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
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
and the strongest hold in all Britain It is well neer compassed about with the Sea and Twede together Upon the West parts of Northumberland the Picts-Wall is in some of the waste ground the Wall is to be seen of great height and almost whole The Roman Britains being continually molested by the often incursions of the barbarous people called Picts The Emperour Severus built a Wall of stone with great wisdome and industry to strengthen the Northern parts of Britain against the many inrodes of the Picts At every miles end of this Wall was a Tower and in the Wall a Pipe of Mettal betwixt the Tower or Sentinel-houses that so soon as a man had set his mouth to this Pipe they might hear through all the Sentinels where the enemy was and so in a short time giving warning from one end of the Wall to the other There are about fourty six Parishes in Northumberland Oxfordshire ON the West-side it joyneth upon Glocestershire on the South which way it runneth out farthest in breadth it is dissevered from Barkshire by the River Isis or Tamis Eastward it bordereth upon Buckinghamshire and Northward where it endeth pointed in manner of a Cone or Pineapple hath Northamtonshire of one side and Warwickshire on the otherside confining with it It is a fertile Countrey and plentifull wherein the plains are garnished with Corn-fields and Medows the Hils beset with Woods stored in every place not only with Corn and Fruits but also with all kind of Game for Hound or Hawk and well watered with fish-full Rivers Hoch-Norton for the rustical behaviour of the Inhabitants in the age afore-going it grew to be a Proverb when folk would say of one rudely demeaning himself and unmannerly after an Hoggish kind That he was born at Hocknorton Woodstock a woody place Here is one of the Kings Houses full of state and magnificence built by King Henry the First who adjoyned also thereunto a very large Park compassed round about with a stone wall which John Rosse writeth to have been the first Park in England Our Historians report that King Henry the Second being enamoured upon Rosamond Clifford a Damsel so fair so comely and well-favoured without comparison that her beauty did put all other women out of the Princes mind insomuch as she was termed Rosa mundi the Rose of the world and to hide her out of the sight of his jealous Juno the Queen he built a Labyrinth in this House with many inextricable windings backward and forward which notwithstanding is no where to be seen at this day She was buried at Godstow with this Epitaph in Rhyme Hic jacet in tumba Rosa mundi non Rosa munda Non redolet sed olet quae redolere solet The Town it self having nothing at all to shew glorieth yet in this that Jeffrey Chaucer our English Homer was there bred and brought up Banbury a fair large Town It is famous for Cheese and Cakes Hanwell where the Family of Cope hath flourished many yeers in great and good esteem Broughton the seat of my Lord Say and Sele Islip the native place of that King Edward whom for his religious piety and continency our Ancestours and the Popes vouchsafed the name of Edward the Confessor Oxford a fair and goodly City whether a man respect the seemly beauty of private houses or the stately magnificence of publick buildings together with the wholsome site or pleasant prospect thereof It was from its situation in ancient times called Bello situm Isidis vadum Saxonice Ouseford Ousenford corrupte Oxford Historia circumfertur adfirmans hanc urbem olim ab amaenitate sitûs Bellositum dictum fuisse Joannes Rossus hinc edoctus hoc idem affirmat Let. Comment in Cygn. Cant. Oxoniensis Universitas Schola secunda Ecclesiae imo Ecclesiae fundamentum Matthew Paris Hist. Angl. pag. 945. In the Councel of Vienna it was ordained that there should be erected Schools for the Hebrew Greek Arabick and Chaldaean Tongues in the studies of Paris Oxford Bonony and Salamanca as the most famous of all others to the end that the knowledge of these Tongues might by effectual instruction be throughly learned Here are 17 Colledges and 7 Hals Dorchester a Town known in times past to the Romans Vide Lel. Commentin Cygn. Cant. Henley upon Tamis The Inhabitants of it for the most part are watermen This County containeth two hundred and eighty Parish Churches Richmondshire IT takes the name from a Castle Most of it lieth very high with ragged Rocks and swelling Mountains whose sloping sides in some places bear good Grasse the bottom and Valleys are not altogether unfruitfull The Hils themselves within are stored with Lead Pit-coal and Copper Nappa an house built with Turrets and the chief seat of the Medcalfs thought to be not long since the greatest Family for multitude of the same name in all England For I have heard that Sir Christopher Medcalf Knight and the top of this kindred being of late High-Sheriff of the Shire accompanied with three hundred men of the same House all on Horse-back and in a Livery met and received the Justices of Assizes and so brought them to York So Camden Bolton-Castle a stately Castle Richmond the chief Town of the Countrey well peopled and frequented Hourby-Castle There are contained in this Shire an hundred and four Parishes besides Chappels Rutlandshire IT is the least County of all England Lying in form almost round like a circle it is in compasse so farre about as a Light-horsman will ride in one day It was called Rutland as one would say Red-land the Earth in this Shire is every where red and so red that even the Sheeps fleeces are thereby coloured red the English-Saxons called Red in their tongue Roet and Rud. Uppingham a place upon an high ascent whence that name was imposed a well frequented Mercat Town The Vale of Catmose a field full of Woods Okeham is in the midst of it so called from Oaks This small Shire hath Parish Churches fourty eight Shropshire ON the East-side it hath Staffordshire on the West Mongomeryshire and Denbighshire on the South-side Worcester Hereford and Radnorshires and on the North Cheshire It is replenished with Towns and Castles standing thick on every side in regard of repelling and repressing the Welshmen in the Marches bordering hereupon Whence our Ancestours by an ancient word named the Confines of this Shire toward Wales the Marches because they were Bounds and Limits between the Welsh and English and divers Noblemen in this Tract were called Barons of the March and Lords Marchers who had every one in their Territory a certain peculiar jurisdiction and in their own Courts ministred Law unto the Inhabitants with sundry Priviledges and Immunities Bishops-Castle so called because it belonged to the Bishops of Hereford whose Diocesse and Jurisdiction was large in this Shire Clun-Castle so called from the River Clun Ludlow it standeth upon an Hill a Town
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
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
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
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
