Grampian Club > Leaves from my autography

LEAVES FEOM MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 341
the Royal Caledonian Asylum/' '' arrangements being
in progress for attaching them to the different na-
tional universities."
Heretofore attempts to transfer the Scottish Liter-
ary Institute to London, or to establish in the metro-
polis a new society of the name, had not prospered.
When in 1868 the Grampian Club was founded in
London, a '' Scottish Literary Institute " was also
started; but it began and ended with a feast. A
second effort made in 1872 lacked even the convivial
success which had attended the former, for an en-
tertainment, on the 25th January of that year, at
which it was to be revived, did not come off, being
attended by only thirteen persons, of whom seven
were reporters for the press. But the third effort,
associated with a benevolence and central news-rooms,
was more likely to excite attention. So it did. A
patriotic nobleman consented to preside at an inau-
gural conversazione, to be held on the 23d of June ;
and as a card of invitation was issued, bearing
respectable names, many persons assembled.
The Institute was formally revived on the 23d
June 1875, the first being formed on the 22d June
1855, just twenty years before. The new Institute
met in the rooms usually occupied by the Grampian
Club, and on the same day a letter was addressed to
the founder of both institutions charging him with
cupidity and malversation.
The monthly print associated with the new Institute