“His Highness, that he might not lose the day uselessly, went again after dinner to the other side of the city, extending his excursion as far as Vauxhall, beyond the palace of the Archbishop of Canterbury, to see an hydraulic machine, invented by my Lord Somerset, Marquis of Worcester. It raises water more than forty geometrical feet by the power of one man only; and in a very short space of time will draw up four vessels of water through a tube or channel not more than a span in width; on which account it is considered to be of greater service to the public than the other machine near Somerset House.” Up to September next year we still find the “Water-commanding Engine,” engaging the attention of the Dowager Marchioness, who was fully alive to the importance of so wonderful an invention; not only as enhancing her late husband’s fame, but also as affecting her own interest, with that of the other parties who had assisted in its promotion. She seems to have acted with a persevering and noble spirit under all the disadvantages of her situation, oppressed as she was in fortune, her heart lacerated by the accumulated wrongs she and her husband had through life endured, and now alone, neglected, and with but this one hope left, of which his prophetic views must have left a lively impression on her heart. But the Marquis’s surprising invention was doomed to another, and a more novel persecution than could well be conceived possible, one which assuredly might very justly be doubted, had we not the written record before our eyes. Among the other manuscripts at Badminton House is the letter of a Roman Catholic priest, dated 6th of September, 1670, addressed to the Marchioness “at her house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields.”[S] As her spiritual adviser, he says:--“Almighty God hath, Madam, put you into a happy and flourishing condition, fit and able to serve God, and to do much good to yourself and others; and your Ladyship makes yourself unhappy, by seeming not to be contented with your condition, but troubling your spirits with many thoughts of attaining to greater dignities and riches.” He next declares that she is in danger “to lose the right use of her reason,” all arising from disposing herself for great dignity and wealth--“by getting of great sums of money from the King to pay your deceased Lord’s debts, and enriching yourself by the great Machine [the Water-commanding Engine] and the like.”