Clubs. The word club is from the same root as clump; and its secondary meaning of 'a collection of persons' is illustrated by 'a clump of trees.' As specially applied to a select association meeting for social intercourse, it dates from the 17th century, and the use has since been extended to other bodies having a common object, such as literature, science, amusements, politics, or the furtherance of material interests. The practice of some kind of club-life is almost universal, and can be traced in the earliest civilisations. Modern travellers in Africa, the Pacific, and elsewhere, constantly speak of a kind of club-houses where the men meet for gossip and recreation. Vacancies in the public tables among the Spartans were filled up by ballot, and Aristotle refers to members of the same locality in Greece as clubbing for merry-making. Many such associations both in Greece and Rome were, however, really secret societies for the cultivation of religious mysteries; others were more of the nature of Guilds (q.v.). But there are records of social clubs more closely allied to the modern form, and Cicero tells of his pleasure in frequenting such gatherings. We also hear of a club of old soldiers belonging to the armies of Augustus, and another among the officers of an African legion. Women had their sociable collegia.
In England the history of clubs dates from the Court de Bone Compagnie mentioned by Occleve in the early part of the 15th century. Nearly two hundred years later the symposia originated by Raleigh made the Mermaid Tavern in Bread Street famous, while Ben Jonson is said to have founded a similar gathering at the Devil Tavern. The Apollo is connected with Jonson's Leges Conviviales. The Rota (1659) and the clubs of the Restoration were mainly political. The members of the Calves' Head Club (q.v.) were supposed to ridicule the memory of Charles I. The portraits of the members of the Kit Kat Club (1700) are still preserved. Addison, Steele, and the essayists of the Spectator and Tatler class have made us familiar with the coffee-house and tavern clubs of their time. The Royal Society Club (1743) is the earliest of the many dining-clubs associated with the learned societies. To Reynolds is due the institution of the still existing Literary Club (1762), which numbered so many distinguished members, among them Dr Johnson, who established the Ivy Lane and other clubs of a less formal character. Good fellowship and conversation were the leading features of these societies.
The present type of English club is quite different from the earlier bodies bearing the same name. It arose about the commencement of the 19th century, and is characterised by dining and other arrangements whereby members seek to preserve their independence while sharing in the benefits to which their united subscriptions contribute. The modern club-house is generally a spacious and handsome building, with dining, smoking, billiard, newspaper, writing, and drawing rooms, &c. Some possess libraries, the most extensive being that of the Athenæum, which owns one of the choicest collections of books of reference in London. The Garrick is famous for its theatrical pictures. Portraits of eminent members are to be found on the walls of many club-houses. Clubs are usually managed by a changing committee who submit their accounts and report to an annual meeting. Some are proprietary. The number of members is generally limited. They are either elected by a ballot of the whole club, a certain number of black-balls or contrary votes excluding, or by the committee, who sometimes choose all or a select number. The revenue is derived from the sale of provisions, &c. consumed in the house, and from an entrance fee and annual subscription paid by each member. Some clubs have a dining-room to which strangers may be invited; in others a select number of honorary members are admitted. House-dinners are a revival of a former habit. Many of the recent clubs contain bedrooms for members. Concerts and entertainments are also innovations. Moderate card-playing is allowed, but games of chance are invariably forbidden in respectable English clubs. Clubs have been instituted to unite persons of every class, profession, and opinion. There are clubs for ladies alone, and some to which ladies are admitted on equal terms with gentlemen. In others ladies are allowed as guests. It is difficult to say where the club proper ends and the mere drinking saloon commences; some of the numerous working-men's clubs and inferior political clubs fall in the latter class. Others are developments of the old betting and gambling rooms.
The best organised and finest clubs in the world are in London, where there are over a hundred of a high class. The chief among them are the Albermarle (1875), for ladies and gentlemen; Army and Navy (1838); Arthur's (1765), social; Arts (1863); Athenæum (1824), literature, science, and art; Bachelors' (1881), ladies admitted; Boodle's (1762), social; Brooks's (1764), Liberal politicians; Burlington Fine Arts (1866), exhibitions held; Carlton (1832), for Conservatives; City Conservative (1883); City Liberal (1874); Conservative (1840); Constitutional (1883), for Conservatives; Cosmopolitan, conversation; Devonshire (1875), for Liberals; East India United Service (1849); Garrick (1831); German Athenæum (1869), entertainments given; Grillion's (1812), breakfast parties; Grosvenor (1883), social; Guards' (1813); Hogarth (1870), artistic; Isthmian (1882); Junior Army and Navy (1869); Junior Athenæum (1864); Junior Carlton (1864); Junior United Service (1827); Literary (1762); Lyric, entertainments given; National (1845), Church of England; National Liberal (1882); National Union (1887), for Unionists; New Athenæum (1878); New University (1863); Oriental (1824); Orleans (1877); Oxford and Cambridge (1830); Press (1882); Reform (1836), for Liberals; St George's (1874), social; St Stephen's (1870), for Conservatives; Salisbury (1880), ladies admitted; Savage (1857), literature, drama, &c.; Savile (1868); Scottish (1879); Thatched House (1865); Travellers' (1819); Turf (1868); Union (1822); United Service (1815); White's (1730); Windham (1828). County clubs are to be found in all English provincial towns. At Edinburgh the New Club (1787), and in Dublin the Kildare Street (1790), are equal to the best metropolitan clubs. The English in India and the colonies possess luxurious club-houses in which bedrooms for temporary visitors are a convenience.
Well-appointed clubs in the English style have been established in all the leading cities of the United States. Among the best in New York are the Lotos (1870), Union League (1863), Century, Manhattan, Union, Knickerbocker, and University. Gambling and the giving of dramatic and musical entertainments and exhibitions of pictures are special features of club-life on the European continent. The Jockey Club (1833) and the Union Artistique 'Cercle des Mirlitons' (1863) at Paris are representative examples. The political associations formed in Paris at the time of the first revolution exercised considerable influence on public affairs. In 1848 similar bodies in Germany and Austria were suppressed by order of the police. 'Club' is frequently used as an equivalent to society, as in benefit societies, Alpine Club (q.v.), Book-club (q.v.), and cricket, cycling, yachting, boating, and racing clubs. The word has been adopted in most European languages, although Cercle in France and Circolo in Italy are used.
See Ned Ward, The Secret History of Clubs of all Descriptions (1709); Ward, Account of all the most Remarkable Clubs and Societies in London and Westminster (1750); C. Marsh, The Clubs of London, with Anecdotes of their Members (2 vols. 1832); The London Clubs (1853); Admiral W. H. Smyth, Sketch of the Royal Society Club (4to, 1860); J. Timbs, Club-life in London (2 vols. 1866); J. Strang, Glasgow and its Clubs (1857); W. Arnold, The Sublime Society of Beefsteaks (1871); Col. G. J. Ivey, Clubs of the World (1880); Sir P. G. Egerton, Grillion's Club (privately printed, 1880); Club-Almanach (Paris, 1883-84, discontinued); L. Fagan, The Reform Club (4to, 1887); F. G. Waugh, Members of the Athenæum Club (1824-87; privately printed, 1888). The rights and obligations of members are discussed by A. F. Leach, Club Cases (1879), and J. Wertheimer, Law relating to Clubs (1885).