patronized by the clergy and young men from the universities. The charges
there were more economical than at similar establishments. Fladong's,
in Oxford Street, was chiefly frequented by naval men; for in those
days there was no club for sailors. Stephens', in Bond Street, was
a fashionable hotel, supported by officers of the army and men about
town. If a stranger asked to dine there, he was stared at by the servants,
and very solemnly assured that there was no table vacant. It was not
an uncommon thing to see thirty or forty saddle-horses and tilburys
waiting outside this hotel. I recollect two of my old Welsh friends,
who used each of them to dispose of five bottles of wine daily, residing
here in 1815, when the familiar joints, boiled fish and fried soles,
were the only eatables you could order.


THE CLUBS OF LONDON IN 1814


The members of the clubs in London, many years since, were persons,
almost without exception, belonging exclusively to the aristocratic
world. "My tradesmen," as King Allen used to call the bankers and the
merchants, had not then invaded White's, Boodle's, Brookes', or Wattiers',
in Bolton Street, Piccadilly; which, with the Guards, Arthur's, and
Graham's, were the only clubs at the West End of the town. White's
was decidedly the most difficult of entry; its list of members comprised
nearly all the noble names of Great Britain.

The politics of White's club were then decidedly Tory. It was here
that play was carried on to an extent which made many ravages in large
fortunes, the traces of which have not disappeared at the present day.
General Scott, the father-in-law of George Canning and the Duke of Portland,