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FOR HIS LORDSHIP'S MUSICK. Alphonso Ferrabosco, the son, was Lord
Philip (the first's) lutenist. He sang rarely well to the theorbo
lute. He had a pension and lodgings in Baynard's Castle.

PART II. - CHAPTER III.

OF LEARNED MEN THAT HAD PENSIONS GRANTED TO THEM
BY THE EARLES OF PEMBROKE.

IN the former Chapter I endeavoured to adumbrate Wilton House as to
its architecture. We are now to consider it within, where it will
appeare to have been an academie as well as palace; and was, as it
were, the apiarie to which men that were excellent in armes and arts
did resort and were caress't, and many of them received honourable
pensions.

The hospitality here was very great. I shall wave the grandeur of
William the first Earle, who married [Anne] sister to Queen Katharine
Parre, and was the great favourite of King Henry 8th, and conservator
of his will, and come to our grandfather's memorie, in the times of
his sonne Henry Earle of Pembroke, and his Countess Mary, daughter of
Sir Henry Sydney, and sister to that renowned knight Sir Philip
Sydney, whose fame will never die whilest poetrie lives. His Lordship
was the patron to the men of armes, and to the antiquaries and
heralds; he took a great delight in the study of herauldry, as
appeares by that curious collection of heraldique manuscripts in the
library here. It was this earle that did set up all the painted glasse
scutchions about the house. Many a brave souldier, no doubt, was here
obliged by his Lordship; but time has obliterated their names.

Mr. Robert Barret dedicated the "Theorick and Practick of Moderne
Warres", in folio, London, 1598, to this noble Earle, and William Lord
Herbert of Cardiff, his son, then a youth. It seemes to have been a
very good discourse as any writt in that time, wherein he shews much
learning, besides experience. He had spent most of his time in
foreigne warres, as the French, Dutch, Italian, and Spanish; and here
delivers his military observations.

John Jones, an eminent physician in his tyme, wrote a treatise of the
bathes at Bath, printed in a black letter, Anno Domini 1572, which he
dedicated to Henry, Earle of Pembroke. [These dedications were
doubtless acknowledged by pecuniary gifts from the patron to the
authors. - J. B.]
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I shall now passe to the illustrious Lady Mary, Countesse of Pembroke,
whom her brother hath eternized by his Arcadia; but many or most of
the verses in the Arcadia were made by her Honour, and they seem to
have been writt by a woman. 'Twas a great pity that Sir Philip had
not lived to have put his last hand to it. He spent much, if not most
part of his time here, and at Ivychurch, near Salisbury, which did
then belong to this family, when he was in England; and I cannot
imagine that Mr. Edmund Spenser could be a stranger here. [See, in a
subsequent page, Chap. VIII. "The Downes". - J. B.]

Her Honour's genius lay as much towards chymistrie as poetrie. The
learned Dr. Mouffet, that wrote of Insects and of Meates, had a
pension hence. In a catalogue of English playes set forth by Gerard
Langbain, is thus, viz.: "Lady Pembrock, Antonius, 4to." [This was an
English translation of "The Tragedie of Antonie. Doone into
English by the Countesse of Pembroke. Imprinted at London, for William
Ponsonby, 1595." 12mo. The Countess of Pembroke also translated "A
Discourse of Life and Death, written in French, by Phil. Mornay",
1600, 12mo.- J. B.]

"Underneath this sable herse
Lies the subject of all verse,
Sydney's sister, Pembroke's mother,
Death! ere thou kill'st such another,
Fair, and wise, and learned as SHE,
Time will throw a dart at thee."

These verses were made by Mr. (William*) Browne, who wrote the
"Pastoralls", and they are inserted there.

*(William, Governor afterwards to ye now E. of Oxford. - J. EVELYN.)

[In the Memoir of Aubrey, published by the Wiltshire Topographical
Society in 1845, I drew attention to this passage, which shews that
although the above famous epitaph on the Countess of Pembroke is
almost always attributed to Ben Jonson, it was, in fact, written by
William Browne. That such is really the case does not rest only on the
authority of Aubrey and Evelyn; for we find this very epitaph in a
volume of Poems written by Browne, and preserved amongst the Lansdowne
MSS in the British Museum (No. 777), together with the following
additional lines:

"Marble pyles let no man raise
To her name for after-dayes;
Some kind woman, borne as she,
Reading this, like Niobe,
Shall turne marble, and become
Both her mourner and her tombe."

