AT W1MBORNE MINSTER. 29 



Wiltshire man by birth, had been at school at Blandford. 

 But whether they had first become acquainted in the days 

 of boyhood, or whether the acquaintance was first commenced 

 when they were fellow students at the University, it ripened 

 into a friendship which lasted for life. Aubrey had been 

 looking forward with eager anticipation to a University 

 career ; but these were troublous times, and Oxford had its 

 share of troubles. Aubrey writes as follows : *" Peace 

 Atque inter sylvas Academi quaerere, verum. But now did 

 Bellona thunder : and as a clear sky is sometimes over- 

 stretched with a dismal black cloud, so was the serene peace 

 by the Civill War through the factions of those times. 

 Amovere loco me tempora grato. In August following (1643) 

 my Father sent for me home for feare." He returned to 

 the University in February, though it was but for two or 

 three months, since owing to a serious epidemic of small 

 pox in Oxford in April and May, he left the University for 

 three years, and Ettrick was deprived of his companionship. 



One event in their college life is narrated by Aubrey : 

 " In my time f Mr. Anthony Ettrick and some others 

 frighted a poor young freshman of Magdalen Hall with 

 conjuring, which when the old Doctor (Dr. Ralph Kettell, 

 President of Trinity College from 1598 until his death in 1643) 

 heard of on the next Tuesday, sayd he, ' Mr. Ettrick,' who 

 is a very little man, will conjure up a jackanapes to be his 

 great-grand-father.' : 



Aubrey and Ettrick were both keen archffiologists, and it 

 was perhaps this common pursuit which made them such 

 close friends. From time to time Anthony Ettrick is 

 mentioned in Aubrey's autobiography and other works ; 

 and an account of him is given in the volume of J Brief Lives. 

 It is here recorded that in the months of July and August, 



* Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, Vol. IV. 

 (1858), pp. 101, 102. 



f Aubrey's Brief Lives of Contemporaries, &c., Vol. II., p. 18. 

 } Ibid, Vol. I., p. 250. 



