Sir Edward Hyde, Earle of Clarendon, Lord Chancellour of England, was born at Dynton in Wiltshire. His father was the fourth and youngest sonn of..... Hyde, of Hatch, Esq. Sir Edward married [Frances] daughter of Sir Thomas Aylesbury, one of the clarks of the councell In his exile in France he wrote the History of the late Times, sc. from 1641 to 1660; near finished, but broken off by death, by whom he was attacked as he was writing; the penn fell out of his hand; he took it up again and tryed to write; and it fell out the second time. He then saw that it was time to leave off, and betooke himself to thinke about the other world. (From the Countess of Thanet.) He shortly after ended his dayes at [Rouen] Anno Domini 1674, and his body was brought over into England, and interred privately at Westminster Abbey. From the Earle of Clarendon. [Anthony Wood states (probably on the authority of Aubrey) that Clarendon was buried on the north side of Henry the Seventh's chapel in Westminster Abbey; but the place of his interment is not marked by any monument or inscription.-J. B.] _______

SOLDIERS. - Sir Henry Danvers, Knight, Earle of Danby and Baron of Dauntesey, was born at Dauntesey, 28th day of June Ano. Dni. 1573. He was of a magnificent and munificall spirit, and made that noble physic-garden at Oxford, and endowed it with I thinke 30li. per annum. In the epistles of Degory Wheare, History Professor of Oxford, in Latin, are severall addressed to his lordship that doe recite his worth. He allowed three thousand pounds per annum only for his kitchin. He bred up severall brave young gentleman and preferred them; e. g. Colonell Leg, and severall others, of which enquire further of my Lady Viscountesse Purbec. The estate of Henry Earle of Danby was above eleven thousand pounds per annum; near twelve. He died January the 20th, 1643, and lies buried in a little chapell made for his monument on the north side of Dantesey-church, near to the vault where his father and ancesters lye. [Aubrey here transcribes his epitaph, which, with other particulars of his life, will be found in the Beauties of Wiltshire, vol. iii. p. 76.—J. B.]

Sir Michael Ernele, Knight, was second son of Sir John Ernele, of Whetham in the County of Wilts. After he had spent some time at the University of Oxford, he betooke himself to a militarie life in the Low Countries, where he became so good a proficient that at his return into England at the beginning of the Civill warres, King Charles the First gave him the commission of a Colonell in his service, and shortly after he was made Governour of Shrewsbury, and he was, or intended to bee, Major Generall. He did his Majesty good service in the warres, as doth appeare by the Mercurii Aulici. His garrison at Shrewsbury being weakened by drawing out great part of them before the battel at Marston Moore, the townesmen plotted and betrayed his garrison to the Parliament soldiers. He was slain then in the market- place, about the time of the battle of Marston Moore.*

* [It was the common belief that Sir Michael Erneley was killed, as here stated, by the Parlimentary soldiers at the time Shrewsbury was taken (Feb. 3,1644-5); but in Owen and Blakeway's Hist, of Shrewsbury, 4to. 1825, the time and manner of his death is left uncertain. His name is included in the list of those who were made prisoners when the town surrendered.-J. B.]

William Ludlow, Esq. sonn and heir of Sir [Henry] Ludlow, and Dame...... daughter of the Lord Viscount Bindon, in this county, was Governour of Wardour Castle in this county, for the Parliament, which he valiantly defended till part of the castle was blown up, 1644 or 1645. He was Major General, &c. See his life in Mr. Anth. Wood's Antiquities of Oxford. [This passage refers to Edward (not William) Ludlow; the famous Republican general. His "Memoirs" were printed in 1698-9, at Vevay in Switzerland, where he died about five years previous to their publication. They have gone through several editions, and constitute a valuable historical record of the times. - J. B.]

Sir John Ernele, great-grandson of Sir John Ernele above sayd, and eldest sonn of Sir John Ernele, late Chancellour of the Exchequer, had the command of a flag-ship, and was eminent in some sea services. He married the daughter and heir of Sir John Kerle of.... in Herefordshire. _______

A DIGRESSION. - Anno 1633, I entred into my grammar at the latin schoole at Yatton-Keynel, in the church, where the curate, Mr. Hart, taught the eldest boyes Virgil, Ovid, Cicero, &c. The fashion then was to save the forules of their bookes with a false cover of parchment, sc. old manuscript, which I [could not] was too young to understand; but I was pleased with the elegancy of the writing and the coloured initiall letters. I remember the rector here, Mr. Wm. Stump, great gr.-son of St. the cloathier of Malmesbury, had severall manuscripts of the abbey. He was a proper man and a good fellow; and, when he brewed a barrell of speciall ale, his use was to stop the bung- hole, under the clay, with a sheet of manuscript; he sayd nothing did it so well: which me thought did grieve me then to see. Afterwards I went to schoole to Mr. Latimer at Leigh-delamer, the next parish, where was the like use of covering of bookes. In my grandfather's dayes the manuscripts flew about like butterflies. All music bookes, account bookes, copie bookes, &c. were covered with old manuscripts, as wee cover them now with blew paper or marbled paper; and the glovers at Malmesbury made great havoc of them; and gloves were wrapt up no doubt in many good pieces of antiquity. Before the late warres a world of rare manuscripts perished hereabout; for within half a dozen miles of this place were the abbey of Malmesbury, where it may be presumed the library was as well furnished with choice copies as most libraries of England; and perhaps in this library we might have found a correct Pliny's Naturall History, which Cantus, a monk here, did abridge for King Henry the Second. Within the aforesaid compass was Broad stock Priory, Stan Leigh Abbey, Farleigh Abbey, Bath Abbey, eight miles, and Cirencester Abbey, twelve miles. Anno 1638 I was transplanted to Blandford-schoole, in Dorset, to Mr. Wm. Sutton. (In Mr. Wm. Gardner's time it was the most eminent schoole for the education of gentlemen in the West of England.) Here also was the use of covering of bookes with old parchments, sc. leases, &c., but I never saw any thing of a manuscript there. Hereabout were no abbeys or convents for men. One may also perceive by the binding of old bookes how the old manuscripts went to wrack in those dayes. Anno 1647 I went to Parson Stump out of curiosity, to see his manuscripts, whereof I had seen some in my childhood; but by that time they were lost and disperse. His sons were gunners and souldiers, and scoured their gunnies with them; but he shewed me severall old deeds granted by the Lords Abbots, with their scales annexed, which I suppose his sonn Capt. Tho. Stump of Malmesbury hath still. [I have quoted part of this curious paragraph in my Memoir of Aubrey, 4to. 1845.-J. B.] _______

WRITERS.- William of Malmesbury. He was the next historiographer of this nation to Venerable Bede, as he himself written; and was fain, he sayes, to pick out his history out of ballads and old rhythmes..... hundred yeares after Bede. He dedicates his history to [Robert, Earl of Gloucester] "filio naturali Henrici primi". He wrote also the history of the abbey of Glastonbury, which is in manuscript in the library of Trinity College in Cambridge, wherein are many good remarques to be found, as Dr. Thomas Gale of Paules schoole enformes me. [This was edited by Gale, and published at Oxford in 1691, 8vo. - J. B.]

Robertus Sarisburiensis wrote a good discourse, De Piscinis, mentioned and commended by Sir Henry Wotton in his Elements of Architecture. Q. Anth. Wood, de hoc.

Dr..... Forman, - Mr. Ashmole thinkes his name was John, [Simon.- J. B.]- physitian and astrologer, was born at Wilton, in Wilts. He was of the University of Oxford, but took his degree of Doctor in Cambridge, practised in Salisbury, where he was persecuted for his astrologie, which in those ignorant times was accounted conjuring. He then came to London, where he had very good practise, and did great cures; but the college hated him, and at last drove him out of London: so he lived and died at Lambeth, where he lies buried. Elias Ashmole, Esq. has severall bookes of his writing (never printed), as also his own life. There it may be seen whether he was not a favorite of Mary, Countesse of Pembroke. He was a chymist, as far as chymistry went in those dayes, and 'tis very likely he was a favorite of her honour's. Quaere Mr. Dennet, the Earl of Pembrock's steward, if he had not a pension from the Earl of Pembrock? Forman is a common name in Calne parish, Wilts, where there are still severall wealthy men, cloathiers, &c. of that name; but tempore Regin Elizabeth there was a Forman of Calne, Lord Maior of London. My grandfather Lyte told me that at his Lord Maior's shew there was the representation of the creation of the world, and writt underneath, "and all for man." [Some interesting passages from Forman's MS. Diary have recently been brought forward by Mr. Collier in illustration of the history of Shakspere's works. They describe some very early performances of several of his plays, at which Forman was present. - J. B.]

Sr Johan Davys, Knight, was born at Tysbury; his father was a tanner. He wrote a poeme in English, called "Nosce Teipsum"*; also Reports. He was Lord Chief Justice in Ireland. His wife was sister to the Earle of Castle-Haven that was beheaded; she had also aliquid dementi, and was a prophetesse, for which she was confined in the Tower, before the late troubles, for her predictions. His onely daughter and heire was married to [Ferdinando] Earle of Huntingdon.

[*"Nosce Teipsum: this oracle expounded in two elegies. 1st. Of Human knowledge. 2nd. Of the soule of man, and the immortality thereof;" with acrostics on Queen Elizabeth. (London, 1609, small 8vo.) The works of the above named Lady Eleanor Davies, the prophetess, widow of Sir John, were of a most extraordinary kind. See a list of them in Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica. - J. B.]

