CORYAT, THOMAS, "the Odcombian leg-stretcher," as he was wont to call himself, was the son of the Rev. George Coryat, rector of Odcombe, in Somersetabire, and prebendary of York cathedral. Thomas, or, as he was usually styled, Torn Coryat, was born at Odcombo rectory in 1577, and was educated at Westminster School, and afterwards at Gloucester Hall, Oxford, where he remained three years, and acquired some skill in logic, and more in Greek and Latin. He seems, on leaving the university, to have obtained a post in the household of Prince Henry; but his eccentricity had probably already become marked, as he is spoken of as holding in the prince's establish ment a position somewhat analogous to that of court-jester.
His father died in 1606, and Tom felt himself at liberty to indulge a" very burning deaire," which he says had long "itched in him, to survey and eeetemplate some of the choicest parts of this goodly fabric of the world." Accordingly, in May 1608, he embarked at Dover, and travelled through France and as far as Venice, returning by way of Germany. Travelling on the continent was in those days at bent somewhat laborious, but Carries was a more than usually arduous journey, for he went ae far as possible on foot, and carried very little money in his pocket. Ile reckoned that in the five months he was absent he had travelled 1977 miles, of which he had walked 900, and the same pair of shoes sufficed for the whole journey. On his return he hung up his shoes for a memorial in Odcombe church, where they remained till 1702. Coryat was a diligent observerjef all that he saw new to him in his travels, and an insatiable inquirer; and he made notes of everything which struck him as noteworthy. These notes he set himself on his return to arrange; and in 1611 he pub !hiked them in a bulky quarto volume, with this strange title: 'Coryat'a Crudities, hastily gobbled up in five months Travels in France, Savoy, Italy, Rhetia, commonly called the Grisan's Country, Helvetia, nlias Switzerland, some parts of High Germany, and the Netherlands ; newly digested in the hungry air of Odeombe in the county of Somer set, and now dispersed to the nourishment of the travelliug members of this kingdom.' Appended to the volume were some sixty sets of
verses, written, among others, by Ben Jenson, Chapman, Drayton, Donne, Sir John Harrington, Iniga Jones, and Lawrence Whitaker. They are written in Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian, French, Welsh, Irish, and 'Utopian,' and are all very quizzical, some coarsely so. As might be expected, these verses proved the most attractive part of the volume, and they were reprinted in a separate form under the title of The Odcombisn Banquet,' with an advertisement prefixed, intended more evidently than were the verses themselves to render poor Coryat ridiculous. Chalmers and others have supposed this volume to have been published by Coryat himself, and have expressed a good deal of surprise at the excess of his simplicity. So far how ever from writing the 'advertisement,' or even sanctioning the repub lication, Coryat in the 'Second Course' of his 'Crudities,' the ' Cramb, or Colwort twice Sodden,' makes in his way an energetic attack upon it. But the verses themselves were not attached to his book by his own free will. He expressly states that he was commanded to print them by Prince Henry, and he shows that he was quite aware of their real purpose. Poor Coryat was in fact evidently made the butt of the cleverer men with whom he was weak enough to desire to associate, and be was treated with as little generosity as the wits have is all ages treated their butts. Coryat's Crudities' are, as may be supposed, of little or no value for their descriptions of buildings and cities—the bulk of the book ; but they contain many curious illustrations of the state of society in that time, and in them many odd scraps of informa tion on many unexpected matters will be fouud stared up.