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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A13484	Part of this summers travels, or News from hell, Hull, and Hallifax, from York, Linne, Leicester, Chester, Coventry, Lichfield, Nottingham, and the Divells Ars a peake With many pleasant passages, worthy your observation and reading. By Iohn Taylor.	Taylor, John, 1580-1653.	1639 (1639)	STC 23783; ESTC S111384	21,041	54

Part of this Summers Travels OR NEWS From Hell Hull and Hallifax from York Linne Leicester Chester Coventry Lichfield Nottingham and the Divells Ars a Peake With many pleasant passages worthy your observation and reading By John Taylor Imprinted by J. O. A few words of direction to the Reader I Have not written every place in that order as is set downe in the Title of this Pamphlet but of such places as I travelled unto I have truly related the passages and the time both when where why and how I went came and perform'd it If any man aske wherefore this Book is good or how it may be any way usefull I answer that it is foure ways commodious First it is profitable for it will direct a man the high-wayes of crossing divers Countries from place to place which no other Book shews as from Leicester to Linne in Norfolke from Linne to Kingstone upon Hull in Yorkeshire from Hull to Yorke thence to Hallifax to Chester Darby Nottingham Coventry Lichfield and the Devils Ars a Peake all these ways are herein described secondly there are some Monuments of Antiquitie are mentioned which greater Authours have omitted thirdly there are some passages of delightfull Mirth and Recreation And lastly all is true or else you have the Authours leave to travell as hee hath done and doe your best and worst to prove him a liar Passages and Entertainments from London to Leicester with some observations of the said Town and Shire UPon Saint Swithins day I noted well The wind was calme nor any rain then fell Which faire day as old sawes saith doth portend That heav'n to earth will plenteous harvest send The morrow being Julies sixteenth day In my Progression I began my way I need not to relate the towns that lie Just in my way as I road through or by Onely at Mims a Cockney boasting bragger In mirth did aske the women for Belswagger But strait the females like the Furies fell Did curse scold raile cast dirt and stones pell mell But we betook us nimbly to our spurs And left them calling us rogues knaves and curs With other pretty names which I discern'd They from their old fore-mothers well had learn'd The reason why they are with rage inflam'd When as they heare Belswagger nam'd Is as report doth say there dwelt a Squire Who was so full of love or lusts desire That with his faire tongue Hippocritick-hood By slanderous people 't was misunder stood The women were so fruitfull that they were All got with childe in compasse of one yeare And that Squires name they say Belswagger was And from that tale the lying jeere doth passe Wherefore the women there will chide and swagger If any man do aske them for Belswagger Thence past I on my journy unto Hockly Whereas I saw a Drunkard like a block lye There I alighted at the sanguine Lion Where I had meat drink and a bed to lie on The next day I road stately to Northampton And all the way my horse most proudly stampt on On Thursday trotting galloping and ambling To Leister I proceeded in my rambling There at the blue Boare I was welcome than Unto my brother Miles a downright man Plain dealing free from flattery fraud or feare Who hath liv'd long with reputation there He 's old and honest valiant courteous free I write not this for making much of me But they that doubts on 't let them go and try And if he be a changling say I lie That house King Richard lodg'd in his last night Before he did the field of Bosworth fight And there 's a Room a King to entertain The like is not in Leister Town again Th' Assizes then were there some causes tride And Law did there the corps and souls divide Of two offenders one had with a Knife Stabd his contracted love and reav'd her life 'Tother a wench that had stolne some poor rayment And fir'd the house deserv'd the Hangmans payment King Leir a Temple did to Janus reare And plac'd a Flamine in 't there doth appeare The arched Ovens foure yards thick at least Wherein they Heathen Sacrifices drest Like as the Jews in their Idolatry Offered their sonnes and daughters impiously To Moloeh Nisroch Ashtaroth and Ball And to those devillish gods adore and fall So people here when warre or peace they sought They offrings unto Janus Temple brought This was eight hundred forty and foure yeare Before our Saviours birth built by King Leire Long after Etheldred the Mercian King Ahappy and a Christian change did bring The Temple raz'd the Flamine he defac'd And there a Christian Bishops Sea he plac'd Which lasted but few yeares for then this Land Was seven-fold yoaked beneath 7 Kings command And those Kings still were in perpetuall wars That England was quite spoyl'd with endlesse jars And in those Garboyles Leister had her share Spoyl'd rifled ransack'd robd and left most bare Till Edelfred with great magnificence Repair'd and wall'd it strongly for defence Then did it flourish long in wealth and state Till second Henry it did ruinate He in out-ragious fury fir'd the Town Diswall'd it quite and cast the Castle down So nothing but some raines doth appeare Whereby men may perceive that such things were Thus Leister fell from state superlative Her fifty Churches all consum'd to five Yet it is faire and spacious at this day And East West North and South 't is every way Above a mile in length so that no doubt The Town 's in circuit six large miles about Henry first Duke of Lancaster in war In peace or bounty a bright blazing Star For buildings in this City is renown'd Which as time rais'd time did again confound Yet one large fabrick there doth still abide Whereby the good Dukes name is dignifide And that 's an Hospitall or Bead-house where One hundred and ten men are harbour'd there From perishing through want still to defend Those aged men untill the world shall end Twice every day a Chaplain doth repair To them and unto God sends prayse and prayer And Nurses are allow'd to dresse their meat To make their beds to wash and keep them neat For which they thankefull be to God alone Who rais'd such means to ease the poor mans mone Good Henry Earle of Huntingdon renown'd A free schoole did erect there from the ground With means though meane for majntenance endow'd Two Vshers and one Schoolmaster allow'd They teach young lads such Rules as do belong To reade the English and the Latine tongue And when their knowltdge is with hope discernd They is the Greek may learn and be more learn'd But to relate somthing in profe of this ancient Towne of Leicester in the time of nine weekes which I abode there to and fro I observed such a civill government and decency which is not in many places to be found or equallized First I noted the peace tranquillity and unity which the people live in under the rule and command of the

