Dr Louise Ryland-Epton's Avatar

Dr Louise Ryland-Epton

@lrylandepton

Historian & contributing editor for VCH @wiltshistory.bsky.social & @vchgloucester.bsky.social. Fellow @ihr.bsky.social. Ed. at @hobnobpress.bsky.social & Crime, Histories & Societies. VF @openuniversity.bsky.social https://www.louiserylandepton.co.uk/

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27.02.2024
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Latest posts by Dr Louise Ryland-Epton @lrylandepton

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John Aubrey’s Natural History, Part 6: The Network of Knowledge — Louise Ryland-Epton From an anthill to the Royal Society, in this blog I explore the extraordinary network of knowledge behind Aubrey's Natural History.

In this blog on Aubrey's Natural History I explore his network of knowledge — from the saltpetre men to the Royal Society; from the Moroccan Ambassador and his cure for gout to Mistress Hatchman and her metheglin. From sympathetic magic to indoor beehives. www.louiserylandepton.co.uk/blog/john-au...

02.03.2026 08:48 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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John Aubrey’s Natural History, Part 6: The Network of Knowledge — Louise Ryland-Epton From an anthill to the Royal Society, in this blog I explore the extraordinary network of knowledge behind Aubrey's Natural History.

In this blog on Aubrey's Natural History I explore his network of knowledge — from the saltpetre men to the Royal Society; from the Moroccan Ambassador and his cure for gout to Mistress Hatchman and her metheglin. From sympathetic magic to indoor beehives. www.louiserylandepton.co.uk/blog/john-au...

02.03.2026 08:48 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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John Aubrey & the Quest for Knowledge — Wiltshire Victoria County History John Aubrey was born ‘very weak and like to dye’ at Lower Easton Piercy in Kington St Michael on 12 March 1626. But he survived, and as an adult, he continued to cheat death. He survived smallpox. He ...

Born weak. Shipwrecked. Cursed by a witch. John Aubrey antiquary, naturalist, biographer, folklorist, visionary was born 400 years ago this month. Find out more and how we are celebrating 👇@chippenhammuseum.bsky.social @wiltshistory.bsky.social
www.wiltshirehistory.org/news/john-au...

01.03.2026 11:10 👍 27 🔁 9 💬 0 📌 1
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John Aubrey & the Quest for Knowledge — Wiltshire Victoria County History John Aubrey was born ‘very weak and like to dye’ at Lower Easton Piercy in Kington St Michael on 12 March 1626. But he survived, and as an adult, he continued to cheat death. He survived smallpox. He ...

Born weak. Shipwrecked. Cursed by a witch. John Aubrey antiquary, naturalist, biographer, folklorist, visionary was born 400 years ago this month. Find out more and how we are celebrating 👇@chippenhammuseum.bsky.social @wiltshistory.bsky.social
www.wiltshirehistory.org/news/john-au...

01.03.2026 11:10 👍 27 🔁 9 💬 0 📌 1

Congrats Dr Sophie. You have been on an incredible journey & deserve all the success in the world. Hope to meet up soon xx

27.02.2026 22:49 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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Delighted to receive a glowing review in The Local Historian of my 2 @vch-home.bsky.social #PartnershipPublications Kington SM and Langley Burrell — 'attractive and readable books, which set a high standard for similar volumes in the future.'😍 See Hobnob Press www.hobnobpress.co.uk/books/p/lang...

27.02.2026 12:46 👍 11 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 1
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#ComingSoon, our latest #PartnershipPublication with @hobnobpress.bsky.social.

We’re launching this in two weeks time on 12 March, and Chippenham, Our History will for a prelude to the #BigRedBook out later this year.

#Skystorians

26.02.2026 14:55 👍 12 🔁 6 💬 1 📌 0

An interesting blog about a charismatic man who clearly loved an adventure.

23.02.2026 21:49 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Love, Liberty and the ‘Lust-Loving Parson’: Thomas Webbe of Langley Burrell — Wiltshire Victoria County History In 1647, during the chaos of the English Civil War, a young twenty-something former hatmaker named Thomas Webbe became minister of Langley Burrell, Wiltshire. What followed was one of the most remarka...

