that the ancient Iselanders were men of the same temper manners and religion with the Norwegians from whom they were descended i. e. men of vast stature strong and valiant great duellers and pyrats But since Christianity was introduced into their Isle none of those barbarous qualities which that Dutch Satyrist lays to their charge can justly be reckoned among the catholick enormities of the Island ' tho 't is possible some few may still be found among several thousands that to this day retain a small tincture of the old Idolatrous superstition and ungentile demeanor of their ancestors Their temperance in meat and drink and the naturally strong constitution of their bodies enable them to last out commonly to a good old age tho I cannot but refer Olaus Magnus and Blefkenius to the Readers sentence the former of which tells us the Iselanders live ordinarily three hundred years the latter with more modesty and caution which in him are rare qualities reports that he saw a man in Iseland who told him that he had then lived two hundred years By the account which Blefkenius gives of the habitations of the Iselanders Habitations it must needs be concluded that either he never travell'd amongst them whatever he pretends to or else he mistook their houses cover'd with turf and grown over with grass for small hillocks and rampires For he says all their houses are underground and they their kine horses and sheep have all one cave Anciently the Iselanders like the Germans in Tacitus's days dwelt far apart according as every man took an affection to this field or that fountain this wood side or that plain They used neither mortar nor tyles but the whole fabrick of their houses consisted of timber and turf Their windows were most commonly in the roof seldom in the walls of their cottages Some of their Nobility had more stately Palaces built of large pieces of timber brought hither out of Groneland and Norway At this day their houses are most of wood cover'd over with turf except in their Cities Hola and Skalholt where instead of tyles they make use of fir-boards But since the trade between them and Norway began to decrease their buildings have lost much of their ancient splendour and the neatest of their Villages run daily to ruine Besides their traffick with foreign Nations is much abated and they seem to draw towards that degree of meanness which Krantzius speaks of when he tells us The Iselanders and their Cattel have the same lodging Arngrim confesses that upon the South-shore of the Isle near Skalholt there are three small Parishes in which the inhabitants are destitute both of wood and turf the only fuel of the country The poorer sort of these being not able to purchase fuel from abroad are constrained in the extremity of winter to betake themselves to a corner of their Ox-stalls and there borrow heat from their Cattel It is manifest from the ancient Laws of Iseland whatever Munster Frisius Diet. and Blefkenius say to the contrary that upon the first inhabiting of this Isle the ground was till'd and several sorts of grain sowed and reap'd 'T is a malicious slander to say as those Authors do That the Islanders feed upon carrion and unsavoury meats and want the use of bread The best and happiest of Nations are now and then upon some extraordinary occasions driven to harsh extremities in meat and drink and forced in spight of former plenty to submit to a famine And it may reasonably be supposed that the Seas about Iseland bound up by a long continued frost may sometimes bring the like calamities upon this Isle who have the greatest part of their food out of these waters But setting aside all such accidental casualties and extraordinary dispensations of Gods providence Iseland is as well provided for all manner of necessaries in meats and drink as any other Country whatever For the Iselanders have generally considerable stocks of Kine and Sheep besides large piles of dry'd fish of several sorts 'T is true a great part of the inhabitants want bread and salt which are reckon'd two of the great requisites in furnishing out one of our Southern tables But he that shall seriously consider the vast strength and healthy constitutions which these usually enjoy and the old age they ordinarily arrive at will be apt to conclude that dry'd fish would prove as trusty a staff of life as bread if we were used to it and that salt may probably be convenient in an hot Country to preserve our meat from corrupting but needs not be made use of at the table In short the Islanders have all manner of necessary and substantial food as Beef Mutton Geese Hens Partridges and all sorts of fowl They want only the delicacies of sauces which other Countries enjoy and the sharpness of their air furnishes them with stomachs which easily supply that defect The most general drink used amongst them is