knew as well as he how earnest the King their Master hath bin any time these ten years to have it don how ther could not be a better pawn for the surrendry of the Palatinat than the Infanta in the Prince his arms who would never rest till she did the work to merit love of our Nation He told him also how their owne particular fortunes depended upon 't besides if he should delay one moment to deliver the Proxy after the Ratification was com according to agreement the Infanta would hold her self so blemish'd in her honor that it might overthrow all things Lastly he told him that they incurr'd the hazard of their heads if they should suspend the executing his Majesties Commission upon any order but from that power which gave it who was the King himself hereupon both the Ambassadors proceeded still in preparing matters for the solemnizing of the mariage the Earl of Bristoll had caus'd above thirty rich Liveries to be made of watchet Velvet with silver lace up to the very capes of the Cloaks the best sorts wherof were valued at 80 l. a Livery My Lord Aston had also provided new Liveries and a fortnight after the said politic report was blown up the Ratification came indeed complete and full so the mariage day was appointed a Terrass cover'd all over with Tapestry was rais'd from the Kings Palace to the next Church which might be about the same extent as from White-Hall to Westminster Abbey and the King intended to make his sister a Wife and his daughter wherof the Queen was deliver'd a little before a Christian upon the same day the Grandes and great Ladies had been invited to the mariage and order was sent to all the Port Towns to discharge their great Ordnance and sundry other things were prepar'd to honor the solemnity but when wee were thus at the hight of our hopes a day or two before there came Mr. Killegree Gresley Wood and Davies one upon the neck of another with a new Commission to my Lord of Bristoll immediatly from his Majesty countermanding him to deliver the Proxy aforesaid untill a full and absolut satisfaction were had for the surrendry of the Palatinat under this Kings hand and Seal in regard he desir'd his Son should be married to Spain and his Son in law remarried to the Palatinat at one time hereupon all was dasht to peeces and that frame which was rearing so many years was ruin'd in a moment This news strook a damp in the hearts of all people here and they wisht that the Postillons that brought it had all broke their necks in the way My Lord of Bristoll hereupon went to Court to acquaint the King with his new Commission and so propos'd the restitution of the Palatinat the King answer'd 't was none of his to give 't is true he had a few Towns there but he held them as Commissioner only for the Emperor and he could not command an Emperor yet if his Majesty of great Britain would put a Treaty a foot hee would send his own Ambassadors to joyn In the interim the Earl was commanded not to deliver the foresaid Proxy of the Prince for the desposorios or espousall untill Christmas And herein it seems his Majesty with you was not well inform'd for those powers of Proxies expir'd before the King here said further that if his Uncle the Emperor or the Duke of Bavaria would not be conformable to reason he would raise as great an Army for the Prince Palsgrave as he did under Spinola when he first invaded the Palatinat and to secure this he would ingage his Contratation House of the West Indies with his Plate Fleet and give the most binding instrument that could be under his hand and Seal But this gave no satisfaction therfore my Lord of Bristoll I beleeve hath not long to stay here for he is commanded to deliver no more Letters to the Infanta nor demand any more audience and that she should be no more stiled Princess of England or Wales The foresaid Caution which this King offer'd to my Lord of Bristoll made me think of what I read of his Grandfather Philip the second who having been maried to our Queen Mary and it being thought she was with child of him and was accordingly prayed for at Pauls Cross though it proved afterward but a tympany King Philip prepos'd to our Parliament that they would pass an Act that he might be Regent during his or her minority that should be born and he would give good caution to surrender the Crown when he or she should com to age the motion was hotly canvas'd in the house of Peers and like to pass when the Lord Paget rose up and said I but who shall sue the Kings bond so the busines was dasht I have no more news to send you now and I am sory I have so much unless it were better for we that have busines to negotiat here are like to suffer much by this rupture welcom be the will of God to whose benediction I commend you and rest Madrid Aug. 25. 1623. Your most humble Servitor J. H. XXVII To the Right honble the Lord Clifford My good Lord THough this Court cannot afford now such comfortable news in relation to England as I could wish yet such as it is you shall receive My Lord of Bristoll is preparing for England I waited upon him lately when he went to take his leave at Court and the King washing his hands took a Ring from off his own finger and put it upon his which was the greatest honor that ever he did any Ambassador as they say here he gave him also a Cupbord of Plate â—…alued at 20000 Crowns There were also large and high promises made him that in case heâ—… feard to fall upon any rock in England by reason of the power of those who malignd him if hee would stay in any of his Dominions he would give him means and honor equall to the highest of his enemies The Earl did not only wave but disdaind these Propositions made unto him by Olivares and said he was so confident of the King his Masters justice and high judgment and of his own innocency that hee conceiv'd no power could be able to do him hurt Ther hath occurd nothing lately in this Court worth the advertisement They speak much of the strange carriage of that boisterous Bishop of Halverstad for so they term him here that having taken a place where there were two Monasteries of Nuns and Friers he caus'd divers feather-beds to be rip'd and all the feathers to be thrown in a great Hall whither the Nuns and Friers were thrust naked with their bodies â—…ld and pitchd and to tumble among these feathers which makes them here presage him an ill death So I most affectionately kiss your hands and rest Madrid Aug. 26. 1623. Your very humble Servitor J. H. XXVIII To Sir John North. SIR I Have many thanks to render you for the favor
Verge Cullen is chief of the second Precinct Erurswic of the third and Danzic of the fourth The Kings of Peland and Sweden have sued to be their Protector but they refus'd them because they were not Princes of the Empire they put off also the King of Denmark with a Complement nor would they admit the King of Spain when he was most potent in the Netherlands though afterwards when 't was too late they desir'd the help of the Ragged Staff nor of the Duke of Anjou notwithstanding that the world thought he should have married our Queen who interceded for him and so 't was probable that therby they might recover their privileges in England so that I do not find they ever had any Protector but the great Master of Prussia and their want of a Protector did do them som prejudice in that famous difference they had with our Queen The old Hans had extraordinary immunities given them by our Henry the third because they assisted him in his wars with so many ships and as they pretend the King was not only to pay them for the service of the said Ships but for the Vessells themselves if they miscarried Now it happen'd that at their return to Germany from serving Henry the third ther was a great Fleet of them cast away for which according to Covenant they demanded reparation Our King in lieu of money amongst other Acts of Grace gave them a privilege to pay but one per cent which continued untill Queen Mories reign and she by advice of King Philip her husband as 't was conceiv'd enhanc'd the one to twenty per cent The Hans not onely complain'd but clamor'd loudly for breach of their ancient Privileges confirm'd unto them time out of mind by thirteen successive Kings of England which they pretended to have purchased with their money King Philip undertook to accommode the busines but Queen Mary dying a little after and he retiring ther could be nothing don Complaint being made to Queen Elizabeth she answerd That as shee would not innovat any thing so she would maintain them still in the same condition she found them hereupon their Navigation and Trafic ceas'd a while Wherfore the English tryed what they could do themselves and they thrive so well that they took the whole trade into their own hands and so divided themselves though they bee now but one to Staplers and Merchant Adventurers the one residing constant in one place wher they kept their Magazin of Wool the other stirring and adventuring to divers places abroad with Cloth and other Manufactures which made the Hans endevor to draw upon them all the malignancy they could from all Nations Moreover the Hans Towns being a body politic incorporated in the Empire complain'd hereof to the Emperor who sent over persons of great quality to mediat an accommodation but they could effect nothing Then the Queen caus'd a Proclamation to be punish'd that the Easterlings or Merchants of the Hans should be intreated and us'd as all other strangers were within her Dominions without any mark of difference in point of commerce This netled them more therupon they bent their Forces more eagerly and in a Diet at Ratisbon they procurd that the English Merchants who had associated themselves into Fraternities in Embdâ—…n and other places should bee declar'd Monopolists and so ther was a Comitiall Edict publishd against them that they should be exterminated and banisht out of all parts of the Empire and this was don by the activity of one Suderman a great Civilian Ther was there for the Queen Gilpin as nimble a man as Suderman and he had the Chancelor of Embden to second and countenance him but they could not stop the said Edict wherin the Society of English Merchants Adventurers was pronounc'd to bee a Monopoly yet Gilpin plaid his game so well that he wrought under hand that the said Imperiall Ban should not be publish'd till after the dissolution of the Diet and that in the interim the Emperor should send Ambassadors to England to advertise the Queen of such a Ban against her Merchants But this wrought so little impression upon the Queen that the said Ban grew rather ridiculous than formidable for the Town of Embden harbour'd our Merchants notwithstanding and afterwards Stode but they not being able to protect them so well from the Imperiall Ban they setled in this Town of Hamburgh After this the Queen commanded another Proclamation to be divulg'd that the Easterlings or Hansiatic Merchants should bee allowed to Trade in England upon the same conditions and payment of duties as her own Subjects provided Thaâ—… the English Merchants might have interchangeable privilege to reside and trade peaceably in Stode or Hamburgh or any wher els within the precincts of the Hans This incens'd them more therupon they resolv'd to cut off Stode and Hamburgh from being members of the Hans or of the Empire but they suspended this dessein till they saw what success the great Spanish Fleet should have which was then preparing in the yeer eighty eight for they had not long before had recours to the King of Spain and made him their own and he had don them som materiall good Offices wherfore to this day the Spanish Counsell is tax'd of improvidence and imprudence that ther was no use made of the Hans Towns in that expedition The Queen finding that they of the Hans would not be contented with that equality she had offer'd 'twixt them and her own Subjects put out a Proclamation that they should carry neither Corn Victualls Arms Timber Masts Cables Mineralls nor any other materialls or Men to Spain or Portugall And after the Queen growing more redoubtable and famous by the overthrow of the Fleet of Eighty eight the Osterlings fell to despair of doing any good Add hereunto another disaster that befell them the taking of sixty sailes of their Ships about the mouth of Tagus in Portugall by the Queens Ships that were laden with Ropas de contrabando viz. Goods prohibited by her former Proclamation into the dominions of Spain And as these Ships were upon point of being discharg'd she had intelligence of a great Assembly at Lubâ—…ck which had met of purpose to consule of means to be reveng'd of her therupon she staid and seiz'd upon the said sixty Ships only two were freed to bring news what became of the rest Hereupon the Pole sent an Ambassador to her who spake in a high tone but he was answer'd in a higher Ever since our Merchants have beaten a peacefull and free uninterrupted Trade into this Town and elswhere within and without the Sound with their Manufactures of Wool and found the way also to the White-Sea to Archangel and Mosco Insomuch that the premisses being well considered it was a happy thing for England that that clashing fell out 'twixt her and the Hans for it may be said to have been the chief ground of that Shipping and Merchandising which she is now com
Governour of Milan Eats but the Viceroy of Naples devoures Our English Merchants here beat a considerable Trade and their Factors live in better Equippage and in a more splendid manner as in all Italy besides then their Masters and Principalls in London they ruffle in Silks and Sattins and wear good Spanish Leather-Shooes while their Masters-Shooes upon our Exchange in London shine with Blacking At Puzzoli not far off amongst the Grotts ther are so many strange stupendous things that nature her self seem'd to have studied of purpose how to make her self there admir'd I reserve the discoursing of them with the nature of the Tarantola and Manna which is gatherd'd here and no wher else with other things till I shall see you for they are fitter for discours then a Letter I will conclude with a Proverb they have in Italy of this people Napolitano Largo di bocca stretto di mano The Neapolitans Have wide mouths but narrow hands They make strong Masculin promises but Femal performances for deeds are men and words are women and if in a whole floud of complements one find a drop of reality t is well The first acceptance of a Courtesie is accounted the greatest incivility that can be amongst them and a ground for a quarrell as I heard of a German Gentleman that was baffled for accepting one onely invitation to a dinner So desiring to be preserv'd still in your good opinion and in the rank of your seravants I rest alwayes most ready At Your disposing J. H. Naples Octob. the 1. 1621. XL. To Christopher Jones Esq at Grayes-Inne from Naples Honoured Father I Must still stile you so since I was adopted your Son by so good a Mother as Oxford My mind lately prompted me that I â—…ould commit a great Soloecisme if amongst the rest of my frends 〈◊〉 England I should leave you unsaluted whom I love so dearly â—…ell specially having such a fair and pregnant opportunity as â—…e hand of this worthy Gentleman your Cousin Morgan who 〈◊〉 now posting hence for England He will tell you how it fares â—…ith me how any time these thirty and odd months I have bin â—…ss'd from shore to shore and pass'd under various Meridians â—…d am now in this voluptuous and luxuriant City of Naples â—…nd though these frequent removes and tumblings under climes 〈◊〉 differing temper were not without som danger yet the deâ—…ght which accompanied them was far greater and it is impossiâ—…e for any man to conceive the true pleasure of Peregrination â—…t he who actually enjoyes and puts it in practise Beleeve it 〈◊〉 that one yeer well employed abroad by one of mature judgment which you know I want very much advantageth more in â—…int of usefull and solid knowledge then three in any of our â—…iversities You know Running Waters are the purest so they â—…t traverse the VVorld up and down have the cleerâ—…st underâ—…ndings being faithfull ey-witnesses of those things which â—…her receive but in trust whereunto they must yeeld an intuitive â—…nsent and a kind of implicit faith VVhen I pass'd through 〈◊〉 parts of Lombardy amongst other things I observ'd the Phyâ—…gnomies and Complexions of the peeple men and women â—…d I thought I was in VVales for divers of them have a cast of â—…untenance and a neerer resemblance with our Nation then â—…y I ever saw yet And the reason is obvious for the Romansâ—…ing â—…ing bin neer upon three hundred yeers amongst us where â—…ey had four Legions before the English Nation or Language â—…d any being by so long a coalition and tract of time 〈◊〉 two Nations must needs copulat and mix Insomuch that I beleeve ther is yet remaining in Wales many of 〈◊〉 Roman race and divers in Italy of the Brittish Amongst 〈◊〉 resemblances one was in their prosody and vein of 〈◊〉 or riming which is like our Bards who hold agnominations aâ—… enforcing of consonant words or syllables one upon the otherâ—… be the greatest elegance As for example in Welsh Tewgris 〈◊〉 dyrris ty'r derrin gwillt c. So have I seen divers old rimes Italian running so as Donne O danno â—…he Febo affranto 〈◊〉 In selva salvo a me Piu caro cuore c. Being lately in Rome amongst other Pasquills I met with 〈◊〉 that was against the Scot though it had som gawl in 't yet it 〈◊〉 a great deal of wit specially towards the conclusion so that think if King Iames saw it he would but laugh at it As I remember som yeers since ther was a very abusive 〈◊〉 in Vers brought to our King and as the passages were a 〈◊〉 before him he often said That if ther were no more men England the rogue should hang for it at last being com to 〈◊〉 conclusion which was after all his railing Now God preserve the King the Queen the Peers And grant the Author long may wear his Ears This pleas'd His Majesty so well that he broke into a 〈◊〉 and said By my Sol so thou shalt for me Thou art a bitter 〈◊〉 thou art a witty Knave When you write to Monmouthshire I pray send my respects my Tutor Master Moor Fortune and my service to Sir 〈◊〉 Williams and according to that relation which was 'twixt us Oxford I rest Naples 8. Octob. 1621. Your Constant Son to serve you J. H. XLI To Sir J. C. from Florence SIR THis Letter comes to kisse your hands from fair Florence a Citie so beutifull that the great Emperour Charls the fifth said That she was fitting to be shewn and seen onely upon Holidayes She marvailously flourisheth with Buildings with Wealth and Artisans for it is thought that in Serges which is but one commodity ther are made two millions evry yeer All degrees of people live here not onely well but splendidly well notwithstanding the manifold exactions of the Duke upon all things For none can buy here Lands or Houses but he must pay eight in the hundred to the Duke none can hire or build a House but he must pay the tenth penny none can marry or commerce suite in Law but ther 's a Fee to the Duke none can bring as much as an Egg or Sallet to the Market but the Duke hath share therinna Moreover Ligorn which is the Key of Toscany being a Maritim and a great Mercantil Town hath mightily inrich'd this Countrey by being a Frank Port to all comers and a safe rendevouz to Pyrats as well as to Marchants Add hereunto that the Duke himself in som respect is a Marchant for he somtimes ingrosseth all the Corn of the Countrey and retails it at what rate he pleaseth This inables the Duke to have perpetually 20000 men inroll'd train'd up and payed and none but they can carry Arms he hath 400 Light-Horse in constant pay and 100 men at Arms besides and all these quartered in so narrow a compasse that he can command them all to Florence in twenty four hours He hath twelve Gallies two Galeons and six Galeasses besides and
