Art. 5.-THE ATHENAEUM.

History of the Athenæum-1824-1925. By Humphry Ward. Printed for the Club, 1926.

THE Athenæum is the most famous literary, artistic, and scientific club in the world. There is no gainsaying its supremacy. On its list of members will be found practically all the outstanding men of this country during the century it has been in existence. Indeed, it is not merely a club in the ordinary acceptation of the word, but an institution whose name is familiar throughout the habitable globe; and if so many of its members have conferred distinction upon it, it in return has added no less distinction to them; and, in the case of not a few, membership of it has perhaps been their chief claim to renown. In 1924 it celebrated its centenary, and I imagine that at that time few books were more in request, in its remarkable library, the finest by far possessed by any club in London, than the two modest little privately-printed volumes, in one of which the Rev. Francis Gledstanes Waugh set down the origin and history of the Athenæum, and in the other a complete list of its members to the year 1894. The former of these now very scarce little volumes (for only sixty copies of one and fifty of the other were printed) was confessedly but a humble attempt to record the pregnant history of this remarkable institution; but it is interspersed with many a delightful anecdote concerning those whose personalities once dominated the Club, and is thus rather concerned with the past members than with the Club itself.

On the occasion of the Athenæum's centenary, it was felt that some more official record of its activities should be forthcoming. Its well-known librarian, the late Mr Tedder, had, indeed, been for many years collecting material to this end. Death, unfortunately, prevented him from carrying his labours to a conclusion; and the completion of the work was entrusted to Mr Humphry Ward, than whom there could hardly be a member who, from intimate and long knowledge of the Club and its history, was more capable of carrying out a task which,

while undoubtedly one of love, must also have been one of no ordinarily exacting character. The result now lies before us in the form of a beautifully printed and Fillustrated volume in which is recorded the wealth of data that has accumulated round the classic club-house, together with succinct biographical accounts of those deceased members who were elected under the Club's famous 'Rule 2.'

Mr Humphry Ward's book is divided into two parts: the first being concerned with a detailed history of the Club from its inception to the present day; the second and larger portion being occupied by biographical accounts of the members specially elected honoris causa under Rule II. It is illustrated by a number of portraits of the protagonists of the Club or of those particularly associated with its career, such as Croker and Joseph Jekyll, Sydney Smith and Theodore Hook, Hallam and Lord Stanhope; but one misses a portrait of Macaulay whose memory is so closely identified with the corner in the Library that goes by his name. There are, besides, some beautiful reproductions of photographs of the clubhouse, and a specially interesting ground-plan showing its exact relation to Carlton House, a part of whose site it occupies. It goes without saying that there is, in the typographical part of the book, a remarkable absence of errors; and if we note that the reference in the index to Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff (who has so many remarks about the Athenæum, by the way, in his Diaries) does not produce enlightenment in the page indicated (although he is to be found elsewhere), and that that egregious person, Bubb-Dodington, is credited with a superfluous D—an error common enough, by the way—it is merely to show how a couple of trifling exceptions prove the rule of amazing accuracy.

The Athenæum came into existence primarily through the activity of the Rt Hon. John Wilson Croker, whose political and literary life-and he did good work in

* It is with sincere regret that we record the death of Mr. Humphry Ward while these sheets are passing through the press. He had become one of the best known and most popular members of the Club, and this bond was drawn even closer when he became its historian. It is gratifying to think that he lived to know how highly his work was appreciated by all his fellow-members.-ED.

both-has been somewhat obscured by the famous onslaught of Macaulay, of which, to borrow a favourite phrase of the historian, every schoolboy is aware. Croker had for some years entertained the idea of a club in which literary, scientific, and artistic men should meet together; an idea that seems to have germinated in conversations held in Mr Murray's historic house in Albemarle Street; and on March 13, 1823, he put his plan into a concrete form, in a letter to Sir Humphry Davy, at that time President of the Royal Society. Sir Humphry received the suggestion with enthusiasm, but adumbrated a rather more embracing character for the Club, in that, for one thing it should include members of both Houses of Parliament in view of the fact that, as he said (it would seem now a sufficiently amazing statement), such as these 'could not perform their high duties without a competent knowledge of literature'! Thereupon a prospectus was drawn up, signed by Michael Faraday, who consented to act as temporary secretary, and a Committee was formed, on which we find, besides the two protagonists, the names of Lord Aberdeen, Sir Francis Chantrey, Sir George Beaumont, Lord Dover, Sir Henry Halford, Richard Heber, Sir Thomas Lawrence, Sir Walter Scott, Joseph Jekyll, and Tom Moore, the last of whom records, in his diary, being asked by Croker to join, and adds: 'Lord Lansdowne will join . . . but bid me impress upon Croker strongly the necessity of keeping it select, as we shall otherwise be overrun with all the pretenders to literature and the arts, than whom there is not anywhere a more odious band.'

