King Charles II. went by long sea to Portsmouth or Plymouth, or both; an extraordinary storm arose, which carried him almost to France. Sir Jonas Moor (who was then with his Majesty) gave me this account, and said, that when they came to Portsmouth to refresh themselves, they had not been there above half an hour, but the weather was calm, and the sun shone: his Majesty put to sea again, and in a little time they had the like tempestuous weather as before.
Not long before the death of King Charles II. a Sparrow-hawk escaped from the perch, and pitched on one of the iron crowns of the white tower, and entangling its string in the crown, hung by the heels and died. Not long after, another hawk pitched on one of the crowns. From Sir Edward Sherborne, Knight.
The Gloucester frigate cast away at the Lemanore, and most of the men in it; the Duke of York escaping in a cock boat, anno 1682, May the 5th, on a Friday.
When King James II. was crowned, (according to the ancient custom, the Peers go to the throne, and kiss the king) the Crown was almost kissed off his head. An Earl did set it right; and as he came from the Abbey to Westminster Hall, the Crown tottered extremely.
The canopy (of cloth of gold) carried over the head of King James II. by the Wardens of the Cinque Ports, was torn by a puff of wind as he came to Westminster Hull; it hung down very lamentably: I saw it.
When King James II. was crowned, a signal was given from Westminster Abbey to the Tower, where it was Sir Edward Sherborne's post to stand to give order for firing the cannons, and to hoist up the great flag with the King's arms. It was a windy day, and the wind presently took the flag half off, and carried it away into the Thames. From Sir Edward Sherborne.
The top of his sceptre (Flower de Lys) did then fall.
Upon Saint Mark's Day, after the coronation of King James II. were prepared stately fire works on the Thames: it hapened, that they took fire all together, and it was so dreadful, that several spectators leaped into the river, choosing rather to be drowned than burned. In a yard by the Thames, was my Lord Powys's coach and horses; the horses were so frightened by the fire works, that the coachman was not able to stop them, but ran away over one, who with great difficulty recovered.
When King James II. was at Salisbury, anno 1688, the Iron Crown upon the turret of the council house, was blown off.- This has often been confidently asserted by persons who were then living.
In February, March, and April, two ravens built their nests on the weather cock of the high steeple at Bakewell in Derbyshire.
I did see Mr. Christopher Love beheaded on Tower Hill, in a delicate clear day about half an hour after his head was struck off, the clouds gathered blacker and blacker; and such terrible claps of thunder came that I never heard greater.
'Tis reported, that the like happened after the execution of AldermanCornish, in Cheapside, October 23, 1685.
Anno 1643. As Major John Morgan of Wells, was marching with the King's army into the west, he fell sick of a malignant fever at Salisbury, and was brought dangerously ill to my father's at Broad-Chalk, where he was lodged secretly in a garret. There came a sparrow to the chamber window, which pecked the lead of a certain pannel only, and only one side of the lead of the lozenge, and made one small hole in it. He continued this pecking and biting the lead, during the whole time of his sickness; (which was not less than a month) when the major went away, the sparrow desisted, and came thither no more. Two of the servants that attended the Major, and sober persons, declared this for a certainty.
Sir Walter Long's (of Draycot in Wilts) widow, did make a solemn promise to him on his death-bed, that she would not marry after his decease, but not long after, one Sir —- Fox, a very beautiful young gentleman, did win her love; so that notwithstanding her promise aforesaid, she married him: she married at South-Wraxhall, where the picture of Sir Walter hung over the parlour door, as it doth now at Draycot. As Sir —Fox led his bride by the hand from the church, (which is near to the house) into the parlour, the string of the picture broke, and the picture fell on her shoulder, and cracked in the fall. (It was painted on wood, as the fashion was in those days.) This made her ladyship reflect on her promise, and drew some tears from her eyes.*
*This story may be true in all its details, except the name of the lady, who was a daughter of Sir W. Long; she married Somerset Fox, Esq. See Sandford's Geneal. Hist, of the Kings of England, p. 344.
See Sir Walter Raleigh's history, book 4, chap. 2, sec. 7. The dogs of the French army, the night before the battle of Novara, ran all to the Swisses army: the next day, the Swisses obtained a glorious victory of the French. Sir Walter Raleigh affirms it to be certainly true.
The last battle fought in the north of Ireland, between the Protestants and the Papists, was in Glinsuly near Letterkenny in the county of Donegall. Veneras, the Bishop of Clogher, was General of the Irish army; and that of the Parliament army, Sir Charles Coot. They pitched their tents on each side the river Suly, and the Papists constantly persist in it to this very day, that the night before the action,* a woman of uncommon stature, all in white, appearing to the said Bishop, admonished him not to cross the river first, to assault the enemy, but suffer them to do it, whereby he should obtain the victory. That if the Irish took the water first to move towards the English, they should be put to a total rout, which came to pass. Ocahan, and Sir Henry O'Neal, who were both killed there, saw severally the same apparition, and dissuaded the Bishop from giving the first onset, but could not prevail upon him. In the mean time, I find nothing in this revelation, that any common soldier might not conclude without extraordinary means.
*So an apparition of a woman greater than ordinary, beckoned to Julius Caesar to pass over the Rubicon, L. Flor. lib. 4. Satyres appeared to Alexander when he besieged Tyrus; Alexander asked the divines, what was the signification of it; they told him the meaning is plain, {Greek Text: Sa Turos} (i.e.) Tyre is thine. Alexander took the town. Q. Curtius.
Near the same place, a party of the Protestants had been surprized sleeping by the Popish Irish, were it not for several wrens that just wakened them by dancing and pecking on the drums as the enemy were approaching. For this reason the wild Irish mortally hate these birds, to this day, calling them the Devil's servants, and killing them wherever they catch them; they teach their Children to thrust them full of thorns: you will see sometimes on holidays, a whole parish running like mad men from hedge to hedge a wren-hunting.
Anno 1679. After the discovery of the Popish plot, the penal laws were put in execution against the Roman Catholics; so that, if they did not receive the sacrament according to the church of England, in their parish church, they were to be severely proceeded against according to law: Mr. Ployden, to avoid the penalty, went to his parish church at Lasham, near Alton, in Hampshire: when Mr. Laurence (the minister) had put the chalice into Mr. Ployden's hand, the cup of it (wherein the wine was) fell off. 'Tis true, it was out of order before; and he had a tremor in his hand. The communion was stopt by this accident. This was attested to me by two neighbouring ministers, as also by several gentlemen of the neighbourhood.
When King James II. first entered Dublin, after his arrival from France, 1689, one of the gentlemen that bore the mace before him, stumbled without any rub in his way, or other visible occasion. The mace fell out of his hands, and the little cross upon the crown thereof stuck fast between two stones in the street. This is very well known all over Ireland, and did much trouble King James himself, with many of his chief attendants.
The first Moors that were expelled Spain, were in number five thousand five hundred and fifty-five. They sailed from Denia, October 2, 1609. H. Bleda. "Expulsion de Moriscos", p. 1000.
{Greek Text: —'Onar kai Dios esi}. Homer Iliad A.
HE that has a mind to read of dreams, may peruse Cicero "de Divinatione", Hier. Cardani "Somniorum Synesiorum", lib. 4, and Moldinarius "de Insomniis", &c. I shall here mention but little out of them, my purpose being chiefly to set down some remarkable and divine dreams of some that I have had the honour to be intimately acquainted with, persons worthy of belief.
Cicero "de Divinatione", lib. 1. "Hannibalem, Caslius scribit, cum Columnam auream, quae esset in fano Junonis Laciniae, auferre vellet, dubitaretque utrum ea solida esset, an extrinsecus inaurata, perterebravisse; cumque solidam invenisset, statuissetque tollere: secundum quietem visam esse ei Junonem praedicere, ne id faceret; minarique, si id fecisset se curaturam, ut eum quoque oculum, quo bene videret, amitteret; idque ab homine acuto non esse neglectum; itaque ex eo auro quod exterebratum esset, buculam curasse faciendum, & eam in summa columna collocavisse."
i. e.
