70 
question in which many learned men were arrayed on either side 
was, “‘Whether a judge ought to give sentence according to the 
proofs alleged on the trial, against the truth known privately to 
himself?” Dr. Blencow, I suppose another Cumbrian, was the 
respondent in this argument. Another question was, ‘‘ Whether 
children imbibe the temper with the milk of the nurses?” And 
yet another was concerning the use of Tobacco. I rather suspect 
His Most Sacred Majesty had been here supplied with some of 
the arguments which he used in his “Counterblaste to Tobacco,” 
published in England later that very year ; and also that they had 
another result in causing the duty, which had been previously 
twopence a pound, to be raised to six shillings and tenpence. 
In November, 1607, Sir Thomas Chaloner, in a letter to Sir 
Julius Cesar, Chancellor of the Exchequer, represented to what 
an extent the expenses of the Prince’s establishment had risen, 
owing to his Court being so much frequented by the nobility. 
On the 3rd March, 1608, Sir Thomas writes to Sir Thomas 
Luke expressing a most favourable opinion of an invention by Mr. 
Sturtevant, of ‘‘Water pipes of earthenware of which 8000 yards 
may be made in a day, and which are more safe and strong than 
those of lead.” 
On October 28th, 1609, licence was granted for Sir Thomas 
Chaloner’s son to travel for three years; and the attention that he 
met with abroad, and therefore his father’s importance at home, 
may be judged of from a brief notice in a letter written by Lord 
Ross to Sir David Murray, dated at Florence, November 25th, 
1612: “It is strange how they make their Court here to Sir 
Thomas Chaloner’s son. But yet indeed it is not strange; for 
they build upon his father for a chief foundation of this match.” 
I cannot determine which negotiation this was for the marriage of 
Henry. 
Soon after the Prince of Wales came into the receipt of the 
Revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall, an application was made to 
him by a Monsieur Villeforest, who professed to have discovered 
a method of extracting silver out of lead. This was referred to 
Sir Thomas, as one skilled in Natural Philosophy; and in his 