their days in meditation and in preparing themselves for another world Charles the Emperor shew'd them the way who left the Empire to his brother and all the rest of his Dominions to his son Philip the second and so taking with him his two sisters he retir'd into a Monastery they into a Nunnery this doth not suit well with the genius of an Englishman who loves not to pull off his cloaths till he goes to bed I will conclude with some Verses I saw under a huge Rodomontado picture of the Duke of Lerma wherin he is painted like a Giant bearing up the Monarchy of Spain that of France and the Popedom upon his shoulders with this Stanza Sobre les ombros d'este Atlante Yazen en aquestos dias Estas tres Monarquias Upon the shoulders of this Atlas lies The Popedom and two mighty Monarchies So I most humbly kiss your Lordships hands and rest ever most ready Madrid 3 Febr. 1622. At your Lordships command J. H. XII To my Father SIR ALL affairs went on fairly here specially that of the match when Master Endymion Porter brought lately my Lord of Bâ—…istoll a dispatch from England of a high nature wherin the Earl is commanded to represent unto this King how much his Majesty of great Britain since the beginning of these German wars hath labourd to merit well of this Crown and of the whole House of Austria by a long and lingring patience grounded still upon assurances hence that care should be had of his honor his Daughters joynture and grand-childrens patrimony yet how crosly all things had proceeded in the Treaty at Bruxells manag'd by Sir Richard Weston as also that in the Palatinat by the Lord Chichester how in treating time the Town and Castle of Heidelberg were taken Manbeim besieg'd and all acts of Hostility us'd notwithstanding the fair professions made by this King the Infanta at Bruxells and other his Ministers How meerly out of respect to this King he had neglected all Martiall means which probably might have preserv'd the Palatinat those thin Garrisons which he had sent thither being rather for honors sake to keep a footing untill a generall accommodation than that he relyed any way upon their strength And since that there are no other fruits of all this but reproach and scorn and that those good Offices which he us'd towards the Emperor on the behalf of his Son in law which he was so much encouraged by Letters from hence should take effect have not sorted to any other issue than to a plain affront and a high injuring of both their Majesties though in a different degree The Earl is to tell him that his Majesty of great Britain hopes and desires that out of a true apprehension of these wrongs offerd unto them both he will as his dear and loving brother faithfully promise and undertake upon his honor confirming the same under his hand and seal either that Heidelberg shall be within seventy days rendred into his hands as also that ther shall be within the said term of seventy days a suspension of arms in the Palatinat and that a Treaty shall recommence upon such terms as he propounded in November last which this King held then to be reasonable And in case that this be not yeelded unto by the Emperor that then this King joyn forces with his Majesty of England for the recovery of the Palatinat which upon this trust hath been lost or in case his forces at this time be otherwise employ'd that they cannot give his Majesty that assistance he desires and deserves that at least he will permit a free and friendly passage through his Territories for such Forces as his Mejesty of great Britain shall employ into Germany Of all which if the Earl of Bristoll hath not from the King of Spain a direct assurance under his hand and Seal ten days after his audience that then he take his leave and return to England to his Majesties presence els to proceed in the negotiation of the match according to former instructions This was the main substance of his Majesties late letter yet there was a postill added that in case a rupture happen 'twixt the two Crowns the Earl should not com instantly and abruptly â—…way but that he should send advice first to England and carry the busines so that the world should not presently know of it Notwithstanding all these traverses we are confident here that the match will take otherwise my Cake is Dow. There was a great difference in one of the capitulations 'twixt the two Kings how long the children which should issue of this marriage were to continue sub regimine Matris under the tutele of the Mother This King demanded 14 years at first then twelve but now he is come to nine which is newly condescended unto I receiv'd yours of the first of September in another from Sir Iames Crofts wherin it was no small comfort to me to hear of your health I am to go hence shortly for Sardinia a dangerous voyage by reason of Algier Pirats I humbly desire your prayers may accompany Madrid 23 Febr. 1622. Your dutifull Son J. H. XIII To Sir James Crofts Knight SIR YOurs of the second of October came to safe hand with the inclos'd you write that there came dispatches lately from Rome wherin the Pope seems to endevour to insinuat himself into a direct treaty with England and to negotiat immediatly with our King touching the dispensation which he not only labours to evade but utterly disclaims it being by Article the task of this King to procure all dispatches thence I thank you for sending me this news You shall understand there came lately an express from Rome also to this Court touching the business of the match which gave very good content but the dispatch and new instructions which Mr. Endymion Porter brought my Lord of Bristoll lately from England touching the Prince Palatinat fills us with apprehensions of fear Our Ambassadors here have had audience of this King already about those Propositions and we hope that Master Porter will carry back such things as will satisfie Touching the two points in the Treaty wherin the two Kings differ'd most viz. about the education of the children and the exemption of the Infanta's Ecclesiastic servants from secular jurisdiction both these points are clear'd for the Spaniard is com from fourteen years to ten and for so long time the Infant Princes shall remain under the mothers government And for the other point the Ecclesiasticall Superior shall first take notice of the offence that shall be committed by any spirituall person belonging to the Infanta's family and according to the merit therof either deliver him by degradation to the secular justice or banish him the Kingdom according to the quality of the delict and it is the same that is practis'd in this Kingdom and other parts that adhere to Rome The Conde de Monterrey goes Vice-roy to Naples the Marquis de Montesclaros being
the Church here and so holy a conceit they have of all Ecclesiastics that the greatest Don in Spain will tremble to offer the mean'st of them any outrage or affront Count Gondamar hath also helpt to free som English that were in the Inquisition in Toledo and Sevill and I could allege many instances how ready and chearfull he is to assist any Englishman whatsoever notwithstanding the base affronts he hath often receivd of the London buys as he calls them At his last return hither I heard of a merry saying of his to the Queen who discoursing with him about the greatnesse of London and whether it was as populous as Madrid yes Madame and more populous when I came away though I beleeve ther 's scarce a man left there now but all women and children for all the mem both in Court and City were ready booted and spurd to go away And I am sorry to hear how other Nations do much tax the English of their incivility to public Ministers of State and what ballads and pasquils and fopperies and plays were made against Gondamar for doing his Masters busines My Lord of Bristoll coming from Germany to Brussells notwithstanding that at his arrivall thither the news was fresh that he had reliev'd Frankindale as he past yet was he not a whit the less welcom but valued the more both by the Archdutchess her self and Spinoâ—… with all the rest as also that they knew well that the said Earl had bin the sole adviser of keeping Sir Robert Mansell abroad with that Fleet upon the coast of Spain till the Palsgrave should be restord I pray Sir when you go to London wall and Tower hill be pleas'd to remember my humble service where you know it is due So I am Madrid Aug. 15. 1623. Your most faithfull Servitor J. H. V. To the right honble the Lord Vicount Colchester My very good Lord I Receiv'd the letter and commands your Lopp pleas'd to send me by Mr Walsingham Gresley and touching the Constitutions and Orders of the Contratation House of the West Indies in Sevill I cannot procure it for love or money upon any terms though I have done all possible diligence therin And som tell me it is dangerous and no less then Treason in him that gives the copy of them to any in regard 't is counted the greatest Mystery of all the Spanish government That difficulty which hapned in the busines of the match of giving caution to the Pope is now overcome for wheras our King answer'd that he could give no other caution than his Royall word and his sons exemplified under the great Seal of England and confirm'd by his Counsell of State it being impossible to have it done by Parliament in regard of the aversnes the common people have to the alliance And wheras this gave no satisfaction to Rome the King of Spain now offers himself for caution for putting in execution what is stipulated in behalf of the Roman Catholics throughout his Majestie of great Britain's Dominions but he desires to consult his ghostly fathers to know whether he may do iâ—… without wronging his conscience hereupon there hath bin a Iâ—…ta form'd of Bishops and Iesuits who have bin already a good while about it and the Bishop of Segovia who is as it were Lord Threasurer having written a Treatise lately against the match was outed of his Office banisht the Court and confin'd to his Diocess The Duke of Buckingham hath bin ill dispos'd a good while and lies sick at Court where the Prince hath no public exercise of devotion but only bedchamber prayers and some thinâ—… that his lodging in the Kings house is like to prove a disadvantagâ—… to the main business for wheras most sorts of people here hardly hold us to be Christians if the Prince had had a Palace of his own and bin permitted to have us'd a room for an open Chappell to exercise the Liturgy of the Church of England it would have brought them to have a better opinion of us And to this end ther were som of our best Church plate and vestments brought hither but never us'd The slow place of this Iunta troubles us a little and to the Divines ther are som Civilians admitted lately and the quaere is this whether the King of Spain may bind himself by oath in the behalf of the King of England to perform such and such Articles that are agreed on in favour of the Roman Catholics by vertue of this match whether the King may doe this salva conscientia Ther was a great show lately here of baiting of bulls with men for the entertainment of the Prince it is the chiefest of all Spanish sports commonly ther are men killd at it therfore ther are Priests appointed to be there ready to confess them It hath hapned oftentimes that a Bull hath taken up two men upon his horns with their guts dangling about them the horsemen run with lances and swords the foot with goads As I am told the Pope hath sent divers Bulls against this sport of bulling yet it will not be left the Nation hath taken such an habituall delight in it Ther was an ill favord accident like to have hapned lately at the Kings house in that part wher my Lord of Carlile and my Lord Denbigh were lodg'd for my Lord Denbigh late at night taking a pipe of Tobacco in a Balcone which hung over the Kings garden he blew down the ashes which falling upon som parchd combustible matter began to flame and spread but Master Davis my Lord of Carliles Barber leapt down a great height and quencht it So with continuance of my most humble service I rest ever ready Madrid Aug. 16. 1623. At your Lopps commands J. H. XXI To Sir James Crofts from Madrid SIR THe Court of Spain affords now little news for ther is a Remora sticks to the busines of the match till the Iunta of Divines give up their opinion But from Turky ther came a Letter this week wherin ther is the strangest and most tragicall news that in my small reading no Sory can parallell or shew with more pregnancie the instability and tottering estate of human greatnes and the sandy foundation wheron the vast Ottoman Empire is reard upon For Sultan Osman the grand Turk a man according to the humor of that Nation warlike and fleshd in bloud and a violent hater of Christians was in the flower of his yeers in the heat and height of his courage knockt in the head by one of his own slaves and one of the meanest of them with a battle axe and the murtherer never after proceeded against or questioned The ground of this Tragedy was the late ill success he had against the Pole wherin he lost about 100000. horse for want of forrage and 80000. men for want of fighting which he imputed to the cowardize of his Ianizaries who rather than bear the brunt of the battell were more willing to return home to their
This new-year scarce would serve me so farewell Cal. Apr. 1629. Your son and servitor J. H. XXVIII To the right honble the Earl of Bristol at Sherburn Castle My Lord I Attended my Lord Cottington before he went on his journey towards Spain and put him in mind of the old busines against the Vice-roy of Sardinia to see whether any good can be don and to learn whether the Conde or his son be Solvent He is to land at 〈◊〉 one of the Kings ships attends him and som Merchant men take the advantage of this Convoy The news that keeps greatest noise now is that the Emperour hath made a favourable peace with the Dane for Tilly had cross'd the Elve and entred deep into Holstein land and in all probability might have carried all before him yet that King had honorable termes given him and a peace is concluded though without the privity of England But I beleeve the King of Denmarc far'd the better because he is Granchild to Charles the Emperours sister Now it seems another spirit is like to fall upon the Emperour for they write that Gustavus King of Swâ—…thland is struck into Germany and hath taken Meclenburgh the ground of his quarrell as I hear is that the Emperour would not acknowledg much less give audience to his Ambassadors he also gives out to com for the assistance of his Allies the Dukes of Pomerland and Meclenburgh nor do I hear that he speaks any thing yet of the Pr. Palsgraves business Don Carlos Coloma is expected here from Flanders about the samâ—… time that my Lord Cottington shall be arriv'd at the Court of Spain God send us an Honourable peace for as the Spaniard saies Nunâ—…avi tan mala paz que no fuesse mejor que la mejor guerra London 20 May. 1629 Your Lordships most humble and ready Servant J. H. XXX To my Cosen I. P. at Mr. Conradus Cousin A Letter of yours was lately deliverd me I made a shift to read the superscription but within I wonderd what language it might be in which 't was written at first I thought 't was Hebrew or som of her Dialects and so went from the liver to the heart from the right hand to the left to read it but could maâ—…e nothing of it then I thought it might be the Chineses language and went to read the words perpendicular and the lines were so crooked and distorted that no coherence could be made Greekâ—… â—… perceiv'd it was not nor Latin or English So I gave it for meere gibbrish and your characters to be rather Hieroglyphicks then Letters The best is you keep your lines at a good distance like those in Chancery-bills who as a Clerk said were made so wide of purpose because the Clients should have room enough to walk between them without justling one another yet this widenes had bin excusable if your lines had bin streight but they were full of odd kind of Undulations and windings If you can write no otherwise one may read your thoughts as soon as your characters It is som excuse for you that you are but a young beginner I pray let it appear in your next what a proficient you are otherwise som blame may light on me that placed you there Let me receive no more Gibbrish or Hieroglyphicks from you but legible letters that I may acquaint your friends accordingly of your good proceedings So I rest Westminst 20 Sept. 1629. Your very loving Cosen J. H. XXXI To the Lo. Viscount Wentworth Lo. President of York My Lord MY last was of the first current since which I receiv'd one from your Lordship and your comands therin which I shall ever entertain with a great deal of cheerfulnes The greatest news from abroad is that the French King with his Cardinal are com again on this side the Hills having don his business in Italy and Savoy and reserv'd still Pignerol in his hands which will serve him as a key to enter Italy at pleasure Upon the highest Mountain 'mongst the Alps he left this ostentous inscription upon a great Marble piller A la memoire eternelle de Lovis treiziesme Roy de France de Navarre Tres-Auguste tres-victorieux tres-heureux Conquerant tres-juste Lequel apres avoir vaincu toutes les Nations de l'Europe Il à encore triumphé les elements Du ciel de la terre Ayant passé deux fois ces-monts au mois de Mars avec son Armee Victorieuse pour remmettre les Princes d'Italie en leurs estats Defendre protegerses Alliez To the eternall memory of Lewis the thirteenth King of France and Navarr most gracious most victorious most happy most just a Conquerer who having orecom all Nations of Europ he hath also triumph'd over the Elements of Heaven and Earth having twise pass'd ore these hills in the month of March with his victorious Army to restore the Princes of Italy to their estates and to defend and protect his Allies So I take my leave for the present and rest Westmin 5 Aug. 1629. Your Lopp most humble and ready Servitor J. H. XXXII To Sir Keneime Digby Knight SIR GIve me leave to congratulat your happy return from the Levant and the great honour you have acquir'd by your gallant comportment in Algier in reescating so many English slaves by bearing up so bravely against the Venetian Fleet in the bay of Scanderoon and making the Pantaloni to know themselves and you better I do not remember to have read or heard that those huge Galleasses of Saint Mark were beaten afore I give you the joy also that you have born up against the Venetian Ambassadour here and vindicated your self of those foule scandalls he had cast upon you in your absence Wheras you desire me to joyne with my Lord Cottington and others to make an Affidavit touching Bartholomew Spinola whither he be Vezino de Madrid viz. free Denison of Spaine I am ready to serve you herein or to do any other office that may right you and tend to the making of your prize good Yet I am very sorry that our Aleppo Merchants suffer'd so much I shall be shortly in London and I will make the greater speed because I may serve you So I humbly kiss my noble Ladies hand and rest Westmin 25 Novemb. 1629. Your thrice-assured Servitor J. H. XXXIII To the Right honble Sir Peter Wicths Ambr. at Constantple. SIR MAster Simon Digby delivered me one from your Lordship of the first of Iune and I was extremely glad to have it for I had receav'd nothing from your Lordship a twelvemonth before Mr. Controuler Sir Tho. Edmonds is lately return'd from France having renew'd the peace which was made up to his hands before by the Venetian Ambassadors who had much labour'd in it and had concluded all things beyond the Alps when the King of France was at Susa to relieve Casal The Monsieur that was to fetch him from Saint Denis to Paris put a kind of jeering complement upon him
viz. that his Excellency should not think it strange that he had so few French Gentlemen to attend in this service to accompany him to the Court in regard ther were so many killd at the Isle of â—…hee The Marquis of Chasteau neuf is here from France and it was an odd speech also from him reflecting upon Mr. Controuler that the King of great Britain us'd to send for his Ambassadors from abroad to pluck Capons at home Mr. Buâ—…lemach is to go shortly to Paris to recover the other moity of her Majesties portion wherof they say my Lord of Holland is to have a good share The Lord Treasurer Weston is he who hath the greatest vogue now at Court but many great ones have clash'd with him He is so potent that I hear his eldest Son is to marry one of the bloud Royall of Scotland the Duke of Lenox Sister and that with his Majesties consent Bishop Laâ—…d of London is also powerfull in his way for hee sits at the helm of the Church and doth more than any of the two Arch bishops or all the rest of his two and twenty brethren besides In your next I should be glad your Lordship would do me the favor as to write how the grand Signor is like to speed before Bagdaâ—… in this his Persian expedition No more now but that I always rest Westmin 1 Ian. 1629. Your Lordships ready and most faithfull Servitor J. H. XXXIV To my Father SIR SIr Tho. Wentworth hath been a good while Lord President of York and since is sworn Privy Counsellor and made Baron and Vicount the Duke of Buckingham himself flew not so high in so short a revolution of time Hee was made Vicount with a great deale of high ceremony upon a Sunday in the afternoon at VVhite-Hall My Lord Powis who affects him not much being told that the Heralds had fetch'd his Pedigree from the bloud Royall viz. from Iohn of Gaunt said Dammy if ever he com to be King of England I will turn Rebell When I went first to give him joy he pleas'd to give me the disposing of the next Attorney's place that falls void in York which is valued at three hundred pounds I have no reason to leave my Lord of Sunderland for I hope hee will bee noble unto me the perquisits of my place taking the Kings see away caâ—… far short of what he promis'd me at my first comming to him in regard of his non-residence at York therfore I hope he will consider it som other way This languishing sicknes still hangs on him and I fear will make an end of him Ther 's none can tell what to make of it but he voided lately a strange Worm at VVickham but I fear ther 's an impostume growing in him for he told me a passage how many years ago my Lord VVilloughby and he with so many of their servants de gayete de câ—…ur played a match at foot-ball against such a number of Countrey men where my Lord of Sunderland being busie about the ball got a bruise in the brest which put him in a swond for the present but did not trouble him till three months after when being at Bever Castle his brother-in-laws house a quaume took him on a sudden which made him retire to his bed-chamber my Lord of Rutland following him put a Pipe full of Tobacco in his mouth and he being not accustomed to Tobacco taking the smoak downwards fell a casting and vomiting up divers little impostumated bladders of congeal'd bloud which sav'd his life then and brought him to have a better conceit of Tobacco ever after and I fear ther is som of that clodded bloud still in his body Because Mr. Hawes of Cheâ—…p-side is lately dead I have remov'd my brother Griffith to the Hen and Chickens in Pater Noster Row â—…o Mr. Taylors as gentile a shop as any in the City but I gave a peece of Plate of twenty Nobles price to his Wife I wish the Yorkshire horse may be fit for your turn he was accounted the best saddle Gelding about York when I bought him of Captain Phillips the Mustar-master and when he carried me first to London there was twenty pounds offered for him by my Lady Carlile No more now but desiring a continuance of your blessing and prayers I rest Lond. 3 Decem. 1630. Your dutifull Son J. H. XXXV To the Lord Cottington Ambassador Extraordinary for his Majesty of great Britain in the Court of Spaine My Lord I Receiv'd your Lordships lately by Harry Davies the Correo Santo and I return my humble thanks that you were pleas'd to be mindfull amongst so many high negotiations of the old busines touching the Viceroy of Sardinia I have acquainted my Lord of Bristoll accordingly Our eyes here look very greedily after your Lordship and the success of your Embassie and we are glad to hear the busines is brought to so good a pass and that the capitulations are so honorable the high effects of your wisdom For News The Sweds do notable featâ—… Germany and we hope they cutting the Emperour and Bavarian so much work to do and the good offices we are to expect from Spain upon this redintegration of Peace will be an advantage to the Prince Palatin and facilitat matters for restoring him to his Country Ther is little news at our Court but that ther fell an ill-favoured quarrell 'twixt Sir Kenelm Digby and Mr. Goring Mr. Iermin and others at St. Iames lately about Mrs Baker the Maid of honor and Duells were like to grow of it but that the busines was taken up by the Lord Treasurer my Lord of Dorset and others appointed by the King My Lord of Sunderland is still ill dispos'd he will'd me to remember his hearty service to your Lordship and so did Sir Arthur Ingram and my Lady they all wish you a happy and honorable return as doth Lond. 1 March 1630. Your Lopps most humble and ready Servitor J. H. XXXVI To my Lo Vicount Rocksavage My Lord SOm say the Italian loves no favor but what 's future though I have convers'd much with that Nation yet I am nothing infected with their humor in this point for I love favors pass'd as well the remembrance of them joyes my very heart and makes it melt within me when my thoughts reflect upon your Lordship I have many of these fits of joy within me by the pleasing speculation of so many most noble favors and respects which I shall daily study to improve and merit My Lord Your Lopps most humble and ready Servitor J. H. Westmin 22 Mar. 1630. XXXVII To the Earl of Bristol My Lord I Doubt not but your â—…ordship hath had intelligence from time time what firm invasions the King of Sweds hath made into Germany and by what degrees he hath mounted to this height having but six thousand foot and five hundred horse when he entred first to Meclenburg and taken that Town while Commissioners stood treating on both sides
