| Description | He does not know what to write, having left Marcet's letter without reply for three months. He can now answer as he is on the eve of departure for a better world. Marcet may think of him as a President of the Royal Society 'in great cocked hat with mace before him in his chair of state, surrounded by a set of grave Philosophers', but he imagines himself on a Yorkshire moor hunting grouse. He thinks that Marcet would have the following story from [John] Bostock. Marcet himself suggested that Wollaston should stand for the Presidency of the Royal Society and others have supported him, including [William] Blake. Wollaston considered it and declined, 'Poor Sir Joseph [Banks] was then evidently weakening', tendering his resignation in favour of [Davies] Gilbert, but then retracting. [Humphry] Davy arrived, professing to support Lord Spencer against other candidates but eager to start himself. Before Sir Joseph's death, the field was Gilbert, Davy and the Duke of Somerset. Once the vacancy was real, Wollaston's friends tried to persuade him to stand, while Gilbert and then [Everard] Home eventually withdrew. He notes the likely votes for Somerset, and Davy's contempt for the efforts of Wollaston's friends. Wollaston therefore withdrew 'from an odious contest', and will be President for the year until Davy succeeds in November. Wollaston gives scientific news, describing the experiments of [Jacob] Perkins on the compressibility of water. He hopes to see Marcet, although the Presidency is now in the way. In a postscript, he notes Captain [Basil] Hall's voyage to South America and perhaps around the world, with commissions from the Board of Longitude. |