SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IN THE 171H CENTURY. 369 
wincing, uevertheless, that he records the following (April 2nd, 
1668) :— 
“With Lord Brouncker to the Royall Society, where they had just 
done; but there I was forced to subscribe to the building of a College, 
and did give £40; and several others did subscribe, some greater and 
some less sums; but several I saw hang off; and I doubt it will spoil the 
Society, for it breeds faction and ill will, and becomes burdensome to some 
that cannot, or would not, do it. Here, to my great content, I did try the use 
of the Otacoustion,* which was only a great glass bottle broke at the bottom, 
putting the neck to my eare, and there I did plainly hear the dancing of 
the oares of the boats in the Thames to Arundel gallery window, which 
without it I could not in the least do, and may, I believe, be improved to a 
great height, which I am mighty glad of.”—Vol. iv., p. 409. 
As regards the proposed College, for the building of which 
in Arundel Gardens Sir Christopher Wren contributed a design, 
it may as well be stated that in consequence of legal difficulties, 
and still more of a want of funds, it was never built.t Mr. Pepys 
consequently, let us hope, saved his money. 
Our jottings from the ‘ Diary’ must now perforce come to an 
end, for though Pepys’ notes continue to be made for a couple of 
years more,—when the failure of his eyesight, already so touchingly 
referred to, compelled his forbearance,—there is little or nothing to 
claim attention in the special direction dealt with in this paper. 
With the following graphic account of the visit paid by a great 
lady of the period to a meeting of the Royal Society, and of the 
honourable reception there accorded her (under date May 30, 1667), 
this selection of Pepysiana may be fitly brought to a close :— 
*“ After dinner I walked to Arundell House, the way very dusty; where 
I find very much company, in expectation of the Duchesse of Newcastle, 
who had desired to be invited to the Society; and was; after much debate 
pro and con, it seems many being against it; and we do believe the town 
will be full of ballads of it. Anon comes the Duchesse with her women 
attending her; among others the F'erabosco, of whom so much talk is that 
her lady would bid her show her face and kill the gallants. She is indeed 
black, and hath good black little eyes, but otherwise a very ordinary woman 
I do think, but they say sings well. The Duchesse hath been a good 
comely woman; but her dress so antick, and her deportment so ordinary, 
* An instrument to facilitate hearing. No allusion to this can be found in the 
* Philosophical Transactions.’ 
+ Weld, ‘ History of the Royal Society,’ vol. i., pp. 211—214. 
3B 
