by John Aubrey
The only Son of Edward Popham, Admirall for the Parliament, being borne deafe and dumbe, was sent to him to learne to speake, which he taught him to doe: by what method, and how soon, you may see in the Appendix concerning it to his Elements of Speech. It is a most ingeniose and curious Discourse, and untouched by any other; he was beholding to no Author; did only consult with Nature. This Gentleman’s son afterwards was a little while (upon Dr Holder’s preferment to Ely) a scholar of Dr. Wallis, (a most ill-natured man, an egregious lyer and backbiter, a flatterer and fawner on my Lord Brouncker and his Miss, that my Lord may keepe up his reputation) under whom he forgott what he learnt before, the child not enduring his morose pedantique humour. Not long since in one of the Philosophical Transactions is entered a long mountebanking panegyrique of the Doctor’s prayse for doeing so strange a thing and never makes any mention of Dr. Holder at all. Dr. H. questioning Oldenburgh (I happened to be then present) Mr. Oldenburgh (though a great friend of Dr. Wallis) acknowledged that the Doctor himselfe penned it every word; which occasioned Dr. Holder to write against him in a pamphlet in 4to.
Mr. Thomas Hobbes writes to me, I wonder not if Dr. Wallis, or any other, that have studyed Mathematicks onely to gaine Preferment, when his ignorance is discovered, convert his study to jugling and to the gaining of a reputation of conjuring, decyphering, and such Arts. As for the matter it selfe, I meane the teaching of a man borne deafe and dumbe to speake, I thinke it impossible. But I doe not count him deafe and indocible that can heare a word spoken as loud as is possible at the very entrance to his Eare; and he that could make him heare (being a great and common good) would well deserve both to be honoured and to be enriched. He that could make him speake a few words onely deserved nothing. But he that brags of this and cannot doe it, deserves to be whipt.
But to returne to this honest worthy Gentleman—Anno about 1646, he went to Bletchington to his parsonage, where his hospitality and learning, mixt with great courtesie, easily conciliated the love of all his neighbours to him.
He was very helpfull in the Education of his brother-in-law, Mr. Christopher Wren (now Knighted) a youth of a prodigious inventive Witt, and of whom he was as tender as if he had been his owne Child, who gave him his first Instructions in Geometrie and Arithmetique, and when he was a young Scholar at the University of Oxford, was a very necessary and kind friend.
The parsonage-house at Bletchington was Mr. Christopher Wren’s home, and retiring-place; here he contemplated, and studied, and found-out a great many curious things in Mathematiques. About this house he made severall curious Dialls, with his owne handes, which are still there to be seen. Which see, as well worthy to be seen.
It ought not to be forgott the great and exemplary love between this Doctor and his vertuose wife, who is not lesse to be admired, in her sex and station, then her brother Sir Christopher; and (which is rare to be found in a woman) her excellences doe not inflate her. Amongst many other Guifts she haz a strange sagacity as to curing of wounds, which she does not doe so much by presedents and Reciept bookes, as by her owne excogitancy, considering the causes, effects, and circumstances. His Majestie King Charles II had hurt his hand, which he intrusted his Chirurgians to make well; but they ordered him so that they made it much worse, so that it swoll, and pained him up to his shoulder; and pained him so extremely that he could not sleep, and began to be feaverish. Then one told the King what a rare shee-surgeon he had in his house; she was presently sent for at eleven clock at night. She presently made ready a Pultisse, and applyed it, and gave his Majestie sudden ease, and he slept well; next day she dressed him, and in a short time perfectly cured him, to the great griefe of all the Surgeons, who envy and hate her.
WENCESLAS HOLLAR
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[Born 1607. Engraver. He lived in Frankfort, Cologne and Antwerp and had difficulty enough to subsist, until Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, brought him to England. Teacher of drawing to the Prince of Wales 1640. He fought in the ranks for the King, but was captured by Parliament and escaped to Antwerp. In 1652 he returned to England. He was appointed His Majesty’s Designer in 1660. Before the introduction of photography, picture painting and engraving were important professions, and Hollar charged fourpence an hour for his work, of which 2733 examples are enumerated. Besides making copies of famous paintings and illustrating books, Hollar executed a fine map of London after the Fire, illustrated the coronation of Charles II and engraved a series of pictures of women’s costumes, which have proved invaluable to historians. Died 1677.]
