doctrinae rudimentis imbutus; 14, Col. Gonvil. et Caii alumnus;
19, peragravit Galliam et Italiam; 23, Patavii praeceptores
habuit Eust. Rudium, Tho. Minad., H. Fab. ab Aquapend., Consul
Anglor. 16 fit; 24, Doctor Med. et Chirurg. Reversus Lond.
praxin exercuit, et uxorem[LXXIX.] duxit; 25, Coll. Med.
Socius; 37, Anatom. et Chirurg. Professor; 54, Medicus Regius
factus. Scripsit de Motu Sanguinis, et de Gen. Animal. Obiit 30
Jun. MDCLVII. Aetat. 80.
[LXXIX.] ... Smyth.
--(But I well remember that Dr. Alsop, at his funerall, sayd that he
was 80, wanting one; and that he was the eldest of 9 brethren.)
He lies buried in a vault at Hempsted in Essex, which his brother Eliab
Harvey built; he is lapt in lead, and on his brest in great letters
DR. WILLIAM HARVEY.
I was at his funerall, and helpt to carry him into the vault.
In the library at the Physitians' Colledge was the following
inscription above his statue (which was in his doctorall robes):--
GUL. HARVEUS, natus A.D. 1578, Apr. 2. Folkston, in Com.
Cantii, primogenitus Thomae Harvei et Joannae Halk: fratres
germani, Tho. Jo. Dan. Eliab. Mich. Mat.: sorores, Sarah, Amey.
Under his white marble statue, on the pedestall, thus,
GULIELMO HARVEO,
Viro
Monumentis suis immortali,
Hoc insuper
Coll. Med. Lond.
Posuit.
Qui enim SANGUIN. MOTUM
(ut et ANIMAL. ORTUM) dedit
meruit esse
STATOR Perpetuus.
[1114]Dr. Harvey added (or was very bountifull in contributing to)
a noble building of Roman architecture (of rustique worke, with
Corinthian pillasters) at the Physitians' College aforesaid, viz. a
great parlour[1115] for the Fellowes to meet in, belowe; and a library,
above. On the outside on the freeze, in letters 3 inches long, is this
inscription:--
SUASU ET CURA FRAN. PRUJEANI, PRÆSIDIS, ET EDMUNDI SMITH, ELECT.,
INCHOATA ET PERFECTA EST HÆC FABRICA. AN. MIƆDCLIII.
All these remembrances and building was destroyed by the generall fire.
He was alwayes very contemplative, and the first that I heare of that
was curious in anatomie in England. He had made dissections of frogges,
toades, and a number of other animals, and had curious observations
on them, which papers, together with his goods, in his lodgings at
Whitehall, were plundered at the beginning of the Rebellion, he being
for the king, and with him at Oxon; but he often sayd, that of all the
losses he sustained, no greife was so crucifying to him as the losse
of these papers, which for love or money he could never retrive or
obtaine. When Charles I[1116] by reason of the tumults left London, he
attended him, and was at the fight of Edge-hill with him; and during
the fight, the Prince and duke of Yorke were committed to his care: he
told me that he withdrew with them under a hedge, and tooke out of his
pockett a booke and read; but he had not read very long before a bullet
of a great gun grazed on the ground neare him, which made him remove
his station. He told me that Sir Adrian Scrope[1117] was dangerously
wounded there, and left for dead amongst the dead men, stript; which
happened to be the saving of his life. It was cold, cleer weather, and
a frost that night; which staunched his bleeding, and about midnight,
or some houres after his hurt, he awaked, and was faine to drawe a dead
body upon him for warmeth-sake.
After Oxford was surrendred, which was 24 July[1118] 1646, he came
to London, and lived with his brother Eliab a rich[1119] merchant in
London, on ... hill, opposite to St. Lawrence (Poultry) church[1120],
where was then a high leaden steeple (there were but two, viz. this
and St. Dunstan's in the East) and at his brother's country house at
Roe-hampton.
His brother Eliab bought, about 1654, Cockaine-house, now[1121](1680)
the Excise-Office, a noble house, where the Doctor was wont to
contemplate on the leads of the house, and had his severall stations,
in regard of the sun, or wind.