While the Civil War brought chaos across England, a mile or two from Chippenham it created space for an extraordinary same-sex relationship. Happy LGBTQ History Month🏳️‍🌈
www.wiltshirehistory.org/news/love-li...

23.02.2026 16:28 👍 6 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 0
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Proud to be part of the team to publish Aubrey's Villa on John Aubrey's 400th birthday! This stunning book reproduces his Easton Piercy estate drawings from MS Aubrey 17—among the first pure landscape depictions in British art history. A fitting tribute to the antiquarian and natural philosopher.

12.02.2026 15:25 👍 8 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
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John Aubrey’s Natural History, Part 5: Lead, Spar, and the Cure for the Stone — Louise Ryland-Epton This blog discusses the historical use of lead. Lead is highly toxic. Please do not try any of the lead-based medicines I discuss below . If you have urinary stones, see a medical practitioner.

What did John Aubrey know about urinary stones? More than you might expect & probably more than was good for sufferers.
www.louiserylandepton.co.uk/blog/john-au...

17.02.2026 20:08 👍 6 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
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Roast an eel. Catch the dripping. Put it in the patient's ear. Deafness cured — a woman who couldn't hear a drum beat 'heard perfectly.' But the pain was, according to #JohnAubrey, 'as if one's head would tear in pieces'. So, not nice. More 17thC medicine from Aubrey's Natural History out in June! 🐟

19.02.2026 10:40 👍 1 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
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Roast an eel. Catch the dripping. Put it in the patient's ear. Deafness cured — a woman who couldn't hear a drum beat 'heard perfectly.' But the pain was, according to #JohnAubrey, 'as if one's head would tear in pieces'. So, not nice. More 17thC medicine from Aubrey's Natural History out in June! 🐟

19.02.2026 10:40 👍 1 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
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At @gladlib.bsky.social writing and having far to much fun.

19.02.2026 09:11 👍 7 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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John Aubrey’s Natural History, Part 5: Lead, Spar, and the Cure for the Stone — Louise Ryland-Epton This blog discusses the historical use of lead. Lead is highly toxic. Please do not try any of the lead-based medicines I discuss below . If you have urinary stones, see a medical practitioner.

What did John Aubrey know about urinary stones? More than you might expect & probably more than was good for sufferers.
www.louiserylandepton.co.uk/blog/john-au...

17.02.2026 20:08 👍 6 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0

Wondering when Aubrey's birthday is?? It is 12 March!

12.02.2026 15:27 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Proud to be part of the team to publish Aubrey's Villa on John Aubrey's 400th birthday! This stunning book reproduces his Easton Piercy estate drawings from MS Aubrey 17—among the first pure landscape depictions in British art history. A fitting tribute to the antiquarian and natural philosopher.

12.02.2026 15:25 👍 8 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0

Some more pictures of @hobnobpress.bsky.social stunning @vch-home.bsky.social #PartnershipPublication on Chippenham in association with Chippenham Town Council. Written by John Chandler and with a tiny bit of editorial input by me 🙂

12.02.2026 14:56 👍 9 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 1
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John Aubrey’s Natural History, Part 4: Reading Water — Louise Ryland-Epton In 17th-century Hampshire a beggar woman knew the cure for breast cancer. It involved a cow's footprint, boggy water and a stick. John Aubrey recorded this remedy alongside chemical tests of well wate...

From healing the sick to revealing hidden iron deposits: what John Aubrey learned by reading water. Another blog from my transcription of Aubrey's Natural History manuscript, published in June for his 400th anniversary.
www.louiserylandepton.co.uk/blog/john-au...

08.02.2026 13:03 👍 5 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
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John Aubrey’s Natural History, Part 4: Reading Water — Louise Ryland-Epton In 17th-century Hampshire a beggar woman knew the cure for breast cancer. It involved a cow's footprint, boggy water and a stick. John Aubrey recorded this remedy alongside chemical tests of well wate...

From healing the sick to revealing hidden iron deposits: what John Aubrey learned by reading water. Another blog from my transcription of Aubrey's Natural History manuscript, published in June for his 400th anniversary.
www.louiserylandepton.co.uk/blog/john-au...

08.02.2026 13:03 👍 5 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0

We're so pleased to be able to support the publication of the high quality research that goes into our #BigRedBooks in other forms for a range of audiences with the engagement of the communities whose histories they describe.