WINCESLAUS HOLLAR, BOHEMUS, was borne at Prague. His father was a Knight of the Empire and a Protestant, and either for keeping a conventicle, or being taken at one, forfeited his Estate, and was ruined by the Roman Catholiques.
He told me that when he was a Schoole-boy he tooke a delight in draweing of Mapps; which draughts he kept, and they were pretty. He was designed by his father to have been a Lawyer, and was putt to that profession, when his father’s troubles, together with the Warres, forced him to leave his countrey. So that what he did for his delight and recreation only when a boy, proved to be his livelyhood when a man.
I thinke he stayd sometime in Lowe Germany, then he came into England, wher he was very kindly entertained by that great Patron of Painters and draughts-men, Thomas Howard Lord High Marshall, Earl of Arundell and Surrey, where he spent his time in draweing and copying rarities, which he did etch (i.e. eate with aqua fortis in copper plates). When the Lord Marshall went Ambassador to the Emperor of Germany to Vienna, he travelld with much grandeur; and among others, Mr. Hollar went with him (very well clad) to take viewes, landskapes, buildings, etc. remarqueable in their Journey, which wee see now at the Print-Shopps.
He hath donne the most in that way that ever any one did, insomuch that I have heard Mr. John Evelyn, R.S.S., say that at sixpence a print his Labour would come to … pounds (quaere J. E.) He was very short-sighted, and did worke so curiously that the curiosity of his Worke is not to be judged without a magnifying-glasse. When he tooke his Landskapes, he, then, had a glasse to helpe his Sight.
At Arundel-house he maried with my Ladie’s wayting woman, Mrs. Tracy, by whom he haz a daughter, that was one of the greatest Beauties I have seen; his son by her dyed in the Plague, an ingeniose youth, drew delicately.
When the Civil Warres brake-out, the Lord Marshall had leave to goe beyond sea. Mr. Hollar went into the Lowe-Countries where he stayed till about 1649.
I remember he told me that when he first came into England (which was a serene time of Peace) that the people, both poore and rich, did looke cheerfully, but at his returne, he found the Countenances of the people all changed, melancholy, spightfull, as if bewitched.
He was a very friendly good-natured man as could be, but Shiftlesse to the World, and dyed not rich. I have sayd before that his father was ruined upon the account of the Protestant religion. Winceslaus dyed a Catholique, of which religion, I suppose, he might be ever since he came to Arundel-howse. Had he lived till the 13th of July following, he had been just 70 yeares old.
ROBERT HOOKE
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[Born 1635. Experimental philosopher. Curator of Experiments at the Royal Society 1662. Fellow (1663) and Secretary of the Royal Society 1677–1682. Gresham Professor of Geometry 1665. Designed Bethlehem Hospital, Montague House and the College of Physicians. He helped Newton by hints in Optics, and his anticipation of the Law of Inverse Squares was admitted by Newton. He pointed out the real nature of combustion 1665; proposed to measure the force of gravity by the swinging of a pendulum 1666; discovered the fifth star in Orion 1664; inferred the rotation of Jupiter; first observed a star by daylight; and made the earliest attempts at telescopic determination of the parallax of a fixed star. He also first applied the spiral spring to regulate watches; expounded the true theory of the elasticity and the kinetic hypothesis of gases 1678; constructed the first Gregorian telescope 1674; described a system of telegraphy 1684; first asserted the true principle of the arch; and inven
ted the marine barometer and other instruments. Died 1703.]
MR. ROBERT HOOKE, curator of the Royall Societie at London, was borne at Freshwater in the Isle of Wight; his father was Minister there, and of the family of the Hookes of Hooke in Hants, in the road from London to Saram, a very ancient Family and in that place for many (3 or more) hundred yeares. His father died by suspending him selfe.
John Hoskyns, the Painter, being at Freshwater, to drawe pictures, Mr. Hooke observed what he did, and, thought he, Why cannot I doe so too? So he gitts him Chalke, and Ruddle, and coale, and grinds them, and putts them on a Trencher, gott a pencill, and to worke he went, and made a picture: then he copied (as they hung up in the parlour) the Pictures there, which he made like. Also, being a boy there, at Freshwater, he made a Diall on a round trencher; never having had any instruction. His father was not Mathematicall at all.