pingues pecudes in macellis veniunt ut non modo universum Cantium hujus locis commoda sentiat verum etiam civitas Londinum non nihil emolumenti inde percipiat Twini Comment. De Rebus Britan. l. 1. p. 31. Priests-Town Or Loncaster from the River Lone Carlton-Curlew They cannot prenounce the letter R. Camd. Brit. And Burtons descript. of Leicestershire Bishop Latimer was also born at Thurcaston in Leicestershire It was so called of the Zouches sometimes Lords thereof Burtons descript. of Leicestershire The largest next Yorkshire It is well stored with all kind of provision it abounds with fish and fowl The roof of the Church is richly guilt Mr John Fox the Authour of the Acts and Monuments was born here There are so many steps in the steeple from the bottom to the top as there are dayes in the years At the George there is one of the fairest Inns of England Lincolnia The greatest Bell of England He was great with Henry the 6th he built a Free-School at Wainflet his name was Patten of the worshipfull family of which he was descended * More than in Yorkshire The chiefest at this day of all the Kings houses A City rather in shew then the Palace of a Prince and for stately port and gorgeous building not inferiour to any in Europe Weavers Monum. * It is most sweetly situate upon the Thames served with all kind of necessaries most commodiously The air health full it is populous rich and beautifull Nordens Speculum Britanniae It is convenient for situation hath a noble Bridge navigable River 2. Strictly governed 3. Opulent hath abundance of all kinds of provision 4. Ancient and enjoyeth many Immunities Of St Pauls Cathedral See Mr Dugdales History and of the Bishops of Pauls Londinum copia negotiatorum commeatu valde celebre Tacitus The Inner-Temple is the mother and most ancient of all the other houses of Court Burtons descript. of Leicestershire Dr Reynolds Sions praises This work viz. the Arches Chappel and stone-bridge over the Thames was thirty three yeers in building Stow. Speeds Chron. Stows and Speeds Chron. in Edw. the 3d. Thomas Greshamus Cives Londinensis Mercator Regius ex ordine Equestri qui patriae ornamento Mercatorum usui Perystillium pulcherrimum Excambiam Regium Elizabetha nominavit Londini extruxit aedes quas in urbe habuit amplissimas bonarum literarum professioni dicavit constitutis in iisdem Sacrae Theologiae Juris Civilis Medicinae Astronomiae Geometriae Rhetoricae praelectionibus cum honestis salariis Camd. Annal. rerum Anglic. pars â—â— p. 286. Vide etiam pag. 189. The new Ex change Monasterium Westmonasteriense Regum angliae inauguratione sepultura Insignium Regalium custodia celeberrimam Camd. Annal. rerum Anglic. par 1o p. 60. Vide plura ibid. Monasticon Anglicanum p 55 c. L. Herb. Henry the 8th Neer hereunto are the two Houses of Parliament Ex infima plebe non pauci reperiuntur quin si nihil litium sit lites tamen ex ipsis Juris apicibus serere calleant Camdenus There are three Churches Vrbs nunc ampla est nobilis florens celebris civitatum omnium secundum Londinum universi Regni Emporium multo maxima augustissimaque Nevilli Norvicus No one Shire of England hath three such Towns as Norwich Linn and Yarmouth Speed There is the earliest Park of England The King was wont to have venison thence before he had it out of his own Parks * Of that and the other famous wayes in England see Burtons Commen on Antoninus his Itinerary through Britain * He was brought up in New-Colledge in Oxford where he proceeded Doctor of Law Petriburgus or Petropolis Ab arborum proceritate in frequentia veprium Lympida Sylva noto satis nomine dicitur Twini Comment. The Nobility and Gentry of the North are of great antiquity and can produce more ancient Families then any other part of England many of them Gentry before the Conquest the rest came in with William the Conquerour * Axelodunum * So called because Robert de Curtois Son of William the Conquerour built there a new Castle out of the ground against the neighbouring Scots Alnevicum In Dunston a little village within the Parish of Emildon Berwicus An hundred miles long Wedgenock Park in Warwickshire is one of the most ancient Parks in England Nunc autem conficiendo Caseo notissimum So Camden Dr Holland englisheth that thus Now the fame of this Town is for Zeal Cheese and Cakes Though that is but an unhandsome conjunction and there is no ground for it in Camden yet in Mr Wheatlyes time to my knowledge it was famous for zeal and I hope is so now Oxonia or Oxonium Quodcunque habuit ab initio nomen pulcherrimum saluberrimum habet situm regionemque omnia necessaria affatim ministrantem bonarumque litterarum celeberrimam scholam ut omnes qui alias Europae Academias adierunt facilè agnoscunt Lhyd. Com. Brit. Descrip Fragment Rutlan-Castle in Wales is so named being built on a shore of red earth Commitatus Salopiensis Salop in Latine Salopia It hath a fair Library and School-house and Brew-house So called from Oswald King of the Northumbers Asserius an ancient Writer calleth this Countrey alwayes Somertunensis that is Somertunshire * Used about Cloath Glastonia Monasterium viderint parentes nostri amplitudine ac magnitudine perpaucis in universa Europa quantum autumo postponendum Godwinus De Conversione Britanniae ad Christianam Religionem Vide plura ibid. Et Monasticon Anglicanum p. 1 2 c. Of Ogo a British word which betokeneth Den Fontanensis Ecclesia Fountain Church Bathonia Vrbs non mode antiqua verum etiam celebris Romanorum Monumentis multis liquidò in muris comparet qua itur à porta meridionali ad borealem Lelandi Comment in Cygneam Cantionem Vide Johnsonum De urbe Thermis Bathonicis A Bishops See and famous Port. In Henry the 7th his time Stephen Gennings Maior of London founded a free Grammar-School there where he was born There is a Corporation So called from Tame the River running beside it Cadaverum Campus The field of dead bodies a number of Christians was there martyred under the Emperour Dieclesian A small Countrey bare and cold it keepeth snow lying upon it a good while A Market Town Dr Lightfoot was born there Southfolk or people in respect of Norfolk Here Bishop Steven Gardiner was born Godw. de Praesul Ang. Comment Stoke Clare the Dukes of Clarence * A large sweet well watered Town a Town in Orchards Here was born Cardinal Wolsey of whom see a pithy description in Herberts Henry the 8th pag. 314 315. See more in Camdens Britania there The Kings Town Regio-dunum Tamesinam sic dictum quod ad Tamesini fluvii ripam situm sit Lel. Kings Kingston upon the Thames so called to distinguish it from Kingston upon Hull in Yorkshire Quanta illic Romanae antiquitaris aemulatio Quantum speciosae picturae Quantum auri Quantum denique omnia genera ornamentorum Diceres Coelum esse stellis interpolatum Lel. Comment in Cygn. Cant. Battersega Nomen loco inditum ut ego conjicio ex cymbis Leland Comment. in Cygn. Cant. A low or clayish rode or hide The Southwork or building because it standeth South ove against London the Suburbs whèreof it may seem in some sort to be In Latine Cicestria Called Seals It is the Shire Town Ripa Baron Buckhurst Sanders Glover and manyother Martyrs suffered in Warwickshire It stands South of Lichfield Coventria quasi Coventus