'Minutes of Meeting held at School House. 3rd April 1943
R. D. L. Moore in the Chair
1. The minutes of the last meeting were read & signed.
[...]
4. Roger Moore introduced the subject of ‘Ballads’. He spoke of their origin, which
is very obscure since anonymity belongs to their very nature. They were never
meant to be ‘literature’, since they were not written but have come down to us
orally until Bishop Percy in 1765 started making his collection. He quoted Quiller-
Couch in saying that almost all the places most celebrated in ballad poetry lie in
the Border country between two lines, one drawn from the Firth of Forth to the
Clyde & the other from Newcastle-on-Tyne to St Bee’s Head. Quiller-Couch also
draws two chronological lines — at the years 1350 and 1550 & holds that the Ballad rose, flourished & declined within that period.
5. Illustrations of Ballads were given as follows:
Tam Lin read by Elsie Harrod
The Two Magicians sung by A. B. Dilks
Sir Patrick Spens read by Kenneth Nicholson
The Suffolk Miracle [read by] Margaret Dilks
Chevy Chase [read by] Knox Taylor
Some Berkshire Ballads —
Archbishop Laud
Mollie Mog
The Lay of the Hunted Pig
Cupid’s Garden ——— read by Howard Smith
John Barleycorn — read by Isabel Taylor
Edward — [read by] Bruce Dilks.
[signed as a true record by] Muriel M. Stevens
8 - 5 - 43. [at the club meeting held at Gower Cottage: see Minute Book, p. 153.]'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Roger Moore Manuscript: Unknown
'Meeting held at Gower Cottage 4th. May 1942.
M. Stevens in the chair.
1. The minutes of the last meeting were read, pronounced rather more accurate
than usual, and signed.
[...]
4. First we had the telegram which was from the Alexanders, regretting that a
chicken pox epidemic among the children prevented their parents from
contributing to our evenings entertainment.
5. Next an essay entitled “An Autumn Ramble” was read by A. G. Joselin and the
author was later identified as S. A. Reynolds, who told us that it had been written
some 50 years ago.
[...]
7. Roger Moore read an essay entitled “Langdale, Easter 1942” and casting among
our members for a rock-climber we soon realized that the author was Knox
Taylor. [...]
8. Rosamund Wallis read “Samuel Butler at the Book Club” which was recognised
at once as being written by the secretary. She had rather let herself go in an
account of an imaginary meeting which explained the unusual brevity and accuracy
of this months minutes.
9. “Three Weeks in Kerry” was the title of a most interesting essay read by F. E.
Pollard. We had some difficulty in identifying this as being written by his wife –
perhaps because although we were told it had been written many years ago in the
author’s ‘comparative youth’ our imaginations failed to picture Mrs. Pollard on a
perilous journey in an Irish car, holding up an umbrella with one hand and and
peeling a hard-boiled egg with the other. [...]
10. A. B. Dilks read a dissertation in which the author wrote for some four or five
pages on the difficulty of deciding what to write about. Roger Fry, food, gardens
and cats were among the subjects he considered but for one reason or another,
laid aside. As members of the Book Club are so noted for beating around the bush
we had considerable difficulty in spotting this particular beater — but it proved to
be Roger Moore.
[...]
[Signature of] A. B. Dilks 6th June 1942'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Bruce Dilks Manuscript: Unknown
'Meeting held at 219, Kings Road. 15th October 1942.
Dorothea Taylor in the chair
1. The minutes of the last meeting were read & signed.
2. The secretary read a card from Mr Dyson regretting that he is completely
unqualified to address us on Russian Literature
[...]
3. The question of new members was again raised and the secretary reported that
she had written to Mr. & Mrs. Fawcett extending our renewed invitation to them to
join the Club. & their reply, regretting that they are unable to accept, was read.
[...]
[...]
5. After some excellent refreshments, we devoted the rest of the evening to the
study of Charles Lamb. Roger Moore first gave us the story of his life – how he
was educated at Christ’s Hospital where he met and formed a life-long friendship
with S. T. Coleridge, then of his appointment in the East India House. We heard of
the curse of madness which hung over the Lamb family & how in 1796 his Mother
was killed by his sister Mary in a fit of insanity. Lamb was magnificent in this
tragedy & devoted the rest of his life to the care of his sister who remained
subject to periodic seizures. Lamb wrote essays, poetry, letters & with his sister
he wrote Tales from Shakespeare. He was also one of the first literary & dramatic
critics.
6. F. E. Pollard read some of Lambs letters, illustrating his great love of London –
professed abhorrence of the Lake District – also his love of good food and in
particular of Cambridge Brawn.
