388 The Centenary of the Geological Society of London. 
(published in 1815) and being largely indebted to it for the com- 
pletion of his own. It cost £1,300, of which £200 went to Webster 
for drawing, £111 19s. 9d. for copperplates, £914 10s. 3d. to Neele 
for engraving, and £73 10s. for paper. It was issued by Messrs. 
Longman, Rees, & Co. at £6 6s. in six sheets with a memoir, and 
members were allowed to purchase it for £5 5s. 
An unofficial dining club was started in 1824 and has existed to 
the present day; it is limited to forty members, who dine together 
before proceeding to the meetings. A charter of incorporation was 
obtained from H.M. King George IV on April 23rd, 1825, and the 
title ‘Fellow’ became fixed by the members being so designated in 
' this document. This charter cost £385 14s. 6d., and Babbage 
calculated how much the ‘F.G.S.’ cost each Fellow per letter. 
In 1828 the Society obtairnted rooms in Somerset House from the 
Lords Commissioners of His Majesty’s Treasury, through the mediation 
of the President and Council of the Royal Society, and the apartments 
so allowed to them were adapted to their purposes by Decimus 
Burton, who was a Fellow of the Society. Here the Society remained 
until 1874, when the Government transferred the accommodation to 
the present Burlington House, Piccadilly, where the Society, it is 
hoped, has found a permanent home. 
W. H. Fitton seems to have been the first president whose annual 
address was printed, in 1827, and since that year, with the single 
exception of Warburton, the Presidents have delivered an annual 
address, dealing either with the progress of the science, or, a few 
notable exceptions, with some new matter distinguished by its 
brilliancy of thought and its originality. 
Such, then, is in brief the history of the Geological Society of 
London, so ably set forth by Mr. Woodward in this volume. But not 
content with this history, Mr. Woodward has woven around his 
central story a general sketch of English geology wherever and 
whenever it comes in contact with the Geological Society. We learn 
the outlines of the troubles between Murchison and Sedgwick, and the 
extraordinary action of the Society with regard to Sedgwick; the 
difficulties with Beete Jukes, and Searles Wood, and Charles Moore, 
and the troubles of the woman question. We have presented to us an 
account of the Ordnance and Geological Surveys, the colouring of 
geological maps, the Museum of Practical Geology, catalogues of 
fossils, early collectors, and the cataloguing of geological literature. 
We see the figures of the old giants rise before us, and meet again 
with Lyell, Macculloch, Phillips, Mantell, Scrope, ‘King’ Cole, 
De la Beche, and scores of others, of whom many anecdotes are 
recorded, and of some of whom excellent portraits are given. We 
read afresh the old discussion on Buckland’s famous memoir on the 
Evidences of Glaciers in Scotland, based on Agassiz’ observations; we 
hear that caustic remark of Owen when he referred to Falconer as 
‘that distinguished botanist’? ; and we long to possess that letter of 
Sedgwick’s addressed to Murchison in 1853 which ended ‘ Ever 
(whether in peace or war) your affectionate old friend, A. Sedgwick.” 
We attempt to picture the size of John Miller, who had to make 
a rush for the door of the four-wheeler in order to get through; we 
