THE \RED LIONS' 91 



Edward Forbes got up a dance in the Assembly 

 Booms during the Edinburgh meeting in 1850. 



It was in order partly to avoid the sometimes 

 excessive profusion of local hospitality and partly 

 to escape from the high cost and overweight of the 

 ' ordinary/ as the common meal supplied to visiting 

 members at their own charges was then termed, that 

 Edward Forbes was moved to collect a body of other 

 young naturalists at the Birmingham meeting in 

 1839 and to repair for refreshment to an inn named 

 the Eed Lion. There they dined simply each day 

 during the meeting : it was in accordance with the 

 convivial genius of their leader that they should form 

 themselves into a defined society for doing so, and 

 the style of their chosen haunt supplied them with 

 a title the Red Lion Club. Forbes it was who 

 gave them a species of constitution : their chairman 

 became the Lion King ; new members on admission 

 became cubs ; the organisers of the arrangements, 

 jackals. On rising to speak (or otherwise to entertain 

 the company) they must roar and flourish their 

 coat-tails as an introductory ritual ; similar mani- 

 festations were prescribed to the audience as convey- 

 ing applause or dissatisfaction. Forbes showed a 

 notable facility in composing and performing songs 

 ad hoc : it is pleasant to record that he has had 

 efficient successors in this and similar directions 

 down to the present day ; for the club, after an 

 interval of lapse, has been merrily revived since the 

 Great War. Not, indeed, on exactly the same lines 

 as laid down by its founder, under whose auspices 

 the club, meeting daily as we have seen, found its 

 apartment almost crowded out toward the close of 

 its first session : it now assembles on a single occasion 