hath cow'd and dastâ—…rdiz'd their courage Besides these properties they are light and giddy headed much symbolizing in spirit with our Apolalypticall zelots and fiery interpreters of Daniel and other Prophets wherby they often sooth or rather fool themselves into som illumination which really proves but som egregious dorage They much glory of their mysterious Cabal wherin they make the reality of things to depend upon Letters and Words but they say that Hebrew onely hath this priviledg This Cabal which is nought else but Tradition they say being transmitted from one age to another was in som measure a reparation of our knowledge lost in Adam and they say â—…was reveal'd four times First to Adam who being thrust out of Paradise and sitting one day very sad and sorrowing for the loss of the knowledg he had of that dependance the creatures have with their Creator the Angell Raguel was sent to comfort him and to instruct him and repair his knowledg herein And this they call the Caball which was lost the second time by the Floud and â—…abell then God discover'd it to Moses in the bush The third time to Solomon in a dream wherby he came to know the beginning mâ—…diety and coasummatiâ—… of times and so wrote divers Books which were lost in the gran captivity The last time they hold that God restor'd the Cabal to Esdras a Book they value extraordinarily who by Gods command withdrew to the Wildernes forty daies with five Scribes who in that space wrote two hundred and four Books The first one hundred thirty and four were to be read by all but the other seventy were to pass privatly amongst the Levites and these they pretend to be Cabalistic and not yet all lost Ther are this day three Sects of Iews the Africans first who besides the holy Scriptures embrace the Talmud also for authentic the second receive only the Scriptures the third which are call'd the Samaritans wherof ther are but few admit only of the 〈◊〉 the five Books of Moses The Iews in generall drink no Wine without a dispensation when they kill any creature they turn his face to the East saying Be it sanctified in the great name of God they cut the throat with a knif without a gap which they hold very prophane In their Synagogs they make one of the best sort to read a Chapter of Moses then som mean Boy reads a peece of the Prophets in the midst ther 's a round place arch'd over wherin one of their Rabbies walks up and down and in Poâ—…tuguez magnifies the Messias to com comforts their captivity and rails at Christ. They have a kind of Cupboard to represent the Tabernacle wherin they lay the Tables of the Law which now and then they take out and kiss they sing many Tunes and Adonai they make the ordinary name of God Iehovah is pronounc'd at high Festivalls at Circumcision Boys are put to sing som of Davids Psalms so lowd as drowns the Infants cry The Synagog is hung about with Glass Lamps burning every one at his entrance puts on a Linnen-Cope first kissing it else they use no manner of reverence all the while their Elders sometimes fall together by the ears in the very Synagog and with the Holy Utensiles as Candlesticks Incense-Pans and such-like break one anothers Pates Women are not allow'd to enter the Synagog but they sit in a Gallery without for they hold they have not so divine a soul as men and are of a lower creation made only for sensuall pleasure and propagation Amongst the Mahumetans ther is no Iew capable of a Turkish habit unless he acknowledg Christ as much as Turks do which is to have bin a great Prophet wherof they hold ther are three onely Moses Christ and Mahomet Thus my Lord to perform your commands which are very prevalent with me have I couch'd in this Letter what I could of the condition of the Iews and if it may give your Lordship any satisfaction I have my reward abundantly So I rest Westmin 3 of Iune 1633. Your Lordships most humble and ready Servitor J. H. XV. To Mr. Philip Warrick at Paris SIR YOur last unto me was in French of the first current and I am glad you are com so safe from Swisserland to Paris as also that you are grown so great a Proficient in the Language I thank you for the variety of news you sent me so hansomly couch'd and knit together To correspond with you the greatest news wee have here is that we have a gallant Fleet-Royall ready to set to sea for the security of our Coasts and Commerce and for the Soverainty of our Seas Hans said the King of England was asleep all this while but now he is awake nor do I hear doth your French Cardinall tamper any longer with our Kings Title and Right to the Dominion of the Narrow-Seas These are brave fruits of the ship-moneys I hear that the Inâ—…ante Cardinall having bin long upon his way to Brussells hath got a notable Victory of the Swedes at Nordlinghen where 8000 were slain Gustavus Horn and other of the prime Commanders taken prisoners They write also that Monsieurs marriage with Madame of Lorain was solemnly celebrated at Brussels she had follow'd him from Nancy in Pages apparell because ther were forces in the way It must needs be a mighty charge to the King of Spain to maintain Mother and Son in this manner The Court affords little news at present but that ther is a Love call'd Platonick love which much swayes there of late It is a love abstracted from all corporeall gross impressions and sensuall appetit but consists in contemplation and Idaeas of the mind not in any carnall fruition This love sets the wits of the Town on work and they say there will be a Masko shortly of it whereof Her Majestie and her Maids of Honour will be part All your friends here in Westminster are well and very mindfull of you but none more often then Westmin 3 Iune 1634. Your most affectionate Servitor J. H. XVI To my brother Mr H. P. Brother MY brain was ore cast with a thick clowd of melancholy I was becom a lump I know not of what I could scarce find any palpitation within me on the left side when yours of the first of September was brought me it had such a vertue that it begot new motions in me like the Load-stone which by its attractive occult quality moves the dull body of Iron and makes it active so dull was I then and such a magnetic property your Letter had to quicken me Ther is som murmuring against the Shipmonâ—…y because the tax is indefinit as also by reason that it is levied upon the Countrey Towns as well as Maritim and for that they say Nâ—… himself cannot shew any record Ther are also divers Patents granted which are mutter'd at as being no better then Monopolies Amongst others a Scotchman got one lately upon the Statute of levying twelve
thus engendring and in solutis principiis in their liquid formes and not consolidated into hard bodies for then they have not that vertue they impart heat to the neighbouring Waters So then it may be concluded that this soyl about the Bath is a minerall vein of earth and the fermenting gentle temper of generative heat that goes to the production of the said Mineralls do impart and actually communicat this balneal vertue and medicinall heat to these Waters This subject of Minerall Waters would afford an Ocean of matter wer one to compile a solid discours of it And I pray excuse me that I have presum'd in so narrow a compas as a Letter to comprehend so much which is nothing I think in comparison of what you know already of this matter So I take my leave and humbly kiss your hands being allwayes From the Bath â—…3 Iuly 1638. Your most faithfull and ready Servitor J. H. XXXVI From Dublin to Sir Ed Savage Knight at Tower-Hill SIR I Am com safely to Dublin over an angry boysterous Sea whether 't was my voyage on Salt-water or change of Ayr being now under another clime which was the cause of it I know not but I am suddenly freed of the pain in my Arm when neither Bath nor Plasters and other remedies could do me good I deliver'd your Letter to Mr. Iames Dillon but nothing can be don in that busines till your brother Pain coms to Town I meet heer with divers of my Northern frends whom I knew at York Heer is a most splendid Court kept at the Castle and except that of the Vice-roy of Naples I have not seen the like in Christendom and in one point of Grandeza the Lord Deputy heer goes beyond him sor he can confer honours and dub Knights which that Vice-roy cannot or any other I know of Trafic encreaseth heer wonderfully with all kind of bravery and buildings I made an humble motion to my Lord that in regard businesses of all sorts did multiply here daily and that ther was but one Clerk of the Counsell Sir Paul Davis who was able to dispatch busines Sir Will. Usher his Collegue being very aged and bed-rid his Lordship would please to think of me My Lord gave me an answer full of good respects to succeed Sir William after his death No more now but with my most affectionat respects unto you I rest Dublin 3 May 1639. Your faithfull Servitor J. H. XXXVII To Dr. Vsher Lo Primat of Ireland MAy it please your Grace to accept of my most humble Acknowledments for those Noble favours I receiv'd at Droghedah and that you pleas'd to communicat unto me those rare Manuscripts in so many Languages and divers choice Authors in your Library Your learned Work De primordiis Ecclesiarum Britannicarum which you pleas'd to send me I have sent to England and so it shall be conveyd to Iesus College in Oxford as a gift from your Grace I hear that Cardinal Barberino one of the Popes Nephews is setting forth the works of Fastidius a British Bishop call'd De vita Christiana It was written 300 yeers after our Saviour and Holstenius hath the care of the Impression I was lately looking for a word in Sâ—…idas and I lighted upon a strange passage in the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That in the Reign of Iustinian the Emperour one Theodosius a Jew a man of great Authority liv'd in Ierusalem with whom a rich Goldsmith who was a Christian was in much favour and very familiar The Goldsmith in privat discours told him one day that be wondred â—…e being a man of such a great understanding did not turn Christian considering how he found all the Prophecies of the Law so evidently accomplish'd in our Saviour and our Saviours Prophecies accomplish'd since Theodosius answered That it did not stand with his security and continuance in Authority to turn Christian but he had a long time a good opinion of that Religion and he would discover a secret unto him which was not yet com to the knowledg of any Christian It was That when the Temple was founded in Ierusalem ther wer 22 Priests according to the number of the Hebrew letters to officiat in the Temple and when any was chosen his name with his fathers and mothers wer us'd to be registred in a fair Book In the time of Christ a Priest died and he was chosen in his place but when his name was to be entred his father Ioseph being dead his mother was sent for who being ask'd who was his father she answered that she never knew man but that she conceiv'd by an Anâ—… So his name was registred in these words IESUS CHRIST THE SON OF GOD AND OF THE VIRGIN MARY This Record at the destruction of the Temple was preserved and is to be seen in Tyberias to this day I humbly desire your Graces opinion heerof in your next They write to me from England of rare news in France which is that the Queen is delivered of a Daulphin the wonderfull'st thing of this kind that any Story can parallel for this is the three and twentieth yeer since she was married and hath continued childles all this while so that now Monsieurs cake is dough and I beleeve he will be more quiet heerafter So I rest Dublin 1 March 1639. Your Graces most devoted Servitor J. H. XXXVIII To my Lord Clifford from Edenburgh My Lord I Have seen now all the King of Great Britain's Dominions he is a good Traveller that hath seen all his Dominions I was born in Wales I have bin in all the four corners of England I have traveâ—…sed the Diameter of France more than once and now I am com thorow Ireland into this Kingdom of Scotland This Town of Edinburgh is one of the fairest streets that ever I saw exepting that of Palermo in Sicily it is about a mile long coming sloping down from the Castle call'd of old the Castle of Virgins and by Pliny Castrum alatum to Holy-Rood-House now the Royall Palace and these two begin and terminat the town I am com hither in a very convenient time for heer 's a Nationall Assembly and a Parlement my Lord Traquair being His Majesties Commissioner The Bishops are all gon to wâ—…ack and they have had but a sorry Funerall the very name is grown so contemptible that a black Dog if he have any white marks about him is call'd Bishop Our Lord of Canterbury is grown heer so odious that they call him commonly in the Pulpit The Priest of Baal and the son of Belial I 'll tell your Lordship of a passage which happened lately in my lodging which is a Tavern I had sent for a Shoo-maker to make me a pair of Boots and my Landlord who is a peâ—…t smart man brought up a chopin of Whitewine and for this particular ther are betteâ—… French-wines heer than in England and cheaper for they are but at a Groat a quart and it is a crime of a high
and poorer peeple T is true England hath a good repute abroad for her fertility yet be our Harvests never so kindly and our Crops never so plentifull we have evry yeer commonly som Grain from hence or from Danzic and other places imported by the Marchant Besides ther be many more Heaths Commons Bleak-bâ—…rren-Hills and waste Grounds in England by many degrees then I find here and I am sorry our Countrey of Wales should give more instances hereof then any other part This Province of Normandy once an Appendix of the Crown of England though it want Wine yet it yeelds the King as much desmeans as any one of the rest The lower Norman hath Syder for his common drink and I visibly observ'd that they are more plump and replet in their bodies and of a clearer complexion then those that drink altogether Wine In this great City of Roüen ther be many Monuments of the English Nation yet extant In the outside of the highest Steeple of the great Church ther is the word GOD engraven in huge Golden Characters evry one almost as long as my self to make them the more visible In this Steeple hangs also the greatest Bell of Christendom call'd d' Amboise for it weighs neer upon fourty thousand pound weight Ther is also here Saint Oen the greatest Sanctuary in the Citie founded by one of our Compatriots as the name imports This Province is also subject to Wardships and no other part of France besides but whither the Conqueror transported that Law to England from hence or whither he sent it over from England hither I cannot resolve you Ther is a marvailous quick trade beaten in this Town because of the great Navigable River Sequana the Seine that runs hence to Paris wheron ther stands a strange Bridge that ebbs and flows that riseth and fall's with the River it being made of Boats whereon Coach and Carts may passe over as well as men Besides this is the neerest Mercantil City that stands twixt Paris and the Sea My last unto you was from the Low-Countreys wher I was in motion to and fro above four months but I fear it miscarried in regard you make no mention of it in yours I begin more and more to have a sense of the sweetnes and advantage of forren Travell I pray when you com to London to find a time to visit Sir Robert and acknowledge his great favours unto me and desire a continuance thereof according as I shall endeavour to deserve them So with my due and daily Prayers for your health and a speedy successefull issue of all your Law-businesses I humbly crave your blessing and rest Your dutifull Son J. H. Septemb. the 7. 1619. XVI To Cap. Francis Bacon from Paris SIR I Received two of yours in Roüen with the Bills of Exchange ther inclos'd and according to your directions I sent you those things which you wrote for I am now newly com to Paris this huge Magazin of men the Epitome of this large populous Kingdom and rendevouz of all Forreners The structures here are indifferently fair though the Streets generally foul all the four Seasons of the yeer which I impute first to the Position of the Citie being built upon an Isle the Isle of France made so by the branching and serpentin cours of the River of Seine and having som of her Suburbs seated high the filth runs down the Channell and settles in many places within the body of the Citie which lieth upon a flat as also for a world of Coaches Carts and Horses of all sorts that go to and fro perpetually so that somtimes one shall meet with a stop half a mile long of those Coaches Carts and Horses that can move neither forward nor backward by reason of some sudden encounter of others coming a crosse-way so that oftentimes it will be an hour or two before they can dis-intangle In such a stop the great Henry was so fatally slain by Ravillac Hence comes it to passe that this Town for Paris is a Town a City and an university is alwayes dirty and 't is such a dirt that by perpetual motion is beaten into such a thick black onctious Oyl that wher it sticks no art can wash it off of some colours insomuch that it may be no improper comparison to say That an ill name is like the Crot the dirt of Paris which is indelible besides the stain this dirt leaves it gives also so strong a sent that it may be smelt many miles off if the wind be in ones face as he comes from the fresh Air of the Countrey This may be one cause why the Plague is alwayes in som corner or other of this vast Citie which may be call'd as once Sâ—…ythia was Vagina Populorum or as mankind was call'd by a great Philosopher a great Mole-hill of Ants Yet I believe this Citie is not so populous as she seems to be for her form being round as the whole Kingdom is the Passengers wheel about and meet oftner then they use to do in the long continued Streets of London which makes London appear lesse populous then she is indeed so that London for length though not for latitude including Westminster exceeds Paris and hath in Miâ—…hnelmas Term more souls moving within her in all places T is under one hundred yeers that Paris is becom so sumptuous and strong in Buildings for her houses were mean untill a Myne of White Stone was discover'd â—…ard by which runs in a continued Vein of Earth and is digg'd out with ease being soft and is between a White-Clay and Chalk at first but being pullied up with the open Air it receives a Crusty kind of hardnes and so becomes perfect Freestone and before it is sent up from the Pit they can reduce it to any form Of this Stone the Louvre the Kings Palace is built which is a vast Fabric for the Gallerie wants not much of an Italian mile in length and will easily lodg 3000 men which some told me was the end for which the last King made it so big that lying at the fag end of this great mutinous Citie if she perchance should rise the King might powre oâ—…t of the Louvre so many thousand men unawares into the heart of her I am lodg'd here hard by the Bastile because it is furthest off from those places where the English resort for I would go on to get a little Language as soon as I could In my next I shall impart unto you what State-news France affords in the interim and alwayes I am Your humble Servant J. H. Paris 30. of March 1620. XVII To Richard Altham Esquire from Paris Dear Sir LOve is the marrow of Friendship and Letters are the Elixir of Love they are the best fuell of affection and cast a sweeter odour then any Frankincense can do such an odour such an Aromatic perfume your late Letter brought with it proceeding from the fragrancy of those dainty Flowers of eloquence which I found
