Chapter D: O. M (3)

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.

[LXIV.] He burlesqued Virgil, and burnt it, sayeing that 'twas not fitt that the best poet should be so abused.--From Mr. Christopher Wase.

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_:--

'Hic, dum sublimes versus ructatur, et errat
Si veluti merulis intentus decidit auceps
In puteum foveamve:'----

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.

_Notes._

[DS] Aubrey gives in colours the coat: 'gules, 3 lozenges ermine [Denham],' surrounded by laurels. He adds the note:--'this coate is in stone and thus coloured, on the roofe or vaulting of the cathedral church at Winchester: Sir John told me his family was originally westerne.' He adds the reference 'vide A. Wood's Hist. Oxon.'

[DT] Aubrey, in MS. Wood F. 39, fol. 193, writing Oct. 22, 1672, says:--'Sir John Denham wrott an essay against gameing, to shew his detestation of it to his father, printed by N. Brookes, at the Angel in Cornhill. I have it, about 3 or 4 sheetes, 8vo. His name is not to it, but I know 'twas his; and a kinsman of his, that was one of his father's clarkes, gave the copy to Brookes: and Sir John Denham owned it to me.'

=René Descartes= (1596-1650/1).

[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.

=Robert Devereux=, earl of Essex (1567-1600/1).

[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:--

1. There is none, oh none but you,
Who from me estrange your sight,
Whom mine eyes affect to view
And chained eares heare with delight.

2. Others' beauties others move,
In you I all graces find:
Such are the effects of love
To make them happy that are kind.

3. Woemen in fraile beauty trust,
Only seeme you kind to me,
Still be truly kind and just
For that can't dissembled bee.

4. Deare, afford me then your sight,
That surveighing all your lookes
Endlesse volumnes I may write
And fill the world with envyed bookes.

5. Which when after ages view
All shall wonder and despayre,
Women, to find a man so true,
And men, a woeman halfe so faire--

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.

=Sir Everard Digby= (1578-1605/6).

[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_.

=Sir Kenelm Digby= (1603-1665).

[836]Sir Kenelm Digby[DU], knight: he was borne at <Gotehurst, Bucks> on the eleventh of June[DV]: see Ben: Johnson, 2d volumne:--

'Witnesse thy actions done at Scanderoon
Upon _thy_ birthday, the eleaventh of June.'

[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, 5ʰ 40´ A.M. 1603, 14 Leo ascending,' and another scheme gives it at '4ʰ 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.

[LXV.] I can easily learne, if you desire it[838].

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.

[LXVI.] Richard earle of Dorset invited her and her husband once a yeare, when, with much desire and passion he beheld her, and only kissed her hand; Sir Kenelme being still by.

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 Iᵐⁱ 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?

[LXVII.] He married ... sister to this present Henry, duke of Norfolke, no child living by her. His 2d wife ... Fortescue, by whom he haz ... Quaere the issue?

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.

_Notes._

[DU] Aubrey gives in trick the coat:--'azure, a fleur de lys argent [Digby]; impaling, argent on a bend azure 3 bucks' heads caboshed or [Stanley]'; and adds the reference 'vide his life in ...' some book, presumably, whose title he had forgot.

[DV] 'June' was written; but Aubrey noted in the margin 'Quaere Mr. Ashmole pro nativitate by Dr. <Richard> Nepier.' The answer to this query is found in MS. Aubr. 23, a slip at fol. 121ᵛ, 'Sir Kenelm Digby natus July 11, 5ʰ 40´ A.M. 1603; another scheme gives it at 4ʰ A.M.' Having got this information, Aubrey then struck out 'June' in the text, and substituted 'July'; and added the paragraph which follows.

=Venetia Digby= (1600-1633).

[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).

[LXVIII.] At the west end of the church here[DX] were two towers as at Welles or Westminster Abbey, which were standing till about 1656. The romes of the abbey were richly wainscotted, both sides and roofe.

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.

[LXIX.] Sam. Daniel:--Cheekes of Roses, locks of amber | To b'emprisond in a chamber | etc.

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.

[LXX.] Venetia Stanley:--her picture is at the earl of Rutland's at Belvoir.--From my cosen Montague.--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 25.

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:--

[LXXI.] Her picture by Vandyke is now at Abermarleys, in Carmarthenshire, at Mr. Cornwalleys' sonne's widowe's (the lady Cornwalleys's) howse, who was the daughter and heire of ... Jones, of Abermarles.

