John Aubrey

“ The downes of Wiltshire are covered with mists, when the vales are clear from them, and the sky serene; and they are much more often here than in the lowest story or stage.
The leather covers of bookes, &c. doe mold more and sooner in the hill countrey than in the vale. The covers of my bookes in my closet at Chalke would be all over covered with a hoare mouldinesse, that I could not know of what colour the leather was; when my bookes in my closet at Easton- Piers (in the vale) were not toucht at all with any mouldiness. ”

“ It is certain that no county of England had greater variety of game, &c. than Wiltshire, and our county hounds were as good, or rather the best of England; but within this last century the breed is much mix't with northern hounds. Sir Charles Snell, of Kington St. Michael, who was my honoured friend and neighbour, had till the civill warrs as good hounds for the hare as any were in England, for handsomenesse and mouth (deep-mouthed) and goodnesse, and suited one another admirably well. But it was the Right Hon. Philip I. Earle of Pembroke, that was the great hunter. ”

“ At Compton Basset is a quarrie of soft white stone betwixt chalke and freestone: it endures fire admirably well, and would be good for reverbatory furnaces: it is much used for ovens and hearth-stones: it is as white as chalke. At my Lord Stowell's house at Aubury is a chimney piece carved of it in figures; but it doth not endure the weather, and therefore it ought not to be exposed to sun and raine.
At Yatton Keynel, in Longdean, is a freestone quarrie, but it doth not endure the weather well.
In Alderton-field is a freestone quarrie, discovered a little before the civill-warres broke forth. ”

“ Snailes are everywhere; but upon our downes, and so in Dorset, and I believe in Hampshire, at such degree east and west, in the summer time are abundance of very small snailes on the grasse and come, not much bigger, or no bigger than small pinnes heads. Though this is no strange thing among us, yet they are not to be found in the north part of Wilts, nor on any northern wolds. When I had the honour to waite on King Charles I.* and the Duke of York to the top of Silbury hill, his Royal Highnesse happened to cast his eye on some of these small snailes on the turfe of the hill. ”

“ These enamelled bricks have not been in use these last hundred yeares. The old paving of Our Lady Church at Salisbury was of such; and the choire of Gloucester church is paved with admirable bricks of this fashion. A little chapell at Merton, in the Earle of Shaftesbury's house, is paved with such tiles, whereon are annealed or enamelled the coate and quarterings of Horsey. It is pity that this fashion is not revived; they are handsome and far more wholesome than marble paving in our could climate, and much cheaper. ”

“ At Ewridge, in the parish of Colern, in North Wilts (a stone brash and a free stone) , they also grow indifferently plentifull; and in the parish of Kington St Michael I remember three or four in the stone brash and red earth.
When I learnt my accidents, 1633, at Yatton Keynel, there was a fair and spreading ewe-tree in the churchyard, as was common heretofore. The boyes tooke much delight in its shade, and it furnish't them with their scoopes and nutt-crackers. The clarke lop't it to make money of it to some bowyer or fletcher, and that lopping kill'd it: the dead trunke remaines there still. ”

“ The rivulet that gives the name to Chalke-bourn,† and running through Chalke, rises at a place called Naule, belonging to the farme of Broad Chalke, where are a great many springs that issue out of the chalkie ground. It makes a kind of lake of the quantity of about three acres. There are not better trouts (two foot long) in the kingdom of England than here; I was thinking to have made a trout pond of it. The water of this streame washes well, and is good for brewing. I did putt in craw-fish, but they would not live here: the water is too cold for them. ”

“ Knighton Wood, the Earle of Pembroke's, is an exceeding pleasant place, both for the variety of high wood and lawnes, as well as deer, as also the prospect over the New Forest to the sea, and the whole length of the Isle of Wight It is a desk-like elevation, and faces the south, and in my conceit it would be the noblest situation for a grand building that this countrey doth afford. ”

