Studies in the life of Robert Boyle, F. R. S.: Part IV. Robert Boyle and some of his foreign visitors

Robert Boyle ‘had so universal an esteeme in Foraine parts; that not any Stranger of note or quality; Learn’d or Curious coming into England, but us’d to Visite him with the greatest respect & satisfaction’(46)*. ‘Nor did any Ambassador, Person of Quality or Learning, Travellers come over to see this Kingdom, think they had seen any-thing, til they had visited Mr Boyle’. ‘In the Afternoones he was seldom w[ith]out company, which was sometimes so incomodius, that he now & then repair’d to a private Lodging in another quarter of the Towne . . .’. Thus wrote John Evelyn to William Wotton. Another has written, ‘I have known him severall mornings (when I had y e honour to wait upon him) entertain persons of severall nations viz—french,—Spaniards, Germans & English & y t in different dialects, & most readily with a most pleasing aire & genious; wch was in discourse alwaies agreable & instructive to ye whole company’. Some of the accounts left by these travellers have been considered in Part I of these studies, and a further selection from the writings of visitors to this country that have particular reference to Robert Boyle will be given here. These testimonials shed further light on the high regard and esteem in which he was universally held, and are the more remarkable in that they come from foreign sources.