John Aubrey: My Own Life (67 page)

6
 
At the Saracen’s Head:
MS Tanner 25, fol. 49.

7
 
Mr John Ray says:
MS Aubrey 13, fol. 178.

8
 
Dr William Holder:
MS Aubrey 12, fol. 168.

9
 
My brother went:
MS Tanner 25, fol. 66.

10
 
Dr Ralph Bathurst:
MS Aubrey 12, fols 23, 24.

11
 
I am in Cambridge:
MS Tanner 25, fol. 82; Clark (1891–1900), vol. 3, p.429.

12
 
I will visit Rycot:
MS Tanner 25, fol. 82.

13
 
I called on Mr Coley:
MS Wood 51, fol. 6.

14
 
I have sent a boxful:
MS Ashmole 1814, fol. 92.

15
 
Mr Thomas Tanner:
MS Tanner 25, fol. 83.

16
 
Mr Lhwyd:
MS Aubrey 12, fol. 248; MS Aubrey Top. Gen. C.25, fol. 153v.

17
 
I have asked Mr Thomas Tanner:
MS Tanner 25, fol. 94.

18
 
Mr Thomas Tanner has read:
MS Aubrey 13, fol. 201.

19
 
I am back: Natural History
, p.93.

20
 
I am reading over:
MS Aubrey 10, fol. 4; MS Wood 51, fols 6, 21.

21
 
Mr Lhwyd is trying:
MS Aubrey 12, fols 249–50.

22
 
Mr Thomas Tanner now advises:
MS Aubrey 13, fol. 204.

23
 
I came back to London:
MS Wood 39, fol. 442; MS Ashmole 1814, fol. 114.

24
 
At a party yesterday:
Add MS 1388, fol. 149.

25
 
I had an apoplectic fit:
Clark, vol. 1, p.45.

26
 
Mr Lhwyd says:
MS Aubrey 12, fol. 251.

27
 
I hope to see:
MS Wood 51, fol. 8.

28
 
I am busy:
Three Prose Works
, p.42.

29
 
I do not think:
MS Tanner 25, fol. 118.

30
 
On behalf of my friend:
MS Ashmole 1814, fol. 94; MS Aubrey 12, fols 260–1; Bennett, ‘John Aubrey, William and Judith Dobson’.

31
 
The Earl of Pembroke has read:
MS Aubrey 10, fol. 2.

32
 
I doubt I will live: Education
, p.16.

33
 
I never go out:
MS Ashmole 1814, fol. 107.

34
 
Mr Thomas Tanner called:
MS Wood 39, fol. 450.

35
 
I am receiving:
MS Aubrey 12, fols 252–3.

36
 
Mr Thomas Tanner has asked:
MS Aubrey 13, fol. 196.

37
 
The Earl of Pembroke:
MS Ashmole 1814, fol. 106.

38
 
Several Roman coins:
MS Ashmole 1814, fol. 119; MS Aubrey 12, fols 6–7.

39
 
Lord Pembroke has received:
MS Ashmole 1814, fol. 109.

40
 
Mr Lhwyd has written:
MS Aubrey 12, fols 254–6.

41
 
At last, Mr Thomas Tanner:
MS Aubrey 13, fols 202–3.

42
 
Sir John Aubrey:
MS Wood 39, fol. 440.

43
 
I hope to be:
MS Ashmole 1814, fol. 112.

44
 
I remember that:
MS Top. Gen. C.25, fol. 242v.

45
 
I hope Mr Lhwyd:
MS Ashmole 1814, fol. 113.

46
 
Mr Lhwyd says:
MS Aubrey 12, fols 256–7.

47
 
Today is Midsummer’s Day:
Three Prose Works
, p.83.

48
 
I am at Borstall:
MS Wood 39, fol. 447.

49
 
Mr Wood makes such demands:
Clark (1891–1900), vol. 3, p.440.

50
 
Sir John Aubrey and his lady:
MS Ashmole 1814, fol. 116; MS Ballard 14, fol. 155.

51
 
Mr Wood is furious:
MS Tanner 456a, fol. 48.

52
 
I miss my friend:
MS Ashmole 1814, fol. 117.

53
 
When I last wrote:
MS Tanner 25, fol. 240.

54
 
I have been ill:
MS Wood 39, fol. 450.

55
 
It has been a most unnatural:
Clark (1891–1900), vol. 3, p.483.

