different parts and diftributions of the whole nation. I can defcribe every parish by its impieties, and can tell you in which of our streets lewdness prevails, which gaming has taken the poffeffion of, and where drunkenness has got the better of them both. When I am difpofed to raife a fine for the poor, I know the lanes and alleys that are inhabited by common fwearWhen I would encourage the hospital of Bridewell, and improve the hempen manufacture, I am very well acquainted with all the haunts and reforts of female night-walkers.

ers.

in

AFTER this fhort account of myself, I must let you • know, that the defign of this paper is to give you formation of a certain irregular affembly, which I think falls very properly under your obfervation, efpecially fince the perfons it is compofed of are criminals too confiderable for the animadverfions of our fociety. I mean, Sir, the midnight mafk, which has • of late been very frequently held in one of the most ⚫ confpicuous parts of the town, and which I hear will be continued with additions and improvements. As ⚫ all the perfons who compofe this lawless affembly are masked, we dare not attack any of them in our way, • left we should send a woman of quality to Bridewell, or a peer of Great Britain to the Counter: befides that their numbers are. fo very great, that I am afraid they would be able to rout our whole fraternity, though we were accompanied with all our guard of • conftables. Both these reasons, which fecure them from our authority, make them obnoxious to yours; as both their disguise, and their numbers, will give no particular perfon reason to think himself affronted by 6 you.

IF we are rightly informed, the rules that are ob• ferved by this new fociety are wonderfully contrived for the advancement of cuckoldom. The women ei⚫ther come by themselves, or are introduced by friends, • who are obliged to quit them, upon their firft entrance, to the converfation of any body that addreffes himfelf to them. There are feveral rooms where the parties may retire, and, if they please, fhew their faces by confent. Whifpers, fqueezes,, nods, and embraces,

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braces, are the innocent freedoms of the place. In fhort, the whole defign of this libidinous affembly ⚫ feems to terminate in affignations and intrigues; and I hope you will take effectual methods by your public advice and admonitions, to prevent fuch a promifcuous ⚫ multitude of both fexes from meeting together in so ⚫ clandeftine a manner.

6

SIR,

I am,

Your bumble fervant,

and fellow-labourer.

T. B.

Not long after the perufal of this letter, I received another upon the fame fubject; which by the date and ftyle of it, I take to be written by fome young templar. Middle temple, 1710-11. WHEN a man has been guilty of any vice or folly, I think the beft atonement he can make for it, is to warn others not to fall into the like. In order to this I must acquaint you, that fome time in Febru<ary laft I went to the Tuesday's mafquerade. Upon • my first going in I was attacked by half a dozen female Quakers, who feemed willing to adopt me for a brother; but, upon a nearer examination I found they were a fifter-hood of coquettes, disguised in that precife habit. I was foon after taken out to dance, and, " as I fancied, by a woman of the first quality, for she was very tall, and moved gracefully. As foon as the minuet was over, we ogled one another through our mafques; and, as I am very well read in Waller, I repeated to her the four following verfes out of his poem to Van• dike.

The beedless lover des not know

Whofe eyes they are that wound him fo;
But confounded with thy art,

Inquires her name that has his heart.

I pronounced these words with fuch a languishing air,' that I had fome reafon to conclude I had made a conqueft. She told me that the hoped my face was not a-kin to my tongue, and looking upon her watch, I accidentally discovered the figure of a coronet on the • back

back part of it. I was fo tranfported with the thought ⚫ of fuch an amour, that I plied her from one room to ⚫ another, with all the gallantries I could invent; and at length brought things to fo happy an iffue, that she gave me a private meeting the next day, without page or footman, coach or equipage. My heart danced in raptures, but I had not lived in this golden dream a ⚫bove three days, before I found good reafon to wish that I had continued true to my laundrefs. I have fince heard, by a very great accident, that this fine lady does not live far from Covent-garden, and that I am not the first cully whom she has paffed herself upon for a countefs.

THUS, Sir, you fee how I have mistaken a cloud for a Juno; and if you can make any use of this ad• venture, for the benefit of those who may poffibly be < as vain young coxcombs as myfelf. I do most heartily give you leave. I am, SIR,

Your most humble admirer,

B. L.

I defign to vifit the next mafquerade myself, in the fame habit I wore at Grand Cairo; and till then shall fufpend my judgment of this midnight entertainment. C

No 9.