7. S. A Reynolds read an extract from one of Lamb’s last essays, also two of his
sonnets one of which he contrasted with an amended version by Coleridge.
8. Elsie Harrod read Lamb’s essay on his visit to MACKERY END in Hertfordshire of
which he had childish memories & family associations.
9. Arnold Joselin read part of the Essay on Christ’s Hospital & as an Old Blue he
was able to enlarge on & explain some details & also to reassure us that certain
ancient practices are now discontinued. [...]
[signature of] Arnold G. Joselin
14 Nov. 1942'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Roger Moore Print: Book
'Meeting held at Hilliers, Northcourt Avenue. 26. ii. 40Meeting held at Hilliers,
Northcourt Avenue. 26. ii. 40.
Rosamund Walis in the Chair
1. Minutes of last read + approved
2. Minute 7 of 19th Dec. – relating to the accounts – was continued
[...]
5. The subject of letters was introduced by Roger Moore, and led to a desultory but
amusing discussion ranging from the Pastons to modern family letters and
scurrilous blackmailing letters.
[...]
7. Margaret Dilkes read from Lord Chesterfield’s letters to his son.
8. Ethel Stevens read letters which she had cut out of the papers from time to
time, notably one from a child of thirteen to John Ruskin.
9. H. R. Smith read some four or five short letters from E. V. Lucas, “The Second
Post.”
10. Mary Pollard read Pliny’s account of the Eruption of Vesuvius.
11. Roger Moore read some of Keats’s letters which were much enjoyed, and a
Keats evening was suggested for some future meeting.
[signed as a true record:] S A Reynolds
18/3/40'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Moore Manuscript: Unknown
'Meeting held at “Hilliers”, Northcourt Avenue. 18.XI.40
Rosamund Wallis in the chair.
[...]
4. Roger Moore gave us a biographical sketch of John Keats chiefly as revealed
through his letters. To him Keats was memorable as much for the man he was as
for what he wrote. We heard of Keats’ ideals, his religion as revealed in his letters
in spite of his professed unbelief, of his family and circle of close friends and of
his tragic & untimely death. In conclusion Roger Moore asked whether anyone
could set his mind at rest with regard to Ruth in tears amid the alien corn. His
knowledge of the Scriptures led him to suppose that Ruth was extremely happy in
her exile, in which case Keats himself would have been the first to admit that an
idea lacking truth could not be beautiful. This led to some discussion on Ruth and
exiles in general and Howard Smith suggested that it was strange that Keats had
selected Ruth when there had been so many famous exiles through whose
really sad hearts the self-same song might have found a path. He
thought Iphigenia would have been a better choice, but it was generally felt that
the sadness of her exile was somewhat outweighed by the length of her name.
[...]
[signed] Howard R. Smith
13/12/40'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Roger Moore Manuscript: Unknown
'Meeting held at Gower Cottage, 20.II.’39
R. D. L. Moore, & subsequently H. Stevens in the Chair.
1. Minutes of last read & approved.
[...]
5. R. H. Robson told of The Stately Homes of Thames, + we heard of Bisham
Abbey, Mapledurham, Ufton Court, of Jesuits hunted by Walsingham, of the
incident of The Rape of the Lock, of Lovelace, Lady Place, Hurley, and Soames
Forsyte.
6. H. R. Smith, dealing with the Story of the River, + passing lightly over the
Danish incursions upstream, spoke of the thousand years in which the Thames had
been in bounds. Weirs had been made by millers, navigation had been slow and
perilous, the modern lock was a matter of the last hundred + fifty years. Twenty-
six mills were named in Domesday Book[.] The Thames Conservancy had brought
order out of chaos.
[...]
8. S. A. Reynolds read from Mortimer Menpes of warehouses + houseboats, the
boat race + Henley Regatta, Kingfishers + quick backwaters, fishing + the
vagaries of the towpath.
9. R. D. L. Moore gave us Literary Gleanings, touching on Spenser and Shelley,
quoting from The Scholar Gypsy + Thyrsis, + reading Soames Forsyte’s thoughts
in the early morning on the river, Kipling’s The River’s Tale, + Virginia Woolf’s
astonishing account in Orlando of the great frost, when a girl dissolved into
powder + fish were frozen twenty fathoms deep!
[...]
11. Muriel Stevens read a friend’s notes on Deptford + its river scenes.
12. A. B. Dilkes from Three Men in a Boat.
[Signed] S A Reynolds
27/3/93 [i.e. 27/3/39]'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Roger Moore Manuscript: Unknown
