out of the path of Truth gaping only after their own advantage But the King saith M. Paris remained uncorrigible and the Lady lost both her charges hopes and Travel In the Year 1257. K. Henry 3. kept his Christmas at Winchester where new grievances arose the Merchants of Gascoign having their Wines taken from them by the Kings Officers without satisfaction complain to their Lord the Prince he to his Father who having been informed that their clamour was unjust as relying upon the Prince's favour he falls into a great rage with the Prince and breaks out into these words See now my Blood and my own Bowels oppose me The Prince's Servants likewise relying on their Master commit many outrages abusing men at their pleasure neither was the Prince altogether free for it is said that he caused the Ears of a young Man to be cut off and his Eyes to be pluckt out as he travelled by the way which was the occasion of very great disturbances In this Kings Reign a Child was born in the Isle of Wight who at 18 Years old was scarce 3 Foot high and therefore brought to the Queen who carried him about with her as a Monster in Nature In King Edward 3. time Southampton was fired by the French under the conduct of the King of Sicily's Son whom a Countryman encountred and knocked him â—own with his Club the Prince cried out Rancon Ranâ—on that is he would pay him a Ransom but he neither â—nderstanding his Language nor the Law that Arms â—oth allow laid on him more severely still saying I â—now thee to be a Francon or Frenchman and therefore â—hou shalt die and thereupon knocked him at Head In 1554. the conditions of the Marriage between Q. Mary and K. Philip of Spain were agreed to in Parliament upon these Articles 1. That K. Philip should admit of no stranger in any Office but only Natives 2. That â—e should alter nothing of the Laws and customs of the Kingdom 3. That he should not carry the Queen out of the Realm without her own consent nor any of her Children without consent of the Council 4. That if he outlived the Queen â—e should challenge no right in the Kingdom but it should descend to the next Heir 5. That he should carry none of the Crown Jewels out of the Kingdom nor any Ships or Ordinance Lastly That neither directly nor indirectly he should â—ntangle England in the Wars between Spain and France It was also proposed in this Parliament that the Supremacy of the Pope should be restored which was not assented to without great difficulty for the 6 Years Reign of K. Edward 6. had spread a Plantation of the Protestant Religion in the hearts of many The Marriage being thus agreed several Lords and Gentlemen were sent to fetch over the Prince from Spain who arrived at Southampton July 20. 1554. and was met by the Queen at Winchester where they were openly married the disparity of Years in Princes being not much regarded though he were but 27 and she 38 Years old Then the Emperors Ambassadour being present declared that in Consideration of the Marriage the Emperour had given to King Philip his Son the Kingdoms of Naples and Jerusalem and thereupon Garter King at Arms openly in the Church in the presence of the King Queen and Nobles both of Spain and England solemnly proclaimed the Title and Stile of these two Princes as followeth Philip and Mary by the Grace of God King and Queen of England France Naples Jerusalem and Ireland Defenders of the Faith Princes of Spain and Sicily Archdukes of Austria Dukes of Millain Burgundy and Brabant Counts of Habspurg Flanders and Tyrol In 1608. June 26. In the Parish of Christs Church in Hampshire one John Hitchel a Carpenter lying in bed with his Wife and a young Child by them was himself and the Child both burnt to death with a sudden Lightning no fire appearing outwardly upon him and yeâ— lay burning for the space almost of three days till he was quite consumed to ashes In 1619. there was one Bernard Calvert of Andover in this County that rid from St. Georges Church in Southwark to Dover and from thence passed by Barge to Calice in France and from thence returned back to St. Georges Church the same day setting out about three a clock in the morning and returning about 8 a clock at night fresh and lusty I was at London the same time saith Mr. Clark and saw the man Portsmouth is a very convenient Port The Isle of Wight belongs to this Shire the whole County is divided into 39 Hundreds wherein are 253 Parishes and is in the Diocess of Winchester Out of it are elected 26 Parliament Men Southampton gives the Title of Duke to Charles Fitz-Roy eldest Son to the Dutchess of Cleaveland Winchester the Title of Marquess to Charles L. Pawlet and Portsmouth that of Dutchess to Lovise de Queronalle a French Lady HARTFORDSHIRE so called from Hartford the chief Town therein as Hartford is termed from the Ford of Harts a Hart Couchant in the waters being the Arms thereof It hath Essex on the East Middlesex on the South Buckinghamshire on the West Bedford and Cambridgeshire on the North it is a rich County in Corn Fields Pastures Meadows Woods Groves and clear Rivers and is indeed the Garden of England for Delight and it 's usually said That such as buy a House in Hartfordshire pay two years purchase for the Air thereof no County in all England can shew so many good Towns in so little compass their Teams of Horses are oft-times deservedly advanced from the Cart to the Coach being kept in excellent equipage much alike in colour and stature fat and fair such is their care in dressing and well feeding them and to make an innocent digression I could name the place and Person saith Dr. Fuller who brought his Servant before a Justice of Peace for stealing his Oats and Barley the Man brought his five Horses tailed together along with him alledging for himself That if he were the Thief these were the Receivers and so escaped The most famous place in this County for Antiquity is Verolamium now utterly ruined and subverted and the footsteps thereof hardly to be seen though in very great account by the Romans and one of their Free Cities It was plundered by Boadicia that ever eternized Queen of the Icenians when Seventy Thousand of the Romans and their Confederates perished by her Revenging Sword The magnificence thereof for stately Architecture and Grandeur was discovered by the large and arched Vaults found in the days of King Edgar which were filled up by Eldred and Edmer Abbots of St. Albans because they were the Receptacles and lurking holes of Whores and Thieves hear what our famous Spencer saies of this once renowned City of Verulam I was that City which the Garland wore Of Brittains pride delivered unto me By Roman Victors this I was of yore Though nought at all but ruines now I
done this I should have dyed for it and because I have done it I deserve death for betraying the Lords Yet it had been more for his credit to have adventured Martyrdom in defence of the Laws than to hazard the death of a Malefactor in the breach thereof but Judges are but men and most men desire to decline that danger which they think nearest to them but he and the other Judges were condemned for High-Treason in the next Wonder working Parliament and hardly had escaped death if the Queen had not earnestly interceeded for them The County of Leicester is divided into six Hundreds wherein are 200 Parish Churches and 12 Market Towns it is in the Diocess of Lincoln and gives the Title of Earl to Robert L. Sydney LINCOLNSHIRE hath Yorkshire on the North the German Ocean on the East Cambridge and Northampton Shires on the South and Leicestershire on the West it abounds in Fish Fowl Corn Cattle and Flax. Lincoln is the chief Place well inhabited and frequented It stands upon the side of a Hill where the River Witham bends his course Eastward and being divided into three small Channels watereth the lower part of the City in the highest part thereof is the Cathedral a stately structure being built throughout with singular and rare Workmanship especially the West end it is very ancient and had 50 Parish Churches in it whereof at this day only 15 remain besides the Minster In the year 1180. a great Earthquake overthrew many Buildings amongst which the Cathedral Church of Lincoln was rent in pieces by it about this time the Bishoprick of Lincoln was so long void that a certain Hermit of Tame prophecied there should be no more Bishops of Lincoln but he proved an untrue Prophet for after 16 years vacancy Geffery the Kings Bastard Son was preferred thereunto of whom it was said That he was more skilful in fleecing than feeding his Flock this Gallant Bishop would usually in discourse protest By the honour of his Father but one of the Kings Chaplains told him Pray Sir remember sometimes the honesty of your Mother as well as the Royalty of your Father he used to put in his Episcopal Seal The Seal of Geffery Son of the K. of England A poor Country Husbandman coming to Robert Grostead Bishop of Lincoln challenged kindred of him and thereupon desired him to prefer him to such an Office which he was very unfit for Cousen said the Bishop If your Cart be broken I will mend it if your Plough be old I will give you a new one or seed to sow your Land but a Husbandman I found you and a Husbandman I will leave you In 1537. King Henry the 8. by advice of the L. Cromwell sent abroad injunctions whereby the People were permitted to read the Bible and to have the Lords Prayer the Creed the Ten Commandments and all the Articles of the Christian Faith in English to be taught by all Parsons and Curates to their Parishioners which so inraged the stupid Papists that in Lincolnshire Twenty Thousand of them assembled together against whom the King himself went in Person who by persuasion winning their Chief Leaders brought the rest upon pardon to submit themselves but when he had himself done the work of mercy he afterward sent the Duke of Suffolk Sir John Russel and others to do the work of Justice who caused Nicholas Melton and a Monk who called himself Captain Cobler with 13 other Ringleaders of the Sedition to be apprehended and most of them executed In 1564. a monstrous Fish was driven on the shoar at Grimesby in this County being 19 yards in length his tail was 15 foot broad and six yards between his Eyes 15 men stood upright in his mouth to get the Oil. Job Hartop was born at Bourn in this County and went in 1568. with Sir John Hawkins his General to make discoveries in New Spain He was a Gunner in one of Queen Elizabeths Ships called The Jesus of Lubeck long and dangerous was his Voyage eight of his men being killed at Cape-Verd and the General himself wounded with poysoned Arrows but was cured by a Negro who drew out the Poyson with a clove of Garlick he first writ of that strange Tree which may be termed The Tree of Food affording a Liquor which is both meat and drink The Tree of Raiment yeilding Needles wherewith and Thred whereof Mantles are made The Tree of Harbour Tiles to cover Houses being made out of the solid parts thereof so that it beareth a self-sufficiency for mans maintenance Job was his name and patience was with him so that he may pass for a Confessor of this County for being with some others by this General left on land for want of Provisions after many miseries they came to Mexico he continued a Prisoner twenty three years that is 2 years at Mexico one year in the Contractation House in Sevil another in the Spanish Inquisition in Triana 12 years a Gally Slave four years with the Cross of St. Andrews at his back in the Everlasting Prison and three years a drudge to Hernando de Soria to so high a sum did the inventory of his sufferings amount so much of his patience now see the end the Lord made with him whil'st inslaved to the aforesaid Fernando he was sent to Sea in a Flemish Vessel which was afterward taken by an English Ship and so he was safely landed at Plymouth Dec. 2. 1590. And died soon after Sir William Mounson was extracted out of an Ancient Family in this Shire and was from his Youth bred in Sea Service wherein he attained to great perfection Queen Elizabeth having cleared Ireland of the Spanish Forces and desiring carefully to prevent a Relapse altered the Scene of War from Ireland to Spain from defending to invading and Sir Richard Levison being Admiral and Mounson Vice Admiral they in 1602. went to Portugal where without drawing a Sword they quite killed Trading on those Coasts no Ships daring to go in or out of their Harbours there they had Intelligence of a vast Carract ready to land in Sisimbria which was of 1600 Tun richly laden out of the East-Indies resolved to assault it though it seemed placed in an invincible posture of itself it was a Gyant in comparison of our Pigmy Ships and had in her 300 Spanish Gentlemen the Marquess De Sancta Cruce lay hard by with 13 Ships and all were secured under the Command of a strong and well fortified Castle but nothing is impossible to the English Valour and Gods blessing thereon After an hot dispute which lasted for some hours with the Invincible Arguments of Fire Sword the Carract was conquered the wealth taken therein amounting to the value of Ten Hundred Thousand Crowns of Portugal Account But though the Goods gotten therein might be valued the good gotten thereby was inestimable for ever after the Spaniards beheld the English with admiring Eyes and quitted the thoughts of Invasion this worthy Knight
