298 Presidentship of Dalies Gilbert 1829 



was recognised as existing, but dinner continued for a time 

 to be provided, although usually no one attended. 



A new custom begins to be observable this year in regard 

 to visitors. Hitherto every guest was introduced by the 

 President or by some member, and as we have seen, 

 paid the price of his dinner, unless his host prevented this 

 by himself defraying the charge. There now appears in 

 the register the intimation that such and such a guest was 

 invited " by the Club." We may presume that the Club 

 undertook the whole duties of hospitality. 



The foreign visitors this year included the following per- 

 sons ; Achille Valenciennes (invited by the Club), an able 

 French naturalist, then only twenty-five years of age, the 

 first volume of whose " Histoire naturelle des Poissons " 

 appeared this year, and who lived to be the Professor of 

 Anatomy and Comparative Physiology at the Faculte des 

 Sciences, Paris ; the Baron Ferussac, another French 

 naturalist, who began his career in the army in Spain during 

 the Peninsular War, where eventually he received so serious 

 a wound as to necessitate his return to France. Besides 

 sharing in all the labours of his regiment, he at the same 

 time made such an ample series of observations on the 

 ancient geography, archaeology, geology and natural history 

 of the country as enabled him on his retirement to write 

 an interesting book on Andalusia. In later years he started 

 the Bulletin Universel des Sciences, and was author of 

 numerous separate works, as well as papers in journals, 

 dealing with animal forms both recent and extinct. Other 

 foreigners were Cavaliere Nobili, Count Revedin, M. Nehus 

 and Baron von Mayendorf. 



The English guests included one invited by the Club. 

 His name is given as " Mr. Ritchie," with no indication as 

 to which individual of that numerous gens he was. On the 

 26th February the President had as his guest " Mr. Tenny- 

 son." Again one would fain know who this was. The 

 " Poems by two Brothers " had been published two years 

 before, but the authors were still undergraduates, the one 

 only twenty-one and the other only twenty. Possibly the 



