Neptune in Holland which is one of the grand Divisions in Lincolnshire Lincolnshire This County is of a large extent and in most places very fertile and rich in Cattel it stretcheth out it self no less than Threescore Miles in length and above Thirty in breadth and is divided into three Portions called by the Names of Holland Kesteven and Lindsey Holland Holland so called as some would have it from Hay which our Ancestors broadly term Hoy is divided likewise into two parts the Higher and the Lower the Lower is a very moist and watery Soil troublesom for its deep Fens annoyed frequently with Quagmires which in Summer-time are so soft and pliable that they will shake under a Man's Feet who will be ready to sink into them as he stands upon them in that Season it is all over covered with Sheep as in the Winter with Water at which time there is such a vast plenty of Fish and Fowl that many poor People thereabouts make a good Livelihood by catching of them But as the Incomes are great and the Profits considerable of most Persons who inhabit these Fens so are there some Inconveniences which are no less intolerable for their Cattle being commonly a good distance from their Houses they are forc'd in the Winter when they go either to Fodder or Milk them to betake themselves to their little Boats which they call Skirries carrying usually two a-piece and may be compared to an Indian Canoo and by these convey themselves from place to place as occasion requires and because their Ground lies very low and flat and East-ward adjoins to the main Ocean lest at any time it should be overflown by any sudden Inundations as in stormy Weather it too frequently happens they fence in their Lands with great Piles of Wood and mighty Banks well lined and ramm'd down against the Violence of the Waves and are forced to keep Watches with great care and diligence as against the Approaches of a most dangerous Enemy and yet notwithstanding all their vigilance and forecast they can scarce with the strongest Barricadoes they can prepare defend themselves from the violent Incursions and Outrages of the Sea Here is great plenty of Flax and Hemp and in all these Parts many thousands of Sheep are fatted for the slaughter but of good Bread and Water which are the staff of Life as great a scarcity for the Water is generally brackish and ill relished and the Bread as little pleasing and toothsom being made for the most part of Pease and Oats which yet goes down as favourily with the Peasants as if it had been moulded of finer Flour Nor are their Dormitories any more pleasing or delightful for all the Summer long there are continually such swarms of stinging Gnats and other troublesom Flies throughout all these Quarters that a Stranger can find but a very unhospitable Lodging and Reception amongst those little buzzing Misanthropical Animals Being loth therefore to lie at the mercy of such Enemies or to come within the reach of their Bloody Inquisition we made all the haste we conveniently could their troublesom Territories to Boston which lying within the Precincts of Higher Holland we hoped to find more safe and inoffensive Boston This is a famous Town situated upon the River Witham more properly named Botolph's Town from a great Saint Botolph who had here formerly a Monastery 't is a place of great Note and Repute for Merchandize for the Sea flowing up the River causeth a very commodious Haven so that many times here lie a Fleet of Ships which convey down Goods hither from all Parts and the Mart which is kept here yearly doth much enrich the Town with all sorts of Commodities There are fair and beautiful Houses seated on both sides of the River over which is built a wooden Bridge of a great height for the more easie converse and entercourse of the Inhabitants The Market-place is fair and large and on Market Days well stored with all kind of Provisions and the Church being a most curious and stately Fabrick is chiefly remarkable for its towring Steeple which hath as many steps in it from the top to the bottom as there are Days in the Year and doth not only salute all Travellers at a great distance but is a good Sea-mark and Direction to all Sailors And it seems the Lady Margaret Countess of Richmond and Darby of whose great Munificence I have formerly spoken had a great kindness and esteem for this place for the Margaret Preacher from Cambridge doth usually once in two Years come hither to give the Inhabitants a Sermon for which service there is a particular Salary left in Legacy by that Lady And whatever Damages it sustained formerly by the sudden Incursion of some bold and insolent Ruffians who coming clad cunningly in the Habits and Garb of Monks and Friars broke into Merchants Houses and plundered and pillaged them and set Fire to the Town in sundry places in the time of Edward the First so that as our Chronicles tell us Gold and Silver which was melted in the Flames ran down in as rapid a stream as the like and other Metals did at the Sacking of Corinth yet it hath since retrieved its Wealth and