FOUNDATION OF THE X CLUB 539 



more so we finally accepted the happy suggestion of our 

 mathematicians to call it the x Club ; and the proposal of some 

 genius among us, that we should have no rules save the un- 

 written law not to have any, was carried by acclamation.' 



The meetings were at first regularly held at the St. George's 

 Hotel, Albemarle Street, with Almond's Hotel, Clifford Street, 

 and the Athenaeum to fall back upon in case St. George's were 

 not available. In the latter eighties, however, the Athenaeum 

 became the regular meeting place, and it was here that the 

 * coming of age ' of the club was celebrated in 1885. 



For some years also there was a summer week-end meeting 

 in the country, which was attended by members and their 

 wives. For this the Treasurer whose turn of duty it was, did 

 not send out the usual postcard of invitation 2 = 2, or what- 

 ever the date might be. The correct formula for the occasion 

 was x's + yv's. The place of these meetings was sometimes 

 the foot of Leith Hill, or Oxford, or Oatlands Park, but most 

 usually Maidenhead, with possibilities of a drive to Burnham 

 Beeches and Dropmofe, and boats on the river. But this grew in- 

 creasingly difficult to arrange, and in course of time was dropped. 



Hooker, Busk, Spencer, and Tyndall x had all been close 

 friends of Huxley's soon after his return from the voyage of 

 the Rattlesnake ; Frankland and Hirst 2 were yet older friends 



1 John Tyndall (1820-93), natural philosopher and Alpinist, after beginning 

 life on the ordnance survey and as a railway engineer, went to Queenwood 

 College as teacher of mathematics and surveying. Resolving to devote himself 

 to science, he, with his colleague Edward Frankland, the chemist, went to Mar- 

 burg, and then Berlin, studying chemistry and magnetism. He returned to 

 Queenwood in 1851, but in 1853, Dr. Bence-Jones, having heard of the impres- 

 sion made by him in Berlin, invited him to lecture at the Royal Institution, with 

 the result that he was immediately chosen as Professor of Natural Philosophy 

 there, becoming the colleague and from 1867 the successor of Faraday, the 

 superintendent. In addition to his researches on heat (for which he received 

 the Rumford Medal 1867), light and sound and the germ theory, he was cele- 

 brated as a lecturer and expositor of science for the public. He was scientific 

 adviser to the Trinity House 1866-83. He was a warm friend of his fellow 

 members of the x Club, particularly of Huxley. 



2 Thomas Archer Hirst (1830-92), mathematician, was articled as surveyor, 

 &c. at Halifax, Yorkshire. Taking his Ph.D. in 1852, he became Lecturer in 

 Mathematics at Queenwood College, Hants, 1853-6, and University College 

 School, 1860; F.R.S. 1861; F.R.A.S. 1866; Professor of Physics, University 

 College, 1865, and of Pure Mathematics, 1866-70 ; Director of Naval Studies 

 at Greenwich, 1873-83 ; Fellow of London University, 1882. He published 

 various mathematical writings. 



