any expedition set out either by sea or land it served in proportion to five hides It hath beene likewise from time to time much afflicted once spoiled and sore shaken by the furious outrages of the Danes in the yeare of our redemption 875. but most grievously by Suen the Dane in the yeare 1003. at which time by the treacherie of one Hugh a Norman Governor of the citie it was raced and ruined along from the East gate to the West And scarcely began it to flourish againe when William the Conquerour most straightly beleaguered it when the Citizens in the meane while thought it not sufficient to shut their gates against him but malapartly let flie taunts and flouts at him but when a piece of their wall fell downe by the speciall hand of God as the Historians of that age report they yielded immediatly thereupon At which time as we find in the said survey-booke of his The King had in this Citie three hundred houses it paid fifteene pounds by the yeare and fortie houses were destroyed after that the King came into England After this it was thrice besieged and yet it easily avoided all First by Hugh Courtney Earle of Denshire in that civill warre betweene the two houses of Lancaster and Yorke then by Perkin Warbecke that imaginarie counterfeit and pretended Prince who being a young man of a very base condition faining himselfe to be Richard Duke of Yorke the second sonne of King Edward the Fourth stirred up dangerous stirres against Henrie the Seventh thirdly by seditious Rebels of Cornwall in the yeare of Christ 1549 at which time the Citizens most grievously pinched though they were with scarcitie of all things continued neverthelesse in their faith and allegeance untill that Iohn Lord Russell raised the siege and delivered them But Excester received not so great damage at these enemies hands as it did by certaine dammes which they call Weares that Edward Courtney Earle of Denshire taking high displeasure against the Citizens made in the river Ex which stop the passage so that no vessell can come up to the Citie but since that time all merchandize is carried by land from Topesham three miles off And albeit it hath beene decreed by Act of Parliament to take away these Weares yet they continue there still Hereupon the little Towne adjoyning is call Weare being aforetime named Heneaton which was sometime the possession of Augustine de Baa from whom in right of inheritance it descended to Iohn Holland who in his signet which my selfe have seene bare a Lion rampant gardant among flowers de Lys. The civill government of this Citie is in the power of foure and twenty persons out of whom there is from yeare to yeare a Major elected who with foure Bailiffes ruleth heere the State As touching the Geographicall description of this place the old tables of Oxford have set downe the longitude thereof to bee nineteene degrees and eleven scruples the latitude fiftie degrees and fortie scruples or minutes This Citie that I may not omit so much hath had three Dukes For Richard the Second of that name King of England created Iohn Holland Earle of Huntingdon and his brother by the mothers side the first Duke of Excester whom Henrie the Fourth deposed from this dignitie and left unto him the name onely of Earle of Huntingdon and soone after for conspiracie against the King he lost both it and his life by the hatchet Some few yeares after Henry the Fifth set in his place Thomas Beaufort of the house of Lancaster and Earle of Dorset a right noble and worthy warriour When he was dead leaving no issue behind him John Holland sonne of that aforesaid John as heire unto his brother Richard who died without children and to his father both being restored to his bloud by the favour and bounty of King Henry the Sixth recovered his fathers honor and left the same to Henry his sonne who so long as the Lancastrians stood upright flourished in very much honor but afterwards when the family of Yorke was a float and had rule of all gave an example to teach men how ill trusting it is to great Fortunes For this was that same Henry Duke of Excester who albeit he had wedded King Edward the Fourth his sister was driven to such miserie that he was seene all tottered torne and barefooted to begge for his living in the Low countries And in the end after Barnet field fought wherein he bare himselfe valiantly against Edward the Fourth was no more seene untill his dead bodie as if he had perished by Shipwracke was cast upon the shore of Kent A good while after this Henry Courtney Earle of Denshire the sonne of Katharine daughter to King Edward the Fourth was advanced to the honour of Marquesse of Excester by Henry the Eighth and designed heire apparant But this Marquesse as well as the first Duke was by his high parentage cast into a great tempest of troubles wherein as a man subject to suspitions and desirous of a change in the State he was quickly overthrowne And among other matters because he had with money and counsell assisted Reginald Poole afterwards Cardinall then a fugitive practising with the Emperour and the Pope against his owne Country and the King who had now abrogated the Popes authoritie he was judicially arraigned and being condemned with some others lost his head But now of late by the favour of King Iames Thomas Cecill Lord Burleigh enjoyeth the title of Earle of Excester a right good man and the worthy sonne of so excellent a father being the eldest sonne of William Cecill Lord Burleigh high Treasurer of England whose wisedome for a long time was the support of peace and Englands happy quietnesse From Excester going to the very mouth of the River I find no monument of Antiquitie but Exminster sometime called Exanminster bequeathed by King Elfred to his younger sonne and Pouderham Castle built by Isabell de Ripariis the seat long time of that most noble family of the Courtneys Knights who being lineally descended from the stocke of the Earles of Denshire and allied by affinitie to most honorable houses flourish still at this day most worthy of their descent from so high Ancestors Under Pouderham Ken a pretty brooke entreth into Ex which riseth neere Holcombe where in a Parke is a faire place built by Sir Thomas Denis whose family fetcheth their first off-spring and surname from the Danes and were anciently written Le Dan Denis by which name the Cornish called the Danes But lower upon the very mouth of the river on the other banke side as the name it selfe doth testifie standeth Exanmouth knowne by nothing else but the name and for that some fishermen dwelt therein More Eastward Otterey that is The River of Otters or River-Dogs which we call Otters as may appeare by the signification of the word falleth into the sea which runneth hard under
Alice his onely daughter being wedded unto Richard Nevill augmented his honour with the title of Earle of Salisburie who siding with the house of Yorke was in the battell fought at Wakefield taken prisoner and beheaded leaving to succeede him Richard his sonne Earle of Warwicke and Salisburie who delighting in dangers and troubles enwrapped his native countrey within new broiles of Civill warre wherein himselfe also left his life The one of his daughters named Isabell was married unto George Duke of Clarence brother to King Edward the Fourth and shee bare him a sonne called Edward Earle of Warwicke who being a very child and innocent was by King Henrie the Seventh beheaded like as his sister Margaret suffered the same death under King Henrie the Eighth An usuall pollicie and practise among suspicious Princes For the securitie of their own persons and their posteritie by one occasion or other that evermore are soone offered and as quickly pickt to make away or keepe under the next of their bloud Anne the other daughter of Richard Nevill Earle of Warwick and Salisburie became wife to Richard Duke of Glocester brother to King Edward the Fourth and brought him a sonne whom his uncle King Edward in the 17. of his reigne created Earle of Salisburie and Richard his father usurping the kingdome made Prince of Wales But he departed this life in his tender yeares about that time that his mother also died not without suspition of poison King Henry the Eighth afterward about the fifth yeare of his raigne in a full Parliament restored and enabled in bloud Margaret daughter to George Duke of Clarence to the name stile title honour and dignitie of Countesse of Salisburie as sister and heire to Edward late Earle of Warwick and Salisburie And about the 31. yeare of the said King she was attainted in Parliament with divers others and beheaded when she was 70. yeares old Since which time that title of honour was discontinued untill in the yeare of our Lord 1605. our Soveraigne Lord King Iames honored therewith S. Robert Cecill second sonne of that Nestor of ours William Cecill upon whom for his singular wisedome great employments in the affaires of State to the good of Prince and Countrey he had bestowed the honorable titles of Baron Cecill of Essendon and Vicount Cranburn Thus much of the Earles of Salisburie Lower still and not far from this Citie is scituate upon Avon Dunctone or Donketon a burrough as they say of great antiquitie and well knowne by reason of the house therein of Beavois of Southampton whom the people have enrolled in the number of their brave worthies for his valour commended so much in rhyme to posteritie This Salisburie is environed round about with open fields and plaines unlesse it be Eastward where lieth hard unto it Clarindon a very large and goodly parke passing fit for the keeping and feeding of wild beasts and adorned in times past with an house of the Kings Of which parke and of the twentie groves inclosed therein Master Michael Maschert Doctor of the Civill lawes hath prettily versified in this wise Nobilis est lucus cervis clausura saronam Propter a claro vertice nomen habet Viginti hinc nemorum partito limite boscis Ambitus est passus mille cuique suus A famous Parke for Stag and Hind neere Salisbury doth lie The name it hath of one faire downe or hill that mounts on hie Within the same stand xx groves enclos'd with severall bound Of which in compasse every one a mile containes in ground Famous is this Clarindon for that heere in the yeare 1164. was made a certaine recognition and record of the customes and liberties of the Kings of England before the Prelates and Peeres of the Kingdome for the avoiding discentions betweene the Clergie Iudges and Barons of the Realme which were called The Constitutions of Clarnidon Of the which so many as the Pope approved have beene set downe in the Tomes of the Councels the rest omitted albeit Thomas Becket then Archbishop of Canterburie and the rest of the Bishops approved them all Heereby is Jvy Church sometime a small Priory where as tradition runneth in our grandfathers remembrance was found a grave and therein a corps of twelve foote and not farre of a stocke of wood hollowed and the concave lined with lead with a booke therein of very thicke parchment all written with Capitall Roman letters But it had lien so long that when the leaves were touched they fouldred to dust S. Thomas Eliot who saw it judged it to be an Historie No doubt hee that so carefully laied it up hoped it should be found and discover somethings memorable to posteritie Toward the North about sixe miles from Salisburie in these plaines before named is to bee seeene a huge and monstrous piece of worke such as Cicero termeth Insanam substructionem For within the circuit of a Ditch there are erected in manner of a Crowne in three rankes or courses one within another certaine mightie and unwrought stones whereof some are 28. foote high and seven foote broad upon the heads of which others like overthwart pieces doe beare and rest crosse-wise with a small tenents and mortescis so as 〈◊〉 le frame seemeth to hang whereof wee call it Stonehenge like as our old 〈◊〉 â—â—rmed it for the greatnesse Chorea Gigantum The Giants Daunce The 〈…〉 whereof such as it is because it could not be so fitly expressed in 〈…〉 caused by the gravers helpe to bee portraied heere underneath as it 〈…〉 weatherbeaten and decaied A. Stones called Corsestones Weighing 12. tunne carrying in height 24. foote in breadth 7. foote in compasse 16. B. Stones named Cronetts of 6. or 7. tunne weight C. A place where mens bones are digged up Our countrie-men reckon this for one of our wonders and miracles And much they marvaile from whence such huge stones were brought considering that in all those quarters bordering thereupon there is hardly to be found any common stone at all for building as also by what meanes they were set up For mine owne part about these points I am not curiously to argue and dispute but rather to lament with much griefe that the Authors of so notable a monument are thus buried in oblivion Yet some there are that thinke them to bee no naturall stones hewne out of the rocke but artificially made of pure sand and by some glewie and unctuous matter knit and incorporate together like as those ancient Trophies or monuments of victorie which I have seene in Yorkshire And what marvaile Read we nor I pray you in Plinie that the sand or dust of Puteoli being covered over with water becommeth forthwith a very stone that the cesternes in Rome of sand digged out of the ground and the strongest kind of lime wrought together grow so hard that they seeme stones indeed and that Statues and images of marble chippings and small grit grow together so compact and firme
