited in the furnishing
and decoration of No. 22 St James's Place. Hardly will

in

you take up a volume of memoirs or reminiscences of the
period but you find some mention of the place in terms of
eulogy and admiration. For Rogers was acquainted with
everybody. In later life he became an institution, and
people forgave the bitterness of his tongue, because those
who knew him well understood the inherent goodness of
his heart, and casual acquaintances regarded, perhaps, a
rude retort as a small thing as against the pleasure of
enjoying an artistic treat or listening to the voice of one
who had known intimately so many illustrious people.
What Holland House was on a large scale, so was the St
James's Place shrine on a small one. Here Byron had
refused to eat anything but mashed potatoes soaked in
vinegar; here Sydney Smith had uttered his famous
mot with reference to the lighting of Rogers' dinner-
table ; here Fanny Burney had dined to meet Mrs Crewe
of " True Blue " fame, and Mrs Barbauld ; here Moore
met Byron and Campbell and Wordsworth and here
were held those breakfasts beginning at ten, when "so
agreeable and fascinating was the conversation of the
host that the repast seldom ended before noon and
sometimes extended so late as 1 o'clock." *

"What a delightful house it is ! " exclaims Macaulay.
" It looks out on the Green Park just at the most pleasant
spot. The furniture has been selected with a delicacy of
taste quite unique. Its value does not depend on fashion
but must be the same while the fine arts are held in any
esteem. In the drawing-room, for example, the chimney-
pieces are carved by Flaxman into the most beautiful
Grecian forms. The bookcase is painted by Stothard in
his very best manner, with groups from Chaucer, Shake-
speare and Boccaccio. The pictures are not numerous,
but every one is excellent. In the dining-room there are
also some beautiful paintings. But the three most re-
1 Mackay, Through the Long Day.
H2

ST JAMES'S PLACE

markable objects in that room are, I think, a cast of Pope
taken after death, by Roubiliac ; a noble model in terra-
cotta, by Michael Angelo, from which he afterwards made
one of his finest statues, that of Lorenzo de Medici ; and
lastly a mahogany table on which stands an antique vase. "

For fifty-three years did Rogers dwell amid his treasures,
hardly passing a day without receiving in St James's
Place some notable guest. In 1855 he was in his ninety-
third year and " he was still in his London house waiting,
without fear — indeed, with actual desire — for the approach-
ing change. It came on Tuesday morning, the 18th of
December, when he passed quietly and peacefully away. " l

After Rogers' death his collections were dispersed ;
some pictures, including The Knight in Armour, were be-
queathed by him to the National Gallery ; and his famous
home, which had originally (together with No. 23) as one
house belonged to the Duke of St Albans, passed to alien
hands.

Mr Wheatley reminds me that by the side of the house
was formerly a pathway into the Green Park. The gate
has now been locked for many years, and once a writer in
Notes and Queries, who had used it daily between the
years 1810 and 1823, asked by "whose authority this
convenient passage has been closed," without, apparently,
receiving any satisfactory reply. Apropos of rights-of-
way the following story is given by Wraxall in his
Posthumous Memoirs of his Own Time : —

"Sir Richard Phillipps, a Welsh baronet of ancient
descent, when member for Pembrokeshire in the year
1776, having preferred a request to his Majesty, through
the first minister, Lord North, for permission to make a
carriage-road up to the front of his house, which looked
into St James's Park, met with a refusal. The King,
apprehensive that if he acceded to Sir Richard's desire it
1 Clayden, Rogers and his Contemporaries.

H 113

would form a precedent for many similar applications,
put a negative on it ; but Lord North, in delivering the
answer, softened it by adding that if he wished to be
created an Irish peer no difficulty would be experienced.
This honour being thus tendered him he accepted it and
was forthwith made a baron of that kingdom by the title
of Lord Milford. His intimate friend and mine, the late
Sir John Stepney, related this fact to me not long after it
took place."1

On the south side of St James's Place a small cul-de-sac
was known as Cleveland Court, and here, according to Mrs
Delany, a Mrs Stock took a house in 1749, thus proving
its one-time residential character. It is clearly marked
in Horwood's plan, and is not to be confounded with the
Cleveland Court described by Elmes as being "almost
eight houses on the left hand from St James's Street,"
which ran from Cleveland Row northwards and is now
bounded on the west by Bridgwater House.

The next turning out of St James's Street is Little St
James's Street, which is given in 1831 as being about eleven
houses on the left hand going from St James's Palace to
Piccadilly. Connected with it was Catherine Wheel Yard
Lane, interesting because Mrs Delany once took a house
here in 1768. At an earlier period, as we have seen, she
was in St James's Place and also at a later, and it seems
likely, therefore, that if the house she occupied at these
periods was the same, she must have given it up or let it
for a time. The reference we have to the place in Catherine
Wheel Lane is contained in a letter to her sister, dated
from Whitehall, 14th October 1768, in which she says :

" I was told yesterday of (a house), and went to see it;
the place is called Catherine Wheel Lane ; it is behind the

1 In 1863 the Public Schools Club was established at No. 17
St James's Place, in a house which had previously been the
residence of Lord Lyttelton.

114

ST JAMES'S PLACE

Thatched House Tavern in St James's Street ; but it is
not near enough to be at all incommoded by it ; it is very
small, but both prettily and conveniently situated ; the
front faces a cross street now called Little St James's
Street, and the back looks into^the Duke of Bridgewater's
garden very pleasantly, and a coach drives very well to the
door, and people of fashion live in the row. The landlord
is a man of good character, and is going to fit it up, and
will make any alterations I shall desire ; it is to be entirely
new painted, etc., and the best rooms new sashed ; it has
been built about five and thirty years. It cannot possibly
be finished before Christmas, at which time, if I agree with
him, the rent will commence ; but I shall not hurry into
it. ... The Landlord is to paper the rooms in the manner
Hike."

The house was taken, but on the following 19th January
Mrs Delany still writes from Whitehall. However, on
16th June 1769 she dates a letter from T. H. C. (Thatched
House Court), and again, on 27th December, she tells
Lady Andover how good she is to bestow so much of her
time and thoughts "on the solitary inhabitant of the
Little Thatch."

It seems that Thatched House Court was connected
with Little St James's Street by Catherine Wheel Lane,
so that, according to Mrs Delany 's description of her
house, it must have been at the lower end of Thatched
Court House, looking up Catherine Wheel Lane into the
thoroughfare, and although she speaks of the residence as
being in Catherine Wheel Lane it was really in the court.
It is curious that Rhodes 's plan of the parish, dated 1770,
does not give Little St James's Street, but marks the
turning as Catherine Wheel Lane, as if the latter had an
exit into St James's Street.

We have now arrived at the bottom of St James's Street,
1 Mrs Delany. A Memoir, by George Paston.

ST JAMES'S STREET

and should properly, I suppose, end here, but Cleveland
Row seems so part and parcel with the thoroughfare that
I must spare a few words for it.

CLEVELAND ROW

Cleveland Row faces St James's Palace and forms a
western continuation of Pall Mall as far as Cleveland
Square and Bridgewater House. Its interesting inhabit-
ants in the past include, in 1695, the Countess of Thanet,
and the Earl of Bridgewater,1 who are given in the Rate
Books as "over against St James's stables " ; and Mason,
the poet, who, after his marriage in 1767, came to lodge with
his wife here. The approximate position of his residence
is indicated from the following passage in one of his letters
to Gray (2nd February 1767) : — " We have changed our
lodgings, and are to be found at Mr Mennis's, a tailor, at
the Golden Ball in Cleveland Row, the last door but one
nearest the Green Park Wall." Later, in 1772, Lord
Rodney occupied one of the houses, and Wraxall relates
how he "passed much time with him here, down to the
very moment of his departure for the West Indies in 1779.
In the List of Persons who paid Tax on Male Servants in
1780, 1 find Mrs Susanna Bracken given as living in Cleve-
land Row ; while five years later the Rate Books record
the following residents here: — the Hon. George Selwyn,
John Fenton, Lord Berwick and the Hon. Keith Stuart ;
the Duke of Bridgewater is also given as living in Cleveland
Row.

The house in which Selwyn died, on 25th January 1791,
was formerly the residence of his mother, and in it occurred
the famous quarrel between Walpole and Townshend, which
Gay parodied with such success in his Beggar's Opera.2

1 It is curious that Lord Bridgewater should have lived near the
spot where later the Duke of Bridgewater had his residence.

2 Wraxall 's Memoirs.

116

CLEVELAND ROW

A house adjoining is interesting for another reason.
"In May 1761," writes Sir Edward Hertslet, "the Earl
of Bute removed his office (The Foreign Office) — the
Northern Department — from the Cockpit at Whitehall
to a house in Cleveland Road, and it had previously
belonged to Baron Behr."

Various letters are given by Sir Edward referring to the
residence, one of which records the addition (in 1771) of a
smaller house adjoining to the office ; and yet another
notifying the removal of the Foreign Office from Cleveland
Row in 1786. x The premises had been rented from Sir
George Warren.

Later residents in Cleveland Row were Henry Flood,
the orator, who was living here while a member of the
English Parliament in 1784 ; Sir Sydney Smith, in
1809, and Theodore Hook, who rented, from 1827-1831,
the large house (No. 5) occupied by Smith, and belonging
to Lord Lowther, at £100 a year, and characteristically
borrowed a large sum to furnish it.

Leading out of Cleveland Row were two tributary
streets, one being known as Russell Court — whose only
notable inhabitant appears to have been Sir Gilbert
Affleck, who was living here in 1796 2 — and the other as
Cleveland Court. Both this and the row take their
name, of course, from Cleveland House, which formerly
stood here.

In the court Charles Jervas, the painter, died on 2nd
November 1739. Pope used at one time to take lessons
from Jervas here, and references in the poet's letters
attest this, and also the fact that on several occasions
Pope actually stayed in the house.

Although George Selwyn is given, as we have seen, in
the Rate Books as living in Cleveland Row, his residence

1 See Recollections of the Foreign Office.

2 St George's Rate Books.

117

ST JAMES'S STREET

is also stated to have been in Cleveland Court.1 It is
therefore possible that it was at the corner of the two, a
situation likely to confuse the very inadequate methods
of rate-collectors in those days. It seems certain that it
was in the court, at any rate, that Selwyn's friend, Gilly
Williams, died on 25th November 1805.

One other reference to Cleveland Court is contained in
Mrs Delany's Autobiography, for that lady, writing to Miss
Dewes, on 15th August 1768, remarks: "At our return
we [the Duchess of Portland was her companion] went to
my Lord Carlisle's in Cleveland Court (nobody in Town),
to see the King of Denmark, who is in Lord Bathe's old
house at St James's and opposite to Lord Carlisle's. (I
should have said Sir W. Musgrave's.) His Majesty was
dressing, and' the blinds down all but a little peep ; the
Duchess had the satisfaction of a glimpse of him, and I of
his valet de chambre."

As I have said, Cleveland House and its grounds
occupied the site of the row and court of that name.
The mansion was originally known as Berkshire House;
and had been erected by Thomas Howard, Earl of Berk-
shire, in the reign of Charles I. Here it was that Lord
Clarendon lived after he had left Worcester House and
before Clarendon House in Piccadilly was ready for him.
Here he was visited by Evelyn and Pepys, and here, at a
Council, Samuel records that "my Lord Chancellor was
sleeping and. snoring the greater part of the time." Other
tenants of the place included the French Ambassador, in
1664-1665. Adjoining the house was another, which be-
longed partly to Sir William Pulteney, as is shown by a
warrant, dated 24th September 1670, " to pay Sir William

1 This seems proved by an entry in Romney's engagement-
book, which reads "Maria Fagniani, Cleveland Court" — Maria
Fagniani being, of course, the adopted daughter (or actual
daughter) of George Selwyn, later Marchioness of Hertford.

118

CLEVELAND ROW

Pulteney £400 for his interest in a house adjoining
Berkshire House."

In 1668 the property was purchased by Charles II. for
Lady Castlemaine, who, two years later, was created
Duchess of Cleveland and who then gave her new name
to the residence.

In course of time she sold a portion of the grounds to-
wards St James's Street, and several houses were erected
on it, in one of which the Earl of Nottingham resided,
presumably after he had sold Nottingham House, Ken-
sington, to William III. in 1691. On the death of the
Duchess of Cleveland in 1709, Cleveland House passed to
her son, Charles Fitzroy, Duke of Cleveland, whose son
married one of Lord Nottingham's daughters, and who
continued to live here till his death in 1730. The house
was later purchased by the 1st Duke of Bridgewater,
whose son, the 3rd Duke, considerably enlarged it.
Eventually the property passed to the 1st Earl of
Ellesmere who, in 1849, built the present Bridgewater
House, from the designs of Sir Charles Barry. Originally
Berkshire or Cleveland House and its grounds extended
from the Park to the corner of St James's Street.1

The western portion of Cleveland Row is now known as
Cleveland Square, surely the strangest of the many strange
squares in London. We know what it looks like to-day :
its north side filled up by Bridgewater House, Mr
Rochfort-Maguire's island-residence facing it, and behind
that the row of small houses ending on their east side in
the once flower-bedecked house of the late Lord Armistead,
the life-long friend of Mr Gladstone. What the place looked
like two hundred years ago can be judged by a glance at
Kip's map, dated 1710-1720.

1 Bridgewater House is another of the mansions dealt with in
The Private Palaces of London, where an account of its pictorial
treasures will be found.

119

ST JAMES'S STREET

It is difficult nowadays to differentiate between Cleve-
land Square and Cleveland Row, because in earlier times
the latter ran right through to the Park on both sides of
the way — excepting where Cleveland House broke its
north line — and the houses of the earlier " Row," at their
west end, became later the residences in the square. In
addition to those people I have already noted as living
here may be mentioned Lord George Gordon in 1785 ;
Thomas Grenville, the great book-collector, at No. 15,
from 1796 to 1801 ; Sir Gilbert Blane, a once well-known
physician, at No. 4, from 1800 to 1802 ; and Lord Castle-
reagh, who occupied, in 1803, No. 8, a house later tenanted
by Viscount Sydney.

J2O

THE CLUBS

THERE are ten important clubs, as well as a few lesser ones,
in St James's Street to-day. Of the larger ones two are
on the east and eight on the west side. In the order of
their establishment they are as follows : — White's (1697),
The Cocoa Tree (1746), Boodle's (1762), Brooks's (1764),
Arthur's (1765), The Conservative (1840), The New
University (1863), The Thatched House (1865), The
Devonshire (1875) and The Royal Societies (1894). Most
of them are what is termed "social," and only three
can be regarded as political — even in the wide extension
which that term has come to assume — Brooks's, The
Conservative and The Devonshire.

Both Pall Mall and Piccadilly have more clubs than
St James's Street, but none of them dates its formation
back further than the early years of the nineteenth
century, and therefore in this region, which is known as
Clubland, St James's Street takes priority in age and, in
the case of certain clubs, in importance and historic and
social interest.

The genesis of some of the earlier established clubs was
in the cocoa-houses which sprang up in London in the
middle of the eighteenth century.

The proprietor of a cocoa-house seems to have awaited
the psychological moment when his clientele was of such
a character as to be more or less permanent and to have
become personally acquainted with each other. Then he
would sound the influential and find that they were pre-
pared to subscribe certain amounts on the understanding

121

ST JAMES'S STREET

that strangers were no longer admitted — in a word, he
acquired the necessary powers to run his establishment
under rules which automatically converted what had been
a public house of call into a private society's headquarters.
Both White's and The Cocoa Tree are examples of this
metamorphosis, and as such have a double history : their
records as cocoa-houses and their more varied annals as
clubs.

WHITE'S

"White's " Club is something more than a club ; it is
an institution. For over two hundred years it has been
so intimately associated with the political history of the
country as almost to take its place in its annals by the
side of Brooks 's. Its records have been preserved from
a very early date, and their publication (1892), by the Hon.
Algernon Bourke, in two large quarto volumes, will have
enlightened those interested in the club and political life
of two centuries, concerning all data on which they may
require information. Besides this the few other works
which deal generally with the clubs of London have, of
course, repeated as fully as possible the historic details
which cling with such full growth round White's. For this
reason it is not necessary here to recapitulate as amply
as would otherwise have been incumbent on me the annals
of the club. I am, indeed, gleaning in a field that has
been already carefully searched, and I must therefore fall
back on the full sheaves of earlier workers, perhaps being
able here and there to add a wisp to the already well-
garnered store.

White's Club grew out of White's Chocolate House. In
its earlier form it was first opened by one Francis White,
in 1693, at a house on the east side of St James's Street,
its site being to-day occupied by Boodle's Club. Four

122

.

OLD WHITES CI.UB

WHITE'S

years later (1697), White, requiring more commodious
premises, found them on the opposite side of the street.
The house he took was three doors south of St James's
Place, and its exact position is the northern portion of
the present Arthur's club-house. Here White continued
till 1702, when he took in the adjoining house on the
south side of his premises. At this time John Arthur's
name appears in the Rate Books as White's next-door
neighbour on the north side, and, as Mr Bourke remarks,
"the name is an important one in tracing the subsequent
history of the club, Arthur being at this time White's
servant and assistant-manager." It will be found that
members of White's (Lord March, for instance) sometimes
date from "Arthur's," which was only another name for
White's, and had nothing to do with the present Arthur's
Club.

White carried on his Chocolate House with success till
1711, in the February of which year he died, and was buried
in St James's, Piccadilly. From certain evidence in his
will, it has been conjectured that he may have been of
Italian extraction, and his name merely an anglicised
form of Bianchi or Bianco.

His widow succeeded to the business and continued to
direct it ; its fashionable character being well maintained.
In those days it was from White's that tickets for
masquerades (Mr Comely 's in Soho Square and others)
and even for the opera (then under Heidegger) were
issued.

In the Rate Books, Elizabeth White is first set down as
Widow White, then as Mrs White, and finally as Madame
White, distinctions denoting gradually improved standing.
She continued the management till some time between
1725 and 1729, after which year her name disappears. In
1730 John Arthur is entered as tenant. He, no doubt,
had been previously associated with Mrs White in the

123

ST JAMES'S STREET

business and, at her death or retirement, made
arrangements to conduct it on his own account.

Two years later (1732) he added to the premises the
house he had formerly occupied, so that by this time the
chocolate-house embraced three tenements — the second,
third and fourth houses below St James's Place. In
the April of the following year occurred the fire which
burned the place to the ground. The Daily Courant for
the 30th of the month thus refers to the circumstance :

"On Saturday morning, about four o'clock, a fire broke
out at Mr Arthur's, at White's Chocolate House in St
James's Street, which burnt with great violence, and in
a short time entirely consumed that house with two others,
and much damaged several others adjoining. Young
Mr Arthur's wife leaped out of a window two pair of stairs
upon a feather bed without much hurt. A fine collection
of paintings belonging to Sir Andrew Fountaine, valued
at £3000 at least, was entirely destroyed. His Majesty
and the Prince of Wales were present about an hour, and
encouraged the firemen and people to work at the engines,
a guard being ordered from St James's to keep off the
populace. His Majesty ordered twenty guineas among
the firemen and others that worked the engines, and five
guineas to the guard ; and the Prince ordered the firemen
ten guineas."

Apart from the notices of the event in the daily Press,
the fire at White's has been perpetuated in pictorial art, for
in The Rake's Progress Hogarth introduced the incident. In
Plate 4 of the series it is indicated by the forked lightning
striking the house from which hangs a sign with the word
"White's " on it. This allusion, however, only occurs in
the final state of the plate, which was greatly altered during
the progress of engraving. It will be observed that this
house is not the burnt-down White's, but Gaunt's coffee-
house, to which the chocolate-house was temporarily

124

WHITE'S

removed. From this it has been conjectured that
Hogarth had begun the plate before the fire, and that on
its occurrence he took the opportunity of recording the
event, and also of putting in the group of gambling boys
(as a satiric touch in allusion to the play that had already
become notorious at White's), a group not included in the
original picture.1 In Plate 6 of the same series another
allusion is made to the fire, by the introduction of flames
bursting from the wainscot, to which the gamblers,
intent on their play, pay no heed.

On 3rd May, Arthur inserted an advertisement in The
Daily Post to the effect that he had " removed to Gaunt 's
Coffee House, next the St James's Coffee House in St
James's Street," and begging for the patronage there of
his former supporters.

The rebuilding of White's does not appear to have been
completed till 1736, in which year Robert Arthur ("the
young Mr Arthur " ; John, his father, having by this time
died or retired) appears in the Rate Books as proprietor
of the newly erected premises, which occupied the sites
of the three houses already mentioned as having been
gradually acquired.

White's Club had already been formed, but owing to the
fire all records of its institution are wanting. It has been
conjectured that the date of its inception coincided with
the removal of the Chocolate House to the west side of the
street in 1697 ; but nothing is definitely known, and
although hi 1736 Arthur drew up a set of fresh rules,
probably from memory, he omitted, or was unable, to set

1 As the engraving reversed the picture, the generality of the
plates show White's on the wrong (east) side of the street. It is
curious, however, that in the engraving copied from the oil paint-
ing (which, by the by, is in the Soane Museum) , the word " White's "
on the sign is left reversed ; that in looking at it, it reads back-
wards. This is so in the excellent reproduction given in the
History of White's, and is a point not before noticed, I think.

125

ST JAMES'S STREET

down the exact date, or to reconstruct a list of the original
members. In any case it seems fairly obvious that the
Old Club was started in White's time ; the Young Club
not coming into existence till 1743.

The rules number ten. No one was to be admitted ex-
cept by ballot ; one black ball excluded ; each member was
to pay "a guinea a year towards having a good cook ";
no one was to be admitted to dinner or supper unless he
was a member ; supper was to be served at ten o'clock, and
the bill brought at twelve, and no one was to be balloted
for "but during the sitting of Parliament"; this last
rule apparently introduced the political character which
attached to the club in after days, although at this time
it was essentially non-party, and admitted men of all
shades of opinion so long as their loyalty to the Throne
was unquestioned.

The line was drawn, naturally, at Jacobites, although
one or two of the earlier members might have been supposed
to labour under some suspicion in this respect. The
number of members in 1736 (when the existing records
begin) was eighty-two.

In the meantime the Chocolate House continued to
flourish under Robert Arthur's management, and it seems
to have been from its regular customers that the old Club
was largely reinforced. "The first step towards becoming
a member of the Old Club," writes Mr Bourke, "would be
to be constantly in evidence at the Chocolate House, and
among Arthur's customers were many men of good birth
and social standing, anxious for election into the exclusive
circle of the Old Club, but who found themselves debarred
by that very exclusiveness for more years than they could
afford to wait." This circumstance led to the formation
of what was called the Young Club — a kind of waiting-
room or probationary stage to the older institution.
This new departure was based on its prototype : its rules

126

0 ^

-" ^

t3

I *

2 I

<" *5

<;

K ^J

WHITE'S

were practically the same ; its subscription was the same.
That it was no easy matter to pass from one to the other
is proved by the fact that so well known and popular a
man as Selwyn took eight years to compass it, and that
his friend Lord March (the " old Q " of later days) never
got in at all, being rejected as a "foreigner," probably
in allusion, as Mr Bourke suggests, to his prolonged stays
in France.

It was not till 1781 that the two sections of the Club
were amalgamated and henceforth the allusions to the
" Old " and " New " Club, which are so frequent in the
letters of the period,1 cease and " White's " takes their
place. The correspondence of Horace Walpole is, as
most of us know, full of references to White's, its members,
its rules, manners and customs, its social and political
activity, and anecdotes and bon-mots connected with it
and its habitue.

In 1755 2 both clubs moved from the west to the east
side of the thoroughfare, and took up their quarters in the
"Great House of St James's Street," with which the
fortunes of White's have ever since been identified.3

This house (No. 87) had previously belonged to Sir
Whistler Webster, and from him Arthur purchased the
freehold. The place had already interesting associations.
Here lived that Countess of Northumberland noted for
the almost regal state she kept up, and of whom Walpole
has recorded some interesting data. Henry, 2nd Duke
of Beaufort was the tenant of the house in the early years
of the eighteenth centuiy, and after him the Duchess

1 See particularly the Selwyn correspondence.

2 In 1750 Erasmus Mumford had published a "Letter to the
Club at White's, in which are set forth the great Expediency of
Repealing the Laws now in Force against Excessive Gambling,
etc."

3 At this time the inclusive membership was three hundred and
fifty.

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ST JAMES'S STREET

of Newcastle came to live there in 1716. Sir William
Windham succeeded her, and was in turn followed (in 1721)
by Sir Thomas Webster who, according to the Rate Books,
appears to have owned the property. To it Sir Whistler
Webster, his son, succeeded, and from him, as I have stated,
it passed to Arthur.

Having seen the club safely ensconced in its new home,
Robert Arthur made over the management to Robert
Mackreth, his whilom assistant, and subsequently his
son-in-law. When Arthur died, in his house in St James's
Place, in 1761, it was found that he had left his considerable
property, including White's club-house and other belong-
ings in the neighbourhood, to his daughter, Mary, and thus
it passed into Mackreth 's hands. "Bob," as he was
familiarly called, did not continue the management long,
for in 1763 we find him sending the following letter
(possibly a circular one) to Selwyn with regard to the
change : —

WHITE'S,
April 5, 1763.
SIR,

Having quitted business entirely, and let my house
to the Cherubim, who is my near relation, I humbly
beg leave, after returning you my most grateful thanks
for all favours, to recommend him to your patronage, not
doubting, by the long experience I have had of his fidelity,
that he will strenuously endeavour to oblige.

I am, Sir,
Your most dutiful and much obliged

humble servant, R. MACKRETH.

Who this mysterious " Cherubim " was has not been
traced. Evidently, however, he had been an assistant
of Mackreth, and was well known to the members. It
has been affirmed that his name was Chambers, but why

128

WHITE'S

such an angelic name was given him, unless for some such
reason as it was applied to the 10th Hussars,1 is not clear.
Seven years after his taking over the management we
find the name of John Martindale as " The master of the
house." He appears to have been a scion of a family
which was, to use Mr Bourke's phrase, "engaged in minister-
ing to the amusement of the upper classes in one way or
another. " One of its members was a saddler in St James's
Street, and made much money by his stud horse, Regulus ;
another, Henry, kept a gaming-house, and was on one
occasion fined, in company with the play-loving Lady
Buckinghamshire and others, for so doing. John Martin-
dale inaugurated his reign by whipping up subscriptions,
many of which were as much as five years in arrears. As
a consequence, certain resignations took place, the Duke
of Rutland, Lord Chesterfield, Lord Holland and Lord
Berkeley being among the seceders. Subscriptions to the
Old Club were raised ; committees were formed to inquire
into the working of the institution ; and, in short, a period
of unrest set in. The fusion of the Old and New Clubs
in 1781 may be regarded as putting the crowning touch
to Martindale's schemes for improvement ; it certainly
inaugurated a new era in the club's economic history.
Its more public character may be said to have undergone
a no less marked change two years later, when Pitt was
elected a member, and White's passed for a time into
a political centre of activity. This circumstance had a
far-reaching effect ; it caused the secession of Fox and his
friends, who henceforth set up their standard, both of play
and politics, at Brooks 's, and thus led to the rivalry which
existed for so many years between the two clubs. Many
of the protagonists, such as Pitt himself and the Prince of
Wales, were actually members of both, but they henceforth

1 The wearing of trousers of a cherry colour by this regiment is
said to have given rise to this atrocious pun.
i 129

ST JAMES'S STREET

identified themselves (if Pitt can be said ever to have
gone so far as this) with one or other of the rival houses.
Gillray 's famous caricature, entitled Promised Horrors of the
French Invasion, dated 1796, shows the position taken up
by Brooks and White and their members in the supposi-
titious event. The partisans at the former are making
good use of a guillotine placed on its balcony; from the
balcony of the latter the bodies of illustrious members
are hurled into the street, where Fox belabours Pitt at a
whipping-post, and St James's Palace is burning furiously.
A year after this Pitt's committee met at White's, and for
the first time a standing committee of the club was elected.
There is no necessity to recapitulate the various political
events connected with White's during this period, for they
largely enter into the history of the country, where allusions
to them will be found. The more domestic side of the
club's annals here chiefly concern us. The first landmark
in these occurs in 1812, in which year Martindale gave up
the management and was succeeded in it by George
Raggett. The new proprietor had already had experience
in the management of clubs, and he carried on his new
venture with energy and astuteness. His waiting up till
play was over, sweeping the floors for stray counters
(often representing considerable amounts), and thus
securing himself a decent income, is a fact recorded in
one of his own statements. Under him the famous
Bow Window became a feature of the club — the shrine of
Brummell and his set ; the terror of the debutantes passing
down St James's Street to the Palace; the ceil de bceuf,
so to term it, of fashion and gossip. Mr Bourke, referring
to it, says : "The leaders of the inner circle of the club
were its occupants, and to them it was tacitly relinquished
by the rest. From members still living we learn that,
within their memory, an ordinary frequenter of White's
would as soon have thought of taking his seat on the throne

130

si

W ^3
en <u

WHITE'S

in the House of Lords as of appropriating one of the chairs
in the bow window." It was the spot where questions "~
of etiquette were settled ; where reputations were made
or marred ; where the social life of London was placed
under the microscope and studied ; where characters were
laid on the operating-table and dissected. Like Almack's,
it became a tribunal as redoubtable as was ever erected
under the Venetian Republic or the Inquisition of Spain.
A few more dates bring us to our own times. In 1813
the first Candidates' Book was opened ; six years later
Mackreth (become Sir Robert) died, and with him, to
some extent, died the older traditions of the club. In 1833
excessive blackballing, which threatened to dislocate the
institution altogether, led to a committee being appointed
to take over the election of members for a period of one
year. Under Raggett the club 's fortunes continued, after
this event, to be prosperous. In 1843 he made his son
Henry manager, and on his death in the following year
Henry Raggett was duly confirmed in the position. Six
years later Raggett found it necessary to suggest a change
in the management — apparently owing to the large amount
of credit he was, following earlier custom, called upon to
find — but matters having been adjusted in this respect by
the committee, he continued in his post till his death in
1859, when there came to a close that system of manage-
ment which carried with it the proprietorship of the club
premises. The property now passed to Raggett's sisters,
who, searching for a manager, found one in Mr Perceval,
and in June 1859 that gentleman took up his duties at
White's. It was under his regime that the great smoke
question arose. Full details are given in The History
of White's of this momentous event — really momentous,
because it ranged the members into separate camps, and
was the initial cause of the formation, under the aegis of
the late King Edward, of the Marlborough Club, which

ST JAMES'S STREET

undoubtedly drew from White's many who would have
added to its lustre and advantage. The struggle lasted
from 1859 to 1866, and ended in the discomfiture of the
"new school." In 1868 a proposal was made to purchase
the club premises from the Misses Raggett, but as the
estate was in Chancery the scheme came to nothing. In
1870, however, circumstances had altered, and the owners
were prepared to accept £60,000 for the freehold, but such
a sum was not acceptable to the club.1

In 1876 the membership of White's, which had been
previously increased at various times, was raised to six
hundred, and five years later Mr Perceval obtained from
Mr Eaton a lease of thirty years, at £3000. In the follow-
ing year Perceval died, to be succeeded for six years
by his son who carried on the premises on behalf of his
mother. His management was not a marked success, and
during this time the membership showed a great falling
off.

In July 1888, on the management of Perceval coming
to an end, that post was taken up by the Hon. Algernon
Bourke. With him drastic changes, both in the con-
stitution and the premises of the club, took place. The
building was reconstructed, with great advantage both
to the ground and first floor. A lounge was created,
the existing small billiard-room and other rooms were
knocked into one, forming a large billiard-room, and other
improvements were made.

The result of the innovations, both in the constitution
and building of White's,2 has resulted in its once again

1 Perceval held an unexpired lease of ten years, at a rental of
£2100. In 1871 the property was offered by auction, and was
purchased by Mr Eaton, M.P. (afterwards Lord Cheylesmore),
for ^46,000, and he refused to sell, although he offered to
lease the club to the committee for twenty years at a rental of

£3000-

2 Its membership is now seven hundred and fifty.

132

WHITE'S

occupying that unique position which it held during the
palmy days of the last two centuries.

What the present club-house looked like in its earlier
form may be seen from a view which shows its appear-
ance till the year 1811, when many changes, including the
introduction of the "Bow Window," were made. In -
1850 the fa9ade was entirely remodelled after designs
by Mr Lockyer, the bas-reliefs which ornament it being
the work of George Scharf, and the old balcony replaced
by the present more elaborate ironwork.1 At this time
much interior decoration was also carried out.

Having thus briefly outlined the history of "White's,"
I pass for a moment to the references to it which will be
found in contemporary literature. In Farquhar's Beauas's
Stratagem (1707) it is referred to, and in Gay's Trivia
the observant author notes that :

"At White's the harnessed chairman idly stands,
And swings around his waist his tingling hands."

In The Tatter' 's initial number, which appeared in 1709,
it is stated that " all accounts of gallantry, pleasure and
entertainment shall be under the article of White's
Chocolate House," and several of the papers bear the
superscription of "White's." Addison, in his Prologue to
Steele's Tender Husband, introduces the place thus :

"To all his most frequented haunts resort,
Oft dog him to the Ring, and oft to Court ;
As love of pleasure, or of place invites :
And sometimes catch him taking snuff at White's."

1 M. Boutet de Monvel is not correct when he says that "on y
voit toujours le balcon fameux oh tour a tour vinrent s'accouder
Wellington, Brummell, et les dandies.'' By the by, he quotes Sir
William Fraser, who records (in his Napoleon III.) Disraeli as
saying that to obtain the Garter and to be elected at White's
were the two supreme human distinctions.

George Brummell et George I V.

133

ST JAMES'S STREET

Pope has several references to White's, both in The
Dunciad and The Moral Essays. In the former, satirising
Colley Gibber, one of the members, he writes :

" Or chain 'd at White's among the Doctors sit,
Teach oaths to gamesters, and to nobles wit. "

And also :

" Familiar White's God save, King Colley cries,
God save King Colley, Drury Lane replies."

There is no doubt that Gibber's membership rather
rankled in the breasts of less fortunate authors, and Pope
was not a man to let slip an opportunity of laughing at
what was regarded as a certain pretentiousness. In The
Moral Essays it is the high play at the club that rouses
the poet's ire and points his pen with the venom which
ran to its tip so easily. Speaking of The Dunciad reminds
me that one of those who fell under Pope's lash was Old-
mixon, and Oldmixon is one of the writers who mentions
"White's," for he tells in his Life of Arthur Mayntvaring
how they retired to the little garden behind the house,
in 1710, to discuss the question of the authorship of The
Examiner.

In the correspondence of the period — that of Swift and
Walpole, Selwyn and his friends — the allusions to White's
are so numerous that a chapter might easily be filled with
extracts. The diaries of the time are hardly less pro-
ductive. Most of these contain information about gaming
losses, references to that remarkable betting-book which
Mr Bourke has reprinted in his second volume of the
club's annals, and criticisms on the ways (often wonderful
and fearful) of the members.

"Had I whole counties, I to White's would go,
And set land, woods, and rivers at a throw,"

exclaims Bramston's Man of Taste, and this might well be

134

WHITE'S

taken as the motto of a chapter on gambling at the club.
The hazard table was as crowded there as it was at
Brooks 's ; men lost and won fortunes at a sitting ; many
of the most interesting letters in the Selwyn papers are
sad records of the vast losses incurred by young Lord
Carlisle in what he termed "the temple of Content."1
From the days of Fox and the politicians to that of
Brummell and the dandies was one long sequence of high
play and losses and gains, appalling even to our own age,
accustomed to talk and think in millions. When Walpole
and Selwyn and Gilly Williams, in the Gothic recesses
of Strawberry Hill, composed theiryfamous coat-of-arms
for the club, thejeu d'esprit might well have been regarded
as a serious emblem of the place — as serious as the gaming
was considered by men who were not only leaders of social
life, but were paramount in political circles.2 The wagers,
with which the members occupied apparently the scanty
leisure snatched from the card tables, were of the most
diverse and often of the most extraordinary character.
The probable longevity of a famous man ; the possible
matrimonial alliance of a beautiful woman ; the period at
which a lady of fashion was likely to present her husband
with an heir ; the chance of one man outliving another,
or of some third party surviving both ; the probability
of military successes, or of a well-known man subscribing
to a young lady's benefit ; possibilities of engagements,

1 Letter to Selwyn, 24th January 1768.

2 It is thus described : " Vert (for card table) between two
parolis proper on a chevron table ; (for hazard table) two rouleaus
in saltire between two dice proper in a canton sable ; a white ball
(for election) argent. Supporters : an old knave of Clubs on the
dexter, a young knave on the sinister, side, both accoutred proper.
Crest : issuing out of an Earl's coronet ; (Lord Darlington), an arm
shaking a dice box, all proper. Motto (alluding to the crest) :
Cogit amor mimmi. The arms encircled by a claret bottle ticket
by way of order."