Saturday, MARCH 10.

Tigris agit rabida cum tigride pacem Perpetuam, faevis inter fe convenit urfis.

Juv. Sat. 15. v. 163.

Tiger with tiger, bear with bear you'll find
In leagues offenfive and defenfive join'd.

MA

TATE.

AN is faid to be a fociable animal, and, as an inftance of it, we may obferve, that we take all occafions and pretences of forming ourselves into those little nocturnal affemblies, which are commonly known by the name of Clubs. When a fet of men find themfelves

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themselves agree in any particular, though never fo tri vial, they establish themselves into a kind of fraternity; and meet once or twice a week, upon the account of fuch a fantastic resemblance. I know a confiderable market-town, in which there was a club of fat men, that did not come together, as you may well fuppose, to entertain one another with sprightliness and wit, but to keep one another in countenance: the room where the club met was fomething of the largest, and had two entrances, the one by a door of a moderate fize, and the other by a pair of folding doors. If a candidate for this corpulent club could make his entrance through the firft, he was looked upon as unqualified; but if he ftuck in the paffage, and could not force his way through it, the folding doors were immediately thrown open for his reception, and he was faluted as a brother. I have heard that this club, though it confifted but of fifteen perfons, weighed above three tun.

IN oppofition to this fociety, there fprung up another composed of scarecrows and skeletons, who being very meagre and envious, did all they could to thwart the defigns of their bulky brethren, whom they reprefented as men of dangerous principles; till, at length, they worked them out of the favour of the people, and confequently out of the magiftracy. Thefe factions tore the corporation in pieces for several years, till, at length, they came to this accommodation; that the two bailiffs of the town fhould be annually chofen out of the two clubs; by which means the principal magiftrates are at this day coupled like rabbits, one fat and one lean.

EVERY one has heard of the club, or rather the confederacy, of the kings. This grand alliance was formed. a little after the return of king Charles II. and admitted into it men of all qualities and profeffions, provided they agreed in the firname of king, which, as they imagined, fufficiently declared the owners of it to be altogether untainted with republican and anti-monarchical principles.

A Chriftian name has likewife been often used as a badge of diftinction, and made the occafion of a club. That of the George's, which used to meet at the

fign of the George on St. George's day, and fwear Before George, is ftill fresh in every one's memory.

THERE are at prefent, in feveral parts of this city, what they call Street-clubs, in which the chief inhabitants of the street converfe together every night. I re member, upon my inquiring after lodgings in Ormondftreet, the landlord, to recommend that quarter of the town, told me, there was at that time a very good club in it; he also told me, upon farther difcourfe with him, that two or three noify country-fquires, who were settled there the year before, had confiderably funk the price of houfe-rent; and that the club, to prevent the like inconveniencies for the future, had thoughts of taking every house that became vacant into their own hands, till they had found a tenant for it, of a fociable nature and good conversation.

THE Hum-drum club, of which I was formerly an unworthy member, was made up of very honeft gentlemen, of peaceable difpofitions, that used to fit together, fmoke their pipes, and fay nothing till midnight. The Mum club, as I am informed, is an inftitution of the fame nature, and as great an enemy to noife.

AFTER these two innocent focieties, I cannot forbear mentioning a very mischievous one, that was erected in the reign of king Charles II. I mean the club of Duelifts, in which none was to be admitted that had not fought his man. The prefident of it was said to have killed half a dozen in fingle combat; and as for the other members, they took their feats according to the number of their flain. There was likewife a fidetable, for fuch as had only drawn blood, and fhewn a laudable ambition of taking the first opportunity to qualify themselves for the first table. This club confifting only of men of honour, did not continue long, moft of the members of it being put to the fword, or hanged, a little after its inftitution.

upon eat

OUR modern celebrated clubs are founded ing and drinking, which are points wherein moft men agree, and in which the learned and illiterate, the dull and the airy, the philofopher and the buffoon, can all of them bear a part. The Kit-cat itself is faid to have taken its original from a mutton-pye. The

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