grandeur persuaded her Husband that he came thither upon some treacherous design and therefore he with some of his Council contrived his destruction which some say was by causing him to fall into a deep Pit digged to that purpose under his Chair of State and that then being alone one Gimbert took and bound him and then struck off his Head which he presented to the King and Queen Thus was this Innocent Prince unjustly murdered but not without divine Vengeance following the Actors for the Queen Author of this Villany died in three months after and was so tormented in her sickness that she bit and tore her Tongue in pieces which had been the Instrument of this Barbarity and Offa at length being satisfied of the Kings Innocence and the heinousness of the Fact gave the 10th part of his Goods to the Church and according to the Devotion of that Age built the Abby of St. Albans and other Monasteries and went afterward to do Pennance at Rome where he gave to the Church of St. Peter a Penny from every House in his Dominions which were commonly called Romeshot or Peter-Pence and at last was transformed from a King to a Monk Thus the Almighty punished not only him and his Wife but the whole Land suffered for this horrid Murder in being made the Popes Vassals for the Clergy seldom parting with any thing they get the poor English were forced to pay this unjust Tax for many Hundred Years after Nay further the King and his Son also died within a year after this cruel Murder whereby that Kingdom was translated from the Mercians to the West-Saxons In the Reign of K. Henry 3. the Abbot of St. Albans ordered his Servant to fetch him a mans Wife in the Town with whom he pretended earnest business the Servant accordingly brought her to his Masters Chamber and then withdrawing the Abbot told her that her Cloaths were but very mean but if she would be ruled by him she should wear as good Cloaths as any Woman in the Parish and therewith began to be very brisk upon her and finding persuasions would not prevail endeavoured by force to debauch her but all in vain whereupon he kept her several days a Prisoner in his Chamber which her Husband having notice of fetches her from him and tells his Neighbours he will sue the Abbot for imprisoning his Wife which he hearing of prosecuted the poor man in the Ecclesiastical Court for defamation and thereby frighted him from any further proceedings Sir Thomas More though a virulent Papist reports a story of the like Nature That a poor man found a Priest over familiar with his Wife and because he told it abroad and had no Witnesses to prove it the Priest sued him in the Bishops Court and at length the Poor man under pain of being cursed and excommunicated was enjoined to stand up in the Church the next Sunday and say Mouth thou lyest accordingly having repeated what he had reported of the Priest he put his hand to his Mouth and said Mouth thou liest and then laying his hands on his Eyes he said But Eyes by the Mass ye lye not a whit In K. Henry the 7. time an Act was made to punish the incontinency of Priests and Francis Petrarch an Archdeacon thus Anatomizes the Roman Clergy which discovers the extream Chastity of the Popish Batchelors Here Venus with her wanton toys Is honoured with base Bawds and Boys Whoredom Adultery and Incest Are honoured here among the best And counted but for sports and plays Even with the Prelates of these days The Wife is ravisht from her Spouse And to the Sons of th' Church she bows The poor good man must leave the Town Such Ordinances are set down And when her Belly riseth high By Clergy-Men who with her lie The Husband must not dare complain But takes his Wife with Child again In the Reign of K. Hen. 6. 1454. the Duke of York raised a great Army of which the King having notice got considerable forces together and marched to St. Albans to whom the Duke and his Adherents came desiring the King to deliver such Persons whom they would name that they might be deservedly punished To whom the King taking Courage returns this resolute Answer That the Duke and his Accomplices were Traitors and that rather than he would deliver up any Lord then attending him he himself would that day live and dye in their quarrel and defence Whereupon the Duke and his Party went away dissatisfied and the Yorkists fell immediately upon the Kings Party in St. Albans and the Earl of Warwick breaking through a Garden a sharp Fight is immediately begun which ended with very great loss on the Kings side the Dukes of Somerset Buckingham and his Son the Earls of Northumberland Stafford and the L. Clifford being slain and buried at St Albans with above 5000 common Souldiers and the King himself unguarded is left in a poor thatcht house whither he retired from the danger of the Arrows The Duke of York having notice where he was goes with the Earls of Warwick and Salisbury who all three upon their knees present themselves to him making humble Petition for Pardon of what is past and now seeing the Duke of Somerset the common Enemy is slain they had what they aimed at To whom the King throughly affrighted said Let there be no more killing then and I will do what you would have me After which a Parliament was called wherein the Duke of York was made Protector of the Kings Person and of the Realm though the King were 35 years old This Battle of St. Albans was fought May 23. in the 33. Year of K. Henry's Reign wherein the King himself was shot in the Neck with an Arrow In 1461. another Battle was fought at St. Albans between the Earl of March Son to the Duke of York and King Henry the 6. his Queen for the Duke of York being slain at Wakefield his Son Edward E. of March afterward King Edward 4. getting his forces together beat the Queens Army at Mortimers Cross before which Battle it is said the Sun appeared to the Earl of March like three Suns and suddenly joined altogether in one for which it is thought he gave the Sun in its full brightness for his Badge or Cognizance The Queen in the mean time encouraged by the death of the Duke of York got some Northern Souldiers together and marched toward London and coming to St Albans the Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Warwick with the forces of the Earl of March King Henry himself being Prisoner among them encountred them where after a stout resistance the Queens Army routed the other of which about 2000 were slain after which the King Queen and the Prince her Son met joyfully together though their joy continued not long King Henry being deposed soon after and Edward Earl of March proclaimed King and all this by the assistance of the Citizens of London and their Wives who were
you may make a Devil of it At which answer they laughed and departed In the Reign of Queen Elizabeth a certain Jesuit in Lancashire as he was walking by the way lost his Glove and one that came after him finding it followed him apace with an intention to restore it but he fearing the worst being inwardly pursued with a guilty conscience ran away and hastily leaping over an Hedge fell into a Marle-pit which was on the other side in which he was drowned In 1613. April 17. in the Parish of Standish in Lancashire a Maiden Child was born having four legs four Arms two Bellies joined to one back one head with two faces the one before the other behind like the Picture of Janus In 1662. July 4. At Litham about two miles from Preston in this County a very strange Fish was cast upon the Shoar it was about four yards in length and as big as an ordinary Horse the forefeet were as long as a mans Arm the hinder feet much shorter but broad like the Finns of a Fish it roared most dreadfully like a Bear it continued alive for some time and multitudes of People came to view it Also much about the same time and nine miles from this place many credible Persons often saw a very dreadful Serpent come forth out of a Wood the length thereof being about five or six yards and they judged it to be bigger than the biggest Cart Axel Tree it was so great that some who viewed the place where it sometimes lay near a Well at Dunkin Hall affirm that it made such an impression on the ground as if an Ox or some more large and pounderous Beast had lain there The Thirtieth of the same month at Ormskirk there happened such a storm of Hail as was hardly ever seen it beat down the Apples spoil'd the Corn broke the glass Windows on that side of the Houses the wind was of and cut the lead in pieces some Hailstones were taken up 8 Inches about and some as big as Pullets Eggs all the French Wheat was utterly spoyl'd and the other Wheat and Barley in the three adjacent Parishes much damaged This County is divided into 6 Hundreds wherein are 26 Market Towns and 61 Churches and is in the Diocess of Chester it elects 14 Parliament men Manchester gives the Title of Earl to Robert L. Montague LEICESTERSHIRE hath Lincoln and Rutland Shires on the East Derby and Nottingham Shires on the North Warwickshire on the West and Northamptonshire on the South It is a Champion Country and abounds with Corn Cattle and Coals the chief City Leicester stands almost in the heart of the County which by Etheldred the Mercian King was made an Episcopal See but being removed the Beauty of the Town decayed yet the renouned Lady Ethelfleda casting an Eye of compassion upon it re-edified the Buildings and compassed it about with a strong Wall whereby the Trade of the City was much increased But in the Reign of Hen. 2. Robert Earl of Leicester rebelling against him the King beseiged took and plundered it throwing down the Walls which seemed hard to be done some parcels of them remaining like hard Rocks by reason of the excellent Mortar The King then commanded the City to be set on fire and burnt the Castle to be razed and an heavy Imposition was laid upon the Citizens who with great Sums of Money bought their own Banishments In the ninth Year of K. Henry 5. a Parliament was called at Leicester wherein an 110 Priories were suppressed because they spoke ill of his Conquests in France and their Possessions given to the King In 1485. King Richard called Crookback set out of this City in the morning to meet the Earl of Richmond afterward K. Henry 7. and chose Bosworth Field to try his fortune with him for the Crown of England that day the Van of his Army was led by the Duke of Norfolk consisting of 1200 Bowmen flanked with 200 Curiassers under the E. of Surrey the main Battle K. Richard led himself being 1000 Billmen empaled with 2000 Pikes the King expected the L. Stanly's 2000 Horse to come for his assistance of whose Fidelity to him the King having some doubt he had before got his Son the Lord Strange as a pledge of his Loyalty with him Stanly not appearing K. Richard sent a Letter to him to come presently into his presence or else he swore by Christs Passion he would strike off his Sons head before he dined to which the L. Stanly returned answer That if he did so he had more Sons alive and he might do his pleasure but to come to him he was not determined Which Answer when K. Richard heard he commanded the L. Strange to be immediately beheaded but it being at the very time when both Armies were in sight of each other his Lords persuaded him it was now time to fight and not to put to Execution and so the L. Strange escaped The Earl of Richmond likewise sent to the L. Stanly to repair presently to him but he sent word he must expect no aid from him till the Battles were joined and therefore advised him with all possible speed to give the onset which Answer somewhat staggered the Earl because his number did but a little exceed one half of the Kings yet to make the best shew he could by the advice of his Council of War he made the Front of his Army thin and broad of which the Earl of Oxford had the leading the Earl himself leading the Battle soon after the Fight begun and the Arrows being spent on both sides they came to handstroaks and just then came in the Lord Stanly to the Earls assistance while they were thus contending K. Richard was informed that the Earl of Richmond with a small number was not far off and thereupon being of an invincible courage whereof he was now to give the last proof he made toward him and gave such a furious assault that first with his own hands he slew Sir William Brandon who bore the Earls Standard next he unhorst and overthrew Sir John Chyney a stout man at Arms and then assaulted the Earl of Richmond himself who unexpectedly for all the Kings fury held him off at the Lances point till Sir Wm. Stanly came in with 3000 fresh men and then opprest with multitude K. Richard was there slain It is said that when the Battle was near lost a swift Horse was brought him with which he might have saved himself by flight but Richard out of his undaunted courage refused it saying He would that day make an end of all Battles or else lose his Life In this Battle Henry E. of Northumberland who led King Richards Rear never struck stroke as likewise many others who followed K. Richard more for fear than love and so he who had deceived many was at this time deceived by many which was not unforeseen by some who caused a Rhime to be set upon the Duke of Norfolk's Tent the
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
the year 1650. Nov. 30. being St. Andrews day about Sun-rising the Sky opened in a dreadful manner in the South west over Standish a Town 5 miles from Glocester and there appeared a terrible fiery Sword shaking with the Hilt upward toward the Heavens and the point downward to the Earth the Hilt seemed to be blew the Sword of a great length moving to and fro and coming lower toward the Earth there was a long flame of fire toward the point sparkling and flaming in a fearful manner to the great astonishment of the Spectators who were many at last the Heavens closing the Sword vanished and the fire fell to the Earth and ran upon the ground this saith Mr. Clark I had from an Eye-witness Glocester is the chief City of this County and lieth stretched out in length over Sâ—â—â—rn The Cathedral Church is a beautiful building conâ—â—sting of a continued window work but hath the loudest praises from the whispering place within which is thus described by Sir Francis Bacon There is a Church at Glocester saith he and as I have heard the like is in some other Places where if you speak against a Wall softly another shall hear your voice better a great way off than near at hand I suppose there is soâ— Vault or Hollow or Isle behind the wall and some passage to it toward the further end of that wall against which you speak so as the voice of him that speaketh slideth along the wall and then entreth at some passage and communicateth with the air of the hollow for it is somewhat preserved by the plain wall but that is too weak to give an audible sound till it hath communicated with the back air In this Church lies the unfortunate Robert Duke of Normandy eldest Son to William the Conqueror in a painted wooden Tomb in the midst of the Quire whose Eyes were pluckt out in Cardiff Castle wherein he was kept Prisoner 26 years Here also the unhappy King Edward 2. lies buried under a Monument of Alabaster who in the 20 year of his Reign was deposed by Parliament who sitting at London sent several Bishops Lords and Gentlemen in the name of the body of the State if that may be called a body which then had no head there to Kenelworth Castle to the King to whom one of the Commissioners represented That the Commonweal had received such irreconcilable dislikes of his Government the pa ticulars whereof had been opened in the General Assembly at London that they were resolved never to endure he should be King any longer that notwithstanding these dislikes had not extended themselves so far as for his sake to exclude his issue but that with universal Applause and Joy the Commonweal had in Parliament Elected his eldest Son the Lord Edward for King that it would be a very acceptable thing to God if he did willingly give over an Earthly Kingdom for the common good and quiet of his Country which they said could not otherwise be secured that yet his honour would be never the less after his Resignation than it was before only the Commonweal would never suffer him to Reign any longer and finally they presumed to tell him That unless he did freely of himself renounce his Crown and Scepter the People would neither endure him nor any of his Children for their Soveraign but disclaiming all homage and fealty would elect some other tâ— be their King who should be of another Blood and Family The King having heard their Message fell down as half dead and being somewhat recovered we cannot say to himself but to a sense of his misery brake forth into Sighs and Tears And being saith Sir Thomas de la More more ready to sacrifice his body for Christs cause than once to behold the disinheriting of his Sons or to be the occasion of the perpetual disturbance of the Kingdom as knowing saith he that a good Shepheard should give his life for his Flock made answer at last to this effect That he knew that for his many sins he was fallen into this Calamity and therefore had the less cause to take it grievously that he was very sorry that the People of the Kingdom were so exasperated against him as that they should utterly abhor his having any longer the Rule and Soveraignty over them he therefore besought all that were present to forgive spare him being so afflicted that yet it was greatly to his good pleasure and liking seeing it could be no otherwise on his own behalf that his eldest Son was so gracious in their sight and therefore he gave them thanks for chusing him to be their King This being said they proceeded to the short Ceremonies of his Resignation which consisted principally in the surrender of his Diadem and other Ensigns of Majesty for the use of his Son the new King Edward being thus unkinged the Ambassadors returned joyfully back to the Parliament at London with the resigned Ensigns and an account of their imployment but he now deprived of his Royal Crown and Dignity remained with his Kinsman Henry E. of Leicester wanting nothing but liberty being shut up like a Monk but his cruel Wife Q. Isabel who had been one of the greatest Instruments of his misfortune being told by her wicked Counsellor Adam Torleton Bishop of Hereford that the Earl was too kind to him ordered Thomas Gourney and John Martravers to take the King into their Custody who carried him from Kenelworth to Coâ—â—e Castle and then to Bristow where they shut him in the Castle till upon discovery of a design laid to get him out and send him beyond Sea they conveyed him to Berkly Castle by the way these Villains exercised divers Cruelties towards him not permitting him to ride but by night that he might not be seen of any they forced him to ride bare headed and when he would have slept they hindred him neither would give him such meat as he could eat but such as he most loathed they contradicted him in whatever he said persuading him he was mad and endeavoured by all manner of ways to break his heart yea they often gave him Poyson in his drink but the strength of his nature overcame it one of them made a Crown of Hay and put it on his head the rest made a scorn and May-game of him they were afraid any of his Friends should meet him and therefore to prevent his being known they resolved to cut off both his hair and beard and coming by a little Ditch they commanded him to come off his Horse and be shaven then setting him on a Mole-hill a Barber came to shave him with a bason of cold water taken out of the Ditch telling him That must serve at present To whom the miserable King looking sternly upon him answered That whether they would or no he would have warm water for his beard and therewithal to make good his word he presently shed forth a shower of Tears at length he was brought to
