ROBERT BURTON.

THIS name, or that of Richard Burton, appears in the title-pages of several curious volumes published about the end of the seventeenth, and the beginning of the eighteenth century by a bookseller of the name of Nathaniel Crouch. In the Bodleian Catalogue they are marked as being written by Burton, alias Crouch, and some have thought they have been written by the bookseller himself. I am not aware of any grounds for the suspicion, though no doubt there must have been some reasons for it, whether true or false. Whoever he was, Aubrey himself was not a more determined collector of gossip whether by hearsay or by reading; nothing seems to have come amiss to him except Popish miracles, and in regard to them he is no less hard of belief than he is credulous on all other occasions. No great use perhaps is to be derived from any of his works, as numerous and as small as the fry of sticklebacks in the New River, but there is some amusement in glancing at these, or at any other old records of credulity, independent of which he has many pieces of pleasant gossip that are no doubt true enough

in the main. In endeavouring to make my readers acquainted with the character of this author, I shall confine myself to his Admirable Curiosities, as being the most interesting of his publications.

Wotton's Dream.—“In 1533 Nicholas Wotton, Dean of Canterbury, being then ambassador in France, dreamed that his nephew, Thomas Wotton, was inclined to be a party in such a project, as, if he were not suddenly prevented, would turn to the loss of his life, and ruin of his family. The night following he dreamed the same again; and knowing that it had no influence on his waking thoughts, and much less the desires of his heart, he did the more seriously consider it, and resolved to use so prudent a remedy by way of precaution, as might be no great inconvenience to either party; and thereupon writ a letter to Queen Mary, that she would cause his nephew to be sent for out of Kent, and that the council might interrogate him in such feigned questions as might colour his commitment into a favourable prison, of which he would hereafter give her majesty the true reason. This was done accordingly; and soon after, the queen being married to King Philip, divers persons declared and raised forces against it, among whom Sir Thomas Wyatt of Kent-with whom the family of the Wottons had an entire friendship-was the principal, who, being defeated, suffered death with many others for the same; and of the number Mr. Wotton probably had been; for he afterwards confessed to his uncle that he had some strong intimation of Wyatt's design, and believed he should have engaged in it, if his uncle had not dreamed him into prison."*

The sagacity of the Dean that led him to this fortunate dream, and the prudent use he made of his miraculous

* Admirable Curiosities, p. 103. 12mo. London. 1737.

knowledge cannot be too much admired. It would be unjust to demolish a tale so happily imagined, by hinting that he must have had some general notion of the disposition both of his nephew and of his intimate friend, although he was in all likelihood ignorant of their precise designs.

The Mayor and Provost. It is memorable what cruel sport Sir William Kingston, the provost marshal, made by virtue of his office on men in misery. One Boyer, mayor of Bodmin in Cornwall, had been amongst the rebels, not willingly but enforced. To him the provost sent word he would come and dine with him, for whom the mayor made great provision. A little before dinner the provost took the mayor aside, and whispered him in the ear that an execution must that day be done in the town, and therefore requested to have a pair of gallows set up against dinner was done. The mayor provided them accordingly. Presently after dinner, the provost, taking the mayor by the hand, entreated him to show him the place where the gallows was, which when he beheld, he asked the mayor if he thought them to be strong enough, 'yes,' said the mayor; 'doubtless they are.' 'Well then,' said the provost, 'get you up, speedily, for they are provided for you.'-' I hope,' said the mayor, 'you do not mean as you speak.'-' In faith,' says the provost, there is no remedy, for you have been a base rebel.'—And so without respite or defence he was hanged to death, a most uncourteous part for a host to offer to his guest.'

The Miller.-"Near the same place dwelled a miller, that had been very active in that rebellion, † who fearing the

* Admirable Curiosities, p. 35.

In the second year of King Edward the Sixth, the king had issued orders that all images should be removed from the churches, that prayers to saints or for the dead should be discontinued, and that the clergy

approach of the marshal, told a sturdy fellow, his servant, that he had occasion to go from home, and if any man should enquire for the miller, he bid him say that he was the miller and had been for three years before. Soon after the provost came, and called for the miller, when out comes the servant, and says he was the man. The provost demanded how long he had kept the mill. Three years, answered the servant. The provost then commanded his men to lay hold of him and hang him on the next tree. At this the fellow cried out, that he was not the miller but the miller's man. 'Nay, sir,' said the provost, I will take you at your word; and if thou beest the miller, thou art a busy knave; and if thou beest not, thou art a false-lying knave; and, however, thou canst not do thy master better service than to hang for him.' And so without more ado he was despatched." *

The Suitors," At the dissolution of abbeys, King Henry the Eighth gave away large shares to almost every one that asked. Among other instances, take this merry story.

should dissuade the people from the use of beads, ashes, processions, and masses in a foreign language. To enforce these injunctions commissioners were sent down into Cornwall, but so general was the feeling on the subject, that when one of them attempted to pull down the images in a certain church he was stabbed in the body by a Popish priest, and the whole mass of the people rose in rebellion, demanding to have the Latin mass again and the revival of the six articles of Henry VIII., commonly known as the Bloody Articles. The king, or rather those employed by him, condescended to reason with these fanatics, and tried to make them comprehend that the laws in question were cruel and oppressive to the people, reminding them at the same time how often the king had been obliged by those very edicts to be severe upon his subjects. The fanatics however were not to be talked into reason, and the matter coming to the arbitrement of the sword, they were finally put down after a desperate resistance, and punished with the same severity that they were so willing to exercise toward others.

* Admirable Curiosities, p. 37.

VOL. I.

Q

It happened that two or three gentlemen, the king's servants, waited at the door where the king was to come out, with a design to beg a large parcel of abbey-lands. One Mr. John Champernoun, another of his servants, seeing them, was very inquisitive to know their suit, but they would not impart it to him. In the meantime out comes the king. They kneeled down; so doth Champernoun, being assured by an implicit faith that they would beg nothing hurtful to themselves. They present their petition; the king grants it; they render him humble thanks; so doth Mr. Champernoun. Afterwards he requires his share; they deny it; he appeals to the king, who avows that he meant they should have equal shares, whereupon his companions were forced to allot him the Priory of Saint Germain, in Cornwall, valued at two hundred and forty three pounds a year, so that a dumb beggar met a blind giver, the one as little knowing what he asked as the other what he gave.'

*Admirable Curiosities, p. 36.

END OF VOL, I.

J. BILLING, PRINTER AND STEREOTYPER, WOKING, SURREY.