Vpstarts and Aliens and had procured laudable Statutes Yea these turbulent Nobles went farther and it was contrived by the Bishops saith M. VVestminst That 24 persons should be chosen to have the whole Administration of the Kingdom and to appoint yearly all Officers reserving only to the King the highest places in publick Meetings and salutations of honour in publick Places And to inforce these Articles they were strongly armed and provided with Forces so that the King and Prince Edward were compelled to swear to these Oxford Provisions as they were called for fear of perpetual Imprisonment the Lords having published a Proclamation That whosoever resisted them should be put to death Then the Peers and Prelates rook their Corporal Oaths to be true to the King and that they would all stand to the Trial of their Peers the Lords soon after required VVilliam de Valence the Kings half-Brother to deliver up a Castle to them which he swearing he would not do the E. of Leicester and the rest answered That they would either have his Castle or his Head The People seemed wholly theirs which so heightened the Barons that when Henry Son to the King of â—lmain refused the confederacy or to take the Oath without his Fathers consent they boldly told him That if his Father himself did not hold with the Baronage of England he should not have a furrow of Earth among them These hot proceedings made all the Frenchmen about the King run from Oxford into France yea Richard King of the Romans the Kings Brother coming to see the King and his Countrey the Barons grew suspicious of him and therefore required him to take the following Oath Hear all men I Richard E. of Cornwall swear upon the holy Gospels to be faithful and forward to reform with you the Kingdom of England hitherto by the counsel of wicked men too much deformed and I will be an effectual coadjutor to expel the Rebels and Troublers of the Realm from out of the same This Oath will I observe upon pain to forfeit all the Lands I have in England These proceedings were too hot to hold for a while after the Earls of Leicester and Glocester two of the chiefest Confederates falling at debate among themselves the King took the advantage thereof and in a little time recovered his former Power and Authority But from hence we may observe that the Popish Nobility Clergy nor Laity have not at all times been so very Loyal to their Princes as they would now make the ignorant believe In the 20. Year of his Reign a Scholar of Oxford endeavouring to kill the King in his Camber at Woodstoock was taken and afterward pulled to pieces with wild Horses In 1400. a Conspiracy was contrived against K. Hen. 4. in the first Year of his Reign in the house of the Abbot of Westminster who was a kind of a Book-Statesman but better read in the Politicks of Aristotle than Solomon who remembring some words of K. Henry when he was only Earl of Derby That Princes had too little and Religious men too much and fearing lest now being King he should put his words into Act he thought it better to use preventing Physick before hand than to stand to the hazard of curing it afterward and thereupon invited to his House several discontented Lords as the Duke of Exeter the Duke of Surrey the Duke of Aumerle E. of Salisbury E. of Glocester Bishop of Carlile Maudlin one of K. Richard 2. Chaplains and several other Knights and Gentlemen who after Dinner conferring together and communicating their disaffections to each other against K. Henry they resolved at last to take away his Life and contrived this way to do it They would publish a solemn Justs or Turnament to be held at Oxford at a day appointed to which the King was to be invited to honour it with his presence and there while all men were intent upon the sport they would have him murthered This Plot was resolved on Oaths of secrecy were taken and solemn Indentures for performing the agreed conditions were signed sealed and delivered The Justs are proclaimed the King is invited and promiseth to come secrecy on all hands is kept most firmly to the very day But though all other kept Counsel yet Providence would not for it happened that as the Duke of Aumerle was riding to the Lords at Oxford against the day appointed he took it in his way to go visit his Father the Duke of York and having in his bosom the Indenture of Conspiracy his Father as they sate at dinner chanced to spy it and asked what it was to whom his Son answering It was nothing that any way concerned him By St. George saith the Father but I will see it and therewithal snatching it from him read it and then with great fierceness spake thus to him I see Traitor that idleness hath made thee so wanton and mutinous that thou playest with thy Faith and Allegiance as Children do with sticks thou hast been once already faithless to K. Richard 2. now again art false to K. Henry and art never quiet thou knowest that in open Parliament I became Surety and Pledge for thy Allegiance both in Body and Goods and can neither thy Duty nor my Desert restrain thee from seeking my destruction In faith but I will rather help forward thine And commanding his Horses to be made ready he with all speed rid to the King to Windsor but his Son knowing his danger rid instantly another way and came to the Court before him where locking the Gates and taking the Keys from the Porter pretending some special reason he went up to the King and falling on his Knees asked his Pardon the King demanding for what Offence he then discovered the whole Plot which he had scarce done when his Father came rapping at the Court Gates and coming to the King shewed him the Indenture of Confederacy which he had taken from his Son This amazed the King and thereupon laying aside the seeing of the Justing of others in jest takes care that he be not justled out of the Throne in earnest In the mean time the confederate Lords being ready at Oxford and hearing nothing of the Duke of Aumerle nor seeing any preparation for the Kings coming they were certainly persuaded their Treason was discovered upon which considering their case was desperate they apparel Magdalen who was like K. Richard 2. in Royal Robes and published that he was escaped out of Prison next they dispatch Messengers to require assistance from the King of France and then set forward against K. Henry at Windsor but he being gone to London they could not agree what measures to take and coming to Cicester the Bailiff of the Town couragiously set upon them and with the assistance of the Townsmen beat their forces killing the Duke of Surrey and the E. of Salisbury and taking divers Prisoners above 30 Lords Knights and Gentlemen with Magdalen the Counterfeit being sent to Oxford to
14. Ann Green a person unmarried was indicted arraigned cast condemned and executed for killing her Bastard Child at the Assizes at Oxford after some hours her body being taken down and prepared for dissection in the Anatomy Schools some heat was found in her which by the care of the Doctors was improved to a perfect recovery which some believe was a miraculous Token of her Innocence she affirming both before and after her Execution that the Child fell from her suddenly into the Vault without any design to destroy it she lived many Years after was married and had three Children The Family of the Popes is considerable in this County the Predecessor thereof being very active under the L. Cromwell in dividing rhe Abby-Lands whereby he made his fortune there are many descendants from him in Oxfordshire of very competent Estates by the same Token that when K. James came to the House of Sir T. Pope when his Lady was lately delivered of a Daughter the Babe was presented to the King with this Paper of Verses in her hand which because they pleased the King I hope they will not displease the Reader See this little Mistriss here Did never sit in Peters Chair Nor a Tripple Crown did wear And yet she is a Pope No Benefice she ever sold Nor did dispence with sins for Gold She hardly is a sev'night old And yet she is a Pope No King her Feet did ever kiss Or had from her worse looks than this Nor did she ever hope To saint one with a Rope And yet she is a Pope A Female Pope you 'l say a second Joan No sure she is Pope Innocent or none The County of Oxford is divided into 14 Hundreds wherein are 15 Market Towns 280 Parish Churches and is in the Diocess of Oxford It elects nine Parliament Men and gives the Title of Earl of Aubrey de Vere the twentieth Earl of that Family RVTLANDSHIRE hath Lincolnshire on the East Nottinghamshire on the South and Leicestershire on the West and North the form thereof is round and no longer in compass than a Horseman can easily ride round in one day upon which some will have this Shire named from one Rutt who accordingly rid round it but others will have it called Rutland of the redness of the soil because the earth doth stain the wool of their Sheep into a reddish colour The air is good both for health and delight subject neither to extremity of heat nor cold nor is it greatly troubled with foggy mists The soil is rich for Tillage and Corn Woods there are plenty and some of them imparked the Hills are scored with Heards of Cattle and Flocks of Sheep the Vallies besprinkled with many sweet springs so that they abound both in Grain and Pastures neither is there any thing wanting for mans conveniency even in this little County which is but 14 miles long 12 broad and 42 miles circumference The Ancient Inhabitants were subdued by Publius Ostorius under the yoke of the Emperor Claudius and after the departure of the Romans the Saxons made it part of their Mercian Kingdom This County was bequeathed by the will of Edward the Confessor to his Queen Edgith and after her Decease to his Monastery at Westminster The Family of the Ferrers were at first here seated as the Horshoe whose badg then it was doth witness for in the Castle now the Shire Hall just over the Judges Seat there is an Iron Horshoe fixed curiously wrought containing five foot and an half in length and the breadth proportionable Near Burley House the ancient Seat of the Harringtons standeth Oakham a fair Market Town which Lordship the Lord Harrington enjoyed with a Priviledge that was somewhat extraordinary which was this That if any of Noble Birth came within the Precinct of that Lordship they should forfeit as an Homage a Shoe from the Horse whereon they rid or else to redeem it with a Sum of Money in witness whereof there are many Horshoes nailed upon the Shire Hall door some of large size and ancient fashion others new and of our present Nobility whose names are stamped upon them and many without names That such homage was due it appears because there was a suit in Law commenced against the Earl of Lincoln who refused to forfeit his penalty or pay the Fine Little Jeffery was born in the Parish of Oakham his Father was a very proper man broad shouldred and chested though his Son never arrived at a full Ell in Stature his Father who kept and ordered the baiting of Bulls for George Duke of Buckingham a place requiring a strong body to manage it presented him at Burleigh in the Hill to the Dutchess of Buckingham being then nine years old and scarce a foot and half in height upon which Jeffery was instantly heightned not in stature but condition from one degree above Raggs into Silk and Sattin and had two tall men to attend him he was without any deformity wholly proportionable whereas Dwarfs are often Pigmies in one part and Giants in another and yet though he was the least that England ever saw he was a proper Person compared to him that Sabinus saies was seen in Italy who was a man of a ripe Age not above a Cubit high and was carried about in a Parrots Cage this Jeffery was once presented in a cold baked Pye to King Charles and Queen Mary at an entertainment and ever after lived in great plenty at Court wanting nothing but Humility having a high mind in a low body which made him that he did not know himself and would not know his Father for which by the Kings Command he was severely corrected He was though a Dwarf no Coward being a Captain of Horse in the Kings Army in the late Civil Wars and afterward went over to follow the Queen in France where being provoked by Mr. Crofts who accounted him the object not of his Anger but contempt he shewed to all that every fly has his sting and they must be small indeed who cannot do mischief especially since a Pistol is a pure leveller and puts both Dwarf and Giant into equal capacity to kill and be killed for shooting this Mr. Crofts he was Imprisoned It is said that the Kings great Porter one time in a Mask at Whitehall in the middle of his dance pulled little Jeffery out of his Pocket to the surprize of the Spectators and so I leave Jeffery the least man of the least County in England yet I find in a late Author that there is now or was very lately one Philippa French born at Milcomb in Oxfordshire of 36 years of Age and a married Woman who hath all parts proportionable and of good shape and yet wants half an inch of a yard in height which is somewhat lower than Manius Maximus or M. Tullius who as Varro reports were each but two Cubits high and yet were Gentlemen and Knights of Rome but higher than Canopas the Dwarf of Julia Neice to the
