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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
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
A32843	Britannia Baconica: or, The natural rarities of England, Scotland, & Wales. According as they are to be found in every shire. Historically related, according to the precepts of the Lord Bacon; methodically digested; and the causes of may of them philosophically attempted. With observations upon them, and deductions from them, whereby divers secrets in nature are discovered, and some things hitherto reckoned prodigies, are fain to confess the cause whence they proceed. Usefull for all ingenious men of what profession of quality soever. / By J. Childrey.	Childrey, J. (Joshua), 1623-1670.	1662 (1662)	Wing C3870; ESTC R20076	95,453	214

The River Lid by Lidford runs under ground At Combmarton are found Mines of Lead and some Veins of Silver Ordulphus this Countrey man for he was Son of Ordarus E. of Devonshire was a Giant-like man that if William of Malmesbury say true would break open the bars of Gates and stride 10. foot 'T is probable he was one of somewhat a larger proportion then ordinary and so might give a fair occasion for the Hyperbole and that the brawniness and big-bodiedness of the Cornish men may extend to their neighbours of Devonshire The air of Devonshire is sharp and wholesom the soil hilly and woody and here they use as in Cornwall sea-sand to mend and enrich their Land which makes it very fat and battle Devonshire abounds with Wool Kersies Sea-fish and Sea-fowl Load-stones have been found upon Dartmore Rocks of good value and vertue Upon Exmore are such stones huge and placed confusedly as are upon Salisbury Plain and one of them hath Danish Letters upon it directing passengers that way At Hubblestow in this shire was a battel fought by the Danes where their Banner called Reafan in which they reposed confidencce of Victory and Success was notwithstanding taken and Hubba their Captain slain It is reported by several persons of credit that during the late War at the time that Exceter was besieged by the Parliaments sorces an infinite number of Larks came flying into the Town and settled in a void green place within the Walls where they were killed by the besieged in huge quantities and eaten DORSETSHIRE THE Air of this Shire is healthful and the Sea yeildeth the shrub called Isidis Plocamos growing without leaves like Coral When it is cut it waxeth hard and black and is brittle It groweth among that useless Sea-Weed called Algar and is most plentiful about the Isle of portland About Birtport or Burport grows the best Hemp in these parts of England The River of Sture affordeth great store of Tench and Eeles Probably 't is a muddy River Alume and Coperas is made at Canford in this Shire the reason I suppose is because the shores of the Sea not far from it may afford Copperas stones for the purpose in good quantity At Shaftsbury as say some of our Historians lived in times past one Aquila which yet some wil have to be the Bird of that name who prophesied that the Brittish Empire after the Saxons and Normans would return to the old Britans There was never any age of the World but it afforded a Prophet for a pleasing improbability and the greater or more pleasing improbability the more the Prophets At Pool in the year 1653. June 20. it is reported that it rained warm blood The particulars of which would be well worth the while to enquire after because Peireskius the noble French Philosopher contends that that blood falls not out of the air but is a superfluous matter remaining after the hatching of a Butter-flye and left in such places sometimes where no rain can come to drop It were easie to enquire the true particulars of it being so late a prodigy I once had a conceit but I had no reason to cherish it long that this Blood might be engendered of some Vapours drawn up by the Sun from that part of the Sea where the cruel Sea-fight was fought between the English and Dutch not far from this Town and not long before this time as if the crimson'd Sea had afforded a Crimson Vapour to make this rain of But this is not the first plausible error that I have had Query whether about Pool and in the Isle of Wight and other places in England where our Histories tell us it hath rained blood there be not generally greater store of Butterflies and Grashoppers then elsewhere In the Haven of this Town of rool the sea contrary to all other Ports in England ebbs and flows like another Euripus four times in 24 hours for first it flows a S. E. and N. W. Moon and then a South and by East and a North and by West Moon once more vvhich second floud is caused as Seamen conceive by the return of the fore-ebb vvhich coming from the Sussex Coast and so along between the Isle of Wight and the main Land of Hantshire strikes in here as lying in its vvay Note that Euripus in Eubaea is scituated almost like Pool At Hermitage in Dorsetshire it lyes I think in the vail of White Hart in the year 1582. 