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In April, 1661, Dr. Petty was knighted at Whitehall, and about the same time purchased a house in London, where he thenceforward resided frequently. The diaries of Pepys and Evelyn contain frequent mention of his name, and among other things of his double ship, which was navigated to the Thames in 1663; when, again Pepys,—"at the Coffee-house, where I met with Sir George Ascue and Sir William Petty, who in discourse is, methinks, one of the most rational men that ever I heard speak with a tongue, having all his notions most distinct and clear."
Being now free from "surveys and distributions, and other disobliging trinkets" (see Reflections, p. 11), he was at leisure to devote himself to liberal and useful arts, and to enjoy the society in which he took pleasure, and in which he was appreciated, as well in London as in Dublin.
His life was yet spared for more than twenty years, and he cultivated knowledge, promoting and leading learned societies, while he also carried out active measures for the improvement of his property and his tenantry in Ireland, in accordance with his wish "to be really a benefactor to the same land whereon God had already blessed his labours."
The history of the Down Survey is but one chapter in the life of Sir William Petty, but, with his many subsequent works and papers, some still unpublished, it places him among the most remarkable and distinguished men of that stirring age. His enemies are forgotten, and he has passed away, but his works live after him.
