8 Origin of Royal Society Club 



the Royal Society on 27th May 1731, and he may about 

 that time have taken part in some of the social gatherings 

 of the Fellows. His weak memory seems to have led him to 

 believe that the organised Dining Club began then, and that 

 his much later connection with it went back to the same 

 period. Admiral Smyth cites convincing evidence that the 

 dinners which drew Halley on Thursdays to Child's Coffee- 

 house were attended by him many years before he became 

 Astronomer Royal and lived at Greenwich. There are extant 

 letters of Flamsteed to Abraham Sharp, in one of which, dated 

 as far back as 1712, allusion is made to Halley and his 

 associates at the gatherings in that tavern. The Admiral 

 pronounces a well-deserved eulogium of Halley when he 

 describes him as "at once proudly eminent as an astronomer, 

 a mathematician, a physiologist, a naturalist, a scholar, an 

 antiquary, a poet, a meteorologist, a geographer, a navigator, 

 a nautical surveyor and a truly social member of the com- 

 munity." But when he claims that this illustrious man was 

 also the founder of the Royal Society Club his enthusiasm has 

 undoubtedly carried him further than the evidence warrants. 



The truth would appear to be that informal dinners or 

 suppers, such as took place in the time of Pepys, still con- 

 tinued in the first half of the eighteenth century. These 

 were attended not only by Fellows of the Royal Society, 

 but by friends whom they brought with them, and even 

 sometimes by intruders who chose to dine or sup at the 

 same tavern and, without any introduction, thrust themselves 

 into what they recognised to be a varied and pleasant 

 company. If the President of the Society was present he 

 would naturally be asked to take the chair, if in such im- 

 provised gatherings any chairman were desired. But the 

 miscellaneous character of these assemblages coming at 

 last to be too inconvenient, the need would be felt for some 

 organisation that would allow a small number of men of 

 congenial tastes and habits to come into closer touch with 

 each other, and would exclude undesirable visitors. 



The earliest trace of such an attempt to obtain more 

 privacy is to be found in the document of 27th October 