He did delight to be in the darke, and told me he could then best
contemplate. He had a house heretofore at Combe, in Surrey, a good
aire and prospect, where he had caves made in the earth, in which in
summer time he delighted to meditate.--He was pretty well versed in the
Mathematiques, and had made himselfe master of Mr. Oughtred's Clavis
Math. in his old age; and I have seen him perusing it, and working
problems, not long before he dyed, and that booke was alwayes in his
meditating apartment.
His chamber was that roome that is now the office of Elias Ashmole,
esq.; where he dyed, being taken with the dead palsye, which tooke away
his speech. As soone as he sawe he was attaqued, he presently sent for
his brother, and nephews, and gave one a watch, another another thing,
etc., as remembrances of him. He dyed worth 20,000 _li._ which he left
to his brother Eliab. In his will he left his old friend Mr. Thomas
Hobbes 10 _li._ as a token of his love.
_His sayings._--He was wont to say that man was but a great mischievous
baboon.
He would say, that we Europaeans knew not how to order or governe our
woemen, and that the Turkes were the only people used them wisely.
He was far from bigotry.
He had been physitian to the Lord Chancellor Bacon, whom he esteemed
much for his witt and style, but would not allow him to be a great
philosopher. 'He writes philosophy like a Lord Chancelor,' said he to
me, speaking in derision; 'I have cured him.'
About 1649 he travelled again into Italy, Dr. George (now Sir George)
Ent, then accompanying him.
At Oxford, he grew acquainted with Dr. Charles Scarborough, then
a young physitian (since by king Charles II knighted), in whose
conversation he much delighted; and wheras before, he[1122]marched up
and downe with the army, he tooke him to him and made him ly in his
chamber, and said to him, 'Prithee leave off thy gunning, and stay
here; I will bring thee into practice.'
I remember he kept a pretty young wench to wayte on him, which I guesse
he made use of for warmeth-sake as king David did, and tooke care of
her in his will, as also of his man servant.
For 20 yeares before he dyed he tooke no manner of care about his
worldly concernes, but his brother Eliab, who was a very wise and
prudent menager, ordered all not only faithfully, but better then he
could have donne himselfe.
He was, as all the rest of the brothers, very cholerique; and in his
young days wore a dagger (as the fashion then was, nay I remember
my old schoolemaster, old Mr. Latimer, at 70, wore a dudgeon, with
a knife, and bodkin, as also my old grandfather Lyte, and alderman
Whitson of Bristowe, which I suppose was the common fashion in their
young dayes), but this Dr. would be to<o> apt to draw-out his dagger
upon every slight occasion[1123].
He was not tall; but of the lowest stature, round faced,
olivaster[1124] complexion; little eie, round, very black, full of
spirit; his haire was black as a raven, but quite white 20 yeares
before he dyed.
I first sawe him at Oxford, 1642, after Edgehill fight, but was then
too young to be acquainted with so great a Doctor. I remember he
came severall times to Trin.[1125] Coll. to George Bathurst, B.D.,
who had a hen to hatch egges in his chamber, which they dayly opened
to discerne[1126] the progres and way of generation. I had not the
honour to be acquainted <with> him[1127] till 1651, being my she cosen
Montague's physitian and friend. I was at that time bound for Italy
(but to my great griefe disswaded by my mother's importunity). He was
very communicative, and willing to instruct any that were modest and
respectfull to him. And in order to my journey, gave me, i.e. dictated
to me, what to see, what company to keepe, what bookes to read[ES], how
to manage my studies: in short, he bid me goe to the fountain head, and
read Aristotle, Cicero, Avicenna, and did[1128] call the neoteriques
shitt-breeches. He wrote a very bad hand[ET], which (with use) I could
pretty well read.
I have heard him say, that after his booke of the Circulation of the
Blood[1129]came-out, that he fell mightily in his practize, and that
'twas beleeved by the vulgar that he was crack-brained; and all the
physitians were against his opinion, and envyed him; many wrote against
him, as Dr. Primige, Paracisanus, etc. (vide Sir George Ent's booke).
