THE SCOTS SCOVTS DISCOVERIES BY THEIR LONDON INTELLIGENCER And presented to the Lords of the Covenant of Scotland Anno Domini 1639 LONDON Printed for William Sheares 1642. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE MOST WORTHY and Noble Lords the Noble-men and others of the Covenant of Scotland May it please your Lordships ACcording to your honours directions the Scouts which were sent into England to discover the estate of things there came unto me their Intelligencer at London who have collected together all such observations as they in their severall travels have found or my selfe observed either in my owne aboad now two yeares at London or in my returning home But by reason of all passages now shut up at sea and all Land wayes belayd I was forced to put my selfe in Arminian Attire and so came home through England and so remayned some certaine time in the Campe Royall where my Collections may manifest my love to my Countrey and care of the trust by your Lordships imposed upon me But if my observations be not answerable to your Lordships expectations I am heartily sorry Yet yee may see I have not bin altogether idle nor will be more carelesse hereafter as occasion is offered then formerly I have beene and shall in my Northern newes which is also now in collecting make good what is omitted and in confidence of your favourable acceptance hereof I rest Your Honours most humble servant D. L. THE FIRST SCOVTS DISCOVERY I Came to Dover in a Flemish Botom where after a dayes rest I went to see the Castle but I was forced to faine my self one of Madam Nurses kindred spoke nothing but french or else I had not been admitted This Castle is called the Key of the Land but it s growne rusty for want of exercise for most of the Ordnance are dismounted their carriages standing one halfe in the ground and the other out here lay one wheele and there lay another In the Easterne out-worke lay one Peece all over-grown with grasse and hard by that lay another along by the wall on two Logs of Tymber I wondred to see such a confusion in so eminent a place but I was told that the last great wind was the cause thereof and if the Lieutenant were once able to walke round the wals to see it all would bee made good and mended but till then it must stand as it doth Their Lord is at London to be cured of the Gout the Deputy Lieutenant was at Downs seeing the Kings ships and most of the men were at bowles on the greene Beach I came downe to the Towne and left the Castle with a Memento to look to it selfe lest the French doe it for them this I observed that if the French had beene as provident as the Dutch to have seated themselves in Dover then the most Christian King might have had this Castle at his Command and so might have beene Master of the narrow Seas and have had Calice and Dover for two Bul-workes and Block-houses and so kept the Dunkirke from domineering on the seas All the newes I could learne here was that sixe of the Kings ships lay ready for a Convoy of sixtie Vessels with provision for Dunkirke The next day I came to Canterbury where I went to view the glasse windowes and see Sir Thomas a Beckets Tombe to which the people had prayed so often as they had made two holes in the stones with their knees the next day being sunday I went to heare a Sermon where they said the Archbishop of St. Andrewes was to preach I was in amaze to see him there but the noyse of the Organs soone put mee out of my dumps Now thought I hee is in his Kingdome for hee hath danced a long time after this musicke when service was done I thought to have heard him tell the people some newes out of Scotland but the old Carle spake not one word thereof The next morning I tooke a Charcoale and drew on the white wal in the Church Porch these three words Archi Cant Auli and so departed out of the town lest I should have beene apprehended for the Author of it All the newes that I could learne in the Towne was that the Archbishops Grace was too great to dwell amongst them that hee loved Croyden better then Christ-Church That hee had some Engineers to see if they could remove Christ-church to Croydon by land or to Lambeth by water for hee meant it should stoope to him and not hee to it But lest it should fall to bee forfeited for non Residency he hath put the other Archbishop there for his Deputy As I came through Kent I saw much mustering and preparing of men and Armes to send into Scotland This had almost made a mutinie amongst them some said it was done purposely to weaken the Country others said it was an il example for other ages And an old 88. Captaine said they might well retaine the name of Kentish Long-tayles but to be called any more men of Kent they could not clayme it As I came a long I saw the Kings Store-house at Chatham and some of the Kings ships which are of such bignesse as a small ship may be built ere they can be rigged and brought to the sea to doe any service When I came to Gravesend I saw the great Fleet ryding in the Hope ready to carry the Marquesse and his men for Scotland But there fell out a foule fray betweene the Parson of the Parish and the Pursers for demanding double duties for burying such souldiers as dyed on shipboard On the way towards London I saw Stone-church which was burnt downe with thunder last winter And Erith Micham and many other Churches for all their high Altars did not scape scot free The next Sunday I went to Lambeth to heare a Sermon and see what forme of worship was used there when I came I was in hope to have seen the little good man of Lambeth there but I saw no such man in all the Kirke for I could have kend him by his white sleeves from all the men there but I well wot there hee was not I speerd for him and some said he was either at White-hall or Somerset house others said that he was at home choosing of a new Church-warden because the old one had presented him for not comming to Kirk these 7. yeares After preaching was past I went up the River side to see Guy Faux his Mannor house the fatallest house that ever was built for there was the plot laid and powder provided for blowing up the Prince and Peers of the Realme in the Parliament house by the Papists conspiracie There was the Leather Ordnance invented there was the white soape and blew starch first made there was the most part of the projects and Monopolies hatched which have so much troubled the whole Kingdome There was a new rare invention lately set on foot for blowing up of Castles and Forts but for a conclusion it was first blowne