135

ST JAMES'S STREET

elopements, marriages, deaths, jostle wagers on grave
political or military and naval crises ; from a change in
the Ministry to a change in the fashion of a frill — nothing
seems to have been too important or too trivial to give
the opportunity for members to try to win, or risk losing,
money.

How many men gave up to hazard what was meant for
mankind can be estimated by even a slight glance through
the list of White's members. Anyone acquainted, even
superficially, with the social and political history of the
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, may take it as
a fact that practically all the protagonists were at one
time or another members of White's. Page after page
might be filled with their illustrious or notorious names.
The range is tremendous — from Walpole and Bath to
Pitt and Fox; from Wellington and Castlereagh to
Melbourne and Palmerston ; all the great political leaders
— the Portlands, the Bedfords, the Devonshires — are in-
cluded; Horace Walpole and his set — Selwyn and Gilly
Williams, and Coventry, and "Old Q." — to Brummell
and his — the Prince of Wales and Sheridan and the rest ;
Heidegger the impresario and Bubb Dodington the
sycophant; Colley Gibber the actor and Lord Clive
the great proconsul ; Alvanley the wit ; Brettingham the
architect of other people's houses, and Addington the
founder of his own ; Sefton the gourmet, and Lord
Chesterfield the glass of fashion; Luttrell, noted for his
retorts, and Congreve, famous for his rockets. Here is but
a handful, taken at random, as a sample, so to speak, of
that crowd of illustrious ones whose feet have trod, and
whose voices have echoed in, the rooms of White's club.
There is hardly a spot in St James's Street which is not
consecrated by some memory ; here memory on memory
is accumulated in inexhaustible profusion.

The stories and anecdotes told of the club and its

136

WHITE'S

members are hardly less bewildering in their number and
variety. Walpole tells many of his diverting narratives
as having had their origin here ; Selwyn's correspondents
add their quota. These tales have become hackneyed
by much quotation, and to give further currency to them
would be in the nature of padding. The reviewer, who
would be the first to deprecate the act, would also be the
first to fill his review with the anecdotes. But he must find
other means of judging this work than by the exploitation
of such samples, for I utterly refuse to dish them up again.

One or two circumstances connected with White's must,
however, be added to the above short account of it.
In the first place, it has been on various occasions con-
nected with some notable festivities. In 1789 its members
gave a great ball at The Pantheon to celebrate the recovery
of George III. ; and in 1814 a still more elaborate fete \
to the Allied Sovereigns at Burlington House, which is
said to have cost just on £10,000 ; the bill for the dinner
to the Duke of Wellington, in the club itself, at the same
time, ran to nearly £2500. These are among the more
memorable entertainments given by White's.

Again, although its members numbered among them
so many illustrious people, there have been a few rather
notable exceptions. Prince Louis Napoleon (afterwards
Napoleon III.), although so intimately associated at one
time with English society, was never a member ; neither
was Count D'Orsay, whose profile pictures of so many
members find a place in Mr Bourke's book ; nor was the
great Lord Lytton. But the strangest omission is surely
that of Disraeli, the shield and buckler of the party chiefly
identified with White's, whose name does not appear in
that comprehensive list, and whose strange rather mystical
visage never gazed from the Heavenly Bow.1

1 See LuttrelTs Advice to Julia, 1820, p. 117. In a note the fact
is mentioned that the bow window had then recently been enlarged.

137

VI
THE CLUBS— continued

THE COCOA-TREE CLUB

IN the reign of Queen Anne one of the many chocolate-
houses which were then established in London was
called The Cocoa-Tree, and was opened on the west side
of St James's Street. Like most of its competitors it was
political, and the side it took is illustrated by Macky's1
remark that, " A Whig will no more go to The Cocoa-Tree
or Ozinda's than a Tory will be seen at the coffee-house
of St James's." On his own showing, Addison was not
so restrictive in his haunts, and in No. 1 of The Spectator,
remarks that his face was as well known at The Cocoa-Tree
as it was at The Grecian or the St James's coffee-house.
Whether or not The Cocoa-Tree was, as a chocolate-house,
solely patronised by Tories is a question ; but it is certainly
the case that when it was transformed into a club it became
almost, if not quite, exclusively the headquarters of the
Jacobites. Its metamorphosis took place during the
early half of the eighteenth century — 1746 having been
given as its approximate date. An anecdote recorded by
Walpole in a letter to George Montagu, dated 24th June
of this year, relates that "The Duke (of Cumberland)
has given Brigadier Mordaunt the Pretender's coach, on
condition he rode up to London in it." "That I will,
sir," said he, " and drive till it stops of its own accord at
The Cocoa-Tree." This further illustrates the political
complexion of the club.

1 Journey through England, 1724.
138

THE COCOA-TREE CLUB

Among the many illustrious frequenters of The Cocoa-
Tree tavern was Swift, who seems to have made it a rule
to go there directly he arrived in England ; at least this
assumption may, I think, be drawn from the following
passage in a letter addressed to him by Prior, also a regular
habitue, in 1717 : — " I have been made to believe that we
may see your reverend person this summer in England.
If so, I shall be glad to meet you at any place ; but when
you come to London do not go to The Cocoa-Tree, but
come immediately to Duke Street,1 where you shall find
a bed, a book, and a candle." Two other frequenters of
the tavern were Dr (afterwards Sir Richard) Garth, the
physician-poet, and Nicholas Rowe, the dramatist, and
an anecdote has survived concerning these two at what
was a veritable wits' tavern.

Dr Garth was on one occasion sitting in the coffee-room,
talking to two "persons of quality," when Rowe, who was
as attentive to the great as he was inattentive to his dress,
entered. Sitting down in a box opposite that occupied
by the Doctor and his friends, he began to try to catch his
brother poet's eye, as the saying is. Not being successful,
he at length asked the waiter to desire for him the loan
of Garth's snuff-box, a very handsome one, and the gift
of a royal person. Taking a pinch from it he returned it,
but a little later asked for it again — the object, of course,
being to attract attention, and to show the others present
that he was also acquainted with its owner. Garth, who
knew his foible and saw through the manoeuvre, took a
pencil and wrote on the lid the »two Greek characters
</> and p — "Fie! Rowe!" The mortified poet took the
hint, and soon after retired in dudgeon.

There is another well-known story connected with this

club. One of the waiters, named Samuel Spring, having

to write to the Prince of Wales (afterwards George IV.),

1 Afterwards Delahay Street, Westminster.

139

ST JAMES'S STREET

began his epistle thus : " Sam, the waiter at The
Cocoa-Tree, presents his compliments to the Prince of
Wales, etc. " The next day the Prince called at the club
and said to Sam : " Sam, this may be very well between
you and me, but it will not do with the Norfolks and
Arundels."

The importance of The Cocoa-Tree as a chocolate-house
is indicated by the fact that Defoe mentions it first in a
list of such haunts where, in 1703, the members of the
beau monde were wont to assemble in the morning to
drink their favourite beverages and exchange the news.

After its conversion into a club it seems to have fully
sustained its earlier fashionable and political reputation,
and when Lord Bute came into power, in 1761, it was then
generally regarded as the "Ministerial Club." One of
its members was no less a person than Gibbon, and an
entry in his diary for 1762 contains this allusion to the
place :

' * I dined at The Cocoa-Tree with Holt. We went thence
to the play, and when it was over returned to The Cocoa-
Tree. That respectable body, of which I have the honour
of being a member, affords every evening a sight truly
English — twenty or thirty perhaps of the finest men in
the kingdom, in point of fashion and fortune, supping
at little tables covered with a napkin, in the middle of
a coffee-house, upon a bit of cold meat and a sandwich,
and drinking a glass of punch. At present we are full
of King's Counsellors and lords of the bed-chamber, who,
having jumped into the Ministry, make a very singular
medley 'of their old principles and languages with their
modern ones."

It can well be imagined at such a time when bribery
was rampant, and men were bought and sold with a
venality recalling Sir Robert Walpole's famous phrase,
that the clubs and coffee-houses were the centres of this

140

THE COCOA-TREE CLUB

kind of traffic, and that The Cocoa-Tree, from its fashionable
and political character, was one of the hotbeds of this form
of marketing. In the Chatham correspondence a thinly
veiled allusion to it can be detected in the following
passage: — "The Cocoa-Tree have thus capacitated Her
Royal Highness (the Princess-Dowager of Wales) to be
Regent : it is well they have not given us a king, if
they have not ; for many think Lord Bute is King. "

After a time high play was a feature of The Cocoa-Tree,
as it was of so many of the eighteenth- and early nineteenth-
century clubs. That this was a legacy from their earlier
form as coffee-houses is proved by the remark of Roger
North that : " The use of coffee-houses seems much im-
proved by a new invention called chocolate-houses, for
the benefit of rooks and cullies of quality, where gaming
is added to all the rest ; as if the devil had erected a new
university, and those were the colleges of its professors,
as well as his school of discipline. "

In the pages of Walpole and other contemporary writers
are various references to the high play that took place at
The Cocoa-Tree. The following anecdote, given in a
letter from Walpole to Mann, and dated 8th February
1780, is well known, but will bear repeating : —

" Within this week there has been a cast at hazard at
The Cocoa-Tree, the difference of which amounted to one
hundred and fourscore thousand pounds. Mr O'Birne,
an Irish gamester, had won one hundred thousand
pounds of Mr Harvey of Chigwell just started into an
estate by his elder brother's death. O'Birne said : ' You
can never pay me.' 'I can,' said the youth, 'my estate
will sell for the debt.' 'No,' said O., 'I will win ten
thousand — you shall throw for the odd ninety.' They
did, and Harvey won." Ten years earlier Walpole
records how "Lord Stavordale, not one and twenty,
lost (at The Cocoa-Tree) eleven thousand last Tuesday,

141

ST JAMES'S STREET

but recovered it by one great hand at hazard. He swore
a great oath : ' Now, if I had been playing deep, I might
have won millions. ' '

In those days Selwyn was a constant habitue of the club,
and here he uttered not a few of those apt retorts with
which he was able to confound his adversaries, and also
to show that there was a shrewd and able mind beneath
the insouciant manner of a man of ton. Another fre-
quenter was the Duke of Norfolk, the "jockey," familiar
to readers of Creevey and other contemporary diarists ; and
it was at The Cocoa-tree, in 1783, that he remarked that it
had been his intention to commemorate the tercentenary
of his dukedom by inviting to a feast all the descendants
of the first duke, but that he found that nearly six
thousand persons claimed that honour, and that he felt
sure more existed, and so gave up his design. Here, too,
it was that Dunning and Dr Brocklesby were one evening
discussing the superfluities of life, when Selwyn silenced
the argument by its application ad hominem thus :
"Very true, gentlemen; I am myself an example of the
justice of your reanlrks, for I have lived nearly all my
life without wanting either a lawyer or a physician."

When, in 1803, Sheridan resisted the claims of the Prince
of Wales to be nominated to a high military command it
was supposed that the Prince's enmity would have been
of considerable duration. Fox's astonishment may there-
fore well be imagined when he heard that the two were
dining and "getting drunk tete-d-tete " at the very moment
when he was writing his letter to the Heir-Apparent on the
subject. The scene of the dinner was The Cocoa-Tree, as
is stated by Russell in his Memorials of Fox.1

One of the club's most illustrious later members was
Byron, and among the references to it in his letters I give
the following as a sample of the manners and customs of a

1 Quoted in Jesse's George III., vol. Hi., p. 334.
142

BOODLE'S

hundred years ago. Addressed to Moore and dated 9th
April 1814 the letter contains this passage :

"I have also been drinking, and on one occasion, with
three other friends of The Cocoa-Tree, from six till four,
yea, five in the matin. We clareted and champagned till
two, then supped, and finished with a kind of Regency
punch, composed of Madeira, brandy and green tea, no
real water being admitted therein. There was a night
for you ! without once quitting the table, except to am-
bulate home, which I did alone, and in utter contempt
of a hackney coach and my own vis, both of which were
deemed necessary for our conveyance."

The head waiter at The Cocoa-Tree was Robert Mac-
raith (or Mackreth), who was a persona grata with the
members and was invariably called Bob. He prospered
exceedingly, and afterwards, through marriage with
Arthur's only child, became, as we have seen, connected
with the future of White's.

One must not forget that it was at The Cocoa-Tree that
Harry Esmond cracked his bottle with Mr St John, as he
told the Dowager Lady Castlewood on one occasion.1

The next club in point of date is :

BOODLE'S

Its well-known Adam front, the most interesting archi-
tectural object in St James's Street, is situated at No. 28.
It was formed in 1762, and was originally known as the
"Savoir Vivre," but later, like White's and Brooks 's,
took the name of its founder. The present club-house
was built by John Crunden in 1765, and Robert Adam
designed it. Between 1821 and 1824, however, alterations,

1 In December 1919 a portion of The Cocoa-Tree Club, together
with stables and garages abutting on Blue Ball Yard, was offered
by auction.

including the addition of a reading-room, were made
to the building, under the^tlirection of John Papworth,
the architect.1

During the early part of its existence Boodle's was
notable for the elaborate nature of its entertainments, and
Gibbon, who was one of its illustrious members, mentions
a masquerade given by its members in 1774 which cost no
less than two thousand guineas. The Heroic Epistle to
Sir William Chambers, published in the previous year,
also contains some lines bearing on the subject, and notes
how:

"... Some John his dull invention racks
To rival Boodle's dinners or Almack's."

Under its earlier name the club is also mentioned in the
lampoon addressed to the Duke of Queensberry, when
that old rake was supposed to be on the point of marrying
Lady Henrietta Stanhope:

"Consult the equestrian bard,wise Chiron Beever,

Or Dr Heber's learned Sybil leaves,
And they, true members of the Savoir Vivre,
Will tell the wondrous things that love receives."

The date of the letter to which the above is appended
as a footnote in Jesse's Selwyn and his Contemporaries, is
1780. Just ten years earlier an interesting passage in one
of Mrs Harris's letters to her son, the Earl of Malmesbury,
gives us another glimpse of the club, and incidentally goes
to show that its name of Savoir Vivre was probably given
it in addition to that of Boodle's, as we here find the club
referred to so soon after its formation under the latter
title.

1 Timbs says that Holland designed the club-house, but this
is obviously incorrect. Holland may, conceivably, have been
employed at some time to alter it.

144

BOODLE'S

" 12th May 1770. A new assembly or meeting is set up
at Boodle's, called Lloyd's Coffee-room ; Miss Lloyd, whom
you have seen with Lady Pembroke, being the sole in-
ventor. They meet every morning, either to play cards,
chat, or do whatever else they please. An ordinary is
provided for as many as choose to dine, and a supper to
be constantly on the table by eleven at night ; after supper
they play loo. ... I think there are twenty-six sub-
scribers, others are to be chosen by ballot ; my intelli-
gence is that the Duchess of Bedford and Lord March
have been blackballed ; this I cannot account for."

Boodle's was regarded as essentially the country gentle-
man's club at a time when that section of society wielded
no little political power, and there was a saying current
that " Every Sir John belongs to Boodle's, and that when
a waiter comes into the room and says to some aged
student of The Morning Herald, ' Sir John, your servant
has come,' every head is mechanically thrown up in
answer to the address." It would seem, too, that Shrop-
shire is a county which has provided it with a particularly
large number of its members. But it has had many who
cannot boast of being Salopians — Charles James Fox and
Gibbon and Wilberforoe, inter olios. Sir Frank Standish
was also a member, and has been immortalised by Gillray
(who lived next door to the club-house, at No. 29) in his
caricature entitled A Standing Dish at Boodle's.

For many years the proprietor was Mr Gaynor, an
amiable, large-hearted, open-handed man, to whom not a
few members were indebted for financial assistance. He
always kept a large amount of cash in his safe, and at his
death is said to have been owed no less than £10,000,
which, however, by a clause in his will, was not to be de-
manded from the borrowers. Mr Gaynor used to preside
personally over the election of candidates, and apparently
anyone whom he approved got in, regardless of blackballs.

K 145

ST JAMES'S STREET

In a word, he seems to have ruled his society with an
autocratic but withal just and discriminating sway ; and
when the mysterious " By order of the Managers " occa-
sionally appeared beneath some rule on the notice-board,
"the custom of the house existing from time immemorial,"
was implicitly bowed down to by those who would have
been hard put to it to say who the managers actually were,
or by what rules their powers existed. In this respect
Boodle's was sui generis. Once, however, defection took
place when, because of a determination on Mr Gaynor's
part to change an old-standing custom, the late Duke of
Beaufort and other influential members of the old school
resigned in a body.

After Mr Gaynor's death his sister succeeded him in the
proprietorship. She died in 1896, and a crisis thereupon
arose in the club's history. However, by the united
exertions of certain of its members it was reconstituted on
more modern lines, and bids fair to have a future existence
comparable with its lengthy successful career in the past.
At one time hunting and turf disputes were largely settled
here, but Tattersall's has taken its place in such arbitra-
tions. But it still remains the club of M.F.H.'s, and the
memory of such a prominent one as George Lane Fox is as
green here as is that of the easy-going Charles James Fox l
or the dignified Mr Gibbon.

BROOKS 's

The history of Brooks 's is the political history of the
country, from one point of view, during the latter half of
the eighteenth century onwards, or until the essentially
party clubs in Pall Mall to some extent took over the
burden. A volume might be written on the club as a
centre of Whiggism and Liberalism. In such a history
1 There used to be a portrait of Fox here, but it has disappeared.

146

BROOKS'S

the great names of Fox and Sheridan would stand out
prominently, even among the crowd of illustrious states-
men who have belonged to Brooks 's, and whose political
activities have been so closely identified with the club as
to place it in the position of a handmaid to one side of the
House of Commons. It is because the annals of Brooks's
are so interwoven with those of the country during the
period indicated that it enters into the history of our
land more intimately than does any other similar society.
Sir George Trevelyan does not overstate the fact when he
calls it "the most famous political club that will ever have
existed in England "* ; and although its origin, like that of
most of the earlier clubs, was not political (as we can see by
the collocation, as members, of such men as the Duke of
Grafton and the Duke of Richmond, Lord Weymouth and
the Duke of Portland), it speedily became the headquarters
of Liberal opinion. But it must not be supposed that
this made any difference to its character as a gaming
place. On the contrary, the politician, jaded with parlia-
mentary labours, came here to be equally jaded by the ex-
citement of gambling ; and it may with truth be asserted
that (to take a notable instance) what Fox gave to the
club by his personality and his genius he lost there in the
feverish exaltations of the faro table. That great man,
whose very failings were on the stupendous scale of his
intellect, may be said (so to parody a well-known line) to
have given to Brooks's what was meant for mankind.
The story of his vast losses (his gains at hazard were as
inconsiderable as they might have been great had he kept
to whist or any other game where brains tell) is well
known ; the diaries and reminiscences of the period teem
with allusions to, and full descriptions of, them. In an age
of gaming he stood out prominently, just as in an age of
notable men he was facile princeps. Had his passions been

1 The Early History of Charles James Fox.
147

as well under control as were (to instance his greatest
compeer) those of Pitt, he might have even surpassed
that extraordinary man, and would assuredly have come
to be regarded as the greatest political genius produced
by that teeming century. As it was, he may be compared,
mutatis mutandis, with Coleridge, for genius stultified by
self-indulgence, and for almost divine gifts thrown away
through a fatal lack of concentrative power.

Not less than this could here be said of the most
illustrious member of the club which is known as Brooks 's ;
but it is the history of that institution rather than that of
its members with which these pages are chiefly concerned,
and we must turn to that aspect of the subject.

A substantial quarto volume has been compiled, dealing
with the annals of Brooks's l ; its frontispiece is, appro-
priately, an admirable portrait in crayon, after William
Russell, of Fox, the original of which is in the possession of
the club. The bulk of the book is occupied by a catalogue
raisonnee (so to term it) of its members from the founda-
tion till the year 1900. Some full and valuable appendices
give further information with regard to the more notable
members, in a racy way, which will well repay perusal.
These appendices range from a short account of the great
ball commemorating the recovery of George III. in 1789,
to Lord Granville's famous " appeal " in 1887, when
political discord, consequent on Gladstone's Home Rule
Bill, threatened to endanger even the sacred existence of
Brooks's. Prefixed to the list of members is an Introduc-
tion, in which are incorporated such data as go to make
up the history of the club. From this and other sources
I have liberally helped myself.

We must go beyond St James's Street for the origin of

Brooks's, for in 1764 a club, kept by Macall (whose

anagram Almack is better known), and founded by twenty-

1 Memorials of Brooks's, 1907.

148

BROOKS'S

seven noblemen and gentlemen, was established in Pall
Mall, on the site of what was later the British Institution.
Among its rules were the following : — that (No. 21) no
gaming should take place in the eating-room, except toss-
ing up for reckonings, on penalty of paying the whole bill
of the members present ; that (No. 22) dinner should be
served exactly at half-past four ; that (No. 26) Almack was
not to be permitted to sell any wine in bottles approved
of by members out of the house * ; that (No. 30) any
member becoming a candidate for any other club (White's
only excepted) should have his name struck off the books
of Brooks 's. And there were other rules which seem
speedily to have been disregarded ; for instance, that
members gambling should have certain stated sums in
cash by them for that purpose. As a matter of fact,
credit soon became the order of the day, and when Brooks
took over the management his resources were frequently
called upon to supply members with ready money. Some
idea of the extent of the play here may be gained from the
following note against the name of Mr Thynne in the club
books: — "Mr Thynne, having won only 12,000 guineas
during the last two months, retired in disgust, 21st March
1772." This was evidently written by one of his victims,
who has added : "And that he may never return is the
ardent wish of members."

During its earlier days the club was known as Almack 's,2
and soon became notable for its high play, many references
to which are scattered through the letters of Walpole and
those who kept up such a frequent correspondence with
Selwyn. Apparently the first extant reference to the club
occurs in a letter from Lord March to Selwyn, dated July

1 Almack was a wine merchant, which accounts for this rule.

2 Almack, in the year following the establishment of the club,
opened his better remembered Assembly Rooms in King Street,
which had such a long and prosperous career.

149

ST JAMES'S STREET

1765, wherein the writer, sympathising with Selwyn over
some monetary losses, remarks: "Almack's or White's
will bring all back again."

When exactly Brooks took over the management of the
club is not quite certain, but his name first appears in a
letter from Storer to Selwyn, dated 6th August 1774.
Notwithstanding this, however, the name of Almack
seems to have still been used till 1778, in which year the
club was moved to No. 60 St James's Street, and took up
its quarters in the house built, at Brooks 's expense, from
designs by Henry Holland, the architect. Here it was
opened in October 1778, and Thomas Townshend (after-
wards Viscount Sydney), writing to Selwyn in that month,
remarks : " As a proof of our increasing opulence, I need
only show the Opera House . . . and Brooks 's new house,
fitted up with great magnificence, which is to be opened
in a week or ten days."

Apparently the play there was so fast and furious that
it threatened to break up the club. Hare, writing to
Selwyn on 8th May 1779, says : "We are all beggars at
Brooks 's, and he threatens to leave the house, as it yields
him no profit," which gives point to TiekelFs lines :

"... liberal Brookes, whose speculative skill
Is hasty credit and a distant bill ;
Who, nursed in clubs, disdains a vulgar trade,
Exults to trust, and blushes to be paid."

A man with such a temperament, and more sober records
confirm poetical exaggeration, must, indeed, have found it
difficult to run an expensive club under these conditions —
conditions proved over and over again by the correspond-
ence of the period, when nearly every high-born letter-
writer complains of his impecuniosity owing to gambling,
or has some similar tale to tell of his friends. Brooks 's
threat to resign in 1779 was not an idle one, for after

150

BROOKS'S

eight years of management he did give it up, and died in
poverty in 1782, leaving a name as well known as any in
the social and political annals of the eighteenth century.
There was a tradition, based on his impoverished circum-
stances, but on nothing else, that in order to evade the
rapacity of his creditors his body was buried in a small
vault beneath the pavement of St James's Street, close to
the club of which he had for a time been the " patron."

The drawing which Rowlandson made of the card-room
atBrooks's (now in the club's possession), and the illustra-
tion of it by R. Cruikshank in The. English Spy, give a
good idea of a scene that was so familiar to most of the
fashionable gamesters of the period. But it was not only
at the faro table or at any of the card games played then
that members of Brooks 's lost their money. The memorial
of another form of gambling is extant in the Betting Book,
a volume on which Sir George Trevelyan has written
eloquently, and which forms a companion to the similar
record kept among the archives of " White's." The bets
are of all kinds, for all sorts of sums, and on every conceiv-
able subject. " Fifty guineas that Thurlow gets a Fellow-
ship of the Exchequer for his son ; fifty guineas that
Mademoiselle Heinel does not dance at the Opera House
next winter ; fifty guineas that two thousand people were
at the Pantheon last evening ; fifty guineas that Lord
Ilchester gives his first vote in Opposition, and hits eight
out of his first ten pheasants ; five guineas down, to
receive a hundred if the Duke of Queensberry dies before
half-an-hour after five in the afternoon of the twenty-
seventh of June 1773."1 Such are some of the wagers
which are to be found, together with others less easily
transcribable, in the betting book of Brooks 's.

After the death of Brooks, one Griffin succeeded as
manager. His name remains till 1815, although some

1 Early History oj Fox.

ST JAMES'S STREET

twelve years after his advent, notably in 1795, a kind
of supervisory board was formed, the first members so
elected being the Earl of Upper Ossory, Lord Romney,
Lord Robert Spencer, Sir Thomas Miller, and Mr Crawle.
The acting manager or "master " of the club seems to
have henceforth worked in conjunction with this board
of control, which was changed yearly, each retiring
member naming a successor. After 1795 we find the
management denominated as "Griffin & Co." At
some time subsequent to 1815 one Wheelwright suc-
ceeded to Griffin's place. Wheelwright took Halse into
partnership in 1824, and retired seven years later.
Halse was then joined by Henry Banderet. When the
former retired in 1846 he received £500 from the
club for his interest in the unexpired lease of the house,
and fifty guineas for the surrender of his lodging there.
Banderet remained on, and it is said that the well-known
remark that being in the club was " like dining hi a Duke's
house with the Duke lying dead upstairs " was largely due
to his having established in Brooks's that air of solemn
yet comfortable refinement which distinguishes it. It
is related of Banderet that during the thirty-four years of
his connection with the club he had never been absent
except on one occasion, when he was induced to start on
a holiday, but found himself so miserable away from the
place that he was back there long before the day was over.
At his death the management was undertaken by a com-
mittee of the club and has ever since been so carried on. l

Of the actual club-house, I have already mentioned the
erection and a contemporary reference to its internal
magnificence, as a result of which it was found necessary

1 These details, and others affecting the internal economy of the
club, will be found in the excellent and highly valuable volume
to which I have already referred in the text — The Memorials of
Brooks's.

152

BROOKS'S

to double the subscription. In 1804 the club was within
an ace of leaving St James's Street. It appears that one
of the waiters, George Redder, with a view to being taken
into partnership by Griffin, purchased the lease of the
building and refused to give it up "for any pecuniary
consideration whatever, but solely on his being admitted
into a share of the house." So effectively did he appear
to wield the whip-hand that Griffin was, perforce, obliged
to look out for other premises, and had actually opened
negotiations for the Duke of Leeds' residence, No. 21
St James's Square, and afterwards for a house in Bond
Street, when Redder, having been dismissed, carne to his
senses and gave in. In 1815 Griffin & Co. largely
reconstructed the premises in St James's Street, and an
additional guinea was added to the members' subscrip-
tions in consequence. Further improvements were made
in 1823 and again in 1846, and in 1857 the club-house
was enlarged iby the addition to it of No. 2 Park
Place, which was purchased from the executors of a
Mr Bidwell for £5600 odd. It appears that the library
was transferred to the new premises, but that otherwise
they were occupied as a private house by Banderet till his
death in 1880. A.S a matter of fact, Banderet had himself
held the lease of the original club-house from 1854, the
landlord being Mr Haldimand ; but in that year the latter
sold it to the club for £25,000. In 1889-1890 a great im-
provement to the club was effected by the regular incor-
poration of No. 2 Park Place in it. By this a much more
commodious library was gained, and various other drastic
alterations were possible, making for the enhanced con-
venience of the members.

Brooks's is unique, 1 believe, in containing a club within
a club, for here "The Fox Club " was instituted in memory
of the great man with whom the present institution is so
indissolubly connected. In Brooks's "great room" its

153

ST JAMES'S STREET

meetings are held, and although no speeches are allowed,
certain toasts, four in number, the first of them being,
" In the Memory of Charles James Fox," are given at the
annual dinners, their key-note being Fox and Reform.

In a club like Brooks 's it may well be imagined that
there is no lack of anecdotes connected with its members.
Practically all these ana have, however, been repeated so
often, and are so well known by this time, that a recapitula-
tion of them, other than in the most allusive form, would
be supererogatory. Here it was that Wilberforce, fresh
to London life, came and played faro, to be warned by a
zealous friend, who, in his turn, was expressively bidden
by Selwyn, " who kept the bank, not to interrupt Mr
Wilberforce, who could not be better employed " ; here
George, Prince of Wales, enunciated a certain theory of
Dr Darwin's, only to have it killed by the apt ridicule of
Sheridan ; here Sherry retorted in an extempore couplet,
on Whitbread, the brewer's denunciation of the malt
tax ; Sir Philip Francis, well sustaining the character of
"Brutus " given him by Rogers, here once made the
retort to Roger Wilbraham apropos of Government
rewards, which is famous ; it was at B rooks 's that Fox
and Fitzpatrick played cards on one occasion from ten at
night to six in the morning, with a waiter standing by to
tell the sleepy gamesters whose deal it was ; Fox, too, it
was who, having lost his last shilling, here, at faro, was
found the next morning by Topham Beauclerk, not in
despair, but calmly reading Herodotus. Foxiana is, of
course, the backbone of the Brooks 's anecdotes — Fox,
comfortably settling himself to sleep, with his head resting
on the card table where he had lost a fortune ; Fox
twitting Adams about Government powder, which led to a
famous duel, when, at the harmless close of the encounter,
the wit remarked: "Adams, you'd have killed me if it
had not been Government powder " ; Fox, once and once

134

BROOKS'S

only, rising from the gambling table a winner of a large
sum, most of which he paid away to his creditors and lost
the rest again almost immediately. But besides Fox we
have tales of other celebrities : Sheridan and the story of his
forced election, and how his opponents, Lord Bessborough
and George Selwyn, were hoaxed into absence from the
ballot, and his candidature thus made secure, the Prince
of Wales being a principal in the ruse. "Fighting"
Fitzgerald and the even more exciting incident of his
election — forced on members terrorised by the Irish bully
and fire-eater ; Alderman Combe administering a well-
deserved retort to that impudent puppy Brummell ;
the Duke of Devonshire coming to the club every night
to partake of a supper of broiled blade-bone of mutton ;
Poodle Byng autocratically rebuking a new member for
lighting a cigar under the balcony1 of the club-house;
Raikes, long a member, but for the first time entering the
club in the wake of Brougham for the purpose of insulting
hmi — a proceeding which nearly resulted in a duel ; and,
to make somewhere an end, the Duke of York, with certain
boon companions, in a drunken frolic, breaking into the
club-house at three o'clock in the morning, and destroying
as much in the way of furniture, etc., as they could, before
peace was established.

Among the members' names will be seen that of Mr
Benjamin Bathurst, who was elected in May 1808. He
connects Brooks 's with one of the strangest and most
mysterious incidents of the time, for that gentleman,
bound on a mission to Vienna in 1809, set out and was
never heard of again. Whether he fell a victim to
Napoleon's malignity, as has been surmised, has never
been satisfactorily established, but a skeleton found in the
wood of Quitznow (a place on his return route), so recently
as 1910 was supposed to be that of the ill-fated envoy.
1 This no longer exists, of course.
155

ST JAMES'S STREET

Among other illustrious members of Brooks 's may be
mentioned Gibbon, elected in 1777 ; Burke, Hume,
Horace Walpole, Garrick, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Lord
Campbell, who considered it, and rightly, a high honour to
belong to the club ; Palmerston, and one of its few Radical
members, Daniel O 'Connell. The first Lord Crewe, who died
in 1829, and had been connected with the club for sixty-
five years, was the last survivor of the original members.

ARTHUR'S

The year after the establishment of Brooks 's saw the
formation of Arthur's. The fact that in its earliest days
White's was often referred to as "Arthur's," on account
of its having been run by Mr Arthur,1 has led to the
erroneous supposition that there was a connecting link
between the two. This does not appear to have been the
case. When the first White's was burnt down in 1733,
Arthur removed elsewhere, as is indicated by an adver-
tisement in The Daily Post, for 3rd May of that year.
Subsequently a new club was formed, with its premises
occupying the site of the original White's (or Arthur's)
Chocolate House, and apparently took the name of
Arthur's, from this circumstance and from this only.

After the fire at White's the house was rebuilt and was
occupied by the club, till 1755, when it went to its present
position on the other side of the street. Some ten years
after, "Arthur's " was established in its old premises. It
appears that Arthur's club-house remained in its original
form till 1825, when the present structure was erected
from the designs of Mr Hopper. No doubt some of the
earlier building was incorporated in the new work, and a
ground-floor room at the back is even yet, traditionally,
known as the old gaming-room of White's, although its
decorations have been modernised. The present club
1 See account of White's.
156

THE THATCHED HOUSE

preserves its old restrictions as to smoking in the library
and morning-room, but as it possesses a fine lounge-hall,
where tobacco is not banned, this disability is not of
importance.

Arthur's has always been something of a country
gentleman's club, and preserves many characteristics
of those earlier days when, according to Mr Ralph
Nevill,1 " sheep points and bullocks on the rubber " was
a not uncommon form of betting.

For the rest, Arthur's is much in the position of a
country whose annals are not tempestuous or particularly
notable, and, as such, may, according to the old saying,
be accounted happy. At any rate, its classic facade
is not by any means the least attractive feature in St
James's Street.

THE THATCHED HOUSE

If we relied solely on The Thatched House as a club
for interesting data, we should be hard put to it to fill
a page with facts concerning it. For it has existed in
this capacity only from 1865, and thus presents the
anomaly of one of the younger clubs with a name that
carries us back to the days when St James's Street was yet,
if not exactly in the fields, at least characterised by those
rural attributes which are to-day so alien to it. The club,
however, takes its name from, and stands on the later
site of, The Thatched House Tavern. This tavern had
two periods of existence, so to speak : the first, from its
establishment till 1843, when it occupied the site on
which stands to-day the Conservative Club (founded in
1840,. at 74 St James's Street) ; and the second, from 1845
to 1865, when it was settled at No. 86. I should mention
that on the closing of the tavern in the latter year the
Civil Service Club took over its premises, which very soon
1 London Clubs.
157

ST JAMES'S STREET

after became the home of The Thatched House Club, with
the Thatched House Chambers built adjoining.

The Thatched House Tavern, from which the club
takes its name, occupied a considerable area of irregular
outline, with a good frontage to St James's Street,
and an alley, known as Thatched House Court,
ran by the side of it and opened into Park Place. In
Chawner's plan of St James's, dated 1834, the old
Thatched House is shown lying back from the road-
way, on ground which, with certain other tenements
to its north, is now occupied by the Conservative
Club. In this plan a smaller house next to it, on its
south side, is marked as the new Thatched House, and it
is on the site of the latter that the club of this name now
stands. The original Thatched House Tavern, so far as
its site is concerned, is thus the predecessor rather of the
Conservative Club than of The Thatched House Club.

