234 Presidentship of Sir Joseph Banks 1810 



Putting aside the candidates for admission into the Club 

 for whom Cavendish good-naturedly did his part in inviting 

 them to the dinners, we come upon a number of names of 

 guests whom he asked to come to the Club, evidently for 

 their own sakes and the interest he took in them or in their 

 pursuits. As already pointed out he evidently enjoyed the 

 companionship of the Rev. John Michell, who for some 

 years dined frequently at the invitation of different members, 

 and whom Cavendish again and again had beside him as 

 his own guest. He chose to invite such men as Daniel 

 Solander, General Roy, Benjamin Franklin, Count de Salis, 

 Captain Phipps, Francis Maseres, Dr. Ingenhousz, Baron 

 Fabroni, Abbe Fontana, William Hyde Wollaston, Dr. 

 Charles Hutton, Professor William Ogilvie, John Belchier, 

 Mr. Wedgwood, Matthew Boulton, Captain Riou, Captain 

 Huddart, and others. Sometimes he had two guests at 

 a time, as for example, Solander and Geissler, Roy and 

 Solander, Franklin and Comyns, Belchier and Hawkins 

 Brown, Maseres and Hemming, Duane and Fabroni, Ingen- 

 housz and Fontana, Belchier and Jodrell, Fabroni and Maseres, 

 Holford and Ogilvie. These doubles were most frequent 

 in the years 1778-1781, after which they ceased. If we may 

 judge of Cavendish from the personality of his guests we 

 see that he must have had sympathies and interests a 

 good deal wider than those of the laboratory in which 

 he spent so much of his time and thought. He chose as 

 his companions at the table not only mathematicians and 

 men of science, but politicians, manufacturers, medical men, 

 engineers, surgeons, explorers and many more. He would 

 seem to have had a special regard for seamen and their 

 exploits. He more than once had Captain Phipps at his 

 side, who could tell of the work of the Navy and the excite- 

 ment of Arctic discovery. Captain Riou was his guest on 

 i6th November 1797, four years before his death at the 

 battle of Copenhagen. The philosopher was evidently 

 interested also in Captain Huddart, whom he invited three 

 times to the weekly dinner. These gleanings from the 

 records of the Royal Society Club are but trifling incidents, 



