in with Shropp shire on the Eastside with Stafford-shire and Darby-shire on the North with Lancashire and on the West with Denbigh and Flint-shires Toward the North-West it runneth farre into the sea with a long cantle or Promontory which being enclosed within two Creekes receiveth the Ocean on both sides entring into the land into which two Creekes also all the Rivers of this Shire doe discharge themselves Into that Creeke which is more Westerne passeth the River Dee that divideth the country from Denbigh-shire into that on the Eastside both Wever which runneth through the mids of the Shire and Mersey also that parteth it from Lancashire issue themselves Neither see I any better way of describing this County than if I follow the very tracts of these Rivers For all the places of greatest note are situate by the sides of them But before I enter into any particular description I will first propose out of Lucian the Monke thus much in commendation of Ches-shire for he is a rare Author and lived a little after the Conquest If any man be desirous saith hee either fully or as neere as may bee to treat of the Inhabitants according to the disposition of their manners in respect of others that live in sundry places of the Realme They are found to bee partly different from the rest of English partly better and partly equall unto them But they seeme especially the best point to bee considered in generall triall of manners in feasting freindly at meat cheerefull in giving entertaiment liberall soone angry but not much and as soone pacified lavish in words impatient of servitude mercifull to the afflicted compassionate toward the poore kinde to their kinred spary of their labour void of dissimulation and doublenesse of heart nothing greedy in eating farre from dangerous practises yet by a certaine licentious liberty bold in borowing many times other mens goods They abound in Woods and pastures they are rich in flesh and Cattaile confining on the one side upon the Welsh Britans and by a long entercourse and transfusion of their manners for the most part like unto them This also is to be considered in what sort the Country of Chester enclosed upon one side with the limite of the Wood Lime by a certaine distinct priviledge from all other Englishmen is free and by the Indulgences of Kings and Excellencies of Earles hath beene wont in Assemblies of the people to attend upon the Earles sword rather than the Kings Crowne and within their precinct to heare and determine the greatest matters with more liberty Chester it selfe is a place of receit for the Irish a neighbour to the Welsh and plentifully served with Corne by the English Finely seated with Gates anciently built approoved in hard and dangerous difficulties In regard of the River and prospect of the eye together worthy according to the name to be called a City garded with watch of holy and religious men and through the mercy of our Saviour alwaies fensed and fortified with the mercifull assistance of the Almightie The River Dee called in Latin Deva in British Dyffyr-dwy that is the water of Dwy breeding very great plenty of Salmons ariseth out of two fountaines in Wales and thereof men thinke it tooke the name for Dwy in their tongue signifieth Two Yet others observing also the signification of the word interpret it Black-water others againe Gods water or Divine water But although Ausonius noteth that a Spring hallowed to the Gods was named Diuvona in the ancient Gaules tongue which was all one with the British and in old time all Rivers were reputed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Descending from Heaven yea and our Britans yeelded divine honour unto Rivers as Gildas writeth yet I see not why they should attribute Divinity to this River Dwy above all others The Thessalians as we reade gave to the River Paeneus divine honour for the pleasantnesse thereof the Scythians to Danubius for the largenesse the Germans to Rhene because it was counted a judge in the question of true and undefiled wedlocke But wherefore they should impose a divine name upon this River I see no reason as I said before unlesse peradventure because now and then it changed the Chanell and thereby foreshewed a sure token of Victory to the Inhabitants upon it when they were in hostility one with another according as it inclined more to this side or to that after it had left the Chanell for thus hath Giraldus Cambrensis recorded who in some sort beleeved it Or else because they observed that contrary to the wonted manner of other Rivers upon the fall of much raine it arose but little and so often as the South winde beateth long upon it it swelleth and extraordinarily overfloweth the grounds adjoyning Peradventure also the Christian Britans thought the water of this River to be holy For it is written that when they stood ready to joyne battaile with the English Saxons and had kissed the earth they dranke also very devoutly of this River in memoriall of Christs most sacred and pretious bloud But d ee which seemeth to rush rather than to run out of Wales no sooner is entred into Cheshire but he passeth more mildely with a slower streame by BONIUM in some written copies of Antonine BOVIUM a City that had been of great name in that age and afterward a famous Monastery Of the Chore or quire whereof it was called by the Britans Bon-chor and Banchor of the ancient English 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Banchor and among many good and godly men it fostered and brought up as some write that most wicked Arch-heretick Pelagius who injuriously derogating from the grace of God troubled a long time the West Church with his pestiferous Doctrine Prosper Aquitanus in this Verse of his termeth him the British Adder or Land-snake Pestifero vomuit coluber sermone Britannus A British Snake with venemous tongue Hath vomited his poison strong Neither have I made mention of him for any other reason but because it is behoveable to each one to know vices and venims In this Monastery as saith Bede There was such a number of Monkes that being divided into seven portions which had every of them a severall head and Ruler over them yet every one of these had no fewer than three hundred men who were wont to live all of their handy labour Of whom Edilfred King of the Nordan-humbers slew 12. hundred because they had implored in their prayers Christs assistance for the Christian Britans against the English-Saxons then infidels The profession of this Monasticall life that I may digresse a little began when Pagan Tyrans enraged against Christians pursued them with bloudy persecutions For then good devout men that they might serve God in more safety and security withdrew themselves into the vast Wildernesses of Aegypt and not as the Painims are wont with open mouth to give it out for to enwrap themselves willingly in
from both sides then setting foote to foote as if they fought man to man they maintained fight a longer time But when the English men had most valiantly received their first violent on set the Norman horsmen with full cariere put forward and gave an hot charge But seeing they also could not breake the battaile they retired for the nonce and yet kept their rankes in good order The Englishmen supposing them to flie presently disranged themselves and in disray preassed hard upon the enemies but they all on a sudden bringing backe their companies charged them a fresh on every side with all their joynt forces thicke united together and so enclosing them round about drove them backe with great slaughter who not withstanding having gotten the higher ground withstood the Normans a long time untill Harold himselfe was shot through with an arrow and fell downe dead for then straightwaies they turned their backes and betooke themselves every man to flight The Duke lofty and haughty with this victory and yet not unmindfull of God the giver thereof errected in memoriall of this battaile an Abbey to the glory of God and S. Martin which he called de Bello or Battaile Abbey in that very place where Harold after many a wound and stab among the thickest of his enemies gave up the ghost that the same might bee as it were an everlasting monument of the Normans victorie and therein he offered his sword and royall robe which he ware the day of his Coronation These the Monkes kept untill their suppression as also a table of the Normans gentry which entred with the Conquerour but so corruptly in later times that they inserted therein the names of such as were their benefactours and whosoever the favour of fortune or vertue had advanced to any eminencie in the subsequent ages About this Abbey there grew afterwards a towne of the same name or that I may use the words of the private History of this Abbey As the Abbey encreased there were built about the compasse of the same one hundred and fifteene houses of which the towne of Battell was made Wherein there is a place called by a French word Sangue lac of the bloud there shed which by nature of the ground seemeth after raine to wax red Whence William Newborough wrote although untruely thus The place in which there was a very great slaughter of the English men fighting for their countrey if peradventure it be wet with any small showre sweateth forth very fresh bloud endeed as if the very evidence thereof did plainely declare that the voyce of so much Christian bloud there shed doth still cry from the earth to the Lord. But to the said Abbey King William the Conquerour granted many and great priviledges And among other to use the very words of the Charter If any thiefe murderer or felon for feare of death fly and come to this Church let him have no harme but be dismissed and sent away free from all punishment Be it lawfull also for the Abbat of the same Church to deliver from the gallowes any thiefe or robber wheresoever if he chance to come by where such execution is in hand Henrie the First likewise that I may rehearse the words of his Charter instituted a mercate to be there kept on the Lords day free from all toll and tallage But Sir Anthony Browne Lord Vicount Mount-acute who not long since in that place built a goodly house obtained of late by authoritie of Parliament that this mercate should bee held upon another day And as for the priviledges of Sanctuary in those more heinous and grievous crimes they are here and every way els by Parliamentary authoritie quite abolished For they perceived well that the feare of punishment being once removed stout boldnesse and a will to commit wickednesse grew still to greater head and that hope of impunity was the greatest motive of ill-doing Neither heere or in that quarter nere adjoyning saw I any thing worth relation but onely Ashburnham that gave the name to a family of as great antiquity as any one in all this tract Hastings which I spake of called in the English Saxon tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is situate somewhat higher upon the same shore Some there bee that ridiculously derive this name from out of our tongue from haste or quicknesse forsooth because as Matthew Paris writeth William Conquerour at Hasting did set up hastily a fortresse of timber But it may seeme to have taken this new name of Hastings a Danish Pirate who wheresoever hee landed with intent to spoile and raise booties built oftentimes fortresses as we read in Asserius Menevensis of Boemflote castle built by him in Essex as also of others at Appledor and Middleton in Kent The tradition is that the old towne of Hastings is swallowed up of the sea That which standeth now as I observed is couched betweene a high cliffe sea-ward and as high an hill land-ward having two streetes extended in length from North to South and in each of them a parish Church The haven such as it is being fedde but with a poore small rill is at the South end of the Towne and hath had a great Castle upon the hill which over commanded it now there are onely ruines thereof and on the said hill Light houses to direct sailers in the night time Here in the reigne of King Althelstan was a mint-house Afterward it was accounted the first of the Cinque Ports which with the members belonging to it namely Seford Peuensey Hodeney Bulverhith Winchelsey Rhy c. was bound to finde one and twenty ships for warre at sea In what manner and forme if you desire to know both this Port and the rest also were bound to serve the King in his warres at sea for the immunities that they enjoy in most ample manner have heere in those very same words whereby this was in times past recorded in the Kings Exchequer Hastings with his members ought to find at the Kings summons one and twenty ships And in every shippe there must bee one and twenty tall and able men well armed and appointed for the Kings service Yet so as that summons bee made thereof on the Kings behalfe fortie daies before And when the foresaid ships and men therein are come to the place whereunto they were summoned they shall abide there in the Kings service for fifteene daies at their owne proper costs and charges And if the King shall have farther neede of their service after the fifteene daies above said or will have them to stay there any longer those ships with the men therein being whiles they remaine there shal be in the Kings service at the kings costs and charges so long as it shall please the king to wit The Master of every ship shall receive sixe pence by the day the Constable sixe pence a day and every one of the rest three pence by the day Thus Hastings flourished
people have other names given unto them by their neighbours than they use themselves whereby often times there is a secret light given unto nations of their descent as for example the Inhabitants of the lower Pannonia who terme themselves Magier are in Dutch named Hungari for that they came first of the Huns they that border upon the Forrest Hercynia among themselves are called Czechi but by others Bohemi because they descended from the Boij in Gaule the Inhabitants of Africke who having also a peculiar name among themselves are by the Spaniards termed Alarbes for that they be Arabians the Irish who call themselves Erinach are by our Britans named Gwidhil considering also that as well those Irish and these our Britans gave no other name to us English men then Sassons because were are descended from the Saxons I would have the learned Scotish men first to consider whether they might not bee called of their neighbours as one would say Scythae For even as the Flemings and other Netherlanders expresse by this one word Scutten both the Scythians and Scots so it hath beene observed out of our British writers that they named both Scythians and Scots Y-Scot Ninnius also expresly calleth the Britans that inhabite Ireland Scythians and the narrow sea through which they passed over out of Ireland into Britaine Gildas nameth Vallem Scythicam that is The Scythian Vale. For so hath the copie printed at Paris where others without all sense read Stythicam Vallem Moreover King Alfred who seven hundred yeares past translated the Historie of Orosius into the English-Saxon tongue turned Scotos into Scyttan and our Country-men who dwell next to Scotland use to call them not by the name of Scots but Scyttes and Scettes For like as Walsingham is mine author the same people be called Getae Getici Gothi Gothici so from one and the same originall Scythae Scitici Scoti Scoeici take their names But whether this name were imposed upon this nation by their neighbours in regard of Scythian manners or because they came out of Scythia let them here advise well upon it Surely both Diodorus Siculus and also Strabo compare the first Britans inhabiting Ireland which is the native country indeed of the wild Irish and those that be right Scots with the Scythians for their savage nature Besides they drinke bloud out of the wounds of men slaine they establish leagues among themselves by drinking one anothers bloud and suppose that the greater number of slaughters they commit the more honour they win and so did the Scythians in old time To this wee may adde that these wild Scots like as the Scythians had for their principall weapons bowes and arrowes For Orpheus termeth Scythians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even as Aelianus and Julius Pollux Sagittarios that is Archers And learned men there be that thinke hereupon both nations had this name given unto them for their skill in shooting Neither may this seeme strange that divers nations carried the same names by occasion of the same manners as they who have travailed all over the West-Indies doe write that all strange and hardie men that doe so much mischiefe with bow and arrowes throughout all India and the Isles thereof are by one name called Caribes although they be of divers nations Now that these Scots came out of Scythia the Irish Historiographers themselves doe report For Nemethus the Scythian and long after him Delas one of Nemethus his progenie that is of the Scythian stocke they reckoned among the first Inhabitants of Ireland Ninnius likewise a Disciple of Eluodugus hath plainly written thus In the fourth age of the world that space I meane which was betweene the building of Salomons Temple and the captivitie of Babylon the Scythians possessed themselves of Ireland And hereto accordeth the authoritie of later writers to wit of Cisnerus in his preface to Crantzius and of Reinerus Reineccius who writeth thus There remaineth yet the nation of the Scots in Britaine sprung from the Scythians c. And yet I verily doubt although the Getae were a Scythicke nation whether the Poet Propertius meaneth those Irish of ours in writing thus Hibernique Getae Pictoque Britannia curru Both Irish Getes and Britaine with her painted chariot But the Scots should lose part of their honour and dignitie unlesse they be brought out of Spaine into Ireland For both they themselves and their Historiographers labour to prove with all their might and maine and good reason I assure you have they so to doe Unlesse therefore wee find Scythians in Spaine all our labour is lost And that Scythians have beene in Spaine to say nothing of a promontorie or point among the Cantabri called Scythicum next unto Ireland and how that Strabo writeth that the Cantabri and Scythians sorted well together in their deportment Silius Italicus a Spaniard borne doth most plainely declare for by these verses he sheweth that the Concani a nation of Cantabria were begotten of the Massagetae that is Scythians Et quae Massagetem monstrans feritate parentem Cornipedis fusâ satiaris Concane venâ And ye your Parents Massagets in fiercenesse that doe show Hight Concani drinke horses blood as it from veine doth flow And after some few verses betweene hee proveth that the Sarmotae whom all men confesse to have beene Scythians built the Citie Susana in Spaine whiles hee singeth in this note Sarmaticos attollens Susana muros Susana with high Sarmatian wals Of these Sarmatians or Scythians the Luceni whom Orosius placeth in Ireland seem to be descended considering that the Spaniards themseves put Susana among the Lucensians of Spaine like as of those Concani the Gangani of Ireland For the Lucensij and Concani in Cantabria were neighbour nations even as the Luceni and Gangani in that coast of Ireland opposite to Spaine Now if any man demand of me what those Scythians were which came into Spaine Verily I know not unlesse a man would thinke them to have beene Germans And I could wish that the Scots themselves would enter into a more serious and deepe consideration of this point But that the Germans long agoe entred into Spaine beside Plinie who calleth the Oretani in Spaine Germans Seneca which was a Spaniard borne will enforme us The mountaine Pyrenaeus saith he stopped not the passage of the Germans the levitie of men made shift to enter through places scant passable and unknowne And that the Germans were called Scythians we gather not onely out of Ephorus and Strabo who termed all the nations in the North Scythians but also out of Plinie The name of Scythians quoth he extendeth it selfe farre and wide every way even to the Samaritans and Germans Aventinus also witnesseth that Germans were by the Hungarians called Scythae and Scythulae And to derive descent from a Scythian stock cannot be thought any waies dishonourable seeing that the Scythians as they are most