Whey Drink which is commonly so good that an ounce of it will very well bear half an ounce of water Sometimes they drink a kind of Mead made of a little Barley flower and an Honey-comb boiled in water Another liquor they have which is squeezed out of a certain reddish berry peculiar to this Isle The ancient Iselanders used to import Beer from Denmark Scotland Norway England and other foreign Countries but for many years last past the inhabitants have not been able to maintain any considerable commerce with these Nations and upon the decay of trade are forc'd to content themselves with such liquors as their own Land affords How poor and mean soever these liquors may seem to Southern palats used to the juice of the Grape yet with these the ancient Iselanders could make merry and keep banquets and revellings with the mean fare before-mentioned What grandeur their public entertainments wanted in the delicacy of the viand and richness of the liquor was made out in the length of their feasts and number of their guests Thus we read that Theodore and Thorwald brethren and Citizens of Hialtaedat in North Iseland solcmnizing the funerals of their father Hialta entertained twelve hundred persons for fourteen days together at a banquet and at their departure presented the chief of their guests with gifts answerable to their qualities After the same rate and for as long a time Olaus Pa a West Islander and his brethren entertained nine hundred men But I know not whether this be an instance of the generosity and gallantry or not rather prodigality of these people For the Northern Nations are generally strangely lavish in their entertainments at Weddings and Burials insomuch that 't is grown a proverb in some of those Countries Pay for thy fathers Coffin before thou thinkest of buying a Cradle meaning that the entertainments at the burial of a father and marriage of a new wife if they come together are sufficient to ruine a man in his estate and make his heir a beggar Before the
good huswifery and to look after their dairies or else imployed in spinning weaving or sowing whilst the men according to their several qualities follow their Husbandry Merchandiseing or the more weighty concerns of Church and State The Pesantry live in great servitude to their Lords whose dominions they may not quit without their permission if they were born or have inhabited three years therein those that do so are certainly hanged if taken The Nobles are very much addicted to travel as admiring forreign Countries more then their own which is the reason that they greedily and easily learn the languages of those Nations they affect And they esteem it no small commendation of their ingenuity to introduce something of the new habits and customs of the people with whom they have convers'd For tho they are very docible and easily attain what they give their minds to yet they rather set themselves to learn the inventions of others then to invent any thing new of their own Neither indeed are they so fit for Mechanic as for learned Arts to which they therefore more apply themselves as appears by the many eminent Divines Historians Mathematicians and Philosophers that have flourished in Poland witness Stanislaus Hosius Cardinal and Legat at the Council of Trent Matthias a Michovia Johannes Dglugossus and Martinus Cromerus their excellent Historians Johannes Zamoscius their great General and Chancelor of the Kingdom excelling no less in most parts of learning then he did in military conduct Nicolaus Copernicus the famous Astronomer Martinus Smiglecius the Logician Abr. Bzovius who hath continued Baronius's Annals with many others whose works are much esteemed in forreign countreys And doubtless the Learned would have been obliged to more of their nation had not their writings perisht for want of Printing but lately received amongst them Physick also begins to come in request since even in these parts the modern luxury in diet is attended with more diseases then the homely fare of former Ages Their language is a dialect of the Slavonian Language and not so copious as many others It is difficult to write and read because of the multitude of Consonants joined with one Vowel yet the harshness is much corrected in speaking for they pronounce them as if mixt with Vowels They have borrowed most of their terms of art for trades and instruments from the Germans of which nation there are many Artisans and Merchant among them and some Towns and Villages chiefly speak the German language Hot Baths are very much used in this Country Baths especially in Winter and are frequented by both sexes though in places apart from one another Their Habit differs according to the condition Habits age and quality of the person and of late they much affect new fashions which are often brought in by the Soldiery in imitation of