To the epitaph is subjoined an "Elegie" on the Countess, of
considerable length. When or by whom the epitaph was first ascribed
to Jonson it is not easy to ascertain; but certainly no literary error
has been more frequently repeated. Aubrey is wrong in stating that the
lines were printed in Browne's Pastorals.- J. B.]
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Mr. Adrian Gilbert, uterine brother to Sir Walter Raleigh, was a great
chymist, and a man of excellent parts, but very sarcastick, and the
greatest buffoon in the nation. He was housekeeper at Wilton, and made
that delicate orchard where the stately garden now is. ........... He
had a pension, and died about the beginning of the reign of King
Charles the First. Elias Ashmole, Esq. finds, by Dr. John Dee's
papers, that there was a great friendship and correspondency between
him and Adrian Gilbert, and he often mentions him in his manuscripts.
Now there can be no doubt made but that his half-brother Sir Walter
Raleigh, which was "tam Marti quam Mercurio", had a great acquaintance
with the Earle Henry and his ingenious Countesse.

There lived in Wilton, in those dayes, one Mr. Boston, a Salisbury man
(his father was a brewer there), who was a great chymist, and did
great cures by his art. The Lady Mary, Countesse of Pembroke, did much
esteeme him for his skill, and would have had him to have been her
operator, and live with her, but he would not accept of her Ladyship's
kind offer. But after long search after the philosopher's stone, he
died at Wilton, having spent his estate. After his death they found in
his laboratory two or three baskets of egge shelles, which I remember
Geber saieth is a principall ingredient of that stone.

J. Donne, Deane of St. Paule's, was well known both to Sir Philip
Sydney and his sister Mary, as appeares by those excellent verses in
his poems, "Upon the Translation of the Psalmes by Sir Philip Sydney
and the Countesse of Pembroke his sister."
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Earl William [the second of that name] was a good scholar, and
delighted in poetrie; and did sometimes, for his diversion, write some
sonnets and epigrammes, which deserve commendation. Some of them are
in print in a little book in 8vo. intituled "Poems writt by William
Earle of Pembroke, and Sir Benjamin Ruddyer, Knight, 1660." [See ante,
page 77. A new edition of these poems was published by Sir Egerton
Brydges in 1817.] He was of an heroique and publick spirit, bountifull
to his friends and servants, and a great encourager of learned men.

Philip Earle of Pembroke [the first of that name], his brother, did
not delight in books or poetry; but exceedingly loved painting and
building, in which he had singular judgment, and had the best
collection of any peer in England. He had a wonderful sagacity in the
understanding of men, and could discover whether an ambassadour's
message was reall or feigned; and his Majesty King James made great
use of this talent of his. Mr. Touars, an ingenious gentleman, who
understood painting well, and did travell beyond sea to buy rare
pieces for his lordship, had a pension of lOOli. per annum. Mr.
Richard Gibson, the dwarfe, whose marriage Mr. Edm. Waller hath
celebrated in his poëms, sc. the Marriage of the Dwarfs, a great
master in miniture, hath a pension of an hundred pounds per annum.
Mr. Philip Massinger, author of severall good playes, was a servant to
his lordship, and had a pension of twenty or thirty pounds per annum,
which was payed to his wife after his decease. She lived at Cardiffe,
in Glamorganshire. There were others also had pensions, that I have
forgot.

[Arthur Massinger, the father of the poet, was attached to the
establishment of the Earl of Pembroke; and Gifford, in his Life of
Massinger, seems inclined to think that Philip was born at Wilton. He
was baptized in St. Thomas's Church, Salisbury, 24 Nov. 1583. His
biographers have all been ignorant of the fact above recorded by
Aubrey. A brief memoir of the life of Massinger will be found in
Hatcher's History of Salisbury, p. 619.- J. B.]

William (third) and Philip (third) earles were gallant, noble persons,
and handsome; they espoused not learning, but were addicted to field
sports and hospitality. But Thomas Earle of Pembroke has the
vertues and good parts of his ancestors concentred in him; which his
lordship hath not been wanting to cultivate and improve by study and
travell; which make his titles shine more bright. He is an honour to
the peerage, and a glory and a blessing to his country: but his reall
worth best speakes him, and it praises him in the gates.

PART II. - CHAPTER IV.

OF GARDENS: - LAVINGTON GARDEN, CHELSEY GARDEN.

