John Aubrey - Wiltshire's First 'Trowel Blazer'

Dr Louise Ryland-Epton

John Aubrey (1626-1697) is best known as a polymathic antiquarian with a deep interest in the supernatural. Yet Aubrey was a scientist too, and often combined his curiosity for folk wisdom and the unexplained with revolutionary scientific insights. In his Natural History of Wiltshire he applied rigourous scientific method not only to conventional flora and fauna, but also to the phenomena of dragons, ghosts, witches, magic rings, secret tunnels, murderous clouds, and giants – a fervour that led to an African expedition to hunt for a two-legged dragon, the Wyvern.

Dr Louise Ryland-Epton invites us to discover more about Aubrey’s extraordinary world in this his 400th anniversary year, and in celebration of her publication of his Natural History in full for the first time.