56
 
Coming through Bagley Wood: Natural History
, p.26.

57
 
I was in Fleet Street:
Clark (1891–1900), vol. 3, p.483.

58
 
Today I tested: Natural History
, p.26.

59
 
My friend William Holder:
MS Aubrey 12, fol. 173.

60
 
I cannot now read:
MS Wood 39, fol. 452.

61
 
I can hardly read:
MS Ashmole 1829, fol. 25; MS Wood 51, fol. 9.

62
 
I am in London:
MS Wood F 51, fol. 9–10.

63
 
Mr Wood has written:
MS Aubrey 13, fol. 269.

64
 
Mr Wood asks me:
MS Aubrey 13, fol. 269.

65
 
My eyes are mending:
MS Ashmole 1829, fol. 28; MS Wood 39, fol. 440.

66
 
My eyes mend:
MS Wood 51, fol. 11.

67
 
My cousin spoils me:
MS Ashmole 1829, fol. 31.

68
 
I have written:
MS Sloane 1039, fol. 108.

69
 
I have given: Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London
, vol. 28, no. 2 (1 April 1974), p.179.

70
 
I shall never see:
MS Tanner 24, fol. 108.

71
 
It is so cold:
Evelyn’s diary, 24 January 1684.

72
 
I will stay:
MS Ashmole 1814, fol. 118.

73
 
I am told another:
MS Ashmole 1829, fol. 56.

74
 
At long last: Miscellanies
.

75
 
In my chapter on magic:
Miscellanies
, p.87.

76
 
I am at Llantrithyd:
MS Ashmole 1829, fol. 13.

77
 
When I next go:
MS Tanner 24, fol. 108.

78
 
I am hoping:
MS Tanner 24, fol. 196.

79
 
The printer:
MS Ashmole 1829, fol. 78.

80
 
How clearly:
MS Ashmole 1829, fol. 86.

81
 
I have presented: Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London
, vol. 28, no. 2 (1 April 1974), p.169.

82
 
I have always done my best:
MS Aubrey 7, fol. 4v.

83
 
Matters of antiquity:
MS Aubrey 9, fol. 29r.

84
 
Aubrey is buried:
Hearne (1906), vol. 7, p.153;
Surrey
, vol. 1, p.ix, introduction.

Aubrey’s Afterlife

1
 
The only book:
Miscellanies
was republished in 1721 and 1784; I am grateful to Dr William Poole for drawing my attention to the fact that on the contents page of the Ashmolean’s copy an early reader has written ‘superstitiosi’.

2
 
Hearne noted that details
:
The Itinerary of John Leland the Antiquary
, published by Thomas Hearne (James Fletcher, 1770), p.124.

3
 
Rawlinson complained: Surrey
, vol. 1, p.ii.

4
 
He read Aubrey’s friend:
Haycock, pp.126–32.

5
 
The five women resolved:
Bennett, vol. 1, p.54.

6
 
it is impossible to understand:
Clark, vol. 2, p.73.

7
 
A much more interesting
: Clark, vol. 1, p.5.

8
 
Those who possess it:
Aubrey,
Brief Lives and other selected writings
, p.xxii.

9
 
In 1972, the publisher and editor:
A less satisfactory edition of the
Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme
first appeared in 1881.

10
 
Many of the additions: Education
.

11
 
Hunter explained:
Hunter (1975), p.21.

12
 
In his brief foreward:
The edition looks like a facsimile but is not. There are many omissions and the plates have been reordered.

13
 
As part of Oxford University’s Cultures of Knowledge project
: see emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Acknowledgements

I am Grateful to the Master and Fellows of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge; the Principal and Fellows of Brasenose College, Oxford; Drue Heinz and the electors to the Hawthornden Castle Fellowships for enabling me to write uninterruptedly in spring 2012; the staff in the Bodleian Library’s Special Collections; the staff in the British Library Manuscripts Reading Room; the staff in the Royal Society Library and the Ashmolean Museum.

My editor Jenny Uglow believed in and understood my book from the beginning; her companionship on this biographical journey has been a blessing and a privilege. Juliet Brooke, Senior Editor at Chatto & Windus, guided my book through publication with grace and imagination.