heartily thankfull The Towne of Nottingham is seated on a Hill which Hill is almost of one stony Rocke or a soft kinde of penetrable sandy stone it hath very faire buildings many large streetes and a spacious Market place a great number of the inhabitants especially the poorer sort doe dwell in vaults holes or caves which are cut and digged out of or within the Rocke so that if a man be destitute of a house it is but to goe to Nottingham and with a Mattock a Shovell a Crow of Iron a Chizell and Mallet and such instruments he may play the Mole the Cunny or the Pioner and worke himselfe a Hole or a Burrow for him and his family Where over their heads the grasse and pasture growes and beasts do feed faire Orchards and gardens are their coverings and Cowes are milkt upon the tops of their houses I was much befriended by Master Palmer the Iaylor there for he went with me and shewed me the sometimes strong and defencible Castle but now much ruined yet still there are many faire and sumptuous roomes in reasonable reparation and estate On the lofty Battlements of the said Castle there is a most spacious prospect round about for from thence I could see the most stately Castle of Belvoyre or Bever Castle which doth as it selfe belong to the Right Honourable the Earle of Rutland and nearer hand within three miles I saw the ancient Towne of Gotham famous for the seven Sages or Wise men who are fabulously reported to live there in former ages In the aforesaid Castle of Nottingham I was shewed divers strange wonderfull Vaults cut or hewen out of the Rocke whereof one is said to be the place where David King of Scots was detained many years in captivity where the said King with his owne hands without any other instrument than the nayles of his fingers did with the said tooles engrave and claw out the forme of our Saviours Life death and passion which Worke is there to bee seene upon the Walls Also there is another Vault or passage through the Rocke whereby men may descend or ascend out or into the Castle which vault is called Mortimers Hole through which hole as report goes the great Roger Mortimer Earle of Wigmor and Lord of Wallingford had egresse and regresse to the Queene wife to King Edward the second or the infortunate Edward of Carnarvan Thus having seene as much of Nottingham Towne and Castle as is related on the twelfth of August I road to the ancient towne of Darby On the thirteenth of August I left Darby with an intent to retire to Leister but after I had road halfe a Mile I met with an acquaintance of mine who was travailing towards the Peake in Darby shire to a Towne called Wirksworth and from thence to Chiesterfield I returned with him The Country is very Mountainous and many Lead Mines are found thereabouts the best and most richest is called Dove Gany within a mile or little more of Wirksworth corruptly called Wortsworth and two Miles from thence are most dangerous wayes stony craggy with inaccessible Hils and Mountaines the grounds there are lawfull as they told me for any man to dig or mine in for Lead be they of what condition soever for the Laws of mining is that those that will adventure their Labours shall have all the profits paying the tenth part to the Lord or Landlord of all the Lead which they get If it happen that they take pains a yeare or two in sundry places to finde a Myne if their fortune be so hard to finde none as it often falls out so they do work all that while for nothing and finde themselves as they are able and in the end their toyle and labour is all lost but if they doe hit upon a good Myne that doth hold out and yield plentifully then they may quickly enrich themselves if they be good husbands I was told of a poore Thatcher that left his Trade and venturing his time and pains he found so rich a Lead Myne that he would turn Gentleman and he kept men in Liveries living at the rate of the expence of 100 pound a week so that he supposing that Leaden Golden World would never be ended took no care to save any thing but after a while the Myne failed and hee spent that little which hee had left in digging for more could finde none so that for a conclusion he forsook the Peake and turnd Thatcher again That part of the Peak which is called the Devils Ars is at or neere a Towne named Castleton or Castle Towne so stiled from an ancient ruined Castle on a Hill at the end of the Town it is 30 miles from Darby the Castle stands on the top of a Hill and under it is a Cliff or Riffe in the said Hill which is as wide at the entrance as three Barn doores but being entred in it is enclosed again so narrow that a man must stoop to passe further but after that straight passage is past there is rooms of incredible and wonderfull greatnesse with strange and intricate turnings and windings which no man can see without great store of lights and by reason that those things are naturall and formed without any attor labour of man and with all so dismall hotrid darke and hideous that place is called the Devils Ars a Peak at or upon which I have according to my promise given three jerks with my pen at the latter end of this Book From thence I returned towards Leicester 30 miles on the 15 of August and lodged at a Market Towne called Narbury and the next day I came all tyred and weary both man and beast to Leicester and on the 20 day I took my journey 64 miles into Norfolke to the famous Town of Linne and three miles from thence at a Village called Wooton I was there well welcomed by Master Richard Miles to whom I am and must be a thankfull Brother in Law whose loving kindnesse to me was shewed in such extraordinary manner which because I cannot expresse I will remayn gratefull with silence Concerning Linne it is an excellent Sea-town and strong Port it is gravely and peaceably governed by a Major 12 Aldermen and a Recorder It hath bin honored by divers but chiefly by King John 440 yeares since and by King Henry the Third the first gave them a faire gilt Cup which is there to be seene as a witnesse of his Royall liberality and who so will know more of Linne let them goe thither and look the Records of the Town or else let them read Master Camdens Britania or the painfull labours of Master Iohn Speed The troth is mine Hoast Noble was a noble Hoast to me at whose house my brothers kindred and friends gave me a friendly farewell On Tuesday the 27 of August from Linne to Boston in Lincolnshire 24 miles where I dined with the right Worshipfull Sir Anthony Thomas Knight from Boston I road 14 miles to Horn