The Vertuoso's Club 5 



indecency, and who had the distinction of being put in the 

 pillory for an attack on the government. Not only does 

 the name of the Royal Society, slightly veiled, appear on 

 the title-page, but the Account begins with a description of 

 the Vertuoso's Club, 1 from which a few passages may be 

 quoted. It commences thus: "This eminent Club was 

 at first establish' d by some of the principal Members of 

 the Royal Society, and held every Thursday at a certain 

 Tavern in Cornhill, where the Vintner that kept it, has 

 according to his Merit, made a fortunate Step from his Bar 

 to his Coach, and has surrendered his House to so diligent 

 a Son, whose prudent Management, winning Deportment, 

 and indefatigable Industry, have made him a singular 

 Example to the whole Fraternity, and will, undoubtedly, 

 be attended with the like Prosperity that has so fully 

 rewarded the Pains and Vigilance of his generous Father. 

 The chief Design of the aforementioned Club, was to pro- 

 pagate new Whims, advance mechanic Exercises, and to 

 promote useless, as well as useful Experiments. . . . No 

 sooner were the patched Assembly met together on their 

 Club-Night, but every Man, in hopes to advance his Repu- 

 tation would be so wonderfully busy about one Experiment 

 or other, that the very Elements could not rest for 'em ; And 

 the whole Company divide themselves into so many several 

 Cabals, that they sat like Train Band-Men at a Captain's 

 Treat, where there are four or six appointed to a Bottle. 

 Some by those hermetical Bellows, called an JEolipile, would 



1 This term " Virtuoso," originally employed as a not uncomplimentary 

 designation for natural philosophers, came in the end to acquire a de- 

 preciatory implication a result largely attributable to the vagaries of 

 mere curio-hunters who collected all sorts of " rarities " in natural objects 

 and antiquities, often with little knowledge or discrimination. The pursuits 

 of such men in the eager acquisition of what the world in general regarded 

 as in great part rubbish, laid them open to the satire of the literary critics, 

 who classed these collectors with the philosophers as " Virtuosi." The 

 craze for collections of this character was not confined to Britain, but was 

 rife also on the Continent. It was recorded in 1763 that "the folly of 

 the French Virtuoso's at Paris is arrived at a great pitch. Collecting 

 natural curiosities is in high vogue and to that degree that no one is esteemed 

 du bon ton who has not a collection. . . . The collections seem more like 

 raree shows than like anything of a scientific nature." Gentleman's 

 Magazine for 1763, p. 230. 



