English antiquary and miscellaneous writer, b. Kingston, Wiltshire, educated at Trinity College, Oxford. He knew most of the famous people of his day and left copious memorandums as well as letters. His most celebrated work, Lives of Eminent Men, was originally compiled for the use of Anthony Wood in his Athenae Oxonienses. The Lives first appeared in print in 1813. Only his Miscellanies (1696), a collection of stories and folklore, was published in his lifetime. Extremely interested in antiquities, he wrote the Natural History of Wiltshire (ed. by John Britton, 1847) and Perambulation of Surrey, which was included in the Natural History and Antiquities of Surrey (1719). He discovered a series of pits surrounding Stonehenge, now known as the 'Aubrey Holes'. His comment that the Neolithic monuments of Avebury 'exceedeth Stonehenge as a cathedral doth a parish church' inspired later antiquarians and historical explorers such as William Stukeley (qv).
English antiquary and miscellaneous writer, b. Kingston, Wiltshire, educated at Trinity College, Oxford. He knew most of the famous people of his day and left copious memorandums as well as letters. His most celebrated work, Lives of Eminent Men, was originally compiled for the use of Anthony Wood in his Athenae Oxonienses. The Lives first appeared in print in 1813. Only his Miscellanies (1696), a collection of stories and folklore, was published in his lifetime. Extremely interested in antiquities, he wrote the Natural History of Wiltshire (ed. by John Britton, 1847) and Perambulation of Surrey, which was included in the Natural History and Antiquities of Surrey (1719). He discovered a series of pits surrounding Stonehenge, now known as the 'Aubrey Holes'. His comment that the Neolithic monuments of Avebury 'exceedeth Stonehenge as a cathedral doth a parish church' inspired later antiquarians and historical explorers such as William Stukeley (qv).
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