of Alexander; the Galleries of Luxemburgh; Poussin's Landskips, and many others.' Good English Engravers were then very scarce: nearly all the illustrations to books were engraved by foreigners, and very frequently in Holland.

Take the following for example-engraved in England, but by a foreigner: 'The Seven Cartons of Raphael d'Urbin drawn and engrav'd from the Originals in the Gallery at Hampton Court by S. Gribelin, are sold by C. Mather near Temple Bar in Fleet Street &c.-price 15s.' There was another set of these engraved in 1711 and 1712, by Michael Dorigny, who offered eight plates 19 in. by 25 to 30 for four guineas. Steele gives this venture a kindly puff in Spectator 226.

Sculpture was not at a premium, there being but one sculptor at all worthy of the name (of course except Gibbons), and he was Francis Bud, to whom, among other works, we owe the statue of Queen Anne in St. Paul's Churchyard, and the Conversion of St. Paul in the pediment of the cathedral.

The virtuosi got their statuary from Italy, and of course these classical gentlemen would be satisfied with nothing less than 'right Antiques.' 'Four Marble Figures lately come from Italy, with 2 half bodies. The Figures are Jupiter and Venus, Bacchus and his Mistress.'

There was a demand for plaster and leaden casts for garden ornamentation, and this was met by one Van Nost, who lived in 'Hide Park Road, near the Queen's Mead House,' who had a fine collection, which was sold after his death, in 1712. His widow also sold, at a great reduction in price, 'the fine Marble Figures and Bustos, curious inlaid Marble Tables, Brass and Leaden Figures and very rich Vauses.'

Grinling Gibbons, of course, bears the palm in the matter of carving in this age, and we must not forget that he carved in stone and marble as well as in wood. The statue of Charles II. in the old Royal Exchange, the base of Charles the First's statue at Charing Cross, and the marble pedestal of the equestrian statue of Charles II. at Windsor, together with the magnificent tomb of Baptist Noel, Viscount Camden, in the church of Exton, Rutlandshire, all testify to his ability when dealing with the more obdurate materials. As to his wood carvings, they are most numerous and widely spread.

In the choir of St. Paul's, at Chatsworth, at Burleigh, at Petworth, etc., are triumphs of his skill.

From sculpture to architecture is but a step; and a reign that can boast of two such architects as Wren and Vanbrugh must of necessity rank high as favouring this art. If Wren had built nothing else but St. Paul's, his fame would have been immortal, and the other buildings with which he beautified London, thanks to the great fire, cannot add lustre to his name. In the architecture of his churches he was very uneven; but it must not be forgotten that he had at that time so much work on hand, that thorough originality could not be expected in every case, and also, in very many instances he was hampered as to the expense. Not that he was an extravagant architect. The man who could build (even taking money at its different value then and now) St. Mary Aldermary for a little over 5,000l., or St. Mary-le-Bow for 8,000/- exclusive of the steeple, which cost nearly 1,400. more-could not be accused of extravagance. We owe to him the Monument, Greenwich and Chelsea Hospitals, the Theatre and Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, and the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, besides a large number of churches, all still existing, and the Royal Exchange and Temple Bar, destroyed. In this reign he was thoroughly appreciated and honoured; was knighted by Anne, was President of the Royal Society, and sat twice in Parliament; and it was reserved to the Whigs in George the First's reign to deprive him of his places, and leave him uncared for in his old age.

The versatile Vanbrugh, who could be playwright or architect, poet, theatrical manager, or king-at-arms, adds much to the lustre of Anne's reign.

We have seen how Swift lampooned him on the building of his own house at Whitehall (vol. i. p. 61), and we all know Dr. Evans' epitaph upon him :

Lie heavy on him, earth, for he
Laid many a heavy load on thee.

That he was as great an architect as Wren, cannot be for a moment entertained; but that he was not without good taste and scientific knowledge, his two best works, Blenheim and Castle Howard, testify.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

SCIENCE, ETC.

Its infancy-Virtuosi-Gresham College-Visit to the Royal Society's Museum Their curiosities-Their new house-Geology-Experimental philosophy-Courses of chemistry-Mathematics-List of patents-Hydraulic machinery-Savery's steam engine-Description. EXACT science, as we understand the term, hardly existed. Sir Isaac Newton was just lighting the spark which has been fanned by succeeding generations into such a mighty flame. The Royal Society was an absolute laughing-stock, and men called virtuosi pottered about, looking (and doubtless thinking they were) mighty wise.

Any man who investigated nature after his lights, and with the imperfect materials which were at his command, was looked upon as a fool.

'The Will of a VIRTUOSO.1

'I Nicholas Gimcrack being in sound health of mind, but in great weakness of body, do by this my last Will and Testament bestow my worldly Goods and Chattels in manner following.

