** This very story Dr. Jacob told me himself, being then at Lord Teynham's, in Kent, where he was then physician to my eldest son; whom he recovered from a fever, (A. Wood's note.)
T, M. Esq., an old acquaintance of mine, hath assured me that about a quarter of a year after his first wife's death, as he lay in bed awake with his grand-child, his wife opened the closet-door, and came into the chamber by the bedside, and looked upon him and stooped down and kissed him; her lips were warm, he fancied they would have been cold. He was about to have embraced her, but was afraid it might have done him hurt. When she went from him, he asked her when he should see her again ? she turned about and smiled, but said nothing. The closet door striked as it used to do, both at her coming in and going out. He had every night a great coal fire in his chamber, which gave a light as clear almost as a candle. He was hypochondriacal; he married two wives since, the latter end of his life was uneasy.
Anno 165-.— At—-in the Moorlands in Staffordshire, lived a poor old man, who had been a long time lame. One Sunday, in the afternoon, he being alone, one knocked at his door: he bade him open it, and come in. The Stranger desired a cup of beer; the lame man desired him to take a dish and draw some, for he was not able to do it himself. The Stranger asked the poor old man how long he had been ill? the poor man told him. Said the Stranger, "I can cure you. Take two or three balm leaves steeped in your beer for a fortnight or three weeks, and you will be restored to your health; but constantly and zealously serve God." The poor man did so, and became perfectly well. This Stranger was in a purple-shag gown, such as was not seen or known in those parts. And no body in the street after even song did see any one in such a coloured habit. Doctor Gilbert Sheldon, since Archbishop of Canterbury, was then in the Moorlands, and justified the truth of this to Elias Ashmole, Esq., from whom I had this account, and he hath inserted it in some of his memoirs, which are in the Musseum at Oxford.
**MR. J. LYDAL of Trinity College, Soc. Oxon. March 11, 1649, 50, attests the ensuing relation, in a letter to Mr. Aubrey, thus,
MR. AUBREY,
CONCERNING that which happened at Woodstock, I was told by Mr. William Hawes, (who now lives with Sir William Fleetwood in the park) that the committee which sat in the manor-house for selling the king's lands, were frighted by strange apparitions; and that the four surveyors which were sent to measure the park, and lodged themselves with some other companions in the manor, were pelted out of their chambers by stones thrown in at the windows; but from what hands the stones came they could not see; that their candles were continually put out, as fast as they lighted them; and that one with his sword drawn to defend a candle, was with his own scabbard in the mean time well cudgelled; so that for the blow, or for fear, he fell sick; and the others were forced to remove, some of them to Sir William Fleetwood's house, and the rest to some other places. But concerning the cutting of the oak, in particular, I have nothing. Your Friend, To be commanded to my power, JOHN LYDALL.
One Lambert, a gun-smith at Hereford, was at Caermarthen, to mend and put in order the ammunition of that county, before the expedition to Scotland, which was in 1639. He was then a young man, and walking on the sand by the sea side, a man came to him (he did verily believe it was a man) and asked him if he knew Hereford ? yes, quoth he, I am a Hereford man. Do you know it well, quoth the other; perfectly well, quoth Lambert. "That city shall be begirt" (he told me he did not know what the word begirt meant then) "by a foreign nation, that will come and pitch their camp in the Hay wood, and they shall batter such gate," which they did, (I have forgot the name of it) "and shall go away and not take it."
The Scots came in 1645, and encamped before Hereford in the Hay-wood, and stormed the —- gate, and raised the siege. Lambert did well remember this discourse, but did not heed it till they came to the Hay-wood. Many of the city had heard of this story, but when the — gate was stormed, Lambert went to all the guards of the town, and encouraged them with more than ordinary confidence: and contrary to all human expectation, when the besieged had no hope of relief, the Scots raised the siege, September 2, 1645, and went back into Scotland, "re infecta". I knew this Lambert, and took this account from his own mouth; he is a modest poor man, of a very innocent life, lives poor, and cares not to be rich."
— A minister, who lived by Sir John Warre in Somersetshire, about 1665, walking over the Park to give Sir John a visit, was rencountered by a venerable old man, who said to him, "prepare yourself, for such a day" (which was about three days after) "you shall die." The minister told Sir John Wane and my Lady this story, who heeded it not. On the morning forewarned, Sir John called upon the Parson early to ride a hunting, and to laugh at his prediction: his maid went up to call him, and found him stark dead. This from my Lady Katherine Henley, who had it from my Lady Warre. But Dr. Burnet, in the life of the Earl of Rochester, makes it a dream.
This put me in mind of a story in the Legend, &c. of King Edward the Confessor, being forewarned of his death by a Pilgrim, to whom St.John the Evangelist revealed it,. for which the King gave the Pilgrim a rich ring off his finger: and the event answered. The story is well painted on glass, in a window of the south isle of Westminster-Abbey, (the next window from that over the door that opens into the west walk of the cloyster) it is the best window in the church. Underneath the two figures, viz. of the King and the Pilgrim, are these following verses, viz.