trium a Covent of three sorts of Monks Or rather of an Elephant being not so little as a yard in length Speed See Mr Dugdales Antiq. of Warwickshire illustrated Westmaria Westmorlandia There were Lords also of Kendale From the River Lone Aballaba The Sessions and Assizes are there kept Wiltonia of Wilton sometime the chief Town and of the River Willy Crecolada non insignis olim ut vulgus indoctum somniat Grecanicis scholis Lel. Comment in Cygn. Cant. Vide Burtoni Graec. Ling. hist. p. 52. Et Godwin de Praesul Ang. Comment de Theodoro Archiepisc Cant. p. 61. Cyppanus in the Saxon tongue is to buy and Cyppen a buyer as with us Cheapen and Chapman Sarisburia Roger of Salisbury built this stately Church also The Cathedral was longer in building than the Jews Temple for it was above fifty years in building and do you not think the Founders did intend by proportioning the Doors to the Moneths and the Windows to the Dayes and the Pillars to the Hours of the Year that you should learn this instruction Not a Moneth nay not a Day nay not an Hour should be let passe without something of Religion Mr Annesley on 1 Chron. 12. 32. It had also Bishop Abbot and Davenant Our old Historians termed it for the greatnesse Chorea Gigantum the Gyants dance Our Country-men reckon this for one of our miracles Leporarium Of Marga marle which we use in stead of dung to manure our grounds It lieth near a chaulkie-hill which our Ancestours before they borrowed this name Chaulk of the Latine word Calx named Marle Wigorniensis Comitatus Vnum est satis mirabile quia aqua illa per medium annum est salsa scilicet à nativitate Domini usque ad festum sancti Johannis Baptistae per aliud verò medium temporis est dulcis Sed quod mirabilius est pro illo tempore quo est sali necessaria si non hauritur superfluit per aliud verò temporis vix semper excrescit Gervas in lib. de Ociis imperialibus citatâ—…r Pet. Bechor Reduct Moral l. 13. c. 3. De Anglia Vigornia and Wignornia Some say it is as big as the twelve Counties in Wales The Scots call it Don-Castle from the River Don. Holy-hair The Englishmen dwelling beyond Trent called the hair of the Head Fax There is also a Family in this Countrey of Gentlemen named Fairfax of the fair bush of their Hair Pontefract A French name brought in by the Lacies Normans for the English word of broken bridge Lelands Itinerary * Eboracum Eburacum is derived from the River Vré by Vre or a long the side of Vre See Burtons Comment on Anton. his Itin. p. 60 61. why it is called Eboracum The Kings-Town built by King Edward the First There are also high and low Burton houses Or the North-part of this Countrey
Parishes Buckinghamshire IT brings forth Beech-trees plentitifully which the English Saxons in elder times called Bucken whence Buckingham the chief Town and so the whole Shire took the name from Beech-trees The Countrey generally is of a rich plentifull soil and passing full of inhabitants who chiefly imploy themselves in grazing of Cattel there is store of Mutton and Beef Chiltern got that name according to the very nature of the soile of Chalkie Marle which the ancient Englishmen termed Cylt or Chilt Marlow a pretty Town of no mean credit taking name of the said Chalk commonly termed Marle which being spread upon Corn-ground eaten out of heart with long tillage doth quicken the same again so as that after one yeers rest it never lieth fallow but yeeldeth again to the Husbandman his seed in plentifull measure High Wickham or Wicombe rather from the turning of the River Thames the Germane Saxons term any winding reach of River and Sea a Wick and Comb a low valle This Town for largenesse and fair building is equal to the greatest Town in this Shire and in that it hath a Maior for the Head Magistrate Colbroke-Pontes is parted into four chanels over which stand as many Bridges for the commodity of passengers whence it tooke its name Hamden gave name to an ancient and well spread Family in these parts Some say one of that name was High-Sheriff when William the Conquerour came into England There is part of the House at great Hamden yet standing which hath been built ever since the time of William the Conquerour They have ancient Records one of which runs thus Osbert Hamden Lord of Great Hamden one of the Commissioners for expulsion of the Danes Ailesbury a fair Market Town compassed about with many most pleasant green Medows and Pastures of which the whole Vale is termed the Vale of Ailesbury Ascot the principal mansion house of the Dormers from whence descended the Dutches of Feria in Spain and others of noble note Stony Stratford named so of Stones the Streetway and a Fourd The houses are built of a certain rough stone which is digged forth in great abundance at Caversham hard by and it standeth upon the publick street commonly called Watling-street which was a military high-way made by the Romans and is evidently to be seen yet beyond the Town with the Bank or Causey thereof and hath a ford but now hardly passable Newport-Painel so called of Sir Fulcod Painel the Lord thereof Here are an eleven Market Towns and an hundred and eighty five Parishes Cambridgeshire CAmbridgeshire is famous for fish and fowl Cambridge a most famous Mart and Store-house of good Literature and Godlinesse standeth upon the River Cam which turning into the East divideth it into two parts and hath a Bridge over it whence arose the name Cambridge Neither is there wanting any thing here that a man may require in a most flourishing University were it not that the Air is somewhat unhealthfull arising as it doth out of a fenny ground hard by There are sixteen Colledges in it Saint Ides is one of the famousest Markets of England it serves several Counties The Isle of Ely There are several Etymologies of it given by Camden Ely a Bishops See * the City hath an unwholsome Air by reason of the fens round about although it be seated somewhat higher Hard under Cambridge Eastward neer unto Sture a little brook is kept every yeer in the Moneth of September the greatest Fair of all England whether you respect the multitude of buyers and sellers resorting thither or the store of Commodities there to be vented Neer unto Cambridge on the South-East side there appear aloft certain high Hils called Gogmagog On the top of them is a very large Fort entrenched strengthened with a three-fold Rampire Wisbich amongst Fennes and waters It hath eight Market Towns and an hundred and sixty three Parishes Cheshire IT is very pleasant and plenteous in all things needfull for mans use and therefore had the name of the Vale Royal of England from Edward the First The Grasse and Fodder there is of that goodnesse and vertue that Cheeses are made there in great number of a most pleasing and delicate taste such as all England again affordeth not the like no though the best dayriwomen otherwise and skilfullest in Chees-making be had from hence This Region hath alwayes bred more Gentry than the other Countreys in England For you have not in all England again any one Province beside that in old time either brought more valorous Gentlemen into the field or had more families in it of Knights degree The