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
on Houses as well as Persons The King increased and enlarged it so that it now containeth 5 very large inner Courts incompassed with fair buildings of curious Workmanship Now whereas other Royal Pallaces found their fatal Period as Holdenby Oatlands Richmond Theobalds Hampton Court had the happiness to continue in its former Estate of which one thus writes I envy not its happy Lot but rather thereat wonder There 's such a rout our Land throughout of Pallaces by plunder Osterly-House must not be forgotten built in a Park by Sir Thomas Gresham who here magnificently entertained and lodged Q. Elizabeth Her Majesty found fault with the Court of this House as too great affirming That it would appear more handsome if divided by a Wall in the middle What doth Sir Thomas Money commanding all things but in the night time sends for Workmen from London who so speedily and silently apply their business that the next morning discovered that court double which the night had left single before it is questionable whether the Queen next day were more contented with the conformity to her fancy or more pleased with the surprise and sudden performance thereof whilst the Courtiers disported themselves with their several expressions some avowing it was no wonder he could so soon change a building who could build a Change Others reflecting on some known differences in this Knt's Family affirmed That any house is easier divided than united Edward the 5. sole surviving Son of K. Hen. 8. and Jane his Wife was born at Hampton Court in this County 1537. He succeeded his Father in this Kingdom and was most eminent in his Generation saith Dr. Fuller seeing the Kings of England fall under a five fold Division 1. Visibly vicious given over to dissoluteness and debauchery as K. Edward the Second 2. Rather free from Vice than fraught with Virtue as King Henry the Third 3. Those in whom Vices and Virtues were so equally matched as it was hard to decide which got the mastery as in King Henry 8.4 whose good qualities beat their bad ones quite out of distance of competition as K. Edward 1.5 Whose Virtues were so resplendent no faults humane frailties excepted appeared in them as in this K. Edward He died July 5. 1553. and pity it is that he who deserved the best should have no Monument erected to his memory Smithfield in London being Bonners Shambles and the Bonfire General of England no wonder if some sparks thereof were driven into the Neighbourhood as Barnet Islington and Stratford Bow where more than twenty Persons were Martyred as in Mr. Fox it doth appear nor must we forget Mr. John Denly burnt at Vxbridge who began to sing a Psalm at the stake and Dr. Story there present caused a Faggot to be hurled in his face which so hurt him that he bled therewith however we may believe that this Martyrs Song made good melody in the ears of the God of Heaven The last pitcht Battle in England between the two Houses of Lancaster and York was fought at Barnet 1472. by K. Edward 4. who hearing that the Earl of Warwick on the behalf of K. Henry the 6. was with his Army incamped on a Heath near Barnet he marched toward them upon April 13. being Easter Eve and came that evening from London thither where he would not suffer a man of his Army to stay in the Town but commanded them all to the Field and lodged with his Army nearer to the Enemy than he was aware by reason of a thick mist raised as some say by Fryar Bongey the Conjurer which made it so dark that it could not well be observed where they were incamped In taking his ground he caused his People to keep as much silence as was possible thereby to keep the Enemy from knowing of their approach great Artillery they had on both parts but Warwick had more than K. Edward and therefore in the night time they shot continually at the Kings Army but did little hurt because they overshot them as lying nearer than was conceived on Easter day early in the morning both Armies are ordered for Battle the Earl of Warwick appointed the command of his Right Wing which consisted of Horse to his Brother the Marquess Montacute and the Earl of Oxford the left Wing likewise consisting of Horse was led by himself and the Duke of Exeter and the main Battle of Bills and Bows was conducted by the Duke of Somerset on K. Edwards part the Van was commanded by Richard D. of Glocester the main Battle in which the unfortunate K. Henry was Prisoner was led by K. Edward himself and the L. Hastings brought up the Rear after exhortations for incouraging their Souldiers the fight began which with great valour was maintained for six hours without any apparent disadvantage on either side only Warwicks Van seemed by the courage of the Earl of Oxford to overmatch King Edwards which made some flying toward London carry the news that the Earl of Warwick had won the Field and so perhaps he had indeed but for a strange misfortune which happened to the Earl of Oxford and his men for they having a Star with streams on their Liveries as K. Edwards men had the Sun the Earl of Warwicks men by reason of the mist not well distinguishing the badges shot at the Earl of Oxfords men who were of their own side whereupon the Earl of Oxford cryed out Treason Treason and fled with 800 men at length after great slaughter made on both sides K. Edward having the greater number of men caused a new recruit of fresh Souldiers to come on whom he had reserved to that purpose which the Earl of Warwick observing being a man of an invincible courage nothing dismayed rushed into the midst of his Enemies where he adventured so far that amongst the press he was struck down and slain though some write that seeing the desperate condition of his Army the Earl leapt on his Horse to fly and coming to a Wood where was no passage one of K. Edwards men came to him and killed him and stript him to his naked skin The Marquess Montacute thinking to relieve his Brother lost likewise his life and left the victory to King Edward There were slain on both sides at least Ten Thousand Men and hereby King Edward again got the Kingdom and King Henries Friends not being afterward able to raise any considerable power on his behalf he was soon after sent to the Tower and there murdered by the Duke of Glocester I shall not speak any thing in this place concerning London as having already published a book of the same price with this of Historical Remarks and Observations of the ancient and present state of London and Westminster wherein the most considerable particulars relating thereto for several hundred years are succinctly discovered The County of Middlesex is divided into 7 Hundreds wherein are 4 Market Towns and 73 Parish Churches besides those in London and Westminster It
is in the Diocess of London and out of it are elected 8 Parliament Men For the County 2. Westminster 2. London 4. and gives the Title of Earl to Charles L. Sackvil who is also Earl of Dorset NORFOLK hath the German Ocean on the North and East thereof Suffolk severed by the River Waveny on the South Cambridgshire parted by the River Owse and part of Lincolnshire on the West it is 50 miles East and West and 30 North and South all England saith Dr. Fuller may be carved out of Norfolk represented therein not only to the kind but the degree thereof for here are Fens and Heaths and Light and Deep and Sand and Clay-ground and Meadows and Pastures and Arable and Woody and sometimes Woodless grounds so that herein is sufficiency of profit and pleasure collectively in this County it abounds in Corn Worsteds Stuffs Wool Coals and Rabbets who are an Army of Natural Pioneers whence men have learned the Art of undermining they thrive best in barren ground and gow fattest in the hardest Frosts their flesh is fine and wholsome if the Scottish men tax our language as improper and smile at our Wing of a Rabbet let us laugh at their Shoulder of a Capon great store of Herrings and very good are caught nigh Yarmouth and vast profit raised out of them We may conclude the natural Commodities of this County with this memorable passage of a modern Author who writes thus the Lord F. W. assured me of a Gentleman in Norfolk who made above Ten Thousand pound of a piece of ground not 40 yards square and yet there was neither Mineral nor Mettal in it he after told me it was a sort of fine Clay for the making of a choice sort of Earthen Ware which some that knew it seeing him dig up discovered the value of it and sending it into Holland received so much mony for it It is recorded that one chief occasion of the Danes invading this Kingdom proceeded from the following Accident About the year 867. one Lothbrook a Nobleman of the Royal Family of Denmark being upon that Shoar his Hawk in pursuing her Game fell into the Sea he to recover her got into a small Cockboat alone and by a sudden Tempest was driven with his Hawk to the Coast of Norfolk near Rodham where being seized for a Spy he was sent to Edmund K. of the East Angles but having declared his birth and misfortune the King took affection to him for his skill in Hawking and his other good parts and preferred him but Berick the Kings Falconer envying this favour as they were hunting together in a Wood privately murdered him and hid him in a Bush Lothbrook was soon missed and by no inquiry could be found till it pleased God his Dog which would not forsake his dead Masters Corps came fawning to the King several times and then went back to the wood which the King observing at length followed the Hound who brought him to the place where Lothbrook lay and Berick being found guilty of the murder was sentenced to be put into Lothbrooks Boat without Tackle or Sail as he arrived here but behold the Event the Boat returned to the same place in Denmark from whence it had been driven for Berick as it were to be punished for this Murther here the Boat being known Berick was taken who to free himself from that bloody Fact added Treason to Murther affirming That King Edmund had put Lothbrook to death in Norfolk In revenge whereof Inguar and Hubba the 2 Sons of the murdered Lothbrook being made Generals of a Danish Army arrived in England and burnt up the Country sparing neither Sex nor Age and breaking into Norfolk sent this Message to K. Edmund That Inguar the most victorious Prince dreadful both by Sea and Land having brought divers Countries under his subjection was now arrived in these parts where he meant to winter and requireth thee Edmund to be subject and a vassal to him to yield up to him thy hid Treasures and all other the riches of thine Ancestors and so to reign under him which if thou refusest to do he adjudges thee unworthy both of life and Kingdom Edmund hearing this proud Pagan Message after advising with his Council returned this answer Go said he and tell thy Lord that Edmund the Christian King for the love of a Temporal life will not submit himself to a Pagan Duke unless he will resolve to become a Christian whereupon Inguar and Hubba with their furious Danes pursued the King to Thetford who raising an Army gave them Battle but being overpowered by his Enemies he retired to Framingham Castle where pitying the terrible slaughter of his People he submitted himself to the Danes but because he would not renounce the Christian Religion these bloody Heathens beat him with sticks and whipt him with rods but he still fervently calling upon the name of Jesus they were so inraged that binding him to a stake they with their Arrows shot him to death and cutting off his head scornfully threw it into an hedg But his body was afterward honourably buried at St. Edmundsbury from whence that Town had its name At Walsingham in this County there was a Chappel built in the year 1601. dedicated to the Virgin Mary and renowned throughout England for a Pilgrimage to our Lady of Walsingham and those who did not visit and present her with offerings were counted irreligious hear the description of Erasmus an Eye-witness concerning this place About four miles from the Sea side saith he standeth a Town that lives on nothing else almost but the resort of Pilgrims to this place there is a Colledge of Regular Canons which hath scarce any other Revenues than from the liberality of this Virgin for the greater oblations are preserved but the Mony and other Offerings of smaller value go to the maintenance of the Fryers the Church is fair and neat yet the Virgin dwells not therein that honour forsooth she hath done to her Son she hath her Church to her self in the right hand of her Son neither doth she dwell there for all this for the building is not yet finished small light there was in it but by Tapers or Wax-Candles yielding a pleasant smell and when you come into it you would say it were an heavenly habitation indeed so bright shining all over it with precious Stones and Gold and Silver This Chappel with all the Trinkets therein fell in the general destruction of Popish Monasteries by K. Henry 8. At St. Bennet in the Holm there was a great Abby built by Canutus the Dane which was afterward so fortified by the Monks with Walls and Bulwarks that it seemed rather a Castle than a Cloyster insomuch that K. William the Conqueror could not win it by assault till a Monk betrayed it into his hands upon condition he himself should be made Abbot thereof which was done accordingly but the King presently hanged up this new Abbot for a Traitor and so
Scots and the Lord Darnly began to cool and their unkindness was fomented by one David Risio an Italian Musician and afterward the Queens Secretary who had often secret conference with her when the King might not be admitted this indignity the Lords about the King made him sensible of and thereupon his death was contrived and he was killed in an outer Chamber next the Queen she being then with Child and like by the affright to have miscarried the Earl of Murray base Son to K. James 5. and base Brother to the Queen was the chief instigator of this murther of the foulness of which Fact when the King was sensible he resolved to be revenged upon Murray who having notice thereof prevented it with causing the like to be done to him for soon after the King in a stormy tempestuous night was strangled in his Bed and then cast forth into the Garden and the House immediately blown up with Gunpowder the rumor of this murther being spread abroad common fame laid it upon Morton and Murray and their Confederates Morton and Murray lay it upon the Queen the King thus murthered the Queen was advised by them to Marry James Earl of Bothwell though he was the man that had acted the Murther but upon condition that above all things respect might be had to her young Son and that Bothwell might be legally quitted both from the bonds of his former Marriage and also of the Kings Murther hereupon it is plotted that Bothwell should be brought to the Bar and Morton being his advocate by the sentence of the Judges he is clearly acquitted and then by consent of some of the Nobility he is Married to the Queen being first made Duke of Orkney which bred a suspition in many that the Queen was conscious of the Murther which was the thing the Confederates aimed at by this Marriage for they by all means increased the suspition that they might have the better colour against her and so the very same men who absolved Bothwell and consented to the Marriage now take arms against her as a Delinquent in both forcing her Husband to flee and then seize upon the Queen whom clad in a very homely garment they thrust into Prison in Lochlevyn Queen Elizabeth hearing of it sends Sir Nicholas Throgmorton to expostulate the matter with them who alledged The Queen was subject to no Tribunal under Heaven That no Judge on Earth might call her in question c. They again opposed the peculiar right of that Kingdom and used Buchanans argument in his Treasonable Dialogue That in extraordinary Cases the People have power both to create and to depose their King They then persuaded her to resign the Kingdom which if she refused to do fairly they threatned to question her openly for her incontinent living for the Kings Murther for Tyranny so that through fear She resigned her Kingdom to her young Son James at that time scarce thirteen months old who was five days after anointed and Crowned King and she constituted Murray Vice-Roy during his Minority soon after some of Bothwells Servants were executed for the Kings Murther who cleared the Queen from being concerned in it The Queen having been 11 Months Prisoner afterward made her escape and raised Forces which being unexperienced were soon defeated by Murray whereupon she endeavoured to save her self by flight and travelled 60 Miles in one day and contrary to the advice of her Friends went with a few of her Attendants in a small Bark and landed at Wickington in Cumberland sending Letters to Q. Elizabeth that having made an escape from her insolent and rebellious Subjects she was now come into England upon certain hope of her approved Clemency and therefore humbly desiring that she might be forthwith admitted to her presence Q. Elizabeth sent her Letters of comfort and promised her aid defence according to the equity of her cause but denied her access since she was held guilty of many crimes giving command to have her brought to Carlile as a place of more safety Q. Mary then desired she might depart to some other Country but upon consultation most were of Opinion to have her detained as one taken by right of War and not to be dismissed till she had made satisfaction for assuming the Title of England and for the death of Darnly her Husband who was born one of the Queens Subjects After this many Conspiracies were made to set the Queen of Scots at Liberty The Pope sends out his Bull against Q. Elizabeth freeing her Subjects from all Allegiance to her and the Duke of Norfolk is beheaded upon her account These and many other contrivances and conspiracies seemed very much to indanger the Life of Q. Elizabeth and tended to the Invasion of England whereupon the better to provide for her safety a number of her Subjects the Earl of Leicester being the chief and others of all ranks and conditions enter into an Association wherein they declare That since by Her Majesties Life they and all other Her Majesties Subjects do enjoy inestimable benefit they do by this Writing make manifest their duty for the safety of their Sovereign Lady They then proceed And to that end we and every of us first calling to Witness the name of Almighty God do voluntarily and most willingly hind our selves every one of us to the other jointly and severally in the Band of one firm and Loyal Society and do hereby vow and promise by the Majesty of Almighty God that with our whole Powers Bodies Lives and Goods and with our Children and Servants we and every of us will faithfully serve and humbly obey our said Sovereign L.Q. Elizabeth against all States Dignities and Earthly Powers whatsoever and will as well with our joint and particular Forces during our Lives withstand offend and persue as well by force of Arms as by all other means of revenge all manner of Persons of what state soever they shall be who shall attempt against Her Royal Person c. to the utter extermination of them their Counsellours Aiders and Abettors And if any such wicked attempt against her most Royal Person shall be taken in hand and procured whereby any that have may or shall pretend Title to come to this Crown by the untimely death of Her Majesty so wickedly procured which God for his mercies sake forbid may be avenged we do not only bind our selves jointly and severally never to allow accept or favour any such pretended Successor by whom or for whom any such detestible Act shall be attempted or committed as unworthy of all Government in any Christian Realm or Common-Wealth And do also further vow and protest as we are most bound and that in the presence of the Eternal and Everlasting God to prosecute such Person and Persons to death with our joint or particular forces and to take the utmost revenge upon them that by any means we or any of us can devise and do or cause to be devised and
