Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day 175

The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the current health crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored….

Kill Care Club

This is defined by Grose as “the members of this club, styled also the Sons of Sound Sense and Satisfaction, met at their fortress, the Castle Tavern, in Paternoster Row”. There’s some good timing with my working through the dictionary as, by chance, I walked through Paternoster Square today in London, which is the remnants of what was a badly damaged area during the Second World War.

Paternoster Row was until the Second World War a home of book publishing, with millions of books destroyed during the Blitz. The Castle Tavern had long since closed by then, but it was located on the north side of Paternoster Row, between Eagle and Child Court and Lovels Alley. As for the club, I have no idea, it’s something that Grose must have been intrigued by and there’s little else that has been written about them.