Chapter 3

John hath been an unfortunate name to Kings. All the second Kings since the conquest have been unfortunate.

London-Derry was the first town in Ireland that declared for the Parliament against King Charles I. and for the Prince of Orange against King James II. It was closely besieged both times without effect. The King's party were once masters of all the kingdom, except London-Derry and Dublin, and King James had all in his power but London-Derry and Inniskilling. One Taylor, a minister, was as famous for his martial feats in the first siege, as Walker in the last.

'Tis certain, that there are some houses unlucky to their inhabitants, which the reverend and pious Dr. Nepier could acknowledge. See Tobit, chap. 3, v. 8. "That she had been married to seven husbands, whom Asmodasus, the evil spirit, had killed, before they had lain with her."

The Fleece-tavern, in Covent-garden, (in York-street) was very unfortunate for Homicides:* there have been several killed, three in my time. It is now (1692) a private house.

"Clifton the master of the house, hanged himself, having perjured himself." MS. Note in a copy of the Miscellanies in the Library of the Royal Society.

A handsome brick house on the south side of Clerkenwell church-yard had been so unlucky for at least forty years, that it was seldom tenanted; and at last, no body would adventure to take it. Also a handsome house in Holborn, that looked towards the fields; the tenants of it did not prosper, several, about six.

At the sign of--- over against Northumberland house, near Charing- Cross, died the Lady Baynton, (eldest daughter of Sir John Danvers of Dansey.) Some years after in the same house, died my Lady Hobbey (her sister) of the small-pox, and about twenty years after, died their nephew Henry Danvers, Esq. of the small-pox, aged twenty-one, wanting two weeks. He was nephew and heir to the Right Honourable Henry Danvers, Earl of Danby.

Edmund Wild, Esq. hath had more Deodands from his manor of Totham in Essex, than from all his estate besides: two mischiefs happened in one ground there. Disinheriting the eldest son is forbid in the holy scripture, and estates disinherited are observed to be unfortunate; of which one might make a large catalogue. See Dr. Saunderson's Sermon, where he discourses of this subject.

**Periodical Small-Poxes.

The small-pox is usually in all great towns:* but it is observed at Taunton in Somersetshire, and at Sherborne in Dorsetshire, that at one of them at every seventh year, and at the other at every ninth year comes a small-pox, which the physicians cannot master, e. g.

* This account, I had from Mr. Thomas Ax.

Small-pox in Sherborne ** during the year 1626.

And during the year 1634.

>From Michaelmas 1642, to Mich. 1643.

>From Michaelmas 1649, to Mich. 1650.

>From Michaelmas 1657, to Midi. 1658.

In the year 1667, from Jan. to Sept. 1667.

Mr. Ax promised me to enquire the years it happened there after 1670, and 1680; but death prevented him.

** Extracted out of the register-book.

Small-pox in Taunton all the year 1658.*

Likewise in the year 1670.

Again in the year 1677.

Again very mortal in the year 1684.

* Out of the register-book.

Mr. Ax also promised me to enquire at Taunton the years it happened there after 1660.

It were to be wished that more such observations were made in other great towns.

Platerus makes the like observations in the second book of his Practice, p. 323. He practised at Basil, fifty six years, and did observe, that every tenth year they died of the plague there.

See Captain J. Graunt's observations on the bills of mortality at London, (indeed written by Sir William Petty, which in a late transaction he confessed) for the periodical plagues at London, which (as I remember) are every twenty-fifth year.

OSTENTA; OR, PORTENTS.

"HOW it comes to pass, I know not;* but by ancient and modern example it is evident, that no great accident befalls a city or province, but it is presaged by divination, or prodigy, or astrology, or some way or other. I shall here set down a few instances."

* Discourses of Nicholas Machiavel, book 1. Chap 56.

A Rainbow appeared about the sun before the battle of Pharsalia. See. Appian, and Mr. T. May's 5th book of his Continuation of Lucan.

" Ex Chronico Saxonico, p. 112, Anno 1104, fuit primus Pentecostes dies Nonis Junii, & die Martis sequnte, conjuncti sunt quatuor Circuli circa Solem, aibi coloris, & quisque sub alio collocatus, quasi picti essent. Omnes qui videbant obstupuerunt, propterea quod nunquam ante tales meminerant. Post haec facta est Pax inter Comitem, Robertum de Normannia, & Robertum de Boeloesme i, e."