displeasure 2. That such souldiers as use any unlawfull gaming or cousening shall suffer imprisonment and such Captaines and Commanders as by the cog of a Dye could set forth whole troops of horses but lost their luck since they came from London shall likewise loose their credit in the campe and their colours in the field if they doe not maintaine their troops in the same manner they set them out 3. Item if any souldier learne or use more terms of Art in his exercise then his Captaine can teach him shall have three blowes with a Bastinado for his presumption 4. Item If any Captaine cannot understadd his colonels command hee shall forfeit a Goose for his slender judgement 5. Item That no Sutler trust the souldiers with too much meate for feare of surfeiting upon paine of non-payment thereof 6. Item if any Trooper bee kept short of his pay then it shall be lawfull for him to sell his great cart Horse and furniture and to fight on foot untill by his valour he can get a Galloway Nag to ride upon 7 Item that no souldier set foot further in Scotland then their Generall Colonell or Captaines dare leade the way lest when they come to imployment they be left in the lurch 8. Item that whatsoever any souldier can bring away out of Scotland without molestation he shal keepe it to himselfe without any account rendring 9. Item that after the Campe is broke up that every man that hath not money to beare his charges home shall have license to beg into his countrey and if the peoples charity will not supply him then it shall be lawfull for him to take what he can by way of borrowing with promise of repayment the next Northerne Iourney 10. That if any sluggish souldier get nothing by his Iourney in this expedition hee shall at his returne lye three nights in the Savoy in a straw bed and at his departure have three lice for his labour if he bring none with him By Authority under his Excellency Hereby you may perceive there is no great Vnity in the Campe but there is far lesse edge in the Kingdome towards this action for take this for a generall observation throughout England that many of the best Nobility and prime Gentry a Commonalty are well Wishers to the cause albeit they be not openly seene in it So as I may truly tell you that though nature have provided two hands to one heart yet God hath prepared two hearts to pray for you for one hand that is to fight against you That the most of the common souldiers in the campe are such as care not who loose so they get being meere Atheists and barbarous in their resolutions And indeed they are the very scum of the Kingdome such as their friends have sent out to be rid of who care not if both Kingdomes were on fire so they might share the spoyle Vpon this I thought good to try if I could take off the edge of their fury by making a Quere of the quarrell and a Declaration of your intentions by the verses following which I put up under the Orders What will you fight for a Booke of Common Prayer VVhat will you fight for a Court of high Commission What will you fight for a Myter guilded faire Or to maintaine the Prelates proud Ambition What will you get you must not weare the Myter What will you get you know wee are not rich What will you get your yoake will be no lighter For when wee 'r slaine this rod comes on your breech Wee fight to have our true Religion stand Wee fight to keepe our Lawes unvilified Wee fight to preserve our lives and land Our only ayme's to beate downe Prelates pride Our King is wise and so wee hope hee le heare us Our cause is good wee 'll seale it with our blood Our conscience that doth perfect witnesse beare us That what we doe is for the generall good Then learne in time to ease your heavy state Lest one day you repent when t is too late The next morning these verses were taken down and carried to the Generall who gave order for apprehending the Author but Mumbudget for me And about noone a Comptroller came and put up an Answer to them as followeth Thou Rebell Scot wee feare thee not Our quarrell is to fight Lashley wee 'l lash deare Sandy slash And Douglas put to flight By Kings command we have your land As soone as you are slaine Then with all speed wee 'll doe the deed Else call the bragger Vane By Authority By this you may perceive they thinke it a won game yet I see no miracles they have done since they went out only I observed a wonder that is to see their pride and patience have agreed so long together expecting an end of this action That I saw the Regiment of Gyants sent out of Yorke-shire under the command of Don Quicksot who threatens that after they have carbonadoed the Scots like so many capons then Sanco Panco his Page shall cut off their heads and carry them to the Prelates for a present but the Enterprise will prove worse then the Wind-mills was that the third day after all the forces were drawne into Battalia