of Rome and religious men was not onely in his life time most grievously troubled but also one and forty yeeres after his death his dead Corps was cruelly handled being by warrant from the Councell of Siena turned out of his grave and openly burned Neither is it to be forgotten that neere to this Towne is a spring so cold that within a short time it turneth strawes and stickes into stones From that Bensford bridge the foresaid old High way goeth on to High-crosse so called for that thereabout stood sometime a Crosse in stead of which is erected now a very high post with props and supporters thereto The neighbours there dwelling reported unto me that the two principall High-waies of England did here cut one another overthwart and that there stood a most flourishing City there named Cleycester which had a Senate of Aldermen in it and that Cleybrooke almost a mile off was part of it also that on both sides of the way there lay under the furrowes of the corne fields great foundations and ground workes of foure square stone also that peeces of Roman money were very often turned up with the Plough although above the ground as the Poet saith Etiam ipsae periere ruinae that is Even the very ruines are perished and gone These presumptions together with the distance of this place from BANNAVENTA or Wedon which agreeth just and withall the said Bridge leading hitherward called Bensford are inducements unto me to thinke verily that the station BENNONES or VENONES was heere which Antonine the Emperour placeth next beyond BANNAVENTA especially seeing that Antonine sheweth how the way divided it selfe heere into two parts which also goeth commonly currant For Northeastward where the way lieth to Lincolne the Fosse way leadeth directly to RATAE and to VERNOMETUM of which I will speake anon and toward the Northwest Watlingstreet goeth as streight into Wales by MANVESSEDUM whereof I shall write in his due place in Warwick-shire Higher yet neere the same streetside standeth Hinkley which had for Lord of it Hugh Grantmaismill a Norman high Steward or Seneschall of England during the Raignes of king William Rufus and Henry the First The said Hugh had two daughters Parnell given in marriage to Robert Blanch-mains so called of his faire white hands Earle of Leicester together with the High-Stewardship of England and Alice wedded to Roger Bigot Verily at the East end of the Church there are to be seene Trenches and Rampires yea and a Mount cast up to an eminent height which the inhabitants say was Hughes Castle Three miles hence standeth Bosworth an ancient Mercat Towne which liberty together with the Faire S. Richard Harecourt obtained for it at the hands of king Edward the First Under this towne in our great grandfathers daies the kingdome of England lay hazarded upon the chance of one battaile For Henry Earle of Richmond with a small power encountred there in pitched field king Richard the Third who had by most wicked meanes usurped the kingdome and whiles he resolved to die the more valiantly fighting for the liberty of his country with his followers and friends the more happy successe he had and so overcame and slew the Usurper and then being with joyfull acclamations proclaimed King in the very mids of slaughtered bodies round about he freed England by his happy valour from the rule of a Tyrant and by his wisdome refreshed and setled it being sore disquieted with long civill dissentions Whereupon Bernard Andreas of Tholous a Poet living in those daies in an Ode dedicated unto King Henry the Seventh as touching the Rose his Devise writ these Verses such as they are Ecce nunc omnes posuere venti Murmuris praeter Zephyrum tepentem Hic Rosas nutrit nitidósque flores Veris amoeni Behold now all the windes are laid But Zephyrus that blowes full warme The Rose and faire spring-floures in mead He keepeth fresh and doth no harme Other memorable things there are none by this Street unlesse it bee Ashby de la Zouch that lyeth a good way off a most pleasant Lordship now of the Earles of Huntingdon but belonging in times past to the noble Family De la Zouch who descended from Alan Vicount of Rohan in Little Britaine and Constantia his wife daughter to Conan le Grosse Earle of Britaine and Maude his wife the naturall daughter of Henry the First Of this house Alane De la Zouch married one of the heires of Roger Quincy Earle of Winchester and in her right came to a faire inheritance in this Country But when hee had judicially sued John Earle of Warren who chose rather to try the Title by the sword point than by point of Law he was slaine by him even in Westminster Hall in the yeere of our Lord 1269. and some yeeres after the daughters and heires of his grand sonne transferred this inheritance by their marriages into the Families of the Saint Maures of Castle Cary and the Hollands Yet their father first bestowed this Ashby upon Sir Richard Mortimer of Richards Castle his cozin whose younger issue thereupon tooke the sirname of Zouch and were Lords of Ashby But from Eudo a younger sonne of Alane who was slaine in Westminster Hall the Lords Zouch of Harringworth branched out and have beene for many Descents Barons of the Realme Afterward in processe of time Ashby came to the Hastings who built a faire large and stately house there and Sir William Hastings procured unto the Towne the liberty of a Faire in the time of King Henry the Sixth Here I may not passe over the next neighbour Cole-Overton now a seat of the Beaumontes descended from Sir Thomas Beaumont Lord of Bachevill in Normandy brother to the first Vicount This place hath a Cole prefixed for the forename which Sir Thomas as some write was hee who was slaine manfully fighting at such time as the French recovered Paris from the English in the time of King Henry the Sixth This place of the pit-coles being of the nature of hardned Bitumen which are digged up to the profit of the Lord in so great a number that they serve sufficiently for fewell to the neighbour Dwellers round about farre and neere I said before that the River Soar did cut this Shire in the middle which springing not farre from this Street and encreased with many small rils and Brookes of running water going a long Northward with a gentle streame passeth under the West and North side of the cheife Towne or City of this County which in Writers is called Lege-Cestria Leogora Legeo cester and Leicester This Towne maketh an evident faire shew both of great antiquity and good building In the yeere 680. when Sexwulph at the commandement of King Etheldred divided the kingdome of the Mercians into Bishoprickes hee placed in this an Episcopall See and was himselfe the first Bishop that sat there but a few yeeres after when the See was translated to
yeare of our Lord 1086. when as before time it had beene consumed by a woefull accidentall fire whereof William of Malmesbury writeth thus The beauty thereof is so magnificent that it deserveth to bee numbered in the ranke of most excellent Edifices so large is that Arched Vault underneath and the Church above it of such capacity that it may seeme sufficient to receive any multitude of people whatsoever Because therefore Maurice carried a minde beyond all measure in this project he betooke the charge and cost of so laborious a peece of worke unto those that came after In the end when B. Richard his Successour had made over all the Revenewes belonging unto the Bishopricke to the building of this Cathedrall Church sustaining himselfe and his Family otherwise in the meane while hee seemed in a manner to have done just nothing so that hee spent his whole substance profusely heereabout and yet small effect came thereof The West Part as also the Crosse-yle are spacious high built and goodly to bee seene by reason of the huge Pillars and a right beautifull arched Roufe of stone Where these foure Parts crosse one another and meete in one there riseth uppe a mighty bigge and lofty Towre upon which stood a Spire Steeple covered with Leade mounting uppe to a wonderfull height for it was no lesse than five hundered and foure and thirty foote high from the Ground which in the yeare of our Lord 1087. was set on fire with Lightning and burnt with a great part of the City but beeing rebuilt was of late in mine owne remembrance when I was but a Childe fired againe with Lightning and is not as yet reedified The measure also and proportion of this so stately building I will heere put downe out of an old Writer which you may if it please you reade Saint Pauls Church containeth in length sixe hundered ninety foote the breadth thereof is one hundered and thirty foote the height of the West Arched Roufe from the Ground carrieth an hundered and two foote and the new Fabrique from the Ground is foure score and eight foote high The stoneworke of the Steeple from the plaine ground riseth in height two hundred and threescore foote and the timber frame upon the same is two hundred seaventy foure foote high c. That there stood of old time a Temple of Diana in this place some have conjectured and arguments there are to make this their conjecture good Certaine old houses adjoyning are in the ancient records of the Church called Dianaes Chamber and in the Church-yard while Edward the First reigned an incredible number of Ox-heads were digged up as wee finde in our Annals which the common sort at that time made a wondering at as the Sacrifices of Gentiles and the learned know that Taurapolia were celebrated in the honour of Diana I my selfe also when I was a boy have seene a stagges head sticking upon a speare-top a ceremony suting well with the sacrifices of Diana carried round about within the very Church in solemne pompe and procession and with a great noise of Horne-blowers And that Stagge or Hart which they of the house de Bawde in Essex did present for certaine lands that there held as I have heard say the Priests of this Church arrayed in their sacred vestiments and wearing Garlands of flowers upon their heads were wont to receive at the steps of the quire Now whether this were in use before those Bawds were bound to exhibite such a Stagge I wote not but surely this rite and ceremony may seeme to smell of Diana's worship and the Gentiles errours more than of Christian Religion And verily no man neede to doubt that from them certaine strange and foraine and heathenish rites crept into Christian religion Which Ceremonies the first Christians as mankinde is naturally a pliant Sectary to superstition either admitted or else at the first tolerated thereby to traine and allure the Heathen from Paganisme by little and little to the true Service and Worship of God But ever since this Church was built it hath beene the See of the Bishops of London and the first Bishop that it had under the English about fifty yeares after that Theoâ— of the British Nation was thrust out was Melitus a Roman consecrated by Austin Archbishop of Canturbury In honour of which Austin flat against the Decree of Pope Gregorie the Great the Ensignes of the Archbishopricke and the Metropolitane Sec were translated from London to Canturbury Within this Cathedrall Church to say nothing of Saint Erkenwald and the Bishops there lye buryed Sebba King of the East Saxons who gave over his kingdome for to serve Christ Etheldred or Egeldred who was an Oppressour rather than a Ruler of this Kingdome cruell in