KIT-CAT-CLUB, a convivial association of Whig wits, painters, politicians, and men of letters, founded in the reign of James II. The name, according to Defoe, was derived from the keeper of the house in which the club met, Christopher Catt, a pastry cook in Shire Lane, which now no longer exists, but formerly ran parallel with Chancery Lane near Temple Bar. The pies of Christopher were the principal dish of the club, and the Spectator (No. 9) derives the name, not from the maker of the pies, but from the pies themselves, which were of a species generally known as “kit-cats.” According to another authority, the meeting place of the club was at the sign of the Cat and Fiddle in Gray’s Inn Lane, kept by a person of the name of Christopher. The locale of the club was afterwards changed to the Fountain tavern in the Strand, and latterly to a room specially built for the purpose at Barn Elms, the residence of the secretary, Jacob Tonson. In summer the club met at the Upper Flask, Hampstead Heath. The club consisted of thirty-nine noblemen and gentlemen, and included among other distinguished men the duke of Marlborough, Lords Halifax and Somers, Sir Robert Walpole, Vanbrugh, Congreve, Steele, and Addison. The portraits of many of the members were painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller, himself also a member, of a uniform size, less than half length, which is known as the kit-cat size. The club was dissolved about’1720.