[THE stately gardens of the seventeenth century were less remarkable
for the cultivation of useful or ornamental plants than for the formal
arrangement of their walks, arbours, parterres, and hedges. Amongst
the various decorations introduced were jets d'eau, or fountains,
artificial cascades, columns, statues, grottoes, rock-work, mazes or
labyrinths, terraces communicating with each other by flights of
steps, and similar puerilities. This style of gardening was introduced
from France; where the celebrated Le Notre had displayed his skill in
laying out the gardens of the palace of Versailles; the most important
specimens of their class. The same person was afterwards employed by
several of the English nobility.

The gardens at Wilton, described in the last chapter, were completely
in the style referred to. Solomon de Caus, to whom they are attributed
by Aubrey, is supposed by Mr. Loudon, in his valuable "Encyclopaedia of
Gardening", to have been the inventor of greenhouses. The last
mentioned work contains the best account yet published of the gardens
of the olden time. Britton's "History of Cassiobury" (folio, 1837),
p. 17, also contains some curious particulars of the original
plantations and pleasure grounds of that interesting mansion.

The gardens at Lavington, which are described in the present chapter,
were evidently of the same character with those of Wilton. Chelsey-
garden is very minutely described by Aubrey, but our limits forbid its
insertion, especially as it is irrelevant to a History of Wiltshire.-
J. B.]

O janitores, villiciq{ue} felices:
Dominis parantur isti, serviunt vobis.
MARTIAL, Epigramm. 29, lib. x.

To write in the praise of gardens is besides my designe. The pleasure
and use of them were unknown to our great-grandfathers. They were
contented with pot-herbs, and did mind chiefly their stables. The
chronicle tells us, that in the reign of King Henry the 8th pear-
mains were so great a rarity that a baskett full of them was a present
to the great Cardinall Wolsey.

Henry Lyte, of Lyte's Cary, in Somerset, Esq. translated Dodoens'
Herball into English, which he dedicated to Q. Elizabeth, about the
beginning of her reigne [1578]. He had a pretty good collection of
plants for that age; some few whereof are yet alive, 1660: and no
question but Dr. Gilbert, &c. did furnish their gardens as well as
they could so long ago, which could be but meanly. But the first peer
that stored his garden with exotick plants was William Earle of
Salisbury, [1612-1668] at his garden at [Hatfield? - J. B.] a catalogue
whereof, fairly writt in a skin of vellum, consisting of 830 plants,
is in the hands of Elias Ashmole, Esq. at South Lambeth.

But 'twas Sir John Danvers, of Chelsey, who first taught us the way of
Italian gardens. He had well travelled France and Italy, and made good
observations. He had in a fair body an harmonicall mind. In his youth
his complexion was so exceeding beautiful and fine that Thomas Bond,
Esq. of Ogbourne St. .... in Wiltshire, who was his companion in his
travells, did say that the people would come after him in the street
to admire him. He had a very fine fancy, which lay chiefly for gardens
and architecture.

The garden at Lavington in this county, and that at Chelsey in
Middlesex, as likewise the house there, doe remaine monuments of his
ingenuity. The garden at Lavington is full of irregularities, both
naturall and artificiall, sc. elevations and depressions. Through the
length of it there runneth a fine cleare trowt stream; walled with
brick on each side, to hinder the earth from mouldring down. In this
stream are placed severall statues. At the west end is an admirable
place for a grotto, where the great arch is, over which now is the
market roade. Among severall others, there is a very pleasant
elevation on the south side of the garden, which steales, arising
almost insensibly, that is, before one is aware, and gives you a view
over the spatious corn-fields there, and so to East Lavington: where,
being landed on a fine levell, letteth you descend again with the like
easinesse; each side is flanqued with laurells. It is almost
impossible to describe this garden, it is so full of variety and
unevenesse; nay, it would be a difficult matter for a good artist to
make a draught of it. About An°. 1686, the right honourable James
Earle of Abingdon [who had become possessed of the estate in right of
his wife], built a noble portico, full of water workes, which is on
the north side of the garden, and faceth the south. It is both portico
and grott, and was designed by Mr. Rose, of ...... in Oxfordshire.
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Wilton Garden was the third garden after these two of the Italian
mode; but in the time of King Charles the Second gardening was much
improved and became common. I doe believe I may modestly affirme that
there is now, 1691, ten times as much gardening about London as there
was Anno 1660 ; and wee have been, since that time, much improved in
forreign plants, especially since about 1683, there have been exotick
plants brought into England no lesse than seven thousand. (From Mr.
Watts, gardener of the Apothecary's garden at Chelsey, and other
botanists.)

As for Longleate Garden it was lately made. I have not seen it, but
they say 'tis noble.

