dwelt in Bow lane) to make a saw to cut the iron bars in sunder (I mean, to saw them) and aquafortis. His Majesty, in a short time, did his work; the bars gave liberty for him to go out; he was out with his body till he came to his breast; but his heart failing, he proceeded no farther. When this was discovered, he was narrowly looked after, and no opportunity after that could be devised to enlarge him."-Lilly also informs us that, in Cromwell's protectorship, he wrote freely and satirically, and that all the soldiers were his friends.

Cromwell, as well as Charles the 2d, had much faith in astrology. The curious story of Cromwell's having made a compact with the Devil, on the 3d of September, 1651, is too long to be here related. The battle of Worcester was fought on this day, when Charles's forces were defeated, and it is well known that Cromwell died on that day seven years. Echard, the historian, thus concludes his narrative:- "How far Lindsey is to be believed, and how far the story is to be accounted incredible, is left to the reader's faith and judgment; and not to any deter. mination of our own." In the time of Lilly, the leading practical astrologers were the vilest miscreants of the community. Such were Evans, Poole, Humphries, Gadbury, Booker, and Wharton. Sir Walter Scott has the following remarks respecting the astrologers of these times:-"There was no province of fraud which they

did not practise; they were scandalous as panders, and as quacks, sold potions for the most unworthy purposes: Dr. Lamb, patronized by the Duke of Brunswick, (who, like other overgrown fanatics, was inclined to cherish astrology), was, in 1646, pulled to pieces in the city of London by the enraged populace. In the villanous transaction of the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury, in King James's time, much mention was made of the art and skill of Dr. Forman, another professor of the same sort with Lamb, who was consulted by the Countess of Essex, on the best mode of conducting her guilty intrigue with the Earl of Somerset." Another writer says, that most of these imposters had taken the air in the pillory, and that others had conjured themselves up to the gallows.

In the year 1653, "William Ramsey, Gentleman,” published a work called " Astrologia Restaurata." The benevolent object he had in view was, "To undeceive his countrymen of such calumnies as are cast upon this heavenly and chiefest study, merely through tradition and envy, by the most inferior and rural of men-cobblers, haymakers, and such trash." In his preface he endeavours to shew, that all men are either fools or madmen; he satirizes all classes of the community; and this too, because all are better paid than astrologers, who are deemed simpletons. He is quite indignant that philosophers should

crouch "to illiterate curmudgeons for a meal's meat, or a night's lodging." He protests that many of them deserved to be laughed at for their folly; and that he himself deserves this more than any other professor. Whether "William Ramsey, Gent." had any real claims to this pre-eminence, perhaps, may be seen from the following quotation. Having shewn some of the excellent uses to which "clearly, and beyond all controversy," a knowledge of the stars may be applied:-William Ramsey says"It may help us to know the fitting times and seasons for cutting the hair of our heads, and the nails of our hands or feet; for the administration of gargarisms or sneezings, and such like; for hiring of servants, and for buying four-footed beasts; for catching of thieves and malefactors; for borrowing of money; for purging the brain; for drawing choleric blood, &c.; how to choose friends, prove them, and keep them; to foresee future accidents; to win at any game; to know the love between two mar. ried, or any other; to tell why blackamoors are black; and to know how it is that nobody finds the philosopher's stone." Great and extraordinary as the talents of this astrologer were, I do not find that they obtained him a pension from the Government.

In 1691, Mr. John Chambers wrote an able work against astrology, and lashed its professors with great severity. Mr. Christopher Knight, "the very quixote of

astrologers, arrayed in the enchanted armour of his occult authors," published "a defence of judicial astrology," and in this work exhibited talents worthy of a better cause. He was replied to by Thomas Vicars, in his "Madness of Astrologers;" but the far-famed work is by Lilly, and entirely devoted to the adepts. "He defends nothing, for this oracle delivers his dictum and details every event as matters not questionable." At this period astrology had gained an extraordinary ascendancy over the minds of many, and so much so that Mr. Gatacre, of Rotherhithe, a fine oriental scholar, wrote against Lilly and the delusions he so successfully propagated. Lilly, in his Anglicus, annually attacked Gatacre, who died in July 1694. It so happened that Lilly, in his Almanack for that year, had written for the month of August

Hac in tumbà jacet Presbyter et Nebulo."

Here in this tomb lies a Presbyter and a knave!

Upon this prophecy the author of Demonologia has the following remarks :— "He (Lilly) had the impudence to assert, that he had predicted Gatacre's death! But the truth is, it was an epitaph to the "lodgings to let ;" it stood empty, ready for the first passenger to inhabit. Had any other of this party of any eminence died in that month, it would have been as appositely applied to him. But Lilly was an exquisite rogue, and never at a fault. Having

prophesied, in his Almanack for 1650, that the Parliament stood upon a tottering foundation, when taken up by a messenger during the night, he contrived to cancel the page, printed off another, and shewed his copies before the committee, assuring them that the others were none of his own, but forged by his enemies." Another writer states respecting him, If a scheme was set on foot to rescue the King, or retrieve a stray trinket-to restore the royal authority, or to make a frail damsel an honest woman-to cure the nation of anarchy, or a lap-dog of a surfeit, William Lilly was the oracle to be consulted."

The following remarks are from Sir Walter Scott's Letters on Demonology :- "When Sir Richard Steele set up the paper called the Guardian, he chose, under the title of Nestor Ironside, to assume the character of an astrologer, and issued predictions accordingly, one of which, announcing the death of a person called Partridge, once a shoemaker, but at the time the conductor of an astrological almanack, led to a controversy, which was supported with great humour by Swift and other wags. I believe you will find that this, with Swift's elegy on the same person, is one of the last occasions in which astrology has afforded even a jest to the good people of England." (p. 350). Partridge, who resided near Moor.

See page 82 for further particulars.