302 LIFE, TIMES, AND SCIENTIFIC LABOURS [1669. 



In the travels of Cosmo de Medici the Third, Grand 

 Duke of Tuscany, 30 through England,* among other 

 matters that attracted his attention in the metropolis, 

 it is recorded that on the 23rd of May, 1669 : &quot; His 

 Highness went to see an hydraulic machine upon a 

 wooden tower, in the neighbourhood of Somerset House,| 

 which is used for conveying water of the river to the 

 greater part of the City. It is put in motion by two 

 horses, which are continually going round, it not being 

 possible that it should receive its movement from the 

 current of the river, as in many other places where the 

 rivers never vary in their course ; but this is not the 

 case with the Thames, owing to the tide ; consequently 

 the wheels, which serve at the ebb, would not be able 

 to do their office when the tide returns.&quot; 



On the 29th following, his Highness was entertained 

 by the Earl of Devonshire, when a sumptuous banquet 

 was provided. 



&quot; His Highness, that he might not lose the day use 

 lessly, went again after dinner to the other side of the 

 city, extending his excursion as far as Vauxhall, beyond 

 the palace of the Archbishop of Canterbury, to see an 

 hydraulic machine, invented by my Lord Somerset, 

 Marquis of Worcester. It raises water more than forty 

 geometrical feet by the power of one man only ; and 

 in a very short space of time will draw up four 

 vessels of water through a tube or channel not more 

 than a span in width ; on which account it is considered 

 to be of greater service to the public than the other 

 machine near Somerset House.&quot; 



30 Cosmo. 



* Being this portion only of his Travels, derived from two large folio MS. volumes, 

 narrated by the celebrated Count Lorenza Magalotti, preserved in the Laurentian 

 Library, Florence, 



f See Sorbierc s Account, pnge 265. 



