soft supple and stretching whence the expression of Cheverelconsciences which will stretch any way for advantage Course Coverings are made of their shag God himself not despising the present of Goats-hair which made the outward case of the Tabernacle Their milk is accounted cordiall against consumptions yea their very stench is used for a perfume in Arabia the Happy where they might surfeit of the sweetness of spices if not hereby allayed In a word Goats are beâ—… for food where Sheep cannot be had Plenty of these are bred in Wales especially in Montgomery-shire which mindeth me of a pleasant passage during the restraint of the Lady Elizabeth When she was so strictly watched by Sir Henry Benefield that none were admitted access unto Her a Goat was espied by a merry Fellow one of the Warders walking along with her Whereupon taking the Goat on his Shoulders he in all hast hurried him to Sir Henry I pray Sir said he examine this fellow whom I found walking with her Grace but what talk they had I know not not understanding his Language He seems to me a stranger and I believe a Welsh-man by his frieze Coat To return to our subject I am not so knowing in Goats as either to confirme or confute what Plinie reports that Adhuc lactantes generant They 〈◊〉 young ones whilst they themselves as yet suck their Dams He addeth that they are great enemies to the Olive-trees which they embarren with licking it and therefore are never sacrificed to Minerva Sure I am a true Deity accepted them for his service as many kids well nigh as lambs being offered in the Old Testament The Manufactures The Brittish generally bearing themselves high on the account of their gentile extraction have spiriâ—… which can better comport with designes of suddain danger then long difficulty and are better pleased in the imploying of their valour then their labour Indeed some souls are over-lovers of liberty so that they mistake all industry to be degrees of slavery I doubt not but posterity may see the Welsh Commodities improved by art far more then the present Age doth behold the English as yet as far excelling the Welsh as the Dutch exceed the English in Manufactures But let us instance in such as this Country doth afford Frieze This is a course kind of Cloath then which none warmer to be worn in Winter and the finest sort thereof very fashionable and gentile Prince Henry had a frieze sute by which he was known many weeks together and when a bold Courtier checkt him for appearing so often in one Suit Would said he that the Cloath of my Country being Prince of Wales would last always Indeed it will daily grow more into use especially since the Gentry of the Land being generally much impoverisht abate much of their gallantry and lately resigned rich cloaths to be worn by those not whose persons may best become them but whose purses can best pay for the price thereof Cheese This is milk by Art so consolidated that it will keep uncorrupted for some years It was antiently and is still the Staple food for Armies in their marching witness when David was sent with Ten Cheeses to recruit the provisions of his Brethren and when Barzillai with Cheeses amongst other food victualled the Army of K. David Such as are made in this Country are very tender and palatable and once one merrily without offence I hope thus derived the Pedigree thereof Adams nawn Cusson was her by her birth Ap Curds ap Milk ap Cow ap Grasse ap Earth Foxes are said to be the best Tasters of the fineness of Flesh Flies of the sweetest Grapes and Mice of the tenderest Cheese and the last when they could Compass 〈◊〉 in that kind have given their Verdict for the goodness of the Welch What should be the reason that so many people should have such an Antipathie against Cheese more then any one manner of meat I leave to the skilfull in the Mysteries of Nature to decide Metheglen Some will have this word of Greek extraction from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contracted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the British will not so let go their none Countriman MATHEW GLIN but will have it purum potum Cambricum wholly of Welsh originall Whencesoever the word is made the liquor is compounded of water honey and other ingredients being most wholesome for mans body Pollio Romulus who was an hundred years old being asked of Augustus Cesar by what means especially he had so long preserved his vigour both of mind and body made answer Intus mulso foris oleo by taking Metheglen inward and oyle outward It differeth from Mede ut vinum à lora as wine from that weak stuffe which is the last running from the grapes pressed before It is a most generous liquor as it is made in this Country in so much that had Mercator who so highly praised the Mede of Egra for the best in the world I say had he tasted of this Welch Hydromel he would have confined his commendation to Germany alone and allowed ours the precedency Queen Elizabeth who by the Tudors was of Welch-descent much loved this Her native liquor recruiting an annual stock thereof for Her own use and here take if you please The Receit thereof First gather a Bushell of Sweet-briar leaves and a Bushell of Time half a Bushell of Rosemary and a Peck of Bay-leaves Seeth all these being well washed in a Furnace of fair water let them boil the space of half an Hour or better and then pour out all the water and herbs into a Vat and let it stand till it be but milk-warme then strain the water from the herbs and take to every six Gallons of water one Gallon of the finest Honey and put it into the Boorn and labour it together half an hour then let it stand two days stirring it well twice or thrice each day Then take the Liquor and boil it anew and when it doth seeth skim it as long as there remaineth any dross When it is clear put it into the Vat as before and there let it be cooled You must then have in readiness a kind of new Ale or Beer which as soon as you have emptied suddenly whelme it upside down and set it up again and presently put in the Metheglen and let it stand three days a working And then tun it up in Barrells tying at every Tap-hole by a Pack-thred a little bag of beaten Cloves and Mace to the value of an Ounce It must stand half a year before it be drunk The Buildings The Holy Spirit complaineth that great men build Desolate places for themselves therein taxing their Avarice Ambition or both Avarice they joyn House to House by Match Purchase or Oppression that they may be alone in the Land that their Covetousness may have Elbow-room to lye down at full length and wallow it self round about These love not
with great reputation He was afterwards a Commander in the French-war under King Edward the third where in despight of their power he drove the people 〈◊〉 him like sheep destroying Towns Castles and Cities in such manner and number that many years after the sharp points and Gable end of overthrown houses cloven asunder with instruments of war were commonly call'd KNOWLES HIS MITRES The last piece of his servrce was performed in suppressing Wat Tiler and his Rebells Then I behold aged Sir Robert buckling on his armonr as old Priam at the taking of Troy but with far better success as proving very victorious and the Citizens of London infranchized him a member 〈◊〉 of in expression of their thankfulness His Charity was as great as his Valour and he rendred himself no less loved by the English then feared of the French He gave bountifully to the building of Rochester-bridge founding a Chappel and Chantery at â—…he East end thereof with a Colledge at 〈◊〉 in Yorkshire where Constance his Lady was born endowing it with one hundred and eighty pounds per annum He died at his 〈◊〉 of Sconâ—…-Thorp in Norfolk in peace and honour whereas 〈◊〉 generally set in a cloud being at least ninety years of age for he must be 〈◊〉 no 〈◊〉 then 〈◊〉 years old when Annoâ—…52 â—…52 he was a Generall under K. Edâ—… 〈◊〉 third and he 〈◊〉 untill the 〈◊〉 of August 1407. being buried in White-Friers in London to which he had been a great benefactour JOHN SMITH Captain was 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 County as Master Arthur Smith his Kins man and my School-master did inform me But whether or no related unto the Worshipfull Family of the Smiths at 〈◊〉 I know not He spent the most of his life in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First in Hungary under the Empeâ—… fighting against the Turks Three of which he himself killed in single Duells and therefore was Authorized by 〈◊〉 King of Hungary to bear three Turks-heads as an Augmentation to his Armes Here 〈◊〉 gave intelligence to a besieged City in the night by significant 〈◊〉 works formed in 〈◊〉 in legible Characters with many strange performances the Scene whereof is laid at such a distance they are cheaper credited then confuted From the Turks in Europe he passed to the Pagans in America where towards the latter end of the Raign of Queen Elizabeth such his Perills Preservations Dangers Deliverances they seem to most men above belief to some beyond Truth Yet have we two witnesses to attest them the Prose and the Pictures both in his own book and it soundeth much to the diminution of his deeds that he alone is the Herauld to publish and proclaime them Two Captains being