Selected quad for the lemma: country_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
country_n	city_n	great_a	village_n	1,731	5	9.2720	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49472	Flanders, or, An exact and compendious description of that fair, great, and fat countrey of Flanders wherein the inhabitants, bounds, length, breadth, division, riches, rivers, forrests, cities, towns, and villages, castles, principalities, sea-ports, courts of justice, abbeys, with the chief estates are observed : as also a distinct relation of some battels fought and towns won unto the now victorious proceedings of the English and French armies therein, with the taking Mardike, Dunkerk, Winnoxbergh, Vuern, and Dixmude, to the present besieging of Graveling.	Lupton, Donald, d. 1676.	1658 (1658)	Wing L3490; ESTC R5657	7,431	17

Flanders Gallican the Name showes it lies upon France Westward Artois on the South and the River Scheld on the East Flanders Imperial is towards Brabant Flanders Gallican and this are the richer for Wheat but the other for Rie Oats Peason Fitches Beans Buck-wheat flax and hemp fruits and roots of all sorts The Rivers in Flanders are many which bring in wealth and are commodious for traffique fishing and pleasure the chief of them are the Lis the Scheld and Tender there are many Forrests and Woods which do not only adorne and beautifie it but also breed infinite store of cattel and abundance of foul as Pheasants Patridges the like but they are also of singular use for building fire the chief are Neip and Nonnen the Countrey hath no rocks or mountaines but is even and flat and so the more fruitful yet some pretty pleasant fruitful hills are intermix'd pleasant for hauk and hound and rather for prospect then to tire the traveller in going over them This County of Flanders exceeds most of her other sixteen sisters for famous beautiful large populour strong and pleasant Cities and Towns for there are no lesse then twenty eight walled Towns which because they are so many and so faire ones I will name them viz. Gaunt Bruges Ipre the three chiefest Lile Doway Tournay Courtrick Oudenade Aulst Hulst Termont Biervleit Scluice Newport Dunkerk Graveling Dam Burburgh Dixmude Vuerne Ardenburgh Ninove Winoxbergh Grammont Cassel Demsee Orchier Lannoy Besides these there are thirty other great Townes that had they Walls they might be judged for their greatnesse to be Cities some of them have had Walls but through the fury of War dismantled and cast down or else through time decayed yet many nay most of them have Bulwarks and Works and Moats and Draw-bridges to defend them from sudden depredations Some of them are mainly fortified as Ostende and Mardike which place is happily now garrison'd by his Highnesse and hath been a pleasant seat but what by French and Spaniards hath been reduced onely to a strong and at present an impregnable Fort so long as so many stout English hearts have it in possession they are as followe Oudenburg Messine Belle Poppering Torone Ostburgh Axeile Middleburgh there is one of the same name in Zealand Hoo Werwick Blanckberg Houcke Rosselor Tielt Giestle Ecclo Lombarzide Steechet Honscot Morcherede Meenen Haelvein VVastein Steegers Mergen Haesbrook Armentiers which the other two of Ostende and Mardike make up thirty fair well peopled and well traded Towns I cannot let two of the head Cities and some of the others go or passe in silence to wit Gaunt and Bruges Dunkerk and Ostende Gaunt was built by Julius Caesar foure leagues distant from Sea It is seated upon three Rivers the Scheld which runs by Antwerp the Lis and Liette which make within the City twenty six Iles and fourscore and ten great Bridges under and through which goes small ships and Vessels with all sort of wares besides many smaller ones pleasant and profitable It is strong by nature and art fortified by a strong and a large Cittadel Gallant in buildings stately high and uniforme the wall more then sixteen English miles about there be six principal water-mills one hundred and thirty Windmils upon the walls fifty eight publick Churches foure Orders of Friers twenty six Schools of literature fifty two Companies of Trades and twenty seven Orders and degrees of Weavers of Gold and Silver Silks Linnin VVollen Tapistry Sarges Fustions VVorsteds Buckroms and all other sorts of Stuffs this City is famous for the birth of the Emperour Charles the fifth and that valiant Prince-like John of Gaunt Bruges is little inferiour for 't is a stately Towne and ancient strong and healthy the Wall is five Italian miles in compasse hath many Schools in it are threescore and six Churches well built and beautified the chief of them is dedicated to Donatus here are sixty eight free Companies besides abundance of Cloisters Nunneries and Priories the City for health and