be one of the fatall events that followed the last fearfull Comet that rose in the tail of the Constellation of Virgo which som ignorant Astronomers that write of it would fix in the Heavens and that as far above the Orb of the Moon as the Moon is from the Earth but this is nothing in comparison of those hideous fires that are kindled in Germany blown first by the Bohemians which is like to be a war without end for the wâ—…ole House of Austria is interessed in the quarrell and it is not the custome of that House to sit by any asâ—…ront or forget it quickly Queen Anne left a world of brave Jewells behind but one Pâ—…ero an outlandish man who had the keeping of them embeazled many and is run away she left all she had to Prince Charles whom she eveâ—… loved best of all her Children nor do I hear of any Legacie she left at all to her daughter in Germany for that match some say lessened somthing of her affection towards her ever since so that she would often call her goody Palsgrave nor could she abide Secretary Winwood ever after who was one of the chiefest instruments to bring that match about as also for the rendition of the cautionary Towns in the Low-Countries Flushing and Bâ—…ill with the Rammakins I was lately with Sir Iohn Walter and others of your Counsell about your Law-busines and som of them told me that Master I. Lloyd your adversary it one of the shrewdest Sollicitoâ—…s in all the thirteen Shires of Wales being so habituated to Law-sutes and wrangling that he knows any the least starting hole in every Court I could wish you had made a fair end with him for besides the cumber and trouble specially to those that dwell at such a huge distance from Westminster Hall as you doe Law is a shrewd pickpuâ—…s and the Lawyer as I heard one say wittily not long since is like a Christmasse box which is sure to get whosoever loseth So with the continuance of my due and daily prayers for your health with my love to my brothers and sisters I rest Your dutifull Son J. H. March 20. 1621. VIII To Dan. Caldwall Esqr. from the Lord Savages House in Long-Melford My deare D. THough considering my former condition of life I may now be called a Countreyman yet you cannot call me a Rustiâ—… as you would imply in your Letter as long as I live in so civill and noble a Family as long as I lodg in so vertuous and regular a House as any I beleeve in the Land both for oeconomicall government and the choice company for I never saw yet such a dainty Race of Children in all my life together I never saw yet such an orderly and punctuall attendance of servants nor a great House so neatly kept here one shall see nor dog nor cat nor cage to cause any nastines within the body of the House The kitchin and gutters and other offices of noise and drudgery are at the â—…ag end ther 's a back gate for beggars and the meaner sort of swains to come in at The stables butt upon the Park which for a chearfull rising ground for groves and browsings for the Deer for rivulets of water may compare with any for its bignes in the whole land it is opposite to the front of the great House whence from the Gallery one may see much of the game when they are a hunting Now for the gardning and costly choice flowers for ponds for stately large walks green and gravelly for orchards and choice fruits of all sorts ther aâ—…e few the like in England here you have your â—…on Crâ—…en pear and 〈◊〉 â—…n perfection your Muscadell grapes in such plenty that ther are som bottles of wine sent every year to the King And one Mr. Daniel a worthy Gentleman hard by who hath â—…in long abroad makes good store in his vintage Truly this House of Long-Melford though it be not so great yet it is so well compacted and contrived with such dainty conveniences every way that if you saw the Landskip of it you would be mightily taken with it and it would serve for a choice pattern to buâ—…ld and contrive a house by If you come this Summer to your Mannor of Sheriff in Essex you will not be â—…ar off hence if your occasions will permit it will be worth your coming hither though it be only to see him who would think it a short journey to go from Saint Davids head to Dover cliffâ—… to see and serve you were ther occasion if you would know who the same is ' 〈◊〉 20 Mar. 1621. Your J. H. IX To Robert Brown Esqr. Sir THanks for one â—…rtesie is a good Vsher to bring on another Therfore it is my policie at this time to thank you most heartily for your late â—…opious Letter to draw on a second I say I thank you a thousand times over for yours of the third of this present which abounded with such variâ—…tie of news and ample well-couchâ—… relations that I made many friends by it yet I am sory for the qualitie of som of your news that Sir Robert Mansell being now in the Mediterranean with a considerable â—…avall strength of ours against the Moors to do the Spaniard a pleasure Marquis Spinola should in a hâ—…gling way change his Master for the time and taking Commission from the Emperour becom his servant for invading the Palatinat with the Forces of the King of Spain in the Netherlands I am sory also the Princes of the Union should â—…e so stupid as to suffer him to take Oppenheim by a Parthian kind of back stratagem in appearing before the Town and making semblance afterwards to go for Worms and then perceiving the Forces of the United Princes to go for succouring of that to turn back and take the Town he intended first wherby I fear he will be quickly master of the rest Surely I beleeve ther may be some treachery in 't and that the Marquis of Anâ—…back the Generall was orecom by pistolâ—… made of Indian ingots rather than of steel else an Army of 40000. which he had under his command might have made its parâ—…y good against Spinola's lesse than 10000. though never such choice Veterans But what will not gold do it will make a Pigmey too hard for a Gyant ther 's no fence or â—…ortres against an Asse laden with gold It was the saying you know of His Father whom partiall and ignorant Antiquity cries up to have conquerd the World and that â—…e sigh'd ther were no more worlds to conquer though he had never one of the three old parts of the then known World entirely to himself I desire to know what is become of that handfull of men his Majesty sent to Germany under Sir Horace Vere which he was bound to do as he is one of the Protestant Princes of the Union and what 's become of Sir Arthur Chichester who is gon Ambassador to those parts Dear Sir I
the Hague in Holland having made a long progres or rather a pilgrimage about Germany from Prague The old Duke of Bavaria his Uncle is chosen Elector and Arch sâ—…wer of the Roman Empire in his place but as they say in an imperfect Diet and with this proviso that the transferring of this Election upon the Bavarian shall not prejudice the next heir Thâ—…r is one Count Mansfelt that begins to get a great name in Germany and he with the Duke of Brunswick who is a temporall Bpp. of Halverstade have a considerable Army on foot for the Lady Elizabeth which in the low Countreys and som parts of Germany is called the Queen of Boheme and for her winning Princely comportment thâ—… Queen of Hearts Sir Arthur Chichester is come back from the Palatinate much complaining of the small Army that was sent thither under Sir Horace Vere which should have been greater or none at all My Lord of Buckingham having been long since Master of the Horse at Court is now made Master also of all the woodâ—…n Horses in the Kingdom which indeed are our best Horses for he is to be High Admirall of England so he is becom Dominus Equorum Aquarum The late Lord Threâ—… Cranfield grows alâ—…o very powerfull but the City hates him for having betrayed their greatest secrets which he was capable to know more than another having been formerly a Merchant I think I shall have no opportunity to write to you again till I bet other side of the Sea therfore I humbly take my leave and ask your blessing that I may the better prosper in my proceedings So I am Your dutifull Son J. H. March 19. 1621. XIII To Sir John Smith Knight SIR THe first ground I set foot upon after this my second transmaâ—… voyage was Trevere the Scots Staple in Zeland thence 〈◊〉 sail'd to Holland in which passage we might see divers Steeples and Turâ—…ets under water of Towns that as we were told were swallowed up by a Dâ—…luge within the memory of man we went afterwards to the Hague where ther are hard by though in severall places two wonderfull things to be seen one of Art the other of Nature That of Art is a Waggon or Ship or a Monster mixâ—… of both like the Hippocentaure who was half man and half horse this Engin hath wheels and sayls that will hold above twenty people and goes with the wind being drawn or mov'd by nothing els and will run the wind being good and the sayls hois'd up above fifteen miles an hour upon the even hard sands they say this invention was found out to entertain Spinola when he came hither to treat of the last Truce That wonder of Nature is a Church-Monument where an Earl and a Lady are engraven with 365 Children about them which were all delivered at one birth they were half male half femal the Bason hangs in the Church which carried them to be Christned and the Bishops Name who did it and the Story of this Miracle with the year and the day of the month mentioned which is not yet 200 years ago and the Sâ—…ory is this That Countesse walking about her door after dinner ther came a Begger-woman with two children upon her back 〈◊〉 beg alms the Countesse asking whether those children were her own she answered she had them both at one birth and by one father who was her husband The Countesse would not onely give her aâ—…y alms but revil'd her bitterly saying it was impossible for one man to get two children at once The begger-woman being thus provok'd with ill words and without alms fell to imprecations that it should please God to shew his judgment upon her and that she might bear at one birth aâ—… many children as ther be dayes in the year which she did before the same years end having never born child before We are now in North Holland where I never saw so many amongst so few sick of Lâ—…prosies and the reason is because they commonly eat abundance of fresh Fish A Gentleman told me that the women of this Countrey when they are delivered ther comes out of the womb a living creature besides the child call'd Zuâ—…chie likest to a Bat of any other creature which the Midwiâ—…s throw into the 〈◊〉 holding sheets before the chimney lest iâ—… should fly away Master Altham desires his service be presented to You and your Lady to Sir Iohn Franklin and all at the Hill the like doe I humbly crave at your hands the Italian and French Manuscripts you pleas'd to favour me withall I leâ—… at Mr. Seiles the Stationer whence if you have them not already you may please to send for them So in all affection I kisse your hands and am Your humble Servitor J. H. Trevere 10th of Apr. 1622. XIV To ' the Right honble the Lord Vicount Colchester after Earl Rivers Right honble THe commands your Lopp pleas'd to impose upon me when I left England and those high favors wherin I stand bound to your Lopp call upon me at this time to send your Lopp â—…om small fruits of my forren Travell Marquis Spinola is return'd from the Palatinat where he was so fortunat that like Caesar 〈◊〉 came saw and overcame notwithstanding that huge Army of the Princes of the Union consisting of forty thousand men wheras his was under twenty but made up of old â—…ough blades and veteran Commanders He hath now chang'd his coaâ—… and taken up his old Commission again from Don Philippo wheras during that expedition he call'd himself Caesars servant I hear the Emperor hath transmitted the upper Palatinat to the Duke of Bavaria as caution for those moneys he hath expended in these wars And the King of Spain is the Emperors Commissary for the lower Palatinat They both pretend that they were bound to obey the Imperiall summons to assist Caesar in these wars the one as he was Duke of Burgundy the other of Bavaria both which Countreys are â—…eudetarie to the Empire els they had incurr'd the Imperiall bun It is'fear'd this German war will be as the Frenchman saith de longue halaine long breath'd â—…or ther are great powers on both sides and they say the King of Denmark is arming Having made a leasurely so journ in this Town I had spare houâ—… to couch in writing a survay of these Countreys which I have now traversd the second time but in regard it would be a great bulk for a Letter I send it your Lopp apart and when I return to England I shall be bold to attend your Lopp for correction of my faults In the interim I rest Antwerp May 1. 1622. My Lord Your thrice humble Serviv J. H. XV A survey of the seventeen Provinces My Lord TO attempt a precise description of each of the seventeen Provinces and of its Progression Privileges and Primitive government were a task of no lesse confusion than labour Let it suffice to know that since Flanders and Holland were erected to Earldoms and
greatest town of Europe whence arose the Proverb Les flamen tient un gan qui tiendrá Paris dedans But the beautifullest richest strongest and most privileg'd City is Antwerp in Brabant being the Marquisat of the holy Empire and drawing nere to the nature of a Hans Town for she payes the Prince no other Tax but the Impost Before the dissociation of the seventeen Provinces this Town was one of the greatest Marts of Europe and greatest bank this side the Alpes most Princes having their Factors here to take up or let out moneys and here our Gresham got all his wealth and built our Royall Exchange by modell of that here The Merchandise was brought hither from Germany France and Italy by Land and from England Spain and the Hans towns by Sea was estimated at above twenty Millions of Crowns every year but as no violent thing is long lasting and as t is fatall to all Kingdomes States Towns and Languages to have their period so this renown'd Mart hath suffer'd a shrewd eclipse yet no utter downfall the Exchange of the King of Spains money and some small land trafic keeping still life in her though nothing so full of vigor as it was Therfore there is no town under the Archduke where the States have more conceal'd friends than in Antwerp who would willingly make them her Masters in hope to recover her former commerce which after the last twelve years truce began to revive a little the States permitting to passe by Lillo's sconce which coÌ„mands the river of Skeld and lyeth in the teeth of the Town som small cross-saild ships to passe hither There is no place hath been more passive than this and more often pillag'd amongst other times she was once plunder'd most miserably by the Spaniards under the conduct of a Priest immediatly upon Don Iohn of Austria's death she had then her Stat-house burn'd which had cost a few years before above twenty thousand Crowns the building and the spoils that were carried away thence amounted to forty Tuns of gold Thus she was reduc'd not only to poverty but a kind of captivity being commanded by a Citadell which she preferr'd before a Garrison this made the Merchant retire and seek a more free Randevous som in Zeland som in Holland specially in Amsterdam which rose upon the fall of this Town as Lisbon did from Venice upon the discovery of the Cape of good Hope though Venice be not nere so much crestfall'n I will now steer my discours to the united Provinces as they term themselves which are six in number viz. Holland Zeland Frisland Overyssell Gronninghen and Utrecht three parts of Gilderland and some Frontire Towns and places of contribution in Brabant and Flanders In all these ther is no innovation at all introduc'd notwithstanding this great change in point of Government except that the College of States represents the Duke or Earl in times pass'd which College consists of the chiefest Gentry of the Countrey surintendants of Towns and the principall Magistrates Every Province and great Town choose yearly certain Deputies to whom they give plenary power to deliberat with the other States of all affairs touching the public welfare of the whole Province and what they vote stands for Law These being assembled consult of all matters of State Justice and War the Advocat who is prime in the Assembly propounds the busines and after collects the suffrages first of the Provinces then of the Towns which being put in form he delivers in pregnant and moving speeches and in case ther be a dissonance and reluctancy of opinions he labors to accord and reconcile them concluding alwayes with the major voyces Touching the administration of Justice the President who is monthly chang'd with the great Counsell have the supreme judicature from whose Decrees ther 's no appeal but a revision and then som of the choycest Lawyers amongst them are appointed For their Opidan Government they have variety of Officers a Scout Bourgmasters a Balue and 〈◊〉 The Scout is chosen by the States who with the Balues have the judging of all criminall matters in last resort without appeal they have also the determining of Civill Causes but those are appealable to the Hague Touching their chiefest Governor or Generall rather now having made proof of the Spaniard German French and English and agreeing with none of them they lighted at last upon a man of their own mould Prince Maurice now their Generall in whom concurr'd divers parts suitable to such a charge having been train'd up in the wars by his Father who with three of his Uncles and divers of his kindred sacrific'd their lives in the States quarrell he hath thriven well since he came to the Government hee clear'd Friesland Overyssell and Groninghen in lesse than 18 months He hath now continued their Governor and Generall by sea and land above 33 years he hath the election of Magistrats the pardning of Malefactors and divers other Prerogatives yet they are short of the reach of Soverainty and of the authority of the ancient Counts of Holland Though I cannot say 't is a mercenary employment yet he hath a limited allowance nor hath he any implicit command when he goes to the field for either the Counsell of War marcheth with him or els he receives daily directions from them moreover the States themselves reserve the power of nominating all Commanders in the Army which being of sundry Nations deprive him of those advantages he might have to make himself absolut Martiall-Discipline is no where so regular as amongst the States no wher are ther lesser insolencies committed upon the Burger noâ—… robberies upon the Countrey Boors nor are the Officers permitted to insult ore the common soldier When the Army marcheth not one dares take so much as an apple off a tree or a root out of the earth in their passage and the reason is they are punctually paid their pay els I believe they would be insolent enough and were not the pay so certain I think few or none would serve them They speak of sixty thousand they have in perpetuall pay by Land and Sea at home and in the Indies The King of France was us'd to maintain a Regiment but since Henry the Greats death the paiment hath been neglected The means they have to maintain these Forces to pay their Governor to discharge all other expence as the preservation of their Diâ—…es which comes to a vast expence yearly is the ancient revenue of the Counts of Holland the impropriaâ—… Church living Imposts upon all Merchandise which is greater upon exported than imported goods Excise upon all commodities as well for necessity as pleasure taxes upon every Acre of ground which is such that the whole Countrey returns into their hands every three years Add hereunto the Art they use in their bank by the rise and fall of money the fishing upon our Coasts whither they send every Autumâ—… above 700 Hulks or Busses which in the voiages they
make return above a Million in Herings moreover their fishing for Greenfish and Salmon amounts to so much more and for their Cheese and Butter 't is thought they vent as much every year as Lisbon doth spices This keeps the common Treasury always full that upon any extraordinary service or dessein ther is seldom any new tax upon the people Trafic is their generall profession being all either Merchants oâ—… Mariners and having no land to manure they furrow the Sea for their living and this universality of trade and their banks of adventures distributes the wealth so equally that few amongst them are exceeding rich or exceeding poor Gentry amongst them is very thin and as in all Democraties little respected and comming to dwell in Towns they soon mingle with the Merchant and so degenerat Their soyl being all 'twixt marsh and medow is so fat in pasturage that one Cow will give eight quarts of milk a day â—…o that as a Boor told me in four little dorps near Herlam 't is thought ther is as much milk milk'd in the year as ther is Rhenish wine brought to Dort which is the sole Staple of it Their towns are beautifull and neatly built and with uniformity that who sees one sees all In some places as in Amsterdam the foundation costs more than the superstructure for the ground being soft they are constrain'd to ram in huge stakes of timber with wooll about it to preserve it from puâ—…rifaction till they com to a firm basis so that as one said whosoever could see Amsterdam under ground should see a huge winter Forrest Amongst all the confederat Provinces Holland is most predominant which being but six hours journey in breadth contains nine and forty wall'd Towns and all these within a days journey one of another Amsterdam for the present is one of the greatest mercantill Towns in Europ To her is appropriated the East and West Indie trade whether she sends yearly 40. great ships with another fleet to the Baltick Sea but they send not nere so many to the Mediterranean as England Other towns are passably rich and stor'd with shipping but not one very poore which proceeds from the wholsom policy they use to assign every Town som firm Staple commodity as to their maiden Town Dâ—…rt the German wines and corn to Midlebourgh the French and Spanish wines to Trevere the Prince of Orenge his Town the Scots trade Leyden in recompence of her long siege was erected to an University which with Franiker in Frisâ—…land is all they have Haerlam for knitting and weaving hath som privilege Rotterdam hath the English cloth and this renders their Towns so equally rich and populous They allow free harbor to all Nations with liberty of Religion the Roman only excepted as far as the Iew who hath two Synagogs allowd him but only in Amsterdam which peece of policy they borrow of the Venetian with whom they have very intimat intelligence only the Iew in Venice in Rome and other places go with som outward mark of distinction but hear they wear none and these two republicks that in the East and this in the West are the two remora's that stick to the great vessell of Spain that it cannot sayl to the Western Monarchy I have been long in the survay of these Provinces yet not long enough for much more might be said which is fitter for a Story than a Survay I will conclude with a mot or two of the people wherof som have been renownd in times past for feats of war amongst the States the Hollander or Batavian hath been most known for som of the Roman Emperors have had a selected guard of them about their persons for their fidelity and valeur as now the King of France hath of the Swisse The Frisons also have bin famous for those large privileges wherwith Charlemain endowd them The Flemins also have bin illustrious for the martiall exploits they achiev'd in the East where two of the Earls of Flanders were crownd Emperors They have all a genius inclin'd to commerce very inventive and witty in manufactures witnes the Art of Printing painting and colouring in glasse those curious quadrants chim's and dialls those kind of waggons which are us'd up and down Christendom were first us'd by them and for the Mariners Compas though the matter be disputable twixt the Neapolitan the Portugall and them yet ther is a strong argument on their side in regard they were the first that subdivided the four cardinall winds to two and thirty others naming them in their Language Ther is no part of Europ so hanted with all sorts of Forrenerâ—… as the Netherlands which makes the Inhabitants as well women as men so well vers'd in all sorts of languages so that in Exchange time one may hear 7. or 8. sorts of toungs spoken upon their Bourses nor are the men only expert herein but the women and maids also in their common hostries and in Holland the wif 's are so well vers'd in bargaining cifring and writing that in the absence of their Husbands in long Sea voyages they beat the trade at home and their words will passe in equall credit These women are wonderfully sober though their Husbands make commonly their bargains in drink and then are they most cauâ—…elous This confluence of Strangers makes them very populous which was the cause that Charles the Emperor said that all the Netherlands seemd to him but as one continued Town He and his Grandfather Maximilian notwithstanding the choice of Kingdoms they had kept their Courts most frequently in them which shewd how highly they esteemd them and I beleeve if Philip the second had visited them somtimes matters had not gon so ill Ther is no part of the Earth considering the small circuit of Countrey which is estimated to be but as big as the fist part of Italy where one may find more differing customs tempers and humors of people than in the Netherlands The Walloon is quick and spritfull acostable and full of Complement and gawdy in apparell like his next neighbor the French The Flemin and Brabanâ—…r somwhat more slow and more sparing of speech The Hollander slower than he more surly and respectles of Gentry and strangers homely in his cloathing of very few words and heavy in action which may be well imputed to the quality of the soyl which works so strongly upon the humors that when people of a more vivacious and nimble temper com to mingle with them their children are observ'd to partake rather of the soyl than the syre And so it is in all Animalls besides Thus have I hudled up som observations of the Low Countreys beseeching your Lopp would be pleas'd to pardon the imperfections and correct the errors of them for I know none so capable to do it as your Lopp to whom I am Antwerp 1 Maii. 1622. A most humble and ready Servitor J. H. XIV To my Brâ—…sher Master Hugh Penry upon his mariage SIR YOu have had
