At four yeares old[FO] he went to schoole in Westport church, till eight; by that time[1261] he could read well, and number four figures. Afterwards he went to schoole to Malmesbury, to Mr. Evans, the minister of the towne; and afterwards to Mr. Robert Latimer, a young man of about nineteen or twenty, newly come from the University, who then kept a private schoole in Westport, where the broad place (quaere nomen) is, next dore north from the smyth's shop, opposite to the Three Cuppes[1262] (as I take it). He was a batchelour and delighted in his scholar, T. H.'s company, and used to instruct him, and two or three ingeniose youths more, in the evening till nine a clock. Here T. H. so well profited in his learning, that at fourteen yeares of age, he went away a good schoole-scholar to Magdalen-hall, in Oxford. It is not to be forgotten, that before he went to the University, he had turned Euripidis Medea[1263] out of Greeke into Latin Iambiques, which he presented to his master. Mr. H. told me that he would faine have had them, to have seen how he did grow in.... Twenty odde[1264] yeares agoe I searcht all old Mr. Latimer's papers, but could not find them; the[1265] good huswives had sacrificed them.
I have heard his brother Edmund and Mr. Wayte (his schoolefellowe) say that when he was a boy he was playsome enough, but withall he had even then a contemplative melancholinesse; he would gett him into a corner, and learne his lesson by heart presently. His haire was black, and his schoolfellows[1266] were wont to call him 'Crowe.'
This Mr. Latimer was a good Graecian, and the first that came into our parts hereabout since the Reformation. He was afterwards minister of Malmesbury, and from thence preferred to a better living of 100 li. per annum, or +, at Leigh-de-la-mere within this hundred.
At Oxford Mr. T. H. used, in the summer time especially, to rise very early in the morning, and would tye the leaden-counters (which they used in those dayes at Christmas, at post and payre) with pacthreds[1267], which he did besmere with[1268] birdlime, and bayte them with parings of cheese, and the jack-dawes would spye them a vast distance up in the aire[XCIX.] and as far as Osney-abbey, and strike at the bayte, and so be harled in the string, which the wayte of the counter would make cling about ther wings. He did not much care for logick, yet he learnd it, and thought himselfe a good disputant. He tooke great delight there to goe to the[1269] booke-binders' shops, and lye gaping on mappes, of which he takes notice in his life written by himselfe in verse:
[XCIX.] This story he happened to tell me, discoursing of the Optiques, to instance such sharpnes of sight in so little an eie.
Ergo ad amoena magis me verto, librosque revolvo,
Quos prius edoctus, non bene doctus eram.[1270]
Pascebamque animum chartis imitantibus orbem,
Telluris faciem, et sydera picta videns,
Gaudebam soli comes ire, et cernere cunctis
Terricolis justos qua facit arte dies; etc.
[1271]Quaere A<nthony> W<ood> what moneth and day he was matriculated?
[He[1272] came[1273] to Magdalen hall in the beginning of an. 1603, at what time, Dr. James Hussee, LL.D., was principall. This James Hussee was afterwards knighted by king James and was made Chancellour of Sarum. This Dr. Hussee was a great encourager of towardly youths. But he resigning his principallity about 1605, Mr. John Wilkinson succeeded him: so that Mr. Hobs was under the government of two principalls.[FP]—Thomas Hobs was admitted to the reading of any book of logic ('ad[1274] lectionem cujuslibet libri logices'), that is, he was admitted to the degree of Bachelaur of Arts, 5 Feb., 1607[1275], and in the Lent that then began did determine[1276], that is, did his exercise for the completion of that degree. Vide Hist. <et Antiq. Univ.> Oxon., lib. 2, pag. 376 a.]