Chapter XI: Part 11
Inventor of Short-hand,--'tis the best. Bishop Wilkins sayd, 'tis only used in England, or by the English; and[1249] 'twas a good while before the logarithmes gott beyond sea. Mr. Wingate first brought it into France, and shewed it to them; scil. when he went into France to teach the Queen-Mother English; he dedicated it to Monsieur the duke of Orleans.
=Thomas Willis= (1621/2-1675).
[1250]Thomas Willis, M.D.--from himselfe--borne at Great Bedwyn in com. Wilts, January the 27th, anno Domini 1621. His father was steward to Sir Walter Smyth there, and had been sometime a scholar at St. John's College in Oxford.
[1251]Thomas Willis, M.D.; vide Westminster Abbey pro inscriptione.
[1252]Thomas Willis, M.D., natus ...; (vide A. Wood's _Antiq. Oxon._).
1647 and 1648 (quaere, if not +), kept Abingdon-market[1253], and Dr. <Richard> Lydall and he had a horse between them: this was before a Doctor[1254]. He grew more and more into good practise.
He studied chymistry in Peckwater Inne chamber[1255]. He was in those dayes very mathematicall, and I have heard him say his genius lay more to mathematics then chymistry.
His father was steward to Sir John (I thinke) Smyth[1256]; and had a little estate at Ivy Hinksey, where my lady Smyth (vidua) dyed.
He went to schoole to Mr. <Edward> Sylvester in Oxon, over the meadowes, where he ayred his muse, and made good exercise:--from William Hawes, his schoolefellow. Anno about 1657 (quaere there), riding towards Brackley to a patient, his way led him thorough Astrop, where he observed the stones in the little rill were discoloured of a kind of _Crocus Martis_ colour; thought he, this may be an indication of iron; he getts gaules, and putts some of the powder into the water, and immediately it turned blackish; then sayd he, 'I'le not send my patients now so far as Tunbridge,' and so he in a short time[1257] brought these waters into vogue, and hath inriched a poore obscure village. He was middle stature: darke red[1258] haire (like a red pig): stammered much.
He was first servitor to Dr. <Thomas> Iles, one of the canons of Xᵗ. Ch. whose wife was a knowing woman in physique and surgery, and did many cures. Tom Willis then wore a blew livery-cloak, and studied at the lower end of the hall, by the hall-dore; was pretty handy, and his mistresse would oftentimes have him to assist her in making of medicines. This did him no hurt, and allured him on.
=John Wilmot=, earl of Rochester (1648-1680).
[1259]John, earl of Rochester[CS]:--he went to schoole at <Burford>; was of Wadham College, Oxford; I suppose, had been in France.
About 18, he stole his lady, <Elizabeth> Malet, a daughter and heir, a great fortune; for which I remember I sawe him a prisoner in the Tower about 1662.
His youthly spirit and oppulent fortune did sometimes make him doe extravagant actions, but in the country he was generally civill enough. He was wont to say that when he came to Brentford the devill entred into him and never left him till he came into the country again to Alderbury or Woodstock.
He was raunger of Woodstock-parke and lived often at the lodge at the west end, a very delightfull place and noble prospect westwards. Here his lordship had severall lascivious pictures drawen.
His lordship read all manner of bookes. Mr. Andrew Marvell, who was a good judge of witt, was wont to say that he was the best English satyrist and had the right veine. 'Twas pitty death tooke him off so soon.
In his last sicknesse he was exceedingly paenitent and wrote a lettre of his repentance to Dr. Burnet, which is printed.
He sent for all his servants, even the piggard-boy, to come and heare his palinode[1260]. He dyed at Woodstock-parke, 26 July, 1680; and buried at Spilsbury in the same countie, Aug. 9 following.
His immature death putts me in mind of these verses of Propertius:--
Vere novo primoque in aetatis flore juventae,
Ceu rosa virgineo pollice carpta, jaces.
[1261]_On the death of my lord Rochester: pastorall._
1
As on his death-bed, gasping, Strephon lay,
Strephon, the wonder of the plaines,
The noblest of th' Arcadian swaines,
Strephon, the bold, the witty, and the gay,
With many a sigh, and many a teare, he said,
'Remember me, ye shepheards, when I'me dead.
2
'Ye triflying glories of this world, adieu!
And vain applauses of the age!
For when we quit this earthly stage,
Beleeve me, shepheards, for I tell you true,
Those pleasures which from vertuous deeds we have
Procure the sweetest slumbers in the grave.
3
'Then since your fatall houre must surely come,
Surely your head ly low as mine,
Your bright meridian soon decline,
Beseech the mighty PAN to guard you home.
If to Elysium you would happy fly,
Live not like Strephon, but like Strephon die.'
T. FLATMAN.
_Note._
FOOTNOTES:
[CS] Aubrey gives in trick the coat:--'<argent, on a fesse gules between 3 eagles' heads, erased sable, 3 escallops or> [Wilmot]; impaling, azure, 3 escallops or [Malet],' surmounted by an earl's coronet, and wreathed in laurel (for a poet). The top of fol. 55 has been cut off, the writing on the recto side having previously been scored out: I think the mutilation is due to Aubrey himself.
=Edmund Wingate= (1593-1656).
[1262]Edmund Wingate, esq., was a Bedfordshire man, I thinke; recorder of Bedford--there you may learne, or at my lord Bruce's (now Alesbury).
_Scripsit_--Arithmetica;
Logarithmotechnia, with solution of triangles;
another little booke of working on a line of numbers;
Abridgment of the Statutes,....
He was of Graye's Inne, and dyed.... His yonger sonne was Mr. <Fabian> Stedman's fellow prentice; since turned a musquetere. He can tell me everything. He did wayte at the Tower.
[1263]Edmund Wingate dyed at Mr. Bayles howse in Gray's Inne lane, and was buried at St. Andrewe's, Holborne, the 13 Decemb. anno Domini 1656.
=George Withers= (1588-1667).
[1264]Mr. George Withers (vide A. Wood's _Antiq. Oxon._) was borne at Bentworth, near Alton, in Hantshire, on the eleaventh of June, 1588.
He maried Elizabeth, eldest daughter of H. Emerson, of South Lambeth, in com. Surrey, esqre, whose ancestors lye entombed in the choeur of St. Savior's, Southwark, neer the monument of bishop Andrewes, with a statue of white marble. She was a great witt, and would write in verse too.
He was of <Magdalen College> in Oxford. He would make verses as fast as he could write them. And though he was an easie rymer, and no good poet, he was a good _vates_. He had a strange sagacity and foresight into mundane affaires.
