Of the mode of capture of larks by serpents here so circum- stantially described, or of the existence of the serpents themselves which "do grow to a great bigness," it is unsatisfactory to have to state that no record can be found in Baines' exhaustive 'History of the County Palatine and Duchy,' or indeed elsewhere.
Describing the entry into London of the Russian Ambassador (November 27th, 1662), Pepys says: —
"I could not see the Embassador in his coach; but his attendants in their habits and fur caps very handsome, comely men, and most of them with hawkes upon their fists to present to the King. But, Lord ! to see the absurd nature of Englishmen, that cannot forbear laughing and jeering at every thing that looks strange." — Vol. i., p. 343.
Subsequently (on December 29th) Pepys, detailing the cere- monies attendant upon the Ambassador waiting upon the King (Charles II.) and offering the presents he had brought his Majesty, including the hawks before mentioned, adds: — "The King took two or three hawkes upon his fist, having a glove on wrought with gold, given him for the purpose."
We now reach a period in Pepys' career when he becomes more identified with scientific pursuits than the extracts from his 'Diary' already given would warrant the reader entertaining any idea of. In 1664–5 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, a body of which be was destined eventually (in 1684) to become the seventh President. The Royal Society bad its origin about the year 1645, in an agreement between some of the most learned men of the day to meet weekly at Gresham College to discourse upon subjects connected with mathematics and natural philosophy. These meetings, owing to the political exigencies of the times, falling into desuetude, were revived in 1660, Gresham College becoming thus the cradle of a Society destined soon to make a considerable name in the scientific world — a name the renown of which has been maintained to the present day. Receiving its first charter from Charles 11. in July, 1662, in February, 1664-5, Pepys was elected a Fellow, and he thus refers to the incident on the 15th of that month:—
last week proposed to be admitted a member, and was this day admitted, by signing a book and being taken by the hand by the President, my Lord Brouncker, and some words of admittance said to me. But it is a most
acceptable thing to hear their discourse, and see their experiments : which