Aubrey's 'Brief Lives' (Vol. 1)

The rules laid down for this edition have been fully stated in the Introduction. It need only be said here that these have been scrupulously followed.

I may take this opportunity of saying that the text gives Aubrey's quotations, English and Latin alike, in the form in which they are found in his MSS. They are plainly cited from memory, not from book: they frequently do not scan, and at times do not even construe. A few are incorrect cementings of odd half lines.

The necessary excisions have not been numerous. They suggest two reflections. The turbulence attributed to Sir Walter Raleigh seems to have made his name in the next age the centre of aggregation of quite a number of coarse stories. In the same way, Aubrey is generally nasty when he mentions the noble house of Herbert, earl of Pembroke, and the allied family of Sydney. There may be personal pique in this, for Aubrey thinks he had a narrow escape from assassination by a Herbert (i. 48); perhaps also there may be the after-glow of a Wiltshire 'feud' (i. 316).

The Index gives all references to persons mentioned in the text, except to a few found only in pedigrees, or otherwise quite insignificant; also to all places of which anything distinctive is said.

Andrew Clark.

January 4, 1898.

In the text the Lives have been given in alphabetical order of the names. This was necessary, not only on account of their number—more than 400—but because Aubrey, in compiling them, followed more than one principle of selection, writing, first, lives of authors, then, lives of mathematicians, but bringing in also lives of statesmen, soldiers, people of fashion, and personal friends.

The following synopsis of the lives may serve to show (i) the heads under which they naturally fall, (ii) their chronological sequence.

The mark † indicates the year or approximate year of death; ‡ denotes a life which Aubrey said he would write, but which has not been found; § is attached to the few names of foreigners.

Writers.

Poets.

• Geoffrey Chaucer (†1400).
• John Gower (†1408).

Prose.

• Sir John Mandeville (†1372).

Mathematics.

• John Holywood (†1256).
• Roger Bacon (†1294).
• John Ashindon (†13..).

Alchemy.

• George Ripley (†1490).

Church and State.

• S. Dunstan (†988).
• S. Edmund Rich (†1240).
• Owen Glendower (†1415).
• William Canynges (†1474).
• John Morton (†1500).

Writers.

• Sir Thomas More (†1535).
• §Desiderius Erasmus (†1536).

Mathematics.

• Richard Benese (†1546).
• Robert Record (†1558).

Church and State.

• John Colet (†1519).
• Thomas Wolsey (†1530).
• John Innocent (†1545).
• Sir Thomas Pope (†1559).
• Edmund Bonner (†1569).

• Sir Erasmus Dryden (†1632).

Writers.

Poets.

• Thomas Tusser (†1580).
• Edmund Spenser (†1599).
• Sir Edward Dyer (†1607).
• William Shakespear (†1616).

Prose.

• §‡ Petrus Ramus (†1572).
• John Twyne (†1581).
• Sir Philip Sydney (†1586).
• John Foxe (†1587).
• Robert Glover (†1588).
• Thomas Cooper (†1594).
• Thomas Stapleton (†1598).
• Thomas North (†1601).
• William Watson (†1603).
• John Stowe (†1605).
• Thomas Brightman (†1607).
• John David Rhese (†1609).
• Nicholas Hill (†1610).

Mathematics.

• James Peele (†15..).
• Leonard Digges (†1571).
• Thomas Digges (†1595).
• John Securis (†...).
• Evans Lloyd (†...).
• Cyprian Lucar (†...).
• Thomas Hoode (†...).
• ‡ Thomas Blundeville (†16..).
• Henry Billingsley (†1606).
• § Ludolph van Keulen (†1610).
• John Blagrave (†1611).
• Edward Wright (†1615).
• Thomas Hariot (†1621).
• Sir Henry Savile (†1622).

Chemistry.

• Adrian Gilbert (†...).

Zoology.

• Thomas Mouffet (†1604).

Alchemy and Astrology.

• Thomas Charnocke (†1581).
• John Dee (†1608).
• Arthur Dee (†1651).

State.

• William Herbert, 1st earl of Pembroke (†1570).
• William Cecil, lord Burghley (†1598).
• Robert Devereux, earl of Essex (†1601).
• Sir Charles Danvers (†1601).
• George Clifford, earl of Cumberland (†1605).
• Thomas Sackville, earl of Dorset (†1608).
• ? Sir Thomas Penruddock (†...).

Law.

• Sir William Fleetwood (†1594).
• William Aubrey (†1595).
• Sir John Popham (†1607).

Commerce, etc.

• Sir Thomas Gresham (†1579).
• John Davys, capt. (†1605).
• Richard Staper (†1608).

Society.

• ? ... Robartes (†...).
• Elizabeth Danvers (†...).
• Sir John Danvers (†1594).
• Richard Herbert (†1596).
• Edward de Vere, 17th earl of Oxford (†1604).
• Sir Henry Lee (†1611).
• Silvanus Scory (†1617).
• Mary Herbert, countess of Pembroke (†1621).

Writers.

Poets.

• Francis Beaumont (†1616).
• John Fletcher (†1625).
• Arthur Gorges (†1625).

Mathematics.

• Edward Brerewood (†1613).
• John Norden (†1625).
• Edmund Gunter (†1626).
• Thomas Allen (†1632).
• Robert Hues (†1632).
• John Speidell (†16..).
• ‡Thomas Fale (†16..).
• ‡Thomas Lydiat (†1646).

Astrology.

• Dr. Richard Napier (†1634).

Church.

• Richard Bancroft (†1610).
• John Overall (†1619).
• Lancelot Andrewes (†1626).
• George Abbot (†1633).
• John Davenant (†1641).

State.

• Everard Digby (†1606).
• Thomas Overbury (†1613).
• ‡James I (†1625).
• William Herbert, 3rd earl of Pembroke (†1630).

Law.

• Sir Thomas Egerton, lord Ellesmere (†1617).
• Richard Martin (†1618).

Medicine.

• ... Jaquinto (†16..).
• William Butler (†1618).
• Francis Anthony (†1623).

Commerce, etc.

• Thomas Sutton (†1611).
• John Guy (†1628).
• John Whitson (†1629).
• Sir Hugh Middleton (†1631).
• William de Visscher (†16..).
• Edward Davenant (†16..).

Inventors.

• William Lee (†1610).
• ... Gregory (†16..).
• ... Ingelbert (†16..).
• ... Robson (†16..).

Seamen.

• Walter Raleigh (†1617).
• ‡Thomas Stump (†16..).
• Roger North (†1652).

Schoolmasters.

• Alexander Gill (†1635).
• Martin Billingsley (†16..).

Miscellaneous.

• Charles Hoskyns (†1609).
• Richard Sackville, 3rd earl of Dorset (†1624).
• Sir Henry Lee (†1631).
• Simon Furbisher (†16..).
• Fulk Greville, lord Brooke (†1628).
• Michael Drayton (†1631).
• George Chapman (†1634).
• Ben Jonson (†1637).
• George Feriby (†16..).
• ‡Benjamin Ruddyer (†16..).

Prose.

• Henry Lyte (†1607).
• Richard Knolles (†1610).
• ‡Richard White (†1612).
• Thomas Twyne (†1613).
• Thomas Coryat (†1617).
• Sir Walter Raleigh (†1618).
• John Barclay (†1621).
• William Camden (†1623).
• Nicholas Fuller (†1624).
• John Florio (†1625).
• Francis Bacon (†1626).
• John Speed (†1629).
• Thomas Archer (†1630).
• John Rider (†1632).
• Isaac Wake (†1632).
• William Sutton (†1632).
• Philemon Holland (†1637).
• John Willis (†16..).

Writers.

Poets.

• Hugh Holland (†1633).
• George Herbert (†1633).
• Richard Corbet (†1635).
• Thomas Randolph (†1635).
• John Sherburne (†1635).
• Sir Robert Aiton (†1638).
• John Hoskyns (†1638).
• Philip Massinger (†1640).
• Charles Aleyn (†1640).
• Sir John Suckling (†1641).
• William Cartwright (†1643).
• Henry Clifford, earl of Cumberland (†1643).
• George Sandys (†1644).
• Francis Quarles (†1644).
• William Browne (†1645).
• Thomas Goodwyn (†16..).
• William Habington (†1654).
• John Taylor (†1654).
• Sir Robert Harley (†1656).
• Richard Lovelace (†1658).
• John Cleveland (†1658).
• Gideon de Laune (†1659).
• James Shirley (†1666).

Prose.

• Gervase Markham (†1637).
• Robert Burton (†1640).
• Sir Henry Spelman (†1641).
• W. Chillingworth (†1644).
• Rob. Stafford (†1644).
• William Twisse (†1646).
• Degory Wheare (†1647).
• Edward, lord Herbert of Chirbury (†1648).
• §Joh. Ger. Vossius (†1649).
• Abraham Wheloc (†16..).
• Theoph. Wodenote, sen. (†16..).
• §René des Cartes (†1651).
• ... Gerard (†16..).
• ‡Samuel Collins (†1651).
• §Jean L. de Balzac (†1655).
• John Hales (†1656).
• James Usher (†1656).
• Joseph Hall (†1656).
• William Harvey (†1657).
• Robert Sanderson (†1663).
• Sir Kenelm Digby (†1665).

Mathematics.

• Henry Briggs (†1631).
• William Bedwell (†1632).
• Nathaniel Torporley (†1632).
• Henry Gellibrand (†1637).
• Walter Warner (†1640).
• William Gascoigne (†1644).
• Charles Cavendish (†1652).
• Henry Isaacson (†1654).
• Edmund Wingate (†1656).
• William Oughtred (†1660).
• Franciscus Linus (†16..).
• John Tap (†16..).
• John Wells (†16..).

Church.

• Richard Neile (†1640).
• George Webb (†1641).

State.

• George Villiers, duke of Buckingham (†1628).
• Sir Edward Coke (†1633).
• William Noy (†1634).
• Richard Boyle, 1st earl of Cork (†1643).
• Lucius Cary, earl of Falkland (†1643).
• Henry Danvers, earl of Danby (†1644).
• Robert Dalzell, earl of Carnwarth (†1654).

Law.

• Sir Henry Martin (†1641).
• David Jenkins (†1663).

Medicine.

• Sir Matthew Lister (†1656).

Art.

• Inigo Jones (†1652).

Soldiers.

• Charles Cavendish (†1643).
• Sir James Long (†1659).
• Sir Robert Harley (†1673).
• Sir William Neale (†1691).

School and College.

• Alexander Gill (†1642).
• Ralph Kettell (†1643).
• Hannibal Potter (†1664).
• Thomas Batchcroft (†1670).

Society.

• Elizabeth Broughton (†16..).
• Venetia Digby (†1633).

Miscellaneous.

• Elize Hele (†1633).
• John Clavell (†1642).
• ? ... Cradock (†16..).

Writers.

Poets.

• Thomas May (†1650).
• Katherine Philips (†1664).
• George Withers (†1667).
• John Milton (†1674).
• Andrew Marvell (†1678).

Prose.

• Clement Walker (†1651).
• John Selden (†1654).
• Walter Rumsey (†1660).
• Thomas Fuller (†1661).
• William Prynne (†1669).

Mathematics.

• Richard Billingsley (†16..).
• Samuel Foster (†1652).
• Lawrence Rooke (†1662).

Science.

• John Wilkins (†1672).

Astrology.

• Nicholas Fiske (†16..).

State.

• Sir John Danvers (†1655).
• Thomas Chaloner (†1661).
• Sir William Platers (†16..).
• James Harrington (†1677).
• Henry Martin (†1680).
• Sir Henry Blount (†1682).

Soldiers and Sailors.

• Robert Grevill, lord Brooke (†1643).
• Robert Blake (†1657).
• George Monk (†1671).
• Thomas, lord Fairfax (†1671).

Law.

• Henry Rolle (†1656).

Medicine.

• Jonathan Goddard (†1675).

School.

• Thomas Triplett (†1670).

Writers.

Poets.

• Alexander Brome (†1666).
• Abraham Cowley (†1667).
• Sir William Davenant (†1668).
• Sir John Denham (†1669).
• Samuel Butler (†1680).
• John Wilmot, earl of Rochester (†1680).
• John Lacy (†1681).
• Martin Lluelyn (†1682).
• Edmund Waller (†1687).
• Thomas Flatman (†1688).
• ‡Sir George Etherege (†16..).
• Henry Vaughan (†1695).
• John Dryden (†1700).

Prose.

• Peter Heylyn (†1662).
• James Heath (†1664).
• Sir Robert Poyntz (†1665).
• Thomas Vaughan (†1667).
• George Bate (†1668).
• John Davenport (†1670).
• Vavasor Powell (†1670).
• Samuel Hartlib (†1670).
• Edward Bagshawe (†1671).
• Edward Hyde, earl of Clarendon (†1674).
• Sir William Saunderson (†1676).
• John Ogilby (†1676).
• John Tombes (†1676).
• Thomas Whyte (†1676).
• Silas Taylor (†1678).
• Thomas Stanley (†1678).
• John Cecil, 4th earl of Exeter (†1678).
• Thomas Hobbes (†1679).
• ... Barrow (†168.).
• ... Munday (†16..).
• Joseph Glanville (†1680).
• Thomas Jones (†1682).
• William Stafford (†1684).
• Edward Lane (†1685).
• Thomas Pigot (†1686).
• Richard Head (†1686?).
• Sir William Dugdale (†1686).
• Isaac Vossius (†1688).
• Robert Barclay (†1690).
• John Rushworth (†1690).
• Fabian Philips (†1690).
• Samuel Pordage (†1691).
• Elias Ashmole (†1692).
• Anthony Wood (†1695).
• Henry Birkhead (†1696).
• John Aubrey (†1697).
• William Holder (†1698).
• Richard Blackburne (†17..?).
• Thomas Gale (†1702).
• ‡Sir Edward Sherburne (†1702).
• John Evelyn (†1706).
• John Philips (†1706).
• John Hawles (†1716).
• William Penn (†1718).

Mathematics.

• Christopher Brookes (†1665).
• William Neile (†1670).
• Lancelot Morehouse (†1672).
• Richard Norwood (†1675).
• Isaac Barrow (†1677).
• John Newton (†1678).
• Francis Potter (†1678).
• Sir Jonas Moore (†1679).
• ‡Richard Alcorne (†16..).
• ‡Henry Bond (†16..).
• Michael Dary (†1679).
• William, lord Brereton (†1680).
• Edward Davenant (†1680).
• Richard Stokes (†1681).
• Sir George Wharton (†1681).
• Thomas Merry (†1682).
• John Collins (†1683).
• William, lord Brouncker (†1684).
• John Pell (†1685).
• Nicholas Mercator (†1687).
• Thomas Street (†1689).
• Seth Ward (†1689).
• John Kersey (†1690).
• John Wallis (†1703).
• ‡John Flamsted (†1719).
• ‡Isaac Newton (†1727).
• Edmund Halley (†1742).

Science.

• John Willis (†16..).
• John Graunt (†1674).
• Robert Boyle (†1691).
• Sir Edward Harley (†1700).
• Robert Hooke (†1703).
• Sir John Hoskyns (†1705).

Astrology.

• John Heydon (†166.).
• John Booker (†1667).
• William Lilly (†1681).
• Henry Coley (†1695).
• Charles Snell (†16..).
• John Gadbury (†1704).
• John Partridge (†1715).

Church.

• Herbert Thorndyke (†1672).
• William Outram (†1679).
• Peter Gunning (†1684).
• Thomas Pittis (†1687).

State.

• Sir Robert Moray (†1673).
• Sir Edmund Bury Godfrey (†1678).
• Sir Thomas Morgan (†1679).
• John Birkenhead (†1679).
• William Harcourt (†1679).
• Robert Pugh (†1679).
• §Jean Baptiste Colbert (†1683).
• Anthony Cooper, earl of Shaftesbury (†1683).
• Sir Leoline Jenkins (†1685).
• ‡James, duke of Monmouth (†1685).
• Sir William Petty (†1687).
• Thomas Osborne, earl of Danby (†1712).

Law.

• Sir Matthew Hale (†1676).
• George Johnson (†1683).

Medicine.

• Thomas Willis (†1675).
• Baldwin Hamey (†1676).
• Sir Richard Napier (†1676).
• Henry Stubbe (†1676).
• Thomas Shirley (†1678).
• Sir Edward Greaves (†1680).
• Sir Robert Talbot (†1681).
• William Croone (†1684).
• Daniel Whistler (†1684).
• Christopher Merret (†1695).
• Walter Charleton (†1707).

Art.

• Samuel Cooper (†1672).
• Wenceslaus Hollar (†1677).
• Sir Christopher Wren (†1723).

School.

• ... Webb (†16..).
• Thomas Stephens (†16..).
• Arthur Brett (†1677).
• Ezerel Tonge (†1680).

Commerce, etc.

• Sir Edward Ford (†1670).
• Thomas Bushell (†1674).
• William Marshall (†16..).
• Robert Murray (†1725).
• James Bovey (†....).

Society, etc.

• Lucy Walters (†16..).
• Sir Walter Raleigh (†1663).
• Eleanor Ratcliffe, countess of Sussex (†1666).
• ... Berkeley (†16..).
• ... Curtin (†16..).
• Dorothy Selby (†16..).
• Anne, duchess of York (†1671).
• Cecil Calvert, lord Baltimore (†1675).
• Sir Thomas Billingsley (†167.).
• Richard Sackville, 5th earl of Dorset (†1677).
• Charles Pamphlin (†1678).
• Sir Francis Stuart (†16..).
• ‡... Aldsworth (†16..).
• Sir Robert Henley (†1680).
• Sir Thomas Badd (†1683).
• ... Ralphson (†1684).
• Charles Howard (†17..).
• Willoughby Bertie (†1760).

I. Of the Old School.

• Isaac Lyte (1577-†1660).
• Thomas Tyndale (1588-†1671/2).
• James Whitney (1593-†166.).
• William Beeston (....-†1682).
• Deborah Aubrey (1610-†1685/6).
• Edmund Wyld (1616-†16..).

II. Contemporaries.

• Anthony Ettrick (1622-†1703).
• William Morgan (1622-†....).
• Ralph Sheldon (1623-†1684).
• William Radford (1623-†1673).
• Theophilus Wodenoth (1625-....).
• George Ent (....-†1679).
• John Sloper (....-†....).
• Richard Kitson (....-†....).
• Sir John Dunstable (....-†....).
• Thomas Gore (1632-†1684).
• Jane Smyth (1639-†16..).
• Thomas Deere (1639-†16..).
• ... Gwyn (....-†....).
• ... Yarrington (....-†1684).

AUBREY'S 'BRIEF LIVES'

Aubrey sought and obtained an introduction to Anthony Wood in August 1667. He was keenly interested in antiquarian studies, and had the warmest love for Oxford; he had been a contemporary in Trinity College with Wood's brother, Edward; and so was drawn to Wood on hearing that he was busy with researches into the History of the University of Oxford.

Aubrey was one of those eminently good-natured men, who are very slothful in their own affairs, but spare no pains to work for a friend. He offered his help to Wood; and, when it was decided to include in Wood's book short notices of writers connected with Oxford, that help proved most valuable. Aubrey, through his family and family-connexions, and by reason of his restless goings-to-and-fro, had a wide circle of acquaintance among squires and parsons, lawyers and doctors, merchants and politicians, men of letters and persons of quality, both in town and country. He had been, until his estate was squandered, an extensive and curious buyer of books and MSS. And above all, being a good gossip, he had used to the utmost those opportunities of inquiry about men and things which had been afforded him by societies grave, like the Royal Society, and frivolous, as coffee-house gatherings and tavern clubs. The scanty excerpts, given in these volumes, from letters written by him between 1668 and 1673, supply a hint of how deeply Wood's Historia et Antiquitates Universitatis Oxoniensis, published in 1674, was indebted to the multifarious memory and unwearying inquiries of the enthusiastic Aubrey.

Dean Fell's request that Wood should notice Oxford writers and bishops in his Historia had suggested to Wood the plan of, and set him to work upon, the larger and happier scheme of the Athenae Oxonienses, an 'exact history of all the writers and bishops that have had their education in ... Oxford' since 1500. He engaged his friend Aubrey to help him in his undertaking, by committing to writing in a more systematic way, for Wood's benefit, his multitudinous recollections of men and books. He was dexterous enough to supply the additional motive, that, after serving his friend's turn, Aubrey's collections might be gathered together, preserved for a while in some safe and secret place, and, when personal feelings were saved by lapse of time, be published and secure their writer a niche in the Temple of Fame.

It was now by no means easy for Aubrey to undertake any extensive, and especially any connected work. Being by this time bankrupt, and a hanger-on at the tables of kindred and acquaintances, he had to fall in with his patrons' habits, at the houses where he visited; to sit with them till they wearied of their carousings in the small hours of the morning; and to do his writing next forenoon, before they had slept off their wine.

Still, his interest in the subject, and his desire to help his friend prevailed; and we soon find him thanking Wood for setting him to work. March 27, 1680[1]:—''Twill be a pretty thing, and I am glad you putt me on it. I doe it playingly. This morning being up by 10, I writt two <lives>: one was Sir John Suckling[2], of whom I wrote a leafe and ½ in folio.' May 22, 1680[3]:—'My memoires of lives' <is now> 'a booke of 2 quires, close written: and after I had began it, I had such an impulse on my spirit that I could not be at quiet till I had donne it.' Sept. 8, 1680[4]:—'My booke of lives ... they will be in all about six-score, and I beleeve never any in England were delivered so faithfully and with so good authority.'

Aubrey, therefore, began these lives[5] on the suggestion of, and with a desire to help Anthony Wood.

Among the lives so written were several of mathematicians and men of science. And another friend of Aubrey's, Dr. Richard Blackburne, advised him to collect these by themselves, and add others to them, with a view to a biographical history of mathematical studies in England. To this suggestion Aubrey was predisposed through his pride at being 'Fellow of the Royal Society,' and for some time he busied himself in that direction[6].

In the same way, although the bulky life of Thomas Hobbes[7] was partly undertaken in fulfilment of a promise to Hobbes himself, an old personal friend, the motive which induced Aubrey to go on with it was a desire to supply Dr. Blackburne with material for a Latin biography, Vitae Hobbianae Auctarium, published in 1681.

These matters will be found more fully explained in the notices which Aubrey has prefixed to the several MSS. of his biographical collections, as described below.

Few of the 'Lives' are found in a fair copy[8]. Again and again, in his letters to Anthony Wood, Aubrey makes confession of the deficiencies of his copy, but puts off the heavy task of reducing it to shape.

His method of composition was as follows. He had a folio MS. book, and wrote at the top of a page here and there the name of a poet, or statesman, or the like, whose life he thought of committing to paper. Then, selecting a page and a name, he wrote down hastily, without notes or books, his recollections of the man, his personal appearance, his friendships, his actions or his books. If a date, a name, a title of a book, did not occur to him on the spur of the moment, he just left a blank, or put a mark of omission (generally, ... or——), and went on. If the matter which came to him was too much for the page, he made an effort to get it in somehow, in the margins (top, bottom, or sides), between the paragraphs, or on the opposite page.

When he read over what he had written in the first glow of composition, he erased, wrote alternatives to words and phrases, marked words, sentences, and paragraphs for transposition, inserted queries: unsettled everything.

If later on, from books or persons, he got further information, he was reckless as to how he put in the new matter: sometimes he put it in the margin, sometimes at a wrong place in the text, or on a wrong leaf, or in the middle even of another life, and often, of course, in a different volume.

And there, as has been said, the copy was left. Very seldom was a revised copy made.

To the confusions unavoidable in composing after this fashion, must be added the unsteadiness consequent on writing in the midst of morning sickness after a night's debauch. One passage, in which he describes his difficulties in composing, explains, in a way nothing else could, the frequent erasures, repetitions, half-made or inconsistent corrections, and dropping of letters, syllables, and words, which abound in his MSS. March 19, 1680/1[9]; 'if I had but either one to come to me in a morning with a good scourge, or did not sitt-up till one or two with Mr. <Edmund> Wyld, I could doe a great deal of businesse.'

In presenting a text of Aubrey's 'Lives,' an editor, on more than one important point, has to decide between alternatives.

In respect of all these questions, the aim of the present edition, and the reasons for the decision taken in each case, can be stated very briefly and decidedly.

MS. Aubr. 6: a volume chiefly of folio leaves; written mostly in February 1679/80; now marked as containing 122 leaves (some pages blank), but having also a few unfoliated slips. Aubrey's own short title to it was:—

'Σχεδιάσματα. Brief Lives, part i.,'

and, in his pagination, it contained eighty-six leaves. A rough index of its contents, by him, is found as foll. 8-10: and there he gives the names of several persons whose lives he intended to write, but has not included in this volume. Some of these are found elsewhere, especially in MS. Aubrey 8; but a few[10] are not discoverable in any MS. of his biographical collections—e.g., Richard Alcorne; <Samuel> Collins, D.D.; Richard Blackbourne, M.D.; <John> Flamsted[11]; Sir John Hoskins; James Rex; James, duke of Monmouth[12]; Peter Ramus; Benjamin Ruddier; captain <Edward> Sherburne; captaine Thomas Stump[13]; Richard White. Possibly Aubrey never wrote the missing lives; but it must be remembered (1) that he cut some leaves out of his MS. himself (see in a note to the life of Richard Boyle, earl of Cork); (2) that Anthony Wood cut out of MS. Aubr. 7 forty pages at least, containing matters 'to cut Aubrey's throat,' i.e. reflections on politics, where the lives of James R. and Monmouth may well have been.

One point about this MS. which deserves mention is that, in these lives, Aubrey, in his hope to supply data for crucial instances in astrology, is careful to give the exact nativity wherever he can. His rule is thus laid down by himself in MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 12^v, in a note attached to the nativity of his friend Sir William Petty:—

'Italian proverb—

"E astrologia, ma non é Astrologo,"

i.e. we have not that science yet perfect; 'tis one of the desiderata. The way to make it perfect is to gett a supellex of true genitures; in order wherunto I have with much care collected these ensuing[14], which the astrologers may rely on, for I have sett doune none on randome, or doubtfull, information, but from their owne mouthes: quod N. B.'

Another point is, that Aubrey very frequently gives the coat of arms, in trick or colour. In some cases, no doubt, he did this from having seen the arms actually borne in some way by the person he is writing about; but in other cases he merely looked up the name in a 'Dictionary of Arms,' and took the coat from thence, thus nullifying his testimony as to the actual pretensions to arms of those he writes about. All coats he mentions have, however, been given in the text or notes.

Prefixed to the volume[15] are two notes in which Aubrey explains its origin and destination.

'Tanquam tabulata naufragii,
Sum Johannis Aubrii, R.S.S.
Febr. 24, 1679/80.

My will and humble desire is that these minutes, which I have hastily and scriblingly here sett downe, be delivered carefully to my deare and honoured friend Mr. Anthony à Wood, antiquary, of Oxford.—

Ita obnixe obtestor,

Jo. Aubrey.

Ascenscione Domini,

correptus lipothymiâ, circiter 3 P.M.

1680.'

'To my worthy friend Mr. ANTHONIE à WOOD,

Antiquarie of Oxford.

Sir!

I have, according to your desire, putt in writing these minutes of lives tumultuarily, as they occurr'd to my thoughts or as occasionally I had information of them. They may easily be reduced into order at your leisure by numbring them with red figures, according to time and place, &c. 'Tis a taske that I never thought to have undertaken till you imposed it upon me, sayeing that I was fitt for it by reason of my generall acquaintance, having now not only lived above halfe a centurie of yeares in the world, but have also been much tumbled up and downe in it which hath made me much[17] knowne; besides the moderne advantage of coffee-howses in this great citie, before which men knew not how to be acquainted, but with their owne relations, or societies. I might add that I come of a longaevous race, by which meanes I have imped some feathers of the wings of time, for severall generations; which does reach high. When I first began, I did not thinke I could have drawne it out to so long a thread.

I here lay-downe to you (out of the conjunct friendship[18] between us) the trueth, and, as neer as I can and that religiously as a poenitent to his confessor, nothing but the trueth: the naked and plaine trueth, which is here exposed so bare that the very pudenda are not covered[19], and affords many passages that would raise a blush in a young virgin's[20] cheeke. So that after your perusall, I must desire you to make a castration (as Raderus[21] to Martial) and to sowe-on some figge-leaves—i.e., to be my Index expurgatorius.

What uncertainty doe we find in printed histories? they either treading too neer on the heeles of trueth that they dare not speake plaine, or els for want of intelligence (things being antiquated) become too obscure and darke! I doe not here repeat any thing already published (to the best of my remembrance) and I fancy my selfe all along discourseing with you; alledgeing those of my relations and acquaintance (as either you knew or have heerd of) ad faciendam fidem: so that you make me to renew my acquaintance with my old and deceased friends, and to rejuvenescere (as it were) which is the pleasure of old men. 'Tis pitty that such minutes had not been taken 100 yeares since or more: for want wherof many worthy men's names and notions[22] are swallowd-up in oblivion; as much of these also would [have[23] been], had it not been through your instigation: and perhaps this is one of the usefullest pieces[24] that I have scribbeld.

I remember one sayeing of generall Lambert's, that "the best of men are but men at the best": of this, you will meet with divers examples in this rude and hastie collection. Now these arcana are not fitt to lett flie abroad, till about 30 yeares hence; for the author and the persons (like medlars) ought to be first rotten. But in whose hands must they be deposited in the mean time? advise me, who am,

Sir,
Your very affectionate friend
to serve you,

John Aubrey.

London,
June 15,
1680.'

MS. Aubr. 7: a folio volume of twenty-one leaves (several pages blank), of which two[25] only belong to the original MS.

The original title may be conjectured to have been:

'Σχεδιάσματα. Brief Lives, part ii.,'

and it possibly contained some letters, like those in the preceding volume, which made Wood think it was given to him.

On fol. 1, is a note describing the make-up of the volume:—

'Aubrey's Lives: fragments of part ii.—These scattered fragments collected and arranged by E. M. Sep. 1792.' A note (in Dr. Philip Bliss's hand?) says that E. M. is Edmund Malone.

In this, as in the other Aubrey MSS., Dr. Bliss has made several slight notes, both in pencil and ink, with a view to his edition.

The mutilation of the MS. was the crime of Anthony Wood, to whom it had been sent. Two conjectures may be hazarded—either that Wood did this in order to paste the cuttings into his rough copy of his projected Athenae, and so save transcription; or, more probably, that he was so thoroughly alarmed by the threat of Lord Clarendon's prosecution of himself (Clark's Wood's Life and Times, iv. 1-46), that he destroyed the papers containing Aubrey's sharp reflections on various prominent personages[26]. But whatever the pretext, Aubrey was, naturally, very grieved at his unjustifiable conduct. In a letter to Wood, dated Sept. 2, 1694 (MS. Ballard 14, fol. 155), he writes:—

'You have cutt out a matter of 40 pages out of one of my volumnes, as also the index. Was ever any body so unkind?—And I remember you told me comeing from Hedington that there were some things in it that "would cutt my throat." I thought you so deare a friend that I might have entrusted my life in your hands and now your unkindnes doth almost break my heart.'

When Aubrey had the volume back in his own hands, he wrote in it[27] the following censure:—

'Ingratitude! This part the second Mr. Wood haz gelded from page 1 to page 44 and other pages[28] too are wanting wherein are contained trueths, but such as I entrusted nobody with the sight of but himselfe (whom I thought I might have entrusted with my life). There are severall papers that may cutt my throate. I find too late Memento diffidere was a saying worthy one of the sages. He hath also embezill'd the index of it—quod N. B. It was stitch't up when I sent it to him.

Novemb. 29, 1692.'

MS. Aubr. 8: a folio volume, containing 105 leaves: it contains two distinct MSS., bound together.

The first part of the MS. (foll. 1-68 in the present marking) might have been entitled:—

'Σχεδιάσματα. Brief Lives, part iii.'

On fol. 1 and fol. 3, the short title actually written by Aubrey is:—

ʻ♄
Pars iii^tia

1681

ᴊᴬʼ

i.e. the symbol for Saturn, the patron of antiquarian studies, and Aubrey's monogram. On fol. 4 Aubrey has a very elaborate title, showing the destination of the MS.:—

'Auctarium vitarum a collectarum, anno Domini 1681.

Tanquam tabulata naufragii.

John Aubrey, R.S.S.

Ornari res ipsa nolit contenta doceri.—Horat

For Mr. Anthony Wood
at
Oxford.'

A slip by Anthony Wood, pasted here, shows that Aubrey recalled the MS., probably to make additions to it:—

'Mr. Aubrey,

I beseech you as you have been civill in giving this book to me at Oxon in Sept. 1681, so I hope when you have done with it you'l returne every part of it againe to your servant,

Ant. Wood.'

As originally made up, this 'Auctarium' contained four leaves at the beginning (for an index[30]), and leaves foliated 1-38 (of which 12 and 13 are now[31] missing).

The second part[32] of the MS. extends over foll. 69-103 in the present marking.

Aubrey, on fol. 69, writes the title:—

'An Apparatus for the lives
of our English mathematical writers
by
Mr. John Aubrey, R.S.S.
March 25, 1690.'

As originally made up, this treatise consisted of one leaf (for an index[33]) and pages marked 1-46 (of which pp. 31-38 are now missing).

The history of this treatise is fully set out by Aubrey in some notes in it and in the other MSS.:—

1. It was suggested by Richard Blackburne.

MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 8^v:—'Dr. <Richard> Blackbourn would have me putt out in print the lives of our English mathematicians together.'

2. It had been partly anticipated by Selden and Sherburne.

MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 70:—'My purpose is, if God give me life, to make an apparatus, for[34] the lives of our English Mathematicians; which when I have ended, I would then desire Mr. Anthony Wood to find out one that is master of a good Latin stile, and to adde what is[35] already in his printed booke[36] to these following[37] minutes.

'I will not meddle with our own writers[38] in the mathematicks before the reigne of king Henry VIII, but prefix those excellent verses of Mr. John Selden (with a learned commentary to them) which are printed before a booke intituled <Arthur> Hopton's Concordance of yeares[39] scilicet:—'

MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 69:—'Sir Edward Shirbourn, somewhere in his translation and notes upon Manilius, has enumerated our English mathematicians, and hath given short touches of their lives—which see.'

3. The first step towards it would be to pick out the mathematicians from the lives already written by Aubrey.

MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 51^v:—'I would have the lives of John Dee, Sir Henry Billingsley, the two Digges (father and sonne), Mr. Thomas Hariot, Mr. <Walter> Warner, Mr. <Henry> Brigges, and Dr. <John> Pell's, to be putt together.—As to the account of Mr. Hariot, Mr. Warner, and Mr. Brigges, I recieved it from Dr. Pell.'

MS. Aubr. 9: a folio, containing fifty-five leaves, and in addition several printed papers.

The title is found on fol. 28 (as now marked) of the MS.:—

'Supplementum vitae Thomae Hobbes,
Malmesburiensis,
1679/80

Juvenal, Sat. IV. v. 81.

Extinctus amabitur.—

Horat. Epist. I. lib. 2.

I. A.'

I. A. = Aubrey's initials.

The reason for this title was that Aubrey intended his Collections to be a sort of commentary on Hobbes' short Latin autobiography, which was in the press in Febr. 1679/80, and was published in Nov. 1680 (Clark's Wood's Life and Times, ii. 480, 500).

But Anthony Wood (MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 28) objected:—'What need you say Supplimentum?' sic 'pray say the life of Thomas Hobbs.' And Aubrey, in obedience to this, changed the short title on fol. 30 (see the beginning of the life); and on the parchment cover of the MS. (now fol. 1) wrote:—

'The life of
Mr. Thomas Hobbes,
of Malmsbury,
by
Mr. John Aubrey,
Fellow of the Royall Societie,
1679/80.'

Aubrey set about this Life of Hobbes immediately after Hobbes' death, partly as a tribute of respect to his friend's memory, but apparently also in fulfilment of a promise to the deceased. The preface[41] is as follows:—

'Lectori.

'Tis religion to performe the will of the dead; which I here[42] dischardge, with my promise (1667) to my old friend Mr. T<homas> H<obbes>, in publishing[43] his life and performing the last office to my old[44] friend Mr. Thomas Hobbes, whom I have had the honour to know <from> my child-hood[45], being his countreyman and borne in Malmesbury hundred and taught my grammar by his schoolmaster[46].

Since nobody knew so many particulars of his life as myselfe, he was willing[47] that if I survived him, it should be handed to posterity by my hands, which I declare and avow to do ingenuously and impartially, to prevent misreports and undecieve those who are scandalized by....

One sayes[48] that when a learned man dyes, a great deal of learning dyes with him. He was 'flumen ingenii,' never dry. The recrementa[49] of so learned a person are[50] valueable[I.]. Amongst innumerable observables of him which had deserved to be sett downe, these few (that have not scap't[51] my memory) I humbly offer[52] to the present age and posterity, tanquam tabulam naufragii[II.], and as plankes and lighter things swimme, and are preserved, where the more weighty sinke and are lost. And[53] as with the light after sun-sett—at which time, clear[54]; by and by[55], comes the crepusculum; then, totall darkenes—in like manner is it with matters of antiquitie. Men thinke, because every body remembers a memorable accident shortly after 'tis donne, 'twill never be forgotten, which for want of registring[56], at last is drowned in oblivion. Which[57] reflection haz been a hint, that by my meanes many antiquities have been reskued[58], and preserved (I myselfe now inclining[59] to be ancient[60])—or els utterly lost and forgotten.

For that I am so minute, I declare I never intended it, but setting downe in my first[61] draught every particular[62], (with purpose, upon review, to retrench[63] what was superfluous and triviall), I shewed it to some friends of mine (who also were of Mr. Hobbes's acquaintance) whose judgments I much value, who gave their opinion: and 'twas clearly their judgement[64], to let all stand; for though to soome at present it might appeare too triviall; yet hereafter 'twould not be scorned[65] but passe[66] for antiquity.

And besides I have precedents of reverend writers to plead, who have in some lives[III.] recited things as triviall[67], nay, the sayings and actions of good woemen.

I am also to beg pardon of the reader for two long digressions, viz. Malmesbury and Gorambery; but this also was advised, as the only way to preserve them, and which I have donne for the sake of the lovers of antiquity. I hope its novelty and pleasantness will make compensation for its length.

Yours[68],

I. A.'

In MS. Aubr. 9, fol. 28^v are two letters by Aubrey, asking advice in connexion with this life.

