le of latter-day
disciples of Peter Woulfe, of whom some interesting particulars are
given in Timbs' _Modern Eccentrics_, has a peculiar claim to notice
here, if only for having for many years pursued his studies and
experiments in the neighbourhood of Hitchin.

As late as 1825, twenty years after the death of Peter Woulfe, who was
thought to be the last of the true believers in alchemy, Sir Richard
Phillips visited an alchemist at Lilley, near Hitchin, named Kellerman,
who was believed by some of his neighbours to have discovered the
philosopher's stone, and the universal solvent! His room was a
realization of Tenier's "Alchemist." The floor was strewed with
retorts, crucibles, alembics, jars, and bottles of various shapes,
inter-mingled with old books. This worthy had not only bettered all
the work of his predecessors, but had, after repeated failures, at last
made gold; and, what was more, he could make as much more as he
pleased, even to the extent of paying off the National Debt! In
justification of his singular pursuits, Kellerman quoted Roger and
Francis Bacon, Paracelsus, Boyle, Boerhave, Woulfe, and others, and
claimed that he had discovered the "blacker than black" of Appollonious
Tyanus, which was the powder of projection for producing gold! It
further appeared that Kellerman had lived in these premises at Lilley
twenty-three years, during fourteen of which he had pursued his
alchemical studies, keeping eight assistants to superintend his
crucibles, two at a time relieving each other every six hours; that he
had exposed some preparation to intense heat for many months at a time,
but that all his crucibles had burst except one, which Kellerman said
contained the "Blacker than Black." One of his assistants, however,
protested that no gold had ever been found; and so, even persevering
old Kellerman, the last of his race, who dared to speculate with the
iron horse just behind him, disappears from the scene, discredited by
the Phillistines, who calculate but never dream!

{103}

CHAPTER X.

TRADE, AGRICULTURE AND MARKET ORDINARIES.

One of the most interesting, as well as significant things about
old-time studies, is the evolution of industry, from the stage, when
each domestic hearth was a factory of some sort, to vast cotton mills
and iron foundries. Time was when the wool from the sheep's back was
made into cloth in every house in Royston, then the finishing processes
of fulling and dyeing w