106 Kington St. Michael. [John Aubrey. 



Nicholas Earl of Thanet, with whom I was delitescent " (in retire- 

 ment) " at Hethtield in Kent, near a year. Edmund Wyld Esq., 

 R.S.S., of Glazely Hall, Salop, tooke me into his arms, with whom 

 I most commonly take my diet and sweet otiums. Makes me 

 lethargique." 



"Ao- 1671 : having sold all and disappointed as aforesaid of 

 moneys I received, I had so strong an impulse to (in good part) 

 finish the Description of Wilts, in 2 volumes in folio, that I could 

 not bo quiet until I had done it, and that with danger enough, 

 'tanquam canis e Nilo,'^ for feare of crocodiles — i.e. catchpoles. 

 And indeed all that I have done and that little I have studied, has 

 been just after that fashion : so that had I not lived long my want 

 of leisure would have afforded a slender harvest. A strange fate 

 that I have laboured under, never in my life to enjoy one entire 

 moneth — (once at Chalke in my absconding) — or 6 weeks otium 

 for contemplation." 



Besides Mr. Wyld and the Earl of Thanet he had other friends 

 who gave him shelter and hospitality, viz. : at Lavington, the Earl 

 of Abingdon, to whose first wife (by descent from Danvers) he was 

 related : and at Draycot, Sir James Long. Of this gentleman he 

 always writes in terms of great respect as his "ever honoured friend." 

 A similarity in tastes and pursuits appears from their correspond- 

 ence, as well as from the frequent recurrence amongst Aubrey's 

 papers of " Quaere Sir J. L."^ He had also in the neighbourhood 

 of Easton a great coadjutor in Thomas Gore Esq., of Alderton, a 



1 " Like a dog by the Nile" : Running and lapping for fear of being caught. 



2 "I should now be both orator and soldier to give this honoured friend of 

 mine, a gentleman absolute in all numbers, his due character. Only son of Sir 

 "Walter Long: bom at South Wraxhall in Wilts, Westminster Scholar; of 

 Magd. CoU. Oxon. Went to Franco. Married a most elegant beauty and wit, 

 dau. of Sir E. L. 25 ret. (Dorothy d. of Sir Edw. Leach of Shipley, Co. Derby.) 

 In the Civil Wars Col. of horse in Sir F. Dodiugton's brigade. Good swordsman : 

 admirable extempore orator : great memory : great historian and romancer : 

 great falconer and for horsemanship. For insects exceedingly curious, and 

 searching long since in natural things. Oliver, Protector, hawking at Hounslow 

 Heath discoursing with him fell in love with his company, and commanded him 

 to wear his sword, and to meet him a-hawking : wliich made the strict cavaliers 

 look on him with an evil eye. Scripsit " History and causes of the Civil Wane." 

 [Lives, II. 433.] 