put by the gallanter man of the two I was told of a witty saying of his when the Duke of Lerma had the vogue in this Court for going one morning to speak with the Duke and having danc'd attendance a long time hee peep'd through a slit in the hanging and spied Don Rodrigo Calderon a great man who was lately beheaded here for poisning the late Queen Dowager delivering the Duke a Paper upon his knees wherat the Marquis smil'd and said Voto a tal aquâ—…l hombre sube mas a las rodillas que yo no hago a los pics I swear that man climbs higher upon his knees than I can upon my feet Indeed I have read it to be a true Court rule that descendendo ascendendum est in Aula descending is the way to ascend at Court Ther is a kind of humility and compliance that is far from any servile baseness or fordid flattery and may be term'd discretion rather than adulation I intend God willing to go for Sardinia this Spring I hope to have better luck than Master Walsingham Gresley had who some few years since in his passage thither upon the same business that I have in agitation met with some Turksmen of war and so was carried slave to Algier So with my true respects to you I rest Madrid 12 Mar. 1622. Your faithfull Servant J. H. XIV To Sir Francis Cottington Secretary to his Highnesse the Prince of Wales at Saint James SIR I Believe it will not be unpleasing unto you to hear of the procedure and successe of that business wherin your self hath been so long vers'd in I mean the great sute against the quondam Vice-roy of Sardinia the Conde del Real Count Gondamars comming was a great advantage unto me who hath don me many favors besides a confirmation of the two sentences of view and review and of the execution against the Vice-roy I have procur'd a Royall cedule which I caus'd to be printed and wherof I send you here inclos'd a Coppy by which Cedule I have power to arrest his very person and my Lawyers tell me ther was never such a cedule granted before I have also by vertue of it priority of all other his Creditors He hath made an imperfect overture of a composition and shewd me som triviall old fashion'd jewells but nothing equivalent to the debt And now that I speak of jewells the late surprisall of Ormus by the assistance of our ships sinks deep in their stomacks here and we were afraid it would have spoild all proceedings but my Lord Digby now Earl of Bristoll for Count Gondamar brought him ore his Patent hath calmd all things at his last audience Ther were luminaries of joy lately here for the victory that Don Gonzalez de Cordova got over Count Mansfelt in the Netherlands with that Army which the Duke of Bouillon had levied for him but some say they have not much reason to rejoyce for though the Infantery suffer'd yet Mansfelt got clear with all his horse by a notable retreat and they say here it was the greatest peece of service and Art he ever did it being a Maxim that ther is nothing so difficult in the Art of War as an honourable retreat Besides the report of his comming to Breda caus'd Marquis Spinola to raise the siege before Berghen to burn his tents and to pack away suddenly for which he is much censur'd here Captain Leat and others have written to me of the favourable report you pleas'd to make of my endeavors here for which I return you humble thanks and though you have left behind you multitude of servants in this Court yet if occasion were offerd none should be more forward to go on your errand then Madrid 15 Mar. 1622. Your humble and faithfull Servitor J. H. XV. To the honble Sir Tho Savage Knight and Baronet honble SIR THe great busines of the match was tending to a period the Articles reflecting both upon Church and State being capitulated and interchangeably accorded on both sides and ther wanted nothing to consummate all things when to the wonderment of the world the Prince and the Marquis of Buckingham arriv'd at this Court a friday last upon the close of the evening they lighted at my Lord of Bristols house and the Marquis Mr Thomas Smith came in first with a Portmantle under his arm then Mr Iohn Smith the Prince was sent for who staid a while the to'ther side of the street in the dark my Lord of Bristoll in a kind of astonishment brought him up to his bed chamber where he presently calld for pen and ink and dispacht a Post that night to England to acquaint his Majesty how in lesse then sixteen daies he was come safely to the Court of Spain that Post went lightly laden for he carried but three letters the next day came Sir Francis Cotington and Mr Porter and darke rumors ran in every corner how som great man was com from England and som would not stick to say amongst the vulgar it was the King but towards the evening on saturday the marquis went in a close coach to Court where he had privat audience of this King who sent Olivares to accompany him back to the Prince where he kneeld and kisd his hands and hugd his thighs and deliverd how unmeasurably glad his Catholic Majesty was of his coming with other high complements which Mr Porter did interpret About ten a clock that night the King himself came in a close coach with intent to visit the Prince who hearing of it met him halfway and after salutations and divers embraces which past in the first interview they parred late I forgot to tell you that Count Gondamar being sworn Counseller of State that morning having bin before but one of the Counsell of War he came in great hast to visit the Prince saying he had strange news to tell him which was that an Englishman was sworn privy Counseller of Spain meaning himself who he said was an Englishman in his heart On Sunday following the King in the afternoon came abroad to take the air with the Queen his two brothers and the Infanta who were all in one coach but the Infanta sat in the boot with a blew riband about her arm of purpose that the Prince might distinguish her ther were above twenty coaches besides of Grandes Noble men and Ladies that attended them And now iâ—… was publicly known amongst the vulgar that it was the Prince of Wales who was com and the confluence of people before my Lord of Bristolls house was so great and greedy to see the Prince that to clear the way Sir Lewis Divâ—…s went out and took coach and all the crowd of people went after him so the Prince himself a little after took coach wherin there were the Earl of Bristoll Sir Walter Ashton and Count Gondamar and so went to the Prado a place hard by of purpose to take the air where they stayed till the King past by as soon as
protractions and puttings off you need not wonder that private negotiations as mine is should be subject to the same inconveniences Ther shall be no means left unattempted that my best industry can find out to put a period to it and when his Highnesse is gon I hope to find my Lord of Bristoll more at leasure to continue his favour and furtherance which hath been much already So I rest Madrid Aug. 19. 1623. Yours ready to servâ—… you J. H. XXIV To Sir James Crofts SIR THe Prince is now upon his jorney to the Sea side where my Lord of Rutland attends for him with a royall fleet Ther are many here shrink in their shoulders and are very sensible of his departure and the Lady Infanta resents it more than any she hath caus'd a Mass to be sung every day ever since for his good Voyage The Spaniards themselves confess ther was never Princes so bravely wooed The King and his two Brothers accompanied his Highnes to the Escurial some twenty miles off and would have brought him to the Sea side but that the Queen is big and hath not many days to go when the King and he parted there past wonderfull great endearments and embraces in divers postures between them a long time and in that place there is a Pillar to be erected as a Monument to Posterity Ther are some Grandes and Count Gondamar with a great train besides gone with him to the Marine to the Sea side which will be many days journey and must needs put the King of Spain to a mighty expence besides his seven months entertainment here we hear that when he past through Valladolid the Duke of Lerma was retired thence for the time by speciall command from the King left he might have discours with the Prince whom he extremely desir'd to see This sunk deep into the old Duke insomuch that he said that of all the acts of malice which Olivares had ever done him he resented this more than any He bears up yet very well under his Cardinalls habit which hatâ—… kept him from many a foul storm that might have faln upon him els from the temporall power The Duke of Uzeda his son finding himself to decline in favor at Court had retir'd to the Countrey and dyed soon after of discontentment During his sickness the Cardinall writ this short weighty Letter unto him Dizen me que Mareys de necio por mi mas temo mis anos qué mis Eâ—…igos Lerma I shall not need to English it to you who is so great a Master of the Language Since I began this Letter wee understand the Prince is safely embarqu'd but not without som danger of being cast away had not Sir Sackvill Trever taken him up I pray God send him a good voyage and us no ill news from England My most humble service at Tower-hill so I am Madrid Aug. 21. 1623. Your humble Servitor J. H. XXV To my Brother Doctor Howell My Brother SInce our Prince his departure hence the Lady Infanta studieth English apace and one Mr. Wadsworth and Father Boniface two Englishmen are appointed her teachers and have access to her every day We account her as it were our Princess now and as we give so she takes that Title Our Ambassadors my Lord of Bristoll and Sir Walter Astâ—…n will not stand now covered before her when they have audience because they hold her to be their Princess she is preparing divers suits of rich Cloaths for his Highness of persum'd Amber leather some embroder'd with Pearl some with Gold some with Silver her Family is a setling apace and most of her Ladies and Officers are known already we want nothing now but one dispatch more from Rome and then the marriage will be solemnizd and all things consummated yet there is one Mr. Clerk with the lame arm that came hither from the Sea side as soon as the Prince was gon hee is one of the Duke of Buckinghams creatures yet he lies at the Earl of Bristols house which we wonder at considering the darknes that hapned twixt the Duke and the Earl we fear that this Clerk hath brought somthing that may puzzle the busines Besides having occasion to make my address lately to the Venetian Ambassador who is interressed in som part of that great busines for which I am here he told me confidently it would be no match nor did he think it was ever intended But I want faith to believe him yet for I know Saint Mark is no friend to it nor France or any other Prince or State besides the King of Denmarck whose Grandmother was of the house of Austria being sister to Charles the Emperor Touching the busines of the Palatinate our Ambassadors were lately assur'd by Olivares and all the Counsellors here that in this Kings name that he would procure his Majestie of great Britain entire satisfaction herein and Olivares giving them the joy intreated them to assure their King upon their honor and upon their lives of the reality hereof for the Infanta her self said he hath stird in it and makes it now her own busines for it was a firm peace and amity which he confest could never be without the accommodation of things in Germany as much as an alliance which his Catholic Majesty aimd at But wee shall know shortly now what to trust to we shall walk no more in mists though som give out yet that our prince shall embrace a cloud for Iuno at last I pray present my service to Sir Iohn Franklin and Sir Iohn Smith with all at the Hill and Dale and when you send to Wales I pray convey the inclos'd to my Father So my dear brother I pray God bless us both and bring us again joyfully together Madrid Aug. 12. 1623. Your very loving Brother J. H. XXVI To my noble friend Sir John North Knight SIR I Receiv'd lately one of yours but it was of a very old date we have our eyes here now all fixd upon Rome greedily expecting the Ratification and lately a strong rumor ran it was com in so much Mr Clerk who was sent hither from the Prince being a shipboard and now lies sick at my Lord of Bristolls house of a Calenture hearing of it he desired to speak with him for he had somthing to deliver him from the Prince my Lord Ambassador being com to him Mr Clerk delivered a letter from the Prince the contents wherof were that wheras he had left certain Proxies in his hand to be deliverd to the King of Spain after the Ratification was com he desir'd and requir'd him not to do it till he should receive further order from England my Lord of Bristoll hereupon went to Sir Walter Aston who was in joynt Commission with him for concluding the match and shewing him the Letter what my Lord Aston said I know not but my Lord of Bristoll told him that they had a Commission Royall under the broad Seal of England to conclude the match he
great busines you know better than I was involv'd in many difficulties and died so intangled before it could break through them There is a buzz here of a match 'twixt England and France I pray God send it a speedier Formation and Animation than this had and that it may not prove an abortive I send you herewith a letter from the Paragon of the Spanish Court Doña Anna Maria Manâ—…ique the Duke of Maquedas sister who respects you in a high Degree she told me this was the first Letter she ever writ to man in her life except the Duke her brother she was much sollicited to write to Mr. Thomas Cary but she would not I did also your Message to the Marquesa d' Inososa who put me to sit a good while with her upon her Estrado which was no simple favor you are much in both these Ladies Books and much spoken of by divers others in this Court I could not recover your Diamond hasband which the Picaroon snatched from you in the coach though I us'd all means possible as far as book bell and candle in point of Excommunication against the party in all the Churches of Madrid by which means you know divers things are recover'd So I most affectionatly kiss your hands and rest Post. Yours of the 2. of March came to safe hand Madrid Your most faithfull Servitor J. H. XXX To my Cosen Mr J. Price now Knight at the middle Temple from Madrid COsen suffer my Letter to salute you first in this Distich A Thamisi Tagus quot leucis flumine distat Oscula tot manibus porto Pricaee tuis As many miles Thames lies from Tagus Strands I bring so many kisses to thy hands My dear Jack IN the large Register or Almanack of my friends in England you are one of the chiefest red Letters you are one of my Festiâ—…all Rubriques for whensoever you fall upon my mind or my mind falls upon you I keep Holy day all the while and this happens so often that you leave me but few working days throughout the whole year fewer far than this Countrey affords for in their Calender above five Months of the twelve are dedicated to som Saint or other and kept Festivall a Religion that the London Apprentices would like well I thank you for yours of the third Current and the ample Relations you give me of London Occurrences but principally for the powerfull and sweet assurances you give me of your love both in Verse and Prose All businesses here are off the hinges for one late audience of my Lord of Bristoll pulld down what was so many years a raising And as Thomas Aquinas told an Artist of a costly curious Statue in Rome that by som accident while he was a trimming it fell down and so broke to peeces Opus triginta annoram destruxisti thou hast destroy'd the work of thirty years so it may be said that a work nere upon ten years is now suddenly shaâ—…terd to peeces I hope by Gods grace to be now speedily in England and to re-enjoy your most dear society In the mean time may all happines attend you Ad Litteram Ociùs ut grandire gradus oratio possis Prosa tibi binos jungimus ecce pedes That in thy jorney thou maist be more fleet To my dull Prose I add these Metric feet Resp. Ad mare cum venio quid agam Repl. tùm praepete penna Te ferat est lator nam levis ignis Amor But when I com to Sea how shall I shift Let Love transport thee then for Fire is swift Your most affectionat Cos. J. H. March 30. 1624. XXXI To the Lord Vicount Col. from Madrid Right Honble YOur Lopps of the third Current came to safe hand and being now upon point of parting with this Court I thought it worth the labor to send your Lopp s a short survey of the Monarchy of Spain a bold undertaking your Lopp will say to comprehend within the narrow bounds of a Letter such a huge bulk but as in the bosse of a small Diamond ring one may discern the image of a mighty mountain so I will endeavour that your Lopp may behold the power of this great King in this paper Spain hath bin alwaies esteemd a Countrey of ancient renown and as it is incident to all other she hath had her vicissiâ—…udes and turns of Fortune She hath bin thrice orecome by the Romans by the Goths and by the Moors the middle conquest continueth to this day for this King and most of the Nobility proses themselves to have descended of the Goths the Moores kept here about 700. years and it is a remarkable Story how they got in first which was thus upon good record There raignd in Spain Don Rodrigo who kept his Court then at Malaga He emploid the Conde Don Julian Ambassador to Barbary who had a Daughter a young beautifull Lady that was maid of Honor to the Queen The King spying her one day refreshing her self under an Arbour sell enamour'd with her and never left till he had deslowrd her She resenting much the dishonor writ a letter to her Father in Barbary under this Allegory That there was a fair green Apple upon the table and the Kings poignard fell upon 't and clest it in two Don Iulian apprehending the meaning got letters of revocation and came back to Spain wher he so complied with the King that he became his Favorite Amongst other things he advis'd the King that in regard he was now in Peace with all the world he would dismisse his Gallies and Garrisons that were up and down the Sea coasts because it was a superfluous charge This being don and the Countrey left open to any Invader he prevaild with the King to have leave to go with his Lady to see their friends in Tarragona which was 300. miles off Having bin there a while his Lady made semblance to be sick and so sent to petition the King that her daughter Donna Cava whom they had left at Court to satiat the Kings lust might com to comfort her a while Cava came and the gate through which she went sorth is call'd afâ—… her name to this day in Malaga Don Iulian having all his chief kindred there he saild over to Barbary and afterwards brought over the King of Morocco and others with an Army who suddenly invaded Spain lying armles and open and so conquer'd it Don Rodrigo died gallantly in the field but what became of Don Iulian who for a particular revenge betrayed his own Countrey no Story makes menâ—… A few yeers before this happend Rodrigo came to Toledo where under the great Church ther was a vault with huge Iron doors and none of his Predecessors durst open it because ther was an old Prophesie That when that vault was open'd Spain should be conquered Rodrigo slighting the Prophesie caus'd the doors to be broke open hoping to find there som Treasure but when he entred there was nothing sound but the
