1767 Nevil Maskelym; Joseph Banks; A. Chamier 97 



of Doctor of Divinity and entered the Church. But his 

 energies were ultimately devoted to physical science and 

 especially to astronomy. He had been appointed Astrono- 

 mer Royal in 1765. At the early age of twenty-six he had 

 in 1758 been elected into the Royal Society, and the Copley 

 Medal was awarded to him in 1775 for a remarkable paper 

 containing " Observations on the attraction of Mountains." 



The year 1767 was marked by some singular variations 

 in the attendance of members at the meetings of the Club. 

 On April 23, being St. George's Day, the usual meeting- 

 room was given up to the Society of Antiquaries for their 

 annual dinner, and dinner was ordered by the Treasurer for 

 only six that day. When the 23rd came only one member 

 of the Club appeared, bringing with him a visitor. The 

 host was Henry Cavendish and his guest was Nevil Mas- 

 kelyne ! The Treasurer has left no record of what bill of 

 fare had been prepared for that day. A similar incident 

 happened on 23rd September, but with another member 

 and another guest. In this case, however, dinner had been 

 provided for twelve, so that the Fund had to pay for ten 

 absentees. The diminution in the attendance during 

 August and September, to which reference has already 

 been made, still continued this year. At no dinner during 

 either of these two months was the full number present 

 for which provision had been made. 



A few Englishmen of note appeared this year among the 

 Club's visitors. Foremost of these came Joseph Banks, 

 who three years afterwards was elected a member, and 

 subsequently for more than a generation played a large 

 part in the history both of the Royal Society and of the Club. 

 Sir James Porter dined with the Club more than once. Sir 

 John Cope was a frequent guest in anticipation of his elec- 

 tion as a member, which took place in the course of three 

 years. Dr. Pringle now appears on the dinner lists as Sir 

 John, having had a baronetcy conferred upon him in the 

 previous summer. Mr. Chamier dined on 4th June. This 

 was doubtless Johnson's friend Andrew Chamier, on whose 

 judgment the sage greatly relied. He was of Huguenot 