When his father died, his Son Robert was but 13 yeares old, to whom he left one Hundred pounds, which was sent up to London with him, with an intention to have bound him Apprentice to Mr. Lilly the Paynter, with whom he was a little while upon tryall; who liked him very well, but Mr. Hooke quickly perceived what was to be donne, so, thought he, why cannot I doe this by my selfe and keepe my hundred pounds?
He went to Mr. Busby’s the Schoolemaster of Westminster, at whose howse he was; and he made very much of him. With him he lodged his hundred pounds. There he learnd to play 20 lessons on the organ. He there in one weeke’s time made himselfe master of the first VI books of Euclid, to the Admiration of Mr. Busby. At Schoole here he was very mechanicall, and (amongst other things) he invented thirty severall wayes of Flying.
He was never a King’s Scholar, and I have heard Sir Richard Knight (who was his school-fellow) say that he seldome saw him in the schoole.
Anno Domini 1658 he was sent to Christ Church in Oxford, where he had a Chorister’s place (in those dayes when the Church Musique was putt-downe) which was a pretty good maintenance. He lay in the chamber in Christ Church that was Mr. Burton’s, of whom ’tis whispered that, non obstante all his Astrologie and his booke of Melancholie, he ended his dayes in that chamber by hanging him selfe.
He was there Assistant to Dr. Thomas Willis in his Chymistry; who afterwards recommended him to the Honble Robert Boyle, Esqre, to be usefull to him in his Chymicall operations. Anno Domini 1662 Mr. Robert Boyle recommended Mr. Robert Hooke to be Curator of the Experiments of the Royall Society, wherin he did an admirable good worke to the Commonwealth of Learning, in recommending the fittest person in the world to them.
Anno Domini 1666 the great Conflagration of London happened, and then he was chosen one of the two Surveyors of the Citie of London; by which he hath gott a great Estate. He built Bedlam, the Physitians’ College, Montague-house, the Piller on Fish-street-hill, and Theatre there; and he is much made use of in Designing Buildings.
He is but of midling stature, something crooked, pale faced, and his face but little belowe, but his head is lardge; his eie full and popping, and not quick; a grey eie. He haz a delicate head of haire, browne, and of an excellent moist curle. He is and ever was very temperate, and moderate in dyet, etc.
As he is of prodigious inventive head, so is a person of great vertue and goodnes. Now when I have sayd his Inventive faculty is so great, you cannot imagine his Memory to be excellent, for they are like two Bucketts, as one goes up, the other goes downe. He is certainly the greatest Mechanick this day in the World.
’Twas Mr. Robert Hooke that invented the Pendulum-Watches, so much more usefull than the other Watches. He hath invented an Engine for the speedie working of Division, etc., or for the speedie and immediate finding out the Divisor.
Before I leave this Towne, I will gett of him a Catalogue of what he hath wrote; and as much of his Inventions as I can. But they are many hundreds; he believes not fewer than a thousand. ’Tis such a hard matter to get people to doe themselves right.
Mr. Robert Hooke did in Anno 1670, write a Discourse, called, An Attempt to prove the Motion of the Earth, which he then read to the Royal Society; wherein he haz delivered the Theorie of explaining the coelestial motions mechanically: his words are these: I shall explaine a systeme of the world, differing in many particulars from any yet known, answering in all things to the common rules of mechanicall motions. This depends upon 3 suppositions; first, that all coelastiall bodys whatsoever have an attractive or gravitating power towards their own centers, whereby they attract not only their own parts, and keep them from flying from them, as we may observe the Earth to doe, but that they doe also attract all the other coelestiall bodys that are within the sphere of their activity, and consequently that not only the Sun and the Moon have an influence upon the body and motion of the Earth, and the Earth upon them, but that Mercury also, Venus, Mars, Saturne, and Jupiter, by their attractive powers have a considerable influence upon its motion, as, in the same manner, the corresponding attractive power of the Earth hath a considerable influence upon every one of their motions also. The second supposition is this, that all bodys whatsoever, that are putt into direct and simple motion will soe continue to move forwards in a straight line, till they are by some other effectuall powers deflected and bent into a motion describing a circle, ellipsis, or some other uncompounded curve line. The third supposition is, that these attractive powers are soe much the more powerfull in operating, by how much nearer the body wrought upon is to their own centers.