and exterminated yet I beleeve in Portugall there lurks yet good store of them For the soil of Spain the fruitfulnes of their vallies recompences the sterillity of their hills corn is their greatest want and want of rain is the cause of that which makes them have need of their neighbors yet as much as Spain bears is passing good and so is every thing else for the quality nor hath any one a better horse under him a better cloak on his back a better sword by his side better shooes on his feet than the Spaniard nor doth any drink better Wine or eat better fruit than he nor flesh for the quantity Touching the People the Spaniard looks as high though not so big aâ—… a German his excesse is in too much gravity which som who know him not well hold to be a pride he cares not how little he labours for poor Gascons and Morisco slaves do most of his work in field and vineyard he can endure much in the war yet he loves not to fight in the dark but in open day or upon a stage that all the world might be witnesses of his valor so that you shall seldom hear of Spaniards employed in night service nor shall one hear of a Duell here in an age He hath one good quality that he is wonderfully obedient to Government for the proudest Don of Spain when he is prancing upon his Ginet in the streets if an Alguazil a Sargeant shew him his Vare that is a little white staff he carrieth as badge of his Office my Don will down presently off his horse and yeeld himself his prisoner He hath another commendable quality that when he giveth Alms he puls off his Hat and puts it in the beggars hand with a great deal of humility His gravity is much lessned since the late Proclamation came out against ruffs and the King himself shewd the first example they were come to that hight of excess herein that twenty shillings were us'd to be paid for starching of a ruff and som though perhaps he had never a shirt to his back yet would be have a toting huge swelling ruff about his neck He is sparing in his Ordinary diet but when he makes a Feast he is free and bountifull As to Temporall Authority specially Martiall so is be very obedient to the Church and beleeves all with an implicit faith he is a great servant of Ladies nor can he be blam'd for as I said before he coms of a Gotish race yet he never brags of nor blazes abroad his doings that way but is exceedingly carefull of the repute of any woman A civility that we much want in England Hee will speak high words of Don Philippo his King but will not endure a stranger should do so I have heard a Biscayner make a Rodomontado that he was as good a Gentleman as Don Philippo himself for Don Philippo was half a Spaniard half a German half an Italian half a Frenchman half I know not what but he was a pure Biscayner without mixture The Spaniard is not so smooth and oyly in his Complement as the Italian and though hee will make strong protestations yet he will not swear out Complements like the French and English as I heard when my Lord of Carlile was Ambassador in France there came a great Monsieur to see him and having a long time banded and sworn Complements one to another who should go first out at a dore at last my Lord of Carlile said ô Monseigneur ayez pitie de mon ame O my ' Lord have pity upon my soul. The Spaniard is generally given to gaming and that in excesse he will say his prayers before and if he win he will thank God for his good fortune after their common game at cards for they very seldom play at dice is Primera at which the King never shews his game but throws his cards with their faces down on the Table He is Merchant of all the cards and dice through all the Kingdom he hath them made for a penny a pair and he retails them for twelve pence so that 't is thought he hath 30000 l. a year by this trick at cards The Spaniard is very devout in his way for I have seen him kneel in the very dirt when the Ave Mary bell rings and som if they spy two straws or sticks lie cross-wise in the street they will take them up and kisse them and lay them down again He walks as if he marcht and seldom looks on the ground as if he contemnd it I was told of a Spaniard who having got a fall by a stumble and broke his nose rose up and in a disdainfull manner said Voto a tal esto es caminar por la tierra This is to walk upon earth The Labradors and Countrey Swains here are sturdy and rationall men nothing so simple or servile as the French Peasan who is born in chains T is true the Spaniard is not so conversable as other Nations unlesse hee hath travel'd els hee is like Mars among the Planets impatient of Conjunction nor is he so free in his gifts and rewards as the last Summer it hapned that Count Gondamar with Sir Francis Cotington went to see a curious house of the Constable of Castiles which had been newly built here the keeper of the house was very officious to shew him every room with the garden grotha's and aqueducts and presented him with some fruit Gondamar having been a long time in the house comming out put many Complements of thanks upon the man and so was going away Sir Francis whisper'd him in the ear and askd him whether he would give the man any thing that took such pains Oh quoth Gondamar well remembred Don Francisco have you ever a double Pistoll about you If you have you may give it him and then you pay him after the English manner I have paid him already after the Spanish The Spaniard is much improv'd in policy since hee took footing in Italy and there is no Nation agrees with him better I will conclude this Character with a saying that he hath No ay bombre debaxo d'el sol Como el Italiano y el Español Wherunto a Frenchman answerd Dizes la verdad y tienes razon El uno es puto el otro ladron Englished thus Beneath the Sun ther 's no such man As is is the Spaniard and Italian The Frenchman answers Thou tell'st the truth and reason hast The first 's a Theef a Buggerer the last Touching their women nature hath made a more visible distinction twixt the two sexes here than else where for the men for the most part are swarthy and rough but the women are made of a far finer mould they are commonly little and wheras there is a saying that to make a compleat woman let her be English to the neck French to the wast and Dutch below I may add for hands and feet let her be Spanish for they have the least of
alleg'd 't was his duty to officiat in that Church but the dignity of Cardinall and the quality of his Office being the Kings great Almner which makes him chief Curat of the Court gave him the prerogative I doubt not but your Lordship hath heard of the Capitulations but for better assurance I will run them over briefly The King of France oblig'd himself to procure the Dispensation the mariage should be celebrated in the same form as that of Queen Margaret and of the Dutchess of Bar her Dowrie should be 800000 Crowns six shillings a peece the one moitie to be paied the day of the Contract the other a twelvemonth after The Queen shall have a Chappell in all the Kings Roiall houses and any wher else where she shall recide within the Dominions of his Majestie of great Britain with free exercise of the Roman Religion for her self her Officers and all her Houshold for the celebration of the Mass the Predication of the Word Administration if the Sacraments and power to procure Indulgences from the Holy Father That to this end she shall be allow'd 28 Priests or Ecclesiasticks in her House and a Bishop in quality of Almoner who shall have jurisdiction over all the rest and that none of the Kings Officers shall have power over them unless in case of Treason therfore all her Ecclesiastics shall take the Oath of fidelitie to His Majestie of great Britain ther shall be a Cymitier or Church-yard clos'd about to burie those of her Family That in consideration of this mariage all English Catholics as well Ecclesiastics as Lay which shall be in any prison meerly for Religion since the last Edict shall be set at libertie This is the eighth Alliance we have had with France since the Conquest and as it is the best that could be made in Christendom so I hope it will prove the happiest So I kiss your hands being Your Lordships most humble Servitor J. H. Lond. Mar. 1 1625. XIII To the honble Sir Tho. Saâ—… SIR I Convers'd lately with a Gentleman that came from France who amongst other things discours'd much of the Favourit Richelieu who is like to be an active man and hath great designs The two first things he did was to make sure of England and the Hollander he thinks to have us safe enough by this mariage and Holland by a late League which was bought with a great sum of money for he hath furnish'd the States with a Million of Liures at two shillings a peece in present and six hundred thousand Liures every year of these two that are to com provided That the States repay these sums two years after they are in peace or truce The King press'd much for Liberty of Conscience to Roman Catholics amongst them and the Deputies promis'd to do all they could with the States Generall about it they Articled likewise for French to be associated with them in the trade to the Indies Monsieur is lately maried to Mary of Bourbon the Duke of Monpensiers Daughter he told her That he would be a better Husband than he had been a Suter to her for hee hung off a good while This mariage was made by the King and Monsieur hath for his apennage 100000 Liures annuall Rent from Chartres and Blois 100000 Liures Pension and 500000 to be charg'd yearly upon the generall receipts of Orleans in all about 70000 pounds Ther was much ado before this match could be brought about for ther were many opposers and ther be dark whispers that ther was a deep plot to confine the King to a Monastery and that Monsieur should govern and divers great ones have suffered for it and more are like to be discover'd So I take my leave for present and rest Lond. Mar. 10 1626. Your very humble and ready Servitor J. H. XIV To the Lady Jane Savage Marchioness of Winchester Excellent Lady I May say of your Grace as it was said once of a rare Italian Princess that you are the greatest Tyrant in the World because you make all those that see you your slaves much more them that know you I mean those that are acquainted with your inward disposition and with the faculties of your soul as well as the Phisnomy of your face for Vertue took as much pains to adorn the one as Nature did to perfect the other I have had the happines to know both when your Grace took pleasure to learn Spanish at which time when my betters far had offer'd their service in this kind I had the honor to be commanded by you often Hee that hath as much experience of you as I have had will confess that the handmaid of God Almighty was never so prodigall of her gifts to any or labour'd more to frame an exact modell of Femal perfection nor was dame Nature onely busied in this Work but all the Graces did consult and co-operat with her and they wasted so much of their Tresure to in rich this one peece that it may be a good reason why so many lame and defective fragments of Women-kind are daily thrust into the world I return you here inclos'd the Sonnet your Grace pleas'd to send me lately rendred into Spanish and fitted for the same Ayr it had in English both for cadence and number of feet With it I send my most humble thanks that your Grace would descend to command me in any thing that might conduce to your contentment and service for ther is nothing I desire with a greater Ambition and herein I have all the World my Rival than to be accounted Madame Your Grace's most humble and ready Servitor J. H. Lond. Mar. 15. 1626. X. To the Right honble the Lord Clifford My Lord I Pray be pleas'd to dispence with this slownes of mine in answering yours of the first of this present Touching the domestic occurrences the Gentleman who is Bearer hereof is more capable to give you account by discourse than I can in paper For forrain tidings your Lordship may understand that the Town of Breda hath bin a good while making her last will and testament but now ther is certain news com that she hath yeelded up the Ghost to Spinalo's hands after a tough siege of thirteen months and a circumvallation of neeâ—…r upon twenty miles compas My Lord of Southampton and his eldest son sickned at the siege and died at Berghen the adventrous Earl Henry of Oxford seeming to tax the Prince of Orange of slacknes to fight was set upon a desperat Work wher he melted his grease and so being carried to the Hague he died also I doubt not but you have heard of Graye Maurice's death which happen'd when the Town was pass'd cure which was his more than the States for he was Marquis of Breda and had neer upon thirty thousand dollars annual rent from her Therfore he seem'd in a kind of sympathy to sicken with his Town and died before her He had provided plentifully for all his Naturall children but
Familiar Letters SECTION V. I. To Dan. Caldwall Esqr from York My dear D. THough I may be tearmed a right Northern man being a good way this side Trent yet my love to you is as Southern as ever it was I mean it continueth still in the same degree of heat not can this bleaker air or Boreas chilling blasts cool it a whit I am the same to you this side Trent as I was the last time we cross'd the Thames together to see Smugg the Smith and so back to the Still-yard But I fear that your love to me doth not continue in so constant and intense a degree and I have good grounds for this fear because I never receiv'd one syllable from you since I left London if you ridd me not of this scruple and send to me speedily I shall think though you live under a hotter clyme in the South that your former love is not only coold but frozen For this present condition of life I thank God I live well contended I have a fee from the King diet for my self and two servants livry for a horse and a part of the Kings house for my lodging and other privileges which I am told no Secretary before me had but I must tell you the perquisits are nothing answerable to my expectation yet I have built me a new study since I came wherin I shall amongst others meditat somtimes on you and whence this present Letter coms So with a thousand thanks for the plentifull Hospitality and Joviall farewell you gave me at your House in Essex I rest York 30 Iulii 1627. Yors yors yors J. H. II. To Mr. Richard Leat SIgnor io it is now a great while me thinks since any act of friendship or other interchangeable offices of love hath pass'd between us either by Letters or other accustomed ways of correspondence And as I will not accuse so I go not about to clear my self in this point let this long silence be tearm'd therfore a cessation rather than neglect on both sides A bow that lies awhile unbent and a field that remains fallow for a time grow never the worse but afterwards the one sends forth and arrow more strongly the other yeelds a better crop being recultivated Let this be also verified in us let our friendship grow more fruitfull after this pawse let it be more active for the future you see I begin and shoot the first shaft I send you herewith a couple of red Dear pies the one Sir Arthur Ingram gave me the other my Lord Presidents Cook I could not tell where to bestow them better In your next let me know which is the best season'd I pray let the Sydonian Merchant Io. Bruckburst be at the eating of them and then I know they will be well soak'd If you please to send me a barrell or two of Oysters which we want here I promise you they shall be well eaten with a cup of the best Clarret and the best Sherry to which Wine this Town is altogether adicted shall not be wanting I understand the Lord Weston is Lo. Treasurer we may say now that we have Treasurers of all tences for ther are four living to wit the Lord Manchester Middlesex Malborough and the newly chosen I hear also that the good old man the last hath retir'd to his lodgings in Lincolns Inn and so reduc'd himself to his first principles which makes me think that he cannot bear up long now that the staff is taken from him I pray in your next send me the Venetian Gazetta So with my kind respects to your Father I rest York 9. Iuly 1627. Yours J. H. III. To Sir Ed. Sa. Knight SIR 'T was no great matter to be a Prophet and to have foretold his rupture 'twixt us and France upon the sudden renvoy of her Majesties servants for many of them had sold their estates in France given money for their places and so thought to live and die in England in the Queens service and so have pittifully complained to that King therupon he hath arrested above 100 of our Merchant men that went to this Vintage at Bourdeaux We also take som straglers of theirs for ther are Letters of Mart given on both sides Ther are Writs issued out for a Parliament and the Town of Richmond in Richmond shire hath made choise of me for their Burgess though Master Christopher Wansford and other powerfull men and more deserving than I stood for it I pray God send fair weather in the House of Commons for ther is much murmuring about the restraint of those that would not conform to loan-moneys Ther is a great Fleet a preparing and an Army of Land-men but the design is uncertain whether it be against Spain or France for we are now in enmity with both those Crowns The French Cardinall hath been lately tother side the Alpes and setled the Duke of Nevers in the Duchy of Mantoua notwithstanding the opposition of the King of Spain and the Emperor who alleg'd that he was to receive his investiture from him and thaâ—… was the chief ground of the War but the French Arms have dâ—… the work and com triumphantly back over the Hills again No more now but that I am as always Your true friend J. H. March 2. 1627. IV. To the Worp ll Mr Alderman of the Town of Richmond and the rest of the worthy Members of that ancient Corporation SIR I Receiv'd a public Instrument from you lately subscrib'd by your self and divers others wherin I find that you have made choice of me to be one of your Burgesses for this now neer-approaching Parliament I could have wish'd that you had not put by Master Wandesford and other worthy Gentlemen that stood so earnestly for it who being your neighbors had better means and more abilities to serve you Yet since you have cast these high respects upon me I will endeavor to acquit my self of the trust and to answer your expectation accordingly And as I account this Election an honor unto me so I esteem it a great advantage that so worthy and well experienc'd a Knight as Sir Talbot Bows is to be my Collegue and fellow Burgess I shall steer by his compas and follow his directions in any thing that may concern the welfare of your Town and of the Precincts therof either for redress of any grievance or by proposing som new thing that may conduce to the further benefit and advantage therof and this I take to be the true duty of a Parliamentary Burgess without roving at randum to generalls I hope to learne of Sir Talbot what 's fitting to be don and I shall apply my self accordingly to joyn with him to serve you with my best abilities So I rest Your most assured and ready friend to do you service J. H. Lond. March 24 1627. V. To the Right honble the Lo Clifford at Knasbrugh My Lord THe news that fill all mouths at present is the return of the Duke of Buckingham
nature to mingle or sophisticat any Wine heer Over this Chopin of White wine my Vintner and Shoo-maker fell into a hot Dispute about Bishops The Shoo-maker grew very furious and call'd them The firebrands of hell the Pamlers of the Whore of Babilon and the Instruments of the dâ—…vill and that they were of his institution not of Gods My Vintner took him up smartly and said Hold neighbour there Do not you know as well as I that Titus and Timothy were Bishops that our Saviour is entitled The Bishop of our souls that the word Bishop is as frequently mentioned in Scripture as the name Pastor Elder or Deacon then why do you invâ—…igh so bitterly against them The Shoo-maker answered I know the Name and Office to be good but they have abused it My Vintner replies Well then you are a Shoo-maker by your Prefession imagine that you or a hundred or a thousand or a hundred thousand of your Trade should play the knaves and sell Caltskin-leather Boots for Neats-leather or do other cheats must wee therfore go barefoot must the Gentle-craâ—…t of Shoo-makers fall therfore to the ground It is the fault of the Men not of rhe Calling The Shoo-maker was so gravell'd at this that he was put to his Last for he had not a word more to say so my Vintner got the day Ther is a fair Parlement-house built heer lately and 't was hoped His Maiesty would have tane the maiden-head of it and com hither to sit in person and they did ill who advis'd him otherwise I am to go hence shortly back to Dublin and so to London wher I hope to find your Lordship that according to my accustomed boldnes I may attend you In the interim I rest Edenburgh 1639. Your Lordships most humble Servitor J. H. XXXIX To Sir K. Digby Kt. SIR I Thank you for the good opinion you please to have of my fancy of Trees It is a maiden one and not blown upon by any yet But for the merits you please to ascribe unto the Author I utterly disclaim any specially in that proportion you please to give them me 'T is you that have parts enough to compleat a whole Jury of men Those small perquisits that I have are thrust up into a little narrow lobby but those perfections that beautifie your noble soul have a spacious Palace to walk in more sumptuous than either the Louvre Seralio or Escuriall So I most affectionatly kiss your hands being always Westmin 3 Decem. 1639. Your most faithfull Servitor J. H. XL. To Sir Sackvill Crow His Majesties Ambassador at the Post of Constantinople Riglâ—… honble Sir THe greatest news we have heer now is a notable navall fight that was lately 'twixt the Spanierd and Hollander in the Downes but to make it more intelligible I will deduce the busines from the beginning THe King of Spain had provided a 〈◊〉 Fleet of Galeons wherof the Vice-Admiralls of Naples and Portugall wer two wherof he had sent advice to England long before The design was to meet with the French Fleet under the command of the Archbishop of Bourdeaux and in default of that to land som treasure at Dunkirk with a recruit of Spaniards which wer grown very thin in Flanders These recruits wer got by an odd trick for som of the Fleet being at Saint Anderas a report was blown up of purpose that the French were upon the Coasts heerupon all the youngmen of the Country came to the Sea-side and so a great number of them were tumbled a shipboard and so they set saiâ—…e towards the Coasts of France but the Archbishop it seems had drawn in his Fleet Then striking into the Narrow-Seas they met with a Fleet of about sixteen Hollanders wherof they sunk and took two and the rest got away to Holland to give an alarum to the States who in less than a moneth got together a Fleet of about one hundred sail and the wind being a long time Easterly they came into the Downes where Don Antonio d' Oquéndo the Spanish Admirall had stayed for them all the while Sir Iohn Pennington was then abroad with seven of His Majesties Ships and Don Antonio being daily warn'd what forces were preparing in Zealand and Holland and so advis'd to get over to the Flemish Coasts in the interim with a haughty spirit he answer'd Tengo de quedarme aqui para castigar estos Rebeldes I will stay here to chastise these Rebels There were ten more of His Masties Ships appointed to go joyn with Sir Iohn Pennington to observe the motions of these Fleets but the wind continuing still East they could not get out of the River The Spanish Fleet had Fresh-waters Victualls and other necessaries from our Coasts for their money according to the capitulations of peace all this while at last being half surprized by a cloud of Hollanders consisting of one hundred and fourteen ships the launc'd out from our Coasts and a most furious fight began our ships having retir'd hard by all the while The Vice-Admirall of Portugall a famous Sea Captain Don Lope de Hozes was engag'd in close fight with the Vice-Admirall of Holland and after many tough rancounters they were both blown up and burnt together At last night came and parted the rest but six Spanish ships were taken and about twenty of the Hollanders perish'd Oquendo then cross'd over to Nardic and so back to Spain where he died before he came to the Court and 't is thought had he liv'd he had bin question'd for som miscarrâ—…ages for if he had suffer'd the Dunkerkers who are nimbler and more fit for fight to have had the Van and dealt with the Hollander 't is thought matters might have gon better with him but his ambition was that the great spaâ—…ish Galeons should get the glory of the day The Spaniards give out that they had the better in regard they did the main work for Oquendo had conveyed all his recruits and tresure to Flanders while he lay hovering on our Coasts One thing is herein very observable what a mighty Navigable power the Hollander is com to that in so short a compas of time he could appeare with such a numerous Fleet of one hundred and fourteen Sails of Men of War in such a perfect equippage The times afford no more at present therfore with a tender of my most humble service to my noble Lady and my thankfull acknowledgment for those great favours which my Brother Edward writes to me he hath receiv'd from your Lordship in so singular a manner at that Port desiring you would still oblige me with a continuance of them I rest amongst those multitudes you have left behind you in England Lond. 3 Aug. 1639. Your Lopp s most faithfull Servitor J. H. XLI To Sir J. M. Knight SIR I Hear that you begin to blow the cole and offer sacrifice to Demogorgon the God of Mineralls Be well advis'd before you engage your self too deep Chymistry I know by a little experience
