The Life and Death of the Sublime Society of Beef
Steaks. By Brother Walter Arnold. (Bradbury and Evans.)—Mr. Arnold has discharged the melancholy duty of performing the obsequies of an ancient institution. The "Sublime Society" was founded in 1735 by John Rich, "Harlequin and Machinist" at Covent Garden Theatre, and was dissolved, after having maintained for several years a very feeble existence, in 1867. At first it would seem to have been nothing more than an ordinary con- vivial meeting, the only person of note on the original roll of members being I William Hogarth. In 1764 we find the name of John Wilkes. Towards the end of the century it became very fashionable, though its members were never permitted to exceed the traditional twenty-four. The Prince of Wales and the Duke of York joined it, and some years later the Duke of Sussex became a member. The last twenty-five years of the eighteenth century and the first twenty-five of the nineteenth were its golden age. It was during this period that there took place a scene which the biographer of the Society has rightly deemed worthy of record. It was the custom that any member accused by a brother of any real or imagi- nary offence against the laws of the Society should be tried by a jury of his convives, and if found guilty, as indeed he commonly was, should be clothed in a white sheet, and solemnly reprimanded by the President. Now, on one occasion, the Dake of Sussex came to the " Steaka " with Brother Hallett,and Brother Hallett's bunch of seals was stolen on the way Whereupon he accuses his Royal Highness of the theft. The Duke is found guilty, pat into the white sheet, and reprimanded. This was too much for his temper—and it was indeed going pretty far—and he left in a huff. But he owned himself in the wrong to a member who went to smooth() him down, and declared that he should come the next Saturday and do penance. But a generation which has become both more and less ceremonious in its manners does not seem to have appreciated this practical joking ; the Society modified, if it did not abrogate, its customs, and so lost its raison d'être, and accordingly it passed away. When it came to an average of two members dining throughout the year, while it not unfrequently happened that a solitary diner sat at the table duly laid for twelve, nothing remained but to bring the existence of the Sublime Society to an end. Is it not another instance of the common English want of munificence that its goods were put up to auction, fetching between six and seven hundred pounds ? Was there no member rich enough to buy the whole and give them a room in his country house ? was there not even a tavern-keeper who had enough of the Barnum in him to make a bid for them ? It may be interesting to mention that the average price paid for beefsteaks was half-a-crown per pound
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