Bacon, when young, had been often taken to court by his father; and the queen, delighting in the gravity and wisdom of the boy, used to call him her “young Lord Keeper.” Even then his mind was philosophically observant; and it is said that he used to leave his playmates in St. James’s Fields to try and discover the cause of the echo in a certain brick conduit.[226] At Durham House, on January 22, 1620, the year in which he published his _magnum opus_, the _Novum Organon_, and a twelvemonth before his disgrace, Bacon gave a grand banquet to his friends. Ben Jonson was one of the guests, and is supposed to have himself recited a set of verses, in which he says-- “Hail th’ happy genius of the ancient pile! How comes it that all things so about thee smile,-- The fire, the wine, the men?--and in the midst Thou stand’st as if some mystery thou didst. “England’s High Chancellor, the destined heir, In his soft cradle to his father’s chair, Whose even thread the Fates spin round and full, Out of their choicest and their richest wool. ’Tis a brave cause of joy. * * Give me a deep-crowned bowl, that I may sing, In raising him, the wisdom of my king.” Who till he dies can boast of having been happy? The year after, the king’s anger fell like an axe upon the great courtier. Solitary and comfortless at Gorhambury, Bacon petitioned the Lords in almost abject terms to be allowed to return to York House, where he could advance his studies and consult his physicians, creditors, and friends, so that “out of the carcass of dead and rotten greatness, as out of Samson’s lion, there may be honey gathered for future times.” Sir Edward Sackville prayed him in vain to remove his straitest shackles by surrendering York House to the king’s favourite; and so did his creditor, Mr. Meautys, who, says Bacon, used him “coarsely,” and meant “to saw him asunder.” “The great lords,” says Meautys, “long to be in York House. I know your lordship cannot forget they have such a savage word among them as _fleecing_.” This word has grown tame in modern times, but it had a terrible significance in those days, when it hinted at flaying.