Jennifer Kloester Read online

  CONVIVIAL EVENINGS

  For those sports enthusiasts in pursuit of an evening of merriment, sporting conversation and serious drinking, there was no better place to be than the Daffy Club at the Castle Tavern, Holborn. Owned by Tom Belcher, himself a respected pugilist and brother of the great boxer Jem Belcher, the Castle Tavern was the ideal venue for the sporting man. Here he could rub shoulders with the champions, take a glass of daffy with the patrons of the sport or try and get the inside running on a likely contender in a forthcoming match. Ferdy Fakenham in Friday’s Child was an enthusiastic patron of the Daffy Club and enjoyed getting drunk there. Belcher became landlord in 1814 and under his patronage the well-known boxing aficionado, referee and stakeholder, James Soares, set up the Daffy Club with the support of the Regency journalist and writer, Pierce Egan. Those admitted to the club met in a long room, decorated with pictures of famous fighters and other sporting subjects, and sat at a long table known as the ‘ring’. Every kind of sport was discussed by the ‘Daffies’ and although there were no written rules or formal meetings, high spirits were essential and drinking was the order of the day. The best time to go to the Daffy Club was the night before a big fight when Tom Belcher played host to a great party of enthusiasts and many famous retired fighters could be seen. This was the place to get the whisper on where the next day’s match was to be held and to get a look at the contenders. Every aspect of the match would be discussed, bets laid, odds shortened or lengthened and arrangements made for transport to the bout.

  A great many boxers became innkeepers after their retirement, setting up ‘sporting houses’ throughout London and its environs, but the most famous of them all was Tom Cribb, the Champion of England in 1809, and renowned for his stunning defeats of the great American boxer, Tom Molyneux, in 1810 and 1811. Cribb’s first tavern was the Golden Lion in the Borough, but he soon moved to the King’s Arms on the corner of King and Duke Streets, St James’s. Here he established ‘Cribb’s Parlour’, a congenial gathering place for pugilists and the fancy alike, in which they could talk, smoke, drink and admire the Champion’s magnificent silver cup. Only those approved by the great Cribb himself could gain admittance to the Parlour and it was the aspiration of many a sporting buck to win the Champion’s approval. It was to Cribb’s Parlour that Charles Rivenhall was going when he met his sister Cecilia in The Grand Sophy and she teased him about what he would do there. Another popular destination with sporting young men, pets of the fancy and their noble patrons was Limmer’s Hotel on the corner of Conduit Street in Hanover Square. This was a more fashionable venue than either Cribb’s Parlour or the Castle Tavern and the hotel’s famous coffee-room still retained something of the atmosphere of the eighteenth-century coffee-house. It was at Limmer’s that Bertram Tallant went with his friend Mr Scunthorpe to meet and mingle with the Corinthians and the pets of the fancy, and where he met Mr Beaumaris and found himself telling the Nonpareil about his experiences and ambitions. Limmer’s was the place for pugilistic patrons and their stakeholders to meet, plan fights and discuss and organise the workings of the Fives Court. Here the names of promising young novices were put forward with requests for training by a retired champion or boxer of renown, and bets were laid on the likely outcome of a bout between an experienced pugilist and an up-and-coming challenger with little experience but plenty of ‘bottom’.

  Another evening pleasure haunt favoured by the ton was the Royal Saloon located in Piccadilly. With its Turkish-style exterior and famous suppers of lobster and bucellas (Portuguese white wine) the Saloon drew large crowds from midnight till dawn. Here, members of the upper class ate in one of the booths or cavorted with the Cyprians and demireps against a painted backdrop of palm trees and eastern architecture. A popular haunt with gamblers, the Royal Saloon was lively, colourful and dissipated and the ideal place to meet with friends or to enjoy supper after an evening at the theatre or opera. Sherry in Friday’s Child was the life and soul of many a party at the Royal Saloon but was shocked when he found his young wife Hero there enjoying supper with several of his more outrageous friends.

  AROUND THE TOWN

  Bullock’s Museum in Piccadilly was enormously popular during the Regency and people flocked there to see its most famous exhibit of Napoleon’s travelling carriage.

  In addition to the more adult entertainments available in the great metropolis, Regency London boasted a range of attractions to tempt visitors of all ages. One of the most popular of these was Bullock’s Museum located in Piccadilly and often referred to as the Egyptian Hall because of its striking architecture. William Bullock opened his museum in the spring of 1812, attracting large crowds to view the exhibits which included preserved elephants, rhinos and giraffes as well as other exotic animals, birds and fish, weapons, costumes, artefacts, shells and fossils. Kitty Charing in Cotillion visited the Egyptian Hall when Napoleon’s specially designed bulletproof travelling carriage (seized after the Battle of Waterloo) was put on display there, although neither she nor her distracted fiancé, Freddy Standen, were especially interested in the famous exhibit. In deference to Kitty’s fervent desire to see some of London’s most famous monuments, Freddy had already escorted her to several historic sites, of which only the Tower of London had really engaged his attention. Originally built by William the Conqueror in 1078 as part of the defence of the city, by the time of the Regency the Tower was a much larger edifice and offered visitors the chance to see Traitors’ Gate and the Bloody Tower, the crown jewels, the Horse Armoury and the record office with its vast collection of documents dating from the reign of King John. Kitty and Freddy particularly enjoyed the menagerie in the Lion Tower originally built by Edward IV. Visitors paid a shilling to enter the yard and were shown round by the keeper who could tell them about the caged beasts housed there. In 1805 these included several lions and lionesses, tigers, leopards, a panther, a wolf, raccoons and a hyena, many of which lived well into the Regency.

  One of London’s most popular attractions during the Regency was Astley’s Amphitheatre, founded in 1767 by Philip Astley, a former sergeant-major of dragoons. Astley was a superb equestrian, with a flair for the dramatic and exciting, and his horsemanship and acrobatic riding led him to establish one of the early modern circuses. Spectacular shows such as Make Way for Liberty or the Flight of the Saracens drew large crowds to the amphitheatre near Westminster Bridge in Lambeth, and members of the upper class often took their children there. Sir Gareth Ludlow’s young nieces and nephews in Sprig Muslin thought him the best of uncles for taking them to Astley’s to see the troops of horses re-enacting scenes of war, the daring equestriennes performing extraordinary acrobatic feats on horseback and the famous equestrian ballet.

  People of all ages enjoyed an evening at Astley’s Royal Amphitheatre.

  An equally popular though somewhat more refined attraction enjoyed by the upper class was the annual exhibition of paintings at Somerset House. Completed in 1801, Somerset House was a magnificent building on the Strand with its front facing the river Thames. It was home to the Royal Academy of Arts, and each year in May the ton flocked to Somerset House for the Academy’s annual art exhibition in which nearly a thousand paintings were hung from floor to ceiling in the grand exhibition room. It was here that in Arabella, Lady Bridlington deliberately left Arabella alone with Mr Beaumaris on the pretext of finding and admiring Sir Thomas Lawrence’s latest painting.

  It was considered de rigueur by many in the upper class to attend the

  Royal Academy’s Annual Exhibition at Somerset House.

  A less genteel pastime favoured by many in Regency society—and young men in particular—were the travelling peep-shows. These usually consisted of a perspective box in which were placed painted and artistically arranged figures set against a painted background. Using mirrors and artificial lighting they offered the viewer the novelty of peering through a small peep-hole in one corner of the box to see images of people in exotic locations or pastoral scenes. Wandering showmen c