Mr. Thomas Hobbes was born at Westport juxta Malmesbury, April the fifth, anno 1588, he told me, between four and six in the morning, in the house that faces or points to the horse-faire. He died at Hardwick in Darbyshire, Anno Domini 1679, tatis 91. [See Aubrey's Life of Hobbes, appended to Letters from the Bodleian, vol. iii. p. 593. - J. B.]

Thomas Willis, M.D., was born at Great Bedwin in this county, anno [1621.] His father, he told me, was steward to my Lady Smyth there. He dyed in London, and lies interred with his wife in Westminster Abbey.

Thomas Piers, D.D., and Dean of Salisbury, formerly President of Magdalen College in Oxford, was born at the Devizes. His father was a woollen draper and an alderman there.

Sir Christopher Wren, Knt., Surveyor of his Majesties buildings, the eldest sonne of Dr. Christopher Wren, Deane of Windsor, was born at Knoyle, in this county, where his father was rector, in the parsonage-house, anno 1631; christened November the 10th; but he tells me that he was born October the 20th. His mother fell in labour with him when the bell rung eight.

[Richard] Blackmore, M.D., born in Cosham parish, the sonne of an attorney, went to schoole to Parson.... of Dracot. Scripsit an Epique poeme, called Prince Arthur, 1694.

Sir William Penn, Vice-Admirall, born at Minety, in the hundred of Malmesbury. His father was a keeper in Braden forest: the lodge is called Penn's lodge to this day. He was father to William Penn, Esq. Lord Proprietor of Pensylvania; it is a very ancient family in Buckinghamshire. This family in North Wilts had heretofore a dependence on the Abbey of Malmesbury as stewards or officers. [Sir William Penn was buried in Redcliffe Church, Bristol. See Britten's Account of Redcliffe Church. - J. B.]

T. Byfield, a physician, sonn of Adoniram Byfield, the Assembly man, born at Collingbourn Ducis, where his father was rector. He published a book of Waters about 1684.

Mr. Edward Whatman, of Mayden Bradley, practitioner in physick, and very successfull in his practise. By reason of the civill warrs he was of no university, but he was a young man of great parts and great hopes. He died shortly after his Majesties restauration, aged about 35. He onely printed "Funerall Obsequies on the Honourable the Ladie Elizabeth Hopton, wife to Sir Ralph Hopton," London, 1647.

Mr. William Gardiner, the eminent schoolemaster at Blandford, about twenty yeares; born in this county; died about 1636, aetatis 47. _______

MUSICIANS.-The quire of Salisbury Cathedral hath produced as many able musicians, if not more, than any quire in this nation.

Andrew Markes, of Salisbury, where his father was a fiddle maker, was the best lutinist in England in his time - sc. the latter end of Queen Elizabeth and King James, and the best composer of lute lessons; and as to his compositions, Mr. Sam. Cowper, the famous limner, who was an excellent lutinist, did affirme that they are of great value to this time.

Jo. Coperario, whose reall name I have been told was Cowper, and Alfonso Ferrabosco, lived most in Wiltshire, sc. at Amesbury, and Wulfall, with Edward Earle of Hertford, who was the great patrone of musicians.

Davys Mell, born at Wilton, was the best violinist of any Englishman in England: he also took a fancy to make clocks and watches, and had a great name for the goodness of his work. He was of the King's musick, and died in London about 1663.

.... Bell, of Wilton, was sagbuttere to King Charles the First, and was the most excellent artist in playing on that instrument, which is very difficult, of any one in England. He dyed about the restauration of the King.

Humphrey Madge, of Salisbury, was servant bound to Sir John Danvers, and afterwards one of the violinists to King Charles the Second.

Will. Yokeney, a lutinist and a composer of songs, e. g. of Colonel Lovelace's songs, &c. was born at Lacock, 1646. Among other fine compositions of songs by Will. Yokeney, this following ought to be remembred, made 1646 or 1647, viz.:-

"What if the King should come to the city, Would he be then received I trow? Would the Parliament treat him with rigor or pity? Some doe think yea, but most doe think no, &c."'

It is a lively, briske aire, and was playd by the lowd musick when King Charles the Second made his entry in London at his restauration.

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 a most daring spirit; he would climbe 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 sixteen went in a voyage with his uncle, since Sir Thomas Ivy, to Guyana, in anno 1633, or 1632. When the ship put in some where there, four or five of them straggled into the countrey too far, and in the interim the wind served, and the sails were hoist, and the stragglers left behind. It was not long before the wild people seized on them and strip's 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. Stump threw himself into the river Pronoun to have drowned himself, but could not sinke; he is very full chested. The other youth shortly died. He lived with them till 1636 or 1637. His narrations are very strange and pleasant; but so many yeares since have made me almost forget all. He sayes there is incomparable fruite there, and that it may be termed the paradise of the world. He says that the spondyles of the backbones of the huge serpents there are used to sit on, as our women sitt upon butts. He taught them to build hovels, and to thatch and wattle. I wish I had a good account of his abode there; he is "fide dignus". I never heard of any man that lived so long among those salvages. A ship then sayling by, a Portughese, he swam to it; and they took him up and made use of him for a seaboy. As he was sayling near Cornwall he stole out of a port-hole and swam to shore; and so begged to his father's in Wiltshire. When he came home, nobody 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 the First's army.

PART II. - CHAPTER II.

OF THE GRANDEUR OF THE HERBERTS, EARLES OF PEMBROKE.

WILTON HOUSE AND GARDENS.

[AUBREY'S account of the famous seat of the Pembroke family at Wilton, and of its choice and valuable contents, will be found exceedingly interesting. His statements are based upon his own knowledge of the mansion before the Civil Wars, and upon information derived from Thomas Earl of Pembroke, Dr. Caldicot, who had been chaplain to the Earl's family, and Mr. Unlades, who also held some appointment in the establishment.

As the ensuing narrative is occasionally somewhat obscure, owing to its want of method and arrangement, it may be useful to prefix a brief summary of the history of the mansion, with reference to dates, names, and other necessary particulars.

William Herbert, the founder of this branch of the family, married Anne, sister to Queen Katharine Parr, the last wife of Henry VIII. He was knighted by that monarch in 1544, and in the same year the buildings and lands of the dissolved Abbey of Wilton, with many other estates in different counties, were conferred upon him by the King. Being left executor, or "conservator" of Henry's will, he possessed considerable influence at the court of the young sovereign, Edward VI.; by whom he was created Earl of Pembroke (1551). He immediately began to alter and adapt the conventual's buildings at Wilton to a mansion suited to his rank and station. Amongst other new works of his time was the famous porch in the court-yard, generally ascribed to Hans Holborn (who died in 1554). To what extent this nobleman carried his building operations is not known. He was succeeded in 1570 by his son Henry, who probably made further additions to the house. This nobleman married Mary, the sister of Sir Philip Sidney, a lady whose name is illustrious in the annals of literature. He died in 1601.

William, his son (the second Earl of that name), who has been fully noticed in the last Chapter, succeeded him in the title, and was followed in 1630 by his brother Philip, who, in 1633, at the instigation of King Charles I., added a range of buildings at Wilton, forming the south front of the house, and facing an extensive garden which was laid out at the same time. In designing both the building and the gardens, he employed Solomon de Caus, a Gascon, on the recommendation of Inigo Jones. About fifteen years afterwards the south front so erected was destroyed by fire, and rebuilt by the same Earl in 1648, from the designs of John Webb, who had married the niece of Inigo Jones. This peer was a great lover of the fine arts, and a patron of Vandyck. He died in 1650.

Philip, his son (the second Earl of that name), experienced some pecuniary difficulties, and the valuable collection of pictures and books formed by his predecessor, was sold by auction, and dispersed for the benefit of his creditors. Aubrey's description, from his own familiar knowledge of them before the sale, is therefore the more curious and valuable.

In 1669 the second Earl Philip was succeeded by his son William (the third of that name), and on the death of the latter in 1674, the title and estates were inherited by his brother, a third Earl Philip. The two last-mentioned noblemen, according to Aubrey, "espoused not learning, but were addicted to field sports and hospitality". Their younger brother, Thomas, became Earl of Pembroke in 1683. He was a warm admirer and liberal patron of literature and the fine arts, and is famous as the founder of the magnificent collection of ancient marbles, coins, &c. which have given great celebrity to Wilton House. Aubrey dedicated the present work to that nobleman, soon after he succeeded to the title, and was honoured with his personal friendship. The Earl survived him many years, and was succeeded by Henry, the second of that name, in 1733. Of the latter nobleman and his works at Wilton, Horace Walpole wrote as follows:- "The towers, the chambers, the scenes which Holbein, Jones, and Vandyke had decorated, and which Earl Thomas had enriched with the spoils of the best ages, received the best touches of beauty from Earl Henry's hand. He removed all that obstructed the views to or from his palace, and threw Palladium's theatric bridge over his river. The present Earl has crowned the summit of the hill with the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, and a handsome arch designed by Sir William Chambers.* No man had a purer taste in building than Earl Henry, of which he gave a few specimens besides his works at Wilton." (Anecdotes of Painting, &c.) The nobleman thus commended for his architectural taste, was succeeded as Earl of Pembroke, in 1751, by his son Henry, who employed Sir William Chambers as mentioned by Walpole; and George, who succeeded to the Earldom in 1794, caused other extensive additions and alterations to be made at Wilton, by the late James Wyatt. - J. B.]

*[I have in my possession a drawing of this arch by the architect. - J. B.]