Admirable CURIOSITIES Rarities Wonders in England Scotland Irland K Canutus Commanding The Sea pa. 86 K. Henry 3. Preaching to the Monks pa. 88 ADMIRABLE CURIOSITIES Rarities Wonders IN England Scotland and Ireland OR An Account of many Remarkable Persons and Places and likewise of the Battels Seiges Prodigious Earthquakes Tempests Inundations Thunders Lightnings Fires Murders and other considerable Occurrences and Accidents for several Hundred Years past Together with the Natural and Artificial Rarities in every County and many other observable matters As they are recorded by the most Authentick and Credible Historians of former and latter Ages Adorned with the Lively Description of several Memorable things therein contained Ingraven on Copper Plates By R.B. Author of the History of the Wars of England c. and Remarks of London c. London Printed by Tho. Snowden for Nath. Crouch at the Bell next to Kemp's Coffee-house in Exchang-Alley over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1682. TO THE READER HAving already published a brief Treatise called Historical Remarks of London and Westminster which hath found general acceptation I was encouraged to prosecute the same design upon every County in England as also in Wales Scotland and Ireland wherein the Reader cannot be so unreasonable to expect an exact description of every Town or considerable place that having been already performed at large by divers others this being only a Collection of the Natural and Artificial Curiosities Rarities and Wonders likewise of several Remarkable Places and Persons with the Prodigious Accidents in each County as I find them in Mr. Fox Dr. Heylin Dr. Fuller Sir Rich. Baker Mr. Speed Mr. Clark and several other Authors of credit which I have not particularly named to every Relation because it would have taken up too much room most of the particulars herein being very well known to the Learned and for others it will not signify much since this is published for the sake of those that are desirous of knowledge but are not in a capacity to buy a multitude of Books now though the Title speaks of Battels and Seiges yet I have purposely omitted all of that kind which have happened in our late Civil Wars as having already published a book of the same price with this wherein is a succinct Account of all the Transactions during the Reign of K. Charles the 1. till His Majesties Happy Restoration I desire it may please all since I intend to offend none but only to serve the Publick and my self wherein if I find success I shall be very well satisfied neither can the Reader be much displeased to have so much variety for so little money and to find that notwithstanding some think there are no wonders but in other Countries he may yet observe there are it may be as strange things at home as in other places R. B. Of BRITTAIN THE Island of Brittain is of all others the most famous and has been accounted the greatest in the World it comprehendeth all those Islands both great and less which lie in compass about it the length thereof from South to North that is from Lysard Point in Cornwall to the North of Scotland is 624 miles and the breadth thereof from the Lands end in Cornwall to the Isle of Thanet in Kent about 300 English miles It is a Country always very temperate and was highly esteemed by the Romans as appears by what hath been said concerning it by one of their Orators who calls it the happy and most fortunate Island endued by nature with all the blessings of Heaven and Earth in that therein is neither extream cold in Winter nor scorching heats in Summer and that which is most comfortable long daies and very lightsome nights wherein there is such an abundance of Grain as may suffice both for Bread and Wine the Woods thereof are without wild Beasts the Fields without noysom Serpents but therein are vast numbers of Milch Beasts and Sheep weighed down with their own Fleeces To which may be added what Alfred the Poet of Beverly writ long since of Brittain Insula praediveâ— quae toto vix eget orbe c. A wealthy Island which no help desires Yet all the world supply from her requires Able to glut King Solomon with pleasures And surfeit Great Augustus with her Treasures As to the name Brittain there is no great certainty of its Original that which hath passed for currant in former times when almost all Nations did pretend to be of Trojan Race was that it took this name from Brutus affirmed to be the Son of Silvius Grand-Child of Aeneas and third King of the Latines of the Trojan Blood which Brutus having unfortunately killed his Father and thereupon flying from Italy with his Friends and followers after a long Voyage and many wandrings is said to have fallen upon this Island and to have conquered here a race of Giants and having given unto it the name of Brittain to leave the Soveraignty thereof to his posterity who quietly enjoyed the same till subdued by the Romans but this Tradition has been since laid aside as altogether fabulous since the Roman Historians never mention either Brutus or the Giants Caesar telling us that he found the Brittains under many Kings and never under the command of one sole Prince but in times of Danger it is therefore more probable that it was derived from Britt which in the Brittish Language signifies Painted and the word Tain a Nation agreeable to the custom of the Ancient Brittains who used to discolour and paint their Bodies that they might seem more terrible in the Eyes of their Enemies such as the Romans called afterwards Picts or Painted Men other particulars may be observed in the description of those parts into which it is now divided that is 1. England 2. Wales 3. Scotland ENGLAND is bounded on the East with the German on the West with the Irish on the South with the Brittish Oceans and on the North with the Rivers of Tweed and Solway and thereby parted from Scotland invironed with Turbulent Seas guarded by inaccessible Rocks and where these are wanting preserved against all Forreign Invasions by strong Forts and a puissant Navy The whole Island was first called Albion either from the story of one of the Giants so called or Ab albis Rupibus the white Rocks toward France which name continued till the time of Egbert the first Saxon Monarch who called the Southern parts thereof England from the Angles who with the Juits and Saxons conquered it Pelagius being Bishop of Rome Gregory seeing some beautiful Children in the Market place of Rome to be sold he inquireth what Country they were of who answered Angli Englishmen and were Heathens what pity is it said he that the Inhabitants being so fair and Angelical of Countenance should yet be subject to the Prince of Darkness asking further of what Province they were they answered Deira a Province in England then so called These People saith he
Inscription alluding to the Mettal In Martins-Comb I long lay hid Obscure deprest with grossest Soil Debased much with mixed Lead Till Bulmer came whose skill and toil Reformed me so pure and clean As richer no where else is seen This County hath many commodious Havens for Ships among which Totnes was famous for Brutes first entrance if Geffry Monmouth say true and another Poet who writes thus of Brute The Gods did guide his Sail and Course The Winds were at command And Totnes was the happy shore Where first he came to land But it is more certain and withal more lamentable that the Danes first entred at Teignemouth to invade this Land about 787 unto whom Brightrick King of the West Saxons sent the Steward of his house to know their demands whom they villanously slew yet were they forced back to their Ships by the Inhabitants With more happy success hath Plimouth set forth men of renowned Fame and prevented the entrance of Invaders as in the Reign of that eternised Queen the Mirrour of Princes Elizabeth of everlasting memory for from this Port Sir Francis Drake that famous Knight and most valiant Sea Captain set forth to Sea in 1577 and entred into the Streights of Magellane and in Two Years and Ten Months through various changes of Fortune Divine Providence being his Guide and valour his Consort sailed round about the World of whom one writ thus Drake peragrati novit quem terminus orbis c. Drake whom the incompast World so fully knew Whom both the Poles of Heaven at once did view If Men are silent Stars and Sun will care To Register their Fellow-Traveller As he lived most part of his Time so he died and was buried at Sea when his Corps was cast out of the Ship one made this Tetrastick on him Though Romes Religion should in time return Drake none thy Body will ungrave again There is no fear Posterity should burn Those Bones which free from Fire in Sea remain And the Lord Charles Howard High Admiral did not only from Plimouth impeach the entrance of the proud Invincible Spanish Armado in 88. but with his Cannons marked them so as shewed who had had the handling of them as tokens of their own Shame and his immortal Honour The Commodities of this Shire consist much in Wool and Clothing Corn is likewise very plenteous as likewise Fish and Fowl The City of Exeter is the Shire Town environed with Ditches and strong Walls a mile and half in Circuit wherein are 15 Parish Churches and a Castle called Rugemont which commands the whole City and Country about it and hath a pleasant prospect into the Sea The River Lid by Lidford runs under ground the stream sinking so deep that it is altogether invisible but it supplies to the Ear what it denies to the Eye so great is the noise thereof In the Parish of North-Taun on near an House called Bath there is a Pit but in the Winter a Pool not maintained by any Spring but the fall of rain water and therefore commonly dry in Summer of which Pool it hath been observed saith Dr. Fuller that before the death or change of any Prince or some other strange accident of great importance or any Invasion or Insurrection it will though in a hot and dry season without any rain overflow its banks and so continue till that which it prognosticated be past and fulfilled and the Relater who published his book 1648. reports That it overflowed four times in 30 years past There is another thing in this County called the Hanging Stone being one of the bound stones which parteth Comb-Martin from the next Parish it took the name from a Theif who having stoln a Sheep and tyed it about his neck to carry it on his back rested himself a while upon this Stone which is about a foot high till the Sheep strugling slid over the Stone on the other side and so strangled the man which appeareth rather to be a Providence than a casualty in the just execution of a Malefactor We may add to these wonders the Gubbings which is a Scythia within England and they pure Heathens within this