to
be tried just at sunrise, and in fine clear weather. The famous Crystal
of that.prince of such magic— Doctor Dee—is still preserved in the
Ashmolean Museum at Oxford ; at which University he received some,
education. A Welshman by birth, he travelled throughout Europe,
claiming to have discovered the " Elixir of Life," and the "
Philosopher's Stone." He was a man of over-weening ambition, and
delighted to hear himself styled, "Most Excellent." After journeying'
from one Court to another, where he is said to have performed wonderful
feats with his Elixir, he returned to England, and settled at Mortlake,
in which place Queen Elizabeth often visited him, to consult him on
astrology; and he even ventured to predict her death. Dr. Dee was a
prime favourite at Court in 1595, when the Queen made him Chancellor of
St. Paul's, and Warden of Manchester. But eventually he died in great
poverty.
Dr.
John Dee, and Sir Edward Kelly were professed associates, the latter
being the leading man in Alchemy. Dee writes, in one place : " This day
Edward Kelly discovered the grand secret to me;—sit nomen Domini benedietum." This
was in allusion to the Philosopher's Stone, transmuting everything into
gold. But the story went that these two had found a considerable
quantity of gold in Glastonbury Abbey ; with which they performed
several of their most notable transmutations. Kelly, in particular, is
reported to have given away rings of gold wire, to the tune of four
thousand pounds, at the marriage of his servant-maid. And a piece cut
out of a brass warming-pan, having been sent, by order of Queen
Elizabeth, to Dee, and Kelly, when abroad, was returned of pure gold.
Likewise