namely the Warrens Her-berts Colbies Mores and Leicesters amongst the Irish septs of O-Conor unto whom a great part hereof in old time belonged Mac-Coghlan O-Maily Fox and others stand stoutly in defence of the lands wonne by their ancestors and left unto them Now these naturall Irish inhabitants grumble and complaine that their livings and patrimonies have beene taken from them and no other lands assigned and set out for them to live in Hence it is that taking hold of every occasion to make uprores they put the English dwelling among them to much trouble ever and anon yea and oftentimes in revengefull minds festered and poisoned with hostile hatred they breake out furiously into open and actuall rebellions THE COUNTY OF KILDAR OVer against these all along Eastward affronteth the county of Kildar a most rich and plentifull country concerning the pastures whereof Giraldus Cambrensis useth these verses of Virgill Et quantum longis carpunt armenta diebus Exiguâ tantâ—m gelidus ros nocte reponit And looke how much when daies are long the beasts by grasing eat So much cold dewes make good againe by night when 't is not great The chiefe and head towne of the shire is Kildar much honoured and graced in the first infancy of the Irish Church by reason of Saint Brigid a Virgin right venerable and highly esteemed of for her devotion and virginity I meane not that Brigid which about 240. yeeres agoe erected that order of the sisters or Nunnes of Saint Brigid namely that within one Monastery both Monkes and Maidens should live divided asunder by walls and suffered onely one to see another but another Brigid of greater antiquity by farre as who was a Disciple of Saint Patricke of great fame and renowne throughout Ireland England and Scotland Whose miracles and fire never going out but kept by Nunnes as it were in that secret Sanctuary of Vesta and of the ashes that never encrease are mentioned by writers This Kildar is adorned with an Episcopall See named in the Popes letters in old time Episcopatus Darensis After the entrance of the English into Ireland it was the habitation of Richard Earle of Pembroch then of William Mareschall his sonne in law that married his daughter Earle of Penbroch likewise by whose fourth daughter Sibyll it came to William Ferrars Earle of Derby and by his daughter likewise begotten of her unto William Lord Vescy whose sonne William Vescy Lord chiefe Justice of Ireland standing in termes of disfavour and disgrace with King Edward the First for certain quarrels arising between him and John the sonne of Thomas Fitz-Girald and being bereft of his only sonne lawfully begotten granted and surrendred Kildare and other his lands in Ireland unto the King so that he might enfeoffe his base sonne surnamed De Kildare in his other lands in England And a little while after the said John sonne of Thomas Fitz-Girald whose ancesters descended from Girald Windesor Castellan of Pembroch had with passing great valour performed most painefull service in the conquest of this Iland was by Edward the second King of England endowed with the castle and towne of Kildar together with the title and name of Earle of Kildar These Fitz-Giralds or as they now tearme them the Giraldines are a right noble family and for their exploits highly renowned by whose valour as one said The Englishmen both kept the sea coasts of Wales and also forced and won the walls of Ireland And verily this house of Kildare flourished a long time without taint of honour and name as which never bare armes against their Prince untill that Thomas Fitz-Girald the sonne of Girald Fitz-Girald Earle of Kildare and Lord Deputy of Ireland under King Henry the eighth hearing that his father sent for into England and accused for misgoverning Ireland was put to death upon this light and false rumour unadvisedly and rashly carried away with the heat of youth put himselfe into armes against Prince and countrey solicited the Emperour Charles the fifth to enter and seize upon Ireland wasted the land farre and neere with fire and sword laid siege to Dublin and killed the Archbishop thereof For which outrages shortly after he with five of his unkles were hanged when his father for very sorrow was dead before Howbeit Queene Mary restored the family unto their blood and full estate when shee advanced Girald brother unto the aforesaid Thomas to bee Earle of Kildare and Baron of Offaly He ended this life about the yeere 1558. His eldest son Girald died before his father leaving one onely daughter married to Sir Robert Digby Henry his second sonne succeeded who when he had by his wife L. Francis daughter to Charles Earle of Nottingham only two daughters William the third son succeeded in the Earledome who was drowned in passing into Ireland in the yeere 1599. having no issue And then the title of Earle of Kildare came to Girald Fitz-Girald sonne to Edward their Unkle who was restored to his blood in linage to make title by descent lineall or collaterall from his father and brother and all his ancestours any attaindour or corruption of blood to the contrary notwithstanding There be also in this County these places of better note than the rest Naas a mercate towne Athie upon the river Barrow Mainoth a castle belonging to the Earles of Kildare and a towne unto which King Edward the first in favour of Girald Fitz-Moris granted a mercate and Faire Castle Martin the chiefe seat of the family of Fitz-Eustace which descending from the Poers in the County of Waterford for their valour received the honour of a Parliament-Barons bestowed upon Rowland Fitz-Eustace by King Edward the fourth together with the Manour of Port-lester and the title of Vicount Baltinglas at the hands of King Henry the eighth which dignities with a faire patrimony Rowland Fitz-Eustace seduced by the religious pretext unto rebellion and flying his countrey lost by attaindour under Queene Elizabeth The families here remaining besides the Giraldines that be of higher birth above others fetch their descent also out of England namely the Ougans De-la Hides Ailmers Washes Boisels Whites Suttons c. As for the Giants dance which they talke of that Merlin by art magick translated out of this territorie unto Salisbury plaine as also of that most bloody battell which shall be one day betweene the English and the Irish at Molleaghmast I willingly leave unto the credulous lovers of fabulous antiquity and the vaine beleevers of prophesies For my purpose is not to give fond tales the telling These bee the midland counties of Leinster now are we to goe unto those by the sea side THE COUNTY OF WEISFORD BEneath that mouth at which Barrow Neore and Shoure the sister-like rivers having embraced one another and joyned hands are laid up in the Ocean there sheweth it selfe Eastward in a Promontorie where the shore fetcheth a compasse round the County of Weisford or Wexford In Irish County Reogh where Ptolomee in
by word of it Hengston downe well ywrought Is worth London deere ybought And it was an ordinarie place where every seven or eight yeere the Stannarie men of Cornwall and Denshire were wont in great frequencie to assemble together and to consult about their affaires At this hill in the yeere of savation DCCCXXXI the British Danmonij who calling the Danes to aid them of purpose to break into Devonshire that they might drive out the English from thence who alreadie possessed themselves of the countrey were pitiously defeated by King Egbert and slaine almost to the very last man Beneath it Tamar leaveth Halton the habitation of the Rouses anciently Lords of Little Modbery in Devonshire and running nigh unto Salt-Esse a prettie market Towne seated in the descent of an hill which hath a Major and certaine priviledges of their owne as I said erewhile it entertaineth the river Liver on which standeth that same Towne of Saint Germans whereof I spake before And now by this time spreading broader dischargeth it selfe into the Ocean making the haven which in the life of Saint Indractus is called Tamerworth after it hath severed Cornwall from Denshire For Athelstane the first English King that brought this countrey absolute under his dominion appointed this river to be the bound or limit between the Britans of Cornwal and his Englishmen after he had remooved the Britans out of Denshire as witnesseth William of Malmsburie who calleth it Tambra Whereupon Alexander Necham in his Praises of divine wisedome writeth thus Loegriae Tamaris divisor Cornubiaeque Indigenas ditat pinguibus Isiciis Tamar that Lhoegres doth divide from Cornwall in the west The neighbour-dwellers richly serves with Salmons of the best The place requireth here that I should say somewhat of the holy and devout virgin Ursula descended from hence as also of the eleven thousand British Virgins But such is the varietie of Writers whiles some report they suffered martyrdome under Gratian the Emperour about the yeare of our Lord CCCLXXXIII upon the coast of Germanie as they sailed to Armorica others by Attlia the Hun that scourge of God in the yeare CCCCL at Coline upon Rhene as they returned from Rome that with some it hath brought the truth of the History into suspition of a vaine fable And as touching that Constantine whom Gildas termeth a tyrannous whelpe of the uncleane Danmonian Lionesse as also of the Disforresting of all this country for before time it was reputed a Forrest let Historians speake for it is no part of my purpose As for the Earles none of British bloud are mentioned but onely Candorus called by others Cadocus who is accounted by late writers the last Earle of Cornwall of British race and as they which are skilfull in Heraldry have a tradition bare XV. Besaunts V. IIII. III. II. and I. in a shield Sable But of the Normans bloud the first Earle was Robert of Moriton halfe brother to William Conqueror by Herlotta their mother after whom succeeded William his sonne who when hee had sided with Robert of Normandie against Henry the First King of England being taken prisoner in battell lost both his libertie and his honours and at last turned Monke at Bermondsey Then Reginald a base sonne of Henrie the First by the daughter of Sir Robert Corber for that King plied getting children so lustfully as that hee was father of thirteene Bastards was placed in his roome This Reginald dying without issue male legitimate King Henry the Second having assigned unto his daughters certaine lands and Lordships reserved this Earledome to himselfe for the â—ehoore of his owne youngest sonne Iohn a child of nine yeares old upon whom his brother Richard the First conferred it afterwards with other Earledomes This Iohn afterward was crowned King of England and his second sonne Richard was by his brother King Henry the Third endowed with this honour and the Earledome of Poictou a Prince verily in those daies puissant in Gods service devout and religious in war right valiant for counsell sage and prudent who in Aquitaine fought battels with fortunate successe and shewed much valour and having made a voyage into the Holy Land enforced the Sarazens to make truce with him the Kingdome of Apulia offered unto him by the Pope he refused the troubles and tumults in England he often times composed and in the yeare of our Lord MCCLVIL by some of the Princes Electours of Germany was chosen King of the Romans and crowned at Aquisgrane whereupon as if he had made meanes thereto by money this verse was so riâ—e and currant every where Nummus ait pro me nubit Cornubia Romae For me my money saieth this Cornwall to Rome now wedded is For so well monied he was before that one who then lived hath put downe in writing that for ten yeares together hee might dispend one hundred markes a day But when as Germanie was all on a light fire with civil warres among competitors of the Empire he returned quickly into England where he departed this life and was interred in the famous Monastery of Hales which he had built a little after that his first begotten son Henry newly in his return from the Holy Land whiles he was at divine service devoutly occupied within a church at Viterbium in Italy was by Guy de Montfort son of Simon Montfort Earle of Leceister in revenge of his fathers death wickedly slaine Edmund therefore his second son succeeded in the Earledome of Cornwall who died without any lawfull issue and so his high and great estate of inheritance returned to King Edward the First as who was the next unto him in bloud and found as our Lawyers say his heire Whereas that Richard and Edmund his sonne Princes of the bloud Royall of England bare divers Armes from the Armes Royall of England to wit in a shield argent a Lyon rampant gules crowned or within a border sables Bezante I have with others oftentimes much marvelled at neither I assure you can I alleage any other reason but that they in this point imitated the house Royall of France for the manner of bearing Armes came from the French men unto us For the younger sonnes of the Kings of France even to the time wee now speake of bare other coats than the Kings themselves did as we may see in the family of Vermandois Dreux and Courtney and as Robert Duke of Burgundy brother to Henrie the First King of France tooke unto him the ancient shield of the Dukes of Burgundie so we may well thinke that this Richard having received the Earledome of Poictou from Henry the Third his brother assumed unto him that Lyon gules crowned which belonged to the Earles of Poictou before him as the French writers doe record and added thereto the border garnished with Besaunts out of the ancient coat of the Earles of Cornwall For so soone as the younger sonnes of the Kings of France began to beare the Armes of France with
