Miscellanies Upon Various Subjects

MISCELLANIES UPON VARIOUS SUBJECTS - CONTENTS - Page IFE of Aubrey . . vii Dedication to the First Edition . . . xv Day-Fatality or, Some Observations of Days Lucky and Unlucky . 1 Day-Fatality of Rome . . . . . . 21 Of Fatalities of Families and Places . 25 Ostenta or, Portents . . 33 Omens . . . 38 Dreams . . . 49 Apparitions . . 70 Voices . ., . 106 Impulses . . . 112 Knockings . ., 117 Blows invisible . . . . 119 Prophesies . . . . . 120 hlir anda . . 124 3lagick . ., 130 Transportation by an invisible Power . . 142 Visions in a Berzl or Crystal, . . 154 Visions without a Glass or Crystal ., . 158 Converse with Angels and Spirits, . . 159 Corps-candles in Wales . . 165 v i C OATTENTS. Page Oracles . . 168 Ecstacy . . 169 Glances of Love and Malice . . 172 An accurate accotlnt of Seconcl-Sighted Alcn in Scot1an l 1i. i,4dditaments of Second-Sight . . . 194 Farther Aclclitaments . . 196 Appendix . 209 Inclex . - 223 THE LIFE OF JOHN AUBREY. OHN AUBREY, the subject of this brief Gotice, was born at Easton Pierse, Parish of Kington, in Wiltshire, on the 12th of March, 1626 a. nd not on the 3rd of, November in that year, as stated by some of his biopaphers. He was the eldest son of Richard Aubrey, Esq. of Burleton, Herefordshire, and Broad Chalk, Wiltshire. Being, according to his own statement, very weak, and like to dye, he was baptized on the day of his birth, as appears by the Register of Kington. At an early age 1633 he was sent to the Grammar School at Yatton Xeynel, and in the following year he was placed under the tuition of Mr. Robert Latimer, the preceptor of Hobbes, a man then far advanced in years. On the 2nd of May, 1642, being then sixteen years of age, Aubrey was entered agentleman commoner of Trinity College, Oxford, where he appears to have applied himself closely to study. He however cherished a strong predilection for English History and Antiquities, which was fostered and encouraged at this time by the appearance of the Monasticon Angqcanum, to which he contributed ...a plate of Osney Abbey, an ancient ruin near Oxford, entirely destroyed in the Civil Wars. On the 16th of April, 1646, Aubrey was admitted a student of the Middle Temple, but the death of his father shortly after, leaving him heir to estates in Wiltshire, -Surrey, Herefordshire, Brecknockshire and Monmouthshire, obliged him to relinquish hig studies and look to his inheritance, which was involved in several law suits. Though separated from his associates in the University, he appears to have kept up a correspondence with several of them, and among others, Anthony Wood, whom he furnished with much valuable information. Wood made an ungrateful return for this assistance, end in his Autobiography thus speaks of him - An 1667. John Aubrey of Easton Piers in the parish of Kingston, Saint Michael in Wiltshire, was in Oxon. with Edward Forest, a Bookseller, living against Alls. Coll. to buy books. He then saw lying on the stall Notitiae Academiae Oxoniensis, and asking who the author of that book was he Edw. Forest answered, the report was that one Mr. Anth. Wood, of Merton College was the author, but was not. Whereupon Rlr. Aubrey, a pretender to Antiquities, haying been contemporary to A. Woods elder brother in Trin. Coll. and well acqua-inted with him, he thought, that he might be as well acquainted with A. W. himself. Whereupon repairing to his lodgings, and telling him who he was, he gotinto his acquaintance, talked to him about his studies, and offered him what assistance he could make, in . order to the completion of the work that he was in hand with. Mr. Aubrey was then in sparkish garb, came to...........