seats of the Saxon Kings, as Mr. Camden himself hath observed.

Upon this account I believe this city was destroyed by the Saxons, and not by the Danes, and this happened, in my opinion, soon after the death of K. Arthur. For tho' this great King vanquished the Saxons in divers set battles, and kept them under as long as he lived, yet after his death they strangely prevailed, having always fresh supplies from their own country, and they got Silchester, and a great many other strong holds into their hands. And after they had made these conquests, for fear the Britains should recover them again, they quite demolished them, and built others in other places in a much slighter manner, which were more agreeable to their own rude and unpolished education. Yet tho' they destroyed the city of Silchester, they did not think fit entirely to demolish the walls, thinking that 'twas enough that by the rubbish, they had made the ground within equal to what of them remained, and that they could not afterwards be any better security to the Britains, than any other ground that is raised by art, and afterwards fortifyed with a trench, of which there is much in England. But leaving this point, I must now observe, that notwithstanding the vast quantities of rubbish buried within the walls, towards harvest, when the corn is almost ripe, it is not

difficult to discover the very traces of the streets of the city, by the different condition of the corn; that which stands where the streets were, quite decaying as it were, and the other continuing in good case. And the way for the Rampart on the west side quite to the west gate may be discovered by the same circumstances. As I was walking on the east side of the wall in the trench, just under the wall, I came to a tumulus or barrow, in one part of which as they were digging in the year 1713, they found the head, skull, and bones of a man, 9 feet in length, which they think there (as is usual with the vulgar on such occasions) to have been the bones of a gyant.

The Church of Silchester stands just within the wall, and by it is a farm-house (being the only house within the walls) and here it was that the East gate of the city was. I went into the church, but found only one piece of antiquity in it (excepting a little painted glass) and that is the figure of a lady lying at full length in the south wall, being the effigies, as I take it, of one of the Blueths, to whom the Manor of Silchester some years after the Conquest belonged. The Manor now belongs to the Lord Blesington, an Irish peer, being purchased by him of the Lady Draper, Relict of Sir Tho. Draper, Kt. and Bart.

And as there are no old inscriptions in the Church, so there is only one modern one, and

that is on a monument of white marble erected in the north wall of the chancel, and is as follows:

This Monument was erected by the Lord | and Lady Blesinton in Memory of their dear and, much beloved Grandson IAMES BUTLER Lord Viscount | IKERRIN, who died at London on the 19th day of July | 1712, aged 13 years and 7 months. | His Piety, Virtue, Goodness, and Knowledge in Religion | and Learning did infinitely exceed his years and rendered | his Quality the least part of his Character. He lyes

interred near this Stone, and was the only child of PIERCE Lord Viscount IKERRIN by ALICIA BOYLE | Lady Viscountess IKERRIN, both deceased and | buried in Ireland. |

Immodicis brevis est ætas, et sera senectus.

No. IV.

LIVES OF EMINENT MEN,

BY JOHN AUBREY.

Selected, and now first published, from the original Manuscripts in the ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM.

To my worthy friend Mr. ANTHONIE à WOOD,
Antiquarie of Oxford,

SR.

I HAVE, according to your desire, putt in writing these Minutes of LIVES tumultuarily, as they occur'd to my thoughts: or as occasionally I had information of them. They may easily be reduced into order at yr. leisure by numbring them with red figures, according to time and place, &c. 'Tis a taske that I never

thought to have undertaken till you imposed it upon me, sayeing that I was fitt for it, by reason of my generall acquaintance, having now not only lived above halfe a centurie of yeares in ye world, but have also been much tumbled up and downe in it; wch hath made me so well knowne. Besides the moderne advantage of coffee-howses in this great citie; before which men knew not how to be acquainted, but with their owne relations, or societies: I might add, that I come of a longævous race, by which meanes I have wiped some feathers off the wings of time for severall generations, wch does reach high. When I first began I did not thinke I could have drawne it out to so long a thread. I here lay downe to you (out of the conjunct* friendship between us) the trueth, the naked and plaine trueth, which is here exposed so bare that the very pudenda are not covered, and affords many passages that would raise a blush in a young virgin's cheeke. So that after your perusall, I must desire you to make a castration (as readers to Martial) and to

* Utrumque nostrûm incredibili modo
Consentit astrum,

HORAT. Lib, 2, Od. 17.

Nescio quod certe est, quod me tibi temperat,

astrum.

PERS. Satyr. v. v. 51,