where the Welsh-men had the Vauntguard the Irish the Reere and the English the maine Battell and the Papists were purposely backwardly placed to see that none forsooke their colours and the Bishops could willingly have desired to beare the Banner but that they feared their white sleeves were such faire markes and the Scots such good Marksmen as they could not misse them That when the Muster roll was cast up of their 100000. English 20000. Spaniards 20000. Irish 20000. Welsh 20000. Danes and 20000. choice Cotholikes it was found in toto not above 1600. If I be mistaken in the numbers London newes misled me Now if all these with the helpe of three bordering counties after three dayes Battery with the great Ordinance and three moneths labour of the Engineers cannot make a breech big enough for the Generals greatnesse to enter Edenburgh and cut off all the Covenanters then they meane to take an other course with you viz. First they meane cunningly under the colour of a parley to catch you in a purse-net and if that fayle then they meane to yeeld to a Parliament and in the Interim possesse themselves of all the strong Castles and then on the suddaine to catch you all napping as Mosse caught his Mare But if your wisdomes do prevent that then they meane to starve you by land and by sea for which purpose the Marquesse hath surrounded the seas hath entred the Frith where like Swallowes after Flyes hee wil so fight with the Fisher-boats as you shall not have a Whiting a Haddock nor a Herring to relieve you And all the frontier Townes between Carlile and Barwick shall be laid full of souldiers to keepe you from catching any thing out of England But here 's your comfort winter will come and then our rough rocks and shelvy seas will force the ships to retire homewards and our cold clymate will quickly coole their courages if they continue their intended courses That upon the first of June newes was brought to the English Campe that all the Scots Army was blowne as farre as Edinburgh with the wind of the last Proclamation whereupon order was given for an Inroade into Scotland within two dayes after thinking to have taken in the two market Townes of Kelsey and Duns but they proved dunces in their designs for they went fiercely on the munday morning as some of their Commanders had put on Perriwigs instead of Helmets and the rest had no time to take their leaves of their friends but hastily marched with such a fury that they raysed such a dust with their fifteen hundred horse and 3000. foot that they were almost choakt with it But when they came towards Kelsey there appeared 400. Horse on the top of a Hill whereupon the English Commanders gave order for a charge which the other perceiving retyred downe the hill on the other side and then wheeling about with a foot Army they encompassed the English Army round about ere they knew of it And after some small pawse on the busines a Trumpetter was sent to the Scots to submit who returned answer that if they meant to fight they should see their submission and demanded of the English the cause of their comming to invade them in such hostile manner who replied that they came out to see how the Scots Markets were furnished with flesh for the English souldiers were almost surfeited with eating of fresh Salmon to which a Scots Captaine replied Most Gentle Generall our Markets are well stored with provision and if you will but take the paines to march into our market with your Army you may see almost 5000. English Calves which our friends have sent us for a Prey this morning but wee never meane to hurt them but intend to send them safe back againe for a present to his Majesty as a token of our Loyalty to him and our loves towards you When the English had considered how the case stood with them they fell to a parley and parted loving friends and so sounded a retreat and returned homewards againe every man carrying in his hand instead of a Rosemary branch the Embleme of Death An Olive branch the Embleme of Peace all of them singing Fight who will wee will not draw our swords Gainst those that for bad deeds returne good words Wee found their love and know they meane no ill Then le ts shake hands be friends and brethren still When the English Army saw their fellowes returne in this manner it caused a great confusion amongst them but when they truly understood the matter Let us have Peace Let us have Peace the most cried with the newes I was so farre overjoyed that I came poasting to your Lordships to tell you the same whose wisedomes can well tell how to take the oportunity offred for the peace and prosperity of this Kirke and Kingdome the welfare whereof is the harty desire of him who hath adventured himselfe to bring your Lordships these few Intelligences FINIS Pryn. Burton Bastmick Baker Carter English Scots Nota.
countrey men went to dinner where I was relating my Reading Journey and newes whereupon one of them puld a paper out of his pocket saying now by your Relation I understand the meaning of my verses which were bestowed on me And before now I did not well know what they meant A Copie whereof hee gave me to end my Discovery withall which are as followeth The King wants coyne the Bishops blood The Church is chang'd none dares doe good The three chiefe Arts in all the Land In Pillory at once did stand The Welsh may run the English ride To kill the Scots for Prelates pride VVhich makes men cry and curse that Age Hatcht little Laud twixt Stocks and Cage THE INTELLIGENCERS owne Discovery AT my first comming to London I heard little newes of any Scots grievances but within a little while after when I saw Burton Bastwick and Pryn promoted to the Pillory for speaking