'To his honoured friend Mr. Anthony à Wood, Master of Arts, at Merton College in Oxon.

Deare friend!

I have hastily writt this third draught, which I hope is legible: I have not time to read it over. Pray peruse it as soon as you can, for time drawes on. Dr. Blackburne and I will be diligent in it and will doe you all the right[69] your heart can wish. I thought together with this to have sent you the transcript of Mr. Hobbes' life revised by himselfe but am prevented by hast, and 'tis the last day of the terme. I will send it suddenly.

My service to Mr. Pigot. I am, Sir, your affectionate friend and servant,

Jo. Aubrey.

London Feb. 12,
1679/80.

Why might not his two sheetes Of heresie be bound up with this to preserve it and propagate trueth?

I know here be severall tautologies; but I putt them downe thus here, that upon reviewe I should judge where such or such a thing would most aptly stand.

Why should not Dr. Blackbourne in the life of Mr. H. written by him selfe quote that of A. Wood in the margent for a blindation, because there are in great part the very same words?'

'Dr. Blackbourne!

Pray advise me whether 'twould not shew handsomest to begin with a description of Malmesbury, and then to place Mr. H. pedigre?

But, with all, should not

"Thomas Hobbes was borne at Malmesbury, Apr. ... 1588[70]"

be the initiall and, as it were, textuall, line?

Shall I in the first place putt Mr. H. life donne by himselfe? (If so, whether in Latin, or English, or both?) Or else, shall I intersperse it with these animadversions?

I could begin with a pleasant description of Malmesbury, etc., (all new and untoucht) 14 leaves in 8vo, which his verses will lead me to, and which Ant. Wood seemes to desire.

Pray be my Aristarchus, and correct and marke what you thinke fitt. First draughts[71] ought to be rude as those of paynters, for he that in his first essay will be curious in refining will certainly be unhappy in inventing.

Doctor, I am your affectionate and humble servant.

J. A.

I will speake to Fleetwood Shepherd to engage the earl of Dorset to write in the old gentleman's praise.

Should mine be in Latin or English or both? (And by whome the Latin, if so?) Is my English style well enough[72]?'

Other MSS. A few additional lives, and portions of lives, of persons mentioned in these four biographical volumes, have been brought in from letters by Aubrey in MS. Ballard 14 and in MS. Wood F 39 and F 49.

Three lives, in fair copy, by Aubrey, are found in MS. Rawlinson D. 727, foll. 93-96, and have been given here. They were formerly in Anthony Wood's hands: see Clark's Wood's Life and Times, iv. 192, note.

MS. Aubr. 21, a volume made up in the Ashmolean library from siftings out of Aubrey MSS. and papers; MS. Aubr. 22, a collection of grammatical tracts, brought together by Aubrey with a view to a treatise on education; MS. Aubr. 23, a volume of 125 leaves, dated on fol. 8 as 'Collectio geniturarum, made London May 29, 1674,' but on the title as '1677: for the <Ashmolean> Musaeum'; MS. Aubr. 26,'Faber fortunae,' i.e. projects for retrieving Aubrey's fortunes——have yielded additional matter.

The pith of these lives was extracted by Anthony Wood, and incorporated in his Athenae, vol. i. in 1691, vol. ii. in 1692, and the 'appendix' left in MS. at his death (published in the second edition of the Athenae in 1721).

The MSS. of Aubrey's 'Lives' were placed in the library of the Ashmolean Museum, in the personal custody of the Keeper, Edward Lhwyd, in 1693. Aubrey, writing[73] to Thomas Tanner, intimates that his MSS. will show how greatly Wood's Athenae was indebted to his help, and makes a special request that Wood shall not know that they have been placed in the Museum.

Beginning[74] on Sept. 16, 1792, Edmund Malone made a transcript of 174 lives from the three MSS. (MS. Aubr. 6, 7, 8), with notes, with a view to publication. The first volume of this contained folios 1-152, forty-four lives of poets and sixty-eight of prose writers. It is now in the Bodleian, by the gift of C. E. Doble, Esq.; but mutilated, folios 126-152 having been torn off from the end of the volume. The second volume, containing folios 153-385, sixty-two lives, was MS. 9405 in Sir Thomas Phillipps' library, was mentioned in Notes and Queries (8 S. vii. 375), and has recently been bought by the Bodleian.

Some years later, James Caulfield, of London, publisher, arranged for the issue of a select number of biographies from Aubrey's MSS., illustrated by engravings from originals in the Ashmolean and elsewhere. They were to appear under the title of 'The Oxford Cabinet'; and one part, 32 pp., a very pretty book, was published at London in 1797. This part contains the lives of William Aubrey, Francis Bacon, John Barclay, and Francis Beaumont, with engravings (inter alia) of Aubrey's drawings of Verulam House, and Bacon's fishponds. At this point the Keeper of the Ashmolean, at Malone's instance, withdrew the permission which had been granted to Curtis to transcribe for Caulfield. The reason given was that Curtis had taken away papers and title-pages from Oxford libraries, and was not to be trusted in the Ashmolean—see Macray's Annals of the Bodleian, p. 273.

The dates, however, suggest that Malone's action may have been in part inspired by a wish to keep the course clear for his own project. The transcription made for Caulfield, although not always accurate in point of spelling, is by no means badly done: certainly it is much better than that which was made for the later issue.

In 1813 appeared 'Letters written by Eminent Persons ... and Lives of Eminent Men by John Aubrey, Esq. ... from the originals in the Bodleian Library and Ashmolean Museum: in two volumes.' The editors are said to have been Dr. Philip Bliss and the Rev. John Walker, Fellow of New College.

The Lives by Aubrey occupy pp. 197-637 of Volume II.

Dr. Bliss's interests were bibliographical, and he was not careful[75] to collate with original MSS. either the printed text of earlier editions or transcripts made for himself. As a result, that issue of Aubrey's Lives, although making accessible the greater portion of what is interesting in the originals, is marred by many grave blunders and arbitrary omissions.

A comparison of a few pages of Dr. Bliss's edition with Aubrey's MS. copy suggests a troublesome question in English textual criticism. If two eminent Oxford scholars in the beginning of the nineteenth century could thus pervert their author's meaning, can we have trust in the earlier redaction of greater texts, such as Shakespeare?

[76]Archbishop Abbot was borne in the howse of old Flemish building, timber and brick, now an alehouse, the signe 'Three Mariners,' by the river's side by the bridge on the north side of the street in St. Nicholas parish on the right hand as you goe out of the towne northwards.

[77]Old Nightingale was his servant, and weepes when he talkes of him. Every one that knew, loved him. He was sometimes cholerique.

He was borne the first howse over the bridge on the right hand in St. Nicholas parish <Guildford>. He was the sonne of a sherman[78]. His mother, with child of him, longed for a jack, and dream't that if shee could eate a jack, her son should be a great man. The next morning, goeing to the river, which runs by the howse (which is by the bridge), with her payle, to take up some water, a good jack came into her payle. Which shee eat up, all, her selfe. This is generally recieved for a trueth.

His godfather and godmothers sent him to the University, his father not being able.

[A] Sir Robert Aiton[79], knight;—he lies buried in the south aisle of the choire of Westminster abbey, where there is erected to his memory an elegant marble and copper monument and inscription—viz.

This long inscription is in copper:—

In white marble at the bottome of the monument:—

His bust is of copper, curiously cast, with a laurell held over it by two figures of white marble.

That Sir Robert was one of the best poets of his time—Mr. John Dreyden sayes he has seen verses of his, some of the best of that age, printed with some other verses—quaere.

He was acquainted with all the witts of his time in England. He was a great acquaintance of Mr. Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, whom Mr. Hobbes told me he made use of (together with Ben Johnson) for an Aristarchus, when he made his Epistle Dedicatory to his translation of Thucydides. I have been told (I think by Sir John himself) that he was eldest brother to Sir John Ayton, Master of the Black Rod, who was also an excellent scholar.

[80]... Aldsworth, mathematical boyes.

[81]Memorandum:—the patent for the mathematicall blew-coate boyes at Christ Church in London was dated '19th August in the 25th yeare of the reigne of king Charles the second' <1673>.

[82]Thomas Allen, Trin. Coll. Oxon.—Elias Ashmole, esqr., <has> the MSS. of Thomas Allen's commentary on the second and third bookes of Ptolomey's Quadripartite[83].

[84]Thomas Allen—vide Anthony Wood's <Hist. et> Antiq. <Univ.> Oxon.

Mr. Thomas Allen[B] was borne in Staffordshire.

Mr. Theodore Haak, a German, Regiae Societatis Socius, was of Glocester Hall, 1626, and knew this learned worthy old gentleman, whom he takes to have been about ninety-six yeares old when he dyed, which was about 1630 (vide).

The learned <Edmund> Reynolds, who was turned Catholique[IV.] by his brother the learned Dr. <John> Reynolds, President of Corpus Xti Colledge, was of Glocester Hall then too. They were both neer of an age, and they dyed both within 12 monethes one of th'other[C]. He was at both their funeralls. Mr. Allen came into the hall to commons, but Mr. Reynolds had his brought to his chamber.

He sayes that Mr. Allen was a very cheerfull, facetious man, and that every body loved his company, and every howse on their Gaudie-dayes were wont to invite him.

His picture was drawne at the request of Dr. Ralph Kettle, and hangs in the dining roome of the President of Trin. Coll. Oxon. (of which house he first was, and had his education there) by which it appeares that he was a handsome sanguine man, and of an excellent habit of bodie.

There is mention of him in Leicester's Commonwealth[85] that the great Dudley, earle of Leicester, made use of him for casting nativities, for he was the best astrologer of his time. He hath written a large and learned commentary, in folio, on the Quadripartite of Ptolemie, which Elias Ashmole hath in MS. fairly written, and I hope will one day be printed.

In those darke times astrologer, mathematician, and conjurer, were accounted the same things; and the vulgar did verily beleeve him to be a conjurer. He had a great many mathematicall instruments and glasses in his chamber, which did also confirme the ignorant in their opinion, and his servitor (to impose on freshmen and simple people) would tell them that sometimes he should meet the spirits comeing up his staires like bees. One[V.] of our parish[VI.] was of Glocester Hall about 70 yeares and more since, and told me this from his servitor. Now there is to some men a great lechery in lying, and imposing on the understandings of beleeving people, and he thought it for his credit to serve such a master.

He was generally acquainted, and every long vacation, he rode into the countrey to visitt his old acquaintance and patrones, to whom his great learning, mixt with much sweetnes of humour, rendred him very welcome. One time being at Hom Lacy[86] in Herefordshire, at Mr. John Scudamore's (grandfather to the lord Scudamor), he happened to leave[87] his watch in the chamber windowe—(watches were then rarities)—The maydes came in to make the bed, and hearing a thing in a case cry Tick, Tick, Tick, presently concluded that that was his Devill, and tooke it by the string with the tongues[88], and threw it out of the windowe into the mote (to[89] drowne the Devill.) It so happened that the string hung on a sprig of an elder that grew out of the mote, and this confirmed them that 'twas the Devill. So the good old gentleman gott his watch again.

Sir Kenelm Digby loved him much (vide Sir K. Digby's Life <p.> 69[90]), and bought his excellent library of him, which he gave to the University. I have a Stifelius' Arithmetique that was his, which I find he had much perused, and no doubt mastered. He was interred in Trinity College Chapell, (quaere where: as I take it, the outer Chapell.) George Bathurst[E] B.D. made his funerall oration in Latin, which was printed. 'Tis pitty there had not been his name on a[91] stone over him.

[92]Thomas Allen ... left the house[93] because he would not take orders.

Queen Elizabeth sent for him to have his advice about the new star that appeared in the Swan or Cassiopeia (but I think the Swan), to which he gave his judgment very learnedly.

He was great-uncle to Mr. <Henry> Dudley, the minister of Broadhinton in Wilts <1665>.

[94]Charles Alleyn, who wrote the Battailes of Agencourt, Poitiers, and Crescy, was usher to Mr. Thomas Farnaby.

[95]Lancelot Andrewes[F], lord bishop of Winton, was borne in London; went to schoole at Merchant Taylors schoole. Mr. Mulcaster[G] was his schoolemaster, whose picture he hung in his studie (as Mr. Thomas Fuller, Holy State).

Old Mr. Sutton, a very learned man of those dayes, of Blandford St. Maries, Dorset, was his school fellowe, and sayd that Lancelot Andrewes was a great long boy of 18 yeares old at least before he went to the university.

He was a fellowe[96] of Pembroke-hall, in Cambridge (called Collegium Episcoporum, for that, at one time, in those dayes, there were of that house ... bishops).

The Puritan faction did begin to increase in those dayes, and especially at Emanuel College. That party had a great mind to drawe in this learned young man, whom if they could make theirs, they knew would be a great honour to them. They carried themselves outwardly with great sanctity and strictnesse, so that 'twas very hard matter to——as to their lives. They preached up very strict keeping and observing the Lord's day; made, upon the matter, damnation to breake it, and that 'twas lesse sin to kill a man then.... Yet these hypocrites did bowle in a private green at their colledge every Sunday after sermon; and one of the colledge (a loving friend to Mr. L. Andrewes) to satisfie him one time lent him the key of a private back dore to the bowling green, on a Sunday evening, which he opening, discovered these zealous preachers, with their gownes off, earnest at play. But they were strangely surprized to see the entrey of one that was not of the brotherhood.

There was then at Cambridge a good fatt alderman that was wont to sleep at church, which the alderman endeavoured to prevent but could not. Well! this was preached against as a signe of reprobation. The good man was exceedingly troubled at it, and went to Andrewes his chamber to be satisfied in point of conscience. Mr. Andrewes told him that <it> was an ill habit of body not of mind, and that it was against his will; advised him on Sundays to make a more sparing meale and to mend it at supper. The alderman did so, but sleepe comes upon <him> again for all that, and was preached at. <He> comes againe to be resolved, with tears in his eies; Andrewes then told him he would have him make a good heartie meale as he was wont to doe, and presently take out his full sleep. He did so[97]; came to St. Marie's[98], where the preacher was prepared with a sermon to damne all who slept at sermon, a certaine signe of reprobation. The good alderman having taken his full nap before, lookes on the preacher all sermon time, and spoyled the designe.—But I should have sayd that Andrewes was most extremely spoken against and preached against for offering to assoile or excuse a sleeper in sermon time. But he had learning and witt enough to[99] defend himselfe.

His great learning quickly made him known in the university, and also to King James, who much valued him for it, and advanced him, and at last[100] made him bishop of Winchester, which bishoprick he ordered with great prudence as to government of the parsons, preferring of ingeniose persons that were staked to poore livings and did delitescere. He made it his enquiry to find out such men. Amongst severall others (whose names have escaped my memorie) Nicholas Fuller (he wrote Critica Sacra), minister of Allington neer Amesbury in Wilts, was one. The bishop sent for him, and the poor man was afrayd and knew not what hurt he had donne. <He> makes him sitt downe to dinner; and, after the desert, was brought in in a dish his institution and induction, or the donation, of a prebend: which was his way. He chose out alwayes able men to his chaplaines, whom he advanced. Among others, <Christopher> Wren, of St. John's in Oxon, was his chaplaine, a good generall scholar and good orator, afterwards deane of Winsore, from whom (by his son in lawe, Dr. William Holder) I have taken this exact account of that excellent prelate.

His Life is before his Sermons, and also his epitaph, which see. He dyed at Winchester house, in Southwark, and lies buried in a chapell at St. Mary Overies, where his executors ... Salmon M. D. and Mr. John Saintlowe, merchant of London, have erected (but I beleeve according to his lordship's will, els they would not have layed out 1000 li.) a sumptuose monument for him.

He had not that smooth way of oratory as now. It was a shrewd and severe animadversion of a Scotish lord, who, when king James asked him how he liked bp. A.'s sermon, sayd that he was learned, but he did play with his text, as a Jack-an-apes does, who takes up a thing and tosses and playes with it, and then he takes up another, and playes a little with it. Here's a pretty thing, and there's a pretty thing!

[101]Bishop Andrews: vide the inscription before his Sermons.

[102]Dr. [Francis[103]] Anthony, the chymist, Londinensis, natus 16 Aprilis, 1550, 1^h. P.M., Virgo 0° 3´ ascend.

Quaere A<nthony> W<ood> if of Oxon or Cambridge[104].

Scripsit 2 libros, viz.:—Aurum potabile, and his Defense against Dr. <Matthew> Gwyn (who wrote a booke called Aurum non Aurum). This is all that Mr. Littlebury, bookeseller, remembers.

He lived in St. Bartholomew's close, London, where he dyed, and is, I suppose, buried there, about 30 yeares since[H], scil. 1652.

Vide his nativity in Catalogue[I].

He had a sonne who wrote something, I thinke (quaere Mr. Littlebury); and a daughter maried to ... Montague, a bookeseller in Duck-lane, who in Oliver's time was a soldier in Scotland.

[105]Mr. Archer, rector of Houghton Conquest, was a good scholar in King James's (the 1st) dayes, and one <of> his majestie's chaplains.

He had two thick 4to MSS. of his own collection; one, joci and tales etc., and discourses at dinners; the other, of the weather. I have desired parson Poynter[106], his successor, to enquire after them, but I find him slow in it. No doubt there are delicate things to be found there.

[107]Johannes Escuidus[108], Merton College:—Elias Ashmole, esq., hath the corrected booke by the originall MSS. of Merton College library, now lost, which is mentioned in Mr. William Lilly's almanack 1674, a folio.

Amongst many other rarities he haz a thin folio MS. of Alkindus in Latin.

[109]Johannes Escuidus:—Summa astrologiae judicialis, in folio, Venetiis, 1489.—It is miserably printed, he sayes there; and that he was a student of Merton College Oxford.—Mr. Elias Ashmole has the booke.

[110]Memorandum—the lives of John Dee, Dr. <Richard> Nepier, Sir William Dugdale, William Lilly, Elias Ashmole[111], esq.,—Mr. Ashmole haz and will doe those himselfe: as[112] he told me formerly but nowe he seemes to faile.

[113]Mris. Deborah Aubrey, my honoured mother, was borne at Yatton-Kaynes, vulgo West-Yatton, in the parish of Yatton-Keynel in com. Wilts., January 29^th 1609[114], mane.

In a letter from my mother, dated Febru. 3^d, 1679/80, she tells me she was seaventie yeares old the last Thursday [29 Januarii]—quod N. B.

My mother was maried at 15 yeares old.

She fell sick of a burning feaver at Langford, Somerset.

She was taken on the 6^th June 1675; feaver there againe in July 1675.

She was borne Jan. 29^th, morning, scil. the day before the anniversary-day of the king's decollation. She was 15 yeares old and as much as from January to June when she was maried.

She fell from her horse and brake her ... arme the last day of Aprill (1649 or 50) when I was a suitor to Mris Jane Codrington.

Lettre, Aug. 8, 1681:—she was lately ill three weekes and now her eies are a little sore.

Memorandum: 6 Januarie 1682/3, my mother writes to me that she is 73 yeares of age.

[117]I. A[118].

His life[119] is more remarqueable in an astrologicall respect[J] then for any advancement of learning[K], having[120] from his birth (till of late yeares) been labouring under a crowd of ill directions: for his escapes of many dangers[L], in journeys both by land and water, 40 yeares.

He was borne (longaevous, healthy kindred[M]) at Easton Pierse[N], a hamlet in the parish of Kington Saint Michael in the hundred of Malmesbury in the countie of Wilts, his mother's[O] (daughter and heir of Mr. Isaac Lyte) inheritance, March the 12 (St. Gregorie's day[P]), A.D. 1625[121], about sun-riseing, being very weake and like to dye that he was christned before morning prayer.

I gott not strength till I was 11 or 12 yeares old; but had sicknesse[122] of vomiting[Q], for 12 houres every fortnight for ... yeares, then about monethly, then quarterly, and at last once in halfe a yeare. About 12 it ceased.

When a boy, bred at Eston, an[123] eremiticall solitude. Was[124] very curious; his greatest delight to be continually with the artificers that came there (e.g. joyners, carpenters, coupers, masons), and understood their trades.

1634[125], was entred in his Latin grammar by Mr. R<obert> Latimer[R], rector of Leigh de-la-mere, a mile's fine walke, who had an easie way of teaching: and every time we askt leave to goe forth, we had a Latin word from him which at our returne we were[126] to tell him again—which in a little while amounted to a good number of words. 'Twas my unhappinesse in half a yeare to loose this good enformer by his death, and afterwards was under severall dull ignorant rest[127]-in127[127]-house teachers[S] till 1638 (12[128]), at which time I was sent to Blandford schole in Dorset (William Sutton[129], B.D., who was ill-natured).

Here I recovered my health, and gott my Latin and Greeke, best of any of my contemporaries. The[130] usher[131] had (by chance) a Cowper's Dictionary, which I had never seen before. I was then in Terence. Percieving his method, I read all in the booke where Terence was, and then Cicero—which was the way[132] by which I gott my Latin. 'Twas a wonderfull helpe to my phansie, my reading of Ovid's Metamorphy in English by Sandys, which made me understand the Latin the better. Also, I mett accidentally a booke of my mother's, Lord Bacon's Essaies, which first opened my understanding as to moralls (for Tullie's Offices was too crabbed for my young yeares) and the excellence[133] of the style, or hints and transitions.

I[134] was alwayes enquiring[T] of my grandfather[135] of the old time, the rood-loft, etc., ceremonies, of the priory, etc. At 8, I was a kind of engineer; and I fell then to drawing, beginning first with plaine outlines, e.g. in draughts of curtaines. Then at 9 (crossed herein by father and schoolmaster), to colours, having no body to instruct me[136]; copied pictures in the parlour in a table booke——like[U].

Blandfordiae, horis vacuis, I drew and painted Bates's ... (quaere nomen libri[V]).

I was wont (I remember) much to lament with my selfe that I lived not in a city, e.g. Bristoll, where I might have accesse to watchmakers, locksmiths, etc. <I did> not very much care for grammar. <I had> apprehension enough, but my memorie not tenacious. So that then[137] was a promising morne enough of an inventive and philosophicall head. <I had a> musicall head, inventive, <wrote> blanke verse, <had> a strong and early impulse to antiquitie (strong impulse to ♄[138]). <My> witt was alwaies working, but not adroict for verse. <I was> ex<ceeding[139]> mild of spirit; migh<tily> susceptible of fascination.[140] My idea very cleer[141]; phansie like[142] a mirrour, pure chrystal water which the least wind does disorder and unsmooth—so noise or etc. would[143].

[144]My uncle Anthony Browne's bay nag threw me dangerously the Monday after Easter[145], 1639. Just before it I had an impulse of the briar under which I rode, which tickled him, at the gap at the upper end of Berylane. Deo gratias!

[146]1642, May 2^d, I went[W] to Oxford.

Peace[147].

Lookt through Logique and some Ethiques.

1642, Religio Medici printed, which first opened my understanding, which I carryed to Eston, with Sir K. D.[148]

But now[149] Bellona thundered, and as a cleare skie is sometimes suddenly overstretch<ed> with a dismall[150] cloud and thunder, so was this serene peace[151] by the civill warres through the factions of those times; vide Homer's Odyssey.

In August[152] following my father sent for me home, for feare.

In February ... following, with much adoe[153] I gott my father to lett me to beloved Oxon againe, then a garrison pro rege.

I gott Mr. Hesketh, Mr. Dobson's man, a priest, to drawe the ruines of Osney 2 or 3 wayes before 'twas pulld downe[X]. Now the very foundation is digged-up.

In Aprill I fell sick of the small pox at Trinity College; and when I recovered, after Trinity weeke[154], my father sent for me into the country again: where I conversed[155] with none but servants and rustiques and soldiers quartred, to my great griefe (Odi prophanum vulgus et arceo), for in those dayes fathers were not acquainted with their children. It was a most sad life to me, then in the prime of my youth, not to have the benefitt of an ingeniose conversation and scarce any good bookes—almost a consumption. This sad life I did lead in the country till 1646, at which time I gott (with much adoe) leave of my father to lett me goe to the Middle Temple, April the 6^th 1646; admitted....

24 June following, Oxon was surrendred, and then came to London many of the king's party, with whom I[156] grew acquainted (many of them I knew before). I loved not debauches[157], but their martiall conversation was not so fitt for the muses.

Novemb. 6, I returned to Trinity College in Oxon again to my great joy; was much made of by the fellowes; had their learned conversation, lookt on bookes, musique. Here and at Middle Temple (off and on) I (for the most part) enjoyd the greatest felicity of my life (ingeniose youths, as[158] rosebudds, imbibe the morning dew[159]) till Dec. 1648 (Christmas Eve's eve) I was sent for from Oxon home again to my sick father, who never recovered. Where I was engaged to looke after his country businesse and solicite a lawe-suite.

Anno 165-, Octob. ..., my father dyed, leaving me debts 1800 li. and bro<thers'> portions 1000 li.

Quid digni feci, hîc process. viam? Truly nothing; only umbrages, sc. Osney abbey ruines, etc., antiquities. Cos, a wheatstone, exors ipse secandi, e.g. <my> universall character[160] <: that> which was neglected and quite forgott and had sunk had not I engaged[161] in the worke, to carry on the worke—name them[162].

He began to enter into pocket memorandum bookes philosophicall and antiquarian remarques, Anno Domini 1654, at Llantrithid.

Anno 16—I began my lawe-suite on the entaile in Brecon[Y], which lasted till ..., and it cost me 1200 li.

Anno —— I was to have maried Mris K. Ryves, who died when to be maried, 2000 li. +[163], besides counting care of her brother, 1000 li. per annum.

Anno —— I made my will[Z] and settled my estate on trustees, intending to have seen the antiquities of Rome and Italy for ... <years>, and then to have returned and maried, but—

Diis aliter visum est superis,

my mother, to my inexpressible griefe and ruine, hindred this[164] designe, which was[165] my ruine.

[166]My estate (was of) value 100 li. fere + Brecon.

Then debts and lawe-suites, opus et usus, borrowing of money and perpetuall riding. To my prayse, <I had> wonderfull credit in the countrey for money. Anno ... sold manor of Bushelton in Herefordshire to Dr. T<homas> Willis. Anno ... sold the manor of Stratford in the same county to Herbert <Croft> lord bishop of Hereford.

Then anno 1664, June 11, went into France. Oct. ... returned. Then Joan Sumner.

[167]Memorandum. J. Aubrey in the yeare 1666, wayting then upon Joane Sumner to her brother at Seen in Wilts, there made a discovery of a chalybiate waters and those more impregnated than any waters yet heard of in England. I sent some bottles to the Royal Society in June 1667, which were tryed with galles before a great assembly there. It turnes so black that you may write legibly with it, and did there, after so long a carriage, turne as deepe as a deepe claret. The physitians were wonderfully surprized at it, and spake to me to recommend it to the doctors of the Bath (from whence it is but about 10 miles) for that in some cases 'tis best to begin with such waters and end with the Bath, and in some vice versâ. I wrote severall times, but to no purpose, for at last I found that, though they were satisfied of the excellency of the waters and what the London doctors sayd was true, they did not care to have company goe from the Bath. So I inserted it last yeare in Mr. Lilly's almanac, and towards the later end of summer there came so much company that the village could not containe them, and they are now preparing for building of houses against the next summer. Jo<hn> Sumner sayth (whose well is the best) that it will be worth to him 200 li. per annum. Dr. <Nehemiah> Grew in his History of the Repository of the Royal Society mentions this discovery, as also of the iron oare there not taken notice of before——'tis in part iii, cap. 2, pag. 331.

[168]Then lawe-suite with her[169]. Then sold Easton-Peirse[AA], and the farme at Broad Chalke. Lost 500 li. (Fr. H.) + 200 li. + goods + timber. Absconded as a banishd man.

Then

In monte Dei videbitur[170].

I was in as much affliction as a mortall could bee, and never quiet till all was gone, <and I> wholly[171] cast myselfe on God's providence.

Monastery[172].

I wished monastrys had not been putt downe, that the reformers would have been more moderate as to that point. Nay, the Turkes have monasteries. Why should our reformers be so severe? Convenience of religious houses—Sir Christopher Wren—fitt there should be receptacles and provision for contemplative men; if of 500, but one or two[173]. 'Tis compensated[174]. What a pleasure 'twould have been to have travelled from monastery to monastery. The reformers in the Lutheran countrys were more prudent then to destroy them (e.g. in Holsatia, etc.); <they> only altered the religion.

But notwithstanding all these embarasments I did pian piano (as they occur'd) take[175] notes of antiquity; and having a quick draught, have drawne landskips on horseback symbolically, e.g. <on my> journey to Ireland in July, Anno Domini 166-.

<The> earl of Thanet[176] <gave me> otium at Hethefield.

<I[177] had> never quiett, nor anything of happinesse till[178] divested of all, 1670, 1671[AB]: at what time providence raysed me (unexpectedly) good friends—the right honourable Nicholas, earl of Thanet, with whom I was delitescent at Hethfield in Kent[AC] neer a yeare, and then was invited ...; anno ..., Sarney; Sir Christopher Wren; Mr. Ogilby; then Edmund Wyld, esq., R<egiae> S<ocietatis> S<ocius>, of Glasely-hall, Salop (sed in margine), tooke me into his armes, with whom I most commonly take my diet and sweet otium's.

Anno 1671, having sold all and disappointed as aforesaid of moneys I received, I had so strong[179] an impulse[180] to (in good part) finish my[181] Description of Wilts, two volumes in folio, that I could not be quiet till I had donne it, and that with danger enough, tanquam canis e Nilo, for feare of the crocodiles, i.e. catchpolls.——And indeed all that I have donne and that little that I have studied have been just after that fashion, so that had I not lived long my want of leisure would have afforded but a slender harvest of....

A man's spirit rises and falls with his[182] ⦻: makes me lethargique.

[183]<My> stomach <was> so tender that I could not drinke claret without sugar, nor white wine, but would disgorge. <It was> not well ordered till 1670.

☞ A strange fate that I have laboured under never[184] in my life to enjoy one entire monethe[VII.] or 6 weekes otium for contemplation.

My studies (geometry) were on horse back[VIII.], and <in> the house of office: (my father discouraged me). My head was alwaies working; never idle, and even travelling (which from 1649 till 1670 was never off my horsback) did gleane som observations, of which I have a collection in folio of 2 quiers of paper + a dust basket, some wherof are to be valued.

His[187] chiefe vertue, gratitude.

Tacit. lib. IV § xx:—Cneus Lentulus[188], outre l' honneur du consulat et le triumphes de Getules, avoit la gloire d'avoir vescu sans reproche dans sa pauverté, et sans orgueil dans son opulence où il estoit parvenu de puis par de voyes legitimes.

<I was> never riotous or prodigall; but (as Sir E. Leech said) sloath and carelesnesse[189] <are> equivalent to all other vices.

My fancy lay most to geometrie. If ever I had been good for anything, 'twould have been a painter, I could fancy a thing so strongly and had so cleare an idaea of it.

When a boy, he did ever love to converse with old men, as living histories. He cared not for play, but on play-dayes[190] he gave himselfe to drawing and painting. At 9, a pourtraiter[191]; and soon was....

Reall character, <things[192] that> lay dead, I caused to revive by engaging 6 or 7 ... fungor vice cotis, etc.

Wheras very sickly in youth; Deo gratias, healthy from 16.

• A<nthony> Ettrick, Trin. Coll.
• M. T.[193]—John Lydall.
• Fr<ancis> Potter, of 666[194], C lettres[195].
• Sir J<ohn> Hoskyns, baronet.
• Ed<mund> Wyld, esq. of Glasley Hall, quem summae gratitudinis ergo nomino.
• Mr. Robert Hooke, Gresham College.
• Mr. <Thomas> Hobbes, 165-.
• A<nthony> Wood, 1665.
• ☞ Sir William Petty, my singular friend.
• Sir James Long, baronet, of Draycot, χρονογραφία etc.
• Mr. Ch<arles> Seymour, father[196] of the d<uke> of S<omerset>.
• Sir Jo<hn> Stawell, M. T.[197]
• Bishop of Sarum <Seth Ward>.
• Dr. W<illiam> Holder.

• 'The[199] Naturall History of Wiltshire.'
• These 'Lives' (pro AW[200], 1679/80).
• 'Idea[201] of education of the noblesse,' in Mr. Ashmole's hands.
• item, 'Remaynders of Gentilisme,' being observations on Ovid's Fastorum.
• memorandum, 'Villare Anglicanum interpreted.'
• item, Faber Fortunae (for his own private use).

I. A. lived most at Broad-chalke in com. Wilts; sometimes at Easton Piers; at London every terme. Much of his time spent in journeying to South Wales (entaile[202]) and Hereff<ordshire>. I now indulge my genius with my friends and pray for the young angels. Rest at Mris More's neer Gresham College (Mrs More's in Hammond Alley in Bishopgate Street farthest house[203]☍ old Jairer (?) taverne).

<I> expect preferment <through> Sir Ll. Jenkins[204].

[205]It was I. A. that did putt Mr. Hobbes upon writing his treatise De Legibus, which is bound up with his Rhetorique that one cannot find it but by chance; no mention of it in the first title.

[206]I have writt 'an Idea of the education of the Noblesse from the age of 10 (or 11) till 18': left with Elias Ashmole, esquire.

[207]1673[208], die Jovis[209], 5^to Martii, 9^h 15´ + P.M. J. A. arrested <by> ... Gardiner, serjeant, a lusty faire-haired solar fellow, prowd, insolent, et omnia id genus.

[210]March 25, 1675, my nose bled at the left nostrill about 4^h. P.M. I doe not remember any event[AD].

[211]July 31, 1677, I sold my bokes to Mr. Littlebury, scilicet when my impostume in my heade did breake.

About 50 annos <aetatis> <I had> impostume in capite.

[212]Captain ... Poyntz (for service that I did him to the earle of Pembroke and the earl of Abingdon[AE]) did very kindly make me a grant of a thousand acres of land in the island of Tobago, anno Domini 1685/6, Febr. 2^d. He advised me to send over people to plant[AF] and to gett subscribers to come in for a share of these 1000 acres, for 200 acres he sayes would be enough for me. In this delicate island is lac lunae (the mother of silver).

William Penn, Lord Proprietor of Pennsylvania, did, ex mero motu et ex gratia speciali, give me, (16—) a graunt, under his seale, of six hundred acres in Pennsylvania[AG], without my seeking or dreaming of it. He adviseth me to plant it with French protestants for seaven yeares gratis and afterwards <they are> to pay such a rent. Also he tells me, for 200 acres ten pounds per annum rent for ever, after three yeares.

[213]John Aubrey[AH], March 20, 1692/3, about 11 at night robbed and 15 wounds in my head.

January 5^th, 1693/4, an apoplectick fitt, circiter 4^h. P.M.

Borne at Easton-Piers, March 12, 1625/6, about sun-rising: very weake and like to dye, and therfore Christned that morning before Prayer. I thinke I have heard my mother say I had an ague shortly after I was borne.

1629: about 3 or 4 yeares old, I had a grievous ague.

I can remember it. I gott not health till 11, or 12: but had sicknesse of vomiting for 12 howres every fortnight for ... yeares; then, it came monethly for ...; then, quarterly; and then, halfe-yearly; the last was in June 1642. This sicknesse nipt my strength in the bud.

1633: 8 yeares old, I had an issue (naturall) in the coronall suture of my head, which continued running till 21.

1634: October[215]: I had a violent fever that was like to have carried me off. 'Twas the most dangerous sicknesse that ever I had.

About 1639 (or 1640) I had the measills, but that was nothing: I was hardly sick.

1639: Monday after Easter weeke my uncle's nag ranne away with me, and gave a very dangerous fall.

1642: May 3, entred at Trinity College, Oxon.

1643: April and May, the small-pox at Oxon; and shortly after, left that ingeniouse place; and for three yeares led a sad life in the countrey.

1646: April ——, admitted of the Middle Temple. But my father's sicknesse, and businesse, never permitted me to make any settlement to my studie.

1651: about the 16 or 18 of April, I sawe that incomparable good conditioned gentlewoman, Mris M. Wiseman, with whom at first sight I was in love—haeret lateri[216].

1652: October 21: my father died.

1655: (I thinke) June 14, I had a fall at Epsam, and brake one of my ribbes and was afrayd it might cause an apostumation.

1656: September 1655, or rather (I thinke) 1656, I began my chargeable and taedious lawe-suite about the entaile in Brecknockshire and Monmouthshire.

This yeare, and the last, was a strange year to me, and[217] of contradictions;—scilicet love M. W.[218] and lawe-suites.

1656: December: Veneris morbus.

[219]1657: Novemb. 27, obiit domina Katherina Ryves, with whom I was to marry; to my great losse.

1658: ...[220]

1659: March or Aprill, like to breake my neck in Ely minster, and the next day, riding a gallop there, my horse tumbled over and over, and yet (I thanke God) no hurt.

1660: July, August, I accompanied A. Ettrick into Ireland for a moneth; and returning were like to be ship-wrackt at Holy-head, but no hurt donne.

1661, 1662, 1663: about these yeares I sold my estate in Herefordshire.

...[221]: Janu., had the honour to be elected fellow of the Royal Society.

1664: June 11, landed at Calais. In August following, had a terrible fit of the spleen, and piles, at Orleans. I returned in October.

1664, or 1665: Munday after Christmas, was in danger to be spoiled by my horse, and the same day received laesio in testiculo which was like to have been fatall. Quaere R. Wiseman quando—I beleeve 1664.

1665: November 1; I made my first addresse (in an ill howre) to Joane Sumner.

1666: this yeare all my businesses and affaires ran kim kam. Nothing tooke effect, as if I had been under an ill tongue. Treacheries and enmities in abundance against me.

1667: December —: arrested in Chancery lane, at Mrs. Sumner's suite.

<1667/8>: Febr. 24, A.M. about 8 or 9, triall with her at Sarum. Victory and 600 li. dammage, though divelish opposition against me.

1668: July 6, was arrested by Peter Gale's malicious contrivance, the day before I was to goe to Winton for my second triall, but it did not retain me above two howres; but did not then goe to triall.

1669[222]: March 5, was my triall at Winton, from 8 to 9, the judge being exceedingly made against me, by my lady Hungerford. But 4 of the Venue (?) appearing, and with much adoe, gott the moëity of Sarum, verdict viz. 300 li.

1669 and 1670: I sold all my estate in Wilts.

From 1670, to this very day (I thanke God), I have enjoyed a happy delitescency.

