Few critics can unriddle;
Some say from pastrycook it came.
And some from Cat and Fiddle.
“From no trim beaux its name it boasts,
Grey statesmen or green wits.
But from the pell-mell peck of toasts
Of old cats and young kits.”
A feature of the club was its toasts. Every member was compelled to name a beauty, whose claims to the honour were then discussed; and if her name was approved, a special tumbler was consecrated to her, and verses to her honour engraved on it. Such of these tumblers as still survive must be very rare. When only eight years old, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu enjoyed the honour of having her charms commemorated on one of these “toasting tumblers.” Her father, afterwards Duke of Kingston, in a fit of caprice proposed “The Pretty Little Child” as his toast. The other members, who had never seen her, objected, but, the child having been sent for, found her charming, and yielded. The forward little girl was handed from knee to knee, petted and caressed by the assembled wits. Another celebrated toast of the Kit-Kat, mentioned by Walpole, was Lady Molyneux, who, he says, died smoking a pipe.
Several of the more celebrated of these “toasts” had their portraits hung in the club-room.
The character of the club was political as well as literary, but its chief aim was the promotion of culture and wit. The members subscribed the sum of 400 guineas to offer as prizes for the best comedies written.