Breretons Manwarings and Venables are the most noble Families in that County On the South-side it is hemmed in with Shropshire on the East-side with Staffordshire and Darbyshire on the North with Lancashire and on the West with Denbigh and Flintshire The River Dee called in Latine Deva breeding very great plenty of Salmons ariseth out of two fountains in Wales and thereof men think it took the name for Dwy in their tongue signifieth two This River no sooner is entered into Cheshire but it passeth by Banchor a famous Monastery It fostered and brought up as some write the most wicked Arch-heretique Pelagius who injuriously derogating from the grace of God troubled a long time the west Church with his pestiferous Doctrine Prosper Aquitanus in this Verse of his termeth him the British Adder Pestifero vomuit coluber sermone Britannus A British Snake with venemous tongue Hath vomited his poison strong Chester * or West-Chester of the West situation Cestria de castris nomen quasi castria sumpsit This City built in form of a quadrant four square is enclosed with a wall that taketh up more then two miles in compasse and hath eleven Parishes Neer unto the River standeth the Castle upon a rocky Hill built by the Earls where the Courts Palatine and the Assizes as they call them are kept twice a year The Houses are very fair built and along the chief streets are Galleries or Walking-places they call them Rows having shops on both sides through which a man may walk dry from one end to another It is called the County Palatine of Chester because the Earls thereof had Royalties and Princely priviledges belonging to them and all the Inhabitants owed Allegiance and Fealty to them as they did to the King One Hugh Wolf was made Earl of Chester by William the First and the County given him in Fee Tenendum sibi Haeredibus it a vere ad Gladium sicut ipse Rex tenebat Angliam ad Coronam And as the King so he for his Heirs had their Barons by that name specially known King Edgar in magnificent manner triumphed over the British Princes For sitting himself in a Barge at the fore-deck Kennadie King of the Scots Malcoline King of Cumberland Macon King of Mann and of the Islands with all the Princes of Wales
large in compasse fruitfull full of Woods plentifull of Saffron and very wealthy encircled as it were on the one side with the main Sea on the other with Fish-full Rivers which also do afford their peculiar Commodities in great abundance The Air is temperate and pleasant only towards the waters somewhat aguish insomuch that in one Hundred they will ask a stranger merrily Whether the Bayliff of the Hundred hath yet arrested him Waltham Forest of the Town Waltham It was stored very full with Deer that for their bignesse and fatnesse withall have the name above all other Rochford it hath given name to an Hundred It is aguish Rumford the glory whereof dependeth on a Swine Mercat Brent-wood a Mercat Town Engerstone a Town of note for nothing else but the Mercat and Innes for travellers Chensford a good big Town situate in the heart of the Shire between two Rivers Of note onely for the Assizes Cogeshall a Mercate Town Maldon for the number of the Inhabitants and the bignesse it is worthily counted one of the principal Towns in all Essex and in Records named The Burgh of Maldon It is a Haven commodious enough and for the bignesse very well inhabited being but one especial street descending much about a mile in length upon the ridg of an Hill answerable to the termination of Dunum which signified an hilly and high situation Colchester a proper and fine Burrough well traded and pleasantly seated as being situate upon the brow of an Hill stretching out from West to East walled about beautified with several Churches some of which were lately demolished The Inhabitants affirm that Flavia Julia Helena the Mother of Constantine the Great was borne and bred there Harewich a most safe Road whence it hath the name The Town is not great but well peopled fortified by Art and Nature Walden of Saffron * called Saffron Walden among the fields looking merrily with most lovely Saffron A very good Mercat Town Here Sir Thomas Smith Secretary to Queen Elizabeth a wise and learned man was born Audley-end a magnificent House built by the Earl of Suffolk where there is a spacious and very broad Gallery Barrington-Hall where dwelleth that right ancient Family of the Baringtons Lees-Abbey now the Seat of the right Honourable Lord Rich Baron Lees and Earl of Warwick It contains twenty Hundreds one and twenty Market Towns and four hundred and fifteen Parishes Glocestershire ON the West-side butteth on Monmouthshire and Herefordshire on the North on Worcestershire on the East upon Warwickshire and Oxfordshire both on the South with Somersetshire A pleasant Countrey and fruitfull in Corn Wooll Apples and Pears and Severn full of Salmon Commonly through all Glocestershire there is good plenty of Corn Pasture and Wood saving in Coteswold where the great flocks of Sheep be and yet in some places there groweth fair Corn Lelands Itinerary Forest of Dean or Dean-Forest was wholly bespread with thick tall Wood It is between two navigable Rivers Wie and Severn It was a wonderfull thick Forest and in former ages so dark and terrible by reason of crooked and winding wayes as also the grisly shade therein that it made the Inhabitants more fierce and bolder to commit robberies Since that rich Mines of Iron were here found out those thick woods began to wax thinne by little and little Tewksbury It is a great and fair Town having three Bridges to passe over standing upon three Rivers famous for the best Mustard One may carry it in bals a long way Glocester the head City of this Shire It lieth stretched out in length over Severne on that side where it is not watered with the River it hath in some places a very strong Wall for defence A proper and fine City both for number of Churches and for the buildings Above the Quire in an Arch of this Church there is a Wall built in forme of a Semi-circle full of Corners with such an artificial devise that if a man speak with never so low a voice at the one part thereof and another lay his ear to the other being a good way distant he may also hear every syllable Cotswold it took its name of Woulds and Cotes that is Hils and Sheepfolds Here feed in great numbers flocks of Sheep long necked and square of bulk and bone by reason of the hilly and large situation of their pasturage whose Wooll being most fine and soft is had in passing great account among all Nations Barkly honoured with a Castle whereof the Lord Barklies are entituled Camden a Mercat Town well peopled and of good resort Near unto it standeth Weston where there is a fair House which maketh a goodly shew built by Ralph Sheldon for him and his posterity Hales in late time a most flourishing Abbey and deserving commendation for breeding up of Alexander of Hales a great Clerk and so deeply learned above all others in that subtil Divinity of the Schoolmen as he carried away the surname of Doctor Irrefr agabilis the Doctor ungain said as he that could not be gain-said Winchelcomb a great Town and well inhabited