and the Normans of the other did what they could and left no stone unturned But when he in a pitched field had neere unto Stamford-bridg in Yorkshire slaine his brother Tosto and Harold King of Norway whom Tosto had drawn to take part with him in this war and so obtained a bloudy victorie behold within nine daies after the said WILLIAM surnamed the Bastard Duke of Normandie taking hold of the promises of King Edward late deceased and presuming of his adoption and neere alliance having levied a great armie arrived in England among the South-Saxons Against whom Harold forthwith advanced albeit his souldiers were sore wearied and his power by the former battaile much empaired And not farre from Hastings they encounter and joyne battaile where Harold engaging himselfe into the midst of the medley and fighting manfully lost his life with a great number of Englishmen left slaine in the place but how many they were just hard it is exactly to conceive and faithfully to put downe WILLIAM thus a Conquerour presently with banner displaid marched about in order of battaile by Wallingford to London where being received he was solemnly inaugurated King as unto whom by his owne saying The Kingdome was by Gods providence appointed and by vertue of a gift from his Lord and Cosen King Edward the Glorious granted and after some few lines the story runneth on and saith that the most beauteous King Edward had by adoption ordained him his heire in the Kingdome of England And if we list to believe the Historie of Saint Stephens in Caen of Normandie at his last breath he uttered these words The Regall Diadem which none of all my predecessours ever wore I got and gained by the grace of God only and no right of inheritance And a little after I ordaine no man heire of the Kingdome of England but I commend the same to the eternall Creator whose I am and in whose hands are all things For I became not possessed of so great honour by any hereditary right but by a terrible conflict and with much effusion of bloud I tooke it from that perjured King Harold and after I had either slaine or put to flight his favourers and adherents I subdued it under my Dominion But why doe I so briefly run over this so great alteration of the English state Have therefore if you thinke not much to read it what my selfe with no curious pen haply with as little studie and premeditation howbeit according to the truth of the Historie wrote when being but young not well advised nor of sufficiencie to undergoe so great a burthen I purposed to set forth our Historie in the Latine tongue VVHen Edward the Confessour was now without issue departed this life the Nobles and people of the land were in doubtfull care distracted about the setting up of a new King in his place Edgar surnamed Aetheling King Edmund Iron side his nephewes nephew by a sonne onely of all the issue male of the Saxons line remained alive unto whom by right of inheritance the kingdome was due But considering he was thought by reason of his tender yeares not meete to mannage the State and had beside intermingled his naturall disposition with forrain manners as being borne in Pannonia and the sonne of Agathra daughter to the Emperor Henrie the third who was in so remote a countrie farther off than that he could conveniently assist the young Gentleman either with aid or counsell in these regards hee was lesse affected of the Englishmen who desired nothing more than to have a King as it were out of their owne bodie And therefore all of them for the most part had their eies fixed with much respect upon Harold Goodwins sonne a man for his good parts as well in warre as peace very glorious For albeit he was of noble parentage but by one side and his father for his treacherie and treason as also for pilling and polling had incurred everlasting infamie and shame yet with his courteous affabilitie gentill deportment liberalitie and warlike prowesse he wound himselfe into exceeding great especiall favour with the people For there could not another bee set by him in whom there was more resolute hardinesse to adventure upon danger or more advised policie in the midst of dangers His valour also and fortitude shined out so apparantly in the Welsh warres which heretofore most happily hee had brought to an end that he was reputed verily a man passing well furnished with all vertues required in a soveraigne Commander and even borne to repaire the decaied state of England Moreover good hope there was that the Danes who onely terrified this country would bee the better contented and pleased with him because he was the son of Githa daughter to Sueno King of Denmarke And in case there should arise any other power against him either forraine or domesticall he was thought sufficiently enabled to make his part good with the affectionate hearts of the common people with the alliance also and affinitie that hee had among the Nobility For hee had to wife the sister of Morcar and Edwin two brethren men of exceeding great puissance and Edric surnamed the Wild a man of high spirit and in chiefe authoritie was linked to him in the neerest bond of Affinitie besides it fell out very well for him that at one and the selfe-same time Sueno King of the Danes had his hands full of warre with Sueden and betweene William Duke of Normandy and Philip the French King there fell some dislikes and emulation for that Edward the Confessor during his exile in Normandie had in expresse termes promised unto William of Normandie the Kingdome if hee died without issue For the performance of which promise Harold became as it were surety and bound himselfe with an oath what time hee was detained prisoner in Normandie but with this condition annexed that he might espouse the daughter of the said William of Normandie Whereupon most men thought it the wisest policy to set the Crowne upon William his head to the end that by performing oath and promise the warre that they foresaw now threatned and destruction which alwaies waiteth as a due punishment upon perjurie might be averted and withall by laying Normandie to England the Kingdome under so mightie a Prince might be surely established and the common-wealth very much advanced But Harold quickly preventing all consultations whatsoever thinking it not good for him to linger and delay any whit that very day on which King Edward was enterred contrary to the expectation of most men entred upon the soveraigne government and with the applause onely of such as were then present about him who with acclamations saluted him King without the due complements and solemnitie of Coronation set the Imperiall Diadem upon his owne head By which act of his as being a breach of ancient ordinance he exceedingly provoked and stirred up against him the whole Clergie and Ecclesiasticall state But he knowing well enough
how hard it was for a new Prince and an usurper to maintaine his royall place and dignitie without an opinion of pietie and vertue for to blot out that his offence given and to establish his Scepter did all he possibly could for the promoting of religion and preferment of Churchmen and to beautifie and adorne Monasteries and religious houses Edgar Aetheling Earle of Oxford and all the nobles he entertained with all love and favour the people he eased of theire tributes he gave bountifully a great largesse of mony to poore people and in one word with faire speech and affable language with mild hearing of causes and equitie in deciding the same he wonn to himselfe singular love and no lesse authoritie and reputation So soone as William Duke of Normandie was truly advertised of these newes he seemed to take the death of King Edward very heavily whiles in the meane time he was vexed at the heart that England which hee had in conceit and hope already swallowed and devoured was thus caught away out of his very chawes Forthwith therefore by advice of his counsell and friends he dispatcheth Embassadors to Harold with instructions to put him in mind of the promises and stipulation past but withall in his name to make claime to the Crowne Harold after some pause and deliberation upon the point returneth this answer As touching the promises of King Edward William was to understand that the Realme of England could not be given by promise neither ought he to bee tied unto the said promise seeing the kingdome was fallen unto him by election and not by right of Inheritance And as for his owne stipulation extorted and wrung it was from him then a prisoner by force and by guile in feare of perpetuall imprisonment to the hinderance of the English common-wealth and prejudice of the State and therefore void which neither ought hee if he could nor might if he would make good since it was done without the Kings privitie and consent of the people And a very hard and unreasonable demand it was of his that hee should renounce and surrender unto a Norman Prince a meere stranger and of forrein linage that kingdome wherein hee was invested with so great assent of all sorts With this answere William was not well pleased and he thought that Harold thereby sought starting holes for to hide his perjurie Others therefore he sent out of hand in Embassage about the same matter who should admonish him how religiously hee had bound himselfe by oath and that forsworne persons should be sure of finall perdition at Gods hands and reproachfull shame among men But when as now the daughter of William affianced unto Harold in the covenant the very strength and knot of the foresaid stipulation was by Gods appoinment taken away by death the Embassadours were with lesse courtesie entertained and received none other answere than before So that now by this time there was nothing like to follow but open warre Harold riggeth and prepareth his navie mâ—sters and presseth souldiers and placeth strong garrisons along the sea coasts in convenient places and provideth all things in readinesse which were thought needefull and meet for to beat backe the Normans forces Howbeit the first tempest of warre beside the expectation of all men arose from Tosto the brother in whole bloud of Harold He being a man of a proud hautie and fell heart ruled in great authority a good while over Northumberland but growing outragious in cruelty to his inferiors in pride towards his Soveraigne and in hatred to his brethren was outlawed by Edward the Confessor and so withdrew himselfe into France and now by the advice of Baldwine Earle of Flanders and perswasion of William Duke of Normandie as it seemeth probable For Tosto and William married two daughters of Baldwine Earle of Flanders beginneth to trouble his brother with open warre whom a long time he deadly hated From Flanders hee tooke sea with a fleet of 60. rovers-ships wasteth the Isle of Wight and annoyeth the sea-coast of Kent but terrified at the comming of the Kings navie hee set up saile and directing his course toward the more remote parts of England landeth in Lincolneshire and there harrieth the Countrey where Edwin and Morcar give him battell but beeing discomfited and put to flight into Scotland hee goes from thence to renew his forces and so to warre afresh Now were all mens minds held in suspense with the expectation of a twofold warre of the one side out of Scotland of the other out of Normandie and so much the more because at the feast of Easter there was seene about a sevennight together a blazing starre of an hideous and fearefull forme which turned mens minds already troubled and perplexed as it falleth out in a turbulent time to the forefeeling of some unluckie events But Harold carried an heedfull eie to all parts of his kingdome and the south coast hee fortified with garrisons Lesse feare hee had from Scotland and Tosto because Malcolme King of the Scots was more disquieted with civill dissensions Meane while William much busted in his mind about England casting about what course to take ever and anon communicated with his Captaines about the point whom hee saw cheerefull and full of forward hopes But all the difficulty was how to make money for defraying the charges of so great a warre For when in a publike assembly of all the states of Normandie it was propounded as touching a subsidie answere was made That in the former warre against the French their wealth was so much empaired that if a new warre should come upon them they were hardly able to hold and defend their owne That they were to looke rather unto the defence of their proper possessions than to invade the territories of others and this warre intended just though it were yet seemed it not so necessary but exceeding dangerous beside the Normans were not by their allegeance bound to military service in forain parts Neither could they by any meanes be brought to grant a levie of money although William Fitzosbern a man in high favour with the Duke and as gracious among the people endeavoured what he could to effect it yea and to drawe others by his owne example promised to set out fortie tall ships of his owne proper charges towards this warre Duke William then seeing he could not bring this about in a publike meeting goeth another way to worke The wealthiest men that were he sendeth for severally one by one to repaire unto him he speaks them faire and requireth them to contribute somewhat toward this warre They then as if they had strived avie who should helpe their Prince most promise largely and when that which they promised was presently registred in a booke there was a huge masse of money quickly raised and more than men would ever have thought These matters thus dispatched he craveth aid and helpe of the Princes his neighbours to wit the
of his pride and confident hope Forthwith he dispatched his Embassadours also unto William by way of insolent termes to menace him unlesse with all speed he retired backe into Normandie Yet William gave him a gentle answer and dismissed them with great courtesie Meane time Harold mustreth up souldiers in London and findeth that by the former battell against the Norwegians his forces were very much diminished yet a mightie armie hee levied of Nobles Gentlemen and others whom the love of their native countrey had raised and brought into the field for to put backe repell the common danger Presently he leadeth forth into Southsex notwithstanding his mother though in vaine did what she could to stay him and with an undaunted heart encamping upon a faire plaine scarce seven miles from Duke William sat him downe And thither also immediately the Norman approached with his Armie First there were secretly sent out on both sides Espies and they of the English part either not knowing the truth or disposed to lie made incredible report of the Normans number their furniture and provisiō of their good order also and discipline insomuch as Gyth a younger brother of King Harold a man renowned for martiall exploits thinking it no good policy to hazard all in the triall of one battel advertised the King that the events of war were doubtful that victories oftener depend of fortune than of valour that holding off and deliberate delay was the chiefest point of militarie discipline Also he advised him that in case he had made promise unto William of the Kingdom he should for his owne person withdraw himself for surely he could not with all his forces be fenced against his conscience and God no doubt would require punishment for breach of faith promise neither saith he wil any thing strike greater terrour into the Normans than if he should be levying and enrolling of a new Armie whereby they might bee received eftsoones with fresh battels Furthermore he assureth him in his owne behalfe that if he would commit the fortune of that battell into his hands hee would not faile to performe the part of a good brother and a valiant Captaine as who trusting upon the clearenesse of his heart and a good conscience might either more easily defeat his enemies or else more happily spend his life for his country The King was not well content to heare these admonitions and counsels which seemed to tend unto his dishonour for as he could willingly abide the event and issue of warre so in no wise could he endure the reproach of fearefull cowardise And therfore the praises of the Normans with bad words he depraved neither thought he that it would stand with his owne dignitie or the reputation of his former prowesse being now come as it were to the utmost point of perill and hazard like a milke-sop and dastard to draw foot backe and incurre the perpetuall staine and blot of shame Thus whom it pleaseth Almightie God to overthrow hee first maketh them uncapable of good counsell Whiles these matters thus passed between them Duke William upon a pious affection to preserve maintaine the state of Christendome and to spare the effusion of Christian bloud sendeth a Monke as a mediatour between both who proposed this offer condition unto Harold Either wholly to resigne up his Kingdom or to acknowledge from thence forth that he holdeth it of the Norman Duke as his superiour Lord or else to decide the quarrell with William by combate or at leastwise stand to the judgment of the Pope of Rome touching the Kingdom of England But he as one having no rule of himselfe and accepting of no condition whatsoever referred the whole triall of the matter to the tribunall seat of God made answer that the very next day following which was the second before the Ides of October he would bid him battell and this day upon a credulous errour he had assured himselfe would be fortunate unto him because it was his birth day All the night ensuing the Englishmen spent in licentious revels in riotous excesse of banqueting and in clamorous noises But the Normans bestowed the same in praiers and vows for the safetie of the armie and for victorie The next morning by day light they embattell thēselves on both sides Harold placed in the vant-guard the Kentish men with their billes and halberts for by an old custome the front of the battell was due to them and in the rereguard himselfe took place with his brother and those of middle England with the Londoners Of the Normans vaward Roger of Montgomerie and William Fitz-osberne had the leading the same consisted of horsemen out of Anjou Perch and little Britaine the most part of whom served under Fergentus the Briton The maine battell which stood of Poictovins Germans Geffery Mattell and a German Pensioner commanded In the rereguard was the Duke himselfe with the whole manhood of Normans and the flower of his Nobilitie and Gentrie But in every place were intermingled with the rest certaine companies of Archers The Normans having with no confused nor untunable shout sounded the battell and advanced forward with their Battalions at the first encounter did let flie lustily on every side a volley of arrowes like haile a kind of fight which as it was strange to the Englishmen so it terrified thē exceedingly for they flew so thick that they thought they had their enemies even in the midst of thēselves Then with a violent charge they assaile the vaward of the English and they for their parts who resolutely had determined to cover the place which they had taken up with their bodies rather than to give one foot of ground bending all their forces and keeping themselves close together right valiantly put the enemies backe and slew a number of them the Normans reenforced themselves againe upon them and with an horrible noise the battels of both sides gave the strok And now by this time were they come to the medley wherin as if foot to foot man to man they had coped together there was for a good while a fierce cruel fight The Englishmen standing thick close as if they had stuck one to another abid the brunt charge of the enemies with constant resolution insomuch as after many a bloudy wound received they were now at the point to have reculed had not William performing the part of a leader as well as of a souldier with his authoritie restrained them Thus the fight continuing still the Norman horsemen brake in upon them and withall from above the arrowes flew so thick about the English mens eares that they were in manner overwhelmed with them yet for all that they kept their array unbroken For Harold neglecting no dutie of a valorous Captaine was ready in person every where and William againe for his part bare himselfe as worthily who having one or two horses stabbed and slaine under him seeing that he could not
of the West Saxons built a Castle which Desburgia his wife raced and laid even with the ground after shee had expelled from thence Eadbritch King of the South-Saxons who now had made himselfe Lord thereof and used it as a bridle to keepe the countrey under that he had subdued When Edward the Confessour was King it paid tribute as wee find in the Kings Survey-Booke of England after the rate of fiftie and foure Hides and had in it threescore and three Burgers The Bishop of Winchester held it as Lord and his courts or Pleas were kept heere thrice in the yeere And these Customes appertaine to Taunton Burgherists Theeves Breach of peace hannifare pence of the Hundred and pence of Saint Peter de Circieto thrice in the yeere to hold the Bishops Pleas without warning to goe forth to warfare with the Bishops men The Countrey heere most delectable on every side with greene medowes flourishing with pleasant Gardens and Orchards and replenished with faire Mannour houses wonderfully contenteth the eyes of the beholders And among these houses those of greatest note are these Orchard which had in times past Lords of that name from whom in right of Inheritance it descended unto the Portmans men of Knights degree Hach Beauchamp and Cory Mallet bearing those additions of their Lords For this was the seat of the Mallets that came of the Norman race and from them in short time it fell by the female heire to the Pointzes From among whom in the raigne of Edward the First Hugh was ranged in the rank of Parliament Barons and out of that familie some remaine at this day of great reputation and Knights in their Countrey As for those Beauchamps or de Bello Campo they flourished in high places of honour from the time of King Henrie the Second but especially since that Cecilie de Fortibus which derived her pedigree from the Earles de Ferrarijs and that great Marshall of England William Earle of Pembroke matched in marriage with this familie But in the raigne of Edward the Third the whole inheritance was by the sisters divided betweene Roger de S. Mauro or Seimore I. Meries men of ancient descent and great alliance And hereupon it was that King Henrie the Eight when he had wedded Iane Seimor mother to King Edward the Sixth bestowed upon Edward Seimor her brother the titles of Vicount Beauchamp and Earle of Hertfort whom King Edward the Sixth afterwards honoured first wiâ—h the name of Lord and Baron Seimor to bee annexed to his other titles lest as the King saith in the Patent the name of his mothers familie should bee overshadowed with any other stile and yet afterward created him Duke of Sommerset As you goe from thence where Thone windeth himselfe into Parret it maketh a pretty Iland betweene two rivers called in times past Aethelingey that is The Isle of Nobles now commonly knowen by the name of Athelney a place no lesse famous among us for King Alfreds shrowding himselfe therein what time as the Danes now had brought all into broile then those Marishes of Minturny among the Italians wherein Marius lurked and lay hidden For touching that King an ancient Poet wrote thus Mixta dolori Gaudia semper erant spes semper mixta timori Si modó victor erat ad crastiná bella pavebat Si modó victus erat ad crastina bella parabat Cui vestes sudore jugi cui sica cruore Tincta jugi quantum sit onus regnare probarunt With dolour great his joyes were mixt his hope was joyn'd with dread If now he victour were next day of warres he stood affraid If vanquisht now the morrow next forthwith hee thought it good For to prepare for warre his sword was aye begoard in blood His garments eke with painfull sweat were evermore bestain'd Which well did shew what burden great he bare while that he raign'd And in truth this Isle afforded him a very fit shrowding corner for that by reason of waters partly standing there in plashes and partly resorting reflowing thither which Asserius termed Gronnas Latinizing a Saxon word there is in manner no accesse into it It had sometime a bridge betweene two castles built by Aelfred and a very large grove of Alders full of goates and wild beasts but of firme ground scarce two acres in breadth on which as saith William of Malmesbury whose words these are and not mine hee founded a little Monasterie the whole frame whereof hanged upon foure maine posts pitched fast in the ground with foure round isles of Sphaerick work contrived and brought round about the same Not far from this Isle Parret having received the said river runneth alone swelling with certaine sandy shelfes sometime in his channell by the Hundred of N. Pederton anciently acknowledging the Bluets to have beene Lords thereof who are thought to have brought that name from Bluet in litle Britaine Heere it taketh into him an other river from East to beare him company which openeth it self neere Castle Cary which William Lovell Lord thereof held against K. Stephen in the behalfe of Mawd the Empresse right inheritrix of the Crown of England whose issue male failing in the time of King Edward the Third by heire female it came to Nicolas de S. Maure a Baron of a distinct familie from that which was a few lines before mentioned and shortly after about the time of Henrie the Fift by an heire female againe to the Lord Zouches of Harringworth as a moitie of the lands of Lord Zouch of Ashby de la Zouch came before by coheires to the house of this S. Maures But when the Lord Zouch was attainted by K. Henrie the Seventh for assisting King Richard the Third this Castle was given by the K. to Robert Willoughby Lord Brooke as his lands at Bridge-water to the Lord Daubency and then hee was restored in bloud From Castle Cary this water passeth by Lites-Cary to bee remembred in respect of the late owner Thomas Lyte a gentleman studious of all good knowledge and so to Somerton the Shire towne in times past as which gave the name thereto A Castle it had of the West Saxon Kings which Ethelbald King of Mercia forcing a breach through the wals sieged and kept But now time hath gotten the mastry of it so as that there is no apparance at all thereof and the very Towne it selfe would have much a doe to keepe that name were it not for a Faire of oxen and other beasts which is kept there from Palme-Sunday untill the midst of Iune with much resort of people for that the countrimen all there about are very great Grasiers breeders and feeders of cattell No sooner hath Parret entertained this river but he speeds him apace toward a great and populous towne commonly called Bridg-water and is thought to have taken that name of the Bridge and water there but the old records and evidences gaine say this opinion wherein it is
