252 LIFE, TIMES, AND SCIENTIFIC LABOURS [1662-3. 



from July 1652, to May 1660. But lie may have been 

 confined in the Tower only from July 1652, until 5th of 

 October 1654, when an order passed for his liberation 

 on bail, but yet virtually a prisoner. As we have for 

 the longest period the term of nearly eight years, 

 the preceding &quot; six y ears acquaintance may have 

 commenced only shortly before his discharge on bail, 

 which appears to be the most reasonable construction, 

 as he is not speaking of the precise term of his own 

 imprisonment but of that of his u experience of him 

 during my imprisonment.&quot; From the time of his 

 enlargement to the termination of the Protectorate was 

 five years and seven months, still leaving five months 

 to accomplish the acquaintance within the precincts of 

 the prison, and which he might fairly date to the period 

 of Charles the Second s accession, as the full term of 

 his u imprisonment,&quot; whether within or without its 

 precise locality ; for he was certainly not at liberty, like 

 any other subject of the Commonwealth, to leave the 

 kingdom. It has generally, however, been supposed 

 that he suffered many years of absolute close confine 

 ment, and most romantic fictions have grown out of the 

 interesting fable of a philosopher incarcerated in some 

 dungeon-like chambers within the Tower, experiment 

 ing on culinary vessels, led by the explosion of a pot- 

 lid to study the nature of steam, thereon applying his 

 great discovery to practice, and forthwith writing a 

 book, a true picture of science struggling under the 

 most excruciating difficulties. The fable lost nothing 

 of interest by repetition, being of a nature which left 

 much to the imagination whether of readers, writers, 

 or artists, all of whom have exercised almost unlimited 

 indulgence in picturing the Marquis of Worcester, 

 under circumstances purely mythical and absurdly 

 ingenious. 



