The Natural History of Wiltshire Part 1

The Natural History of Wilts.h.i.+re.

by John Aubrey.

TO

GEORGE POULETT SCROPE, ESQ. M.P.

MY DEAR SIR,

BY inscribing this Volume to you I am merely discharging a debt of grat.i.tude and justice. But for you I believe it would not have been printed; for you not only advocated its publication, but have generously contributed to diminish the cost of its production to the "WILTs.h.i.+RE TOPOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY", under whose auspices it is now submitted to the public.

Though comparatively obsolete as regards its scientific, archaeological, and philosophical information, AUBREY'S "NATURAL HISTORY OF WILTs.h.i.+RE" is replete with curious and entertaining facts and suggestions, at once characterising the writer, and the age in which he lived, and ill.u.s.trating the history and topography of his native county. Had this work been revised and printed by its author, as he wished and intended it to have been, it would have proved as useful and important as Plot's "Staffords.h.i.+re" and "Oxfords.h.i.+re"; Burton's "Leicesters.h.i.+re"; Morton's "Northamptons.h.i.+re"; Philipott's "Kent"; or any others of its literary predecessors or contemporaries.

It could not have failed to produce useful results to the county it describes; as it was calculated to promote inquiry, awaken curiosity, and plant seeds which might have produced a rich and valuable harvest of Topography.

Aubrey justly complained of the apathy which prevailed in his time amongst Wilts.h.i.+re men towards such topics ; and, notwithstanding the many improvements that have since been made in general science, literature, and art, I fear that the gentry and clergy of the county do not sufficiently appreciate the value and utility of local history; otherwise the Wilts.h.i.+re Topographical Society would not linger for want of adequate and liberal support. Aubrey, Bishop Tanner, Henry Penruddocke Wyndham, Sir Richard Colt h.o.a.re, and the writer of this address, have successively appealed to the inhabitants of the county to produce a history commensurate to its wealth and extent, and also to the many and varied objects of importance and interest which belong to it: but, alas ! all have failed, and I despair of living to see my native county amply and satisfactorily elucidated by either one or more topographers.

By the formation of the Society already mentioned, by writing and superintending this volume and other preceding publications, and by various literary exertions during the last half century, I have endeavoured to promote the cause of Topography in Wilts.h.i.+re ; and in doing so have often been encouraged by your sympathy and support. For this I am bound to offer you the expression of my very sincere thanks; and with an earnest wish that you may speedily complete your projected "History of Castle Combe,"

I am,

My dear Sir,

Yours very truly,

JOHN BRITTON.

Burton Street, London.

1st September, 1847.

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

IN the "Memoir of John Aubrey", published by the Wilts.h.i.+re Topographical Society in 1845, I expressed a wish that the "NATURAL HISTORY of WILTs.h.i.+RE", the most important of that author's unpublished ma.n.u.scripts, might be printed by the Society, as a companion volume to that Memoir, which it is especially calculated to ill.u.s.trate.

The work referred to had been then suggested to the Council of the Society by George Poulett Scrope, Esq. M.P., as desirable for publication. They concurred with him in that opinion; and shortly afterwards, through the kind intervention of the Marquess of Northampton, an application was made to the Council of the Royal Society for permission to have a transcript made for publication from the copy of the " Natural History of Wilts.h.i.+re" in their possession.

The required permission was readily accorded; and had not the printing been delayed by my own serious illness during the last winter, and urgent occupations since, it would have been completed some months ago.

When the present volume was first announced, it was intended to print the whole of Aubrey's ma.n.u.script; but after mature deliberation it has been thought more desirable to select only such pa.s.sages as directly or indirectly apply to the county of Wilts, or which comprise information really useful or interesting in itself, or curious as ill.u.s.trating the state of literature and science at the time when they were written.