1671: danger of arrests.

1677: later end of June, an imposthume brake in my head.

Laus Deo.

[223]Memorandum:—St. John's night, 1673, in danger of being run through with a sword by a young ...[224] at Mr. Burges' chamber in the Middle Temple.

Quaere the yeare[225] that I lay at Mris Neve's; for that time I was in great danger of being killed by a drunkard in the street opposite Grayes-Inne gate—a gentleman whom I never sawe before, but (Deo gratias) one of his companions hindred his thrust. (Memorandum: horoscope....[226])

Danger of being killed by William, earl of Pembroke, then lord Herbert, at the election of Sir William Salkeld for New Sarum.

I see Mars in ...226[226] threatnes danger to me from falls.

I have been twice in danger of drowning.

   William Aubrey, LL.D.
            |
            |
   John Aubrey (3rd son)
            |
            |
      Richard Aubrey m. Deborah,
        (only son)   |   daughter of
                     |   Isaac Lyte
                     |
       +-------------+-------------+
       |             |             |
       |             |             |
      John        William       Thomas
  (our author)

[238]William Aubrey[AJ], Doctor of Lawes:—extracted from a MS.[AK] of funeralls, and other good notes, in the hands of Sir Henry St. George, ...[239], marked thus ♡. I guesse it to be the hand-writing of Sir Daniel Dun, knight, LL. Dr., who maried Joane, third daughter of Dr. William Aubrey:—

William Aubrey (the second son of Thomas Aubrey, the 4th son of Hopkin Aubrey, of Abercunvrig in the countie of Brecon, esqre) in the 66th yeare of his age or thereabouts, and on the 25th of June, in the yeare of our Lord 1595, departed this life, and was buried in the Cathedrall-church of St. Paul in London, on the north side of the chancell, over against the tombe of Sir John Mason, knight, at the base or foot of a great pillar standing upon the highest step of certain degrees or staires rising into the quire eastward from the same pillar towards the tombe of the right honble the lord William, earle of Pembroke, and his funeralls were performed the 23d of July, 1595. This gentleman in his tender yeares learned the first grounds of grammar in the College of Brecon, in Brecknock towne, and from thence about his age of fourteen yeares he was sent by his parents to the University of Oxford, where, under the tuition and instruction of one Mr. Morgan, a great learned man, in a few yeares he so much profited in humanity and other recommendable knowledge, especially in Rhetorique and Histories, as that he was found to be fitt for the studie of the Civill Law, and thereupon was also elected into the fellowship[240] of All-soules Colledge in Oxford (where the same Lawe[241] hath alwayes much flourished). In which Colledge he ernestly studied and diligently applied himselfe to the lectures and exercise of the house, as that he there attained the degree of a Doctor of the Law Civill at his age of 25 yeares, and immediately after, he had bestowed on him the Queen's Publique Lecture of Law in the university, the which he read with so great a commendation as that his fame for learning and knowledge was spred far abroad and he also esteemed worthy to be called to action in the commonwealth. Wherefor, shortly after, he was made Judge Marshall of the Queen's armies at St. Quintins in France. Which warrs finished, he returned into England, and determining with himselfe, in more peaceable manner and according to his former education, to passe on the course of his life in the exercise of law, he became an advocate of the Arches, and so rested many yeares, but with such fame and credit as well for his rare skill and science in the[242] law, as also for his sound judgment and good experience therein, as that, of men of best judgment, he was generally accounted peerlesse in that facultie.

Wherupon, as occasion fell out for imployment of a civilian, his service was often used as well within the realme as in forrein countries. In which imployments, he alwaies used such care and diligence and good circumspection, as that his valour and vertues dayly more appearing ministred means to his further advancement. In soe much that he was preferred to be one of the Councell of the Marches of Wales, and shortly after placed Master of the Chancery, and the appointed Judge of the Audience, and constituted Vicar Generall to the Lord Archbishop of <Canterbury> through the whole province, and last, by the especiall grace of the queene's most excellent majestie, queen Elizabeth, he was taken to her highnesse nearer service and made one of the Masters of Request in ordinarie. All which titles and offices (the Mastership of Chancery, which seemed not competible with the office of Master of Requestes, only excepted) he by her princely favour possessed and enjoyed untill the time of his death. Besides the great learning and wisdome that this gentleman was plentifully endowed withall, Nature had also framed him so courteous of disposition and affable of speech, so sweet of conversation and amiable behaviour, that there was never any in his place better beloved all his life, nor he himselfe more especially favoured of her majestie and the greatest personages in the realme in any part of his life then he was when he drew nearest his death. He was of stature not taull, nor yet over-low, not grosse in bodie, and yet of good habit; somewhat inclining to fatnesse of visage in his youth; round, well favoured, well coloured and lovely; and albeit in his latter yeares sicknesse had much[243] impaired his strength and the freshnesse of his hew, yet there remained there still to the last in his countenance such comely and decent gravity, as that the change rather added unto them then ought diminished his former dignitie. He left behind him when he died, by a vertuouse gentlewoman Wilgiford his wife (the first daughter of Mr. John Williams of Tainton in the countie of Oxford, whom he maried very young a maiden, and enjoyed to his death, that both having lived together in great love and kindnesse by the space of 40 yeares) three sons and six daughters, all of them maried, and having issue, as followeth[IX.].

His eldest son Edward, maried unto Joane, daughter and one of the heires of William Havard, in the countie of Brecon, esqre.

His second son Thomas maried Mary the daughter and heire of Anthony Maunsell of Llantrithed, in the com. of Glamorgan, esqre.

His 3d son John,[X.] being then of the age of 18 yeares (or much thereabouts), was maried to Rachel, one of the daughters of Richard Danvers of Tockenham, in com. Wilts, esqre.

His eldest daughter Elizabeth, maried to Thomas Norton of Norwood in the countie of Kent, esqre.

His 2d daughter Mary maried William Herbert of Krickhowell, in the countie of Brecknock, esqre.

His 3d daughter Joane maried with Sir Daniel Dun, knight, and Doctor of the Civill Lawe.

His 4th daughter Wilgiford maried to Rise Kemis of Llanvay, in the county of Monmouth, esqre.

His 5th daughter Lucie maried to Hugh Powell, gent.

His 6th and youngest daughter Anne, maried to John Partridge, of Wishanger, in the countie of Glocester, esqre.

Of every of the which since his death there hath proceeded a plentifull issue.

Memorandum:—he was one of the delegates (together with Dr. Dale, &c.) for the tryall of Mary, queen of Scots, and was a great stickler for the saving of her life, which kindnesse was remembred by King James att his comeing-in to England, who asked after[244] him, and probably[245] would have made him Lord Keeper, but he dyed, as appeares, a little[246] before that good opportunity happened. His majestie sent for his sonnes[247], and knighted the two eldest, and invited them to court, which they modestly and perhaps prudently, declined. They preferred a country life.

You may find him mentioned in the History of Mary, queen of Scotts, 8vo, written, I thinke, by <John> Hayward; as also in Thuanus's Annales, which be pleased to see[AL] and insert his words here in honour to the Doctor's Manes. Dr. ... Zouch mentions him with respect in his De Jure Faeciali, pag....; and as I remember, he is quoted by Sir Edward Coke, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, in his Reports, about the legitimacy of the earle of Hertford.[XI.] Quaere if it was Edward the father[AM], or els his son William, about the mariage with the ladie Arbella Stuart?

[248][Johannes[249] David Rhesus M.D. makes an honourable mention of him in his Welsh grammar in folio, pag....; as also in his preface.]

[250][Linguae Cymraecae institutiones accuratae, J. David Rhoesus, folio, London, 1592, pag. 182 (quaere if he is not mentioned in the Welsh preface):—

[251]Memorandum:—old Judge Atkins[252] (the father) told me that the Portugall ambassador was tryed for his life for killing Mr. Greenway in the New Exchange (Oliver's time), upon the precedent of the bishop of Rosse (Scotch) by Dr. W. Aubrey's advice. Memorandum:—Dr. Cruzo[253] of Doctors Commons hath the MSS. of this bishop's tryall.

[254]De legati deliquentis judice competente dissertatio, autore Richardo Zoucheo, Juris Civilis professore Oxoniae, Oxon 1657, 12^mo, pag. 89:—

[255]He was a good statesman; and queen Elizabeth loved him and was wont to call him 'her little Doctor.' Sir Joseph Williamson, Principall Secretary of Estate (first, under-Secretary), haz told me that in the Letter-office are a great many letters of his to the queen and councell[256].

He sate many times as Lord Keeper, durante bene placito, and made[257] many decrees, which Mr. Shuter, etc., told me they had seen.

Vide Anthony Wood's Hist. et Antiq.: he was principal of New Inne.

Memorandum:—the Penkenol, i.e. chiefe of the family, is my cosen Aubrey of Llannelly in Brecknockshire, of about 60 or 80 li. per annum inheritance; and the Doctor should have given a distinction; for want of which in a badge on one of his servants' blew-coates, his cosen William Aubrey[258], also LL. Dr., who was the chiefe, plucked it off.

The learned John Dee was his great friend and kinsman, as I find by letters between them in the custody of Elias Ashmole, esqre, viz., John Dee wrote a booke The Soveraignty of the Sea, dedicated to queen Elizabeth, which was printed, in folio. Mr. Ashmole hath it, and also the originall copie of John Dee's hand writing, and annexed to it is a lettre of his cosen Dr. William Aubrey[259], whose advise he desired in his writing on that subject.

He purchased Abercunvrig (the ancient seate of the family) of his cosen Aubrey. He built the great house at Brecknock, his studie lookes on the river Uske. He could ride nine miles together in his owne land in Breconshire. In Wales and England he left 2500 li. per annum wherof there is now none left in the family. He made one Hugh George (his chiefe clark) his executor, who ran away into Ireland and cosened all the legatees, and among others my grandfather (his youngest son) for the addition of whose estate he had contracted with.... for Pembridge castle in the com. of Hereford, which appeares by his will, and for which his executor was to have payed. He made a deed of entaile (36 Eliz., 15<94>) which is also mentioned in his will, wherby he entailes the Brecon estate on the issue male of his eldest son, and in defailer, to skip the 2d son (for whom he had well provided, and had maried a great fortune) and to come to the third. Edward the eldest had seaven sonnes; and his eldest son, Sir William, had also seaven sonnes; and so I am heire, being the 18th man in remainder, which putts me in mind of Dr. Donne,

Old Judge Sir <Edward> Atkins remembred Dr. A. when he was a boy; he lay at his father's house in Glocestershire: he kept his coach, which was rare in those dayes. The Judge told me they then (vulgarly) called it a Quitch. I have his originall picture. He had a delicate, quick, lively and piercing black eie, fresh complexion, and a severe eie browe. The figure in his monument at St. Paules is not like him, it is too big.

Heroum filii noxae: he engrossed all the witt of the family, so that none descended from him can pretend to any. 'Twas pitty that Dr. Fuller had not mentioned him amongst his Worthys in that countie.

When he lay dyeing, he desired them to send for a goodman; they thought he meant Dr. Goodman, deane of St. Paules, but he meant a priest, as I have heard my cosen John Madock say. Capt. Pugh was wont to say that civilians (as most learned an<d> gent.) naturally incline to the church of Rome; and the common lawyers, as more ignorant and clownish, to the church of Geneva.

Wilgiford, his relict, maried ... Browne, of Willey, in com. Surrey.

The inscription on his monument in St. Paul's church:—

[260]This Dr. W. Aubrey was related to the first William, earl of Pembroke, two wayes (as appeares by comparing the old pedegre at Wilton with that of the Aubreys); by Melin and Philip ap Elider (the Welsh men are all kinne); and it is exceeding probable that the earle was instrumentall in his rise. When the earl of Pembroke was generall at St. Quintins in France, Dr. Aubrey was his judge advocat. In the Doctor's will is mention of a great piece of silver plate, the bequest of the right hon^ble the earle of Pembroke.

... Stephens, the clarke of St. Benets, Paules Wharfe, tells me that Dr. W. Aubrey gave xxs. per annum for ever to that parish.

[261]Vide the register of St. Benet's, Paule's Wharfe—quaere. Stephens, the clark, sayeth that he gave xxs. per annum to the parish of St. Benet's, Paule's wharfe, for ever: quaere.

[262]Sir Andrew Joyner of Bigods in Much Dunmow parish in Essex hath two folios, stitcht, of manuscript letters of state, wherin are two letters of Dr. William Aubrey's to secretary Walsingham, and also lettres of queen Elizabeth's owne handwriting to Cecill; also Liber St^ae Mariae de Reding, a MS.; and other MSS.,—a long shelfe of them—one of them writt tempore Henr. IV. This I had from Mr. Andrew Paschal, rector of Chedzoy, Somerset.

[263]My good coosen,

I have sente unto you again my yonge coosen[264] inclosede in a bagge, as my wyffe cariethe yet one of myne; trustinge in God, that shortly both, in theyr severall kyndes, shall come to lyght and live long, and your's having genium, for ever. I knowe not, for lack of sufficiencie of witte and learninge, how to judge of it at all. But in that shadowe of judgemente that I have, truste me beinge vearie farre from meanynge to yelde any thyng, to your owne eares, of yourselfe. The matter dothe so strive with the manner of the handlinge that I am in dowpte whyther I shall preferre the matter for the substance, weyght, and pythines of the multitude of argumentes and reasones, or the manner for the methode, order, perspicuitie, and elocution, in that height and loftynesse that I did nott beleve our tonge (I meane the Englyshe) to be capable of. Marie, our Brittishe, for the riches of the tonge, in my affectionate opinion, is more copious and more advawntageable to utter any thinge by a skillfull artificer. This navie which you aptlie, accordinge to the nature and meaninge of your platt, call pettie, is so sette furthe by you, thos principall and royall navies of the Grecianes and Trojanes described by Homer and Vergill are no more bownde to them, then it is to you.

You argue or rather thoondre so thicke and so strong for the necessitie and commoditie of your navie, that you leade or rather drawe me obtorto collo to be of opinion with you, the benefitte therofe to be suche as it wilbe a brydle and restreynte for conspiracies of foreyne nationes, and of owre owne a salfegarde to merchants from infestationes of pyrates; a readie meane to breed and augmente noombers of skillfull marryners and sowldiers for the sea, a mayntynawnce in proces of tyme for multitudes of woorthie men that otherwise wolde be ydle. Who can denie, as you handle the matter, and as it is in trothe, but that it will be a terror to all princes for attemptinge of any soodeyne invasions,[265] and hable readilie to withstande any attempte foreyne or domesticall by sea? And where this noble realme hath ben long defamede for suffringe of pyrates disturbers of the common traffyke upon these seas, yt will, as you trulye prove, utterlie extingwishe the incorrigible, and occupie the reformed in that honourable service.

The indignitie that this realme hath long borne in the fyshinge rownde aboute yt, with the intolerable injuries that owre nation hath indurede and doe still, at strangers handes, besides the greatnes of the commoditie that they take owte of our mowthes, hath ben, and is suche, that the same almoste alone were cause sufficiente to furnishe your navie if it may have that successe and consideration that it deserveth, it will be a better wache for the securitie of the state than all the intelligencers or becones that may be devisede: and a stronger wall and bulwarke than either Calleys was, or a brase of such townes placed in the most convenient parte of any continente of France, or the Lowe-countrey. As her majestie of right is totius orbis Britannici domina, et lex maris, whiche is given in the reste of the worlde by Labro in our learning to Antoninus the Emperor, so she showlde have the execution and effect therof in our worlde, yf your navie were as well setled as you have plottede it. But what doe I by this bare recitall deface your reasones so eloquentlie garnishede by you with the furniture of so much and so sundrie lernynge? I will of purpose omitt howe fully and howe substantially you confute the stronge objectiones and argumentes that you inforce and presse againste your selfe. I wolde God all men wolde as willinglie beare the light burdynes that you lay upon them for the supportation of the chardges as you have wiselie and reasonablie devisede the same. And so the dearthe and scarsitie that curiouse or covetouse men may pretende to[266] feare, you so sowndlie satisfie, that it is harde with any probabilitie to replie. As for the sincere handlinge and govermente it is not to be disperede yf the charge shall be with good ordinawnces and instructiones placede carefullie in chosen persones of good credite and integritie. See howe boldlie upon one soodeyne readinge I powre my opinion to your bosome of this your notable and strange discowrse. And yet I will make bold to censure it also as he dyd in the poore slipper when he was nott able to fynd any faulte in any one parte of the workemanship of the noble picture of that goddes. I pray you, Sir, seyinge you meane that your navie shall contynewe in time of peace furnishede with your noombre of men, what provision or ordre make you, howe they shall occupie and exercise themselves all the while? Assure your selfe those whelpes of yours neyther can nor will be ydle, and excepte it may please you to prescribe unto them some good occupation and exercise, they will occupie themselves in occupationes of their owne choice, wherof few shall be to your lykinge or meanynge. Peradventure you meane of purpose to reserve that to the consideration of the state. And where you in vearie good proportion, lawierlike, share goodes taken by pyrates amonge sundrie persones of your navie, and some portion to itselfe, reservinge the moytie to the prince, you are to remembre that the same are challenged holly to belong to her highnesse by prerogative. Let me be also bold to offer to your consideration whether it be expedient for you so freely to deale with the carryinge of ordinawnces out of the realme beinge a matter lately pecuted[267] by the knowledge et convenientia of, etc. You doe, to veary great purpose inserte the two orationes of Georgius Gemistus Plethon, the one to Emanuel by fragments, and the other to his sonne Theodore ad verbum, for the worthynes and varietye of many wise and sownd advises given by him to those princes in a hard tyme, when they were in feare of that Turkish conquest, that did after followe to the ruine of that empire of Constantinople. However well doeth he handle the differences and rates of customes and tributes, the moderate and sober use of apparell in ipsis principibus! How wisely doethe[268] he condemne the takeinge up of all the newe attires and apparell of strange nations, as though he had written to us at this tyme, who doe offende as deepely therein as the Greekes then dyd! How franke is he to his prince in useinge the comparisone between the Eagle that hath no varietie of colours of feathers, and yet of a princelie nature and estimation, and the Peocock, a bird of no regall propertie nor credit yet glisteringe angelically with varietie of feathers of all lively colours. There is one sentence in the later oration which I have thought to note because in apparence it dothe oppugne in a maner your treatise. The wordes are these, Prestat longè terrestribus copiis ac militum et ducum virtute, quàm nautarum et similium hominum vilium arte, fiduciam ponere.

Good coosen, pardon my boldnes. I doe this bicause you may understande that I have roone over it. And yet was I abrode all the fowle day yesterday. I pray you pardon me agayne for nott sendinge of it to you accordinge to promisse. And for that your man is come, and for that I have spente all my paper, I will no longer trowble you at this tyme, savinge with my right heartie commendations to your selfe and to my coosen your good mother from me and from my woman. From Kewe this Soonday in the morninge, the 28 of July.

Yours assuredlie at commawndement,

W. Aubrey.

To his verie lovinge coosen and assured
freende Mr. John Dee, at Mortelake.

[270]Quarterly, on the 1 and 4, gules on a chief argent two mullets sable [Bacon], on the 2 and 3, barry of six or and azure, over all a bend gules [ ...], a crescent on the fesse point for difference; impaling, sable, a cross engrailed between 4 crescents argent, a crescent sable on the fesse point [Barnham].

[271]Chancellor Bacon:—The learned and great cardinal Richelieu was a great admirer of the lord Bacon.

So was Monsieur Balzac: e.g. les Oeuvres diverses, dissertation sur un tragedie, à Monsieur Huygens de Zuylichen, p. 158—'Croyons, pour l'amour du chancilier Bacon, que toutes les folies des anciens sont sages et tous leur songes mysteries.'

Quaere if I have inserted[272] his irrigation in the spring showres.

Vide Court of King James by Sir Anthony Welden, where is an account of his being viceroy here when the king was in Scotland, and gave audience to ambassadors in the banquetting-house.

[273]Lord Chancellor Bacon:—Memorandum, this Oct. 1681, it rang over all St. Albans that Sir Harbottle Grimston, Master of the Rolles, had removed the coffin of this most renowned Lord Chancellour to make roome for his owne to lye-in in the vault there at St. Michael's church.

[274]Sir Francis Bacon, knight, baron of Verulam and viscount of St. Albans, and Lord High Chancellor of England:—vide his life writt by Dr. William Rawley before Baconi Resuscitatio, in folio.

It appeares by this following inscription that Mr. Jeremiah Betenham of Graye's Inne was his lordship's intimate and dearely beloved friend. This inscription is on the freeze of the summer house on the mount in the upper garden of Grayes Inne, built by the Lord Chancellor Bacon. The north side of the inscription is now perished[275]. The fane was a Cupid drawing his bowe.

In his lordship's prosperity Sir Fulke Grevil, lord Brookes, was his great friend and acquaintance; but when he was in disgrace and want, he was so unworthy as to forbid his butler to let him have any more small beer, which he had often sent for, his stomach being nice, and the small beere of Grayes Inne not liking his pallet. This has donne his memorie more dishonour then Sir Philip Sydney's friendship engraven on his monument hath donne him honour. Vide ... History, and (I thinke) Sir Anthony Weldon.

... Faucet, of Marybon in the county of Middlesex, esqr., was his friend and acquaintance, as appeares by this letter which I copied from his owne handwriting (an elegant Roman hand). 'Tis in the hands of Walter Charlton, M.D., who begged it not long since of Mr. Faucet's grandsonne.

[276]

[277]Richard[278], earle of Dorset, was a great admirer and friend of the lord chancellor Bacon, and was wont to have Sir Thomas Billingsley[279] along with him to remember and to putt-down in writing my lord's sayings at table.

Edward, lord Herbert of Cherbery.

John Dun[280], dean of Paul's.

George Herbert.

Mr. Ben: Johnson was one of his friends and acquaintance, as doeth appeare by his excellent verses on his lordship's birth-day in his second volume, and in his Underwoods, where he gives him a character and concludes that 'about his time, and within his view were borne all the witts that could honour a nation or help studie.'

[281]Lord Bacon's birth-day: Underwoods, p. 222.

Discoveries, p. 101.

[285]He came often to Sir John Danvers at Chelsey. Sir John told me that when his lordship had wrote the History of Henry 7, he sent the manuscript copie to him to desire his opinion of it before 'twas printed. Qd. Sir John 'Your lordship knowes that I am no scholar.' ''Tis no matter,' said my lord, 'I know what a schollar can say; I would know what you can[286] say.' Sir John read it, and gave his opinion what he misliked which Tacitus did not omitt (which I am sorry I have forgott) which my lord acknowledged to be true, and mended it: 'Why,' said he, 'a scholar would never have told me this.'

Mr. Thomas Hobbes (Malmesburiensis) was beloved by his lordship, who was wont to have him walke with him in his delicate groves where he did meditate: and when a notion darted into his mind, Mr. Hobbs was presently to write it downe, and his lordship was wont to say that he did it better then any one els about him; for that many times, when he read their notes he scarce understood what they writt, because they understood it not clearly themselves.

In short, all that were great and good loved and honoured him.

Sir Edward Coke, Lord Chiefe Justice, alwayes envyed him, and would be undervalueing his lawe, as you may find in my lord's lettres, and I knew old lawyers that remembred it.

He was Lord Protector during King James's progresse into Scotland, and gave audience in great state to ambassadors in the banquetting-house at Whitehall.

His lordship would many times have musique in the next roome where he meditated.

The aviary at Yorke-house was built by his lordship; it did cost 300li.

At every meale, according to the season of the yeare, he had his table strewed with sweet herbes and flowers, which he sayd did refresh his spirits and memorie.

When his lordship was at his country house at Gorhambery, St. Albans seemed as if the court were[287] there, so nobly did he live. His servants had liveries with his crest (a boare ...); his watermen were more imployed by gentlemen then any other, even the king's.

King James sent a buck to him, and he gave the keeper fifty pounds.

He was wont to say to his servant Hunt, (who was a notable thrifty man, and loved this world, and the only servant he had that he could never gett to become bound for him) 'The world was made for man, Hunt; and not man for the world.' Hunt left an estate of 1000li. per annum in Somerset.

None of his servants durst appeare before him without Spanish leather bootes: for he would smell the neates-leather, which offended him.

The East India merchants presented his lordship with a cabinet of jewells, which his page, Mr. Cockaine, recieved, and decieved his lord.

Three of his lordship's servants[XIII.] kept their coaches, and some kept race-horses—vide Sir Anthony Welden's Court of King James.

[288]He was[289] a παιδεραστής. His Ganimeds and favourites tooke bribes; but his lordship alwayes gave judgement secundum aequum et bonum. His decrees in Chancery stand firme, i.e. there are fewer of his decrees reverst then of any other Chancellor.

His dowager[290] maried her gentleman-usher, Sir (Thomas, I thinke) Underhill, whom she made deafe and blind with too much of Venus. ☞ She was living since the beheading of the late King.—Quaere where and when she died.

He had a delicate[291], lively hazel eie; Dr. Harvey told me it was like the eie of a viper.

I have now forgott what Mr. Bushell sayd, whether his lordship enjoyed his Muse best at night, or in the morning.

His lordship was a good poet, but conceal'd, as appeares by his letters. See excellent verses of his lordship's which Mr. Farnaby translated into Greeke, and printed both[292] in his Ἀνθολογία, scil.

[293]Ἀνθολογία: Florilegium epigrammatum selectorum; Thomas Farnaby, London, 1629, pag. 8.—'Huc elegantem viri clarissimi domini Verulamii *παρῳδίαν adjicere adlubuit'—opposit to it on the other page—'quam παρῳδίαν e nostrati bona nos Graecam qualemcunque sic fecimus, et rhythmice.'

[295]His reading of Treason.

His reading of Usurie.

Decrees in Chancery.

Cogitata et Visa: printed in Holland by Sir William Boswell, Resident there: who also there printed Dr. Gilbert's Magnetique Philosophie.

Speech in Parliament of naturalization of the Scottish nation: printed 1641.

His apothegmes, 8vo.

{ . . . . .
Essaies { . . . . .
{ . . . . .

Advancement of learning.

History of King Henry the 7th.

Novum Organon.—At the end of his Novum Organon Hugh Holland wrote these verses:—

Naturall Historie.

Of ambassadors: published by Francis Thynne out of Sir Robert Cotton's library, 1650.

Speech touching duells, in the Starre-chamber: in the Bodleian library at Oxford. Reprint it.

All the rest of his lordship's workes you will find in Dr. William Rawley's Resuscitatio.

A piece of philosophy halfe as thick as the grammar set forth by Dr. Rawley, 1660.

. . . . .

. . . . , 167—.

His lordship being in Yorke-house garden lookeing on fishers as they were throwing their nett, asked them what they would take for their draught; they answered so much: his lordship would offer them no more but so much. They drew-up their nett, and <in> it were only 2 or 3 little fishes: his lordship then told them it had been better for them to have taken his offer. They replied, they hoped to have had a better draught; 'but,' sayd his lordship, 'Hope is a good breakfast, but an ill supper.'

When his lordship was in dis-favour, his neighbours hearing how much he was indebted, came to him with a motion to buy Oake-wood of him. His lordship told them, 'He would not sell his feathers.'

The earle of Manchester being removed from his place of Lord Chiefe Justice of the Common Pleas[297] to be Lord President of the Councell, told my lord (upon his fall) that he was sorry to see him made such an example. Lord Bacon replied 'It did not trouble him since he was made a President.'

The bishop of London did cutt-downe a noble clowd of trees at Fulham. The Lord Chancellor told him that he was a good expounder of darke places.

Upon his being in dis-favour his servants suddenly went away; he compared them to the flying of the vermin when the howse was falling.

One told his Lordship it was now time to looke about him. He replyed, 'I doe not looke about me, I looke above me.'

Sir Julius Cæsar (Master of the Rolles) sent to his lordship in his necessity a hundred pounds for a present[XIV.]; quaere + de hoc of Michael Malet.

His Lordship would often drinke a good draught of strong beer (March beer) to-bedwards, to lay his working fancy asleep: which otherwise would keepe him from sleeping great part of the night.

I remember Sir John Danvers told me, that his lordship much delighted in his curious[298] garden at Chelsey, and as he was walking there one time, he fell downe in a dead-sowne. My lady Danvers rubbed his face, temples, etc. and gave him cordiall water: as soon as he came to himselfe, sayd he, 'Madam, I am no good footman.'

[299]Mr. Hobbs told me that the cause of his lordship's death was trying an experiment: viz., as he was taking the aire in a coach with Dr. Witherborne (a Scotchman, Physitian to the King) towards High-gate, snow lay on the ground, and it came into my lord's thoughts, why flesh might not be preserved in snow, as in salt. They were resolved they would try the experiment presently. They[300] alighted out of the coach, and went into a poore woman's howse at the bottome of Highgate hill, and bought a hen, and made the woman exenterate it, and then stuffed the bodie with snow, and my lord did help to doe it himselfe. The snow so chilled him, that he immediately fell so extremely ill, that he could not returne to his lodgings (I suppose then at Graye's Inne), but went to the earle of Arundell's house at High-gate, where they putt him into a good bed warmed with a panne, but it was a damp bed that had not been layn-in in about a yeare before, which gave him such a cold that in 2 or 3 dayes, as I remember he[301] told me, he dyed of suffocation.

Mr. George Herbert, Orator of the University of Cambridge, haz made excellent verses on this great man. So haz Mr. Abraham Cowley in his Pindariques. Mr. Thomas Randolph of Trin. Coll. in Cambr. haz in his poems verses on him.

[302]In the north side of the chancell of St. Michael's church (which, as I remember, is within the walles of Verulam) is the Lord Chancellor Bacon's monument in white marble in a niech, as big as the life, sitting in his chaire in his gowne and hatt cock't, leaning his head on his right hand. Underneath is this inscription which they say was made by his friend Sir Henry Wotton.

Franciscus Bacon, Baro de Verulam,
Sti Albani Vicecomes, seu, notioribus titulis,
Scientiarum Lumen, Facundiae Lex,
sic sedebat.
Qui postquam omnia Naturalis sapientiae
et Civilis arcana evolvisset,
Naturae decretum explevit
'Composita solvantur,'
Anno Domini MDCXXVI
aetatis LXVI.
Tanti viri
mem.
Thomas Meautys[XV.]
superstitis cultor,
defuncti admirator,
H. P.

[303]He had a uterine[XVI.] brother Anthony Bacon, who was a very great statesman and much beyond his brother Francis for the politiques, a lame man, he was a pensioner to, and lived with ... earle of Essex. And to him he dedicates the first edition of his Essayes, a little booke no bigger then a primer, which I have seen in the Bodlyan Library.

His sisters were ingeniose and well-bred; they well understood the use of the globes, as you may find in the preface of Mr. Blundevill of the Sphaere: see if it is not dedicated to them. One of them was maried to Sir John Cunstable of Yorkshire. To this brother in lawe he dedicates his second edition of his Essayes, in 8vo; his last, in 4to, to the duke of Bucks.

[305]I will write something of Verulam, and his house at Gorhambery.

At Verulam is to be seen, in some few places, some remaines of the wall of this citie[XVII.]; which was in compass about ... miles. This magnanimous Lord Chancellor had a great mind to have made it a citie again: and he had designed it, to be built with great uniformity: but Fortune denyed it him, though she proved kinder <to> the great Cardinal Richelieu, who lived both to designe and finish that specious towne of Richelieu, where he was borne; before, an obscure and small vilage. (The ichnographie, etc., of this towne and palais is nobly engraved).

Within the bounds of the walls of this old citie of Verulam (his lordship's Baronry) was Verulam howse, about ½ a mile from St. Albans; which his Lordship built, the most ingeniosely contrived little pile[XVIII.], that ever I sawe. No question but his lordship was the chiefest architect; but he had for his assistant a favourite of his (a St. Albans man) Mr. ... Dobson (who was his lordship's right hand) a very ingeniose person (Master of the Alienation Office); but he spending his estate upon woemen[306], necessity forced his son William Dobson to be the most excellent painter that England hath yet bred, qui obiit Oct. 1648; sepult. S. Martin's in the fields[307].

[308]The view of this howse from the entrance into the gate by the high-way is thus. The parallel[309] sides answer one another. I doe not well remember if on the east side were bay windowes, which his lordship much affected, as may be seen in his essay Of Building. Quaere whether the number of windowes on the east side were 5 or 7: to my best remembrance but 5. This model I drew by memorie, 1656.

This howse did cost nine or ten thousand the building, and was sold about 1665 or 1666 by Sir Harbottle Grimston, baronet, (now Master of the Rolles) to two carpenters for fower hundred poundes; of which they made eight hundred poundes. Memorandum:—there were good chimney-pieces; the roomes very loftie, and all were very well wainscotted. Memorandum:—there were two bathing-roomes or stuffes, whither his Lordship retired afternoons as he sawe cause. All the tunnells of the chimneys were carried into the middle of the howse, as in this draught; and round about them were seates. The top of the howse was well leaded. From the leads was a lovely prospect to the ponds, which were opposite to the east side of the howse, and were on the other side of the stately walke of trees that leades to Gorhambery-howse: and also over that long walke of trees, whose topps afford a most pleasant[311] variegated verdure, resembling the workes in Irish-stitch. The kitchin, larder, cellars, &c., are under ground. In the middle of this howse was a delicate staire-case of wood, which was curiously carved, and on the posts of every interstice was some prettie figure, as of a grave divine with his booke and spectacles, a mendicant friar, &c.—(not one thing twice). Memorandum:—on the dores of the upper storie on the outside (which were painted darke umber) were the figures of the gods of the Gentiles (viz. on the south dore, 2d storie, was Apollo; on another, Jupiter with his thunderbolt, etc.) bigger then the life, and donne by an excellent hand; the heightnings were of hatchings of gold, which when the sun shone on them made a most glorious shew.

Memorandum:—the upper part of the uppermost dore, on the east side, had inserted into it a large looking-glasse, with which the stranger was very gratefully decieved, for (after he had been entertained a pretty while, with the prospects of the ponds, walks, and countrey, which this dore faced) when you were about to returne into the roome[312], one would have sworn primo intuitu, that he had beheld another prospect through the howse: for, as soon as the stranger was landed on the balconie, the conserge[313] that shewed the howse would shutt the dore to putt this fallacy on him with the looking-glasse. This was his lordship's summer-howse: for he sayes (in his essay) one should have seates for summer and winter as well as cloathes.

From hence to Gorhambery is about a little mile, the way easily ascending, hardly so acclive as a deske.

From hence to Gorambury in a straite line leade three parallell walkes: in the middlemost three coaches may passe abreast: in the wing-walkes two may. They consist of severall stately trees of the like groweth and heighth, viz. elme, chesnut, beach, hornebeame, Spanish-ash, cervice-tree, &c., whose topps (as aforesaid) doe afford from the walke on the howse the finest shew that I have seen, and I sawe it about Michaelmas, at which time of the yeare the colour of leaves are most varied. The manner of the walke is thus:—

[314]The figures of the ponds were thus: they were pitched at the bottomes with pebbles of severall colours, which were work't in to severall figures, as of fishes, &c. which in his lordship's time were plainly to be seen through the cleare water, now over-grown with flagges and rushe.

If a poor bodie had brought his lordship halfe a dozen pebbles of a curious colour, he would give them a shilling, so curious was he in perfecting his fish-ponds, which I guesse doe containe four acres. In the middle of the middlemost pond, in the island, is a curious banquetting-house of Roman architecture, paved with black and white marble; covered with Cornish slatt, and neatly wainscotted.

(a) = cutt hedge about the island.

(b) = walke between the hedge and banquetting-howse.

Memorandum:—about the mid-way from Verolam-house to Gorambery, on the right hand, on the side of a hill which faces the passer-by, are sett in artificiall manner the afore-named trees, whose diversity of greens on the side of the hill are exceeding pleasant. These delicate walkes and prospects entertaine the eie to Gorambery-howse, which is a large, well-built Gothique howse, built (I thinke) by Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper, father to this Lord Chancellor, to whom it descended by the death of Anthony Bacon, his middle brother, who died sans issue.[315]The Lord Chancellor made an addition of a noble portico, which fronts the garden to the south: opposite to every arch of this portico, and as big as the arch, are drawen, by an excellent hand (but the mischief of it is, in water-colours), curious pictures, all emblematicall, with mottos under each: for example, one I remember is a ship tossed in a storme, the motto, Alter erit tum Tiphys. Enquire for the rest.

Over this portico is a stately gallerie, whose glasse-windowes are all painted; and every pane with severall figures of beast, bird, or flower: perhaps his lordship might use them as topiques for locall memory. The windowes looke into the garden, the side opposite to them no window, but that side is hung all with pictures at length, as of King James, his lordship, and severall illustrious persons of his time. At the end you enter is no windowe, but there is a very large picture, thus:—in the middle on a rock in the sea stands King James in armour, with his regall ornaments; on his right hand stands (but whither or no on a rock I have forgott), King Henry 4 of France, in armour; and on his left hand, the King of Spaine, in like manner. These figures are (at least) as big as the life, they are donne only with umbre and shell gold: all the heightning and illuminated part being burnisht gold, and the shadowed umbre, as in the pictures of the gods on the dores of Verolam-house. The roofe of this gallerie is semi-cylindrique, and painted by the same hand and same manner, with heads and busts of Greek and Roman emperours and heroes.

In the hall (which is of the auncient building) is a large storie very well painted of the feastes of the gods, where Mars is caught in a nett by Vulcan. On the wall, over the chimney, is painted an oake with akornes falling from it; the word, Nisi quid potius. And on the wall, over the table, is painted Ceres teaching the soweing of corne; the word, Moniti meliora.

The garden is large, which was (no doubt) rarely planted and kept in his lordship's time: vide vitam Peireskii de domino Bacon. Here is a handsome dore, which opens into Oake-wood; over this dore in golden letters on blew are these six verses[316].

[317]The oakes of this wood are very great and shadie. His lordship much delighted himselfe here: under every tree he planted some fine flower, or flowers, some wherof are there still (1656), viz. paeonies, tulips,....

From this wood a dore opens into ..., a place as big as an ordinary parke, the west part wherof is coppice-wood, where are walkes cutt-out as straight as a line, and broade enoug for a coach, a quarter of a mile long or better.—Here his lordship much[318] meditated, his servant Mr. Bushell attending him with his pen and inke horne to sett downe his present notions.—Mr. Thomas Hobbes told me, that his lordship would employ him often in this service whilest he was there, and was better pleased with his minutes, or notes sett downe by him, then by others who did not well understand his lordship. He told me that he was employed in translating part of the Essayes, viz. three of them, one wherof was that of the Greatnesse of Cities, the other two I have now forgott.

