106 
BRITISH ASSOCIATION MEETING AT DOVER. 
XIII. 
BRITISH ASSOCIATION MEETING AT DOVER. 
By J. T. Hotblack, President. 
Read 26th September, 1899. 
As your delegate I went to Dover to attend the meeting of the 
British Association. Having arranged for apartments beforehand, 
for they were very scarce, and ridiculously dear (in fact, Dover is 
not big enough to accommodate so large a body as the British 
Association with ease or comfort), I arrived on the Wednesday, 
mid-day, thinking to have time to look about me, for though no 
stranger to Dover, the attending a meeting like that of the British 
Association was quite new to me. 
I went at once to the reception room, where 1 saw a ground plan 
of the hall, for the presidential address, like that we have for securing 
numbered seats at the Festival, but to my dismay every seat (except 
two or three at the very back of the gallery) was taken, but when 
I complained to the clerk in charge of the inability of one, arriving, 
as I thought, in very good time to secure a decent seat, he, noticing 
my ticket stamped “General Committee,” said, “You, at all events, 
are all right, for there are several rows in the very front of the hall 
reserved for the Committee.” 
The evening meeting was a very brilliant affair, every one in 
evening dress, almost as many ladies as gentlemen, and many of 
the latter wearing orders and decorations, English and foreign. 
Thanks to my position on the Committee as your delegate, I had 
a very good seat. 
Sir Michael Roster’s presidential address (after paying the usual 
tribute to the memory of eminent members deceased since the last 
meeting) was practically a review of the progress of science during 
the 19th century, though he was careful to explain that the century 
does not close with this year, but with next. The retiring President, 
in introducing Sir Michael Foster, commenced by referring to the 
ancient importance of Dover, remarking that William the Conqueror 