those Nations against whom they have been victorious The women also have the same variety only they come nearer the dress of men then in most other Nations The antient diet of the Rusticks was Milk Diet. Cheese Fish and Herbs now Beef Veal and Mutton The Tables of the Nobility and Citizens are furnished with all sorts of dainties wherein they use great store of Spice and Sugar And indeed luxury in diet and apparel prevails more and more amongst them every day The common drinks of the country are Beer Drinks and Mead boil'd with Hops Besides which they use great quantities of Aqua-vitae made by infusing wheat in water for some days and then distilling off the Spirit and mixing it with Sugar and hot Spices The Nobility and Merchants here drink wine as plentifully as in other places imported from Hungary Moravia the Rhine and Gascogny The money peculiar to Poland is coined in such small pieces that 't is very troublesome receiving Money or paying out any round sum in it The Gross is a little piece of copper mix'd with silver valued at three half-pence English The Attine at four pence half-penny Their Trigross and Segross both of pure silver the one three times the other six times the value of a Gross But the most currant money in Poland at this time is forreign coin brought in chiefly tho not in great plenty by the Hungarian German and Italian Merchants for the Commodities of the Countrey which are Rie Wheat Barley Oats and other Pulse Flax Hops Hides Tallow tann'd Leather divers sorts of Furrs brought first out of Muscovy but dress'd and vended here Honey Wax Amber Pitch Pot-ashes Masts and Planks The Horses also of Poland for their swiftness hardiness and easy pace are much coveted by Foreigners Besides all these it supplies the neighbouring countreys with vast numbers of Oxen and Sheep To which must be added the Salt-pits whence springs the greatest revenue the King of Poland has The riches of Poland consist in the commodities of the countrey already mention'd Traffick which though they are of several sorts and general use yet bring but little money into the kingdom being counterpoised by the incredible quantity and richer variety of foreign merchandize so that they hardly suffice to pay for the Cloth Silk Jewels Tapistry the Fruit Spice Salt-fish Wine Tin and Steel brought in from England Flanders Portugal and Spain c. But to say the truth the people are neither industrious nor addicted to trade the Nobility being forbid it by their own constitutions upon the forfeiture of their Honor and the Commonalty for the most part wanting estates sufficient to promote it Besides those of better fortunes spend too much of their revenues in costly apparel and furnishing their tables by which means instead of saving and laying up they become very poor or at least always in a wanting condition To which we may add that their Countrey lyes not commodiously for traffick not having the advantage of any considerable Port Town Dantzick only excepted The chief strength of Poland consists in their Cavalry which is very numerous and readily raised Military Strength the Nobility being bound by the Laws of the Land to attend the King in all expeditions for the security of the Kingdom In such cases the King sends his summons-into all the Palatinates which are proclamed three times and at a months distance from one another Upon the third Proclamation the Nobility are obliged to repair to the paricular rendezvous of their own Palatine who leads them to the general rendezvous and in regard they are exempted from all other burthens they bear their own charges all the time of the war If there be any that refuse to appear their goods are presently confiscated to the use of the Kings table They all serve on Horseback and are enrolled above 200000 yet in as much as they have very few fortified places on any side for the security of their frontiers they can hardly draw together above 100000 without leaving their provinces too naked But these forces when assembled serve only for the defence of their countrey and
from Bructeri an antient people of Germany who say they conquered and peopled these parts The most probable opinion is that the Prussians are the same with the Borusci a people formerly inhabiting some parts of Russia about the Raphaean mountains whence they were driven out by excessive snows and cold For to omit the affinity there is among the three words Borusci Borussi and Prussi the antient language of the Prussians is onely a dialect of the Russian as we shall have occasion to shew by and by Who were the first inhabitants of Prussia is harder to find out then the etymology of the word Many as well ancient as modern Geographers think Eridanus and the Insulae Electrides so famous for the Electrum or Amber carryed all Greece and Italy over were in this country But who in those