22 Presidentship of Martin Folkes 



calligraphy which he kept up from beginning to end of his 

 long tenure of office. He was evidently of a strongly con- 

 servative disposition, maintaining up to the last the charac- 

 teristic habits with which he began. In his large round, 

 lawyer- like and clearly legible handwriting every letter was 

 leisurely formed when he transcribed his rough notes of 

 the previous evening into one of his sumptuous gilt-edged 

 crimson-leather volumes. Every member and every visitor 

 present at each dinner, together with every dish that was 

 placed before them are carefully, one might almost say 

 lovingly, recorded. He was an accomplished deipnosophist, 

 but manifestly also a thorough Englishman, with a rooted 

 conviction that for him and his fellow-countrymen strong 

 meat was indispensable. He provided that at every dinner 

 the diet should mainly consist of solid joints, roasted or 

 boiled. Soups, made-dishes, vegetable courses, and anything 

 savouring of French cookery were for many years rigidly 

 excluded. It might be all very well for Dr. Halley and his 

 friends to dine on the " fish and pudding " which Ayloffe 

 tells us sufficed for their fare, but Josiah Colebrooke took 

 care that the philosophers under his charge should sit down 

 to repasts worthy of men with robust appetites, such as 

 he no doubt himself possessed. His bill of fare generally 

 began with two kinds of fish, followed by several joints, 

 such as a boiled leg of pork, roast beef, leg of mutton, roast 

 turkey and boiled fowls, with a pudding of some kind and 

 an apple pie or other tart, and butter and cheese to conclude 

 the repast. So much was he attached to plum-pudding 

 that hardly ever was there a dinner without one or some- 

 times two or even three of these satisfying efforts of the 

 English cook. Out of the 52 weekly dinners in the year 

 there were in general more than forty at which this 

 national dish appeared on the board. 



It is astonishing to find that week after week and year 

 after year Colebrooke was seldom absent from his post. 

 Punctually as the day came round he was there, chatting 

 with the members, making acquaintance with the visitors, 

 and quietly jotting down the name of everyone who 



