The Natural History of Wiltshire | Page 4

acknowledged the receipt of the work in a previous letter, in which he says: "I have read it over with great pleasure and satisfaction. You doe so mingle "utile dulci" {the useful with the sweet} that the book cannot but take with all sorts of readers: and it is pity it should be suppressed; which, though you make a countenance of, I cannot persuade myself you really intend to do:" and then proceeds to criticise a few pedantic or "new-coyned " words, and also the contents of
Chapter VIII.
(
Part I.) It was
probably soon afterwards that Evelyn perused and added some notes to the manuscript;? and in February 1694 Aubrey also lent the work to Thomas Tanner (afterwards Bishop of St Asaph), at his earnest request. He seems to have become acquainted with his fellow county-man, Tanner, only a short time before this. The latter, although then only in his twenty-first year, and pursuing his studies at Oxford, had acquired a reputation for knowledge of English antiquities, and with the ardour and enthusiasm of youth evinced much anxiety to promote the publication of this and some of the other works of his venerable friend. He added several notes to the manuscript, and whilst in his possession it was no doubt examined also by Gibson. It is referred to in the notes to the latter's edition of Camden's " Britannia."
? [Perhaps in May 1692 ; when he is known to have examined another of Aubrey's works, "An Idea of Education of Young Gentlemen". - Evelyn's notes to the "Wiltshire" are thus referred to in a memorandum by Aubrey on a fly-leaf of the manuscript: "Mdm. That ye annotations to which are prefixed this marke [J. E.] were writt by my worthy friend John Evelyn, Esq. R.S.S. 'Twas pitty he wrote them in black lead; so that I was faine to runne them all over againe with inke. I thinke not more than two words are obliterated."]
Had Aubrey's life been spared a few years longer it is very possible that most of his manuscripts would have been printed, under the stimulus and with the assistance of his youthful friend. His "Miscellanies," which appeared in 1696, seem to have owed their publication to these influences; and in the Dedication of that work to his patron the Earl of Abingdon, Aubrey thus expressly mentions Tanner:- "It was my intention to have finished my Description of Wiltshire (half finished* already), and to have dedicated it to your Lordship, but my age is now too far spent for such undertakings.? I have therefore devolved that task on my countryman Mr. Thomas Tanner, who hath youth to go through with it, and a genius proper for such an undertaking."
* [The work alluded to still remains "half finished," being a Description of the " North Division" only of the county. It has been printed by Sir Thomas Phillipps from the MS. in the Ashmolean Museum. 4to. 1821-1838.]
? [He was then in his 71st year.]
A chapter of the "Natural History" (being "Fatalities of Families and Places"), was at this time detached from the original manuscript to furnish materials for the remarks on "Local Fatality," in the "Miscellanies."
John Aubrey died suddenly in the first week in June 1697, and was buried in the church of St. Mary Magdalen at Oxford, and from the time of his decease the original draught of his Wiltshire History has been carefully preserved in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, as the fair copy of 1690 has also in the Library of the Royal Society in London.
Until the "Natural History of Wiltshire" was briefly described in my own "Memoir" of its author, very little was known of it beyond the mere fact of the existence of the two manuscripts. Copying from the original at Oxford, Dr. Rawlinson printed the Preface and Dedication, together with Ray's letter of the 27th October, 1691, as addenda to his edition of Aubrey's "History of Surrey," (1719.) The same manuscript was also noticed by Thomas Warton and William Huddesford in a list of the author's works in the Ashmolean Museum.? Horace Walpole referred to the Royal Society's copy in his Anecdotes of Painting (1762); but though his reference seems to have excited the curiosity of Gough, the latter contented himself with stating that he could not find the work mentioned in Mr. Robertson's catalogue of the Society's library.
? [This list forms a note to the "Lives of Leland, Hearne, and Wood" (8° 1772). Though it includes the "Natural History," it omits the "Description of North Wiltshire." The latter was known previously, being mentioned by Aubrey himself in his Miscellanies, and also by Dr. Rawlinson; and hence, Warton and Huddesford's list being supposed to be complete, much confusion has arisen respecting these two of Aubrey's works, which have been sometimes considered as identical.]
Some years