The old tavern obviously took its rustic name from
the character of its roof. When it was first erected is a
question, but it seems pretty clear that it must have dated
from the period when the Duchess of Cleveland sold a
portion of the grounds of Cleveland House for building
purposes. It may, indeed, have been a summer-house
belonging to the mansion enlarged and adapted to the
purposes of a tavern, and hence its rustic character pre-
served. In any case, Cleveland House (then Berkshire
House) was erected about 1630, and the portion of its
grounds on which The Thatched House Tavern subse-
quently stood was sold by the Duchess during the latter
part of Charles II. 's reign. Roughly, then, the establish-
ment of the tavern may be dated from about this period.
One of its more illustrious frequenters was the ubiquitous
Dick Steele, and we may be quite certain that Addison
was another, but Swift was, according to his Journal to
Stella, a still more assiduous visitor here. On 27th

158

December we find him entertaining the " Society " to
which he belonged at dinner here, when "brother
Bathurst sent for wine, the house affording none." On
the previous 20th of December he had written : "I
dined, you know, with our Society, and that odious
Secretary would make me President next week ; so I
must entertain them this day se'nnight at The Thatched
House Tavern. " The dinner cost him no less than seven
guineas, which he paid on the following 2nd January
" to the fellow at the tavern where I treated the Society."
Five days later he tells Stella that he had that morning
been " to give the Duke of Ormond notice of the honour
done him to make him one of our Society, and to invite
him on Thursday next to The Thatched House." The
10th was the day fixed, but the Duke could not be present,
having received a command to dine with Prince Eugene.
In Swift's Birthday Verses on Mr Ford, the tavern is
indirectly referred to in the couplet :

"The Deanery House may well be match'd,
Under correction, with the Thatch'd."

Although in London Past and Present it is stated that
the tavern stood from 1711 on the site of the Conservative
Club, yet it is, as I have before surmised, of earlier origin,
for Charles Gildon, who wrote The Complete Art of Poetry
and other forgotten pieces, places a scene in his Com-
parison between the Two Stages, published in 1702, at The
Thatched House Tavern.1

Apart from its daily use as a tavern, or ale-house, as
Lord Thurlow once denominated it, The Thatched House 2
was one of those places where various societies held their

1 Curiously enough, this play is referred to in London Past and
Present.

* In his rooms over The Thatched House the late Mr Salting
assembled his wonderful collections of pictures and objets d'art.

159

meetings. The "Society " referred to by Swift was one
of the earliest of these. A still better remembered club
was " The Society of Dilettanti," formed in 1734, of which
Walpole not very fairly wrote that it was a club for which
the nominal qualification was having been in Italy, and
the real one, being drunk. The history of this fraternity
has been written. Its splendid publications are well
known. The aid it afforded to classic art is reflected in
buildings, public and domestic, throughout the country.
But nothing has, perhaps, better kept its fame alive than
the fine series of portraits of its members which, by a rule
of the club, those members were bound to have painted
for presentation to the club. Three of them were by
Sir Joshua, but the greater number were executed by
Knapton, the official painter to the body ; at a later date
Lawrence and West contributed a few. These works of
art, perpetuating the features of the many illustrious
members, and reminding one of the earlier effort in this
direction of the Kit-Kat Club, were hung round the large
room at The Thatched House, where the club had its
gatherings, until the demolition of the premises, when it,
with its artistic property, was removed to Willis's Rooms
in King Street, and later to the Grafton Gallery.

The ceiling of the room used by the Dilettanti was
painted to represent the sky, and was crossed by gold
cords interlacing each other, and from their knots were
hung three large glass chandeliers. A drawing by T. H.
Shepherd shows the room decorated by its portraits and
two fine carved marble mantelpieces.1

Prominent among other fraternities 2 which used to

1 Timbs' Clubs of London.

2 Timbs, on the authority of Admiral W. H. Smyth, the historian
of the Royal Society Club, gives the following list of clubs which
held their meetings at The Thatched House in 1860 : — The Institute
of Archives, the Catch Club, the Johnson Club, the Dilettanti
Society, the Farmers', the Geographical, the Geological, the

160

THE THATCHED HOUSE

meet at The Thatched House, was the famous Literary
Club, now represented by The Club, the records of the
latter being almost as fully represented in Grant Duff's
Diary as are those of the former in the pages of Boswell.

The Literary Club, after meeting at various places —
The Turk's Head in Gerrard Street and Prince's in
Sackville Street among them — moved to Parsloe's in
St James's Street, at the beginning of 1792, and to The
Thatched House just seven years later. It was, too, at
this house that, in June 1815, the Yacht Club was formed,
afterwards to be known far and wide as the Royal Yacht
Squadron; while, in 1791, the Architects' Club was in-
itiated here, Dance, Holland, Wyatt, Gandon, etc., being
original members.1

The Thatched House Tavern disappeared, as we have
seen, in 1865, a portion of it having been taken down as
early as 1844, when a stone-fronted edifice, called the
Thatched House Chambers, arose on its. site. It was next
door to The Thatched House that Rowland, of Macassar
oil fame, had his shop. He was a French emigre, and
came to London with the Bourbons on the outbreak of
the Revolution, returning to France in 1814. He was the
most fashionable coiffeur of the day, and his charge for
cutting hair alone was five shillings.

On the site of the new Thatched House Tavern the

Linnean and the Literary Societies, the Navy Club, the Philo-
sophers' Club, the Royal College of Physicians' Club, the Political
Economy Club, the Royal Academy Club, the Royal Astronomical
Society, the Royal Institution Club, the Royal London Yacht
Club, the Royal Naval Club, the Royal Society Club, the St Albans
Medical Club, the St Bartholomew's Contemporaries, the Star Club,
the Statistical Club, the Sussex Club, and the Union Society of
St James's — a goodly list I

By the by, it is not de rigueur to speak of the society as a club,
and members doing so submit to a fine.

1 See Life of Gandon.

ST JAMES'S STREET

Civil Service Club was formed in 1865. Eight years later
it was rechristened The Thatched House Club, as we know
it. Adjoining it on the south side, and occupying a part
of No. 87 St James's Street, was at one time the Egerton
Club, which is, however, no longer in existence, and, so far
as I cam learn, never had any history.

THE CONSERVATIVE CLUB

As we have seen, the Conservative club-house stands on
ground a portion of which was formerly occupied by The
Thatched House Club. It has thus a certain historic
interest, although the present club dates only from 1840,
in which year it was formed as a kind of overflow club to
The Carlton. The club-house was designed jointly by
Basevi and Sydney Smirke, and was erected during 1843-
1845, being formally opened on 19th February of the latter
year. Apart from the interest attaching to this spot,
from the fact of The Thatched House having stood there,
it has a further one, for in an adjoining house, on the site
of the present club, then occupied by Elmsley the book-
seller, Gibbon was accustomed to lodge, and here died in
1794 l ; while in another, in earlier days forming one of a
range of shops with low elevations, Rowland, famous for
his Macassar oil, had his emporium,2 as I have before
stated.

The Conservative Club buildings cost just over £73,000,
of which nearly £3000 was expended on encaustic decora-
tions to the interior, executed by Sang. Timbs, in his

1 This house stood at the south corner of Little St James's Street
in those days.

"His advertisements speak of des vertues incomparables de
I'Huile de Macassar, which gives point to Byron's lines in Don
Juan :

" In virtues nothing earthly could surpass her,
Save thine incomparable oil, '- Macassar.'- «
162

ROYAL SOCIETIES CLUB

notes on the place, gives a description of its architectural
details, a form of writing so dull and unmeaning to the
general reader that I dispense with it here, confining
myself to the statement that the exterior is a combination
of the Corinthian and Roman-Doric styles. A fact re-
corded by the writer, however, which is of some interest,
is that Sir Robert Peel is said only once to have entered
the club of which so many chiefs of the Conservative Party
have been and are members, the solitary occasion being
when he was shown round to view the then recently
completed internal decorations.

THE NEW UNIVERSITY CLUB

In point of date this club comes next on our list, for
it was established in 1863, and is housed in that vast-
windowed, rather ecclesiastical, building which Alfred
Waterhouse designed for it. In Tallis's Views it will
be seen that the site of this club, No. 57, with the adjoin-
ing house (No. 58), was then occupied by Symons's Hotel,
the two buildings being thrown into one.

Beyond the facts that The New University is the only
'Varsity club in St James's Street, that its frontage stands
out in a prominent way, and that it is obviously a flourish-
ing concern, there does not appear to be any particular
reason (unless, of course, you be a member or a guest) for
loitering at it.

The same may be said for the

ROYAL SOCIETIES CLUB

which is the most modern in St James's Street, having
been formed so recently as 1894. As the last-named club
represents the 'Varsities, so does this one learned societies
of various kinds, which fact differentiates it from other

163

ST JAMES'S STREET

clubs in our street. Beyond this its interest may be said
to be self-centred.

THE DEVONSHIRE CLUB

was established in 1875, and should thus have taken
precedence of the Royal Societies, but there is a motive
for placing it last, as will be seen. The club-house was
the work of C. J. Phipps — at least, that architect re-
modelled it out of the earlier building standing on this site,
notably Crockford's, certain relics of which are still pre-
served in the later institution in the shape of the original
ballot-box and some chairs once used in the gaming-rooms
of the ex-fishmonger. As its name denotes, The Devon-
shire is, or was, political. Its special shade of opinion
is likewise thus indicated, or rather was before Mr
Gladstone's Home Rule Bill tore up political distinc-
tions by the roots and removed the once recognised and
unmistakable landmarks.

For us the chief interest of The Devonshire centres in
the fact that it is, architecturally, a reconstructed but, of
course, very different Crockford's. Its exterior, indeed,
is not greatly altered, as may be seen by extant pictures
of the place as it was in George IV. 's time. It is for this
reason that what has to be said about Crockford's properly
comes in this place.

CROCKFORD'S

The name of Crockford's is as frequent in Georgian social
annals as is that of Almack's. In common with the latter,
it has its place in contemporary literature, and the novel
entitled Almack's can be matched by the poem called
Crockford House.

Crockford, who began life as a fish salesman near Temple
Bar, having made some good speculations in gambling,

164

CROCKFORD'S

opened a hazard bank in Piccadilly, and apparently had
another, after the closing of the Piccadilly establishment,
in Bolton Row, according to the lines in Crockford House :

" Crockford, voting Bolton Row
On a sudden, vastly low,
And that gentlemen should meet
Only in St James's Street,
Broke his quarters up, and here
Entered on a fresh career."

In a word, he acquired three houses in St James's
Street — Nos. 50-52 — and in 1827 l erected the splendid
building designed for him by the Brothers Wyatt, the
decorations of which alone are said to have cost nearly
£100,000. The gambling-room (now the dining-room of
The Devonshire) was the feature of what, on its opening,
was described as "The New Pandemonium " by a genera-
tion that loved long words. Nothing was forgotten by
this past master in the art of running a gaming-house,
which could tempt men of rank and fashion to patronise
the new premises, from the most elaborate and comfort-
able surroundings to the cookery of Ude 2 and Francatelli ;

1 He had probably purchased a house earlier, as I find by the
Rate Books for 1813 that he was then rated on a rental of
£160 in St James's Street. This house was, doubtless, No. 53,
next door (south) to Crockford's, where the proprietor lived and
died.

2 Disraeli, writing to his sister in February 1839, says : " There
has been a row at Crockford's and Ude dismissed. He told the
committee he was worth £10,000 a year. Their new man is
quite a failure. So I think the great artist may yet return
from Elba. He told Wombwell that, in spite of his £10,000 a year,
he was miserable in retirement ; that he sat all day with his hands
before him doing nothing. Wombwell suggested the exercise of
his art for the gratification of his own appetite. ' Bah ! ' he said,
5 1 have not been into my kitchen once. I hate the sight of my
kitchen ; I dine on roast mutton dressed by a cook-maid.' He
shed tears, and said he had been only twice in St James's Street

165

ST JAMES'S STREET

and if some, like Fox, were attracted by the desire of
excitement, others, like Sefton, were drawn hither by
gastronomic considerations. I suppose there was hardly
a well-known man of the day who had not been a more
or less frequent visitor to Crockford's gilded saloons, and
the amount of money lost and gained there must have
been prodigious.

Stories concerning the place are as the sands of the sea ;
the contemporary letters and diaries are full of them.
Hazard was the game played here, and Gronow is prob-
ably not far wrong when he supposes that Crockford won
the whole of the ready money of the then existing genera-
tion. The captain's description of the place and its
habitues must be known to most people, and it seems
that in some of the smaller rooms the play was more
hazardous even than in the larger gaming saloon. ' ' Who, "
he writes, " that ever entered that dangerous little room
can ever forget the large green table with the croupiers,
Page, Barking and Bacon, with their suave manners,
sleek appearance, stiff, white neckcloths, and the almost
miraculous quickness and dexterity with which they
swept away the money of the unfortunate punters ? "
What tune " the old fishmonger himself, seated snug and
sly at his desk in the corner of the room, watchful as the
dragon that guarded the golden apples of the Hesperides,
would only give credit to sure and approved signatures."
It was, indeed, a case of the spider and the flies — a golden
spider in a gilded web.

In Gronow 's pages you may see two pictures, one

since his retirement (which was in September), and that he made it
a rule never to walk on the same side as the club-house. ' Ah, I
love that club, though they are ingrats. Do not be offended, Mr
Wombwell, if I do not take off my hat when we meet ; but I have
made a vow I will never take off my hat to a member of the com-
mittee.2 £ I shall always take my hat off to you, Mr Ude,' was the
rejoinder."

166

CROCKFORD'S

entitled Votaries of the Goddess of CItance — St James's,
the other, Play at Crockford's Club, 1843. Count Dor say
throwing a Main, which illustrate the accompanying de-
scription. The latter is dated a year before Crockford's
death, after which event the premises were sold by
auction.1

Crockford had retired in 1840, and the event seems to
have spread the same kind of consternation among the
members as might the closing of a bank. "One great
resignation has occurred," writes Disraeli on 12th June
1840. " Last night Crockford sent in a letter announcing
his retirement. 'Tis a thunderbolt, and nothing else is
talked of; 'tis the greatest shock to domestic credit
since Howard and Gibbs. Some members are twelve
years in arrear of subscriptions. One man owes £700
to the coffee-room ; all must now be booked up. The
consternation is general."

Two or three other clubs tried their chances there
subsequently, among them the Military, Naval and
County Service Club, opened in 1849 but closed three
years later ; then the Wellington Restaurant opened its
doors there. "Alas, poor Crocky's," wails Gronow,
" shorn of its former glory has become a sort of refuge for
the destitute — a cheap dining-house " ; and later it was
an auction mart. When the Devonshire Club started
here the place may be said to have thrown off that incubus
which was the curse of an earlier generation and to have
proved that men may meet without necessarily wanting
to fleece each other or be fleeced.

i Thirty-two years of the lease were unexpired, and this was dis-
posed of for £2900. It must be added, however, that the ground-
rent stood at £1400 per annum. The excellent monograph on the
club written by Mr H. T. Waddy, and published hi 1919, records
all, or practically all, that is known of Crockford's and The
Devonshire.

167

ST JAMES'S STREET

At a house next door to Crockford's, on the north side,1
the Guards' Club was first established in 1813. In
Tallis's Views it may be seen, a narrow, tall building,
not very dissimilar from the "Guards' " late premises in
Pall Mall. To the north of the latter was the corner
house, then occupied by Hoby, the well-known boot-
maker. On 9th November 1827 the Guards' club-house
suddenly collapsed. This was caused, it is said, by the
excavations made during the erection of Crockford's,
which weakened the foundations of the adjoining house.
The circumstance is alluded to in the following opening
lines of Crockford House : —

"Oft as up St James's Hill I
Push along for Piccadilly,
There what Cockney crowds I meet,
Gazing, wondering in the street
At the chasm in front of White's,
Strangest, fearfullest of sights ! "

A note to this passage states that " the chasm is here
described as it appeared in the beginning of last November,
just before the fall of the Guards' club-house." Another
set of verses begins by asking :

" What can these workmen be about ?
Do, Crockford, let the secret out,
Why thus your houses fall ?
Quoth he : ' Since folks are not in town,
I find it better to pull down
Than have no pull at all.' " 2

Another club, established on this side of St James's
Street, was Weltzie's. It is said to have been formed in

1 That on the south side was for long, from 1873, the head-
quarters of the Junior St James's Club.

a The satirical poem entitled St James's was addressed to
Mr Crockford, and contains much amusing, though often very
allusive, information about his establishment and its habituds.
It was published in 1827, and was dedicated to Tom Moore.

168

WELTZIE'S

opposition toBrooks's, because Tarleton and Jack Payne
had been blackballed at the latter, and their friend, the
Prince of Wales, withdrew his membership. It occupied
No. 63 St James's Street (afterwards Fenton's Hotel), and
was established there certainly before 1779. Nine years
later William Grenville, writing to the Marquis of Buck-
ingham, remarks : ' ' The Prince of Wales has taken this
year very much to play, and has gone so far as to win or
lose £2000 or £3000 in a night. He is now, together with
the Duke of York, forming a new club at Weltzie's, and
this will probably be the scene of some of the highest
gaming which has been seen in town. All the young men
are to belong to it." l

Weltzie was the Prince of Wales 's house steward, clerk
of the kitchen, factotum, go-between, what you will, and
no doubt he took the St James's Street premises on the
advice, perhaps the order, of his Royal Highness, who may
almost be regarded as the real proprietor, although it is not
probable that he put any money into the concern, except
what he lost at play.

It would seem that good living was as much a char-
acteristic of Weltzie's as high play, and in this respect it
resembled Watier's in Piccadilly, also started by one of
the Prince of Wales 's dependants;

When, in May 1779, the Knights of the Bath gave their
famous ball at the Opera House, the supper was provided
"by Mr Weltzie of St James's Street, whose spirit," so
runs a contemporary account, "and skill on this occasion,
we fear, will far exceed his profit."

I imagine that Weltzie originally started a kind of
restaurant at No. 63, and that later the club formed by
the Prince was opened in the already established premises.

Much the same sort of place was Parsloe's in St James's

1 Memoirs of the Court and Cabinets of George III., by the Duke
of Buckingham, vol. i., p. 363.

169

ST JAMES'S STREET

Street, where the Literary Club met in 1792, although
this establishment was merely a convivial one and did not
pander to the gambling propensities of the period.

As we have seen, the clubs either were held in the
chocolate or coffee houses of St James's Street or were, as
in the case of White's, direct outcomes of these establish-
ments.

One of the earlier ones, however, is not known except
in its simpler capacity, for Ozinda's, as it was called, from
its proprietor's name, at the bottom of the thoroughfare,
" next door to the palace," seems to have been a chocolate-
house and nothing more. It had Jacobite tendencies,
and Swift records eating there in March 1712. In 1715
Guards were seen entering the place, and Mr Ozinda was,
with Sir Richard Vivyan and Captain Forde, who had
been found on the premises, brought out and carried away
captive. What subsequently became of the house or its
proprietor is not recorded.

We have more information about another once well-
known coffee-house in St James's Street. This was

THE ST JAMES'S COFFEE-HOUSE

which stood three doors from the south-west corner of the
thoroughfare, and thus was next door but one to the old
Thatched House. Adjoining it, on the south side, was
Gaunt 's coffee-house, whither White's Club moved tem-
porarily after the fire in 1733. Timbs states, in error,
that the " St James's " was the "last house but one on the
south-west corner " of the street. The Rate Books, how-
ever, show that Elliot,1 who kept it, was three doors from

1 He, or rather his wife, has been commemorated by Gay :
" How vain are mortal man's endeavours,
Said at Dame Elliot's, Master Travers."-

The Quidnuncks.

170

THE ST JAMES'S COFFEE-HOUSE

the corner, while Morriss, who ran G aunt's coffee-house,
was next to him on the south, adjoining the corner
house, once occupied by Lord Shelburne.

Just as Ozinda's and The Cocoa-Tree were pronounced
Tory strongholds, so The St James's was the recognised
headquarters of the Whigs.

The Taller and The Spectator contain frequent references
to it. For instance, a kind of synopsis of the intentions of
the editors in No. 1 of the former tells us that "Foreign
and Domestic News you will have from St James's Coffee-
house " ; and in No. 403 of The Spectator (12th June 1712)
Addison, writing apropos a report of the French king's
death, tells us how he went the round of the coffee and
chocolate houses to obtain information regarding the
rumour : " That I might begin as near the Fountain head as
possible," he writes, "I first of all called in at St James's
(coffee-house), where I found the whole outward room in
a Buzz of Politics.1 The Speculations were but very
indifferent towards the Door, but grew finer as you
advanced to the upper end of the Room, and were so very
much improved by a knot of Theorists who sate in the
inner Room, within the steam of the Coffee Pot, that I
there heard the whole Spanish Monarchy disposed of,
and all the Line of Bourbons provided for in less than a
Quarter of an Hour." This passage gives us some idea
of the plan of the house, its outer and inner rooms, the
position of its coffee machine, etc. ; while an advertisement
(also from The Spectator, No. 24) informs us of the names
of some of its personnel, and runs as follows : —

"To prevent all Mistakes that may happen among
gentlemen of the other End of the Town, who come but

1 In No. i of The Spectator Addison says : "I appear on Sunday
nights at the St James's Coffee-house, and sometimes join the
Committee of Politics in the inner room as one who comes there to
hear and improve."

171

ST JAMES'S STREET

once a week to St James's Coffee-house, either by miscall-
ing the Servants, or requiring such things from them as
are not properly within their respective Provinces : this
is to give Notice, that Kidney, keeper of the Book-Debts
of the outlying Customers, and Observer of those who go
off without paying, having resigned that Employment, is
succeeded by John Sowton, to whose Place of Enterer of
Messages and first Coffee Grinder William Bird is pro-
moted ; and Samuel Burdock comes as Shoe Cleaner in
the Room of the said Bird."

When exactly the St James's coffee-house was first
started is not quite clear, but that it was in existence in
1709 is proved by the fact that in that year Michael Cole
first exhibited his globular oil-lamp here, an invention
which "caught on" pretty quickly apparently, for an
observant traveller notes, about this period, that "most
of the streets are wonderfully well lighted, for in front of
each house hangs a lantern or large globe of glass, inside
of which is placed a lamp which burns all night:"

A notable frequenter of the coffee-house was Swift, who,
in his Journal to Stella, makes various allusions to it,
chiefly in reference to letters being left there for him :
"I will pay for their letters at the St James's Coffee-
house that I may have them the sooner," he writes at a
time when correspondence for which he was not saanxious
was to be sent to him under care of Richard Steele, Esq.,
at the Cockpit in Westminster; On one occasion he passes
part of the afternoon with Sir Matthew Dudley and Will:
Frankland there. Sometimes he dates his letters from the
St James's. In October 1710, however, he remarks that he
is "not fond at all of St James's Coffee-house, as I used
to be "; and adds, " I hope it will mend in winter." It
was evidently dull just then, as its members were "all
out of Town at Elections, or not come from their Country
houses." Later, Swift asks that those who direct packets

172

THE ST JAMES'S COFFEE-HOUSE

to him should do so under cover to Mr Addison at the
St James's coffee-house. It appears that when letters
arrived there they were fixed in a little glass frame in the
bar, whither Swift, on one occasion, speaks of looking
for one of M. D:'s (Stella's) letters in her "little hand-
writing."

It was at The St James's that the Town Eclogues were
read on their first appearance, and in the "Advertise-
ment " to the work the fact is thus recorded by the writer :
"Upon reading them over at St James's Coffee-House they
were attributed by the general voice to the production of
a Lady of Quality. When I produced them at Button's
the poetical jury there brought in a different verdict, and
the foreman strenuously insisted that Mr Gay was the
man." As in the famous discussion about the colour of
the chameleon, both attributions were right and wrong,
for it is now generally agreed that the work was a joint
production, "The Drawing Room " being by Lady Mary
Wortley Montagu (the Lady of Quality), but, according
to Pope, who himself contributed "The Basset-Table,"
the rest was "almost wholly Gay's." l

Another and more notable circumstance connects the
St James's coffee-house with the annals of literature, for
it was here that occurred the incident which caused Gold-
smith to write his Retaliation. It was customary for a
number of literary men to meet together here, among
them being Johnson, Garrick, Doctor Bernard, Edmund
and Richard Burke, Caleb Whitefoord, Thomson,
Reynolds, Cumberland, etc. Cumberland gives the origin
of these meetings in a dinner at Sir Joshua's, where
Edmund Burke suggested that they should assemble
occasionally at the St James's coffee-house. To these

1 See Spence's A necdotes. The book was published by J. Roberts,
" near the Oxford Anns in Warwick Lane,!! on 26th March 1716.
See Underbill's Poetical Works of John Gay. 2 vols. 1893.

173

ST JAMES'S STREET

meetings Goldsmith invariably came late, and on one
occasion some of the members produced mock epitaphs
on "the late Dr Goldsmith," the only one that has
survived being Garrick's :

"Here lies poet Goldsmith, for shortness called Noll ;
He wrote like an angel, and talked like poor Poll."

There has been some difference of opinion as to the exact
circumstances and the mood in which Goldsmith took
the friendly banter, but, in any case, the Retaliation was
his retort to what some of his friends produced in the St
James's coffee-house.1 Two years after this harmless
combat took place a different sort of encounter occurred
at the coffee-house, and Lord Carlisle, writing to Selwyn
in 1776, describes how "The Baron de Lingsing ran a
French officer through the body on Thursday for laughing
at the St James's Coffee-house. " "I find," adds Carlisle,
" he did not pretend that he himself was laughed at, but
at that moment he chose that the world should be grave. "

Among other prominent members may be mentioned
St John, during the early years of the house's existence,
and Dr Warton at a later period. It is recorded of the
latter that often he would be found at breakfast there
surrounded by officers of the Guards (who were also
frequenters of the place) listening with interest and
attention to his conversation.

At a still later date we get a glimpse of another literary
celebrity at the " St James's," for, as a young man, Isaac
Disraeli was accustomed to come up to London from his
father's house at Enfield, in order to read the newspapers
here.

The coffee-house did not exist for very many years after
this, for in 1806 it was closed, its premises demolished,

1 See, for a full account of the circumstances, Forster's Life of
Goldsmith, 1871, vol. ii., p. 404 et seq.

174

THE ST JAMES'S COFFEE-HOUSE

and a large block of buildings erected on its site. These,
in turn, were pulled down a few years ago, and a still more
elaborate structure raised in their place.

As I have stated, Gaunt's coffee-house was next door
to the " St James's," on the south. There seems to be
practically no reference to it in contemporary literature,
and little appears to be known of it, except the fact that
White's for a time occupied it, as we have seen. Its site
was, in the earlier years of the last century, covered by
the large double house, run by one English as an hotel.
This building was eventually pulled down and the new
erection referred to above set up in its place.

VII

IT would probably be far easier to make a list of the
famous men and women of the last two centuries who
have not in one way or another been connected with St
James's Street and its tributaries, than to give a complete
record of those who have. When we remember that the
whole of the social life and much of the political during the
eighteenth century was focused round this thoroughfare;
when we call to mind the associations of the two famous
clubs which held, and to some extent still hold, sway
here ; when we recollect that the coffee-houses were then
the resort of the great ones in all walks of life, and also
recall the names of the illustrious people who actually
lived in the thoroughfare or the byways out of it, it will
not be difficult to realise how much St James's Street
stood for during that period which, beginning with the
reign of Anne, closed with the saddened, clouded days of
George III.

During the last century the case is very parallel. The
rise and extraordinary power wielded by the female
oligarchy which directed the destinies of Almack's, the
ever-increasing prosperity of White's and Brooks's, the
fashion which made St James's Street the social thor-
oughfare par excellence of the Regency, all combined in
sustaining the reputation of the street and in crowding it
with the men and women whose names live in the political
and fashionable annals of the period. Since those days,
although certain marked changes have taken place here,
the street has retained that character which it has borne

176

FAMOUS MEN AND WOMEN

for so long. Illustrious statesmen may no longer live
in it (although in some of its by-streets they are still to be
found, or were a few years since), but they may yet be
seen perambulating its pavements. The clubs may no
longer be quite the political centres they once were (such
activity being now removed to Pall Mall), but politicians
still enter their portals and look out from their windows.
If no one to-day emulates the equestrian feats of Lord
Petersham or the Jehu-like proclivities of " Old Q " or
Lord Alvanley, the motor and the taxi bear to and fro
men every whit as notable and as citizens far more useful.
There are two reasons why St James's Street should
always bear a unique character among London's in-
numerable thoroughfares : the presence at its lower end
of St James's Palace, and the fact that London's chief
western artery beats at its upper extremity. For if the
Palace is no longer the residence of the Sovereign, it yet
signifies the seat of the imperial dignity, official documents
still bearing the time-honoured information that they
emanate from the Court of St James's; and if Piccadilly
has been rivalled in size by other thoroughfares, it yet
remains essentially the principal source whence the life-
blood of the west is pumped (so to phrase it) into those
lesser arteries on both sides of it, of which the chief is
the St James's Street of a thousand memories.

In the foregoing pages we have come across a variety
of illustrious people who have either resided here or who
have been connected with the thoroughfare in other ways
— statesmen and politicians, poets and painters, literary
men and men of leisure, roue's of the days of the Stuarts
and rakes of the days of the Guelphs. The Pulteneys
and the Baldwins, who represent the earliest inhabitants,
have given way to the stately form of Edmund Waller
and the aristocratic mien of my Lord Berkshire ; the
beautiful Countess of Carlisle and the rather illusive Lady
M 177

ST JAMES'S STREET

Pickering have passed away in favour of the notorious
Duchess of Cleveland and the super-proud Countess of
Northumberland ; Sir Allan Apsley and Sir John Dun-
combe, the scientific Lord Brouncker and the Jacobite
Sir John Fenwick, have retired into the shades and have
been replaced by Dr Swift and the Duke of Kingston.
The beautiful Molly Lepell and Mr Maclean, highwayman,
Mr Addison and Dick Steele are ghosts in whose footsteps
tread other phantoms — Lord Nelson and Charles James
Fox and the sedate Mr Wilberforce. Byron looks out of
a window close by, a window from which Gillray falls
headlong; "Old Q " drives where the Duke of Ormond
drove on a memorable occasion. Down the steps of
White's feet follow feet in endless succession — Sefton and
Brummell and Raikes hard on Gilly Williams and George
Selwyn and Horace Walpole — the chiefs of the Tory
aristocracy in an endless succession of illustrious names.
Brooks's disgorges a not less notable crowd, many of
whom, like Lord March and Selwyn, were also among
the members of White's. Mr Vernon, who founded the
Jockey Club, and the Duke of Grafton, whom Junius
attacked so virulently; Rodney, the great seaman, and
Augustus Hervey, also a sea-dog, who married Elizabeth
Chudleigh, afterwards Duchess of Kingston ; Lord Corn-
wallis, Charles James Fox and Peter Beckford ; Storer,
the correspondent of Selwyn, and Hare of the many
friends ; Lord Ligonier, perpetuated by Reynolds, and
Gibbon, who perpetuated the decadence of Rome. Gren-
ville and Pitt and Coke of Norfolk, and Sheridan and
Burke ; Lord Sandwich — the ' ' Jimmy Twitcher ' ' of the cari-
caturists— and Lord William Russell, who was murdered
by Courvoisier ; while the habitues of The Cocoa-Tree and
Boodle's, of the St James's coffee-house and Ozinda's
join the throng and contribute their quota to the crowd.
The heyday of St James's Street was the eighteenth

178

FAMOUS MEN AND WOMEN

century — that period which stands out, in picturesqueness,
from all other periods of English social life. Waller 1
may have strolled down the street often enough at an
earlier date, when he lived "next doore to the Sugar
Loafe." My Lord Clarendon must often have been seen
passing out of Berkshire House ; and the merry monarch
himself, no doubt, loitered up from the Palace, with
Rochester or Sedley, and perhaps Mr Evelyn, in his train,
and probably Samuel Pepys on the outskirts, noting all
things, including the vanity and outrageous behaviour
of Lady Castlemaine.

The Duke of Ormond was waylaid by Blood at the top
of the street on that famous occasion when hardly could
all his Grace's attendants save him from abduction in
broad daylight and in the very sight of the royal Palace.
But it is the eighteenth century that leaves the chief
reflected glamour on St James's Street ; the eighteenth
century, ranging from the days of Addison and Steele and
Swift to those of Scott and Byron and Campbell ; but
chiefly the eighteenth century when Horace Walpole was
writing his letters, when Selwyn was uttering his good
things and Elizabeth Chudleigh was doing her uncon-
ventional ones. Indeed, it is to Walpole that we chiefly
look for data about the life of fashionable London in
those days ; and Walpole never disappoints us. About
St James's Street and its life and clubs he is full of
amusing and interesting details. Open his correspondence
almost at random, and you will find something bearing on

1 On one occasion Waller writes as follows to his wife : —

" The Duke of Buckingham with the Lady Sh (rewsbury ?)
came hither last night at this tyme and carried me to the usual
place to supper, from whence I returned home at four o'clock this
morning, having been earnestly entreated to supp with them
again to-night, but such howers can not be always kept, therefore
I shall eat my two eggs alone and go to bedd. "

179

ST JAMES'S STREET

the subject. For instance we have him, in 1745, writing
to George Montagu, and telling how "one Mrs Corny ns,
an elderly gentlewoman, has lately taken a house in St
James's Street," and how "some young gentlemen went
thither t'other night. ' Well, Mrs Comyns, I hope there
won't be the same disturbances here that were at your
other house in Air Street. ' ' Lord, Sir, I never had any
disturbances there ; mine was as quiet a house as any in
the neighbourhood, and a great deal of good company
came to me : it was only the ladies of quality that envied
me. ' ' Envied you ! why, your house was pulled down
about your ears ! ' 'Oh, dear, Sir ! Don't you know how
that happened ? ' ' No, pray, how ? ' ' My dear Sir,
it was Lady Caroline Fitzroy, who gave the mob two
guineas to demolish my house, because her ladyship
fancied I got women for Colonel Conway.' I beg you
will visit Mrs Comyns when you come to town ; she has
infinite humour. " 1

Again, it is Walpole who tells us of Maclean, the highway-
man, and his companion, Plunket, who had lodgings
respectively in St James's and Jermyn Streets, that
" their faces are as known about St James's as any gentle-
man's who lives in that quarter " ; as well as of the old
Countess of Northumberland, who lived on the site of
White's club-house, that "when she went out a footman,
bareheaded, walked on each side of her coach, and a
second coach with her women attended her." Here is
another and later vignette of a St James's Street vehicular
scene : " The Duke of Queensberry," writes Lord Carlisle
to Selwyn (1779), " has added a little chaise with ponies,
so that with his vis-d-vis, Kitty's coach and his riding
horses, St James's Street seems entirely to belong to him,
and he has an exclusive right to drive in it."

1 This, doubtless, refers to the " certain notorious house in
St James's Street " of which Besant speaks.

180

FAMOUS MEN AND WOMEN

A still later one is supplied by Moore l on the
occasion of his accompanying Byron on a visit to Tom
Campbell at Sydenham in 1811: "When we were on
the point of setting out from his lodging in St James's
Street, it being then about mid-day, he said to the
servant who was shutting the door of the vis-d-vis :
' Have you put in the pistols ? ' and was answered in the
affirmative."

Apropos of Byron's residence in St James's Street,
although his letters prove him to have lodged at No. 8
(where his huge medallion portrait may still be seen on
the face of the house) in 1809, and again from October
1811 to July 1812, I find one communication of his dated
from Reddish 's Hotel, in the street, on 23rd July 1811.
The name of another poet, Campbell, reminds me that he, _~
too, once lodged in St James's Street, in 1836, at York
Chambers, then No. 41. Although in some respects
Byron is the street's most famous ghost, the thoroughfare
seems far more closely identified with the shade of another
great man — Charles James Fox; for not only did he
live here, as well as in Arlington Street, for a time, but
the larger portion of his life must have been spent at the
hazard tables of the St James's Street clubs, with which
his name is so intimately identified. He lodged next door
to Brooks 's,2 and it was hither he returned from Italy
on 24th November 1788, after a journey of some eight
hundred miles performed in nine days, to be present at
the debates on the Regency Bill. Seven years earlier his
affairs had reached one of their periodical crises, and
Walpole relates how, as he came up St James's Street, he
saw "a cart and porters at Charles's door, coppers and

1 Life of Byron, vol. i., p. 404.

2 His rooms were on the first floor, and immediately above them
were apartments occupied by James Hare — " the Hare with many
friends."