Coelius writes, that Hannibal, when he had a mighty mind to take away a gold pillar, that was in the Temple of Juno Lacinia, being in doubt with himself, whether it was solid massive gold, or only gilt, or thinly plated over on the out side, bored it through. When he had found it to be solid, and fully designed to have it carried off; Juno appeared to him in his sleep, and forewarned him against what he was about, threatening him withal, that if he persisted and did it, she would take care that he should lose the eye, that he saw perfectly well with, as he had done the other.
The great man, it seems, was too wise to slight and neglect this warning; nay, he even took care to have a ring made of the very gold, that had been bored out of it, and placed it on the top of the pillar.
"—- Cum duo quidam Arcades familiares iter una, facerent, & Megaram venissent, alterum ad cauponem divertisse; ad hospitem alterum. Qui, ut coenati quiescerent, concubia nocte visum esse in somnis ei qui erat in hospitio, ilium alterum orare ut subveniret, quod sibi a caupone interitus pararetur; eum primo perterritum somnio surrexisse; deinde cum se colligisset, idque visum pro nihilo habendum esse duxisset, recubuisse; tum, ei dormienti eundem ilium visum esse rogare, ut quoniam sibi vivo non subvenisset, mortem suam ne inultam esse pateretur; se interfectum in plaustrum a caupone esse conjectum, & supra stercus injectum; petere, ut mani ad portum adesset, priusquam plaustrum ex oppido exiret. Hoc vero somnio commotum mano bubulco presto ad portam fuisse, quaesisse ex eo, quid esset in plaustro; ilium perterritum fugisse, mortuum erutum esse, cauponem re patefacta poenas dedisse. Quid hoc somnio dici divinius potest ?" i. e.
As two certain Arcadians, intimate companions, were travelling together, it so happened, that, when they came to Megara, one of them went to an inn, and the other to a friend's house. Both had supped at their respective places, and were gone to bed; when lo! he, that was at his friend's house, dreamt, that his companion came to him, and begged of him for Heaven's sake to assist him, for that the inn-keeper had contrived a way to murder him: frightened at first out of his sleep, he rose up; but soon afterward coming a little better to himself, he thought, upon recollection, there was no heed to be given to the vision, and went very quietly to bed again. But as soon as he was got into his second sleep, the same vision repeated the visit, but the form of his petition was quite altered. He beseeched him, that, since he had not come to his assistance, while he was among the living, he would not suffer his death, however, to go unrevenged. Told him that as soon as he was murdered, he was tossed by the inn- keeper into a waggon, and had a little straw thrown over his corpse. He entreated him to be ready very early at the door before the waggon was to go out of town. This dream truly disturbed him it seems very much, and made him get up very early: he nicked the time, and met with the waggoner just at the very door, and asked him what he had in his cart. The fellow run away frightened and confounded. The dead body was pulled out of it, and the whole matter coming plainly to light, the inn-keeper suffered for the crime.—What is there that one can call more divine than a dream like this ?"
"—-Somnium de Simonide, qui, cum ignotum quendam projectum mortuum vidisset, eumque humavisset, haberetque in animo navem conscendere, moneri visus est, ne id faceret, ab eo, quem sepultum affecerat: si navigasset, cum naufragio esse perituram: itaque Simonidem rediisse periisse caeeteros, qui tum navigassent."
—-The dream of Simonides. This person, when he saw a certain body thrown dead upon the shore, though a stranger, caused him to be buried. Much about that time he had it in his head to go on ship- board, but dreamt that he had warning given him by the man he had got to be interred, not to go; that if he went, the ship would infallibly be cast away. Upon this Simonides returned, and every soul of them besides that went on board was lost.
Cicero "de Divinatione", lib. 2. "Somnium, Alexandri. Qui, cum Ptolomaeus familiaris ejus, in proelio, telo venenato ictus esset, eoque vulnere summo cum dolore moreretur, Alexander assidens somno est consopitus; tum secundum quietem visus ei dicitur draco is, quem mater Olympias alebat, radiculam ore ferre & simul dicere quo illa loci nasceretur neque is longe aberat ab eo loco: ejus autem esse vim tantam, ut Ptolomaeum facile sanaret. Cum Alexander experrectus narrasset amicis somnium, emisisse qui illam radiculam quaererent. Qua, inventa, & Ptolomaeus sanatus dicitur, & multi milites, qui erant eodem genere teli vulnerati."
(i. e.) The dream of Alexander, when his friend Ptolemy was wounded in battle, by an envenomed dart, and died of the wound, in all the extremities of pain and anguish; Alexander sitting by him, and wearied out and quite fatigued, fell into a profound sleep. In this sleep, that dragon is reported to have appeared to him, which was bred up by his mother Olympias, carrying a little root in his mouth and to have told him in what spot of ground it grew, (nor was it far from that very place) and told him withal it seems, that such was the force, efficacy, and virtue of it, that it would work an easy cure upon Ptolomy. When Alexander waked, he told his friends the dream, and sent some out in quest of this little root. The root (as story says) was found, and Ptolemy was healed, so were many soldiers likewise, that had been wounded with the same kind of darts.
Cardanus "Somniorum Synesiorum", lib. 4, chap. 2. "Narrat Plinius 35 lib. Nat. Hist, vir ab omnia superstitione alienissimus, Historiam hujusmodi. 'Nuper cujusdam militantis in Praetorio mater vidit in quiete, ut radicem sylvestris Rosae (quam Cynorrhodon vocant) blanditam sibi aspectu pridie in Fruteto, mitteret filio bibendam: In Lusitania res gerebatur, Hispaniae, proxima parte: casuque accidit, ut milite a morsu Canis incipiente aquas expavescere superveniret epistola orantis ut paretet religioni; servatusque est ex insperato, & postea quisquis auxilium simile tentavit.' "
i. e. In his natural history, Pliny, a man the most averse to superstition, relates to us the following passage. Lately, the mother of one of the guards, who attended upon the General, was admonished by a vision in her sleep, to send her son a draught composed of the decoction of the root of a wild rose, (which they call Cynorrhodon) with the agreeable look whereof she had been mightily taken the day before, as she was passing through a coppice. The seat of the war at that time lay in Portugal, in that part of it next adjoining to Spain, that a soldier, beginning to apprehend mighty dangerous consequences from the bite of a dog, the letter came unexpectedly from her, entreating him to pay a blind obedience to this superstition. He did so, and was preserved beyond all expectation; and everybody afterwards had recourse to the same remedy.
Ibid. Galeni "tria Somnia".—- "Tertium magis dignum miraculo, cum bis per somnium admonitus, ut arteriam secaret, quae inter pollicem & indicem est, idque agens liberatus sit a diuturno dolore, quo infestabatur ea in parte, qua septo transverso jecur jungitur, idque in libri de sectione venae fine testatus est. Magno certe exemplo, quod tantus vir in medicina eam adhibuerit somnio fidem, ut in seipso periculum vitae subierit, in arte propria. Deinde probitatem admiror, ut quo potuerit solertia ingenii sibi inventum ascribere, Deo cui debebatur, rediderit. Dignus vel hoc solo vir immortalitate nominis, & librorum suorum."
Galen's three dreams. The third more worthy of being called a miracle, was, when being twice admonished in his sleep, to cut the artery that lies between the fore finger and the thumb, and doing it accordingly, he was freed from a continual daily pain with which he was afflicted in that part where the liver is joined to the midriff; and this he has testified at the end of his book of Venesection. 'Tis certainly a very great example, when a man so great as he was in the medicinal art, put so much confidence in a dream as to try experiments upon himself; where he was to run the risque of his life, in his own very art. I cannot help but admire his probity in the next place, that where he might have arrogated the merit of the invention to himself, and placed it wholly to the account of the subtility and penetration of his own genius, he attributed it to God, to whom it was due. In this alone did the man well deserve to purchase an immortality to his name and his writings.