In the year 1104, on the first day of Pentecost, the sixth of June, and on the day following being Tuesday, four circles of a white colour, were seen to roll in conjunction round the sun, each under the other regularly placed, as if they had been drawn by the hand of a painter. All who beheld it were struck with astonishment, because they could not learn that any such spectacles had ever happened in the memory of man. After these things it is remarkable, that a peace was immediately set on foot, and concluded between Robert, Earl of Normandy, and Robert de Baelaesme.

The Duke of York (afterwards Edward IV.) met with his enemies near to Mortimer's Cross, on Candlemas day in the morning, at which time the Sun (as some write) appeared to him like three Suns, and suddenly joined altogether in one, and that upon the sight thereof, he took such courage, that he fiercely set on his enemies, and them shortly discomfited: for which cause, men imagined that he gave Sun in his full brightness for his cognisance or badge. Halle, F. 183, b. 4.

Our Chronicles tell us, that Anno Secundo Reginae Mariae, 15th of February, two suns appeared, and a rainbow reversed: see the bow turned downwards, and the two ends standing upwards, before the coining in of King Philip.

The phaenomenon, fig. 1, was seen at Broad-Chalk in Wiltshire, on the first day of May, 1647. It continued from about eleven o'clock (or before) till twelve. It was a very clear day; but few did take notice of it, because it was so near the sun-beams. My mother happened to espy it, going to see what o'clock it was by an horizontal dial; and then all the servants saw it. Upon the like occasion, Mr. J. Sloper, B.D. vicar there, saw it, and all his family; and the servants of Sir George Vaughan, (then of Falston) who were hunting on the downs, saw it. The circles were of rainbow colour; the two filots, which cross the greater circle, (I presume they were segments of a third circle) were of a pale colour. The sun was within the intersections of the circles.

The next remarkable thing that followed was, that on the third of June following;* Cornet Joyce carried King Charles I. prisoner from Holdenby to the Isle of Wight. The Isle of Wight lieth directly from Broad-Chalk, at the 10 o'clock point.

* See Sir W. Dugdale's hist. of the Civil Wars.

The phaenomenon, fig. 2, was seen in the north side of the church-yard of Bishop-Lavington in Wiltshire, about the latter end of September 1688, about three o'clock in the afternoon. This was more than a semicircle. B. B. two balls of light. They were about eleven degrees above the Horizon by the quadrant; observed by Mr. Robert Blea, one of the Earl of Abingdon's gentlemen.

Cicero de Natura Deorum, lib. 2. "Multa praeterea Ostentis, multa ex eis admonemur, multisque rebus aliis, quas diuturnus usus ita notarit, ut artem Divinationis efficeret". i. e.

Besides, we learn a world of things from these Portents and Prodigies, and many are the warnings and admonitions we receive from them, and not only from them indeed, but from a number of extraordinary accidents, upon which daily use and constant observation has fixed such marks, that from thence the whole art of divination has been compounded.

OMENS.

BEFORE the battle at Philippi began, two eagles fought in the air between the two armies: both the armies stood still and beheld them, and the army was beaten that was under the vanquished eagle. See Appian's Hist. part 2, lib. 4, g. 2.

It is worthy of notice, that, at the time the cities of Jerusalem and Antioch were taken from the Pagans, the Pope that then was, was called Urban, and the Patriarch of Jerusalem was called Eraclius, and the Roman Emperor was called Frederick; in like manner when Jerusalem was taken from the Christians by the siege of Saladin, the Pope was called Urban; the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Eraclius; and the Emperor, Frederick: and it is remarkable, that fourscore and seven years passed between these two events. Hoveden, f. 363.

Mathew Parker, seventieth Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, in the seventieth year of his age, feasted Queen Elizabeth on her birth day, 1559, in his palace at Canterbury. Parker. Vitae, 556.

It is a matter of notable consideration, says a Spanish historian, that the royal throne of the Morish Kings of Granada, began and ended in the times of the Fernandos of Castille: beginning in the time of Saint Fernando, the third of that name, and ending in that of the Catholic King, Don Fernando the fifth, his successor in the ninth descent. In the same manner, it is observable that the first Morish King was called Mahomad, and the last had the same name of Mahomad: which resembles what passed in the empire of Constantinople, where the first and last Emperors were called Constantines. Garibay, 1. 40, c. 43.

