642 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



In the autumn of 1851, rny friend and I went to the meeting of 

 the British Association at Ipswich, as scientific " items " not, in- 

 deed, wholly unknown to the " pillars " of that scientific congrega- 

 tion ; and perhaps already regarded as young men whose disposi- 

 tion to keep their proper places could not, under all circumstances, 

 be relied upon. Being young, with any amount of energy, no 

 particular prospects, and no disposition to set about the ordinary 

 methods of acquiring them, we could conduct ourselves with perfect 

 freedom ; and we joined very cordially in the proceedings of the 

 " Red Lion Club," of which I had become a member in London, 

 and which had been instituted by that most genial of anti-Philis- 

 tines, Edward Forbes, as a protest against Dons and Donnishness 

 in science. With this object, the "Red Lions "made a point of 

 holding a feast of Spartan simplicity and anarchic constitution, 

 with rites of a Pantagruelistic aspect, intermingled with extremely 

 unconventional orations and queer songs, such as only Forbes 

 could indite, by way of counterblast to the official banquets of 

 the Association, with their high tables and what we irreverently 

 termed " butter-boat " speeches. 



Fuimus I * The last time I feasted with the " Red Lions " I 

 was a Don myself ; the dinner was such as even daintier Dons than 

 I might rejoice in ; and I know of only one person who, under a 

 grave, even reverend, exterior, lamented the evolution of " Red 

 Lionism " into respectability. 



It was at the Ipswich meeting, that Tyndall and I fell in with 

 Hooker, just returned from the labors and perils of his Himalayan 

 expedition, and who was to make a third in the little company of 

 those who were, thenceforward, to hold fast to one another through 

 good and evil days. Frankland had long been a friend of Tyndall's, 

 Lubbock soon joined us ; and it was we four who stood, pondering 

 over many things, in Haslemere Churchyard the other day. 



Tyndall became permanently attached to the Royal Institution 

 in 1853, while I cast anchor in Jermyn Street, not far off, in the 

 following year. Before reaching this settlement, we had both 

 done our best to expatriate ourselves by becoming candidates for 

 the chairs of Physics and of Natural History in the University of 

 Toronto, which happened to be simultaneously vacant. These, 

 however, were provided with other occupants. The close relations 

 into which we were thrown, on this and many subsequent occa- 

 sions, had the effect of associating us in the public mind, as if we 

 formed a sort of firm ; with results which were sometimes incon- 

 venient and sometimes ludicrous. When my wife and I went to 

 the United States in 1876, for example, a New York paper was 

 good enough to announce my coming, accompanied by my " titled 



* We were. 



