From this serious discourse, by a grave scholar, and contemporary, relating to the labours of the first mathematicians of a bygone as well as of the existing age, we may form a valuable conception of the state of science, in its popular character, when Edward, Lord Herbert, entered upon his own course of practical philosophical pursuits, affording the ground work of his Century of Inventions, the accumulated digest of whatever he had effected during the early, middle, and later years of his life. Viewed from any other point than the period in which he lived, the means of information around him, and the comparatively limited extent of scientific knowledge, the modern reader would form a serious misconception of his singular abilities, his versatile mechanical talent and the fecundity of his inventive ingenuity. There can be little or no doubt but that he was well versed in the mathematical knowledge of his times, and that it principally contributed in aiding him to obtain those mechanical results, to which we consequently find him restricting his attention. Lord Bacon had died but the year before the publication of Peacham’s work. Alchemy still ruled and had its adepts and votaries; and Ashmole made a large collection of alchemical writings, for Chemistry was but just faintly emerging from the mysticisms of its precursor, Alchemy. In the year 1628 Edward Somerset, Lord Herbert, being then about 27 years of age, married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Dormer, eldest son of Robert Lord Dormer of Weng, and sister to Robert Earl of Carnarvon.[5] She became in 1629 the mother of Henry[D] Somerset (afterwards created first Duke of Beaufort); and had besides two daughters, Anne, who married Henry Frederick, third Earl of Arundel of the Howards; and Elizabeth, who married William Herbert, first Marquis of Powis. [Illustration: Portrait of Elizabeth Lady Herbert, first wife of Edward Lord Herbert, afterwards Marquis of Worcester. From a painting by Vandyke] Engraved by J. Cochran. ELIZABETH, LADY HERBERT, Died 31st. May, 1635. FIRST WIFE OF EDWARD SOMERSET, LORD HERBERT. AFTERWARDS SECOND MARQUIS OF WORCESTER. _Drawn by Henry Dircks, C.E. from the Original of Vandyke in the Collection of His Grace the Duke of Beaufort._ Published by B. Quaritch, Piccadilly, London, 1864. No contemporary or other hand has recorded any details of Lord Herbert’s marriage, or even any particulars of his early life; in the absence of decisive information, we can only surmise from stray facts the possibility of his having withdrawn from the Court, taken up his abode at Raglan Castle, and there occupied himself in those scientific studies and pursuits which were his special delight at that early period, and which were indeed the solace even of his declining years.