Historical dream account · English · published source text
A fish in the water pail
John Aubrey
The Literature and Curiosities of Dreams (1869) · Original 1869 edition, printed pp. 383
Dreamer identified by the source: Archbishop Abbot’s mother
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When Archbishop Abbot’s mother (a poor cloth-worker’s wife in Gilford) was with child of him, she did long for a jack, and she dreamt that if she should eat a jack, the son who was about to be born would be a great man. She rose early the next morning, and went with her pail to the river-side (which runneth by the house, now [1696] an alehouse, the sign of the ‘ Three Mariners ’) to take up some water, and in the water in the pail she found a good jack, which she dressed, and ate it all, or very near. Several of the best inhabitants of Gilford were invited (or invited themselves) to the christening of the child. It was bred up a scholar in the town, and by degrees came to be Archbishop of Canterbury.
Source & context
Historical published account of a recalled sleep dream, not a verified prediction or contemporary community submission. One complete separately narrated case; source explanation and subsequent unrelated cases excluded. Paired/recurring episodes remain together. These are historically published claimed recollections. Source claims of fulfilment/causation are not independently established facts, predictions or medical evidence.
John Aubrey, Miscellanies, as quoted by Frank Seafield, The Literature and Curiosities of Dreams, second edition, revised (London: Lockwood & Co., 1869), printed pp. 383. Source: Wellcome Collection. Dreamer and anthology compiler are credited separately. Descriptive title and navigation themes added by Synastry.
The publication year is not the dream date. No exact dream date or present-day person location is inferred. Dates printed in the narrative remain source wording.
Public Domain Mark 1.0 (source status) ↗
Wellcome’s catalogue and IIIF manifest identify the original 1869 revised second edition as public domain. Public Domain Mark identifies status, not a new license grant. The English text is retained as printed, including historical translations; no modern translation is included. Earlier works and authors are credited as printed in this anthology, not claimed independently reverified.
Source locator and text provenance
Original 1869 edition, printed pp. 383
The original text and redactions are preserved. The page title is an editorial navigation label.
Editorial descriptive title. Printed header/page number excluded; original OCR line wraps joined, including word-wrap hyphens; exact raw page spans retained. OCR repairs replayable from normalizedOCR; source words/spelling retained except documented scan-confirmed repairs. No new translation, generated narrative, fabricated date, contemporary dreamer identity, or AI visual. Primary witness is this1869 anthology; quoted earlier work/author credited as printed, not claimed independently reverified.
- Account text SHA-256
- 02264346d7230f96b3c475e528d669e98612f9f5e0a28fa1ea9e93402c93e0ac
- Source file SHA-256
- a73a0cec3f3d14cf9cf75b6335ee55d560d5b927017f27a081afdc3bc7ca3dba
Content notes
- Pregnancy
Connections in the Loom
Titles, theme labels, illustrations and map connections are editorial navigation aids. They are separate from the account’s words and do not establish connections between real people.