He was an early observator of _Quicquid agunt homines_; his witt was satyricall. I thinke the first thing he wrote was 'Abuses whipt and stript,' for which he was committed prisoner to ...[1265] (I beleeve, Newgate). I believe 'twas tempore Jacobi regis. He was a captain in the Parliament army, and the Parliament gave him for his service Mr. John Denham's estate at Egham, in Surrey. The motto of his colours was, _Pro Rege, Lege, Grege_.
After the restauration of his majestie he was imprisoned in the Tower about three quarters of a yeare. He died the 2d of May, 1667, and lieth interred within the east dore of the Savoy church, where he dyed. He was pupill to bishop <John> Warner, of Rochester.
[1266]George Wythers, poet:--vide memorandum 1673 + μ de G. W.[1267]
=Theophilus Wodenote= (senior).
[1268]Theophilus Woodenoth[CT], B.D.--his father[CU] was a Cheshire gentleman of that ancient family; was minister[1269] of Lankenhorn in Cornwall, in which place his sonne succeeded him--
'In Cornwall at a parish Lankenhorn
Neer Launceston six miles southwards was I born.'
When I was a school-boy he[1270] lived two yeares with his brother ... Peyton, vicar of Chalke, being obnoxious to danger of arests.
He did me much good in opening of my understanding; advised me to read lord Bacon's Essayes and an olde booke of proverbs (English); answered me my questions of antiq<uities>, etc.
He was an Eaton scholar and fellow of King's College, Cambridge, contemporary with Dr. <Samuel> Colins.
He wrote in his solitude at Chalke a little manuall called 'Good thoughts in bad times,' as I take it. I remember 'tis dedicated to his cosen ... Wodenoth of Cheshire, esq.
_Notes._
FOOTNOTES:
[CT] Aubrey gives in trick the coat:--'<argent>, a cross couped and voided <sable> [Wodenote].' Anthony Wood refers to his own 'Fasti 1619,' where he occurs among the Cambridge M.A.s incorporated at Oxford.
Theophilus Wodenote was of Eton, and King's Coll. Camb., B.D. Oxford 1623, and D.D. 1630; and rector of Linkinhorne, Cornwall, in 1615.
[CU] Thomas Wodenote, Fellow of King's Coll. Camb.; rector of Linkinhorne, 1583.
=Theophilus Wodenote= (junior) (1625-16--).
[1271]Theophilus Wodenoth, pater, natus Lankenkorn neer Lanceston in com. Cornub., Oct. 6, 1625, 6ʰ A.M., he thinkes on a Thursday. Now rector of Blandford St Mary's in com. Dorset.
Charles, filius Theophili, Wodenoth natus Blandfordiae, Dorset, Feb. 17, 1660, die Solis[1272] circa 6ʰ A.M.
_Note._
FOOTNOTES:
This Theophilus Wodenote is son of Theophilus (senior). He matric. at Exeter College, June 2, 1652.
=Thomas Wolsey= (147--1530).
[1273]Cardinal Woolsey:--Memorandum the Cardinal's hat on the scutcheon at Christ Church: and quaere quot pedes from the College to the Blew-boare; colour with soote the water-table, and insert in the scutcheon the Cardinal's hat.
[1274]Thomas Wolsey[CV], Cardinal, was a butcher's son, of Ipswych, in Suffolke; vide his Life, writt by....
He was a fellowe of Magdalen Colledge in Oxford, where he was tutor to a young gentleman of Limmington, near Ilchester, in com. Somerset, in whose guift the presentation of that church is, worth the better part of 200 _li._ per annum, which he gave to his tutor, Wolsey. He had committed hereabout some debauchery (I thinke, drunke: no doubt he was of a high rough spirit), and spake derogatorily of Sir Amias Paulet (a Justice of Peace in the neighbourhood), who putt him into the stockes[CII.], which, when he came to be Cardinall, he did not forget; he layed a fine upon Sir Amias to build the gate of the Middle Temple; the armes of Pawlet, with the quartrings, are in glasse there to this day (1680). The Cardinall's armes were, as the storie sayes, on the outside in stone, but time haz long since defaced that, only you may still discerne the place; it was carved in a very mouldring stone.
[CII.] From my cosen Lyte, of Lytes Carey, about a mile from Limmington, 30 yeares since. The tradition was very fresh: I have forgott his pupill's name.
Remaines of him shew that he was a great master of the Latin tongue; Dr. John Pell tells me, that [he[1275] finds in a preface to a Grammar of ... Haynes, schoolmaster, of Christ-church, London,] that 'twas he that made the Accedence before W. Lilly's Grammar in ... dayes.
His rise (vide the History) was his quick and prudent dispatch of a message to Paris for Henry 8.
He had a most magnificent spirit. Concerning his grandure, vide Stowe's Chronicle, &c.
He was a great builder, as appeares by White-hall, Hampton Court.--Eshur[CIII.], in Surrey, a noble house, built of the best burn't brick (perhaps) that ever I sawe; stately gate-house and hall. This stately house (a fitt pallace for a prince[1276]) was bought about 1666, by ... a vintner, of London, who is since broke, and the house is sold, and pulled downe to the ground, about 1678. I have the draught of the house among my Surrey papers.--Quaere:--he had a very stately cellar for his wines, about Fish-street, called Cardinall Wolsey's cellar.--He built the stately tower at Magdalen Colledge in Oxford, and that stately palace at Winchester (where he was bishop), called Wolsey-house; I remember it pretty well, standing 1647. Now, I thinke, it is most pulled downe.--His noble foundation of his Colledge of Christ-Church, in Oxford, where the stately hall was only perfected by him. There were designed (as yet may appeare by the building)[1277] most magnificent cloysters (the brave designe wherof Dr. John Fell hath deteriorated with his new device) to an extraordinary spacious quadrangle, to the entrance whereof was carrying up a tower (a gate-house) of extraordinary rich and noble Gothique building. Vide J. Oweni _Epigrammata_:
Sit domus imperfecta licet, similisque ruinae,
At patet in laudes area lata tuas.
OWEN, _Epigr._
[CIII.] Vide my Surrey notes <MS. Aubr. 4> if William Wanfleet did not build it: both their scutcheons are there.
When the present great-duke of Tuscany was at Oxford, he was more taken with that, then all the rest of the buildings he sawe there, and tooke a second viewe of it.
It should not be forgotten what a noble foundation there was for the chapell, which did runne from the Colledge, along the street as far as the Blew-boare Inne; which was about 7 foot or more high, and adorned with a very rich Gothique water-table[CW] as in the margin[1278].
It was pulled downe by Dr. John Fell (the Deane) about 1670, to use the stones about the Colledge.
