February 15, 1769.—It was this night agreed by a majority of nineteen balls, that Every Member of this Club who is in the Billiard Room at the time Supper is declared upon table shall pay his reckoning if he does not Sup at the Young Club.1

In 1775 the Club was restricted to 151 members, and the annual subscription raised to 10 guineas. In 1780 it was ordered that a dinner should be ready every day at five o'clock during the sitting of Parliament, at a reckoning of twelve shillings per head. In 1781 the Club was enlarged to 300 members, and in 1797, when it was enlarged to 400, the following rules were added to the book :—

No person to be balloted for but between the hours of 11 and 12 at Night. Dinner at Ten Shillings and Sixpence per head (Malt Liquor, Biscuits, oranges, apples, and olives included) to be on Table at Six o'Clock. The Bill to be brought at nine. The price and qualities of the Wines to be approved by the Manager. That no Member of the Club shall hold a Faro Bank.

That the Dice used at Hazard shall be paid for by Boxes, that is, every Player who holds in three hands to pay a Guinea for Dice.

That no hot suppers be provided unless particularly ordered, and then be paid for at the rate of Eight Shillings per head. That in one of the rooms there be laid every night (from the Queen's to the King's Birthday) a Table with Cold Meat, Oysters, etc. Each person partaking thereof to pay four shillings-Malt Liquor only included.

That Every Member who plays at Chess, Draughts, or Backgammon do pay One Shilling Each time of playing by day-light and half a crown Each by Candle-light.

The distinction between the Young and the Old Clubs seems to have ceased about this time. In 1800 it was enlarged to 450 members, and in 1813 to 500 members. The present limitation is

750. Walpole, writing to Mason (June 18, 1751), describes "an extravagant dinner at White's," which is the talk of the town. The Club, on June 20, 1814, gave a ball at Burlington House to the Emperor of Russia, the King of Prussia, and the allied Sovereigns then in England, which cost £9849:2:6. Covers were laid for 2400 people. Three weeks after this (July 6, 1814) the Club gave a dinner to the Duke of Wellington, which cost £2480: 10: 9.

At its foundation and long after White's was essentially a gaming club. Walpole tells us that the celebrated Earl of Chesterfield, after he gave up the Seals in 1748, lived "at White's, gaming and pronouncing witticisms among the boys of quality; "2 and yet he says to his son that "a member of a gaming club should be a cheat or he will soon be a beggar." 3

The most fashionable as well as the common people at that time dined at an early hour, and a supper was then an indispensable meal. White's became a great supper-house, where gaming, both before and after, was carried on to a late hour and to heavy amounts. The least difference of opinion invariably ended in a bet, and a book for entering the particulars of all bets was always laid upon the table. One of

1 See on the subject of the "Old Club," Wal. pole to Mann, February 2, 1752. lt appears that the two clubs were kept quite distinct, although they seem to have been held in the same house. Probably, as the old club was very select and

small in its numbers, the young club was con-
sidered as an adjunct from which it could be
replenished as members died or resigned.
2 Walpole's George II., vol. i. p. 51.

3 Works, by Lord Stanhope, vol. ii. p. 429.

these, with entries of a date as early as 1744, has been preserved. The marriage of a young lady of rank would occasion a bet of a hundred guineas, that she would give birth to a live child before the Countess of - who had been married three or even more months before her. Heavy bets were pending that Arthur, who was then a widower, would be married before a member of the Club of about the same age and also a widower; that Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, would outlive the old Duchess of Cleveland; that Colley Cibber would outlive both Beau Nash and old Mr. Swinney; and that a certain minister would cease to be in the Cabinet by a certain time.1

What can I now? my Fletcher cast aside,
Take up the Bible, once my better guide?
Or tread the path by vent'rous heroes trod,
This box my thunder, this right hand my god?
Or chair'd at White's, amidst the Doctors sit,
Teach oaths to Gamesters, and to Nobles wit?

As oft I overheard the Demon say,
Who daily met the loiterer in his way,

Pope, The Dunciad.

"I'll meet thee youth at White's"; the youth replies,

"I'll meet thee there,"—and falls his sacrifice. - Young to Pope.

There is a man about town, a Sir William Burdett, a man of very good family but most infamous character. In short, to give you his character at once, there is a wager entered in the bet book at White's (a MS. of which I may one day or other give you an account) that the first baronet that will be hanged is this Sir William Burdett.-Walpole to Mann, December 16, 1748.

They have put in the papers a good story made on White's. A man dropped down dead at the door was carried in; the club immediately made bets whether he was dead or not, and when they were going to bleed him the wagerers for his death interposed, and said it would affect the fairness of the bet.-Walpole to Mann, September 1, 1750.

66

March 21, 1755.-I t'other night at White found a very remarkable entry in our very remarkable wager book, Lord Mountford bets Sir John Bland twenty guineas that Nash outlives Cibber." How odd that these two old creatures, selected for their antiquities, should live to see both their wagerers put an end to their own lives.- Walpole to Mason, vol. ii. p. 481.