The east of this parquet (which extends to Veralam-howse) was heretofore, in his lordship's prosperitie, a paradise; now is a large ploughed field. This eastern division consisted of severall parts; some thicketts of plumme-trees with delicate walkes; some of rasberies. Here was all manner of fruit-trees that would grow in England; and a great number of choice forest-trees; as the whitti-tree, sorbe-, cervice-, etc., eugh[319]. The walke<s>, both in the coppices and other boscages, were most ingeniosely designed: at severall good viewes[320], were erected elegant sommer-howses well built of Roman architecture, well wainscotted and cieled; yet standing, but defaced, so that one would have thought the Barbarians had made a conquest here. This place in his lordship's time was a sanctuary for phesants, partridges, etc. birds of severall kinds and countries, as white, speckled etc., partridges. In April, and the springtime, his lordship would, when it rayned, take his coach (open) to recieve the benefit of irrigation, which he was wont to say was very wholsome because of the nitre in the aire and the universall spirit of the world.

His lordship was wont to say, I will lay my mannor of Gorambery on't, to which Judge ... made a spightfull reply, saying he would not hold a wager against that, but against any other mannour of his lordship's he would. Now this illustrious Lord Chancellor had only this mannor of Gorambery.

[321]Roger Bacon, friar ordinis <S. Francisci>:—Memorandum, in Mr. Selden's learned verses before Hopton's Concordance of yeares, he speakes of friar Bacon, and sayes that he was a Dorsetshire gentleman. There are yet of that name in that countie, and some of pretty good estate. I find by ... (which booke I have) that he understood the making of optique glasses; where he also gives a perfect account of the making of gunpowder, vide pag ... ejusdem libri.

[322]Friar Roger Bacon:—Dr. Gerard Langbain had a Catalogue[AO] of all his workes, which Catalogue Dr. <Thomas> Gale, schoolmaster of Paule's, haz now.

[323]The ... happinesse a shoemaker haz in drawing on a fair lady's shoe.... I know one that it was the hight of his ambition to be prentice to his mris<'s> shoemaker upon that condicion.

Sir Thomas Bad's[324] father, a shoemaker, married the brewer's widow of Portsmouth, worth 20,000 li.

[325]Edward Bagshaw was borne at Broughton in Northamptonshire; 42 when he dyed—from his widowe[AP].

[326]My old acquaintance, Mr. Edward Bagshawe, B.D., 3rd son of Edward Bagshawe, esq., a bencher of the Middle Temple, was borne (the day nor moneth certaine to be knowne) November or December at Broughton in Northamptonshire, where Mr. Boldon[327], quondam Coll. Aeneinas., was parson.

He was a king's scholar at Westminster schole, then student of Christ Church. Scripsit severall treatises.

Obiit on St. Innocents day, 28 Dec., 1671, in Tuttle street, Westminster, a prisoner to Newgate 22 weekes for running into a praemunire for refusing to take the oath of allegiance (he boggled at the word 'willingly' in the oath): aetatis 42. Sepult., Newyeares day, in the fanatique burying-place by the Artillery-ground in Moorfields, where his sorrowfull widdowe will place his epitaph.

1500 or 2000 people were at his funerall.

[328]'Here[329] lyes interred | the body of | Mr. Edward Bagshaw | minister of the Gospell | who recieved from God | faith to embrace it | courage to defend it | and patience to suffer for it | when by most despised and by many persecuted | esteeming the advantages of birth, education, and learning | as things of worth to be accounted losse for the knowledge | of Christ. | From the reproaches of pretended friends | and persecutions of professed adversaries | he | took sanctuary | by the will of God | in eternall rest.'

[330]Monsieur de Balzac ended his dayes in a Cappucine's cell, and was munificent to them: vide Entretiens de monsieur de Balzac, printed above 20 yeares since.

[331]Johannes Barclaius, Scoto-Britannus:—from Sam. Butler—was in England some time tempore regis Jacobi. He was then an old man, white beard; and wore a hatt and a feather, which gave some severe people offence.

Dr. John Pell tells me, that his last employment was Library-Keeper of the Vatican, and that he was there poysoned.

Memorandum:—this John Barclay haz a sonne[332], now (1688) an old man, and a learned quaker, who wrote a Systeme of the Quakers' Doctrine in Latine[333], dedicated to King Charles II, now <to> King James II; now translated by him into English, in.... The Quakers mightily value him. The booke is common.

[334]Isaac Barrow, D.D.—from his father, (who was borne Aprill 22, 1600, ½ a yeare older then King Charles 1st), May 17, 1682.

His father, Thomas Barrow, was the second son of Isaac Barrow of Spinney Abbey in the countie of Cambridge, esq., who was a Justice of the Peace there above fourtie yeares. The father of Thomas never designed him for a tradesman, but he was so severe to him <that> he could not endure to live with him and so came to London and was apprentice to a linnen-draper. He kept shop at the signe of the White-horse in Forster lane near St. Forster's church in St. Leonard's parish; and <his son[335]> was christened at St. John Zacharie's in Forster lane, for at that time St. Leonard's church was pulled downe to be re-edified. He was borne anno Dni 1630 in October[336] after King Charles II^nd. Dr. Isaac Barrow had the exact day and hower of his father, which may be found amongst his papers. His father sett it downe in his English bible, a faire one, which they used at the king's chapell when he was in France and he could not get it again. His father travelled with the King, Charles 2^nd, where ever he went; he was sealer to the Lord Chancellor beyond sea, and so when he came into England. Amongst Dr. Barrowe's papers it may be found. Dr. Tillotson has all his papers—quaere for it, and for the names of all writings both in print and MSS.

He went to schoole, first to Mr. Brookes at Charterhouse two yeares. His father gave to Mr. Brookes 4 li. per annum, wheras his pay was but 2 li., to be carefull of him; but Mr. Brokes was negligent of him, which the captain of the school acquainted his father (his kinsman) and sayd that he would not have him stay there any longer than he[337] did, for that he337[337] instructed him.

Afterwards to one Mr. Holbitch, about fower years, at Felton[338] in Essex; from whence he was admitted of Peterhouse College in Cambridge first, and went to schoole a yeare after. Then he was admitted of Trinity College in Cambridge at 13 yeares old.

Quaere whose daughter his mother was.

His mother was Anne, daughter of William Buggin of North Cray in Kent, esq. She died when her sonne Isaac was about fower yeares old.

Anno Domini ... he travelled, and returned, anno Domini....

He wrote.... What MSS.?—quaere Dr. Tillotson, and quaere Mr. Brabazon Aylmer, bookseller, nere Exchange Alley.

His humour when a boy and after:—merry and cheerfull and beloved where ever he came. His grandfather kept him till he was 7 years old: his father was faine to force him away, for there he would have been good for nothing there.

A good poet, English and Latin. He spake 8 severall languages.

[339]His father dealt in his trade to Ireland where he had a great losse, neer 1000 li.; upon which he wrote to Mr. Holbitch, a Puritan, to be pleased to take a little paines more than ordinary with him, because the times growing so bad, and such a losse then received, that he did not knowe how he might be able to provide for him, and so Mr. Holbitch tooke him away from the howse where he was boarded to his owne howse, and made him tutor to my lord viscount Fairfax, ward to the lord viscount Say and Seale, where he continued so long as my lord continued.

This viscount Fairfax[340] died a young man. This viscount Fairfax, being a schooleboy, maried a gentleman's daughter in the towne there, who had but a thousand pounds. So leaving the schoole, would needs have Mr. Isaac Barrow with him, and told him he would maintaine him. But the lord Say was so cruel to him that he would not allow anything that 'tis thought he dyed for want. The 1000 li. could not serve him long.

During this time old Mr. Thomas Barrow was shutt-up at Oxford and could not heare of his sonne. But young Isaac's master, Holbitch, found him out in London and courted him to come to his schoole and that he would make him his heire. But he did not care to goe to schoole again.

When my lord Fairfax faild and that he sawe he grew heavy upon him, he went to see one of his schoolfellowes, one Mr. Walpole, a Norfolke gent., who asked him 'What he would doe?' He replyed he 'knew not what to doe; he could not goe to his father at Oxford.' Mr. Walpole then told him 'I am goeing to Cambridge to Trinity College and I will maintaine you there'; and so he did for halfe a yeare till the surrender of Oxford; and then his father enquired after him and found him at Cambridge. And the very next day after old Mr. Barrow came to Cambridge, Mr. Walpole was leaving the University and (hearing nothing of Isaac's father) resolved to take Isaac along with him to his howse. His father then asked him what profession he would be of, a merchant or etc.? He begd of his father to lett him continue in the University. His father then asked what would maintain him. He told him 20 li. per annum: 'I warrant you,' sayd he, 'I will maintaine myselfe with it.' His father replyed 'I'le make a shift to allow you that.' So his father then went to his tutor and acquainted him of, etc. His tutor, Dr. Duport, told him that he would take nothing for his reading to him, for that he was likely to make a brave scholar, and he would helpe him to halfe a chamber for nothing. And the next newes his father heard of him was that he was chosen in to the howse.[341]Dr. Hill[342] was then master of the college. He mett Isaac[343] one day and layd his hand upon his head and sayd 'thou art a good boy; 'tis pitty that thou art a cavalier.'

He was a strong and a stowt man and feared not any man. He would fight with the butchers' boyes in St. Nicholas' shambles, and be hard enough for any of them.

He went to travell 3 or 4 yeares after the king was beheaded, upon the colledge account[344]. He was a candidate for the Greeke professor's place, and had the consent of the University but Oliver Cromwell putt in Dr. Widrington[345]; and then he travelled.

He was abroad 5 yeares[346], viz. in Italie, France, Germany, Constantinople.

As he went to Constantinople, two men of warre (Turkish shippes) attacqued the vessell wherin he was. In which engagement he shewed much valour in defending the vessell; which the men that were in that engagement often testifye, for he never told his father of it himselfe.

Upon his returne, he came in <a> ship to Venice, which was stowed with cotton-wooll, and as soon as ever they came on shore the ship fell on fire, and was utterly consumed, and not a man lost, but not any goods saved—a wonderfull preservation.

His personall valour—At Constantinople, being in company with the English merchants, there was a Rhadamontade that would fight with any man and bragged of his valour, and dared any man there to try him. So no man accepting his challenge, said Isaac (not then a divine), 'Why, if none els will try you I will'; and fell upon him and chastised him handsomely that he vaunted no more amongst them.

After he had been 3 years beyond sea, his correspondent dyed, so that he had no more supply; yet he was so well beloved that he never wanted.

At Constantinople he wayted on the consul Sir Thomas Bendish, who made him stay with him and kept him there a yeare and a halfe, whether he would or no.

At Constantinople, Mr. Dawes (afterwards Sir Jonathan Dawes, who dyed sherif of London), a Turkey merchant, desired Mr. Barrow to stay but such a time and he would returne with him, but when that time came he could not goe, some businesse stayd him. Mr. Barrow could stay no longer; so Mr. Dawes would have had Mr. Barrow have C[347] pistolles. 'No,' said Mr. Barrow, 'I know not whether I shall be able to pay you.' ''Tis no matter,' said Mr. Dawes. To be short, forced him to take fifty pistolls, which at his returne he payd him again.

[348]Memorandum, his pill (an opiate, possibly Matthews his pil), which he was wont to take in Turkey, which was wont to doe him good, but he tooke it preposterously at Mr. Wilson's, the sadler's, neer Suffolke-house, where he was wont to lye and where he dyed, and 'twas the cause of his death—quaere + de hoc there.

As he lay expiring[349] in the agonie of death, the standers-by could heare him say softly 'I have seen the glories of the world'—<from> Mr. Wilson.

I have heard Mr. Wilson say that when he was at study, was so intent at it that when the bed was made, or so, he heeded it not nor perceived it, was so totus in hoc; and would sometimes be goeing out without his hatt on.

He was by no meanes a spruce man[350], but most negligent in his dresse. As he was walking one day in St. James's parke, looking ..., his hatt up, his cloake halfe on and halfe off, a gent. came behind him and clapt him on the shoulder and sayd 'Well, goe thy wayes for the veriest scholar that ever I[351] mett with.'

He was a strong man but pale as the candle he studyed by.

His stature was....

The first booke he printed was Euclid's Elements in Latin, printed at Cambridge, impensis Gulielmi Nealand, bibliopolae, Anno Domini MDCLV.

Euclidis data succincte demonstrata, printed at Cambridge ex officina Joannis Field, impensis Gulielmi Nealand, bibliopolae, anno Domini 1657.

Euclid's Elements in English.

Euclid's Elements in Latin—in the last impressions of this is an appendix about the sphaere itselfe, it's segments and their surfaces, most admirably derived and demonstrated by the doctrine of infinite arithmetique and indivisibles.

[352]Lectiones XVIII Cantabrigiae in scholis publicis habitae in quibus opticorum phaenomenωn genuinae rationes investigantur ac exponuntur. Annexae sunt lectiones aliquot geometricae. Londini, prostant venales apud Johannem Dunmore et Octavianum Pulleyn. MDCLXIX.

Archimedes.

Apollonius.

Theodosius.

Now printing, 22 initiating lectures about mathematics[353], to which will be subjoined some lectures that he read about Archimedes, proving that he was an algebraist, and giving his owne thoughts by what method Archimedes came to fall on his theoremes.

Bookes writ by the learned Dr. Isaac Barrow and printed for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pidgeons over against the Royall Exchange in Cornhill:—

12 Sermons preached upon severall occasions; in 8vo, being the first volume.

10 Sermons against evil speaking; in 8vo, being the second volume.

8 Sermons of the love of God and our neighbour; in 8vo, being the third volume.

The duty and reward of bounty to the poor, in a sermon, much enlarged, preached at the Spittall upon Wednesday in Easter weeke anno Domini 1671, in 8vo.

A sermon upon the Passion of our blessed Saviour preached at Guildhall chapell on Good Fryday the 13th day of April 1677, in 8vo.

A learned treatise of the Pope's supremacy, to which is added a discourse concerning the unity of the church; in 4to.

The sayd discourse concerning the Unity of the Church is also printed alone in 8vo.

An exposition of the Lord's Prayer, of the Ten Commandments, of the doctrine of the Sacraments; in 8vo.

All the sayd books of the learned Dr. Isaac Barrow (except the sermon of bounty to the poor) are since the author's death published by Dr. Tillotson, deane of Canterbury.

'The true and lively effigies of Dr. Isaac Barrow' in a large print, ingraven from the life by the excellent artist D. Loggan; price, without frame, 6d.

[354]Thomas Barrow, (father of Isaac, S.T.D.) was brother to Isaac Barrow late lord bishop of St. Asaph, and sonne of Isaac Barrow of Spiney Abbey, who was sonne of Philip Barrow[355], who hath in print a method of Physick, and he had a brother Isaac Barrow, a Dr. of Physick, who was a benefactor to Trinity Colledge in Cambridge, and was there tutor to Robert Cecill that was earle of Salisbury and Lord Treasurer.

[356]Isaac Barrow, D.D., (<a> Cambridge <man>, borne in Essex), is buried in the south crosse aisle of Westminster Abbey with this inscription[357]:—

Isaacus Barrow

S.T.P. Regi Carolo IIº a sacris

This epitaph was contrived by Dr. John Mapletoft and perfected by Dr. <Thomas> Gale.

He was the ... son of ... Barrow, <who> was a brewer at Lambith; a King's Scholar at Westminster.

Anno 1655 he printed at Cambridge Euclidis Elementorum libri XV breviter demonstrati.

Anno ..., he travelled; was at Constantinople; sawe part of Graece, Italie, France.

He was a good poet, of great modestie and humanity, careles of his dresse.

[358]Dr. ... Barrow, M.D., secretary to the lord generall Monke in Scotland, and who wrote the life or history of the generall, was cosen-german to Thomas (father of Isaac, D.D.). He was a very good-humoured man. He much resembled and spake like Dr. Ezerel Tong. Obiit 2 yeares since: quaere ubi.

[359]Memorandum: in Sir Charles Scarborough's time (he was of Caius College) Dr. ... (the head of that house) would visit the boyes' chambers, and see what they were studying; and Charles Scarborough's genius let him to the mathematics, and he was wont to be reading of Clavius upon Euclid. The old Dr. had found in the title '... ..., e Societate Jesu,' and was much scandalized at it. Sayd he, 'By all meanes leave-off this author, and read Protestant mathematicall bookes.'

One sent this Doctor a pidgeon-pye from New-market or thereabout, and he askt the bearer whither 'twas hott, or cold? He did out-doe Dr. Kettle.

[360]Kingston super Thames; north aisle chap<el>.

Spe resurrectionis felicis
heic juxta sita est
Elizabetha
conjux lectissima
Georgii Bate, M.D.,
Car. 2 medici primarii,
Qui cineres suos adjacere curavit
ut qui unanimes convixerant
quasi unicorpores condormientes
una resurgant.
Mortem obiit 17 Apr., 1667, aet. 46
ex hydro-pulmon.,
funesta Londini conflagratione
acceleratam.
Obiit ille 19 Apr., 1668
aetatis suae 60.

[361]Mr. Francis Beaumont was the son of Judge Beaumont[362]. There was a wonderfull consimility of phansey[XIX.] between him and Mr. John Fletcher, which caused that dearnesse of frendship between them.

I thinke they were both of Queen's College in Cambridge.

I have heard Dr. John Earles (since bishop of Sarum), who knew them, say that his maine businesse was to correct the overflowings[364] of Mr. Fletcher's witt.

They lived together on the Banke side, not far from the Play-house, both batchelors; lay together—from Sir James Hales, etc.; had one wench in the house between them, which they did so admire; the same cloathes and cloake, &c., betweene them.

He writt (amongst many other) an admirable elegie on the countesse of Rutland, which is printed with verses before Sir Thomas Overburie's Characters. John Earles, in his verses on him, speaking of them,

Ex registro:—he was buryed at the entrance of St. Benedict's chapell where <is> the earl of Middlesex' monument, in Westminster Abbey, March 9, 1615/6[XX.].

I searched, severall yeares since, in the Register-booke of St. Mary Overies, for the obiit of Mr. John Fletcher, which I sent to Mr. Anthony à Wood.

He hath a very good prefatory letter before Mr. Speght's edition of Sir Geofrey Chaucer's Workes printed by Adam Islip, 1602, London, where he haz judicious observations of his writing.

[365]... Bedwell, professor of ... at Gresham College, translated into English Pitisci Trigonometria. Published The turnament of Totnam. He was an Essex man—from his grand-niece.

[366]Did I tell you that I have mett with old Mr ...[367] who knew all the old English poets, whose lives I am taking from him: his father was master of the ... play-house.

[368]The more to be admired, quaere—he was not a company keeper; lived in Shorditch; would not be debauched; and if invited to court, was in paine.

W. Shakespeare—quaere Mr. Beeston, who knowes most of him from Mr. Lacy. He lives in Shoreditch at Hoglane within 6 dores north of Folgate. Quaere etiam for Ben Jonson.

[369]Old Mr. Beeston, whom Mr. <John> Dreyden calles 'the chronicle of the stage,' died at his house in Bishopsgate street without, about Bartholomew-tyde, 1682. Mr. Shipey in Somerset-house hath his papers.

[370]I did see, many yeares since, in a countrey-man's house, a little booke in 8vo in English, called

Arsmetrie, or the Art of numbring:

printed in an old black letter about Henry VIII. The author's name I doe not remember—quaere in Duck lane.

The next old mathematicall booke in English that I have seen hath this title, viz:—

This booke sheweth the manner of measuring of all manner of land, as well of woodland as of lande in the felde, and comptinge the true nombre of acres of the same.

✠

Newlye invented and compiled by Syr Rycharde Benese, chanon of Marton Abbay besyde London.

¶ Printed in Southwarke in Saint Thomas hospital by me James Nicolson.

'Tis a quarto.

[371]This Sir Richard Benese was also author of a little booke, in 8vo, called....

: quaere Absolom Leech for it—'tis about physick.

[372]Mris ... Barckley, sister of the late lord Fitz-Harding[373], was cosen german to Mr. Sydney Godolphin, and also his mistresse. He loved her exceedingly. After Mr. Godolphin's death she maried one Mr. Davys who I thinke is now[374] dead, and she lives at Twicknam—from Philip Packer, esq.

[375]<Willoughby> Bertie, filius primus Jacobi Bertie, 2^ndi filii Jacobi, comitis de Abington, natus Westmonast. 28 die Novembris, 2^h. P.M. 1692.—The child is yet living, notwithstanding the 8^th house[376]: mend the figure, but the time is right.

[377]I know not how to retreive the fashion or shape of the old engine of the battering-ramme, but from the coate of the Bertyes, which is 'or, 3 battering rammes barrewise,' as in the margent, the timber is proper, the head azure, the hornes and ironworke gilded.

[378]Memorandum:—the battering ramme, the armes of Bertie, hung in equilibrio in an engine they call the triangles—from Mr. Nicolas Mercator: vide Bertie's coate in primo volumine[379]. See[380] the old glasse windowes in Aldersgate street—from Mr. <Edward> Bagshawe.

[381]Sir Henry Billingsley[AQ], knight.—On the north side of the chancell of St. Katharine Coleman church London at the upper end is this inscription, viz:—

In obitum ejus.

<Vide> the Register book <of the church>.

Memorandum:—Billingsley (a village) is in the countie of Salop. 'Tis a Shropshire familie; but the village now is one Mr. Norton's.

This Sir Henry Billingsley was one of the learnedst citizens that London has bred. This was he that putt forth all Euclid's Elements in English with learned notes and preface of Mr. John Dee, and learned men say 'tis the best Euclid. He had been sheriff and Lord Mayor of the city of London. His howse was the faire howse in Fenchurch street where now Jacob Luce lives, a merchant, of of whom quaere +. Vide in Fuller's Worthies and Stowe's Survey. His Euclid was printed at London by John Day, 1570.

'The Translator to the Reader—Wherfore considering the want and lack of such good authors hitherto in our English tongue, lamenting also the negligence and lacke of zeale to their countrey in those of our nation to whom God hath given both knowledge and also abilitie to translate into our tongue and to publish abroad such good authors and bookes: Seeing moreover that many good witts, both of gentlemen and others of all degrees, much desirous and studious of these artes,—I have for their sakes with some chardge and great travaile faithfully translated into our vulgar tounge and set abroad in print this booke of Euclid wherunto I have added plaine declarations and examples, manifold additions, scholies, annotations, and inventions which I have gathered.'—He promises (here) some more translations and sayes that in religion he hath alreadie don, quaere.

Memorandum P. Ramus in his Scholia's sayes that the reason why mathematiques did most flourish in Germanie was that the best authors were rendred into their mother tongue, and that publique lectures of it were also read in their owne tongue—quod nota bene.

Memorandum when I was a boy, one Sir ... Billingsley had a very pleasant seate with a faire[383] oake-wood adjoyning to it, about a mile ½[384] east of Bristoll—quaere if[385], etc.

Vide de Sir Thomas Billingsley, pag. <44b>[386]; who was gentleman of the horse to Richard, earl of Dorset. He managed the great horse best of any man in England. He taught the Prince Elector and brothers to ride. Quaere if descended hence.

In those dayes[387] merchants travelled much abroad into Italie, Spaine, etc. Quaere Mr. Abraham Hill of what company he was. Probably good memorialls may be there found of his generous and publique spirit. Respondet:—He was of the Goldsmiths' Company, where is a good picture of him.

R. B., i.e. Robert[388] Billingsley, teaches Arithmetique and Mathematiques at ... in.... He hath printed a very pretty little booke of arithmetique and algebra, London (scilicet, <The> Idea of Arithmetic): was Sir Henry's great grandson—from Mr. Abraham Hill, Regiae Societatis Socius.

[389]In the table of benefactors in the church of St. Catherine Colman, viz.—

'1603 {Dame Elizabeth} Billingsley did will to the poor 1s. per
{Sir Henry            }

weeke for ever and 200li. which their heires etc. have not payd'—

The minister here, Mr. Dodson, sayes that it was not payd because the parish did not find-out in due time land to make a purchase of.

Many yeares since Mr. Abraham Hill, Regiae Societatis Socius, citizen, told me that Sir Henry Billingsley was of the Goldsmiths' Company, and that his picture was in Goldsmiths' Hall, which I went lately to see. No picture of him, and besides the clarke of the Company told me that he is sure he was never of that Company. But Mr. Hill tells me since that in Stowe's Survey you may see of what Company all the Lord Mayers were, which see[390] and tell me.

[391]Sir H. Billingsley—Mr. Leeke, mathematician, saith that he was of the company of goldsmiths, quaere. Quaere the clarke of the company: vide register booke. Vide Heralds' Office (Salop, and neer Bristowe). Vide Fuller's Worthyes where he mentions the Lord Mayers.

[392]Ex registro <of St. Catherine Coleman>:—Sir Henry Billingsley, knight, buried in the vault under his pewe in the church of St. Catherine Coleman, London, December the 18th, 1606. I find by the register that he had two more wives besides Elizabeth mentioned in the inscription; his second was the lady Trapps; third,....

Memorandum his house (which is a very faire one), which is neer the church, is still remayning untoucht by the fire. In the parlour windowe are scutchions of his family, which gett. There now lives Mr. Lucy[393], a great merchant.

He was sheriff of the citie of London anno Domini <1584>, reginae Elizabethae 26; he was Lord Mayor of the city of London anno Domini <1596>, reginae Elizabethae 38—Sir Thomas Skinner served one part and Sir Henry Billingsley the other:—Baker's Chronicle, reigne queen Elizabeth.

[394]Out of the visitation in the great booke[395] of Wilts, Dorset, and Somerset:—

               Sir Henry Billingsley, maried ...
                     Lord Mayer          |
                                         |
              +--------------------------+----------------------------+
              |                          |                            |
  1. Sir Henry Billingsley,    2. William Billingsley, m. ...   3. Thomas[396]
     of Sysam in                                       |
     Glocestershire,                                   |
     filius et haeres.                  +--------------+--------------+
                                        |                             |
                              1. Henry Billingsley,  m. ...      2. Thomas
                                 of Graye's Inne     |
                                                     |
                                             +-------+-------+
                                             |               |
                                         1. Blanch     2. Elizabeth

[397]Sir Henry Billingsley<'s life is> already donne[398]. Friar Whitehead[AR], of Austin Friars (now Wadham College), did instruct him. He kept him at his house and there I thinke he dyed.

[399]Mr. Martin Billingsley (captain <Edward> Shirburne knew him) was a writing master in London. He printed an excellent copie-booke (quaere if he descended from this[400]): vide his scutcheon[401] above his picture before his booke.

[402]Martin Billingsley, who made the copie booke, 1623, port.[403] ut in margine, '..., a cross between 4 lions rampant ..., 5 mullets ... on the cross.'

[404]Richard Billingsley[405] scripsit:—

'An Idea of Arithmetick, at first designed for the use of the free-schoole at Thurlow in Suffolk, by R. B. schoolmaster there': stitch't 8vo, 3 sheetes, London, 'printed by J. Flesher, and are to be sold by W. Morden booke-seller in Cambridge, 1655.'

[406]Sir Thomas Billingsley was the best horseman in England, and out of England no man exceeded him.

He taught this[407] earle <of Dorset> and his 30 gentlemen to ride the great horse. He taught this[408] Prince Elector Palatine of the Rhine and his brothers.

He ended his dayes at the countesse of Thanet's (daughter and co-heire of Richard, earl of Dorset) ... 167-; dyed praying on his knees.

[409]Sir John Birkenhead, knight, was borne at Nantwych[410] in Cheshire. His father was a sadler there, and he had a brother a sadler, a trooper in Sir Thomas Ashton's regiment, who was quartered at my father's, who told me so.

He went to Oxford university at ... old, and was first a servitor of Oriall colledge: vide Antiq. Oxon.[411] Mr. Gwin[412], minister of Wilton, was his contemporary there, who told me he wrote an excellent hand, and, in 163[7 or 8] when William Laud, archbishop of Canterbury, was last there, he had occasion to have some things well transcribed, and this Birkenhead was recommended to him, who performed[413] his businesse so well, that the archbishop recommended him to All Soules' college to be a fellow, and he was accordingly elected[414]. He was scholar enough, and a poet.

After Edgehill fight, when King Charles I first had his court at Oxford, he was pitched upon as one fitt to write the Newes, which Oxford Newes was called Mercurius Aulicus, which he writt wittily enough, till the surrender of the towne (which was June 24, 1646). He left a collection of all his Mercurius Aulicus's and all his other pamphletts, which his executors (Sir Richard Mason and Sir Muddiford Bramston) were ordered by the king to give to the Archbishop of Canterbury's library.

After the surrender of Oxford, he was putt out of his fellowship by the Visitors, and was faine to shift for himselfe as well as he could. Most part of his time he spent at London, where he mett with severall persons of quality that loved his company, and made much of him.

He went over into France, where he stayed some time, I thinke not long. He received grace there from the dutches of Newcastle, I remember he tolde me.

He gott many a fourty shillings (I beleeve) by pamphletts, such as that of 'Col. Pride,' and 'The Last Will and Testament of Philip earle of Pembroke,' &c.

At the restauration of his majestie he was made Master of the Facultees, and afterwards one of the Masters of Requests. He was exceedingly confident[415], witty, not very gratefull to his benefactors, would lye damnably. He was of midling stature, great goggli eies, not of a sweet aspect.

He was chosen a burghes of Parliament at Wilton in Wiltshire, anno Domini 166<1>, i.e. of the King's long parliament. Anno 167<9> upon the choosing of this Parliament[416], he went downe to be elected, and at Salisbury heard[417] how he was scorned and mocked at Wilton (whither he was goeing) and called Pensioner, etc.—

Virg. Aeneid, lib. vi. 621.

—This was Curio: vide Servium de hoc]—he went not to the borough where he intended to stand; but returned to London, and tooke it so to heart that he insensibly decayed and pined away; and so, December ...[XXI.], 1679, dyed at his lodgeings in Whitehall, and was buried Saturday, December 6, in St. Martyn's churchyard[XXII.] in-the-Fields, neer the church, according to his will and testament. His executors intend to sett up an inscription for him against the church wall.

He had the art of locall memory; and his topiques were the chambers, &c., in All Soules colledge (about 100), so that for 100 errands, &c., he would easily remember.

[419]He was created Dr. of LL.; had been with the king[420]. His library was sold to Sir Robert Atkins for 200 li. His MSS. (chiefly copies of records) for 900 li.

[421]My old acquaintance, Dr. Henry Birkhed, formerly fellow of your college[422] (but first was commoner of Trinity College Oxon) was an universally <belove>d man.

He had his schoole education under Mr. Farnary[423] and <was his> beloved disciple.

He died at the Bird-cage (at his sister's, Mris Knight, the famous singer) in St. James's parke, <on> Michaelmas-eve 1696, aged about 80.

He was borne in London <at the> Paul-head tavern (which his father kept) in Paule's chaine <in> St. Paul's church-yard anno 1617, baptized the 25 of September. John Gadbury haz his nativity from him.

I will aske his sister (Mris Knight) for a very ingeniose diatribe that he wrote on Martialis epigram. lib. <xi. 94. 8>,

jura, verpe, per Anchialum,

which he haz cleared beyond his master Farnaby, Scaliger, or any other. 'Scaliger,' he sayd, 'speakes the truth, but not the whole truth.' 'Tis pity it should be lost, and I would reposit it in the Museum.

I gave my Holyoke's dictionary to the Museum. Pray looke on the blank leaves at the end of it, and you will find a thundering copie of verses that he gave me, in the praise of this king[424] of France. Now he is dead, it may be look't-upon.

[425]Richard Blackburne, Londinensis, was of Trinity College, Cambridge, M.A. Tooke his M.D. degree at Leyden about 5 or 6 yeares since. He practises but little; studies much. A generall scholar, prodigious memorie, sound judgment; but 30 yeares old now.

[426]... Blake, admirall, was borne at ... in com. Somerset; was[427] of Albon-hall, in Oxford. He was there a young man of strong body, and good parts. He was an early riser and studyed well, but also tooke his robust pleasures of fishing, fowling, &c. He would steale swannes—from H. Norborne, B.D., his contemporary there[428].

He served in the House of Commons for....[429] Anno Domini <1649> he was made admirall. He did the greatest actions at sea that ever were done, viz.,....

... Blake obiit anno Domini <1657> and was buried in King Henry 7th's chapell; but upon the returne of the king, his body was taken up again and removed by Mr. Wells' occasion, and where it is now, I know not. Quaere Mr. Wells of Bridgewater.

Vide Diurnalls, and Rushworth's History; vide Anthony Wood's Hist. <et Antiq. Oxon.>.

[430]Sir Henry Blount, Tittinghanger, natus Dec. 15, 1602, 9^h P.M.

[431]Sir Henry Blount obiit 9th Oct. last[432] in the morning.

[433]Sir Henry Blount[AS], knight:—he was borne (I presume) at Tittinghanger in the countie of Hertford. It was heretofore the summer seate of the Lord Abbot of St. Alban's.

He was of Trinity College in Oxford[434], where was a great acquaintance[435] between him and Mr. Francis Potter. He stayed there about <four> yeares. From thence he went to Grayes Inne, where he stayd ... and then sold his chamber there to Mr. Thomas Bonham[AT] (the poet) and travelled—voyage into the Levant. May 7, 1634, he embarqued at Venice for Constantinople: vide his Voyage into the Levant, printed London 16—, in 4to. He returned....

He was pretty wild when young, especially addicted to common wenches. He was a 2d brother.

He was a gentleman pensioner to King Charles I, on whom he wayted (as it was his turne) to Yorke (when the King deserted the Parliament); was with him at Edge-hill fight; came with him to Oxford; and so returned to London; walkt[436] into Westminster hall with his sword by his side; the Parliamentarians all stared upon him as a Cavaleer, knowing that he had been with the King: was called before the House of Commons, where he remonstrated to them he did but his duty, and so they acquitted him.

In these dayes he dined most commonly at the Heycock's[437] ordinary, neer the Pallzgrave-head taverne, in the Strand, which was much frequented by Parliament-men and gallants. One time colonel Betridge being there (one[438] of the handsomest men about the towne) and bragged much how the woemen loved him; Sir H. Blount did lay a wager of ... with him that let them two goe together to a bordello; he only (without money) with his handsome person, and Sir Henry with a XXs. piece on his bald crowne, that the wenches should choose Sir Henry before Betridge; and Sir H. won the wager. E<dmund> W<yld>, esq., was one of the witnesses.

Memorandum:—there was about 164.. a pamphlet (writt by Henry Nevill, esq., ἀνονυμῶς) called The Parliament of Ladies, 3 or 4 sheets in 4to, wherin Sir Henry Blount was first to be called to the barre for spreading abroad that abominable and dangerous doctrine that it was far cheaper and safer to lye with common wenches[439] then with ladies of quality[440].

☞ His estate left him by his father was 500 li. per annum, which he sold to ... (quaere) for an annuitie of 1000 li. per annum in anno Domini 16..; and since his elder brother dyed.

Anno Domini 165<[*½]> he was made one of the comittee for regulating the lawes. He was severe against tythes, and for the abolishing them, and that every minister should have 100 li. per annum and no more.

Since he was ... year old he dranke nothing but water or coffee. 1647 or therabout, he maryed to Mris [Hester[d]] Wase, [daughter of Christopher Wase[441]], who dyed 1679; by whom he haz two sonnes, ingeniose young gentlemen. Charles Blount (his second son) hath writt Anima Mundi, 8vo, 167<9> (burnt by order of the bishop of London) and of Sacrifices, 8vo.

I remember twenty yeares since he inveighed much against sending youths to the universities—quaere if his sons there—because they learnt there to be debaucht; and that the learning that they learned there[442] they were to unlearne againe, as a man that is buttond or laced too hard, must unbutton before he can be at his ease. Drunkennesse he much exclaimed against, but he allowed wenching. When coffee first came-in he was a great upholder of it, and hath ever since been a constant frequenter of coffee houses, especially Mr. ... Farre at the Rainbowe by Inner Temple Gate, and lately John's coffee house in Fuller's rents.

☞ The first coffee house in London[XXIII.] was in St. Michael's Alley in Cornehill, opposite to the Church; which was sett up by one ... Bowman (coachman to Mr. Hodges, a Turkey merchant, who putt him upon it) in or about the yeare 1652. 'Twas about 4 yeares before any other was sett up, and that was by Mr. Far. Jonathan Paynter, opposite to St. Michael's Church, was the first apprentice to the trade, viz. to Bowman. Memorandum:—the Bagneo, in Newgate Street, was built and first opened in Decemb. 1679: built by ... (Turkish merchants).

He is a gentleman of a very clear judgement, great experience, much contemplation, not of very much reading, of great foresight into government. His conversation is admirable. When he was young, he was a great collector of bookes, as his sonne is now.

He was heretofore a great shammer, i.e. one that tells falsities not to doe any body any injury, but to impose on their understanding:—e.g. at Mr. Farre's; that at an inne (nameing the signe) in St. Alban's, the inkeeper had made a hogs-trough of a free-stone coffin; but the pigges, after that, grew leane, dancing and skipping, and would run up on the topps of the houses like goates. Two young gentlemen that heard Sir H. tell this sham so gravely, rode the next day to St. Alban's to enquire: comeing there, nobody had heard of any such thing, 'twas altogether false. The next night as soon as the<y> allighted, they came to the Rainbowe and found Sir H., looked louringly on him, and told him they wonderd he was not ashamed to tell such storys as, &c., 'Why, gentlemen,' (sayd Sir H.) 'have you been there to make enquiry?' 'Yea,' sayd they. 'Why truly, gentlemen,' sayd Sir H. 'I heard you tell strange things that I knew to be false. I would not have gonne over the threshold of the dore to have found you in a lye:' at which all the company laught at the two young gentlemen.

He was wont to say that he did not care to have his servants goe to church, for there servants infected one another to goe to the alehouse and learne debauchery; but he did bid them goe to see the executions at Tyburne, which worke more upon them then all the oratory in the sermons.

His motto over his printed picture is that which I have many yeares ago heard him speake of, viz.:—Loquendum est cum vulgo, sentiendum cum sapientibus.

He is now (1680) neer or altogether 80 yeares, his intellectualls good still, and body pretty strong.

