rent Parts and Distributions of the whole Nation. I " can defcribe every Parish by its Impieties, and can tell you in which of our Streets Lewdnefs prevails, which • Gaming has taken the poffeffion of, and where Drunkenness has got the better of them both. When I am. difpofed to raise a Fine for the Poor, I know the Lanes and Allies that are inhabited by common Swearers. • When I would encourage the Hofpital of Bridewell, and improve the Hempen Manufacture, I am very ← well acquainted with all the Haunts and Reforts of Female Night-walkers.

AFTER this short Account of my self, I must let ⚫ you know, that the Defign of this Paper is to give you • Information 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 Society. I mean, Sir, the Midnight Mask, 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 mafked, we dare not attack any of them in our Way, lest 6 we fhould fend 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 thefe Reasons, which fecure them from our Authority, ⚫ make them obnoxious to yours; As both their Difguife and their Numbers will give no particular Person Rea• fon to think himself affronted by you.

IF we are rightly informed, the Rules that are ob• ferved by this new Society 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 first Entrance, to the Converfation of any Body that addreffes himself There are feveral Rooms where the Parties may retire, and, if they please, fhew their Faces by Confent. Whispers, Squeezes, Nods, and Embraces, are the innocent Freedoms of the Place. In fhort, the

⚫ to them.

• whole

whole Defign of this libidinous Affembly, feems to terminate in Affignations and Intrigues; and I hope you 'will take effectual Methods by your publick Advice ⚫ and Admonitions, to prevent fuch a promifcuous Mul⚫titude of both Sexes from meeting together in so clandeftine a Manner. I am

SIR,

W

Your humble Servant,

and Fellow-Labourer, .

T. B.

Not long after the Perufal of this Letter, I received another upon the fame Subject; which by the Date and Stile of it, I take to be written by fome young Templar. Middle-Temple, 1710-11. HEN a Man has been guilty of any Vice or Folly, I think the best 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 February 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 Brother; but upon a nearer Examination I found they were a Sifterhood of Coquettes difguised in that precife Habit. I was foon after taken out to dance, and, as I fancied, by a Woman of the firft Quality, for fhe 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 Vandike.

a

The heedlefs Lover does not know

Whofe Eyes they are that wound him fo;
But confounded with thy Art,

Inquires her Name that has his Heart.

I pronounced thefe Words with fuch a languifhing Air that I had fome Reafon to conclude I had made a Conqueft. She told me that he hoped my Face was not akin 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 he has paffed her self upon for a Countess.

THUS, Sir, you fee how I have mistaken a Cloud for a Juno; and if you can make any ufe of this Adventure, for the Benefit of those who may poffibly be as vain young Coxcombs as my felf, I do most heartily give you Leave. I am, SIR,

Your most humble Admirer,

B. L.

I defign to vifit the next Mafquerade my felf, in the fame Habit I wore at Grand Cairo; and till then fhall fufpend my Judgment of this Midnight Entertainment.

N°

9. Saturday, March 10.

-Tigris agit rabidâ cum tigride pacem Perpetuam, fævis inter fe convenit urfis.

C

Juv. Sat. 15. v. 163. Tiger with Tiger, Bear with Bear, you'll find In Leagues offenfive and defenfive join'd.

M

TATE.

AN is faid to be a Sociable Animal, and, as an Inftance of it, we may obferve, that we take all Occafions and Pretences of forming our felves into those little Nocturnal Affemblies, which are commonly known by the Name of Clubs. When a Set of Men

find

find themselves agree in any Particular, tho' never fo trivial, they establish themfelves into a kind of Fraternity, and meet once or twice a Week, upon the Account of fuch. a Fantastick Refemblance. I know a confiderable MarketTown, in which there was a Club of fat Men, that did. not come together (as you may well fuppofe) 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 largeft, and had two Entrances, the one by a Door of a moderate Size, 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 look'd upon as unqualified; but if he fuck 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, tho' it confisted but of fifteen Perfons, weighed above three Tun.

IN Oppofition to this Society, there fprung up another compofed 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 feveral 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 Rabbets, 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 the Second, and admitted into it Men of all Qualities and Profeffions, provided they agreed in the Sirname 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 Distinction, and made the Occafion of a Club. That of the George's, which used to meet at the Sign of the George on St. George's Day, and fwear Before George, is ftill fresh in every one's Memory.

THERE

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 remember, upon my inquiring after Lodgings in Ormond-street,. the Landlord, to recommend that Quarter of the Town, told me, there was at that time a very good Club in it; he alfo told me, upon farther Difcourfe with him, that two or three noify Country-Squires, who were fettled there the Year before, had confiderably funk the Price of House-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 Converfation.

THE Hum-Drum Club, of which I was formerly an unworthy Member, was made up of very honest 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 Noise.

AFTER these two innocent Societies, I cannot forbear mentioning a very mifchievous one, that was erected in the Reign of King Charles the Second: I mean the Club of Duellifts, in which none was to be admitted that had not fought his Man. The Prefident of it was faid to have killed half a dozen in fingle Combat; and as for the other Members, they took their Seats according to the Number of their Slain. There was likewife a SideTable, for fuch as had only drawn Blood, and fhewn a laudable Ambition of taking the firft Opportunity to qualify themselves for the firft Table. This Club confifting only of Men of Honour, did not continue long, moft of the Members of it being put to the Sword, or hanged, a little after its Inftitution.

OUR Modern celebrated Clubs are founded upon Eating 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 it felf is faid to have taken its Original from a Mutton-Pye. The Beef-Steak, and October Clubs, are neither of them averfe to Eating and Drinking, if we may form a Judgment of them from their refpective Titles.

WHEN