and of an even and smooth temper; so that, if one would goe about to
describe a perfect good man, would drawe this Doctor's character.
Of a just stature; grey eie; tall and well-sett; sanguine; thin
skin; roundish face; gracefull elocution; his discourse so gent. and
obligeing; cleer reason.
They say that _morum similitudo conci<li>at amicitiam_; then it will
not be found strange that there should be such a conjunct friendship
between this worthy gentleman and the right reverend father in God,
Seth Ward, lord bishop of Sarum, his coetanean in Cambridge.
It ought not to be forgott the great and exemplary love between this
Doctor and his vertuose wife, who is not lesse to be admired, in her
sex and station, then her brother Sir Christopher; and (which is
rare to be found in a woman) her excellences doe not inflate her.
Amongst many other guifts she haz a strange sagacity as to curing
of wounds, which she does not doe so much by presedents and reciept
bookes, as by her owne excogitancy, considering the causes, effects,
and circumstances. His majestie king Charles II, 167-, had hurt his
... hand, which he intrusted his chirurgians to make well; but they
ordered him so that they made it much worse, so that it swoll, and
pained him up to his shoulder; and pained him so extremely that he
could not sleep, and began to be feaverish. ... told the king what a
rare shee-surgeon he had in his house; she was presently sent for at
eleven clock at night. She presently made ready a pultisse, and applyed
it, and gave his majestie sudden ease, and he slept well; next day she
dressed him, and in ... perfectly cured him, to the great griefe of all
the surgeons, who envy and hate her.
Non Illo melior quisquam, nec amantior aequi
Vir fuit: aut Illâ reverentior ulla Deorum.
OVID. _Metam._ lib. i.
_Note._
[FY] Aubrey gives the coat, 'sable, a chevron between 3 anchors
argent.' Anthony Wood adds the reference 'vide pag. 65 _a_,' i.e. fol.
95, of MS. Aubr. 6, in the life of John Wallis.
=Hugh Holland= (15-- -1633).
[1697]From Sir John Penrudock:--Hugh Holland, poeta: he was descended
of the family of the earles of Kent, etc., and was a Roman Catholique.
The lady Elizabeth Hatton (mother to the lady Purb<ec>) was his great
patronesse (vide B. Jonson's masque of the Gipsies for these two
beauties).
Sir J<ohn> P<enrudock> asked him his advice as he was dyeing, (or he
then gave it) that, the best rule for him to governe his life was to
reade St. Hierome's Epistles.
He was buried in Westminster Abbey[1698], in the south crosse aisle
neer the dore of St. Benet's Chapell, i.e. where the earl of Middlesex
monument is, but there is no monument or inscription for him. He was
buryed July 23, 1633.
He was of a Lancashire family.
Tho. Holland, earl of Kent (his sonnes, dukes of Surrey), tempore Rich.
2.
=Philemon Holland= (1551-1637).
[1699]Philêmon Holland was schoole-master of the free-schoole at
Coventrey, and that for many yeares. He made a great many good
scholars. He translated T. Livius, anno 15--, with one and the
same pen, which the lady ... (vide at the end of his translation
of Suetonius) embellished with silver, and kept amongst her rare
κειμηλια[1700]. He wrote a good hand, but a rare Greeke character;
witnesse the MS. of Euclid's Harmoniques in the library belonging to
the schoole. He translated severall Latin authors,--e.g. Tit. Livius,
Plinii Hist. Natur., Suetonius Tranquillus: quaere +.
One made this epigram on him:--
'Philêmon with 's translations doeth so fill us, He will not let
SUETONIUS be TRANQUILLUS.'
=Wenceslaus Hollar= (1607-1677).
[1701]Winceslaus Hollar, natus Pragae 23 Julii, st<ilo> v<etere>, 1607,
about 8 A.M.
[1702]Winceslaus Hollar, Bohemus, was borne at Prague.
His father was a Knight of the Empire: which is by lettres patent
under the imperiall seale (as our baronets). I have seen it[1703]:
the seale is bigger then the broad seale of England: in the middle
is the imperiall coate; and round about it are the coates of the
Princes Electors. His father was a Protestant, and either for keeping
a conventicle, or being taken at one, forfeited his estate, and was
ruined by the Roman Catholiques.
He told me that when he was a schoole-boy he tooke a delight in
draweing of mapps; which draughts he kept, and they were pretty. He
was designed by his father to have been a lawyer, and was putt to that
profession[1704], when his father's troubles, together with the warres,
forced him to leave his countrey. So that what he did for his delight
and recreation only when a boy, proved to be his livelyhood when a man.
