PICCADILLY
TO PALL MALL

RALPH NEY1LL
AND CHARLES
EDWARD JERNINGHAM

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

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PICCADILLY TO PALL MALL

PICCADILLY TO
PALL MALL
MANNERS, MORALS, AND MAN

RALPH NEVILL
AND
CHARLES EDWARD JERNINGHAM
(MARMADUK.E)

NEW YORK
E. P. DUTTON & CO.
1909

Ml rights reserved

By T
L"8 U 3
10 8N^

ILLUSTRATIONS
St. James's Palace ..... Frontispiece
The Empire Theatre .... face page iii

The illustrations are from two photographs by
Alvin Langdon Coburn.

This volume is the result of collaboration with
the exception of Section IV, for which Mr. Nevill
is alone responsible,

PICCADILLY TO PALL MALL

I
'TpHOSE living permanently in a great city are
seldom aware of the changes which day by day,
hour by hour, transform its appearance and life.
What, for lack of a better expression, may be termed
the " physiognomy of its streets " is far more clearly
visible to the casual visitor or to travellers who have
been away for a long period of time. The gradual
alteration and obliteration of customs, the demolition
and re-erection of buildings, as well as numerous
minor changes, are for the most part hardly noticed
by the Londoner of to-day, who has rather come to
regard them as natural conditions of existence.
Meanwhile, Victorian London is vanishing away,
whilst the architectural expression of cosmopolitan
money power manifests itself in gigantic structures —
the outward and visible signs of far-reaching changes
in English manners and customs.
The great revolution in daily life produced by the
advent of mechanically propelled vehicles, which
threaten in time to remove the horse from the life
of cities, was at first regarded as a startling innova
tion ; it has not, however, taken long for the taxicab

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
and motor omnibus to obtain a place as established
London institutions.
The introduction of this form of locomotion, it is
to be feared, has practically signed the death warrant
of the splendidly horsed equipages which were once
such conspicuous objects in the streets of the West
End. For the last twenty-five years Piccadilly, once fre
quented by many characters known for their eccen
tricity of gait and attire, has become quite a humdrum
thoroughfare, the last lounger of marked individuality
and leisured independence having been the Piccadilly
goat, an animal which about ten or twelve years ago
was wont to wander, pensive and unattended, along
this old street, in which it was so perfectly at home,
stopping occasionally to browse on such railings as,
in spite of many former ineffectual attacks, seemed
likely to afford some promise of refreshment.
From time to time, when wearied with its ill-
success in this direction, it would wander into clubs.
In the hall of one it ate up the tape ; at another it
walked upstairs into the coffee-room, where it created
a stampede. As a rule, however, seemingly conscious of its
responsibilities as the last of the Piccadilly loungers,
it was perfectly content to stroll from the Mews in
which it had its home to some point of vantage where
on sunny days it could bask in dignified contemplation.
Gone are the wicked old dandies who were wont
to ogle every pretty face ; their overtures, however,
often led them into ludicrous misadventures. A lady

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
looking into a hat shop was once accosted by one of
these old beaux, who in dulcet tones inquired if he
might present her with an expensive hat which had
riveted her gaze. She roguishly consented, and the
money being paid at once left the shop, carrying the
hat, much to the confusion of her venerable admirer,
who had spent his money and failed to obtain the
lady's address.
Up to some thirty years ago West End men habitu
ally walked arm in arm. One of the last to do this
was Lord Beaconsfield, who was continually to be
seen leaning on the arm of his devoted secretary,
Lord Rowton, who, almost better known as Mr.
" Monty " Corry, is said to have acquired his peerage
in the following manner.
After the fall of Lord Beaconsfield's last Ministry,
the Premier and his solicitor, Sir Philip Rose, were
in eager discussion at Hughenden, the table being
almost covered with applications for peerages, baronet
cies, and all the usual distinctions which an outgoing
Premier is permitted to distribute on such occasions.
Recapitulating various claims, Lord Beaconsfield hap
pened to observe that what most perplexed him
was how to suitably reward his favourite secretary,
when Sir Philip Rose, inspired by a bright idea,
suggested making Mr. Corry a peer. Lord Beacons
field started up delighted with the brilliant suggestion,
for it should be borne in mind that never before
had a Premier conferred such a distinction on his
secretary. Sir Philip Rose immediately set off to
interview one of Mr. Corry's relatives, a lady who
3

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
had always purposed to make him her heir, and,
having informed her of the proposal, she at once
generously settled her fortune definitely on her
successful nephew, and a few days later the world
at large was startled by the announcement that Mr.
Corry had been raised to the peerage under the title
of Baron Rowton. This distinction met with general
approval, and Lord Beaconsfield obtained much
personal popularity from his generous recognition of
a loyal and astute secretary.
The late Lord Rowton possessed an indefinable
charm of manner, invariably urbane, whatever the
circumstances and whatever the surroundings. Pos
sessed of immense tact, he might have been called
the very personification of discretion. His elevation
to the peerage was universally acclaimed as an honour
thoroughly deserved, but some other distinctions
conferred by Lord Beaconsfield did not meet with
the same approbation. In one instance, when Mr.
Disraeli, he bestowed high office upon an unpopular
individual whose name, for obvious reasons, must be
withheld. The appointment in question aroused a
good deal of criticism, which, however, left the
Premier unmoved.
Discussing the matter with a friend, the latter
ridiculed the appointment, objecting that the indi
vidual was an " ass." " No doubt," replied Mr.
Disraeli • " but what a magnificeht ass ! "
Since the introduction of mechanical locomotion
people walk much less than they formerly did, a
drive into the country in a motor-car taking the place
4

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
of the leisurely afternoon stroll, once quite a feature
of West End life during the Victorian era. Hustle
and hurry are the order of the day, and at times it
would seem as if the whole population of this district
were desperately anxious to get somewhere in the
shortest possible space of time.
Man's dress has become more lax and woman's
more elaborate, country clothes and straw hats, once
not permissible in town, being now habitually worn by
a class which in more punctilious days would have been
horrified at appearing in any other costume than the
most correct morning dress, crowned by an immaculate
tall-hat. Smoking in the streets, once an unpardon
able social crime, is general.
As for the women, tricked out in creations of the
most startling and expensive kinds, with feathers of
every hue waving in the breeze, their aspect would
have distressed the great ladies of a former genera
tion. All the women, irrespective of their years, are
attired in youthful fashion — there are no old women
to-day, and but a few middle-aged ones.
With changed fashions and ways has come an altera
tion in manners and expressions, a marked feature
being the improved pronunciation of the humbler
classes, against whom the reproach of mispronouncing
words beginning with " h " can no longer justly be
hurled. The increase of education is the cause of
this ; nevertheless, in consequence of the universal
system of instruction, many quaint old survivals of a
more picturesque day have disappeared.
The present tendency is towards a general uni-
5

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
formity of pronunciation and manner, in consequence
of which little originality is now to be seen. Many
of the obsolete mannerisms of Mayfair survive in
less fashionable districts long after they have been
discarded by Society. Some old - world expres
sions, however, die hard. An old duchess, alive not
many years ago, asked to the last, " Will you take a
dish of tea f " ; spoke of her " chariot " instead of
her carriage ; and said " thankee " instead of " thank
you." A celebrated politician who died but some
ten years ago would ask for " cold butter," and at
the club would inquire for " the ' Times ' news
paper " and " the c Punch ' newspaper." Such
mannerisms, and others which preceded them by
many years, can still be met with in distant and
secluded villages. A stone thrown into a pond pro
duces circle after circle, widening out until the outer
one reaches the furthermost limits of the water.
Much the same happens in the case of the ways and
expressions of the fashionable world.
The freaks of fashion during the last fifty years
are amusing to recall. Garibaldis, Indian shawls,
crinolines, the Grecian bend, chignons, crinolettes,
the crutch and toothpick, the horizontal shake, mon
strously broad collars, spats for boots, the matinee hat,
are a few of the various eccentricities which will
interest the historian of social life.
The customs of Society often have queer origins.
Some years ago the members of a somewhat inferior
set took to shaking hands on a level with their chins,
a mode copied from a Royal personage, who, suffering
6

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
from an abscess under the arm, avoided the painful
friction entailed by shaking hands in the ordinary
manner and resorted to a higher level. This was
observed by some lesser lights, from whom the custom
spread. The fashion of living in flats, which originated
about twenty years ago, effected a great alteration
in social life and habits. Few Londoners are now
able to say, " My house is my castle," a great number
being but guests in some palatial construction ; whilst
of late years many people have regularly taken to
living in hotels, the transition to which from flat-life
is easy. As regards the origin and rank of the inhabitants
of the most fashionable quarters of the West End, the
change within comparatively recent years has been
startling, as may be verified by a comparison of the
Court Guide of a hundred years ago with that of
to-day. Take, for instance, "Boyle's Court Guide"
for 1811 (a minute volume, not a quarter the size
of its most useful offspring), and note the names of
the chief residents in Piccadilly. The Duke of
Wellington (then Marquis Wellesley) and Duke of
Devonshire, whose descendants still occupy their
family mansions, are there ; others are the Countess
of Aberdeen, Lord Dysart, the Duke of Somerset,
the Duke of Queensberry (" Old Q."), the Dowager
Countess of Jersey, Lord Egmont, Lord Coventry,
the Dowager Lady Galloway, Lady Pulteney, Lord
Cholmondeley, the Duke of Grafton, Sir Francis
Evelyn, and the Countess of Guilford. It is essen-
7

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
dally an aristocratic list. Autres temps, autres mceurs.
In 1908 the principal inhabitants (not including the
Dukes of Wellington and Devonshire) were Lord
Rothschild, banker ; Mr. Bass, one of a great family
of brewers ; Lord Glenesk, and Lord Allendale, an
owner of coal mines. A number of financiers are
in this list, amongst whom special mention must be
accorded to Sir Julius Wernher, Mr. H. J. King, and
Mr. Sigismund Neumann, all three of whom have
contrived to draw huge fortunes from South Africa,
in which respect they have been more successful than
a quantity of Englishmen, who put much money into
the mines and got little out.
Comparing the old Court Guide with the new, a
striking feature is the lack of those foreign names,
many of which (no doubt justly) are at present held
in such high esteem in the country of their adoption.
All prejudice against individuals of foreign birth has
disappeared, and the alien immigrant of to-day may
land, confident that provided he proves successful
in the race of life, and garners a sufficient store of
wealth, no obstacle exists which will prevent him
from becoming the Peer of to-morrow. Such a
state of affairs, which testifies to the triumph of
broad-minded and liberal ideas, is perhaps not un
naturally irritating to survivors of the old school.
One of these, writing to a friend in high quarters
who had hinted that a Baronetcy was to be the reward
of conspicuous public service, pleaded that while
conscious that his life had not been blameless, he was
unaware of having committed any offence which

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
would justify the sins of a father being visited upon his
innocent children.
The triumph of Plutocracy over Aristocracy is
more or less complete, though of late years many
members of the latter class have developed energetic
commercial qualities unknown to a less astute genera
tion. Though in the West End, as elsewhere, business has
superseded pleasure, the general appearance of the
streets and people is still to-day totally distinct from
that of the other parts of the huge metropolis. A
peculiar atmosphere hangs about this old thorough
fare, which seems somehow redolent of comfortable
well-being, in no immediate danger of being dis
turbed. To-day, as in the past, a large proportion
of the individuals thronging the streets are obviously
there merely for relaxation and pleasure, an observa
tion which especially applies to the women, some of
whom appear regularly to spend their afternoons in
aimless drives up and down the crowded roadway of
Piccadilly. In the afternoons also huge crowds of
smartly dressed ladies from the suburbs descend upon
the West End, pleasantly convinced that such incur
sions identify them with that fashionable world, the
doings of which a popular Press has taught them
to study and revere.
In these days, when wealth is so easily accorded its
crown of social distinction, many of these ladies no
doubt not unnaturally cherish the hope that when
their husbands make a financial coup in the City they
too will become permanent dwellers in those blessed
9

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
regions of fashion, a residence in which (provided the
house be sufficiently large and expensive) to-day
secures an unquestioned entree into what is known as
fashionable London Society.
As every soldier in Napoleon's army was said to
carry a marshal's baton in his knapsack, so every
woman who is the wife or daughter of a modern
speculator carries a peeress's coronet in her purse bag.
A lucky stroke, and the household over which she
presides is moved as by magic from West Kensington
to Park Lane, and, inconvenient suburban friends
being judiciously dropped, her salons are thronged by
a far more fashionable mob, a certain proportion
of which has itself trodden the very same path before
reaching the pinnacle of gratified ambition.
Thus is modern London Society recruited, wealth,
about the origin of which awkward questions are
seldom asked, being a sufficiently potent qualification
for admission.
What is called Society to-day is largely composed
of people whose connection with the British Islands
is of quite recent date, a certain number of them have
not even troubled to assume English names, though
claiming and believing themselves to be the genuine
aristocracy of England ; not a few, indeed, can hardly
speak the language of the race which to some extent
they have succeeded in dominating.
Smart Society, as it exists at present, is not in
any sense representative of the country as a whole,
the landed proprietors, who formerly came up to
town for the season with their families, being for

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
the most part far too poor to entertain in the
same lavish way as does the plutocracy which now
rules supreme.
Society, in the old sense of the word, has ceased to
exist. The term, it is true, is constantly being used —
indeed, never has it figured in newspaper columns so
frequently as to-day — yet an exact definition of the
meaning of this word it would be almost impossible
to obtain. Though Society is dead, societies (that is,
small coteries of individuals who are constantly meet
ing for amusement and pleasure) flourish as they never
flourished before. In former days there were certain
persons who were well known as social leaders — strong
personalities, for the most part, who really did exer
cise considerable social sway. The newspapers con
tinue to assure us that these still exist, but such, in
reality, is not the case ; the so-called leaders of
Society, dear to the journalist, lead no one at all,
being, as a rule, either wealthy aliens or ladies who
hail from across the Atlantic, where their husbands'
dollars are made.
The old families of England meanwhile have sunk
into comparative obscurity, for the most part dis
tanced in the race for wealth.
The late Lord Houghton is said to have declared
that the highest condition of social happiness would
consist in being known by everybody and knowing
nobody — in being asked everywhere and going no
where. Such an ideal certainly makes no appeal to that
section of Society which calls itself " smart," a pecu-
ii

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
liarly vulgar word not unfitted to the class of individual
whose highest aspirations tends but to ephemeral
notoriety. With these, vanity is so great, and real intelligence
so small, that self-advertisement is their very meat
and drink. As living human beings they have hardly
any actual existence ; ostentation is the only aim of
this folk, which plays mainly to the gallery.
Small wonder, then, that their performances are
not in the very best of taste ; second-rate mounte
banks must of course produce their effect by crude
methods. Endowed with somewhat tough skins, such
people are well equipped to climb the social ladder.
Smiles do not affect them, rebuffs are powerless to
daunt their truly indomitable push ; and so, by some
means or other, they generally achieve their aim. Un
bounded impudence, when well assisted by a heavy
purse, is, in these days, rarely defeated in its struggle
to reach the first line of those on the top rung of the
social ladder.
Unfortunately, at an epoch when the newspapers
give so much publicity to the doings of the obtrusive,
there are many who imagine that these sort of people
are the arbiters of the manners of the age, and in
their ignorance follow them, the consequence being a
marked deterioration in the general tone.
A certain listlessness of demeanour and studied in
difference to everything in general is occasionally to
be observed in individuals to whom the very breath
of life is moving in what they deem to be fashionable
society. Hardly taking the trouble to listen to what

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
is being said, and addressing their vacuous utterances
to no one in particular, numbers of them much
resemble the semi-torpid fish which in the days of
aquariums blinked languidly within their tanks.
Some of these people would hardly be moved were a
fellow-guest to fall lifeless under the table. They
bring to mind the absurd story which used to be told
by General Burgoyne, illustrating the height to which
indifference could attain.
" At a great dinner-party in India the sun was so
powerful that on a blind being moved accidentally
for a few seconds the rays lighted upon the hostess
and reduced her to ashes. Her husband, having
noticed the catastrophe, called to a servant and
directed him to sweep up his mistress and bring
another bottle of claret ! "
Like the conies spoken of in Holy Writ, the majority
are "feeble folk," for the most part little troubled
by violent passions, except that of gambling on the
Stock Exchange, a mania which has brought many
a one to ruin. Notwithstanding this, the main body
still regards really rich City men with feelings of
reverential affection, and clings, in spite of many
disillusions, to the conviction that when the next
good speculation comes along old friends will not be
forgotten at the distribution of spoils.
In its amusements the " smart " set is more decorous
than certain fashionable coteries of the past, who
rather prided themselves upon occasional outbursts of
eccentricity. From time to time its more sporting
section may indulge in a practical joke, but escapades
13

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
of this kind are not viewed with particular favour —
there is no money in that sort of thing.
People, as a rule, are serious nowadays, and for this
reason fancy-dress balls, whilst still popular in the
country, are not often given in London. A brilliant
exception, of course, was the wonderful ball at Devon
shire House, which probably eclipsed anything of the
kind given in the past.
The English as a race are seldom at ease in fancy
dress, and, besides this, are totally lacking in the
" abandon " requisite to make unrestrained festivities
a success. At the end of the eighteenth century, however,
masquerades were very fashionable in London. Of
these George IV, when Prince of Wales, was a great
supporter. An old story, indeed, relates that his fond
ness for this sort of entertainment on one occasion
caused him to take a very serious risk. He was very
anxious to attend a certain masquerade. This, how
ever, his doctor absolutely forbade, though the Prince
pleaded that he merely intended to look on, dressed
in a domino. " If your Royal Highness persists in
going," said the doctor, " I will not answer for the
consequences." " Ah, well," replied the Prince,
" after all, ' Beati sunt illi qui moriuntur in Domino.' "
Occasionally parties are made up to go to Covent
Garden, ladies going in masks just for the fun of the
thing. A gentleman accompanying one of these
parties was rather amused to find amongst the waiters
a former butler, who, though posing as a very religious
man, had been dismissed for certain familiarities with
H

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
his wife's maid. " Well, Jones, what are you doing
now ? "said he. " Still snatching brands from the fire,
sir ; but I do a little of this in between." The man,
it appeared, was a professional preacher.
At one time practical jokes were much in favour.
The best of these, perhaps, was the one played upon
a certain lady of world-wide celebrity, who was in the
habit of having baccarat parties at her house. Three
or four intimate men friends of hers having dressed
themselves up as police officers, one evening proceeded
to knock loudly at the door and, on admission, walked
up to the room where they knew gambling was going
on. Their entrance was the signal for a general
stampede, and great was the relief of all when the raid
was found to be but a joke. Practical jokes can seldom
be justified, but this appears to be one of the least
mischievous that can be conceived.
Another form of practical joking was, at one time,
frequently indulged in by a very beautiful lady, who
dressed herself up as a flower-girl and sold violets
in Bond Street in the early hours of the evening, her
basket being emptied within a few minutes.
The same lady, whilst on a visit to Constantinople,
it was said, so won the admiration of the Sultan that
he conferred upon her the order of virtue — but only
of the second class !
Young people brought up in a frivolous atmosphere
easily adopt the flippant tone so prevalent in certain
circles. A little girl, the daughter of a rather rapid
mother, whilst being examined in Bible history,
was asked the question, " Who was Moses ? " to
'5

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
which, without a moment's hesitation, she answered,
" The son of Pharaoh's daughter." " Oh ! no," cor
rected the teacher ; " Pharaoh's daughter it was who
discovered Moses in the bulrushes." " Yes," replied
the child with a significant smile, " that was what she
said." Children, indeed, soon get accustomed to any
thing. At the period some years ago when agrarian
crime was rife in Ireland, every one connected with
that country more or less got to regard violence as
almost a natural thing. The child of a well-known
landlord, on being shown the picture of his grand
mother, and being further told that she was dead,
calmly inquired, " How long ago was she shot ? "
The story has been often told of a certain lady who,
much addicted to practical joking, actually went
so far as to sew up mustard leaves in some of the
men's trousers just before they dressed for dinner
at a country-house party. This freak produced
curious results as dinner progressed. A mustard leaf,
or rather a mustard plaster, certainly figured in another
story, which had, at any rate, the merit of truth.
A newly-married couple were staying at a country
house where a large party was assembled. The bride
groom had a bad chill and a sore throat, and wanted
a doctor to be sent for. The bride, however, thought
this nonsense, and told him she would soon put him
right. " I know this house very well," said she, " and
when every one has gone to bed I will just run down
the back stairs, get some mustard from the kitchen,
and make you a poultice." This she did, and, re-
16

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
entering the darkened bedroom, pulled down the
clothes, applied the poultice, and, tucking up her
patient, gave him a kiss. Proceeding to strike a light,
what was her horror to find she had poulticed, not her
husband, but another man ! Flying out of the room,
at the next door (which she had mistaken) was her
husband, who had become uneasy at such a prolonged
absence. Explaining to him the mistake, she declared
she could never face her victim the next morning, as
he would, without doubt, be furious at what must
seem to him an impudent practical joke. The couple
eventually arranged to breakfast in their room and
leave early. What was their astonishment on going
downstairs next morning to meet the victim. Asleep
during the application of the plaster, he had been
awakened by a feeling of extreme discomfort, and,
furious at the trick which, as he thought, had been
played upon him, had also resolved to leave the house
at the very earliest opportunity. Matters, however,
being explained, the whole affair ended well.
A practical joke of a somewhat rough nature was
once played upon a short but dignified personage, who,
arriving on a visit to an intimate friend, was much
astonished by the singular conduct of the footman
who met him at the door. The familiarity of the
latter at last amounting to positive rudeness, the irate
visitor became so angry that he administered a sharp
admonition, when, to his horror, the flunkey com
menced hustling him about, and, chasing him into the
drawing-room, landed him there with a valedictory
kick. Only when instructing his valet to pack his
c 17

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
things did the much ruffled visitor discover that his
assailant had been a boisterous younger brother of the
host, who, having attired himself in the footman's
livery, had devised and carried out this startling
practical joke.
Vengeance, however, was to overtake the perpe
trator, a friend of the victim determining to await his
time till an opportunity should arise.
Lunching with him one day at the " Bristol," the
young man complained that he suffered very severely
from corns, and did not exactly know to whom he
should apply for a cure. " My dear fellow," was the
reply, " haven't you heard of Dr. P  " (a great
ladies' physician of that day). " He is the man you
should see. He treats nothing else but corns ; but
remember he is eccentric and hates delay, so directly
you enter his consulting-room pull off your boots and
stockings and show him your feet — that's all you have
to do. He is the greatest corn cutter of the day — in
fact, does nothing else, which is why you will find, the
waiting-room full of ladies — women, as you know,
are great sufferers from corns."
The young man went that very afternoon to the
doctor, where, as had been predicted, he found many
ladies waiting their turn. At last his name was called,
and on entering the consulting-room he carried out
his instructions to the letter, with the result that he
was very roughly requested to retire by the physician,
who, enjoying the most fashionable practice in
London, was beyond himself with rage at being taken
for a mere chiropodist. 18

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
A practical joke which amounted to positive
brutality is once said to have been played upon a lady
at Homburg.
As is well known, amongst the various kinds of baths
which that resort possesses, the " mud," or rather
peat bath, is held in peculiar esteem, a " Badhaus "
existing solely devoted to this particular process and
furnished with the very latest improvements. The
bath is a hole level with the floor, under which a truck
on lines, containing the " mud," is rolled. Into this
the patient steps, and when the performance is over,
the cart is mechanically shunted out of the opposite
outlet, discharging its contents. On one occasion the
attendant, having been led by some means or other to
believe that a fair patient (a well-known malade imagi-
naire) had completed her bath, set the truck going,
with the result that she was incontinently discharged
in puris naturalibus on the mud-heap outside.
London Society of to-day, and more especially that
section of it which claims to be " smart," is more
occupied in thinking of money-making than of prac
tical jokes — a form of amusement which, by offending
people, might prove unfavourable to its schemes.
Judicious introductions and the bringing out of
new millionaires occasionally lead to fairly lucrative
results. Nor are such proceedings in every case open
to unlimited censure, a fair equivalent being given
for social value received. A little lower down in the
social scale, however, exists another distinct set, whose
members semi-professionally and openly traffic in the
sale of their acquaintance, and purvey them unblush-
ingly by agreement at so much a head.
'9

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
The wife of a rich parvenu who by means of such
an intermediary had been invited to an exclusive
dance, once created much amusement by vaunting
the charms of her daughter, who, she announced, was
about to have her portrait painted en sainte.
Some of the parties and balls given by new million
aires at which the guests have been invited, as it were,
by contract, have produced amusing incidents. At a
ball of this sort, for instance, a man was accosted by
a lady. Drawing himself up, he said, with a patron
izing air, " I beg your pardon, but I do not think I
have the pleasure of your acquaintance." " Probably
not," was the answer. " I am your hostess."
" My dear, how could you go down to supper with
that man ? " was another remark overheard at a ball
given at the house of a newly-discovered millionaire.
" I couldn't help it, darling. Didn't you know he
was our host ? "
Certain millionaires, however, are of a retiring dis
position, and though ready to enter Society, make
little effort to do so. These have to be hunted out.
Some years ago an eminent personage accepted, or
suggested, a dinner with a certain millionaire, at that
time comparatively unknown. The first guest to
arrive, having explained to the butler that, being un
acquainted with his host, he would wait till some one
else came who could introduce him, lingered in the
hall. The second was in the same predicament, as
were the third, fourth, fifth, and other guests up to
the ninth, who chanced to be the " eminent per
sonage " himself. Upon the dilemma being ex-
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plained to him, he cheerily said, " Oh, come along
with me. I will introduce you all — I know him."
Another sort of nouveau riche of a more adventurous
nature disdains all outside help and boldly pushes
himself to the front, his first move being to blossom
out in altogether a new character and, consigning his
plebeian origin to obscurity, figure as some new col
lateral of some noble race.
The process is begun by the assumption of some
fine old name. In a little country town, for instance,
lived a worthy tradesman named Stodge. Stodge had
a son, and to this son a great lady in the neighbour
hood became attached. The lady went to town for
the season, and Stodge junior shortly followed. Here
he was known as Stewart Stodge, which in the course
of time changed into Stodge Stewart, and ultimately
again into Stewart — tout court — " One of the Stewarts,
you know. ..."
In such cases, however, it is requisite for the as
pirant to social fame to have some one to coach him,
otherwise he may meet with the same contretemps as
befell the wife of a nouveau riche who, having tried to
perfect herself in remembering certain Scotch titles,
such as the Master of Elphinstone, etc., was once com
pletely nonplussed at meeting the late Dr. Jowett.
The " Master of Balliol " being introduced to her
by a lady, she turned to a friend and asked, " Really,
it is too stupid to forget these titles, but whose eldest
son is he F "
When newly enriched people decide to go into
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expensive business, they must, if they are wise, make
up their minds to adopt some particular line. Charity,
which includes the organizing of bazaars, to which
fashionable people can be induced to come and sell,
is not bad ; racing also is good ; but dinner giving,
with an excellent cook, is perhaps best.
If the lady of the house be young and pretty, it is
generally well for her not to adopt too serious an
attitude towards life in general.
Of late years elopements, formerly so frequent, have
gone entirely out of fashion ; such escapades belong
as much to the past as the post-chaise speeding to
Gretna Green. Divorce, however, still holds its own,
but, as a rule, it is more decently arranged than was
formerly the case ; whilst social ostracism is not so
rigorously enforced where the offender, as often
happens, has a plausible excuse. No good end was
served by cruel severity being shown to some poor
lady who, in reality, may have been more sinned
against than sinning. Husbands also whose wives are
frivolous and indifferent are not always so much to
blame as the general public believes. Besides this, a
certain kind of woman occasionally makes a dead set
at some particular man, whose strength of character is
not able to resist her. Many a man is seduced and
deserted by a beautiful woman only to find that the
well-known wit who called it " the most enjoyable
experience of which man is capable " had told any
thing but the truth.
On the whole, more temperate views prevail as to
divorce, it seeming to be now realized that the break-

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
ing of a mutually disagreeable matrimonial chain can
hardly be considered a social crime. A constant source
of amusement to French writers, divorce abroad
sometimes produces some rather comical results.
Some time ago a foreign nobleman who had dissi
pated his patrimony contrived to effect a matrimonial
alliance with the daughter of a rich manufacturer.
The lady, it may be added, though young, was pos
sessed of a great knowledge of the world and its ways,
and soon became tired of supplying funds wherewith
to satisfy the extravagant fancies of her husband. She
showed, however, no signs of irritation — rather the
contrary. " My dear," she said one day to him, " you
are, as you know, always in want of money. I do not
blame you for it, it's your nature. I think, however,
that we might arrange things in a more satisfactory
manner, having hit upon the following plan.
" My father is very eccentric, and has of late often
told me that could I manage to divorce you he would
settle a much larger sum upon me than the one
I have at present. Why should we not arrange mat
ters ? Let me divorce you, get the money, and then
we can marry again, when you will be able to spend
as much as you like." This prospect of unlimited
extravagance was irresistible to the husband, who
readily consented to the suggested plan. In accord
ance with his wife's instructions, he formally admitted
that he had been unfaithful to her in the conjugal
domicile, after which the first stage of a divorce was
duly decreed, the event being celebrated by a par
ticularly recherche lunch given by the lady to her
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accommodating husband. " And now," said she,
" everything being satisfactorily arranged, you had
better go away for a time till the decree is made
absolute ; besides, I am going to have the house
thoroughly done up so as to accord with our increased
means. You know you hate the discomfort and
annoyance of workmen in the house." Going into the
country, the husband waited anxiously for the day
when, the decree having taken effect, he might return.
When he wrote about this, his wife always replied,
begging him not to spoil everything by non-compliance
with the conditions necessary to secure the divorce.
The prescribed period having at length elapsed, happy
and buoyant, the poor man presented himself at his
wife's door. " The Comtesse is at home, I suppose ? "
he remarked gaily to the servant who appeared. " Not
to you, M. le Comte," was the reply. Remonstrances,
entreaties, supplications, all were vain ; she never saw
him again, and shortly afterwards married again.
" You " (she wrote to him) " wanted my money, I
wanted my freedom. In a duel in which I thought
myself entitled to use any stratagem I have proved the
victor, and am in consequence perfectly happy and
content." Another lady, who adored her husband, though his
extravagance was a constant source of trouble, hit upon
a novel expedient of not being liable for his debts.
This she announced to her sister in the following
words, hastily scribbled upon a visiting card —
" Deux mots a la hate pour te dire que depuis hier
Vladimir n'est plus mon mari mais mon amant — le
divorce ayant ete prononce la veille."
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In all probability the American element in Society
is responsible for the somewhat lenient view now taken
of divorce, American ladies having some mysterious
way of getting rid of husbands who have served their
purpose. An American husband, indeed, would seem
capable of being dismissed much as is an unsatisfactory
butler. Of late years American brides have, in many in
stances, made some very unfortunate matches — a
particularly unfortunate alliance between the daughter
of a famous railway king and a somewhat volatile
French Count being a notorious instance. Neverthe
less such mistakes ought not to be made, there being
numbers of people well able to give every sort of
information about possible bridegrooms.
Practical guides to the European marriage market
have been published in America. Of these, the most
important was " Titled Americans ; a list of Ameri
can ladies who have married foreigners of rank "
(which possibly still appears). This volume was pub
lished by Messrs. Street and Smith, of New York, who
stated that it was annually revised. " Titled Ameri
cans " was divided into four parts. The first division
dealt with the comparative values of titles in the
different European States ; the second enumerated
the various American ladies who had secured aristo
cratic husbands ; the third supplied a careful list of
all the eligible men of rank throughout Europe ; and
the fourth provided the names of some 1500 persons
who constituted the nobility of New York.
" Titled Americans," as a matter of fact, was a sort
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of stud guide to the eligible aristocracy of our con
tinent, the names, characteristics, antecedents, and
money qualifications of a selected number of young
men being most fully set forth within its pages. Notes
as to position and character were appended, such as
" Has sown his wild oats," " Family very poor,"
" Enjoys a small allowance," and other information
of a like character. This original work was, in short,
a species of catalogue to the desirable young men in
the Continental and English marriage markets. The
conclusion contained an interview with Mr. Chauncey
M. Depew upon the subject of " Why do American
women carry off all the matrimonial prizes in Eng
land f " in which was the following passage : " The
American girl comes along, prettier than her English
sister, full of dash and snap and go — sprightly, dazzling,
and audacious, and she is a revelation to the English
man. She gives him more pleasure in one hour at a
dinner or ball than he thought the universe could
produce in a whole lifetime. He knows nothing of
business, and to support his estate requires an in
creased income. The American girl with whom he
gets acquainted has that income, so in marrying her
he goes to Heaven and gets — the earth."
Too often, alas ! it must be added, the Englishman
gets only the earth, entirely failing to procure either
the " income " or Heaven.
The Press in America is ever much concerned with
the doings of certain great plutocratic families, and
this solicitude occasionally spreads over to London.
Some sixteen years ago a good deal of curiosity was
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aroused by a number of serious announcements in the
daily papers that " the head of the house of Astor "
had arrived in London. " The Times," by some un
fortunate misapprehension, called it the " house of
Aston " ! From everything one read, it then seemed
as if the United States of America were in some danger
of becoming disunited on the question as to who really
has the right to style themselves by this impressive and
important appellation. The culminating point, it
was declared, had been reached at Newport, U.S., a
year before, when certain letters miscarrying, jthe
matter was referred to the Postmaster-General at
Washington. This unromantic official, however, re
plied that, according to United States law, every
single citizen could, if he so pleased, call himself Mr.
Astor or any other " darned " name he pleased !
In these days, when so many English families are
connected by marriage with America, and such a
number of the peerage is half American by birth,
visitors from the other side of the Atlantic are hardly
considered as strangers at all.
This was not always the case ; many of our trans
atlantic guests having excited the liveliest interest in
past days. Since then, however, the Englishwoman
has become a good deal more self-assertive than the
most daring of her American cousins ever ventured
to be. Matters have been carried too far in this
direction. Owing to the particular bent of the feminine dis
position, exaggeration is always more natural to
women than the strict truth ; this explains the out-
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cry raised as to the undue dominance of men. No
mentor is more pernicious to woman than her own
excited imagination, which almost invariably leads her
into error.
There were gifted women in the past just as there
are to-day, but they were not addicted to advertising
their mental attainments. Feminine cleverness in
certain directions is proverbial, most of the sex being
intelligent enough — always with the exception of
those who proclaim it. Woman's real mission is to
inspire men, not to dictate to them, and any attempt
to reverse this must inevitably produce disaster.
Female emancipation (so called) has but little
affected the world of society, where women have
always been accustomed to have more or less their own
way. Young married ladies, perhaps, are rather more
independent than was formerly the case, and girls are
now allowed a liberty that is occasionally somewhat
unrestrained. This being so, there is naturally little
desire for the removal of restrictions which have never
hampered that part of the feminine world which has
money to spend and sufficient freedom to indulge in
social amusement.
About eighteen years ago a mild sensation was
caused by a number of ladies, headed by the late
Lady Florence Dixie, announcing their determination
to ride in the Park astride. In consequence of this, the
first meet of the Coaching Club that year attracted
an unprecedented concourse of sightseers bent upon
catching a glimpse of what had been denounced as a
sensational and unbecoming innovation. Much to
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the general disappointment, however, the expected
Amazons did not appear. Since then a revolt of
English femininity has been in progress — English
women professing to be bent upon improving their
status. Whether this is to be achieved by sacrificing
what is feminine and appropriate to their sex is a
question worthy of grave consideration.
Lady Florence Dixie, with her notions of an eman
cipated costume, was somewhat before her time.
The question raised by her proposal was consider
ably farther reaching than what is implied by the
mere riding astride. It was, indeed, but part and
parcel of a general movement amongst an advanced
section of women to claim the same rights — for want
of a more descriptive term — as are enjoyed by men.
Up to quite recent times civilized woman has recog
nized that the frame of man adapts him best for
fighting and working for the wife and children, whom
he as a rule supports. She therefore contented her
self with fulfilling her own no less necessary duties,
the performance of which nature has decreed. With
the end of the nineteenth century began the revolt
of woman, who to-day seeks to combine the privi
leges of both sexes whilst supporting the disadvan
tages of neither. Woman suffrage, female representa
tion in Parliament, female domination all round, will
produce an England which will afford a startling
object-lesson to the rest of the world. In the long
run, however, woman will probably suffer, experienc
ing a bitter awakening from her delusive dreams.
The cry for further emancipation mostly proceeds
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from the failures amongst the sex, and from that part
of it which has sought solace for the neglect of an
unsympathetic world in what is known as " social
reform." Throughout the world's history an attrac
tive woman has always, in spite of law, custom and
restrictions, been able to do pretty much as she pleased.
The present movement in favour of female rule is
nothing but an attempt to entrust power to women
who, either mentally or physically, deviate from the
ideal standard, for really feminine women have no
desire to rule otherwise than by their charm.
Female labour is undoubtedly very poorly paid, but
any attempt on the part of women to enforce an equal
standard of wages for both sexes would meet with an
opposition from the mass of workers which would
probably end in the adoption of an even more unsatis
factory scale of pay. The addition of female voters
would not improve the position of women as much as
the advocates of this innovation believe ; rather would
it in time produce a species of war between the sexes
which must inevitably terminate in an even more
crushing victory of man.
As a matter of fact, the Suffragette agitation is
merely one form of the mania for fads and cranks
which distinguishes the England of the present day,
in which societies and leagues for the promotion or
suppression of things, habits or vices, run riot in every
direction. Teetotal fanatics, vegetarian cranks, pru
rient promoters of moral reform, and innumerable
other enthusiasts, hovering on the precipice of mental
aberration, are accorded a respectful hearing and also,
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what is more important, a certain measure of public
support. Any individual who is sufficiently astute to
work up a new fad in such a way as to enlist the sym
pathies of the benevolent is practically assured of an
income for life. If regular employment as secretary is
not forthcoming, opulent imbecility is generally ready
to make, at least, moderate provision for strenuous
workers in no matter what field of meddlesome
philanthropy or reform.
Individuals who would otherwise languish in some
thing very close to penury make a good living by
starting movements calculated to attract sentimental
ists and feeble-minded folk. Some of these specialize
in faddism, others wander from one cranky idea to
another all through their lives, till such time as they
sink into the long sleep, leaving the world much as it
was before. . . .
A would-be social reformer in his own country,
though not of our own insular type, was the late
General Boulanger.
During his residence in London, however, he
aroused but little interest, entirely failing as a social
success. A few professional lion-hunters did, indeed,
attempt to " boom " him during his visit in the
summer of 1889, hoping, no doubt, to profit by
his hospitality, should he ever attain supreme power
in Paris. The General in question, as a matter
of fact, was probably the very smallest " great man "
that ever figured in modern history. His cele
brated charger " Tunis " was not as successful a
" property " in Rotten Row as it had been at the
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Longchamps review ; indeed, the general impression
at the time was that it must formerly have done
mournful service with a hearse. During his sojourn
in London the General stayed at the Bristol Hotel.
To all outward appearances quiet and unassuming, the
good looks which he undoubtedly possessed were of a
somewhat vulgar type. A devoted ally was the late
Dr. Robson Roose, who once gave a great banquet in
this somewhat pretentious visitor's honour. A prin
cipal cause of the cold reception accorded to Boulanger
was Madame de Bonnemain's constant attendance,
which English opinion was not disposed to tolerate.
Society also was beginning to get tired of lionizing
distinguished foreigners, many of whom also much
preferred to be let alone.
During the visits of celebrated Orientals to this
country a great eagerness seems always shown to make
their existence one of perpetual hustle. In direct
opposition to their own liking, they are hurried from
one entertainment to the other, and taken to all sorts
of functions, of which they are at heart supremely
contemptuous. The old Shah of Persia (Nasr-ed-Din),
during his visit to this country in 1889, used to com
plain that he was never left in peace. The only thing
he is said to have really enjoyed was the performance
of a female acrobat at Brighton. On this occasion he
manifested a desire to know how many " taumauns "
it would cost to add her to his harem. As for
his courtiers, the majority frankly owned that visits
to factories and the like were not at all to their
taste. " What do I care," said one at Sheffield, " if
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they can turn out five thousand penknives a minute ?
It would do me no good if they produced five million."
Li Hung Chang, whilst in this country some twelve
years ago, was hurried from town to town and from
factory to factory, whilst no possible opportunity of
inflicting a dinner upon him was ever lost. The only
rest he occasionally obtained was by declaring that
important despatches from China claimed his atten
tion, his original plea of age and infirmity not having
been able to cause much modification in the official
programme. The old Chinaman, who was a man of
very real ability, was something of a wit besides, as
was shown by some lines which he wrote in the visitors'
book at a well-known country house. In this volume,
as was explained to him, guests were expected to
write a sentiment or proverb — anything, in fact, they
chose. The place indicated for this was just beneath
something written by another guest whose contribu
tion had ended with " Penny wise and Pound foolish."
Here the old statesman solemnly inscribed certain
Chinese characters resembling hieroglyphics. A few
weeks later, a celebrated Oriental scholar, chancing
to be in the house, was begged to translate the mys
terious inscription. On reading over the words,
however, he manifested considerable embarrassment,
firmly declaring that he could not give the English
version before ladies, some of whom were present.
Eventually, however, being much pressed, he said
that Li Hung had written after " Penny wise and
Pound foolish " simply the word " or," and then
" What is the use of going to bed early to save candles
d 33

