30 LITERARY ASSOCIATION. 
The talk was miscellaneous but chiefly literary, politics 
alone being excluded. At the meetings, the chair was 
taken in rotation by the members, selected apphabeti- 
cally, the only permanent officer being the treasurer. 
The membership of the club was gradually increased un- 
til it reached thirty-five. The proposition to enlarge the 
club came from Goldsmith. ‘‘It would give,’’ he 
thought, ‘‘an agreeable variety to our meetings, for 
there can be nothing new among us, we have travelled 
over each other’s minds.’? This remark piqued John- 
son, who replied ‘‘ Sir, you have not travelled over my 
mind, I promise you.”’ 
Mr. Fosters says of the club. ‘The fame of it’s con- 
versation received eager addition from the difficulty of 
obtaining admission to it, and it came to be generally 
understood that literature had fixed her headquarters 
here, with advantage to the dignity and worldly consid- 
eration of men of letters.’ Said the Bishop of St. 
Asaph; ‘The honor of being elected into the Turk’s 
Head Club is not inferior to that of being the representa- 
tive of Westminster or Surrey.’’ The Bishop had just 
been elected but even thus early (it was but fifteen vears 
old) Bishops and even Lord Chancellors were known to 
have sought admission unsuccessfully. 
The character of the club has changed somewhat in its 
later years. In the first fifty years of its existence, 
three-quarters of its members were authors, now it has 
very few except titled members, but the majority of 
these have some claim to literary distinction and the 
club still acknowledges the love of literature as the tie 
which holds its members together. It’s long list of 
members, since its foundation show very many names 
distinguished in letters, in government, in science, in art 
and in each of the professions. The name of the Society 
has been changed to the ‘‘ Johnson Club.” In 1864 it 
celebrated its centenary. 
