Aubrey, John (1626-97). A Wiltshire country gentleman of antiquarian interests, reduced to penury by litigation and imprudence. The only work he published himself was Miscellanies (1696), dealing with astrology, but his copious notes on antiquity and topography were used by others. In 1680 he sent to Anthony à Wood at Oxford his Minutes of Lives, sketches mainly of contemporaries. They were not published until 1813. A classic of quizzical humour. the best known is his description of Thomas Hobbes, also from north Wiltshire. To Aubrey, we owe Hobbes at 40 taking up Euclid's theorems and declaring, ‘ “By God, this is impossible” … This made him in love with Geometry.’

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