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 (as to this Naturall History of Wilts): that my will and desire is, that in case I shall depart this life before my returne to London again, to finish, if it pleaseth God, this discourse, I say and declare that my will then is, that I bequeath these papers of the Natural History of Wilts to my worthy friend Mr. Robert Hooke, of Gresham Colledge and R.S.S., and I doe also humbly desire him, and my will is, that the noble buildings and prospects should be engraven by my worthy friend Mr. David Loggan, who hath drawn my picture already in order to it” This document* shews at once the dangers and difficulties which attended travelling in Aubrey’s time, and also that he seriously contemplated the publication of his favourite work. * [It has been already printed in my Memoir of Aubrey. A note attached to it shews that the author intended to incorporate with the present work some portions of his MS. “Monumenta Britannica”; which was also dedicated to the Earl of Pembroke.] Neither his fears of death nor his hopes of publication were however then realized: probably the political disturbances attending the Revolution of 1688 interfered with the latter. In the November of the year following that event Aubrey’s friend and patron Thomas, Earl of Pembroke, was elected President of the Royal Society, which distinguished office he held only for one year. During that period the author dedicated the “Natural History of Wiltshire” to his Lordship; and there is little reason to doubt that the fair copy, now in the Society’s Library, was made by the author, and given to it in the year 1690. About the same time he had resolved to present his other manuscripts, together with some printed books, coins, antiquities, &c., to the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford; and most of them were accordingly deposited there. He however appears to have retained his original manuscript of the “Natural History,” in which he made several observations in the year 1691; that being the latest date attached by him to any of the additions.† † [Some of these additions of 1691 Aubrey afterwards transcribed into certain blank spaces in the Royal Society’s copy.]