In his fourth book, chap. 4. "De Exemplis propriis", he owns the solution of some difficult problems in Algebra to his dreams.
Plinii, Nat. Hist. lib. 22, chap. 17. "Verna carus PericliAtheniensium Principi, cum is in arce templum aedificaret,repsissetque super altitudinem fastigii, & inde cecidisset, hac herba(Parthenio) dicitur sanatus, monstrata Pericli somnio a Minerva. QuareParthenium vocari coepta est, assignaturque ei Deae."
Pliny's Natural History, book 22, chap. 17. "A little Home-bred Slave, that was a darling favourite to Pericles, Prince of the Athenians, and who, while a temple was building in the Prince's palace, had climbed up to the very top of the pinnacle, and tumbled down from that prodigious height; is said to have been cured of his fall by the herb Parthenium, or mug-wort, which was shown to Pericles in a dream, by Minerva. From hence it originally took the name of Parthenium, and is attributed to that Goddess.
"Augustinus, Cui etiam praeter sanctitatem, plena fides adhiberi potest, duo narrat inter reliqua somnia admiranda. Primum, quod cum quidam mortuo nuper patre venaretur tanquam de pecunia quam pater illi ex chirographo debuisset, dum incastus viveret, hac causa nocte quadam umbram patris videt, quae illum admonuit de persoluta pecunia & ubi chirographum esset repositum. Cum surrexisset, invenit chirographum loco eo quem umbra paterna docuerat, liberatusque est ab injusto petitore."
Saint Austin, to whom even, besides his sanctity, we owe an entire credit, tells among others, two very wonderful dreams. The first is, when a person was arrested by one, as for a certain sum of money, which his father had owed him by a note under his own hand, while he led a lewd debauched life, saw the ghost of his father one night, upon this very account, which told him of the money being paid, and where the acquittance lay. When he got up in the morning, he went and found the acquittance in that very place that his father's ghost had directed him to, and so was freed from the litigious suit of one that made unjust demands upon him.
"Alterum adhuc magis mirum".
"Praestantius, vir quidam a Philosopho petierat dubitationem quandam solvi; quod ille pernegavit. Nocte sequente, tametsi vigilaret Prsestantius, vidit sibi Philosophum assistere, ac dubitationem solvere, moxque abire. Cum die sequenti obviam Praestantius eundem habuisset Philosophum, rogat, Cur cum pridie rogatus nolluisset solvere illam questionem, intempesta nocte, non rogatus, & venisset ad se & dubitationem aperuisset. Cui Philosophus. Non quidem ego adveni sed somnians visus sum tibi hoc Officium praestare."
The other is much more wonderful still.
A certain gentleman named Praestantius, had been entreating a Philosopher to solve him a doubt, which he absolutely refused to do. The night following, although Praestantius was broad awake, he saw the Philosopher standing full before him, who just explained his doubts to him, and went away the moment after he had done. When Praestantius met the Philosopher the next day, he asks him why, since no entreaties could prevail with him the day before, to answer his question, he came to him unasked, and at an unseasonable time of night, and opened every point to his satisfaction. To whom thus the Philosopher. " Upon my word it was not me that came to you; but in a dream I thought my own self that I was doing you such a service."
The plague raging in the army of the Emperor Charles V. he dreamt that the decoction of the root of the dwarf-thistle (a mountain plant since called the Caroline thistle) would cure that disease. See Gerrard's Herbal, who tells us this.
In Queen Mary's time, there was only one congregation of Protestants in London, to the number of about three- hundred, one was the deacon to them, and kept the list of their names: one of that congregation did dream, that a messenger, (Queen's Officer) had seized on this deacon, and taken his list; the fright of the dream awaked him: he fell asleep and dreamt the same perfect dream again. In the morning before he went out of his chamber, the deacon came to him and then he told him his dream, and said, 'twas a warning from God; the deacon slighted his advice, as savouring of superstition; but —- was so urgent with him that he prevailed with him to deposite the list in some other hand, which he did that day. The next day, the Queen's officer attacked him, and searched (in vain) for the list, which had it been found, would have brought them all to the flame. Foxe's Martyrology.
When Arch Bishop Abbot's mother (a poor clothworker's wife in Guilford) was with child of him, she did long for a Jack, and she dreamt that if she should eat a Jack, her son in her belly should be a great man. She arose early the next morning and went with her pail to the river-side (which runneth by the house, now an ale-house, the sign of the three mariners) to take up some water, and in the water in the pail she found a good jack, which she dressed, and eat it all, or very near. Several of the best inhabitants of Guilford were invited (or invited themselves) to the christening of the child; it was bred up a scholar in the town, and by degrees, came to be Arch Bishop of Canterbury.
In the life of Monsieur Periesk, writ by Gassendus, it is said, that Monsieur Periesk, who had never been at London, did dream that he was there, and as he was walking in a great street there, espied in a goldsmith's glass desk, an antique coin, he could never meet with. (I think an Otho.) When he came to London, walking in (I think) Cheap- side, he saw such a shop, and remembered the countenance of the goldsmith in his dream, and found the coin desired, in his desk. See his life.
When Doctor Hamey (one of the physicians college in London) being a young man, went to travel towards Padoa, he went to Dover (with several others) and shewed his pass, as the rest did, to the Governor there. The Governor told him, that he must not go, but must keep him prisoner. The Doctor desired to know for what reason ? how he had transgrest ? well it was his will to have it so. The pacquet-boat hoisted sail in the evening (which was very clear), and the Doctor's companions in it. There ensued a terrible storm, and the pacquet-boat and all the passengers were drowned: the next day the sad news was brought to Dover. The Doctor was unknown to the Governor, both by name and face; but the night before, the Governor had the perfect vision in a dream, of Doctor Hamey, who carne to pass over to Calais; and that he had a warning to stop him. This the Governor told the Doctor the next day. The Doctor was a pious, good man, and has several times related this story to some of my acquaintance.
My Lady Seymour dreamt, that she found a nest, with nine finches in it. And so many children she had by the Earl of Winchelsea, whose name is Finch.
The Countess of Cork (now Burlington) being at Dublin, dreamt, that her father, (the Earl of Cumberland) who was then at York, was dead. He died at that time.
'Tis certain, that several had monitory dreams of the conflagration ofLondon.
Sir Christopher Wren, being at his father's house, anno 1651, at Knahill in Wilts (a young Oxford scholar) dreamt, that he saw a fight in a great market-place, which he knew not; where some were flying, and others pursuing; and among those that fled, he saw a kinsman of his, who went into Scotland to the King's army. They heard in the country, that the King was come into England, but whereabouts he was they could not tell. The next night his kinsman came to his father at Knahill, and was the first that brought the news of the fight at Worcester.
When Sir Christopher Wren was at Paris, about 1671, he was ill and feverish, made but little water, and had a pain in his reins. He sent for a physician, who advised him to be let blood, thinking he had a plurisy: but bleeding much disagreeing with his constitution, he would defer it a day longer: that night he dreamt, that he was in a place where palm-trees grew, (suppose AEgypt) and that a woman in a romantic habit, reached him dates. The next day he sent for dates, which cured him of the pain of his reins.
Since, I have learned that dates are an admirable medicine for the stone, from old Captain Tooke of K—. Take six or ten date-stones, dry them in an oven, pulverize and searce them; take as much as will lie on a six-pence, in a quarter of a pint of white wine fasting, and at four in the afternoon: walk or ride an hour after: in a week's time it will give ease, and in a month cure. If you are at the Bath, the Bath water is better than white wine to take it in.