Memorandum:--about the buildings of this Colledge are frequent the pillars, and axes, and Cardinall's cappes.
Concerning this great Cardinall's fall, see the histories of that time.
Returning to London from Yorke, he died at Leicester, where he lies buried (to the shame of Christ-church men) _yet_ without any monument.
'And though, from his owne store, Wolsey might have
A palace or a colledge for his grave,
Yet here he lies interr'd, as if that all
Of him to be remembred were his fall.
Nothing but earth to earth, nor pompous weight
Upon him but a pebble or a quayte.
If thou art thus neglected, what shall wee
Hope after death that are but shreds of thee?'
Vide Dr. Corbet's Poems: his _Iter Boreale_.
See his life writt by ... and also by Thomas Fuller, B.D., in his Holy State, where is a picture of his which resembles those in glasse in Christ-church. He was a lusty man, thick neck, not much unlike Martyn Luther. I beleeve he had Taurus ascending with the Pleiades, which makes the native to be of a rough disposition.
He was Baccalaur of Arts so young, that he was called the boy-bacchalaur. From Dr. John Pell (out of the aforesayd preface).
[1279]One of Osney bells is at Winslowe in Bucks, which is the great bell there, but was the 3ᵈ at Osney; but they have not long since cutt it something lesse, one Derby decieving them LX _li._ of their metall. Cardinall Wolsey, being abbot of St. Alban's (to which Winslowe did belong), at the pulling downe of Osney abbey, gave this bell to Winslowe--Mr. Steevens[1280] was borne at Winslowe.
_Notes._
FOOTNOTES:
[CV] Aubrey gives in trick the coat:--'sable, on a cross engrailed argent a lion passant gules between 4 leopards' faces or, on a chief or a rose gules between 2 Cornish choughs proper,' ensigned with Cardinal's hat and strings, gules.
[CW] Aubrey wrote 'a very rich Gothique ...,' and added a note in the margin 'quaere Sir Chr. W<ren> _nomen_.' Wren told him 'water-table,' which he then inserted in the text, striking out the marginal note.
In MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 4ᵛ, is the note:--'_Basis_, or _list_, or I thinke they call it _the water-table_, of the parish church wall at St. Edmundsbury in Suffolke. Of which fashion was the foundation of that famous began chapell or cathedrall of Cardinal Wolsey's which went towards the Blew-bore in Oxford, and pulled downe by deane Fell about 1671. Magdalen parish <-church> tower <Oxford> is also of this fashion, viz. of Henry VIII.'
=Anthony Wood= (1632-1695).
[1281]Mr. Anthony à Wood, M.A., antiquarius, in his lettre to me, Palm Sunday March 23, 1672, writes thus, viz. 'My nativity I cannot yet retrive; but by talking with an ancient servant of my father's I find I was borne on the 17 of Decemb., but the year when I am not certain: 'twas possibly about 1647.--John Selden was borne the 16 of December and Sir Symonds Dews the 17. But of these matters I shall tell you more when my trouble is over.'
=Sir Christopher Wren= (1631-1723).
[1282]Sir Christopher Wren[CX], surveyor of his majestie's buildings, borne at ... Knahill[1283] in the parsonage-howse in the county of Wiltes neer Shaftesbury, Thursday, October 20, 1631[CY], 8ʰ P.M.--the bell rang VIII as his mother fell in labour with him (from himselfe).
He was knighted[CZ] at Whitehall on Friday, 14th November 1673, at 5ʰ A.M. (from Mr. Robert Hooke, the next day).
[1284]Anno 1669, Dr. Christopher Wren was invited by the bishop of Sarum (Seth Ward), where he made a particular survey of the cathedrall church[DA]. He was at least a weeke about it, and a curious discourse it was: it was not above two sheetes. Upon my writing _The Natural History of Wilts_, I had occasion to insert it there, and they told me that it was lent to somebody--they could not tell to whom. But in Febr. last Mr. Cole thinks it not unlikely that Mr. Nash (the surveyor of the fabrick) of Sarum may have that paper. I desired him to enquire but have not yet received any answer.
<_Pedigree_: in MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 28ᵛ.>
... Wren, of Ipswych _m._ ...
in Suffolke. |
|
... Wren, a wealthy _m._ ...
citizen in Cheapside |
(quaere if not a |
millener). |
+---------------------------------+-+
| |
Matthew Wren, _m._ ... Christopher Wren, _m._ ... Cox, of Funthill
Lord Bishop | second son, deane | in com. Wilts.
of Ely. | of Windsor |
+--------------+---------+ |
| | |
Matthew Wren, secretary |
to the Lord Chancellor |
Hyde, then to the duke |
of Yorke. |
+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| |
Faith, daughter _m._ Sir Christopher _m._ <Jane> Fitzwilliams, |
of Sir Thomas Wren. daughter of the lord |
Coghill of Blech- Fitzwilliams in North- |
ington in com. amptonshire, second |
Oxon., first wife, wife, A.D.... |
A.D.... |
|
+----------------------------------------------------+
|
... _m._ William
| Holder, D.D.,
| sub-deane of
| the king's
| chapel.
|
sine prole.
_Notes._
FOOTNOTES:
[CX] Wren was one of the people from whose patronage Aubrey, in his evil days, hoped for some official post. On a slip pasted to fol. 27ᵛ of MS. Aubr. 9 is this note:--
'Mr. Secretary Wren's indefinite (?) kindnesse is valuable if our lord P. <? William lord Brouncker, Pres. Roy. Soc. 1663-1677> know it, and Mr. <John> Collins, but _cave_. They might between them determine somewhat certaine. There are peaceable places among souldiers; and now the navy offices thrive, and a man can nowhere so well hide himselfe in an office as there, 'cause 'tis out of the way.
'I cannot get Quillettus here, but would you could find _Gallus Veridicus_, which you must enquire for privately. I never saw it, but Mr. Oldenburg may possibly have heard of it.
'The want of the Royal Society is the greatest defect of our parts[1285]: possibly you may have some one that for money will informe mee as you doe for love. If you find any such, fix him for[1286] J.†'
[CY] Aubrey was anxious to obtain the exact date as an item towards his pet astrological collection. But he fancied that Wren had played a trick on him, by taking the place of a brother of the same name, one year younger, who died in infancy. Aubrey might have reflected that, while it is possible that parents might give the name of a deceased child to their next, the other course is unlikely. The following excerpts from Aubrey's letters to Anthony Wood bear on the point:--
(a) Nov. 17, 1670: MS. Wood F. 39, fol. 128:--'Dr. Christopher Wren was borne at <East> Knoyle, baptized the 10th day of November 1631. I have writt to him for the exact time, astrologiae ergo: 'tis a poore-spirited thing, if he will not resolve me.'
