CLUB

the name given to an a embly of persons who meet together for the promotion of some common object of interest; also to the building in which such meetings are held. C’s existed amongst the ancient Greeks and Romans, the members of which used to share meals, and perhaps the most notable were the religious c.’s whose members were pledged to make sacrifice to some particular deity. The earliest known Eng. c. was called ‘La Court. de Bone Compaignie’ in the reign of Henry IV. The poet Occleve was a member. Not until the reign of Elizabeth did the literary or convivial c. become -an established institution. The most famous c. of this period was that established by Sir. Walter Raleigh at the Mermaid Tavern, of which Shakespeare and most of the other poets and dramatists of the age were members. Ben Jonson founded a similar c. at the Devil Tavern. The next great period of Eng. club-life came into existence with the development of the coffee-houses in the XVIII. cent. Prominent amongst the c’s of this period were White’s, 1698, Brook’s, 1764; Boodle’s, 1762; and The Cocoa Tree, 1746. The famous Literary pay was founded by Dr. Johnson in