at dinner one of them fell into a large relation of his own atchivements concluding his discourse with this question to his fellow And pray Sir said he what service have you done To whom he answered Other men can tell that And surely such reports from strangers carry with them the greater reputation However moderate men must allow Captain Smith to have been very instrumentall in setling the plantation in Virginia whereof he was Governour as also Admiral of New-England He led his old age in London where his having a Princes mind imprison'd in a poor mans purse rendred him to the contempt of such who were not ingenuous Yet he efforted his spirits with the remembrance and relation of what formerly he had been and what he had done He was buried in Sepulchres-Church-Quire on the South-side thereof having a ranting Epitaph inscribed in a table over him too long to transcribe Onely we will insert the first and last verses the rather because the one may fit Alexanders life for his valour the other his death for his religion Here lies one conquer'd that hath conquer'd Kings Oh may his soul in sweet Elysium sleep The Orthography Poetry History and Divinity in this Epitaph are much alike He on the 21. of June 1631. Physicians If this county hath bred no Writers in that faculty the wonder is the less if it be true what I read that if any here be sick They make him a posset and tye a kerchieff on his head and if that will not mend him then God be mercifull to him But be this understood of the common people the Gentry having the help no doubt of the learned in that profession Writers THOMAS ECLESTONE A Village in Broxtone Hundred was born in this County bred a Franciscan in Oxford Leland saith of him that under the conduct of prudence and experience he contended with many paces to pierce into the Penetrales of Learning He wrote a book of the succession of Franciscans in England with their works and wonders from their first coming in to his own time dedicating the same to not G. Notingham the Provinciall of his Order but to his friend and Fellow-Frier his mortified mind it seems not aiming at honour therein He wrote another Book intituled De impugnatione Ordinis suâ—… per Dominicanos Of the assaults which the Dominicans made on his Order These two sorts of Friers whipping each other with their Cords or Knotted Girdles to the mutual wounding of their reputations He died Anno Domini 1340. Since the Reformation RALPH RADCLIFFE was born in this County who travelling Southward fixed himself at Hitching in Hertfordshire where he converted a demolished house of the Carmelites into a Publique Grammar-school He here erected a fair stage whereon partly to entertain his Neighhours and partly to embolden his Scholars in pronuntiation many interludes were acted by them Pitz. praiseth him being a School-master that he confined himself to his own profession not medling with Divinity and yet amongst his books he reckoneth up a Treatise of the Burning of Sodome and another of the Afflictions of Job Nor must we forget his book entitled de triplice Memoriâ of the Threefold Memory which though I never met with any that saw it may probably be presumed of the Water Wax Iron Memory receiving things very somewhat very hardly easily  retaining them no a little long Time He flourished under the raign of King Edward the sixth Anno Domini 1552. and it is likely he died before the raign of Queen Mary JOHN SPEED was born at Farrington in this County as his own Daughter hath informed me he was first bred to a handicraft and as I take it to a Taylor I write not this for his but my own disgrace when I consider how far his Industry hath outstript my Ingenious Education Sir Fulk Grevill a great favourer of Learning perceiving how his wide soul was stuffed with too narrow an occupation first wrought his inlargement as the said Author doth ingeniously confess Whose merits to me-ward I do acknowledge in setting this hand free from the daily imployments of a manuall Trade and giving it his liberty thus to express the inclination of my mind himself being the procurer of my present Estate This
is found in this County It is not churlish but good natured Metal not curdling into knots and knobs but all equally fusil and therefore most useful for Pipes and Sheets yea the softnesse thereof will receive any artificial impressions The Miners thereof may be called a Common-wealth within our Common-wealth governed by Laws peculiar to themselves often confirmed by Act of Parliament and take a few of them 1. If any of this Nation find a Rake or Sione or Leading to the same he may set in any ground to get Lead Oar. 2. But Churches Houses and Gardens are free from this Custom of the Minery 3. All Miners ought to commence their suits for Oar-debt in the Bargemoot-Court Otherwise they must lose their debt and pay cost too 4. The Barge-Master keeps his two great Courts twice a year in Barge-Moot-Hall the Steward under him once in three weeks to decide Controversies and punish offences betwixt Miners 5. Plaintiffs or Defendants having three Verdicts passed against them are bound up for ever 6. He that stealeth Oar twice is fined and the third time struck through his hand with a Knife unto the haft into the Stow and is there to stand until death or loose himself by cutting off his hand 7. The Lord for Lot hath the thirteenth dish of Oar within their Mine and six pence a load for Cope This Manual as other Liberal Art hath Terms peculiar to it sef which will not be understood without an Interpreter of their own profession Bunnings Polings Stemples Forks and Slyder 〈◊〉 Yokings Soletrees Roach and Rider Water holes Wind holes Veyns Coe-shafts and Woughs Maine Rakes Cross Rakes Brown henns Buddles and Soughs Breâ—…k-offs and Buckers Randum of the Rake Freeings and chasing of the Stole to th' Stake Starting of Oar Smilting and driving drifts Prim-gaps Roof-works Flat-works Pipe-works shifts Cauke Spar Lid-stones Twitches Daulings and Pees Fell Bous and Knock-bark Forstid-Oar and Tees Bing-place Barmoot Court Barge-master and Stowes Crosses Holes Hange-benches Turntree and Coes Founder-meers Taker-meers Lot Cope and Sumps Stickings and Stringes of Oar Wash-Oar and Pumps Corfe Clivies Deads Meers Groves Rake-soil the Gange Binge-Oar a Spindle a Lampturne a Fange Fleaks Knocking 's Coestid Trunks and Sparks of Oar Sole of the Rake Smitham and many more Let me adde that whereas Miners complain that Lead in Somerset-shire as the Tinne in Cornwall doth dayly decay here it doth improve and encrease For as if Phoebus himself had been their Vulcan massy pieces of Lead are frequently found whereof lately I had one in my hand so well ripened in the bowels of the Earth that they seemed refined such the original purity thereof Manufactures Mault Though commonness causeth contempt excellent the Art of the first inventing thereof I confesse it facile to make Barley Water an invention which found out it self with little more than the bare joyning the ingredients together But to make Mault for Drink was a master-piece indeed How much of Philosophy concurred to the first Kill of Mault and before it was turned on the Floor how often was it tossed in the Brain of the first inventer thereof First to give it a new growth more than the earth had bestowed thereon Swelling it in the water to make it last the longer by breaking it and taste the sweeter by corrupting it Secondly by making it to passe the fire the grain by Art fermented acquiring a lusciousnesse which by nature it had not whereby it doth both strengthen and sweeten the water wherein it is boyled ALE. Ceres being our English Bacchus this was our Ancestors common drink many imputing the strength of their Infantry in drawing so stiff a Bow to their constant but moderate drinking thereof Yea now the English begin to turn to Ale may they in due time regain their former vigorousness and whereas in our remembrance Ale went out when Swallows came in seldom appearing after Easter it now hopeth having climed up May Hill to continue its course all the year Yet have we lost the Preservative what ever it was which before Hops was found out made it last so long in our land some two hundred years since sor half a year at the least after the brewing thereof otherwise of necessity they must brew every day yea pour it out of the Kive into the Cup if the prodigious English Hospitality in former ages be considered with the multitude of menial Servants and strangers entertained Now never was the Wine of Sarepta better known to the Syrians that of Chios to the Grecians of Phalernum to the Latines than the Canary of Derby is to the English thereabout Buildings Chatsworth erected by the magnificent Lady Elizabeth Cavendish Countess of Shrewsbury is a stately Structure thus described by the Poet Stat Chatsworth praeclara domus tuÌ„ mole superba Tum Domino magnis celereÌ„ Deroëntis ad undaÌ„ Miranti similis portam praeterfluit Amnis Hic tacitus saxis infra supraque sonorus Chatsworth which in its bulk it self doth pride And Lord both great stands Derwens bank beside Which slides still by the gate as full of wonder Though loud with stones above the house under The Garden on the backside with an artificial Rock and Wilderness accomplisheth the place with all pleasure