The same author mentions it as an extraordinary circumstance that, at one time lived in Castille, Arragon, and Portugal, three Kings called Pedros, and whose fathers were named Alonsos, who were also Kings at the same time. L. 14, c. 35.

While Edward, Duke of York,* was declaring his title, in the Chamber of the Peers, there happened a strange chance, in the very same time, amongst the Commons in the nether house, then there assembled: for a Crown, which did hang in the middle of the same, to garnish a branch to set lights upon, without touch of any creature, or rigor of wind, suddenly fell down, and at the same time also, fell down the Crown, which stood on the top of the Castle of Dover: as a sign and prognostication, that the Crown of the realm should be divided and changed from one line to another. Halle's Chronicle, H. 6. F. 181.

* Father of Edward IV.

Anno 1506. Through great tempest of wind in January, Philip, King of Castille and his wife, were weather-driven and landed at Falmouth. This tempest blew down the Eagle of Brass from the spire of St. Paul's church in London, and in the falling, the same eagle broke and battered the black Eagle* which hung for a sign in St. Paul's Church- yard. Stow's Annals, 484.

* The black Eagle is the cognizance of the house of Austria, of which Philip was head.

The silver cross that was wont to be carried before Cardinal Wolsey, fell out of its socket, and was like to have knocked out the brains of one of the Bishop's servants. A very little while after, came in a messenger, and arrested the Cardinal, before he could get out of the house. See Stow's Chronicle.

'Tis commonly reported, that before an heir of the Cliftons, of Clifton in Nottinghamshire, dies, that a Sturgeon is taken in the river Trent, by that place.

Thomas Flud, Esq. in Kent, told me that it is an old observation which was pressed earnestly to King James I. that he should not remove the Queen of Scots body from Northamptonshire, where she was beheaded and interred: for that it always bodes ill to the family when bodies are removed from their graves. For some of the family will die shortly after, as did Prince Henry, and I think Queen Ann.

A little before the death of Oliver, the Protector, a Whale came into the river Thames, and was taken at Greenwich, --- feet long. 'Tis said Oliver was troubled at it.

When I was a freshman at Oxford, 1642, I was wont to go to Christ Church, to see King Charles I. at supper; where I once heard him say, " That as he was hawking in Scotland, he rode into the quarry, and found the covey of partridges falling upon the hawk; and I do remember this expression further, viz. and I will swear upon the book 'tis true." When I came to my chamber, I told this story to my tutor; said he, that covey was London.

The bust of King Charles I. carved by Bernini, as it was brought in a boat upon the Thames, a strange bird (the like whereof the bargemen had never seen) dropped a drop of blood, or blood-like, upon it; which left a stain not to be wiped off. This bust was carved from a picture of Sir Anthony Van Dyke's drawing: the sculptor found great fault with the fore-head as most unfortunate. There was a seam in the middle of his fore-head, (downwards) which is a very ill sign in Metoposcopie.

Colenel Sharington Talbot was at Nottingham, when King Charles I. did set up his standard upon the top of the tower there. He told me, that the first night, the wind blew it so, that it hung down almost horizontal; which some did take to be an ill omen.

The day that the long Parliament began, 1641, the Sceptre fell out of the figure of King Charles in wood, in Sir Thomas Trenchard's hall at Wullich, in Dorset, as they were at dinner in the parlour: Justice Hunt then dined there.

The picture of Arch-Bishop Laud, in his closet, fell down (the string broke) the day of the sitting of that Parliament. This is mentioned in Canterbury's doom by W. Prynne.

The psalms for the eleventh day of the month, are 56, 57, 58, &c. On the eleventh day of one of the months in the summer time, the citizens came tumultuously in great numbers in boats and barges over against Whitehall, to shew they would take the Parliament's part. The psalms aforesaid, both for morning and evening service, are as prophecies of the troubles that did ensue.

When the high court of justice was voted in the parliament house, as Berkenhead (the mace bearer) took up the mace to carry it before the Speaker, the top of the mace fell off. This was avowed to me by an eye witness then in the house.

The head of King Charles I's. staff did fall off at his trial: that is commonly known.

