This etext was produced by Michael Coker.
LIFE of Aubrey
Dedication to the First Edition
Day-Fatality; or, Some Observations of Days Lucky and Unlucky
Day-Fatality of Rome
Of Fatalities of Families and Places
Ostenta; or, Portents
Omens
Dreams
Apparitions
Voices
Impulses
Knockings
Blows invisible
Prophesies
Miranda
Magick
Transportation by an invisible Power
Visions in a Beryl or Crystal
Visions without a Glass or Crystal
Converse with Angels and Spirits
Corps-candles in Wales
Oracles
Ecstacy
Glances of Love and Malice
An accurate account of Second-Sighted men in Scotland
Additaments of Second-Sight
Farther Additaments
Appendix
JOHN AUBREY, the subject of this brief notice, was born at EastonPierse, (Parish of Kington,) in Wiltshire, on the 12th of March, 1626;and not on the 3rd of November in that year, as stated by some of hisbiographers. He was the eldest son of Richard Aubrey, Esq. ofBurleton, Herefordshire, and Broad Chalk, Wiltshire. Being, accordingto his own statement, "very weak, and like to dye," he was baptizedon the day of his birth, as appears by the Register of Kington. At anearly age (1633) he was sent to the Grammar School at Yatton Keynel,and in the following year he was placed under the tuition of Mr.Robert Latimer, the preceptor of Hobbes, a man then far advanced inyears.
On the 2nd of May, 1642, being then sixteen years of age, Aubrey wasentered a gentleman commoner of Trinity College, Oxford, where heappears to have applied himself closely to study. He however cherisheda strong predilection for English History and Antiquities, which wasfostered and encouraged at this time by the appearance of the"Monasticon Anglicanum", to which he contributed a plate of OsneyAbbey, an ancient ruin near Oxford, entirely destroyed in the CivilWars.
On the 16th of April, 1646, Aubrey was admitted a student of theMiddle Temple, but the death of his father shortly after, leaving himheir to estates in Wiltshire, Surrey, Herefordshire, Brecknockshireand Monmouthshire, obliged him to relinquish his studies and look tohis inheritance, which was involved in several law suits.
Though separated from his associates in the University, he appears tohave kept up a correspondence with several of them, and among others,Anthony Wood, whom he furnished with much valuable information. Woodmade an ungrateful return for this assistance, and in hisAutobiography thus speaks of him:-"An. 1667, John Aubrey of EastonPiers in the parish of Kingston, Saint Michael in Wiltshire, was inOxon. with Edward Forest, a Bookseller, living against Alls. Coll. tobuy books. He then saw lying on the stall Notitiae AcademiaeOxoniensis, and asking who the author of that book was ? he [Edw.Forest] answered, the report was that one Mr. Anth. Wood, of MertonCollege was the author, but was not. Whereupon Mr. Aubrey, a pretenderto Antiquities, having been contemporary to A. Wood's elder brother inTrin. Coll. and well acquainted with him, he thought, that he might beas well acquainted with A. W. himself, Whereupon repairing to hislodgings, and telling him who he was, he got into his acquaintance,talked to him about his studies, and offered him what assistance hecould make, in order to the completion of the work that he