DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1041#0049
3 6 History of the Society of Dilettanti
which motion is not seconded by some other Member then present
do pay the sum of half-a-guinea into the Gen. Fund.'
convivial The second of the ordinances above quoted was
excesses. 0f some importance. Hard drinking was very much
in fashion at the time, and much drunkenness was
caused by the habit of friends toasting each other,
often in bumpers, the compliment being one which
it was considered an insult to decline. The reproach
of convivial excess is one which the early members
of the Society of Dilettanti neither could nor would
have chosen to disclaim. Their reputation for it
is shown by Horace Walpole's sneer in a letter
to Sir Horace Mann on April 14, 1743, where he
says of the Dilettanti that' the nominal qualification
is having been in Italy, and the real one, being
drunk: the two chiefs are Lord Middlesex and
Sir Francis Dash wood, who were seldom sober the
whole time they were in Italy.' Walpole's delicate
constitution made it impossible to indulge in these
excesses; and in later years he became a martyr
to gout without, as it seems, having done anything to
deserve it. That the drunkenness of the time some-
times led to an open scandal is shown by the story
of the Calves' Head Club. On January 30, 1734,
a party of young men, seven of whom (Harcourt,
Middlesex, Boyne, Sewallis Shirley, Strode, Denny,
and Sir James Gray) were members of the Dilettanti,
met to celebrate the birthday of one of the company
present by a dinner at the White Eagle Tavern
in Suffolk Street. The disorder caused by their
drunken revels attracted a crowd, who were led to
believe that the dinner was held to commemorate
the execution of Charles I on that day, and that
a calf's head had been served at table by way
of ridicule. A bonfire was lit, and on the diners
which motion is not seconded by some other Member then present
do pay the sum of half-a-guinea into the Gen. Fund.'
convivial The second of the ordinances above quoted was
excesses. 0f some importance. Hard drinking was very much
in fashion at the time, and much drunkenness was
caused by the habit of friends toasting each other,
often in bumpers, the compliment being one which
it was considered an insult to decline. The reproach
of convivial excess is one which the early members
of the Society of Dilettanti neither could nor would
have chosen to disclaim. Their reputation for it
is shown by Horace Walpole's sneer in a letter
to Sir Horace Mann on April 14, 1743, where he
says of the Dilettanti that' the nominal qualification
is having been in Italy, and the real one, being
drunk: the two chiefs are Lord Middlesex and
Sir Francis Dash wood, who were seldom sober the
whole time they were in Italy.' Walpole's delicate
constitution made it impossible to indulge in these
excesses; and in later years he became a martyr
to gout without, as it seems, having done anything to
deserve it. That the drunkenness of the time some-
times led to an open scandal is shown by the story
of the Calves' Head Club. On January 30, 1734,
a party of young men, seven of whom (Harcourt,
Middlesex, Boyne, Sewallis Shirley, Strode, Denny,
and Sir James Gray) were members of the Dilettanti,
met to celebrate the birthday of one of the company
present by a dinner at the White Eagle Tavern
in Suffolk Street. The disorder caused by their
drunken revels attracted a crowd, who were led to
believe that the dinner was held to commemorate
the execution of Charles I on that day, and that
a calf's head had been served at table by way
of ridicule. A bonfire was lit, and on the diners