Cyrencester a famous Mercat Town both for Corn upon the Monday and for Wooll and Yarn on the Friday Bibery There is a spring under the side of a Hill which is so forcible that it serves to drive a Mill about a stones cast from it Strowd whence the name of Strowdwater where are multitudes of rich Clothiers fair building and famous also for dying of Cloaths by reason of the nature of the water It containeth thirty Hundreds two hundred and eighty Parishes Hantshire ON the West it hath Dorsetshire and Wiltshire on the South the Ocean to bound it on the East it joyneth to Sussex and Surrey and on the North it bordereth upon Barkshire A small Province it is fruitful in Corn rich in plenteous Pasture and for all commodities of sea most wealthy and happy Wools Cloathes and Iron are the general Commodities of this Shire Ringwood a well frequented Mercat Town New-Forest King William of Normandy pulled downe all the Townes Villages Houses and Churches farre and neare cast out the poore Inhabitants and when he had so done brought all within thirty miles compasse or thereabout into a Forest and Harbour for wilde Beasts Hurst-Castle commandeth Seaward every where South-hanton a Town populous rich and beautifull from whom the whole Shire deriveth her name Andover Winchester * in Latin Wintonia a City flourishing even in the Romans times It is indifferently well peopled and frequented having plenty of water by reason of the River conveyed divers wayes into it it containeth about a mile and half in circuit within the Wals which open at six Gates and have every one of them their Suburbs reaching forth without a good way It is adorned with magnificent Churches and a Bishops See There is a fair Colledge which William Wickham Bishop of this See built for a School out of which both for Church
of it they say is healthfull but not so wealthy the middle they account both healthfull and plentifull the lower they hold to be wealthy but not healthy as which for a great part thereof is very moist It is every where almost full of Medows Pastures and Corn-fields abounding wonderfully in Apple-trees and Cherry-trees also the Trees are planted after a direct manner one against another by square most pleasant to behold It hath Villages and Towns exceeding thick and well peopled safe Rodes and sure Harbours for Ships with some veins of Iron and Marle but the Air is somewhat thick and somewhere foggy by reason of vapours arising out of the waters The Revenues of the Inhabitants are greater both by the fertility of the soil and also by the neighbourhood of a great City of a great River and the main Sea This County is enriched with two Cities and Bishops Seas strengthened with twenty seven Castles graced with four of the Kings Houses traded with four and twenty Market Towns and beautified with many stately Buildings Camden in Kent pag. 324. saith The Kentishmen had priviledge to leade the Van in all Battels for their valour shewed against the Danes Amongst our old English the Kentishmen had the honour due to them alwayes of being in the Vant-guard and those of Wiltshire with Cornwall and Devonshire in the Rere which they all might challenge by the continuall worth of their performance Mr. Seldens Preface to his Titles of Honour The Sueuians had anciently prerogative In omni expeditione Regis Teutonici exercitum praecedere primi committere Id. ib. The meaning of that common Proverb Kent and Christendome was that it was famous as Kent and famous as Christendom This was the first of the Kingdoms of the Heptarchy and no one County of England had a King of it self but this They are the most civilized people of the Nation It is plentifull of Fowl and Fish of all sorts Fertile Lands Fruit Grain Wood When William the Conquerour came in the Yeomanry of Kent at Suaves-comb carrying before them in their hands every one a great green Bough representing afarre off a moving Wood yeelded them unto William the Conquerour upon this condition that they might retain their ancient Customs unviolated and especially that which they call Gavelkind that is Give all kinne by which they are not so bound by Copy-hold Customarytenures or Tenant-right as in other parts of England but in manner every man is a Free-holder and hath some part of his own to live upon For Lands of this nature are equally divided among the Male children or if there be no Sonnes among the Daughters By vertue of this also they are at full age and enter upon their Inheritance when they come to be fifteen years old and it is lawfull for them to alienate and make it over to any one either by Gift or by Sale without the Lords consent By this likewise the Sonne though their Parents were condemned for Felony or Murder succeeds them neverthelesse in such kind of Lands After this William the Conquerour that he might more firmly assure to himself Kent which is the very Key of England placed a Constable over Dover-Castle the most important Castle of England and according to the ancient order of the Romans made him also Lord Warden of the Cinque-Ports These be they Hastings Dover Hith Rumney and Sandwich unto which Winchelsey and Rie are joyned as principal Ports and other small Towns as Members Which because they are bound to serve in the Warres by Sea enjoy many great immunities they are free from paiment of Subsidies and from Wardship of their children as touching the body they are not sued in any Court but within their own Towns and of the Inhabitants therein such as they call Barons at the Coronation of Kings and Queens support the Canopies over them yea and have a Table by themselves that day spread and furnished on the Kings right hand And the Lord Warden himself who is alwayes one of the Nobility of most approved trust hath within his Jurisdiction the Authority of Chancellour and Admirall in very many cases and enjoyeth other rights besides Depe-ford a most famous Ship-dock where the Kings Ships are built and such as are decayed repaired there is also a good Store-house and an Incorporation ordained for the use of the Navy Green-wich that is the Green-Creek for the Creek of a River in the old English tongue was called Wic A place of very great name by reason of the Kings House there and because Queen Elizabeth was here borne Barclay the Scot in his Icon animorum commends Green-wich Tower for one of the best Prospects in Europe to see London on the one side the Thames Ships and pleasant Medows on the other Eltham a retiring place likewise of the Kings but unwholsome by reason of the Moor Seven-oke so called as men say of seven exceeding great Oaks now cut down Which commendeth Sir William Sevenok an Alderman of London who being a foundling and brought up here and therefore so named built herein gratefull remembrance an Hospital and a School Dartford upon the River Darent a great Mercat Town well frequented and well watered Graves-end so called as the Gereves-end that is the limit of the Gereve or Reve. A Town as well known as any other in England for the usual passage by water between it and London Henry the Eight raised two Block-houses here and two other opposite on Essex-side Tunbridge the Town of Bridges Maidstone the