The Digital Ark: Early Modern Collections of Curiosities in England and Scotland, 1580-1700

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John Leland (1503 - 1552)

Dictionary of National Biography entry: http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/16416?docPos=1 Linked print sources: as Author (in assoc. with a ms or print source) - Collectanea.
as Mentions or references - Ducatus Leodiensis; or the topography of the town and parish of Leedes and parts adjacent ...
 References in Documents:
Objects mentioned in correspondence
Mr. Dugdale to Dr. Browne [POSTHUMOUS WORKS, and Sloane MS 1911-13, f. 104.] London, 17th Nov. 1658. HONOURED SIR

Yours of the 10th instant came safe to my hands, with that learned discourse inclosed, concerning the word emunire, wherein I perceive your sense is the same with my good friends Mr. Bishe and Mr. Junius, (with both whome I have also consulted about it.) I have herewithall sent you one of the bones of that fish, which was taken up by Sir Robert Cotton, in digging a pond at the skirt of Conington Downe, desiring your opinion thereof and of what magnitude you think it was.

Mr. Ashmole presents his best service and thanks to you, for your kinde intention to send him a list of those books you have, which may be for his use.

That which you were told of my writing any thing of Norfolke was a meere story; for I never had any such thing in my thoughts, nor can I expect a life to accomplish it, if I should; or any encouragement considerable to the chardge and paynes of such an undertaking. This I mean as to the county, and not my Fenne History, which will extend thereinto. And as for Mr. Bishe, who is a greate admirer and honourer of you, and desires me to present his hearty service and thanks to you for that mention you have made of him in your learned discourse of Urnes. He says he hath no such 5 It is not in the Hydriotaphia, but the Garden of Cyrus, that Browne mentions "Upton de Studio Militari, et Johannes de Bado Aureo, cum Comm. Cl. et Doct. Bissæi -Hamper 386 MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. [1658. purpose at all, nor ever bad; but that his brother-in-law Mr. Godard (the recorder of Lynne) intends something of that towne, but whether or when to make it publique he knows not.

And now, sir, that you have been pleas'd to give me leave to be thus bold with you in interrupting your better studies, I shall crave leave to make a request or two more to you. First, that you will let me know where in Leland you finde that expression concerning such buriall of the Saxons, as you mention in your former discourse concerning those raysed heaps of earth, which you lately sent me; for all that I have seene extant of his in manuscript, is those volumes of his Collectanea and Itineraryes, now in the Bodleyan Library at Oxford, of which I have exact copies in the country. The next is, to entreat you to speake with one Mr. Haward (heir and executor to Mr. Haward lately deceased, who was an executor to Mr. Selden) who now lives in Norwich, as I am told, and was a sheritfe of that city the last yeare: and to desire a letter from him to Sir John Trevor, speedily to joyne with Justice Hales and the rest of Mr. Selden's executors, in opening the library in White Friars', for the sight of a manuscript of Landaffe, which may be usefull to me in those additions I intend to the second volume of the Monasticon, now in the presse; for Sir John Trevor tells me, that he cannot without expresse order from him, do it: the rest of the executors of Mr. Selden being very desirous to pleasure me therein. If you can get such a letter from him for Sir John Trevor, I pray you enclose it to me, and I will deliver it, for their are 3 keys besides.

And lastly, if at your leisure, through your vast reading, you can point me out what authors do speake of those improvements which have been made by banking and drayning in Italy, France, or any part of the Netherlands, you will do me a very high favour.

From Strabo and Herodotus I have what they say of Ægypt, and so likewise what is sayd by Natalis Comes of Note in the Posthumous Works. 7 William Heyward, or Howard.-Blomfield 1658.] MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. 387 Acarnania: but take your owne time for it, if at all you can attend it, whereby you will more oblige

Your most humble servant and honourer, William Dugdale. For my much honoured friend, Dr. Browne, &c.
Objects mentioned in correspondence
Dr. Browne to Mr. Dugdale. 8 [FROM THE ORIGINAL IN THE EDITOR's POSSESSION. check to see whether BL now has it.] Norwich, Dec. 6, 1658. Worthy Sir,