'Sitting, and ready to be drawne,
What makes these tiffany, silkes, and lawne,
Embroideries, feathers, fringes, lace,
When every limbe takes like a face!'--&c.

[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.

_Notes._

[DW] Aubrey gives in trick the coat:--'argent on a bend azure 3 bucks' heads caboshed or [Stanley, earl of Derby].' Another hand has enlarged this first sentence to 'daughter of Sir Edward Stanley of Eynstonn in com. Oxon, son of Sir Thomas Stanley, knight, younger son to Edward, earl of Derby.' A note by 'E. M.' (? Edmund Malone) says, 'This is Anthony Wood's handwriting.' It is certainly not; but it very probably is Sir William Dugdale's, which is sometimes mistaken for Wood's.

[DX] Einsham abbey is the place meant. See the facsimile in Clark's Wood's _Life and Times_, i. 228.

[DY] In MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 70ᵛ also, this is quoted, but there scored out, as 'Eupheme, being a poem left to posterity,' &c. There, for 'a Muse,' Aubrey reads 'his Muse.'

=Leonard Digges= (15..-1571?).

[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.

* * * * *

Mr. Leonard Digges translated Claudian _de raptu Proserpinae_ into English, 4to, 1617 and 1628.

[876]Leonard Digges, esquire, of Wotton[EA] in Kent--he wrote a thin folio called _Pantometria_, printed 15.. At the end he discourses of regular solids, and I have heard the learned Dr. John Pell say it is donne admirably well. In the preface he speakes of cutting glasses in such a particular manner that he could discerne pieces of money a mile off; and this he saies he setts downe the rather because severall are yet living that have seen him doe it.

... Prognostication[EB] everlasting, 4to, <Lond.> 15<64>.

(A 4to) '_Tectonicon_, briefly shewing the exact measuring and speedy reckoning all manner of land, squares, timber, stone, steeples, pillars, globes, etc., for declaring the perfect making and large use of the carpenter's ruler, containing a quadrant geometricall, comprehending also the rare use of the square, and in the end a little treatise opening the composition and appliancie of an instrument called The Profitable Staffe, with other things pleasant and necessarie, most condusible for surveyors, landmeaters, joyners, carpenters, and masons: published by Leonard Digges, gentleman, 1556.'

'L. D. to the Reader--Although many have put forth sufficient and certain rules to measure all manner of superficies, etc., yet in that the art of numbring hath been required, yea, chiefly those rules hid and as it were locked up in strange tongues, they doe profit or have furthered very little, for the most part, yea, nothing at all, the landmeater, carpenter, mason, wanting the aforesayd. For their sakes I am here provoked not to hide but to open the talent I have recieved, yea, to publish in this our tongue very shortly if God give life a volumne containing the flowers of the sciences mathematicall largely applied to our outward practise profitably pleasant to all manner men. Here mine advice shall be to those artificers, that will profit in this or any of my bookes ☞ now published, or that hereafter shall be, first confusedly to read them through, then with more judgement, read at the third reading wittily to practise. So, few things shall be unknowne. Note, oft diligent reading joyned with ingenious practise causeth profitable labour. Thus most hartely farewell, loving reader, to whom I wish myselfe present to further thy desire and practise in these.'

The method that carpenters etc. used before this booke was published was very erronious, as he declares.

[877]☞ See in the beginning of <Thomas> Digges' _Stratio<ti>cos_, and also towards the later end, concerning him and his father. I remember the sonne sayes there that he was muster-master to the States of Holland: and see more concerning his father (who was an esquire of Chilham Castle in Kent) in the preface to his _Pantometria_.--It is an ancient family in Kent. Vide his _Ala seu scala Mathematices_ etc.

[878]A prognostication everlasting, once again published by Leonard Digges, gentleman, in the yeare of our Lord 1564;--

in 4to, dedicated to Sir Edward Fines, knight of the garter, lord Clinton and Saye, etc. His first impression was in 1553--'not onely your lordship's tasck move<d> of a prognostication seemed then to make that argument fittest, but also the manifest imperfections and manifold errors yearly committed did crave the ayd of some that were both willing and able to performe the truthe in like matters.'

_Notes._

[DZ] In MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 73ᵛ, Aubrey gives in trick the coat:--'gules, on a cross argent five eagles displayed sable [Digges]'; on fol. 72ᵛ, 75ᵛ, he gives the same coat, with the motto

IN ARDUA VIRTUS;

on fol. 11, he gives the coat and motto, but adds that there is a crescent 'in medio scuti.'