Wonders God who is truely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the onely Worker of Wonders hath more manifested his might in this than in any other County in England such the heaps of Wonders therein amongst which we take special notice of Maim Tor or Mam-Tor Tor is a Hill ascending steep as Glassenbury-Tor Maim saith one because maimed or broken in the top thereof Others following the vulgar pronounciation will have it Mam-Tor that is the Mother Hill because it is always delivered and presently with child again for incredible heaps of sandy earth constantly fall thence yet is it not visibly diminished having it seems as a constant stream such a spring of matter whence it is recruited It may pass for the Embleme of the liberal man never impoverished by his well-bounded and grounded charity his expences being re-supplyed by a secret providence Medicinal Waters Buxton Well dedicated to St. Anne sending forth both cold and warm water is little less than miraculous in the effects thus described by our Author Haec resoluta senum confirmat membra trementum Et refovet nervos lotrix haec lympha gelatos Huc infirma regunt baculis vestigia claudi Ingrati referunt baculis vestigia spretis Huc Mater fieri cupiens accedit inanis Plenaque discedit puto nec veniente marito Old mens numb'd joynts new vigor here acquire In frozen Nerves this Water kindleth Fire Hither the Creples halt some help to find Run hence their 〈◊〉 unthankt left behind The barren Wife here meets her Husbands love With such success she strait doth Mother prove This Well is also famous for the abode of Mary Queen of Scots thereby who found much refreshing
yellowness of their water as this vail is so named either because gilded with flowers in the spring or because being the best of Molds as Gold is of Mettalls Here I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Master Camden his cautious commendation of this County Secunda 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inter Angliae Provincias acquiescere haud facile est contenta It is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be accounted the Second shire for matter of fruitfulness But the foresaid Authour in his whole book never expresseth which is the first too politick to adjudge so invidious a preheminence And thus keeping the uppermost seate emptie such competitour Counties are allowed leave to put in their several claimes which pretend to the prime place of fertility Reader I am sorry that having not hitherto seen the Cathedral of Hereford I must be silent about the building in this County Natural Commodities Wooll Such as are ignorant of the qualities thereof may inform themselves therein from the common Proverbs 1. VVhite as VVooll a Scripture phrase though there be thereof black by nature 2. Soft as VVooll and therefore our Judges antiently in the Parliament-House sat on Wooll packs as well for the easier repose of their age as to minde them to maintain this staple commodity in its legal priviledges 3. As warm as VVooll And one said merrily VVooll must needs be warm as consisting all of double letters Our English garments from head to foot were formerly made thereof till the beginning of the Reign of K. Henry the Eighth when velvet caps becoming fashionable for Persons of prime Quality discomposed the proverb If his cap be made of VVooll as formerly comprising all conditions of people how high and haughty soever Great the plenty of Wooll in this County and greater Gods Goodness that generally our Northern Lands are well stored therewith The Frier rather descanted then commented and his interpretation not so much false as improper for the place Dat nivem sicut Lanam He giveth Snow like VVooll That where most Snow falls those places if habitable are best provided with VVooll It is well his wanton wit went no further He scattereth his hoare frost like ashes Freezing * Countries affording most Fewel to burn so careful is Providence in dispensing necessaries to mankinde As for the Wooll in this County it is best known to the honour thereof by the name of Lempster Ore being absolutely the finest in this County and indeed in all England equalling if not exceeding the Apulian or Tarentine in the South of Italy though it cost not so much charge and curiosity in the carefull keeping thereof For good Authors inform us that there the Sheepherds put in effect a Fleece over their Fleece using to clothe their sheep with skins to preserve their Wooll from the injury of earth bushes and weather How well this requiteth their cost I know not but am sure no such trouble is used on our sheep here Salmons A daintie and wholesome fish and a double riddle in nature first for its invisible feeding no man alive having ever found any meat in the maw thereof Secondly for its strange leaping or flying rather so that some will have them termed Salmons à saliendo Being both bow and arrow it will shoot it selfe out of the water an incredible heighth and length I might adde the admirable growth thereof if true what is confidently affirmed that it increaseth from a spawn to a full grown fish within the compasse of a year Plenty of these in this County though not in such abundance as in Scotland where servants they say indent with their Masters not to be fed therewith above thrice a weeke Some will say Why Salmons in Hereford-shire which are common to other Counties It is answered in other Counties suitably with the Buck they are seasonable onely in Summer whereas here with Buck and Doe they are in season all the year long This Countie may say Salmo non aestate novus nec frigore desit Salmon in Summer is not rare In Winter I of them do share For the River of Wy affords brumal Salmons fat and sound 〈◊〉 â—…hey are sick and spent in other places The Wonders There is a little Fountain called Bone-Well nigh Richards Castle in this County the Water whereof is alwayes full of Bones of little Fishes or as others conceive of little Frogs Seeing it seems such their smalnesse they are hardly to be distinguished It addeth to the Wonder because this Spring can never be emptied of them but as fast as some are drawn out others instantly succeed them To this permanent let us add two transient wonders on the credit of excellent Authors when a battle was fought in this County Anno Dom. 1461. betwixt Jasper E. of Pembrooke and James Butler Earl of Ormond on the one side and K. Edward the Fourth of the other three Suns appeared together in the Firmament Such a triple Sun one real two representations were seen in heaven a little before the Roman Empire was rent betwixt three Competitours Galba Otho and Vitellius as also since when the Kingdome of Hungarie was Cantoned betwixt John Vayvode Ferdinand afterwards Emperor and the great Turke such Meteors being sometimes prognosticks of so many severall pretenders at once to the same Sovereignty Inquiring into the natural cause hereof we find it to be nothing else but the Image of the Sun represented in an equal smooth thick and watery Cloud not opposite thereunto for then it would make the Rain-bow nor under the Sun for then it would make those circles called Crowns or Garlands but on one or either side thereof in a competent or moderate distance For if it be too far off then the beams will be too feeble to be reflected if too near the Sun will disperse it but in such a middle distance wherein many Suns may appear as a mans face is expressed in all pieces of a broken glasse To this wonder add a second of Marcley-Hill which An. Dom. 1575. rouzed it self as it were out of its sleep Yea in some sort it might seem to be in labour for three dayes together shaking and roaring all that while to the great terrour of all that heard or beheld it It threw down all things that opposed it and removed it self into an higher place The best use we can make of such accidents is to fear and not fear thereat with a reverential awe to God no servile dread of the thing it self Therefore we will not fear though the earth be removed and though the Mountains be carried into the midst of the Sea Proverbs Blessed is the Eye That is betwixt Severn and Wye Some will justly question the Truth hereof True it is the Eyes of those Inhabitants are entertained with a pleasant Prospect yet such as is equalled by other places But it seems this is a prophetical promise of Safety to such that live secured within those great rivers as if priviledged from Martial impressions But alas
