r to make a reckoning, called
only for French wine. Here Dr. Johnson started a City club, and was
particular the members should not be "patriotic." Boswell, who went with
him to the "Queen's Arms" club, found the members "very sensible,
well-behaved men." Brasbridge, the silversmith of Fleet Street, who
wrote his memoirs, has described a sixpenny card club held here at a
later date. Among the members was that generous and hospitable man,
Henry Baldwin, who, under the auspices of Garrick, the elder Colman, and
Bonnell Thornton, started the _St. James's Chronicle_, the most popular
evening paper of the day.

"I belonged," says Brasbridge, "to a sixpenny card club, at the 'Queen's
Arms,' in St. Paul's Churchyard; it consisted of about twenty members,
of whom I am the sole survivor. Among them was Mr. Goodwin, of St.
Paul's Churchyard, a woollen draper, whose constant salutation, when he
first came downstairs in the morning, was to his shop, in these words,
'Good morrow, Mr. Shop; you'll take care of me, Mr. Shop, and I'll take
care of you.' Another was Mr. Curtis, a respectable stationer, who from
very small beginnings left his son L90,000 in one line, besides an
estate of near L300 a year."

"The 'Free and Easy under the Rose' was another society which I
frequented. It was founded sixty years ago, at the 'Queen's Arms,' in
St. Paul's Churchyard, and was afterwards removed to the 'Horn' tavern.
It was originally kept by Bates, who was never so happy as when
standing behind a chair with a napkin under his arm; but arriving at
the dignity of alderman, tucking in his callipash and calipee himself,
instead of handing it round to the company, soon did his business. My
excellent friend Briskett, the Marshal of the High Court of Admiralty,
was president of this society for many years, and I was constantly in
attendance as his vice. It consisted of some thousand members, and I
never heard of any one of them that ever incurred any serious
punishment. Our great fault was sitting too late; in this respect,
according to the principle of Franklin, that 'time is money,' we were
most unwary spendthrifts; in other instances, our conduct was orderly
and correct."

One of the members in Brasbridge's time was Mr. Hawkins, a worthy but
ill-educated spatterdash maker, of Chancery Lane, who daily murdered the
king's English. He called an invalid an "individual," and said our
troops in America had been "_manured_" to hardship. Another oddity