HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE. [227 



1516. In 1520 he was elected a Fellow of All Souls College, 

 where he took his degree in arts, and was ordained. His studies, 

 however, were more devoted to the sciences than theology, and 

 as he lived in a superstitious age, his favourite pursuit was judi- 

 cial astrology. 



We are informed by Wood, that Robyns made such a progress 

 in " the pleasant studies of mathematics and astrology, that he 

 became the ablest person of his time for those studies, not except- 

 ing his friend Record." 



In the year 1531, he took the degree of B. D. and was appointed 

 one of the Chaplains to Henry VIII. In 1532 he was made by 

 the King one of the Canons of his College in Oxford, and in 1543 

 preferred to the dignity of Canon of Windsor. 



On the accession of Queen Mary, he was appointed Chaplain to 

 her Majesty, and highly venerated by her for his great learning. 

 He died at Windsor, on the 25th of August 1558, and was buried 

 in St. George's Chapel. 



Wood enumerates five productions of Robyns, all in Latin, and 

 in manuscript. They are chiefly on Astrology and Astronomy. 

 " All whicli books," says Wood, " were in MS. in the choice library 

 of Dr. Thomas Allen, of Gloucester-hall. After his death, coming 

 into the hands of Sir Kenehn Digby, they were by him given to 

 the Bodleian Library, where they yet remain. It is also said, that 

 the said Robyns hath written a book entitled De Portentosi* 

 Cometus, but such a thing I have not yet seen." 



Whatever gratification the obsolete tracts of visionary philoso- 

 phers respecting astrology may give the curious admirers of an- 

 cient books and manuscripts, mankind will be no loser if they 

 should remain in the Bodleian Library, Ashmolean Museum, or 

 even the British Museum, till consumed as the proper food of the 

 book-worm. 



ISAAC HAWKINS BROWNE. 



Few individuals of any age or nation have obtained literary fame 

 upon easier terms than the subject of the following biographical 

 sketch. But the reason is obvious. His principal production was 

 written in Latin, a language which has been sanctioned by the 

 custom of ages as the great essential in the acquisition of know- 

 ledge, and hence, mere smatterers, ambitious to be thought men 



