24 J. HOPKINSON ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS : 



ground around. But the gathering-ground was small, and in dry 

 years this source of water-supply fails, and as the water will not 

 go to him he determines to go to the water, so just before his fall 

 he spends about £10,000 in building a house and laying out 

 gardens in the valley by the pondyards. This is the Verulam House 

 of which Aubrey gives an account : "the most ingeniously-contrived 

 little pile," he says, "that ever I saw." About half a century 

 later the house was sold by Sir Harbottle Grimston "to two 

 carpenters for four hundred " pounds, the value of the materials, 

 and pulled down. Its site may still be traced, but probably the 

 only remnant of it known to be in existence is a handsomely- 

 carved oak door, now the fi'ont door of Kingsbury, St. Albans. 



Bacon has now the leisure he has always longed for, and he 

 spends his time well. In the last five years of his life, Rawley 

 says, "he composed the greatest part of his books and writings, 

 both in English and Latin, which," he continues, " I will enumerate 

 (as near as I can) in the just order wherein they were written 

 [adding, in the Latin version of his Life of Francis Bacon, 1658, 

 ' quam prcesens ohservavi'^: — The History of the Eeign of King 

 Henry the Seventh ; Ahcedarium Naturce . . . ; Historia Ventorum ; 

 Sistoria Vitce et Mortis ; Historia Densi et Rari . . . ; Historia 

 Gravis et Leius . . . ; a Discourse of a War with Spain ; a Dialogue 

 touching an Holy "War ; the Fable of the New Atlantis ; a Preface 

 to a Digest of the Laws of England ; the beginning of the History 

 of the Reign of King Henry the Eighth ; Be Augmentis Scientiarum, 

 or the Advancement of Learning, put into Latin, with several 

 enrichments and enlargements ; Counsels Civil and Moral, or his 

 book of Essays, likewise enriched and enlarged [now 58 in number] ; 

 the Conversion of certain Psalms into English Verse ; the Transla- 

 tion into Latin of the History of King Henry the Seventh, of the 

 Counsels Civil and Moral, of the Dialogue of the Holy War, of the 

 Fable of the New Atlantis, for the benefit of other nations ; his 

 revising of his book De Sapientid Veterum ; Inqiiisitio de Ilagnete ; 

 Topica Inquisitionis de Luce et Lumine . • . ; lastly, Sylva Si/lvarum, 

 or the Natural History." 



Of the ' Historie of the Haigne of King Henry the Seventh,' 

 published in 1622, Spedding says: "None of the histories which 

 had been written before conveyed any idea either of the distinctive 

 character of the man or the real business of his reign. Every 

 history which has been written since has derived all its light from 

 tliis, and followed its guidance in every question of importance." 

 The 'New Atlantis,' written in 1624, was not published until 

 1627, a year after his death. Of it Dr. Abbot says: "Rich, 



