John Aubrey: My Own Life (54 page)

. . .

Quaere: how the pebbles on the beach came to be of the ovallish figure; there was a time when they were soft.

. . .

Mr Wood now regrets
⁹⁶
having written rather unkindly of Mr Gadbury.

. . .

I have asked Mr Wood
⁹⁷
to send me my verses on Robin-red-breast as I would be sorry to lose them and I see one is sure of nothing that is not in one’s own custody, and when one is dead all is lost that is not deposited in some public repository.

. . .

November

In Oxford
⁹⁸
, I am enjoying Mr Lhwyd’s civilities, and the company of all my other ingenious friends in this city.

. . .

Mr Wood has received a summons to appear in the Vice Chancellor’s court. He is accused of libel in his
Athenae
against the Earl of Clarendon’s father, Lord Chancellor under King Charles II.

. . .

18 November

Today Mr Lhwyd
⁹⁹
got me to make a list of my works (which I will leave in the museum):

1. Antiquities of Wiltshire, after the method of Sir William Dugdale Description of Warwickshire, 2 parts in folio
   
2. Monumenta Britannica, 3 parts fol.
   
3. Memoirs of Natural Remarks in Wilts. 2 parts fol.
   
4. Perambulation of Half the County of Surrey fol.
   
5. Miscellanies fol.
   
6. Lives 3 parts
   
7. Mr Thomas Hobbes’s Life in English
   
8. An Apparatus of the Lives of English Mathematicians (a copy at Gresham College)
   
9. Idea of Education of Young Gentlemen from 9 to 18 fol. (the correct copy is with Anthony Henley, Esq. at the Grange in Hantshire)
   
10. Remaines of Gentilisme 3 parts (copy with Mr Kennet)
    
11. Villare Anglicanum to be interpreted fol.
    
12. A Collection of Divine Dreams from persons of my acquaintance worthy of belief
    
13. Hypothesis Ethics & Scala Religionis
    
14. A Collection of Genitures . . .
    
15. Easton Pierse delineated
    
16. Villa or a Description of the Prospects from Easton Pierse
    
17. Faber Fortunae, a private essay
    
18. A Collection of approved Recipes
    
19. A Collection of Letters written to me by about 100 ingenious Persons
    
20. Adversaria Physica
    
21. An Introduction to Architecture
    
22. Some Strictures of Hermetick Philosophy collected by J. Aubrey
    

. . .

December

Since coming back to London, I have distributed the copies of his preface that Mr Wood sent me for his friends, except that I was one copy short, so Mr Evelyn does not have it. Mr Gadbury remains incensed by Mr Wood’s book. I wish Mr Wood would return my papers to me and give Mr Hobbes’s
Leviathan
to New Inn Hall. I cannot move back into my old lodgings because someone else has taken them, so I am not yet settled in London, but am once again imposing on my friends. Dr Gale of St Paul’s School will receive mail for me until I have a settled address once more.

. . .

Mr Meredith Lloyd has written to me with further reflections on the origins of the name of the River Thames. But Dr Thomas Gale affirms that the Saxons called the Thames Eams, which signifies water. This is confirmed by the
Chronicon Saxonicum
, published this year by Mr Edmund Gibson, Fellow of Queen’s College, Oxford.

. . .

I was ill
¹⁰⁰
all last week, but managed to go to my lord Abingdon on Sunday. He met me with a sad face and told me that terrible trouble is coming my way. I was mightily surprised. The Earl of Clarendon has told Lord Abingdon that Mr Wood told him that the libel, and other information he included in his book, came from ME! I cannot believe that Mr Wood would deal so unkindly with me, when I have been such a faithful friend to him. I have served him since 1665! The libel that has so offended the Earl of Clarendon was printed anyway, and not unknown. It is the claim that the old Earl, Lord Chancellor at the Restoration, sold offices for money. Surely Mr Wood could have said he found out this information by buying it, rather than pin the blame on me? Or else he could have said he heard it from George Ent, or someone else who is already dead? I must find out from Mr Wood what it is exactly that he has said against me, so I can try and defend myself from the wrath of the Earl of Clarendon, who is resolved to ruin me. Nothing grieves me more than the thought that I shall not now see any of my books in print. I fear I will never see Mr Wood or Oxford again. I will write to Mr Wood and ask him to respect the wishes of a dying man by sending my papers to Dr Gale, who is a Fellow of the Royal Society, headmaster of St Paul’s School and my faithful friend. My heart is ready to break at Mr Wood’s betrayal and unkindness.

. . .

Mr Wood has written
¹⁰¹
to me this morning to assure me that – in the name of God – he did not betray me to the Earl of Clarendon. He urges me to tell Lord Abingdon and thanks me for distributing his preface. But still he does not return my papers.

. . .

Anno 1693

February

I have written
¹⁰²
to Mr Thomas Hanson of Magdalen College to try and further Mr Hooke’s claims against Mr Newton’s. He feels obliged to communicate the contents of my letter to Mr Newton and receive his vindications.

. . .

I do not think a bookseller will print my Monumenta Britannica. I have shown my manuscript to several, and though they like it and think it will sell well, they will not take a risk on a book that costs above 5s., paper being so dear. My three, or rather four, volumes (for I will add my Miscellanies) will not be less than 15s. Mr Smyth, the bookseller of St Paul’s Churchyard, and others have advised me to get subscriptions to print it at Oxford. So next Monday I will advertise for subscriptions in the press; I will have a prospectus printed and will send 200 copies to Oxford and ask Mr Lhwyd to help distribute them.

