38 THE LIFE OF SIR JOSEPH BANKS 



treasures to Sir Ashton Lever, after giving Banks the 

 opportunity of selecting from them. 



Banks was elected into the Dilettanti Society in 1774, 

 and was Secretary from 1778 to 1797, a post he held 

 with "much satisfaction and advantage." The marbles 

 of the Society were kept in his custody at Soho Square. 



After the death of the Founders, the prominent members 

 of the Society were Banks, Greville, Sir Wm. Hamilton, 

 Sir R. Worsley, Sir George Beaumont, Sir Henry Engle- 

 field, Charles Townley, R. Payne Knight. (Cust : History 

 of the Dilettanti Society.) There are two portrait groups 

 still in the possession of the Society, painted by Sir J. 

 Reynolds. One of these is reproduced on the adjoining 

 page. 



A new friend of 1774 was the Rev. Sir John Cullum, of 

 Hardwick Hall, Suffolk, and Rector of Hawsted, of which 

 parish he wrote an excellent history. Sir John was one 

 of the many country parsons of the period against whom 

 some discredit has been aroused because they were not 

 " enthusiasts " (as the term was) ; but pursued the 

 honourable though lowly task of minding their flocks, 

 while not neglecting the mental culture without which 

 life was hardly worth living. The country was full of 

 good and hearty performance of duty, in a quiet way : 

 that way, indeed, which does not make notorious History, 

 but toward which we are beginning to take a more fervent 

 regard, as of simple annals which really concern the life 

 of man more than all the fussy acts of politicians and 

 soldiers. We should be the better and wiser for a more 

 intimate knowledge of some of these humbler careers, 

 the records of which lie buried in many a country house 

 or parsonage. 



Sir John Cullum was becoming a good Botanist. He 

 certainly was enthusiastic over that. He rejoices to 

 find that Lord Herbert of Cherbury reckoned " Botan- 

 ique " among the qualifications of a gentleman ; "it 