against the power of the Prelates then I began to smell a fox They rejoyced as much in their sufferings as their Adversaries did in their sentences but because they should not prate nor talke to one another as they did when they stood in the Pillory Therefore they were sent first into three severall Castles in three remoted counties and afterwards removed to three severall Ilands every one of them at their departure from the Pillory to their Prisons made two verses Tryumphing I returne my face discryes Lauds scorching scars Gods gratefull sacrifice A painefull Pastor I have beene my flock I truly fed And now in honour of Christs cause my blood I freely shed Physician 's for soule and body and Lawyer for the State All here now have lost their blood to please a proud Prelate The next Terme after this the Bishop of Lincolne came to his sentence in the Star-chamber where hee received a sharpe sensure but hee may thank himself for it in keeping two prime places in his hands when others want preferment But hee stood too much upon his trumps thinking that King James his Patents had beene now as good as when hee had them Alas good man though hee be a great Scholler not a better in the Kingdome yet hee had forgot the little Mans Motto Sic volo sic Iubeo The originall cause of this was never heard but this I learned that two flesh flyes having fed at his Table for a long time together had purposely laid a traine to intrap him and then they combined with one Kilvert A Caniball who having devoured his owne Master Sir Iohn Bennet undertooke to doe the like with him and hath hunted him so hard that the Tower is become his Tabernacle where he is like to remain unlesse hee will pull off his Miter and give it for his Ransome Long hee had not laine there ere he was roused up againe for a second course pretending that hee had given a false exposition on the great Leviathan false Mediator and the like whereupon through the meanes of a false Steward a faithlesse Secretary and a foolish Scribe he was Acteon-like puld down with his own hounds which he had fed at his trencher in his prosperity but had now fallen upon himselfe in his adversity yet his owne patience and the peoples prayers may one day be a comfort to him That when the newes came first of the troubles in Scotland Archie the Kings Foole was questioned for something against the Prelates whom hee thought was the cause of it For which hee had beene had up in the Star-chamber but that the Fool told them hee would plead the priviledge of his Coat For quoth hee if neither Foole nor wife man must scape this Court I will be neither But for all this Archie could not scape scot free for hee was led to the Porters lodge where albeit hee found favour in his lash yet he lost both his Coat and his place by it That about a weeke after I met Archie at the Abby all in black Alas poore foole thought I hee mournes for his countrey I askt him about his Coat O quoth he my Lord of Canterbury hath taken it from mee because either he or some of the Scots Bishops may have use for it themselves But hee hath given me a black coat for it to colour my knavery with and now I may speake what I please so it be not against the Prelates for this Coat hath a farre greater Priviledge then the other had when I heard him say so albeit thought I a Fooles bolt is soone shot yet perhaps hee may hit the marke whereupon I went and bought me a canonicall Coat and put my selfe into an Arminian habit which hath kept mee freer from danger then if I had beene all clad in buffe That about Christmas last all the passages of your Assembly were presented to the King and all the names of the Lords and others that had subscribed the Covenant or consenting to the putting downe of the Prelates were given in wherupon a Convocation of the Clergy of England was once resolved to be called and to have the matter disputed but the Bishops were busie and could not attend it and advised that ipso facto you should be proclaymed Rebels and all your Lands should be confiscate to the King which made some of the Courtiers mouthes so water in hopes of a Lordship that they lookt as if they had beene troubled with the scurvie That about Candlemas the newes was nothing but warre and that the King would goe in person into Scotland and had promised to gratifie those that adventured with them for cutting off the Covenanters And therefore to make them the more contemptible to the English Proclamation 〈◊〉 made in all market Townes and read in all Churches That you were base fawning fellowes and people of broken fortunes and would faine repair your ruined estates by the spoyles of the good subjects of England which Proclamation notwithstanding the faire and true declaration of your intentions so animated many of them as like Hogs in the wind they ran on but knew not whither ro fight but knew not for what hoping to be rewarded but knew not when and they may returne but know not how That of late every man at London hath beene in his humours The Courtiers were learning how to tosse tennis bals instead of Bullets The Captaines were preparing to see the tragedy of traytors the Clergy were studying a Masque for a Myter the Ministry were drawing the map of misery the Iesuits were at wilie baguilie and the Scots Bishops were at Boe peepe with the Kirke That one day I went to see the Tower which is newly rapaired there are forty new beds and lodgings provided for entertainment of the Scots traytors well let me advise yee to looke to your selves for if ever you bee lodged there the next newes after will bee your comming out to Tower-Hill where either your heads must lop or your Crags crack I came home by the custome House where there was