Before the general reader can duly understand and appreciate the contents of the present volume it is necessary that he should have some knowledge of the manners, customs, and literature of the age when it was written, and with the lucubrations of honest, but "magotie- headed" John Aubrey, as he is termed by Anthony a Wood. Although I have already endeavoured to portray his mental and personal characteristics, and have carefully marked many of his merits, eccentricities, and foibles, I find, from a more careful examination of his "Natural History of Wilts.h.i.+re" than I had previously devoted to it, many anecdotes, peculiarities, opinions, and traits, which, whilst they serve to mark the character of the man, afford also interesting memorials of his times. If that age be compared and contrasted with the present, the difference cannot fail to make us exult in living, breathing, and acting in a region of intellect and freedom, which is all suns.h.i.+ne and happiness, opposed to the gloom and illiteracy which darkened the days of Aubrey. Even Harvey, Wren, Flamsteed, and Newton, his contemporaries and friends, were slaves and victims to the superst.i.tion and fanaticism of their age.

It has long been customary to regard John Aubrey as a credulous and gossiping narrator of anecdotes of doubtful authority, and as an ignorant believer of the most absurd stories. This notion was grounded chiefly upon the prejudiced testimony of Anthony a Wood, and on the contents of the only work which Aubrey published during his lifetime,- an amusing collection of "Miscellanies" relating to dreams, apparitions, witchcraft, and similar subjects. Though his " History of Surrey" was of a more creditable character, and elicited the approval of Manning and Bray, the subsequent historians of that county, an unfavourable opinion of Aubrey long continued to prevail. The publication of his " Lives of Eminent Men" tended, however, to raise him considerably in the estimation of discriminating critics; and in my own " Memoir" of his personal and literary career, with its accompanying a.n.a.lysis of his unpublished works, I endeavoured (and I believe successfully) to vindicate his claims to a distinguished place amongst the literati of his times.

That he has been unjustly stigmatised amongst his contemporaries as an especial votary of superst.i.tion is obvious, even on a perusal of his most objectionable work, the "Miscellanies" already mentioned, which plainly shews that his more scientific contemporaries, including even some of the most eminent names in our country's literary annals, partic.i.p.ated in the same delusions. It would be amusing to compare the "Natural History of Wilts.h.i.+re" with two similar works on "Oxfords.h.i.+re" and " Staffords.h.i.+re," by Dr. Robert Plot, which procured for their author a considerable reputation at the time of their publication, and which still bear a favourable character amongst the topographical works of the seventeenth century. It may be sufficient here to state that the chapters in those publications on the Heavens and Air, Waters, Earths, Stones, Formed stones, Plants, Beastes, Men and Women, Echoes, Devils and Witches, and other subjects, are very similar to those of Aubrey. Indeed the plan of the latter's work was modelled upon those of Dr. Plot, and Aubrey states in his Preface that he endeavoured to induce that gentleman to undertake the arrangement and publication of his "Natural History of Wilts.h.i.+re". On comparing the writings of the two authors, we cannot hesitate to award superior merits to the Wilts.h.i.+re antiquary.

A few pa.s.sages may be quoted from the latter to shew that he was greatly in advance of his contemporaries in general knowledge and liberality of sentiment:-

" I have oftentimes wished for a mappe of England coloured according to the colours of the earth; with markes of the fossiles and minerals." (p. 10.)

"As the motion caused by a stone lett fall into the water is by circles, so sounds move by spheres in the same manner; which, though obvious enough, I doe not remember to have seen in any booke." (p.

18.)

"Phantomes. Though I myselfe never saw any such things, yet I will not conclude that there is no truth at all in these reports. I believe that extraordinarily there have been such apparitions; but where one is true a hundred are figments. There is a lecherie in lyeing and imposing on the credulous, and the imagination of fearfull people is to admiration." [In other words, timid people are disposed to believe marvellous stories.] (p. 122.)

"Draughts of the Seates and Prospects. If these views were well donn, they would make a glorious volume by itselfe, and like enough it might take well in the world. It were an inconsiderable expence to these persons of qualitie, and it would remaine to posterity when their families are gonn and their buildings ruined by time or fire, as we have seen that stupendous fabric of Paul's Church, not a stone left on a stone, and lives now only in Mr. Hollar's Etchings in Sir William Dugdale's History of Paul's. I am not displeased with this thought as a desideratum, but I doe never expect to see it donn; so few men have the hearts to doe public good to give 4 or 5 pounds for a copper-plate."

p. 126.)