[EA] 'Wotton' is substituted for '... Castle,' to which a marginal note was added, 'I think 'tis Chilham Castle.' In MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 11, Aubrey wrote:--'... Digges, esq., of Chilham Castle, Kent--vide prefaces of his _Pantometrie_ and _Ala seu Scala Mathematices_, etc. His son makes mention of his life in his _Stratioticos_.'

[EB] A pencil note on fol. 73 gives the title, with the press mark in the 1674 _Catal. libr. impress. Bibl. Bodl._, viz.--'A perpetual prognostication for weather: C. 2. 13. Art.'

=Thomas Digges= (15..-1595).

[879]Mr. Thomas Digges:--he wrote a booke in 4to, entituled--

'_Stratioticos_, compendiously teaching the science of nombres as well in fractions as integers, and so much of the rules and aequations algebraicall and art of nombers cossicall as are requisite for the profession of a soldier; together with the modern militarie discipline, offices, lawes and orders in every well-governed camp and armie inviolably to be observed.'

First published by him, 1579, and dedicated 'unto the right honourable Robert, earle of Leicester.' The second edition, 1590.

He was muster-master generall of all her majestie's forces in the Low Countries, as appeares in page 237.

At the end of this booke (the last paragraph) speaking of 'engins and inventions not usual to be thought on and had in readinesse.'--

'Of these and many mo important mattars militare, I shall have occasion at large to dilate in my treatise of great artillerie and pyrotechnie, ☞ whose publication I have for divers due respects hitherto differred.'

He was the onely sonne of the learned Leonard Digges, esqr, of whom he speakes in the preface to his _Stratioticos_.

Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. vii. cap. 51;--'Una familia Curionum in qua tres continua serie Oratores extiterunt.' In _this_ family have been four learned men in an uninterrupted descent--scilicet, two eminent mathematicians (Leonard and Thomas), Sir Dudley Digges, Master of the Rolles, and his sonne Dudley, fellow of Allsoules College, Oxon.

[880]Alae seu scalae mathematicae, quibus visibilium remotissima coelorum theatra conscendi et planetarum omnium itinera novis et inauditis methodis explorari, tum hujus portentosi syderis (in Cassiopea) in mundi boreali plaga insolito fulgore coruscantis distantia et magnitudo immensa situsque protinus tremendus indagari Deique stupendum ostentum terricolis expositum cognosci liquidissime possit.

Thoma Diggesio, Cantiensi, stemmatis generosi, autore, Lond. 1573.

Dedicated

'Ad Guliel. Cecilium, praeclariss. ordinis equitem auratum, baronem Burghleium, summumque Angliae Thesaurarium,' etc.

--luce clarius deprehendi longè supra lunam ipsam esse. Tum demum antiquorum et recentiorum omnium astronomorum modos cometarum et corporum coelestium distantias et magnitudines metiendi quos unquam legeram in animum sevocare coeperam, nec quenquam reperire poteram qui viam huic subtilissimae parallaxi examinandae convenientem demonstravit. Solus igitur, omnium astronomorum antiquorum et recentiorum ope orbatus, (in fluctuanti dubitationum plurimarum pelago jactatus) ad meipsum redii: brevissimoque spatio (foelicibus mathematicis spirantibus auris) portum optatum assequendi varios cursus expeditissimos hactenus a nemine exploratos atque ab omni erroris scopulo tutissimos inveni. Quos in exigui libelli formam redactos honori tuo exhibere decrevi, mei officii testimonium (nisi me fallit Philautia) haud vulgari genio conscriptum, neque brevi temporum curriculo periturum--

[881]Praefatio Authoris.

Sed plura de hujus stellae historia scribere non decrevi quia eximius vir Johannes Dee (quum in reliqua philosophia admirandus, tum harum scientiarum peritissimus, quem tanquam mihi parentem alterum mathematicum veneror, quippe qui in tenerrimâ meâ aetate plurima harum suavissimarum scientiarum semina menti meae inseruerit, alia a patre meo prius sata amicissime fidelissimeque nutriverit atque auxerit) hanc sibi tractandam assumpserit materiam quam.... Conatus igitur sum et assequutus variis problematibus demonstrative et practice exactissime parallaxin hujus phaenomeni et cujusvis etiam alterius concludere, licet Saturni Jovis et Martis parallaxeis adeo sint exiguae ut sensuum imbecillitate vix discerni possint. Si tamen ulla arte vere animadverti queant (hoc ausim dicere) aut his nostris sequentibus problematibus aut nullis penitus praeceptis geometricis inveniri posse--Si aequi bonique consuleris, majora (annuenti potentissimo) in posterum promitto, quibus (non probabilibus solummodo argumentis sed firmissimis apodixibus) demonstrabitur verissimam esse Copernici hactenus explosum de terrae motu paradoxum--1573.