place lyeth nigh Brent Tor on the edge of Dartmoor it is reported that about 200 years ago two Strumpets being with Child fled thither to hide themselves to whom certain debauched Fellows resorted and that this was their Original they are a People who live by themselves exempt from all Authority Ecclesiastical and Civil they dwell in Cottages like Swine being rather holes than Houses having all in common and multiplied without Marriage into many Hundreds their Language is the dross of the dregs of the Devonshire Speech and the more learned a man is the less they can understand him during our Civil Wars no Souldiers were quartered among them for fear of being themselves quartered by them their Wealth consists of other mens Goods and they live by stealing the Sheep on the Moor and vain it is for any to search their Houses being a work beneath the pains of a Sheriff and above the Power of any Constable their swiftness is such that they will outrun many Horses they are so healthful that they outlive most men living in the ignorance of Luxury the extinguisher of life they hold together like Burs and if you offend one all will revenge his Quarrel In the year 959. Edgar one of the Saxon Kings of this Land hearing of the admirable beauty of Elfrida the only Daughter of Ordgarus Duke of Devonshire and Founder of Tavistock Abby in that County he sent his great Favourite Earl Ethelwold who could well judge of beauty to try the truth thereof with Commission that if he found her such as Fame reported he should bring her with him and he would make her his Queen the young Earl upon sight of the Lady was so surprized that he began to woe her for himself and had procured her Fathers good will in case he could obtain the Kings consent hereupon the Earl posted back to the King relating to him That the Lady was fair indeed but nothing answerable to the report that went of her yet desired the King that he might Marry her as being her Fathers Heir thereby to raise his Fortune The King consented and the Marriage was solemnized soon after the fame of her beauty began to spread more than before so that the King much doubting he had been abused resolved to try the truth himself and thereupon taking occasion to hunt in the Dukes Park came to his house whose coming Ethelwold suspecting acquainted his Wife with the wrong he had done both her and the King in disparaging her beauty and therefore to prevent the Kings displeasure intreated her by all manner of persuasions he could possibly use to cloth her self in such attire as might least set her forth but she resolving to be revenged and considering that now was the time to make the most of her beauty and longing to be a Queen would
not be accessary to her own injury but decked her self in her richest Ornaments which so improved her beauty that the King was struck with astonishment and admiration at first sight and was fully resolved to be quit with his perfidious Favourite yet dissembling his passion he went to hunting where taking Ethelwold at an advantage he ran him through with a Javelin and having thereby made fair Elfrid a Widdow he took her to be his Wife We read that Ordulphus Son of Ordgarus Earl of Devonshire but whether this or no is uncertain was a Giantlike Man and could break open the bars of Gates with his hands and stride 10 foot at once but of what credit it is I know not Agnes Preist was burnt for the Protestant Faith without the Walls of Exeter her own Husband and her Children were her greatest Persecutors from whom she fled because they would force her to be present at Mass she was Indicted at the Assizes and afterward presented to James Troublefield Bishop of Exeter and by him condemned for denying the Sacrament of the Altar after her condemnation she refused to receive any mony from well affected People saying She was going to a City where Mony had no Mastery she was a simple Woman to behold little of stature and about 50 years old she was burnt in a place called Sothenhay in November 1558. One Child whose Christian name is unknown was a Gentleman the last of his Family being of an ancient extraction at Plimstock in this County and had great possessions it happened that hunting in Dartmore he lost both his Company and way in a deep Snow having therefore killed his Horse he crept into his hot bowels for warmth and writ this with his blood Whoever finds and brings me to my Tomb The Land of Plimstock that shall be his doom The night after it seems he was frozen to death and being first found by the Monks of Tavistock they with all possible hast provided to inter him in their own Abby his own Parishioners at Plimstock hearing thereof stood at the ford of the River to take the body from them but they must rise early yea not sleep at all who over-reach Monks in matter of profit for they cast a slight Bridge over the River whereby they carried over the Corps and interred it in remembrance whereof the Bridge since better built is called Guile-Bridge to this day Nicholas and Andrew Tremain were Twins and younger Sons to Thomas Tremain of Colacomb in this County Esq such was their likeness in all the parts of Face and Body that they could not be distinguished but by their different habits which they would sometimes exchange to make sport which occasioned very merry mistakes they felt like pain though at a distance without any notice given they equally desired to walk travel sit sleep eat drink together at the same time as many credible Gentry of the Neighbourhood by relation from their Father will attest in this they differed at Newhaven in France the one was a Captain of a Troop the other but a private Soldier here they were both slain 1564. death being pitiful to kill them together to prevent the lingring languishing of the Surviver John de Beigny Lord of Ege-Lifford in this County having been a great Traveller and Soldier in his youth retired home married and had 3 Sons in his staid Age of these the youngest went to fight against the Saracens in Spin of whose valor his Father to his great content heard very high Commendations which made him the more patiently endure his absence but when death had bereft him of his two elder Sons he was often heard to say Oh that I might but once imbrace my Son I would be contented to die presently His Son soon after returning unexpectedly the old man instantly expired with an extasy of Joy thus if Heaven should always take us at our word in all our wishes and random desires we should be drowned in the deluge of our own passions This Knight lived in the time of K. Edward 3. Thomas Stuckly was a younger Brother of an Ancient wealthy Family near Ilfra-Comb in this County a man of good parts which himself knew too well having prodigally mispent his Patrimony he entered on several projects the first was peopling of Florida then newly found out in the West Indies so confident was his ambition that he blushed not to tell Q. Elizabeth That he would rather chuse to be Soveraign of a Molehill than the highest Subject to the greatest Prince in Christendome adding withal That he was sure he should be a Prince before his death I hope said the Queen I shall hear from you when you are setled in your Principality I will write unto you quoth Stuckly In what Language said the Queen He replyed In the stile of Princes To Our Dear Sister But his project in Florida being blasted he resolved treacherously to attempt what he could not Loyally atchieve and went over into Ireland and from thence into Italy where he got into the intimate favour of Pope Pius 5. boasting that with 3000 Soldiers he would beat all the English out of Ireland the Pope gave him many Titles in Ireland as Earl of Wexford Marquess of Lemster c. and furnished him with 800 men paid by the King of Spain for this Irish expedition in passing to which Stuckly lands in Portugal just when Sebastian the King thereof with two Moorish Kings were undertaking a Voyage into Africa Stuckly scorning to attend is persuaded to accompany them landing in Africa Stuckly gave this seasonable and necessary Counsel That they should refresh their land Souldiers for two or three days some of whom were sick and weak by reason of the tempestuous Passage But this would not be heard K. Sebastian was so furious to engage and so in the Battle of Alcaser their Army was wholly defeated where Stuckly lost his Life A fatal Fight where in one day was slain Three Kings that were and one that would be fain This Battle was fought in 1578. where Stuckly with his 800 Men behaved himself most valiantly till over-powered with multitude and so ended this Buble of Emptiness and Meteor of Ostentation In the troubles between K. Edward 2. and the Barons one John Powdras a Tanners Son of Exeter gave out that he himself was the true Edward eldest son of the late King Edward 1. and by a false Nurse was changed in his Craddle and that the now K. Edward was a Carters Son and laid in his place for which forgery being taken and hanged drawn and quartered he confessed at his death That he had a familiar Spirit in his House in the likeness of a Cat that assured him he should be King of England and that he had served this spirit 3 years before to bring his design about K. Richard 3. called Crookback lay some few days in Exeter Castle and demanding the name of it they told him Rugemont whereat the Usurper was much startled having
both of that City and County he died in 1640. This County is divided into 29 Hundreds wherein are 19 Market Towns and 248 Parish Churches It is in the Diocess of Bristol Elects 20 Parliament Men and gives the Title of Earl to Charles L. Sackvil who is also Earl of Middlesex as the Town of Dorchester doth the Title of Marquess to Henry L. Pierrepoint and Shaftesbury the Title of Earl to Anthony L. Ashley DVRHAM This Bishoprick hath Northumberland on the North divided by the Rivers Derwent and Tyne and Yorkshire on the South the German Ocean on the East Cumberland and Westmoreland on the West it abounds with Coals Lead and Iron near Darlington in this County whose waters are warm there are three Pits wonderful deep called Hell Kettles these are judged to come of an Earthquake which happened in 1179. For on Christmas day say our Chronicles at Oxenhall which is this place the ground heaved up aloft like a Tower and so continued all that day as it were immoveable till evening and then fell with so horrible a noise that it affrighted the Inhabitants thereabout and the Earth swallowing it up made in the same place three deep Pits it is reported that Bishop Tonstall put a Goose into one of these Pits having first given her a mark and the same Goose was found in the River Tees which if true these Kettles have passages under ground within the River Weer at Butterby near Durham in Summer Time their issues a salt reddish water which the Sun makes white and growing thick becomes Salt which the People thereabout always use In the Reign of William the Conqueror one Wolstan was Bishop of Durham whom upon Lanfranks reporting to be insufficient for the place for want of Learning the King commanded to put off his Pontifical Robes and to leave his Bishoprick when suddenly out of Divine Inspiration saith our Historian Wolston answered A better then you O King bestowed these Robes upon me and to him will I restore them and therewithal going to Edward the Confessors Shrine who had made him a Bishop and putting off his Robes he struck his Staff upon St. Edwards Monument which stuck so fast saith the Author in the Stone of it that by no strength it could be drawn forth till he pluckt it out himself which so terrified both Lanfrank and the King that they intreated him to take his Robes again and keep his Bishoprick When K. Edward the 3. was Victorious in France the Scots with David Bruce their King by the incitement of the French King invade England with an Army of Threescore and two Thousand Men and marched as far as Durham supposing that none but Priests and Shepheards were left at home because such a vast number were abroad upon Service but they found it otherwise for the Lords in the North as Gilbert Vmfrevile the Earl of Angus Henry Piercy Ralph Nevil William Dayncourt with the Archbishop of York the Bishop of Durham and others of the Clergy gathered such great Forces and ordered them so well that by the animation of Queen Philip who though big with Child rode in Person through the English Troops and with wise and gracious words incouraged them that they obtained a very