This last weeke[443] of Sept. 1682, he was taken very ill at London, and his feet swelled; and removed to Tittinghanger.

[444]Mr. Steevens[445], ... whom I mett lately accidentally, informed me thus:—that bishop Bonner was of Broadgates hall; that he came thither a poor boy, and was at first a skullion boy in the kitchin, afterwards became a servitor, and so by his industry raysed to what he was.

When he came to his greatnes, in acknowledgement from whence he had his rise, he gave[446] to the kitchin there a great brasse-pott, called Bonner's pott, which was taken away in the parliament time. He has shewed the pott to me, I remember. It was the biggest, perhaps, in Oxford: quaere the old cooke how much it contayned.

[447]John Booker, astrologer, natus Manchester, March 23, 1601, 20^h 10´ P.M.

[448]James Bovey[AU] borne at London May 7th, 1622, 6 a clock in the morning[449].

James Bovey, esq., was the youngest son of Andrew Bovey, merchant, cash-keeper to Sir Peter Vanore, in London.

He was borne in the middle of Mincing Lane, in the parish of Saint Dunstan's in the East, London, anno 1622, May 7th, at six a clock in the morning. Went to schoole at Mercers Chapell, under Mr. Augur. At 9 sent into the Lowe Countreys; then returned, and perfected himselfe in the Latin and Greeke. <At> 14, travelled into France and Italie, Switzerland, Germany, and the Lowe Countreys. Returned into England at 19; then lived with one Hoste, a banquier, 8 yeares, was his cashier 8 or 9 yeares. Then traded for himselfe (27) till he was 31; then maried the only daughter of William de Vischer, a merchant; lived 18 yeares with her, then continued single. Left off trade at 32, and retired to a countrey life, by reason of his indisposition, the ayre of the citie not agreing with him. Then in these retirements he wrote Active[450] Philosophy, (a thing not donne before) wherin are enumerated all the Arts and Tricks practised in Negotiation, and how they were to be ballanced by counter-prudentiall rules.

Whilest he lived with Mr. Hoste, he kept the cash of the ambassadors of Spaine that were here; and of the farmers, called by them Assentistes, that did furnish the Spanish and Imperiall armies of the Low-Countreys and Germany; and also many other great cashes, as of Sir Theodore Mayern, etc.; his dealing being altogether in money-matters: by which meanes he became acquainted with the ministers of state both here and abroad.

When he was abroad, his chiefe employment was to observe the affaires of state and their judicatures, and to take the politique surveys in the countreys he travelled thorough, more especially in relation to trade. He speakes[451] the Low-Dutch, High-Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish and Lingua Franco, and Latin, besides his owne.

When he retired from businesse he studied the Lawe-Merchant, and admitted himselfe of the Inner Temple, London, about 1660. His judgment haz been taken in most of the great causes of his time in points concerning the Lawe-Merchant. As to his person he is about 5 foot high, slender[452], strait, haire exceeding black and curling at the end, a dark hazell[453] eie, of a midling size, but the most sprightly that I have beheld. Browes and beard of the colour as his haire. A person of great temperance, and deepe thoughts, and a working head, never idle. From[454] 14 he had a candle burning by him all night, with pen, inke, and paper, to write downe thoughts as they came into his head; that so he might not loose a thought. Was ever a great lover of Naturall Philosophie. His whole life has been perplex't in lawe-suites, (which haz made him expert in humane affaires), in which he alwaies over-came. He had many lawe-suites with powerfull adversaries; one lasted 18 yeares. Red-haired men never had any kindnesse for him. He used to say:—

In rufa pelle non est animus sine felle.

In all his travells he was never robbed.

He has one son, and one daughter who resembles him.

From 14 he began to take notice of all prudentiall rules as came in his way, and wrote them downe, and so continued till this day, Sept. 28, 1680, being now in his 59th yeare.

For his health he never had it very well, but indifferently, alwaies a weake stomach, which proceeded from the agitation of the braine. His dyet was alwayes fine diet: much chicken[455].

He wrote a Table of all the Exchanges in Europe.

[456]He hath writt (which is in his custodie, and which I have seen, and many of them read) these treatises, viz.

1. The Characters, or Index Rerum <etc.[457]>

[458]A Catalogue of the treatises written of Active Philosophy by James Bovey, of the Inner Temple, esquire, 1677.

1. The Characters, or Index Rerum: in 4 tomes.
2. The Introduction to Active Philosophy.
3. The Art of Building a Man: or Education.
4. The Art of Conversation.
5. The Art of Complyance.
6. The Art of Governing the Tongue.
7. The Art of Governing the Penn.
8. The Government of Action.
9. The Government of Resolution.
10. The Government of Reputation.
11. The Government of Power: in 2 tomes.
12. The Government of Servients.
13. The Government of Subserviency.
14. The Government of Friendshipp.
15. The Government of Enmities.
16. The Government of Law-suites.
17. The Art of Gaining Wealth.
18. The Art of Buying and Selling[459].
19. The Art of Preserving Wealth.
20. The Art of Expending Wealth.
21. The Government of Secresy.
22. The Government of Amor Conjugalis: in 2 tomes.
23. Of Amor Concupiscentiae.
24. The Government of Felicity.
25. The Lives of Atticus, Sejanus, Augustus.
26. The Causes of the Diseases of the Mind.
27. The Cures of the Mind, viz^t. Passions, Diseases, Vices, Errours, Defects.
28. The Art of Discerning of Men.
29. The Art of Discerning a Man's selfe.
30. Religion from Reason: in 3 tomes.
31. The Life of Cum-fu-zu, soe farr wrote by J. B.
32. The Life of Mahomett, wrot by Sir Walter Raleigh's papers, with some small addition for methodizing the same.

[460]I have desired him to give these MSS. to the library of the Royal Society.

He made it his businesse[461] to advance the trade of England, and many men have printed his conceptions.

[462]Earl of Corke:—vide countesse of Warwick's funerall sermon, 2 or 3 shops[463] within Paul's churchyard.

[464]Earl of Corke[AV]—Thomas, earl of Strafford made him disgorge 1500 li. per annum, which he restored to the church—<from> Mr. ... Anderson.

Earl of Corke bought of captaine Horsey fourtie ploughlands in Ireland for fourtie pounds. (A. Ettrick assures me, 'I say againe fourtie ploughlands.')

The queen gave Lismore to Sir Walter Raleigh, and ... to Sir John Anderson, etc. to etc., eâ intentione to plant them, which they did not; and were not planted till since the last rebellion—quaere Mr. Anderson, who sayes that Ireland could not be secure till it was enough peopled with English.

My lady Petty sayes he had a wife or two before, and that he maried Mris. Fenton[AW] without her father's consent—(quaere Secretary Fenton's Christian name[AX]).

[465]... Boyle, the first earle of Corke:—the countesse of Thanet, his great-grand-daughter, daughter to this earle of Corke and Burlington, haz told me that her father has a booke in folio—thick—of her grandfather's writing, <giving> the place, day, and hour of birth, and by what steps, wayes, and degrees he came to his greatnes. Which she will doe her endeavour to gett me an extract of it, but it is in Ireland and (I thinke) must be kept there, and is an heir-loome to the family.

[466]Of Richard Boyle, first earl of Corke, and his seventh daughter, Mary, countess of Warwick.

'The Virtuous Woman found: Being a Sermon preached at Felsted, in Essex, at the Funerall of the most excellent and religious lady, the Right honourable MARY Countesse Dowager of Warwick. By Anthony Walker, D.D. rector of Fyfield, in the sayd countie. The 2d Edition corrected. Printed at London, for Nath. Ranew, at the King's Arms, in St. Paul's Church-yard, 1680.' (The Epistle dedicatory is dated May 27, 1678.)

[470]Mr. Robert Boyle;—vide Oliver Hill's ..., where he is accused of grosse plagiarisme. Dr. <Robert> Wood went to schoole with him at Eaton Colledge.

[471]Mr. R. Boyle, when a boy at Eaton <was> verie sickly and pale—from Dr. <Robert> Wood, who was his schoole-fellow.

[472]The honourable Robert Boyle[AZ] esq., the <fifth> son of Richard Boyle, the first earle of Corke, was borne at Lismor[XXIX.] in the county of Corke, the <25> day of <January> anno <1626/7>.

He was nursed by an Irish nurse, after the Irish manner, wher they putt the child into a pendulous satchell (insted of a cradle), with a slitt for the child's head to peepe out.

He learn't his Latin.... Went to the university of Leyden. Travelled France, Italy, Switzerland. I have oftentimes heard him say that after he had seen the antiquities and architecture of Rome, he esteemed none[473] any where els.

He speakes Latin very well, and very readily, as most men I have mett with. I have heard him say that when he was young, he read over Cowper's dictionary: wherin I thinke he did very well, and I beleeve he is much beholding to him for his mastership of that language.

His father in his will, when he comes to the settlement and provision for his son Robert, thus,—

Item, to my son Robert, whom I beseech God to blesse with a particular blessing, I bequeath, &c.

Mr. R. H.[474], who has seen the rentall, sayes it was 3000 li. per annum: the greatst part is in Ireland. His father left him the mannor of Stalbridge in com. Dorset, where is a great freestone house; it was forfeited by the earle of Castlehaven.

He is very tall (about six foot high) and streight, very temperate, and vertuouse, and frugall: a batcheler; keepes a coach; sojournes with his sister, the lady Ranulagh. His greatest delight is chymistrey. He haz at his sister's a noble laboratory, and severall servants (prentices to him) to looke to it. He is charitable to ingeniose men that are in want, and foreigne chymists have had large proofe of his bountie, for he will not spare for cost to gett any rare secret. At his owne costs and chardges he gott translated and printed the New Testament in Arabique[BA], to send into the Mahometan countreys. He has not only a high renowne in England, but abroad; and when foreigners come to hither, 'tis one of their curiosities to make him a visit.

[475]William, lord Brereton, obiit March 17, 1680[476]; buried at St. Martin's-in-the-fields: scripsit Origines Moriens in Latin verse.

[477]William, lord Brereton[BB] of <Leighlin>:—this vertuous and learned lord (who was my most honoured and obligeing friend) was educated at Breda, by John Pell, D.D., then Math. Professor there of the Prince of Orange's 'ilustrious schoole.' Sir George Goring, earl of Norwich (who was my lord's grandfather), did send for him over, where the <Doctor> (then Mr. John Pell) tooke great care of him, and made him a very good Algebrist.

He hath wrote a poem called Origines Moriens, a MS.

Obiit March 17, 1679/80, London, and is buried at St Martin's church in the fields.

He was an excellent musitian, and also a good composer.

[478]Mr. Edward Brerewood[BC] was borne....

He was of Brasen-nose College in Oxon. My old cosen Whitney[BD], fellow there long since, told me, as I remember, that his father was a citizen of W<est> Chester; that (I have now forgot on what occasion, whether he had outrun the exhibition from his father, or what), but he was for some time in straightes in the College; that he went not out of the College gates in a good while, nor (I thinke) out of his chamber, but was in slip-shoes, and wore out his gowne and cloathes on the bord and benches of his chamber, but profited in knowledge wonderfully.

He writ his Logica, and ..., de meteoris, de ponderibus et nummis (which he dedicates to his countryman, Lord Chancellor Egerton, who was no doubt his patron).

He was astronomie professor at Gresham College, London, where he died anno 1613, and was buried in Great Saint Helen's chancell: so Hist. and Antiq. of Oxon., lib. 2. pag. 219 b.

'Tis pity I can pick-up no more of him.

[479]Henry Briggs was borne at ... (vide Anthony Wood's Oxon. Antiquit.: quaere his nephew who is beadle to Stationers' Hall; quaere Vaticinium Carolinum, an English poem).

He was first of St. John's College in Cambridge. Sir Henry Savill sent for him and made him his geometrie professor. He lived at Merton College in Oxon, where he made the dialls at the buttresses of the east end of the chapell with a bullet for the axis.

He travelled into Scotland to comune with the honourable ... lord Nepier[BE] of Marcheston about making the logarithmicall tables.

☞ Looking one time on the mappe of England he observed that the[480] two rivers, the Thames and that Avon which runnes to Bathe and so to Bristowe, were not far distant, scilicet, about 3 miles—vide the mappe. He sees 'twas but about 25 miles from Oxford; getts a horse and viewes it and found it to be a levell ground and[481] easie to be digged. Then he considered the chardge of cutting between them and the convenience of making a mariage between those rivers which would be of great consequence for cheape and safe carrying of goods between London and Bristow, and though the boates[482] goe slowly and with meanders, yet considering they goe day and night they would be at their journey's end almost as soon as the waggons, which often are overthrowne and liquours spilt and other goods broken. Not long after this he dyed and the civill warres brake-out. It happened by good luck that one Mr. Matthewes of Dorset had some acquaintance with this Mr.[483] Briggs and had heard him discourse of it. He was an honest simple man, and had runne out of his estate and this project did much run in his head. He would revive it (or els it had been lost and forgott) and went into the country to make an ill survey of it (which he printed) about anno ..., but with no great encouragement of the countrey or others. Upon the restauration of King Charles II he renewed his designe and applyed himselfe to the king and counsell. His majestie espoused it more (he told me) then any one els. In short, for want of management and his non-ability, it came to nothing, and he is now dead of old age. But Sir Jonas Moore ( ☞ an expert mathematician and a practicall man), being sent to survey the mannor of Dantesey in Wilts (which was forfeited to the crowne by Sir John Danvers his foolery), went to see these streames and distances. He told me the streames were too small unlesse in winter; but if some prince or the Parliament would rayse money to cutt through the hill by Wotton-Basset which is not very high, then there would be water enough and streames big enough. He computed the chardge, which I have forgott, but I thinke it was about 200,000 li.

Insert his letter to Dr. John Pell de logarithmis written anno Dni 1628.

Mr. William Oughtred calls him the English Archimedes in....

An epitaph on H. Briggs among H. Burched's poems[BF].

[484]Mr. Briggs—vide and quaere Dr. Whitchcot, behind St. Lawrence Church; he knew him.——Respondet quod non.

[485]Mr. Norwood to the reader, before his Trigonometrie:—'of the construction and divers applications of Logarithmes Mr. Brigs hath written a booke called Arithmetica Logarithmica, and since again began another excellent worke of like nature entituled Trigonometria Britannica. I have onely seen (in the hands of a friend of his) a printed copie of so much as he had done, namely the tables: but whilest he was in hand with the rest, he departed this life. It was writ in Latin.'

[486]Hawnes, Dec. 21, <16>81.

Sir,

Since you have desired and have been put into an expectation of receiving some information concerning Mr. Brightman, tho I have litle or nothing to serve you and your freind with, I send this to let you know that I find nothing of his arms; that upon the stone is engraven

Over his head are these sad rimes (I hope they are Oxford, tho not much for the honour of it).—

I am, Sir, Yours to serve you,
Edw. Gibson.

Dr. Fuller, amongst his Worthies, hath something of Mr. Brightman.

[487]For Mr. John Aubrey: leave this at Mr. Hooke's lodging in Gresham College.

[488]H. Brome assured me that his brother Alexander was in his accedence at 4 yeares old and a quarter[BH].

[489]Christopher Brookes, of Oxford, a mathematical instrument maker. He was sometime manciple of Wadham College: his widowe lived over against the Theatre.

This C. B. printed[490] 1649 an 8vo of about 2 sheetes, scil. 'A new quadrant of more natural easie and manifold performance than any other heretofore extant': but it was his father-in-lawe's[491] invention. I had it from his widow about 1665.

[492]In the Heralds' Office—Heref<ordshire>—

  Edward Broughton,   m.  Isabell, daughter of
  of Kington, eldest  |   Rafe Beeston, of
  son, 1634           |   Warwickshire.
                      |
                  Elizabeth.

<Arms[493]:—> 'argent, 2 bars gules, on a canton of the second a cross of the field, a martlet or for difference.'

Mris. Elizabeth Broughton was daughter of ... Broughton of ... in Herefordshire, an ancient family. Her father lived at the mannour-house at Canon-Peon. Whether she was borne there or no, I know not: but there she lost her mayden-head to a poor young fellow, then I beleeve handsome, but, in 1660, a pittifull poor old weaver, clarke of the parish. He had fine curled haire, but gray. Her father at length discoverd her inclinations and locked her up in the turret of the house, but she (like a ...) getts downe by a rope; and away she gott to London, and did sett-up for her selfe.

She was a most exquisite beautie, as finely shaped as nature could frame; and had a delicate witt. She was soon taken notice of at London, and her price was very deare—a second Thais. Richard, earle of Dorset, kept her (whether before or after Venetia[494], I know not, but I guesse before). At last she grew common and infamous and gott[495] the pox, of which she died.

I remember thus much of an old song of those dayes, which I have seen in a collection—'twas by way of litanie—viz.:—

In Ben Johnson's execrations against Vulcan, he concludes thus:—

—In the first edition in 8vo her name is thus at length.

I see that there have been famous woemen before our times.

Horace, lib. 4, ode 9.

I doe remember her father (1646), neer 80, the handsomest shaped man that ever my eies beheld, a very wise man and of an admirable elocution. He was a committee-man in Herefordshire and Glocestershire. He was commissary to colonel Massey. He was of the Puritan party heretofore; had a great guift in praying, etc. His wife (I have heard my grandmother say, who was her neighbor) had as great parts as he. He was the first that used the improvement of land by soape-ashes when he lived at Bristowe, where they then threw it away.

[497]William, lord viscount Brouncker of Lions in Ireland: he lived in Oxford when 'twas a garrison for the King: but he was of no university, he told me. He addicted himselfe only to the study of the mathematicks, and was a very great artist in that learning.

His mother was an extraordinary great gamester, and playd all, gold play; she kept the box herselfe. Mr. ... Arundall (brother of the lord Wardour) made a song in characters of the nobility. Among others, I remember this,

He was president of the Royall Society about 15 yeares[BI].

He was ... of the Navy office[BJ].

He dyed April the 5th, 1684; buried the 14th following in the vault which he caused to be made (8 foot long, 4 foot broad, and about 4 foot high) in the middle of the quire of Saint Katharine's, neer the Tower, of which convent he was governour. He gave a fine organ to this church a little before his death; and whereas it was a noble and large choire, he divided <it> in the middle with a good skreen (at his owne chardge), which haz spoiled <it>.

[498]Sir,

These are to give notice that on Friday next the thirtieth day of this instant November, 1677, being St. Andrew's day, the council and officers of the Royal Society are to be elected for the year ensuing. At which election your presence is expected in Gresham Colledge at nine of the clock in the forenoon precisely.

(For John Aubrey, esq.)

Brouncker, P. R. S.

[499]The earle of Carnarvon does not remember Mr. Brown[BL], and I ask't his lordship lately again if any of his servants doe: he assures me no.

[500]Memorandum. Mr. Robert Hooke of Gresham College told me that he lay in the chamber in Christ Church that was Mr. Burton's, of whom 'tis whispered that, non obstante all his astrologie and his booke of Melancholie, he ended his dayes in that chamber by hanging him selfe.

[501]Mr. Thomas Bushell was an ... shire man, borne ...: quaere Thomas Mariet, esq. [He[502] was borne at Marston in ... shire, neer him.]

He was one of the gentlemen that wayted on the Lord Chancellour Bacon. 'Twas the fashion in those dayes for gentlemen to have their suites of clothes garnished with buttons. My Lord Bacon was then in disgrace, and his man Bushell having more buttons then usuall on his cloake, etc., they sayd that his lord's breech made buttons and Bushell wore them—from whence he was called buttond Bushell.

He was only an English scholar, but had a good witt and a working and contemplative head. His lord much loved him.

His genius lay most towards naturall philosophy, and particularly towards the discovery, drayning, and improvement of the silver mines in Cardiganshire[503], etc.

He had the strangest bewitching way to drawe-in people (yea, discreet and wary men) into his projects that ever I heard of. His tongue was a chaine and drewe in so many to be bound for him and to be ingaged in his designes that he ruined a number. Mr. Goodyere of ... in Oxfordshire was undon by him among others; see[504] part iii. pag. 6 b.

He was master of the art of running in debt, and lived so long that his depts were forgott, so that they were the great-grandchildren of the creditors.

He wrote a stich't treatise of mines and improving of the adits to them and bellowes to drive-in wind, which Sir John Danvers, his acquaintance, had, and nayled it[BM] to his parlor-wall at Chelsey, with some scheme, and I beleeve is there yet: I sawe it there about 10 yeares since.

During the time of the civill warres, he lived in Lundy island.

Anno 1647 or 8, he came over into England; and when he landed at Chester, and had but one Spanish threepence (this I had then from ... of Great Tew, to whom he told it), and, sayd he, 'I[505] could have been contented to have begged a penny, like a poor man.' At that time he sayd he owed, I forgett whether it was 50 or sixty thousand pounds: but he was like Sir Kenelm Digby, if he had not 4d., wherever he came he would find respect and credit.

☞ Memorandum, after his master the lord chancellor dyed, he maried ..., and lived at Enston, Oxon; where having some land lyeing on the hanging of a hill faceing the south, at the foot wherof runnes a fine cleare stream which petrifies, and where is a pleasant solitude, he spake to his servant Jack[XXX.] Sydenham to gett a labourer to cleare some boscage which grew on the side of the hill, and also to dig[506] a cavity in the hill to sitt, and read or contemplate. The workman had not workt an hower before he discovers not only a rock, but a rock of an unusuall figure with pendants like icecles as at Wokey hole (Somerset), which was the occasion of making that delicate grotto and those fine walkes.

Here in fine weather he would walke all night. Jack Sydenham sang rarely: so did his other servant, Mr. Batty. They went very gent. in cloathes, and he loved them as his children.

He did not encumber him selfe with his wife, but here enjoyed himselfe thus in this paradise till the war brake out, and then retired to Lundy isle.

He had donne something (I have forgott what) that made him obnoxious to the Parliament or Oliver Cromwell, about 1650; would have been hangd if taken; printed severall letters to the Parliament, etc., dated from beyond sea, and all that time lay privately in his howse in Lambeth marsh where the[507] pointed pyramis is. In the garret there, is a long gallery, which he hung all with[508] black, and had some death's heads and bones painted. At the end where his couch was, was in an old Gothique nich (like an old monument) painted a skeleton incumbent[509] on a matt. At the other end where was his pallet-bed was an emaciated dead man stretched out. Here he had severall mortifying and divine motto's (he imitated his lord[510] as much as he could), and out of his windowes a very pleasant prospect. At night he walkt in the garden and orchard. Only Mr. Sydenham, and an old trusty woman, was privy to his being in England.

He dyed about 1676 or 1677—quaere where—he was 80 yeares of age. [He[511] dyed in Scotland yard neer Whitehall about 1675 or 1677; Mr. Beach the quaker can tell me exactly.]

His entertainment to Queen Henrietta Marie at Enston was in anno 163<6, 23 August>. Insert, i.e. sowe[512] my book (which J. S.[513] gave my grandfather Isaac Lyte) in this place ... Goodall[BN], of Ch. Ch. Oxon, composed[514] the musique; I remember the student of Ch. Ch. which sang the songs (<I> now forgett his name).

[515]Mr. Bushell had a daughter maried to a merchant ... in Bristowe.

He was a handsome proper gentleman when I sawe him at his house aforesayd at Lambith. He was about 70 but I should have not guessed him hardly 60. He had a perfect healthy constitution; fresh, ruddy face; hawke-nosed, and was temperate.

As he had the art of running in dept, so sometimes he was attacqued and throwen into prison; but he would extricate him selfe again straingely.

He[516] died about 3 yeares since (<from> Sir William Dugdale), i.e. about 1677; and was buried at....

Memorandum:—in the time of the civill warres his[517] hermitage over the rocks at Enston were hung with black-bayes; his bed had black curtaines, etc., but it had no bed-postes but hung by 4 cordes (covered with black-bayes) instead of bed postes. When the queen-mother came to Oxon to the king, she either brought (as I thinke) or somebody gave her an entire mummie from Egypt, a great raritie, which her majestie gave to Mr. Bushell, but I beleeve long ere this time the dampnesse of the place haz spoyled it with mouldinesse.

Memorandum:—the grotto[518] belowe lookes just south; so that when it artificially raineth, upon the turning of a cock, you are enterteined with a rainebowe. In a very little pond (no bigger then a basin) opposite to the rock, and hard by, stood (1643, Aug. 8) a Neptune, neatly cutt in wood, holding his trident in his hand, and ayming with it at a duck which perpetually turned round with him, and a spanniel swimming after her—which was very pretty, but long since spoyled. I heare that ... earl of Rochester, in whose possession it now is, doeth keepe it very well in order.

[519]Mr. Bushell was the greatest arts-master to runne in dept (perhaps) in the world. He died one hundred and twenty thousand pounds in dept. He had so delicate a way of making his projects alluring and feazible, profitable, that he drewe to his baites not only rich men of no designe, but also the craftiest knaves in the countrey, such who had cosened and undon others: e.g. Mr. Goodyeere, who undid Mr. Nicholas Mees's father, etc.

Vide Plea for Irish cattle.

Vide[520] φ p. 148, Bushell's rocks.

Quaere his servant John Sydenham for the collection of remarques of severall partes of England, by the said Mr. Bushell.

[521]Memorandum:—his ingeniose invention of aditus with bellowes to bring fresh aire into the mines: quaere Mr. Beech (quaker) if he hath his printed booke or where it may be had. He gave one to Sir John Danvers, which was nayled in the parlour to the wainscot: 'twas but about 8 sheetes.

Quaere Dr. Plott (<author of> Antiquities of Oxonshire) of the booke I gave him some yeares since of the songs and entertainment of Mr. Bushell to queen Henrietta Marie at his rocks. If he had it not, perhaps Anthony Wood had it. Mr. E<dmund> W<yld> sayes that he tap't the mountaine of Snowdon in ... in Wales, which was like to have drowned all the countrey; and they were like to knock him and his men in the head.

Mr. Thomas Bushell lay some time (perhaps yeares) at Capt. Norton's, in the gate at Scotland-yard, where he dyed seven yeares since (now, 1684), about 80 aetat. Buried in the little cloysters at Westminster Abbey: vide the Register. Somebody putt[522] B. B. upon the stone[XXXI.].—From Mr. Beech the quaker.

[523]Mr. Samuel Butler was[524] borne[XXXII.] at Pershore in Worcestershire, as we suppose: his brother lives there.

He went to schoole at Worcester—from Mr. Hill.

His father <was> a man but of slender fortune, and to breed him at schoole was as much education as he was able to reach to. When[525] but a boy he would make observations and reflections on every thing one sayd or did, and censure it to be either well or ill. He never was at the university, for the reason alledged.

He came when a young man to be a servant to the countesse of Kent, whom he served severall yeares. Here, besides his study, he employed his time much in painting and drawing, and also in musique. He was thinking once to have made painting his profession—from Dr. Duke. His love to and skill in painting made a great friendship between him and Mr. Samuel Cowper (the prince of limners of this age).

He then studyed the Common Lawes of England, but did not practise. He maried a good jointuresse, the relict of ... Morgan, by which meanes he lives comfortably.

After the restauration of his majestie when the court at Ludlowe was againe sett-up, he was then the king's steward at the castle there.

He printed a witty Poeme called Hudibras, the first part anno 166.. which tooke extremely[526]; so that the king and Lord Chancellor Hyde[XXXIII.] would have him sent for, and accordingly he was sent for. They both promised him great matters, but to this day he haz got no employment, only the king gave him ... li.

He is of a middle stature, strong sett, high coloured, a head of sorrell haire, a severe and sound judgement: a good fellowe. He haz often sayd that way (e.g. Mr. Edmund Waller's) of quibling with sence will hereafter growe as much out of fashion and be as ridicule as quibling with words—quod N.B. He haz been much troubled with the gowt, and particularly 1679, he stirred not out of his chamber from October till Easter.

Obiit Anno {Domini 1680}.
{circiter 70.     }

He dyed of a consumption September 25; and buried 27, according to his appointment[527], in the churchyard of Convent Garden; scil. in the north part next the church at the east end. His feet touch the wall. His grave, 2 yards distant from the pillaster of the dore, (by his desire) 6 foot deepe.

About 25 of his old acquaintance at his funerall. I myself being one [of[528] the eldest, helped to carry[529] the pall with Tom Shadwell, at the foot, Sir Robert Thomas and Mr. Saunders, esq., at the head; Dr. Cole and Dr. Davenant, middle]. His coffin covered with black bayes;

S. B. 1680[530].

[531]Insert in vita Sam. Butler his verses of the Jesuites, not printed, which I gave to you[532] about 12 or 14.

He had made very sharp reflexions upon the court in his last part[536]:—

[537]Mr. Saunders (the countesse of Kent's kinsman) sayd that Mr. John Selden much esteemed him for his partes, and would sometimes employ him to write letters for him beyond sea, and to translate for him. He was secretarie to the duke of Bucks, when he was Chancellor of Cambridge. He might have had preferments at first; but he would not accept any but very good ones, so at last he had none at all, and dyed in want.

He painted well and made it (sometime) his profession.

He wayted some yeares on the countess of Kent: she gave her gentlemen 20li. per annum a-piece. Mr. John Selden tooke notice of his partes and would many times make him write or translate for him.

Obiit sine prole.

[538]Samuel Butler writt my lord [John[539]] Rosse's Answer to [Robert[540]] the marquesse of Dorchester.

Memorandum:—satyricall witts disoblige whom they converse with, etc.; and consequently make to themselves many enemies and few friends; and this was his manner and case. He was of a leonine-coloured haire, sanguino-cholerique, middle sized, strong.

[541]...[542] Butler, physitian; he was of Clare-hall in Cambridge, never tooke the degree of Doctor, though he was the greatest physitian of his time.

The occasion of his being first taken notice of was thus[XXXIV.]:—About the comeing-in of[543] king James, there was a minister of ... (a few miles from Cambridge), that was to preach before his majestie at New-market. The parson heard that the king was a great scholar, and studyed so excessively that he could not sleep, so somebody gave him some opium, which had made him sleep his last, had not Dr. Butler[544] used this following remedy. He was sent for by the parson's wife. When he came and sawe the parson, and asked what they had donne, he told her that she was in danger to be hanged for killing her husband, and so in great choler left her. It was at that time when the cowes came into the backside to be milk't. He turnes back, and asked whose cowes those were. She sayd <her> husband's[545]. Sayd he, 'will you give one of these cowes to fetch your husband to life again?' That she would, with all her heart. He then causes one presently to be killed and opened, and the parson[XXXV.] to be taken out of his bed and putt into the cowes warme belly, which after some time brought him to life, or els he had infallibly dyed.

Memorandum:—there is a parallell storie to this in Machiavell's Florentiac History, where 'tis sayd that one of the Cosmo's being poysoned was putt into a mule's belly, sowed up, with a place only for his head to come out.

He was a humorist[547]. One time king James sent for him to New-market, and when he was gon halfe way <he> left the messenger and turned back; so then the messenger made him ride before him.

I thinke he was never maried. He lived in an apothecary's shop, in Cambridge, <John> Crane, to whom he left his estate; and he in gratitude erected the monument[548] for him, at his owne chardge, in the fashion[549] he used. He was not greedy of money, except choice pieces of gold or rarities.

He would many times (I have heard say) sitt among the boyes at St. Maries church in Cambridge ( ☞ and just so would the famous attorney-generall Noy, in Lincoln's Inne, who had many such froliques and humours).

I remember Mr. Wodenoth, of King's College, told me, that being sent for to ... ... he told him that his disease was not to be found in Galen or Hippocrates, but in Tullie's Epistles, Cum non sis ubi fueris, non est cur velis vivere.

I thinke he left his estate to the apothecarie. He gave to the chapell of Clare-hall, a bowle[550], for the communion, of gold (cost, I thinke, 2 or 300 li.), on which is engraved a pelican feeding her young with the bloud from her breast (an embleme of the passion of Christ), no motto, for the embleme explained it selfe.

He lies buried in the south side of St. Marie's chancell, in Cambridge, wher is a decent monument, with his body halfe way, and an inscription, which gett.

He was much addicted to his humours, and would suffer persons of quality to wayte sometimes some houres at his dore, with coaches, before he would recieve them. Once, on the rode from Cambridge to London, he tooke a fancy to a chamberlayn or tapster in his inne, and tooke him with him, and made him his favourite, by whom only accession was to be had to him, and thus enriched him. Dr. Gale[BO], of Paul's schoole, assures me that a French man came one time from London to Cambridge, purposely to see him, whom he made stay two howres for him in his gallery, and then he came out to him in an old blew gowne; the French gentleman makes him 2 or 3 very lowe bowes downe to the ground; Dr. Butler whippes his legge over his head, and away goes into his chamber, and did not speake with him.

He kept an old mayd whose name was Nell. Dr. Butler would many times goe to the taverne, but drinke by himselfe. About 9 or 10 at night old Nell comes for him with a candle and lanthorne, and sayes 'Come you home, you drunken beast.' By and by Nell would stumble; then her master calls her 'drunken beast'; and so they did drunken beast one another all the way till they came home.

[551]A serving man brought his master's water to doctor Butler, being then in his studie (with turn'd barres) but would not bee spoken with. After much fruitlesse importunity, the man told the doctor he was resolved he should see his master's water; he would not be turned away—threw it on the Dr's. head. This humour pleased the Dr. and he went to the gent. and cured him—<from> Mr. R. Hooke.

A gent. lying a-dyeing, sent his servant with a horse for the doctor. The horse being exceeding dry, ducks downe his head strongly into the water, and plucks downe the Dr. over his head, who was plunged in the water over head and eares. The Dr. was madded, and would returne home. The man swore he should not; drew his sword, and gave him ever and anon (when he would returne) a little prick, and so drove him before him—<from> Mr. ... Godfrey.

[552]Some instances of Dr. Butler's cures:—from Mr. James Bovey.—The Dr. lyeing at the Savoy in London, next the water side, where was a balcony look't into the Thames, a patient came to him that was grievously tormented with an ague. The Dr. orders a boate to be in readinesse under his windowe, and discoursed with the patient (a gentleman) in the balcony, when on a signall given, 2 or 3 lusty fellowes came behind the gentleman and threw him a matter of 20 feete into the Thames. This surprize absolutely cured him.

A gentleman with a red, ugly, pumpled face came to him for a cure. Said the Dr., 'I must hang you.' So presently he had a device made ready to hang him from a beame in the roome; and when he was e'en almost dead, he cutts the veines that fed these pumples, and lett-out the black ugly bloud, and cured him.

Another time one came to him for the cure of a cancer (or ulcer) in the bowells. Said the Dr., 'can ye——?' 'Yes,' said the patient. So the Dr. ordered a bason for him to——, and when he had so donne the Dr. commanded him to eate it up. This did the cure.

This inscription was sent to me by my learned and honoured friend, Dr. Henry More, of Cambridge.

Nunc positis novus exuviis

LABOR

QUIES

[555]A scholar made this drolling epitaph:—

Memorandum:—There is now in use[556] in London a sort of ale called Dr. Butler's ale.

[557]Dr. Butler:—This inscription I recieved from Dr. Henry Moore of ... Cambridge. Quaere if his coat of arms is not there, and what? Quaere his coat of arms[558].

From Dr. H. More:—More's father was a very strong bodyed man. 'Twas forty stooles he gave his father; he had almost killed him. Told him he would be the better for't as long as he lived.

That he was chymical I know by this token that his mayd came running-in to him one time, like a slutt and a furie, with her haire about her eares, and cries[559], 'Butler! come and looke to your Devills yourselfe, and you will: the stills are all blowne up!' She tended them, and it seemes gave too great a heate. Old Dr. Ridgely[BQ] knew him, and I thinke was at that time[560] with him.—From this Dr. Ridgely his sonne.

[561]Dr. Butler of Cambridge:—<Arms:—> 'azure, three lozenges in fess between 3 covered cups or.—This is the coate of armes on his monument. By reason of time and the ill colours I cannot positively say whether the field is azure or vert, but I beleeve 'tis the former.'—This information I had from Mr. Vere Philips, fellow of King's College, Cambridge.

[562]Cecil Calvert, lord Baltemore, absolute lord and proprietary of Maryland and Avalon in America, son to <George> Calvert (secretary of estate to king James), was gentleman-commoner of Trinity College, Oxon, contemporary with Mr. Francis Potter, B.D.

[563]Now if I would be rich, I could be a prince. I could goe into Maryland, which is one of the finest countrys of the world; same climate with France; between Virginia and New England. I can have all the favour of my lord Baltemore I could wish.—His brother is his lieutenant there; and a very good natured gentleman.—Plenty of all things: ground there is 2000 miles westwards.

I could be able I believe to carry a colony of rogues; another, of ingeniose artificers; and I doubt not one might make a shift to have 5 or 6 ingeniose companions, which is enough.

[564]Mr. William Camden, Clarencieux—vide Fuller's Holy State where is something of his life and birth, etc.: vide England's Worthies: quaere at the Heralds' Office when he was made Clarencieux.

Mr. Edward Bagshawe (who had been second schoole-master of Westminster schoole) haz told me that Mr. Camden had first his place and his lodgeings (which is the gate-house by the Queen's Scholars' chamber in Deanes-yard), and was after made the head schoole-master of that schoole, where he writt and taught Institutio Græcae Grammatices Compendiaria: in usum Regiae Scholae Westmonasteriensis, which is now the common Greeke grammar of England, but his name is not sett to it. Before, they learned the prolix Greeke Grammar of Cleonard.

He writt his Britannia first in a large 8º.

Annales reg. Elizabethae.

There is a little booke in 16mo. of his printed, viz.: A Collection of all the Inscriptions then on the Tombes in Westminster Abbey.

'Tis reported, that he had bad eies[565] (I guesse lippitude) which was a great inconvenience to an antiquary.

Mr. Nicholas Mercator has Stadius's Ephemerides, which had been one of Mr. Camden's; his name is there (I knowe his hand) and there are some notes by which I find he was astrologically given.

In his Britannia he haz a remarkable astrologicall observation, that when Saturn is in Capricornus a great plague is certainly in London. He had observed it all his time, and setts downe the like made by others before his time. Saturn was so posited in the great plague 1625, and also in the last great plague 1665. He likewise delivers that when an eclipse happens in ... that 'tis fatall to the towne of Shrewsbury, for....

He was basted by a courtier of the queene's in the cloysters at Westminster for ... queen Elizabeth in his history—from Dr. John Earle, dean of Westminster.

