they boyle untill it bee exceeding white And of this sea or Bay-salt and not of ours made out of salt springs is Saint Ambrose to bee understood when hee writeth thus Consider we those things which are usuall with many very grace-full namely how water is turned into salt of such hardnesse and soliditie that often-times it is hewed with axes This in the salts of Britaine is no wonder as which carrying a shew of strong marble doe shine and glitter againe with the whitenesse of the same mettall like unto snow and bee holesome to the bodie c. Farther within the land the MEANVARI dwelt whose countrey togither with the Isle of Wight Edilwalch King of the South Saxons received in token of Adoption from Wlpher King of Mercians Godfather unto him at the Font when he was baptized The habitations of these Meanvari scarce changing the name at this day is divided into three hundreds to wit Means-borow East-mean and West-mean and amongst them there mounteth up an high Hill environed in the top with a large rampier and they call it old Winchester at which by report there stood in old time a citie but now neither top nor toe as they say remaineth of it so as a man would quickly judge it to have beene a summer standing campe and nothing else Under this is Warnford seated where Adam de Portu a mightie man in this tract and of great wealth in the raigne of William the first reedified the Church a new as a couple of rude verses set fast upon the wall doe plainly shew Upon these more high into the land those SEGONTIACI who yeilded themselves unto Iulius Caesar had their seate toward the North limite of this shire in and about the hundred of Holeshot wherein are to bee seene Mercate Aultim which King Elfred bequeathed by his will unto the keeper of Leodre also Basingstoke a mercate towne well frequented upon the descent of an hill on the North side whereof standeth solitarie a very faire Chappell consecrated unto the holy Ghost by William the first Lord Sands who was buried there In the arched and embowed roofe whereof is to be seene the holy history of the Bible painted most artificially with lively portraicts and images representing the Prophets the Apostles and the Disciples of Christ. Beneath this Eastward lieth Basing a towne very well knowne by reason of the Lords bearing the name of it to wit Saint Iohn the Poinings and the Powlets For when Adam de Portu Lord of Basing matched in marriage with the daughter and heire of Roger de Aurevall whose wife was likewise daughter and heire to the right noble house of Saint Iohn William his sonne to doe honour unto that familie assumed to him the surname of Saint Iohn and they who lineally descended from him have still retained the same But when Edmund Saint Iohn departed out of this world without issue in King Edward the third his time his sister Margaret bettered the state of her husband Iohn Saint Philibert with the possessions of the Lord Saint Iohn And when she was dead without children Isabell the other sister wife unto Sir Luke Poinings bare unto him Thomas Lord of Basing whose Neice Constance by his sonne Hugh unto whom this fell for her childs part of Inheritance was wedded into the familie of the Powlets and she was great Grandmother to that Sir William Powlet who being made Baron Saint Iohn of Basing by King Henrie the Eighth and created by King Edward the Sixth first Earle of Wilshire and afterward Marquesse of Winchester and withall was Lord Treasurer of England having in a troublesome time runne through the highest honours fulfilled the course of nature with the satietie of this life and that in great prosperitie as a rare blessing among Courtiers after he had built a most sumptuous house heere for the spacious largenesse thereof admirable to the beholders untill for the great and chargeable reparations his successors pulled downe a good part of it But of him I have spoken before Neere unto this house the Vine sheweth it selfe a very faire place and Mansion house of the Baron Sands so named of the vines there which wee have had in Britaine since Probus the Emperours time rather for shade than fruit For hee permitted the Britaines and others to have vines The first of these Barons was Sir William Sands whom King Henrie the Eighth advanced to that dignitie being Lord Chamberlaine unto him and having much amended his estate by marrying Margerie Bray daughter and heire of Iohn Bray and cousin to Sir Reinold Bray a most worthy Knight of the Order of the Garter and a right noble Baneret whose Sonne Thomas Lord Sands was Grandfather to William L. Sands that now liveth Neighbouring hereunto is Odiam glorious in these daies for the Kings house there and famous for that David the Second King of Scots was there imprisoned a Burrough corporate belonging in times past to the Bishop of Winchester the fortresse whereof in the name of King John thirteene Englishmen for fifteene daies defended most valiantly and made good against Lewis of France who with his whole armie besieged and asted it very hotly A little above among these Segontiaci toward the North side of the countrey somtimes stood VINDONVM the chiefe citie of the Segontiaci which casting off his owne name hath taken the name of the Nation like as Luteria hath assumed unto it the name of the Parisians there inhabiting for called it was by the Britaines Caer Segonte that is to say the Citie of the Segontiaci And so Ninnius in his catalogue of cities named it wee at this day called it Silecester and Higden seemeth to clepe it of the Britaines Britenden that this was the ancient Vindonum I am induced to thinke by reason of the distance of Vindonum in Antoninus from Gallena or Guallenford and Venta or Winchester and the rather because betweene this Vindonum and Venta there is still to bee seene a causey or street-way Ninnius recordeth that it was built by Constantius the sonne of Constantine the Great and called sometime Murimintum haply for Muri-vindum that is the wals of Vindon For this word Mur borrowed from the provinciall language the Britaines retained still and V. the consonant they change oftentimes in their speech and writing into M. And to use the verie words of Asinnius though they seeme ridiculous the said Constantius sowed upon the soile of this citie three seedes that none should be poore that dwelt therein at any time Like as Dinocrates when Alexandria in Egypt was a building strewed it with meale or flower as Marcellinus writeth all the circular lines of the draught which being done by chance was taken for a fore-token that the citie should abound with al manner of victualls He reporteth also that Constantius died here and that his Sepulchre was to be seene at one of the gates as the Inscription
as certaine lands were held in Coperland neere Dover by service to hold the Kings head betweene Dover and Whit-sand when soever hee crossed the Sea there And Lewis the younger French King when he came in devout pilgrimage to visit Thomas of Canterbury besought that saint by way of most humble intercession that no passenger might miscarry by shipwracke betweene Vitsan and Dover as who would say that at the same time that was the usual passage to and fro neither in truth is this narrow sea else where more streightned although it is to bee supposed that they who faile betweene in passing over did not respect the neerer way and shorter cut in sailing but the commodiousnesse of the havens in the one shoare and the other For even so albeit the sea be narrowest betweene Blacknesse in France and the Nesse in England yet now the ordinary passing is betweene Dover and Callais as in former ages before that Vitsan haven was dammed up the passage was betweene it and Dover and before that time betweene Rhutupiae and Gessoriacum From whence Claudius the Emperour and the other captaines whom I have spoken of sailed over into Britaine This GESSORIACVM Pliny seemeth to call Portum Morinorum Britannicum peradventure for the passage from thence into Britaine Ptolomee in whom it hath crept into the place of Itium nameth it Gessoriacum Navale in which signification also our Welsh Britans commonly terme it Bowling-long that is Boloine the ship-road For that Gessoriacum was the very same Sea-coast towne which Ammianus calleth BONONIA the Frenchmen Bologne the Low-country men Beunen and wee Bolen I dare bee bold to aver and maintaine against Hector Boethius and Turnebus grounding my assertion both upon the authoritie of Beatus Rhenanus who saw an ancient military Map wherein was written Gessoriacum quod nunc Bononia that is Gessoriacum now called Bolen and also upon Itinerarie computation or account of the miles which answereth just to the distance that Antonine the Emperour hath put downe betvveene Ambiani and Gessoriacum But that which may serve in steed of all proofes The rablement of Pyrates serving under Carausius which the Panegirick Oration pronounced unto Constantius the Emperour reported to have beene inclosed and shut up within the walles of Gessoriacum and there surprised an other Oration unto Constantius Maximus his sonne relateth to have beene vanquished at Bononia so that Bononia that is Bolen and Gessoriacum must needs be one and the selfe same place and it may seeme that the more ancient name was vvorne out much about that time For it is not to be surmised that so grave authors unto the great Princes erred in the setting downe and naming of this place the memory thereof being then so fresh and that victory so glorious But what have I to doe with France Verily I have the more willingly ripped up the memorie of these matters for that the prowesse and valour of our Ancestours shewed it selfe often in this coast as who wonne and wrested both Calais and Bolen from the French And as for Bolen they rendred it backe againe at the humble request of the French King after eight yeares for a summe of money agreed upon But Callais they held 212. yeare in despight and maugre of the French Now returne wee to Britaine with full sailes and a favourable tide From Dover leaving the little Abbey of Bradsole dedicated to S. Radegund wherof Hugh the first Abbat was founder there runneth for five miles in length a continued cheine of chalky cliffes standing on a row hanging joyntly one to another as far as to Folkstone which was a flourishing place in times past as may appeare by the pieces of Roman coine and Britaine brickes daily there found but under what name it is uncertaine Probable it is that it was one of those towres or holds which in the reigne of Theodosius the younger the Romans placed for to keep off the Saxons as Gildas saith At certaine distances along the shore in the South part of Britaine Famous it was and much frequented by the English Saxons for religions sake by reason of a Monasterie that Eanswide daughter to Eadbald King of Kent consecrated there unto Nunnes But now it is a small towne and the greatest part thereof the Sea hath as it were parted away Howbeit it was the Baronie of the Family de Abrincis or Aurenches From whom it came to Sir Hamon Crevequer and by his daughter to Sir Iohn of Sandwich whose grand child Iulian by his sonne Iohn brought the same as her dowry to Iohn Segrave From thence as the shore turneth a front South West-ward Sandgate Castle built by King Henry the Eighth defendeth the coast and upon a Castle hill thereby are seene reliques of an ancient Castle More inward is Saltwood a Castle of the Bishops of Canterbury which William Courtney Archbishop of Canterbury enlarged And neere unto it is Often-hanger where Sir Edward Poinings Baneret a father of many faire bastards and amongst them of Thomas Lord Poining Lieuftenant of Bollen began to build a stately house but left it unperfect when death had bereft him of his onely lawfull child which he had by his lawfull wife the daughter of Sir I. Scot his neighbour at Scots-Hall where the family of Scots hath lived in worshipfull estimation a long time as descended from Pashely and Serteaux by Pimpe But to returne to the sea-coast neere to Sandgate Hith is situated one of the Cinque ports whereof it assumed that name which in the English Saxons tongue signifieth an haven or harbour although hardly it maintaineth that name now by reason of sands and the Sea withdrawing it selfe from it And yet it is not long since it first made any shew and that by the decay and fall of Westhyth a neighbour-towne Westward and which was sometime a Port untill the Sea in our great grandfathers daies retired from it So are Sea-townes subject to the uncertaine vicissitude of the Sea This Hith like as West-Hith also had their beginning from the ruine of Lime standing hard by which in times past was a most famous Port towne untill the sands that the Sea casteth up had choked and stopped the haven Both Antonine and the booke of Norrices called it PORTVS LEMANIS Ptolomee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which being in Greeke a significative word the Copiantes or Copiers out of old bookes because they would seeme to supply the defect wrot it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latin Interpreters following them translated it Novus portus that is New port or New haven whereas the proper name of the place was Limen or Leman like as at this time Lime Heere the Captaine over a company or band of Turnacenses kept his station under the Count or Lieuftenant of the Saxon shore And a Port way paved with stone called Stonystreet reacheth from hence toward Canterbury which one would easily judge to have beene a worke of the Romans like as the
the Citie of Burdeaux with other Cities lying round about it which by the sedition of the Frenchmen had been at any time alienated from Edward King of England were restored unto him againe upon St. Andrewes even by the industrie of the L. Hastings MCCCIII The Earle of Ulster to wit Richard Bourk and Sir Eustace Pover entred Scotland with a puissant armie but after that the Earle himselfe had first made thirtie three Knights in the Castle of Dublin hee passed over into Scotland to aide the King of England Item Gerald the sonne and heire of Sir Iohn fitz-Fitz-Thomas departed out of this world In the same yeere Pope Boniface excommunicated the King and Queene of France and their children Hee renewed also all the priviledges granted at any time unto the Universitie of Paris and straight after the Pope was taken prisoner and kept as it were in prison three whole daies And soone after the Pope died likewise the Countesse of Ulster deceased Also Wulfrane Wellesly and Sir Robert Percivell were slaine the 11. day before the Calends of November MCCCIIII A great part of Dublin was burnt to wit the Bridge street with a good part of the Key and the Church of the Friers Preachers and the Church of the Monks with no small part of the Monasterie about the Ides of June to wit on the Feast day of S. Medard Also the first stone of the Friers Preachers Quire in Dublin was laid by Eustace Lord Pover on the Feast of S. Agatha Virgin Likewise after the Feast of the Purification of the blessed Virgin Marie the King of France invaded Flanders againe in proper person with a puissant armie Then bare he himselfe bravely in the war and fought manfully so long untill two or three horses of service were slaine under him but at last he lost his cap that under his helmet was put upon his head which the Flemings taking up carried by way of scornfull derision upon a lance as a banner and in all the famous Faires of Flanders put it out at the high window of some place or stately house like the signe of an Inne or Taverne and shewed it in token of victorie MCCCV Jordan Comyn with his complices slew Moritagh O-Conghir King of Offalie and Calwagh his whole brother and certain others in the Court of Sir Piers Brymgeham at Carrick in Carbrey likewise Sir Gilbert Sutton Seneschal of Weisford was slaine by the Irish neere unto a village or House of Haymund Grace which Haymund verily in the said skirmish manfully carried himselfe but stoutly escaped Item in Scotland the Lord Robert Brus Earle of Carricke forgetting his oath made to the King of England slew Sir John Rede Comyn within the cloisture of the Friers Minors of Dunfrese and soone after caused himselfe to be crowned King of Scotland by the hands of two Bishops to wit of S. Andrewes and of Glasco in the towne of Scone to the confusion of himselfe and of many others MCCCVI A great discomfiture was made in Offaly neere unto the Castle of Gesbill on the Ides of Aprill upon O-Conghor by O-Dympcies in which was slaine O-Dympcey Leader of the Regans with a great traine accompanying him Also O-Brene King of Towmond died Item Donald Oge Mac Carthy slew Donald Ruff that is the Red King of Desmund Item a lamentable defeature fell upon the part of Piers Brymegham the fourth day before the Calends of May in the Marches of Meth. Item Balymore in Leinster was burnt by the Irish where at the same time Henry Calfe was slaine and there arose war betweene the English and the Irish in Leinster for which cause there was assembled a great armie from divers parts of Ireland to bridle the malice of the Irish in Leinster in which expedition Sir Tho. Mandevil Knight and a brave warriour had a great conflict with the Irish neere to Clenfell in which conflict he behaved himselfe valiantly untill his horse of service was slaine and won much praise and honour by saving many a man and himselfe also Item M. Thomas Cantock Chancellour of Ireland was consecrated Bishop of Ymelasen in the Church of the holy Trinitie at Dublin with great honour at whose consecration were present the Elders of all Ireland where there was so sumptuous and so great a feast made first unto the rich and afterwards to the poore as the like had never been heard of before in Ireland Item Richard Feringes Archbishop of Dublindied in the Vigile of Saint Luke after whom succeeded Master Richard Haverings who occupied the Archbishoprick almost five yeeres by Apostolicall dispensation Who also resigned up his Archbishoprick after whom succeeded John Leth. The occasion and cause of his giving over as the Arch-deacon of Dublin of good memorie his Nephew hath reported was this for that one night hee dreamed that a certaine Monster heavier than the whole world stood eminently aloft upon his brest from the weight whereof he chose rather to be delivered than alone to have all the goods of the world but when he wakened hee thought with himselfe this was nothing else but the Church of Dublin the fruits whereof hee received and tooke no paines for the same As soone as hee could therefore he came unto the Lord the Pope of whom hee was much beloved and there renounced and gave over the Archbishopricke For hee had as the same Archdeacon avouched fatter benefices and livings than the Archbishopricke came unto Item Edward King of England in the feast of Pentecost that is Whitsontide made Edward his son Knight in London at which feast were dubbed about 400. Knights and the said Edward of Caernarvan newly knighted made threescore Knights of those abovesaid and kept his feast in London at the New Temple and his father gave unto him the Dutchy of Aquitaine Item the same yeere in the feast of Saint Potentiana the Bishop of Winchester and the Bishop of Worcester by commandement from the Lord the Pope excommunicated Robert Brus the pretended King of Scotland and his confederates for the death of Iohn Rede Comyn In the same yeere upon S. Boniface his day Aumarde Valence Earle of Pembroch and Lord Guy Earle ............ slew many Scots and the Lord Robert Brus was defeated without the town of S. Iohns And the same yeere about the feast of the Nativitie of St. Iohn Baptist King Edward went toward Scotland by water from Newarke to Lincolne Item the same yeere the Earle of Asceles and the Lord Simon Freysell and the Countesse of Carricke the pretended Queene of Scotland daughter of the Earle of Ulster were taken prisoners The Earle of Asceles and the Lord Simon Freysell were first torne and mangled As for the Countesse she remained with the King in great honour but the rest died miserably in Scotland Item about the feast of the Purification of the blessed Virgin Marie two brethren of Robert Brus professing pyracie went out of their gallies a land to prey and were taken with sixteen Scots besides and those two themselves