recovered its strength for the Inhabitants addicting themselves either to Merchandize or Grazing or both have reduced it to a very opulent and flourishing Condition and 't is now governed by a Mayor and Aldermen by whose prudent Conduct and Government it may in all probability long continue in that prosperous Estate In the Coat of Arms for the Corporation there are three Crowns relating to the three Kingdoms the Crest a Ram lying upon a Wooll-Sack the Ram signifying the great Sheep-walks in the Fens round about and the Wool-Sack that it was a Staple Town the Supporters of the Coat are two Maremaids signifying that it was a Port Town Reposing our selves here one Night the next Day we travelled further into the Country and passing over some part of the Fens we came within the limits of the second part of the County called Kesteven where as the Air is far more sweet and wholesome so the Soil is no less rich and fruitful to a small Market Town named Sleeford Sleeford of little account except it be by reason of an ancient Castle built formerly by Alexander Bishop of Lincoln or a House which was erected by Sir John Hussey who in King Henry the Eighth's Days lost his Head And from hence coming to Lindsey the other part which is a Champaign Heath Country we arrived at Lincoln the most eminent Place and City of this County Lincoln This is the City which Ptolemy and the Emperour Antoninus called Lindum the Britains saith Rudborne Caerludecote and Bede Linde-Collina Civitas whether from its Situation upon a very high Hill or in that it was an ancient Colony is not material to enquire certain it is a great place of Antiquity and the Remains of old Walls and
Countries in England and taking its Name both from its Situation and the great number of Moors in it 'T is likewise a Hilly Country two ridges of high Hills crossing it as far as Cumberland which besides their Northern Situation sharpen the Air and make it less Subject to Fogs and Vapours then many other Counties by reason of which the People are free from strange and infectious Diseases being healthful and living generally to great Ages but in the Southern parts of it it is more fruitful and pleasant In this County near the River Lowther Piramidal Stones near the Lowther is a Spring that Ebbs and Flows many times in a Day and in the same place there are huge Pyramidal Stones some nine Foot high and thirteen Foot thick pitched directly in a row for a Mile together Cataracks near Kendale and placed at equal distances from each other and in the River Ken near Kendale are two Cataracks or Water-falls where the Waters descend with a great and mighty noise and when that which standeth North from the Neighbours living between them sounds clearer and lowder than the other they certainly look for fair or foul Weather to follow but when that on the South-side doth so they look for Foggs and Showers of Rain Appleby We arrived at Appleby a Town in this County memorable for its Antiquity and Situation having formerly been a Roman Station and standing very pleasantly being almost encompassed with the River Eden over which it has a Stone Bridge but so slenderly inhabited and the Buildings so mean that all the Beauty of it lies in one mean Street which riseth with a gentle ascent in the upper part whereof stands the Castle and in the nether end the Church and by it a School which Robert Langton and Miles Spencer Doctors of Law founded for the advancement of Learning That this Castle was surprized by William King of Scots a little before himself was taken Prisoner at Alnwick our Chronicle-inform us but King John having afterwards recovered it from the Scots bestowed it out of his Princely Favour upon Robert Vipon for some singular services he had done to him and the State Burgh under Stanemoor Six Miles further lies Burgh commonly called Burgh under Stanemoor which though now but a poor small Village was in all probability the place where stood the antient Town Vertera in which in the declining Age of the Roman Empire the Band of the Directores kept their Station which Opinion is the more likely becase the distance thereof from Levatra or Bows on the one side and Brovonacum or Appleby on the other being reduced to Italian Miles do exactly agree with Antonines Computation as Cambden observes out of his Itinerary and further for that the High-street of the Romans as is yet evidently apparent by the Ridges thereof leads this way directly to Brovonacum or Appleby But besides this there is nothing here remarkable at all excepting only that in the beginning of the Norman government the Northern English conspired here first against William the Conquerour and that the most Heroick King Edward the First died here of a Dysentery A. D. 1307. and was buried at Westminster When we were past Burgh we began to climb that hilly and solitary Country exposed to Wind and Weather Stanemoor which because 't is all Rocky and Stony is called in the Northern Dialect Stanemoor and here round about us we beheld nothing but a rough wide mountainous Desart save only a