The Natural History of Wiltshire Part 14

"What if the Belgique current you should view, And steer your course to Britain's utmost sh.o.r.e'!

Though not for shape, and much deceiving show, The British hounds no other blemish know: When fierce work comes, and courage must he shown, And Mars to extreme combat leads them on, Then stout Molossians you will lesse commend; With Athemaneans these in craft contend."

It is certain that no county of England had greater variety of game, &c. than Wilts.h.i.+re, and our county hounds were as good, or rather the best of England; but within this last century the breed is much mix't with northern hounds. Sir Charles Snell, of Kington St. Michael, who was my honoured friend and neighbour, had till the civill warrs as good hounds for the hare as any were in England, for handsomenesse and mouth (deep-mouthed) and goodnesse, and suited one another admirably well. But it was the Right Hon. Philip I. Earle of Pembroke, that was the great hunter. It was in his lords.h.i.+p's time, sc. tempore Jacobi I.

and Caroli I. a serene calme of peace, that hunting was at its greatest heighth that ever was in this nation. The Roman governours had not, I thinke, that leisure. The Saxons were never at quiet; and the barons' warres, and those of York and Lancaster, took up the greatest part of the time since the Conquest: so that the glory of the English hunting breath'd its last with this Earle, who deceased about 1644, and shortly after the forests and parkes were sold and converted into arable, &c. 'Twas after his lords.h.i.+p's decease [1650] that I was a hunter; that is to say, with the Right Honourable William, Lord Herbert, of Cardiff, the aforesaid Philip's grandson. Mr. Chr. Wace then taught him Latin, and hunted with him; and 'twas then that he translated Gratii Cynegeticon, and dedicated it to his lords.h.i.+p, which will be a lasting monument for him. Sir Jo. Denham was at Wilton at that time about a twelve moneth.

The Wilts.h.i.+re greyhounds were also the best of England, and are still; and my father and I have had as good as any were in our times in Wilts.h.i.+re. They are generally of a fallow colour, or black; but Mr.

b.u.t.ton's, of s.h.i.+rburn in Glocesters.h.i.+re, are some white and some black. But Gratius, in his Cynegeticon, adviseth:-

"And chuse the grayhound py'd with black and white, He runs more swift than thought, or winged flight; But courseth yet in view, not hunts in traile, In which the quick Petronians never faile."

We also had in this county as good tumblers as anywhere in the nation.

Martial speakes of the tumblers:-

"Non sibi sed domino venatur vertagus acer, Illaesum leporem qui tibi dente feret" -

Turnebus, Young, Gerard, Vossius, and Ja.n.u.s Ulitius, all consenting that the name and dog came together from Gallia Belgica. Dr. Caldicot told me that in Wilton library there was a Latine poeme (a ma.n.u.script), wrote about Julius Caesar's time, where was mention of tumblers, and that they were found no where but in Britaine. I ask'd him if 'twas not Gratius; he told me no. Quaere, Mr. Chr. Wace, if he remembers any such thing? The books are now most lost and gonne: perhaps 'twas Martial.

Very good horses for the coach are bought out of the teemes in our hill-countrey. Warminster market is much used upon this account.

I have not seen so many pied cattle any where as in North Wilts.h.i.+re.

The country hereabout is much inclined to pied cattle, but commonly the colour is black or brown, or deep red. Some cow-stealers will make a hole in a hott lofe newly drawn out of the oven, and putt it on an oxes horn for a convenient tune, and then they can turn their softned homes the contrary way, so that the owner cannot swear to his own beast. Not long before the King's restauration a fellow was hanged at Tyburn for this, and say'd that he had never come thither if he had not heard it spoken of in a sermon. Thought he, I will try this trick.

CHAPTER XL FISHES.

HUNGERFORD trowtes are very much celebrated, and there are also good ones at Marleborough and at Ramesbury. In the gravelly stream at Slaughtenford are excellent troutes; but, though I say it, there are none better in England than at Nawle, which is the source of the streame of Broad Chalke, a mile above it; but half a mile below Chalke, they are not so good. King Charles I. loved a trout above all fresh fish; and when he came to Wilton, as he commonly did every summer, the Earle of Pembroke was wont to send for these trowtes for his majesties eating.