Lancaster second son of K. Henry the third and his wife Aveline de fortibus Countesse of Albemarle William and Audomar of Valence of the family of Lusignian Earles of Pembroch Alphonsus Iohn and other children of King Edward the First Iohn of Eltham Earle of Cornwall son to K. Edward the second Thomas of Woodstocke Duke of Glocester the yongest son of K. Edward the third with other of his children Aeleanor daughter and heire of Humfrey Bohun Earle of Hereford and of Essex wife to Thomas of Woodstocke the yong daughter of Edward the fourth and K. Henry the seventh Henry a childe two months old son of K. Henry the eight Sophia the daughter of K. Iames who died as it were in the very first day-dawning of her age Phillippa Mohun Dutches of Yorke Lewis Vicount Robsert of Henault in right of his wife Lord Bourchier Anne the yong daughter and heire of Iohn Mowbray Duke of Norfolke promised in marriage unto Richard Duke of Yorke yonger son to K. Edward the fourth Sir Giles Daubency Lord Chamberlaine to king Henry the Seventh and his wife of the house of the Arundels in Cornwall I. Vicount Wells Francis Brandon Dutches of Suffolke Mary her daughter Margaret Douglasse Countesse of Lennox grandmother to Iames King of Britaine with Charles her son Winifrid Bruges Marchionesse of Winchester Anne Stanhop Dutches of Somerset and Iane her daughter Anne Cecill Countesse of Oxford daughter to the L. Burghley Lord high Treasurer of England with Mildred Burghley her mother Elizabeth Berkeley Countesse of Ormund Francis Sidney Countesse of Sussex Iames Butler Vicount Thurles son and heire to the Earle of Ormond Besides these Humfrey Lord Bourchier of Cromwall Sir Humfrey Bourchier son and heire to the Lord Bourchier of Berners both slaine at Bernet field Sir Nicholas Carew Baron Carew Baronesse Powisse T. Lord Wentworth Thomas Lord Wharton Iohn Lord Russell Sir T. Bromley Lord Chancellour of England Douglas Howard daughter and heire generall of H. Vicount Howard of Bindon wife to Sir Arthur Gorges Elizabeth daughter and heire of Edward Earle of Rutland wife to William Cecill Sir Iohn Puckering Lord Keeper of the great Seale of England Francis Howard Countesse of Hertford Henrie and George Cary the father and sonne Barons of Hunsdon both Lords Chamberlaines to Queene Elizabeth the heart of Anne Sophia the tender daughter of Christopher Harley Count Beaumont Embassadour from the king of France in England bestowed within a small guilt Urne over a Pyramid Sir Charles Blunt Earle of Devonshire Lord Lieutenant Generall of Ireland And whom in no wise wee must forget the Prince of English Poets Geoffry Chauer as also he that for pregnant wit and an excellent gift in Poetry of all English Poets came neerest unto him Edmund Spencer Beside many others of the Clergy and Gentlemen of quality There was also another College or Free-chapell hard by consisting of a Deane and twelve Chanons dedicated to Saint Stephen which King Edward the Third in his princely Magnificence repaired with curious workmanship and endowed with faire possessions so as he may seeme to have built it new what time as he had with his victories overrun and subdued al France recalling to minde as we read the Charter of the foundation and pondering in a due weight of devout consideration the exceeding benefits of Christ whereby of his owne sweet mercy and pity he preventeth us in all occasions delivering us although without all desert from sundry perils and defending us gloriously with his powerfull right hand against the violent assaults of our adversaries with victorious successes and in other tribulations and perplexities wherein wee have exceeding much beene encombred by comforting us and by applying and in-powering remedies upon us beyond all hope and expectation There was adjoyning hereto a Palace the ancient habitation of the Kings of England from the time of King Edward the Confessor which in the Raigne of king Henry the Eighth was burnt by casuall fire to the ground A very large stately and sumptuous Palace this was and in that age for building incomparable with a vawmurâ— and bulwarks for defence The remaines whereof are the Chamber wherein the King the Nobles with the Counsellers and Officers of State doe assemble at the high Court of Parliament and the next unto it wherein anciently they were wont to beginne the Parliaments knowne by the name of Saint Edwards painted chamber because the tradition holdeth that the said king Edward therein dyed But how sinfull an Act how bloudy how foule how hainous horrible hideous and odious both to God and man certaine brute and savage beasts in mens shape enterprised of late by the device of that Arch Traitour Robert Catesby with undermining and placing a mighty deale of gunpowder under these Edifices against their Prince their Country and all the States of the Kingdome and that under an abominable pretence of Religion my very heart quaketh to remember and mention nay amazed it is and astonied but to thinke onely into what inevitable darknesse confusion and wofull miseries they had suddenly in the twinckling of an eye plunged this most flourishing Realme and Common wealth But that which an ancient Poet in a smaller matter wrote we may in this with griefe of minde utter Excidat illa dies aevo nè postera credant Secula nos certè taceamus obruta multa Nocte tegi propriae patiamur crimina gentis That cursed day forgotten be no future age beleeve That this was true let us also at least wise now that live Conceale the same and suffer such Designes of our owne Nation Hidden to be and buried quite in darknesse of oblivion Adjoyning unto this is the Whitehall wherein at this day the Court of Requests is kept Beneath this is that Hall which of all other is the greatest and the very Praetorium or Hall of Justice for all England In this are the Judiciall Courts namely The Kings Bench the Common Pleas and The Chancery And in places neere thereabout The Star-Chamber the Exchequer Court of Ward and Court of the Dâ—teby of Lancaster c. In which at certaine set times wee call them Tearmes yearely causes are heard and tryed whereas before king Henry the Third his dayes the Court of common Law and principall Justice was unsetled and alwaies followed the kings Court But he in the Magna Charta made a law in these words Let not the Common Pleas folâ—ow our Court but bee holden in some certaine place Which notwithstanding some expound thus That the Common Pleas from thenceforth bee handled in a Court of the owne by it selfe a part and not in the Kings Bench as before This Judgement Hall which we now have king Richard the Second built out of the ground as appeareth by his Armes engraven in the stone-worke and many arched beames when he had plucked downe the former old Hall that king William Rufus in the same place had built before and made it his
thereof For in this tenour runne the very words of the Charter She likewise bestowed it upon John de Lacy Constable of Chester and the heires whom hee should beget of the body of Margaret her daughter This John had issue Edmund who dying before his mother left this honour for Henry his sonne to enjoy who was the last Earle of that line For when his sonnes were taken away by untimely death and he had but one little daughter onely remaining alive named Alice hee affianced her being but nine yeeres old to Thomas the sonne of Edmund Earle of Lancaster with this condition That if he should fortune to dye without heires of her body or if they happened to dye without heires of their bodies his Castles Lordships c. should in Remainder come to the heires of Edmund Earle of Lancaster for ever But the said Alice had no childe at all by her husband Thomas But when Thomas her husband was beheaded shee that by her light behaviour had not a little steined her good name tooke Sir Eubul le Strange with whom she had lived before time too familiarly for her husband without the assent and privity of her Soveraigne who being hereat highly offended seised her possessions into his owne hands Yet both Sir Eubul Strange and Sir Hugh Frene her third husband are in some Records named Earles of Lincolne After Alice now very aged was departed this life without issue Henry Earle of Lancaster Nephew to Edmund aforesaid by his second sonne entred upon her large and faire patrimony by vertue of that conveiance which I spake of before and from that time it accrued to the House of Lancaster Howbeit the Kings of England at their pleasure have bestowed the name and honour of Earles of Lincolne as King Edward the Fourth gave it to Sir John De la Pole and King Henry the Eighth to Henry Brandon both the Sonnes of the Dukes of Suffolke who both ended this life without Issue the first slaine in the battaile at Stoke and the other taken away by the sweating sicknesse Afterward Queene Elizabeth promoted Edward Baron Clinton Lord high Admirall of England to the said honour which his sonne Henry enjoyeth at this day There are in this Shire Parishes much about 630. NOTINGAMIAE Comitatus olim pars CORITANORVM NOTTINGHAM-SHIRE VPon the West side of Lincolne-shire confineth the County of NOTTINGHAM in the English Saxon tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in English Nottingham-shire being farre lesse in quantity limited Northward with York-shire Westward with Darby-shire and in some parts with York-shire and on the South side with Leicester-shire The South and East part thereof are made more fruitfull by the noble and famous River Trent with other Riverets resorting unto it The West part is taken up with the Forest of Shirewood which stretcheth out a great way This part because it is sandy the Inhabitants tearme The Sand the other for that it is Clayish they call the Clay and so have divided their Country into these two parts The River Trent in the old English Saxon tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some Antiquaries of small note and account have called Triginta in Latine for the affinity of the French word Trent that signifieth that number Triginta that is thirty having gone a long journey so soone as hee is entred into this Shire and hath recepto Souro flumine ex agro Leicestrensi taking in the River Soure from the field of Leicester runne by Steanford where I have learned there be many tokens remaining of old antiquity and peeces of Roman money oftentimes found and then by Clifton which hath given both habitation and sirname also to the ancient family of the Cliftons much enriched by one of the heires of Cressy taketh in from the West the little River Lin which rising neere unto Newsted that is New place where sometime King Henry the Second founded a small Abbay and which is now the dwelling house of the ancient Family of the Burons descended from Ralph de Buron who at the first comming in of the Normans flourished in great state both in this Countrey and also in Lancashire runneth hard by Wallaton rich in veines of cole where Sir Francis Willoughby a Knight nobly descended from the Greis Marquesse Dorset in our daies built out of the ground with great charges upon a vaine ostentation of his wealth a stately house with artificiall workemanship standing bleakely but offering a very goodly prospect to the beholders farre and neere Then runneth it by Linton or Lenton much frequented and famous in old time for the Abbay there of the Holy Trinity founded by William Peverell the base sonne of King William the Conquerour but now all the fame is onely for a Faire there kept Where on the other banke at the very meeting well neere of Lin and Trent the principall Towne that hath given name unto the Shire is seated upon the side of an hill now called Nottingham by softning the old name a little for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so the English Saxons named it of certaine caves and passages under the ground which in old time they hewed and wrought hollow under those huge and steepe cliffes which are on the South side hanging over the little River Lin for places of receit and refuge yea and for habitations And thereupon Asserius interpreteth this Saxon word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine Speluncarum domum that is An house of Dennes or Caves and in the British Tui ogo bauc which signifieth the very selfe same The Towne for the naturall site thereof is right pleasant as where on the one hand lye faire and large Medowes by the Rivers side on the other rise hils with a gentle and easie ascent and is plentifully provided of all things beside necessary for mans life On the one side Shirewood yeeldeth store of wood to maintaine fire although many use for that purpose stinking pit cole digged forth of the ground on the other Trent serveth it aboundantly with fish And hence hath beene taken up this od barbarous Verse Limpida sylva focum Triginta dat mihi piscem Shire-wood yeelds me fuell for fire As Trent yeelds fish what I require At a word for largenesse for building for three faire Churches a passing spacious and beautifull Mercat place and a most strong Castle it maketh a goodly shew The said Castle is mounted upon an huge and steepe worke on the West side of the City in which place it is thought that Castle stood in times past upon whose strength the Danes presuming held out against the Siege of Aethered and Aelfrid so long untill they frustrate of their purpose brake up their Siege trussed up bagge and baggage and dislodged For when the Danes had taken this Castle Burthred King of the Mercians as mine Authour Asserius writeth and the Mercians addresse their messengers to Aethered King of the West Saxons and to
by word of it Hengston downe well ywrought Is worth London deere ybought And it was an ordinarie place where every seven or eight yeere the Stannarie men of Cornwall and Denshire were wont in great frequencie to assemble together and to consult about their affaires At this hill in the yeere of savation DCCCXXXI the British Danmonij who calling the Danes to aid them of purpose to break into Devonshire that they might drive out the English from thence who alreadie possessed themselves of the countrey were pitiously defeated by King Egbert and slaine almost to the very last man Beneath it Tamar leaveth Halton the habitation of the Rouses anciently Lords of Little Modbery in Devonshire and running nigh unto Salt-Esse a prettie market Towne seated in the descent of an hill which hath a Major and certaine priviledges of their owne as I said erewhile it entertaineth the river Liver on which standeth that same Towne of Saint Germans whereof I spake before And now by this time spreading broader dischargeth it selfe into the Ocean making the haven which in the life of Saint Indractus is called Tamerworth after it hath severed Cornwall from Denshire For Athelstane the first English King that brought this countrey absolute under his dominion appointed this river to be the bound or limit between the Britans of Cornwal and his Englishmen after he had remooved the Britans out of Denshire as witnesseth William of Malmsburie who calleth it Tambra Whereupon Alexander Necham in his Praises of divine wisedome writeth thus Loegriae Tamaris divisor Cornubiaeque Indigenas ditat pinguibus Isiciis Tamar that Lhoegres doth divide from Cornwall in the west The neighbour-dwellers richly serves with Salmons of the best The place requireth here that I should say somewhat of the holy and devout virgin Ursula descended from hence as also of the eleven thousand British Virgins But such is the varietie of Writers whiles some report they suffered martyrdome under Gratian the Emperour about the yeare of our Lord CCCLXXXIII upon the coast of Germanie as they sailed to Armorica others by Attlia the Hun that scourge of God in the yeare CCCCL at Coline upon Rhene as they returned from Rome that with some it hath brought the truth of the History into suspition of a vaine fable And as touching that Constantine whom Gildas termeth a tyrannous whelpe of the uncleane Danmonian Lionesse as also of the Disforresting of all this country for before time it was reputed a Forrest let Historians speake for it is no part of my purpose As for the Earles none of British bloud are mentioned but onely Candorus called by others Cadocus who is accounted by late writers the last Earle of Cornwall of British race and as they which are skilfull in Heraldry have a tradition bare XV. Besaunts V. IIII. III. II. and I. in a shield Sable But of the Normans bloud the first Earle was Robert of Moriton halfe brother to William Conqueror by Herlotta their mother after whom succeeded William his sonne who when hee had sided with Robert of Normandie against Henry the First King of England being taken prisoner in battell lost both his libertie and his honours and at last turned Monke at Bermondsey Then Reginald a base sonne of Henrie the First by the daughter of Sir Robert Corber for that King plied getting children so lustfully as that hee was father of thirteene Bastards was placed in his roome This Reginald dying without issue male legitimate King Henry the Second having assigned