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Article EARLY HAUNTS OF FREEMASONRY. ← Page 5 of 7 →
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Early Haunts Of Freemasonry.
or railway carriage , and for years never read a book . He once requested the instant dismissal of a waiter for informing him , ungrammatically , that , " There are a leg of mutton , and there is chops . " We have now completed our walk up and down Fleet Street , and
must devote a little space to its numerous tributaries . On the north side , and close by Temple Bar , in Shear or Shire Lane , once met the Kit-Kat Club , the great club of Queen Anne ' s reign , at the Cat and Fiddle , a pastry-cook's shop kept by Christopher Kat . The members of this club were originally Whig patriots , but later the meetings
were held for mere enjoyment . There are differences of opinion as to the origin of the name ; whether derived from the punning sign of the Cat and Kit , or from certain favourite pies christened by worthy
Cnristopher Kat . Some affirm that it had its origin in the weekly dinners given by Tonson , Dryden ' s publisher , and the secretary of the club from its commencement . For him Sir Godfrey Kneller , the Court portrait painter of William III . and Anne ' s time , painted the portraits of forty-two of the members , all three-quarters size ( hence
known in art circles as kit-kat ) . Among the most distinguished personages that belonged to it were the great Duke of Marlborough , John , Duke of Montagu , first noble Grand Master of Freemasons , the Earl of Dorset , Lord Halifax , Addison ,. Steele , Dryden , Prior , Sir Robert Walpole , Congreve , Garth , Vanbrugh , the writer of several
admirable comedies , and Sir G . Kneller . Latterly it held its meetings at Tonson ' s villa at Barn Elms , or at the Upper Flask tavern , Hampstead heath . It died out before 1727 .
With Dr . Johnson are associated Johnson s Court , not , however ,, named after him , where he lived from 1765 to 1776 ; Bolt Court , whither he removed in the latter year and continued till his death in 1784 and Gough Square—the house is distinguished by a plate—where he lived from 1748 to 1758 , during which he was engaged in the
comp ilation of his stupendous dictionary . In 1761 Oliver Goldsmith lived in Wine Office Court , and here it was that he is said to have written his beautiful story " The Vicar of Wakefield . " The famous Cheshire Cheese , at the corner , was one of the favourite resorts of these distinguished writers . But space compels us to hasten to the close
of our perambulation . The alleys and courts on both sides of the street are so numerous and so rich in associations that we dare not linger in them as we should like . We shall close this article , therefore , with a reference to a very small poet , Paul Whitehead , who was born in 1709-10 , in Castle Street , an off-shoot of
Fetter Lane , and whose career is only interesting to Craftsmen from his having had something to do with one of those mock processions which , in 1745 , led to the putting down of public
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Early Haunts Of Freemasonry.
or railway carriage , and for years never read a book . He once requested the instant dismissal of a waiter for informing him , ungrammatically , that , " There are a leg of mutton , and there is chops . " We have now completed our walk up and down Fleet Street , and
must devote a little space to its numerous tributaries . On the north side , and close by Temple Bar , in Shear or Shire Lane , once met the Kit-Kat Club , the great club of Queen Anne ' s reign , at the Cat and Fiddle , a pastry-cook's shop kept by Christopher Kat . The members of this club were originally Whig patriots , but later the meetings
were held for mere enjoyment . There are differences of opinion as to the origin of the name ; whether derived from the punning sign of the Cat and Kit , or from certain favourite pies christened by worthy
Cnristopher Kat . Some affirm that it had its origin in the weekly dinners given by Tonson , Dryden ' s publisher , and the secretary of the club from its commencement . For him Sir Godfrey Kneller , the Court portrait painter of William III . and Anne ' s time , painted the portraits of forty-two of the members , all three-quarters size ( hence
known in art circles as kit-kat ) . Among the most distinguished personages that belonged to it were the great Duke of Marlborough , John , Duke of Montagu , first noble Grand Master of Freemasons , the Earl of Dorset , Lord Halifax , Addison ,. Steele , Dryden , Prior , Sir Robert Walpole , Congreve , Garth , Vanbrugh , the writer of several
admirable comedies , and Sir G . Kneller . Latterly it held its meetings at Tonson ' s villa at Barn Elms , or at the Upper Flask tavern , Hampstead heath . It died out before 1727 .
With Dr . Johnson are associated Johnson s Court , not , however ,, named after him , where he lived from 1765 to 1776 ; Bolt Court , whither he removed in the latter year and continued till his death in 1784 and Gough Square—the house is distinguished by a plate—where he lived from 1748 to 1758 , during which he was engaged in the
comp ilation of his stupendous dictionary . In 1761 Oliver Goldsmith lived in Wine Office Court , and here it was that he is said to have written his beautiful story " The Vicar of Wakefield . " The famous Cheshire Cheese , at the corner , was one of the favourite resorts of these distinguished writers . But space compels us to hasten to the close
of our perambulation . The alleys and courts on both sides of the street are so numerous and so rich in associations that we dare not linger in them as we should like . We shall close this article , therefore , with a reference to a very small poet , Paul Whitehead , who was born in 1709-10 , in Castle Street , an off-shoot of
Fetter Lane , and whose career is only interesting to Craftsmen from his having had something to do with one of those mock processions which , in 1745 , led to the putting down of public