inaugurated, in 1663, he was one of the Council.
His house became a kind of academy, where wits,
experimentalists, occultists, philosophers, and men
of letters worked and talked. This was the house
in Covent Garden. An earlier one is also noted by-
Aubrey. " The faire howses in Holbourne between
King's Street and Southampton Street (which
brake-off the continuance of them) were, about
1 633, built by Sir Kenelme ; where he lived before
the civill warres. Since the restauration of Charles II
he lived in the last faire house westward in the
north portico of Covent Garden, where my lord
Denzill Hollis lived since. He had a laboratory
there." This latter house, which can be seen in its
eighteenth-century guise in Hogarth's print of
" Morning," in The Four Hours of the Day set, is
now the quarters of the National Sporting Club.
There he worked and talked and entertained, made
his metheglin and aqua vit^e and other messes, till
his last illness in 1665. Paris as ever attracted him ;
and in France were good doctors for his disease,
the stone. He had himself borne on a litter to the
coast ; but feeling death's hand on him, he turned
his face homeward again, and died in Covent Gar-
den, June II, 1665. In his will he desired to be
buried by his beautiful Venetia in Christ Church,
Newgate, and that no mention should be made of
him on the tomb, where he had engraved four Latin
inscriptions to her memory. But Ferrar wrote an
epitaph for him : —
" Under this tomb the matchless Digby lies,
Digby the great, the valiant, and the wise," etc.
xxxiv INTRODUCTIOV^
The Great Fire destroyed the tomb, and scattered
their ashes.
He had died poor ; and his surviving son John,
with whom he had been on bad terms, declared that
all the property that came to him was his father's
sumptuously compiled history of the Digby family.
Apparently John regained some part of the estates
later, which perhaps had only been left away from
him to pay off debts. A great library of Sir Kenelm's
was still in Paris ; and after his death it was claimed
by the French king, and sold for 10,000 crowns.
His kinsman, the second Earl of Bristol, bought it,
and joined it to his own; and the catalogue of the
combined collection, sold in London in 1683, is an
interesting and too little tapped source for Digby's
mental history. Of his five children, three were
already dead. Kenelm, his eldest son, had fallen at
St. Neot's, in 1 648, fighting for the King. It was
his remaining son John who sanctioned the publi-
cation of his father's receipts.
Sir Kenelm Digby has been recognised as the
type of the great amateur, but always with a shak-
ing of the head. Why this scorn of accomplished
amateurs .'' Rather may their tribe increase, let us
pray. Our world languisheth now for lack of them.
He was fitted by nature to play the role superbly,
to force his circumstances, never over pliant, to
serve not his material interests, but his fame, his
craving for universal knowledge and attainments.
Says Wood : "His person was handsome andgigan-
INTRODUCTIOCSj xxxv
Page 12
Presented as published in 1910. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
inaugurated, in 1663, he was one of the Council. His house became a kind of academy, where wits, experimentalists, occultists, philosophers, and men of letters worked and talked. This was the house in Covent Garden. An earlier one is also noted by- Aubrey. " The faire howses in Holbourne between King's Street and Southampton Street (which brake-off the continuance of them) were, about 1 633, built by Sir Kenelme ; where he lived before the civill warres. Since the restauration of Charles II he lived in the last faire house westward in the north portico of Covent Garden, where my lord Denzill Hollis lived since. He had a laboratory there." This latter house, which can be seen in its eighteenth-century guise in Hogarth's print of " Morning," in The Four Hours of the Day set, is now the quarters of the National Sporting Club. There he worked and talked and entertained, made his metheglin and aqua vit^e and other messes, till his last illness in 1665. Paris as ever attracted him ; and in France were good doctors for his disease, the stone. He had himself borne on a litter to the coast ; but feeling death's hand on him, he turned his face homeward again, and died in Covent Garden, June II, 1665. In his will he desired to be buried by his beautiful Venetia in Christ Church, Newgate, and that no mention should be made of him on the tomb, where he had engraved four Latin inscriptions to her memory. But Ferrar wrote an epitaph for him : —
" Under this tomb the matchless Digby lies, Digby the great, the valiant, and the wise," etc.
xxxiv INTRODUCTION
The Great Fire destroyed the tomb, and scattered their ashes.
He had died poor ; and his surviving son John, with whom he had been on bad terms, declared that all the property that came to him was his father's sumptuously compiled history of the Digby family. Apparently John regained some part of the estates later, which perhaps had only been left away from him to pay off debts. A great library of Sir Kenelm's was still in Paris ; and after his death it was claimed by the French king, and sold for 10,000 crowns. His kinsman, the second Earl of Bristol, bought it, and joined it to his own; and the catalogue of the combined collection, sold in London in 1683, is an interesting and too little tapped source for Digby's mental history. Of his five children, three were already dead. Kenelm, his eldest son, had fallen at St. Neot's, in 1 648, fighting for the King. It was his remaining son John who sanctioned the publication of his father's receipts.
Sir Kenelm Digby has been recognised as the type of the great amateur, but always with a shaking of the head. Why this scorn of accomplished amateurs .'' Rather may their tribe increase, let us pray. Our world languisheth now for lack of them. He was fitted by nature to play the role superbly, to force his circumstances, never over pliant, to serve not his material interests, but his fame, his craving for universal knowledge and attainments. Says Wood : "His person was handsome and gigan-
INTRODUCTION xxxv