With regard to the history of the work now first published, it may be stated that it was the author's first literary essay; being commenced in 1656, and evidently taken up from time to time, and pursued "con amore". In 1675 it was submitted to the Royal Society, when, as Aubrey observed in a letter to Anthony a Wood, it "gave them two or three dayes entertainment which they were pleased to like." Dr. Plot declined to prepare it for the press, and in December 1684 strongly urged the author to "finish and publish it" himself; he accordingly proceeded to arrange its contents, and in the month of June following (in the sixtieth year of his age) wrote the Preface, describing its origin and progress. He states elsewhere that on the 21st of April 1686, he "finished the last chapter," and in the same year he had his portrait painted by "Mr. David Loggan, the graver," expressly to be engraved for the intended publication.

On the 18th of August 1686 he wrote the following Will: " Whereas I, John Aubrey, R.S.S., doe intend shortly to take a journey into the west; and reflecting on the fate that ma.n.u.scripts use to have after the death of the author, I have thought good to signify my last Will (as to this Naturall History of Wilts): that my will and desire is, that in case I shall depart this life before my returne to London again, to finish, if it pleaseth G.o.d, this discourse, I say and declare that my will then is, that I bequeath these papers of the Natural History of Wilts to my worthy friend Mr. Robert Hooke, of Gresham Colledge and R.S.S., and I doe also humbly desire him, and my will is, that the n.o.ble buildings and prospects should be engraven by my worthy friend Mr. David Loggan, who hath drawn my picture already in order to it"

This doc.u.ment* shews at once the dangers and difficulties which attended travelling in Aubrey's time, and also that he seriously contemplated the publication of his favourite work.

* [It has been already printed in my Memoir of Aubrey. A note attached to it shews that the author intended to incorporate with the present work some portions of his MS. "Monumenta Britannica"; which was also dedicated to the Earl of Pembroke.]

Neither his fears of death nor his hopes of publication were however then realized: probably the political disturbances attending the Revolution of 1688 interfered with the latter. In the November of the year following that event Aubrey's friend and patron Thomas, Earl of Pembroke, was elected President of the Royal Society, which distinguished office he held only for one year. During that period the author dedicated the " Natural History of Wilts.h.i.+re " to his Lords.h.i.+p; and there is little reason to doubt that the fair copy, now in the Society's Library, was made by the author, and given to it in the year 1690. About the same time he had resolved to present his other ma.n.u.scripts, together with some printed books, coins, antiquities, &c., to the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford; and most of them were accordingly deposited there. He however appears to have retained his original ma.n.u.script of the " Natural History," in which he made several observations in the year 1691; that being the latest date attached by him to any of the additions.

[Some of these additions of 1691 Aubrey afterwards transcribed into certain blank s.p.a.ces in the Royal Society's copy.]

On the 15th of September in the same year Aubrey sent this work to his learned and scientific friend, John Ray, for his perusal. The latter made a number of notes upon various parts of the ma.n.u.script, which he retained till the 27th of the ensuing month; when he returned it with the very judicious letter which will be found printed in this present publication (p. 7.) He had acknowledged the receipt of the work in a previous letter, in which he says: "I have read it over with great pleasure and satisfaction. You doe so mingle "utile dulci" {the useful with the sweet} that the book cannot but take with all sorts of readers: and it is pity it should be suppressed; which, though you make a countenance of, I cannot persuade myself you really intend to do:" and then proceeds to criticise a few pedantic or "new-coyned "

words, and also the contents of Chapter VIII. (Part I.) It was probably soon afterwards that Evelyn perused and added some notes to the ma.n.u.script; and in February 1694 Aubrey also lent the work to Thomas Tanner (afterwards Bishop of St Asaph), at his earnest request.

He seems to have become acquainted with his fellow county-man, Tanner, only a short time before this. The latter, although then only in his twenty-first year, and pursuing his studies at Oxford, had acquired a reputation for knowledge of English antiquities, and with the ardour and enthusiasm of youth evinced much anxiety to promote the publication of this and some of the other works of his venerable friend. He added several notes to the ma.n.u.script, and whilst in his possession it was no doubt examined also by Gibson. It is referred to in the notes to the latter's edition of Camden's " Britannia."

