Miss W.: “So I should think, sir.”
Old Gentleman: “And besides, are you aware who are the conductors of that paper, and that they are Chartists, Deists, Atheists, Anarchists, to a man? I have it from the best authority, that they meet together once a week in a tavern in St. Giles’s, where they concoct their infamous print. The chief part of their income is derived from threatening letters, which they send to the nobility and gentry. The principal writer is a returned convict. Two have been tried at the Old Bailey; and as for their artist—as for their artist....”
Guard: “Swin-dun! Station!”
[Exeunt two Authors.
In the latter half of 1842 Thackeray made a tour in Ireland, and recorded his experiences in “The Irish Sketch-Book,” which made its appearance the following year.
The Strangers’ Room, Reform Club
see page 17
Thackeray, who for some time had been a member of the Garrick Club, was elected to the Reform in 1840, being proposed by Mr. Martin Thackeray and seconded by Mr. Henry Webbe. Sir Wemyss Reid gives an interesting description of the author at this Club. “Again and again I have heard descriptions of how he used to stand in the smoking-room, his back to the fire, his legs rather wide apart, his hands thrust into the trouser-pockets, and his head stiffly thrown backward, while he joined in the talk of the men occupying the semi-circle of chairs in front of him.... To some of us, at least, the Club is endeared by the thought that he was once one of ourselves; that he sat in these chairs, dined at these tables, chatted in these rooms, and, with his wise, far-seeing eyes surveyed the world from these same windows.” In the strangers’ room at the Reform Club hangs a portrait of Thackeray by Samuel Laurence. On one side of it there stands a bust of Sir William Molesworth, on the other of Charles Buller. The latter seconded Thackeray when he was proposed by the Rev. W. Harness as a member of the Athenæum on February 12th, 1846. Thackeray was elected to this Club in 1851 under the rule which provides for the introduction of “persons of distinguished eminence in science, literature, or public services.”
No. 13, Young Street, Kensington
see page 18