tre Royal, Covent Garden; but
since that period the members have been accommodated by Mr.
Arnold, who built the present room expressly for their use.
In page 216 of this work, allusion will be found by name to
some of the brilliant wits who graced this festive board,
and gave a lustre to the feast. In the old place of
meeting the identical gridiron on which Richards and
Loutherbourg operated was to be seen attached to the
ceiling, emblematical of the origin of the society, which
may now be considered as the only relic left of that social
intercourse which formerly existed in so many shapes between
those who were distinguished for their noble birth and
wealth, and the poorer, but equally illustrious, of the
children of Genius. It would be an act of injustice to the
present race of scenic artists to close this note without
acknowledging their more than equal merits to their
predecessors: the Grieves (father and sons), Phillips,
Marinari, Wilson, Tomkins, and Stanfield, are all names of
high talent; but the novelty of their art has, from its
general cultivation, lost much of this peculiar attraction.

~342~~for them over the audience part of the English Opera House. The
ruby glow of the old boy's countenance shone like an omen of the merry
humour of his mind. "What, out for a spree, boys, or just bailed from
the watch-house, which is it? the alpha or omega, for they generally
follow one another?" "Then you are in time for the _equivoque_, Crony,"
said Echo; "so enlist him, Transit;" and without more ceremony, Crony
was marched off, __vi et armis, to the _Finish_, a coffee-house in
James-street, Covent Garden, where the _peep-o'-day boys_ and _family
men_ meet to conclude the night's debauch _(see plate)_; "_Video meliora
proboque, Deteriora sequoi_;" you will exclaim, and 'tis granted; but

"_Lusus animo debent aliquando dari,
Ad cogitandum melior ut red eat sibi_,"

says Phodrus, and be the poet's apology mine, for I am neither afraid
or ashamed to confess myself an admirer of life in all its variegated
lights and shadows, deriving my amusement from the great source of
knowledge, the study of that eccentric volume--man. The new police act
has, in some measure, abated the extent of these nuisances, the low
coffee-shops of the metropolis, which were, for the greater part, little
better than a rendezvous for