9 th S. X. OCT. 25, 1902.]
NOTES AND QUERIES.
323
Christopher Kat, the landlord and founder
of the club, was celebrated for the excellence
of his mutton pies (' Memoirs of Celebrated
Persons composing the Kit - Cat Club,'
Literary Chronicle, 2 February, 1822).
Strype describes the "Fountain "as "a very
fine tavern, very conveniently built close
to the alley leading to Fountain Court." The court has been known since 1884 as Savoy Buildings. In 1731 the " Fountain " had a "great room," where balls an,d other assem- blies were held (Craftsman, il December, 1731). It was doubtless in this room that a miniature parliament was held in 1685 by the ultra-Royal party. Later it was a place of assembly for the Kit-Cat Club, formed in the interests of the Hanoverian cause and the Protestant succession. For information concerning other meeting-places of the Kit-Cat Club see Henry Morley's Spectator, 1883, vol. i-, note, p. 39.
Knights of the Brush. See Gent. Mag., vol. Ixiv. pp. 233 and 296.
Knights of the Golden Fleece. See "House of Lords Club."
" Knights of the Antient and Honourable Order of the Golden Fleece, are desir'd to appear (in the Collar of the Order) at Six o'Clock this Evening, at Mr. Taylor s the Mitre Tavern in Aldgate, to assist in constituting a Chapter of that Honourable Order, to be held at the said House. Sign'd by Order of the Grand Elders and Keepers of the Great Seal, T. M. Recorder." Daily Advertiser, 21 June, 1742.
Such occasions were called " collar-days."
Knights of the Square Caps. This society assembled at the beginning of the nineteenth century at the "Bell Tavern Inn," as it was called, at the corner of Noble Street and Oat Lane, Cheapside. Round the room they occupied hung a number of square caps, like " college caps," with gold tassels, and to become entitled to the honour of wearing one of these the candidate had to take hold of a massive ring that hung in the centre of the room from the bell. Having swung it round in a certain direction, and hung it three successive times on a cloak pin in the wainscot, he was admitted a member. With some a course of a month or two's practice was requisite to acquire dexterity for the feat ('The Epicure's Almanack,' 1815).
The Knights of Saint George met at the " Queen of Bohemia's Head," Wych Street, in 1785 (Banks Collection of Shop-bills).
The Knights of Trafalgar. No. 2 Lodge of this club met at the " Horseshoe and Star,' near the church of St. Dunstan-in-the-West, Fleet Street.
I believe there is a small dining club calling itself "The Knights," and composec
of City men, lawyers, barristers, and actors,
which still meets at "Simpson's" in the
Strand.
The Lawyers' Club consisted of attorneys only, and is described in the Spectator, ^o. 372. Will Goosequill was the chief clerk who registered their proceedings.
The Lazy Club was probably one of the most idiotic on record. Members met in their nightgowns, with their stockings about their neels, and frequently with only one stocking on. Their salutation on entering their place of meeting, which is not stated, was a yawn and a stretch, and then, without further ceremony, each took his place at the lolling table (Spectator, 320).
A Liberal Club, of which Wilkes was for several years a member, used to meet at the . "Bedford Head" in Southampton Street, Strand, which was kept by Wildman, the brother-in-law of John Home Tooke, another, like John Wilkes, of ;' The Three Johns," the three the other being Sir John Glynn being commemorated on the sign of "The Three Johns," No. *, Little Park , Street, Westminster.
The Literary Club. See ' O. and N. Lond.,' vol. iii. pp. 178, 179 ; Creed's ' Tavern Signs' (B. Mus.), vol. xiii.; L. Button's 'Literary Landmarks,' 1888, p. 123 ; and ' Tav. Anecd.,' 1825, p. 235.
The Reunion Literary Club. See "Re- union."
The Literary Fund. In the eighteenth century Benjamin Franklin was in the chair at a private club which used to meet weekly at "The Prince of Wales " in Conduit Street. A proposal was made to do something for starving authors. The members murmured over their pipes, stared at the punch-bowl, and thought 'authors were vulgar people who were not worth being discussed. The matter, however, was not allowed to drop. Year after year some kind soul or another brought it hot upon the anvil, hammered it until he was weary, and then passed the hammer to another and another and he to another, till at last the something was beaten into shape, and shape into substance, and there was fashioned that excellent and praiseworthy institution, the Literary Fund (Dr. Doran's 'In and about Drury Lane').
The London Missionary Society was first constituted in 1794 at the famous old " Baker's Coffee - House and Tavern " in Change Alley, Lombard Street, the only remaining seventeenth-century coffee-house since the passing of " Dick's " in Fleet Street. Although it soon after became extra- episcopal, it was founded by Dr. Haweis, an