Under which betweene the confluences of Avon and Frome there is a plaine beset round about with trees yielding a most pleasant walking place South-east where no rivers are to guard it Robert the base sonne of King Henry the First whom they commonly name Robert Rufus and Consull of Glocester because he was Earle of Glocester built a large and strong Castle for the defence of this Citie and of a pious and devout affection appointed every tenth stone to the building of a Chappell neere unto the Priory of S. Iames which he likewise founded by the Citie side This Robert had to wife Mabile the onely daughter and heire of Robert Fitz-Hamon who held this towne by vassalage in Capite of King William Conquerour This Castle was scarcely built when King Stephen besieged it but with lost labour for he was compelled to raise his siege and depart and a few yeares after was imprisoned in the same giving thereby a testimony and proofe how uncertaine the chance of war is Beyond the river Frome which hath a bridge over it at Frome-gate there riseth an high hill with a steepe and crooked ascent so as it is painefull to goe up unto it From whence ye have a most faire and goodly prospect to the Citie and haven underneath This hill in the very top and pitch thereof spreadeth presently into a large greene and even plaine which in the midst is shadowed with a double row and course of trees and among them stands a pulpit of Stone and a Chapell wherein by report lieth enterred Iordan the companion of Augustine the Englishmens Apostle Now it is converted to a Schoole and on both sides to say nothing of the neate and fine houses of private men beautified it is with publike and stately buildings Of the one side was a Collegiat Church called Gaunts of the founder one Henry Gaunt Knight who relinquishing the world in this place betooke himselfe to the service of God but now through the bounty of Thomas Carr a wealthy Citizen converted to the keeping of Orphans on the other side directly over against it stand two Churches dedicated to S. Augustine the one which is the lesse a Parish-Church the other that is greater the Bishops Cathedrall Church endowed with sixe Prebendaries by King Henrie the Eighth the greatest part whereof is now destroied where the Colledge-gate workemanly built carrieth in the front this Inscription REX HENRICVS II. ET DOMINVS ROBERTVS FILIVS HARDINGI FILII REGIS DACIAE HVIVS MONASTERII PRIMI FVNDATORES EXTITERVNT That is King Henry the Second and Lord Robert the sonne of Harding the King of Denmarks sonne were the first founders of of this Monasterie This Robert called by the Normans Fitz-Harding descended of the bloud royall of Denmarke was an Alderman of Bristow of King Henry the Second so entirely beloved that by his meanes Maurice his sonne married the daughter of the Lord of Barkley Whereby his posteritie who flourished in great honor are unto this day called Barons of Barkley and some of them have beene buried in this Church From hence as Avon holdeth on his course there are on each side very high cliffes by nature set there as it were of purpose the one of them which on the East-side overlooketh the river beareth the name of S. Vincents rocke so full of Diamonds that a man may fill whole strikes or bushels of them These are not so much set by because they be so plentious For in bright and transparent colour they match the Indian Diamonds if they passe them not in hardnesse onely they are inferior to them but in that nature her self hath framed them pointed with sixe cornerd or foure cornerd smooth sides I thinke them therefore worthy to be had in greater admiration The other rock also on the West-side is likewise full of Diamonds which by the wonderfull skill and worke of nature are enclosed as young ones within the bowels of hollow and reddish flints for here is the earth of a red colour When Avon hath left these rocks behind him with full channell at length he disengorgeth himselfe into the Severn-sea Then remaineth now to reckon up the Earles and Dukes of this County The first Earle of Somerset by tradition was William de Mâ—hun or Moion who may seeme to be the very same whom Maude the Empresse in a charter whereby she created William de Mandevill Earle of Essex taketh as a witnesse under this name Comes W. de Moion Neither from that time meete we with any expresse and apparent mention of Earles of Somerset unlesse it be in these letters Patents of King Henrie the Third unto Peter de Mawley which that I may draw out the judgement of others I will heere set downe literally Know yee that we have received the homage of our well beloved Vncle William Earle of Sarisbury for all the lands that he holdeth of us principally for the County or Earledom of Somerset which we have given unto him with all appurtenances for his homage and service saving the royaltie to our selves and therefore we will command you that ye see he have full sesine of the foresaid Earledome and all the appurtinances therto and that ye entermeddle not in any thing from henceforth as touching the County or Earledome aforesaid c. And commandement is given to all Earles Barons Knights and Freeholders of the County of Somerset that unto the same Earle they doe fealtie and homage saving their faith and allegiance unto their soveraigne Lord the King and that from henceforth they be intentive and answerable unto him as their Lord. Whether by these words in the Patent he was Earle of Somerset as also of Denshire for of the same William he wrote likewise in the very same words unto Robert de Courtney I leave for other men to judge Under this King Henry the third as wee finde in a booke written in French which pertaineth to the house of the Mohuns Knights it is recorded that Pope Innocentius in a solemne feast ordained Reginald Mohun Earle de Ests that is as the Author doth interpret it Of Somerset by delivering unto him a golden consecrated rose and an yearely pension to be paied upon the high Altar of S. Pauls in London So that this Reginald may seeme to have beene not properly an Earle but an Apostolicall Earle For so were they termed in those daies who had their creation from the Bishop of Rome like as they were called Earles Imperiall whom the Emperor invested and such had power to institute Notaries and Scribes to legitimate such as were base borne c. under certaine conditions A long time after Iohn de Beaufort the base sonne of Iohn of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster by Katherine Swineford being made legitimate by King Richard the Second together with his brethren and sister with consent of the Parliament was preferred to the honor of Earle of Somerset and afterwards created Marquesse Dorset but soone after
pulcherrima quid tibi gemma Pallet gemma tibi nec diadema nitet Deme tibi cultus cultum natura ministrat Non exornari forma beata potest Ornamenta cave nec quicquam luminis inde Accipis illa micant lumine clara tuo Non puduit modicas de magnis dicere laudes Nec pudeat Dominam te precor esse meam When Muses mine thy beauties rare faire Adeliza Queene Of England readie are to tell they starke astonied beene What booteth thee so beautifull gold-crowne or pretious stone Dimne is the Diademe to thee the gemne hath beautie none Away with trimme and gay attire nature attireth thee Thy lovely beautie naturall can never bett'red be All Ornaments beware from them no favour thou do'st take But they from thee their lustre have thou doest them lightsome make I shamed not on matters great to set small praises heere Bash not but deigne I pray to be my Soveraigne Ladie deere She after the Kings death matched in marriage with William de Albeney who taking part with Maud the Empresse against King Stephen and defending this Castle against him was in recompence of his good service by the saide Maude the Empresse and Ladie of Englishmen for this title she used created Earle of Arundell and her sonne King Henrie the Second gave the whole Rape of Arundell to that William To hold of him by the service of fourescore and foure Knights fees and one-halfe And to his sonne William King Richard the first granted in such words as these The Castle of Arundell with the whole Honor of Arundell and the Third penny of the Plees out of Sussex whereof he is Earle And when after the fifth Earle of this surname the issue male failed one of the sisters and heires of Hugh the fifth Earle was married to Sir Iohn Fitz-Alan Lord of Clun whose great grand sonne Richard For that he stood seised of the Castle Honour and Lordship of Arundell in his owne demesne as of Fee in regard of this his possession of the same Castle Honour and Seignorie without any other consideration or Creation to be an Earle was Earle of Arundell and the name state and honor of the Earle of Arundell c. Peaceably he enjoied as appeareth by a definitive judgement given in Parliament in the behalfe of Sir Iohn Fitz-Alan chalenging the Castle and tittle of Arundell by force of an entaile against Iohn Mowbray Duke of Norfolke the right Heire in the neerest degree Whereby it was gathered that the name state and dignitie of Earle was annexed to the Castle Honour and Seignorie of Arundell as it is to be seene in the Parliament Rolls of King Henry the Sixth out of which I have copied forth these notes word for word Of these Fitz-Alans Edmund second Earle sonne to Richard married the heire of the Earle of Surry and was beheaded through the malicious furie of Queene Isabell not lawfully convicted for that hee opposed himselfe in King Edward the Seconds behalfe against her wicked practises His sonne Richard petitioned in Parliament to be restored to bloud lands and goods for that his father was put to death not tried by his Peeres according to the law and great Charter of England neverthelesse whereas the attaindor of him was confirmed by Parliament hee was forced to amend his petition and upon the amendment thereof hee was restored by the Kings meere grace Richard his sonne as his grandfather died for his Soveraigne lost his life for banding against his Soveraigne King Richard the Second But Tho. his sonne more honourably ended his life serving King Henrie the Fifth valerously in France and leaving his sisters his heires generall Sir Iohn of Arundell Lord Maltravers his next cosin and heire male obtained of King Henrie the sixt the Earldome of Arundell as we even now declared and also was by the said King for his good service created Duke of Touraine Of the succeeding Earles I find nothing memorable Henrie Fitz Alan the eleventh and last Earle of that surname lived in our daies in great honor as you shall see After whom leaving no issue male Philip Howard his daughters sonne succeeded who not able to digest wrongs and hard measure offered unto him by the cunning sleights of some envious persons fell into the toile and net pitched for him and being brought into extreame perill of his life yeelded up his vitall breath in the Tower But his sonne Thomas a most honorable young man in whom a forward spirit and fervent love of vertue and glorie most beseeming his nobility and the same tempered with true courtesie shineth very apparently recovered his fathers dignities being restored by King Iames and Parliament authoritie Besides the Castle and the Earles Arundell hath nothing memorable For the Colledge built by the Earles which there flourished because the revenue or living is alienated and gone now falleth to decay Howbeit in the Church are some monuments of Earles there enterred but one above the rest right beautifull of Alabaster in which lieth in the mids of the Quire Earle Thomas and Beatrice his wife the daughter of Iohn King of Portugall Neither must I overpasse this Inscription so faire guilt set up heere in the Honor of Henrie Fitz-Alan the last Earle of this line because some there be whom liketh it well CONSECRATED TO VERTVE AND HONOVR THE MAGNANIMOVS AND VVORTHY KNIGHT VVHOSE PERSONAGE IS HERE SEENE AND VVHOSE BONES HERE VNDERNEATHLY ENTERRED VVAS BARLE OF THIS TERRITORIE ACCORDING TO HIS HOVSE AND LINAGE SVRNAMED FITZ ALAN LOKD MALTRAVERS CLVN AND OSVVALDESTRE PRINCIPAL HONOVRS STILED ALSO LORD AND BARON OF THAT MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE GARTER THE AVNCIENTEST COMPANION VVHILES HE LIVED OF WILLIAM EARLE OF ARVNDELL THE ONELY SONNE AND SVCCESSOR COMPARTNER ALSO OF ALL HIS VERTVES VVHO BEING OF THE PRIVY COVNSEL TO KING HENRIE THE EIGHT KING EDVVARD THE SIXT MARIE AND ELIZABETH KINGS AND QVEENES OF ENGLAND VVAS GOVERNOR ALSO OF THE TOVVNE OF CALES AND VVHAT TIME AS THE SAID KING HENRIE BESIEGED BVLLEN VVAS HIGH MARESCHAL OF HIS ARMY AND AFTER THAT LORD CHAMBERLAIN TO THE KING ALSO VVHEN EDVVARD HIS SONNE VVAS CROVVNED KING HE BARE THE OFFICE OF L. MARESCHAL OF THE KINGDOME AND VNTO HIM LIKE AS BEFORE VNTO HIS FATHER BECAME LORD CHAMBERLAINE MOREOVER IN THE REIGNE OF QVEENE MARIE DVRING THE TIME OF HER SOLEMNE CORONATION HE VVAS MADE LORD HIGH CONSTABLE AFTERVVARD STEVVARD OF HER ROIAL HOVSE AND PRESIDENT OF THE COVNCEL EVEN AS TO QVEENE ELIZABETH ALSO HE VVAS LIKEVVISE LORD HIGH STEVVARD OF HER HOVSHOLD THVS THIS MAN NOBLE BY HIS HIGH PARENTAGE MORE NOBLE FOR VVEL PERFORMING THE PVBLICKE OFFICES OF STATE â—OST NOBLE AND RENOVNED BOTH AT HOME AND ABROAD FLOVRISHING STIL IN HONOVR BROKEN VVITH TRAVEL MVCH VVORNE VVITH YEERES AFTER HE VVAS COME TO THE LXVIII OF HIS AGE AT LONDON THE XXV DAY OF FEBRVARY IN THE YEERE OF OVâ— SALVATION BY CHRIST M. D. LXXIX GODLY AND SVVEETLY SLEPT IN THE LORD IOHN LVMLEY BARON OF LVMLEY HIS MOST
prophane wretches hemmed him round about and getteth together divers and sundry weapons to kill him Which when their leader Thurkill saw a farre off he came quickly running and crying Doe not so in any wise I beseech you and heere with my whole heart I deliver unto you all my gold and silver and whatsoever I have heere or can by any meanes come by save my ship onely that yee would not sinne against the Lords annointed But this unbridled anger of his mates harder than yron and flint was nothing mollified with so gentle words and faire language of his but became pacified by shedding his innocent bloud which presently they altogether confounded and bleanded with Ox-heads stones as thicke as haile and billets hurled at him And to the memorie of this Saint Ealpheg is the Parish Church heere consecrated But now is the place of very great name by reason of the Kings house which Humfrey Duke of Glocester built and named Placence which also King Henrie the Seventh most sumptuously enlarged who adjoyned thereto a little house of observant Friers and finished that towre famous in Spanish fables which the said Duke of Glocester begun on an high hill from whence there is a most faire and pleasant prospect open to the river winding in and out and almost redoubling it selfe the greene meddowes and marshes underlying the Citie of London and the Countrie round about Which being now enlarged and beautified by the L. Henrie Howard Earle of Northampton Lord Privie Seale c. cannot but acknowledge him a well deserving benefactor But the greatest ornament by far that graced this Green-wich was our late Queene Elizabeth who heere most happily borne to see the light by the resplendent brightnesse of her royall vertue enlightned all England But as touching Green-wich have heere these verses of Leland the Antiquarian Poet Ecce ut jam niteat locus petitus Tanquam syderea domus cathedrae Quae fastigia picta quae fenestrae Quae turres vel ad astra se efferentes Quae porro viridaria ac perennes Fontes Flora sinum occupat venusta Fundens delicias nitentis horti Rerum commodus aestimator ille Râ—pae qui variis modis amoenae Nomen contulit eleganter aptum How glittereth now this place of great request Like to the seate of heavenly welkin hie With gallant tops with windowes of the best What towres that reach even to the starry skie What Orchards greene what springs ay-running by Faire Flora heere that in this creeke doth dwell Bestowes on it the flowers of garden gay To judge no doubt of things he knew full well Who gave this banke thus pleasant every way So fit a name as did the thing bewray Nothing else have I here to note but that for I would not have the remembrance of well deserving benefactors to miscarry William Lambard a godly good Gentleman built an Almeshouse here for the sustentation of poore persons which hee named The Colledge of Queene Elizabeths poore people and as the prying adversaries of our religion then observed was the first Protestant that built an Hospitall At the backe of this as ye turne out scarce three miles off standeth Eltham a retyring place likewise of the Kings but unholsomly by reason of the moate Anthony Becke Bishop of Durham and Patriarch of Ierusalem built this in a manner new and gave unto Queene Eleanor wife to King Edward the First after hee had craftily conveyed unto himselfe the inheritance of the Vescyes unto whom this place before belonged For that Bishop whom the last Baron of Vescy had made his foefie for trust of all his inheritance to the use of William Vescy his little base sonne dealt not so faithfully as he should with this orphane and ward of his but dispoiled him of Alnwick Castle this and other faire lands Beneath Greenwich the Thames having broken downe his bankes hath by his irruption surrounded and overwhelmed many acres of land For the inning whereof divers have as it were strugled with the waters now many yeares and yet with great workes and charges cannot overmaster the violence of the tides which the Chanons of Liesnes adjoyning kept sound and sweete land in their times This Abbey was founded 1179. by Lord Richard Lucie chiefe Iustice of England and by him dedicated to God and the memorie of Thomas of Canterburie whom hee so admired for his piety while other condemned him for pervicacie against his Prince as hee became here a devoted Chanon to him Heere in the marshes groweth plentifully the hearbe Cochlearia called by our Countrey men Scurvy-grasse which some Phisicians would have to be the same which Plinie calleth Britannica by which name I have already made mention thereof but heare what Plinie saith In Germany when as Germanicus Caesar had removed his campe forward beyond Rhene in the maritime tract there was one fountaine and no more of fresh water whereof if a man dranke within two yeares his teeth would fall out of his head and the joynts in his knees become loose and feeble Those diseases the Phisicians tearmed Stomacace and Sceletyrbe For remedie hereof there was found an hearbe called Brittannica holesome not onely for the sinewes and maladies of the mouth but also against the Squincie and stinging of serpents c. They of Frisia what way our campe lay shewed it unto our souldiours And I marvaile what should bee the cause of that name unlesse peradventure they that confine upon the Ocean dedicated the name thereof to Britaine as lying so nere vnto it But that most learned Hadrian Iunius in his booke named Nomenclator bringeth another reason of the name whom you may have recourse unto if you please For this word Britannica hath here diverted me a side from my course From thence the Thames being contained within his bankes meeteth with the river Darent which falling downe out of Suthrey runneth with a soft streame not farre from Seven-oke so called as men say of seven exceeding great Okes now cut downe which commendeth Sir William Sevenok an Alderman of London who being a foundling and brought up here and therefore so named built heere in gratefull remembrance an Hospitall and a schoole On the East side of it standeth Knoll so called for that it is seated upon a hill which Thomas Bourchier Archbishop of Canterbury purchasing of Sir William Fienes Lord Say and Seale adorned with a faire house and now lately Thomas Earle of Dorset Lord Treasurer hath fourbished and beautified the old worke with new chargeable additaments Darent then passeth by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now Otford a place famous in former ages for an overthrow and slaughter of the Danes which happened there in the yeare 1016. and lately by reason of the Kings house which William Warham Archbishop of Canterbury built for himselfe and his successours so sumptuously that for to avoid envie Cranmer who next succeeded him was constreined to exchange