Sir John Hoskin's Lady, when she lay in of her eldest son, had a swelling on one side of her belly, the third day when the milk came, and obstructions: she dreamt that syrup of elderberries and distilled water of wormwood would do her good, and it did so; she found ease in a quarter of an hour after she had taken it. I had this account from her Ladyship's own mouth.
Captain —- Wingate told me, that Mr. Edmund Gunter, of Gresham College, did cast his nativity, when about seventeen or eighteen years old; by which he did prognosticate that he should be in danger to lose his life for treason. Several years before the civil wars broke out, he had dreamt that he was to be put to death before a great castle, which he had never seen; which made a strong impression in his memory. In anno 1642, he did oppose the church ceremonies, and was chosen a member of Parliament, then was made a Captain, and was taken prisoner at Edge Hill, by Prince Rupert, and carried to Kenilworth Castle, where he was tried by a council of war, and condemned to die: but they did better consider of it, and spared his life; for that he being so considerable a person, might make an exchange for some of the King's party-:* and he was exchanged for the right Honourable Montague, Earl of Lindsey (heir of the General.) Since the restoration, he was made one of the commissioners of the excise office in London. He did protest that Kenilworth castle was the very castle he saw in his dream.
*Captain Wingate was a prisoner in Oxford, afterEdgehill fight, 1642.
Sir Roger L'Estrange was wont to divertise himself with cocking in his father's (Sir Hammond L'Estrange's) park; he dreamt that there came to him in such a place of the park, a servant, who brought him news, that his father was taken very ill. The next day going to his usual recreation, he was resolved for his dream sake to avoid that way; but his game led him to it, and in that very place the servant came and brought him the ill news according to his dream.
Mr. Edmund Halley, R. S. S. was carried on with a strong impulse to take a voyage to St. Hellens, to make observations of the southern constellations, being then about twenty-four years old. Before he undertook his voyage, he dreamt that he was at sea, sailing towards that place, and saw the prospect of it from the ship in his dream, which he declared to the Royal Society, to be the perfect representation of that island, even as he had it really when he approached to it.
A Gentlewoman dreamt that a pultess of blew corants would cure her sore throat; and it did so. She was a pious woman, and affirmed it to be true.
Anno 1690. One, in Ireland, dreamed of a brother or near relation of his, (who lived at Amesbury in Wiltshire) that he saw him riding on the downs, and that two thieves robbed him and murdered him. The dream awaked him, he fell asleep again and had the like dream. He wrote to his relation an account of it, and described the thieves complexion, stature and cloaths; and advised him to take care of himself. Not long after he had received this monitory letter, he rode towards Salisbury, and was robbed and murdered; and the murderers were discovered by this very letter, and were executed. They hang in chains on the road to London.
'Twas revealed to a King of Scots, that if he drank of the water of Muswell, he would be cured. After great enquiry they heard of such a place, not far from Hornsey in Middlesex. See Weever's Funeral Monuments of the Well. John Norden's Description of Middlesex. Here was afterwards founded a religious house for Austin Monks: since it belonged to Sir Thomas Row, and in 1677, was pulled down and the materials sold. Anciently the Kings of Scotland were feudatory to the Kings of England, and did their homage every Christmas day. They had several lodges belonging to them for their reception in their journey; as at Huntingdon, &c. See Caxton's Chronicle concerning this.
The water of this spring is drank for some distempers still.
"Somnium ex Eubernea porta."
Mrs. Cl—-, of S—-, in the county of S—-, had a beloved daughter, who had been a long time ill, and received no benefit from her physicians. She dreamed that a friend of hers deceased, told her, that if she gave her daughter a drench of yew pounded, that she would recover; she gave her the drench, and it killed her. Whereupon she grew almost distracted: her chamber maid to complement her, and mitigate her grief, said surely that could not kill her, she would adventure to take the same herself; she did so, and died also. This was about the year 1670, or 1671. I knew the family.
A Gentlewoman, of my acquaintance, dreamed, that if she slept again, the house would be in danger to be robbed. She kept awake, and anon thieves came to break open the house, but were prevented.
J. H. Esq.* being at West-Lavington with the Earl of Abbingdon, dreamed, December the 9th, his mother rose up in mourning: and anon the Queen appeared in mourning. He told his dream the next morning to my Lord, and his Lordship imparted it to me (then there) Tuesday, December 11. In the evening came a messenger, post from London, to acquaint Mr. H. that his mother was dangerously ill: he went to London the next day; his mother lived but about eight days longer. On Saturday, December 15, the Queen was taken ill, which turned to the small pox, of which she died, December 28, about two o'clock in the morning.
J. H. Against these initials there is a note in the copy of the first edition already referred to, in these words,-" James Herbert: He saies he was never there."
Sir Thomas White, Alderman of London, was a very rich man, charitable and public spirited. He dreamt that he had founded a college at a place where three elms grow out of one root. He went to Oxford, probably with that intention, and discovering some such tree near Gloucester Hall, he began to repair it, with a design to endow it. But walking afterwards by the Convent where the Bcrnardines formerly lived, he plainly saw an elm with three large bodies rising out of the same root: he forthwith purchased the ground, and endowed his college there, as it is at this day, except the additions which Arch-bishop Laud made, near the outside of which building in the garden belonging to the president, the tree is still to be seen. He made this discovery about the year 1557.
There are millions of such dreams too little taken notice of, but they have the truest dreams whose IXth house is well dignified, which mine is not: but must have some monitory dreams. The Germans are great observers of them. It is said in the life of Vavasor Powell, that he was a great observer of dreams, (p. 17 and 114, of his life) that he had many warnings from them, that God had spoken to himself and others by them; for warning, instruction, or reproof. And it is also there averred, that Angels had appeared to him. See p. 8, of his life.
In Mr. Walton's life of Sir Hen. Wotton, there is a remarkable story of the discovery of stolen plate in Oxford, by a dream which his father had at Bocton-Malherbe, in Kent. See in Ath. & Fasti. Oxon. vol. 1, p. 351,
William Penn, proprietor of Pensylvania, told me, that he went with his mother on a visit to Admiral Dean's wife, who lived then in Petty- France; the Admiral was then at sea. She told them, that, the night before, she had a perfect dream of her husband, whom she saw walking on the deck, and giving directions, and that a cannon bullet struck his arm into his side. This dream did much discompose her, and within forty-eight hours she received news of the fight at sea, and that her husband was killed in the very manner aforesaid.
Sir Berkley Lucy sold the fabric of the chapel of Netley Abbey, to one Taylor, a carpenter of Southampton, who took off the roof, and pulled down great part of the walls. During the time that this Taylor was in treaty for the chapel, he was much disturbed in his sleep with frightful dreams, and as some say, apparitions; and one, night he dreamt that a large stone, out of one of the windows of the chapel, fell upon him and killed him. The undertaker, though staggered with these intimations, finished his agreement, and soon after fell to work on pulling down the chapel; but he was not far advanced in it, when, endeavouring with a pickax to get out some stones at the bottom of the west wall, in which there was a large window, the whole body of the window fell down suddenly upon him, and crushed him to pieces. Willis's Mitred Abbeys, vol. 2, p. 205, 6.
Jan. 1774. One Daniel Healy, of Donaghmore, in Ireland, having three different times dreamed that money lay concealed under a large stone in a field near where he lived, procured some workmen to assist him in removing it, and when they had dug as far as the foundation, it fell suddenly and killed Healy on the spot.
March 25, 1779. This morning A. B. dreamt that he saw his friend 0. D. throw himself from a bridge into a river, and that he could not be found. The same evening, reading Dr. Geddes's account of Ignatius Loyola, p. 105, 5th tract, v. 3, he met with the following particular of him; as he was going into Bononia, he tumbled off a bridge into a moat full of mud; this circumstance was quite new. Every tittle of the above is strictly true, as the writer will answer it to God.— To what can be attributed so singular an impression upon the imagination when sleeping ?
