CHARLES II. AS A PATRON OF SCIENCE. 407 



and that a microscope really made a fly look as large as a 

 sparrow." Did not that " mighty pretender to learning, 

 poetry and philosophy," the Duchess of Newcastle (and 

 with her the Ferabosco, with "good little black eyes"), 

 visit the new Society to witness experiments "upon colors, 

 lodestones, microscopes and liquors?" And did not the 

 Lord President receive her (together with the Ferabosco) 

 and escort her to her seat with the mace solemnly borne 

 before ? and, let us hope, with a properly straight visage. 

 And her Grace was indeed edified, for "after they had 

 shown her many experiments," records Mr. Pepys, 1 "she 

 cried still she was full of admiration, and departed," Mr. 

 Evelyn being in waiting to hand her to her coach. 



And Mr. Pepys likewise undertakes a little magnetic 

 experimenting on his own account. "This day" (Nov. 

 2d, 1663), he records, "I received a letter from Mr. Bar- 

 low with a terrella which I had hoped he had sent me, but 

 to my trouble I find it is to present from him to my Lord 

 Sandwich; but I will make a little use of it first, and then 

 give it to him." He kept it nearly a month before deliv- 

 ering to Sandwich, who, he says, received it with great 

 pleasure. 



And as for the king, he set up a laboratory at White- 

 hall and worked in it. He went to the Society's rooms 

 and looked at experiments on the new liquid for staunch- 

 ing the flow of blood. 2 And, when the men of quality 

 came to chat with him of a morning during the porten- 

 tous ceremonies of tying his cravat or combing his wig, 

 they found his Majesty with far less appetite for court 

 gossip than for weather observations. 3 Even at the Coun- 

 cil Board, the royal thoughts were apt to wander from the 

 doings of the Dutch abroad and his last idea for extorting 

 taxes at home, to the new baroscope with which he and 

 his chaplain Beal amused themselves. 



1 Pepys' Diary, May 30, 1667. See also Evelyn's Diary, same year. 



2 Phil. Trans., 1673, No. 96, p. 6078. 



3 Thorpe: Essays on Hist. Chemistry. London, 1894 (Robert Boyle). 



