138
NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. ix. FEB. u, 1914.
A History of the Royal Society of Arts. By Sir
Henry Trueman Wood. (John Murray, 15s.
net.)
LORD SANDERSON, who writes the Preface, states : "It is perhaps at first sight rather remarkable that the Royal Society of Arts should have been approaching the IGOth year of its existence before any attempt was made to write its history." But, he truly says, this fact indicates the youth of the institution : it has been too busy over its current work to indulge in reflections on the past.
The Society is happy in having such an his- torian as Sir Henry Trueman Wood, who, to our own knowledge, ha/3 loved the Society from his youth, has edited its Journal for forty years, and has been its Secretary since 1879.
The originator of the Society was a drawing- master, William Shipley, who enlisted the sym- pathies of Lord Folkestone and Lord Romney, and the meeting at which it was formed was held at Rauthmell's Coffee - House, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, on the 22nd of March, 1754. In January of the following year the first prizes were given at a meeting held at Peele's Coffee- House ; these were for drawings, and Cosway took the first prize.
" The one idea of the founders was to encourage arts and industry by the offer of prizes. It appeared possible to them that a committee of gentlemen, sitting in London, would be able to ascertain what the pressing needs of the public were, to foresee the course which industrial de- velopment could most easily take, to select those inventions which could most usefully be en- couraged, and generally to direct, by the judicious apportionment of medals and money prizes, the development of industry and the progress of art."
In 1760 the Society established itself in a house opposite Beaufort Buildings in the Strand. Ten years later, the accommodation not being sufficient, advertisements for another were inserted in the daily papers, and the result was that the brothers Adam, who were then constructing the Adelphi, offered to include in their scheme a suitable house for the Society, which they agreed to build for a premium of 1,700Z. and a rental of 200L The Society entered into possession in 1774 ; the lease was for 91 years from Midsummer, 1775, ending at Christ- mas, 1866, when it was renewed.
The first use of gas by the Society was about 1815, when a gas light was placed over the entrance, but the gas of that period was not con- sidered sufficiently pure to be introduced into the house. In 1847 some parts of the building were provided with it, but it was not until 1853 that the chandeliers in' the large room were adapted for burning gas. In 1882 tlje electric light was installed, the installation being one of the earliest in London.
In the large room are portraits of the first two Presidents, Lord Folkestone by Gainsborough, and Lord Romney by Reynolds. In 1777 Barry undertook to paint the series of pictures which now adorn the room. He was impressed with the degraded condition of English art, and believed that the production of some great work of his- torical painting would refute the assertions of foreign critics, who declared English painters to
be incapable of any permanent work. His six
pictures are intended to illustrate the maxim
that the obtaining of happiness depends on
cultivating the human faculties. One shows
the distribution of rewards by the Society. In
this portraits of Lord Romney, the Prince of
Wales (George IV.), Mrs. Montagu, Dr. Johnson,
Burke, Shipley, and many others are included.
Four of the pictures are 15 ft. 2 in. long ; the
other two are 42 ft. long. The height of all is
the same 11 ft. 10 in. They are still in the
frames designed by Barry. Barry died on the
22nd of February, 1806, and his body lay in
the great room for a day before it was carried to
St. Paul's to rest beside that of Reynolds.
The Society is fortunate in possessing the original autograph list of mem^^rs. These afford remarkable evidence of its popularity. A large proportion of the peerage supported it, and men of distinction in every class of life subscribed. " As Dryden, Waller, Evelyn, and the literary coterie of the Restoration period largely supported the Royal Society, so the circle that surrounded Dr. Johnson took a lively interest in the success of the Society of Arts." Sir Trueman Wood gives a list of selected names. From the first ladies have been eligible for membership.
From its inception the Society had its eye on the Colonies, and it was in America before the Declaration of Independence, during the first twenty years of the Society's existence, that the most important of its Colonial work was done. In April, 1755, Lord Romney informed the members that 300 Ib. of raw silk had lately been brought to England from Georgia, equal in quality to the best Piedmont, and he suggested that the Society should offer a prize for planting mul- berry trees. These premiums were continued until 1763, by which time over 1,100Z. had been ex- pended. Franklin acted as one of the referees. Efforts were also made to start wine-making in some of the Colonies.
The increasing demand for alkali for use in glass-making, soap-making, and dyeing induced the Society to offer a gold medal for the produc- tion of " Fixt Alkaline Salts " from common salt. The efforts of the Society to establish the manu- facture of potash in North America were so successful that in 1766 Robert Dossie, the editor of the first series of the Society's Transactions, received the gold medal for his efforts in bringing this about. The Society also expended money in an attempt to organize a supply of pickled sturgeon from America, the premium being first offered in 1760.
In addition, medals and premiums were offered by the Society for. introducing the mango into the West Indies, and cinnamon trees, as well as the revival of the culture of indigo, in Jamaica. Useful service was further rendered by the transmission of seeds.
India was not forgotten, and a gold medal was offered for the most authentic account of the culture of the tea plant in China, with a view to its introduction into India. The first refer- ence to Australia in the Transactions is in 1820, when two gold medals were offered for samples of fine wool.
For fifty years the Society devoted much of its energy to the progress of agriculture, and followed up each section until success was secured. Crops, roots, forage, grass -seeds, were all dealt with, as well as implements. The timber supply
