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John Aubrey and his circle: those magnificent men and their flying machines

A review of Ruth Scurr’s biography of John Aubrey tells how the distinguished scholar and antiquarian, friend of Pepys and Hobbes, died in penury and was buried in an unmarked grave

14 March 2015

9:00 AM

14 March 2015

9:00 AM

John Aubrey: My Own Life Ruth Scurr

Chatto, pp.518, £25

John Aubrey investigated everything from the workings of the brain, the causation of winds and the origins of Stonehenge to how to cure the fungal infection thrush by jamming a live frog into a child’s mouth (you hold it there until it — the frog — suffocates, then replace it with a fresh frog).

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