*

an epitome of the British affairs, dedicating them both to Robert prior of Winchester. His history I could never see but at the second hand, as cited by others, the rarity thereof making it no piece for the shop of a stationer, but a property for a public library. His death was about the year 1200.

GODWIN of SALISBURY, chanter of that church; and (whatever was his skill in music) following the precept of St. Paul, he "made melody in his heart,"+ having his mind much given to meditation, which is the chewing of the cud of the food of the soul, turning it into clean and wholesome nourishment. He wrote (beside other works) a book of "Meditations," dedicating the same to one Ramulia, or rather Ranilda, "an anchoress, and most incomparable woman," saith my author; the more remarkable to me, because this is the first and last mention I find of her memory. This Godwin flourished about the year of our Lord 1256.

JOHN of WILTON, senior, was bred an Augustinian friar; and, after he had stored himself with home-bred learning, went over into France, and studied at Paris. Here he became a subtle disputant, insomuch that John Baconthorp (that staple schoolman) not only highly praiseth him, but also useth his authority in his arguments. I meet not with any man in that age better stocked with sermons on all occasions, having written his Summer, his Winter, his Lent, his Holiday Sermons.§ He flourished under king Edward the Second, anno 1310.

JOHN of WILTON, junior, was bred a Benedictine monk in Westminster. He was elegant in the Latin tongue" præter ejus ætatis sortem." He wrote "Metrical Meditations," in imitation of Saint Bernard; and one book, highly prized by many, intituled "Horologium Sapientiæ," English it as you please," the Clock or Dial of Wisdom." He was a great allegory monk, and great his dexterity in such figurative conceits. He flourished, some fifty years after his namesake, under king Edward the Third.

Reader, I confess there be eleven Wiltons in England;¶ and therefore will not absolutely avouch the nativities of these two Johns in this county. However, because Wilton, which denominateth this shire, is the best and biggest amongst the towns so called, I presume them placed here with the most probability.

JOHN CHYLMARK was born at that village, well known in

* Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. iii. num. 28.

+ Ephesians, v. 19.

§ Idem, Cent. iv. num. 94.

See Villare Anglicanum.

Bale, ubi supra, Cent. iv. num. 20.
Idem, Cent. vi. num. 17.

Dunworth Hundred; and bred fellow of Merton College in Oxford. He was a diligent searcher into the mysteries of Nature, an acute philosopher and disputant; but most remarkable was his skill in mathematics, being accounted the Archimedes of that age, having written many tractates in that faculty,* which carry with them a very good regard at this day. He flourished, under king Richard the Second, anno 1390.

THOMAS OF WILTON, D.D. was, from his learning and abilities, made first chancellor, and then dean, of St. Paul's in London. In his time (in the reign of king Edward the Fourth) happened a tough contest betwixt the prelates and the friars; the latter pretending to poverty, and taxing the bishops for their pomp and plenty. Our Wilton politicly opposed the friars. Now as the only way to withdraw Hannibal from his invasive war in Italy, was by recalling him to defend his own country near Carthage; so Wilton wisely wrought a diversion, putting the friars, from accusing the bishops, to excuse themselves.

For, although an old gown, a tattered cowl, a shirt of hair, a girdle of hemp, a pair of beads, a plain crucifix, and picture of some saint, passed for all the wealth and wardrobe of a friar; yet, by hearing feminine confessions (wherewith Wilton twitteth them), and abusing the key of absolution, they opened the coffers of all the treasure in the land. He wrote also a smart book on this subject, "An validi Mendicantes sint in statu Perfectionis?" (Whether friars in health, and begging, be in the state of Perfection?) The anti-friarists maintaining, that such were rogues by the laws of God and man, and fitter for the house of correction than state of perfection.

This dean Wilton flourished anno Domini 1460.

SINCE THE REFORMATION.

WILLIAM HOREMAN was (saith my author‡) patriâ Sarisburiensi, which in the strictest sense may be rendered, " born in the city;" in the largest, "born in the diocese of Salisbury ;" and in the middle sense (which I most embrace) "born in Wiltshire," the county wherein Salisbury is situated. He was bred (saith Bale) first in Eton, then in King's College in Cambridge; both which I do not deny, though probably not of the foundation, his name not appearing in the exact "Catalogue" thereof.§ Returning to Eton, he was made vice-provost thereof, where he spent the remainder of his days. He was one of the most general scholars of his age, as may appear by the diffusiveness of his learning, and books written in all faculties:-Grammar

Rale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. vi. num. 99.

+ Idem, Cent. viii. num. 32.

§ Collected in Manuscript by Mr. Hatcher.

Idem, num. 70.

of Orthography: Poetry, of the Quantities of Penultime Syllables: History, a Chronicle, with a comment on some, and index of most Chronicles: Controversial Divinity, a Comment on Gabriel Biel: Case, Divinity on the Divorce of king Henry the Eighth Husbandry, a Comment on Cato, Varro, Columella, Palladius, de Re Rusticâ.

Other books he left unfinished, for which Bale sends forth a sorrowful sigh, with a proh dolor! Which his passion is proof enough for me to place this Horeman on this side of the line of Reformation. He died April 12, 1535; and lieth buried in the chapel of Eton.

MASTERS OF MUSIC.

WILLIAM LAWES, son of Thomas Lawes, a vicar choral of the church of Salisbury, was bred in the Close of that city, being from his childhood inclined to music. Edward earl of Hertford obtained him from his father, and bred him at his own cost in that faculty, under his master Giovanni Coperario, an Italian, and most exquisite musician. Yet may it be said that the scholar in time did equal, yea exceed, his master.

