Sometime after 7:00, our new Chairman, Hilary Bruce, called us to order for the Parish Notices. She noted that the Gold Bats had recently closed their season with an unbeaten record, news which was greeted with incredulous cheers. She gave certain details of the team's triumphs, noting in the case of the Dulwich match the "remarkable skills of our scorer" (Stephen Fullom, who won the match for us by one run). With regard to the match against the Sherlock Holmes Society, she paid tribute to one Robert Bruce, who with tremendous skill (and slow underarm lob bowling) took three wickets that day (and he reckons he should have taken five). More incredulous cheers from the assembled company.

Our Chairman then went on to announce forthcoming events, including the Cow Creamer Challenge (golfing) on July 17th at Exeter, and a day of pig racing at Leatherhead on Saturday the 26th. Details regarding these events can be found elsewhere on the website (and in Wooster Sauce), but it should be noted that the day at Leatherhead is being especially adapted for the Society, who have renamed the porcine athletes involved and who hope to stage a hog-calling competition during the afternoon. The Chairman also announced that that the final Wodehouse Walk of the year will be on September 6th. As usual, the walk will be led by some chap named Murphy, who now holds the title of Remembrancer (otherwise known as "My Hero" – well, by me, anyway).

The Chairman reminded us that August 15 is the deadline for votes in the Society's logo competition. In addition, the Drones Club of Belgium has canvassed us on the definition of a "gentleman" and whether Plum was one himself. All views to be submitted to Tony Ring.

The final Parish Notice concerned the next meeting at the Savage Club on October 14th. This will be the Society's Annual General Meeting, and Hilary promised she will do her best to keep the time within the 7-minute mark. However, in all fairness, her predecessor as Chairman tended to be, well, shall we say rapid in his speech, and it would be unfair to expect her to be as fast as he was.

Before introducing the speaker, Hilary had another pleasant duty to perform. The Society recently acquired its 1,000th member, and to mark that milestone, said new member was honoured with a copy of the newly published A Prince for Hire. By a remarkable coincidence, he was present to receive this honour in person. His name? David Heyhoe, blushing modestly, reported that when he got the call from Hilary on the previous Friday, "Rarely has a new member been so taken aback". Asked to prepare 100 words for the evening, he was interrogated when he arrived: "Where are your 100 words? Are they written down?" He also mentioned that he would be attending the Cow Creamer Challenge in Exeter, where he planned to model himself after Vincent Jopp - who, before he had even learned to play golf, told his secretary, "All right, take dictation. September twelfth win Amateur Championship."

Hilary then introduced the evening's speaker – the first at a Savage evening from outside the Society. Nicola Beauman is the managing director of Persephone Books, a firm that produces editions of "forgotten classics" – in this case, Denis Mackail's Greenery Street. She spoke of the friendship between Mackail and Plum, who became good friends after Plum read Greenery Street and wrote to Mackail to express his appreciation. In fact, as Nicola noted, Wodehouse got only as far as page 42 in his reading before he broke off to write to Mackail, saying how much he was enjoying it.

Nicola summarised the plot of Greenery Street, which reflected Mackail's married life in Walpole Street – coincidentally, at the very same address where Wodehouse had lived some fifteen years previously. Mackail – whose sister, by the way, was Angela Thirkell – had an unhappy childhood, and he had been equally unhappy at Oxford, but his life changed when he met and married his wife, Diana (who died at the age of 53). They enjoyed a happy marriage, and they left the house on Walpole Street when they had their second child, deeming it too small (the house, not the child). Although, as Nicola pointed out, in later years the same house was split into three flats large enough to accommodate three families. Mackail wrote Greenery Street as a tribute to the house he loved.

Nicola then displayed the delightful original dust jacket by E H Shepard and talked of the sociological importance of the book and the vivid picture it gave of how couples such as the Mackails lived in 1925. Even more is revealed in Mackail's two volumes of autobiography, she said.

Regarding the friendship between Mackail and Wodehouse, who wrote "wonderful letters" to each other over many years, Nicola said that the two men were "much of a muchness" – a very connected duo. Indeed, it was Mackail who first introduced to Plum the Pekinese dogs he would come to love so much. Unlike Wodehouse, Mackail is not well remembered as a writer today. This, in her opinion, is a shame, because she considers Mackail to be really worth reading, a writer who is "funny, wise, and really interesting."

Following Nicola's talk, Chairman Hilary reminded the audience that Mackail and Wodehouse had each dedicated a book to the other. Summer Lightning, of course, is the book that has the Mackail dedication, but few people know that Denis dedicated his How Amusing to Plum – and this was the book that Hilary presented to Nicola for her enjoyable talk. Since Nicola did not have a copy of How Amusing, she was delighted to have it.

Sluicing and social intercourse then resumed, and the decibel level rose steadily until Wodehouseans began slowly and reluctantly to leave the premises. Your correspondent departed early, as a good spouse should, but the Remembrancer staggered home very late that night with some wild and confused talk of a re-enactment of The Great Hat Mystery. All he could mumble before he collapsed into bed was, "See the next Wooster Sauce."

- Saltatrix