My honoured and learned friend, Thomas Fludd, esq., a Kentish gentleman, (<aged> 75, 1680) was neighbour and an acquaintance to Sir Robert Filmore, in Kent, who was very intimately acquainted with Mr. Camden, who told Sir Robert that he was not suffered to print many things in his Elizabetha, which he sent over to his acquaintance and correspondent Thuanus, who printed it all faithfully in his Annalls without altering a word—quod N. B.

He lies buried in the South cross-aisle of Westminster Abbey, his effigies ½ on an altar, with this inscription:—

Qui fide antiqua et opera assidua
Britannicam antiquitatem indagavit
Simplicitatem innatam
honestis studiis excoluit
Animi solertiam candore illustravit
Gulielmus Camdenius
ab Elizabetha regina ad regis armorum
(Clarentii titulo) dignitatem evocatus
Hic
Spe certa resurgendi in Christo
S.E.
Qui obiit anno Domini 1623, 9 Novembris,
Aetatis suae 74:

in his hand a booke, on the leaves wherof is writt BRITANNIA.

Mr. Camden much studied the Welsh language, and kept a Welsh servant to improve him <in> that language, for the better understanding of our antiquities.—From Mr. Samuel Butler.

[566]Sir William Dugdale tells me that he haz minutes of King James's life to a moneth and a day, written by Mr. William Camden; as also his owne life, according to yeares and daye, which is very briefe, but 2 sheetes, Mr. Camden's owne hand writing. Sir William Dugdale had it from <John> Hacket[XXXVI.], bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, who did filch it from Mr. Camden as he lay a dyeing.

[567]Quaere Mr. Ashmole to retrive and looke out Mr. Camden's minutes (memorandums) of King James I from his entrance into England, which Dr. Thorndyke[XXXVII.] filched from him as he lay a dyeing. 'Tis not above 6 or 8 sheetes of paper, as I remember. Those memoires were continued within a fortnight of his death.

[568]Quaere Dr. Buzby if Mr. Camden ever resigned the schoolmaster's place[569]? And if he did not dye at Westminster at the schoole house—vide bishop Hackett's life, which is printed before his sermons.

[570]Memorandum:—Mr. Camden's nativity is in his Memoires of King James, which gett.

[571]William Camden: quaere Sir William Dugdale who haz his papers?

Anthony Wood's lettre sayth that some of them are in Sir Henry St. George's hands[572], 'written and tricked with Mr. Camden's owne hand': ergo quaere ibidem.

[573]When my grandfather[574] went to schoole at Yatton-Keynell (neer Easton-Piers) Mr. Camden came to see the church, and particularly tooke notice of a little painted-glasse-windowe in the chancell, which (ever since my remembrance) haz been walled-up, to save the parson the chardge of glazing it.

[575]The antiquities of the city of Bristowe doe very well deserve some antiquarie's paines (and the like for Gloucester). Here were a great many religious houses. The collegiate church (priorie of Augustines) is very good building, especially the gate-house. The best built churches of any city in England, before these new ones at London since the conflagration. Severall monuments and inscriptions.

Ratliff church (which was intended[576] for a chapel) is an admirable piece of architecture of about Henry VII's time. It was built by alderman ... Canning, who had fifteen shippes of his owne (or 16). He gott his estate chiefly by carrying of pilgrims to St. Jago of Compostella. He had a fair house in Ratliff Street that lookes towards the water side, ancient Gothique building, a large house that, 1656, was converted to a glasse-house. See the annotations on Norton's Ordinall in Theatrum Chemicum, where 'tis sayd that Thomas Norton of Bristow got the secret of the philosopher's stone from alderman Canning's widow.

This alderman Canning did also build and well endow the religious house at Westbury or Henbury (vide Speede's mappe and chronicle); 'tis about two or three miles from Bristowe in the rode to Aust-passage.

In his old age he retired to this house and entred into that order. He built his owne monument at his church at Ratcliff where is an inscription, which gett[BR]; ☞ but he was not interred there but at Westbury.

[577]William Cartwright, M.A., Aedis Christi, Oxon., natus juxta Teuxbury in com. Glocestriae, September, 1611; baptizatus[578] 26 Sept.

[579]Glocestershire is famous for the birth of William Cartwright at a place called Northway neer Tewksbury. Were he alive now he would be sixty-one.

He writt a treatise of metaphysique—quaere Dr. <Thomas> Barlowe, etc., de hoc: as also of his sermons, particularly the sermon that by the king's command he preached at his returne from Edge-hill fight.

'Tis not to be forgott that king Charles 1st dropt a teare at the newes of his death.

William Cartwright was buried in the south aisle in Christ Church, Oxon. Pitty 'tis so famous a bard should lye without an inscription.

[580]William Cartwright was borne at Northway neer Tewksbury, Gloucestershire—this I have from his brother, who lives not far from me[581], and from his sisters whom I called upon in Glocestershire at Leckhamton. His sister Howes was 57 yeares old the 10 March last: her brother William was 4 yeares older.

His father was a gentleman of 300 li. per annum. He kept his inne at Cirencester, but a year or therabout, where he declined and lost by it too. He had by his wife 100 li. per annum, in Wiltshire, an impropriation, which his son has now (but having many children, lives not handsomely and haz lost his learning: he was by the second wife, whose estate this was). Old Mr. Cartwright lived sometime at Leckhampton, Gloc., wher his daughters now live.

[582]Lucius Carey[BS], second lord Falkland, was the eldest son of Sir Henry Carey, Lord Lievetenant of Ireland, the first viscount Falkland.

His mother was daughter and heir of Sir <Laurence> Tanfield, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, by whom he had Great Tue, in Oxfordshire (formerly the Rainesfords), and the Priory of Burford, in Oxfordshire, which he sold to <William> Lenthall, the Speaker of the Long Parliament.

He was borne ... (quaere); had his University education at the University of Dublin, in Ireland. He travelled, and had one Mr. ... (a very discreet gentleman) to be his governor[BT], whom he respected to his dyeing day.

He maried Letice, the daughter of Sir <Richard> Morison, by whom he had two sonnes: the eldest lived to be a man, died sine prole; the second was father to this lord Falkland now living.

This lady Letice was a good and pious lady, as you may see by her life writt about 1649, or 50, by ... Duncomb, D.D. But I will tell you a pretty story from William Hawes, of Trin. Coll., who was well acquainted with the governor aforesaid, who told him that my lady was (after the manner of woemen) much governed by, and indulgent to, the nursery; when she had a mind to beg any thing of my lord for one of her woemen[583] (nurses, or &c.); she would not doe it by herselfe (if she could helpe it), but putt this gentleman upon it, to move it to my lord. My lord had but a small estate for his title; and the old gentleman would say, 'Madam, this is so unreasonable a motion to propose to my lord, that I am certaine he will never graunt it';—e.g. one time to lett a farme[584] twenty pound per annum under value. At length, when she could not prevaile on him, she would say that, 'I warrant you, for all this, I will obtaine it of my lord; it will cost me but the expence of a few teares.' Now she would make her words good; and this great witt, the greatest master of reason and judgement of his time, at the long runne, being storm'd by her teares (I presume there were kisses and secret embraces that were also ingredients), would this pious lady obtain her unreasonable desires of her poor lord.

Terent. Eunuch. Act 1, Scene 1.

N.B.:—my lord in his youth was very wild, and also mischievous, as being apt to stabbe and doe bloudy mischiefs; but 'twas not long before he tooke-up to be serious, and then grew to be an extraordinary hard student. I have heard Dr. Ralph Bathurst[XXXVIII.] say that, when he was a boy, my lord lived at Coventrey (where he had then a house), and that he would sett up very late at nights at his study, and many times came to the library at the schoole[XXXIX.] there.

The studies in fashion in those dayes (in England) were poetry, and controversie with the church of Rome. My lord's mother was a zealous papist, who being very earnest to have her son of her religion, and her son upon that occasion, labouring hard to find the[585]trueth, was so far at last from setling on the Romish church, that he setled and rested in the Polish (I meane Socinianisme). He was the first Socinian in England; and Dr. <Hugh> Crescy, of Merton Coll. (dean of <Leighlin> in Ireland, afterwards a Benedictin monke), a great acquaintance of my lord's in those dayes (anno ...), told me, at Samuel Cowper's (1669), that he himselfe was the first that brought Socinus's bookes (anno ...); shortly after, my lord comeing to him, and casting his eie on them, would needs presently borrow them, to peruse; and was so extremely taken and satisfied with them, that from that time was his conversion.

My lord much lived at Tue, which is a pleasant seat, and about 12 miles from Oxford; his lordship was acquainted with the best witts of that University, and his house was like a Colledge, full of learned men[586]. Mr. William Chillingworth, of Trinity College in Oxford (afterwards D.D.), was his most intimate and beloved favourite, and was most commonly with my lord; next I may reckon (if not equall) Mr. John Earles, of Merton College (who wrote the Characters); Dr. <George> Eglionby, of Ch. Ch., was also much in esteem with his lordship. His chaplaine, Charles Gataker, (filius <Thomae> Gataker of Redriff, a writer), was an ingeniose young gentleman, but no writer[587]. For learned gentlemen of the country, his acquaintance was Sir H. Rainesford, of ... neer Stratford-upon-Avon, now ... (quaere Tom Mariet); Sir Francis Wenman[588], of Caswell, in Witney parish; Mr. ... Sandys, the traveller and translator (who was uncle to my lady Wenman); Ben. Johnson (vide Johnsonus Virbius, where he haz verses, and 'twas his lordship, Charles Gattaker told me, that gave the name to it); Edmund Waller, esq.; Mr. Thomas Hobbes, and all the excellent[589] of that peaceable time.

In the civill warres he adhered to King Charles I, who after Edge-hill fight made him Principall Secretary of Estate (with Sir Edward Nicholas), which he dischardged with a great deale of witt and prudence, only his advice was very unlucky to his Majestie, in perswading him (after the victory[590] at Rowndway-downe, and the taking of Bristowe), to sitt-downe before Glocester, which was so bravely defended by that incomparably vigilant governor coll.... Massey, and the diligent and careful soldiers, and citizens (men and woemen), that it so broke and weakned the king's army, that 'twas the procatractique cause of his ruine: vide Mr. Hobbes. After this, all the King's matters went worse and worse. Anno domini 164<3> at the ... fight (quaere which) at Newbery, my lord Falkland being there, and having nothing to doe to chardge; as the 2 armies were engageing, rode in like a mad-man (as he was) between them, and was (as he needs must be) shott. Some that[591] were your superfine discoursing politicians and fine gentlemen, would needs have the reason of this mad action of throwing away his life so, to be his discontent for the unfortunate advice given to his master as aforesaid; but, I have been well enformed, by those that best knew him, and[592] knew the intrigues behind the curtaine (as they say), that it was the griefe of the death of Mris ... Moray, a handsome lady at court, who was his mistresse, and whom he loved above all creatures, was the true cause of his being so madly guilty of his own death, as afore mentioned: (nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiae).

The next day, when they went to bury the dead, they could not find his lordship's body, it was stript, trod-upon, and mangled; so there was one that had wayted on him in his chamber would undertake to know it from all other bodyes, by a certaine mole his lordship had in his neck, and by that marke did find it. He lies interred in the ... at Great Tue aforesaid, but, I thinke, yet without any monument; quaere if any inscription.

In the dining roome there is a picture of his at length, and like him ('twas donne by Jacob de Valke, who taught me to paint). He was but a little man, and of no great strength of body; he had blackish haire, something flaggy, and I thinke his eies black. Dr. Earles would not allow him to be a good poet, though a great witt; he writt not a smoth verse, but a greate deal of sense. He hath writt....

He had an estate in Hertfordshire, at ..., which came by Morrison (as I take it); sold not long before the late civill warres.

[593](From Mr. John Collins, mathematician:—) Sir Charles Cavendish[BV] was borne at ..., the younger brother to William, duke of Newcastle. He was a little, weake, crooked man, and nature having not adapted him for the court nor campe, he betooke himselfe to the study of the mathematiques, wherin he became a great master. His father left him a good estate, the revenue wherof he expended on bookes and on learned men.

He had collected in Italie, France, &c., with no small chardge, as many manuscript mathematicall bookes as filled a hoggeshead, which he intended to have printed; which if he had live<d> to have donne, the growth of mathematicall learning had been 30 yeares or more forwarder then 'tis. But he died of the scurvey, contracted by hard study, about 1652 (quaere), and left one Mr. ..., an attorney of Clifford's Inne, his executor, who shortly after died, and left his wife executrix, who sold this incomparable collection aforesaid by weight to the past-board makers for wast paper. ☞ A good caution for those that have good MSS. to take care to see them printed in their life-times.

He dyed ... and was buried in the vault of the family of the duke of Newcastle, at Bolsover, in the countie of <Derby>.

He is mentioned by Mersennus. Dr. John Pell (who knew him, and made him one of his XII jurymen contra Longomontanum) tells me that he writt severall things in mathematiques for his owne pleasure.

[594]Charles Cavendish, colonel, was second son to the right honourable <William, 2nd> earle of Devonshire, brother to this present earle, William.

He was borne at ... anno.... He was well educated, and then travelled into France, Italie, &c.; but was so extremely delighted in travelling, that he went into Greece, all over; and that would not serve his turne but he would goe to Babylon, and then his governour would not adventure to goe any further with him; but to see Babylon he was to march in the Turks' armie. This account I had many yeares since, scilicet 1642, from my cosen Edmund Lyte, who was then gentleman usher to his mother the countesse dowager.

Mr. Thomas Hobbes told me that this Mr. Cavendish told him that the Greekes doe sing their Greeke.—In Herefordshire they have a touch of this singing; our old divines had. Our old vicar of Kington St. Michael, Mr. Hynd, did sing his sermons rather then reade them. You may find in Erasmus that the monkes used this fashion, who mocks them, that sometimes they would be very lowe, and by and by they would be mighty high, quando nihil opus est.—Anno 1660 comeing one morning to Mr. Hobbes, his Greeke Xenophon lay open on the board: sayd he, 'Had you come but a little sooner you had found a Greeke here that came to see me, who understands the old Greeke; I spake to him to read here in this booke, and he sang it; which putt me in mind of what Mr. Charles Cavendish told me' (as before); 'the first word is Ἔννοια, he pronounced it e̓́nnia.' The better way to explaine it is by prick-song,

Μῆνιν ἄειδε θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος · ἄνθρωπος.

[595]Upon his returne into England the civill warres brake-out, and he tooke a comission of a colonel in his majestie's cause, wherin he did his majestie great service, and gave signall proofes of his valour;—e.g. out of Mercurii Aulici—

This was donne either the 28 or 29 of July, 1643, for upon this terrible rout, the lord Willoughby of Parham forthwith yealded Gainsborough to the king's partie, July 30; the earle of Newcastle being then generall of that partie.

His body was first buried at ...,[XL.] but by order of his mother's will, when she was buried at Darby (where she has erected a noble monument for herselfe and lord) she ordered her sonne's body to be removed, and both to be layd in the vault there together, which was Feb. 18, 1674.

Funerall Sermon, by William Naylour, her chaplain, preached at Darby, Feb. 18, 1674. Lond. for Henry Broome. Texte, 2 Sam. iii. 38th verse.—page 16:

[600]... Cecil, earl of Exeter (quaere my lord chief baron Montagu[601] de nomine Christiano[602]), earle of Exeter, translated monsieur Balsac's letters, as appeares by his epistle to my lord in the first volumne, lib. V, lettre V, and Vol. 2^d, lib. V, lettre VI—'et je suis sans doute beaucoup plus honneste homme en Angleterre qu'en France, puisque j'y parle par vostre bouche.'

[603]Cecil, lord Burleigh:—Memorandum, the true name is Sitsilt, and is an ancient Monmouthshire family, but now come to be about the size[604] of yeomanry. In the church at Monmouth, I remember in a south windowe an ancient scutcheon of the family, the same that this family beares. 'Tis strange that they should be so vaine to leave off an old British name for a Romancy one, which I beleeve Mr. Verstegan did putt into their heads, telling his lordship, in his booke, that they were derived from the ancient Roman Cecilii.

The first lord Burley (who was Secretary of Estate) was at first but <a> country-schoole-master, and (I thinke Dr. Thomas Fuller sayes, vide Holy State) borne in Wales.

I remember (when I was a schooleboy at Blandford) Mr. Basket, a reverend divine, who was wont to beg us play-dayes, would alwayes be[605] uncovered, and sayd that ''twas the lord Burleigh's custome, for (said he) here is my Lord Chanceller, my Lord Treasurer, my Lord Chief Justice, &c., predestinated.'

'He made Cicero's Epistles his glasse, his rule, his oracle, and ordinarie pocket-booke' (Dr. J. Web in preface of his translation of Cicero's Familiar Epistles).

[606]Thomas Chaloner[BW], esq., [bred[607] up in Oxon], was the <third> son of Dr <Thomas> Chaloner, who was tutor (i.e. informator[608]) to prince Henry (or prince Charles—vide bishop Hall's Letters de hoc).

He was a well-bred gentleman, and of very good naturall parts, and of an agreable humour. He had the accomplishments of studies at home, and travells in France, Italie, and Germanie.

About anno ... (quaere John Collins) riding a hunting in Yorkeshire (where the allum workes now are), on a common, he[BX] tooke notice of the soyle and herbage, and tasted the water, and found it to be like that where he had seen the allum workes in Germanie. Wherupon he gott a patent of the king (Charles I) for an allum worke (which was the first that ever was in England), which was worth to him two thousand pounds per annum, or better: but tempore Caroli I^mi some courtiers did thinke the profitt too much for him, and prevailed so with the king, that, notwithstanding the patent aforesayd, he graunted a moeitie, or more, to another (a courtier), which was the reason that made Mr. Chaloner so interest himselfe for the Parliament-cause, and, in revenge, to be one of the king's judges.

He was as far from a puritan as the East from the West. He was of the naturall religion, and of Henry Martyn's gang, and one who loved to enjoy the pleasures of this life. He was (they say) a good scholar, but he wrote nothing that I heare of, onely an anonymous pamphlett, 8vo, scil. An account of the Discovery of Moyses's Tombe; which was written very wittily. It was about 1652. It did sett the witts of all the Rabbis of the Assembly then to worke, and 'twas a pretty while before the shamme was detected, which was by ——.

He had a trick sometimes to goe into Westminster hall in a morning in Terme time, and tell some strange story[609] (sham), and would come thither again about 11 or 12 to have the pleasure to heare how it spred; and sometimes it would be altered, with additions, he could scarce knowe it to be his owne. He was neither proud nor covetous, nor a hypocrite: not apt to doe injustice, but apt to revenge.

After the restauration of King Charles the Second, he[BY] kept the castle at the Isle of Man[XLIII.], where he had a prettie wench that was his concubine;[610] where when newes was brought him that there were some come to the castle to demaund it for his majestie, he spake to his girle to make him a posset, into which he putt, out of a paper he had, some poyson, which did, in a very short time, make him fall a vomiting exceedingly; and after some time vomited nothing but bloud. His retchings were so violent that the standers by were much grieved to behold it. Within three howres he dyed. The demandants of the castle came and sawe him dead; he was swoln so extremely that they could not see any eie he had, and no more of his nose then the tip of it, which shewed like a wart, and his coddes were swoln as big as one's head. This account I had from George Estcourt, D.D., whose brother-in-lawe, ... Hotham, was one of those that sawe him.

[611]On the south side of St. Giles church in the churchyard by the wall, one entire Portland stone[BZ], a yard and ½ high fere, thickness half a yard.

D. O. M.
Georgius Chapmannus
Poeta Homericus Philosophus
. . . . . . o (etsi Christianus
. . . . . . otus) per quam celeriter
. . . V: LXXVII fatis concessit
. . . die Maii anno Salutis
Humanae M D C XXXIV
H. S. E.
Ignatius Jones architectus
regius ob honorem bonarum
literarum familiari suo
hoc monumentum
D. S. P. F. C.

[612]Walter Charleton, M.D., borne at Shepton-Malet[613] in com. Somerset, Feb. 2^d, 1619, about 6 h. P.M., his mother being then at supper.

[614]'Dom. G. Charleton, D. M.: nascitur die Mercurii[615] 2/12 Febr., aerae Christi 1619/20, hor. 12, mom. 18 P.M.'—this[616] is my lord William Brounckar's doeing and is his owne handwriting.

[617]Mr. <Andrew> Paschal, rector of Chedzoy, hath the originall scroll of Mr. Charnock, scilicet, of the philosopher's stone.

[618]Mr. Charnock, the chymist, mentioned in <Ashmole's> Theatrum Chymicum, was buryed in Otterhampton neer Bridgewater, anno 1581[619], April 21, aged 55 yeares—<from> Mr. Paschal: vide Mr. Paschal's lettre, here inserted[620] before <the life of> Nicholas Mercator, p. 32.

Sir,

Mr. Wells of Bridgewater performed his promise. He writes that the house was lately pulled down, and is new built from the ground, all except the wall at the east end. He could make nothing of what was only left over the chimney; but he found the little dore that led out of the lodging-chamber into the little Athanor roome. Of that you have an account in the enclosed draught.

The two roses I take to be the white and red, termes common with Charnocke for the two magisteries. The two animals over them I suppose are wolves, denoting the[622] ♁; abounding with a volatile[623] ☉ and used for preparing and purifying one of the principal ingredients into the worke. Out of it growes (if those authors may be credited) most precious fruits.

I obliged a painter to goe over soon after I had been there and take all he could find exactly. He was there, but I could never get anything from him: an ingeniose man, but egregiously carelesse.

Looking back I find this noted by me—June 22, 1681; the place in the Athanor roome in which he kept his lampe was stone-work about 15 inches deep and so much square in the clear from side to side. Over it a wooden collar with a rabit[624] as to lett-in a cover close. No place to come into the square but by the collar, contrived probably after the accident of burning his tabernacle mentioned in his printed pieces.

I find this added:—'Twas painted about the chimney thus:—on the left side of the chimney proceeded from a red stalk streaked with white, first, a paire of red branches, then a paire of white, then of red, then one of white to the top; something like a rabbit's head painted looking from the chimney to the foot of the sayd stalk.—The next picture separated as by a pillar on the chimney:—from one stalke, two white branches, of either side one; then two red, above; then two white; then at the top this , the balls of a dusky yellow.—The next picture is also distinguished by a pillar on the chimney to the right side: this <is> quite obscured by smoake.

In the left corner of the roome another picture described, with double branches, white, then red, then white, then one on the top red.

This is all I can say of that place, of which I wish I were capable of sending a better account.

The other side of Mr. Wells's paper gives you one of the schemes in the middle of the roll, which is now by me.

The transcription of the thing, said to be Ripley's, should cost Mr. Ashmole nothing, were I not under an obligation not to impart it to any. It may be greatly to his losse who did communicate it to me, if the owner should know I have it. If I can contrive a way to send it with leave I shall be ambitious to gratify that worthy person.

your etc.
And. Paschall.

[625]To his much honoured friend John Aubrey, esqre., these present, at Mr. Hooke's lodgeings in Gresham College, London.

[626]Sir,

I received and returne thankes for yours.

Since my last I got leave to transcribe what Mr. Charnocke wrote on the backside of the rolle, which I heer send you. I kept as neare as I could to the very errours of his pen, by which it may in part be seen that he was, as he professes, an unlettered scholar. The inside of the rolle (which is all in Latine, and perhaps the same with the scrowle mentioned in Theatrum Chemicum, p. 375) was composed by a great master in the Hermetic philosophy and written by a master of his pen. Some notes written in void spaces of it by Mr. Charnocke's hand shew he did not (at least throughly) understand it. But it seemes to me that this rolle was a kind of Vade mecum or manuall that the students in that wisdome carryed about with them. I presume 'twas drawn out of Raymund Lully, of which I shall be able to gaine fuller satisfaction when I have his workes come down.

I was also, since my last, at Mr. Charnocke's house in Comag, where the rolle was found; and saw the place where 'twas hid. I saw the litle roome and contrivance he had for keeping his worke, and found it ingeniosely ordered so as to prevent a like accident to that which befell him New Yeare's day, 1555; and this pretty place joining as a closet to his chamber was to make a servant needlesse and the worke of giving attendance more easy to himselfe. I have also a litle iron instrument found there which he made use of about his fire. I sawe on the doore of his little Athanor-room, if I may so call it, drawn by his own hand, with course colours and work, but ingeniously, an embleme of his worke, at which I gave some guesses, and so about the walls of his chamber. I thinke there was in all 5 panes of this worke, all somewhat differing from each other, some very obscure and almost worne out. They told me that people had been unwilling to dwell in that house, because reputed troublesome,—I presume from some traditionall storyes of this person, who was looked on by his neighbours as no better than a conjurer.

As I was taking horse to come home from this pleasant entertainment, I see a pretty ancient man come forth of the next doore. I asked him how long he had lived there. Finding that it was the place of his birth, I inquired if he had ever heard anything of that Mr. Charnocke. He told me he had heard his mother (who dyed about 12 or 14 yeares since and was 80 yeares of age at her decease) often speake of him; that he kept a fire in, divers yeares; that his daughter lived with him; that once he was gone forth, and by her neglect (whome he trusted it with in his absence) the fire went out and so all his worke was lost; the brazen head was very neare comeing to speake, but so was he disappointed.

I suppose the pleasant-humoured man—for that he was so appeares by his breviary—alludeing to Frier Bacon's story, did so put off the inquisitivenes of his simple neighbours, and thence it is come down there by tradition till now.

Indeed it appeares by the inclosed lines that when he wrote the rolle he had attained but to the white stone, which is perhaps not half the way to the red,

('Put me to my sister Mercury, I congeale into silver'); and, if the old woman's tale were true, he might afterwards be going on and be come neare to the red and then that vexing accident might befall him; and this might be, notwithstanding what is sayd in the fragment, referred to the yeare 1574, for (being so neare the red as the traditionall story sayes he was) he might see in that 50th yeare of his age that the white was ferment to the red.

You may observe my calculation differs in one thing from Mr. Ashmole's in his notes upon Theatrum Chemicum, p. 478: for he makes 'the presse' to have been (out of Stowe) 1558, but I (out of Dr. Burnet's History) 1557; and consequently he supposes the presse to have been after the finishing of the Breviary, but I presume he set on the Breviary after he was pressed. So indeed he himselfe plainly averres in the 4 last lines of chapter 4 of his Breviary (Theatrum Chemicum, p. 296). I mention this to give a reason for my dissenting from your worthy friend, to whome I must intreat you to communicate these informations that I have had opportunity to gather, and also present my humble service.

Sir,

I thought when I set pen to paper to have given you an account of some conversation I have had with a person who is a zealous friend and admirer of this sort of knowledge, but I see I have already gone beyound bounds. I shal onely say he hath almost convinced me that it is not so hidden and obscure, so difficult and unaccountable, as men commonly seeme to beleeve. I am in hopes to receive, by Mr. Hooke's and Mr. Lodwick's favour, the lamp for which he was pleased to give directions some time since.

I have not yet seen my miller and his invention, though he promised to bring it to me; I presume 'tis not yet ready. I expect him dayly.

Pray give my humble service to our worthy friend, and to Mr. Pigott.

I am sure I now need the[627]....

[628]I shall be glad to heare of a new edition of the Theatrum[629] and that you will speed the printing of your MS. of Raymund Lullye's. If it doe not goe soon to the presse, how joyfull should I be to have the perusall of it! 'Tis the onely grievous thing I suffer in this solitude that I may not see good bookes and good men, but I must be content.

[630]The first thing written on the back side[631] is as followes:—

[Then[635] followes the picture of a dragon with a black stone under his foot, with a white stone neare his breast, with a red stone over his head: his tayle is turned to his gapeing mouth.]

The dragon speketh:—

Collected out of the Roll, the register, and Theatrum Chemicum.

[641]Sir Geffrey Chaucer: memorandum—Sir Hamond L'Estrange, of ..., in ... had his Workes in MS., a most curious piece, most rarely writt and illumined, which he valued at 100 li. His grandson and heire still haz it.—From Mr. Roger L'Estrange.

He taught his sonne the use of <the> astrolabe at 10; prout per his treatise of the Astrolabe.

Dunnington Castle, neer Newbury, was his; a noble seate and strong castle, which was held by the King (Charles I^st) (who governour?) but since dismanteled.

Memorandum:—neer this castle was an oake, under which Sir Jeofrey was wont to sitt, called Chaucer's-oake, which was cutt downe by ... ... tempore Caroli I^mi; and so it was, that ... ... was called into the starre chamber, and was fined for it.... Judge Richardson[642] harangued against him long, and like an orator, had topiques from the Druides, etc. This information I had from ... an able attorney that was at the hearing.

His picture is at his old howse at Woodstock (neer the parke-gate), a foot high, halfe way: has passed from proprietor to proprietor.

[643]One Mr. Goresuch of Woodstock dined with us at Rumney marsh, who told me that at the old Gothique-built howse neer the parke-gate at Woodstock, which was the howse of Sir Jeffrey Chaucer, that there is his picture, which goes with the howse from one to another—which see.

[644]William Chillingworth[CA], D. D.,—vide Anthony Wood's Antiq. Oxon. in Trinity College—was borne in Oxford. His father was a brewer.

About anno ... he was acquainted with one ... who drew him and some other scholars over to Doway, where he was not so well entertained as he thought he merited for his great disputative witt. They made him the porter (which was to trye his temper, and exercise his obedience): so he stole over and came to Trinity College againe, where he was fellowe.

William Laud, A. B. C.[645], was his godfather and great friend. He sent his grace weekly intelligence of what passed in the university[CB]. Sir William Davenant (poet laureat) told me that notwithstanding this doctor's great reason, he was guiltie of the detestable crime of treachery. Dr. Gill[CC], filius D^ris Gill (schoolmaster of Paules schoole), and Chillingworth held weekely intelligence one with another for some yeares, wherein they used to nibble at states-matters. Dr. Gill in one of his letters calles King James and his sonne, the old foole and the young one, which letter Chillingworth communicates to W. Laud, A. B. Cant. The poore young Dr. Gill was seised, and a terrible storme pointed towards him, which, by the eloquent intercession and advocation of Edward, earle of Dorset, together with the teares of the poore old Doctor his father, and supplication on his knees to his majestie, were blowne-over. I am sorry so great a witt should have such a naeve.

Horat. lib. I, sat. iv.

He was a little man, blackish haire, of a saturnine complexion.

The lord Falkland (vide <life of> lord Falkland) and he had such extraordinary clear reasons, that they were wont to say at Oxon that if the great Turke were to be converted by naturall reason, these two were the persons to convert him.

He lies buried in the south side of the cloysters at Chichester, where he dyed of the morbus castrensis after the taking of Arundel castle by the parliament: wherin he was very much blamed by the king's soldiers for his advice in military affaires there, and they curst that little priest and imputed the losse of the castle to his advice. In his sicknesse he was inhumanely treated by Dr. Cheynell[CD], who, when he was to be buryed, threw his booke into the grave with him, saying, 'Rott with the rotten; let the dead bury the dead.' Vide a pamphlet of about 6 sheets writt by Dr. Cheynell (maliciously enough) where he gives an account of his life.

This following inscription was made and set-up by Mr. Oliver Whitby[CE], his fellowe-collegiate at Trinity College and now one of the prebendarys of this church:

Virtuti sacrum.
Spe certissimae resurrectionis
Hic reducem expectat animam
Gulielmvs Chillingworth,
S. T. P.
Oxonii natus et educatus,
Collegii S^tae Trinitatis olim
Socius, Decus et Gloria.
Omni Literarum genere celeberrimus,
Ecclesiae Anglicanae adversus Romano-Catholicam
Propugnator invictissimus,
Ecclesiae Sarisburiensis Praecentor[XLIV.] dignissimus;
Sine Exequiis,
Furentis cujusdam Theologastri,
Doctoris Cheynell[XLV.],
Diris et maledictione sepultus:
Honoris et Amicitiae ergo,
Ab Olivero Whitby,
Brevi hoc monimento,
Posterorum memoriae consecratus,
Anno Salutis,
1672.[646]

My tutor, W. Browne[CF], haz told me, that Dr. Chillingworth studied not much, but when he did, he did much in a little time. He much delighted in Sextus Empeiricus. He did walke much in the College grove, and there contemplate, and meet with some cod's-head or other, and dispute with him and baffle him. He thus prepared himselfe before-hand. He would alwayes be disputing; so would my tutor. I thinke it was an epidemick evill of that time, which I think now is growne out of fashion, as unmannerly and boyish. He was the readiest and nimblest disputant of his time in the university, perhaps none haz equalled him since.

I have heard Mr. Thomas Hobbes, Malmesb. (who knew him), say, that he was like a lusty fighting fellow that did drive his enimies before him, but would often give his owne party smart[647] back-blowes.

When Doctor Kettle, (the president of Trin. Coll. Oxon.) dyed[CG], which was in anno <1643> Dr. Chillingworth was competitor for the presidentship, with Dr. Hannibal Potter and Dr. Roberts. Dr. Han. Potter had been formerly chaplain to the bishop of Winton, who was so much Dr. Potter's friend, that though (as Will Hawes haz told me) Dr. Potter was not lawfully elected, upon referring themselves to their visitor (bishop of Winton), the bishop (Curle) ordered Dr. Potter possession; and let the fellowes gett him out if they could. This was shortly after the lord Falkland was slaine, who had he lived, Dr. Chillingworth assured Will Hawes, no man should have carried it against him: and that he was so extremely discomposed and wept bitterly for the losse of his deare friend, yet notwithstanding he doubted not to have an astergance[CH] for it.

[648]John Clavell, the famous thiefe, borne May 11, 1601, 11^h 30´ P.M.

[649]John Cleveland was borne at ... (quaere Mr. Nayler) in Warwickshire. He was a fellow of St. John's Colledge in Cambridge, where he was more taken notice of for his being an eminent disputant, then a good poet. Being turned out of his fellowship for a malignant he came to Oxford, where the king's army was, and was much caressed by them. He went thence to the garrison at Newark upon Trent, where upon some occasion of drawing of articles, or some writing, he would needs add a short conclusion, viz. 'and hereunto we annex our lives, as a labell to our trust.' After the king was beaten out of the field, he came to London, and retired in Grayes Inne. He, and Sam. Butler, &c. of Grayes Inne, had[650] a clubb every night. He was a comely plump man, good curled haire, darke browne. Dyed of the scurvy, and lies buried in St. Andrew's church, in Holborne, anno Domini 165. (quaere Mr. Nayler[651], of ...).

     [652]Henry, earl of   m. Anne, daughter of William,
     Cumberland; obiit   |  lord Dacres of Gillesland.
     12 Eliz. <1570>.    |
      +------------------+--------------------+
      |                                       |
   George, earl of  m. Marg<aret>      Francis, earl    m. Grisold,
   Cumberland;     |  daughter <of    of Cumberland,  |  daughter of
   obiit 3 Jacobi  |  Francis, earl   obiit 1641.     |  Thomas Hughes
   <1605>.         |  of Bedford>.                    |  of Uxbridge,
                   |                                  |  esq.
                   |                                  |
  (1) Richard,  m. Anne, m. (2) Philip, earl        Henry, earl    m.  Frances,
  earl of       |  daughter    of Pembroke and     of Cumberland, |   daughter
  Dorset        |  and heir.   Montgomery.         obiit 1643.    |   of Robert
                |                                  Henry, earl of |   Cecill,
                |                     Cumberland, was a poet. His |   earl of
                |                     daughter (the countesse of  |   Sarum.
                |                     Corke and Burlington) hath  |
                |                     severall[653] copies of his  |
      +---------+------------+        making.       +-------------+
      |                      |                      |
    Margaret, m. John,      Isabell m. James,      Elizabeth m. Richard <Boyle>,
             |  earl of             earl of              |  earl of Cork and
             |  Thanet.             Northampton.         |  Burlington.
      +------+-------------------------+--------+    +---+---+
      |                                |        |    |       |
  Nicholas, earl  m. Elizabeth,     John,  Richard,
  of Thanet, my      daughter of    obiit  now
  honoured lord;     Richard, earl  sine   earle.
  obiit November     of Corke and   prole.
  27, 1679, sans     Burlington.
  issue.

[XLVI.]This George, earl of Cumberland, built the greatest fleet of shipping that ever any subject did. He had a vast estate, and could then ride in his owne lands from Yorkeshire to Westmorland. He had ... castles.

The best account of his expedition with his fleet to America is to be found in Purchas's Pilgrim. He tooke from the Spaniards to the value of seaven or 8 hundred thousand poundes. When he returned with this riche cargo (the richest without doubt that ever subject brought), the queene's councell (where he had some that envyed him—

Virtutis comes Invidia)

layed their heads together and concluded 'twas too much for a subject to have, and confiscated it all to the queen, even shippes and all, and to make restauration to the Spaniard, that he was forced to sell fifteene thousand pounds per annum. My lady Thanet told me she sawe the accounts in writing. The armada of the Argonautes was but a trifle to this.

As I take it, Sir Walter Ralegh went this brave voyage with his lordship; and Mr. Edmund Wright, the excellent navigator; and, not unlikely, Mr. Harriot too.

This was the breaking of that ancient and noble family; but Robert, earl of Salisbury (who was the chiefest enemie) afterwards maried his daughter, as above, as he might well be touch't in conscience, to make some recompence after he had donne so much mischiefe.

That he was an acquaintance of Sir Walter Raleigh, I remember by this token, that Sir James Long told me that one time he came to Draycot with Sir Walter Raleigh from Bathe, and, hunting a buck in the parke there, his horse made a false step in a conie-borough and threw him and brake the kennell-bone of his shoulder.

[654]From the pedigree of the earles of Cumberland[CI] in the hands of Elizabeth, countesse of Thanet, daughter of the earle of Burlington and Corke.

George, <third> earl of Cumberland, had seaven[XLVII.] castles in the north. He was buryed with his ancestors at Skippon Castle. Obiit about the beginning of King James's raigne.

Vide epistle to George, earl of Cumberland, before the History of the Massacre.

Henry, <fifth> earl of Cumberland, was a poet; the countesse of Corke and Burlington haz still his verses. He was of Christ Church, Oxon[CJ]. Nicholas, earl of Thanet, was wont to say that the mare of Fountaines-abbey did dash, meaning that since they gott that estate (given to the church) they did never thrive but still declined.