**Comical History of three Dreamers.
Three companions, of whom two were Tradesmen and Townsmen, and the third a Villager, on the score of devotion, went on pilgrimage to a noted sanctuary; and as they went on their way, their provision began to fail them, insomuch that they had nothing to eat,, but a little flour, barely sufficient to make of it a very small loaf of bread. The tricking townsmen seeing this, said between them-selves, we have but little bread, and this companion of ours is a great eater — on which account it is necessary we should think how we may eat this little bread without him. When they had made it and set it to bake, the tradesmen seeing in what manner to cheat the countryman, said: let us all sleep, and let him that shall have the most marvellous dream betwixt all three of us, eat the bread. This bargain being agreed upon, and settled between them, they laid down to sleep. The countryman, discovering the trick of his companions, drew out the bread half baked, eat it by himself, and turned again to sleep. In a while, one of the tradesmen, as frightened by a marvellous dream, began to get up, and was asked by his companion, why he was so frightened ? he answered, I am frightened and dreadfully surprized by a marvellous dream: it seemed to me that two Angels, opening the gates of Heaven, carried me before the throne of God with great joy: his companion said: this is a marvellous dream, but I have seen another more marvellous, for I saw two Angels, who carried me over the earth to Hell. The countryman hearing this, made as if he slept; but the townsmen, desirous to finish their trick, awoke him; and the countryman, artfully as one surprised, answered: Who are these that call me ? They told him, we are thy companions. He asked them: How did you return ? They answered: We never went hence; why d'ye talk of our return ? The countryman replied: It appeared to me that two Angels, opening the gates of Heaven, carried one of you before our Lord God, and dragged the other over the earth to Hell, and I thought you never would return hither, as I have never heard that any had returned from Paradise, nor from Hell, and so I arose and eat the bread by myself.- From an old edition of Lasarillo de Tormes.
CYNTHIA, Propertius's mistress, did appear to him after her death, with the beryl-ring on her finger. See Propertius, eleg. 7. lib.
"Sunt aliquid manes, letum non omnia finit,Luridaque evictos effugit umbra rogos.Cynthia namque meo visa est incumbere fulcro,Murmur ad extremae nuper humata viae:Quum mihi ab exequiis somnus penderet amaris.Et quererer lecti frigida regna mei.Eosdem habuit secum, quibus est elata, capillos,Eosdem oculos. Lateri vestis adusta fuit.Et solitum digito beryllon adederat ignis,Summaque Lethoeus triverat ora liquor:Spirantisque animos, & vocem misit, at illiPollicibus fragiles increpuere manus."
Thus translated by Mr. DART.
Manes exist, when we in death expire,And the pale shades escape the funeral fire;For Cynthia's form beside my curtain's stood,Lately interr'd near Aniens' murm'ring flood.Thoughts of her funeral would, not let me closeThese eyes, nor seek the realms of still repose;Around her shoulders wav'd her flowing hair,As living Cynthia's tresses soft and fair:Beauteous her eyes as those once fir'd my breast,Her snowy bosom bare, and sing'd her breast.Her beryl-ring retain'd the fiery rays,Spread the pale flame, and shot the funeral blaze;As late stretch'd out the bloodless spectre stood,And her dead lips were wet with Lethe's flood.She breath'd her soul, sent forth her voice aloud,And chaf'd her hands as in some angry mood.
St. Augustin affirms that he did once see a satyr or daemon.
The antiquities of Oxford tell us, that St. Edmund, Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, did sometimes converse with an angel or nymph, at a spring without St. Clement's parish near Oxford; as Numa Pompilius did with the nymph Egeria. This well was stopped up since Oxford was a garrison.
Charles the Simple, King of France, as he was hunting in a forest, and lost his company, was frighted to simplicity by an apparition.
Philip Melancthon writes that the apparition of a venerable person came to him in his study, and bade him to warn his friend Grynseus to depart from him as soon as he could, or else the inquisitors would seize on him; which monitory dream saved Grynaeus's life.
Mr. Fynes Moryson, in his travels, saith, that when he was at Prague, the apparition of his father came to him; and at that very time his father died.
In the life of JOHN DONNE, Dean of St. Paul's, London, writ byIsaak Walton.
At this time of Mr. Donne's, and his wife's living in Sir Robert Drury's house in Drury-Lane, the Lord Haye was by King James sent upon a glorious embassy, to the then French King Henry the IV. and Sir Robert put on a sudden resolution to accompany him to the French Court, and to be present at his audience there. And Sir Robert put on as sudden a resolution, to subject Mr. Donne to be his companion in that journey; and this desire was suddenly made known to his wife, who was then with child, and otherwise under so dangerous a habit of body, as to her health, that she protested an unwillingness to allow him any absence from her; saying her divining soul boded her some ill in his absence, and therefore desired him not to leave her. This made Mr. Donne lay aside all thoughts of his journey, and really to resolve against it. But Sir Robert became restless in his persuasions for it, and Mr. Donne was so generous as to think he had sold his liberty, when he had received so many charitable kindnesses from him, and told his wife so; who, therefore, with an unwilling willingness, did give a faint consent to the journey, which was proposed to be but for two months: within a few days after this resolve, the Ambassador, Sir Robert, and Mr. Donne, left London, and were the twelfth day got safe to Paris. Two days after their arrival there, Mr. Donne was left alone in the room, where Sir Robert and he, with some others, had dined: to this place Sir Robert returned within half an hour, and as he left, so he found Mr. Donne alone, but in such an extacy, and so altered as to his looks, as amazed Sir Robert to behold him, insomuch as he earnestly desired Mr. Donne to declare what had befallen him in the short time of his absence? to which Mr. Donne was not able to make a present answer, but after a long and perplexed pause, said, "I have seen a dreadful vision since I saw you: I have seen my dear wife pass twice by me through this room, with her hair hanging about her shoulders, and a dead child in her arms; this I have seen since I saw you." To which Sir Robert replied, "Sure Sir, you have slept since I saw you, and this is the result of some melancholy dream, which I desire you to forget, for you are now awake." To which Mr. Donne's reply was, "I cannot be surer that I now live, than that I have not slept since I saw you, and am sure that at her second appearing, she stopt and lookt me in the face and vanished." - Rest and sleep had not altered Mr. Donne's opinion the next day, for he then affirmed this vision with a more deliberate, and so confirmed a confidence, that he inclined Sir Robert to a faint belief, that the vision was true. It is truly said, that desire and doubt have no rest, and it proved so with Sir Robert, for he immediately sent a servant to Drury-House, with a charge to hasten back and bring him word whether Mrs. Donne were alive ? and if alive, in what condition she was as to her health. The twelfth day the messenger returned with this account-that he found and left Mrs. Donne very sad, sick in her bed, and that, after a long and dangerous labour, she had been delivered of a dead child: and upon examination, the abortion proved to be the same day, and about the very hour, that Mr. Donne affirmed he saw her pass by him in his chamber.
Henry IV. King of France, not long before he was stabbed by Ravillac, as he was hunting in the forest (I think of Fontaine-Bleau), met in a thicket, the Gros Venure, who said to him, "Demandez vous?" or "Entendez vous?" He could not tell whether of the two.
There is a tradition (which I have heard from persons of honour), that as the Protector Seymour and his Dutchess were walking in the gallery at Sheen (in Surrey), both of them did see a hand with a bloody sword come out of the wall. He was afterwards beheaded.