181

ST JAMES'S STREET

old chests of drawers loading. In short, his success at faro
has awakened his host of creditors, but unless his bank
had swelled to the size of the Bank of England, it would
not have yielded a sop for each. Epsom, too, had been
unpropitious, and one creditor has actually seized and
carried off his goods, which did not seem worth removing.
As I returned, full of this scene, whom should I find
sauntering by my own door (in Arlington Street) but
Charles. He came up and talked to me at the coach-
window on the Marriage Bill with as much sang-froid as
if he knew nothing of what had happened. "

To Fox's lodgings here the Prince of Wales frequently
came, and oftener than not remained " drinking royally "
with his host, who, as soon as he rose, which was very late,
had a levee of his followers and of the members of the
gaming set at Brooks's. His outer room he styled his
Jerusalem chamber, because of the Jews who waited in it
to offer him pecuniary assistance, or to dun him for loans
already made. Fox was accustomed to borrow even
from the waiters at his clubs, and the very chairmen in St
James's Street were in the habit of importuning him for
the payment of their trifling charges.1

It was probably in Fox's house that Mrs Gunning and
her daughter lodged in 1791. "The Signora and her in-
fanta now, for privacy, are retired into St James's Street,
next door to Brooks's Club," writes Walpole to Miss
Berry. This lady was the wife of General John Gunning,
and her daughter, Elizabeth, was thus niece to the beauti-
ful Duchess of Argyll. In 1791 this daughter became
notorious in connection with her own and her mother's
attempts to prove that the Marquises of Lome and Bland-
ford had both made her offers of marriage. They denied
the truth of Miss Gunning's statement, and she remained

1 By the by, the last stand for sedan chairs was in St James's
Street, and down to 1821 six or seven could still be found there.

182

FAMOUS MEN AND WOMEN

single till 1803, when she became the wife of a Major
Plunkett.

Three years after this Gibbon died at his lodgings in
St James's Street. His rooms were at No. 76, then over
Elmsley's, the bookseller's, and on the site of what is now
part of the Conservative Club. According to Gibbon
himself, the lodging was "cheerful, convenient, some-
what dear, but not so much as a hotel ; a species of
habitation for which I have not conceived any great
affection."1

He wrote thus cheerfully, but death was not far from
him. Morison 3 tells us that his malady was dropsy, but
complicated with other disorders. After twice under-
going the operation of tapping in November 1793, he
went to visit Lord Sheffield, but rapidly became so much
worse that he determined to return to London in order
to be under the joint care of Clive and Baillie. He left
Sheffield Place on 7th January 1794. Six days later
another operation took place and gave him temporary
relief : " Next day he received some visitors, and thought
himself well enough to omit the opium draught which
for some time he had been used to take. In the course of
conversation he remarked that he thought himself a good
life for two, twelve, or perhaps twenty years. About six
he ate the wing of a chicken and drank three glasses of
Madeira. Though he had a bad night, on the morning of
the 15th he professed to feel plus adroit than he had been
for three months past. He wished to rise, and it was with
some difficulty his servants persuaded him to keep his
bed until the doctor called, who was expected at eleven.
At the time appointed the doctor came ; but Gibbon was
then visibly dying, and about a quarter before one he

1 Letter to Lord Sheffield, dated pth November 1793, from St
James's Street.
3 Lije of Gibbon.

183

ST JAMES'S STREET

ceased to breathe. He wanted just eighty-three days
more to have completed his fifty-seventh year."

Gibbon, it will be remembered, was a member of both
The Cocoa-Tree and Brooks 's, and in his journal will be
found references to these clubs. A curious memento,
connecting Fox and Gibbon with the latter, must be
among the treasures of some collector, for, when Fox's
belongings were sold, after his death, there was found the
first volume of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
presented by Gibbon to the statesman, who had written
on one of the blank leaves this pregnant note: "The
author, at Brooks 's, said there was no salvation for this
country until six heads of the principal persons in adminis-
tration were laid upon the table. Eleven days after, this
same gentleman accepted a place of lord of trade under
those very Ministers, and has acted with them ever since ! "

St James's Street, which sheltered Waller and Pope and
Byron ; where Maclean, the highwayman, lodged cheek by
jowl with the " quality " whom he robbed ; where Wolfe
once stayed and wrote to Pitt asking for employment in
1758 ; and where Gillray threw himself out of a window ;
where the clubs and coffee-houses took in and gave forth
half the intellect and aristocracy of the land ; where Dr
Johnson, requiring a pair of shoe-buckles, came to the
shop of Wirgman, here, to get them, as faithfully recorded
by Boswell — St James's Street is, notwithstanding its
famous habitues and its notable events, as much associated
with the name of Betty, the fruit woman, as with that of
any other person during the eighteenth century.

Readers of Walpole's Letters will not need to be told
who Betty was; those whose studies have not included
this source of information will probably like to know.
Her real name was Elizabeth Neale, but she was known
to everyone who was anyone as Betty, tout court. Her
shop was at No. 62, and here politicians and men and

184

FAMOUS MEN AND WOMEN

women of ton were accustomed to lounge. Betty not only
knew everything that was passing in the world of fashion
and politics, she was also well versed in the family history
of her patrons ; she had a pleasing manner, and is said to
have been full of anecdotes and stories, which she retailed
to her clientele.

Mason, in his Heroic Epistle to Sir William Chambers,
has immortalised her in the following lines, about which,
by the by, Walpole l tells us she was in raptures : —

" There, at one glance, the royal eye shall meet
Each varied beauty of St James's Street ;
Stout Talbot there shall ply with hackney chair,
And patriot Betty fix her fruit-shop there. "

Of Betty's origin nothing seems to be known, except
that she was born, in 1730, in St James's Street. She
was accustomed to say that she had slept out of the
thoroughfare only on two occasions: once when she
went to pay a visit in the country, and once when she went
to Windsor on the occasion of an Installation of Knights
of the Garter.

When Walpole visited Vauxhall in 1750 with Lady
Caroline Petersham and others, on the famous occasion
recorded in his Letters,2 Betty accompanied the party
with hampers of strawberries and cherries. In 1763 we
find Lord Holland telling Selwyn that he "sent Betty
a present by Lord Bateman, which she received very
graciously indeed"; and in the Selwyn correspondence
are frequent allusions to the lady.

Betty retired from business about 1783, and went to
live in a house in Park Place, in which she died on 30th
August 1797, at the age of sixty-seven. In an obituary
notice of her in The Gentleman's Magazine, the following

1 Letter to Mason, 2/th March 1773.

2 To Montagu, 23rd June 1750.

I85

ST JAMES'S STREET

summary of her attainments appears : — " She had the
first pre-eminence in her occupation, and might justly
be called the Queen of Applewomen. Her knowledge of
families and characters of the last and present age was
wonderful. She was a woman of pleasing manner and
conversation, and abounding with anecdote and entertain-
ment. Her company was ever sought for by the highest
of our men of rank and fortune. "

It was near Betty's shop that Thomas Wirgman had his
establishment, where he carried on business as a goldsmith
and jeweller, and where once at least (as I have mentioned)
the great Dr Johnson was a customer. Wirgman was as
much a character in his way as was Betty in hers. He
made a considerable fortune, but got rid of most of it in
developing his version of Kantesian philosophy. He had
paper specially made for his books, the same sheet consist-
ing of several different colours, and it is said that one book
of four hundred pages cost him no less than £2276.
Among his publications was a grammar of the five senses,
for the use of children, which, he declared, if generally used
in schools, would restore peace and harmony to the world,
with the result that virtue would everywhere replace
crime. There must have been more than a touch of
madness in a man who hoped, under any circumstances,
to bring about such a desideratum ; but it is pleasant to
think of honest Wirgman working out his Utopian theories
within sound of the gambling hells of St James's Street
and surrounded on all sides by the laxity and extravagance
of his essentially free-and-easy century.

To-day it is rather difficult to reconstruct the St
James's Street of history and legend from the changed
character and rebuilt outlines of the existing thoroughfare.
Thackeray1 says that, "after looking in The Rake's

1 Thackeray, by the by, was lodging at No. 88, in 1843-1844,
when engaged on Barry Lyndon, which he began and finished here.

186

FAMOUS MEN AND WOMEN

Progress at Hogarth's picture of St James's Palace-gate,
you may people the street, but little altered within these
hundred years, with the gilded carriages and thronging
chairmen that bore the courtiers, your ancestors, to Queen
Caroline's Drawing room more than a hundred years ago." 1
But Thackeray wrote when the thoroughfare had, as he
says, not materially altered; before the splendid stone offices
of banks and insurance offices arose in it ; before the motor
and the taxi made the chariot and the sedan seem as dead
as the dodo ; before many of the clubs that now exist
were thought of. One or two things may, however, even
now serve as the alembic to one's fancy, and may so
operate on the imagination as to cause us, for an inter-
space, to throw our minds back to the days when the
great Sir Robert and the masculine-minded Queen
Caroline ruled the kingdom between them; when the
swarthy visage of Fox and the thin form of Pitt might
have been seen in the street ; when Alvanley and
Petersham splashed its mud, or Brummell and the Regent
cut one another on its pavement; when D'Orsay's waist-
coats and Wellington's nose were familiar to its habitue's,
and the Victorian era, with its poke-bonnets and crinolines,
its peg-top trousers and high-lows, had replaced the hoops
and patches, the swords and wigs and silk stockings of an
earlier day. Of these things, the shop-front of Messrs
Lock, hatters, is one ; the little turning known as Pickering
Place is another ; but the chief is, of course, the Tudor
front of the Palace, which, altered as it has been, is yet
essentially the front that looked down on Charles and
Rochester and Sedley, on Queen Anne and her Augustan
age, on the Georges and their varied courts, on the young
Queen who was to give her name to a longer, a greater and
a more marvellous age than had any of her predecessors.
St James's Palace does not come within the scope of
1 English Humourists.
187

ST JAMES'S STREET

this book. Its history has been already adequately
written. Its name has for four centuries stood for the
pomp and circumstance of our sovereignty. If its stones
could speak they would hold us entranced. From the
days of the burly Tudor downwards the Court of St
James's has been represented by that picturesque pile of
brick-work. One or two sights specially connected with
St James's Street it could discourse on. It has seen
cannon placed on the eminence opposite, when Wyatt's
rebellion threatened Queen Manx's throne, and Lord
Clinton stood in what is now St James's Street, with his
troops ready to guard the royal residence. Agnes Strick-
land thus records the fact: "On the hill opposite the
Palace gateway was planted a battery of cannon, guarded
by a strong squadron of horse, headed by Lord Clinton.
This force extended from the spot where Crockford's club-
house now stands and Jermyn Street ... no building
occupied at that time the vicinity of the Palace excepting
a solitary conduit standing where the centre of St James's
Square is at present. The whole area before the gateway
was called St James's Fields."

From this attempt on the royal power let us turn to an
attempt on the liberty of a great noble. Surely St James's
Street, with all its memories, has hardly witnessed a
more incredible incident than that related by Carte, whose
version I transcribe verbatim.

"The Prince of Orange," he writes, "came this year
(1670) into England, and being invited, on 6th December,
to an entertainment in the city of London, his Grace (the
Duke of Ormond) attended him thither. As he was
returning homewards on a dark night, and going up St
James's Street, at the end of which, facing the Palace, stood
Clarendon House, where he then lived, he was attacked
by Blood and five of his accomplices. The Duke always
used to go attended with six footmen. . . . These six

188

footmen used to walk three on each side of the street
over against the coach ; but, by some contrivance or
other, they were all stopped and out of the way when the
Duke was taken out of his coach by Blood and his son,
and mounted on horseback behind one of the horsemen
in his company. The coachman drove on to Clarendon
House and told the porter that the Duke had been seized
by two men, who had carried him down Piccadilly. The
porter immediately ran that way, and Mr James Clarke,
chancing to be at that time in the court of the house,
followed with all possible haste, having first alarmed
the family, and ordered the servants to come after him as
fast as they could. Blood, it seems, either to gratify the
humour of his patron, who had set him upon this work, or
to glut his own revenge by putting his Grace to the same
ignominious death which his accomplices in the treason-
able design upon Dublin Castle had suffered, had taken a
strong fancy into his head to hang the Duke at Tyburn.
Nothing could have saved his Grace's life but the extrava-
gant imagination and passion of the villain, who, leaving
the Duke mounted and buckled to one of his comrades,
rode on before, and (as is said) actually tied a rope to the
gallows, and then rode back to see what was become of his
accomplices, whom he met riding off in a great hurry.
The horseman to whom the Duke was tied was a person
of great strength ; but, being embarrassed by his Grace's
struggling, could not advance as fast as he desired. He
was, however, got a good way beyond Berkeley (now
Devonshire) House, towards Knightsbridge, when the
Duke, having got his foot under the man's, unhorsed him,
and they both fell down together in the mud, where they
were struggling when the porter and Mr Clarke came up.
. . . The King, when he heard of this intended assassina-
tion of the Duke of Ormond, expressed a great resentment
on that occasion, and issued out a proclamation for the

189

ST JAMES'S STREET

discovery and apprehension of the miscreants concerned
in the attempt. V

After this, other St James's Street incidents seem
almost commonplace; the arrest of an ambassador for
debt is insignificant compared with the attempted murder
of a great noble, but such a sight has been witnessed here,
for Prince Metreof, the Russian envoy, after attending the
Queen's leve"e on 27th July 1707, and taking formal leave
of her on being recalled to his own country, was arrested
in St James's Street, on the writ of a Mr Morton, lace-
man of Covent Garden, and was carried off, with much
indignity, to a sponging-house.

If the attack on the Duke of Ormond cannot be exactly
paralleled, a not altogether dissimilar circumstance once
occurred in St James's Street to no less a person than the
younger Pitt some hundred and odd years later. Pitt
had been made Prime Minister in December 1783, on the
dismissal of the Coalition Government, and in the follow-
ing February the Corporation sent a deputation to him,
to his brother's house in Berkeley Square, in order to
bestow on him the Freedom of the City. After this
ceremony the whole party returned to the city, where
Pitt was engaged to dine at the Grocers' Hall. The
progress to and, later, from the city was one continual
triumph, but the Opposition party — "The Friends of the
People," as they styled themselves — were wrought to a
state of fury. It thus happened that when, late at night,
a crowd of artisans was dragging the coach in which sat
Pitt, Lord Chatham, and Lord Mahon, up St James's
Street, and the procession had arrived before the Whig
stronghold — B rooks 's club-house — the vehicle was sud-
denly attacked by a determined band of ruffians, including,
it is said, some members of the club itself, armed with
sticks and bludgeons. Some of the rioters, making their
way to the carriage, forced open the doors, and actually

190

z

Going to WHITES.

LORD ALVANLEY

After a drawing l>y Dighton

FAMOUS MEN AND WOMEN

aimed blows at the Prime Minister, which were with
difficulty warded off by his companions. The servants
were much mauled, the carriage demolished, and only
with difficulty could Pitt, Chatham, and Mahon reach
the shelter of White's :

" See the sad sequel of the Grocers' treat,
Behold him darting up St James's Street,
Pelted and scared by Brooks 's hellish sprites,
And vainly fluttering round the door of White's."1

Since those days St James's Street has seen many a
notable event, many a gorgeous pageant — proclamations
before the Palace gateway, Jubilee processions, royal
wedding festivities, the return of famous leaders from suc-
cessful campaigns, the departure of troops to uphold the
honour of the flag in distant lands. The thoroughfare is
linked up with the history of the country by its proximity
to the royal Palace no less than by those centres of political
activity which find their homes within it.

But with all its great memories, one or two incidents
seem to stand out — Fox gaily chatting while his home
was being rifled ; the great lexicographer solemnly
choosing shoe-buckles, with, no doubt, the little Scots-
man in attendance ; Byron awaking and finding himself
famous, and Byron again, friendless and alone, going to
take his seat in a regardless House of Lords.

You may people St James's Street with the great
men and women of three centuries by the help of the
memoirs and diaries which record their doings ; you
may even reconstruct its architectural outlines by the
help of plans and elevations ; with Gwynn you may
imagine a royal palace extending practically along the
whole west side and cutting into the present Palace,

1 The Rolliad, ii. 125.
191

ST JAMES'S STREET

leaving nothing remaining but its picturesque and historic
gateway.1

But, after all, the street's most outstanding memories
are those connected with the spacious days of the Regency ;
with the Prince receiving his famous "cut " from Brum-
mell ; with Brummell repaying a debt by giving his arm to
his creditor from Brooks 's to White's ; with Lord Sefton
on his way to the latter club, as portrayed by Deighton,
or with Theodore Hook walking with squinting Mr
Manners Sutton, and forming the subject of the sketch
which the famous H. B. entitled Hook and Eye.*

1 See Gwynn's London and Westminster Improved, where the
suggestion is made and a plan of the proposed alteration given.

2 Among innumerable other notable people of more recent days
who have lodged temporarily in St James's Street mention may
be made of Abraham Hayward and George Meredith ; while I
find Isaac Disraeli dating a letter to Lady Blessington from
i St James's Place, on 5th February 1838.

192

PART II
THE ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

EARLY HISTORY OF ALMACK'S

WHEN the lines of demarcation separated Society in a far
more arbitrary manner than is the case to-day, some
common ground on which the sexes might meet became
almost a necessity, and the protagonist was forthcoming
in a Heidegger or a Cornelys, who administered to the
wants in this direction of those who were unwilling or
unable to provide them in their own more restricted
surroundings.

What Nash did at Bath could surely be as easily
accomplished in London, and forthwith Soho Square
resounded to the strains of music and the laughter and
chatter of an idle throng — idle only in one sense of the
word, for such assemblies always had one dominant
underlying feature: they formed a matrimonial market,
where buyers and sellers were as eager, and sometimes
the merchandise as unsuspecting and as passive, as in
any other centre of commercial traffic.

I say one underlying feature ; I should have said several,
for whereas the sellers generally had a single object in
view, the buyers often had many — it might be desire to
kill time, to do nothing worse than gossip and talk
scandal, but more frequently it was to enter into those
intrigues by the number of which and his success in them
a fine gentleman of the period gained that notoriety which
was then so often mistaken for celebrity.

Under such conditions it is not difficult to see that balls
and masquerades like those which Madame Cornelys and
others of lesser note organised were doomed, sooner or

195

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

later, to degenerate into assemblies at which the decent
found themselves out of place, and even the lax had
sometimes occasion to raise their eyebrows. But with
the advent of the "Farmer King," manners and customs
gradually took on a more sober tone, at least outwardly,
and things began to be ordered somewhat more decently
than before ; for if intrigues were indulged in as frequently,
they were not carried on so openly as in earlier days.

At this time Madame Cornelys — "The Heidegger of the
age," as Horace Walpole calls her — had been carrying
on her establishment at Carlisle House, in Soho Square,
for about ten years, and the masquerades held under her
auspices had become notable for their indecency and
"mockery of solemn feelings and principles"; but not-
withstanding the complaints of bishops, and the opposi-
tion of rival establishments, the egregious mistress of
the ceremonies continued to fill her rooms and her
pockets.

But there were signs of storms ahead, and one of the
first to see that profit might be made out of a rival establish-
ment that should be decent and select, as that in Soho had
never really been, was one Macall,1 a Scotsman, who, to
hide his origin and perhaps also to disarm the prejudice
which Lord Bute's unpopularity had done much to foster
against his countrymen, had inverted his name toAlmack,
when, in 1763, he started the club in St James's Street,
which was originally known as Almack's, but in latter days
became the better known Brooks 's.

I am not prepared to say that William Almack ever
set up as a regenerator of manners ; indeed, the club he
founded soon won such a character for unbounded
gambling, " worthy the decline of our Empire," according

1 He had married a lady's maid of the Duchess of Hamilton,
and it was the Duke of that name who advised him to call himself
Almack.

196

EARLY HISTORY

to Walpole, that such an assertion would be a contradic-
tion in terms ; but there is no doubt that he saw that the
day had come when decorum and exclusiveness were more
likely to pay than a further development (if that were
possible) of impropriety. His club had been opened under
the auspices of such great and influential ones as the Dukes
of Roxburghe and Portland, Lord Strathmore, Mr Crewe,
and Charles James Fox, and with such powerful supporters
he thought rightly that he could count on the co-operation
of the then limited great world in his new venture.

He selected the site of his Assembly Rooms well.
King Street, St James's, is, as all the world knows, the link
between London's most fashionable street1 and its most
aristocratic square ; it is within calling distance of Pall
Mall, which had then a royal palace on each hand, and
in the very centre of club-land.

In the sixties of the eighteenth century it was still more
the heart of fashion's particular region than it is to-day,
when Mayfair more than vies with St James's, and
Marylebone almost vies with both.

The spot chosen by Almack was that immediately to the
east of Pall Mall Place,2 and in 1764 the erection of his
"rooms " was begun, Robert Mylne being the builder.

Mrs Harris, writing to her son, afterwards Earl of
Malmesbury, on 5th April 1764, refers to the erection of
the buildings: "Almack is going to build most magnifi-
cent rooms behind his house,3 one much larger than at
Carlisle House."

1 1 may remind the reader that not till 1830 was the street
carried through to St James's Street ; before then only a narrow
court gave access to it, which must have caused great inconvenience
to carriages setting down at Almack's.

2 Attached to the original lease is a ground plan of the property
acquired by Almack.

3 Referring to Almack's Club in Pall Mall. The Marlborough
Club now occupies its site.

197

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

There is no doubt that the project made some stir at
the time, especially among the fashionable world, which
was more or less dependent on Carlisle House for at least
its indoor amusements ; and the mistress of that establish-
ment viewed with some apprehension the rising of this
— . new star; indeed, we find Walpole writing, on 16th
December 1764, and stating that "Mrs Cornelys, appre-
hending the future assembly at Almack's, has enlarged
her vast room, and hung it with blue satin, and another
with yellow satin "; "but," he adds, "Almack's room,
which is to be 90 feet long, proposes to swallow up both
hers, as easily as Moses's rod gobbled down those of the
magicians'."

It was quite obvious that there would be a severe
contest for supremacy between the rival assembly rooms,
Mrs Cornelys relying on her already established vogue, and
also on the various improvements she from time to time
carried out, and, above all, on the influence of her clientele,
who, perhaps, were not averse from the licence she per-
mitted ; Almack, on the other hand, looking to the
novelty of his venture, its more central situation, and the
disgust of many at the mixed nature of the assemblies in
Soho Square, to enable him to compete successfully with
them.

The Scotsman also evolved another masterly stroke of
policy : his rooms were to be under the management of
a committee of ladies of high rank, and the only possible
way of gaining admission to them was to be by vouchers
or by personal introduction. This was, indeed, to kill
two birds with one stone, for it not only gave some of
the most influential members of the ton a personal and
almost despotic influence in the management, but it also
furnished an added zest when it was recognised that the
difficulty of admittance was only to be equalled by the
kudos to be gained by being admitted.

EARLY HISTORY

At length Almack's new building was opened, on 12th
February 1765, but, in spite of the presence of a royal
Duke, not under the most promising conditions. Horace
Walpole's account of the event, contained in a letter to
Lord Hertford, is dated two days later :

"The new Assembly Room at Almack's was opened
the night before last, and they say is very magnificent, but
it was empty ; half the town is ill with colds and many
were afraid to go, as the house is scarcely built yet.
Almack advertised that it was built with hot bricks and
boiling water : think what a rage there must be for public
places if this notice, instead of terrifying, could draw
everybody thither. They tell me the ceilings were
dripping with wet ; but can you believe me when I assure
you that the Duke of Cumberland was there ? nay, had
a leve"e in the morning and went to the Opera before the
Assembly. There is a vast flight of steps, and he was
forced to rest two or three times.1 When he dies of it —
and how should he not ? — it will sound very silly, when
Hercules or Theseus ask him what he died of, to reply,
'I caught my death on a damp staircase at a new
club-room."

In this letter further details are given with regard to
the rooms, which consisted of "three very elegant " ones.
The subscription was ten guineas, " for which you have a
ball and supper once a week for twelve weeks. " "You
may imagine," continues the writer, "by the sum, the
company is chosen ; though, refined as it is, it will be
scarce able to put old Soho out of countenance. The
men's tickets are not transferable, so, if the ladies do
not like us, they have no opportunity of changing us, but
must see the same persons for ever."

Notwithstanding such fears, the place "caught on," as
we should now express it, from the very first, and Gilly
1 Jesse's Selwyn and his Contemporaries, vol. i., p. 360.
199

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

Williams, in a subsequent letter to his friend, written in
the following March, thus records its progress :

"Our female Almack's flourishes beyond description.
If you had such a thing at Paris, you would fill half a
quire of flourished paper with the description of it.
Almack's Scotch face, in a bag- wig, waiting at supper,
would divert you, as would his lady in a sack, making tea
and curtseying to the duchesses."

The Assembly Rooms, once set going, were not long in
getting firmly established. The letters of the period are
the best criterion of this, and the writers wax eloquent
over the entertainments, and set down, with evident
unction, the names and titles of those who graced Almack's
assemblies.

Thus Selwyn, writing to Lord Carlisle on 15th
January 1768, gives us this vignette: "Almack's was
last night very full ; Lady Anne and Lady Betty were
there with Lady Carlisle. The Duke of Cumberland sat
between Lady Betty and Lady Sarah, who was his
partner. Lady Sarah, your sister, and His R(oyal)
H(ighness) did nothing but dance cotillons in the new
blue damask room, which by the way was intended for
cards. The Duchess of Gordon made her first appearance
there, who is very handsome ; so the beauty of the
former night, Lady Almeria Carpenter, was the less
regarded."

This extract is of particular interest, for besides inform-
ing us that Almack had already found it necessary to
enlarge his rooms by the addition of a "blue damask
room," thus indicating increased patronage, it introduces
us to some of those who shed lustre and " rained influence "
there.

The Ladies Anne and Betty were Lord Carlisle's sisters,
the Lady Carlisle being his mother, who was the daughter
of that 4th Lord Byron whose duel with Mr Chaworth,

200

EARLY HISTORY

and subsequent trial, in 1765, formed one of the sensations
of the day.

The Duke of Cumberland is not, of course, to be con-
founded with the "Butcher of Culloden," whom we have
seen " assisting " at the opening of Almack's. This Duke
was that notoriously dissipated brother of George III.
who, " though not tall, did not want beauty," as Walpole
says, and who married, in 1771, Mrs Horton, much to the
disgust of his royal relative. Here we find him "dancing
cotillons" with "Lady Sarah," who was no other than
the celebrated Lady Sarah Lennox, for whom his Majesty
had a tendre, and whom, had he had a will of his own then,
he would have made his Queen. Others were in love with
that beautiful creature, Selwyn's friend and correspondent,
Lord Carlisle, among them ; but the lady who might have
shared a throne consoled herself with a baronet, Sir
Charles Bunbury, chiefly notable for his racing pro-
clivities, from whom she was divorced in 1776. 1

The Duchess of Gordon, whom Walpole called " one of
the empresses of fashion," was one of Pitt's few intimate
friends, and stood to the Tory Party in somewhat the
same relation as the Duchess of Devonshire did to the
Whigs. Famous for her beauty, she seems, in Selwyn's
eyes at least, to have eclipsed another lovely woman,
Lady Almeria Carpenter, who, like Lady Suffolk at an
earlier date, combined the functions of lady-in-waiting to
a royal lady (in this case the Duchess of Gloucester) with
those of mistress to that lady's lawful lord !

In the following month Selwyn has again a reference
to Almack's,2 when he writes that: "Lady S(arah) is in

1 She afterwards married George Napier, and was the mother of
Sir Charles, Sir George, and Sir William Napier, all notable men in
their day.

2 His references to the club of the same name are, of course,
innumerable.

201

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

town, and I suppose very happy with the thoughts of a
mascarade which we are to have at Almack's next Monday
sevennight, unless in the interim some violent opposition
comes from the Bishops."

The last paragraph was but too prophetic ; the hierarchy
were unpropitious, and ten days later Selwyn informs
Carlisle that "the Bishops have, as I apprehended that
they would, put a stop to our masquerade, for which I am
sorry, principally upon Lady Sarah's account. I shall go
this morning and condole with her upon it. ' '

It will be remembered that a few years later the bishops
opposed a similar entertainment at Carlisle House, and the
Bishop of London even remonstrated with the King, but
Mrs Cornelys was apparently less sensitive to ecclesiastical
and royal displeasure than Almack, and her masquerade
was held, when lo ! the wives of four of the bishops were
present !

Although the later development of Almack's, or perhaps
one should say its restriction, to an assembly room for
dances of the most select kind has given its very name a
merely Terpsichorean signification, it must be remembered
that during its earlier days it was besides this really a
sort of ladies' club,1 such as are nowadays common enough.
Indeed, the two things were coterminous, at least for a
time ; and while cotillons were being danced in the great
room, money was being gambled away in other parts of the
building with an energy that might have even surprised
Crockford's, and a constancy that was hardly surpassed
at White's.

Mrs Boscawen once wrote to her friend, Mrs Delany,
a somewhat minute account of the modus vivendi here:

1 Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was anxious to become a member
of Almack's, is found attending the Ladies'- Club there in 1771,
where nearly all the habitues were at one time or another his
sitters.

202

EARLY HISTORY

"The female club I told you of is removed from their
quarters," she says, "Lady Pembroke objecting to a
tavern ; it meets, therefore, for the present at certain
rooms of Almack's, who for another year is to provide a
private house. . . . The first fourteen who imagined and
planned it settled its rules and constitutions. These were
formed upon the model of one of the clubs at Almack's.
There are seventy-five chosen (the whole number is to
be two hundred). The ladies nominate and choose the
gentlemen and vice versa, so that no lady can exclude
a lady, or gentleman a gentleman ! The Duchess of
Bedford was at first blackballed, but is since admitted.
Duchess of Grafton and of Marlborough are also chosen.
Lady Hertford wrote to beg admittance and has obtained
it ; also Lady Holderness, Lady Rochford are black-
balled, as is Lord March, Mr Boothby, and one or two
more who think themselves pretty gentlemen du premier
ordre, but it is plain the ladies are not of their opinion.
Lady Molineux has accepted, but the Duchess of Beaufort
has declined, as her health never permits her to sup abroad.
When any of the ladies dine with the Society they are
to send word before, but supper comes of course, and is
to be served always at eleven. Play will be deep and
constant probably. "

The Duchess of Bedford, against whom someone
apparently had a grievance, was the second wife of the
4th Duke— "the little Duke," Walpole calls him— and
before her marriage, Lady Gertrude Leveson-Gower,
daughter of John, Earl Gower. One wonders if the cause
of her Grace's rejection when she was first proposed had
anything to do with her connection with the marriage of
the Duke of Marlborough and Lady Caroline Russell.
We certainly know, from Lord Holland's reminiscences,1
that she used all sorts of "mean and unbecoming artifices
1 Life and Letters of Lady Sarah Lennox, vol. i., p. 72.
203

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

to bring this match on, and which she had so little pride as
to use in publick too, exposing herself to the ridicule of the
whole world," and also that the Duke saw through them
and "spoke to her Grace always with the utmost scorn
and derision, sometimes with detestation." Perhaps his
Grace did not care about meeting his mother-in-law
oftener than need be, and so endeavoured to compass
her exclusion, especially as his wife was one of the first
members of the Society !

The Duchess of Grafton was the first wife of the 3rd
Duke, but was divorced from him in 1769 ; before her
marriage she had been the Hon. Anne Liddell, daughter
and heiress of Henry, Lord Ravensworth. Lady Sarah
Bunbury calls her "one of the coarsest brown women " she
ever knew, and informs Lady Susan O'Brien that on their
divorce the Duke allowed her £3000 a year, and that they
put it about, as the reason for their parting, that "their
tempers don't suit." The Duchess afterwards married
the Earl of Upper Ossory, an intrigue with whom was
the real cause of the divorce. Three days after this event
she was legally joined to her lover, and the story goes that
the day before the Bill for the Divorce was passed in the
House of Lords she wrote a letter which she signed "Anne
Grafton " ; added to it the next day, and to this post-
script appended her old signature of Anne Liddell ; but
did not send off the letter till she had again become a wife,
when she concluded it with her new name, "Anne
Ossory " ; a circumstance which gave rise to the well-
known lines :

" No grace but Graf ton's grace so soon,
So strangely could convert a sinner ;
Duchess at morn and Miss at noon,
And Upper Ossory after dinner."

Lady Ossory was, as all the world knows, one of Wai-
pole's correspondents ; Lady Hertford was another of his

204

EARLY HISTORY

friends, being the wife of his kinsman, the 1st Earl of
Hertford. As she was the daughter of the 2nd Duke of
Grafton, she was aunt of the 3rd Duke,1 about whose
Duchess's eccentricities we have just been reading.

Lady Holderness, wife of the 4th Earl, was a foreigner,
being the daughter of Sieur Doublet, a Dutch nobleman ;
while Lady Rochford was the wife of the 4th Earl of
Rochford, and the Duchess of Beaufort, the daughter of
John Syme Berkeley, and sister and heiress of Baron
Botetourt, through whom this title came to the Somerset
family, she having married the 4th Duke of Beaufort
in 1740.

So much for the noble ladies who first held the destinies
of Almack's in their hands.

The Lord March who was blackballed was the after-
wards notorious "Old Q," and Mr Boothby, who experi-
enced a similar fate, was a member of Almack's Club,
where, as Selwyn once put it, he used to lose his £300
a night regularly !

Notwithstanding the patronage of half the nobility,
Almack was not above recognising the uses of advertise-
ment, and thus we find one of his perennial notices in
The Advertiser of 12th November 1768, as follows : —

" Mr Almack humbly begs leave to acquaint the nobility
and gentry, subscribers to the Assembly in King Street,
St James's, that the first meeting will be Thursday, 24th
inst. N.B. — Tickets are ready to be delivered at the
Assembly Room."

Two years later Horace Walpole, writing to George

Montagu, refers to the female club established here as

distinct from the assemblies for dancing with which the

name of Almack's is chiefly associated. " There is a new

Institution that begins to make, and if it proceeds will

make, considerable noise," he says. "It is a club of both

1 He was grandson of the 2nd Duke.

205

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

sexes to be erected at Almack's, on the model of that of
the men at White's. Mrs Fitzroy, Lady Pembroke, Mrs
Meynell, Lady Molyneux, Miss Pelham and Miss Lloyd are
the foundresses. I am ashamed to say I am of so young
and fashionable society ; but as they are people I live
with, I choose to be idle rather than morose. I can go to
a young supper without forgetting how much sand is run
out of the hour-glass."

Horace was nothing if not "fashionable," and never so
much so as when he affects to disdain the usages of the
monde, and winds up an account of his gay doings with
some truly Horatian moralisings ; and here we find him
a little ashamed of his frolics, but excusing himself on the
plea that those with whom he revels are those with whom
he lives, quite in the Walpolian manner.

As Almack's, when first started, had threatened to
extinguish Mrs Cornelys' entertainments, so both these
rivals were destined to receive a severe blow at the hands
of a common enemy, in the shape of The Pantheon, which
was opened in Oxford Street, in 1772, and formed the chief
social sensation of that year. Its proportions far ex-
ceeded those of the establishments in St James's or Soho.
There were, indeed, no less than fourteen rooms, not
including the Rotunda, and at the opening on 27th
January it is estimated that there were two thousand
persons gathered together within its walls. No wonder
Walpole called it "a winter Ranelagh." Mrs Delany,
describing it from hearsay at the tune of its opening,
records that "the lighting and the brilliant eclat on going
in was beyond all description, and the going in and out
made so easy by lanes of constables that there was not the
least confusion."

The Pantheon was burnt down just twenty years after
it had been inaugurated, and though it was rebuilt some
years later, its subsequent uses were of a varied kind and

206

EARLY HISTORY

such as not greatly to interfere with Almack's. There is
no doubt, however, that during the time of its prosperity it
formed a very serious rival to the older establishment, and
although the latter continued to attract a certain select
(if I may use the word in this connection) few, yet the
larger area, more elaborate decorations and lighting, and,
above all, the novelty of the winter Ranelagh, made it a
very formidable rival.

