At every motion from his nostrils came A mounting vap’rous breath like subtle flame! At once it beam’d on Worcester’s mental eye, That STEAM alone might this great power supply: And lo! as ’twere this thought to realize, He saw it, fuming, from vast cauldron rise; From whence this prodigy his spirit drew, Achieving thus what met the wondering view! [T] Cal. State Papers, Dom. Series, 1663–64, edited by Mrs. M. A. E. Green, 8vo. 1862. [37] Evelyn. CHAPTER XVII. HIS OPERATIONS AT VAUXHALL--PETITIONS AND DECEASE--CASPAR KALTOFF AND FAMILY--M. SORBIERE--COSMO, GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY--THE DOWAGER MARCHIONESS OF WORCESTER. In the second Dedication to his “Century” the Marquis of Worcester expressly alludes to “the experiments extant, and comprised under these several heads, practicable with my directions, by the unparalleled workman both for trust and skill, Caspar Kaltoff’s hand, who hath been these five and thirty years as in a school under me employed; and still at my disposal, in a place by my great expenses made fit for public service, yet lately like to be taken from me, and consequently from the service of King and kingdom, without the least regard of above £10,000 expended by me through my zeal to the common good.” We have thus the fact on record, that Kaltoff was employed by him in the execution of his mechanical experiments from 1628 to 1663, commencing with the period of his first marriage, when he was about twenty-seven years of age. In 1664, M. Samuel Sorbière, historian to the King of France, published in Paris a small work entitled--“Relation d’un voyage en Angleterre, &c.” As he appears to have interested himself in scientific matters, as much or more than in any other single subject, no apology need be offered for quoting his entire remarks; because, although perhaps in one sense they appear irrelevant, yet they acquire interest here, as proving that he was not an incompetent authority in reference to his most important remarks resulting from a visit to Vauxhall. Besides, it is not a little remarkable that Dr. Sprat, a Fellow of the Royal Society, as well as its historian,[A] in a book of equal extent to that written by this contemporary authority, addressed to Dr. Wren, Professor of Astronomy, under the title of “Observations on M. Sorbière’s Voyage into England,”[91] not only passes over these remarks, but ridicules his short experience of only “three months;” and, “that when he declares he came into England to content his curiosity, to see all rare things and men amongst us, yet he scarce mentions the Duke of York!” This last omission, however serious a one it might have been in 1665, the lively Frenchman has amply compensated for, by the substitution of matter that has a far greater interest for posterity. Sorbière says:--