The eeles at Marleborough are incomparable; silver eeles, truly almost as good as a trout. In ye last great frost, 168-, when the Thames was frozen over, there were as many eeles killed by frost at the poole at the hermitage at Broad Chalke as would fill a coule; and when they were found dead, they were all curled up like cables. ["Coul, a tub or vessel with two ears." Bailey's Dictionary.-J. B.]

Umbers are in the river Nadder, and so to Christ Church; but the late improvement of drowning the meadowes hath made them scarce. They are only in the river Humber besides. [Aubrey's friend, Sir James Long, mentions these fish as "graylings, or umbers". They are best known by the former name. Dr. Maton states that they are still to be found in the Avon, at Downton, where Walton speaks of them as being caught in his time. Mr. Hatcher says that "the umber abounds in the waters between Wilton and Salisbury". (History of Salisbury, p. 689.)-J. B.]

Crafish are very plenty at Salisbury; but the chiefest places for them Hungerford and Newbury: they are also at Ramesbury, and in the Avon at Chippenham.

"Greeke, carps, turkey-c.o.c.ks, and beere, Came into England all in a yeare."

In the North Avon are sometimes taken carpes which are extraordinary good. [Besides giving "the best way of dressing a carpe", Aubrey has annexed to his original ma.n.u.script a piece of paper, within the folds of which is inclosed a small bone. The paper bears the following inscription: "1660. The bone found in the head of a carpe. Vide Schroderi. It is a good medicine for the apoplexie or falling sickness; I forget whether." Aubrey's reference is to "Zoology; or the History of Animals, as they are useful in Physic and Chirurgery"; by John Schroderus, M.D. of Francfort Done into English by T. Bateson.

London, 1659, 8vo.

When a boy I caught many of these fish in the pond at Kington St.

Michael, both by angling and by baiting three or four hooks at the end of a piece of string and leaving them in the water all night. In the morning I have found two, and sometimes three, large fish captured. On one occasion "Squire White", the proprietor of the estate, discharged his gun, apparently at me, to deter me from this act of poaching and trespa.s.sing. - J. B.]

As for ponds, we cannot boast much of them; the biggest is that in Bradon Forest. There is a fair pond at West Lavington which was made by Sir John Danvers. At Draycot Cerne the ponds are not great, but the carpes very good, and free from muddinesse. In Wardour Parke is a stately pond; at Wilton and Longleat two n.o.ble ca.n.a.ls and severall small ponds; and in the parke at Kington St. Michael are several ponds in traine. [The latter ponds are supplied by two springs in the immediate vicinity, forming one of the tributaries of the Avon. The stream abounds with trout, many of which I have caught at the end of the summer season, by laving out the water from the deeper holes.

- J. B.]

Tenches are common. Loches are in the Upper Avon at Amesbury. Very good perches in the North Avon, but none in the Upper Avon. Salmons are sometimes taken in the Upper Avon, rarely, at Harnham Bridge juxta Sarum. [On the authority of this pa.s.sage, Dr. Maton includes the salmon among the Wilts.h.i.+re fish; but he adds, "I know no person now living who has ascertained its having ascended the Avon so far as Salisbury." Hatcher's Hist, of Salisbury, p. 689.-J. B.]

Good pikes, roches, and daces in both the Avons. In the river Avon at Malmesbury are lamprills (resembling lampreis) in knotts: they are but..... inches long. They use them for baytes; and they squeeze these knotts together and make little kind of cheeses of them for eating.

CHAPTER XII.

BIRDS.

WE have great plenty of larkes, and very good ones, especially in Golem-fields and those parts adjoyning to Coteswold. They take them by alluring them with a dareing-gla.s.se,* which is whirled about in a sun- s.h.i.+ning day, and the larkes are pleased at it, and strike at it, as at a sheepe's eye, and at that time the nett is drawn over them. While he playes with his gla.s.se he whistles with his larke-call of silver, a tympanum of about the diameter of a threepence. In the south part of Wilts.h.i.+re they doe not use dareing-gla.s.ses but catch these pretty aetheriall birds with trammolls.

