Joseph Dalton Hooker, F.R.S., K.C.S.I., President of the Royal Society 1873, the great botanist, then Assistant Director at Kew Gardens to his father, Sir William Hooker.

Sir John Lubbock, Bart., F.R.S., M.P., the youngest of the nine, who had already made his mark in archeology, and was then preparing to bring out his “Prehistoric Times.”

Herbert Spencer, who had already published “Social Statics,” “Principles of Psychology,” and “First Principles.”

William Spottiswoode (1825-1883), F.R.S., Treasurer and afterwards President of the Royal Society 1878, who carried on the business of the Queen’s printer as well as being deeply versed in mathematics, philosophy, and languages.

John Tyndall, F.R.S., (1820-1893), who had been for the last eleven years Professor of Natural Philosophy at the Royal Institution, where he succeeded Faraday as superintendent.

The one object, then, of the club was to afford a certain meeting-ground for a few friends who were bound together by personal regard and community of scientific interests, yet were in danger of drifting apart under the stress of circumstances.  They dined together on the first Thursday in each month, except July, August, and September, before the meeting of the Royal Society, of which all were members excepting Mr. Spencer, the usual dining hour being six, so that they should be in good time for the society’s meeting at eight; and a minute of December 5, 1885, when Huxley was treasurer and revived the ancient custom of making some note of the conversation, throws light on the habits of the club.  “Got scolded,” he writes, “for dining at 6.30.  Had to prove we have dined at 6.30 for a long time by evidence of waiter.” (At the February meeting, however, “agreed to fix dinner hour six hereafter.”) “Talked politics, scandal, and the three classes of witnesses—­liars, d—­d liars, and experts.  Huxley gave account of civil list pension.  Sat to the unexampled hour of 10 p.m., except Lubbock who had to go to Linnean.”

For some time there was a summer meeting, which consisted of a week-end excursion of members and their wives (x’s + yv’s, as the correct formula ran) to some place like Burnham or Maidenhead, Oxford or Windsor; but this grew increasingly difficult to arrange, and dropped before very long.

Guests were not excluded from the dinners of the club; men of science or letters of almost every nationality dined with the x at one time or another; Darwin, W.K.  Clifford, Colenso, Strachey, Tollemache, Helps; Professors Bain, Masson, Robertson Smith, and Bentham the botanist, Mr. John Morley, Sir D. Galton, Mr. Jodrell, the founder of several scientific lectureships; Dr. Klein; the Americans Marsh, Gilman, A. Agassiz, and Youmans, the latter of whom met here several of the contributors to the “International Science Series” organised by him; and continental representatives, as Helmholtz, Laugel, and Cornu.

Small as the club was, the members of it were destined to play a considerable part in the history of English science.  Five of them received the Royal Medal; three the Copley; one the Rumford, six were Presidents of the British Association; three Associates of the Institute of France; and from amongst them the Royal Society chose a Secretary, a Foreign Secretary, a Treasurer, and three successive Presidents.]