days peopled the land they dare not determine The most likely story is that the Venedi or Venedae a large branch of the Slavonian Nation were here seated This seems plain from the words of Ptolomy who tells us the Venedi upon the Vistula had on the South the Phinni and Gythones And Cluverius confirms the assertion from several places in Liefland which to this day retain the names of Wenden Windaw Vschewende c. Hence came the mistake of the Latin Poets who having read that Electrum was brought from the Venedi confounded these people with the Venetians of Italy and fancied Padus was the ancient Eridanus Besides the Venedi the Galindae and Sudini are here placed by Ptolomy and Hartknoch proves from the idolatrous worship used formerly in Prussia that the Goths were sometime masters of the country The Aelii and Aelvaeones reckon'd by some writers as the ancient inhabitants of Prussia were Goths At this day the Prussians are a kind of heterogeneous people made up of Swedes Polanders Germans and others of the neighbouring Nations The whole country is bounded on the North with the Baltick Sea for fifty German or two hundred English miles together on the East with Lithvania and Podlachia on the South with Masovia on the West with the Vistula which separates it from Cassubia and part of Pomeren The chief Rivers in it are the Vistula Nemeni Cronon called by the Natives at this day Mimel and near the mouth of it Russ Nogat Elbing Vuser Passar Alla Pregol Ossa Vrebnicz Lice and Lave By the help of these and the convenient havens which are every-where found upon the Baltick shore all the commodities of the country are easily exported and foreign wares brought in The inhabitants are generally strong-body'd and long liv'd Adam Brememsis in his description of Denmark and the Northern parts of Europe tells us the Prussians were grey-ey'd and yellow-hair'd The same opinion the ancients had of all the Northern Nations whence Sidonius Apollinaris speaking of the Heruli who doubtless came out of this country saith Hic glaucis Herulus genis vagatur Imos Oceani colens recessus Algoso prope concolor profundo And Ausonius speaking of Bissula a Swabish Virgin taken captive by the Romans says of her Sic Latiis mutata bonis Germana maneret Vt facies oculos caerula flava comis But since the Prussians have mix'd themselves with other Nations and admitted of the modish luxury of the rest of the European countries they are neither so healthy nor of the same complexion as formerly The apparel of the Prussian-Gentry is not much different from tho not altogether so gaudy as that of the more Southern Nations The Rusticks wear after the fashion of their forefathers long and strait coats of course wool or leather 'T is reckon'd an argument of more then ordinary riches if a Yeoman be able to purchase an holiday Suit of course English cloth Tho the Venedi as Tacitus witnesses were the first of the Scythian race that forsook their waggons which their ancestors were wont to live in and begun to build houses yet their successors are not yet arrived at any great curiosity in Architecture Near the Vistula indeed which is the ancient seat of the Venedi the houses are magnificent in comparison of the wooden huts which you meet with towards the wild confines of Lithvania Tacitus tells us the Phenni who dwelt in these parts had no other shelter from the injuries of the weather and wild beasts then the boughs of trees twisted together And to this day the invention is not much improved for the rude commonalty have yet no other habitation then hovels made of stakes interwoven with rods and cover'd with earth at best a little fern The many incursions which have been made into this country upon the several late quarrels of the Dukes of Brandenburgh with the Polander and Swede have forced them to raise some Castles and Fortifications of stone but otherwise a stone-house is as rare as a coat of English Freeze Nor is there any greater advancement made in their lodgings for the ancient Prussians lay on the ground or sometimes on the skins of beasts and these sleep on straw They are naturally content with spare diet and more given to sloth then gluttony or drunkenness The most ordinary food they have is fish their land abounding with great store of Rivers and Lakes to the number as they have been formerly reckon'd by some of their Monks of two thousand thirty and seven They never used to eat herbs or any manner of roots before the Teutonick order came among them So that it seems not so natural to man if we may judge of mans nature by the actions of these men who had never yet studyed luxury in variety of meat and drink to feed upon the fruits of the earth as Aristotle in his Oeconomicks would perswade us The drinks used heretofore in Prussia as well as the neighbouring Countries were water Mares-milk mixed