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
English Tongue and the Bishop of Romes Power was by several Statutes abolished in England howeuer divers of the Popish Bishops and Clergy privately endeavoured to restore it again which he was alwaies aware of and therefore calling his Servants together he discovered to them in what a slippery condition he stood considering the variable affections of the King and the malice and subtlety of his Popish Adversaries and therefore required them to be very circumspect least by their default any quarrel might be pickt against him and soon after some false witnesses accused him of Heresy and of speaking some words against the King yet his Enemies durst not bring him to his answer nor try him by his Peers but procured an Act of Attainder whereby he was condemned before he was heard and the King not long after his death repented his hast wishing That he had his Cromwell alive again When he came upon the Scaffold at Towerhill he spake thus to the People I am come hither to die and not to purge my self as some perhaps may expect I should I am by the Law condemned to dye and I thank my Lord that hath appointed me this death for mine offences for I have alwaies lived a Sinner and offended my Lord God for which I ask him hearty forgiveness It is not unknown to many of you that I was a great Traveller and being but of mean Parentage was called to high Estate and now I have offended my Prince for which I heartily ask him forgiveness beseeching you to pray with me to Almighty God that he will forgive me And once again I desire you to pray for me that so long as life remaineth in this flesh I may waver nothing in my Faith Then kneeling down on his knees he made an excellent Prayer concluding thus Grant O most merciful Father that when death shall shut up the Eyes of my Body yet the Eyes of my Soul may still behold and look upon thee and when death hath taken away the use of my Tongue yet my heart may cry and say unto thee Lord into thy hands I commend my soul Lord Jesus receive my soul Amen Having ended his Prayer he made a Divine exhortation to those on the Scaffold and then quietly gave up his Spirit 1541. Upon his Monument was Ingraven Cromwell surnamed the Great whom Wolsey first raised from the Forge to eminent good Fortunes whom Henry 8. used as his Instrument to suppress the Popes Supremacy and to dissolve Religious Structures whom he advanced to the highest pitch of Honour and Authority whom he cast down suddenly and bereft both of Life and Dignities lies here Interred Surrey is divided into 13 Hundreds wherein are seven Market Towns besides Southwark which keeps the same with London 140 Parish Churches and is in the Diocess of Winchester It elects 14 Parliament Men and gives the Title of Earl to Henry L. Howard who is also Duke of Norfolk SVSSEX hath Surrey on the N. Kent on the E. the Sea on the S. and Hantshire on the W. The Soil is rich but ill for Travellers in the Winter the Land lying low and the ways being deep the middle Tract is adorned with Meadows Pastures and Cornfields the Sea-Coast with Hills called the Downs abundantly yielding both Corn and Grass and the Northside is overshadowed with Groves and thick Woods called the Weald where sometimes was the famous Wood called Andradswald 120 miles in length memorable for the death of Sigebert King of the West Saxons who being deposed was stabbed in this place by a Swine-heard Chichester in this County is a large and beautiful City very well walled about a little River running hard by it on the West It hath four Gates from whence the Streets lead directly and cross themselves in the middle where in a fair Market House of Stone supported with Pillars round about the Market is kept between the West and South Gates stands the Cathedral Church not very great but handsom and neat having a Spire Steeple of Stone rising a great height It is the residence of the Bishop and has often suffered by Fire It was first built by Cissa the second King of the South Saxons wherein he kept his Royal Court Lewes seems to contend with Chichester for Populousness largeness and buildings where King Athelstan appointed a Mint for his Money and William de Warren Earl of Surrey who came into England with William the Conqueror built a strong Castle and founded an Abby there It is recorded that Edw. 1. in the 8th year of his Reign 1282. sent out his Writ of Quo Warranto through England to examine by what Title men held their Lands and Estates which brought him in much mony till John E. Warren Successor to this William being called to shew his Title drew out an old rusty Sword and then said he held it by that and by that he would hold it till death which caused the King to desist from proceeding any further in that Project In King Henry 3. time the same John Earl Warren had the confidence to kill Zouch Allen Lord Chief Justice with his own hands upon the Bench in Westminster-Hall so much did he presume upon his great favour with the King In the Barons Wars with this King the Lords got into this Castle of Lewes and not far off fought a great Battle wherein the King had his Horse shot under him and was taken Prisoner with his Brother and Son In the year 1058. Harold putting to Sea in a small Boat for his pleasure from Boseham his Mannor in Sussex and having unskilful Marriners was driven upon the Coasts of Normandy where by Duke William he was detained till he had sworn to make him King of England if Edward the Consessor died without Children yet afterward without any regard to his Oath he placed himself on the Throne Duke William hereupon arrived at Pemsey and with his Sword revenged the Perjury of Harold at Battle in this County with such severity that there fell 67974 English Men that day the Conqueror putting himself thereby into full possession of the whole Kingdom over which he Reigned 22 years being victorious both at home and abroad but to discover the vanity of all earthly things it sometimes happens that some great Persons are not suffered to go to rest when their Bed is made and others are pulled out of those Lodgings whereof they had once taken peaceable possession as appears very fully in the following Relation No sooner had the soul of this victorious Prince William the Conqueror left his Body but that his dead Corps was abandoned by his Nobles and Followers and by his meaner Servants he was stript of Armour Vessels Apparel and all Princely Furniture his naked Body left upon the floor and his Funerals wholly neglected till one Harlwin a poor Country Knight undertook to carry his Corps to St. Stephens Church at Caen in Normandy which the dead King had formerly founded At his entrance into Caen the
Stone to be seen at this day for the horrid crimes of the Inhabitants also the wonderful discovery of several Murders c. 6. Admirable Deliverances from imminent Dangers and Deplorable Distresses at Sea and Land Lastly Divine Goodness to Penitents with the Dying Thoughts of several famous Men concerning a future state after this life as St. Austin The Emp. Charles 5. Philip 3. K. of Spain Prince Henry The E. of Northampton Galleacius H. Grotius Salmasius Sir F. Walsingham Sir P. Sydney Sir H. Wotton A. B. Vsher E. of Rochester L. Ch. Justice Hales and others Faithfully Collected from Ancient and Modern Authors of undoubted Authority and Credit and imbellished with divers Pictures of several remarkable passages therein Price One Shilling II. HIstorical Remarques and Observations of the Antient and Present State of London and Westminster shewing the Foundation Walls Gates Towers Bridges Churches Rivers Wards Halls Companies Government Courts Hospitals Schools Inns of Court Charters Franchises and Priviledges thereof with an Account of the most Remarkable Accidents as to Wars Fires Plagues and other occurrences for above 900 years past in and about these Cities and among other particulars the Poisoning of K. John by a Monk The Resolution of K. Henry 3. utterly to destroy and consume the City of London with Fire for joyning with the Barons against him and his seizing their Charters Liberties and Customs into his hands The Rebellion of Wat Tyler who was slain by the Lord Mayor in Smithfield and the Speech of Jack Straw at his Execution the deposing of K. Rich. 2. and his mournful Speech at his resigning the Crown with the manner of his being Murdered The D. of York's coming into the Parliament and claiming the Crown in K. Henry 6. time The Murder of K. Henry 6. and likewise of Edw. 5 and his Brother by Rich. 3. call Crook-back The Execution of Empson and Dudley the Insurrection in London in K. Henry 8. time and how 411 Men and Women went through the City in their Shifts and Ropes about their necks to Westm Hall where they were pardoned by the King The Speeches of Q. Ann Bullen the Lord Protector and Q. Jane Gray at their several Deaths upon Tower hill With several other Remarques in all the Kings and Queens Reigns to this Year 1681. And a description of the manner of the Tryal of the late L. Stafford in West Hall Illustrated with Pictures of the most considerable matters curiously Ingraven on Copper Plates with the Arms of the 65 Companies of London and the time of their Incorporating by Rich. Burton Author of the History of the Wars of England c. Price One Shilling III. The Wars in England Scotland and Ireland Or AN Impartial Account of all the Battels Sieges and other remarkable Transactions Revolutions and Accidents which have happened from the beginning of the Reign of King Charles the First in 1625. to His Majesties happy Restauration 1660. And among other particulars The Debates and Proceedings in the Four First Parliaments of King Charles the First with their Dissolutions The Siege of Rochel The Petition of Right The Murther of the D. of Buckingham by Felton The Tumults at Edinbrough in Scotland upon Reading the Common-Prayer The Et caetera Oath The Cursed Plots and Designs of the Jesuits and other Papists for imbroiling these Three Kingdoms The Insurrection of the Apprentices and Seamen and their Assaulting of Archbishop Lauds House at Lambeth Remarks on the Tryal of the E. of Stafford and his last Speech The horrid and Bloody Rebellion of the Papists in Ireland and their Murthering above Two Hundred Thousand Protestants in 1641. The Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom with the King's Answer thereunto The Proceedings about the Five Impeached Members An Account of the Parliament at Oxford January 22. 1643. with their proceedings and Dissolution An Abstract of the Fights between the King and Parliament The Death of A. B. Laud Mr. Chaloner and Tomkins Sir John Hetham Sir Alexander Carew Duke Hamilton Earl of Holland Lord Capel and others The Illegal Tryal of King Charles the First at large with his last Speech at his Suffering Jan. 30. 1648. Together with the most considerable matters which happened till the Year 1660 Illustrated with Pictures of several Remarkable Accidents curiously engraven on Coper Plates Price One Shilling 〈◊〉 FINIS
John Heyward saith Dun was a famous Thief among others and Commander over the rest and of him the place was called Dunstable This County is divided into 9 Hundreds wherein are 10 Market Towns and 116 Parish Churches and is in the Diocess of London it Elects only 4 Parliament Men two for the County and two for the Town of Bedford and gives the Title of Earl to the Right Honourable William L. Russel BVCKING HAMSHIRE hath on the East Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire on the West Oxfordshire on the North Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire and on the South Hertfordshire it hath its name from the â—lenty of Beech-Trees which the Saxons called Bucken with which the Country was formerly so over-run that it was altogether impassable and became a refuge for Thieves and Robbers and occasioned that Proverb in this Country Here a Bush and there a Thief for which cause they were cut down In 1665. Jan. 20. about six a clock at night there was an Earthquake in some parts of Buckinghamshire which was attended with an unusual kind of noise in the Air but was quickly over it much frighted some People on the sudden to feel their Chairs and Stools quake under them and to hear Tables and such things to clatter in the rooms and the whole House to shake this Information saith Mr. Clark in his Examp. p. 2. I had from an honest Minister in that County K. William the Conqueror gave a Mannor and certain Yardlands in Buckinghamshire to a Person upon this Condition That the Possessor or Owner thereof should find Straw or Litter for the Kings Bed whensoever he came that way which shews what an alteration there is as to matter of Grandeur since that time The best and biggest bodied Sheep in England are in the Vale of Aylsbury in this County where it is nothing to give Ten pound or more for a Breed-Ram so that should a Forreigner hear the price thereof he would guess that Ram to be rather some Roman Engine of Battery than the Creature commonly so called I know not saith Dr. Fuller whether his Observation with the reason thereof be worth the inserting who first took notice that our Cattle for food are English when feeding in the Field but French when fed on in a Family as for example English 1. Sheep 2. Ox. 3. Calf 4. Hog 5. Pig French 1. Mutton 2. Beef 3. Veal 4. Bacon 5. Pork Whereof the Author assigns this Reason that after the Norman Conquest the French so Tyrannized over the English Tenants that they forced them to keep and feed their Cattel but the Mounsieurs eat all the good meat after it was killed and drest to their hands Forreigners much admire at our English Sheep because they do not as those in other Countries follow their Shepheards like a pack of Dogs but wander all abroad and the Popish Priests tell their ignorant Flocks That this disobedience of our Sheep happened to us because we have left their great Sheperd the Pope a very profound reason whereas our Sheep did the same long before our Separation from Rome because being freed from the fear of Wolves which infest their Flocks beyond Sea they feed safely in the Fields wanting neither Guide to direct them nor Guard to defend them Roger Wendover was born at a Market Town of that name in this County and was bred a Benedictine in St. Albans where he became the Kings Historian and it is observable that our English Kings had alwaies a Monk generally of St. Albans as being near London the Staple of News and Books to write the most remarkable Passages of their Reign and some add that their Chronicles were locked up in the Kings Library and were never suffered to be opened in that Kings nor his Sons life if so they had a great incouragement to be impartial not fearing a blow on their Teeth though coming near to the heels of Truth as being hereby in some kind tyed up from doing them any hurt this Roger began his Chronicle at the Conquest and continued it to 1235. which Matthew Paris and others carried down further after his death The Lady Hester Temple Wife to Sir Thomas Temple was born at Latimers in this County she had 4 Sons and 9 Daughters who lived to be Married and so exceedingly multiplied that this Lady saw Seven hundred extracted from her own Body Vives tells of a Village in Spain of about an 100 Houses whereof all the Inhabitants issued out of one certain old Man who then lived and says the Spanish Language did not afford â— name whereby the youngest should call the Elder â—â—nce they could not go above the Great Grandfathers â—ather but had the Off-spring of this Lady been conâ—racted into one place they were enough to have peopâ—ed a City of a competent proportion though her issue â—as not so long in Succession as broad in extent this â—ady died in 1656. Sir Edward Cook that famous comâ—entator of the Law was born in this Shire One time a Parliament was called and the Court Party being jeaâ—ous of Sir Edwards Activity against them as not having â—igested the discontent he had received from thence â—ereupon to prevent his Election as a Member and conâ—ine him to this County he was pricked Sheriff thereof he â—hereupon scrupled to take the Oath alledging many â—hings against it and particularly that the Sheriff is bound â—hereby to prosecute Lollards wherein the best Christiâ—ns may be included but no excuses would serve his â—urn he must serve the Office however his Friends beâ—eld it as an injurious degradation of him who had been â—ord Chief Justice to attend on the Judges at the Assizes Buckingham is the Shire Town of this County fruitâ—ully seated upon the River Ouse and was fortified formerly with Rampires and a strong Castle mounted on a â—igh Hill whereof nothing now remains but some small â—igns of such a place It is divided into 8 Hundreds wherein are 15 Market Towns 185 Parish Churches â—nd is in the Diocess of London out of it are Elected 14 Parliament Men For the County 2. Buckingham 2. Chipâ—in-Wiccomb 2. Alisbury 2. Agmondisham 2. Wendover 2. and Marlow 2. It gives Titles to George Villiers Duke of Buckingham and Robert Bruce Earl of Alisbury Lord When shall I be cleered Q. Emma goes blindfold barefoot over 9 Burning plowshares at Winchester Pa. 87. Upon Midsummer Eve 1626. a Codfish was brought to the Market in Cambridge and there cut up for Sale and in the Maw thereof there was found a Book in Twelves bound up in Canvas containing several Treatises of Mr. John Friths this Fish was caught upon the Coasts of Lin called Lindeeps by one William Skinner the Fish bei g cut open the Garbidge was thrown by which a Woman looking upon espied the Canvas and taking it out found the Book wrapped up in it which was much soiled and covered over with a kind of slime and congealed matter this was looked upon with great admiration and by Benjamin
