Eugenie Rhodes, a long-time NSC member who has now moved to Tunbridge Wells and consequently seldom makes it to our meetings, has started her own answer to the NSC, the Dandy and Connoisseur Club. Harking back to the Georgian era, when her town’s Pantiles area was the place to see and be seen, the club will, like the NSC, offer a monthly meeting with a talk.

Doors will open for socialising at 6pm, and from 6.30 there will be a talk, The Revamping of British Public Schools in the 19th Century, by Mike Jones, a former schoolmaster at Eton. He explains, "A combination of factors—the wealth created by the agricultural and industrial revolutions, and the growth of British colonies since the 16th century, which, by the 19th, had morphed into an empire—created a challenge. The solution reached was a system of civil servants appointed and promoted on merit. The Public Schools aimed to produce future legislators by following Plato's ideal of Government by the Wise, implemented by the 'Guardians'. Did they actually achieve this Classical ideal? Come to that, the best part of two hundred years later, have we?"

For details, reservations and dress codes email dandyandconnoisseur@aol.com.