s of the late 17th and early 18th century type resembled their
Tudor forerunners in being oftenest associations solely for conviviality
or literary coteries. But many were confessedly political, e.g. The
Rota, or Coffee Club (1659), a debating society for the spread of
republican ideas, broken up at the Restoration, the Calves Head Club (c.
1693) and the Green Ribbon Club (1675) (q.v.). The characteristics of
all these clubs were: (1) no permanent financial bond between the
members, each man's liability ending for the time being when he had paid
his "score" after the meal; (2) no permanent club-house, though each
clique tended to make some special coffee-house or tavern their
headquarters. These coffee-house clubs soon became hotbeds of political
scandal-mongering and intriguing, and in 1675 Charles II. issued a
proclamation which ran, "His Majesty hath thought fit and necessary that
coffee houses be (for the future) put down and suppressed," owing to the
fact "that in such houses divers false, malitious and scandalous reports
are devised and spread abroad to the Defamation of his Majesty's
Government and to the Disturbance of Peace and Quiet of the Realm." So
unpopular was this proclamation that it was almost instantly found
necessary to withdraw it, and by Anne's reign the coffee-house club was
a feature of England's social life.

From the 18th-century clubs two types have been evolved. (1) The social
and dining clubs, permanent institutions with fixed club-house. The
London coffee-house clubs in increasing their members absorbed the whole
accommodation of the coffee-house or tavern where they held their
meetings, and this became the club-house, often retaining the name of
the original keeper, e.g. White's, Brooks's, Arthur's, Boodle's. The
modern club, sometimes proprietary, i.e. owned by an individual or
private syndicate, but more frequently owned by the members who delegate
to a committee the management of its affairs, first reached its highest
development in London, where the district of St James's has long been
known as "Clubland"; but the institution has spread all over the
English-speaking world. (2) Those clubs which have but occasional or
periodic meetings and often possess no club-house, but exist primarily
for some specific object. Such are the many purely athletic, sports and
pastimes clubs, the Jockey Club, the Alpine, chess, yacht and motor
clubs. Then there are literary clubs, musical and art clubs, pub