To these _Alae seu Scalae_ Mr. Digges hath annexed

Parallaticae commentationis praxeos nucleus quidam, Jo. Day--

writ by John Dee, a small treatise, Lond. 1573; and hath writ thus

Lectori Benevolo.

--Me autem isti meo opusculo annectere et in lucem simul emittere variae impulere causae--Iᵐᵃ ne charissimus mihi illius author debita suae inventionis privaretur laude: cum nonnulli fortassis si postea ederetur suspicari possint a meis methodis derivatum fuisse. Fateor equidem adeo late mea sese extendere fundamina ut tum istiusmodi tum plurimi etiam alii nuclei inde excerpi possint, etc.

[882]_Pantometria_, containing longimetria, planimetria, stereometria--was writ by Leonard Digges, esq., but published by his sonne Thomas Digges esqr. and dedicated to Sir Nicholas Bacon, knight, Lord Keeper, lately reviewed and augmented by the author, printed at London, 1591.

In the preface, thus:--

'But to leave things doone of antiquity long ago, my father, by his continuall painfull practises, assisted with demonstrations mathematicall, was able, and sundry times hath, by proportionall glasses duely situate in convenient angles, not onely discovered things farre off, read letters, numbred peeces of money with the very coyne and superscription thereof cast by some of his freends on purpose upon downes in open fields but also seven miles off declared what hath been doone at that instant in private places; he hath also at sundry times by the sunne fired powder and discharged ordinance halfe a mile and more distant--which things I am the bolder to report for that there are yet living diverse of these his doeings _oculati testes_, and many other matters far more strange and rare which I omit as impertinent to this place. But for invention of these conclusions I have heard him say nothing ever helped him so much as the exquisite knowledge he had, by continuall practise, attained in geometricall mensurations.'

=Michael Drayton= (1563-1631).

[883]Michael Drayton, esq., natus in Warwickshire at Atherston upon Stower (quaere Thomas Mariett).

He was a butcher's sonne. Was a squire; viz. one of the esquires to Sir Walter Aston, Knight of the Bath, to whom he dedicated his Poeme. Sir J. Brawne of ... was a great patron of his.

He lived at the bay-windowe house next the east end of St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street. Sepult. in north + of Westminster Abbey. The countesse of Dorset[884] (Clifford) gave his monument: this Mr. Marshall (the stone-cutter), who made it, told me so.

Sir Edward Bissh, Clarencieux, told me he asked Mr. Selden once (jestingly) whether he wrote the commentary to his 'Polyolbion' and 'Epistles,' or Mr. Drayton made those verses to his notes.

Vide his inscription given by the countess of Dorset.

_In Westminster Abbey, neer Spencer._

MICHAEL DRAYTON, ESQUIER,

[Sidenote: A MERCURIE'S CAP IN THE SUN[885].]

[Sidenote: A PEGASUS[885].]

A memorable Poet of this age, exchanged his Laurel for
a Crowne of Glorie, Anno 1631.
Doe, pious marble, let thy readers knowe
What they, and what their children owe
To DRAYTON'S name, whose sacred dust
We recommend unto thy trust.
Protecte his mem'ry, and preserve his storie,
Remaine a lasting monument of his glorye.
And when thy ruines shall disclame
To be the treas'rer of his name,
His name, that cannot fade, shall bee
An everlasting monument to thee.

Here is his bust in alablaster. The inscription is on black marble.

Mr. Marshall, the stone-cutter, of Fetter-lane, also told me, that these verses were made by Mr. Francis Quarles, who was his great friend, and whose head he wrought curiously in playster, and valued for his sake. 'Tis pitty it should be lost. Mr. Quarles was a very good man.

=Sir Erasmus Dryden= (1553-1632).

