by John Aubrey
Memorandum:—the Dr. had a melancholique and Hypocondriaque temperament.
THOMAS TYNDALE
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[Born 1588. Son of Thomas Tyndale of Eastwood Park, Thornbury, by Oriane, sister and co-heir of Claudius le Bon, Seigneur de Fourneau in Normandy. In 1620 he married Dorothy, the daughter of William Stafford, author of A Brief Concert of English Polity, who had, in 1587, revealed a plot against Queen Elizabeth, only to find himself implicated, for which he was imprisoned in the Tower. Thomas Tyndale sold Eastwood Park in 1619 and bought the site and demesne of the Priory of Kington St. Michael, where he lived until his death in 1672. His widow told Aubrey many of the more scandalous stories about the Elizabethan Court.]
THOMAS TYNDALE, AN old Gentleman that remembers Queen Elizabeth’s raigne and Court, one of true Gravity and prudence, not one that depends upon the grave cutt of his beard to be thought so. He hath seen much in his time both at home and abroade; and with much choler inveighes against things now:—Alas! O’ God’s will! Now-a-dayes every one, forsooth! must have coaches, forsooth! In those dayes Gentlemen kept horses for a man-at-Armes, besides their Hackney and hunting horses. This made the Gentry robust and hardy and fitt for service; were able to be their owne guides in case of a rout or so, when occasion should so require. Our Gentry forsooth in these dayes are so effeminated that they know not how to ride on horseback.
The advantage that King Charles I had: Gentlemen tho [then] kept good horses, and many horses for a man-at-Armes, and men that could ride them; hunting horses. Now we are come all to our Coaches forsooth! Now young men are so farre from managing good horses, they know not how to ride a hunting nag or handle their weapons. So God help the King if, etc.
In Sir Philip Sydney’s time ’twas as much disgrace for a Cavalier to be seen in London rideing in a Coach in the street as now ’twould be to be seen in a petticoate and wastcoate. In those days when a Senator went to the Parliament-house a-foote, or a horse-back with his rich Footcloath, he had at his heeles ½ a dozen or 10 tall fellowes with blew coates and badges and long basket-hilt swords. Now forsooth only a laquey and a little spitt-pig.
Tho when the Gentry mett, it was not at a poor blind sordid alehouse, to drinke up a barrell of drinke and lie drunke there two or three dayes together; fall together by the eares. They mett tho in the fields, well-appointed, with their Hounds or their Hawkes; kept up good Hospitality; and kept a good retinue, that would venture that bloud and spirit that filled their vaines which their Masters tables nourisht; kept their Tenants in due respect of them. We had no depopulacion in those dayes.
You see in me the Ruines of Time. The day is almost at end with me, and truly I am glad of it: I desire not to live in this corrupt age. I foresawe and foretold the late changes, and now easily foresee what will follow after. Alas! O’ God’s will! It was not so in Queen Elizabeth’s time: then youth bare Respect to old Age.
Tho the elders and better sort of the Parish sate and beheld the pastimes of the young men, as wrastling, shooting at Butts, bowling, and dancing. All this is now lost; and pride, whoreing, wantonnesses, and drunkennesses. Their servants like clownes too, drunkards too: breeches of one sort, Doublet of another, drabled with the teares of the Tankard and greasie. Dick Pawlet built an alehouse for his Servants, without the Gate, for convenience sake, because the servants should be within call.
In those dayes Hunting and Falconery were at the height. Good cheere was then much in use; but to be wiser then one’s neighbours, scandalous and to be envyed at. And the Nobility and Gentry were, in that soft peace, damnable prowd and insolent.
HENRY AND THOMAS VAUGHAN
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[Born 1622. Poets and physicians. Henry was known as the Silurist because of his love for the County of Brecknockshire, the county of his birth, which was anciently inhabited by the Silures. He was at Jesus College, Oxford, and studied law in London, before settling as a physician at Brecon and Newton-by-Usk. In his youth he was a decided Royalist and, along with his twin brother Thomas, was imprisoned. His first book, which appeared in 1646, was Poems, with the Tenth Satire of Juvenal Englished. Olor Iscanus (The Swan of Usk), a collection of poems and translations, was surreptitiously published in 1651. About this time he had a serious illness which led to deep spiritual impressions, and thereafter his writings were almost entirely religious. Silex Scintillans (Sparks from the Flint) is his best known work and contains the magnificent They are all gone into the world of light. Flores Solitudinis (Flowers of Solitude) and The Mount of Olives are devout meditations in prose. The two brothers were joint authors of Thalia Rediviva: the Pastimes and Diversions of a Country Muse (1678), a collection of translations and original poems. Thomas Vaughan died in 1666 and Henry in 1695.]