(b) Jan. 16, 1671/2: MS. Wood F. 39, fol. 160ᵛ:--'Dr. Christopher Wren ... tells me he was borne at ... Knahill 20 October, 1631. He was a second Christopher: <the one> whome I sent to you was the first.'
(c) Feb. 1, 1671/2: MS. Wood F. 39, fol. 165:--'Dr. Christopher Wren hath putt a trick on us, as it seemes; for he hath made him selfe a yeare younger then indeed he is, though he needs not be ashamed of his age, he hath made such admirable use of his time. I mett t'other day accidentally with the parson of Knahill, who justifies the register, and not only so but proves it by his neighbour that was his nurse and her son that suckled with him--evidence notorious. 'Tis true, as the Doctor sayes, that there were two Christophers, but it was the latter, i.e. the Doctor--that parson Hill justifies--quod nota.'
[CZ] Aubrey several times notes this. MS. Aubr. 7, fol. 5:--'Sir Xpfer Wren knighted, November 14, 1673.' MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 7:--'Sir Christopher Wren received the honour of knighthood at Whitehall on Friday 14th November, 5ʰ A.M., 1673--from Mr. Robert Hooke, the next day.'
[DA] MS. Aubr. 21, fol. 69-74, is 'A survey of Our Lady Church at Salisbury, taken by Dr. Christopher Wren (since Sir Christopher) anno Domini 1669, being invited downe to doe it by Seth Ward, lord bishop of Sarum.'--Another, less perfect, MS. copy of this report is in Wood MS. B. 14.
=Edward Wright= (15--- 1615).
[1287]Mr. Edward[1288] Wright: he was of Caius College in Cambridge (from Sir Charles Scarborough, who was of that house).
He published his book, 4to, intituled[1289]:--
Certain errors in navigation detected and corrected by Edward Wright, with many additions that were not in the former edition as appeareth in the next pages, London, 1610.
It is dedicated to the high and mighty Henry, prince of Wales, etc. In the Epistle dedicatory he makes mention of a goodlye and royall ship that his highnesse lately built, and that since his highnesse comeing into England that the 'art of navigation hath been much advanced here as well in searching the North-east and North-west passages as also in discovering the sea-coastes and inland of Virginea, Newfoundland, Groenland, and of the North New-land as far as Hackluyt's headland, within 9 degrees of the pole, also of Guiana and divers parts and ilands of the East Indies, yea, and some parts also of the south continent discovered by Sir Richard Hawkins.'
He read mathematicks to Prince Henry; and Sir Jonas Moore had the wooden sphaere in the Tower, which was contrived by Mr. Wright for the more easy information of the prince.
Amongst Mr. Laurence Rooke's papers (left with Seth <Ward>, lord bishop of Sarum) I found:--
Hypothesis stellarum fixarum
a Edm.[1290] Wright,
three sheetes, of his owne hand-writing, in folio. I deposited it in the Royal Society, but Mr. R. Hooke saieth that it is printed in a booke by it selfe, which see.
In his preface to the reader he sayes that 'the errors I have in the following treatise laboured to reforme to the utmost (yea, rather beyond the utmost) of my poor abilitie, neglecting in the meane time other studies and courses that might have been more beneficial to me: which may argue my good will to have proceeded further to the amendment of such other faults and imperfections as yet remain besides those alreadie specified.'
It appeares by his preface that his worth was attended by a great deal of envie.
_Ibid._--He was in the voyage of the right honourable the earle of Cumberland in the yeare 1589. He 'devised the seaman's rings for the present finding out both of the variation of the needle and time of the day at one instant without any farther trouble of using any other instrument, and hath farther shewed how by the sun's point of the compasse (or magnetical azimuth) and altitude given by observation the variation may be found either mechanically with ruler and compasse or mathematically by the doctrine of triangles and arithmeticall calculation.'
John Collins <says that> he happened upon the logarithmes and did not know it, as maybe seen in his _Errors_: and Mr. Robert Norwood sayes to the reader in his Trigonometrie 'neither is Mr. Edward Wright to be forgotten though his endeavours were soonest prevented,' speaking of the logarithmes.
He published a booke of dialling in 4to, anno....
[1291]Mr. Edward Wright, ex _Catalogo Bibl. Bodleianae_.
Description of the sphere in three parts, London 1613----W. 1. 7.
Treatise of dialling, London 1614, 4to----H. 30. Art.
Correction of errors in navigation, 4to----W. 16. Art., et London 1599, 4to----W. 2. Art. BS.
The earle of Cumberland's voyage to the Azores, _ibid._
Peruse the prefaces.--'The description of the sphaere' hath no preface, and I believe they were his notes for Prince Henry.
[1292]Mr. Edmund[1293] Wright was of Caius Colledge, in Cambridge. He was one of the best mathematicians of his time; and the _then_ new way of sayling, which yet goes by the name of 'sayling by Mr. Mercator's chart,' was purely his invention, as plainely doeth and may appeare in his learned booke called 'Wright's Errors in Navigation,' in 4to. printed A.D.... Mr. Mercator brought this invention in fashion beyond seas.
He did read mathematiques to Prince Henry, and caused to be made, for his Highnesse more easie understanding of astronomie, a sphaere of wood, about three quarters of a yard diameter, which lay neglected and out of order in the Tower, at London, and Sir Jonas Moor begd it of his present majestie, who showed it to me.
He wrote 'Hypothesis Stellarum Fixarum et Planetarum,' a MS. of three sheetes of paper, which I found among bishop Ward's papers, which I gave to the Museum[1294] at Oxford.
He made a table of Logarithmes (scil. in his Tangents) before Logarithmes were invented and printed, but did not know he had donne it.--from John Collins.
=Edmund Wyld= (1616-16--).
[1295]Edmund Wyld[1296], esq., born at Houghton-Conquest in Bedfordshire, 3ʰ P.M. on a Saterday, Oct. 10th, 1616.
He had the misfortune to kill a man in London, upon a great provocation, about A.D. 1644. He had the plague in the Inner Temple, 1647, and had a grevous quartan ague in Sept. 1656.
Memorandum, Mr. Wyld sayes that the doctors told him that in 1656 there dyed in London of the quartan ague fifteen hundred; N.B. In 1657[1297] Oliver Cromwell, Protector, dyed of a quartan ague.
At Christmas, 1661, Mr. E. W. had a dangerous fever.
=... Yarrington.=
[1298]Capt. Yarrington dyed at London about March last[1299]. The cause of his death was a beating and throwne into a tub of water.
=Anne, duchess of York= (16--- 1671).
