To celebrate the centenary of the Hesperides Society, here is a look at the early years of the society. The actual 100th anniversary was in March, but better late than never! October 15th is a fitting alternative date as it happens to be the death day of Robert Herrick, after whose collection of poetry the society took its name.
Robert Herrick was an alumnus of Trinity Hall in the early 17th century. His mangum opus, Hesperides, was a collection of circa 1400 lyrical poems and was published in 1648. It is named after the goddess-nymphs of evening and the golden light of sunsets from Greek mythology. The Hesperides were entrusted with the care of the tree of the golden apples which were given to the goddess Hera on her wedding day by Gaia (the Earth).
The Hesperides Society was founded on March 13th 1923 by Neil McLeod Innes and three other students. They met in Innes’ room to discuss the possibility of creating a society for the discussion of literary and artistic subjects. It was decided that the procedure of the society would be informal and meetings would be opened with the introduction of a pre-arranged subject and then opened up to questions. Happily the society did not go with the first suggested name, which was “The Query Qulub.”
The first official meeting of the society was held on April 27th. It was during this meeting that they unanimously agreed upon “Hesperides,” as there was already another Query Club. The first topic of discussion was about whether or not the Mona Lisa was the most famous painting in the world. At the end of the meeting it was agreed that merely suggesting a topic wasn’t enough, but instead a paper should be read, after which there would be questions.
In the beginning there were only six members. By Michaelmas 1923, they decided to open membership to the entire college and the society grew to 24 members. By winter 1924 there were 59 members. At the November 7th 1923 meeting, they decreed that the only subjects that were not to be discussed were “pious religion” and politics. At the following meeting they decided the society’s colours were to be green (to represent the garden of the Hesperides) and gold (for the golden apples).
The meetings were often held in a member’s room, unless the talk was expected to attract a large turnout. In which case, the meeting would be held in the J.C.R. and attendance would be opened up to the university and women’s colleges. Within a year, the society began attracting big names from outside the college to give talks. The first notable speaker was Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, a novelist, poet, and literary critic.
J.B. Priestley, who graduated from Trinity Hall in 1921, returned in 1926 to give a talk to the society. T.S. Eliot was hosted by the society as a guest of honour at a dinner in 1928. He promised to come back to give a talk, but by the time someone contacted him about a couple decades later, he stated he no longer gave talks to student societies. In March 1958, C.S. Lewis gave a talk as well, which unfortunately wasn’t minuted. Owen Chadwick, Dean and fellow of the college in the 1940s, gave a talk about the Philip Nicholls scandal of 1731 and produced some of the historical documents relating to that case that are also held in the Archive.
Other famous names who gave talks were Philip Guedalla (who returned several times), Raymond Priestley (the Arctic explorer), Walter de La Mare, Edith and Osbert Sitwell, Arnold Haskell, Rose Macaulay, Leonard Strong, Lionel Britton, Phyllis Bentley, Naomi Mitchison, and Sir Gerald Kelly. The society also had some famous (and infamous) members as well, such as Donald Maclean, the Soviet spy.
The first iteration of the society disbanded in 1976. However, it was re-founded in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic and has since heard talks from famous Trinity Hall alumni Sophie Winkleman and Nicholas Hynter.
The Archives and Old Library at Trinity Hall 