CCCCxlvi LIFE OF BACON. 



A. D. In the spring of 1626 his strength and spirits revived, 

 Mt. 66. an&amp;lt; ^ ke returne d to his favourite seclusion in Gray s Inn, 

 Cause of from whence, on the 2nd of April, either in his way to 

 his death. Qorhambury, or when making an excursion into the 

 country, with Dr. Witherborne, the King s physician, it 

 occurred to him, as he approached Highgate, the snow 

 lying on the ground, that it might be deserving conside 

 ration, whether flesh might not be preserved as well in 

 snow as in salt; and he resolved immediately to try the 

 experiment. They alighted out of the coach, and went 

 into a poor woman s house at the bottom of Highgate Hill, 

 and bought a hen, and stuffed the body with snow, and 

 my lord did help to do it himself. The snow chilled him, 

 and he immediately fell so extremely ill, that he could 

 not return to Gray s Inn, but was taken to the Earl of 

 Arundel s house, at Highgate, where he was put into a 

 warm bed, but it was damp, and had not been slept in for 

 a year before, (a) 



Whether Sir Thomas Meautys or Dr. Rawley could be 

 found does not appear ; but a messenger was immediately 

 sent to his relation, the Master of the Rolls, the charitable 

 Sir Julius Caesar, then grown so old, that he was said to 

 be kept alive beyond nature s course, by the prayers of 

 the many poor whom he daily relieved, (b) He instantly 

 attended his friend, who, confined to his bed, and so en 

 feebled that he was unable to hold a pen, could still 

 exercise his lively fancy. He thus wrote to Lord ArundeL: 



His last &quot; My very good Lord, 



&quot; I was likely to have had the fortune of Cajus Plinius 

 the elder, who lost his life by trying an experiment about 

 the burning of the Mountain Vesuvius. For I was also 



(a) Aubrey. (/,) See Wotton s Remains. 