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if the result be twins ? " — a breezy sentiment, of a
quite unconventional kind.
During the residence of the Shahzada at Dorchester
House in 1895 many rumours were current as to his
original views. According to one report, the Shahzada
had been much perturbed by the downfall of the
Government, and, with true Eastern gallantry, had
at once offered the use of his Afghan escort to protect
the Royal Family. He was also supposed to have ex
pressed a wish to intercede for Lord Kimberley in
consequence of the kind reception which the Secretary
for India prepared for him. In addition to this the
august visitor was said to have petitioned that Lord
Kimberley might be despatched at once, without
having to submit to any elaborate or lingering death,
and also to have signified his intention of being present
at the execution of Lord Rosebery, in order to testify
publicly his support of the reigning house. At one
time also he was reported to have sent to a Bond Street
gunmaker for a large quantity of ammunition, whilst
setting his suite to work at the task of placing Dor
chester House in a state of efficient defence.
The Shahzada, however, was practically unseen in
Society, and did not arouse as much interest as certain
French actresses, who, rather to the surprise of their
countrymen, were admitted to the most exclusive
English circles.
Mile. Reichemberg, the well-known French actressy
being once introduced to Mr. Gladstone at a party,
was asked by him if she knew Mr. John Morley.
Feeling that she ought to know this statesman, she
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proceeded to express her warm admiration for Mr.
Morley's talents, when the Grand Old Man at once
launched out into an elaborate essay upon his colleague
considered as a man, a philosopher, and a Home Ruler ;
Mile. Reichemberg chiming in with continual notes
of approval. When, however, Mr. Gladstone left
her she anxiously inquired of a friend at what theatre
Mr. Morley performed, and whether he habitually
played tragedy or comedy !
As has been said, the day of the social lion seems
rather to have gone ; the world in general is not so
eager to meet celebrities as it was in the past. At
one time theatrical lions were all the rage, but of
late years the social status of actors and actresses has
risen to such an extent that their presence at any
social gathering naturally excites no remark.
To-day, though pretty women abound, there are
no professional beauties such as existed in the 'seventies
and early 'eighties. The Victorian Era may be said
to have been noted for the beauty of its women, the
record of which has been preserved for us by Winter-
halter and other artists.
At the time of the marriage of the present King
his lovely bride, the Princess Alexandra, was by
universal consent acclaimed as the very incarnation
of youthful loveliness ; and that this was no exag
gerated estimate is proved by her charming appearance
to-day. One of the prettiest compliments probably ever
paid to Royalty was uttered by a little child during a
visit made by the present Queen, then Princess of
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Wales, to Hatfield. A little girl staying in the house
had been told that she should be allowed to see the
Princess. In due course presented to her, the child,
after a respectful scrutiny, turned round to her mother
and said, " Mamma, I see the young Princess, but
where is the Princess of Wales ? "
Many great beauties flourished during the Victorian
era, one of the most famous having been Mrs. Thistle-
thwayte, who as a girl was well known for her
exceptional beauty. About the year 1852 she created
a sensation at the Opera, the whole house rising to
its feet to watch her leave the theatre. Her eyes
and forehead were beautiful beyond description ;
some idea may be formed of them from the well-
known picture of the " Nun " for which she sat, and
the photographs of which are still sold by thousands
for scrap-albums. The finest picture that was painted
of her was by Buckner, and it immediately made his
reputation, though he never afterwards attained the
same height of excellence. This portrait was painted
for the late Lord Kilmorey. In consequence of it
Sir Robert Peel commissioned Buckner to paint for
him the portraits of the late Duchess of Wellington,
the late Lady Jersey, the late Mrs. Stonor, and Lady
Emily Peel. All of these now hang in the drawing-
room at Drayton.
A great lady who had in her youth been renowned
for her beauty was Louisa Lady Waterford. The only
flaw in her good looks was a certain lack of colour,
notwithstanding which it was frequently asserted that
this grande dame had been the most lovely woman of
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her century. That, however, was an exaggeration, the
most beautiful amongst many beauties, by general
agreement of those best qualified to know, having been
the Countess de Castiglione, whose bust as Medusa,
by her relative the Duchesse de Castiglione, it may be
of interest to mention, figured for many years opposite
the refreshment rooms at the South Kensington
Museum, to which it had been lent.
Two other strikingly beautiful women were Mrs.
Wadsworth, mother of Mrs. Smith-Barry — herself an
exquisitely lovely person — and the Lady Londonderry
who was mother to Lord Powerscourt. As is well
known, on one occasion, when the Comtesse de
Castiglione was present at a reception given by Lady
Palmerston, the excitement reached such a pitch that
people actually jumped upon chairs to obtain a good
view of her.
The beauty of the Comtesse, indeed, had such an
effect upon a prominent English statesman not very
conversant with French, that in the course of a con
versation with her he said : " Madame, vous £tes
eclaboussant." The sound of this extraordinary new
word so much startled the Comtesse that she promptly
remarked : " I think we had better talk English, which
I understand quite as well as your French."
During her visit to London she was seen a good deal
in the company of the Marquis d'Azeglio, who him
self was a rather handsome man. The pride which he
exhibited at peacocking about with this lovely Countess
was a thing to remember.
The Italian nobleman in question was much ad-
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dieted to collecting minor bric-a-brac at a time when
it was not so generally sought for as it is at present.
He it was who first discovered the value of the
so-called " coloured glass pictures," which at the pre
sent day command such large prices. Of objets d?art
in general he was a competent judge, securing many a
bargain at Venice, in which city he spent a great deal
of his time.
A well-known figure in London Society, he lived
for many years at the Albany. The most genial of
companions, he was the intimate friend of the Shaftes-
burys, Palmerstons, and, indeed, all the leading people
of his time. It may not be generally known that he
and Lord Granville were the original founders of the
St. James's Club. D'Azeglio had been one of Count
Cavour's principal confidants, and helped greatly to
bring about the unity of Italy. He was for long the
cavaliere servente of one of Lord Palmerston's relatives.
When his lordship was succeeded at the Foreign Office
by Lord Russell, Madame Ratazzi, whose husband was
Italian Prime Minister, told D'Azeglio that if he did
not attach himself in the same capacity to one of Lord
Russell's relatives he would lose his place. As he did
not do this he was superseded. His uncle, the states
man and novelist, was named Massimo Azeglio.
Playing upon this, the Italians dubbed the nephew
" Minimo." At one time he had shared rooms with Lord Gran
ville in Bruton Street, Berkeley Square, and in all
probability then exercised a good deal of influence
over that statesman. The Marquis d' Azeglio died in
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Lord Granville (" Pussy " Granville, as the irreve
rent familiarly called him in allusion to some fancied
feline resemblance his face possessed) followed his
old friend to the grave about a year later, having been
more or less unwell for some time previously. What
ever different opinions may have existed as to his
qualities as a statesman, his marvellous amiability of
character was ever universally acknowledged, as were
his charm of manner and old-world courtesy and
polish. A most perfect gentleman, " sans peur et
sans reproche." When at the Foreign Office Lord
Granville was simply idolized by the foreign diplomats
of every grade, his courteous behaviour being a re
freshing revelation.
Lord Granville's tact, urbanity, and personal charm
were notorious, and on no occasion were these valuable
qualities displayed to greater effect than during a
crisis which occurred at Brooks's Club in the 'eighties,
when the introduction of the Home Rule Bill had
caused a great deal of blackballing — Liberal Unionists
using their power against Home Rulers and vice versa.
At one time, indeed, it seemed as if no one would ever
be elected to Brooks's again, the tension having become
so acute.
Lord Granville, however, saved the situation. Just
previous to a ballot, which was expected to produce
further dissensions in the club, he made a charming
little speech, pleading that one place, at least, in
London might be kept free from animosities, which
could only serve to shatter friendships and were un
worthy of the dignified history of the club. The
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result was a personal triumph for the speaker, all the
candidates, whether Home Rulers or not, being
elected. The bitterness which was engendered by the Home
Rule Bill spread not only into clubs, but into Society
generally, where discussion, recrimination, and even
abuse were for a time the order of the day.
As for Mr. Gladstone himself, general rumour de
clared that he was less excited by the question than a
number of other people, whose interest in the Bill was
purely academic. An hour before Mr. Gladstone was
to make his great speech introducing the Home Rule
Bill, a secretary deputed to communicate some message,
is said to have found him at his official residence in
Downing Street seated in an arm-chair before the
fire, calmly reading South's Sermons.
The French Press, which in those far-away days
was always making ludicrous mistakes about English
names and titles, was ever very much puzzled as to
the reason which prevented Mr. Gladstone from be
coming a Peer. An unusually well-informed organ
once solemnly announced that his refusal of a peerage
— cette abstention presque farouche — was the con
sequence of Mr. Gladstone being one of the brethren
of Trinity House — " une association brittanique re-
ligieuse dite Maison de la Trinite " — the members of
which had made a solemn compact never to accept any
order or honorific distinction !
It was generally said that Queen Victoria, whilst
rigidly maintaining that dignified impartiality in
politics which is a tradition of the English Crown,
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much preferred Lord Beaconsfield to Mr. Gladstone.
There is little doubt that the former manifested a
more sympathetic consideration for the Royal sus
ceptibilities in matters of detail than did the latter.
" I wonder what appointments for my household
Mr. Gladstone is going to advise me to make ? " said
the Queen on the occasion of a Liberal Ministry
coming into office.
" Oh," answered a lady, a member of the Court,
" I suppose they will make several new peers."
" They ? " replied the Queen, with emphasis.
If this story be true, the lady in question must have
been a novice to Court life, for a more injudicious re
mark could scarcely be conceived, Queen Victoria
having very rightly been extremely tenacious of privi
leges enjoyed by the Crown.
Towards the end of her life the Queen, who had for
many years been Httle seen driving through the streets
of London, made her appearance more frequently in
the West End thoroughfares.
One afternoon in the 'nineties a considerable sensa
tion was created by her Majesty driving down Bond
Street, this being a feat which she had not performed
for fully a quarter of a century ; indeed, when the
wealthy tradesmen of Bond Street heard the clatter
of the outriders and equerries, and beheld the Sove
reign driving down their somewhat narrow thorough
fare, they could scarcely believe their eyes.
About the same time the Queen also created a sur
prise amongst the riders in Rotten Row by driving
down the ride — a privilege which the English Sove-
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reign shares with the Duchess of St. Albans, whose
husband is hereditary Grand Falconer. These are
the only two in the land who are permitted to
enjoy this not very enviable prerogative ; the Duchess,
it is said, never exercises her right.
Of the new London which had grown up since her
widowhood Queen Victoria naturally knew very little.
A child, it is said, brought to her notice the existence
of one of those vast emporiums now quite a feature of
the metropolis. A certain lady who had been on a
visit at Balmoral, engaged upon some work for her
Majesty, was allowed to bring her daughter, a child,
with her. The Queen, taking a fancy to the little girl,
took her one day into her room. With all the simpli
city of youth the latter entered presently into the
following conversation :
She : " Where do you live when you are in town f "
The Queen : " I live at Buckingham Palace, my
dear. Where do you live f "
She : " Oh ! we live in the Fulham Road " (short
pause). " Where do you get your things from ? We
always get ours from Harrod's Stores."
Towards the end of Queen Victoria's life all sorts
of rumours were current as to her having fallen into
a weak state of health. As in the case of most people
of very great age, the world could with difficulty
believe that she continued well and strong. Report
often prematurely kills off old people.
Some years before her death the many friends of
the venerable Lady de Ros were much shocked by an
announcement which appeared in the morning papers
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recording her death at Old Court, Strangford, Co.
Down. The annoyance and pain caused to her family
and friends by this untrue announcement was con
siderable, and her daughter, Mrs. Swinton, who lived
with her mother, was absolutely overwhelmed with
telegrams, letters, inquiries, and calls, which lasted for
some three days. Lady de Ros, in alluding to " Copen
hagen," the Iron Duke's celebrated horse, which she
had often had the privilege of riding, always asserted
that it was more showy than pleasant— being, indeed,
a very uncomfortable horse to ride.
" Copenhagen," before entering upon a military
career, had been a racehorse ; his colour was chestnut.
Oddly enough, the old Emperor William also rode
a racehorse, or rather a steeplechaser, in the war of
1870. This was called the " Colonel," and had run
well before becoming a charger.
The mention of Lady de Ros, who died at a very
advanced age, recalls the following curious instances
of long life.
An especially interesting instance of longevity was
the late Mr. J. L. Elliot, who died only ten years ago,
and had known all the politicians, wits, dandies, and
beauties of his day. He had carried Queen Victoria
in his arms at a time when she was but a child of
four, had run messages for Queen Caroline ; he had
walked beside Sir Joseph Banks's chair, and met
Shelley. His reminiscences of long-past events in
cluded a walk across the Thames when it was frozen
in 1 8 14, and crossings of the Channel in sailing packets
which occasionally took three days to perform their
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voyage. He remembered the Guards with pigtails,
and the Cossack escort of the Hetman Platoff when
that leader came to England after the peace.
These are but a few of the links with bygone days
which have only recently passed away.
Mr. Crackanthorpe, who died in 1888, had had an
interview with the Emperor Napoleon at Elba in 18 15
the morning before the latter escaped to France.
Mr. J. H. Christie, who died in 1876, had fought a
duel with Mr. John Scott at Chalk Farm in 1821 and
killed him. Mr. John Carrick Moore, f.r.s., who died
in 1898, was the nephew of Sir John Moore, who fell
at Corunna. Baron Heath, who lived till 1879, had
been Byron's fag at Harrow, whilst Sir Moses Monte-
fiore, whose death occurred in 1885, had dined with
Nelson on board ship, and well remembered Lady
Hamilton. An officer who had been on duty at
Nelson's funeral, Captain T. G. Green, survived till
1882. The father of the late Lord Bristol, who died but
a short time ago, knew Lady Hester Stanhope, who
knew a lady who knew another lady who knew Lady
Desmond, who danced with Richard III when he was
Duke of Gloucester. A traditionary rhyme refers to
the last lady : —
Lady Desmond who lived to the age of a hundred and ten,
And died from a fall from a cherry-tree then.

44

II

f I ''HE London Society of the past was often severely
censured for its devotion to frivolity and plea
sure, which were said to monopolize its interests to
the exclusion of everything else.
Business before pleasure is its watchword to-day,
when the chief concern of the majority is to extend
an eager welcome to any wealthy nobody who may
seem likely to be of use.
Woman it is rather than man who has brought this
state of affairs about — women, as Napoleon said,
caring at heart nothing about social differences ; to
many of them, one man is as good as another, and
better — if he is rich. So has it come about that
wealth, even when vulgar and unattractive, more or
less dominates the modern equivalent for Society.
One of the marked features of the present epoch is
the complete disappearance of the great hostesses who
in former days played such an important part in
Society. Hostesses, it is true, still exist in abundance,
but there is hardly one of them to-day who wields
anything like the social power enjoyed by the great
ladies of the past, such as the Dowager Lady Stanley
of Alderley, who held a prominent position during
a certain portion of the Victorian era. The eldest
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daughter of the thirteenth Lord Dillon, the late Lady
Stanley was a real " grande dame," not merely by
birth, but by disposition. Lady Stanley of Alderley
exercised material influence over a number of distin
guished men and women whose names are blazoned
on England's roll of fame. Amongst them was Carlyle.
A strong character, a strong intelligence, a strong
constitution, allied with strong sympathies, made up
a combination of attributes which, added to consider
able social consideration, necessarily forced her to the
front amongst the English women of her time. Her
house in Dover Street — now the Arts Club — was for
long a centre from which radiated an amount of
charitable assistance which was practically unbounded.
Industry, intelligence, influence, and sympathy were
the dominant notes in the life of this great gentle
woman, who, tireless even in the retirement to which
she betook herself towards the end of her life, is
still remembered by those privileged to have known
her. Of an altogether different type was Lady Comber-
mere, an old-fashioned lady, who in some ways be
trayed a good deal of eccentricity. Her love for
colour, for instance, was palpable from the moment
one entered her doors. To railways, also, she had a
deep-rooted dislike ; only once in her life is she said
to have availed herself of this modern mode of transit.
It was her habit to spend part of the year at St.
Leonards, where she had a house in Warrior Square,
and her journey both there and back was invariably
made in the ponderous red-wheeled coach which was
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for years so familiar to dwellers in the West End.
She was a perfect encyclopaedia of social reminiscences,
and could tell people all about their grandfather as
readily as detail the latest report current in town.
At the death of Lady Holland, nineteen years ago,
disappeared the last of the " Salons," as they were
formerly understood. Lady Holland passed away in
a very resigned manner. On realizing that her end
was near a message was, at her own request, sent to
the neighbouring Carmelite Convent. A priest
having administered the last rites of the Church,
she calmly awaited a death which crept peacefully
upon her. Almost up to the very end she was quite
conscious, and on a sympathetic message from the
Prince of Wales being communicated to her, replied,
" Give him my love." Lady Holland was a great lady
of the old school — clever, full of information and
anecdote, good-natured, and most charitable. With
her snapped another old-world link. Before marriage
Miss Augusta Coventry, only daughter of George
William, eighth Earl of Coventry, she was born on
n May, 1 812, being married to Lord Holland in 1833.
The title having become extinct, Holland House
passed into the hands of Lord Ilchester.
The mention of Lady Holland recalls the memory
of the beautiful, talented, and ill-fated Marie Fox,
whose youth and personal charms were at one time
so great an attraction at Holland House, and about
whose birth such a mystery prevailed.
The late Lord Bute, soon after he came of age,
when he was the most-talked-about man in England,
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was declared to have been engaged to her, but as
Lady Holland refused to disclose her parentage the
match was broken off. Eventually Marie Fox married
a German Prince, but only survived her marriage a
very short while. All that was known definitely about
this lady was that she was the adopted daughter of
Lord and Lady Holland, but as to who she was,
although all kinds of wild guesses were made, nothing
definite could then be learned— Lady Holland never
having given any information calculated to set the
matter at rest.
The Dowager Duchess of Devonshire is about the
last great lady whose knowledge of men and affairs
gives her a unique social position of a quite different
nature to that enjoyed by the ordinary hostess of the
present day, who in many cases is little more than a
mere caterer for flocks of guests, many of whom she
does not know.
The late Duke, whose recent death has robbed this
country of one of the few remaining politicians whose
motives were ever above all suspicion, and whose views
were ever actuated by unswerving honesty of purpose,
is said to have placed considerable reliance upon his
wife's discrimination in political matters.
A man of singularly sound judgment, all England
instinctively respected the Duke, who, beneath a cer
tain appearance of nonchalance, concealed a number
of sterling qualities of the highest order ; his strength
of principle and unswerving adherence to any course
of action which he deemed to be right earning him
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The Duke, though not renowned as a wit, would
occasionally make very happy remarks.
Whilst the Irish question was the subject of heated
debates in the House, the wife of a prominent sup
porter of Home Rule happened to be sitting next to
Lord Hartington, as the Duke of Devonshire then was,
at dinner. Turning towards her neighbour, the lady
said, " I am sure, Lord Hartington, you would like to
hang my husband."
" No," he replied ; " indeed, I should only like to
see him suspended."
As a rule, however, the late Duke was not by any
means distinguished as a brilliant conversationalist ;
on the contrary, he was a peculiarly simple and quiet
English gentleman. Indeed, so great was the contrast
between him and his speeches, that people who did
not know him well could scarcely believe they had
before them the man whose political orations were
masterpieces of lucid, well-connected common sense.
As he had refused to accept Home Rule from Mr.
Gladstone, so did he decline to fall in with the Pro
tectionist views of Mr. Chamberlain.
As is well known, the Duke was extremely partial
to the game of bridge, in which respect he differed
from the late Lord Salisbury, who knew nothing about
cards at all. On one occasion the latter is said to have
expressed regret at his own complete ignorance of the
game in question. " But surely, Lord Salisbury,"
said one of his hearers, " there could be no possible
reason for your learning to play now ? " "I beg your
pardon," was the reply, " there is a very good one ;
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for if I became a bridge player I might be able to
see something of the Duke of Devonshire."
At the time when the late Duke decided to adhere
to the cause of Free Trade, Mr. Balfour sent him
a letter which occasioned some comment, considerable
curiosity being manifested as to how the Duke would
behave. An individual, even more curious than others,
chancing to meet one of the Duke's relatives, inquired
point-blank, " Well, how does his Grace take Balfour's
letter ? "
" I don't suppose," was the reply, " that as yet it
has been taken out of the bottom of the pocket of his
old shooting coat." And as this was very likely, the
astute answer effectually disposed of any more em
barrassing queries.
The Duke, indeed, was somewhat careless about his
dress ; contemptuous of buttons. As was once rather
wittily said, he was fond of having all his doors and
windows open.
The Duke of Devonshire was essentially an English
aristocrat in the very best sense of the term, and as a
politician, a marked and agreeable contrast to the
modern school, some of whom seem prepared to barter
all principle in order to keep or secure office.
Another Englishman, happily still alive, also known
for his unswerving adherence to conviction and high-
minded view of public affairs, is Lord Peel. At the
time of his elevation to a peerage it was well known
that the retiring Speaker entertained a very strong
objection to assuming a title. The eccentricities of
Parliamentary precedent did not, however, permit
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him to have his way in this matter, the question re
solving itself into the simple formula of no peerage,
no pension. The latter, as a matter of fact, is no
pension at all, but a grant expressly voted by Parlia
ment to enable the ex-Speaker to maintain the dignity
of a Viscount.
This particular peerage, moreover, is not conferred
by the Sovereign upon the recommendation of the
Premier, but in answer to the petition presented to
the Throne by the House of Commons.
Curiously enough, at the time of Mr. Peel's speech
in the House of Commons announcing his resignation
of the chair, he would seem to have omitted all men
tion of his resignation. Beginning " I ask leave to
make an announcement to the House. . . . Considera
tions of health which I cannot overlook have obliged
me to come to a decision. . . ." the Speaker then
proceeded to review in brief the history of his career
in the chair, to compliment the officials of the House,
and to offer a few words of useful advice — but of
resignation no mention or word.
The omission in question was no doubt the result
of the emotion inseparable from such an occasion.
Even well - seasoned politicians are sometimes
affected ; whilst instances of nervous collapse in the
House of Commons have been by no means scarce.
A well-known case occurred within quite recent years.
The late Lord Sherbrooke — then Mr. Robert Lowe —
completely broke down in the course of a speech in
the debate upon the Royal Titles Bill. Happening to
confuse his notes, he became bewildered and sat down
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in the very middle of his speech. He never addressed
the House again after this collapse. The celebrated
Lord Strangford, when Mr. Smythe, on one occasion
stumbled over the pronunciation of an intricate word,
and, losing his nerve, was compelled to sit down. Sir
George Grey, who was Home Secretary under Lord
Palmerston, was a positive martyr to nervousness, and
he never addressed the House, even upon the most
unimportant occasions, without betraying evident
signs of this affliction. Another instance is that of
Mr. John Stuart Mill, who upon a famous occasion
utterly collapsed.
After the resignation of the Speaker, Sir Julian
Goldsmid's name was amongst those mentioned as a
possible occupant of the chair. Almost every one of
the six hundred and seventy members of the House
of Commons, indeed, were suggested for this post.
For all practical purposes, however, the choice was
soon narrowed down to Mr. Campbell-Bannerman,
Sir Matthew White Ridley, Sir Frank Lockwood, and
Mr. Gully, Sir Matthew being for a time favourite.
Since 1846 every Speaker had been a Liberal, and so
there was little fear of Party jealousy playing any part
with regard to the selection. Besides, Mr. Arthur
Peel, by his strict impartiality, had raised the Speaker
ship altogether beyond the influence of political bias.
The election of Mr. Gully, as a matter of fact, was
very popular with both parties, as was that of his
successor, Mr. Lowther.
With the dawn of the twentieth century many
changes have occurred in the composition of Society.
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
Gone, for instance, are the great doctors who once
occupied a social position of a unique and undisputed
kind. The death of Sir William Gull, consequent on a
stroke of paralysis, caused genuine grief throughout
the West End. Sir William was the kindliest of men,
many were the people who benefited by his great
experience. He had two idiosyncrasies — one a fixed
determination never to pay a cabman over his fare,
and the other a strange partiality for cold plum pud
ding. As regards the first, every West End cabman
knew of it, and attempted to avoid being chartered
by Sir William. In other respects the great doctor
was the most generous of men, and often himself spent
more over patients than he received in return. He
made it a rule to allot a quarter of an hour to each
visitor, and if the consultation proper was over before
that period had elapsed it was his custom to employ
the overtime in genial and pleasant conversation,
which converted many a patient into a lifelong
friend. About the last of the medical giants of the later
Victorian era was the late Sir Richard Quain. Just
as no new giants seem to be growing up to replace
those who have gone — in art, oratory, statesmanship,
and literature — so no new ones seem to be prepared
to rule over the medical world.
A generation ago the great names in the latter were
Sir William Jenner, Sir William Gull, Sir Richard
Quain, Sir Andrew Clark, Sir James Paget, Sir Oscar
Clayton, Sir Spencer Wells, and one or two others.
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Most of them were not only eminent in their pro
fession, but had attained social popularity through
their conversational powers. They were experienced
men of the world, who exercised much influence
behind the scenes, and had established for them
selves household names. To-day the fashionable
physician is little more than a skilled workman,
known for his powers of repairing the mechanism of
humanity. The late Sir Richard Quain knew his world well ;
he had been behind the scenes in many interesting
events ; he told the best of good stories ; he possessed
the best of good spirits, and his generosity knew
absolutely no limits. Not only did he leave a number
of disconsolate patients, but also many sorrowing
friends. The late Sir Henry Thompson, who died only a
few years ago, was also a well-known figure in
the world of London. He used to give dinners of
eight, to which only men were invited ; these he
called his " octaves." A man of great cultivation,
he wrote several books, amongst them a couple of
novels illustrated by himself. In addition to his
literary gifts he was also a discerning collector of blue
china. Gone also is the man of pleasure and fashion, who,
whilst not a politician, millionaire, or public character,
was possessed of considerable social power in the West
End of the past. Such a one was the late Mr. Alfred
Montgomery. Very handsome, very witty, and very
worldly-wise, a particularly distinguished-looking old
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man, he possessed the courtly manners of a bygone
generation, and remained throughout his life a favour
ite amongst those whose good opinion he thought to
be the best worth having. He was a gentleman in the
old sense of the word, with all the qualities, good and
otherwise, which belong to the highly refined man of
the world. The class of which he was almost the last
representative has now passed away, being essentially
the product of another age.
That school of cultured worldliness of which the
late Lord Houghton was such a brilliant instance
seems also extinct. With the memory of this erudite
man of the world many great figures are insensibly
associated, amongst them Disraeli, Gladstone, Pal
merston and Lady Palmerston, Lord Lytton, Lord
Dalling, Lady Waldegrave, Lady Molesworth, Abra
ham Hayward, Bernal Osborne, Baillie Cochrane —
afterwards the first Lord Lamington — and a host of
others, all of whom were exceptionally well known in
their own day, and many of whom left reputations
which will live.
Above all a man who took an intelligent interest
in interesting things, the keynote of Lord Houghton's
nature was polish. It was well for him that his life
did not overlap into this generation ; for the Society
of to-day, largely dominated by financiers, would have
sorely scandalized him. He strove to know all who
were making the history of their own time, and this
trait in his character caused much amusement to his
contemporaries. In December, 1870, Lord Dalling,
writing to the beautiful and charming Marie Fox
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the adopted daughter of Holland House, who after
wards became Princess Liechtenstein (she has been
mentioned before), said : " An ex- French Ambassador,
who has got his house and horses at Paris, comes to me,
and sits hours at a time expressing his hopes that the
capital will surrender before his stud is eaten and his
furniture pillaged. The spirit of contradiction has
urged me to promise him that the siege will last six
months — but it is over. Is one to regret or rejoice ?
Houghton must be already on the road to breakfast
with Jules Favre and to dine with Bismarck ! " It
might have been said of the late Lord Houghton,
without exaggerating a hair's breadth, that he had
known or knew all the interesting men and women
in Europe of his time.
Occasionally trenchant in his remarks, he was
especially so on one occasion, when a clever but some
what pompous individual, about to take up the
appointment of Governor of the Presidency of Madras,
was being entertained by his many friends at a big
complimentary banquet. In answer to the toast of
the evening, the highly flattered guest made an
eloquent speech, incidentally remarking that since
his very earliest youth he had always striven to con
sort exclusively with men of higher attainments and
greater ability than himself. " And you have signally
succeeded," Lord Houghton was heard to remark
loudly, to the great amusement of all those around
him, but to the no slight discomfiture of the speaker
himself. Amongst the innumerable good stories fathered
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upon him, the following is one of the best : A certain
lady one day at dinner was contrasting the young men
of the present with those of the past, and wound up
by remarking : " When I was young, half the men in
London were at my feet." " Really ? " inquired Lord
Houghton. " Were they chiropodists ? " " Se non
e vero, e ben trovato." Again, on being asked his
opinion on spiritualism, he replied : " Well, I have
noticed that most people are interested in the
subject, but do not believe. I believe, but am not
interested." Lord Houghton's " Memoirs and Letters " mono
polized a great deal of interest in those social circles
in which he had been so prominent a figure. They
were, however, generally admitted to be somewhat
disappointing, since everybody had expected to find
considerably more interesting gossip in them than
they actually contained. Lord Houghton, Mr. Abra
ham Hayward, and the late Mr. Bromley Davenport
were the three great dinner and drawing-room wits
of their day, and seem to have left no successors
behind them.
The death of Mr. Christopher Sykes removed one
of the best known figures in Society at the end of
the Victorian era. A rich country squire and a
member of a well-known family, the late Mr. Sykes
had access to all the most prominent houses from the
start of his career, but neither his wealth nor his birth
contributed much to enable him to become the
intimate companion of almost every member of the
Royal Family. At the commencement of his social
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life the late Lord Houghton, the late Mr. Abraham
Hayward, and the late Mr. Bromley Davenport were
the popular conversationalists of the day, and their
wit needed a butt. Mr. Sykes and Maria Marchioness
of Ailesbury were the two butts who were generally
invited to dinners at which these were singly or to
gether present. His invariable good humour, his old-
world courtesy, and his gentle temperament soon won
for him the friendship of all with whom he came in
contact, and being thrown continually into the com
pany of various members of the Royal Family, he soon
became intimately acquainted with most of them.
A Royal personage now has to be very careful in the
selection of his friends, for an ambitious, scheming
friend may become a favourite, and favourites are out
of place in the modern Court of Great Britain. The
late Mr. Christopher Sykes wanted nothing for himself
or for anybody else ; was singularly discreet, and
could be treated with considerable familiarity without
ever attempting to be familiar in return. Besides,
Royal personages seldom see others except in full
dress ; that is, in other words, the latter, when in the
presence of Royalty, almost invariably exert them
selves to their utmost — a circumstance which must
continually be tedious. With Mr. Christopher Sykes
long flashes of silence could be enjoyed without the
fear of appearing discourteous, and all who have
experience of intimate companionship know how
congenial such flashes frequently are.
Another well-known figure towards the end of the
last century was Sir Henry Calcraft — man of the
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world, wit, and public servant. He had entered the
Home Office when seventeen years of age, and as a
consequence had reached a high position in the office
when still comparatively young. He was the son of
the Mr. Calcraft who, earlier in the century, was also
well known in Society in London.
To-day men of pleasure, in the old sense of the term,
have practically ceased to exist. A well-known type
of this kind was Captain Charles Marcand, who was
called by his intimates " the Admiral." A natural
son of King William IV, Captain Marcand had, as a
young man, been despatched by his Royal father on
one of the many somewhat fruitless Arctic expeditions
in which adventurous souls delight. He was a great
supporter of the old " Lotus " Club in Regent Street,
and a kind of secular Father Confessor to all the
actresses of town. The death of his son, which
occurred some fifteen months earlier, and the demise
of his most intimate ally, Mrs. Fitz George, the wife
of the late Duke of Cambridge, were terrible blows
to this survivor of another age, being no doubt, in a
great measure, responsible for his death, which
occurred at his rooms in Bolton Street.
Another man of pleasure whose familiar figure dis
appeared about the same time was Mr. Frederick
Cooper, a wealthy viveur, who was one of the kindest
and most generous of men. In innumerable instances
he performed acts of generosity which to colder
natures seemed almost Quixotic. He left a curious
will, by the terms of which his remains were cremated,
a clause expressly providing that a sum of ^10,000
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should be given to his nephew upon condition that
the ashes should be scattered to the four winds upon
the completion of this funeral rite. Mr. Cooper
further bequeathed a sum of ^5000 to h*s valet.
The expression " a man of the world," as such
a term was formerly understood, meant something
more than being sharp enough to accumulate wealth
by extraordinary knowledge of business or speculation.
The man is the raw material, the gentleman and
the gentlewoman are the material polished ; or, in
other words, the man is the rough stone, and the
gentleman is the gem after it has been cut. Unfortu
nately our generation only sets store by the setting.
It judges by the expensive dressing, the expensive
living, the fine houses, the conspicuous equipages, the
servants, the display, and the obtrusiveness of manner.
Contrast this attitude with that of our grandfathers,
who required of gentlemen and ladies that they should
be unobtrusive in their behaviour, considerate towards
others, quiet, dignified, and gentle in manner.
A quarter of a century ago the West End associated
itself with the City, and it is no injustice to either to
say that since then the West End has acquired the
worst failings of the City without adopting its good
qualities. The City, on the other hand, has imitated
that which is worst in the West End without acquiring
that which is best. In the City, in consequence of
the continual and eager struggle for existence which
grows keener and keener every year, it has become
almost necessary to be, to some extent, truculent and
selfish — to push, to bluster, and ever to attempt to
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obtain the best of a bargain. Those members of the
West End who have associated with city men have
adopted these not altogether amiable customs, whilst
seldom assimilating the generous instincts which so
many city men have. On the other hand, the city
men have developed a love for title and position, many
of them exaggerating certain silly affectations so
common in the West End of the town. All these
circumstances have done much to destroy the good
manners of our generation, for it must not be over
looked that the West End is, and always has been, the
guide in the matter of manners.
With the rise of democracy and the keener struggle
for existence engendered by the increase of population,
the conditions of life have become far more unfavour
able to the aristocracy and their connections, for whom
in former days fairly lucrative posts were easily to be
found. Many persons of good family are now in
immediate danger of becoming paupers. In former
days, when the community was regarded as the
natural inheritance of every member of the upper
classes, the peers drew freely from the public funds,
and not unusually provided for their children by
obtaining sinecures for them in the service of the
State. The public, however, has now secured control
over the funds of the community, and practically all
employment under Government is open to competi
tion. Under these disquieting circumstances certain
peers turned their attention to finance, and, trading
upon the love of all Englishmen for titles, sold their
names to company promoters. Such a short-sighted
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policy, however, proved, in the majority of instances,
anything but profitable. In return for a few hundreds
of pounds, they merely enabled the latter to extract
thousands from the pockets of their friends and rela
tives, besides ruining a number of small speculators
and investors. The British public was induced by the
presence of well-known names on the prospectuses to
contribute money readily, for the average investor
imagined that no man who occupied a high social
position and had noble traditions to maintain would
stand as sponsor to any venture without being assured
that it was genuine. The idea prevailed that these
peers were men whose reputations were above sus
picion. No doubt they had little experience of
financial business, or of the gold-mining industry, or
of the intricate transactions of any purely trading
concern ; but, as they permitted their names to
appear as trustees for the shareholders, this was
thought to be a sufficient guarantee that the enter
prises they sanctioned were not of a fraudulent
character. The peers, for their part, imagined that
no company promoter would be so reckless as to use
their names to float a fraudulent concern, and as the
directors' fees added to their diminished incomes, they
accepted the appointment without reluctance.
So it comes about that the old aristocracy is busy
toiling on 'Change ; whilst the astute financier takes
his ease in the West End.
Without in the slightest exaggerating affairs, not
a few of the fine ancestral houses in England have
passed into their hands ; whilst in London the nouveaux
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riches hold the reins of power and lead the tone of
fashion of the day. People who would formerly have
been ignored or patronized, ignore or patronize in
their turn. Society has an important function to
play in directing the public opinion and tone of its
own time. It is therefore desirable that this body
should be composed of individuals whose honour is
above suspicion, whose personal and family antecedents
are guarantees for their reliability, and whose educa
tion and instincts fit them for the leading part they
have to play. If, however, their duties are carelessly
made over to the latest adventurer who has achieved
a temporary fortune, of whose past there is no record,
of whose character little or nothing is known, no good
can result. Scandal follows scandal, catastrophe
catastrophe. The old rigid, artificial code of honour
has been sacrificed to present emergency, and in its
stead has been substituted one based on the infallible
virtue of pounds, shillings, and pence.
A large proportion of the real aristocracy of England
still looks askance at all this sort of thing, whilst
affecting to ignore the increasing social power of
foreign financiers. Nevertheless, facts must be recog
nized, and there is no doubt but that the West End
of London to-day is to a great extent dominated by
people, most of whose immediate forbears would not
have been allowed to black the boots of the old
English aristocracy of the past. A great many, indeed,
were not English at all, but plied some humble and
unsavoury calling in the back slums of those ancient
little German towns, the names of which are now so
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familiar to West End ears. At the same time many
of these people are possessed of good qualities, the
majority being hospitable and on occasion generous —
against not a few of them, indeed, nothing can be
said ; nevertheless, they do not and never will take
the place of the true aristocracy of England which,
with all its follies, preserved a sense of dignity and
tradition. As a matter of fact, what passes for Society to-day
is perfectly open to anyone who has a few pounds in
his or her pocket ; they have but to book a table at
one of the smart restaurants on a Sunday night, and
they are, for the moment, just as much in it as Mrs.
Schwindleheimer (from Grosvenor Square), whose
dinner-party, consisting of four other Schwindle-
heimers (Arundel, Isidore, Donald, and Hyam) and
seven impecunious hangers-on, will be chronicled in
the papers next morning.
Mrs. Schwindleheimer and her like, indeed, are the
great hostesses of to-day, and the impoverished
descendants of many a companion of the Conqueror
are glad to eat her quails and listen to the polyglot
stories which, when "pizness is goot," Schwindle
heimer sometimes deigns to tell. Not seldom also
Schwindleheimer attempts to give himself airs. Said
one of this tribe in Paris, speaking of a certain in
dividual, " Who on earth is he ? You will not find
his name in the Almanack de Gotha." " Nor in the
Almanack de Golgotha, either," retorted one of his
listeners, an answer which quite silenced the crest
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Now and then the social magnate in question has
some racehorses in training at (shade of Admiral Rous)
" Newmargate," for, as he is well aware, judicious
sporting tastes are not unessential to getting in with
the " very pest set." Sometimes, also, he goes in for
" Bolitics," and it is pleasant to be able to state that
no matter whether standing as a Radical or " Con
servative," he is ever an unswerving advocate of
" Pritain for the Pritish."
Occasionally certain sons of millionaires, enriched
by successful speculation, return, as if by atavism, to
the simple habits of the race from which they have
sprung. One of these, an amiable and unobtrusive
youth, being sent to the University furnished with a
blank cheque-book, and instructed to draw upon his
father for any amount with a view to making a splash,
led the quietest existence possible, a circumstance
which soon reached his parent's ears. The latter,
becoming anxious, determined to inquire into the
matter personally. Proceeding to the abode of learn
ing, he went straight to his son's rooms, the door of
which, after an interval, was opened by his off
spring in person, who, to the horror of his sire, was
attired in a servant's apron, having apparently been
engaged in cleaning the lamps. Shocked beyond
measure at this, the millionaire pointed out the ex
treme folly of indulging what he termed a most
injudicious whim. His furious remonstrances, how
ever, made no impression upon the youth, who merely
explained that he and two other lads had clubbed
together in taking the house, and as they each took
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their part in the household duties it would ill become
him to do otherwise.
A curious thing about these social conquerors is
that sometimes part of one of their families is in
Society, part of it out — some being British and others
foreign. The following will illustrate this. A rich
anglicized financier, having purchased a country
estate, some neighbours who came to pay a rather
dilatory call found in place of the new squire, his
brother, (a man endowed with a considerable sense of
humour). Being naturally unaware that their host
was not the owner of the house, they at once began to
apologize for not having called before. " Pray don't
apologize," was the reply. " I see you are taking me
for my brother, the Englishman. As a matter of fact,
I am only the d  d German ! "
As a rule, it may be remarked, few anglicized
foreigners acquire much land with the country houses
which they may choose to buy — they are too shrewd
for that, well realizing the uselessness of sinking large
sums of money in property which is an ever present
target for the oratorical shafts of the Socialistic
agitator and designing politician. On the other hand,
they often hire a large amount of shooting near by,
and do not stint money in securing a good supply of
birds. One of these financiers on one occasion was
the involuntary cause of a somewhat amusing repartee.
Remarking after a disappointing day's shooting that
at a previous shoot good sport had been enjoyed, and
he had sent away over four hundred " braces," one of
his guests promptly rejoined, " In that case, my dear
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fellow, you can hardly expect to keep up your
bags." The opinion of the local people living in the vicinity
of these new squires is sometimes rather amusing to
hear, though very frequently the intruder from the
Stock Exchange is not generally unpopular. His
dinners, as a rule, are excellent ; whilst there hovers
around him an atmosphere of astounding prosperity
which somehow suggests that anyone privileged to be
in touch with him is already well on the way to
wealth. " Besides," think the country gentry, " look
what he might do for our sons ! " As a matter of
fact, more often than not he "Jow" for the fathers by
putting them into speculations which entirely falsify
the bright forecast so attractively portrayed in mo
ments of expansive benevolence.
Country life, however, is a mere incident in the
existence of the modern speculator, and the financial
disasters of people foolish enough to live away from
towns — the only places where money is really to be
made — cannot be expected to particularly interest one
who views the vicissitudes of individuals with a good
deal of the serenity of a Monte Carlo croupier.
It may here be observed that a large majority of
those who have attained success in what is known as
business, especially that branch of it concerned with
financial operations on a large scale, appear to think
it but perfectly right and natural that people un
trained for a commercial or City career should have
but a small amount of money ; in fact, it would seem
probable that they look on those who have no know-
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ledge of the intricacies of manipulating large sums be
longing to the general public as a lower species of man
altogether, which has no right to more than a moderate
subsistence. There is, indeed, something very delightful about
the way a financier will congratulate one of this
humbler tribe should he hear of his making some small
sum — say £100. Frequently a positive astonishment
is conveyed in his tone, indicating a profound con
viction that money is for himself and his like alone.
Every year two or three hundred younger sons of
peers are thrown upon the world sufficiently educated
to live as millionaires should live if they knew how, but
insufficiently educated to compete successfully for
Government employment or to obtain occupations in
financial houses. Year after year the number of these
unfortunate young men increases, and the problem is
how to enable them to earn their livelihood. This is
really the secret of the strong hold which Mr. Rhodes
had upon the sympathy of Mayfair, which had an idea
that he was prepared to find employment in South
Africa for the waifs and strays of Society ; this, alas !
also proved but a fallacious dream.
It was in the early 'seventies that certain enter
prising social lambs, having strayed from the Mayfair
fold, first began to reconnoitre those financial fields
which lie to the east of Temple Bar. The introduc
tion of competitive examinations was largely respon
sible for this. At the period in question business
chanced to be unusually sluggish, so not a few City
bigwigs found time to enliven their leisure by making
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much of the new and timorous intruders. Soon,
however, it occurred to certain astute financiers how
very nutritious social lamb might be — especially when
" roasted " and served up with a suitable accompani
ment of " mint " sauce.
" Young men," said they, " you have, we know,
been taught that City folk are vulgar, sordid, and
unsentimental, besides being in other ways socially
unattractive. Nothing could be more untrue. Most
of us are positively benevolent, and even imbued with
a touch of romantic chivalry ; moreover, we are par
ticularly partial to young men of good family, whose
estimable parents Iwe simply idolize. Come, then,
little ones, and abide with us within the propitious
shadow of the Stock Exchange, where you will be
provided with congenial and lucrative employment.
Bring to us also the patronage of your friends and
relatives, leaders and patriarchs of your race. They
shall make money through our advice, and we, in
return, will give you a ' half commission ' upon what
ever business you may introduce. In this way large
fortunes await you."
Stripped of its -meretricious embroidery and trans
lated into plain, unembellished English, this practi
cally amounted to nothing but " Join us in fleecing
your parents, relations, connections, and friends, in
return for which you shall be awarded an infinitesimal
percentage as your share of the plunder."
Very shortly the inexperienced social lambs were
beguiled by the subtle blandishments of these astute
financiers. They forthwith established themselves in
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the City, and duly brought with them their families,
their relations, their connections, and their friends.
More lambs in due course imitated their example,
and presently almost the whole flock followed in their
wake. To-day, when the balance of wealth has shifted,
and the democratic policy of levelling down and level
ling up is practically paramount, the young men of
" Society " enter quite seriously into the struggle for
existence. Formerly those who from necessity took
to business and trade had received no practical train
ing likely to be of use in such a career. The younger
generation, however, is better prepared, and now
competes with the youth of the middle-class on some
what better terms. There is no reason, indeed, why
eventually they should not attain the same success,
for they still possess certain advantages denied to
those whose families live in social obscurity. In the
near future many a successful career will undoubtedly
be achieved by younger men of the " classes " endowed
with judgment, energy, and grit.
A new social development which followed in the
train of the mania for city speculation was the entry
of West End men into trade. To-day most people
deal in something. Some do this frankly enough,
opening regular shops, at which as good value is to be
obtained for one's money as from ordinary tradesmen.
A less reputable form of commerce, however, is some
times indulged in by others, who, becoming secret
agents for the sale of cigars, wine, horses, motors,
estates, pictures, works of art, and touts for insurance
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offices, make life unbearable to those they meet.
Others, again, whilst deriving no positive pecuniary
advantage from beating up clients to purchase the
various wares which they push, nevertheless pursue
much the same sort of tactics, with the idea of having
discovered a new way to pay off old debts. In debt
to their tradesmen, and unable to satisfy these claims
themselves, they attempt to work off the amount of
their indebtedness by introducing their friends.
About twenty years ago a large number of people
well known in Society began to go in for trade, as a
list compiled at the time will show.
Madame Isabelle, 90 New Bond Street, was Mrs.
Cooper Oakley ; Madame Lili, of Grafton Street,
Mrs. Pocklington ; Madame de Courcy, of Sloane
Street, Lady Mackenzie ; Madame Lierre, of Park
Street, Lady Granville Gordon ; Madame Marion, of
South Audley Street, Mrs. Stuart Menzies ; Madame
Verd, Mrs. Franklin ; and Madame Ada, Mrs.
Burchell. Lords Londonderry and Shrewsbury were
retail coal-merchants ; whilst the latter also kept
cabs, as did at one time the Duke of Manchester.
Other peers manufactured cigarettes, kept milk shops,
and ran London theatres ; whilst the son of one was
a market-gardener. Amongst men of rank who, fully recognizing the
changed nature of the time, embarked in commercial
enterprise of a thoroughly legitimate nature, the late
Lord Winchilsea must not be forgotten. A highly
cultivated, high-spirited man, possessed of as good a
brain as he had a heart, and as good a heart as he had
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a brain, he may be said to have been killed by John
Bull. The latter is always represented as a preposter
ously prosperous farmer, though, as a matter of fact,
he is very much the reverse, a state of affairs produced,
to a great extent, by his own shortcomings. The
agricultural interest opposed the development of the
railway system at its inception during the nineteenth
century, though the railway was destined to increase
the national wealth a thousandfold. John Bull, in
his capacity as farmer, has ever flouted his best friends,
and Lord Winchilsea, in a great measure, owed his
death to the stupidity and shortsighted shrewd
ness of the agricultural classes, whose interests he
laboured ceaselessly to promote. The dream of his
life was to bring to the town from the country the
produce of the latter at the cheapest prices, so as to
eject, so far as it was possible to do so, the foreigner
from the British market. John Bull, however, de
clined to send his best to the Association which was
desirous of selling it at the cheapest rate, and the
unsuccessful issue of his scheme fretted Lord Win
chilsea into his grave.
Lord Winchilsea's brother, the late Mr. Harold
Finch-Hatton, was well known in the West End of
London, where his many attractive qualities and
original disposition were thoroughly appreciated by
a large circle of friends who bitterly deplored his un
timely death. A great believer in that modern fetish
" exercise," he died a few minutes after having com
pleted the last of his morning runs round the Park,
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being seized upon his doorstep with an attack of heart
failure. He was a cultivated and versatile man.
With the increase of competition in modern life
has arisen a greater respect for foreign languages, a
knowledge of which is now very rightly considered to
be a commercial asset of the most useful kind.
Even twenty years ago scarcely ten educated
Englishmen in a thousand could speak French, whereas
almost all such do now. Modern French literature
was practically a closed book to the generation before
this ; now the majority of educated young men are
as familiar with the important works of the day in that
language as they are with those in their own.
f Thirty or forty years ago there existed in certain
influential circles in Great Britain a very strong pre
judice against French modes of thought, French
" frivolity," French customs, and even against French
cooking. This attitude of prejudice is almost entirely
abandoned, and to-day Paris is to many almost as
familiar a city as their own London.
The late Duke of Sutherland, for instance, though
throughout his life a persistent traveller, is said never
to have known sufficient French to make himself
understood even in the ordinary commerce of every
day life. Few Englishmen in the present generation
realize how utterly ignorant of foreign languages even
the best educated amongst us were half a century ago ;
and the fact that the late Duke of Sutherland could
not speak a syllable of French may, perhaps, impress
this singular circumstance upon them. Not nearly so
much importance was formerly attached to the know
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When Prince Bismarck was in Paris, before the war,
a certain American official was perpetually pressing to
obtain an introduction to the Chancellor. At length
Bismarck consented to grant an interview. When the
moment arrived for this he was, however, surprised
to find that the American had, of his own initiative,
come accompanied by his son, a youth in his teens.
In due course the visitor introduced the son, and in
order to recommend him to Prince Bismarck he men
tioned that he was " un garcon tres remarquable ; il
parle sept langues."
" Quel excellent garcon de cafe 9a ferait," replied
Bismarck, who, amongst his other idiosyncrasies,
placed little or no value upon the talent for languages.
The early attempts of Society to go into trade
were not, as a rule, successful. Numerous flower shops
started by well-known people proved sad failures from
a financial point of view ; whilst other enterprises
connected with the sale of superfluities and luxuries,
appealing only to the rich, suffered a like fate.
The following is a curious incident connected with
this subject.
A lady more or less well known in fashionable circles,
having opened an old curiosity shop, a friend went
to inspect her wares, and when leaving, accidentally
left his silver-mounted umbrella behind. A few days
later he returned to claim the missing article, but
great was his admiration of the enterprise of the
" Lady Shopkeeper " when he found his umbrella
exposed in the window labelled " exquisite antique
Venetian silver umbrella mount, price .£10 10s."
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Briggs, in St. James's Street, had originally been
contented with the more modest sum of fifty shil
lings !
With the new order of things arose Society jour
nalism, the origin and early development of which is
curious. In its early days the Society chronicler did
his work as secretly and anonymously as he could,
generally writing rather for the purposes of giving
expression to private spite or to ventilate private
grievances rather than for monetary profit. That
period is now happily passed, but with it has been
left behind the clever and caustic paragraphs that,
first in the parent bird " The Owl," and afterwards
in the earlier stages of " Vanity Fair," conferred upon
those papers the brilliant reputations for which they
were once famous.
" Vanity Fair " was started by Mr. Thomas Gibson
Bowles, with some financial and literary assistance
from the late Colonel Fred Burnaby. Both of these
gentlemen, it is said, devoted their energies to the
new weekly more with the desire of gratifying a pass
ing whim than any distinct expectation of establishing
a valuable and remunerative property. An enumera
tion of the various distinguished men who at that
early period contributed to " Vanity Fair " would
form a very lengthy list.
Amongst the first of these were the late Mr. Fred
Clay, the late Sir Arthur Sullivan, who did the occa
sional musical criticisms ; the late Duke of Marl
borough, then Lord Blandford ; Sir Hubert (then Mr.)
Jerningham, who, as an attache at the British Embassy
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in Paris, contributed the weekly " Paris Letter " ; and
Mr. Labouchere, who at intervals wrote vigorous and
startling notices on City and financial subjects. He
it was who originated that new popular form of
criticism on mercantile speculations. Shortly after
the first appearance of " Vanity Fair " the late Carlo
Pellegrini commenced his long series of inimitable
caricatures in that paper. In its early days he was well
contented with a most modest remuneration, but his
demands greatly developed in the course of time, and
at length a .£50 note for each drawing was the least
sum he would accept.
Pellegrini was once extremely anxious to take a
sketch of the O'Gorman for " Vanity Fair," and
haunted the lobby of the House of Commons for
several days in the hopes of accomplishing his purpose.
Somehow or other the O'Gorman Mahon got wind of
the attempt, and striding up to Pellegrini, assured
him that did any such caricature appear in the paper
he would not lose an instant in seeking out the artist
and thrashing him within an ace of his life. As a
result of this no caricature of the O'Gorman has ever
appeared in " Vanity Fair."
On account of the expense connected with its
weekly colour cartoon, the paper was necessarily pub
lished at a shilling. The phenomenal success which it
attained, notwithstanding its high price, soon sug
gested the idea of the sixpenny Society paper, and
caused Mr. Edmund Yates, in connection with the
late talented but erratic Mr. Grenville Murray, to
produce " The World." In this, for the first time,
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the journalist proper took a prominent part in the
actual writing of Society journalism. Up till then
contributions for such publications had been mainly,
if not entirely, drawn from the ranks of Society itself.
In time, for the sum of £3000, Mr. Yates bought out
his original partner, Mr. Murray, and became himself
the sole proprietor. A difference between Mr. Yates
and Mr. Labouchere subsequently prompted the
latter to produce " Truth," after which Society
journalism gradually assumed the form in which it
still lingers to-day.
The late Lord Desart, early in the career of " Vanity
Fair," associated himself with that paper, and his con
tributions could easily be recognized by the cynical
style of his writing, which was generally bright and
occasionally brilliant. From a literary standpoint he
might be described as a flippant Society imitator of
Lawrence Oliphant, who was always in deadly earnest.
By his death " Vanity Fair " lost another of the
original band of polished writers, which included
Colonel Burnaby, Captain Cockburn, Mr. Willatts,
and Mr. Bowles himself.
At the time when Society commenced to take a
frenzied interest in City concerns the conversation in
the West End clubs soon began to deal with nothing
but stocks, shares, and " swindlers." Some gathered
in groups and discussed the future of African mines ;
others, with loud voices, disputed about brewery com
panies, soap companies, railway companies, and num
berless other enterprises, most of them doomed to
disaster. Many a West End club, indeed, became, for
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the time, little better than a Belgravian stock ex
change. Oddly enough, however, legitimate business did not
increase ; on the contrary, it withered whilst pre
posterous speculations began to abound. Thousands
upon thousands of worthless undertakings, represent
ing millions of sound money, were launched upon the
market, indirectly guaranteed by the presence of
names on the different directorates hitherto held in
high honour, as being absolutely above suspicion.
This all happened years ago, and since then iniqui
tous speculation has brought much of what was best
in Society almost to the very verge of bankruptcy.
On the other hand, legitimate business is not what it
was. As for the confiding social lambs who had
hoped to frisk in the rich commercial pastures around
he Mansion House, they have been constrained to
labour and toil painfully to maintain a precarious
livelihood. Meteoric speculators have bought up
their family residences in the West End, their his
torical homes in the country, together with their
family pictures, ancestral relics, and family jewels. In
addition to this, the smug sons of shady financiers have,
in many cases, married their sisters ; whilst many a
name memorable in history has been bartered for the
wealthy daughter of some exotic moneybag.
Vanished is the day when gilded youth was wont,
on a sunny morning, to disport itself gaily in Hyde
Park, untroubled by rise and fall and with little
interest in stocks, shares, or scrip. The wheel of for
tune has turned. To-day it is the astute financial
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gentleman who peacocks in the park at a time when
the deluded lambs are toiling in dim offices, or hurry
ing with careworn faces along the arid thoroughfares
hard by Threadneedle Street.
The astute financial gentleman himself, however,
is not always a permanent visitor to the park. For a
time he may be very arrogant, very insolent, very
purseproud, welcomed on all sides by reason of the
gorgeous entertainments to which Society flocks ; but
he too not infrequently meets with a reverse, and the
wealth accumulated by a successful coup having sud
denly melted away, the pampered one disappears,
leaving no trace whatever of his brief passage except
an exploded reputation.
As a matter of fact, since the West End went into
the City it is the country cousin who forms the main
support of the season. He it is who hires the houses,
gives the entertainments, patronizes the theatres, buys
the finery, and causes money to circulate. The people
who formerly had the means to keep the traditions of
their families unbroken can no longer afford to do so.
During the late 'seventies the West End thoroughfares
were crowded with young men driving in phaetons,
broughams, or private hansoms ; whereas in these
days it is comparatively rare to see a young bachelor
with a carriage of his own. Formerly every young
man strolled in the Row ; now he is bustling around
the Stock Exchange, busied with much business or
other speculation. In the daytime now the West End
is in the City ; at night the City is in the West
End, which in a great measure belongs to it.
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Of late years family residences, family pictures,
family relics, and family jewels have been changing
hands with bewildering rapidity. In some cases,
indeed, it becomes almost impossible to discover their
latest owners.
Much besides has gone into the melting-pot. Old
principles, which drew their vitality from racial sta
bility, responsibility to tradition, the sequence of
education (not mere knowledge), the comprehension
of a debt due to those who came before — the pre
judices of antecedents — these, if they have not been
utterly swept away, have become so entangled that
they can never again be set up in their former con
tinuity. Social entertainments, and especially dinner giving,
sometimes play a great part in the strategy of company
promoters and financiers of a certain class, the advan
tages of engaging in attractive — if somewhat adven
turous — enterprises being far more easily demonstrated
after a carefully ordered banquet. Many, indeed, who
would take alarm in a City office are quite easily led
after the soothing influence of first-rate food, wine,
and cigars. Though, in the first place, these entertain
ments may be somewhat costly to the hosts, they
generally end by being far more expensive to some of
their delighted guests.
Not very long ago a dinner was given in a private
room of a well-known restaurant in order to further
the promotion of certain speculative schemes in a
remote part of Russia. This entertainment was carried
out in the most lavish way, a feature of the accessories
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
being a well-modelled bear, cleverly moulded in ice,
with electric lights as eyes. Both hosts and guests
were highly delighted, the latter afterwards eagerly
taking up a large quantity of shares, which, as an
additional act of hospitality, the liberality of the hosts
placed at their disposal. Alas, for the uncertainty of
human anticipation ! In the course of a few months
the securities in question fell to nothing at all, and
loud and fervent were the curses which the memories
of this dinner evoked. One of the guests, chancing to
meet another whom he deemed a companion in mis
fortune, ruefully remarked : " Oh, that disastrous
dinner ! I shall never forget it or the bad tip which
was given us." " Bad tip," was the reply ; " we had
the best in the world. Did you not notice ' the bear ' ?
Nothing could have been more appropriate. I took
care to sell a heavy one the very next morning."
Often, no doubt, financiers are genuinely desirous
of putting people into good things, and actually do
give information which might be of great value to
those thoroughly understanding the intricacies of City
methods. The West End speculator, however, is not,
as a rule, skilled in complicated financial manoeuvres
and tricks, consequently he takes the tip, and thinks
that having done so nothing more will be required
except to draw his profits.
The speculators of to-day, it must in justice be
admitted, are quite of a different sort to the nouveaux
riches of the past, who were always making ridiculous
mistakes. Hudson, the railway king, on the occasion
of a great dinner-party given by his wife, committed
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
a ridiculous blunder. The guest of the eveningr was
Lord Lonsdale. He was very late, and Mr. Hudson
is stated to have exclaimed naively : " Our prima
donna keeps us waiting to-night."
Individuals like those giants of the past who en
joyed a well-earned reputation as great princes of
finance — not as mere speculators — seem scarcely any
longer to exist. A number of these were very witty
and cultivated men, a conspicuous instance having
been the late Baron James de Rothschild, of Paris,
of whom many stories are told. A repartee made
to Mires — at that time a celebrated, and subsequently
a notorious man — is one of the best. The latter came
one day to interview Baron James about some business
matter respecting which he desired his support. The
Baron, however, chanced to be somewhat huffy, and
declined to discuss the affair.
" Mais enfin," said Mires, " j'espere, Monsieur le
Baron, que vous ne me mangerez pas ! "
" Monsieur," was the reply, " ma religion me le
defend." When in the full flush of his prosperity Mires was
appointed a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. A
friend of his in conversation with the Baron referred
to this circumstance.
" L'industrie a ses Chevaliers Monsieur," he an
swered, " la Finance ses Princes."
On another occasion a would-be smart young French
traveller was calling upon Baron James after an adven
turous journey in foreign climes, including, amongst
others, Tahiti. The Baron, always anxious for in-
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
formation, inquired if anything remarkable had struck
him in that island. " Nothing particular," said the
Frenchman, " except that the women are very pretty
and friendly, besides which I noticed a total absence
of pigs and Jews."
" Let us both go there at once, my dear fellow,"
promptly replied the Baron ; " we shall make our
fortunes." Baron James, however, once met his match in the
person of Prince Paul of Wurtemberg. Meeting the
latter at a party, he called out : " Bonjour, Paul."
" Bonjour, M. le Baron," replied the Prince. " Je
suis fache de ne pas pouvoir vous appeler aussi par
votre nom de bapteme."
As a rule, however, the Baron could hold his own,
as a certain Comte de Z  discovered, when, having
been shown into the counting-house, he found the
Baron preoccupied and busy, his only greeting a curt
invitation to take a chair.
After a few moments the astonished visitor re
marked : " You probably do not realize who I am ;
they must have forgotten to announce me. I am the
Comte de Z  ."
Without interrupting his writing, Baron James
simply remarked : " Forgive me, M. le Comte, and
take two chairs ! "
The financiers of to-day are little given to saying
witty things, their whole existence being in reality
concentrated upon their work, which more often than
not is largely of a speculative nature. Some of them
indeed, become absolutely absorbed in stocks and
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
shares to the exclusion of everything, like the French
financier who, in answer to an inquiry as to his wife's
health, answered : " Molle, molle. Plutot offerte que
demande." Besides this, people in the City have
quite as much as they can do in holding their own
amidst an ever-increasing competition.
An essentially modern product is the company pro
moter, an individual who was particularly en evidence
in the early days when the West End first began to
rush into speculation. Some of those gentry once
received a considerable rebuff from the late Mr.
Raphael, whom they had approached with a view to
opening up a new mine. They described the qualities
of the property in the most glowing colours, assuring
him that the mine contained gold, silver, diamonds,
sapphires, and rubies. Mr. Raphael, however, merely
leaned back in his chair, and with closed eyes appeared
to reflect, after which he gently remarked : " There
are truffles in it also, I suppose ? "
Small chance, indeed, has the general public of
making money by speculation ; in all probability it is
about ninety-nine to one against success ever crowning
its efforts to accumulate wealth in such a manner !
A great deal of abuse is being perpetually hurled at
the Turf on account of its demoralizing tendencies in
causing people to gamble ; whereas the proportion of
those ruined by horse-racing as compared with the
Stock Exchange is, in all probability, at least not one to
twenty. Gambling on the Turf, indeed, is a very
primitive form of speculation as compared with stocks
and shares, besides which it entails an almost certain
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
publicity. Speculation, on the other hand, even of
the most colossal nature, may be carried on with
perfect and absolute secrecy. How many serious and
revered fathers of families open their paper every
morning with all the excitement of the baccarat player
feverishly watching the turn of a card !
Nothing, indeed, more suited to the English love
of making concessions to respectability could ever have
been devised than this easy and discreet method of
toying with the goddess of chance.
The delightful thing about all this is that many who
are really nothing but confirmed and habitual gam
blers are genuinely ignorant of their infirmity, and
though themselves speculating in the most regular
manner, have the audacity to denounce others who
have a taste for racecourse or card-table — both no
doubt financially disastrous, but yet not tainted with
much humbug or hypocrisy.
Gambling will always exist — life itself is a gamble.
Chance regulates our entry into, and also our exit
from, this vale of tears — much seems ruled by Chance.
All legislative attempts to stamp out speculations
of no matter whatever sort are doomed to complete,
to absolute, failure. Legislators may pass ridiculous
laws ; ecclesiastics may fulminate ; philosophers may
deplore ; but the instinct of speculation is ineradicably
implanted in the human heart, from which not even
the most drastic measures will ever extirpate it.
What remedy there is lies in sensible regulation and
well-conceived enactments to ensure undeviating and
strict probity in all financial dealings, whether in
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speculation or investment ; the public should be given
a fair chance, and all doubtful transactions ruthlessly
branded and exposed.
The mania for speculation reached a climax in the
year 1895, when what is known as the South African
boom took place. Many large fortunes were made
then, and people went mad about the colossal possi
bilities of an apparently unlimited rise in the price of
shares. The British public were, of course, not behind
hand in joining in this financial revel, eventually burn
ing its fingers, as usual. Out of its pocket, indeed,
came more gold than from the mines of the African
veldt, which have anything but realized the brilliant
forecasts once so generally believed.
As the promoters of many a new company well
knew, the gold in the pockets of the British public
was more easily to be extracted than the ore hidden
deep down in the bowels of the earth, and from England
itself rather than from the new Golconda beyond
the seas came most of the wealth which produced
quite a new brand of millionaire. Those were glorious
days for the City, or rather that part of it which was
speculatively inclined. Many, however, entirely failed
to keep their wealth, hoping against hope as the signs
of depression began to appear. With the Jameson
Raid the era of prosperity waned. From this blow
the South African market never recovered. Its real
inner history even to-day remains to be written ; it is,
however, almost certain that those in authority at the
Colonial Office had no idea that such an insane enter
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
The late Mr. Edward Fairfield, Assistant Under-
Secretary at this office, meeting a friend a few days
after the Raid, said : " People now declare that every
body in Society knew that this Raid was about to be
made, and therefore the Colonial Office knew of it
too." " Yes," was the reply. " I, amongst many others,
was told of the Johannesburg letter long before the
Raid." " Why, then," interpolated Mr. Fairfield, " did you
not tell me ? "
" Because it never entered my head to tell an official
news which might or might not be true ; besides, I
supposed you at the office would naturally know more
than we did."
" That's just it," was his reply ; " everyone except
ourselves knew, and no one took the trouble to tell
us." Mr. Fairfield was, it may be added, a very shrewd
judge of humanity, and one having no illusions as to
its failings. Asked one day by a friend who had come
to see him at the Colonial Office by what means a
certain individual had received a K.C.M.G., Mr. Fair
field bent over the desk at which he was sitting, and,
pointing to a hole in the carpet in front, said : " My
friend, do you see that ? X  wore that hole when
representing to me his claims to be knighted. Matters
eventually reached such a pitch that we saw that we
must either give him the K.C.M.G. or buy a new
carpet. We gave him the K.C.M.G. !
A short time after the Jameson Raid Mr. Fairfield
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
had his first apoplectic fit. There is little doubt but
that as Chief of the South African Department he
felt very severely the effects of the nefarious proceed
ings in the Transvaal. This valuable public servant
(who at that time was exposed to many scurrilous
insinuations, made by those completely ignorant of
the real facts and unacquainted with the man) died
at St. Remo in 1897. He, like many others, was un
doubtedly a victim of the Raid into the Rand.

