Memoir of John Aubrey, F.R.S.; embracing his autobiographical sketches, a brief review of his personal and literary merits, and an account of his works, with extracts from his correspondence, anecdotes of some of his contemporaries, and of the times in which he lived / By John Britton ... Published by the Wiltshire Topographical Society [with its 5th Annual Report, 1845].

John Britton

Date:: 1845

Credit: Memoir of John Aubrey, F.R.S.; embracing his autobiographical sketches, a brief review of his personal and literary merits, and an account of his works, with extracts from his correspondence, anecdotes of some of his contemporaries, and of the times in which he lived / By John Britton ... Published by the Wiltshire Topographical Society [with its 5th Annual Report, 1845]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$X. “ REMAINES OF GENTILISME, 3 PARTS, SC., ABOUT 3 Q's. WitH D' KEnnzev.” [In the British Museum, being part of the Lansdowne MS. No. 231.] THE Lansdowne MS. No. 231, is entitled in the catalogue of that series, “A Volume of Miscellaneous-Collections formerly in the possession of Bishop Kennett, but not made by himself.” Aubrey’s is the third manuscript in the volume, and extends from p. 101 to p. 241. The above note shows that this work was in the possession of Bishop Kennett in 1692: and after his death it passed, together with his other papers, into the custody of the first Marquess of Lansdowne, whose valuable collection was purchased for the British Museum in 1807. * This manuscript, which is dated 1688, has the following title and dedication :— “ Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme. By J. Aubrey, R.S.S. To His ever honoured Friend Edmund Wyld,{ of Geasly Hall, in the County of Salop, Esq’, these Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme are dedicated, as a small token of ancient Friendship, by his affectionate and humble Servant, J. Aubrey.” A volume of “ Anecdotes and Traditions” was edited, in 1839, by W. J. Thoms, * William, Marquess of Lansdowne, whose country seat was Bowood, Wiltshire, about six miles from the birth-place of Aubrey, was not more famed in the political than in the literary and scientific world. His seat was a sort of English Tusculum, where the most distinguished statesmen, artists, literati, and men of science often associated to enjoy “the feast of reason and the flow of soul;” where the state of nations, of parties, of novelties in literature and art, were discussed and reviewed ; where the obstinacy of a monarch, and the reck- less tyranny of a minister, were brought under the severe and condemnatory scrutiny of some of the most potent critics of the age. It would not be a difficult task to trace some of the famed letters of Junius to this fountain head (vide Life of Charles Butler, by Dr. Bowring). The value and importance of that portion of the contents of the British Museum, properly called the Lansdowne Manuscripts, cannot fail to dignify the character of the illustrious nobleman who amassed and preserved it. + “London, St Bartholomew’s Close, Octob. Novemb. Decemb. 1688.” _ $ This Mr. Wyldis mentioned by Roger North in his account of the learned associates of the Lord Keeper Guildford: “One Mr Wyld, a rich philosopher, lived in Bloomsbury. He was single, and his house a sort of knick-knack-atory. Most of the ingenious persons about town visited him, and among the rest his lordship did suit and service there. This gentleman was of a superior order, and valued himself upon new inventions of his own. He sowed salads in the morning, to be cut for dinner; and claimed the invention of painted curtains, in varnish, upon silk; which would bend and not crack ; and his house was furnished with them : and he delighted in nothing more than in shewing his multifarious contrivances.” North’s Life of Guildford (edition 1826), vol. ii. p. 180. Q$

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