by John Aubrey
He maried the daughter of Sir Francis Walsingham, Principall Secretary of Estate (I thinke his only child) whom he loved very well: in so much that having received some shott or wound in the Warres in the Lowe-countreys (where he had command of the Ramikins, I thinke) he would not (contrary to the injunction of his Physitians and chirurgions) forbeare his carnall knowledge of her, which cost him his life; upon which occasion there were some roguish verses made.
His body was putt in a leaden coffin (which, after the firing of Paule’s, I myselfe sawe) and with wonderful greate state was caried to St. Paules church, where he was buried in our Ladie’s Chapell. There solempnized this Funerall all the Nobility and great Officers of Court; all the Judges and Serjeants at Lawe; all the Soldiers and Commanders and Gentry that were in London; the Lord Mayer and Aldermen, and Liverymen. His body was borne on men’s shoulders (perhaps ’twas a false coffin).
When I was a boy 9 yeares old, I was with my father at one Mr. Singleton’s an Alderman and Wollen-draper in Glocester, who had in his parlour over the Chimney, the whole description of the Funerall, engraved and printed on papers pasted together, which at length was, I beleeve, the length of the room at least; but he had contrived it to be turned upon two Pinnes, that turning one of them made the figures march all in order. It did make such a strong impression on my tender Phantasy that I remember it as if it were but yesterday. I could never see it elsewhere. The house is in the great long street, over against the high steeple, and ’tis likely it remaines there still. ’Tis pitty it is not re-donne.
SIR HENRY SPELMAN
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[Born 1562. Historian and antiquary. He wrote many valuable works on legal and ecclesiastical antiquities, including A History of Sacrilege (published 1698); Glossarium Archaeologicum, a dictionary of obsolete law terms, which landed him in trouble with Archbishop Laud for including Magna Charta and Magnum Consilium Regis under the M’s (1626); A History of the English Councils (1639) and Tenures by Knight-Service (1641). He sat in Parliament and on various Commissions, as a reward for which he was voted a grant of £300. He died in 1641.]
WHEN HE WAS about 10 or 12 he went to schoole to a curs’t Schoolmaster, to whom he had an Antipathie. His Master would discountenance him, and was very severe to him, and to a dull boy he would say, as very a dunce as H. Spelman. He was a boy of great spirit, and would not learne there. He was (upon his importunity) sent to another Schoolmaster and profited very well. I have heard his grandson say, that the Spelmans’ Witts open late: Sir Henry did not understand Latin perfectly till he was fourty years old.
He was much perplexed with Lawe-suites and worldly troubles, so that he was about 40 before he could settle himselfe to make any great progresse in learning, which when he did, we find what great Monuments of Antiquarian knowledge he haz left to the World.
When his daughter-in-lawe (Sir John’s wife) returned home from visitting her Neighbours, he would alwaies aske her what of Antiquity she had heard or observed, and if she brought home no such account, he would chide her (jestingly). He said to Sir William Dugdale, We are beholding to Mr. Speed and Stowe for stitching up for us our English History. It seemes they were both Taylers.
He was a handsome Gentleman (as appeares by his picture in Bibliotheca Cottoniana) strong and valiant, and wore allwayes his Sword, till he was about 70 or more, when, finding his legges to faulter through feebleness as he was walking, Now, said he, ’tis time to leave off my Sword.
EDMUND SPENCER
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[Born 1552. Poet. He was educated at Merchant Taylors School, then newly opened, and at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. Through his college friend, Gabriel Harvey, he obtained in 1578 a place in the Earl of Leicester’s household and became acquainted with Sir Philip Sidney, with whom he formed a literary club styled the Areopagus, chiefly for the purpose of naturalizing the classical metres in English verse. In 1579 he began The Faerie Queen and published his Shepheard’s Calender, which was enthusiastically received. In 1580 he was appointed secretary to Lord Grey de Wilton, then going to Ireland as Lord Deputy. Spenser acquired Kilcolman Castle in County Cork, a former possession of the Earls of Desmond, with three thousand acres attached. Here he settled, and occupied himself with literary work, writing his elegy Astrophel on Sir Philip Sidney, and preparing The Faerie Queen for the press, three books of which he entrusted to the printer on his visit to London in 1589, during which Sir Walter Raleigh presented him to Queen Elizabeth, who awarded him a pension of fifty pounds. He reluctantly returned to Kilcolman, which he regarded as a place of exile, in 1591, and wrote Colin Clouts come home againe. In 1594 Spenser celebrated his marriage to Elizabeth Boyle in his splendid Epithalamion, and two years later published the second part of The Faerie Queen. His castle of Kilcolman was burnt in October 1598, in a sudden insurrection, and his youngest child perished in the flames. Spenser and his wife escaped with difficulty and he died in destitution in London in 1599 and was buried near Chaucer in Westminster Abbey.]
