6 THE AGRICULTURAL CLUB. 



place was a spacious room built over the back yard or 

 garden of 80 Pall Mall, lighted mainly from the top, and, in 

 spite of two capacious fireplaces and a supplementary gas 

 stove, apt to be chilly and draughty on a winter's night. 

 The atmosphere, owing to the pervading influence of My 

 Lady Nicotine, tended to be smoky, but it was never heated, 

 and always genial even when the thermometer was unusually 

 depressed. The heat of argument sometimes engendered 

 sparks, but they lost all fire at once in the cooling air of 

 good-humour and good-fellowship. 



Pall Mall is one of the many distinctive street names of 

 London. Its origin is said to be in the game of " paille 

 maille," described as " something between golf and croquet," 

 which became fashionable early in the seventeenth century. 

 There was plenty of room then to play games, for in 1656 

 only eight householders were recorded as living in the 

 Pall Mall. I take the following from An Historical Guide to 

 London, by G. R. Stirling Taylor : 



" Nos. 80-83, on the south side, are the centre and west 

 wing of all that remains of the beautiful Schomberg House, 

 which was built during the reign of William III, and takes 

 its name from the Duke of Schomberg, William Ill's famous 

 general, who was killed at the battle of the Boyne ; the 

 house was built by his son. Afterwards it was tenanted by 

 the Duke of Cumberland, who fought at Culloden. But 

 perhaps its greatest tenant was Gainsborough, the painter, 

 who lived in the west wing (after the house was divided up 

 into tenements) from 1777-1783, where the beauty and 

 fashion of London flocked to sit for their portraits ; Cosway, 

 the miniature painter, occupied the centre in 1787-99. 

 Near Schomberg House once stood the house where Nell 

 Gwynne lived from 1671-1687, when she died there : she 

 talked to Charles over the garden wall at the Mall side, 

 which Charles frequented. Two doors eastward of this 

 house lived Sir William Temple, 1681. Behind the west 

 end of Pall Mall lies Marlborough House, overlooking St. 

 James's Park. In the earlier next house to Schomberg 

 House, on its west side, lived Mrs. Fitzherbert, the mor- 

 ganatic wife of George IV." 



