128 Presidentship of Sir John Pr ingle 1775 



of Samuel Johnson's friends and a member of the little 

 evening club established by the sage in 1783 at the Essex 

 Head in Essex Street. According to Boswell's account of 

 him he was " distinguished not only by his learning and 

 his talents, but an amiable disposition, gentleness of manners, 

 and a very general acquaintance with well-informed persons 

 of almost all nations." 



A foreigner familiar with England, who dined with the 

 Club this summer, was the Portuguese Jean Hyacinthe de 

 Magalhaens or Magellan, descendant of the navigator who 

 discovered the Straits of Magellan. He pursued researches 

 in physics, and had some skill in the invention and improve- 

 ment of philosophical instruments. His familiarity with the 

 languages of southern Europe led to his being chosen as 

 travelling companion to young men of wealth. He appears 

 to have come to England in 1764 and to have spent much 

 of his later life in England. He was made a Fellow of the 

 Royal Society in 1774. He died at London in 1790. 



The most interesting foreign visitor this year, and indeed 

 one of the most remarkable men that ever appeared at the 

 table of the Club was Rudolf Eric Raspe. His career formed 

 an almost incredible romance, the main outlines of which 

 may appropriately find a place in this volume. Born in 

 Hanover in 1737, he studied at Gottingen and Leipzig with 

 such success that he was early known as a versatile scholar, 

 with a strong bent towards some branches of natural history 

 and the study of antiquities. He wrote with ease in Latin, 

 French and English, and published translations of the 

 Philosophical works of Leibnitz, of part of Macpherson's 

 " Ossian," and of Percy's " Reliques." His refutation led 

 to his appointment in 1767 as Professor of Archaeology at 

 the Maurice College, Cassel, and keeper of the valuable 

 collection of coins, antique gems and minerals belonging 

 to the Landgrave of Hesse. Being fond of mineralogy and 

 the geognosy of the day, he employed his pen on these 

 subjects. Thus in 1769 he sent to the Royal Society of 

 London a Latin essay in which he was the first to suggest 

 that the elephants whose bones are found in boreal climates 