Lord Chancelor Egerton were now living he would not be so pleasant with them as he was once to a new Recorder of London whom he had invited to dinner to give him joy of his office and having a great Woodcock Pyserv'd in about the end of the repast which had bin sent him from Cheshire he said Now Master Recorder you are welcom to a Common-Councell Ther be many discreet brave Patriots in the City and I hope they will think upon som means to preserve us and themselves from ruin Such are the prayers early and late of Fleet a Ian. 1643. Your Lopps most humble Serviâ—…or J. H. LI. To Sir Alex. R. Kt. SIR SUrely God Almighty is angry with England and 't is more sure that God is never angry without cause Now to know this cause the best way is for every one to lay his hand on his Brest and examin himself throughly to summon his thoughts and win now them and so call to remembrance how far he hath offended Heaven and then it will be found that God is not angry with England but with English-men When that dolefull charge was pronounc'd against Israel Perditio tua ex te Israel It was meant of the concret not the abstract Oh Israelites your ruin coms from your selvs When I make this serutiny within my self and enter into the closest cabinet of my soul I find God help me that I have contributed as much to the drawing down of these judgements on England as any other when I ransack the three Cells of my Brain I find that my imagination hath bin vain and extravagant my memory hath kept the bad and let go the good like a wide Sieve that retains the Bran and parts with the Flour my understanding hath bin full of errour and obliquities my will hath bin a rebell to reason my reason a rebell to Faith which I thank God I have the grace to quell presently with this caution Succumbat Ratio Fidei captiva quiescat When I descend to my heart the center of all my affections I find 〈◊〉 hath swell'd often with Timpanies of vanity and Tumors of wrath when I take my whole self in a lump I find that I am nought else but a Cargazon of malignant humors a rabble of unruly passions amongst which my poor soul is daily crucified as 'twixt so many theevs Therfore as I pray in generall that God would please not to punish this Island for the sins of the peeple so more particularly I pray that she suffer not for me in particular who if one would go by way of Induction would make one of the chiefest instances of the argument and as I am thus conscious to my self of my own demerits so I hold it to be the duty of every one to contemplat himselfe this way and to remember the saying of a noble English Captain who when the Town of Calis was lost which was the last footing we had in France being geer'd by a Frenchman and ask'd Now Englishman when will you com back to France answer'd Oh Sir mock not when then the sins of France are greater than the sins of England the Englishmen will com again to France Before the Sac of Troy 't was said and sung up and down the streets Iliacos intra muros peccatur extra The vers is as true for sense and feet Intra Londini muros peccatur extra Without and eke within The walls of London there is sin The way to better the times is for every one to mend one I will conclude with this serious invocation I pray God aveâ—… those further judgements of Famin and pestilence which are hovering over this populous and once-flourishing City and dispose of the Brains and Hearts of this people to seek and serve him a right I thank you for your last visit and for the Poem you sent 〈◊〉 since So I am Fleet 3 Iun. Your most faithfull servitor J. H. LII To Mr Iohn Batty Marchant SIR I Receiv'd the Printed discours you pleas'd to send me call'd the Marchants Remonstrance for which I return you due and deserved thanks Truly Sir it is one of the most materiall and solid peeces I have read of this kind And I discover therin two things first the affection you bear to your Countrey with the resentment you have of these wofull distractions then the judgement and choice experience you have purchased by your negotiations in Spain and Germany In you may be verified the tenet they hold in Italy That the Marchant bred abroad is the best Common-wealths man being properly applied For my part I do not know any profession of life specially in an Island more to be cherish'd and countenanced with honourable employments than the Marchant-Adventurer I do not mean onely the Staplers of Hamboâ—…ough and Rotterdam for if valiant and dangerous actions do ennoble a man and make him merit surely the Merchant-Adventurer deserves more honour than any for he is to encounter not onely with men of all tempers and humours as a French Counsellour hath iâ—… but he contests and tugs oftimes with all the Elements Nor do I see how som of our Countrey Squires who sell Calves and Runts and their Wives perhaps Cheese and Apples should be held more gentâ—…le than the noble Marchant-Adventurer who sells Silks and Sattins Tissues and cloth of Gold Diamonds and Pearl with Silver and Gold In your discours you fore tell the sudden calamities which are 〈◊〉 to be fall this poor Island if Trade decay and that this decay 〈◊〉 inevitable if these commotions last Heerin you are prov'd 〈◊〉 a Prophet already and I fear your Prophecie will be fully acâ—…omplish'd if matters hold thus Good Lord was ther ever peeâ—… so active to draw on their own ruin which is so visible that a 〈◊〉 man may take a prospect of it We all see this appaâ—…ently and hear it told us every minut but we are fallen to the â—…ondition of that foolish peeple the Prophet speaks of Who had eyes 〈◊〉 would not see and ears but would not hear All know ther is nothing imports this Island more than Trade it is that great Wheel of Industry which sets all other a going it is that which preserves the chiefest Castles and Walls of this Kingdom I mean the Ships and how these are impair'd within these four yeers I beleeve other Nations which ow us an invasion observe and know better than we For truly I beleeve a million I mean of Crowns and I speak within compas will not put the Navy Royall in that strength as it was four yeers since besides the decay of merchants ships A little before Athens was orecom the Oracle told one of the Areopagitae that Athens had seen her best daies for her Wooden walls meaning her ships were decayed As I told you before ther is a Nation or two that ow us an invasion No more now but that with my most kind and frendly respects unto you I rest alwayes Fleet 4 May
knowledg it self and from the rotten kernells of that fatall Apple This besides the infirmities that attend the body hath brought in perversity of will depravation of mind and hath cast a kind of cloud upon our intellectualls that they cannot discern the true essence of things with that clearnes as the protoplast our first Parent could but we are involved in a mist and grope as it were ever since in the dark as if truth wer got into som dungeon or as the old wisard said into som deep pit which the shallow apprehension of men could not fathom Hence comes it that the earth is rent into so many religions and those religions torn into so many schismes and various forms of devotion as if the heavenly Majesty were delighted as much in diversities of worship as in diversities of works The first Religion that ever was reduced to exact rules and â—…iruall observances was that of the Hebrews the ancient peeple of God called afterwards Iudaisme the second Christianity the third Mahometisme which is the youngest of all religions Touching Paganisme and heathenish Idolatrie they scarce deserve the name of Religion but for the former three ther is this analogy between them that they all agree in the first person of the Trinity and all his attributes What kind of Religion ther was before the Floud it is in vain to make any researches ther having bin no monuments at all left besides that little we find in Moses and the Phaenician story but Seths pillars and those so defac'd that nothing was legible upon them though Iosephus saith that one was extant in his daies as also the oke under which Abraham feasted God Almighty which was 2000 yeers after The religion or Cabâ—…l of the Hebrews was transferred from the Patriarchs to Moses and from him to the Prophets It was honoured with the apearance and promulgations of God himself specially the better part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I mean the decalogue containing the ten Commandements 〈◊〉 being most of them morall and agreeing with the common notions of man are in force all the world over The Jews at this day are divided to three Sects the first which is the greatest are call'd the Talmudists in regard that besides the Holy Scriptures they embrace the Talmud which is stuff'd with the traditions of their Rabbins and Caâ—…ams The second receive the Scripture alone The third the Pentateuch only viz. the five Books of Moses which are called Samaritanes Now touching what part of the earth is possessed by Jews I cannot find they have any at all peculiar to themselves but in regard of their murmurings their frequent Idolatries defections and that they crucified the Lord of life this once select Nation of God and the Inhabitants of the Land flowing with milk and hony is becom now a scorned squandered peeple all the earth over being ever since incapable of any coalition or reducement into one body politic There where they are most without mixture is Tiberias in Palestine which Amurath gave Mendez the Jew whither and to Ierusalem upon any conveniency they convey the bones of their dead friends from all places to be reinterred They are to be found in all Mercantile Towns and great Marts both in Africk Asia and Europe the dominions of England of the Spaniard and French excepted and as their persons so their profession is despicable being for the most part but Brokers every where Among other places they are allowed to be in Rome her self near St. Peters chair for they advance trade whersoever they com with the banks of mony and so are permitted as necessary evills but put case the whol Nation of the Jews now living were united into one collective body yet according to the best conjecture and exactest computation that I could hear made by the knowingst men they would not be able to peeple a countrey bigger then the seventeen Provinces Those that are dispersed now in Christendom and Turky are the remnants only of the Tribes of Iuda and Benjamin with som Levites which returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel The common opinion is that the other ten are utterly lost but they themselves fancy that they are in India a mighty nation environed with stony rivers which alwaies cease to run their course on their Sabbath from whence they expect their Messias who shall in the fulnes of time ore run the world with fire and sword and reestablish them in a temporall glorious state But this opinion swayes most among the Orientall Jews wheras they of the West attend the coming of their Messias from Portugall which language is more common among them then any other and thus much in brief of the Jews as much as I could digest and comprehend within the compas of this paper-sheet and let it serve for the accomplishment of the first part of your desire In my next I shall give you the best satisfaction I can concerning the extent of Christianity up and down the globe of the earth which I shall speedily send for now that I have undertaken such a task my pen shall not rest till I have finished it so I am Westmin 1 Aug. 1635. Your most affectionat ready Servant J. H. IX To Doctor B. SIR HAving in my last sent you somthing touching the state of Iudaisin up and down the world in this you shall receive what extent Christianity hath which is the second Religion in succession of time and truth A Religion that makes not sense so much subject to reason as reason succumbent to Faith Ther is no Religion so harsh and difficult to flesh and bloud in regard of divers mysterious positions it consists of as the Incarnation Resurrection the â—…nity c. which as one sayd are bones to Philosophy but milk to Faith Ther is no Religion so purely spirituall and abstracted from common naturall idea's and sensuall happines as the Christian No Religion that excites man more to the love and practise of vertue and hatred of vice or that prescribes greater rewards for the one and punishments for the other A Religion that in a most miraculous manner did expand her self and propagat by simplicity humblenes and by a meer passive way of fortitude growing up like the palm tree under the heavy weight of persecution for never any Religion had more powerfull opposition by various kinds of punishments oppressions and tortures which may be said to haue deckd her with rubies in her very cradle In so much that it is granted by her very enemies that the Christian in point of passive valour hath exceeded all other nations upon earth And t is a thing of wonderment how at her very first growth she flew over the heads of so many interjacent vast Regions into this remote Isle so soon that her rays should shine upon the Crown of a British King first of any I mean King Lucius the true Proto Christian King in the daies of Eleutherius at which time she receiv'd her propagation but for her plantation she had it long
to pass all the degrees and effects of fire as distillation sublimation mortification calcination solution descension dealbation rubification and fixation for I have bin fastned to the walls of this prison any time these fifty five moneths I have bin heer long enough if I wer matter capable therof to be made the Philosophers stone to be converted from water to powder which is the whole Magistery I have been besides so long upon the anvill that me thinks I am grown malleable and hammer proof I am so habituated to hardship But indeed you that are made of a choicer mold are fitter to be turned into the Elixer than I who have so much dross and corruption in me that it will require more paines and much more expence to be purg'd and defecated God send us both patience to bear the brunt of this fiery tryall and grace to turn these decoctions into aquam vitae to make soveraign treacle of this viper The Trojan Prince was forced to pass over Phlegeton and pay Charon his freight before he could get into the Elyzian fields you know the morall that we must pass through hell to heaven and why not as well through a prison to Paradise such may the Towre prove to you and the Fleet to me who am From the prison of the Fleet 23 Feb. 1645. Your humble and hearty Servitor J. H. XLIV To the right honble the Lord R. My Lord SUre ther is som angry planet hath lowred long upon the Catholic King and though one of his titles to Pagan Princes be that he wears the sun for his helmet because it never sets upon all his dominions in regard som part of them he on the to'ther side of the Hemisphere among the Antipodes yet me thinks that neither that great star or any of the rest are now propitious unto him they cast it seems more benign influxes upon the flower de luâ—… which thrives wonderfully but how long these favourable aspects will last I will not presume to judge This among divers others of late hath bin a fatall yeer to the said King for Westward he hath lost Dunkirk Dunkirk which was the terror of this part of the world the scourge of the occidentall seas whose name was grown to be a bugbear for so many yeers hath now changed her master and thrown away the ragged staffe doubtles a great exploit it was to take this town But whether this be advantagious to Holland as I am sure it is not to England time will shew It is more than probable that it may make him careless at sea and in the building and arming of his ships having no enemy now near him besides I believe it cannot much benefit Hans to have the French 〈◊〉 contiguous to him the old saying was Ayezle Francois pour ton 〈◊〉 non pas pour ton Voison Have the Frenchman for thy frend not 〈◊〉 â—…hy neighbour Touching England I believe these distractions of ours have biâ—… one of the greatest advantages that could befall France and they happened in the most favourable conjuncture of time that mighâ—… be els I beleeve he would never have as much as attempted Dunkirk for England in true reason of State had reason to prevent nothing more in regard no one place could have added more to the navall power of France this will make his sâ—…iles swell bigger and I â—…car make him claim in time as much regality in these narrow seaâ—… as England her self In Italy the Spaniard hath also had ill successes at Piombino and Porto longone Besides they write that he hath lost I l prete il medico the Priest and the Physician to wit the Pope and the Duke of Florence the House of Medici who appear rather for the French than for him Ad to all these disasters that he hath lost within the revolution of the same yeer the Prince of Spain his unic Son in the very flower of his age being but seventeen yeers old These with the falling off of Catalonia and Portugall with the death of his Queen not above forty are heavy losses to the Catholick King and must needs much enfeeble the great bulk of his Monarchy falling out in so short a compas of time one upon the neck of another and we are not to enter into the secret Counsells of God Almighty for a reason I have read 't was the sensuality of the flesh that drave the Kings out of Rome the French out of Sicily and brought the Moores into Spain where they kept firm footing above seven hundred yeers I could tell you how not long before her death the late Queen of Spain took off one of her chapines and clowted Olivares about the noddle with it because he had accompanied the King to a Lady of pleasure telling him that he should know she was Sister to a King of France as well as wife to a King of Spain For my part France and Spain is all one to me in point of affection I am one of those indifferent men that would have the scales of power in Europe kept even I am also a Philerenus a lover of peace and I could wish the French were more inclinable to it now that the common enemy hath invaded the territories of Saint Marâ—… Nor can I but admire that at the same time the French should assaile Italy at one side when the Turke was doing it on the other But had that great navall power of Christians which wer this summer upon the coasts of Toscany gon against the Mahometan Fleet which was the same time setting upon Candie they might in all likelihood have achieved a glorious exploit and driven the Turke into the Hellespont Nor is poor Christendom torn thus in peeces by the German Spaniard French and Sweds but our three Kingdoms have also most pittifully scratch'd her face wasted her spirits and let out som of her illustrious bloud by our late horrid distractions Wherby it may be infer'd that the Musti and the Pope seem to thrive in their devotion one way a chief part of the prayers of the one being that discord should still continue 'twixt Christian Princes of the other that division should still increase between the Protestants This poor Island is a wofull example thâ—…of I hear the peace 'twixt Spain and Holland is absolutely concluded by the plenipotentiary Ministers at Munster who have beat their heads so many yeers about it but they write that the French and Swed do mainly endeavour and set all the wheels of policy a going to puzzle and prevent it If it take effect as I do not see how the Hollander in common honesty can evade it I hope it will conduce much to an universall peace which God grant for Waâ—… is a fire struck in the Devills tinder box No more now but that I am My Lord Your most humble Servitor J. H. Fleet 1 Decem. 1643. XLV To Mr. E. O. Counsellour at Grayes Inne SIR THe sad tidings of my dear frend Doctor Prichards death sunk