[1300]Colonel Popham's great tankard, the dutches Y: dranke it (almost) off at a draught.
APPENDIX I
NOTES OF ANTIQUITIES
<Here and there in the _Lives_ Aubrey has jotted down notes on
various matters of antiquarian interest. These are collected
here, and a few other notes of the same type from other Aubrey
volumes added to them. Aubrey attached to some of these notes
the title of 'Nouvelles,' e.g. MS. Aubr. 8, foll. 6, 28ᵛ, 103.>
<_'Sir' = dominus_.> I remember, before the late warres, the ministers in Herefordshire, etc. (counties that way), had the title of _Sʳ._, as the bachalours of Art[1301] have at Oxon, as 'Sir Richard, of Stretford,' 'Sir William, of Monkland.' And so it was in Wilts, when my grandfather Lyte was a boy; and anciently everywhere. The example of this appeares in the excellent comoedie of _The Scornfull Ladie_, where 'Sir Roger' (the chaplain) has a great part. It was made by Mr. J. Fletcher about the beginning of King James' time; but in all old wills before the reformation it is upon record.--MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 30.
<_The ways of the gentry, tempore Jacobi I._> In those dayes hunting and falconery were at the height: old Serjeant Latham then lived, and writt his falconry[1302]. Good cheere was then much in use; but to be wiser then one's neighbours, scandalous and to be envyed at. And the nobility and gentry were, in that soft peace, damnable prowd and insolent.--MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 30.
<_Ghost-stories._> When I was a child, and so before the civill warres, the fashion was for old women and maydes to tell fabulous stories, night-<t>imes, and of sprights and walking of ghosts, etc. This was derived downe from mother to daughter, etc., from the monkish ballance, which upheld holy Church: for the divines say 'Deny spirits, and you are an atheist.' When the warres came, and with them liberty of conscience and liberty of inquisition, the phantomes vanish. Now children feare no such things, having heard not of them, and are not checked[1303] with such feares.--MS. Aubr. 3, fol. 30.
The first _pointe-de-Venice band_ that was worne in England was by King Charles the first at his coronation. Now[1304], 'tis common.--MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 1ᵛ.
_Point-bands._ The first point-band worne in England was that which King <Charles> IIᵈ wore when he was crowned: and presently after, the fashion was followed infinitely:--from Mris Judith Dobson, vidua pictoris[1305].--MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 11ᵛ.
_Apothecaries._ Sir Edward Coke, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, saies, as I remember, in the College of Physicians case, that ... Falconti[1306], an Italian, was the first apothecarie in London. But vide Sir Geofrey Chaucer, in his Prologue of the Doctor of Physick, [s<ae>c.[1307] xiiiiᵗʰ, thus]:--
'Full readie had he his apothecaries
To send him drugg and electuaries.'
And Mr. Anthony à Wood shewes in his Oxon. Antiquities[1308] that there was a place there, called _Apothecaria_, 300 yeares ago. In queen Elizabeth's time the apothecaries did sell sack in their shoppes: my grandfather[1309] and severall old men that I knew heretofore did remember it.--MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 11ᵛ.
_Tabor and pipe._ When I was a boy, before the late civill warres, the tabor and pipe were commonly used, especially Sundays and Holydayes, and at Christnings and Feasts, in the Marches of Wales, Hereford, Glocestershire, and in all Wales. Now it is almost lost: the drumme and trumpet have putte that peaceable musique to silence. I believe 'tis derived from the Greek[1310] _sistrum_, a brasen or iron timbrel; _cratalum_[1311], a ring of brasse struck with an iron rod--so we play with the key and tongs.--MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 11ᵛ.
_Clocks_:--Chaucer, Nonne's Priest's tale--(Chanteclere).
'Well sikerer was his crowing in his loge
Then is a clock or in an Abbey an orloge.'
Sir Geoffrey Chaucer obiit 1400, aetatis 72.--MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 10ᵛ.
<The> clock[1312] at Paule's on the north crosse aisle west side <is> stately. That at Welles is like it. Vide Chaucer in aliqua vita[1313].--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 10ᵛ.
_Spectacles_[1314]. Dr. Pell tells me the antiquity of spectacles is about two hundred yeares standing, and that they were sold, when first invented, for 3 or 5 _li._ a paire. The ancientest author wherin he finds them is cardinal Cusa--vide Cusanum, quaere Sir John Hoskins, who (I thinke) knowes. ['Tis ... Redi, an Italian, about 400 yeares since.] The Germans call them _Brill_, from the beril-stone, i.e. chrystall, of which they were first made. Κρύσταλλος is not properly 'chrystall,' but 'ice.' Erasmus in Colloquio Senis--
'Quid tibi vis cum vitreis oculis, fascinator?'
Vide Thomas Hobbes' Optiques in libro De Homine, where he interprets this piece of Plautus, in Cistellaria, act. 1, scen. 1:--
'Conspicillo consequutus 'st clanculum me usque ad fores,'
where he proves that there 'conspicillo' could not signify a paire of spectacles, as we now use it: for then he could not have kenned her at a distance. I remember he told me 'tis that which the French call _vidette_, a hole to peepe out at.--Vide <Hier.> Sirturus _de Perspicillis_, a thin 4to: Mr. Edmund Wyld has it, scil. a rarity.--MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 11.
_Gunnes._ The Almanack chronologie tells us (1680)--'Since _the invention of gunnes_'--by ..., a monke of ..., in Germany--'270 yeares,' scil. in the reigne of <Henry IV>, anno 1410. Philip de Commines tells us that in his time, when Charles 8 went into Italy, the country-people flocked mightily to see the great gunnes shott off, which was the first time they came in use: but musquetts and fowling-peeces came not to perfection long after. Memorandum:--in the Princes' Chamber at the House of Lords[1315], scil. the roome where the king does retire, are very old hangings, viz. of Edward the Fourth's time, in which is described the invention and use of gunnes. The muskets there are only a long tube stop't at one end, with a touch-hole, and fitted to a long staff. This gun one holds on a rest and aimes; and then another comes with a lighted match in a stick and gives fire, so that 'twas the worke of two men then to manage one piece. Till the late warres refined locksmiths' worke, I remember when I was boy the firelocks were very bungling to what they now are. And in queen Elizabeth's time they used _calivers_, of which I remember many in gentlemen's halls before the civill wars (for then the soldiers converted them into carbines). The stock was like a wooden basting-ladle, and it had a match-lock, and was not much longer then a carbine.
'Cualibre' in French signifies the bore of a gun, or the size of the bore; and (thence) also the size capacity or fashion of any such thing--Cotgrave's Dictionary.--MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 11.
