Chapter I: Front Matter

ROBERT BOYLE

_From a painting by Kerseboom, in the rooms of the Royal Society._]

ROBERT BOYLE

_A BIOGRAPHY_

BY
FLORA MASSON

LONDON
CONSTABLE & COMPANY LTD.
1914

RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED,
BRUNSWICK STREET, STAMFORD STREET, S.E.,
AND BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

For permission to quote from the Lismore Papers (as edited by Grosart, 10 vols.), I have to acknowledge my indebtedness to the Duke of Devonshire. I have also to thank Lady Verney for allowing me to quote from the Verney Memoirs, and Sir William Ramsay for permission to quote from his Presidential Address delivered to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Portsmouth 1911. To the kindness of Sir Archibald Geikie I owe the permission to reproduce the portrait of Robert Boyle in possession of the Royal Society of London.

I remember with special gratitude the kind counsel given me, in the last months of his life, by the late Professor Edward Dowden.

My thanks are due, for advice and help, to Miss Elizabeth Dowden, Mr. Richard Bagwell, Mr. Irvine Masson, Mrs. Millar, Mrs. Townshend, and Mr. James Penrose.

I gratefully acknowledge the unfailing courtesy and helpfulness of the Librarians of the Edinburgh Public Library, the Signet Library, the University Library, and the Library of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

FLORA MASSON.

_Edinburgh, March 1914._

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I HIS BIRTH AND FAMILY 1

II AN IRISH CHILDHOOD 15

III SCHOOLDAYS AT ETON 34

IV THE MANOR OF STALBRIDGE 55

V THE HOUSE OF THE SAVOY 70

VI ROBYN GOES ABROAD 85

VII THE DEBACLE 99

VIII IN ENGLAND AGAIN 122

IX THE DEARE SQUIRE 140

X A KIND OF ELYSIUM 159

XI HERMETIC THOUGHTS 170

XII OXFORD: A LEARNED JUNTO 189

XIII POLITICS AND PHILOSOPHY 206

XIV THE RESTORATION AND THE ROYAL SOCIETY 226

XV THE PLAGUE AND THE FIRE 246

XVI A NEW LONDON 267

XVII THE HOUSE IN PALL MALL 282

INDEX 311

ROBERT BOYLE