THE old building of the Earl of Pembroke's house at WILTON was designed by an architect (Hans Holbein) in King Edward the Sixth's time. The new building which faced the garden was designed by Monsieur Solomon de Caus, tempore Caroli {primi}, but this was burnt by accident and rebuilt 1648, Mr. Webb then being surveyor. [See next page.]

[There is no authority for the assertion that Holbein designed more than the porch mentioned elsewhere.-J. B.]

The situation of Wilton House is incomparably noble. It hath not only the most pleasant prospect of the gardens and Rowlindon Parke, but from thence over a lovely flatt to the city of Salisbury, where that lofty steeple cuts the horizon, and so to Ivychurch; and to add further to the glory of this prospect the right honourable Thomas, Earle of Pembroke, did, anno 1686, make a stately canal from Quidhampton to the outer base-court of his illustrious palace.

The house is great and august, built all of freestone, lined with brick, which was erected by Henry Earle of Pembroke. [Holbein's porch, and probably other parts of the house, were anterior to the time of the first Earl Henry. See the introductory note to this chapter.- J. B.] Mr. Inigo Jones told Philip, first Earle of Pembroke, that the porch in the square court was as good architecture as any was in England. 'Tis true it does not stand exactly in the middle of the side, for which reason there were some would have perswaded his Lordship to take it down; but Mr. Jones disswaded him, for the reasons aforesayd, and that we had not workmen then to be found that could make the like work. - (From Dr. Caldicot.)

King Charles the first did love Wilton above all places, and came thither every summer. It was he that did put Philip first Earle of Pembroke upon making this magnificent garden and grotto, and to new build that side of the house that fronts the garden, with two stately pavilions at each end, all "al Italiano". His Majesty intended to have had it all designed by his own architect, Mr. Inigo Jones, who being at that time, about 1633, engaged in his Majesties buildings at Greenwich, could not attend to it; but he recommended it to an ingeniouse architect, Monsieur Solomon de Caus, a Gascoigne, who performed it very well; but not without the advice and approbation of Mr. Jones: for which his Lordship settled a pension on him of, I think, a hundred pounds per annum for his life, and lodgings in the house. He died about 1656; his picture is at Mr. Gauntlet's house at Netherhampton. I shall gladly surcease to make any further attempt of the description of the house, garden, stables, and approaches, as falling too short of the greatness and excellency of it. Mr. Loggan's graver will render it much more to the life, and leave a more fixt impression in the reader. [This refers to one of Aubrey's contemplated illustrations. See Chap. XX. (in a subsequent page), Draughts of the Seates and Prospects.-J. B.]

The south side of this stately house, that was built by Monsieur de Caus, was burnt ann. 1647 or 1648, by airing of the roomes. In anno 1648 Philip (the first) re-edifyed it, by the advice of Inigo Jones; but he, being then very old, could not be there in person, but left it to Mr. Webb, who married his niece.

THE PICTURES. In the hall (of old pieces) were the pictures of the Ministers of State in Queen Elizabeth's time, and some of King Henry the Eighth. There was Robert, Earle of Essex, that was beheaded, &c.

At the stairecase, the picture of Sir Robert Naunton, author of "Fragmenta Regalia;" his name was writt on the frame. At the upper end was the picture of King Charles I. on horseback, with his French riding master by him on foot, under an arch; all as big as the life: which was a copie of Sir Anthony Vandyke, from that at Whitehall. By it was the picture of Peacock, a white race - horse, with the groom holding him, as big as the life: and to both which Sir Anthony gave many master touches. Over the skreen is a very long picture, by an Italian hand, of Aurora guiding her horses, neigheing, and above them the nymphes powring down out of phialls the morning showres. Here was the "Table" of Cebes, a very large picture, and done by a great master, which the genius describes to William, the first earl of this family, and lookes on him, pointing to Avarice, as to be avoyded by a noble person; and many other ancient pieces which I have now forgott.

The long gallery was furnished with the ministers of estate and heroes of Queen Elizabeth's time, and also some of the French. In one of the pictures of Sir Philip Sydney are these verses, viz.-

"Who gives himselfe may well his picture give, Els were it vain, since both short time doe live."

At the 'upper end is the picture of King James the First sitting in his throne, in his royall robes; a great piece, as big as the life; by him on the right hand wall is the picture of William Herbert, first earle, at length, as big as the life, and under it the picture of his little dog, of a kind of chesnut colour, that starved himselfe for his master's death. Here is the picture of Henry Earle of Pembroke and his Countesse; and of William Earle of Pembroke, Lord Chamberlain; severall Earles of Oxford; and also of Aubrey Earle of Oxford, now living; the pictures of Cardinal Wolsey; Archy (King James's jester);......, governour to Sir Philip Sydney; Mr. Secretary Walsingham, in his gown and wrought cap; Mary Countess of Pembrok, sister of Sir Philip Sydney; the last Lady Abbess of Wilton (Lady Anna Gawen), a pretty, beautiful, modest Penelope; with many others now forgotten by me and everybody else.

[The last mentioned name must be erroneous. The Abbess of Wilton at the time of the dissolution of monasteries was Cecily Bodenham, who had previously been Prioress of St. Mary's, Kington St. Michael. - J. B.]

I was heretofore a good nomenclator of these pictures, which was delivered to me from a child eight yeares old, by old persons relating to this noble family. It is a great and a generall fault that in all galleries of pictures the names are not writt underneath, or at least their coates of armes. Here was also the picture of Thomas Lyte, of Lytes Cary; and a stately picture of King Henry the eighth.

The genius of Philip (first) Earle of Pembroke lay much to painting and building, and he had the best collection of paintings of the best masters of any peer of his time in England; and, besides those pictures before mentioned, collected by his ancestors, he adorned the roomes above staires with a great many pieces of Georgeon [Giorgione], and some of Titian, his scholar. His lordship was the great patron of Sir Anthony Van Dyck, and had the most of his paintings of any one in the world; some whereof, of his family, are fixt now in the great pannells of the wainscot in the great dining roome, or roome of state; which is a magnificent, stately roome; and his Majesty King Charles the Second was wont to say, 'twas the best proportioned roome that ever he saw.* In the cieling piece of this great roome is a great peece, the Marriage of Perseus, drawn by the hand of Mr. Emanuel De Cretz; and all about this roome, the pannells below the windows, is painted by him, the whole story of Sir Philip Sydney's Arcadia, Quaere, Dr. Caldicot and Mr. Uniades, what was the story or picture in the cieling when the house was burnt. At the upper end of this noble roome is a great piece of Philip (first) Earle of Pembroke and both his Countesses, and all his children, and the Earle of Carnarvon, as big as the life, with landskip beyond them; by the hand of that famous master in painting Sir Anthony Van Dyk, which is held one of his best pictures that ever he drew, and which was apprized at 1,000 li. by the creditors of Philip the third earle of Pembrok. Mr. Uniades told me that he heard Philip (first) Earle say, that he gave to Sir Anthony Van Dyk for it five hundred Jacobuses. 'Tis an heirloome, and the creditors had nothing to doe with it, but Mr. Davys the painter, that was brought from London to apprize the goods, did apprize it at a thousand pounds. Captain Wind tells me that there is a tagliedome of this great picture: enquire for it. [A critical account of this picture, which is 17 feet in length by l1 feet in height, and contains ten full-length portraits, will be found in the Beauties of Wiltshire, vol. i. p. 180-187. It was engraved by Bernard Baron in 1740. - J. B.]

*[This refers to the "double-cube" room, as it is often called, from its proportions. The Great Hall at Kenilworth was also a double cube; and the same form was adopted in many other old buildings. - J. B.]

[In "A Description of the Antiquities and Curiosities in Wilton House," 4to. these paintings are ascribed to Signer Tomaso and his brother.-J. B.]

The anti-roome to the great roome of state is the first roome as you come up staires from the garden, and the great pannells of wainscot are painted with the huntings of Tempesta, by that excellent master in landskip Mr. Edmund Piers. He did also paint all the grotesco - painting about the new buildings.

[Ascribed to Tempesta junior in the "Description" already mentioned.-J. B.]

In the roome within this great roome is the picture of King Charles the First on his dun horse by Van Dyk; it hangs over the chimney. Also the Dutchess of Richmond by Van Dyk. Now this rare collection of pictures is sold and dispersed, and many of those eminent persons' pictures are but images without names; all sold by auction and disparkled by administratorship: they are, as the civilians term them, "bona caduca". But, as here were a number of pictures sold, with other goods, by the creditors of Philip (the second), so this earle [Thomas] hath supplied it with an admirable collection of paintings by great masters in Italy, when his lordship was there, and since; as he also did for prints, and bookes of fortification, &c.

THE LIBRARIE.- Here was a noble librarie of bookes, choicely collected in the time of Mary Countesse of Pembroke. I remember there were a great many Italian bookes; all their poets; and bookes of politic and historic. Here was Dame Julian Barnes of Hunting, Hawking, and Heraldry, in English verses, printed temp. Edward the Fourth. (Philip, third earle, gave Dame Julian Barnes to Capt. Edw. Saintlo of Dorsetshire.) A translation of the whole book of Psalmes, in English verse, by Sir Philip Sydney, writt curiously, and bound in crimson velvet and gilt; it is now lost. Here was a Latin pome, a manuscript, writt in Julius Csar's time. [See ante, p. 60.] Henry Earle of Pembroke was a great lover of heraldrie, and collected curious manuscripts of it, that I have seen and perused; e. g. the coates of armes and short histories of the English nobility, and bookes of genealogies; all well painted and writt. 'Twas Henry that did sett up all the glasse scutchions about the house: qure if he did not build it? Now all these bookes are sold and dispersed as the pictures.