About 9 or 10 years ago, Mr. Hooke writt to Mr. Isaac Newton, of Trinity College, Cambridge, to make a Demonstration of this theory, not telling him, at first, the proportion of the gravity to the distance, nor what was the curv’d line that was thereby made. Mr. Newton, in his Answer to the letter, did expresse that he had not thought of it; and in his first attempt about it, he calculated the Curve by supposing the attraction to be the same at all distances: upon which, Mr. Hooke sent, in his next letter, the whole of his Hypothesis, scil. that the gravitation was reciprocall to the square of the distance: which is the whole coelastiall theory, concerning which Mr. Newton haz made a demonstration, not at all owning he receiv’d the first Intimation of it from Mr. Hooke. Likewise Mr. Newton haz in the same Booke printed some other Theories and experiments of Mr. Hooke’s, without acknowledgeing from whom he had them.
This is the greatest Discovery in Nature that ever was since the World’s Creation. It never was so much as hinted by any man before. I wish he had writt plainer, and afforded a little more paper.
JOHN HOSKYNS
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[Born 1566. Lawyer. Fellow of New College, Oxford, 1586. M.P. for Hereford 1614. Serjeant-at-Law 1623. Welsh judge. He revised, according to tradition, the History of the World by Sir Walter Raleigh, with whom he became very intimate during his confinement in the Tower, and polished the verses of Ben Jonson so zealously as to be called Ben’s father. Died 1638.]
HE HAD A brother, John, D.D., a learned man, Rector of Ledbury and canon of Hereford, who was designed to be a Scholar, but this John (the Serjeant) would not be quiet, but he must be a Scholar too. In those dayes boyes were seldome taught to read that were not to be of some learned profession. So, upon his instant importunity, being then ten years of age, he learned to reade, and, at the yeare’s end, entred into his Greeke grammar. Charles Hoskyns was brother to the Serjeant and the Doctor; a very ingeniose man, who would not have been inferior to either but killed himself with hard Study.
He was a yeare at Westminster; and not speeding there, he was sent to Winton Schole, where he was the Flower of his time. He was of a strong constitution, and had a prodigious memorie. I remember I have heard that one time he had not made his exercise (verse) and spake to one of his Forme to shew him his, which he sawe. The Schoolmaster presently calles for the Exercises, and Hoskyns told him that he had writ it out but lost it, but he could repeate it, and repeated the other boye’s exercise (I think 12 or 16 verses) only at once reading over. When the boy who really had made them shewed the Master the same, and could not repeate them, he
was whipped for stealing Hoskyn’s Exercise. There were many pretty stories of him when a schooleboy, which I have forgott.
The Latin verses in the quadrangle at Winton-colledge, at the Cocks where the Boyes wash their hands, where there is the picture of a good Servant, with asses eares and Hind’s feet, a padlock on his Lippes, etc., very good hieroglyphick, with a hexastique in Latin underneath (which I doe not remember). It was done by the Serjeant when he went to school there; but now finely painted.
When he came to New College, he was Terrae filius; but he was so bitterly Satyricall that he was expelled and putt to his shifts.
He went into Somersetshire and taught a Schole for about a yeare at Ilchester. He compiled there a Greeke Lexicon as far as M, which I have seen. He maried (neer there) a rich widowe, by whome he had only one sonne and one daughter.
After his mariage he admitted himselfe at the Middle Temple, London. He wore good Cloathes, and kept good company. His excellent Witt gave him letters of Commendacion to all ingeniose persons. At his first comeing to London he gott acquainted with the Under-Secretaries at Court, where he was often usefull to them in writing their Latin letters.
He was a close-prisoner in the Tower, tempore Regis Jacobi, for speaking too boldly in the Parliament-house of the King’s profuse liberality to the Scotts. He made a Comparison of a Conduit, whereinto water came, and ran-out afarre-off. Now, said he, this pipe reaches as far as Edinborough. He. was kept a close prisoner there, i.e. his windowes were boarded up. Through a small chinke he sawe once a crowe, and another time, a Kite; the sight whereof, he sayd, was a great pleasure to him.