Prime the the Batchelors Beadle who was present at the opening of the Fish was carried to the Vice-Chancellor who took special notice of it examining the particulars before mentioned the leaves of the Book were carefully opened and cleansed the Treatises contained in it were A Preparation for the Cross a Preparation for Death the Treasure of Knowledge a Mirrour or Looking-glass to know themselves by a brief Instruction to teach one willingly to die and not to fear death they were all re-printed and how useful the reviving of these Treatises by such a special Providence hath been may be easily discerned by such as have lived since these times In the Year 1640. a Pond in Cambridge became red as Blood the water whereof being taken up in Basons remained still of the same colour and many strange sights were seen in the Air as Armies fighting against each other which were lookt on as sad Presages of our ensuing Troubles Ely another City in this County was formerly a place very famous for a Nunnery there founded by Audrey Wife to one Tombret a Prince in this Province who had this place as a part of her Dowry and she after his death Marrying with a King of Northumberland in a short time left her Husband and the Rights of Marriage and according to the Superstition of those dark times built this Monastery and became her self first Abbess thereof this in the Danish Desolations was destroyed but soon after re-built by Ethelwold Bishop of Winchester who stored it with Monks to whom K. Edgar granted the Jurisdiction over four Hundreds and an half within these Fenns which to this day are called The Liberties of St. Audrey after whose example many Nobles so inriched it with Revenues that the Abbot thereof laid up yearly in his own Coffers 1400 pounds and soon after the Monks thereof repaired their old Church with new and stately buildings which now is the Cathedral of the Diocess and for beauty gives place to no other in the Land Ely Minster presenteth itself afar off to the Eye of the Traveller and on all sides at a great distance not only promiseth but giveth earnest of the magnificence thereof the Lanthorn therein built by Bishop Hotham wherein the labour of Twenty Years and Five Thousand ninety four pounds eighteen Shillings ten pence half penny farthing was expended is a Master-piece of Architecture when the Bells ring the Wood-work thereof shaketh and gapeth which is no defect but the perfection of Architecture and exactly falleth into the joints again rare also is the Art in the Chappel of St. Maries and the other of Bishop West wherein the Master Masons in King James his time on serious inspection sound finer Stonework than in K. Henry 7. Chappel at Westminster In 1190. K. Richard 1. went into the Holy Land and at his going left in chief place of Authority at home William Longshamp Bishop of Ely who carried himself so that though the things he did were justifiable yet the pride wherewith they were done was unsufferable seldom riding abroad without 500 or a 1000 Men in his Train not for safety but for State and though others were left in power besides yet he made but Ciphers of them ruling all as he pleased this insolency was insufferable so that some holding for and others against him the Kingdom was in danger to be rent in sunder till at last the Bishop finding himself too weak for his Enemies thought it best to fly out of the Kingdom whereupon for his greater safety disguising himself in Womens Apparel and carrying a piece of Linnen Cloath under his Arm he designed in this manner to take Shipping and go beyond Sea but being discovered and known the Women in revenge of the abuse done to their Cloths in making them the instruments of his deceit fell upon him and beat him so that it might have beaten Humility into him for ever after this disgrace made him glad to get into France his Native Country where to little purpose he woed the King and Queen for Reparation Edward Norgate Son of Dr. Robert Norgate was born in Cambridge and being very judicious in Pictures was imployed into Italy to buy some for the E of Arundel returning by Marseilles he missed the money he expected and being unknown neither knowing any man there he was observed by a French Gentleman deservedly so stiled to walk in the Exchange as we may call it of that City many hours every morning and evening with swift Feet and sad face forward and backward to him the civil Monsieur addressed himself desiring to know the cause of his discontent promised if it were in his power to help him with his best advice and assistance Norgate communicated his condition to whom the other answered Pray Sir take my Counsel I have taken notice that you have walked at least twenty miles a day upwards and downwards which if it had been spent in going forward would in a few days have brought you into your own Countrey I will if you please furnish you with a light habit and a competent sum of Mony for a Footman to enable you to walk home Norgate very chearfully consented being accommodated accordingly footed it through the body of France being more than 500 English miles and so leisurely with ease safety and health returned into England he became after the best Limner in our Age was an excellent Herald and which was the Crown of all a right honest man he died in 1649. I may here insert saith Dr. Fuller an artificial wonder of what is commonly called Devils Ditch Country People conceiting that it was made by the Devil the lie to be sure was whereas it was the work of some King or Kings of the East Angles see the laziness of posterity who are so far from imitating the industry of their Ancestors that they even libel the pure effects of their pains as Hellish Atchievements probably it was made to divide and defend their Dominions from the King of Mercia or possibly to keep the People in imployment and for diverting mutinous thoughts Laziness being the Mother of disloyalty industry of obedience this County by reason of the Fens hath but a sickly air the soil yeilds good Barly and store of Saffron the Herb called Scordium or Water Germander groweth very plentifully in this County of which Diascordium is made in the Country about the Fenns saith Speed Water-Fowl is so plentiful and cheap that five men may be well satisfied with that kind of Fare for less then an half penny when they have mowen their grass in the Fenns as much as will serve they set fire on the rest in November that it may come up again in abundance This County is divided into 17 Hundreds wherein are eight Market Towns and 163 Parishes and elects 6 Parliament Men that is for the County 2 University 2 Town of Cambridge 2 and has given the Title of Duke to four Sons of the Duke of York successively who
see the Stars at noon-day in clear weather the labour is so hard and tedious that they cannot work above 4 hours in a day they sometimes meet with loose earth yet otherwhile they light upon such hard Rocks that a good workman can scarce hew above a foot in a week sometimes again they meet with great streams of water and sometimes with stinking damps that distemper their heads for the present though not dangerously I hear of no Medicinal Water in this Countrey but only one and since he that telleth a miraculous truth must always carry the Author at his back saith my Author I will transcribe the words of B. Hall in his Myst of Godliness speaking of the good Offices of Angels to Gods Servants Of this kind saith he was that no less than miraculous cure which at St. Maderns in Cornwall was wrought upon a poor Cripple whereof besides the attestation of many Hundreds of the Neighbours I took a strict and impartial examination in my last Visitation this man for 16 years together was fain to walk upon his hands by reason the sinews of his legs were so contracted and upon Monitions in his dream to wash in that Well was suddenly so restored to his Limbs that I saw him able both to walk and get his own maintenance I found here was neither Art nor Collusion the thing done the Invisible Author being God In this County there are some stones called Hurlers at a competent distance from each other which are vainly reported to be men transformed into Stones in St. Cleers Parish there are upon a Plain 6 or 8 Stones such as are upon Salisbury Plain which like them too will be mistaken in the telling near Helford is a Rock lying on the ground the top whereof is hollow like the long half of an Egg this they say holdeth water which ebbeth and floweth with the Sea and indeed saith the Author when I came hither to see this Curiosity the Tide was half gone and the Pit or hollowness half empty There is a rock in this County called Mainamber erected as some conceive by Ambrosius that Valiant Brittain upon some Victory obtained by him against the Romans or other Enemies this is a Masterpiece of Mathematicks and Critical Proportions being a great Stone of so exact position on the top of a Rock that the push of a Finger will sensibly move it to and fro and yet all the strength that men could make was not thought sufficient to remove it out of the place but know Reader saith Dr. Fuller that this wonder is now unwondred for I am credibly informed that some Souldiers of late have utterly destroyed it which shews how dangerous it is for Art to stand in the way of ignorance surely Covetousness could not tempt them to it though it was the ruine of a fair Monument in Turky where a Tomb was erected near the Highway according to the fashion of that Country on some Person of Quality consisting of a Pillar and on the top thereof a Chapiter or great Globe of Stone whereon was written in the Turkish Language The Brains are in the Head this stood many years undemolished it being very criminal there to violate the Monuments of the dead till one of less conscience but more cunning than others passing by it resolved to unriddle the meaning of this Inscription and breaking the hollow Globe open found it full of Gold and departed the richer though not the honester certainly if any such temptation invited the Souldiers to this Act they missed their mark therein At Hall near Foy there is a Faggot all of one piece of wood naturally grown so it is wrapped about the middle with a band and parted at ends into four sticks one of which is divided into two others In Lanhadron Park there grows an Oak that bears leaves speckled and white and so doth another called Painters Oak it is certain saith our Author that divers Ancient Families in England are forewarned of their death by Oaks bearing strange leaves An Earthen Pot was found some years ago near Foy gilded and graven with Letters in a great stone Chest and full of a black Earth the Ashes it 's thought of some Ancient Roman At Trematon in Cornwall in the Chancel of the Church a Leaden Coffin was digged up in which being opened was found the proportion of a very big mans body but being touched turned to dust It was thought to be the body of Duke Orgarus who as Speed saith married his Daughter to K. Edgar for there was an Inscription on the Coffin that signified it was the body of a Duke whose Heiress was Married to a Prince Likewise an exceeding great Carkass of a Man was found by the Tinners digging at a Village near the lands end called Trebegean there is a story that passes of St. Kaines Well in this County that whoever drinks first of this water whether Husband or Wife they are sure to get the Mastery a fit Fable for the vulgar to believe In the West parts of Cornwall during the Winter Swallows are found sitting in old deep Tinn-works and holes of the Sea-cliffs On the Shore of this Shire about 30 or 40 years ago a huge Mass of Ambergreece was found by a poor Fisherman of a very great value King Arthur Son to Vter-pendragon was born at Tintagel Castle in this County and was afterward Monarch of Great Brittain he may fitly be termed the Brittish Hercules in three respects 1. For his Illegitimate Birth both being Bastards begotten on other Mens Wives and yet their Mothers honest Women both deluded by Art-Magick the last by Merlin by other men coming to them in the form of their Husbands 2. In his painful life one being famous for his twelve labours and the other for his 12 Victories against the Saxons and both of them had been greater had they been made less and the reports of them reduced within the compass of probability 3. In their violent and painful deaths our Arthur being as lamentable and more honourable not caused by Feminine Jealousy but Masculine Treachery being murdered by Mordred near the place where he was born As though no other place on Brittains spacious earth Were worthy of his end but where he had his Birth As for his round Table and his Knights about it the Tale thereof has never met with much credit amongst the Judicious The Cornish men in general have ever been held valiant and therefore K. Arthur made them his Vanguard as appears by the following Verses Brave Arthur when he meant a Field to fight Vs Cornish men did first of all invite Only to Cornish against Caesars Swords He the first blow in Battel still affords Yet these People have sometimes abused their valour to Rebellion as in the Reign of Hen. 7. where upon the account of raising a subsidy granted by Parliament against the Scots they made a commotion the Ringleaders being Thomas Flammock a Lawyer and Michael Joseph a Smith who having assembled
Miller that had been very active in that Rebellion who fearing the approach of the Marshal told a sturdy Fellow his Servant that he had occasion to go from home and if any man should inquire for the Miller he bid him say that himself was the Miller and had been so for 3 years before soon after the Provost came and called for the Miller when out comes the Servant and said he was the man the Provost demanded how long he had kept the Mill These 3 years answered the Servant the Provost then commanded his men to lay hold of him and hang him on the next Tree at this the Fellow cried out That he was not the Miller but the Millers Man Nay Sir said the Provost I will take you at your word and if thou beest the Miller thou art a busie Knave if thou beest not thou art a false lying Knave and however thou canst never do thy Master better service than to hang for him and so without more ado he was dispatched I will conclude the Remarks of this County with somewhat more Comical At the Dissolution of Abbeys K. Ken. 8. gave away large shares to almost every one that asked Amongst other Instances take this merry story It happened that two or three Gentlemen the Kings servants waited at the door where the King was to come out with a design to beg a large parcel of Abby Lands One Mr. John Champernoun another of his servants seeing them was very inquisitive to know their suit but they would not impart it to him in the mean time out comes the King they kneel down so doth Champernoun being assured by an implicit Faith that Courtiers beg nothing hurtful to themselves they present their Petition the King grants it they render him humble thanks so doth Mr. Champernoun afterward he requires his share they deny it he appeals to the King who avows that he meant they should have equal shares whereupon his Companions were forced to allot him the Priory of St. German in Cornwal valued at 243 pound a Year so that a dumb Beggar met with a blind Giver the one as little knowing what he asked as the other what he gave This County is divided into nine Hundreds wherein are 22 Market Towns and 161 Parish Churches It elects 44 Members to sit in Parliament and is in the Diocess of Exeter CUMBERLAND hath Scotland on the North Northumberland and Westmerland on the East Lancashire on the South and the Irish Sea on the West We read that King Edmund with the help of Leoline Prince of Wales wasted all Cumberland and having put out the Eyes of the 2 Sons of Dunmail King of that Province granted that Kingdom to Malcolm K. of Scots whereof their eldest Sons became Prefects King Edward the 1st dyed at Carlile in this County for intending to invade Scotland he raised a great Army which he ordered to attend him at this City but falling sick and being sensible it would be his death he commanded his Son afterward Edward 2. to be brought into his presence to whom he left many good Precepts and Admonitions exhorting him To be merciful just and courteous constant and true both in Word and Deed that he should be pitiful to those in misery that he should carry his bones with him about Scotland till he had subdued it and that he should send his Heart into the Holy Land with Sevenscore Knights and Thirty two thousand Pound of Silver which he had provided for that purpose lastly that upon pain of eternal damnation the said Money should not be expended upon any other use soon after which he died In the 17th Year of this Kings Reign the City of Carlile with the Abby and all the Houses belonging to the Friers Minors were consumed with fire In the Reign of Q. Elizabeth a rich Vein of most pure and native Brass was found at Keswrick in Cumberland which had lain neglected a long time In April 1651 about 5 a Clock in the Afternoon there was a general Earthquake in the Counties of Cumberland and Westmerland wherewith the People were so affrighted that many of them forsook their Houses and some Houses were so shaken that the Chimneys fell down Presently after the Scottish Army came into England to assist the Parliament it rained Blood which covered the Church and Church-Yard of Bencastle in this County At Salkelds upon the River Eden is a Trophy of Victory called by the Country People Long Meg and her Daughters they are 77 stones each of them 10 Foot high above ground and one of them is 15 Foot in height Skiddaw Hill riseth up with two mighty high Heads like Parnassus and beholds Scruffell hill in Anandale within Scotland there is a Rime that Skiddaw Lauvellin and Casticand Are the highest hills in all England These being two other Hills in this Tract according as Mists rise or fall upon these Heads the People thereby prognosticate of the change of Weather and therefore they sing If Skiddaw have a Cap Scruffell knows full well of that The Sea hath eaten a great part of the Land away upon the shores of these Western Shires and Trees are sometimes discovered when the Wind blows at low Water else they are covered over with Sands and the People thereabout say that they dig up Trees without boughs out of the mossy places in this Shire which they find by the direction of the Dew in Summer which they observe never falls on the ground under which they lie Some Emperick Chirurgions in Scotland take a journey to the Picts Wall the beginning of every Summer to gather vulnerary Plants which they say grow plentifully there and are very effectual being sown and planted by the Romans for Chirurgical Uses There is a small Burrough called Solway Frith under which within the very Frith or Bay the Inhabitants report the Engl sh and Scots fought with their Fleets at full Sea and also with their Horsemen and Footmen at the Ebb. This Province was accounted a Kingdom of itself and King Steven to purchase aid from the Scots confirmed it by gift to that Crown which Henry 2. claimed and regained from them since which many bickerings have happened between the two Nations in this Shire but none so fatal to the Scots as the Fight at Salome Moss where the Nobility disdaining to serve under their General Oliver Sinclare gave over the Battle and yielded themselves to the English which dishonour so deeply wounded the heart of K. James the 5. that he died for grief soon after There are many ruines of Castles Walls and Forts in this County with Altars and Inscriptions of their Captains and Collonels This County is not divided into Hundreds as the rest but therein are seated 9 Market Towns 58 Parish Churches and divers Chappels of ease It Elects 6 Parliament Men for the Counâ—y 2. Carlile 2. Cockermouth 2. and is in the Diocess of Chester and Carlile DERBY-SHIRE hath Yorkshire on the North Nottinghamshire on the East
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