3. January the 13. being Sunday a piece of ground of three Acres removed from its old place saith Stow in his Summary and vvas carryed over another Close vvhere Alders and Willows grew the space of 40. Rods or Perches and stopt up the High-Way that led to Cerne a Market Tovvn and yet the Hedges that it vvas enclosed vvith enclose it still and the Trees stand bolt upright and the place vvhere this ground was before is left like a great pit The Portland men like the ancient Inhabitants of the Baleares Isles in the Mediteranean Sea are excellent slingers In the Isles of Purbeck are Veins of Marble running under the earth SOMERSETSHIRE IN this Shire the Air is mild and the soil generally very wet miry and moorish Of the hot Baths in this Shire at the City of Bath Johnson in his Mercurius Botanicus gives us this description Bath saith he lyes in a plain not great encompassed with Mountains almost of an equal height The Baths are four the King's Bath the Queen's Bath the Cross Bath and the Hot Bath The King's Bath lyes in the middle of the City being about 60. feet square and it hath about the middle of it many hot Springs rising whence it hath the greater heat The Queen's Bath hath no Spring in it but only receives the Water from the King's Bath from which it is onely divided by a Wall for which reason it is more temperate then the Kings In these two Baths there is a Pump to pump Water upon the diseased where strong Embrocations as Phisicians speak are required for often times the matter of the Disease is so contumacious that simple bathing wil not remove it The Cross Bath and Hot Bath are in the West part of the City The Cross Bath is Triangular and about 25. foot long and as broad at one end It hath not so many Springs as the Kings Bath and hot bath have and therefore is of a more gentle heat About 22. paces from the Cross Bath is the Hot Bath so called because formerly when it was not so large as now it is it was much hotter then the rest But now it is only as hot as the King's Bath or but little hotter It is 27. foot long 13 foot broad The Water of all these Baths in a small quantity seems clear and pellucid but if one look upon its surface in the Bath it lookssomewhat green or of a blew or sea-colour as Cambden saith and it hath a Bituminous unsavoury smell but almost no tast

the Wind and Weather I find against the second of February and the days before and after it 1653. 54. that the Wind blew hard at Northwest In all the other examples above-named I cannot inform my self how the Wind was no not in 1622. 23. though Kepler hath set down the Weather for that year because he hath said nothing at all of the wind And in 1656. though I was an observer that year too yet being in October afflicted with a fierce Quartan which had siezed me the August before my observations for that Month are very imperfect both as to Wind and Weather too so that I am at a loss how the Winde was then Nevertheless by that little light we have from the example mentioned in 1653. 54. I cannot but think that the cause of the shifting of the Tides is onely the overbearing of their course when they are at their slackest by a North-west Wind which is the most powerful Adversarie they can have upon our coasts as is said before For if a slow ebb be encountered ful in the teeth with a hard storm what can follow but a return of the Tide back again And if the North-west Wind either abate its fierceness or shift into some other quarters as the South-west or Northeast for some short time and then either return to its former place or resume its former force and do thus once twice and again which we know is not inconsistent with the nature and custom of the wind off at sea though at Land its wanderings are not altogether so sensible we shall easily believe seeing so plain a reason for it that there wil be a playing of the Tide to and fro and several floods and ebbs succeeding one another in a few hours space And it may be this shifting of the Tides is the more notable in the Thames because of its gentle ebb to Sea-ward which is the more easily turned whereas a swift Current in a River would prevail over these irregularities But let further observation be made how the Wind is disposed at the next shifting of the tides that happens which forsome private reasons I conceive will be in the next year 1661. if not this Winter 1660. I forgot to say in its due place that several great inundations speak in favour of my opinion touching the Moon in Perigaeo her greatning the Tides For I can assure you that for that great Flood Anno 1530. November 5 on which was made this Distich Anno ter deno cum sequi mille Novembris Quinta stat salsis Zelandia totasub undis That in the year 1551. 1552. January the 13. that horrible one 1570. on All-Saints day the first of November and that not able one in the year 1606. 