THE ARMORIE. The armory is a very long roome, which I guesse to have been a dorture heretofore. Before the civill warres, I remember, it was very full. The collection was not onely great, but the manner of obtaining it was much greater; which was by a victory at the battle of St. Quintin's, where William the first Earle of Pembroke was generall, Sir George Penruddock, of Compton Chamberlain, was Major Generall, and William Aubrey, LL.D. my great-grandfather, was Judge Advocat. There were armes, sc. the spoile, for sixteen thousand men, horse and foot. (From the Right Honourable Thomas Earle of Pembroke.)

Desire my brother William Aubrey to gett a copy of the inventory of it. Before the late civill warres here were musketts and pikes for .. . hundred men; lances for tilting; complete armour for horsemen; for pikemen, &c. The rich gilt and engraved armour of Henry VIII. The like rich armour of King Edward VI. In the late warres much of the armes was imbecill'd.

WILTON GARDEN: by Solomon de Caus. [See also in a subsequent page, Chap. IV. OF GARDENS.] "This garden, within the inclosure of the new wall, is a thousand foot long, and about four hundred in breadth; divided in its length into three long squares or parallellograms, the first of which divisions, next the building, hath four platts embroydered; in the midst of which are four fountaines, with statues of marble in their middle; and on the sides of those platts are the platts of flowers; and beyond them is a little terrass raised, for the more advantage of beholding those platts. In the second division are two groves or woods, cutt with divers walkes, and through those groves passeth the river Nader, having of breadth in this place 44 foote, upon which is built the bridge, of the breadth of the great walke: and in the middest of the aforesayd groves are two great statues of white marble of eight foot high, the one of Bacchus, and the other of Flora; and on the sides ranging with the platts of flowers are two covered arbours of three hundred foot long, and divers allies. At the beginning of the third and last division are, on either side of the great walke, two ponds with fountains, and two columnes in the middle, casting water all their height; which causeth the moving and turning of two crowns at the top of the same; and beyond is a compartment of green, with divers walkes planted with cherrie trees; and in the middle is the great ovall, with the Gladiator of brasse, the most famous statue of all that antiquity hath left. On the sides of this compartment, and answering the platts of flowers and long arbours, are three arbours of either side, with turning galleries, communicating themselves one into another. At the end of the great walke is a portico of stone, cutt and adorned with pyllasters and nyckes, within which are figures of white marble, of five foot high. On either side of the said portico is an ascent leading up to the terrasse, upon the steps whereof, instead of ballasters, are sea-monsters, casting water from one to the other, from the top to the bottome; and above the sayd portico is a great reserve of water for the grotto."

[The gardens of Wilton were illustrated by a series of twenty-six folio copper plates, with the following title; "Le Jardin De Wilton, construct par le trs noble et trs p. seigneur Philip Comte Pembroke et Montgomeri. Isaac de Caux invt." The above description is copied from one of these plates. Solomon de Caus was architect and engineer to the Elector Palatine, and constructed the gardens at Heidelberg in 1619. Walpole infers that Isaac and Solomon de Caus were brothers, and that they erected, in conjunction with each other, "the porticos and loggias of Gorhambury, and part of Campden house, near Kensington." (Anecdotes of Painting.) As the engravings of Wilton gardens bear the name of Isaac, he had probably some share in the arrangement of the grounds, and perhaps also in building the house. In Campbell's Vitruvius Britannicus, vols. ii. and iii. are several views, plans, and sections of Wilton House and grounds. - J. B.]

The grotto is paved with black and white marble; the roofe is vaulted. The figures of the tritons, &c. are in bas-relieve, of white marble, excellently well wrought. Here is a fine jeddeau and nightingale pipes. Monsieur de Caus had here a contrivance, by the turning of a cock, to shew three rainbowes, the secret whereof he did keep to himself; he would not let the gardener, who shewes it to strangers, know how to doe it; and so, upon his death, it is lost. The grott and pipes did cost ten thousand pounds. The garden is twelve acres within the terrace of the grott.

The kitchin garden is a very good one, and here are good ponds and a decoy. By the kitchin garden is a streame which turnes a wheele that moves the engine to raise the water to the top of a cisterne at the corner of the great garden, to serve the water-workes of the grotto and fountaines in the garden.

Thomas, Earle of Pembroke, told me that his sister-in-law's priest, a Frenchman, made a pretty poem or poemation on Wilton House and Garden, in Latin verse, which Mr. Berford, his Lordship's Chaplain, can procure.

THE STABLES, of Roman architecture, built by Mons. de Caus, have a noble avenu to them, a square court in the middle; and on the four sides of this court were the pictures of the best horses as big as the life, painted in severall postures, by a Frenchman. Among others was the great black crop-eared stone horse on which Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, was killed at the battle of Lutzen, two miles from Leipzig. Upon the comeing of the Scotts, in 1639, Sir. .. Fenwyck and. .. fearing their breeds of horses would be taken away by the Scotts, did sell their breeds of horses and mares to Philip (first) Earle of Pembroke. His Lordship had also Morocco horses, and for race horses, besides Peacock and Delavill, he had a great many more kept at the parke at Ramesbury and at Rowlinton. Then for his stagge-hunting, fox-hunting, brooke-hawking, and land-hawking, what number of horses were kept to bee fitt at all seasons for it, I leave the reader to guesse, besides his horses for at least halfe a dozen coaches. Mr. Chr. Wroughton guesses not lesse than an hundred horses. [In the notice of William, first Earl of Pembroke, in Aubrey's "Lives of Eminent Men," he says, "This present Earl (1680) has at Wilton 52 mastives and 30 greyhounds, some beares, and a lyon, and a matter of 60 fellowes more bestiall than they." - J. B.]

OF HIS LORDSHIP'S HOUNDS, GREYHOUNDS, AND HAWKES. His Lordship had all sorts of hounds, for severall disports: sc. harbourers (great hounds) to harbour the stagges, and also small bull-dogges to break the bayes of the stagge; fox-hounds, finders, harriers, and others. His Lordship had the choicest tumblers that were in England, and the same tumblers that rode behind him he made use of to retrieve the partridges. The setting-doggs for supper-flights for his hawkes. Grayhounds for his hare warren, as good as any were in England. When they returned from hawking the ladies would come out to see the hawkes at the highest flying, and then they made use of their setting dogges to be sure of a flight. His Lordship had two hawkes, one a falcon called Shrewsbury, which he had of the Earle of Shrewsbury, and another called the little tercel, which would fly quite out of sight, that they knew not how to shew the fowler till they found the head stood right. They had not little telescopes in those dayes; those would have been of great use for the discovery which way the hawke's head stood.

TILTING. Tilting was much used at Wilton in the times of Henry Earle of Pembroke and Sir Philip Sydney. At the solemnization of the great wedding of William, the second Earle of Pembroke, to one of the co-heires of the Earle of Shrewsbury, here was an extraordinary shew; at which time a great many of the nobility and gentry exercised, and they had shields of pastboard painted with their devices and emblemes, which were very pretty and ingenious. There are some of them hanging in some houses at Wilton to this day but I did remember many more. Most, or all of them, had relation to marriage. One, I remember, is a man standing by a river's side angling, and takes up a rammes-horne: the motto "Casus ubiq{ue} valet". - (Ovid de Arte Amandi.') Another hath the picture of a ship at sea sinking in a storm, and a house on fire; the motto "Tertia pestis abest"; meaning a wife. Another, a shield covered with black velvet; the motto "Par nulla figura dolori". This last is in the Arcadia, and I believe they were most of them contrived by Sir Philip Sydney. Another was a hawke lett off the hand, with her leashes hanging at her legges, which might hang her where'ere she pitcht, and is an embleme of youth that is apt to be ensnared by their own too plentifull estates. _______

'Tis certain that the Earles of Pembroke were the most popular peers in the West of England; but one might boldly say, in the whole kingdome. The revenue of his family was, till about 1652, 16,000li. per annum; but, with his offices and all, he had thirty thousand pounds per annum, and, as the revenue was great, so the greatnesse of his retinue and hospitality was answerable. One hundred and twenty family uprising and down lyeing, whereof you may take out six or seven, and all the rest servants and retayners. _______

FOR HIS LORDSHIP'S MUSICK. Alphonso Ferrabosco, the son, was Lord Philip (the first's) lutenist. He sang rarely well to the theorbo lute. He had a pension and lodgings in Baynard's Castle.

PART II. - CHAPTER III.

OF LEARNED MEN THAT HAD PENSIONS GRANTED TO THEM BY THE EARLES OF PEMBROKE.

IN the former Chapter I endeavoured to adumbrate Wilton House as to its architecture. We are now to consider it within, where it will appeare to have been an academie as well as palace; and was, as it were, the apiarie to which men that were excellent in armes and arts did resort and were caress't, and many of them received honourable pensions.

The hospitality here was very great. I shall wave the grandeur of William the first Earle, who married [Anne] sister to Queen Katharine Parre, and was the great favourite of King Henry 8th, and conservator of his will, and come to our grandfather's memorie, in the times of his sonne Henry Earle of Pembroke, and his Countess Mary, daughter of Sir Henry Sydney, and sister to that renowned knight Sir Philip Sydney, whose fame will never die whilest poetrie lives. His Lordship was the patron to the men of armes, and to the antiquaries and heralds; he took a great delight in the study of herauldry, as appeares by that curious collection of heraldique manuscripts in the library here. It was this earle that did set up all the painted glasse scutchions about the house. Many a brave souldier, no doubt, was here obliged by his Lordship; but time has obliterated their names.

