THE SOCIETY'S SEVERAL ABODES 29 



Gresham College somewhat uncertain. At last, under the Presi- 

 dency of Sir Isaac Newton, the Council determined to leave that 

 institution. There was naturally a sentimental regret on the part 

 of a number of the Fellows to remove from what had been the 

 birthplace of the Society, to which it was attached by many 

 pleasant associations. But in 1710 a house was finally purchased 

 with borrowed money in Crane Court, Fleet Street (Plate IX), and 

 the Society met there under its own roof on November 8 of that 

 year. These premises continued to be the Society's abode for 

 seventy years, until in the autumn of 1780 rooms in Somerset 

 House were placed at its disposal by the Government. These 

 were occupied in time to allow the anniversary meeting to be held 

 there on November 30 of that year. 



The Royal Society remained at Somerset House up till 1857 

 when, the apartments in that building being required for Govern- 

 ment offices, the Society was temporarily transferred to that part 

 of Burlington House which is now occupied by the offices of the 

 Royal Academy of Arts. The new wings with quadrangle and 

 gateway to Piccadilly were subsequently added, and in 1873 the 

 Society took up its quarters in the east wing, where apartments 

 were arranged to suit its requirements and which it has occupied 

 ever since. (Plates XIX, XX.) 



During the early years of the Society the proceedings at an 

 ordinary meeting differed a good deal from what has now for 

 a long time become the settled practice. Instead of the reading 

 and discussion of formal papers attention was then mainly given 

 to experiments which were performed by the Fellows themselves 

 or by officials appointed by them. 1 There was likewise an active 

 correspondence between the Society and observers at home and 

 abroad, which was reported at the meetings. The general 

 character of a meeting in the infancy of the Society may be 

 gathered from the following excerpt from the Journal-book of 

 date September 10, 1662 : 



' Mersennus, his account of the tenacity of cylindrical! bodies was read by 

 Mr. Croone, to whome the prosecution of that matter by consulting Galilaeo, 



1 Sprat states that the chief work at the meetings was the 'directing, judging, 

 conjecturing, improving and discoursing upon experiments '. Hist., p. 95. 



