116
HISTORY OF
[1775—80.
Mr. Brown occupies the rooms in which SirJoseph Banks received the Fellows of the Royal So-ciety. The front part of the house, looking uponSoho Square, containing the drawing and other rooms,are now devoted to the Linnean Society .
It is certainly a remarkable fact, that Sir JosephBanks does not in his will even allude to the Societyhe presided over for above forty years, and fromwhose connexion he derived so much renown. Hisfortune was of that magnitude (above 30,00(R a year),that a small bequest to the funds of the Society (which were very much less at that period than theyare at present) would have been scarcely missed,whilst it would have been of great service to science.But this is only one of the many instances of thestrange contradictions manifested between men'slives and their testamentary dispositions. One article,however, which belonged to Sir Joseph Banks , theSociety possess; and I am led to mention this inconsequence of an amusing anecdote connected withit, related to me by Mr. Babbage , which I have notseen in print. The article in question is a very deli-cate balance, constructed by Ramsden.
Upon the decease of Sir Joseph Banks, the Secre-taries wrote to his widow, apprising her that the ba-lance was lying in the apartments of the Society , andrequesting to know her wishes respecting it: “ Payit into Coutts’,” was her ladyship’s reply.
This memoir 30 cannot be more appropriately con-