poor homely Hostelry rather than an Inn in the very midst thereof called the Spittle on Stanemoor to entertain Travellers and near to it a Fragment of a Cross which we call Rere-Cross Rere-Cross and the Scots Re-Cross i. e. the King 's Cross which formerly served as a Land-mark betwixt the two Kingdoms the same being erected upon a Peace concluded between William the Conquerour and Malcolm King of Scots with the Arms of England on the South-side and those of Scotland on the North and a little lower upon the Roman High-way stood a small Fort built four-square which they called the Maiden Castle from whence as the Borderers reported the said High-way went with many Windings in and out as far as to Carevorran in Northumberland After we had made a shift to scramble over these Mountains we found a little Village on the other side called Bows Bows the same which I observed before Antonine calls Levatra in which was formerly a small Castle belonging to the Earls of Richmond where in was a certain Custom called Thorough Toll and their Jus furcarum i. e. power to hang c. Through this place lies the Road to Richmond Richmond the chief Town hereabouts encompassed with a Wall out of which are three Gates now well peopled and frequented It was built upon the Norman Conquest by Alan Earl of Bretagne who reposing small trust in Gilling a place or manner of his own hard by to withstand the Violence of the Danes and English whom the Normans had despoiled of their Inheritance fenced it with a Wall and a Castle which standing upon a Rock looks down upon the Swale over which it has a Stone bridge which River was reputed Sacred by the ancient English for that Paulinus the first Arch-Bishop of York Baptized in it in one Day above Ten thousand Men besides Women and Children and then gave it the Name of Richmond as a place of Strength and Beauty Here is held a great Market to the benefit of the Country who expose to Sale great quantities of Stockings which being bought up at cheap Rates are afterwards sent into other parts of the Nation This Town gives name to five Wapentakes or Hundreds within its Jurisdiction from hence called Richmond-shire Richmondshire a wild and hilly tract of Ground but yielding good Grass in some places the Hills are stored with Lead Coals and Copper and on the tops or surface thereof are found many times Stones like Sea Winkles Cockles Muscles and other Fish which saith Cambden are either natural or else are the Relicts of Noah's Flood petrified Orosius speaks as much of Oysters of Stone found upon Hills far from the Sea which have been eaten in hollow by the Water in all likelyhood these stone Fishes are of the same kind which some Naturalists have discovered at Alderby in Glocester-shire and I my self have since taken up upon the high Cliffs near Folk-stone in Kent which I shall describe more particularly when I come to speak of that place But to return on our way out of Richmond-shire we made an entrance into the West-Riding of York-shire where we were first saluted by Rippon Rippon situated upon the River Vre which divides the North and West-Riding and is full of Crea-Fishes the breed whereof as they say was brought out of the South parts by Sir Christopher Medcalfe It received all its Dignity and ancient renown from a Monastery built here A. D. 660. by Wilfrid Arch Bishop
Spring is later in Cornwall than in the East Parts of England the Summer temperate but Harvest late especially in the middle of the Shire where they seldom get in their Corn till Michaelmas The Winter is milder than elsewhere for the Frost and Snow come very seldom and never stay long when they do come But this Country is much subject to Storms lying as I said open to the Sea so that their Hedges are pared and their Trees Dwarf-grown and the hard Stones and Iron Bars of Windows are fretted with the Weather one kind of these Storms they call a Flaw and so indeed in some Countrys they call any Storm of Wind which is a mighty Gale of Wind passing suddenly to the Shore with great violence This Country is Hilly which is one cause of the temperate Heat of the Summer and the lateness of Harvest even as its Maritime Situation is the cause of the gentleness of Winter Hilly I say parted with short and narrow Valleys the Earth is but shallow underneath which is Rocks and Shelves so that 't is hard to be Tilled and apt to be parched by a dry Summer The middle of the Shire lies open the Earth being of a blackish colour and bears Heath and spiry Grass there is but little Meadow Ground but store of Pasture for Cattel and Sheep and plenty of Corn. They have a Stone called Moor-stone found upon Moors and wast Ground which serves them instead of Free-stone for Windows Doors and Chimneys it is white with certain glimmering Sparkles They have a Stone digged out of the Sea Cliffs of the colour of grey Marble and another Stone black as Jet and out of the Inland Quarries they dig Free-stone They have a Slate of three sorts Blue Sage-leaf coloured and Grey which last is the worst and all these Slates are commonly