which Elfgiva a most godly and devout Lady wife to Edmund that was King Aelfrids nephews sonne had erected and of ten parish Churches besides or there about But most famous in this place by occasion of a prety fable that our Historians doe report of Aquila prophecying here of the conversion or change of the Britaines Empire For some will have the bird Aquila that is an Eagle others a man so named to have foretold here that the British Empire after the Saxons and Normans should returne againe to the ancient Britaines and these men affirme and maintaine that this place is of greater antiquitie than Saturne himselfe whereas most certaine it is that it was first built by Alfred For the Historiographer of Malmesbury hath recorded that in his daies there was an old stone translated from the ruines of the wall into the Chapter house of the Names which had this Inscription ANNO DOMINICAE INCARNATIONIS AELFREDVS REX FECIT HANC VRBEM DCCC.LXXX REGNI SVI VIII That is In the yeare of the incarnation of our Lord King Aelfred built this Citie 880. of his raigne the eighth This Inscription I have the more willingly put down here for proofe of the Truth because in all the copies which I have seen it is wanting save only in that in the Librarie of the late Lord Burghley high Treasurer of England and I have beene informed that it continued there untill the time of King Henry the Eighth Yet the Inhabitants have a tradition that an old Citie stood upon the place which is called the Castle-Greene and by some Bolt-bury now a faire plaine so scited that as of one side it joyneth to the Towne so of another it is a strange sight to looke downe to the vale under it whereby in the West end of the old Chappell of S. Iohn as I heare now standeth a Roman Inscription reversed From thence the Stoure by Marnhill of which place L. Henry Howard brother of Thomas last Duke of Norfolke received of King Iames the title of Baron Howard of Mernhill before that he was created Earle of Northampton makes speed to Stourminster which is as much to say as the Monasterie or Minster upon Stoure A small towne this is standing somewhat with the lowest from which there is a stone bridge built reaching to Newton Castle where offreth it selfe to be seene a loftie mount cast up as they say to that heighth with great labour but of the Castle there remaineth nothing at all but onely the bare name Of these I have nothing of more antiquitie to say than this that King Aelfred bequeathed Stoureminster to a younger sonne of his Hard by at Silleston there rise two good great hilles the one named Hameldon the other Hodde and both of them fortified with a three fold Ditch and rampier And not far from thence but the very place I cannot precisely set downe stood Okeford the Capitall honour of the Baronie of Robert the sonne of Pagan commonly named Fitz-Payne who married the daughter of Guido de Brient who also in this West part enjoyed the honor of a Baron under King Edward the Third but for default of heire males of those Fitz-Paynes it came to the Poynings Barons likewise in those daies and at length by a daughter and heire of Poynings in the raigne of Henry the Sixth these Barons titles Fitz-Payne Brient and Poinings were conjoyned in the Percies Earles of Northumberland Howbeit within our fathers remembrance through the favour of King Henry the Eighth the title of Baron Poinings reflourished in Sir Thomas Poinings sonne of Sir Edward Poinings a martiall man and fruitfull father of much base brood but with him it soone vanished away as bastardly slips seldome take deepe root From hence Stoure passeth on by Brienston that is Brients towne where the Rogerses dwell an ancient family of Knights degree to Market Blandford which since in our time it chanced to be burnt downe arose againe built more elegantly and is better peopled with Inhabitants Then Stoure from thence by Tarrent where Richard Poer Bishop of Sarisbury founded a Cell for Virgins Votaries speedeth himselfe apace to that most ancient towne VINDOGLADIA where Antoninus maketh mention Which in the Saxons tongue is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commonly Winburne and of the Monasterie Wenburnminster and from hence to Dorcester are counted sixteene miles just so many as the Emperour Antonine in his Itinerarie reckoneth betweene Vindogladia and Durnovaria The name as I conjecture it taketh of the scituation because it is seated betweene two rivers for so in the British tongue Windugledy soundeth as much as betweene two Swords now that the Britaines by a peculiar phrase of their owne terme rivers Swords it appeareth by Aberdugledian the British name of Milford Haven which is as much to say as the mouth of two rivers for that two rivers named with them Gledian that is Swords runne into it The latter name also of this town seemeth to be set from Rivers For Winburn is compounded of Vin a parcell of the old name and the Saxon word Burne which among them betokeneth a river and by the addition thereof the Saxons were wont to name places standing upon rivers The very town it selfe is seated upon the piece of an hill large in compasse replenished with Inhabitants but few faire buildings In the Saxons time right famous it was and much frequented for no other cause I believe but for that in those daies there remained divers tokens of the Romans majestie In the yeare 713. Cuthburga sister to Ina King of the West-Saxons when upon a loathing wearinesse of wedlocke she had sued out a Divorce from her owne husband King of Northumberland built heere a Nunnerie which yeilded unto the injurie of time and fallen to decay there arose in the very place thereof a new Church with a faire Vault beneath under the quier and an high spire besides the Toure-steeple In which were placed Prebendaries in liew of those Nuns Over whom in our fathers daies Reginal Pole was Deane who afterwards being Cardinal and Archbishop of Canteburie over and above the nobilitie of his house for descended he was of the Royall bloud became highly renowned for pietie wisedome and eloquence King Etheldred a right good and vertuous Prince brother of Aelfred slaine in the battell at Wittingham against the Danes lieth enterred in this Church upon whose Tombe which not long since hath beene repaired this new Inscription is to be read IN HOC LOCO QVIESCIT CORPVS S. ETHELDREDI REGIS WEST SAXONVM MARTYRIS QVI ANNO DOMINI DCCC LXXII XXIII APRILIS PER MANVS DANORVM PAGANORVM OCCVBVIT That is Heere lieth at rest the bodie of Etheldred King of the West-Saxons Martyr who died in the yeare of our Lord 872. the 23. of April by the hands of the Danes Infidels Neere unto whom lieth entombed Gertrude Blunt Marchionesse of Excester daughter to William Lord Montjoy and
the said Geffrey appointed Walden to bee the principall place and seat of his honour and Earledome for him and his Successours The place where hee built the Abbay had plenty of waters which rising there continually doe runne and never faile Late it is ere the Sunne riseth and shineth there and with the soonest he doth set and carry away his light for that the hilles on both sides stand against it That place now they call Audley End of Sir Thomas Audley Lord Chancellour of England who changed the Abbay into his owne dwelling house This Thomas created by King Henry the Eighth Baron Audley of Walden left one sole daughter and heire Margaret second wife to Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolke of whom hee begat Lord Thomas Lord William Lady Elizabeth and Lady Margaret The said Thomas employed in sundry Sea-services with commendation Queene Elizabeth summoned by Writ unto the High Court of Parliament among other Barons of the Realme by the name of Lord Howard of Walden And King James of late girded him with the sword of the Earldome of Suffolke and made him his Chamberlaine who in this place hath begunne a magnificent Building Neere to another house of his at Chesterford there was a Towne of farre greater antiquity hard by Icaldun in the very border of the Shire which now of the old Burgh the rusticall people use to call Burrow Banke where remaine the footings onely of a Towne lying in manner dead and the manifest tract of the very walles Yet will I not say that it was VILLA FAUSTINI which Antonine the Emperour placeth in this Tract and albeit Ingrata haud lati spatia detinet campi Sed rure vero barbaróque laetatur It takes not up large ground that yeelds no gaine But Country like is homely rude and plaine Yet dare not I once dreame that this is that Villa Faustini which in these and other Verses is by that pleasant and conceited Poet Martiall depaincted in his Epigrams The fieldes heere on every side as I said smell sweetly and smile pleasantly with Saffron a commodity brought into England in the time of King Edward the Third This in the moneth of â—uly every third yeere when the heads thereof have been plucked up and after twenty daies spitted or set againe under mould about the end of September they put foorth a whitish blew flower out of the middle whereof there hang three redde fillets of Saffron we call them Chives which are gathered very early in the morning before the Sunne rising and being plucked out of the flower are dried at a soft fire And so great increase commeth heereof that out of every acre of ground there are made fourescore or an hundred pounds weight of Saffron while it is moist which being dried yeeld some tweâ—â—y pound in weight And that which a man would marvell more at the ground which three yeeres together hath borne Saffron will beare aboundance of Barley eighteene yeeres together without any dunging or manuring and then againe beare Saffron as before if the inhabitants there have not misinformed me or I mis-conceived them More into the South is Clavering seated which King Henry the Second gave unto Sir Robert Fits-Roger from whom the family of Evers are issued The posterity of this Sir Roger after they had a long time taken their name of their fathers forename or Christen-name according to that ancient custome as Iohn Fitz-Robert Robert Fitz-Iohn c. afterwards by the commandement of King Edward the First they assumed from hence the name of Clavering But of these I am to speake in Northumberland Stansted Montfichet heere also putteth up the head which I will not passe over in silence considering it hath been the Baronie or habitation in times past of the family De Monte Fisco commonly Mont-fitchet who bare for their Armes three Cheverus Or in a shield Gueles and were reputed men of very great nobility But five of them flourished in right line and at the last three sisters were seized of the inheritance Margaret wife of Hugh De Boleber Aveline wedded to William De Fortibus Earle of Aumarle and Philip wife to Hugh Playz The posterity male of this Hugh flourished within the remembrance of our great Grandfathers and determined in a daughter married to Sir Iohn Howard Knight from whose daughter by Sir George Vere descended the Barons Latimer and the Wingfeldes And a little below is Haslingbury to bee seene the residence of the Barons Morley of whom I shall speake more in Norfolke And close to this standeth an ancient Fort or Military fense thereof named Walbery and more East-ward Barrington Hall where dwelleth that right ancient Family of the Barringtons which in the Raigne of King Stephen the Barons of Montficheâ— enriched with faire possessions and more ennobled their house in our fathers remembrance by matching with one of the daughters and coheires of Sir Henry Pole Lord Montacute sonne of Margaret Countesse of Salisbury descended of the Bloud Royall Neither is Hatfield Regis commonly called of a broad spread Oke Hatfield Brad-Oake to be omitted where Robert Vere Earle of Oxford built a Priory and there lieth entombed crosse-legged with a French inscription wherein he is noted to be first of that name Robert and third Earle of Oxford After the comming of the Normans Mande the Empresse Lady of the English for so shee stiled herselfe created Geffrey De Magnavilla usually called Mandevil son to William by Margaret daughter and heire of Eâ—do the Steward or Shewar the first Earle of Essex that shee might so by her benefits oblige unto her a man both mighty and martiall Who in those troublesome times under King Stephen despoiled of his estate made an end of his owne turbulent life with the sword And hee verily for his wicked deeds as I finde in an old Writer justly incurred the worlds censure and sentence of excommunication in which while hee stood hee was deadly wounded in the head at a little Towne called Burwell When he lay at the point of death ready to give his last gaspe there came by chance certaine Knights Templars who laid upon him the habit of their religious Profession signed with a red Crosse and afterwards when hee was full dead taking him up with them enclosed him within a Coffin of Lead and hunge him upon a tree in the Orchard of Old Temple at London For in a reverent awe of the Church they durst not bury him because he dyed excommunicated After him succeeded Geffry his sonne who was restored by Henry the Second to his fathers honours and Estate for him and his heires but he having no children left them to his brother William who by his wife was also Earle of Albemarle and dyed likewise in his greatest glory issuelesse Some yeares after K. John promoted Geffrey Fitz-Petre Justicer of England a wise and grave Personage unto this honour in consideration of a great masse of