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Till the breaking out of the civill warres, Tom ô Bedlam's did travell
about the countrey. They had been poore distracted men that had been
putt into Bedlam, where recovering to some sobernesse they were
licentiated to goe a begging: e. g. they had on their left arm an
armilla of tinn, printed in some workes, about four inches long; they
could not gett it off. They wore about their necks a great horn of an
oxe in a string or bawdrie, which, when they came to an house for
almes, they did wind: and they did putt the drink given them into this
horn, whereto they did putt a stopple. Since the warres I doe not
remember to have seen any one of them. (I have seen them in
Worcestershire within these thirty years, 1756. MS. NOTE, ANONYMOUS.)

[This account of the " bedlam beggars" so well known to our
forefathers, is repeated by Aubrey in his "Remains of Gentilism,"
(Lansdowne MSS. No. 231,) portions of which have been printed in Mr.
Thoms's Anecdotes and Traditions (1839). The passage corresponding
with the above is quoted by Mr. Charles Knight from the manuscript
referred to, in illustration of the character of "Mad Tom," assumed
by Edgar, in Shakspere's play of King Lear.- J. B.]

PART II. - CHAPTER V.

ARTS: LIBERALL AND MECHANICK.

CRICKLAD, a market and borough town in this county, was an University
before the Conquest, where were taught the liberall arts and sciences,
as may appeare by the learned notes of Mr. Jo. Selden on Drayton's
Poly-Olbion, and by a more convincing and undenyable argument out of
Wheelock's translation of Bede's History.

This University was translated from hence to Oxford. But whereas
writers swallow down the old storie that this place takes its name
from certain Greek philosophers, who, they say, began here an
university, it is a fond opinion.

[Aubrey here quotes Fuller as to the etymology of the names of
Cricklade and Lechlade. That author, on the authority of Leland, had
asserted in his Church History that the one was originally called
Greek - lade, and the other Latin - lade, from "two schooles, famous
both for eloquence and learning", which existed there anterior to the
Conquest. But, on the report of his "worthy friend Dr. Peter Heylin,"
he afterwards stated in his Worthies that "Cricklade was the place
for the professors of Greek; Lechlade for physick (Leech being an
old English word for a physitian), and Latton, a small village hard
by, the place where Latin was professed." It will be seen by the next
sentence that Aubrey disputes even the amended theory of Fuller, and,
with more probability, derives the names of the towns in question from
words indicating the natural features of the localities.-J. B.]

But, as the saying is, "Bernardus non vidit omnia". Had the learned
Dr. Heylin (that is Hoelin, little Howell) had a little knowledge of
his ancestors' Welsh, he would not have made such a stumble, and so
forced these etymologies; but would easily have found that Cricklad
comes from kerig, stones; and glad, a country; which two words give a
true description of the nature of the country on that side of
Cricklad, which is, as wee term it, a stone-brash. Likewise Lechlade,
from llech, plank-stones, or tile-stones. As for Latton, it may very
well come from laith, which signifies a marsh, and is as much as to
say Marshton, as there is a parish thereby called Marston. Hereabout
are some few other places which retain their British names with a
little disguise.
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Without the close of Salisbury, as one comes to the town from Harnham-
bridge, opposite to the hospitall, is a hop-yard, with a fair high
stone wall about it, and the ruines of an old pidgeon house. I doe
remember, 1642, and since, more ruines there. This was Collegium de
Valle Scholarum (College de Vaux). It took its name from Vaux, a
family. Here was likewise a magister scholarum, and it was in the
nature of an university. It was never an endowed college. (From Seth
Ward, Bishop of Sarum.)

[Some historical particulars connected with this scholastic
establishment or college will be found in Hatcher's History of
Salisbury, pp. 50, 92, 232, &c. The author gives a different etymology
of its name to the above. Quoting Mosheim, cent. 13, p. ii. he states
that the Professors of Divinity in the University of Paris, in the
year 1234, assembled their pupils and fixed their residence in a
valley of Champagne, whence they acquired the name of Valli-scholares,
or Scholars of the Valley. Mr. Hatcher adds, that the College at
Salisbury, which was founded about 1260, derived its name, and
probably its system of instruction, from this community in France.
- J. B.]
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The consistorie of this church (Salisbury) was as eminent for
learning as any in England, and the choire had the best method; hence
came the saying "secundum usum Sarum". Over every stall there was writt
"hoc age". These old stalles were taken down about 1671, and now they
sitt in the quire undistinguisht, without stalles.