the beginning wretched in the middle and shamefull in the end so outragious hee was in his connivency to a Parricidie committed so infamous in his flight and effeminacy and so miserable in his death Henry Lacy Earle of Lincolne Iohn of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster Sir Simon de Burlie a right noble Knight of the Garter executed by encroched Authority without the kings assent Sir Iohn de Beauchamp Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports Iohn Lord Latimer Sir Iohn Mason knight William Herbert Earle of Pembroch Sir Nicholas Bacon Lord Keeper of the Great Seale of England a man of a deepe reach and exquisite judgement Sir Philip Sidney and Sir Francis Walsingham two famous knights c. and Sir Christopher Hatton Lord Chancellour of England for whose perpetuall memory Sir William Hatton his Nephew by sister descended from the ancient Family of the Newports whom hee adopted into the name of Hatton dutifully erected a sumptuous monument well beseeming the greatnesse of his adoptive father Beside this Church there is not to my knowledge any other worke of the English Saxons extant in London to bee seene for why they continued not long in perfect peace considering that in short space the West-Saxons subdued the East-Saxons and London became subject to the Mercians Scarcely were these civill Warres husht when a new Tempest brake out of the North I meane the Danes who piteously tore in peeces all this Country and shooke this City sore For the Danes brought it under their Subjection but Aelfred recovered it out of their hands and after he had repaired it gave it unto Aetheldred Earle of the Mercians who had married his daughter Yet those wastefull depopulators did what they could afterwards many a time to winne it by Siege but Canut especially who by digging a new Chanell attempted to turne away the Tamis from it Howbeit evermore they lost their labour the Citizens did so manfully repulse the force of the enemy Yet were they not a little terrified still by them untill they lovingly received and saluted as their King William Duke of Normandy whom God destined to bee borne for the good of England against those Spoilers Presently then the windes were laid
after he had rebelled against Rhese his Prince and not able to make his part good with him very rashly and inconsiderately which hee afterward repented too late sent Enion a Nobleman to whom he had affianced his daughter to procure Robert Fitz Haimon sonne to Haimon Dentatus Lord of Corboil in Normandy to come out of England and aide him against Rhese who forthwith having mustered certaine forces and taking for to associate him in his journey twelve Knights first gave Rhese Battaile and slew him and afterwards being allured with the fertility of the Country whereof before hand he made full account to be Lord turning his power upon Jestine himselfe because hee had not kept touch with Enion nor performed his promise easily thrust him out of his ancient Inheritance and shared the Country among his Companions The hard and barraine hill Country he granted to the said Enion the more fertile parts he divided betweene him and those twelve Knights whom he tearmed Peres on this condition that they should hold them in Fee and vassallage of him as their chiefe Lord to maintaine one another in common with their aides and auxiliary forces to defend every one his owne Ward in his Castle of Caerdiffe and to bee present and assist him in his Courts in the administration of Justice It shall not be amisse to put downe their names out of a little Pamphlet which Sir Edward Stradling or Sir Edward Mounsel both Knights men of ancient descent and most skilfull in Antiquity I wot not whether for it goeth abroad under both their names wrote concerning this matter And these be their names William of London or de Londres Richard Granvil Pain Turbervill Oliver Saint John Robert de Saint Quintin Roger Bekeroul William Easterling for that he was borne in Germanie whose heires are now called Stradlings Gilbert Hamfranvill Richard Siward John Fleming Peter Soore Reinald Sully The River Remnie falling from the Mountaines is the limite on the East side whereby this Country is divided from Monmouth-shire and Remnie in the British tongue signifieth to Divide Not farre from it where the River holdeth on his course through places hardly passable among the hilles in a Marish ground are to bee seene the tottering walles of Caer-philli Castle which hath beene of so huge a bignesse and such a wonderfull peece of worke beside that all men well neere say it was a garison for t of the Romans Neither will I deny it although I cannot as yet perceive by what name they called it and yet it may seeme to have beene re-edified anew considering it hath a Chappell built after the Christians manner as I was enformed by John Sanford a man singular well learned and of exact judgement who diligently tooke view of it In later ages it was the possession of the Clares Earles of Glocester descended from Fitz-Haimon aforesaid neither doe any of our Chronicles make mention thereof before king Edward the Seconds time For then after that the Spensers by underhand practises had set the King Queene and Barons at debate the Barons besieged a long time Hugh Spenser the yonger whom they called Hugolin herein and could not prevaile By this river also but the place is not certainely knowne Faustus a very good sonne as Ninnius writeth of Vortigern so bad a father built a great Place where with other holy men hee prayed daily unto God that himselfe whom his father committing most abominable incest had begotten of his owne daughter might not be punished grievously for his fathers faults also that his father might at length repent heartily and his native Country be eased from the bloudy warres of the Saxons A little beneath hath Ptolomee placed the mouth of RATOSTABIUS or RATOSTABIUS using a maimed word in stead of Traith Taff that is The sandy Trith of the River Taff. For there the said River Taff sliding downe from the Hilles runneth toward the Sea by Landaff that is The Church by Taff a small City and of small reputation situate somewhat low yet a Bishops See having within the Dioecesse 154. Parishes and adorned with a Cathedrall Church consecrated to Saint Telean Bishop of the same which Church German and Lupus French Bishops then erected when as they had suppressed the Heresie of Pelagius that was dangerously spread all Britaine over and preferred Dubricius a most holy man to bee the first Bishop there unto whom Meurioke a British Lord freely gave all the land that lyeth betweene the Rivers Taff and Elei From hence goeth Taff to Caer diff called of the Britans Caerdid a proper fine Towne as Townes goe in this Country and a very commodious Haven which the foresaid Fitz Haimon fortified with a Wall and Castle that it might bee both a seat for warre and a Court of Justice wherein beside a Band of choise soldiers those twelve Knights were bound to keepe Castle-guard Howbeit a few yeeres after Yuor Bach a British Mountainer a little man of person but of great and resolute courage marching with a Band of men by night without any stirre suddenly surprised tooke Prisoner William Earle of Glocester Fitz Haimons daughters sonne together with his wife and young sonne and detained them in hold with him untill he had made him full satisfaction for all wrongs and losses But how Robert Curthose William the Conquerours eldest sonne a man over venterous and foole hardy in warlique exploits quite put by his hope of the Crowne of England by his younger brethren and bereft of both his eyes lived untill he was an old man in this Castle you may see if you please in our Historians and understand withall that royall Parentage is never assured either of ends or safe security Scarce three miles from the mouth of Taff in the very bending in of the shore there lye aflote as it were two small but pleasant Islands separated one from another and from the maine Land with narrow in-lets of the Sea The hithermore is called Sullie of the Towne right over against it which tooke the name as it is thought of Robert Sully for it fell to his part in the division if you would not rather have him to take his name of it The farther more is named Barry of Baruch an holy man buried there who as he gave name to the place so the place gave the sirname afterwards to the Lords thereof For that noble Family of Vicounts Barries in Ireland had their originall from hence In a Rocke or cliffe heereof by the sea side saith Giraldus there appeareth a very little chincke into which if you lay your eare you shall heare a noise as it were of Smithes at worke one while the blowing of bellowes another while the striking of sledge and hammer sometime the sound of the Grindstone and iron tooles rubbing against it the hissing sparkes also of steele-gads within holes as they are beaten yea and the puffing noise of fire burning in the
are nothing grievous unto them raised out of such merchandise and commodities as are shipped to and from out of Gaule and Britannie and those be Ivory workes Bits and bridles chaines and wreathes vessels of the mettall Electrum and of glasse with other base and common wares of like sort And therefore there needes no garrison for that Iland For it would require one Legion at the least and some horsemen if tributes were to be levied from thence and the said tributes would but countervaile the charges of maintaining a garrison there for of necessity by imposing a tribute the revenewes comming by tollage and poundage and such like imposts would be lesse and if any violent course were used some perill or other must be looked for The yeare following likewise Augustus intended a second expedition into Britain because there was some variance about the Covenants but by occasion of some insurrection made in Spaine by the Cantabri and others that journey was staied Neither hath any man reason to beleeve Landinus or Servius or Philargyrus who have recorded that Augustus triumph over the Britans and that out of these verses of Maro Et duo rapta manu diverso ex hoste trophaea Bisque triumphatas utroque a littore gentes And trophees twaine caught by strong hand from divers enemies hoasts And nations twice triumphed of likewise from both the coasts Surely in regard of that surrendry of the Britans Horace wrote thus Coelo tonantem credimus Iovem Regnare Presens Divus habebitur Augustus adjectis Britannis Imperio gravibusque Persis We thought before that Iupiter in heaven above doth raigne For thundring there but now shall be on earth Augustus here Reputed God because he did to Romanes Empire gaine Both Britans and fierce Persians of whom they stood in feare Tiberius nothing transported with an inordinate desire of extending the Empire seemeth to have rested in that Counsell of Augustus For hee brought out a booke written with Augustus his owne hand wherein was contained the whole wealth and estate of the common-weale what number as well of Romane Citizens as Allies were in armes how many Navies Kingdomes and Provinces what tributes and imposts belonged to the state with a resolution annexed thereto of containing the Empire within the bounds Which advise and resolution of Augustus contented him so well as Tacitus reporteth that he would attempt nothing in Britaine nor maintaine any garrison or deputies