His education was that of a dilettante. A year
in Spain, in Court and diplomatic circles, was fol-
lowed by a year at Oxford, where Thomas Allen,
the mathematician and occultist, looked after his
studies. Allen "quickly discerned the natural
strength of his faculties, and that spirit of penetra-
tion which is so seldom met with in persons of his
age." He felt he had under his care a young Pico
di Mirandola. It may have been now he made his
boyish translation of the Fastor Fido, and his un-
published version of Virgil's Eclogues. As to
the latter, the quite unimportant fact that he made
one at all I offer to future compilers of Digby bio-
graphies. Allen till his death remained his friend
and admirer, and bequeathed to him his valuable
library. The MSS. part of it Digby presented to
the Bodleian. A portion of the rest he seems to have
kept ; and though it is said his English library was
xiv INTRODUCTIOV^
burnt by the Parliamentarians, it seems not un-
likely that some of Allen's books were among his
collection at Paris sold after his death by the King
of France.
But Kenelm was restlessly longing to taste life
outside academic circles, and already he was hotly
in lovewith his old playmate, now grown into great
beauty, Venetia Anastasia Stanley, daughter of Ed-
ward Stanley of Tonge, in Shropshire, and grand-
daughterof the Earl of Northumberland. If Icould
connect the beautiful Venetia with this cookery
book, 1 should willingly linger over the tale of her
striking and brief career. But though the elder
Lady Digby contributed something to The Closet
Opened, there is no suggestion that it owes a single
receipt to the younger. Above Kenelm in station
as she was, he could hardly have aspired to her
save for her curiously forlorn situation. Mother-
less, and her father a recluse, she was left to bring
herself up, and to bestow her affections where
she might. To Kenelm's ardour she responded
readily ; and he philandered about her for a year or
two. But his mother would hear nothing of the
match ; and at seventeen he was sent out on the
grand tour, the object of which, we learn from his
Memoirs, W3.S " to banish admiration, which for the
most part accompanieth home-bred minds, and
is daughter of ignorance." Kenelm proved better
than the ideal set before him ; and the more he tra-
velled the more he admired.
Into this tale of love and adventure I must break
with the disturbing intelligence that the handsome
INTRODUCTION^ xv
and romantic and spirited youth was in all proba-
bility already procuring material for the compila-
tion onPhysick and Chirurgery, which Hartman,his
steward, published after his death. It was not as
a middle-aged bon viveur, nor as an elderly hypo-
chondriac, that he began his medical studies, but
in the heyday of youth, and quite seriously, too.
The explanation brings with it light on some other
of his interests as well. When he set out on the
grand tour, his head full of love and the prospects
of adventure, he found the spare energy to write
from London to a good friend of his, the Rev. Mr.
Sandy, Parson of Great Lindford. In this letter —
the original is in the Ashmolean — Kenelm asks for
the good parson's prayers, and sends him "a manu-
script of elections of divers good authors." Mr.
Page 2
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
His education was that of a dilettante. A year in Spain, in Court and diplomatic circles, was followed by a year at Oxford, where Thomas Allen, the mathematician and occultist, looked after his studies. Allen "quickly discerned the natural strength of his faculties, and that spirit of penetration which is so seldom met with in persons of his age." He felt he had under his care a young Pico di Mirandola. It may have been now he made his boyish translation of the Fastor Fido, and his unpublished version of Virgil's Eclogues. As to the latter, the quite unimportant fact that he made one at all I offer to future compilers of Digby biographies. Allen till his death remained his friend and admirer, and bequeathed to him his valuable library. The MSS. part of it Digby presented to the Bodleian. A portion of the rest he seems to have kept ; and though it is said his English library was
xiv INTRODUCTION
burnt by the Parliamentarians, it seems not unlikely that some of Allen's books were among his collection at Paris sold after his death by the King of France.
But Kenelm was restlessly longing to taste life outside academic circles, and already he was hotly in love with his old playmate, now grown into great beauty, Venetia Anastasia Stanley, daughter of Edward Stanley of Tonge, in Shropshire, and granddaughterof the Earl of Northumberland. If Icould connect the beautiful Venetia with this cookery book, 1 should willingly linger over the tale of her striking and brief career. But though the elder Lady Digby contributed something to The Closet Opened, there is no suggestion that it owes a single receipt to the younger. Above Kenelm in station as she was, he could hardly have aspired to her save for her curiously forlorn situation. Motherless, and her father a recluse, she was left to bring herself up, and to bestow her affections where she might. To Kenelm's ardour she responded readily ; and he philandered about her for a year or two. But his mother would hear nothing of the match ; and at seventeen he was sent out on the grand tour, the object of which, we learn from his Memoirs, W3.S " to banish admiration, which for the most part accompanieth home-bred minds, and is daughter of ignorance." Kenelm proved better than the ideal set before him ; and the more he travelled the more he admired.
Into this tale of love and adventure I must break with the disturbing intelligence that the handsome
INTRODUCTION xv
and romantic and spirited youth was in all probability already procuring material for the compilation onPhysick and Chirurgery, which Hartman,his steward, published after his death. It was not as a middle-aged bon viveur, nor as an elderly hypochondriac, that he began his medical studies, but in the heyday of youth, and quite seriously, too. The explanation brings with it light on some other of his interests as well. When he set out on the grand tour, his head full of love and the prospects of adventure, he found the spare energy to write from London to a good friend of his, the Rev. Mr. Sandy, Parson of Great Lindford. In this letter — the original is in the Ashmolean — Kenelm asks for the good parson's prayers, and sends him "a manuscript of elections of divers good authors." Mr.