It
was erected in 1827, and at its opening it was described as 'the
new Pandemonium--the drawing-rooms, or real hell, consisting of
four chambers: the first an ante-room, opening to a saloon
embellished to a degree which baffles description; thence to a
small curiously-formed cabinet or boudoir, which opens to the
supper-room. All these rooms are panelled in the most gorgeous
manner; spaces are left to be filled up with mirrors and silk, or
gold enrichments; while the ceilings are as superb as the walls.
A billiard-room on the upper floor completes the number of
apartments professedly dedicated to the use of the members.
Whenever any secret manoeuvre is to be carried on, there are
smaller and more retired places, both under this roof and the
next, whose walls will tell no tales.'
'It rose,' says a writer in the Edinburgh Review, 'like a
creation of Aladdin's lamp; and the genii themselves could hardly
have surpassed the beauty of the internal decorations, or
furnished a more accomplished maitre d'hotel than Ude. To make
the company as select as possible, the estabishment was regularly
organized as a club, and the election of members vested in a
committee.
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