“ Anthony à Wood, who is the main authority for Vaughan’s biography, says that Henry was entered at Jesus College, Oxford, in 1638, but no corroboration of the statement is forthcoming, although Thomas Vaughan’s matriculation is entered, nor does Henry Vaughan ever allude to residence at the university. [1] He was sent to London to study law, but turning his attention to medicine, he became a physician, and settled first at Brecon and later at Scethrog to the practice of his art. He was regarded, says Wood, as an “ingenious person, but proud and humorous.” ”

“ He analyses his experiences, amatory and sacred, with excessive ingenuity, striking out, every now and then, through his extreme intensity of feeling and his close observation of nature, lines and phrases of marvellous felicity. He is of imagination all compact, and is happiest when he abandons himself most completely to his vision. ”

“ English poet and mystic, was born of an ancient Welsh family at Newton St Briget near Scethrog by Usk, Brecknockshire, on the 17th of April 1622. His grandfather, Thomas Vaughan, was the son of Charles Vaughan of Tretower Castle, and had acquired the farm of Newton by marriage. ”