Shire Town a large fair sweet and populous Town Rochester may glory in her impregnable Fortification by the Navy Royal. Rochester signifies as much as Castrum in rupe the Camp or Station on the Rock All places ending in Chester arise from the ruines of the old Romane Castra Burt. Comment on Antoninus Itin. through Brit. The Island Shepey or the Isle of Sheep It feedeth mighty great Floks of Sheep it is plentifull in Corn but scarce of Woods containeth twenty one miles in compasse Queen-Borough-Castle King Edward the Third built it and so named it in honour of his Queen Tenham the Parent as it were of all the choise fruit Gardens and Orards of Kent and the most large and delightsome of them Thirty Parishes thereabout are replenished with Cherry-gardens and Orchards beautifully disposed in direct lines As for Orchards of Apples and Gardens of Cheries and those of most delicious and exquisite kinds that can be no part of the Realm that I know hath them either in such quantity and number or with such art and industry set and planted Lamb Perambulat of Kent Amongst these is Feversham very commodiously situate Reculver of name for the salt savoury Oisters there dregged and for a Minster The Oisters here do as farre surpasse those of Whitstaple as these do the rest of this Shire in savoury saltnesse Lamb Perambul of Kent Canterbury * the chief City of this County ancient and
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
Alliance is in these parts of great name Chartley there is a Castle Beaudesert the House of the Lord Paget Lichfield This City is low seated of good largeness and fair withall divided into two parts with a shallow pool of clear water which parts notwithstanding joyn in one by the means of two Bridges or Causeys made over that have their sluces to let out the water It was beautified with a very goodly Cathedral Church which being round about compassed with a fair Wall Castle-like and garnished besides with fair Houses of Prebendaries and with the Bishops Palace also mounting upon high with three Pyramids or Spires of stone making an elegant shew and for elegant and proportional building it did yeeld to few Cathedral Churches but is now demolished Burton upon Trent a famous Market the Bridge there hath 38 Arches Blithfield a fair House of the ancient Family of the Bagots Needwood-Forest was very large Moorland so called because it riseth higher into hils and mountains and is less fruitfull which kind of places we call Moors Leek a well known Market Town Wotton a little Countrey Village there lying under Weverhill Wotton under Wever Where God came never This fond Rime the neighbour Inhabitants use of it Yet in so hard a soil it breedeth and feedeth beasts of large bulk and fair spread The River Dow or Dove doth swiftly runne along the most part of the East-side of this County and separateth it from Darbyshire if it chance to swell above the banks and overflow the Medows in April it maketh them so fruitfull that the Inhabitants use commonly to chant this joyfull note In April Doves flood Is worth a Kings good Utcester it is situate upon the side of an Hill with a gentle ascent a Town more rich in gay flowring Medows and in Cattel than fair built Tutbury-Castle in times past large and stately There are accounted an hundred and thirty Parishes in this Shire Suffolk IT hath on the West-side Cambridgeshire on the South the River Stour which divideth it from Essex on the East-side the German-Sea and on the North two little Rivers ouse the least and Waveney which flowing out as it were of the same fountain runne divers wayes and sever it apart from Norfolk It was famous for worthy Ministers in the very beginning of Reformation In the entrance of Queen Elizabeth to the Crown it was moved at the Council-Table Whether it was not dangerous for some Politick respects to alter the Religion before established Sir Nicholas Bacon who was of the County of Suffolk demanded Which was the true Religion acccording to Scripture the Protestant or Popish it being answered the Protestant Leave that to God then said he to defend it It is a large Countrey and full of Havens of a fat and fertile soil unlesse it be Eastward being compounded of Clay and Marle by means whereof there are every where most rich and goodly Corn-fields with Pastures as battable for grazing and feeding of Cattel Great store of Cheeses are there made which to the great commodity of the Inhabitants are vented into all parts of England nay into Germany France and Spain also There are also Woods and Parks New-Market a Town lately built as the very name imports Here lieth out a great way round about a large plain named of this Town New-Market-Heath consisting of a sandy and barren ground yet green withall There are great Ditches called The Devils Ditches St. Edmunds-Bury or Bury a renowned Town A place for situation and wholsomenesse of air so excellent that Camden saith Sol non vidit urbem situ elegantiorem Many of the Gentry live there There are two Churches in one Churchyard where there are Lectures several dayes in the week Here was born Richardus de Bury Bishop of Durham the Governour of Edward the Third when young and famous especially for a work which he entituled Philobiblos in the Preface of which he confesseth Ecstatico quodam librorum amore potenter se abreptum He was well acquainted with Petrark the Italian and other learned men of that age Bradwardine Archbishop of Canterbury and Richard Fitzralph Armachanus Walter Burleigh Robert Halcot and other most famous men of that age were his Chaplains Lidgate a small Village yet in this respect not to be passed over in silence because it brought into the world John Lidgate the Monk whose wit may seem to have been framed and shapen to the very Muses themselves so brightly reshine in his English Verses all the pleasant graces and elegancies of speech according to that age Clare a noble Village it gave name to the right noble Family of the Clares Earls of Clare Sudbury that is the South-Burgh it is populous and wealthy by reason of cloathing there Mont-chensie Nettlested Offton the Town of Off a King of the Mercians Lancham a pretty Mercat Hadley a Town of good note for making of cloaths Higham Bentley Walpet that is the Wolves-pit a Mercat Town Stow and Needham two little Mercat Towns Ipswich * a fair Town resembling a City situate in a ground somewhat low which is the Eye of this Shire as having an Haven commodious enough fenced in times past with a trench and rampire of good trade and stored with wares well peopled and full of Inhabitants adorned with twelve Churches and with goodly large and stately Edifices plentifull in shipping Mendlesham there is a Market and Fair Ufford the seat in times past of Robert de Ufford Earl of Suffolk The roof of this Church and other parts of the Quire are curiously engraven with sundry kinds of Works and Pictures all burnisht and guilt with gold Weevers Ancient Funer Mon. Rendelisham that is Rendils Mansion place Woodbridge a little Town beautified with fair houses Framlingham-Castle a very fair and beautifull Castle fortified with Bank Ditch and Walls of great thicknesse wherein