with the stones It fixeth no fault in the Fruit the Expression being merely Metaphorical wherein the folly of such is taxed who associate themselves equal in expence with others in higher dignity and estate till they be loosers at last and well laughed at for their pains Saint-Foine SAINT-FOINE or Holy-hay Superstition may seem in the name but I assure you there is nothing but good husbandry in the sowing thereof as being found to be a great Fertilizer of Barren-ground It is otherwise called Polygala which I may English much Milk as causing the Cattle to give abundance thereof Some call it the small clover Grass and it prospereth best in the worst ground It was first fetcht out of France from about Paris and since is sown in divers places in England but especially in Cobham-Park in this County where it thriveth extraordinary well on dry chalky banks where nothing else will grow If it prospereth not equally in other dry places it is justly to be imputed to some errour in the managing thereof as that the ground was not well prepared or made fine enough that the seed was too sparing or else old and decayed that cattle cropt it the first year c. It will last but seven years by which time the native grasse of England will prevail over this Foreigner if it be not sown again Trouts We have treated of this Fish before and confesse this repetition had been a breach of the Fundamental Laws premised to this Book were it not also an addition Kent affording Trouts at a Town called Forditch nigh Canterbury differing from all others in many considerables 1. Greatness many of them being in bignesse near to a Salmon 2. Colour cutting white as others do red when best in season 3. Cunning onely one of them being ever caught with an Angle whereas other Trouts are easily tickled into taking and flaâ—…tered into their destruction 4. Abode remaining nine moneths in the Sea and three in the fresh water They observe their coming up thereinto almost to a day and the men of Forditch observe them as exactly whom they catch with nets and other devices Weld or Wold Know Reader that I borrow my Orthographie hereof if it be so from the Dyers themselves This is a little seed sown in this County some fourty years since when first it was brought into England with Barley the growth whereof it doth not hinder in any degree For when the barley is mowed down in Harvest then this Weld or Wold first peeps out of the Earth where it groweth till the May following when it is gathered And thus Husband-men with one sowing reap two Crops yet so as it taketh up their ground for two years The use hereof is for the dying of the best Yellow It hath some times been so low as at four pounds a Load which containeth fifteen hundred weight and somtimes so dear that it was worth fifteen pounds betwixt which prices it hath its constant motion and now is in the Aequator betwixt both worth seven pounds ten shillings It was first sown in this County and since in Northfolk and in other places Madder This is very useful for Dyers for making of Redds and Violets It is a Weed whose root onely is useful for dying whilest the leaves only of Woade are serviceable for that purpose and there are three kinds thereof 1. Crop-Madder worth betwixt 4. and 5. l. the hundred 1. Umber-Owe  betwixt 3. and 4. l.  3. Pipe or Fat-Madder  about 1. l. 10. s.  Some two years since this was sown by Sir Nicholas Crispe at Debtford I hope will have good success first because it groweth in Zeland in the same if not a more Northern Latitude Secondly because wild-Madder growes here in abundance and why may not Tame Madder if Cicurated by Art Lastly because as good as any grew some thirty years since at Barn-Elms in Surrey though it quit not Cost through some Error in the first Planter thereof which now we hope will be rectified Flaxe I am informed by such who should know that no County in England sends better or more to London Yet doth not our whole Land afford the tenth part of what is spent therein so that we are fain to fetch it from Flanders France yea as far as Aegypt it selfe It may seem strange that our Soile kindlie for that seed the use whereof and profit thereby so great yet so little care is taken for the planting thereof which well husbanded would find linen for the rich and living for the poor Many would never be indicted Spinsters were they Spinsters indeed nor come to so publick and shameful punishments if painfully imployed in that Vocation When a Spider is found upon our clothes we use to say some money is coming towards us The Moral is this such who imitate the industry of that contemptible creature which taketh hold with her hands and is in Kings Palaces may by Gods blessing weave themselves into wealth and procure a plentiful estate Manufactures Though clothing whereof we have spoken before be diffused through many Shires of England yet is it as vigorously applyed here as in any other place and Kentish cloth at the present keepeth up the credit thereof as high as ever before Thread I place this the last because the least of Manufactures Thread being counted a thing so inconsiderable Abraham said to the King of Sodom that he would take nothing from a Thread to a Shoe latchet That is nothing at all It seems this Hebrew Proverb surrounded the Universe beginning at a Thread a contemptible thing and after the incircling of all things more precious ended where it begun at a Shoe-latchet as mean as Thread in valuation But though one Thread be little worth many together prove useful and profitable and some thousand of pounds are sent yearly over out of England to buy that Commodity My Author telleth me that Thread is onely made I understand him out of London at Maidstone in this County where well nigh a hundred hands are imployed about it I believe a thousand might be occupied in the same work and many idle women who now onely spin Street-thread going tatling about with tales might procure if set at work a comfortable lively-hood thereby The Buildings The Cathedral of Rotchester is low and little proportional to the Revenews thereof Yet hath it though no Magnificence a venerable aspect of Antiquity therein The King hath besides other three fair Palaces in this Shire Greenwich with a pleasant medlay prospect of City Country Water and Land Eltham not altogether so wholsome and Otford which Arch-Bishop VVarham did so enlarge and adorne with Building that Cranmer his Successor was in some sort forced to exchange it with King Henry the Eighth on no gainful conditions To lesson the Clergy to content themselves with Decency without sumptuousness lest it awaken Envy and in fine they prove loosers thereby COBHAM the House of the late
same name doth rise But such nominal Proverbs take the advantage of all manner of Spelling as due unto them It is applyed to such people as are not overstock'd with acutenesse The best is all men are bound to be honest but not to be witty Grantham Gruel Nine Grits and a Gallon of Water Gruel though homely is wholsome Spoon-meat Physick for the Sick and food for persons in health Water is the Matter Grits the Form thereof giving the being thereunto Now Gruel thus imperfectly mix'd is Wash rather which one will have little heart to eat and get as little heart thereby The Proverb is appliable to those who in their Speeches or Actions multiply what is superfluous or at best less necessary either wholly omitting or lesse regarding the Essentials thereof They held together as the Men of Marham when they lost their Common Some understand it Ironically that is they were divided with several Factions which Proverb Mutato Nomine is used in other Counties Yea long since Virgil said the same in effect of the Men of Mantua when they lost their Lands to the Souldiers of Augustus En quo Discordia Cives Perduxit miseros En queîs consevimus Agros See Townsmen what we by our Jars are grown And see for whom we have our Tillage sown Indeed when a Common Danger calls for a Union against a General Enemy for any then to prosecute their Personal Quarrels and Private Grudges is a Folly always observed often reproved sometimes confessed but seldome Reformed Others use this Proverb only as an expression of ill Successe when men strive to no purpose though Plotting and Practising together to the utmost of their power being finally foiled in their undertakings Princes HENRY eldest surviving Son of John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster was born at the Castle of Bullingbrook in this County and bred according to the Discipline of those days in Camp and Court in both which he proved a good proficient By Nature he was made more to command then obey being ambitious cholerick and withal couragious cunning to catch careful to keep and industrious to improve all advantages Being netled with some injuries received from King Richard the second he complotted with a good party of the Nobility to depose him Miscarriages in his Government many by miâ—…managing more by the missucceeding of matters exposed him to just Exception besides his own Debauchery and how easily is a dissolute Government dissolved Having by the Murther of King Richard atcheived the Government to himself he reigned with much difficulty and opposition Though his Father was a great Patron He was a great Persecutor of the Wickliffites though not so much out of hatred to them as Love to himself thereby to be ingratiated with the Clergy then Potent in the Land When Duke he wore on his Head an Antick Hood which he cast not off when King so that his Picture is generally known by the Crown superadded thereon Lying on his Death-bed he was rather querulous then penitent much complaining of his Sufferings in keeping nothing bewayling his sin in getting the Crown Fire and Faggot was first kindled in his Reign in England to burn pardon the Prolepsis poor Protestants and happy had it been had they been quenched at his Death which happened Anno Dom. 1413. This Henry was the only Prince born in this Connty since the Conquest though a good Authour by mistake entituleth this County to another an ancienter Henry Yet so that he giveth him with one hand to it in his Book of Maps and takes him away with the other in his Chronicle J. Speed in his Description of Lincolne-sh Parag. 