unto his daughters certaine lands and Lordships reserved this Earledome to himselfe for the â—ehoore of his owne youngest sonne Iohn a child of nine yeares old upon whom his brother Richard the First conferred it afterwards with other Earledomes This Iohn afterward was crowned King of England and his second sonne Richard was by his brother King Henry the Third endowed with this honour and the Earledome of Poictou a Prince verily in those daies puissant in Gods service devout and religious in war right valiant for counsell sage and prudent who in Aquitaine fought battels with fortunate successe and shewed much valour and having made a voyage into the Holy Land enforced the Sarazens to make truce with him the Kingdome of Apulia offered unto him by the Pope he refused the troubles and tumults in England he often times composed and in the yeare of our Lord MCCLVIL by some of the Princes Electours of Germany was chosen King of the Romans and crowned at Aquisgrane whereupon as if he had made meanes thereto by money this verse was so riâ—e and currant every where Nummus ait pro me nubit Cornubia Romae For me my money saieth this Cornwall to Rome now wedded is For so well monied he was before that one who then lived hath put downe in writing that for ten yeares together hee might dispend one hundred markes a day But when as Germanie was all on a light fire with civil warres among competitors of the Empire he returned quickly into England where he departed this life and was interred in the famous Monastery of Hales which he had built a little after that his first begotten son Henry newly in his return from the Holy Land whiles he was at divine service devoutly occupied within a church at Viterbium in Italy was by Guy de Montfort son of Simon Montfort Earle of Leceister in revenge of his fathers death wickedly slaine Edmund therefore his second son succeeded in the Earledome of Cornwall who died without any lawfull issue and so his high and great estate of inheritance returned to King Edward the First as who was the next unto him in bloud and found as our Lawyers say his heire Whereas that Richard and Edmund his sonne Princes of the bloud Royall of England bare divers Armes from the Armes Royall of England to wit in a shield argent a Lyon rampant gules crowned or within a border sables Bezante I have with others oftentimes much marvelled at neither I assure you can I alleage any other reason but that they in this point imitated the house Royall of France for the manner of bearing Armes came from the French men unto us For the younger sonnes of the Kings of France even to the time wee now speake of bare other coats than the Kings themselves did as we may see in the family of Vermandois Dreux and Courtney and as Robert Duke of Burgundy brother to Henrie the First King of France tooke unto him the ancient shield of the Dukes of Burgundie so we may well thinke that this Richard having received the Earledome of Poictou from Henry the Third his brother assumed unto him that Lyon gules crowned which belonged to the Earles of Poictou before him as the French writers doe record and added thereto the border garnished with Besaunts out of the ancient coat of the Earles of Cornwall For so soone as the younger sonnes of the Kings of France began to beare the Armes of France with
any expedition set out either by sea or land it served in proportion to five hides It hath beene likewise from time to time much afflicted once spoiled and sore shaken by the furious outrages of the Danes in the yeare of our redemption 875. but most grievously by Suen the Dane in the yeare 1003. at which time by the treacherie of one Hugh a Norman Governor of the citie it was raced and ruined along from the East gate to the West And scarcely began it to flourish againe when William the Conquerour most straightly beleaguered it when the Citizens in the meane while thought it not sufficient to shut their gates against him but malapartly let flie taunts and flouts at him but when a piece of their wall fell downe by the speciall hand of God as the Historians of that age report they yielded immediatly thereupon At which time as we find in the said survey-booke of his The King had in this Citie three hundred houses it paid fifteene pounds by the yeare and fortie houses were destroyed after that the King came into England After this it was thrice besieged and yet it easily avoided all First by Hugh Courtney Earle of Denshire in that civill warre betweene the two houses of Lancaster and Yorke then by Perkin Warbecke that imaginarie counterfeit and pretended Prince who being a young man of a very base condition faining himselfe to be Richard Duke of Yorke the second sonne of King Edward the Fourth stirred up dangerous stirres against Henrie the Seventh thirdly by seditious Rebels of Cornwall in the yeare of Christ 1549 at which time the Citizens most grievously pinched though they were with scarcitie of all things continued neverthelesse in their faith and allegeance untill that Iohn Lord Russell raised the siege and delivered them But Excester received not so great damage at these enemies hands as it did by certaine dammes which they call Weares that Edward Courtney Earle of Denshire taking high displeasure against the Citizens made in the river Ex which stop the passage so that no vessell can come up to the Citie but since that time all merchandize is carried by land from Topesham three miles off And albeit it hath beene decreed by Act of Parliament to take away these Weares yet they continue there still Hereupon the little Towne adjoyning is call Weare being aforetime named Heneaton which was sometime the possession of Augustine de Baa from whom in right of inheritance it descended to Iohn Holland who in his signet which my selfe have seene bare a Lion rampant gardant among flowers de Lys. The civill government of this Citie is in the power of foure and twenty persons out of whom there is from yeare to yeare a Major elected who with foure Bailiffes ruleth heere the State As touching the Geographicall description of this place the old tables of Oxford have set downe the longitude thereof to bee nineteene degrees and eleven scruples the latitude fiftie degrees and fortie scruples or minutes This Citie that I may not omit so much hath had three Dukes For Richard the Second of that name King of England created Iohn Holland Earle of Huntingdon and his brother by the mothers side the first Duke of Excester whom Henrie the Fourth deposed from this dignitie and left unto him the name onely of Earle of Huntingdon and soone after for conspiracie against the King he lost both it and his life by the hatchet Some few yeares after Henry the Fifth set in his place Thomas Beaufort of the house of Lancaster and Earle of Dorset a right noble and worthy warriour When he was dead leaving no issue behind him John Holland sonne of that aforesaid John as heire unto his brother Richard who died without children and to his father both being restored to his bloud by the favour and bounty of King Henry the Sixth recovered his fathers honor and left the same to Henry his sonne who so long as the Lancastrians stood upright flourished in very much honor but afterwards when the family of Yorke was a float and had rule of all gave an example to teach men how ill trusting it is to great Fortunes For this was that same Henry Duke of Excester who albeit he had wedded King Edward the Fourth his sister was driven to such miserie that he was seene all tottered torne and barefooted to begge for his living in the Low countries And in the end after Barnet field fought wherein he bare himselfe valiantly against Edward the Fourth was no more seene untill his dead bodie as if he had perished by Shipwracke was cast upon the shore of Kent A good while after this Henry Courtney Earle of Denshire the sonne of Katharine daughter to King Edward the Fourth was advanced to the honour of Marquesse of Excester by Henry the Eighth and designed heire apparant But this Marquesse as well as the first Duke was by his high parentage cast into a great tempest of troubles wherein as a man subject to suspitions and desirous of a change in the State he was quickly overthrowne And among other matters because he had with money and counsell assisted Reginald Poole afterwards Cardinall then a fugitive practising with the Emperour and the Pope against his owne Country and the King who had now abrogated the Popes authoritie he was judicially arraigned and being condemned with some others lost his head But now of late by the favour of King Iames Thomas Cecill Lord Burleigh enjoyeth the title of Earle of Excester a right good man and the worthy sonne of so excellent a father being the eldest sonne of William Cecill Lord Burleigh high Treasurer of England whose wisedome for a long time was the support of peace and Englands happy quietnesse From Excester going to the very mouth of the River I find no monument of Antiquitie but Exminster sometime called Exanminster bequeathed by King Elfred to his younger sonne and Pouderham Castle built by Isabell de Ripariis the seat long time of that most noble family of the Courtneys Knights who being lineally descended from the stocke of the Earles of Denshire and allied by affinitie to most honorable houses flourish still at this day most worthy of their descent from so high Ancestors Under Pouderham Ken a pretty brooke entreth into Ex which riseth neere Holcombe where in a Parke is a faire place built by Sir Thomas Denis whose family fetcheth their first off-spring and surname from the Danes and were anciently written Le Dan Denis by which name the Cornish called the Danes But lower upon the very mouth of the river on the other banke side as the name it selfe doth testifie standeth Exanmouth knowne by nothing else but the name and for that some fishermen dwelt therein More Eastward Otterey that is The River of Otters or River-Dogs which we call Otters as may appeare by the signification of the word falleth into the sea which runneth hard under
nations that every souldier remaining alive after a foughten field should carry his head-piece full of earth toward the making of their fellowes tombes that were slaine Although I am of opinion rather that this of Selburie was set there in stead of a limit if not by the Romans then certainly by the Saxons Like as that fosse called Wodensdike considering that betweene the Mercians and the West-Saxons there was much bickering in this Shire many a time about their Marches and both Boetius and the Grammaticall Writers have made mention of such Mounts raised for bounds Within one mile of Selburie is Aiburie an up-landish village built in an old Campe as it seemeth but of no large compasse for it is environed with a faire trench and hath foure gappes as gates in two of the which stand huge Stones as jambes but so rude that they seeme rather naturall than artificiall of which sort there are some other in the said village This River Kenet runneth at the first Eastward through certaine open fields out of which there stand up aloft every where stones like rockes and off them a little village there is called Rockley among which there breaketh out sometimes at unawares water in manner of a streame or sudden Land-flood reputed the messenger as it were and forerunner of a dearth and is by the rusticall people of the countrey called Hunger-borne From hence Kenet holdeth on his course to a towne bearing his name called of Antoninus CVNETIO and is placed from Verlucio twenty miles At which distance just from thence that ancient towne called by a new name Marleborow in old time Marleberge standeth upon this river Cunetio now Kenet stretching out East and West on the pendant of an hill Whether this name Marleborow came in latter ages of Marga which in our language we call Marle and use in stead of dung to manure our grounds I am not ready to affirme Certes it lieth neere a chaulkey hill which our Ancestours before they borrowed this name Chaulke of the Latine word Calx named Marle But the Etymologie thereof that Alexander Necham in his Booke of divine wisedome hath coined and drawne from Merlins Tombe as appeareth by this Distichon of his making is ridiculous Merlini tumulus tibi Merlebrigia nomen Fecit testis erit Anglica lingua mihi O Merlebridge towne of Merlins Tombe thou had'st thy name Our English tongue will testifie with me the same The fatall end of this towne Cunetio and the name together and the estate thereof with the ancient memorie also from the comming in of the Saxons unto the Normans time is utterly vanished and gone for in all this space betweene our histories doe not so much as once name it But in the age next ensuing wee reade that Iohn surnamed Sine terra that is Without Land who afterwards was King of England had a Castle heere which when hee revolted from his brother King Richard the First Hubert Archbishop of Canterburie tooke by force and which afterwards was most famous by reason of a Parliament there holden wherein by a generall consent of the States of the Kingdome there assembled a law passed for the appeasing of all tumults commonly called the Satute of Marleborow But now being daunted by time there remaineth an heape of rammell and rubbish witnessing the ruines thereof and some few reliques of the walles remaine within the compasse of a drie ditch and an Inne there is adjoyning thereto which in stead of the Castle hath the signe of a Castle hanging out at it The Inhabitants of the place have nothing to make greater shew of than in the Church of Preshut hard by of a Christning Font as it seemeth of Touchstone or of Obsidian stone in which by their report certaine Princes I wot not who were in times past baptized and made Christians Neither verily can I conceale that which I have read that every Burger heere admitted is by an old order and custome among them to present unto the Major a brace of hounds for the hare a couple of white Capons and a white Bull. On the same River and the same side thereof is seated Ramsburie a prettie village having nothing now to commend it but pleasant meadowes about it howsoever in old time famous it was for the Bishops See there who had this Shire for their Diocesse but that seate being by Herman the Eighth Bishop laid unto that of Shirburne and at length as I said before translated to Saliburie carried away with it all the name and reputation of this place because at Ramesburie there was never any Covent of Clerkes nor ought for their maintenance From the other side of the River more Eastward Littlecot sheweth it selfe not long since a seate of the Darels a place worthy to bee remembred for the late Lord thereof Sir Iohn Popham who being the chiefe Iudge in the Kings Bench executed justice as I have said already against malefactors to his high praise and commendation And heereby runneth the limit betweene this Shire and Berkshire Thus farre forth have we taken a slight view and survey of Wilshire which as wee find in the Domesday booke and worth the noting it is paide unto the King tenne pounds for an Hawke twentie shillings for a strong Steed for hey one hundred shillings and five ores now what kind a piece of money and of what kind that Ore was I wot not but out of a Register of Burton Monasterie I have observed thus much that twentie Ores are worth two Markes of silver This province can reckon out of divers and sundry houses but few Earles besides those of Salisburie whom I have named before for to omit Weolsthan before the Normans Conquest it had none to my knowledge unto King Richard the Second his daies who preferred William le Scrope to that one honour But this mans good fortunes stood and fell together with his Prince For when the one was deposed the other lost his head After whom within short time succeeded Iames Butler Earle of Ormund advanced to that dignitie by King Henrie the Sixth Howbeit when the Lancastrians were downe the wind and hee was attainted his estate forfeited and Iohn Stafford a younger sonne of Humfrey Duke of Buckingham by the favour of King Edward the Fourth received this title whose sonne Edward succeeded him and died without issue The same honour afterwards King Henrie the Eighth bestowed upon Henrie Stafford of the same house of Buckingham who having enjoyed it a little while departed likewise and left no children behind him In the end the favour of the said King brought it into the family of the Bullens for Thomas Bullen Vicount Rochfort Sonne to one of the Daughters and coheires of Thomas Butler Earle of Ormund hee created Earle of Wilshire whose Daughter Anne the King tooke to wife A marriage this was to her selfe and her brother unhappie and deadly to her Parents wofull but