I thinke he stayd sometime in Lowe Germany, then he came into England,
wher he was very kindly entertained by that great patron of painters
and draughts-men <Thomas Howard> Lord High Marshall, earl of Arundell
and Surrey, where he spent his time in draweing and copying rarities,
which he did etch (i.e. eate with aqua fortis in copper plates). When
the Lord Marshall went ambassador to the Emperor of Germany to Vienna,
he travelld with much grandeur; and among others, Mr. Hollar went
with him (very well clad) to take viewes, landskapes, buildings, etc.
remarqueable in their journey, which wee see now at the print shopps.
He hath donne the most in that way that ever any one did, insomuch that
I have heard Mr. John Evelyn, R.S.S., say that at sixpence a print
his labour would come to ... _li._ (quaere J<ohn> E<velyn>). He was
very short-sighted (μυοψ[1705]), and did worke so curiously that the
curiosity of his worke is not to be judged without a magnifying-glasse.
When he tooke his landskaps, he, then, had a glasse to helpe his sight.
At Arundel-house he maried with my ladle's wayting woman, Mrs. ...
Tracy, by whom he haz a daughter, that was one of the greatest beauties
I have seen; his son by her dyed in the plague, an ingeniose youth,
drew delicately.
When the civil warres brake-out, the Lord Marshall had leave to goe
beyond sea[CXXXI.]. Mr. Hollar went into the Lowe-Countries, where he
stayed till about 1649.
[CXXXI.] Italie[1706].
I remember he told me that when he first came into England, (which was
a serene time of peace) that the people, both poore and rich, did looke
cheerfully, but at his returne, he found the countenances of the people
all changed, melancholy, spightfull, as if bewitched.
I have sayd before that his father was ruined upon the account of the
Protestant religion. Winceslaus dyed a Catholique, of which religion, I
suppose, he might be ever since he came to Arundel-howse.
He was a very friendly good-natured man as could be, but shiftlesse as
to the world, and dyed not rich[1707]. He maried a second wife, 1665,
by whom he has severall children. He dyed on our Ladie-day (25 Martii),
1677, and is buried in St. Margaret's church-yard at Westminster neer
the north west corner of the tower. Had he lived till the 13th of July
following, he had been just 70 yeares old.
=John Holywood= (11-- -1256).
[1708]Jo. de Sacro Bosco:--Dr. <John> Pell is positive that his name
was Holybushe.
=Thomas Hoode.=
[1709]... Hood, M.D.--he practised Physick at Worcester, and printed a
booke in 4to called _The Geodeticall Staffe_[1710].
=Robert Hooke= (1635-1703).
[1711]Mr. Robert Hooke, curator of the Royall Societie at London, was
borne at Freshwater in the Isle of Wight, A.D. <1635>; his father was
minister there, and of the family of the Hookes of Hooke in Hants.
[1712]July 19ᵗʰ, 1635, baptized Robert Hooke, the son of Mr. John Hooke.
[1713]Mr. Robert Hooke[FZ], M.A.:--his father, Mr. John Hooke,[1714]had
two or three brothers all ministers: quaere Dr. <William> Holder. He
was of the family of Hooke of Hooke in Hampshire, in the road from
London to Saram, a very ancient family and in that place for many (3 or
more) hundred yeares.
[1715]His father was minister of Freshwater in the Isle of Wight. He
maried ... ..., by whom he had two sonnes, viz. ... of Newport, grocer
(quaere capt. Lee) and had been mayer there, and Robert, second son,
who was borne[1716] at Freshwater aforesayd the nineteenth day of July,
Anno Domini 1635--vide register, et obiit patris.
At ... yeares old, John Hoskyns, the painter, being at Freshwater, to
drawe pictures for ... esqre, Mr. Hooke observed what he did, and,
thought he, 'why cannot I doe so too?' So he getts him chalke, and
ruddle, and coale, and grinds them, and putts them on a trencher,
gott a pencill, and to worke he went, and made a picture: then he
copied[1717] (as they hung up in the parlour) the pictures there, which
he made like. Also, being a boy there, at Freshwater, he made an ...
diall on a round trencher; never having had any instruction. His father
was not mathematicall at all.
When his father dyed, his son Robert was but ... old, to whom he left
one hundred pounds, which was sent up to London with him, with an
intention to have bound him apprentice to Mr. Lilly[1718], the paynter,
with whom he was a little while upon tryall; who liked him very well,
but Mr. Hooke quickly perceived[1719] what was to be donne, so, thought
he, 'why cannot I doe this by my selfe and keepe my hundred pounds?' He
also had some instruction in draweing from Mr. Samuel Cowper (prince of
limners of this age); but whether from him before or after Mr. Lilly
quaere?
