once was a City of Truth a holy Mountain in regard of the Doctrine of truth and holinesse preached therein then certainly London may Insomuch that Foraigners Hungarians Germans Batavians others learn our Language and come over to this City that they may hear our Preachers and read our English Divines London-Bridge is an admirable Workmanship of stone hewen out of the Quarry upon nineteen Arches besides the Draw-bridge and is furnished on both sides with passing fair houses joyning one to another in manner of a street that for bignesse and beauty it may worthily carry away the prize from all the Bridges in Europe The whole City is divided into six and twenty Wards and the Councel 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 over-seeing and rule of his several Ward The chief Magistrate is the Lord Maior and two Sheriffs whereof the one is called the Kings the other the Cities Sheriff In Henry the Sixths Reign Godfrey Bolein was Lord Maior of London being the Ancestor of two renowned and virtuous Queens of England Anne second wife to King Henry the Eighth and Elizabeth their Daughter through whose great vigilancy and providence the City stood so well guarded that the Kings peace was dutifully kept notwithstanding the great Lords of both the Factions Yorkists and Lancastrians were with so great Troops of followers lodged within and about the same In Edward the Thirds Reign Henry Picard Maior of London in one day sumptuously feasted four Kings Edward the Third King of England John King of France the King of Cyprus then arrived in England David King of Scots See the courage and piety of a Lord Maior in King James his time in Wilsons History of Great-Britain p. 106. The Merchants meeting place standing upon Pillars which the common people call the Burse and Queen Elizabeth with a solemn Ceremony named The Royal Exchange was set up by Sir Thomas Gresham Citizen and Knight a magnificent work whether you respect the Model of the building the resort of Merchants from all Nations thither or the store of wares there Which Sir Thomas Gresham being withall an exceeding great lover of Learning consecrated a most spacious house his own habitation to the furtherance of Learning and instituted the Professours of Divinity Law Physick Astronomy Geometry and Musick with liberal Salaries and Stipends to the end that London might be a place not only furnished with all kind of Traffick but also with the Liberal Arts and Sciences There is also a fair and goodly Library in Sion-Colledge containing an hundred twenty and one foot in length and above five and twenty foot in breadth In the Reign of King James Robert Earl of Salisbury caused to be erected a stately building in the Strand which upon Tuesday the tenth of April in the yeer 1609. was begun to be richly furnished with Wares and the next day after the King the Queen and Prince with many great Lords and Ladies came to see and then the King gave it the name of Britains Burse Westminster was called in times past Thorney of Thorns now Westminster of the West situation and the Monastery A City of it self having its peculiar Magistrates and Priviledges It is renowned for the Abbey Church the Hall of Justice and the Kings Palace This Church is famous especially by reason of the Inauguration and Sepulture of the Kings of England William the Conquerour and Matilda his wife were first crowned at Westminster and since them all other Kings and Queens of this Realm have been there crowned Stows Surveigh of London It is a Church of very fair Workmanship supported with sundry rows of Marble Pillars a peece of work that cost fifty yeers labour in building It was founded by King Edward the Confessour King Henry the Seventh for the Burial of himself and his children adjoyned thereto in the East end a Chappel of admirable elegancy Leland calleth it The wonder of the world all the curious and exquisite work that can be devised is there compacted It is reported That the Chappel cost ten thousand pound or as others say fourteen thousand pound There is a Collegiate Church and famous School Forty Scholars in their due time are preferred to the Universities Here are buried the Prince of English Poets Geffrey Chaucer as also he that for pregnant wit and an excellent gift in Poetry of all English Poets came neerest unto him Edmund Spenser Isaac Casaubone William Camden Clarenceux King of Arms Westminster-Hall is the greatest Hall in England and the very Praetorium or Hall of Justice In this are the Judicial Courts the Upper-Bench the Common-Pleas and the Chancery and in places neer thereabout the Starre-Chamber the Exchequer Court of Wards and Court of the Dutchy of Lancaster In which at certain set times we call them Terms Causes are yeerly heard and tried This Judgement Hall King Richard the Second built out of the ground as appeareth by his Arms engraven in the stone-work and many arched beams There are a hundred twenty and one Churches more than Rome it self can shew Redcliff so called of the Red cliff a pretty fine Town and dwelling place of Sailers Enfield-Chase a place much renowned for hunting In this County without the City of London are reckoned Parishes much about seventy three with the City Liberties and Suburbs an hundred twenty and one Monmouthshire IT is enclosed on the North-side with the River Munow that separateth it from Herefordshire on the East-side with Wye running between it and Glocestershire on the West with the River Remmey which severeth it from Glamorganshire and on the South with the Severn The East part is full of Grasse and Woods the West is somewhat hilly and stony yet not unthankfull to the Husbandman Monmouth the chief Town of the Shire Munow and Wye at their confluence do compasse it almost round about and give it the name On the North-side where it is not defended with the Rivers it was fortified with a wall and ditch In the midst of the Town hard by the Mercat place standeth a Castle which as it is thought John Baron of Monmouth built It was the Birth place of Henry the Fifth that triumpher over France and the second Ornament of the English Nation It glorieth also that Geffrey Ap Arthur or of Munmouth Compiler of the British History was born and bred there a man well skilled in Antiquities but as it seemeth not of antique credit so many toyes and tales he every where enterlaceth out of his owne brain as he was charged while he lived Chepstow a famous Town and of good resort situate upon the side of an Hill rising from the very River fortified round about with a Wall of a large circuit which includes within it both Fields and Orchards It hath a very spacious Castle situate over the River Strighall Castle it belongs to the
all other Springs seem to be dried up burst out and rise up five or six yards plum height and so fall down into the Dales and make a little River by which the Towns neer thereto refresh their Cattel when the Valley springs fail On the North-side it hath the Bishoprick of Durham which the River Tees with a continued course separateth from it On the East-side the Germane Sea lieth sore upon it and the South-side is enclosed first with Cheshire and Darbyshire then with Nottinghamshire and after with Lincolnshire where that famous arm of the Sea Humber floweth between into which all the Rivers well neer that water this Shire empty themselves as it were into their common receptacle The whole Shire is divided into three parts which according to the three Quarters of the world are called The West-Riding The East-Riding The North-Riding West-Riding for a good while is compassed in with the River Ouse with the bound of Lancashire and with the South limits of the Shire and beareth toward the West and South East-Riding looketh to the Sunne-rising and the Ocean which together with the River Derwent encloseth it North-Riding reacheth Northward hemmed in as it were with the River Tees with Derwent and a long race of the River Ouse West-Riding Sheafield a Town of great name for the Smiths therein fortified also with a strong and ancient Castle Rotheram glorieth in Thomas Rotheram sometimes Archbishop of York a wise man bearing the name of the Town being born therein and a singular Benefactor thereunto Connisborrow an ancient Castle seated upon a Rock Dan-Castre There is the fair Church of S. Georges Tickhill an old Town fenced with as old a Castle large enough but having only a single Wall about it Hatfiele-Chace a great game and hunting of red Deer Halifax a most famous Town This place is become famous as well among the multitude by reason of the Law there whereby they beheaded straitwayes whosoever are taken stealing as also amongst the learned for they report that Johannes de Sacro Bosco the Authour of the Sphere was here born yet more famous it is for the greatnesse of the Parish which reckoneth eleven Chappels whereof two are Parish-Chappels and to the number of twelve thousand people therein Halifax Nuts are spoken of proverbially All shels and no kernels Dewsborough seated under an high Hill Wakefield a Town famous for Cloathing for greatnesse for fair building a well frequented Mercat and a Bridge upon which King Edward the Fourth erected a beautifull Chappel in memorial of those that lost their lives there in battel Sandall-Castle The Tract lying here round about for a great way