hich might be varied ten millions of
times, but which on a stranger touching it would cause an alarm that
could not be stopped, and would register what moneys had been taken from
its keeping; a boat which would work against wind and tide; with various
other discoveries to the number of one hundred, all arrived at from
mathematical studies.

The means of propelling a boat against such disadvantages, to which the
Marquis of Worcester alludes, was in all probability by steam-power.
This he described as "an admirable and most forcible way to drive
up water by fire," the secret of which he is believed to have first
discovered. [Before the century was concluded, Captain Savery contrived
a steam-engine which was certainly the first put to practical uses. It
has been stated that he owed the knowledge of this invention to hints
conveyed in Lord Worcester's little volume.] In the preface to his
little book, the marquis states he had sacrificed from six to
seven hundred thousand pounds in bringing his various inventions to
perfection; after which it is satisfactory to find he derived
some profit from one of them, conceived, as he says, "by heavenly
inspiration." This was a water-engine for drying marsh-lands and mines,
requiring neither pump, suckers, barrels, bellows, nor external nor
additional help, save that afforded from its own operations. This engine
Sorbiere describes as one of the most curious things he had a mind to
see, and says one man by the help of this machine raised four large
buckets full of water in an instant forty feet high, through a pipe
eight inches long. An act of parliament was passed enabling the marquis
to reap the benefit and profit from this invention, subject to a tenth
part which was reserved for the king and his heirs.

The Royal Society soon became one of the foremost objects of interest
in the city. Foreigners of distinction were conducted to its rooms that
they might behold the visible signs of knowledge it could proudly boast;
and women of culture were admitted to hear the lectures its members
delivered.

Amongst these latter may be mentioned the eccentric Duchess of
Newcastle; a lady who dressed her footmen in velvet coats, habited
herself in antique gowns, wrote volumes of plays and poetry, desired the
reputation of learning, and indulged in circumstances of pomp and state.
Having expressed her desire to be present at one of the meetings of
the Royal Society, the council prepared to receive