THE SOCIETY AND CHELSEA COLLEGE 27 



College, it had to leave the College, which, on account of the fire, 

 was wanted as an Exchange until a new Exchange could be 

 erected. On January 9, 1666-7, the Society met at Arundel 

 House, in the Strand, originally the Bishop of Bath's Palace, on 

 the site now occupied by Arundel and Norfolk Streets, where 

 rooms had been placed at its disposal by Mr. Henry Howard, 

 who afterwards succeeded to the dukedom of Norfolk. This 

 became the head-quarters of the Society until near the end of the 

 year 1673. 



During the seven years in which the meetings were held at 

 Arundel House the question of obtaining a habitation of their 

 own was discussed by the Fellows. As already stated, it was in 

 the early summer of the year 1667 that the King's gift of Chelsea 

 College was made, when land amounting to nearly thirty acres, 

 together with all the buildings upon the ground, was handed over to 

 the Society. This gift is thus mentioned by Evelyn : ' 24th Sep- 

 tember [1667]. Returned to London where I had orders to deliver 

 the possession of Chelsea College (used as my prison during the war 

 with Holland for such as were sent from the fleet to London) to 

 our Society, as a gift of his Majesty, our Founder.' The warrant 

 for a new Charter (the third) granting this property to the Royal 

 Society was dated May 24, 1 667. But some delay occurred in the 

 completion of the legal formalities connected with the benefaction, 

 and it was not until April 8, 1669, that the third Charter was 

 signed, by which the Chelsea property was vested in the President, 

 Council, and Fellows of the Royal Society. On the 19th of next 

 month Evelyn recorded that ' at a Council of the Royal Society 

 our grant was finished in which his Majesty gives us Chelsea 

 College and some land about it '. 



Before three years had passed, however, the King thought that 

 the Chelsea property might be better employed for another pur- 

 pose, and he accordingly desired to repurchase it from the Royal 

 Society. Evelyn's chronicle of this change of purpose is contained 

 in the following entry in his Diary: '14th September, 1681. 

 Dined with Sir Stephen Fox, who proposed to me the purchasing 

 of Chelsea College, which his Majesty had sometime since given 

 to our Society, and would now purchase it again to build an 

 hospital or infirmary for soldiers there, in which he desired my 