But the early years of the new century were to witness
a recrudescence of Almack's popularity ; and, indeed, it
was to enter on a more prosperous period than it had ever
before enjoyed.

207

II

1 —
IN this second phase of Almack's history that portion of

its constitution which has been referred to as the female
club gradually died out, as did the extensive gambling
that had become associated with it, and the rooms soon
came to be entirely given over to dances and assemblies.

One characteristic, however, clung to Almack's, not-
withstanding these altered conditions : perhaps because
of them it was, if possible, more select, more closely
guarded, more haul ton than ever before, and in the history
of despotism a chapter on the uncompromising nature of
its rules and the autocratic bearing of its patronesses might
not inaptly find a place.

The lady patronesses of Almack's during the second
great phase of its ascendancy, as, in a lesser degree, during
its first burst of prosperity, carried matters— to say with
a high hand seems almost inadequate — shall I write, with
a clenched fist ?

The laws of the Medes and Persians found themselves
figuring in a great nineteenth-century revival, and it is
safe to say that no personal authority, no special endow-
ments, no wealth or influence, outside the magic circle,
could avail if those who possessed these attributes
attempted to break through the iron-bound rules of
Almack's. The memoirs and letters of the period are full
of references to the rooms in King Street and to those
who ruled over their destinies ; but of all these authori-
ties Captain Gronow is the most circumstantial, and,

208

EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY

inasmuch as he was both in and of the world he writes
about, the most reliable. Let us see what he has to say
of these matters in the year of grace 1814.

"At the present time," he writes, "one can hardly
conceive the importance which was attached to getting
admission to Almack's, the seventh heaven of the fashion-
able world "; and he adds that only a paltry half-dozen
of the Guards' officers, out of some three hundred, " were
honoured with vouchers of admission to this exclusive
temple."

What heart-burnings,1 what impotent rage, "what
wild ecstasy " of fury, must have alternated in the breasts
of those peris shut out from the paradise of Almack's.

"Many diplomatic arts, much finesse and a host of
intrigues were set in motion to get an invitation," says
Gronow, continuing the wondrous tale, and there was
no chance here of emulating the daring impudence of
Brummell, who once appeared at an evening party un-
invited, but safe in the knowledge that the host and
hostess were not on speaking terms and would each
suppose that the other had asked him. No ; here the
two-handed engine at the door, in the shape of a lynx-eyed
Cerberus in livery, would permit of no one entering without
the cardboard sop ! And not only were those who had
no ticket excluded ; matters of dress regulation were as
strictly enforced as at a State function.

The Duke of Wellington, then probably the most
popular, as he certainly was the greatest, man in England,
once appeared at those portals armed with voucher and
all necessary credentials, but, horrible to relate, in trousers
instead of knee-breeches — in black trousers, which had
been strictly forbidden by the committee sitting in solemn
conclave ! Whereupon he in authority : " Your Grace

1 The Hon. Grantley Berkeley says this " female oligarchy was
less in number, but equal in power to the Venetian Council of Ten."
O 209

r

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

cannot be admitted in trousers," and the Duke, "who
had a great respect for orders and regulations," turned
away, probably with a grim smile playing at the corners
of his firm mouth.

It reminds one of the horror of the Court Chamberlain
who discovered Dumouriez almost on the verge of enter-
ing the royal presence with bows instead of buckles to his
shoes !

No wonder a contemporary observer x could write that
" At Almack's, in 1814, the rules were very strict "; while
a contributor to The New Monthly Magazine, for ten
years later, remarks, after mentioning that the nights of
meeting were confined to every Wednesday during the
season: "This is selection with a vengeance, the very
quintessence of aristocracy. Three-fourths of the nobility
knock in vain for admission. Into this sanctum sanctorum,
of course, the sons of commerce never think of entering
on the sacred Wednesday evenings."

At this period, however, a certain laxity began to be

observable, for from the same source we learn that

" Into this very ' blue chamber,' in the absence of the six

necromancers (i.e. the lady patronesses), have the votaries

—_ of trade contrived to intrude themselves."

But we are not yet concerned with the gradual decad-
ence of Almack's ; at the period to which we are just now
casting back our gaze it was at the very summit of its
power and exclusiveness. Let us turn once again to
Gronow for a confirmation of this :

"Very often persons whose rank and fortunes entitled
them to the entree anywhere were excluded by the cliquism
of the lady patronesses," says he, " for the female govern-
ment of Almack's was a pure despotism and subject to all
the caprices of despotic rule. It is needless to add that,
like every other despotism, it was not innocent of abuses."
1 Lady Clementina Davies, in her Recollections of Society.
210

EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY

That was just it: its strength and its weakness lay
equally in the unassailable character of its decrees ; it
was a Veremgericht from which there was no appeal ; and
those who directed its destinies would have been some-
what more than human had they been able to eliminate
from their verdicts all trace of partiality. It was so easy
to make their position a vehicle for personal recrimina-
tion ; and it says something for the inherent good nature
of the patronesses that no flagrant case of petty tyranny
seems ever to have been brought home to them.

Who were those who exercised this despotic power ?
What, beyond the kudos of being of it, were the attractions
in this nineteenth-century Hall of Eblis ?

In the year 1814 the lady patronesses were Lady
Castlereagh and Princess Esterhazy, Lady Cowper and
Lady Jersey, Mrs Drummond Burrell, afterwards Lady
Willoughby de Eresby, Lady Sefton and the Countess,
later Princess, Lieven.

I shall have more to say about these grandes dames in
the following chapter, but I may note here that, according
to Gronow, the most popular of them was Lady Cowper,
who afterwards became Lady Palmerston ; that Lady
Jersey sometimes made herself "simply ridiculous " with
her tragedy-queen airs and was not infrequently ill-bred
in her manners ; that Lady Sefton was kind and the
Countess Lieven haughty ; and that Lady Castlereagh
and Mrs Drummond Burrell were altogether too grandes
dames to be anything but picturesque and exclusive
figureheads.

If we glance for a moment at the " internal economy "
of the rooms we shall find that at first the amusements
were what would now be regarded as painfully insular, so
far, at least, as the Terpsichorean art was concerned, the
dances being confined to Scotch reels and what Gronow
calls "the old English country dance," which by the by,

211

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

is merely a rendering of the French contredanse, and had
nothing essentially bucolic about it; these dances being
under the direction of the famous Neil Gow,1 the Scottish
violinist.

It was not long, however, before a change took place
in this respect. In 1815, a year famous, it may be
remembered, for other things, Lady Jersey, returning
from Paris, brought with her the "quadrille." This was
an event indeed, and Gronow, full of enthusiasm for the
dance which, as he rightly says, "so long remained
popular," gives the names of those who took part in the
first one ever executed in England.

Of course Lady Jersey was one of the protagonists, and
she was supported by Lady Susan Ryder, Miss Mont-
gomery and Lady Harriet Butler ; while the men engaged
in the contest were the Count St Aldegonde (whose name
always sounds as if it had been culled from one of Disraeli's
novels), Mr Montagu, Mr Montgomery 2 and Mr Charles
Standish.

Although Gronow is thus specific in recording the names
of those who, according to him, danced the very first
quadrille in this country, yet in the volume in which he
makes this statement is given an illustration, taken from
a French print, which is supposed to represent Lady
Jersey, Lady Worcester, Lord Worcester and Clanronald
Macdonald3 "dancing the first quadrille " there !

If the advent of the " quadrille " was an incident, that
of the waltz was an event. Byron has sung the dance, as
we all know, and what he says of it makes us the less to

1Born at Inver, Perthshire, 22nd March 1725, and died there
ist March 1807.

2 One of the stewards of Alraack's, and a member of the coterie
of the Dandies.

8 Macdonald of Clanronald married a daughter of Lord Mount
Edgecumbe, in 1812, and was thus brother-in-law of Lady Brown-
low, whose Reminiscences of a Septuagenarian appeared in 1867.

212

EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY

wonder when Gronow affirms that "there were com-
paratively few who at first ventured to whirl round the
salons of Almack's."

But use reconciles ; and indeed there were, at least in
the earlier methods of dancing it, other things that easily
reconciled.

When the first blush of strangeness had passed away,
the waltz became the thing, and one of the earliest to be
seen " describing infinite circles " round the great room
at Almack's was " that laughing philosopher, gallant and
gay," Lord Palmerston, with the haughty Princess Lieven
in his arms. Others followed, and, according to Gronow,
"Baron de Neumann was frequently seen perpetually
turning with the Princess Esterhazy ; and, in course of
time, the waltzing mania, having turned the heads of
Society generally, descended to their feet, and the waltz
was practised in the morning in certain noble mansions
in London with unparalleled assiduity."

Raikes l is eloquent on the introduction of the waltz hi
this country, which, by the by, he places two years earlier
than Gronow. " What scenes have we witnessed in those
days at Almack's," writes he. " What fear and trembling
in the debutantes at the commencement of a waltz, what
giddiness and confusion at the end ! " 2

The ingenuous diarist opines that it was probably the
latter circumstance which accounted for the violent
opposition that soon arose against the measure; but
readers of Byron and of Sheridan's well-known lines will

1 Diary, vol. ii., p. 240.

2 As with the quadrille, so with the waltz, there is some dis-
crepancy between the various dates given of its introduction :
thus, according to the volume on Dancing in the Badminton
Library, the introducer was Princess Lieven in 1816, whereas
Raikes gives it as 1813, and Gronow about 1815. Anyhow, it
seems certain that the credit of its introduction was due to the
Princess Lieven.

213

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

be ready to account for this antagonism by another
cause.

There is no doubt that many considered it altogether
immoral; "the anti- waltzing party took the alarm, cried
it down ; mothers forbade it ; and every ballroom became
the scene of feud and contention."

Baron Tripp, a great dancer, Baron de Neumann, Count
St Aldegonde, and others, persevered in spite of all the
prejudices which were marshalled against them : "Every
night the waltz was called, and new votaries, though
slowly, were added to their train." Another great
supporter of the dance was M. Bourblanc, whose tragic
fate I shall have to relate in another place, when I shall
have something more particular to say about the indi-
vidual celebrities who graced from time to time the floors
of Almack's.

One can perhaps understand that the waltz was likely,
at its first introduction, to find some disfavour amongst
those who had been brought up on more stately measures ;
but the author of a work on the Court of George IV. falls
foul of the quadrille, than which one is accustomed to
consider no dance more decent, and few, if the truth must
be confessed, more dreary. Here is what the writer has
to say on the subject: "We had much waltzing and
quadrilling, the last of which is certainly very abominable.
I am not prude enough to be offended with waltzing, in
which I can see no other harm than that it disorders the
stomach, and sometimes makes people look very ridicul-
ous ; but, after all, moralists, with the Duchess of Gordon
at their head, who never had a moral in her life, exclaim
dreadfully against it. Nay, I am told that these magical
wheelings have already roused poor Lord Dartmouth from
his grave to suppress them. Alas ! after all, people set
about it as gravely as a company of dervishes, and seem to
be paying adoration to Pluto rather than to Cupid. But

214

EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY

the quadrilles I can by no means endure ; for till ladies
and gentlemen have joints at their ankles, which is im-
possible, it is worse than impudent to make such exhibi-
tions. . . . When people dance to be looked at, they surely
should dance to perfection." So, after all, this rather
ungrammatical tirade is not against the morals of the
dance, but apparently against the difficulty experienced
of figuring gracefully in it.

But opposition to either waltz or quadrille was hopeless,
and, according to Raikes, "Flahault, who was lafleur des
pois in Paris, came over to captivate Miss Mercer, and,
with a host of others, drove the prudes from their entrench-
ments ; and when the Emperor Alexander was seen
waltzing round the rooms at Almack's, with his tight
uniform 1 and numerous decorations, they surrendered at
discretion. ' '

Lord William Pitt Lennox tells us whom were con-
sidered about this time the chief exponents of the new
dances, and among the names he gives are those of Prince
Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, who afterwards became the
husband of the Princess Charlotte and subsequently
Leopold I., King of the Belgians ; Prince Esterhazy, the
Dukes of Beaufort and Devonshire, Count D'Orsay and
Lords Londonderry, Anglesey and Donegall; and many
of these availed themselves of the instructions of the
numerous maitres de danse who came over in the wake of
the influential foreigners who had helped to popularise
the waltz and the quadrille in this country.

But the dances at Almack's did not always go off with-
out mishap, and the industrious Gronow records at least
one occasion on which an untoward event happened.
Lord Graves, notable for his size as well as for the general
excellence of his dancing, had on one occasion Lady
Harriet Butler as his partner in a quadrille. The lady,
1 Lady Brownlow's Reminiscences.
215

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

fresh from Paris, astonished the habitues of Almack's by
the grace and ease with which she performed the entrechats,
as they were called. Lord Graves, anxious to emulate
Lady Harriet's dexterity, attempted the figure ; but his
bulk was against him, and he fell heavily to the ground.
Nothing disconcerted, he was quickly on his feet again,
and finished the quadrille ; but Sir John Burke, who was
an amused spectator, could not resist remarking to him :

What could have induced you, at your age and in your
state, to make so great a fool of yourself as to attempt an
entrechat " ? Whereupon the offended peer replied : " If
you think I am too old to dance, I consider myself not
too old to blow your brains out for your impertinence ; so
the sooner you find a second the better " ; and had not
Lord Sefton been at hand to pass the matter off with
a sensible pleasantry, a duel would undoubtedly have
been the upshot.

So much for the dancing at Almack's.

The assemblies were useful in other ways, as all such
places are. "Almack's," says an authority, "was a
matrimonial bazaar, where mothers met to carry on affairs
of state; and often has the table, spread with tepid
lemonade, weak tea, tasteless orgeat, stale cakes, and thin
slices of bread and butter — the only refreshment allowed
— been the scene of tender proposals." "How often,"
adds the chronicler, " has Colinet's flageolet stifled the soft
response, ' Ask Mamma ! ' How often have the guardian
abigails in the cloak-room heard a whispered sigh, followed
by what vulgarians term 'popping the question,' and a
faint reply of « Yes!'"

One of the rules was that no one might enter the rooms
after eleven o'clock P.M. One can only suppose that
there were good reasons for such a law, but the plain
man fails to comprehend them. Not infrequently it was
the cause of members being turned away, but at least

216

EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY

on one occasion it was circumvented by a resourceful
laggard.

Again enters the Iron Duke into the story of Almack's.

Ticknor x describes the circumstance more fully than it
is given elsewhere, and I will therefore follow his version.

After dining one day with Lord and Lady Downshire
he went on with his hostess and other ladies to Almack's.
On this particular evening Lady Jersey happened to be
the patroness, it being usual for only one member of the
committee to fill this post at a time.

On their way to the ball the Downshire party called
at Lady Mornington's, where they found the Duke of
Wellington, who, being asked if he was going to Almack's,
replied that " he thought he should look in by and by,"
on which his mother told him that " he had better go
in good time, as Lady Jersey would make no allowance
for him." However, he remained, and Ticknor and his
friends proceeded to the rooms in King Street.

Some time later in the evening Ticknor was standing
talking to Lady Jersey, when he heard one of the attend-
ants say to her : " Lady Jersey, the Duke of Wellington
is at the door, and desires to be admitted." "What
o'clock is it? " she asked. " Seven minutes after eleven,
your Ladyship." She paused an instant, and then said
with emphasis and distinctness: "Give my compli-
ments— give Lady Jersey's compliments to the Duke of
Wellington, and say she is very glad that the first enforce-
ment of the rule of exclusion is such that hereafter
no one can complain of its application. He cannot be
admitted."2

The stringency of Lady Jersey's rule is also well ex-
emplified in the following anecdote, which I give in

1 Diary, vol. i., p. 245.

2 These and similar incidents are referred to in Luttrell's
Advice to Julia.

217

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

Gronow's own words: "When duelling was at its height
in England, the most absurd pretexts were made for
calling a man out. I recollect that at one of the dinners
at The Thatched House in St James's Street, Mr Willis,
the proprietor, in passing behind the chairs occupied by
the company, was accosted by a Captain in the 3rd
Guards, in a rather satirical manner. Mr Willis, smarting
under the caustic remarks of the gallant captain, said
aloud : ' Sir, I wrote to you at the request of Lady Jersey,
saying that as her Ladyship was unacquainted with you,
I had been instructed to reply to your letter, by stating
that the Lady Patronesses declined sending you a ticket
for the ball.' This statement, made in a public room,
greatly irritated the captain ; his friends in vain en-
deavoured to calm his wrath, and he sent a cartel the
following day to Lord Jersey requesting he would name
his second, etc. Lord Jersey replied in a very dignified
manner, saying that if all persons who did not receive
tickets from his wife were to call him to account for want
of courtesy on her part, he should have to make up his
mind to become a target for young officers, and he
therefore declined the honour of the proposed meeting."

But not all the lady patronesses were so uncompromis-
ing as Lady Jersey ; and on another occasion the great
Duke was permitted to enter, the rule for this occasion
being waived in his favour, but only at the request of one
of the presiding deities.

It seems to have been no less difficult to break through
the rules of Almack's than it was to evade the lynx-eyed
janitors at the doors ; but at least one occasion is recorded
on which, by a trick, a noble peer succeeded in entering
after the fatal strokes of eleven had sounded. It was
in this wise. Owing to an accident to his carriage the
gentleman in question arrived too late, but instead of
attempting to enter, which he knew would be next to

218

EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY

useless, he waited outside until some of his acquaintances
came out ; whereupon he went up to their carriage and
pretended to say good-night to them, as a gentleman
who was seeing them out was doing. On their departure
the noble lord followed his friend in again, the latter truth-
fully telling the servants that they had been seeing some
ladies into their carriage.

In Tom Moore's Diary we get some glimpses of Almack's
jealously guarded interior and the doings that went on in
its almost sacred precincts. In one early entry, in May
1819, he says: "Went to Almack's (the regular
Assembly) and staid till three in the morning. Lord
Morpeth said to me: 'You and I live at Almack's.'"
Again, in the April of 1822, he notes one of his frequent
visits, but adds sadly that though there was a "very
pretty show of women," the place was " not quite what
it used to be." However, a week later he was there
again, but was very nearly too late, as he had attended
Catalani's concert, and had been obliged to go home and
dress again for the Assembly.

On 4th June in the following year he records again being
a visitor, and with some complacency sets down the fact
that Lady Jersey and Lady Tankerville "were sending
various messengers after me through the room " ; a circum-
stance on which he was bantered some days later at an
assembly at Devonshire House by the Duchess of Sussex,
who told him that she overheard someone near her say :
" See them now ; it is all on account of his reputation, for
they do not care one pin about him ! "

On another occasion, in May 1826, a fancy quadrille,
called the "Paysannes Proven^ales," was danced, much
to the poet's satisfaction, although he had expected to
witness one entitled the "Twelve Months," which had
been given up on account of the death of the sister of
" one of the months."

219

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

Some days later it was performed, however, and Moore
has this entry in his Diary :

"June 31st. — Went away (from a dinner at Lord
King's) with Baring Wall, and having left him at the
Traveller's, took his carriage home with me, and having
refitted a little, made use of it to go to Almack's ; was
there early ; waited till the Seasons arrived ; got into
their wake as they passed up the room, and saw them
dance their quadrille ; the twelve without any gentleman.
Rather disappointed in the effect; their head-dresses
(gold baskets full of fruit, flowers, etc.) too heavy ; Miss
Sheridan the handsomest of any ; most of the others
pretty, Miss Brand, the Misses Forester, Miss Acton,
Miss Beauclerc; etc. As soon as I had seen them dance,
came away."

There are other references to the famous assemblies in
the Diary, but enough have been given, although I must
not omit to mention that Moore speaks of the young girls
of the period as " dating their ages and standing by their
seasons at Almack's." One of them (Miss Macdonald),
indeed, confessed to considering herself an old woman,
from its being her second season !

There is no doubt that the strictness of the rules did
much to keep up the reputation of Almack's, especially
when these rules were enforced by such great ladies as
the Countess of Jersey or the Princess Lieven ; and Lord
Lamington was perhaps right when he asserted that
"Almack's was the portal to that select circle of intellect
and grace which constituted the charm of Society. ' ' But
at the same time laws enforced by such an iron hand,
even if the hand was clothed in a velvet glove, must
have become, after the early glamour of the place wore off
somewhat, very much akin to tyranny.

Ticknor, when in this country at a later date (1835),
found this to some extent, and thus notices it in his Diary :

220

EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY

" It was very brilliant, as it always is," he writes, " and
the arrangements for ease and comfort were perfect ; no
ceremony, no supper ; no regulation or managing ;
brilliantly lighted large halls, very fine music, plenty of
dancing. It struck me, however, that there were fewer
of the leading nobility and fashion there than formerly,
and that the general cast of the company was
younger."

Some modification of the rules had evidently taken
place when a visitor could write that there was "no
regulation or managing " ; and, indeed, in one important
particular, we know that there had been an alteration, for
Ticknor, on this very occasion, records that he and his
party arrived there "just before the doors were closed at
midnight."1

Some five years later a writer in The Quarterly Review 2
notes this decadence still more insistently, and draws a
moral from the decline of Almack's, in which he sees "a
clear proof that the palmy days of exclusiveness are gone
by in England." "And though," he adds, "it is obvi-
ously impossible to prevent any given number of persons
from congregating and re-establishing an oligarchy, we
are quite sure that the attempt would be ineffectual and
that the sense of their importance would extend little beyond
the set."

It is in these last words which I have italicised that is
adumbrated the remarkable power of Almack's as it was
in its prime. Its influence and importance extended far

1 In a note to a passage in Advice to Julia we read: "It was
till very lately settled that, even after half-past eleven, the whole
string of coaches then formed in the street might deposit its
contents in the ballroom. By this equitable construction many
were admitted after midnight ; but now (circa 1827), the hour of
limitation has been enlarged till twelve o'clock and the privilege of
the string abolished."

2 For 1840.

221

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

beyond "the set " that composed it. We know that at
no time had more than two thousand the entree; its
patronesses numbered not more than six or seven, but its
fame and importance was a byword throughout the land ;
its influence was unquestioned ; its power unassailable.
It stood for the last word of fashion and exclusiveness.
To be introduced into that magic circle was considered at
one time as great a distinction as to be presented at Court,
and was often far more difficult of attainment.

In the fiction of the period the place figures perpetually ;
indeed, one novel bears its name, and was one of those
romans d clef of which the key was supplied by no less a
person than Disraeli. It was, in a word, the great social
centre, the holy of holies of fashion, as it were, in London ;
and if, as he did, Carlyle wailed for the " gum flowers of
Almack's to be made living roses in a new Eden," he at
the same time could not help confessing that to a fraction
of the universe "How will this look in Almack's? ", was
as insistent a question as "How will this look in the
universe ? " was to a man of genius.

Luttrell neatly summarised the place it held in the social
world when he wrote :

"If once to Almack's you belong,
Like monarchs, you can do no wrong ;
But banished thence on Wednesday night,
By Jove, you can do nothing right. ' '

222

Ill

THE LADY PATRONESSES

FROM its earliest days, as we have seen, Almack's was
identified with a female rule, which at times became as
overbearing and as despotic as that of the Roman tyrants
or the Venetian Council of Ten. But if this oligarchy
bore heavily on those who came within the scope of its
authority and influence, it was, at the same time, on the
whole, notable for the fairness with which it administered
the laws which it had itself formulated.

The character of the ladies who from time to time
wielded the sceptre of despotism was, indeed, sufficient to
guarantee the general absence of any flagrant act of petty
spite or questionable taste ; and if here and there such
could be pointed to, they were merely those exceptions
which we are taught to consider as proving the rule.

The beauty and the mental endowments of some of the
great ladies who formed this tribunal of fashion, were alone
sufficient to account for the power which they arrogated
to themselves and which characterised every action as
regards their administration of Almack's. To this was
added that genius for administration and that love for
exercising despotic power, which was inherent in others
whose beauty of person or intellectual attainments would
hardly have been sufficient to fit them for the post of
rulers.

The combination certainly resulted in one of the most
curious social anomalies of the latter part of the eighteenth,
and the early years of the nineteenth, century — a small
coterie dominating, without appeal, the whole of the

223

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

Society of London. It was the principle of an effective
minority carried to its highest power !

Of all these patronesses Lady Jersey was, perhaps, the
most notable.

This remarkable woman had, from her youth up,
occupied a leading position in the Society of her day. Her
amiable manners, her interest in politics, her admirable
linguistic powers, her kindly, genial nature, all combined
to give her a sort of prescriptive right to the exalted
sphere in which she moved.

She was the daughter of the 10th Earl of Westmor-
land, and, as Lady Sarah Sophia Fane, had been married
to the 5th Earl of Jersey, then Viscount Villiers, on 23rd
May 1804.1 It is important to be particular about this,
in order that she may not be confounded with her notori-
ous mother-in-law, Frances, Countess of Jersey, wife of the
4th Earl, who died in 1821, and whose connection with
George IV. largely helped to bring the Crown into the
discredit which attached to it at that period.

From 1805, when her husband succeeded to the title,
till her death, in 1867, Sarah, Lady Jersey, was absolute
Queen of London Society. Other great ladies, like the
Marchioness of Londonderry, had greater wealth and
more imposing houses ; others, like Lady Palmerston,
were more intimately connected with political matters ;
others, like the Princess Lieven, were more intellectually
endowed ; others, like the Duchess of Beaufort, were more
beautiful ; but not one of them approached Lady Jersey
in that social sovereignty which she wielded for over half-
a-century.

Sir William Fraser, who knew her well, has left the
following word-picture of this uncrowned queen of

1 Her mother was Miss Child, daughter of Child, the banker ;
and it was she who eloped with Lord Westmorland from the
paternal roof in Berkeley Square.

224

THE LADY PATRONESSES

fashion : "Lady Jersey never was a beauty. She had a
grand figure to the last ; never became the least corpulent,
and, to use a common term, there was obviously no ' make
up ' about her. A considerable mass of grey hair ;
dressed, not as a young woman, but as a middle-aged one.
Entirely in this, as in other things, without affectation, her
appearance was always pleasant. No trace of rouge nor
dye could ever be seen about her." This latter remark
is corroborated by Madame Collore"do, the Austrian
Ambassadress in London, who, once wishing to give some
ladies an idea of Lady Jersey's appearance, exclaimed :
" I will tell you what Lady Jersey was. A quatre-vingt
ans elle portait une robe de'collete'e ; et elle n'e'tait pas
choquante."

"She seemed," continues Sir William, "to take her
sovereignty as a matter of course : to be neither vain of
it, nor, indeed, to think much about it. Very quick and
intelligent, with the strongest sense of humour that I
have ever seen in a woman ; taking the keenest delight
in a good joke, and having, I should say, great physical
enjoyment of life."

The testimony of Henry Greville bears out substantially
Sir William Eraser's remarks, although the former allows
her to have had a greater share of beauty than the
latter concedes her, and he accounts for her remarkable
social success "in a more refined and more brilliant
society than is to be found in our own day" by her
"great zest and gaiety, rather than her cleverness,
which constituted her power of attracting remarkable
men."

Whatever was the cause, the fact remains that "Queen
Sarah," as she was called, ruled supreme in the realms of
fashion for half-a-century, and made as few enemies as
anyone in such an exalted position could be expected to
do. The late Lord Lamington, who knew her intimately,
p 225

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

recalls for us, in his Days of tlie Dandies, her "kindly
genial presence," and he helps to let us into the secret of
her social success when he says of her that " she possessed
the special knowledge which rendered her society agreeable
to literary men," and adds that, " her keenness in politics
placed her at the head, as it made her house the centre, of
attraction to the then Tory party."

Such testimonies as these may be supposed to be the
highly coloured eulogiums of personal acquaintance, but
when Charles Greville, who, though also a close friend, is
known never to have spared his friends when estimating
their characters, thus sums up Lady Jersey's qualities,
I think we may be satisfied that the consensus of praise
bestowed upon her was merited :

" Lady Jersey," writes the diarist,1 " is an extraordinary
woman, and has many good qualities : surrounded as she
is by flatterers and admirers, she is neither proud nor
conceited. She is full of vivacity, spirit, and good nature,
but the wide range of her sympathies and affections proves
that she has more general benevolence than particular
sensibility in her character. She performs all the ordinary
duties of life with great correctness, because her heart is
naturally good ... in conversation she is lively and
pleasant, without being very remarkable, for she has
neither wit, nor imagination, nor humour."

I end the extract at this point to mark more obviously
the conflicting judgments of contemporaries. Sir William
Fraser considered that Lady Jersey had a greater sense
of humour than any other woman with whom he was
acquainted ; Charles Greville will not allow that she
possessed this gift at all ! If Sir William was sometimes
hyperbolic in his expressions, we must remember that
Greville — the Cruncher, as he was familiarly called — was
accustomed to find fault with everyone, and perhaps he
1 Journals, vol. i., pp. 12-13.
226

THE LADY PATRONESSES

saw no humour in Lady Jersey because he had not himself
the humour to detect it.

Besides her house in Berkeley Square, Lady Jersey
inherited Osterley Park, with a large fortune, from her
grandfather, Mr Child, the banker, in these circumstances :
Mr Child had an only daughter, who, falling in love with
Lord Burghersh, eldest son of the Earl of Westmorland,
eloped with him, and although closely followed by her
angry father, reached Gretna Green just — and only just —
in time to be married. Finding himself powerless to do
anything further, Child determined, at least, to prevent
any of his fortune from going direct to his daughter, and
he therefore made a will leaving the whole of it to any
daughter that might be born of the marriage, and Lady
Sarah Fane, afterwards Countess of Jersey, was the lucky
heiress.

It is said that a few days before the elopement Lord
Burghersh, dining with Mr Child, put to him the question
as to what he should do if he were in love with a girl and
could not gain her parents' consent to a marriage, when
the unsuspecting banker replied : " Elope with her, to be
sure " ; on which parental advice the young man promptly
acted.

On Lord Jersey's marrying Lady Sarah he took the
name of Child in addition to his own of Villiers ; and there
still hangs in a room in Child's Bank, Lawrence's full-
length portrait of Lady Jersey — surely a more beautiful
partner than bank ever had before or since.

Another great influence in the debates of Almack's
powerful committee was Lady Londonderry, the wife of a
distinguished member of the peerage as well as a brilliant
soldier, the 3rd Marquis of Londonderry, and sister-in-law
of the celebrated Lord Castlereagh, who died by his own
hand in 1822, and to whom her husband succeeded in the
marquisate. Very rich, and possessing fine houses, both

227 1

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

in London and the country, it is hardly to be wondered at
that these advantages, coupled with her double connection
with politics and the Army, should have enabled Lady
Londonderry to compass such social power as she had a
mind to; but, notwithstanding this, she never attained
anything approaching the influence wielded by Lady
Jersey, or the authority in matters of fashion of Lady
Cowper.

This latter lady had a singularly eventful career. The
daughter of the 1st Lord Melbourne, she married, as the
Hon. Emily Mary Lamb, the 5th Earl Cowper, on 21st
July 1805 ; he died in 1837, and his widow, two years
afterwards, became the wife of the 3rd Lord Palmerston.
As her brother was one Prime Minister, and her second
husband another, she may be said to have grasped politics
with both hands.

But it was perhaps owing to this very circumstance that
she was never able to restrict herself to that exclusiveness
which so greatly helped to enhance the reputation and
solidify the power of Lady Jersey.

But she played her part admirably, and whether she
was assisting at some of the mysteries of Almack's, or was
presiding over the splendid entertainments with which
she shed a lustre over Cambridge House,1 she was always
affable, always interested, always conciliating; and if
many of the ephemeral quarrels of Almack's were smoothed
away by her ready wit and ever-present tact; it is as
certain that the power of the "frolicsome statesman — the
man of the day," as Locker-Lampson calls him — was con-
solidated and extended by the careful watchfulness of his

1 No. 94 Piccadilly, once the residence of the Earls of Egremont,
later of the Marquis of Cholmondeley, then of the Duke of
Cambridge (whence its name), who died here in 1850, when Lord
Palmerston took it. It is now the Naval and Military — the " In
and Out "—Club.

228

THE LADY PATRONESSES

better half. If such a testimony were required, the pages
of Henry Greville's diary would be sufficient to show that
Lady Palmerston fully shared her husband's confidence,
not only in private but in political matters, and there is
little doubt that much of his popularity and success was
due to her loving co-operation.

Lady Sefton, another of the oligarchy of Almack's, was
altogether a different character ; and, indeed, it was prob-
ably this happy mixture of different temperaments and
varied interests that combined to make that oligarchy as
powerful as it undoubtedly was.

Lady Sefton, nee Maria Margaret, daughter of the 6th
Lord Craven, was the wife of that famous bon-vivant and
gambler, the 2nd Earl of Sefton, the friend of the Regent
and the companion of Brummell, who, in spite of being
"a gigantic hunchback," as Gronow records, was one of
the dandies of the day, and a fine horseman.

Lady Sefton was, on the same authority, both kind
and amiable, and she probably left much of the judicial
accepting or refusing of candidates for entrance into
Almack's, to the severer judgments of some of her assistant
patronesses.

One of these, who, we may be sure, carefully scrutinised
every application of this sort, and judicially weighed the
merits or otherwise of those who sought the much-coveted
cards, was the haughty and exclusive Princess Lieven, one
of the two foreigners who became patronesses.

Dorothea Christorovna Benckendorff, for such was her
maiden name, was in all respects a very remarkable
woman ; and whereas in most cases their connection with
Almack's has alone caused many of the lady patronesses
to be remembered at all, in hers, it was but an incident in
her career as a female politician of the first rank:

This being so, a few words about her history will not be
inappropriate. She was born on 17th December 1785, at

229

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

Riga, where her father was military commandant ; so
that from her earliest years she was accustomed to the
atmosphere of rule and political activity.

Educated at the Smolny Convent School, she was, on
leaving it, appointed Maid of Honour to the Empress of
Russia in 1799, and in 1800 was married to Lieutenant-
General Count Lieven. Nine years later her husband was
appointed Russian Envoy to Prussia, when she had her
first opportunity of publicly exhibiting those precocious
talents as a hostess and a talker with which she had been
credited at an even earlier period. In 1811 Count Lieven
was promoted to be Ambassador to the Court of St James's,
having for his chief object the resumption of those friendly
relations between this country and Russia, which had
been for a time suspended in consequence of the Peace
of Tilsit.

Settled in this country, the Countess Lieven seems to
have become quite as politically active as her husband,
and her relations with such men as Aberdeen and
Wellington, Canning and Grey, Palmerston and Peel,
were of the closest ; while her letters are eloquent of her
varying estimation of those with whom she was thus
brought in contact. On the other hand, the opinion of
some of these politicians as regards the lady herself was
not always flattering, and Wellington once bluntly as-
serted to Raikes that she would betray everyone in turn
if it happened to suit her purpose ; a sentiment which
Palmerston echoed, although with less cause, perhaps, as
the Countess Lieven had been, politically, of much use to
him.

As may be supposed, her name frequently occurs in the
various memoirs and journals of the day, particularly in
the diaries of the two Grevilles, where she is shown to be
so obviously au courant with all the twists and turns
of contemporary politics, that one wonders why such a

230

THE LADY PATRONESSES

lesser light as her husband troubled to interfere in them
at all ! "Her cleverness," we are told,1 "was generally
recognised, but her tact was shown rather in her fastidious-
ness than by her geniality, and the impression she pro-
duced was that she was as fully conscious of her own
superiority as she was of the inferiority of those with
whom she was brought in daily contact."

No wonder that it was also commonly said that she con-
sidered herself more competent to advance the interests
of her country, than the Emperor and his Ministers com-
bined. This, indeed, was the keynote of her character — an
overweening sense of her own importance, which may not
always be a fatal attribute ; but also an absolute disdain
for the qualities of those opposed to her, which is nearly
always so. Her power, however, of extracting confidences
from those whose knowledge might be useful to her, and
a tireless following-up of the advantages thus gained,
were undoubtedly great.