The first meeting of this illustrious Committee, whose composition shows at a glance Croker's knowledge of men and his acumen in the choice of so representative a gathering, took place in the Royal Society's rooms in Somerset House, on Feb. 16, 1824, a date to be remembered as marking the inauguration of the Club. The name first chosen for it was The Society,' and its original headquarters, selected by a selected by a sub-committee which met in Jekyll's house, No. 22, New Street, Spring Gardens, were at No. 12, Waterloo Place. The businesslike methods with which the Committee went to work is shown by the care expended over the questions of

the

upkeep, wages, and furniture; and Croker, who kept a vigilant eye on every detail, and weighed the pros and cons of every suggestion, not without a bias towards his own preconceived opinions, is found with a foot-rule in one hand and alternative estimates in the other, now discussing the length of a carpet, and now the vintage of a claret or a port.

On May 26, an inaugural banquet took place in the new club-house. At that time the number of members elected was four hundred; at this banquet, however, not only were they increased by two hundred but the name of the Club was changed to The Athenæum ; Faraday, who had carried on the duties of secretary pro tem., being succeeded by Edward Magrath, an assistant at the Royal Institution, at a salary of 100%. About a month later the first list of the club members was 1 printed on a quarto sheet, of which Mr Waugh remarks that it is doubtful if more than two copies are in existence. However, in the complete list given by Mr Humphry Ward, the names of these original members are set forth, and a notable band they are, such representative men as Wellington and Canning, Palmerston and Peel and Russell, Turner and Wilkie, Rogers and Campbell, Brodie and Brunel, and Holland, with a vast etcetera, being among the five hundred and six recorded.

'A pleasant example of the interest taken in the Club by its leading members at this early date,' writes Mr Humphry Ward, 'is afforded by the action of Sir Francis Chantrey and Sir Thomas Lawrence. The former offered to execute and present to the Club a seal for its use if Lawrence would design it. Accordingly, Lawrence at once drew in pencil the beautiful head of Minerva which has ever since served as the crest of the Club. It was engraved by Wyon, and the original drawing is still carefully preserved.'

From the first it is obvious that the Committee of the Athenæum did not rely on a little oatmeal' as sufficient pabulum for mental ability, for the cooking was all that could be desired, shining especially, as Croker once told Lord Hertford, in Irish stews and pancakes.' The members in those early days were wont to foregather at a late hour, and Audubon, the naturalist, on a visit to this country, mentions that about eleven

or half-past was the fashionable time for them to come in.

By the year 1827, so sought after was already the privilege of becoming a member, that we find no fewer than two hundred and seventy candidates, and no vacancies! And it was no doubt this state of affairs that caused the Committee to look out for larger premises. The first site considered was one belonging to the Crown on the north side of Pall Mall; but when the Club's architect, Decimus Burton, was about to prepare plans, he discovered that the depth of this site was insufficient for the purpose. Negotiations took place with the owner of the land behind, with a view to securing an enlarged site; but difficulties arose with the Office of Woods and Forests, and after some months had been occupied in fruitless endeavours to compass the desired object, the Committee of the Club was forced to drop the matter. Then the idea presented itself of obtaining a plot of ground on the east side of what was at that time Union, but is now Trafalgar, Square, a rather derelict space enclosed by wooden railings, but then under Parliamentary consideration for development. It so happened, however, that just at this moment Carlton House was being demolished, and the Office of Woods and Forests decided to offer to the Athenæum a site 'on the western side of the new avenue to be opened between Pall Mall and St James's Park, in continuation of Regent Street'; otherwise a part of the ground recently occupied by the Prince Regent's abode. After certain difficulties had been overcome, the ground, together with two private houses adjoining, was secured from the Government, on a ninety-nine years' lease, at a rental of 360l. 12s., and Decimus Burton was thereupon commissioned to prepare designs for the new club-house. This was in 1827. Three years later the Athenæum club-house, substantially as we know it, had come into existence.

Burton's scheme was approved, the tender of the builders, amounting to 26,7007. odd, accepted, and the work proceeded with, although not without those many lets and hindrances which invariably accompany the erection of a large structure, especially when many varying tastes have to be considered. Croker took the most