Convi~ialii] THE SPENDTHRIFT CLUB. 12.5
called one of his brother boars by his proper outof-
club name, the term < Sir ? being only allowed.
The entry-money, fines, and other pecuniary acquisitions,
were hoarded for a grand annual dinner.?
In 1799 some new officials were added, such
as a poet-laureate, champion, archbishop, and chief
grunter, and by that time, as the tone and expenses
of the club had increased, the fines became
very severe, and in the exactions no one met with
any mercy, ?? as it was the interests of all that the
& should bring forth a plenteous farrow.? This
practice led to squabbles, and the grotesque fraternity
was broken up.
The COUNTRY DINNER CLUB was a much more
sensible style of gathering, when some respectable
citizens of good position were wont to meet on the
afternoon of each Saturday about the year 1790 to
dine in an old tavern in Canonmills, then at a
moderate distance from town. They kept their
own particular claret. William Ramsay, a banker,
then residing in Warriston House, was deemed
?( the tongue of the trump to the club,? which entirely
consisted of hearty and honest old citizens,
all of whom have long since gone to their last account.
The EAST INDIA CLUB was formed in 1797, and
held its first meeting in John Bayll?s tavern on
the 13th of January that year, when the Herald
announces that dinner would be on the table at the
then late and fashionable hour of four, but the body
does not seem to have been long in existence ; it
contributed twenty guineas to the sufferers of a fire
in the Cowgate in the spring of 1799, and fifty to
the House of Industry in 1801.
John Bayll managed the ?George Square assemblies,?
which were held in Buccleuch Place.
His tavern was in Shakespeare Square, where his
annual balls and suppers, in 1800, were under the
patronage of the Duchess of Buccleuch and Mrs.
Dundas of Amiston.
Of the CAPE CLUB, which was established on
the 15th of March, 1733, and of which Fergusson
the poet and Runciman the painter were afterwards
members, an account will be found in Vol. I.,
which, however, omitted to give the origin of the
name of that long-existing and merry fraternity,
and which was founded on an old, but rather weak,
Edinburgh joke of the period.
Some well-known burgess of the Calton who WE
in the habit of spending the evening hours with
friends in the city, till after the ten o?clock drum
had been beaten and the Netherbow Port wa:
shut, to obtain egress was under the necessity 01
bribing the porter there, or remaining within the
walls all ni&it. On leaving the gate he had tc
turn acutely to the left to proceed down Leith
Wynd, which this facetious toper termed ?? doubling
the Cape.? Eventually it became a standing joke
in the small circle of Edinburgh then, ?and the
Cape Club owned a regular institution from 1763,?
says Chambers, but its sixty-fifth anniversary is
announced in the HeraZd of 1798, for the 15th of
March as given above.
The SPENDTHRIFT CLUB, was so called in ridicule
of the very moderate indulgence of its members,
whose expenses were limited to fourpence-halfpenny
each night, yet all of them were wealthy or
well-to-do citizens, many of whom usually met after
forenoon church at the. Royal Exchange for a walk
in the country-their plan being to walk in the
direction from whence the wind blew and thus
avoid the smoke of the city. ? In 1824,? says
ChamberS, ?? in the recollection of the senior members,
some of whom were of fifty years? standing,
the house (of meeting) was kept by the widow of a
Lieutenant Hamilton of the army, who recollected
having attended the theatre in the Tennis Court at
Holyrood when the play was the ? Spanish Friar,,
and many of the members of the Union Parliament
were present in the house.?
The meetings of this club were nightly, till reduced
to four weekly, Whist was played for a
halfpenny. Supper originally cost only twopence,
and half a bottle of strong ale, with a dram, cost
twopence-halfpenny more ; a halfpenny to the
servant-maid, was a total of fivepence for a night of
jollity and good fellowship.
The PIOUS CLUB was composed of respectable
and orderly business-men who met every night,
Sundays not excepted, in the Pie-house-hence their
name, a play upon the words. We are told that
?the agreeable uncertainty as to whether their
name arose from their pie& or the circumstance of
their eating piesy kept the club hearty for many
years.?
Fifteen members constituted a full night, a gill of
toddy to each was served out like wine from a d e
canter, and they were supposed to separate at ten
o?clock.
The ANTEMANUM CLUB was composed of men of
respectability, and many who were men of fortune,
who dined together every Saturday. ? Brag? was
their chief game with cards. It was a purely convivial
club, till the era of the Whig party being in
the ascendant led to angry political discussions, and
eventual dissolution.