88

Ill

/^\F all the changes which have taken place in the
West End of London during the last quarter of a
century none is more remarkable than the rise of the
restaurant, which in the last ten years has practically
become recognized as a regular social institution.
Twenty-five years ago the number of first-class
restaurants in London could comfortably be counted
on the fingers of one hand : of these the " Bristol "
and the " Cafe Royal " were the most important.
At the former ladies were sometimes taken to dine ;
the latter being frequented by a more bohemian society.
Dining at the " Bristol," where, it must be added, the
food was good, was perhaps not a very exciting affair
— the room was somewhat gloomy, and the number
of diners was of necessity limited — nevertheless, ladies
considered it something of an adventure, and when
followed by a visit to a music-hall quite a piece of
wild dissipation.
In those days no one dreamt of gorgeous foyers or
string bands to beguile the passing hour. The room
in which people assembled before dinner at the
" Bristol " was small — too small, indeed, for a cloak
room in these more luxurious days. A set dinner
at a fixed price was served, the table decorations
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
being unpretentious and the accessories far from
elaborate. Notwithstanding this, the place was popular with
men about town, and certain well-known figures in
the world of sport were constant frequenters. Sam
Lewis, whose bow window overlooked the place, was
constantly to be seen at lunch ; whilst the Jubilee
Juggins, a young man who, in spite of many faults,
should be rather leniently judged, came there for dinner
after many a bad day's racing, when he would be ob
served in earnest conclave with some adviser, the table
piled high with an enormous number of cigar boxes.
Many a cheery little dinner was given in this
restaurant, at that time papered with a design of
imitation tapestry, and many a man, now sobered by
years, who came there night after night with some
fair companion, must still occasionally think of those
days with a feeling of tenderness and regret. Some
thing of the old rollicking English spirit still lingered
amongst the youth of that day, and the West End was
not quite so smug and sedate as it has since become.
The arbitrary Licensing Law, certain absurd pro
visions of which excite the merriment of civilized
Europe, was, it is true, already in force ; but
clubs of a very hospitable nature existed, notably the
" Corinthian " and " Gardenia," where music and
dancing were kept up till the small hours of the morn
ing. These have now been suppressed, legal com
pulsion having made London — externally at least —
the most staid city in Europe.
Whilst, year by year, new laws are being passed for
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
the regulation, or rather reformation, of everybody in
general, liberty — that is to say, personal liberty — in
England, once accounted a thing of some importance,
is being gradually if imperceptibly curtailed.
There would appear to exist a large section of the
public, probably stronger in voice than in voting
power, which is always urging politicians to further
lengths in the direction of enforced restrictions.
This is not the place to deal with the various so-
called " temperance measures," which no one who
is not a fanatic or in search of Puritan votes can be
lieve to promote anything but totally unnecessary
inconvenience. Temperance societies, if they are to
continue to exist, must make their influence felt and
their various secretaries must be expected to show some
activity in return for the salaries they receive. It may
be remarked, however, that no law,* the effects of
which would improve the social status of the public-
house and thus diminish drunkenness, is ever even
proposed. As a matter of fact, the public convenience
is not a subject which most of our legislators deem
worthy of attention.
The chosing of restaurants at an hour when many a
theatre-goer has not had time for a comfortable
supper cannot be defended on any serious grounds.
The difference between a public-house, which.
exists almost entirely for the sale of liquid refresh
ment, and a first-class restaurant like the " Carlton "
or the " Savoy," is so enormous that the fact of the
same closing hour being prescribed for both is a
glaring and indefensible absurdity.
* Since this was written a law of this kind has been drafted.
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An edifying sight for foreigners, this enforced
expulsion of visitors from the supper table, and one
which never fails to arouse their astonishment !
It is said that a later closing than twelve-thirty
would be a hardship for the waiters. Are the people
who put forward this plea aware that most of these
same waiters are quite accustomed to late hours, it
being their invariable habit to spend a certain time
abroad in restaurants which never close before two
or three in the morning ? The work of these men
does not as a rule entail early rising, and the hour or
two of sleep curtailed at night can be easily replaced
in the day.
A possible compromise, which, whilst inadequate,
would be a slight step in the direction of ordinary
convenience, would be to allow people taking supper
to sit in a restaurant till one o'clock, no alcoholic
refreshment, however, to be served after the usual
closing hour. This, at least, would prevent the un
comfortable hustle and puerile turning down of lights
which are now inseparable features of an evening's
amusement in London.
The ridiculous restrictions as to the closing of
restaurants might well undergo some revision. When
the present Licensing Law was first put in force at
the beginning of the 'seventies there was some slight
excuse for its general application, its aim being the
suppression of night houses and drinking places, which
at that time had become an intolerable nuisance. The
first-class restaurant, as we see it to-day, was as yet
undreamt of, and theatre-going did not, as a general
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
public amusement, occupy the place it does now. In
consequence of this there was then no very great
outcry for any special clause dealing with properly
conducted places of refreshment — that is to say, first-
class restaurants of thoroughly good repute. At present,
however, the conditions are widely different, and some
alteration to suit the public convenience ought most
certainly to be made.
Restaurants and eating-houses, for instance, where
suppers, that is to say, genuine meals, are habitually
served, and against which the police have no com
plaints to make, might be allowed to remain open till
one or even one-thirty. As a salve to the British
conscience (which makes no objection to the eating
of meals on Sunday, though thinking it wicked to eat
after twelve on Saturday night), the new arrangement
need not apply to the last day of the week, the closing
hour for which could remain as at present.
A favourite argument in favour of things as they
are is the contention that there cannot be one law
for the rich and another for the poor.
If the people really do object to late suppers at
restaurants, which the working classes have neither
the time, money, nor inclination to frequent, they
must be sunk in such a state of narrow-minded
selfishness as bodes ill for the future of the race. What
can it matter to an inhabitant of Bethnal Green,
Hoxton, or Shoreditch if some of the dwellers in the
West End want to eat a late supper after the play,
and how does the fact of these would-be supper lingerers
being compulsorily stopped from doing so benefit him ?
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
In reality the working classes, except when stirred
up by agitators with a living to make, and politicians
with their own axes to grind, care nothing whatever
about these things.
As has been said, the restaurant as we know it to
day is of purely modern growth ; it being Mr. Ritz
who, in the 'eighties, dealt the first of several suc
cessive blows which have practically annihilated the
horrible old English coffee-room, with its wretched
service, cookery, and appointments. He it was who
effected the veritable revolution in hotel management
which has since spread all over the world. One of
the principal causes of the success of this Napoleon
amongst hotel keepers was a maxim which may be
said to have largely influenced his policy in running
restaurants and hotels. This maxim was " Le client
n'a jamais tort," no complaint, however frivolous,
ill-grounded, or absurd, meeting with anything but
civility and attention from his staff. Visitors to
restaurants when in a bad temper sometimes find
fault without any justification whatever, but the
most inveterate grumblers soon become ashamed of
complaining when treated with unwavering civility.
Under such conditions they are soon mollified, leaving
with blessings upon their lips.
The old policy of arguing with clients when they
disliked a particular dish was commercially unsound :
the dish, no doubt, was paid for, but the discontented
visitor took care that the restaurant should receive
anything but a good advertisement amongst his friends.
A client, to begin with, dislikes argument, and, in
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
the second place, is extremely unlikely to be convinced
by it. On the other hand, complete agreement never
fails to have a soothing effect, and the grumbler, secretly
ashamed of himself, is almost certain to make repara
tion by speaking well of the restaurant to his friends,
the trifling loss entailed by changing a perfectly satis
factory dish being more than covered by the increase
of custom which indirectly results.
Mr. Ritz also first introduced the principle of
artistic decoration, even down to the smallest details,
now a conspicuous feature in good modern hotels.
He it was who first realized that there was a public
ready to appreciate the attractions of well-designed
and spotlessly clean surroundings, together with ac
cessories of the table, such as linen, china, glass, «nd
plate, fully equal to those customary in a well
appointed private house.
It was with the opening of the Savoy Hotel in 1887
that the new era began, which introduced what may
be called the restaurant life to a large section of the
British public, many of whom now regularly resort
to certain restaurants for their meals, some even
making the luxurious foyers serve the purpose of a
club lounge.
Since then many other excellently appointed hostel-
ries have been built, and it is evident that the palatial
hotel has come to stay.
In connection with the inauguration of one of these
conspicuous features of London life the following story
is curious.
The hotel in question was built upon ground which
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
had formerly formed part of the lands of a monastic
order dissolved at the Reformation, the property of
which had been confiscated.
From the very commencement of building mis
fortune was the order of the day. Accidents happened
to the workmen, and unexpected flaws in the fabric
necessitated an expense not contemplated in the
estimates. The hotel, when finally completed, did
not pay as had been expected, a series of minor dis
asters and unfavourable happenings seeming to be
constantly liable to occur.
Under these depressing circumstances, one of the
principal directors, rather inclined to believe in occult
influence, began to try and discover whether the site
had in the past been connected with any circum
stances likely to bring bad luck. Looking through old
records, he eventually discovered that at the time of
the confiscation of the property the Abbot of the
Order which had been expelled had solemnly cursed
the ground, declaring that any enterprise connected
with it should never prosper.
The director in question, a man of original
character, in due course proceeded to make known this
discovery to his colleagues, who at first, as might be
expected, were inclined to smile at such an announce
ment. In no way abashed by their attitude, however,
he boldly declared that he was in favour of expending
a certain sum of money in order to get the curse
removed, and eventually, by means of a good deal of
clever cajolery, induced his board to give their sanc
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
Discovering that a monastery of monks belonging
to the expelled Order was established in the wilds of
Devonshire, he proceeded to set out for that spot,
where, in due course, he contrived to obtain an inter
view with the Abbot, who, needless to say, was con
siderably puzzled at the advent of such a visitor.
" I have come," said the director, " to beg your
kindly services in getting a curse, passed by a prede
cessor of yours, removed. Convinced that till this is
done a commercial enterprise in which I and others
are largely interested will fail to prosper, I feel sure
that your Order, renowned for its good works, would
not wish innocent people of to-day to suffer for the
rapacity of a long past generation."
The Abbot was at first little disposed to take any
interest in the matter, but courteously yielding to the
importunities of the applicant, who urged his suit
with rare diplomacy, finally consented to go through
a form of removing the curse, which ceremonial having
been completed, the director at once returned to
town, a written form of the undoing of the curse in
his bag, whilst a liberal contribution was left in the
coffers of the monastery.
At the next board meeting the director announced
the complete success of his negotiations, reading out
the document which the Abbot had signed. Not
withstanding the scepticism of the majority of his
colleagues, who regarded the whole affair as an eccen
tric freak, from that very moment the prosperity of
the hotel was assured. No more misfortunes hap
pened, and, entering upon a career of steady pros-
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Piccadilly jo Pall Mall
perity, the dividends rose higher and higher, till the
concern became known as one of the most prosperous
enterprises ever started in the West End of London.
The public which habitually uses restaurants is ex
ceedingly capricious and easily driven away. This,
however, is even more the case in Paris than in London.
In the former city, indeed, a restaurant is sometimes
the rage for a year or two, and then suddenly loses
its patrons, who entirely desert it for no reason except
that the tide of fashion has set in some other direction.
A good name has much to do with the success of
these places^the " Carlton," " Savoy," and the
" Ritz " are all excellent, short and expressive, some
how conveying an idea of comfortable luxury.
Perhaps the most appropriate name ever proposed
for any restaurant was the one suggested during the
arrangement of the Naval Exhibition at Chelsea. All
the various sections in this were called after different
admirals, and the restaurant department being under
discussion, a member of the committee strongly urged
that " Hunt Grubbe " (there was a well-known
admiral who bore this name) should be inscribed above
the entrance to the section devoted to public re
freshment. The question of music during lunch and dinner is
a somewhat curious one. A number of people declare
that they abominate eating to the sound of a band.
Nevertheless, all the most flourishing restaurants have
found it good policy to engage musicians who, in some
cases, are exceedingly talented artistes. As a matter
of fact, the public seems to prefer a musical accom-
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
paniment to its meals, for restaurants with bands do
better business than the ones who have remained
faithful to more old-fashioned traditions.
The prices charged at first-rate restaurants are un
doubtedly high, but it must be remembered that they
constitute a barrier against an embarrassing crowd of
a rather doubtful nature which might invade these
luxurious haunts.
A famous Parisian restaurateur used to point this
out to his clients when they complained, saying that
his prices were adjusted in their best interest. To a
guest who declared that his dinner was more expen
sive than an exactly identical one eaten two days
before he remarked, after a visit to his desk, " You
were charged too little, I find. However, I shall not
claim restitution."
" Fifteen francs for a peach ! " once complained
a Russian Grand Duke. " They must be very scarce."
" Not so scarce as Grand Dukes," was the reply.
" That's what makes them so expensive."
A visitor from the provinces dining at this restaurant
in April was considerably staggered at being charged
thirty francs for a melon, and objected, declaring it
must be a joke. He was, however, appeased by being
told that if he could find a dozen anywhere else " at the
same price " the proprietor would willingly purchase
them !
The maltre tfhbtel here, when approached by a
stranger as to the cost of a good dinner, used to
solemnly recite, " Twenty francs for an ordinary
dinner, forty for a very nice one, and a hundred for
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
the best in the world ! " his voice rising as the price
advanced. This same maUre d'httel, on hearing of the death
of a constant client, sadly remarked, " Ah, poor man,
he won't get our cooking in his new quarters ! "
The Prince de Soubise, who employed a particularly
extravagant though highly gifted chef, was on one
occasion considerably staggered by seeing that fifty
hams were included in the menu of a comparatively
small supper. On inquiry, the cook explained that
only one would appear upon the table, the rest being
necessary for subordinate purposes. " You are a
robber ! " said the Prince. " Monseigneur," was the
reply, " you do not realize my talents. Say the word,
and all fifty of these hams shall be put into a little
bottle no bigger than your thumb ! "
In former days Long's Hotel, in Bond Street (still
in existence, but rebuilt and much smaller), was a
regular meeting-place for many interested in amuse
ment and sport. As late as the 'eighties the large
smoking-room on the right of the entrance hall was
every evening the constant resort of several jovial
souls, many sporting men making Long's their
head-quarters whenever they came up to town. A
great feature of old Long's was the head waiter,
William, the very perfection of what is now an extinct
type — civil, obliging, and urbane under the most
trying circumstances. William, as was only natural
in a head waiter of the old school, took a great interest
in the Turf ; on occasions even he would respectfully
lay stress upon the excellent chance possessed by some
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall

animal or other, whose merits he had heard discussed.
His fondness for sport in all probability did his pocket
but little good, for the poor man died a few years ago
in anything but prosperous circumstances.
The cooking at old Long's, though not, of course,
anything like the sumptuous fare of the modern
palatial restaurant, was not for that reason to be de
spised. There were one or two dishes, indeed, such
as devilled soles, which were nowhere else to be
equalled. Another feature was the peculiar blend of
whisky and soda concocted by William, who had a
way of mixing this drink which old frequenters will
still remember ; it may perhaps have been some
special whisky or some particular kind of soda, but
Long's whiskies and sodas were, without doubt, the
very best in the world.
Long's, of course, at that time was solely a man's
hotel ; only later did the feminine element make its
appearance. The rebuilding no doubt changed the
character of the place, which, as a resort for sporting
bachelors, exists only in tradition. The same thing
happened at Hatchett's, where, before the old house
was pulled down, country squires, from generation to
generation, were wont to put up. The erection of
the new edifice, however, scattered the old clientele
whilst, apparently, not attracting a new one, for
Hatchett's as an hotel is now but a memory of the
past, though an excellent and comfortable little
restaurant still does very good business upon the
same site.
The last of the old-fashioned hostelries in this part
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of the West End was the "Bath Hotel," which was
pulled down but a short time ago to make way for
the palatial Ritz Hotel, which now spreads over the
site of the rambling old building.
As a matter of fact, the disappearance of the old
English hotel calls for but few regrets ; dingy and in
reality none too comfortable, its advantages, compared
with modern resorts of the same nature, were nil. An
old-world air of quaintness certainly hung about the
place, but this was but poor compensation for the dingi-
ness and dirt which were its occasional concomitants.
The old-world English waiter, though a character, was,
as a rule, not a temperate one ; whilst the rest of the
staff was usually of a somewhat happy-go-lucky dis
position, more or less addicted to a tolerated inebriety.
Bathrooms, such as abound in modern hotels, were,
for the most part, non-existent, and where one did
exist it was usually of a none too efficient kind, besides
which, often the receptacle for brooms, mops, and
other articles of domestic necessity.
The whole place, as a rule, was unattractive and
stuffy, conveying a peculiar impression of latent
microbes and dirt. Occasionally, however, these old
hotels contained some fine old pieces of English furni
ture and decorations, which, as a rule, were not held
in any particular estimation by the frequenters, who
were quite free from the collecting manias so prevalent
to-day. A feature of West End social life during the
'eighties was the inauguration of two restaurant clubs.
The first of these was the "Amphitryon," over
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
whose early destinies presided an exceptionally strong
and capable committee, including such well-known
members of society as Lords Dudley, De Grey, Dur
ham, Chesterfield, and Ashburton ; Count Kinski,
Colonel Oliver Montagu, and M. L. de Soveral. Its
premises were at 41, Albemarle Street, Piccadilly, and
the presiding maUre fhUel M. Emile Aoust, who
once ruled Bignon's, in Paris. The object of the
club was to provide a first-rate French restaurant,
which at the same time should be absolutely exclusive.
The annual subscription was three guineas, no entrance
fee being paid by the first two hundred members.
The Prince of Wales and the Duke of Connaught
both joined the " Amphitryon," which thus opened
its doors under magnificent auspices.
For a time everything went well. The rooms were
most tastefully and appropriately decorated, and the
cuisine left little to grumble at. About seven hundred
members were enrolled, and candidates kept flocking
in with commendable alacrity. The only fear, indeed,
was that the premises might prove too small, and a
restriction was therefore made, by which members
were only allowed to introduce three guests at a time.
Considerable stir was made by an inauguration
dinner given to the present King, then Prince of
Wales, at this club, to attend which His Royal High
ness travelled to town from Castle Rising. The party,
numbering fourteen in all, included, amongst others,
the Austrian Ambassador, Lord Dudley, Lord Chester
field, Sir Frederick Johnstone, and M. de Soveral,
already known as the witty and popular First Secretary
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
of the Portuguese Legation in London. The bill on
this occasion is said to have reached the respectable
total of ^120. " Kirsch glace," which figured in the
menu, occasioned some amusement, the K being said
to be a misprint for H, the first letter of the name of
a prominent foreign financier then in high favour in
certain exalted quarters.
As time went on, however, complaints began to be
made that the " Amphitryon " was not altogether
an ideal dining place. The chief faults found were
the expense and the limited accommodation. A first-
class dinner, also, was very expensive, costing close
upon £\o a head — an absurd figure. In addition to
this the little tables were, on account of the smallness
of the premises, so closely packed that confidential
conversation was next to impossible. Upstairs, of
course, were private rooms to be reserved for large
dinner parties.
A fire at the Grosvenor Gallery depot throwing the
electric light out of gear, gas had to be used instead,
with the result that the small room became something
like the Black Hole of Calcutta, so far as heat and
want of fresh air were concerned.
It was soon evident that the " Amphitryon " would
not last, and after a short existence it eventually closed
its doors, leaving behind it but the memory of some
excellent dinners and extraordinary bills.
On its ashes rose a little Whist club called the
" Arlington," but this also had a brief existence, and
the premises were turned into a shop.
A second club something of the same nature as the
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
" Amphitryon " was started about a year later. This
was called the Maison Doree Club, the address of
which was 38, Dover Street. The general committee
comprised, amongst others, the names of the Dukes of
St. Albans and Wellington, Lord Breadalbane, Lord
Dungarvan, Lord Castletown, Lord Camoys, Lord
Lurgan, Prince Henry of Pless, Lord Suffield, and
Lord Craven. The entrance fee was two guineas, the
annual subscription being covered by a similar sum.
The cuisine was under the management of the Maison
Doree, which was then still in existence in Paris.
The Maison Doree Club, it must be added, was
elaborately decorated, the gilding perhaps being too
profuse. Gold, indeed, overflowed even to the area
railings, and the iron lock of the area door itself was
decorated with heavy dull gold ! People used even
to say that the pantry-maid was to be entrusted with
a solid gold key to open and shut the latter for the
convenience of the passing policeman ! Altogether,
both inside and outside, this club presented a most
imposing, if rather gaudy, appearance. The decora
tions of the dining-room consisted principally of
pastoral scenes painted on tapestry panels by a Parisian
firm ; whilst a large glass tea-house overhung the
garden, which was put forward as a principal attraction
of the place.
The Maison Doree Club, however, eventually did
no better than the " Amphitryon " ; indeed, it did
a great deal worse, the latter for a time, at least,
having been a success, which the Maison Doree never
was. It lingered on in a moribund state and then
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
flickered out, its disappearance being followed some
time later by that of the parent restaurant in Paris,
which closed its doors, after a long and honourable
career, noted for its culinary excellence.
The rise of the restaurant has indirectly popularized
many things which in a former era were merely the
appanage of a certain limited class. Liqueurs, and
especially liqueur brandy, of the finest quality were
formerly not very much drunk in England, but the
popularity of this latter luxury at the present day
may be accurately gauged from the price some 1793
brandy, the property of Mr. Henry Chaplin, fetched
at auction six years ago. Every bottle of this realized
.£3 12s. Only two years ago, however, three bottles
of cognac, certified to be of the year 1789, realized
£$ 12s. a bottle at the Hotel Drouot in Paris. In
1 898, when the cellar of Mr. Arbuthnot Guthrie, of
Duart Castle, was put up for sale, liqueur brandy
sixty-eight years old was sold at something over two
guineas a bottle.
The Cafe Anglais, in Paris, has some brandy which
is supposed to be quite marvellous of its kind ; its
cost is about 100 francs a bottle. Much of the old
brandy sold in Paris is said to be manufactured by a
special process in the suburbs of that city, where it
is carefully poured down, drop by drop, from a great
height in a specially erected building like a shot
tower. The action of the air on each separate drop
during its passage to the receptacle at the bottom
is said to impart much of the delicacy and flavour
which are such features of old liqueur brandy of
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
ancient date. The addition of vanilla is very common
in many so-called old brandies, which are in reality
nothing more than carefully - concocted chemical
compounds. At most of the best restaurants a particular feature
is the excellence of the material supplied. In this,
as much as in good cooking, lies the difference between
a really first-class cuisine and an indifferent one. The
cooking in London generally has, without doubt,
improved. Especially is this the case in Society, a
proof of which is that little is now heard of any
particular host or hostess being especially celebrated
for the excellence of their cook. The establishment
of the first-class restaurant in London has greatly
raised the general standard of culinary excellence,
and at most of the houses where dinners are given
everything is of the best. In former days things were
very different, and only a few hosts understood the
art of providing really recherches dinners. To those
who remember the late Mr. Henry Petre, No. 12
Berkeley Square is still redolent of the fumes of good
cooking. Here for many years that prince of English
gastronomes gave charming little feasts which were
graced sometimes by Royalty and always by the very
fine fleur of English Society.
Some thirty years ago the average dinner to be
obtained at the best of the houses in London was a
pretentious atrocity concocted of solid meat, suet,
dripping, and other accompaniments almost as appal
ling to dwell upon, relieved by desserts where crackers,
sugared apricots, and dried raisins played an im-
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
portant and monotonous part. Such atrocities are
now, happily, relegated to the past. With a few
exceptions, the average dinner-party of those days
was a pretentious and overwhelming mockery. Lord
Granville, as has been said, possessed an excellent chef,
so did Lady Cowper and Mrs. Bischoffsheim, Sir
Henry Edwards, Mrs. James Stern, Mr. Henry Petre,
and Lady Molesworth. The dinners of the latter in
Eaton Place were perfection, though this lady had
no chef but that rarest of paragons, a first-class
English woman cook.
As a judge of good cooking Lord Granville was
quite unrivalled, his own excellent cuisine at Carlton
House Terrace being above all criticism.
Lord Granville, Lord Cowper, and Mr. Bischoff
sheim were in those days considered to possess the
three best cooks in London. One was famous for his
pastries, the other for the decorative appearance of
his dishes, and the other for the high average of the
few contemporary Englishmen who really understood
good cooking. A first-class cuisine is, as a rule, only
to be found in the houses of people who realize its
merit. The best chef possible will soon deteriorate
unless his master is himself a past master in the art,
not of cooking, but of appreciating and comprehend
ing the delicacies of a good cuisine. . . .
At the beginning of the 'eighties Evans's (now the
National Sporting Club) ceased to exist. For some
years it had been on the wane, and its disappearance
as a supper resort took no one by surprise. In old
days the supper there was good of its kind ; whilst the
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
harmonic glees, such as " The Chough and the Crow,"
" My Gabrielle," and " The Hardy Norseman," sung
by a choir of men and boys, were rendered with very
pleasing effect. Skinner, the head waiter, and the
steaming potatoes in their jackets, with which he was
so closely associated, were two features of the place
not soon forgotten by old habitues. The admission
of women to this resort was said to have caused its
end, Eve proving the ruin of Evans.
The building then gave shelter to the members of
the " Falstaff," afterwards becoming the New Club,
in which fashionable dances were given which attracted
all the smart society of the 'eighties, and when this
ceased to exist Evans's Supper Club was formed, the
premises being given up to bohemian and theatrical
society, which indulged in informal dances. The supper
club in question, however, did not last very long, and,
after further vicissitudes, the place passed into the
hands of the National Sporting Club, which is now
made the head-quarters of boxing in England.
In the palmy days of Evans's London was a far later
city than it is to-day, when every one, metaphorically
speaking, is slapped and put to bed at twelve-thirty,
except on Saturdays, when twelve is the hour, fixed
as a concession to Sabbatarian prejudices. The old
song, " We won't go home till morning," would
have no meaning to-day, when restrictions undreamt
of by Londoners of the past prescribe the exact
hour at which places of refreshment shall close.
According to the Puritan creed, going to bed late
is something of a sin, so, hungry or thirsty, no one
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
must be permitted to linger over their supper after
the closing hour has struck.
In laxer times, no doubt, the facilities for making a
night of it were somewhat abused by revellers who
did not retire to rest till morning dawned. Never
theless, some of the number who, in time, became
serious men, obtained a wider knowledge of life — its
pitfalls, weaknesses, and vicissitudes — than is possessed
by modern English legislators in general, the majority
of whom are profoundly ignorant of human nature,
to, them a thing of little account.
Many of the statesmen of other days were not
ashamed to recall a somewhat riotous youth. They
were merely human, and did not seek to deny it, unlike
the majority of those who claim to govern us to-day.
Certain of these Solons convey the impression that
they are absolutely exempt from most of the failings
which have been inseparably connected with humanity
throughout all time, their only care to elevate the
rest of their countrymen to the same angelic condition,
whilst, incidentally, obtaining a few votes for the party
to which they may happen to belong.
At the willing of our lawgivers the old days of
fun and frolic have passed away, and Tom and Jerry,
were they once more to revisit the metropolis, would
find a totally different city to the one of which Pierce
Egan so quaintly wrote.
Whilst luxury has undoubtedly increased, jovial
amusements are at a considerable discount. London
of to-day abhors the rough revelry so popular in
the past. I IO

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
The old dancing-halls went long ago, and the
music-hall has within the last two decades been im
proved out of all resemblance to its original self — the
gorgeous modern Palace of Varieties, at which comic
songs are barely tolerated, being in reality a far less
original and amusing place than the quite unpreten
tious music-hall of the past, the principal attraction
at which was the Lion Comique, of the type repre
sented by the individual who achieved widespread
notoriety under the name of the " great Vance."
In the 'eighties began the development of the
music-hall as it exists to-day, the Empire, which
inaugurated an altogether more luxurious standard
of comfort, having been opened about twenty years
ago. Previous to this the London Pavilion was prac
tically the only resort to which the jeunesse dorie
habitually went. In the old Pavilion there was only
one row of boxes, and marble tables flanked by seats
occupied the place where are ranged the numbered
stalls of to-day. The place was not originally built
for a music-hall, having at one time been an anatomical
museum. With the rebuilding of this part of London
the new Pavilion arose, which gorgeous erection is,
of course, totally different to its predecessor. With
the change in decoration and comfort came also an
alteration in the character of the entertainment.
Coarse, crude, and unrefined as the old music-hall
often was, to students of human nature there was
something not uninteresting about it. In a way it was
certainly the expression of a certain side — not by any
means the best — of London life.
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
There was a peculiar hum of rough enjoyment
about these places which is non-existent in the more
luxurious Palace of Varieties. A certain section of the
audience undoubtedly came there " out upon a spree,"
a term which has no meaning for a more decorous
generation. The songs, whilst frequently vulgar, were
sometimes imbued with a spirit of rollicking vitality
which, in its peculiar way, was not unenlivening.
A few really reflected life, differing entirely from
modern ditties of the same sort, which, as a rule,
reflect nothing at all. The modern music-hall, indeed,
is the expression of nothing, being in many cases almost
entirely composed of quite colourless " turns " ; whilst
the singing, as has already been said, is rather a minor
attraction. On the other hand, the old music-halls
were not very comfortable, nor was any large sum of
money spent upon decoration. In spite of this, how
ever, most people of any intelligence and general
artistic appreciation who remember some of the clever
favourites of more primitive days, such as Bessie Bell-
wood, would cheerfully dispense with all the music-
hall decorations in London in order once more to hear
her lively ditties.
The chairman, who up to the 'eighties was a great
feature in the " Halls," has long disappeared. He, of
course, was a relic of the time when a music-hall was
merely an assemblage of individuals liable to be called
upon to sing. There was something very English
about this institution, and a seat at his table was
greatly coveted by undergraduates and others desirous
of seeing life. The present system of indicating the

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
" turns " by numbers (as hymns are put up in a church),
whilst undoubtedly more civilized and convenient,
nevertheless does not produce any of that flutter of
excitement which attended the raps of the chairman's
hammer when about to announce some popular
favourite. The Lion Comique, with his coloured hat-lining and
handkerchief of brilliant hue, has long since dis
appeared. The " great Macdermott," as he was called,
was practically the last. He it was who, by his song,
" We don't want to fight, but by Jingo, if we do,"
caused the word Jingo to take its place as a regular
English expression applied to ultra-patriots prone to
bellicose demonstration. His voice was wonderful,
its volume being such as to penetrate into the most
remote corner of any music-hall ; whilst no one better
than he knew how to make the most of the songs
popular in his day. Some of these were said, from a
political point of view, to have been of value to the
Conservative party, in praise of which this singer's
stentorian tones were frequently raised. The exact
amount of value, however, to be attached to the
music-hall audience as a voting power is somewhat
difficult to determine, the majority, in all probability,
whilst ready to applaud any Tory sentiment, not
troubling about politics at all. Besides this, enter
tainments of this sort appeal in a lesser degree to
people of serious political convictions, who seem always
to have regarded the music-hall with a certain measure
of distrust.
Music-hall lounges and facilities for drinking in the
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
auditorium have, from time to time, lashed social re
formers into frenzy. As a matter of fact, there is no
real reason why, if people wish to imbibe liquid
refreshment whilst sitting in their seats, they should
not do so, the said seats being about the very last
places to be chosen by those desirous of getting drunk.
In old days, when facilities of this sort were unre
stricted, there was no more drunkenness in the
auditorium than now. Like most of the futile
measures of restriction dear to faddists and cranks,
such a prohibition seems useless, meddlesome, and
absurd. The refusal to license lounges, except in instances
where they already exist, is another gross piece of
interference with public liberty, absolutely indefen
sible from any fair point of view. Are the people of
London so vicious, uncivilized, and prone to de
bauchery that they cannot be allowed to walk freely
about in a place of entertainment, of which a lounge
should naturally be one of the attractions ? Provided
order is enforced, every music-hall, where a licence for
a lounge is desired, should have one, such licence to
be revoked if scandal or disorder results. Distinctions
such as prevail at present are un-English, besides being
contrary to the convenience of the public. To con
template the ridiculous restrictions in these sort of
matters to which the people of London are exposed,
one would be led to believe that the entire music-
hall public consists of drunkards, debauchees, and
prostitutes requiring to be controlled with an iron
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
As a matter of fact, the very contrary is the case,
for the public in question is in reality orderly in the
extreme. The death of the " great Macdermott," which
occurred nine years ago, as has been said, removed
the last of the old school of music-hall singers, which
to-day is extinct. Not a song now exists which could
catch the popular ear as did " In the Strand," " Slap
Bang," " The Perfect Cure," " Pretty Polly Perkins,"
" Ka-Foozle-Um," " Champagne Charlie," " Not for
Joseph," " Up in a Balloon," " Walking in the Zoo,"
" Have you seen the Shah ? " " Paddle your own
Canoe," "Clicquot," "After the Opera," "The
Dutchman's Leetle Wee Dog," " Ten Little Nig
gers," and " Over the Garden Wall." These are all
songs which were the rage between the early 'sixties
and the late 'eighties. In those days every important
incident or event gave birth to a popular comic song.
" Angelina was always fond of Soldiers " commemo
rated the visit of the Belgian Volunteers to London
in 1868. " Champagne Charlie," " MOet and Chan-
don," and " Clicquot " marked the commencement
of the popularity of champagne in this country.
" The Galloping Snob " perpetuated the overthrow
of Sir Richard Mayne — then Commissioner of Police
— in Hyde Park in 1867. " Immensikoff " marked
the introduction of fur coats, and " Would you be
surprised to hear f " was founded on the phrase con
tinually used by Sir John Coleridge — afterwards Lord
Coleridge, Lord Chief Justice of England — when cross-
examining the Tichborne Claimant in 1872. " Crutch
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
and Toothpick " was sung by Miss Nellie Farren in
the early 'eighties to ridicule the youth of the day,
who wore blue trousers, black coats, and white neck
ties, carried a crutch, with their elbows out at right
angles, and had a toothpick always between the
teeth. This particular type of individual is now quite
obsolete, the younger sort of dandy known in the
past as buck, macaroni, blood, swell, toff, masher,
dude, chappie, Johnnie, and many other similar ap
pellations, having disappeared. As this individual was
of no importance to the community in general, his
exit from the scene of London life has scarcely excited
comment. Perhaps, after all, he never existed to the
extent which the music-hall songs of the past at
tempted to lead the public to believe. These ditties,
whilst invariably deriding the attempts of impecunious
City clerks and others to pose as dandies, were generally
permeated with a strain of admiration and respect for
the real article, who was generally described in the
last verses as being liable to perform prodigies of
valour when away from Bond Street or Piccadilly, his
stiff collar and cuffs being, for the time, laid aside.
The favourite song of the 'sixties dealing with the
theme just mentioned was " Champagne Charlie is
my name," a description of a Bacchanalian buck of
the day, pictured by the late George Leybourne as
wearing the long side-whiskers known as " Piccadilly
weepers " — hirsute ornaments now completely obso
lete. This song, which in its time created quite a
sensation, described the " real swell " whose only susten-
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
ance, one was led to believe, were the various brands
of champagne. On the other hand, Miss Nellie Power,
an actress of considerable charm, some years later
achieved considerable popularity with a ditty entitled,
" La di da," in which the attempts at fashion made
by an impecunious clerk were held up to ridicule and
derision, his cheap efforts at a fashionable appearance
— such as the penny flower in his coat, his penny paper
collar, and other adornments — being ironically detailed.
No music-hall entertainment was then complete
without a song dealing with the swell and his
ways. About the last of these, which deserves notice
as practically the requiem of the dandy, was the
" Masher King," sung by the late Charles Godfrey in
the 'eighties. Attired in a silk dress suit with knee-
breeches, for many weeks he delighted the audience
at the old London Pavilion with a description of the
duties of a masher's life — an existence which en
tailed a " Stroll up the Strandity,
Cane in his handity,"
as well as other arduous social obligations of a similar
nature. Silly, pointless, and vapid as this sort of song fre
quently was, it yet pictured a side of life which really
did exist, and now exists no longer.
The proof of this is that for many years no new
word has been coined to designate a dandy. The type
is extinct, and being so, no longer lends itself to
ridicule. The great type of the dandies was Brummell, whose
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
memory yet survives. Brummell was the Bonaparte
of the beau-monde. Dress, address, daring, discretion,
and distinction j these were the qualities which in
combination made him the arbiter of fashion. He
possessed more than any man did before or has since
that originality which is not eccentricity, and that
affectation which was artistic as well as attractive. He
was so conscious of power that he was unconscious of
criticism, and, possessing that confidence which is
another faith, although of obscure origin, he moved
the mountains of Mayfair. Dandies, however, in
fluence only their own generation, not the generations
that follow ; theirs is a personal power which is
inexplicable when their personality is removed. How
great was the power of Beau Brummell, when he was
at the height of his glory, may be imagined from the
reported saying of Lord Byron that he would rather
be Brummell than Bonaparte. That was, however,
when dandyism was a fine art in London. The buck,
the dandy, and the beau have long since had their
day, and left no successors behind them.
Quite a feature of London life in the 'seventies and
early 'eighties was the " Crutch and Toothpick
Brigade," a peculiar brotherhood of young men which
has already been mentioned. For the most part none
too well dowered with brains, the most salient points
about its equipment were a black silver-mounted
crutch stick, a toothpick languidly held between the
teeth, and in the evenings, when the battalion was at
its best, a silk-lined Inverness cape. Its head-quarters
were established at the old Gaiety, in the Strand.
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
Here in the stalls, night after night, rows of young
men were to be seen serenely surveying the en
tertainment they worshipped, with scarcely a smile
upon their somewhat expressionless faces. To them
the whole thing would seem to have been more in the
nature of a religious function than anything else, for
when engaged in conversation they would quote cer
tain lines of their favourite burlesques as if part of a
ritual. For the most part practically blameless from
a moral point of view, they were, nevertheless, exposed
to a good deal of criticism and ridicule, it being said
that their highest ideal was to win a smile from one of
the divinities who deigned to pose in the chorus.
London had known many different kinds of dandies
before them — the wild bloods of the Hell Fire Club,
the dashing bucks of the Regency, the whiskered swells
of the mid- Victorian era — but anything like these sad,
solemn, vacuous young men, garbed in a sort of spot
less, if funereal, raiment, it had never seen, and for a
time songs and skits abounded in which their pecu
liarities were noted, laughed at, and abused.
The high priestess of this cult was, of course, the
inimitable Nellie Farren, who, together with Kate
Vaughan, Edward Terry, and Royce, formed a bur
lesque quartette the like of which will probably never
be seen again. The old Gaiety burlesques were of
quite a different nature from anything seen before or
since ; to begin with, the libretto, written by a clever
man, H. J. Byron, abounded in sparkle and real wit.
The spirit of life, so elusive and difficult to define,
was there, and perhaps the young men who, night
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
after night, attended an entertainment they knew by
heart, were not so far wrong after all — they had a
good thing, and they knew it.
Miss Nellie Farren was a star in the theatrical
firmament almost throughout all three generations,
and it is not surprising that at the different stages of
age which these have reached they eagerly combined
to pay tribute to her genius and liveliness, and to re
vive the memories of youth. The actors and actresses
who performed on the Gaiety stage during its most
brilliant period will long be remembered for their
humour, talent, and beauty. The names of Miss
Nellie Farren, Miss Kate Vaughan, Miss Constance
Gilchrist, Miss Amalia, Miss Phyllis Broughton, Miss
Marion Hood, Miss Lizzie Wilson, Miss Alma Stanley,
Miss Agnes Hewitt, Miss Wadman, Mr. Edward
Terry, Mr. Royce, Mr. David James, Mr. Fred Leslie,
and Mr. Lonnen must ever revive in many a mind
memories that are indescribably pleasant.
Well-known frequenters of the Gaiety in its most
palmy days were the late Colonel Jim Farquharson,
the late Phizzy Drummond Wolff, whose wit was
almost as keen and as ready as that of his brilliant
father, Sir Henry Drummond Wolff ; Mr. Hughie
Drummond, whose overflowing spirits, audacious esca
pades, and undoubted cleverness for several years
attracted considerable attention ; the late Mr. Harry
Tyrrwhit Wilson, Mr. " Charlie " Balfour, the late
Lord de Clifford, and a host of others who occupied
the same seats at this theatre night after night for
years.