“ We had in North Wiltshire, and yet have, though not in the former plenty, as good oakes as any in England. The best that we have now (1670) are at Okesey Parke, Sir Edward Poole's, in Malmesbury hundred; and the oakes at Easton Piers (once mine) were, for the number, not inferior to them. In my great-grandfather Lite's time (15—) one might have driv'n a plough over every oake in the oak- close, which are now grown stately trees. The great oake by the day- house [dairy house - J. B.] is the biggest oake now, I believe, in all the countie. There is a common wealth of rookes there. ”

“ These downes runne into Hampshire, Berkshire, and Dorsetshire; but as to its extent in this county, it is from Red-hone, the hill above Urshfont, to Salisbury, north and south, and from Mere to Lurgershall, east and west. The turfe is of a short sweet grasse, good for the sheep, and delightfull to the eye, for its smoothnesse like a bowling green, and pleasant to the traveller; who wants here only variety of objects to make his journey lesse tedious: for here is "nil nisi campus et aer", not a tree, or rarely a bush to shelter one from a shower. ”

“ The earth about Malmesbury hundred and Chippenham hundred, especially about Pewsham-forest, is vitriolate, or aluminous and vitriolate; which in hot weather the sun does make manifest on the banks of the ditches.
At Bradfield and Dracot Cerne is such vitriolate earth; which with galles will make inke. This makes the land so soure, it beares sowre and austere plants: it is a proper soile for dayries. At summer it hunger-banes the sheep; and in winter it rotts them. ”

“ The market-crosses of Salisbury, Malmesbury, and Trowbridge, are very noble: standing on six pillars, and well vaulted over with freestone well carved. On every one of these crosses above sayd the crest of Hungerford, the sickles, doth flourish like parietaria or wall-flower, as likewise on most publique buildings in these parts, which witnesse not onely their opulency but munificency. I doe think there is such another crosse at Cricklade, with the coate and crests of Hungerford. Quaere de hoc. ”

“ Shakespeare's wife, of Worplesdowne in Surrey, a North Wiltshire woman, and an excellent huswife, does assure me that she makes as good cheese there as ever she did at Wraxhall or Bitteston, and that it is meerly for want of art that her neighbours doe not make as good; they send their butter to London. So it appeares that, some time or other, when there in the vale of Sussex and Surrey they have the North Wiltshire skill, that halfe the cheese trade of the markets of Tedbury and Marleborough will be spoiled. ”

“ At Bemarton near Salisbury is a paper mill, which is now, 1684, about 130 yeares standing, and the first that was erected in this county; and the workmen there told me, 1669, that it was the second paper mill in England. I remember the paper mill at Longdeane, in the parish of Yatton Keynell, was built by Mr. Wyld, a Bristow merchant, 1635. It serves Bristow with brown paper. There is no white paper made in Wiltshire.
At Crokerton, near Warminster, hath been since the restauration (about 1665) a manufacture of felt making, as good, I thinke, as those of Colbec in France. ”

“ At Highworth was the greatest market, on Wednesday, for fatt cattle in our county, which was furnished by the rich vale; and the Oxford butchers furnished themselves here. In the late civill warres it being made a garrison for the King, the graziers, to avoid the rudeness of the souldiers, quitted that market, and went to Swindon, four miles distant, where the market on Munday continues still, which before was a petty, inconsiderable one. Also, the plague was at Highworth before the late warres, which was very prejudiciall to the market there ”

“ Quaere, how long the trade of turnips has been here? For it is certain that all the turnips that were brought to Bristoll eighty years since [now 1680] were from Wales; and now none come from thence, for they have found out that the red sand about Bristoll doth breed a better and a bigger turnip.
Burbidge is also remarqueable for excellent pease. ___________________________________
The turf of our downes, and so east and west, is the best in the world for gardens and bowling- greens; for more southward it is burnt, and more north it is course. ”

