The Natural History of Wiltshire

Had Aubrey's life been spared a few years longer it is very possible that most of his manuscripts would have been printed, under the stimulus and with the assistance of his youthful friend. His "Miscellanies," which appeared in 1696, seem to have owed their publication to these influences; and in the Dedication of that work to his patron the Earl of Abingdon, Aubrey thus expressly mentions Tanner:- "It was my intention to have finished my Description of Wiltshire (half finished* already), and to have dedicated it to your Lordship, but my age is now too far spent for such undertakings.† I have therefore devolved that task on my countryman Mr. Thomas Tanner, who hath youth to go through with it, and a genius prop