WHITE'S CLUB-House. 211 Tavern, was erected after the designs of Messrs. Sidney Smirke and George Basevi. The façade is singularly elaborate, and presents a bold and handsome front to the street. It contains numerous apartments, of which the chief are a morning and evening room, a library, dining saloon, coffee-room, and card-room. Of these the evening-room is the most magnificent, being almost 100 feet long, 26 wide, and 25 in aititude, sustained by 18 superb scagliola Corinthian columns. In 1850 this club-house numbered 1,500 members. At No. 60, in the same street, is Brookes's Club-house, founded originally in 1764, in Pall-mall, by the Duke of Portland, the Duke of Roxburgh, and 25 other Whig noblemen and gentlemen. Mr. Cunningham says, that this was at first a gaming-club, farmed by Almack, and afterwards by Brookes, a wine-merchant and moneylender. The present edifice was built after the designs of Henry Holland, at the cost of Brookes, and opened in 1778. In the chronicles of the club there is a curious manuscript note relative to Mr. Thynne. It states that "Mr. Thynne having won only 12,000 guineas during the last two months, retired in disgust, March 21st, 1772." Among the eminent men who have belonged to this club were Fox, Burke, Horace Walpole, David Hume, Gibbon, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Garrick, and Sheridan. White's Club-house, at Nos. 37 and 38, St. James'-street, is of ancient date, it being first established as White's Chocolate House in 1698. It ceased, in 1736, to be an open chocolate-house, the proprietor forming it into a clubhouse. It acquired a curious renown as a supper-house, where gambling was carried on to a great extent, and where bets upon every imaginable event were laid. Births and deaths were made the subjects of heavy wagers, and Horace Walpole writes that a characteristic story appeared in the papers of 1750. "A man who dropped down dead at the door of White's was carried in; the club immediately made bets whether he was dead or not, and when they were going to bleed him, the wagerers for his death interposed, and said it would affect the fairness of the bet." Pall-mall, however, is the western region in which the club-houses most abound, the greater part of its south side being covered with these noble architectural piles. The Reform Club-house, an edifice of great extent, was originated by the liberal members of the House of Commons about twenty years since, and was named after that measure which altered the entire constitution of Parliament-the Reform Bill. The building was erected after the plans of Mr. Charles Barry, the architect of the new houses of the legislature. This club-house, which covers the site formerly occupied by the National Gallery, and the plot of ground adjoining, presents a frontage of 135 feet. The architect of this structure adopted as his model the famous Farnese palace at Rome, built after the designs of Michael Angelo Buonarotti, in 1545. The edifice, though consisting of six floors from the basement, exhibits in Pall-mall a frontage of only three from the ground, the basement and mezzanine below ground and the chambers in the roof being unseen. The pediments surmounting the windows on the first floor in Pall-mall are sustained by Corinthian columns, and at the back, looking over Carlton-gardens, by Ionic pilasters, rusticated, a balustrade rising. The entire design is one of massive grandeur. An Italian court (344 feet by 29 feet), commencing at the base, is placed in the centre of the quadrangle, and is partly occupied by the grand saloon. The chief chamber on the ground floor is the coffee-room, supported by Ionic columns, and looking into the garden. The drawing-room over the coffee-room is sustained by Corinthian pillars, as is the library. There are about 140 apartments in this magnificent fabric. The Travellers' Clubhouse adjoining, is a smaller structure, built in 1832 by Mr. Barry. No person is eligible for membership who has not travelled at least 500 miles out of England. Near to the Travellers' is the Athenæum Club-house, |