After the Restoration, some of the younger Republicans used to meet once a year at a London Inn, where they celebrated the anniversary of the death of Charles I on 30 January 1649. The main part of the dinner consisted of calves’ heads, some crowned with garlands of parsley. The bitterly discontented men drank derisive toasts to the monarchy and eventually went in procession to a courtyard, where they built a great fire. One, masked and carrying an axe, represented Charles I’s executioner, a second carried a calf s head on a napkin, and it is only too clear what that stood for. The rest waved handkerchiefs stained with wine to represent blood. The head, amid ribald cries and songs, was thrown into the fire. They called themselves simply The Calves’ Head Club and presumably hoped that Loyalists would assume that they met because they considered calf s head one of the greatest dishes of the world.
