boat upon the Thames, a strange bird (the like whereof the bargemen
had never seen) dropped a drop of blood, or blood-like, upon it; which
left a stain not to be wiped off. This bust was carved from a picture
of Sir Anthony Van Dyke's drawing: the sculptor found great fault with
the fore-head as most unfortunate. There was a seam in the middle of
his fore-head, (downwards) which is a very ill sign in Metoposcopie.

Colenel Sharington Talbot was at Nottingham, when King Charles I. did
set up his standard upon the top of the tower there. He told me, that
the first night, the wind blew it so, that it hung down almost
horizontal; which some did take to be an ill omen.

The day that the long Parliament began, 1641, the Sceptre fell out of
the figure of King Charles in wood, in Sir Thomas Trenchard's hall at
Wullich, in Dorset, as they were at dinner in the parlour: Justice
Hunt then dined there.

The picture of Arch-Bishop Laud, in his closet, fell down (the string
broke) the day of the sitting of that Parliament. This is mentioned in
Canterbury's doom by W. Prynne.

The psalms for the eleventh day of the month, are 56, 57, 58, &c. On
the eleventh day of one of the months in the summer time, the citizens
came tumultuously in great numbers in boats and barges over against
Whitehall, to shew they would take the Parliament's part. The psalms
aforesaid, both for morning and evening service, are as prophecies of
the troubles that did ensue.

When the high court of justice was voted in the parliament house, as
Berkenhead (the mace bearer) took up the mace to carry it before the
Speaker, the top of the mace fell off. This was avowed to me by an eye
witness then in the house.

The head of King Charles I's. staff did fall off at his trial: that is
commonly known.

The second lesson for the 30th of January in the calendar before the
common prayer, is concerning the trial of Christ: which, when Bishop
Duppa read, the King was displeased with him, thinking he had done it
of choice; but the Bishop cleared himself by the calendar, as is to be
seen.

King Charles II. was crowned at the very conjunction of the sun and
Mercury; Mercury being then in "Corde Solis". As the King was at
dinner in Westminster Hall, it thundered and lightened extremely. The
cannons and the thunder played together.

King Charles II. went by long sea to Portsmouth or Plymouth, or both;
an extraordinary storm arose, which carried him almost to France. Sir
Jonas Moor (who was then with his Majesty) gave me this account, and
said, that when they came to Portsmouth to refresh themselves, they
had not been there above half an hour, but the weather was calm, and
the sun shone: his Majesty put to sea again, and in a little time
they had the like tempestuous weather as before.

Not long before the death of King Charles II. a Sparrow-hawk escaped
from the perch, and pitched on one of the iron crowns of the white
tower, and entangling its string in the crown, hung by the heels and
died. Not long after, another hawk pitched on one of the crowns. From
Sir Edward Sherborne, Knight.

The Gloucester frigate cast away at the Lemanore, and most of the men
in it; the Duke of York escaping in a cock boat, anno 1682, May the
5th, on a Friday.

When King James II. was crowned, (according to the ancient custom, the
Peers go to the throne, and kiss the king) the Crown was almost kissed
off his head. An Earl did set it right; and as he came from the Abbey
to Westminster Hall, the Crown tottered extremely.

The canopy (of cloth of gold) carried over the head of King James II.
by the Wardens of the Cinque Ports, was torn by a puff of wind as he
came to Westminster Hull; it hung down very lamentably: I saw it.

When King James II. was crowned, a signal was given from Westminster
Abbey to the Tower, where it was Sir Edward Sherborne's post to stand
to give order for firing the cannons, and to hoist up the great flag
with the King's arms. It was a windy day, and the wind presently took
the flag half off, and carried it away into the Thames. From Sir
Edward Sherborne.

The top of his sceptre (Flower de Lys) did then fall.

Upon Saint Mark's Day, after the coronation of King James II. were
prepared stately fire works on the Thames: it hapened, that they took
fire all together, and it was so dreadful, that several spectators
leaped into the river, choosing rather to be drowned than burned. In a
yard by the Thames, was my Lord Powys's coach and horses; the horses
were so frightened by the fire works, that the coachman was not able
to stop them, but ran away over one, who with great difficulty
recovered.

When King James II. was at Salisbury, anno 1688, the Iron Crown upon
the turret of the council house, was blown off.- This has often been
confidently asserted by persons who were then living.

In February, March, and April, two ravens built their nests on the
weather cock of the high steeple at Bakewell in Derbyshire.

I did see Mr. Christopher Love beheaded on Tower Hill, in a delicate
clear day about half an hour after his head was struck off, the
clouds gathered blacker and blacker; and such terrible claps of
thunder came that I never heard greater.

