] That great vertuoso, Mr. Francis Potter, author of the
"Interpretation of 666,"† Rector of Kilmanton, took great delight in
this Knoll-hill. It gives an admirable prospect every way; from hence
one may see the foss-way between Cyrencester and Glocester, which is
fourty miles from this place. You may see the Isle of Wight, Salisbury
steeple, the Severne sea, &c. It would be an admirable station for him
that shall make a geographical description of Wilts, Somersett, &c.
†[The full title of the work referred to is a curiosity in
literature. It exemplifies forcibly the abstruse and mystical
researches in which the literati of the seventeenth century indulged.
"An Interpretation of the Number 666; wherein not only the manner how
this Number ought to be interpreted is clearly proved and
demonstrated; but it is also shewed that this Number is an exquisite
and perfect character, truly, exactly, and essentially describing that
state of government to which all other notes of Antichrist do agree;
with all knowne objections solidly and fully answered that can be
materially made against it". (Oxford, 1642, 4to.) So general were
studies of this nature at the time, that Potter's volume was
translated into French, Dutch, and Latin. The author, though somewhat
visionary, was a profound mathematician, and invented several
ingenious mechanical instruments. In Aubrey's "Lives", appended to the
Letters from the Bodleian, 8vo. 1813, will be found an interesting
biographical notice of him.
Pages:
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104