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
Licence: Public Domain Mark
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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![Aubrey family (ante, p. 24). There are also calculations of the nativities of Dr. Dee, Partridge, Hobbes, Dryden, Dr. Charlton, William Penn, Sir William Petty, Sir Christopher Wren, King Charles the Second, and many other celebrated men; also the dates of many principal events in their lives. The care which Aubrey evidently bestowed upon the collection of these details gives them considerable value as materials for the biographer and literary historian; and the volume is further interesting as it exemplifies the gross absurdities inherent in judicial astrology, in belief of which our antiquary was an infatuated and unfortunate dupe. XV. “Easton PIERS DELINEATED.” [Jn the Ashmolean Museum. | Warton and Huddesford mention this under its full title, ‘“ Designatio de Easton-Piers in Com. Wilts. Per me (heu!) infortunatum Johannem Aubrey, R.S. Socium. Anno Di 1669.” It comprises nineteen oblong quarto leaves, with “views of the house, gardens, and environs of Easton Piers, drawn in a coarse manner and colouring, but pleasing and expressive.” The view in the title-page of the present volume has been copied from one of these. A section through the house and garden, north and south, shows that the latter was laid out in the Italian or French mode, upon three different levels, each raised above the other, and ascended by flights of steps, with a “jedeau” [jet-d’eau] in the lowest. A “ grotto, above which, on a pilar, stands a volant Mercury,” are delineated in the drawings of the garden. Six of the sketches represent groups of trees, in different parts of the grounds: others show some of the grottoes in the gardens, and indications of prospects from the house. XVI. “ Vitua, or a DESCRIPTION OF THE PROSPECTS FROM EASTON PIERS.” THis may have been a companion volume to the above; but it is not to be found. XVII. “Faper Fortuna, A Private Essay.” [Jn the Ashmolean Museum. | THE above Manuscript has not hitherto attracted public attention. It consists of twenty-six small quarto pages, being hints or memoranda of matters desirable for](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33522169_0138.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