signal Victory for meeting the Scots at Nevils Cross in this Bishoprick they utterly defeated their great Army and took David their King Prisoner with the Earls of Fife Menteith Murray Sutherland Dowglas the Archbishop of St. Andrews and others and slew fifteen thousand Scots who yet could not be charged for want of valour especially the King himself who had two Spears hanging in his body his leg desperately wounded with an Arrow his Sword and other weapons beaten out of his hand and yet disdaining to be taken Captive endeavoured by provoking language to induce the English to kill him and therefore when one John Copland Captain of Roxborough Castle advised him to yeild the King struck him so fiercely over the face with his Gauntlet as beat out two of his Teeth but since he could not force a death he must submit to be a Prisoner and was conveyed by Copland and eight of his Servants out of the Field the Queen retired to Newcastle to attend the event of the Battle and understanding that K. David was taken she sent Letters to the Captain to deliver up his Royal Prisoner which he refusing she sends over a complaint to K. Edward who ordered him to come to Calice where he made so discreet a defence that he was sent back and had 500 pound a year in Land given him in any place which he should chuse near his own dwelling with order to deliver up his Prisoner to the Queen which he did accordingly at York with such a modest and ingenious Apology as satisfied both the Queen and the Lords of the Council King David was committed Prisoner to the Tower and continued so eleven years and then was set at liberty upon condition to pay one hundred thousand Marks in ten years as a Ransom Cicely Nevil whose Fathers vast Estate afforded him a Mansion House for every week in the year cannot be here omitted as being the clearest instance of humane frail felicity she was youngest Daughter and Child to Ralph Earl of Westmoreland of which Family Raby in this Bishoprick was the chief Seat he had twenty one Children in all but she exceeded her Sisters in honour being married to Richard Duke of York she was blessed with three Sons each born in a several Kingdom Edward afterward K. Edward 4. born at Burdeaux in France George at Dublin in Ireland and Richard at Fotheringhay in England this was her happiness behold now her Miseries she saw her Husband killed in Battel George Duke of Clarence her second Son cruelly murdered in a Butt of Malmsey K. Edward her eldest Son cut off by his own intemperance in the prime of his years his two Sons butchered by their Uncle Crookbackt Richard who himself not long after was slain in the Battel of Bosworth she saw her own reputation publickly murdered at Pauls Cross by the procurement of her youngest Son Richard taxing his eldest Brother for Illegitimate and a Bastard and yet our Chronicles do not charge her with haughtiness in her good nor dejection in her ill Estate an argument of an even and steddy soul in all alterations indeed she lived to see Elizabeth her Grand-child married to K. Henry 7. but little comfort acrued to her by that conjunction the party of the Yorkists were so depressed by him she lived 35 years a Widdow and died in the 10 of Hen 7. 14â—5 and was buried by her Husband in the Collegiate Church of Fotheringay in Northamptonshire which Quire being demolished in King Henry 8. time their bodies lay in the Church-yard without any Monument till Q. Elizabeth coming thither in Progress gave order that they should be interred in the Church and two Tombs erected over them hereupon their Bodies wrapt in Lead were removed from their plain
was miserably afflicted with barenness of ground Famine Murrain of Cattle and a fearful Comet appeared all which were thought to be the signs of Divine Displeasure for the wrong done to the married Clergy who were turned out of their Livings and ancient Possessions only for having Wives contrary to the Law of God and against all Justice and Reason whereto the unmarried Priests answered That Christ respected neither the Person nor the place but had only regard to thâ—se that took up the Cross of Pennance and followed him But they good men little understood the incumbrance of marrying for otherwise they would have felt that the condition of married men was more truly taking up the cross and enduring Pennance than their careless single Life The Churchmen thus divided and rent the Nobles as well as others took part of either side as they were affected and both parties raised great Armies in their own defence the Fire thus blown from a spark to a flame was like to have grown higher but by mediation Arms were laid aside and the cause was referred to a Council assembled at Winchester where after long debate when the cause was like to go against the unmarried Monks the matter was referred to the determination of a Rood or Image of a Man that stood against the Wall by the persuasion of the great Oracle St. Dunstan who desired them to pray devoutly and to give diligent ear for an answer the Idol being as good natured as they were devout was very easily persuaded to give them this advice God forbid it should be so God forbid it should be so you have judged well once and to change that again is not good This was Authority suâ—â—â—â—ent to suppress the Priests who now with their Wives went down the Wind yet they made another Attempt for persuading the People that this was buâ—â—â— trick of the Monks who placed a man behind the Wâ—â—â— that through a Trunk uttered these words through the mouth of the Rood they therefore earnestly desired â—hat the cause might be heard once more this at last was granted and appointed at Cleve in Wiltshire whither the Prelates and most of the Nobles and States of the Kingdom besides innumerable Gentlemen and Commons came the Council being sate and the Controversie growing hot whether by the weakness of the Foundation or the vast weight of the People or both the joysts of the Chamber where they sate fell down and the multitude with it whereof many were hurt and some killed only Archbishop Dunstan then President escaped for the Post whereon his Chair was set stood wholly untouched which the Monks said was not without a miracle he being their mouth against the married Priests whose cause fell now with this fall and the Peoples affections drawn from them they had liberty now to accompany with their Wives without Cure though not without Care And all this happened by the strange preservation of Dunstan upon the Post which yet is not so strange since the Monks report that the main Beam of his House being one time sunk out of its place and the whole building like to fall and knock him on the Head he made it return into its former place only by making the sign of the Cross thereon with his Fingers so extream powerful was he in such wooden miracles which are not much to be wondred at since it seems his very harp could do miracles as when of itself it sung a Hymn very melodiously yea the blessed Virgin her self is said to have come to solace him with her songs and it was ordinary for Angels to sing familiarly with him and for him to whip Devils that came to him in the Shapes of Dogs Foxes and Bears but his greatest exploit was when the Devil knowing that he was unmarried came to tempt him in the shape of a handsome brisk Wench but the Saint got her by the Nose with a pair of hot burning Pincers and thereby spoiled a good Face making her to rear in a dreadful manner Thus these sottish Monks deluded the People with such ridiculous stories and thereby rather disgraced than honoured those whom they designed to magnify Southampton is a Town populous rich and beautiful from which the whole County derives its name The famous King Canutus his flatterers persuaded him that he was greater than Alexander Caesar or Cyrus and was possessed with more than humane Power to convince these fawning Courtiers being one time at Southampton he commanded his Chair of State should be set on the shore when the Sea began to flow and then sitting down therein in the presence of many of his Attendants he spake thus to the Element Thou Sea art part of my Dominion and the ground whereon I sit is mine neither was there ever any that durst disobey my command or by breaking it escaped unpunished I charge thee therefore that thou presume not to come upon my Land nor wet these Royal Robes of thy Lord that are about me But the Sea giving no heed to his threatnings but keeping on its usual course of Tide first wet his Skirts and then his Thighs whereupon suddenly rising up he thus spake in the hearing of them all Let all the worlds Inhabitants know that vain and weak is the power of their Kings and that none is worthy of the name of King but he that keeps both Heaven Earth and Sea in obedience and bindeth them in an everlasting Law of Subjection After which time he would never suffer the Crown to be set upon his head but presently crowned therewith the Picture of our Saviour on the Cross at Winchester with such strong delusions were these devout Princes drawn away by those crafty Priests who alwaies made gain of their Godliness This King after he had reigned 19 years in great glory died at Shaftesbury and was buried in the Church of the old Monastery at Winchester to which Church he gave most Rich and Royal Jewels whereoâ— one is recorded to be a Cross worth as much as the whole Revenue of England amounted to in one year this Church being new built his bones with many other English Saxon Kings were taken up and preserved in gilt Coffers fixt upon the walls of the Quire in that Cathedral Church In the year 1053. King Edward the Confessor dispossest his Mother Queen Emma of all her Estate because after his Fathers death she Married King Canutus and seemed to favour her Children by him more than the former he also committed her to Custody in the Abby of Worwell yea he so far hearkned to an aspersion cast upon her of unchast familiarity with Alwine Bishop of Winchester that to clear her self she was fain to pass the Tryal of Fire Ordeal which was in this manner nine Plowshares red hot were laid in unequal distance which she must pass barefooted and blindfold and if she passed them unhurt she was judged Innocent this terrible Tryal she passed fairly without the least damage to the great astonishment of
all Beholders using this Speech to her Leaders O Lord when shall I come to the place of my Purgation but having her eyes uncovered and seeing her self clearly escaped she fell upon her knees and with Tears gave thanks to her deliverer whereby she recovered her former honour and in memory thereof gave 9 Mannors to the Minster of Winchester according to the number of the Plow shares this King was as unkind to his Wife as to his Mother for having Married Editha the beautiful and indeed vertuous Daughter of Earl Godwin because he had taken displeasure against the Father he would shew no kindness to the Daughter he had made her his Wife but conversed not with her as his Wife only at board but not at bed or if at bed no otherwise than David with Abishag and yet was content to hear her accused of Incontinency whereof if she were guilty he could not be Innocent so that what the virtues were for which after his death he should be reputed a Saint doth not easily appear it seems he was chast but not without injury to his Wife Pious but not without ingratefulness to his Mother just in his present Government but not without neglect of Posterity for through his want of Providence in that point he left the Crown to so doubtful a Succession that soon after his Decease it was translated out of English into French and the Kingdom made servile to another Forreign Nation In the year 1184. A Priest at Andover praying before the Altar was slain with Thunder likewise one Clark and his Brother were burnt to death with Lightning and soon after a shower of blood rained in the Isle of Wight two hours together In the year 1250. King Hen. 3. in whose nature it seemed an inseparable quality to be violent in every thing he had a mind to have done and that sometimes without due respect to his Majesty as appears by what follows This King having a design to advance his half Brother Ethelmare to the Bishoprick of Winchester was not satisfied in sending a strict command to the Monks to chuse him but goes to Winchester in Person and the Clergy being met he gets up into the Pulpit and Preaches a Sermon to them taking for his Text these words Justice and Peace have