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Aubrey, John, 1626-1697

"The Natural History of Wiltshire"

(Advertisement to the surveyor of Wiltshire, as to the
mappe. - Let him make his two first stations at the south downe at Broad
Chalke, which he may enlarge two miles or more; from whence he may ken
with his bare eye to Portsmouth, all the Isle of Wight, to Portland,
to the towers and chimny's of Shaftesbury, to Knoll-hill, to the
promontory of Roundway-down above the Devises: to St. Anne's hill,
vulgo Tanne hill, to Martinsoll hill, to Amesbury becon-hill, to
Salisbury steeple, &c. When he comes into North Wiltshire his prospect
will not be much shorter. There he will take in Glastenbury-torre
and Gloucestershire, and Cumnor Lodge in Barkshire).
IF these views were well donn, they would make a glorious volume by
itselfe, and like enough it might take well in the world. It were an
inconsiderable expence (charge) to these persons of qualitie, and it
would remaine to posterity, when their families are gonn and their
buildings ruin'd by time or fire, as we have seen that stupendous
fabrick of Paul's Church, not a stone left on a stone, and lives now
onely in Mr. Hollar's Etchings in Sir William Dugdale's History of
Paul's. I am not displeased with this thought as a desideratum, but I
doe never expect to see it donn; so few men have the hearts to doe
publique good, to give 3, 4, or 5li. for a copper plate.
" Thus Poets like to Kings (by trust deceiv'd)
Give oftner what is heard of than receiv'd."
SIR WILLIAM DAVENANT to the Lady Olivia Porter;
"A New Yeares Gift.


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