the Pestane Rose surpasse Her eyes gemmes of great cost Her haire the Lilies fresh and white Her necke the hoary frost And as she runnes her haire all wet She doth behind her cast Which waving thus she kembeth slick And layeth even at last Lo Isis sudainly out of The Waves so mild doth shew His lovely face his eies withall Glitter with golden hew As they from dropping visage send Their beames the fields throughout Whiles one anothers neck with armes Displayd they clip about Full sweetly he doth Tama kisse Whom he hath wish'd so long A thousand kisses twixt them twain Doe now resound among With clasping close their armes wax pale Their lips their hearts linke fast To nuptiall chamber thus they both Jointly descend at last Where CONCORD with religious FAITH Together both ymet Knit up the knot of wedlock sure With words in forme yset And now the pipes of thyrled box On every side resound The water Nymphes the Dryades The wanton Satyrs round About the place disport and dance The measures cunningly Whiles on the grasse they foote it fine In rounds as merily The Birds heerewith in every wood Melodiously doe sing And ECHO her redoubled notes In mirth strives forth to ring All things now laugh the fields rejoice The CVPIDS as they fly Amid the aire on bridled birds Clap hands right pleasantly BRITONA hand-fast-maker shee All clad in Laurell green Play 's on the Harp what ever acts Our auncestours have seene Shee sings how BRITANNY from all The world divided was When Nereus with victorious Sea Through cloven rocks did passe And why it was that Hercules When he arrived heere Upon our coast and tasted once The mudlesse TAMIS cleere Did Neptun's sonne high Albion Vanquish in bloudy fight And with an haile-like storme of stones Kild him in field out-right And when Vlysses hither came What Altars sacred were By him How Brute with Corinae His trusty friend and fere Went foorth into the Western parts And how that Caesar he When he had sought and found turn'd back With feare from Britannie And after some few verses interposed This said then Tame and Isis both In love and name both one Hight Tamisis more joy's therein And hastning to be gone Ariseth up and leaping out With hastfull hot desire Advanceth forth his streame and seekes The Ocean main his sire From Dorchester Tamis goeth to Benson in old time Bensingston which Marian calleth Villam Regiam that is The Kings towne and reporteth That Ceaulin tooke it from the Britans in the yeere of our Lord 572. and that the West-Saxons kept the possession of it 200. yeeres after For then Offa the King of Mercians thinking it would be for his commoditie and honor both that they should have nothing on this side the river wonne it and subjected it to him But at this day it goeth for a village onely and hath a house of the Kings hard by sometime a faire place but now running exceedingly to ruine as being not very wholsome by reason of the foggy aire and mists arising from a standing water adjoyning This house of certaine Elmes called Ewelme but commonly New-Elme was built by William de la pole Duke of Suffolke who having taken to Wife Alice the onely daughter of Thomas Chaucer had by her faire lands heereabout as elsewhere and beside this house he erected also a faire Church wherein the said Alice lieth buried and a proper Hospitall But Iohn Earle of Lincolne his Grand child who by King Richard the Third had beene declared heire apparent to the Crowne overthrew in some sort the happie estate of this Family For whiles he plotted and projected seditiously to rebell against King Henry the seventh he was attainted and slaine in the battell at Stoke and Edmund his brother being for like cause attainted the possessions became Câ—owne-land Then King Henrie the Eighth made this house an Honour by laying unto it certaine Manours and Wallingford among others which before had a long time belonged unto the Dukes of Cornewall The Tamis from hence having fetched a great compasse about windeth in manner backe againe into himselfe enclosing within it the Hundred of Henley mounting high with Hills and beset with thicke Woods which some doe thinke the ANCALITES that yeelded themselves unto Caesars protection did inhabite Here is â—ix-brâ—nd and Stonor ancient Possessions of the Families of Stonores who since the time of King Edward the Third when Sir Iohn Stonore was chiefe Justice in the Common-pleas flourished with great alliance and faire revenues untill they were transferred by an Heire generall to Sir Adrian Fortescue unhappily attainted whose daughter Heire to her mother was married to the first Baron Wenâ—worth Next neighbour hereunto is Pus-hull which the Family of D'oily held by yeelding yeerely to the King a Table-cloth of three shillings price or three shillings for all service Under this Southward standeth Greies Rotherfield a house which in times past Walter Grey the Archbishop of Yorke gave freely unto William Grey his Nephew the Inheritance whereof by the Baron of D'Eincourt was devolved upon the Lovels Now it is the dwelling house of Sir William Knolles Treasurer of the Kings House whom Iames our King for his faithfull service performed unto Queene Elizabeth and to be performed unto himselfe advanced to the honourable title of Baron Knolles of Rotherfield Nere unto it Henley upon Tamis in old time called Hanleganz sheweth it selfe in the very confines of the shires The Inhabitants whereof be for the most part Watermen who make their chiefest gaine by carrying downe in their Barges wood and Corne to London neither can it make report of any greater antiquity than that in times past the Molinies were Lords thereof from whom by the Hungerfords who procured unto the towne of King Henry the Sixth the liberty of holding two faires it came by right of Inheritance unto the honourable house of the Hastings And where now the Tamis hath a wooden Bridge over it they say in times past there stood one of stone arched But whether this Bridge were here that Dio writeth the Romans passed over when they pursued the Britans along this tract who below had swom over the river hard it is for a man to say From Henley the Chiltern-bils hold on with a continued ridge running Northward and divide this Country from Buckinghamshire at the foote whereof stand many small townes among which these two are of greatest note Watlington a little mercate towne belonging sometime to Robert D' Oily and Shirburne a prety Castle of the Quatremans in times past but now the habitation of the Chamberlans descended out of the house of the Earles of Tankervill who having beene long agoe Chamberlains of Normandy their Posterity relinquishing that old name of Tankervills became surnamed Chamberlans of the Office which their ancestours bare To omit Edgar Algar and other English Saxons officiall Earles of Oxford Since after the Conquest the title of
thing recorded to posterity by an inscription which continued there a long time engraven in Brasse On this North-West side likewise London hath other great Suburbs and there stood in old time a Watchtowre or military Forefense whence the place was of an Arabicke word called Barbacan and by the gift of King Edward the Third became the dwelling house of the Vffords from whom by the Willoughbies it came to Sir Pengrine Bertey Lord Willoughbey of Eresby a man noble and generous and one of Mars his broode Neither lesse Suburbs runne out on the North-East and East In the fields of which Suburbs whiles I was first writing these matters there were gotten out of the ground many urnes funerall vessels little Images and earthen pots wherein were small peeces of money coined by Claudius Nero Vespasian c. Glasse vials also and sundry small earthen vessels wherein some liquid substance remained which I would thinke to bee either of that sacred oblation of Wine and Milke which the ancient Romanes used when they burnt the dead or else those odoriferous liquours that Statius mentioneth Pharijque liquores Arsuram lavere comam And liquid baulmes from Aegypt-land that came Did wash his haire that ready was for flame This place the Romanes appointed to burne and bury dead bodies who according to the law of the xij Tables carried Coarses out of their Cities and enterred them by the high waies sides to put Passengers in minde that they are as those were subject to mortality Thus much of that part of the City which lieth to the Land Now for that side where the River runneth toward the South banke thereof the Citizens made a Bridge also over the Water reaching to that large Burrough of Southwarke whereof I have already spoken First of wood in that place where before time they used for passage a ferry boat in stead of a Bridge Afterwards under the Raigne of King John they built a new Bridge with admirable workmanship of stone hewen out of the Quarry upon 19. Arches beside the draw-bridge and so furnished it on both sides with passing faire houses joyning one to another in manner of a Street that for bignesse and beauty it may worthily carry away the prise from all the Bridges in Europe In this Burgh of Southwarke to speake onely of things memorable there stood sometime a famous Abbay of Monkes of Saint Benets Order called Bermondsey consecrated in times past unto our Saviour by Aldwin Childe Citizen of London also a stately house built by Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolke which having served his turne but a small time was shortly after pulled downe These are extant Saint Thomas Hospitall reedified or founded rather by the City of London for the sustenance of feeble and impotent persons The Priory of the blessed Virgin Mary called Saint Mary Over Rhe because it standeth beyond the River of Tamis in regard of London erected by William Pont del Arche a Norman for blacke Chanons The Bishops house of Winchester built by William Giffard Bishop for his Successours about the yeare of our Lord 1107. From which along the Tamis banke there runneth Westward a continued raunge of dwelling houses where within our fathers remembrance was the Bordello or Lupanarie for so the Latines terme those little roomes or secret chambers of harlots wherein they filthily prostituted their bodies to sale because they after the manner of ravening she-wolves catch hold of silly wretched men and plucke them into their holes But these were prohibited by King Henry the Eighth at which time England was growne to excessive lasciviousnesse and riot which in other Nations are continued for gaine under a specious shew of helping mans infirmity Neither of these Strumpets and brothel-houses doe I thinke that this place in our tongue tooke the name Stewes but of those Ponds or Stewes which are heere to feed Pikes and Tenches fat and to scowre them from the strong and muddy fennish taste Heere have I seene Pikes panches opened with a knife to shew their fatnesse and presently the wide gashes and wounds come together againe by the touch of Tenches and with their glutinous slime perfectly healed up Among these buildings there is a place in manner of a Theater for baiting of Beares and Buls with Dogges and certaine kenels appointed severally for Band-Dogges or Mastives which are of that strength and so sure of bit that three of them are able to take and hold downe a Beare and foure a Lion so that the Poet in old time reported truely of our Dogges in these words Taurorum fracturi colla Britanni The British Dogges are able well To breake the neckes of Buls so fell Like as he that said they were more fierce than the Dogges of Arcadian kinde which are thought to be engendred of Lions What time as the Bridge was thus made betweene London and this Burrough the City was not onely enlarged but also an excellent forme of Common wealth was therein ordained and the Citizens reduced into certaine distinct Corporations and Companies The whole City divided into six and twenty Wards and the Counsell of the City consisted of as many ancient men named of their age in our tongue Aldermen as one would say Senatours who each one have the overseeing and rule of his severall Ward and whereas in ancient time they had for their Head-Magistrate a Portreve that is a Governour of the City King Richard the First ordained two Ballives in stead of whom soone after King John granted them liberty to chuse by their voices yearely out of the twelve principall Companies a Major for their chiefe Magistrate also two Sheriffes whereof the one is called the Kings the other the Cities Sheriffe This forme of Common wealth being thus established it is incredible to tell how much London grew and groweth still in publike and also private buildings whiles all the Cities of England besides decrease For to say nothing of that beautifull peece of worke the Senatâ— house named Guild Hall built by Sir Thomas Knowles Major Leaden Hall a large and goodly building erected by Simon Eire to bee a common Garner in time of dearth to pull downe the price of Corne the Merchants meeting place standing upon Pillars which the common people call the Burse and Queene Elizabeth with a solemne ceremony named The Royall Exchange for the use of Merchants and an ornament to the City set up by Sir Thomas Gresham Citizen and knight a magnificent worke verily whether you respect the modull of the building the resort of Merchants from all Nations thâ—ther or the store of wares there Which Sir Thomas Gresham being withall an exceeding great lover of learning consecrated a most spacious house his owne habitation to the furtherance of learning and instituted there Professours of Divinity Law Physicke Astronomy Geometry and Musicke with liberall salaries and stipends to the end that London might be a place
all England made fruitfull by meanes of very many Masters and Teachers proceeding out of Cambridge in manner of the Holy Paradise c. But at what time it became an Vniversity by authority Robert de Remington shall tell you Vnder the Reigne saith hee of Edward the First Grantbridge of a Schoole was made an Vniversity such as Oxenford is by the Court of Rome But what meane I thus unadvisedly to step into these lists Wherein long since two most learned old men have encountred one with another Unto whom verely as to right learned men I am willing to yeeld up my weapons and vaile bonnet with all reverence The Meridian line cutting the Zenith just over Cambridge is distant from the furthest West poynt twenty three degrees and twenty five scruples And the Arch of the same Meridian lying betweene the Aequator and Verticall poynt is fiftie two degrees and II. scruples Cam from Cambridge continuing his course by Waterbeach an ancient seat of Nuns which Lady Mary S. Paul translated from thence to Denny somewhat higher but nothing healthfuller when in a low ground he hath spread a Mere associateth himselfe with the River Ouse But to returne hard under Cambridge Eastward neere unto Sture a little brooke is kept every yeere in the moneth of September the greatest Faire of all England whether you respect the multitude of buyers and sellers resorting thither or the store of commodities there to be vented Hard by whereas the way was most comberous and troublesome to passengers to and fro that right good and praise-worthy man G. Hervy Doctor of the Civill Law and M. of Trinity Hall in Cambridge made not long since with great charges but of a Godly and laudable intent a very faire raised Causey for three miles or thereabout in length toward Neumercat Neere unto Cambridge on the South-East side there appeare aloft certaine high Hills the Students call them Gogmagog-Hills Henry of Huntingdon tearmed them Amoenissima montana de Balsham that is The most pleasant Mountaines of Balsham by reason of a little Village standing beneath them wherein as hee writeth the Danes left no kinde of most savage cruelty unattempted On the top of these hills I saw a Fort intrenched and the same very large strengthened with a threefold Rampire an hold surely in those dayes inexpugnable as some skilfull men in feats of Warre bee of opinion were it not that water is so farre off Gervase of Tilbury seemeth to call it Vandelbiria Beneath Cambridge saith he there was a place named Vandelbiria for that the Vandals wasting the parts of Brittaine with cruell slaughter of Christians there encamped themselves where upon the very top of the hill they pitched their Tents there is a Plaine inclosed round with a Trench and Rampire which hath entrance into it but in one place as it were at a Gate Touching the Martiall spectre or sprite that walked here which he addeth to the rest because it is but a meere toyish and fantasticall devise of the doting vulgar sort I willing over-passe it For it is not my purpose to tell pleasant tales and tickle eares In the Vale under these hills is Salston to be seene which from the Burges of Burgh-Green by Walter De-la-pole and Ingalthorp came unto Sir Iohn Nevill Marquesse Mont-acute and by his daughter and one of his heires to the Hudlestons who have lived here in worship and reputation More Eastward first we meete with Hildersham belonging sometimes to the Bustlers and now by marriage to the Parises Further hard by the Woods is Horsheath situate the Possession whereof is knowne by a long descent to have pertained unto the ancient Families of the Argentons and Alingtons of whom elsewhere I have written and is now the habitation of the Alingtons Adjoyning hereunto is Castle Camps the ancient seat also of the Veres Earles of Oxford which Hugh Vere held as the old booke of Inquisition Records That he might be the Kings Chamberleine whereas notwithstanding most true it is that Henry the First King of England granted unto Aubry de Vere that Office in these words The principall Chamberlaineship of all England in Fee and Inheritance with all the Dignities Liberties and Honours thereto belonging as freely and honourably as Robert Mallet held the same c. The Kings notwithstanding ordained sometimes one and sometimes another at their pleasure to execute this Office The Earles of Oxford also that I may note it incidently by the heire of R. Sandford held the Manours of Fingrey and Wulfelmelston by Serjeanty of Chamberlainship to the Queenes at the Coronation of the Kings Not far from hence are seene here and there those great and long Ditches which certainly the East Angles did cast to restraine the Mercians who with sudden inrodes were wont most outragiously to make havocke of all before them The first of these beginneth at Hinkeston runneth Eastward by Hildersham toward Hors-heath about five miles in length The second neere unto this called Brentditch goeth from Melborne by Fulmer Where D. Hervies cawsey which I mentioned endeth there appeareth also a third forefence or ditch cast up in old time which beginning at the East banke of the river Cam reacheth directly by Fenn-Ditton or more truly Ditch-ton so called of the very Ditch betweene great Wilberham and Fulburn as farre as to Balsham At this day this is called commonly Seauen mile Dyke because it is seaven miles from Newmercate in times past Fleam-Dyke in old English that is Flight-Dyke of some memorable flight there as it seemeth At the said Wilberham sometimes called Wilburgham dwelt in times past the Barons Lisle of Rong-mount men of ancient nobility of whom John for his Martiall prowesse was by King Edward the Third ranged among the first founders of the order of the Garter and of that Family there yet remaineth an heire Male a reverend old Man and full of Children named Edmund Lisle who is still Lord of this place More East from hence five miles within the Country is to bee seene the fourth forefence or ditch the greatest of all the rest with a rampier thereto which the common people wondring greatly at as a worke made by Devils and not by men use to call Devils-Dyke others Rech-Dyke of Rech a little mercate towne where it beginneth This is doubtlesse that whereof Abbo Floriacensis when he describeth the sight of East England writeth thus From that part whereas the Sun inclineth Westward the Province it selfe adjoyneth to the rest of the Island and is therefore passable but for feare of being overrun with many invasions and inrodes of enemies it is fortified in the front with a banke or rampier like unto an huge wall and with a Trench or Ditch below in the ground This for many miles together cutteth overthwart that Plaine which is called Newmarket-heath where it lay open to incursions beginning at Rech above which the Country