The SIX FEET CLUB was composed of men who
were of that stature or above it, if possible. It was
an athletic society, and generally met half-yearly at
the Hunter?s Tryst, near Colinton, or similar places,
126 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Convivialia
party by appointment, especially in winter, after
evening closed in, and took their carriages as near
as they could go conveniently, to these subterranean
abysses or vaults, called Zu&h shops, where
the raw oysters and flagons of porter were set out
plentifully on a table in a dingy wainscoted room,
lighted, of course, by tallow candles. The general
surroundings gave an additional zest to the supper,
and one of the chief features of such entertainments
would seem to have been the scope they afforded
to the conversational powers of the company.
Ladies and gentlemen alike indulged in an unrestrained
manner in sallies and witticisms, observations
and jests, that would not have been tolerated
elsewhere; but in those days it was common for
Scottish ladies, especially of rank, to wear black
velvet masks when walking abroad or airing in the
carriage ; and these masks were kept close to the
kce by a glass button or jewel which the fair
wearer held by her teeth.
Brandy or rum punch succeeded the oysters and
porter ; dancing then followed; and when the ladies
had departed in their sedans or carriages the gentlemen
would proceed to crown the evening by an
unlimited debauch.
?It is not,? says Chambers, writing in 1824,?
? more than thirty years since the late Lord Melville,
the Duchess of Gordon, and some other
persons of distinction, who happened to meet in
town after many years of absence, made up an
Dyster cellar party by way of a frolic, and devoted
me winter evening to the revival of this almost forgotten
entertainment of their youth. It seems diffixlt,?
he adds, ? to reconcile all these things with
the staid and somewhat square-toed character which
3ur country has obtained amongst her neighbours.
The fact seems to be that a kind of Laodicean
3rinciple is observable in Scotland, and we oscillate
letween arigour of manners on one hand, and a
axity on the other, which alternately acquires a
iaram ount ascendency. ?
In 1763 people of fashion dined at two o?clock,
ind all business was generalIy transacted in the
:vening ; and all shop-doors were locked after one
or an hour and opened after dinner. Twenty
rears later four or five o?clock was the fashionable
linner hour, and dancing schools had been estadished
for servant girls and tradesmen?s apprentices.
We may conclude this chapter on old manners,
~y mentioning the fact, of which few of our readers
are perhaps aware, that Edinburgh as a dukedom
is a title much older than the reign of Queen Victoria.
GeorgQ III., when Prince of Wales, was
Duke of Edinburgh, Marquis of Ely, and Earl of
Chester.
when silver medals were given for rifle-shooting
throwing a hammer 16 pounds in weight, single
stick, &c. On these occasions, Sir Walter Scott
Professor Wilson, and the Ettrick Shepherd, werc
frequently present, and often presided. In 182l
we find the club designated the Guard of Honou
to the Lord High Constable of Scotland. Its chair
man was termed captain, and Sir Walter Scott wa!
umpire of the club.
The SHAKESPEARE CLUB was, as its name im
ports, formed with a view to forward dramatic art anc
literature, yet was not without its convivial feature!
also, Among its members, in 1830, were W. D
Gillon of Walhouse, M.P., the Hon. Colonel Ogilv)
of Clova, Patrick Robertson, afterwards the well
known and witty Lord Robertson, Mr. Pritchard 0.
the Theatre Royal, and other kindred spirits.
Edinburgh now teems with clubs, county anc
district associations, and societies ; but in tone, anc
by the change of times and habits, they are verj
different from most of the old clubs we have enume.
rated here, clubs which existed in ? the Dark Age
of Edinburgh,? when a little fun and merrimeni
seemed to go a long way indeed, and when grim
professional men appeared to plunge into madcaF
and grotesque roistering and coarse racy humour,
as if they were a relief from, or contrast to, the
general dull tenor of life in those days when, aftei
the Union, the gloom of village life settled ovei
the city, and people became rigid and starched in
their bearing, morose in their sanctimony, and the
most grim decorum seemed the test of piety and
respectabiIity.
Many who were not members of clubs, by the
occasional tenor of their ways seemed to protest
against this state of things, or to seek relief from it
by indulging in what would seem little better than
orgies now.
In the letters added to the edition of Arnot?s
?History in 1788,? we are told that in 1763 there
were no oyster cellars in the city, or if one, it was
for the reception of the lowest rank; but, that
in 1783, oyster cellars, or taverns taking that name,
had become numerous as places of fashionable
resort, and the frequent rendezvous of dancing
parties or private assemblies. Thus the custom
of ladies as well as gentlemen resorting to such
places, is a curious example of the state of manners
during the eighteenth century.
The most famous place for such oyster parties
was a tavern kept by Lucky Middlemass in the
Cowgate, and which stood where the south pier of
the first bridge stands now. Dances in such
places were called ?? frolics.?
In those days fashionable people made up a