☞ Quaere when he went to Mr. Busby's, the schoolemaster of Westminster,
at whose howse he was; and he made very much of him. With him he lodged
his C _li._[1720] There he learnd to[1721] play 20 lessons on the
organ. He there in one weeke's time made himselfe master of the first
VI bookes of _Euclid_, to the admiration of Mr. Busby (now S.T.D.), who
introduced him. At schoole here he was very mechanicall, and (amongst
other things) he invented thirty severall wayes of flying, which I have
not only heard him say, but Dr. Wilkins (at Wadham College at that
time), who gave him his _Mathematicall Magique_ which did him a great
kindnes. He was never a King's Scholar, and I have heard Sir Richard
Knight (who was his school-fellow) say that he seldome sawe him in the
schoole.
Anno Domini <1658> (vide A. Wood's _Antiq. Oxon._) he was sent to
Christ Church in Oxford, where he had a chorister's place (in those
dayes when the church musique was putt-downe[1722]), which was a
pretty good maintenance. He was there assistant to Dr. Thomas Willis
in his chymistry; who afterwards recommended him to the honᵇˡᵉ Robert
Boyle, esqre, to be usefull to him in his chymicall operations. Mr.
Hooke then read to him (R. B., esqre) Euclid's Elements, and made him
understand[1723] Des Cartes' Philosophy. He was Master of Arts anno
Domini....
Anno Domini 166<2> Mr. Robert Boyle recommended Mr. Robert Hooke to
be Curator of the Experiments of the Royall Society, wherin he did an
admirable good worke to the Common-wealth of Learning, in recommending
the fittest person in the world to them. Anno <1664> he was chosen
Geometry[1724] Professour at Gresham College[GA]. Anno Domini 166- Sir
John Cutler, knight, gave a Mechanicall lecture, ... pounds per annum,
which he read.
Anno Domini 166<6> the great conflagration of London happened, and then
he was chosen one of the two surveyors[CXXXII.] of the citie of London;
by which he hath gott a great estate. He built Bedlam, the Physitians'
College, Montague-house, the Piller on Fish-street-hill, and Theatre
there; and he is much made use of in designing buildings.
[CXXXII.] <John> Oliver, the glasse-painter, was the other.
He is but of midling stature, something crooked, pale faced, and his
face but little belowe, but his head is lardge; his eie full and
popping, and not quick; a grey eie. He haz a delicate head of haire,
browne, and of an excellent moist curle. He is and ever was very
temperate, and moderate in dyet, etc.
As he is of prodigious inventive head, so is a person of great vertue
and goodnes. Now when I have sayd his inventive faculty is so great,
you cannot imagine his memory to be excellent, for they are like
two bucketts, as one goes up, the other goes downe. He is certainly
the greatest mechanick this day in the world. His head lies much
more to Geometry then to Arithmetique. He is (1680) a batchelour,
and, I beleeve, will never marie. His elder brother left one faire
daughter[GB], which is his heire. In fine (which crownes all) he is a
person of great suavity and goodnesse.
_Scripsit._
...
...
'Twas Mr. Robert Hooke that invented the Pendulum-Watches, so much more
usefull than the other watches.
He hath invented an engine for the speedie working of division, etc.,
or for the speedie and immediate finding out the divisor.
An instrument for the Emperor of Germany, 1692/3.
[1725]The first thing he published was--An attempt for the explication
of the phaenomena observeable in the XXXV experiment of the honourable
Robert Boyle, esq., touching the aire: printed for Sam. Thomson at the
Bishop's head in Paule's churchyard, 1661, 8vo: not now to be bought,
and, though no bigger then an almanack, is a most ingeniose piece.
The next moneth he published another little 4to pamphlet,--Discourse
of a new instrument he haz invented to make more accurate observations
in astronomy then ever was[1726] yet made, or could be made by any
instruments hitherto invented, and this instrument (10 or 12 _li._
price) performes more, and more exact, then all the chargeable
apparatus of the noble Tycho Brache or the present Hevelius of Dantzick.
<In MS. Aubr. 6, fol. 30, 31, is this letter from Aubrey to
Anthony Wood, enclosing a communication from Hooke.>
September 15, 1689.
Mr. Wood!