of Hereford for uttering inconsiderately certaine reprochfull and derogatory words against the king And when they were to fight a combat at the very barre and entry of the Lists by the voice of an Herauld it was proclaimed in the kings name That both of them should be banished Lancaster for ten yeares and Mowbray for ever who afterwards ended his life at Venice leaving two sonnes behind him in England Of which Thomas Earle Marshall and of Nottingham for no other Title used hee was beheaded for seditious plotting against Henry of Lancaster who now had possessed himselfe of the Crowne by the name of King Henry the Fourth But his brother and heire John who through the favour of King Henry the Fifth was raised up and for certaine yeares after called onely Earle Marshall and of Nottingham at last in the very beginning of Henry the Sixth his Raigne By authority of Parliament and by vertue of the Patent granted by King Richard the Second was declared Duke of Norfolke as being the sonne of Thomas Duke of Norfolke his father and heire to Thomas his brother After him succeeded John his sonne who died in the first yeare of Edward the Fourth and after him likewise John his sonne who whiles his father lived was created by King Henry the Sixth Earle of Surry and of Warren Whose onely daughter Anne Richard Duke of Yorke the young sonne of King Edward the Fourth tooke to wife and together with her received of his father the Titles of Duke of Norfolke Earle Marshall Earle of Warren and Nottingham But after that he and his wife both were made away in their tender yeares Richard the Third King of England conferred this Title of the Duke of Norfolke and the dignity of Earle Marshall upon John Lord Howard who was found next cozen in bloud and one of the heires to the said Anne Dutchesse of Yorke and Norfolke as whose mother was one of the daughters of that first Thomas Mowbray Duke of Norfolke and who in the time of King Edward the Fourth was summoned a Baron to the Parliament This John lost his life at Bosworth field fighting valiantly in the quarrell of King Richard against King Henry the Seventh His sonne Thomas who being by King Richard the Third created Earle of Surry and by King Henry the Seventh made Lord Treasurer was by King Henry the Eighth restored to the Title of Duke of Norfolke and his sonne the same day created Earle of Surry after that by his conduct James the fourth King of the Scots was slaine and the Scottish power vanquished at Branxton In memoriall of which Victory the said King granted to him and his heires males for ever that they should beare in the midst of the Bend in the Howards Armes the whole halfe of the upper part of a Lion Geules pierced through the mouth with an arrow in the due colours of the Armes of the King of Scots I translate it verbatim out of the Patent After him succeeded his sonne Thomas as well in his honours as in the Office of Lord Treasurer of England and lived to the time of Queene Mary tossed to and fro betweene the reciprocall ebbes and flowes of fortune whose grand sonne Thomas by his sonne Henry the first of the English Nobility that did illustrate his high birth with the beauty of learning being attainted for purposing a marriage with Mary the Queene of Scots lost his life in the yeare of our Lord 1572. and was the last Duke of Norfolke Since which time his off-spring lay for a good while halfe dead but now watered and revived with the vitall dew of King James reflourisheth very freshly In this Province there be Parish Churches about 660. CAMBRIDGE Comitatus quem olim ICENI Insederunt CAMBRIDGE-SHIRE CAMBRIDGE-SHIRE called in the English-Saxon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lyeth more inward and stretched out in length Northward On the East it butteth upon Northfolke and Suffolke on the South upon the East-Saxons or Essexe and Hertfordshire on the West upon Bedford and Huntingdon shires and Northward upon Lincoln-shire being divided into two parts by the river Ouse which crosseth it over-thwart from West to East The lower and South-part is better manured and therefore more plentifull being some-what a plaine yet not altogether levell for the most part or all of it rather save onely where it bringeth forth saffron is laid out into corne fields and yeeldeth plentifully the best barly of which steeped in water and lying wet therein untill it spurt againe then after the said sprout is full come dried and parched over a Kill they make store of mault By venting and sending out whereof into the neighbor-countries the Inhabitants raise very great gaine The farther and Northerne part because it is Fennish ground by reason of the many flouds that the rivers cause and so dispersed into Islands is called The Isle of Ely a tract passing greene fresh and gay by reason of most plenteous pastures howbeit after a sort hollow by occasion of the water that in some places secretly entreth in yea and otherwhile when it overfloweth surroundeth most part of it Along the West side of the lower part runneth one of the two highwayes made by the Romans Ely booke calleth it Ermingstreet which passeth forth right to Hâ—ntingdon through Roiston that standeth in the very edge and entry of the Shire a towne well knowne yet but of late built whereof I have already spoken also by Caxton in times past the seate of the Barony of Stephen de Eschalâ—ers and from whose Posterity in the reigne of King Henry the Third it descended to the Frevills and from them by the Burgoins to the Iermins Neither is Gamlinghay far distant from hence where dwelt the Avenells whose Inheritance came by marriage to the ancient Family of Saint George out of which there flourished many Knights since the time of King Henry the First at Hatley which of them is called Hatley Saint George Above Caxton before mentioned is Eltesley where was in elder Ages a Religious house of Holy Virgines among whom was celebrated the incertaine memory of Saint Pandionia the daughter of a Scottish King as the tradition is But long since they were translated to Hinchinbroke And againe above Eltesley was the Priory of Swasey founded for blacke Monkes by Alan la Zouch brother to the Vicount of Rohan in the Lesser Britaine and was the common Sepulture a long time for the Family of Zouch More Westward a little river runneth through the middle of this part which issuing downe out of Ashwel hastneth from South to North with many turnings to joyn it selfe with the Ouse running by Shengay where be the goodliest medows of this Shire a Commandery in old time of the Knights Templars which Shengay Sibyl the daughter of Roger Mont-gomery Earle of Shrewsbury and wife of I. de Raines gave unto them in the yeere 1130. nor farre from Burne Castle in ancient times the Barony of
whose sake also when Iohn was revolted from him and tooke part with the French hee honoured with the same title William Marquesse of Iuliers the said Queene Philips sisters son After the death of these two Forainers King Edward the Third translated this dignity to his fifth sonne Edmund of Langley which after he had held foure yeeres my warrant I have out of an old manuscript being in the hands of that skilfull Antiquary Francis Thinn the Earle of Henault cosin to Queene Philip came into Parliament house put in a claime for his right and returned backe well contented The said Edmund of Langly afterwards Duke of Yorke had two sonnes Edward Duke of Yorke who for a certaine time held the Earldome of Cambridge and was slaine in the battell of Agin-court and Richard by the grace and favour of King Henry the Fifth and consent of his brother Edward was created Earle of Cambridge But when he ungratefull and ambitious man that hee was contrived the destruction of that good and noble Prince and so lost his head the title of Cambridge died the same day that he did or lurked at least wise among other titles of his sonne Richard who was afterwards Duke of Yorke and restored to his blood and estate as being cosin and heire to his Unkle Edward Duke of Yorke This Shire containeth Parishes 163. HVNTINGDON Comitatus qui pars fuir ICENORVM HUNTINGDON-SHIRE NExt unto Cambridge-shire lyeth HUNTINGDON-SHIRE in the Saxon tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so situate that Southward it confineth upon Bedford-shire Westward upon Northamptonshire like as Northwards where by the River Avon it is parted and Eastward upon Cambridge-shire a Country good for corne and tillage and toward the East where it is fenny very rich and plentifull for the feeding of Cattaile elsewhere right pleasant by reason of rising hils and shady groves For the Inhabitants report that in ancient times it was throughout beset with woods and certaine it is that it was a Forest untill that king Henry the Second in the beginning of his raign disforested it as we find in an old perambulation all save Waybridge Sapple and Herthei which were Woods of the Lords demaine and remaine still forests The South part thereof the River Ouse that I have so often spoken of runneth by and bedecketh with flowers On which River among other of lesse note there stand some Townes of good note First after it hath left Bedford-shire and is entred into this County it visiteth Saint Neots commonly called Saint Needs so named of one Neotus a man both learned and holy who travailed all his life time in propagating of Christian Religion whose body was translated from Neotstok in Cornwall hither and in honour of him Alfrick converted the Palace of Earle Elfride unto a Monastery The which Dame Roisia Wife to Richard Lord of Clare shortly after the comming in of the Normas enriched with many faire Possessions But before it was named Ainulphsbury of one Ainulph likewise an holy and devout man which name continueth still also in one part of it A little beneath this at Aileweston a very small Village there are two little Springs the one fresh the other somewhat brackish of which the neighbours give out that this is good against scabs and leprosie the other against the dimnesse of the eye-sight From thence not farre Ouse passeth to Bugden a proper faire house of the Bishops of Lincolne and so by Hinchingbrok a religious house sometimes of Nuns whom King William the Conquerour translated hither from Eltesley in Cambridge-shire and now the dwelling house of the Cromwels knights commeth to Huntingdon in the English-Saxon tongue as Marianus reporteth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the publique seale Huntersdune that is the hill or downe of hunters as Henry Archdeacon of this place who flourished 400. yeares since interpreteth it whence it used in their seale an hunter and Leland our Countriman alluding thereunto hath coined a new Latine word for it namely Venantodunum This is the chiefe Towne of all this Shire to which it hath given also the name farre excelling all the Townes about it the same Archdeacon saith as well for lightsome and pleasant situation as for the beauty and faire shew that it hath it selfe as well also for the vicinity of the Fennes as for great store of Deere and Fish In King Edward the Confessors time that I may note so much out of Domesday booke There were in this Borrough foure Ferlings that is Quarters or Wards In two of them were 116. Burgesses paying custome and gelt and under them 100. Bordarij in the other two 111. Burgesses for all customes and the Kings gelt It is seated upon the North-banke of Ouse somewhat high stretching out in length Northward adorned with foure Churches and it had a little Abbay founded by Maude the Empresse and Eustace Lovetoft the ruines whereof Eastward I have seene hard under the Towne By the River neere unto the Bridge which is faire built of stone the Mount and Plot of a Castle is to bee seene which in the yeare of our Redemption 917. King Edward the Elder built anew and David the Scotishman unto whom as an ancient Historiographer writeth King Stephen had given the Burrough of Huntingdon for an augmentation of his estate enlarged with many new buildings and Bulwarkes but in the end King Henry the Second both because it was a place of refuge for seditious Rebels and for that the Scots and the Saint Lizes had oftentimes raised quarrels and contention about it to cut off all occasions of strife laid it even with the ground when as hee provoked with their unreasonable variance swore an oath that neither they of Saint Lizes nor the Scottishmen should quarrell any more for it From these Castle hils where there is a goodly prospect a great way off a man may behold below a medow which they call Portsholme environed round about with the River Ouse the same very exceeding large and of all others that the Sunne ever shone upon most fresh and beautifull whereof in the Spring time this may be truly said Ver pingit vario gemmantia prata colore The pleasant Spring faire flowers doe yeeld Of divers colours in this field With such a delectable variety of gaye colours it pleaseth and contenteth the eye On the hither banke over against Huntingdon standeth the mother as it were thereof from whence it had his Originall called in Domesday booke Godmundcester and at this day Good-man-chester for Gormonchester A very great country Towne and of as great name for tillage situate in an open ground of a light mould and bending to the Sun Neither is there a Towne againe in all England that hath more stout and lusty husbandmen or more ploughs agoing For they make their boast that they have in former time received the Kings of England as they passed in their progresse this way with nine score ploughs brought forth in a rusticall kind
