ABSTRACT
While young Michael was working in Mr Riebau's book shop in Blandford Street, just off Baker Street in the centre of London, he had a wide circle of friends, based on the City Philosophical Society. This group was a good deal less formal than the name
suggests but it provided a forum for ideas, or just friendship, as the following extract from a letter in 1811 to a fellow member, Thomas Huxtable, shows:
Tit for tat, says the proverb; and it is my eamest wish to make that proverb good in two instances. First you favoured me with a note a short time since, and I hereby retum the compliment; and, secondly, I shall call ’tit’ upon you next Sunday, and hope you will come to tea ’tat’ with me the Sunday after. In short, the object of this note is to obtain your company, if agreeable to your convenience and health (which I hope is perfectly recovered long before this), the Sunday after next.
