It has long been customary to regard John Aubrey as a credulous and
gossiping narrator of anecdotes of doubtful authority, and as an
ignorant believer of the most absurd stories. This notion was grounded
chiefly upon the prejudiced testimony of Anthony a Wood, and on the
contents of the only work which Aubrey published during his lifetime,-
an amusing collection of "Miscellanies" relating to dreams,
apparitions, witchcraft, and similar subjects. Though his " History of
Surrey" was of a more creditable character, and elicited the approval
of Manning and Bray, the subsequent historians of that county, an
unfavourable opinion of Aubrey long continued to prevail. The
publication of his " Lives of Eminent Men" tended, however, to raise
him considerably in the estimation of discriminating critics; and in
my own " Memoir" of his personal and literary career, with its
accompanying analysis of his unpublished works, I endeavoured (and I
believe successfully) to vindicate his claims to a distinguished place
amongst the literati of his times.

That he has been unjustly stigmatised amongst his contemporaries as an
especial votary of superstition is obvious, even on a perusal of his
most objectionable work, the "Miscellanies" already mentioned, which
plainly shews that his more scientific contemporaries, including even
some of the most eminent names in our country's literary annals,
participated in the same delusions. It would be amusing to compare the
"Natural History of Wiltshire" with two similar works on
"Oxfordshire" and " Staffordshire," by Dr. Robert Plot, which procured
for their author a considerable reputation at the time of their
publication, and which still bear a favourable character amongst the
topographical works of the seventeenth century. It may be sufficient
here to state that the chapters in those publications on the Heavens
and Air, Waters, Earths, Stones, Formed stones, Plants, Beastes, Men