mediamnis in orbe Colle tumet modico duplici quoque ponte superbit Accipiens patriâ sibi linguâ nomen ab alnis The buildings high of Shrewsbury doe shine both farre and nere A Towne within a River set an Island as it were Mounted upon a prety hill and Bridges hath it twaine The name it tooke of Alder trees in British tongue they sayne Neither is it strengthned onely by nature but fortified also by art for Roger of Montgomery unto whom by the Conquerors gift it was allotted pulling downe 50. houses or thereabout built a strong stately Castle on the North side upon a rising rocke and Robert his son when hee revolted from King Henry the First walled it about on that side where it was not fensed with the River which notwithstanding never that I know of suffered assault or hostility but once in the Barons Warre against King John At the first entring of the Normans it was a City well inhabited and of good trade For as we reade in Domesday booke In King Edward the Confessors time it paid Gelt according to an hundred Hides In the Conquerours time it paid yeerely seven pounds and sixteene shillings de Gablo They were reckoned to bee two hundred and fifty two Citizens whereof twelve were bound to watch about the Kings of England when they lay at this City and as many to accompany them when they went forth on hunting Which I would verily thinke to have beene ordained because not many yeeres before Edricke Streona Duke of the Mercians a man notoriously disteined with wickednesse lay in wait heere for Prince Ashelm and slew him as he rode on hunting At which time as that Booke sheweth the custome was in this City That a woman taking howsoever it were a husband if she were a widdow gave unto the King twenty shillings if a maide tenne in what manner soever she tooke a man But to returne unto our matter the said Earle Roger not onely fortified it but also adorned it with other buildings both publique and private yea and founded a very goodly Abbay to the honour of Saint Peter and Saint Paul unto which he granted many Possessions and therewith Saint Gregories Church And namely in that tenour I exemplifie the words out of the private History of the said Abbay That when the Chanons who held Prebends therein should any of them die the said Prebends should come unto the Demaine and Possession of the Monkes Whereupon arose no small controversie For the sonnes of the said Chanons sued the Monkes at Law that they might succeed in their fathers Prebends For at that time the Chanons and Priests in England were married and it grew to be a custome that Ecclesiasticall livings should descend by inheritance to the next of the bloud But this controversie was decided under King Henry the First and concluded it was that the heire should not succeed in Ecclesiasticall Livings yea and about that time lawes were enacted touching the single life of Priests Soone after in processe of time other Churches also were heere erected For to say nothing of the houses or Frieries of Dominicans Franciscans and Augustine Friers which the Charletons Jenevils and Staffords founded there were two Collegiat Churches erected Saint Chadds with a Deane and ten Prebendaries and Saint Maries with a Deane likewise and nine Prebendaries And even at this day a faire and goodly City it is well frequented and traded full of good merchandise and by reason of the Citizens painfull diligence with cloth making and traffique with Welshmen rich and wealthy For hither almost all the commodities of Wales doe conflow as it were to a common Mart of both Nations Whereupon it is inhabited both with Welsh and English speaking both languages who among other things deserve especiall commendation for this in that they have set up a Schoole for the training up of children wherein were more Schollers in number when I first saw it than in any one Schoole throughout all England againe unto which Thomas Aston the first head Schoolmaster a right good man procured by his meanes a very honest Salarie and Stipend for the Teachers It shall not now I hope bee impertinent to note that when diverse of the Nobility conspired against King Henry the Fourth with a purpose to advance Edmund Mortimer Earle of March to the Crowne as the undoubtfull and right heire whose father King Richard the Second had also declared heire apparent and Sir Henry Percy called Hote-spurre then addressed himselfe to give the assault to Shrewsbury upon a suddaine all their designes were dashed as it were from above For the King with speedy marches was upon his backe before hee imagined To whom yet the young Hote-spurre with courageous resolution gave battaile and after a long and doubtfull fight wherein the Scotishmen which followed him shewed much manly valour when the Earle of Worcester his Unckle and the Earle of Dunbar were taken hee despairing of Victory ran undaunted upon his owne death amiddest the thickest of his enemies Of this battaile the place is called Battaile-field Where the King after Victory erected a Chappell and one or two Priests to pray for their soules who were there slaine As for the position of this Shrewsbury it is from the Islands Azores twenty Degrees and seven and thirty minutes distant in Longitude and from the Aequinoctiall Line two and fifty Degrees and three and fifty minutes in Latitude From out of this city I wot not whether it may be thought worth my labour or pertinent to my purpose to relate so much brake forth the last time namely in the yeere of our Salvation 1551. that dismall disease The English Sweat which presently dispersed over the whole Realme made great mortality of people especially those of middle age for as many as were taken suddenly with this Sweat within one foure and twenty houres either dyed or recovered But a present remedy was found namely that such as in the day time fell into it should presently in their clothes as they were goe to bed if by night and in bed should there rest lye still and not stirre from thence for foure and twenty houres provided alwayes that they should not sleepe the while but by all meanes bee kept waking Whereof this disease first arose the learned of Physicians know not for certaine Some strangers ascribe it to the ground in England standing so much upon plastre and yet it is but in few places of that nature In certaine moist Constitutions of weather say they it happeneth that vapours arise out of that kinde of Soile which although they bee most subtile yet they are corrupt which cause likewise a subtile contagion and the same is proportionate either unto the spirits or to the thinne froth that floateth upon the bloud But whatsoever the cause is no doubt there is an Analogie betweene it and the subtile parts of bloud by reason whereof within one day the Patient either mends
to take any thing that pertained to the Warren without the licence and good will of Henry himselfe and his Successours Which was counted in that age for a speciall favour and I note it once for all that we may see what Free Warren was But the male issue of this Family in the right line ended in Henry Kigheley of Inskip Howbeit the daughters and heires were wedded to William Cavendish now Baron Cavendish of Hardwick and to Thomas Worseley of Boothes From hence Are passeth beside Kirkstall an Abbay in times past of no small reckoning founded by Henry Lacy in the yeere 1147. and at length visiteth Leedes in the Saxon tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which became a house of the Kings when CAMBODUNUM was by the enemy burnt to the ground now a rich Towne by reason of clothing where Oswy king of Northumberland put to flight Penda the Mercian And as Bede saith this was to the great profit of both Nations for he both delivered his owne people from the hostile spoiling of the miscreants and also converted the Mercians themselves to the grace of Christian Faith The very place wherein they joyned battaile the writers call Winwidfield which name I suppose was given it of the Victory like as a place in Westphalia where Quintilius Varus with his legions was slaine is in the Dutch tongue called Winfield that is The fields of victory as that most learned man and my very good friend Abraham Ortelius hath observed The little Region or Territory about it was in times past by an old name called Elmet which Eadwin king of Northumberland the sonne of AElla after hee had expelled Cereticus a British king conquered in the yeere of Christ 620. Herein is digged limestone every where which is burnt at Brotherton and Knottingley and at certaine set times as it were at Faires a mighty quantity thereof is conveied to Wakefield Sandall and Stanbridge and so is sold unto this Westerne Country which is hilly and somewhat cold for to manure and enrich their Corne fields But let us leave these things to Husbandmen as for my selfe I professe my ignorance therein and will goe forward as I beganne At length Are entertaineth Calder aforesaid with his water as his Guest where neere unto the meeting of both Rivers standeth Castleford a little Village Marianus nameth it Casterford who reporteth that the Citizens of Yorke slew many of king Ethelreds Army there whom in their pursuite they set upon and charged heere and there at advantages what time as hee invaded and overranne this Country for breaking the allegeance they had sworne unto him But in Antonine this place is called by a more ancient name LEGEOLIUM and LAGETIUM Wherein beside expresse and notable tokens of Antiquity a mighty number of Roman peeces of money the common people there tearme them Sarasins head were found at Beanfield a place so called now of Beanes hard by the Church The distance also from DAN and YORKE betweene which he placed it doth most cleerely confirme as much to say nothing of the situation thereof hard by the Romanes High Street and last of all for that Roger Hoveden in plaine tearmes calleth it A City From hence Are being now bigger after it hath received Calder unto it leaveth on the left hand Brotherton a little Towne in which Queene Margaret turning thither out of the way as she road on hunting was delivered of childe and brought forth unto her Husband king Edward the First Thomas de Brotherton so named of the place who was afterward Earle of Norfolke and Mareshall of England And not farre beneath Are after it hath received into it Dan looseth himselfe in Ouse On the right hand where a yellower kinde of marke is found which being cast and spred upon the fields maketh them beare Corne for many yeeres together he passeth by Ponttract commonly called Pontfret situate not farre from the river banke which Towne gat life as it were by the death of old Legeolium In the Saxons time it was called Kirkby but the Normans of a broken Bridge named it in French Pontfract Upon this occasion it is commonly thought that the wooden Bridge over Are hard by was broken when a mighty multitude of people accompanied William Archibishop a great number fell into the River and yet by reason that the Archbishop shed many a teare at this accident and called upon God for helpe there was not one of them that perished Seated it is in a very pleasant place that bringeth forth Liquirice and skirworts in great plenty adorned also with faire buildings and hath to shew a stately Castle as a man shall see situate upon a rocke no lesse goodly to the eye than safe for the defence well fortified with ditches and bulwarkes Hildebert Lacy a Norman unto whom king William the First after that Alricke the Saxon was thrust out had given this Towne with the land about it first built this Castle But Henry Lacy his nephew came into the field at the battaile of Trenchbrey I speake out of the Pleas against King Henry the First wherefore hee was disseised of the Barony of Pontfract and the King gave the Honour to Wido de Lavall who held it untill King Stephens dayes at which time the said Henry made an entry into the Barony and by mediation of the King compounded with Wido for an hundred and fifty pounds This Henry had a sonne named Robert who having no issue left Albreda Lizours his sister by the mothers side and not by the father to bee his heire because hee had none other so neere in bloud unto him whereby shee after Roberts death kept both inheritances in her hand namely of her brother Lacies and her father Lizours And these be the very words of the booke of the Monastery of Stanlow This Albreda was marryed to Richard Fitz Eustach Constable of Chester whose Heires assumed unto them the name of Lacies and flourished under the title of Earles of Lincolne By a daughter of the last of these Lacies this goodly inheritance by a deede of conveyance was devolved in the end to the Earles of Lancaster who enlarged the Castle very much and Queene Elizabeth likewise bestowed great cost in repairing it and beganne to build a faire Chappell This place hath beene infamous for the murder and bloudshed of Princes For Thomas Earle of Lancaster the first of Lancastrian House that in right of his wife possessed it stained and embrewed the same with his owne bloud For King Edward the Second to free himselfe from rebellion and contempt shewed upon him a good example of wholsome severity and beheaded him heere Whom notwithstanding standing the common people enrolled in the Beadroll of Saints Heere also was that Richard the Second King of England whom King Henry the Fourth deposed from his Kingdome with hunger cold and strange kindes of torments most wickedly made away And heere King Richard the
