were, to be sure, the
"assembly-rooms" and the "supper-rooms," but there were many more
establishments which catered to the pleasures of the masculine mind and
taste than provided a fare of food and amusement which was acceptable to
the feminine palate.

Of the men's clubs, Brookes' and White's had long been established, and,
though of the proprietary order, were sufficiently attractive and
exclusive to have become very popular and highly successful. The other
class were those establishments which fulfil the true spirit and province
of a club,--where an association of gentlemen join together in the expense
of furnishing accommodation of refreshment and reading and lounging rooms.
This was the basis on which the most ambitious clubs were founded; what
they have degenerated into, in some instances, would defy even a rash man
to attempt to diagnose, though many are still run on the conservative
lines which do not open their doors to strangers, even on introduction,
as with the famous Athenaeum Club.

Other clubs, whose names were already familiar in the London of Dickens'
day, were the Carleton, Conservative, Reform, University, and perhaps a
score of others.

As is well known, Dickens was an inordinate lover of the drama, a patron
of the theatre himself, and an amateur actor of no mean capabilities. As
early as 1837 he had written an operetta, "The Village Coquettes," which
he had dedicated to Harley. It was performed, for the first time, on
December 6, 1836, at the St. James' Theatre. A London collector possesses
the original "hand-bill," announcing a performance of "Used Up" and "Mr.
Nightingale's Diary," at the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, in 1852, in
which Dickens, Sir John Tenniel, and Mark Lemon took part; also a playbill
of the performance of "The Frozen Deep," at the "Gallery of Illustration,"
on Regent Street, on July 4, 1857, "by Charles Dickens and his amateur
company before Queen Victoria and the Royal Family."

The painting (1846) by C. R. Leslie, R. A., of Dickens as Captain Boabdil,
in Ben Jonson's play of "Every Man in His Humour," is familiar to all
Dickens lovers.

The theatres of London, during the later years of Dickens' life, may be
divided into two classes: those which were under "royal patronage," and
those more or less independent theatres which, if ever visited by royalty,
were favoured with more or less unexpected and infrequent visits.

Of the first class, where the aristocracy, and the r