mentions the Protector's second son Henry; indeed he was among the many aspirants to her hand, and when he was in Ireland sent over for her acceptance two beautiful Irish greyhounds, she being a great lover of dogs. Her portrait by Sir Peter Lely, which must of course have been painted later, gives the impression of a pleasantlooking rather than a beautiful woman; perhaps the miniature, done when she was younger, may have been more flattering, but it is not reproduced in the delightful volume of her correspondence to which such frequent reference has been made.

But it was not only as sitters nor as connoisseurs that the people of the day concerned themselves with art. They were just beginning to dabble in it as amateurs, and drawing, especially the drawing of flowers, began to be recommended as a part of education. Mr. Peacham not only advises it as a suitable occupation for a 'compleat 'gentleman' upon a wet day, but he devotes an entire volume to the Art of Drawing and Limning in Watercolour. This little treatise is really most interesting as one of the earliest hand-books extant. It was published in 1606 For the behoofe of all young Gentlemen or any 'els that are desirous for to become practitioners in 'this excellent and most ingenious art.'

It begins with an address to the reader in which is set forth the position of drawing in the curriculum. Mr. Peacham places it third. First, Grammar; second, Gymnastic; third, Writing and Drawing; fourth, ‘Musique.' He then goes into a long dissertation upon the history and antiquity of the art, after which he reaches more practical matters, and the reasons why he would recommend it.

'I would have my scholler take it when he is wearied ' at his books, forced to keepe home by reason of foule 'weather, or solicited by idlenesse to some worse businesse; having chosen such a convenient time, let him 'make or buy him a fayre paper booke for the nonce, to

'begin to practice in, and keep very carefully that he ' hath done, by which he shall see how he profiteth 'daily.' He is very urgent that his pupil shall 'avoyd scribbling in loose papers, and keep his hand from wall ' and wainscot.'

The instruments necessary are 'black lead sharpened 'finelie and put fast into quills, some ten or twelve for your first rough draught. Sallow coales sharpened at 'the end, they are more blew and finelie grained than ' other coles; smooth like latten. Sharpen them upon one of your fingers.' These 'sallow coales' are the same as the fusain used by French artists, which makes such soft grey shadows. He continues, 'A small pair of 'brazen compasses and a Brasil rule for taking the 'distance if you follow a print. Broome pencils sharpened ' with the teeth. Thirty or forty goosequill pens.'

Thus equipped you were to practise for a week 'circles, squares, a cylinder, ovalls, other solids and plain. ' geometrical figures, till you can do them indifferent well. 'After you are cunning in these figures . . . a cherry ' with a leaf, the shaft of a steeple, or a rose.' With the third stage the pupil reached the human face in three positions; 'full face, as you may see King Henry 8 'drawne, 3 quarter face, as our Flanders or ordinary 'pictures are, or onelie half-faced, as the pictures of 'Philip and Mary upon a twelvepence.' After briefly explaining the rules of proportion, he continues with the whole figure, shading, and foreshortening.

Next we come to 'Landskip,' which is rather briefly disposed of, and finally to birds and beasts, heraldic or otherwise. The remainder of the book is devoted to very full directions as to the choice and preparing of colours, a serious business, as the painter had it all to do for himself; there were no ready-prepared tubes or pans of moist colour to be had in those days. The materials had all to be bought at a druggist's, and if we want to know what the druggist's shop of those days was like, we may see

just such an one in a bazaar in the East, with great piles of yellow ochre, scarlet vermilion, or lovely cerulean cobalt lying ready to be weighed out, and these having been carried home in separate packets must be ground fine, rubbed smooth, mixed with a medium, and then blent in whatever proportions were needed. The directions how to do this and the enumeration of the various colours to be obtained are well worth more study than can be afforded them in this brief chapter. Altogether, limning in water-colour involved so much labour, it was likely to keep its votary out of mischief, as Mr. Peacham foresaw, for many a wet day; and as if all this were not enough an extra treatise is appended, dealing with 'the true manner of Painting upon Glasse, the order of making your Furnaces, Annealing, etc.'

It does not appear whether this accomplishment was part of the usual course at girls' schools; but most women must have had some knowledge of drawing and colouring to have been able to design such wonderful pictures in needlework as they produced. The more elaborate compositions could not possibly have grown up under the needle; they must have been either drawn beforehand upon the canvas or copied from a painted pattern. Mrs. Evelyn and her daughters were excellent artists, but she had had a foreign education, and we do not read much of women as painters. However, whatever was taught to boys at this time was usually taught to girls too, so probably they were not behindhand with the pencil. But whether or no the practice of it was as widespread as it is to-day, the sense of beauty, the instinctive feeling for form and colour, must have been almost universal; we see it in all that they have left behind—in furniture, in needlework, in dress, in the commonest utensils of daily living, as well as in the ordered loveliness of their gardens and the solid dignity of the homes they dwelt in.

CHAPTER VI

SCIENCE AND SUPERSTITION

To treat seriously of the science of the first half of the seventeenth century would be a bold undertaking; this is not the place for it, nor am I the person to attempt the task: what I have in view is rather a slight sketch of the science of the day as it appeared, I will not say to the man in the street, but to the ordinary cultivated man or woman as they met with it in everyday life. The science of the philosopher in his study, of the chemist in his laboratory, of the astronomer in his observatory, must be sought elsewhere; here is no place for it.

I have called this chapter Science and Superstition, because it appears that the distinguishing mark of the time was that it was a meeting-ground between the two: the acceptance of facts because they were traditional, the dogmatic teachings of the schoolmen were yielding before the advance of experimental knowledge, of the trained observation of men of the newer light. It was not very long since men of science had arrived at the conclusion that the world was round instead of flat, as had been hitherto supposed, and, acting on the inference that if so ships could sail round it, explorers trying to discover the North-West Passage had found the New World. Thither some three generations of Englishmen had been flocking, bringing back with them wonderfully enlarged notions of many things. Still more recently had the whole conception of the universe been turned upside down by the new

theories of Galileo, whereby the system of Copernicus had been established upon a sound basis, and the ancient idea of sun, moon, and stars existing round and for the sake of the earth been finally shelved.

The new ideas were so new, so startling, that it is not wonderful that those to whom was committed the guardianship of religion shrank dismayed, and imagined that faith must be imperilled if such subversive doctrines were allowed to be taught. Truth, however, could not be stamped out; the teachings of Galileo steadily gained ground, and were established as the century wore on, and presently it was found, as in our own day it has been found by some who were terrified at the discovery of evolution, that it was not faith which was destroyed, but human conceptions of the universe. The parallel is wonderfully close; only in our own more tolerant days no measures of persecution were taken against the

discoverer.

such hard measure When Sir Kenelm zenith of its glory

Galileo, however, did not have dealt him as we are apt to fancy. Digby visited Florence, then in the under Cosmo II., brother of the Queen Dowager of France, he found the great astronomer living and working there quite undisturbed, though six years earlier he had been summoned to Rome, and his theories formally condemned. At this time he was engaged on his Dialogues on the Ptolemaic and Copernican Systems of the World, and no doubt he found great pleasure in discussing his novel theories with a man of so much intelligence and culture. Twelve years later he was again brought before the Inquisition and condemned to a quasi-imprisonment, but it could have been scarcely a hardship, for he wrote, 'I have as a prison the delightful 'palace of the Trinita di Monti,' and of his second jailer he speaks as 'my best friend the Archbishop of Siena at 'whose house I have always enjoyed the most delightful tranquillity.' His third and last prison was his own