WILLIAM LILLY. 
343 
intended, at Cambridge, he was obliged to quit the school after learn- 
ing writing and arithmetic. Being then, as his biographers inform 
us, of a forward temper, and endued with shrewd wit, he resolved to 
push his fortune in London, where he arrived in 1620, and where his 
immediate necessities obliged him to article himself as a servant to a 
mantua-maker, in the parish of St. Clement Danes. In 1624 he was 
assistant to a tradesman in the Strand ; who not being able to write, 
employed him, among other domestic offices, as his book-keeper. 'He 
had not been above three years in this place, when, his master dying, 
he addressed and married his mistress, with a fortune of lOOOl. In 
1632 he turned his mind to astrology, and applied to one Evans, a 
worthless Welsh clergyman, who, after practising that craft many 
years in Leicestershire, had come to London, and at this time resid- 
ed in Gunpowder-aile}'. Here Lilly became his pupil, and made such 
a quick progress, that he understood, in the cant of his brethren, how 
“to set a figure” perfectly in seven or eight weeks; and, continuing 
his application with the utmost assiduity, gave the public a specimen 
of his attainments and skill, by intimating that the king had chosen 
an unlucky horoscope for the coronation in Scotland, 1633. 
In 1634, having procured a manuscript, with some alterations, of 
the “ Ars Notoria” of Cornelius Agrippa, he became so infatuated by 
the doctrine of the magical circle, and the invocation of spirits, as 
not only to make use of a form of prayer prescribed there to the angel 
Salmonseus, and to Lanoy himself, a favourite of great power and 
interest with that uncreated phantom, but even to claim a knowledge 
of, and a familiar acquaintance with, particular guardian angels of 
England, Salmaeland Malchidael. After this he treated the more 
common mystery of recovering stolen goods, &c. with great contempt, 
claiming a supernatural sight, and the gift of prophetical predictions, 
and seems to have known well how to profit by the credulity of the 
times. Such indeed was his fame, as to produce the following notable 
story. 
When one Ramsay, the king’s clock-maker, being informed that 
there was a great treasure buried in the cloister of Westminster Abbey, 
obtained the dean’s (Dr. Williams, bishop of Lincoln) leave to search 
for it with the divining or Mosaical rods, he applied to Lilly for his 
assistance. Lilly, with one Scot, who pretended to the use of the 
said rods, attended by Ramsay and above thirty persons more, went 
into the cloister by night, and observing the rods to tumble over one 
another on the west side of the cloister, concluded the treasure lay 
hid under that spot ; but the ground being dug to the depth of six 
feet, and nothing found but a coffin, which was not heavy enough for 
their purpose, they proceeded, without opening it, into the Abbey. 
Here they were alarmed by a storm, which suddenly arose, and increas- 
ed to such a height, that they were afraid the west end of the church 
would have been blown down upon them : the rods moving not at all ; 
and the candles and torches, all but one, being extinguished, or burning 
very dimly. Scot was amazed, looked pale, and knew not whak to 
think or do ; until Lilly gave directions to dismiss the daemons, which 
when done, all was quiet again, and each man returned home. Lilly, 
however, took care not to expose his skill again in this manner, though 