found under another kind of Slate that they Wall with when the depth hath brought the Workmen to the Water They also make Lime of a kind of Marble-stone either by burning a great quantity together with Furze or with Coal in small Kilns which is the cheaper way but the first Lime is always the whitest For Metals they find Copper here in sundry Places and the Ore is sometimes shipped off to be refined in VVales And though Cicero will have none in Britain yet Silver hath been found in this County in the time of Edward the First and Third who reaped good profit by it nay Tinners do now and then find little quantities of Gold and sometimes Silver amongst the Tin Ore but for the generality the Metal that the Earth abounds with here is Tin which they discover by certain Tin-stones which are something round and smooth lying on the Ground which they call Shoad In their Tin-works amongst the Rubbish they find sometimes Pick-Axes of Holm Box and Harts-horns and sometimes little Tool-heads of Brass and there was once found a Brass Coin of the Emperor Domitian's in one of the Works an Argument that the Romans wrought in those Tin-Mines in times past Richard Earl of Cornwall Brother to Henry the Third was the first that began to make Ordinances for these Tin-Works and afterward Edmund his Son granted a Charter and certain Liberties and prescribed withal certain Laws concerning the same which he ratified and strengthned under his Seal and imposed a Rent or Tribute upon Tin to be paid unto the Earls these Liberties Privileges and Laws King Edward the Third afterward confirmed and augmented On Hengsten-Down a little above Plimouth are found Cornish Diamonds wanting nothing but hardness to make them valuable being of great Beauty some of them as big as a Nut and which is most admirable ready shaped and polished by Nature and in some Places on the Sea Coasts there are Pearls found that breed in Oysters and Muscles which though they are great are yet not very good here is also sometimes Agat and white Coral as they report It is likewise very famous for those little Fish which they call Pilchars swarming in mighty great Shoals about the Shore from July to November when being taken and garbaged and salted and hanged up in smoak they are in infinite numbers carried over into France Spain and Italy where they are very welcom Commodities and are called there Fumados Taking our leave of these Parts and returning by Ashburton a noted Market Town Ashburton we came back to Exeter where passing away the time with some Friends we met with there till the Assizes were over we departed for Honniton Honniton a Town not unknown to such as travel into the West from whence passing through Axminster Axminster called by the Saxons Exan-minster from the River Axi which runs by it a place famous for the Tombs of some Saxon Princes who were slain in the bloody Battel at Bennaburg and translated hither we came quickly into Dorsetshire Dorsetshire a fertile County well shaded with Woods enriched with Pasture and covered with innumerable Flocks of Sheep where coasting along by the Sea side Lyme Lyme was the first Place of Note which here appeared to us to which there is a very troublesom access by reason of its Situation under a high and steep Rock This Town though it was formerly a poor Receptacle for Fisher-men is of late Years reduced to a more flourishing Condition the Houses which are built of Stone and covered with Slate stand thick and in that part which lies near to the Sea they are sometimes washed ten or twelve Foot high to the great damage of the lower Rooms Here is a little kind of Harbour called the Cobb which being sufficiently defended from the Violence of Wind and Weather with Rocks and high Trees which hang over it doth cause many Vessels to put in hither for shelter 'T is a Corporation governed by a Mayor but of late Years for nothing more famous than that it was the landing Place of James the late Duke of Monmouth who landing here with a few Forces out of Holland was quickly defeated and himself brought shortly after to a very Tragical end Bridport Six Miles farther we saw Bridport placed betwixt two small Rivers that there met together in this Town saith Cambden in the Days of Edward the Confessor were reckoned an Hundred and twenty Houses but in William the Conqueror's Reign One hundred and no more it is now in great Vogue for yielding the best Hemp and the great Skill of its Inhabitants in twisting Cables for the Royal Navy for the Monopoly of which they had once a peculiar Patent granted them Here was formerly an Alien Priory dedicated to St. John Baptist From hence the Shore after several crooked flexures shooteth forth into the Sea and a Bank of Sand called Chesil heaped up thick together with a narrow Frith between lies in length for nine Miles which the South Wind when it is up they say commonly cuts in sunder and dissperseth but the Northern Wind binds and hardens again By this Bank