[886]Sir Erasmus Dryden, of <Canons Ashby> in Northamptonshire:--John Dreyden, esq., Poet Laureat, tells me that there was a great friendship between his great grandfather's father[887] and Erasmus Roterodamus, and Erasmus was god-father to one of his sonnes, and the Christian name of Erasmus hath been kept in the family ever since. The poet's second sonne is Erasmus.

And at ..., the seate of the family, is a chamber called 'Erasmus's chamber.'

I ghesse that this coate[888]--'azure, a lion rampant and in chief a sphere between 2 estoiles or'--was graunted in Henry 8th's time by the odnesse of the charge.

=John Dryden= (1631-1700).

[889]John Dreyden, esq., Poet Laureate. He will write it[890] for me himselfe.

[891]John Dryden, poeta, <born> 19 Aug. 1631, 5ʰ 33´ 16˝ P.M.

[892]'Natus insignis poeta
1631
Aug. 9°, 5ʰ 53´ P.M.
Latit. 52° North.'

This is the nativity of Mr. John Dreyden, poet laureat, by Mr. John Gadbury, from whom I had it.

=Sir William Dugdale= (1605-1685/6).

[893]Sir William Dugdale, Garter, <born> 12 Sept. 1605, 3ʰ 15´ P.M.

[894]'Sir[EC] William Dugdale avow'd to mee <that> at the time of his birth (10 September, as I thinke, which was the birth day of Francis the first) a swarme of bees came and settled under the window where hee was borne, September 18. Johan. Gybbon.'

Memorandum that Sir William Dugdale did not tell his son or Mr. Gibbons de Edward the Confessor and he laught at it--quod N. B.

'Sir[ED] William Dugdale was borne September 12, 1605'--from Mr. Gibbons, Blewmantle. That afternoon a swarme of bees pitch't under his mother's chamber window, as it were an omen of his laborious collections.

_Notes._

[EC] This is a note in the handwriting of John Gibbon ('Blue Mantle' pursuivant, 1668); followed by a memorandum by Aubrey.

[ED] A note by Gibbon, correcting the previous one: followed by a memorandum by Aubrey.

=Sir John Dunstable.=

[895]Sir John Dunstable:--the cellar he calls his library.--Parliament men prepare themselves for the businesse of the nation with ale in the morning. Some justices doe sleepe on the bench every assizes.

[896]At Chippenham the Deputye Lieutenants mett to see the order of the militia, but quales D: Lieutenants tales officiarii. After a taedious setting (at dinner, and drinking after dinner) the drummes beate and the soldiers to march before the windowe to be seen by the Deputy Lieutenants. Justice Wagstaffe[EE] (colonell) had not marcht before 'em many yardes but downe a falls all along in the dirt. His myrmidons, multâ vi, heav'd him up, and then a cryd out 'Some drinke, ho!' and so there was an end of that businesse.

_Note._

[EE] The hero of the anecdote is no doubt Sir John Dunstable. In the _Dramatis personae_ for Aubrey's projected comedy, one of the characters is 'Justice Wagstaffe' (MS. Aubr. 21, p. 2), over which name Aubrey has written 'Sir J. Dunstable,' apparently as the name of the person he meant to copy.

=Saint Dunstan= (925-988).

[897]I find in Mr. Selden's verses before Hopton's 'Concordance of Yeares,' that he was a Somersetshire gentleman. He was a great chymist.

The storie of his pulling the devill by the nose with his tongues as he was in his laboratorie[898], was[899] famous in church-windowes. Vide ... Gazaei _Pia Hilaria_, <where it is> delicately described.

He was a Benedictine monke at Glastonbury, where he was afterwards abbot, and after that was made archbishop of Canterbury. He preached the coronation sermon at Kingston, and crowned king <Edwy>. In his sermon he prophesyed, which the Chronicle mentions.

Mr. Meredith Lloyd tells me that there is a booke in print of his de lapide philosophorum; quaere nomen.

Edwardus Generosus gives a good account of him in a manuscript which Mr. Ashmole haz.

Meredith Lloyd had, about the beginning of the civill warres, a MS. of this Saint's concerning chymistrey, and sayes that there are severall MSS. of his up and downe in England: quaere Mr. Ashmole.

Edwardus Generosus mentions that he could make a fire out of gold, with which he could sett any combustible matter on fire at a great distance. Memorandum:--in Westminster library is an old printed booke, in folio, of the lives of the old English Saints: vide.

