WILLIAM LUCY 



AND 



HIS FRIENDS OF THE COTTESWOLD CLUB 

 FIVE AND THIRTY YEARS AGO 



I had intended to sketch some reminiscences of our 

 retiring President : but when it comes to putting them 

 on paper, they present the difficulty of being for the most 

 part rather such as relate to a private friendship than to 

 our intercourse as members of the Club. If, however, I 

 broaden my ground so far as to permit of its being 

 covered by the title of " William Lucy and his friends of 

 the Cotteswold Club," the objection will cease to apply : 

 and this I propose to do. 



My acquaintance w'ith William Lucy goes back to the 

 middle ages : not as European history reckons them, but 

 according to the true chronology accepted by one of the 

 most scientific societies in this country, and which takes 

 for its point of departure the first meeting of that Society 

 at the Black Horse, at Birdlip. In the middle period to 

 which I refer many of the original Members were still 

 living and vigorous: for we used to do our fifteen-mile 

 walk upon occasion at a Field Meeting, winding up wdth a 

 dinner at some village hostelry, or old-town inn like the 

 Ram at Cirencester ; follow^ed by a debate on a Quarry 