as they have made in other Countries this may be sufficient to inform them That there is not any thing worth our Wonder Abroad whereof Nature hath not written a Copy in our own Island And it cannot be too frequently observed that as Italy has Virgil's Grotto and the Sybil's Cave by Puteoli so England hath Ochy-Hole by Wells and Pool's by Buxton We have Baiae at the Bath the Alps in Wales the Spaw in Yorkshire Asphaltites at Pitchford in Shropshire the Pyramids at Stonehenge Pearls of Persia in Cornwall and Diamonds of India at St. Vincent's Rock Besides we have the 〈◊〉 of ancient and famous Castles and Garrisons Fortresses and Bulwarks Rampires and Trenches where as great Sieges have been made as remarkable Battels fought and as noble Atchievements performed as in any other Places in Europe which have been eminent for the Seats of War to which if we add divers Roman High-ways and Causeys with various Coins and Medals of great Antiquity variously dispersed about the Kingdom it will not stoop to any neighbouring Nation for such admirable Curiosities So that since England is not destitute of those many taking Things which all Travellers so passionately admire Abroad it is very incongruous to pretend to be acquainted with other Countries and to be Strangers to their own which is an Epitome of all other and which upon all these as well as other Accounts may very justly claim and challenge as a due Debt all those glorious Elogies which both Ancient and Modern Writers have conferred upon it And having thus briefly declar'd the main Design and Scope of this Narrative I shall neither Complement my Reader into its acceptance nor trouble my self to make any Harangue in Apologizing for its Contrivance for as for all Candid Persons I question not but their Censures will be as favourable as their Humours ingenuous And as for such snarling Criticks and carping Momus's of the Age who can sooner find a Fault than mend it I am sure most complemental Apologies will never work in them Candour or good Nature I shall therefore endeavour to Arm my self against all their Cavils with the excellent Advice of the wise Moralist Mimnermus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In English thus Attempt brave things then set your Heart at rest Let not the sensless Mob disturb your Breast If some speak ill on purpose for to teaze you Others will speak the best and let that please you J. B. AN ACCOUNT OF Mr. BROME'S Three Years TRAVELS OVER England Scotland and Wales A Narrative of his first Journey WHen the Spring had rendred the Roads passable and the Country was a fitting Entertainment for Travellers the Gentlemen whose Names I have given my self the Honour of Inserting in the Title were pleased to take me for their Companion in order to have a View of those Places which were under the same Government with the City from whence they set out and which it was not Improper to be acquainted with before they made a Visit to Nations more â—ote And since it is but natural for the Inhabitants of other Countries to be as inquisitive after our Scituation and Establishment as we are after Theirs we could not but endeavour to provide our selves with an Answer by the Knowledge of our own Country's Constitution before we had occasion to ask Questons in Relation to those of others As these were the Reasons which occasion'd our Journey so we took a time in which it was agreeable to make one The Season of the year push'd us forward and the delights which it afforded were motives enough to persuade us to take leave of the Glorious City of London which is Caput Gentis and an Epitome of England Middlesex We took our Journey through Middlesex a Country famous for its goodly Edifices as well wisely compacted together upon the pleasant Banks of Thames as likewise for divers stately and magnificent Palaces dispersed in several other parts thereof Uxbridge to Vxbridge anciently Woxbridge seated on the Colne which parts it from Buckinghamshire a Town Built of late times well stored with Inns and of a considerable length This was the place famous in the Year 1644. for a Treaty held betwixt King Charles the First and the Parliament where after several Debates by Commissioners on both sides the Treaty of Peace was unhappily broken off and ended in a Deluge of Blood which speedily over-ran this whole Nation Bucks From Vxbridge we came into the County of Bucks which might possibly receive its Denomination from its Fertility in Beech-Trees there being a Province in Germany called Buchonia for that very reason 'T is a Country rich in Pasture and so convenient for Grazing that the Inhabitants thereof do very much addict themselves to that Employment receiving great Advantages by the Vicinity of London where the Markets are very Encouraging the Prices being high and the Returns considerable Passing through Beconsfield Beconsfield and Wickam a Town better known in that it was formerly part of the Inheritance belonging to the Noble Family of the Schudamore's than for any thing at present of greater Consequence we arrived at Wickam or Wicomb situated above a pleasant Valley by which runs along a little Rivolet and