46 Presidentship of the Earl of Macclesfield 1753 



One member had not attended any meeting during the 

 past twelve months, and " it was unanimously agreed that 

 he should no longer be deemed a member/' The Minute 

 states that 



" A list of the candidates being read over, and it appearing that 

 Mr. Phillip Miller, having been an antient member of this Society, 

 but being out of Town when the regulation of the Society was made 

 in 1749, and having applyed as a Candidate ever since June 1752, 

 it was unanimously agreed that the present vacancy should be 

 supplyed by him, and that he should pay only the original fine of 

 six shillings, but that this should not be a precedent for the future, 

 and he was accordingly elected." 



None of the guests entertained by the Club this year 

 need be specially referred to. The Treasurer has recorded 

 that on I4th June " an extra Mitre/' that is, a special Club- 

 dinner, was held at Dagenham Breach, an angling resort 

 in Essex, on the north side of the lower Thames. On this 

 entry in the dinner-register Admiral Smyth remarks : " This 

 was no doubt an excursion trip of the Club to scrutinise 

 the effects of the singular and destructive inundation which 

 had breached the ancient embankment to nearly twenty feet 

 in depth, laid open a buried forest and blown up the sluice ; 

 or perhaps the party went to fish in the well-known pool 

 which it left." 1 



As an indication of the change of social habit between 

 then and now, it should be remarked that not only did 

 the Club meet every week, but the dinners in the autumn 

 were oftejl almost as well attended as at any other 

 time of the year. The Royal Society might adjourn for 

 a summer vacation, but the Club made no interruption 

 in the sequence of its weekly meetings. In 1753, for in- 

 stance, the average attendance at the dinners between 

 Juty and November was 14, usually including one or more 

 guests. During the previous months of January and Febru- 

 ary, in the full height of the winter, the average attendance 

 was 20. There was obviously at that time no extensive 



1 Rise and Progress of the Royal Society Club, p. 24. The Treasurer 

 appears to have been an angler (see p. 101). 