PONTIFICE DIRECTVS ET A DEO OPERATIONE MIRACVLORVM SVFFVLTVS ET ETHELBERTHVM REGEM AC GENTEM ILLIVS AB IDOLORVM CVLTV AD FIDEM CHRISTI PERDVXIT ET COMPLETIS IN PACE DIEBVS OFFICII SVI DEFVNCTVS EST SEPTIMO KALENDAS IVNIAS EODEM REGE REGNANTE HERE RESTETH DAN AVGVSTINE THE FIRST ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY VVHO BEING IN TIMES PAST DIRECTED HITHER FROM BLESSED GREGORIE THE BISHOP OF ROME AND THROVGH THE VVORKING OF MIRACLES SVPPORTED BY GOD BOTH BROVGHT KING ETHELBERT AND HIS PEOPLE FROM IDOLATRY TO THE FAITH OF CHRIST AND ALSO AFTER THE DAIES OF HIS FVNCTION ACCOMPLISHED IN PEACE DIED THE SEVENTH DAY BEFORE THE KALENDS OF IVNE IN THE SAME KINGS REIGNE Together with him in the same porch were buried sixe Archbishops next succeeding and in memoriall of these seven namely Austen Laurence Mellitus Iustus Honorius Deus-dedit and Theodosius were these verses such as they are engraven there in marble SEPTEM SVNT ANGLIS PRIMATES ET PROTO PATRES SEPTEM RECTORES SEPTEM COELOQVE TRIONES SEPTEM CISTERNAE VITAE SEPTEMQVE LVCERNAE ET SEPTEM PALMAE REGNI SEPTEMQVE CORONAE SEPTEM SVNT STELLAE QUAS HAEC TENET AREA CELLAE Seven Patriarchs of England Primates seven Seven Rectors and seven Labourers in heaven Seven Cesternes pure of life seven Lamps of light Seven Palmes and of this Realme seven Crownes full bright Seven Starres are heere bestow'd in vault below I may not forget another Church neere unto this built as Bede saith by the Romans and consecrated to Saint Martin wherein before Austens comming Bertha wife to King Ethelbert descended from the bloud Royall of France was wont to frequent divine Christian service Concerning the Castle on the South side of the Citie the Bulwarks whereof now are decaied it maketh no shew of any great antiquity and there is no memorable thing thereof come to my knowledge but only that it was built by the Normans as touching the dignitie of the See of Canterburie which in times past carried a great State I will say nothing but this that as in former ages during the Roman Hierarchie the Archbishops of Canterbury were Primates of all Britaine Legates to the Pope and as Vrbane the second said The Patriarches as it were of another world so when the Popes authoritie was abrogated a decree passed in the Synode Anno 1534. that laying aside the said title they should bee stiled Primates and Metropolitanes of all England Which dignitie the right reverend Father in Christ D. Iohn Whitgift lately held who devoutly consecrated both his whole life to God all his painefull labours to the Church and in the yeare 1604. slept in the Lord a Prelate much missed of all good men After whom succeeded Doctor Richard Bancroft a man of singular courage and counsaile in establishing and supporting the state Ecclesiasticall For the Latitude of Canterbury the Pole Artick is elevated above the Horizon there fifty one degrees and sixteene minutes and the Longitude is reckoned to be foure and twenty degrees and fiftie one minutes Stour by this time having gathered his waters all into one streame runneth beside Hackington where Dame Lora Countesse of Leicester a most honourable Lady in those daies having abandoned all worldly pleasures sequestred her selfe from the world devoutly to serve God wholy Afore which time Baldwin Archbishop of Canterbury began a Church there in the honour of Saint Stephen and Thomas of Canterbury But being inhabited by the Bishop of Rome his authoritie for feare the same might prejudice the Monkes of Canterbury hee gave over the workes Howbeit ever since the name remained and the place is called Saint Stephens of which Sir Roger Manwood Knight L. cheife Baron of the Exchequer a man of exquisite knowledge in our common lawes unto whom for his bounteous liberalitie the poore inhabitants are much beholding was of late time a right great ornament and even so is his sonne at this day Sir Peter Manwood Knight of the Bath whom I cannot but mention when as he is a favourer of vertue and learning From thence Stour passeth by Fordich called the little Burough of Forewich in King William the Conquerours booke a place of note for excellent good trouts and so in former time to Stoure-mouth which it hath now forsaken a mile and more yet left and bequeathed his name to it But now by Stoure-mouth runneth a brooke which issuing our of Saint Eadburghs well at Liming where the daughter to King Ethelbert first of our nation tooke the veile while it seeketh the sea seeth Elham a mercate towne of which I have read nothing but that the Mannour was the inheritance of Iulian Leibourn a Ladie of great honour in her time who was mother of Laurence Hastings first Earle of Penbrooke of that surname and after wife to William Clinton Earle of Huntingdon Then it holdeth his course by divers villages which thereof receive the addition of Bourn as Bishops-bourn Hawles-bourn Patricks-bourn and Beakes-bourn This bourne is that river Stoure as Caesar calleth it as I have observed travailing lately in these parts which Caesar came unto when he had marched by night almost twelve Italian miles from the sea-coast and where hee had the first encounter in his second expedition into Britaine with the Britaines whom he drave into the woods where they had a place fortified both by nature and mens labour with a number of trees hewen downe and plashed to fore-close the entries But yet the Romans forced an entrie drave them out and there about encamped The place of campe as I heare is neare Hâ—rdes a place of ancien Gentlement of that surname descended from Esten grave Herengod and the Fitz-Bernards Belowe Stoure-mouth Stoure dividing his streame taketh two severall waies and leaving that name is called In-lade and Wantsume making the Isle of Tenet on the West and South side for on all other sides it is washed with the maine Sea This Iland Solinus named ATHANATON and in other copies THANATON the Britaines Iuis Ruhin as witnesseth Asserius happily for Rhutupin of Rhutupinae a Citie adjoining The English Saxons called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we Tenet All the Isle standeth upon a whitish maile full of goodly corne fields and being a right fertile soile carrieth in length eight miles and foure in breadth reckoned in old time to containe 600. Families in stead whereof it is corruptly read in Bede Milliarium Sexcentarum for Familiarum Sexcentarum But whereas Solinus writeth that there is not a snake creeping in this Isle and that the mould or earth carried from hence killeth snakes it is now proved to bee untrue That Etymologie therefore derived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is from the death of snakes falleth quite to the ground Here the English Saxons landed first here by the permission of Guortigern they first seated themselves here was their place of refuge and here Guortimor the Britaine made a great
birth parentage and Filiation whose wisdome also whose justice princely courage warlike exploits most valiantly atchieved in the defence of the State and whose roiall birth and bloud as who was descended from the bloud roiall of the three most renowned Kingdomes of England France and Spaine they knew assuredly Wherefore having throughly weighed these and such like motives they willingly and withall hearty affection tendring the welfare of the land by that their petition and one generall accord of them all elected him for their King and with prayers and teares lying prostrate before him humbly craved and besought his gracious favour to accept and take upon him the Kingdomes of England France and Ireland appertaining to him by right of inheritance and now presented to him by their free and lawfull election and so for very pitty and naturall zeale to reach forth unto his Countrey now forlorne his helping hand that after so great and grievous stormes the sonne of grace might shine upon them to the comfort of all true hearted English men This supplication being tendred privately to himselfe before that he entred upon the Kingdome was presented also afterwards unto him in the publike assembly of all the States of the Realme and there allowed and so by their authoritie enacted and published with a number of words as the maner is heaped up together that according to the law of God the law of Nature the lawes of England and most laudable custome Richard was and is by lawfull election Inauguration and Coronation the undoubted King of England c. and that the Kingdomes of England France and Ireland appertained rightfully to him and the heires of his body lawfully begotten And to use the very words as they stand penned in the originall Record By the authority of the Parliament it was pronounced decreed and declared that all and singular the contents in the foresaid Bill were true and undoubted and the Lord the King with the assent of the three States of the Kingdome by the foresaid authoritie pronounceth decreeth and declareth the same for true and undoubted These things have I laid forth more at large out of the Parliament Rowle that yee may understand both what and how great matters the power of a Prince the outward shew of vertue the wily fetches of Lawyers fawning hope pensive feare desire of change and goodly pretenses are able to effect in that most wise assembly of all the States of a Kingdome even against all Law and right But this Richard is not to be accounted worthy to have bin a Soveraigne had he not bin a Soveraigne as Galba was reputed who when he was a Soveraigne deceived all mens expectation but most worthy indeed of Soveraigntie had he not being transported with ambition which blasteth all good parts by lewd practises and mischievous meanes made foule way thereunto For that by the common consent of all that are wise he was reckoned in the ranke of bad men but of good Princes Now remembring my selfe to be a Chorographer I will returne to my owne part and leave these matters unto our Historiographers when God shall send them In this Countie there are Parishes 280. OXONIENSIS Comitatus vulgo Oxfordshyre qui pars olim DOBUNORUM OXFORD-SHIRE OXFORD-SHIRE in the Saxon Tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which as we said belonged also to the Dobuni on the West side joyneth upon Glocester-shire on the South which way it runneth out farthest in breadth is dissevered from Bark-shire by the River Isis or Tamis Eastward it bordereth upon Buckingham-shire and Northward where it endeth pointed in manner of a Cone or Pine-apple hath North-hampton-shire of one side and Warwick-shire on the other side confining with it It is a fertile Country and plentifull wherein the Plaines are garnished with Corne-fields and meddowes the Hilles beset with Woods stored in every place not onely with Corne and fruites but also with all kinde of game for Hound or Hawke and well watered with fishfull Rivers For ISIS or OUSE which afterwards comes to bee named Tamis maketh a long course and runneth under the South side Cherwell also a prety River well stored with fish after it hath for a time parted North-hampton-shire and Oxford-shire passeth gently with a still streame through the middest of the Country and divideth it as it were into two parts And Tamis with his waters conforteth and giveth heart to the East part untill both of them together with many other Riverets and Brookes running into them bee lodged in Isis. This Isis when it hath passed a small part of Wil-shire no sooner is entred into Oxford-shire but presently being kept in and restrained with Rodcot bridge passeth by Bablac where Sir R. Vere that most puissant Earle of Oxford Marquesse of Dublin and Duke of Ireland who as he stood in most high favour and authority with King Richard the Second so he was as much envied of the Nobles taught us as one said that no power is alwaies powerfull Who being there discomfited in a skirmish by the Nobles and constrained to take the River and swimme over found the Catastrophe of his fortune and subversion of his state For immediately he fled his country and died distressed in exile Of whom the Poet in his Marriage of Tame and Isis made these verses Hic Verus notissimus apro Dum dare terga negat virtus tendere contrà Non sinit invictae rectrix prudentia mentis Vndique dum resonat repetitis ictibus umbo Tinnitúque strepit circum sua tempora cassis Se dedit in fluvium fluvius laetatus illo Hospite suscepit salvum salvúmque remisit Heere VERE well knowne by badge of savage Bore While man-hood shames to yeeld yet strive againe Stout heart may not restrain'd by wisdomes lore Whiles shield resounds by doubled blowes amaine And helmet rings about his eares is faine The streame to take The River glad therefore His Guest tooke safe and set him safe on shore Isis from thence overflowing many times the flat and low grounds is first encreased with the Brooke Windrush which springing out of Cotteswold hath standing upon the banke side Burford in the Saxon Tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where Cuthred King of West-Saxons at that time by curtesie of the Mercians when hee could endure no longer the most grievous exactions of Aethelbald the Mercian who began to oppresse his people and sucke their bloud came into the field against him and put him to flight having won his Banner wherein by report of Authours there was a golden Dragon depainted Then passeth it by Minster Lovell the habitation in times past of the great Barons Lovels of Tichmerch who being descended from Lupellus a Noble man of Normandy flourished for many ages and augmented their estate by rich marriages with the daughters and heires of Tichmerch with the heires of the Lords Holland D'eyncourt and the Vicounts Beaumont But their line expired in Francis Vicount Lovell Lord
ceciderunt lumina saevo Thousands of torments when he had endur'd for Christ his sake At length he dyed by dome thus given his head away to take The Tortor proudly did the feat but cleere he went not quite That holy Martyr lost his head this cruell wretch his sight In reproch of this Martyr and for the terrour of Christians as wee finde in an old Agon of his the Citizens of Verulam engraved his Martyrdome in a Marble stone and inserted the same in their walles But afterwards when the bloud of Martyrs had conquered Tyrants cruelty the Christians built a Church as Bede saith of wondrous workmanship in memoriall of him and Verulam carried with it so great an opinion of Religion that there in was holden a Synode or Councell in the yeere of the worlds Redemption 429. when as the Pelagian Heresie by meanes of Agricola sonne to the Bishop Severianus had budded forth a fresh into this Island and polluted the British Churches so as that to averre and maintaine the truth they sent for German Bishop of Auxerre and Lupus Bishop of Troies out of France who by refuting this heresie gained unto themselves a reverend account among the Britans but chiefly German who hath thorowout this Island many Churches dedicated to his memory And nere unto the ruined wals of this rased city there remaineth yet a Chappell bearing S. Germans name still although it be put to a prophane use in which place he openly out of the Pulpit preached Gods word as the ancient records of S. Albans church do testifie Which German as Constantius flourishing in that time writeth in his life commanded the Sepulchre of Saint Albane to bee opened and therein bestowed certaine Reliques of Saints that whom one heaven had received should also in one Sepulchre bee together lodged Thus much I note by the way that yee may observe and consider the fashions of that age Not long after the English Saxons wonne it but Uther the Britan firnamed for his serpentine wisedome Pendragon by a sore siege and a long recovered it After whose death it fell againe into their hands For we may easily gather out of Gildas words that the Saxons in his daies were possessed of this City God saith hee hath lighted unto us the most cleere Lamps of holy Saints the Sepulchres of whose bodies and places of their Martyrdome at this day were they not taken away by the woefull disseverance which the barbarous enemy hath wrought amongst us for our many grievous sinnes might kindle no small heat of divine charity in the mindes of the beholders Saint Albane of Verulam I meane c. When Verulam by these warres was utterly decaied Offa the most mighty King of the Mercians built just over against it about the yeere of our Lord 795. in a place which they called Holmehurst a very goodly and large Monastery in memory of Saint Alban or as wee reade in the very Charter thereof Unto our Lord Iesus Christ and S. Alban Martyr whose Reliques Gods grace hath revealed in hope of present prosperity and future happinesse and forthwith with the Monastery there rose a Towne which of him they call Saint Albans This King Offa and the succeeding Kings of England assigned unto it very faire and large possessions and obtained for it at the hands of the Bishops of Rome as ample priviledges which I will relate out of our Florilegus that yee may see the profuse liberality of Princes toward the Church Thus therefore writeth he Offa the most puissant King gave unto Saint Alban the Protomartyr that Towne of his ancient Demesne which standeth almost twenty miles from Verulam and is named Uneslaw with as much round about as the Kings written Deedes at this day doe witnesse that are to bee seene in the foresaid Monastery which Monastery is priviledged with so great liberty that it alone is quite from paying that Apostolicall custome and rent which is called Rom-scot whereas neither King nor Archbishop Bishop Abbat Prior nor any one in the Kingdome is freed from the payment thereof The Abbat also or monke appointed Archdeacon under him hath pontificall Jurisdiction over the Priests and Lay-men of all the possessions belonging to this Church so as he yeeldeth subjection to no Archbishop Bishop or Legate save only to the Pope of Rome This likewise is to be knowne that Offa the Magnificent King granted out of his Kingdome a set rent or imposition called Rom-scot to Saint Peters Vicar the Bishop of Rome and himselfe obtained of the said Bishop of Rome that the Church of Saint Alban the Protomartyr of the English nation might faithfully collect and being so collected reserve to their proper use the same Rom-scot throughout all the Province of Hertford in which the said Church standeth Whence it is that as the Church it selfe hath from the King all royall priviledges so the Abbot of that place for the time being hath all Pontificall ornaments Pope Hadrian also the fourth who was borne hard by Verulam granted this indulgence unto the Abbats of this Monasterie I speake the very words out of the Priviledge that as Saint Alban is distinctly knowne to be the Protomartyr of the English nation so the Abbat of this Monastery should at all times among other Abbats of England in degree of dignitie be reputed first and principall Neither left the Abbats ought undone that might serve either for use or ornament who filled up with earth a mighty large poole under Verulam which I spake of The name whereof yet remaineth still heere in a certaine street of the towne named Fish-poole-streete Neere unto which streete because certaine ankers were in our remembrance digged up divers have verily thought induced thereunto by a corrupt place in Gildas that the river Tamis sometimes had his course and chanell this way But of this Meere or Fish-poole have heere what an old Historian hath written Abbot Alfrike for a great peece of money purchased a large and deepe pond an evill neighbour and hurtfull to Saint Albans Church which was called Fish-poole appertaining to the Kings And the Kings officers and fishers molested the Abbay and burdened the Monkes thereby Out of which poole he the said Abbot in the end drained and derived the water and made it dry ground If I were disposed upon the report of the common people to reckon up what great store of Romane peeces of coine how many cast images of gold and silver how many vessels what a sort of modules or Chapiters of pillars and how many wonderfull things of antique worke have been digged up my words would not carry credit The thing is so incredible Yet take with you some few particulars thereof upon the credite of an ancient Historiographer Ealred the Abbot in the reigne of King Eadgar having searched for the ancient vaults under ground at Verulam overthrew all About the yeere of Christ 960. and stopped up all the waies with passages under ground which were strongly and
were in amity and league founded every one in his owne Kingdome Cities named Caesareae in honour of Augustus What if I should say that CAESAROMAGUS did stand neere unto Brentwood would not a learned Reader laugh at me as one Soothsayer doth when he spieth another Certes no ground I have nor reason to strengthen this my conjecture from the distance thereof seeing the numbers of the miles in Antonine be most corruptly put downe which neverthelesse agree well enough with the distance from COLONIA and CANONIUM Neither can I helpe my selfe with any proofe by the situation of it upon the Roman high-way which in this enclosed country is no where to be seene Neither verily there remaineth heere so much as a shadow or any twinkling shew of the name CAESAROMAGUS unlesse it be and that is but very sclender in the name of an Hundred which of old time was called Ceasford and now Cheasford Hundred Surely as in some ancient Cities the names are a little altered and in others cleane changed so there be againe wherein one syllable or twaine at most bee remaining thus CAESARAUGUSTA in Spaine is now altered to be Saragosa CAESAROMAGUS in France hath lost the name cleane and is called Beavois and CAESAREA in Normandy now Cherburg hath but one syllable left of it But what meane I thus to trifle and to dwell in this point If in this quarter hereby there bee not CAESAROMAGUS let others seeke after it for me It passeth my wit I assure you to finde it out although I have diligently laid for to meet with it with net and toile both of eares and eies Beneath Brentwood I saw South-Okindon where dwelt the Bruins a Family as famous as any one in this Tract out of the two heires female whereof being many times married to sundry husbands Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolke the Tirels Berners Harlestones Heveninghams and others descended And of that house there be males yet remaining in South-hampton-shire Also Thorndon where Sir John Petre Knight raised a goodly faire house who now was by our Soveraigne King James created Baron Petre of Writtle That Thorndon was in times past the dwelling place of a worshipfull Family of Fitzlewis the last of which name if we may beleeve the common report by occasion that the house happened to be set on fire in the time of his wedding feast was pittiously himselfe therein burnt to death Burghsted and more short Bursted that is the place of a Burgh which name our forefathers used to give unto many places that were of greater antiquity This I once supposed to have been CAESAROMAGUS and what ever it was in old time it is at this day but a good country Towne neere unto Byliricay a Mercat towne of very good resort Likewise Ashdowne sometimes Assandun that is as Marian interpreteth it the Mount of Asses where long since a bloudy battaile was fought in which King Edmund sirnamed Ironside had at the beginning a good hand of the Danes and put them to rout but streight waies the fortune of the field turning about he was so defeited that he lost a great number of the English Nobility In memoriall of which battaile we reade that King Canutus the Dane built a Church afterward in that place what time as upon remorse and repentance for the bloud that he had shed hee erected Chappels in what part soever he had fought any field and shed Christian bloud Not farre from these is Ralegh a prety proper towne and it seemeth to be Raganeia in Domesday booke wherein is mention made of a Castle that Suenus heere built in which also we read thus There is one Parke and sixe Arpennes of Vineyard and it yeeldeth twenty Modij of wine if it take well Which I note the rather both for the French word Arpenn and also for the wine made in this Isle This Suenus was a man of great name and of noble birth the sonne of Robert sonne of Wiwarc but father to Robert of Essex whose son was that Sir Robert de Essex who in right of inheritance was the Kings Standard bearer and who for that in a light skirmish against the Welsh hee had not onely cast off his courage but also cast away his Standard being chalenged for treason vanquished in duell or combat and thereof thrust into a Cloystre forfeited a goodly patrimony and livelod which was confiscate to King Henry the Second and helped to fill his Coffers As for the Barony it lay dead from that time a great while in the Kings hands untill Sir Hubert de Burgh obtained it of King John Above this the shores retiring backe by little and little admit two creekes of the Ocean entring within them the one the neighbour inhabitants call Crouch the other Blackwater which in old time was named Pant. In the said Crouch by reason of the waters division there lie scattered foure Islands carrying a pleasant greene hew but by occasion of inundations growne to be morish and fenny among which these two bee of greatest name Wallot and Foulenesse that is The Promontory of Fowles which hath a Church also in it and when the sea is at the lowest ebbe a man may ride over to it Betweene these Creekes lieth Dengy Hundred in ancient times Dauncing passing plentifull in grasse and rich in Cattaile but Sheepe especially where all their doing is in making of Cheese and there shall ye have men take the womens office in hand and milke Ewes whence those huge thicke Cheeses are made that are vented and sould not onely into all parts of England but into forraigne nations also for the rusticall people labourers and handicraftes men to fill their bellies and feed upon The chiefe Towne heereof at this day is Dengy so called as the Inhabitants are perswaded of the Danes who gave name unto the whole Hundred Neere unto which is Tillingham given by Ethelbert the first Christian King of the English-Saxons unto the Church of Saint Paul in London and higher up to the North shore flourished sometimes a City of ancient Record which our forefathers called Ithancestre For Ralph Niger writeth thus out of S. Bede Bishop Chad baptized the East-Saxons neere to Maldon in the City of Ithancestre that stood upon the banke of the River Pant which runneth hard by Maldon in Dengy Province but now is that City drowned in the River Pant. To point out the place precisely I am not able but I nothing doubt that the River called Froshwell at this day was heeretofore named Pant seeing that one of the Springs thereof is called Pantswell and the Monkes of Coggeshall so termed it Doubtlesse this Ithancester was situate upon the utmost Promontory of this Dengy Hundred where in these daies standeth Saint Peters upon the wall For along this shore much a doe have the inhabitants to defend their grounds with forced bankes or walls against the violence of the Ocean ready to inrush upon them And I my selfe am partly of this
