Scotland’s Smuggler’s Inn was one of the most eccentric places in the UK. In the 18th century, the Beggar’s Benison Club gathered here, reading out pornographic short stories, watching the naked villagers posing for them, and masturbating in a common vessel.
These were the heyday of the so-called gentlemen’s club, when a wig made of pubic hair was considered the pinnacle of humor, writes disgustingmen.com . In the 18th century, “gentlemen’s clubs” were associated with very different degrees of sinful living. It could have been a sherry amateur club, whose members gathered just to get drunk and later go home; it could be a circle of Satanists (similar to the Hellfire Club) whose members held uncontrollable orgies and despised the symbols of Christianity; they may have been the most perverse and sadistic organizations (such as The Mohocks) that caught, raped, maimed or even killed accidental passers-by on the streets of London.
Against the backdrop of such meetings, the onan club that gathered at the Smuggler’s Inn seemed completely innocent and even comical. Beggar’s Benison Club was founded in 1732 in Anstruder, Scotland. The name of the club was associated with a local legend who once reported that King James V of Scotland traveled as a simple pilgrim, but he was unlucky to cross a river. He asked a begging woman if she could be transferred for a fee. The woman easily coped with the task, and the king handed her a gold coin.
A simple and cheerful woman who did not know the king sincerely wished him, “Let your thing and your wallet never let you down!” This expression became the favorite saying and motto of the locals in the club.
Masturbation, wine and pornography
At that time, Beggar’s Benison meetings were a kind of protest against the modesty of the church, the moral standards recognized by the English, and the English dominance itself.
The club’s own protests were quite eccentric: hotel visitors all masturbated together, drank wine from phallic glasses and read forbidden pornographic novels such as “Fanny Hill: Memoirs Of A Woman of Pleasure”. Naked Scottish peasants danced on the tables, who, as you could guess, could be proud of their wealth. True, it was forbidden to socialize with them or even touch them. It was a gentlemen’s club!
From the stories that have survived since then, it is said that a meeting of the club took place on November 30, 1737 – St. St. Andrew’s Day. 24 club members, mostly local gentlemen, gathered in the lighted room of the fireplace. There were a couple of naked, red-haired 18-19 year old girls on the table in the center of the room. While they demonstrated acrobatic movements, club members explored these “natural secrets” from a clinical perspective. (Any touch was forbidden. If someone who did not resist lust and drink violated this club rule, he was immediately thrown out on the street.)
A club employee took a large tin container, placed it on the altar and placed a white napkin on it. A horn sounded, and three newcomers came out of the small room. The trio approached the altar and began to masturbate until all participants in the joint process poured out a “spoon of sexual arousal.” Then the other members of the club followed their example.
The three confused newcomers were then awarded diplomas and phallic cups. Warming up with an exclusive port wine, the club manager said a toast praising erection, sex and alcohol.
The head of the club wore an extravagant wig, which was allegedly made of pubic hair of King Charles II’s beloved women. Unfortunately, the wig has not survived to this day, but both the tin container and the penis-shaped cups have survived.
Such a club has not existed for decades. The eighteenth century of free thinkers came to an end and a completely different era began. However, the gentlemen’s onan clubs did not disappear completely. They were reborn in the Atlantic Ocean, in the United States, where they were called “solitary clubs.” It was the members of such clubs who became the first viewers of pornographic films.