together is called the Seigniory or Lordship of Wakefield and hath alwayes for the Steward one of the better sort of Gentlemen dwelling thereby Medley so called for the situation as it were in the midst between two Rivers Skipton it lieth hidden and enclosed among steep Hils as Latium in Italy which Varro supposeth to have been so called because it lieth close under Appenine and the Alps. The Town for the manner of their building among these Hils is fair enough and hath a very proper and strong Castle Leeds a rich Town by reason of Cloathing Winwidfield a name given it from a victory Pontfret the Normans of a broken Bridge named it in French Pontfract It is seated in a very pleasant place which bringeth forth Liquorice and Skirworts in great plenty adorned also with fair buildings and hath to shew a stately Castle as a man shall see situate upon a Rock no lesse goodly to the eye then safe for the defence well fortified with Ditches and Bulwarks Shirburn a little Town but well inhabited Aberford a little Village famous only for making of Pins which by womens judgment are especially commended as the best Hesselwood the principal seat of that worthy and right ancient Family of the Vavasours who by their Office for the Kings Valvasors in times past they were took to them this name Peters-post a famous quarry of stone so called because with the stones hewed out of it by the liberal Grant of the Vavasors that stately and sumptuous Church of S. Peters at York was re-edified Harewood-Castle of good strength Wetherby a Mercat Town of good note Tadcaster it is situate upon a Port high-way Rippley a Mercat Town Knasborrow-Castle situate upon a mostragged and rough Rock whence also it hath the name There is a Well under it which turns wood into stone within two miles of it is the Spaw which makes women conceive that were barren before and cures many diseases Within three miles of Knarsborough are the stinking Wells which come out of a mineral of Brimstone and do many cures especially for Worms the Scurvy and Itch. Rippon There is a very fair Church which with three high Spire-steeples doth welcome those that come to the Town Burrow-Bridge a little Town so called of the Bridge that is made over the River Pyramides four huge stones of pyramidal form in three divers little fields they were monuments of victory erected by the Romans hard by the high street that went this way * York This is the second City of England the fairest in all this Countrey and a singular safeguard and ornament both to all the North parts A pleasant place large and stately well fortified beautifully adorned as well with private as publick buildings rich populous and it hath an Archiepiscopal See Ure which now is called Ouse flowing with a gentle stream from the North part Southward cutteth it in twain and divideth it as it were into two Cities which are conjoyned with a stone Bridge having one mighty Arch. The West part nothing so populous is compassed in with a very fair Wall and the River together four squarewise and giveth entrance to those that come thither at one only Gate named Mikel-Barre The great Gate From which a long Street and a broad reacheth to the very Bridge and the same Street beset with proper Houses having Gardens and Orchards planted on the back-side on either hand and behind them fields even hard to the Walls for exercise and disports The East-side wherein the Houses stand very thick and the Streets be narrower in form resembleth as it were a lentill and is fortified also with very strong Walls and on the South-East defended with the deep chanel of Fosse a muddy River which entring into the heart of the City by a blind way hath a Bridge over it with houses standing upon it so close ranged one by another that any man would judge it to be not a Bridge but a continued Street and so a little lower runneth into Ouse There is a Cathedral Church dedicated to Saint Peter an excellent fair and stately Fabrick neer unto which there is the Princes House commonly called The Mannour York was a Colony of the Romans as appeareth both by the authority of Ptolomee and Antonine and also by a peece of Money coined by the
Teave a little River Teavistock commonly Tavistoke fluorisheth a Town in times past famous for the Abbay there Of the River Plime the Town adjoyning to it is called Plimmouth sometimes named Sutton Of late time it became of a poor fisher Village to be a great Town and for the number of Inhabitants grown to that passe as now it is to be seen that it may be compared with a City Such is the commodiousnesse of the Haven which without striking sail admitteth into the bosome thereof the tallest Ships that be and doth harbour them very safely and is sufficiently fortified against hostility The whole Town is divided into four Wards governed by a Maior ordained there by King Henry the Sixth and under him every Ward had in times past a Captain set over it each of them likewise had his inferiour Officers The Circuit of this Town is not great but much renowned it is among forrain Nations and not so much for the comodious Haven as the valour of the Inhabitants in Sea-services of all sorts From hence was Sir Francis Drake that famous Knight and most skilfull man at Sea In the year 1577. putting to Sea from hence he entered into the Straits of Magellane and in two years and ten moneths thorow many alternative varieties of Fortune God being his guide and Valour his Confort was the next after Magellaenus that sailed round about the world Whereupon one wrote thus unto him Drake peragrati novit quem terminus orbis Quemque semel mundi vidit uterque polus Si taceant homines facient te sidera notum Sol nescit comit is immemòr esse sui Plimpton a Mercate Town well frequented Dertmouth a Port Town by reason of the commodious Haven defended with two Castles much frequented by Merchants and furnished with good shipping Excester so called from the River Isc and by the Saxons Ex. It is a Bishops See It is situate upon a little Hill gently arising with an easie ascent to a pretty height environed about with Ditches and very strong Walls and containeth in circuit a mile and an half having Suburbs running out a great way on each side In it there are fifteen Parish Churches and in the very highest part thereof neer the East-gate a Castle called Rugemont at this day commended for nothing else but the antiquity and situation thereof For it commandeth the whole City and Territory about it and hath a very pleasant prospect into the Sea Joseph Iscanus was born here and from hence took his surname a Poet of a most excellent wit whose writings were so well approved as that they had equal commendation with the Works of ancient Poets For his Poeme of the Trojan Warre was divulged once or twice in Germany under the name of Cornelius Nepos The Civil Government of this City is in the power of four and twenty persons out of whom there is from year to year a Maior elected who with four Bailiffs ruleth here the State This City hath three Dukes Tawstoke a very ancient Towne for elegant building and frequency of people held chiefe in all this Coast The Inhabitants for the most part are Merchants who in France and Spain trade and traffick much Out of this Towns School there issued two right learned men and most renowned Divines John Jewel Bishop of Salisbury and Thomas Harding the publick Professour in Lovain who most hotly contended and wrote learnedly one against the other concerning the truth of Religion This Shire containeth thirty three Hundreds thirty seven Market Towns three hundred and ninety four Parishes Dorsetshire IT is bounded on the North-side with Somersetshire and Wiltshire on the West with Devonshire and some part of Somersetshire on the East with Hampshire On the South part where it carrieth the greatest length it lieth all open to the Sea Some say there are within six miles compasse round about Dorchester three hundred thousand Sheep It is a fruitfull soyl and a great Ship Countrey Lime a little Town situate upon a deep Hill so called of a small River of the same name running hard by Shaftsbury a Town of note Baurtport or more truly Birtport is placed between two small Rivers which there meet together In respect of the soil yeelding the best Hemp and skill of the people for making Ropes and Cables for Ships it was provided by a special Statute to remain in force for a certain set time that Ropes for the Navy of England should be twisted no where else Portland an Island so called of one Port a noble Saxon who Anno 703. infested and sore annoyed these Coasts Weymouth a little Town upon the mouth of Wey a small River over against which on the other side of the Bank standeth Kings-Melcomb divided from the other only by the Haven between Pool in calm weather when the waters are still resembleth a Pond whence it receiv'd its name A Mercat Town exceeding rich and wealthy beautified with goodly Houses Frau or Frome the greatest and most famous River of all this tract Dorchester is the head Town of the whole Shire and yet is neither great nor beautifull It hath but three Parish Churches The Forest of White-Hart When King Henry the Third came hither to hunt and had taken other Deer he spared a most beautifull and goodly White Hart which afterwards T. de la Lynde a Gentleman of this Countrey with