which King Henry the First gave unto the Church of Lincolne for amends of a losse when hee erected the Bishopricke of Ely taken out of the Diocesse of Lincolne as I have before shewed But where the River Nen entreth into this Shire it runneth fast by Elton the seat of the ancient Family of the Sapcots where is a private Chappell of singular workemanship and most artificiall glasse windowes erected by Lady Elizabeth Dinham the widow of Baron Fitz-warin married into the said Family But a little higher there stood a little City more ancient than all these neere unto Walmsford which Henry of Huntingdon calleth Caer Dorm and Dormeceaster upon the River Nen and reporteth to have beene utterly rased before his time This was doubtlesse that DUROBRIVAE that is The River passage that Antonine the Emperour speaketh of and now in the very same sense is called Dornford neere unto Chesterton which beside peeces of ancient Coine daily found in it sheweth apparant tokens of a City overthrowne For to it there leadeth directly from Huntingdon a Roman Portway and a little above Stilton which in times past was called Stichilton it is seene with an high banke and in an ancient Saxon Charter termed Ermingstreat This Street now runneth here through the middest of a foure square Fort the North side whereof was fensed with Wals all the other sides with a Rampire of earth onely Neere unto which were digged up not long since Cofins or Sepulchres of stone in the ground of R. Bevill of an ancient house in this Shire Some verily thinke that this City tooke up both bankes of the River and there bee of opinion that the little Village Câ—ster standing upon the other banke was parcell thereof Surely to this opinion of theirs maketh much the testimony of an ancient story which sheweth that there was a place by Nen called Dormund-caster in which when Kinneburga had built a little Monastery it began to be called first Kinneburge-caster and afterwards short Caster This Kinneburga the most Christian daughter of the Pagan King Penda and wife to Alfred King of the Northumbrians changed her Princely State into the service of Christ if I may use the words of an ancient Writer and governed this Monastery of her owne as Prioresse or mother of the Nunnes there Which afterwards about the yeare of Salvation 1010. by the furious Danes was made levell with the ground But where this River is ready to leave this County it passeth hard by an ancient house called Bottle-bridge so is it now termed short for Botolph-bridge which the Draitons and Lovets brought from R. Gimels by hereditary succession into the Family of the Shirleies And to this house adjoyneth Overton now corruptly called Orton which being by felony forfait and confiscate Neele Lovetoft redeemed againe of King John and the said Noeles sister and coheire being wedded unto Hubert alià s Robert de Brounford brought him children who assumed unto them the sirname of Lovetoft This County of Huntingdon when the English-Saxons Empire began now to decline had Siward an Earle by Office and not inheritance For as yet there were no Earles in England by inheritance but the Rulers of Provinces after the custome of that age were termed Earles with addition of the Earledome of this or that Province whereof they had the rule for the time as this Siward whiles he governed this County was called Earle of Huntingdon whereas afterwards being Ruler of Northumberland they named him Earle of Northumberland He had a sonne named Waldeof who under the Title of Earle had likewise the government of this Province standing in favour as he did with William the Conquerour whose Niece Judith by his sister of the mothers side hee had married but by him beheaded for entring into a conspiracy against him The eldest daughter of this Waldeof as William Gemiticensis reporteth Simon de Senlys or S. Liz tooke to wife together with the Earldome of Huntingdon and of her begat a sonne named Simon But after that the said Simon was dead David brother to Maud the Holy Queene of England who afterwards became King of Scots married his wife by whom hee had a sonne named Henry But in processe of time as fortune and Princes favour varied one while the Scots another while the Sent Lizes enjoyed this dignity First Henry the sonne of David aforesaid then Simon S. Liz sonne of Simon the first after him Malcolm King of Scots sonne to Earle Henry and after his death Simon Sent Liz the third who dying without issue William King of Scots and brother to Malcolm succeeded for so wrote he that then lived Raphe de Diceto in the yeare 1185. When Simon saith hee the sonne of Earle Simon was departed without children the King restored the Earldome of Huntingdon with the Pertinences unto William King of the Scots Then his brother David and Davids sonne John sirnamed Scot Earle of Chester who dying without issue and Alexander the third that had married the daughter of our King Henry the Third having for a time borne this Title the Scots by occasion of incident warres lost that honour and with it a very faire inheritance in England A good while after King Edward the Third created Sir William Clinton Earle of Huntingdon who dyed issuelesse And in his roome there was placed by King Richard the Second Guiseard of Engolisme a Gascoine who was his Governour in his minority and after his death succeeded Iohn Holland Iohn his sonne who was stiled Duke of Excester Earle of Huntingdon and Ivory Lord of Sparre Admirall of England and Ireland Lieutenant of Aquitane and Constable of the Towre of London and his sonne likewise Henry successively who were Dukes also of Excester This is that very same Henry Duke of Excester whom Philip Comines as himselfe witnesseth saw begging bare foote in the Low Countries whiles he stood firme and fast unto the house of Lancaster albeit he had married King Edward the Fourth his owne sister Then Thomas Grey who became afterward Marquesse Dorset a little while enjoyed that honour Also it is evident out of the Records that William Herbert Earle of Pembroch brought in againe the Charter of creation whereby his father was made Earle of Pembroch into the Chancery for to be cancelled and that King Edward the Fourth in the seventeenth of his Raigne created him Earle of Huntingdon at such time as he granted the Title of Pembroch to the Prince his sonne Afterward King Henry the Eighth conferred that honour upon George Lord Hastings after whom succeeded his sonne Francis and after him likewise his sonne Henry a right honourable Personage commended both for true Nobility and Piety But whereas hee dyed without issue his brother Sir George Hastings succeeded and after him his Grandchilde Henry by his sonne who at this day enjoyeth the said honour In this little Shire are numbered Parishes 78. CORITANI NOw must wee passe on to
that in our Britaine Tallhin Glan-lhin and Lhinlithquo are townes by lakes sides This Citie it selfe being large well inhabited and frequented standeth upon the side of an hill where Witham bendeth his course Eastward and being divided with three small chanels watereth the lower part of the Citie That the ancient LINDUM of the Britans stood on the very top of the hill which had a very hard ascent up to it and reached out beyond the gate called Newport the expresse tokens of a rampier and deepe ditches which are yet very evident doe plainely shew In this City Vortimer that warlike Britan who many a time discomfited the Saxons and put them to flight ended his daies and was heere contrary to his owne commandement buried For he was in a full and assured hope perswaded that if he were enterred in the sea shore his very ghost was able to protect the Britans from the Saxons as writeth Ninius the disciple of Elvodugus But the English Saxons after they had rased this old Lindum first possessed themselves of the South side of the hill at the foot whereof they built as it seemeth the gate yet standing compiled of vast stones and with the ruines of that more ancient Towne fortified it Afterwards they went downe lower to the river side built in a place that was called Wickanford and walled it about on that side which is not fensed by the River At which time as saith Bede Paulinus preached the Word of God unto the Province of Lindsey and first of all converted unto the Lord the Governour or Provost of Lincolne City whose name was Blecca with his family In which very City hee built also a Church of goodly stone worke the roofe whereof being either fallen for want of repaire or cast downe by the violent hand of enemies the walles are seene standing to this day After this the Danes wonne it by assault once or twice First those troupes of spoiling mates out of whose hands King Edmund Ironside wrested it by force then Canutus from whom Aetheldred regained it when upon his returne out of Normandy he valiantly forced Canutus to abandon the towne and beyond all hope recovered England which before was lost In the Raigne of Edward the Confessour there were in it as Domesday booke recordeth a thousand and seventy Mansions with lodgings to give entertainment and twelve Lage men having Sac and Soc. But in the Normans time as saith William of Malmesbury It was one of the best peopled Cities of England and a place of traffique and merchandise for all commers by sea and land and as the same Domesday booke saith there were at that time counted and taxed in this City 900. Burgesses and many Mansions were laied waste 166. for the Castle and other 74. without the precinct of the Castle not through the oppression of the Sheriffe and his Ministers but by reason of mishap poverty and casualty by fire The said King William the Conqueror for the strengthning of it and terrour of the Citizens raised a passing large and strong Castle upon the brow of the hill and almost at the very same time Remigius Bishop of Dorchester for to give credit and ornament thereto translated hither his Episcopall seat from Dorchester which was in the most remote corner of his Dioecesse and a small Towne And when by this time that Church which Paulinus had built was quite gone to decay the same Remigius having purchased certaine houses with grounds lying unto them in the very highest place of the City neere unto the Castle as Henry of Huntingdon saith mounting up aloft with high and stately towres built in a strong place a strong Church in a faire plot a faire Church and dedicated it to the Virgin of Virgins notwithstanding the Archbishop of Yorke was enraged thereat who chalenged to himselfe the propriety of the soile and in it ordained 44. Prebendaries Which Church afterwards being sorely defaced with fire as he saith Alexander that most bountiful Bishop of Lincolne repaired with skilfull artificiall workemanship Of whom William of Malmesbury reporteth because for his little low stature hee was a dwarfe among men his minde laboured to rise aloft and shew it selfe to the world with outward workes And as concerning his bounty a Poet of that time among other things wrote thus Qui dare festinans gratis ne danda rogentur Quod nondum dederat nondum se credit habere Who hastening frankly for to give for feare that folke should crave He never thought that he had that which yet he never gave Besides these two Bishops already mentioned Robert Bloet who sat there before Alexander R. de Beaumeis Hugh a Burgundian and their Successours by little and little brought this Church which could not bee one Bishops worke to the stately magnificence that now it carryeth Certes as it is built it is all throughout not onely most sumptuous but also passing beautifull and that with rare and singular workmanship but especially that fore-front at the West end which in a sort ravisheth and allureth the eyes of all that come toward it In this Church although there bee divers Monuments of Bishops and others yet these onely seeme memorable That of Copper wherein the bowels of that right noble and vertuous Queene Aeleonor wife to King Edward the First are bestowed who died at Hardby in this Shire as also these following wherein lye interred Sir Nicolas Cantlow one or two of the Family of Burghersh Lady Catherine Swinford the third wife of John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster and mother of the house of Somerset with whom lyeth buryed Joan her daughter second wife to Raulph Nevill the first Earle of Westmerland who enriched her husband with many happy children The Bishops Diocesse of Lincolne not content with those streit limits wherewith the Bishops of Sidnacester who had Episcopall jurisdiction over this shire contented themselves in the Primitive Church of the English Nation conteined under it so many countries as that the greatnesse thereof was burdenous unto it And although King Henry the Second tooke out of it the Province of Ely and King Henry the Eighth the Bishopricks of Peterbourgh and of Oxford yet still at this day it is counted the greatest Diocesse by farre of all England both for jurisdiction and number of shires and the Bishop hath in his Diocesse one thousand two hundred forty seven Parish Churches Many and great Bishops since Remigius his time have governed this See whom to reckon up is no part of my purpose For I will not insist either upon Robert Bloet from whom King William Rufus wrung 50000. pounds for securing his title in the very City of Lincolne it selfe which was found defective nor upon that prodigall and profuse Alexander who in exceeding stately buildings was so excessively delighted ne yet upon Hugh the Burgundian Canonized a Saint whose corps King John with his Nobles and friends about him to performe as mine author saith a dutifull service to God and that holy
mediamnis in orbe Colle tumet modico duplici quoque ponte superbit Accipiens patriâ sibi linguâ nomen ab alnis The buildings high of Shrewsbury doe shine both farre and nere A Towne within a River set an Island as it were Mounted upon a prety hill and Bridges hath it twaine The name it tooke of Alder trees in British tongue they sayne Neither is it strengthned onely by nature but fortified also by art for Roger of Montgomery unto whom by the Conquerors gift it was allotted pulling downe 50. houses or thereabout built a strong stately Castle on the North side upon a rising rocke and Robert his son when hee revolted from King Henry the First walled it about on that side where it was not fensed with the River which notwithstanding never that I know of suffered assault or hostility but once in the Barons Warre against King John At the first entring of the Normans it was a City well inhabited and of good trade For as we reade in Domesday booke In King Edward the Confessors time it paid Gelt according to an hundred Hides In the Conquerours time it paid yeerely seven pounds and sixteene shillings de Gablo They were reckoned to bee two hundred and fifty two Citizens whereof twelve were bound to watch about the Kings of England when they lay at this City and as many to accompany them when they went forth on hunting Which I would verily thinke to have beene ordained because not many yeeres before Edricke Streona Duke of the Mercians a man notoriously disteined with wickednesse lay in wait heere for Prince Ashelm and slew him as he rode on hunting At which time as that Booke sheweth the custome was in this City That a woman taking howsoever it were a husband if she were a widdow gave unto the King twenty shillings if a maide tenne in what manner soever she tooke a man But to returne unto our matter the said Earle Roger not onely fortified it but also adorned it with other buildings both publique and private yea and founded a very goodly Abbay to the honour of Saint Peter and Saint Paul unto which he granted many Possessions and therewith Saint Gregories Church And namely in that tenour I exemplifie the words out of the private History of the said Abbay That when the Chanons who held Prebends therein should any of them die the said Prebends should come unto the Demaine and Possession of the Monkes Whereupon arose no small controversie For the sonnes of the said Chanons sued the Monkes at Law that they might succeed in their fathers Prebends For at that time the Chanons and Priests in England were married and it grew to be a custome that Ecclesiasticall livings should descend by inheritance to the next of the bloud But this controversie was decided under King Henry the First and concluded it was that the heire should not succeed in Ecclesiasticall Livings yea and about that time lawes were enacted touching the single life of Priests Soone after in processe of time other Churches also were heere erected For to say nothing of the houses or Frieries of Dominicans Franciscans and Augustine Friers which the Charletons Jenevils and Staffords founded there were two Collegiat Churches erected Saint Chadds with a Deane and ten Prebendaries and Saint Maries with a Deane likewise and nine Prebendaries And even at this day a faire and goodly City it is well frequented and traded full of good merchandise and by reason of the Citizens painfull diligence with cloth making and traffique with Welshmen rich and wealthy For hither almost all the commodities of Wales doe conflow as it were to a common Mart of both Nations Whereupon it is inhabited both with Welsh and English speaking both languages who among other things deserve especiall commendation for this in that they have set up a Schoole for the training up of children wherein were more Schollers in number when I first saw it than in any one Schoole throughout all England againe unto which Thomas Aston the first head Schoolmaster a right good man procured by his meanes a very honest Salarie and Stipend for the Teachers It shall not now I hope bee impertinent to note that when diverse of the Nobility conspired against King Henry the Fourth with a purpose to advance Edmund Mortimer Earle of March to the Crowne as the undoubtfull and right heire whose father King Richard the Second had also declared heire apparent and Sir Henry Percy called Hote-spurre then addressed himselfe to give the assault to Shrewsbury upon a suddaine all their designes were dashed as it were from above For the King with speedy marches was upon his backe before hee imagined To whom yet the young Hote-spurre with courageous resolution gave battaile and after a long and doubtfull fight wherein the Scotishmen which followed him shewed much manly valour when the Earle of Worcester his Unckle and the Earle of Dunbar were taken hee despairing of Victory ran undaunted upon his owne death amiddest the thickest of his enemies Of this battaile the place is called Battaile-field Where the King after Victory erected a Chappell and one or two Priests to pray for their soules who were there slaine As for the position of this Shrewsbury it is from the Islands Azores twenty Degrees and seven and thirty minutes distant in Longitude and from the Aequinoctiall Line two and fifty Degrees and three and fifty minutes in Latitude From out of this city I wot not whether it may be thought worth my labour or pertinent to my purpose to relate so much brake forth the last time namely in the yeere of our Salvation 1551. that dismall disease The English Sweat which presently dispersed over the whole Realme made great mortality of people especially those of middle age for as many as were taken suddenly with this Sweat within one foure and twenty houres either dyed or recovered But a present remedy was found namely that such as in the day time fell into it should presently in their clothes as they were goe to bed if by night and in bed should there rest lye still and not stirre from thence for foure and twenty houres provided alwayes that they should not sleepe the while but by all meanes bee kept waking Whereof this disease first arose the learned of Physicians know not for certaine Some strangers ascribe it to the ground in England standing so much upon plastre and yet it is but in few places of that nature In certaine moist Constitutions of weather say they it happeneth that vapours arise out of that kinde of Soile which although they bee most subtile yet they are corrupt which cause likewise a subtile contagion and the same is proportionate either unto the spirits or to the thinne froth that floateth upon the bloud But whatsoever the cause is no doubt there is an Analogie betweene it and the subtile parts of bloud by reason whereof within one day the Patient either mends