Mr. Robert Barret dedicated the "Theorick and Practick of Moderne Warres", in folio, London, 1598, to this noble Earle, and William Lord Herbert of Cardiff, his son, then a youth. It seemes to have been a very good discourse as any writt in that time, wherein he shews much learning, besides experience. He had spent most of his time in foreigne warres, as the French, Dutch, Italian, and Spanish; and here delivers his military observations.

John Jones, an eminent physician in his tyme, wrote a treatise of the bathes at Bath, printed in a black letter, Anno Domini 1572, which he dedicated to Henry, Earle of Pembroke. [These dedications were doubtless acknowledged by pecuniary gifts from the patron to the authors. - J. B.] _______

I shall now passe to the illustrious Lady Mary, Countesse of Pembroke, whom her brother hath eternized by his Arcadia; but many or most of the verses in the Arcadia were made by her Honour, and they seem to have been writt by a woman. 'Twas a great pity that Sir Philip had not lived to have put his last hand to it. He spent much, if not most part of his time here, and at Ivychurch, near Salisbury, which did then belong to this family, when he was in England; and I cannot imagine that Mr. Edmund Spenser could be a stranger here. [See, in a subsequent page, Chap. VIII. "The Downes". - J. B.]

Her Honour's genius lay as much towards chymistrie as poetrie. The learned Dr. Mouffet, that wrote of Insects and of Meates, had a pension hence. In a catalogue of English playes set forth by Gerard Langbain, is thus, viz.: "Lady Pembrock, Antonius, 4to." [This was an English translation of "The Tragedie of Antonie. Doone into English by the Countesse of Pembroke. Imprinted at London, for William Ponsonby, 1595." 12mo. The Countess of Pembroke also translated "A Discourse of Life and Death, written in French, by Phil. Mornay", 1600, 12mo.- J. B.]

"Underneath this sable herse Lies the subject of all verse, Sydney's sister, Pembroke's mother, Death! ere thou kill'st such another, Fair, and wise, and learned as SHE, Time will throw a dart at thee."

These verses were made by Mr. (William*) Browne, who wrote the "Pastoralls", and they are inserted there.

*(William, Governor afterwards to ye now E. of Oxford. - J. EVELYN.)

[In the Memoir of Aubrey, published by the Wiltshire Topographical Society in 1845, I drew attention to this passage, which shews that although the above famous epitaph on the Countess of Pembroke is almost always attributed to Ben Jonson, it was, in fact, written by William Browne. That such is really the case does not rest only on the authority of Aubrey and Evelyn; for we find this very epitaph in a volume of Poems written by Browne, and preserved amongst the Lansdowne MSS in the British Museum (No. 777), together with the following additional lines:

"Marble pyles let no man raise To her name for after-dayes; Some kind woman, borne as she, Reading this, like Niobe, Shall turne marble, and become Both her mourner and her tombe."

To the epitaph is subjoined an "Elegie" on the Countess, of considerable length. When or by whom the epitaph was first ascribed to Jonson it is not easy to ascertain; but certainly no literary error has been more frequently repeated. Aubrey is wrong in stating that the lines were printed in Browne's Pastorals.- J. B.] _______

Mr. Adrian Gilbert, uterine brother to Sir Walter Raleigh, was a great chymist, and a man of excellent parts, but very sarcastick, and the greatest buffoon in the nation. He was housekeeper at Wilton, and made that delicate orchard where the stately garden now is. ........... He had a pension, and died about the beginning of the reign of King Charles the First. Elias Ashmole, Esq. finds, by Dr. John Dee's papers, that there was a great friendship and correspondency between him and Adrian Gilbert, and he often mentions him in his manuscripts. Now there can be no doubt made but that his half-brother Sir Walter Raleigh, which was "tam Marti quam Mercurio", had a great acquaintance with the Earle Henry and his ingenious Countesse.

There lived in Wilton, in those dayes, one Mr. Boston, a Salisbury man (his father was a brewer there), who was a great chymist, and did great cures by his art. The Lady Mary, Countesse of Pembroke, did much esteeme him for his skill, and would have had him to have been her operator, and live with her, but he would not accept of her Ladyship's kind offer. But after long search after the philosopher's stone, he died at Wilton, having spent his estate. After his death they found in his laboratory two or three baskets of egge shelles, which I remember Geber saieth is a principall ingredient of that stone.

J. Donne, Deane of St. Paule's, was well known both to Sir Philip Sydney and his sister Mary, as appeares by those excellent verses in his poems, "Upon the Translation of the Psalmes by Sir Philip Sydney and the Countesse of Pembroke his sister." _______

Earl William [the second of that name] was a good scholar, and delighted in poetrie; and did sometimes, for his diversion, write some sonnets and epigrammes, which deserve commendation. Some of them are in print in a little book in 8vo. intituled "Poems writt by William Earle of Pembroke, and Sir Benjamin Ruddyer, Knight, 1660." [See ante, page 77. A new edition of these poems was published by Sir Egerton Brydges in 1817.] He was of an heroique and publick spirit, bountifull to his friends and servants, and a great encourager of learned men.

Philip Earle of Pembroke [the first of that name], his brother, did not delight in books or poetry; but exceedingly loved painting and building, in which he had singular judgment, and had the best collection of any peer in England. He had a wonderful sagacity in the understanding of men, and could discover whether an ambassadour's message was reall or feigned; and his Majesty King James made great use of this talent of his. Mr. Touars, an ingenious gentleman, who understood painting well, and did travell beyond sea to buy rare pieces for his lordship, had a pension of lOOli. per annum. Mr. Richard Gibson, the dwarfe, whose marriage Mr. Edm. Waller hath celebrated in his poms, sc. the Marriage of the Dwarfs, a great master in miniture, hath a pension of an hundred pounds per annum. Mr. Philip Massinger, author of severall good playes, was a servant to his lordship, and had a pension of twenty or thirty pounds per annum, which was payed to his wife after his decease. She lived at Cardiffe, in Glamorganshire. There were others also had pensions, that I have forgot.

[Arthur Massinger, the father of the poet, was attached to the establishment of the Earl of Pembroke; and Gifford, in his Life of Massinger, seems inclined to think that Philip was born at Wilton. He was baptized in St. Thomas's Church, Salisbury, 24 Nov. 1583. His biographers have all been ignorant of the fact above recorded by Aubrey. A brief memoir of the life of Massinger will be found in Hatcher's History of Salisbury, p. 619.- J. B.]

William (third) and Philip (third) earles were gallant, noble persons, and handsome; they espoused not learning, but were addicted to field sports and hospitality. But Thomas Earle of Pembroke has the vertues and good parts of his ancestors concentred in him; which his lordship hath not been wanting to cultivate and improve by study and travell; which make his titles shine more bright. He is an honour to the peerage, and a glory and a blessing to his country: but his reall worth best speakes him, and it praises him in the gates.

PART II. - CHAPTER IV.

OF GARDENS: - LAVINGTON GARDEN, CHELSEY GARDEN.

[THE stately gardens of the seventeenth century were less remarkable for the cultivation of useful or ornamental plants than for the formal arrangement of their walks, arbours, parterres, and hedges. Amongst the various decorations introduced were jets d'eau, or fountains, artificial cascades, columns, statues, grottoes, rock-work, mazes or labyrinths, terraces communicating with each other by flights of steps, and similar puerilities. This style of gardening was introduced from France; where the celebrated Le Notre had displayed his skill in laying out the gardens of the palace of Versailles; the most important specimens of their class. The same person was afterwards employed by several of the English nobility.

The gardens at Wilton, described in the last chapter, were completely in the style referred to. Solomon de Caus, to whom they are attributed by Aubrey, is supposed by Mr. Loudon, in his valuable "Encyclopaedia of Gardening", to have been the inventor of greenhouses. The last mentioned work contains the best account yet published of the gardens of the olden time. Britton's "History of Cassiobury" (folio, 1837), p. 17, also contains some curious particulars of the original plantations and pleasure grounds of that interesting mansion.

The gardens at Lavington, which are described in the present chapter, were evidently of the same character with those of Wilton. Chelsey- garden is very minutely described by Aubrey, but our limits forbid its insertion, especially as it is irrelevant to a History of Wiltshire.- J. B.]

O janitores, villiciq{ue} felices: Dominis parantur isti, serviunt vobis. MARTIAL, Epigramm. 29, lib. x.

To write in the praise of gardens is besides my designe. The pleasure and use of them were unknown to our great-grandfathers. They were contented with pot-herbs, and did mind chiefly their stables. The chronicle tells us, that in the reign of King Henry the 8th pear- mains were so great a rarity that a baskett full of them was a present to the great Cardinall Wolsey.

Henry Lyte, of Lyte's Cary, in Somerset, Esq. translated Dodoens' Herball into English, which he dedicated to Q. Elizabeth, about the beginning of her reigne [1578]. He had a pretty good collection of plants for that age; some few whereof are yet alive, 1660: and no question but Dr. Gilbert, &c. did furnish their gardens as well as they could so long ago, which could be but meanly. But the first peer that stored his garden with exotick plants was William Earle of Salisbury, [1612-1668] at his garden at [Hatfield? - J. B.] a catalogue whereof, fairly writt in a skin of vellum, consisting of 830 plants, is in the hands of Elias Ashmole, Esq. at South Lambeth.