      Henry, lord Clifford, first earl of Cumberland,
      obiit 34 Henry VIII <1542>; sepult. in ecclesia
      Skippon. Knight of the Garter.
                    |
  Henry, lord Clifford, second earle   m.  Anne, daughter of William, lord
  of Cumberland, obiit 12 Eliz., 8     |   Dacres of Gillesland, his second
  Januarii 1570 <i.e. 69/70>. He       |   wife. She died in Skipton Castle
  was knight of the most noble order   |   in July 1581, and was buryed in
  of the Garter, and lord of           |   the vault of that Church.
  Westmorland and Vesse. Buried in     |
  Skippon Church.                      |
       +-------------------------------+-----+
       |                                     |
  1. George, third    m.  Margaret,    2. Francis,  m.  Mris Grizell Hughes
  earl of Cumberland, |   daughter     erearl of    |   of Uxbridge, widow
  knight of the       |   of Francis,  Cumberland.  |   to Thomas[656]
  Garter, that made   |   earl of                   |   Nevill, lord
  the famous          |   Bedford.                  |   Abergavenny.
  expedition to       |                             |
  America. Obiit      |                      +------+
  1605 in the Savoy   |                      |
  at London. Sepult.  |                      |
  in Skippon Church.  |                      |
                      |                      |
  Richard,   m.  Lady Anne  m.  Philip,    Henry, lord   m.  Frances Cecill,
  earle of   |   Clifford       earl of    Clifford;     |   only daughter of
  Dorset.    |   (quaere        Pembroke,  last earl of  |   Robert, earl of
  Obiit at   |   obiit).        etc.       Cumberland    |   Salisbury, Lord
  Dorset     |                             of that line. |   High Treasurer.
  house,     |                             Obiit in      |   Obiit 14 Feb.
  28 March,  |                             Yorke, 1643.  |   1643.
  1624.      |                                           |
             |                                       +---+
             |                                       |
           had issue only                        Elizabeth maried Richard
           two daughters.                        Clifford,  (1635)  Boyle,
                                                 borne in           earle of
                                                 Skipton            Corke and
                                                 Castle. 1613.      Burlington.

[657]Henry, the last earle of Cumberland, was an ingeniose gentleman for those times and a great acquaintance of the Lord Chancellor Bacon's; and often writt to one another, which lettres the countesse of Corke and Burlington, my lady Thanet's mother, daughter and heir of that family, keepes as reliques; and a poeme in English that her father wrott upon the Psalmes and many other subjects, and very well, but the language being now something out of fashion, like Sir Philip Sydney's, they will not print it.

[658]Vide his life by ...: quaere his nephew or sonne[659] Roger Coke. Sir Edward Coke[CK], knight, Lord Chiefe Justice of the King's Bench, was borne at ... in Norfolke. I heard an old lawyer ( ... Dunstable) of the Middle Temple, 1646, who was his country-man, say that he was borne to 300 li. land per annum[CL], and I have heard some of his country say again that he was borne but to 40 li. per annum. What shall one beleeve?

Quaere Roger Coke of what house he was in Cambridge, or if ever at the University.

Old John Tussell (that was my attorney) haz told me that he gott a hundred thousand pounds in one yeare, viz. 1º Jacobi, being then attorney-generall. His advice was that every man of estate (right or wrong) should sue-out his pardon, which cost 5 li. which[660] was his fee.

He left an estate of eleaven thousand pounds per annum. Sir John Danvers[CM], who knew him, told me that when one told him his sonnes would spend the estate faster then he gott it, he replyed 'they cannot take more delight in spending of it then I did in the getting of it.'

He was chamber-fellow to the Lord Chiefe Baron Wyld's father (Serjeant Wyld[CN]). He built the black buildings at the Inner Temple (now burn't) which were above the walke toward the west end, called then 'Coke's buildings.'

After he was putt out of his place of Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench[661], to spite him, they made him sheriff of Buckinghamshire, anno Dni ...; at which time he caused the sheriff's oath to be altered, which till that time was, amongst other things, to enquire after and apprehend all Lollards. He was also chosen, after he was displaced, a burghesse to sitt in Parliament.

[XLVIII.]He was of wonderfull painstaking, as appeares by his writings. He was short-sighted but never used spectacles to his dyeing day, being then 83 yeares of age. He was a very handsome proper man and of a curious complexion, as appeares by his picture at the Inner Temple, which his grandson gave them about 1668, at length, in his atturney-generall's fusted gowne, which the house haz turned into judge's robes.

He maried, his second wife, ..., the relickt of Sir ... Hatton, who was with child when he maried her[662].—<from> <Elizabeth> lady Purbec; vide B. Johnson's masque of the Gipsies.

He dyed at Stoke-poges in com. Bucks ... 1638[663] (quaere), but is buryed at ... in Norfolk.

For his moralls, see Sir W. Raleigh's Tryall.

He shewed himselfe too clownish and bitter in his carriage to Sir Walter Ralegh at his triall, where he sayes 'Thou traytor,' at every word, and 'thou lyest like a traytor.' See it in Sir Walter Ralegh's life, Lond. 1678, 8vo.

His rule:—

He playes[664] with his case as a cat would with a mouse, and be so fulsomely pedantique that a school boy would nauseate it. But when he comes to matter of lawe, all acknowledge him to be admirable. When Mr. Cuff[665], secretary to the earle of Essex, was arraigned, he would dispute with him in syllogismes, till at last one of his brethern said, 'Prithee, brother, leave off: thou doest dispute scurvily.' Cuff was a smart man and a great scholar and baffeld him. Said Cooke

'Dominum cognoscite vestrum';

Cuff replied,'My lord, you leave out the former part of the verse[666], which you should have repeated,

Acteon ego sum'—

reflecting on his being a cuckold.

[667]The world expected from him a commentary on Littleton's Tenures; and he left them his Common-place book, which is now so much made use of.

Sir Edward Coke did envie[668] Sir Francis Bacon, and was wont to undervalue his lawe: vide de hoc in the lord Bacon's lettres, where he expostulates this thing with Sir Edward Coke, and tells him that he may grow when that others doe stand at a stay.

Memorandum:—he was of Clifford's Inne before he was of the Inner Temple, as the fashion then was first to be of an Inne of Chancery.

Memorandum:—when the play called Ignoramus (made by one Ruggle of Clare-hall) was acted with great applause before King James, they dressed Sir Ignoramus like Chief Justice Coke and cutt his beard like him and feigned his voyce. Mr. Peyton, our vicar of Chalke, was then a scholar at Kings College and sawe it. This drollery did ducere in seria mala: it sett all the lawyers against the clergie, and shortly upon this Mr. Selden wrote of Tythes not jure divino.

[669]Monsieur ... Colbert was a merchant and an excellent accomptant, i.e. for Debtor and Creditor. He is of Scotish extraction and that obscure enough, his grandfather being a Scotish bag-piper to the Scotch regiment.

Cardinal Mezarin found that his stables were very chardgeable to him, and was imposed upon in accompts. He hearing of this merchant Colbert to be a great master in this art, sends for him and desires him to make inspection into his accounts and putt him into a better method to avoyd being abused. Which he did, and that so well that he imployed him in ordering the accounts of all his estate and found him so usefull that he also made use of him to methodize and settle the accompts of the king. This was his rise.—From Dr. John Pell.

[670]John Colet, D.D., deane of St. Paule's, London—vide Sir William Dugdale's Historie of Paule's church. After the conflagration his monument being broken, his coffin, which was lead, was full of a liquour which conserved the body. Mr. Wyld and Ralph Greatorex tasted it and 'twas of a kind of insipid tast, something of an ironish tast. The body felt, to the probe of a stick which they thrust into a chinke, like brawne. The coffin was of lead and layd in the wall about 2 foot ½ above the surface of the floore.

[671]My friend Mr. Henry Coley was borne in Magdalen parish in the city of Oxon, Octob. 18, 1633. His father was a joyner over against the Theater.

He is a tayler in Graies Inne lane.

He hath published an ingeniose discourse called Clavis Astrologiae, in English, 1669.

He is a man of admirable parts, and more to be expected from him every day: and as good a natured man as can be. And comes by his learning meerly by the strong impulse of his genius. He understands Latin and French: yet never learned out his grammar.

[672]Henry Coley[CO] natus Oxon, neer Kettle-hall, Octob. 18, horâ 2. 15´ 4˝ P.M.—his father a joyner.

He was a woman's tayler: tooke to the love of astrologie, in which he grew in a short time a good proficient; and in Mr. W. Lilly's later time, when his sight grew dimme, was his amanuensis.

He hath great practise in astrologie, and teacheth mathematiques. He hath published Clavis Astrologiae, 1675, a thick octavo, the second edition, wherein he has compiled clearly the whole science out of the best authors.

[673]John Collins, accomptant, was borne at Wood-eaton neer Oxford, March the 5th, 1624/5, about half an houre after 5 at night (Saturday night): this I had from himselfe.

[674]John Collins obiit London, November 10, 1683.

[675]John Collins:—adde his sheet Of interest, and Plea for Irish cattle: all the rest are set downe, but not when printed. And also his Historie of salt and fisherie[676], 1682, printed by A. Godbid, 4to.

[677]John Collins, a learned mathematician, fellow of the Royal Society: scripsit plurima: he was not an University man, but was first prentice to <Thomas> Allam the booke-binder.

[678]Anthony, earl of Shaftesbury:—Memoires relating the principall passages of his life, in folio, stitcht, printed by Samuel Lee, 1681.

[679]Samuel Cowper, his majestie's alluminer and my honord friend, obiit May ..., 1672: sepultus in Pancrace chancell, next grave to father ... Symonds, e societate Jesu—their coffins touch. Aetat. circiter 6—.

[680]Thomas Cooper, Magdalenensis—vide Anthony Wood's Antiq. Oxon.: quaere if he was not schoolmaster at Winchester Colledge?

Dr. Edward Davenant told me that this learned man had a shrew to his wife, who was irreconcileably angrie with him for sitting-up late at night so, compileing[681] his Dictionarie, (Thesaurus linguae Romanae et Britannicae, Londini, 1584; dedicated to Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, and Chancellor of Oxford). When he had halfe-donne it, she had the opportunity to gett into his studie, tooke all his paines out in her lap, and threw it into the fire, and burnt it. Well, for all that, that good man had so great a zeale for the advancement of learning, that he began it again, and went through with it to that perfection that he hath left it to us, a most usefull worke. He was afterwards made bishop of Winton.

He dyed <29 Apr. 1594>.

In Thesaurum Thomae Cooper, Magdalenensis, hexasticon Richardi Stephani.

[682]Mr. Pulleyn[683] tells me that Cowper who wrot the Dictionary was not bishop of Winton but of Lincoln: vide and mend it[684].

[685]Epitaph on master Vincent Corbet, gardiner, father of the bishop: B. J<onson's> Underwoods, p. 177.

[686]Richard Corbet, episcopus (ex last edition of his poemes, in preface sc. p. 16) was made deane of Christ Church, 1620; bishop of Oxon, 1628; bishop of Norwich, 1632. Vide Anthony Wood's Antiq. Oxon.

[687]Richard Corbet[CP], D.D., was the son of Vincent Corbet—vide his poem—

who was a gardner at Twicknam, as I have heard my old cosen Whitney say. Vide in B. Johnson's Underwoods an epitaph on this Vincent Corbet, where he speakes of his nurseries etc., p. 177.

He was a Westminster scholar; old parson Bussey, of Alscott in Warwickshire, went to schoole with him—he would say that he was a very handsome man, but something apt to abuse, and a coward.

He was a student (vide Anthony Wood's Antiq. Oxon.) of Christ-church in Oxford. He was very facetious, and a good fellowe. One time he and some of his acquaintance being merry at Fryar Bacon's study (where was good liquor sold), they were drinking on the leads of the house, and one of the scholars was asleepe, and had a paire of good silke stockings on. Dr. Corbet (then M.A., if not B.D.) gott a paire of cizers and cutt them full of little holes, but when the other awaked, and percieved how and by whom he was abused, he did chastise him, and made him pay for them.

After he was D. of Divinity, he sang ballads at the Crosse at Abingdon on a market-day. He and some of his camerades were at the taverne by the crosse,[L.] (which by the way was then the finest of England; I remember it when I was a freshman: it was admirable curious Gothique architecture, and fine figures in the niches: 'twas one of those built by king ... for his queen: vide Chronicle). The ballad singer complaynd, he had no custome, he could not putt-off his ballades. The jolly Doctor putts-off his gowne, and putts-on the ballad singer's leathern jacket, and being a handsome man, and had a rare full voice, he presently vended a great many, and had a great audience.

After the death of Dr. <William Goodwyn>, he was made deane of Christ-church (quaere if ever canon); vide[689] part iii, pag. 7b.

He had a good interest with great men, as you may find in his poems, and with the then great favourite, the duke of Bucks; his excellent witt was lettres of recommendation to him. I have forgott the story, but at the same time that Dr. <Samuel> Fell thought to have carried it, Dr. Corbet putt a pretty trick on <him> to lett him take a journey on purpose to London for it, when he had already the graunt of it.

He preacht a sermon before the king at Woodstock (I suppose king James, quaere) and no doubt with a very good grace; but it happened that he was out, on which occasion there were made these verses:—

vide the verses.

[691]His conversation[692] was extreme pleasant. Dr. Stubbins[CR] was one of his cronies; he was a jolly fatt Dr. and a very good house-keeper; parson of <Ambrosden> in Oxfordshire. As Dr. Corbet and he were riding in Lob-lane, in wett weather, ('tis an extraordinary deepe dirty lane) the coach fell; and Dr. Corbet sayd that Dr. Stubbins was up to the elbowes in mud, he was up to the elbowes in Stubbins.

Anno Domini <1628> he was made bishop of Oxford, and I have heard that he had an admirable, grave, and venerable aspect.

One time, as he was confirming, the country people pressing in to see[693] the ceremonie, sayd he, 'Beare-off there, or I'le confirme yee with my staffe.' Another time being to lay his hand on the head of a man very bald, he turns to his chaplaine (Lushington) and sayd, 'Some dust, Lushington,' (to keepe his hand from slipping). There was a man with a great venerable beard; sayd the bishop, 'You, behind the beard.'

His chaplain, Dr. Lushington[CS], was a very learned and ingeniose man, and they loved one another. The bishop sometimes would take the key of the wine-cellar, and he and his chaplaine would goe and lock themselves in and be merry. Then first he layes downe his episcopall hat,—'There lyes the Dr.' Then he putts of his gowne,—'There lyes the Bishop.' Then 'twas,—'Here's to thee, Corbet,' and 'Here's to thee, Lushington.'—From Josias Howe, B.D., Trin. Coll. Oxon.

He built a pretty house (quaere) neer the cawsey beyond Friar Bacon's studie.

He married[CT] ..., whom 'twas sayd he begott. She was a very beautifull woman, and so was her mother. He had a son (I think Vincent) that went to schoole at Westminster, with Ned Bagshawe; a very handsome youth, but he is run out of all, and goes begging up and downe to gentlemen.

He was made bishop of Norwich, Anno Domini <1632>. He dyed <28 July, 1635>. The last words he sayd were, 'Good night, Lushington.' He lyes buried in the upper end of the choire at Norwich, [on the south side of the monument of bishop Herbert, the founder, under a faire gravestone of free-stone, from whence the inscription[CU] and scutcheon of brasse are stollen[694]].

His poems are pure naturall witt, delightfull and easie.

Quaere what he hath writt besides his poems: vide part iii, p.[695] 7b.

It appeares by his verses to Master Ailesbury[CV], Dec. 9, 1618, that he had knowledge of analyticall learning, being so well acquainted with him and the learned Mr. Thomas Harriot.

[696]I have not seen the date of his Iter Boreale; but it ends thus:—

[697]Memorandum:—his antagonist Dr. <Daniel> Price, the anniversarist, was made deane of the church at Hereford. Dr. <William> Watts, canon of that church, told me, 1656, that this deane was a mighty pontificall proud man, and that one time when they went in procession about the cathedrall church, he would not doe it the usually way in his surplice, hood, etc., on foot, but rode on a mare, thus habited, with the Common-Prayer booke in his hand, reading. A stone-horse happend to breake loose[698] ... he would never ride in procession afterwards.

[699]In the cathedral church of Norwich, upper end of the choeur, towards the steppes to the altar, in the middle is a little altar-tombe of bishop Herbert the founder; south of which tombe is a faire freestone gravestone of bishop Corbet, the inscription and shield of brasse are stollen. Vide A. Wood's Antiq. Oxon. <His> son <is a> fainiant.

[700]Old major Cosh was quartered (Sept. 18, 1642) at his mother's house at Shirburne in Dorsetshire; her name was Gertrude.

This was when Sherburne castle was besieged, and when the fight was at Babell hills, between Sherburn and Yeovill: the first fight in the civill warres that was considerable. But the first brush was between the earle of Northampton (father to Henry, the lord bishop of London) and the lord Brooke, neer Banbury: which was the later end of July, or the beginning of August, 1642. I[701] was sent for into the countrey to my great griefe, and departed the 9th of Aug. 'Twas before I went away, I beleeve in Aug. Quaere de hoc.

But to returne to T. Coryat: had he lived to returne into England, his travells had been most estimable, for though he was not a wise man, he wrote faithfully matter of fact.

[702]Mr. Abraham Cowley[CW]: he was borne in Fleet-street, London, neer Chancery-lane; his father a grocer, at the signe of....

He was secretarie to the earle of St. Alban's (then lord Jermyn) at Paris. When his majestie returned, the duke of Buckingham hearing that at Chertsey was a good farme of about ... li. per annum, belonging to the queene-mother, goes to the earl of St. Alban's and the commissioners to[703] take a lease of it. They answered that 'twas beneath his grace to take a lease of them. That was all one, he would have it, payd for it, and had it, and freely and generously gave it to his deare and ingeniose friend, Mr. Abraham Cowley, for whom purposely he bought it.

He lies interred at Westminster Abbey, next to Sir Jeffrey Chaucer, N., where the duke of Bucks has putt a neate monument of white marble, viz. a faire pedestall, wheron the inscription:—

Above that a very faire urne, with a kind of ghirland of ivy about it.

The inscription was made by Dr. <Thomas> Spratt, his grace's chapellane: the Latin verses were made, or mended, by Dr. <Thomas> Gale.

On his very noble gravestone, his scutcheon, and

Abrahamus Couleius
H. S. E.
1667.

Memorandum:—this George, duke of Bucks, came to the earl of St. Albans and told him he would buy such a lease in Chertsey belonging to the queen mother. Said the earle to him, 'that is beneath your grace, to take a lease.' 'That is all one,' qd. he, 'I desire to have the favour to buy it for my money.' He bought it, and then freely bestowed it on his beloved Cowley: which ought not to be forgotten.

By Sir J. Denham:—

—A. C. discoursed very ill and with hesitation.

He writ when a boy at Westminster ... poems and a comedy called Love's Riddle, dedicated to Sir Kenelme Digby; printed, London, ..., 8vo.

[705]Abraham Cowley:—vide his will, scilicet, for his true and lasting charity, that is, he settles his estate in such a manner that every yeare so much is to be payd for the enlarging of poor prisoners cast into gaole by cruel creditors for some debt. This I had from Mr. Dunning of London, a scrivener, who is an acquaintance of Dr. Cowley's brother. I doe thinke this memorable benefaction is not mentioned in his life in print before his workes; and it is certainly the best method of charity.

[706]Memorandum:—Mris Smyth[707] told me of one ... Cradock in the west (where Mris Smyth's relations or birth) from a cratch dyed worth 10,000 li.—Quaere de hoc, e.g. <at> Taunton or Warminster.

[708]... Croun, M.D., obiit Sunday Oct. 12, 1684, London; buried at St. Mildred's in the Poultry. His funerall sermon is printed. He was fellow of the Physitians' College and also Regiae Societatis Socius.

[709]Madam Curtin, a good fortune of 3000 li., daughter to Sir William Curtin, the great merchant, lately married her footman, who, not long after marriage, beates her, getts her money, and ran away.

[710]'Twas the lord Kenwurth that sayd to the earl of Salisbury Ken you an ape, sir,—from Elizabeth, countesse of Thanet.

[711]Sir Charles Danvers was beheaded on Tower-hill with Robert, earle of Essex, February the 6th, 1600[712]. I find in the register of the Tower chapell only the sepulture of Robert, earl of Essex, that yeare; wherfore I am induced to beleeve that his body was carryed to Dantesey[CX] in Wilts to lye with his ancestors. Vide Stowe's Chronicle, where is a full account of his and the earle's deportment at their death on the scaffold.

With all their faylings, Wilts cannot shew two such[713] brothers.

His familiar acquaintance were ...[714], earl of Oxon; Sir Francis and Sir Horace Vere; Sir Walter Ralegh, etc.—the heroes of those times.

Quaere my lady viscountesse Purbec and also the lord Norris for an account of the behaviour and advice of Sir Charles Danvers in the businesse of the earl of Essex, which advice had the earle followed he had saved his life.

[715]Of Sir Charles Danvers, from my lady viscountesse Purbec:—Sir Charles Danvers advised the earle of Essex, either to treat with the queen—hostages ..., whom Sir Ferdinando Gorges did let goe; or to make his way through the gate at Essex house, and then to hast away to Highgate, and so to Northumberland (the earl of Northumberland maried his mother's sister), and from thence to the king of Scots, and there they might make their peace; if not, the queen was old and could not live long. But the earle followed not his advice, and so they both lost their heads on Tower-hill.

[716]His[CY] mother, an Italian, prodigious parts for a woman. I have heard my father's mother say that she had Chaucer at her fingers' ends.

A great politician; great witt and spirit, but revengefull[717].

Knew how to manage her estate as well as any man; understood jewells as well as any jeweller.

Very beautifull, but only short-sighted. To obtain pardons for her sonnes[718] she maryed Sir Edmund Carey, cosen-german to queen Elizabeth, but kept him to hard meate.

Smyth of Smythcotes—Naboth's vineyard—digitus Dei[CZ].

The arcanum—'traditio lampadis' in the family of Latimer[DA] of poysoning king Henry 8—from my lady Purbec.

[719]Henry Danvers[DB], earl of Danby; vide his christning and epitaph in libro[DC] A. in Dantesey church: vide <David> Lloyd's State-worthies, 8vo, 1679.

Quaere my brother William, and J. Stokes, for the examination order of the murther[DD] at Cosham in North Wilts. Old L. Shippon, Oxon,

'From Turke and Pope,' etc.

R. Wisdome was then lecturer and preacht that day, and Henry Long expired[720] in his armes. My great-grandfather, R. Danvers, was in some trouble about it, his horses and men being in that action. His servants were hanged and so ... Long of Linets. Vide Degory Wheare's Epistles and John Owen's Epigrams.

Physick Garden <at Oxford>: inscriptions there; inscription at Dantesey.

<He> gave to Sir Thomas Overbury cloath.

<He> perfected his Latin when a man by parson Oldham of Dodmerton. <He was a> perfect master of the French; a historian; tall and spare; temperate; sedate and solid; a very great favorite of prince Henry; lived most at Cornbury; a great improver of his estate, to 11000 li. per annum at the least; sold the 7 Downes, and turned the[721] ⓐ into lease; afterwards bought fee-simple neer Cirencester.

[722]Henry, earl of Danby, <was a> great oeconomist. All his servants <were> sober and wise[723] in their respective places. <He> kept ... gentlemen: <among them> colonel Legge[724] (governor of Portsmouth); and his brother; Mr. Arthur Drake (brother of Sir ... Drake, baronet).

[725]Earl of Danby—he was page to Sir Philip Sydney—from my cozen Elizabeth Villers: quaere +.

[726]Memorandum:—anno Domini, 16—, regno regis Caroli primi, Henry, earle of Danby, built an almeshowse in this parish <Dantesey, co. Wilts> for <six> poore people and[727] a schoole—quaere the salary[DE] of both.

[728]Sir John Danvers, the father, <was> a most beautifull and good and even-tempered person. His picture <is> yet extant—my cosen John Danvers (his son[729]) haz it at ... Memorandum, George Herbert's verses on the curtaine.

He was of a mild and peaceable nature, and his sonnes' sad accident[730] brake his heart.

[731]By the same[732] (orator of the University of Cambridge), pinned on the curtaine of the picture of old Sir John Danvers, who was both a handsome and a good man:—

[734]Sir John Danvers:—His first wife was the lady <Magdalen> Herbert, a widowe, mother of the lord Edward Herbert of Cherbery and George Herbert, orator. By her he had no issue; she was old enough to have been his mother. He maried her for love of her witt. The earl of Danby[735] was greatly displeased with him for this dis-agreable match.

[736]Sir John, his sonne, was then[737] a child about six. An ingeniose person, e.g. Chelsey house and garden, and Lavington garden[738]. A great friend of the king's partie and a patron to distressed and cashiered cavaliers, e.g. captain Gunter, he served; Christopher Gibbons (organist); captain Peters, etc.—Lord Bacon's friend. But to revenge himselfe of his sister, the l<ady> Garg<rave> to[739] ingratiate himself more with the P<rotector> to null his brother, earl of Danby's, will, he, contrary to his owne naturall inclination, did sitt in the high court of justice at the king's triall.

Dantesey (2500 li. per annum), not entailed, <was> forfeited and given to the duke of Yorke.

His son, John, by his last wife (<Grace> Hughes), has 500 li. per annum (old land) in Oxonshire, which was part of judge[740] Danvers' estate tempore Edwardi IV, one of the judges with Litleton.

Henry, the eldest son of Sir John Danvers, dyed before his father, and left his two sisters co-heires, viz. Elizabeth[741] <who> married Robert Viliers (only son of viscount Purbec), and Anne, married to Sir <Henry> Lee of Ditchley.

  [742]Robert Danvers[DH], esq., m. the lady Danvers[743], born
      born 19 Oct., 1624,      |  Tuesday, 7 Aprill, 1629,
      11h 48´ P.M.             |  5h 26´ P.M.

Mris Frances Danvers, born Friday 12 July 1650, 0^h 16´ P.M.

Mris Elizabeth Danvers, born Monday 10 November 1651, 10^h 21´ P.M.

Mris Ann Danvers, born Sunday 23 October 1653, 5^h 10´ A.M.

Mris Mary Danvers, born Saturday 10 November 1655, 7^h 28´ A.M.

Mr. Robert Danvers, born Saturday 14 Martii 1656/7, 5^h 30´ A.M.

Mr. Edward Danvers, born Thursday 28 Martii 1661, 4^h 9´ A.M.

[744]Memorandum, 1676, July 19, P.M., about 6^h, my lord viscount (Robert) Purbec, filius, was hurt in the neck by Mr. Fielding[DI] in Fleet Street.

<Ask Elizabeth, viscountess Purbec> the year and day when her son, the lord Purbec, was killed in a duel at Liege? Respondet: he was killed in a duell at Liege about a year before the death of King Charles II^d—I thinke in the month of Aprill.

[745]Michaell Dary, mathematician, and a gunner of the Tower (by profession, a tobacco-cutter), an admirable algebrician, was buryed in the churchyard neer Bethlem on May-day 1679. With writing in the frostie weather[746] his fingers rotted and gangraened. He was an old man; I guesse about 66 +.

[747]Edward Davenant, merchant: he lies buried behind the bishop's stall at Sarum with this inscription[748]:—

Literas, lyceo, rerumque usus, emporio, etc.

[749]Memorandum:—Mr. <Edward> Davenant, merchant in London, eldest brother of John Davenant, bishop of Sarum, broke (the seas being crosse to him); but being a person of great estimation with the merchants, they favoured him, and he went into Ireland. He did set up the trade of pilchard fishing at Wythy Island[750] there, where he was a Justice of Peace, and in 20 yeares he gott there about ten thousand pounds, payd his debts, and left his family well. This account I had from my worthy and intimate friend, Mr. John Davenant, grandsonne to him.

[751]Edward Davenant[DJ], S. Theol. Dr., was the eldest son of <Edward> Davenant, merchant of London, who was elder brother to the right reverend father in God, the learned John Davenant, bishop of Sarum.

I will first speake of the father, for he was a rare[752] man in his time, and deserves to be remembred. He was of a healthy complexion[753], rose at 4 or 5 in the morning, so that he followed his studies till 6 or 7, the time that other merchants goe about their businesse; so that, stealing so much and so quiet time in the morning, he studied as much as most men. He understood Greeke and Latin perfectly, and was a better Grecian then the bishop. He writt a rare Greeke character as ever I sawe. He was a great mathematician, and understood as much of it as was knowen in his time. Dr. Davenant, his son, hath excellent notes of his father's, in mathematiques, as also in Greeke, and 'twas no small advantage <to> him to have such a learned father to imbue arithmeticall knowledge into him when a boy, night times when he came from schoole (Merchant Taylors'). He understood trade very well, was a sober and good menager, but the winds and seas cross'd him. He had so great losses that he broke, but his creditors knowing it was no fault of his, and also that he was a person of great vertue and justice, used not extremity towards him; but I thinke gave him more credit, so that he went into Ireland, and did sett up a fishery for pilchards at Wythy Island, in Ireland, where in ... yeares he gott 10000 li.; satisfied and payd his creditors; and over and above left a good estate to his son. His picture bespeakes him to be a man of judgement, and parts, and gravity extraordinary. There is written Expecto. He slipt comeing downe the stone stayres at the palace at Sarum, which bruise caused his death. He lyes buried in the south aissle of the choire in Sarum Cathedral behind the bishop's stall. His son, Dr. Davenant, sett up and made this inscription for him, which I will remember as well as I can:—

[755]Dr. Edward Davenant was borne at his father's howse at Croydon in Surrey (the farthest handsome great howse on the left hand as you ride to Bansted Downes) anno Domini ... (vide register). I have heard him say, he thankt God his father did not know the houre of his birth; for that it would have tempted him to have studyed astrologie, for which he had no esteeme at all.

He went to school at Merchant Taylors' school, from thence to Queen's Colledge in Cambridge, of which house his uncle, John Davenant, (afterwards bishop of Sarum), was head, where[756] he was fellowe.

When his uncle was preferred to the church of Sarum, he made his nephew treasurer of the church, which is the best dignity, and gave him the vicaridge of Gillingham in com. Dorset, and then Paulsholt parsonage, neer the Devises, which last in the late troubles he resigned to his wive's brother <William> Grove.

He was to his dyeing day of great diligence in study, well versed in all kinds of learning, but his genius did most strongly encline him to the mathematiques, wherin he has written (in a hand as legible as print) MSS. in 4to a foot high at least. I have often heard him say (jestingly) that he would have a man knockt in the head that should write any thing in mathematiques that had been written of before. I have heard Sir Christopher Wren say that he does beleeve he was the best mathematician in the world about 30 or 35 + yeares agoe. But being a divine he was unwilling to print, because the world should not know how he had spent the greatest part of his time.

He very rarely went any farther then the church, which is hard by his house. His wife was a very discreet and excellent huswife, that he troubled himselfe about no mundane affaires, and 'tis a private place, that he was but little diverted with visitts.

I have writt to his executor, that we may have the honour and favour to conserve his MSS. in the Library of the Royal Societie, and to print what is fitt. I hope I shall obtaine my desire. And the bishop of Exon (<Thomas> Lamplugh) maried the Dr's second daughter Katherine, and he was tutor to Sir Joseph Williamson, our President. He had a noble library, which was the aggregate of his father's, the bishop's, and his owne.

He was of middling stature, something spare; and weake, feeble leggs; he had sometimes the goute; was of great temperance, he alwayes dranke his beer at meales with a toast, winter and summer, and sayd it made the beer the better.

He was not only a man of vast learning, but of great goodnes and charity; the parish and all his friends will have a great losse in him. He tooke no use for money upon bond. He was my singular good friend, and to whom I have been more beholding then to any one beside; for I borrowed five hundred pounds of him for a yeare and a halfe, and I could not fasten any interest on him.

He was very ready to teach and instruct. He did[757] me the favour to informe me first in Algebra. His daughters were Algebrists.

His most familiar learned acquaintance was Lancelot Morehouse, parson of Pertwood. I remember when I was a young Oxford scholar, that he could not endure to heare of the New (Cartesian, or &c.) Philosophy; 'for,' sayd he, 'if a new philosophy is brought-in, a new divinity will shortly follow' (or 'come next'); and he was right.

He dyed at his house at Gillingham aforesaid, where he and his predecessor, Dr. <John> Jessop, had been vicars one hundred and ... yeares, and lyes buryed in the chancell there. Obiit March 9th, 1679/80, and was buried the 31 of the same month.

He was heire to his uncle, John Davenant, bishop of Sarum. Memorandum:—when bishop Coldwell[DK] came to this bishoprick, he did lett long leases, which were but newly expired when bishop Davenant came to this sea; so that there tumbled into his coffers vast summes. His predecessor, Dr. Tounson, maried his sister, continued in the see but a little while, and left severall children unprovided for, so the king or rather duke of Bucks gave bishop Davenant the bishoprick out of pure charity[DL]. Sir Anthony Weldon sayes (in his Court of King James), 'twas the only bishoprick that he disposed of without symony, all others being made merchandise of for the advancement of his kindred. Bishop Davenant being invested, maried all his nieces to clergie-men, so he was at no expence for their preferment. He granted to his nephew (this Dr.) the lease of the great mannour of Poterne, worth about 1000 li. per annum; made him threasurer of the church of Sarum, of which the corps is the parsonage of Calne, which was esteemed to be of the like value. He made severall purchases, all which he left him; insomuch as the churchmen of Sarum say, that he gained more by this church then ever any man did by the church since the Reformation, and take it very unkindly that, at his death, he left nothing (or but 50 li.) to that church which was the source of his estate. How it happened I know not, or how he might be workt-on in his old age, but I have heard severall yeares since, he had sett downe 500 li. in will for the Cathedral Church of Sarum.

He had 6 sonnes and 4 daughters. There was a good schoole at Gillingham: at winter nights he taught his sonnes Arithmetic and Geometric; his 2 eldest daughters, especially Mris Ettrick, was a notable Algebrist.

☞ Memoria. He had an excellent way of improving his children's memories, which was thus: he would make one of them read a chapter or &c., and then they were (sur le champ) to repeate what they remembred, which did exceedingly profitt them; and so for sermons, he did not let them write notes (which jaded their memorie), but gave an account vivâ voce. When his eldest son, John, came to Winton-schoole (where the boyes were enjoyned to write sermon notes) he had not wrote; the master askt him for his notes—he had none, but sayd, 'If I doe not give you as good an account of it as they that doe, I am much mistaken.'

[758]Edward Davenant, D.D., obiit 12 of March 1679/80, and is seated in the north side of the east end of the chancell at Gillingham, Dorset.—From Anthony Ettrick, esq.

[759]By Dr. Edward Davenant, S.T.P., Versus mnemonici ad computationes cossicas. Memorandum:—Dr. Davenant hath excellent explanations of these verses, which transcribe: his son James[DM], at Oriel College Oxon, hath them.

[760]John Davenant, episcopus Sarum: his epitaph made by bishop Pierson[761].

He bought the advowson of Newton-tony, Wilts, which he gave to Queene's College[762], Cambridge—quaere if not others.

He hung the choire of Sarum with purple velvet, which was plundered in the sacrilegious times.

[763]Sir William Davenant[DN], knight, Poet Laureate, was borne [about[764] the end of February—vide A. Wood's Antiq. Oxon.—baptized 3 of March A.D. 1605/6], in ... street in the city of Oxford at the Crowne taverne.

His father was John Davenant, a vintner there, a very grave and discreet citizen: his mother was a very beautifull woman, and of a very good witt, and of conversation extremely agreable. They had three sons, viz. 1, Robert[LII.], 2, William[765]; and 3, Nicholas (an attorney): and two handsome daughters, one married to Gabriel Bridges (B.D., fellow of C. C. Coll., beneficed in the Vale of White Horse), another to Dr. <William> Sherburne (minister of Pembridge in Hereford, and a canon of that church).

Mr. William Shakespeare was wont to goe into Warwickshire once a yeare, and did commonly in his journey lye at this house in Oxon. where he was exceedingly respected. [I[767] have heard parson Robert <Davenant> say that Mr. W. Shakespeare haz given him a hundred kisses.] Now Sir William would sometimes, when he was pleasant over a glasse of wine with his most intimate friends—e.g. Sam. Butler (author of Hudibras), &c.—say, that it seemed to him that he writt with the very spirit that Shakespeare, and seemd[768] contented[769] enough to be thought his son. [He[770] would tell them the story as above, in which way his mother had a very light report[771].]

He went to schoole at Oxon to Mr. Sylvester (Charles Whear, filius Degorii W., was his schoolefellowe), but I feare he was drawne from schoole before he was ripe enough.

He was preferred to the first dutches of Richmond to wayte on her as a page. I remember he told me, she sent him to a famous apothecary for some Unicornes-horne, which he was resolved to try with a spider which he incircled[772] in it, but without the expected successe; the spider would goe over, and thorough and thorough, unconcerned.

He was next a servant (as I remember, a page also) to Sir Fulke Grevil[773] lord Brookes, with whom he lived to his death, which was that a servant of his (that had long wayted on him and his lordship had often told him that he would doe something for him, but did not but still putt him off with delayes) as he was trussing up his lord's pointes comeinge from stoole (for then their breeches were fastned to the doubletts with points—then came in hookes and eies—which not to have fastened was in my boy-hood a great crime) stabbed him. This was at the same time that the duke of Buckingham was stabbed by Felton, and the great noise and report of the duke's, Sir William told me, quite drowned this of his lord's, that 'twas scarce taken notice of. This Sir Fulke G. was a good witt, and had been a good poet[774] in his youth. He wrote a poeme in folio which he printed not till he was old, and then, (as Sir W. said) with too much judgment and refining, spoyld it, which was at first a delicate thing.

He writt a play or playes, and verses, which he did with so much sweetnesse and grace, that by it he got the love and friendship of his two Mecaenasses, Mr. Endymion Porter, and Mr. Henry Jermyn (since earl of St. Albans), to whom he has dedicated his poem called Madegascar. Sir John Suckling also was his great and intimate friend.

After the death of Ben Johnson he was made in his place Poet Laureat.

He gott a terrible clap of a black handsome wench that lay in Axe-yard, Westminster, whom he thought on when he speakes of Dalga in Gondibert, which cost him his nose, with which unlucky mischance many witts were to<o> cruelly bold: e.g. Sir John Menis, Sir John Denham, &c.

