Meeting held at Ashton Lodge, Kendrick Rd., 13.x.32.

Henry M. Wallis in the chair

1. Minutes of last read & approved.

[...]

5. Francis E. Pollard then gave us an account of the life of Scott, interspersed with racy anecdotes. He gave us a lively picture of Scott's romantic outlook & of his keen historical interests.

6. Alfred Rawlings, who is endeared to us among other reasons as the stormy petrel of the Club, next launched an attack upon Scott as a poet, decrying his imperfections and slovenliness.

7. Henry M. Wallis then entertained us with the later work of Scott. Speaking as one wizard of another he almost succeeed in making us believe that he had been Scott's contemporary, & under his spell we caught something of the dazzling popularity of Scott's writings throughout the whole of Europe, and in particular of the cult for the Highlands and the Highlanders which sprang into being from his pen.

8. Towards the end of the evening we heard three readings, the first from Ivanhoe by Charles Stansfield who used the supper scenne in which Friar Tuch entertains the unknown knight, the second from the Heart of Midlothian by Frank Pollard in which Jeannie Deans pleads for her sister's life, & the third from Old Mortality by Rosamund Wallis describing the interrogation and torture inflicted upon the Covenanters.

All three readings held us enthralled, & all three papers aroused the maximum of discussion which a benevolent Chairman and a lenient hostess could allow. The time sped on beyond our usual hours, and as we took our leave we were still talking Scott.