With such qualities it is not so difficult to realise that
her position as one of the patronesses of Almack's was one
which added that peculiar strength most required by that
body, but was also one which could hardly fail to strike
dismay into those who might have hoped to pass the
magic portals during some temporary lapse on the part of
other members of the tribunal. One could surely never
hope to evade the lynx-like vigilance of the Russian
Ambassadress.

She emphasised her term of office by introducing the
waltz into these aristocratic assemblies, and many of the
references to her in the memoirs and diaries of the period
are confined to her connection with Almack's.

In 1834 the Lievens were recalled to Russia, but we

find the Princess, for her husband had been created a

Prince, in this country again during the troublous year

1 By Mr L. G. Robinson, who edited her Letters in 1902.

231

1848, when she followed Guizot hither. Two years
later she took up her residence in Paris where, in 1857,
she died in the house that had once before sheltered
another great political spirit — no unfitting male counter-
part to the Princess — Talleyrand.

The Princess Lieven was one of the two foreigners who
helped to direct the destinies of Almack's, the Princess
Esterhazy l was the other. B orn Princess Theresa of Thurn
and Taxis, she married Prince Esterhazy, the Austrian
Ambassador, and with him became closely connected with
the fashionable life of this country, inasmuch as they
were both members of Almack's.

Gronow speaks of the Princess being continually seen
waltzing with the Baron de Neumann, the Secretary to
the Austrian Embassy, and in the Sketch of a Ball at
Almack's in 1815, she is delineated, most ungracefully it
must be confessed, dancing with the Comte St Antonio,
afterwards Duke of Canizzaro, a noted lady-killer and
dandy, who subsequently married Miss Johnson.

Princess Lieven, in one of her gossiping letters, describes
the Princess Esterhazy as " small, round, black, animated,
and somewhat spiteful," and adds that, although she was
" a great-niece of the Queen of England, through her
mother, the Princess of Thurn and Taxis," yet "this
relationship gives her no sort of precedence here, as she
is regarded as belonging to the corps diplomatique."

However much she may have identified herself with the
social life of the country to which her husband had been
accredited, it can hardly be supposed that the Princess's
knowledge of the various grades of our society — a

1 She must not be confounded with Lady Sarah Villiers, daughter
of Lord Jersey, who married Prince Nicholas Esterhazy in 1842.
See Raikes, vol. iv., p. 192. Raikes, by the by, erroneously states
that Princess Lieven was the only foreigner ever made a patroness
of Almack's (vol. i., p. 234).

232

THE LADY PATRONESSES

notoriously difficult subject for foreigners — would have been
extensive enough to enable her very closely to discrimin-
ate between who should and who should not be admitted
within the walls of Almack's ; and we can therefore only
regard her as adding strength to the committee by her
high birth, natural love of etiquette (for she was, we
remember, of a royal German house) and, perhaps, by
her "spitefulness," if such existed outside the rather
atrabilious imagination of the Princess Lieven.

The last of the oligarchy to be mentioned is Mrs
Drummond Burrell, who afterwards became Lady
Willoughby de Eresby, the only surviving child of James,
Lord Perth, who, had not the title been forfeited as a
result of the then Earl of Perth's sympathies with the Old
Pretender, would have been llth Earl of Perth, and his
daughter consequently Lady Clementina Drummond.

Miss Drummond, as she, however, was, married in 1807
Peter Robert Burrell, one of the dandies of the day. On
his marriage he assumed his wife's family name in con-
junction with his own. His father had been created
Lord Gwydyr, and in 1820 he succeeded to that title;
his mother was Lady Willoughby de Eresby in her own
right, and in 1828 he also succeeded to this title, which
carries with it the great post of Joint Hereditary Grand
Chamberlain, in which office he acted at the Coronation
of Queen Victoria, and for which he had acted as deputy
at that of George IV.

Both Mr and Mrs Drummond Burrell were at one time
intimate friends of the latter monarch, but there would
appear to have arisen a coolness between them for a
period, according to a passage in one of Princess Lieven 's
letters to her son. wherein she writes :

"Do you recollect Mrs Burrell, and do you remember
how she was turned out of the Prince Regent's circle?
Well, now she is one of the King's select and most

233

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

intimate group. He does not give audience to his
Ministers but he receives Mrs Burrell."

There is a sting in these lines which may or may not
have been intended ; in any case the friendship between
the King and Mrs Burrell was of a purely platonic nature,
and if there had been a temporary discontinuance of it,
this may have arisen from the fact that Mrs Burrell was
a close friend of Lady Hertford, and probably, on Lady
Jersey's rise to favour, the King was little inclined to see
much of the friend of the discarded favourite.

However, the Bun-ells, as we see, were again on the old
terms of intimacy with the Sovereign, and it was to the
husband (become Lord Gwydyr) that the King applied
to know the feelings of the dandies as to his treatment of
Queen Caroline, when it was known to be the intention of
that ill-used woman to try to force a way into the Abbey,
on the occasion of the Coronation. "It is not favourable
to your Majesty," replied Lord Gwydyr. " I care nothing
for the mob," said George IV., " but I do for the dandies " ;
and he sought Lord Gwydyr 's advice as to the best means
of propitiating this formidable body. The latter sug-
gested his Majesty's inviting them to a breakfast some-
where near the Abbey as a means of keeping them in a
good humour, which advice was promptly acted upon.

This anecdote is interesting as showing the power
wielded by a set of men whose chief objects in life were
dressing well and gambling heavily.

234

IV
THE WITS AND THE DANDIES

IT seems fitting that some account of Almack himself
should precede that of the notable men who helped to
make his rooms famous, but the difficulty is that the
material at my command is of the most meagre. Indeed,
the very year of his birth is unknown, which is a bad
beginning when one is attempting to describe a man's life.
Again, it seems uncertain whether he came of a Scottish,
an Irish or a Yorkshire family, one version giving it that
he was descended from Yorkshire Quaker stock ; another
that he was a "sturdy Celt from Galloway or Atholl,
called MacCaul.*'

It is generally believed that his original name was
Macall and that he changed it, by a process of inversion,
to Almack, when he first started as club proprietor, on
account of the odium into which anything Scottish had
fallen at this period (about the middle) of the eighteenth
century. But this is based a good deal on conjecture,
and in Notes and Queries a number of letters and other
communications on the subject leave the matter not much
clearer than it was before.

Personally I am inclined to think that no such change
was ever attempted. Almack is as common a name as
Macall, although neither is frequently met with; and
surely if a man had wanted to hide his origin he could
have done so more skilfully and more successfully than
by merely playing a conjuring trick with the letters of
his name.

What does seem to be established is that Almack was

235

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

at one time valet to the 5th Duke of Hamilton, and
that while in this capacity he became acquainted with
Elizabeth Cullen, elder daughter of William Cullen of
Sanches, Lanarkshire, who was a waiting-maid to the
Duchess, and whom he subsequently married.

About the middle of the eighteenth century he, like so
many of his countrymen, turned his eyes southward,
and, coming to London, he became the proprietor of
The Thatched House Tavern.

Here used to assemble at various times the many clubs
that had selected the place as their headquarters. No
fewer than twenty-six are given by Timbs, as well as nine
Masonic lodges which held their mysterious revels here.
Chief among the clubs were the Catch Club, the Linnean
Club, the Literary Society, the Royal Society Club and
the Dilettanti Society.

The large room of The Tavern was once hung with
portraits of the various members of the last-named,
and Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was one of them, painted
for the society three important works, two of which
were groups of the Dilettanti, "in the manner of Paul
Veronese," and the third a portrait of the great painter
himself.

Timbs says that Willis took The Tavern from a Mr
Freere about the year 1755, but it was Almack himself
who did this, Willis succeeding him, as he did, in the
proprietorship of "The Rooms."

The success of this venture induced Almack to seek
further fields to conquer, with the result that, certainly
previous to the year 1763, he had opened the club in Pall
Mall which went by his name and which was notable for
the extent of the gambling that was carried on there, even
at a time when gambling was practically universal.

This club was established on the site of the British In-
stitution buildings, and Almack appears to have been backed

236

THE WITS AND THE DANDIES

in his venture by no fewer than twenty-seven noblemen and
gentlemen, among whom the Dukes of Roxburghe and
Portland,1 Lord Strathmore, Mr Crewe and Charles James
Fox may be mentioned.

Some of the rules are instructive : thus No. 22 lays
down that "Dinner shall be served up exactly at half-past
four o'clock, and the bill shall be brought in at seven " ;
while No. 40 orders "That every person playing at the
new guinea table do keep fifty guineas before him.'*

I am not here writing the history of the club or I
might startle this more sober age by some records of
the gambling there, but something of it may be surmised
by a reference to the similar records of such clubs as
The Cocoa Tree, and Brooks's and Crockford's, where,
as we have seen, men won and lost large fortunes at a
sitting.

With the proceeds of his two clubs, which must have
amounted to a very large sum in a very small space of
time, Almack erected the Rooms in King Street, St
James's, which are more individually connected with
his career and, it is likely, will serve to perpetuate his
name better than the club by which he first became
known.

It is unnecessary to say anything here of the building
or its habitues, as I have dealt with this subject in the
preceding chapters. Nor is there much more to be said
of their proprietor.

We know from an extract from one of Gilly Williams 's
letters, which I have already quoted, that he was in the
habit of attending to his guests himself and personally
superintending his fashionable establishment, and that
his wife was an efficient coadjutor in this respect.

It may also be remarked that if he did change his name,

1 The 3rd Duke, who was First Lord of the Treasury from 1807
to 1809.

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ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

it did not deceive Gilly Williams, who speaks, as we have
seen, of his " Scotch face."

Almack is said to have lived during the latter years of
his life at Hounslow, and to have amassed great wealth.
He died on 3rd January 1781, and in the Morning
Chronicle for 6th January is an obituary notice of him.

Among other provisions of his will he left the manage-
ment of the famous Rooms to a niece, who had married
the Mr Willis after whom they began, in later days, to
be called.

This bequest is consistent with the fact that Almack
left the actual property to his daughter, who had previously
become the wife of David Pitcairn, F.R.S., F.S.A., M.D.,
and Physician - Extraordinary to the Prince of Wales.
Almack also had a son, William, who is known to have
been called to the Bar, but who probably predeceased
his father.

In the early days of Almack 's popularity the men who
affected it, or perhaps I should say who were permitted
to enter its sacred portals, were the cream of the fine
gentlemen of the period. Horace Walpole was of it,
almost as a matter of course ; so was George Selwyn ; but
alas ! his bosom friend, my Lord March, was rejected, as
we have seen. Gilly Williams, we may be sure, entered
it pretty freely, for many a letter of his contains notes of
its doings.

The Dukes of Cumberland, both he of Culloden notoriety
and he of fast life fame, assisted at its entertainments.
One supposes, too, that my Lord Upper Ossory came
pretty frequently to meet "Graf ton's Grace," with whom
he was subsequently to run away.

But in the early days of Almack 's it was the ladies who
ruled supreme and whose doings are chiefly chronicled in
the gossiping letters of the period. During its second phase
of popularity, this same characteristic also distinguished

238

THE WITS AND THE DANDIES

it ; but at the same time there arose that remark-
able set of men whom I may collectively term "The
Dandies," and these and their doings and sayings made
as great a stir as even the goings and comings of the
beautiful and witty women with whom they associated.
The late Lord Lamington wrote of "The Days of the
Dandies " ; a French writer of to-day has treated of
"Dandyism," and incidentally of its chief exponents;
and Barbey D'Aurevilly has left a little masterpiece on
Brummell, the greatest of the Dandies ; and yet the sub-
ject is never quite stale. The fact is that the Dandies
were not mere clothes-horses ; they all, or nearly all of
them, were men of something above ordinary ability, and
they certainly proved, what many slovenly men of genius,
and many who think themselves men of genius because
they are slovenly, have affected to doubt, that it is possible
to possess brains and yet wear good coats ; that a fop is
not necessarily a fool ; in a word, that fine feathers, if they
do not make, at least well become, fine birds !

By common consent the greatest of the Dandies, in the
earlier days of the movement, was Brummell ; while the
greatest wearer of his mantle (and what a cut that mantle
had!) at a later period was Count D'Orsay.

I shall try to say a few words about these two notable
men, as well as about a number of lesser stars that shone,
sometimes by their own radiance, more often perhaps in
the reflected glory of these twin luminaries.

Brummell 's is an heroic figure, although perhaps not
many people would be prepared to distinguish him by this
particular adjective ; but still an heroic figure, if you
think for a moment of the position he achieved, the power
he wielded, and then remember his stock-in-trade, as it
were, for the character of conqueror. With £30,000, a love
of clean shirts and an unparalleled aplomb, he made
himself adored by half the society of London and feared

239

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

by the whole. Royal dukes attended his morning levees ;
the greatest nobles in the land were proud to watch the
progress of his toilette, and he — he spoke to them as if they
were lackeys ; he criticised their clothes as if they were
liveries. How was it done ? Fifteen hundred a year in
the 5 per cents, was not good enough, even then, to place
anyone on such a footing as he attained.

The fact is that Society likes to be bullied, especially if
the bully be one whom it knows to be socially beneath it ;
it is something like permitting a spoiled child to take
liberties. And this child did take liberties. " Do you call
that thing a coat? " he once asked his Grace of Bedford,
the head of the Russells, the owner of how much of
London. "In Heaven's name, my dear Duchess, what
is the meaning of that extraordinary back of yours ? I
declare I must put you on a back-board ; you must
positively walk out of the room backwards, that I mayn't
see it," he once had the "audacious effrontery," as Lady
Hester Stanhope says, to remark to the Duchess of Rut-
land in the midst of a great ball. On another occasion he
walked up to Lady Hester himself and coolly took out the
earrings she was wearing, as an indication that he con-
sidered they hid the turn of her neck, which is said to have
been very beautiful. " Port ? Port ? — oh, port ! — oh, ay ;
what! the hot intoxicating liquor so much drunk by
the lower orders ? " he lisped to someone who asked him
if he liked the wine. He was annoyed because an
acquaintance once reminded him of a debt of £500 ; " and
yet," he almost pathetically exclaimed, "I had called
the dog Tom, and let myself dine with him ! " His
batterie de toilette was of silver, for, said he, "'tis im-
possible for a gentleman to spit in clay," knowing full
well that his auditors, probably a few stray dukes,
were not accustomed to spit in anything else. And so
on, and so on, down to the impudence of, "Wales,

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THE WITS AND THE DANDIES

ring the bell," and the sublimity of "Who's your fat
friend ? "

The stories are as well known as Sydney Smith's
witticisms or Sheridan's impromptu bons mots.

Brummell was no fool — we have Lady Hester Stan-
hope's word for that; indeed, the whole thing was a
skilfully thought-out pose, which took on with the blase
society in which Brummell moved; and how well for a
time it succeeded let Captain Jesse, with his two octavo
volumes on the subject, attest.

Here is a vignette of the Beau's customary toilet-leve'e
given by Lady Hester : " Sometimes he would have a
dozen dukes and marquises waiting for him whilst he was
brushing his teeth or dressing himself, and would turn
round with the utmost coolness and say to them : ' Well,
what do you want ? Don't you see I am brushing my
teeth ? ' Then he would cry : ' Oh ! there's a spot — ah !
it's nothing but a little coffee. Well, this is an excellent
powder, but I won't let any of you have the receipt for it. ' '

And yet day after day would this fashionable crowd
congregate to see that wonderful ceremony — no other
word will serve — of the toilet of George Bryan Brummell —
that ceremony which took up the best part of the morning.
I need not recapitulate Jesse's minute account of it;
suffice it to say that as much trouble, care and time, was
expended on the cravat alone as would have sufficed a
mere man to make a fortune ; and, in a sense, it was a
fortune that the dandy was making.

The Regent once said that he was "a mere tailor's
dummy to hang clothes on " ; but this was unfair coming
from such lips, for George, Prince of Wales, owed much of
his sartorial fame to Brummell. He copied his garments :
he used to give as much as £100 a-piece for the patterns
of those fine chintz dressing-gowns which the Beau had
introduced; he wore the trouser which the dandy had
Q 241

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

imported from Germany, and — he let his friend starve
when he had done with him !

I don't know that Brummell had much wit ; one or two
stories seem, indeed, to indicate some faint glimmer of it,
but his mental stock-in-trade was his impudence.

Here is a sheaf of anecdotes from the Brummell
repertoire. All the world knows of his once staying in a
country house, and asking a friend whom the distinguished-
looking man was leaning against the mantelpiece.
" Why, your host ; don't you know him ? " " Know him !
— No, why should I ? I have never been invited here ! "
But this curious liking for visiting houses uninvited —
curious, inasmuch as Brummell practically had the entree
anywhere — once led to another and less successful example
of his impertinence. Two ladies named Johnson and
Thompson, living respectively in Finsbury Square and
Grosvenor Square, both gave a party on the same night,
and the Beau was invited to the house of the former.
He, however, elected to shed the light of his countenance
on the Grosvenor Square assembly, where he hoped to
meet the Regent, with whom he was not then on terms
of amity. On his arrival, Mrs Thompson, forgetting her
politeness in her annoyance, and probably fearing the loss
of the Regent's favour if he found his enemy within her
walls, asked Brummell to leave. The latter, making
many apologies, drew slowly from his pocket the invitation
he had received from the lady of Finsbury Square and
tendered it to Mrs Thompson as his reason for being in
her rooms. Being indignantly informed that her name
was Thompson and not Johnson, "Dear me, how very
unfortunate," replied he, "but you know Johnson and
Thompson — I mean Thompson and Johnson are so very
much alike. Mrs Johnson — Thompson, I wish you good
evening."

He was once in the 10th Hussars, but left that crack

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THE WITS AND THE DANDIES

regiment when the order went forth that it was to be
stationed at Manchester — Manchester !

One cannot imagine Brummell as a soldier, attending
drill, looking after his men, fighting — surely far too vulgar
a pursuit ! Indeed, he is traditionally said to have known
his corps only by the large nose of one of the men ; and
when the latter was drafted into another regiment,
Brummell went up to it, on parade, a,nd pointed out the
nasal organ as a proof that it was his regiment.

If he was ever witty, then the remark he made to
"Poodle " Byng may be regarded as a slender proof of it, for,
meeting Byng driving with a caniche by his side, he called
out : "Ah, how d'ye do, Byng ! — a family vehicle I see."

On another occasion he was reproached by the father
of a certain young man for having led astray and ruined
the latter : "Why, sir," he replied, "I did all I could for
him. I once gave him my arm all the way from White's
to Brooks 's."

It is sad to have to confess that this " glass of fashion "
acted sometimes in a way that a coal-heaver would have
been ashamed of doing. Once at a dinner-party he
questioned the quality of the champagne, and called out
to the servant not to give him " any more of that cider " ;
at another time, finding a chicken wing too tough for his
delicate jaws, he took it up in his napkin and flung it to
his dog — for he insisted on taking the only thing he prob-
ably ever cared for with him, even to strange houses —
exclaiming : "Here, Atons, see if you can get your teeth

through it, for I'm d d if I can." Which is on a par

with the horrible grimaces he used to make if the flavour
of a dish did not please him, or he thought he detected
some foreign substance in the soup.

Often as the fear or politeness of his host or hostess
allowed such ill manners to go unreproved, Brummell
sometimes met more than his match in these encounters,

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ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

and whenever this was the case, he showed his lack of
repartee and not infrequently his fear of chastisement.

Once he was airily taking away someone's character
when a friend of the absent one demanded satisfaction or
an apology in five minutes. "Five minutes! — in five
seconds," replied the trembling Beau, as he stammered
out his regrets.

But it was Lord Mayor Combe who voiced what many
people thought, but hardly liked to express, of the char-
acter of Brummell. The scene was Brooks's, and the
brewer (for Combe was of the great firm which still exists)
and Beau were playing together: "Come, Mash-tub,"
cried the latter, "what do you set?" "A pony," was
the reply, which Brummell won, together, it is said, with
eleven more "ponies." "Thank you, Alderman; in
future I shall drink no porter but yours. " " I wish," was
the reply, " that every other blackgwrd in London would
tell me the same. "

But one must make an end, and these are but a tithe of
the stories connected with the Beau. As I have indicated,
they show but two things — one, that, like all bullies by
nature, he disregarded entirely people's feelings, and the
other, that he cut a very poor figure when he met his match.

An illustration in Captain Gronow's book shows him as
he appeared at Almack's, in 1815, in company with the
Duchess of Rutland (whose back gave him such pain),
the Comte de St Antonio, afterwards Due di Canizzaro,
and the Princess Esterhazy, one of the most potent of
the patronesses.

The original sketch in water-colours of this picture was
presented to Brummell by the artist. At the sale of the
dandy's effects in Chapel Street, Mayfair, it was purchased
by a friend of Gronow's, who subsequently gave it to him.

Here is Gronow's description of the people depicted,
whom he considered "well worthy of notice, both from

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THE WITS AND THE DANDIES

the position they held in the fashionable world, and from
their being represented with great truth and accuracy."

"The great George Brummell," he proceeds, "the
Admirable Crichton of the age, stands in a degage attitude,
with his fingers in his waistcoat pocket. His neckcloth is
inimitable, and must have cost him much time and trouble
to arrive at such perfection, as the following anecdote
shows : — A friend calling on the Beau saw the valet with
an armful of flowing white cravats and asked him if his
master wanted so many at once. 'These, sir, are our
failures, ' was the reply. ' Clean linen and plenty of it, ' was
BrummeU's maxim. He is talking earnestly to the charm-
ing Duchess of Rutland, who was a Howard and mother
to the present Duke.1 The tall man in a black coat, who
is preferring to waltz with Princess Esterhazy, so long
Ambassadress of Austria in London, is the Comte de St
Antonio, afterwards Duke of Canizzaro. He resided many
years in England, was a very handsome man and a great
lady-killer ; he married an English heiress, Miss Johnson."

Other personages who figured in the same sketch were
Charles, Marquis of Queensberry ; Baron de Neumann, then
Secretary to the Austrian Embassy ; Sir George Warrender
(who was styled by his friends Sir George Provender,
being famed for his good dinners); and the Comte St
Aldegonde, then aide-de-camp to the Duke of Orleans,
afterwards Louis-Philippe.

Chief among the Dandies, after Brummell, were Lords
Alvanley, Worcester, and Foley, Charles Standish, Brad-
shaw, Henry de Ros, John Mills, Henry Pierrepoint,
Hervey Aston, the Duke of Argyll, "Dan" Mackinnon,
Edward Montagu, "Rufus" Lloyd and George Dawson
Darner; while to these names may be added those of
several well-known men about town, who, if not exactly

1 She was Lady Elizabeth Howard, daughter of the 5th Earl of
Carlisle, and married the 5th Duke of Rutland in 1799.

245

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

beaux, at least were in the first flight of fashion and
consequently qualified to shine — as they frequently did
— at Almack's.

Of these were "King "Allen, "Ball" Hughes, the
"Silent " Hare, Jack Talbot, "Teapot " Crawfurd, "Kan-
garoo " Cooke, Scrope Davies and "Poodle " Byng. The
great D'Orsay deserves a niche to himself and shall have it,
after I have said a word about some of these lesser Dandies.

Perhaps the greatest of them was Lord Alvanley;
certainly, if tradition is to be believed, he was one of the,
if not the, wittiest. Just as at a former period all the good
things were attributed to Sheridan and, at a later day, to
Sydney Smith, so in the early years of the nineteenth
century were all the witticisms set down to the account of
Alvanley. A contemporary, in an enthusiastic outburst,
calls him "the magnificent, the witty, the famous and
the chivalrous," and asserts that he was "the idol of the
clubs and of Society, from the King to the ensign of the
Guards." Which would sound hyperbolic did we not
know that he had lived in nearly all the Courts of Europe
and was not only a remarkable linguist but an excellent
classical scholar, and that his 'naivete was such that it
exercised a charm over all who knew him. But when
this has been said I don't know that his life would be
considered as an example for youth, although possibly
an excellent tract might be made out of it.

Living in the society he did, it goes without saying that
he was extravagant, cynical and, if not exactly what one
would call immoral, certainly not up to the ethical standard
which stern moralists would require.

But his dinners were perfect — indeed, the best in London
at the time, and a good dinner hides a host of delinquencies.
There were, indeed, giants in those days, and Alvanley
was of them. He had a passion for apricots, and ordered
a tart of this fruit to be served every day throughout the

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THE WITS AND THE DANDIES

year. Fearful of the expense his cook remonstrated.
11 Go to Gunter's," exclaimed his lordship, "and buy all
the preserved apricots he has, and don't bother me

any more about the d d expense." This was an

easy way out of the difficulty, for it was a notorious
fact that Alvanley never by any chance paid ready
money for anything. Which, by the by, gives point
to the story that his friend Armstrong asked him, on
once being shown a fine hunter, how much he had paid
for it. "I awe Milton three hundred guineas for it," was
the tranquil reply.

The fact is that, although he inherited from his father
a considerable income, he was perennially in debt and, like
Digby Grant, he "had no ready money for anybody."
Not that this seems to have greatly troubled him; and
Moore tells a story of his writing to a friend on one occa-
sion thus: "I have no credit with either butcher or
poulterer, but if you can put up with turtle and turbot
I shall be happy to see you."

He had, too, a happy turn for impromptus and
repartees, of the former of which gifts the following is
an example : — He was driving with Berkeley Craven when
their carriage broke down and the latter got out to thrash
the coachman for carelessness, but, finding he was an old
fellow, said: 'Your age protects you," whereupon
Alvanley advanced to administer chastisement to the
postilion, when, observing that he was a young athletic-
looking fellow, he exclaimed in a waggish way: "Your
youth protects you."

There is, too, the story variously told of his being
shown the beautiful decorations of his house by a parvenu
millionaire, supposed to have been Mr Neeld, what time
dinner was awaiting them, when Alvanley, bored and
hungry, exclaimed: "Let's leave the gilding and come
to the carving."

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ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

He had also a knack of fixing nicknames which stuck,
one of the best being that applied to Lord Conyngham, to
whom Canning had given an appointment out of defer-
ence, it was supposed, to George IV. ; he went about
calling him Canningham.

Another bon mot which was set down to his account
was the remark apropos of Brummell's departure for the
Continent in consequence of the pressure put on him by
Soloman, the notorious moneylender of the time. "He
did quite right to be off ; it was Soloman's judgment."

Alvanley was intimate with Talleyrand, that master of
mots, and there is little doubt that his wits were sharpened
by many a "set-to" with this redoubtable antagonist.
Indeed, as Raikes says, his amiable manners and his
talents made him a welcome guest everywhere, and he
numbered among his friends the great ones of half the
countries of Europe.

As a politician he held no mean rank, although he was
one of those who cared not for office. His pamphlet on
the state of Ireland shows that he could present a case in
clear and forcible language ; but, politically, he is best
remembered by his conflict with O'Connell, who called
him a " bloated buffoon " and whom he immediately
challenged. The gage was taken up by the agitator's
son, and the parties met and exchanged more shots than
was at the time considered necessary ; however, none of
them took effect, but the encounter enhanced Alvanley 's
reputation as a wit and confirmed him as a man of courage,
for to the coachman who drove him to and from the ground
he gave a sovereign, and when the man observed that it
was more than his due (one wonders, by the by, where
that sort of cabby is to be found nowadays !) he replied :
"It is not for carrying me there, my good fellow, but for
bringing me back."

It was characteristic of the man that when someone

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THE WITS AND THE DANDIES

told him that the world was indebted to him for calling
out O'Connell he should reply : "I'm glad to hear it, for
now the world and I are quits."

That he did not desert his friends is proved by his
letters to Brummell when the latter was in exile at Calais,
which oftener than not contained substantial cheques,
although he could not resist a harmless pleasantry on the
Beau, whom he termed the one and only Dandelion of
fashion, most lions being annuals, but Brummell being
perennial.

Alvanley was an altogether superior man to many of
those who surrounded him and made up the sum of those
Dandies who gave an added brilliance to Almack's and the
other haunts of fashion.

If he was extravagant, extravagance was in the air, and
one could hardly be the friend of the Duke of York and
make a reputation as a man of fashion under the Regency
without a continual loosening of the purse-strings.1

Of many of the Dandies who graced Almack's assemblies
there is, in truth, but little to be said. They passed across
the stage of fashion and have left in the memoirs of their
day here and there a trace of their passage, but hardly
material for any particular delineation.

Such men as Lord Worcester,2 Lord Foley and the Duke
of Argyll, of course, have a place in the noble annals of
the land from their position as hereditary legislators as
well as that of leaders of fashion. Such as Pierrepoint,
Standish, Bradshaw and Mills, may be regarded as almost
international types, being as much en evidence in the
dandified circles of Paris as in those of London ; while

1 There is a coloured caricature by Deighton, representing
Alvanley going to White's, dated 1819, see page 177.

2 Afterwards 7th Duke of Beaufort, and noted, like all the
Somerset family, for his inherent courtliness and charm of
manner.

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ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

many of the others are really but names — et praeterea
nihil !

Truth to tell, the lives of most Dandies was but a dress-
ing and an undressing, a preparation for conquest, a
repetition of conquests. Danton's de Vaudace, de Vaudace,
et toujours de Vaudace, might well have stood for their
motto.

But about the phantoms of some of those I have men-
tioned anecdotes have clustered, and before I say a word
about the greatest and last of them, Count D'Orsay, it
may not be uninteresting to rescue one or two of these for
the reader's amusement.

It will be observed that several of the Dandies have been
distinguished by nicknames, almost a certain proof that
they have made some stir in the world of fashion if
nowhere else.

"Teapot" Crawfurd is a case in point, and he was
certainly one of those who bore out Wellington's assertion
that the Dandies fought splendidly in Spain. He was in
the 10th Hussars, and even in that crack regiment his
immense strength, handsome appearance and proverbial
bravery, made him a marked man.

When his regiment was inspected by the Prince
Regent before leaving for the Peninsula his Royal
Highness, who was always ready with a generous and
appropriate word, is said to have exclaimed to him :
"Go, my boy, and show the world what stuff you are
made of. You possess strength, youth and courage ; go
and conquer."

The field of Orthes, where he was in the front of
the charge, could witness that these words were not
exaggerated or thrown away upon him.

He married Lady Barbara Coventry and made a good
husband, which is a fact worth noting, and we have
Gronow's authority for knowing that as a companion he

250

THE WITS AND THE DANDIES.

was charming, his bewitching manner making him friends
everywhere.

The familiar " Teapot " had its origin so far back as his
Eton days, when he was accustomed to brew his tea in
an old black teapot, which he carefully cherished in his
maturer years of dandyism and campaigning.

Another of the set, the " Silent " Hare, was known by
this adjectival affix, on the Ittcus a non lucendo principle,
for it was bestowed on him because of his notorious
loquacity — a loquacity which found vent in many
languages, and numerous stories are told which not only
illustrate this, but also prove the extent of his knowledge
and his surprising memory.

One shall suffice here, and this one is interesting,
inasmuch as it has also been attributed to the learned
Master of Trinity, Dr Whewell, and in our own day to
Mr Gladstone.

On a certain occasion, while staying in a country house,
some of his friends made bets that they would introduce
a subject at dinner which should be too much even for his
seemingly universal knowledge. To this end they read
up an abstruse article in an old magazine on Chinese
music, and, primed with the knowledge thus obtained,
opened the discussion with the soup and kept it up gaily
between themselves. Hare, for once really living up to
his nickname, preserved a stolid silence. At length, when
his tormentors had nearly exhausted the subject in all its
bearings, he broke in and contradicted their statements
severally and at large, and finally proved them all wrong
in their facts and conclusions, ending up with: "I see,
my good fellows, whence you have taken your impressions
on the subject. You have evidently been reading an
article I wrote some ten years ago, but since then I
have studied the matter afresh and have conversed with
well-informed travellers, and I have arrived at directly

251

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

opposite conclusions to those I held when I penned the
article."1

"King " Allen, otherwise Viscount Allen, an Irish peer,
was another of the noticeable men about town of this
period. Always well groomed and somewhat pompous-
looking, he is said to have confined his walking exercise
entirely to daily promenades between Crockford's and
White's.

Allen was one of Wellington's fighting Dandies, having
distinguished himself at Talavera, where he and his men
were nearly exterminated.

He appears to have been an arbiter elegantiarum, and to
some extent a patron of the opera and the theatres, but
his perennial want of ready money must have made his
patronage rather theoretical than practical, and I think
must have embittered him, for what anecdotes survive
indicate a certain acerbity of temper, not at all consonant
with the traditionally sunny nature of a lounger in Pall
Mall or Bond Street.

His reputation as a diner-out was well sustained ; and
it is probable that he managed to scrape along, chiefly by
the aid of these eleemosynary feasts, as Fielding would
have termed them ; at least so thought one of his out-
spoken female friends, who once told him that his title
was as good as board wages to him.

He was a great friend of Sir Robert Peel, and once when
driving with him in the environs of Dublin his post-boy
had the misfortune to drive over an old woman, where-
upon an angry crowd quickly assembled, and matters
looked ominous, when the majestic form of Allen arose
in the carriage, and his voice was heard exclaiming :
"Now, post-boy, go on, and don't drive over any more

1 This Hare is not to be confounded with the friend of Selwyn,
called " The Hare with many friends " by the Duchess of Gordon,
who was also noted for his wit.

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THE WITS AND THE DANDIES

old women," and the mob made way at once for one whose
dignity and coolness could not be gainsaid.

Ball Hughes, sometimes called The Golden Ball, was a
very different person. He was a sort of millionaire, which
was in those days a rarer thing than it is now, and he
seems to have been regarded with most favourable eyes
by many mothers ; but, on the other hand, the daughters
could never be made to recognise how eligible a parti
was in their midst. Not even a course of Almack's was
sufficient to break them in ! Why Lady Jane Paget
should have thrown him over at the very last moment ;
why Lady Caroline Churchill should have refused him
point blank ; why Miss Floyd, who subsequently married
Sir Robert Peel, should have found him wanting, are
among the mysteries, for he is described as being both
handsome and well set up, with excellent manners, and
with forty thousand a year 1

As a result he married the once celebrated and much-
run-after danseuse, Mademoiselle Mercandotti — a marriage
which was for a few days the talk of the town. He carried
off his bride to the seclusion of Oatlands, which he had
purchased from the Duke of York, and the following
epigram was written by Ainsworth, on the event : —

" The fair damsel is gone ; and no wonder at all
That, bred to the dance, she is gone to a ball. "

Of Jack Talbot, that champion and idol of the fair sex,
who used to say that he would sooner disoblige his father
or his best friend than a pretty woman, I need not say
much. He was a friend of Brummell and Alvanley, and,
indeed, so far as can be ascertained, of anyone with whom
he was brought in contact ; he had, however, two failings,
and they were — claret and sherry. Alvanley once said
that if he were tapped, more of the former wine than of
blood would have been found in his veins ; and he is

253

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

known to have drunk the latter at breakfast, as an
ordinary man drinks tea or coffee.

It was hardly appropriate that he should be found dead
in his chair, with half a bottle of sherry still left standing
on the table beside him !

Another of the same gay set was Scrope Davies, who
was such an admirer of Tom Moore's genius that he used
to say the proper translation of the Horatian line, *' Ubi
plura nitent, non. egopaucis offendar maculis," was " Moore
shines so brightly that I cannot find fault with Little's
vagaries " ; while he rendered Ne plus ultra as "Nothing
better than Moore. " He was, indeed, particularly ready
in repartee and quotation, and was the type of the Dandy
— plus mind. It is probable that he is best remembered
by his reply to Brummell's appeal for money on the eve of
the latter's departure for Calais :

"My dear Scrope," wrote Brummell, "Lend me £500
for a few days ; the funds are shut for the dividends,
or I would not have made this request." Quick as
lightning came the reply : "My Dear Brummell, all my
money is locked up in the funds."

The name of " Poodle " Byng is one that greets us
continually in the pages of the social annals of this period.
As we have seen, his familiar prefix was the hook on which
Brummell hung one of his witty sayings ; and, indeed, it
was asserted that the nickname had been first given him
because he was accustomed to drive out in his "tilbury "
with a poodle by his side. Had this been so, then
BrummelPs remark would have lacked what little wit can
be attached to it ; but, as a matter of fact, Byng, or rather
the Hon. Frederick Byng, to give him his proper designa-
tion, himself once gave its true origin. When young, he
was noted for his thick curly head of hair, and Lady Bath
and Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, were both wont
to call him "their poodle " on this account.

