Miscellanies Upon Various Subjects Part 19

And as in prospects, we are there pleased most where something keeps the eye from being lost, and leaves us room to guess; so here the eye and mind is no less affected with these stately ruins, than they would have been when standing and entire. They breed in generous minds a kind of pity, and sets the thoughts a-work to make out their magnifice as they were taken in perfection. These remains are "tanquam Tabulata Naufragii", that after the revolution of so many years and governments, have escaped the teeth of Time, and (which is more dangerous) the hands of mistaken Zeal. So that the retrieving of these forgotten things from oblivion, in some sort resembles that of a conjurer, who make those walk and appear that have lain in their graves many hundreds of years, and to represent, as it were to the eye, the places, customs, and fashions that were of old time.

Let us imagine then what kind of country this was in the time of the ancient Britains, by the nature of the soil, which is a soure, woodsere land, very natural for the production of oaks especially; one may conclude, that this North-Division was a shady, dismal wood; and the inhabitants almost as salvage as the beasts, whose skins were their only raiment. The language, British (which for the honour of it, was in those days spoken from the Orcades to Italy and Spain). The boats on the Avon (which signifies river) were baskets of twigs covered with an ox-skin, which the poor people in Wales use to this day, and call them curricles.

Within this shire I believe that there were several Reguli, which often made war upon one another, and the great ditches which run on the plains and elsewhere so many miles, were (not unlikely) their boundaries, and withall served for defence against the incursion of their enemies, as the Picts' Wall, Offa's Ditch, and that in China; to compare small things to great. Their religion is at large described by Csesar; their priests were the Druids. Some of their temples I pretend to have restored; as Anbury, Stonehenge, &c., as also British sepulchres. Their way of fighting is livelily set down by Caesar. Their camps, with those of their antagonists, I have set down in another place. They knew the use of iron; and about Hedington fields, Bromham, Bowdon, &c. are still ploughed up cinders (i. e. the scoria of melted iron). They were two or three degrees I suppose less salvage than the Americans. Till King John's time wolves were in this island; and in our grandfathers' days more foxes than now, and marterns (a beast of brown rich furr) at Stanton Park, &c. the race now extinct thereabout.

The Romans subdued and civilized them; at Lekham (Mr. Camden saith) was a colony of them, as appears there by the Roman coin found there.

About 1654, in Weekfield, in the parish of Hedington, digging up the ground deeper than the plough went, they found, for a great way together, foundations of houses, hearths, coals, and a great deal of Roman coin, silver and bra.s.s, whereof I had a pint; some little copper-pieces, no bigger than silver half-pence (quaere if they were not the Roman Denarii) I have portrayed the pot in which a good deal was found, which pot I presented to the Royal Society's Repository, it resembles an apprentice's earthen Christmas-box.

At Sherston, hath several times been found Roman money in ploughing. I have one silver piece found there (1653) not long since, of Constantine the Great. Among other arts, that of architecture was introduced by them; and no doubt but here, as well as in other parts, were then good buildings, here being so good stone: I know not any vestigia now left in this country, except the fragments of the Castle of Salisbury, which takes its name from Caeesar, Caesarisburghum, from whence Sarisburgh, whence Salisbury.

At Bath are several Roman inscriptions, which Mr. Camden hath set down, and by the West Gate a piece of a delicate Corinthian freeze, which he calls wreathed leaves, not understanding architecture; and by in a ba.s.s relieve of an optriouch. At Bethford, about 1663, was found a grotto paved with Mosaic work, some whereof I have preserved.

The Saxons succeeding them, and driving away to Ireland, Cornwal, &c.

these Britains were by Romans left here; for they used the best of them in their wars, (being their best soldiers) here was a mist of ignorance for 600 years. They were so far from knowing arts, that they could not build a wall with stone. They lived s.l.u.ttishly in poor houses, where they eat a great deal of beef and mutton, and drank good ale in a brown mazard; and their very kings were but a sort of farmers. After the Christian Religion was planted here, it gave a great shoot, and the kings and great men gave vast revenues to the Church, who were ignorant enough in those days. The Normans then came and taught them civility and building; which though it was Gothick (as also their policy "Feudalis Lex") yet they were magnificent. For the Government, till the time of King Henry VIII. it was like a nest of boxes; for copyholders, (who, till then were villains) held of the lords of the Manor, who held of a superior lord, who perhaps held of another superior lord or duke, who held of the king. Upon any occasion of justing or tournaments in those days, one of these great lords sounded his trumpets (the lords then kept trumpeters, even to King James) and summoned those that held under them. Those again sounded their trumpets, and so downward to the copy-holders. The Court of Wards was a great bridle in those days. A great part of this North Division held of the honour of Trowbridge, where is a ruinated castle of the dukes of Lancaster. No younger brothers then were by the custom and const.i.tution of the realm to betake themselves to trades, but were churchmen or retainers, and servants to great men rid good horses (now and then took a purse) and their blood that was bred of the good tables of their masters, was upon every occasion freely let out in their quarrels; it was then too common among their masters to have feuds with one another, and their servants at market, or where they met (in that slashing age) did commonly bang one another's bucklers.

