i8n John Pond; Sir Sidney Smith; J.W. Croker 239 



of age he constructed an observatory for himself in Somerset 

 where he made observations which proved that the Green- 

 wich instruments had become defective. He was aged forty 

 when he first appeared in the Club. Four years later, on 

 Maskelyne's strong recommendation, he was appointed to 

 succeed him as Astronomer Royal in 1811. The Royal 

 Society had recognised Pond's scientific claims by electing 

 him a Fellow in 1807. He was indefatigable in inventing 

 improvements for increasing the delicacy and accuracy of 

 astronomical instruments, and he raised Greenwich Observa- 

 tory to a standard of excellence such as it had never before 

 attained. He had a modest and unobtrusive character, 

 which led him after some years to slacken in his attendance 

 at the dinners and finally to cease to appear. 



A few of the guests this year may be briefly noticed. 

 " Sir Sidney Smith," who dined thrice, was no doubt the 

 courageous admiral who successfully defended St. Jean 

 d'Acre against the French in 1799. " Professor Hope," 

 invited by Humphry Davy, may be identified with the emi- 

 nent chemist who for more than forty years was the Professor 

 of Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh. Sir Francis 

 Milman was a conspicuous physician of the day, President 

 of the Royal College of Physicians, who had been made a 

 baronet by George III. some years before. On 7th November 

 John Barrow invited " Mr. Croker," who may be confidently 

 regarded as John Wilson Croker of Quarterly Review renown, 

 who had recently been rewarded for his political services 

 by being made Secretary to the Admiralty. Barrow's 

 position in the Admiralty and his connection with the 

 Quarterly would prompt him to introduce the brilliant 

 editor to the Royal Philosophers. The fourth Earl of 

 Aberdeen, who dined with the Club on November I4th, 

 was then a young man of seven-and-twenty, on the threshold 

 of that distinguished career in which he rose through a 

 succession of important offices at home and abroad to 

 become Prime Minister. At this time he sat in the House 

 of Lords as a Scottish representative peer, but had hardly 

 entered the political arena. He was known to have classical 



