Brief Lives, Vol. 1

Chapter 166: Tom Coryat (1577-1617).

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Biographies History - Early Modern (c. 1450-1750)

About This Book

A collection of concise biographical sketches compiled from the author's manuscript notes, offering anecdotal portraits of a wide range of literary, scientific, political, and social figures across several generations. Entries blend remembered quotations, learned citation, personal recollection, and occasional gossip, producing uneven but vivid character sketches. Material is presented alphabetically and supplemented by antiquarian notes, a short theatrical piece, and facsimiles of manuscript drawings and plans. An introduction outlines editorial principles and reproduces the manuscript spellings and citations where appropriate, preserving the informality and immediacy of the original notes.

Tom Coryat (1577-1617).

[700]Old major Cosh was quartered (Sept. 18, 1642) at his mother's house at Shirburne in Dorsetshire; her name was Gertrude.

This was when Sherburne castle was besieged, and when the fight was at Babell hills, between Sherburn and Yeovill: the first fight in the civill warres that was considerable. But the first brush was between the earle of Northampton (father to Henry, the lord bishop of London) and the lord Brooke, neer Banbury: which was the later end of July, or the beginning of August, 1642. I [701] was sent for into the countrey to my great griefe, and departed the 9th of Aug. 'Twas before I went away, I beleeve in Aug. Quaere de hoc.

But to returne to T. Coryat: had he lived to returne into England, his travells had been most estimable, for though he was not a wise man, he wrote faithfully matter of fact.