268 LIFE, TIMES, AND SCIENTIFIC LABOURS [1664. 



required in experimental employments; and desiring 

 to be near London, when we find him at Vauxhall 

 in 1663, who can doubt, that he rather continued, 

 than selected for the first time, the locality where 

 we now find the indefatigable noble inventor and 

 his veteran &quot;unparalleled workman,&quot; engaged on 

 the first public example of the u Water-commanding 

 Engine.&quot; 



Pressing as were his personal necessities, he continued 

 untiring in maintaining the practical working of the 

 new engine set up under protection of the Act he had 

 obtained in 1663. But, like all novel enterprises, 

 people were sceptical as to its real value. He appears 

 to have been wholly neglected by the first scientific 

 authorities of his day, who yet could not be otherwise 

 than aware of the remarkable performance of the 

 engine erected by him at Vauxhall. We find him 

 making sufficient allusion to its nature and properties in 

 his Century, published in 1663; then, in 1664, Sorbiere 

 published his account of his visit to England, further 

 describing what he had seen of the water-works at 

 Vauxhall; while Dr. Sprat, by the severe strictures 

 he wrote on the Koyal-Hydrographer s book, in the 

 letter he published, addressed to Dr. Wren, at Oxford, 

 must have spread the intelligence, and served to call 

 attention to Sorbi&re s statement. What benefit the 

 Marquis of Worcester really received through the 

 intervention of friends or the public, beyond temporary 

 loans of money, does not transpire, and, judging from 

 the following documents, his financial position was 

 reduced to the lowest state possible. The original 

 papers are fortunately preserved at Badminton House. 

 The first is endorsed, &quot; Copy of the letter which was 

 sent by my Lord Duke of Albemarle to the Lord 

 Arlington.&quot; 