ours doth A mighty nation this was as saith Tacitus and after they had betaken themselves to the protection of the Romans never shaken nor troubled unto Claudius his time For then when as Ostorius the Romane Lieutenant raised fortifications vpon the rivers and disarmed the Britans they assembled their forces and made head against him but after that the Romanes had broken through the rampier wherewith they had fenced themselves they were vanquished not without great slaughter In which fight verily they performed many worthy acts and M. Ostorius the Lieutenants sonne wonne the honour of saving a Citizens life When this warre was thus husht scarce 13. yeeres had gone over their heads when a new tempest of warre arose upon these occasions Prasutagus King of these Iceni to secure though it were with the hurt of his own private estate his kinred from calamity ordained by his last will and testament Nero the Emperor to be his heire supposing that by this obsequious service of his let Tacit. speak for me a while his Kingdom and house both should be safe from all injury which fell out cleane contrary so that his Kingdome was wasted by the Centurions and his house by slaves as if they had been subdued by force And now first of all his wife Boodicia who also is called Bunduica was whipped and her daughters defloured All the principall men of the Iceni as though they had received the whole Country in free gift were stript of their goods and turned out of their ancient inheritance those also of the Kings stocke and bloud accounted no better than bondslaves By occasions of which grievous injuries and for fear of greater indignities for so much they had been reduced into the forme of a province in all hast they tooke armes having withall sollicited the Trinobantes to rebellion and others also who had not as yet been inured to bondage These by privie conspiracies agreed to resume their libertie being incensed with most bitter and deadly hatred against the old souldiers planted at Maldon above said Thus began a most dangerous warre to kindle which was set more on a light fire by the greedy covetousnesse of Seneca who about that time exacted with extremitie 400000. Sesterces an hundred times told which amount to three hundred thousand pounds of our money so increased by his biting usurious contracts In this warre that I may be briefe that Boodicia whom Gildas seemeth to call the crafty Lionesse wife to Prasutagus slew outright of Romanes and their associates fourescore thousand rased Caimalodunum their Colonie and the free towne Verulamium The ninth Legion she discomfited and put to flight Catus Decianus the Procuratour but at length she being put to the worst by Suetonius Paulinus in a pitched field with an invincible courage and resolution died as Tacitus writeth by drinking a cup of poison or as Dio saith by sicknesse In the heat of this war Xiphilinus recordeth out of Dio that the Britans especially worshipped the Goddesse VICTORIE under the name of ANDATES which the Greeke booke in another place calleth Andrastes also that in her sacred grove they sacrificed prisoners alive in most barbarous and savage maner And yet the Britans in these daies acknowledge no such name of Victorie neither know I what the meaning of it should be unlesse as the Latins have called Victorie Victoriam à vincendo that is of winning the Sabins acunam ab Vevacuando that is of emptying and making riddance and the Grecians NIKHN 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is of not yeelding or giving backe so the Britans named it Anaraith of overthrowing For so they terme a mischievous and deadly overthrow But thus much slightly by the way From those times ever since no mention is there in authors of the Iceni neither can any thing by reading be found but that the Romans when their Empire went apace to decay did set a new officer over the sea coasts along these and other countries to restraine the piracies and robberies of the Saxons whom as I have said heeretofore they called Comes of the Saxons shore along Britaine But when the English Saxons now had established their Heptarchie in this Iland this province became part of the Kingdome of East Angles which of the site thereof Eastward they named in their language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is The Kingdome of East English and it had for the first King thereof Vffa whence his successors were a long time called Vff Kines who seem to have been Vassals sometimes to the Kings of Mercia and sometimes to the Kings of Kent Whose offspring being come to an end in S. Edmund the Danes overran this country most piteously for the space of 50. yeares or thereabout afflicting it with all the calamities that accompany the wars untill that King Edward the elder having subdued them united it at length to his owne Kingdom of the West-Saxons But afterwards it had peculiar Presidents and Governors which honorable place at the first comming in of the Normans and a while after one Ralph born in the lesser Britain held a man of a perfidious disposition and disloyall who at a celebration of a marriage in most sumptuous manner wickedly with many moe conspired the death of William the Conqueror but in vaine it was to hope for secrecy and trust among so many privie to the conspiracy For it was discovered and he deprived of his dignity was attainted and the rest beheaded But these things are to bee handled more at large by the Historians and now let us goe in hand with that which belongeth properly to our purpose that is the places themselves What kind of country this was behold how Abbo Floriacensis who lived in the yeare of Christ 970. hath pictured out in these words This part which is called East Angle or East England is renowned as for other causes so in this regard that it is watered almost on every side being on the Southeast and East environed with the Ocean and on the North-east with huge Fennes soked in moisture which rising by reason of the levell ground from the mids in manner of all Britaine for the space of a hundred miles and more doth descend with the greatest rivers into the sea But of that side which lieth Westward the Province it selfe is continuate to the rest of the Iland and therefore passable throughout but least it should be overrun with the often irruptions and breakings in of enemies it is fensed along with a banke like unto a wall and a Trench Inwardly the soile is fruitfull enough and the country of a passing fresh hue with pleasant Orchards Gardens and groves most delectable for hunting notable for pastures and not meanly stored with sheepe and other cattell I say nothing of the fishfull rivers considering that of the one side the sea licketh it with his Tongue and of the other side there are by reason of the broad Fennes and wide Marishes an infinite
Afterwards Herveie the Abbot comming of the Norman bloud compassed it round about with a wall whereof there remaine still some few Reliques and Abbot Newport walled the Abbay The Bishop of Rome endowed it with very great immunities and among other things granted That the said place should bee subject to no Bishop in any matter and in matters lawfull depend upon the pleasure and direction of the Archbishop Which is yet observed at this day And now by this time the Monkes abounding in wealth erected a new Church of a sumptuous and stately building enlarging it every day more than other with new workes and whiles they laid the foundation of a new Chappell in the Reigne of Edward the First There were found as Eversden a Monke of this place writeth The walles of a certaine old Church built round so as that the Altar stood as it were in the mids and we verily thinke saith he it was that which was first built to Saint Edmunds service But what manner of Towne this was and how great the Abbay also was while it stood heare Leland speake who saw it standing The Sunne saith hee hath not seene either a City more finely seated so delicately standeth it upon the easie ascent or hanging of an hill and a little River runneth downe on the East side thereof or a goodlier Abbay whether a man indifferently consider either the endowment with Revenewes or the largenesse or the incomparable magnificence thereof A man that saw the Abbay would say verily it were a Citie so many Gates there are in it and some of brasse so many Towres and a most stately Church Upon which attend three others also standing gloriously in one and the same Churchyard all of passing fine and curious Workmanship If you demand how great the wealth of this Abbay was a man could hardly tell and namely how many gifts and oblations were hung upon the Tombe alone of Saint Edmund and besides there came in out of lands and Revenewes a thousand five hundered and three score pounds of old rent by the yeare If I should relate the broiles severally that from time to time arose betweene the Townesmen and the Monkes who by their Steward governed the Townesmen and with how great rage they fell together by the eares purposedly to kill one another my relation would seeme incredible But as great a peece of worke as this was so long in building and still encreasing and as much riches as they gathered together for so many yeares with S. Edmunds shrine and the monuments of Alan Rufus Earle of Britaine and Richmond Sir Thomas of Brotherton sonne to King Edward the first Earle of Norfolke and Marshall of England Thomas of Beaufor Duke of Excester W. Earle of Stafford Marie Queene Dowager of France Daughter to King Henry the Seaventh and many other worthie personages there Entombed were by King Henry the Eighth utterly overthrowne What time as at one clappe hee suppressed all Monasteries perswaded thereto by such as under a goodly pretense of reforming religion preferred their private respects and their owne enriching before the honour of Prince and Country yea and before the Glory of God himselfe And yet there remaineth still lying along the carcasse as one would say of that auncient monument altogether deformed but for ruines I assure you they make a faire and goodly shew which who soever beholdeth hee may both wonder thereat and withall take pity thereof England also that I may note this also by the way if ever else it had losse by the death of any Man sustained here one of the greatest For that father in deede of his Country Humfrey Duke of Glocester a due observer of Iustice and who had furnished his noble witte with the better and deeper kinde of studies after hee had under King Henry the Sixth governed the Kingdome five and twenty yeares with great commendation so that neither good men had cause to complaine of nor evill to finde fault with was here in Saint Saviours Hospitall brought to his end by the spightfull envy of Margaret of Lorain Who seeing her husband King Henry the Sixth to bee a man of a silly simple minde and faint hearted to the end shee might draw into her owne hands the managing of the State devised and plotted this wicked deed but to her owne losse and this Realme in the highest degree For Normandy and Aquitane were thereby shortly after lost and Warres more then civill enkindled in England Nere unto this Saint Edmunds Bury is Rushbroke to be seene the habitation of the worshipfull Family of the Iermins Knights and not farre from thence Ikesworth where there stood an auncient Priory founded by Gilbert Blund a man of great nobility and Lord of Ikesworth whose issue male by the right line ended in William that in King Henry the Third his dayes was slaine in the battell at Lewis and left two sisters his Heires Agnes wife to William de Creketot and Roise wedded to Robert de Valoniis Afterward both here at Haulsted neere by Rougham and else-where the Family of Drury which signifieth in old English A Pretious jewell hath beene of great respect and good note especially since they married with the heires of Fressil and Saxham More Northward is Saint Genovefs Fernham in this regard memorable for that Richard Lucy Lord chiefe Justice of England tooke Prisoner there in a pight fielde Robert Earle of Leicester making foule worke and havocke here and withall put to the sword above ten thousand Flemings whom hee had levied and sent forth to the depopulation of his Country Here hard by I had the sight of two very faire houses the one built by the Kitsons Knights at Hengrave the possession in times past of Edmund de Hengrave a most renowned Lawyer under King Edward the First the other at Culfurth erected by Sir Nicolas Bacon Knight sonne unto that Sir Nicolas Bacon Lord Keeper of the great Seale of England who for his singular wisedome and most sound judgement was right worthily esteemed one of the two Supporters of this Kingdome in his time And not farre off standeth Lidgate a small Village yet in this respect not to be passed over in silence because it brought into the World Iohn Lidgate the Monke whose witte may seeme to have beene framed and shapen by the very Muses themselves so brightly re-shine in his English verses all the pleasant graces and elegancies of speech according to that age Thus much for the more memorable places on the West side of Suffolke On the South side wee saw the river Stour which immediately from the very spring head spreadeth a great Mere called Stourmeer but soone after drawing it selfe within the bankes runneth first by Clare a noble Village which had a Castle but now decayed and gave name to the right noble Family of the Clares descended from Earle Gislebert the Norman and the title of Dukedome unto Leonel King
of pompe for a gallant shew Verily of our Nation therâ— be none that apply their mindes so seriously as they doe to husbandry which Columella termeth the neere cozin of Wisedome whether you respect their skill therein or their ability to beare the expences and their willing mind withall to take the paines Henry of Huntingdon before named calleth it a Village in his daies not unlovely and truly writeth that in times past it had been a noble City For to say nothing of Roman peeces of coine oftentimes there ploughed up nor of the distance in the old Itinerary the very signification of the name may probably prove that this was the very same City which Antonine the Emperor termed DUROLIPONTE amisse in stead of DUROSIPONTE For Durosi-ponte pardon me I pray you for changing one letter soundeth in the British tongue A bridge over the water Ose. And that this River is named indifferently and without distinction Vse Ise Ose and Ouse all men confesse But when this name was under the Danes quite abolished it began to be called Gormoncester of Gormon the Dane unto whom after agreement of peace King Aelfred granted these Provinces Hereto this old Verse giveth testimony Gormonis à castri nomine nomen habet Gormonchester at this howre Takes the name of Gormons Towre This is that Gormon of whom John Picus an old Author writeth in this wise King Aelfred conquered and subdued the Danes so that they gave what hostages hee would for assurance either to be packing out of the Land or else to become Christians Which thing also was effected For their King Guthrum whom they call Gormond with thirty of his Nobles and well neere all his people was baptized and adopted by Aelfred as his Sonne and by him named Athelstan Whereupon he remained heere and the Provinces of the East-English and of the Northumbrians were given to him that continuing in his allegiance under the Kings protection he might cherish and also maintain them as his inheritance which he had formerly overrun with spoile and robbery Neither would this be omitted that some also of those ancient Writers have termed this place Gumicester and Gumicastrum avoucheth withall that Machutus a Bishop had heere his Episcopall See And by the name of Gumicester King Henry the Third granted it to his sonne Edmund Earle of Lancaster Ouse making haste speedily from hence when he was about to enter into Cambridgeshire passeth through most delightsome medowes hard by a proper and faire towne which sometime in the English-Saxon tongue was called Slepe and now S. Ives of Ivo a Persian Bishop who as they write about the yeare of Christ 600. travailed through England preached diligently the Word of God and to this Towne wherein he left this life left also his name From whence notwithstanding shortly after the religious persons translated his body to Ramsey Abbay Turning aside from hence scarce three miles wee saw Somersham a faire dwelling house of late dayes belonging to the Bishops of Ely which Earle Brithnot in the yeare 991. gave to Ely Church and James Stanley the lavish and expencefull Bishop enlarged with new buildings A little above that most wealthy Abbay Ramsey was situate amiddest the Fennes where the Rivers become standing waters when they have once found a soft kinde of Soile The description of this place have here if it please you out of the private History of this Abbay Ramsey that is The Rams Isle on the West side for on other sides fennish grounds through which one cannot passe stretch out farre and wide is severed from the firme ground almost two bow-shots off by certaine uneven and quaggy miry plots Which place being wonâ— in times past to receive gently within the bosome and brinkes thereof Vessels arriving there with milde gales of winde in a shallow River onely now through great labour and cost after the foule and dirty quagmires aforesaid were stopped up with heapes of wood gravell and stones together men may passe into on foote on the same side upon a dry causey and it lieth out in length almost two miles but spreadeth not all out so much in bredth which notwithstanding is beset round about with beautifull rowes of Alder-trees and reed plots that with fresh greene canes and streight bulrushes among make a faire and pleasant shew and before it was inhabited garnished and bedecked all over with many sorts of trees but of wilde Ashâ—s especially in great aboundance But now after longer tract of time part of these groves and woods being cut downe it is become arable ground of a very fat and plentifull mould for fruit rich pleasant for corne planted with gardens wealthy in pastures and in the Spring time the medowes arraied with pleasant flowers smile upon the beholders and the whole Island seemeth embroidered as it were with variety of gay colours Besides that it is compassed all about with Meres full of Eeles and pooles replenished with fish of many sorts and with fowle there bred and nourished Of which Meres one is called after the name of the Island Ramsey Mere farre excelling all the other waters adjoyning in beauty and fertility on that side where the Isle is counted bigger and the wood thicker flowing daintily by the sandy banke thereof yeeldeth a very delectable sight to behold in the very gulfes whereof by casting as well of great wide mashed nets as of other sorts by laying also of hookes baited and other instruments devised by fishers craft are caught oftentimes and drawne certaine Pikes of an huge and wonderfull bignesse which the Inhabitants call Hakeds and albeit the fowlers doe continually haunt the place and catch great store of young water-fowle yet there is abundance alwaies that remaineth untaken Furthermore that History sheweth at large how Ailwin a man of the bloud royall and for the speciall great authority and favour that hee had with the King sirnamed Healf-Koning that is Halfe King being admonished and mooved thereunto by a Fishers dreame built it how Oswald the Bishop furthered and enlarged it how Kings and others endowed it with so faire revenewes that for the maintenance of threescore Monkes it might dispend by the yeare seven thousand pounds of our English money But seeing it is now pulled downe and destroyed some may thinke I have already spoken overmuch thereof Yet hereto I will annexe out of the same Authour the Epitaph of Ailwins Tombe for that it exhibiteth unto us an unusuall and strange title of a Dignity HIC REQUIESCIT AILWINUS INCLITI REGIS EADGARI COGNATUS TOTIUS ANGLIAE ALDERMANNUS ET HUJUS SACRI COENOBII MIRACULOSUS FUNDATOR HERE RESTETH AILWIN COZIN TO THE NOBLE KING EADGAR ALDERMAN OF ALL ENGLAND AND OF THIS HOLY ABBAY THE MIRACULOUS FOUNDER From hence to Peterborough which is about ten miles off King Canutus because travailing that way and finding it very combersome by reason of swelling Brookes and sloughs with great cost and labour made a paved Causey which