perhaps from this situation it took its Name for Combe saith the Great Antiquary Mr. Somner in his Saxon Dictionary is a Valley enclosed on either side with Hills and Wick saith the same Author is the turning winding or hollowness of Water-banks or the curving reach of a River 'T is a Town for largeness and buildings not much inferiour to any throughout the Shire and hath a Mayor and Aldermen to govern and support it and is a place very much celebrated for the abundance of Bone-Lace usually made here which brings no small Advantage and Profit to its Inhabitants Having refresh'd our selves a while here we set forward for Oxfordshire Oxfordshire which being once entred into we could not sufficiently enough admire the pleasantness of the Soil for there it is that Ceres bestows her Gifts most liberally upon the laborious Husbandman there it is the Meadows are garnished with Flora's curious Embellishments and the great variety of Plants allure and invite the industrious Herbalist into a more strict Enquiry of their Names Natures and Properties There it is where the Hills adorned with shady Woods afford most delightsome Bowers to wearied Students whilst the Silver-stream'd Rivers with their gentle Murmurs nimbly coursing along by the humble Valleys do whet their Fancies and scrue up their Inventions to the highest pitch To confer upon them suitable Encomiums What more pleasant than Isis afterward called Thamisis which runs along the South-side and then branching it self out in several Veins gives heart to the Eastern part of the County till by a continued Circulation like that of the Blood after several Windings and Maeandrous Flexures it lodgeth at last again within it self What can be more diverting than the River Cherwell
on the West side serveth the River Levin on the South Clyde and on the East a boggy Flat which on every side is wholly covered over with Water and on the North side the very upright steepness of the place is a sufficient Defence to it Directly under the Castle at the Mouth of the River Clyde as it enters into the Sea there are a number of Clayk Geese so called black of colour which in the night time do gather great quantity of the crops of Grass growing upon the Land and carry the same to the Sea then assembling in a round with a great curiosity do offer every one his Portion to the Sea Flood and there attend upon the flowing of the Tide till the Grass be purified from the fresh tast and turned to the salt and lest any part of it should escape they hold it in with their Bills after this they orderly every Fowl eat their own Portion and this Custom they observe perpetually Universities The Universities are four in number St. Andrews Aberdeen Glasgow and Edinburgh from which every Year there is a fresh supply of learned Persons fit for publick Employments and Dignities in Church and State St. Andrews St. Andrews was Founded by Bishop Henry Wardlaw A. D. 1412. and is endowed with very ample Privileges the Arch-Bishops of St. Andrews were perpetual Chancellors thereof The Rector is chosen Yearly and by the Statutes of the University he ought to be one of the three Principals his power is the same with that of the Vice-Chancellor of Cambrige or Oxford There are in this University three Colleges St. Salvator's St. Leonard's and New-College St. Salvator's College was founded by James Kennedy Bishop of St. Andrews he built the Edifice furnished it with costly Ornaments and provided sufficient Revenues for the Maintenance of the Masters Persons endowed at the Foundation were a Doctor a Batchellor a Licentiate of Divinity four Professors of Philosophy who are called Regents and eight poor Scholars called Bursars St. Leonard's College was Founded by John Hepburne Prior of St. Andrew's 1520 Persons endowed are a Principal or Warden four Professors of Philosophy eight poor Scholars New-College was Founded by James Beaton Arch-Bishop A. D. 1530 The Professors and Scholars endowed are of Divinity for no Philosophy is taught in this College Aberdeen In the Reign of King Alexander the Second A. D. 121. there was a Studium Generale in Collegio Canonicorum where there were Professors and Doctors of Divinity and of the Canon and Civil Laws and many Learned Men have flourished therein King James the Fourth and William Elphinstown Bishop of Aberdeen procured from Pope Alexander the Sixth the Privileges of an University in Aberdeen 1494. It is endowed with as ample Privileges as any University in Christendom and particularly the Foundation relates to the Privileges of Paris and Bononia but hath no reference to Oxford or Cambrige because of the Wars between England and Scotland at that time the Privileges were afterward confirmed by Pope Julius the Second Clement the Seventh Leo the Tenth and Paul the Second and by the Successors of King James the Fourth The Bishop of Aberdeen is perpetual Chancellor of the University and hath power to visit in his own Person and to reform Abuses and tho' he be not a Doctor of Divinity yet the Foundation gives him a power to confer that