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city_n	great_a	king_n	time_n	14,389	5	3.4431	3	false

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

Castle where I lodg'd the 28 of August But I crave pardon of the Reader for I had almost forgotten a merry passage or two which hapned in Norfolke not farre from Linne and thus it was At a place called Priors Thorns neere to two Towns namely Northbery and Sapham there dwelt a man named Frier who was rich in substance but very poore and miserable in his conditions belike hee had read or heard of a Play that was written 40 years since by Master Benjamin Iohnson the Play is extant and is called Every Man out of his Humour in which Play was acted and personated a mizerly Farmer that had much corne in his Barnes and did expect a scant or barren Harvest that through want and scarcity hee might sell his corne at what deare rates hee pleased but contrary to his wicked hopes the Harvest proved abundantly plentifull wherefore hee being in an extraordinary merry or mad veine put himselfe to the charge of the buying of a two penny halter and went into his Barn as secretly as he could and putting the halter about his neck with a riding knot he fastned the other end to a beam and most neatly hang'd himself But as ill luck would have it his man presently came into the Barne and espyde his Master so bravely mounted the unlucky Knave drew his Knife and cut the halter crying out for help as lowde as he could rubbing and chafing his Master with all care and diligence to recover him to life again at the last he awak'd out of his traunce and fetch'd a deep groan began to stare and look about him and taking the end of the cut halter in his hand his first words to his man was Sirrah who did cut this O Master said the fellow it was I that did it and I thank God that I came in good time to doe it and I pray you to take God in your minde and never more to hazard your soule and body in such a wicked manner to which good counsell of the poor fellow the Caitiffe replyde Sirrah If you would be medling like a sawey busie Rogue you might have untyde it that it might have serv'd another time such an unthristy Rascall as thou will never be worth such a halter it cost me two pence and I will abate the price of it in thy quarters wages And when the quarter day came hee did abate the said two pence for the which the fellow would dwell no longer with him but went and got him another service This was acted really and lately at the place aforesaid in imitation of that part in the Play of Every Man out of his Humour After the said Frier had some Hogs which were like to die with the Murrain which Hogs he killed and powdred and his wife children and Family as many as did eat of the Porke fell sick and dyed all for the which the slave deserv'd a hanging and a Hangman but hee yet lives for some worse purpose Concerning a paire of Brewers and a piece of justice Another short Norfolk Tale is not impertinent There was one Master Fen a Brewer at Fensham and one Master Francis Dix a Brewer at Sapkam this Dix was riding in the Countrey amongst his Customers the Inkeepers and Victuallers and he call'd for a pot of Ale or Beere as heroad by now that Ale-house was a Customer to Fen as soon as Dix had drank hee asked who brewed that drink to whom the Hoastesse sayd that Master Fen of Fensham brewed it well said Dix I dare lay a wager that I will give my Marc but a peck of Mault and she shall pisse better drink than this at the last these words came to Fens hearing for the which disparagement he sued Dix and recovered from him twenty pound damage besides costs at the Assizes last at Norwich 1639. And now to returne to the narration of my Travels from whence I have digrest since I lodg'd at Horne Castle in Lincolneshire From thence on the 18 of August I road 30 miles to Barton upon Humber and the next day being Friday I tooke a Boat for my selfe my Squire and my two Palfreyes down to Hull or Kingstone upon Hull the strength and scituation of which Towne I have formerly written of and I had no new thing there whereof to make any new Relation let it suffice that it is absolutely accounted the strongest and most defensible Town in the Kingdome of England and for good goverment inferiour to none I might speak somewhat of their good fellowship but my Book would swell big with it therefore I will pay them with thinking and thanking of them both my old friends and new acquaintance all in generall The 31 of August I left Hull and road to Holden 16 miles and on the morrow I road to Cowood Castle to see the most Reverend Doctor Neale the Lord Archbishop of Yorke his Grace whom in all humility I do acknowledge my self much bound in duty daily to pray for and remember him with unfained reverend thankfulnesse not only for the undeserved favours and bounty which his Grace extended towards mee now but for many other former approvements of his Graces love and liberality when his Grace liv'd neere mee at Winchester House At Dinner with his Grace I had the happinesse to renew my Acquaintance with the Noble and Worthy Knight Sir Francis Wortley who most courteously invited and commanded me to visit him in my journey of which more followeth My humble thanks rememberd to the right worthy worshipfull Knight Sir Paul Neale with his fair and vertuous Lady as also my Gratefull remembrance to all my Lords Gentlemen and Servants to whose loves and for whose friendships I shall ever acknowledge my selfe an ingaged Debter Thus having past the Sunday with my Lords Grace and those other before named Gentlemen On Munday the second of September I took my Breakfast and my leave both of Cowood and road to Yorke where I visited the worthy Knight my old acquaintance Sir Arthur Ingram with whom I thank his Worship I dined and also had some other token of his love and bounty for the which I remayn thankfull Of Yorke I have but little to say though it be a great a faire and the second City in England built 989 years before our Saviours Birth by Ebrank King of this Land from whom the City is called Eboracensis this Ebrank is said to have 21 Wives by whom he had 20 sonnes and 70 daughters he raigned here when as King Solomon Raigned in Ierusalem hee overran France he builded Alclaid or Dumbritton in Scotland hee founded York hee erected a Temple there and therein plac'd a Flamine to Diana but after in King LUCIUS time Elutherius pull'd downe the said Idolatrous wooden Temple and displac'd the Flamine and caused tho Minster to be built in that magnificent manner of free stone placing there an Archbishop severus the Roman Emperour dyed there and also there dyed the Emperour Flavius Vallerius Constantius which some call