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
The majority of these, alas ! have gone, and, in the
words of the old Gaiety song, " will never come back
any more." Gone, too, are most of the favourites
who kept alight the sacred lamp of burlesque, which
to-day emits but a faint and feeble flicker.
A peculiarly sympathetic personality, Miss Farren
lived in the hearts of the public even after her enforced
retirement from the stage. The extraordinary per
formance which was given at Drury Lane Theatre
ten years ago for her benefit owed much of its success
to this, and also to the fact that it enabled three
generations to revive vividly the memories of youth.
From the late 'sixties to the middle 'seventies the
generation which was influenced by the present King,
and which numbered amongst its leaders the late Duke
of Hamilton and Lord Carrington, reigned supreme.
Cosmopolitanism was the keynote of this influence.
The Prince of Wales and the late Duke of Hamilton
popularized the Continent. They themselves were
familiar figures in every capital in Europe, and to their
example is, in a great measure, due the extinction of
that insular spirit which until then had been a pro
minent feature of English character and customs. It
was perhaps a period of some luxury and extravagance ;
it was an immoderately princely and moderately culti
vated period ; many a vast fortune was squandered
while it lasted.
From the middle 'seventies to the early 'eighties
another generation was to the front. The tone of this
generation was greatly influenced by Miss Nellie
Farren and the actors and actresses who were associated
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with her in the series of brilliant burlesque perform
ances which then attracted all who were either young
or lively to the Gaiety Theatre. This generation re
sented unnecessary restraint ; it upset many old-world
conventionalities ; it inaugurated the habit of dining
and supping at restaurants ; and it helped to emanci
pate its woman-kind from the unreasonable restrictions
which formerly were so oppressive. Since then, how
ever, this emancipation has been perhaps unduly
extended. It was a good - humoured and a good-
natured generation, hundreds of small fortunes being
frittered away by it in small extravagances.
The third generation, on the other hand, has de
voted most of its energies to making money, and has
contrived, in so doing, to further impoverish the West
End. It must be admitted, however, that the two
preceding generations had so crippled the families to
which they belonged that no option was left to the
last but to venture into the City, which seemed to
afford some promise of Wealth.
In former days a sort of glamour of bohemianism
surrounded the stage, which is now one of the avowed
strongholds of British respectability. Chorus girls
then were perhaps unjustly regarded as being, to put
it mildly, " fast," and by the austere were viewed
with considerable suspicion. All that, however, has
long since been changed, and the morality of those
ladies who in minor capacities adorn the boards
whilst swaying with rhythmic movement to the
chorus of some more or less inane ditty is to-day
generally recognized as being above reproach. The
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majority of these girls, indeed, account a life of rigid
virtue their principal asset — the talisman wherewith
to attain a coronet or a fortune.
The chorus girls of the past were a free and easy
pleasure - loving lot, too scatter - brained and too
thoughtless to indulge in careful calculation ; but
things have altered to-day, when damsels of quite
good social position and education figure without dis
credit upon the boards, which many of them shrewdly
regard as a short cut to a rich marriage. The old
kind of chorus girl, indeed, has been pushed aside by
competitors sprung from a somewhat higher class,
who of course are infinitely better equipped for
matrimonial capture. A good deal of difference exists
between the behaviour of most modern chorus girls
as compared with that which distinguished their
predecessors of a former generation, in whose arsenal
of attractions there was little place for calculating
prudery. The latter quality, combined with an unlimited
amount of assurance, has brought many an impulsive
swain to the altar. The attention paid to some of
these girls is put by them to very profitable use ; for,
according to the ethics of the clan, presents, when of
any value, may be quite freely received, being even
occasionally acknowledged by a brief telegram — cor
respondence (except of a compromising character
from an ardent and rich lover) being usually dis
couraged. As a matter of fact, many of these girls
make good wives, at least quite good enough for their
husbands, who, in the majority of cases, supply more
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cash than sense. A celebrated stage beauty, who was
about to marry a young man little better than a con
genital idiot, once aptly defined the situation. " Re
member, my dear, you are marrying a boy absolutely
without any brains," said a friend. " Don't worry
about that," was the reply ; " I've got enough for
two " — and she had.
The type of woman who, boldly breaking with
respectability, openly leads a life of luxurious pleasure
is no more, the methods of the class in question
having entirely changed, unobtrusive and well-con
ducted vice now rubbing shoulders freely with virtue,
which is often the most flashily dressed of the two.
Gone are the dashing free lances of the 'sixties and
'seventies, whose escapades were almost openly recog
nized. Many of these were fine horsewomen, like Agnes
Willoughby; she eventually married Mad Wind
ham, of Febbrigg Hall, Norfolk, who, besides im
poverishing a famous estate, created considerable
scandal in Norfolk by his eccentricities. Riding was
at that time much affected by a certain class of
woman, a number of whom were known as " pretty
horsebreakers," an expression then much in vogue.
Occasionally these ladies would intrude into circles
where they were quite out of place. A celebrated
" anonyma," for instance, whose reputation, or rather
lack of it, was notorious throughout Europe, once
actually went down to hunt with a famous pack,
tricked out in the peculiar livery which only the
smartest ladies of the hunt usually ventured to assume.
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One of these, a leader of fashion, about whom, however,
certain scandalous stories were current, was very much
incensed at this, and forthwith sent a gentleman to re
monstrate with the intruder, who, however, was fully
equal to the occasion. " Tell Lady  ," was her
reply, " that I, not she, am the head of our profession,
and shall therefore wear any costume I like."
The queens of the demi-monde, however, never ex
cited as much interest in London as did the great
cocottes of the Second Empire in Paris. One of the
chief of these, as a matter of fact, was an English
woman, Cora Pearl, who, outliving most of her con
temporaries, died in a state of complete destitution
not so many years ago. She, like many of her con
temporaries, was devoted, not only to spending her
admirers' money, but actually to squandering it in
fatuous extravagance, such as baths of champagne and
other follies of an equally unpleasant character.
Some of them, however, had a certain taste for art.
Such a one was the famous " Paiva," who, born amidst
the most humble surroundings, lived to become the
wife of Count Henkel von Donersmarck. The pa
latial mansion, decorated by some of the most famous
French artists and sculptors, which he erected for her
in the Champs Elysees is now the excellent " Travel
lers' Club."
La Paiva was, nevertheless, by no means behindhand
in perpetrating acts of mad extravagance. A certain
young Frenchman who was desperately in love with
her, having for some time pleaded his suit in the face
of many rebuffs, said to her —
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
" Tell me what can I do to move you ? "
" What have you in your pocket-book ? " was the
reply. " Twelve thousand francs, at your service as ever."
" I do not care for your paltry money, but the fire is
burning badly. Throw them into it ; I like a blaze."
Deliberately, and one by one, the young man tossed
note after note into the fire, till all were consumed.
" And now," said La Paiva, " I will go with you to
Vichy. I can see you are not mean."
This act of folly was a good deal talked about, and
only some years later did the lady, then grown a little
wiser, learn that the notes had been mere dummies,
with which her lover, astutely prepared for any ec
centricity, had taken care to fill his pocket-book.
As late as the close of the sixties there flourished a
number of demi-mondaines who had quite a recog
nized position as a feature of London life. Skittles,
Nellie Fowler, Mabel Grey, and many others
were openly spoken of much as are the great Parisian
cocottes of to-day, and their gorgeous equipages were
objects of considerable interest in the Park, where even
quite young ladies knew something of their career, as
the following anecdote will illustrate.
Two well-known figures in fashionable life were a
mother and daughter, the latter as conspicuous for her
neat and tiny figure as was the former for her rotundity
of form. They were in consequence very appropri
ately nicknamed " Waist " and " Plenty." Walking
in the Park one day, the daughter, who was of a mis
chievous disposition, descried approaching one of the

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
fair " anonymas," as they were then called, to whom
reference has been made.
" Mamma," said she, " whoever is that pretty
lady, who is so wonderfully dressed f "
" Ah, don't bother me, my dear," was the reply.
" All I can tell you is that the creature is not a person
whom you should look at, much less mention."
" But why, mamma ? "
" Well, if you must know, she is one of those who
has made a faux pas."
" Thank you," demurely answered the daughter,
with a roguish twinkle in her eye. " It wasn't a pas
seul, I suppose ? "
The especial beauty of Skittles was her figure,
which, displayed to the best advantage on horseback,
captured the heart of many a wealthy swain.
She originally came from Liverpool, where she was
said to have been employed setting up the pins in a
skittle alley. A jingle of her day told how —
" In Liverpool in days gone by,
For ha'pence and for victuals,
A little girl by no means shy
Was setting up the skittles."
From this originated the nickname so well known to a
former generation.

127

IV

T7R0M time to time bitter attacks are made upon
the morality, or rather the alleged immorality,
of what are known as the Upper Classes living in
the West End of London. Most of these are scarcely
justified by facts ; the tone of Society in general is, no
doubt, a good deal more lax than that prevailing in
Nonconformist circles, but this means but little.
Both the upper and lower classes of England have
always been somewhat frank about their moral fail
ings ; the great middle class, on the other hand,
whilst somewhat prone to prudery, enjoys the reputa
tion of priding itself upon its more austere morality.
The real truth of the whole matter is that in all
probability all three of these classes — upper, lower,
and middle — are about one as moral or immoral as
the other, the whole matter being, in sober fact,
more a question of temperament and disposition
than anything else. It is very easy for some people
to lead perfectly spotless lives, and thus conquer " in
a fight without a foe." Others, on the contrary, find
the greatest difficulty in mastering passions which
almost resist control ; for this reason the harsh judg
ments so readily passed on those who have erred are
often senseless as well as cruel. To the credit of London
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Society, in this respect, let it be said that the attitude
adopted of late years towards certain female trans
gressors has on occasion been lenient and humane,
allowances having been made for circumstances, un
known to the outside world, which in some measure
palliated their offence.
Taking all things into consideration, London Society
of to-day is in all probability more moral than it was
in the early 'eighties, at which time many irregulari
ties prevailed. As a matter of fact, it is so busy with
one thing and another, especially with trying to make
money, that it has less time to spend in intrigues,
which, it is realised, are invariably followed by con
sequences of a ruinous and disastrous kind.
Ladies exist, no doubt, who get some of their bills
paid by rich financiers, but where possible it may,
with tolerable certainty, be asserted that it is their
practice to give as little as possible in return. A limited
number of liaisons — products some of them of long
standing affection — are also carried on ; but, generally
speaking, the somewhat lenient tone of Society is not
reflected in its life, which, for the most part, is about
as rigidly moral as that of less fashionable but more
hypocritical humanity.
As for London morality in general, that remains
much the same as it has ever been, though on the
surface a certain amount of improvement may appear
to exist.
The whole social policy of modern England is
directed towards producing a semblance of ultra-
decency and virtue, and anything tending to impair

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
this appearance of perfection is adroitly glossed
over or suppressed. From time to time the existence
of a certain class, the members of which have been
somewhat cynically named " ladies of pleasure," is
inevitably thrust forward before the public view. At
such times a plaint of horrified surprise is almost in
variably raised at the continued survival of that
which, owing to the permanence of human failings,
can with justice claim to be the oldest profession in
the world.
Under normal circumstances this sisterhood, which
has played such a preponderant part in the history
of the world, is entirely ignored, an impression
being conveyed that the morality of the present
age is immeasurably superior to that of the more
outspoken past.
In stern reality, however, there has in this respect
been little, if any, change. Notwithstanding a care
fully elaborated system of hypocrisy and cant, every
one more or less knows this from observation, and
the majority from personal experiences, carefully
shielded from the light of day.
As a great philosopher has remarked of the ap
proaches to immorality, " Every one has them daily
before his eyes, and, as long as he is not old, for the
most part also in his heart."
If in the far distant future any student of old-world
manners and customs should search the papers of
to-day with a view to ascertaining particulars as to the
demi-monde of our time he might quite legitimately
arrive at the conclusion that such a class had, in the
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twentieth century, almost ceased to exist, owing to
the extraordinary state of morality produced by
modern culture and education.
Nothing could be more untrue. The conspiracy of
silence which prevails as to this question is almost in
evitable, owing to the mental attitude of the British
public, whose outlook upon life is completely blinded
by a sort of unconscious hypocrisy, the peculiar
appanage of that sentimentalism which now, more or
less, dominates public opinion. A newspaper, indeed,
which attempted to speak anything like the truth on
this subject would have no chance of existing for more
than a week, and would be inevitably overwhelmed by
a general chorus of execration, led, of course, by the
different leaders of the many forms of religion which
flourish in England. Not one of these (with, perhaps,
the exception of the Roman Catholic Church, which
has ever taken a somewhat human and sensible view of
this question) could afford to let slip such an oppor
tunity of stemming the torrent of vice. As for the
various societies whose energies are devoted to further
ing the repression of other people's passions, any
plain speaking devoid of cant would immediately
increase the flow of subscriptions, as well as call
forth many an appeal for redoubled energy in com
bating those evils, the real nature and danger of which
is as a rule entirely overlooked by Anglo-Saxon social
reformers. Whilst the morals of London remain much as they
were, there has been a decided tendency to repress
all outward manifestations of vice, which in conse-
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quence assumes insidious forms if no longer daring
to flaunt itself abroad.
The dashing demi-mondaines of the old-fashioned
type, the ladies who at one time regularly haunted the
Park, either in some smart equipage or latterly in
discreet broughams, which at a certain spot near the
Magazine were drawn up in line for purposes of con
versation with admirers, have disappeared.
Up to comparatively recent times Mayfair har
boured a number of ladies whose escapades were
matters of common knowledge.
The celebrated Harriet Wilson, for instance, lived
in Berkeley Street. A somewhat grotesque illustra
tion in her memoirs (which, it may be added, are in
large part apocryphal) depicts the Iron Duke in a
huge cocked hat, energetically knocking, at her door ;
whilst the Duke of Argyll, disguised in a nightcap as
an old woman, is frantically assuring him that Miss
Wilson is unable to see visitors. The memoirs in
question, though amusing in parts, are, on the whole,
of no very considerable interest ; besides this, many
of the statements made are by no means to be relied
upon. Women of such a type, possessing unexampled
opportunities of observing human nature, stripped of
a number of the trappings which the influence
of civilised society has imposed upon it, see much
denied to their more reputable sisters, and would
be able, had they literary ability of the very
slightest kind, to compose volumes likely to be
of the highest interest to those future generations
which may take quite a different view of all the
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elaborate paraphernalia of pretence now almost of
necessity forming part of the stock-in-trade of no
inconsiderable section of mankind.
The literary abilities of Harriet Wilson, such as
they were, appear to have been devoted mainly to
purposes of covert blackmail.
Said the " Globe and Traveller " of the 12th March,
1825 : —
" We think Mr. Ellice does but justice to the public
in permitting us to publish the following letter, which
he received by the post this morning. It displays at
once the objects and motives of the authoress and
editor of the detestable publication now circulating
under the above title. He has desired us to leave
blank the names of other parties alluded to, but has
left the letter with us for the satisfaction of others
who may be better acquainted with the lady's writing
than himself. " ' March 8, No. Ill, Rue du Faubourg,
" ' St. Honore, £ Paris.
" ' Sir, — People are buying themselves so fast out
of my book, " Memoirs of H. Wilson," that I have
no time to attend to them should be sorry not to
give each a chance, if they chuse to be out. You are
quizzed most unmercifully. Two Noble Dukes have
lately taken my word, and I have never named them.
I am sure — would say you might trust me never to
publish, or cause to be published aught about you, if
you like to forward ^200 directly to me, else it will
be too late as the last volume, in which you shine,
will be the property of the Edetor, and in his hands.
Lord  says he will answer for aught I agree to
so will my husband. Do just as you like — consult only
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yourself. I get as much by a small booh as you will
give me for taking you out, or more. I attack no
poor men, because they cannot help themselves.
" ' Adieu — Mind I have no time to write again, as
what with writing books and then altering them for
those who buy out, I am done up — frappe en mort.
" ' What do you think of my French ?
" ' Yours,
" ' Harriette Rochfort, Late Wilson.
" ' Don't trust to bag with your answer.'
" (Addressed, Edward Ellice, Esq., m.p., New Street,
London)." In the publication of this letter the lady's grammar
and spelling was adhered to, both of which, as the
" Globe " tritely remarked, resembled the lady's
morality in not being closely bound by vulgar rules.
With the increase of education has arisen a totally
new class of hetaira, which, though entirely devoid
of virtue, is clever enough to retain its reputation,
amalgamating imperceptibly with people of the
strictest views, in whose houses it often resides. Many
of these women, though well equipped with funds,
are engaged in respectable employment during the
day; wiser than their predecessors of another age,
who, for the most part, dawdled the daylight hours
away in a state of intolerable boredom, they are
sensible enough to perceive that light work of some
kind or other is a more amusing method of passing the
time. Secure in the knowledge that their astuteness
is well able to preserve them from detection, such
free lances look with profound contempt upon the
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
avowed courtesan who, adhering to the methods of
other days, is hounded about from pillar to post.
Puritan persecution is powerless to affect a class
most of whom are, to all outward appearance, per
fectly smug and demure, on good terms with their
families, and uninfluenced by many (but not all) of
the traditions of the calling which they secretly follow.
Nevertheless, its existence is a constant source of
demoralization for the population at large, which is
insensibly permeated by an element of secret vice
of a most insidious and often dangerous kind.
Of latter day London it might truly be said, " Now
do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and
the platter, but your inward part is full of ravening
and wickedness."
The real truth of the matter is as follows : the
people of England are as a rule cleanly-minded and
healthy — perhaps a little less vicious than some Conti
nental nations — morality being a question of tempera
ment and climate. They are genuinely grieved at
what is known as the social evil, which, with an utter
indifference to the experience of all ages, they vaguely
regard as being capable of suppression. Besides this,
they have a peculiar and inexplicable affection for any
one, no matter how ignorant, how bigoted, or how
self-seeking, who claims to be doing good — anyone, in
short, who is a public busybody. They will blindly
quote and approve his or her words, especially when
accompanied by some rambling references to religion
and the higher life — a vague term open to many differ
ent interpretations. i35

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The consequence of all this is that any experiment in
repression, no matter how ridiculous, is sure to be ac
corded a certain welcome, and as social reformers are
seldom men or women of the world in the real sense of
the term, measures of sterling value to the community
(which must, of necessity, be more in the nature of
judicious regulation . than anything else) are never
carried out, and indeed rarely even suggested.
The English view of the whole question has in con
sequence drifted gradually from bad to worse, till it
has now become thoroughly obscured.
In the final volume of " Life and Labour of the
People in London," Mr. Charles Booth, a social in
vestigator whose conclusions are based upon evidence
of an absolutely trustworthy kind, after enumerating
the various efforts made to suppress metropolitan
vice,* writes : —
" The result has been rather to show the irre
pressible character of the evil than to cure or even
diminish it. It can be shifted from place to place and
forced to change its shape, but it continues to exist
none the less. . . ."
"It may, however, be wise to accept the existence
of the evil as in some form inevitable, and to turn our
attention to forcing it to take the least objectionable
and most manageable shapes."
As, however, this conclusion does not fit in with
the ideas of the majority of our so-called social re
formers, nothing whatever has been done to carry
out this sage recommendation. On the contrary,
* Page 128.
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since the issue of the book in 1902, the tendency has
been rather in the direction of strengthening the
present system of unreasoning repression.
The social reformer of a certain type may be said
to live in a world of pure illusion, imagining that the
human race will be so much improved by laws and
restrictions that eventually immorality will practically
cease to exist. Speaking of such an anticipation, one
of the greatest of living biologists has declared it to
be so far removed from existing conditions that the
possibility of its attainment hardly merits considera
tion. Morality, based upon sentiment, is but a mere
caricature of real morality, invariably failing in actual
practice. To arrive at any satisfactory solution of the
grave problems involved in the solution of most
moral questions, unimpassioned reasoning is abso
lutely necessary.
The fulminations of well-meaning clerics — the
crude efforts of legislators ready to sacrifice the well-
being of the race m the endeavour to propitiate the
Puritan conscience — the neurotic laments of hysterical
females totally unacquainted with the unchanging
realities of life — all of these are powerless to influence
in the slightest degree the colossal strength of human
passion which, under thoughtless coercion — like a
torrent which has been dammed — is merely converted
into a myriad of obscure rivulets, which, percolating
into the adjacent soil, speedily produce a foul, fetid,
and unhealthy marsh.
The deeply rooted prejudices which at present pre-
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vail in England in favour of the compulsory moraliza-
tion of the world in general are based upon a founda
tion of ignorance, hypocrisy, and wilful denial of
scientific truth. Biologists, not clerics, should be the
guides followed in attempts to deal with such a
matter, affecting, as it does, the very existence and
future of the race.
Much abuse is hurled at man, whose tendencies
towards immorality are contrasted with the purity
which is, after all, but the natural appanage of woman.
The dream of equal sexual morality is essentially un
scientific and contrary to nature, which, deplorable as
it may appear, has chosen to proclaim an unequal
morality. This, owing to various causes, has, in the
civilization of Europe, entailed a somewhat unfair
penalization of woman. Certain so-called reformers,
who decline to look at this question from the bio
logical standpoint, have within recent years clamoured
for the application of an equally rigorous standard of
morality to both sexes alike ; that is to say, they wish
to produce a class of outcast men, just as their prede
cessors in long past ages produced a class of outcast
women — to punish man for yielding to passions which
even the most rigorous self-control can scarcely repress.
On the other hand, numbers of individuals exist
who experience no difficulty in this direction, and
are therefore unable to appreciate the strength of
the temptations which assail more ardent natures.
As La Rochefoucauld profoundly says, "When our,
passions leave us we think that it is we who have
conquered them." 138

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A careful examination of the whole subject from a
biological point of view reveals much which should
cause moralists to incline to leniency. Unfortunately,
however, this question has been obscured and com
plicated by the intrusion of theology and senti
ment, both of which, though admirable enough in
their own way, must of necessity produce unlimited
mischief when injudiciously set up in hostile conflict
to well ascertained and incontrovertible fact.
The myriads of unfortunate women who, since the
dawn of modern civilization, have led wretched out
cast fives, have owed their fate more to the power
enjoyed by Ecclesiasticism rather than to anything
else — savage prejudice, which wilfully ignores the
main precepts of religion, having ever called for
severe penalties as a punishment for even the most
pardonable transgression of a somewhat cruel and
Draconic moral law.
There was little cant about the England of the past,
which was an extremely outspoken country.
Only after Trafalgar and Waterloo did the forces
of organized hypocrisy begin to make their influence
felt, gradually gaining strength with the years and
culminating in the almost general self-deception
which is practically universal to-day. When the whole
country may be said to glory in its own " unctu
ous rectitude," the profession of which has become
an almost indispensable adjunct in the pursuit of a
successful political career.
Our legislators, indeed, wise in their generation,
fully recognize the importance of pandering to the
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new spirit, whilst having at easy command a fine
selection of oleaginous phrases wherewith to flatter
and cajole the powerful army of bigoted faddists
to whose mandate they are ever ready to turn a
sympathetic ear.
Whilst, for the most part, well aware of the futility
of the present system, or rather lack of it, politicians
are entirely dominated by the fear of losing votes, the
Nonconformist conscience striking terror into their
very hearts.
In all probability they exaggerate a power which,
in order to exist at all, must be constantly pushing
itself into public view ; our modern politicians, how
ever, are scarcely conspicuous for courage of convic
tion or personal initiative.
As the public men of the eighteenth century
openly bribed with gold, so do those of to-day bribe
with promises, some of them, indeed, being ready to
assent to no matter what legislation provided it appears
likely to assure to them a certain number of votes.
In this respect there is little to choose between the
two parties, each of which in all probability would
be prepared to pass a Bill decreeing domiciliary police
visits for the promotion of morality, had it reason to
believe that such a measure would insure its accession
to or retention of office.
Straightforward and sensible opposition made in
Parliament to needless legislation, avowedly intended
to curtail legitimate personal liberty, is almost in
variably termed " facetious " or discounted in some
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A great number of social reformers no doubt are
well-meaning and sincere ; their proposals, however,
are too often the results, not of carefully considered
experience, but of some vague dream of speedily
perfecting human nature.
" Mankind is well governed only by the head. It
needs something more than a good heart to rule
the world."
In England it is generally assumed that a certain
class of woman is invariably forced into a life, which
moralists deplore, by cruel circumstances of which
she is the innocent victim. Such, however, is by no
means invariably the case. Just as there are men
who — libertines from the cradle — are doomed by dis
position to the pursuit of unedifying pleasures, so
does there exist a certain type of woman who, as the
French put it, have " le diable au corps." Resenting
the control of respectability, girls of this sort are from
their earliest years avid of adventure, and even in
their years of innocence are that in mind which they
afterwards become in fact.
Not immoral, but non-moral, natures such as
these take naturally to the dissipation which to some
of them is life itself. Restless at home — resenting con
trol when married — every restraint prescribed by
custom and usage is to such as these irksome in the
extreme. For the most part natures of this sort end
by kicking over the traces, and, to the scandal of their
relatives, enter upon a life of unrestrained freedom
and licence, too often to be terminated by insanity
and disease. Others of more stable temperament
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merely resent the humdrum existence of middle-class
life. " I am not tired of what I am doing," a woman of
this sort told an inquirer into London life (Henry
Mayhew*), " I rather like it. I have all I want, and
my friend likes me to excess. I learned to play the
piano a little, and I have naturally a good voice. I
find these accomplishments of great use to me ; they
are perhaps the only ones that could be of use to a
girl like myself. I tell you candidly I was as much to
blame as my first lover ; I wished to escape the
drudgery of my father's shop. Partially educated, I
thought I was qualified for something better than
minding the shop occasionally or sewing or helping
my rather in the kitchen and other domestic matters.
I was very fond of dress, and I could not at home
gratify my love of display. My parents were stupid,
cdsy-going old people and extremely uninteresting
to me. All these causes combined induced me to
encourage the addresses of a young gentleman of
property in the neighbourhood. We went to London
and got tired of one another in six months, I was
as eager to leave him as he was to get rid of me, so
we mutually accommodated one another by separa
ting. My father and mother don't exactly know
where I am or what I am doing, although if they had
any penetration they might very well guess. They
know I am alive, for I keep them pleasantly aware of
my existence by occasionally sending them money.
What do I think will become of me ? What an absurd
question. I could marry to-morrow if I liked ! "
* " London Labour and the London Poor."
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This is the history of thousands.
The suppression of the Argyll Rooms, or of the
other dancing places which were well conducted, has
made not the slightest difference in morality ; whilst
the harrying of women from one quarter of the town to
the other has most certainly not decreased vice.
Every one who has any real knowledge of the matter
smiles even at the suggestion.
A real improvement in the general welfare and
morality of the community would, however, be effected
were frail womanhood allowed to congregate in certain
resorts, tolerated only when under strict supervision.
Such a course would effectually clear the streets of the
shameful spectacle which now, owing to the sternness
of the police in important thoroughfares, has over
flowed into side streets and squares.
In addition to this, certain blocks of buildings,
stringently supervised, might be devoted to housing
those whose morality is not their striking character
istic. Rigorous order should be enforced, riot and
drunkenness severely punished.
This is true social reform, which it can confidently
be predicted will never be carried out in London.
Of the terrible though concealed results of the pre
sent system of wilfully ignoring an unchangeable side
of human nature, this is not the place to speak. Suffice
to say that an untold amount of hereditary disease,
cursing generation after generation into the far future,
is the price paid for listening to the fanatical views of
hysterical, if well-meaning, fanatics.
In past ages from time to time everything possible
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has been done to brand immorality as shameful,
but morals were not improved. In many towns
women of loose character were obliged to bear dis
tinctive marks upon their dress, in order that they
might not be taken for respectable women. Some
French cities made them wear an aiguillette. From
this originated the old saying, " Une femme qui court
l'esguillette," applied to a woman whose behaviour
was not above suspicion. The aiguillette (generally
red) was a badge of servitude which, in later times,
was adopted by certain nobles as an additional orna
ment to the dress of their huntsmen. In course of
time the cavalry began to wear it, and later aides-de
camp and other officers. The aiguillette, which had
its origin in the stews of mediaeval France, has now
become an honourable mark of military rank, its real
origin having been forgotten.
In France up to the time of the Revolution the
ordinary courtesan was, in the eyes of the law, little
more than a criminal — owners of property being for
bidden to let or sublet houses or rooms to women
of light behaviour— a regulation after the modern
reformer's own heart.
Besides this, a police order, issued in 1780, even
forbade tradesmen to furnish them with dresses or
adornments, the penalty for so doing being a fine of
three hundred francs, in addition to confiscation.
The same order (which four years later was strength
ened by another of an even more stringent kind) pro
hibited innkeepers from harbouring loose women, a
hundred livres being the penalty for infraction. The
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ordinances in question, it may be added, in no way
improved morality, which, on the contrary, sunk
about that time to its lowest ebb. Arbitrary re
pression and interference with personal liberty, as is
always the case, produced an exactly opposite result
to the one which moralists desired.
The most drastic measures were adopted in Sweden
during the early 'thirties, any poor woman who could
give no clear account of her method of gaining a liveli
hood being liable to arrest ; whilst immorality was
regarded by the law as something in the nature of a
crime. The results were appalling, the new legisla
tion increasing rather than diminishing the profligacy
it professed to cure. So much so was this the case
that in the course of the next year the new law was
repealed and a system of tolerant regulation adopted.
In 1844 a great Puritan movement took place in
Berlin, all courtesans, as far as possible, being ex
pelled from the city and a reign of rigid morality en
forced. Clandestine prostitution immediately de
veloped to an enormous degree. Vice in its most
dangerous forms surreptitiously flourished, whilst
illegitimate births terrified statisticians by their fre
quency. In ten years things had reached such a pitch
that the Minister of the Interior once more placed
matters upon their old footing, after which a better
state of affairs soon began to prevail.
What answer have the advocates of repression to
make to this ? As a matter of fact, there is no answer
possible. Puritan reformers simply dare not touch
upon the numerous efforts made throughout history
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to enforce compulsory morality. There is no instance
of anything but the most terrible and insidious evils
having been the result of such action, and any assertion
to the contrary is untrue. As Louis XIV once said, "As
well try to prevent consumptives from coughing as
make people moral by decree " — a statement which
about sums up the whole matter.
" Suppress courtesans," said St. Augustine, " and
you confuse all society by the caprice of the passions."
In the early ages the Church was the universal
censor of public manners, and denounced licentious
ness in the most severe manner ; nevertheless, it did
not inculcate any savage persecution of the fallen.
Good men could never forget the inherent weakness
of the world in general, and accordingly a humanizing
spirit was present in the social code of the early fathers.
Wiser than some modern so-called Christians, they
recognized that it was impossible to eradicate vice, and
that it was better for one class to make a profession of
it than a larger number should follow it in secret, and
thereby demoralize the community in general.
Curiously enough, England some hundreds of years
ago was particularly lenient in the very respect in
which it is now so severe. The public stews in old
London belonged to the Lord Mayors, who farmed
them out to Flemings. A code of regulations * for
these places was issued by Henry II in 1161, the very
sensible provisions of which show that the legislators
of that day understood more about human nature
than those of modern times.
* Les indiscretions de I' 'histoire, premiere sirie, p. 7 1 (Docteur Cabanas).
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Sir William Walworth, it is said, provoked public
indignation in connection with the large number of
these places which he possessed, and it was in all proba
bility some outspoken reference by Wat Tyler to the
source of Sir William's wealth which caused that Lord
Mayor to stab him to death.
The following were some of the regulations to which
allusion has been made : —
Houses of this sort were obliged to bear distinctive
marks, which were to be clearly visible from without.
No girl to be detained against her will should she
desire to abandon her career of sin.
The proprietor of a stew was forbidden to harbour
nuns or married women, or any woman suffering
from any contagious disorders, such as leprosy and the
like. The sale of provisions (including fish and meat), of
ale, or fuel was prohibited. This, no doubt, was to
prevent illicit stews from being established under the
guise of shops, a favourite subterfuge in more modern
days. Stews to be closed on holy days. Women might not
be boarded in the stews, the proprietors being com
pelled to allow them to take their meals elsewhere.
No man might be entrapped or allured into a stew.
Finally, all the stews were subject to inspection by
the authorities once every week.
The great argument of Anglo-Saxon miscalled
social reformers is that the more you suppress vice and
render it inaccessible, the greater will be a city's
morality — a contention of the most fallacious kind.
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By suppressing all open manifestations of a certain side
of human nature the evil is driven deeper, while it is
rendered a thousandfold more insidious and destruc
tive. Expert medical opinion is practically unanimous as
to the direful effects of the present system, or rather
lack of it — this, without exaggeration, is poisoning the
very well-springs of national life.
Nevertheless, little is heard of the matter, which is
very delicate to handle, in consequence of the over
whelming mass of prejudice which any protest must
invariably encounter. An English doctor, for in
stance, of no matter how assured a position, would
scarcely dare to speak out freely on the subject — in
deed, from a worldly point of view he would be
foolish to do so, for he would not improbably be re
garded as a social pariah, whilst his practice would
most certainly decrease.
Owing to many reasons public opinion cannot
be aroused as to this question, there being small
hope of the voice of experience commanding any
hearing. Lunacy, as a rule the result of an hereditary taint,
continues to increase. Fanatics (whose crooked men
talities are in many cases the remote results of the very
evil, the annihilation of which the Puritans prevent)
will multiply from year to year, till some future day,
when the country will awake, and, setting its house
in order, sternly bid the voice of the faddist to be
stilled. The evils of the present system, or rather lack of
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i

it, are known to many who are inclined to wonder
if an era of sanity will ever arrive. . . .
The more frivolous side of London life as it existed
in the 'sixties has totally disappeared to-day ; indeed, so
great is the change that the people would seem to have
entirely altered their habits and dispositions, which in
those times were somewhat bluff and boisterous. The
old night houses, Sam's, Sally Sutherland's, Kate
Hamilton's, Coney's, together with dancing-saloons,
such as the Holborn Casino, the Argyll Rooms, and
Cremorne, have long ago disappeared. The former
are no great loss, leading, as they did, to drunkenness
and ruin. Kate Hamilton's, which was in Princes
Street, Leicester Square, was perhaps the one con
ducted with the greatest propriety and decorum.
Here the whiskered dandies of the mid- Victorian era
were wont to disport themselves amidst a bevy of
crinolined beauty, Kate Hamilton herself presiding
as a sort of Paphian and Bacchanalian queen. Mott's
was also a great resort for those desirous of seeing life.
The oldest of the night houses was Sam's.
Dancing halls were recognized as a regular London
amusement, and the quaintly-named Highbury Barn
was still in existence. The grounds there, though
not very spacious, were tastefully laid out with what
was called a crystal platform for dancing in the open
air. To this resort went dressmakers and others who,
at work during the day, came there for relaxation at
night — English grisettes, in short.
Scott's, at the top of the Haymarket (still in existence
in another form), was in great request for supper,
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which was eaten in quaint wooden boxes, like old-
fashioned pews, some of which lingered on till the re
building of a few years ago.
Before the passing of the Licensing Act in the early
'seventies, which closed public-houses and restaurants
at 12.30, London was as late a city as Paris, which has
ever resolutely refused to interfere with this form of
personal liberty. At that time the night houses had
increased to such an extent that action of some sort,
though perhaps less drastic than that which was taken,
had become imperative.
With the passing of the act in question began the era
of real police supervision over a people who up to that
time had been exceedingly impatient of control.
Indeed, nothing is more striking than the change
which has come over England in this respect. The
old watchmen, or " Charleys," who lasted well into the
nineteenth century, had as much as they could do to
maintain even a semblance of authority, whilst in the
early days of the police they also were subjected to a
good deal of horse play, though at that time their
functions were more or less limited to the repression
of crime. To-day all is different, and the police,
originally created solely to maintain order, have now
become in a large measure censors of morality. In
reality, indeed, Londoners are as much policed as the
inhabitants of any other city in the world. An in
spector and constable, for instance, possess a right to
enter any restaurant at closing time, though in certain
cases such an inspection is not rigorously enforced.
The police also can harry any unfortunate woman
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whose conduct in the street appears to them to be
undesirable. As a rule, it must in justice be said that
they exercise their functions with considerable tact
and moderation, but, nevertheless, it is undeniably
true that any citizen who interferes to take the side of
a woman whose treatment may appear to him too
stern stands an exceedingly good chance of being
himself run in on some pretext or other — in all proba
bility he is at once charged with intoxication. Many
will remember the treatment meted out to a celebrated
English scientist, who, interfering to curb what ap
peared to him rather brutal treatment, was himself
at once hauled off to the police station.
Considering, however, the difficulties with which
the police are confronted, they perform their duties in
a really admirable manner, and make use of the enor
mous power which has, little by little, been placed in
their hands with a considerable measure of justice and
discretion. The power of the police over public-
houses is absolutely autocratic, unfavourable reports
entailing certain loss of licence, yet instances of at
tempted blackmail or acceptance of bribes are of late
years practically unknown.
With regard to the cruel hounding of poor women
from the houses which they occupy, blame can hardly
be laid upon the police, who in most cases are forced
to take action by the urgent representations of Puri
tans, some sincere, others merely creatures seeking
notoriety by slimy dabblings with filth. Even sincere
reformers, it may surprise them to hear, are frequently
the instruments of bullies, who, having quarrelled with
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some girl, take a dastardly revenge by artfully de
nouncing her in quarters likely to ensure a campaign
of persecution.
Thus does the social reformer unwittingly become
the willing instrument of the lowest kind of human
being. Christianity, alas ! that gentle faith of tolerance
and forgiveness, is, in this island, somewhat pitiless
as regards the humble courtesan, who, hunted and
harried from pillar to post, is exposed to insult and con
tumely, the direct result of the teaching and the policy
advocated by Puritan cant.
How little the true spirit of Christianity is under
stood even by those who are supposed to be its chief
exponents may be realized when it is considered that
the Bishop of London himself, together with the
leaders of certain other religious bodies, once actually
advocated an inquisitorial control of flats with a
view to making these blocks of buildings absolutely
uninhabitable by women of whose morality there
might be any suspicion.
Such a policy, as a matter of fact, is nothing but a
return to the methods of the middle ages, at which
time in certain countries stringent repression of frail
womanhood was intermittently enforced — always with
most futile, and from a hygienic point of view dis
astrous results.
As the streams and rivulets of old London still flow
hidden beneath its streets and thoroughfares, so does
the torrent of vice course through the Metropolis,
carefully hidden from the public eye. Like the Fleet
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Ditch, whose turgid and slimy waters still meander on
their subterranean way, covert prostitution permeates
the fabric of social life, preparing a future of insanity
and disease for many a generation that is to be.
With the close of the nineteenth century came the
suppression of the last of the dancing halls with which
London formerly abounded. The Holborn Casino and
Highbury Barn were amongst the first to go, the last
being the Argyll Rooms and Cremorne, which for
some years had been marked down by the Puritans as
centres of vice.
There was in reality no adequate reason for the
suppression of these resorts, the disappearance of
which left London's morality no better and perhaps a
little worse.
Well-conducted and orderly, the Argyll actually
promoted the cause of public morality, for a spirit of
decency and decorum kept in check many who would
otherwise have come to far worse harm in hidden
resorts, where vice is ever most dangerous.
The closing of the last of the dancing places was the
cause of much jubilation amongst self-constituted
guardians of public morals, who pushed themselves
again to the front once the London County Council
had come into being. Very soon indeed after the first
election of this body their influence began to make itself
felt — certain immoderate attempts at interference
with the pleasures of the public going so far as to
arouse considerable ridicule.
Music halls generally came in for a good deal of
censure, the idea of the reformers being to level them
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up to the standard of " educational institutes," whilst,
where possible, suppressing lounges and limiting the
facilities for obtaining refreshment. The question of the
lounges and bars excited the Puritan party to frenzy,
especially in the case of the Empire, which some little
time after the establishment of the Council became
quite a burning question, a well-known pillar of the
purity party having reported that the lounge in that
popular resort was a centre of moral contamination.
This expression of opinion, of course, created a
great stir, and after serious consideration and much
airing of cant, the licence was renewed, only subject
to the condition that the lounge should be suppressed.
An elaborate erection of barriers was accordingly
instituted, whilst the promenade was converted into
a sort of passage and the drinking bar shut off from
view. A paean of delight went up from Puritan throats
— the lounge was gone, and London morality saved.
The first evening under the new arrangement was
one of some turmoil, the barriers being torn down by
a party of rioters and speeches made by the ring
leaders, of whom the chief was said, rightly or wrongly,
to have been a young man who is now a distinguished
member of the Liberal Cabinet. A short time after
this the ridiculous agitation fizzled out. The public
generally disliked the restrictions, and after a year or
so permission was accorded to restore the lounge to
something of its old form. As was complacently
pointed out, much good had been done, the Empire
having received a thorough purification. Since then
it has been allowed to continue in peace.
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Serious comment upon this ridiculous incident is
almost impossible, yet let it be remembered that the
question of lounge or no lounge was discussed as if
London morality were really dependent upon its
solution. Much unctuous rectitude commanded a
respectful hearing, and even those who dissented
from the opinions expressed by the reformers were
loud in praise of the excellent motives which._were
animating the crusade. Never was it more apparent
that modern London (some of the provincial towns
are even worse in this respect) ever attaches a certain
importance to the utterances of faddists and cranks,
especially when they are old women or leaders of
religious thought ; the latter, indeed, are considered
practically infallible, and exempt from any but the
most tender criticism.
Curious is it how, even in modern England, the
home par excellence of hypocrisy and cant, certain
of the great hetaira of the past are held in a kind of
affectionate remembrance. Nell Gwynne, for in
stance, is almost better known than Boadicea. Figur
ing in plays and pageants to which the most prudish
resort, she is almost regarded as a kind of national
heroine. The incarnation of laughing, careless woman
hood, the memory of poor Nelly has outlived that of
numbers of statesmen and divines, whose very names
are utterly forgotten, whilst her seductive face con
tinues to smile throughout the ages.
A somewhat picturesque legend (founded, it is to
be feared, upon no solid substratum of fact) even
declares that the bells of St. Martin-in-the- Fields are
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once a week rung in her honour, she having bequeathed
by will a sum of money sufficient to purchase a leg of
mutton for the ringers.
Again, the portrait of Nelson's Lady Hamilton
hangs on the walls of many a home, the occupants of
which would have regarded her lack of morality with
the greatest severity and loathing.
Ladies of the most unimpeachable virtue have not
the slightest scruple in going to fancy balls in the
dress of La Pompadour or of the Du Barry ; for pur
poses of costume Cleopatra is considered as respect
able as that of Red Riding Hood, whilst impersona
tions of other grandes amoureuses are freely indulged
in by the most austere. Time, it would appear,
possesses the quality of dignifying vice, and, whilst
the peccadilloes of the present age must be carefully
concealed, those frail beauties of the past, who loved
not wisely, but too well, are cheerfully accorded a
kind of posthumous fame.
The great cocottes of France and their whims
and eccentricities excite an enormous amount of
interest amongst the English people abroad who know
most of them by sight, and do not scruple to discuss
their eccentricities in quite a tolerant way. The
Continent, and France in particular it would appear,
being regarded as incapable of that moral reformation
which every one in England is so eager to press upon
his or her neighbour.
Whilst there certainly existed in the 'sixties a
certain number of notorious women in London,
who openly posed as great demi-mondaines, nothing
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like the state of affairs in Paris, where a cele
brated cocotte has quite a position of her own, ever
prevailed. The English character, indeed, is not
favourable to this sort of thing, which is, after all, but
a glorification of vice. Any Englishman who is fond
of frail society, for the most part likes to enjoy it
secure from observation, whereas the French noceur
is only too pleased to show himself in the company of
some well-known " horizontale." A Parisian bachelor,
indeed, who professes himself indifferent to the charms
of such ladies, unless he has some especial friend of his
own, would be looked upon with considerable sus
picion as being decidedly abnormal, whereas in
England the very opposite is the case.
Nevertheless, there is in all probability little differ
ence in the real morality of the two nations, allow
ance being made for the Englishman's love of dis
simulation and the Frenchman's fondness for display.
Though, as has been said, the old night houses died
with the passing of the Licensing Act, they were
resurrected many years later in the form of night
clubs, which were practically something of the same
thing, though very much less coarse and brutal. The
best known of these were the "Gardenia," in Leicester
Square, and the " Corinthian," in  Street, two
rather amusing haunts, which, as a matter of fact, did
no particular harm to their frequenters. Of these
two, the " Corinthian " was by far the most select,
being conducted with the greatest decorum and order.
The " Gardenia," on the other hand, was at times
exceedingly lively, whilst the fair habituees of the latter
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were by no means always welcomed in the more select
" Corinthian." The later night clubs, however, were
of a much lower sort, the last being the " Alsatian "
and " Palm " Club, the latter of which was raided on
more than one occasion. All these sorts of clubs, how
ever, were finally extinguished by the last Licensing
Bill, in which for the first time the principle of legis
lative interference with clubs was established, a further
blow at that personal liberty which the Englishman of
the past so greatly prized. As a matter of fact, the
ordinary law was already quite strong enough to deal
with disorderly clubs, but the Conservative Govern
ment, ever desirous of conciliating faddists and cap
turing the Puritan vote (which it never obtains),
quite cheerfully took the first steps towards treating
clubs in the same way as public-houses. The results
of such a policy must inevitably lead to further drastic
and unnecessary restriction of the rights of the indi
vidual. In Paris the night house flourishes freely, Maxim's
and the Abbaye de Theleme in Montmartre being two
of the best known ones. At the Abbaye de Theleme
English ladies may occasionally be seen sometimes with
their husbands, sometimes with other people's. Be
this as it may, many worthy individuals who, in
England, are quite austere in their views, do not at all
object to having supper at this resort, where they
appear quite at their ease sitting at tables next to the
most notorious of cocottes. Good order is maintained,
and the whole place well conducted ; indeed, it is
purely a modern English, and, let it be added, ex-
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ceedingly narrow-minded idea that disorder is an
inevitable concomitant of sitting up late, a practice
which, by some extraordinary process of reasoning, is
in this island supposed to be disreputable, if not
actually wicked. Some people require less sleep than
others, and to such as these enforced retirement to
bed is a real hardship.
The great argument, of course, against such places
as the Abbaye de Theleme, Maxim's, and the like, is
that they encourage young men to sow their wild oats.
This, to a certain extent, is true, but wild oats somehow
have a way of getting sown, even when stored away
and apparently incapable of germination. Better
perhaps to scatter them to the winds, where no future
harvest of concealed misery and ruin can result.
The French have no opinion of Puritan training for
young men ; they know human nature too well.
Nor do they attach much importance to the views on
morality inculcated by those who in many cases have
themselves no passions to conquer. The love of
meddling with these matters — dallying with pruriency
— is too often but the symptom of an abnormal tem
perament, as many a medical man could tell.
Continental nations cherish but few illusions about
English morality, the lack of which is especially no
torious in Paris, where Anglo-Saxon austerity is con
siderably relaxed.
France entertains a fierce contempt for this sort of
gentry, the natural scepticism of the nation, which is
not at all moved by cant, having in that country at
least thoroughly kept in check their narrow creed
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of repression. Some years ago, however, the efforts
of certain French Puritans caused serious loss of life
in Paris. A very fierce riot indeed occurred in con
sequence of the attempted suppression of an annual
ball, at which certain artists' models were said to have
disdained any effective clothing. The loss of life
brought about by this interference incensed public
opinion, and since that lamentable affair the reformers
have been more or less quiescent, confining themselves
to intermittent attacks upon the pictures appearing in
certain of the more daring papers so eagerly pur
chased (and afterwards denounced) by visitors from
across the Channel.
The French, it must be owned, perhaps go rather
too far in the cheerful toleration which they extend
to everything of a morally lax nature, provided it is
amusing. The plays and novels of modern Paris go
far further in this direction than anything tolerated
during the much-abused Second Empire. The basis
of this toleration rests upon the profound conviction
that repression, except for the somewhat childish end
of external make-believe, makes things rather worse
than better. Voltaire said this, and many other great
thinkers besides.
The wondrous hypocrisy which results from such
a state of affairs was exemplified some years ago
in the case of a notorious advocate of purity, who
from his seat in Parliament made many an impassioned
appeal for a higher standard of morality at the time of
the passing of the Criminal Law Amendment Act,
and was some few years later sentenced to a term of
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imprisonment for one of the very offences against
which it had been aimed, his life for years past being
discovered to have been one of a most unedifying
description. Women — pretty women, not the ugly
ones — know how much reliance can be placed in the
austere masculine morality, to which not a few indi
viduals pretend. Many a "light of love" could, if
she chose, truthfully re-echo the comment of the
Athenian hetaira who, when certain individuals of
austere and staid repute were mentioned in her
presence, naively remarked, "At one time or other
they have all knocked at my door." R.N.