MR. BEESTON SAYES, he was a little man, wore short haire, little band and little cuffs.
Mr. Edmund Spencer was of Pembroke-hall in Cambridge; he misst the Fellowship there, which Bishop Andrewes gott. He was an acquaintance and frequenter of Sir Erasmus Dreyden: His Mistris Rosalind was a kinswoman of Sir Erasmus Ladys. The chamber there at Sir Erasmus’ is still called Mr. Spencers chamber. Lately, at the college takeing-downe the Wainscot of his chamber, they found an abundance of Cards, with stanzas of the Faerie Queen written on them.
Mr. Samuel Woodford (the Poet who paraphras’d the Psalmes) lives in Hampshire neer Alton, and he told me that Mr. Spenser lived sometime in these parts, in this delicate sweet ayre: where he enjoyed his Muse: and writt good part of his Verses. He had lived some time in Ireland, and made a description of it, which is printed.
I have said before that Sir Philip Sidney, and Sir Walter Ralegh were his acquaintance. Sir John Denham told me, that ABp. Usher, Lord Primate of Armagh, was acquainted with him; by this token: when Sir William Davenant’s Gondibert came forth, Sir John askt the Lord Primate if he had seen it. Said the Primate, Out upon him, with his vaunting Preface, he speakes against my old friend Edmund Spenser.
In the South crosse-aisle of Westminster abbey, next the Dore, is this Inscription:
Heare lies (expecting the second comeing of our Saviour Christ Jesus) the body of Edmund Spencer, the Prince of Poets of his tyme, whose divine spirit needs no other witnesse, then the workes which he left behind him. He was borne in London, in the yeare 1510, and dyed in the yeare 1596.
THOMAS STREET
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[Born in Ireland 1622. Astronomer. He was a clerk in the Excise Office. He published Astronomia Carolina 1661; The Planetary Systeme 1670; and The Tables of the Moon and Mercury; besides carrying forward the study of Trigonometry. He died in 1689.]
ANNO 1661 HE printed that excellent piece of Astronomia Carolina, which he dedicated to King Charles II, and also presented it well bound to Prince Rupert and the Duke of Monmouth; but never had a farthing of any of them.
He had the true motion of the Moon by which he could discover and demonstrate the never yet discovered Art and Science of finding the true Longitude, yet 2 of his familiar acquaintance tell me that he did not committ this Discovery to paper: so it is dead with him.
He made attempts to be introduced to King Charles II and also to King James II, but Courtiers would not doe it without a good gratuitie.
He was of a rough and cholerique humour. Discoursing with Prince Rupert, his Highnesse affirmed something that was not according to Art: sayd Mr. Street, Whoever affirmes that, is no Mathematician. So they would point at him afterwards at Court and say there’s the man that huff’t Prince Rupert.
He dyed in Chanon-row at Westminster, the 17th of August 1689, and is buried in the church yard of the New Chapell there towards the East window of the Chancel, within twenty or 30 foot of the wall. His acquaintance talke of clubbing towards an Inscription. No man living haz dese
rved so well of Astronomie.
THOMAS STUMP
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[Born 1616. Soldier. His great-great-grandfather Stump, was a wealthy Cloathier at Malmesbury, tempore Henrici VIII: at the Dissolution of the Abbeys he bought a great deal of the Abbey lands thereabout. When King Henry 8th hunted in Bradon forest, he gave his Majesty and the Court a great entertainment at his House (the Abbey). The King told him, He was afraid he had undone himself, he replied, that his own Servants should only want their supper for it. His eldest son, Sir James Stump, was High Sheriff and from him are descended severall of our greatest Nobility, the Earles of Suffolk and Lincoln, etc.]