those of Spain one of the prime sort of white wines is that of Beaume and of Clarets that of Orleans though it be interdicted to wine the Kings Cellar with it in regard of the corrosivenes it carries with it As in France so in all other wine Countries the white is called the female and the Claret or red wine is called the male because commonly it hath more sulpher body and heat in 't The wines that our Merchants bring over upon the River of Garond near Bourdeaux in Gascogny which is the greatest Mart for wines in all France The Scot because he hath alwaies bin an usefull confederate to France against England hath among other privileges right of preemption or first choice of wines in Bourdeaux he is also permitted to carry his Ordnance to the very walls of the Town wheras the English are forc'd to leave them at Blay a good way distant down the river Ther is a hard green wine that grows about Rochâ—…ll and the Islands therabouts which the cunning Hollander somtime used to fetch and he hath a trick to put a bag of herbs or som other infusions into it as he doth bâ—…imstone in Rhenish to give it a whiter tincture and more sweetnes then they reimbark it â—…or England where it passeth for good Bâ—…hrag and this is called stooming of wines In Normandy there 's little or no wine at all grows therfore the common drink of that Countrey is cyder specially in low Normandy Ther are also many beer houses in Paris and elsewhere but though their barley and water be better then ours or that of Germany and though they have English and Dutch brewers amongst them yet they cannot make beer in that perfection The prime wines of Germany grow about the Rhine specially in the Pfalts or lower Palatinat about Backrag which hath its Etimologie from Bacchi aâ—…a for in ancient times ther was an Altar erected there to the honour of Bacchus in regard of the richnes of the wines Here and all France over 't is held a great part of incivility for maidens to drink wine untill they are married as it is in Spain for them to wear high shooes or to paint till than The Germain mothers to make their sons fall into hatred of wine do use when they are little to put som owles eggs into a cup of Rhenish and somtimes a little living eel which twingling in the wine while the child is drinking so scares him that many com to abhor and have an antipathy to wine all their lives after From Backrag the fiâ—…st stocks of vines which grow now in the grand Canary Island were brought which with the heat of the Sun and the Soyle is grown now to that height of perfection that the wine which they afford are accounted the richest the most firm the best bodied and lastingst wine and the most defecated from all earthly grossenes of any other whatsoever it hath little or no sulphur at all in 't and leaves less dreggs behind though one drink it to exces French wines may be said but to pickle meat in the stomack but this is the wine that disgests and doth not only breed good bloud but it nutrifieth also being a glutinous substantiall liquour of this wine if of any other may be verified that merry induction That good wine makes good bloud good bloud causeth good humors good humors cause good thoughts good thoughts bring forth good works good works carry a man to heaven ergo good wine carrieth a man to heaven if this be true surely more English go to heaven this way then any other for I think ther 's more Canary brought into England then to all the world besides I think also ther is a hundred times more drunk under the name of Canary wine then ther is brought in for Sherries and Malagas well mingled pass for Canaries in most Taverns more often then Canary it self els I do not see how 't were possible for the Vintner to save by it or to live by his calling unless he were permitted somtimes to be a Brewer When Sacks and Canaries were brought in first among us they were us'd to be drunk in Aquavita measures and 't was held fit only for those to drink of them who us'd to carry their leggs in their hands their eyes upon their noses and an Almanack in their bones but now they go down every ones throat both young and old like milk The Countries that are freest from exces of drinking are Spain and Italy If a Woman can prove her Husband to have been thrice drunk by the the ancient laws of Spain she may plead for a divorce from him Nor indeed can the Spaniard being hot brainâ—… bear much drink yet I have heard that Gondamar was once too hard for the King of Denmark when he was here in England But the Spanish Souldiers that have bin in the Wars of Flanders will take their cups freely and the Italians also when I liv'd to ' 〈◊〉 side the Alpes a Gentleman told me a merry tale of a Liguriaâ—… Souldier who had got drunk in Genoa and Prince Doria going horseback to walk the round one night the Souldier took his horse by the bridle and ask'd what the price of him was for he wanted horse the Prince seeing in what humor he was caus'd him 〈◊〉 be taken into a house and put to sleep In the morning he 〈◊〉 for him and askd him what he would give for his horse Sir 〈◊〉 the recovered Souldier the Merchant that would have bought 〈◊〉 yyesternight of your Highnesse went away betimes in the morning The boonest compagnions for drinking are the Greeks and Germains But the Greek is the merrier of the two for he will sing and dance and kiss his next compagnion but the other will drink as deep as he if the Greek will drink as many glasses as ther be letters in his Mistresses name the other will drink the number of his yeers and though he be not apt to break out into singing being not of so airy a constitution yet he will drink often musically a health to every one of these 6. notes Ut Re Mi â—…a Sol La which with his reason are all comprehended in this Exameter Ut Relevet Miserum Fatum Solitosque Labores The fewest draughts he drinks are three the first to quench the thirst pass'd the second to quench the present thirst the third to prevent the future I heard of a company of low Dutchmen that had drunk so deep that beginning to stagger and their heads turning round they thought verily they were at Sea and that the upper chamber wher they were was a ship insomuch that it being soul windy weather they fel to throw the stools and other things out of the window to lighten the vessell for fear of suffering shipwrack Thus have I sent your Lordship a dry discourse upon a fluent subiect yet I hope your Lordship will please to take all in good part because it proceeds
which should distinguish the rationall Creature from other Animalls have been lost heer a good while Nay besides this Cinicall ther â—…s a kind of Wolvish humor hath seizd upon most of this peeple a â—…u lycanthropy they so worry and seek to devour one another so â—…hat the wild Arab and fiercest Tartar may be call'd civill men in comparison of us therfore he is happiest who is furthest off from this wofull Island The King is streightned of that liberty he formerly had in the Isle of Wight and as far as I see may make up the number of Nebuchadnezzars yeers before he be restored The Parlement persists in their first Propositions and will go nothing less This is all I have to send at this time only I will adjoyn the tru respects of From the Fleet this 5 of May 1647. Your most faithfull humble Servitor J. H. XVI To Mr. W Blois in Suffolk SIR YOurs of the seventeenth current came safely to hand and 〈◊〉 kiss your hands for it you mention there two others that cannot which makes me condole the loss of such jewells for I esteem all your Letters so being the precious effects of your love which I value at a high rate and please my self much in the contemplation of it as also in the continuance of this Letter-correspondence which is perform'd on your part with such ingenuous expressions and embroder'd still with new florishes of invention I am stil under hold in this fatall Fleet and like one in a tempest aâ—… Sea who hath been often near the shoar yet is still toss'd back by contrary winds so I have had frequent hopes of freedom but som cross accident or other always intervened insomuch that I am now in half despair of an absolut release till a generall Gaoâ—… delivery yet notwithstanding this outward captivity I have inward liberty still I thank God for it The greatest News is that between twenty and thirty thousand well-armed Scots have been utterly routed riffed and all taken prisoners by less than 8000 English I must confess 't was a great exploit wherof I am not sorry in regard that the English have regain'd hereby the honor which they had lost abroad of late yeers in the opinion of the world ever since the Pacification at Berwick and divers traverses of War since What Hamiltons design was is a mystery most think that he intended no good either to King or Parlement So with my dayly more and more endeared affections unto you I rest Yours ever to love and serve you J. H. Fleet 7 May. 1647. XVII To Mr. R. Baron in Paris Gentle Sir I Receiv'd and presently ran over your Cyprian Academy with much greedines and no vulgar delight and Sir I hold my self much honor'd for the Dedication you have been pleas'd to make thereof to me for it deserv'd a far higher Patronage Truly I must tell you without any Complement that I have seldom met with such an ingenuous mixture of Prose Verse interwoven with such varieties of fancy charming strains of amorous Passions which have made all the Ladies of the land in love with you If you begin already to court the Muses so hansomly and have got such footing on Parnassus you may in time be Lord of the whole Hill and those nice Girles because Apollo is now grown unweldy and old may make choice of you to officiat in his room and preside over them I much thank you for the punctuall narration you pleas'd to send me of those commotions in Paris I believe France will never be in perfect repose while a Spaniard sits at the Stern and an Italian steers the Rudder In my opinion Mazirini should do wisely now that he hath feather'd his nest so well to truss up his Baggage and make over the Alps to his own Countrey lest the same Fate betide him as did the Marquis of Ancre his Compatriot I am glad the Treaty goes on 'twixt Spain and France for nothing can portâ—…nd a greater good to Christendom than a Conjunction of those two great Luminaries which if it please God to bring about I hope the Stars will change their Aspects and we shall see better days I send heer inclosed a second Bill of Exchange in case the first I sent you in my last hath miscarried So my dear Nephew I embrace you with both my Arms and rest Fleet this 20 of Iune 1647. Yours most entirely to love and serve you while Jam. Howell XVIII To Mr. Tho. More at York SIR I Have often partak'd of that pleasure which Letters use to carry along with them but I do not remember to have found a greater proportion of delight than yours afford me your last of the fourth current came to safe hand wherin me thought each line each word each syllable breath'd out the Passions oâ—… a cleer and candid soul of a vertuous and gentle spirit Truly Sir as I might perceive by your ingenious and patheticall expressions therin that you were transported with the heat of tru affection towards me in the writing so was I in the reading which wrought upon me with such an Energy that a kind of extasie possesâ—…'d me for tho time I pray Sir go on in this correspondence you shall find that your lines will not be ill bestowed upon me for I love and respect you dearly well nor is this love grounded upon vulgar Principles but upon those extraordinary parts of virtu and worth which I have discover'd in you and such a love is the most permanent as you shall find in Fleet 1 of Sep. 1647. Your most affectionat Oncle J. H. XIX To Mr. W. B. 3º Maii. SIR YOur last Lines to me were as delightfull as the Season they were as sweet as Flowers in May nay they were far more dragrant than those fading Vegetalls they did cast a greater suarity than the Arabian Spices use to do in the gran Cayro where when the wind is Southward they say the ayr is as 〈◊〉 as a persum'd Spanish Glove The air of this City is not so specially in the heart of the City in and about Pauls Church where Horse-dung is a yard deep insomuch that to cleanse it would be aâ—… hard a task as it was for Hercules to cleanse the Augean Stable by drawing a great River through it which was accounted one of his twelve labors but it was a bitter taunt of the Italian who passing by Pauls Church and seeing it full of Horses Now I perceive said he that in England Men and Beasts serve God alike No more now but that I am Your most faithfull Servant J. H. XXI To Sir Paul Pindar Knight upon the version of aâ—… Italian peece into English call'd St. Pauls Progress upon earth a new and a notable kind of Satyr SIR ST Paul having descended lately to view Italy and other placeâ—…â—…s you may trace him in the following Discours he would noâ—… take Wing back to Heaven before he had given you a speciall visit who have
upon ones tail or muffling the face in the Hat or thrusting it in soâ—… hole or covering it with ones hand but with bended knee and an open confident face I fix my Eyes on the East part of the Church and Heaven I endeavour to apply evry tirâ—…le of the Service to my own Conscience and Occasions and I believe the want of this with the huddling up and careless reading of som Ministers with the commoness of it is the greatest cause that many do undervalue and take a Surfet of our public Service For the reading and singing Psalmes wheras most of them are either Petitions or Eucharisticall ejaculations I listen to them more attentively and make them mine own When I stand at the creed I think upon the custom they have in Poland and else-where for Gentlemen to draw their Swords all the while intimating therby that they will defend it with their lives and bloud And for the Decalog wheras others use to rise and sit I ever kneel at it in the humblest and trembling'st posture of all to crave remission for the breaches pass'd of any of Gods holy Commandments specially the week before and future grace to observe them I love a holy devout Sermon that first checks and then cheers the Conscience that begins with the Law and ends with the Gospell but I never prejudicat or censure any Preacher â—…aking him as I find him And now that we are not only Adulted but ancient Christians I beleeve the most acceptable Sacrifice we can send up to Heaven is prayer and praise and that Sermons are not so essentiall as either of them to the tru practice of devotion The rest of the holy Sabbath I sequester my body and mind as much as I can from worldly affairs Upon Monday morn as soon as the Cinq-ports are open I have a particular prayer of thanks that I am reprieved to the beginning of that week and evry day following I knock thrice at Heavens gate in the Morning in the Evening and at Night besides Prayers at Meals and som other occasionall ejaculations as upon the putting on of a clean Shirt washing my hands and at lighting of Candles which because they are sudden I do in the third person Tuesday morning I rise Winter and Summer as soon as I awake and send up a more particular sacrifice for som reasons and as I am dispos'd or have busines I go to bed again Upon Wensday night I always fast and perform also som extraordinary acts of Devotion as also upon Friday night and Saturday morning as soon as my senses are unlock'd I get up And in the Summer time I am oftentimes abroad in som privat field to attend the Sun-rising And as I pray thrice evry day so I fast thrice evry week at least I eat but one meal upon Wensdays Fridays and Saturdays in regard I am jealous with my self to have more infirmities to answer for than other Before I go to bed I make a scrutiny what peccant humors have reign'd in me that day and so I reconcile my self to my Creator and strike a tally in the Exchequer of Heaven for my quieâ—…us est ere I close my eyes and leave no burden upon my Conscience Before I presume to take the Holy Sacrament I use som extraordinary acts of Humiliation to prepare my self som days before and by doing som deeds of Charity and commonly I compose som new Prayers and divers of them written in my own bloud I use not to rush rashly into prayer without a trembling precedent Meditation and if any odd thoughts intervene and grow upon me I check my self and recommence and this is incident to long prayers which are more subject to mans weaknes and the devils malice I thank God I have this fruit of my forrain Travels that I can pray unto him evry day of the week in a severall Language and upon Sunday in seven which in Orisons of my own I punctually perform in my privat Pomeridian devotions Et sic aeternam contendo attingere vitam By these steps I strive to clime up to heaven and my soul prompts me I shall thither for ther is no object in the world delights me more than to cast up my eyes that way specially in a Star-light night and if my mind be overcast with any odd clouds of melancholly when I look up and behold that glorious Fabric which I hope shall be my Countrey heerafter ther are new spirits begot in me presently which make me scorn the World and the pleasures thereof considering the vanity of the one and the inanity of the other Thus my soul still moves East-ward as all the Heavenly bodies doe but I must tell you that as those bodies are over-master'd and snatch'd away to the West raptu primi mobilis by the generall motion of the tenth sphere so by those Epidemicall infirmities which are incident to man I am often snatch'd away a clean contrary cours yet my soul persists still in our own proper motion I am often at variance and angry with my self nor do I hold this anger to be any breach of charity when I consider That wheras my Creator intended this body of mine though â—… lump of Clay to be a Temple of his holy Spirit my affections should turn it often to a Brothell-house my passions to a Bedlam and my excesses to an Hospitall Being of a Lay profession I humbly conform to the Constitutions of the Church and my spirituall Superiors and I hold this obedience to be an acceptable Sacrifice to God Difference in opinion may work a disaffection in me but not a detestation I rather pity than hate Turk or Insidell for they are of the same metall and bear the same stamp as I do though the Inscriptions differ If I hate any 't is those Scismatics that puzzle the sweet peace of our Church so that I could bee content to see an Anabaptist go to Hell on a Brownists back Noble Knight now that I have thus eviscerated my self and dealt so clearly with you I desire by way of correspondence that you would tell me what way you take in your journey to Heaven for if my Brest lie so open to you 't is not sitting yours should bee shut up to mee therfore I pray let me hear from you when it may stand with your Convenience So I wish you your hearts desire here and Heaven hereafter because I am Yours in no vulgar way of friendship J. H. London 25 Iuly 1635. XXXIII To Simon Digby Esquire at Mosco the Emperor of Russia's Court. SIR I Received one of yours by Mr. Pickhurst and I am glad to find that the rough clime of Russia agrees so well with you so well as you write as the Catholic ayr of Madrid or the Imperiall ayr of Vienna where you had such honorable employments The greatest News we have heer is that we have a Bishop Lord Tresurer and 't is News indeed in these times though 't was no news you know in
the times of old to have a Bishop Lord Tresurer of England I beleeve he was meerly passive in this busines the active instrument that put the white Staff in his hands was the Metrapolitan at Lambeth I have other News also to tell you we have a brave new Ship a Royall Galeon the like they say did never spread Sail upon Salt-water take her true and well compacted Symmetry with all dimensions together for her burden shee hath as many Tuns as ther were yeers since the Incarnation when she was built which are sixteen hundred thirty and six she is in length one hundred twenty and seven foot her greatest breadth within the planks is fourty six foot and six inches her depth from the breadth is nineteen foot and four inches she carrieth a hundred Peeces of Ordnance wanting four wherof shee hath three tyre half a score men may stand in her Lantern the charges His Majesty hath been at in the building of her are computed to be fourscore thousand pounds one whole years Ship-money Sir Robert Mansell launc'd her and by his Majesties command call'd her The Soverain of the Sea Many would have had her to be nam'd the Edgar who was one of the most famous Saxon Kings this Island had and the most potent at sea Ranulphus Cestrensis writes that he had four hundred ships which evry yeer after Easter went out in four Fleets to scour the Coasts Another Author writes that he had four Kings to row him once upon the Dee But the Title he gave himself was a notable lofty one which was this Altitonantis Dei largiflua clementia qui est Rex Regum Ego Edgarus Anglorum Basileus omnium Regum Insularum Oceanique Britanniam circumâ—acent is cunctarumque Nationum quae infra eam includuÌ„tur Imperator Dominus c. I do not think your gran Emperour of Russia hath a loftier title I confess the Sophy of Persia hath a higher one though prophane and ridiculous in comparison of this For he calls himself The Star high and mighty whose head is cover'd with the Sun whose motion is comparable to the aethereall Firmament Lord of the Mountaines Caucasus and Taurus of the four Rivers Euphrates Tygris Araxis and Indus Bud of honour Mirrour of vertue Rose of delight and Nutmeg of comfort It is a huge descent methinks to begin with a Star and end in a Nutmeg All your friends here in Court and City are well and often mindfull of you with a world of good wishes and you cannot be said to be out of England as long as you live in so many noble memories Touching mine you have a large room in 't for you are one of my chief inmates So with my humble Service to your Lady I rest Lond. 1 Iuly 1635. Your most faithfull Servitor while J. H. XXXIV To Dr. Tho Prichard Dear Dr. I Have now had too long a supersede as from employment having engag'd my self to a fatall man at Court by his own seeking who I hoped and had reason to expect for I wav'd all other wayes that he would have bin a Scale towards my rising but he hath rather prov'd an instrument to my ruine it may be he will prosper accordingly I am shortly bound for Ireland and it may be the Stars will cast a more benign Aspect upon me in the West you know who got the Persian Empire by looking that way for the first beams of the Sun-rising rather than towards the East My Lord Deputy hath made often professions to do me a pleasure and I intend now to put him upon 't I purpose to pass by the Bath for a pain I have in my Arm proceeding from a Defluxion of Rheum and then I will take Brecknock in my way to comfort my Sister Penry who I think hath lost one of the best husbands in all the thirteen shires of Wales So with apprecation of all happines to you I rest London 10 Feb. 1637. Yours while J. H. XXXV To Sir Kenelme Digby Knight from Bath SIR YOur being then in the Country when I began my journey for Ireland was the cause I could not kiss your hands therfore I shall do now from Bath what I should have don at London Being here for a distillation of Rheum that pains me in one of my Arms and having had about three thousand stroaks of a pump upon me in the Queens Bath And having bin here now divers daies and view'd the severall qualities of these Waters I fell to contemplat a little what should be the reason of such an extraordinary actuall heat and medicinall vertue in them I have seen and read of divers Baths abroad as those of Caldanel and Avinian in agro Senensi the Grotta in Viterbio those between Naples and Puteolum in Campania And I have bin a little curious to know the reason of those rare Lymphaticall properties in them above other waters I find that som impute it to Wind or Ayr or som Exhalations shut up in the Bowels of the Earth which either by their own nature or by their violent motion and agitation or attrition upon Rocks and narrow passages do gather heat and so impart it to the Waters Others attribut this balneal heat unto the Sun whose all-searching Beams penetrating the Pores of the Earth do heat the Waters Others think this heat to proceed from quicklime which by common experience we find to heat any Water cast upon 't and also to kindle any combustible substance put upon 't Lastly ther are som that ascribe this heat to a subterranean fire kindled in the bowels of the Earth upon sulphury and bituminous matter 'T is true all these may be generall concurring causes but not the adaequat proper and peculiar reason of balneal heats and herein truly our learned Countryman Dr. Iorden hath got the start of any that ever writ of this subject and goes to work like a solid Philosopher for having treated of the generation of mineralls he finds that they have their Seminaries in the Womb of the Earth replenish'd with active spirits which meeting with apt matter and adjuvant causes do proceed to the generation of severall species according to the nature of the efficient and fitnes of the matter In this work of generation as ther is generatio unius so ther is corruptio alterius and this cannot be don without a superiour power which by moysture dilating it self works upon the matter like a leav'ning and ferment to bring it to its own purpose This motion 'twixt the agent spirit and patient matter produceth an actuall heat for motion is the fountain of heat which serves â—…s an instrument to advance the work for as cold dulls so heat quickneth all things Now for the nature of this heat it is not a destructive violent heat as that of fire but a generative gentle heat joyn'd with moysture nor needs it ayr for eventilation This naturall heat is daily observ'd by Diggâ—…n in the Mynes so then while Mineralls are