Degree The Office of Vice-Chancellor resides in the Official or Commissary of Aberdeen The Rector who is chosen Yearly with the assistance of his four Assessors is to take notice of Abuses in the University and to make a return thereof to the Chancellor if one of the Masters happen to be Rector then is his Power devolved upon the Vice-Chancellor The College was Founded by Bishop William Elphinstone Anno 1â—00 and was called the King's College because King James the Fourth took upon him and his Successors the special Protection of it Persons endowed were a Doctor of Theology who was Principal a Doctor of the Canon-Law Civil-Law and Physick a Professor of Humanity to teach Grammer a Sub-Principal to teach Philosophy a Canton a Sacrist three Students of the Laws three Students of Philosophy six Students of Divinity an Organist five Singing Boys who were Students of Humanity The Marischal-College of Aberdeen was Founded by George Keith Earl of Marischal A. D. 1593. Persons endowed were a Principal three Professors of Philosophy Since that there hath been added a Professor of Divinity and Mathematicks a fourth Professor of Philosophy twenty-four poor Scholars Of the other two Universities I shall treat afterward Mountains and Rivers The chief Mountains are Cheriot-Hill and Mount Grampius spoken of by Tacitus the safest shelter of the Picts or North-Britains against the Romans and of the Scots against the English now called the Hill of Albany or the Region of Braid-Albin Out of these ariseth Tay or Tau the fairest River in Scotland falling into the Sea about Dundee on the East-side Clayd falling into Dunbritton-Frith on the West-side of the Kingdom besides which there are other small Rivers as Bannock Spay d ee well replenished with Fish which furnish the Country with great Store of that Provision The Nature of the Air Soil and Commodities The Air of this Kingdom hath its variety according to the situation of several places and parts of it but generally it is healthful because cold the Soil in the High-landers is poor and Barren but in the Low-landers 't is much better bearing all sorts of Grains especially Oats which are much ranker than ours in England Their chief Commodities are Cloth Skins Hides Coal and Salt their Cattle are but small and their best Horses are commonly bred about Galloway where Inhabitants follow Fishing as well within the Sea which lies round about them as in lesser Rivers and in the Loches or Meers standing full of Water at the foot of the Hills out of which in September they take in Weels and Weer-nets an incredible number of most sweet and toothsom Eels For Bernacles or Soland Geese they have such an infinite number of them that they seem even to darken the very Sun with their flight these Geese are the most rife about the Bass an Island at the mouth of the Frith going up to Edinburgh and hither they bring an incredible number of Fish and withal such an abundance of Sticks and little twiggs to build their Nests that the People are thereby plentifully provided of Fuel who also make a great gain of their Feathers and Oil There hath been a dispute amongst the learned about the generation of these Geese some holding that they were bred of the leaves of the Bernacle-Tree falling into the Water others that they were bred of moist rotten Wood lying in the Water but 't is of late more generally believed that they come of an Egg and are certainly hatched as other Geese are In the West and North West Parts the People are very curious and diligent in
the Romans under Julius Caesar not without great resistance so was it by the Saxons who erected their first Kingdom here and were the first of that Nation who embraced the Christian Faith but the learned and judicious Antiquary Mr. Somner will by no means allow of the common Story that goes so vulgarly amongst us how the Commons of Kent continue their Privileges by means of a Composition entred with William the Conqueror at Swanscomb No under favour saith he in his Treatise of Gavelkind p. 62. we owe them not to that or any such like specious Stratagem or are beholding either to Stigand the Arch-Bishop or Egelsines the Abbot's Policy to contrive or to their or our Country-mens Valour to compass their continuance for us in such a way But this Story was raised by Spot St. Austin's Chronicler at Canterbury living under Edward the First and only by him and such others as of later Times wrote after his Copy for before him and in that interim of more than 200 Years between the Conquest and the time he wrote no published Story no Chronicle no Record of any time Kentish or other may be found to warrant the Relation a matter so remarkable that if true it was not likely to escape all our Historians Pens that were before him especially about the Conquest Nay he adds farther from Gulielmus Pictaviensis who was the Conqueror's own Chaplain and wrote his Life that the Conqueror after his Victory near Hastings made not first to London and then to Kent but after setling his Affairs about Hastings presently took his Journey