“ The city was ever also famous for the manufactures of parchment, razors, cizers, knives, and gloves. Salisbury mault is accounted the best mault, and they drive there a very considerable trade in maulting. Also it is not to be forgotten that the bottle ale of Salisbury (as likewise Wilton, upon the same reason, sc. the nitrous water) is the best bottle ale of this nation.
Malmesbury hath been an ancient cloathing town; where also is a considerable manufacture of gloves and strong waters. Also Troubridge, Calne, and Chippenham are great cloathing townes. ”

“ Three of the springs are within the park pale and in Wiltshire; the other three are without the pale in Somersetshire. The fountaines within the parke pale are curbed with pierced cylinders of free stone, like tunnes of chimneys; the diameter of them is eighteen inches. The coate armour of the Lord Sturton is, Sable, a bend or, between six fountaines; which doe allude to these springs. Stour is a British word, and signifies a great water: sc. "dwr" is water; "ysdwr" is a considerable, or great water: "ys", is "particula augens". ”

“ In North Wiltshire, and like the vale of Gloucestershire (a dirty clayey country) the Indigense, or Aborigines, speake drawling; they are phlegmatique, skins pale and livid, slow and dull, heavy of spirit: hereabout is but little, tillage or hard labour, they only milk the cowes and make cheese; they feed chiefly on milke meates, which cooles their braines too much, and hurts their inventions. ”

“ Beeches.-None in Wilts except at Groveley. (In the wood belonging to Mr. Samwell's farm at Market Lavington are three very large beeches.- BISHOP TANNER.) I have a conceit that long time ago Salisbury plaines might have woods of them, but that they cut them down as an incumbrance to the ground, which would turn to better profit by pasture and arable. The Chiltern of Buckinghamshire is much of the like soile; and there the neernesse of Bucks to London, with the benefit of the Thames, makes their woods a very profitable commodity. ”

“ Now there is scarce an oake left in the whole parish, and oakes are very rare all hereabout, so that this rich mine cannot be melted and turned to profit. Finding this plenty of rich iron-oare, I was confident that I should find in the village some spring or springs impregnated with its vertue; so I sent my servant to the Devizes for some galles to try it; and first began at Mr. J. Sumner's, where I lay, with the water of the draught- well in the court within his house, which by infusion of a little of the powder of the galles became immediately as black as inke ”

“ CONSIDERING the distance of place where I now write, London, and the distance of time that I lived in this county, I am not able to give a satisfactorie account of the husbandry thereof. I will only say of our husbandmen, as Sir Thom. Overbury does of the Oxford scholars, that they goe after the fashion; that is, when the fashion is almost out they take it up: so our countrey-men are very late and very unwilling to learne or be brought to new improvements. ”

“ CHAPTER XL FISHES. HUNGERFORD trowtes are very much celebrated, and there are also good ones at Marleborough and at Ramesbury. In the gravelly stream at Slaughtenford are excellent troutes; but, though I say it, there are none better in England than at Nawle, which is the source of the streame of Broad Chalke, a mile above it; but half a mile below Chalke, they are not so good. King Charles I. loved a trout above all fresh fish; and when he came to Wilton, as he commonly did every summer, the Earle of Pembroke was wont to send for these trowtes for his majesties eating. ”

“ King Charles the first did love Wilton above all places, and came thither every summer. It was he that did put Philip first Earle of Pembroke upon making this magnificent garden and grotto, and to new build that side of the house that fronts the garden, with two stately pavilions at each end, all "al Italiano". His Majesty intended to have had it all designed by his own architect, Mr. Inigo Jones, who being at that time, about 1633, engaged in his Majesties buildings at Greenwich, could not attend to it ”

“ Montjoy, is a spring,-they call it a holy well,-where five-pointed stones doe bubble up (Astreites) which doe move in vinegar.
At Broad Chalke are sometimes found cornua ammonis of chalke. I doe believe that they might be heretofore in as great abundance hereabout as they are about Caynsham and Burnet in Somersetshire; but being soft, the plough teares them in pieces; and the sun and the frost does slake them like lime. They are very common about West Lavington, with which the right honourable James, Earle of Abington, has adorned his grotto's there. ”