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The Kensington Club is an exclusive all-male dining society composed of students of the University of St Andrews. Founded circa 1739 by Alexander the Laird Balgonie as a social club, the Kensington Club flourished predominately in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries as a retreat for aristocratic and moneyed members of the student population. Renewed interest in the club after a period of decline in the second part of the twentieth century has led to a surge in membership since the early 2000s. ==History== The Kensington Club was founded circa 1739 by Alexander the Laird Balgonie. His family seat, the Castle Balgonie, is still standing today close to St Andrews. The club was intended as a social club from its beginning, and was founded in the spirit of the many enlightenment societies which were springing up at the time. The exact origins of the club's name to this day remain unclear. A portrait of the club, now in the care of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, depicts early members wearing a uniform of maroon frock-coats and turquoise-green silk waistcoats. Interest in the club reached its zenith in the early part of the nineteenth century despite the considerable amount of debt accumulated by its members in the pursuit of excessive lifestyles, as attested by a letter of the student Lord Ailsbury in 1847: “You must have heard of this club… There are many splendid dinners, receptions and infinite other amusements. There is much ritual and tradition from ancient sources but every day these are destroyed by the scandalous amounts of debt attributed to the members… the men of today, who count themselves as gentlemen, are very different in bearing and conduct from their ancient counterparts”. The policies of the labour governments in the early twentieth century were felt with particular acuteness among the Scottish Aristocracy, with their limited ability to generate income. Club fortunes took a downturn and membership began to tail off. With the exception of a brief resurgence in the nineteen seventies the club remained almost dormant. With the turn of the century interest began once more to escalate, and the Kensington Club once again exists as a prominent social institution within St Andrews. In 2001, in honour of this revival, Raymond, the present Laird of Balgonie, was given honorary membership and made the club patron. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kensington Club」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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