perhaps longer. On the south down of the farm of Broad-Chalk, is a
little barrow, called Gawen's Barrow (which must be before
ecclesiastical canons were constituted; for since, burials are only
in consecrated ground). King Edgar gave the manor and farm of Broad-
Chalk to the nuns of Wilton-Abby, which is 900 years ago.

Mr. Thynne, in his explanation of the hard words in Chaucer, writes
thus, Gawen, fol. 23, p. 1. This Gawyn was sisters son to Arthur the
Great, King of the Britains, a famous man in war, and in all manner
of civility; as in the acts of the Britains we may read. In the year
1082, in a province of Wales, called Rose, was his sepulchre found.
Chaucer, in the Squire's Tale.

      This straunger night that came thus sodenly
      All armed, save his head, full royally
      Salued the King, and Queen, and Lordes all
      By order as they sitten in the Hall
      With so high Reverence and Obeisaunce
      As well in Speech as in Countenaunce,
      That Gawain with his old Courtesie,
      Though he came again out of Fairie,
      He could him not amend of no word.

Sir William Button of Tockenham, Baronet, (the father) told me that
his ancestors had the lease of Alton-farm (400. per annum) in Wilts,
(which anciently belonged to Hyde-Abby juxta Winton) four hundred
years. Sir William's lease expired about 1652, and so fell into the
hands of the Earl of Pembroke.

Clavel, of Smedmore, in the Isle of Purbec, in the county of Dorset,
was in that place before the conquest, as appears by Dooms-day book.
The like is said of Hampden, of Hampden in Bucks: their pedigree says,
that one of that family had the conduct of that county in two
invasions of the Danes. Also Pen of Pen, in that county, was before
the conquest, as by Dooms-day book.

Contrariwise, there are several places unlucky to their possessors,
e. g. Charter-house, on Mendip in Somersetshire, never passed yet to
the third generation. The manor of Butleigh near Glastonbury, never
went yet to the third generation.

Bletchington, in Oxfordshire, continued in the family of the Panures,
for about 300 years: it was alienated by --- Panure, to Sir John
Lenthal, about the year 1630, who sold it again to Sir Thomas Coghill,
about 1635. He sold it to William Lewis, Esq. whose relict made it
over to the Duke of Richmond and Lenox, about the year 166-. His Grace
sold it to Arthur, Earl of Anglesey, about the year 166-.

Fatality of proper names of Princes, e. g. Augustus, the first Roman
Emperor, and Augustulus the last. Constantine, the first Grecian
Emperor, and Constantine the last. The like is observed of the first
and last Mexican Emperors. And the Turks have a prophesy that the last
Emperor will be a Mahomet.

John hath been an unfortunate name to Kings. All the second Kings
since the conquest have been unfortunate.

London-Derry was the first town in Ireland that declared for the
Parliament against King Charles I. and for the Prince of Orange
against King James II. It was closely besieged both times without
effect. The King's party were once masters of all the kingdom, except
London-Derry and Dublin, and King James had all in his power but
London-Derry and Inniskilling. One Taylor, a minister, was as famous
for his martial feats in the first siege, as Walker in the last.

'Tis certain, that there are some houses unlucky to their inhabitants,
which the reverend and pious Dr. Nepier could acknowledge. See Tobit,
chap. 3, v. 8. "That she had been married to seven husbands, whom
Asmodasus, the evil spirit, had killed, before they had lain with her."

The Fleece-tavern, in Covent-garden, (in York-street) was very
unfortunate for Homicides:* there have been several killed, three in
my time. It is now (1692) a private house.

"Clifton the master of the house, hanged himself, having perjured
himself." MS. Note in a copy of the Miscellanies in the Library of the
Royal Society.

A handsome brick house on the south side of Clerkenwell church-yard
had been so unlucky for at least forty years, that it was seldom
tenanted; and at last, no body would adventure to take it. Also a
handsome house in Holborn, that looked towards the fields; the tenants
of it did not prosper, several, about six.

At the sign of--- over against Northumberland house, near Charing-
Cross, died the Lady Baynton, (eldest daughter of Sir John Danvers of
Dansey.) Some years after in the same house, died my Lady Hobbey (her
sister) of the small-pox, and about twenty years after, died their
nephew Henry Danvers, Esq. of the small-pox, aged twenty-one, wanting
two weeks. He was nephew and heir to the Right Honourable Henry
Danvers, Earl of Danby.

Edmund Wild, Esq. hath had more Deodands from his manor of Totham in
Essex, than from all his estate besides: two mischiefs happened in
one ground there. Disinheriting the eldest son is forbid in the holy
scripture, and estates disinherited are observed to be unfortunate;
of which one might make a large catalogue. See Dr. Saunderson's
Sermon, where he discourses of this subject.