them who deserve for their vertue and piety to bee renowned Let it suffice to note in a word that from Paulinus the first Archbishop consecrated in the yeere of our Redemption 625. there have sitten in that See threescore and five Archbishops unto the yeere 1606. in which D. Tobie Matthew a most reverend Prelate for the ornaments of vertue and piety for learned eloquence and continuall exercise of teaching was translated hither from the Bishopricke of Durrham This City for a time flourished very notably under the English Saxons dominion untill the Danes like a mighty storme thundring from out of the North-East defaced it againe with merveilous great ruines and by killing and slaying disteined it with bloud which that Alcuine aforesaid in his Epistle to Egelred King of Northumberland may seeme to have presaged before What signifieth saith he that raining of bloud which in Lent we saw at Yorke the head City of the whole Kingdome in Saint Peters Church to fall downe violently in threatning wise from the top of the roufe in the North part of the house and that in a faire day May it not bee thought that bloud is comming upon the Land from the North parts Verily soone after it was embrued with bloud and did pine away with most miserable calamities when the Danes spoiled wasted and murrhered all where ever they came And verily in the yeere 867. the wals were so battered and shaken by reason of continuall Warres that Osbright and Ella Kings of Northumberland whiles they pursewed the Danes easily brake into the City who being both of them slaine in a most bloudy battaile in the very middest of the City left the victory unto the Danes Whereupon William of Malmesbury writeth in this manner Yorke alwaies exposed first to the rage of the Northren Nations sustained the barbarous assaults of the Danes and groaned being pitteously shaken with manifold ruines But as the very same Authour witnesseth King Athelstone wonne it perforce out of the Danes hands and overthrew the Castle quite which they had heere fortified Neither for all this was it altogether free from warres in the times next ensuing whiles that age ranne fatall for the destruction of Cities But the Normans as they ended these miseries so they made almost a finall hand of Yorke also For when the sonnes of Sueno the Dane had landed in these parts with a Danish Fleete of 240. Saile the Normans lying in Garison who kept two Forts within the City fearing least the houses in the Suburbes might stand the enemy in stead to fill up the Ditches withall set them on fire but by reason the winde rose highly the fire was so carried and spred throughout that City that now it was set a burning when the Danes breaking in upon them made pitifull slaughter in every place having put the Normans to the sword and keeping alive William Mallet and Gilbert Gant two principall persons that they might be tithed with the souldiers For every tenth man of the Normans they chose out by lot to be executed Whereupon King William the Conquerour was so incensed with desire of revenge that he shewed his cruelty upon the Citizens by putting them all to death as if they had taken part with the Danes and upon the City it selfe by setting it on fire afresh and as William of Malmesbury saith Hee so depopulated and defaced the Villages adjoyning and the sinewes of that fertile Region were so cut by the spoiles there committed and booties raised and the ground for the space of threescore miles lay so untilled that if a stranger had then seene the Cities that in times were of high account the Towres which with their lofty toppes threatned the skie and the fields that were rich in pastures hee could not but sigh and lament yea and if an ancient inhabitant had beheld the same hee could not have knowne them How great Yorke had beene aforetime Domesday booke shall tell you in these words In King Edward the Confessours time there were in Yorke City sixe Divisions or Shires besides that of the Archbishops One was laid waste for the Castles or Forts In the five Divisions were 1428. dwelling Mansions to give entertainement And in the Archbishops Shire or Division 200. dwelling Mansions likewise After these woefull overthrowes our countryman Necham thus versified of it Visito quam foelix Ebrancus condidit urbem Petro se debet pontificalis apex Civibus hac toties viduata novÃsque repleta Diruta prospexit moenia saepe sua Quid manus hostilis queat est experta frequenter Sed quid nunc pacis otia longa fovent The City that Great Ebrauk built I come now for to view Whereof the See pontificall is to Saint Peter due This many times laid desolate and peopled new hath beene Her wals cast downe and ruinate full often hath it seene What mischiefe hostile hands could worke not once nor twice it found What then since now long time of peace doth keepe it safe and sound For in his time when after these troublesome stormes a most pleasant calme of peace presently ensued it rose of it selfe againe and flourished afresh although the Scots and Rebels both did oftentimes make full account to destroy it But under the Raigne of King Stephen it caught exceeding great harme by casualty of fire wherein were consumed the Cathedrall Church the Abbay of Saint Mary and other religious houses yea and that noble and most furnished Library as it is thought which Alcuin hath recorded to have been founded by Archbishop Egeldred his Praeceptour As for the Abbay of Saint Mary it quickly recovered the former dignity by new buildings but the Cathedrall Church lay longer ere it held up head againe and not before King Edward the First his time For then John Roman Treasurer of the Church laid the foundation of a new worke which his sonne John William Melton and John Thoresby all of them Archbishops brought by little and little to that perfection and beauty which now it sheweth yet not without the helping hand of the Nobility and Gentry thereabout especially of the Percies and the Vavasours which the armes of their houses standing in the very Church and their images at the West gate of the Church doe shew Percies pourtraied with a peece of timber and Vavasours with a stone in their hands for that the one supplied the stone the other the timber for this new building This Church as he reporteth who wrote the life of Aeneas Sylvius who was Pope Pius the second and that upon the Popes owne relation For workmanship and greatnesse is memorable over all the world and the Chappell most lightsome the glasse-windowes whereof are fast bound betweene pillars that bee most slender in the mids This Chappell is that most dainty and beautifull Chapter-house in which this verse stands painted in golden letters Ut Rosa flos florum sic est Domus ista Domorum The floure of floures a Rose men call So is
fortune to escape it selfe This was called The battaile of the Standard because the English keeping themselves close together about the standard received the first onset and shock of the Scotish endured it and at length put them to flight And this Standard as I have seene it pictured in ancient bookes was a mighty huge chariot supported with wheeles wherein was set a pole of a great height in manner of a mast and upon the very top thereof stood a crosse to bee seene and under the crosse hung a banner This when it was advanced was a token that every one should prepare himselfe to fight and it was reputed as an holy and sacred altar that each man was to defend with all power possible resembling the same for al the world that Carrocium of the Italians which might never be brought abroad but in the greatest extremitie and danger of the whole state Within this litle shire also Threske commonly called Thruske is worth to bee mentioned which had sometime a most strong Castle out of which Roger Mowbray displaied his banner of rebellion and called in the king of Scots to the overthrow of his owne native Country what time as King Henry the Second had rashly and inconsiderately digged as it were his owne grave by investing his sonne King in equall authority with himselfe But this rebellion was in the end quenched with bloud and this Castle quite dismantled so that beside a ditch and rampire I could see nothing there of a Castle Another firebrand also of rebellion flamed out heere in the Raigne of Henry the Seventh For when the unruly Commons tooke it most grievously that a light subsidie granted by the States of the Kingdome in Parliament was exacted of them and had driven away the Collectors thereof forthwith as it is commonly seene that Rashnesse speeding once well can never keepe a meane nor make an end they violently set upon Henry Percie Earle of Northumberland who was Lieutenant of these parts and slew him in this place and having John Egremond to be their leader tooke armes against their Country and their Prince but a few daies after they felt the smart of their lawlesse insolency grievously and justly as they had deserved Heere hard by are Soureby and Brakenbake belonging to a very ancient and right worshipfull family of the Lâ—scelles also more Southward Sezay sometime of the Darels from whence a great family branched and afterwards the Dawnies who for a long time flourished heere maintaining the degree and dignity of Knights right worthily The first and onely Earle of Yorke after William Mallet and one or two Estotevils of the Norman bloud who they say were Sheriffes by inheritance was Otho son to Henry Leo Duke of Bavar and Saxony by Maude the daughter of Henry the Second King of England who was afterwards proclaimed Emperour and stiled by the name of Otho the fourth From whose brother William another sonne of Maud are descended the Dukes of Brunswicke and Luneburgh in Germanie who for a token of this their kinred with the Kings of England give the same Armes that the first Kings of England of Norman bloud bare to wit two Leopards or Lions Or in a shield Gueles Long after King Richard the Second created Edmund of Langley fifth sonne of King Edward the Third Duke of Yorke who by a second daughter of Peter King of Castile and of Leon had two sonnes Edward the eldest in his fathers life time was first Earle of Cambridge afterwards Duke of Aumarle and in the end Duke of Yorke who manfully fighting in the battaile at Agincourt in France lost his life leaving no children and Richard his second sonne Earle of Cambridge who having marryed Anne sister of Edmund Mortimer whose grandmother likewise was the onely daughter of Leonell Duke of Clarence and practising to advance Edmund his wives brother to the royall dignity was streightwaies intercepted and beheaded as if hee had beene corrupted by the French to destroy King Henry the Fifth Sixteene yeeres after his sonne Richard was restored in bloud through the exceeding but unadvised favour of King Henry the Sixth as being sonne to Richard Earle of Cambridge brother to Edward Duke of Yorke and cozin also to Edmund Earle of March. And now being Duke of Yorke Earle of March and of Vlster Lord of Wigmore Clare Trim and Conaght hee bare himselfe so lofty that shortly hee made claime openly in Parliament against King Henry the Sixth as in his owne right for the Crowne which he had closely affected by indirect courses before in making complaints of the misgovernment of the State spreading seditious rumours scattering Libels abroad complotting secret Conspiracies and stirring up tumults yea and open Warres laying downe his Title thus as being the sonne of Anne Mortimer who came of Philip the daughter and sole heire of Leonel Duke of Clarence third sonne of King Edward the Third and therefore to be preferred by very good right in succession of the Kingdome before the children of John of Gaunt the fourth sonne of the said Edward the Third And when answere was made unto him that the Nobles of the Realme and the Duke himselfe had sworne Alleageance unto the King that the Kingdome by authority of Parliament had beene conferred and entailed upon Henry the Fourth and his heires that the Duke claiming his Title from the Duke of Clarence never tooke upon him the Armes of the Duke of Clarence that Henry the Fourth held the Crowne in right from King Henry the Third hee easily avoyded all these allegations namely that the said oath unto the King taken by mans law was in no wise to bee performed when as it tended to the suppression of the truth and right which stand by the Law of God That there was no need of Parliamentary authority to entaile the Crowne and Kingdome unto the Lancastrians neither would they themselves seeke for it so if they had stood upon any right thereunto As for the Armes of the Duke of Clarence which were his by right hee forbare of purpose to give them untill then like as hee did to claime his right to the Imperiall Crowne And as for the right or Title derived from king Henry the Third it was a meere ridiculous devise and manifest untruth to cloake the violent usurpation of Henry the Fourth and therefore condemned of all men Albeit these plees in the behalfe of the Duke of Yorke stood directly with law yet for remedy of imminent dangers the matter was ordered thus by the wisdome of the Parliament That Henry the Sixth should enjoy the right of the Kingdome for tearme of life onely and that Richard Duke of Yorke should be proclaimed heire apparant of the Kingdome he and his heires to succeed after him provided alwaies that neither of them should plot or practise ought to the destruction of the other Howbeit the Duke immediately was transported so headlong with ambition that hee went about to preoccupate and forestall