161

V
rT~*HE Turf in old days was a very different thing
from what it is to-day, when the glamour
which formerly hung around it is somewhat dimmed.
In former times the prominent owners of race-horses,
or at least the great majority of them, were drawn
from the fine flower of the English aristocracy, in many
families of which racing was a veritable tradition.
Even now there hangs about old sporting annals a
certain genial English atmosphere which recalls the
full-blooded, if somewhat careless, existence into which
the sportsmen of the past threw themselves with good-
natured, if occasionally reckless, abandon. In a sense
the racing of the past was more or less a family party,
a state of affairs which has now completely changed.
The old-time owners were for the most part a some
what careless, free-living set of men who sat late over
cards and wine ; their sole desire to pass life pleasantly
away. The modern owner more often than not is a
very careful liver, and one who drinks little, whilst
abhorring late hours. Both the old and the new,
however, have one thing in common, which is the
almost inevitable impecuniosity which comes at the
end of a racing career.
Sad is it that this jolly sport, which above all others

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promotes pleasant sociability, should in so many
instances have brought ruin in its train, and left such
a number of its votaries miserable and broken-hearted
men. This reflection, however, applies more particularly
to the past, for to-day there is not the same reckless
betting as formerly, the speculative tendencies of those
who delight to risk large sums having been diverted
to that even more disastrous avenue to ruin — the
Stock Exchange.
In all probability hardly one of the great racing
men of the past ever ended a winner upon the Turf,
the heavy expenses connected with the sport devour
ing most of the profit gained in stakes. To-day, of
course, these expenses are almost prohibitive, the
owner of moderate means being, unless very lucky,
soon forced to retire.
With the wide dissemination of sporting news by
the cheap Press the public is furnished with much
accurate information which was formerly not at its
command, and as a consequence the prices laid by
bookmakers to-day betray a remarkable shrinkage as
compared with those formerly to be obtained. From
one cause and another bookmaking is not the business
it was, and for this reason layers of odds have de
veloped a caution which is all to the disadvantage of
the backer. Those, however, wagering a small sum
in ready money are generally able to obtain a fair
price ; it is the big better, of whom the ring is not
altogether certain, who finds himself confronted by
the shortest of odds. " I believe," said a dashing
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gambler who was rumoured to be at the end of his
tether, " that the ring know something ; they will
hardly lay me this horse" (naming a much -fancied
favourite) " at all." " Know something ? I should
think they do," commented some one standing by.
" They know you won't be able to settle."
Whilst much is heard of the demoralizing effects
of betting on races amongst the working classes,
little is said as to the many old families which have
in the past owed their ruin and downfall to the Turf.
Peculiarly fatal to the English aristocracy almost
throughout the nineteenth century, racing as a means
of scattering a patrimony has rather fallen into dis
favour in recent years, speculation in the City having
taken its place. Betting to-day is carried on in very
moderate sums, the huge wagers of the past, when a
fortune sometimes depended on some horse's success,
being now almost unheard of.
Exceptions to this, however, occur. At a recent
fashionable meeting in the present year a daring
backer, well dowered with riches and, let it be added,
by no means deficient in wits, is said to have lost no
less than twenty thousand pounds by the defeat of
a much-fancied favourite. By a marvellous stroke of
good fortune, however, he recovered it on the next
race, when a little-fancied horse which he had backed
recovered him his money, two prominent competitors,
from whom much danger was to be anticipated,
having been put out of the race by an accident.
Whilst not long ago many thousands of pounds
could easily be wagered, it is now very much more
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difficult to invest very large sums in wagers upon the
Turf. Owing to the great use of the telephone and
telegraph, the market is far more sensitive than was
formerly the case, and any considerable sum of money
invested upon a particular horse is liable quickly to
reduce the odds. In addition to this, the leviathans
of the ring are not as plentiful as in former days,
whilst such as still exist are, as a rule, cautious in
the extreme.
Ante-post betting, to which formerly such im
portance was attached, is now practically dead,
wagers on future events, such as the Derby, being at
the present time somewhat few and far between.
Whilst there is no doubt but that a large pro
portion of the population is interested in horse-
racing from a speculative point of view, the number
of people habitually attending race meetings is not
so large as the sporting traditions of this country
might lead one to suppose.
The working classes, for instance, do not take their
families to the race-course, as is the case in France.
Due and comfortable provision is made for ladies in
the club enclosures at gate-money meetings ; but the
stands, admission to which is open to the general
public, are not very well suited for women. In this
respect the arrangements at the various courses
round Paris are immeasurably superior, and the result
has been peculiarly beneficial to the best interests of
the French Turf. Without doubt were some en
closure established to which those of small means
might resort with their families, secure from the some-
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what disagreeable accompaniments which are to-day
almost inseparable features of English race-courses, a
new kind of public would be attracted which in time
would prove a very tower of strength in the defence
of the Turf, against which the forces of Puritanism
are ever ranged in sullen array.
Such enclosures should be some little distance from
the ring, and, as in France, light refreshments, not
necessarily alcoholic, should be within easy reach.
Rowdiness and disorder, it need hardly be said, must in
such an enclosure as this be repressed with an iron hand.
To those who have from time to time mooted the
idea of, as it were, humanizing the race-course and
making it a comfortable place of out-door amusement
for those whose whole interest in the Turf is not
limited, by betting the reproach has been hurled,
" You want to make the English race-course like a
' garden party.' "
The reply to this is that were such a state of things
brought about the sport of racing itself would rather
tend to improve.
By no possible stretch of imagination can it be
conceived that any deterioration would result merely
on account of the onlookers being accommodated in
comfortable, cheerful, and civilized surroundings,
their womenfolk at their side secure from sights and
sounds of an unpleasant nature.
The betting ring, as at present maintained, need
in no way be touched ; and here the lovers of the
happy-go-lucky, rough and sometimes rowdy sur
roundings might still be perfectly at home.
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The establishment of the "pari mutuel," which is so
successfully worked abroad, is a rather more difficult
question. In the first place, it seems at present ex
tremely unlikely that legislative sanction would be
ever accorded to such a form of speculation in this
country. In the second, the introduction of the
Totalisator might be resented as an innovation by
habitual votaries of the Turf, who would fear that
its introduction would be followed, as in France, by
the practical abolition of bookmakers.
By layers in general the pari mutuel would un
doubtedly be very strenuously opposed ; it would,
indeed, fill their cup of sorrow, which of late years
has been by no means empty, right up to the brim.
The prosperous days of the ring have to a large
extent ceased to exist — making a book is not the good
business it was, and the uncertain nature of a book
maker's financial career is shown by the fact that one
of the greatest of the fraternity who, in his day, had
been reputed with justice to have been a very wealthy
man, died some years ago in anything but affluent cir
cumstances. Certain transatlantic backers, lucky
and shrewd at landing coups, are said to have brought
this about. A contemporary of his, another very
well-known bookmaker, who, however, had not the
same reputation for open-handed charity, fared even
worse. His misfortunes, however, came about in a
totally different way.
The career of this man had been a very chequered
one, and he had more than once found himself pos
sessed of a good fortune and then lost it again. Late
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in life, however, everything had gone well, and once
again a rich man, he married a young wife, and
determined to more or less settle down. Resolving
to abandon the uncertainties of a bookmaker's career,
he called to mind the many financial vicissitudes which
he had in his time undergone — the many tempting
schemes and speculations which once again might
perhaps lure him to impecuniosity. Accordingly he
determined to guard himself, and, after thinking
matters over, handed practically his entire fortune to
his wife, in whom he reposed the greatest confidence.
Young woman as she was, he reflected, she must of
necessity live longer than himself, and everything now
belonging to her, any debts which misjudged specula
tion might produce would be powerless to reduce him
to poverty again. Now at last he was financially safe.
The unexpected, however, happened, for all of a
sudden the wife died, leaving a will by which every
thing that she possessed (her old husband's fortune)
was bequeathed to a relative — an individual who
turned out to be of a somewhat heartless disposition.
Far from coming to some arrangement with the now
impecunious widower, the legatee at once announced
his intention of taking the entire sum, which he did,
only, after many entreaties, consenting to allow the
ruined old bookmaker a few shillings a week, on which,
a broken man, he barely contrived to eke out a miserable
existence. His old comrades of the ring, as a matter of fact, did
all they could for him, and actually started him once
again as the maker of a small book. The old man, how-
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ever, was too broken down to do any good, and, re
tiring from the race-course for ever, became a shambling
picture of senile misery, haunting sporting restaurants
and bars, where his misfortunes occasionally procured
him some slender financial aid. He had been, it was
said, a hard man in his time, but Providence was
certainly hard on him.
The idea that bookmakers, as a rule, die wealthy
men is fallacious. Only a few have done so. For the
most part those who have made good fortunes have
grown rich by using a moderate capital made by
betting in other enterprises of a far more solid nature ;
the aptitude for figures which a successful Turf career
entails rendering them peculiarly fitted for certain
aspects of commercial life.
A well-known instance of this was the late Mr.
George Herring, who, though never a bookmaker, was
once closely connected with racing. In his time com
missioner for that pillar of the Turf, Sir Joseph Hawley,
Mr. Herring accumulated a very large fortune in the
City, where his name was sufficient to guarantee the
stability of any enterprise with which it might be
connected. Not as a City man, however, will his name
be especially remembered, but rather as the very em
bodiment of cheery, genuine, and absolutely unlimited
philanthropy, his purse being ever open to the call of
real distress.
A remark which it was his habit to make when in
viting friends to dinner perhaps best expresses his
excellent character. With that odd cockney accent
which he retained to the end of his life, he would
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add, " And mind come 'ungry." Numbers indeed
did come to him " 'ungry," and of these, were they real
victims of misfortune or sickness, none were ever sent
unrelieved away.
Going upon the Turf, which was once looked upon
as almost a regular career, is not regarded in at all the
same way in these more businesslike times. To-day
men with whom the serious business of life is more or
less confined to sport in all its various forms have
practically ceased to exist. Modern conditions are
unfavourable to them; besides which, the peculiar
prestige which in old days hung about those known
as typical sportsmen has more or less departed.
There was something essentially English about some
of the sporting characters of the past — bluff, kind-
hearted, and genuine individuals, whose peculiar
ideals were perhaps a great deal more healthy than
those popular with a less robust generation. A
typical character of this kind was the late Sir John
Astley, well known by the name of " the Mate." An
account of his life and recollections which appeared
not very long before his death achieved a very con
siderable success. The work in question, it may be
added, was published in consequence of the suggestion
of a friend, the late Mr. Dick Thorold, who pointed
out to Sir John the popularity that such a volume of
sporting reminiscences would be likely to attain.
Sir John at first was somewhat deterred from enter
ing upon this work on account of literary effort being
somewhat out of his line, but the difficulty in question
was overcome by his dictating the text to Joseph
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Lewis, a young jockey whom he had assisted, after a
bad accident at Newmarket, and had caused, upon his
recovery, to be taught shorthand and typewriting in
order to enable him to earn a livelihood. After a
rough version had been completed, it was entrusted
to Mr. Thorold, who contrived to preserve the char
acteristic idiomatic phraseology of " the Mate,"
whilst at the same time putting the whole into the
shape necessary for publication.
Sir John Astley's powers as a runner were, as may be
gathered from this book, of no mean order ; but an
even more agile sprinter was Captain Machell, who,
as a young man, is supposed to have won large sums
of money by his extraordinary power of jumping from
the floor on to a high mantelpiece, a feat, the perform
ance of which seemed so impossible that people were
always ready to bet against it.
Betting on this sort of thing, and also on judging the
exact height of chair legs, and the like, has also, at
times, caused a good deal of money to change hands.
As is well known, it is extremely difficult to judge
the exact height of a top hat, which is most deceiving
in appearance, and the same optical delusion prevails
in other cases.
A certain sportsman of the past was notorious for
invariably winning bets of this sort, but his operations
received a severe check, owing to the fact that he was
discovered by his host in a country house, one morning,
taking careful measurements of such objects as were
likely to form a medium for speculation.
A figure with whom most racing men of the last
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generation were well acquainted was that of the late
Mr. Sam Lewis, whose somewhat expensive aid in
raising the wind after a bad week was to many sports
men invaluable. No class probably appreciated Sam as
much as the votaries of the Turf, one of whom on hear
ing of his death promptly declared that he should give
up racing, as he would not be able to bring himself
to bet properly now the monarch of Cork Street had
gone. Mr. Lewis himself sometimes bet freely and lost
large sums upon the Turf. Though an extraordinarily
knowing man at his own business, he was so devoted
to gambling, especially at cards, that on more than
one occasion he was the victim of organized trickery.
At Nice, for instance, some sharpers once won a very
large sum of money at baccarat from him. The
swindle, however, coming to the ears of the authorities,
the latter proposed to force the sharpers to disgorge.
To this, however, Sam would not consent, saying that,
as, rightly or wrongly, he had lost the money, matters
must stand as they were. His play at Monte Carlo
was sensational, but, in all probability, his largest
losses were at some of those big private games in which
he delighted. He was, in short, a gambler, and, like
all gamblers, always ended by losing.
With regard to his money-lending transactions, one
of the great secrets of Sam Lewis's success was his in
timate and accurate knowledge of the exact financial
position of every one in the West End at all likely to
apply to him. Besides this, he had the well-deserved
reputation of either concluding a loan at once or
refusing it altogether — in each of these cases the pro-
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ceedings were short, sharp, and decisive — no haggling
or equivocations, no delay for verification or inquiries ;
the whole thing, one way or the other, taking at most
a quarter of an hour, a space of time in which the
quaint, bow-windowed room in Cork Street saw many
a thousand change hands in return for a piece of blue
paper. Straightforward enough in his own particular
way, never did Sam attempt to justify the large in
terest which in certain cases it was the inevitable
necessity of his calling to demand.
" You are a fool to borrow this money, which I don't
want to lend you ; however, if you will have it, these
are my terms, here is the bill, and there is the cheque,
the bank is round the corner. Make up your mind,
for I want to go and lunch."
One of Sam's favourite maxims, which he was
never tired of quoting, was, " Lend to the rich, and
not to the poor," the policy inculcated by these
words being one of the great causes of his success.
An advance made by a money-lender to a poor man
often ruins the latter, without substantially benefiting
the former, who, after resorting to legal proceedings,
obtains but a small proportion of the money originally
lent. On the other hand, rich men, when in want of
ready cash, pay high interest to procure its immediate
command, afterwards liquidating their debt without
demur, being as a rule only too eager to conceal their
folly from the public gaze.
Sam well appreciated this, and made some very
large loans to wealthy men, who, for some reason or
other, wanted them at a moment's notice.
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To younger sons of slender means and dubious
expectations he was, however, generally obdurate.
" Better go to your people, my boy ; in any case,
you would eventually have to go to them to pay me."
When he did lend to such as these, it was generally
as a friend rather than a money-lender, merely taking
a cheque dated at some future period as an acknow
ledgment of the sum, for which he would accept no
interest. He did many kindly acts. On one occasion a poor
doctor, who had sustained much unmerited mis
fortune, went to some one well acquainted with Sam
and begged him to use his influence with the latter,
from whom he wished to obtain an advance of ^500.
An appointment was made, and the doctor and his
friend duly found themselves one morning in Cork
Street. The situation was explained, the medical man
making no secret of the causes which had forced him
to need an advance, for which he declared himself
ready to pay almost any interest. Sam was furious.
" Here are you," said he, " an obscure practitioner
coming bothering me for money which it seems likely
you will never be able to repay. If I were to be such
a fool as to lend it you, I can assure you I should take
a genuine pleasure in causing your ruin in the event
of default. People like you regard us money-lenders
as their legitimate prey ; in all probability you have
not the slightest intention of repaying such a loan
should you succeed in obtaining it."
He stormed, raged, and swore. The poor, unhappy
doctor fervently wished he had left the little money-
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
lender alone. At length, at the end of his tirade,
Sam, still apparently in a white heat of fury, seized a
cheque-book and wrote off a cheque for the re
quired sum.
" There is your five hundred pounds," said he. " I
want no interest, and you can pay me whenever you
like. I hope your troubles will come to an end, and
also that you will keep out of money-lenders' clutches
in future. Good morning, and good luck ! " Which
words brought the interview to an end.
The doctor was quite overwhelmed at this act of
generosity, faithfully repaying Sam some time after
wards, though the latter protested that he need not
do so unless it was perfectly convenient.
Though Sam in all probability was very seldom
taken in, he once received a considerable blow, the
direct consequence of a sharp trick played upon him by
a millionaire of the same race as himself. The sum of
money involved made of course little difference to the
astute financier, but, nevertheless, he was exceedingly
sore at being taken in, though the shrewdest money
lender in the world could not have avoided this par
ticular misfortune.
The matter happened thus. The millionaire in
question was a man with sporting tendencies ; that is
to say, he kept a number of race-horses, and occasion
ally indulged in a game of baccarat for heavy stakes.
On one occasion, when on the Continent, he happened
at one of these gambles to win some ten thousand
pounds from a Polish nobleman, whose wealth, such as
it was, lay almost entirely in an already impoverished
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landed estate. Matters, however, were satisfactorily
arranged, and the millionaire, who was of not an un
kindly disposition, consented to let matters stand over,
provided that every year he should receive interest on
the ten thousand pounds, at a very moderate rate —
something between three and four hundred pounds
was the figure.
After the interest had been paid for some years, the
speculative Pole was one day rather pleased at re
ceiving an extremely kind letter from his creditor. It
set forth the latter's regret that his friend should be
every year taxed with the incubus of paying away this
interest to him, and added, that after having carefully
thought the matter over, the writer had arrived at a
conclusion which could not fail to be satisfactory to all
parties. The Polish nobleman should come over to
London, and he, the millionaire, would then put him
in the way of raising the ten thousand pounds and
something more for himself, if he should desire it.
Without a moment's hesitation, the Pole, who
happened to be even more hard up than usual, made
up his mind, and a couple of days later found himself
in the financial magnate's study, where the latter
handed him a letter of introduction to Sam Lewis,
setting forth that the bearer was an intimate friend,
with large estates in Poland, who had been known to
the writer for many years. At the conclusion was
expressed a hope that everything possible would be
done to meet the wishes of the bearer, who was an ex
tremely well-known man in his own country — a state
ment nothing more than the truth, though in a differ-
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ent sense to that in which Mr. Lewis understood it.
The introduction took place, and the latter, who re
lied absolutely upon the excellent credentials furnished
by the millionaire, whose slightest utterance in the
financial world was then all-powerful, advanced the
noble from the north some fifteen thousand. The
latter, now for the first time for many years in funds, at
once paid off the debt to his friend, and then went
joyously back to more baccarat banks five thousand
pounds in pocket.
At the time of repayment, of course Sam found it
quite impossible to obtain one shilling, a fact which
his debtor made no effort to conceal, and as all attempts
at a settlement seemed likely to prove futile, the un
fortunate lender at last realized that he had been done.
When speaking of his dealings with the late Lord
Ailesbury, that curious character whose eccentricities
were at one time notorious, Sam always declared that
he had been a heavy loser. Nevertheless it would
seem doubtful whether such was really the case, for
in all probability he had made a very large sum out of
this extravagant young man in the early days of their
acquaintance. What Sam probably meant was that
from first to last he had only recovered the capital
lent and some eight to twelve per cent as well. To
do Mr. Lewis justice, however, he made this spend
thrift an allowance sufficient to maintain him in
comfort during the last years of his short life.
Enormous insurance policies had to be kept up to
cover the debt, which must have largely decreased
the sum produced by the interest.
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The enormous fortune, which has now almost en
tirely gone to charities, was not by any means all made
through money-lending. Sam was an astute specu
lator, and bought largely and well in the early days of
the South African boom;, in many other directions
also he had irons in the fire, many of which turned to
gold. Certain large transactions with Austrian and
Hungarian magnates proved more profitable than the
advance made to the Pole which has already been
described. There was certainly no nonsense about Sam. When
he was asked, " Why don't you give up the money-
lending business, now you have made so much
money ? " he would reply, " I'm Sam Lewis, the
money-lender, and if I were to become Archbishop of
Canterbury, I should be Sam, the money-lender, still —
no one would forget it, so I may as well remain as I

am."

Sam's first coup, it is said (though what amount of
truth there may be in the story it is now impossible
to ascertain), took place at Brighton. He then did
a modest business in jewellery, which brought him in
contact with a young officer who, extremely well off
in reality, was too indolent and stupid to go into his
own affairs, his sole concern being plenty of ready
money at easy command. Sam saw that he got it,
and in so doing accumulated enough capital to fairly
launch himself upon his prosperous career.
Though by no means indifferent to art (the kindly
money-lender did several good turns to artists and
others), he had little liking for ancient architecture
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or scenery, except as a background to the Casino of
Monte Carlo. The story of an archaeological trip
which he was once induced to take from the Princi
pality is well known. Monte Carlo proving rather
dull one year, Sam having heard much of the charms of
Rome, determined to go there, which he did. Well
within a week, however, he was back again in the Halls
of the Goddess of Chance.
" Hullo, Sam ! " said an acquaintance, " how did
you like Rome ? " " Rome," replied Sam, in accents
of the most profound contempt, " you can 'ave
Rome," and whisked off to put another maximum on
the table.
In the West End no figure was better known than
that of this little man, who carried in his brain many
a secret, and probably knew more of the affairs of
many of the great families of England than they them
selves. In his way, indeed, he was a power, sitting up
in his bow-windowed room in Cork Street. His
recollections, had he written down all he knew, would
have provided some of the most interesting reading
possible, for, at one time or other, many prominent
public men and others, known to the world more par
ticularly for strenuous effort and endeavour, had gone
to seek his aid.
The day before his death, it is said, Sam, having
realized that his end was near, sent for his book of
debtors, and drew a feeble pen through several names
against which large sums were inscribed. Of his
wife, whose charity and kindliness of heart there
is no need to speak, it must be recorded, that probably
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no human being left so many individuals genuinely
and personally touched by her death. Practically
every one who had come in contact with her received
a legacy, down to the very crossing-sweeper in her
Square. She made, indeed, one of the kindest and
most humane wills ever drawn.
Many of its provisions (it may not be generally
known) were inserted in order to carry out certain
wishes expressed by her late husband, who had a very
retentive memory as regards those whom he liked or
whose attitude had seemed to him to exhibit a sym
pathy not prompted by ulterior motives.
In this kindliness of heart Sam Lewis resembled
some other men who, risen from humble beginnings
to great commercial success, have shown themselves
sensible of kindnesses done them in their early days.
Many years ago a tradesman, whose name is now
almost a household word, was employed in a modest
capacity in West End shops. The first customer he
served happened to be a doctor, and whilst showing
the latter some delicate ware, in the nervousness of
the moment he let it drop, when it was shattered in
stantly into a thousand pieces. Very good-naturedly,
however, the doctor took the blame upon himself,
paid for the broken article, and made one or two
trifling purchases besides. In due course this trades
man accumulated a large fortune, when, calling upon
his first customer he reminded him of the incident,
and in recognition of his generosity settled a thousand
a year upon him for life.
By a curious coincidence there lived close by this
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generous man another wealthy tradesman who owed
the origin of his success to a very similar accident. He
commenced life as an errand-boy, and whilst driving
down Holborn in an omnibus one pouring wet day,
gave up his seat to an old lady, who would otherwise
not have found accommodation ; in recognition of
which act of courtesy she presently set him up in
business on his own account, and at her death be
queathed to him the whole of her very considerable
fortune. An old lady also brought good luck to
another firm, the name of which is now almost a
household word.
The early steps in commerce of Mr. Whiteley, the
Universal Provider, who met with such a tragic fate,
were of a very modest nature, his first shop having
been in Westbourne Grove, almost opposite to where
the present monster premises of his firm stand. The
evening before it was opened an elderly lady called
at the shop and inquired the price of certain ribbons
which were being arranged in the window. Mr.
Whiteley expressed his regret at having to refuse her
request, adding that the establishment would only
open on the following morning. As, however, the
lady said that she required them for some charitable
purpose, he consented to sell the ribbons, and entered
into conversation with his customer. Learning that
this was the first venture of the kind that he had yet
attempted, the latter inquired if Mr. Whiteley had
solicited a blessing upon his venture. He admitted that
he had not yet done so, and at the suggestion of the
lady they at once together offered up a short prayer

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for his success. Some months later, happening to see
the lady pass the shop, he ran out and hastened to
inform her of the good fortune which had up till then
befallen him. On every anniversary of the lady's visit
it is said Mr. Whiteley never failed to send a present
of ribbons for the charity with which she was associ
ated ; and when, after the great fire, Mr. Whiteley re
opened his present monster establishment, he begged
of this lady to come again and offer up a prayer previous
to his recommencing business. She was now too old
and infirm to do this, so her granddaughter was de
puted to act in her stead.
Ever since the English Turf has been in existence a
certain number of eccentric characters have from time
to time been associated with it, but in modern times
none surely ever existed whose extravagances were more
notorious than Mr. Baird, of Stichell, known to the
racing world as " Mr. Abington " and " the Squire."
Racing, except during the last years of his life, may
be said to have been the very aim and object of a
wasted existence. His passion for riding winners
indeed, was such that thousands and thousands must
have been paid in order to secure a mount likely to
get first past the post.
After a short career at Magdalene College, Cam
bridge, Abington Baird plunged wildly into what can
only be termed an orgy of extravagant excess, and his
wild doings were, for a time, a matter of regret even
in none too particular circles ; his pleasures, which
were of a somewhat unrefined character, ending
frequently in scenes of rowdiness and riot. The
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nature of some of these may be inferred when it is
stated that a contest of several barrel organs, all playing
one against the other in his drawing-room, was very
much to his taste. In his latter days pugilism was his
especial hobby ; for a time, indeed, he was a well-
known figure at the old Pelican Club. Differences,
however, between that institution and himself eventu
ally led to his withdrawal, at which time he declared
his intention of himself founding a club where he
could do exactly as he liked. Spoilt from his earliest
years, Abington Baird, when scarcely twelve years
of age, inherited, by the death of his father, a vast
fortune, and altogether, at one period of his life, he
must have possessed considerably over two millions of
money. It was his misfortune that, partly through
circumstances and partly through inclination, he
associated mainly with companions' who, though per
haps not much his inferiors by birth, were not such as
his wealth entitled him to consort with.
Abington Baird was by no means indifferent to the
charms of the fair sex ; his adventures in this direction
more than once costing him a very large sum.
The story goes that, having quarrelled with a certain
lady not unknown to the stage, and in an access of
passion given her a black eye, he gave her no less than
a hundred thousand pounds to overlook it. If this is
true, the black eye in question was surely the most
expensive ever known.
Another lady, the wife of a well-known sporting
character, was once, it is said, approached by Mr.
Abington, who wished her to elope with him.
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She appeared to listen to his blandishments, and
eventually it was arranged that she should be given a
cheque for a hundred thousand. Receiving this, she
at once made for the bank, only to find that a draft
for such a large sum could not be cashed without Mr.
Baird's personal guarantee. In no wise discomfited,
however, the lady desired that a clerk should be sent in
a cab to obtain the required authorization, whilst she
sat awaiting his return at the bank. In due course the
money was produced, when the lady, pocketing the
notes, at once returned to her husband, with whom she
shared the money, refusing ever to set eyes upon Mr.
Abington again.
The career of this young man must seem very
shocking to the world in general, which very naturally
is unable to realize the temptations to which an
enormously rich youth of unbalanced mind and un-
edifying inclinations must of necessity be exposed.
As a matter of fact, all through life Mr. Abington
may be said to have hardly had a fair chance, for he
fell into the hands of people whose interests entirely
lay in preventing their patron from leading a decent
existence. Nevertheless, though justly subject to much
severe criticism on account of his life and associates,
there was a side to Mr. Abington's character to
which justice was never done, as the following will
show. On one occasion a letter was handed to Mr.
Baird, written by the wife of a former friend. In this
the lady informed him that her husband was danger
ously ill in Paris, and that they had unfortunately
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reached the end of their resources. Under these cir
cumstances she ventured to ask for assistance. With
out a moment's hesitation, Mr. Baird summoned the
most eminent physician of the day, and, having
stated the circumstances, he handed him a blank
cheque, with orders to proceed forthwith to Paris, and
at whatever cost to bring the invalid man back to
England — completely cured. His orders were carried
out to the letter, and three weeks later his friend
returned to London accompanied by the doctor,
snatched literally from the grave by Abington
Baird's millions — and, what is immeasurably more
creditable, by Abington Baird's generous impulse
and genuine kind-heartedness. Such an incident as
this — one of many, let it be added — should not be
forgotten in connection with the poor lad who, whilst
he befriended many, was his own worst enemy. En
couraged in every sort of extravagance by individuals
who battened upon his bounty, huge sums of money
were lavished upon trifles by this spendthrift. In
ordinately fond of fruit, it is said that his bill at a
West End fruiterer's was no less than ffiooo a year.
The origin of the Baird millions is a curious one.
Alexander Baird, the late Mr. Abington's grand
father — the founder of the family — was a small farmer,
and excessively poor. His only wealth consisted, in
deed, in his having a multitude of sons. A story is
told, in evidence of their poverty at that time, that
when the local " Meenister " was complaining that
the wind blew through his doors, one of the young
Bairds capped this by saying that the fissures in theirs
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were so wide that the very cats and dogs came through
them. Being compelled to give up farming they
became miners, and from digging for coal, presently
betook themselves to digging for iron. Just about
this time the introduction of railways gave a tre
mendous impetus to trade, and having saved some
money, they undertook contracts for rails, electing,
however, to be paid in shares rather than cash. Thence
forward success attended their every effort, and
millions accumulated in their hands with marvellous
rapidity. Mr. Abington Baird had for all practical pur
poses secured to himself the power of -disposing of
whatever property he was possessed. The law of entail
in Scotland differs considerably from that which rules
in England. In accordance with this, by paying some
£40,000 for compensation, he was enabled to purchase
the interests of the next heirs, and thus obtained the
absolute testamentary control of the Stichell, Strichen,
and other estates in Aberdeenshire and in Skye.
Mr. Baird died at New Orleans in 1893, whither
he had gone to witness a fight between two champions
of the ring.
Another spendthrift of something the same type as
Mr. Baird was the late Marquis of Ailesbury, whose
chief ambition seemed to be the emulation in voice,
manner, and dress of a 'bus conductor of no very first-
class kind. Intractable from his earliest years (he
declined to be flogged at Eton> where he swore at
the head master and afterwards ran away), his eccen
tricities as Lord Savernake created a certain amount
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of indignant commotion. Strongly addicted to mixing
with low society, he continued to go from bad to
worse, dying utterly ruined whilst quite a young man.
Any harsh estimate, however, of this unfortunate
nobleman should be tempered by the reflection that
his chances of growing up a credit to his class were
really very small, his early education having been
completely neglected. As a small boy he had been
allowed to run wild amongst companions of the lowest
kind — grooms, helpers, and stable lads being those
from whom he drew the ideas and inspirations which
eventually led him to degradation and ruin.
Of another spendthrift whose meteoric career of
indiscriminating extravagance and folly gained for
him in 1887 the name of the " Jubilee Juggins," it
need only be recorded that in a very great measure
he was more sinned against than sinning.
France also in the middle 'nineties possessed a spend
thrift something of this type. This was M. Max
Lebaudy, a Parisian millionaire of minute proportions,
who was somewhat appropriately nicknamed " Le
Petit Sucrier," his wealth being derived from sugar.
Like Mr. Abington, Max Lebaudy was very fond
of witnessing pugilistic encounters, which were held
at his villa near Paris in a miniature bull ring which he
had caused to be erected there. The proceedings on
the occasion of fistic encounters were occasionally
rendered doubly exciting by the incursion of a young
bull into the ring, which it was this young man's delight
to see produce a scene of wild confusion. At one time
this spendthrift actually contemplated transferring his
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fortune to England, and settling in this country, pre
parations being actually commenced with a view to
carrying out this intention. He actually applied to
the Messrs. Weatherby for a " Gentleman's Riding
Licence," which request was refused, the excuse being
that M. Max Lebaudy had not had sufficient experi
ence of racing, and that it would be unsafe for the
jockeys if he were permitted to ride. In consequence
of this M. Lebaudy abandoned his intention of settling
in England, and, remaining in France, died shortly
afterwards ; his death, it is said, being accelerated by
the hardships to which he was exposed whilst serving
in the French army.
It may be added that " Le Petit Sucrier," though
perhaps a better bicyclist than horseman, was not at all
a bad rider on the flat.
Another sporting character of an older generation
was the late Sir Robert Peel, whose career was a striking
and conspicuous instance of a highly gifted and clever
man crippling himself upon the Turf. In appearance
Sir Robert was a personality not easily to be forgotten :
a big burly man with a bullet-shaped head, eyes
restless with mischief, a thick iron-grey moustache,
his hat tilted at an angle of 45 degrees, the folds of his
ample coat fluttering in the wind, and his hands
clasped behind his back. In his last years he bore
down the shady side of Piccadilly, irresistibly reminding
one of some old-world three-decker. He belonged,
indeed, as much to the past as the latter, being born
when the nineteenth century was young, and dying
as it hastened towards its close. His eager interest in
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everything, however, continued unabated to the end,
being extended over so wide an area as to include the
latest theological controversy or a billiard-match at
the club between indifferent players for an insignificant
stake. Besides this, he retained an excellent memory,
and was full of reminiscences of the Peel Administra
tions, Catholic Emancipation, Lola Montes, Palmer
ston, Lady Blessington, and Count d'Orsay — a strange
survival of another age, living in full accord and sym
pathy with a younger generation with interests of a
totally different order. His own youth had been one
of a somewhat turbulent kind — fond of fun and frolic,
it was said that having come into collision with the
police, who threatened to run him in for some ex
uberant prank, his retort, " My father didn't create
you to arrest me," so staggered the representatives of
the force (then in its infancy) that they let him go.
Sir Robert possessed a remarkable personality ; with
magnificent old-world courtly manners, his self-
confidence, in particular, was invincible. Attracting
the friendship of all, he scrupulously returned it with
familiar acquaintanceship. A born orator, he ex
celled less on account of what he said, than for the
manner with which he said it. Somewhat lacking in
real enthusiasm, he could never communicate the
contagious conviction of Mr. Gladstone, but as an
oratorical actor he was never surpassed. His pure
English, precise pronunciation, and exquisitely perfect
voice, answering easily, as it were, to the very
slightest touch of either pedal, his happy knack of
wrapping up a sarcasm in an elaborately and punc-
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tiliously courteous sentence ; his plausible arguments
— generally founded upon inaccurate facts — these and
many other circumstances rendered a speech by Sir
Robert Peel an event in the life of any man whose
privilege it was to hear it. As he resumed his seat,
however, the irrepressible tell-tale twinkle of his eyes
somehow betrayed the insincerity of the performance,
whilst within five minutes of delivering a powerful
address advocating one view of a question, he would
readily deliver a second defending another view dia
metrically opposed to it ; nor did he possess any
great sense of proportion. His irresistible oratory,
for instance, replete with a dignity, gravity, and
solemnity sufficient to overthrow a Government or
terrify a truculent foreign power, would at times be
utilized in declaiming against some detail of trifling
importance, such as the carelessness of a kitchenmaid
in serving up an ill-cooked chop. He used, as it
were, a Nasmyth hammer to crush a watch-glass !
Perhaps the most suitable epitaph for Sir Robert
is to say that he was the most brilliant failure of his
age. At the end of his life, the Turf had long ceased to
know him, but even then he retained a warm, if of
necessity somewhat platonic, interest in racing, eagerly
discussing the merits and chances of prospective
winners of classic events.
Some time before his death Sir Robert had suffered
from several attacks of illness, but these his strong con
stitution seemed to enable him to overcome. Latterly,
however, he frequently complained of pains in and
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about the heart. Some five or six years before his
death, a friend who chanced to look in at the old
Grosvenor Gallery in New Bond Street was ex
citedly informed by an attendant that Sir Robert was
dying in the East Gallery, and, at once hurrying to
the spot, found the old man reclining picturesquely
upon an ottoman in the middle of the room, sur
rounded by an anxious group, whilst, in the far corner
of the Gallery, a little crowd of terrified women
were huddled together beneath the gaze of the mag
nificent portraits of Gainsborough, Reynolds, Romney,
and other illustrious British painters. The general
effect of the same was artistic and dramatic beyond
description. At his friend's approach Sir Robert
feebly extended his hand, and in a faint voice mur
mured, " Dearest of friends, I am dying." Without
a moment's hesitation the newcomer obtained the
name and address of Sir Robert's doctor, and at once
drove round to fetch him, Sir Robert being eventually
conveyed home under medical supervision about five
o'clock that afternoon. In the evening all the papers
announced the " serious illness of Sir Robert Peel."
At eight o'clock the same night, what was the friend's
surprise, on entering the dining-room of a club to
which both Sir Robert and himself belonged, to im
mediately perceive the latter hale and hearty as ever,
eating a substantial meal, with a bottle of champagne
in an ice-bucket by his side.
As has before been said, Sir Robert's salient charac
teristic was his unassailable self-confidence, which ever
enabled him to overcome even the most embarrassing
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situations. When Charge d' Affaires at Berne, where
he was very popular with the Bernese, having one day
ridden down to the river Aar to bathe at a place near
the town where there was an enclosure for the purpose,
he happened to take with him a valuable young dog — a
setter or pointer ; whilst his master was in the water, this
dog was seized with one of those causeless panics to
which his kind are liable, and set off running along the
road at top speed. Finding that calling was of no
avail, Sir Robert jumped as he was upon his horse,
which was tethered hard by, and pursued the dog until
he caught him, some half mile down the road. This,
it may be added, was only a country lane leading from
Berne to the village of Wavern. Nevertheless, it was
tolerably frequented, and the people whom the naked
horseman passed were very much surprised, as may
well be imagined.
His hat was worn at an angle of 45 degrees, not
from characteristic perversity, as was generally as
serted, but from an accident which once came near
costing him his life. Shipwrecked off the coast of
Genoa in 1854, he at that time received a violent blow
upon the head, and the bump which was raised pre
vented him ever after from wearing his hat in the
orthodox way. On this occasion Sir Robert saved the
life of his valet. Though celebrated as a conversation
alist, few, if any, witty sayings are accounted to him.
As a matter of fact, in conversation, as in public
speaking, he shone not so much for what he said as for
the manner in which he said it. Throughout the
lives of the late Lord Houghton, Abraham Hayward,
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Bernal Osborne for instance, all of them contemporary
conversationalists with the late Sir Robert Peel, as
well as after their deaths, numerous witty remarks of
theirs were current about the town, but as regards Sir
Robert, the reminiscences connected with him are
generally in reference to incidents.
Another picturesque figure of a totally different
kind was the Duke of Hamilton, who, before his mar
riage, attracted general attention, and was, for a time,
probably the most popular man in Europe. Built
upon an extensive scale, possessing a heart to match
his physical proportions, and a fortune which was regal,
he spent his money royally. The son of Princess
Marie of Baden, he had been brought up in the atmo
sphere of Court life, and in a manner vied in magnifi
cence with the Royalties of his day. It was he who,
to a considerable extent, first popularized England and
English customs amongst the Golden Youth of Europe,
for he was equally well known through the Continent
as he was in England. It is difficult to estimate what
he must have spent during the few years that he
fluttered about as a cosmopolitan butterfly, but at the
time report had it that his estate was diminished by a
million of money. Nevertheless, from a certain point
of view it is impossible to maintain that the money
was altogether ill spent. It was luxury of life at its
best, without the slightest taint of vulgarity.
For many years the Duke of Hamilton did a good
deal of racing in France ; but towards the end of his
life, owing to some slight, either fancied or real, his
colours were seldom, if ever, seen on the race-courses
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round Paris. Nowhere perhaps was he more at home
than in the gay city just mentioned. Though a
thorough boulevardier, it was always said, truthfully
or not, that the Duke would never enter the Maison
Doree in which his father had come to such a tragic
end — an unfortunate stumble having precipitated him
down the stairs of that restaurant with fatal result.
Of late years the sporting characters which were
formerly frequently to be met with seem to have gone
out of existence, modern ways apparently being un
sympathetic to vigorous life. One of the last was the
late Colonel North, who was as much at home in
sporting circles as in the city. A rough but genuine
diamond, he was perhaps best described by a quotation
from Tacitus : " He had talents equal to business and
aspired no higher." As a man of business he was
shrewd, energetic, persevering, self-confident, and
could be relied upon. These qualities, together with
the assistance of some good fortune, enabled him to rise
from the lower ranks of labour to the higher ranks of
finance. It was as a man possessed of a distinct in
dividuality, however, that his personality was im
pressed upon the public mind. Unspoilt by success,
genial, genuine, and generous, the Colonel was so
obviously delighted with his own success, and so
genuinely unselfish in his attempts to render others
happy, that it was almost impossible not to feel well-
disposed towards him. In business he used his head,
out of business his heart. His career before the Lon
don public was something like that of a shooting-star,
but in its brief space he somehow managed to secure
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a certain popularity with thousands of all kinds and
conditions of his fellow-beings, the majority of whom
only knew him by repute. The particular sport
which Colonel North favoured most was coursing,
in the pursuit of which he was eminently successful.
Breezy, bluff, and hearty, he was quite devoid of
humbug, even when dabbling with politics, which are
not infrequently dominated by hypocrisy and cant.
Standing as a candidate for a constituency (for which,
it must be added, he was triumphantly returned), a
gaunt female (precursor of the furies who demand the
vote which their more feminine sisters do not want)
suddenly interrupted his meeting by shrieking, "Are
you in favour of giving women votes ? " " Yes, to
the pretty ones, midam," was the Colonel's reply.
This amused his audience, and prevented any further
opposition. A foreigner who cut a considerable figure upon the
Turf was the late Baron Hirsch (owner of La Fleche).
He found this country the most congenial place to
live in, Parisian society having responded but coldly
to such overtures as he made with the desire to enter
its inner circle. In England it was different. The
warm welcome indeed which was accorded to him by
a certain section of English society excited a good deal
of adverse comment at one time, though in the end he
achieved considerable popularity.
His shooting parties in Hungary gave rise to some
what exaggerated tales as to the amount of game killed.
As a matter of fact some of his bags were very large,
thirteen hundred brace of partridges — not red-legged
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ones — in addition to much other game, was by no
means unusual. Hares were particularly abundant,
but on the occasion of the Prince of Wales' visit to the
Baron, a supplemental ten thousand were reported to
have been procured from Belgium, a telegram causing
them to be sent in time for a particularly big shoot.
This story, however, was probably untrue. Baron
Hirsch himself was a good shot.
During this Royal visit the average number of cart
ridges used by each of the party in the week's shooting
was somewhere about twelve thousand. The birds
were driven in a circle, as is the custom in Austria,
the pivot or centre being about four miles distant.
The great public interest which was displayed in Sir
Thomas Lipton's efforts to capture the America Cup
was almost paralleled some thirty-eight years ago,
when Mr. James Ashbury was one of the most talked
of men in England and America. In 1870 his yacht,
the " Cambria," sailed the first race in American
waters for the America Cup ! The gentleman in
question was found dead in his bed in old Burlington
Street ; his demise passed almost unnoticed.
Left a rich man (he had inherited some £400,000 in
ready money, besides other property of considerable
value), he was not long in making a reputation as the
owner of the " Cambria," and became generally
known in London society. For some years before his
death, however, little had been heard of him, except
that through lawsuits and other cases his fortune had
been seriously diminished. At the very time of his
sudden end, a suit involving a large sum of money
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was said to have been pending between him and the
firm of Scholfield, of Manchester. Mr. Ashbury, who
was a very generous and amiable man, experienced in a
singularly severe manner the contemptible fickleness of
London society, which so soon forgets those who, for
some reason or other, get out of touch with it.
Of many wielding great influence, but leading
quiet, unobtrusive lives, it hears but little till
obituary notices testify to the importance of the indi
vidual who has passed away. Such a one was the late
Mr. Andrew Montagu, known to his intimate friends
as " The Little Squire," whose death created a con
siderable sensation in certain quarters. Mr. Montagu,
indeed, played a more important part in the secret
history of his own times than was realized outside the
inner Conservative circle. A man of very great
wealth, he was indeed the particular Providence of
the Conservative Party, it being even asserted that
about two millions of his money was out on mortgage
— partly advanced to important politicians, and partly
distributed amongst institutions connected with Tory
organizations. This estimate would seem, however,
to have been an exaggeration. Nevertheless, the late
Mr. Montagu was a most generous and open-handed
man, and would always use his interest to assist young
aspirants to place and position, though he himself
cared nothing for these. He was frequently offered a
peerage, but as the particular title which he desired
was claimed by some one else, to whom it was eventually
given, he died plain Mr. Montagu, though none the
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The famous prize-fighters, Bendigo and the giant
Ben Caunt, were bred upon his property. Many
were the stories he used to tell of the gigantic but
clumsy strength of Ben Caunt, whose three famous
battles with the gipsy Bendigo are historical in the
annals of the prize ring. In connection with the
latter the following story is told.
Bendigo, after his retirement from the ring, became
religious and a preacher. Meeting one day a former
patron who liad been present at many great pugilistic
encounters, the latter said, " I hear you have given up
fighting now." " Oh, no, sir," replied Bendigo. " I
am fighting the devil." " I only hope you are adopt-
ting fairer methods than you used against Ben," was
the rejoinder, " otherwise I shall feel inclined to
change my faith."

