Allan Ramsay. [A biography.] - National Library of Scotland

ALLAN RAMSAY 45
tbemselves up to cheap conviviality and pastime for the
next hour or two. Almost every tradesman had his
favourite place in his favourite tavern, where, night after
night, he cracked a quiet bottle and a canny joke before
going home to his family. It was first business, then
friendship ; and the claims of family after that.'
Out of this general spirit of conviviality arose those
numberless Clubs wherein, upon the convivial stem, were
graffed politics, literature, sport, science, as well as many
other pursuits less worthy and less beneficial. No
custom, no usage, no jest, in fact, seemed too trivial to
be seized upon as the pretext to give a colour of excuse
for founding a Club. Some of them were witty, others
wise, others degrading. Such designations as the Cape
Clubj—so called from doubling the Cape of Leith Wynd,
when half-seas over, to get home to the burgh of Low
Calton, where several of the members lived ; the Fioiis
Club^ because the brethren met regularly to consume
pies ; the Spefjdthrift Ciub, because no habitue was per-
mitted to spend more than fourpence halfpenny, and
others, were harmless in their way, and promoted a
cheap bonhomie without leading the burghers into dis-
graceful excesses. But the Hell-fire Club, the Sweating
Club, the Dirty Club, and others of a kindred order,
were either founded to afford an opportunity for indulg-
ence in riot and licence of every kind, or were intended
to encourage habits as disgusting as they were brutal.
Not to be supposed is it that Ramsay had lived six-
and-twenty years of his life without having practised, and
we have no doubt enjoyed, the widespread conviviality
of the period. Hence, though the Easy Club was the
first of the social gatherings wherewith he actually