The Origin of Clubs.--The Establishment of Coffee-houses.--The
October Club.--The Beef-steak Club.--Of certain other
Clubs.--The Kit-kat Club.--The Romance of the Bowl.--The Toasts
of the Kit-kat.--The Members of the Kit-kat.--A good Wit, and a
bad Architect.--'Well-natured Garth.'--The Poets of the
Kit-kat.--Charles Montagu, Earl of Halifax.--Chancellor
Somers.--Charles Sackville, Lord Dorset.--Less celebrated
Wits. p. 91


WILLIAM CONGREVE.

When and where was he born?--The Middle Temple.--Congreve finds his
Vocation.--Verses to Queen Mary.--The Tennis-court
Theatre.--Congreve abandons the Drama.--Jeremy Collier.--The
Immorality of the Stage.--Very improper Things.--Congreve's
Writings.--Jeremy's 'Short Views.'--Rival Theatres.--Dryden's
Funeral.--A Tub-Preacher.--Horoscopic Predictions.--Dryden's
Solicitude for his Son.--Congreve's Ambition.--Anecdote of
Voltaire and Congreve.--The Profession of Mæcenas.--Congreve's
Private Life.--'Malbrook's' Daughter.--Congreve's Death and
Burial. p. 106


BEAU NASH.

The King of Bath.--Nash at Oxford.--'My Boy Dick.'--Offers of
Knighthood.--Doing Penance at York.--Days of Folly.--A very
Romantic Story.--Sickness and Civilization.--Nash descends upon
Bath.--Nash's Chef-d'oeuvre.--The Ball.--Improvements in the