The second lesson for the 30th of January in the calendar before the common prayer, is concerning the trial of Christ: which, when Bishop Duppa read, the King was displeased with him, thinking he had done it of choice; but the Bishop cleared himself by the calendar, as is to be seen.

King Charles II. was crowned at the very conjunction of the sun and Mercury; Mercury being then in "Corde Solis". As the King was at dinner in Westminster Hall, it thundered and lightened extremely. The cannons and the thunder played together.

King Charles II. went by long sea to Portsmouth or Plymouth, or both; an extraordinary storm arose, which carried him almost to France. Sir Jonas Moor (who was then with his Majesty) gave me this account, and said, that when they came to Portsmouth to refresh themselves, they had not been there above half an hour, but the weather was calm, and the sun shone: his Majesty put to sea again, and in a little time they had the like tempestuous weather as before.

Not long before the death of King Charles II. a Sparrow-hawk escaped from the perch, and pitched on one of the iron crowns of the white tower, and entangling its string in the crown, hung by the heels and died. Not long after, another hawk pitched on one of the crowns. From Sir Edward Sherborne, Knight.

The Gloucester frigate cast away at the Lemanore, and most of the men in it; the Duke of York escaping in a cock boat, anno 1682, May the 5th, on a Friday.

When King James II. was crowned, (according to the ancient custom, the Peers go to the throne, and kiss the king) the Crown was almost kissed off his head. An Earl did set it right; and as he came from the Abbey to Westminster Hall, the Crown tottered extremely.

The canopy (of cloth of gold) carried over the head of King James II. by the Wardens of the Cinque Ports, was torn by a puff of wind as he came to Westminster Hull; it hung down very lamentably: I saw it.

When King James II. was crowned, a signal was given from Westminster Abbey to the Tower, where it was Sir Edward Sherborne's post to stand to give order for firing the cannons, and to hoist up the great flag with the King's arms. It was a windy day, and the wind presently took the flag half off, and carried it away into the Thames. From Sir Edward Sherborne.

The top of his sceptre (Flower de Lys) did then fall.

Upon Saint Mark's Day, after the coronation of King James II. were prepared stately fire works on the Thames: it hapened, that they took fire all together, and it was so dreadful, that several spectators leaped into the river, choosing rather to be drowned than burned. In a yard by the Thames, was my Lord Powys's coach and horses; the horses were so frightened by the fire works, that the coachman was not able to stop them, but ran away over one, who with great difficulty recovered.

When King James II. was at Salisbury, anno 1688, the Iron Crown upon the turret of the council house, was blown off.- This has often been confidently asserted by persons who were then living.

In February, March, and April, two ravens built their nests on the weather cock of the high steeple at Bakewell in Derbyshire.

I did see Mr. Christopher Love beheaded on Tower Hill, in a delicate clear day about half an hour after his head was struck off, the clouds gathered blacker and blacker; and such terrible claps of thunder came that I never heard greater.

'Tis reported, that the like happened after the execution of Alderman Cornish, in Cheapside, October 23, 1685.

Anno 1643. As Major John Morgan of Wells, was marching with the King's army into the west, he fell sick of a malignant fever at Salisbury, and was brought dangerously ill to my father's at Broad-Chalk, where he was lodged secretly in a garret. There came a sparrow to the chamber window, which pecked the lead of a certain pannel only, and only one side of the lead of the lozenge, and made one small hole in it. He continued this pecking and biting the lead, during the whole time of his sickness; (which was not less than a month) when the major went away, the sparrow desisted, and came thither no more. Two of the servants that attended the Major, and sober persons, declared this for a certainty.

Sir Walter Long's (of Draycot in Wilts) widow, did make a solemn promise to him on his death-bed, that she would not marry after his decease, but not long after, one Sir --- Fox, a very beautiful young gentleman, did win her love; so that notwithstanding her promise aforesaid, she married him: she married at South-Wraxhall, where the picture of Sir Walter hung over the parlour door, as it doth now at Draycot. As Sir --Fox led his bride by the hand from the church, (which is near to the house) into the parlour, the string of the picture broke, and the picture fell on her shoulder, and cracked in the fall. (It was painted on wood, as the fashion was in those days.) This made her ladyship reflect on her promise, and drew some tears from her eyes.*

*This story may be true in all its details, except the name of the lady, who was a daughter of Sir W. Long; she married Somerset Fox, Esq. See Sandford's Geneal. Hist, of the Kings of England, p. 344.