Sir John Burroughes being sent envoy to the Emperor by King Charles I. did take his eldest son Caisho Burroughes along with him, and taking his journey through Italy, left his son at Florence, to learn the language; where he having an intrigue with a beautiful courtisan (mistress of the Grand Duke), their familiarity became so public, that it came to the Duke's ear, who took a resolution to have him murdered; but Caisho having had timely notice of the Duke's design, by some of the English there, immediately left the city without acquainting his mistress with it, and came to England; whereupon the Duke being disappointed of his revenge, fell upon his mistress in most reproachful language; she on the other side, resenting the sudden departure of her gallant, of whom she was most passionately enamoured, killed herself. At the same moment that she expired, she did appear to Caisho, at his lodgings in London; Colonel Remes* was then in bed with him, who saw her as well as he; giving him an account of her resentments of his ingratitude to her, in leaving her so suddenly, and exposing her to the fury of the Duke, not omitting her own tragical exit, adding withal, that he should be slain in a duel, which accordingly happened; and thus she appeared to him frequently, even when his younger brother (who afterwards was Sir John) was in bed with him. As often as she did appear, he would cry out with great shrieking, and trembling of his body, as anguish of mind, saying, 0 God ! here she comes, she comes, and at this rate she appeared till he was killed; she appeared to him the morning before he was killed. Some of my acquaintance have told me, that he was one of the most beautiful men in England, and very valiant, but proud and blood-thirsty.
* This Colonel Remes was a Parliament man, and did belong to the wardrobe, tempore Caroli II.
This story was so common, that King Charles I. Sent for Caisho Burroughes's father, whom he examined as to the truth of the matter; who did (together with Colonel Remes) aver the matter of fact to be true, so that the King thought it worth his while to send to Florence, to enquire at what time this unhappy lady killed herself; it was found to be the same minute that she first appeared to Caisho, being in bed with Colonel Remes. This relation I had from my worthy friend Mr. Monson, who had it from Sir John's own mouth, brother of Caisho; he had also the same account from his own father, who was intimately acquainted with old Sir John Burroughes, and both his sons, and says, as often as Caisho related this, he wept bitterly.
Anno 1647, the Lord Mohun's son and heir (a gallant gentleman, valiant, and a great master of fencing and horsemanship), had a quarrel with Prince Griffin; there was a challenge, and they were to fight on horse-back in Chelsea-fields in the morning: Mr. Mohun went accordingly to meet him; but about Ebury-Farm, he was met by some who quarrelled with him and pistoled him; it was believed, by the order of Prince Griffin; for he was sure, that Mr. Mohun, being so much the better horse-man, &c. would have killed him, had they fought.
In James-street, in Covent-Garden, did then lodge a gentlewoman, a handsome woman, but common, who was Mr. Mohun's sweet heart. Mr. Mohun was murdered about ten o'clock in the morning; and at that very time, his mistress being in bed, saw Mr. Mahon come to her bed-side, draw the curtain, look upon her and go away; she called after him, but no answer: she knocked for her maid, asked her for Mr. Mohun; she said she did not see him, and had the key of her chamber-door in her pocket. This account my friend aforesaid, had from the gentle-woman's own mouth, and her maid's.
A parallel story to this, is, that Mr. Brown, (brother- in-law to the Lord Coningsby) discovered his being murdered to several. His phantom appeared to his sister and her maid in Fleet-street, about the time he was killed in Herefordshire, which was about a year since. 1693.
Sir Walter Long of Draycot, (grandfather of Sir James Long) had two wives; the first a daughter of Sir Thomas Packington in Worcestershire; by whom he had a son: his second wife was a daughter of Sir John Thynne of Long-Leat; by whom he had several sons and daughters. The second wife did use much artifice to render the son by the first wife, (who had not much Promethean fire) odious to his father; she would get her acquaintance to make him drunk, and then expose him in that condition to his father; in fine, she never left off her attempts, till she got Sir Walter to disinherit him. She laid the scene for doing this at Bath, at the assizes, where was her brother Sir Egrimond Thynne, an eminent serjeant at law, who drew the writing; and his clerk was to sit up all night to engross it; as he was writing, he perceived a shadow on the parchment, from the candle; he looked up, and there appeared a hand, which immediately vanished; he was startled at it, but thought it might be only his fancy, being sleepy; so he writ on; by and by a fine white hand interposed between the writing and the candle (he could discern it was a woman's hand) but vanished as before; I have forgot, it appeared a third time. But with that the clerk threw down his pen, and would engross no more, but goes and tells his master of it, and absolutely refused to do it. But it was done by somebody, and Sir Walter Long was prevailed with to seal and sign it. He lived not long after; and his body did not go quiet to the grave, it being arrested at the church porch by the trustees of the first lady. The heir's relations took his part, and commenced a suit against Sir Walter (the second son) and compelled him to accept of a moiety of the estate; so the eldest son kept South- Wraxhall, and Sir Walter, the second son, Draycot-Cernes, &c. This was about the middle of the reign of King James I.
I must not forget an apparition in my country, which appeared several times to Doctor Turbervile's sister, at Salisbury; which is much talked of. One married a second wife, and contrary to the agreement and settlement at the first wife's marriage, did wrong the children by the first venter. The settlement was hid behind a wainscot in the chamber where the Doctor's sister did lie: and the apparition of the first wife did discover it to her. By which means right was done to the first wife's children. The apparition told her that she wandered in the air, and was now going to God. Dr. Turbervile (oculist) did affirm this to be true. See Mr. Glanvill's "Sadducismus Triumphatus".
To one Mr. Towes, who had been schoolfellow with Sir George Villers, the father of the first Duke of Buckingham, (and was his friend and neighbour) as he lay in his bed awake, (and it was day-light) came into his chamber, the phantom of his dear friend Sir George Villers: said Mr. Towes to him, why, you are dead, what make you here ? said the Knight, I am dead, but cannot rest in peace for the wickedness and abomination of my son George, at Court. I do appear to you, to tell him of it, and to advise and dehort him from his evil ways. Said Mr. Towes, the Duke will not believe me, but will say that I am mad, or doat. Said Sir George, go to him from me, and tell him by such a token (a mole) that he had in some secret place, which none but himself knew of. Accordingly Mr. Towes went to the Duke, who laughed at his message. At his return home the phantom appeared again, and told him that the Duke would be stabbed (he drew out a dagger) a quarter of a year after: and you shall outlive him half a year; and the warning that you shall have of your death, will be, that your nose will fall a bleeding. All which accordingly fell out so. This account I have had (in the main) from two or three; but Sir William Dugdale affirms what I have here taken from him to be true, and that the apparition told him of several things to come, which proved true, e. g. of a prisoner in the Tower, that shall be honourably delivered. This Mr. Towes had so often the ghost of his old friend appear to him, that it was not at all terrible to him. He was surveyor of the works at Windsor, (by the favour of the Duke) being then sitting in the hall, he cried out, the Duke of Buckingham is stabbed: he was stabbed that very moment.
This relation Sir William Dugdale had from Mr. Pine, (neighbour to Mr. Towes without Bishops-gate) they were both great lovers of music, and sworn brothers. Mr. W. Lilly, astrologer, did print this story false, which made Sir Edmund Wyndham (who married Mr. Pine's daughter) give to Sir George Hollis this true account contrary to Mr. Lilly.
Mr. Thomas Ellyot, Groom of the bedchamber, married Sir Edmund Wyndham's daughter, and had the roll (of near a quire of paper) of the conferences of the apparition and Mr. Towes. Mr. Ellyot was wont to say, that Mr. Towes was (not a bigot, or did trouble himself much about a religion, but was) a man of great morals.
Sir William Dugdale did farther inform me that Major General Middleton (since Lord) went into the Highlands of Scotland, to endeavour to make a party for King Charles I. An old gentleman (that was second-sighted) came and told him, that his endeavour was good, but he would be unsuccessful: and moreover, "that they would put the King to death: And that several other attempts would be made, but all in vain: but that his son would come in, but not reign; but at last would be restored." This Lord Middleton had a great friendship with the Laird Bocconi, and they had made an agreement, that the first of them that died should appear to the other in extremity. The Lord Middleton was taken prisoner at Worcester fight, and was prisoner in the Tower of London, under three locks. Lying in his bed pensive, Bocconi appeared to him; my Lord Middleton asked him if he were dead or alive ? he said, dead, and that he was a ghost; and told him, that within three days he should escape, and he did so, in his wife's cloaths. When he had done his message, he gave a frisk, and said,
Givenni Givanni 'tis very strange,In the world to see so sudden a change.
