Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 21, ROT-Siam

38
R 0 Y —R 0 Y
Tnfnftan7 tlf tJe C0Urt:, and is ahvays a member of the Govern-
^noee?e7w?fW^ t Peer’ 1>rivy councillor. All matters
connected with the horses and hounds of the sovereign are within
ns junsdiction. The master of the buckhounds, who is also one
ro™Vh™+1St7’+rannS t0 him’ and h is his duty to attend the
loyal hunt and to head the procession of royal equipages on the
racecourse at Ascot where he presents himself on horseback in a
WU? ri ?old uniform wearing the couples of a hound as the
badge of his office. Ihe hereditary grand falconer1 is also sub-
ordinated to the master of the horse. But the practical manage¬
ment of the royal stables and stud in fact devolves on the chief or
crown equerry, formerly called the gentleman of the horse, who is
never in personal attendance on the sovereign, and whose appoint¬
ment is permanent. The clerk marshal has the supervision of the
accounts of the department before they are submitted to the Board
TT I-’ ‘“‘V®1/1 waiting on the sovereign on state occasions
only. _ Exclusive ot the crown equerry there are seven regular
equerries, besides extra and honorary equerries, one of whom is
always in attendance on the sovereign and rides at the side of
the roynl.carnage They are always officers of the army, and each
of them is on duty’ for about the same time as the lords and
m^ter of ^aitll!lg- ’T1ier° Y6 als° tl!ree pages of honour 111 the
master of the horse s department, who must not be confounded
with the pages of various kinds who are in the department of the
lord chamber am. They are youths aged from twelve to sixteen
selected by the sovereign in person, to attend on her at state
tlm'uroom nfVthnt'>? °f them a-rrayed in an anti(lue costume assist
the groom of the robes m carrying the royal train.
thcmWM118 7 biei Sld 7at 1° the three anciellt departments of
the io} al household which we have already noticed two others have
l een a^ed in comparatively recent times. The departments of the
whteb ar!Cfeta+7 and the, keepe1r.of the Privy Purse to the sovereign,
vlnch are for the present combined, originated no longer ago than
the eaihei part of the current century. Very great doubts were at
one time entertained as to whether such an office as that of private
secretary to the sovereign could constitutionally exist, and the
Act 071782 T Unkn,own aftcr the pLing of Burke’s
77 V,82- A;s at present organized these branches of the royal
household consist of the private secretary and keeper of the privv
purse, two assistant private secretaries and keepers of the privy
purse, and a secretary and two clerks of the privy purse. By the
reten (1 & ^Vicf^UC1V1- list at the beginning of the current
&.2 :lct- c- 2) the privy purse was fixed at £60,000 a year
and the salaries, allowances, and other expenses of the royal house¬
hold were fixed at £303,760 a year. (F DR )
EOYAL SOCIETY, The, or, more fully, The Koyal
Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge is
an association of men interested in the advancement of
mathematical and physical science. It is the oldest scien¬
tific society in Great Britain, and one of the oldest in
Europe.
The Royal Society is usually considered to have been
founded in the year 1660, but a nucleus had in fact been
in existence for some years before that date. Wallis
informs us that as early as the year 1645 weekly meetings
were held of “divers worthy persons, inquisitive into
natural philosophy, and other parts of human learning
and particularly of what hath been called the New Philo¬
sophy or Experimental Philosophy” and there can be little
coubt that this gathering of philosophers is identical with
the Invisible College” of which Boyle speaks in sundry
letters written in 1646 and 1647. These weekly meet¬
ings according to Wallis, were first suggested by Theodore
Haak, „a German of the Palatinate then resident in
-London, and they were held sometimes in Dr Goddard’s
Edgings in Wood Street, sometimes at the Bull-Head
lavern in Cheapside, but more often at Gresham College
On November 28, 1660, the first journal book of the
society was opened with a “ memorandum,” from which the
9°S TS Tnan eXtraCtMcmorandurn that Novemb.