[775]In 1641, when the troubles began, he was faine to fly into France, and at Canterbury he was seised on by the mayor—vide Sir John Menis' verses—

In the civill warres in England he was in the army of William, marquess of Newcastle (since duke), where he was generall of the ordinance. I have heard his brother Robert say, for that service there was owing to him by King Charles the First 10000 li. During that warre, 'twas his hap to have two aldermen of Yorke his prisoners, who were something stubborne, and would not give the ransome ordered by the councell of warr. Sir William used them civilly, and treated them in his tent, and sate them at the upper end of his table à la mode de France, and having donne so a good while to his chardge, told them (privately and friendly) that he was not able to keepe so chargeable guests, and bad them take an opportunity to escape, which they did; but having been gon a little way they considered with themselves that in gratitude they ought to goe back and give Sir William their thankes; which they did, but it was like to have been to their great danger of being taken by the soldiers; but they happened to gett safe to Yorke.

The King's party being overcome, Sir William Davenant (who received the honour of knighthood from the duke of Newcastle by commision) went into France; resided chiefly in Paris where the Prince of Wales then was. He then began to write his romance in verse, called Gondibert, and had not writt above the first booke, but being very fond of it, prints it (before a quarter finished), with an epistle of his to Mr. Thomas Hobbes and Mr. Hobbes' excellent epistle to him printed before it. The courtiers with the Prince of Wales could never be at quiet about this piece, which was the occasion of a very witty but satericall little booke of verses in 8vo. about 4 sheetes, writt by George, duke of Buckes, Sir John Denham, etc.—

This last word Mr. Hobs told me was the occasion of their writing.

Here he layd an ingeniose designe to carry a considerable number of artificers (chiefly weavers) from hence to Virginia; and by Mary the queen-mother's meanes, he got favour from the king of France to goe into the prisons and pick and choose. So when the poor dammed wretches understood what the designe was, the<y> cryed uno ore—'Tout tisseran!' i.e. We are all weavers! Will. <took> 36, as I remember, if not[776]more, and shipped them; and[777] as he was in his voyage towards Virginia, he and his tisseran were all taken by the shippes then belonging to the Parliament of England. The slaves I suppose they sold, but Sir William was brought prisoner to England. Whither he was first a prisoner at Caresbroke-castle in the Isle of Wight, or at the Tower of London, I have forgott: he was a prisoner at both. His Gondibert, 4to, was finished at Caresbroke-castle. He expected no mercy from the Parliament, and had no hopes of escaping <with> his life. It pleased God that the two aldermen of Yorke aforesayd hearing that he was taken and brought to London to be tryed for his life, which they understood was in extreme danger, they were touch<ed> with so much generosity and goodnes, as, upon their owne accounts and meer motion, to try what they could to save Sir William's life who had been so civill to them and a meanes to save theirs, to come to London: and acquainting the Parliament with it, upon their petition, etc., Sir William's life was saved[LIII.].

Being freed from imprisonment, (because playes, scil. Tragedies and Comoedies, were in those Presbyterian times scandalous) he contrives to set-up an Opera stylo recitativo, wherein serjeant Maynard and severall citizens were engagers. It began at Rutland-house, in Charter-house-yard; next, (scil. anno ...) at the Cock-pitt in Drury-lane, where were acted very well stylo recitativo, Sir Francis Drake's ..., and the Siege of Rhodes (1st and 2d part). It did affect the eie and eare extremely. This first brought scenes in fashion in England; before, at playes, was only a hanging.

Anno Domini 1660 was the happy restauration of his majestie Charles II. Then was Sir Wm. made ...; and the Tennis court in Little Lincolnes-Inne fielde was turn'd into a play-house for the duke of Yorke's players, where Sir William had lodgeings, and where he dyed, April the <7th> 166<8>[LIV.].

I was at his funerall. He had a coffin of walnutt-tree; Sir[779] John Denham sayd 'twas the finest coffin that ever he sawe.[780]His body was carried in a herse from the play-house to Westminster-Abbey, where, at the great west dore, he was recieved by the sing<ing> men and choristers, who sang the service of the church ('I am the Resurrection, &c.') to his[LV.] grave, which is in the south crosse aisle, on which, on a paving stone of marble, is writt, in imitation of that on Ben Johnson, 'O rare Sir Will. Davenant.'

His first lady was Dr. ...'s daughter, physitian, ... by whom he had a very beautifull and ingeniose son that dyed above 20 yeares since. His 2d lady was the daughter of ... by whom he had severall children: I sawe some very young ones at the funerall. His eldest is Charles Davenant, LL.Dr., who inherits his father's beauty and phancy[781]. He practises at Doctors Commons. He writt a play called Circe, which haz taken very well.

Sir William hath writt about 25 (quaere) playes; the romance called Gondibert; and a little poeme called Madagascar.

His private opinion was that Religion at last,—e.g. a hundred yeares hence,—would come to settlement, and that in a kind of ingeniose Quakerisme.

[782]That sweet swan of Isis, Sir William Davenant, dyed the seaventh day of April last, and lyes buried amongst the poets in Westminster abbey[783], by his antagonist, Mr. Thomas May, whose inscription of whose marble was taken away by order since the king came in.

Sir William was Poet Laureat; and Mr. John Dryden hath his place. But me thought it had been proper that a laurell should have been sett on his coffin—which was not donne.

He hath writt above 20 playes; besides his Gondibert and Madagascar.

[784]Sir John Dugdale told me that he would enquire about Mr. John Davenport, and send to you.—This was halfe a yeare since, at least.

[785]Sir John Dugdale saith that John Davenport was a nonconformist; and he hath enquired of his relations, who know nothing of him, if dead or alive, but they believe he is dead. He went over sea—he thinkes to the Barbadoes, or some of these plantations[786], or to Holland.

[787]Memorandum:—Mr. Browne, the mathematicall instrument maker of the Minories, told me that the sea-quadrant was invented by Captaine Davy ... yeares since,—he that found out the streights called Davys's Streights.

[788]'Arthur Dee,' (sonne of John Dee), a physitian at Norwych, 'was born 13 Julii 1579, manè, horâ 4. 30´ fere (vel potius, 25 min.) in ipso ortu solis, ut existimo'—Thus I find it in his father's Ephemerides.

Obiit Norwychi about 1650.

[789]<Arthur Dee told Dr. Bathurst and Dr. Wharton> 'that (being but a boy) he used[LVI.] to play at quoits with the plates of gold made by projection in the garret of Dr. Dee's lodgings in Prague.... When he was 9 yeares of age and at Trebona in Germany with his father, he was design'd to succede Kelly as his father's speculator.'

[790]<Arthur Dee> 'has often told Mr. Whitefoot, of Norwich, who buried him, that he had more than once seen the philosopher's stone, and he thinks that he has written some peice on that subject. He was a man of a very pleasant conversation and had good practice in Norwich: a great acquaintance of Dr. <Thomas> Browne's.'

[791]John Dee:—Mr. Ashmole hath his nativitie. Resp.—'tis in his Theatrum Chemicum. Hee had a very faire cleare rosie complexion: so had the earl of Rochester, exceeding.

[792]'Johannes Dee, natus Londini, 1527, Julii 13, 4^h 2´ P.M.'—this nativity[DO] I copied out of the learned John Dee's papers in the hands of Elias Ashmole, esq.

[793]From Elias Ashmole—the father of this John Dee was a vintner in ... London.

[794]John Dee—from Meredith Lloyd:—Talbot, marying an inheritresse of the prince of South Wales (who was descended from Howel Da, i.e. Howelus bonus: the same family from whom John Dee was descended).—Dr. Troutbec hath Raymund Lully's ... (a chymical tract) with John Dee's marginall notes.

[795]I left about 1674, with Mr. Elias Ashmole, 3 pages in folio concerning him[DP].

Memorandum:—Mr. Meredith Lloyd tells me that his father was Roland Dee[DQ], a Radnorshire gentleman[LVII.], and that he hath his pedegree, which he hath promised to lend to me. He was descended from Rees, prince of South Wales.

My great-grandfather, William Aubrey (LL.Dr.), and he were cosins, and intimate acquaintance. Mr. Ashmole hath letters between them, under their owne hands, viz. one of Dr. W. A. to him[796] (ingeniosely and learnedly written) touching the Sovraignty of the Sea, of which J. D. writt a booke which he dedicated to queen Elizabeth and desired my great grandfather's advice upon it. Dr. A.'s countrey-house was at Kew, and J. Dee lived at Mortlack, not a mile distant. I have heard my grandmother say they were often together.

Arthur Dee, M.D., his son, lived and practised at Norwich, an intimate friend of Sir Thomas Browne, M.D., who told me that Sir William Boswell, the Dutch ambassador, had all John Dee's MSS.: quaere his executors for his papers. He[797] lived then somewhere in Kent.

Memorandum:—Sir William Boswell's widowe lives at Bradburne, neer Swynoke, in Kent. Memorandum:—Mr. Hake, of the Physitians' Colledge, hath a MS. of Mr. John Dee's, which see or gett.

Quaere A. Wood for the MSS. in the Bodlean library of Doctor Gwyn, wherein[798] are severall letters between him and John Dee, and Doctor Davies, of chymistrey and of magicall secrets, which my worthy friend Mr. Meredith Lloyd hath seen and read: and he tells me that he haz been told that Dr. Barlowe gave it to the Prince of Tuscany[799].

Meredith Lloyd sayes that John Dee's printed booke of Spirits, is not above the third part of what was writt, which were in Sir Robert Cotton's library; many whereof were much perished by being buryed, and Sir Robert Cotton bought the field to digge after it.

Memorandum:—he told me of John Dee, etc., conjuring at a poole[LVIII.] in Brecknockshire, and that they found a wedge of gold; and that they were troubled and indicted as conjurers at the assizes; that a mighty storme and tempest was raysed in harvest time, the countrey people had not knowen the like.

His picture in a wooden cutt is at the end of Billingsley's Euclid, but Mr. Elias Ashmole hath a very good painted copie of him from his sonne Arthur. He had a very fair, clear[800] complexione (as Sir Henry Savile); a long beard as white as milke. A very handsome man.

Investigatio cinerum △

Old goodwife Faldo[DR] (a natif of Mortlak in Surrey), 80+ aetatis (1672[801]), did know Dr. Dee, and told me he dyed at his howse in Mortlack, next to the howse where the tapistry hangings are made, viz. west of that howse; and that he dyed about 60+, 8 or 9 yeares since (January, 1672), and lies buried in the chancell, and had a stone (marble) upon him. Her mother tended him in his sicknesse. She told me that he did entertain the Polonian ambassador at his howse in Mortlak, and dyed not long after; and that he shewed the eclipse with a darke roome to the said ambassador[LIX.]. She beleeves that he was eightie years old when he dyed. She sayd, he kept a great many stilles goeing. That he layd the storme Sir Everard Digby. That the children dreaded him because he was accounted a conjurer. He recovered the basket of cloathes stollen, when she and his daughter (both girles) were negligent: she knew this.

He is buried (upon the matter) in the middest of the chancell, a little towards the south side. She sayd, he lies buried in the chancell between Mr. Holt and Mr. Miles, both servants to queen Elizabeth, and both have brasse inscriptions on their marble, and that there was on him a marble, but without any inscription, which marble is removed; on which old marble is signe of two or three brasse pinnes. A daughter of his (I thinke, Sarah) maried to a flax-dresser, in Southwarke: quaere nomen.

He dyed within a yeare, if not shortly, after the king of Denmark was here: vide Sir Richard Baker's Chronicle and Capt. Wharton's Almanac.

[802]He built the gallery in the church at Mortlak. Goody Faldo's father was the carpenter that work't it.

A stone was on his grave, which is since removed. At the upper end of the chancell then were steppes, which in Oliver's dayes were layd plaine by the minister, and then 'twas removed. The children when they played in the church would runne to Dr. Dee's grave-stone. She told me that he forewarned Q. Elizabeth of Dr. Lopez attempt against her (the Dr. bewrayed, —— himselfe).

He used to distill egge-shells, and 'twas from hence that Ben Johnson had his hint of the alkimist, whom he meant.

He was a great peace-maker; if any of the neighbours fell out, he would never lett them alone till he had made them friends.

He was tall and slender. He wore a gowne like an artist's gowne, with hanging sleeves, and a slitt.

A mighty good man he was.

He was sent ambassador for Queen Elizabeth (shee thinkes) into Poland.

Memorandum:—his regayning of the plate for ...'s butler, who comeing from London by water with a basket of plate, mistooke another basket that was like his. Mr. J. Dee bid them goe by water such a day, and looke about, and he should see the man that had his basket, and he did so; but he would not gett the lost horses, though he was offered severall angells. He told a woman (his neighbour) that she laboured under the evill tongue of an ill neighbour (another woman), which came to her howse, who he sayd was a witch.

[803]Thomas Deere, natus March 15º, 1639, 15^h 7´ P.M., at New Sarum—John Gadbury's advice, 1 April, 1676.

[804]Thomas Deare's letter:—

[808]Memorandum:—Mr. Th. Deer is now (Jan. 1677/8) in prison at Fisherton-Anger.

[809]... De Laune:—he was apothecary to Mary the queen mother: came into England....

He was a very wise man, and as a signe[810] of it left an estate of 80,000 li.

Sir William Davenant was his great acquaintance and told me of him, and that after his returne into England he went to visit him, being then octogenary, and very decrepit with the gowt, but had his sight and understanding. He had a place made for him in the kitchen chimney; and, non obstante he was master of such an estate, Sir William sawe him slighted not only by his daughter-in-lawe, but by the cooke-mayd, which much affected him—misery of old age.

He wrote a booke of prudentiall advice, in quadrans, 8vo, in English verse, which I have seen, and there are good things in it.

[811]Sir John Denham was unpolished with the small-pox: otherwise a fine complexion.

[812]From Anthony Wood:—in the Matriculation booke he finds it thus written—'Johannes Denham, Essex, filius Johannis Denham de Horseley parva in com. praed., militis, aetat. 16, 1631.'

[813]Sir John Denham[DS], Knight of the Bath, was borne at Dublin in Ireland, anno Domini....

Quaere Dr. Buzby if he was a Westminster schollar—I have forgot. Anno ... he was admitted of Trinity Colledge in Oxford, where he stayed.... His tutor there was.... I have heard Mr. Josias Howe say that he was the dreamingst young fellow; he never expected such things from him as he haz left the world. When he was there he would game extremely; when he had played away all his money he would play away his father's wrought rich gold cappes.

His father was Sir John Denham, one of the Barons of the Exchequer. He had been one of the Lords Justices in Ireland: he maried Ellenor[LX.], one of the daughters of Sir Garret Moore, knight, lord baron of Mellifont, in the kingdome of Ireland, whom he maried during his service in Ireland in the place of Chief Justice there.

From Trinity Colledge he went to Lincolnes-Inne, where (as judge Wadham Windham[814], who was his contemporary, told me) he was as good a student as any in the house. Was not suspected to be a witt.

At last, viz. 1640, his play of The Sophy came out, which did take extremely: Mr. Edmund Waller sayd then of him, that he broke-out like the Irish Rebellion[LXI.]—threescore thousand strong, before any body was aware[815].

He was much rooked by gamesters, and fell acquainted with that unsanctified crew, to his ruine. His father had some suspition of it, and chid him severely, wherupon his son John (only child) wrot a little essay in 8vo, printed ..., Against[LXII.] gameing and to shew the vanities and inconveniences of it, which he presented to his father to let him know his detestation of it[DT]. But shortly after his father's death[LXIII.] (who left 2,000 or 1,500 li. in ready money, 2 houses well furnished, and much plate) the money was played away first, and next the plate was sold. I remember about 1646 he lost 200 li. one night at New-cutt. Anno ... (I ghesse 1642) he was high-sheriff of the countie of Surrey.

At the beginning of the civill warre he was made governor of Farnham-castle for the king, but he was but a young soldier, and did not keepe it. In 1642/3, after Edghill fight, his poeme called Cowper's Hill was printed at Oxford, in a sort of browne paper, for then they could gett no better.

1646/7 (quaere) he conveyed, or stole away, the two dukes of Yorke and Glocester from St. James's (from the tuition of the earle of Northumberland), and conveyed them into France to the Prince of Wales and Queen-mother. King Charles II sent him and the lord Culpepper envoyes to the king of Poland,....

Anno 1652, he returned into England, and being in some straights was kindly entertayned by the earle of Pembroke at Wilton, where I had the honour to contract an acquaintance with him. Here he translated the ... booke of Vergil's Æneis, and also burlesqu't it[LXIV.]: quaere Mr. Christopher Wase who was then there, tutor to William[819], lord Herbert. He was, as I remember, a yeare with my lord of Pembroke at Wilton and London; he had then sold all the lands his father had left him.

His first wife was the daughter and heire of ... Cotton, of ... in Glocestershire, by whom he had 500 li. per annum, one son and two daughters.[820]His son did not patrem sapere. He was of Wadham College[821] in Dr. Wilkins's time: he dyed sine prole, I thinke, there.—One of his daughters is maried to ... Morley, of Sussex, esq.; the other....

He was much beloved by King Charles the First, who much valued him for his ingenuity. He graunted him the reversion of the surveyor of his majestie's buildings, after the decease of Mr. Inigo Jones; which place, after the restauration of King Charles II he enjoyed to his death, and gott seaven thousand pounds, as Sir Christopher Wren told me of, to his owne knowledge. Sir Christopher Wren was his deputie.

Anno Domini 166.. he maried his 2d wife, <Margaret> Brookes, a very beautifull young lady; Sir John was ancient and limping. The duke of Yorke fell deepely in love with her, though (I have been morally assured) he never had carnall knowledge of her. This occasioned Sir John's distemper of madnesse in 166.., which first appeared when he went from London to see the famous free-stone quarries at Portland in Dorset, and when he came within a mile of it, turned back to London again, and did[822] not see it. He went to Hownslowe, and demanded rents of lands he had sold many yeares before; went to the king, and told him he was the Holy Ghost. But it pleased God that he was cured of this distemper, and writt excellent verses (particularly on the death of Mr. Abraham Cowley) afterwards. His 2d lady had no child; was poysoned by the hands of Co. of Roc.[823] with chocolatte.

At the coronation of King Charles II he was made Knight of the Bath.

He dyed (vide A. Wood's Antiq. Oxon.) at the house of his office (which he built, as also the brick-buildings next the street in Scotland-yard), and was buried, anno Domini 1668/9, March the 23, in the south crosse aisle of Westminster Abbey, neer Sir Jeffrey Chaucer's monument, but hitherto (1680) without any memoriall for him.

Memorandum:—the parsonage-house at Egham (vulgarly called The Place) was built by baron Denham; a house very convenient, not great, but pretty, and pleasantly scituated, and in which his son, Sir John, (though he had better seates), did take most delight in. He sold it to John Thynne, esq. In this parish is a place called Cammomill-hill, from the cammomill that growes there naturally; as also west of it is Prune-well-hill (formerly part of Sir John's possessions), where was a fine tuft of trees, a clear spring, and a pleasant prospect to the east, over the levell of Middlesex and Surrey. Sir John tooke great delight in this place, and was wont to say (before the troubles) that he would build there a retiring-place to entertaine his muses; but the warres forced him to sell that as well as the rest. He sold it to Mr. ... Anstey. In this parish W. and by N. (above Runney Meade) is Cowper's Hill, from whence is a noble prospect, which is incomparably well described by that sweet swan, Sir John Denham; printed first at Oxon shortly after Edghill fight, 1642/3.

Memorandum:—he delighted much in bowles, and did bowle very well.

He was of the tallest, but a little incurvetting at his shoulders, not very robust. His haire was but thin and flaxen, with a moist curle. His gate was slow, and was rather a stalking (he had long legges), which was wont to putt me in mind of Horace, De Arte Poetica:—

His eie was a kind of light goose-gray, not big; but it had a strange piercingness, not as to shining and glory, but (like a Momus) when he conversed with you he look't into your very thoughts.

He was generally temperate as to drinking; but one time when he was a student of Lincolne's-Inne, having been merry at the taverne with his camerades, late at night, a frolick came into his head, to gett a playsterer's brush and a pott of inke, and blott out all the signes between Temple-barre and Charing-crosse, which made a strange confusion the next day, and 'twas in Terme time. But it happened that they were discovered, and it cost him and them some moneys. This I had from R. Estcott[824], esq., that carried the inke-pott.

In the time of the civill warres, George Withers, the poet, begged Sir John Denham's estate at Egham of the Parliament, in whose cause he was a captaine of horse. It <happened> that G. W. was taken prisoner, and was in danger of his life, having written severely against the king, &c. Sir John Denham went to the king, and desired his majestie not to hang him, for that whilest G. W. lived he should not be the worst poet in England.

Scripsit the Sophy: Cowper's Hill: Essay against Gameing: Poems, 8vo, printed anno Domini ...; Cato Major sive De Senectute, translated into English verse, London, printed by H. Heringman, in the New Exchange, 1669.

Memorandum:—in the verses against Gondibert, most of them are Sir John's. He was satyricall when he had a mind to it.

[825]Monsieur Renatus Des Cartes,

'nobilis Gallus, Perroni dominus, summus mathematicus et philosophus; natus Hagae Turonum pridie Calendas Apriles, 1596; denatus Holmiae Calendis Februarii, 1650'—this inscription I find under his picture graved by C. V. Dalen.

How he spent his time in his youth, and by what method he became so knowing, he tells the world in his treatise entituled Of Method. The Societie of Jesus glorie in that theyr order had the educating of him. He lived severall yeares at Egmont (neer the Hague), from whence he dated severall of his bookes. He was too wise a man to encomber himselfe with a wife; but as he was a man, he had the desires and appetites of a man; he therefore kept a good conditioned hansome woman that he liked, and by whom he had some children (I thinke 2 or 3). 'Tis pity but comeing from the braine[826] of such a father, they should be well cultivated. He was so eminently learned that all learned men made visits to him, and many of them would desire him to shew them his ... of instruments (in those dayes mathematicall learning lay much in the knowledge of instruments, and, as Sir H. S.[827] sayd, in doeing of tricks), he would drawe out a little drawer under his table, and shew them a paire of compasses with one of the legges broken; and then, for his ruler, he used a sheet of paper folded double. This from Alexander Cowper (brother of Samuel), limner to Christina, queen of Sweden, who was familiarly acquainted there with Des Cartes.

[828]Mr. Hobbes was wont to say that had Des Cartes kept himselfe wholy to geometrie that he had been the best geometer in the world. He did very much admire him, but sayd that he could not pardon him for writing in the defence of transubstantiation which he knew to bee absolutely against his judgment[829]—quod N. B.

[830]Ex registro capellae Turris London, scil. 1600[831], 'Robert, earle of Essex, beheaded, Febr. 6th.'

From my lady Elizabeth, viscountesse Purbec, repeated by her:—

made by Robert, earl of Essex, that was beheaded.

[832]The tradition is that the bell of Lincoln's-Inne was brought from Cales (Cadiz), tempore reginae Elizabethae, plundered in the expedition[833] under <Robert Devereux>, earl of Essex.

[834]Sir Everard Digby (father of Sir Kenelme) scripsit libellum Latinè cui titulus:—

Everardi Dygbei de duplici methodo—

in 8vo, in dialogues.

I have heard Mr. John Digby say (his grandsonne) that he was the handsomest man (accounted) in England.

[835]Sir Everard Digby was a most gallant gentleman and one of the handsomest men of his time. He writt something in Latin de methodo, which I did light upon 23 yeares ago at a country man's howse in Herefordshire; and Mr. Francis Potter told me he writt de arte natandi.

'Twas his ill fate to suffer in the powder-plott. When his heart was pluct out by the executioner (who, secundum formam, cryed 'Here is the heart of a traytor!'), it is credibly reported, he replied, 'Thou liest!' This my lord Bacon speakes of, but not mentioning his name, in his Historia vitae et mortis.

[836]Sir Kenelm Digby[DU], knight: he was borne at <Gotehurst, Bucks> on the eleventh of June[DV]: see Ben: Johnson, 2d volumne:—

[Memorandum:—in the first impression in 8vo it is thus; but in the folio 'tis my, instead of thy.]

Mr. Elias Ashmole assures me, from two or three nativities by Dr. <Richard> Nepier, that Ben: Johnson was mistaken and did it for the ryme-sake.—In Dr. Napier's papers of nativities, with Mr. Ashmole, I find:—'Sir Kenelme Digby natus July 11, 5^h 40´ A.M. 1603, 14 Leo ascending,' and another scheme gives it at '4^h A.M., 26 Cancer ascending'; and there are two others of Cancer and Leo.

He was the eldest son of Sir Everard Digby, who was accounted the handsomest gentleman in England. Sir Everard sufferd as a traytor in the gunpowder-treason; but king James restored his estate to his son and heire. Mr. Francis Potter told me that Sir Everard wrote a booke De Arte Natandi. I have a Latin booke of his writing in 8vo:—Everardi[837] Dygbei De duplici methodo libri duo, in dialogues 'inter Aristotelicum et Ramistam,' in 8vo: the title page is torne out.—His second son was Sir John Digby, as valiant a gentleman and as good a swordman as was in England, who dyed (or was killed[LXV.]) in the king's cause at Bridgewater, about 1644.

It happened in 1647 that a grave was opened next to Sir John Digby's (who was buried in summer time, it seemes), and the flowers on his coffin were found fresh, as I heard Mr. Harcourt (that was executed) attest that very yeare. Sir John died a batchelour.

Sir Kenelme Digby was held to be the most accomplished cavalier of his time. He went to Glocester hall in Oxon, anno <1618> (vide A. Wood's Antiq. Oxon.). The learned Mr. Thomas Allen (then of that house) was wont to say that he was the Mirandula of his age. He did not weare a gowne there[839], as I have heard my cosen Whitney say.

There was a great friendship between him and Mr. Thomas Allen; whether he was his scholar I know not. Mr. Allen was one of the learnedest men of this nation in his time, and a great collector of good bookes, which collection Sir Kenelme bought (Mr. Allen enjoyeing the use of them for his life) to give to the Bodlean Library, after Mr. Allen's decease, where they[840] now are.

He was a great traveller, and understood 10 or 12 languages. He was not only master of a good and gracefull judicious stile, but he also wrote a delicate hand, both fast-hand and Roman. I have seen lettres of his writing to the father[841] of this earle of Pembroke, who much respected[842] him.

He was such a goodly handsome person, gigantique and great voice, and had so gracefull elocution and noble addresse, etc., that had he been drop't out of the clowdes[843] in any part of the world, he would have made himselfe respected. But the Jesuites spake spitefully, and sayd 'twas true, but then he must not stay there above six weekes. He was envoyé from Henrietta Maria (then Queen-mother) to Pope <Innocent X> where at first he was mightily admired; but after some time he grew high, and hectored with his holinesse, and gave him the lye. The pope sayd he was mad.

He was well versed in all kinds of learning. And he had also this vertue[844], that no man knew better how to abound, and to be abased, and either was indifferent to him. No man became grandeur better[845]; sometimes again he would live only with a lackey, and horse with a foote-cloath.

He was very generous, and liberall to deserving persons. When Abraham Cowley was but 13 yeares old, he dedicated to him a comedy[846], called Love's Riddle, and concludes in his epistle[847]—'The Birch that whip't him then would prove a Bay.' Sir K. was very kind to him.

When he was at Rome one time, (I thinke he was envoyé from Mary the Queen-mother to Pope <Innocent X>) he contrasted[848] with his holinesse.

Anno ... (quaere the countesse of Thanet) much against his mother's, etc., consent, he maried that celebrated beautie and courtezane, Mrs. Venetia Stanley, whom Richard earle of Dorset kept as his concubine, had children by her, and setled on her an annuity of 500 li. per annum; which after Sir K. D. maried was unpayd by the earle; and for which annuity Sir Kenelme sued the earle, after mariage, and recovered it. He would say that a handsome lusty man that was discreet might make a vertuose wife out of a brothell-house. This lady carried herselfe blamelessly, yet (they say) he was jealous of her[LXVI.]. She dyed suddenly, and hard-hearted woemen[849] would censure him severely.

After her death, to avoyd envy and scandall, he retired in to Gresham Colledge at London, where he diverted himselfe with his chymistry, and the professors' good conversation. He wore there a long mourning cloake, a high crowned hatt, his beard unshorne, look't like a hermite, as signes of sorrowe for his beloved wife, to whose memory he erected a sumptuouse monument, now quite destroyed by the great conflagration. He stayed at the colledge[850] two or 3 yeares.

The faire howses in Holbourne, between King's street and Southampton street, (which brake-off the continuance of them) were, about 1633, built by Sir Kenelme; where he lived before the civill warres. Since the restauration of Charles II he lived in the last faire house westward in the north portico of Convent garden, where my lord Denzill Hollis lived since. He had a laboratory there. I thinke he dyed in this house—sed quaere.

He was, 164.., prisoner for the king (Charles I) at Winchester-house, where he practised chymistry[851], and wrote his booke of[852] Bodies and Soule, which he dedicated to his eldest son, Kenelme, who was slaine (as I take it) in the earle of Holland's riseing[853].

Anno 163 ... tempore Caroli I^mi he received the sacrament in the chapell at Whitehall, and professed the Protestant religion, which gave great scandal to the Roman Catholiques; but afterwards he looked back.

He was a person of very extraordinary strength. I remember one at[854]Shirburne (relating to the earl of Bristoll) protested to us, that as he, being a midling man, being sett in <a> chaire, Sir Kenelme tooke up him, chaire and all, with one arme.

He was of an undaunted courage, yet not apt in the least to give offence. His conversation was both ingeniose and innocent.

Mr. Thomas White, who wrote de Mundo, 1641[855], and Mr. ... Hall of Leige, e societate Jesu, were two of his great friends.

As for that great action of his at Scanderoon, see the Turkish Historie. Sir <Edward> Stradling, of Glamorganshire, was then his vice-admirall, at whose house is an excellent picture of his, as he was at that time: by him is drawen an armillary sphaere broken, and undernethe is writt IMPAVIDUM FERIENT (Horace). See excellent verses of Ben: Johnson (to whome he was a great patrone) in his 2d volumne.

There is in print in French, and also in English (translated by Mr. James Howell), a speech that he made at a philosophicall assembly at Montpelier, 165.. Of the sympathetique powder—see it[856]. He made a speech at the beginning of the meeting of the Royall Society Of the vegetation of plants.

He was borne to three thousand pounds per annum. His ancient seat (I thinke) is Gote-herst in Buckinghamshire. He had a fair estate also in Rutlandshire. What by reason of the civil warres, and his generous mind, he contracted great debts, and I know not how (there being a great falling out between him and his then only son, John[LXVII.]) he settled his estate upon ... Cornwalleys, a subtile sollicitor[857], and also a member of the House of Commons, who did putt Mr. John Digby to much charge in lawe: quaere what became of it?

Mr. J. D. had a good estate of his owne, and lived handsomely then at what time I went to him two or 3 times in order to your Oxon. Antiqu.; and he then brought me a great book, as big as the biggest Church Bible that ever I sawe, and the richliest bound, bossed with silver, engraven with scutchions and crest (an ostrich); it was a curious velame[858]. It was the history of the family of the Digbyes, which Sir Kenelme either did, or ordered to be donne. There was inserted all that was to be found any where relating to them, out of records of the Tower, rolles, &c. All ancient church monuments were most exquisitely limmed by some rare artist. He told me that the compileing of it did cost his father a thousand pound. Sir Jo. Fortescue sayd he did beleeve 'twas more. When Mr. John Digby did me the favour to shew me this rare MS., 'This booke,' sayd he, 'is all that I have left me of all the estate that was my father's!' He was almost as tall and as big as his father: he had something[859] of the sweetnesse of his mother's face. He was bred by the Jesuites, and was a good scholar. He dyed at....

Vide in ... Lives when Sir Kenelme dyed.

Sir John Hoskyns enformes me that Sir Kenelme Digby did translate Petronius Arbiter into English.

[860]Venetia Stanley[DW] was daughter of Sir ... Stanley.

She was a most beautifull desireable creature; and being matura viro was left by her father to live with a tenant and servants at Enston-abbey[LXVIII.] (his land, or the earl of Derby's) in Oxfordshire; but as private as that place was, it seemes her beautie could not lye hid. The young eagles had espied her, and she was sanguine and tractable, and of much suavity (which to abuse was greate pittie).

In those dayes Richard, earle of Dorset (eldest son[861] and heire to the Lord Treasurer, vide pedegree) lived in the greatest splendor of any nobleman of England. Among other pleasures that he enjoyed, Venus was not the least. [LXIX.]This pretty creature's fame quickly came to his Lordship's eares, who made no delay to catch at such an opportunity.

I have now forgott who first brought her to towne, but I have heard my uncle Danvers[862] say (who was her contemporary) that she was so commonly courted, and that by grandees, that 'twas written over her lodging one night in literis uncialibus,

PRAY COME NOT NEER,
FOR DAME VENETIA STANLEY LODGETH HERE.

The earle of Dorset, aforesayd, was her greatest gallant, who was extremely enamoured of her, and had[863] one if not more children by her. He setled on her an annuity of 500 li. per annum.

Among other young sparkes of that time, Sir Kenelme Digby grew acquainted with her, and fell so much in love with her that he married her, much against the good will of his mother; but he would say that 'a wise man, and lusty, could make an honest woman out of a brothell-house.' Sir Edmund Wyld had her picture[LXX.] (and you may imagine was very familiar with her), which picture is now (vide) at Droitwytch, in Worcestershire, at an inne, where now the towne keepe their meetings. Also at Mr. Rose's, a jeweller in Henrietta-street in Convent garden, is an excellent piece of hers, drawne after she was newly dead.

She had a most lovely and sweet-turn'd face, delicate darke-browne haire. She had a perfect healthy constitution; strong; good skin; well proportioned; much enclining to a Bona Roba (near altogether). Her face, a short ovall; darke-browne eie-browe, about which much sweetness, as also in the opening of her eie-lidds. The colour of her cheekes was just that of the damaske rose, which is neither too hott nor too pale. She was of a just[864] stature, not very tall.

Sir Kenelme had severall pictures of her by Vandyke, &c.[LXXI.] He had her hands cast in playster, and her feet, and her face. See Ben: Johnson's 2d volumne, where he hath made her live in poetrey, in his drawing of her both body and mind:—

[865]When these verses were made she had three children by Sir Kenelme, who are there mentioned, viz. Kenelme, George, and John.

She dyed in her bed suddenly. Some suspected that she was poysoned. When her head[866] was opened there was found but little braine, which her husband imputed to her drinking of viper-wine; but spitefull woemen would say 'twas a viper-husband who was jealous of her that she would steale a leape. I have heard some say,—e.g. my cosen Elizabeth Falkner,—that after her mariage she redeemed her honour by her strick't living. Once a yeare the earle of Dorset invited her and Sir Kenelme to dinner, where the earle would behold her with much passion, and only kisse her hand.

Sir Kenelme erected to her memorie a sumptuouse and stately monument[867] at ... Fryars[868] (neer Newgate-street) in the east end of the south aisle, where her bodie lyes in a vault of brick-worke, over which are three steps[869] of black marble, on which was a stately altar of black marble with 4 inscriptions in copper gilt affixed to it: upon this altar her bust of copper gilt, all which (unlesse the vault, which was onely opened a little by the fall) is utterly destroyed by the great conflagration. Among the monuments in the booke mentioned in Sir Kenelm Digby's life, is to be seen a curious draught of this monument, with copies of the severall inscriptions.

About 1676 or 5, as I was walking through Newgate-street, I sawe Dame Venetia's bust standing at a stall at the Golden Crosse, a brasier's shop. I perfectly remembred it, but the fire had gott-off the guilding: but taking notice of it to one that was with me, I could never see it afterwards exposed to the street. They melted it downe. How these curiosities would be quite forgott, did not such idle fellowes as I am putt them downe!

Memorandum:—at Goathurst, in Bucks[870], is a rare originall picture of Sir Kenelme Digby and his lady Venetia, in one piece, by the hand of Sir Anthony van Dyke. In Ben. Johnson's 2d volumne is a poeme called 'Eupheme[DY], left to posteritie, of the noble lady, the ladie Venetia Digby, late wife of Sir Kenelme Digby, knight, a gentleman absolute in all numbers: consisting of these ten pieces, viz. Dedication of her Cradle; Song of her Descent; Picture of her Bodie; Picture of her Mind; Her being chose a Muse; Her faire Offices; Her happy Match; Her hopefull Issue; Her ἈΠΟΘΕΩΣΙΣ, or Relation to the Saints; Her Inscription, or Crowne.'

Her picture drawn by Sir Anthony Vandyke hangs in the queene's draweing-roome, at Windsor-castle, over the chimney.

Venetia Stanley was (first) a miss to Sir Edmund Wyld; who had her picture, which after his death, serjeant Wyld (his executor) had; and since the serjeant's death hangs now in an entertayning-roome at Droitwich in Worcestershire. The serjeant lived at Droitwich.

          [871]Jacobus Digges[DZ],  m.  Philippa, filia Johannis Engeham
              de Berham, armig.   |   de Chart, uxor 2da.
                                  |
                  Leonard Diggs,  m.  Sara, filia <Thomae> Wilford, de
                  de Wotton.      |   Hartridge in parochia de Cranbroke.
                                  |
    +-------------+---------------+---------------+-------------+
    |             |                               |             |
  Maria,     Thomas Digges,   m.  Anna, filia   Anna, uxor   Sara, uxor
  uxor ...   filius et haeres |   Warhami       Willelmi     ... Martyn.
  Barber.    Leonardi.        |   St. Leger,    Digges de
                              |   militis.      Newington.
      +---------------+-------+---------+
      |               |                 |
  Jacobus[872]     Leonardus  Dudlius Digges, de   m.  Maria, minima
  Digges, de      Digges,    Chilham, miles: modo |   filia et cohaeres
  Bech, Armiger.  filius     (1619) superstes,    |   Thomae Kemp de
                  secundus.  legatus ad           |   Olney, militis.
                             Imperatorem Russiae. |
     +-----------------------+-------------+------+---------+----------+
     |                       |             |                |          |
  Thomas Diggs, primus   Johannes,      Dudlius, filius   Anna.   Elizabetha.
  filius, armiger.       filius 2dus.   3tius.

[873]Memorandum this visitation[874] was in anno 1619 by John Philpot.

They[875] were, for severall generations, of Barham in Kent. John, the sonne of Roger Digges of Mildenhall (which Roger is the first in this genealogie), vixit tempore Henrici III; and writt then Dig.—Memorandum here are 14 generations or descents to the last line: quod N. B.