The club possesses a very valuable collection of autographs of former distinguished members, and amongst its memorials is a portrait of Sir Joshua Reynolds, with spectacles on, similar to the picture in the Royal Collection; this portrait was painted and presented by Sir Joshua, as the founder of the club.
Another club which was once the resort of many clever and distinguished men was the Cosmopolitan, in Charles Street, Berkeley Square. This ceased to exist not very many years ago. The house in which it held its meetings had been pulled down, and though the Cosmopolitan migrated to the Alpine Club, it did not long survive the change. Its meetings were held twice a week, in the evening, no meals whatever being served, though light refreshments were supplied. The house in Charles Street had previously contained the studio of Watts the painter, and a great feature of the club-room was a very large picture representing a scene from the “Decameron,” which had been painted by that artist. This is now in the Tate Gallery. When the Cosmopolitan was dissolved, a certain sum of money remained, and this, on the suggestion of a former leading member, is gradually being spent in dinners at which former members from time to time foregather.
A dining club which for a time attracted considerable attention was the Roxburghe, which originated under the following circumstances: The Duke of Roxburghe was a noted bibliophile; the sale of his library, which excited great interest in 1812, lasted for forty-two days, and on the evening when the sale had been concluded the club was formed by about sixteen bibliomaniacs, after a dinner at the St. Albans Tavern, Lord Spencer being in the chair. The Roxburghe consisted mostly of men devoted to rare books. Tomes containing alterations in the title-page, or in a leaf, or in any trivial circumstance, were bought by these collectors at £100, £200, or £300, though the copies were often of small intrinsic worth. Specimens of first editions of all authors, and editions by the early printers, were never sold for less than £50, £100, or £200. So great became this mania that, in order to gratify the members of the club, facsimile copies of clumsy editions of trumpery books were reprinted. In some cases, indeed, it became worth the while of unscrupulous people to palm off forgeries upon the more credulous of these collectors.
The club issued various publications, but its costly dinners attracted more attention than anything else. On one occasion the bill was above £5 10s. per head, and the list of toasts included the “immortal memory” not only of John, Duke of Roxburghe, but of William Caxton, Dame Juliana Berners, Wynkyn de Worde, Richard Pynson, the Aldine family, and “The Cause of Bibliomania all over the World.” In one year, when Lord Spencer presided over the club feast, the “Roxburghe Revels” thus recorded the fact: “Twenty-one members met joyfully, dined comfortably, challenged eagerly, tippled prettily, divided regretfully, and paid the bill most cheerfully.”
The bill of one of the dinners of the Roxburghe Club held at Grillion’s Hotel has been preserved. Its curious phraseology is due to the French waiter who made it out:
Dinner (sic) du 17 Juin, 1815.
| £ | s. | d. | |
| 20 | 20 | 0 | 0 |
| Desser | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Deu sorte de Glasse | 1 | 4 | 0 |
| Glasse pour 6 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| 5 Boutelle de Champagne | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 Boutelle de harmetage | 5 | 5 | 0 |
| 1 Boutelle de Hok | 0 | 15 | 0 |
| 4 Boutelle de Port | 1 | 6 | 0 |
| 4 Boutelle de Maderre | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 22 Boutelle de Bordeaux | 15 | 8 | 0 |
| 2 Boutelle de Bourgogne | 1 | 12 | 0 |
| [Not legible] | 0 | 14 | 0 |
| Soder | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Biere e Ail | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| For la Lettre | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Pour faire une prune | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| Pour un fiacre | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| — | — | — | |
| 55 | 6 | 0 | |
| Waiters | 1 | 14 | 0 |
| — | — | — | |
| £57 | 0 | 0 |
Amongst the curious old clubs of the eighteenth century, the Kit-Kat, founded about 1700, deserves attention. This was composed of thirty-nine noblemen and gentlemen zealously attached to the House of Hanover, among them six Dukes and many other peers. The club met at a small house in Shire Lane, by Temple Bar, where a famous mutton-pie man, by name Christopher Katt, supplied his pies to the club suppers and gave his name to the club, although it has been stated that the pie itself was called “kit-kat.”
The extraordinary title of the club is explained in the following lines:
“Whence deathless Kit-Kat took its name,