John Aubrey

"This Earle of Oxford, making of his low obeisance to Queen Elizabeth, happened to let a Fart, at which he was so abashed and ashamed that he went to Travell, 7 yeares. On his returne the Queen welcome…"

"His complexion exceeding faire – he was so faire that they called him the Lady of Christ's College."

"There is to some men a great Lechery in Lying, and imposing on the understandings of beleeving people."

"His Comoedies will remaine witt as long as the English tongue is understood, for that he handles mores hominum . Now our present writers reflect so much on particular persons and coxcombeities that tw…"

"Sir Walter, being strangely supprized and putt out of his countenance at so great a Table, gives his son a damned blow over the face; his son, as rude as he was, would not strike his father, but strik…"

"His insatiable passion for singular odds and ends had a meaning in it; he was groping towards a scientific ordering of phenomena; but the twilight of his age was too confusing, and he could rarely dis…"

"His manner of Studie was thus…About every three houres his man was to bring him a roll and a pott of Ale to refocillate his wasted spirits: so he studied and dranke, and munched some bread; and this m…"

"His father was a Butcher, and I have been told heretofore by some of the neighbours, that when he was a boy he exercised his father's Trade, but when he kill'd a Calfe he would doe it in high style, a…"