of this
city the construction of a very good automatic steed, whose only fault
is slowness. May I suggest that a very great improvement indeed may yet
be made on that horse, and that the two-forty of a coming generation may
be the result, not of oats and hay, but of steel springs and cylinders?
The first wooden horse burnt Troy--what will the last do?

I have been reminded of the strange tendency in man--but more especially
of the Indo-Germanic or Aryan man--to anticipate by invention the wants
of an age, sometimes centuries beforehand--by turning over that very
curious work, the 'Century of Inventions,' by the Marquis of Worcester,
in which, as in the commonplace book of an author, one may find jotted
down many an undeveloped idea of great promise. In this connection we
may be allowed to borrow somewhat from a biography by Charles F.
Partington, published in 1825.

Edward Lord Herbert, the sixth earl and second Marquis of Worcester, was
born at Ragland near Monmouth; and his family, long distinguished for
the most devoted loyalty, possessed the largest landed estate of any
then attached to the British court. What this was in those times is set
forth by the fact that in 1628 the father of the marquis had a revenue
of upward of twenty thousand pounds. In 1642, the year in which his son
was created marquis, the young heir raised, supported, and commanded an
army of 1,500 foot and near 500 horse soldiers.

He had a stormy life before him, this young marquis, with many more
scenes, adventures, and changes than are to be found in Woodstock and
Peveril of the Peak. How he fought well, recapturing Monmouth among
other things from the Puritan General Massey, how he was appointed, in
consequence of his daring cavaliering raids, by Charles II to negotiate
with the Irish Catholics; how the king often visited him at Ragland, is
all a fine story, well worth reading. We can get glimpses of that REGAL
life--as Mr. Partington admiringly small-caps his climax, from the 'list
of the Ragland household' with the earl's order of dining--castle gates
closed at eleven o'clock in the morning, the entry of the earl with a
grand escort, 'the retiral of the steward'--the advance of 'the
Comptroller, Mr. Holland, attended by _his_ staff'--'as did the sewer,
the daily waiters, and many gentlemen's sons, with estates from two to
seven hundred pounds a year, who were bred up in the castle, and my
lady's gentlemen of the chamber.' Therein, too, we s