the old club at hulls: In the mid-eighteenth century, “most public houses of any reputation or following had their own loosely knit groups of customers, who met weekly to dine, drink, play cards or discuss, and from them developed an amazing number of social clubs of a more carefully organized type” (BRIDENBAUGH description begins Carl and Jessica Bridenbaugh. Rebels and Gentlemen: Philadelphia in the Age of Franklin. New York, 1942. description ends , 22).