With much adoe at last, in about 20 or 30 yeares time, it was recieved
in all the Universities in the world; and, as Mr. Hobbes sayes in his
book 'De Corpore,' _he is the only man, perhaps, that ever lived to see
his owne doctrine established in his life time_.
He understood Greek and Latin pretty well, but was no critique, and
he wrote very bad Latin. The _Circuitus Sanguinis_ was, as I take it,
donne into Latin by Sir George Ent (quaere), as also his booke _de
Generatione Animalium_, but a little book in 12ᵐᵒ against Riolani
(I thinke), wherein he makes-out his doctrine clearer, was writt by
himselfe, and that, as I take it, at Oxford.
His majestie king Charles I gave him the Wardenship of Merton Colledge
in Oxford, as a reward for his service, but the times suffered him not
to recieve or injoy any benefitt by it.
He was physitian, and a great favorite of the Lord High Marshall of
England, Thomas[1130] Howard, earle of Arundel and Surrey, with whom
he travelled as his physitian in his ambassade to the Emperor ...
at Vienna, Anno Domini 163-. Mr. W. Hollar (who was then one of his
excellencie's gentlemen) told me that, in his voyage, he would still be
making of excursions into the woods, makeing observations of strange
trees, and plants, earths, etc., naturalls, and sometimes like to be
lost, so that my Lord Ambassador would be really angry with him, for
there was not only danger of thieves, but also of wild beasts.
He was much and often troubled with the gowte, and his way of cure was
thus; he would then sitt with his legges bare, if it were frost, on the
leads of Cockaine house, putt them into a payle of water, till he was
almost dead with cold, and betake himselfe to his stove, and so 'twas
gonne.
He was hott-headed, and his thoughts working would many times keepe him
from sleepinge; he told me that then his way was to rise out of his bed
and walke about his chamber in his shirt till he was pretty coole, i.e.
till he began to have a horror, and then returne to bed, and sleepe
very comfortably.
I remember he was wont to drinke coffee; which he and his brother
Eliab did, before Coffee-houses were in fashion in London.
[1131]All his profession would allowe him to be an excellent anatomist,
but I never heard of any that admired his therapeutique way. I knew
severall practisers in London[1132] that would not have given 3_d._
for one of his bills; and that a man could hardly tell by one of his
bills[1133] what he did aime at.
He did not care for chymistrey, and was wont to speake against them
with an undervalue.
It is now fitt, and but just, that I should endeavour to undecieve
the world in a scandall that I find strongly runnes of him, which I
have mett amongst some learned young men: viz. that he made himselfe a
way to putt himselfe out of his paine, by opium; not but that, had he
laboured under great paines, he had been readie enough to have donne
it; I doe not deny that it was not according to his principles upon
certain occasions to ...: but the manner of his dyeing was really, and
_bonâ fide_, thus, viz. the morning of his death about 10 a clock, he
went to speake, and found he had the dead palsey in his tongue; then he
sawe what was to become of him, he knew there was then no hopes of his
recovery, so presently sends for his young nephewes to come-up to him,
to whom he gives one his watch ('twas a minute watch with which he made
his experiments); to another, another remembrance, etc.; made signe to
... Sambroke, his apothecary (in Black-Fryars), to lett him blood in
the tongue, which did little or no good; and so he ended his dayes.
His practise was not very great towards his later end; he declined it,
unlesse to a speciall friend,--e.g. my lady Howland, who had a cancer
in her breast, which he did cutt-off and seared, but at last she dyed
of it.
He rode on horseback with a foot-cloath to visitt his patients[LXXX.],
his man following on foote, as the fashion then was, which was very
decent, now quite discontinued. The judges rode also with their
foote-cloathes to Westminster-hall, which ended at the death of Sir
Robert Hyde, Lord Chief Justice. Anthony earl of Shafton[1134], would
have revived, but severall of the judges being old and ill horsemen
would not agree to it.
[LXXX.] I have seen him ride in 1654 or 5.
Lettres on naturalls: <quaere> Mr. Samb<roke>.