7. January the 20. the greatest that was ever known in Severn and so fatal to Somersatshire Glocestershire and Monmouthshire they were all when the Moon was in Perigaeo as he that lists to caloulare or search the Ephemerides for those years wil find I have heard it reported but I would have further tryal made that the water of the Postern-spring on Tower-hill being let stand for several days to settle wil have in the bottom of it a yellow sediment much resembling Brimstone both in colour and substance ESSEX THeair of thisshire is temperate only towards the Sea it is aguish The Soil is for the most part good but in somparts so fruitful that after three years Gleab of Saffron which they plant much in the North part of the shire the Land for 18. more wil yeeld plenty of Barley without any dung or compost at all and so Saffron again Which Saffron saith Cambden in the month of July every third year when the heads thereof have been plucked up is after twenty days spitted or set again under mould and about the end of September it puts forth a blewish Flower out of the middle whereof hang three red chives of Saffron which are gathered before sun-rise and being plucked out of the Flower are dryed at a soft fire every acre of ground making 80. or 100. weight of moist Saffron which being dryed is some twenty pound Near Tilbury over against Gravesend there are such pits as those spoken of before in Kent of ten fathom deep in a chalky ground and of the same form At the mouth of the Thames lyes the little Isle of Canvey the Mutton whereof is much commended for its sweetness The salt-water about Harwich maketh all their springs brackish At Barklow saith Speed grows an Herb called Dane-wort very plentifully that beareth red Berries which is held by the common people to spring from Danes-blood This Herb is no other then that which Herbarists called Dwarf-Elder it grows in sundry other places of England as namely in the high way between Babchild and Greenstreet at a place called Radfield near Sittingburn in Kent Walfleet in this shire is commended for the excellent Oysters it sends to the City of London In the time of Rich. the 2d in the Eastern Promontory of this County very huge teeth were found and not far from thence in the reign of Qu. Elizabeth extraordinary huge bones were digged up They are thought to have been the bones and teeth of some Elephant buried there by their loving Masters the Romans In the year 1580. at Alhallantide an Army of Miceso over-run the Marshes in Denge-Hundred near Southminster that they eat up the Grass to the very Roots and so poisoned it with their teeth that a great Murrain fel upon the Cattle that grazed there But at length a great number of strange painted Owles came no man knows whence and devoured all the Mice The like vexation was at the same time in Kent saith Stow. It is reported that in 1648. there happened the like again in Essex But of this we have discoursed somewhat largely already in Cornwall SUFFOLK THis County is most of it Clay and rich Marl and the air so good that it is by some Physicians thought to be the best in England especially about Bury It yeelds much Butter and Cheese the Butter excellent good but the Cheese far inferior to that of Cheshire It is thought not without reason that the goodness of the one spoileth the other In the year 1555. saith Speed which was an unseasonable year that the Corn through England was choaked and blasted in the ear such a crop of Peason without tillage or sowing grewin the Rocks between Oxford and Aldbrough where never Grass grew or earth was ever seen but hard Rocks three yards deep under their Roots that in August there were gathered above a hundred quarters and there remained as many more in blossoming Cambden sayes the same but that the Peason grew about the end of September and brought down the price of Corn whereas before there was a great Dearth Query whether there grow not Peason in the same place every year though it may be in wet years such as 1555. proved in Harvest they grow up more

another Lake in this shire called Mahall near a village called Magdalea which if hunters when they and their horses are tired do drink of and give their horses of it though it be in the hottest and most scorching weather they both become presently as fresh as if they had not run at all Likely to be as true as the former Lincolnshire IN this Shire upon the East and South parts the air is thick and foggy because of the Fennes c. yet very moderate and mild and the winds that come from the raging Seas disperse those vapours that they cannot much hurt The North and West part of the shire is fruitfull but the East and South are brackish and fenny yet extraordinary full of Fish and Sea-fowl especially Mallards which they take in August with nets This Shire yieldeth Flax and Alabaster and Plaister which I think is that they call Plaster of Paris or of that kind The ground about Crowland is so rotten that one may thrust a Pole into it thirty foot deep Also The ground in Holland apart of this shire so called is so wet that as one stands upon it the earth will shake under his feet and hee will bee ready to sink into it Nor shall you beside the paved Causeys meet with somuch as a little stone in it Here are also many quicksands which have a wonderfull force both to draw to them and to hold fast that which they have drawn Moreover the people here have no fresh water but only rain water and that in