1 1 8 Presidentship of Sir John Pringle 1772 



name of the Duke of Cumberland, for which he received 

 a severe reprimand from the Duke. The career of the 

 writer of the once highly popular " Adventures of Baron 

 Miinchausen " will come before us in the record of the 

 year 1775. 



The Earl of Dartmouth, second holder of the title, who 

 attended the dinner on 2Oth February, had filled various 

 offices of state and this year was made Colonial Secretary. 

 Dartmouth College, at Hanover, New Hampshire, U.S.A., 

 was named after him. Various naval officers were brought 

 by Banks to the evening meetings of the Club, including 

 Captain Phipps, already mentioned, and Captain Bentinck, 

 who then had his station at Portsmouth. Maskelyne had 

 as his guest Colonel Roy of the Royal Engineers, of whom 

 more will be narrated in later pages. 



Of the non-professional visitors the " Mr. Boswell," in- 

 troduced by Sir John Pringle on March 26th and again on 

 April 30, was doubtless the biographer of Samuel Johnson. 1 

 On the first occasion the company numbered twenty-one. 

 Mr. Burrow was in the chair, and there were present also 

 Sir John Pringle, Henry Cavendish, Maskelyne, Joseph 

 Banks, Solander, Colonel Roy, Captain Bentinck, Dr. Watson, 

 Josiah Colebrooke and others. At the second dinner Pringle 

 was Chairman and had two guests, Boswell and Dr. James 

 Mounsey, an old Fellow of the Royal Society who had never 

 joined the Club. There were likewise Henry Cavendish, 

 Rev. Samuel Horsley (who this year was elected one of the 

 Secretaries of the Royal Society), Maskelyne, Dr. Morton, 

 Josiah Colebrooke, Alexander Aubert, the amateur astrono- 

 mer, John Belchier, the surgeon from Guy's Hospital, John 

 Walsh, Matthew Raper, and W. Russell. The talk on both 

 evenings would be sufficiently varied and animated to 

 please Boswell's taste, unless possibly his nerves may have 

 been tried at the second party if he discovered that it 

 numbered exactly thirteen. 



Benjamin Franklin dined frequently at the Club, especially 



1 We know from the Life that at this time he was on terms of intimacy 

 with Pringle. 



