| A record of
our past events from this year.
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information about future events planned for the rest of this year and
beyond.
Summer Meeting
Saturday 12th June 2010
Horace Walpole and Strawberry Hill
Despite the warm
weather and the distractions of the football World Cup, an impressive
number of members visited the Victoria and Albert Museum together to see
an exhibition devoted to the former contents of Strawberry Hill, Horace
Walpole's "little Gothic castle" in Twickenham. The contents of the house
had been dispersed in 1842, but many had been gathered together again for
this exhibition, and this was the first major retrospective on Horace
Walpole, who was arguably one of the most important and pioneering
collectors of the 18th century. Strawberry Hill itself is a fine example
of Georgian Gothic Revival architecture. Between 1747 and 1792 Walpole
expanded and rebuilt the property, adding towers and battlements, turning
a former modest coachman's house into a cabinet of curiosities. The
building itself is now being restored and we hope to visit it again next
Summer, which will be nearly 30 years after our last
visit!
After the exhibition, we departed to
the Cittie of Yorke public house for a talk by Dr. Clare Rider.
Clare is currently archivist at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, but
was formerly an archivist for St. Mary's University, which acquired
Strawberry Hill in 1929. Clare gave a highly informative and entertaining
talk, discussing Walpole, the house itself and also Walpole's 1764 novel
The Castle of Otranto, which originated the genre of the Gothic
novel. This was followed by other Gothic readings by Society members.
AGM and Spring Meeting
Saturday 24th April 2010
After an excellent supper, we first did
the business of the Society's Annual General Meeting, which included
receiving the
Membership Secretary and Treasurer's reports. After the formalities were
over, we settled down for another Gothic themed quiz, in the same format which had been
so successful and enjoyable at the Summer Meeting in 2009. Unlike last
time, where the talent must have been spread around more evenly, one team must
have had all the brains, and ran away with a resounding victory!
March Literary Meeting
Saturday 13th March 2010
New Year Meeting
Film Evening
Saturday 9th January 2010
Once again we met at the George in the Strand for
our traditional New Year film show. Bad weather made the turnout lower than
expected, but a hardy few braved the icy conditions, both outside and inside
the venue, where the heating wasn't working!
We enjoyed two rarely seen episodes of the 1977 BBC TV
series Supernatural. The first was The Night of the Marionettes,
an interesting take on the origins of the Frankenstein story. This item
was especially interesting to us as the actor Vladek Sheybal won one of our
very early Hamilton Deane Awards for his performance in this
production, and most of us hadn't been able to see it again until now! The
second episode presented was Dorabella, an atmospheric vampire tale.
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