THERE WERE TWO Vaughans (Twinnes) both very ingeniose, and writers. One writt a Poeme called Olor Iscanus (Henry Vaughan, the first-borne) and another booke of divine meditations. He is ingeniose, but prowd and humorous. His brother wrote severall Treatises, whose names I have now forgott, but names himself Eugenius Philalethes.
They were borne at Llansanfraid in Brecknockshire, by the river Uske (Isca). Their grandmother was an Aubrey: their father, a coxcombe and no honester then he should be—he cosened me of 50s. once.
Eugenius Philalethes was of Jesus College. Whither Henry was I have forgotten; but he was a Clarke sometime to Judge Sir Marmaduke Lloyd.
This Account I had from Mr. Henry Vaughan, whose handwriting it is:
Honoured Cousin.
Yours of the 10th. June I received att Breckon, where I am still attendinge our Bishops Lady in a tertian feaver, and cannot as yet have the leasure to step home; butt lest my delayings of tyme here should bringe the account (you expect) too late into your hands: I shall now in part give you the best I can, and be more exact in my next.
My brother and I were borne att Newtin, in Brecknockshire, in the parish of St. Bridget’s, in the year 1621.
I stayed not att Oxford to take my degree, butt was sent to London, beinge then designed by my father for the study of the Law, which the sudden eruption of our late civil warres wholie frustrated.
My brother continued there for 10 or 12 yeares, and I thinke he could be noe lesse than Master of Arts. He died upon an imployment for his majesty, within 5 or 6 miles of Oxford, in the yeare that the last great plague visited London. He was buried by Sir Robert Murrey, his great friend (and then Secretary of Estate for the Kingdome of Scotland) to whom he gave his bookes and MSS.
My brothers imployment was in physic and Chymistrie: he was ordayned minister by bishop Mainwaringe and presented to the Rectorie of St. Brigets by his kinsman, Sir George Vaughan.
My profession allso is physic, which I have practised now for many years with good successe (I thanke god!) and a repute big enough for a person of greater parts than my selfe.
My brother died in the seaven and fortieth year of his age, upon the 27th of Februarie in the yeare 1666, and was buried upon the first of March.
Dear Sir, I am highly obliged to you that you would be pleased to remember and reflect upon such low and forgotten thinges as my brother and my selfe. I shall be ever ready to acknowledge the honour you have done us, and if you have any Concerne in these parts that I may be serviceable in: I humblie beg, that you would call upon and Command,
Honoured Cousin,
Your most affectionate and most faithfull humble
servant. H: Vaughan.
June the 15th —73.
Sir Robert Moray the morning he dyed told me he buryed my cosen Thomas Vaughan at Albery neer Ricot within three miles of Oxford. He dyed at Mr. Kem’s howse, the minister.
EDWARD DE VERE: EARL OF OXFORD
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[Born 1550. He was a courtier of Queen Elizabeth, who lost his friends by his insolence and pride, and his fortune by his extravagance. He married a daughter of Lord Burghley, who had to support his family after his death. He had some reputation as a writer of short pieces, many of which are in The Paradise of D
ainty Devices. He was the seventeenth holder of the title and died in 1604.]
HIS EARLE OF Oxford, making of his low obeisance to Queen Elizabeth, happened to let a Fart, at which he was so abashed and ashamed that he went to Travell, 7 yeares. On his returne the Queen welcomed him home, and sayd, My Lord, I had forgott the Fart.