kissed each other from whence he raised this Doctrine That whereas the rigor of Judgment and Justice belonged to him and other Kings who were to Rule the Nations so quiet peace and tranquillity belonged to the Clergy and this day saith he I hope they will both kiss each other for I doubt not but that both for your own good and my desire you will chuse my Brother Bishop this day with many other words to the same purpose whereby the Monks perceiving the earnestness of his desire held it in vain to deny him and thereupon elected Ethelmare but because he was no Priest they did it with this reservation If the Pope did allow thereof but the Pope resolving to make his advantage thereof as well as the King exacted 500 marks of Church Revenues for his Confirmation which made Matthew Paris a Monk to utter this bitter lamentation O Pope the chief of Bishops why dost thou thus suffer the Christian World to be defiled worthily worthily therefore art thou driven out of thine own City and See and like a Runagade and another Cain art inforced to wandâ—r up and down O thou God of just vengeance when wilt thou draw forth thy Sword and imbrue it in the blood of such wretched Oppressors The Pope it seems was then fled from Rome for fear of the Emperor of Germany and though he would neither reform these grand abuses in himself nor others yet Robert Crosthead the stout and learned Bishop of Lincoln resolved to reform the Monks and Fryâ—ers but they appealing to the Pope the Bishop went to him and plainly told him That all Offenders escaped punishment because his heart was so open and ready to receive Bribes from them The Pope dismist him and sent him back with â—n angry Countenance and reproachful words he was â—t this time at Lyons where a while after the Council breaking up Cardinal Hugo Preached a Farewell Sermon â—o the Citizens and among other benefits which they â—ad reaped by the Popes residence in their City reckoned up this for a principal one That whereas at their â—oming to Town there were but three or four Bawdy Houses â—n Lyons now at their departure they left but one but indeed â—hat reached from one end of the City to the other whereby we may observe that France had some part of the Popes Blessings as well as England But it seems the People had no very good opinion of â—he proceedings of this King Henry both against the Lords and the Church and not only Men but Women â—ndertook to reprehend him for the same for Isabel Widdow to the Earl of Arundel a young Lady having â—eceived a repulse from the King in a matter which she â—lledged was hers in Equity presumed to speak thus to â—is face O my Lord King why do you turn away from Justâ—ce we cannot now obtain right in your Court you are placed as 〈◊〉 middle Person between God and us but you neither govern â—s nor your self neither are you afraid to vex the Church divers ways at present as well as you have formerly nor by several â—ppressions to afflict the Nobles of the Kingdom The King â—eing fired at this free discourse looking on her with a â—cornful and angry countenance spake thus to her with â—loud voice O my Lady Countess what have the Lords of England given you a Charter and hired you to be their Advoâ—ate and Orator because they know you have your Tongue at will No my Lord said the Countess They have made me no Charter but the Charter which your Father made and which your self confirmed swearing to keep the same inviolably and constantly and often extorting mony upon promise that the Liberties therein should be faithfully observed which yet you have not kept but have broken without regard to Honour or Conscience therefore you are found to be a manifest violater of you Faith and Oath for where are now the Liberties of England so often fairly ingrossed in Wriâ—ing so often granted so often bought and paid for I therefore though a Woman and all the Natural Loyal People of the Land appeal against you to the Tribunal of the dreadful Judge and Heaven and Earth shall bear us Witness that we are used unjustly and God the Lord of Revenges right us The King saith the Author abashed at these words asked her if she did not look to obtain her suit upon favour since she was his Kinswoman she replied that seeing he had denied that which the Law gave how could she hope to obtain her suit by favour Therefore said she I do appeal to the presence of Christ against those also of your Counsellors who bewitch and dull your Judgment and draw you
at lawful distance But now he resolved to eat grass with Nebuchadnezzar till it pleased the Queen to restore his senses she being overjoyed with these Speeches Would to God said she his deeds would be answerable to his words he hath long tried my patience I must now make tryal of his Humility Upon which the Earl became so confident of the Queens favour that being denyed a Suit about farming sweet wines he conspired with others to seize her Person and which more alienated her affections than any thing else she heard he despised her Person and that he had said That the Queen was now old and decrepit and withered as well in mind as in body After this he made an Insurrection in London which not succeeding he was sent to the Tower and being arraigned together with the Earl of Southampton by his Peers was found guilty and Feb. 25. 1601. was to be the fatal day in the mean time divers Ministers were sent to comfort him The Queen now wavered in her self one while remembring former kindnesses she would not and then again she would have him die because of his stubborness in not asking her mercy and his openly saying That he could not live but she must perish So that she gave order for his death within the Tower where he spake to this Purpose My Lords and Christian Brethren who are present witnesses of my just punishment I confess to Gods Glory my self a most wretched Sinner and that my sins in number exceed the hairs of my head that good which I would have done I did not and the evil which I would not that did I for all which I beseech my Saviour Christ to be a Mediator but especially for this my last crying sin I beseech God Her Majesty and the State to forgive me and bless her with a prosperous Reign with a wise and understanding Heart to bless the Nobles and Ministers of the Church and State I likewise beseech you and all the world to have a charitable opinion of me foâ— my intention toward her Majesty whose death I protest I never intended nor any violence toward her Person I thank God I never was an Atheist in not believing the Scriptures nor a Papist to trust in my own merits but am assured to be saved by the merits and mercies of Jesus Christ my Saviour This Faith I was I brought up in and herein I am now ready to die beseeching you all to join your souls with me in Prayer that my soul may be lifted up by Faith above all earthly things and lastly I desire forgiveness of all the world even as freely as from my heart I forgive all the world And then kneeling down said I have been divers times in places of danger where death was neither so present nor so certain and yet even then I felt the weakness of my flesh and therefore now in this last and great conflict I desire the assistance of Gods Holy Spirit and so saith Mr. Speed with a most Heavenly Prayer and faithful constancy as if his soul had been already in heavenly fruition he laid himself on the block and spreading abroad his arms the appointed sign with three strokes his head was severed from his body for which the Executioner was in danger of his life at his return if he had not been secured by the Sheriff of this great Favourite Dr. Fuller concludes That his failings were neither so foul nor so many but that the Character of a right worthy man most justly belongs to his memory It is recorded that Walter E. of Essex his Father having wasted his Spirits with grief fell into a Dysentery whereof he dyed after he had requested such as stood by him That they would admonish his Son who was then scarce ten years old that he should alwaies propound and set before him the 36th year of his life as the utmost he should ever attain to which neither he nor his Father had gone beyond and his Son never reached to being beheaded in the 34th year of his Age so that his dying Father seemed not in vain to have admonished him as he did but to speak by Divine inspiration and suggestion Hereford is the chief City of this County seated amongst pleasant Meadows and Cornfields Lemster is another Town which hath the greatest fame for Wool which they call Lemster Oar of which Mr. Drayton thus writes Where lives the man so dull on Brittains furthest shore To whom did never sound the name of Lemster Oar That with the Silkworms web for smallness may compare Wherein the winder shews his Workmanship so rare So doth this Fleece excell all others in the Land Being neatly bottom'd up by natures careful hand This County is divided into 11 Hundreds wherein there are 8 Market Towns 176 Parish Churches and is in the Diocess of Hereford Out of it are elected 8 Parliament Men for the County 2. for Hereford 2. for Lemster 2. for Webly 2. and gives the Title of Earl to Leicester L. D' Eureux HVNTINGTONSHIRE is surrounded with Northampton Bedford and Cambridgeshires being small in extent hardly stretching 20 miles outright though measured to the most advantage it is good for Corn and Tillage and toward the East very plentiful for feeding Cattle Huntington is the chief Town of all the County called in their publick Seal Huntersdune The Hill or Down of Hunters and gives name to all the Shire Godmanchester is a very great Country Town and of as great repute for Tillage no place having more Ploughs or more stout Husbandmen for they boast that in former times they have received the Kings of England as they passed in their progress this way with ninescore Ploughs brought forth in a rustical kind of Pomp as a Gallant show when K. James came first into England the Bayliffs of this Town presented him with 70 Team of Horses all traced to fair new Ploughs to shew their Husbandry of which when the King demanded the reason they told him That it was their ancient Custom whensoever any King of England passed through their Town so to present him And added further That they held their Lands by that Tenure being the Kings Tenants The King was much pleased herewith bidding them use well their Ploughs and said he was glad he was Landlord of so many good Husbandmen in one Town St Ives is another Town in this County reported to be so named from Ivo a Persian Bishop who it 's said about the Year of Christ 6â—0 travelled through England Preaching diligently the Christian Religion and dying in this place left his name thereunto There are two little Springs at Ayleweston in this County the one fresh and the other somewhat brackish the latter they say is good for Scabs and Leprosie and the other for dim sights The Lake of Wittlesmere and other Meers near it in this Shire do sometimes rise tempestuously in calm and fair Weather and make Water-quakes by reason the ground near it is rotten and hollow