pleasure is frequented by great persons of Nobles and Gentry it is well stored for all sorts of provision and at cheap rates its full of pleasant Gardens Orchards and walks you may guess of the rest by these two famous in building riches commerce and pleasure I will refer the story of Dunkerk toward the end of this Treatise and so I shew you the gallantnesse of this County for the great number of rich and pleasant Parishes and Villages that are in it being one thousand one hundred fifty foure wealthy and great as any in Europe besides the great number of Castles Fortresses Seigniories Noble and Gentlemens Houses beautiful and large and rich and to augment the splendor of this County there are fourty eight faire Abbies besides Nunneries a vast number of Priories Canonical Colledges and Monasteries so that the Spaniards when they came first into Flanders and beheld the variety of buildings and multitude of Parishes notwithstanding it hath been so harrassed by Warres for these sixty yeares said that all Flanders was but one entire City of pleasure and profit and who knows not that old true saying that France is the great and mightiest Kingdome of all Europe Milan the mightiest Dukedome and Flanders the mightiest and greatest Countie Next observe that in this Countrey there are five ancient Vicounties viz. of Gaunt Ipre Vuerne VVinnoxbergh and Haerbleck The States of Flanders consist of foure members Nobles Prelates Towns Castleneues or Commanders of Castles and Towns here are in Flanders thirty one Courts of Justice or Bayliwicks four great Baronies which all give the Bear for their Arms but distinguished by the fields viz. Pamele Cison Heine Boulaer there are eighteen Baronies of latter erection yet of great Command here are also twelve Preres in this County in imitation of France here also are three Principalities of Steinhawse Gauree and Espinoy I will not omit to name the Earle of Flanders chief Officers such as follow him and are of his Court and have Lordships and Seigniories of inheritance in Flanders annexed to their office there are first a great Constable two Marshals for Justice a Master of his horse chief Master of his Game a Chancellor a Chamberlaine foure Receivers of his Revenues a chief Steward besides abundance of inferiour Officers and Ministers under these he also hath a set number of Chaplains three Secretaries one for the Church-affaires one for State-affaires and one for his own special occasions the Earles Revenues and estate in times of peace were wondrous large from his Churches and Religious persons from his own Hereditary Lands and from his customs upon all Commodities by sea and land computed to amount to the summe of two millions of Rix dollers or Crownes by the yeare in our moneys according to pound sterling after this rate they come to five hundred thousand pound per ann. I promised ere I concluded to

FLANDERS OR An Exact and Compendious Description of that fair great and fat Countrey of FLANDERS Wherein the Inhabitants Bounds Length Breadth Division Riches Rivers Forrests Cities Towns and Villages Castles Principalities Sea-ports Courts of Justice Abbeys with the chief ESTATES are observed As also a Distinct Relation of some Battels fought and Towns won unto the now victorious Proceedings of the English and French Armies therein with the taking Mardike Dunkerk Winnoxbergh Vuern and D●●mude to the present besieging of Gra●eling LONDON Printed by Thomas Ratcliffe on Saint Bennets Hill neare the Church 1658. To the Illustrious and Renowned Peeres the Lord RICHARD CROMWEL Lord Chancellor of the famous University of OXFORD And GILBERT Lord PICKERING Lord Chamberlain to his Highnes the Lord PROTECTOR My Lords THe Sun affords his comfortable Raies and Influence upon the lowest Valleys as the loftiest Hills as well to shrubs as Cedars I hope the same from You who by Divine Goodnesse are placed such Glorious Lights in our Church and State I crave leave to Apologize in rendring an account for this Dedication it is not Presumptuous vain-glory or Sordid flattery or Covetous desire of gain that procured it but first this Countrey is in some measure come into your possession secondly the weighty Actions on foot therein have been and are steered and guided by your prudent Heads and victorious Armes Thirdly this Countrey delineated is that in which you have good footing and stout Forces being likely to shake off the Spanish heavy yoke and acknowledge Obedience to your Civil and Military Commands Fourthly 't is tendred to your hands as the first fruits of what you will 't is hoped comfortably enjoy the first fruits have always been favourably accepted of God and good men Lastly Princes Names and fames are transmitted to posterity by writing Scripta manent and how just it is to have your grave wise and Religious Actings registred with eternal honour this generation if not utterly void of reason and conscience cannot but acknowledge and succeding Ages reading them admire However should men turn ingrate ye God will not forget your labours but will justifie his Word that such as honour him He will honor and he hath spoken it of the righteous his Name shall be exalted with honour and the upright shall be had in everlasting remembrance 1 Sam. 2. 