But 'twas Sir John Danvers, of Chelsey, who first taught us the way of Italian gardens. He had well travelled France and Italy, and made good observations. He had in a fair body an harmonicall mind. In his youth his complexion was so exceeding beautiful and fine that Thomas Bond, Esq. of Ogbourne St. .... in Wiltshire, who was his companion in his travells, did say that the people would come after him in the street to admire him. He had a very fine fancy, which lay chiefly for gardens and architecture.

The garden at Lavington in this county, and that at Chelsey in Middlesex, as likewise the house there, doe remaine monuments of his ingenuity. The garden at Lavington is full of irregularities, both naturall and artificiall, sc. elevations and depressions. Through the length of it there runneth a fine cleare trowt stream; walled with brick on each side, to hinder the earth from mouldring down. In this stream are placed severall statues. At the west end is an admirable place for a grotto, where the great arch is, over which now is the market roade. Among severall others, there is a very pleasant elevation on the south side of the garden, which steales, arising almost insensibly, that is, before one is aware, and gives you a view over the spatious corn-fields there, and so to East Lavington: where, being landed on a fine levell, letteth you descend again with the like easinesse; each side is flanqued with laurells. It is almost impossible to describe this garden, it is so full of variety and unevenesse; nay, it would be a difficult matter for a good artist to make a draught of it. About An. 1686, the right honourable James Earle of Abingdon [who had become possessed of the estate in right of his wife], built a noble portico, full of water workes, which is on the north side of the garden, and faceth the south. It is both portico and grott, and was designed by Mr. Rose, of ...... in Oxfordshire. _______

Wilton Garden was the third garden after these two of the Italian mode; but in the time of King Charles the Second gardening was much improved and became common. I doe believe I may modestly affirme that there is now, 1691, ten times as much gardening about London as there was Anno 1660 ; and wee have been, since that time, much improved in forreign plants, especially since about 1683, there have been exotick plants brought into England no lesse than seven thousand. (From Mr. Watts, gardener of the Apothecary's garden at Chelsey, and other botanists.)

As for Longleate Garden it was lately made. I have not seen it, but they say 'tis noble.

_______

Till the breaking out of the civill warres, Tom Bedlam's did travell about the countrey. They had been poore distracted men that had been putt into Bedlam, where recovering to some sobernesse they were licentiated to goe a begging: e. g. they had on their left arm an armilla of tinn, printed in some workes, about four inches long; they could not gett it off. They wore about their necks a great horn of an oxe in a string or bawdrie, which, when they came to an house for almes, they did wind: and they did putt the drink given them into this horn, whereto they did putt a stopple. Since the warres I doe not remember to have seen any one of them. (I have seen them in Worcestershire within these thirty years, 1756. MS. NOTE, ANONYMOUS.)

[This account of the " bedlam beggars" so well known to our forefathers, is repeated by Aubrey in his "Remains of Gentilism," (Lansdowne MSS. No. 231,) portions of which have been printed in Mr. Thoms's Anecdotes and Traditions (1839). The passage corresponding with the above is quoted by Mr. Charles Knight from the manuscript referred to, in illustration of the character of "Mad Tom," assumed by Edgar, in Shakspere's play of King Lear.- J. B.]

PART II. - CHAPTER V.

ARTS: LIBERALL AND MECHANICK.

CRICKLAD, a market and borough town in this county, was an University before the Conquest, where were taught the liberall arts and sciences, as may appeare by the learned notes of Mr. Jo. Selden on Drayton's Poly-Olbion, and by a more convincing and undenyable argument out of Wheelock's translation of Bede's History.

This University was translated from hence to Oxford. But whereas writers swallow down the old storie that this place takes its name from certain Greek philosophers, who, they say, began here an university, it is a fond opinion.

[Aubrey here quotes Fuller as to the etymology of the names of Cricklade and Lechlade. That author, on the authority of Leland, had asserted in his Church History that the one was originally called Greek - lade, and the other Latin - lade, from "two schooles, famous both for eloquence and learning", which existed there anterior to the Conquest. But, on the report of his "worthy friend Dr. Peter Heylin," he afterwards stated in his Worthies that "Cricklade was the place for the professors of Greek; Lechlade for physick (Leech being an old English word for a physitian), and Latton, a small village hard by, the place where Latin was professed." It will be seen by the next sentence that Aubrey disputes even the amended theory of Fuller, and, with more probability, derives the names of the towns in question from words indicating the natural features of the localities.-J. B.]

But, as the saying is, "Bernardus non vidit omnia". Had the learned Dr. Heylin (that is Hoelin, little Howell) had a little knowledge of his ancestors' Welsh, he would not have made such a stumble, and so forced these etymologies; but would easily have found that Cricklad comes from kerig, stones; and glad, a country; which two words give a true description of the nature of the country on that side of Cricklad, which is, as wee term it, a stone-brash. Likewise Lechlade, from llech, plank-stones, or tile-stones. As for Latton, it may very well come from laith, which signifies a marsh, and is as much as to say Marshton, as there is a parish thereby called Marston. Hereabout are some few other places which retain their British names with a little disguise. _______

Without the close of Salisbury, as one comes to the town from Harnham- bridge, opposite to the hospitall, is a hop-yard, with a fair high stone wall about it, and the ruines of an old pidgeon house. I doe remember, 1642, and since, more ruines there. This was Collegium de Valle Scholarum (College de Vaux). It took its name from Vaux, a family. Here was likewise a magister scholarum, and it was in the nature of an university. It was never an endowed college. (From Seth Ward, Bishop of Sarum.)

[Some historical particulars connected with this scholastic establishment or college will be found in Hatcher's History of Salisbury, pp. 50, 92, 232, &c. The author gives a different etymology of its name to the above. Quoting Mosheim, cent. 13, p. ii. he states that the Professors of Divinity in the University of Paris, in the year 1234, assembled their pupils and fixed their residence in a valley of Champagne, whence they acquired the name of Valli-scholares, or Scholars of the Valley. Mr. Hatcher adds, that the College at Salisbury, which was founded about 1260, derived its name, and probably its system of instruction, from this community in France. - J. B.] _______

The consistorie of this church (Salisbury) was as eminent for learning as any in England, and the choire had the best method; hence came the saying "secundum usum Sarum". Over every stall there was writt "hoc age". These old stalles were taken down about 1671, and now they sitt in the quire undistinguisht, without stalles.

But it was at the Abbey of Malmesbury where learning did most flourish in our parts, and where most writers were bred, as appeares by Pitseus, Baleus, &c. _______

MECHANICALL ARTS.- Cloathing. [See also subsequent chapters on this subject] At Salisbury the best whites of England are made. The city was ever also famous for the manufactures of parchment, razors, cizers, knives, and gloves. Salisbury mault is accounted the best mault, and they drive there a very considerable trade in maulting. Also it is not to be forgotten that the bottle ale of Salisbury (as likewise Wilton, upon the same reason, sc. the nitrous water) is the best bottle ale of this nation.

Malmesbury hath been an ancient cloathing town; where also is a considerable manufacture of gloves and strong waters. Also Troubridge, Calne, and Chippenham are great cloathing townes. _______

The Devises is famous for making excellent Metheglyn. Mr. Tho. Piers of the Swan did drive a great trade in it. [See ante, p. 68.]

Amesbury is famous for the best tobacco pipes in England; made by .... Gauntlet, who markes the heele of them with a gauntlet, whence they are called gauntlet pipes. The clay of which they are made is brought from Chiltern in this county. [See ante, p. 35.]

In King James the First's time coarse paper, commonly called whitebrowne paper, was first made in England, especially in Surrey and about Windsor.

At Bemarton near Salisbury is a paper mill, which is now, 1684, about 130 yeares standing, and the first that was erected in this county; and the workmen there told me, 1669, that it was the second paper mill in England. I remember the paper mill at Longdeane, in the parish of Yatton Keynell, was built by Mr. Wyld, a Bristow merchant, 1635. It serves Bristow with brown paper. There is no white paper made in Wiltshire.

At Crokerton, near Warminster, hath been since the restauration (about 1665) a manufacture of felt making, as good, I thinke, as those of Colbec in France. Crokerton hath its denomination from the crokery trade there; sc. making of earthen - ware, &c. Crock is the old English word for a pott. _______

It ought never to be forgott what our ingenious countreyman Sir Christopher Wren proposed to the silke stocking weavers of London, Anno Domini 16-, viz. a way to weave seven paire or nine paire of stockings at once (it must be an odd number). He demanded four hundred pounds for his invention; but the weavers refused it because they were poor; and besides, they sayd it would spoile their trade. Perhaps they did not consider the proverb, that "light gaines, with quick returnes, make heavy purses." Sir Christopher was so noble, seeing they would not adventure so much money, he breakes the modell of the engine all to pieces before their faces.

[This chapter contains many other remarks on trades, inventions, machinery, &c. similar in character to the above.- J. B.]

PART II - CHAPTER VI.

ARCHITECTURE.

[IN this chapter, the account of Aubrey's visit to Old Sarum, and the traditions connected with the erection of Salisbury Cathedral, although they furnish no new facts of importance, will be read with interest; especially on account of the reference they bear to the enlightened and munificent Bishop Ward. A memoir of that prelate was published by Dr. Walter Pope, in 1697 (8vo); and some further particulars of him, as connected with Salisbury, will be found in Hatcher's valuable History of that City. - J. B.]

