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A HISTORY OF BOHEMIAN LITERATURE

for leaving Lissa, though his son and successor, Count Bohnslav Lescynski,i continued to afford protection to the brethren even after he had adopted the Roman I faith. In the year 1647 Komensk^ started for England, and, after a very perilous journey, during which his vessel was once driven near to the Norwegian coast and he was once nearly shipwrecked, he arrived in London on September 21st of that year. The description of the perils of the sea, which Komensk^ introduced into the later editions of the Labyrinth, is founded on these personal experiences. Of the small coterie that welcomed Komensk^ in London, Mr. Keatinge gives the following interesting account. " Komensky," he writes, " was received with open arms by the little band, of which Hartlib was the centre. A man of great enthusiasm but less judgment, Hartlib knew everybody in England who At that time in easy circumwas worth knowing. stances, he was living in Duke's Place, Drury Lane, an address which, we may be sure, was the centre of Here would have Komensk^'s London experiences. met to discuss the intellectual and political problems of the day men like Theodore Haak, John Durie, John Beale, John Wilkins, John Pell, and Eyelyn^ who had just returned to London after a three months' journey Milton was living in London, and through Europe. must certainly have met and conversed with the illustrious stranger." Komensk^'s impressions of England are contained in an interesting letter which, shortly after his arrival on the i8th (old style 8th) of October 1641, he addressed to

...

' Bohnslav Lescynski time King of Poland.

was the grandfather

of Stanislas Lescynski, for

some