<_Printing._> Memorandum, in the librarie of Francis Bernard, M.D., in London, behind Sepulcher's church, is Tulie's Offices ('tis printed _Tulii_) in 4to, printed at Mentz by <Johann> Fust, 1466.--The sayd Dr. sayes that he hath seen Saint Hierome on the Creed, printed at Oxford, 1467[1316].--Memorandum, Mr. ... Morris of Llansilly in Denbighshire hath a manuscript Bible in Welsh 1500[1317] years old. It was found at the dissolution of the monasteries in an old wall which parted the monastery from the Bishop's Palace[1318] at Hereford, lap't-up in lead, and the inscription on it doeth testifie the antiquitie of it. 'Tis thought 'twas hid and layd-up there when the great difference, and troubles, was between the Welsh monkes and those of Austin the monke:--from Mr. Middleton, <of> Denbighshire, merchant in London. Quaere Mr. Meredith Lloyd de hoc: there may be something of trueth to be pickt out in this storie.--MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 11.
_Catafalconi_ is the magnificent contrivance for kings' and princes' and generalls' effigies to lie in state in some eminent church for some weekes, e.g. King James Iˢᵗ; Robert, earle of Essex; generall Monke, duke of Albemarle. It takes its name from 'Falconi,' which signifies in Italian 'an eagle.'--Memorandum at the solemne funeralls of the Roman emperors they had an eagle to fly away from the _rogus_ when it tooke fire.--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 3.
<_Stained glass in Oxford._> When I came to Oxford, crucifixes were common in the glasse windowes in the studies' windowes[1319]; and in the chamber windowes were canonized saints (e.g. in my chamber window, St. Gregorie the great, and another, broken), and scutcheons with[1320] the pillar, the whip, the dice, and the cock. But after 1647 they were all broken--'downe went Dagon!' Now no vestigia to be found.--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 3.
Mr. Fabian Philips sayes the winter 1625 before the plague was such a mild winter as this[1321]: quod N.B.--MS. Aubr. 8, a slip at fol. 6.
Quaere Dick Brocas, prisoner in King's Bench, pro legier booke of Bradstock abbey.--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 6ᵛ.
Quaere nomen ecclesiae unde deducebantur picturae Mri. Davys.--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 6ᵛ.
Oliver turned out the parliament, 20 Apr. 1653.--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 5.
... Knox began his voyage to Tunquin, Aug. 18, 1681.--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 5ᵛ.
_The first beginning of the Royal Society_ (where they putt discourse in paper and brought it to use) was in the chamber of William Ball, esqr., eldest son of Sir Peter Ball of Devon, in the Middle Temple. They had meetings at taverns before, but 'twas here where it formally and in good earnest sett up[1322]. In Dr. Spratt's History you may see when the patent was granted.--MS. Aubr. 8, a slip at fol. 6.
<_Wiltshire._> Quaere Mr. <Thomas> Mariet and Mr. Packer (pro Anthony Wood) if <there is> a camp neer Camden, and if another on Broadway.--Memorandum ... <to put> my brother's notes of ... Hyde, etc., into 'Liber[1323] B' before I send it to Anthony Wood.--'Liber[1324] A' (preface)--the 'clerici' (i.e. parish priests) did write the bayliffs' accounts and that in Latin, a specimen whereof I have with me of....--MS. Aubr. 8, a slip at fol. 13.
<_Oxford._> Insert the shields in St. Ebbe's church at Oxon in 'Liber B.'--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 6ᵛ.
The _paper mill_ at Bemmarton, Wilts, is 112 yeares standing (1681). 'Twas the second in England.--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 28ᵛ.
_Jessamines_ came into England with Mary[1325], the queen-mother; _Laurell_ was first brought over by Alathea[1326], countesse of Arundell, grandmother to this duke of Norfolke[1327].--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 28ᵛ.
Rider's <Almanack>, 1682:--'Since _tobacco_[1328] brought into England by Sir Walter Raleigh, 99 yeares; the custome[1329] wherof now is the greatest of all others and amounts yearly to....--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 103.
Rider's Almanack, 1682:--'Since Tobacco first used, 99 yeares; since the New River was brought to London, 79; since _coaches_ were first used, 128.'--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 28ᵛ.
The first _glasse-coach_ that came into England was the duke of Yorke's when the king was restored. In a very short time they grew common, and now (1681), at Waltham or Tottnam high crosse, is sett-up a mill for grinding of coach-glasses and looking glasses (much cheaper, viz.).--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 28ᵛ.
_Penny Post Office_, vide vitam R. Morey[1330]. Mr. Robert Murrey began it in May 1680, and the duke of York seized on it in 1682[1331]--quaere about what time of the yeare? Let Mr. Murry goe to Dr. Chamberlayne at Suffolke house.--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 30.
<_The penny post._> Doe right to Mr. Murrey in a Memorandum as to the refelling of Dr. <Edward> Chamberlayne who ascribes that invention or project of the 1ᵈ post to W. Dockwray, which is altogether false.--MS. Aubr. 8, a slip at fol. 13.
<_Printing._> Mr. J. Gadbury assures me that the first printing in England was in Westminster Abbey. They yet retaine the name 'Treasurer of the chapell.'--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 28ᵛ.
Mr. Theodore Haak saieth that the antiquity of _pinnes_ is not above 200 yeares. 'Before, they used a thorne, etc., _more primitivo_. He saies moreover that he heard the Swedish ambassador asked two other ambassadors what they thought was the greatest waste of copper. One, said bells, another said cannons. 'No,' sayd he, ''tis pinnes'--quod N.B.--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 30.
_Shoes._ I doe remember, in my native county of North Wilts, husbandmen did weare high shoes till 1633 common enough, scil. 1/2 bootes slitt and laced. The Benedictine monks wore bootes, I beleeve, like these--at least 1/2 bootes.--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 30.
_Gentilisme_[1332]. Memorandum in Yorkeshire the country woemen doe still _hailst the new mewne_, scil. they kneele with their bare knees on a _grownd-fast stene_ and say _all haile_, etc. The moon hath a greater influence on woemen than on men.--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 69.
_Gentilisme._ Weddings out. Ovid's Fastorum lib. <iii. 397, 398>:--
His etiam conjux apia sancta[1333] dialis
Lucibus impexas debet habere comas--
see the two distiches preceding.
This St. Andrewe's crosse we wore on our hatts, pinned on, till the Plott, and never since:--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 69.
_Avebury._ Between pages 1 and 2[1334] insert the scheme of Avebury.--... miles westwards from Marleborough (not far from Bristowe-roade) is a village called Avebury which stands within one of the most remarkeable monuments of its kind in England. It seemes strange to me that so little notice hath been taken of it by writers. Mr. Camden only touches on it and no more.--MS. Aubr 9, fol. 50ᵛ.