to Henrie Earle of Lancaster who being descended of ancient bloud and renowned for his martiall prowesse was rewarded also by King Edward the third with faire possessions in Scotland created Earle of North-humberland by King Richard the second on the day of his Coronation and much enriched by his second wife Dame Maud Lucie although by her hee had no issue upon a fine levied unto her that hee should beare quarterly the Armes of the Lucies with his owne and lived in great honour confidence and favour with King Richard the second Yet full badly hee requited him againe for all his singular good demerits For in his adversitie hee forsooke him and made way for Henrie the fourth to the kingdome who made him Constable of England and bestowed upon him the Isle of Man against whom within a while hee feeling the corrosive and secret pricke of conscience for that King Richard by his meanes was unjustly deposed and besides taking at the heart indignantly that Edmund Mortimer Earle of March the true and undoubted heire of the Kingdome and his neere ally was neglected in prison hee conceived inward enmity grievously complaining and charging him with perjury that whereas hee had solemnly sworne to him and others that hee would not challenge the Crowne but onely his owne inheritance and that King Richard should be governed during his life by the good advice of the Peeres of the realme he to the contrary had by imprisonment and terror of death enforced him to resigne his Crown and usurped the same by the concurrence of his faction horribly murthering the said K. and defrauding Edmund Mortimer Earle of March of his lawfull right to the Crown whom he had suffered to languish long in prison under Owen Glendour reputing those traitours who with their owne money had procured his enlargement After the publication of these complaints he confident in the promises of his confederates who yet failed him sent his brother Thomas Earle of Worcester and his courageous sonne Henry surnamed Hot-Spurre with a power of men against the King who both lost their lives at the battaile of Shrewesbury Whereupon he was proclaimed traitour and attainted but shortly after by a kind of connivency received againe into the Kings favour unto whom he was a terrour yea and restored to all his lands and goods save onely the Isle of Man which the King resumed into his owne hands Howbeit within a while after being now become popular and over forward to entertaine new designes and having procured the Scots to bandy and joyne with him in armes himselfe in person entred with banner displayed into the field against the King as an Usurper and on a sudden at Barrhammore in a tumultuary skirmish in the yeere 1408. was discomfited and slaine by Thomas Rokesby the high Sheriffe of Yorke-shire Eleven yeeres after Henry this mans nephew by his sonne Henry Hot-Spur whose mother was Elizabeth daughter to Edmund Mortimer the elder Earle of March by Philippa the daughter of Leonel Duke of Clarence was restored in bloud and inheritance by authority of Parliament in the time of King Henry the fifth which Henry Percie whiles he stoutly maintained King Henry the sixth his part against the house of Yorke was slaine at the battell of Saint Albans like as his sonne Henry the third Earle of Northumberland who married Aelenor the daughter of Richard Lord Poinings Brian and Fitz-Pain in the same quarrell lost his life in the battaile at Towton in the yeere 1461. The house of Lancaster being now kept under and downe the wind and the Percies with it troden under foot King Edward the fourth made Iohn Nevill Lord Montacute Earle of Northumberland but he after a while surrendred this title into the Kings hands and was created by him Marquesse Montacute After this Henry Percy the sonne of Henry Percy aforesaid recovering the favour of King Edward the fourth obtained restitution in bloud and hereditaments who in the reigne of Henry the seventh was slaine by the countrey people that about a certaine levie of money exacted by an Act of Parliament rose up against the Collectours and Assessours thereof After him succeeded Henry Percy the fifth Earle whose sonne Henry by a daughter and Coheire of Sir Robert Spenser and Eleanor the daughter likewise and Coheire of Edmund Beaufort Duke of Somerset was the sixth Earle who having no children and his brother Thomas being executed for taking armes against King Henry the eighth in the first difference about Religion as if now that family had beene at a finall end for ever prodigally gave away a great part of that most goodly inheritance unto the King and others Some few yeeres after Sir Iohn Dudley Earle of Warwick got to himselfe the title of Duke of Northumberland by the name of Iohn Earl of Warwick Marshal of England Vicount Lisle Baron Somery Basset and Ties Lord of Dudley Great Master and Steward of the Kings house when as in the tender age of King Edward the sixth the Chieftaines and leaders of the factions shared titles of honour among themselves their fautors and followers This was that Duke of Northumberland who for the time like unto a tempestuous whirlewind began to shake and teare the publicke peace of the state whiles he with vast ambition plotted and practised to exclude Mary and Elizabeth the daughters of King Henry the eighth from their lawfull right of succession and to set the Emperiall Crowne upon Lady Jane Grey his daughter in law being seconded therein by the great Lawyers who are alwaies forward enough to humour and sooth up those that bee in highest place For which being attainted of high treason he lost his head and at his execution embraced and publikely professed Popery which long before either seriously or colorably for his own advantage he had renounced When he was gone Queene Mary restored Thomas Percy nephew unto Henry the sixth Earle by his brother Thomas unto his bloud and by a new Patent created him first Baron Percy and anon Earle of Northumberland to himselfe and the heires males of his body and for default thereof to his brother Henry and his heires males But this Thomas the seventh Earle for his treason to Prince and country under maske of restoring the Romish religion againe lost both life and dignity in the yeere 1572. Yet through the singular favour and bounty of Queen Elizabeth according to that Patent of Queene Mary his brother Henry succeeded after him as the eighth Earle who in the yeere 1585. ended his dayes in prison and had for his successor Henry his sonne by Katherin the eldest daughter and one of the heires of John Nevill Lord Latimer the ninth Earle of Northumberland of this family Parishes in Northumberland about 46. SCOTLAND SCOTIA Regnum SCOTLAND NOw am I come to SCOTLAND and willingly I assure you will I enter into it but withall lightly passe over it For I remember well that said saw In places not well knowne lesse while wee must stay
world for fishfull streame renown'd Refresheth all the neighbour fields that lye about it round But Glascow beautie is to Cluyd and grace to countries nye And by the streames that flow from thence all places fructifie Along the hithermore banke of Cluid yeth the Baronie of Reinfraw so called of the principall towne which may seeme to bee RANDVARA in Ptolomee by the river Cathcart that hath the Baron of Cathcart dwelling upon it carrying the same surname and of ancient nobilitie neere unto which for this little province can shew a goodly breed of nobilitie there border Cruikston the seat in times past of the Lords of Darley from whom by right of marriage it came to the Earles of Lennox whence Henrie the Father of King James the sixth was called Lord Darly Halkead the habitation of the Barons of Ros descended originally from English blood as who fetch their pedegree from that Robert Ros of Warke who long since left England and came under the alleageance of the King of Scots Pasley sometimes a famous Monasterie founded by Alexander the second of that name high Steward of Scotland which for a gorgeous Church and rich furniture was inferiour to few but now by the beneficiall favour of King James the sixth it yeeldeth both dwelling place and title of Baron to Lord Claud Hamilton a younger sonne of Duke Chasteu Herald and Sempill the Lord whereof Baron Sempill by ancient right is Sheriffe of this Baronie But the title of Baron of Reinfraw by a peculiar priviledge doth appertaine unto the Prince of Scotland LENNOX ALong the other banke of Cluyd above Glascow runneth forth Levinia or LENNOX Northward among a number of hills close couched one by another having that name of the river Levin which Ptolomee calleth LELANONIUS and runneth into Cluyd out of Logh Lomund which spreadeth it selfe here under the mountaines twenty miles long and eight miles broad passing well stored with varietie of fish but most especially with a peculiar fish that is to be found no where else they call it Pollac as also with Ilands concerning which manie fables have beene forged and those riâ—e among the common people As touching an Iland here that floateth and waveth too and fro I list not to make question thereof For what should let but that a lighter bodie and spongeous withall in manner of a pumice stone may swimme above the water and Plinie writeth how in the Lake Vadimon there be Ilands full of grasse and covered over with rushes and reeds that float up and downe But I leave it unto them that dwell neerer unto this place and better know the nature of this Lake whether this old Distichon of our Necham be true or no Ditatur fluviis Albania saxea ligna Dat Lomund multa frigiditate potens With rivers Scotland is enrich'd and Lomund there a Lake So cold of nature is that stickes it quickly stones doth make Round about the edge of this Lake there bee fishers cottages but nothing else memorable unlesse it be Kilmoronoc a proper fine house of the Earles of Cassiles on the East side of it which hath a most pleasant prospect into the said Lake But at the confluence where Levin emptieth it selfe out of the Lake into Cluyd standeth the old Citie called Al-Cluyd Bede noteth that it signified in whose language I know not as much as The rocke Cluyd True it is that Ar-Cluyd signifieth in the British tongue upon Cluyd or upon the rocke and Cluyd in ancient English sounded the same that a Rocke The succeeding posteritie called this place Dunbritton that is The Britans towne and corruptly by a certaine transposition of letters Dunbarton because the Britans held it longest against the Scots Picts and Saxons For it is the strongest of all the castles in Scotland by naturall situation towring upon a rough craggie and two-headed rocke at the verie meeting of the rivers in a greene plaine In one of the tops or heads abovesaid there standeth up a loftie watch-tower or Keep on the other which is the lower there are sundrie strong bulwarks Betweene these two tops on the North side it hath one onely ascent by which hardly one by one can passe up and that with a labour by grees or steps cut out aslope travers the rocke In steed of ditches on the West side serveth the river Levin on the South Cluyd and on the East a boggie flat which at everie tide is wholly covered over with waters and on the North side the verie upright steepenesse of the place is a most sufficient defence Certain remaines of the Britans presuming of the naturall strength of this place and their owne manhood who as Gildas writeth gat themselves a place of refuge in high mountaines and hills steep and naturally fensed as it were with rampires and ditches in most thick woods and forrests in rockes also of the sea stood out and defended themselves here after the Romans departure for three hundred yeeres in the midst of their enemies For in Bedes time as himself writeth it was the best fortified citie of the Britans But in the yeere 756. Eadbert King of Northumberland and Oeng King of the Picts with their joint forces enclosed it round about by siege and brought it to such a desperate extremitie that it was rendred unto them by composition Of this place the territorie round about it is called the Sherifdome of Dunbarton and hath had the Earles of Lennox this long time for their Sheriffes by birth-right and inheritance As touching the Earles of Lennox themselves to omit those of more ancient and obscure times there was one Duncane Earle of Lennox in the reigne of Robert the second who died and left none but daughters behinde him Of whom one was married to Alan Steward descended from Robert a younger sonne of Walter the second of that name High Steward of Scotland and brother likewise to Alexander Steward the second from whom the noblest and royall race of Scotland hath beene propagated This surname Steward was given unto that most noble family in regard of the honourable office of the Stewardshippe of the kingdome as who had the charge of the Kings revenues The said Alan had issue John Earle of Lennox and Robert Captain of that companie of Scottishmen at Armes which Charles the sixth K. of France first instituted in lieu of some recompence unto the Scottish nation which by their valour had deserved passing well of the kingdom of France who also by the same Prince for his vertues sake was endowed with the Seigniorie of Aubigny in Auvergne John had a sonne named Matthew Earle of Lennox who wedded the daughter of James Hamilton by Marion daughter to King James the second on whom he begat John Earle of Lennox hee taking armes to deliver King James the fifth out of the hands of the Douglasses and the Hamiltons was slaine by the Earle of Arran his Unkle on the mothers side This John was
