He sometimes amused himself with archery, and sometimes practised as a surveyor of land. . . . . He was sprightly and active, when more than eighty years of age.[16] Another informant says that Oughtred was as facetious in Greek and Latine as solid in Arithmetique, Astronomy, and the sphere of all Measures, Musick, etc.; exact in his style as in his judgment; handling his Cube, and other Instruments at eighty, as steadily, as others did at thirty; owing this, he said, to temperance and Archery; principling his people with plain and solid truths, as he did the world with great and useful Arts; advancing new Inventions in all things but Religion. Which in its old order and decency he maintained secure in his privacy, prudence, meekness, simplicity, resolution, patience, and contentment.[17] ALLEGED TRAVEL ABROAD According to certain sources of information, Oughtred traveled on the European Continent and was invited to change his abode to the Continent. We have seen no statement from Oughtred himself on this matter. He seldom referred to himself in his books and letters. The autobiography contained in his Apologeticall Epistle was written a quarter of a century before his death. Aubrey gives the following: In the time of the civill warres the duke of Florence invited him over, and offered him 500 li. per annum; but he would not accept it, because of his religion.[18] A portrait of Oughtred, painted in 1646 by Hollar and inserted in the English edition of the Clavis of 1647, contains underneath the following lines: “Haec est Oughtredi senio labantis imago Itala quam cupiit, Terra Britanna tulit.” In the sketch of Oughtred by Owen Manning it is confessed that “it is not known to what this alludes; but possibly he might have been in Italy with his patron, the Earl of Arundel.”[19] It would seem quite certain either that Oughtred traveled in Europe or that he received some sort of an offer to settle in Italy. In view of Aubrey’s explicit statement and of Oughtred’s well-known habit of confining himself to his duties and studies in his own parish, seldom going even as far as London, we strongly incline to the opinion that he did not travel on the Continent, but that he received an offer from some patron of the sciences—possibly some distinguished visitor—to settle in Italy. HIS DEATH He died at Albury, June 30, 1660, aged about eighty-six years. Of his last days and death, Aubrey speaks as follows: Before he dyed he burned a world of papers, and sayd that the world was not worthy of them; he was so superb. He burned also severall printed bookes, and would not stirre, till they were consumed. . . . . I myselfe have his Pitiscus, imbelished with his excellent marginall notes, which I esteeme as a great rarity. I wish I could also have got his Bilingsley’s Euclid, which John Collins sayes was full of his annotations. . . . .