'Tis reported, that the like happened after the execution of Alderman
Cornish, in Cheapside, October 23, 1685.

Anno 1643. As Major John Morgan of Wells, was marching with the King's
army into the west, he fell sick of a malignant fever at Salisbury,
and was brought dangerously ill to my father's at Broad-Chalk, where
he was lodged secretly in a garret. There came a sparrow to the
chamber window, which pecked the lead of a certain pannel only, and
only one side of the lead of the lozenge, and made one small hole in
it. He continued this pecking and biting the lead, during the whole
time of his sickness; (which was not less than a month) when the major
went away, the sparrow desisted, and came thither no more. Two of the
servants that attended the Major, and sober persons, declared this for
a certainty.

Sir Walter Long's (of Draycot in Wilts) widow, did make a solemn
promise to him on his death-bed, that she would not marry after his
decease, but not long after, one Sir --- Fox, a very beautiful young
gentleman, did win her love; so that notwithstanding her promise
aforesaid, she married him: she married at South-Wraxhall, where the
picture of Sir Walter hung over the parlour door, as it doth now at
Draycot. As Sir --Fox led his bride by the hand from the church,
(which is near to the house) into the parlour, the string of the
picture broke, and the picture fell on her shoulder, and cracked in
the fall. (It was painted on wood, as the fashion was in those days.)
This made her ladyship reflect on her promise, and drew some tears
from her eyes.*

*This story may be true in all its details, except the name of the
lady, who was a daughter of Sir W. Long; she married Somerset Fox,
Esq. See Sandford's Geneal. Hist, of the Kings of England, p. 344.

See Sir Walter Raleigh's history, book 4, chap. 2, sec. 7. The dogs of
the French army, the night before the battle of Novara, ran all to the
Swisses army: the next day, the Swisses obtained a glorious victory
of the French. Sir Walter Raleigh affirms it to be certainly true.

The last battle fought in the north of Ireland, between the
Protestants and the Papists, was in Glinsuly near Letterkenny in the
county of Donegall. Veneras, the Bishop of Clogher, was General of the
Irish army; and that of the Parliament army, Sir Charles Coot. They
pitched their tents on each side the river Suly, and the Papists
constantly persist in it to this very day, that the night before the
action,* a woman of uncommon stature, all in white, appearing to the
said Bishop, admonished him not to cross the river first, to assault
the enemy, but suffer them to do it, whereby he should obtain the
victory. That if the Irish took the water first to move towards the
English, they should be put to a total rout, which came to pass.
Ocahan, and Sir Henry O'Neal, who were both killed there, saw
severally the same apparition, and dissuaded the Bishop from giving
the first onset, but could not prevail upon him. In the mean time, I
find nothing in this revelation, that any common soldier might not
conclude without extraordinary means.

*So an apparition of a woman greater than ordinary, beckoned to
Julius Caesar to pass over the Rubicon, L. Flor. lib. 4. Satyres
appeared to Alexander when he besieged Tyrus; Alexander asked the
divines, what was the signification of it; they told him the meaning
is plain, {Greek Text: Sa Turos} (i.e.) Tyre is thine. Alexander took
the town. Q. Curtius.

Near the same place, a party of the Protestants had been surprized
sleeping by the Popish Irish, were it not for several wrens that just
wakened them by dancing and pecking on the drums as the enemy were
approaching. For this reason the wild Irish mortally hate these birds,
to this day, calling them the Devil's servants, and killing them
wherever they catch them; they teach their Children to thrust them
full of thorns: you will see sometimes on holidays, a whole parish
running like mad men from hedge to hedge a wren-hunting.

Anno 1679. After the discovery of the Popish plot, the penal laws were
put in execution against the Roman Catholics; so that, if they did not
receive the sacrament according to the church of England, in their
parish church, they were to be severely proceeded against according to
law: Mr. Ployden, to avoid the penalty, went to his parish church at
Lasham, near Alton, in Hampshire: when Mr. Laurence (the minister)
had put the chalice into Mr. Ployden's hand, the cup of it (wherein
the wine was) fell off. 'Tis true, it was out of order before; and he
had a tremor in his hand. The communion was stopt by this accident.
This was attested to me by two neighbouring ministers, as also
by several gentlemen of the neighbourhood.

When King James II. first entered Dublin, after his arrival from
France, 1689, one of the gentlemen that bore the mace before him,
stumbled without any rub in his way, or other visible occasion. The
mace fell out of his hands, and the little cross upon the crown
thereof stuck fast between two stones in the street. This is very well
known all over Ireland, and did much trouble King James himself, with
many of his chief attendants.

