HENRY V. PELTON. 25 
the tavern was the usual place of assembly on all oc- 
casions, and was the place for gossip and for news before 
the newspaper had developed so it could reach the 
people ; but a still stronger reason was because, to an 
Englishman (and in this respect, I think, we have in- 
herited from him) a gathering for any purpose is incom- 
plete without a dinner. Douglass Jerold has said, 
‘“‘Tf an earthquake were to engulf England to-morrow, 
the English would manage to meet and dine somewhere 
among the rubbish, just to celebrate the event.”’ 
The ‘‘Kit-Kat Club,’ while partly political, was 
literary and artistic as well. It wasa society of Whig 
leaders, consisting of thirty-nine noblemen and gentle- 
men attached to the House of Hanover. It first met at 
an obscure house in Shire lane kept by Christopher 
Katt, a noted mutton-pie-man, Chris, being abbreviated 
into Kit. 
One of the most noted of the early clubs was the 
** Beef-Steak Society,’ founded by Rich, the first harle- 
quin; or which might more correctly be said to have 
grown from Rich’s habit of himself broiling a beetf-steak 
for his dinner, in the room in Covent Garden Theatre 
where he arranged the tricks for his pantomime. Here 
men of rank and wit resorted and finally stayed and 
shared his steak. From this grew the ‘‘Saturday’s 
Club”? which met for some time in a room in the play- 
house and afterwards at the Shakespeare tavern. The 
bill of fare was restricted to beef-steak and the beverage 
to port wine and punch. both Hogarth and Garrick 
were among the earlier members. When the gridiron, 
upon which Rich had broiled his solitary steak became 
- insufficient for the guests, it was enshrined as one of the 
household emblems of the club. This gridiron was 
found among the ruins after the Covent Garden fire. 
Through all the early years of the club it was customary 
to register in the weekly records anything of striking 