a Fight so that the Conqueror who just before thought he had the whole Kingdom absolutely at Command began now to despair of his own Life of which Consternation the two valiant Prelates taking advantage presented themselves to the Duke and thus addressed him in behalf of their followers Most noble Duke behold here the Commons of Kent are come forth to meet and receive you as their Soveraign in peace upon condition they may for ever enjoy their ancient Liberties Freedoms and Estates which they received from their Forefathers If these be denied they are here ready to give you battle immediately being fully resolved rather to die than to part with our ancient Laws or to live in slavery and bondage the name and nature whereof as it hath been hitherto unknown to us so we will rather every man lose his Life than ever endure it The Conqueror driven to a strait and loth to hazard all upon so nice a point their demands being not unreasonable rather wisely than willingly granted their desires and Pledges on both sides are given for performance Kent yielding her Earldom and Castle of Dover to her new King William Among other Customs they retain one called Gavelkind that is Give all kin whereby Lands are divided among the Male-Children or if there be no Sons among the Daughters by which every man is a Freeholder and hath some part of his own to live upon By vertue of this also they are at full age and enter upon their Inheritance at 15 Years old and it is lawful for them to alienate or make it over to any either by Gift or sale without the Lords Consent By this likewise the Son though his Parents be hanged for Felony or Murder succeedeth them nevertheless in such kind of Lands according to that Rhime The Father to the Bough And the Son to the Plough K. William after this to secure Kent to himself placed a Constable in Dover Castle and according to the manner of the Romans made him also Lord of the Cinqueports which are Hastings Dover Hith Rumney and Sandwich unto which are joined Winchelsey and Rye as principal Ports and other small Towns as Members which because they are bound to serve in the Wars by Sea enjoy many great Priviledges being free from the payment of Subsidies and from Wardship of their Children and are not sued in any Court but within their own Towns and of the Inhabitants therein such as they call Barons at the Coronation of Kings and Queens support the Canopies over them and have a Table by themselves on the Kings Right hand and the L. Warden who is always of the Nobility hath the Authority of Chancellor and Admiralty within his Jurisdiction in very many cases and hath many other Rights Canterbury is the chief City of this County ancient and famous no doubt in the time of the Romans The Archbishop of Canterbury was called Totius Angliae Primas Primate of all England the Archbishop of York only Primas Angliae Primate of England he is the first Peer of the Realm and hath the Precedency of all Dukes not of the Royal Blood or great Officers of State Anselm in recompence of his service in opposing the Marriage of Priests and resisting the King about investing Bishops had this accession of honour given him by Pope Vrbane That he and his Successors should have place at the Popes right foot in all General Councils the Pope adding these words We include him in our Orb as Pope of another world This City hath had a rare Cathedral it is in the midst of the Town the body within being near as large as St. Pauls in London was between the body and the Quire there hangeth a Bell called by the name of Bell Harry being one of those which Henry 8. brought out of France there are also four Spires like St. Sepulchres London on each side of the great West Gate are 2 other Steeples the one called Dunstan and the other Arnold Steeples in each of which are a very pleasant ring of Bells in the same Cathedral there was the famousest window in England for which they say the Spanish Ambassador offered Ten Thousand pound being the whole History of Christ from his Nativity to his Passion but it was afterward battered to pieces In the Quire of the Cathedral Edward called the Black Prince is buried in a Monument of Brass underneath this Cathedral there is a great Congregation of French Protestants the Dutch also have a Church in that Place which is called the Bishops Pallace there are many other Churches in the City and Suburbs The Rebellion under Kett the Tanner in the Oak of Reformation neer Norwich Pa. 149. Tu per Thomae sanguinem quem pro te impendit Fac nos Christe scandere quo Thomas ascendit For the blood of Thomas which he for thee did spend Grant us Christ that we may climb where Thomas did ascend The Pope likewise writ to the English Clergy to make a new Holyday for St. Thomas as they expected pardon through his Intercession to God for them At Halbaldown in Kent there was an Hospital erected by Archbishop Lanfrank wherein was reserved the upper leather of an old shoe which they said had been worn by St. Thomas Becket and being set fair in Copper and Christal was offered to be kissed by all Passengers In the Reign of Edward 3. there was great variance between the A. Bishops of Canterbury and York and the Londoners were cursed by the A. B. of Canterbury because they suffered he of York to carry his Cross in that City but the King ended the difference ordering they should both freely carry the Cross in each others Province but that in sign of subjection the A. B. of York should send the Image of an Archbishop bearing a Cross or some other Jewel wrought in fine gold to the value of 40 pounds to Canterbury and offer it publickly there upon St. Thomas Beckets Shrine They likewise report that Thomas lying in an old House at Otford and finding it want a Spring he struck his Staff into the dry ground from whence issued Water and is called to this day St. Thomas Well and that a Nightingale disturbing his Devotions one time in that place he commanded that from thenceforth no bird of that kind should dare sing there many other such ridiculous miracles are reported which were invented by Popish Knaves and believed by none but Popish Idiots In 1386. William Courtney Archbishop of Canterbury summoned certain of his Tenants to answer an heinous and horrible Trespass as he called it which was That they brought Straw to litter his Horses not in Carts as formerly but in Bags for which wicked Offence having confessed their fault and asked him forgiveness he enjoined them this Pennance That going leisurely before the Procession barefoot and bare leg'd each of them should carry upon his Shoulder a Bag stuffed with Strow hanging out whereupon these Rhimes were made This Bag full of straw
House being dead his Body was carried out and laid on the ground in a Close hard by where this is memorable that for two Years after the ground where his Body lay bore no grass but still represented as it were a picture of his Body only in the space between his Legs and Arms there grew Grass but where any part of his Body touched none at all yet this miraculous accident was not it may be so much for the Murder as for the Curses of a Widow Woman out of whose hands this Mr. Arden had bought this very Close to her utter undoing and thus Divine Justice even in this World oftentimes works Miracles upon Offenders for a merciful warning to others if they will be so wise to take it In 1585. Aug. 4. a marvellous accident happened in the Hamlet of Mottingham near Eltham in this County in a field belonging to Sir Percival Hart betimes in the morning the ground began to sink so much that three great Elm Trees were suddenly swallowed into the Pit the Tops falling downward into the hole and before 10 a Clock they were so overwhelmed that no part of them could be discerned the place being suddenly filled with Water the compass of the whole was about 80 Yards and so deep that a sounding line of 50 fathoms could hardly find or feel any bottom ten yards distance from this place there was another piece of ground sunk in the same manner near the Highway and so nigh a dwelling House that the Inhabitants were greatly terrified thereby In 1602. April 20. Thirteen Persons were slain by misfortune at the Gunpowder Mill at Redriff and much more hurt done in divers places Nicholas Wood of Harrison in this County Yeoman did with ease eat a whole Sheep of 16 shillings price and that raw at one meal another time he eat 30 dozen of Pigeons at Sir William Sidlys he eat as much as would have sufficed 30 men at the Lord Wottons in Kent he eat at one meal 84 Rabbets which number would have sufficed 168 men allowing to each half a Rabbet he suddenly devoured 18 yards of black pudding London measure and having once eat 60 pound weight of Cherries he said they were but washmeat he made an end of a whole Hog at once and after it swallowed three pecks of Damasons this was after break-fast for he said he had eat one pottle of milk one pottle of pottage with Bread Butter and Cheese before he eat in my presence saith Taylor the Water Poet six penny Wheaten Loaves three six penny Veal Pies one pound of sweet Butter one good dish of Thornback and a shiver of a peck Houshold Loaf an inch thick and all this in the space of an hour the House yielded no more and so he went away unsatisfied one John Dale was too hard for him at a place called Lenham he laid a Wager he could fill Woods belly with good wholsome Victuals for 2 Shillings and a Gentleman waged on the contrary that when he had eaten out Dales two shillings he should then presently eat up a whole good Sirloine of Beef Dale bought six pots of mighty Ale and 12 new penny white Loaves which he sopped therein the powerful fume whereof conquered this Conqueror and laid him in a sleep to the preservation of the roast Beef and unexpected winning of the wager he spent all his Estate to provide provant for his belly and though a landed Man and a true Labourer died very poor about 1630. In 1652. One Adam Sprackling Esq lived at St. Lawrence in the Isle of Thanet he had a fair Estate and Married Sir Robert Lewkners Daughter but growing extreamly debauched brought himself into many troubles and spent his Estate This Gentleman coming home one night fell into a great rage against his Wife who was a very virtuous Lady and resolving to mischief her he first struck her with his Dagger hurting her Jaw which she bore patiently saying little to him He raged still more against her and she rising to go away he struck her with a chopping knife on the wrist and cut the bone in sunder he then dashed her on the fore-head with the Iron Cleaver whereupon she fell down bleeding but recovering her self on her knees she prayed God to forgive her Husband his Sins as she did and likewise to pardon her own sins while she was thus praying her bloody Husband chopt her head in the midst even to the very brains so that she fell down dead immediately then did he kill 6 Dogs 4 of which he threw by his Wife and chopped her twice into the Leg after she was dead being apprehended for this horrid murther he was carried to Sandwich Goal and was Tryed Condemned and Executed for the same dying very desperately and refusing to discourse either with Ministers or Gentlemen who came thither to speak to him In 1655. Sir George Sonds of Kent had two Sons grown up to that Age wherein he might have expected most comfort from them but the younger of them having no apparent cause or provocation either from his Father or Brother did in a most unnatural and barbarous manner murther his elder Brother concerning which Sir George in a Narrative written by himself useth these expressions For my Sons wickedness I must needs say Cains was not greater for he did it in the Field and first talked with his Brother and had some pretence of reason for it and because Abel and his offering was more respected but thou saies he didst murther thy Brother basely and inhumanly not in the Field but in his Bed thou didst not talk and dispute it with him but didst kill him sleeping and couldst hear nothing but sad groans from him nor didst thou do it with a Sword or manly weapon but with a butcherly Cleaver didst beat out his brains and as if that had been too little with a most cowardly Steeletto didst stab him 7 or 8 times in and about the heart thou couldst have no such pretence as Cain had for thou wast ever equally respected with thy Brother Even prophane Esau came short of thee he did but resolve to kill his Brother but when he met him he repented and imbraced him but thou didst go through with thy work in the height of malice and when thou hadst brought me to him after thou hadst slain him I saw not any relenting in thee not one tear to drop from thine eyes for that foul Fact Judas did betray his innocent Master but thou didst more for thou didst kill thy innocent Brother Judas did but deliver up his Master to the Judge for Tryal but thou wast Judge and Executioner thy self He might plead that the Devil after he had taken the Sop entered into him and that he was hired for 30 pieces of Silver thou hadst no Devil nor any hire but thy own malicious nature he did it in the dark night as ashamed that the Light should see so foul a Fact But thou in the fair morning when