Meredith Lloyd tells me that, three or 400 yeares ago, chymistry was in a greater perfection, much, then now; their proces was then more seraphique and universall: now they looke only after medicines.

Severall churches are dedicated to him: two at London: quaere if one at Glastonbury.

=Sir Edward Dyer= (15..-1607).

[900]Sir Edward Dyer, of Somersetshire (Sharpham Parke, etc.), was a great witt, poet, and acquaintance of Mary, countesse of Pembroke, and Sir Philip Sydney. He is mentioned in the preface of the 'Arcadia.' He had four thousand pounds per annum, and was left fourscore thousand pounds in money; he wasted it almost all. This I had from captaine Dyer, his great grandsonne, or brother's great grandson. I thought he had been the sonne of the Lord Chiefe Justice Dyer, as I have inserted in one of these papers, but that was a mistake. The judge was of the same family, the captain tells me.

=St. Edmund= (1170?-1240).

[901]Seth, lord bishop of Sarum, tells me that he finds Saint Edmund was borne at Abington. He was archbishop of Canterbury. He built the college at Sarum, by St. Edmund's Church: it is now Judge Wyndham's sonne's howse. He resigned his archbishoprick, and came and retired hither. In St. Edmund's church here[902], were windowes of great value. Gundamore[903] offered a good summe for them; I have forgott <what>. In one of them was the picture of God the Father, like an old man (as the fashion was), which much offended Mr. Shervill, the recorder, who in zeale (but without knowledge) clambered up on the pewes[904] to breake the windowe, and fell downe and brake his legg (about 1629); but that did not excuse him for being question'd in the Starre-chamber for it. Mr. Attorney Noy was his great friend, and shewed his friendship there. But what Mr. Shervill left undonne, the soldiers since have gonne through with, that there is not a piece of glass-painting left.

'Edmundus, Cant.[905] A.B., primus legit Elementa Euclidis, Oxoniæ, 1290[906]; Mr. Hugo perlegit librum Aristotelis Analytic. Oxon.; Rogerus Bacon vixit A.D. 1292.'--This out of an old booke in the library of University College, Oxon.

=Thomas Egerton=, lord Ellesmere (1540-1616/7).

[907]Sir Thomas Egerton[EF], Lord Chancellor, was the naturall sonne of Sir Richard Egerton of <Ridley> in Cheshire.--This information I had 30 yeares since from Sir John Egerton of Egerton in Cheshire, baronet, the chiefe of that family.

He was of Lincoln's-Inne, and I have heard Sir John Danvers say that he was so hard a student, that in three or 4 yeares time he was not out of the howse. He had good parts, and early came into good practise.

My old father, Colonel Sharington Talbot[LXXII.], told me that (Gilbert, I thinke), earle of Shrewesbury, desired him to buy that noble mannour of Ellesmer for him, and delivered him the money. Egerton liked the bargain and the seate so well, that truly he e'en kept it for himselfe, and afterwards made it his baronry, but the money he restored to the earl of Shrewsbury again[908].

[LXXII.] He had, I believe, 200 adopted sonnes.

Dyed ..., and was buried....

He was a great patron to Ben Johnson, as appeares by severall epistles to him.

His son and heire, since earle of Bridgewater, was an indefatigable ringer--vide the ballad.

[909]Chancellor Egerton haz a monument in the south wall of St. Martin's-in-the-fields chancell; but the upper part (greatest) is covered with a pue or gallerie.

Tuta[910] frequensque via est, per amici fallere nomen;
Tuta frequensque licet sit via, crimen habet.

OVID <Ars Amat. i. 585>.

Translated by Theophilus Wodinoth:--

A safe and common way it is by friendship to decieve,
But safe and common though it be, 'tis knavery, by your leave.

_Note._

[EF] Aubrey gives in colours the coat:--'argent, a lion rampant gules between 3 pheons sable [Egerton].'

=George Ent= (16..-1679).

[911]G. Ent[912] obiit Septemb. 2, 1679. Buried in the north of the rotundo at the Temple Church. Motto of his ring:--

Quam totus homuncio nil est[913].

