hundred tons." From this the marquis leaps
to a cross-bow for discharging two arrows at
once; to a "way to make a sand-bank so
firm and geometrically strong, that a stream
can have no power over it;" and to an
instrument, "whereby an ignorant person may
take anything in perspective, as justly and
more so than the most skilful painter can do
by the eye."

But the most valuable of all the inventions
which form the Century are those four which
relate to what we should now call a steam-
engine. The great idea of the marquis (for a
great idea it was) seems to have been, the
application of some kind of steam-engine for the
raising of water for the supply of large towns.
There was evidently something vast in the
conception, but he has put it into words
which are not very easily understood. The
following aphorism would not be unworthy
of a Telford or a Brindley: "Whosoever is
master of weight, is master of force;
whosoever is master of water, is master of both;
and consequently to him all forcible actions
and achievements are necessary." It is
supposed that Savery took from the marquis the
hint of the steam-engine, for raising water
with a power produced by fire, and applied it
to an actual engine. That the marquis
himself viewed this idea as the most important of
the whole group is plain. In 1663, immediately
after the publication of the Century, he
obtained an Act, appropriating to him and
his successors the whole of the profits that
might arise from the use of his water-engine.
He published about the same time, "An Exact
and True Definition of the most stupendous
Water-commanding Engine," apparently with
a view to the formation of a water company;
but he died soon afterwards, and his
project died with him to be resuscitated by
others in the actual realisation of the steam-
engine.

There must, nevertheless, have been some
practical trial of an engine (probably a model)
intended to test the validity of the marquis's
theories, for one of the most striking, and even
affecting documents traced to his hand, is an
"Ejaculatory and Extemporary Thanksgiving
Prayer, when first with his corporeal eyes he
did see finished a perfect trial of his water-
commanding engine, delightful and useful to
whomsoever hath in recommendation either
knowledge, profit, or pleasure."

The courageous man, now stricken in years,
and serving a regal family who had ever made
him a sorry return for his devotion, thanked
God for vouchsafing to him this mechanical
discovery; and in touching words he prays
"that whatever I doe, unanimously and
courageously to serve my King and country,
to disabuse, rectifie, and convert my
undeserved yet wilfully incredulous enemys,
to reimburse thankfully my creditors, to
reimmunerate my benefactors, to reinhearten
my distressed family and with complacence to
gratify my suffering and confiding friends, may,
voyde of vanitie or selfe ends, be only directed
to thy honour and glory everlastingly."

The Marquis of Worcester had a brave
heart and a remarkable head.

BEN CLOSE, OF BAGGENHAM.

THERE was a model man who lived in a
village not far from the country town in
which I have spent the chief part of my own
life. Although true stories are commonly dull
stories, I shall endeavour to amuse all who
will listen, by telling, without any deviation
from the bare and simple fact, the story of
that model man. I knew him well.

He was a hedger and ditcher; named, if
you please, Benjamin Close—Benjamin Close,
of Baggenham. His character was so good
that he was spoken of habitually in Baggenham
society—and even known among many of
my neighbours, townspeople of Beechester—
as Honest Ben. He was a hedger and
ditcher; but could turn his hand to any
kind of labour, and was never out of work.
Whatever he undertook to do he did; came
always with strict punctuality to any duty
for which he had been engaged; and whatever
he did was done always heartily and
well. All the farmers looked upon him as
the model labourer of Baggenham. Ben's
father had been a noted poacher; but the
disgrace of the father was not allowed to
descend upon the son, who lived in the enjoyment
of a brilliant reputation that was never
sullied for a day. He was never to be seen
on week days at a beer-shop, or to be missed
on Sunday from the parish church. The
minister rejoiced over him, and more than once
alluded to him from the pulpit as a pattern,
not only to working men, but to thousands
who moved in the upper circles of society.

Ben had a wife, but no children. His wife
was a miracle of tidiness and good behaviour.
The cottage, occupied by this good couple on
the outskirts of the village, was intensely
clean, and pleasantly surrounded by a model
garden. Baggenham is a village situated in
a richly wooded district, and stands on the
boundary line between the grounds of two of
our great county landowners, a noble baronet
and a respected squire. The baronet and
squire, nobility and gentry, shared the opinion
of the public in general concerning Honest
Ben; spoke to him affably whenever he
crossed their path, and even went so far as
to shake hands with him on several occasions.

Ben was a man who, for a purpose of his own,
took care to keep the outside of his platter clean.

I do not say—I am not sure whether I
think—that there was any special badness in
him. The vicar was right, probably, when
he said that there was in Ben "a dash of the
poetical." He built up, with the skill of a
rough genius, an impregnable enclosure of
conventional goodness. The vicar thought
that there was poet's stuff in him, because he
displayed a great taste for antiquities.