ventor's statements, and declared that he could not have been veracious in relating the actual result of the experiment. His delicate health, as well as the natural turn of his mind, contributed to the zest with which Lord Herbert abandoned the amusements natural to his age and station, for the pursuit of science—a pursuit considered almost wrong in those times of ignorance, and in an age when Galileo was prosecuted as a heretic for his theories and discoveries. I must hasten on now to scenes of more excit ing nature. The civil wars have begun, and Lord Herbert is thrown into the midst of all the political troubles of Charles the First's reign, as the old marquis, his father, was one of Charles' most devoted adherents, and ready to serve him by advancing large sums of money to the king,chiefly repaid by Charles with empty promises and flattering words that meant nothing. Henry, Earl of Worcester, was then nearly seventy years of age; but his vigorous intellect remained unimpaired by time, while his wit and humour seem never to have failed him. Whilst his gifted, but less reliable, son had been passing the leisure of the ten years before the civil wars in inventing steam-engines, and a machine for perpetual motion, living quietly at home, this fine old man, clothed in a frieze coat-a coarse, narrow cloth, then much used, but very different to the sumptuous attire of his younger days,-in person prepared that home for the dark days then drawing near. At the beginning of the troubles, Charles created the earl' Marquis' of Worcester; and the new peer engaged eagerly in fortifying Raglan. War-horses and warriors filled its courts, and the clang of arms broke the hushed silence of its once peaceful and silent court-yards. One of the Marquis of Worcester's household was a Dr. Bayly. This gentleman relates, in a book that he wrote relating to the marquis, that during the three years he had lived at Raglan, he never saw a man drunk, nor heard an oath amongst any of all his servants; neither did I ever see a better ordered family.' This same Dr. Bayly relates an amusing anecdote about the practical use made at the castle, by the old marquis, of the water-works constructed by his son, Lord Herbert, in the Citadel or Tower of Gwent. At the early beginning of the civil wars, some of the neighbouring partisans of the Parliament went to the castle, and under pretence of the owner being a Roman Catholic, demanded up his arms and those of his household. The venerable old man ordered them into his presence, and received them in the great court-yard of the castle. He assured them in haughty language 'that he was no convict papist, but a peer of the realm; therefore the law could not in reason take notice of any things.' such Overawed by his lofty manner, the Roundhead party were retiring in confusion, when the marquis, nettled by the impertinence of their visit, was determined to give them an alarm. He changed his manner, and volunteered to show them over the castle. They were taken, by his orders, into the state-rooms, library, and park, and entertained with apparent cordiality, till a surprise that this spirited old man was preparing for them was ready. Among the curiosities of the castle were several foreign animals, which were purposely shown them. At last, on a given signal, he takes them himself over a high bridge that arched over the |