they would make a glorious volume by itselfe, and like enough it might
take well in the world. It were an inconsiderable expence to these
persons of qualitie, and it would remaine to posterity when their
families are gonn and their buildings ruined by time or fire, as we
have seen that stupendous fabric of Paul's Church, not a stone left on
a stone, and lives now only in Mr. Hollar's Etchings in Sir William
Dugdale's History of Paul's. I am not displeased with this thought as
a desideratum, but I doe never expect to see it donn; so few men have
the hearts to doe public good to give 4 or 5 pounds for a copper-plate."
p. 126.)

With regard to the history of the work now first published, it may be
stated that it was the author's first literary essay; being commenced
in 1656, and evidently taken up from time to time, and pursued "con
amore". In 1675 it was submitted to the Royal Society, when, as Aubrey
observed in a letter to Anthony á Wood, it "gave them two or three
dayes entertainment which they were pleased to like." Dr. Plot
declined to prepare it for the press, and in December 1684 strongly
urged the author to "finish and publish it" himself; he accordingly
proceeded to arrange its contents, and in the month of June following
(in the sixtieth year of his age) wrote the Preface, describing its
origin and progress. He states elsewhere that on the 21st of April
1686, he "finished the last chapter," and in the same year he had his
portrait painted by "Mr. David Loggan, the graver," expressly to be
engraved for the intended publication.

On the 18th of August 1686 he wrote the following Will: " Whereas I,
John Aubrey, R.S.S., doe intend shortly to take a journey into the
west; and reflecting on the fate that manuscripts use to have after
the death of the author, I have thought good to signify my last Will