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MISCELLANIES UPON VARIOUS SUBJECTS
MISCELLANIES UPON VARIOUS SUBJECTS JOHN AUBREY THE FIFTH EDITION.
{TO WHICH IS ADDED
HYDRIOTAPHIA; OR URN BURIAL.
BY SIR THOMAS BROWNE.}*
LONDON;
REEVES AND TURNER
196 STRAND.
1890.
* Urn-Burial has not been scanned into this text.
CONTENTS.
LIFE of Aubrey
Dedication to the First Edition
Day-Fatality; or Some Observations of Days Lucky and Unlucky
Day-Fatality of Rome
Of Fatalities of Families and Places
Ostenta; or Portents
Omens
Dreams
Apparitions
Voices
Impulses
Knockings
Blows invisible
Prophesies
Miranda
Magick
Transportation by an invisible Power
Visions in a Beryl or Crystal
Visions without a Glass or Crystal
Converse with Angels and Spirits
Corps-candles in Wales
Oracles
Ecstacy
Glances of Love and Malice
An accurate account of Second-Sighted men in Scotland
Additaments of Second-Sight
Farther Additaments
Appendix
{HYDRIOTAPHIA; OR URN-BURIAL}
THE LIFE OF JOHN AUBREY.
JOHN AUBREY the subject of this brief notice was born at Easton
Pierse (Parish of Kington) in Wiltshire on the 12th of March 1626;
and not on the 3rd of November in that year as stated by some of his
biographers. He was the eldest son of Richard Aubrey Esq. of
Burleton Herefordshire and Broad Chalk Wiltshire. Being according
to his own statement "very weak and like to dye" he was baptized
on the day of his birth as appears by the Register of Kington. At an
early age (1633) he was sent to the Grammar School at Yatton Keynel
and in the following year he was placed under the tuition of Mr.
Robert Latimer the preceptor of Hobbes a man then far advanced in
years.
On the 2nd of May 1642 being then sixteen years of age Aubrey was
entered a gentleman commoner of Trinity College Oxford where he
appears to have applied himself closely to study. He however cherished
a strong predilection for English History and Antiquities which was
fostered and encouraged at this time by the appearance of the
"Monasticon Anglicanum" to which he contributed a plate of Osney
Abbey an ancient ruin near Oxford entirely destroyed in the Civil
Wars.
On the 16th of April 1646 Aubrey was admitted a student of the
Middle Temple but the death of his father shortly after leaving him
heir to estates in Wiltshire Surrey Herefordshire Brecknockshire
and Monmouthshire obliged him to relinquish his studies and look to
his inheritance which was involved in several law suits.
Though separated from his associates in the University he appears to
have kept up a correspondence with several of them and among others
Anthony Wood whom he furnished with much valuable information. Wood
made an ungrateful return for this assistance and in his
Autobiography thus speaks of him:-"An. 1667 John Aubrey of Easton
Piers in the parish of Kingston Saint Michael in Wiltshire was in
Oxon. with Edward Forest a Bookseller living against Alls. Coll. to
buy books. He then saw lying on the stall Notitiae Academiae
Oxoniensis and asking who the author of that book was? He [Edw.
Forest] answered the report was that one Mr. Anth. Wood of Merton
College was the author but was not. Whereupon Mr. Aubrey a pretender
to Antiquities having been contemporary to A. Wood's elder brother in
Trin. Coll. and well acquainted with him he thought that he might be
as well acquainted with A. W. himself Whereupon repairing to his
lodgings and telling him who he was he got into his acquaintance
talked to him about his studies and offered him what assistance he
could make in order to the completion of the work that he was in hand
with. Mr. Aubrey was then in sparkish garb came to town with his man
and two horses spent high and flung out A. W. in all his recknings.
But his estate of 7001i per an. being afterwards sold and he reserving
nothing of it to himself liv'd afterwards in very sorry condition
and at length made shift to rub out by hanging on Edm. Wyld Esq.
living in Blomesbury near London on James Carle of Abendon whose
first wife was related to him and on Sr Joh. Aubrey his kinsman
living sometimes in Glamorganshire and sometimes at Borstall near
Brill in Bucks. He was a shiftless person roving and magotie-headed
and sometimes little better than crased. And being exceedingly
credulous would stuff his many letters sent to A. W. with folliries
and misinformations which would sometimes guid him into the paths of
errour." This example of bad English and worse taste was written
after twenty-five years acquaintance! In singular contrast to it is a
letter of Aubrey to Wood charging him it is true with an abuse of
confidence and detraction but urging his complaint in terms which
sufficiently evince the kindly and affectionate nature of the writer.
Malone in his " Historical Account of the English Stage" has done
Aubrey justice; and his remarks may properly find a place here. " That
the greater part of his (Aubrey's) life was devoted to literary
pursuits is ascertained by the works which he has published the
correspondence which he held with many eminent men and the
collections which he left in manuscript and which are now reposited in
the Ashmolean Museum. Among these collections is a curious account of
our English Poets and many other writers. While Wood was preparing
his Athenae Oxonienses this manuscript was lent to him as appears
from many queries in his handwriting in the margin; and his account of
Milton with whom Aubrey was intimately acquainted is (as has been
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