there For whereas Tacitus reckoneth up the number of Legions and what coasts or countries they defended at that time he maketh no mention at all of Britain And yet it seemeth that the Britans entertained amity with the Romans For when as at the same time Germanicas sailed the Ocean some of his company by force of tempest driven to this Iland were by the Princes thereof sent backe againe That Caius Caesar cast in his mind to enter this Iland it is certaine but that by his shittle braine sudden repentance and wonderfull attempts against Germany it came to nothing For to the end that he might terrifie Britain and Germany over which he hovered with the fame of some mighty piece of worke he made a bridge between Baie and the Piles of Puteoli three miles and 600. paces in length But having atchieved no greater exploit than taken to his mercy Adminius the sonne of Cinobellinus King of the Britans who being by his father banished had fled over sea with a small power and traine about him he sent magnificent and glorious letters to Rome as if the whole Ile had beene yielded up into his hands warning and wishing the posts ever and anon to ride forward in their wagon directly into the market place and the Curia and in no wise to deliver the said missives unto the Consuls but in the temple of Mars and that in a frequent assembly of the Senate After this to the Ocean be marcheth as if he minded to translate the warre over into Britaine Where even upon the very shore he embattelled his souldiers himselfe tooke sea in a Galley and after he had lanched out a little way from the land returned again and then mounting up an high pulpit sate him downe gave his souldiers the signall of battell and commanded the trumpets to sound and so on a sudden charged them to gather cockles muâ—kles and other small shell fishes Having gotten these spoiles as one indeed wanting enemies spoiles for to adorne a Trophye he waxed proud as if he had conquered the Ocean and having rewarded his souldiers he brought some of those cockles and the other shell fish to Rome that there also he might shew the bootie which he had gotten In token and memoriall of this brave victory he raised an high turret out of which as from a watch-tower there might blaze all night long lights and fires for the better direction of ships at sea in their course The ruines whereof are sometimes seene at a low water in the shore of Holland and by the people there inhabiting is called Britenhuis Who also finde oftentimes stones engraven with letters of which one had these Characters C. C. P. F. which they I wote not how truly expound thus Caius Caligula Pharum Fecit that is Caius Caligula this Pharus made But of this watch-tower more at large I will write in my discourse of British Islands Afterwards the inland parts of Britaine wasted rather with Civill warres and factions than by the force of the Romans after sundry overthrowes and slaughters of both sides came at the length by little and little under the subjection of the Romans For while the States fought severally one by one they were all vanquished running so one upon anothers destruction that untill they fell to utter confusion they had not in grosse a feeling of the particular losses that each one sustained And thus farre forth also wrought ambition in them that many became false and disloiall yea and some fled from their countrey-men making choise of the Romans protection swearing alleageance unto them and practising by all meanes to subject their native countrey unto their government Among whom the principall was one Bericus who moved and perswaded Claudius the Emperour to give the attempt upon Britaine which none assaied to doe since the time of Iulius Caesar and which then was up in a broile and commotion for that the said Fugitives were not rendred againe unto them Whereupon he commanded Aulus Plautius at that time Praetor to goe with an Army into Britaine who had much adoe to withdraw the said army out of Gaule as being much discontented to make warre without the compasse of the world and therefore drawing out the time in length with many delaies But when Narcissus sent from Claudius began to mount up into the Tribunall of Plautius and to make a speech unto the host the souldiers more incensed with indignation streightwaies cried all at once Io. Saturnalia for
inaggeratas Beda and the latter writers Stratas that is Streets Our Chronicles doubtlesse herein deceived doe hold that there were but onely foure such causeies as these of which the first was Watling-streete so called of one Vitellian I wote not what he was who had the charge thereof and indeed the Britans named Vitellian in their tongue Guetalin and Werlam-street for that it went through Verolamium which elsewhere also the people dwelling neere unto it named High dike High ridge Fortie-foot-way and Ridge-way The second they commonly call Ikemildstreet because it began in the Icenes country The third the Fosse for that as men thinke it was fensed on both sides with a ditch and the fourth Ermin-street by a German word of Mercurie whom as I am informed by Iohn obsopoeus a great learned man under the name of Ermisul that is the Columne of Mercurie the Germans our ancient progenitors worshipped Now that Mercurie had the charge of waies his name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the Greekes may shew sufficiently as also his Statues with foure sides called in old time Hermae which were set every where upon high waies It hath been generally thought that one Mulmutius I know not what he should be many hundred yeares before the birth of Christ made these causeys but so far am I from believing it that I dare confidently avouch the Romans by little and little founded and raised them up Whilest Agricola saith Tacitus governed Britaine severall waies were enjoyned and farre distant places by the purveyors commandement that the country should carry from the nearest standing camps or wintering places to those that were farre off and out of the way And the Britans complained as the same Tacitus writeth That the Romans wore out and consumed their bodies and hands in cleering of woods and paving the Fens with a thousand stripes reprochfull indignities And so we read in ancient records That in the daies of Honorius and Arcadius there were made in Britaine certain beaten high waies from sea to sea That this was the Romans worke Beda witnesseth The Romans inhabited saith he within the wall which as I rehearsed before Severus had made overthwart the Island toward the southerne side which the Cities Churches and street waies there made doe witnesse at this day About the making of such causeys and high waies the Romans were wont to exercise their souldiers and the common multitude lest being idle they should grow factious and affect alteration in the Sate The Romans as Isodorus writeth made Causeys in sundry places almost through the world both for the direction of journeys and also because the people should not be idle and to the making and paving of such causeys prisoners were many times condemned as may be gathered out of Suetonius in the life of Caius And there are to be seene in Spaine the Causeys called Salamantica or Argentea as also in France certaine Rode waies called Viae militares paved by the Romans to say nothing of the way Appia Pâ—mpeia Valeria and others in Italie A long these Causeys and high waies Augustus placed young men at first as posts within small distances one from another and afterward swift wagons to give notice with all speed and out of hand what was doing in every place Neere or upon these Cawsies were seated Cities and Mansions which had in them Innes furnished with all necessaries belonging to this life for travailers and way-faring persons to abide and rest in as also Mutations For so they called in that age the places where strangers as they journied did change their post-horses draught beasts or wagons He therefore that seeketh not about these Rode waies for those places which are mentioned in the Itinerarie of Antoninus shall no doubt misse the truth and wander out of the way Neither think much of your labour in this place to note that the Emperors erected at every miles end along these Cawsies certaine little pillars or Columnes with numerall Characters or Letters cut in them to signifie how many miles Whereupon Sidonius Apollinaris writeth thus Antiquus tibi nec teratur agger Cujus per spatium satis vetustis Nomen Caesareum viret columnis That ancient cawsey doe not decay Where on good old pillars along the way The Caesars name stands fresh for aie Neere also unto these high waies on both sides were Tombs and Sepulchers with Inscriptions graved upon them in memoriall of brave and noble men that the passengers by might be put in mind that as those sometimes were mortall men so themselves are now For the repairing likewise of the said cawseys as wee may see in the Code of Theodosius title de Itinere muniendo that is Of making and mending waies They all were willing upon a good and profitable devotion who could doe best and make most speed in this businesse Furthermore in our owne ancient lawes there is mention made de pace quatuor Cheminorum that is Viarâ—m sub majori judicio that is Touching the peace of the foure Rhode-waies in some higher Court. Under the raigne of Nerva the writers have discontinued the Storie of Britannie But in the time of Trajane the Britans may seem to have revolted and rebelled and evident it is out of Spartianus that subdued then they were Moreover while Adrian was Emperour Julius Severus ruled the Island and when he was called away against the Jewes who then were in an uprore the Britans could not have beene kept in their allegiance to the Romans had not Adrianus come among them in person who being then Consull the third time in the yeare of Christ 124. seemeth by the prowesse of his armie to have discomfited his enemies For I have seene in one piece of mony of his coining the stampe of an Emperour with three souldiers whom I judge to represent three Legions with this Inscription EXER BRITANNICUS and another bearing this Inscription RESTITUTOR BRITANNY This Prince reformed many things throughout the Island and was the first that built a wall between the barbarous Britans and the Romans fourescore miles in length laying the foundation thereof within the ground of huge piles or stakes and fastning them together in manner of a strong hedge or mound For which expedition of his Florus the Poet plaied upon him thus Ego nolo Caesar esse Ambulare per Britannos Scythicas pati pruinas I will in no wise Caesar be To walke along in Britanie The Scythicke frosts to feele and see Unto whom Adrianus wrote back in this wise Ego nolo Florus esse Ambulare per tabernas Latitare per popinas Culices pati rotundos And I will never Florus be To walke from shop to shop as he To lâ—rke in Tavernes secretly And there to feele the round wine fly At this time M.F. CL. PRISCVS LICINIVS was the Propraetor of Britannie and emploied in the Journey of Jurie with Hadrian as appeareth by this antique Inscription in a broken marble