Graves and their Coffins opened the Dutchess Cicely had about her Neck hanging in a Silver Ribbon a Pardon from Rome which penned in a fine Roman hand was as fair and fresh to be read as if it had been written but yesterday this Lady was a great Benefactress to Queens Colledge in Cambridge In former Ages the Bishops have had the Royalties of Princes over this County and the Inhabitants have pleaded the priviledge not to pass over the River of Tees or Tyne to serve in War whose charge as they alledged was to keep and defend the Corps of St. Cathbert their great adored Saint and therefore they called themselves The Holy Work Folks and the repute of this Cuthbert and his supposed defence against the Scots was such that several of our English Kings went in Devotion to his Tomb on Pilgrimage and gave large Possessions to his Church among others zealous Canutus the greatest of all came thither bare-footed and at Cuthberts Tomb both inlarged and confirmed their Liberties This County is not divided into Hundreds but Wakes which are 4 wherein are 118 Parishes and is in the Diocess of Durham It elects four Parliament Men 2 for the County and 2 for the City of Durham ESSEX hath Kent on the South divided by the River Thames Suffolk on the North severed by the River Stoure Cambridge Hertfordshire and Middlesex on the West the two latter for the most part parted by the River Ley and the Germane Ocean on the East this Shire produceth plenty of Saffron especially about Walden a fair Market Town which Saffron may seem to have coloured with the name thereof it hath also Oysters called Walfleet the best in esteem and are thought by Pliny to have been served in the Roman Kitchins likewise Cloths Stuffs Hops and is indeed a fair Country affording all things necessary to mans subsistence only the Air of the Eastern part is not accounted very healthful Those parts adjoining to the Sea are commonly called the Hundreds of Essex and are very fruitful in Cattle However the vulgar Wits of this County much astonish strangers with the stock of poor People in these parts affirming that they have Five Hundred Cows and Nine Hundred Sheep which are indeed but five Cows and nine Sheep in these Hundreds The chief City of account is Colchester built by Coilus the Brittish Prince 124 Years after Christ wherein saith Monmouth the first Christian King Empress and Emperour in the World were born that is his Son Lucius Helena and Constantine of which thus the Poet sings From Colchester there rose a Star The Rays whereof gave glorious Light Throughout the World in Climates far Great Constantine Rome's Emperour bright The most famous place for antiquity in this County is Camolodunum now Maldon which was the Royal Seat of Cunobolin King of the Trinobantes as by the Money therein minted appeareth about the time of our Saviours Birth which City Claudius afterward won from the Brittains and therein placed a Colony of Soldiers In the East Promontory of this County in the Reign of Richard 2. the Teeth of a Giant were found if they were not of an Elephant of a very great size and not far thence in the Reign of Q. Elizabeth more bones as monstruous were digged up The Monks have recorded that a Pilgrim was sent by St. John Baptist to K. Edward the Confessor with a Ring upon which account his house in this County was called Hav-a-ring but the Clergy in those times made no Conscience to invent fictions daily for their own advantage There were bones digged up at Ness near Harwich in this County which with their bigness and length amazed the Beholders I cannot see saith Dr. Fuller how such can maintain them to be the bones of men who must confess that according to the Proportion of the Doors and Roofs of ancient Building which we have either seen or read of if they were so big and tall they must go into their Houses stooping not to say creeping along except those who affirm it be as careless of their credit as the Traveller was who affirming he saw Bees as big as Dogs and yet their Hives were of our ordinary size and being demanded what shift they made to get in Nay said he what know I let them look to that More probable it is that these were bones of Elephants store whereof were brought over into England by the Emperour Claudius To these wonders it will not be amiss to adu the ensuing relation written by Mr Tho. Smith of Sewarstone near Waltham Abby a discreet person lately deceased Toward the latter end of Q. Elizabeth saith he I served Sir Edward Donny who lived in the Abby of Waltham Cross in Essex which at that time lay in ruinous heaps and Sir Edward beginning to re-edifie it one Tomkins his Gardiner being employed therein among other things discovered a fair Marble Stone which was the cover of a Tomb of the same Stone this cover being removed there appeared the Anatomy of a man therein the Bones only remaining in due order and none of them out of place and no other dust or filth whatsoever remaining in tâ—e Tomb having well observed it I told the Spectators that if they did but touch any part thereof it would fall in sunder which being tried happened accordingly for my part I am persuaded that as the Flesh and Entrails of this Anatomy to us became in visible so would the bones likewise have been in some longer time O what is man then which vanisheth thus away like the Smoak or a vapour and is no more seen Whosoever thou art that shall read this passage thou mayst find sufficient cause of humility It is generally conceived that this was the body of King Harold This County hath no Cathedral and the Churches therein cannot challenge to themselves any eminent Commendation but for private houses Essex will own no Shire her superiour whereof Three are most remarkable 1. Audly end built by the E. of Suffolk which without compare was one of the best Subjects Houses in the Nation yet is the Structure better than the standing thereof as being somewhat low on the one side 2. Newhall built by the Ratcliffs Earls of Sussex which is extream pleasant for the shady approach thereunto and for the Parks round about it 3. Copthal highly seated on an hill in the midst of a Park built by the Abbot of Waltham enlarged by Sir Thomas Heneage and others herein is a Gallery as well furnished and more proportionable than any in England In November 1639. there happened an Hurricano or Whirl-wind which entring in at the great East Window blew that down and carried some part thereof with the Picture of the L. Coventry singled from many more which hung on both sides untouched all the length of the Gallery being about 56 Yards out of the West Window which it threw down to the ground some observed the like Wind in other places about the same time as
ominous and presaging our civil Dissentions There is a Proverb in this County He may fetch a Flitch of Bacon from Dunmow This Proverb dependeth on a custom practised in the Priory of Dunmow which was founded by Juga a noble Lady for black Nuns 1111. But it seems the property of it was after altered into a Male-Nunnery the Friars whereof were sometimes it appears very merry for they ordained That if any person from any part of England would come thither and humbly kneel on two stones yet to be seen at the Church door before the Convent and solemnly take the ensuing Oath he might demand a Gamon or Flitch of Bacon which should be freely given him You shall swear by the custom of our Confession That you never made any nuptial Transgression Since you were married Man and Wife By houshold Brawls or contentious Strife Or otherwise in Bed or at Board Offended each other in deed or Word Or since the Parish Clerk said Amen Wished your selves unmarried agen Or in a Twelve Month and a day Repented not in thought any way But continued true and in desire As when you join'd hands in Holy-Quire If to these conditions without all fear Of your own accord you will freely swear A Gamon of Bacon you shalt receive And carry it hence with love and free leave For this is our custom at Dunmow well known Though the sport be ours the Bacon's your own It appeareth in an old book on Record that Richard Wright of Badesworth in Norfolk in the 23. of Heâ— 6. when John Canon was Prior and that Stephen Samuel of Little Easton in Essex the 7th of Edward 4. and Thomas Lee of Coxhall in Essex the 2. of Hen. 8. took the aforesaid Oath demanded their Bacon on the premises and received it accordingly Randolph Peveril of Hatfield-Peveril in this County was in great esteem with K. Edward the Confessor who was very bountiful to him as having married the Daughter of Inglerick his Kinsman who was of great Nobility among the English Saxons this Lady was of such admirable beauty that she therewith conquered William the Conqueror who desired nothing more than to be a Prisoner in her Arms to obtain which he inriched St. Martins Le Grand in London first founded by her Father and her Uncle K. Edward he then preferred her two Brothers William Peveril to be Keeper of Dover Castle and Pain Peveril he made Baron of Bourn in Cambridgshire having thus preferred her Kindred he began to sollicite her by the Messengers of the Devils Bed-Chamber that is subtil insinuating Pimps and Bawds and sometimes he himself visited her like Jupiter in a golden shower by these forceable demonstrations of love and unavoidable allurements especially from a King she was at length brought to his unlawful Bed unto whom she bore a Son named William who was Lord of Nottingham but his Mother being afterward touched with remorse of Conscience to expiate her guilt was taught by the Doctrine of those times to found a Colledge in the Village of Harpsfield which she consecrated to the honour of God and St. Mary Magdalen wherein setting apart all worldly affairs she spent the remainder of her days and died about the year 1100. In the 17th of Henry 2. there was seen at St. Osythes in Essex a Dragon of wonderful bigness which wherever it moved burnt the Houses and places about it In the Reign of Hen. 3. the King commanded Hubert de Burg Earl of Kent to be apprehended who having notice thereof rose at midnight and fled into a Church in Essex the Officers found him upon his knees before the High Altar with the Popish Sacrament in one hand and a Cross in the other however they seized him and carried him away Prisoner to the Tower of London Roger Niger then Bishop made great complaint to the King of this violence and wrong done to Holy Church and would not be satisfied till the Earl was carried back to the same Church again though well guarded there however this it is thought saved the Earls life for the Kings anger cooled and he was soon after reconciled to him In the year 1510. in the Marshes of Dengey Hundred near South-Minster in this County there suddenly appeared an infinite number of Mice which over-run those Marshes tearing up the Grass by the roots and so poysoned it with their venemous Teeth that the Cattle which grazed thereon died but at length a great number of strange painted Owls came no man knew whence and devoured all the Mice it is reported that there happened the like in Essex in 1648. There were no less than forty four Persons who suffered Martyrdom for the Protestant Religion in this County among whom was William Hunter a young man of 19 years old born of religious Parents who instructed him in the Truth and sent him to be an Apprentice in London where refusing to go to Mass and receive the Sacrament he went home to his Parents at Burntwood and one day going into a Chappel there he found a Bible which while he was reading a Summoner came in and asked him whether he could expound the Scripture he answered He did only read it to his Comfort the Sumner replied It was never a merry world since the Bible came forth in English Hunter answered Say not so for Gods sake for it is Gods Book out of which every one ought to learn how to please God and therefore I pray God that we may have the Blessed Bible amongst us Ay said the Sumner I know your mind well enough you are one of those that do not like the Queens Laws but you and many more must turn over a new leaf or you will broil for it pray God give me grace said Hunter that I may believe his word and confess his name whatever comes of it Nay said the Sumner you confess the Devils name and will all go to him The Sumner then fetcht a Priest out of a blind Alehouse who finding Hunter reading reviled him for it and then asked him what he thought of the blessed Sacrament of the Altar whether there were not really Christs Body and Blood Hunter said He found no such thing in Scripture ah quoth the Vicar now I find you are an Heretick Hunter replyed Would you and I were both tyed to a Stake to try whether of us would stick closest to our Faith The Priest left him and informing against him he was seized and brought before Bishop Bonner who finding that he stood firm to his Principles caused his Officers to set him in the Stocks in his Gate-house where he lay 2 days and had nothing but a crust of brown bread and a cup of cold water after Imprisonment three quarters of a Year the Bp. condemned him and sent him to Burntwood to be burnt where his Father and Mother came to him beseeching God he might continue constant to the end His Mother added she was happy in bearing such a Child who could find in his heart
Glocestershire in some places the waters rose three foot in others 5 and 7 and in some Towns and Villages they rose higher than the tops of the Houses so that notwithstanding whatever course could be taken there were 80 Persons drowned besides much Cattle divers Churches and several Parishes overwhelmed thereby it did likewise a great deal of harm in Wales the damages being reckoned above 20 thousand pound In the year 755 Kenwulf King of the West Saxons giving himself up to all manner of Vice and Debauchery coming to Merton in this County to visit a Wench that he kept was there slain and buried at Winchester About the year 1020. Godwin the subtle Earl of Kent cast a covetous eye on the fair Nunnery of Berkly in Glocestershire and thus contrived it for himself he left there a handsome young man as seemingly sick for their Charity to recover the Abbess was a fair and noble Lady Godwin seeking not her but hers gives the young man charge so long to counterfeit till he had debauched the Abbess and as many of the Nuns besides as he could intice to his pleasure and left him withal Rings Jewels Girdles and such toys to give them still when they came to visit him the young man willing to undergo such a task so plaid his part that in a short time he got up most of their Bellies and when he had done told his Lord how he had sped the Earl goes instantly to Court tells the King that such a Nunnery was become a Bawdy House procures a Visitation gets them turned out and begs the Land for his own use At another time this Godwin had a mind to another rich Mannor in Sussex called Boscham and complemented it out of Robert Archbishop of Canterbury in this manner coming to the Archbishop he said Da mihi Basium that is Give me a buss or kiss an usual favour from such a Prelate the Archbishop answers Do tibi Basium I give thee a kiss and therewith kissed him upon which Godwin presently goes to Bascham and takes possession thereof and though here was neither any real intention in him that passed it away nor valuable consideration to him but a meer circumvention yet such was Godwins power and the Archbishops poorness of Spirit that he quietly enjoyed it these rich and ancient Mannors of Berkly and Boscham though distant ten miles asunder are both now met in the Right Honourable George Earl of Berkly as Heir Apparent thereof his Ancestors being long since possessed of them In the Reign of K. Edward 1. the Monastery of Glocester was burnt down to the ground In King Henry 8. time James Bainham Son to Sir Alexander Bainham of this County was burnt for professing the Gospel he was bred in Learning and had knowledge of the Greek and Latin Tongues of a virtuous disposition and Religious Conversation much addicted to Prayer and a diligent Reader of the Holy Scriptures he applied himself to the study of the Law wherein he was very merciful to his Clients ready to give Council to Widdows Fatherless and Afflicted without mony or reward at last he was suspected and complained of to Sir Tho. More then Lord Chancellor and being brought to his House at Chelsey Sir Thomas laboured with frowns and flatteries to withdraw him from the truth which not prevailing he caused him to be tied to a Tree in his Garden called by him the The Tree of Truth and then most cruelly scourged him to make him renounce his opinion this not succeeding Sir Thomas himself saw him cruelly racked in the Tower till he was lamed because he would not accuse some of his acquaintance nor discover where his Books lay then was his Wife Imprisoned and his Goods confiscated yet at last he was persuaded to abjure and solemnly carried a Torch and a Faggot in St. Pauls Church but hereby he rather exchanged than escaped fire feeling such a fire in his own Conscience that he could not be quiet till he had asked God and all the world forgiveness which he did 1st in the Protestant Congregation who met privately in a Ware-house in Bow-lane the next Lords day he went to St. Austins the next Parish Church to St. Pauls that the Antidote might be brought as near as he could conveniently to the place of his poyson where standing up in a Pew with an English New Testament in his hand he declared openly before all the People with abundance of Tears That he had denied God and prayed all the Congregation to believe him and to be warned by his fall not to do the like for said he if I should not return again to the Truth this Word of God holding up his New Testament would damn me both body and soul in the day of Judgement and therefore he intreated them all rather to dye presently than to do as he had done for he would not feel such an hell in his Conscience again for all the World After this he was soon apprehended again and cruelly handled by the Bishop of London putting him in the Stocks and whipping him barbarously for a fortnight together to force him again to recant but all in vain so that he was condemned to be burnt and being in the midst of the Flames which had half consumed his Arms and Legs he spake these words O ye Papists behold you look for Miracles and here now you may see a Miracle for in this Fire I feel no more pain than if I were in a bed of Down but it is to me as a bed of Roses There was in this County one William Dangerfield who with his Wife was imprisoned for the Protestant Faith and was so cruelly used by the Bishop that his legs were almost eaten off with the Irons after a while the Bishop sent for him and told him his Wife had recanted who was as well learned as he and therefore persuaded him to sign a Recantation which they brought having signed it they let him go to his Wife and shewing his Recantation her heart was ready to break crying out Alas Husband thus long we have continued one and hath Satan now so far prevailed with you as to cause you to break your Vow which you made to God in Baptism This so far prevailed with him that he repented of his Apostacy and not long after through the extream cruelty used to them they both dyed in Prison In 1575. Feb. 16. between 4 and 5 in the afternoon great Earthquakes happened in Glocester Worcester Hereford York Bristow and the parts adjacent which caused the People to run out of their Houses for fear they should have fallen on their heads in Tewksbury Bredon and other places the dishes fell off the shelves and books in mens studies fell down before them in Norton Chappel the People being at Prayers and feeling the ground move ran out for fear it should have fallen on their heads part of Rithing Castle fell down and likewise divers brick Chimnies in several Gentlemens Houses In
