62 Boyal Society. 



from that period he devoted himself ahnost entirely to the improve- 

 ment and decoration of his beautiful residence at Bromley Hill ; to 

 the proposal and promotion of plans for the architectural improve- 

 ment of the metropolis ; to the selection of pictures for the National 

 Gallery, which he greatly enriched by his bequests ; and to the va- 

 rious duties imposed upon him by his official connexion with the 

 British Museum, and many other public institutions. 



The Earl of Eldon, though possessing few relations with science 

 or literature, presents too remarkable an example of the openings 

 afforded by the institutions of this country to men of great and com- 

 manding talents for the attainment of the highest rank and wealth, 

 to be passed over without notice in this obituary of our deceased 

 Fellows. Lord Eldon was matriculated as a member of University 

 Colletice, Oxford, under the tuition of his bi'other, afterwards Lord 

 Stowell, in 1766; and an academical prize which he gained in the 

 following vear, for an " Essay on the Advantages of Foreign Tra- 

 vel," gave the first evidence of his possession of those great powers 

 of minute analysis and careful research, which made him afterwards 

 so celebrated. His early marriage terminated somewhat prematurely 

 his academical prospects, and forced him to adopt the profession of 

 the law, after narrowly escaping other occupations of a much more 

 humble character. He was compelled to struggle for several years of 

 his lifewith poverty and discouragement, when afortunate opportunity 

 enabled him to give proof of his extraordinary attaiinnents, and ra- 

 pidly conducted him to the command of wealth and professional emi- 

 nence. After filling Avith great distinction the offices of Solicitor and 

 Attorney-General, he became Chief-Justice of the Common Pleas and 

 a peer in 1799, and finally Lord Chancellor of England in 1801, a 

 situation which he continued to hold, with a short interruption, for 

 nearly a quarter of a century. Of his political character and eon- 

 duct it becomes not me to speak ; but his profound knowledge of 

 the laws of England, Ids unrivaled acuteness and sagacity, and his 

 uerfect impartiality and love of justice, have received the concur- 

 rent acknowledgment and admiration of men of all parties. 



The Rev. Thomas Catton, Senior Fellow of St. John's College, 

 Cambridge, was in early life a schoolfellow of Loi'd Nelson, of whose 

 talents or character, however, he retained no veiy vivid impressions : 

 he became a Member of the University in 1777, and when he took 

 his degree in 1781 he was fourth Wrangler and first Smith's Prize- 

 man, a discrepancy in the results of two similar examinations, which 

 is said to have led to the adoption of some regulations prevent- 

 ing their recurrence in future. In the year 1800 he became one 

 of the pulilic tutors of his college, in conjunction with its pre- 

 sent venerable and distinguished master, and secured, in a very 

 uncommon degree, the respect and love of his pupils, by his skill 

 and knowledge as a teacher, and by his kind and vigilant attention 

 to their interests: he quitted the tuition in 1810, and for the re- 

 mainder of his life he devoted himself, almost exclusively, to the 

 cultivation of practical and theoretical astronomy, having succeeded 

 to Mr. Ludlani in the management of the observatory which ia 