I make noe doubt you have receaued Mr. Howard's letter unto Sir John Trevor. Hee will be readie to doe you any seruice in that kind. I am glad your second booke of the Monasticon is at last in the presse. Here is in this citty a conuent of Black Friers, which is more entire than any in these parts of England. Mr. King tooke the draught of it when he was in Norwich, and Sir Thomas Pettus, Baronet, desired to have his name sett vnto it. I conceive it were not fitt in so generall a tract to omit it, though little can be sayd of it, only coniectur'd that it was founded by Sir John of Orpingham, or Erpingham, whose coat is all about the church and six-corner'd steeple. I receaued the bone of the fish, and shall giue you some account of it when I have compared it with another bone which is not by mee. As for Lelandus, his works are soe rare, that few private hands are masters of them, though hee left not a fewe; and therefore, that quotation of myne was at second hand. You may find it in Mr. Inego Jones' description of Stonehenge, pag. 27 having litle doubt of the truth of his quotation, because in that place hee hath the Latine and English, with a particular commendation 1 of the author and the tract quoted in the margin, and in the same author, quoted p. 16, the page is also mentioned; butt the title is short and obscure, and therefore I omitted it. 8 Not in Hamper's Correspondence of Dugdale. This letter bean the indorse in Dugdale's hand-writing--" Dec. 6, 1658, Dr. Browne's letter (not yet answered.)" 9 Qre: to ask the Docter whether ever he saw this draught.--MS. marginal Note by Dugdale in the Original. 388 MISCELLANEOUS CORRESPONDENCE. [1658. Leylande Assert. Art. which being compared with the subiect of page 25, may perhaps bee De Assertione Artkuri, which is not mentioned in the catalogue of his many workes, except it bee some head or chapter in his Antiq. Britannicis or de Viris illustribus. I am much satisfied in the truth thereof, because Camden hath expressions of the like sense in diuers places; and, as I think in Northamptonshire, and probably from Lelandus: for Lambert in his perambulation of Kent, speakes but some times of Lelandus, and then quoteth not his words, though it is probable hee was much beholden unto him having left a worke of his subject Itinerarium Cantii.

Sir, having some leasure last weeke, which is uncertaine with mee, I intended this day to send you some answer to your last querie of banking and draining by some instances and examples in the four parts of the earth, and some short account of the cawsie, butt diuersions into the country will make me defer it untill Friday next, soe that you may receive it on Mondaye.