sometimes with blood and Mead. This last is still much in use among them and made in such quantities that they can afford to send it into other Nations From the Germans they have learned the art of brewing beer They have been alwaies and are still both men and women much given to drunkenness seldome or never keeping holiday without a fit of it and judging they have not made a friend welcome enough except the whole family be drunk in the entertainment TRACTUUM BORUSSIA circum Gedanum et Elbingam ab incolis WERDER appellati cum adiuncta NERINGIA nova et elaboratissima delineatio Authore Olao Ioannis Gotho 〈…〉 To the â—orp WILLIAM PEACHEY Esq of New Grovâ— in SUssex This Mapp is Hum bly Dedicated The Prussians as we have said had little or no knowledge of the use of mony before the arrival of the Teutonick order among them in the year 1230. These men coming out of Germany brought with them the coin of their Country Among the rest of their peices of mony the broad Bohemian Gross was long currant both in Prussia and Poland But not judging that small stock they had brought with them sufficient to furnish the Country with
conceive the unreasonable dimensions of some of our Northern forefathers We cannot imagine Stature that such big bon'd fellows as these should be cocker'd in the Cradle or nursed with that tenderness which the formal luxury of our Age requires And accordingly the foremention'd Authors say that their women seldom or never made use of a Midwife but every one made shift to deliver her self and as soon as her short travel was over return'd unconcernedly to her employment As soon as ever the child was born the mother dip'd it all over in-cold water to harden it Some Commentators think Virgil understood the Germans in that Distich of his Durum a stirpe genus Natos ad flumina primum Deferimus saevoque gelu duramus undis Tho others fancy that he rather speaks of the Spartans But however Sidonius speaks downright of the ancient Dutch-men Excipit hic natos glacies matris ab alvo Artus infantum molles nec Cimbrica durat Frideric Tileman an ingenious German writer rejects the opinion of Julian Nonnus and others who report that the reason of casting young children into the Rhine of which custom we have said something before was to try by their swimming or sinking whether they were lawfully begotten or bastards He allows of the story but thinks the design was rather to inure their infants to cold and to teach them courage Ortelius says they used to place the infant on a Shield and so commit it to the River Upon the first discovery of the innermost parts of Germany to the Romans Clothes the inhabitants wore little or no clothes the young people used to go stark naked the elder sort were all men and women alike habited but both sexes so meanly clad that their wild beasts skins their Coats being seldom made of better stuff reached no lower then their Navels and never cover'd their nakedness Some of the better sort wore little short Woollen Mantles in which such as were descended of a noble Family had their Coats of Arms wrought in colours and sometimes in Gold or Silver But such pieces of gallantry were I suppose first brought in amongst them upon their acquaintance with the Romans Others had a kind of Suit and Coat all of one piece which reached as far as the middle of their legs but wanted Sleeves Such as to this day are worn in the Highlands of Scotland and some parts of Schwaben Those that wore Shoes for the common people used no such thing but went barefoot had a kind of Sandals made of a Badgers-skin or other rough untann'd Leather The Nobility and rich Yeomanry had small Bracelets of Gold about their Arms and Rings on their Fingers They had seldom any other Bed then the Earth Beds which sometimes they strew'd with Hay or the Leaves of Trees The more fashionable sort lay upon the Skins of Dogs Wolves or Bears And from this custom the Germans still retain the word Barenhauter or Bearskinner as a nick-name of as great reproach and contumely as can be put upon any man which seems at first to have signified as much as a lazy loytering fellow that never stirr'd from off his Bears-skin Tho the German Cookery be doubtless much different from what it was in former days Diet. yet their Victuals seems to have been almost the same in all Ages We find the Ancients fed upon Bread wild and tame Flesh of all sorts especially Pork Butter Fruits c. They drank Water Milk and Beer which last Cluverius tells us was a drink peculiar and almost natural to the Germans Some indeed that liv'd on the borders of Gallia drank Wine but this was only of late years For they were utter strangers to that sort of liquor before the Emperor Probus taught them to plant Vines Julius Cesar says of the ancient Schwabes Vinum ad se omnino importari non sinunt quod ea re ad laborem ferendum