140 Presidentship of Sir John Pr ingle 1777 



" Military Antiquities of the Romans in Britain," with all 

 its careful plans of camps and other relics of the Roman 

 occupation of the country, is one of the classics in its subject. 

 He had been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1767. 



As this was the last continuous year of the presidency of 

 Sir John Pringle reference may be appropriately made here 

 to the extraordinary assiduity with which he discharged 

 the duties of chairman of the Club. He was hardly ever 

 absent from a dinner and he almost always brought two or 

 three guests. We have seen that on one occasion he intro- 

 duced no fewer than thirteen, thus boldly setting at naught 

 the rule that had been made a few years before to the 

 effect that no member should introduce more than two 

 guests at a time. Moreover his guests were often men of 

 marked distinction in rank or in achievements. As shown 

 in the foregoing pages he liked to bring now and then some 

 unlooked-for human rarity to the Club a Pacific island 

 cannibal, or an Indian chief or a Chinese mandarin, but 

 above all it was evidently his greatest pleasure to introduce 

 a thoroughly clubbable and accomplished man. His 

 solicitous friendship for Benjamin Franklin deserves lasting 

 remembrance. Pringle being a Scot, his heart naturally 

 warmed towards his fellow-countrymen. He liked to have 

 from time to time beside him at the table a Scottish laird, 

 or a judge from the Court of Session, or a Professor from 

 one of the northern universities, or an advocate who could 

 converse well and give him the latest information about 

 the trend of affairs north of the Tweed. 



The attendance of the members at the dinners continued 

 this year to be so well maintained that from the beginning 

 to the end of the year only ten deficiencies had to be made 

 up out of the fund. But the Treasurer having fixed Christ- 

 mas day as one of the dates for the weekly dinner there 

 came to the Club only three members, and he himself was 

 not one of them. He had consequently to make good out 

 of his Fund no fewer than nine deficiencies from a single 

 dinner. Of the three who appeared, Henry Cavendish, as. 

 might be expected, was one. About this time he and the 