254

THE WITS AND THE DANDIES

"Kangaroo" Cooke, so called because, on once being
asked by the Duke of York what sort of food he got in the
Peninsula, replied that "he could get nothing to eat but
kangaroo," and "Dan " Mackinnon, noted for his agility
and his love of practical joking, and of whom Grimaldi
once said that "Colonel Mackinnon has only to put on the
motley costume and he would totally eclipse me," were
among the lesser lights of Almack's and the clubs — men
whose names are remembered by a chance saying, some
strange freak, or at best by a " bubble reputation " ; but
with the great D'Orsay the case is different. His name
stands, as that of Brummell formerly stood, for the type
of dandy. Had Carlyle chosen to study the hero in
another incarnation, or had Emerson wished to make his
representative men embrace yet another class, there can
be little doubt but that they would have each selected
Brummell and D'Orsay as the mannequins on which to fit
the clothes of their philosophy.

Count D'Orsay was the last and in many respects the
greatest of the Dandies. He dressed as well as Brummell
and his manners were infinitely better ; he was, besides,
a man of wit and many accomplishments — a sculptor and
a clever artist, besides being extremely handsome and of
fine physique. "When he appeared in the perfection of
dress," says one who knew him, "with that expression
of self-confidence and self-complacency which the sense
of superiority gives, he was the observed of all." His
kindliness of disposition was, too, proverbial, and his wit
was only equalled by his appreciation of wit in others.

Of course it goes without saying that he was extrava-
gant— it was his role to be so ; but if, as Lord Lamington
says, " he was sui profusus, he was never alieni appetens,"
and greater men have had worse epitaphs.

When he appeared at Almack's he was the cynosure
of every eye, as Brummell had been before him. But

255

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

whereas the latter was feared and imitated, the former
was " dressed at " and regarded with something as near
affection as any man can be who is superior to his fellows
in dress, in looks and in manners.

The general consensus of contemporary opinion is
favourable to D'Orsay, and even his connection with Lady
Blessington seems only to have misled those who, like
Creevey, were willing, if not anxious, to be misled into
regarding it as nothing but a vulgar liaison. Their con-
duct was, doubtless, injudicious in the highest degree, but
I think it may be regarded as only injudicious.

Count D'Orsay seems to have inherited his good looks
from his father, one of Napoleon's officers, whom that
critic of men once described as " aussi brave que beau " ;
his wit from his mother, an illegitimate daughter of the
King of Wtlrtemberg; and his artistic tastes from his
paternal grandfather, who lost most of his treasures during
the Revolution.

From a child, D'Orsay was notable, both physically and
mentally, and his attachment to the Bonapartes, inculcated
in his youthful mind, seems, notwithstanding some causes
for complaint during his latter years, never to have left
him.

After serving in the Army he came to England for the
first time about the year 1821, accompanied by his sister,
who had been married to the Due de Guiche, afterwards
Due de Grammont, who himself had been educated in this
country and whose sister had married Lord Ossulston,
later Earl of Tankerville, which facts are interesting as
largely accounting for the warm reception given to young
D'Orsay himself.

It was on this occasion that he became acquainted with
Lord and Lady Blessington, and subsequently, at their
earnest desire, accompanied them on a tour through
France and Italy.

256

THE WITS AND THE DANDIES

He married, in 1827, Lady Harriet Gardiner, daughter
of Lord Blessington by his first wife, from whom he
was subsequently separated. This incident is the least
defensible in his career, inasmuch as he ought never to
have consented to marry a woman for whom he did not
really care.

After the separation he lived in constant intercourse
with Lady Blessington, whom he regarded as a mother,
according to his solemn assurance to Madden, the
biographer of the lady.

Indeed, D'Orsay never seems to have entirely recovered
from the blow caused by her death, and his latter years in
Paris, where he fought against poverty by doing some
artistic work, were but years of sorrow and regrets. He
died in 1852, and with him died the type of which he was
so notable an example.

The name of D'Orsay reminds me that some of the
foreign residents in London who did so much towards
the success of Almack's, deserve a word at the conclusion
of this chapter.

It is probable that at no time has London teemed with
so many illustrious " aliens " as at the moment when, the
great Napoleon having been finally beaten, Europe gave
itself up to that sort of delight that a schoolboy may feel
when his master has been called away and he is free to
follow his own devices.

Englishmen overran the Continent ; foreigners forgot
their traditional terrors of the Channel and flocked to see
what manner of strange being John Bull might be at
home.

I don't know whether Almack's was as particular
about admitting foreigners within its precincts as it was
in allowing any but the most eligible of Englishmen into
its rooms. Probably; for most of those who became
regular visitors here either bore the names of great
R 257

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

families or were attached to the numerous embassies
which, now that Napoleon's yoke was removed, were sent
over from the various countries that had for years been
under his domination.

Of such were, of course, Prince Paul Esterhazy, the
Austrian Ambassador, and the Baron de Neumann,
Secretary to that Embassy, and both, as we have seen,
closely connected with Almack's and inveterate dancers
at its assemblies.

The Prince, one of that great Hungarian family whose
name is illustrious in European politics and social life,
was the son of Prince Nicholas Esterhazy, and was born
in 1786. After serving as Austrian Minister to Dresden
and in Westphalia he was, in 1814, promoted Ambassador
to Rome, but in the following year was transferred to
London, where he remained three years. Returning
again in 1830 he continued here till 1838, when he retired
from active political work and went to reside on his vast
estates, where he died in 1861. His connection with
this country was further emphasised by the fact that
his son, Prince Nicholas, married in 1842 Lady Sarah
Villiers, daughter of the 5th Earl of Jersey and of Lady
Jersey, the redoubtable patroness of Almack's.

Baron de Neumann became equally closely connected
with us, for he married Lady Augusta Somerset, daughter
of the 7th Duke of Beaufort, and died in 1850, not long after
he had been appointed Austrian Ambassador at Florence.
He seems to have been very friendly with Raikes and,
although not, as a rule, communicative, as no diplomatist
should be, to have imparted a certain modicum of political
news to the diarist, who duly noted it.

Another foreign figure at Almack's was the Comte St
Antonio, who is shown in the sketch of the 1815 ball there
as dancing with Princess Esterhazy. The Comte later
became Due di Canizzaro, and appears to have been

258

THE WTTS AND THE DANDIES

married to Miss Johnson,1 an heiress. That they did not
get on well together is evidenced by Raikes, who speaks
of the husband only seeming anxious to avoid every
country where his wife might happen to take up her
residence, and more particularly by the fact that they
were afterwards separated. The Duke survived his wife,
dying at Como in 1841, "said," writes Raikes, "to
have been poisoned by overdoing the homoeopathic
system."

Another habitu€ of Almack's who married an English
girl was the Comte de Flahault, to whom Miss Mercer,
daughter of Admiral Lord Keith and his first wife, co-
heir of Colonel Mercer, was united. Many were the
aspirants to Miss Mercer's hand. She favoured at one
time, the Princess Lieven tells us, Comte Pahlen, at
another Narischkine, and there was even talk of Byron's
marrying her, which, according to the message he sent her
on his leaving England, seems to have been more than
probable. Miss Mercer was an heiress, and a beautiful
one, and the Comte was considered a lucky man in win-
ning her. In 1823 she succeeded to the Barony of Keith,
and fourteen years later to that of Nairne, through her
maternal grandfather.

Baron Tripp and M. Bourblanc are the last of the
foreigners associated with Almack's who require a few
words. The former was a Dutchman and emigrated from
Holland at the beginning of the century, according to
Raikes, on whose diary I rely for the facts known about
him and M. Bourblanc.

Tripp obtained a commission in the 10th Light
Dragoons, the Prince Regent's own regiment, and with
this connection with a crack regiment, coupled with a
handsome face and a pleasant manner, he was received
by the world of fashion with open arms. He was, says

1 Raikes spells it Johnston.
259

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

Raikes, "an agreeable boaster, swearing like a Hussar
and speaking a sort of baragouin, half German, half
French-English, which was very entertaining. "

Later, Tripp took up his residence in Brussels, where a
duel with the father of a young lady to whom he had paid
too marked attention excited a not very favourable im-
pression. Subsequently he migrated to Florence, where
he lived a good deal in the society of Lord and Lady
Burghersh. There he fell in love with a married lady
named Mrs Fitzherbert, and finished an ornamental, if
not particularly useful, career by shooting himself with a
pistol borrowed from a friend, whether from jealousy or
unrequited passion, or really because, as he said in some
lines he left scribbled on his writing-table, because he was
tired of life, is a mystery.

Bourblanc's fate was a still more tragic one and curiously
out of keeping with his fleeting career among the most
highly civilised society of the day, for, having been sent
by his Government on some distant mission, the ship he
sailed in touched at an unknown island and Bourblanc
joined a landing-party. They had, however, hardly set
foot on shore before they were surrounded by cannibals,
killed and actually devoured by the savages, in the very
sight of their vessel !

The unhappy victim of this awful fate had been an
attache" to an embassy, had been a great exponent of the
waltz and the quadrille at Almack's, and had even written
verses in defence of the former dance, singing its innocence
and its charms — lines which, if not very good, were
supported by irreproachable sentiments, and he had lived
in the best society of his day. Could, then, a fate be
more singular than that he should fall a victim to savage
hands and be eaten by savage jaws.

260

V
THE LATER HISTORY OF ALMACK'S

As we have seen, Almack's hey-day of fashion and splendour
lasted from its inauguration in 1765 till about 1835.
After that period, however, signs were not wanting that
its decay was at hand, and, as I have noted, a writer in
The Quarterly did not fail to observe this in 1840.

It is not difficult to understand the reason for this
gradual decay. In the first place, conditions of society
were rapidly changing. With the accession of Queen
Victoria an entirely new era was inaugurated, and the
very fact that a female sovereign sat on the throne made
it more difficult for powerful ladies of the aristocracy to
sustain that leadership of fashion which did not clash with
royal prerogative in this respect, while easy-going monarchs
like George IV. and William IV. governed the country.

Added to this, we must remember that the ladies who
formed the most formidable portion of the once powerful
tribunal of Almack's were undeniably growing old, or
else, as in the case of the Princess Lieven and the Princess
Esterhazy, had left this country ; and the break-up of
this "coalition," combined with the new conditions of
society that soon obtained, was quite sufficient to weaken
so seriously the constitution of Almack's that it gradually
became at first demode" and then but a memory.

With the extinction of the balls Almack's was generally
known as Willis's Rooms, although long before their dis-
continuance Willis, the nephew of Almack, had managed
them.

During the earlier years of the Victorian era the rooms

261

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

were used for dances, lectures and readings, and concerts.
Indeed, so far as the last-named entertainments were
concerned, there had been a precedent, for it is known
that the lady patronesses from time to time permitted
concerts and balls l to be given here for the benefit of
fashionable professors of dancing and celebrated musicians
and singers. Here, from 1808 to 1810, Mrs Billington
and Braham and Signer Naldi gave a series of concerts in
opposition to those of Madame Catalini at the Hanover
Square Rooms. Here M. Fierville held his subscription
balls, for which Bartolozzi engraved the beautiful little
benefit tickets, as well as many other similar entrance
cards for various benefit performances given at Almack's,
which are still to be met with.2

In 1839 there appeared here one of those remarkable
prodigies of which we have seen so many in our own day.
In this case it was a Master Bassie, aged thirteen who,
according to Thornbury, "appeared here in an extra-
ordinary mnemonic performance."

Five years later Charles Kemble gave his "Readings
from Shakespeare " in the great ballroom. But the
rooms were to resound to the voices of still more remark-
able men, for here, in 1851, Thackeray delivered his series
of Lectures on the English Humourists. The course
was given on the afternoons of the 22nd and 29th of May,

1 In July 1821 a splendid ball was given here in honour of the
Coronation of George IV. by the Due de Grammont, Envoy Extra-
ordinary from the French Court, when the King, the Duke of
Wellington and various members of the Royal Family were present.
Rush, in his Court of London, mentions this dance, and notes
that a beautiful bouquet was presented to each lady as she entered
the room.

2 In the author's possession is a " Gentlemen's Ticket !l for the
" Amicable Assembly " held here on the i6th of May 1822 ; it
is not filled up with the name of the recipient, but bears that
of the Secretary, J. K. Silver, who acted as Introducer in this
instance.

262

LATER HISTORY

the 12th, 19th and 26th of June and the 3rd of July,
the price of admission being £2, 2s. for the set of six
lectures, these seats being reserved, and 7s. 6d. for a single
unreserved place.

Seldom, perhaps, had that "great painted and gilded
saloon, with long sofas for benches," as Charlotte Bronte
described it, been filled, even in the hey-day of its fashion,
with such an illustrious throng. Here were to be seen
the authoress of Jane Eyre timidly exchanging greetings
with Monckton Milnes and Lord Carlisle; here that
amusing diarist, Caroline Fox, noted Carlyle, Dickens and
the painter Leslie, besides "innumerable noteworthy
people " ; here came the learned Hallam, the omniscient
Macaulay, the very "blue " Harriet Martineau.

Charlotte Bronte and Caroline Fox have both left their
impressions of the reader and his treatment of his subject,
and the former writes that " there is quite a furore for his
lectures" ; "they are a sort of essay, characterised by his
own peculiar originality and power, and delivered with
a finished taste and ease, which is felt but cannot be
described " ; while Miss Fox records how the lecturer
"reads in a definite, rather dry manner, but makes you
understand thoroughly what he is about."

After the lecture at which Charlotte Bronte was present,
Thackeray came towards her and asked her for her opinion
on his performance; but before another of the series he
seems to have been in a state of nervousness, rendering
him incapable of thinking or acting for himself at all,
and Fanny Kemble, in her Records of Later Life, gives an
amusing picture of the scene.

"I found him," she writes, "standing like a forlorn, dis-
consolate giant in the middle of the room, gazing about
him. * Oh, Lord ! ' he exclaimed, as he shook hands with
me, ' I'm sick at my stomach with fright 1 ' I spoke
some words of encouragement to him and was going away,

263

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

but he held my hand like a scared child, crying, ' Oh, don't
leave me!' 'But,' said I, 'Thackeray, you mustn't
stand here. Your audience are beginning to come in,'
and I drew him from the middle of his chairs and benches,
which were beginning to be occupied, into the retiring
room adjoining the lecture-room. . . . Here he began
pacing up and down, literally wringing his hands in
nervous distress. 'Now,' said I, 'what shall I do ?
Shall I stay with you till you begin, or shall I go and leave
you to collect yourself ? ' ' Oh,' he said, ' if I could only
get at that confounded thing (the lecture) to have a last
look at it ! ' ' Where is it ? ' said I. ' Oh I in the next
room on the reading-desk.' When she had fetched it
she accidentally let it fall, tumbling the leaves in inextric-
able confusion. 'My dear soul,' said Thackeray, 'you
couldn't have done better for me. I have just a quarter
of an hour to wait here and it will take me about that to
page this again, and it's the best thing in the world that
could have happened.' "

The other great voice that echoed in that room was
that of Dickens, who, although he delivered none of his
lectures here, on two occasions presided at public dinners
in the Great Room, the first being on 14th February 1866,
when he acted as chairman at the annual feast of the
Dramatic, Equestrian and Musical Fund, and spoke in
support of the institution, and also proposed one of the
toasts ; the second being on 5th June of the following year,
when he took the chair at the Ninth Anniversary Festival
of the "Railway Benevolent Society," and proposed the
toast of the evening in that felicitous manner that earned
for him the reputation of being one of the best after-dinner
speakers of his time.

It is not necessary to specify all the various entertain-
ments that have taken place in Willis's Rooms since the
time of Almack's assemblies to that when they were

264

LATER HISTORY

appropriated to their present uses; such a list would be
rather tiresome and not particularly instructive.

To-day the Great Room has become the auction mart
of the well-known firm of Messrs Robinson & Fisher, who
have made such alterations in the adjoining parts of
the building in their occupation as were required by the
exigencies of their business, forming spacious offices
at the top of that once so celebrated staircase, beside
which a note of modernity is given by the presence of
the nowadays indispensable lift.

That there is a precedent for the use of the rooms for
such a purpose is evidenced by the fact that on 20th July
1837 Messrs J. G. & G. A. Sharp sold here by auction,
"By Order of the Trustees appointed by His Majesty for
the Collection and Distribution of the Deccan Booty," the
famous Nassuck Diamond (weighing 357£ grains — and of
the Purest Water), which had been "captured by the
Combined Armies " — I quote the catalogue lying before
me — "under the command of the late Most Noble
General the Marquis of Hastings, G.C.B., etc., etc."

Together with this famous stone were disposed of (by
order of the executors of the late Mr Bridge of Ludgate
Hill) "The Celebrated Arcot Diamonds, which were
formerly sold by direction of the Executors of Her late
Majesty, Queen Charlotte," as well as other valuable
jewels, formerly in the possession of Louis XVI., Marie
Antoinette, Joseph Bonaparte and the Sultan Selim.

The catalogue is illustrated by copper-plates represent-
ing the various facets of the Nassuck Diamond and also
the Arcot Diamonds.

The latter were the famous stones which Warren
Hastings, on his return to England in 1785, presented
to Queen Charlotte, and which were supposed to have
influenced her Majesty in receiving Mrs Hastings, whose
past had not been irreproachable.

265

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

At Queen Charlotte's death they had been purchased
by Mr Bridge, the famous jeweller.

Other portions of Almack's have undergone a radical
change ; on the west side of the entrance is now Prince's
Restaurant — a fashionable resort, and it is said favourably
entreated of by White's Club itself ; on the east side are
various small business premises, flanked at the end by
the old-world house which forms the headquarters of
the Orleans Club; so that few traces of the original
characteristics of the once famous Almack's remain.

266

/ •

CONSIDERING what an important part was played by
Almack's in the realms of fashion, and also what an
amount of power and influence was wielded by the lady
patronesses who directed its fortunes, it is but natural
that in the fiction of the day it should be continually
mentioned, and its high priestesses made to play a part
in the novels which appeared during the early years of
the nineteenth century, especially when we remember
that these novels were what are wont to be termed
"fashionable " ones.

Thackeray has had his laugh at this sort of literature,
and, indeed, there is not much to be said in its defence ;
but if one wished to enact the part of the advocatus
diaboli, one might point out that it had its uses, and still
has its value, in presenting a more or less correct picture
of the manners of a period which seems as far removed
from us as the times of the Tudors or Stuarts.

The days when it was considered the thing to drive down
to Richmond and dine at The Star and Garter ; to dance
nightly at The Pantheon, The Argyle Rooms, or Almack's ;
to pass the evening at Ranelagh or Vauxhall, are gone
with the snows of yester-year. No longer does the gilded
youth of the period twist off knockers, upset Charleys
(the Charley is as dead as the megatherium !), or frequent
The Shades or the Thieves' Kitchen, or other haunts as
low or disreputable.

Bohemia has enlarged its borders, and the inhabitants
of that free-and-easy country now take their pleasures, if

267

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

s -

more soberly, at least in better lighted and regulated
haunts. But in the earlier days of the last century things
were different ; there was a certain boisterous merriment
about the nocturnal pleasures of our forbears which neither
the L.C.C. nor the Metropolitan Police would think of
permitting.

The novelists and recorders of manners and customs in
the earlier days, when Almack's flourished, have, however,
a different tale to tell, and the telling of it, if it sometimes
fills us with some disgust, at least helps to picture to our
minds how curious and complete a change of life has
befallen London in the relatively short space of time which
has since passed by.

The sort of assemblies of which Almack's was the most
important, the most select, the most tyrannic, have no
equivalent to-day ; and such novels as record its customs
and the manners of its habitues, even if they are, as is
generally the case, otherwise worthless, possess a sort of
value as documents pour servir for a more complete
comprehension of its history, and form, indeed, a kind of
antiquarian guide to its secret annals.

The chief work of fiction bearing on our particular
theme is itself entitled Almack's, which shows that it is
not only largely based on this institution, but promises
some interesting side-lights on its inner workings, from
the point of view of a contemporary.

Almack's was published by Saunders & Otley, of
Conduit Street, in 1827, and that it had some success
is proved by the fact that at least three editions were
called for. This success is easily understood when it is
remembered that the novel was of that order known as
"Romans a clef," in which actual personages are adum-
brated under the veil of fictitious names; and though
Almack's bears on its title the excellent advice of Othello,
to "Nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice,"

268

IN FICTION

this maxim was not always strictly adhered to. The
three volumes in which the work appeared were prefaced
by a dedication, which must be given in full. It runs
thus :

To that Most Distinguished and Despotic
CONCLAVE,

Composed of their High Mightinesses the
Lady Patronesses of the Balls at

ALMACK'S,

The Rulers of Fashion, the Arbiters of Taste, the
Leaders of Ton, and the Makers of Manners, whose
Sovereign sway over "the world" of London has
long been established on the firmest basis, whose
Decrees are Laws, and from whose judgement there
is no appeal ;

To these important Personages, all and severally,
who have formed, or who do form, any part of that

ADMINISTRATION,
usually denominated

THE WILLIS COALITION CABAL

Whether Members of the Committee of Supply,

or
CABINET COUNSELLORS,

Holding seats at the Board of Control,

The following pages,
are with all due respect, humbly dedicated by

AN OLD SUBSCRIBER.

I am not going to inflict on a long-suffering reader
my account of the novel ; I have read it through and fail
to detect anything in the nature of a plot. It consists,
indeed, simply of a number of scenes of fashionable life in
town and country, and the main object of everybody seems
to be how they can best advance their own interests as
aspirants for fashionable fame.

Homer sings of the search for the Golden Fleece ;

269

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

Malory writes of the quest of the Holy Grail ; the novelist
of 1827 shows us the pursuit of tickets for subscription
dances !

The knights of the beginning of the nineteenth century
did not keep holy vigils, or, sheathed in mail, rescue high-
born damsels from the clutch of dragons or robbers : no ;
these later embodiments of the chivalric idea entered
into long and difficult intrigues to procure a card of ad-
mission to Almack's, and the guerdon they received was
a belated dance or the privilege of finding their fair one's
carriage at what-you-like-o'clock of a rainy morning !

This is how one of the characters in the novel, the
Marchioness of Glenmore, though in " a delicate situation,"
speaks of the chance of figuring in those rooms : "Oh !
Lady Anne, do you know I have got a promise from my
Lord that I shall go to Almack's when I am in town ? that
is, if I am pretty well. I told him I would lie on the sofa
now as long as he pleased if he would promise me that ;
and so he did, and I took care to have a written agreement
about it. I do so long to go there."

One can hardly credit the trouble that was taken to
procure tickets, but as Lady Anne, in the novel, exclaims :
"The fuss makes the pleasure," and for this reason, as
she continues, "the uncertainty attending your success;
getting a ticket when you know how many girls have been
refused who have superior pretensions to any you can
boast ; the consciousness that you owe all your interest
to your personal merit, your good looks, your ton., your
taste in dress, your graceful dancing, or your lively wit.
Oh! there is nothing like Almack's." But it is not
only the ladies who are enthusiastic about the place.
"Almack's! " exclaims Lord Hazlemore to Lady Anne,
"delightful word! Does not it make your heart beat
even to hear it ? There is nothing worth living for in
town till the lady patronesses are arrived, and dear Lady

270

.IN FICTION

Hauton is busy with her committees and her tickets."
Another character, Lord Glenmore, is not, however, of this
way of thinking, and he utters some home- truths on the
subject: "The system of Almack's," he says, "is alto-
gether the most unnatural coalition that ever existed in
any society. A set of foolish women caballing together to
keep the rest of the world in their trammels, who have no
kind of right to do so but what they choose to arrogate to
themselves, is a very curious state of things certainly, but
that they should have found hundreds of independent
people silly enough to bend to their yoke is the most
extraordinary part of the story."

Lord and Lady Tresilian agree with this verdict. The
former, asked how he would describe good society, replies :
"In the Almack's acceptation it means the friends, ad-
mirers and toadies of the six ladies patronesses, foreigners
of all countries and of all grades, who speak French or
broken English. If you do not belong to any one of these
classes, vain are your pretensions : you can never be
admitted to be one of tis. " To which Lady Tresilian adds
quite a little history of the procedure of the patronesses.

"This institution," says her ladyship, "has now
existed ten years, and six self-elected female sovereigns
have, during all that time, held the keys of the great world,
as St Peter was supposed to do those of the kingdom of
Heaven. These ladies decide, in a weekly committee, upon
the distribution of the tickets for admission : the whole is
a matter of favour, interest, or calculation ; for neither
rank, distinction, nor merit of any kind will serve as a
plea, unless the candidate has the good fortune to be
already upon the visiting-book of one of these all-powerful
patronesses. Not to be known to one of the six, must
indeed argue yourself quite unknown." And she adds:
" Almack's is a system of tyranny which would never be
submitted to in any country but one of such complete

271

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

freedom that people are at liberty to make fools of them-
selves " ; while her husband ends the discussion by in-
forming Colonel Montague, whom they are both initiating
into the mysteries of Almack's, that a certain distinguished
foreigner, over in this country in an official position,
determined not to submit to these rigorous rules, but that
he had to finally give in, and in doing so he was heard to
exclaim :

"Qu'est-ce que la gloire ! il n'y en a done plus!
Quand on a vu le Conque*rant d'Austerlitz mourir a St
Helene, et son vainqueur content de se mettre sur la liste
des e'le'gantes d 'Almack's, on peut bien dire, 'II n'y a plus
de gloire ! '

The seventh chapter of the third volume is entitled
"Almack's Ball," and is headed by those lines in
Luttrell's Advice to Julia, in which the poet exclaims :

"Oh ! that I dared, since hearts of iron
Melt at the strains of Moore and Byron,
Borrow their thoughts and language now
To paint our Almack's belles : for how,
Unless their Muse my fancy warms,
Describe such features and such forms."

I don't think any specific details of this chapter would
be exhilarating. Balls are much alike, and those at
Almack's seem not greatly to have varied from those we
have all attended. The point was the difficulty in getting
admitted, and of that, I think, I have given sufficient
proof.

It is evident that the author of the novel, whoever he
may have been, was au courant with the various modes
of procedure, both in the matter of allotting or with-
holding tickets, the election of patronesses and the rules
formulated by the tribunal. Of the latter he gives a copy ;
while the notification to the Baroness de Wallenstein of

272

IN FICTION

her election to that body is obviously an authentic
document filled in with fictitious names. It runs thus :
"James and William Willis have received the instruc-
tions of the Ladies Patronesses of the balls at Almack's,
to inform the Baroness de Wallenstein that, at the Com-
mittee held this day, an unanimous resolution was passed,
to confer on her Excellency the office of Patroness, vacant
by the resignation of the Dowager Countess of Lochaber."

"KING STREET, ST JAMES'S.

"J. and W. Willis have the honour to inform the
Baroness de Wallenstein that the regular committee for
the discharge of business will meet as usual, on Monday
the 8th of April, when her attendance is most earnestly
and particularly desired. The Countess of Hauton in
the Chair."

But if this is a substantially correct transcript of one of
the regular notices issued under such circumstances, an
advertisement supposed to have been sent to the papers
by the management of Almack's, which Lady Anne reads
to Lady Hauton and Lady Norbury, and which she says
to those grandes dames " cuts you all up famously," is an
amusing skit, and shows much knowledge of the various
characters of the patronesses. I will give it in full and
it shall be the last extract from these not altogether
unamusing volumes :

"ALMACK'S.

"A vacancy having occurred in the direction of
Almack's, we have been solicited to give currency to the
following

" ADVERTISEMENT.

" Wanted for the ensuing season at Almack's, as
Patroness, a person of undeniable character, quick parts,
s 273

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

good address, and well known in the fashionable world :
she must possess a good memory, be complete mistress of
the peerage, and write a free running hand, besides being
sufficiently grounded in the rudiments of arithmetic to
understand the extent of the numbers to be admitted on
her books. Her manner must be decided, so that she
be always capable of giving evasive answers or positive
denials, according to the situation of those from whom she
receives applications.

"She must possess great tact, in order to be able to
practise with precision the different degrees of the art of
cutting ; which last qualification must be a sine qua non
previous to any attempt to enter as candidate.

"And whereas many extraordinary-looking persons,
whose faces were unknown, have occasionally been suffered
to appear at Almack's, more especially about Easter, it is
hereby specified that none can be considered candidates
for the office who are in any way connected with any
singular-looking persons of either sex.

" The above regulation will be strictly attended to, as,
owing to the Ladies Patronesses' desire of obliging, the
Committee might find themselves placed in disagreeable cir-
cumstances. No very good-natured person need apply, as
it takes much time to get rid of that objectionable quality.

"N.B. — The situation is particularly adapted for
widows. The inconvenience of disobliging persons of
respectability who come from the country (and who of
necessity are among the proscrits) having led to serious
consequences in county elections.

"Apply to any of the Ladies Patronesses for further
information."

Some time after the appearance of the novel a key to it
was issued, said to have been compiled by no less a person
than Benjamin Disraeli. Some of the names are not

274

IN FICTION

difficult to guess without its aid, Lady Hauton being
Lady Jersey, and the Baroness de Wallenstein thinly veil-
ing the Princess Lieven ; by its help, however, the whole
dramatis personce stand forth as well-known personages.

The name of Disraeli reminds me that in some of his
earlier novels Almack's figures. Particularly does one
recall the debut of that wonderful young duke here, where
"he galloped with grace and waltzed with vigour," and
"his dancing was declared consummate." But when the
author takes us to Castle Dacre he warns us that the party
assembled there were not fashionable people, and tells us
that "we shall sadly want a lady patroness to issue a
decree or quote her code of consolidated etiquette." "I
am not sure," he adds, "that Almack's will ever be men-
tioned " ; but at the same time we must remember that
the name of Lady Almack is introduced in Vivian Grey
as indicating a noble dame of ultra-fashionable proclivities.

In those now long-forgotten three-volume novels of
the twenties, thirties and forties of the last century — the
works of Mrs Moberley and John Mills and a host of other
now well-nigh unknown writers of fiction — books which
are sometimes found in second-hand stalls or are occasion-
ally met with among the unregretted rubbish of seaside
circulating libraries — Almack's name occurs again and
again, and many of these volumes are filled with the
fashionable flummery of which Almack's was the special
temple.

It is not surprising that in the novels of Dickens
Almack's receives no mention. Thackeray, on the other
hand, although I don't remember any allusion to it in his
greater books, posed as a man of fashion and knew the
rooms probably at first hand ; in any case the egregious
" Jeames de la Pluche, Exquire," is to be found alluding
to himself as "worling round in walce at Halmax with
Lady Harm, or lazaly stepping a kidrill with Lady Jane."

275

ANNALS OF ALMACK'S

So, too, in Tom and Jerry we find that wonderful pair,
with Corinthian Tom, making a glorious trio, now in Tom
Cribb's parlour, now at the opera, the play, and, bliss of
bliss, at Almack's itself, "amidst a crowd of high-bred
personages, with the Duke of Clarence himself looking at
them dancing."1

The pencil of Cruikshank has immortalised the doings
of these heroes and shows us the gilded hall of the great
Temple of Fashion itself.

I have always thought it rather strange that in
D'Horsay, or The Follies of the Day, where high life, and
sometimes very low life indeed, is described with some
minuteness, and the career of the great D'Orsay himself
forms the staple of the argument, as it were, no mention is
made of Almack's. Was it that Mills, its author, feared
to desecrate the sacred place by too rough handling ?
Had he received a hint that such a reference would be
resented ? Is the absence of the name due to respect,
inadequacy or caution ?

Although the references to Almack's in the fiction of the
day are general rather than particular and, except in the
novel from which I have quoted at some length, hardly
repay the time necessary for a careful investigation, there
is one little book published in the twenties in which the
name occurs again and again. I allude to the Advice to
Julia, the work of that witty man about town, Henry
Luttrell.

The poem is one of those of which the name is, I
suspect, better known than the lines themselves, but it
is well worth reading, because, in always easy, sometimes
graceful and frequently witty verse, the author gives us a
clearly defined picture of the period, so far as that period
is represented by the fashionable life of the West End.
Indeed, the poem may be described as a generalising

1 See Thackeray's Roundabout Paper entitled " De Juventute."

276

IN FICTION

journal in verse, and considering the extravagant vagaries
of fashion at the period in which it was penned, it is agree-
ably free from spite or bitterness, although the author is
ever ready to hit off in easy persiflage the passing follies
of the hour.

I have already quoted some lines from the work in an
earlier chapter ; let me give a few more extracts :

"There " (at Almack's), writes Luttrell,

"There, baffled Cupid points his darts
With surer aim, at jaded hearts ;
And Hymen, lurking in the porch,
But half conceals his lighted torch.
Hence the petitions and addresses
So humble to the Patronesses ;
The messages and notes, by dozens,
From their Welch aunts and twentieth cousins,
Who hope to get their daughters in
By proving they axe founders' kin."

Indeed, to such an extent did this sort of thing go that
in a note to the poem it is actually asserted that an applica-
tion made to the patronesses on behalf of a young lady,
contained her portrait ! — which astounding fact is referred
to in the following lines : —

"Hence the smart miniatures enclosed
Of unknown candidates proposed ;
Hence is the fair divan at Willis's
Beset with Corydons and Phillises,
Trying, with perseverance steady,
First one, and then another lady,
Who oft, 'tis rumoured, don't agree,
But clash like law and equity ;
Some for the Rules in all their vigour,
Others to mitigate their rigour."

Well may the author ask :

"How shall the Muse, with colours faint
And pencil blunt, aspire to paint
Such high-raised hopes, such chilling fears ? "

277

"The bold becomes an abject croucher,
And the grave — giggle for a voucher ";

and can see

" — all bow down — maids, widows, wives —
As sentenced culprits beg their lives,
As lovers court their fair one's graces,
As politicians sue for places."

The introduction of the quadrille presented unexpected
difficulties to the novices of that now too familiar dance,
and an expedient was found for those who were unable to
stamp the various figures on their memory ; in fact, this
was no less than a card of directions, and the curious
spectacle was thus presented of a dancer who, to continue
in Luttrell's words,

"Holds, lest the figure should be hard,
Close to his nose a printed card,
Which, for their special use invented,
To Beaus, on entrance, is presented ;
A strange device, but all allow
'Tis useful — as it tells them how
To foot it in the proper places
Much better than their partner's faces."

There is much more in the same strain, but an end must
be made of quotations. Let me finish them with a few
lines, in which the apotheosis of splendour is reached, and,
notwithstanding the heart-burnings outside the magic
portals, all within is light and laughter :

"O ! Julia, could you now but creep
Incog, into the room and peep,
Well might you triumph in the view
Of all he has resign 'd to you !

278

IN FICTION

Mark, how the married and the single
In yon gay groups delighted mingle !
Midst diamonds blazing, tapers beaming,
Midst Georges, stars and crosses gleaming,
We gaze on beauty, catch the sound
Of music, and of mirth around ;
And Discord feels her empire ended
At Almack's — or at least suspended."