Berkâ—y Castle where he was courteously received by Thomas Berkly Lord thereof who was allowed a 100 shillings a day for keeping him close Prisoner But Q. Isabel being much troubled that her Husband lived consults again with the wicked Bishop of Hereford pretending that she was much troubled with frightful dreams which presignified that if her Husband should be again restored to his dignity he would burn her for a Traitor or send her into perpetual banishment the Bishop and several other great Men both of the Nobility and Clergy finding themselves likewise equally guilty became uneasy while the King lived and therefore sent chiding Letters to the Keepers pretending they gave the King too much liberty and kept him too high and delicately and withal added this line at the end of the Letter contrived by the Bishop Edwardum occidere nolite timere bonum est To shed King Edwards blood Refuse to fear I count it good Never was the fallacy of pointings or ambiguity of Phrase more mischievously used to the destruction of a King or for the defence of the Contrivers than in this hainous Parricide for it was so craftily contrived in a double sense that both the Keepers might find sufficient warrant and himself might find sufficient excuse the Keepers guessing at the meaning took it in the worst sense and therefore putring the L. Berkly out of the Castle they shut up the King in a close Chamber where with the stinch of dead Carkases laid in the Cellar under him he was almost poysoned of which he made complaint to some Carpenters who worked at his Chamber-window but these wretches perceiving this would not do the work they rushed one night into his Chamber and casting as many heavy bolsters upon him as 15 men could carry they pressed them down hard and not content with that heated an Iron red hot and through a Pipe like a Trumpet thrust it up into his body that no marks of a violent death might be seen but however they were heard for when they were thus doubly murdering him he was heard to roar and cry all the Castle over Gourney and Martravers his Murtherers expecting rewards had the reward of Murtherers for the Queen and Bishop Torlton disavowing the Command threatned to question them for the Kings death whereupon they fled beyond Sea and Gourney after three years being taken in France and sent into England was in the way upon the Sea beheaded Martravers flying into Germany had the grace to repent but lived ever after miserably thus died this unfortunate Prince in 1327 about half a year after his deposing never certainly was any King turned out of a Kingdom in such a manner many Kingdoms have been lost by the chance of War but this was lost before the Dice were cast no blow struck no battle fought done forceably and yet without force violently and yet with consent both parties agreed yet neither pleased for the King was not pleased to leave his Kingdom and the Queen was not pleased to leave him his life though he often declared in his Captivity That nothing grieved him so much as that tâ— Queen his Wife would never be persuaded to come and see him and swore very devoutly That from the first time he saw he face he could never like of any other Woman by which it appears that neither Gaveston nor the Spencers his wicked Favourites had so far debauched him as to make him false to his Bed or disloyal to his Queen but she was hardened against him thinking it not safe to leave him a part by which he might afterward recover the whole which was the chief occasion of his coming to this miserable end The County of Glocester is divided into 30 Hundreds wherein are 26 Market Towns 208 Parish Churches and is in the Diocess of Glocester out of it are elected 8 Parliament Men. For the County 2 for the City of Glocester 2 Tewksbury 2 Cirencester 2. HANTSHIRE hath Berkshire on the North Surry and Sussex on the East the Sea on the South Dorset and Wiltshire on the West from North to South it is 54 miles and from East to West 30. It is fruitful in Corn plenteous in pasture and for all advantages of the Sea wealthy and happy Wools Cloths and Iron are the general Commodities of this County Winchester is a City which flourished in the time of the Romans and now indifferently peopled and frequented by water it is about a mile and an half in Circuit within the walls which open at 6 Gates and is adorned with magnificent Churches and a Bishops See Dr. Heylin tells us That one of the Principal Orders of Knighthood is that of the round Table instituted by Arthur King of the Brittains and one of the worlds 9 worthies It consisted of 150 Knights whose names are recorded in the History of King Arthur the principal of them were Sir Lancelot Sir Tristram Sir Lamarock Sir Gawin c. all placed at one round Table to avoid quarrels about Priority and Place The round Table hanging in the great Hall of Winchester is falsly called Arthur's round Table it being not of sufficient Antiquity nor containing but 24 Seats In the Year 959. Edgar the Saxon King hearing the Daughter of a Western Duke exceedingly praised for her Beauty he was so inflamed therewith that he presently made a journey into those parts and coming to Andover in this County he commanded the Virgin to be brought to his Bed the Mother being tender of her Daughters honour brought her Maid in the dark to the King who pleased him as well in his lascivious dalliance the morning approaching this late Maid made haste to rise but the King being loth to part so soon with his supposed fair Lady asked her why she made such haste she told him she had a great deal of work to do and that her Lady would be very angry if she did not rise and dispatch it but being kept longer than her time she upon her knees did beseech the King to free her from her angry Mistriss alledging That she who had been imbraced by the King ought not to serve any other The King hereby perceiving the deceit was very angry yet since he could not recall what was past after having severely reproved the deceitful Lady he turned it into a jest but the Girl it seems pleased him so well that he took her for his Concubine whereby she ruled over them who lately commanded her and loved her entirely keeping to her alone till he was married to the fair Elfreda before mentioned This King likewise debauched a Nun named Wolfchild on whom he begat Edith afterward accounted a Saint He committed the like folly with Ethelfleda Duke Ordmars Daughter who for her extraordinary beauty was called The White on whom he begot his eldest Son Edward for which Mr. Fox affirmeth he did 7 Years Penance enjoyned him by St. Dunstan This Edward succeeded him in the Kingdom at 12 Years old the beginning of whose Reign
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
That her being a Widdow might be sufficient to restrain him to whom the King replied Whereas you say Madam that she is a Widdow and hath already Children by Gods blessed Lady I am a Batchellor and have some too and so each of us have a proof that none of us is like to be barren and he accordingly married her being the first of our Kings since the Conquest that married his own Subject yet was his love divided among three other of his Mistresses of whom he was wont to say The one was the fairest the other the merriest and the third the Holiest Harlot in England as being alwaies at her Beads in the Chappel when he sent for her to his Bed His Queen lived to see the death of her Husband murther of her two Sons restraint of her self and the rest of her Children so that she had more greatness than joy height than happiness by Marriage she finished Queens Colledge in Cambridge and died not long after At Fotheringay Castle in this County was acted the Tragedy of Mary Q. of Scots Mother to K. James in the 29 year of Q. Elizabeth 1587. This Mary was the Daughter and only lawfully begotten Child of James 5. and succeeded in her Cradle to the Throne she was promised in Marriage to King Edw. 6. of England but by the power of the Hamiltons carried into France and there married to Francis 2. King of France about which time Reformation in Religion began to be practised in Scotland as well as England for at the Preaching of John Knox and some other Ministers Images Altars and such things were defaced and it was further put into the heads of the Nobility That it pertained to them of their own Authority to take away Idolatry and by force reduce the Prince to the prescript of Laws whereupon there was presently bandying of the Lords of Scotland against the Queen Dowager and each of them sent for Aid she from France and the Lords from England but this was matter for Consultation it seemed a bad example for a Prince to give Aid to the Rebellious Subjects of another Prince on the other side it seemed no less than Impiety not to give Aid to Protestants of the same Religion but most of all it seemed meer madness to suffer enemies to be so near Neighbours and let the French nestle in Scotland who pretend Title to England upon such considerations it was resolved Queen Elizabeth should send them Aid and thereupon an Army of 6000 Foot and 1200 Horse were sent under the Duke of Norfolk and others who going into Scotland joined with the Lords where passed many light Skirmishes many Batteries and sometimes Assaults which growing tedious soon after ended in a Peace between France and England upon condition That neither the King of France nor the Queen of Scotland should thence forth use the Arms or Titles of England or Ireland and that both the English and French should depart out of Scotland and a general pardon should pass in Parliament for all that had been Actors in those Stirs The Peace was scarce concluded when Francis the young K. of France died and left Mary Qu. of Scots a Widdow soon after the House of Commons in Parliament humbly moved Queen Elizabeth to Marry who answered That she was already Married to the Kingdom of England and behold saith she the pledge of the Covenant with my Husband and therewith held out her Finger and shewed the Ring wherewith at her Coronation she gave her self in Wedlock to the Kingdom and if said she I keep my self to this Husband and take no other yet I doubt not but God will send you as good Kings as if they were born of me for as much as we see by dayly experience that the issue of the best Princes do often degenerate and for my self it will be sufficient that a Marble Stone declare that a Queen having reigned such a time lived and dyed a Virgin She had indeed many matches propounded to her to whom she gave Testimonies of her Princely favour but never pledges of nuptial Love about this time the Earl of Feria who had Married the Daughter of Sir William Dormer being denied leave of Queen Elizabeth for some of his Wives Friends to live in England he grew so inraged that he persuaded Pope Pius 4. to Excommunicate her as an Heretick and Usurper but the Pope pretending to great gentleness writ to her lovingly To return to the Vnity of the Catholick Church and made great offers if she would hearken to his Counsel particularly That he would recall the Sentence against her Mothers Marriage confirm the Book of Common-Prayer in English and permit the use of the Sacrament in both kinds but the Queen neither terrified with Feria's practices nor allured with the Popes great offers according to her Motto Semper eadem always the same persisted constant in her resolution to maintain that Religion which in her Conscience she was persuaded to be most agreeable to the Word of God and the practice of the Primitive Church Queen Mary after the death of her Husband went from France to Scotland and then sent Letters to Q. Elizabeth offering readily to enter into a League with her so she might by Authority of Parliament be declared her Successor which was but her Right to which Q. Elizabeth answered That though she would no way derogate from her Right yet she should be loth to endanger her own security and as it were to cover her own eyes with a grave cloth while she was alive The two Queens were indeed both of great Spirits Mary doubting Queen Elizabeth meant to frustrate her Succession and Elizabeth lest the Queen of Scots meant to hinder her Succession which created Jealousies and many unkind passages between them as by the sequel appears The Queen of Scots having a desire to Marry again Queen Elizabeth proposed the Earl of Leicester to her but she Married the Lord Darnly Son to the Earl of Lenox and thereupon the next Parliament again move Queen Elizabeth to marry to declare her Successor to the Crown some of them boldly arguing That Princes were bound to design a Successor and that in not doing it the Queen would shew her self no better than a Parricide and destroyer of her Country The Queen was contented to bear with words spoken in Parliament which out of it she would never have endured and commanded 30 of each House to appear before her to whom she said That she knew what danger hangeth over a Princes head when a Successor is once declared she knew that even Children themselves out of a hasty desire of bearing Rule had taken up Arms against their own Father and how could better be expected from Kindred And therefore though she had given them leave to debate the matter of Succession she bid them beware not to be injurious to their Princes patience After which they never made any further motion to her but now the love between the Queen of
brought For with a wile and subtil Trick death on his body wrought Since she her stroke to kill outright would not to him vouchsafe So he poor Man a piteous case was buried quick in grave In the 12th of K. Edward 3. 1339. a sudden inundation of water happened at Newcastle upon Tyne which brake down a piece of the Town wall of six perches in length and near a place called Walkenew 120 Men and Women were drowned In the reign of K. Hen. 4. 1402. Patrick Hepburn a Scottish-man with a considerable Army invaded Northumberland making great spoil and loading his Soldiers with prey and Prisoners but in his retreat marching carelesly and licentiously he was set upon by the Earl of Northumberland himself and all the flower of his Army slain and a multitude of common Soldiers taken Prisoners in revenge whereof Archibald Dowglas with an Army of 20000 entred Northumberland but in a place called Hamilden were encountred by the English under the Command of Henry L. Peircy Sirnamed Hotspur and George E of March who put them to flight and after the slaughter of 10000 of them took 500 Prisoners In 1657. Machal Vivan Minister of Lesbury in Northumberland being then 110 years old and who for 40 years before could not read without Spectacles yet then his sight was so renewed that he could read the smallest print without the help of Spectacles and whereas he had lost most of his Teeth yet now new ones came in their room and having been long bald his hair came again like the hair of a Child he was also before very weak and feeble but now his strength so much increased that he was able to walk some miles to study much and to preach twice every Lords Day This is a most certain and undoubted truth which he himself confirmed under his hand to a Citizen of London who sent him a Letter on purpose to receive satisfaction The County of Northumberland is divided into six Wards wherein are 6 Market Towns 460 Parishes and is in the Diocess of Durham It elects 8 Parliament Men and for many Ages gave the Title of Earls to the Family of the Peircies which being extinct in the male line George Fitz-Roy third Son to the Dutchess of Cleaveland is now Earl of Northumberland OXFORDSHIRE hath Barkshire on the South Glocestershire on the West Buckinghamshire on the East Warwick and Northampton shires on the North The Blessings both of the sweet breathing Heavens and the fruitful soil of this County are so happy and delicious that it is difficult to determine which of them exceeds it takes its name from that City which hath long been the glorious Seat of the Muses the English Athens It is said this place was consecrated to the sacred Sciences in the time of the old Brittains and that the Academy was translated from Greeklad a Town in Wiltshîre to Oxford as more pleasant and beautiful both in respect of private Houses and publick Buildings Matthew Paris calls it the second School of Christendom and the chief Pillar of the Catholick Church and in the Council of Vienna it was ordained that in Paris Oxford Bononia and Salamanca Schools should be erected for the Hebrew Greek Arabick and Chaldean Tongues and that Oxford should be the general University for all England Ireland Scotland Wales soon after it so flourished that in the Reign of K. Henry 3. 30000 Students were therein resident There are at present seventeen Colledges seven Halls and many fair Collegiate Churches therein all adorned with stately Buildings and enriched with great endowments noble Libraries and most learned Graduats of all Professions but the famous Library is that founded by Sir Thomas Bodley formerly a Fellow of Mâ—â—ton Colledge who began to furnish it with Desks and Books about 1598. before which King Henry 8. was a good Benefactor thereto who imployed Persons into divers parts of the world to collect Books and from Constantinople by reason of the Patriarch thereof he received a Ship laden with Arabick and Greek Books Afterward it met with the liberality of divers of the Nobility Prelacy and Gentry William Earl of Pembroke procured a great number of Greek Manuscripts out of Italy and gave them thereto William Laud A. B. of Canterbury bestowed 1300 choice Manuscripts upon it most of them in the Oriental Tongues at last to compleat this stately and plentiful mansion of the Muses there was an accession to it of above 8000 Books being the Library of that most learned Antiquary Mr. John Selden By the bounty of these noble Benefactors and many others it is improved in such a manner that it is a question whether it be exceeded by any other Library in the world To this may be added the most Noble Theatre lately erected by Dr. Gilbert Sheldon late A. B. of Canterbury which is a building of as excellent Workmanship and curious painting and contrivance as any in Europe In the year 1036. Canutus the famous Danish King dyed and Hardiknute his Son by Queen Emma being then in Denmark Harold his elder but Bastard Brother stept into the Throne for the Nobility meeting at Oxford the presence of the one out-weighed the absence of the other so that they unanimously proclaimed him to be their King he was soon after solemnly Crowned at Oxford by Elnothus A. B. of Canterbury though for some time he seemed unwilling to perform that service for it is reported that he having the Regal Crown and Scepter in his possession he swore he would not consecrate any other for King so long as any of Q. Emma's Children were living For said he Canutus committed them to my Trust and Protection and to them will I give my Faith and Allegiance this Scepter and Crown therefore I here lay down upon this Altar neither do I deny nor deliver them to you but by Apostolick authority I require all Bishops that none of them presume to take the same away neither therewith to consecrate you for King as for your self you may if you dare usurp that which I have committed to God on this his Table But notwithstanding these thundring words were soon allayed with golden showers of Promises of his future just and religious Government though they were soon forgot but he did not long enjoy his Usurpation dying 4 years after and was buried at Oxford In 1258. a Parliament was called at Oxford to reconcile the differences between K. Hen. 3. and his Barons where the Lords and Bishops propounded several Articles to the King as That he should faithfully keep and observe the Charter of Liberties which he had so often sworn to That none should be Judges but those who would judge according to right without respect to poor or rich c. Then they again renewed their Confederacy solemnly swearing That neither for life nor death nor love nor hate they would not be drawn to relent in their purpose till they had cleared England in which themselves and their Forefathers were born from
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