<_Palm Sunday._> Antiquity--the fashion hereabout[1335] was before the warres that on Palme Sunday the young men and maydes received the communion, and in the afternoon walkt together under the hedges about the cornefields, which was held to be lucky.--MS. Aubr. 21, fol. 2ᵛ.
<_Simples._> Some write that the water ..., vervayn, ..., ... of sprinkled about the hall or place where any feast or banket is kept maketh all the company both lusty and merry.--Dodoens _Herball_.--MS. Aubr. 21, a slip at fol. 9.
_Witches_ (maleficae). Twisting of trees, tearing and turning up oakes by the roots. Raysing tempests; wracking ships; throwing down steeples; blasting plantes; dwindle away young children. To overlooke and binde the spirits and phantasy; bewhattling and making men impotent, woemen miscarry (countesse of Carlisle). Whirlewinds; haracanes.
Mr. Morehouse[1336]:--spirits in 'em. Bishop of Bahuse; the devill's black mace of rammes hornes; the session, à la mode de Royal Society, with ballotting box. Memorandum;--Sir H. B. <said> wise men alwaies saw that as some malicious woemen increased in yeares, increased also in malice: set howses on fire, mischiefe <to> children, etc. Thought it better to have them underground then above ground and raise storms: the familiars could not handsomely knock 'em in the head.--MS. Aubr. 21, p. 11.
<_Provincial ignorance._> Sir Eglamour and Fitz-ale <two of the persons in Aubrey's Comedy _The Country Revel_> discourse of the gothique manner of living of these gentlemen, of their ignorance, and envy of civilized and ingeniouse men; of the promising growth of civility and knowledge in the next generation[1337] (in our grandfathers' or great-grandfathers' dayes few gentlemen could write a letter: then 'the clarke made the justice'); that there is a sort of provinciall witt, or rather a humour that goes for witt, e.g. in the west, which if used in the north, or elsewhere, seemes strange and ridiculous.--MS. Aubr. 21, p. 11.
_Summer watch._ Vide Sir Thomas Smyth's _Commonwealth_ de hac. Cause is that the blood is then high: keepe downe the _juvenilis impetus_. The old men in those dayes were not so ignorant in philosophy as the virtuosi, forsooth, doe thinke they were. They knew, etc.--MS. Aubr. 21, p. 11.
<_Provincial manners._> Collect[1338] the gothicismes and clownrys of ... in Chester. Dick Pawlet, Secole Chivers, W. Ducket's clan of Clowne-hall. Their servants like clownes too, drunkards too: _qualis herus, talis servus_; breeches of one sort, doublet of another, drabled with the teares of the tankard and greasie. He built an alehouse for his servants, without the gate, for convenience sake, because the servants should be within call. (Before they came hither above a mile for their ale.) Vide Osburne, of distinction of habitts.--MS. Aubr. 21, p. 12.
_Country magique._ Walking about the church Midsomer eve at night, one shall meet the party that shall marry. They must goe round the church nine times (or seven times), with a sword drawne, if a man; if a woman, with a scabbard.--To putt a smock on the hedge on Midsommer-eve night, the man that is to have her shall come and turne it.--They take orpin and stick branches of it on the wall, and fancy such a branch for such a man, such a branch for such a woman, and divine their loves and marriage or not-marriage by the inclining or aversion of the branches.--They tye magicall knotts with certayne grasses, which, putt in the bosome of the man or woman, if their love have not love for them, will untye.--MS. Aubr. 21, fol. 24ᵛ.
<_Sketches for designed inventions_: MS. Aubr. 21, fol. 57: illustrated in most cases by drawings. One (fol. 57) is for _a cart with one wheel_, imitated from 'the slids in the forrest of Deane, for their narrow wayes where carts cann't passe.'
Another (fol. 57ᵛ) is for _a balloon_:--'Fill or force in smoake into a bladder and try if the bladder will not be carryed up in the ayre. If it is so, severall bladders may drawe a man up into the ayre a certaine hight, as the holly-berrys arise to the middle of water in a glasse. Memorandum try to what hight they will ascend in a deep vessell, and also try other berryes if any will doe so.'
Another (fol. 57) is for _a flying machine and parachute_:--'Memorandum to propose that Mr. Packer sends to Norfolk or Suffolke to the gentleman that hath with much curiosity measured the feathers in the wings of severall birds and taken proportions of them and the weight of their bodies, and to send to Mr. Francis Potter for his notions of flying and of being safely delivered upon the ground from great heights with a sheet, etc.'
Another (fol. 58) is for _sailing a ship_:--'Memorandum Dr. Wilkins his notion of an umbrella-like invention for retarding a ship when shee drives in a storm.'
Another (fol. 59) is for _a sowing-machine_:--'Let a ginne be invented to shatter out corne by jogging in stead of soweing or setting, the one being, too wastfull, the other taking up too much time; and that the soweing and harrowing may bee but one and the same labour.'>
_Herifordshire._ All the earth red, as also all Wales from Severn to the sea.--The twanging pronunciation more here then in South Wales; in North Wales, not much. So about Newcastle they speak more of the Scotch twang than they doe at Berwick or Scotland.--Get the song or speech of serjant Hoskyns of the earl of Northampton, the Lord President of Wales.--At Mordeford, the serpent with 6 or 8 wings, every ... a paire.--Vide the little bookes of the old earl of Worcester[1339] in 12mo, where, amongst other things, he mentions a profecie by a bard of Ragland, that it should be burnd or destroyed and afterwards be rebuilt out of Redwood; set forth (vide), I thinke, by Dr. <Thomas> Bayly his chaplain: where be many pretty romances of that earle, etc., his life and death, etc. The same Dr. also writt a booke in folio (thinne) called _Parietaria_: which see. He (or his father[1340]) would shoe his horse. Was a great patron to the musicians, e.g. Caporavio, etc. This duke's father[1341] had an excellent mechanicall head: quaere what he writt: Mr. Wyld, I thinke, hath the booke printed in red.--MS. Aubr. 31, p. 68.
_Monmouthshire._ About the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's time Welsh was spoken much in Hereford and I believe 100 years before that as far as the Severn. It weares out more and more in South Wales, especially since the Civill Warres (and so in Cornwall: Mr. Francis Potter did see one that spake of a woman towards the farther end of Cornwall that could speak no English)--but they still retaine their ancient way of pronunciation, which is with a twang worse than the Welsh.--MS. Aubr. 21, p. 68ᵛ.