279

INDEX

ABBOT, John, 44

Adam, 42

Adam, Robert, 143

Adams, 154

Addington, 136

Addison, Joseph, 101, 133, 138, 158,

171, 178

Advice to Julia, 272, 276-279
Affleck, Sir Gilbert, 117
Agas's Plan, 13
Ainsworth, 253
Akenside, Mark, 77
Albemarle Buildings, 30
Albion Club, 52
Alexander, Sir George, 60
Allen, Viscount, 246, 252
Almack's (novel), 268
Alvanley, Lord, 136, 177, 245-249
Andover, Lord, 16
Angelo's School of Arms, 44
Anglesey, Lord, 215
Anne, Princess, 76
" Anti- Procrustes," 37
Apsley, Sir Allan, 20
Architects' Club, 161
Archives, Institute of, 160
Arcot diamonds, 265
Argyle Rooms, 267
Argyll, Duke of, 245, 249
Arlington, Earl of, 32, 78-79
Arlington Street, 32, 34, 75-90
Armistead, Lord, 119
Arran, Lord, 72
Arthur, John, 123
Arthur, Robert, 125, 128
Arthur's, 49, 53, 121, 156-157
Astley, Sir John, 62
Aston, Hervey, 245
Aston, Lord, 16
" Athenaeum," 44
Atterbury, 28
Auchinleck, 60
Aylesford, Lord, 84

BABMAY'S Mews, 40

Bacon (croupier), 166

Bacon, Francis, 14

Baden, Princess Marie of, 86

Baker, Sir George, 74-75, 91

Baldwin, 16

Banderet, 152

Banks, Sir John, 72-73

Banting, William, 44

Barbauld, Mrs, 112

Barberini vase, 61

Barclay, 48

Barrow, Luke, 96, 99-100

Barry, Sir Charles, 1 19

Barrymore, Lady, 73

Bartolozzi, 262

Basevi, 162

Bassett, Lady, 20

Bassie, Master, 262

Bath, Earl of, 15, 82, 136

Bathurst, Benjamin, 155

Baux, 44

Bayfield, Miss, 79

Beauclerk, Hon. Mrs, 105

Beau clerk, Topham, 154

Beaufort, Duchess of, 203, 205

Beaufort, Duke of, 86, 94, 127, 146,

215

Beazley, Samuel, 59
Beck, Gabriel, 26
Beckford, Peter, 178
Bedford, Duchess of, 145, 203
Beever, Chiron, 144
Behr, Baron, 117
Bellamy, Mrs, 67
Bellasis, Lady, 22
Bennet Street, 20, 32, 34, 78-79
Bennett, John, 55
Bentinck, Lord Henry, 52
Berkeley, Bishop, 74
Berkeley, John Syme, 205
Berkeley, Lady, 63
Berkeley, Lord, 129

28l

INDEX

Berkshire, Earl of, 16, 118, 177
Berkshire House, 30, 32, 38,

119

Bernard, Dr, 173
Berry, 63
Berry, C., 39
Berwick, Lord, 116
Bessborough, Lord, 155
Betty (Mrs Neale), 50, 184-186
Bidney, Miss, 52
Bidwell, 153
Billington, Mrs, 262
Bingley, Sir John, 16
Bird, William, 172
Bland & Foster, 51
Blandford, Marquis of, 182
Blane, Sir Gilbert, 120
Blessington, Lady, 256-257
Blood, 179, 188-189
Blount, Theresa, 60
Blue Ball Yard, 24, 51, 95
Blue Boar Yard, 95
" Blue Peter," 53
Bonaparte, Joseph, 86
Bond, G., 57
Bond's Club, 50
Boodle's Club, 44, 461 121,

146

Boothby, 203
Borlase, Lady, 21
Boscawen, Hon. Anne, 105
Boscawen, Mrs, 106, 202-203
Boss, 52
Boswell, J., 60
Botetourt, Baron, 205
Bothmer, Baron, 82
Boufflers, Mme de, 76
Bourblanc, 214, 259-260
Bourke, Hon. Algernon, 132
Bracken, Mrs Susanna, 116
Bradshaw, 245, 249
Braham, 59, 262
Bramston, 134
Brett, Captain, 101
Brettingham, 136
Bridge, 265-266
Bridgewater, Duke of, 1 19
Bridgewater, Earl of, 116
Bridgewater House, 1 19
Briggs, Messrs, 44
British Hotel, 76
Brocklesby, Dr, 142
Bronte, Charlotte, 263
Brook, Lord, 81

Brooks's Club, 49, 50, 53, 121, 146-
118- 156

Brougham, 155

Brpuncker, Lord, 21, 90, 178

Brown, Ulysses, 81

Brown & Willes, 38

Brumley, 43

Brummell, G. B., 63, 136, 155, 178,

192, 239-245
Brunswick Hotel, 76
Bryant, 44

Buckingham, Duchess of, 80
Buckinghamshire, Lady, 129
Budgell, Eustace, 101
Buede, General de, 105
Bunbury, Sir Charles, 201
" Bunch of Grapes," 23
Bunn, Alfred, 59
Burdett, Francis, 109
Burdock, Samuel, 172
Burghersh, Lord, 227, 260
Burke, Edmund, 67, 156, 173, 178
Burke, Richard, 173
Burke, Sir John, 216
Burlard, Lady, 20
Burlington, Earl of, 35, 91
143- Burney, Fanny, 106, 107, 112

Burrell, Mrs Drummond, 211, 233-

234

Burrell, Peter Robert, 233
Bury Street, 63-66
Bute, Earl of, 75, 117, 140
Bute, Lady, 106
Butler, Lady Harriet, 212-215
Button's, 173
Byng, Hon. Frederick, 155, 243,

246, 254

Byron, 4th Lord, 200
Byron, George, Lord, 40, 78-79, m-

ii2, 142-143, 178, 184, 191, 212,

259

CALDECOTE, Charles, 28

Camden, Marquis, 86

Campbell, Lord, 156

Campbell, Thomas, 47, 68, 112, 181

Canizzaro, Due di, 232, 244-245

Carberry, Earl of, 91

Cardigan, Lord, 62

Carey, 101

Carlisle House, 196

Carlisle, Countess of, 177, 200

282

INDEX

Carlisle, Earl of, 103-105, 118, 135,

263

Carlyle, Thomas, 222, 263
Carpenter, Lady Almeria, 200-201
Carter, Mrs Elizabeth, 106
Carteret, Lord, 74
Cartwright, Madame, 28
Gary, 52

Castlehayen, Earl of, 22
Castlemaine, Lady, 119, 179
Castlereagh, Lord, 120, 136
Castlereagh, Lady, 211
Catalini, Madame, 262
Catch Club, 160
Caterer, 43
Catherine Street, 34
Catherine Wheel Lane, 114-115
Catherine Wheel Yard, 24, 52
Catholic Union of Great Britain, 68
Cavendish Hotel, 76
Chantrey, in
Chapone, Mrs, 106-107
Charles Street, 71
Chatham, ist Earl of, 77, 190
Chatham, 2nd Earl of, 89
Chaworth, 200
Chess Club, 48

Chesterfield, Earl of, 77, 129, 136
Cheylesmore, Lord, 132
Child, 227

Cho'.mondeley, Lord, 81
Christie's, 58-59
Chudleigh, Elizabeth, 178
Churchill, Admiral, 102
Churchill, Lady Caroline, 253
Cibber, Colley, 134, 136
Civil Service Club, 162
Clare, Sir Ralph, 16
Clarendon, Lord, 82, 118, 179
Clarke, Dr George, 72
Clarke, James, 189
Cleland, William, 102
Clement, 24

Cleveland Court, 114, 117
Cleveland, Duchess of, 30, 80-8 1

91, 158, 178

Cleveland, Duke of, 59, 119
Cleveland House, 35, 118-119
Cleveland Row, 19, 116-120
Cleveland Square, 119-120
Clifford, Lord, 90
Clinton, Lord, 188
dive, Lord, 136
Clive, Mrs, 84
Clutterbrooke, 20

" Cock," Tavern 23

" Cocoa Tree," 49

Cocoa Tree Club, 51, 121, 138-143

Codrington, Sir William, 82

Coke, John, 96

Coke, Thomas, 95-101, 178

Cole, Michael, 172

Collaredo, Madame, 225

Collaton, Sir Peter, 20-21

Combe, Alderman, 155, 244

Comyns, Mrs, 180

Conest's Hotel, 75

Congreve, 136

Conservative Club, 49, 52, 121, 162-

163

Conway, Colonel, 180
Conyngham, Lord, 248
Cooke, G. F., 66
Cooke, " Kangaroo," 246, 255
Cooper, Hon. Mrs, 75
Cope, Sir John, 104
Corbett, Sir John, 15, 17
Cornelys, Madame, 195-196, 198,

202

Cornwallis, Lord, 178
Cotton, Charles, 77
Coventry, 136

Coventry, Lady Barbara, 250
Cowley, Abraham, 39
Cowley, Lady, 85
Cowper, Lady, 228-229
Cox's Hotel, 76
Crabbe, George, 66
Crabtree Fields, 35
Craggs, Secretary, 73, 102
Crampern, 75
Craven, Berkeley, 247
Crawfurd, " Teapot," 246, 250-251
Crawle, 152
Creevey, 85
Crellin, 42
Crewe, 197, 237
Crewe, Lord, 156
Crewe, Mrs, 112

, Crockford's, 41, 49, 53, 164-168
Crofts, Sir W., 16
Cromwell, O., 14, 68
Crown Court, 33
Crown and Sceptre Court, 20
Cruikshank, George, 40, 276
Cruikshank, R., 151
Crunden, John, 46, 143
Cullen, Elizabeth, 236
Cumberland, Duke of, 138, 200-201,

238

283

INDEX

Cumberland, R., 173
Cunningham, Sir David, 16

D

DAHL, 77

Dallas, 41

Darner, G. Dawson, 245

Danby, Earl of, 16

Dance, 161

Dangar, Thomas, 70

Danvers, Lady, 20

Darking, 166

Dartmouth, Lord, 81-82

D'Aurevilly, Barbey, 239

Davenant, 101

Davies, Scrope, 246, 254

De Berenger, 109

Defoe, Daniel, 76

Deighton, 52

Dejany, Mrs, 61, 77, 84, 105, 114-

115, 206

Denmark, King of, 118
De Eresby, Lord Willoughby, 233
Devonshire Club, 49, 121, 164
Devonshire, Duchess of, 201
Devonshire, Duke of, 155, 215
Dewes, Mrs, 105
Dickens, Charles, 263-264
Dilettanti, Society of, 160
Dingley, Mrs, 61
Disraeli, Benjamin, 137, 274-275
Disraeli, Isaac, 109, 174, 192
Dodd, 44

Dodington, Bubb, 136
Dodsley, Robert, 77
" Dog and Duck," 24
" Dolphin and Crown," 24
Donegall, Lord, 215
Dorchester, Marquis of, 81
D'Orsay, Count, 137, 215, 255-

257

Dorset, Duke of, 83
Doublet, Sieur, 205
Dowglass, Sir Archibald, 16
Dryden, John, 72, 80
Dudley, Lord, 87
Dudley, Sir Matthew, 172
Duke Street, 66-69
Duncombe, Sir J., 20, 27, 178
Dundonald, Earl of, 109
Dunning, 142
D'Urfey, T., 77
Dyer, C., 52

EALY, Thomas, 55

Eaton, 132

Eccentric Club, 70

Egerton Club, 162

Eglinton Tournament, 62

Eley, 47

Eliott, Thomas, 19

Ellesmere, Earl of, 119

Ellice, Edward, 83

Elliot, 170

Ellis's Hotel, 49

Elmsley, 162, 183

Emilie, Countess, 76

English, C. G., 53

English's Hotel, 53

Esmond, Harry, 143

Esterhazy, Prince, 258 ; Prince N.,

258
Esterhazy, Princess, 211, 213, 215,

232, 233

Eugene, Prince, 159
Evans, I. & R, 46
Evelyn, John, 18, 40, 90-118, 179

FAITHORNE'S Plan, 31
Farmers' Society, 160
Farquhar, 133
Farrington, Colonel, 95
Fenton's Hotel, 49, 51, 53
Fenton, John, 116
Fenwick, Sir John, 20, 22, 28, 178
Fierville, 262
Fisher, 52
Fitzgerald, 155
Fitzherbert, Mrs, 260
Fitzpatrick, Colonel, 91
Fitzpatrick, General, 88, 154
Fitzroy, Lady C., 180
Fitzroy, Mrs, 206
Fitzwilliam, Lady Betty, 105
Flahault, 215, 259
Flaxman, 111-112
Flitcroft, 102
Flood, Henry, 117
Floyd, Miss, 253
Foley, Lord, 245, 249
Foreign Office, 117
Forde, Captain, 29, 170
Fountaine, Sir Andrew, 124
Four-in-Hand Club, 86

284

Fox, Caroline, 263

Fox, Charles James, 88-89, 94.
129-130, 136, 145-148. i54
178, 181-182, 191, 237

Fox Club, 153-154

Fox Court, 20, 69-71

Fox, George Lane, 146

Francatelli, 165

Francis, Sir P., 67, 155

Frankland, William, 172

Fraser, Sir W., 224-225

Freere, 236

Frisby, 74

GAGE, Lieut.-General, 92

Gage, Lord, 84-86

Gandon, 161

Garcia, 44

Gardiner, Lady Harriet, 257

Garrick, David, 156, 173

Garth, Sir Richard, 139

Gaunt's coffee-house, 125, 170, 175

Gay, John, 116, 133, 170, 173

Gaynor, 145-146

Geary, Miss, 50

Geographical Society, 160

Geological Society, 160

Geology, Museum of Practical, 76

George III., 85, 137, 148

George IV., 136, 154, 191, 234, 241

Gibbon, Edward, 77, 140, 144-146,

156-162, 178, 183-184
Gibbons, Grinling, 76
Gibbons's Tennis Court, 20
Gibson, Colonel, 92
Giddy, Osman, 42
Gildon, Charles, 159
Gillray, 45, 77. 130, 145, 178, 184
Girle, Leonard, 35
Gladston, J., 16
Gladstone, W. £.,75, 148; 164
Gloucester Court, 20, 57
Gloucester, Duchess of, 201
Gloucester, Duke of, 58
Glover, " Leonidas," 78
"Goal," 24

Godolphin, Earl of, 95, 97
Godolphin House, 95
" Golden Ball," 116
" Golden Globe," 74
Goldsmith, Oliver, 173-174
Gordon, 72
Gordon, Duchess of, 200, 201

Gordon, Lord George, 120
Gordon Riots, 106
Gorringe, Lord, 16
Goudge, Edward, 96-99, 101
Gow, Neil, 212

Graf ton, Duke of, 83, 147, 178
Grafton, Duchess of, 203-204
Graham's club-house, 52
Graham's Hotel, 49
Grammont, Due de, 256'
Granville, Earl, 83-84, 148
Graves, Lord, 215-216
Gray, Lady Mary, 91
Gray, Thomas, 74
Great Jennyn Street, 33, 71
" Grecian," 138
Greenvill, 73
Gregory, E. J., 54
Grendison, Lady, 73
Grenier's Hotel, 76
Grenville, Thomas, 120
Greville, Charles, 225-226
Griffin, 151-153
Gronow, 208-209
Guards' Club, 49, 168
Guildford, Lord, 81
Gun Tavern, 75
Gunning, General J., 182
Gunning, Mrs, 182
Gunning, Sir Robert, 105
Gurney, J., 50
Gwydyr, Lord, 234

H

HALDIMAND, 153

Halifax House, 58

Halifax (George Savile, Earl of), 58

Halifax, Marchioness of , 91

Hall, Captain Basil, 109

Hallagan, Matthew, 56

Hallam, Henry, 263

Halpin, 52

Halse, 152

Hamilton, Duke of, 86

Hamilton, Governor, 75

Hamilton, Lady, 87-88

Hamilton, Sir William, 61

Hamilton, W. Gerard, 22, 84

Hance, 42

Harding, Nicholas, 97

Hare, Tames, 178, 181

Hare, Sir John, 60

Hare, the " Silent," 245, 251

285

INDEX

Harlowe, 77

Harper's, 50

Harris, Mrs, 144

Harrison, 52

Harvey, 141

Haslewood, 87

Hastings, Warren, 108, 265

Hatch, Jane, 52

Hawkins, Miss, 70

Hayman, Francis, 39, 77

Haymarket, 14

Haynes, 52

Hayward, Abraham, 192

Redder, George, 153

Heidegger, 136, 195

Heinel, Mile, 151

Henderson, Sir Alexander, 85

Heneage, Madame, 95

Henn, Mr, 16

Herries & Co., 43

Hertford, Marchioness of , 118, 203

Hervey, Augustus, 178

Hervey, Colonel, 105

Hervey, Lady, 102-103

Hervey, Lady A., 104, 109

Hervey, Lord, 87

Higgins, Madame, 73

Hill, Sir John, 42

Hillingdon, Dowager Lady, 94

Hobhouse, J. Cam, 45

Hoby, 49, 168

Hogarth, William, 54, 93, 124-125

Hogg, E., 47

Holderness, Lady, 203, 205

Holland, Henry, 49, 150

Holland, Lord, 129, 161, 185

Hollar, 31

Hook, Theodore, 117, 192

Hooke, Mr John, 17

Hophman, 91

Hopper, ^156

Home, 77

Horseshoe Alehouse, 24

Horton, Mrs, 201

How, Sir James, 22

Howard, Colonel Thomas, 20

Howard, Lord, 17

Huddlestone, Tristram, 28

Hughes, " Ball," 246, 253

Hughson, Lord, 19

Hume, David, 92, 156

Hummel & Co., 44

Humphrey, Miss, 45

Humphrey, Ozias, 49

Hunt, 16

286

Hunter, Dr, 74
Huntingdon, Earl of, 105
Hurst, John, 55
Hutchinson, Governor T., 22

ILCHESTER, Lord, 151
Imhoff, 1 08

Imperial Fire and Life Office, 42
Inchiquin, Earl of, 95
Irvine, Sir John, 75

JACOBITES, 28, 138

Jenyns, Soame, 66, 106

Jermyn Street, 20, 71-77

Jerrold, William, 69

Jersey, Lady, 85, 211-212, 217-219,

224-227

Jervas, Charles, 117
Johnson Club, 48, 160
Johnson, General, 109
Johnson, Mrs, 243
Johnson, R., 51
Johnson, Samuel, 51, 60, 67, 76,

173, 184, 191
Jollyfe, John, 52
Jones, Charles, 44
Jones, Inigo, 26
Jones, Owen, 86
Jones, William, 46
Junior Army and Navy Club, 57
Junior St James's Club, 168

K

KELSEY, Francis, 40
Kemble, Charles, 262
Kemble, Fanny, 263-264
Kempton Park Club, 48
Kendall, William, 43
Kendals, the, 60
Kennett, White, 102
Kenney, 59
Kensington, Lord; 75
Kent, 84

Keppel, Major, 66
Kidney, 172

King Street, 20, 58-62, 71
" King's Head," 23, 48

INDEX

Kingston, Lord, 81, 178
Kip's Plan, 22, 33
Kirkcudbright, Lord, 56
Kit-Kat Club, 160
Knapton, 160
Knight, Francis, 46
Kynollis, 17

LAMINGTON. Lord, 220, 225
Lane, Mr Champion, 17
Lansdowne, Lord, 69
Latella, Q., 86
Lauriere; J., 50

Lawrence, Sir Thomas, 75, 160
Lennox, Lady Sarah, 201
Lennox, Lord W. Pitt, 215
Leopold I. (of Belgium), 215
Lepel, Molly, 103, 178
Leper Hosp'ital, 13
Lewis, 43

Lieven, Count, 230
Lieven, Princess, 211, 213, 229-
Ligonier, 178
Limerick, Earl of, 70
Lincoln, Earl of, 16
Lingsing, Baron de, 174
Linnean Society, 161
Literary Club, 161, 170
Literary Society, 161
Little Jermyn Street, 33, 71
Little King Street, 30
Little Rider Street, 24, 69
Little St James's Street, 21 ; 52
Lloyd, Miss, 206
Lloyd, Rufus, 245
Lloyd's coffee-room, 145
Lock, James, 40
Lock, Messrs, 187
Locker, E. H., 75
Lockyer, 133
London, Bishop of, 202
London, Madame, 19
London Chronicle, 36
Londonderry, Lady, 227-228
Londonderry, Lord, 215
Long Street, the, 18-19
Lorne, Marquis of, 182
Lowther, Lord, 117
Lubbock, Sir John, 109-110
Lucan, Lord, 104
Lumley, Lady, 17
Lumsden, Archibald, 25-26
Luttrell, Narcissus, 90

Luttrell, Henry, 136, 222, 276-279
Lyttelton, Lord, 114
Lytton, 137

M

MACALL, W., 148-149, 196, 235-236
Macaulay, 111-112, 263
M'Clary, H. J., 44
Macdonald, Clanronald, 212
Macdonald, Miss, 220
M'Dowell, 47

Mackinnon, Dan, 245 ; Colonel, 255
Mackreth, Robert, 128, 131
Maclean, 42, 172, 180, 184
Macraith, R., 143
M'Turk, Wm., 45
Mahon, Lord, 190
Malcolm's A necdotes, 36
Maiden, Lord, 109
Mallet, David, 89
March, Lord, 145, 203, 205, 238
Marlborough Club, 131
233 Marlborough, Duchess of, 203
Marlborough, Duke of, 72, 203
Marryat, Captain, 68, 109
Martin, 52
Martindale, Henry, 129 ; John,

129-130

Martineau, Harriet, 263
Marylebone Lane, 34
Mason, Lieut.-Colonel, 17
Mason, William, 74, 116, 185
Matthias, James, 40
114 May, Baptist, 39

Melbourne, Lord, 136

Melville, Lord, 87

Mennis, 116

Mercandotti, Mile, 253

Mercer, Miss, 259

Meredith, George, 45, 192

M6rim6e, Prosper, 89

Metreof , Prince, 190

Meynell, Mrs, 206

Middlegast, Mrs, 24

Middleton, R., 16

Middleton, W., 44

Military, Naval and County Service

Club, 167
Miller, Sir T., 152
Mills, John, 245, 249
Milnes, Monckton, 263
Mimpress, 52
Moira, Earl of, 104, 109
Mole worth, Viscount, 95

287

INDEX

Molyneux, Lady, 203, 206

Moneys, 52

Monmouth, Lord, 81

Montagu, Edward, 212, 245 ;

George, 83 ; Lady M. Wortley,

173 ; Mrs, 106

Montgomery, Miss, 212 ; Mrs, 212
Moore, 47
Moore, Charles, 52
Moore, Thomas, 65, 68, 69, 75, m-

112, 219-220
Mordaunt, Brig., 138
Mordaunt, General, 109
Morden & Lea's Plan, 32
More, Hannah, 106
Morris's, 171
Mortimer, T. J., 46
Motley, John L., 89
Mumford, Erasmus, 127
Musgrave, P., 22 ; Sir W., 92
Mylne, Robert, 197

Northumberland, Countess of, 72,

127, 178, 180

Nottingham, Earl of, 30, 95, 119
Nugee, 43

O

O'BlRNE, 141

O'Connell, Daniel, 66, 156, 248

Old English Manor House, 61

" OldQ," 77, 127, 136, 177-178, 205

Oldmixon, 134

Oranmore, Sir C., 22

Orkney, Earl of, 91

Orleans Club, 62

Ormond, Duke of, 159, 178-179,

188-189

Orrery, Lady, 91
Ossory, Earl of Upper, 152, 204
Ozinda's chocolate-house, 29, 138,

170

N

" NAG'S HEAD," 28

Naldi, 262

Napier, George, 201

Napoleon, Second funeral of, 57

Napoleon III., 58, 61-62, 137

Narischkine, 259

Nassuck diamond, 265

Navy Club, 161

Neale, Mrs Elizabeth ("Betty"),

92

Needham, Mother, 93
Neeld, 247
Neild, James, 39
Nelson, Lord, 50, 60, 87, 178
Nerot's Hotel, 60
Neumann, Baron de, 213-214, 232,

245- 258

New University Club, 49, 121, 163
Newcastle, Duchess of, 128
Newton, Sir Isaac, 73
Nicholls & Housley, 43
Nickson and Welch, 23
Norden, 31

Norfolk, Duke of, 142
Noris, Robert, 38
Norman, 70-71
North, Col. J. S., 87
North, Lord, 106, 113-114; Roger,

80 ; Sir Dudley, 80
Northington, Earl of, 105

PACK, Richardson, 75

Page, 52, 1 66

Paget, Lady Jane, 253

Pahlen, Comte, 259

Palmer, Madame, 19 ; Roger, 19

Palmerston, Lady, 211, 228-229 ;

Lord, 136, 213

" Pandemonium, The New," 165
Pantheon, 206-207, 267
Papworth, J. B., 46, 144 ; Wyatt, 57
Paris, Dr, 92
Park Place, 20, 35, 90-94
Parnell, Thomas, 102
Parsloe, James, 56 ; Jane, 48
Parsloe's, 161, 169-170
Pavement, the, 18
Payn, R., 50
Payne, Jack, 169
Peel, Sir Robert, 163, 252
Pelham, 83, 87 ; Miss, 206
Pembroke, Lady, 203, 206
Pendarves, Mrs, 84
Pendennis, Major, 66
Fender, Sir John, 85
Pennethorne, Sir J., 57
Pepys, 90-91, 1 1 8, 179
Perceval, 131-132
Peter, Colonel, 105
Peterborough, Earl of, 81, 106, 109
Peters, 41
Petersham, Lord, 177

288

INDEX

Peyrault's Bagnio, 51

Peyton, Sir Thomas, 16

Philip & Whicker, 51

Philips, 101

Phillimore, Sir R. G., 82

Phillipps, Sir R., 113-114

Philosopher's Club, 161

Phipps. C. J., 164

Pizza, Colonel, 91

Pickering Court, 33, 56

Pickering, Lady, 17, 179

Pickering Place, 17, 20, 39, 187

Pickering, William, 39, 56

Pierrepoint, H., 245, 249

" Pigadillo," 18

Pi got, Admiral, 92

Pike. 43

Pike, Lady, 20

Pilkington, Mrs Letitia, 42

Pilkington, Rev. Matthew, 42

Pioneer Club, 94

Pitcairn, David, 238

Pitt, George, 95

Pitt, John, 82

Pitt, William, 75, 92, 129-130, 136,

178, 190
" Plough," 34
Plunket, 1 80
Plunkett, Major, 183
" Poet's Head," 24, 38
Political Economy Club, 161
Pomfret, Lady, 84
Poniatowska, Princess, 103
Pope, Alexander, 73, 93, 117, 134,

173. 184

Porter's Plan, 32
Portland, Dowager Duchess, 74 ;

Duchess of, 106, 107-108; Duke

of, 147, 197, 237
Portugal Street, 35, 81
Poulett, Lord Wm., 91
Poulteney, Michael, 15, 17; Mrs

Anne, 15-16; Sir William, 15
Pratt's Club, 94
Primrose Club, 94
" Prince of Orange's Head," 28
Pringle, Sir John, 60
Prior, Matthew, 75, 139
Propagation of Gospel, Society for,

94

Public Schools Club, 114

Pulford, 51

Pulteney, 87, 90 ; Sir William, 19,

27,118
Pym, 32, 80

Q

QUBENSBBRRY, Duke Of, 144,

1 80 ; Marquis of, 245
Quitznow. 155

RACHEL, 60

Raggett, George, 130-131; Henry,

131

Raikes, R., 85, 155, 178, 213, 215

Ranelagh, Lord, 17, 267

Ravel, 60

Ravensworth, Lord, 204

Rawlings' Hotel, 76

Reading, way to, 14

Redham's riding school, 45

Regulus, 129

Reynolds, Lord, 17; Sir Joshua,
156, 160, 173,202, 236

Rhodes' map, 51, 55

Rich, Sir Robert, 95

Richards, 50

Richardson, 17

Richmond, Duchess of, 72 ; Duke
of, 82, 147

Ridley, 42

Rigby, 105

Ripon, Lord, 62

Road Club, 94

Robert, 74

Robertson, 51

Robinson, Anastasia, 106-109;
Mrs, 71, 109

Robinson & Fisher, 265

Rochester, Earl of, 67, 179

Rochford, Lady, 203, 205

Rocque's map, 34

Rodney, Lord, 116, 178

Rogers, S., 69, 88, 95, 110-113

Roman, Peter, 27

Romney, George, 118

Romney, Lord, 152

Rooke, Sir George, 73, 75

Ros, Henry de, 245

" Roscius, The Infant," 89

Rouelle, 75

Rowe, Nicholas, 139

Rowland, 161-162

Rowlandson, 151

Roxburghe, Duke of, 197, 237

Royal Academy Club, 161 ; Astro-
nomical Society, 161

" Royal Chair," 65

289

INDEX

Royal College of Physicians' Club,

161

Royal Institution Club, 161
Royal Insurance Company, 50
Royal London Yacht Club, 161
Royal Naval Club, 161
Royal Societies Club, 49, 51, 121,

163-164

Royal Yacht Squadron, 161
Rumpelmeyer's, 41, 58
Russell, Colonel, 69
Russell's Court, 23, 117
Russell, Lady Caroline, 203
Russell, Lord William, 178
Russell, Richard, 23
Russell, William, 148
Rutland, Duke of, 86-87, 129, 240,

244

Ryder, Captain, 70
Ryder, Lady Susan, 212
Ryder Street, 20, 69-71, 81

ST ALBANS, Duchess of, 65 ; Duke
of, 109, 113; Earl of, 13, 27, 39,

58, 71. ?6

St Albans Medical Club, 161
St Albans Street, 64, 71
St Aldegonde, Count, 212, 214, 245
St Bartholomew's Contemporaries,

161
St George's, Hanover Square, 34,

35

St Helen's, Lord, 108

St James's bazaar, 41, 42, 48, 57,

59

St James's coffee-house, 170-175
St James's Church, 13, 76-77
St James's Fair, 25
St James's Fields, 14, 25
St James's Market, 25
St James's Palace, 13
St James's Parish, 34
St James's Place, 20, 94-116
St James's Royal Hotel, 49-53
St James's Square, 13, 14
St James's Theatre, 59-60
St John, Henry, 174
Saintefoy, 76
Salisbury, Earl of, 60
Salisbury, Marquis of, 85
Sams's, 42
Sandown Park Club, 48

Sandwich, Lord, 178

Saville, Henry, 72

" Savoir Vivre," 143-144

Scares, Captain, 17

Scharf, George, 133

Schneider, 60

Scott, Captain, 24

Scott, Sir Walter, 45, 76

Scroope, Sir Carr, 67

Scrope, Lady, 20

Seeker, Archbishop, 76

Sedley, Sir Charles, 91, 179

Sefton, Lady, 211, 229

Sefton, Lord, 85, 136, 178

Selwyn, Hon. George, 116, 136, 154-

155, 178, 238
Serre, Sieur de la, 31
" Shades, The," 267
Shadwell, 72
Sharpe, John, 25
Shee, Sir Martin, 75
Sheffield, Lord, 183
Shelburne, Lord, 171
Shenstone, 74
Shepherd, T. H., 160
Sheridan, 136, 142, 147, 154-155,

178

Sherwin, J. K., 70
Siddons, Mrs, 71
Skydimore, Lord, 17
Slater, 42

Smirke, Sydney, 162
Smith & Co., 52
Smith, Charlotte, 60
Smith, Edward, 38
Smith, Hon. John, 95
Smith, J. T., 70-71
Smith, Robert, no
Smith, Sydney, 75, 112, 117
Soames, Sir William, 72
Sole-man, 248

Somerset, Lady Augusta, 258
South, Captain, 95
South Sea Bubble, 73
Sowton, J., 172
Spencer, Hon. W., 66
Spencer House, 109
Spencer Lord, 105, 152
Spring, Samuel, 139-140
Stable Yard, 20, 22, 94
Stair, Earl of, 82
Standish, 212, 245, 249; Sir Frank,

145

Stanhope, Lady Henrietta, 144
Stanhope, Lord, 91

290

INDEX

Stanley, Sir W., 71

" Star and Garter." 267

Star Club, 161

Statistical Club, 161

Stavordale, Lord, 141

Steele, Sir Richard, 63-64, 101, 133,

158, 172, 178
Stepney, Sir John, 114
Stinton, W., 43
Stock, Mrs, 114
Stopford, Earl, 109
Storer, 178
Stothard, T., 111-112
Stow, 29
Strangford, 65
Strathmore, Lord, 197, 237
Strong, 52

Stroud's Court, 23, 56
Stuart, Hon. Keith, 116
Stuart, James, no
Stuart, Lady Euphemia, 103
Stuart, Lord Dudley Coutts, 68
Suffolk, Lady, 201
" Sugar Loafe," 179
Sugden, Lord, 67
Sumner, in
Sussex Club, 161
Sussex, Earl of, 35
Sutton, Manners, 192
Swift, 61, 63-65, 70, 139, 158-160,

170, 172, 178

Sydney, Viscount, 120, 150
Symons' Hotel, 49, 163

TAGG, Madame, 19

Talbot, Jack, 246, 253

Talleyrand, 248

Tallis, 41

Tankerville, Earl of, 256; Lady,

9i

Tarleton, 169
Tenison, Archbishop, 76
Terrace, the, 23, 30
Terrell, Sir Robert, 35
Thackeray (Lloyd) & Co., 51
Thackeray, W. M., 57, 186, 262-264,

267, 275-276
Thanet, Countess of, 116
" Thatched House," 49, 218
Thatched House Chambers, 158, 161
Thatched House Club, 52, 121, 157-

162

Thatched House Court, 21, 105, 115.

158

Thatcher, Francis, 91
" Thieves' Kitchen," 267
Thomas, John, 50
Thompson, Mrs, 243
Thomson, J., 173
Thurlow, 151, 159
Thynne, 149
Tickell, 150
Ticknor, in, 217-220
Townshend, 22, 74, 105, 116, 150
Triphook, Robert, 45
Tripp, Baron, 214, 259-260
Tuisaye, de, 108
" Turk's Head," 161
Turner, J., 44
Twemlow, 69

" Two Blue Pyramids," 73
Tyburn Road, 34

U

UDE, 165

Union Society of St James s, 161
Universal Literary Cabinet, 51
Upper St James's Park, 27

VANDERPUT, Mrs, 63

Vanhomrigh, Mrs, 65 ; Miss E., 70

Vardy, J., 109

Vauxhall, 267

Velde, Van der, 77

Venner, Colonel, 95

Vere, Lord, 105

Verelst, Simon, 72

Vernon, 178

Vernon, Lord, 92

Verrio, Anthony, 35

Vevini, 71

Villiers, Barbara, 19

Villiers Court, 20

Villiers, Colonel, 27

Villiers, Lady Sarah, 232, 258

Vivyan, Sir Richard, 29, 170

W

WAKE, Archbishop, 76
Walker, 16, 45

291

INDEX

Walker, John, 104

Walker, W., 40

Waller, Edmund, 16, 17, 19, 22, 98-

99. 177. J79. 184
Walpole, C. H., 82
Walpole, Horace, 66, 72, 82, 89, 106,

135-136, 141, 156, 178-180, 185,

199, 205-206, 238
Walpole, Sir Robert, 82, 89, 116,

136

Walsingham House, 89
Walton, Izaak, 77
Warren, Sir George, 117
Warrender, Sir George, 245
Warton, 174
Warwick Street, 35
Waterhouse, Alfred, 163
Waterloo Hotel, 76
Watier's, 169
Wayne, Ralph, 26
Webster, Sir Thomas, 128
Webster, Sir Whistler, 127
Weddell, Mrs, 107
Weigall, 42
Welch & Gwynne, 44
Weld, Simon, 24

Wellington, 136, 209-210, 217, 230
Wellington Restaurant, 167
Weltzie's, 168-169
West, Ben, 160
Westmorland, Earl of, 73, 224
Weston, Edward, 91
Wetenhall, R., 40
Weyer, Van der, 85
Weymouth, Lady, 84; Lord, 61,

83. 147

Wheelwright, 152
Whitbread, 154
White, Elizabeth, 123; Francis,

122-123

White Hart Inn, 35
White's Club, 33, 47, 121, 122-137

Whitefoord, Caleb, 173
Wilberforce, Bishop, 62
Wilberforce, 145, 154, 178
Wilbraham, Roger, 109, 154
Wild, 78

Williams, Gilly, 118, 136, 178, 238
Williams, Thomas, 39
Williamson, 51 ; Francis, 26 ; Sir

Joseph, 73

Willis, 218, 236 ; J. and W., 52
Willis's Rooms, 59
Wilmot, Sir Robert, 22
Wilson, John, 46
Wilson's European Emporium, 59
Wimborne House, 86 ; Lord, 86
Windham, SirWm., 128
Winnock, Josiah, 56
Wirgman, Peter, 51, 184-186
Wolfe, General, 184
Worcester, Lady, 212 ; Lord, 212,

245, 249

Wordsworth, William, 112
Worsley, Sir Robert, 61
Wren, Sir Christopher, 76
Wyatt, 161, 165
Wyatt's rebellion, 188
Wyngaerde, 13, 14

YACHT CLUB, 161
Yarborough, Earl of, 84
York Chambers, 47
York, Duke of, 87, 155

ZETLAND, Marquis of, 85
Zoffany, John, 78
Zucchi, no

292

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