198

VI

\X7TTHIN the last ten years club life in London has
undergone a complete change ; in fact, the old
sort of clubman is becoming an obsolete type. Many
causes have contributed to this, amongst the chief, the
City, restaurants, golf, and motors.
In the best days of " Clubland," the chief attrac
tions of a club lay in the wit of its members and the
similarity of their tastes and opinions. At that time
men went to their clubs to seek company, whereas
to-day many go to avoid it. Members then were
contented with rough lounges and esteemed congenial
companionship the best furniture a club could possess.
In the luxurious palaces of to-day most of the members
dine somewhat morosely at their own little tables,
surrounded by faces hardly as familiar as those to be
met with at a restaurant. Dr. Johnson defined a
club as " an assembly of uncertain fellows meeting
under certain circumstances." The more modern
definition would be " an assembly of uncertain fellows
meeting under good circumstances." About the close
of the eighteenth century the first great change
came over the spirit of club life. This was when
White's, Brooks's and Boodle's became the fashion.
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
men, these clubs were hard of access to those not of the
fashionable world. In these days, however, the chief
recommendation of a candidate lies in his compara
tive obscurity. The less he is known the greater his
chance of success. Every year new clubs are started
in order to absorb the overflow, and the growth of
these new clubs saps the older ones.
The foundation of the Bachelors' Club inaugurated
a new era in club life. Its success, it may be added,
was achieved in the teeth of very strenuous opposi
tion from many quarters. It steered, however, most
successfully through the evident dangers attending
a new departure of this kind, and very few clubs,
certainly no young man's club, can boast a better list
of members. Alone of all the clubs that admit ladies
within its doors, has it escaped even the faintest
breath of censure. Whether this is owing to the
strength of the committee or to its rigid enforcement
of the rules, or whether it is due to the esprit de
corps of the members themselves, is a matter for
speculation, but the result is exceedingly satisfactory.
Other clubs which, at their inception, bade fair to
usurp the lead have latterly not been so successful.
As a rule this has been caused by a relaxation of their
original exclusiveness, and an absence of severe
scrutiny. The West End, and " Clubland " in particular,
was formerly peopled by a great number of individuals
who were without a regular profession or occupation ;
such a thing, indeed, hardly entered into the scheme
of existence of people brought up to consider them-
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selves a privileged class, who, by some beneficent law
of the universe, were exempt from toil. For many of
these who were bachelors a club served as home —
they lived there, lunched there, dined there, and
occasionally died there. Many of them who were
getting on in years had their favourite chairs and
other fads, which younger members tacitly respected.
All sorts of queer old usages prevailed ; it was not
the thing to acknowledge anyone from a club window,
whilst to raise the hat to a passing lady was a breach
of club usage. The great majority of members
lunched in the coffee-room with their hats on, whilst
in certain clubs evening dress at dinner was practi
cally compulsory. At one or two clubs, even at the
present day, a small apartment, separate from the
regular dining-room, is reserved for members dining
in day clothes. Smoking was strictly limited to cer
tain rooms, usually the most uncomfortable, whilst
strangers were, in many cases, only allowed in a
small strangers' dining-room and the entrance hall.
At certain of the older clubs, a few customs dating
back to the eighteenth century still preserve their
sway. Some of these were curious in the extreme —
change for gold used to be given in washed silver.
The snuff box which used to be present on the mantel
piece in every club has now almost everywhere dis
appeared, the habit of snuff-taking having become
practically obsolete — routed by the triumph of the
cigarette. Five o'clock teas, of which an enormous number
are served in West End clubs, are innovations which
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as far as clubs are concerned have only achieved their
present popularity within the last twenty-five years,
in which time they have to a great extent supplanted
the brandies and sodas once so popular in clubland.
Nothing is more striking than the increase of temper
ance, or rather abstinence from alcohol, which has
prevailed within recent years. At lunch in particular
mineral water or light beer is drunk by an increasing
majority. Yet be it remarked this triumph of sobriety has not
been brought about by any methods of coercion; a
member is as free to-day to drink as much alcohol as
he likes. As in the past, the club cellars are there, ready
to afford him whatever wine or spirit he may choose ;
though it is not inconceivable that, in the future,
some meddling measure passed as a sop to intolerance
and fanaticism may put a quite unnecessary check
upon such freedom.
The cause of temperance has conquered owing to
the altered habits of the time, to a changed public
opinion, and, above all, to an increased knowledge of
the laws of health ; a general and well-founded idea
prevailing that alcohol taken except in very moderate
quantities leads to illness, discomfort, inefficiency,
and even sometimes to death.
The realization of such a truth as this is worth a
thousand useless laws of so-called Temperance Re
form — measures which promote little but the dis
comfort of the people and the self-gratification of the
fanatics whose very existence is bound up with in
tolerance and coercion. 202

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With the coming of the new era of strenuous
activity the labours of club servants have been much
increased, members being in far more of a hurry
than was generally the case in the easy-going days of
the past.
The Christmas contribution for club servants is
comparatively a new institution. Club servants are
not overpaid, and when upon duty their work is
particularly severe. The electric bells never cease
ringing until the club closes, and every member has a
different humour. In some of the big clubs the total
of the contributions is very large, considerably over
£500. This seems enormous, but as there are over
a thousand members in several of these institutions,
the total is not unreasonable.
Member's subscriptions to the Club Servants' Fund
constitute in reality but another form of tip, though
of a quite legitimate kind.
A tip in time saves nine, and any experienced man
will admit that no one was ever ruined by judicious
tipping. Indeed, knowledge of the world mainly
consists in knowing how to tip, when to tip, and who
to tip ; for " tipping " need not necessarily mean
the handing of money surreptitiously from the hand
of one to the hand of another. An intractable
politician is tipped by the bestowal of a peerage ; a
pretty woman by a well-turned compliment. Ad
mitting, however, the use of tipping, the abuse of
this custom is certainly that a guest should be ex
pected, or should even be permitted, to fee the ser
vants of his host. In former days the servants ex-
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pected to be fee'd by the guests who had dined at
their master's house ; but the good sense of our
immediate predecessors led to the removal of this
inhospitable demand.
Within the last quarter of a century the increase of
clubs has been enormous.
Ten years ago, the Royal Commission on Liquor
Licensing Laws directed that a return of clubs in
Great Britain and Ireland should be made. The
return in question was compiled from information
supplied by the police authorities, and the first twenty-
seven pages of the Blue Book dealt with the Metro
politan clubs and those within the City of London
police district, and contained a number of flagrant
errors ! For instance, the Amphitryon Club, which
had been started some six years before, and had closed
its doors during the preceding year, was included in
the report, it being incidentally mentioned that this
club had been in existence seventy-four years ! The
Wheel Club and the Trafalgar Cycling Club also ap
peared in the report, though they had both ceased
to exist.
The Marylebone Cricket Club, with 4000 mem
bers ; the Queen's Club, with 1300 members ;
Prince's Club, Knightsbridge, with 1500 members ;
the Sheen House Club, with 1500 members ; the
Imperial Institute, with 6500 members, and the
Empress Club in Dover Street, with 2000 members,
were all omitted. These were only a few of the
clubs which are not mentioned in the report, which
the Secretary of the Royal Commission put forward
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
as, " A complete record of the clubs in England,
Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, as nearly as can be
obtained." There are now at least two hundred clubs in London,
of which only thirty existed sixty or seventy years
ago, whilst about half have been founded during the
past thirty years, dividing between them no less than
some 120,000 members. At the beginning of the
nineteenth century there were probably not more than
1200 men who had secured election to a London club,
and now there are considerably more than 200,000 !
Of course, no distinction now attaches to being a
" club man," but it is curious to observe that the
revolution as regards clubs in London only com
menced about a quarter of a century ago, and has
raged with unabated energy ever since. To-day
people in every rank of life have their club, and the
social prestige which was formerly attached to mem
bership of a number of these institutions has in con
sequence sustained a considerable decline, many West
End clubs being no longer the exclusive institutions
which they once were.
Of late a number, which formerly had a lengthy
waiting list, have suffered severely from a paucity of
candidates, the prestige which in past days was
attached to membership seeming to prove unalluring
to a somewhat hard-headed and calculating generation.
One reason for this is no doubt the large increase of
convenient clubs, to which admission is easily ob
tained — another, the competition of restaurants where
food, whilst not very much more expensive, is in-
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finitely better, besides being attractively served
amidst surroundings of an agreeable nature. Whilst
everything possible has been done to increase the
comfort and amenities of these places, most club
committees have been culpably careless in failing to
bring the institutions over which they preside up
to date, whilst making but feeble efforts to stem the
strong tide of competition, which from a culinary
point of view easily overwhelms them. An attempt
exactly to ascertain any new features in club manage
ment, the arrangement of the club-house, the re
forms of the coffee room likely to prove acceptable to
members present and prospective, would without
doubt yield excellent results ; but though the
advantages of such inquiries are obvious, the idea
does not appear to commend itself to the rulers of
clubland. Rather do they prefer to continue the
archaic methods of a long past day, resenting criti
cisms which (often the expression of a general want)
would put the club fortunes upon the path of re
newed and continuous prosperity. There is no
doubt whatever that unless something is done,
certain of the older clubs will soon disappear alto
gether, doomed to destruction by the lassitude and
incompetence of those ruling over their unhappy
destinies. A few West End clubs, however, still contrive to
maintain the high reputation which others have some
how contrived to lose.
The Athenaeum, Turf, and Travellers' are con
spicuous examples. 206

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
Established about 1819, the Travellers' at first
attracted a good deal of notice from the fact that a
candidate for admission was required to have been
five hundred miles distant from London, a consider
able sensation being caused at that time by the dis
covery that several members, who had originally
entered their names, had not travelled the prescribed
distances. An investigation was demanded, so much
stir being made that the newspapers of the day
published lists of places, a visit to which was a suffi
cient qualification for membership.
Owing to the method of election at the Travellers'
(at which club the members and not the committee
elect) rejections of well-known people have frequently
taken place.
The question of blackballing candidates for clubs
is a very delicate one. An individual prominent in
the world of London often stands a greater chance of
rejection than a quite unknown man.
Mr. Cecil Rhodes, for instance, was blackballed for
the Travellers' in 1895. In previous years the same
club had refused admittance to the late Lord Sher-
brooke, Lord Rosebery, the late Lord Lytton, and the
late Lord Randolph Churchill. To be rejected at
some clubs is a greater compliment than to be elected,
for in the former case it is an involuntary tribute to
the importance of the candidate, whilst in the latter
it proves him to be unknown.
The rejection in question brought about the
resignation of several important personages, though
it is rather difficult to say exactly why. The question
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
of how far a member is called upon to support the
claims of his candidate is one which requires careful
examination ? In theory every club is a republic,
where all are absolutely equal. The newly-coined
phrase, an " influential member," is not only a gross
vulgarity, but an implied impertinence to the others,
who by inference are inferior. No individual has a
right, figuratively, to level a pistol at the heads of his
fellow members, saying, "Give me your votes, or
I will wreck the club." It is an obvious act of revolt
against the equality of club life for a member to
insist that his candidates should, as a matter of course,
obtain admission. If an important personage, or a
popular member, supports a candidate, the latter
has the advantage of the influence of his supporter.
But there surely the preference shown to him should
end. The question really is not whether a particular
candidate deserves or does not deserve to be admitted,
but whether a member can, with just consideration
for the rights of his fellow members, turn upon them
and say, " You reject my candidate ? Very well,
I leave the club." Such a proceeding, it cannot be
denied, is quite out of keeping with those principles
which should govern club life.
The most exclusive of all London clubs, curiously
enough, is hardly ever heard of at all. This is " The
Club," which was founded by Sir Joshua Reynolds in
1764. Very few members are elected to this club.
Not three hundred, indeed, have secured election
since the creation of the institution. By the regula
tions of " The Club," the number of members is
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limited to forty. Sir Joshua Reynolds, Dr. Johnson,
Dr. Oliver Goldsmith, Mr. Burke, Mr. Boswell, Mr.
Charles Fox, Mr. Gibbon, Mr. Gladstone, Lord
Leighton, Mr. Huxley, Lord Salisbury, Lord Rosebery,
Lord Goschen, the Duke of Argyll, Mr. David
Garrick, Lord Herschell, Lord Dufferin, Lord Wolse-
ley, Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff, Mr. Arthur Balfour,
Lord Peel, Mr. Asquith, and Sir Edward Poynter are
amongst those who have been, or are members of
" The Club." Notwithstanding the importance of
this institution, the existence of " The Club " is
scarcely known. Indeed, when the Turf Club was
being founded, it was proposed to call it " The Club,"
and it was some time before the promoters of the
former institution became aware that the name was
already in use.
Of the Turf Club there is little to be said except
that all of its members are practically drawn from
the world of fashionable and sporting society of the
best kind.
The Athenaeum was founded in 1824, its first
home having been No. 12, Waterloo Place; the
title originally proposed being " The Society." This,
however, was changed at the inaugural dinner, to
the one which this club now bears. In 1827, the
committee, having obtained possession of a more con
venient site (part of which had been occupied by the
recently demolished Carlton House), entrusted Decimus
Burton with the task of building a suitable club-house.
In the course of its construction Croker insisted that
the Scotch sculptor, John Heming, should contribute
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
a frieze designed as a reproduction of that of the
Parthenon, which ornamentation was at the time
characterized as an extravagant novelty. Notwith
standing a good deal of opposition, Croker, however,
carried the day ; the construction of the ice-house,
which had been advocated by several members, being
abandoned in order to afford funds for this classical
ornament. This controversy produced the following epigram —
I'm John Wilson Croker,
I do as I please,
They ask for an Ice-house,
I'll give 'em — a Frieze.
The formal opening of the new house took place in
February, 1830. The building, it may be added,
was erected on the west end of the courtyard of old
Carlton House, the smoking-room being exactly under
what was the Prince Regent's dining-room. A series
of soirees, to which ladies were admitted, were sub
sequently given, which aroused some protests against
the invading Amazons. From an architectural point
of view the club-house contains many interesting
features. The hall, to which a considerable amount
of accommodation was sacrificed, is finely propor
tioned. Eight pale primrose pillars on broad bronzed
bases, copied from the Temple of the Winds at
Athens, support the panelled wagon roof, the Pom-
peian designs on which are after original designs.
The two statues in niches, Venus Victrix and Diana
Robing, it may be added, were chosen by Sir Thomas
Lawrence, who also designed the club seal.

Piccadilly to Pali Mall
The morning-room to the right of the hall was re
decorated in 1892, when the ceiling was elaborately
painted by Sir Edward Poynter ; the bust of Milton
in this room was bequeathed by Anthony Trollope ;
in the adjoining writing-room hangs a portrait of
Dr. Johnson, by Opie, the gift of Mr. Humphry
Ward to the club. The drawing-room upstairs is
one of the finest rooms in London, having no less
than eleven windows ; the chief glory of the Athen
aeum, however, is its library, the view from which
embraces the pretty garden, where once existed a
icokery. The annual expenditure on books since
1848 has averaged about £450 a year. The library
itself is by far the finest and most important club library
in the world, all departments of foreign, as well as
English books being represented by rare and com
plete examples. It is particularly rich in volumes
dealing with history, topography, and archaeology,
in addition to which the collection of English
pamphlets is one of the most complete in existence.
In a case is preserved a large number of proof en
gravings, most of them after portraits of members,
executed by George Richmond, R.A., who presented
the collection. A picture of George IV formerly
stood over the fireplace in this library; Sir Thomas
Lawrence, its painter, was engaged in finishing the
sword knot and orders only a few hours before his
death. It had been his intention to present it to the
club, but as his executors declined to part with it, it
was eventually purchased for £128 10s. This portrait
is now in the museum of the Royal Pavilion at Brigh-
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
ton, having been handed over to the corporation of
that town in 1858. Two busts of Dr. Johnson and
of Pope are here, together with the carved arm-chair
used by Dickens at Gad's Hill ; in this on the day
of his death the great novelist had been sitting at
work on " Edwin Drood." Macaulay's corner, near
the books on English history, is a well-known feature
of this library, which the late Mark Pattison said he
thought the most delightful place in the world,
especially on a Sunday morning. At the table in
the south-west corner Thackeray used constantly to
work, whilst here also Theodore Hook dashed off
much brilliant work. Lord Lytton, the novelist,
Abraham Hayward, Samuel Wilberforce, and many
other clever men were constant frequenters of this
delightful room, the very atmosphere of which is
replete with literary associations of the most dis
tinguished kind.
It is interesting to recall that at the foot of the
Athenaeum staircase Thackeray and Dickens ended
their unfortunate estrangement, the former inter
cepting the author of " Pickwick " and insisting on
shaking hands.
The late Cardinal Manning was at one time a con
stant attendant at this club on ballot days ; his own
election had taken place at a time when he happened
to be attending the Vatican Council. At the
Athenaeum it has been said he seemed to find some
slight reflex of the old Oxford life. Here, in some
quiet corner of the library, he was wont to read
amidst surroundings, the dignified comfort of which
formed a striking contrast to his own modest abode.
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
The Archbishop's Palace, Westminster, is a mere
ecclesiastical barrack ; luxury, comfort, or decoration
being the very last objects considered in its internal
arrangements. Up three long flights of bare stone
steps, a species of lofty barn is reached, partially
occupied by confronting garrets ; one of these, in
no way to be distinguished from its neighbours, and
measuring about nine feet by fifteen feet, was the
Cardinal's own chamber, where, in the utmost
simplicity, he lived. Containing little besides a small
iron bedstead, there were no pictures, no decorations,
no little comforts such as brighten the meanest of
hovels, and lend an individuality to the humblest of
homes. In this cell the great Cardinal lay dead on
his low camp-bed ; his cold, clear-cut features being,
as it were, in appropriate unison with the coldness
of his surroundings.
This good old man in his day influenced hundreds
of thousands whose words were flashed across con
tinents, the while he was esteemed and honoured
even by active religious opponents.
An aged ecclesiastic who used to frequent the
club, somewhat noted for his eccentricity and ser
mons of inordinate length, one having lasted no less
than two and a half hours, was the venerable Dr.
Tatham. Another was the nonagenarian Bishop
Durnford, of Chichester. Bishops, indeed, have
always been more or less abundant at the Athenaeum.
On one occasion, when an unusually large number
were collected together for Convocation, Abraham
Hayward is said to have grumbled out, " I see the
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
bishops are beginning to swarm, the atmosphere is
alive with them ; every moment I expect to find one
dropping into my soup."
The Athenaeum has always been particularly re
markable for the longevity of its members, one of
whom, who had been elected at the first meeting of
the Committee of the Athenaeum Club held in 1824,
actually surviving till 1898. This was Mr. John
Lettsom Elliot, who belonged to the club for close on
seventy-five years. He had kept a copy of the first
list of members which was published, and in 1882
he had a reprint of this produced, which forms a
record of considerable interest. On the original
committee were, amongst others, Chantrey, the
sculptor ; John Wilson Croker, Sir Humphrey Davy,
Sir Thomas Lawrence, Sir James Mackintosh, Moore,
the poet, and Sir Walter Scott — a fine list of dis
tinguished names wherewith to commence a club.
Ordinary members were Benjamin Brodie, Mark Isam-
bard Brunei, the engineer ; Dibdin, Isaac D'Israeli,
Lord Ellenborough, Michael Faraday, John Franklin,
Henry Hallam, James Morier, the diplomatist and
author of " Haji Baba " ; Samuel Rogers, Sir John
Soane, who bequeathed to the nation the Soane
Museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields ; Joseph Turner,
Charles Kemble, Charles Mathews, the elder ; Westall,
the artist ; David Wilkie, Henry Holland, Blanco
White, a friend of Coleridge ; Whately, Newman,
John Stuart Mill, and Jekyll, the wit.
At that period almost every peer was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society, apparently with no
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better qualification to recommend him to that body
than that he possessed the title. Thus, Lord Bristol,
Lord Brownlow, Lord Bute, Lord Carrington, Lord
Charleville, Lord Chichester, Lord Darnley, Lord
Dartmouth, Lord Dudley, Lord Gage, Lord Hard-
wicke, Prince Leopold, Lord Lansdowne, Lord Liver
pool, Lord Macclesfield, Lord Mansfield, Lord Morley,
Lord Morpeth, the Duke of Northumberland, the
Duke of Somerset, Lord Spencer, and Lord Redesdale
all have the letters " F.R.S." tacked on to their names.
Within the memory of the present generation two
celebrated clubs have been injured by the defection
of important members. Boodle's, now in such a
flourishing condition, was terribly damaged at one
time, when the late Duke of Beaufort withdrew his
name. The blackballing of candidates submitted for
election by prominent members occasionally leads to
much acrimonious comment and sometimes causes
a number of resignations.
The fairest and the most courteous way of electing,
as also the most efficient, is by selection. The names
of candidates are entered upon thd books, and, as
vacancies occur, the committee selects from the entire
list those who are at the moment considered the most
suitable. By that means no one is submitted to the
barbarous mortification of being rejected. Any man
who has attained a reputation is bound to make
enemies, and the more widely he is known the more
enemies he is certain to have. It follows, therefore,
that no well-known man has a reasonable chance of
being elected under the system generally pursued.

Piccadilly to Pall Mall

To emphasize its absurdity it may be stated that the
late Mr. Gladstone was once rejected for the club at
Biarritz. As we travel through life, intentionally
and unintentionally we offend many. Some hate us
merely because they happen never to have met us,
and others because they have. Yet another section
hate us because their friends do, and so on ad infinitum.
It would be impossible to enumerate the variety of
motives through which people hate each other with
reason, and still more without reason. Under these
circumstances a doubt may be allowed as to the
expediency of compelling men to undergo the dis
grace of being rejected for a club, according to the
system at present in practice. Theoretically, a
candidate's rejection implies that he is unfit to be a
member ; practically, in a large number of cases, it
simply means that he is of sufficient importance to
have attracted enmity.
In certain clubs the election of the committee,
instead of being in the hands of the members, is
effected by nomination — a method which is capable
of producing an unsatisfactory state of affairs when
power falls into the hands of a gang. The old English
committee-man, simple and suave in manner, con
ciliatory in the extreme, his only desire to promote
the best interests of his club, whilst extending as much
liberty and freedom as possible to the members, has
now almost passed out of existence.
The club characters, who were formerly fairly
abundant, are also gone. Such a one was the old
admiral who, suffering for the first time from a severe
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
attack of indigestion caused by a surfeit of lobsters,
called out, " Mutiny on board — more lobsters," and
then collapsed.
Occasionally a club numbers amongst its members
one or two individuals whose eccentricity borders
upon mania. More than once there have been in
stances of men of a certain age who, possessed of a
fondness for turning night into day, have made a
practice of remaining in their club house till the last
possible moment before it closed, in some cases even
paying fines in order to do so. One of these in
dividuals, it is said, remained in bed all day, getting up
only about seven, when he would go to his club to
have a dinner, which was really breakfast. His ad
herence to this habit, he used to declare, had been
considerably strengthened by reason of the fact that
having once broken through it and got up early in
order to witness some sporting event, he had on his
return found himself minus his watch — a loss which
had shown him the danger of early rising.
At a club where foreigners of distinction become
honorary members, a considerable sensation was once
caused by a new arrival pointing to the glass fly
catcher filled with dead flies and syrup, and saying to
the waiter, " Bring me some of dat." It afterwards
transpired that the visitor in question, who had never
been in England before, determined to make a study
of English ways and customs, had taken the unsavoury
decoction for one of our national drinks.
Occasionally queer notices make their appearance
on the boards provided for intimations of things lost
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
or found. Such a one requesting the nobleman who
had removed an umbrella not his own to return it
to its rightful owner once caused a considerable com
motion, exception being taken to the wording. This,
however, the writer justified by the contention that
as no gentleman could have taken it, the natural con
clusion must of necessity be that the purloiner be
longed to the rank which he had mentioned.
In the days before ladies' clubs abounded a good
deal of curiosity was shown by the fair sex as to the
interior of the club houses from which they were
excluded — " Monasteries of the Married," as they
were sometimes irreverently termed.
A well-known lady, indeed, did once, it is said,
actually dress herself up as a man, and in this travesty
call upon a certain member at his club, sending in a
card bearing the name of a friend. No suspicion
being excited, she was duly shown into the strangers'
room, and when the member appeared, frankly dis
closed her identity. The club in question, though
restricted *to men, reserved only a few rooms for the
exclusive use of the members, and as the lady insisted
upon remaining for a short time, she and her host, who
was in an awkward position, sat together for about
half an hour in one of the most frequented rooms. It
is difficult to decide what the member should have
done on discovering this trick. In any case indiscreet
gossiping soon brought the adventure to the ears of
the committee, who, however, wisely concluded to
take no notice of the incident, which, after all, was not
one of any serious gravity. 218

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
An amusing incident once occurred at a West End
club, where the election of members is conducted in a
somewhat peculiar manner.
On the left of the entrance hall is a room in which
is the ballot box, the election being by the members in
general, and not by a committee. It was formerly the
custom for the friends of a candidate to hang about
the door of this room, canvassing in his favour, whilst,
if possible, detaining anyone likely to insert a black
ball by all means in their power. On one occasion
a visitor, coming to call upon a friend at his club,
found himself, on passing its portals, almost forcibly
bustled into this room, and, in the confusion, made to
vote for some one who it is said secured election only
by reason of this manoeuvre.
With the advent of the commercial era came a
great change in the general conception of club life.
The attitude of club committees towards the mem
bers, for instance, is in many cases quite other than
that which formerly prevailed. In old days, these
bodies, composed for the most part of old and popular
members, were conciliatory in the extreme regarding
any minor breach of club law, in many cases straining
a point to overlook delinquencies which were not
directly injurious to the best interests of the members
generally. Great laxity existed as to debts incurred
in a club, coffee-room accounts extending into three
figures being not unheard of, whilst certain old-time
hall-porters ran accounts which were liquidated only
at long intervals. Expelling, or even threatening to
expel a member was considered a step of extreme
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
gravity and one to be avoided, except where actually
imperative. As for members of a club committee
glibly talking about their " powers," such a thing was
never dreamt of before the intrusion of the middle
class into West End life.
The arrogant and pompous attitude which is now
not seldom the appanage of a committee-man is an
entirely new thing. In the case of his being con
nected with the City, he often holds the ordinary
members in much the same estimation as he does his
clerks. He adores multiplying rules and regulations, and
calls for severe notice in cases of infraction. If any
improvement in club management is suggested, he is
supercilious, whilst towards even the most reason
able of complaints his attitude is unsympathetic, if
not positively impertinent.
Of the doings of the committee itself he speaks but
little — as he explains, he cannot divulge the delibera
tions of that august body, they are too serious. " Suf
fice it to say, that a letter from X. complaining of the
potatoes had been considered as deliberately wanting
in respect."
Some members of club committees, indeed, are so
engrossed in their self-importance as to forget that the
sole raison d'Hre of a committee is to ensure efficiency
even in the most minute details.
Owing to the dislike of club members in general
to create any serious agitation against even an un
popular committee, their real wishes are very often
ignored. Any serious change in the constitution of

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
a club requires a general meeting, and this, members,
as a rule, are disinclined to attend.
Up to 1 892 there had been no general annual meeting
of the members of Brooks's Club, the rule which enacted
that a general meeting should take place every May
being due to the efforts of the late Mr. Charles
Robarts. Brooks's Club is said to be so wealthy that
should it be dissolved each member would be entitled
to £200.
Much the same happy state prevails at the Garrick
Club, the members of which, were the club to end,
would each receive a substantial sum, for the pictures
which adorn the walls are in many cases of great
artistic and historical value. Within recent years
this club has been entirely redecorated, and the
beautiful works of art re-hung in a manner to display
their beauties to the best advantage. Many other
improvements have also been carried out, with the
result that the Garrick is now even more flourishing
than at any other period of its prosperous career.
Brooks's contains many interesting relics of the
past — amongst others a very fine pastel portrait of
Charles James Fox, executed by William Russell ;
whilst among other prints and pictures is a very
curious drawing by Rowlandson of the gambling
room at Brooks's in the olden time, when thousands
of pounds changed hands every evening. Some of
the old gaming counters are still preserved as relics
of these wild days. Brooks himself died in poverty,
the result, it is said, of large advances made to members.
A tradition was current that in order to escape the
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
rapacity of creditors Brooks was buried in a small
(still existing) vault under the pavement of St. James's
Street, a story which probably originated by the
smallness of this vault, which would just contain a
coffin. Brooks's predecessor was Almack, a Scotch
man, whose real name was Macall, and in his day the
club was called Almack's. As time went on, one,
Henry Banderet, became manager, or rather master
of the club, and to him is attributed the credit of
having produced that air of solemn and refined com
fort which has caused it to be said that dining at
Brooks's is like dining in a duke's house with the
duke lying dead upstairs. On Banderet's death, in
1880, the management was taken over by the club,
in the hands of which it still remains.
At Brooks's there is a club within a club, for here,
during the course of the Parliamentary session, are
held the meetings of the Fox Club, which was founded
in memory of Charles James Fox, a man who inspired
an affection in his friends which in certain cases
amounted almost to worship. Lord Macaulay, writing
in 1 83 1 , said, " Even now, after the lapse of five-and-
twenty years, there are those who cannot talk for a
quarter of an hour about Charles Fox without tears."
Nevertheless, Fox, who was a member of Brooks's at
sixteen, when it was the head-quarters of fashionable
play, was an inveterate gambler. He once sat playing
hazard for twenty-two consecutive hours, an exploit
which cost him £11,000. Ruined at twenty-five, he
was forced to live upon credit, which lasted till 1793,
when his friends raised £70,000, out of which his debts

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
were paid and an annuity purchased in order that he
might live at ease.
The exact origin of the Fox Club is not known,
but twenty-three members are recorded as having
been present at a dinner in February, 1829. Previous
to this " Fox Dinners," as they were called, seem to
have taken place, the club being but a later develop
ment of these. Up to 1843 the Fox Club used to
meet at the Clarendon, but in that year an applica
tion by sixteen members of the Fox Club to use the
great room for their meetings was favourably con
sidered. Ever since, the dinners have been held at
Brooks's, with which the Fox Club is now thoroughly
identified. No speeches are allowed, four toasts only
being given without note or comment. These are
the memory of Charles James Fox, Earl Grey and the
Reform Bill, the memory of Lord Holland, and the
memory of Lord John Russell.
Boodle's Club, in St. James's Street, seemed some
years ago to have fallen upon evil days, but since then
the whole system of management having been changed,
it is once more in a very flourishing condition. The
late proprietor of the club, Mr. Gayner, and after
him his sister, the late Miss Gayner, had conducted
the club upon very open-handed lines, allowing
members to run up accounts not infrequently reach
ing three figures, extraordinary leniency being shown
to those who either from choice or necessity did
not settle their bills. Eventually, from one cause and
another the club seemed to be on the verge of extinc
tion. Owing, however, to well-considered reforms
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
and a thorough sifting out of members, Boodle's,
under its present most capable secretary, has again
become one of the best in the West End. During
the reorganization certain alterations were made, but
at the same time care was taken not to impair the old-
world charm of the house, which from an architectural
point of view possesses considerable merit. Accord
ing to an old custom, the big dining-room at Boodle's
may not be used for dinner by anyone not wearing
evening dress, a more modest apartment being reserved
for those desiring to dine in day clothes. The saloon,
originally a gambling room, has been thoroughly
restored, and now forms a comfortable lounge ; a
spacious and well-proportioned room, it contains a finely
designed mantelpiece. Except the inkstands and a
few accessories which are of good design and execution,
there are no other works of art in this club calling for
mention, the hunting pictures on the staircase not
being of any particular value. A curious feature of
Boodle's is that the billiard-room is upstairs, a some
what inconvenient arrangement not infrequent in
old clubs.
In the days before the reconstitution of Boodle's,
the club was managed, not by a committee, but by a
species of mysterious secret tribunal, whose names
were supposed to be unknown, though their duties
were understood to correspond with those of an
ordinary club committee. The proceedings of this
body were conducted with the utmost secrecy, their
existence being only inferred by the fact that from
time to time, at intervals varying from six months to
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fifteen years, a printed notice made its appearance. The
subject-matter of this generally affected only dogs,
or strangers, both of whom old-fashioned members
regarded with almost equal dislike.
Such notices, signed " By order of the Managers,"
generally appealed to the " custom of the house
existing from time immemorial." This, although
unwritten, was then the only thing approaching to a
code of laws which existed.
The mode of election was also of a somewhat un
usual kind. Mr. Gayner would be seated by the
ballot box near the window in the back room on the
ground floor. In the adjoining front room opening
into it were the members who, as a candidate was
proposed, walked across, depositing black or white
balls according to their desires. This done, they
would retire again to the front room, when, after a
short time, Mr. Gayner would shout out " Elected," or
" Not elected," as the case might be. This ceremonial
was gone through separately for every candidate.
Mischievous rumours used to say that the proprietor
never troubled to make any very careful scrutiny of
the balls, any candidate whom he considered suitable
for election never being rejected, whilst one con
sidered undesirable was certain to be declared " Not
elected," even should there be no black balls in the box.
Mr. Gayner was an extremely kindly man and was
often of great assistance to members who for some
reason or other were in financial trouble. On one
occasion a young member who had recently joined
the club asked him whether he could indicate any
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
means of raising £500, as he had debts to that amount
which demanded immediate payment. " I can't
think of allowing you to go to the Jews," said Mr.
Gayner ; " come with me to my room, and I'll put
that all right." Arrived in the sanctum, he took
notes for the required amount and handed them to
the young man, telling him he might settle the debt
any time he liked. In a safe in this room there was
always about £2000 in new notes, which it was Mr.
Gayner's practice to use when cashing cheques or
making any advance.
At his death it is said he was owed over £10,000 by
membersfwhom he had assisted. A special clause in
Mi X
his will stated that no member of Boodle's was to be
asked for money.
During the lifetime of Mr. Gayner the club suffered
a severe blow by reason of the retirement of the
Duke of Beaufort and a number of other old members.
By an old custom of the house on certain evenings
there was a dinner, members taking part in which had
to put down their names beforehand. At these
dinners the cost of the wine, no matter whether a
man drank much or little, was pooled and equally
divided between every one. This custom, whilst
admirably suiting some of the older men who be
longed to a less temperate era, pressed rather heavily
upon those of a later generation, some of whom
scarcely drank anything at all. Keenly feeling the
injustice of an arrangement by which they were made
to pay for other people's wine, some of the latter
remonstrated with Mr. Gayner, pointing out to him
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
that a more equitable arrangement should be made.
The proprietor, realizing that such a protest was
founded upon good grounds, promised that matters
should be set right, and with this end in view spoke
of it to the Duke of Beaufort. The Duke, whilst
rather agreeing with Mr. Gayner, declared that he
would assent to nothing without the concurrence
of the older members of the club who were in the
habit of dining, and the majority of these on being
consulted energetically protested against any altera
tion in the old custom, which they had always found
to suit them very well. Upon this the Duke informed
Mr. Gayner that if any change was made he and these
members would leave the club. Mr. Gayner, how
ever, stood firm, saying he had given his promise and
must keep it, in consequence of which the Duke and
the " old guard " with him, carrying out their threat,
did actually leave the club.
The second crisis, however, which occurred just
before the reconstitution, was the really serious one.
Before the club had issued from this in a rejuvenated
form, an idea prevailed that the premises might be
acquired by the Royal Yacht Squadron, whose com
mittee meetings were held at Boodle's. If ever the
squadron should decide to establish an annexe in London
such a club would certainly take its place as one of the
most exclusive in the West End.
White's Club, which is a year older than the Bank
of England, is another West End institution which
has associations stretching far back into the past.
Established before the last of the Stuarts had left the
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
throne, the destinies of Great Britain were for many
years practically in the hands of certain of its members.
About twenty years ago White's, like so many other
clubs, completely changed its character and assumed
an air of sprightly insouciance which towards the
end of the old regime had been conspicuous by its
absence. The structural alterations, carried out under
the direction of Mr. Algernon Bourke, greatly improved
the house, the old courtyard being roofed over and
converted into a spacious billiard-room. In this
yard was the old well from which, up to quite recent
years, the water used in the club was drawn.
In 1866 the club was much agitated on the question
of smoking, the younger members wishing to be
allowed to smoke in the drawing-room, whilst the
older ones bitterly opposed such a proposal. A
general meeting was held to decide the question,
when a number of old gentlemen who had not been
seen in the club for years made their appearance,
stoutly determined to resist the proposed desecration.
" Where do all these old fossils come from ? " inquired
a member. " From Kensal Green," was Mr. Alfred
Montgomery's reply ; " their hearses are waiting to
take them back there."
The smoking motion was defeated, and as an in
direct result was founded the Marlborough Club,
where for the first time smoking, except in the dining-
room, was everywhere allowed. A period of unrest
followed, culminating in a crisis in 1888, when Mr.
Bourke assumed the management, and the club once
more entered upon an era of prosperity.
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On the walls of White's hangs an interesting collec
tion of engraved portraits of past and present members,
which constitutes a valuable historical record. It is
to be lamented that the fine old silver plate is no
longer in the possession of the club ; this, together
with certain other valuable relics of other days, was
disposed of some years ago. The old table of the
Sublime Society of Beefsteaks (now represented by
the Beefsteak Club), however, still remains, having
been acquired by White's about the time of its re-
constitution. There was formerly at White's, as in many other
clubs, a richly decorated piano. Within the last
twenty-five years the practice of having such instru
ments in clubs would seem to have completely died out.
The bow window, which at one time was quite an
institution of fashionable life, was not an original
feature of the building. It was formed out of the
old doorway in 1811, being built over the entrance
steps which may still be discerned underneath.
Arthur's Club, in St. James's Street, was the original
abode of White's, which occupied it from 1697 to
1755. It has, of course, been greatly altered and
enlarged since then. In the eighteenth century,
owing to the association of a Mr. Arthur with the
management of White's, the latter club was frequently
spoken of as Arthur's ; this naturally originated an
idea that the two clubs were at one time connected,
but such in reality was never the case, the presumed
parent of Arthur's having been a coffee-house of that
name.