30. Psal. 112. 6. As God hath made this good in our eyes at present upon your persons so I humbly pray his infinite goodnesse to continue it to your selves and posterities even to the perfecting of it in the sight of Men and Angels for such honour have all his Saints Psal. 147. Most Illustrious Lords Your meanest servant DONALD LUPTON FLANDERS DESCRIBED IT is usual with Writers of these subjects to begin with the Names of places but where there is ambiguity and uncertainty and no real and absolute necessity to contend about it 't is better to leave enquiry and to rest satisfied with the common known name of it as it is at present called Flanders à Flando from the various winds blowing upon the coast It is one of the seventeen Provinces which did all formerly belong to the Emperour and were given by the Emperour of Germany unto the King of Spaine who held them till he brought in that bloody Inquisition together with the Illegal oppressions taxes and Spanish tyranny by that insolent Duke of ALBA General of his Forces Some of the Provinces resolutely and unanimously joyned themselves and stood up in Armes for their Lives and Liberties for both were at stake to be lost and did by the help of the English Scots and French defend themselves and gain'd upon their Enemy and so cast out the Spanish Tyrannical intended slavery these were called the United States or the States General of the United Netherland Provinces by name Holland Zealand stift of Utretcht OverIsel East and West Friezland and have since their first contest gained a great part of Brabant Gilderland Cleeveland with some places of note in this Country of Flanders as the Scluice the Dam Hulst strong places and to the States beneficial and advantageous to curb the Spaniard The ancient Inhabitants and Natives were in Caesars time called Morini as from the Moorish fenny places and Marshes which were then therein now by good Husbandry and skill made rich and fat pastures and meadows The People being civiliz'd and reduced to live under Government this was form'd into a County distinct by it self from others in the yeare of our Lord 877. by Charles called and sirnamed Le C have King of France and then held its government from France It was anciently bounded by the Sea and the Rivers Somme and Scheld and then had these seven chief Cities Arras Gaunt Bruges Ipre St. Omer Lile and Doway but that is now altered by marriages and Warres so that now the true bounds of Flanders are first Calais in France on the VVest the Sea on the North and North-East Zealand and part of Brabant on the East and Brabant and Artois on the South It is richly seated and large in it self as having about it for three parts the Sea and such rich Countreys to trade to as England France Denmark and Holland and by land all the Empire of Germany and Italy It containes in length thirty five or thirty six leagues amounting to a hundred of our English miles and that is from Antwerp to the New Foss or Ditch towards France In breadth it is full thirty leagues or ninty English miles from the Forrest of Ninoven to Graveling So that the Circumference of it is three hundred English miles Some Countreys are holesome for aire but not rich others are rich but not holesome but Flanders is throughout both pleasant and healthy for aire and rich through all the parts of it but the aire is the most pleasant further South and the most rich towards France and the Sea It breeds large and able Cattle as Horses and Mares so that 't is grown into a proverb to call a tall and lusty woman a great Flanders Mare and so for cowes and oxen and other cattel Flanders is divided into three parts viz. that which is called Flanders Flaming-gant the greatest and noblest wherein are three Capital Cities as Gaunt Bruges and Ipre as also the foure Sea-ports Scluice belonging to the States of Holland Ostend and Newport as yet in the Spanish power but may ere long be rid of their old Masters and come into the hands of better Duinkirk victoriously won and strongly possess'd by the English as the flourishing colours upon the Castles Forts and works do shew and Graveline which now lies groveling ready to starve and must ere long without speedy relief which is hard to come by yeeld to his highnesse the Lord Protector it being beset at Sea with our stout Frigots and at land by Mardike on the East Bourburgh on the South and Calais on the West