And then gathered up and vanished. This account Sir William Dugdale had from the Bishop of Edinburgh. And this, and the former account he hath writ in a book of miscellanies, which I have seen, and is now reposited with other books of his in the Musaeum at Oxford.
Anno 1670, not far from Cirencester, was an apparition: being demanded, whether a good spirit, or a bad ? returned no answer, but disappeared with a curious perfume and most melodious twang. Mr. W. Lilly believes it was a fairy. So Propertius.
Omnia finierat; tenues secessit in auras:Mansit odor; posses scire fuisse Deam.
Here, her speech ending, fled the beauteous fair,Melting th' embodied form to thinner air,Whom the remaining scent a goddess did declare.
The learned Henry Jacob, fellow of Merton college in Oxford, died at Dr. Jacob's, M. D. house in Canterbury. About a week after his death, the doctor being in bed and awake, and the moon shining bright, saw his cousin Henry standing by his bed, in his shirt, with a white cap on his head and his beard-mustachoes turning up, as when he was alive. The doctor pinched himself, and was sure he was awaked: he turned to the other side from him; and, after some time, took courage to turn the other way again towards him, and Henry Jacob stood there still; he should have spoken to him, but he did not; for which he has been ever since sorry. About half an hour after, he vanished. Not long after this, the cook-maid, going to the wood-pile to fetch wood to dress supper, saw him standing in his shirt upon the wood-pile.* This account I had in a letter from Doctor Jacob, 1673, relating to his life, for Mr. Anthony Wood; which is now in his hands.
* See the whole story in Ath. & Fasti Oxon. Part 2, p. 91.
When Henry Jacob died, he would fain have spoken to the Doctor, but could not, his tongue faltered, ** 'Tis imagined he would have told Doctor Jacob, with what person he had deposited his manuscripts of his own writing; they were all the riches he had, 'tis suspected that one had them and printed them under his own name. —- See there in the said Athenae, vol. or part 2. p. 90.
** This very story Dr. Jacob told me himself, being then at Lord Teynham's, in Kent, where he was then physician to my eldest son; whom he recovered from a fever, (A. Wood's note.)
T, M. Esq., an old acquaintance of mine, hath assured me that about a quarter of a year after his first wife's death, as he lay in bed awake with his grand-child, his wife opened the closet-door, and came into the chamber by the bedside, and looked upon him and stooped down and kissed him; her lips were warm, he fancied they would have been cold. He was about to have embraced her, but was afraid it might have done him hurt. When she went from him, he asked her when he should see her again ? she turned about and smiled, but said nothing. The closet door striked as it used to do, both at her coming in and going out. He had every night a great coal fire in his chamber, which gave a light as clear almost as a candle. He was hypochondriacal; he married two wives since, the latter end of his life was uneasy.
Anno 165-.— At—-in the Moorlands in Staffordshire, lived a poor old man, who had been a long time lame. One Sunday, in the afternoon, he being alone, one knocked at his door: he bade him open it, and come in. The Stranger desired a cup of beer; the lame man desired him to take a dish and draw some, for he was not able to do it himself. The Stranger asked the poor old man how long he had been ill? the poor man told him. Said the Stranger, "I can cure you. Take two or three balm leaves steeped in your beer for a fortnight or three weeks, and you will be restored to your health; but constantly and zealously serve God." The poor man did so, and became perfectly well. This Stranger was in a purple-shag gown, such as was not seen or known in those parts. And no body in the street after even song did see any one in such a coloured habit. Doctor Gilbert Sheldon, since Archbishop of Canterbury, was then in the Moorlands, and justified the truth of this to Elias Ashmole, Esq., from whom I had this account, and he hath inserted it in some of his memoirs, which are in the Musseum at Oxford.
**MR. J. LYDAL of Trinity College, Soc. Oxon. March 11, 1649, 50, attests the ensuing relation, in a letter to Mr. Aubrey, thus,
CONCERNING that which happened at Woodstock, I was told by Mr. William Hawes, (who now lives with Sir William Fleetwood in the park) that the committee which sat in the manor-house for selling the king's lands, were frighted by strange apparitions; and that the four surveyors which were sent to measure the park, and lodged themselves with some other companions in the manor, were pelted out of their chambers by stones thrown in at the windows; but from what hands the stones came they could not see; that their candles were continually put out, as fast as they lighted them; and that one with his sword drawn to defend a candle, was with his own scabbard in the mean time well cudgelled; so that for the blow, or for fear, he fell sick; and the others were forced to remove, some of them to Sir William Fleetwood's house, and the rest to some other places. But concerning the cutting of the oak, in particular, I have nothing. Your Friend, To be commanded to my power, JOHN LYDALL.
One Lambert, a gun-smith at Hereford, was at Caermarthen, to mend and put in order the ammunition of that county, before the expedition to Scotland, which was in 1639. He was then a young man, and walking on the sand by the sea side, a man came to him (he did verily believe it was a man) and asked him if he knew Hereford ? yes, quoth he, I am a Hereford man. Do you know it well, quoth the other; perfectly well, quoth Lambert. "That city shall be begirt" (he told me he did not know what the word begirt meant then) "by a foreign nation, that will come and pitch their camp in the Hay wood, and they shall batter such gate," which they did, (I have forgot the name of it) "and shall go away and not take it."
The Scots came in 1645, and encamped before Hereford in the Hay-wood, and stormed the —- gate, and raised the siege. Lambert did well remember this discourse, but did not heed it till they came to the Hay-wood. Many of the city had heard of this story, but when the — gate was stormed, Lambert went to all the guards of the town, and encouraged them with more than ordinary confidence: and contrary to all human expectation, when the besieged had no hope of relief, the Scots raised the siege, September 2, 1645, and went back into Scotland, "re infecta". I knew this Lambert, and took this account from his own mouth; he is a modest poor man, of a very innocent life, lives poor, and cares not to be rich."
— A minister, who lived by Sir John Warre in Somersetshire, about 1665, walking over the Park to give Sir John a visit, was rencountered by a venerable old man, who said to him, "prepare yourself, for such a day" (which was about three days after) "you shall die." The minister told Sir John Wane and my Lady this story, who heeded it not. On the morning forewarned, Sir John called upon the Parson early to ride a hunting, and to laugh at his prediction: his maid went up to call him, and found him stark dead. This from my Lady Katherine Henley, who had it from my Lady Warre. But Dr. Burnet, in the life of the Earl of Rochester, makes it a dream.
This put me in mind of a story in the Legend, &c. of King Edward the Confessor, being forewarned of his death by a Pilgrim, to whom St.John the Evangelist revealed it,. for which the King gave the Pilgrim a rich ring off his finger: and the event answered. The story is well painted on glass, in a window of the south isle of Westminster-Abbey, (the next window from that over the door that opens into the west walk of the cloyster) it is the best window in the church. Underneath the two figures, viz. of the King and the Pilgrim, are these following verses, viz.
"Rex cui nil aliud praesto fuit, accipe, dixit.Annulum, & ex digito detrahit ille suo.—- Evangelistoe —- villa Johannis.— gratia petit."
The verses under the Pilgrim are not legible. This story is inCaxton's Chronicle.
Dr. —- Twiss, minister of the new church at Westminster, told me, that his father, (Dr. Twiss, prolocutor of the assembly of divines, and author of "Vindicitae Graticae") when he was a school-boy at Winchester, saw the phantom of a school-fellow of his, deceased, (a rakehell) who said to him "I am damned." This was the occasion of Dr. Twiss'a (the father's) conversion, who had been before that time, as he told his son, a very wicked boy; he was hypochondriacal. There is a story like this, of the conversion of St. Bruno, by an apparition: upon which he became mighty devout, and founded the order of the Carthusians.