afterward this honor at the hands of King Henry the Fifth Who shortly after in the French war lost his life at the siege of Meaux in Brye leaving one onely daughter married to Sir Edward Nevill from whom descended the late Lords of Abergevenny Afterward King Henry the Sixth created John Tiptoft Earle of Worcester But when he presently taking part with King Edward the Fourth had applied himselfe in a preposterous obsequiousnesse to the humor of the said King and being made Constable of England plaied the part as it were of the butcher in the cruell execution of diverse men of qualitie himselfe when as King Henry the Sixth was now repossessed of the crowne came to the blocke Howbeit his sonne Edward recovered that honor when King Edward recovered his Kingdome But after that this Edward died without issue and the inheritance became divided among the sisters of the said John Tiptoft Earle of Worcester of whom one was married to the Lord Roo◠another to Sir Edmund Ingoldesthorpe and the third to the Lord Dudley Sir Charles Somerset base sonne to Henry Duke of Somerset Lord Herbert and Lord Chamberlaine to King Henry the Eighth was by him created Earle of Worcester After whom succeeded in lineall descent Henry William and Edward who now flourisheth and among other laudable parts of vertue and Nobility highly favoureth the studies of good literature There are in this Shire Parishes 152. STAFFORDIAE COMITATVS PARS olim Cornauiorum STAFFORD-SHIRE THE third Region of the old CORNAVII now called STAFFORD-SHIRE in the English Saxons Language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Inhabitants whereof because they dwelt in the middest of England are in Bede termed Angli Mediterranei that is Midland Englishmen having on the East Warwick-shire and Darby-shire on the South side Worcester-shire and Westward Shropp-shire bordering upon it reacheth from South to North in forme of a Lozeng broader in the middest and growing narrower at the ends The North part is full of Hilles and so lesse fruitfull the middle being watered with the River Trent is more plentifull clad with Woods and embroidered gallantly with Corne fields and medowes as is the South part likewise which hath Coles also digged out of the earth and mines of Iron But whether more for their commodity or hinderance I leave to the Inhabitants who doe or shall best understand it In the South part in the very confines with Worcester-shire upon the River Stour standeth Stourton Castle sometimes belonging to the Earles of Warwicke the natall place of Cardinall Pole and then Dudley Castle towreth up upon an hill built and named so of one Dudo or Dodo an English Saxon about the yeere of our Salvation 700. In King William the Conquerours daies as we finde in his Domesday Booke William Fitz-Ausculph possessed it afterwards it fell to Noble men sirnamed Somery and by an heire generall of them to Sir Richard Sutton knight descended from the Suttons of Nottingham-shire whose Posterity commonly called from that time Lords of Dudley but summoned to Parliament first by King Henry the Sixth grew up to a right honourable Family Under this lyeth Pensueth Chace in former times better stored with game wherein are many Cole-pits in which as they reported to mee there continueth a fire begunne by a candle long since through the negligence of a grover or digger The smoke of this fire and sometime the flame is seene but the savour oftener smelt and other the like places were shewed unto mee not farre off North-West ward upon the Confines of Shropp-shire I saw Pateshull a seat of the Astleies descended from honourable Progenitours and Wrotesley an habitation of a Race of Gentlemen so sirnamed out of which Sir Hugh Wrotesley for his approoved valour was chosen by King Edward the Third Knight of the Garter at the first institution and so accounted one of the founders of the said honourable Order Next after this the memorable places that wee meet with in this Tract more inwardly are these Chellington a faire house and Manour of the ancient Family of the Giffards which in the Raigne of Henry the Second Peter Corbuchin gave to Peter Giffard upon whom also Richard Strongbow that Conquerour of Ireland bestowed in free gift Tachmelin and other Possessions in Ireland Theoten hall which is by interpretation The habitation of Heathens or Pagans at this day Tetnall embrued with Danish bloud in the yeere 911. by King Edward the Elder in a bloudy Battaile Ulfrunes Hampton so called of Wulfruna a most godly and devout woman who enriched the Towne called before simply Hampton with a religious House and for Wulfrunes Hampton it is corruptly called Wulver Hampton The greatest name and note whereof ariseth by the Church there annexed to the Warden or Deane and Prebendaries of Windsor Weadsbury in these dayes Weddsborrow fortified in old time by Aethelfled Lady of the Mercians and Walshall a Mercate Towne none of the meanest Neere unto which the River Tame carryeth his streame which rising not farre off for certaine miles wandereth through the East part of this Shire seeking after Trent neere unto Draiton Basset the seat of the Bassets who springing out from Turstan Lord of this place in the Raigne of Henry the First branched forth into a great and notable Family For from hence as from a stocke flourished the Bassets of Welleden of Wiccomb of Sapcot of Cheddle and others But of this of Draiton Raulph was the last who being a right renowned Baron had marryed the sister of John Montfort Duke of Britaine and in the Raigne of Richard the Second died without issue Then Tame passing through the Bridge at Falkesley over which an ancient high way of the Romanes went runneth hard under Tamworth in the Saxon Tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Marianus calleth it Tamawordia a Towne so placed in the Confines of the two Shires that the one part which belonged sometime to the Marmions is counted of Warwick-shire the other which pertained to the Hastings of Stafford-shire As for the name it is taken from Tame the Riuer running beside it and of the English Saxon word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a Barton Court or Ferme-house and also an Holme or River Island or any place environed with water seeing that Keyserwert and Bomelswert in Germanie betoken as much as Caesars Isle and Bomels Isle Whiles the Mercians Kingdome stood in state this was a place of their Kings resiance and as we finde in the Lieger Booke of Worcester a Towne of very great resort and passing well frequented Afterward when in the Danes Warre it was much decaied Aethelfled Lady of Mercia repaired and brought it againe to the former state also Edith King Eadgars Sister who refusing Marriage for the opinion that went of her for holinesse was registred in the roll of Saints founded heere a little house for Nunnes and veiled Virgins which after some yeeres was translated to
were the North side of this Country Upon Derwent which hath his spring head neere unto the top of the Triangle there standeth nothing of note unlesse it bee a little Village which now they call Ebchester of Ebba a virgin of the bloud royall of the Northumbers of whom there went so great a name and opinion for her sanctimony and devotion about the yeere 630. that being canonized among the Saints she hath many Churches in this Island dedicated unto her which the common sort usually call Saint Tabbs for Saint Ebbes But by Tine there is situate a memorable Towne called Gateshead in the English Saxon tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by Latin Historians Caprae Caput which is the same as one would say Goates head and is as it were the Suburbs of Newcastle standing on the hether side of Tine whereunto also it was annexed by King Edward the Sixth when the Bishopricke was dissolved But Queene Mary soone after restored it againe unto the Church The common people thinke it is farre more ancient than Newcastle it selfe And if I also should say that this and Newcastle together for one Towne it may seeme in old time to have beene divided onely by the River was that Frontier Station which under the later Emperours they called GABROSENTUM and was kept by the second Band of the Thracians and that it retained still the ancient name in sense and signification whereas New-castle hath gotten once or twice a new name I hope my opinion would be nothing dissonant from the truth For Gaffr in the British tongue signifieth a Goat and Hen in ordinary speech is used for Pen which betokeneth an Head and in the very same signification our old Historiographers tearme it in Latine Caprae Caput like as Brundusium in the Messapians Language tooke that name from a Stagges head I would thinke that this name was given unto this place by occasion of some Inne that had a Goats head for the signe even as Gallus Gallinaccus that is The Housecocke Tres Sorores that is Three sisters and Pirum that is The Peare Places in Africke Spaine and Italie whereof Antonine maketh mention which of such signes as some learned men suppose tooke their names And our Historians all with one accord name this Towne Caprae Caput when they record that Walcher Bishop of Durham whom King William the First had made Governour over Northumberland with the authority of an Earle was slaine in this place by the furious multitude for misgoverning the Country Beneath this Towne almost at the very mouth of Tine is to be seene Girwy now Iarrow the native soile of venerable Bede where also in ancient times flourished a little Monastery The Founder whereof and the time of the foundation this inscription sheweth which is yet extant in the Church wall DEDICATIO BASILICAE S. PAULI VIII KL MA II. ANNO XVI ECFRIDI REG. CEOLFRIDI ABB. EIUSDEMQ ECCLES DEO AUCTORE CONDITORIS ANNO IIII. These greater Churches when the Saving light of Christ shone upon the world let it not seeme impertinent to note so much by occasion of the word Basilica were termed BASILICAE for that the Basilicae of the Gentiles which were large and spatious Hauls wherein Magistrates sat in judgement and ministred Justice were converted into Christian Churches Whence Ausonius wrote thus Basilica olim negotijs plena c. The Basilica or Haull of Justice in times past full of businesses is now as full of Praiers and vowes or else because they were built in forme somewhat long in manner of those Basilicae Heere our Bede the singular glory and ornament of England who for his Piety and learning got the sirname of VENERABILIS bestowed all diligence as himselfe saith in meditation of the Scriptures and amid the most boisterous billowes and surging waves of Barbarisme wrote many most learned Volumes When hee was once dead there was buried with him as William of Malmesbury saith all the knowledge well neere of Acts and Monuments untill our time For when there succeeded ever one more lazie than another the heat of good studies was abated and cooled through the whole Land And the Danes for their part plagued this holy place in such wise that shortly after the Conquest when some in these Countries went in hand to reestablish the Monkes againe and Walcher the Bishop assigned this place for them Onely walles as saith mine Authour were standing without any roofe and it scarcely retained any signe of the ancient dignity howbeit for all that they framing a roofe over head of rough hewen wood such as they could get and thatching it with straw beganne to celebrate Divine Service therein I neede not to make a Catalogue of the Bishops of Durham who are reputed Count-Palatines Let it suffice to intimate thus much that since the first time a See was heere erected in the yeere of our Redemption 995. there have sitten in it 35. Bishops unto our daies Of which these were most eminent Hugh Pudsey nobly descended and allyed to King Stephen who for a thousand and thirteene pounds presently disbursed purchased of King Richard the First the Country of Northumberland for his life and Sathbrege to his successours for ever and built that goodly Hospitall whereof I spake betweene whom and the Archbishop there arose a most bitter controversie Whiles as he writeth of them hic praesse ille non subesse neuter prodesse contenderet that is One would bee superiour the other would not bee inferiour and neither of them would doe any good Antony Bec Patriarch of Jerusalem who spent infinite summes of money upon vast buildings and glorious furniture Thomas Wolsey Cardinall who in his high prosperity wanted nothing but moderation but his History is sufficiently knowne And Cuthbert Tunstall who dyed in our time for singular knowledge in the best Sciences sincere holinesse of life and great wisdome approved in domesticall and forraigne imployments was without offence bee it spoken equivalent to them all and a singular Ornament to his native Countrie In this Province and in Northumberland beside very many Chappels are counted Parish Churches 118. LANCASTRIAE Comitalus palatinus olim pars BRIGANTUM LANCA-SHIRE I Must now turne the course of my journey another way unto the rest of the BRIGANTES who were planted on the farther side of the Hilles toward the Irish Sea and first unto LANCA-SHIRE which I goe unto God speede mee well after a sort somewhat against my will For I feare me that I shall not satisfie my selfe and much lesse the Reader For very few things fell out to my desire when I travailed over the greatest part thereof the old names in every place have beene so worne out by the continuall assault of Time But least I might bee thought to neglect the hearty good Lanca-shire men I will proceed in hope that Gods assistance which hitherto hath beene favourable unto me will not now faile me Under those mountaines which
shooteth into the deepe sea and is to bee seene a farre off Hard by South Eske voideth it selfe into the Ocean which river flowing amaine out of a lake passeth by Finnevim Castle well knowne by reason of the Lindeseies Earles of Crawford keeping residence there of whom I have alreadie written Then upon the said river standeth Brechin which King David the first adorned with a Bishops See and at the very mouth thereof Mont-rose as one would say the Mount of Roses a towne in times past called Celurca risen by the fall of another towne bearing the same name which is seated betweene the two Eskes and imparteth the title of Earle to the family of the Grahams Concerning which towne Ionston hath these verses CELURCA five MONS ROSARUM Aureolis urbs picta rosis mons molliter urbi Imminet hinc urbi nomina facta canunt At veteres perhibent quondam dixisse Celurcam Nomine sic prisco nobilitata novo est Et prisca atque nova insignis virtute virumque Ingeniis patriae qui perperere decus MONT-ROSE With Roses gay the towne is deckt an easie Mount withall Stands neere the same and hence they say MONT-ROSE folke did it call In former times by ancient name Celurca men it knew Ennobled thus you see it is by name both old and new Both old and new renowne it hath for prowesse and for wit Of men that have their countrey grac'd and honour won to it Not farre from hence is Boschain belonging to the Barons of Ogiluy of very ancient nobilitie lineally descended from Alexander Sheriffe of Angus who was slaine in the bloodie battaile at Harley against the Mac Donald of the out Isles As touching the Earles of Angus Gilchrist of Angus renowned for his brave exploits under King Malcolm the fourth was the first Earle of Angus that I read of About the yeere 1242. Iohn Comin was Earle of Angus who died in France and his widow haply inheritrice to the Earldome was married to Sir Gilbert Umfranvill an Englishman For both hee and his heires successively after him were summoned to the Parliaments in England untill the third yeere of King Richard the second by the title of Earles of Angus Howbeit the Lawyers of England refused in their Brieves and instruments to acknowledge him Earle for that Angus was not within the kingdome of England untill hee had brought forth openly in the face of the Court the Kings writ and warrant wherein he was summoned to the Parliament by the name of Earle of Angus In the reigne of David Brus Thomas Stewart was Earle of Angus who by a suddaine surprise won Barwicke and streightwaies lost it yea and within a while after died miserably in prison at Dunbritton But the Douglasses men of haughtie mindes and invincible hearts from the time of King Robert the third have beene Earles of Angus after that George Douglasse had taken to wife the Kings daughter reputed the chiefe and principall Earles of Scotland and to whom this office belongeth to carrie the regall Crown before the Kings at all the solemne assemblies of the kingdome The sixth Earle of Angus out of this stocke was Archebald who espoused Margaret daughter to Henrie the seventh K. of England and mother to James the fifth King of Scots by whom he had issue Margaret wife to Matthew Stewart Earle of Lennox who after her brothers decease that died childlesse willingly resigned up her right and interest in this Earldome unto Sir David Douglasse of Peteindreich her unkles sonne by the fathers side and that with the consent of her husband and sonnes to the end that she might binde the surer unto her selfe by the linke also of a beneficiall demerite that family which otherwise in bloud was most neere what time as Henrie her son went about to wed Marie the Queen by which marriage King JAMES our Soveraigne the mightie Monarch of great Britaine was happily borne to the good of all Britaine MERNIS THese regions were in Ptolomees time inhabited by the VERNICONES the same perhaps that the VECTURIONES mentioned by Marcellinus But this their name is now quite gone unlesse wee would imagine some little peece thereof to remaine in Mernis For many times in common speech of the British tongue V. turneth into M. This small province Mernis abutting upon the German Ocean and of a rich and battle soile lieth very well as a plaine and levell Champion But the most memorable place therein is Dunnotyr a Castle advanced upon an high and unaccessible rocke whence it looketh downe to the underflowing sea well fensed with strong walls and turrets which hath beene a long time the habitation of the Keiths of an ancient and verie noble stock who by the guidance of their vertue became hereditarie Earles Mareschals of the kingdome of Scotland and Sheriffes of this province In a porch or gallerie here is to bee seene that ancient inscription which I mentioned even now of a companie belonging to the twentieth legion the letters whereof the right noble and honourable Earle now living a great lover of antiquitie caused to be guilded Somewhat farther from the sea standeth Fordon graced in some sort and commendable in regard of John de Fordon who being borne here diligently and with great paines compiled Scoti Chronicon that is The Scottish Chronicle unto whose laborious studies the Scottish Historiographers are very much indebted but more glorious and renowned in old time for the reliques of St. Palladius bestowed and shrined sometime as is verily thought in this place who in the yeere 431. was by Pope Caelestinas appointed the Apostle of the Scottish nation MARRIA or MAR. FRom the sea in the mediterranean or inland parts above Mernis MAR enlargeth it selfe and runneth forward threescore miles or thereabout where it lieth broadest Westwards it swelleth up with mountaines unlesse it bee where the rivers Dee which Ptolomee calleth DIVA and Done make way for themselves and enfertile the fields Upon the bank of Done Kildrummy standeth as a faire ornament to the countrey being the ancient seat of the Earles of Marre and not farre distant from it the habitation of the Barons Forbois who being issued from a noble and ancient stocke assumed this surname whereas before time they were called Bois after that the heire of that family had manfully killed a savage and cruell Beare But at the very mouth of this river there be two townes that give greater ornament which of the said mouth that in the British tongue they call Aber borrowing one name are divided asunder by one little field lying betweene the hithermore of them which standeth neerer to Dee mouth is much ennobled by an Episcopall dignitie which King David the first translated hither from Murthlake a little village by faire houses of the Canons an Hospitall for poore people and a free Grammar schoole which William Elphinston Bishop of the place in the yeere 1480. consecrated to the training up