THE celebrated antiquity of Stonehenge, as also that stupendious but unheeded antiquity at Aubury, &c. I affirme to have been temples, and built by the Britons. See my Templa Druidum. [The essay referred to was a part of Aubrey's Monumenta Britannica, the manuscript of which has strangely disappeared within the last twenty yeares. I have given an account of its contents in the Memoir of Aubrey, already frequently referred to,(page 87). Aubrey was the first who asserted that Avebury and Stonehenge were temples of the Britons. He was also the first person who wrote any thing about the forms, styles, and varieties of windows, arches, &c. in Church Architecture, and his remarks and opinions on both subjects were judicious, curious, and original. - J. B.] _______

Here being so much good stone in this countrey, no doubt but that the Romans had here, as well as in other parts, good buildings. But time hath left us no vestigia of their architecture unlesse that little that remains of the castle of Old Sarum, where the mortar is as hard as a stone. This must have been a most august structure, for it is situated upon a hill. When the high walles were standing, flanked at due distances with towers, about seven in all, and the vast keep (arx) in the middle crowned with another high fortification, it must needs afford a most noble view over the plaines.

(The following account I had from the right reverend, learned, and industrious Seth Ward, Lord Bishop of Sarum, who had taken the paines to peruse all the old records of the church, that had been clung together and untoucht for perhaps two hundred yeares.) Within this castle of Old Sarum, on the east side, stood the Cathedrall church; the tuft and scite is yet discernable: which being seated so high was so obnoxious to the weather, that when the wind did blow they could not heare the priest say masse. But this was not the only inconvenience. The soldiers of the castle and the priests could never agree; and one day, when they were gone without the castle in procession, the soldiers kept them out all night, or longer. Whereupon the Bishop, being much troubled, cheered them up as well as he could, and told them he would study to accommodate them better. In order thereunto he rode severall times to the Lady Abbesse at Wilton to have bought or exchanged a piece of ground of her ladyship to build a church and houses for the priests. A poor woman at Quidhampton, that was spinning in the street, sayd to one of her neighbours, "I marvell what the matter is that the bishop makes so many visits to my lady; I trow he intends to marry her." Well, the bishop and her ladyship did not conclude about the land, and the bishop dreamt that the Virgin Mary came to him, and brought him to or told him of Merrifield; she would have him build his church there and dedicate it to her. Merrifield was a great field or meadow where the city of New Sarum stands, and did belong to the Bishop, as now the whole city belongs to him.

This was about the latter end of King John's reigne, and the first grant or diploma that ever King Henry the Third signed was that for the building of our Ladies church at Salisbury. The Bishop sent for architects from Italy, and they did not onely build that famous structure, and the close, but layd out the streetes of the whole city: which run parallell one to another, and the market-place-square in the middle: whereas in other cities they were built by chance, and at severall times.

I know but one citie besides in England that was designed and layd out at once as this was; and that is Chichester: where, standing at the market-crosse, you may see the four gates of the city. They say there that it was built about the same time that New Salisbury was, and had some of those architects.* The town of Richelieu was built then by the great Cardinall, when he built his august chasteau there.

*[Salisbury has little parallelism to its neighbour Chichester, which is of Roman origin: the former being truly English, and perfectly unique in its history and arrangement. Aubrey has omitted to notice the rapid streams of water flowing through each of the principal streets, which form a remarkable feature of the city. - J. B.]

Upon the building of this cathedrall and close the castle of Old Sarum went to wrack, and one may see in the walles of the close abundance of stones, finely carved, that were perhaps part of the church there. After the church and close were built, the citizens had their freestone, &c. from thence. And in Edward the Sixth's time, the great house of the Earle of Pembroke, at Wilton, was built with the mines of it. About 1660 I was upon it. There was then remaining on the south side some of the walles of the great gate; and on the north side there was some remaines of a bottome of a tower; but the incrustation of freestone was almost all gone: a fellow was then picking at that little that was left. 'Tis like enough by this time they have digged all away.

Salisbury. - Edw. Leigh, Esq. "There is a stately and beautifull minster, with an exceeding high spered steeple, and double crosse aisle on both sides. The windowes of the church, as they reckon them, answer just in number to the dayes; the pillars, great and small, to the houres, of a full yeare; and the gates to the moneths." - ["England Described; or, Observations on the several Counties and Shires thereof, by Edw. Leigh." 1659. 8vo.]

"Mira canam, soles quot continet annus, in un Tam numerosa ferunt sede fenestra micat. Marmoreaq{ue} capit fusas tot ab arte columnas Comprensus horas quot vagus annus habet. Totq{ue}patent port, quot mensibus annus abundat, Res mira, et vera, res celebrata fide." - DANIEL ROGERS.

'Tis strange to see how errour hath crept in upon the people, who believe that the pillars of this church were cast, forsooth, as chandlers make candles; and the like is reported of the pillars of the Temple Church, London, &c.: and not onely the vulgar swallow down the tradition gleb, but severall learned and otherwise understanding persons will not be perswaded to the contrary, and that the art is lost.[Among the rest Fuller, in his Worthies of England, gave currency to this absurd opinion.- J. B.] Nay, all the bishops and churchmen of that church in my remembrance did believe it, till Bishop Ward came, who would not be so imposed on; and the like errour runnes from generation to generation concerning Stoneheng, that the stones there are artificiall. But, to returne to the pillars of this church, they are all reall marble, and shew the graine of the Sussex marble (sc. the little cockles), from whence they were brought. [These pillars are not made of Sussex marble; but of that kind which is brought from a part of Dorsetshire called the Isle of Purbeck.- J. B.] At every nine foot they are jointed with an ornament or band of iron or copper. This quarrie hath been closed up and forgott time out of mind, and the last yeare, 1680, it was accidentally discovered by felling of an old oake; and it now serves London. (From Mr. Bushnell, the stone-cutter.)

The old tradition is, that this church was "built upon wooll-packs", and doubtlesse there is something in it which is now forgott. I shall endeavour to retrieve and unriddle it by comparison. There is a tower at Rouen in Normandie called the Butter Tower; for when it was built a toll was layd upon all the butter that was brought to Rouen, for and towards the building of this tower; as now there is a [duty] layd upon every chaldron of coales towards the building of St Paul's Church, London: so hereafter they may say that that church was built upon New- Castle coales. In like manner it might be that heretofore, when Salisbury Cathedral was building, which was long before wooll was manufactured in England (the merchants of the staple sent it then in woolpacks beyond sea, to Flanders, &c.), that an imposition might be putt on the Wiltshire wool-packs towards the carrying on of this magnificent structure. There is a saying also that London Bridge was built upon wooll-packs, upon the same account.

The height of Our Lady steeple at Salisbury was never found so little as 400 foot, and never more than 406 foot, by the observations of Thom. Nash, surveyor of the workes of this church: but Colonell John Wyndham did take the height more accurately, An 1684, by a barometer: sc. the height of the weather-dore of Our Lady Church steeple at Salisbury from the ground is 4280 inches. The mercury subsided in that height 42/100 of an inch. He affirms that the height of the said steeple is 404 foot, which he hath tryed severall times; and by the help of his barometer, which is accurately made according to his direction, he will with great facility take the height of any mountain: quod N.B. [Col. Wyndham's measurement has been adopted as correct by most authors who have written on the subject since.- J. B.]

Memorandum. About 1669 or 1670 Bishop Ward invited Sir Christopher Wren to Salisbury, out of curiosity, to survey the church there, as to the steeple, architecture, &c. He was above a weeke about it, and writt a sheet or a sheet and a halfe, an account of it, which he presented to the bishop. I asked the bishop since for it, and he told me he had lent it, to whom he could not tell, and had no copy of it. 'Tis great pity the paines of so great an artist should be lost. Sir Christopher tells me he hath no copie of it neither.

This year, 1691, Mr. Anth. Wood tells me, he hath gott a transcript of Sir Chr. Wren's paper; which obtain, and insert here. I much doubted I should never have heard of it again.

[Soon after writing this passage Aubrey probably obtained a copy of Sir Christopher Wren's report, which he has inserted in his original manuscript. It is dated in 1669, and occupies eleven folio pages. In The History and Antiquities of the Cathedral of Salisbury, &c. (1723, 8vo.), it is printed, and described as "An Architectonical Account of this Cathedral", by "an eminent gentleman". Part of the same report was printed in Wren's Parentalia (1750); and a short abstract of it will also be found in Dodsworth's Salisbury Cathedral (written by the late Mr. Hatcher), p. 172. In a communication from the last named gentleman in 1841, when he was engaged upon his History of Salisbury, he wrote to me as follows: "I have lately fallen upon what appears to have been Sir C. Wren's original report relative to the cathedral; a very elaborate report on the state of the building in 1691, by a person named Naish; some good observations on the bending of the piers (anonymous); and several estimates and observations made by Price. What I shall do with them I have not yet determined." - J. B.] _______

Wardour Castle was very strongly built of freestone. I never saw it but when I was a youth; the day after part of it was blown up: and the mortar was so good that one of the little towers reclining on one side did hang together and not fall in peeces. It was called Warder Castle from the conserving there the ammunition of the West. _______

Sir William Dugdale told me, many years since, that about Henry the Third's time the Pope gave a bull or patents to a company of Italian Freemasons to travell up and down over all Europe to build churches. From those are derived the fraternity of adopted Masons. They are known to one another by certain signes and watch-words: it continues to this day. They have severall lodges in severall counties for their reception, and when any of them fall into decay the brotherhood is to relieve him, &c. The manner of their adoption is very formall, and with an oath of secresy.