For generous scholarly and literary help I am also deeply indebted to the following friends and colleagues: Mary Beard, Kate Bennett, John Casey, John Dunn, Antonia Fraser, Heather Glen, Mark Goldie, Jonny Grove, Olivia Horsfall Turner, Claerwen James, John Kerrigan, Anne Malcolm, William Poole, Hamish Robinson, Ali Smith, Peter Stothard, Peter Straus, Richard Tuck. I am grateful to Jane Selley for her careful copy-editing, to Joanne Hill for her thorough proof-reading and to Helen Smith for the index.

Soon after I began writing about Aubrey, my father, John Scurr, moved to Hankerton, near Malmesbury, giving me many opportunities to explore north Wiltshire. I first came to know south Wiltshire through my friend Canon Timothy Russ, who died before my book was finished; may he rest in peace.

Aubrey was a wonderful friend. He has led me to deepen old friendships and discover new ones. My last expression of gratitude is to him.

Bibliography

Manuscript sources

The Bodleian Library

MS Ashmole 1722 Aubrey’s annotations to Robert Plot’s
The Natural History of Oxfordshire

MS Ashmole 1814 Letters from Aubrey to Edward Lhwyd

MS Ashmole 1829 Letters from Aubrey to Edward Lhwyd

MS Ashmole 1830 Letters from Aubrey to Edward Lhwyd

MS Aubrey 1
The Natural History of Wiltshire

MS Aubrey 2
The Natural History of Wiltshire

MS Aubrey 3
An Essay Towards a Description of the North Division of Wiltshire

MS Aubrey 4
A Perambulation of Surrey

MS Aubrey 5
An Interpretation of Villare Anglicanum

MS Aubrey 6
The Minutes of Lives
(Part 1)

MS Aubrey 7
The Minutes of Lives
(Part 2)

MS Aubrey 8
The Minutes of Lives
(Part 3) including an
Apparatus for the Lives of our English Mathematical Writers

MS Aubrey 9
The Life of Mr Thomas Hobbes

MS Aubrey 10
An Idea of Education of Young Gentlemen

MS Aubrey 11
An extract or Summary of the Lemmata of Stone-heng restored to the Danes
, by Walter Charleton

MS Aubrey 12 Letters to John Aubrey (1644–95), A–N

MS Aubrey 13 Letters to John Aubrey (1644–95), O–W

MS Aubrey 14
Monumenta Britannica
(Parts 1 and 2); also MS Top. Gen. C.24

MS Aubrey 15
Monumenta Britannica
(Parts 3 and 4); also MS Top. Gen. C.25

MS Aubrey 16 Copy of part of
Chronologia Architectonica

MS Aubrey 17 Designatio de Easton-Piers in Comitatu Wilts

MS Aubrey 19 Medical Recipes in English

MS Aubrey 20 Two Essays written in 1659–60 by H. Milborne ‘For the better orderinge the poore’

MS Aubrey 21
The Countrey Revell,
or the Revell at Aldford
, and miscellaneous papers

MS Aubrey 23 A Collection of Genitures Well Attested

MS Aubrey 24 An Astrological Treatise,
Zercobeni, seu Claviculæ Salmonis Libri IV
, with additional recipes and incantations

MS Aubrey 25
Musica
, Nicolaus Mercator

MS Aubrey 26
Faber Fortunae

MS Aubrey 28 A letter from Mr Thomas Hobbes

MS Ballard 14 Letters from Aubrey to Anthony Wood

MS Ballard 62 Scribal copy

MS Hearne’s Diaries 158–9 Thomas Hearne’s transcript of Robert Plot’s notes on Aubrey’s Adversaria Physica

MS Rawlinson D.26 The Journal of Anthony Wood

MS Rawlinson D.727 Fair copies of three of Aubrey’s Lives

MS Rawlinson J.F.6 The Accidents of John Aubrey

MS Tanner 22 Letters to Thomas Tanner, 1698

MS Tanner 23 Letters to Thomas Tanner, 1697

MS Tanner 24 Letters from Aubrey to Thomas Tanner, 1696

MS Tanner 25 Letters from Aubrey to Thomas Tanner, 1695

MS Tanner 102 The Journal of Anthony Wood

MS Tanner 456 Letters between Aubrey and Anthony Wood

MS Wood 39 Letters from Aubrey to Anthony Wood

MS Wood 40 Letters from Aubrey to Anthony Wood

MS Wood 46 Letters from Aubrey to Anthony Wood