      **Periodical Small-Poxes.

The small-pox is usually in all great towns:* but it is observed at
Taunton in Somersetshire, and at Sherborne in Dorsetshire, that at one
of them at every seventh year, and at the other at every ninth year
comes a small-pox, which the physicians cannot master, e. g.

* This account, I had from Mr. Thomas Ax.

Small-pox in Sherborne ** during the year 1626.

And during the year 1634.

>From Michaelmas 1642, to Mich. 1643.

>From Michaelmas 1649, to Mich. 1650.

>From Michaelmas 1657, to Midi. 1658.

In the year 1667, from Jan. to Sept. 1667.

Mr. Ax promised me to enquire the years it happened there after
1670, and 1680; but death prevented him.

** Extracted out of the register-book.

Small-pox in Taunton all the year 1658.*

Likewise in the year 1670.

Again in the year 1677.

Again very mortal in the year 1684.

* Out of the register-book.

Mr. Ax also promised me to enquire at Taunton the years it happened
there after 1660.

It were to be wished that more such observations were made in other
great towns.

Platerus makes the like observations in the second book of his
Practice, p. 323. He practised at Basil, fifty six years, and did
observe, that every tenth year they died of the plague there.

See Captain J. Graunt's observations on the bills of mortality at
London, (indeed written by Sir William Petty, which in a late
transaction he confessed) for the periodical plagues at London, which
(as I remember) are every twenty-fifth year.


      OSTENTA; OR, PORTENTS.


"HOW it comes to pass, I know not;* but by ancient and modern example
it is evident, that no great accident befalls a  city or province, but
it is presaged by divination, or prodigy, or astrology, or some way or
other. I shall here set down a few instances."

* Discourses of Nicholas Machiavel, book 1. Chap 56.

A Rainbow appeared about the sun before the battle of Pharsalia. See.
Appian, and Mr. T. May's 5th book of his Continuation of Lucan.

" Ex Chronico Saxonico, p. 112, Anno 1104, fuit primus Pentecostes
dies Nonis Junii, & die Martis sequnte, conjuncti sunt quatuor Circuli
circa Solem, aibi coloris, & quisque sub alio collocatus, quasi picti
essent.  Omnes qui videbant obstupuerunt, propterea quod nunquam ante
tales meminerant. Post haec facta est Pax inter Comitem, Robertum de
Normannia, & Robertum de Boeloesme i, e."

In the year 1104, on the first day of Pentecost, the sixth of June,
and on the day following being Tuesday, four circles of a white
colour, were seen to roll in conjunction round the sun, each under the
other regularly placed, as if they had been drawn by the hand of a
painter. All who beheld it were struck with astonishment, because they
could not learn that any such spectacles had ever happened in the
memory of man. After these things it is remarkable, that a peace was
immediately set on foot, and concluded between Robert, Earl of
Normandy, and Robert de Baelaesme.

The Duke of York (afterwards Edward IV.) met with his enemies near to
Mortimer's Cross, on Candlemas day in the morning, at which time the
Sun (as some write) appeared to him like three Suns, and suddenly
joined altogether in one, and that upon the sight thereof, he took
such courage, that he fiercely set on his enemies, and them shortly
discomfited: for which cause, men imagined that he gave Sun in his
full brightness for his cognisance or badge. Halle, F. 183, b. 4.

Our Chronicles tell us, that Anno Secundo Reginae Mariae, 15th of
February, two suns appeared, and a rainbow reversed: see the bow
turned downwards, and the two ends standing upwards, before the
coining in of King Philip.

The phaenomenon, fig. 1, was seen at Broad-Chalk in Wiltshire, on the
first day of May, 1647. It continued from about eleven o'clock
(or before) till twelve. It was a very clear day; but few did take
notice of it, because it was so near the sun-beams. My mother happened
to espy it, going to see what o'clock it was by an horizontal dial;
and then all the servants saw it. Upon the like occasion, Mr. J.
Sloper, B.D. vicar there, saw it, and all his family; and the servants
of Sir George Vaughan, (then of Falston) who were hunting on the downs,
saw it. The circles were of rainbow colour; the two filots, which cross
the greater circle, (I presume they were segments of a third circle)
were of a pale colour. The sun was within the intersections of the
circles.

The next remarkable thing that followed was, that on the third of June
following;* Cornet Joyce carried King Charles I. prisoner from
Holdenby to the Isle of Wight. The Isle of Wight lieth directly from
Broad-Chalk, at the 10 o'clock point.

* See Sir W. Dugdale's hist. of the Civil Wars.