The first Moors that were expelled Spain, were in number five thousand
five hundred and fifty-five. They sailed from Denia, October 2, 1609.
H. Bleda. "Expulsion de Moriscos", p. 1000.


      DREAMS.


      {Greek Text: --'Onar kai Dios esi}. Homer Iliad A.

      DREAMS PROCEED FROM JOVE.

HE that has a mind to read of dreams, may peruse Cicero "de
Divinatione", Hier. Cardani "Somniorum Synesiorum", lib. 4, and
Moldinarius "de Insomniis", &c. I shall here mention but little out of
them, my purpose being chiefly to set down some remarkable and divine
dreams of some that I have had the honour to be intimately acquainted
with, persons worthy of belief.

Cicero "de Divinatione", lib. 1. "Hannibalem, Caslius scribit, cum
Columnam auream, quae esset in fano Junonis Laciniae, auferre vellet,
dubitaretque utrum ea solida esset, an extrinsecus inaurata,
perterebravisse; cumque solidam invenisset, statuissetque tollere:
secundum quietem visam esse ei Junonem praedicere, ne id faceret;
minarique, si id fecisset se curaturam, ut eum quoque oculum, quo bene
videret, amitteret; idque ab homine acuto non esse neglectum; itaque
ex eo auro quod exterebratum esset, buculam curasse faciendum, & eam
in summa columna collocavisse."

i. e.

Coelius writes, that Hannibal, when he had a mighty mind to take away a
gold pillar, that was in the Temple of Juno Lacinia, being in doubt
with himself, whether it was solid massive gold, or only gilt, or
thinly plated over on the out side, bored it through. When he had
found it to be solid, and fully designed to have it carried off; Juno
appeared to him in his sleep, and forewarned him against what he was
about, threatening him withal, that if he persisted and did it, she
would take care that he should lose the eye, that he saw perfectly
well with, as he had done the other.

The great man, it seems, was too wise to slight and neglect this
warning; nay, he even took care to have a ring made of the very gold,
that had been bored out of it, and placed it on the top of the pillar.

"--- Cum duo quidam Arcades familiares iter una, facerent, & Megaram
venissent, alterum ad cauponem divertisse; ad hospitem alterum. Qui,
ut coenati quiescerent, concubia nocte visum esse in somnis ei qui erat
in hospitio, ilium alterum orare ut subveniret, quod sibi a caupone
interitus pararetur; eum primo perterritum somnio surrexisse; deinde
cum se colligisset, idque visum pro nihilo habendum esse duxisset,
recubuisse; tum, ei dormienti eundem ilium visum esse rogare, ut
quoniam sibi vivo non subvenisset, mortem suam ne inultam esse
pateretur; se interfectum in plaustrum a caupone esse conjectum, &
supra stercus injectum; petere, ut mani ad portum adesset, priusquam
plaustrum ex oppido exiret. Hoc vero somnio commotum mano bubulco
presto ad portam fuisse, quaesisse ex eo, quid esset in plaustro;
ilium perterritum fugisse, mortuum erutum esse, cauponem re patefacta
poenas dedisse. Quid hoc somnio dici divinius potest ?" i. e.

As two certain Arcadians, intimate companions, were travelling
together, it so happened, that, when they came to Megara, one of them
went to an inn, and the other to a friend's house. Both had supped at
their respective places, and were gone to bed; when lo! he, that was
at his friend's house, dreamt, that his companion came to him, and
begged of him for Heaven's sake to assist him, for that the inn-keeper
had contrived a way to murder him: frightened at first out of his
sleep, he rose up; but soon afterward coming a little better to
himself, he thought, upon recollection, there was no heed to be given
to the vision, and went very quietly to bed again. But as soon as he
was got into his second sleep, the same vision repeated the visit, but
the form of his petition was quite altered. He beseeched him, that,
since he had not come to his assistance, while he was among the
living, he would not suffer his death, however, to go unrevenged. Told
him that as soon as he was murdered, he was tossed by the inn- keeper
into a waggon, and had a little straw thrown over his corpse. He
entreated him to be ready very early at the door before the waggon was
to go out of town. This dream truly disturbed him it seems very much,
and made him get up very early: he nicked the time, and met with the
waggoner just at the very door, and asked him what he had in his cart.
The fellow run away frightened and confounded. The dead body was
pulled out of it, and the whole matter coming plainly to light, the
inn-keeper suffered for the crime.--What is there that one can call
more divine than a dream like this ?"

"---Somnium de Simonide, qui, cum ignotum quendam projectum mortuum
vidisset, eumque humavisset, haberetque in animo navem conscendere,
moneri visus est, ne id faceret, ab eo, quem sepultum affecerat: si

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