others in his company took and killed But the King put them to a grievous Fine of money for it and the very Lands which they held pay even to this day every yeer by way of Amercement a peece of money into the Exchequer which is called White-Hart silver Shirburn Town or Castle is sited in the hanging of an Hill a pleasant and proper seat It is the most populous and best haunted Town of this Country and gaineth exceeding much by cloathing It containeth thirty four Hundreds eighteen Market Towns and two hundred and fourty eight Parishes Durham or Duresme DUresme the chief Town in Latine Dunelmum a County Palatine and a Bishops See It is seated on high it is shaped in form of an Egge The River Teise or Teisis commonly Tees boundeth the South part of this County It first beateth upon Bernard-Castle built and so named by Bernard Balliol the great Grand-fathers Father of John Balliol King of the Scots Hartle-Poole a good Towne of Trade and a safe Harbour for fishing By the Tine there is situate a memorable Town called Gateshead or Goateshead The common people think it is farre more ancient than New-Castle itself This name was given unto this place by occasion of some Inne that had a Goats-head for the Sign Jarrow the native soil of venerable Bede Thomas Wolsey Cardinal who in his high prosperity wanted nothing but moderation and Cuthbert Tunstall who for singular knowledge in the best Sciences sincere holinesse of life a singular Ornament to his native Countrey were Bishops of Durham Essex A Countrey
men viz. Leicestershire Bean-Belly Burtons descript. of Leicestershire The South-East-side of this Shire is exceeding rich ground yeelding great increase of Corn in abundance of all kinds affordeth many good and large Sheep-Pastures breeding a Sheep to that height and goodnesse so that as I have credibly heard neither Lemster nor Cotswould can exceed them if one respect either largenesse of the body finenesse of the Wooll or goodnesse of the breed Id. ib. Leicester standeth upon the River Leire now called Sore it signifies the City standing upon the River Leir It is a Town of great antiquity and standeth in the center and heart of the Shire bearing the proportion of an heart and being in the very midst and heart of the Land It is situate in a most rich delicate and pleasant soyl and delicious air it wants only a navigable River Harborow a Town famous for a Fair of Cattel there kept Carleton all that are born there whether it be by a peculiar property of the soyl or of the water or else by some other secret operation of nature have an ill favoured untunable and harsh manner of speech fetching their words with very much ado deep from out of the throat with a certain kind of wharling Lutterworth a Mercat Town it hath a fair Church That famous John Wicliffe was sometimes parson of this Church a man of a singular polite and well wrought wit most conversant also in the holy Scripture Neer to this Town there is a Spring so call'd that within a short time turneth straws and sticks into stones Cathorp It came to one Cook a Merchant of the Staple in the time of Henry the Fourth whose Daughter and Heir was married to William Harper of Rushall in the County of Stafford and from thence by descent to Leigh It was not many years since belonging to Sir Edward Leigh of Rushall Burtons descript. of Leicestershire Hinkley Burton-Lazers so called from a famous Hospital which was there founded for the use of Leprous people to whose Master all the lesser houses of that kind were subordinate as he himself was to the Master of the Lazers at Hierusalem Bosworth an ancient Mercat Town Here Henry Earl of Richmond with a small power encountred in pitch-field with King Richard the Third and overcame and slew him and then with joyfull acclamations was proclaimed King in the very midst of slaughtered bodies round about Ashby de la Zouch a most pleasant Lordship now of the Earls of Huntingdon but belonging in times past to the noble Family De la Zouch Cole-Overton or Orton famous for Pit-coal It is so called of the Cole-mines which are there in great abundance Mount-Sorehill famous only for a Mercat there kept Lough-borough a Mercat Town next Town to Leicester in this Shire whether a man regard the bignesse or building thereof or the pleasant Woods about it Melton-Mowbray a Mercat Town bearing name of the Mowbrayes sometimes Lords thereof Within this Shire are two hundred Parish Churches six Hundreds and twelve Market Towns Lincolnshire A Very large Countrey reaching almost threescore miles in length and carrying in some places above thirty miles in bredth passing good for yeelding of Corn and feeding of Cattel well furnished and set out with a great number of Towns and watered with many Rivers The Diocesse here is the largest of England After three Bishopricks were taken out of it it containeth four whole Counties and parts of two usually thus exprest it had under it two Bs two Hs two Ls. The whole Shire is divided into three parts whereof one is called Holland a second Kesteuen and the third Lindsey Crowland or Croyland a raw and muddy Land as Ingulph the Abbot of this place interprets it a Town formerly of good note among the Fenne-people It is seated like unto Venice In the Moneth of August they have sometimes spread a Net and at once drawn three thousand Mallards and they use to term these Pools or watery Plots of theirs their Corn-fields In regard of this their taking of Fish and Fowl they paid yearly in times past to the Abbot three hundred pounds of our money and after so much to the Crown Spalding a fair Town enclosed round about with Riverets Boston a famous Town standing on both sides of the River Witham which hath over it a wooden Bridge of a great heigth well frequented by means of a commodious Haven unto it the Market place is fair and large and the Church maketh a goodly shew as well for the beautifull building as the greatnesse thereof the Tower-steeple of it which riseth up to a mighty height doth salute passengers and travellers a great way off and giveth direction also to the Sailers In the Coat of Boston for the Corporation there are three Crowns relating to the three Kingdoms the Crest a Ramme lying upon a Wool-sack the Ram signifying the great Sheep-walks in the fens round about and the Wool-sack that it was a Staple-town The Supporters of the Coat are two Mare-maids signifying that it is a Port-Town Stanford it was built of rough stone whence it hath the name A Town well peopled and of great resort endowed also with sundry immunities and walled about It is beautified with seven Parish Churches or thereabout and sheweth an old Hospital Belvoir or Beauvoir-Castle so called of the fair Prospect mounted upon the top of a good steep Hill It belongs to the Earl of Rutland The Vale of Bever a very pleasant place lieth under the Castle The Vale of Bevell barren of Wooll is large and very plentifull of good Corn and Grasse and lieth in three Shires Leicester Lincoln and much in Nottinghamshire Lelands Itinerary Grantham a Town of good resort adorned with a School built by Richard Fox Bishop of Winchester and with a fair Church having a Spire-steeple of a mighty height Lincolne This City is large well inhabited and frequented it standeth upon the side of an Hill and thence hath its name from its situation or because it hath been a Colony There are fourteen Churches the Minster is a fair one and in one of the Steeples there is a very great Bell rung by sixteen men called great Tom of Lincoln Camden honourably mentions two learned Bishops of Lincoln Robert Grosthead and his Master Thomas Cooper Wainfleet it bred William Wainfleet Bishop of Winchester a worthy Prelate founder of Magdalen-Colledge in Oxford a man that singularly well deserved of learning Alford a Mercat Town Castor an ancient Castle Mercate-Rasin so called of a Mercat there well resorted unto Gainsborrow a Market Town standing upon the River of Trent Grimsby an old Market Town Here was Archbishop Whitgift born There are in this Shire six hundred and thirty * Parishes thirty and one Hundreds and thirty Market Towns Middlesex IT is severed from Buckinghamshire by the River Cole on the West-side from Hertfordshire on the North-side by a known