* ["Let his grace go forward, and dare us with his cap like larks."

- Shakspere, Henry VIII. Act iii. sc. 2.]

The buntings doe accompany the larkes. Linnets on the downes.

Woodp.e.c.k.e.rs severall sorts: many in North Wilts.

Sir Bennet Hoskins, Baronet, told me that his keeper at his parke at Morehampton in Hereford-s.h.i.+re, did, for experiment sake, drive an iron naile thwert the hole of the woodp.e.c.k.e.r's nest, there being a tradition that the damme will bring some leafe to open it. He layed at the bottome of the tree a cleane sheet, and before many houres pa.s.sed the naile came out, and he found a leafe lying by it on the sheete.

Quaere the shape or figure of the leafe. They say the moone-wort will doe such things. This experiment may easily be tryed again. As Sir Walter Raleigh saies, there are stranger things to be seen in the world than are between London and Stanes. [This is the "story" which Ray, in the letter printed in page 8, justly describes as, "without doubt, a fable." - J. B.]

In Sir James Long's parke at Draycot Cerne are some wheat-eares; and on come warrens and downes, but not in great plenty. Suss.e.x doth most abound with these. It is a great delicacie, and they are little lumps of fatt.

On Salisbury plaines, especially about Stonehenge, are bustards. They are also in the fields above Lavington: they doe not often come to Chalke. (Many about Newmarket, and sometimes cranes. J. EVELYN.) [In the "Penny Cyclopaedia" are many interesting particulars of the bustard, and in h.o.a.re's "Ancient Wilts.h.i.+re, vol. i. p. 94, there is an account of two of these birds which were seen near Warminster in the summer of 1801; since when the bustard has not been seen in the county.-J. B.]

On Salisbury plaines are gray crowes, as at Royston. [These are now met with on the Marlborough downs.- J. B.]

" Like Royston crowes, where, as a man may say, Are friars of both the orders, black and gray."

- J. CLEVELAND'S POEMS.

'Tis certain that the rookes of the Inner Temple did not build their nests in the garden to breed in the spring before the plague, 1665; but in the spring following they did.

Feasants were brought Into Europe from about the Caspian sea. There are no pheasants in Spaine, nor doe I heare of any in Italy. Capt.

Hen. Bertie, the Earle of Abingdon's brother, when he was in Italy, was at the great Duke of Tuscany's court entertained with all the rarities that the country afforded, but he sawe no pheasants. Mr. Wyld Clarke, factor fifteen yeares in Barberie, affirmes there are none there. Sir John Mordaunt, who had a command at Tangier twenty-five yeares, and had been some time governour there, a great lover of field sports, affirmes that there are no pheasants in Africa or Spaine.

[See Ray's Letter to Aubrey, ante, page 8.]

Bitterns in the breaches at Allington, &c. Herons bred heretofore, sc.

about 1580, at Easton- Piers, before the great oakes were felled down neer the mannour-house; and they doe still breed in Farleigh Parke. An eirie of sparrow-hawkes at the parke at Kington St. Michael. The hobbies doe goe away at..... and return at the spring. Quaere Sir James Long, if any other hawkes doe the like?

Ganders are vivacious animals. Farmer Ady of Segary had a gander that was fifty yeares old, which the soldiers killed. He and his gander were both of the same age. (A goose is now living, anno 1757, at Hagley hall in Worcesters.h.i.+re, full fifty yeares old. MS. NOTE.)

Sea-mewes. Plentie of them at Colern-downe; elsewhere in Wilts.h.i.+re I doe not remember any. There are presages of weather made by them.

[Instead of "presages of weather," the writer would have been more accurate if he had said that when "sea-mewes," or other birds of the ocean, are seen so far inland as Colern, at least twenty miles from the sea, they indicate stormy weather in their natural element.

- J. B.]-Virgil's Georgics, lib. i. Englished by Mr. T. May:-

"The seas are ill to sailors evermore When cormorants fly crying to the sh.o.r.e; From the mid-sea when sea-fowl pastime make Upon dry land; when herns the ponds forsake, And, mounted on their wings, doe fly aloft."