See Sir Walter Raleigh's history, book 4, chap. 2, sec. 7. The dogs of the French army, the night before the battle of Novara, ran all to the Swisses army: the next day, the Swisses obtained a glorious victory of the French. Sir Walter Raleigh affirms it to be certainly true.

The last battle fought in the north of Ireland, between the Protestants and the Papists, was in Glinsuly near Letterkenny in the county of Donegall. Veneras, the Bishop of Clogher, was General of the Irish army; and that of the Parliament army, Sir Charles Coot. They pitched their tents on each side the river Suly, and the Papists constantly persist in it to this very day, that the night before the action,* a woman of uncommon stature, all in white, appearing to the said Bishop, admonished him not to cross the river first, to assault the enemy, but suffer them to do it, whereby he should obtain the victory. That if the Irish took the water first to move towards the English, they should be put to a total rout, which came to pass. Ocahan, and Sir Henry O'Neal, who were both killed there, saw severally the same apparition, and dissuaded the Bishop from giving the first onset, but could not prevail upon him. In the mean time, I find nothing in this revelation, that any common soldier might not conclude without extraordinary means.

*So an apparition of a woman greater than ordinary, beckoned to Julius Caesar to pass over the Rubicon, L. Flor. lib. 4. Satyres appeared to Alexander when he besieged Tyrus; Alexander asked the divines, what was the signification of it; they told him the meaning is plain, {Greek Text: Sa Turos} (i.e.) Tyre is thine. Alexander took the town. Q. Curtius.

Near the same place, a party of the Protestants had been surprized sleeping by the Popish Irish, were it not for several wrens that just wakened them by dancing and pecking on the drums as the enemy were approaching. For this reason the wild Irish mortally hate these birds, to this day, calling them the Devil's servants, and killing them wherever they catch them; they teach their Children to thrust them full of thorns: you will see sometimes on holidays, a whole parish running like mad men from hedge to hedge a wren-hunting.

Anno 1679. After the discovery of the Popish plot, the penal laws were put in execution against the Roman Catholics; so that, if they did not receive the sacrament according to the church of England, in their parish church, they were to be severely proceeded against according to law: Mr. Ployden, to avoid the penalty, went to his parish church at Lasham, near Alton, in Hampshire: when Mr. Laurence (the minister) had put the chalice into Mr. Ployden's hand, the cup of it (wherein the wine was) fell off. 'Tis true, it was out of order before; and he had a tremor in his hand. The communion was stopt by this accident. This was attested to me by two neighbouring ministers, as also by several gentlemen of the neighbourhood.

When King James II. first entered Dublin, after his arrival from France, 1689, one of the gentlemen that bore the mace before him, stumbled without any rub in his way, or other visible occasion. The mace fell out of his hands, and the little cross upon the crown thereof stuck fast between two stones in the street. This is very well known all over Ireland, and did much trouble King James himself, with many of his chief attendants.

The first Moors that were expelled Spain, were in number five thousand five hundred and fifty-five. They sailed from Denia, October 2, 1609. H. Bleda. "Expulsion de Moriscos", p. 1000.

DREAMS.

{Greek Text: --'Onar kai Dios esi}. Homer Iliad A.

DREAMS PROCEED FROM JOVE.

HE that has a mind to read of dreams, may peruse Cicero "de Divinatione", Hier. Cardani "Somniorum Synesiorum", lib. 4, and Moldinarius "de Insomniis", &c. I shall here mention but little out of them, my purpose being chiefly to set down some remarkable and divine dreams of some that I have had the honour to be intimately acquainted with, persons worthy of belief.

Cicero "de Divinatione", lib. 1. "Hannibalem, Caslius scribit, cum Columnam auream, quae esset in fano Junonis Laciniae, auferre vellet, dubitaretque utrum ea solida esset, an extrinsecus inaurata, perterebravisse; cumque solidam invenisset, statuissetque tollere: secundum quietem visam esse ei Junonem praedicere, ne id faceret; minarique, si id fecisset se curaturam, ut eum quoque oculum, quo bene videret, amitteret; idque ab homine acuto non esse neglectum; itaque ex eo auro quod exterebratum esset, buculam curasse faciendum, & eam in summa columna collocavisse."

i. e.