The Natural History of Wiltshire

CHAP. II. SPRINGS MEDICINAL:—At Chippenham, Kington St. Michael, Draycot, Seend, Epsom, Melksham, Dundery-hill, Lavington, Devizes, Minety, Wotton Bassett, &c.; Sir W. Petty’s “...

CHAP. III. LEARNED MEN WHO HAD PENSIONS GRANTED TO THEM BY THE EARLS OF PEMBROKE:—With Notices of Mary, Countess of Pembroke, Dr. Mouffet, William Browne, Philip Massinger, J. D...

PETRIFIED SHELLS.—As you ride from Cricklad to Highworth, Wiltsh., you find frequently roundish stones, as big, or bigger than one’s head, which (I thinke) they call braine ston...

[This Chapter contains a variety of matter not apposite to Wiltshire. Besides the passages here quoted, there are accounts of several remarkable hurricanes, hail storms, &c., in...

[IN Aubrey’s time the mineral waters of Bath, Tonbridge, and other places, were very extensively resorted to for medical purposes, and great importance was attached to them in a...

I SHALL begin with the river of Wyley-bourn, which gives name to Wilton, the shire town. The mappe-makers write it Wyley fulvous, and joiner a British and a Saxon word together:...

[THIS and the three succeeding chapters, on “Mineralls and Fossills,” “Stones,” and “Formed Stones”, comprise the Geological portions of Aubrey’s work. In a scientific view, the...

[IN its etymological sense the term fossil signifies that which may be dug out of the earth. It is strictly applicable therefore, not only to mineral bodies, and the petrified f...

The quarre at Haselbury [near Box] was most eminent for freestone in the western parts, before the discovery of the Portland quarrie, which was but about anno 1600. The church o...

[AUBREY, and other writers of his time, designated by this term the fossil remains of antediluvian animals and vegetables. This Chapter is very brief in the manuscript; and the...

[THE seventeenth century was peculiarly an age of scientific research and investigation. The substantial and brilliant discoveries of Newton induced many of his less gifted cont...

[THIS is one of the most copious chapters in Aubrey’s work. Ray has appended a number of valuable notes to it, several of which are here printed. Dr. Maton has quoted from this...

No wild oates in Wiltshire, or rarely. In Somersetshire, common. (There is abundance of wild oats in the middle part of Wiltsh., especially in the west clay of Market Lavington...

[THIS Chapter, with the three which follow it, on “Fishes”, “Birds”, and “Reptils and Insects”, constitute a principal branch of the work. On these topics Aubrey was assisted by...

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, t...

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-glasse,* wh...

[THIS Chapter contains several extraordinary recipes for medicines to be compounded in various ways from insects and reptiles. As a specimen one of them may he referred to which...

[THE following instances of remarkable longevity, monstrous births, &c. will suffice to shew the nature of this Chapter. It must be admitted that its contents are unimportant ex...

[SEVERAL passages may have been noticed in the preceding pages, calculated to shew the ignorance which prevailed in Aubrey’s time on medical subjects, and the absurd remedies wh...

[THIS chapter consists merely of memoranda for the further examination of those valuable materials for local and general statistics—the parochial registers. Aubrey has inserted...

[IN this chapter Aubrey has transcribed that portion of Fuller’s Worthies of England which relates to celebrated natives of the county of Wilts; but as Fuller’s work is so well...

[AUBREY’S account of the famous seat of the Pembroke family at Wilton, and of its choice and valuable contents, will be found exceedingly interesting. His statements are based u...

IN the former Chapter I endeavoured to adumbrate Wilton House as to its architecture. We are now to consider it within, where it will appeare to have been an academie as well as...

[THE stately gardens of the seventeenth century were less remarkable for the cultivation of useful or ornamental plants than for the formal arrangement of their walks, arbours,...

CRICKLAD, a market and borough town in this county, was an University before the Conquest, where were taught the liberall arts and sciences, as may appeare by the learned notes...

[IN this chapter, the account of Aubrey’s visit to Old Sarum, and the traditions connected with the erection of Salisbury Cathedral, although they furnish no new facts of import...

[THE late Mr. Thos. Davis, of Longleat, Steward to the Marquess of Bath, drew up an admirable “View of the Agriculture of the County of Wilts”, which was printed by the Board of...

WE now make our ascent to the second elevation or the hill countrey, known by the name of the Downes, or Salisbury Plaines; and they are the most spacious plaines in Europe, and...

[THE author appears to have merely commenced this chapter; which, as it now stands in the manuscript, contains little more than is here printed. The three succeeding chapters ar...

[AUBREY addressed to his friend Mr. Francis Lodwyck, merchant of London, a project on the wool trade; proposing, amongst other things, a duty on the importation of Spanish wool,...

When King Henry the Seventh lived in Flanders with his aunt the Dutchess of Burgundie, he considered that all or most of the wooll that was manufactured there into cloath was br...

[John] Hall, I doe believe, was a merchant of the staple, at Salisbury, where he had many houses. His dwelling house, now a taverne (1669), was on the Ditch, where in the glasse...

FAIRES. The most celebrated faire in North Wiltshire for sheep is at Castle Combe, on St. George’s Day (23 April), whither sheep-masters doe come as far as from Northamptonshire...

[A PAPER “Of Hawkes and Falconry, ancient and modern”, is here transcribed from Sir Thomas Browne’s Miscellanies, (8vo. 1684.) It describes at considerable length (from the work...

HENRY Earle of Pembroke [1570-1601] instituted Salisbury Race;* which hath since continued very famous, and beneficiall to the city. He gave ….. pounds to the corporation of Sar...

[A STATUTE was passed in the reign of Edward I. which gave the first authority to suitors in the courts of law to prosecute or defend by attorney; and the number of attorneys af...

The Gawens of Norrington, in the parish of Alvideston, continued in this place four hundred fifty and odd yeares. They had also an estate in Broad Chalke, which was, perhaps, of...

[“ACCIDENTS” was a term used in astrology, in the general sense of remarkable events or occurrences. From a curious collection of Aubrey’s memoranda I have selected a few of the...

Ivy Church, adjoining to Clarendon Parke, a grove of elms, and prospect over the city of Salisbury and the adjacent parts. The right honorable Mary, Countess of Pembroke, much d...

[I HAVE thought it desirable to print the concluding Chapter of Aubrey’s work verbatim. It is merely a list of remarkable buildings and views, which he wished to be drawn and en...