White's was formerly distinguished for gallantry and intrigue. During the publication of The Tatler, Sir Richard Steele thought proper to date all his lovenews from that quarter: but it would now be as absurd to pretend to gather any intelligence from White's, as to send to Batson's for a lawyer, or to the Rolls Coffee House for a man-midwife.-The Connoisseur of May 9, 1754.

...

Mr. Pelham [the Prime Minister] was originally an officer in the army and a professed gamester; of a narrow mind, low parts, etc. . . . By long experience and attendance he became experienced as a Parliament man; and even when Minister, divided his time to the last between his office and the Club of gamesters at White's. -Glover the Poet's Autobiography, p. 48.

The Dryads of Hagley are at present pretty secure, but I sometimes tremble to think that the rattling of a dice-box at White's may one day or other (if my son should be a member of that noble academy) shake down all our fine oaks. It is dreadful to see not only there, but almost in every house in town, what devastations are made by that destructive Fury, the spirit of Lyttelton to Dr. Doddridge, April 1750 (Lyttelton Correspondence, p. 421).

1 See Walpole to Bentley, October 31, 1756.

From hence to White's our virtuous Cato flies,
There sits with countenance erect and wise,

And talks of games of whist and pig-tail pies.

Soame Jenyns, The Modern Fine Gentleman, 1746.

March 3, 1763.-White's goes on as usual; play there is rather more moderate, ready money being established this winter at quinze. Lord Masham was fool enough to lose three thousand at hazard to Lord Bolingbroke the night before last: I guess that was not all ready money.-Rigby to Duke of Bedford.

March 2, 1818.-Let me here relate what I heard of one of the Clubs-White's -the great Tory Club in St. James's. Somebody spoke of the lights kept burning there all night: "Yes," said a member, "they have not been out, I should think, since the reign of Charles the Second.—Rush, Residence at the Court of London.

With reference to the great spirit of gaming which prevailed at White's, the arms of the Club were designed by Horace Walpole, Dick Edgcumbe, George Selwyn, etc., at Strawberry Hill, in 1756.1 The blazon is vert (for a card table); three parolis proper on a chevron sable (for a hazard table); two rouleaus in saltier, between two dice proper, on a canton sable; a white ball (for election) argent. supporters are an old and young knave of clubs; the crest, an arm out of an earl's coronet shaking a dice-box; and the motto, "Cogit Amor Nummi." Round the arms is a claret bottle ticket by way of order. Edgcumbe made "a very pretty painting" of these arms, which they entitled "The Old and Young Club at Arthurs." At the Strawberry Hill sale it was bought by the Club for twenty-two shillings.

White's Coffee-house, near the ROYAL EXCHANGE, was the daily resort of Colonel Blood and his associates during that mysterious period of his being in favour at Court.

White Conduit House, PENTONVILLE, a popular place of entertainment and tea-gardens, was so named from a conduit of flint and brick, faced with stone, built over a reservoir, the water from which was conveyed by pipes to the Charterhouse.2 When the Charterhouse was supplied from other sources the conduit was suffered to go to ruin. A view of it, when in the last stage of neglect (1827), by Mr. J. Fussell, is given in Hone's Every-Day Book (vol. ii. p. 1202). It was finally demolished in 1831, and the site built over. White Conduit House was a kind of minor Vauxhall for the Londoners who went for cakes and cream to Islington and Hornsey. The gardens were a favourite Sunday afternoon resort for small tradesmen and their families.

Time was when satin waistcoats and scratch wigs,

Enough distinguished all the City prigs

Whilst every sunshine Sunday saw them run
To club their sixpences at Islington;
When graver citizens, in suits of brown,
Lined every dusty avenue to town,

1 Walpole to Montagu, April 20, 1756. 2 In 1430 John Feriby and Margery his wife enfeoffed the Prior, etc., of the Charterhouse of

the well-spring in Overmead to make an aqueduct at the rent service of 12d.-Tomlins, Yseldon, p. 161.

Or led the children and the loving spouse,

To spend two shillings at White Conduit House.

Rev. Charles Jenner, Eclogue 2, Time Was.

William Woty, 1760, celebrated in delectable verse the "tea and cream and buttered rolls" served "in china with gilt spoons" at White Conduit House 'on Sunday afternoons." The gardens lost their character early in the present century, and the house, before it was pulled down (January 1849) to make way for a new street, was nothing more than a large tavern, with a large room, for suburban entertainments and political meetings. A public-house called White Conduit was built. on the north end of the gardens, now No. 14 Barnsbury Road, and the name is further preserved in White Conduit Street, running from Barnsbury Road to Cloudesley Road, Islington.