7. J. Speed in his Chronicle in the life of W. 〈◊〉 Pag. 436. This Shire triumpheth in the Births of Beaucleark K. Henry the first whom Selby brought forth Henry Fourth and Youngest Son of King William was born at Selby in York-Shire I believe Mr. Speed the Chronocler before Mr. Speed the Chorographer because therein concurring with other Authors Besides consult the Alphabetical Index of his Map and there is no Selby in this Shire we have therefore placed King Henry the First in York-shire and thought fit to enter this observation not to reprove others but least I be reproved my self Saints Here I make no mention of St. Botolph because there is no Constat though very much Probability of his English Nativity who lived at and gave the name to Botolphs Town corruptly Boston in this County GILBERT DE SEMPRINGHAM There born in this County was of noble extraction Joceline his Father being a Knight to whom he was eldest Son and Heir to a great Estate In Body he was very deformed but of subtile wit and great courage Travelling over into France there he got good Learning and obtained leave from the Pope to be Founder of those Epicoene and Hermaphrodite Convents wherein Monks and Nuns lived together as under one Roof but with partitions betwixt them Sure it was to him a comfort and credit which is confidently related by credible Authors to see 13. Convents 700. Monks 1100. Nuns Women out-superstition Men of his order being aged one hundred and six years He appointed the fair Convent at Sempringham his own rich Inheritance to be mother and prime residence of his new erected order He dyed anno 1189. HUGH was a Child born and living in Lincoln who by the impious Jews was stoln from his Parents and in Derision of Christ and Christianity to keep their cruel hands in ure by them crucified being about Nine years old Thus he lost his Life but got a Saintship thereby and some afterwards perswaded themselves that they got their cures at his Shrine in Lincoln However this made up the measure of the Sins of the Jews in England for which not long after they were ejected the land or which is the truer unwillingly willing they departed themselves And whilst they retain their old manners may they never return especially in this Giddy and unsettled age for fear more Christians fall sick of Judaisme then Jews recover in Christianity This Hugh was martyred Anno Dom. 1255. on the 27. of July Martyrs ANNE ASKEVVE Daughter of Sir William Askewe Knight was born at Kelsey in this County of her Piety and Patience when first wracked in the Tower then burnt in Smithfield I have largely treated in my Church History She went to Heaven in a Chariot of Fire July 16. 1546. Cardinals ROBERT SOMMERCOT There are two Villages North and South Sommercot in this 〈◊〉 and to my notice no where else in England fromone of which I presume he took his Nativity and Name Yet because Bale affirmeth Lawrence Sommercot his Brother or Kinsman born in the South of England we have affixed our Note of Dubitation But out of doubt it is he was a right learned man to whom Matthew Paris gives this short but thick commendation viz. Vir fuit discretus circumspectus omnibus amabilis merito gratiosus
so the Cathedral dedicated unto him in this County challengeth the Precedency of all in England for a Majestick Western Front of Columel-work But alas This hath lately felt the misfortune of other Fabricks in this kind Yea as in a Gangrean one member is cut off to preserve the rest so I understand the Cloysters of this Cathedral were lately plucked down to repair the Body thereof and am heartily glad God in his mercy hath restored the onely remedy I mean its lands for the Cure thereof As for Civil Structures Holdenby-house lately carried away the credit built by Sir Christopher Hatton and accounted by him the last Monument of his Youth If Florence be said to be a City so fine that it ought not to be shown but on Holy-days Holdenby was a House which should not have been shown but on Christmas-day But alas Holedenby-house is taken away being the Embleme of human happiness both in the beauty and brittleness short flourishing and soon fading thereof Thus one demolishing Hammer can undoe more in a day then ten edifying Axes can advance in a Month. Next is Burleigh-house nigh Stamford built by William Lord Cecil Who so seriously compareth the late state of Holdenby and Burleigh will dispute wâ—…th himself whither the Offices of the Lord Chancellour or Treasurer of England be of greater Revenues seeing Holedenby may be said to show the Seal and Burleigh the Purse in their respective magnificence proportionable to the power and plenty of the two great Officers that built them Withorpe must not be forgot the least of Noble Houses and best of Lodges seeming but a dim reflection of Burleigh whence it is but a Mile distant It was built by Thomas Cecil Earl of Exeter to retire to as he pleasantly said out of the dust whilst his great House of Burleigh was a sweeping Castle Ashby the Noble Mansion of the Earl of Northampton succeeds most beautifull before a casual fire deformed part thereof But seeing fire is so furious a plunderer that it giveth whatsoever it taketh not away the condition of this house is not so much to be condoled as congratulated Besides these there be many others no County in England yeilding more Noble men no Noble men in England having fairer habitations And although the Freestone whereof they be built keepeth not so long the white innocence as Brick doth the blushing modesty thereof yet when the fresh luster is abated the full state thereof doth still remain The Wonders There is within the Demeasnes of Boughton the Barony of the Right Honorable Edward Lord Mountague a Spring which is conceived to turn wood into stone The truth is this the coldness of the water incrustateth wood or what else falleth into it on every side with a stony matter yet so that it doth not transubstantiate wood into stone For the wood remaineth entire within untill at last wholy consumed which giveth occasion to the former erroneous relation The like is reported of a Well in Candia with the same mistake that Quicquid incidit lapidescit But I have seen in Sidney-colledge in Cambridge a Skull brought thence which was candied over with stone within and without yet so as the bone remained intire in the middle as by a casual breach thereof did appear This Skull was sent for by King Charles and whilst I lived in the house by him safely again returned to the Colledge being a Prince as desirous in such cases to preserve others propriety as to satisfie his own curiosity Medicinal Waters Wellingborough-well Some may conceive it called Wellingborough from a sovereign Well therein anciently known afterwards obstructed with obscurity and re-discovered in our days But Master Camden doth marr their mart avouching the ancient name thereof Wedlingburough However thirty years since a water herein grew very famous insomuch that Queen Mary lay many weeks thereat What benefit her Majesty received by the Spring here I know not this I know that the Spring received benefit from her Majesty and the Town got credit and profit thereby But it seems all waters of this kind have though far from the Sea their ebbing and flowing I mean in esteem It was then full tide with Wellingburough-well which ever since hath abated and now I believe is at low water in its reputation Proverbs The Mayor of Northampton opens Oysters with his Dagger This Town being 80 miles from the Sea Sea fish may be presumed stale therein Yet have I heard that Oysters put up with care and carried in the cool were weekly brought fresh and good to Althrope the house of the Lord Spencer at equal distance Sweeter no doubt then those Oysters commonly carried over the Alpes well nigh 300. miles from Venice to Viena and there â—…eputed far fetch'd and deer bought daintes to great persons though sometimes very valiant their savour Nor is this a wonder seeing Plinny tell us that our English Oysters did Romanis culinis servire Serve the Kitchings of Rome Pickled as some suppose though others believe them preserved by an ingenious contrivance Epicures bear their brains in there bowels and some conceive them carried in their shells But seeing one of their own Emperours gave for his Motto Bonus odor hâ—…stis melior Civis occisi Good is the smell of an Enemy but better the smell of a Citizen of Rome killed I say unto such a Roman-Nose stinking may be better then sweet Oysters and to their Palates we 'll leave them He that must eat a buttered Fagot let him go to Northampton Because it is the dearest Town in England for fuel where no Coles can come by Water and little Wood doth grow on Land Camden saith of this County in general that it is Silvis nisi in ulteriori citeriori parte minùs laetus And if so when he wrote fifty years since surely it is less wooddy in our age What reformation of late hath been made in mens judgments and manners I know not sure I am that deformation hath been great in trees and timber who verily believe that the clearing of many dark places where formerly plenty of wood is all the new light this age produced Pity it is no better provision is made for the preservation of woods whose want will be soonest for our fire but will be saddest for our water when our naval walls shall be decayed Say not that want of wood will put posterity on witty inventions for that supply seeing he is neither pious nor prudent parent who spends his patrimony on design that the industry and ingenuity of his son may be quick'ned thereby Princes ELIZABETH daughter of Sir Richard Woodevill by the Lady Jaquet his wife formerly the relict of John Duke of Bedford was born at Grafton Honour in this County in proof whereof many stronge presumptions may be produced Sure I am if this Grafton saw her not first a child it beheld her first a Queen when married to King Edward the fourth This Elizabeth was widow to Sir John Grey who