are thirteen Towers and inwardly furnished with buildings right commodious and necessary Parrham a little Town Barons Willoughbey of Parrham Oreford Aldburgh that is the old Burgh or the Burgh upon the River Ald. An Harbour very commodious for Sailers and Fishermen and thereby well frequented Dunwich it lieth now desolate Blithborow a small Town it hath a Mercat and a Fair Southwold a Town well frequented through the benefit of an Haven Wingfield it hath given name to an ancient and renowned Family Dunnington the habitation of the ancient Family of the Rousses Heuningham the residence of a Family of that name of very great Antiquity Halesworth a Mercat Town Hoxon ennobled by reason of King Edmunds Martyrdom Brome there dwelt a long time the Family of Cornwalleis of Knights degree of whom Sir John Cornwalleis was Steward of Edward the Sixth his houshold while he was Prince and his Sonne Sir Thomas for his wisdom and faithfulnesse became one of the Privy-Councel to Queen Mary and Controller of her Royal House Eaye an Island Beddingfield it gave the name to an ancient
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
Such barren places the Northern Englishmen call Moors and West-moreland is a Western-moorish Countrey It is bounded on the West and North-side with Cumberland on the East with Yorkshire and the Bishoprick of Durrham The Barony of Kendale and Candale of the River Can which running thorow upon stones cutteth thorow it Kendale-Kirke by Kendale a Town of very great Trade and resort with two broad and long streets crossing the one over the other and a place for excellent cloathing and for industry so surpassing that in regard thereof it carrieth a great name For the Inhabitants have great traffique and vent of their wollen Cloaths throughout all parts of England In the River Can are two water-falls where the waters have a downfall with a mighty noise Kirkby-Lonsdale whither all the people round about repair to Church and Mercat Wharton-Hall the seat of the Barons Wharton Kirkby-Stephen a Mercat Town well known Musgrave there are two little Villages of that name which gave name unto that martial and warlick Family of the Musgraves Burgh under Stanemore a small poor Village fenced with a little Fortresse Apelby memorable for its antiquity and situation onely It standeth in a pleasant site encompassed for the most part with the River Eden for its antiquity it deserves to be counted the chief Town of the Shire The Castle is the common-Goal for malefactours Whellep-Castle Brougham In this Shire are contained six and twenty Parishes VViltshire IT is altogether a mediterranean or midland Countrey It is enclosed with Somersetshire on the West Berkshire and Hampshire on the East on the North with Glocestershire on the South with Dorsetshire and a part of Hampshire A region which as it breedeth a number of warlike and hardy men who in old time with Cornwall and Denshire together challenged by reason of their manhood and martial prowesse the prerogative of the English Army of that Regiment which should second the main Battel so it is exceeding fertile and plentifull of all things yea and for the variety thereof passing pleasant and delightsome Wansdike a Dike of wonderfull work cast up for many miles together The Saxons made it as a limit to divide the two Kingdom of the Mercians and West-Saxons asunder For this was the very place of Battel between them while each strove one with another to enlarge his Dominions Greeklade so called of Greek Philosophers as some are ready to believe who as the History of Oxford reporteth began there an University which afterwards was translated to Oxford Camdens Britan. This though Leland dislikes other learned men approve See M. Seldens Illustrat of Draytons Polyolb High-worth highly seated and well known Wood-Town or Wotton-Basset It hath his primitive name from Wood the addition proves that it belonged to the noble House of the Bassets Malmesbury a very neat Town and hath a great name for cloathing See Monasticon Anglicanum p. 49. of the Monastery here Maidulphi Urbs that is Maidulphs City and afterwards short Malmesbury Aldelme the chief of Maidulphs Disciples being elected his Successour built there a very fair Monastery and was himself the first Abbot thereof He was canonized a Saint and on his Festival day there was here kept a great Fair at which usually there is a Band of armed men appointed to keep the peace among so many resorting thither He was the first of the English Nation who wrote in Latine and that taught Englishmen the way how to make a Latine Verse Primus ego in Patriam mecum modò vita supersit Aonio rediens deducam vertice Musas This Monastery among other famous Clerks great Scholars brought forth William surnamed thereof Malmesburiensis unto whom for his learned industry the History of England both Civil and Ecclesiastical are deeply indebted Colne an old little Town situate upon a stony ground having in it a fair Church to commend it Chippenham of note at this day for the Market there kept There is now nothing worth the sight but the Church built by the Barons Hungerford as appeareth every where by their Coats of Armes set up thereon Cosham a little Village Castle-Comb an old Castle Leckham the possession of the noble Family of the Bainards Lacock a Monastery The Castle De Vies the Devizes built by Roger Bishop of Salisbury He built also the Castle of Malmesbury and Shireburn Trubridge that is a sure and trusty Bridge in great name and prosperity by reason of cloathing and sheweth the remains of a Castle Bradford so named of a broad Ford Long-Leat the dwelling place of the Thins a very fair neat and elegant house in a foul soil Maiden-Bradley A Maiden infected with the Leprosie founded an house here for Maidens that were Lepers Stourton the seat of the Lords Stourton so called of the River Stour Werminster exceeding much frequented for a round Corn-Market Sarisbury-Plains they are but rarely inhabited and had in late time a bad name for robberies there committed Heitesbury an ancient Mansion place of the Family of Hungerford Yanesbury-Castle a very large warlike Fence or Hold fortified with a deep and double Ditch Wardour a proper fine Castle Hindon a quick Market Wilton so called from the River Willey a place well watered and sometime the head Town of the whole Shire which thereof took the name It is now a small Village having a Maior for the head Magistrate and in it a fine House of the Earls of Pembroke Salisbury There is a stately and beautifull Minster which with an exceeding high spired Steeple and double crosse-Isles on both sides The Windows in the Church as they reckon them answer just in number to the dayes the Pillars great and small to the hours of a full yeer and the gates to the twelve Moneths Mira Canam Soles quot continet annus in unâ Tam numerosa ferunt aede fenestra micat Marmoreasque capit fusas tot ab arte columnas Comprensas horas quot vagus annus habet Totque patent portae quot mensibus annus abundat Res mira at verâres celebrata fide Daniel Rogers It hath a Cloister for largenesse and fine workmanship inferiour to none whereunto joyneth the Bishops Palace a very fair and goodly house and on the other side a high bell Tower and passing strong withall standing by it self apart from the Minster every street is watered It is the second City in all this Tract well inhabited and frequented plentifull of all things especially of Fish adorned with a very stately Market place wherein standeth their common Hall of Timber work a very beautifull Edifice It boasteth chiefly of John Jewel long since Bishop there a wonderfull great and deep Divine a most stout and earnest maintainer of our Reformed Religion against the Adversaries by his learned Books Clarindon a very large and goodly Park very fit for the keeping and feeding of wild beasts About six miles from Salisbury in the Plains before named is to be seen a