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

Major and his brethren to whose authority and power under the King the inhabitants do willingly obay Secondly the Clergy or Ministery are learned diligent and painfull and both Clergie and Layity are conformable to the Orders and Discipline of the Church of England and I did not heare of any one residing there that is either Schismatically opinionated with Dogmaticall Whimseyes or Amster-damnable Fopperies Thirdly they are so charitable and carefull in providing for the relief of the poore and needy that a man must go seek where to bestow his almes for there is not any one that I could see that begg'd in the whole Town Fourthly the streets are so well paved and kept so clean from dunghils filth or soyle that in the wettest or fowlest weather a man may go all over the Towne in a paire of slippers and never wet his feet Lastly the people are generally so loving one to another that the Lawyers want work and so honest that the Apparitors are idle and those few Drunkards which they have are very civill and faire condition'd Certain other observations There is a faire Library and a well founded Almes-house within the Town also two Gaoles two houses of Correction and for mad and frantick people Also it is reported that when King Richard the Third went from Leicester to fight the battaile neer Bosworth that then there was a man of mean calling some say he was a Weaver and some say a Plough-wright by his Trade hee had a spirit of divination or Prophecie of whom the Tyrant King Richard demanded some questions what the event of that dayes fight might be to him to whom the other most bluntly answered Marke my words King Richard that as thou dost ride out of this Towne of Leicester this morning thou shalt hit thy right foot against a stone and as thou returnest thou shalt knocke thy head against the same which proved true for as he road he did strike against the corner of a wall his foot and after hee was slain in the field hee was stript and his body layd crosse behind a man on Hors-back like a Calfe and in that vile and ignominious manner as they brought his corps back to Leicester his head did knocke against the aforesaid wall or stone which place I saw there also I went eight miles to see Red●●re field where the King fell which is a moorish kinde of ground altogether unfruitfull and the water doth seem red which some foolish people do suppose to be the staine of K. Richards bloud but it is onely the colour of the red earth that makes the water seeme so and the ground close adjoyning is very fertile for Corne and Pasturage but in the lower parts it is boggy and moory by nature and not either barren or bloudy by any reason of the Kings death Another observation is concerning the alteration of the measures of Miles and good sufficient Pots or Jugs of drink but the further I travelled Northward the more the miles were lengthened and the Pots shrunke and curtald but indeed what the liquor wanted in measure it had in strength the power of it being of such potencie that it would fox a dry Traveller before he had half quencht his thirst In this County of Leicester I observed a piece of extream justice executed upon three Geese which was thus At a Village called Dadlington eight miles from Leicester there dwelsa Gentlewoman a Kinswoman of mine who the last Trinity Tearm 1639 was at London about some businesse in Law which much concern'd her and in her absence the Pinder of Dadlington finding three of her Geese innocently grazing upon the Common for to shew the full power force vertue and marrow of his office and authority drave the Geese into the Pound or Pindfold and because they could procure no Bayle for their Release nor sureties for their true imprisonment hee put all their three necks into a Horslock which Engine or Neck-fetter was so strait close and pinching that the Geese were all strangled Now the question is whether Willy Tilly the Pinder so silly were the cause of their deaths or whether the Geese did desperately cast away themselves all which I humbly refer to the discretion of the Jury But some Readers may muse why I do write so much of Leicester in this little Book the reason is that I lay there from the 17 of July to the 20 of August which was five weekes but in the mean space I road to Coventry and return'd in a day to Leicester again of Coventry I have little to say but that it is a faire famous sweet and ancient City so walled about with such strength and neatnesse as no City in England may compare with it in the wals at severall places are 13 Gates and Posterns whereby to enter and issue too and from the City and on the wals are 18 strong defensible Towers which do also beautifie it in the City is a faire and delicate Crosse which is for structure beauty and workmanship by many men accounted unmatchable in this Kingdome although my selfe with some others do suppose that of Abington in Berkeshire will match it and I am sure the Crosse in Cheapside at London doth farre out-passe it I have bin at this City foure times and have written of it before and therefore at this time my stay being so short there I have but little to say onely this that some are of opinion that at the first itwas called Coventry from the French word Trey Covent because there were founded three Covents for three severall Orders of Friers namely the Franciscan Friers the Augustine Friers and the Dominicans It matters not much who erected the said foundations and Covents but it is certain that the renowned King Henry the Eighth did suppresse and demolish them whose memories now is almost quite buried in their owne ruines Coventry is a County of it selfe it hath been grac'd and dignified much by the Grant and Priviledges given to it by former Kings a● King Edward the Third and King Henry the Sixt The Majors name at my being there wa● Master Thomas Forrest a Vintener and Maste Thomas Phineas Sword-bearer there dyed at th● beginning of the Sessions much about the tim● of my being there he was a man of that comel● bulke and corpulency that his Coffin was a ful● yard wide at the shoulders and it is said that i● his life time hee could have been at one meale the consumption of a large shoulder of Mutton but he and his good stomack being both deceast I left Coventry because it was Sessions time and returned to my Randevouze at Leister The eleventh day of August I road from Leister to Nottingham where I lodged at the signe of the Princes Armes but I was wel entertained at the house of the Right Worshipfull Sir Thomas Hutchinson Knight himselfe and his good Lady made mee welcome and did expresse their bounty to mee in good Cheere and Money for the which I am