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Kit (Anglo-Saxon, kette, a cist or box [of tools].) Hence that which contains the necessaries, tools,
etc., of a workman. Kit A three-stringed fiddle. (Anglo-Saxon, cytere; Latin, cithara.) Kit-cat Club A club formed in 1688 by the leading Whigs of the day, and held in Shire Lane (now Lower
Serle's Place) in the house of Christopher Cat, a pastry-cook, who supplied the mutton pies, and after
whom the club was named. Sir Godfrey Kneller painted forty-two portraits of the club members for Jacob
Tonson, the secretary, whose villa was at Barn Elms, and where latterly the club was held. In order to
accommodate the paintings to the height of the club-room, he was obliged to make them three-quarter
lengths, hence a three-quarter portrait is still called a kit-cat. Strictly speaking, a kit-cat canvas is twenty-
eight inches by thirty-six. Steele, Addison, Congreve, Garth, Vanbrugh, Manwaring, Stepney, Walpole, and Pulteney were of it; so was Lord Dorset and the present Duke. Manwaring ... was the ruling man in all conversation ... Lord Stanhope and the Earl of Essex were also members ... Each member gave his [picture].- Pope to SpenceCowley the poet lived at Barn Elms Villas. |
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