Part 15

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,

MR. AUBREY,

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 in Caxton'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.