Mr. Nicholas Hill was one of the most learned men of his Time: a great Mathematician and Philosopher, and a Poet and Traveller. But no writer (that I ever heard of) or, if he was, his writings had the usuall fate of those not printed in the Author’s life-time. He was (or leaning) a Roman Catholiq. He was so eminent for knowledge, that he was the favourite of the great Earle of Oxford, who had him to accompanie him in his Travells (he was his Steward) which were so splendid and sumptuous, that he lived at Florence in more grandeur than the Duke of Tuscany. This Earle spent fourty thousand pounds per annum in seaven yeares Travell.
In his Travells with his Lord (I forget whither Italy or Germany, but I thinke the former) a poor man begged him to give him a penny. A penny! said Mr. Hill, what dost say to ten pound? Ah! ten pound! said the Beggar, that would make a man happy. N. Hill gave him immediately 10 pounds and putt it downe upon account—Item, to a Beggar ten pounds, to make him happy, which his Lordship allowed and was well pleased at it.
As I have heard, it was that great Antiquary King Charles the First his observation, that the three ancientist Families of Europe for Nobility, were the Veres in England, Earls of Oxford, and the Fitz-Geralds in Ireland, Earls of Kildare, and Momorancy in France.
Surlinesse and inurbanitie too common in England: Chastise these very severely. A better instance of a squeamish and disobligeing, slighting, insolent, proud fellow, perhaps cannot be found then in Gwin, the Earle of Oxford’s Secretary. No reason satisfies him, but he overweenes and cutts some sower faces that would turne the milke in a faire ladie’s breast.
WILLIAM DE VISSCHER
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[Born 1595. Merchant. His family came from Emden, where he was born, which was then a Hanseatic Port and so one of the main trading centres in Europe. He died in 1668.]
AT TWO YEARES old was brought into England by his father, an eminent Merchant; lived 55 yeares in one house at St. Mary Hill, and dyed in the 74th yeare of his age. He lived there till the Fire of London; he dyed about 3 yeares after—he did not enjoy himselfe afterwards.
In the last great Dearth of Corne in England, when there was a great complaint and Cry of the Poore, he bade them bee of good comfort for they should not starve, for he would give them his labour and the use of his Estate for that yeare. He (being a man of vast Credit) gave his Factors order that what corne they could buy at such and such rates beyond sea, to hire flye-boates and send them over to the Port of London, of which he bought in one yeare two thousand five hundred sayle. The Corne that cost him 12s. per bushell beyond sea, he sold here for 14s.; and some of the places from whence he had corne (they selling it by reason of the greatnesse of the price) afterwards wanted it themselves and were faine to be supplied from hence; for which they were faine to pay halfe value more then the first cost, or els must have starved.
Many Disasters happened to many of the Shippes that were bound for London (some that never arrived were destroyed by foule weather; some wind-bound so long till their Corne fired for want of ayering, and was faine to be throwne overboard) that in the whole matter, after all the adventures runne, he did not gaine five and twenty hundred pounds. The Fly-boates caryed 800 tunne, and some more.
He was a very eminent Merchant, as most was of his time; and was valued by common reputation (when he maried his daughter) to be worth sixscore thousand pounds.
He stayed in London during the whole time of the Plague, and had not all that time one sick in his family. He was a temperate man, and had his house very cleanly kept.
EDMUND WALLER
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[Born 1606. Poet. He belonged to an old and wealthy family, and though he was related to John Hampden and was distantly connected with Oliver Cromwell, he was a staunch Royalist. At the age of sixteen he became a Member of Parliament, in which he sat for various constituencies for the rest of his life. In 1631 he added still further to his fortune by marrying Anne Banks, a London heiress, who died three years later. In 1643 he was detected in a Royalist plot and was expelled from the House, fined £10,000, and banished. On this occasion he showed cowardice and treachery, humiliating himself in the most abject manner and betraying all his associates. Returning to England by permission in 1652, he addressed some laudatory verses to Cromwell. Nevertheless, at the Restoration he was ready with a congratulatory address to Charles II, and when the King pointed out its inferiority to the Ode on Cromwell, Waller replied, Poets, Sire, succeed better in fiction than in truth. The poem, however, succeeded in its object, and the poet became a favourite at court and sat in Parliament until his death in 1687.]
I HAVE HEARD Mr. Thomas Bigge, of Wickham, say (who was his schoole-fellow, and of the same forme) that he little thought then he would have been so rare a Poet; he was wont to make his Exercise for him.