the Kingdome that had dealt before time so craftily and deceitfully with him And as for the Cessation would he never so faine he could not revoke it because he had already entred another course and appointed O-Donel to goe into Conaught and other of his confederates into other parts In this meane space there ran among the Rebells rumours very rife and the Earle of Tir-Oen questionlesse was the authour that there should be within a while the greatest and strangest alteration that ever was in England and lewd persons began daily to encrease both in number and in courage For they that were of the Irishry aspired now to their ancient freedome and Nobility contrariwise good and honest men of the English blood were much dejected and discouraged seeing so great expences of the Prince came to nothing who also complained one unto another that they had been of late excluded as meere strangers from bearing offices in the common-Weale But the Earle all in a glorious jollity giveth it out every where and that with open mouth That he would recover the liberty both of Religion and of his Country he receiveth in every place busie and tumultuous persons into his protection he sends them succour and aide strengthneth and comforteth the distrustfull stoutly streineth and setteth-to his helping hand to subvert the English government in Ireland being drawne on and fed with hope which the King of Spaine by sending now and then munition and some money made shew of and the Pope by promises and indulgences maintained as having sent unto him before the plume of a Phoenix haply because Pope Urban the third had sent in times past a little Coronet platted with peacocks feathers unto Iohn King Henries the second his sonne when he was invested Lord of Ireland And now triumphantly glorying of his victories to the end that he might make a goodly shew of his greatnesse in every place and by his personall presence set that fire to burne out light which in his absence hee had kindled in Mounster under a faire and religious pretence of visiting a little peece of wood of Christs Crosse which is thought to be kept in the Monastery of the Holy Crosse in Tipperary in mid-winter thither hee goes on Pilgrimage and sent out into the grounds of true and faithfull subjects a number of preying robbers under the conduct of Mac-Guir he by chance hapned upon Sir Warrham Saint Leger who runne him through with his lance and was withall at the same instant himselfe runne through by him Whose funeralls when the Earle had performed he hasteneth home sooner than all men looked for as having heard that the Earle of Ormond appointed Generall of the Army was raising of a power from all parts and that Sir Charles Blunt Baron Monâ—joy appointed the Lord Deputy was comming unto whom the Queene before time had purposed in her minde this government but Robert Earle of Essex who for to pleasure military men and to deserve the better of them into whose love he studiously insinuated himselfe sought though covertly to compasse the same himselfe wholly opposed against him as if he the said Lord Montjoy had seene no service nor beene experienced in the warres more than in the Netherlands had no followers and dependants nor much aforehand with the world and overmuch bookish He arriveth in Ireland in the moneth of February without any great noise and stirre accompanied with a small traine and so entred upon the Government Now hee found the state of Ireland very distressed or rather desperately sick and past all hope of recovery yea at the point as it were to give up the ghost for every good and honest meaning minde was dismaied to see such a confluence of calamities without all hope of remedy or any allevation at all but the worst sort seeing all to goe well on their side and prosper still to their desire rejoiced and applauded one the other and the Earle himselfe without any resistance had passed through the whole length of the Iland in triumphant manner even from the utmost part of Ulster into Mounster The Rebells moreover to terrifie the Deputy now at his first comming strucke up an Al'arme in the very suburbs of Dublin But he full of good courage desired nothing more than to set upon the Earle himselfe who as hee had intelligence given him was to returne out of Mounster Mustering up therefore in all haste such a power as hee could for the companies of choice souldiers were in Mounster already with the Earle of Ormond he hastened to stop the Earles passage in Fereal and there to give him battell But the Earle by celerity and quicke speed prevented him being privily enformed of the Deputies designes for certaine there were even of the Queenes Councell there who alwaies highly favoured and tendered his proceedings The Deputy being returned to Dublin was wholly busied in mustering of the old souldiers that should be sent by shipping to Logh-Foile and Bala-shanon neere unto the mouth of Logh-Earn that by placing garrisons there they might make sallies upon the Earle both on backe and sides as also about sending aide unto the garrison souldiers in Lease and Ophaly a matter by reason of so many enemies round about of great danger and difficulty In the beginning of May the Deputy put himselfe on his march toward Ulster with this purpose to divert the Earle another way whiles Sir Henry Docwra at Logh-foile and Sir Matthew Morgan at Bala-shanon planted the garrisons which they with small adoe effected for Sir Henry Docwra tooke Logh-foile and Sir Iohn Bâ—lle who accompanied him tooke Don-a-long and Lhiffer castles suppressing the rebells with divers overthrowes Whiles the Earle was every day kept occupied by the Deputy with light skirmishes wherein he evermore had so bad successe that hee perceived now the fortune of warre was turned and himselfe driven back into his owne corners The Lord Deputy being returned in Mid-June when as the garrisons aforesaid were placed accordingly required out of England certaine companies of souldiers and victuals for to bestow and plant a garrison also in these parts at Armagh thereby to bring the Rebels within a straighter compasse Meane while hee tooke a journey into Lease which was the place of refuge and receipt of all the Rebels in Leinster where he slew Ony-Mac-Rory-Og the chiefe of the O-Mores family a bloody bold and most desperate young man who of late had made so soule a stirre in Mounster him I say he slew with other most wicked and mischievous Rebells and after he had layed their fields waste hee chased them into woods and forrests so as that in those parts they were scarcely ever after seene When as now new succours were come out of England although he wanted both come and money the Equinoxe was past and winter weather began already in that climate yet marched hee forward to the very entrance of Moyery three miles beyond Dondalk This passage is naturally the most combersome of all others
warble upon with their nimble fingers most melodiously Doe any of them betake themselves to religion a wonder it is to see how they mortifie and keepe their bodies under with a devout kind of austerity watching praying and making themselves leane with much fasting so that it is no marvell which is written of their monkes in the age afore going Yea the very women and young maidens fast duely upon every Wednesday and Saturday throughout the whole yeere Some of them also fast upon Saint Katharines festivall day and this they faile not to doe upon Christmas day if it so fall out even when they be most grievously sicke Some make this to bee the cause for maidens that they may be sped with good husbands for wives that they may change for a better marriage either by the death of their husbands or by forsaking them or at leastwise by alteration of their conditions But they that have once given themselves over to lewdnesse are more lewd than lewdnesse it selfe Their garments they die with the barkes of trees that English men name Alders they use also Elder-berries to colour their wooll yellow With the boughes barke and leaves of the poplar tree bruised and stamped they staine their large wide shirts with a saffran colour which now are almost out of use and adding thereunto the rine of the wild Arbut tree salt together with saffran And whatsoever they die they doe not so much boile it long over the fire as drench and steepe the same for certaine daies together among other things in cold urine of man or woman that the yellow colour may be more durable They account it no shame or infamie to commit robberies which they practise every where with exceeding cruelty When they goe to rob they poure out their prayers to God That they may meet with a booty and they suppose that a cheat or booty is sent unto them from God as his gift neither are they perswaded that either violence or rapine or manslaughter displeaseth God for in no wise would he presens unto them this opportunitie if it were a sinne nay a sin it were if they did not lay hold upon the said opportunitie You shall heare these Cut-throats and Incendiaries come out with these words God is mercifull and will not suffer the price of his blood to be of no effâ—ct in me Moreover they say that they walke in their fathers steps that this maner of life was left unto them also that it were a disparagement of their nobility if they would get their living by handie labour and forbeare committing such facts As they are setting forth to a boot-haling or to doe any other businesse they marke whom they meet first in the morning if they speed well they lay for to meet with him oft if otherwise they heedfully avoid him To sleepe and snore in a most stormie night and not to dispatch a very long way by night on foot nor to adventure upon any danger whatsoever in spoiling and robbing they take to be tokens of a base and abject minde Of late daies they spare neither Churches nor hallowed places but thence also they fill their hands with spoile yea and sometimes they set them on fire and kill the men that there lie hidden And the cause hereof is the most filthy life of their Priests who of Churches make profane houses and keepe harlots who follow them whithersoever they goe but when they are cast off seeke cunning devises to doe mischiefe by poisons The Priests Lemans and their bastards abide within the circuit of a Church drinke untill they be drunke lie together shed blood and keepe up their cattell there Among those wild Irish there is neither divine service nor any forme of Chappell but outwardly no Altars at all or else they be filthily polluted the image of the Rood or Crosse defaced if there be any at all The sacred vestiments are so foule and nasty that they would make one to cast up his stomacke The alter portable without any crosses emprinted upon it and by some abuse or other polluted The Missal or Masse booke all torne and bereft of the Canon yet the same is tendred to all oathes and perjuries the Chalice of lead without a cover to it the samll vessels for wine made of a horne The Priests mind nothing but gathering of goods and getting of children The Parsons play the Vicars and that of many Parishes together they make it great shew of the Canon-Law but have never a jot of learning They have their children to succeed them in their Churches for whose illegitimation they are dispenced with These will not take the order of Priest-hood but commit the charge to the Curates without any stipend that they may live by the booke that is upon some small gift or oblation at the baptisme inunction and buriall wherewith God wot they live most bare and miserable These Priests sonnes that follow not their studies prove for the most part notorious theeves For they that carry the name of Mac-Decan Mac-Pherson Mac-Oâ—pac that is the Deanes or Deacons son the Parsons son and the Bishops sonne are the strongest theeves that be and the more able by their Parents liberality to raise a power of unruly rebels and the rather because following their fathers steps they maintaine hospitality As for the daughters of these Priests if their fathers be living they are set forth with good portions in case they wed but if their fathers be dead either they begge or prostitute their bodies At every third word t is ordinary with them to lash out an oath namely by the Trinity by God by S. Patrick by S. Brigid by their Baptism by Faith by the Church by my God-fathers hand and by thy hand And albeit by these they sweare with the sacred Bible or Missal laid most religiously upon their bare heads yea and be forsworne yet if one say they stand in danger of damnation for perjury you shall heare them straightwaies cry aloud The Lord is mercifull and will not suffer the price of his blood shed for me to be of no effect in me Never shall I goe to hell repent I or repent I not But for the performance of promise and that a man may beleeve them these three points with them be of greatest weight to bind them First if one sweare at the altar touching the booke lying open and the same laid on the crown of his head Secondly if he take to record some Saint whose crooked staffe or bell he toucheth and kisseth Thirdly if he sweare by the hand of an Earle or of his owne Lord or some mighty person for then if he be convict of perjury by the two former he incurreth infamy but in case hee be forsworne by the third the said mighty man will wring from him perforce a great summe of mony and a number of Cowes as if by that perjury the greatest abuse and injury that might be were offered unto his name For cowes are their
unto the said place and there she saith on this wise I call thee P. from the East and West South and North from the forrests woods rivers meeres the wilde wood-fayries white red black c. and withall bolteth out certaine short praiers then returneth she home unto the sicke party to try whether it be the disease called Esane which they are of opinion is sent by the Fairies and whistereth a certaine odde praier with a Pater Noster into his eare putteth some coals into a pot full of fair water and so giveth more certain judgment of the disease than many of our Physicians can Their warre-fare consisteth of horsemen of souldiours set in the rere-guard whom they terme Galloglasses who fight with most keen hatchets and of light armed footmen called Kernes whose service is with darts and skeanes To give an acclamation and shout unto every footman or horseman as he goeth out of the gate is counted lucky and fortunate he who hath no such applause is thought to have some mischeife portended unto him In war they use the bagpipe in stead of a trumpet they carry about them Amulets they recite certain praiers in joining battel they crie as loud as possible they can Pharroh I suppose this to be that military Barritus which Ammianus speaketh of with this perswasion that he who crieth not as loud as the rest shall have this accident befall unto him suddenly to bee taken up from the ground and carried as it were flying in the aire avoiding ever after the sight of men into a certaine vale in Kerry as I have said before Such as visite and sit by one that lieth sicke in bed never speake word of God nor of the salvation of his soul ne yet of making his will but all to put him in hope of his recovering If any one call for the sacrament him they count past hope and recovery The wives passe not for any will-making because it is grown now to be a common custome that a third part of the goods shall bee given unto them and the rest to bee divided by even portions among the children saving that when they come to enter upon the inheritance be that is mightiest carrieth away the best share For he that is strongest be he unkle or nephew most times seizeth upon the inheritance and shutteth the children out of all When one lieth ready to die before he is quite gone certaine women hired of purpose to lament standing in the meeting of crosse high-wayes and holding their hands all abroad call unto him with certain out-cries fitted for the nonce and goe about to stay his soule as it laboureth to get forth of the bodie by reckoning up the commodities that he enjoyeth of wordly goods of wives of beauty fame kinsfolke friends and horses and demanding of him why he will depart and whither and to whom yea they expostulate with his soule objecting that she is unthankfull At length they piteously make moane and say that the soule now ready to leave the body is going away to these kinde of haggish women that appeare by night and in darknesse but after it is departed once out of the body they keepe a mourning and wailing for it with loud howling and clapping of their hands together Now they follow the corps when it goes to buriall with such a peale of out-cries that a man would thinke the quicke as well as the dead past all recoverie In these wailings and lamentations the nurses daughters and concubines make the greatest adoe and are most vehement Neither doe they mourne with lesse sorrow and heavinesse for those that are slaine in battaile than such as die of sicknesse although they affirme that they have an easier death who lose their lives in fighting in the field or in robbing Yet notwithstanding they raile upon their enemies with most spitefull words and continue for a long time deadly hatred against all of that sept and kinred They suppose that the soules of such as are deceased goe into the company of certaine men famous in those places touching whom they retaine still fables and songs as of Giants Fin-Mac-Huyle Osker Mac-Oshin and they say that by illusion they often times doe see such As for their meats they feed willingly upon herbs and watercresses especially upon mushromes shamroots and roots so that Strabo not without good cause said they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. Eaters of herbes for which in some copies is falsly read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. Great Eaters They delight also in butter tempered with oate-meale in milke whey beefe-broth and flesh oftentimes without any bread at all As for the corne that they have they lay it up for their horses provender for whom verily they are especially carefull When they be hunger bitten in time of dearth they disdaine not to devoure raw flesh after they have pressed out the blood thereof and for to concoct and digest it they swill in and poure down the throat Uskebah draught after draught They let their kine blood also which when it is growne to a gelly and strewed over with butter they eat with good appetite They goe for the most part bare headed unlesse it bee when they put on an head-piece The haire of their head they weare long and nothing set they greater store by than the glibbes or tresses of their haires and to have the same plucked or twitched they take it for a contumelious indignitie They use linnen shirts and those verily exceeding large with wide sleeves and hanging side downe to their very knees which they were wont to staine with saffron Little Jackets they have of woollen and those very short breeches most plaine and close to their thighes But they cast over these their mantles or shagge rugges which Isidore seemeth to call Heteromallae with a deepe fringed purâ—le and the same daintily set out with sundrie colours within which they lappe themselves in the night and sweetly sleepe on the very ground Such also doe the women cast over the side garment that they weare downe to the foot and with elnes as I said of Sendall rolled up in wreathes they rather load than adorne their heads like as they doe their neckes with chaines and carkaneth their armes also with bracelets These are the manners of the wild Irish out of our Author In the rest for the most part all that inhabite the English Pale as they tearme it there is no point of curtesie and civilitie wanting for which they are beholden to the English conquest and for much more might the whole Island bee beholden unto it in case upon a certaine peevish and obstinate love they beare unto their owne country fashions they had not stopped up their eares and shut up their hearts against better governance For the Irishry are so stifly settled in observing of the old rites of their country that not onely they cannot be withdrawne from them but also are able easily to draw the English unto
Sampford archbishop of Dublin In the same yeer the King of Hungary forsaking the Christian faith became an Apostata and when hee had called fraudulently as it were to a Parliament the mightier potentates of his land Miramomelius a puissant Saracene came upon them with 20000. souldiers carrying away with him the King with all the Christians there assembled on the even of Saint John Baptists day as the Christians therefore journied the weather that was cleere and faire turned to be cloudie and suddenly a tempest of haile killed many thousands of the Infidels together The Christians returned to their owne homes and the Apostata King alone went with the Saracenes The Hungarians therefore crowning his sonne King continued in the Catholike faith MCCLXXXIX Tripolis a famous citie was laied even with the ground not without much effusion of Christian blood and that by the Soldan of Babylon who commanded the images of the Saints to bee drawne and dragged at horses tailes in contempt of the name of Christ through the citie newly destroyed MCCXC Inclyta Stirps Regis Sponsis datur ordine legis In lawfull guise by hand and ring Espoused is the Kings off-spring The Lord Gilbert Clare tooke to wife the Ladie Joan a daughter of the Lord King Edward in the Abbey or Covent Church of Westminster and the marriage was solemnely celebrated in the Moneth of May and John the Duke of Brabant his sonne married Margaret the said Kings daughter also in the Church aforesaid in the moneth of July The same yeere the Lord William Vescie was made Justice of Ireland entring upon the office on Saint Martins day Item O Molaghelin King of Meth is slaine MCCXCI Gilbert Clare the sonne of Gilbert and of the Ladie Joan of Acres was borne the 11. day of May in the morning betimes Item there was an armie led into Ulster against O-Hanlon and other Princes hindering the peace by Richard Earle of Ulster and William Vescie Justice of Ireland Item the Ladie Eleanor sometime Queene of England and mother of King Edward died in the feast of St. Iohn Baptist who in the religious habite which she desired led a laudable life for the space of foure yeeres eleven moneths and sixe dayes within the Abbey of Ambresby where she was a professed Nun. Item there resounded certaine rumours in the eares of the Lord Pope Martin on the even of St. Mary Maudlen as touching the Citie Acon in the holy land which was the only refuge of the Christians namely that it was besieged by Milkador the Soldan of Babylon an infinite number of his souldiers and that it had been most fiercely assaulted about fortie daies to wit from the eighth day before the Ides of April unto the fifteene Calends of July At length the wall was plucked down by the Saracens that assaulted it and an infinite number of them entred the Citie many Christians being slaine and some for feare drowned in the sea The Patriarch also with his traine perished in the sea The King of Cypres and Otes Grandison with their companies pitifully escaped by a ship Item granted there was unto the Lord Edward King of England by the Lord Pope Martin the tenth part of all the profits of Ecclesiasticall benefices for seven yeeres in Ireland toward the reliefe of the holy land Item the eldest sonne of the Earle of Clare was borne MCCXCII Edward King of England eftsoones entred Scotland and was elected King of Scotland Lord John Balliol of Galwey obtained the whole kingdome of Scotland in right of inheritance and did homage unto the Lord Edward King of England at New-castle upon Tine on S. Stephens day Florentius Earle of Holland Robert Brus Earle of Carrick John Hastings John Comyn Patrick Dunbar John Vescie Nicolas Soules and William Roos who all of them in that kingdome submitted themselves to the judgement of the Lord King Edward Item a fifteene of all secular mens goods in Ireland was granted unto the soveraign Lord King of England the same to be collected at the feast of S. Michael Item Sir Peter Genevile Knight died Item Rice ap Meredyke was brought to York and there at horses tailes drawne c. MCCXCIII A generall and open war there was at sea against the Normans Item no small number of the Normans by fight at sea was slain by the Barons of the Ports of England and other their co-adjutors between Easter and Whitsuntide For which cause there arose war between England and France whereupon Philip King of France directed his letters of credence unto the King of England that he should make personall appearance at his Parliament to answer unto Questions which the same King would propose unto him whose mandate in this behalf being not fulfilled straightwaies the King of France declaring by the counsell of the French the King of England to be outlawed condemned him Item Gilbert Clare Earle of Glocester entred with his wife into Ireland about the feast of S. Luke MCCXCIV William Montefort in the Kings counsell holden at Westminster before the King died sodainly which William was the Dean of S. Pauls in London in whose mouth the Prelates Bishops and Cleargy putting their words which he was to utter and doubting how much the King affected and desired to have of every one of them and willing by him to be certified in whom also the King reposed most trust being returned to the King and making hast before the King to deliver expresly a speech that he had conceived became speechlesse on a sodain and fell downe to the ground and was carried forth by the Kings servants in their armes in piteous manner In regard of which sight that thus happened men strucken with feare gave out these speeches Surely this man hath beene the Agent and Procurator that the Tenths of Ecclesiasticall benefices should bee paied to the King and another author and procurer of a scrutinie made into the fold and flocke of Christ as also of a contribution granted afterward to the King crying against William Item the Citie of Burdeaux with the land of Gascoigne adjoining was occupied or held by the ministers of the King of France conditionally but unjustly and perfidiously detained by the King of France for which cause John Archbishop of Dublin and certaine other Lords of the Nobilitie were sent into Almaine to the King thereof and after they had their dispatch and answer in Tordran the Lord Archbishop being returned into England ended his life upon S. Leodegaries day The bones of which John Sampford were enterred in the Church of Saint Patrick in Dublin the tenth day before the Calends of March. The same yeere there arose debate betweene Lord William Vescy Lord Justice of Ireland for the time being and the Lord John Fitz-Thomas and the said Lord Williliam Vescy crossed the seas into England left Sir William Hay in his stead Justice of Ireland but when both of them were come before the King to fight a combat under an Appeal for treason the foresaid