the River Dert The mouth is the place where any River finds a passage out either into the Sea or into another greater River which in Latine is termed ostium or a gate Septem ostia Nili Seven mouths by which it fals into the mediterranean This gave the name to many Cities and Towns in England as Dartmouth Plimmouth Portsmouth Yarmouth Weymouth Axmouth with many others Carpenters Geog. l. 2. ch. 9. In Latine Exonia Ptolomee calleth it Isca Bartholomaeus qui quod in lucem editus esset Exoniae quae civitas antiquitus Isca dicitur appellata Iscanus est cognominatus in Exoniensem Episcopum consecratus fuit in utraque Philosophia tam humana scilicet quam divina vir non mediocriter eruditus Godw. de Praesul Ang. Comment Berstable upon the Taw navigable here for great vessels See Carpenters Geog. l. 2. c. 15. the famous men of Devonshire Durnovaria the River passage or Ferry Camden Fons limpidus or clarus Pure fountain or clear Well Bishoprick of Durham Durham Dunelmensis civitatis Ecclesiae indita est appellatio à Dun quod montem Holm quod lingua Saxonica insulam amnicam significat quia Coquedus fluvius per Maeandrum in se quasi reductus montem ab omni ferè parte circumluit quasi insulam molitus in quo Dunelmum Anglice Durham situm est Godwin de Praesul Ang. Comment It is famous for the Ministry Dike of Epping and Rogers of Dedham whose picture is therein the Church An ancient Colony of the Romans called Camalodunum The chiefest Town of the Shire Many have thought it was so called from a Colony in the Râ—man time placed there rather from Coln the River whereon it stands as Lincolne from the River Lune Burtons Commentary on Antoninus his Itinerary through Britain It is famous for Oisters and candied Eringoroots and Cloth * Crocum ad cor exhilarandum sedandos dolores utile cujus fortasse non est ubique terrarum quà m in agris Essexio Suffulcio Cantabrigienfi tam uber proventus Twini de Rebus Britan. Comment. lib. 2. pag. 138. It had this name of Dean a little Town adjoyning A Bishops See Either that the Normans might have more secure arrival into England or for the pleasure he took in hunting Antona australis Northampton Antona Borealis so called for the South situation of it * Its situation is fruitfull and pleasant in a Valley under Hils Wina Wintoniensis primus extitit Antistes neque tamen civitati nomen dedit quod stolide satis nonnulli augurantur Ab antiquis Britannis Caerguentia olim apellata quasi Civiras Guenta à Saxonibus quod idem sonat Wentchester Wentancester Wintoncester nuncupata est unde nostra Wintonia Godw. De Praesul Arg. Comment Vrbs vini vel vinifera quasi dicas munitio vel fortificatio ubi crevit optimum vinum in Britannia appellata est Celebris fuit haec civitas olim Arthurii procerum mensa rotunda occidentalium Saxonum regia sepulchris Episcopali sede lanarum custodia mercatu Henrici tertii favore frequenti praesentia instructissimo Wickami Episcopi Collegio Twini De Rebus Britannic Comment. lib. 2. pag. 116 117. Vectis Insula forma Ovo simillima à littore alibi septem alibi duobus passuum millibus distans Neoportus unicum insulae Emporium Est Castrwn Caerbro id est Cassium tractus antiquitatem Britannicam referens Lhyd. Comment Britann descript. Fragmentum Nobilissima Lisleiorum familia D'or au chef d' azur trois lyons rampans del premier Ex hac gente nonnulli olim ad Comitia Parliamentaria cum reliquis Regni Barâ—nibus evocati fuerunt Bissaei Notae in Uptonum p. 48. This and Monmouthshire have been now long reckoned among the Counties of England * There are sundry sweet and fresh Rivers the chiefest whereof are the Wye Lug and Manow A Bishops See Godwin de Praesulibus Ang. saith it is reported that Bradwardine was here born Vide R. Usseri de Britannic Eccles. primord cap. 7. L. Herberts Henry the 8th See Monasticon Anglicanum Howe 's Chron. Lamb Perambulat of Kent See Kilbourns Surveigh of Kent p. 2. Cantium quod amaenissima humanissima Britanniae habita semper fuit provincia ad austrum Solemque Orientem Oceano Germanico ad aquilonem uberrimo Thamesi fluvio ad Occidentem Surra ac Sussexia provinciis quas Angli comitatus appellant cingitur Haec agrorum feracitate faecunda populoque generoso ac potenti referta plures urbes villasqae in locis ob aquas sylvas vicinas humanae habitationi commodioribus condidit ob maritimos portus quas multos habet peregrinorum consuetudine Galliaeque vicinitate magis {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} quam reliquae hujus Insulae regiones à Scriptoribus perhibetur Quibus item rationibus moribus cultier opibus ditior jure existimatur Antiquitates Britannieae pag. 33. Britannos Caesar maximè Cantios longè omnium humanissimos vocat eam humanitatem illis fraudi fuisse belli Caesariani causam extitisse apparet quod praesidia Gallis Caesaris hostibus submiserint eos adventantes subinde amico ac peropportunos profugio exceperint Humfredus De Nobil. lib. 2. Not that Kent was conceived distinct from Christendome Kilburns Survey of Kent p. 5. It is agreed by all men that there were never any bondmen or villains as the Law calleth them in Kent Lamberts Perambulat of Kent The tenures of Land here are as free tenures as any in England The father to the Bough and the son to the Plough Oppidum Winchilseum olim vento frigori ponto obnoxium unde ei nomen obvenit Twini Comment. De Rebus Brittanuicis lib. 1. pag. 25. A Bishops See * Durovernum olim nunc Cantuaria Cantuaria urbs est Archiepiscopalis Metropolitica quae ut antiquitate it a peramaena situs jucunditate multis Angliae urbibus sed dignitate praefertur Nam Cantuariensis Archipraesul totius Angliae primatum obtinet Georgius Bruin in Tabulis urbium Praecipuarum totius mundi A Bishops See See Mr Somner of Canterbury * Mr John Ludd Haywards Life of William the 2d Dubris One of the Cinque Ports A Dovero ad Caletum maritimum ex altera parte in Gallia oppidum secundis ventis spirantibus quatuor horis brevissimus fit trajectus Antiqu. Britann One of the Cinque Ports It containeth 24000 Acres Lamb Perambul of Kent Quis quaeso hodiè credat magnam partem illius prati sivè Planiciei nobis nunc Rumnensis marshii id est Romani maris nomine dictae fuisse quondam altum Pelagus mare Velivolum Vbi tot ovium greges oberrant tot pecorum armenta pascuntur tot juga bovum arant tanti foeni copia qvotannis conficitur tot templa in divinum cultum construuntur tot familiae foventur denique unde tot