Mr. Robert Hooke, R.S.S. did in anno 1670, write a discourse, called,
'An Attempt to prove the motion of the Earth,' which he then read to
the Royal Society; but printed it in the beginning of the yeare 1674,
a _strena_[1727] to Sir John Cutler to whom it is dedicated, wherein
he haz delivered the theorie of explaining the coelestial motions
mechanically; his words are these, pag. 27, 28. viz.:--
['In[1728]the _Attempt to prove the motion of the earth_, etc.,
printed 1674, but read to the Royall Society, 1671: pag. 27, line 31--
'I shall only for the present hint that I have in some of my foregoing
observations discovered some new motions even in the Earth it self,
which perhaps were not dreamt of before, which I shall hereafter more
at large describe, when further tryalls have more fully confirmed and
compleated these beginnings. At which time also I shall explaine a
systeme of the world, differing in many particulars from any yet known,
answering in all things to the common rules of mechanicall motions.
This depends upon 3 suppositions; first, that all coelestiall bodys
whatsoever have an attractive or gravitating power towards their own
centers, whereby they attract not only their own parts, and keep them
from flying from them, as we may observe the Earth to doe, but that
they doe also attract all the other coelestial bodys that are within
the sphere of their activity, and consequently that not only the Sun
and the Moon have an influence upon the body and motion of the Earth,
and the Earth upon them, but that Mercury also, Venus, Mars, Saturne,
and Jupiter, by their attractive powers have a considerable influence
upon its motion, as, in the same manner, the corresponding attractive
power of the Earth hath a considerable influence upon every one of
their motions also. The second supposition is this, that all bodys
whatsoever, that are putt into direct and simple motion will soe
continue to move forwards in a straight line, till they are by some
other effectuall powers deflected and bent into a motion describing
a circle, ellipsis, or some other uncompounded curve line. The third
supposition is, that these attractive powers are soe much the more
powerfull in operating, by how much nearer the body wrought upon is
to their own centers. Now what these severall degrees are, I have not
yet experimentally verified.'--_But these degrees and proportions of
the power of attraction in the celestiall bodys and motions, were
communicated to Mr. Newton by R. Hooke, in the yeare 1678, by letters,
as will plainely appear both by the coppys of the said letters, and
the letters of Mr. Newton in answer to them, which are both in the
custody of the said R. H., both which also were read before the Royall
Society at their publique meeting, as appears by the Journall book of
the said Society._--'But it is a notion which if fully prosecuted, as
it ought to be, will mightily assist the astronomer to reduce all the
coelestiall motions to a certaine rule, which I doubt will never be
done true without it. He that understands the natures of the circular
pendulum and circular motion, will easily understand the whole ground
of this principle, and will know where to find direction in nature
for the true stating thereof. This I only hint at present to such as
have ability and opportunity of prosecuting this inquiry, and are not
wanting of industry for observing and calculating, wishing heartily
such may be found, having my self many other things in hand, which I
will first compleat, and therefore cannot soe well attend (to) it. But
this I durst promise the undertaker; that he will find all the great
motions of the world to be influenced by this principle, and that the
true understanding thereof will be the true perfection of Astronomy.']
About 9 or 10 years ago, Mr. Hooke writt to Mr. Isaac Newton, of
Trinity College, Cambridge, to make[CXXXIII.] a demonstration of this
theory, not telling him, at first, the proportion of the gravity to
the distance, nor what was the curv'd line that was thereby made. Mr.
Newton, in his answer to the letter, did expresse that he had not
known[1729] of it; and in his first attempt about it, he calculated
the curve by supposing the attraction to be the same at all distances:
upon which, Mr. Hooke sent, in his next letter, the whole of his
hypothesis, scil. that the gravitation was reciprocall to the square
of the distance, ['which[1730] would make the motion in an ellipsis,
in one of whose foci the sun being placed, the aphelion and perihelion
of the planet would be opposite to each other in the same line, which
is the whole coelestiall theory, concerning which Mr. Newton hath a
demonstration,'] not at all owning he receiv'd the first intimation of
it from Mr. Hooke. Likewise Mr. Newton haz in the same booke printed
some other theories and experiments of Mr. Hooke's, as that about the
oval figure of the earth and sea: without acknowledgeing from whom he
had them, ['though[1730] he had not sent it up with the other parts of
his booke till near a month after the theory was read to the Society by
Mr. Hooke, when it served to help to answer Dr. Wallis his arguments
produced in the Royal Society against it.']
[CXXXIII.] To[1731] make a demonstration of it, telling him the
proportion of the gravity to the distance and the curv'd line that was
thereby made, to witt that it was an ellipsis in one of the foci of
which was the sun and that that gravitation would make the aphelion and
perihelion opposite to each other in the same diameter which is the
whole celestiall theorie of which Mr. Newton haz made a demonstration.
Mr. Wood! This is the greatest discovery in nature that ever was since
the world's creation. It never was so much as hinted by any man before.