and reigned thirty yeeres In the third yeere of his reigne the people of Dublin sent for him and created him King of Dublin against whom Mure-card King of Ireland raised war and encamping himselfe before the Citie which is called Coridelis sent his halfe brother by the mothers side Osibeley with three thousand men of armes to Dublin who was by Godred and the Dublinians slaine and all the rest put to flight These exploits atchieved Godred returned to Man began to use tyranny and turned Noblemen out of their inheritances whereof one called Thorsin Oters Son mightier than the rest came to Sumerled and made Dubgall Sumerleds son King of the Ilands subduing unto him many Ilands When Godred had intelligence of these things by one Paul he prepared a navie and setteth forward to meet with Sumerled who was comming with a fleet of 80. saile And in the yeere 1156. there was a battell fought at sea on Twelfe day at night and after many a man slaine on both sides the next day after they grew to a pacification and divided among themselves the kingdome of the Ilands and so it became two severall kingdomes from that very day unto this present time And this was the cause of the overthrow of the kingdome of the Isles since time that Sumerleds son seized upon it MCLVIII Sumerled came to Man with a fleet of 53. saile put Godred to flight wasted the Iland Godred then crossed over to Norway to seek for aid against Sumerled MCLXIV Sumerled gathered together a fleet of 1060. ships and arrived at Rhinfrin coveting to subdue all Scotland But by the just judgement of God hee was vanquished by a few together with his sonne and an infinite number of people there slain The same yeere there was a field fought at Ramsae betweene Reginald brother of Godred and them of Man and by the deceitfull practice of a certaine Earle those of Man were put to flight Then Reginald began to reigne and on the fourth day after came Godred upon him out of Norway with a great multitude of armed men and tooke his brother Reginald whom he bereft both of his eyes and of his genitall members The same yeere died Malcolm King of Scotland and his brother William succeeded him in the kingdome MCLXVI Two Comets or blazing stars appeared before Sun-rising in the Moneth of August the one in the South the other in the North. MCLXXI Richard Earle of Penbrock sailed over into Ireland and subdued Develin with a great part of Ireland MCLXXVI John Curey conquered Ulster and Vivian Legate of the Apostolicke Sea came into Man and caused King Godred to bee lawfully espoused unto his wife Phingola daughter of Mac-Lotlen son to Murkartac King of Ireland to wit the mother of Olave then three yeers old Sylvan the Abbat married them unto whom the very same day Godred gave a piece of land at Miriscoge where he built a Monastery but at length the ground was together with the Monkes granted to the Abbey of Russin Reginald sonne to Eac-Marcat one of the royall blood comming into Man with a great band of men in the Kings absence at the first conflict put to flight certain warders that kept the shore and killed about 30. men Afterwards the Manksmen gathering their forces together the same day slew him and almost all his company MCLXXXIII O-Fogolt was Sheriffe of Man MCLXXXV There fell out to be an Eclipse of the Sun on Saint Philip and Jacobs day MCLXXXVII On the fourth Ides of November died Godred King of the Ilands and the next Summer was his body translated to the Isle of Hy. He left behind him three sonnes Reginald Olave and Tvar In his life he ordained his sonne Olave to be his heire because hee onely was borne in lawfull wedlock But the people of Man seeing that Olave was now scarce ten yeeres old sent for Reginald out of the Iles and set him up for their King MCLXXXVIII Reginald Godreds son began to raigne over the Ilands and Murchard a man of great power throughout all the kingdome of the Iles was slaine MCXCII A battell was fought betweene Reginald and Engus the sonnes of Sumerled but Engus won the victory The same yeere was the Abbey of Russin translated to Dufglas but after foure yeeres the Monks returned to Russin MCCIII Michael Bishop of the Isles died at Fontans after whom succeeded Nicolas MCCIV. Hugh Lacy came with an army into Ulster and gave John Curcy battell tooke him prisoner and conquered Ulster Afterward hee set John at liberty who came to King Reginald and he honourably entertained him because he was his brother in law for John Curcy had taken to wife Affrica Godreds daughter who founded the Abbey of S. Mary de Iugo Domini and was there buried MCCV. John Curcy and Reginald King of the Iles having entred into Ulster with one hundred ships in the haven which is called Stranford slackly besieged the fortresse of Rath but Walter Lacy comming upon them with an army put them to flight after this Curcy never recovered his land MCCX Engus Sumerleds son was with three of his sonnes slaine John King of England at the same time brought a navie of 500. saile to Ireland subdued it who sending a certaine Earle named Fulk unto Man in one fortnight and a day wholly in a manner wasted it and taking hostages returned thence into their country King Reginald and his Nobles were not in Man MCCXVII Nicolas Bishop of the Ilands departed this life and was buried in Ulster within the house of Benchor after whom succeeded Reginald Here I thinke good to write somewhat againe of Olave and Reginald Brethren REginald gave unto his brother Olave the I le called Lodhus which is said to be larger than the rest of the Ilands but slenderly inhabited because it stands much upon mountaines is stony besides and almost all unfit for tillage The inhabitants thereof live for the most part by hunting and fishing Olave therfore went to possesse himselfe of this Iland and dwelt in it leading a poore life And when he saw it would not suffice to maintaine himselfe and his army he came boldly unto his brother Reginald who then made his abode in the Ilands and spake unto him in this maner Brother saith hee my Soveraigne Lord the King thou knowest that the kingdome of the Ilands belonged unto me by inheritance but since the Lord hath elected thee to sway the Scepter thereof I envie thee not nor take it grievously that thou art exalted to that royall dignity Now thus much I heartily beseech thee that thou wouldest provide me some portion of land in the Iles wherein I may live honestly according to mine estate for the Iland Lodhus which thou gavest unto me is not sufficient to sustaine me Reginald his brother after he had given him the hearing said he would take counsell upon the point and the morrow after when Olave was sent for and came in place to parley of the matter Reginald commandeth
in Irish Bala-Mac-Andan that is The towne of Antonies sonne For it tooke both names of the founder Thomas Fitz-Anthonie an Englishman who flourished under King Henry the third whose heires are yet acknowledged the Lords thereof Beneath this towne the river Callan voideth his streame into Neore upon which standeth the third Burrough or incorporate towne of this county bearing the same name Callan Like as Inise-Teog which is the fourth The family of Butlers hath spread and branched farre and wide throughout this County men that with much honour bare a great port and for their worth and vertues were adorned with the titles of Earles of Carick Ormond Wiltshire in England and of Ossorie as is before said and at this day there remaine of their line beside the Earle of Ormond Vicount Thurles and Knight of the Order of Saint George Vicount Montgarret Vicount Tullo the Barons of Dunboyn and of Cahir a goodly race also and progenie of Noble Gentlemen The rest of the Gentry in this Tract that are of better birth and parentage be likewise of English descent as the Graces Walshes Lovells Foresters Shortels Blanch-felds or Blanchevelstons Drilanas Comerfords c. THE COUNTY OF CATERLOGH THe County of CATERLOGH by contraction Carlogh toward the Sunne rising adjoineth to the County of Kilkenny wholly in manner situate betweene the rivers Barrow and Slane of a fertile soile and shaded well with woods hath two townes in it of better note and importance than the rest both standing upon the West banke of Barrow namely Caterlogh which Leonel Duke of Clarence began to wall and Bellingham a most renowned Lord Deputy fortified with a castle Also Leighlin called in Latine Lechlinia where there was an Episcopall Chaire now united to the See of Fernes These townes have both of them their wards or garrisons and Constables over them And whereas the greatest part of this County belonged in right of inheritance unto the Howards Dukes of Norfolke who by the Earles of Warren drew their descent from the eldest daughter of William Mareschall Earle of Penbroch King Henry the eighth by a generall consent of the States of the Realme tooke unto himselfe both from them and also from other Noblemen yea and from Monasteries in England all their lands and possessions in Ireland for that the Lords thereof by neglecting in their absence their owne private estates carelesly brought therewith the publike state into danger as is already shewed From hence Barrow passeth through the Baronie Ydron which by right belonged to the Carews for Sir John Carew an English Knight died seised thereof in the time of King Edward the third and which Peter Carew within our memorie recovered as it were by a writ of remitter after it had been unlawfully usurped and a long time in the occupation of unjust detainers Upon the river Slane appeareth Tullo memorable in this regard that King James hath lately honoured Theobald Butler the Earle of Ormonds brothers sonne with the title of Vicount Tullo The Cavanaghs dwell a great many of them every way hereabouts who being descended from Dovenald a younger sonne as they say the Bastard of Dermot the last King of Leinster are spred and branched out into a very great sept or linage a warlike generation renowned for their good horse-manship and who as yet though they bee exceeding poore beare themselves in spirit answerable to their ancient nobilitie But being at deadly feud amongst themselves for I wot not what man-slaughters which many yeeres agoe they committed one upon another they daily work their owne mischiefe by mutuall wrongs and hurts When as the English had set some of these to oversee and mannage the possessions they had in this part of Ireland about King Edward the seconds time they by little and little usurped the whole country unto themselves and assumed the name of O-Mores and taking into their societie the Toles and Brenes by little and little disseized the English of all the territorie betweene Caterlogh and the Irish sea Among these is the confluence of Neore and Barrow which after they have travailed in a joint streame some few miles from hence in one channell present both their name and their waters unto their eldest sister the Shour which straightwaies is swallowed up at a mouth full of rockes within the gulfe of the Ocean where on the left hand there shooteth out a little promontorie with a narrow necke that sheweth a prettie high tower unto the sailers erected by the merchants of Rosse what time they were in their prosperity for their direction and safer arrivall at the rivers mouth QUEENES COUNTIE ABove Caterlogh toward the North-west there spreadeth out a little country full of woods and bogs named in Irish Lease and QUEENES Countie in English which Queene Mary ordained to be a Countie by Commission given unto Thomas Ratcliffe Earle of Sussex then Lord Deputie who reduced it into the tearmes of civill order and governement whence it is that the chiefe towne thereof is called Mary-Burgh where certaine garrison souldiers with their Seneschall keep ward and have much adoe to defend themselves against the O-Mores who beare themselves as the ancient Lords thereof against Mac-Gilpatric the O-Dempsies and others a mischievous and tumultuous kind of people who daily practise and plot all they can to annoy the English and to shake off the yoke of lawes For to subdue this wilde and hostile part of the countrey at the first entrie of the English thither Meilere was sent For whom Hugh Lacie governour of Ireland erected one Castle at Tahmelio like as a second at Obowy a third likewise upon the river Barrow and a fourth at Norrach But among the rest he fortified Donemaws an ancient Castle standing in the most plentifull part of the territorie which came hereditarily unto the Breoses Lords of Brecknocke by Eua the younger daughter of William Mareschall Earle of Pembroch and what way as Barrow which rising out of Slew Blomey hills Westward runneth solitarie alone amongst the woods he visiteth that ancient RHEBA mentioned by Ptolomee which keeping the name still intire is called at this day Rheban but insteed of a citie it is altogether as one saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is A citie citilesse or The remaines of that which was a citie even a few little cottages with a fortresse Notwithstanding it giveth the title of a Baronet unto that Nobleman Nicholas of Saint Michael the Lord thereof who is commonly called the Baronet of Rheban KINGS COUNTIE LIke as the Queenes Countie aforesaid was so named in honour of Queene Marie so the territorie bordering next unto it Northward divided with Barrow running betweene and called in times past Offalie was in honour of Philip King of Spaine her husband tearmed Kings Countie and the principall towne in it Philips Towne where is placed a Seneschall with a ward and divers Gentlemen of English blood are here planted
namely the Warrens Her-berts Colbies Mores and Leicesters amongst the Irish septs of O-Conor unto whom a great part hereof in old time belonged Mac-Coghlan O-Maily Fox and others stand stoutly in defence of the lands wonne by their ancestors and left unto them Now these naturall Irish inhabitants grumble and complaine that their livings and patrimonies have beene taken from them and no other lands assigned and set out for them to live in Hence it is that taking hold of every occasion to make uprores they put the English dwelling among them to much trouble ever and anon yea and oftentimes in revengefull minds festered and poisoned with hostile hatred they breake out furiously into open and actuall rebellions THE COUNTY OF KILDAR OVer against these all along Eastward affronteth the county of Kildar a most rich and plentifull country concerning the pastures whereof Giraldus Cambrensis useth these verses of Virgill Et quantum longis carpunt armenta diebus Exiguâ tantâ—m gelidus ros nocte reponit And looke how much when daies are long the beasts by grasing eat So much cold dewes make good againe by night when 't is not great The chiefe and head towne of the shire is Kildar much honoured and graced in the first infancy of the Irish Church by reason of Saint Brigid a Virgin right venerable and highly esteemed of for her devotion and virginity I meane not that Brigid which about 240. yeeres agoe erected that order of the sisters or Nunnes of Saint Brigid namely that within one Monastery both Monkes and Maidens should live divided asunder by walls and suffered onely one to see another but another Brigid of greater antiquity by farre as who was a Disciple of Saint Patricke of great fame and renowne throughout Ireland England and Scotland Whose miracles and fire never going out but kept by Nunnes as it were in that secret Sanctuary of Vesta and of the ashes that never encrease are mentioned by writers This Kildar is adorned with an Episcopall See named in the Popes letters in old time Episcopatus Darensis After the entrance of the English into Ireland it was the habitation of Richard Earle of Pembroch then of William Mareschall his sonne in law that married his daughter Earle of Penbroch likewise by whose fourth daughter Sibyll it came to William Ferrars Earle of Derby and by his daughter likewise begotten of her unto William Lord Vescy whose sonne William Vescy Lord chiefe Justice of Ireland standing in termes of disfavour and disgrace with King Edward the First for certain quarrels arising between him and John the sonne of Thomas Fitz-Girald and being bereft of his only sonne lawfully begotten granted and surrendred Kildare and other his lands in Ireland unto the King so that he might enfeoffe his base sonne surnamed De Kildare in his other lands in England And a little while after the said John sonne of Thomas Fitz-Girald whose ancesters descended from Girald Windesor Castellan of Pembroch had with passing great valour performed most painefull service in the conquest of this Iland was by Edward the second King of England endowed with the castle and towne of Kildar together with the title and name of Earle of Kildar These Fitz-Giralds or as they now tearme them the Giraldines are a right noble family and for their exploits highly renowned by whose valour as one said The Englishmen both kept the sea coasts of Wales and also forced and won the walls of Ireland And verily this house of Kildare flourished a long time without taint of honour and name as which never bare armes against their Prince untill that Thomas Fitz-Girald the sonne of Girald Fitz-Girald Earle of Kildare and Lord Deputy of Ireland under King Henry the eighth hearing that his father sent for into England and accused for misgoverning Ireland was put to death upon this light and false rumour unadvisedly and rashly carried away with the heat of youth put himselfe into armes against Prince and countrey solicited the Emperour Charles the fifth to enter and seize upon Ireland wasted the land farre and neere with fire and sword laid siege to Dublin and killed the Archbishop thereof For which outrages shortly after he with five of his unkles were hanged when his father for very sorrow was dead before Howbeit Queene Mary restored the family unto their blood and full estate when shee advanced Girald brother unto the aforesaid Thomas to bee Earle of Kildare and Baron of Offaly He ended this life about the yeere 1558. His eldest son Girald died before his father leaving one onely daughter married to Sir Robert Digby Henry his second sonne succeeded who when he had by his wife L. Francis daughter to Charles Earle of Nottingham only two daughters William the third son succeeded in the Earledome who was drowned in passing into Ireland in the yeere 1599. having no issue And then the title of Earle of Kildare came to Girald Fitz-Girald sonne to Edward their Unkle who was restored to his blood in linage to make title by descent lineall or collaterall from his father and brother and all his ancestours any attaindour or corruption of blood to the contrary notwithstanding There be also in this County these places of better note than the rest Naas a mercate towne Athie upon the river Barrow Mainoth a castle belonging to the Earles of Kildare and a towne unto which King Edward the first in favour of Girald Fitz-Moris granted a mercate and Faire Castle Martin the chiefe seat of the family of Fitz-Eustace which descending from the Poers in the County of Waterford for their valour received the honour of a Parliament-Barons bestowed upon Rowland Fitz-Eustace by King Edward the fourth together with the Manour of Port-lester and the title of Vicount Baltinglas at the hands of King Henry the eighth which dignities with a faire patrimony Rowland Fitz-Eustace seduced by the religious pretext unto rebellion and flying his countrey lost by attaindour under Queene Elizabeth The families here remaining besides the Giraldines that be of higher birth above others fetch their descent also out of England namely the Ougans De-la Hides Ailmers Washes Boisels Whites Suttons c. As for the Giants dance which they talke of that Merlin by art magick translated out of this territorie unto Salisbury plaine as also of that most bloody battell which shall be one day betweene the English and the Irish at Molleaghmast I willingly leave unto the credulous lovers of fabulous antiquity and the vaine beleevers of prophesies For my purpose is not to give fond tales the telling These bee the midland counties of Leinster now are we to goe unto those by the sea side THE COUNTY OF WEISFORD BEneath that mouth at which Barrow Neore and Shoure the sister-like rivers having embraced one another and joyned hands are laid up in the Ocean there sheweth it selfe Eastward in a Promontorie where the shore fetcheth a compasse round the County of Weisford or Wexford In Irish County Reogh where Ptolomee in