Miscellanies upon Various Subjects

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MISCELLANIES UPON VARIOUS SUBJECTS.
BY JOHN AUBREY, F.RS.

CONTENTS
LIFE of Aubrey
Dedication to the First Edition
Day-Fatality; or, Some Observations of Days Lucky and Unlucky
Day-Fatality of Rome
Of Fatalities of Families and Places
Ostenta; or, Portents
Omens
Dreams
Apparitions
Voices
Impulses
Knockings
Blows invisible
Prophesies
Miranda
Magick
Transportation by an invisible Power
Visions in a Beryl or Crystal
Visions without a Glass or Crystal
Converse with Angels and Spirits
Corps-candles in Wales
Oracles
Ecstacy
Glances of Love and Malice
An accurate account of Second-Sighted men in Scotland
Additaments of Second-Sight
Farther Additaments
Appendix
THE LIFE OF JOHN AUBREY.
JOHN AUBREY, the subject of this brief notice, was born at Easton Pierse, (Parish of Kington,) in Wiltshire, on the 12th of March, 1626; and not on the 3rd of November in that year, as stated by some of his biographers. He was the eldest son of Richard Aubrey, Esq. of Burleton, Herefordshire, and Broad Chalk, Wiltshire. Being, according to his own statement, "very weak, and like to dye," he was baptized on the day of his birth, as appears by the Register of Kington. At an early age (1633) he was sent to the Grammar School at Yatton Keynel, and in the following year he was placed under the tuition of Mr. Robert Latimer, the preceptor of Hobbes, a man then far advanced in years.
On the 2nd of May, 1642, being then sixteen years of age, Aubrey was entered a gentleman commoner of Trinity College, Oxford, where he appears to have applied himself closely to study. He however cherished a strong predilection for English History and Antiquities, which was fostered and encouraged at this time by the appearance of the "Monasticon Anglicanum", to which he contributed a plate of Osney Abbey, an ancient ruin near Oxford, entirely destroyed in the Civil Wars.
On the 16th of April, 1646, Aubrey was admitted a student of the Middle Temple, but the death of his father shortly after, leaving him heir to estates in Wiltshire, Surrey, Herefordshire, Brecknockshire and Monmouthshire, obliged him to relinquish his studies and look to his inheritance, which was involved in several law suits.
Though separated from his associates in the University, he appears to have kept up a correspondence with several of them, and among others, Anthony Wood, whom he furnished with much valuable information. Wood made an ungrateful return for this assistance, and in his Autobiography thus speaks of him:-"An. 1667, John Aubrey of Easton Piers in the parish of Kingston, Saint Michael in Wiltshire, was in Oxon. with Edward Forest, a Bookseller, living against Alls. Coll. to buy books. He then saw lying on the stall Notitiae Academiae Oxoniensis, and asking who the author of that book was ? he [Edw. Forest] answered, the report was that one Mr. Anth. Wood, of Merton College was the author, but was not. Whereupon Mr. Aubrey, a pretender to Antiquities, having been contemporary to A. Wood's elder brother in Trin. Coll. and well acquainted with him, he thought, that he might be as well acquainted with A. W. himself, Whereupon repairing to his lodgings, and telling him who he was, he got into his acquaintance, talked to him about his studies, and offered him what assistance he could make, in order to the completion of the work that he was in hand with. Mr. Aubrey was then in sparkish garb, came to town with his man and two horses, spent high, and flung out A. W. in all his recknings. But his estate of 70011 per an. being afterwards sold and he reserving nothing of it to himself, liv'd afterwards in very sorry condition, and at length made shift to rub out by hanging on Edm. Wyld, Esq., living in Blomesbury near London, on James Carle of Abendon, whose first wife was related to him, and on Sr Joh. Aubrey his kinsman, living sometimes in Glamorganshire and sometimes at Borstall near Brill in Bucks. He was a shiftless person, roving and magotie-headed, and sometimes little better than crased. And being exceedingly credulous, would stuff his many letters sent to A. W. with folliries and misinformations, which would sometimes guid him into the paths of errour." This example of bad English, and worse taste, was written after twenty-five years acquaintance! In singular contrast to it, is a letter of Aubrey to Wood, charging him, it is true, with an abuse of confidence and detraction, but urging his complaint in terms which sufficiently evince the kindly and affectionate nature of the writer.
Malone, in his " Historical Account of the English Stage," has done Aubrey justice; and his remarks may properly find a place here. " That the greater part of his (Aubrey's) life was devoted to literary pursuits, is ascertained by the works which he has published, the correspondence which he held with many eminent men, and the collections which he left in manuscript and which are now reposited in the Ashmolean Museum. Among these collections is a curious account of our English Poets,