the continual strange noise in the Air was very terrible to them In the year 1669 July 31. There was a great dark cloud seen to arise in the East not far from Litchfield which drawing nearer to the City came over it about noon and then appeared to be a huge number of Ant-flies so thick that they darkned the Sky and it being Market day there they fell down in great abundance so that they filled the very Houses The People both within and without doors were much bitten or stung with them yea the very Horses were so disturbed with them that they ran about as if wild The Market People were so plagued with them that they were forced to pack up and be gone People were driven out of the Field from their Harvest work and thus they continued 2 or 3 hours multitudes of them falling dead and lying so thick in the Streets that whole handfuls of them might be taken up and the People swept them in heaps The remainder took their flight Northward and molested other places This was attested saith Mr. Clark by many Eyewitnesses The County of Stafford is divided into 5 Hundreds wherein are 18 Market Towns 130 Parish Churches and is in the Diocess of Coventry and Litchfield It elects 10 Parliament Men. SVFFOLK hath Norfolk on the North Cambridgshire on the West the German Ocean on the East and Essex on the South It abounds in Corn Cattle Pastures Cloth Wood Sea-fish and Fowl their Cheeses are Traded into Germany France and Spain Ipswich is the only Eye of this Shire both for Commerce and Buildings it hath been formerly walled as by the ruines appears but probably raised by the Dants who in 991. plundered all the Sea-Câ—â—sts and in the year 1000. they laid the Streets of the Town desolate and the Houses on heaps yet after recovering both breath and beauty her buildings from Sâ—oke Church in the South to St. Margrets in the North now extend to 1900 paces and from St. Hellens in the East to St. Matthews Church in the West is 2120 paces It hath 12 Parish Churches be sides six gone to ruine In the Reign of King Henry 2. 1180. near Orford in his County certain Fishers took in their Nets a Fish having the shape of a man in all parts which Fish was kept by Bartholomew de Glanvile in the Castle of Orford above six months he spake not a word all manner of meats he gladly eat but most greedily raw Fish when he had pressed out the Juice he was oftimes brought to Church but never shewed any sign of Devotion at length being not well looked to he stole to the Sea and was never seen after In the Reign of K. John 1216. One casualty happened which we might count disasterous if it had not had relation to our selves For Hugh de Bones coming to aid K. John with 60000 Frenchmen they were all cast away at Sea to whom the King had granted Norfolk and Suffolk to Inhabit Thomas Woolsey was born in Ipswich where a Butcher a very honest man was his Father though a Poet be thus pleased to descant thereon Brave Priest whoever was thy Sire by kind Woolsey of Ipswitch ne're begat thy mind Yet he was sometimes upbraided with the meaness of his birth even when he was Cardinal for one time a Nobleman who was very merry but very extravagant having newly sold a Town with an hundred Tenements came huffing into the Court with a new suit of Cloths and said Am not I a mighty man that have an Hundred Houses on my back which Cardinal Wolsey hearing replyed You might have better imployed it in paying your debts Indeed my Lord quoth he you say well for I remember my Lord my Father owed my Master your Father three-half-pence for a Calves head hold your hand here is two-pence for it He was one of such vast undertakings as the History thereof would almost require a volume He was made Cardinal of St. Cicely and died heart-broken with grief at Leicester 1530. without any Monument which made Dr. Corbet a great wit of his own Colledge Christ-Church in Oxford thus complain And though from his own store Woolsey might have A Palace or a Colledge for his Grave Yet here he lies inter'd as if that all Of him to be remembred were his fall Nothing but Earth to Earth no pompous weight Vpon him but a pebble or a quait If thou art thus neglected what shall we Hope after death that are but shreds of thee It is reported that being afraid of the Anger of K. Henry 8. he took such a strong Purge that his rotten body being not able to bear it he died thereof and that his body was as black as pitch and so heavy that six men could hardly carry it and stunk so intolerably that they were forced to bury him in the night at which time there was such a hideous Tempest that all the Torches were put out and withal such a stink that they were glad to throw him into his Tomb and there leave him In the 2. of Queen Mary 1555. in August at a place in Suffolk by the Seaside all of hard stone and pebble between Orford and Aldborough where never grass grew or earth was ever seen there suddenly sprung up without any Tillage or Sowing so great abundance of Pease that the poor gathered above an 100 quarters yet there remained some ripe and some blossoming which brought down the price of Corn there being a great dearth before by reason of unseasonable weather In the 10th of Queen Elizabeth 1568. 17 monstrous Fishes were taken at Downham Bridge near Ipswich some of them being 27 Foot in length In her 19th year Aug. 4. being Sunday about 10 before noon whil'st the Minister was Preaching at Bliborough in Suffolk happened a strange and terrible Tempest of Lightning and Thunder which struck through the wall of the Church almost a yard deep into the ground throwing down above 20 Persons rending the wall up to the Vestry cleaving the door tearing the Timber and breaking the Chains of the Steeple the People that were struck down lay above half an hour before they recovered a Man and Boy were found stark dead and the rest miserably scorched In the 6th of K. James 1609. St. Edmundsbury being by chance set on fire it consumed 160 Houses but by the Kings bounty giving 500 load of Timber and the relief of the City of London it was soon rebuilt in fairer Manner than before Suffolk is divided into 22 Hundreds wherein are 29 Market Towns 575 Parish Churches and is in the Diocess of Norwich It elects 16 Parliament Men and gives the Title of Earl to James L. Howard as Clare doth to Gilbert L. Holles SVRREY hath Middlesex on the North Kent on the East Sussex on the South Hant and Bark shires on the West the Skirts and Borders of this County are rich and fruitful but the inward parts thereof very hungry and barren though by reason of the clear
no Temporal Authority at all but yet in Spirituals he rather raised them as appears by a passage between Aldred Archbishop of York and this King for one time upon denying a certain suit the Archbishop in great discontent offered to go away but the King for fear of his displeasure staid him and fell down at his feet desiring his pardon and promising to grant his Suit the King for sometime lay at his feâ—t and the Noblemen that were present put the Prelate in mind that he should cause the King to rise Nay said the Archbishop let him alone let him find what it is to anger St. Peter And as by this story we may see the insulting Pride of this Prelate in those days so by another we may observe the equivocating falshood of another Prelate at that time for Stigand A. B. of Canterbury would often swear he had not one penny upon Earth when under the Earth it was afterward found he had hidden great Treasure It is also memorable but scarce credible of another Bishop who being accused of Simony and denying it the Cardinal before whom he was to answer told him That a Bishoprick was the gift of the Holy Ghost and therefore to buy a Bishoprick was against the Holy Ghost and thereupon bid him say Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost which the Bishop beginning and oft trying to do saith our Historian could never say and to the Holy Ghost but said it plainly when he was put out of his Bishoprick In the 19th of King Henry 3. 1235. there was a great dearth in Eng. so that many poor people died for want of food the Rich being so cruelly covetous as not to relieve them and among others Walter Gray A. B. of York had great store of Corn which he had horded for five years together yet at that sad time refused to bestow any of it upon the necessities of the poor but suspecting that it might be destroyed by Vermine he commanded it to be delivered to Husbandmen that lived in his Mannors upon condition to return him as much new Corn after Harvest but behold a terrible Judgment of God upon him for his covetousness when they came to one of his great stacks of Corn nigh the Town of Ripoon there appeared in the Sheaves all over the heads of Worms Serpents and Toads so that the Bailiffs were forced to build an high wall round about the stack of Corn and then to set it on fire least the venemous Creatures should have gone out and poysoned the Corn in other places In the Reign of K. Edward 4. 1570. George Nevil Brother to the great Earl of Warwick at his Instalment into his Archbishoprick of York made a prodigious Feast to the Nobility chief Clergy and many Gentry wherein he spent 300 Quarters of Wheat 330 Tuns of Ale 104 Tuns of Wine 1 Pipe of spiced Wine 80 fat Oxen 6 wild Bulls 1004 Sheep 3000 Hogs 300 Calves 3000 Geese 3000 Capons 300 Pigs 100 Peacocks 200 Cranes 200 Kids 2000 Chickens 4000 Pigeons 4000 Rabbets 204 Bittours 4000 Ducks 400 Herons 200 Phesants 500 Partridges 4000 Woodcocks 400 Plovers 100 Curlews 100 Quales 1000 Egrets 200 Rees above 400 Bucks Does and Roe-Bucks 1506 hot Venison Pasties 4000 cold Venison Pasties 1000 Dishes of Jelly parted 4000 Dishes of Jelly plain 4000 cold Custards 2000 hot Custards 300 Pikes 300 Breams 8 Seals 4 Porpusses and 400 Tarts At this Feast the E. of Warwick was Steward the Earl of Bedford Treasurer the Lord Hastings Controller with many more noble Officers 1000 Servitors 62 Cooks 515 Scullions But about 7 Years after the King seized on all the Estate of this Archbishop and sent him over Prisoner into France where he was bound in chains and in great Poverty Justice thus punishing his former prodigality The East-Riding of Yorkshire is divided into 4 Hundreds wherein are 8 Market Towns the West-Riding is divided into 10 Hundreds wherein are 24 Market Towns the North is divided into 12 Hundreds wherein are 17 Market Towns it is in the Diocess of York hath 563 Parish Churches and elects 29 Parliament men York gives the Title of Duke to His Royal Highness Richmond that of Duke to Charles Lenos Son to the Dutchess of Portsmouth Hallifax the Title of Earl to George L. Savil. WALES THis Principality hath the Severn Sea on the South the Irish Ocean on the West and North and England on the East It is 100 Miles from East to West and 120 from North to South it consisteth of 3 parts Northwales Powis and Southwales wherein are contained 13 Shires or Counties of which I have not room to give a particular account as before but shall only observe what is memorable in each of them the names thereof are Anglesey Brecknockshire Cardigan Carmarthan Carnarvan Denby Flint Glamorg n Merioneth Monmouth Montgomery Pembroke and Radnor The name of Wales some derive from Idwallo the Son of Cadwaller who with the small Remainder of his Brittish Subjects made good the dangerous places of this Countrey against his Enemies and was first called King of Wales This Country is Mountainous and barren not able to maintain its People but by helps elsewhere their chief Commodities are course cloths called Welch Freez and Cottons Lewellin Son of Griffin the Brother of David the last Sovereign Prince of VVales of the Race of Cadwallader was slain by K. Edward 1. 1282. whereby the Principality of Wales was added to the Crown of England though it may be this Conquest happened not for want of Valour since Hen. 2. in a Letter to Emanuel Emperour of Constantinople gives this Testimony of them The Welch Nation is so adventurous that they dare encounter naked with armed men ready to spend their blood for their Country and pawn their Life for praise Anglesey is an Island separated from the Continent by a small and narrow Streight of the River Menai In divers places in the low Fields and Champion Grounds of this County there are divers Trees digged out black within like Ebony and are used to inlay cupboards c. it is hard to resolve how they came hither some imagine the Romanes cut them down as being the coverts of Rebellion others think they fell of themselves and with their own Weight in those waterish places buried themselves and that the clammy Bituminous substance that is found about them keeps them from Putrefaction This Island yields such plenty of Wheat that they call it the Mother of Wales He that relateth wonders saith Dr. Fuller walks on the edge of an house if he be not careful of his Footing down falls his credit This shall make me exact in using my Authors words That Cloaks Hats and Staves cast down from the top of an Hill called Mounch-Denny or Cadier Arthur which hath its top above the Clouds in the County of Brecknock will never fall but are with the Air and Wind still beaten back and blown up again nor will any