nterests were enough to engage a dozen ordinary lives.
He had always been interested in chemical experiments. He had studied
the qualities of metals. In August, 1602, Carew mentioned to Cecil that
he had been sending over to Ralegh from Munster 'many sorts of ore' to
prove. Within his Tower garden he equipped an assaying furnace. Cecil
occasionally visited it and him to inquire about the results. He is
supposed to have written a _Treatise of Mines and the Trial of
Minerals_. It has been thought he was associated with Sir Adrian Gilbert
in working during Elizabeth's reign the ancient and neglected silver
mines at Combe Martin. Long afterwards he agreed to join Boyle in
working a Munster copper mine. Beside his furnace he had his laboratory
at the foot of Bloody tower. He had always been fond of chemistry. A
learned book on it had been dedicated to him as to an expert in the days
of his grandeur. Oldys saw in Sir Hans Sloane's library a manuscript
collection in Ralegh's own hand of _Chemical and Medicinal Receipts_.
Now, in his enforced leisure, he threw himself ardently into the pursuit
of experimental philosophy in many directions. He is said to have learnt
how to cure common English tobacco in the Tower, so that he made it
equal to American. The Royal Agricultural Society a few years since
would have been grateful for his discovery. He is known to have
discovered in the Tower the art of condensing fresh water from salt. He
applied the process during his subsequent voyage to Guiana, though the
secret was afterwards lost for two centuries. He was especially eager in
the study of drugs. Waad wrote to Cecil in 1605 that he 'doth spend his
time all the day in distillations in a little hen-house in the garden,
which he hath converted into a still-house.' Sampson, a chemist, served
him as operator for twelve years. Materials were brought to him by his
old comrades and servants from all parts, and he experimented on their
properties. He kept a stock of spices and essences, which sometimes he
gave away, and sometimes sold. Great French ladies, we have seen, begged
balms of him. A letter is preserved from one Zechelius of Nuremberg,
complaining of his neglect to send some sassafras he had promised.

[Sidenote: _The Great Cordial._]

His drugs gained fame for cures, and sometimes for the reverse. He had
presented some to Overbury. Ill-natured gossip attributed the death of
the Countess of Rutland on September 1, 1612, to pills of