428 R. T. LEWIS ON THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE 



Mr. Arthur E. Durham was the third President, and held the 

 office for two years, during which period the Journal of the Club 

 made its first appearance, the extra meetings on the second 

 Friday in each month were commenced, and the first dinner took 

 place at Leatherhead, Mr. Suffolk's classes* were restarted, and 

 the number of members was reported as having reached 512. It 

 was towards the beginning of 1868 that a member of the Com- 

 mittee began to agitate for the admission of women as members, 

 a proposal strongly deprecated by his colleagues as being sub- 

 versive of the interests of the Club. This gave rise to considerable 

 opposition from the members generally, and much merriment 

 was created by the circulation of sketches by Mr. Suffolk and 

 Mr. Lewis, and by the issue of a skit purporting to be the 

 report of a meeting held two years ahead and embodying most 

 of the objections to the scheme. It was, however, formally- 

 proposed at the Ordinary Meeting in March 1868, Dr. Tilbury 

 Fox in the chair, but on the resolution being put it found only 

 two supporters, and was therefore negatived by an overwhelming 

 majority. 



At the Annual Meeting in 1869 Mr. P. le Neve Foster suc- 

 ceeded Mr. Durham as President, but the latter took the chair 

 at the November meeting, when a handsome testimonial was 

 presented to Mr. Bywater on his retirement from the position 

 of Secretary, the duties of that office having been taken over 

 by Mr. T. C. White. In 1870 the members had increased so 

 much that it became necessary to reduce the number of invitation 

 tickets issued for the Annual Soiree, a charge being made for 



* Mr. W. T. Suffolk conducted a class for beginners during the winter 

 of 1865-6 in a room at the Society of Arts, kindly placed at his disposal 

 for the purpose by Mr. P. le Neve Foster. At this he gave useful and 

 practical information on the management of the microscope, the mounting 

 of objects, etc. The class was suspended during the summer months, but 

 was resumed during the winter of 1866-7, and was fairly well attended 

 but as there is no later mention of it, I infer that it was not again started,, 

 but occasional demonstrations at the Gossip Meetings seem to have 

 taken its place. 