CAPTAIN THOMAS STUMP of Malmesbury. ’Tis pity the strange Adventures of Him should be forgotten. He was the eldest Sonn of Mr. Will: Stump, Rector of Yatton Keynell: was a Boy of most daring Spirit; he would climb Towers and Trees most dangerously: nay he would walke on the Battlements of the Tower there.
He had too much Spirit to be a Scholar, and about at 16 went in a Voyage with his Uncle (since Sir Thomas) Ivy to Guyana in Anno 1633, or 1632. When the Ship put in somewhere there 4 or 5 of them straggled into the Countrey too far: and in the interim the wind served, and the Sailes were hoist, and the Stragglers left behind.
It was not long before the wild People seized on them, and stript them: and those that had beards, they knocked their braines out: And (as I remember) did eat them: but the Queen saved T. Stump and the other boy. T. Stump threw himself into the River (Oronoque) to have drowned himself, but could not sinke; he is very full chested. The other youth shortly after died. Thomas Stump lived with them till 1636 or 1637.
His Narrations are very strange and pleasant; but so many yeares have made me almost forgett all. He sayes there is incomparable Fruits there: and that it may be termed the Paradise of the World. He says that the Spondyles of the back-bones of the huge Serpents there are used, to sit on, as our Women sitt upon Butts. He taught them to build Hovills: and to thatch and wattle. I wish I had a good account of his abode there: He is fide dignus [worthy of belief]. I never heard of any man that lived so long among those Salvages.
A Ship then sayling by (a Portughese) He swam to it; they took him up and made use of him for a Sea-boy. As he was sayling near Cornwall, he stole out of a Port-hole, and swam to shore; and so beg’d to his Fathers in Wiltshire. When he came home, no body knew him: and they would not own him: only Jo. Harris the Carpenter knew him: At last he recounted so many Circumstances, that he was owned, and in 1642 had a Commission for a Captain of Foot in King Charles Ist army.
SIR JOHN SUCKLING
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[Born 1609. Poet. His father was Secretary of State and Comptroller of the Household to James I. After travelling on the Continent, he served for a short time under Gustavus Adolphus and, on his return to England, he was knighted and went to Court, where his wealth, generosity and wit made him a general favourite. He became a leader of the Royalist party in the early troubles, but he got into trouble in connection with a plot to rescue Strafford from the Tower and fled to the Continent. He wrote four plays: Aglaura, which he provided with two fifth acts, one tragic, the other not; Brennoralt; The Goblins; and The Sad One; but his chief fame rests on his songs and ballads. He also wrote The Session of the Poets which is mainly of antiquarian interest. Died 1642.)
I HAVE HEARD Mris. Bond say that Sir John’s father was but a dull fellow (her husband Mr. Thomas Bond knew him) the witt came by the mother.
By 18 he had well travelled France and Italie, and part of Germany, and (I thinke also) of Spaine.
He returned to England an extraordinary accomplished Gent., grew famous at Court for his readie sparkling witt; which was envyed, and he was (Sir William Davenant sayd) the Bull that was bayted. He was incomparably readie at repartying, and his Witt most sparkling when most sett-upon and provoked.
He was the greatest gallant of his time, and the greatest Gamester, both for Bowling and Cards, so that no Shopkeeper would trust him for 6d, as today, for instance, he might, by winning, be worth 200 pounds, and the next day he might not be worth half so much, or perhaps sometimes be minus nihilo. He was one of the best Bowlers of his time in England. He played at Cards rarely well, and did use to practise by himselfe a-bed, and there studyed how the best way of managing the cards could be. His Sisters would come to the Peccadillo-bowling-green, crying for feare he should loose all their Portions.
Sir John Suckling invented the game of Cribbidge. He sent his Cards to all Gameing places in the countrey, which were marked with private markes of his; he gott twenty thousand pounds by this way.
Sir William Davenant (who was his intimate friend and loved him intirely) would say that Sir John, when he was at his lowest ebbe in gameing, I meane when unfortunate, then would make himselfe most glorious in apparell, and sayd that it exalted his spirits, and that he had then best Luck when he was most gallant, and his Spirits were highest.
Sir William would say that he did not much care for a Lord’s converse, for they were in those dayes damnably Proud and arrogant, and the French would say that My Lord d’Angleterre look’t comme un Mastif-dog. But now the age is more refined, and much by the example of his gracious Majestie who is the Patterne of Courtesie.