shooteth into the deepe sea and is to bee seene a farre off Hard by South Eske voideth it selfe into the Ocean which river flowing amaine out of a lake passeth by Finnevim Castle well knowne by reason of the Lindeseies Earles of Crawford keeping residence there of whom I have alreadie written Then upon the said river standeth Brechin which King David the first adorned with a Bishops See and at the very mouth thereof Mont-rose as one would say the Mount of Roses a towne in times past called Celurca risen by the fall of another towne bearing the same name which is seated betweene the two Eskes and imparteth the title of Earle to the family of the Grahams Concerning which towne Ionston hath these verses CELURCA five MONS ROSARUM Aureolis urbs picta rosis mons molliter urbi Imminet hinc urbi nomina facta canunt At veteres perhibent quondam dixisse Celurcam Nomine sic prisco nobilitata novo est Et prisca atque nova insignis virtute virumque Ingeniis patriae qui perperere decus MONT-ROSE With Roses gay the towne is deckt an easie Mount withall Stands neere the same and hence they say MONT-ROSE folke did it call In former times by ancient name Celurca men it knew Ennobled thus you see it is by name both old and new Both old and new renowne it hath for prowesse and for wit Of men that have their countrey grac'd and honour won to it Not farre from hence is Boschain belonging to the Barons of Ogiluy of very ancient nobilitie lineally descended from Alexander Sheriffe of Angus who was slaine in the bloodie battaile at Harley against the Mac Donald of the out Isles As touching the Earles of Angus Gilchrist of Angus renowned for his brave exploits under King Malcolm the fourth was the first Earle of Angus that I read of About the yeere 1242. Iohn Comin was Earle of Angus who died in France and his widow haply inheritrice to the Earldome was married to Sir Gilbert Umfranvill an Englishman For both hee and his heires successively after him were summoned to the Parliaments in England untill the third yeere of King Richard the second by the title of Earles of Angus Howbeit the Lawyers of England refused in their Brieves and instruments to acknowledge him Earle for that Angus was not within the kingdome of England untill hee had brought forth openly in the face of the Court the Kings writ and warrant wherein he was summoned to the Parliament by the name of Earle of Angus In the reigne of David Brus Thomas Stewart was Earle of Angus who by a suddaine surprise won Barwicke and streightwaies lost it yea and within a while after died miserably in prison at Dunbritton But the Douglasses men of haughtie mindes and invincible hearts from the time of King Robert the third have beene Earles of Angus after that George Douglasse had taken to wife the Kings daughter reputed the chiefe and principall Earles of Scotland and to whom this office belongeth to carrie the regall Crown before the Kings at all the solemne assemblies of the kingdome The sixth Earle of Angus out of this stocke was Archebald who espoused Margaret daughter to Henrie the seventh K. of England and mother to James the fifth King of Scots by whom he had issue Margaret wife to Matthew Stewart Earle of Lennox who after her brothers decease that died childlesse willingly resigned up her right and interest in this Earldome unto Sir David Douglasse of Peteindreich her unkles sonne by the fathers side and that with the consent of her husband and sonnes to the end that she might binde the surer unto her selfe by the linke also of a beneficiall demerite that family which otherwise in bloud was most neere what time as Henrie her son went about to wed Marie the Queen by which marriage King JAMES our Soveraigne the mightie Monarch of great Britaine was happily borne to the good of all Britaine MERNIS THese regions were in Ptolomees time inhabited by the VERNICONES the same perhaps that the VECTURIONES mentioned by Marcellinus But this their name is now quite gone unlesse wee would imagine some little peece thereof to remaine in Mernis For many times in common speech of the British tongue V. turneth into M. This small province Mernis abutting upon the German Ocean and of a rich and battle soile lieth very well as a plaine and levell Champion But the most memorable place therein is Dunnotyr a Castle advanced upon an high and unaccessible rocke whence it looketh downe to the underflowing sea well fensed with strong walls and turrets which hath beene a long time the habitation of the Keiths of an ancient and verie noble stock who by the guidance of their vertue became hereditarie Earles Mareschals of the kingdome of Scotland and Sheriffes of this province In a porch or gallerie here is to bee seene that ancient inscription which I mentioned even now of a companie belonging to the twentieth legion the letters whereof the right noble and honourable Earle now living a great lover of antiquitie caused to be guilded Somewhat farther from the sea standeth Fordon graced in some sort and commendable in regard of John de Fordon who being borne here diligently and with great paines compiled Scoti Chronicon that is The Scottish Chronicle unto whose laborious studies the Scottish Historiographers are very much indebted but more glorious and renowned in old time for the reliques of St. Palladius bestowed and shrined sometime as is verily thought in this place who in the yeere 431. was by Pope Caelestinas appointed the Apostle of the Scottish nation MARRIA or MAR. FRom the sea in the mediterranean or inland parts above Mernis MAR enlargeth it selfe and runneth forward threescore miles or thereabout where it lieth broadest Westwards it swelleth up with mountaines unlesse it bee where the rivers Dee which Ptolomee calleth DIVA and Done make way for themselves and enfertile the fields Upon the bank of Done Kildrummy standeth as a faire ornament to the countrey being the ancient seat of the Earles of Marre and not farre distant from it the habitation of the Barons Forbois who being issued from a noble and ancient stocke assumed this surname whereas before time they were called Bois after that the heire of that family had manfully killed a savage and cruell Beare But at the very mouth of this river there be two townes that give greater ornament which of the said mouth that in the British tongue they call Aber borrowing one name are divided asunder by one little field lying betweene the hithermore of them which standeth neerer to Dee mouth is much ennobled by an Episcopall dignitie which King David the first translated hither from Murthlake a little village by faire houses of the Canons an Hospitall for poore people and a free Grammar schoole which William Elphinston Bishop of the place in the yeere 1480. consecrated to the training up
honour of Earle of Louth to have unto him and his heires males and withall the dignity of Baron of Athenry to him and his heires But this honourable title as it began so it ended in him for he that in warre vanquished his enemies was soone after in a tumult of rebellious people vanquished and slaine by his owne men in this territory with many other of his sirname leaving no issue behinde him But in our fathers remembrance King Henry the eighth honoured Sir Oliver Plonket with the title of Baron of Louth There remaine in this county the Verdons Tates Clintons Bellews Dowdals Gernons Hadsors Wottons Brandons Mores Warrens Chamberlanes and very many besides of English blood and of the Irish the Mac-Mathons c. THE COUNTY OF CAVON THe county of CAVON lieth next unto Louth to the West called in times past East Breanny the habitation of the O-Reilyes who vaunt themselves to have had their beginning of the Ridleys in England whereas in their whole course and maner of life they be meere Irish. These O-Reileys not long since were of great power in horsemen but to the end they might be that way lesse powerfull Sir Henry Sidney in his policy divided their county into seven Baronies whereof the Lords out of that family should immediately hold the same by service in fee from the Crowne of England They dwell scattering in piles and forts not in towns A Bishop they have of their own and him a poore one God he knoweth whose See is at Kilmore and yet is not he so poore as those Irish Bishops were who had no other rents and revenues than three milch kine which the parishioners exchanged for others new milch when they went dry according as Adam Bremensis from their owne relation when they returned by Germany out of Italy learned and put downe in writing THE COUNTY OF FERMANAGH BEyond Cavan West and North FERMANAGH presenteth it selfe where sometimes the ERDINI dwelt a country full of woods and very boggish In the midst whereof is that most famous and the greatest Meere of all Ireland Logh Erne stretching out 40. miles bordred about with shady woods and passing full of inhabited Ilands whereof some containe an hundred two hundred and three hundred Acres of ground having besides such store of Pikes Trouts and Salmons that the fishermen complain oftner of too great plenty of fishes and of the breaking of their nets than they doe for want of draught This Lake spreadeth not from East to West as it is described in the common Maps but as I have heard those say who have taken a long and good survey thereof first at Bal-Tarbet which is a little towne farthest North of any in this county of Cavon it stretcheth from South to North foureteene miles in length and foure in bredth Anon it draweth in narrow to the bignesse of a good river for six miles in the chanell whereof standeth Inis Killin the principall castle in this tract which in the yeere 1593. was defended by the rebels and by Dowdall a most valiant Captaine won Then turning Westward it enlargeth it selfe most of all twenty miles long and ten broad as far as to Belek neere unto which is a great downefall of water and as they terme it that most renowned Salmons Leape A common speech is currant among the inhabitants there by that this Lake was once firme ground passing well husbanded with tillage and replenished with inhabitants but suddenly for their abominable buggery committed with beasts overflowne with waters and turned into a Lake The Almighty God saith Giraldus Creator of Nature judged this land privie to so filthy acts against Nature unworthy to hold not only the first inhabitants but any others for the time to come Howbeit this wickednesse the Irish Annales lay upon certaine Ilanders out of the Hebrides who being fled out of their owne Countrey lurked there Among the Lords in this tract Mac-Gwir was most noble and powerfull untill he overthrew himselfe and his state in the late rebellion And they that be of that Sept dwell on both sides yet so as that those beyond the Lake are reckoned of Ulster and they on this side of Conaght THE COUNTY MONAGHAN ALong the Lough-Erne on the East side stretcheth out the Countie Monaghan mounting aloft with hills well attired with woods but knowne by no towne at all unlesse it be Monaghan which imparted the name unto the whole country It is divided into five Baronies containeth Iriel Dartre Ferey Loughty which by authority of Parliament were for rebellion given away from the Mac-Mahons with the little territory Donemain which Queen Elizabeth bestowed upon Walter D'Evereux Earle of Essex Those Mac-Mahons that is if we interpret it out of the Irish language The Sons of Ursus or the Beare ruled here as tyrannicall Lords a long time and derive their Genealogy from Walter Fitz-Urse who imbrued his hands with the bloody murdering of Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury The most puissant of these after the manner of that nation tooke upon him to Lord it over the rest and by way of excellency was termed Mac-Mahon About which preheminence when as of late daies they of that Sept or Family were at most bitter debate by way of hard words open armes foule practises yea and close corruptions Sir William Fitz-William the Lord Deputy came hither among them and judicially convented Hugh-Roe Mac-Mahon whom he by his authority had set up in this Seigniory and being upon his triall condemned of treason caused him to be hanged and to the end that he might suppresse for ever both the name and soveraignty of Mac-Mahon he divided the territory betweene the kinred of the said Hugh and certaine Englishmen to have and to hold after the English tenure to them and theirs THE COUNTY ARMAGH ON the East side again lieth out in length the county of Armagh so as that it is compassed as it were about with the river Neury by East with the county of Louth by South and with the Black-water by North. A County as I have sundry times heard the Earle of Denshire Lord Lievtenant Generall say that for a most rich and battle soile passeth all other parts of Ireland insomuch as if any compost be laid upon it to make it more fruitfull it scorneth and disdaineth as one would say the same and becommeth barren The first place in it that we meet with is Fewes a little territory belonging to Turlogh Mac-Henry one of the family of O-Neale thicke set with woods and by reason of loughs and bogs unpassable Then have you Orry as scarce of woods where dwelleth O-Hanlan and the fort Mont-Norris built by Charles Baron Mont-joy when he was Lord Deputy and so named in honour of Sir Iohn Norris under whom he had served first and was trained in military discipline Eight miles from hence neere unto the river Kalin Armach maketh a poore shew