Earls of Pembroke Sudbroke the Church whereof called Trinity-Chappel standeth neer the Sea a moor for many miles together Abergenny It is fortified with Wals and a Castle This Shire containeth Parish Churches an hundred twenty seven Northfolk or Norfolk PEople of the North It is a Region large and spacious and in manner all thorowout a plain champion unlesse it be where there rise gently some pretty Hils passing rich exceeding full of Sheep and stored with Coneys replenished likewise with a great number of populous Villages for besides twenty seven Mercat Towns it is able to shew Villages and Countrey Towns six hundred twenty and five watered with divers Rivers and Brooks and not altogether destitute of Wood A man may collect the goodnesse of the ground by this that the Inhabitants are of a passing good complexion to say nothing of their exceeding wily wits and the same right quick in the insight of our Common Laws insomuch as it is counted the only Countrey for best Lawyers One saith that three hundred and forty nisi prius were tried there at one Assizes It is a pleasant Countrey for sports Hawking and Hunting Thetford the Ford of Thet of good bignesse yet it hath but few Inhabitants Harleston a good Mercat Norwich a famous City by reason of the wealth number of Inhabitants the resort of people fair buildings and many fair Churches it containeth thirty two Parishes and fourty two Chappels and Churches the painfull industry of the Citizens and their courtesie unto strangers The Market Crosse and Cloister of the Cathedral there are the fairest in England It is pleasantly situate on the side of an Hill compassed about with strong Wals in which are orderly placed many Turrets and twelve Gates unlesse it be on the East-side where the River is a fence thereto It is three miles about The Arms of the City are the Castle and Lion A City whose Antiquity Alexander Nevil hath most learnedly and elegantly set down in Latine It hath been long famous for the ancient cloathes or stuff called Worsted but hath lately abounded in variety of weaving through the invention and industry of the Dutch and French Flemmings which inhabit there in great numbers There is a great House there of the Duke of Norfolks now the Earl of Arundels where there are very fair Granaries and the best Bowling-alley in England There is also an Hospital where an hundred of men and women are maintained Matthew Parker was born here Yarmouth a very convenient Haven and as fair a Town beautifully built and well fenced both by the natural strength of the place and also by the skilfull industry of mans art It hath but one Church yet the same is very large having a high Steeple to adorn it It is famous for fishing and merchandizing There are two long Streets in it each of them a mile long one called the Dean-street the other the Key There is also another Street called the Middle-street and many rows as they call them after the manner of Holland There is also a fair Market place Holt a Town so called of an Holt or tuft of trees and for the Mercat well known Ailesham a Mercat Town of good resort Worsted where the stuff worsted in so great request amongst our Ancestors was first made and hence so named as Dornicks Camery Calecut had in like manner their denominations from the places where they were first invented and made Walsingham This Village is very famous by reason of the best Saffron growing there The Family of the Walsinghams Knights fetched first their name and original from hence out of which house flourished that Sir Francis Walsingham Secretary to Queen Elizabeth a man as of deep insight so also of as rare and painfull industry in the weightiest affairs of the Realm Lynne peradventure so named of the waters broad spreading So Lynne imports in the Welch tongue This is a large Town encompassed with a deep Trench and Wals for the most part thereof divided by two small Rivers that have fifteen Bridges or thereabout over them It is called old Linne and Linnum Regis that is Kings Linne yet by reason of the safe Haven which yeeldeth most easie accesse for the number also of the Merchants there dwelling and thither resorting for the fair and the goodly houses the wealth also of the Townsmen it is doubtlesse the principal Town of this Shire except Norwich onely Mershland a little moist Mersh-Countrey as the name implieth a soil standing upon very rich and fertile mould and breeding abundance of Cattel insomuch as that in a place commonly called Tilneysmeth there feed much about thirty thousaud Sheep In this Province there be Parish Churches about six hundred and sixty In Norfolk and Suffolk there are more Parishes than in any other Counties six hundred and odde in Norfolk and above five hundred in Suffolk Northamptonshire THis County is situate in the very middle and heart as it were of England On the East lie Bedford and Huntingdonshires On the South Buckingham and Oxfordshires Westward Warwickshire Northward Rutlandshire and Lincolnshire separated from it by Avon the lesse and Welland two Rivers It is a champion Countrey exceeding populous and passing well furnished with Noblemens and Gentlemens Houses replenished also with Towns and Churches insomuch as in some places there are twenty and in others thirty Seeples with Spires or square Towers within view at once The soil very fertile both for Tillage and Pasture yet nothing so well stored with Woods unlesse it be in the further and hither sides But in every place as elswhere also in England it is over-spread and as it were beset with Sheep Brakley a place full of Brake or Fern the Students of Magdalen Colledge in Oxford use the Colledge there for a retiring place Torcester so called of Towrs It hath a large Church in it Hard by at Eston-Nessont there is a fair and beautifull House belonging to the Knightly Family of the Farmers Sacy-Forest stored with Deer and fit for game Avon a general name of all Rivers This Aufona or Nen is a notable River which after a sort runneth through the middle part of this Shire Dantrey is a through-fare Town well known at this day by reason of the Innes there Fawesly where have dwelt a long time the Knightleys descended from those more ancient Knightleys of Gnowshall in the County of Stafford Wedon in the street It is a pretty through-fare set on a plain ground and much celebrated by Carriers because it standeth hard by the famous way there commonly call'd of the people * Watlingstreet Lelands Itinerary Holdenby-House a fair patern of stately and magnificent building Northampton so called from its situation upon the North-bank of the River Aufon The City for Houses is very fair for circuit of good largenesse and walled about and from the Wall there is a goodly Prospect every way to a wide and spacious plain Countrey There are seven Parish Churches
more fair than ancient Bridgnorth so called of Burgh or Burrough and Morfe heretofore a Forest adjoyning A Town fortified with Walls a Ditch a stately Castle and the Severn seated also upon a Rock out of which the wayes leading into the upper part of the Town were wrought out Wenlock now known for the Lime Huckstow-Forest Routon-Castle Tong-Castle there is a Bell for the bignesse of it very famous in all those parts adjoyning Draiton Wem Morton-Corbet a Castle of the Corbets Shrewsbury the famousest Town of this Shire it standeth most pleasantly It is seated upon an Hill of a reddish Earth and Severn having two very fair Bridges upon it Neither is it strengthened only by nature but fortified also by Art it is like a Horse-shoe in the opening place There is a strong stately Castle It is a fair and goodly City well frequented and traded full of good merchandize 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 do conflow as it were to a common Mart of both Nations It is inhabited both with Welsh and English speaking both Languages One of the rarities there is their Cakes such as cannot be made so well in any other place of England Shrawerden Castle Knocking-Castle Oswestre a little Town enclosed with a Ditch and a Wall fortified also with a pretty Castle in it there is great Traffick of Welsh Cottons Whittington-Castle Whit-Church or Album Monasterium Ellesmer a little Territory but rich and fruitfull In this Region there are about an hundred and seventy Parishes It had the great Lawyer Ployden the rich Squire Thin the great Hebrician Broughton the strong man the Baron of Burford the witty Jester Tarleton Somersetshire THis County is very large and wealthy The North-side whereof the Severn Sea beateth upon The West part confineth with Denshire in the South it bordereth first upon Devonshire and then upon Dorsetshire Eastward upon Wiltshire and North-East upon part of Glocestershire The soil very rich yeelding for the most part thereof passing great plenty both of Pasture and Corn and yet not without stony Hils exceeding populous and full of Inhabitants furnished also with commodious Havens and Ports sufficiently As it is soul so it is fruitfull which makes them comfort themselves with this Proverb What is worst for the Rider is best for the Abider This name grew from Somerton a famous Town in ancient time and of all others in the Shire most frequented Dunster-Castle is enclosed round about with Hils saving to the Seaward built by the Mohuns a right noble and mighty Family which flourished from the very Conquerours dayes under whose Reign that Castle was built unto the time of King Richard the Second Cheder famous for five things 1. Cheese 2. * Teazers 3. Garlick 4. Mills there is a spring whereby many Mils are turned about 5. Cliffs a great Rock cleft asunder Evel a great Market Town West-Camalet and East-Camalet or Queens-Camalet two Towns Winecaunton a great Market Ilchester there is a Market there kept Montacute fo termed because the Hill riseth up by little and little to a sharp point It hath given name to that right honourable Family of Montacute Longport a Market Town well frequented Wellington a pretty Market Town Sir John Popham dwelt here a man of an ancient worshipfull House and withall a most upright Justicer and of singular industry Taunton or Thonton from the River Thone A very fine and proper Town and most pleasantly seated one of the eyes of the Shire The Countrey here most delectable on every side with green medows flourishing with pleasant Gardens and Orchards and replenished with fair Mannor-houses wonderfully