But it was at the Abbey of Malmesbury where learning did most flourish
in our parts, and where most writers were bred, as appeares by
Pitseus, Baleus, &c.
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MECHANICALL ARTS.- Cloathing. [See also subsequent chapters on this
subject] At Salisbury the best whites of England are made. 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.
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The Devises is famous for making excellent Metheglyn. Mr. Tho. Piers
of the Swan did drive a great trade in it. [See ante, p. 68.]

Amesbury is famous for the best tobacco pipes in England; made by ....
Gauntlet, who markes the heele of them with a gauntlet, whence they
are called gauntlet pipes. The clay of which they are made is brought
from Chiltern in this county. [See ante, p. 35.]

In King James the First's time coarse paper, commonly called
whitebrowne paper, was first made in England, especially in Surrey and
about Windsor.

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. Crokerton hath its denomination from the crokery
trade there; sc. making of earthen - ware, &c. Crock is the old
English word for a pott.
___________________________________

It ought never to be forgott what our ingenious countreyman Sir
Christopher Wren proposed to the silke stocking weavers of London,
Anno Domini 16-, viz. a way to weave seven paire or nine paire of
stockings at once (it must be an odd number). He demanded four hundred
pounds for his invention; but the weavers refused it because they were
poor; and besides, they sayd it would spoile their trade. Perhaps they
did not consider the proverb, that "light gaines, with quick
returnes, make heavy purses." Sir Christopher was so noble, seeing
they would not adventure so much money, he breakes the modell of the
engine all to pieces before their faces.

[This chapter contains many other remarks on trades, inventions,
machinery, &c. similar in character to the above.- J. B.]

PART II - CHAPTER VI.

ARCHITECTURE.

[IN this chapter, the account of Aubrey's visit to Old Sarum, and the
traditions connected with the erection of Salisbury Cathedral,
although they furnish no new facts of importance, will be read with
interest; especially on account of the reference they bear to the
enlightened and munificent Bishop Ward. A memoir of that prelate was
published by Dr. Walter Pope, in 1697 (8vo); and some further
particulars of him, as connected with Salisbury, will be found in
Hatcher's valuable History of that City. - J. B.]

THE celebrated antiquity of Stonehenge, as also that stupendious but
unheeded antiquity at Aubury, &c. I affirme to have been temples, and
built by the Britons. See my Templa Druidum. [The essay referred to
was a part of Aubrey's Monumenta Britannica, the manuscript of which
has strangely disappeared within the last twenty yeares. I have given
an account of its contents in the Memoir of Aubrey, already frequently
referred to,(page 87). Aubrey was the first who asserted that Avebury
and Stonehenge were temples of the Britons. He was also the first
person who wrote any thing about the forms, styles, and varieties of
windows, arches, &c. in Church Architecture, and his remarks and
opinions on both subjects were judicious, curious, and original.
- J. B.]
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Here being so much good stone in this countrey, no doubt but that the
Romans had here, as well as in other parts, good buildings. But time
hath left us no vestigia of their architecture unlesse that little
that remains of the castle of Old Sarum, where the mortar is as hard
as a stone. This must have been a most august structure, for it is
situated upon a hill. When the high walles were standing, flanked at
due distances with towers, about seven in all, and the vast keep
(arx) in the middle crowned with another high fortification, it must
needs afford a most noble view over the plaines.

(The following account I had from the right reverend, learned, and
industrious Seth Ward, Lord Bishop of Sarum, who had taken the paines
to peruse all the old records of the church, that had been clung
together and untoucht for perhaps two hundred yeares.) Within this
castle of Old Sarum, on the east side, stood the Cathedrall church;
the tuft and scite is yet discernable: which being seated so high was
so obnoxious to the weather, that when the wind did blow they could
not heare the priest say masse. But this was not the only
inconvenience. The soldiers of the castle and the priests could never
agree; and one day, when they were gone without the castle in
procession, the soldiers kept them out all night, or longer. Whereupon
the Bishop, being much troubled, cheered them up as well as he could,
and told them he would study to accommodate them better. In order
thereunto he rode severall times to the Lady Abbesse at Wilton to have
bought or exchanged a piece of ground of her ladyship to build a
church and houses for the priests. A poor woman at Quidhampton, that
was spinning in the street, sayd to one of her neighbours, "I marvell
what the matter is that the bishop makes so many visits to my lady; I
trow he intends to marry her." Well, the bishop and her ladyship did
not conclude about the land, and the bishop dreamt that the Virgin
Mary came to him, and brought him to or told him of Merrifield; she
would have him build his church there and dedicate it to her.
Merrifield was a great field or meadow where the city of New Sarum
stands, and did belong to the Bishop, as now the whole city belongs to
him.

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