g visited Lord Shaftesbury on this spot,
local tradition continues to assert that Locke's work on the 'Human
Understanding' was commenced in the retirement of one of the
summer-houses of Lord Shaftesbury's residence. This certainly may have
been the case if we regard Locke as a visitor to his brother philosopher,
Boyle, and admit his tenancy of the mansion previous to that of Lord
Shaftesbury, to whom Locke, it is very probable, communicated the
circumstance, and which might have indirectly led to his lordship's
purchase of the premises. Be that as it may, it is an interesting
association, with something more than mere fancy for its support, to
contemplate a communion between two of the master-minds of the age, and
the influence which their conversation possibly had upon that of the
other.

Boyle's sister, the puritanical Countess of Warwick, under date 27th
November, 1666, makes the following note: "In the morning, as soon as
dressed, I prayed, then went with my lord to my house at Chelsea, which
he had hired, where I was all that day taken up with business about my
house." {112} Whether this refers to _Little Chelsea_ or not is more
than I can affirm, although there are reasons for thinking that
Shaftesbury House, or, if not, one which will be subsequently pointed
out, is the house alluded to.

Charles, the fourth Earl of Orrery, and grand-nephew to Boyle the
philosopher, was born at Dr. Whittaker's house at Little Chelsea on the
21st July, 1674. It was his grandfather's marriage with Lady Margaret
Howard, daughter of the Earl of Suffolk, that induced the witty Sir John
Suckling to write his well-known 'Ballad upon a Wedding,' in which he so
lusciously describes the bride:--

"Her cheeks so rare a white was on,
No daisie makes comparison;
Who sees them is undone;
For streaks of red were mingled there,
Such as are on the Cath'rine pear--
The side that's next the sun.

"Her lips were red; and one was thin,
Compared to that was next her chin--
Some bee had stung it newly;
But, Dick, her eyes so guard her face,
I durst no more upon her gaze,
Than on the sun in July."

The second Earl of Orrery, this lady's son, having married Lady Mary
Sackville, daughter of the Earl of Dorset, is stated to have led a
secluded life at Little Chelsea, and to have died in 1682. His eldest
son, the third earl, died in 1703, and his brother, mentioned above as
born at