contenteth the eyes of the beholders Athelney a pretty Island a place famous for King Alfreds shrouding himself therein when the Danes had brought all into broil Somerton the Shire Town in times past There is kept a Fair of Oxen and other Beasts from Palm-Sunday untill the midst of June with much resort of people the Countreymen all thereabout are very great Grasiers Breeders and Feeders of Cattel Bridgwater a great and populous Town King Henry the Eighth adorned it with an Earldom Bruiton The Glassy Isle so called Propter amnem scilicet quasi vitrei coloris in marisco circumfluentem Monasticon Anglicanum Vide plura ibid. Here flourished the famous Abbey of Glastenbury the beginning whereof is very ancient fetched even from that Joseph of Arimathaea who enterred the body of Jesus Christ and whom Philip the Apostle of the Gauls sent into Britain for to preach Christ See Dees British Monarchy Ochy hole a Cave or Den far within the ground wherein are to be seen certain Pits and Riverets Congerbury so named of one Congar a man of singular holinesse This County is famoused by three Cities Bath Wells and Bristow Wells a little City with an Episcopal See so called of the Springs or Wells which boyl up there For multitude of Inhabitants for fair and stately Buildings it may well and truly challenge the preheminence of all this Province It hath a goodly Church and Colledge The Church it self all thorowout is very beautifull but the Frontispiece thereof in the West-end is a most excellent and goodly piece of Work indeed for it ariseth up still from the foot to the top all of Imagery in curious and antique wise wrought of stone carved and embowed right artificially and the Cloisters adjoyning very fair and spacious A gorgeous Palace of the Bishops built in manner of a Castle fortified with Walls and a Mote standeth hard by Southward and on the other side fair houses of the Prebendaries In the Reign of Henry the First Johannes de Villula of Tours in France being elected Bishop translated his See to Bath since which time the two Sees growing into one the Bishop beareth the title of both so that he is called The Bishop of Bath and Wells Selwood a Wood thick of Trees whereof the Countrey adjoyning is called Selwoodshire Bathe of the hot Bathes in times past callid in Latine Aquae calidae It is seated low in a plain environed round about with Hils almost all of one height out of which certain rilles of fresh River waters continually descend into the City to the great commodity of the Citizens Within the City it self there bubble and boil up three Springs of hot water of a Blewish or Sea-colour thin vapours and rising up from thence a kind of strong sent withall by reason that the water is drilled and strained through veins of Brimstone and a clammy kind of earth called Bitumen which Springs are very medicinable and of great vertue to cure bodies over-charged and benummed with corrupt humours For by their heat they procure sweat and subdue the rebellious stubbornnesse of the said humours From eight of the clock in the forenoon unto three in the afternoon they are
fair stone Market place supported with Pillars round about The Church it self is not great but very fair and neat having a Spire-steeple of stone rising up passing high Selsey the Isle of Sea-Calves now famous for good Cockles and full Lobsters Amberley there is a Castle Arundel Petworth a house of my Lord of Northumberland where there is a very fair stable Horseham an indifferent Market Michel-grove that is Great-Grove Old Shoreham a Village Stening a great Market and at certaine set dayes much frequented Lewes this for frequency of people and greatnesse is reputed one of the chiefest Towns of the County it is seated upon a rising almost on every side There are six Churches in the Town High-hills called the Downs which for rich fertility giveth place to few valleys and plains Pemsey or Peremsey Marsh of Pevensey the next Towne adjoyning Herst-Mounceaux Ashburnham it gave the name to a Family of great Antiquity Hastings It is accounted the first of the Cinque-Ports Winchelsey a fair Town Rhie a very commodious Haven There is an usual passage from hence into Normandy Echingham Bodiam a Castle belonging to the ancient Family of the Leaknors Ashdown-Forest under which standeth Buckhurst the Habitation of the ancient House of the Sackviles Waterdown-Forest This Province containeth Parishes three hundred and twelve Warwickshire IT is bounded on the East-side with Northamptonshire Leicestershire and the Watlingstreet way on the South with Oxfordshire and Glocestershire on the West for the greatest part with Worcestorshire and on the North-side with Staffordshire It is divided into a plain champion and a woody Countrey which parts the River Avon running crookedly from North-East to South-West doth after a sort sever one from the other Edge-hill There is the Vale of the Red-horse so termed from a shape of a Horse cut out in a red Hill by the Countrey people hard by Essenhull It takes its name from the situation standing Eastward from Monks-Kirby and upon a rising ground Pillerton Shipston a Mercat of Sheep in times past Kinton a Mercat of Kine Compton in the Hole because it lieth hidden under the Hils thence a noble Family hath taken the name Shugbury stones resembling little stars are there found which the Lords of the place surnamed thereupon have long shewed in their Coat-armour Southam a Mercate Town well known Leamington a Mercat Town so caled of Leame a small Brook that wandereth through this part of the Shire Chesterton the Habitation of that ancient Family of the Peitoes Rugby a Mercat chiefly for Butchers Newenham Regis Kings Newenham to distinguish it from Newenham Paddox the King was anciently possest of it There are wholsome Wells Upton so called because it stands upon an ascent Bagginton which belonged sometime to the Bagots Stoneley a stony place Warwick is the principal Town of the whole Shire It standeth over the River Avon upon a steep and high Rock and all the Passages into it are wrought out of the very stone It stands in a dry and fertile soil having the benefit of rich and pleasant Medows on the South part with the lofty Groves and spacious thickets of the woodland on the North It hath a very strong Castle the seat in times past of the Earls of Warwick The Town it self is adorned with fair houses A place of strength and health in the same Fort You would conceive a Castle and a Court The Orchards Gardens Rivers and the Air May with the Trenches Rampires Walls compare It seems no art no force can intercept it As if a Lover built a Souldier kept it D. Corbets Iter Boreale Blacklow-Hill here Piers de Gaveston was by the Nobles of the Kingdom beheaded Charl-Cot the habitation of the renowned ancient Family of the Lucies Knights which place long ago descended hereditarily to them from the Charlcots Stratford upon Avon a little Mercate Town there is a stone Bridge supported with fourteen Arches Bitford a Mercat Town Studly-Castle Coughton the principal mansion house of the Throckmortons Beauchamps-Court so named of Baron Beauchamp of Powick Henley a pretty Mercat Town Aulcester a small Mercat of Wares and trade but much frequented for the Corn-Fair there holden Wroxhall there is a little Priory Killingworth there is a most ample beautifull and strong Castle encompassed all about with Parks Bremicham or Bremingham full of Inhabitants and resounding with Hammers and Anvils for the most of them are Smiths The lower part thereof standeth very waterish the upper riseth with fair buildings Sutton-Coldfield It standeth in a wooddy and on a churlish hard soil but in an excellent air and full of all manner of pleasures There is a Grammar-School Coleshull so called from the River Cole Maxstock-Castle is neer to it Meriden This place situated upon London-road hath from some Innes and Ale-houses built for the receipt of Passengers grown of late times to the credit of a Village Coventry It is a City very commodiously seated large sweet and neat fortified with a strong Wall and set out with right goodly houses among which there rise up on high two Churches of rare workmanship standing one hard by the other and matched as it were as concurrents the one consecrated to the Holy Trinity the other to Saint Michael One and the self same Bishop carried the name both of Coventry and Lichfield Leofrick the first Lord of this City being much offended and angry with the Citizens oppressed them with most heavy Tributes which he would remit upon no other condition at the earnest suit of his Wife Godina unlesse she would her self ride on horse-back naked through the greatest and most inhabited street of the City which she did indeed and was so covered with her fair long Hair that if we may believe the common sort she was seen of no body and thus she did set free her Citizens of Coventry from many paiments for ever At Gosford-Gate there hangeth to be seen a mighty great Shield-bone of a wild Bore which Guy of Warwick slew in hunting when he had turned up with his snout a great pit or pond which is now called Swansewell but Swineswell in times past Ausley-Castle Brand Caledon Whitmore-Park Though it be for the most part woody yet is in some places so moorish as that the ground beareth nothing but mosse which being in one place white gave occasion doubtlesse for its name Dugd. Antiq. of Warwickshire Willowby because of the Willows Cester-over neer unto which the High port-way Watlingstreet Nun-Eaton or Eaton Mancester a very small Village Atherstone a Mercat Town of good resort Merival Pollesworth Sir Francis Nethersole a Kentish Gentleman of an ancient house sometimes Oratour to the University of Cambridge Secretary to the Queen of Bohemia hath erected a School-house there In this County there are an hundred and fifty eight Parish Churches VVestmerland IT is so called because it lieth all of it among Moors and high Hils and was for the most part unmanured
