Sir William Petty has been very busy of late gathering all he might need for his audacious journey through time. He wants to ensure he has everything required to measure and record what he finds, as well as take samples; to scrutinise and inspect both the larger world as well as all contained within it. He hopes to encounter the denizens of the future, and thus be able to question them concerning all manner of things. Suspecting, however, that the future may well contain myriad dangers, he plans to take all he might need to protect himself too.

Here you can see not only his trays of specimen bottles, as well as some of his weighing and measuring instruments, but also the plague doctor’s mask his assistant has fashioned just in case the air of the future is replete with foul miasmas and poisonous vapours.

I suppose you could call me Sir William’s assistant. Currently, every spare moment I get (between school visits and the boys) is spent on reading, research and readying the artefacts and materials needed for his trip. Let’s just hope that when he is transported through time all this stuff travels with him!

Now, I must get back to work. Sir William is a hard task master.