As soon as I have time
¹⁰³
, I will get my collection of correspondence bound and dedicate it to the Ashmolean Museum. My letters from many ingenious persons contain many rarities and I hope posterity will make use of them. It would be a great pity if they were lost.

. . .

My prospectus for Monumenta Britannica is ready for distribution. The four proposed volumes will be:

Volume I

1. Templa Druidum
   
2. A Review
   
3. Religion and Manners of the Druids
   

Volume II

1. Camps
   
2. Castles
   
3. Military Architecture of the Old Times
   
4. Roman Towns
   
5. Pits
   
6. Horns
   

Volume III

1. Barrows
   
2. Urns
   
3. Sepulchres
   
4. Ditches
   
5. High-ways
   
6. Roman Pavements
   
7. Coins
   
8. Embanking and Draining
   

Volume IV Miscellanea

1. Architectonical
   
2. Of Scutcheons
   
3. Hand-writings
   
4. Habits
   
5. Of Weights
   
6. Prices of Corn
   
7. Of Diversities of Standards, and the Value of Money
   
8. Nouvelles
   
9. The Proportion of the Languages, Ingredients of our Present English
   

I expect the whole work to be about 160 sheets printed in folio with an abundance of illustrations. Every subscriber will pay eighteen shillings (nine at the time of subscribing and nine upon receipt of the books). The price for non-subscribers will be a pound and four shillings. Very few copies will be printed so there will be no danger of unsold copies. The books will be printed by next Candlemas and delivered to the following booksellers’ shops:

Mr Clavel at the Peacock in St Paul’s Churchyard

Mr Smith at the Feathers in St Paul’s Churchyard

Mr Bennet at the Half-Moon in St Paul’s Churchyard

Mr Nott in Pall Mall

Mr Hensman in Westminster Hall

Mr Hindmarsh at the Black Bull in Cornhill

Mr Sam Crouch over against the Royal Exchange

Mr Horne at the entrance to the Royal Exchange

Mr Wilkinson at the Black Boy in Fleet Street

Mr Henry Clements, bookseller in Oxford

Mr Henry Dickenson, bookseller in Cambridge

In Templa Druidum, the first part of my Monumenta Britannica, I proceed gradually from the less imperfect remains of antiquity to the more imperfect and ruinated. The stones give evidence for themselves.

. . .

March

Mr Lhwyd longs
¹⁰⁴
to have my Monumenta Britannica in the press; he has all my pamphlets safe in the museum. He says that if I would like to dedicate my collection of letters to the museum, he will have them bound for me at once, which will save me the expense of doing it myself.

PART XV

Crepusculum

Anno 1693

20 March

I WAS ATTACKED
and wounded by thieves. They set upon me around 11 p.m., robbed me and left me with fifteen wounds to my head. I have been ill since and had to stay a whole week in my chamber trying to recover. I am weary from taking medicine.

. . .

April

A severe bout of gout has nearly carried me away. It struck just after I recovered from the wounds inflicted by the thieves. I had intended to visit my cousin Elizabeth Freeman (the daughter of Sir John Aubrey who married Ralph Freeman of Aspeden Hall) and my friend Dr William Holder in Hertfordshire, but ill health prevents me.

Mr Dryden will try
¹
to help me get my Monumenta Britannica published by his bookseller, who normally only prints plays and romances. I am exceedingly obliged to him, but I think I will have to print it by collecting subscriptions instead. I have begun gathering them already and been lucky so far. And I have sent a copy of my prospectus for publishing my book to Mr Wood. I hope he can find me some more subscribers.

I intend to be in Cambridge towards the end of next week, where I shall be glad to serve Mr Wood. People are shy of speaking to me about his book; the Peers (I can tell) are offended by his liberties. Mr Evelyn is very cross because he asked Mr Wood to send him what he intended to write about him in his book before it was published, but Mr Wood did not do so. Now Mr Evelyn complains that Mr Wood has called him a virtuoso: he hates the title so much he says he would rather have been called a coxcomb.

Frances Sheldon
²
and her niece were at dinner and they were angry with Mr Wood for disparaging their gentility. I told them that it was only drollery, not disrespect.

. . .

May

I have now been
³
indoors for three weeks with this bad attack of the gout.

. . .

I have designed
⁴
my own epitaph:

JOHANNES AUBREY

de EASTON PIERS in Agro Wilton

Arm: Regalis Societatis Socius

Infra situs est

Obÿt

Anno . . .

. . .

I desire this inscription to be a stone of white marble about the bigness of a royal sheet of paper, i.e. two foot square. Mr Reynolds of Lambeth (Foxhall), a stone-cutter who married Mr Elias Ashmole’s widow, will sell me a marble as square as an imperial sheet of paper for eight shillings.

. . .

Mr Thomas Tanner urges
⁵
me, before I pass away, to lose no time in communicating the best part of my laborious collections to the world, and offers me every help. He will be delighted to receive my Natural History of Wiltshire and see to its printing with Mr Lhwyd’s assistance. He is much interested in my Remaines of Gentilisme, and asks me to send him too my Wiltshire Antiquities, which will be of great use to the collections which he intends to set about himself.