with this Greeke Inscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is THE EMPEROUR CAESAR LUCIUS SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS PERTINAX And in the Reverse an Horseman with a Trophaee erected before him but the letters not legible save under him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Of the Elaians which kinde of great peeces the Italians call Medaglionj and were extraordinary coines not for common use but coined by the Emperours either to bee distributed by the way of Largesse in triumphes or to bee sent for tokens to men well deserving or else by free Cities to the glory and memory of good Princes What name this place anciently had is hard to be found but it seemeth to have beene the Port and landing place for Venta Silurum when as it is but two miles from it Then Throgoy a little River neere unto Caldecot entereth into the Severn Sea where we saw the wall of a Castle that belonged to the High Constables of England and was holden by the service of Constableship of England Hard by are seene Wondy and Penbow the seates in times past of the noble Family of Saint Maur now corruptly named Seimor For G. Mareshall Earle of Pembrock about the yeere of our Lord 1240. was bound for the winning of Wondy out of the Welsh mens hands to aide William Seimor From him descended Roger de Saint Maur Knight who married one of the heires of I. Beauchamp of Hach a very noble Baron who derived his Pedegree from Sibyl Heire unto William Mareshall that most puissant Earle of Pembrock from William Ferrars Earle of Darby from Hugh de Vivon and William Mallet men in times past most highly renowned The Nobility of all these and of others besides as may be evidently shewed hath met together in that right honourable personage Edward Saint Maur or Seimor now Earle of Hartford a singular favourer of vertue and good learning worthy in that behalfe to be honoured and commended to posterity Beneath this lyeth spred for many miles together a Mersh they call it the Moore which when I lately revised this worke suffered a lamentable losse For when the Severn Sea at a spring Tide in the change of the Moone what being driven backe for three dayes together with a South-West Winde and what with a very strong pirry from the sea troubling it swelled and raged so high that with surging billowes it came rolling and in-rushing amaine upon this Tract lying so low as also upon the like flats in Somerset-shire over against it that it overflowed all subverted houses and drowned a number of beasts and some people withall Where this Mersh Coast bearing out by little and little runneth forth into the sea in the very point thereof standeth Goldclyffe aloft that is as Giralaus saith A Golden Cliffe so called because the stones there of a golden colour by reverberation of the Sunne shining full upon them glitter with a wonderfull brightnesse neither can I bee easily perswaded saith hee that Nature hath given this brightnesse in vaine unto the stones and that there should bee a flower heere without fruite were there any man that would search into the Veines there and using the direction of Art enter in the inmost and secretest bowels of the Earth Neere to this place there remaine the Reliques of a Priory that acknowledge those of Chandos for their founders and Patron Passing thence by the Merish Country we came to the mouth of the River Isca which the Britans name Usk and Wijsk and some Writers terme it Osca This River as it runneth through the middest as I said before of this County floweth hard by three Townes of especiall antiquity The first in the limite of the Shire North-West Antonine the Emperour calleth GOBANIUM at the very meeting of Uske and Geveny whereof it had the name and even at this day keeping the ancient name as it were safe and sound is tearmed Aber-Gevenny and short Aber-genny which signifieth the confluents of Gevenny or Gobanny Fortified it is with Wals and a Castle which as saith Giraldus of all the Castles in Wales hath beene most defamed and stained with the foule note of treason First by William Earle Miles his sonne afterwards by William Breos for both of them after they had trained thither under a pretense of friendship certain of the Nobles and chiefe Gentlemen of Wales with promise of safe conduct villanously slew them But they escaped not the just judgement and vengeance of God For William Breos after he had beene stripped of all his goods and lost his wife and some of his children who were famished to death died in banishment the other William being brained with a stone whiles Breulais Castle was on fire suffered in the end due punishment for his wicked deserts The first Lord to my knowledge of Aber Gevenny was one Sir Hameline Balun who made Brien of Wallingford or Brient de L'isle called also the Fitz-Count his heire He having built heere a Lazarhouse for his two sonnes that were Lepres ordained Walter the sonne of Miles Earle of Hereford heire of the greatest part of his inheritance After him succeeded his brother Henry slaine by the Welshmen who seized upon his lands which the Kings Lieutenants and Captaines could not defend without great perill and danger By a sister of this Henry it descended to the Breoses and from them in right of marriage by the Cantelowes to the Hastings which Hastings being Earles of Pembrock enjoyed it for divers descents and John Hastings having then no childe borne devised both it and the Earledome of Pembrock as much as in him lay to his cosin Sir William Beauchamp conditionally that he should beare his Armes And when the last Hastings ended his life issuelesse Reginald Lord Grey of Ruthin being found his Heire passed over the Barony of Aber-gevenny to the said William Beauchamp who was summoned afterward to Parliament by the name of W. Beauchamp de Abergevenny Hee entailed the said Barony reserving an estate to himselfe and his wife and to the lawfull issue male of their bodies and for default of such issue to his brother Thomas Beauchamp Earle of Warwick and his heires males This William Beauchamp Lord of Abergevenny had a sonne named Richard who for his martiall valour was created Earle of Worcester and slaine in the French warres leaving one onely daughter whom Sir Edward Nevill tooke to wife Since which time the Nevils have enjoyed the honorable title of the Barons of Abergevenny howbeit the Castle was by vertue of the entaile aforesaid detained from them a long time The fourth Baron of this house dying in our remembrance left one onely daughter Mary married to Sir Thomas Fane Knight betwixt whom being the heire generall and Edward Nevill the next heire male unto whom by a will and the same ratified by authority of the Parliament the Castle of Abergevenny and the greatest part
to take any thing that pertained to the Warren without the licence and good will of Henry himselfe and his Successours Which was counted in that age for a speciall favour and I note it once for all that we may see what Free Warren was But the male issue of this Family in the right line ended in Henry Kigheley of Inskip Howbeit the daughters and heires were wedded to William Cavendish now Baron Cavendish of Hardwick and to Thomas Worseley of Boothes From hence Are passeth beside Kirkstall an Abbay in times past of no small reckoning founded by Henry Lacy in the yeere 1147. and at length visiteth Leedes in the Saxon tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which became a house of the Kings when CAMBODUNUM was by the enemy burnt to the ground now a rich Towne by reason of clothing where Oswy king of Northumberland put to flight Penda the Mercian And as Bede saith this was to the great profit of both Nations for he both delivered his owne people from the hostile spoiling of the miscreants and also converted the Mercians themselves to the grace of Christian Faith The very place wherein they joyned battaile the writers call Winwidfield which name I suppose was given it of the Victory like as a place in Westphalia where Quintilius Varus with his legions was slaine is in the Dutch tongue called Winfield that is The fields of victory as that most learned man and my very good friend Abraham Ortelius hath observed The little Region or Territory about it was in times past by an old name called Elmet which Eadwin king of Northumberland the sonne of AElla after hee had expelled Cereticus a British king conquered in the yeere of Christ 620. Herein is digged limestone every where which is burnt at Brotherton and Knottingley and at certaine set times as it were at Faires a mighty quantity thereof is conveied to Wakefield Sandall and Stanbridge and so is sold unto this Westerne Country which is hilly and somewhat cold for to manure and enrich their Corne fields But let us leave these things to Husbandmen as for my selfe I professe my ignorance therein and will goe forward as I beganne At length Are entertaineth Calder aforesaid with his water as his Guest where neere unto the meeting of both Rivers standeth Castleford a little Village Marianus nameth it Casterford who reporteth that the Citizens of Yorke slew many of king Ethelreds Army there whom in their pursuite they set upon and charged heere and there at advantages what time as hee invaded and overranne this Country for breaking the allegeance they had sworne unto him But in Antonine this place is called by a more ancient name LEGEOLIUM and LAGETIUM Wherein beside expresse and notable tokens of Antiquity a mighty number of Roman peeces of money the common people there tearme them Sarasins head were found at Beanfield a place so called now of Beanes hard by the Church The distance also from DAN and YORKE betweene which he placed it doth most cleerely confirme as much to say nothing of the situation thereof hard by the Romanes High Street and last of all for that Roger Hoveden in plaine tearmes calleth it A City From hence Are being now bigger after it hath received Calder unto it leaveth on the left hand Brotherton a little Towne in which Queene Margaret turning thither out of the way as she road on hunting was delivered of childe and brought forth unto her Husband king Edward the First Thomas de Brotherton so named of the place who was afterward Earle of Norfolke and Mareshall of England And not farre beneath Are after it hath received into it Dan looseth himselfe in Ouse On the right hand where a yellower kinde of marke is found which being cast and spred upon the fields maketh them beare Corne for many yeeres together he passeth by Ponttract commonly called Pontfret situate not farre from the river banke which Towne gat life as it were by the death of old Legeolium In the Saxons time it was called Kirkby but the Normans of a broken Bridge named it in French Pontfract Upon this occasion it is commonly thought that the wooden Bridge over Are hard by was broken when a mighty multitude of people accompanied William Archibishop a great number fell into the River and yet by reason that the Archbishop shed many a teare at this accident and called upon God for helpe there was not one of them that perished Seated it is in a very pleasant place that bringeth forth Liquirice and skirworts in great plenty adorned also with faire buildings and hath to shew a stately Castle as a man shall see situate upon a rocke no lesse goodly to the eye than safe for the defence well fortified with ditches and bulwarkes Hildebert Lacy a Norman unto whom king William the First after that Alricke the Saxon was thrust out had given this Towne with the land about it first built this Castle But Henry Lacy his nephew came into the field at the battaile of Trenchbrey I speake out of the Pleas against King Henry the First wherefore hee was disseised of the Barony of Pontfract and the King gave the Honour to Wido de Lavall who held it untill King Stephens dayes at which time the said Henry made an entry into the Barony and by mediation of the King compounded with Wido for an hundred and fifty pounds This Henry had a sonne named Robert who having no issue left Albreda Lizours his sister by the mothers side and not by the father to bee his heire because hee had none other so neere in bloud unto him whereby shee after Roberts death kept both inheritances in her hand namely of her brother Lacies and her father Lizours And these be the very words of the booke of the Monastery of Stanlow This Albreda was marryed to Richard Fitz Eustach Constable of Chester whose Heires assumed unto them the name of Lacies and flourished under the title of Earles of Lincolne By a daughter of the last of these Lacies this goodly inheritance by a deede of conveyance was devolved in the end to the Earles of Lancaster who enlarged the Castle very much and Queene Elizabeth likewise bestowed great cost in repairing it and beganne to build a faire Chappell This place hath beene infamous for the murder and bloudshed of Princes For Thomas Earle of Lancaster the first of Lancastrian House that in right of his wife possessed it stained and embrewed the same with his owne bloud For King Edward the Second to free himselfe from rebellion and contempt shewed upon him a good example of wholsome severity and beheaded him heere Whom notwithstanding standing the common people enrolled in the Beadroll of Saints Heere also was that Richard the Second King of England whom King Henry the Fourth deposed from his Kingdome with hunger cold and strange kindes of torments most wickedly made away And heere King Richard the
head Yet others are of opinion that this name arrived in this Island with the English out of Angloen in Denmarke the ancient seat of the English nation for there is a towne called Flemsburg and that the Englishmen from hence called it so like as the Gaules as Livie witnesseth tearmed Mediolanum that is Millan in Italiâ— after the name of Mediolanum in Gaule which they had left behinde them For there is a little village in this Promontory named Flamborrough where an other notable house of the Constables had anciently their seat which some doe derive from the Lacies Constables of Chester Beeing in these parts I could learne nothing for all the enquirie that I made as touching the bournes commonly called Vipseys which as Walter of Heminburgh hath recorded flow every other yeere out of blinde springs and runne with a forcible and violent streame toward the sea nere unto this Promontory Yet take here with you that which William Newbrigensis who was borne neare that place writeth of them Those famous waters which commonly are called Vipseys rise out of the earth from many sources not continually but every second yeere and being growne unto a great bourn runne downe by the lower grounds into the sea Which when they are dry it is a good signe for their breaking out and flowing is said to bee an infallible token portending some dearth to ensue From thence the shore is drawne in whereby there runneth forth into the sea a certaine shelfe or slang like unto an out-thrust tongue such as Englishmen in old time termed a File whereupon the little village there Filey tooke name and more within the land you see Flixton where in King Athelstanes time was built an Hospitall for the defence thus word for word it is recorded of way-faring people passing that way from Wolves least they should be devoured Whereby it appeareth for certaine that in those daies Wolves made foule worke in this Tract which now are no where to be seene in England no not in the very marches toward Scotland and yet within Scotland there be numbers of them in most places This little territory or Seigniory of Holdernesse King William the First gave to Drugh Buerer a Fleming upon whom also he had bestowed his Niece in marriage whom when hee had made away by poison and thereupon fled to save himselfe hee had to succeed him Stephen the sonne of Odo Lord of Aulbemarle in Normandy who was descended from the Earles of Champaigne whom King William the First because hee was his Nephew by the halfe sister of the mothers side as they write made Earle of Aulbemarle whose posterity in England retained the Title although Aulbemarle be a place in Normandy His successour was William sirnamed Le Grosse whose onely daughter Avis was marryed to three husbands one after another namely to William Magnavill Earle of Essex to Baldwine De Beton and William Forts or de Fortibus by this last husband onely shee had issue William who also had a sonne named William His onely daughter Avelin being the wedded wife of Edmund Crouchbacke Earle of Lancaster dyed without children And so as wee reade in the booke of Meaux Abbay for default of heires the Earldome of Aulbemarle and honour of Holdernesse were seized into the Kings hands Howbeit in the ages ensuing King Richard the Second created Thomas of Woodstocke his Unkle and afterwards Edward Plantagenet Earle of Rutland the Duke of Yorkes sonne Duke of Aulbemarle in his fathers life time likewise King Henry the Fourth made his owne sonne Thomas Duke of Clarence and Earle of Aulbemarle which Title King Henry the Sixth afterward added unto the stile of Richard Beauchamp Earle of Warwicke for the greater augmentation of his honour EBORACENSIS