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of the Rev. William Douch, Rector of the Parish, By his will Boyle provided that eight Lectures
with whom he lodged, “This old divine in- yearly should be delivered for “proving the
“structing him both with care and civility, soon Christian religion against notorious infidels.”
“brought him to renew his former acquaintance These are still delivered under the name of the
“with the Roman tongue, and to improve in it so Boyle Lectures every year, at the Church of St.
“far that in that language he could readily enough Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, London.
“express in prose, and began to be no dull As a scientist, Boyle, the follower of Bacon and
“proficient in the poetic strain, which latter be contemporary or Newton, followed the new method
“was naturally addicted to.” It is also quaintly of investigation. He so improved the air
recorded of him that during his stay at Stalbridge pump that he may be credited with having in-
“his father, to oblige him to be temperate by vented it. He specially directed his enquiries to
“freely giving him the opportunity of being other- all questions connected with the weight, elasticity,
“wise, entrusted him with the keys or all his and sound-conveying power or the atmosphere.
“gardens and orchards.” In person he was tall and emaciated, and always
He seems to have been as a young man of a sensi- suffered from delicate health. It is said of him
tive and imaginative disposition, for it is that he possessed a great variety of cloaks of
recorded of him that once when staying at different thicknesses, one of which he chose when
Geneva with his tutor, and being ill, “Amadis de he went abroad, according to the temperature of
Gaul” and other romantic books were given him the air, which he discovered by his thermometer
to amuse him, but that they produced such rest- He died on the last day of the year 1691, and was
lessness in him “that he was obliged to apply buried at St. Martin’s, Westminster.
“himself to the extraction of the square and cube The manor of Stalbridge was afterwards
“roots, and to the more laborious operations of purchased by Peter Walter, M.P. for Bridport, a
“algebra, in order to fix and settle the volatile man of great wealth, who died in 1745. He was
“operations of his fancy.” succeeded by his grandson, Peter Walter, who
The Earl of Cork on his death left to his son Robert built the park wall. There had anciently been
his manor of Stalbridge, to which Boyle here a small park belonging to the Abbot of
retired in the year 1646. Many of his great works Sherborne, but it was greatly enlarged by Peter
on Chemistry and Natural Philosophy were medi- Walter, and enclosed by a wall five miles in
tated and written in the seclusion of Stalbridge circumference. This Peter Walter seems to
Park. In the year 1663 the Royal Society was have been a man of business-like character
incorporated, Boyle being one of its chief founders. and frugal habits withal, for it was said of him by
In 1663, Pepys in his Diary records that he him- a Friend “Peter Walter would not lend money or
self was made a member of Gresham College, buy without seeing every acre; ‘for,’ said he, ‘I
where he saw many curious experiments carried live on bread and butter and milk porridge, and
out, and met many learned men, “above all,” he it must be land that maintains the cows for this.’ ”
adds, “Mr. Boyle.” In 1668, Pepys again mentions After his death the manor passed into the hands
that he met Mr. Boyle at a meeting of the Council of the Bayly-Paget family, subsequently Earls of
of the Royal Society, where he took counsel with Uxbridge and Marquesses of Anglesey. The old
him about his eyes, which were beginning to give manor house in the park was pulled down in the
the Diarist much trouble. Robert Boyle also year 1822. It was of the Jacobean style, and con-
frequently wrote on religious subjects, and was tained a beautiful staircase with figures of the
himself a man of deeply religious character. It twelve apostles, about a yard high, placed at
was by his agency that the first Society for the intervals between the balusters.
Propagation of the Gospel, the oldest missionary
society of the Anglican church, was founded. He THE STALBRIDGE GHOST STORY.
also strenuously assisted with purse and influence In connection with the old mansion a curious
the famous John Eliot, who had gone out to story is told. It is said that for some years before
preach the Gospel to the American natives. It is the house was pulled down it was left empty in
said that some of the earliest meetings of the the charge only of an old housekeeper. Lady
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel took Anglesey, however, on one occasion lent the house
place in Stalbridge House. Another good work for the Christmas season to a lady friend of hers
in which Boyle took a deep interest was the who had a large family of young children, making
translation of the Bible into foreign tongues. He this stipulation, that she should do whatever the
subscribed largely to the translation of the Scrip- old housekeeper required of her. On arriving at
tures into Irish, Welsh, Turkish, and Malayan. It the house the lady and her family were met by the
is no mean record for one man to have been housekeeper, who requested all of them to make
instrumental in founding two such great and a point of not being in the hall of the house at
valuable societies as the Royal Society and the five o’clock of an evening. This request was
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and agreed to, and for some time observed, but on one
Stalbridge may well be proud of having had so occasion the lady had had some children in to
distinguished a lord of the manor. Robert Boyle’s play during the afternoon with her own children,
least fortunate work was his “Occasional Re- and having said good-bye to them, was standing
flections upon several subjects,” in which in the hall of the house just on the stroke of five.
he moralises upon such trivialities as ‘upon Hardly had the hour passed when her notice was
his horse stumbling in a very fair way,’ ‘upon attracted by a figure issuing front the door of one
his distilling spirit of roses in a limbick,’ ‘upon of the bedrooms on the first floor, which could be
his paring of a rare summer apple,’ ‘upon seen from the hall. The figure was that of a
the taking up his horses from grass, and giving woman enveloped in flames, who repeated to
them oats before they were to be ridden on a herself in an agonized voice, “I have done it: I
journey.’ Dean Swift satirised these productions have done it.” The figure disappeared almost im-
in his “Pious meditation upon a broomstick, in mediately into the door of another room. The lady
the style of the Honourable Robert Boyle.” ascended the stairs, and found that the doors both

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