166 LIFE OF SIR JOHN LUBBOCK ch. 



5 Percival Terrace, Brighton, 

 January 27th, 1902. 



My dear Avebury— Your letter gave me a double 

 surprise. Being now so much out of the world I did 

 not know that a Nobel Prize Committee had been 

 appointed, still less did I know that I had been nominated 

 by it. 



Let me thank you heartily for the part you have 

 taken in the matter, but I doubt not that your advocacy 

 as President had much to do with the decision. 



Whatever may be the issue it will always be a pleasure 

 hereafter to remember this mark of appreciation and 

 sympathy given by the select of my brother authors. — 

 Sincerely yours, Herbert Spencee. 



In July a dinner was held at the Athenaeum, 

 which brought together perhaps as remarkable 

 a gathering of talent and achievement as has 

 ever assembled for that great purpose of dining, 

 which is proverbially so dear to the Briton. Mr. 

 Tedder, who has for many years filled the post 

 of Secretary and Librarian to the distinguished 

 Club, and was thus brought into close and 

 frequent association with Lord Avebury, has 

 very kindly contributed a brief account of his 

 connection with the Club and especially of his 

 chairmanship on this which is almost worthy 

 to be named an historical occasion : 



" Lord Avebury was elected a member of 

 the Athenaeum on March 9, 1857, at the early 

 age of 23. His proposer was Lord Hotham 

 and his seconder Charles Darwin. His father, 

 the Right Honourable Sir John William Lubbock, 

 Bart., was an original member of the Club, having 

 been among the first elected in 1824. 



" Sir John Lubbock was frequently chosen 

 as a member of the Committee, and in 1872 

 became one of the three Trustees in succession 