thing descend save a stone or some metalline substance And that the Meer Llynsavathan within two Miles of Brecknock was once a fair City till swallowed up by an Earthquake which is not improbable because all the high ways of this Shire do lead thither and Ptolomy speaks of a City called Loventrium hereabout which is not now to be found they say likewise that at the end of Winter when after a long frost the Ice of this Lake breaks it makes a fearful noise like Thunder Giraldus Cambrensis reporteth there is a Fountain in Carmarthenshire which conformable to the Sea Ebbs and Flows twice in 24 hours There are in this County strange Vaults under ground supposed to be the Castles of People who were conquered in the Wars Dr. Ferrar was Bishop of St. Davids in K. Edward 6. time but in the Reign of Queen Mary he was sent for and examined about his Faith by the Bishop of Winchester who told him that the Queen and Parliament had altered Religion and therefore required him to embrace the same to which he answered That he had taken an Oath never to consent or agree that the Bishop of Rome should have any Jurisdiction in this Realm The Bishop of Winchester called him froward Fellow and false Knave and so returned him to Prison again He was afterward examined before Henry Morgan pretended Bishop of St. Davids who requiring him to subscribe to several Articles he refused it or to recant any thing whereupon he read the Sentence of Condemnation against him then he was degraded and deliver'd to the secular Power by whom he was carried to Caermarthen there to be burned a little before his Execution there came one to him who much lamented the painfulness of his Death to whom Dr Ferrar answered That if he saw him once stir or move in the pains of his burning he should then give no credit to the Doctrine he had taught and he was as good as his word standing so patiently in the midst of the Flames that he never moved holding up his stumps till one with a staff dashed him on the head whereby he fell down and quietly resigned his Spirit to God There was at Bangor in Carnavanshire a great Monastery in which were many religious Monks who lived by the sweat of their Brows and the labour of their hands far unlike the Monks since Out of this Monastery the Monks went to Westchester to pray for the good success of their friends against the Heathen Saxons continuing 3 days in fasting and Prayer Elfride the Saxon King seeing them so fervent in their Prayers asked what kind of men they were and being told that they prayed for their Enemies then said he Though they carry no weapons yet they fight against us and with their Prayers and Preaching prosecute us therefore after he had overcome the Brittains he commanded his Souldiers to fall upon the unarmed Monks of whom he murthered 1100 only 50 of them escaping But God left not their death long unrevenged for this cruel King was soon after killed in the field by the Christian Edwin who succeeded him in the Kingdom It is said that there is a Lake in Snowden-Hills in this County which hath a floating Island therein but it seems it swims away from the sight of those who endeavour to discover it they tell also of Fishes found here which have but one Eye which yet men with two Eyes could never behold The highest hill in Denbyshire called Moilenly hath a Spring of clear Water on the Top In 1660. a very great well near Chirk Town in this County was dried up In Flintshire is that excellent Well called St. Winifrids Well or Holy well so famous for cure of Aches and Lameness When K. Richard 2. came to Flint castle being there received by Henry Duke of Lancaster as he was going from thence they let loose a Greyhound of the Kings as was usual whenever the King got on Horseback which Greyhound used to leap upon the Kings Shoulders and fawn very much upon him but at this time he leaped upon the Duke of Lancaster and fawned upon him in the same manner as he used to do on his Master the Duke asked the King what the Dog meant or intended It is an ill and unhappy O men to me said the King but a fortunate one to you for he acknowledges thee to be King and that thou shalt reign in my stead This he said with a presaging mind upon a light occasion which yet in short time came to pass It is reported that in an Island in Glamorganshire there appeareth a Chink in a Rock or Cliff to which if you lay your Ear you may easily hear a noise like Smiths at work one while blowing of the Bellows another while striking of the Hammer the grinding of Iron Tools the hissing of Steel Gads yea the puffing noise of a Fire in a Furnace There is also at Newton on the Bank of the River Ogmore in this Shire a Well where at full Sea in the Summer you can scarce get a dishful of Water whereas at the Ebb you may easily get a pail-full On the top of a hill called Mynd-Morgan is a Monument with a strange character which the Inhabitants thereabout say if any man read the same he will dye shortly after whereby I suppose they mean that it is impossible to be read There is a Lake in Merionethshire near Bala containing near 160 Acres of ground into which the River Dee runs and goes through it without mixing their Waters This Pemble-Meer doth not swell with all the Waters and Land-floods which fall from the Mountains unto it but a small blast of Wind will make it mount above its bounds and Banks I know not whether it be worth relating what is known for a truth of a Market Town called Dogelthy in this Shire 1. That the Walls thereof are 3 miles high that is The Mountains that surround it 2 That men come into it over the water but go out of it under the water because they go in over a fair Bridge but the water falling from a Rock is conveyed in a wooden Trough under which Travellers must make shift to pass 3. The Steeple thereof doth grow therein since the Bells if they have more than one hang in an Yew-tree 4. There are more Ale-Houses than Houses for Tenements are divided into 2 or 3 Tipling-Houses and Barns without Chimneys are used to that purpose In the Year 1661. Dec. 20. about Sunsetting the Inhabitants of Weston in Montgomeryshire discovered a great number of Horsemen about 400 paces from them marching two a Breast in Military order upon the Common and were half an hour before the Reer came up seeming to be about 500 in all the spectators were amazed thinking them to be an Army of Roundheads going to release the Prisoners at Montgomery there being at that time several Ministers and Gentlemen in Prison and therefore several of them went to the top of the next
the Learned about the generation of these Geese some holding that they were bred of the leaves of the Barnacle Tree falling into the Wayters others that they are bred of moist rotten wood lying in the Waters but it is since found that they come of an Egg and are hatched like all other Geese There is a water in this Country called Merton Lake part of whose Waters are frozen in Winter and part not In the Lake of Lennox being 24 miles in compass the Fish are generally without Finns and yet there is great abundance of them It is said that when there is no wind stirring the waters of this Lake are so Tempestuous that no Marener dares venture on it They write also of a deaf stone 12 foot high and 33 foot thick of this rare quality that a Musket shot off the one side cannot be heard by a man standing on the other these wonders are reported by Hector Boetius and if not true let him bear the blame Near Falkirk remain the ruines and marks of a Town swallowed up by an Earthquake and the void place is filled with water saith Lithgow The Lough Lâ—mond turneth sticks into stones in which are several Islands and one of them which is full of Grass Rushes and Reeds swims about the Lake near a place called Dysert in Fife by the Sea side is a Heath where there is great plenty of earthly Bitumen In the Country of Argile at this day saith Cambden are Kine and red Deer ranging wild upon the Hills Between the Coast of Cathness and Orkney is a dreadful Frith or Gulf in the North end of which by reason of the meeting of 9 contrary Tides or Currents is a Male stream or great Whirlpool which whirleth continually about and if any Ship Boat or Bark come within the reach thereof they must quickly throw over something into it as a Barrel a piece of Timber or the like or else the Vessel will inevitably be swallowed up which the Cathness and Orkney Mareners know very well and observe it as a constant custom to redeem themselves that way from danger Toward the North of Scotland saith Speed there be Mountains all of Alabaster and some all of Marble At the mouth of the River Frâ—th in the main Sea is a very high Rock out of whose top a spring of water runs abundantly The Snow lies all the year upon the Hills in Ross A large piece of Amber saith Cambden as big as a Horse was found not long since upon the Coast of Buquan in which County they say Rats are never seen and if any be brought thither they will not live It is credibly reported saith Ortelius that there is a Stone found in Argile which if covered a while with Straw or Flax it will set it on fire The Snow lies all the year long upon the Hills in Ross It is recorded that Sergius K. of Scots was so addicted to Harlots that he neglected his own Wife and drove her to such poverty that she was forced to wait upon another Noblewoman for her living whereupon watching her opportunity she slew her Husband in Bed and her self after The Castle of Edenburgh was built by Cruthenus King of the Picts and called Maiden Castle because the Daughters of the Pictish Kings were there kept working with their Needles till they were married Ethus King of Scots was almost as swift in running as a Stag or Greyhound and therefore called Wing-footed but utterly unfit for Government being cowardly and a slave to Pleasure In the time when the Barbarous and bloody Danes raged in England they came to Coldingham a Nunnery on the hither part of Scotland where Ebba the Prioress with the rest of the Nuns cut off their own Noses and Lips chusing rather to preserve their Virginities from the Danes than their beauty or favour whereupon these cruel Heathens burnt their Monastery and all of them therein Malcolm King of Scots was a very magnificent and couragious Prince in 1067. of which he gave proof in the beginning of his Reign for being informed of a Conspiracy against his life he dissembled the knowing of it till being abroad one day a hunting he took one of the chief Conspirators aside challenged him as a Traitor adding Here now is a fit place to do that manfully which you intended to perform by Treachery now if you have any valour kill me honourably and none being present you can incur no danger With this Speech of the King the man was so daunted that he fell at his Feet confessed his fault asked forgiveness and proved ever after Faithful and Loyal This King repealed that barbarous Statute of K. Eugenius 3 by the persuasion of his Virtuous Lady Margret Sister to K. Edward Atheling which ordained That when a man was married his Lord should lye with his Bride the first night He allowing it to be redeemed with half a Mark of Silver which sum is to this day put into the Leases which the Lords make to their Vassals this King besieging Aldwich Castle an English Knight unarmed only with a light Spear in his hand on the end of which he carried the Keys of the Castle came riding into the Camp where being brought to the King and bowing his Spear as though he intended to present him with the Keys ran him into the left Eye and left him for dead and by the swiftness of his Horse escaped hence some say came the great Family of the Pierceys His Queen hearing of her Husband and Sons death beseeched the Almighty that she might not survive them and had her desire dying within a days after In 1137. Kentigern was Bishop of Glasgow a man of rare Piety and exceeding bountiful to the poor It is recorded that an Honourable Lady having lost a Ring which her Husband gave her as she crossed the River Clayd her Husband grow Jealous as if she had bestowed it on one of her Lovers upon which she went to Kentigern intreating his help for the safety of her honour who after he had used his Devotionâ— went to the River and spoke to one who was fishing to bring him the first Fish he caught which he doing the Ring was found in the Fishes Mouth and the Bishop sent it to the Lady who was thereby freed of her Husbands Jealousy This good Bishop saith A. B. Spotswood lived till he was 185 years old In 1550. The Persecution waxing hot in Scotland against the Protestants many Prodigious signs were observed saith A. B. Spotswood a Comet like a fiery broom or besom flamed the whole months of November December and January great Rivers in the midst of Winter were dryed up and in Summer swelled so high that divers Villages were therewith drowned and numbers of Cattle feeding in the low grounds were carried into the Sea Whales of an huge bigness were cast up in divers parts of the River Forth Hailstones as big as Pigeons Eggs fell in many places which destroyed abundance of Corn And which was
been told by some Wizards That he should never prosper after he had met a thing called Rugemont but it seems either the Devil or his Oracle spoke low or lisping being desirous to hide his Folly or Ignorance or that K. Richard having a guilty Conscience which is soon frighted mistook him seeing not Rugemont but Richmond the Title of K. Henry 7. was the utter Destruction of this Usurper In the Reign of K. Edw. 4. Sir John Hawksford one of the Lord Chief Justices living at Annory in this County a man of great a Estate and without Children fell into a deep Melancholy and one day calling to him the Keeper of his Park charged him with negligence in suffering his Deer to be stoln and thereupon commanded him That if he met with any one in his Night-walk that would not stand or speak he should not fail to kill him whosoever he were Having thus provided and intending to end his doleful Days he in a dark night conveyed himself secretly out of his house and walked alone in his Park the Keeper in his Circuit hearing one stirring and coming toward him asked who was there but no answer being made he commanded him to stand which when he would not do the Keeper shot him dead and coming to see who it was found it to be his Master In 1588. Twiford was burnt down occasioned by burning straw in a Chimney which fired the House and so the Town about one Afternoon the fury whereof was so great that in an hour and an half it consumed 400 Houses to the loss of an Hundred and fifty thousand pounds in Money Plate Merchandise Houshold-stuff and Houses Fifty persons Men Women and Children were consumed therein yet through Divine Providence an Almshouse with several poor people therein was preserved almost in the midst of the flames In the Year 1638. Oct. 21. being Sunday in the Parish Church of Withy Comb during Sermon time there happened a very great darkness which still increased so that they could not see to read soon after a terrible and fearful Thunder was heard like the noise of many great Guns accompanied with dreadful Lightning to the great amazement of the People the Darkness still increasing that they could not see each other when there presently came such an extraordinary flame of Lightning as filled the Church with Fire smoak and a loathsome smell like Brimstone a Ball of fire came in likewise at the Window and passed through the Church which so affrighted the Congregation that most of them fell down in their Seats some upon their knees others on their faces and some one upon another crying out of burning and scalding and all giving up themselves for dead Mr. George Lyde Minister of the Parish was in his Pulpit and though much astonished yet through Divine Mercy had no harm but was a sad spectator of the hurt and sufferings of others the Lightning seizing on his Wife and burning her Cloaths and many parts of her Body and another Gentlewoman by her in the same manner but her Maid and Child sitting at the Pue door had no hurt another Woman attempting to run out of the Church had her Cloaths set on fire and was miserably scorched and burnt and her Flesh torn off her back almost to the very bones another Woman had her flesh so torn and her Body so terribly burnt that she died the same Night One Master Hill had his head suddenly struck against the Wall in his seat with such violence that he dyed the same night no other hurt being observed his Son sitting by him received no hurt at the same Instance another man had his Head cloven his Skull rent into 3 pieces and his Brains thrown upon the ground whole the Hair of his Head through the violence of the blow stuck fast to a Pillar near him some Seats in the Body of the Church were turned upside down yet those which sate in them had little or no hurt One man going out of the Chancel door his Dog ran before him who was whirled about toward the door and fell down stark dead upon which the Master stepped back and was preserved The Church itself was much torn and defaced with the Thunder and Lightning a Beam whereof breaking in the midst fell down between the Minister and Clark and hurt neither the Steeple was much rent and it was observed where the Church was most rent there the least hurt was done among the People there were none hurt with the Timber or Stones but one Maid who it was judged was killed by the falling of a Stone which might easily happen since Stones were thrown down from the Steeple as fast as if it had been by an 100 Men A Pinnacle of the Tower being thrown down beat through into the Church The Pillar against which the Pulpit stood being newly whited was turned black and sulphury there were in all 3 persons killed and 62 hurt divers of them having their Linnen burnt though their outward Garments were not so much as singed The Lightning being past and the People in a terrible Maze a Gentleman in the Town stood up and said Neighbours in the name of God shall we venture out of the Church To whom the Minister answered Let us make an end with Prayer for it is better to dye here than in another place But the People looking about them and seeing the Church so terribly rent and torn over their heads durst not proceed in the publick Devotions but went out of the Church At the same time there were strange accidents else where for a bowling Ally near the Church-yard was turned into Pits and Heaps as if plowed And at Brixton near Plimouth at that time fell Hailstones as big as an ordinary Turkey-Egg some of 5 6 and 7 Ounces weight And it was discoursed that the like Judgment happened at Norton in Somersetshire the truth of these things was attested by the Minister and diverse Inhabitants present This County is divided into 33 Hundreds wherein are 32 Market Towns and 394 Parish Churches Out of it are elected 26 Parliament Men it is in the Diocess of Exeter and gives the Title of Earl to William L. Cavendish as Exeter doth to John L. Cecil DORSETSHIRE hath Devonshire on the West Somerset and Wiltshire on the North Hantshire on the East and the narrow Seas on the South It abounds in Wheat Cattle Wool Kersies and all other commodities necessary for the Life of Man Dorchester is the chief Market Town which was formerly walled whereof some part yet standeth especially upon the west and South sides the Tract or Trench whereof in the manner of a Quadrant contains 1700 paces but was destroyed by the Danes Other places are memorable for the Actions happening therein though nothing now but Ruines as Badbury now a Trench and decayed Castle only though sometimes the Court of the West-Saxon Kings such also is Cerne where Austin the Monk broke down the Altars and Idols of the Saxon God