towards Dover by the way of Romney where having avenged himself of the savage kind of Inhabitants for the slaughter of certain of his Men by some mistake landing at that Place he thence advanced on to Dover whither though a numberless multitude of People had betaken themselves as to a Place by reason of the Castle inexpugnable yet dismayed with the Conqueror's approach the Place with all readiness submitted to him who after eight Days Fortification of it marching from thence at a Place not far from Dover the Kentish Men of their own accord came in unto him sware Fealty to him and gave him Hostages for performance In fine he calls it a mere Monkish Figment politickly devised saith he by a Monk with a design to bring a perpetual Obligation on the Kentish Men to his own Abbey as owing forsooth the continuance of their ancient Liberties partly to a quondam Abbot of that Place The Kentish Men have a peculiar Exercise especially in the Eastern Parts which is no where else used in any other Country I believe but their own 't is called Stroke-Biass and the manner of it is thus In the Summer time one or two Parishes convening make choice of twenty and sometimes more of the best Runners which they can cull out in their Precincts who send a Challenge to an equal number of Racers within the Liberties of two other Parishes to meet them at a set day upon some neighbouring Plain which Challenge if accepted they repair to the Place appointed whither also the Country resort in great numbers to behold the Match where having stripped themselves at the Goal to their Shirts and Drawers they begin the Course every one having in his Eye a particular Man at which he aims but after several traverses and courses on both sides that side whose Legs are the nimblest to gain the first seven strokes from their Antagonists carry the Day and win the Prize Nor is this Game only appropriated to the Men but in some Places the Maids have their set Matches too and are as vigorous and active to obtain a Victory And on a Plain near Chilham there is an annual Tie as they call it fixed in May for two young Men and two young Maids of the adjoining Hundreds to make a Trial of Skill which can course the nimblest for a certain Stadium of 40 Rods and the Person of both Sexes whose Heels are the nimblest is rewarded with Ten Pound each there being a Yearly Pension setled for that Diversion As touching the more considerable Customs and Privileges of Kent they have been so fully Discoursed of by Mr. Lambard in his Perambulation of Kent and what was deficient in him supplied by the most accurate Pen of Mr. Kilburn and Mr. Philpott that I shall wave them all as heterogeneous from my design and betake my self rather to a short Survey of such Places which we visited in our Journey Where in the first place Lyd seems to call for a remembrance of its Antiquity Lyd. arising from the Ruins of its Neighbour Promhill Promhill swallowed up by the Sea when its poor distressed Inhabitants fled hither for Refuge The Sea hath formerly with a large spatious Inlet Arm and Aestuary flowed in betwixt Lyd and Romney and was there met with the River Limen saith Mr. Somner Roman Ports c. p. 51. which of necessity must have a very large capacious Mouth or Bosom to receive it as it did a Fleet of 250 Sail the number of those Danish Pyrats being no less who in the Year 893 put in here and towing up their Vessels four Miles within the Land even as far as to the Weald which then extended Eastward unto Appledore there cast Anchor and destroying a Fort or Castle as old and imperfect as ill defended built a new one and kept their Rendezvouz there In the Church which is a fair Sea Mark for Mariners is an old Inscription upon a Tomb-stone which speaks thus Of your Charity pray for the Soul of Thomas Briggs who died on the Feast of St. Leonard the Confessor who died in the Year of our Lord 1442. and did make the Roof of this Church as far as 45 Copplings goeth which doth cost 54 Marks Dengeness From this Town runs a Promontory near two or three Miles into the Sea at the end of which stands a Light House to give direction to Sailors in dark and stormy Nights and near to that upon the Beach is a Well of excellent fresh Water and in the utmost point of it which is called Dengeness for a Mile together did grow abundance of Holm-Trees amongst the Beach and Pebbles near to which are to be seen an heap of greater Stones which the Inhabitants call St. Crispin and Crispianus whom they report to have been cast upon this Shore by Shipwrack and from hence called into the glorious Company of Saints Old Romney Two Miles farther in the Marsh stands Old Romney which gives a denomination to the whole Marsh circumambient where I shall only take notice from Mr. Somner in his Roman Ports c. that as this Port in Doomsday Book was formerly called Lamport Lamport and the Hundred wherein it lay the Hundred of Lamport so the Eldest mention that he found in Romney was in a Grant or Charter of Plegmund the Arch-Bishop A. D. 895. But whether it received the Name Romney q.