The scandall aforesaid is from Sir Charles Scarborough's saying that
he had, towards his latter end, a preparation of opium and I know not
what, which he kept in his study to take, if occasion should serve, to
putt him out of his paine, and which Sir Charles promised to give him;
this I beleeve to be true; but doe not at all beleeve that he really
did give it him. The palsey did give him an easie passe-port.
I remember I have heard him say he wrote a booke _De insectis_, which
he had been many yeares about, and had made curious researches and
anatomicall observations on them. This booke was lost when his lodgings
at Whitehall were plundered in the time of the rebellion. He could
never for love nor money retrive them or heare what became of them and
sayd _'twas the greatest crucifying to him that ever he had in all his
life_.
[1135]Dr. Harvy[EU] told me, and any one if he examines himself will
find it to be true, that a man could not fancy--truthfully--that he is
imperfect in any part that he has, verbi gratiâ, teeth, eie, tongue,
spina dorsi, etc. Natura tends to perfection, and in matters of
generation we ought to consult more with our sense and instinct, then
our reason, and prudence, fashion of the country, and interest. We see
what contemptible[1136] products are of the prudent politiques[1137],
weake, fooles, and ricketty children, scandalls to nature and their
country. The heralds are fooles[1138]--_tota errant via_. A blessing
goes with a marriage for love upon a strong impulse.
[1139]_Sowgelder._ To see, Sir John, how much you are mistaken; he
that marries a widdowe makes himself cuckold. Exempli gratia, to speake
experimentally and in my trade, if a good bitch is first warded with a
curre, let her ever after be warded with a dog of a good straine and
yet she will bring curres as at first, her wombe being first infected
with a curre. So, the children will be like the first husband (like
raysing up children to your brother). So, the adulterer, though a crime
in law, the children are like the husband.
_Sir John._ Thou dost talke, me thinks, more understandingly of these
matters then any one I have mett with.
_Sowgelder._ Ah! my old friend Dr. Harvey--I knew him right well--he
made me sitt by him 2 or 3 hours together discoursing. Why! had he been
stiffe, starcht[1140], and retired, as other formall doctors are, he
had known no more then they. From the meanest person, in some way, or
other, the learnedst man may learn something. Pride has been one of the
greatest stoppers[1141] of the advancement of learning.
_Notes._
[EQ] Aubrey gives (MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 64) in trick the coat:--'or, on
a chief indented sable 3 crescents argent [Harvey]; quartering ...,
2 bars wavy ..., on a chief ... a lozenge charged with a Maltese
cross....'
[ER] i.e. the inscriptions given here are extracted from the lost
volume B. of Aubrey's antiquarian collections. July 2, 1674, Aubrey to
Wood, in MS. Ballard 14, fol. 103:--'My brother William hath my liber
B, wherin is the epitaph etc. of Dr. William Harvey's life.'
[ES] On MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 61, the blank address-side of Francis
Potter's letter (of date Dec. 7, 1652) to Aubrey are found Aubrey's
jottings of this conversation:--
'Vesalius
{ Bantinus
{ Anthocologia
J. Riolani.
* * * * *
_de oculo_
* * * * *
Julius Placentinus: _de oculo et
auditu_
_de oculo et visione_
Fabricius Aquapendente.
Ad legendos hosce bonos autores cohortatus sum a doctore Gulielmo
Harveo.'
[ET] Aubrey has preserved two specimens of this bad hand. MS. Aubr. 21,
fol. 77, he marks as 'Dr. Harvey's bill for my purge, Nov. 19, 1655,'
and notes 'The recipe is Dr. Harvey's own handwriting.' MS. Aubr. 21,
fol. 107, is a prescription addressed for 'Mr. Aubrey, Apr. 23, 1653,'
on which Aubrey notes 'This is Dr. William Harvey's owne writing.'
[EU] This passage, and the next, are taken from Aubrey's projected
comedy, _The Country Revel_. In all likelihood they are a reminiscence
of Harvey's familiar conversation: see p. 300, _supra_.
=John Hawles= (1645-1716).
[1142]'Remarks upon the Tryalls of Edward Fitzharris, Stephen Colledge,
count Coningsmark, the lord Russell, col. Sydney, Henry Cornish, and
Charles Bateman; as also of Shaftsbury's Grand Jury, Wilmore's _Homine
replegiando_, and the award of execution against Sir Thomas Armstrong':
by John Hawles, barrister, of Lincoln's Inne: London, 1689.