Then an esquire, when he rode to town, was attended by eight or ten men in blue coats with badges. The lords (then lords in deed as well as t.i.tle) lived in their countries like petty kings, had "jura regalia" belonging to their seigniories, had their castles and boroughs, and sent burgesses to the Lower House; had gallows within their liberties, where they could try, condemn, draw and hang; never went to London but in parliament-time, or once a year to do their homage and duty to the king. The lords of manours kept good houses in their countries, did eat in their great Gothick halls, at the high table; (in Scotland, still the architecture of a lord's house is thus, viz. a great open hall, a kitchen and b.u.t.tery, a parlour, over which a chamber for my lord and lady; all the rest lye in common, viz.

the men-servants in the hall, the women in a common room) or oriele, the folk at the side-tables. (Oriele is an ear, but here it signifies a little room at the upper end of the hall, where stands a square or round table, perhaps in the old time was an oratory; in every old Gothic hall is one, viz. at Dracot, Lekham, Alderton, &c.) The meat was served up by watch-words. Jacks are but an invention of the other age: the poor boys did turn the spits, and licked the dripping-pan, and grew to be huge l.u.s.ty knaves. The beds of the servants and retainers were in the great halls, as now in the guard-chamber, &c.

The hearth was commonly in the middle, as at most colleges, whence the saying, "Round about our coal-fire." Here in the halls were the mummings, cob-loaf-stealing, and a great number of old Christmas plays performed. Every baron and gentleman of estate kept great horses for a man at arms. Lords had their armories to furnish some hundreds of men.

The halls of justices of the peace were dreadful to behold, the skreens were garnished with corslets and helmets, gaping with open mouth, with coats of mail, lances, pikes, halberts, brown bills, batterdashers, bucklers, and the modern colivers and petronils (in King Charles I.'s time) turned into muskets and pistols. Then were entails in fashion, (a good prop for monarchy). Destroying of manors began temp. Henry VIII., but now common; whereby the mean people live lawless, n.o.body to govern them, they care for n.o.body, having no dependance on anybody. By this method, and by the selling of the church-lands, is the ballance of the Government quite altered, and put into the hands of the common people. No ale-houses, nor yet inns were there then, unless upon great roads: when they had a mind to drink, they went to the fryaries; and when they travelled they had entertainment at the religious houses for three days, if occasion so long required. The meeting of the gentry was not then at tipling- houses, but in the fields or forest, with their hawks and hounds, with their bugle horns in silken bordries. This part very much abounded with forests and parks. Thus were good spirits kept up, and good horses and hides made; whereas now the gentry of the nation are so effeminated by coaches, they are so far from managing great horses, that they know not how to ride hunting-horses, besides the spoiling of several trades dependant. In the last age every yRoman almost kept a sparrow-hawk; and it was a divertis.e.m.e.nt for young gentlewomen to manage sparrow-hawks and merlins. In King Henry VIII.'s time, one Dame Julian writ The Art of Hawking in English verse, which is in Wilton Library. This country was then a lovely champain, as that about Sherston and Cots-wold; very few enclosures, unless near houses: my grandfather Lyte did remember when all between Cromhall (at Eston) and Castle-Comb was so, when Easton, Yatton and Comb did intercommon together. In my remembrance much hath been enclosed, and every year, more and more is taken in. Anciently the Leghs (now corruptly called Slaights) i. e. pastures, were n.o.ble large grounds, as yet the Demesne Lands at Castle Combe are. So likewise in his remembrance, was all between Kington St. Michael and Dracot-Cerne common fields. Then were a world of labouring people maintained by the plough, as yet in Northamptonshire, &c. There were no rates for the poor in my grandfather's days; but for Kington St. Michael (no small parish) the church-ale at Whitsuntide did the business. In every parish is (or was) a church-house, to which belonged spits, crocks, &c., utensils for dressing provision. Here the house-keepers met, and were merry, and gave their charity. The young people were there too, and had dancing, bowling, shooting at b.u.t.ts, &c., the ancients sitting gravely by and looking on. All things were civil and without scandal. This church-ale is doubtless derived from the {Greek text: agapai}, or love-feast, mentioned in the New Testament. Mr. A. Wood a.s.sures me, that there were no alms-houses, at least they were very scarce before the Reformation; that over against Christ Church, Oxon, is one of the ancientest. In every church was a poor man's box, but I never remembered the use of it; nay, there was one at great inns, as I remember it was before the wars. Before the Reformation, at their vigils or revels, sat up all night fasting and praying. The night before the day of the dedication of the church, certain officers were chosen for gathering the money for charitable uses. Old John Wastfield, of Langley, was Peter-man at St. Peter's Chapel there; at which time is one of the greatest revels in these parts, but the chapel is converted into a dwelling-house. Such joy and merriment was every holiday, which days were kept with great solemnity and reverence. These were the days when England was famous for the " grey goose quills." The clerk's was in the Easter holidays for his benefit, and the solace of the neighbourhood.

