Cliveden's proud alcove
The bow'r of wanton Shrewsbury and love.
—Moral Essays, iii, 307-8.
p. [76] Sir Samuel Morland, or Sir Robert Gorden. Sir Samuel Morland, the celebrated inventor and projector, was born in 1625. Having served the Commonwealth, he turned royalist, and on Cromwell's death joined the King at Breda. He was rewarded at the Restoration with a baronetcy, a pension, and the appointment of Master of Mechanics to the King. He devoted himself to practical science, and his house was long the resort of the curious to view his models, inventions, &c. In a MS. (Harleian) treatise he shows an accurate knowledge of steam power and explains how it can be employed to work cylinders in raising water, a subject to which he had paid particular attention, having brought water from a considerable distance to the top of Windsor Castle. He died blind and in penury, 30 December, 1695.
Sir Robert Gordon, Bart. was born 7 March, 1647. He became famous for his scientific pursuits, and in the neighbourhood of Gordonstown (Elginshire), his birthplace, he was long known as 'Sir Robert the Warlock'. A MS. account of the family says: he was 'particularly skilled in mechanics and chemistry.... He contrived a curious machine or pump for raising water, wch was tried in the Fleet and highly approved of, and found far to exceed anything of that kind then known, both for the facility of working and the quantity of water it discharged.' Gordon sat in the Scotch parliament, and seems to have been a favourite with James II, who was interested in his experiments. He died 1704.
p. [79] l'heure du Bergere. cf. 'the hour of the Berjere'. The Feign'd Curtezans, iii, 1 (Vol. II, p. 346), and note on that passage (p. 441).
Poems Upon Several Occasions (1684).
p. [115] To the Right Honourable, James. James Cecil, 4th Earl of Salisbury, Viscount Cranbourn, was the eldest son of James, 3rd Earl of Salisbury, and Margaret, daughter of John Manners, Earl of Rutland. He married Frances, one of the three daughters and coheiresses of Simon Bennet of Beechampton, Bucks, when she was only thirteen years old. A firm Tory, he was in 1688-9 committed to the Tower as a recusant, but the prosecution was waived. His name was forged by Robert Young to a document purporting to be that of an Association to seize the Prince of Orange, and declare for King James. On this account he was a second time committed to the Tower, 7 May, 1692, but as nothing could be proved his bail was soon formally discharged in the Court of King's Bench. He died 25 October, 1693, leaving an only son, three years old, who succeeded him. He was buried at Hatfield, 29 October.
p. [117] Ogs and Doegs reign'd. Shadwell is scarified as Og by Dryden, Absalom and Achitophel, II (1682), Elkanah Settle as Doeg.
p. [117] Baxter's zeal. This ardent Presbyterian divine was considerably harassed during the reign of Charles II. He had bidden farewell to the Church of England in the great Blackfriars church, 16 May, 1662, three days before the Act of Uniformity was passed, but he still held forth with unabated zest and vigor in meeting-houses and conventicles whenever opportunity offered. He was imprisoned 28 February, 1684-5 on a charge of libelling the Church in his Paraphrase of the New Testament (1685). His sermons, devotional and other writings amount to nearly two hundred.
p. [119] J. Cooper, Buckden. John Cooper (who doubtless wrote the following lines initialled J. C.), was a contributor to Dryden's Miscellany, at the end of which (Vol. I) is advertised: 'Poems upon Several Occasions; written by Mrs. Behn; are now in the Press, and will be published this Term.' Cooper was also the translator of the [OE]none to Paris epistle in the Heroides 'By Several Hands' (1680).