LONDON'S OLDEST CLUBS

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 89, 14 April 1923, Page 12

LONDON'S OLDEST CLUBS

£ WHERE VAST FORTUNES WERE ;:'. . LOST AND WON.

|j£ Condotf-lias.-at; ]eaißfc;:i6'.clubg.,tliat'..afe ■ ••'' over 100 years old, and two others, the j '■''■'■ Athanaeuin ■ and the Oriental, .that will 1 p .complete.'theircentuiy'hextyear. Easily. ;';) the "oldest is White's, in St. James's' '] r street, which began its. career in 1698 as ■ '•■ iWhite's Chocolate House. That building . '<: was burned dowij in 1733." Three years ;*; later the club-was founded under its | ■'-;■ present name, and ifc has been in present Iy[ quarters since 1755. White's was the ■ : 'l* first of- the 'Tory'dubs;: though in re-'. '»■■•' cent years it has become a social rather !;,.' than a ■political..club, In.ite early,days ;.!„ (says are "Dails,'Chronicle'-), when its- »'•>■ list of members'was a. coll call 1 of'all- t^e | ■p, noble names of-England, it was the most • •;; difficult cliib in the world to enter. Many '^■fortunes-were'-lost and famous families : almost ruined at the high play which ; ".tfrfed l't6:" be"'its'most notable feature. ■BJere is was that General Scott, father- ! '■ if itfla-w "dl "Gebr'iie'Canning and' 1 the Duke ' i of Portland of the day, was said-to have f -: : ,won, £200,000, thanks to his knowledge ■;■- pf'^whisf. and,-his habit of'taking only, '• ■ ■ toast and water with his dinner. ;.;'. ''The Cocoa Tree; Club,- in the eanie j ;• etreeij'.is the-next in point .of, age, .dating *,~! from 1745. It originated in Pall liall >,'. in a chocolate house that was a famous •\- resort of-the Tories'and Jacobites. Also .'-. in St. James's street, axe Arthur's, foundU- ed in 1751 by the Mr? Arthur who was V the proprietor of White's; - Boodle's, ifounded in 1762, and much frequented ,:,• by fox-huntinsr country gentlement; and \, Brooks's, founded iri-Pall Mall in 1764 . * »s a gamihK-club, as al result, of • bfackV balling, at ■ White's.; All these h.ave their, ';: ■ stories and. traditions. During ■ the ">l- Regency Boodle's was known as a "nest I of baronets," and its country house at- : mosphere led Theodore Hook to call it the "Loainshire Chophonse." It was '■'; said- '-that if - anyone called, out.. "Sir '-'■ J.6h,n..-you're,wanted," half the members ,-". would rise from their chairs. The old- :. ~™vrarld""statelineßs" of~flieae "clubs" in hy- ' gone days recalls the saying that "din--1 •"-"lnK.."atlEibblS'slJi'a&Jikei.dini_n l t; at. a duke's,.h<)Uße i>vith .the duke lyins dead •upstairs." Among 1: other .old London "' .'cluDa, • ■ the ■■ Royal- - Thames Yacht €lub !-"',this year celebrates its centenary, but gri older sporting club, the M.C.C., dates from 1787. ' ■