Natural history -- England -- Wiltshire; Wiltshire (England) -- History
Now of late, sc. about 1680, in North Wiltshire, they have altered
their fashion from thinne cheeses about an inch thick, made so for the
sake of drying and quick sale, called at London Marleborough cheese, to
thick ones, as the Cheshire cheese. At Marleborough and Tedbury the
London cheese-mongers doe keep their factors for their trade. [At the
close of the last century Reading was the principal seat of the London
cheese factors, who visited the different farms in Wiltshire once in
each year to purchase the cheese, which was sent in waggons to Reading:
often by circuitous routes in order to save the tolls payable on
turnpike roads.—J. B.]
Maulting and Brewing. It is certain that Salisbury mault is better than
any other in the West; but they have no more skill there than
elsewhere. It is the water there is the chiefest cause of its
goodnesse: perhaps the nitrousnesse of the maulting floores may
something help.
[Aubrey devotes several pages to these subjects. He particularly
commends “The History of Malting, or the method of making Malt,
practised at Derby, described for R. T. Esq. by J. F. (John Flamsteed),
January 1682-3”, which was printed in “A Collection of Letters for ye
Improvement of Husbandry and Trade”, No. 7, Thursday, June 15, 1682.
This paper by Flamsteed, which is of considerable length, is inserted
by Aubrey in both his manuscripts: a printed copy in the original at
Oxford, and a transcript in the Royal Society’s fair copy.—J. B.]
It may be objected how came that great astronomer, Mr. John Flamsteed,
to know so much the mystery of malsters. Why, his father is a maulster
at Derby; and he himself was a maulster, and did drive a trade in it
till he was about twenty yeares of age, at what time Sir Jonas Moore
invited him to London. [The best memoir of Flamsteed will be found in
“An Account of the Rev. John Flamsteed, the first Astronomer Royal,
compiled from his own manuscripts and other authentic documents never
before published. To which is added his British Catalogue of Stars,
corrected and enlarged. By Francis Baily, Esq. &c. &c. Printed by order
of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. London, 1835”. Such is the
title of a large quarto volume which my late esteemed friend and
neighbour Mr. Baily edited and wrote, con amore; and which contains not
only a curious autobiography of the first Astronomer Royal of Great
Britain, but numerous letters, documents, and miscellaneous information
on the science of astronomy as it was known in Flamsteed’s time, and up
to the time of the publication of the volume. This work was printed at
the expense of the government, and presented to public colleges and
societies, to royal and public libraries, and to many persons
distinguished in science and literature. Hence it may be regarded as a
choice and remarkable literary production. Some curious particulars of
Flamsteed’s quarrel with Sir Isaac Newton, respecting the printing of
his “Historia Coelestis”, are given in Mr.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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