'Meeting held at 70 Northcourt Avenue: 18. 6. 35.
Charles E. Stansfield in the Chair
1. Minutes of last read and approved.
2. The Secretary then read a letter from Marjorie C. Cole, expressing her interest in the Book
Club and offering us a book “Gone Rambling” by Cecil Roberts which she had recently read with
enjoyment. [...]
[...]
6. The large subject of London was then opened by Howard Smith. He spoke of the extraordinary
insistence of the divergent views as its origin, leaning to the opinion that it owed its beginnings
to to a variety of causes.
[...]
7. Extracts from Defoe’s Journal of the Great Plague were then read by Victor Alexander.
[...]
8. From Defoe we turned to Pepys, and Reginald Robson described the Great Fire.
[...]
9. We next enjoyed a delightful picture of old London which Edith Goadby gave us, making the
acquaintance of Gabriel Bardon the locksmith, his pretty daughter Dolly and Simon the
apprentice. It was all too short, but at least we left them happily seated before their jolly round
of beef, their Yorkshire cake and quaintly shaped jug of ale.
10. A further scene was depicted for us by Ethel Stevens, old Crosby Hall, Chelsea Hospital,
Cheyne walk as it used to be, and Carlyle’s house, where he entertained Tennyson in the
kitchen. We were introduced to John Stuart Mill and his great concern over the loss of his fiend’s
manuscript of the French Revolution, and we took glimpses at William de Morgan + Sir Thomas
More.
11. Finally Charles Stansfield read us Wordsworth’s Sonnet composed on Westminster Bridge,
and Henry Marriage Wallis quoted happily ten lines from William Morris.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Victor Alexander Manuscript: Letter
