260 LIFE, TIMES, AND SCIENTIFIC LABOURS [1663-4. 



Parliament, and persons whose support might be soli 

 cited ; for it is generally believed that a company was 

 being organised for bringing the invention into public 

 use. 



During this state of affairs in London an agreeable 

 episode was being enacted at Badminton House, Glouces 

 tershire, the seat of his son, Lord Herbert. In Septem 

 ber, 1663, Charles the Second and his Queen visited 

 Bath, Badminton, Cirencester, and other places, in their 

 progress to Oxford. Mr. Godolphin, writing from Bath 

 on the 1 8th of September, 1663, to his brother, says : 

 &quot; We were waiting on the King to Badminton, a house 

 of my Lord Herbert of Eaglan, where the King dined, 

 and was handsomely entertained.&quot; From Oxford, he 

 again writes to his brother, on the 28th September, 1663, 

 in which he informs him that, among other matters, he 

 will &quot; receive the account promised of our progress 

 through Bath, hither.&quot; A news-letter, dated &quot; Oxford, 

 28th&quot; [1663,] which is no doubt the one alluded to, 

 commences : 



&quot; On Tuesday, the 22nd instant, . [?] the King and 

 Queen left Bath, and at their entrance into Gloucester 

 shire were met by the High Sheriff; and a little after 

 by the Lord Herbert of Eaglan, Lord Lieutenant of 

 that County, with a brave appearance of the gentry of 

 that County, who all conducted their Majesties to the 

 Lord Herbert s house, at Badminton, where their 

 Majesties were nobly entertained at dinner.&quot; 



They went thence to Cirencester, where they supped 

 at Lord Newburgh s, and lodged that night. 



An obvious discrepancy occurs in the two accounts 

 of the dinner, Mr. Godolphin on the 18th writes of it 

 as having taken place, whereas the Oxford news-letter 

 names the 22nd. 



From 1660, we find Lord Clarendon making a tern- 