againe unto the English For Edward who in regard of his holinesse was surnamed The Confessor the sonne of Etheldred by his second wife recovered the Crowne and royall Dignitie Now began England to take breath againe but soone after as saith the Poet Mores rebus cessêre secundis Prosperitie perverted manners The Priests were idle drowsie and unlearned the people given to riot and loose life they grew also through rest to be lither discipline lay as it were dead the commonwealth sick as one would say of an infinite sort of vices lay in consumption and pined away but pride above all whose waiting maid is destruction was come to a mightie head And as Gervasius Dorobornensis of that time speaketh They fell so fast to commit wickednesse that to be ignorant of any sinfull crimes was held to be a crime All which most evidently foreshewed destruction The Englishmen of those times as William of Malmesburie writeth went lightly appointed with their garments reaching but to the mid knee their heads shorne their beards shaven but the upper lip uncut where the mustaches grew continually wearing massie bracelets of gold about their armes carrying markes upon their skin pounced in of sundry colours The Clergie contenting themselves with triviall literature could scarsly back and hew out the words of the Sacrament THE NORMANS LIke as in ancient times out of that East coast of Germanie in respect of us which tendeth Northward the Franks first and then the Saxons grievously annoied both France Gaule and Britaine with their depredations so that in the end the one became Lords of Britaine the other of France even so in these later daies ensuing the Danes first and afterward the Normans succeeding in their place from out of the same coast did the like As if it were fatally given unto that tract by the dispose and providence of Almightie God to conceive still and often times to send out of her wombe nations to afflict France and Britaine yea and to establish new Kingdomes therein These Normans were so called of the Northerne quarter or climate from whence they came for Normans be nothing else but Men of the North in which sense also they are named Nordleudi that is a Northerne people for a mixt nation they were of the most valiant Norvegians Suedens and Danes In the time of Charles the Great they practised roving and piracie in such cruell manner about Frisia Belgia England Ireland and France that when the said Charles the Great saw their roving ships in the Mediterranean sea he shed teares abundantly and with a grievous deepe sigh said Heavie I am at the heart that in my life time they durst once come upon this coast and I foresee what mischiefe they will worke hereafter to my posteritie Yea and in the publique Processions and Letanies of Churches this afterwards was added to the rest From the race of Normans Good Lord deliver us They drave the French to that extremitie that King Charles the Bald was forced to give unto Hasting a Norman Arch-pirate the Earledome of Charters for to asswage the mans furie King Charles the Grosse granted unto Godfrey the Norman a part of Neustria with his daughter also in marriage But afterwards by force and armes they seated themselves neere unto the mouth of the river Sein in a country which before time was corruptly called Neustria because it had beene a parcell of Westrasia For so the writers of the middle time named that which the Germans used to call Westen-rijch that is the West-kingdome and doth comprise all that lieth betweene the rivers of Loyre and Seine Which tooke the name of Normandie afterwards of them as it were the region of Northerne men when King Charles the simple had confirmed it unto their Prince Rollo whose Godfather he was at his Baptisme to bee held in Fee by homage and withall bestowed upon him his daughter in marriage At which time as we reade in an old Manuscript belonging to the Monasterie of Angiers Charles surnamed Stultus gave Normandie to Rollo and his daughter Gista with it This Rollo daigned not to kisse the foote of Charles and when his friends about him admonished him to kisse the Kings foote as his homager for the receit of so great a benefit hee answered in the English tongue Ne se by God which they interpret thus NO BY GOD The King then and his Courtiers deriding him and corruptly repeating his speech called him Bigod whereupon the Normans be at this day called Bigodi Hence also peradventure it is that the Frenchmen even still use to call hypocrites and superstitious folke Bigod This Rollo who being baptised received therewith the name of Robert some writers report to have become a Christian but in shew and colour onely others upon good deliberation and in earnest and they adde moreover that hee was warned so to doe by God in a dreame which I pray you give me leave being a man for all this that doateth not upon dreames to relate without suspicion of vanitie from the credit of writers in those daies The report goeth that as he sailed he dreamed he saw himselfe fouly infected with the leprosie but when hee was washed once in a most cleare spring at the foot of an high hill hee recovered and was cleansed thereof and anon climbed up to the top of the said hill This Dreame when he reported a Christian that was a captive in the same ship with him interpreted it in this wise The Leprosie was the impious worship of Idol gods wherewith he was tainted that the spring betokned the holy Laver of Regeneration wherewith being once cleansed he should ascend up the hill that is attaine unto high honor and heaven it selfe This Rollo begat William surnamed Long-espee of the long sword which he used to weare and William begat Richard the first of that name Whose sonne and nephew by his son carrying both his name succeeded after him in the Duchie of Normandie but when Richard the third was dead without issue his brother Robert was Duke in his stead who of his concubine begat that William whom wee commonly name The Conquerour and the Bastard All these were every one for their noble acts atchieved both at home and abroad most renowned Princes Now whiles this William being of ripe yeares ruled Normandie Edward the holy surnamed CONFESSOR King of England and the last of the Saxons line departed out of this world unto his heavenly country to the great misse and losse of his people who being the sonne of Ladie Emma cosen to William and daughter to Richard the first of that name Duke of Normandie whiles hee remained in Normandie banished had promised unto him that he should succeed after him in the Crowne of England But Harold the sonne of Godwin and Great Master or Steward of King Edwards house usurped the Kingdome whom to dispossesse his brother Tosto of one side
of a sumptuous and stately house which Edward the last Duke of Buckingham was in hand to build in the yeare of our Lord as the engraving doth purport 1511. when he had taken downe an ancient house which Hugh Audeley E. of Glocester had formerly built seven miles from hence Avon sheading it selfe into Severn running crosse before it maketh a division betweene Glocestershire and Sommersetshire and not farre from the banke thereof Pucle-Church appeareth being in times past a towne or Manour of the Kings called Pucle-Kerkes wherein Edmund King of England whiles he interposed himselfe betweene his Sewer and one Leove a most vilanous wretch for to part and end certaine quarrels betweene them was thrust through the body and so lost his life Nere bordering upon this place are two townes Winterburne which had for their Lords the Bradstons amongst whom S. Thomas was summoned amongst the Barons in the time of King Edward the Third From whom the Vicounts Montacute the Barons of Wentworth c. fetch their descent Acton which gave name to the house of the Actons Knights whose heire being married unto Nicolas Points Knight in K. Edward the second his daies left the same to their off-spring Derham a little towne in the Saxons tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where Ceaulin the Saxon slew three Princes or chiefe Lords of the Britans Commeail Condidan and Fariemeiol with others whom he likewise put to the sword and dispossessed the Britans of that countrie for ever There remaine yet in that place huge rampieâ—s and trenches as fortifications of their campes and other most apparent monuments here and there of so great a war This was the chiefe seat of the Barony of Iames de novo Mercatu who begat three daughters wedded to Nicholas de Moelis Iohn de Boteraux and Ralph Russell one of whose posterity enriched by matching with the heire of the ancient family of Gorges assumed unto them the name of Gorges But from Ralph Russell the heire this Deorham descended to the family of Venis Above these is Sodbury knowne by the familie of Walsh and neighbours thereunto are Wike-ware the ancient seat of the familie De-la-ware Woton under Edge which yet remembreth the slaughter of Sir Thomas Talbot Vicount Lisle heere slaine in the time of King Edward the Fourth in an encounter with the Lord Barkley about possessions since which time have continued suites betweene their posterity untill now lately they were finally compounded More Northward I had sight of Durisley reputed the ancientest habitation of the Barkleyes hereupon stiled Barkleis of Duresley who built here a Castle now more than ruinous and were accounted founders of the Abbey of Kings-wood thereby for Cistertian Monkes derived from Tintern whom Maud the Empresse greatly enriched The males of this house failed in the time of King Richard the Second and the heire generall was married to Cantelow Within one mile of this where the river Cam lately spoken of springeth is Vleigh a seat also of the Barkeleis descended from the Barons Barkeley stiled of Vleigh and Stoke Giffard who were found coheires to I. Baron Boutetort descended from the Baron Zouch of Richards Castles alias Mortimer and the Somerus Lords of Dueley Beverston Castle not farre of Eastward appertained also to the name of Barkeleies but in former times to the Gournois and Ab-Adam a Baron in the time of King Edward the First Hitherto have we cursorily passed over the principall places in this Shire situate beyond and upon Severn and not far from his banke Now proceede we forward to the East part which I said riseth up with hilles to wit Cotteswold which of woulds and Cotes that is hils and Sheepfolds tooke that name For mountaines and hils without woods the Englishmen in old time termed Woulds whence it is that an Old Glossary interpreteth Alpes Italie The Woulds of Italie In these Woulds there feed in great numbers flockes of sheepe long necked and square of bulke and bone by reason as it is commonly thought of the weally and hilly situation of their pasturage whose wool being most fine and soft is had in passing great account among all nations Vnder the side of these hils and among them are to be seene as it were in a row neighbouring together these places following of more antiquity than the rest beginning at the north-North-east end of them Campden commonly Camden a mercat towne well peopled and of good resort where as Iohn Castoreus writeth all the Kings of Saxon bloud assembled in the yeare of Salvation 689. and consulted in common about making war upon the Britans In William the Conquerours time this Weston and Biselay were in the possession of Hugh Earle of Chester and from his posterity came at last by Nicolaa de Albeniaco an inherice to the ancient Earles of Arundel unto Roger de Somery Neere unto it standeth the said Weston a place now to bee remembred in regard of a faire house which maketh a goodly shew a farre