remollescere homines atque effoeminari arbitrantur i. e. They will not suffer any man to import Wine into their Country looking upon that liquor as a thing which strangely weakens and effeminates those that drink it In their public Feasts and Entertainments they used a great deal of freedom and jollity Feasts No man was to bring his Wife to any of these Revels nor his Son before the twentieth year of his age They sat commonly on the ground in a semicircle for the convenience of the Waiters The chief Man or Master of the Feast sat in the middle and the next honourable places were on his right and left hand If any man wanted a stomach answerable to his allowance of victuals 't was ordinary to pouch his Commons till the morrow They had never more then one Knife in a Family which hung in a certain constant place where any Guest could fetch it when he had met with a morsel too tough for his teeth for otherwise if possible they devour'd their meat without cutting The Commonalty seldom or never married more then one wife Marriages but the Princes and Nobility who were able to maintain more had the liberty to marry as many as they pleased Tacitus gives this account of the Rites and Solemnities used in their Marriages Dotem non uxor marito sed uxori maritus offert Intersunt parentes propinqui munera probant munera non ad delicias muliebres quaesita nec quibus nova nupta comatur sed boves frenatum equum scutum cum framea gladioque In haec munera uxor accipitur atque invicem ipsa armorum aliquid viroaffert c. i. e. It is here a fashion for the man to give his wife and not the woman her husband a portion The Relations of both parties are present to examine and approve of the Dowry which does not consist of such trinkets as young woers use to present to their Mistresses or Brides make use of in their wedding-dress but some Oxen a bridled Horse a Shield Spear and Sword These the new married woman receives from her Bridegroom to whom she again presents some sort of weapons c. And how inviolably they kept their marriage-vows the same Historian can inform us Septa pudicitia agunt nullis spectaculorum illecebris nullis conviviorum irritationibus corruptae And in another place Severa illic matrimonia And again Paucissima in tam numerosa gente adulteria Where this Italian seems strangely surprized with the admirable chastity of so populous a Nation and wonders at the more then ordinary strait-lac'd modesty of their Matrons which would not suffer them to indulge themselves the pleasure of seeing a Play or dancing with a friend at a Wake The very name of Germans War as before explain'd would testifie that they were a warlike people tho nothing of their valiant exploits were to be met with upon record But Florus can tell us in what a consternation the Roman Soldiers were when they first thought of giving Battel to the Germans
return'd promoters of Puritanism and rebellious Principles They arriv'd at Francfurt in June A. D. 1554 where by the favour of John Glauberge an Alderman of the City they were permitted the free exercise of their Religion in a Church formerly assign'd to the French Protestants Their chief Ring-leaders were Whittingham Williams Goodman Wood and Sutton who before they began to instruct their flocks took upon them to reform the Liturgy and Discipline of the Church of England The Surplice and Litany were cashier'd as rags of the Whore of Babylon and the Responsals laid aside as formal pieces of canting which disturb'd the due course of Divine Worship In short the whole Liturgy except the Lessons and Psalms was rejected as savouring too much of Rome and Antichrist Instead of the Magnificat Nunc dimittis c. they sung so many Stanza's of Sternhold's Rithms After Sermon they had a prayer for all states and conditions of men more particularly for the Church of England meaning their own Tribe in imitation of our prayer for the Church Militant and then concluded with The Peace of God c. The noise of this upstart Church wherewith Dr. Scory Bishop of Chichester now Superintendent at Embden Grindal Sandys and Haddon at Strasburg and Horn Chambers and Parkhurst at Zurick had refused to have communion drew Knox the Scotch Incendiary from Geneva in hopes of making a better market here then he could do in Switzerland Here he arriv'd about the latter end of September and immediately took upon him the Superintendency of the Church Whittingham and the other Divines submitting themselves to his Apostleship and Government This was highly resented by the Divines of Strasburg and Zurick who were well acquainted with Knox's principles and knew of what dangerous consequence the promotion of such a Hotspur was like to prove Whereupon Gryndal and Chambers were sent to Francfurt to endeavour a composure of differences and a reunion of all the English Protestants But their endeavours