Memorandum. This day, May the 18th, being Munday, 1691, after Rogation Sunday, is a great convention at St. Paul's Church of the fraternity of the adopted Masons, where Sir Christopher Wren is to be adopted a brother, and Sir Henry Goodric, of the Tower, and divers others. There have been kings of this sodality. _______

At Pottern, a great mannour belonging to the Bishop of Sarum, is a very faire strong built church, with a great tower in the middest of the crosse aisle. It is exactly of the same architecture of the cathedrall church at Sarum, and the windowes are painted by the same hand, in that kind of Gothick grotesco. Likewise the church at Kington St. Michael's, and that at Sopworth, are of the same fashion, and built about the same time, sc. with slender marble pillars to the windowes; and just so the church of Glastonbury Abbey, and Westminster Abbey. Likewise the architecture of the church at Bishop's Cannings is the same, and such pillars to the windowes. _______

At Calne was a fine high steeple which stood upon four pillars in the middle of the church. One of the pillars was faulty, and the churchwardens were dilatory, as is usual in such cases. - Chivers, Esq. of that parish, foreseeing the fall of it, if not prevented, and the great charge they must be at by it, brought down Mr. Inigo Jones to survey it. This was about 1639 or 1640: he gave him 30 li. out of his own purse for his paines. Mr. Jones would have underbuilt it for an hundred pounds. About 1645 it fell down, on a Saturday, and also broke down the chancell; the parish have since been at 1,000 li. Charge to make a new heavy tower. Such will be the fate of our steeple at Kington St. Michael; one cannot perswade the parishioners to goe out of their own way. [In another of Aubrey's MSS. (his "Description of North Wiltshire"), is a sketch of the tower and spire of the church of Kington St. Michael, shewing several large and serious cracks in the walls. The spire was blown down in 1703, its neglected state no doubt contributing to its fall. The following manuscript note by James Gilpin, Esq. Recorder of Oxford (who was born at Kington in 1709), may be added, from my own collections for the history of this, my native parish. "In ye great storm in ye year 1703, ye spire of this church was blown down, and two of ye old bells I remember standing in ye belfry till ye tower was pulled down in 1724, in order to be rebuilt It was rebuilt accordingly, and the bells were then new cast, with ye assistance of Mr. Harington ye Vicar, who gave a new bell, on which his name is inscribed, so as to make a peal of six bells. On these bells are the following inscriptions:- 1. Prosperity to this parish, 1726. 2. Peace and good neighbourhood, 1726. 3. Prosperity to ye Church of England, 1726. 4. William Harington, Vicar. A. R. 1726 (A. R. means Abraham Rudhall, ye bell founder). 5. Has no inscription, but 1726 in gilt figures. 6. Jonathan Power and Robert Hewett, Churchwardens, 1726." - J. B.] _______

Sir William Dugdale told me he finds that painting in glasse came first into England in King John's time. Before the Reformation I believe there was no county or great town in England but had glasse painters. Old ...... Harding, of Blandford in Dorsetshire, where I went to schoole, was the only countrey glasse-painter that ever I knew. Upon play dayes I was wont to visit his shop and furnaces. He dyed about 1643, aged about 83, or more.

In St. Edmund's church at Salisbury were curious painted glasse windowes, especially in the chancell, where there was one window, I think the east window, of such exquisite worke that Gundamour, the Spanish Ambassadour, did offer some hundreds of pounds for it, if it might have been bought. In one of the windowes was the picture of God the Father, like an old man, which gave offence to H. Shervill, Esq. then Recorder of this city (this was about 1631), who, out of zeale, came and brake some of these windowes, and clambering upon one of the pews to be able to reach high enough, fell down and brake his leg. For this action he was brought into the Starr-Chamber, and had a great fine layd upon him [500. J. B.] which, I think, did undoe him. [See a minute and interesting account of Sherfield's offence, and the proceedings at the trial, in Hatcher's History of Salisbury, p. 371-374. - J. B.] _______

There was, at the Abbey of Malmesbury, a very high spire-steeple, as high almost, they at Malmesbury say, as that of St. Paul's, London; and they further report, that when the steeple fell down the ball of it fell as far as the Griffin Inne. _______

The top of the tower of Sutton Benger is very elegant, there is not such another in the county. It much resembles St Walborough's [St. Werburg's] at Bristoll. [The tower of Sutton Benger church, here alluded to, has a large open-work'd pinnacle, rising from the centre of the roof; a beautiful and very singular ornament. See the wood-cut in the title-page of the present volume.- J. B.]

The priory of Broadstock was very well built, and with good strong ribbs, as one may conclude by the remaines that are left of it yet standing, which are the cellar, which is strongly vaulted with freestone, and the hall above it. It is the stateliest cellar in Wiltshire. The Hall is spatious, and within that the priour's parlour, wherein is good carving. In the middle of the south side of the hall is a large chimney, over which is a great window, so that the draught of the smoake runnes on each side of the chimney. Above the cellars the hall and parlours are one moietie; the church or, chapell stood on the south side of the hall, under which was a vault, as at St. Faithes under Paules. The very fundations of this fair church are now, 1666, digged up, where I saw severall freestone coffins, having two holes bored in the bottome, and severall capitalls and bases of handsome Gothique pillars. On the west end of the hall was the King's lodgeings, which they say were very noble, and standing about 1588. [Aubrey records some further particulars of Bradenstoke Priory; a short account of which edifice will be found in the third volume of the Beauties of Wiltshire. The Gentleman's Magazine, Nov. 1833, contains a wood-cut and account of this old religious house. See also Bowles's History of Lacock Abbey.-J. B.]

The church of Broad Chalke was dedicated to All-Hallowes, as appeares by the ancient parish booke. The tradition is that it was built by a lawyer, whose picture is in severall of the glasse-windowes yet remaining, kneeling, in a purple gowne or robe, and at the bottome of the windowes this subscription: "Orate pro felici statu Magistri Sieardi Lenot". This church hath no pillar, and the breadth is thirty and two feete and two inches. Hereabout are no trees now growing that would be long enough to make the crosse beames that doe reach from side to side. By the fashion of the windowes I doe guesse that it was built in the reigne of King Henry the Sixth. [The church of Broad Chalk is described in Hoare's Modern Wiltshire, Hundred of Chalk, p. 148.] _______

The market-crosses of Salisbury, Malmesbury, and Trowbridge, are very noble: standing on six pillars, and well vaulted over with freestone well carved. On every one of these crosses above sayd the crest of Hungerford, the sickles, doth flourish like parietaria or wall-flower, as likewise on most publique buildings in these parts, which witnesse not onely their opulency but munificency. I doe think there is such another crosse at Cricklade, with the coate and crests of Hungerford. Quaere de hoc. [There is not any cross remaining in Trowbridge; and that at Cricklade, in the high street, is merely a single shaft, placed on a base of steps. The one at Salisbury is a plain unadorned building; but that of Malmesbury is a fine ornamented edifice. It is described and illustrated in my "Dictionary of the Architecture and Archaeology of the Middle Ages". - J. B.] _______

The Lord Stourton's house at Stourton is very large and very old, but is little considerable as to the architecture. The pavement of the chapell there is of bricks, annealed or painted yellow, with their coat and rebus; sc. a tower and a tunne. These enamelled bricks have not been in use these last hundred yeares. The old paving of Our Lady Church at Salisbury was of such; and the choire of Gloucester church is paved with admirable bricks of this fashion. A little chapell at Merton, in the Earle of Shaftesbury's house, is paved with such tiles, whereon are annealed or enamelled the coate and quarterings of Horsey. It is pity that this fashion is not revived; they are handsome and far more wholesome than marble paving in our could climate, and much cheaper. They have been disused ever since King Edward the Sixth's time. [Aubrey would have rejoiced to witness the success which has attended the revived use of ornamental paving tiles within the last few years. Messrs. Copeland and Garrett, and Mr. Minton, of Stoke- upon-Trent, as well as the Messrs. Chamberlain of Worcester, are engaged in making large numbers of these tiles, which are now extensively employed by church architects. Those individuals have produced tiles equal in excellence and beauty to the ancient specimens.-J. B.] _______

Heretofore all gentlemen's houses had fish ponds, and their houses had motes drawn about them, both for strength and for convenience of fish on fasting days.

The architecture of an old English gentleman's house, especially in Wiltshire and thereabout, was a good high strong wall, a gate house, a great hall and parlour, and within the little green court where you come in, stood on one side the barne: they then thought not the noise of the threshold ill musique. This is yet to be seen at severall old houses and seates, e. g. Bradfield, Alderton, Stanton St. Quintin, Yatton-Keynell, &c.

Fallersdowne, vulgo Falston, was built by a Baynton, about perhaps Henry the Fifth. Here was a noble old-fashioned house, with a mote about it and drawbridge, and strong high walles embatteled. They did consist of a layer of freestone and a layer of flints, squared or headed; two towers faced the south, one the east, the other the west end. After the garrison was gonn the mote was filled up, about 1650, and the high wall pulled down and one of the towers. Baynton was attainted about Henry the Sixth. Afterwards the Lord Chief Justice Cheyney had it About the beginning of Queen Elizabeth, ..... Vaughan of Glamorganshire bought it; and about 1649, Sir George Vaughan sold it to Philip Earle of Pembroke.

Longleate House is the most august building in the kingdome. It was built by [Edward] Seymor, Duke of Somerset, Lord Protector,* tempore Edward VI., who sent for the architects out of Italy. The length is 272 foot, the breadth 172 foot; measured by Mr. Moore, Clericus. It is as high as the Banqueting house at Whitehall, outwardly adorned with Dorick, lonick, and Corinthian pillars. Mr. Dankertz drew a landskip of it, which was engraved. Desire Mr. Rose to gett me a print of it.