John Evelyn, Esq., R.S.S., showed us at the Royal-Society, a note under Mr. Smith's hand, the curate of Deptford, that in November,1679, as he was in bed sick of an ague, came to him the vision of a master of arts, with a white wand in his hand, and told him that if he did lie on his back three hours, viz. from ten to one, that he should be rid of his ague. He lay a good while on his back, but at last being weary he turned, and immediately the ague attacked him; afterwards he strictly followed the directions, and was perfectly cured. He was awake, and it was in the day-time.
This puts me in mind of a dream of old Farmer Good, a neighbour of mine at Broad-Chalk, who being ill, dreamt that he met with an old friend of his, (long since deceased) by Knighton Ashes (in that parish) who told him, that if he rose out of his bed, that he would die. He awaked, and rose to make water, and was immediately seized with a shivering fit, and died of an ague, aged 84.
The Lady Viscountess Maidstone told me she saw (as it were) a fly of fire, fly round about her in the dark, half an hour before her lord died: he was killed at sea, and the like before her mother-in-law the Countess of Winchelsea died, (she was then with child).
A Dutch prisoner at Wood-bridge, in Suffolk, in the reign of K. Charles II. could discern Spirits; but others that stood by could not. The bell tolled for a man newly deceased. The prisoner saw his phantom, and did describe him to the Parson of the parish,* who was with him; exactly agreeing with the man for whom the bell tolled. Says the prisoner, now he is coming near to you, and now he is between you and the wall; the Parson was resolved to try it, and went to take the wall of him, and was thrown down; he could see nothing. This story is credibly told by several persons of belief.
* Dr. Hooke, the Parson of the parish, has often told this story.
There is a very remarkable story of an apparition, which Martin Luther did see. Mentioned in his "Commensalia" or Table-Talk, which see.
Those that are delirious in high fevers, see (waking, men, and things that are not there). I knew one Mr. M. L. that took opium, and he did see (being awake) men and things that were not present, (or perhaps) not in being. Those whose spleens are ill affected have the like phantasies. The power of imagination is wonderful.
"De seipso duplicate."
Cardanus, Synes. Somniorum, lib. ii. cap. 12. "In somniis mortis est signum, quia duo fiunt, cum anima separatur a corpore. Est & signum morbi in ipsis agrotantibus, nec tum aliud quicquam significat."
**Of One's being divided into a Two-fold person.
In dreams it is a sign of death, because out of one are then made two, when the soul is separated from the body. And it is a sign of the disease in sick men, nor signifies it any thing else at that time.
As concerning apparitions of a man's own self, there are sundry instances, some whereof, I shall here set down.
The Countess of Thanet (Earl John's Lady) saw as she was in bed with her Lord in London, her daughter my Lady Hatton, who was then in Northamptonshire, at Horton Kirby; the candle was burning in her chamber. Since, viz. anno 1675, this Lady Hatton was blown up with gunpowder set on fire by lightning, in the castle at Guernsey, where her Lord was Governor.*
* See Mr. Baxter's Treatise of Spirits
The beautiful Lady Diana Rich, daughter to the Earl of Holland, as she was walking in her father's garden at Kensington, to take the fresh air before dinner, about eleven o'clock, being then very well, met with her own apparition, habit, and every thing, as in a looking- glass. About a month after, she died of the small-pox. And it is said that her sister, the Lady Isabella Thynne, saw the like of herself also, before she died. This account I had from a person of honour.
Mrs. E. W. daughter of Sir W. W. affirms that Mrs. J. (her father's sister) saw herself, i. e. her phantom, half a year before she died, for a quarter of an hour together. She said further, that her aunt was sickly fourteen years before she died, and that she walked living, i. e. her apparition, and that she was seen by several at the same time. The like is reported of others.
Mr. Trahern, B.D. (chaplain to Sir Orlando Bridgman, Lord Keeper) a learned and sober person, was son of a shoe-maker in Hereford: one night as he lay in bed, the moon shining very bright, he saw the phantom of one of the apprentices, sitting in a chair in his red waistcoat, and head-band about his head, and strap upon his knee; which apprentice was really in bed and asleep with another fellow- apprentice, in the same chamber, and saw him. The fellow was living, 1671. Another time, as he was in bed, he saw a basket come sailing in the air, along by the valence of his bed; I think he said there was fruit in the basket: it was a phantom. From himself.
When Sir Kichard Nepier, M.D. of London, was upon the road coming from Bedfordshire, the chamberlain of the inn, shewed him his chamber, the doctor saw a dead man lying upon the bed; he looked more wistly and saw it was himself: he was then well enough in health. He went forward on his journey to Mr. Steward's in Berkshire, and there died. This account I have in a letter from Elias Ashmole, Esq. They were intimate friends.
"In the Desarts of Africk, you shall meet oftentimes with fairies appearing in the shape of men and women, but they vanish quite away like phantastical delusions."*
* Pliny's Natural Hist. lib. 7, chap. 2.
I Captain Henry Bell, do hereby declare both to the present age and to posterity, that being employed beyond the seas, in state affairs, divers years together, both by King James, and also by the late King Charles in Germany. I did hear and understand in all places great bewailing and lamentation made, by reason of destroying and burning of above fourscore thousand of Martin Luther's books, entituled, His last Divine Discourses.**
** This narrative is in the Preface of the translation of Mr. Luther'sTable-Talk.
Upon which divine work or discourses, the reformation, begun before in Germany, was wonderfully promoted and spread in other countries.
But afterwards it so fell out, that the Pope then living, viz, Gregory XIII. understanding what great hurt and prejudice he and his religion had already received by reason of the said Luther's discourses, and also fearing that the same might bring further contempt and mischief upon himself and his church, he therefore to prevent the same, did fiercely stir up and instigate the Emperor then in being, viz. Rodolphus III. to make an edict through the whole empire, that all the foresaid printed books should be burned, and also that it should be death for any person to have or keep a copy thereof, but to burn the same, which edict was speedily put in execution accordingly; insomuch that not one of all the said printed books, nor any one copy of the same, could be found out, or heard of in any place.
Yet it pleased God, that in anno 1626, a German gentleman, named Casparas Van Sparr, with whom, in my stay in Germany, about King James's business, I became familiarly known and acquainted, having occasion to build upon an old foundation of a house, wherein his grandfather dwelt at that time, when the said edict was published in Germany, for the burning the said books, and digging deep under the said old foundation, one of the said original printed books was there happily found, lying in a deep obscure hole, being wrapped in a strong linen cloth, which was waxed all over with bees wax within and without, whereby the said book was preserved fair without any blemish.
And at the same time Ferdinandus II. being Emperor of Germany, who was a severe enemy and persecutor of the Protestant religion, the foresaid gentleman, and grandchild to him, that had hidden the said book in that obscure hole, fearing that if the said Emperor should get knowledge that one of the said books were yet forthcoming, and in his custody, whereby not only himself might be brought into trouble, but also the book be in danger to be destroyed, as all the rest were long before; and also calling to mind, that I had the High-Dutch tongue very perfect, did send the said original book over hither into England unto me: related to me the passages of the preserving and finding the said book; and earnestly moved me in his letter, to translate the said book into English.
Whereupon, I took the said book before me, and many times began to translate the same, but always I was hindered therein, being called upon about other business, insomuch that by no possible means I could remain by that work. Then about six weeks after I had received the said book, it fell out, that being in bed with my wife, one night between twelve and one o'clock, she being asleep, but myself yet awake, there appeared unto me an antient man, standing at my bedside, arrayed in white, having a long and broad white beard, hanging down to his girdle steed, who taking me by the right ear, spake these words following unto me; "Sirrah, will not you take time to translate that book which is sent unto you out of Germany? I will provide for you both place and time to do it:" and then he vanished out of my sight.