_Note._

In August, 1674, this George Ent came to Oxford, to live there. He brought with him a letter of introduction from Aubrey to Anthony Wood, which is now in MS. Ballard 14. Wood and he did not get on, and Aubrey several times makes excuses for his friend; e.g. Aug. 26, 1674 (MS. Ballard 14, fol. 110), 'he is a very honest gentleman and his rhodomontades you will easily pardon.' The quarrels, however, became fiercer. Aubrey to Wood, March 9, 1674/5, (MS. Ballard 14, fol. 115):--'I am exceeding sorry for Mr. Ent's strangenesse to you; but 'tis confess't his friends must beare with him. I did not shew him your letter; but, expostulating with him, and he being cholerique, etc., I read only that paragraph where he "introduced into your company two boy-bachelors and upbrayded you with dotage"--.'

=Desiderius Erasmus= (1467-1536).

[914]'Nascitur Erasmus Roterodamus anno 1467, Octob. die 27, horâ 16, 30´: poli elevatio 54° 0´'--<from> David Origanus, p. 603.

'Mercurius, Venus, Luna et Leo conjuncti, praesertim in ascendente, faciunt oratores doctissimos. Talis ex parte fuit constitutio Erasmi Roterodami, cujus judicium gravissimum, ingenium acutissimum, et oratio copiosissima, ex scriptis editis eruditissimis, omnibus nota est. Habuit enim Mercurium cum Venere in horoscopo, in signo aereo Libram, et Jovem trigono radio Mercurium et Venerem intuentem'--<from ibid.> pag. 601.

Obiit anno Domini MDXXXVI, mense Julii--vide praefationem de obitu Erasmi ante Epistolas, impressas Antverpiae MDXLV.

[915]Erasmus Roterodamus was like to have been a bishop--vide Epistolas.

[916]Desiderius Erasmus, Roterodamus:--

His name was 'Gerard Gerard,' which he translated into 'Desiderius Erasmus.'

He was _begot_ (as they say) _behind dores_--vide an Italian booke in 8vo. _de famosi Bastardi_: vide Anton. Possevini _Apparatus_. His father (as he says in his life, writt by himselfe) was the tenth and youngest son of his grandfather: who was therfore designed to be dedicated to God.--'Pater Gerardus cum Margareta (medici cujusdam Petri filia), spe conjugii (et sunt qui intercessisse verba dicunt), vixit.'

His father tooke great care to send him to an excellent schoole, which was at Dusseldorf, in Cleveland. He was a tender chitt, and his mother would not entruste him at board[917], but tooke a house there, and made him cordialls, etc.--from John Pell, D.D.

He loved not fish, though borne in a fish towne--from Sir George Ent, M.D.

<From> Dr. John Pell:--he was of the order of ..., whose habit was the same that the pest-house master at ... (I thinke, Pisa: quaere Dr. John Pell) in Italie wore; and walking in that towne, people beckoned him to goe out of the way, taking him to be the master of the pest-house; and he not understanding the meaning, and keeping on his way, was there by one well basted. He made his complaint when he came to Rome, and had a dispensation for his habit.

He studied sometime in Queens Colledge in Cambridge: his chamber was over the water. Quaere Mr. Paschal more particularly; and if a fellowe: he[918] had his study when a young scholar here.

'The staires which rise up to his studie at Queens Colledge in Cambridge doe bring first into two of the fairest chambers in the ancient building; in one of them, which lookes into the hall and chiefe court, the Vice-President kept in my time; in that adjoyning, it was my fortune to be, when fellow. The chambers over are good lodgeing roomes; and to one of them is a square turret adjoyning, in the upper part of which is that study of Erasmus; and over it leades. To that belongs the best prospect about the colledge, viz. upon the river, into the corne-fields, and countrey adjoyning, etc.; ☞ so that it might very well consist with the civility of the House to that great man (who was no fellow, and I think stayed not long there) to let him have that study. His keeping roome might be either the Vice-President's, or, to be neer to him, the next; the room for his servitor that above, over it, and through it he might goe to that studie, which for the height, and neatnesse, and prospect, might easily take his phancy.' This from Mr. Andrew Paschal, Rector of Chedzoy in Somerset, June 15, 1680.

He mentions his being there in one of his Epistles, and blames the beere there. One, long since, wrote, in the margent of the booke in <the> College library in which that is sayd, '_Sicut erat in principio_, etc.'; and all Mr. Paschall's time they found fault with the brewer.

He had the parsonage (quaere value) of Aldington in Kent, which is about 3 degrees perhaps a healthier place then Dr. Pell's parsonage in Essex. I wonder they could not find for him[919] better preferment; but I see that the Sun and Aries being in the second house[920], he was not borne to be a rich man.