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
At Arthur's is the original painting of the fanciful
arms of White's, designed at Strawberry Hill, a carved
copy only existing at White's. The original gaming
room used by members of White's also still exists here.
Whilst Arthur's possesses the original coat-of-arms
designed for White's, at White's, as has been said, is the
original table which was formerly the property of the
Sublime Society of Beefsteaks. On this are carved a
gridiron, mitre and cap. The table in question, around
which once sat Rich, Hogarth, Wilkes, and many other
celebrated men, was after many vicissitudes acquired
by White's Club at the period of its reconstruction.
It is of oak and capable of considerable expansion, a
circumstance that rendered it peculiarly suitable to
an old-world dining club, of which a long table was
such a prominent feature.
The Beefsteak Club moved into its present premises
in Green Street, Leicester Square, not very many
years ago, the room, or rather dining-hall, used by
the members being erected after a special design. A
feature of the high-pitched roof are the gridirons
very skilfully interpolated amidst the supporting
timbers. The walls of this club are hung with old
engravings mostly after Hogarth, and several relics
of the old Beefsteak Society are also displayed. A
number of Whistler's etchings are above the buffet,
on which stand several curious and valuable examples
of plate. No strangers, it may be added, are ever
admitted as visitors to this club.
A most prosperous institution, the Beefsteak worthily
perpetuates the traditions which it reassumed on the
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
foundation of the club in the early 'seventies ; it
represents, indeed, the old Sublime Society of Beef
steaks which had expired but a few years before.
In the eighteenth century a number of Beefsteak
clubs were in existence, Peg Woffington presiding
over one which was established at the theatre in
Dublin. Dr. Johnson belonged to another which had
its meetings in Ivy Lane, besides which other similar
clubs were established at Drury Lane and elsewhere.
A Beefsteak Club, however, which merits some
attention is the one at Cambridge, now for some
years in abeyance. This club, which used to meet
a certain number of times during the term, exactly
reproduced the dinner of the eighteenth century
when it was founded. As a rule, there were only four
or five members, but a limited number of guests
could be invited. The dining costume consisted of
a blue cut-away coat with brass buttons and buff
waistcoat, the tie being secured with a bull's head.
During dinner, principally composed of various dishes
of beef, beer only was drunk ; the toasts, which were
regulated by inflexible precedent, being honoured in
port, the glasses containing which were of a size
regulated by immemorial custom. One of these
toasts (added in the middle of the last century) was
the health of the late Mr. Bowes, who won the Derby
in 1835, when he was an undergraduate at Cambridge,
his horse, Mundig, after a tremendous struggle, beating
Lord Orford's Ascot on the post.
The dinners of the Beefsteak Club, enlivened by
music contributed by an old Cambridge musician
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
known as white-headed Bob, used to be given at the
" Red Lion," the head waiter of which hostelry,
Dunn by name, was supposed to be the only
individual alive accurately acquainted with the exact
rules and traditions of the club. In the course of
the evening the president had to singv a song, and many
other usages prevailed recalling a long-past era. For
some years past, owing probably to the more temperate
habits of the modern generation, no new members
seem to have been elected, but the fine silver plate,
which is of considerable value, is still kept ready for
the evening when the Beefsteak Club shall meet again.
It is to be regretted that no modification in the size
of the glasses was made ; these had to be tossed
off as bumpers in honour of the toasts ; the ancient
customs of the club causing a great deal more port
to be drunk than was good for the diners. Had
modifications been adopted suiting the altered habits
of the present age, there is no reason why this inter
esting old club should not be flourishing still. The
old-fashioned toasts and other quaint usages could
have been adequately honoured by allowing members
to drink as little as they liked, a sip of port taking the
place of the bumper quaffed with such zest by those
of a hard-drinking age.
Another Cambridge club which, though not boast
ing the antiquity of the Beefsteak yet retained some
thing of the spirit of the past, was the True Blue.
The dining costume worn by the members was
regular eighteenth century dress, including a white
wig. Like the Beefsteak, but very few members
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
belonged — essentially an exclusive club, the cost of
the equipment often deterred those who were selected,
as did also the rule that a new member must drink
off a bottle of claret at a draught, an unpleasant
custom which might well have been modified. Too
strict adherence to customs and usages instituted in a
widely different age has killed many a quaint old club,
which with judicious concessions might still be per
petuating the memory of long vanished ways.
The Dilettante Society is an instance of a dining
club which has retained its vitality up to the present
day. At its dinners, held at the Grafton Galleries,
certain old usages are still kept up. Any member
calling the "Society" the Club, for instance, has to
pay some petty fine, whilst the secretary when reading
the minutes puts on bands. The presence of these
somewhat ecclesiastical additions to costume in one
of the beautiful portraits belonging to this club once
caused the late Mr. Gladstone to take the picture
for that of a bishop, a mistake which caused a good
deal of amusement.
A curious little club which seems lately to have
taken a new lease of life (the interior having been
thoroughly renovated with due respect for old associa
tions) is Pratt's, just off St. James's Street. This little
club, like the Beefsteak, does not open till the late after
noon or evening, its main object being to afford its
members the opportunity of obtaining a simple supper
or a game of billiards, together with pleasant social
intercourse. The supper is eaten in a room called
the kitchen. Up to quite recently cribbage for very
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minute points was the only card game played in this
club, but bridge is now played. There has been
some talk of adding a certain number of bedrooms to
Pratt's, such an addition having proved very popular
at several other clubs.
A modern innovation, club bedrooms are almost
invariably in great request ; so popular are they that
in some cases a rule exists by which no member may
occupy a bedroom for longer than a certain limit of
time. On the other hand, members may reside all
the year round at a few clubs, to which they pay a
yearly rent. The advantages of living in one's club
for a bachelor are very great. Here he may have all
the comforts of a private house without its worries,
in addition to which every species of convenience in
the way of telephones and other trouble-saving con
trivances are at his immediate service.
The club of the future no doubt will, in addition to
bedrooms, afford its members luxuries such as a
barber's shop and a swimming bath. In certain cases
this has been done already, for a barber attends daily
at White's, whilst the swimming bath at the Bath
Club is one of the features of that admirably managed
and prosperous institution.
Certain of the Paris clubs have gone even further
than this in the provision of amusements for their
members, theatrophones and even boxes at the
theatres being provided for their use. One " cercle "
rents a fairly good shooting in the environs of the
capital, where on payment of a small additional sub
scription members may indulge in sport. If, how-
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
ever, report speaks truly, participation in the sport
is not unaccompanied by danger.
Standing by the board on which was the announce
ment of one of these club battues, an English visitor
inquired of an old Frenchman, who was pensively
scanning the regulations issued in the interests of
safety, " Have you ever been ? " " Une fois seule-
ment," was the solemn reply, " deux fois c'est
la mort" — after which disquieting rejoinder the
Englishman decided not to go.
Whilst many of the older clubs are not so popular
as in former days, the service clubs, owing to their
connection with the Army and Navy, are always sure
of a steady flow of candidates. The Rag, for instance,
remains as popular as ever.
Established in 1838 as the Army and Navy Club,
its first premises were at the corner of King Street and
St. James's Square. Originally it was called the Army
Club, but the Duke of Wellington desired that the
Navy should be represented as well.
In 1848 the Army and Navy Club moved to Pall
Mall, the design for the present house being a copy
of the Palazzo Rezzonico at Venice. The model for
the design is preserved in the club. The familiar
name of the " Rag," by which it is generally known,
was invented by Captain William Duff, of the 23rd
Fusiliers. Billy Duff was a celebrated man about
town at a time when knocker wrenching and other
similar pranks were in favour ; his exploits in such a
line were notorious. Coming in to supper late one
night, the refreshment obtainable appeared so meagre
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
that he nicknamed the club the " Rag and Famish."
This tickled the fancy of the members, and a club
button bearing the nickname and a starving man
gnawing a bone was designed, and for a time worn a
good deal in evening dress.
The Army and Navy contains some interesting
relics, amongst them a mantelpiece from the Mal-
maison carved by Canova. Over the fireplace of the
outer smoking-room is Nell Gwynne's mirror — this
was originally in Lord de Mauley's house, which was
demolished when the present club was built. Another
relic of this lady is a silver fruit knife dated 1680.
There are also prints of Nell Gwynne, but a portrait
which is supposed to represent her is in reality another
flame of Charles II, Louise de Querouaille, Duchess
of Portsmouth.
Napoleon III lived much in the club when an exile
from France, and some Gobelins tapestry was sent
over as a present by him after he had become Emperor
of the French. In this club is also a portrait miniature
of Lady Hamilton, found in Nelson's cabin after
Trafalgar. Other military and naval prints and
pictures adorn the walls.
In March, 1862, a party of officers, for the most
part belonging to the Buffs, a regiment then quartered
at the Tower of London, founded the Naval and
Military Club ; at that time the only purely Service
clubs in London were the United Service, Junior
United Service, and Army and Navy. At the first
premises, No. 18 Clifford Street, there were but
a hundred and fifty members, but the success of the
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
club being immediate, a larger house, No. 22 Hanover
Square, was secured, and in 1866 again, owing to over
crowding, Cambridge House, once the residence of
Lord Palmerston, opened its doors, the Naval and
Military being the first regular club to be located in
Piccadilly. Besides some fine heads — spoils of the chase pre
sented by members — this club contains marble busts
of Wellington and Napoleon, as well as several por
traits of royal personages, battle scenes, and the like.
A feature in the corridor is the Roll of Honour,
on which is inscribed the names of members who have
died for their country.
The Guards' Club, in Pall Mall, was built in 1850,
its original premises having been in St. James's Street.
Like many other West End clubs, its early beginnings
arose at a coffee-house, which formed a convenient
meeting place for officers.
In St. James's Street also arose the Cocoa Tree, at
which faro and hazard were played for very large
sums. Though the Cocoa Tree was frequented by a
number of men of fashion and rank, it never quite
attained the position held by White's and Brooks's,
where play also prevailed.
At the present day there is practically no gambling
in London clubs, bridge for moderate points being
the only game which is at all generally played. The
days of high play at cards, such as a hundred years ago
prevailed at Brooks's and White's, are probably gone
for ever; the spirit of the age is now unfavourable
towards gambling at cards, speculation being a more
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
discreet method of getting rid of money, and also
in most cases a more insidious and dangerous one.
With the introduction of bridge, whist began to
decline. In clubs to-day it is practically defunct. The
lengthy and savage fight between the " long-whist "
and the " short-whist " men is now forgotten, yet
at one time it excited a considerable amount of in
terest. The introduction of short whist has been
attributed to two different causes. " Major A," the
author of " Short Whist," a book which was famous
in the middle of the present century, gives the follow
ing account of its origin : " This revolution was oc
casioned by a worthy Welsh baronet preferring his
lobster for supper hot. Four first-rate whist players
— consequently four great men — adjourned from the
House of Commons to Brooks's, and proposed a
rubber while the cook was busy. " The lobster must
be hot," said the baronet. " A rubber may last an
hour," said another, " and the lobster may be cold
again or spoiled before we finish." " It is too long,"
said a third. " Let us cut it shorter," said the fourth.
Carried nem. con. Down they sat, and found it very
lively to win or lose so much quicker. Besides fur
nishing conversation for supper, the thing was new —
they were legislators, and had a fine opportunity to
exercise their calling.
The other version was supplied by James Clay,
who was one of the principal authorities on whist
in his day. His account is as follows :
" Some eighty years back Lord Peterborough,
having one night lost a large sum of money, the
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friends with whom he was playing proposed to make
the game five points instead of ten, in order to give the
loser a chance, at a quicker game, of recovering his
loss. The late Mr. Hoare, of Bath, a very good
whist player, and without a superior at piquet, was
one of this party, and used frequently to tell this
story." Whatever the origin of short whist may have been,
the controversy between the advocates of long whist
and those who supported the new game was as bitter
as the struggle now being waged between the High
Church Party and the Low Church. Life-long friend
ships were torn asunder, heirs were cut off with a
shilling, and blameless reputations were blasted. In
novators always are hated, and have their characters
blackened by those who have grown too old to care
for the new or are too unintelligent. The clergy to
a man were for long whist.
The laws of whist were first codified in England at
the instance of Mr. Baldwin. The Turf Club, in
1863, was called the Arlington. The matter was
suggested to the committee of the Arlington, and the
following members were appointed to carry out the
work :
Geo. Bentinck, M.P. for West Norfolk; John
Bushe, son of the Chief Justice of " Patronage fame ; "
J. Clay, M.P., chairman ; Chas. C. Greville, Sir
Rainald Knightley, M.P., H. B. Mayne, C. Payne,
and Col. Ripon. When completed the code was sub
mitted to the Portland Club, and a committee of this,
the chief whist club of the country, considered its
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contents. This committee consisted of H. D. Jones,
chairman (he was the father of the late " Caven
dish," who died in 1899); Chas. Adams, W. F.
Baring, H. Fitzroy, Samuel Petrie, H. M. Riddell, and
R. Wheble. It was on April 30th, 1864, that the
code was officially sanctioned — a red-letter day in the
annals of whist of far greater importance to many
players than the signing of the Magna Charta, the
Declaration of American Independence, or the adop
tion of Free Trade.
Deschappelles, the celebrated whist player in the
reign of Louis Philippe, was suspected of being en
gaged in organizing a revolution. His papers were
seized — amongst them was a list of those who were
to be proscribed when the Government had been
upset. The following entry is worthy of being re
called : " Vatry (Alphie) to be guillotined. Reason —
useless citizen." Vatry played whist indifferently !
In the early part of the last century clubs which
were practically casinos flourished freely in the West
End. Crockford's, on the site of which the Devon
shire Club now stands, was nothing but a gaming
house of a very high-class description. Wattier's, at the
corner of Bolton Street and Piccadilly, was also for a
time a fashionable place for play. Some time later
was started the Coventry House Club, which at
106 Piccadilly furnished its members with an excellent
supper, for which no charge was made. Though
high gambling seems to have been one of the objects
of this club, it was of a different nature from that
indulged in at the institutions mentioned above.
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From time to time there has been a revival of the
gambling spirit in certain clubs, but such outbursts
are generally of but short duration. About twenty
years ago the Park and afterwards the Field Club were
started. At these baccarat was played, the clubs in
question being in reality nothing but miniature casinos,
to which, however, hardly anyone not well equipped
with funds was admitted. A celebrated trial, during
which the ruling was given that baccarat was an
illegal game, put an end to the Park Club, and the
Field Club, which was carried on rather more quietly,
did not long survive, being raided by the police.
On this occasion it is said a high legal luminary,
well known for his love of cards, narrowly escaped
implication by being smuggled away under circum
stances of the greatest difficulty.
He was not like another ornament of the bench who
tried a famous case dealing with the legality of bacca
rat ; a game of which he owned himself completely
ignorant. In allusion to this Lord Chief Justice's well-known
somnolence, another judge is said to have remarked
that if his Lordship was ignorant of baccarat, he had
a considerable acquaintance with the game of " nap."
Many men who in the quiet seclusion of the home
circle inveigh against gambling of every kind, have
occasionally indulged in exciting play. At a certain
club where high stakes were the rule a prominent
member of this kind, having been forced to resign
owing to an irregularity with his settlement, satisfac
torily explained the matter to his family by stating
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that his efforts to check gambling had been so in
effectual that, thoroughly disheartened, he had given
up the club ?
In Paris, of course, baccarat, that is to say, the heavy
percentage levied on the banks, forms one of the
principal sources of a club's income, the French
viewing the whole question of gambling in an en
tirely different manner from that popular in this
island. Regulation, which has been applied with the
most satisfactory results to betting upon the French
Turf, also prevails in clubs, where everything in connec
tion with play has to be carried out in accordance
with certain sensible rules drawn up by those well
fitted to deal with such matters. In England the
cry is ever for suppression of evils, which all dowered
with worldly experience know cannot be suppressed.
Bishops, divines, and others who from the very neces
sity of things can know little of gambling or betting,
deliver pronouncements as to the need for rigorous
measures. These as a rule are generally welcomed
with solemn respect. Betting and gambling are by
general consent disreputable, but whether they are
suppressed or not, the large section of the public
which adores speculation knows that the Stock
Exchange will always be on hand to afford it easy
and discreet facilities for tempting fortune.

242

VII

TT is a well-known and acknowledged fact that
the artistic glories of a city are the least appre
ciated by its permanent inhabitants, a truism which
certainly holds good as regards London.
Whilst there is every year a rush to the exhibition
of the Royal Academy at Burlington House, the won
derful art collections at South Kensington and at
Manchester Square are at no time uncomfortably
crowded. The same observation applies to other
national treasure houses ; a certain number of people
interested in artistic matters are still quite unaware
of the wonderful collection of English mezzotint
portraits, the bequest of the late Lord Cheylesmore,
which may be seen at the British Museum.
Year by year the nation, more owing to private
generosity than anything else, acquires an artistic
heritage which, already of great value, must become
priceless in the future.
Whilst there seems to be no thoroughly representa
tive national collection of English furniture and
objets d,art of the eighteenth century, the Metropolis
is especially rich in examples of the best work of the
French ebenistes of this period. In the Jones Col
lection at South Kensington and the Wallace Collec-
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tion at Hertford House are a number of the finest
pieces in existence.
The Wallace Collection, which is now one of the
attractions of the Metropolis, is generally supposed
to have found a permanent home in England on
account of some offence having been given to Lady
Wallace by the Government of France, of which
country she was originally a native. It has been some
times said, indeed, that its unsympathetic reception
of certain overtures made by her was the cause of an
alteration in her will by which the superb assemblage
of objets fart, collected by the two Lords Hertford
and her husband, Sir Richard Wallace, found a per
manent resting-place in Manchester Square.
This story is untrue. The real facts, drawn from
an unimpeachable authority, are as follows : —
The late Sir Richard Wallace, notwithstanding his
long residence in France, was a pure Englishman at
heart and cherished the warmest affection for his
country. He never for one moment thought of
leaving the collection to France ; indeed, at one time
it was mooted that Sir Richard had actually offered
it as a gift to England — a rumour, however, not based
on fact. The truth is that he always gave Sir John
Murray Scott (at that time Mr. Murray Scott, who
was his private secretary and whom he treated as a
son) to understand that eventually all his art treasures
should be left to him. " After our deaths," he used
to say, " do with it just as you please."
Sir Richard Wallace, during his illness, which lasted
for four years, never altered the will which he had
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made about the year 1878. By this he left practically
everything to Lady Wallace, who was confided to the
care of Sir John Murray Scott.
After Sir Richard's death Lady Wallace informed
Sir John Murray Scott that, warmly appreciative of
his kindness and devotion to her late husband and
herself, she had decided to leave him everything, he
being, as she added, the only friend whom she had in
the world.
In reply to this Sir John Murray Scott, with an un
selfish spirit of patriotic generosity — after having first
told her all that he knew of Sir Richard's wishes,
except with regard to himself — said he would much
prefer that this collection, in the arrangement of which
her late husband had taken so much interest, should
be bequeathed to the English nation, and, finding a
permanent home in London, should there remain as
a memorial to Sir Richard and herself.
Lady Wallace, in reply, then said " that she would
do exactly as he decided," and at his repeated sug
gestion in due course bequeathed the collection to the
English nation. Thus did the Wallace Collection
become one of our national heirlooms. The dis
interested and public-spirited action of Sir John
Murray Scott, however, is not sufficiently realized by
the public who benefit thereby.
Of the marvellous wealth of objets fart contained
in this collection it is almost superfluous to speak,
Hertford House being one of the great treasure houses
celebrated throughout the civilized world. The result
of the discriminating and cultivated taste of three
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great collectors, it bears striking witness to that sense
of the beautiful with which they were pre-eminently
endowed. Much of the best work of the great French
ebenistes is here, together with priceless china and
pictures which, collectively, hardly a king's ransom
could buy.
The arrangement of the various treasures is as good
as space will allow ; whilst the whole collection is care
fully supervised by Mr. Claude Phillips, himself a man
of wide artistic knowledge and cultivated taste.
For certain pictures and pieces of furniture very
large prices were paid, even in the days when such
things were not valued as highly as they are to-day.
The fourth Lord Hertford did not, of course, pay such
large prices for the treasures he collected as did Sir
Richard Wallace, in whose day the value of such things
had greatly increased. Lord Hertford owned No. 2
Rue Laffitte, but did not occupy the whole house.
The entresol he let to Demetri Nesselrode, who is
supposed to have been the prototype of the villain in
the " Dames aux Perles," of Dumas ; the second floor
to Mr. Frederick Hankey, who, like his landlord, was
also a collector. The suite of rooms occupied by
Lord Hertford himself on the first floor, overlooking
the boulevard, was said to be the most luxurious in
Paris. It contained rooms furnished respectively in
the styles of Louis Quatorze, Quinze, and Seize, the
only flaw in this scheme of decoration being the fire-
dogs or andirons in the Louis Quinze room, which
experts critized as being of the period of Louis XVI.
Lord Hertford, unlike Sir Richard Wallace, was
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not a collector of armour, the beautiful sets now in
the Wallace Collection being acquired by the latter.
For certain historical pieces Sir Richard paid very
large sums. A notable instance of this was the set of
silver armour which was formerly the property of
Lord Ashburnham, and had been somewhat damaged
during the great fire at the Pantechnicon, in which it
had been stored.
The collection of clocks at Hertford House is quite
incomparable, containing, as it does, a number of the
best specimens made during the reign of Louis XIV,
when clockmakers carried their work to a high pitch
of artistic perfection. There are also some wonder
fully beautiful timepieces of somewhat later date,
amongst them masterpieces of the great Caffieri, the
marvellous worker in metal, one of the highly artistic
family of that name which originally had been brought
from Italy to France by Cardinal Mazarin in order
to furnish the elaborate carving — a striking feature
of warships in the time of the " Roi Soleil."
Hertford House was once the French Embassy, at
which time the Comte de Saint Aulaire was the am
bassador. Lord Hertford, it is said, desired to remove
the pictures, but abandoned this scheme on account of
the opposition of his tenant, who insisted that if it
were carried out the whole house should be thoroughly
redecorated. In the Wallace Collection are no less than twelve
pictures by Watteau. The Louvre, in Paris, has not
a quarter of this number !
The Boucher pictures are said to have belonged to
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a set of sixty painted by the artist for Louis XV.
The majority of these were extremely free, some even
objectionably so. When Louis XVI became king he is
supposed to have ordered his minister, M. de Maurepas,
to have them burnt ; the latter, however, disobeyed
the order and had the pictures secretly conveyed to
his own house. In course of time some of them came
into the possession of Lord Hertford, who made a
present of a few to Madame Oger, a lady who lived
in the house facing what is now the Turf Club. One
of these paintings was eventually sold at Christie's,
but others submitted to that firm were rejected on
account of the subject with which they dealt. The
Bouchers at Hertford House are the least objectionable
of the series, which Lord Hertford retained for him
self. The Titian in this collection is said to be only a
copy of the memorable " Rape of Europa."
Lord Hertford was well aware of his own gifts as a
shrewd connoisseur, and used jokingly to say that he
only hoped he might live to be present at the sale of
the great collection which he possessed.
The Hasards Heureux de l'Escarpolette, which at
Hertford House is called the swing, was formerly in
the possession of the Due de Morny. At his sale, in
1865, Lord Hertford secured it for 30,200 francs.
Since those days it has, of course, enormously increased
in value. A replica of this painting, slightly different
in detail, belongs to Baron Edmond de Rothschild.
At the time when Lady Wallace's splendid bequest
took effect it was declared that the fifteen Meis-
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soniers were fast going to destruction owing to the
rapid peeling of their surface. The disaster in question
would, however, seem to have been arrested, as
nothing has been heard of the matter in recent years.
The value of the art treasures which, owing to the
self-sacrificing and patriotic action of Sir John Murray
Scott, have found a permanent home in Manchester
Square, can hardly be estimated. Ten years ago an
eminent European expert put it at something between
five and six millions of money. At that time a pro
minent London dealer was said to have been prepared
to offer a quarter of a million of money for the con
tents of Lady Wallace's boudoir alone !
No casual estimate, of course, can be taken as being
mathematically correct, but certain is it that no
collection of such value has ever before been pre
sented to a nation by a private person.
Lord Hertford, and Sir Richard Wallace after him,
of course enjoyed opportunities as collectors which in
all probability will never occur again, for every year
a certain number of the finest art treasures are for
ever withdrawn from the market, passing either by
bequest, gift, or purchase into national collections on
both sides of the Atlantic. Nevertheless great finds
have of late years been made in quite unexpected
places. In the Guelph Exhibition held some years ago at
the New Gallery, in Regent Street, hung a portrait
of Mrs. Billiter, the actress, by Hoppner. This some
years before had been acquired by Mrs. Bischoffsheim,
who, happening to be lunching at the Railway Hotel
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at Huddersfield with the late Lord Rosslyn, was greatly
attracted by it, eventually becoming its possessor for
something under ten pounds. The railway authorities
had purchased the house as it stood from a former
proprietor, and as no artistically experienced director
had investigated its contents the company had no
notion of the value of the portrait.
As a rule, collectors are very good-natured about
lending their pictures for public exhibition, and
seldom is it that any unpleasant incident is the result.
Such a thing, however, did happen in connection with
Sir John Millais' picture, " A Flood." Mr. Mathews,
to whom it belonged, had lent it to the committee of
the Grosvenor Gallery for the Winter Exhibition ;
but, previous to the opening of the latter, Sir John
Millais is said to have visited the gallery and painted
in the crows, which now still remain on the canvas.
Mr. Mathews was highly indignant thereat, and from
that period absolutely refused to exhibit any of the
art treasures in his collection.
The practice of enclosing valuable pictures in cover
ings during their owner's absence from home is ac
companied by dangers almost universally overlooked.
The late Lord Ashburton, it was said, owed the de
struction of some of his finest pictures at Bath House,
Piccadilly, entirely to this cause. A smouldering
match which had been let fall on the floor originated
this fire, the flames of which, catching the coverings
of the pictures, raged round the walls, consuming the
canvas and leaving the frames little more than singed.
As a matter of fact, the only picture which escaped all
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damage in the burnt-out room was one attributed to
Leonardo da Vinci, which stood on an easel isolated in
the centre of the room.
Strange vicissitudes sometimes happen to pictures
when they fall into the hands of eccentric people.
There were in the Leyland Collection four eccentric-
looking pictures by Botticelli, illustrating scenes from
a story of Boccaccio. In these there were certain nude
figures of a woman being hunted by a black and a
white dog. Before this series came into the possession
of the late Mr. Leyland they had belonged to a Mr.
Barker, and at his request an artist was procured to
drape the figures to which allusion has been made.
When the pictures were secured by Mr. Leyland he
sent for the same artist to undo his previous work and
restore the figures to their original nudity. After
Mr. Leyland's death this set was bought by Mr. Martin
Colnaghi for the Lyons Museum, the price paid being
thirteen hundred guineas.
The strange adventures of the lost portrait of the
Duchess of Devonshire and the circumstances con
nected with the recovery by the Messrs. Agnew recall
a Somewhat similar picture robbery which happened
in the early 'forties of the nineteenth century. On
that occasion several valuable pictures which belonged
to Lord Suffolk, and were at his place Charlton, in
Wiltshire, were cut from their frames and disappeared.
Several years after the theft the pictures were dis
covered in a small house in a poor district of London.
The thief had been unable to dispose of them, and so
they remained where they had been hidden until they
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were accidentally lecovered. Most of the canvases
were very large, and it is still a mystery how the thief
— who was a servant at Charlton — was able to smuggle
them out of the house.
Occasionally works of art of the highest value are
completely overlooked by their owners.
Mr. Strong, the well-known librarian, whilst em
ployed in cataloguing the late Duke of Devonshire's
library at Chatsworth, discovered a little bronze bust
in a cupboard, which so attracted him that he wrote
to the Duke begging him to let him know if anything
of its history was remembered. The Duke wrote back
that he perfectly remembered the bust. He had, he
said, always been assured that it belonged to a bad
period and was of no value. Mr. Strong, however,
thought otherwise, and an English expert was sum
moned to Chatsworth to pronounce an opinion upon
the bust. This expert at once decided that it belonged
to a bad period and was of no value. Nevertheless
Mr. Strong still maintained his original opinion. At
his own expense he travelled to Berlin, and persuaded
the great German authority there on this subject to
return with him to Chatsworth. The instant the
latter sighted the bust he sent up a shout of delight ;
the bust in question was one of the four bronze
masterpieces of the world !
Many unsuspected treasures still lie forgotten in
remote country houses ; whilst prints, pictures, and
books of considerable value are often quite unappre
ciated by their owners. There must, for instance, be
a huge number of portraits by Count d'Orsay still in
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existence. Though little attention is paid to them,
such portraits are by no means devoid of interest.
Indeed, it seems strange that in these days, when
exhibitions of drawings, pictures, and the like illus
trating the past are so popular, no enterprising
exhibitor has ever attempted to hold a " d'Orsay Loan
Exhibition," for a collection of those portraits should
be peculiarly interesting.
No one seems to have remembered that when
Count d'Orsay was in England he made sketches of
most of the well-known men of the day. Many of
these portraits would be easily accessible. They are
to be found in most country houses of any importance.
Those who were able to remember some of the
originals used to declare that these likenesses were very
faithful representations of the men who sat for them.
Count d'Orsay was by no means deficient in artistic
talent ; he is, however, always remembered only as a
supreme dandy, it being generally assumed that he
was the king of fashion in England for twenty years.
This is not strictly correct. The truth is that d'Orsay
was a very agreeable fellow, remarkable for social tact,
good humour, and good sense. He exercised con
siderable influence in a particular set at a time when
the autocrats of fashion had been dethroned or had
abdicated and a somewhat lower class was beginning
to push its way to the front. Count d'Orsay had very
few imitators, and his notoriety rested, in some
measure, upon his singularity. Those who knew him
well had a real regard for him on account of his fine
ness of perception, his geniality, and his wit. Never-
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theless, when he returned to France with Lady
Blessington in 1848 his countrymen would not or
could not understand what the English had dis
covered in him.
Of late years enormous prices have been more or
less the rule at celebrated sales, which have, in certain
cases, acquired quite a sensational interest. The dis
posal of well-known collections, even before the era
of the millionaire collector, always attracted a good
deal of attention. At one time or other a large pro
portion of the pictures and works of art in this country
have found their way to the familiar auction rooms in
King Street.
Mr. James Christie, the founder of the celebrated
firm of auctioneers — Messrs. Christie, Manson, and
Woods — issued his first catalogue as far back as 1766.
His offices then were in Castle Street, Oxford Street,
and the "Great Room" in Pall Mall. He com
menced business next door to where Gainsborough,
the painter, then lived, and Christie introduced to the
latter some of his best clients. To mark his gratitude
for his kindness in this direction, Gainsborough painted
the fine whole-length portrait of Mr. James Christie,
still the property of the family. In 1897 an admirable
marble medallion of the founder of the firm, sculptured
by Mr. Brock, r.a., from a drawing by Rowlandson,
was set up over the inner doors leading to the auction
rooms in King Street, St. James's.
In 1892 all the chief representatives of the art
world of Europe daily assembled in King Street,
in order to attend the sale of the vast collection of
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bric-a-brac left behind by the late Samson Wer-
theimer, the celebrated New Bond Street art dealer.
The prices realized, however, were generally accounted
to be below those which had been anticipated. Never
theless, as the firm was, of course, well aware of the
market value of the objets fart sold, nothing could
have been allowed to pass out of its hands at a loss.
At the sale of the Clancarty Collection the previous
week the conditions were naturally different. No one
had the slightest means of ascertaining what price had
been paid by the " virtuoso " Lord Clancarty for his
various treasures ; indeed, all that the experts had to
rely upon for guidance was their own judgment.
Thus a certain picture was purchased for five pounds
by a leading connoisseur peer which possessed an in
trinsic value of almost as many hundreds, and which,
moreover, had completely escaped the notice of the
professional experts.
During the same season the following sales also took
place at Christie's. They deserve to be placed on
record as striking signs of the times.
17th May. The collection of old silver plate belong
ing to the late Lord Sydney, formerly the property
of the Duke of Sussex.
1 8th May. The collection of silver and silver-gilt
plate, porcelain, and pictures, the property of the late
Sir Charles Wingfield ; also his library.
21st May. Sale of the celebrated Petworth Collec
tion, the property of Lord Leconfield, and formerly
belonging to the late Lord Egremont.
26th May. The well-known collection of oldlporce-
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lain, furniture, pictures, etc., the property of the late
E. R. Leyland.
Mr. Leyland, it may be added, left an immense
fortune. His successor, however, did not profess the
same devotion for art ; hence a sale, the reason for
which seemed obscure to many.
2nd June. Sale of portraits, miniatures, and works of
art, the property of the late Lord Westmorland.
26th June. Sale of the celebrated gallery of pictures
formerly belonging to the late Earl of Dudley.
10th June. Sale of the magnificent Colworth Collec
tion, the property of the late Mr. Charles Magniac.
This, of course, was the art sensation of the season.
This collection comprised a vast number of im
portant pictures, exquisite Limoges enamels, magnifi
cent gold and silver work, armour, antique furniture,
and miniatures. It extended over a period of several
days, and attracted buyers from every part of the
Continent and the New World.
In spite, however, of the great attention which was
excited by the announcement of this sale the prices
realized were something of a disappointment to the
executors and family of the late Mr. Charles Magniac.
At one time, it is said, predictions were confidently
made that the sale would bring in some £400,000.
The total, however, reached was only £103,000, far
less than the lowest of any forecast. A catalogue of
this collection was formerly extant in which was re
corded the original prices paid by all of the three
members of the Magniac family, who in as many
generations formed the collection. According to this
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not very much over £20,000 was originally spent in
its acquisition. It must, however, be remembered
that in the earlier days of the century works of art
did not command such excessive prices as has of late
years been the case. As a matter of fact, the margin
of profit as between the reputed original cost of the
Colworth Collection and the total which was secured
at Christie's fairly represented the increase in value of
works of art since the formation of the collection.
Another disappointment was the sale of a portion
of the gallery collected by the late Lord Cheylesmore.
This exhibited a sorry falling off in prices from what
was secured a week before at the sale of certain of the
Murietta pictures. Contrary to the general impres
sion, Messrs. Agnew did not purchase the celebrated
" Monarch of the Glen," by Landseer, for Lord
Iveagh. The present Lord Cheylesmore bought back
four pictures from the collection.
In the same year a number of water-colour sketches
by Turner were sold at these auction rooms. The
owner's father, Mr. Faux, had been an intimate friend
of Turner, and the collection, consisting of fifty views
of the Rhine, was originally executed to his order at a
cost of ten pounds apiece. Some mystification pre
vailed as to why the owner — a man of wealth — was
parting with such a unique collection.
Objets fart belonging to royalty seldom find their
way to the auction rooms ; the sale of various posses
sions having belonged to the late Duke of Cambridge
therefore naturally attracted a good deal of attention,
as did also that of the Duke of Sussex's collection
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some nine years ago. The present King, then Prince
of Wales, and other royalties, together with half the
art-loving world of London, visited Christie's to in
spect the treasures which had been gathered together
by the uncle of Queen Victoria. The Duke was
married first morganatically, his wife being created
Duchess of Inverness. She lived for many years
at Kensington Palace, and at her death this collec
tion passed into other hands, circumstances even
tually causing its disposal at auction. The chief
objects of interest, however, in the day's sale came
from another source. These were an exquisite pair
of Louis XVI open-work vases of ivory and ormolu,
which Messrs. Duveen bought for £1680, this being
far and away the highest figure reached in the day's
sale. The vases were thirteen inches high, the work
manship being of a very fine description.
During the present year (1908) some quite extra
ordinary prices have been realized, a sum close upon
half a million having been expended in the purchase
of art treasures put up to auction in London sale
rooms. The Holland pictures fetched just over one
hundred and thirty-eight thousand pounds (£138,118
is.), and the Humphrey Roberts collection nearly
sixty-six (£65,677 5s.).
A remarkable feature has been the large sums given
for works by two English artists — Turner and Walker,
oil and water colour pictures by the former having
realized over fifty-three thousand pounds, whilst
nearly thirteen thousand was expended in the pur
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An important sale of porcelain was that of the
Dickens collection, which fetched the sum of £19,839
15s. The Ismay books and pictures also realized large
prices, the total of which amounted to over twenty-
eight thousand pounds.
The most notable sale, however, of the season was
perhaps the one which did not come off. It had
been the laudable intention of Mr. John Gooch to
dispose of his collection of old masters with a view to
founding a home for necessitous people with the large
sum which his pictures should realize.
Disappointment, however, was the result. For
eleven of his Rembrandts only £899 17s. was bid ;
three pictures by Rubens fared even worse, the highest
bid being £42 10s. The climax, however, Was reached
in the case of a Murillo, for which but twelve guineas
was offered; after this the proceedings were stopped.
That much may be learnt from frequenting
Christie's is an undeniable fact. Here it was that
Mr. Jones, the donor of the celebrated collection now
at the Victoria and Albert Museum, acquired the
knowledge which enabled him to accumulate that
wonderful assemblage of French furniture and china
which he bequeathed for the benefit of the nation in
a wiU made some three years before his death. For a
comparatively long period of time before he com
menced to buy, Mr. Jones was in the habit of making
a careful and constant inspection of the various objets
fart sent to these auction rooms to be put up for sale.
In this way he refined his taste and became a fine judge
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of those particular forms of art which are so richly
represented in the collection.
John Jones, who was born in the early days of the
nineteenth century, was originally a tailor at No. 6
Waterloo Place, having a branch establishment of his
business in Dublin. In 1850 he retired, though still
living over his business premises till 1865, when he
purchased the lease of No. 95 Piccadilly ; here he
lived till his death seventeen years later. It was
during his residence in this house that his collection
was formed, every corner of it being filled with the
most priceless works of art. This house was after
Mr. Jones's death pulled down, though its associations
with collecting were to some extent continued by the
late Colonel Leopold Seymour, who possessed a good
many specimens of French eighteenth century art.
At the time when the Jones Collection was left to
South Kensington certain individuals in authority-
there were inclined to reject it contemptuously, de
claring that the Museum did not want kitchen stuff.
William Morris, it will be remembered, called the
wonderful work of the old French ebenistes " Bankers'
furniture." The fine collection of French furniture and china
gathered together at Windsor Castle by George IV
was almost entirely chosen by His Majesty's French
cook, who was a great connoisseur in such matters.
He was commissioned by the King on various occa
sions to visit France on purpose to purchase all such
specimens as might meet with his approval. In the
course of time a good many art treasures mysteriously
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disappeared from the Castle, there being no complete
catalogue in existence. This, however, was rectified
some seventeen years ago, when a complete inventory
was compiled and every article carefully numbered, so
as to prevent any further depredations. A particularly
fine specimen of French furniture once in this collec
tion found its way to the hammer in London many
years ago. About £15,000 was paid for it, George IV
having originally given about one-eighth of that sum.
Towards the end of George IV's life considerable
depredations took place, for which certain persons
about the Court, one of whom was a well-known lady
of rank, are supposed to have been responsible. There
seems to be little doubt that several of the jewels were
abstracted from the crown, and also that much of the
royal plate was improperly given away. There are
stories told of great physicians of the day being paid
by gifts of plate from the royal chests instead of re
ceiving fees.
The true collector is indefatigable in the pursuit of
any particular treasures which he may desire to obtain.
No one was more active in this respect than the late
Due d'Aumale.
Jean Fouquet, the eminent French painter, who
flourished in the fifteenth century, illustrated a
" Livre d'Heures " for Chevallier, who was Minister
to Charles VII and to Louis XI. The book contained
fifty exquisitely finished miniatures. Many years ago
this " Livre d'Heures " fell into the hands of some one
who cut out the fifty pictures, sold forty of them to a
Frankfort dealer for £200, and burned the book. The
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Due d'Aumale got to know of this, and bought these
forty miniatures for his collection at Chantilly, paying
as much as £10,000 for them ! Of the ten illustrations
that remain scattered about, it appears that only one
can be traced. This is at the British Museum.
Examples of the work of Jean Fouquet are very scarce.
There is a portrait of Charles VII by Fouquet at the
Louvre, but there is no painting of his in the National
Gallery in Trafalgar Square.
The late Sir Henry Layard was, as is well known,
an ardent collector. On one occasion he caused much
excitement through a certain transaction which
brought into his possession some valuable mirrors that
had been bestowed upon a Spanish ecclesiastical in
stitution by a pious benefactor. The mirrors were
very old, and part of the transaction consisted in the
substitution of new ones in their stead. The de
scendants of the original donor came to hear of the
incident, represented the matter to the Spanish
Government, which, in its turn, refused to permit
Sir Henry, who was then British Minister, to transfer
them to England. At one time it seemed even as if
a minor international difficulty were about to arise.
Sir Henry, however, with characteristic stubbornness,
refused to return the mirrors, and in the course of
time the excitement abated and he carried away his
treasures to England.
Sir Henry Layard, besides being an excellent judge
of art, was a man of quite exceptional mental attain
ments, as was once very fully recognized by Lord
Cowley when, in 1852, he was appointed British
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Ambassador in Paris. Extremely anxious to obtain
the collaboration of Sir Henry (then Mr.) Layard,
Lord Cowley indited a long epistle to Lord Granville,
who had recently become Minister for Foreign Affairs,
in which he asked for the assistance of Mr. Layard,
warmly praising his many excellent qualities and ex
ceptional ability in his letter. To this Lord Granville
promptly replied that as Mr. Layard was such an
extraordinary man, it seemed to him that he would
be best employed as his own Under-Secretary of State
for Foreign Affairs, an appointment which was forth
with made.
Besides aesthetic pleasure there is often a certain
romantic interest attached to works of art and curio
sities. Much more even does this apply to jewels.
When the celebrated collection belonging to the
late Mr. Beresford-Hope was sold some years ago,
among other curios was what was known as the
" King of Candy's Cat's Eye." It was even so de
scribed in the catalogue. The gem was set in dia
monds. It was purchased by a private buyer for some
few hundred pounds. After the sale it transpired that
this cat's eye carried with it the right of succession
over the island of Candy, and though, of course, the
colony now belongs to England, the Government was
said to have been the real purchaser of the jewel,
considerable importance being attached to its posses
sion from a political point of view.
The dispersal of the Eglinton jewels at Christie's
in 1894 aroused a good deal of interest. Amongst
them were a necklace, earrings, and brooch said to
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have belonged to Mary Queen of Scots. These jewels
were of enamelled gold, set with rubies, emeralds,
and pearls.
The tradition is that the necklace, together with
the picture by Holbein in Eglinton Castle, were
given by Mary to Mary Seton, one of the Queen's
" Marys." The necklace and picture are said to have
come to the Montgomeries through the marriage of
one of them with the heir of the Setons in or about
1611. As a matter of fact, however, it is probable
that Hugh, the fifth Earl of Eglinton, made a settle
ment of the Earldom of Eglinton, together with the
property attached thereto, upon his cousin, Sir
Alexander Seton of Foulstruther, and the deed is
dated i August, 1611.
The father of the possessor of the jewels was at the
time of the sale said to have discovered the Mary
Stuart necklace and the Holbein picture in the
muniment room at Eglinton Castle. Another gem
of the collection was a black pearl necklace, composed
of six large pearls set in diamond clusters.
Some years ago a considerable sensation was caused
in the art world by the report that a collection of
Cinque-Cento jewellery had been sold in London in
some obscure auction rooms for £25 or £30. The
collection in question was declared to have been of
immense value.
The Canning Jewel, the property of Lord Clan-
ricarde, which was exhibited at the New Gallery
Exhibition, is valued by experts at a sum well over
£10,000. It came from the spoils of Delhi, being pur-
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chased by Lord Canning. He subsequently sold it,
and it was bought back by the father of the present
Lord Clanricarde, who is himself an art connoisseur
of considerable discrimination.
A few years ago a good deal of interest was aroused
by the sale of a famous pearl necklace, once the property
of the Comtesse de Castiglione, the celebrated beauty
of the Second Empire, to whom reference has already
been made.
During the last few seasons there have been no
sensational sales of jewellery, though £10,600 was the
successful bid for a pearl necklace during the present
year. A rather curious coincidence was discovered about
the time when the National Portrait Gallery at
Trafalgar Square was opened. At that time the
pictures had been removed from their temporary
home at Bethnal Green to the new galleries, but were
not yet hung ; some of them had to be cleaned. In
one of the rooms were placed the portraits of the
Duchess of Cleveland, Nell Gwynne, and other
beauties of the Court of Charles II. By mere chance
the only portrait of a man that happened to be put
with them was that of Chiffinge, valet to Charles II,
who, as history records, frequently admitted these
same ladies to the Royal presence when in charge of
the Palace backstairs.
The late Sir William Gregory bequeathed to the
National Gallery four valuable pictures, including two
by Velasquez. One of the pictures in question had
been purchased by Sir William at the memorable
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Bentinck sale. Its merits had been overlooked by the
dealers, and Sir William, who was a first-rate judge,
thus acquired for a few pounds a work of art which
was really worth several hundreds. Almost imme
diately after this sale the authorities of the National
Gallery offered him a very high figure for some of
his treasures, but, being himself a trustee of this col
lection, he conceived that by acceding to their request
he might possibly be laying himself open to unreason
able criticism. He therefore refused the offer, whilst
giving them to understand that the pictures in question
should eventually become the property of the nation.
Amongst the treasures of the National Portrait
Gallery is a small bust which deserves very careful
inspection. An exquisitely modelled and coloured
representation of Colley Cibber, this is peculiar in
many respects. The eyes are cleverly imitated and
the silk bandanna is removable, and when withdrawn
shows the bald head of Colley Cibber. This curious
and admirably executed work of art is known to have
been in the Strawberry Hill Collection and is supposed
to be the work of Roubilliac.
A rather pathetic feature connected with this
Gallery is that the late Sir George Scharf, its first
curator, never lived to see it housed in its present
permanent home. By his death the world of art in
London sustained a great loss. The son of a Bavarian
artist who settled in England, Sir George was in his
earlier years an illustrator. The very popular illus
trated edition of the " Lays of Ancient Rome "
abounds in classical designs, all of which are the work
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of his pencil. But it is rather as a critic, and as one
possessed of great historical knowledge and special
practical acquaintance with portraits, that he made a
reputation which, from an artistic point of view, had
every right to survive. Sir George Scharf enjoyed the
friendship of many who were great, either in a social
or in a literary sense ; and in former days, before he
became disabled by infirmity, he was a frequent guest
of the late Dukes of Grafton and of Marlborough
and of the historian, Lord Stanhope. Socially he was
a most agreeable companion. His small Sunday re
ceptions in his rooms in Ashley Place — where there
was a magnificent library — will not easily be forgotten
by his many friends.
In all probability his name was not very widely
known outside artistic circles in England, where
literature and art can scarcely be said to receive their
full share of honour. At heart, indeed, the English
people are still somewhat contemptuous of art, not
possessing that sense of beauty and proportion which
is such a characteristic of our neighbours across the
Channel. It is much to be deplored that, to the lasting detri
ment of the interest of the community, the best works
of art which come into the market in this country
generally find their way abroad.
In the Gallery at Berlin there hangs a magnificent
painting by Holbein. This was bought at the sale of
the Millais Collection at Christie's. It is far finer
than " The Ambassadors," by Holbein, in the National
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At Berlin, also in the same Gallery, is the celebrated
" Widow " picture by Rembrandt. It is said to
possess the same quality as the magnificent " Night
Watch " by that artist at Amsterdam. This splendid
work of art came from the collection of Lady Ash-
burnham, and before leaving the country it was
offered to the National Gallery, but the authorities
at that institution refused to buy it on the ground
that there were no funds available. In other words,
the richest country in the world could not afford to
buy that which others less rich could. In addition to
these treasures, lost to us for ever, a fine Albert Diirer
from Lord Lothian's collection figures in the Gallery
at Berlin. At the very moment when masterpieces of
this kind were being carried off, never to return, a
Romney, costing £3500, was purchased by the director
and trustees. Such a sum would have almost secured
the " Millais Holbein." Within a few months of this
transaction four works by the same artist were pre
sented to the National Gallery.
Of late years a strong feeling has been growing as
to the removal of art treasures from one country to
another. When the Borghese bankruptcy very nearly brought
the art treasures of a branch of this family into the
market, the Roman authorities at the last moment
accepted an offer submitted to them by the creditors,
and thus acquired the collection, which became
national property. In France somewhat strong feeling
was aroused by the removal from Grasse of the magni
ficent series known as " Le Roman de la Jeunesse," by
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Fragonard. The French press also made certain
severe comments upon the sale to a celebrated English
dealer of five panels of magnificent Beauvais tapestry
which had belonged to the Comte de Gattelier, one
of whose ancestors was chief architect to Louis XV.
These had ornamented the chateau of the Counts of
Gattelier and Beaulieu. On the other hand, the
transference to Paris of a Louis XV room, with
tapestry and furniture of the finest kind, which had
belonged for several generations to a noble English
family, passed quite unnoticed over here. The trans
action in question was very quietly arranged, the
owner being well satisfied to receive £50,000 for this
beautiful suite, which was resold at once for four
times that sum.
The sad lack of national artistic instinct is nowhere
more conspicuous than in Westminster Abbey. In the
very centre of the nave, for instance, is a brass placed
over the remains of Robert Stephenson. Without
irreverence, anything more irresistibly funny than the
figure of Stephenson engraved upon this — actually
arrayed in a frock-coat ! — it is impossible to conceive.
It is only to be matched by the painted glass window
erected to the same celebrity in the north aisle, which
is covered with pink, blue, and green railroads, rail
way trains, and other abominations. This is art in
the Abbey with a vengeance !
The late Sir Francis Chantrey, as a matter of fact,
did more to spoil Westminster Abbey than anyone
else since Henry VIII. Amongst others of his mis
deeds he deliberately destroyed and carted away the
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greater part of a magnificent old stone screen in order
to make room to introduce his abominable monument
to James Watt ! Not content with this, he scraped
off all the inlaid and painted work upon the monu
ment over the remains of the Standard Bearer at
Agincourt in order to prevent these clashing with the
dead white marble of his outrageous statue !
The Abbey itself has suffered much at the hands of
restorers, the front, as left by Wren, remaining intact
up to about some thirty-three years ago. In the
'eighties it was completely restored and, in spite of
assurances to the contrary, " beautified " — that is, in
the eyes of the restorers, who, as was wittily said, kept
their work as dark as possible on the principle that
dead buildings tell no tales. The heightening of the
towers is generally said to have been Wren's work ;
this is not the case, the architect would appear to have
been John Janser.
Blore, Scott, and others have each contributed to
rob the Abbey of interest and charm. The tracery
filling the north gable was effectually destroyed by Mr.
Pearson. The tracery in question, it may be added,
was probably the most remarkable example in England,
a circumstance, however, which did not save it.
A conspicuous instance of architectural failure is
the building known as the new Law Courts — a veri
table example of pseudo-Gothic run mad. The
accommodation, moreover, is unsuitable, and at the
opening bitter complaint was made of the draughts
which swept through some of the courts, to which
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The late Lord Chief Justice Cockburn, in par
ticular, hated them, and would get very angry if
exposed to their attacks. At some assizes which he
attended he once gave orders that all the windows
should be closed. Upon arriving at the court the
following morning, he was surprised to find that this
injunction had been neglected, and on inquiring who
was responsible for the disobedience to his orders was
informed that Mr. Evelyn, the High Sheriff, was the
culprit. Addressing that officer, he inquired the
reason. " As High Sheriff, your lordship," replied
Mr. Evelyn, " I consider it to be my duty to super
intend the ventilation of this court, and I have there
fore directed that the windows shall not be closed."
" As Lord Chief Justice, I consider it to be my duty,
sir," thundered Cockburn, " to fine you five hundred
pounds for disobedience." And the money was paid
too ; so the Lord Chief Justice had the best of that
mild joke.
It was another judge who, complaining that he
could not hear in a certain court, said to one of the
responsible officials : " The acoustics are execrable."
" Really, my lord," was the reply, " you surprise me.
I can't smell anything ! "
The modern statuary of London is especially weak.
Much good, indeed, would be done were a committee
appointed with a view to considering the question of
ridding the metropolis of many of the bronze and
marble atrocities that disfigure the city. These not
only pervert the artistic tastes of the people, but also
render us ridiculous in the eyes of other nations,
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especially of the French, who cannot fail to compare
the monstrous eyesores of London with the beautiful
statues so ornamental to the appearance of the city
of Paris.
A conspicuous example of failure is the Shaftesbury
Memorial Fountain, erected in 1893.
The late Lord Shaftesbury was a great and a good
man. He was a philanthropist who devoted his life
to improving the position of the poor. Lord Shaftes
bury died, and the community decided to perpetuate
his memory by erecting a monument as a tribute to
his innumerable virtues, which monument took the
form of a pulpit-like basin, from the centre of which
rises a spindle surmounted by an oxidized silver Cupid,
depicted as having just buried a shaft from his bow
in the ground beneath, perhaps an ingenious pun
upon the name of the deceased philanthropist —
Shaftesbury !
The monument is, in fact, a combination of a
ponderous pulpit and a paltry pun. The inscription
upon the memorial, it may be added, was composed
by Mr. Gladstone. The chief circumstance of interest
connected with this is that the name of the late peer
was originally misspelt, for whereas his full name ran
" Anthony Ashley-Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury," etc.,
the inscription recorded the Anthony without the
" h," though Anthony — with the " h " — has, as is
well known, been from time immemorial the first
name of the Ashleys.
Etymology, indeed, would seem to be little studied
by those responsible for the inscriptions beneath
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English statues, for a glaring error in spelling, now
rectified, was also discovered when the statue of the
Duke of Cambridge was quite recently exposed to
public view.
The statue of Lord Strathnairn, erected some
thirteen years ago at Knightsbridge, is not perhaps
so unsuccessful as many of the monuments which have
disfigured London during the last two generations.
The first idea of Mr. Onslow Ford, the sculptor, was
to have represented Lord Strathnairn as the Colonel
of the " Blues," and for this reason he chose for his
model the particular type of horse which that regi
ment affects. The Committee of Supervision, how
ever, objected to this, observing that if the " Blues "
desired to erect a monument to their late Colonel
they had better pay for it themselves. Under these
circumstances Mr. Ford was obliged to alter the
uniform, and Lord Strathnairn is now represented
attired as a Field-Marshal, with certain modifications
which suggest service in India. The principal of
these is a never-failing source of comfort and delight
to the sparrows who regularly nest within the some
what straggling feathers which crown an Indian
service helmet. On the whole, however, the statue
is good, its attitude being characteristic and the like
ness excellent. The pedestal also is admirable, and
altogether adapted to the site. The statue, however,
should have been nearer the edge, which would have
been more dramatic. Mr. Ford originally designed
to have it so, and it is to be regretted that he did not
carry out his first intention.
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When it was first erected a quantity of gold em
bellished the trappings of this monument ; giving it
a somewhat garish air. Anything more inappropriate
to the London atmosphere than gilding it is impossible
to conceive. The gold in question, it may be added,
is at present, except when renewed, totally inoffensive,
as soot and smoke completely destroy the gaudy effect
which it would under more favourable conditions
produce. The little respect in which statuary in London was
formerly held may be judged from the record of
Queen Anne's statue at St. Paul's having, about 1824,
received, by way of restoration, a coat of black paint,
except the head, hair, and crown, which were daubed
white — a truly extraordinary method of renovating a
statue. The statue of the Duke of Wellington, which for
merly figured above the gate at the top of Constitution
Hill, was certainly devoid of artistic merit ; neverthe
less there was something quaint and characteristic
about it. The old Duke himself, moreover, is sup
posed to have quite approved of it. Its removal to
Aldershot was hailed by a chorus of acclamation, and
it was said that Queen Victoria particularly favoured
this alteration, having always disliked driving through
what was practically a Royal gate crowned by a horse
with a figure of one of her subjects astride upon the
top of it. This may or may not have been the case,
but probably no statue stands in such a position in
any other capital where a monarch rules.
The new statue of the Duke, placed in the centre
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of Hamilton Place, would have gained a good deal of
dignity had it been raised upon a higher pedestal. A
good idea would have been to have had four mounted
figures at the base, the statues of foot soldiers being
placed in a more elevated position; the whole com
position being, as has been said, rearranged and
rendered more solid in aspect.
A great deal of attention, it may be added, was
devoted by the sculptor, Sir Edgar Boehm, to ensuring
accuracy in the details of the uniforms, particularly
that of the Duke. The coat, it is said, was modelled
from the actual garment worn by the great Captain
at Waterloo.
The sudden death of this sculptor was one of
the most tragic incidents of the singularly eventful
year in which it occurred. A tall, straight, blue-eyed
man, always cheerful and apparently always in the
best of health, he was the staunchest of friends and
the cheeriest of companions. His house in Wetherby
Gardens was the recognized rendezvous of all that
was celebrated in Town, either for worth, wit, or
wisdom — no mere consideration of position or wealth
having ever been a passport for entry within its
portals. The studio at the Avenue, j6 Fulham Road, really
comprised a series of five or six studios leading one
into the other. Of these, one was specially reserved,
at Her Majesty's request, for Royal work. The
custom amongst sculptors is to build up the clay
model in the nude, later overlaying it with the de
signed drapery. Her Majesty very naturally shrank
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from being exhibited to the public gaze in the ele
mentary and, of course, purely imaginative stages of
reproduction, and this led to her insisting upon a
private studio being reserved for the earlier stages of
Royal statuary.
The first patron and friend of Sir Edgar, on his
arrival in England, was General Foster. Little by
little, by dint of his genius and ability, he worked his
way steadily onwards till at length he reached the
highest position in his branch of art in this country.