Huge thanks to all involved, especially @hobnobpress.bsky.social! 🗃️

07.02.2026 10:18 👍 16 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
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Delighted to see this @vch-home.bsky.social partnership publication on Chippenham is to be launched next month. The third partnership book developed from @wiltshistory.bsky.social research on the town and the surrounding area, created in collaboration with local communities.

06.02.2026 15:12 👍 16 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 3

A c17 cure for 'flabby leggs' anyone? 'Hancocks-well at Luckington is so extremely cold that in summer one cannot long endure one hand in it. It does much good to the eies. It cures the itch and scabbe, and heales in young people legges and thighs..It cured one that I knew that had flabby legges'🦵

05.02.2026 14:32 👍 6 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0

John Aubrey noted that beer in Wells, Somerset, made strangers constipated, ‘and an ancient gentlewoman that I knew was cured of a long and tedious loosenes which the Dr could not cure, comeing thither accidentally.’ Good to know if I ever pass through the town. 🍺

04.02.2026 15:04 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Herbert Ryland and the Fake Suffragettes — Louise Ryland-Epton I never met my grandfather, Herbert Ryland, and am not a family historian, but stories of Herbert’s chequered life have been a part of the family story for as long as I can remember and are just too g...

I never met my grandfather, Herbert Ryland, and am not a family historian, but stories of Herbert’s chequered life have been a part of the family story for as long as I can remember and are just too good not to retell.
www.louiserylandepton.co.uk/blog/herbert...

04.02.2026 12:20 👍 6 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 1
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Today is #Candlemas so here is a little Wiltshire folklore from #JohnAubrey. ‘In south Wiltshire the constant observation is that if droppes doe hang upon the hedges on Candlemas day, it will be a good pease-yeare. It is generally agreed on to be matter of fact.’

02.02.2026 19:16 👍 8 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
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John Aubrey’s Natural History, Part 3: Dragons — Louise Ryland-Epton Are dragons real? The question crossed the mind of John Aubrey. A founding fellow of the Royal Society, he was an exponent of astrology, curious by the supernatural but seemingly sceptical about the e...

Are dragons real? 🐉 Or more precisely that type of dragon called a wyvern? In his c17 Natural History #JohnAubrey looked into the subject and it’s the topic of my next blog in the run up to the publication of this work (in full for the 1st time) in June 😁
www.louiserylandepton.co.uk/blog/john-au...

29.01.2026 11:01 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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John Aubrey’s Natural History, Part 3: Dragons — Louise Ryland-Epton Are dragons real? The question crossed the mind of John Aubrey. A founding fellow of the Royal Society, he was an exponent of astrology, curious by the supernatural but seemingly sceptical about the e...

Are dragons real? 🐉 Or more precisely that type of dragon called a wyvern? In his c17 Natural History #JohnAubrey looked into the subject and it’s the topic of my next blog in the run up to the publication of this work (in full for the 1st time) in June 😁
www.louiserylandepton.co.uk/blog/john-au...

29.01.2026 11:01 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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John Aubrey’s Natural History, Part 2: The Lost Species of Dinton — Louise Ryland-Epton What did it mean in 1685 for a species to be 'lost'? John Aubrey's Dinton shells challenged theological certainties 170 years before Darwin. In my second blog in the run-up to the publication of Aubre...

What did it mean in 1685 for a species to be ‘lost’? John Aubrey’s Dinton shells challenged theological certainties 170 years before Darwin. In my 2nd blog in the run to the publication of Aubrey’s Natural History I consider extinction before Darwin.
www.louiserylandepton.co.uk/blog/john-au...

19.01.2026 20:41 👍 7 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
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John Aubrey’s Natural History, Part 2: The Lost Species of Dinton — Louise Ryland-Epton What did it mean in 1685 for a species to be 'lost'? John Aubrey's Dinton shells challenged theological certainties 170 years before Darwin. In my second blog in the run-up to the publication of Aubre...

What did it mean in 1685 for a species to be ‘lost’? John Aubrey’s Dinton shells challenged theological certainties 170 years before Darwin. In my 2nd blog in the run to the publication of Aubrey’s Natural History I consider extinction before Darwin.
www.louiserylandepton.co.uk/blog/john-au...

19.01.2026 20:41 👍 7 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0