off built by Ralph Sheldon for him and his Posterity Hales in late time a most flourishing Abbay built by Richard Earle of Cornwall and King of Romanes who was there buried with his Wife Sanchia daughter to the Earle of Province and deserving commendation for breeding up of Alexander of Hales a great Clerke and so deepely learned above all others in that subtile and deepe Divinity of the Schoole men as he carryed away the sirname of Doctor Irrefragabilis that is the Doctor ungain-said as he that could not be gain-said Sudley in times past Sudlengh a very faire Castle the seat not long since of Sir Thomas Seimor Baron Seimor of Sudley and Admirall of England attainted in the time of king Edward the Sixth and afterward of Sir John Bruges whom Queene Mary created Baron Chandos of Sudley because he derived his pedegree from the ancient family of Chandos out of which there flourished in the raigne of Edward the third Sir John Chandos a famous Baneret Vicount of Saint Saviours L of Caumont and Kerkitoâ— in France a martiall man and for military Prowesse every way most renowned But in old time certaine Noblemen here dwelt and of it had their addition de Sudley descended of a right ancient English Race to wit from Gorda K. Aetheldreds daughter whose son Ralph Medantinus Earle of Hereford begat Harold L. of Sudley whose progeny flourished here a long time untill for default of issue male the daughter and heire matched in marriage with Sir William Butler of the family of Wem and brought him a sonne named Thomas and he begat Ralph Lord Treasurer of England created by king Henry the Sixth Baron of Sudley with a fee of 200. markes yearely who repaired this castle and enlarged it with new buildings His sisters and coheires were married unto the houses of Northbury and Belkâ—ape and by their posterity the possessions in short time were divided into
the Church of Ely for to expiate and make satisfaction for the wicked act hee had committed in murdering his owne mother then by Angre where upon a very high Hill are the tokens of a Castle built by Richard Lucy Lord Chiefe Justice of England in the Raigne of Henry the Second of which Family a daughter and one of the heires King Iohn gave in marriage to Richard Rivers who dwelt hard by at Stranford Rivers So it passeth by Lambourn Manour which is held by service of the Wardstaffe viz. to carry a load of strawe in a Carte with sixe horses two ropes two men in harnesse to watch the said Wardstaffe when it is brought to the Towne of Aibridge c. and then by Wansted Parke where the late Earle of Leicester built much for his pleasure From the mouth of this Roding this Tamis hasteneth through a ground lying very flat and low and in most places otherwhiles overflowne whereby are occasioned strong and unwholsome vapours exceeding hurtfull to the health of the neighbour Inhabitants to Tilbury neere unto which there bee certaine holes in the rising of a chalky Hill sunke into the ground tenne sathome deepe the mouth whereof is but narrow made of stone cunningly wrought but within they are large and spacious in this forme which hee that went downe into them described unto mee after this manner Of which I have nothing else to say but what I have delivered already As for Tilbury Bede nameth it Tilaburgh it consisteth of some few cottages by the Tamis side yet was it in ancient time the seate of Bishop Chad when about the yeare of our Salvation 630. hee ingrafted the East-Saxons by Baptisme into the Church of Christ. Afterwards this River passing by places lying flat and unwholesome with a winding returne of his Water severeth the Island CONVENNON which also is called COUNOS whereof Ptolomee maketh mention from the firme land This hath not yet wholly foregone the old name but is called Canvey It lyeth against the Coast of Essex from Leegh to Hole Haven five miles in length some part whereof appertaineth to the Collegiat Church of Westminster But so low that oftentimes it is quite overflowne all save hillocks cast up upon which the Sheepe have a place of safe refuge For it keepeth about foure hundred Sheepe whose flesh is of a most sweet and delicate taste which I have seene young lads taking womens function with stooles fastened to their buttockes to milke yea and to make Cheeses of Ewes milke in those dairy sheddes of theirs that they call there Wiches There adjoyne to this Island along in order first Beamfleot fortified with deepe and wide Trenches as saith Florilegus and with a Castle by Hasting the Dane which King Aelfred wonne from them Then Hadleigh sometime the Castle of Hubert de Burgo afterwards of Thomas of Woodstocke Duke of Glocester now defaced with ruines and in the last place Leegh a proper fine little Towne and very full of stout and adventerous Sailers with Pritlewel fast by where Sweno de Essex built long since a Cell for Monkes And here the land shooteth forward to make a Promontory which they call Black-taile Point and Shobery Nesse of Shobery a Village situate upon it which sometime was a City an Havenet named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For in old Annales of the English-Saxons wee reade thus The Danes being driven from Beamfleot goe to a City seated in East-sex called in the English Tongue Sceobirig and there built themselves a sure and strong Fort. Heere by reason that the bankes on both sides shrinke backe the Tamis at a huge and wide mouth rowleth into the sea This doth Ptolomee terme Aestuarium TAMESAE and corruptly in some other Copies TEMESAE and we commonly the Tamis Mouth More inward is Rochford placed that hath given name to this Hundered Now it belongeth to the Barons Rich but in old time it had Lords of ancient Nobility sirnamed thereof whose inheritance came at length to Butler Earle of Ormond and Wiltshire and from them to Sir Thomas Bullen whom King Henry the Eighth created Vicount Rochford and afterward Earle of Wiltshire out of whose Progeny sprung that most gracious Queene ELIZABETH and the Barons of Hunsdon Heere I have heard much speech of a Lawlesse Court as they called it holden in a strange manner about Michaelmasse in the first peepe of the day upon the first cocke crowing in a silent sort yet with shrowde fines eftsoones redoubled if not answered which servile attendance they say was imposed upon certaine Tenants there-about for conspiring there at such unseasonable time to raise a commotion But I leave this knowing neither the originall nor the certaine forme thereof Onely I heard certaine obscure barbarous rhymes of it Curia de Domino Rege tenetur sin◠lege Ante ortum solis luceat nisi polus c. not worth remembring Leaving the Tamis Banke and going farther within the countrey yea from West to East these places of name above the rest standing thus in order shew themselves Havering an ancient retiring place of the Kings so called of a Ring which in that place a Pilgrime delivered as sent from S. J. Baptist for so they write unto K. Edward the Confessor Horn-Church named in times past Cornutum Monasterium that is the horned Minster for there shoot out at the East end of the Church certaine points of leade fashioned like hornes Rumford the glory whereof dependeth of a swine mercat and Giddy-hall an house adjoyning to it which belonged to that Sir Thomas Cooke Major of London whose great riches hoorded up together wrought him his greatest danger For being judicially arraigned innocent man as he was of high treason and through the incorrupt equity of Judge Markham acquit in a most dangerous time yet was he put to a very grievous fine and stript in manner of all that he was worth Brentwood called by the Normans Bois arse in the same sense and by that name King Stephen granted a Mercat and a Faire there to the Abbat of S. Osith and many yeares after Isabell Countesse of Bedford daughter to King Edward the Third built a Chappell to the memory of S. Thomas of Canterbury for the ease of the Inhabitants Engerstone a Towne of note for nothing else but the Mercat and Innes for Travailers Heere am I at a stand and am halfe in a doubt whether I should now slip as an abortive fruite that conjecture which my minde hath travailed with Considering there hath beene in this Tract the City CAESAROMAGUS and the same doubtlesse in the Romanes time of especiall note and importance for the very name if there were nothing else may evict so much signifying as it doth Caesars City as DRUSOMAGUS the City of Drusus which also should seeme to have beene built in the honour of Caesar Augustus For Suaetonius writeth thus Kings that
ours doth A mighty nation this was as saith Tacitus and after they had betaken themselves to the protection of the Romans never shaken nor troubled unto Claudius his time For then when as Ostorius the Romane Lieutenant raised fortifications vpon the rivers and disarmed the Britans they assembled their forces and made head against him but after that the Romanes had broken through the rampier wherewith they had fenced themselves they were vanquished not without great slaughter In which fight verily they performed many worthy acts and M. Ostorius the Lieutenants sonne wonne the honour of saving a Citizens life When this warre was thus husht scarce 13. yeeres had gone over their heads when a new tempest of warre arose upon these occasions Prasutagus King of these Iceni to secure though it were with the hurt of his own private estate his kinred from calamity ordained by his last will and testament Nero the Emperor to be his heire supposing that by this obsequious service of his let Tacit. speak for me a while his Kingdom and house both should be safe from all injury which fell out cleane contrary so that his Kingdome was wasted by the Centurions and his house by slaves as if they had been subdued by force And now first of all his wife Boodicia who also is called Bunduica was whipped and her daughters defloured All the principall men of the Iceni as though they had received the whole Country in free gift were stript of their goods and turned out of their ancient inheritance those also of the Kings stocke and bloud accounted no better than bondslaves By occasions of which grievous injuries and for fear of greater indignities for so much they had been reduced into the forme of a province in all hast they tooke armes having withall sollicited the Trinobantes to rebellion and others also who had not as yet been inured to bondage These by privie conspiracies agreed to resume their libertie being incensed with most bitter and deadly hatred against the old souldiers planted at Maldon above said Thus began a most dangerous warre to kindle which was set more on a light fire by the greedy covetousnesse of Seneca who about that time exacted with extremitie 400000. Sesterces an hundred times told which amount to three hundred thousand pounds of our money so increased by his biting usurious contracts In this warre that I may be briefe that Boodicia whom Gildas seemeth to call the crafty Lionesse wife to Prasutagus slew outright of Romanes and their associates fourescore thousand rased Caimalodunum their Colonie and the free towne Verulamium The ninth Legion she discomfited and put to flight Catus Decianus the Procuratour but at length she being put to the worst by Suetonius Paulinus in a pitched field with an invincible courage and resolution died as Tacitus writeth by drinking a cup of poison