[ Davies Gilbert, President of the Royal Society. ] Autograph Letter Signed to Sir Joseph Banks, praising him fulsomely, while explaining why he cannot attend a meeting on 'the forgery of Bank Notes'.

2pp., 4to. In fair condition, on lightly aged paper, with slight damage to a few words along one edge due to removal from album. On his return to Eastbourne he has 'found a note announcing the Commission under the Great Seal for appointing Commissioners to inquire into the best mode of preventing the forgery of Bank Notes', and requiring his attendance the following day. He explains that he cannot at pressent 'leave the country on any account', and is concerned at Banks's allusion to 'the feeble state of your health', and his apology 'for holding the meeting in Soho Square, which would have been wholly unnecessary if you were in possession of all the Health Strength & Youth which in common with every Friend of this Country or of Mankind, without regard to a thousand acts of private kindness, I must earnestly wish you would enjoy'.