1879 Decrease in the number of Meetings 425 



acted, throw little light upon the social gatherings, the 

 company assembled at the dinners, and the visitors invited 

 thereto. When we resume the perusal of the dinner- 

 registers which are extant from 2Oth November 1879 

 onward we realise that a perceptible change has come 

 upon the social side of the Club's life. This change had 

 been in gradual progress from before the middle of the 

 last century and some of the proofs of its intermittent 

 but nevertheless continuous advance may be perceived 

 in the foregoing Chapters. But there will be an advan- 

 tage in pausing for a little in our narrative and looking 

 back across the years to mark some of the stages of the 

 change. 



We have seen that the number of dinners in the course 

 of the year has greatly diminished from what it was in the 

 days of Henry Cavendish. The weekly dinners continued 

 in full vigour up to the end of the Presidentship of Joseph 

 Banks. In his last year of office there were 52 dinners 

 between the Anniversary of 1819 and that of 1820. En- 

 croachments for holidays a recess at Easter, another at 

 Whitsuntide and another at Christmas, and the effect of 

 the social change in the habits of the community which 

 led to the adoption and enlargement of a vacation between 

 June and November caused the Club dinners gradually 

 to shrink in number. Ten years after Banks had passed 

 away they had diminished in 1829-30 to 42. In 1839-40 

 they numbered 36 ; in 1849-50 they were reduced to 31. 

 In other ten years, 1859-60, they fell to 25 ; in 1869-70 they 

 were 21 ; in 1879-80 they did not number more than 18 ; 

 and between 1889-90 and 1899-1900 they dwindled to 12. 

 The amalgamation of the Royal Society and the Philo- 

 sophical Clubs, however, infused new vigour into the united 

 body and soon more than doubled the number of dinners 

 in the year. 



A less perceptible but not unimportant change has come 

 upon the visitor element at the dinners. This hospitable 

 feature of the meetings has become less prominent than 

 it used to be in the days of Pringle and Banks. It is difficult 



