Of the merits of the _Century of Inventions_ as a literary composition but little can with justice be said; whether, however, as a scientific production, it deserves the character that has been given of it by men more celebrated for their literary attainments, than for scientific knowledge, the reader, after a perusal of the work, will readily determine.[5] [5] A popular author, to one of whose mistatements we alluded in a preceding note, describes the Marquis as "a fantastic projector," and his "Century as an amazing piece of folly." Having however, in the notes appended to this work, fully demonstrated not only the practicability of applying the major part of the inventions there described, but the absolute application of many of them, though under other names, to some of the most useful purposes of life; we shall leave it to the public to judge, whether the man who first discovered a mode of applying steam as a mechanical agent, an invention alone sufficient to immortalize the age in which he lived, deserves the name of a fantastic projector. The second edition of the "Century" was published in 1746; the third in 1767: while the fourth, which may be considered as the best edition, is a reprint from the first, and is furnished with an appendix "containing an Historical Account of the Fire Engine for Raising Water." It is dated Kyo, near Lancaster, June 18, 1778. The fifth is a reprint from the Glasgow copy, "by W. Bailey, Proprietor of the Speaking Figure, now showing, by permission of the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor, at No. 42, within Bishopsgate," 1786. The sixth edition was confined to 100 copies, and dated London 1813. The Marquis likewise published a work entitled "An Exact and true Definition of the most stupendous Water-commanding Engine, invented by the Right Honourable (and deservedly to be praised and admired) Edward Somerset Lord Marquis of Worcester, and by his Lordship himself presented to his most excellent Majesty Charles II., our most gracious Sovereign." This was published in a small quarto volume consisting of only twenty-two pages, and is now become extremely rare. His lordship survived the publication of this work but two years; as he died in retirement near London upon the third of April 1667. His remains were conveyed with funeral solemnity to the cemetery of the Beaufort family in Ragland church; where he was interred on Friday the nineteenth of the same month, near the body of his grandfather, Edward Earl of Worcester. The coffin was placed in an arched stone vault, with the following inscription on a brass plate: "Depositum Illustrissimi Principis Edwardi Marchionis et Comitis Wigorniæ, Comitis de Glamorgan, Baronis Herbert de Raglan, Chepstow et Gower, nec non serenissimo nuper Domino Regi Carolo primo, Southwalliæ locum tenentis: qui obiit apud Lond. tertio die Aprilis, An. Dom. MDCLXVII." ORIGINAL LETTERS AND OFFICIAL PAPERS, ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE PRECEDING MEMOIR.