THE presence of this King being required to be with his army, whither
he was going, at Linlithgo, whilst he was at Vespers in the church,
there entered an old man, the hair of his head being red, inclining to
yellow, hanging down on his shoulders; his forehead sleek through
baldness, bare-headed, in a long coat of a russet colour, girt with a
linen girdle about his loins; in the rest of his aspect, he was very
venerable: he pressed through the crowd to come to the King: when he
came to him, he leaned upon the chair on which the King sat, with a
kind of rustic simplicity, and bespoke him thus; "0 King," said he, "I
am sent to warn thee, not to proceed in thy intended design;
and if thou neglectest this admonition, neither thou nor thy followers
shall prosper. I am also commanded to tell thee, that thou shouldest
not use the familiarity, intimacy, and council of women; which if thou
dost, it will redound to thy ignominy and loss." Having thus spoken,
he withdrew himself into the croud; and when the King inquired for
him, after prayers were ended, he could not be found which matter
seemed more strange, because none of those who stood next, and
observed him, as being desirous to put many questions to him, were
sensible how he disappeared; amongst them there was David Lindsey of
Mont, a man of approved worth and honesty, (and a great scholar too)
for in the whole course of his life, he abhorred lying; and if I had
not received this story from him as a certain truth, I had omitted it
as a romance of the vulgar.
On Tuesday, July 26, 1720, at a sale of the copies belonging to Mr.
Awnsham Churchill, of London, Book-seller, which were sold at the
Queen's Head tavern, in Pater Noster Row, there was among them a
printed copy of these Miscellanies, corrected for the press by Mr.
Aubrey, wherein were many very considerable alterations,
corrections, and additions, together with the following letter to Mr.
Churchill, written upon the first blank leaf, concerning the then
intended second edition.
MR. CHURCHILL,
THERE is a very pretty remark in the Athenian Mercury, concerning
Apparitions, which I would have inserted under this head, it is in
vol. 17, numb. 25. Tuesday, June 1695.
Mr. Dunton, at the Raven in Jewin-Street, will help you to this
Mercury, but yesterday he would not, his wife being newly departed.
J. A.
June 1, 1697.
**The Passage referred to by Mr. AUBREY, in his Letter
to Mr. CHURCHILL.*
* The passage referred to in this letter is now here inserted: the other
additions are incorporated in the text. Ed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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