Selected quad for the lemma: water_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
water_n	air_n	element_n	fire_n	13,062	5	7.1789	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B22906	Three moneths obseruations of the Low-countries, especially Holland Containing a brief description of the country, customes, religions, manners, and dispositions of the people.	Felltham, Owen, 1602?-1668.	1648 (1648)	Wing F658A	7,595	31

THREE MONETHS Obseruations of the Low-Countries Especially HOLLAND CONTAINING A brief Description of the Country Customes Religions Manners and Dispositions of the People Printed Anno 1648. The PRINTER to the READER Reader THough relations of those Countries with whom we have had long and frequent Commerce which supposes us knowing of things either curious or needful may be esteemed superfluous yet for the better understanding of these short observations it seems very necessary for it is supposed they were intended by the Author whom you will find ingenious either to please himself or delight the fancies of those that are acquainted with the fashions of the Country He renders the Hollander an ingenuous subtle people and if he be a little too free with them in their vices 't is pardonable for when he observes their vertues he endeavours to make requital To commend it were to detract that were pity for it is too little already but being so you may with more ease try whether it deserves it To make large preambles were not onely to be unlike our Author but to erect a great gate to a smal Cottage It was thought deserving the Press I have done my part do you but yours that is peruse it and add it to thy Library Farewel THREE MONETHS Observations of the Low-Countries especially HOLLAND THey are generally a Sealand there is not such a marish in the world that is flat They are an universal quagmire epitomised a green-cheese in pickle such an Aequilibrian of earth and water that a strong earthquake would shake them into a Chaos they are the ingredients of a black pudding and want onely stirring else you would have more bread then greets then have you no way to make it serve for any thing but to spread it under Zona Torrida and so dry it for Turfes It is an excellent place for despairing lovers for each corner affords them Willow but if Justice should condemn one to be hanged on any other Tree he might live long and confident It is the but tock of the world full of veines and blood but no bones Had St Stephen been condemned there to be stoned he might have lived still for unless it be in their paved Townes gold is more plentiful than stone It is a singular place to fat monkies for there are spiders as bigg as shrimps and I think as many You may travel the Countrey without a guide for you cannot go out of the rode without hazard of drowning A King that hated crowding might have run away without staying for his Vsher for he can go no whither but his way is made before him Had they Cities as big as their walls Rome were but a bauble to them Twenty miles are nothing to be hurried over in one of their waggons where if the Voerman be sober you travel safe But descending from thence you must have better faith then Peter had or you sink immediately if your way be not his thus it hangs in the water and at the approach of the waggon it will shake as if it were aguestricken The Duke D' Alva taxing the tenth penny frighted it into a Palsy which all the Mountebanks it had bred and had knew not how to cure They do some things which seem wonders for they fish for fire in the waters which they catch in nets and transport to land in their boats where they spread it smooth as a Mercer doth his Velvet when he rooks an Heir of eighteen Thus being in a meddow you would suppose it a cantle of green-cheese spread over with black butter Their ordinary Pack-horses are fram'd of wood carrying their bridles in their tayles and their burdens in their bellies and a strong wind and stiffe gale are the spurs that make them speedy They dress their meat with aqua coelestis for their water springs are not like ours from the earth but come to them as Manna to the Israelites from heaven the Elements here are at variance the subtile overflow the grosser the fire consuming the earth and the ayr the waters for they burn Turfs and drain their grounds with Wind-mils as if the Collick were a remedy for the Stone The land they have is kept as neat as a Courtiers beard and they have a method in mowing It is so interveyned with waters and rivers that it is impossible to make a Common amongst them Even the Brownists are here at a stand The poor are never complained of for breaking of hedges surely had the men of Gotham lived here they would have studied some other prison for the Cuckow Their ditches they frame as they list and distinguish them into noecks as my Lord Majors Cook doth his custards they clense them often but it is as Physicians give their potions more to catch the fish then cast out the mud Though their country be that of the main yet every house stands as it were an Iland and that though a Boor dwell in it looks as smug as a Lady new-painted A gallants masquing suit fits not more neatly than a thatcht cottage of many yeers wearing if you finde it dry it is embraced with vines and if lower seated it is onely a close harbour within a plump of Willowes and pleasant enough as long as the dog-daies last but they overpast you must practise wading or swimming or remain prisoner till the Spring onely a hard frost with the help of sledges may release you The Bridge to this is an outlandish planck with a box of stones to poise it with like a Quintin which with the least help turns round like a Heads-man and when the master is over stands drawn and then he is in his Castle 't is sure his fear that makes him suspicious therefore that he may see who enters his window is ever over his dore But it may be to shew his Pedigree for though his Ancestors were never known their Armes are there which in spite of the Herald shall bear their atchievements with the helmet of a Baron at least marry the field perhaps shall be charged with baskets to shew his Fathers trade pourtrayed When you are entred the first thing you shall encounter is a looking-glass the next the Vessels marshalld about the house like watchmen all as near as if they were in a Ladies Cabinet for unless it be themselves none of Gods creatures lose any of their native beauty there Their houses especially in the Cities are the best eye-beauties in the Countrie and in cost and sightliness far exceed our English wanting onely their magnificence Their lineing are richer too than their out-sides not in hangings but Pictures which the poorest there are furnished with Not a Sowter but hath his toies for ornament were the knacks of all their houses set together there were not such a Bartholomew-fayr in Europe Their Artists for these are as rare as thought for they can paint a fat-Hen in her fethers and if you want their language you may learn a great deal on the Signe-posts what