During his confinement in the Tower of London, Sir Walter Raleigh
devoted a considerable portion of his time to chemical and
pharmaceutical investigations; and interesting it is to see how his
unsubdued spirit enabled him to make the most of his misfortunes, to
surmount difficulties, and to turn ordinary things to extraordinary
purposes,--greatly, no doubt, to the amazement of those about him, who
marvelled much to behold the splendid courtier, and the captain of a
happier day, earnestly employing himself with chemical stills and
crucibles in a vacant hen-house! "He has converted," says Sir W. Wade,
the lieutenant of the Tower, in a letter to Cecil, "a little hen-house
in the garden into a still-house, and here he doth spend his time all
day in distillations."
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