3864 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
Of the mode of capture of larks by serpents here so circum- 
stantially described, or of the existence of the serpents themselves 
which “do grow to a great bigness,” it is unsatisfactory to have to 
state that no record can be found in Baines’ exhaustive ‘ History of 
the County Palatine and Duchy,’ or indeed elsewhere. 
Describing the entry into London of the Russian Ambassador 
(November 27th, 1662), Pepys says :— 
“TI could not see the Embassador in his coach; but his attendants 
in their habits and fur caps very handsome, comely men, and most of 
them with hawkes upon their fists to present to the King. But, Lord! to 
see the absurd nature of Englishmen, that cannot forbear laughing and 
jeering at every thing that looks strange.”—Vol. i., p. 343. 
Subsequently (on December 29th) Pepys, detailing the cere- 
monies attendant upon the Ambassador waiting upon the King 
(Charles II.) and offering the presents he had brought his 
Majesty, including the hawks before mentioned, adds:—‘‘ The 
King took two or three hawkes upon his fist, having a glove on 
wrought with gold, given him for the purpose.” 
We now reach a period in Pepys’ career when he becomes 
more identified with scientific pursuits than the extracts from his 
‘Diary’ already given would warrant the reader entertaining any 
idea of. In 1664-5 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, 
a body of which he was destined eventually (in 1684) to become 
the seventh President. The Royal Society had its origin about 
the year 1645, in an agreement between some of the most learned 
men of the day to meet weekly at Gresham College to discourse 
upon subjects connected with mathematics and uatural philosophy. 
These meetings, owing to the political exigencies of the times, 
falling into desuetude, were revived in 1660, Gresham College 
becoming thus the cradle of a Society destined soon to make a 
considerable vame in the scientific world—a name the renown of 
which has been maintained to the present day. Receiving its first 
charter from Charles II. in July, 1662, in February, 1664-5, Pepys 
was elected a Fellow, and he thus refers to the incident on the 
15th of that month :— 
“With Creed to Gresham College, where I had been by Mr. Povy the 
last week proposed to be admitted a member, and was this day admitted, 
by signing a book and being taken by the hand by the President, my Lord 
Brouncker, and some words of admittance said to me. But it is a most 
acceptable thing to hear their discourse, and see their experiments; which 
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