vi EDITOR'S PREFACE. 



of discriminating critics ; and in my own " Memoir " of his personal and literary career, with its 

 accompanying analysis of his unpublished works, I endeavoured (and I believe successfully) to vin- 

 dicate his claims to a distinguished place amongst the literati of his times. 



That he has been unjustly stigmatised amongst his contemporaries as an especial votary of super- 

 stition is obvious, even on a perusal of his most objectionable work, the " Miscellanies" already 

 mentioned, which plainly shews that his more scientific contemporaries, including even some of the 

 most eminent names in our country's literary annals, participated in the same delusions. It would 

 be amusing to compare the " Natural History of Wiltsliire " with two similar works on " Oxford- 

 shire" and " Staffordshire," by Dr. Robert Plot, which procured for their author a considerable 

 reputation at the time of their publication, and which still bear a favourable character amongst the 

 topographical works of the seventeenth century. It may be sufficient here to state that the 

 chapters in those publications on the Heavens and Air, Waters, Earths, Stones, Formed Stones, 

 Plants, Beastes, Men and Women, Echoes, Devils and Witches, and other subjects, are very similar 

 to those of Aubrey. Indeed the plan of the latter's work was modelled upon those of Dr. Plot, 

 and Aubrey states in his Preface that he endeavoured to induce that gentleman to undertake 

 the arrangement and publication of his " Natural History of Wiltshire." On comparing the writings 

 of the two authors, we cannot hesitate to award superior merits to the Wiltshire antiquary. 



A few passages may be quoted from the latter to shew that he was greatly in advance of his 

 contemporaries in general knowledge and liberality of sentiment : 



" I have oftentimes wished for a mappe of England coloured according to the colours of the earth ; 

 with markes of the fossiles and minerals." (p. 10.) 



"As the motion caused by a stone lett fall into the water is by circles, so sounds move by spheres 

 in the same manner ; which, though obvious enough, I doe not remember to have seen in any 

 booke." (p. 18.) 



" Phantomes. Though I myselfe never saw any such tilings, yet I will not conclude that there is 

 no truth at all in these reports. I believe that extraordinarily there have been such apparitions ; but 

 where one is true a hundred are figments. There is a lecherie in lyeing and imposing on the cre- 

 dulous, and the imagination of fearfull people is to admiration." [In other words, timid people are 

 disposed to believe marvellous stories.] (p. 122.) 



" Draughts of the Seates and Prospects. If these views were well dorm, they would make a 

 glorious volume by itselfe, and bike enough it might take well in the world. It were an incon- 

 siderable expence to these persons of qualitie, and it would remaine to posterity when their families 

 are gonn and their buildings ruined by time or fire, as we have seen that stupendous fabric of Paul's 

 Church, not a stone left on a stone, and lives now only in Mr. Hollar's Etchings in Sir William Dug- 

 dale's History of Paul's. I am not displeased with this thought as a desideratum, but I doe never 

 expect to see it donn ; so few men have the hearts to doe public good to give 4 or 5 pounds for a 

 copper-plate." (p. 126.) 



With regard to the history of the work now first published, it may be stated that it was the 

 author's first literary essay; being commenced in 1656, and evidently taken up from time to time, 

 and pursued con amore. In 1675 it was submitted to the Royal Society, when, as Aubrey 

 observed in a letter to Anthony a Wood, it " gave them two or three dayes entertainment which they 

 were pleased to like." Dr. Plot declined to prepare it for the press, and in December 1684 strongly 

 urged the author to "finish and publish it" himself; he accordingly proceeded to arrange its con- 

 tents, and in the month of June following (in the sixtieth year of his age) wrote the Preface, 



