AFTER DINNER 251 



and find a comfortable luncheon of modest proportions and reasonable 

 price, with some one to talk to, and an emergency dinner was to 

 be had only at the Prince of Wales ^ (" Bruvet's "), which became 

 also a sort of " pirate " college kitchen, where there was a table d'hote. 



Some few years later opportunities for sociable luncheon sprang 

 up. King's started a luncheon in Hall after the manner of a Club, 

 and first Trinity and then other colleges followed suit. The ad- 

 vantages of the system were well expressed by a member of one 

 of the smaller foundations, who complained to his tutor that no 

 such amenities were, in their case, provided. " I so much dislike 

 luncheon alone," he said, " that I always have to ask some one in, 

 and so pay for two luncheons. Now, if luncheon were provided 

 in Hall, sir, I should have a neighbour to talk to who paid for his 

 own luncheon." The Pitt Club, the Union, and, later, the Hawks — 

 the only Clubs with a large enough membership and premises — 

 started luncheons and later dinners. More recently, the Pitt, the 

 only Club of the three now closely concerned with sport, has 

 fitted out a most convenient private dining-room where various 

 clubs, societies, and informal coteries - can forgather. And so 

 the modern social system of dining, rather than wining, is fully 

 established. 



With regard to the clubs to which beaglers have belonged, there 

 was a time when many of them were at the Hawks. I remember 

 being told, by whom I cannot remember, that H. Hastings Clay, in 

 the earlier eighties, was active in getting beaglers into that society, 

 and so making it a centre of sport ; and it is an interesting and 

 undesigned coincidence that one of the Masters of those days, A. E. 

 Milne, was a member of the Hawks and not of the Pitt ; though 

 now, of course, the former is purely athletic and " Philistine," and 

 the latter the only home for " Barbarians." Also the dining-rooms 

 have increased the practical importance of clubs in the scheme 

 of things. 



No discourse on Cambridge Club life would be complete without 



1 The "Prince of Wales" is now defunct, and the premises occupied by a 

 pastry-cook. 



^ The Ancient Mariners, for example. 



