On May Day 1647 rainbow-coloured circles were seen round the sun over Broad Chalke in Wiltshire, from about eleven o’clock until noon. Aubrey’s mother spotted them while checking the time on a sundial, and the vicar’s household and Sir George Vaughan’s servants out hunting on the downs saw them too. Aubrey took the sight as a portent: on 3 June following Cornet Joyce carried Charles I off as a prisoner, and the Isle of Wight, where the King ended up, lay from Broad Chalke in the direction the sign had pointed.
Circles round the sun at Broad Chalke
Printed under 1 May · Broad Chalke, Wiltshire
Lore and belief
It was a very clear day; but few did take notice of it, because it was so near the Sun-beams. My Mother happened to espy it, going to see what a Clock it was by an Horizontal Dial
From Aubrey's Miscellanies, p. 35. Read the original
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