and very merry, my wife and girle and I talking, and telling
tales, and singing, and before night come to Bishop Stafford, where
Lowther and his friend did meet us again, and carried us to the
Raynedeere, where Mrs. Aynsworth,
[Elizabeth Aynsworth, here mentioned, was a noted procurerss at
Cambridge, banished from that town by the university authorities for
her evil courses. She subsequently kept the Rein Deer Inn at
Bishops Stortford, at which the Vice-Chancellor, and some of the
heads of colleges, had occasion to sleep, in their way to London,
and were nobly entertained, their supper being served off plate.
The next morning their hostess refused to make any charge, saying,
that she was still indebted to the Vice-Chancellor, who, by driving
her out of Cambridge, had made her fortune. No tradition of this
woman has been preserved at Bishops Stortford; but it appears, from
the register of that parish, that she was buried there 26th of
March, 1686. It is recorded in the "History of Essex," vol. iii.,
(p. 130) 8vo., 1770, and in a pamphlet in the British Museum,
entitled, "Boteler's Case," that she was implicated in the murder of
Captain Wood, a Hertfordshire gentleman, at Manuden, in Essex, and
for which offence a person named Boteler was executed at Chelmsford,
September 10th, 1667, and that Mrs. Aynsworth, tried at the same
time as an accessory before the fact, was acquitted for want of
evidence; though in her way to the jail she endeavoured to throw
herself into the river, but was prevented. See Postea, May 25th,
1668.--B.]
who lived heretofore at Cambridge, and whom I knew better than they
think for, do live. It was the woman that, among other things, was great
with my cozen Barnston, of Cottenham, and did use to sing to him, and
did teach me "Full forty times over," a very lewd song: a woman they are
very well acquainted with, and is here what she was at Cambridge, and
all the good fellows of the country come hither. Lowther and his friend
stayed and drank, and then went further this night; but here we stayed,
and supped, and lodged. But, as soon as they were gone, and my supper
getting ready, I fell to write my letter to my Lord Sandwich, which I
could not finish before my coming from London; so did finish it to my
good content, and a good letter, telling him the present state of all
matters, and did get a
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