22 THE ROYAL SOCIETY 



WEDNESDAY, JULY 17TH. 



The morning of this day was set apart for visits to places of 

 interest in London, such as Lambeth Palace, Westminster Abbey, 

 the British Museum, Bloomsbury, the Natural History Museum, 

 South Kensington, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. 

 Arrangements were made by which the several parties of visitors 

 were conducted over these and other institutions, and the chief 

 features of each were pointed out by the resident officials. 



In the afternoon the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland 

 gave a Garden Party at Syon House, their residence on the 

 Thames, to which the Delegates and Fellows of the Royal Society 

 with their ladies were invited. As the weather was brilliantly 

 fine, a large company assembled in the picturesque grounds and 

 enjoyed the summer beauty of an English park. 



In the evening a Conversazione was held in the rooms of the 

 Royal Society at Burlington House, which was numerously 

 attended. Among the objects of interest presented on the 

 occasion attention was specially directed to the large collection of 

 portraits hung on the walls of the tea-room and meeting-room. 

 In the short handbook which was supplied to the company 

 a brief account of each picture was given. The portraits are 

 valuable not only as likenesses of eminent men who have been 

 connected with the Royal Society, but not a few of them also as 

 works of art. On the walls of the tea-room hang contemporary 

 portraits of Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, John 

 Wallis, John Wilkins, Christopher Wren, John Flamsteed, 

 Edmund Halley, John Locke, and other early Fellows of the 

 Society. The meeting-room contains portraits of more recent 

 Presidents. Among the exhibits shown on this occasion were 

 the apparatus devised by Mr. C. T. R. Wilson for making visible 

 the tracks of ionizing particles of vapour condensed upon the ions 

 set free along the paths ; and also some Cloud-photographs showing 

 the nature of the ionization produced by different kinds of rays. Sir 

 William Crookes exhibited his historical collection of Radiometers 

 and Otheoscopes. Mr. C. V. Boys showed his instrument for 

 experimenting with rotating soap-films. Some of the historical 

 relics in the possession of the Society were likewise displayed, 

 including Robert Boyle's air-pump, Huygens' aerial or tubeless 