'Imprimis. To my dear wife, One box of butterflies, One drawer of Shells, A female Skeleton, A dried Cockatrice.

(

Item. To my Daughter Elizabeth. My Receipt for preserving dead Caterpillars. Also my preparations of winter May dew, and Embryo-Pickle.

'Item. To my little daughter Fanny, Three Crocodile's Eggs. And upon the birth of her first Child, if she marries with her mother's consent, the Nest of a Humming Bird.

'Item. To my eldest Brother, as an acknowledgment for the Lands he has vested in my Son Charles, I bequeath my last Year's Collection of Grasshoppers.

Tatler, No. 216.

Item. To his Daughter Susanna, being his only Child, I bequeath my English Weeds pasted on Royal paper, with my large Folio of Indian Cabbage.

'Having fully provided for my nephew Isaac by making over to him, some years since, a Horned Scarabaeus, the Skin of a Rattle snake, and the Mummy of an Egyptian King, I make no further Provision for him in this my Will.

'My eldest Son John having spoke disrespectfully of his little Sister, whom I keep by me in Spirits of Wine, and in many other instances behaved himself undutifully towards me, I do disinherit, and wholly Cut off from any part of this my personal estate, by giving him a single Cockle shell.

To my second son Charles, I give and bequeath all my Flowers, Plants, Minerals, Mosses, Shells, Pebbles, Fossils, Beetles, Butterflies, Caterpillars, Grasshoppers, and Vermin, not above specified; as also my Monsters, both wet and dry; making the said Charles whole and sole Executor of this my last Will and Testament; He paying or causing to be paid, the aforesaid Legacies within the space of six Months after my Decease. And I do hereby revoke all other Wills whatsoever by me formerly made.'

Clarinda. A Sot, that has spent £2000 in Microscopes, to find out the Nature of Eals in Vinegar, Mites in a Cheese, and the blue of Plums which he has subtilly found out to be living Creatures.

Miranda. One who has broken his brains about the nature of Magots, who has studied these twenty years to find out the several sorts of Spiders, and never cares for understanding Mankind.1

It is needless to say that Gresham College, then the home of the Royal Society, affords a wealth of merriment to Ward. It is Wise Acres Hall,' or 'Maggot Mongers' Hall'; but his description, although whimsical, is truthful, and shows the puerility (as we might term it) of science in those days. My Friend conducted me up a pair of Stairs, to the Elaboratory-Keeper's Apartment and desir'd him to oblige us with a Sight of his Rarities; who very curteously granted us the Liberty; opening his Warehouse of Egyptian Mummies, old musty Skeletons, and other antiquated Trumpery : The first thing he thought most worthy of our Notice, was The Virtuoso, by Shadwell. 2 London Spy.

the Magnet, with which he show'd some notable Experiments, it made a Paper of Steel Filings Prick up themselves one upon the back of another, that they stood pointing like the Bristles of a Hedge hog; and gave such Life and Merriment to a parcel of Needles, they danced the Hay, by the motion of the Stone, as if the Devil were in 'em; the next things he presented to our view, were a parcel of Shell Flies almost as big as Lobsters, arm'd with Beaks as big as Jack-Daws: then he commended to our observation that Wonderful Curiosity, the Unicorn's Horn; made, I suppose, by an Ingenious Turner, of the Tusks of an Elephant; it is of an excellent Virtue; and, by report of those that know nothing of the matter, will expel Poison beyond the Mountebank's Orvieton; Then he carry'd us to another part of the Room, where there was an Aviary of Dead Birds, Collected from the extream parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America; amongst which were an East India Owl, a West India Bat, and a Bird of Paradise, the last being Beautified with variety of Colours, having no discernable Body, but all Feathers, Feeding, when alive, upon nothing but Air, and tho' 'tis as big as a Parrot, 'tis as light as a Cobweb. Then he usher'd us among sundry sorts of Serpents, as the Noy, Pelongy, Rattle Snake, Aligator, Crocodile &c. That looking round me, I thought myself hem'd in amongst a legion of Devils; When we had taken a survey of these pin-cushion Monsters, we turn'd towards the Skeletons of Men, Women, and Monkeys, Birds, Beasts and Fishes; Abortives put up in Pickle, and abundance of other Memorandums of Mortality; that they look'd as Ghostly as the Picture of Michael Angelo's Resurrection; as if they had Collected their Scatter'd Bones into their Original Order, and were about to March in search after the rest of the Appurtenances.'

That this account is not exaggerated is shown by an extract or two of Dr. Green's catalogue of these curiosities. 'Tortoises, when turned on their backs, will sometimes fetch deep sighs and shed abundance of tears.

'A bone, said to be taken out of a Mermaid's head.

'A stag-beetle, whose horns, worn in a ring, are good against Cramp, &c.'