On Saturday (27 April), the Society held its first event of 2024, a visit to the London Jesuit Centre, Mount Street, and Farm Street Church, Mayfair. Hopkins was curate and Select Preacher at the church in July – November 1878. It was a very enjoyable occasion; some thirty people attended, our largest turn-out for a long time. We are grateful to Elaine Marshall and Michael Burgess for arranging the day.

Elaine set the scene with a talk on Hopkins’ time at Farm Street. We were then taken to the Jesuit Archives (Archivum Britannicum Societatis Iesu), where the archivists had put out a fascinating display of documents about Hopkins from the collection assembled by Fr Alfred Thomas, SJ when writing his major work, Hopkins the Jesuit: the years of training (Oxford University Press, 1969). It was a real pleasure to see examples of Hopkins’ beautiful handwriting, with its clarity and ease of movement. Robert Bridges’ wife, Monica, had included a specimen of it in her book, A New Handwriting for Teachers (Oxford, 1907).

Fr Brendan Staunton, SJ (St Francis Xavier Church, Dublin) then gave an insightful talk on Hopkins’ inner life as a Jesuit. After lunch, we went across to the church where Fr Michael Holman, SJ, (Superior of the London Jesuits) gave us a guided tour of the beautiful building. The church is celebrating its 175thanniversary this year. The building and its decoration and furnishing have been an ongoing work throughout the whole of that period. In fact, Hopkins would probably not recognize much of what is there today! Canon Michael Burgess, (Hopkins Society President) concluded the day with an interesting account of the sermons Hopkins preached at Farm Street. We are very grateful to the four speakers and the two archivists for making the day such a stimulating event.