Manufactures Taunton Serges are eminent in their Kind being a fashionable wearing as lighter than Cloath yet thicker than many other Stuffs When Dionysius sacrilegiously plundred Jove his Statue of his Golden Coat pretending it too cold for Winter and too hot for Summer he bestowed such a vestimēt upō him to fit both Seasons They were much sent into Spain before our late War therewith wherein Trading long since complained of to be dead is now lamented generally as buried though hereafter it may have a resurrection The Buildings Of these the Churches of Bath and Wells are most eminent Twins are said to make but one Man as these two Churches constitute one Bishops See Yet as a Twin oft-times proves as proper a person as those of single Births So these severally equal most and exceed many Cathedrals in England We begin with Bath considerable in its several conditions viz. the beginning obstructing decaying repairing and finishing thereof 1 It was begun by Oliver King Bishop of this Diocess in the reign of Henry the Seventh and the West end most curiously cut and carved with Angels climbing up a Ladder to Heaven But this Bishop died before the finishing thereof 2 His Death obstructed this structure so that it stood a long time neglected which gave occasion for one to write on the Church-wall with a Char-coal O Church I wail thy woeful plight Whom King nor Card'nal Clark or Knight Have yet restor'd to ancient right Alluding herein to Bishop King who begun it and his four Successors in thirty five years viz. Cardinal Adrian Cardinal Wolsey Bishop Clark and Bishop Knight contributing nothing to the effectual finishing thereof 3 The decay and almost ruin thereof followed when it felt in part the Hammers which knocked down all Abbyes True it is the Commissioners profered to sell the Church to the Towns-men under 500 Marks But the Towns-men fearing if they bought it so cheape to be thought to cozin the King so that the purchase might come under the compasse of concealed lands refused the profer Hereupon the Glass Iron Bells and Lead which last alone amounted to 480 Tun provided for the finishing thereof were sold and sent over beyond the Seas if a ship-wrack as some report met them not by the way 4 For the repairing thereof collections were made all over the Land in the reign of Queen Elizabeth though inconsiderable either in themselves or through the corruption of others Onely honest Mr. Billet whom I take to be the same with him who was designed Executor to the Will of William Cecil Lord Burghley disbursed good sums to the repairing thereof and a Stranger under a fained name took the confidence thus to play the Poet and Prophet on this Structure Be blithe fair Kirck when Hempe is past Thine Olive that ill winds did blast Shall flourish green for age to last Subscribed Cassadore By Hempe understand Henry the Eight Edward the Sixth Queen Mary King Philip and Queen Elizabeth The Author I suspect had a Tang of the Cask and being parcel-popish expected the finishing of this Church at the return of their Religion but his prediction was verified in a better sense when his Church 5 Was finished by James Montague Bishop of this See disbursing vast sums in the same though the better enabled thereunto by his Mines at Mynedep so that he did but remove the Lead from the bowels of the Earth to the roof of the Church wherein he lies enterred under a fair Monument This Church is both spacious and specious the most lightsome as ever I beheld proceeding from the greatness of the Windows and whiteness of the Glass therein All I have more to add is only this that the parable of Jotham Judg. 9. 8. is on this Church most curiously wrought in allusion to the Christian Sirname of the first Founder thereof how the Trees going to choose them a King profered the place to the OLIVE Now when lately one OLIVER was for a time Commander in Chief in this Land some from whom more Gravity might have been expected beheld this Picture as a Prophetical Prediction so apt are English fancies to take fire at every spark of conceit But seeing since that Olive hath been blasted bottom his Root and Branches this pretended Prophecy with that observation the reason is withered away As for the Cathedral of Wells it is a greater so darker than that of Bath so that Bath may seem to draw devotion with the pleasantnesse Wells to drive it with the solemnity thereof and ill tempered their Minds who will be moved with neither The West Front of Wells is a Master-piece of Art indeed made of Imagiry in just proportion so that we may call them Vera spirantia signa England affordeth not the like For the West end of Excester beginneth accordingly it doth not like Wells persevere to the end thereof As for the Civil Habitations in this County not to speak of Dunstar Castle having an high ascent and the effect thereof a large prospect by Sea and Land Mountague built by Sir Edward Philips Master of the Roles is a most magnificent Fabrick Nor must Hinton St. George the House of the Lord Poulet be forgotten having every stone in the Front shaped Doule-wayes or in the form of a Cart-nail This I may call a Charitable Curiosity if true what is traditioned That about the reign of King Henry the Seventh the owner thereof built it in a dear year on purpose to imploy the more poor people thereupon The Wonders VVockey Hole in Mendip-hills some two miles from VVells This is an undergroundConcavity admirable for its spacious Vaults stony Walls creeping Labyrinths the cause being un-imaginable how and why the Earth was put in such a posture save that the God of Nature is pleased to descant on a plain hollowness with such wonderful contrivances I have been at but never in this Hole and therefore must make use of the description of a Learned eye Witness Entring and passing through a good part of it with many lights Among other many strange Rarities well worth the observing VVe found that water which incessantly dropped down from the Vault of the Rock though thereby it made some little dint in the Rock yet was it turned into the Rock it self As manifestly appeared even to the judgment of sense by the shape and colour and hardnesse It being at first of a more clear and glassie substance then the more ancient part of the Rock to which no doubt but in time it hath been and will be assimulated And this we found not in small pieces but in a very great quantity and that in sundry places enough to load many Carts From whence I inferre that as in this Cave so no doubt in many other where they searched the Rocks would be found to have increased immediately by the dropping of the water besides that increase they have from the Earth in the Bowels thereof which still continuing as it doth there can be no fear
the most marvellous It groweth ordinarily fifteen foot in length yea I read of one four and twenty foot long which may be true because as there are Giants amongst men so there are Giants amongst Giants which even exceed them in proportion The place whereon it groweth is low lying some Winters under water having hills round about it and a spacious sheep common adjoyning The soyl whereof by every hasty showre is brought down into this little medow which makes it so incredibly fruitfull This Grasse being built so many stories high from knot to knot lyeth matted on the ground whence it is cut up with sickles and bound into sheaves It is both Hay and Provender the joint-like knots whereof will fat swine Some conceive that the seed thereof transplanted would prosper plentifully though not to the same degree of Length in other places from whose judgement other husband-men dissent conceiving it so peculiar to this place that Ground and Grass must be removed both together Or else it mrst be set in a Parellel'd position for all the particuler advantages aforesaid which England will hardly afford So that nature may seem mutually to have made this Plant and this Place one for another Proverbs It is done secundum usum Sarum This Proverb coming out of the Church hath since inlarged it self into a civil use It began on this occasion Many Offices or forms of service were used in severall Churches in England as the Office of York Hereford Bangor c. which caused a deal of Confusion in Gods Worship untill Osmond Bishop of Sarum about the year of our Lord 1090. made that Ordinall or Office which was generally received all over England so that Churches thence forward easily understood one another all speaking the same words in their Liturgy It is now applyed to those persons which do and Actions which are formally and solemnly done in so Regular a way by Authentick Precedents and Paterns of unquestionable Authority that no just exception can be taken thereat Princes MARGARET PLANTAGENET Daughter to George Duke of Clarence and Isabel Nevile Eldest Daughter and Co-heir of Richard Nevile Earl of Warwick was born August 14. 