276

VIII
P\URING the last twenty-five years the architecture
of the West End of London has undergone a com
plete change, the buildings having for the most part
increased in height ; whilst much fanciful decoration
is displayed on facades of all styles, ages, and coun
tries. The houses of the past were more or less
uniform in design, whereas at present a veritable rage
for variety appears to prevail, many of the more pre
tentious erections being embellished with turrets,
pinnacles, battlements, and tourelles, in all probability
the result of the architects' rambles in old continental
towns. On the whole, perhaps the general effect is
pleasing, but a far more artistic and dignified aspect
would have been produced had some general scheme
been enforced for every street, due latitude being, of
course, permitted in matters of detail. The de
signers of new houses seem never able to remember
that decoration should relieve not dominate the
facade on which it appears, meaningless elaboration
and superfluous ornament being undignified and
artistically wrong. The very best effects of all in
street architecture are to be obtained from carefully
balanced proportion and dignity of style — two quali
ties which are unfortunately rarely to be found.
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The insertion of meaningless ornament — supposed,
presumably, to impart a quaint look — and the building
of huge arches supporting an obviously unsubstantial
structure, are glaring faults of the worst possible kind.
The old-fashioned Georgian mansion, which in many
cases much resembled a doll's house, at least erred in
the direction of simplicity, which is immeasurably
superior, from an architectural point of view, to over-
elaboration. The insertion of windows composed of
small panes of glass is also hardly desirable in London,
which is a City seldom liable to be flooded with sun
light. The revival of the small leaded panes, in
particular, is positively absurd.
In the huge erections bearing the electric light (now
such conspicuous objects in the streets of London),
little attention has been paid to any considerations of
artistic design, the efforts at ornamentation being of
the very feeblest and meaningless kind. In the
eighteenth century many of the accessories of life
were designed by highly gifted men. It might, there
fore, have been hoped that in these days, when so
much cackle is heard about the general appreciation
and love of art, the design for these lamp-posts would
have been entrusted to a clever designer, who would
have produced some simple and appropriate pattern
more likely to decorate than disfigure the streets of
London. The West End of London is probably almost as
healthy a spot as exists in the world. From cholera,
for instance, it is, according to past experience, about
the safest refuge on record. During the epidemic of
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1866 not a single death occurred in this quarter of
the town. The total number of deaths from cholera
in England registered in 1866 was a trifle over eight
thousand, and in one week three hundred and forty
fatal cases occurred in the East End of London alone.
Mrs. Gladstone was first to organize, during that
epidemic, a system of relief and assistance for the
sufferers, so suddenly stricken, and, together with
several other well-known people, the same lady
further established a home for the orphans of those
who had succumbed to the disease. A great meeting
was held in the City that year for the purpose of pro
curing funds for the relief of the suffering poor.
A curious circumstance connected with this epidemic
was that at a great public meeting held in the City,
to secure funds for the relief of those who had been
attacked and for the families of those who had suc
cumbed, both Mr. Gladstone and Lord Salisbury
occupied seats on the platform, and both addressed
the meeting. This, it is said, was the only occasion
when both these statesmen appeared together on the
same platform pleading the same cause. Mr. Kirkman
Hodgson was in the chair.
During the epidemic of 1866 in Bristol alone eight
thousand people died ; whilst the mortality in certain
parts of the Metropolis was so considerable as to
excite feelings of grave alarm.
Several well-known ladies undertook, immediately
the epidemic reached London, to visit and assist those
who had been attacked by the disease. Besides Mrs.
Gladstone were Mrs. Tait, whose husband afterwards
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became Archbishop Tait, Lady Frederick Cavendish,
and Mrs. Helbert.
Thanks to improved sanitation, cholera is now no
longer a terrible scourge capable of decimating whole
districts. Drainage has been improved till it has come
near to perfection ; whilst large areas formerly given
up to slums are now occupied by fine residences.
The late Duke of Westminster found the West End
composed of hovels, and left it composed of habitable
houses. He improved his property in that district
beyond recognition during the last quarter of a
century. His predecessor was generally supposed to be mean,
and the opinion which prevailed was accentuated by
the " Times," which, when the late Duke succeeded,
encouraged him, in a leading article, to spend his
wealth freely. Many stories were told of the eco
nomical Duke. Driving one day down Piccadilly, a
shower overtook him. Putting his head out of the
window, he called to the footman : " John, give me
those two new hats. I will keep them under cover
until the shower is over."
One by one the old mansions of London have dis
appeared. Scarsdale House, Kensington, was de
molished some years ago, the site being occupied by
Ponting's. Stratheden House, Knightsbridge, in which
Lord Campbell wrote his " Lives of the Lord Chan
cellors," was pulled down about nine years ago. The
building in question had little claim to respect beyond
Lord Campbell's connection with it. Harcourt House
has but recently been destroyed ; whilst Gloucester
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House in Piccadilly was in the hands of the house
breakers almost immediately after the Duke of Cam
bridge's death.
No. 105 Piccadilly, now the Isthmian Club, is a
house which has undergone many vicissitudes. At
one time the Pulteney Hotel, it afterwards became
the abode of Lord Hertford, subsequently belonging
to the late Sir Julian Goldsmid, whose collection of
works of art was disposed of some twelve years ago.
Sir Julian possessed an example of the work of every
living Royal Academician, and also masterpieces by
Sir Joshua Reynolds and Romney. In addition to
this his collection of snuff-boxes was very fine.
Though Devonshire House still survives, Piccadilly
itself has undergone a complete transformation, the
Albany being one of the few old structures left.
Burlington House has been divided up between the
Royal Academy and the London University. North
umberland House, with the lion whose tail pointed
in contempt towards the City and its beautiful gar
dens, is destroyed, the ground being built over.
Some fifteen or sixteen years ago Lord Harewood
disposed of Harewood House, Hanover Square, for a
round sum of seventy thousand pounds, to the Royal
Agricultural Society. Harewood House was one of
those private palaces of London which was designed
by Adams. Another house, just across the way, also
belongs to Lord Harewood, and was originally erected
as a London residence for the eldest sons of this family.
The fourth Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn was offered
the ground now occupied by Lansdowne House, in
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Berkeley Square, for £60,000, the same sum being
asked for the site in St. James's Square which he then
bought. The Lansdowne House property, which was
at the time considered to be too far from the centre
of fashion, must now be worth a quarter of a million
or more ! The transaction in question occurred a
little over a hundred and ten years ago.
A good deal of valuable London property has fallen
to the share of certain families through sheer good
luck. The Portman estate is an instance of this. The
late Lord Portman used to give the following account
of how the property, which is now Portman Square,
was acquired.
About 1750 his forbear, coming up to London for
the season, was much troubled about the health of
his young wife, who was very delicate. He took the
best medical opinion, and the doctors advised that
the lady should drink ass's milk.
Learning from his coachman that some asses kept
for this purpose were to be found in a small farm just
outside London which was for sale, the anxious hus
band, after inspecting the property, purchased it, and
on the land in question was afterwards built Portman
Square. In the eighteenth century even the most fashion
able part of London was somewhat untended, little
attention being paid to the convenience of foot
passengers. At the time of Wilkes' election Piccadilly, from the
Green Park coffee-house to Hyde Park Corner, was
not paved. The road was scraped, and the pavement
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laid along the park wall, long after that. St. James's
Street was the first thoroughfare to be paved with
the Scotch pavement, as it was then called.
Against the back of Mayfair Chapel, at that time,
fives were played ; whilst at the east end of Hertford
Street was a large dirty pond called the Ducking Pond,
where pickpockets used to be ducked.
Even as late as the 'sixties and 'seventies squalid
areas and neglected open spaces were still in existence
closely adjacent to the busiest thoroughfares.
One of the most lamentable sights of former days
was old Leicester Square, which was freshly laid out
by the late Baron Grant. Before that time it was a
woebegone spot with a broken-down statue in the
middle ; nothing could have been more squalid.
Baron Grant's financial methods came in for a good
deal of severe criticism, and the following verses were
written on his restoration of the Square : —
What, flowers in Leicester Square ?
Those flowers of Grant's
Are but the proceeds of his many plants,
The shades by which he seeks to win a Nation's praise
Are but the shadows of his own most shady ways.
What does he hope to gain by this affair,
Save to connect his name with one thing Square.
Baron Grant for a time attracted a good deal of
attention as a prominent financier of the later Vic
torian era. The following is another of the many
epigrams which were circulated about him : —
Kings can titles give
But honour can't —
A title without honour
Is a Baron Grant.
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A financial meteor, who flashed for little more than
an instant across the social heavens, Baron Grant was
originally named Gottheimer, his father being a
partner in a " foreign fancy " business in Newgate
Street. From the social point of view, he only began
to attract attention when he purchased a large area
of slum-land close to Kensington Palace, demolished
the houses, and erected Kensington House — a big
barrack of a place surrounded by its own grounds.
How many thousands Baron Grant paid for the site
and spent in erecting and in decorating the house
cannot be guessed ; but Kensington House was only
once used, and that on the occasion of the Bachelors'
Ball, which was given there on Thursday, 22 July,
1880. The idea of this entertainment originated with
the late Mr. Augustus Lumley. A number of well-
known bachelors contributed £100 apiece, and a
" Ball Committee " was answerable for the invita
tions which were issued. It was the best entertain
ment of the kind given in London at the end of
the last century, being especially well organized.
There were numerous additional amusements beyond
the dancing, such as fireworks and boating on the lake,
and the Royal party did not leave until daylight the
next morning. The invitations, however, were issued
with great generosity and with little discrimination.
Kensington House, having fulfilled its altogether un
expected destiny, was never inhabited, and eventually
the building was demolished, and upon the site was
erected a large square, together with several streets.
It may be said, therefore,^ of the Bachelors' Ball that
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a palace was built for that entertainment, which can
not have cost less than a hundred thousand pounds.
Out of the ball grew the Bachelors' Club, another
offspring of the fertile brain of the late Mr. Augustus
Lumley. During the rebuilding of the West End few dis
coveries of conspicuous interest have been made,
the excavations necessitated by the construction of
the Bath Club being, however, in this respect an
exception. A great depth being reached, a secret
passage was disclosed, whilst several old Irish farthings
were also found. In 1811, 34 Dover Street was the
town house of the Lord Dynevor of that time ; but
he, good man, can scarcely have had any use for secret
passages, and not much for Irish farthings. The cause
of this discovery therefore remains obscure.
Of late years it has more or less become the rule
to preserve any original features of interest, such as
panelling and mantelpieces, discovered in houses which
are being rebuilt. This was done in the case of the
new block at the bottom of St. James's Street, which,
from an architectural point of view, is certainly one
of the most successful erections in this part of London.
Here, close to the spot where the Post Office now is,
once existed a small musical instrument shop, which
was very well known, perhaps on account of the curious
name borne by its owner, who was called " Paupa."
One day, it is said, Luttrell and Rogers (the poet
banker who, it must be remembered, was notorious
for his corpse-like appearance, which caused him to
be nicknamed " The Dug-upjjpandy "), together with
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a friend, chanced to stop at this shop. After having
walked through the Courtyard of St. James's Palace,
Luttrell, drawing the friend aside, aptly quoted from
Horace : " Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum
tabernas, Regumque turres," afterwards wittily trans
lating them : " Pale death, with impartial foot, visits
the ' Paupa ' shanty and the palace of the King."
Architecturally, St. James's Street has altered a good
deal even during the last decade, considerable re
building having taken place. Nevertheless, two old
and interesting shop fronts remain, which present
much the same appearance as they did a century ago.
The quaint old facade of Messrs. Lock, the hatters, is so
well known as to have become a sort of West End
landmark, but the offices of Messrs. Berry, wine mer
chants, a few doors lower down on the same side, though
equally typical of a past era, are less striking to the eye.
At Berry's tea was first sold by the pound, the founder
of the firm, one Pickering by name, having originally
started as a tea and coffee and tobacco dealer in the
sixteenth century, a great speciality having been his
" famous Virginia," sold at the sign of the coffee mill.
The device in question still remains on the old
weighing scales which are within the house, another
interesting feature being the tomes containing registers
of the weight of a number of well-known and aris
tocratic frequenters of the West End since the year
1765 up to the present day.
The names of five sons of George III are here, as
well as those of Louis Philippe, Beau Brummell (who
from the numerous entries — 1798 to 1805 — appears
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
to have attached considerable importance to increase
of bulk), and Louis Napoleon. The latter, during the
days of his exile in London, when he lived close by
at King Street, was a constant visitor to the cellars,
a spot in which still retains the name of " Napoleon's
corner." The cellars in question extend half way be
neath the roadway. At the time of the funeral of
the Iron Duke the authorities, being much perturbed
at the idea of the heavy funeral car breaking through,
insisted on shoring up the roof with heavy beams.
The name of Pickering, it may be mentioned, is
still preserved in Pickering Place, which is just behind
this old house, the back portion of which overlooks
it. A curious feature is a small parlour used, it is
said, by eighteenth century gamesters, who were wont
to station a boy in a still existing recess, from which
he could signal should there be any indications of a
raid. In this room are preserved what are perhaps
the earliest known letters of Queen Victoria, dating
from 1822 to 1825, written to a Mrs. Louis, an old
attendant of the child Princess, to whom she appears
to have been deeply attached, as a memorial tablet in
the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields attests. Two
good sketches by the future Queen are also here.
The St. James's Street frontage, originally (up to
about no years ago) embraced five windows, only
one of which now remains. The upper story, where
for generations lived the Pickerings, Brownes, and
Berrys, all of whom were connected by blood, is now
tenanted by the Italian Club.
Another curious survival of old London is the Bell
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
Inn, in Pall Mall, not far from the Junior Carlton
Club, which is said to have undergone no very great
alteration for some four hundred years. In any case
this quaint old hostelry is probably by far the oldest
building in a thoroughfare lined by palatial clubs.
Of late years West End houses do not seem, during
the season, to command the large rents which formerly
were easily to be obtained. The advent of the motor
car and the erection of huge residential hotels is
largely responsible for this. At several of these, com
plete flats, absolutely cut off from the rest of the
house, are at visitors' disposal, a form of accommoda
tion offering all the advantages of a private house
without the trouble and worry of having to provide
one's own servants.
The fashionable district of London is constantly
altering, every new generation making a move in one
direction or another.
Even as late as the beginning of the last century
the neighbourhood of Soho was more or less fashion
able, and continual discoveries of paintings and
frescoes by celebrated artists are even now made in
the various houses for many years deserted by their
former aristocratic occupiers. Some time ago an in
vestigation at No. 9 Frith Street — said to have been
formerly the residence of Lord Thomond — brought
to light, both along the staircase and in other parts
of the house, decorative paintings by Sir James
Thornhill, father-in-law of the eccentric artist,
Hogarth. Several examples of the works of both
masters have been previously found in other houses

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
in the neighbourhood, and a little trouble and in
genuity might lead to the rescue of other equally
important work.
It now seems not improbable that the tide of
fashion may at some future period desert Mayfair ;
it has already flowed, in some measure, towards the
direction of Sloane Street. Dover Street, once full
of private residences, is now lined with shops and
clubs ; indeed, the whole of this district is becoming
much more commercial in character, trade being
represented not only in the way of shops, but also by
the possessors of a great number of the mansions.
The old Georgian box-like houses are not good
enough for the plutocrats of to-day, who as a rule
pull them down and erect some elaborate edifice in
the Gothic or French style.
The whole scheme of interior domestic architecture
has been remodelled within the lifetime of the present
generation. In a modern mansion telephones and
a lift have almost become necessities. Several severe
accidents, however, have occurred owing to the doors
of lifts being carelessly left open. The terrible
catastrophe which befell Lady Paget is a case in
point. Happily, this lady, who was possessed of
almost superhuman courage and determination, sur
vived. Though terribly injured by her fall, she re
tained her presence of mind, and from the bottom
of the well of the lift, into which she had fallen from
a great height, gave directions to those above as to
what should be done. The indomitable spirit which
this lady displayed may be realized when it is stated
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
that she was only extricated from her agonizing posi
tion by clinging to a ladder, which having been
lowered down to her was then slowly drawn up.
There have been several instances of presentiments
in connection with lifts, certain of which have been
verified in a very curious manner.
A lady entering a lift at a large London hotel in
the West End suddenly caught sight of the attendant's
face, when she at once asked him to let her out, ex
plaining that she had recently dreamt of being in an
accident in a lift, and his face had figured in the
dream. Five days later this very lift, which contained
a well-known London doctor, fell the distance of two
floors with a crash !
The late Lord Dufferin, when in Paris, is said to
have dreamt that he was in a hearse being conveyed
to the cemetery. A few days later, as he was about
to enter the lift of a certain hotel, he was startled to
find that the attendant was a life-like reproduction of
the driver of the hearse in his dream. Without a
moment's hesitation he decided to leave the lift and
walk upstairs, which he did. The lift ascended with
out him, when owing to an accident to the mechanism
it was precipitated to the bottom, those who were in
it being killed.
In the 'nineties came the bicycle craze, which
caused Society for a time to frequent Battersea Park.
Here every morning was held a regular bicycle parade,
both sexes and all ages being fully represented. Con
sidering the number of unskilled riders who were to
be seen wending their way through the traffic, it was
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wonderful so few serious accidents occurred. Of the
mishaps that did happen many were of a ludicrous
nature. There is much unwritten romance about the streets
and parks of London, in which fortunes are sometimes
unexpectedly found.
An elderly gentleman from the Midland Counties
travelled up to London in the spring of 1888 for the
purpose of watching the debutantes on their way for
presentation at Buckingham Palace. Being seized in
the course of the afternoon with sudden faintness, he
was charitably assisted by a lady who happened to
be standing by him at the time. On his death, which
occurred some five years later, he bequeathed £150,000
to the stranger who had come to his rescue during
this seizure.
The practice customary during Queen Victoria's
reign of holding drawing-rooms in the afternoon was
very unpleasant for the ladies, who, in all the panoply
of plumes and evening dress, were exposed to flatter
ing and unflattering comments from the crowd. On
one occasion an amusing repartee from an onlooker
occasioned much amusement. A violently Republican
orator was denouncing the luxury of the upper
classes, whose display of wealth he declared was an
insult to the people.
" Where, my friends, are our carriages f Where
are our horses ? "
" The brewers drive them ! " shouted a rubicund
individual in the crowd.
Certain people, it may not be generally known,
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make a point of witnessing every Royal procession
possible. A well-known authority on art, now of
considerable age, declares that he has seldom missed
one of these old-world displays.
Though the new Processional drive is, without
doubt, an improvement, lovers of the past could
hardly view its inception without a pang, the forma
tion of the road in question necessitating the destruc
tion of a ground plan laid out many generations ago.
Nevertheless this was a judicious alteration, and it is
much to be desired that some attention should now
be bestowed upon the Green Park, which, without all
possible question, would be rendered much more
agreeable by a certain degree of thoughtful change.
Occupying, as it does, the central position in the
West End, skirting with its whole length Piccadilly,
which is the most important thoroughfare in London,
this park is, for the most part, a bare plot of ground,
little used except by those who cross it to go to
Westminster from the West End, or vice versa. From
time to time protests have been raised against its
desolate condition. Walker wrote in " The Original "
in 1835 : " Amidst all the improvements of late years,
it is much to be lamented that the Green Park has
been so much neglected, seeing that it is most con
spicuously situated, and, notwithstanding its inferior
size, is by much the most advantageously disposed as
to ground. There was, some years ago, a talk of its
being terraced in part, and wholly laid out in a highly
ornamental style ; which, by way of variety, and with
reference to its situation, seems a judicious plan. I
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would that His Majesty (William IV) would give
orders to that effect. ... I do not believe that any
thing would add so much to the ornament of London
as the embellishment of the Green Park to the extent
of which it is capable."
Here, clearly, is a legitimate field for the enter
prise of the landscape gardener. Beds of flowers
might also lighten up the view of Piccadilly, besides
which artistically contrived terraces with seats might
make this park one of the most attractive resorts of
the metropolis.
Whilst Hyde Park possesses many associations of a
highly interesting character, St. James's Park has the
most interesting history of any spot in England :
Charles I led through the Mall to execution ; Crom
well asking the opinion of his friends as to his assuming
the title of King ; Milton ; Charles II playing at
" Pall Mall " under the shade of the elms and the
limes, feeding his ducks in the canal, followed by his
favourites and his dogs ; Lady Castlemaine, La Belle
Stewart, Nell Gwynne, the Duchess of Cleveland, St.
Evremond, Gammont, Evelyn, Pepys, Dryden, Queen
Anne and the Marlboroughs, the beautiful Duchesses
of Ormonde and of Bridgewater, Lady Sunderland,
Belle Dunch, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Addison,
Fielding, Steele, Swift, Richardson, St. John ; Lord
Bolingbroke, who, statesman though he was, once
figured in the nude in a drunken freak in the Park ;
Queen Caroline and her Marys, the beautiful Mary
Bellenden and Mary Lepel, "youth's youngest
daughter " ; Elia Lelia Chudleigh, afterwards Duchess
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of Kingston, who walked in the Mall with scarcely
any clothing on ; Horace Walpole, the two lovely
Miss Gunnings — " those goddesses, the Gunnings " ;
the beautiful Duchess of Devonshire ; the Duchess of
Gordon, the Duchess of Rutland ; Gainsborough,
Reynolds, Goldsmith, Johnson, the Comtesse de
Genlis, Lady Anna Waldegrave, and Miss Keppel ;
Mme. Roland and the Princesse de Lamballe — two
prominent victims of the French Revolution — and
Mrs. Fitzherbert. Hundreds of the most famous
names in British history are identified with the four
long avenues which stretch from Buckingham Palace
to Spring Gardens, for it was in this Park that the
London world of those days lived — the world from
every quarter of the town since easy-going Charles II
opened the parks to the public at the Restoration.
It was in St. James's Park that high and low walked,
flirted, dined, and danced, but seldom fought, for it
was a criminal offence to strike a blow in the Royal
Park. Since those brilliant days many changes have taken
place. Rosamond's Pond has been filled in ; the
menagerie and the cages in Birdcage Walk have dis
appeared ; Duck Island, over which St. Evremond
was appointed guardian by Charles II, has been
obliterated ; the statue of the gladiator, which stood
by the Parade at the east end of the canal, has been
removed to Windsor Castle ; the canal has been
turned into an ornamental water, according to more
modern taste ; and the deer have gone. The general
plan of the Park, however, remains the same as in the
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past, and up till quite recently some of the trees which
formed the Jacobites' Walk still stood. The Parade
is still used by the Horse Guards ; St. James's Palace,
its gardens, and the grounds of Marlborough House
exist. Within recent times St. James's Park, once the
resort of the fashionable world, has been aptly termed
the " Paradise Lost " of London, the course of cir
cumstances and the changes of customs having driven
the pleasure-loving world in other directions.
Looking from a back window of his palace at White
hall, Henry VIII saw immediately before him a large
meadow with a sheet of water in it, called the Cow-
ford Pool. On his right was the small village of
Charyng — from which partly comes the name of
Charing Cross — and, as far as Highgate, Hampstead,
and Harrow, a dense forest, which covered the sites
now occupied by such thoroughfares as Piccadilly and
Oxford Street. On his left were the hamlets of Chelsea
and Fulham. Henry acquired the meadow, partially
drained it, surrounded the field with a wall of brick
and stone — which was only replaced with an iron
railing in 1764 — built the Manor House, now St.
James's Palace, and used the enclosed space as a
pleasure ground for himself and the members of his
Court. From that time until the beginning of the nine
teenth century St. James's Park was the centre of
English life and history, and was used by Englishmen
and women of many succeeding generations by day
and by night, for they walked there, dined there, had
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supper there, danced there, sang there, played there,
and raced there. All that was most powerful and
fashionable in England frequented this old park and
was dominated by its charm.
When Cromwell was the Lord Protector he did
not alter the custom which existed until then of ex
cluding the public, but he allowed a few persons whose
back door opened into the Park to use the latter.
Among those was Milton, who had a house close to
where Queen Anne's Mansions stands now.
Elizabeth Cromwell, the wife of the Lord Protector,
kept cows in St. James's Park.
Charles II returned to London at the Restoration
in 1660, and he at once sent for Lenotre — the French
landscape gardener who had designed the Tuileries
and Versailles — to alter St. James's Park. A foreigner
who lived in England in the reign of James II writes
of this : —
" I have been told that King Charles II wished to
render St. James's Park more beautiful, and for that
purpose summoned from Paris a clever man, the same
who had laid out the gardens of the Tuileries. But
this man was of opinion that the natural simplicity of
the Park, its rural and, in some places, its wild cha
racter, had something more grand that he could
impart to it, and persuaded the King not to touch it."
Baron de Poltnitz, who was in England about the
year 1732, took the same view of this, for he writes : —
" The man of the world in London rises late,
dresses himself in a frock — a close-fitting garment
without pockets and with narrow sleeves — leaves his
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sword at home, takes his cane, and goes generally to
St. James's Park, for that is the Exchange for men of
quality. It is such another place as the garden of the
Tuileries at Paris, only the Park has a certain beauty
of simplicity which cannot be described."
Acting, apparently, on the advice Of Lenotre,
Charles II made many improvements and alterations
in the Park, but he did not put there terraces, foun
tains, and statues, as he had intended. Then the King
opened the park to the public, and they have had the
use of it ever since his time, though the gates have
been temporarily closed on a few occasions.
Warburton, writing a little over half a century
later, describes the Park in this manner : —
" I would recommend you a voyage now and then
round St. James's Park. What can afford nobler hints
for pastoral than the cows and tnilkwomen at your
entrance from Spring Gardens ? As you advance,
you have noble subjects for comedy and farce from
one end of the Mall to the other ; not to say satire^
for which you have a kind of propensity. As you turn
to the left, you soon arrive at Rosamond's Pond, long
consecrated to disastrous love and elegiac poetry.
The Birdcage Walk, which you enter next, speaks its
own influence, and inspires you with the gentle spirit
of madrigal and sonnet. When we come to Duck
Island, we have a double chance for success in the
Georgic, for the worthy Governor can both instruct
you in the breed of wildfowl, and lend you his genius
to sing their generations."
That Governor was " The Thresher-Poet." He
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was originally a thresher at Charlton Park. Queen
Caroline appointed him governor of Duck Island,
later he became Yeoman of the Guard, then took
Orders and obtained a living at Byfleet in Surrey, and
drowned himself in the Thames at Reading in 1756.
Lord Halifax, in the reign of Charles II, introduced
the custom of having impromptu concerts and dances
in the Park, and he did that to please the beautiful
Lady Wharton. There are continual allusions to
such entertainments in the old plays, poems, and
satires. In " Love in a Wood," Sir Simon Addlepate
sends for the fiddlers " to serenade the whole Park,"
and on their arrival, accompanied by torch-bearers,
all at once begin to dance.
Dr. Young, the author of " Night Thoughts," in
the " Satires on Women," published in 1725, describes
how Semira, feeling unwell, sends for Sir Hans Sloane
— the great doctor of the day, who helped to found
the British Museum — and when he arrives he is told
she has gone to dance in St. James's Park : —
A midnight park is sovereign for a cold.
There are some who will say that those customs
were only possible in a town much less populous than
London is to-day. They will be surprised to learn
that it was not unusual in former times for ten thou
sand people to be in St. James's Park — a number
which is only now on rare occasions reached in Hyde
Park. A man named Nicholas Wilson proposed to
tax those who used the Park. He writes : —
" Her Majesty, being at great expense every year
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for ornamenting and keeping St. James's Park in
repair, should give orders that none should enter in
ye Park except Foreign Ministers, Members of Parlia
ment during the Session, her Household and the
soldiers, without paying a halfpenny apiece. There
is no better means to be found to render her Majesty's
printed orders more effectual for excluding the com
monest people, and by this means the public will
ornament the Park, and, in time, be made to build
Whitehall Palace. It will, probably, pay the extent
of half a million per annum."
In former times it was not thought to be un
becoming to sit or lie on the grass. Indeed, even in
1822 there is this description in the " Morning
Post " of 20 June : —
" Seated on the low wall which separates Kensing
ton Gardens from Hyde Park were Prince and Princess
Esterhazy, the Earl of Jersey, Lord Palmerston, Lord
William Lennox, and many others ; and, reposing on
the grass at their feet, the Marquis of Worcester,
Lord Glasgow, Lord Alvanley, and several more."
It was, however, not becoming to sit on the benches.
Chairs were introduced into the Park in 1785.
The end of the St. James's Park must have come
about 1 815. About this Sir Richard Phillips writes
in 1817 : —
" My spirits sunk, and a tear started in my eyes
as I brought to mind those crowds of beauty, rank,
and fashion, which, till within these few years, used
to be displayed in the Mall of this Park on Sunday
evenings, and during the spring and summer. How
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often in my youth had I been a delighted spectator
of the enchanted and enchanting assemblage ! Here
used to promenade for one or two hours after dinner
the whole British world' of gaiety, beauty, and splen
dour ! Here could be seen in one moving mass
extending the whole length of the Mall five thousand
of the most lovely women in this country, all splen
didly attired, and accompanied by as many well-
dressed men. What a change, I exclaimed, had a few
years wrought in these once happy and cheerful per
sonages ! How many of those who, on this very spot,
then delighted my eyes are now mouldering in the
silent grave ? Alas ! that gay and fascinating scene
no longer continues, and its very existence is already
forgotten by the new generation. A change of man
ners has put an end to this unparalleled assemblage,
to this first of Metropolitan pleasures, though of itself
it was worth any sacrifice. The dinner hour of four
and five among the great, or would-be great, having
shifted to the unhealthy hour of eight or nine, the
promenade after dinner in the dinner full-dress is
consequently lost."
For 250 years St. James's Park had been the centre
of the social, political, and literary life of the nation.
Some time before the Conquest certain charitable
citizens purchased the ground upon which St. James's
Palace now stands. They there built a hospital for
the use of fourteen leper women, endowed the charity,
and dedicated the property to St. James. The ground
in the immediate neighbourhood — including the 155
acres now occupied by St. James's Park and the Green
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Park — was marsh and meadow land, and it remained
in its unreclaimed state, with little alteration, for
over 400 years.
In 1532 Henry VIII obtained by exchange the
Hospital of St. James's, drove out the leper women —
or their equivalents — built a palace on the site, and,
purchasing the meadows and marshes which have been
mentioned, reserved them for the use of the Court as
Royal parks.
Both in France and in England it became the
fashion in 1600 to breed silkworms for the purpose
of manufacturing silk. James I planted four acres of
St. James's Park with mulberry trees in 1609 for the
use of those worms, and in 1629 Lord George Goring
was appointed Keeper of the Mulberry Gardens. On
part of this land Lord George built himself a house,
which he named Goring House ; that is the origin
of Buckingham Palace.
In 1666 the Lord Arlington, who was a member of
the Cabal Administration, hired Goring House and
renamed it Arlington House. He it was who, in that
year, first brought tea to England, and it is probable,
therefore, that the first cup of tea drunk in this
country was brewed where Buckingham Palace now
stands. Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, purchased the pro
perty in 1698, and built a new house in the place of
the old in 1703, which he named Buckingham House.
The situation was exceptional. From the gates spread
the Mall, where the world of London lived the
greater part of the day and much of the night ; and
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Piccadilly to Pall Mall
at the back there was country as far as the eye could
reach. As the Duke wrote : —
It is my delight to be
Both in town and in countree.
George III bought for £21,000 Buckingham House
from John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, in 1761 —
that is, a little over fifty years after it was built, the
date of the latter event being 1703. Buckingham
House was pulled down in 1825, and the present
palace, which cost about a million of money to erect,
was completed in 1837, having taken twelve years to
build. Queen Victoria, who succeeded to the throne
on 20 June, 1837, was the first sovereign to occupy it.
This was on 13 July, 1837, less than a month after her
accession. It was the joke of the day that Buckingham
Palace was the cheapest Royal residence in the world,
for " it was built for one sovereign and furnished for
another." The building itself, which is of a somewhat barrack
like style, was built by Nash and Blore, the latter of
whom had recased much of Westminster Abbey in 1835.
Her former residence had been Kensington Palace,
of which to-day little is heard. Nevertheless it has
been the scene of some important events in our his
tory. Here Mary died of smallpox ; William III from
a fall from his horse at Hampton Court ; Anne termi
nated a memorable reign ; George II fell dead at
breakfast ; Victoria was born, succeeded to the throne
in her sleep, was acclaimed Queen of Great Britain
at five in the morning, and held, her first Council six
hours later. 302

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
Two hundred and ten years ago William III pur
chased Nottingham House for £20,000 from the
second Earl of Nottingham, together with twenty-six
acres of land. That is the origin of Kensington
Palace and Kensington Gardens. William and Mary
altered and added to the house, according to designs
by Sir Christopher Wren, and laid out the gardens
under the superintendence of Lenotre, who was
gardener to the Tuileries. Anne reigned next, and
continued to build, and added thirty acres to the
grounds. Having sat with her fan in her mouth, said
little and become great, the Queen died in her forty-
ninth year, and was succeeded by George I, who
added the great staircase and the Cube-room, being
advised in these matters by Kent.
George II followed, together with Queen Caroline,
and the latter increased the Gardens by assimilating a
large portion of Hyde Park. This Queen was anxious
to enclose St. James's Park, and asked Sir Robert
Walpole how much it would cost to do that. " Only
three Crowns," was the answer. It is to Queen
Caroline that we owe the ornamental waters in
Kensington Gardens.
Having kicked his wig more vigorously than usual,
to relieve his angry feelings against his minister,
George II fell from his chair when at breakfast, and his
successor, George III, removed to St. James's Palace.
The Duke of Sussex in due course lived at Kensing
ton, and did much to enlarge and to improve the
palace. He married, secondly, Lady Cecilia Gore,
who was created Duchess of Inverness, and he was
3°3

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
the favourite uncle of the Queen Victoria. Some of
his effects were sold at Christie's only a few years ago,
and many of them were knocked down at enormous
prices. The Queen was christened at Kensington Palace,
and was to have been named Elizabeth, but the Prince
Regent, afterwards George IV, from sheer malignity,
ordered the Princess to be called Alexandrina as a
compliment to the Emperor of Russia, whom he had
selected to act as second sponsor. The name Victoria
was slipped in as a concession and as a compliment
to the Duchess of Kent, the mother of the Princess.
In her early years the Princess was especially vivacious,
and would speak to almost every one who passed
whilst walking, riding on her donkey, or when driving
in her miniature cart.
In the " Diary of a Lady of Quality " is an ex
cellent account of the manner in which the Girl
Queen was informed of her accession.
On 20 June, 1837, William IV died. The scene
closed at 2 a.m., and in a very short time the Arch
bishop of Canterbury and Lord Conyngham, the
Lord Chamberlain, set out to announce the event to
their young Sovereign. They reached Kensington
Palace about five ; they knocked, they rang, they
thumped for a considerable time before they could
rouse the porter at the gate ; they were again kept
waiting in the courtyard ; they turned into one of
the lower rooms, where they seemed forgotten to
everybody. They rang the bell, desired that the
attendant of the Princess Victoria might be sent to
304

Piccadilly to Pall Mall
inform her Royal Highness that they required an
audience on business of importance. After another
delay, and more ringing to inquire the cause, the
attendant was summoned, who stated that the Princess
was in such a sweet sleep she could not venture to
disturb her. Then they said : " We are come to the
Queen on business of State, and even her sleep must
give way to that." It did ; and to prove that it was
not she who had kept them waiting, in a few minutes
the Queen came into the room in a loose, white night
gown and shawl, her nightcap thrown off, and her
hair falling upon her shoulders, her feet in slippers,
tears in her eyes, but perfectly collected and dignified.
That morning began the longest and certainly the
most memorable reign in the whole history of Great
Britain, only to be ended some sixty-three years later
when the sight of a small flag-draped coffin upon a
gun carriage caused thousands to realize that a justly
revered Queen was being borne to her last home, and
that the Victorian Era had passed away.

THE END

305

INDEX

Abbaye de Theleme, the, 158
et seq.
Ailesbury, the late Lord, 177,
186
Ashbury, the late Mr. James,
196
Astley, Sir John, 1 70 et seq.
Athenaeum Club, the, 206, 209-
214
Aiguillette, origin of, 144
Amphitryon Club, the, 102 et seq.
Alexandra, Princess, 35
Army and Navy Club, the, 235
Argyll Rooms, 143, 149
Arthur's ^Club, 229
d' Azeglio, Marquis, 3 7 et seq.
Bachelors' Club, the, 200
Baird, the late Mr. Abington,
182-6
Balfour, Mr., 50
Bath Club, the, 285
Bath Hotel, the old, 102
Beaconsfield, Lord, 3, 41
Bessie Bell wood, 1 1 2
BischorTsheim, Mrs., 108
Beefsteak Club, the, 230
Bismarck, 56, 74
Boehm, Sir Edgar, 275

Bond Street, 15, 41
Boodle's Club, 215, 223-8
Booth, Mr. Charles, 136
Boulanger, General, 3 1 et seq.
Bowles, Mr. Thomas Gibson, 75,
77
Bristol, the, 18, 89 et seq.
Brooks's Club, 39, 221
Brummell, Beau, 1 1 7
Buckingham Palace, 42
Burgoyne, General, 13
Cafe Anglais, the, 106
Cafe Royal, 89
Calcraft, Sir Henry, 58
Cambridge, Duke of, 59
Cambridge Beefsteak Club, the,
231
Carlton, the, 91, 98
Castiglione, Comtesse de, 37
Caunt, Ben, 198
Champagne Charlie, 1 1 5
Chorus girls, 122 et seq.
Christie, Mr. J. H., 44
Clubs and club life, 199-242
Cocoa Tree Club, the, 237
Combermere, Lady, 46
Cooper, Mr. Frederick, 59
Corinthian Club, the, 90, 157

3°7

Piccadilly to Pall Mall

Courtesans, treatment of in various
countries, 144 et seq.
Covent Garden, 14
Coventry House Club, the, 240
Crutch and Toothpick Brigade,
1 1 8 et seq.
Demi-monde, 1 24 <?/ seq.
Desart, Lord, 77
Devonshire, Duke of, 48 et seq.
Devonshire, Dowager Duchess of,
48
Devonshire Club, 240
Dilettante Society, the, 233
Dixie, Lady Florence, 28-9 '
Dorchester House, 34
Drayton, 36
Drummond, Mr. Hughie, 1 20
DufFerin, Lord, 290
Elliot, Mr. J. L., 43
Empire lounge, the, 1 54 et seq.
Evans's, 108 et seq.
Fairfield, Mr. Edward, 87 et seq.
Farren, Miss Nellie, 1 16 et seq.
Field Club, the, 241
Finch-Hatton, Mr. Harold, 72
Fox, Marie, 47 et seq, 56
Fox Club, the, 222
French contempt for hypocrisy,
•59
Gaiety burlesques, the old, 1 1 9
et seq.
Gaiety actresses, 120
Gardenia Club, the, 90, 1 5 7

Garrick Club, the, 221
George IV., 14
Gladstone, Mr., 34, 35, 40, 41,
49
Godfrey, Charles, 1 1 7
Grant, Baron, 283 et seq
Granville, Lord, 37 et seq., 108
Green, Captain T. G., 44
Green Park, the, 292
Guards' Club, the, 237
Gull, Sir William, S3
Hamilton, Lady, 44
Hamilton, the late Duke of, 121
Harriett Wilson, 1321?/ seq.
Hatchett's, 101
Herring, Mr. George, 169
Hirsch, Baron, 195
Holland, Lady, 47
Homburg, 19
Houghton, Lord, 11, 55 et seq.
Isthmian Club, the, 281
Jerningham, Sir Hubert, 75
Jersey, Lady, the late, 36
Jowett, Dr., 21
Jubilee Juggins, the, 90
Kensington Palace, 304
Kilmorey, Lord, 36
Labouchere, Mr., 76
La Paiva, 125
Lebaudy, the late Mr. Max, 187
Lewis, Sam, 90, 172-80
Li Hung Chang, 33

308

Index

London architecture, 277 et seq.
Londonderry, Lady, 37
London Pavilion, 1 1 1
Lotus Club, 59
Long's Hotel, 1 00 et seq.
Macdermott, the great, 1 1 3
Maison Doree Club, the, 105 et
seq.
Marcand, Captain, 59
Mires, 82
Montagu, Mr. Andrew, 197
Montefiore, Sir Moses, 44
Montgomery, Mr. Alfred, 54,
228
Moore, Mr. John Carrick, 44
Morality of London, the, 128-
161
Morley, Mr. John (Lord Mor-
%)» 34. 35
Messrs. Berry, 286
Murray Scott, Sir John, 244
et seq.
Music-halls, 111 et seq.
Napoleon, 45
National Sporting Club, the, 108
Naval and Military Club, the,
236
Nellie Power, Miss, 1 1 7
North, Colonel, 194
O'Gorman Mahon, the, 76
Paget, Lady, 289
Palmerston, Lady, 37
Park Club, the, 241

Peel, Lady Emily, 36
Peel, Lord, 50 et seq.
Peel, Sir Robert (the elder), 36
Peel, the late Sir Robert, 188-93
Pelican Club, the, 183
Pellegrini, 76
Petre, Mr. Henry, 107
Pickering Place, 286
Pratt's, 233
Quain, Sir Richard, 53
Raphael, Mr., 84
Reichemberg, Mile., 34, 35
Rhodes, Mr., 68
Restaurant, rise of the, 89
Ritz, Mr., 94 et seq.
Ritz Hotel, the, 98, 1 02
Ros, Lady de, 43
Rosebery Lord, 34
Rothschild, Baron James de, 82
et seq.
Rowton, Lord, 3
St. Albans, Duchess of, 42
St. James's Park, 293 et seq.
St. James's Club, the, 38
Sales at Christie's, 255-9
Salisbury, Lord, 49
Savoy, the, 91, 95, 98
Schwindleheimer, Mrs., 64 et seq.
Scott, Mr. John, 44
Shah (Nasr-ed-Din), 32
Shahzada, the, 34
South African millionaires, 8
South Kensington Museum, 37
Stanley of Alderley, Lady, 46

3°9

Piccadilly to Pall Mall

Statues of London, the, 271-5
Stonor, Mrs., the late, 36
Sutherland, Duke of, 73
Skittles, 1 26 et seq.
Sykes, Mr. Christopher, 57
The Club, 208
The Turf, bookmakers and bet
ting, 162 ¦;/ seq.
Travellers' Club, the, 207
Thompson, Sir Henry, 54
Thistlethwayte, Mrs., 36
True Blue Club, the, 231
Turf Club, the, 209
Vance, the great, 1 1 1
Vanity Fair, 75 et seq.

Victorian Era, the end of the, 305
Victoria, Queen, 40, 41, 42, 43,
287, 394. 3°5
Wadsworth, Mrs., 37
Wales, Prince of, 47
Wallace collection, the, 244
Waterford, Louisa, Lady, 36
Wellington, Duchess of, 36
Westminster, the Duke of, 280
White's Club, 227-9
Whiteley, the late Mr., 1 8 1
Winchilsea, Lord, 71
Wolff, Sir Henry Drummond,
120
Yates, Edmund, 76

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