or as Dio saith by sicknesse In the heat of this war Xiphilinus recordeth out of Dio that the Britans especially worshipped the Goddesse VICTORIE under the name of ANDATES which the Greeke booke in another place calleth Andrastes also that in her sacred grove they sacrificed prisoners alive in most barbarous and savage maner And yet the Britans in these daies acknowledge no such name of Victorie neither know I what the meaning of it should be unlesse as the Latins have called Victorie Victoriam à vincendo that is of winning the Sabins acunam ab Vevacuando that is of emptying and making riddance and the Grecians NIKHN 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is of not yeelding or giving backe so the Britans named it Anaraith of overthrowing For so they terme a mischievous and deadly overthrow But thus much slightly by the way From those times ever since no mention is there in authors of the Iceni neither can any thing by reading be found but that the Romans when their Empire went apace to decay did set a new officer over the sea coasts along these and other countries to restraine the piracies and robberies of the Saxons whom as I have said heeretofore they called Comes of the Saxons shore along Britaine But when the English Saxons now had established their Heptarchie in this Iland this province became part of the Kingdome of East Angles which of the site thereof Eastward they named in their language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is The Kingdome of East English and it had for the first King thereof Vffa whence his successors were a long time called Vff Kines who seem to have been Vassals sometimes to the Kings of Mercia and sometimes to the Kings of Kent Whose offspring being come to an end in S. Edmund the Danes overran this country most piteously for the space of 50. yeares or thereabout afflicting it with all the calamities that accompany the wars untill that King Edward the elder having subdued them united it at length to his owne Kingdom of the West-Saxons But afterwards it had peculiar Presidents and Governors which honorable place at the first comming in of the Normans and a while after one Ralph born in the lesser Britain held a man of a perfidious disposition and disloyall who at a celebration of a marriage in most sumptuous manner wickedly with many moe conspired the death of William the Conqueror but in vaine it was to hope for secrecy and trust among so many privie to the conspiracy For it was discovered and he deprived of his dignity was attainted and the rest beheaded But these things are to bee handled more at large by the Historians and now let us goe in hand with that which belongeth properly to our purpose that is the places themselves What kind of country this was behold how Abbo Floriacensis who lived in the yeare of Christ 970. hath pictured out in these words This part which is called East Angle or East England is renowned as for other causes so in this regard that it is watered almost on every side being on the Southeast and East environed with the Ocean and on the North-east with huge Fennes soked in moisture which rising by reason of the levell ground from the mids in manner of all Britaine for the space of a hundred miles and more doth descend with the greatest rivers into the sea But of that side which lieth Westward the Province it selfe is continuate to the rest of the Iland and therefore passable throughout but least it should be overrun with the often irruptions and breakings in of enemies it is fensed along with a banke like unto a wall and a Trench Inwardly the soile is fruitfull enough and the country of a passing fresh hue with pleasant Orchards Gardens and groves most delectable for hunting notable for pastures and not meanly stored with sheepe and other cattell I say nothing of the fishfull rivers considering that of the one side the sea licketh it with his Tongue and of the other side there are by reason of the broad Fennes and wide Marishes an infinite
afterward this honor at the hands of King Henry the Fifth Who shortly after in the French war lost his life at the siege of Meaux in Brye leaving one onely daughter married to Sir Edward Nevill from whom descended the late Lords of Abergevenny Afterward King Henry the Sixth created John Tiptoft Earle of Worcester But when he presently taking part with King Edward the Fourth had applied himselfe in a preposterous obsequiousnesse to the humor of the said King and being made Constable of England plaied the part as it were of the butcher in the cruell execution of diverse men of qualitie himselfe when as King Henry the Sixth was now repossessed of the crowne came to the blocke Howbeit his sonne Edward recovered that honor when King Edward recovered his Kingdome But after that this Edward died without issue and the inheritance became divided among the sisters of the said John Tiptoft Earle of Worcester of whom one was married to the Lord Roo◠another to Sir Edmund Ingoldesthorpe and the third to the Lord Dudley Sir Charles Somerset base sonne to Henry Duke of Somerset Lord Herbert and Lord Chamberlaine to King Henry the Eighth was by him created Earle of Worcester After whom succeeded in lineall descent Henry William and Edward who now flourisheth and among other laudable parts of vertue and Nobility highly favoureth the studies of good literature There are in this Shire Parishes 152. STAFFORDIAE COMITATVS PARS olim Cornauiorum STAFFORD-SHIRE THE third Region of the old CORNAVII now called STAFFORD-SHIRE in the English Saxons Language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Inhabitants whereof because they dwelt in the middest of England are in Bede termed Angli Mediterranei that is Midland Englishmen having on the East Warwick-shire and Darby-shire on the South side Worcester-shire and Westward Shropp-shire bordering upon it reacheth from South to North in forme of a Lozeng broader in the middest and growing narrower at the ends The North part is full of Hilles and so lesse fruitfull the middle being watered with the River Trent is more plentifull clad with Woods and embroidered gallantly with Corne fields and medowes as is the South part likewise which hath Coles also digged out of the earth and mines of Iron But whether more for their commodity or hinderance I leave to the Inhabitants who doe or shall best understand it In the South part in the very confines with Worcester-shire upon the River Stour standeth Stourton Castle sometimes belonging to the Earles of Warwicke the natall place of Cardinall Pole and then Dudley Castle towreth up upon an hill built and named so of one Dudo or Dodo an English Saxon about the yeere of our Salvation 700. In King William the Conquerours daies as we finde in his Domesday Booke William Fitz-Ausculph possessed it afterwards it fell to Noble men sirnamed Somery and by an heire generall of them to Sir Richard Sutton knight descended from the Suttons of Nottingham-shire whose Posterity commonly called from that time Lords of Dudley but summoned to Parliament first by King Henry the Sixth grew up to a right honourable Family Under this lyeth Pensueth Chace in former times better stored with game wherein are many Cole-pits in which as they reported to mee there continueth a fire begunne by a candle long since through the negligence of a grover or digger The smoke of this fire and sometime the flame is seene but the savour oftener smelt and other the like places were shewed unto mee not farre off North-West ward upon the Confines of Shropp-shire I saw Pateshull a seat of the Astleies descended from honourable Progenitours and Wrotesley an habitation of a Race of Gentlemen so sirnamed out of which Sir Hugh Wrotesley for his approoved valour was chosen 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 Next after this the memorable places that wee meet with in this Tract more inwardly are these Chellington a faire house and Manour of the ancient Family of the Giffards which in the Raigne of Henry the Second Peter Corbuchin gave to Peter Giffard upon whom also Richard Strongbow that Conquerour of Ireland bestowed in free gift Tachmelin and other Possessions in Ireland Theoten hall which is by interpretation The habitation of Heathens or Pagans at this day Tetnall embrued with Danish bloud in the yeere 911. by King Edward the Elder in a bloudy Battaile Ulfrunes Hampton so called of Wulfruna a most godly and devout woman who enriched the Towne called before simply Hampton with a religious House and for Wulfrunes Hampton it is corruptly called Wulver Hampton The greatest name and note whereof ariseth by the Church there annexed to the Warden or Deane and Prebendaries of Windsor Weadsbury in these dayes Weddsborrow fortified in old time by Aethelfled Lady of the Mercians and Walshall a Mercate Towne none of the meanest Neere unto which the River Tame carryeth his streame which rising not farre off for certaine miles wandereth through the East part of this Shire seeking after Trent neere unto Draiton Basset the seat of the Bassets who springing out from Turstan Lord of this place in the Raigne of Henry the First branched forth into a great and notable Family For from hence as from a stocke flourished the Bassets of Welleden of Wiccomb of Sapcot of Cheddle and others But of this of Draiton Raulph was the last who being a right renowned Baron had marryed the sister of John Montfort Duke of Britaine and in the Raigne of Richard the Second died without issue Then Tame passing through the Bridge at Falkesley over which an ancient high way of the Romanes went runneth hard under Tamworth in the Saxon Tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Marianus calleth it Tamawordia a Towne so placed in the Confines of the two Shires that the one part which belonged sometime to the Marmions is counted of Warwick-shire the other which pertained to the Hastings of Stafford-shire As for the name it is taken from Tame the Riuer running beside it and of the English Saxon word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a Barton Court or Ferme-house and also an Holme or River Island or any place environed with water seeing that Keyserwert and Bomelswert in Germanie betoken as much as Caesars Isle and Bomels Isle Whiles the Mercians Kingdome stood in state this was a place of their Kings resiance and as we finde in the Lieger Booke of Worcester a Towne of very great resort and passing well frequented Afterward when in the Danes Warre it was much decaied Aethelfled Lady of Mercia repaired and brought it againe to the former state also Edith King Eadgars Sister who refusing Marriage for the opinion that went of her for holinesse was registred in the roll of Saints founded heere a little house for Nunnes and veiled Virgins which after some yeeres was translated to
