SOME ANCIENT MEMENTOES 



conveniently make the round of the company in 

 a trundling-tour of the table. 



Another memento we have of the festive past 

 is the silken banner of the Society. This was 

 evidently intended to be carried in processions? 

 as there are the cords for attaching it to a pole 

 or poles, and pendent tassels, lead-weighted, to 

 withstand wind-buffetings. I found the old 

 banner, apparently by the world forgot, stowed 

 away amid a miscellaneous assortment of lumber. 

 For sake of old associations I thought it worth 

 rescuing from its dingy surroundings, and being 

 brought into the light of day once more, amid 

 more fitting companionship. So I forthwith had 

 it framed and glazed, and it now occupies an 

 honoured place in the committee room at the 

 Society's offices. It is in goodly company, flanked 

 by the two fine marble busts of the " Agricultural 

 Duke " of Bedford and Sir Charles Hobhouse, by 

 Chantrey and Nollekins respectively, and sur- 

 rounded by other reminders of the gay old times 

 when one likes to think it headed an annual 

 procession of the members from Hetling House, 

 the headquarters, to a special service at the Abbey. 

 If o' nights these ancient survivors of a shadowy 

 past exchange confidences, I would give something 

 for a verbatim report of their utterances. They 

 can hardly find fault with their haven of rest, with 

 its old-world features its wainscoted rooms, its 

 antique stairway, broad enough to allow of a free 

 passage to the hoop-petticoats of the Pump Room 

 belles, and with its gracefully-curved landing, 

 whose half-circle facilitated the conveyance right 

 into her room of the lady in her sedan chair. And 



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