1473. at Farrley-Castle in this County Reader I pray thee let her pass for a Princesse because Daughter to a Duke Neece to two Kings Edward the fourth and Richard the third Mother to Cardinal Reginale Poole But chiefly because she was the last liver of all that Royall Race which from their birth wore the names of Plantagenets By Sir Richard Poole a Knight of Wales and Cozen-Jerman to King Henry the seventh she had divers children whereof Henry Lord Mountague was the eldest he was Accused of Treason and this Lady his Mother Charged to be Privy thereunto by King Henry the eighth who as his father was something too slow was somewhat too quick in discovering Treasons as soon as if not before they were On the Scaffold as she stood she would not gratify the Executioner with a Prostrate Posture of her body Some beheld this her action as an argument of an erected soul disdaining pulingly to submit to an infamous death showing her mind free though her body might be forc'd and that also it was a demonstration of her innocence But others condemn'd it as a needless and unseasonable animosity in her who though suppos'd innocent before man for this fact must grant her self guilty before God whose Justice was the supreme Judge condemning her Besides it was indiscreet to contend where it was impossible to prevail there being no guard against the edge of such an axe but patience and it is ill for a soul to goe recking with anger out of this world Here happened an unequall contest betwixt Weakness and Strength Age and Youth Nakedness and Weapons Nobility and Baseness a Princess and an Executioner who at last draging her by the hair gray with age may truly be said to have took off her head seeing she would neither give it him nor forgive him the doing thereof Thus dyed this Lady Margaret Heir to the name and stout nature of Margaret Dutchess of Burgundy her Aunt and God-mother whose spirits were better proportioned to her Extraction then Estate for though by special Patent she was created Countess of Sarisbury she was restored but to a small part of the inheritance she was born unto She suffered in 23. year of the raign of K. Henry the eighth JANE SEYMORE Daughter to Sir John Seymoure Knight honourably descended from the Lords Beauchamps was as by all concurring probabilities is collected born at Wulfall in this County and after was married to King Henry the eight It is currantly traditioned that at her first coming to Court Queen Anne Bollen espying a Jewell pendant about her neck snatched thereat desirous to see the other unwilling to show it and causually hurt her hand with her own violence but it greived her heart more when she perceived it the Kings Picture by himself bestowed upon her who from this day forward dated her own declining and the others ascending in her husbands affection It appeareth plainly by a passage in the Act of Parliament that the King was not onely invited to his marriage by his own affections but by the Humble Petition and intercession of most of the Nobles of his Realme moved thereunto as well by the conveniency of her years as in respect that by her Excellent Beauty and Pureness of Flesh and Bloud I speak the very words of the Act it self she was apt God willing to Conceive Issue And so it proved accordingly This Queen dyed some days after the birth of Prince Edward her son on whom this Epitaph Phoenix Jana jacet nato Phoenice dolendum Saecula Phoenices nulla tulisse duas Soon as her Phoenix Bud was blown Root-Phoenix Jane did wither Sad that no age a brace had shown Of Phoenixes together Of all the Wives of King Henry she only had the happiness to dye in his full favour the 14. of Octob. 1337. and is buried in the quire of Windsor Chappel the King continuing in real mourning for her even all the Festival of Christmas Saints ADELME Son to Kenred Nephew to Ina King of the West-Saxons was bred in Forraign parts and returning home was Abbot of Malmesbury Thirty years a Person Memorable on severall Accounts 1. He was the first Englishman who ever wrote in Latine 2. He was the first that ever brought Poetry into England 3. The first Bishop of the See of Sherburn Bede giveth him a large commendation for his Learning the rather because he wrot a book for the reducing the Britons to observe Easter according to the Church of Rome Impudent Monkes have much abused his Memory with Shameless lyes and amongst the rest with a Wooden Miracle that a Carpenter having cut a Beam for his Church too short he by his Prayers stretched it out to the full proportion To this I may add another lye as clear as the Sun it self on whose
of Rome Take a tast of them Joannes Sarisburiensis in Polycratico Sedent in Ecclesia Romana Scribae Pharisaei ponentes onera importabilia in humeros hominum Ita debacchantur ejus Legati ac si ad Ecclesiam flagellandam egressus sit Satan a facie Domini Peccata populi comedunt eis vestiuntur in iis multipliciter luxuriantur dum veri adoratores in Spiritu adorant Patreâ—… Qui ab eorum dissentit Doctrina aut Haereticus judicatur aut 〈◊〉 Manifestet ergo seipsum Christus palà m faciat viam quá nobis est incedendum Scribes and Pharisees sit in the Church of Rome putting unbearable burthens on mens backs His Legates do so swagger as if Satan were gone forth from the Face of the Lord to scourge the Church They eat the sins of the people with them they are clothed and many ways riot therein whilst the true worshipers worship the Father in Spirit who so dissent from their Doctrine are condemned for Hereticks or Schismaticks Christ therefore will manifest himself and make the way plain wherein we must walk How doth our Author Luther it before Luther against their errors and vices the more secure for the generall opinion men had of his person all holding our John to be though no Prophet a Pious man King Henry the second made him Bishop of Chartres in France where he died 1182. RICHARD POOR Dean of Sarisbury was first Bishop of Chichester then of Sarisbury or Old Sarum rather He found his Cathedrall most inconveniently seated for want of water and other necessaries and therefore removed it a mile off to a place called Merry-field for the pleasant situation thereof since Sarisbury Where he laid the foundation of that Stately Structure which he lived not here to finish Now as the place whence he came was so dry that as Malmsbury saith miserabili commercio ibi aqua vaeneat by sad chaffer they were fain to give money for water so he removed to one so low and moist men sometimes upon my own knowledge would give money to be rid of the water I observe this for no other end but to show that all humane happiness notwithstanding often exchange of places will still be an Heteroclite and either have too much or too little for our contentment This Poor was afterwards removed to the Bishoprick of Durham and lived there in great esteem Mat. Paris characterizing him eximiae sanctitatis profundae scientiae virum His dissolution in a most pious and peaceable manner happened April 5. Anno Domini 1237. His Corps by his Will were brought and buried at Tarrent in Dorsetshire in a Nunnery of his own founding and some of his Name and probably Alliance are still extant in this County WILLIAM EDENDON was born at Edendon in this County bred in Oxford and advanced by King Edward the third to be Bishop of Winchester and Lord Treasurer of England During his managing of that Office he caused new coines unknown before to be made groats and half-groats both readier for change and fitter for charity But the worst was imminuto nonnihil pondere the weight was somewhat abated If any say this was an un-episcopal act know he did it not as Bishop but as Lord Treasurer the King his Master having all the profit thereby Yea succeeding Princes following this patern have sub-diminished their coin ever since Hence is it that our Nobility cannot maintain the port of their Ancestors with the same revenues because so many pounds are not so many pounds though the same in noise and number not the same in intrinsecal valuation He was afterward made Lord Chancellor and erected a stately Convent for Bonhomes at Edendon in this County the place of his Nativity valued at the Dissolution per annum at five hundred twenty one pounds twelve shillings five pence half penny Some condemn him for robbing Saint Peter to whom with Saint Swithin Winchester-Church was dedicated to pay all Saints collectively to whom Edendon-Covent was consecrated suffering his Episcopal Palaces to decay and drop down whilst he raised up his new foundation This he dearly payed for after his death when his Executors were sued for dilapidations by his successour William Wickham an excellent Architect and therefore well knowing how to proportion his charges for reparations who recovered of them one thousand six hundred sixty two pounds ten shillings a vast sum in that Age though paid in the lighter groats and half-groats