28 1660 These persons following, according to the usuall
custom of most of them, mett together at Gresham Colledge
PnJte'M B 6n Q-eC7U7’ Viz” The L°rd Brouncker, Mr
Boyle, Mr Bruce Sir Robert Moray, Sir Paul Neile Dr
Wilkins, Dr Goddard, Dr Petty, Mr Ball, Mr Rooke, Mr
Wren, Mr Hill. And after the lecture was ended, they
did, according to the usuall manner withdrawe for mutual!
The duke of St Albans.
converse. Where amongst other matters that were dis¬
coursed of something was offered about a designe of
founding a Colledge for the promoting of Physico-Mathe-
maticall Experimental! Learning.” It was agreed at this
meeting that the company should continue to assemble on
Wednesdays at 3 o’clock; an admission fee of ten shillings
nltwaiiSabSCnptl°n °ne sllilling a week was instituted;
Dr Wilkins was appointed chairman; and a list of forty-one
persons judged likely and fit to join the design was drawn
up. On the following Wednesday Sir Robert Moray brought
word that the king (Charles II.) approved the design of
the meetings; a form of obligation was framed, and was
signed by all the persons enumerated in the memorandum
of November 28, and by seventy-three others. On
December 12 another meeting was held at which fifty-five
was fixed as the number of the society,—persons of the
degree of baron, fellows of the College of Physicians, and
public professors of mathematics, physic, and natural
P ldos°phy of both universities being supernumeraries.
Gresham College was now appointed to be the regular
meeting-place of the society. Sir Robert Moray was chosen
president (March 6, 1661), and continued in that office
until the incorporation of the society, when he was suc¬
ceeded by Lord Brouncker. In October 1661 the kina
offered to be entered one of the society, and next year the
society was incorporated under the name of “ The Royal
Society,” the charter of incorporation passing the great
seal on the 15th July 1662, to be modified, however, by
a second charter in the following year. The council of
the Royal Society met for the first time on May 13 1663
when resolutions were passed that debate concerning those
to be admitted should be secret, and that fellows should
pay Is. a week to defray expenses.
At this early stage of the society’s history one main
part ot. their labours was the “ correspondence ” which
was actively maintained with Continental philosophers,
and it was from this that the Philosophical Transactions
(a publication now of world-wide celebrity) took its rise.
At first the Transactions was entirely the work of the
secretary, except that it was ordered (March 1 1664-5)
“that the tract be licensed by the Council of the Society
being first reviewed by some of the members of the same ”
ihe first number, consisting of sixteen quarto pages
appeared on Monday 6th March 1664-5. In 1750 four
hundred and ninety-six numbers or forty-six volumes had
been published by the secretaries. After this date the
work was issued under the superintendence of a committee
dlT10j 1,7° n1umbers disappeared. At present
(1885) one hundred and seventy-five volumes have been
completed.
Another matter to vvhich the society turned their atten-
tion was the formation of a museum, the nucleus being
the collection of rarities formerly belonging to Mr
Hubbard, which, by a resolution of council passed
F ebruary 21, 1666, was purchased for the sum of <£100.
This museum, at one time the most famous in London
was presented to the trustees of the British Museum in
1781 upon the removal of the society to Somerset House.
Alter the Great Fire of London in September 1666 the
apartments of the Royal Society in Gresham College were
required for the use of the city authorities, and the society
were therefore invited by Henry Howard of Norfolk to
meet in Arundel House. At the same time he presented
them with the library purchased by his grandfather
Thomas ear! of Arundel, and thus the foundation was
laid of the magnificent collection of scientific works pro-
bably not far short of 45,000 volumes, which the society
at the present time possesses. Of the Arundel MSS the
i«ako7aS :7ld t0 tlleP trustees oi the British Museum in
1830 for the sum of £3559, the proceeds being devoted