Vale underneath along Corve which commonly is called Corves-dale to Sir Foulque of Dinan Afterwards it belonged to the Lacies of Ireland and by a daughter fell to Sir Geffrey de Ienevile a Poictevin or as some will have it of the house of Lorain from whose heires it descended againe by a daughter to the Mortimers and from thence hereditarily to the Crowne Then the Inhabitants in processe of time built in the very bosome of the Towne and on the highest ground a very faire Church and the onely Church they have And so it beganne to be of great account and to excell other neighbour Townes adjoyning And although by King Stephen Simon Montfort and King Henry the Sixth it suffered much damage in the civill Warres yet it alwayes flourished againe and now especially ever since that King Henry the Eighth ordained the Councell of the Marches not unlike to those Parliaments in France the Lord President whereof doth for the most part keepe Courts and Terme here which a man could hardly have seene at any time without Suites whether it were for the great state and authority that it carryed or because the Welshmen are so forward and hote to goe to Law This Councell consisteth of the Lord President so many Counsellers as it shall please the Prince to appoint a Secretary an Attorney a Sollicitour and the foure Iustices of the Counties in Wales Somewhat lower upon the River Temd is seene Burford which from Theodoricke Saie and his Posterity came unto Robert Mortimer and from his posterity likewise unto Sir Geffrey Cornwaile who derived his Descent from Richard Earle of Cornwall and King of the Alemans and his Race even unto these daies hath flourished under the name of Barons of Burford but not in the dignity of Parliamentary Barons whereas it is holden as we reade in the Inquisition of the King for to finde five men for the Army of Wales and by service of a Baronie As for those that I may note thus much by the way who held an entire and whole Barony they were commonly in times past reputed Barons and as some learned in our common lawes are of opinion Baron and Barony like as Earle and Earledome Duke and Dukedome King and Kingdome were Conjugata that is Originally yoke-fellowes When Temd now is leaving Shropp-shire behinde it not farre from the bankes thereof there raise themselves up Northward certaine hils of easie ascent Cleehill they call them much commended for yeelding the best Barly in great plenty neither are they without iron mines at the descent whereof in a Village called Cleybury Hugh Mortimer built a Castle which King Henry the Second forthwith so rased because it was a noursery of sedition that scarce there remaine any tokens thereof at this day also hard by standeth Kinlet where the Blunts flourished Their name in this Tract is very great so sirnamed at first of their yellow haire the Family noble and ancient and the branches thereof farre spread Then saw we on the right hand banke of Severn Brug Morfe commonly but corruptly called Bridg-North so called of Burg or Burrbugh and Morfe a Forest adjoyning whereas before time it was named simply Burgh A Towne fortified with wals a ditch a stately Castle and the Severn which betweene the Rockes runneth downe with a great fall seated also upon a Rocke out of which the waies leading into the upper part of the Towne were wrought out Achelfleda Lady of the Mercians first built it and Robert de Belesme Earle of Shrewesbury walled it who trusting to the naturall strength of the place rebelled against King Henry the First like as afterward Roger Mortimer against King Henry the the Second but both of them with ill successe for they were both forced to yeeld and submit themselves absolutely to the Kings command At the Siege of this Castle as we reade in our Annales King Henry the Second being levelled at with an arrow had beene shot therewith quite through the body had not Sir Hubert Syncter a noble and trusty Servitour to the King interposed himselfe and to save the King received both the arrow and his deaths wound withall Before time also Sir Raulph de Pichford bare himselfe so valiantly heere that king Henry the First gave unto him the little Burgh hard by To hold by service for to finde dry wood for the great chamber of the Castle of Burgh against the comming of his Soveraigne Lord the King Willeley or Willey is not farre from hence the habitation in old time of Sir Warner De Willeley from whose Posterity by the Harleis and Peshall it came to the notable Family of Lacon advanced by marriage long since with the heire of Passelew and of late by the Possession of Sir I. Blunt of Kinlet There be in like manner other Townes and Castles heere and there in this Tract as Newcastle Hopton Castle Shipton and upon the River Corve Corvesham which Walter Clifford had by the gift of king Henry the Second also Brancroft and Holgot commonly Howgate which belonged sometime to the Manduits then to Robert Blunt Bishop of Bath and afterwards to the Lovells More higher are Wenlocke now knowne for the lime but in king Richard the Seconds time for a mine of Copper there But much more knowne in the Saxons dayes for a most ancient Nunnery where Milburga that most holy virgin lived in great devotion and was entombed the which Nunnery Earle Roger de Montgomerie repaired and replenished with Monkes In later times Sir Iohn Winell called also Wenlocke because he heere inhabited for his faithfull service to king Henry the Sixth was by him advanced to the state and honor of Baron Wenlocke and elected knight of the Garter in whose cause he manfully lost his life in the Battaile of Tewkesbury leaving no issue but from his cozin and heire generall the Lawleys of this County are lineally descended A little more West is Acton Burnell a Castle of the Burnels and after of the Lovels made famous by the Court of Parliament there held in the time of king Edward the First This Family of the Burnells was in old time of great name and antiquity very much enriched also by that Bishop aforenamed But it failed and had an end in the Raigne of Edward the Second when Mawde the heire was married unto John Lovell first and secondly to John Haudlow whose sonne Nicholas assumed to himselfe the name of Burnell from whom the Ratcliffes Earles of Sussex and others draw their pedegree Scarce a mile from hence standeth Langley seated very flat and low in a Parke full of Woods the dwelling place of the Leas which may well challenge to be ranged among the Families that are of the better worth and greater Antiquity in this Tract Next unto these is Condover a Manour sometimes of the Lovells but of late the possession of Thomas Owen
the Catalogue of Martyrs had a Church here built and dedicated unto him by Milfrid a pety K. of the country wherein when a Bishops See was established it grew to great wealth first through the devout liberality of the Mercians and then of the West Saxons kings for they at length were possessed of this City as may be gathered out of William of Malmesbury where he writeth That Athelistan the West Saxon brought the Lords of Wales in this City of so hard passe that by way of Tribute they were to pay every yeere besides Hounds and Haukes twenty pounds of gold and three hundred pound of silver by weight This Citie as farre as I can reade had never any misfortune unlesse it were in the yeere of our Lord 1055. wherein Gruffith Prince of South Wales and Algar an English man rebelling against King Edward the Confessour after they had put to flight Earle Ralph sacked the Citie destroyed the Cathedrall Church and led away captive Leofgar the Bishop But Harold straightwaies after that hee and daunted their audacious courage fensed it as Floriacensis saith with a broade and high Rampier Hence it is that Malmesbury writeth thus in his treatise of Bishops Hereford is no great Citie and yet by the height of those steepe and upright bankes cast up it sheweth that it hath beene some great thing and as wee reade in the Domesday booke of King William the Conquerour there were in all but an hundered and three men within the Walles and without The Normans afterwards neere the East end of the Church along the side of Wy built a mighty great and strong Castle the worke as some report of Earle Miles which now yeeldeth to Time and runneth to ruine After this they walled the Citie about Bishop Reinelm in the reigne of Henry the First founded that beautifull Cathedrall Church which now we see there whose successours enlarged it by adioyning thereto a proper Colledge for Priests and faire houses for the Prebendaries For besides the Bishop who hath 302. Churches in his Dioecese there are in this Church a Deane two Archdeacons a Chaunter a Chauncellour 2 Treasurer and eight and twenty Prebendaries In the Church I saw in manner no Monuments but the Bishops Tombes And I have heard that Thomas Cantlow the Bishop a man of Noble birth had here a very stately and sumptuous Sepulcher who for his holinesse being canonized a Saint went within a little of surmounting that princely Martyr King Ethelbert such was the opinion of singular pietie and devotion Geographers measure the position or site of this Citie by the Longitude of twenty degrees and foure and twenty scruples and by the Latitude of two and fifty degrees and sixe scruples Wy is not gone full three miles from hence but he intercepteth by the way the river Lug who running downe a maine out of Radnor hils with a still course passeth through the mids of this country from the North-west of the South-east At the first entrance it seeth a farre off Brampton Brian Castle which a famous family named hereof de Brampton wherein the forname was usually Brian held by continuall succession unto the time of King Edward the First but now by the female heires it is come to R. Harleie neere at hand it beholdeth Wigmore in the English Saxons tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 repaired in elder times by King Edward the elder afterward fortified by William Earle of Hereford with a Castle in the wast of a ground for so reade we in Domesday booke which was called Marestun in the tenure of Radulph de Mortimer from whom those Mortimers that were afterwards Earles of March lineally descended of whom you may reade more in Radnor-shire Three miles off there is another neighbour Castle called Richards Castle the possession first of the Sayes then of the Mortimers and afterwards of the Talbots by hereditarie succession At length by the heires of Sir Iohn Talbot the inheritance was divided betweene Sir Guarin Archdeacon and Sir Matthew Gurnay Beneath this Castle Nature who no where disporteth her selfe more in shewing wonders then in waters hath brought forth a pretty well which is alwaies full of little bones or as some thinke of small frog-bones although they be from time to time drawne quite out of it whence it is commonly called Bone well And not farre off is placed Croft Castle the possession of that very ancient family of the Crofts Knights who have there now a long time flourished in great and good esteeme Thence passeth Wy to Lemster which also was called Leon Minister and Lions Monastery of a Lyon that appeared to a religious man in a vision as some have dreamed But whereas the Britans call it Lhan Lieni which signifieth a Church of Nunnes and that it is certainely knowne that Merewalc a King of the Mercians built here a Church for Nunnes that afterwards became a Cell belonging to the Monastery of Reading to seeke any other originall of the name than from those Nunnes what were it else but to hunt after the windes Yet there want not some who derive it from Line whereof the best kinde groweth here The greatest name and same that it hath at this day is of the wooll in the territories round about Lemister Ore they call it which setting aside that of Apulia and Tarentum all Europe counteth to be the very best so renowned also it is for Wheat and bread of the Finest floure that Lemster bread and Weabley Ale a towne belonging to the noble Familie D'Eureux are growne unto a common proverbe By reason of these commodities the mercates at Lemster were so frequented that they of Hereford and Worcester complaining that the confluence of people thither impaired their mercates procured that by Royall authoritie the mercat day was changed Now have I nothing more concerning Lemster but that William Breosa Lord of Brecknock when hee revolted from King John did set it on fire and defaced it As for that Webley aforesaid it is situate more within the Country and was the Baronie of the Verdons the first of which house named Bertram de Verdon came into England with the Normans whose posteritie by marriage with an inheretrice of Laceies of Trim in Ireland were for a good while hereditary Constables of Ireland and at last the possessions were by the daughters devolved to the Furnivalls Burghersh Ferrars of Groby Crop-hulls and from the Crop-hulls by the Ferrars of Chartly unto D'Eureux Earles of Essex Neere neighbours unto Webley more Westward are these places Huntingdon Castle the possession in times past of the Bohuns Earles of Hereford and of Essex Kinnersley belonging to the auncient Family De la-bere and Erdsley where the auncient Family of the Baskervills have long inhabited which bred in old time so many worthie Knights who deduce their pedigree from a Neice of Dame Gunora that most famous Lady in Normandy and long agoe flourished in this Country and