Comiâ—aâ—us pars Septentrionalis vulgo NORTH RIDING NORTH-RIDING SCarce two miles above Flamborrough-head beginneth the NORTH-RIDING or the North part of this Country which affronting the other parts and beginning at the Sea is stretched out Westward and carrieth a very long Tract with it though not so broad for threescore miles together even as farre as to Westmorland limited on the one side with Derwent and for a while with the River Ure on the other side with Tees running all along it which on the North Coast separateth it from the Bishopricke of Durrham And very fitly may this part bee divided into Blackamore Cliveland Northallverton-shire and Richmond-shire That which lyeth East and bendeth toward the Sea is called Blackamore that is The blacke moorish land For it is mountanous and craggy The Sea coast thereof hath Scarborrough Castle for the greatest ornament a very goodly and famous thing in old time called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is A Burgh upon the Scar or steepe Rocke The description whereof have heere out of William of Newburgh his History A Rocke of a wonderfull height and bignesse which by reason of steepe cragges and cliffes almost on every side is unaccessible beareth into the Sea wherewith it is all compassed about save onely a certaine streight in manner of a gullet which yeeldeth accesse and openeth into the West having in the toppe a very faire greene and large Plaine containing about threescore acres of ground or rather more a little Well also of fresh water springing out of a stony Rocke In the foresaid gullet or passage which a man shall have much adoe to ascend up unto standeth a stately and Princelike Towre and beneath the said passage beginneth the City or Towre spreading two sides South and North but having the sore part Westward and verily it is fensed afront with a wall of the owne but on the East fortified with the rocke of the Castle and both the sides thereof are watered with the Sea This place William Le Grosse Earle of Aulbemarle and Holdernesse viewing well and seeing it to bee a convenient plot for to build a Castle upon helping Nature forward with a very costly worke closed the whole plaine of the Rocke with a Wall and built a Towre in the very streight of the passage which being in processe of time fallen downe King Henry the Second caused to bee built in the same place a great and goodly Castle after hee had now brought under the Nobles of England who during the loose government of King Stephen had consumed the lands of the Crowne but especially amongst others that William abovesaid of Aulbemarle who had in this Tract ruled and reigned like a King and possessed himselfe of this place as his owne Touching the most project boldnesse of Thomas Stafford who to the end hee might overthrow himselfe with great attempts with a few Frenchmen surprised this Castle of a sudden in Queene Maries Raigne and held it for two daies together I neede not to speake ne yet of Sherleis a Gentleman of France who having accompanied him was judicially endited and convict of high treason albeit he was a forrainer because hee had done against
or Band of the Exploratores with their Captaine kept their station heere under the dispose of the Generall of Britaine as appeareth for certaine out of the NOTICE of Provinces where it is named LAVATRES But whereas such Bathes as these were called also in Latine Lavacra some Criticke no doubt will pronounce that this place was named LAVATRAE in stead of LAVACRA yet would I rather have it take the name of a little river running neere by which as I heare say is called Laver. As for the later name Bowes considering the old Towne was heere burnt downe to the ground as the inhabitants with one voice doe report I would thinke it grew upon that occasion For that which is burnt with fire the Britans still at this day doe terme Boeth and by the same word the Suburbes of Chester beyond the River Dee which the Englishmen call Hanbridge the Britans or Welshmen name Treboeth that is The burnt Towne because in a tumult of the Welshmen it was consumed with fire Heere beginneth to rise that high hilly and solitary Country exposed to winde and raine which because it is stony is called in our native language Stane more All heere round about is nothing but a wilde Desert unlesse it bee an homely Hostelry or Inne in the very middest thereof called The Spitle on Stane more for to entertaine waifaring persons and neere to it is a fragment of a Crosse which wee call Rerecrosse the Scots Reicrosse as one would say The Kings Crosse. Which Crosse Hector Boetius the Scottish Writer recordeth to have beene erected as a meere stone confining England and Scotland what time as King William the Conquerour granted Cumberland unto the Scots on this condition that they should hold it of him as his Tenants and not attempt any thing prejudiciall or hurtfull to the Crowne of England And a little lower upon the Romanes high street there stood a little Fort of the Romans built foure square which at this day they call Maiden-Castle From whence as the borderers reported the said High way went with many windings in and out as farre as to Caer Vorran in Northumberland There have beene divers Earles of Richmond according as the Princes favour enclined and those out of divers families whom I will notwithstanding set downe as exactly and truely as I can in their right order The first Earles were out of the house of little Britaine in France whose descent is confusedly intricate amongst their owne Writers for that there were two principall Earles at once one of Haulte Britaine and another of Base Britaine for many yeeres and every one of their children had their part in Gavell kinde and were stiled Earles of Britaine without distinction But of these the first Earle of Richmond according to our Writers and Records was Alane sirnamed Feregaunt that is The Red sonne of Hoel Earle of Britaine descended from Hawise great Aunt to William Conquerour who gave this Country unto him by name of the lands of Earle Eadwin in Yorke-shire and withall bestowed his daughter upon him by whom he had no issue He built Richmond Castle as is before specified to defend himselfe from disinherited and outlawed Englishmen in those parts and dying left Britaine to his sonne Conan Le Grosse by a second wife But Alane the Blacke sonne of Eudo sonne of Geffrey Earle of Britaine and Hawise aforesaid succeeded in Richmond and he having no childe lest it to Stephen his brother This Stephen begat Alan sirnamed Le Savage his sonne and successour who assisted king Stephen against Maude the Empresse in the battaile at Lincolne and married Bertha one of the heires of Conan Le Grosse Earle of Hault Britaine by whom hee had Conan Le Petit Earle of both Britaine 's by hereditary right as well as of Richmond Hee by the assistance of King Henrie the Second of England dispossessed Endo Vicount of Porhoet his Father in Lawe who usurped the Title of Britaine in right of the said Bertha his Wife and ended his life leaving onely one daughter Constance by Margaret sister to Malcolne king of the Scots Geffrey third Sonne to King Henry the Second of England was advanced by his Father to the marriage of the said Constance whereby hee was Earle of Britaine and Richmond and begat of her Arthur who succeeded him and as the French write was made away by King Iohn his Unkle True it is indeed that for this cause the French called King Iohn into question as Duke of Normandy And notwithstanding he was absent and not heard once to plead neither confessing ought nor convicted yet by a definitive sentence they condemned him and awarded from him Normandy and his hereditary possessions in France Albeit himselfe had promised under safe conduct to appeare in personally at Paris there to make answere as touching the death of Arthur who as a Liege subject had bound himselfe by oath to bee true and loyall unto him and yet started backe from his allegeance raised a rebellion and was taken prisoner in battaile At which time this question was debated whether the Peeres of France might give judgement of a King annointed and therefore superiour considering that a greater dignity drowneth the lesser and now one and the same person was both King of England and Duke of Normandy But whither doe I digresse After Arthur these succeeded orderly in the Earldome of Richmond Guy Vicount of Thovars unto whom the foresaid Constance was secondly married Ranulph the third Earle of Chester the third husband of the said Constance Peter of Dreux descended from the bloud royall of France who wedded Alice the onely daughter of Constance by her husband abovenamed Guy Then upon dislike of the house of Britaine Peter of Savoy Unkle by the mothers side unto Eleonor the wife of king Henry the Third was made Earle of Richmond who for feare of the Nobles and Commons of England that murmured against strangers preferred to honours in England voluntarily surrendred up this Honour which was restored to Iohn Earle of Britaine sonne to Peter of Dreux After whom succeeded Iohn his sonne the first Duke of Britaine who wedded Beatrice daughter to Henry the Third King of England Whose sonne Arthur was Duke of Britaine and as some write Earle of Richmond Certes John of Britaine his younger brother immediately after the fathers death bare this honourable Title And he added unto the ancient Armes of Drewx with the Canton of Britaine the Lions of England in Bordeur Hee was Guardian of Scotland under King Edward the Second and there taken and detained prisoner for three yeeres space and dyed at length without issue in the Raigne of Edward the Third And John Duke of Britaine his nephew the sonne of Arthur succeeded in this Earledome After his decease without children when there was hote contention about the Dutchy of Britaine betweene John Earle of Montfort of the halfe bloud and Joane his brothers daughter and heire
to Henrie Earle of Lancaster who being descended of ancient bloud and renowned for his martiall prowesse was rewarded also by King Edward the third with faire possessions in Scotland created Earle of North-humberland by King Richard the second on the day of his Coronation and much enriched by his second wife Dame Maud Lucie although by her hee had no issue upon a fine levied unto her that hee should beare quarterly the Armes of the Lucies with his owne and lived in great honour confidence and favour with King Richard the second Yet full badly hee requited him againe for all his singular good demerits For in his adversitie hee forsooke him and made way for Henrie the fourth to the kingdome who made him Constable of England and bestowed upon him the Isle of Man against whom within a while hee feeling the corrosive and secret pricke of conscience for that King Richard by his meanes was unjustly deposed and besides taking at the heart indignantly that Edmund Mortimer Earle of March the true and undoubted heire of the Kingdome and his neere ally was neglected in prison hee conceived inward enmity grievously complaining and charging him with perjury that whereas hee had solemnly sworne to him and others that hee would not challenge the Crowne but onely his owne inheritance and that King Richard should be governed during his life by the good advice of the Peeres of the realme he to the contrary had by imprisonment and terror of death enforced him to resigne his Crown and usurped the same by the concurrence of his faction horribly murthering the said K. and defrauding Edmund Mortimer Earle of March of his lawfull right to the Crown whom he had suffered to languish long in prison under Owen Glendour reputing those traitours who with their owne money had procured his enlargement After the publication of these complaints he confident in the promises of his confederates who yet failed him sent his brother Thomas Earle of Worcester and his courageous sonne Henry surnamed Hot-Spurre with a power of men against the King who both lost their lives at the battaile of Shrewesbury Whereupon he was proclaimed traitour and attainted but shortly after by a kind of connivency received againe into the Kings favour unto whom he was a terrour yea and restored to all his lands and goods save onely the Isle of Man which the King resumed into his owne hands Howbeit within a while after being now become popular and over forward to entertaine new designes and having procured the Scots to bandy and joyne with him in armes himselfe in person entred with banner displayed into the field against the King as an Usurper and on a sudden at Barrhammore in a tumultuary skirmish in the yeere 1408. was discomfited and slaine by Thomas Rokesby the high Sheriffe of Yorke-shire Eleven yeeres after Henry this mans nephew by his sonne Henry Hot-Spur whose mother was Elizabeth daughter to Edmund Mortimer the elder Earle of March by Philippa the daughter of Leonel Duke of Clarence was restored in bloud and inheritance by authority of Parliament in the time of King Henry the fifth which Henry Percie whiles he stoutly maintained King Henry the sixth his part against the house of Yorke was slaine at the battell of Saint Albans like as his sonne Henry the third Earle of Northumberland who married Aelenor the daughter of Richard Lord Poinings Brian and Fitz-Pain in the same quarrell lost his life in the battaile at Towton in the yeere 1461. The house of Lancaster being now kept under and downe the wind and the Percies with it troden under foot King Edward the fourth made Iohn Nevill Lord Montacute Earle of Northumberland but he after a while surrendred this title into the Kings hands and was created by him Marquesse Montacute After this Henry Percy the sonne of Henry Percy aforesaid recovering the favour of King Edward the fourth obtained restitution in bloud and hereditaments who in the reigne of Henry the seventh was slaine by the countrey people that about a certaine levie of money exacted by an Act of Parliament rose up against the Collectours and Assessours thereof After him succeeded Henry Percy the fifth Earle whose sonne Henry by a daughter and Coheire of Sir Robert Spenser and Eleanor the daughter likewise and Coheire of Edmund Beaufort Duke of Somerset was the sixth Earle who having no children and his brother Thomas being executed for taking armes against King Henry the eighth in the first difference about Religion as if now that family had beene at a finall end for ever prodigally gave away a great part of that most goodly inheritance unto the King and others Some few yeeres after Sir Iohn Dudley Earle of Warwick got to himselfe the title of Duke of Northumberland by the name of Iohn Earl of Warwick Marshal of England Vicount Lisle Baron Somery Basset and Ties Lord of Dudley Great Master and Steward of the Kings house when as in the tender age of King Edward the sixth the Chieftaines and leaders of the factions shared titles of honour among themselves their fautors and followers This was that Duke of Northumberland who for the time like unto a tempestuous whirlewind began to shake and teare the publicke peace of the state whiles he with vast ambition plotted and practised to exclude Mary and Elizabeth the daughters of King Henry the eighth from their lawfull right of succession and to set the Emperiall Crowne upon Lady Jane Grey his daughter in law being seconded therein by the great Lawyers who are alwaies forward enough to humour and sooth up those that bee in highest place For which being attainted of high treason he lost his head and at his execution embraced and publikely professed Popery which long before either seriously or colorably for his own advantage he had renounced When he was gone Queene Mary restored Thomas Percy nephew unto Henry the sixth Earle by his brother Thomas unto his bloud and by a new Patent created him first Baron Percy and anon Earle of Northumberland to himselfe and the heires males of his body and for default thereof to his brother Henry and his heires males But this Thomas the seventh Earle for his treason to Prince and country under maske of restoring the Romish religion againe lost both life and dignity in the yeere 1572. Yet through the singular favour and bounty of Queen Elizabeth according to that Patent of Queene Mary his brother Henry succeeded after him as the eighth Earle who in the yeere 1585. ended his dayes in prison and had for his successor Henry his sonne by Katherin the eldest daughter and one of the heires of John Nevill Lord Latimer the ninth Earle of Northumberland of this family Parishes in Northumberland about 46. SCOTLAND SCOTIA Regnum SCOTLAND NOw am I come to SCOTLAND and willingly I assure you will I enter into it but withall lightly passe over it For I remember well that said saw In places not well knowne lesse while wee must stay