He afterwards was of the private music to king Charles; and was respected and beloved of all such persons who cast any looks towards virtue and honour. Besides his fancies of the three, four, five, and six parts to viol and organ, he made above thirty several sorts of music for voices and instruments; neither was there any instrument then in use but he composed to it so aptly as if he had only studied that.

In these distracted times his loyalty engaged him in the war for his lord and master; and though he was by general Gerrard made a commissary, on design to secure him (such officers being commonly shot-free by their place, as not exposed to danger), yet such the activity of his spirit, he disclaimed the covert of his office, and betrayed thereunto by his own adventurousness, was casually shot at the siege of Chester, the same time when the lord Bernard Stuart lost his life.

Nor was the king's soul so engrossed with grief for the death of so near a kinsman, and noble a lord, but that, hearing of the death of his dear servant William Lawes, he had a particular mourning for him when dead, whom he loved when living, and commonly called "the Father of Music." I leave the rest of his worth to be expressed by his own works of composures of Psalms done jointly by him and his brother, Master Henry Lawes,* betwixt which two no difference, either in eminency, affection, or otherwise considerable, save that the one is deceased, and the other still surviving. Master William Lawes died in September 1645.

The friend of Milton, who wrote "Comus" at his suggestion; he died in 1662.-ED.

BENEFACTORS-MEMORABLE PERSONS.

337

BENEFACTORS TO THE PUBLIC.

T. STUMPS, of the town of Malmsbury* in this county, was in his age one of the most eminent clothiers in England; of whom there passeth a story, told with some variation of circumstances, but generally to this purpose.

King Henry the Eighth, hunting near Malmsbury in Bredon Forest, came with all his court train, unexpected, to dine with this clothier. But great housekeepers are as seldom surprised with guests as vigilant captains with enemies. Stumps commands his little army of workmen, which he fed daily in his house, to fast one meal until night (which they might easily do without endangering their health), and with the same provision gave the king and his court train (though not so delicious and various) most wholesome and plentiful entertain

ment.

But more authentic is what I read in the great antiquary,† speaking of the plucking down of Malmsbury monastery :The very Minster itself should have sped no better than the rest, but been demolished, had not T. Stumps, a wealthy clothier, by much suit, but with a greater sum of money, redeemed and bought it for the townsmen his neighbours, by whom it was converted to a parish church, and for a great part is yet standing at this day."

I find one William Stumps, gentleman, who, in the oneand-thirtieth year of king Henry the Eighth, bought of him the domains of Malmsbury abbey for fifteen hundred pounds two shillings and a halfpenny. Now how he was related to this T. Stumps, whether son or father, is to me unknown. It will not be a sin for me to wish more branches from such Stumps, who by their bounty may preserve the monuments of antiquity from destruction.

MEMORABLE PERSONS.

SUTTON, of SALISBURY.-Tradition and an old pamphlet, (newly vamped with Additions) make him a great clothier, entertaining king Henry the First, and bequeathing at his death one hundred pounds to the weavers of Salisbury, with many other benefactions. I dare not utterly deny such a person, and his bountiful gifts; but am assured that he is notoriously mistimed, seeing Salisbury had scarce a stone laid therein one hundred years after king Henry the First; and as for Old Sarum, that age knew nothing of clothing, as we have proved before. Thus these mongrel pamphlets (part true, part false) do most Snakes are less dangerous than lampreys, seeing

mischief.

⚫ I durst venture no farther, finding no more of his name in Mr. Camden.-F. Camden's Britannia, in Wiltshire.

I perused the original in the Remembrancer's (or Sir Thomas Fanshaw's) Office, C. vii. Par. rot. 147.-F.

none will feed on what is known to be poison. But these books are most pernicious, where truth and falsehoods are blended together; and such a medley-cloth is the tale-story of this clothier.

MICHEL, born at ...... in this county, was under-sheriff to Sir Anthony Hungarford (a worthy knight) anno 1558, in the last year of queen Mary.

Of this master Michel I find this character, "A right and a perfect godly man."+

Under-sheriffs generally are complained of as over-crafty (to say no worse of them); but it seems hereby the place doth not spoil the person, but the person the place. When the writ de comburendis hæreticis, for the execution of Richard White and John Hunt (of whom formerly†t), was brought to Mr. Michel, instead of burning them he burnt the writ; and before the same could be renewed, doctor Geffray (the bloody chancellor of Salisbury who procured it) and queen Mary were both dead, to the miraculous preservation of God's servants.

Sir JAMES vicar choral (as I conceive) of the church of Salisbury in the reign of king Edward the Sixth, was wholly addicted to the study of chemistry. Now as Socrates himself wrote nothing, whilst Plato his scholar praised him to purpose; so, whilst the pen of Sir James was silent of its own worth, Thomas Charnock his scholar (whom he made inheritor of his art) thus chants in his commendation:‡

"I could find never man but one,

Which could teach me the secrets of our Stone;
And that was a priest in the Close of Salisbury,
God rest his soul in Heaven full merrily."

This Sir James pretended that he had all his skill, not by learning but inspiration, which I list not to disprove. He was alive anno 1555, but died about the beginning of queen Elizabeth.

LORD MAYORS.

Sir Nicholas Lambert, son of Edward Lambert, of Wilton, Grocer, 1531.

NAMES OF THE GENTRY OF THIS COUNTY,

RETURNED BY THE COMMISSIONERS IN THE TWELFTH YEAR OF HENRY THE SIXTH, 1433.

R. Bishop of Salisbury, and Walter Hungarford, knight;-Robert Andrew, and Robert Long, (knights for the shire);-Commissioners to receive the oaths.

Rob. Hungarford, mil.

Fox's Acts and Monuments, p. 2655.
In his Enigma Alchimiæ.

Edm. Hungarford, mil.

† See p. 322.