But it must be remembered that the means for giving publicity to any matter were then comparatively limited; and it is possible that the Water-commanding Engine was little known beyond a certain aristocratic circle, who afforded the chief support of the affair pending other arrangements. Even this supposition very indifferently accounts for the dead silence on the subject at home, when it seems apparent that the invention was looked on by foreigners as in striking contrast with a much inferior mode of raising water at Somerset House, performed by machinery worked by two horses. One would suppose that of all inventions an engine of superior capabilities for supplying the city with water, would have excited attention in every quarter. The inventor, and all concerned with him, might see certain difficulties in meeting any demand adequately remunerative, until works and machinery were provided; not so much to make the engines, but to provide certain requisite articles and materials, well understood in modern times, but wholly unknown two centuries ago. The Marquis was in fact creating a demand for iron plates, wrought and cast iron cylinders, metal rods, and all manner of tools and novel kinds of workmanship, so completely was this wonderful man in advance of the age he might have adorned. Charles the Second, in the midst of all his gaiety and all his poverty, had it in his power to benefit the Marquis by, at least, affording him some countenance. He had every reason to be grateful to him, but his ruling passion gained the sway over all other considerations. What Samuel Pepys relates of him, as happening on the 1st of February, 1663–4, is characteristic of what may have been his utmost estimate of even the Marquis himself. He says:--“I to Whitehall, where, in the Duke’s chamber, the King came and stayed an hour or two, laughing at Sir W. Petty, who was then about his boat; and at Gresham College [the Royal Society] in general, which he mightily laughed at, for spending time only in weighing of air, and doing nothing else since they sat.”[78] Our great historian has given a masterly miniature of the volatile monarch, observing:--“To do him justice his temper was good; his manners agreeable; his natural talents above mediocrity. But he was sensual, frivolous, false and cold-hearted, beyond almost any prince of whom history makes mention.”[X] His neglect of the Marquis of Worcester had the effect of retarding the full development of the Steam Engine in this country for above half a century; and thus he, who had never been known to say a foolish thing, lost the chance of performing a wise one, that would have evinced the existence of at least one redeeming quality in his character. Footnotes [A] History of the Royal Society of London. By Thomas Sprat, Bishop of Rochester, 4to. 1667. [91] Sprat. [94] Tallis. [65] Lysons. [3] Allen. [14] Boyle. [104] Weld. [14] Boyle. [104] Weld.