<_Dress._> Memorandum--anciently no bandes worne about their neckes, but furre: as in old glasse pictures.--Memorandum till queen Elizabeth's time, no hattes, but cappes, i.e. bonnetts.--Trunke hose in fashion till the later end of King James the first.--About 90 yeares ago[1342] (1670) noblemen and gentlemen's coates were of the fashion of the bedells and yeomen of the guard, i.e. gathered at the girdle place; and our benchers' gownes retayne yet that fashion of gathering.--MS. Aubr. 21, fol. 95ᵛ.
By reason of fasting dayes all gentlemen's howses had anciently _fishponds_, and fish in the motes about the howse.--MS. Aubr. 31, fol. 95ᵛ.
Heretofore _glasse windowes_ were very rare, only used in churches and the best roomes of gentlemen's howses. Yea, in my remembrance, before the civill warres, copyholders and ordinary poore people had none. Now the poorest people, that are upon almes, have it. In Herefordshire, Monmouth, Salop, etc., it is so still. But now this yeare (1671) are goeing up no lesse then 3 glasse-howses between Glocester and about Worcester, so that glasse will be common over all England.--MS. Aubr. 21, fol. 95ᵛ.
Memorandum--without doubt, before the Reformation there was no county in England but had severall _glasse-painters_. I only remember one poore one, an old man (Harding) at Blandford, in that trade.--MS. Aubr. 21, fol. 95ᵛ.
_Riding at the quintin at weddings_ is now left in these partes[1343] but in the west of England is sometimes used yet. I remember when I learned to read English I saw one at Will Tanner's wedding sett up at the green by Bownet howse by the pounde. Vide the masque of Ben Johnson, wher is a perfect description of rideing at the quintin. Quaere the antiquity and rise of it.--Memorandum I sawe somewhere that rideing at the quintin is a remayn of the Roman exercise; vide Juvenal[1344], Satyr vi. 248--
Aut quis non vidit vulnera pali[1345]
Quem cavat assiduis sudibus, scutoque lacessit
Atque omnes implet numeros?
A quintin[1346] ('quintaine' in French).
(_a_) a leather satchell filled with sand.
(_b_) a roller of corne[1347] pitched on end in some crosse way or convenient place where the bride comes along home.
(_c_) at this end the fellowes that bring home the bride give a lusty bang with their clubbes or truncheons which they have for the purpose, and if they are not cunning and nimble the sandbag takes them in the powle ready to hitt them off their horses. They ride a full career when they make their stroke.
(_a c_) a piece of wood about a nell[1348] long that turnes on the pinne of the rowler (_e_).--MS. Aubr. 21, fol. 95.
_Chelsey Hospitall._ On Thursday morning, February the sixteenth 1681/2, his majestie layed the foundation stone of the college appointed for the reliefe of indigent officers at Chelsey College.--MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 20ᵛ.
<_Siamese twins_[1349].> May 19, 1680, about sun rising were borne at Hillbrewers neer Ilminster in Somerset twinne sisters growne together at the belley: christned Aquila and Priscilla. Quaere the judgment by Dr. Bernard.--MS. Aubr. 33, fol. 92.
_Rollright stones._ Except 1, 2, the rest + - 4 foote[1350]; about 4-1/2; quaere quot[1351].--MS. Aubr. 23, a slip at fol. 92.
<_Apparition_[1352].> 1679: as he was a bed sick of an ague, (he awake--daytime) came to him the vision of a Master of Arts with a white wand in his hand, and told him that if he lay on his back three howres, viz. 10 to 1, that he should be rid of his ague. He was weary[1353] and turned and immediately the ague came: after, he did not, etc., and was perfectly well.--MS. Aubr. 23, a slip at fol. 100ᵛ.
<_Soap._> A Bristow-man living in Castile in Spain learn't their art of making soape, which he did first set up in Bristowe about the yeare 1600. By this, alderman Rogers there gott a great estate, and Mr. ... Broughton[1354] was the first that improved barren ground there with the soape-ashes, now not uncommon.--MS. Aubr. 26, page 18.
A Bristow-man living in Castile in Spaine learnt their art of makeing soape, which he first sett-up in Bristow, now (1681) 80 + yeares since.--MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 28ᵛ.
<_The Fishmongers' Company, London._> To discover[1355] and find out the lands concealed and embezilled by the Fishmongers' company, which was to maintain so many scholars in Oxford and for the ease of poor Catholiques in Lent. Mr. Fabian Philips tells me I may find out the donation in Stow's Survey of London: he can put me in a way to help me to a third or fourth part for the discoverie. J. Collins, who enformed me of this discovery, sayd the lands are worth some thousands per annum, scil. two or three thousand pounds per annum, which devout Catholiques in ancient times gave to this company for their pious and charitable use. My lord Hunsdon would be a good instrument herein. Memorandum in the records of the Tower are to be found many graunts, etc., to the Fishmongers' company. Edmund Wyld; esq., saith that the old Parliament did intend to have had an inspection into charitable uses. See Sir Richard Baker's Chronicle pag. 267 G, anno 22 Henry VII <1507>, scil. Thomas Knesworth, mayor of London, gave to the Fishmongers' company, certain tenements for which they are bound to allow fower scholars, that is to say, two at Oxon, and two at Cambridge, to each of them fower pounds per annum, as also to poor people prisoners in Ludgate something yeerely. Quaere Anthony Wood de hiis.--MS. Aubr. 26, page 1.
APPENDIX II
AUBREY'S COMEDY OF RESTORATION MANNERS
<While hiding from the bailiffs in 1671 at Broad Chalk, Aubrey
(see i. 52) set himself to compose a comedy descriptive
of country life as he had seen it, abating nothing of its
grossness, and concealing nothing of its immorality. The rude
draft of this comedy is found in MS. Aubrey 21, written in the
blank spaces and between the lines of a long legal document.
Although few of the scenes are sketched, and fewer completed,
it is possible to form an idea of the scope and plot of the
piece.
The jumbling together of all classes of society in the rude
merriment of a country wake was designed to bring out the
follies and vices of them all. A few gentlemen and ladies
of the old school, of courtly manners and decent carriage,
were brought in to set out by contrast the boorishness,
the insolence, and the mad drunken bouts of Aubrey's
contemporaries. A mixed company of sow-gelders, carters,
dairy-maids, gypsies, were to give evidence, in dialogue and
song, of the coarse talk and the vile ideas of the vulgar. And
a still more disreputable rout of squires who had left their
wives and taken up with cook-maids, and of heiresses who had
run away with grooms, was to exemplify the degradation of the
gentry. In several cases, over the names of his _Dramatis
Personae_, Aubrey has jotted the names or initials of the real
persons he was copying.
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Brief Lives, Vol. 2Chapter XI: Part 11
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