Hell whom they devoutly worshipped as the preserver of their health Shaftsbury likewise wherein one Aquila either Man or Eagle is reported to have prophecied of future times In this City Edward son of Edgar who was murdered at Corf-Castle by his Step-Mother to make way for her own Son was buried In the Reign of K. Edward 2 the great Earl of Lancaster married a Lady from Camford in this County who was taken out of his house by one Richard Martin a deformed lame Dwarf who challenged her for his Wife alledging he had lain with her before the Earl married her whereupon the Lady was examined who voluntarily confessed it was all true and thereupon the ugly Fellow in her right claimed the Two Earldoms of Lincoln and Salisbury In the Fourth of this Kings Reign the Church of Middleton with all the Monuments were consumed with Lightning the Monks being at Mattens In the 22d of Edward 3. a Plague was brought from beyond Sea into the Towns and Villages of England on the Seacosts of Dorsetshire which raged so both there and in other parts of England that scarce the Tenth man was left alive in the Kingdom In 1506. King Philip sailing out of Germany to take possession of the Kingdom of Spain was driven by Tempest upon the Coasts of England and landed at Weymouth to refresh himself and was invited by Sir Tho. Trenchard a worthy Knight of that County to his House who immediately sent word to King Henry 7. of his Arrival who glad to have his Court honoured by so great a Prince sent the Earl of Arundel at present to wait upon him till himself should follow the Earl attended him with a gallant Troop of about 300 Horse and for more state came to him by Torch light upon this Message though K. Philip had many reasons to hasten his Journy yet not to distaste K. Henry he came Post to Windsor where after great and magnificent Entertainment K. Henry taking an opportunity when they were both in a private room laying his Hand civilly upon K. Philip's Arm said Sir you have been saved upon my Coast I hope you will not suffer me to wreck upon yours The King of Castile asking him what he meant I mean saith the King that hair-brain'd Fellow the Earl of Suffolk who being my Subject is protected in your Country and begins to play the Fool when all others are weary of it The King of Castile answered I had thought Sir your felicity had been above these thoughts but if it trouble you I will banish him K. Henry answered That his desire was to have him delivered to him with this the King of Castile a little confused said That can I not do with my honour Well then said the King the matter is at an end at last the King of Castile who much esteemed K. Henry composing his Countenance said Sir you shall have him but upon your honour you shall not take his Life I promise it upon my honour said K. Henry and he kept his promise for he was not put to death during all his Reign but yet he took such order that in the Reign of his Son K. Hen. 8. he had his Head cut off This Earl of Suffolk had lately gone over to Flanders to the Lady Margret K. Henry's sworn Enemy which made the King doubt of his Intentions The Earl was accordingly brought over and sent to the Tower and after K. Philip had received the Order of the Garter and Prince Henry that of the Golden Fleece the King of Castile departed home In the 26. of Q. Elizabeth 1558. at a place called Blackmore in the Parish of Armitage in this County a piece of ground containing 3 Acres removed from its place and went quite over another Close with the Trees and Fences thereon a great way off stopping up an High-way which led to Cerne the same Hedges inclosing it as before and the Trees standing very upright thereon onely one Oak of almost 20 Load fell down in the place from whence it removed there remained a great deep Pit In 1613. Aug. 7. The Town of Dorchester was utterly consumed with Fire which began in the house of a Tallow-Chandler and destroyed the whole Town save a few Houses near the Church and all their Wares and Goods to the value of Two Hundred Thousand Pounds yet no man perished therein In June 1653. a black Cloud was seen over the Town of Pool and soon after dissolved into a shower of Blood which fell warm upon mens hands some green leaves with those drops upon them were sent to London and seen by many The Forrest of the White Hart is in this County so called because in the Reign of Henry 3. the King came hither to hunt and having taken other Deer he spared a most beautiful and goodly white Heart which afterward Thomas de Lynd a Gentleman of this Country with others in his Company took and killed for which the King put a mulct or Fine upon him and the whole County and the very lands which they held pay even to this day every year by way of amercement a sum of Mony into the Exchequer which is called White Hart Silver My self saith Dr. Fuller have paid a share for the sauce who never tasted any of the meat so that it seems Kings Venison is sooner eaten than digested Mr. Ignatius Jordan was born at Lime Regis in this County and when he was young was sent to Exeter to be brought up a Merchant in this City having passed through the several inferiour Offices he at last came to be Mayor and was a Justice of Peace 24 years together yet his beginning was but very mean which he was always ready to acknowledg for when some threatned him with Law-suits and that they would not give over while he was worth a groat he cheerfully told them That he should be then but two pence poorer than when he came first to Exeter for said he I brought but six pence with me hither He would often say He wondred what rich men meant that they gave so little to the Poor and yet raked so much together for their Children do you not see said he what becomes of it and would reckon up divers examples of such as heaped up much for their Children and they in a short time consumed it all on the other side he spoke of such as had small beginnings and afterward became rich or of a competent Estate giving a particular instance of himself I came said he but with a groat or sixpence in my purse to this City had I had a shilling in my purse I had never been Mayor of Exeter In his Troubles in the Star Chamber when one told him he was sorry that the Lord Keeper was against him He answered I have a greater Lord Keeper than him the Lord is my Keeper I will not be afraid He was famous for Justice and Charity in his life and at his death left very large Legacies to the poor
he was justly punished for his Treachery K. Stephen had only one Son named Eustace a Prince of much blossoming valour as being cut off at 18 years of Age some say by drowning and others by a stranger Accident but strange Relations must not alwaies be rejected for though many of them be forged yet some no doubt are true and who knows but it may be of this kind which some writers relate of this Prince That being at the Abby of Bury in the Diocess of Norwich and denyed some money he demanded he presently in a rage went forth and set the Cornfields belonging to the Abby on fire but afterward sitting down to Dinner at the first morsel of bread he put into his mouth he fell into a fit of madness and in that fit dyed certainly the Persons of Princes are for more observation than ordinary People and as they make Examples so they are sometimes made Examples In the 11th of K. Hen. 2. there was so great an Earthquake in Norfolk and some other Counties that it overthrew many who stood upon their feet and made the Bells towl in the Steeples In his 18th Year the Cathedral Church at Norwich with the Houses thereto belonging was burnt and the Monks dispersed In the Reign of K. Richard 1. a Jew being turned Christian at Lynn in Norfolk he was persecuted by those of his own Nation and assaulted in the street who thereupon flying to a Church hard by was followed thither also and the Church assaulted which the People of the Town seeing in defence of the new Christian they fell upon the Jews of whom they slew a great number and after pillaged their Houses By this Example the Jews were assaulted in other places and vast multitudes of them massacred and some of them being blocked up in a Castle at York cut the Throats of their Wives and Children and cast them over the Walls on the Christians Heads and then burnt the Castle and themselves neither could this Sedition be stayed till the King sent his Chancellour the Bishop of Ely with force of Arms to punish the offenders In the 5th of Hen 5. a great part of the City of Norwich was burnt and all the Houses of the Friers Preachers where two of the Friers themselves were burnt in the flames In the 2d of Edward 6. 1549 a dangerous Rebellion broke forth in Norfolk about Grievances for Inclosures The Rebels had got one Ket a Tanner to be their Leader who with others encouraged them to pull down Inclosures and in short time they grew to a Body of 20000 so that the Sheriff of Norfolk commanding them in the Kings name to depart or else he would proclaim them Traitors he had been certainly slain had not his Horse been too swift for them they furnished themselves with Arms and Artillery and for their better security they fortified themselves upon Monshold hill near St. Leonards hill by Norwich where they carried a face as it were of Justice and Religion for they had one Convers an Idle Fellow for their Chaplain who morning and evening read solemn Prayers to them also Sermons they had often and as for Justice they ordained a Seat of Judgment in an old Tree whose Canopy was the Cope of Heaven in this Tree sate the Tanner as Chancellour and chief Judge giving out Warrants in the Kings name and as his Deputy committed many Persons of Quality to Prison he was assisted by two chosen men of every hundred among them from whom Commissions were sent to bring in to them Powder Shot Victuals and all things necessary and here such as had exceeded their Commission were ordered to be imprisoned so that this Tree was called The Oak of Reformation whence likewise some Sermons were delivered to the People and once by the Reverend Dr. Parker which had like to have cost him his Life and now beginning to grow to a height they presented certain Complaints to the King requiring he would send an Herald to give them satisfaction the King though he took it for a great Indignity to have such base Fellows capitulate with him yet framing himself to the time he returned this answer That in October following he would call a Parliament wherein their Complaints should he heard and all their Grievances redressed requiring theâ— in the mean time to lay down their Arms and return to their houses and thereupon granting them a general pardon But this was so far from satisfying the Seditious that thereupon they first assaulted the City of Norwich took it and made the Mayor attend them as their servant and then returned again to their Station at Moushold Soon after the Marquess of Northampton the L. Sheffeild with several other Lords 1500 Horse and a small Band of Italians were sent against them whom the Seditious so stoutly opposed that much mischief was done on both sides the L. Sheffeild falling with his Horse into a Ditch was taken Prisoner and as he pulled off his Helmet to make himself known he was struck down dead by a Butcher so that the Marquess with his Forces not prevailing the Earl of Warwick was sent with 6000 Foot and 1500 Horse and many other Persons of Quality When the Earl approached the Camp of the Rebels he sent a Herald offering them the Kings Pardon if they would disband which they were so far from accepting that a lewd Boy turned up his naked Breech toward the Herald and bid him kiss it upon this many skirmishes passed between the Earl and them with loss sometimes of one side and sometimes of another at last they came to a Battle where the Rebels placed in the Front all the Gentlemen they had taken Prisoners designing they should first be slain of whom yet very few were hurt but of the Rebels above 2000 were killed and now once again the Earl of Warwick offered them pardon but for all their losses they continued obstinate at last the Earl sent to know if they would entertain their Pardon if he should come in Person and assure them of it this moved them much and they answered That they knew him to be so honourable that from himself they would embrace it whereupon he went to them and causing their Pardon to be read again he confirmed it by his words so effectually that they all cast away their Arms and with one voice cried God save K. Edward The day following Robert Ket the Tanner and Arch-Rebel was taken and hanged in Chains upon the Castle of Norwich and William Ket the younger was hanged upon the high Steeple of Wimondham and 9 of the other principal Rebels were hanged upon the Oak of Reformation and thus ended the Sedition in Norfolk the day of the defeat of the Rebels being a long time after observed as a Festival by the Citizens of Norwich with no less joy than the Jews did when they escaped the sword of wicked Haman In 1578. the 20 of Q. Elizabeth Matthew Hamond of Hitherset 3 miles from Norwich Plow-Wright for
the King and there executed About this time also a strange piece of Treason is reported to have been practised against King Henry's Life that there was found in his Bed-cloaths an Iron with three sharp spikes standing upright that when the King should lie down he might thrust himself upon them Thus ended this Treasonable attempt soon after which followed the cruel murder of K. Richard 2. in Pomfract Castle In the Reign of K. Hen. 8. 1541. This ridiculous accident happened as it is related by Mr. Fox which shews what disorders may fall out through errour and mistake There was one Mr. Mâ—llary Master of Arts in Cambridge who for opinions contrary to the Romish Church was convented before the Bishops and then sent to Oxford there openly to recant and carry a Faggot to the terrour of the Students of that University The next Sunday he was brought into St. Marys Church many Doctors Divines and Citizens being present Dr. Smith preached the Recantation Sermon and Mr. Mallery stood before him with his Faggot about the midst of the Sermon there was suddenly heard in the Church the voice of one crying Fire Fire in the Streets occasioned by one that came by and saw a Chimney a fire in Alhallows Parish and so passing by the Church cried Fire thinking no hurt this sound of fire being heard in the Church went from one to another till at length it came to the Ears both of the Doctors and Preacher himself who amazed with sudden fear began to look up to the top and Walls of the Church which others seeing look up also then began some in the midst of the crowd to cry out Fire Fire where saith one and another In the Church says one the Church was scarce pronounced when in a moment there was a great cry The Church is afire the Church is afire by Hereticks Then was there such horrour and confusion as cannot be exprest which raised such a Dust as seemed like Smoak indeed this and the outcries of the People made them all so afraid that leaving the Sermon they began all to run away but such was the press of the multitude crowding together that the more they laboured the less they could get out for they stuck so fast in the door that there was no moving forward nor backward they ran to another little Wicket on the North side and from thence to another door on the West but there was so great a throng that with the force thereof the great Bar of Iron which is almost incredible to speak was pulled out and broken with the strength of mens hands and yet could not the door be opened for the vast concourse of People At last being past hope of getting out they in great amazement ran up and down crying out That the Hereticks had conspired their death One said he plainly heard the Fire another affirmed he saw it and a third swore he felt the melted Lead dropping down upon his Head and Shoulders none made more noise than the Doctor that preached who first of all cried out in the Pulpit These are the subtleties of the Hereticks against me Lord have mercy upon me Lord c. In all this consternation nothing was more feared than the melting of the Lead which many affirmed they felt dropping on their Bodies The Doctors finding Authority and force could not prevail fell to Intreaties one offering 20 pound another his Scarlet Gown so that any man would pull him out though it were by the Ears A President of a Colledge pulling a Board out from the Pews covered his Head and Shoulders therewith against the scalding Lead which they feared much more than the falling of the Church one thought to get out at a Window and had broken the Glass and got his Head and one Shoulder out but then stuck fast between the Iron Bars that he could move neither way others stuck as fast in the doors over the heads of whom some got out A Boy was got up to the top of the Church door and seeing a Monk who had got upon the Heads of men coming toward him with a great wide cowl hanging at his Back the Boy thought it a good opportunity to make his escape and handsomely conveyed himself into the Monks cowl the Monk got out with the Boy in his cowl and for a while felt no weight nor burden but at last feeling his cowl heavier than ordinary and hearing a voice behind him he was more afraid than while in the throng verily believing that the Evil Spirit which had set the Church on Fire had flown into his cowl whereupon he began to play the Conjurer saying In the name of God and all Saints I command thee to declare what thou art â—â—at art behind my Back I am Bertrams Boy said the other But I said the Monk adjure thee in the name of the inseparable Tâ—â—â—ity that thou wicked Spirit do tell me who thou art and from whence thou comest and that thou go hence I am Bertrams Boy said he and I pray good Master let me go When the Monk perceived the matter he took the Boy out who ran away as fast as he could In the mean time those without the Church seeing all things safe made signs to them within to be quiet but the noise being so great that no word could be heard these signs increased their fear supposing all the Church on fire without and that they were bid to tarry within and not to venture out because of the dropping of the Leads and the fall of other things this trouble lasted many hours but at length the mistake was discovered the next day and Week following there was an incredible number of Bills set upon the Church doors to enquire for things lost as Shoes Gowns Caps Purses Girdles Swords and Money for in this hurry there were few but through negligence or forgetfulness left something behind The poor Heretick who by this disturbance had not done his sufficient Pennance performed the rest of it the next day at the Church of St. Frideswide In the 6. of K. Edw. 6. at Middleton-Stony 11 Miles from Oxford a Woman brought forth a Child with two perfect Bodies from the Navel upwards the Legs for both the Bodies grew out at the midst where the Bodies joined and had but one issue for the Excrements of them both they were Women Children and lived 18 days In the 19. of Q. Elizabeth 1577. when the Judges sate at the Assizes in Oxford and one Rowland Jentis a Bookseller was questioned for speaking opprobrious words against the Queen suddenly there arose a Pestilent damp and savour whether coming from the noisome smell of the Prisoners or from the infectious ground is uncertain but almost every one who was there present except Women and Children died within 40 hours after and the contagion went no further there died the L. chief Baron Bell the Sheriffs several other Gentlemen almost all the Jury-men and about 300 other persons In 1650. Dec.