There happened, unluckily, a difference between Sir John Suckling and Sir John Digby (brother to Sir Kenelme) about a Mistresse or Gameing, I have now forgott. Sir John was but a slight timberd man, and of midling stature; Sir John Digby was a proper person of great strength and courage answerable, and yielded to be the best swordsman of his time. Sir John, with two or three of his party, assaults Sir John Digby goeing into a Play-house. Sir J. D. had only his Lacquey with him, but Sir J. D. flew on them like a Tigre, and made them run. ’Twas pitty that this accident brought the blemish of Cowardise to such an ingeniose young Sparke. Sir J. D. was such a Hero that there were very few but he would have served in like manner.
Mr. Snowdon tells me that after Sir John’s unluckie rencounter, or Quarrel with Sir John Digby, wherin he was baffled, ’twas strange to see the envie and ill-nature of people to trample, and Scoffe at, and deject one in disgrace; inhumane as well as unchristian. The Lady Moray had made an entertainment for severall persons of quality at Ashley, in Surrey, near Chertsey, whereat Mr. Snowdon then was. There was the Countess of Middlesexe, whom Sir John had highly courted, and had spent on her, and in treating her, some thousands of pounds. At this entertainment she could not forbeare, but was so severe and ingrate as to upbraid Sir John of his late recieved Baffle; and some other Ladys had their flirts. The Lady Moray (who invited them) seeing Sir John out of Countenance, for whose worth she alwaies had a respect: Well, sayd shee, I am a merry Wench, and will never forsake an old friend in disgrace, so come, sitt downe by me, Sir John (said she) and seated him on her right hand, and countenanced him. This raysed Sir John’s dejected spirites that he threw his Reparties about the Table with so much sparklingnesse and Gentilenes of Witt, to the admiration of them all.
When the Expedition was into Scotland, Sir John Suckling, at his owne chardge raysed a Troope of 100 very handsome young proper men, whom he clad in white doubletts and scarlett breeches, and scarlet Coates, hatts, and feathers, well horsed and armed. They say ’twas one of the finest sights in those days. But Sir John Menis made a Lampoon of it:—
The Ladies opened the Windows to see,
So fine and goodly a sight-a … etc.
I thinke the Lampoon sayes he made an inglorious chardge against the Scotts.
He was of middle stature and slight strength, brisque round eie, reddish fac’t and red nose (ill liver) his head not very big, his hayre a kind of sand colour, his beard turnd-up naturally, so that he had a briske and gracefull looke. He died a Batchelour.
He made a magnificent entertainment in London for a great number of Ladies of Quality, all beauties and young, which cost him many hundreds of poundes, where were all the rarities that this part of the world could afford, and the last service of all was Silk Stockings and Garters, a
nd I thinke also Gloves.
Anno Domini 1637, Sir John Suckling, William Davenant, Poet Laureate (not then knighted) and Jack Young, came to Bathe. Sir John came like a young Prince for all manner of Equipage and convenience, and Sir W. Davenant told me that he had a Cart-load of Bookes carried downe; and ’twas there, at Bath, that he writt the little Tract in his Booke about Socinianism. ’Twas as pleasant a journey as ever men had; in the height of a long Peace and luxury, and in the Venison Season. The second night they lay at Marlborough, and walking on the delicate fine downes at the Backside of the Towne, whilest supper was making ready, the maydes were drying of cloathes on the bushes. Jack Young had espied a very pretty young Girle, and had gott her consent for an assignation, which was about midnight, which they happened to overheare on the other side of the hedge, and were resolved to frustrate his designe. They were wont every night to play at Cards after supper a good while: but Jack Young pretended wearinesse, etc., and must needes goe to Bed, not to be perswaded by any meanes to the contrary. They had their landlady at supper with them; said they to her, Observe this poor Gentleman, how he yawnes: now is his mad fit comeing uppon him. We beseech you that you make fast his doores, and gett somebody to watch and looke to him, for about midnight he will fall to be most outragious. Gett the Hostler, or some strong fellow, to stay-up, and we will well content him, for he is our worthy friend, and a very honest Gent., only, perhaps, twice in a yeare he falls into these fitts.