GREAT BRITAIN: Bear Hugs

The glass eyes of the slightly moth-eaten stuffed bear on the staircase of London's St. James's Club should have bugged out last week. The ghost of suavely arrogant, egg-domed ex-Member George Nathaniel, Marquess Curzon of Kedleston and British Foreign Secretary of the 1920s, must have shivered in its shroud. Founded in 1757, St. James's is famed for its claret, its caricatures by Sir Joshua Reynolds and the exclusiveness of its membership, mostly confined to diplomats from the topmost social drawer. A Tsarist prince once lost £10,000 in its card rooms. Last...

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