wincing, nevertheless, that he records the following (April 2nd, 1668):—
"With Lord Brouncker to the Koyall Society, where they had just done; but there I was forced to subscribe to the building of a College, and did give £40 ; aud several others did subscribe, some greater and some less sums ; but several I saw hang off; and I doubt it will spoil the Society, for it breeds faction aud ill will, and becomes burdensome to some that cannot, or would not, do it. Here, to my great content, I did try the use of the Otacoustiou,* which was only a great glass bottle broke at the bottom, putting the neck to my eare, and there I did plainly hear the dancing of the oares of the boats in the Thames to Arundel gallery window, which without it I could not in the least do, and may, I believe, be improved to a great height, which I am mighty glad of."— Vol. iv., p. 409.
As regards the proposed College, for the building of which in Arundel Gardens Sir Christopher Wren contributed a design, it may as well be stated that in consequence of legal difficulties, and still more of a want of funds, it was never built. T" Mr. Pepys consequently, let us hope, saved his money.
Our jottings from the 'Diary' must now perforce come to an end, for though Pepys' notes continue to be made for a couple of years more,— when the failure of his eyesight, already so touchingly referred to, compelled his forbearance, — there is little or nothing to claim attention in the special direction dealt with in this paper. With the following graphic account of the visit paid by a great lady of the period to a meeting of the Royal Society, and of the honourable reception there accorded her (under date May 30, 1667), this selection of Pepysiana may be fitly brought to a close: —
I find very much company, in expectation of the Duchesse of Newcastle, who had desired to be invited to the Society ; and was ; after much debate pro and con, it seems many being against it ; and we do believe the town will be full of ballads of it. Anon comes the Duchesse with her women attending her ; among others the Ferabosco, of whom so much talk is that her lady would bid her show her face and kill the gallants. She is indeed black, aud hath good black little eyes, but otherwise a very ordinary woman I do think, but they say sings well. The Duchesse hath been a good comely woman ; but her dress so antick, and her deportment so ordinary,
An instrument to facilitate hearing. No allusion to this can be found in the
'Philosophical Transactions.'
