326 Presidentship of Marquess of Northampton 1838 



Arts at Aberdeen University, became assistant to Robert 

 Jameson at Edinburgh and also Conservator of the Museum 

 of the Royal College of Surgeons there. He was a gifted 

 naturalist, and found full scope for his abilities when he was 

 appointed Professor of Natural History at Aberdeen. His 

 " History of British Birds" is full of original observations, 

 and his " Natural History of Deeside," published after his 

 death, was a valuable addition to the literature of Scottish 

 zoology. 



Henry Joseph Monck Mason, invited by Gilbert on 26th 

 April, was an Irish barrister and man of letters who did 

 good service to education in Ireland. The " Professor 

 Forbes " who dined on May 3ist was doubtless James David 

 Forbes, the brilliant young Professor of Natural Philosophy 

 at the University of Edinburgh, who was a few years later 

 to take a prominent place in the investigation of the glaciers 

 of the Alps and of Norway, and who spent his last years in 

 the dignified post of Principal of the University of St. 

 Andrews. Henry Thomas De la Beche, who dined as the guest 

 of Colonel Colby on June I4th, has been already referred to 

 (p. 265) as one of the band of eminent men who in this country 

 placed geology on secure foundations as an observational 

 science. The Sir Henry Ellis who was invited to the Club 

 by Sir John Barrow on October 4th may have been the 

 Principal Librarian of the British Museum, who had 

 retired from that office two years before. Another Henry 

 Ellis was a diplomatist who formed one of Earl Amherst's 

 staff in the Embassy to China in 1816 and published the 

 official account of the mission, and who was still so vigorous 

 as to be sent four years after this time as special Envoy 

 to Brazil. Professor Rigaud, who dined with the Club three 

 times in the earlier half of the year, may be presumed to 

 have been the Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford, 

 who was now in his sixty-fourth year. He died in 1839. 



1839. The Anniversary of the Club on June 27th 1839 

 was attended by nineteen members, with Sir John Barrow 

 in the chair. The tavern bills and other outlays were 

 reported to amount to 99 I2s. 4d., with a balance of 