The phaenomenon, fig. 2, was seen in the north side of the church-yard
of Bishop-Lavington in Wiltshire, about  the latter end of September
1688, about three o'clock in the afternoon. This was more than a
semicircle. B. B. two balls of light. They were about eleven degrees
above the Horizon by the quadrant; observed by Mr. Robert Blea, one of
the Earl of Abingdon's gentlemen.

Cicero de Natura Deorum, lib. 2. "Multa praeterea Ostentis, multa ex
eis admonemur, multisque rebus aliis, quas diuturnus usus ita notarit,
ut artem Divinationis efficeret". i. e.

Besides, we learn a world of things from these Portents and Prodigies,
and many are the warnings and admonitions we receive from them, and
not only from them indeed, but from a number of extraordinary
accidents, upon which daily use and constant observation has fixed
such marks, that from thence the whole art of divination has been
compounded.


      OMENS.


BEFORE the battle at Philippi began, two eagles fought in the air
between the two armies: both the armies stood still and beheld them,
and the army was beaten that was under the vanquished eagle.
See Appian's Hist. part 2, lib. 4, g. 2.

It is worthy of notice, that, at the time the cities of Jerusalem and
Antioch were taken from the Pagans, the Pope that then was, was called
Urban, and the Patriarch of Jerusalem was called Eraclius, and the
Roman Emperor was called Frederick; in like manner when Jerusalem was
taken from the Christians by the siege of Saladin, the Pope was called
Urban; the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Eraclius; and the Emperor,
Frederick: and it is remarkable, that fourscore and seven years
passed between these two events. Hoveden, f. 363.

Mathew Parker, seventieth Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, in the seventieth
year of his age, feasted Queen Elizabeth on her birth day, 1559, in
his palace at Canterbury. Parker. Vitae, 556.

It is a matter of notable consideration, says a Spanish historian,
that the royal throne of the Morish Kings of Granada, began and ended
in the times of the Fernandos of Castille: beginning in the time of
Saint Fernando, the third of that name, and ending in that of the
Catholic King, Don Fernando the fifth, his successor in the ninth
descent. In the same manner, it is observable that the first Morish
King was called Mahomad, and the last had the same name of Mahomad:
which resembles what passed in the empire of Constantinople, where the
first and last Emperors were called Constantines.
Garibay, 1. 40, c. 43.

The same author mentions it as an extraordinary circumstance that, at
one time lived in Castille, Arragon, and Portugal, three Kings called
Pedros, and whose fathers were named Alonsos, who were also Kings at
the same time. L. 14, c. 35.

While Edward, Duke of York,* was declaring his title, in the Chamber
of the Peers, there happened a strange chance, in the very same time,
amongst the Commons in the nether house, then there assembled: for a
Crown, which did hang in the middle of the same, to garnish a branch
to set lights upon, without touch of any creature, or rigor of wind,
suddenly fell down, and at the same time also, fell down the Crown,
which stood on the top of the Castle of Dover: as a sign and
prognostication, that the Crown of the realm should be divided and
changed from one line to another. Halle's Chronicle, H. 6. F. 181.

* Father of Edward IV.

Anno 1506. Through great tempest of wind in January, Philip, King of
Castille and his wife, were weather-driven and landed at Falmouth.
This tempest blew down the Eagle of Brass from the spire of St. Paul's
church in London, and in the falling, the same eagle broke and
battered the black Eagle* which hung for a sign in St. Paul's Church-
yard. Stow's Annals, 484.

* The black Eagle is the cognizance of the house of Austria,
of which Philip was head.

The silver cross that was wont to be carried before Cardinal Wolsey,
fell out of its socket, and was like to have knocked out the brains of
one of the Bishop's servants. A very little while after, came in a
messenger, and arrested the Cardinal, before he could get out of the
house. See Stow's Chronicle.

'Tis commonly reported, that before an heir of the Cliftons, of
Clifton in Nottinghamshire, dies, that a Sturgeon is taken in the
river Trent, by that place.

Thomas Flud, Esq. in Kent, told me that it is an old observation which
was pressed earnestly to King James I. that he should not remove the
Queen of Scots body from Northamptonshire, where she was beheaded and
interred: for that it always bodes ill to the family when bodies are
removed from their graves. For some of the family will die shortly
after, as did Prince Henry, and I think Queen Ann.

A little before the death of Oliver, the Protector, a Whale came into
the river Thames, and was taken at Greenwich, --- feet long. 'Tis said
Oliver was troubled at it.

When I was a freshman at Oxford, 1642, I was wont to go to Christ
Church, to see King Charles I. at supper; where I once heard him say,
" That as he was hawking in Scotland, he rode into the quarry, and
found the covey of partridges falling upon the hawk; and I do remember
this expression further, viz. and I will swear upon the book 'tis
true." When I came to my chamber, I told this story to my tutor; said
he, that covey was London.

The bust of King Charles I. carved by Bernini, as it was brought in a

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