famous no doubt in the Romans time The Archbishop of Canterbury was called Totius Angliae Primas the Archbishop of York Angliae Primas without any further addition Anselme for recompence of the service he had done in oppugning the marriage of Priests and resisting the King for the investiture of Clerks was by Pope Urbane endowed with this accession of honour that he and his Successours should from thenceforth have place in all General Councels at the Popes right foot who then said withall Includemus hunc in orbe nostro tanquam alterius orbis Papam Canterbury is one of the famousest Cities in England It hath had a rare Cathedral though now much ruinated by reason of these later times The Cathedral is in the midst of the City a fair Church the body of which is within a little as large as Pauls in London between the body and the Quire a very high Steeple where hangeth a Bell called by the name of Bell-Harry being one of them which King Henry brought out of France There is also in this Steeple four Spires much like to Sepulchres in London There is on each side of the great West-gate two other Steeples the one called Dunston-steeple the other Arnold-steeple in each of which are a very pleasant ring of Bels In the same Cathedral there was the famousest Window that ever was known in England for which there was offered as some say by the Spanish Embassadour 10000lb being the whole History of Christ from his Nativity to his Sufferings but is now battered to pieces In the Quire of this Cathedral is buried Prince Edward called the Black Prince whose Monument is there of brasse The Dean and Prebends had very fair Houses within the bounds of the said Cathedral which was like a little City and so much power formerly that the Maiors Sword was not suffered to be held up within the Gates of the Deanry There is underneath this Cathedral a great Congregation of French living in the City and the Dutch also have a Church in that place which was called the Bishops Palace Within the bounds of the said Deanry there is a free School called The Kings School wherein are two Masters and many Scholars formerly wearing Gowns that are there brought up and many from thence sent to the University There was one Schoolmaster * some years before he died affirmed he had had thirty seven Masters of Arts of his bringing up There are many Churches in the City and Suburbs There are two Markets a week The Maior and Aldermen are cloathed in Scarlet and they keep the Sessions in the same City The City is walled and hath a Mote about it the Wall being so broad that two or three men may go a-brest with gallant Watch houses called Citadels all built with flint-stone There was an old Castle but it hath been for many years demolished and some of the Works or Forts are yet standing that were when the Danes came in one or two of which were made use of when the last rising was there There are two Hospitals in the City one for Ancient people and the other for Children The Isle of Thanet it is eight miles long and four broad a right fertile soil Goodwin-Sands a sandy dangerous place In the Reign of William the Second certain Lands in Kent which did once belong to Godwin Earl of Kent were overflowed and covered with sand which to this day do bear the name of Godwins Sands See Kilburns Survey of Kent pag. 262 263. How Tenterden Steeple was said to be the cause of Goodwins Sands Sandwich one of the Cinque Ports Dover The Town is seated between high Cliffs more famous for the commodiousnesse of the Haven such as it is and for ready passage into France then for any elegance or great trade There is a most stately Castle like unto a pretty City fortified strongly with Bulwarks and many a Tower It is the strongest hold of all England and most commodious for the French Sandgate-Castle and Satlwood a Castle Hith it signifies an Haven or Harbour one of the Cinque Ports Rumney-marsh a fruitfull soil it feedeth a number of Herds of Cattel sent hither from the furthest parts of Wales and England to be fatted There is at Bilsington a Priory built by John Maunsel Weaver in his Funeral Monuments saith He saw a Pedigree of the Maunsels from Philip de Maunsel who came in with the Conquerour untill these our times Wie Here was born John Kemp Archbishop of Canterbury and one of the great Benefactors to the University of Oxford He was Bishop of Rochester Chichester and London Archbishop of York first and afterward of Canterbury twice made Cardinal Bis primas ter Praeses bis Cardine functus This Province hath three hundred ninety eight Parishes and sixty four Hundreds Lancashire IT is a large populous and well wooded Countrey The County Palatine of Lancaster famous for the four Henries the Fourth Fifth Sixth and Seventh Kings of England derived from John Gaunt Duke of Lancaster is upon the South confined and parted by the River Mersey from the County Palatine of Chester the County of Darbyshire bordering upon the East the large Countrey of Yorkshire together with Westmerland and Cumberland being her kind neighbours upon the North and the Sea called Mare Hibernicum imbracing her upon the West Their Kine and Oxen have goodly Heads and fair spread Hornes and are in body well proportionate withall Warringdon Rochdale a Mercate Town well frequented Manchester a Town of great antiquity from Main a British word which signifieth a Stone It is seated upon a stony hill and beneath the Town there are most famous quarries of stone It farre excelleth the Towns lying round about it for the beautifull shew it carrieth for resort unto it and for cloathing in regard also of the Mercate place the fair Church and Colledge John Bradford the famous Martyr was born here Letherpool or Lirpool so named of the water spreading it self in manner of a Pool whence there is a convenient passage over into Ireland and much frequented and in that respect more notorious than for any antiquity Ocmeskirk a Mercate Town well known by reason of the Sepulture there of the Stanleys Earls of Derby whose chief seat Latham is hard by a stately house Wiggin a Corporation with a Maior and Burgesses Bolton upon the River Irwell Preston a great fair Town and well inhabited Hornby a fair Castle Lancaster the chief Town of this Region There are thirty six Parishes in this Shire but those very populous and spacious six Hundreds and fifteen Market Towns Leicestershire IT hath bordering upon it on the East-side both Rutlandshire and Lincolnshire on the North Notingham and Derbyshire and Warwickshire on the West and on the South-side lieth Northampton The whole Shire yeeldeth great abundance of Peas and Beans more than any other Country insomuch that there is an old by-word of the same commonly known to all
in a manner scalding hot and do work and being thus troubled cast up from the bottom certain filth during which time they are shut neither may any body go into them untill by their fluces they cleanse themselves and rid away that filthinesse Of these three the Crosse-Bath so called of a Crosse standing upright in old time in the midst of it is of a very mild and temperate warmth and hath twelve seats of stone about the brink or border thereof and is enclosed within a wall The second distant from this not fully two hundred foot is much hotter whence it is termed hot Bath These two are in the midst of a street on the West-side of the City The third which is the greatest and after a sort in the very bosom and heart of the City is called the Kings Bath neer unto the Cathedral Church walled also round about and fitted with two and thirty seats of arched work wherein men and women may sit apart who when they enter in put upon their bodies linnen garments and have their guides This City hath flourished as well by cloathing as by reason of usual concourse thither for health twice every yeer Bristow This City standing partly in Somerset and partly in Glocestershires is not to be reputed belonging to this or that having Magistrates of its own and being of it self entire and a County incorporate It is situate somewhat high between Avon and the little River Frome sufficiently defended with Rivers and Forfications together So fair to behold by reason of buildings as well publick as private that it is fully correspondent to the name of Brightstow With common Sews or Sinks they call them Goutes so made to runne under the ground for the conveyance and washing away of all filth that for cleanlinesse and wholsomnesse a man would not desire more whereupon there is no use here of carts so well furnished with all things necessary for mans life so populous and well inhabited withall that next after London and York it may of all Cities in England