Judging from a statement that occurs in his writings,[E] it is most likely that in 1628, soon after his marriage, he engaged the services of “the unparalleled workman both for trust and skill, CASPAR KALTOFF,” of whom we shall have occasion to speak more at length hereafter, and who, he says, was “as in a school under me employed;”[F] by which we understand that Kaltoff had the practical management of those mechanical and other inventions which, then commenced, became the principal study and employment of his Lordship’s leisure during the remainder of his life. He must have set up a complete laboratory or workshop in which to operate on the many varied ingenious contrivances and experiments, of only part of which he has left us a most interesting catalogue raisonné. The early genius of Lord Herbert would appear to have exhibited itself in an attachment to mathematical studies, and a singular predilection, in a young nobleman, for mechanical pursuits. He has himself mentioned two instances which we consider may fairly be referred to his earliest continental tour, accompanied by his tutor. Speaking of a certain contrivance for a fountain, he explicitly declares:--“This I confess, I have seen and learned of the great mathematician Claudius his studies at Rome, he having made a present thereof unto a Cardinal.” And when, alluding to a peculiar kind of lever, he pointedly remarks: “This I saw in the arsenal at Venice;”[G] thus showing how early his mind was impressed with those studies which became the distinguishing feature of his writings; and all the more surprising in him, considering his birth, his times, and the originality and fruitfulness of his inventive talent, which might have found ample scope in some branch of literature, in agriculture, or in military works. His employment of a foreign mechanic was quite in accordance with the spirit of the age. National and private undertakings, as well as manufacturing and other matters requiring engineering skill, were ordinarily superintended by eminent Italian, Dutch, German, French, Swiss, or other continental engineers.