170 Presidentship of Sir Joseph Banks 1784 



before us ; indeed there were none used ; the dinner was truly in 

 the English style. 



" A member of the Club, who is a clergyman (I believe it was the 

 astronomer Maskelyne), made a short prayer, and blessed the com- 

 pany and the food. The dishes were of the solid kind, such as roast 

 beef, boiled beef and mutton prepared in various ways, with abun- 

 dance of potatoes and other vegetables, which each person seasoned 

 as he pleased with the different sauces which were placed on the 

 table in bottles of various shapes. 



" The beef -steaks and the roast beef were at first drenched with 

 copious bumpers of strong beer, called porter, drunk out of cylin- 

 drical pewter pots, which are much preferred to glasses, because 

 one can swallow a whole pint at a draught. 



" This prelude being finished, the cloth was removed, and a hand- 

 some and well-polished table was covered, as if it were by magic, 

 with a number of fine crystal decanters, filled with the best port, 

 madeira and claret ; this last is the wine of Bourdeaux. Several 

 glasses, as brilliant in lustre as fine in shape, were distributed to 

 each person, and the libations began on a grand scale, in the midst of 

 different kinds of cheese, which, rolling in mahogany boxes from 

 one end of the table to the other, provoked the thirst of the drinkers. 



" To give more liveliness to the scene, the President proposed 

 the health of the Prince of Wales : this was his birth-day. We 

 then drank to the Elector Palatine, who was that day to be admitted 

 into the Royal Society. The same compliment was next paid to 

 us foreigners, of whom there were five present. 



" The members of the Club afterwards saluted each other, one by 

 one, with a glass of wine. According to this custom, one must 

 drink as many times as there are guests, for it would be thought 

 a want of politeness in England to drink to the health of more 

 persons than one at a time. 



" A few bottles of champagne completed the enlivenment of every 

 one. Tea came next, together with bread and butter, and all the 

 usual accompaniments : Coffee followed, humbly yielding preference 

 to the tea, though it be the better of the two. In France we com- 

 monly drink only one cup of good coffee after dinner ; in England 

 they drink five or six of the most detestable kind. 



" Brandy, rum, and some other strong liqueurs, closed this philo- 

 sophic banquet, which terminated at half-past seven, as we had 

 to be at a meeting of the Royal Society summoned for eight o'clock. 

 Before we left, however, the names of all the guests were written 

 on a large sheet of paper, 1 and each of us paid seven livres four sols 

 French money : this was not dear. 2 



1 This piece of paper has survived and is preserved among the archives 

 of the Club. 



8 Six shillings for such a repast was certainly not dear. The practice 

 of making foreign guests pay for their dinner was not abolished till 1831, 