pits Which if they be deep becomes brackish presently And if they be shallow they dry up as soon About Barton upon Humber are abundance of Pewits Godwits Knots which are so called from Cnule the Dane and are thought to have flown hither out of Denmark and Dottrells a sim ple kind of bird much given to imitating These Dottrells are caught by Candle light in this manner The Fowler stands before the bird and if hee put out an arm the bird stretcheth out a wing If hee holds out his head or set forward his leg the bird doth the like and imitates the Fowlers gesture so long till the Fowler drawing nearer and nearer by degrees at length throws his net over him and takes him In the Isle of Axholme grows a sweet kind of Shrub called Galls as also Pets in the Moores I know not what that is and dead roots of Firre wood which in burning give a rank sweet smell Further there have been great and long Firre Trees found both in this Island and at Laughton upon Trent Also there is in this Isle much Flax and Alabaster But the Alabaster is more fit for Plaister then any thing else because it is brittle Shropshire THis County saith Speed hath wholesome temperate air affording health to the inhabitants at all seasons of the year This was verified in old Thomas Parre of Alberbury who was 152 pears old and dyed in the year 1635. The soile is generally fertile standing most upon a reddish clay and yields Pit Coals and Iron At Wenlock in the time of Richard the second was found a rich Mine of Copper Upon Cleehill grows the best Barley in the shire At Pitchford is a Well or Spring in a private mans yard whereon floweth a thick skum of liquid Bitumen which being cleared and taken off one day will have the like again on the morrow Try saith Cambden whether this Bitumen bee good for the falling sickness and have a powerfull property to draw and close up wounds as that in Judaea is known to have There is the like swimming of Bitumen in that lake in Judaea we speak of called Asphaltites supposed to be the place where Sodom and Gomorha stood as also in a standing water about Samosata and in a Spring by Agrigentum in Sicily Where the plot of the City Wroxcester lay the earth is more blackish then elsewhere and bears very good Barley In the year 1551. Aprill the 15. the English sweating sickness brake forth first at Shresbury and so dispersed it self over the whole land and killed abundance especially middle-aged people The first time of this sweating sickness was in the year 1485 saith Cambden a little after a great Conjunction of the Superiour Planets in Scropio The second time but more mildly yet the Plague accompanied it was Anno 1518 being 33 years after it upon a great Opposition of the same Planets in Scorpio and Taurus when it also plagued the Netherlands and high Germany too And the 3 time was 33 years after that again viz. Anno 1551. the year now spoken of when another Conjunction of those Planets in Scorpio took its effects but we must crave leave to tell Cambden that his pretended revolution of 33 years is not so for the middle sweat was not in 1518 as he affirms it but in 1517 as both Godwin and Stow tell us though we confess the Plague was in 1518. So that then there will be instead of 33 and 33 32 and 34. And that which will do this revolution more mischief is that there was a fourth sweat between the years 1517 and 1551 viz. Anno 1528 which Cambden never mentions besides another fift sweat that if I be not mistaken happened before 1517. Moreover whereas Cambden saith that the sweat 1485 was a little after a great Conjunction of the superiour Planets in Scorpio if by the superiour Planets he mean all the three Saturn Jupiter and Mars that was not so For neither did Saturn Jupiter Mars meet in the same degree of Scorpio nor were all the three Conjunctions which these three Planets made at that turn in Scorpio It is true indeed the Conjunction of Saturn Mars was in Scorpio about the 12th degree but it was in November 1483 almost 2 years before that sweat which began in September 1485 And the Conjunction of Saturn Jupiter was in Scorpio too about the 20th degree but that was almost a year before the sweat too viz. about Alhollanday 1484 But as for the Conjunction of Saturn Mars that fell not in Scorpio but about the 25 degree of Libra and about Alhollandtide 1483 not far distant from the time of the Conjunct of Saturn Mars so that the sweat was neither after a Conjunction of the superiour Planets in Scorpio nor a little after any Conjunction of them Again neither was the sweat 1517. upon a great Opposition of the same Planets in Scorpio and Taurus for the opposition of Saturn and Jupiter which happened in Taurus and Scorpio were all three of them in 1513. and 1514. and so was the opposition of Jupiter and Mars in Taurus and Scorp in Novemb. 1513. about the first degree of those two signs And for the opposition of Saturn and Mars and conjunction of Saturn and Mars which we grant happened both in one year and during Saturn his abode in Scorp too they both fell in 1513. the one in March and the other in December following Nor let it startle