He was the sonne of Thomas Hawles, esq., and borne at his father's
house in the close in Salisbury. He went to school at Winton College,
and was a gentleman commoner of Queen's College, Oxon. He is an
exceeding ingeniose young gentleman.
=Richard Head= (1637?-1686?).
[1143]From Mr. Bovey:--... Meriton--his true name was Head (Mr. Bovey
knew him). Borne ...; was a bookeseller in Little Britaine.
He had been amongst the gipsies. He looked like a knave with his
gogling eies. He could transforme[1144] himselfe into <any> shape.
Brake 2 or 3 times. Was at last a bookeseller, or towards his later
end. He maintained himselfe by scribling. He <got> 20_s._ per sheet.
He wrote severall pieces, viz. _The English Rogue_[EV], _The Art of
Wheadling_, etc.
He was drowned goeing to Plymouth by long sea about 1676, being about
50 yeares of age.
_Note._
[EV] In MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 1ᵛ, Anthony Wood notes 'Meriton Latrone
in "the English Rogue"; I have it <i.e. the book> in my other
study.'--'The English Rogue described in the life of Meriton Latrone,'
Lond. 1666.
=James Heath= (1629-1664).
[1145]Quaere of Sir ... Heath in Pumpe Court; quaere capt. Sherburne
and J. Davys de hoc.
Ex registro St. Bartholomew the lesse, London, Anno Dom. 1664. 'James
Heath, gent., dyed the 16th, and was buryed the 19th of August,
consumption and dropsey, in the church neere the skreene dore.'
The clarke here told me that once he had a pretty good estate, but in
his later time maintained him selfe much by writing bookes[EW]. He
was hardly 40 yeares old when he dyed. He left 4 or 5 children on the
parish, now all or most maried. Two were bound apprentices to weavers.
_Note._
[EW] James Heath, ejected by the Parliamentary Visitors (1648) from his
Studentship in Christ Church, wrote histories of portions of the Civil
War.
=Elize Hele= (15..-1635).
[1146]Lady Hele[1147] in Devon, 800 _li._ per annum--Sir John Maynard.
The lady Hele of Devon gave by her will 800 _li._ per annum to be layd
out for charitable uses and by the advice and prudence of serjeant
Maynard[1148]. He did order it[1149] according to the best of his
understanding, and yet he sayd that he haz lived to see every one of
these benefactions abused--quod N. B.
[1150]=Sir Robert Henley= (16..-1680?).
Sir Robert Henley, of Bramswell, Hants, baronet, decubuit[1151],
Thursday, about 3ʰ P.M., Feb. 14, Valentine's day. He was taken ill a
hunting about noon, I think the Tuesday before. The yeare when, quaere?
1673.
=Edward Herbert=, baron Herbert of Chirbury (1583-1648).
[1152]Edward[EX], lord Herbert of Cherbery--vide memorandum[1153],
1672. Vide 8vo booke by ..., ubi his life, and description of a
noble monument designed by him. Vide[1154] lib. B, Montgomery, p.
126.--Severall whispering places in Wales, one here at Montgomery:--<so
I am told by> Meredith Lloyd.--Prophetick[1155], America--vide lib. B,
Montgomery.
<James> Usher, Lord Primate of Ireland, was sent for by him, when
in his death-bed, and he would have received the sacrament. He sayd
indifferently of it that 'if there was good in any-thing 'twas in
that,' or 'if it did no good 'twould doe no hurt.' The primate refused
it, for which many blamed him. He dyed at his house in Queen street,
very serenely; asked what was a clock, answer so ...: 'then,' sayd he,
'an houre hence I shall depart.' He then turned his head to the other
side and expired. In his will he gave speciall order to have his white
stone-horse (which he loved) to be well fed and carefully looked after
as long as he lived. He had two libraries, one at London, the other at
Montgomery; one[EY] wherof he gave to Jesus College, Oxon.
