I2o Presidentship of Sir John Pr ingle 1773 



the Museum, while he took that naturalist with him on the 

 voyage. Banks had recognised the remarkable mental 

 powers, range of knowledge and pleasing character of the 

 gifted Swede, and their experience on this long enterprise 

 made them fast friends. On their return to England, 

 Solander was installed in Banks' house in Soho Square as 

 secretary and librarian, a position which he held as long 

 as he lived. He accompanied Banks on his trip to Iceland. 

 In 1773, the year with which we are now dealing, he was 

 made keeper of printed books at the British Museum. 

 Early in life he had gained a singularly sound acquaintance 

 with the English language, which, added to his quiet un- 

 assuming manner, and the range of his acquirements, made 

 him a general favourite in society. 1 Next year after his 

 election into the Club he was unanimously chosen to be its 

 Treasurer in succession to Josiah Colebrooke. His busy 

 and useful career was unhappily cut short on i6th May 

 1782 by an apoplectic seizure, from which all the skill 

 of Blagden, Hunter, Pitcairn and Heberden could not 

 recover him. 



The attendance at the dinners continued to be remark- 

 ably good. In the first half of the year there were only 

 four occasions in which the company fell short of the number 

 provided for, and the total demand on the Fund amounted 

 only to nine deficiencies. What is equally noticeable is 

 the recovery in the attendance during the autumn months. 

 In August there were no more than three deficiencies and 

 a similar number in September, while for the last three 

 months of the year only three deficiencies had to be made 

 good out of the Fund. These occurred in the week 

 between Christmas and New- Year's Day, when members 

 might reasonably have been expected to have other 

 engagements. 



A few foreign guests were this year visitors to the Club. 

 Since his acquaintance with Solander, Banks had come in 



1 Fanny Burney, who saw a good deal of Solander, wrote of him in 1780 : 

 " my father has very exactly named him, in calling him a philosophical 

 gossip." Madame D'Arblay's Diary, i. 305. 