prov'd successless and vain tho they proposed that the substance of the English Liturgy being retain'd there might be by a general consent an omission of some ceremonies and offices in it allow'd of For Knox and Whittingham were as zealously bent against the substance as circumstantials of the Book In the midst of these confusions Dr. Cox Dean of Westminster and a principal composer of the Liturgy in King Edward the Sixth's days comes to Francfurt attended with a great many more English Exiles Upon his first arrival he causes one of his company to read the Litany in the Pulpit and not long after got Knox expell'd the Town for publishing some treasonable expressions against the Emperor Having thus worsted his adversary he was resolv'd to follow the blow which he did so effectually as to procure an Order from the Common Council of the City requiring all the English Protestants to be conformable to the Discipline of their Church as contain'd in the Book of Common Prayer But Cox tho at present Master of the Field was not able to appease the dissatisfied Brethren who follow'd Knox to Geneva and there set up the profession of their former Schismatical Tenents In short these scandalous ruptures first begun at Francfurt and afterwards carried on at Geneva occasion'd the irrecoverable discredit of our Church beyond Seas and were the first seeds of those lamentable animosities which to this day threaten our destruction The Territory of Francfurt which is under the subjection of the Citizens and Magistrates of the Town is bounded on the East with the County of Hanaw Territory on the South with the Landgraviate of Darmstat on the West with the Archbishopric of Mentz and on the North with the County of Wetteraw The soil is generally cover'd with Woods or Vineyards and there is little of arable or pasture ground in it The inhabitants of this Country are a laborious sort of people Inhabitants applying themselves chiefly to the planting of Vineyards and making Wine The poor people sell off their Wine and drink water having seldom the happiness to taste a draught of Beer It was indeed anciently a proverb in Germany Sachs Bayr Schwab und Franck Die lieben all den Tranck i. e. The Saxons Bavarians Swabes and Francks Are all inclin'd to excessive drinking But now adays that piece of debauchery is laid aside in Franconia and you shall seldomer meet with a drunkard here then in any other part of Germany The ancient Francks were men exceedingly plain and careless in their habit whence the Germans to this day say of any thing that 's plain and ordinary 't is gut Alt Franckisch but the case is alter'd and the modern Francfurters are rather foppish then slovenly in their Apparel In this they are still imitators of their Ancestors that they are a stout and hardy people which is enough to keep up that honour and repute which their Ancestors have got in foreign Nations The Asians call all the Europeans Francks and the Mahometans give the Western Christians the same name The Abyssines in Africa as Vagetius witnesses call the other part of the Christian World Alfrangues and the Country they inhabit i.e. Europe and some parts of Asia Francia The Principality of HENNEBERG HENNEBERG was formerly no more then a bare County the Earls whereof were first advanced to the honour of Princes of the Empire by the Emperor Henry VII in a public Convention or Diet of all the Estates of the Empire in the year 1310. The first of these Princes was Berthold surnam'd the Wise who was succeeded by Henry This Prince married his Daughter to Frideric Marquise of Misnia bestowing on her for a Dowry the County of Coburg The last Prince of this Line was George Ernest after whose death which hapned in the year 1583 the County of Coburg with the whole Principality of Henneberg fell into the hands of the Elector of Saxony 'T is a populous and fruitful Country 〈◊〉 bounded on the East with the Forests and Mountains of Thuringen on the South with the Bishopric of Bamberg on the West with the Diocess of Wurtzburg and on the North with the Territories annex'd to the Abbey of Fulda The Castle or Palace of Henneberg whence the Principality has its name is seated on the top of a Hill not far from the City Meiningen but has nothing in it remarkable SCHLEUSINGEN 〈◊〉 which has its name from the River Schleuss on which 't is seated is accounted the chief City in the County tho perhaps not in the Principality of Henneberg 'T is famous for a Gymnasium built here by the last Prince of Henneberg George Ernest A. D. 1577. 'T was for some time the chief Residence of the Earls and Princes of this Country many of whose monuments are still to be seen in the great Church Besides this the Towns of Romhilt Meinungen and Koningshoven challenge the name of Cities but very ill deserve that character We have already given a description of