Vide his mother's, the[1156] ..., funerall sermon, preached at Chelsey
by Dr. Donne, wherunto are annexed Latin and Greeke verses by her
sonne, George Herbert.
_Verses. Poemes._
Vide more of this lord in Lloyd's State-Worthies, 8vo. 1679.
_Amici_:--John Donne, D.D.; Sir John Danvers, etc.
[1157](August, 1648)--St. Giles-in-the-fields: 'August 5th, buried
Edward, lord Herbert, baron of Cherbery.'
Mr. <Thomas> Fludd tells me he had constantly prayers twice a day in
his howse, and Sundayes would have his chaplayne read one of Smyth's
sermons. Vide Mr. Davys, attorney.
[1158]Sir Edward Herbert, afterward lord Cherbery, etc., dyed at his
house, in Queen street, in the parish of St. Giles in the fields,
London, and lies interred in the chancell, under the lord Stanhope's
inscription.
On a black marble grave-stone thus:
Heic inhumatur corpus
Edvardi Herbert, Equitis
Balnei, Baronis de Cherbury
et Castle-Island. Auctoris Libri
cui titulus est _De Veritate_.
Reddor ut herbae,
Vicessimo die Augusti,
Anno Domini 1648.
I have seem him severall times with Sir John Danvers: he was a black
man.
Memorandum:--the castle of Montgomery was a most romancy seate. It
stood upon a high promontory, the north side 30+ feete high. From hence
is a most delightsome prospect, 4 severall wayes. Southwards, without
the castle, is _Prim-rose hill_: vide Donne's Poems, p. 53.
[1159]Upon this Prim-rose hill[LXXXI.],
Where, if Heaven would distill
A showre of raine, each severall drop might goe
To his owne prim-rose, and grow manna so;
And where their forme and their infinitie
Make a terrestriall galaxie,
As the small starres doe in the skie;
I walke to find a true-love, and I see
That 'tis not a meer woman that is shee,
But most, or more, or lesse than woman be, etc.
[LXXXI.] In the parke.
In this pleasant solitude did this noble lord enjoy his muse. Here he
wrote his _De Veritate_. Dr. Coote (a Cambridge scholar and a learned)
was one of his chaplains. Mr. Thomas Masters, of New College, Oxon,
lived with him till 1642.
This stately castle was demolished since the late warres at the chardge
of the countrey.
_Notes._
[EX] In MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 95, Aubrey gives in trick the coat:--'Party
per pale, azure and gules, 3 lions rampant argent' [Herbert of
Chirbury]: surmounted by a baron's coronet.
[EY] It was his London library that he gave to Jesus College: so
Aubrey, 2 Sept. 1671, in MS. Wood F. 39, fol. 138.
=George Herbert= (1593-1633).
[1160]Mr. George Herbert was kinsman (remote) and chapelaine to Philip,
earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, and Lord Chamberlayn. His lordship
gave him a benefice[1161] at Bemmarton[LXXXII.] (between Wilton and
Salisbury), a pittifull little chappell of ease to Foughelston. The
old house was very ruinous. Here he built a very handsome howse for
the minister, of brick, and made a good garden and walkes. He lyes in
the chancell, under no large, nor yet very good, marble grave-stone,
without any inscription.
[LXXXII.] In the records of the Tower it is writt Bymerton.
Scripsit:--Sacred Poems, called _The Church_, printed, Cambridge, 1633;
a booke entituled _The Country Parson_, not printed till about 1650,
8vo. He also writt a folio in Latin, which because the parson[LXXXIII.]
of Hineham could not read, his widowe (then wife to Sir Robert Cooke)
condemned to the uses of good houswifry.
[LXXXIII.] This account I had from Mr. Arnold Cooke, one of Sir Robert
Cooke's sonnes, whom I desired to aske his mother-in-lawe[1162] for Mr.
G. Herbert's MSS.
He was buryed (according to his owne desire) with the singing service
for the buriall of dead, by the singing men of Sarum. Fr<ancis>
Sambroke (attorney) then assisted as a chorister boy; my uncle, Thomas
Danvers, was at the funerall. Vide in the Register booke at the office
when he dyed, for the parish register is lost.