justly challenge the chief place For the mutual intercourse of traffick and the commodious Haven which admitteth in Ships under sail into the very bosom of the City hath drawn people of many countreys thither The Citizens themselves are rich Merchants and traffick all over Europe yea and make Voyages at Sea so farre as into the most remote parts of America The most beautifull Church there is S. Maries of Radcliff without the Wals into which there is a stately ascent upon many stairs so large withall so finely and curiously wrought with an arched roof over head of stone artificially embowed a steeple also of an exceeding height that it surpasseth in many degrees all the Parish-churches in England There is hard by another Church also which they call the Temple the Tower whereof when the Bell rings shaketh to and fro so as it hath cloven and divided it self from the rest of the building and made such a chink from the bottom to the top as that it gapeth the breadth of three fingers and both shutteth and openeth whensoever the Bell is rung S. Vincents Rock so full of Diamonds that a man may fill whole strikes or bushels of them They are not so much set by because they are plenteous in bright and transparent colour they match the Indian-Diamonds if they passe them not in hardnesse only they are inferiour to them In this County are numbered three hundred eighty five Parishes Staffordshire IT hath on the East Warwickshire and Darbyshire on the South-side Worcestershire and Westward Shropshire bordering upon it reacheth from South to North in form of a Lozeng broader in the middest and growing narrower at ends The North part is full of Hils and so lesse fruitfull the middle being watered with the River Trent is most plentifull clad with woods and embrodered gallantly with Corn-fields and Medows as is the South port likewise which hath Coals also digged out of the earth and Mines of Iron There are these Rivers in Staffordshire Sow which runneth by Stafford Dove Peru a little River by Pencridge Charnet Blith Tame The River Trent ariseth in Collonel Boyers Park and Dove passeth thorow part of it Severn passeth thorow some part of the Shire Stourton Castle stands upon the River Stour in the very confines with Worcestershire Dudley-Castle did stand upon an Hill named so of one Dudo or Dodo ah English Saxon. It is now demolished Under this lieth Pensneth-Chace wherein are many Cole-pits Pateshall a seat of the Astleys descended from honourable Progenitors Wrotestley the habitation of Sir Walter Wrotesly whose Father was Sir Hugh Wrotesly In the Parlour window among divers of the Arms of the Ancestours of that Family there is one Sir Hugh Wrotesley mentioned who for his approved valour was made by King Edward the Third Knight of the Garter at the first Institution and so accounted one of the Founders of the said honourable Order Chellington a fair House and Mannor of the ancient Family of the Giffards Brewood a Mercat Town Weston Theoten-Hall by interpretation the habitation of Heathens or Pagans at this day Tetnal Ulfrunes-Hampton so called of Wulfruna a most devout woman who enriched the Town called before simply Hampton with a religious House it is now corruptly called Wulver Hampton For an In-land Town there is a famous Market for Cattel and Corn Weddsborow there is Sea-coal Walsal a little Mercat Town a mile by North from Weddesbury There are many Smiths Peuterers and Bit-makers There is a Park of that name half a mile from the Town There are many Lime-pits neer the Town Draiton-Basset the seat of the Bassets Tamworth a Town so placed in the confines of the two Shires that the one part which belonged sometime to the Mirmions is counted of Warwickshire the other which pertained to the Hastings of Staffordshire Here is a fair Castle At Falkesley-Bridg that Roman High-way Watlingstreet entereth into this Shire and cutting it through as it were by a strait line goeth Westward into Shropshire Wall so called of the reliques of an old Wall there remaining and taking up much about two acres of ground Penck-ridge so named of the River Penck famous for an Horse-Fair which the Lord of the place Hugh Blunt obtained of King Edward the Second New-Castle under Lyme Trentham Stone a Mercat Town which having the beginning in the Saxons time took the name of the Stones which our Ancestours after a solemn sort had cast on a heap to notifie the place where Wolpher the Heathenish King of the Mercians most cruelly slew his two Sonnes Wulfald and Rufin because they had taken upon them the profession of Christianity Sandon Cankwood or Forest Gerards-Bromley an House Chebsey Eccleshall Raunton a Monastery Stafford neer unto which there was a Castle upon an Hill now demolisht It is the head Town of the whole Shire Ticks-Hall the dwelling place of the Astons a Family which for Antiquity Kinred and
crooked limit from Essex on the East with the River Lea from Surrey and Kent on the South by the Thames It is a small Shire in length not twenty miles in circuit not above seventy miles yet for the fertility thereof it may compare with any other Shire for the soil is excellent fat fertile and full of profit Nordens Speculum Britaniae For Air passing temperate and for soyl fertile with sumptuous houses and pretty Towns on all sides pleasantly beautified and every where offereth to the view many things memorable Uxbridge full of Innes it stretcheth out in length Harrow-hill the highest Hill of all this Country under which Southward there lie for a long way together exceeding rich and fruitfull fields especially about Heston a small Village that yeeldeth so fine flour for manchet that a long time it hath served for the Kings mouth Hampton-Court a Royal Palace of the Kings a work of admirable magnificence built out of the ground by Thomas Wolsey Cardinal in ostentation of his riches It was enlarged and finished by King Henry the Eighth so amply as it containeth within it five several inner Courts passing large environed with very fair buildings wrought right curiously and goodly to behold The neatest pile of all the Kings houses Godwins Annal. It is called Hampton-Court Hampton of the Parish of Hampton which standeth not farre thence Court in regard of the Majesty and princely beauty There are two Parks the one of Deer the other of Hares Nordens Speculum Britaniae Thistleworth or Isleworth Brentford a fair thorow-fare and frequent Mercat Fulham the place of Fowls where the Bishop of Londons house was Chelsey a place garnished with fair and stately houses London * the Epitome or Breviary of all Britain the seat of the British Empire and the King of Englands chamber King Luds re-edifying Troinovant first built by Brute and from thence leaving the name of Caer Lud afterwards turned as they say into London is not unknown scarce to any that hathbut lookt on Ludgates inner Frontispiece Seld. Illustrat of the eighth Song of Drayt. Polyolb Georgius Braun or Bruin in his Theatrum Praecipuarum totius mundi urbium in three great Volumes in Folio mentions London in the first place of his first Volume Sir Robert Dallington in his view of France comparing the City of Paris with London saith That Paris is the greater the fairer built and the better situate London is the richer the more populous the more ancient Howell in his Londinopolis makes a parallel of it with the other great Cities of the world and so doth Gainsford in his Glory of England lib. 2. ch. 17. For the space of above one thousand five hundred fourscore and six years it hath flourished more for the statelinesse and magnificence of her goodly buildings for the large extent of her bounds and jurisdiction for the Religion and civility of her Inhabitants for the Wisdome and Honour of her Magistrates for the profession of Arms all good Letters and Arts not to speak of her Traffique and Commerce with all Countreys and Ports of the known world more than any other knowne City whatsoever throughout all Christendom Burtons Comment on Antonin his Itin. through Britain pag. 154 155. See more there and 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164. See also M. Calamy and M. Hardie his Sermon preacht before the Londoners Caput atque Metropolis totius insulae Trinovantum sive Londinium sive Londinum urbs potens amaena quam fluviorum Rex Thamesis pererrat Adolphi a Dans vita Elizabethae Quicquid habet miri Memphis pretiive Corinthus Illion antiquum Graecia magnificum Roma ecquid sanctum Campania deliciarum Subtile Hetrusci splendidulum Hesperii Quicquid opum Venetis doctrinae quicquid Athenis Metropolis Britonum dicat id omne suum Stradlingi Epig. l. 1. p. 1. Tacitus Ptolomee and Antonine call it Londinium Ammianus Lundinum and Augusta the Inhabitants London It is situate in a rich and fertile soyl abounding with plentifull store of all things and on the gentle ascent and rising of an Hill hard by the Thames side which by his safe and deep chanel able to entertain the greatest Ships that be daily bringeth in so great riches from all parts that it striveth at this day with the Mart Towns of Christendom for the second prize and affordeth a most sure and beautifull rode for shipping King James being displeased with the City because she would not lend him such a Summe of Money he told the Lord Maior and Aldermen one day That he would remove