{"product_id":"2940013755284","title":"The Everlasting Club","description":"There is a chamber in Jesus College the existence of which is\u003cbr\u003eprobably known to few who are now resident, and fewer still have\u003cbr\u003epenetrated into it or even seen its interior. It is on the right hand\u003cbr\u003eof the landing on the top floor of the precipitous staircase which for\u003cbr\u003esome forgotten story connected with it is traditionally called \"Cow\u003cbr\u003eLane.\" The padlock which secures its massive oaken door is very rarely\u003cbr\u003eunfastened, for the room is bare and unfurnished. Once it served as a\u003cbr\u003eplace of deposit for superfluous kitchen ware, but even that\u003cbr\u003eignominious use has passed from it, and it is now left to undisturbed\u003cbr\u003esolitude and darkness. For I should say that it is entirely cut off\u003cbr\u003efrom the light of the outer day by the walling up, some time in the\u003cbr\u003eeighteenth century, of its single window, and such light as ever\u003cbr\u003ereaches it comes from the door, when rare occasion causes it to be\u003cbr\u003eopened.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYet at no extraordinarily remote day this chamber has evidently ben\u003cbr\u003etenanted, and, before it was given up to the darkness, was comfortably\u003cbr\u003efitted, according to the standard of comfort which was known in\u003cbr\u003ecollege in the days of George II. There is still a roomy fireplace\u003cbr\u003ebefore which legs have been stretched and wine and gossip have\u003cbr\u003ecirculated in the days of wigs and brocade. For the room is spacious\u003cbr\u003eand, when it was lighted by the window looking eastward over the\u003cbr\u003efields and common, it must have been a cheerful place for the sociable\u003cbr\u003edon.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLet me state in brief, prosaic outline the circumstances which\u003cbr\u003eaccount for the gloom and solitude in which this room has remained now\u003cbr\u003efor nearly a century and a half.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the second quarter of the eighteenth century the University\u003cbr\u003epossessed a great variety of clubs of a social kind. There were clubs\u003cbr\u003ein college parlours and clubs in private rooms, or in inns and coffee-\u003cbr\u003ehouses: clubs flavoured with politics, clubs clerical, clubs\u003cbr\u003epurporting to be learned and literary. Whatever their professed\u003cbr\u003eparticularity, the aim of each was convivial. Some of them, which\u003cbr\u003eincluded undergraduates as well as seniors, were dissipated enough,\u003cbr\u003eand in their limited provincial way aped the profligacy of such clubs\u003cbr\u003eas the Hell Fire Club of London notoriety.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAmong these last was one which was at once more select and of more\u003cbr\u003eevil fame than any of its fellows. By a singular accident, presently\u003cbr\u003eto be explained, the Minute Book of this Club, including the years\u003cbr\u003efrom 1738 to 1766, came into the hands of the Master of Jesus College,\u003cbr\u003eand though, so far as I am aware, it is no longer extant, I have\u003cbr\u003ebefore me a transcript of it which, though it is in a recent\u003cbr\u003ehandwriting, presents in a bald shape such a singular array of facts\u003cbr\u003ethat I must ask you to accept them as veracious. The original book is\u003cbr\u003edescribed as a stout duodecimo volume bound in red leather and\u003cbr\u003efastened with red silken strings. The writing in it occupied some 40\u003cbr\u003epages, and ended with the date November 2, 1766.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Club in question was called the Everlasting Club--a name\u003cbr\u003esufficiently explained by its rules, set forth in the pocket--book.\u003cbr\u003eIts number was limited to seven, and it would seem that its members\u003cbr\u003ewere all young men, between 22 and 30. One of them was a Fellow-\u003cbr\u003eCommoner of Trinity: three of them were Fellows of Colleges, among\u003cbr\u003ewhom I should especially mention a Fellow of Jesus, named Charles\u003cbr\u003eBellasis: another was a landed proprietor in the county, and the sixth\u003cbr\u003ewas a young Cambridge physician. The Founder and President of the Club\u003cbr\u003ewas the Honorable Alan Dermot, who, as the son of an Irish peer, had\u003cbr\u003eobtained a nobleman's degree in the University, and lived in idleness\u003cbr\u003ein the town. Very little is known of his life and character, but that\u003cbr\u003elittle is highly in his disfavor. He was killed in a duel in Paris in\u003cbr\u003ethe year 1743, under circumstances which I need not particularise, but\u003cbr\u003ewhich point to an exceptional degree of cruelty and wickedness in the\u003cbr\u003eslain man.","brand":"William Stockert","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079661666544,"sku":"2940013755284","price":1.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013755284_p0.jpg?v=1763589850","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013755284","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}