I know you will doe him right. I hope you may read his hand. I wish he
had writt plainer, and afforded a little more paper.
Tuus,
J. AUBREY.
Before I leave this towne, I will gett of him a catalogue of what he
hath wrote; and as much of his inventions as I can. But they are many
hundreds; he believes not fewer than a thousand. 'Tis such a hard
matter to get people to doe themselves right.
_Notes._
[FZ] Aubrey gives in trick the coat: 'quarterly, argent and sable a
cross between 4 escallops all counterchanged [Hooke].'
[GA] Aubrey used Hooke's rooms in Gresham College as the place to which
he had his letters addressed. E.g. MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 55, is an envelope
addressed:--
'To his much honoured friend John Awbrey, esqre, these present, at Mr.
Hooke's lodgeings in Gresham College, London.'
MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 48, is an envelope addressed--
'For Mr. John Aubrey: leave these at Mr. Hooke's lodging in Gresham
College.'
[GB] 'Mris. Grace Hooke, borne at Newport in the Isle of Wight 2ᵈᵒ
Maii, at 8ʰ P.M.; she is 15 next May, scil. 1676.... Her father died by
suspending him selfe, anno ...': MS. Aubr. 23, fol. 56ᵛ.
=Charles Hoskyns= (1584-1609).
[1732]Charles Hoskyns was brother to the Serjeant and the Doctor; a
very ingeniose man, who would not have been inferior to either but
killed himself with hard study.
_Note._
Charles Hoskins, of 'Lenwarne' parish, Hereford, was admitted
probationer July 26, 1604, and fellow of New College in 1606; took B.A.
April 13, 1608; and died in 1609.
=John Hoskyns= (1566-1638).
[1733]John Hoskyns[GC], serjeant-at-lawe, was borne at Mounckton in the
parish of <Llanwarne> in the com. of Hereford, Aº Dⁿⁱ <1566> [on[1734]
St. Mark's day].
Mounckton belonged to the priory of Llantony juxta Glocester, where his
ancestors had the office of cupbearer (or 'pocillator') to the prior.
I have heard there was a windowe given by one Hoskyns there, as by the
inscription did appeare.
Whither the serjeant were the eldest brother[1735] or no, I have
forgott; but he had a brother, John[GD], D.D., a learned man, rector
of Ledbury and canon of Hereford, who, I thinke, was eldest, who was
designed to be a scholar, but this John (the serjeant) would not be
quiet, but he must be a scholar too. In those dayes boyes were seldome
taught to read that were not to be of some learned profession. So, upon
his instant importunity, being then ten yeares of age, he learned to
reade, and, at the yeare's end, entred into his Greeke grammar. This I
have heard his sonne, Sir Benet Hoskyns, knight and baronett, severall
times say.
He was of a strong constitution, and had a prodigious memorie. At
... yeares old, he went to Winton schole, where he was the flower of
his time. I remember I have heard that one time he had not made his
exercise (verse) and spake to one of his forme to shew him his, which
he sawe. The schoolmaster presently calles for the exercises, and
Hoskyns told him that he had writ it out but lost it, but he could
repeate it, and repeated the other boye's exercise (I think 12 or 16
verses) only at once reading over. When the boy who really had made
them shewed the master the same, and could not repeate them, he was
whipped for stealing Hoskyns' exercise. I thinke John Owen[GE] and he
were schoole-fellowes. There were many pretty stories of him when a
schooleboy, which I have forgott. I have heard his son say that he was
a yeare at Westminster; and not speeding there, he was sent to Winton.
The Latin verses in the quadrangle at Winton Colledge[GF], at the cocks
where the boyes wash their hands, were of his making, where there is
the picture[1736] of a good servant, with hind's feet, ... head, a
padlock on his lippes, ... The Latin verses describe the properties of
a good servant.
When he came to New College, he was _Terrae filius_; but he was so
bitterly satyricall that he was expelled and putt to his shifts.
He went into Somersetshire and taught a schole for about a yeare at
Ilchester. He compiled there a Greeke lexicon as far as M, which I have
seen. He maried (neer there) a rich widowe, [of Mr. Bourne]; she was a
Moyle of Kent; by whome he had only one sonne and one daughter.
[After[1737] his mariage] he admitted himselfe at the Middle Temple,
London. He wore good cloathes, and kept good company. His excellent
witt gave him letters of commendacion to all ingeniose persons.
At his[1738]first comeing to London he gott acquainted with the
under-secretaries at court, where he was often usefull to them in
writing their Latin letters.
His great witt quickly made him be taken notice of.