Daniel turned left, towards London. This was utter madness. But the letter from Wilkins, and the enclosure from Hooke – a Wilkins protégé from his Oxford days, and now Curator of Experiments of the Royal Society – contained certain requests. They were phrased politely. Perhaps not so politely in Hooke's case. They had let Daniel know that he could be of great service to them by fetching certain items out of certain buildings in London.