Sir, I rest Your very well-wishing friend and servant, Thomas Browne. To my worthy friend Mr. Dugdale, at his chamber, in the Herald's Office, London, these.
Thoresby, Musaeum Thoresbyanum (1713) There is a Danish Spur of the same Length in the Bodleian Repository at Oxford; of which see Mr. Hearn's ingenious Discourse of Antiquities annexed to the first Vol. of Leland's Itinerary, p. 114.
Thoresby, Musaeum Thoresbyanum (1713) 1. A Transcript of Leland's Itinerary for Lancashire and Yorkeshire; from a Copy taken 1658, and courteously communicated to me, An. 1696, by his Grace my Lord Archbishop of Yorke. Note, the entire Itineraries of that noted Antiquary are since most accurately printed, with curious Notes and Additions, by Mr. Hearne at Oxford, in nine Volumes.
Thoresby, Musaeum Thoresbyanum (1713) Four of those from the noted Stunsfield Pavement near Oxford, concerning which the ingenious Mr. Hearne hath a learned and curious Dissertation, annexed to the 8th Vol. of Leland's Itinerary.
Thoresby, Musaeum Thoresbyanum (1713) That great Naturalist Dr. Lister distinguisheth the Roman Urns (Phil. Col. N° 4.) into three different Sorts, viz. 1. Such as are of a blewish Clay Colour, having a great Quantity of coarse Sand wrought in with the Clay: 2. Others of the same Colour, having either a very fine Sand mix'd with it, full of Mica, or Cat-Silver, or else made of a Clay naturally sandy: 3. Red Urns of fine Clay, with little or no Sand. These, as another celebrated Author rightly observes, are all of a very handsome Make and Contrivance, and are one of the many Instances that are at this Day extant of the Art of that People, of the great Exactness of their Genius, and Happiness of their Fancy. (Dr. Woodward's Letter to Sir Chr. Wren annexed to the 8th Vol. Of Leland's Itinerary, pag. 13.) Of the first Sort, here are Fragments of the Theca Nummaria, found full of Coins near Fleet in Lincolnshire, An. 1701, of which see Phil. Trans. N° 279.
Thoresby, Musaeum Thoresbyanum (1713) One of the Brass Instruments found near Bramham-moor, as the Servants of John Ellis, of Kidal, Esq; were plowing (An. 1709.) at a Place called Osmond thick; there were five or six of them of different Sizes, from little more than 3 to 4½ Inches in length, and from 1½ to 2½ in breadth; they are somewhat in the Form of a Wedge, as proceeding from a thin Edge, which after so many Ages is tolerably sharp to 1½ or two Inches at the thicker End, where they are hollowed to put upon a Shaft; each of them hath an Ear or Loop. Some suppose them to have been Arrow Heads, or Axes of the ancient Britains; others, of the Roman Catapultæ: I think they are as much too light for the latter, as they are too heavy for the former; and therefore take them rather to have been the Heads of Spears, or walking Staves of the civilized Britains; and though of different Form from those described by Speed (Hist. of Brit. cap. 6.) yet by the Loop in the Side we may better conceive how those Ornamental Labels were fastned than by the Pictures, as there exemplified. They are placed here amongst the Roman Antiquities in deference to the Judgment of the ingenious Mr. Hearne of Oxford, who hath bestowed an elaborate Dissertation upon them, which hath had two Editions, (Phil. Trans N° 322, and in the first Vol. of Leland's Itinerary.) He supposes them to have been Roman Chissels, used to cut the Stones and other Materials, that were judged serviceable for building the Camps.
Thoresby, Musaeum Thoresbyanum (1713) Amongst the British Curiosities, I had formerly placed the Securis Lapidea, or rather Marmorea, sent me by Stephen Tempest, of Broughton, Esq; but the ingenious Mr. Hearne of Oxford hath bestowed a learned Dissertation upon it (premised to the 4th Vol. of Leland's Itinerary) to prove it rather Danish. It was found, An 1675, in an Urn ten Inches Diameter, and therewith a Brass Lance, and a Hone to sharpen it. The Mallet's Head is the most curious and entire that ever I beheld; it is of a speckled Marble polished, six Inches in Length, 3½ broad, and seven in Circumference, even in the Middle, where what is wanting in Breadth is made up in the Thickness, and is very artificially done, as if it had been a Roman Improvement of the British Work. It is wrought to an Edge at one End, though each of them is blunted with Use, and a sloping at the Side, in the Forms expressed in the Table adjoining, whereof one represents the full Side of it, the other the Edge, that the Eye for the Manubrium to pass thro' (which is near an Inch and Quarter Diameter) may be better discerned. I suppose it to have been a Mallet wherewith the Priests slew the Sacrifices, and fancied it to be the ancient British, rather than any later Inhabitants of this Island. It being reasonable to suppose, that the Aborigines in each Country, before the use of Metals was common, would make Use of Stones, Flints, Shells, Bones, &c. formed in the best Manner they could, to the various Uses they designed them. And it is usual for such Instruments or Utensils gratefully to retain even in different Languages, the Memory of the first Matter they were made of, as Cochleare a Spoon (though of Metal) because Cockle-shells were first used to the Purpose. So Candle-stick, or Staff, (for it is canδŗτæꝻ in the Saxon Monuments;) so likewise Hookes (Amos IV. 2.) in the Original is Thorns, with which they used to pierce Fish, before they had the Skill of applying Iron to that Use. And to give but one Instance more, the Sharp Knives (Joshua V. 2.) used in Circumcision, are by our Saxon Ancestors (who received their very Names from their Weapon Sex or Seax, culter, gladius) called ŗτœnene ŗæx (Mr. Thwait's Saxon Hept.) which in the Original is Knives of Flint, which is more agreeable both to those Parts of the World, where there was but little Iron, and to that Operation, wherein the Jewish Doctors say that sharp Flints or Stones were used. So, as to the Matter in Hand, the ancient Britains (with whom Iron was so rare, that Cæsar tells us, they used it for Money) made their Arrow Heads of Flint, and probably their Mallets for Sacrifice of Stone or Marble. But because I cannot easily allow my self to dissent from the learned Mr. Hearne, who argues that the Position of the Urn with the Mouth downwards is peculiarly used by the Danes, and that a Mallet instead of a Scepter was put into the Hand of their famous God Thor, "who was supposed to be a God of much greater Power than the rest, and therefore he was most esteemed, and the Honours paid him were more considerable than those paid to any besides. His Dominion was believed to be Universal, and the other Gods were look'd upon as subject to him. Nothing of Moment was undertaken or transacted without Addresses and Supplications first made to him. And it was reckoned a very great Honour to have Instruments made in such a Form as put them in Mind of him." Thus far I heartily concur with that learned and ingenious Author, and believe that their Sacrificing Mallets might be made in that Form, rather than any other Instruments, with respect to that great reputed Deity; and I do suppose this to be one of them, rather than a Battle-Axe belonging to a Soldier of inferiour Quality; for seeing their other Military Instruments in Metal are frequently met with, why should not also their Battle-Axes of Stone, the common Soldiers being the most numerous Part of an Army, it is therefore much more probable in my slender Opinion that it belonged to their Sacrifices before their Conversion to the Christian Faith.