[Perhaps in May 1692 ; when he is known to have examined another of Aubrey's works, "An Idea of Education of Young Gentlemen". - Evelyn's notes to the "Wilts.h.i.+re" are thus referred to in a memorandum by Aubrey on a fly-leaf of the ma.n.u.script: "Mdm. That ye annotations to which are prefixed this marke [J. E.] were writt by my worthy friend John Evelyn, Esq. R.S.S. 'Twas pitty he wrote them in black lead; so that I was faine to runne them all over againe with inke. I thinke not more than two words are obliterated."]

Had Aubrey's life been spared a few years longer it is very possible that most of his ma.n.u.scripts would have been printed, under the stimulus and with the a.s.sistance of his youthful friend. His "Miscellanies," which appeared in 1696, seem to have owed their publication to these influences; and in the Dedication of that work to his patron the Earl of Abingdon, Aubrey thus expressly mentions Tanner:- "It was my intention to have finished my Description of Wilts.h.i.+re (half finished* already), and to have dedicated it to your Lords.h.i.+p, but my age is now too far spent for such undertakings. I have therefore devolved that task on my countryman Mr. Thomas Tanner, who hath youth to go through with it, and a genius proper for such an undertaking."

* [The work alluded to still remains "half finished," being a Description of the " North Division" only of the county. It has been printed by Sir Thomas Phillipps from the MS. in the Ashmolean Museum. 4to. 1821-1838.]

[He was then in his 71st year.]

A chapter of the "Natural History" (being "Fatalities of Families and Places"), was at this time detached from the original ma.n.u.script to furnish materials for the remarks on "Local Fatality," in the "Miscellanies."

John Aubrey died suddenly in the first week in June 1697, and was buried in the church of St. Mary Magdalen at Oxford, and from the time of his decease the original draught of his Wilts.h.i.+re History has been carefully preserved in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, as the fair copy of 1690 has also in the Library of the Royal Society in London.

Until the "Natural History of Wilts.h.i.+re" was briefly described in my own "Memoir" of its author, very little was known of it beyond the mere fact of the existence of the two ma.n.u.scripts. Copying from the original at Oxford, Dr. Rawlinson printed the Preface and Dedication, together with Ray's letter of the 27th October, 1691, as addenda to his edition of Aubrey's "History of Surrey," (1719.) The same ma.n.u.script was also noticed by Thomas Warton and William Huddesford in a list of the author's works in the Ashmolean Museum. Horace Walpole referred to the Royal Society's copy in his Anecdotes of Painting (1762); but though his reference seems to have excited the curiosity of Gough, the latter contented himself with stating that he could not find the work mentioned in Mr. Robertson's catalogue of the Society's library.

[This list forms a note to the "Lives of Leland, Hearne, and Wood"

(8 1772). Though it includes the "Natural History," it omits the "Description of North Wilts.h.i.+re." The latter was known previously, being mentioned by Aubrey himself in his Miscellanies, and also by Dr.

Rawlinson; and hence, Warton and Huddesford's list being supposed to be complete, much confusion has arisen respecting these two of Aubrey's works, which have been sometimes considered as identical.]

Some years ago Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart., contemplated publis.h.i.+ng this "Natural History," but he appears to have abandoned his design.

A brief description of the present state of the two ma.n.u.scripts, with reference to the text of the volume now published, may be desirable.

The Oxford copy, which may be termed the author's rough draught, is in two parts or volumes, demy folio, in the original vellum binding.-- Being compiled at various times, during a long series of years, it has a confused appearance, from the numerous corrections and additions made in it by Aubrey. A list of the chapters is prefixed to each volume, whence it appears that Aubrey had intended to include some observations on "Prices of Corne", "Weights and Measures", "Antiquities and Coines", and "Forests, Parks, and Chaces". Most of these topics are adverted to under other heads, but the author never carried out his intention by forming them into separate chapters.