departed out of this life an aged man The second promontorie enclosed within two baies Maire and Bantre is named Beare standing for the most part upon hungry gravell and a leane stony soile In which live O Swillivant Beare and O Swillivant Bantre descended both of one and the same stocke men of great nobility in their country The third is called Eraugh lying betweene Bantre and Balatimore or Baltimore a Bay or Creeke passing well knowne by reason of the abundance of Herrings taken there whereunto resorteth every yeere a great fleet of Spaniards and Portugals even in the mids of winter to fish for Cods In this the O Mahons by the beneficiall gift of M. Carew received faire lands and Lordships This is that Ptolomee calleth NOTIUM that is the South-Promontorie at this day named Missen-head under which as we may read in him the river IERNUS is disgorged into the Ocean But what name the said river now hath in so great obscurity I hardly dare divine unlesse it be that which they call Maire and runneth hard under Dunk-eran aforesaid Neither wot I how to ghesse at those people whom the same Ptolomee placeth upon these promontories seeing that according to the varietie of copies they have sundry names as IBERNI OUTERNI IBERI and IVERNI unlesse peradventure like as their neighbours the LUCENI and CONCANI did they flitted hither from among the Iberi of Spaine Well this name of Desmond in the foregoing ages stretched farre and wide in this tract even from the sea unto the river Shanon and was called also South-Mounster The Fitz-Giralds descended out of the house of Kildare having subdued the Irish became Lords here of very large and goodly possessions and of them Maurice Fitz-Thomas unto whom T. Carew heire unto the Seigniory of Desmond had before passed away his right of Desmond was in the third yeere of King Edward the third created the first Earle of Desmond Among whose posterity many there were great men for their valour and wealth whose credit also and reputation reached farre But a bad name there went and still doth of James who having excluded his nephew from the inheritance entred himselfe by force upon it and imposed upon the people those most grievous tributes of Coyne Livery Cocherings Bonaghty c. for the maintenance of Galloglasses and Souldiers to spoile and harry the countrey Which when his sonne Thomas exacted and gathered of the poore people hee was by the commandement of John Tiptoft Deputy Lievtenant beheaded in the yeere 1467. and so suffered due punishment for his owne and his fathers wickednesse Howbeit when his children were restored againe in their off-spring this honour continued and descended in right of inheritance unto Girald that rebell whom erewhile I named who wilfully overthrew a most noble and potent family And when hee was attainted by Parliamentary authority Desmond was adjudged and annexed to the Crowne land reduced into the ranke of counties and a Sheriffe was ordained to governe it from yeere to yeere Neverthelesse in the last rebellion the rebells erected a titularie Earle and against him Queene Elizabeth granted the title of Earle of Desmond unto Iames Fitz-Girald sonne to the foresaid rebell who shortly after died issuelesse in the yeere 1601. They that herein beare the greatest name and most puissance are of the race of the Giraldines or Fitz-Giralds although they have for sundry respects assumed unto themselves divers sirnames VODIAE and CORIONDI AFter the Iberi there dwelt farre in the countrey the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who are tearmed also VODIAE and UDIAE the footing of which name doth more expresly shew it selfe in Idou and Idouth two small territories like as the name of CORIONDI in the countie of Corke bordering upon them These nations inhabited the counties of Corke Tipperary Limericke and Waterford COMITATUS CORCAGIENSIS commonly called THE COUNTY OF CORK THe County of Corke which in old time was reputed a Kingdome comprised the whole tract along the sea from Lismore unto Saint Brend where it affronteth Desmond Westward hath in the midland parts thereof Muâ—keray a wild and woody country wherein Cormac Mac-Teg is of great name and toward the sea coast Carbray in which the Mac-Carties beare the most sway By the sea side the first place that we meet with is Rosse a road and port in times past well frequented but now lesse resorted unto by reason of a bar of sand From thence with a narrow neck runneth out a biland called the Old head of Kinsale neere unto which the family of the Curcies flourished in ancient times famous for their wealth descended from a brother of Iohn Curcy the Englishman that subdued Ulster and out of which there remaineth here still Curcy Baron of Ringrom but at this day this is the world of weak and meane estate After it at the mouth of the river Bany in a fertile soile and well woodded standeth Kinsale a very commodious port and a towne fortified with old walls under which in the yeere 1601. the kingdome of Ireland lay a bleeding and put it was upon the hazzard as it were of one cast of a die whether it should be subject to England or Spaine what time as the Iland was endangered both with forraine and domesticall warre and eight thousand old trained souldiers under the conduct of Don Iohn D' Aquila had of a sudden surprized and fortified it confident upon the censures and excommunications of Pius the fifth Gregorie the thirteenth and Clement the eighth Popes of Rome discharged like thunderbolts upon Queene Elizabeth and presuming confidently upon the aides of rebells who had sent for them under a goodly shew of restoring religion which in this age and variance about religion is every where pretended for to maske and cloak most ungracious and wicked designes But Sir Charles Blunt Baron Mountjoy L. Deputy presently belaied it round about both by sea and land albeit his souldiers were tired toiled out and the season of the yeere most incommodious as being midwinter and withall made head also against a rabble of rebels whom the Earle of Tir-Oen O-Donel Mac-Gwyre and Mac-Mahound had raised and gotten thither and with such valour and fortitude so fortunately daunted and repressed their malapert boldnesse that with one victory hee both had the towne with the Spaniards in it yeelded unto him and also wrested as it were out of the hands of all Ireland throughout now at the point of revolt for they that deliberate are revolted already both sword and fire On the other side of the river from Kinsale lieth Kerry-Wherry a little territorie of late belonging to the Earles of Desmond Just before which runneth the river that Ptolomee calleth DAURONA Giraldus Cambrensis by changing onely one letter Sauranus and Saveranus which issuing out of Muâ—kerey mountaines passeth along by that principall Citie of the countie graced with an Episcopall dignitie whereunto is annexed the Bishops See of Clon
committing it to the keeping of the O-Neals returned home to follow the factions For then Henry O-Neal the sonne of Oen or Eugenius O-Neal espoused the daughter of Thomas Earle of Kildare and his son Con-More that is Con the great married the daughter of Girald Earle of Kildare his mothers brother These supported by the powerfull authority of the Earles of Kildare who verily for many yeeres were Deputies of Ireland carried their heads aloft tyrannizing cruelly upon the people transported with the insolent spirit of pride disdained all the titles of Prince Duke Marquesse and Earles in comparison of the name of O-Neal Con the sonne of Con surnamed Bacco because hee halted succeeded his father in the dignity of O-Neale who cursed all his posterity in case they either learned to speake English or sowed wheat or built houses being sore affraid left by these inducements the English might bee allured to enter againe into their Lands and possessions often saying that language bred conversation and consequenly their confusion that wheat gave sustenance with like effect and by building they should doe but as the crow doth make her nest to be beaten out by the hawke When as the greatnesse of this Con O-Neale became very much suspected of King Henry the Eight and the Kings power having now troden under foot the familie of Kildare in whose rebellion O-Neale had engaged himselfe deepe grew dreadfull to O-Neale also into England he comes and there renouncing the name of O-Neale put his whole estate into the Kings hands which within a while after was granted againe by letters Patent under the great seale of England to hold as in fee together with the title of the Earle of Tir-Oen to him and to Matthew his false reputed sonne and to the heires of their bodies lawfully begotten And Matthew at the same time was created Baron of Dunganon This Matthew being taken untill he was fifteene yeeres old for the sonne of a blacksmith in Dundalk was by the said Smiths wife whom Con had sometime kept as his concubine tendred unto Con as his owne sonne and hee accepting him for his owne sonne in deed rejected John Shan they call him with the rest whom he had begotten on his owne lawfull wife Hereupon Shan seeing a bastard preferred before him so much made of and highly honoured suddenly set his heart wholly against his father and withall burned in such hatred with most bitter malice against Matthew that hee murdered him out of the way and so plagued and vexed his father with injurious indignities whiles he went about to deprive him of his Seigniorie disseized him of his dwelling house and stript him out of all he had that the old man for very thought and griefe of heart pined away and died Straightwayes Shan being chosen proclaimed and inaugured O-Neal by an old shooe cast over his head seized upon his fathers inheritance and with all diligence sought after the sonnes of Matthew that he might be secured from them but they were fled and gone Howbeit Brian the eldest sonne not long after was slaine by Mac-Donel Totan one of the O-Neals race suborned as some give it out by Shan to doe that feat Hugh and Cormack by the meanes and helpe of the English escaped and yet remaine alive Shan having thus gotten all into his owne hands as hee was a man cruell and barbarous began to exercise excessive cruelty over the great men of Ulster and made his vaunt that Mac-Gennys Mac-Guyr Mac-Mahon O Reali O-Hanlon O Cahan Mac-Brien O Hagan O Quin Mac-Canna Mac-Carton and all the Mac-Donels the Galloglasses were his subjects and vassels And when as Sir Henry Sidney Justice for the time being in the absence of the Earle of Sussex Lord Deputy expostulated with him about these points he answered that hee the undoubted and lawfull sonne and heire of Con O-Neale as being borne of his lawfull wife had entred upon his fathers inheritance that Matthew was a Blacke-Smiths sonne of Dundalke and by the said Smith begotten and borne after his mariage with Alison his Wife yet craftily obtruded upon Con as his son thereby to intervert another way and to alienate the inheritance and honour of O-Neale which howsoever he would endure yet none besides of the Sept of O-Neals would ever beare and digest As for the letters Patent of King Henry the eighth they were of no validity considering that Con had no right in that hee surrendred into the Kings hands longer than his owne life neither could he surrender up the same without the consent of the Nobles and people of Ulster by whom hee had beene elected O-Neale Neither were such Patents of any force unlesse there were an undoubted heire apparent of the family authentically signified before by inquisition and the oath of twelve men which in this matter was never certified Also that himselfe was by law both of God and man the true heire as being the first begotten sonne of his father lawfully borne in wedlocke that with the generall assent and consent of Peeres and people he was chosen declared and proclaimed O-Neale according to the ancient law of Tanistry whereby a man at his full yeeres is to be preferred before a boy and an uncle before that nephew whose grandfather survived the father neither had he arrogated unto himselfe any authority over the Peeres or Nobles of Ulster other than his ancesters as hee was able to prove by plaine proofes produced had exercised in times past out of minde most rightfully Howbeit soone after he outraged and overthrew O-Raily in the field tooke Callagh O-Donell Lord of Tir-Conell prisoner and cast him with his children into prison carried away his wife on whom hee begat children in adultery seized upon his fortresses lands and goods and bare himselfe as absolute King of all Ulster But so soone as Thomas Earle of Sussex the Lord Deputy came with a power into the field for to abate this insolency of his hee was strangely terrified and by the perswasion of Girald Earle of Kildare whom Queene Mary had restored to his former estate came into England unto Queene Elizabeth cast himselfe prostrate at her feet in all submissive and humble maner and being received with all curtesie after he had promised his allegeance returned home and for a while in his feeding and apparell conformed himself to all kind of civility he assailed the Scottish and drave them quite out of Ulster slew Iames Mac-Conell their leader kept himself and all his people in good order and the poorer sort he carefully protected from wrongs Howbeit he tyrannized most cruelly and insolently over the Nobility who when they had craved aid of the L. Deputy for to represse his intolerable violence he thereupon growing more outrageous in furious maner with fire and sword drave Mac-Guir Lord of Fermanagh who underhand had accused him out of house and home set fire upon the Metropolitane Church of Armach and burnt it yea and laied siege unto Dundalik
passed over into England leaving behind him Sir Thomas Dale Knight his Deputy-Custos and Justice of Ireland MCCCLXVII Great warre began between the Berminghams of Carbry and the men of Meth because many robberies by the foresaid were committed in Meth. Then Sir Robert Preston Knight and Lord chiefe Baron of the Exchequer set a strong guard in the castle of Carbry and laid forth a great deale of money against the Kings enemies to defend his owne right in regard of his wife Item Gerald Fitz-Moris Earle of Desmond was made Lord Justice of Ireland MCCCLXVIII And in the 42. yeere of the same King in Carbry after a certaine Parliament ended betweene the Irish and English there were taken prisoners Frier Thomas Burley Prior of Kylmaynon the Kings Chancellour in Ireland Iohn Fitz-Reicher Sheriffe of Meth Sir Robert Tirell Baron of Castle-knoke with many besides by the Berminghams and others of Carbry Then James Bermingham who had been kept in the castle of Trim in yron manacles and fetters as a traytour was delivered out of prison in exchange for the foresaid Chancellour the other were put to their ransomes Item the Church of Saint Maries in Trim was burnt with the fire of the same Monastery Also in the Vigill of St. Luke the Evangelist the Lord Leonell Duke of Clarence died at Albe in Pyemont First he was buried in the City of Papie hard by St. Augustin the Doctor and afterward enterred at Clare in the covent Church of Austin Friers in England MCCCLXIX And in the 43. yeere of the foresaid King Sir William Windesore Knight a doughty man in armes and courageous came as the Kings Lievtenant into Ireland the twelfth day of July unto whom gave place in the office of Justice-ship Gerald Fitz-Moris Earle of Desmond MCCCLXX And in the 44. yeere of the same King began the third pestilence and the greatest in Ireland in which died many Noblemen and Gentlemen Citizens also and children innumerable The same yeere Gerald Fitz-Moris Earle of Desmond the Lord Iohn Nicolas and the Lord Thomas Fitz-Iohn and many other noble persons were taken prisoners upon on the sixth of July neere unto the Monastery of Maio in the county of Limerick by O-Breen and Mac-Comar of Thomond and many were slaine in regard of which occurrent the said Lievtenant went over to Limericke to the defence of Mounster leaving the warres against the O-Tothiles and the rest in Leinster In this yeere died Lord Robert Terel Baron of castle Knock the Lady Scolastica his wife and their sonne and heire by reason whereof Joan Terel and Maud Terel sisters of the said Robert parted the inheritance between themselves Item there departed this life Lord Simon Fleming Baron of Slane Lord John Cusake Baron of Colmolyn and Iohn Tailour somtime Maior of Dublin a rich and mighty monied man That which followeth was copied out of the Manuscript Chronicles of Henry Marleburgh MCCCLXXII Sir Robert Asheton came Lord Justice of Ireland MCCCLXXIII Great warring there was between the English of Meth and O-Ferdle in which warre many of both sides were slaine Item in May Lord John Husse Baron of Galtrim John Fitz Richard Sheriffe of Meth and William Dalton in Kynaleagh were killed by the Irish. MCCCLXXV Thomas Archbishop of Dublin died and in the same yeere was Robert of Wickford consecrated Archbishop of Dublin MCCCLXXXI There departed this life Edmund Mortimer the Kings Lievtenant in Ireland Earle of March and Ulster at Cork MCCCLXXXIII There was a great pestilence in Ireland MCCCLXXXV The bridge of the city of Dublin fell downe MCCCXC Robert Wickford Archbishop of Dublin died The same yeere Robert Waldebey Archbishop of Dublin of the order of Austen Friers was translated MCCCXCVII There hapned the translation and death of Frier Richard Northalis Archbishop of Dublin one of the Carmelites order Also in the same yeere Thomas Crauley was consecrated Archbishop of Dublin The same yeere the Lord Thomas Burgh and the Lord Walter Bermingham slew sixe hundred of the Irish and their captain Mac-Con Item Roger Earle of March Lievtenant of Ireland wasted the country of O-Bryn with the help of the Earle of Ormund and dubbed there seven Knights to wit Christopher Preson John Bedeleu Edmund Loundris John Loundris William Nugent Walter de la Hyde and Robert Cadell at the forcing and winning of a most strong Manor house of the said O-Bryn MCCCXCVIII Upon the Ascension day of our Lord the Tothils slew forty English among whom John Fitz-William Thomas Talbot and Thomas Comyn were killed which was a pitifull mishap In the same yeere on St. Margarets day Roger Earle of March the Kings Lievtenant was with many others slaine at Kenlys in Leinster O Bryn and other Irish of Leinster in whose place and office Roger Grey is chosen Justice In the same yeere upon the feast of S. Marke Pope and Confessor came to Dublin the noble Duke of Sutherey as the Kings Lievtenant in Ireland with whom at the same time arrived Master Thomas Crauley Archbishop of Dublin MCCCXCIX And in the 23. yeere of King Richard upon Sunday which fell out to be the morrow after S. Fetronill or Pernill the Virgins day the same glorious King Richard arrived at Waterford with two hundred saile Item the sixth day of the same weeke at Ford in Kenlys within the country of Kilâ—are were slaine of the Irish 200. by Ieâ—icho and other English and the morrow after the Dublinians made a rode in the country of O-Bryn and slew of the Irish 33. and fourescore men and women with their little children they took prisoners The same yeere the said King came to Dublin the fourth day before the Calends of July where hee heard rumours of Henrie the Duke of Lancaster his comming into England whereupon himself passed over with speed into England MCCCC In the first yeere of King Henry the fourth at Whitsontide the Constable of Dublin castle and many others encountred the Scots at sea before Stranford in Ulster whereupon fell out a lamentable accident for that many of the English were slaine and drowned there MCCCCI In the second yeere of King Henry the fourth Sir John Stanley the K. Lievtenant passed over into England in the month of May leaving in his roome Sir William Stanley In the same yeere upon the Vigill of Saint Bartholomew there entred into Ireland Stephen Scroop as deputy to the Lord Thomas of Lancaster the Kings Lievtenant in Ireland The same yeere on the day of S. Brice Bishop and Confessor the Lord Thomas of Lancaster the Kings sonne arrived at Dublin Lievtenant of Ireland MCCCCII On the fifth of July was the Church of the Friers Preachers at Dublin dedicated by the Archbishop of Dublin and the same day John Drake the Maior of Dublin with the citizens and men of the countrey slew in battell of the Irish neere unto Bree 493. and were victorious over the Irish. The same yeere in the moneth of September a Parliament was holden at Dublin at which time in Uriel Sir