his own Court with all the Records of the Tower and the Courts of Westminster-Hall to another place with further expressions of his Indignation The Lord Maior calmly heard all and at last answered Your Majesty hath power to do what you please and your City of London will obey accordingly but she humbly desires that when your Majesty shall remove your Courts you would be pleased to leave the Thames behind you It is for Antiquity honourable Ammianus Marcellinus called it in his times and that was twelve hundred yeers ago an old Town and Cornelius Tacitus in like manner who lived in Nero his dayes 1540. years since reported it to have been a place very famous for fresh trade concourse of Merchants and great store of victuals and all things necessary The Tower of London a most famous and goodly Citadel encompassed round about with thick and strong Wals full of lofty and stately Turrets fenced with a broad and deep ditch furnished also with an Armoury or Magazine of warlike Munition and other buildings besides so as it resembleth a big Town The Tower containeth a Kings Palace a Kings Prison a Kings Armoury a Kings Mint a Kings Wardrobe a Kings Artillery Gainsford In the yeer 1235. Frederick the Emperour sent to Henry the Third three Leopards in token of his Regal Shield of Arms wherein three Leopards were pictures since which time those Lions and others have been kept in a part of this Bulwark now called the Lions Tower and their Keeper there lodged Stows Survey of London There are twelve chief Companies out of which the Lord Maior is to be annually chosen Twelve Innes ordained for Students of our Common Law whereof four being very fair and large belong to the Judicial Courts the rest unto the Chancery Herein such a number of young Gentlemen do so painfully ply their Books and study the Law that for frequency of Students it is not inferiour either to Angiers Cane or Orleans it self as Sir John Fortescue in his small Treatise of the Laws of England doth witnesse The said four principal Houses are the Inner-Temple the Middle-Temple Grayes-Inne and Lincolns-Inne John Leland the famous Antiquary was born in London Bishop Andrews Mr. Gataker M. Calamy Sir Thomas More Chaucer Edmund Spenser the famous English Poets were born in London If any City in the world may at this day be called as Jerusalem
Emperour Severus in the reverse whereof we read COL. EBORACUM LEG VI VICTRIX Severus had his Palace in this City and here at the hour of death gave up his last breath with these words I entered upon a State every way troublesome and I leave it peaceable even to the Britains Valerius Constantius surnamed Chlorus an Emperour surpassing in all Vertue and Christian Piety ended his life also in this City and was deified This Emperour begat of his former Wife Helena Constantine the Great who was present in York at his Fathers last gasp and forthwith proclaimed Emperour York was in great estimation in those dayes since the Romane Emperours Court was there held Our own Countrey Writers record That this City was by Constantius adorned and graced with an Episcopal See Alcwin of York Schoolmaster to Charles the Great first Founder of the University of Paris and the singular honour of this City From Paulinus the first Archbishop consecrated in the Year of our Redemption 625. there have sitten in that See threescore and five Archbishops unto the Year 1606. in which Dr Tobie Matthew a most Reverend Prelate for the Ornaments of Vertue and Piety for learned Eloquence and continual exercise of Teaching was translated hither from the Bishoprick of Durham Cawood a Castle Selby a little Town well peopled and of good resort where King Henry the First was born East-Riding It is the second part of this Region it lieth Eastward from York Stanford-Bridge of the Battell there fought it is called Battle-Bridge Wreshill a proper and strong Castle Howden a Mercat Town it hath given name to a little Territory adjoyning called of it Howdenshire Metham it gave both surname and habitation also to the ancient House of the Methams Humber an arm of the Sea whereof also the Countrey beyond it by a general name was called Northumberland It is one of the broadest arms of the Sea and best stored with Fish in all Britain Wighton a small Town of Husbandry well inhabited Drifield a Village well known by reason of the Tomb of Alfred that most learned King of Northumberland and the Mounts that are raised here and there about it Beverley a great Town very populous and full of Trade John surnamed de Beverley Archbishop of York a man both godly and learned after he had given over his Bishoprick as weary of this world came hither and ended his life in contemplation about the Year of our Redemption 721. Cottingham a Countrey Town of Husbandry Kingston upon Hull but commonly Hull For stately and sumptuous Buildings for strong Block-houses for well furnished Ships for store of Merchants and abundance of all things it is become now the most famous Town of Merchandize in these parts The Town is a County incorporate by it self Headon Patrington Rosse from whence the honourable Family of the Barons Rosse took their name Kelnsey a little Village Constable-Burton so called of the Lords thereof Sureby Bridlington North-Riding This carrieth a very long Tract with it though not so broad for threescore miles together even as far as to Westmorland Scarborough-Castle a goodly and famous Castle Within it there is Ting-tong-Wells which go two miles under the earth toward an Hill called Weapness in which passage there is an Iron-gate and by that way the people in the time of Civil Wars brought in their Goods and Cattel and so supplied the Castle The Hollanders and Zelanders use to take marvellous plenty of Herrings upon this Coast and make a very gainfull Trade thereof having anciently first obtained Licence by an ancient Custom out of this Castle Cliveland it taketh that name of steep Banks which we call Cliffs for there runne all along the side thereof cliffie Hils Sken-grave a little Village much benefited by taking great store of Fish Kilton-Castle within a Park Skelton-Castle appertaining to the ancient Family of the Barons Brus who derive their Descent from Robert Brus the Norman Wilton-Castle Y are a Mercat Town well known Stokesley a little Mercat Town Gisburgh a small Town very pleasant and delightfull Ounsbery-Hill or Rosebery-Topping it mounteth up a mighty height and maketh a goodly shew a farre off so often as the Head therof hath his cloudy Cap on lightly there followeth rain whence they have a proverbial Rhime When Rosebery-Topping wears a Cap Let Cliveland then beware a clap Kildale a Castle Pickering a good big Town belonging to the Dutchy of Lancaster situate upon an Hill and fortified with an old Castle unto which a number of small Villages lying there round about do appertain whence the Countrey adjoyning is commonly called Pickering-Lith The Liberty of Pickering and Forest of Pickering Kirkby-Morside it lieth hard unto the Hils whereof it had that name a famous Mercat Town Rhidal a goodly pleasant and plentifull Vale adorned with three and twenty Parish Churches through the midst whereof runneth the River Rhie Malton a Mercat Town well known and frequented for Corne Horses Fish and implements of Husbandry Newborrough a famous Abbey unto which we are indebted for William of Newborrough a learned and diligent Writer of the English History Gilling-Castle belongs unto that ancient and worshipfull Family which of their fair bush of Hair got their name Fairfax The Forest of Galtres notorious for a solemn Horse-running wherein the Horse that out-runneth the rest hath for his prize a little golden Bell Sherry-Hutton a fair Castle Hinderskell a little Castle Others call it Hundred-skell of a number of Fountaines that spring up and rise there Northallertonshire a little Countrey watered with the Riveret Wisk and taking the name of Northalverton a Town having in it on Saint Bartholomews day a great Fair of Kine and Oxen. In this County there are four hundred and fifty nine Parishes under which are very many Chappels for number of Inhabitants equal unto great Parishes A CATALOGUE of some Books lately Printed and in The Press a Printing And sold by HENRY MARSH at the Princes-Armes in Chancery-lane near Fleetstreet Folio THe Sovereigns Prerogative and the Subjects Priviledge comprised in several Speeches Cases and Arguments of Law discussed between the late King Charles and the most eminent Persons of both Houses of Parliament Together with the Grand Mysteries of State then in agitation collected and revived by Tho. Fuller B. D. in Fol. Quarto That delightfull Peece entituled Gemmarius Fidelis or The Faithfull Lapidary experimentally describing the richest Treasure of Nature in an Historical Narration of the several Natures Vertues and Qualities of all Precious Stones With an accurate Discovery of such as are Adulterate and Counterfeit very necessary for all Gentlemen Merchants and Tradesmen Large Octavo The Rogue or The Life of Guzman de Alfarache the witty Spaniard the fifth and last Edition corrected with many Additions never before printed Small Octavo The Ascent to Bliss by three steps viz. Philosophy History and Theologie In a brief Discourse of Mans Felicity with many remarkable Examples of divers Kings and