About 23, or between that and 30, he grew (upon I know not what occasion) mad; but ’twas (I thinke) not long ere he was cured. He was proud: to such, a Check often gives that distemper. He was passionately in love with Dorothea, the eldest daughter of the Earle of Leicester, whom he haz eternized in his Poems: and the Earle loved him, and would have been contented that he should have had one of the youngest daughters; perhaps this might be the Check.
One of the first refiners of our English language and poetrey. When he was a brisque young sparke, and first studyed Poetry; me thought, sayd he, I never sawe a good copie of English verses; they want smoothness; then I began to essay. I have severall times heard him say that he cannot versify when he will: but when the Fitt comes upon him, he does it easily, i.e. in plaine terms, when his Mercurius and Venus are well aspected.
He told me he was not acquainted with Ben Johnson (who dyed about 1638) but familiarly with Lucius, Lord Falkland, Sydney Godolphin, Mr. Hobbes, etc.
I have heard Mr. Edmund Waller say that the Lord Marquisse of Newcastle was a great Patron to Dr. Gassendi, and M. DesCartes, as well as Mr. Hobbes, and that he hath dined with them all three at the Marquiss’s Table at Paris.
He was very much admired at Court before the late Civill Warres. 1643, he being then a Member of the house of Commons, he was committed prisoner to the Tower for the Plott with Tomkins (his cosen germane) and Chaloner, for firing the City of London and delivering the Parliament, etc., to the King’s partie. He had much adoe then to save his life, and in order to do it, sold his Estate in Bedfordshire, about 1300 pounds per annum, to Dr. Wright, M.D., for about 10,000 pounds (much under value) which was procured in 24 hours time or els he had been hanged: With which money he Bribed the whole House, which was the first time a house of Commons was ever bribed. His excellent rhetoricall speech to the House to save his life, as also his Panegyrique to Oliver, Lord Protector, he would not suffer to be inserted in the edition of his Poems since the restauration of King Charles II.
When King Charles II returned, he received Mr. Waller very kindly, and no man’s conversation is more esteemed at Court now then his. The Dutches of Yorke (daughter to the Duke of Modena) very much delights in his company, and hath layd her commands on him to write, which he hath dedicated to her Highnes.
His Intellectuals are very good yet (1680) and he makes verses, but he growes feeble. He wrote verses of the Bermudas 50 yeares since, upon the information of one who had been there; walking in his fine woods the poetique spirit came upon him.
He is of somewhat above a middle stature, thin body, not at all robust; fine thin skin, his face somewhat of an olivaster, his hayre frizzd, of a brownish colour; full eye, popping out and working; ovall faced, his forehead high and full of wrinckles: his head but small, braine very hott, and apt to be cholerique. He is something magisteriall, and haz a great mastership of the English Language. He is of admirable and grac
efull Elocution and exceeding ready.
He has spent most of his time in London; especially in Winter; but oftentimes in the Summer he enjoyes his Muse at Beconsfield in Bucks, which is incomparable Aire, and where are delicious walkes in the woods. Now I speake of Woods, I remember he told us there, that he cutt downe and grubbed-up a Beech wood of his, at Beconsfield in Bucks, and without soweing, but naturally, there sprang up a wood all of Birch.
He haz but a tender weake body, but was alwayes very temperate. They made him damnable drunke at Somerset-house, where, at the water stayres, he fell downe, and had a cruell fall. ’Twas pitty to use such a sweet swan so inhumanely.
I have heard him say that he so much admired Mr. Thomas Hobbes booke De Cive, when it came forth, that he was very desirous to have it donne into English, and Mr. Hobbes was most willing it should be done by Mr. Waller’s hand, for that he was so great a Master of our English language. Mr. Waller freely promised him to doe it, but first he would desire Mr. Hobbes to make an Essaye; he (T. H.) did the first booke, and did it so extremely well, that Mr. Waller would not meddle with it, for that nobody els could doe it so well.
Mr. Christopher Wase repeating to him the bitter satyricall verses made on Sir Carre Scroop, viz:
Thy Brother murdred, and thy Sister whor’d,
Thy Mother too, and yet thy Penne’s thy Sword;