Besides this his Executors were forced to make good the standing-stock of the Bishoprick which in his time was empaired viz. Oxen 1556. Weathers 4717. Ewes 3521. Lambes 3521. Swine 127. This Edendon sat in his Bishoprick twenty one years and dying 1366. lyeth buried on the South-side in the passage to the Quire having a fair Monument of Alabaster but an Epitaph of course stone I mean so barbarous that it is not worth the inserting RICHARD MAYO alias MAYHOWE was born nigh Hungerford in this County of good parentage whose Sur-name and Kindred was extinct in the last generation when the Heirs-general thereof were married into the Families of Montpesson and Grove He was first admitted in New-colledge and thence removed to Magdalens in Oxford where he became President thereof 27. years It argueth his abilities to any indifferent apprehension that so knowing a Prince as Henry the seventh amongst such plenty of Eminent Persons elected and sent him into Spain Anno 1501. to bring over the Lady Katharine to be married to Prince Arthur which he performed with all fidelity though the heavens might rather seem to Laugh at then Smile on that unfortunate marrying After his return he was rewarded with the Bishoprick of Hereford and having sat 11. years therein dyed 1516 and lyeth buried in his Church on the South-side of the high Altar under a Magnificent Monument Since the Reformation JOHN THORNEBOROUGH B. D. was born as I am credibly informed in the City of Salisbury bred in Magdalen-colledge in Oxford He did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and his Goodly Presence made him more acceptable to Queen Elizabeth preferring him Dean of York and Bishop of Lymbrick in Ireland where he received a most remarkable deliverance in manner as follweth Lying in an Old Castle in Ireland in a large room partitioned but with Sheets or Curtaines his Wife Children and Servants in effect an whole Family In the dead time of the night the floor over head being Earth and Plaister as in many places is used over-charged with weight fell wholly down together and crushing all to pieces that was above two foot high as Cupboards Tables Formes Stools rested at last on certain Chests as God would have it and hurt no living Creature In the first of King James 1603. he was consecrated Bishop of Bristoll and held his Deanery an Irish Bishoprick in commendam with it and from thence was translated to Worchester I have heard his skill in Chimistry much commended and he presented a
resumption thereof by Undertakers of as able Brains and Purses but more patience than the former as a hopeful fore-runner of better successe BRECKNOCK-SHIRE BRECKNOCK-SHIRE hath Radnor shire on the North Cardigan and Carmarthen-shires on the West 〈◊〉 shire on the South Hereford and Monmouth-shires on the East the length thereof being adjudged twenty eight the 〈◊〉 thereof twenty miles My Author saith that this County is not greatly to be praised or disliked of with which his Character the Natives thereof have no cause to be well pleased or much offended The plain truth is the fruitfulnesse of the Vallies therein maketh plentiful amends for the barrennesse of the Mountains and it is high time to give a check to the vulgar errour which falsely reporteth this County the worst in Wiles let it 〈◊〉 for me to say this is not it and which is it let others determine Nor doth it sound a little to the credit of this County that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the chiefe Town thereof doth at this present afford the title of an Eartl to James Duke of Ormond the first that ever received that Digniry Above four hundred years since a Daughter of Gilbert and Maud Becket and Sister to Tho. Becket was by King Henry the second bestowed in marriage on one Butler an English Gentleman Him King Henry sent over into Ireland and endeavouring to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 blood rewarded him wâ—…th large lands so that his posterity were created Earls of Ormond Now therefore we have cause to congratulate the return of this noble Family iâ—…to their Native Country of England and wish unto them the encrease of all 〈◊〉 therein Natural Commoditiâ—…s Otters Plenty of these Lutrae in Latine in Brecknock-meer A Creature that can dig and dive resident in the two clements of Earth and Water The 〈◊〉 where hee bites maketh his Teeth to mâ—…et and the Otter leaves little distance betwixt them He is as destructive to Fish as the VVoolf to Sheep See we here more is required to make fine Flesh than to have fine Feeding the Flesh of the Otter from his innate rankness being nought though his Diet be dainty I have seen a reclaimed Otter who in a quarter of an houre would present his Master with a brace of Carps Otter-VVooll is much used in the making of Beavers As Physicians have their Succedanea or Seconds which well supply the place of such Simples which the Patient cannot procure so the Otter is often in stead of the Bever since the BeaverTrade is much wasted in the West Indies their remnant retiring high into the Country and being harder to be taken Yea Otter-wooll is likely dayly to grow dearer if Prime Persons of the weaker Sex which is probable resume the wearing of Hais Brecknock-shire equalling her Neighbours in all General Commodities exceedeth them in Wonders In the Air. He that relateth Wonders walketh on the edge of an house if he be not careful of his footing down falls his credite this shall make me exact in using my Authors words informed by credible persons who had experimented it That their Cloaks Hats and Staves cast down from the top of an Hill called Mounch-denny or Cadier Arthur and the North-East Rock thereof would never fall but were with the air and wind still returned back and blown up again nor would any thing descend save a stone or some metalline substance No wonder that these should descend because besides the magnetical quality of the Earth their forcing of their way down is to be imputed to their united and intended gravity Now though a large cloak is much heavier than a little stone yet the weight thereof is diffused in several parts and fluttering above all of them are supported by the Clouds which are seen to rack much lower than the top of the Hill But now if in the like trial the like repercussion be not found from the toppes of other Mountains in Wales of equal or greater height we confesse our selves at an absolute losse and leave it to others to beat about to find a satisfactory answer Let me adde that waters in Scripture are divided into waters above and waters under the Firmament by the former men generally understand since the interpretation thereof relating to Coelum Aqueum is exploded by the judicious the water ingendred in the Clouds If so time was when the waters beneath were higher than the waters above namely in Noahs flood when the waters prevailed fifteen Cubits above the tops of the Mountains In the Water When the Meer Llynsavathan lying within two miles of Brecknock hath her frozen Ice first broken it maketh a monstrous noise to the Astonishment of the hearers not unlike to Thunder But till we can give a good cause of the old Thunder and the power of his Thunder who can understand we will not adventure on the disquisition of this new one In the Earth Reader pardon me a word of Earthquakes in general Seneca beholds them most terrible because most unavoidable of all earthly dangers In other frights Tempest Lightning Thunder c. we shelter our selves in the bowels of the Earth which here from our safest refuge become our greatest danger I have learned from an able * Pen that the frequency and fearfulnesse of Earthquakes gave the first occasion to that passage in the Letany From sudden death good Lord deliver us Now to VVales The Inhabitants of this County have a constant Tradition that where now the Meer Llynsavathan spreadeth its waters stood a fair City till swallowed up by an Earthquake which is not improbable First because all the High-ways of this County do lead thither and it is not likely that the Loadstone of a bare Lake should attract so much Confluence Secondly Ptolomy placeth in this Tract the City Loventrium which all the care of Master Cambden could not recover by any ruines or report thereof and therefore likely to be drowned in this Poole The rather because Levenny is the name of the River râ—…nning through it Saints Saint KEYNE CANOCH CADOCK The first of these was a Woman here put highest by the curtesie of England the two later Men all three Saints and children to Braghan King builder and namer of Brecknock This King had four and twenty Daughters a jolly number and all of them Saints a greater happinesse though of them all the name onely of Saint Keyne surviveth to posterity Whether the said King was so fruitful in Sons and they as happy in Saintship I do not know onely meeting with these two Saint Canoch and Saint Cadock whereof the later is reported a Martyr all flourishing about the year of our Lord 492. and had in high veneration amongst the people of South-VVales I know not whether it be worth the reporting that there is in Cornwall near the Parish of St. Neots a Well arched over with the robes of four kinds of Trees VVithy Oak Elm and Ash dedicated to Saint Keyne aforesaid The reported vertue of