White Hart Court, LOMBARD STREET, was the last turning on the right hand from the Mansion House, but has been swept away in recent improvements. In it lived from 1740 till 1767 Dr. John Fothergill, the celebrated Quaker physician.

White Hart Inn, BISHOPSGATE STREET WITHOUT, "next unto the parish church of St. Botolph." "Bishopsgate," says Stow, "is a fair inn for receipt of travellers." Next to it was "the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethleham."1 The hospital-Bedlam—was removed in 1814. By that time the White Hart seems to have lost much of its reputation as an inn for travellers. The courtyard was in part taken for the building of White Hart Court; but the inn remained down to 1829-a large, rambling, half-timber structure, having three broad bays in the front, with a lofty central archway as the principal and carriage entrance. On the central bay was the date 1480. The old inn was pulled down in 1829, when Bedlam Gate was removed and the broad thoroughfare called Liverpool Street formed. A new White Hart a smart wine and spirit" tavern, was built on what remained of the site of the old inn. An engraving of the Old White Hart is given in the European Magazine for March 1787; and another, showing the house as it appeared before its demolition in 1829, but somewhat changed in appearance from 1778, in the Mirror for 1830 (vol. xv. p. 177).

White Hart Inn, SOUTHWARK, is mentioned in the Greyfriars Chronicle, p. 19;2 in the Paston Letters, vol. i. p. 61; in Shakespeare's Second Part of Henry VI., Act iv. Sc. 8; and by Sam Weller in the Pickwick Papers. Hatton describes it as standing on the east side of the Borough of Southwark, towards the south end;" and adds (p. 90), "This is the largest sign about London, except the Castle Tavern, in Fleet Street." There are many interesting pictures of the old inn, taken at different times, and descriptions, notably in the Pickwick Papers. The White Hart no doubt existed as an inn before 1406, and was Cade's headquarters in 1450. In 1669 it was partly burnt down and

1 Stow, p. 62.

2 And there was beheddyd.. . one Haway

VOL. III

dyne of Sent Martyns, at the Whyt Harte in Southwarke.-Greyfriars Chron., p. 19.

2 K

in 1676 wholly so. It remained until July 1889, when it was pulled down. It was a fair specimen of the inn with large courtyard and galleries.

White Hart Inn, STRAND, has given its name to Hart Street, Covent Garden, and is mentioned in a lease to Sir William Cecil (Lord Burghley) of September 7, 1570, and is there described as being "scituate in the high streete of Westm'. commonly called the Stronde."1

Weever has preserved an epitaph in the Savoy Church on an old vintner of the White Hart.

Here lieth Humphrey Gosling, of London, vintnor,

Of the Whyt Hart of this parish a neghbor,
Of vertuous behauiour, a very good archer,
And of honest mirth, a good company keeper.
So well inclyned to poore and rich,
God send more Goslings to be sich.

Gosling died in 1586.

White Horse Cellar, PICCADILLY (south side), near Arlington Street, famous as the starting-place, in coaching days, of the mailcoaches and finely-appointed stages to Oxford, Bristol, and the western towns generally. An excellent representation of it in its palmy days, by George Cruikshank, will be found at the end of Pierce Egan's Tom and Jerry, and a verbal description by Charles Dickens in the Pickwick Papers. The old White Horse Cellar faded before the progress of railways; but "Hatchett's Hotel and New White Horse Cellar" at the corner of Dover Street still flourishes, and is the stabling-place of the summer four-horse coaches that are now so much in vogue for plaseure traffic. The hotel and cellar have been lately rebuilt.

White Lion, near ST. GEORGE'S CHURCH, SOUTHWARK.

The White Lion, a gaol, so called for that the same was a common hosterie for the receipt of travellers by that sign. This house was first used as a gaol within these forty years [1598] last past.-Stow, p. 153.

There was formerly in Southwark but one prison, particularly serving for the whole county of Surrey, and that called the White Lion, which was for the custody of murtherers, felons, and other notorious malefactors. It was situate at the south end of St. Margaret's Hill, near unto St. George's church; but that being an old decayed house, within less than twenty years past the county gaol is removed to the Marshalsea Prison, more towards the Bridge.-Strype, B. iv. p. 29.

Lent unto Frances Henslow, to discharge hime seallfe owt of the Whitte Lion, from a hat-macker in barmsey [Bermondsey] streete, abowt his horsse which was stolen from hime-v.-Henslowe's Diary, p. 192.

Some confusion has arisen on account of an inn near the bridge and a gaol near the church, a quarter of a mile apart, being of the same

name.

Robert Cooke Keeper of the Whit lyon, a suter for the amendment of a partye gutter betwyxt the blacke bull and the sayd Whytt lyon, was answeryd that yt shold be vewyd by ye surveyors on day, of this week, yf God send fayre wether.—MS. Notes of Weekly Meetings of Governors of St. Thomas's Hospital, July 16, 1571.

1 Archæologia, vol. xxx. p. 497.