Since the Reformation, and inclosures aforesaid, these parts have swarmed with poor people. The parish of Cain pays to the poor (1663) 500 per annum; and the parish of Chippenham little less, as appears by the poor's books there. Inclosures are for the private, not for the public, good. For a shepherd and his dog, or a milk-maid, can manage meadow-land, that upon arable, employed the hands of several scores of labourers.

In those times (besides the jollities already mentioned) they had their pilgrimages to Walsingham, Canterbury, &c. to several shrines, as chiefly hereabouts, to St. Joseph's of Arimathea, at his chapel in Glas...o...b..ry Abbey. In the roads thither were several houses of entertainment, built purposely for them; among others, was the house called "The Chapel of Playster" near Box; and a great house called ....... without Lafford's Gate, near Bristol.

Then the Crusado's to the Holy War were most magnificent and glorious, and the rise, I believe, of the adventures of knights errant and romances. The solemnities , of processions in and about the churches, and the perambulations in the fields, besides their convenience, were fine pleasing diversions: the priests went before in their formalities, singing the Latin service, and the people came after, making their good-meaning responses. The reverence given to holy men was very great. Then were the churches open all day long, men and women going daily in and out hourly, to and from their devotions. Then were the consciences of the people kept in so great awe by confession, that just dealing and virtue was habitual. Sir Edwyn Sandys observed, in his travels in the Catholic countries, so great use of confession as aforesaid, that though a severe enemy to the Church of Rome, he doth heartily wish it had never been left out by the Church of England, perceiving the great good it does beyond sea.

Lent was a dismal time, strictly observed by fasting, prayer, and confessing against Easter. During the forty days, the Fryars preached every day.

This country was very full of religious houses; a man could not have travelled but he must have met monks, fryars, bonnehommes, &c. in their several habits, black, white, grey, &c. And the tingle tangle of their convent bells, I fancy, made very pretty musick, like the college bells at Oxford.

Then were there no free-schools; the boys were educated at the monasteries; the young maids, not at Hackney schools, &c. to learn pride and wantonness, but at the nunneries, where they had examples of piety, humility, modesty, and obedience, &c. to imitate and practise.

Here they learned needle-work, and the art of confectionary, surgery, physick, writing, drawing, &c.

Old Jaques (who lived where Charles Hadnam did) could see from his house the nuns of the priory of St. Mary's (juxta Kington) come forth into the nymph-hay with their rocks and wheels to spin, and with their sewing work. He would say that he hath told threescore and ten; though of nuns there were not so many, but in all, with lay-sisters, as widows, old maids, and young girls, there might be such a number. This was a fine way of breeding up young women, who are led more by example than precept; and a good retirement for widows and grave single women, to a civil, virtuous, and holy life.

Plato says, that the foundation of government is, the education of youth; by this means it is most probable that that was a golden age. I have heard Judge Jenkins, Mr. John Latch, and other lawyers, say, that before the Reformation, one shall hardly in a year find an action on the case, as for slander, &c. which was the result of a good government.

It is a sarcasm, more malicious than true, commonly thrown at the church-men, that they had too much land; for their const.i.tution being in truth considered, they were rather administrators of those great revenues to pious and publick uses, than usufructuaries. As for themselves, they had only their habit and competent diet, every order according to their prescribed rule; from which they were not to vary.

Then for their tenants, their leases were almost as good to them as fee simple, and perchance might longer last in their families. Sir William b.u.t.ton (the father) hath often told me, that Alton farm had been held by his ancestors from the Abbey of Winchester, about four hundred years. The powers of Stanton Quintin held that farm of the Abbey of Cirencester in lease 300 years: and my ancestors, the Danvers, held West Tokenham for many generations, of the Abbey of Broadstock, where one of them was a prior. Memorandum, that in the abbies were several corrodies granted for poor old shiftless men, which Fitzherbert speaks of amongst his writs. In France, to every parish church is more than one priest, (because of the several ma.s.ses to be said) which fashion, Mr. Dugdale tells me, was used here, and at some churches in London, in near half a dozen.

In many chancels are to be seen three seats with niches in the wall (most commonly on the south side) rising by degrees, and sometimes only three seats, the first being for the bishop, the second for the priest, and the third for the deacon. Anciently the bishops visited their churches in person. This I had from Mr. Dugdale; as also that in many churches where stalls are, as at cathedrals, (which I mistook for chauntries) and in collegiate churches. This searching after antiquities is a wearisome task. I wish I had gone through all the church-monuments. The Records at London I can search gratis. Though of all studies, I take the least delight in this, yet methinks I am carried on with a kind of ?strum; for n.o.body else hereabout hardly cares for it, but rather makes a scorn of it. But methinks it shows a kind of grat.i.tude and good nature, to revive the memories and memorials of the pious and charitable benefactors long since dead and gone.

Eston Pierse, April 28, 1670.

HOROSCOPE OF JOHN AUBREY'S NATIVITY, from his own Sketch.