if good occasion were offered to encounter with them before they came to the Limits In this Iland the Romans when they perceived that the farther parts of Britaine lying North were cold and a rough barren soile and inhabited by the Caledonian Britans and barbarous nations in subduing whereof they were sure to take much paines and reape very small profit built at sundry times divers fore-fenses as well to bound as to defend the Province The first of these seemeth to have beene made by Iulius Agricola when he fortified with holds and garrisons that narrow space of ground that lieth betweene Edenborrough Frith and Dunbretten Frith which afterwards was eftsoones strengthened When TERMINUS the god of bounds who would not give place to Jupiter himselfe was so enforced to yeeld to Hadrian the Emperour that he withdrew the Limit of the Roman Empire in the East to the river Euphrates whether for envie to Trajans glorie under whom the Empire extended furthest or for feare he likewise withdrew the limits fourescore miles or thereabout within this Iland to the river Tine and there made the second fore-fence He saith Spartianus brought a wall on for fourescore miles in length which should divide the Barbarians and the Romans asunder raised with great stakes or piles pitched deep in the ground and fastned together in maner of a murall or military mound for defence as may be gathered out of that which followeth in Spartianus And this is that fore-fense wherewith we are now in hand for it goeth out in length Lxxx. Italian miles About which were PONS AELIUS CLASSIS AELIA COHORS AELIA ALA SABINIANA which tooke their names from Aelius Hadrianus and Sabina his wife And that Scottish Historiographer who wrote The wheele of Times writeth thus Hadrian was the first of all that made a rampier or wall of a huge and wonderfull bignesse like unto a mountaine all of turfes digged out of the ground with a ditch lying to it afront from the mouth of Tine unto the river Eske that is from the German Sea unto the Irish Ocean which Hector Boetius accordingly witnesseth in the same words Lollius Urbicus Lievtenant of Britain under the Emperour Antoninus Pius by his fortunate fights did enlarge the bounds againe as farre as to that first frontier fense that was made by Iulius Agricola and even there raised up a third fense with a wall He saith Capitolinus vanquished the Britans and having driven out the Barbarians made another wall of turfes beyond that of Hadrianus The honour of which war happily dispatched and finished in Britain Fronto as the Panegyricall Orator saith ascribed unto Antonine the Emperour and hath testified that he although sitting still at home in the very Palace of Rome had given charge and commission to another Generall for the war yet like unto the Pilot of a Galley sitting at the sterne and guiding the helme deserved the glorie of the whole voiage and expedition But that this Wall of Antoninus Pius and of his Lievtenant Lollius Urbicus was in Scotland shal be proved hereafter When the Caledonian Britans whiles Commodus was Emperor had broken through this wall Severus neglecting that farre and huge big Countrey made a fortification crosse over the Iland from Solway Frith to Tinmouth in that very place if I have any judgement where Hadrian made his wall of stakes and piles and of mine opinion is Hector Boetius Severus saith he commanded Hadrians wall to be repaired with Bulwarks of stone and Turrets placed in such convenient distance as that the sound of a trumpet though against the wind might be heard from the one unto the other And in another place Our Chronicles report that the wall begun by Hadrian was finished by Severus Also Hierom Surita a most learned Spaniard who writeth That the Fense of Hadrian was extended farther by Sept. Severus with great fortifications by the name of Vallum Semblably Guidus Paucirolus who affirmeth that Severus did but re-edifie and repaire the wall of Hadrian being falne downe He saith Spartianus fensed Britain which is one of the chiefe acts recorded in his time by erecting up a wall overthwart the Iland to the bound of the Ocean on both sides the Ile whereupon he got the title of BRITANNICUS After he had driven out the enemies as saith Aurelius Victor he fensed Britaine so far forth as it was commodious unto him c. As also Spartianus Againe Eutropius To the end that he might forâ—ifie with all safety and security the Provinces which he had recovered he made a wall for 35. or rather more truely 80. miles in length even from sea to sea That part of the Iland which he had recovered as Orosius writeth he thought good to sever from other untamed Nations by a rampier or wall and therefore he cast a great ditch and raised a most strong wall fortified with many turrets for the space of an hundred and twenty two miles from sea to sea with whom Bede agreeth who will not willingly heare that Severus made a wall for that he laboureth to prove that a wall is made of stone and a rampier named Vallum of stakes or piles that be called Valli and of turfes whereas in very truth Vallum and Murus that is a wall be indifferently used on for another And yet Spartianus called it Murus that is a wall and should seeme to shew that he made both a wall and a trench by these words Post murum apud vallum in Britannia missum c. Howbeit we gather out of Bede that the said Vallum or Rampier was nothing else but a wall of turfes and no man can truely say that the wall of Severus was built of stone But have here the very words of Bede himselfe Severus having gotten the victorie in civill wars at home which had fallen out to be very dangerous was drawne into Britain upon generall revolt almost of all the allies there Where after great and sore battells many times fought when he had regain'd part of the Iland he thought good to have the same divided from other wild and untamed nations not with a wall as some thinke but with a rampier for a wall is made of stones but a rampier whereby Camps are fortified to repell the force of enemies is made of turfes cut out of the earth round about but raised high in maner of a wall above ground so that there be a ditch or trench afront it whereout the turfes were gotten upon which are pitched piles of very strong timber And so Severus cast a great ditch and raised a most strong rampier strengthened with many turrets thereupon from sea to sea Neither is it knowne by any other name in Antonine or the Notice of Provinces than by Vallum that is a Rampier and is in the British tongue termed Gual-Sever Hereto we may annexe the authoritie also of Ethelward our ancientest writer next unto Bede who as touching Severus hath these words He
honour of Earle of Louth to have unto him and his heires males and withall the dignity of Baron of Athenry to him and his heires But this honourable title as it began so it ended in him for he that in warre vanquished his enemies was soone after in a tumult of rebellious people vanquished and slaine by his owne men in this territory with many other of his sirname leaving no issue behinde him But in our fathers remembrance King Henry the eighth honoured Sir Oliver Plonket with the title of Baron of Louth There remaine in this county the Verdons Tates Clintons Bellews Dowdals Gernons Hadsors Wottons Brandons Mores Warrens Chamberlanes and very many besides of English blood and of the Irish the Mac-Mathons c. THE COUNTY OF CAVON THe county of CAVON lieth next unto Louth to the West called in times past East Breanny the habitation of the O-Reilyes who vaunt themselves to have had their beginning of the Ridleys in England whereas in their whole course and maner of life they be meere Irish. These O-Reileys not long since were of great power in horsemen but to the end they might be that way lesse powerfull Sir Henry Sidney in his policy divided their county into seven Baronies whereof the Lords out of that family should immediately hold the same by service in fee from the Crowne of England They dwell scattering in piles and forts not in towns A Bishop they have of their own and him a poore one God he knoweth whose See is at Kilmore and yet is not he so poore as those Irish Bishops were who had no other rents and revenues than three milch kine which the parishioners exchanged for others new milch when they went dry according as Adam Bremensis from their owne relation when they returned by Germany out of Italy learned and put downe in writing THE COUNTY OF FERMANAGH BEyond Cavan West and North FERMANAGH presenteth it selfe where sometimes the ERDINI dwelt a country full of woods and very boggish In the midst whereof is that most famous and the greatest Meere of all Ireland Logh Erne stretching out 40. miles bordred about with shady woods and passing full of inhabited Ilands whereof some containe an hundred two hundred and three hundred Acres of ground having besides such store of Pikes Trouts and Salmons that the fishermen complain oftner of too great plenty of fishes and of the breaking of their nets than they doe for want of draught This Lake spreadeth not from East to West as it is described in the common Maps but as I have heard those say who have taken a long and good survey thereof first at Bal-Tarbet which is a little towne farthest North of any in this county of Cavon it stretcheth from South to North foureteene miles in length and foure in bredth Anon it draweth in narrow to the bignesse of a good river for six miles in the chanell whereof standeth Inis Killin the principall castle in this tract which in the yeere 1593. was defended by the rebels and by Dowdall a most valiant Captaine won Then turning Westward it enlargeth it selfe most of all twenty miles long and ten broad as far as to Belek neere unto which is a great downefall of water and as they terme it that most renowned Salmons Leape A common speech is currant among the inhabitants there by that this Lake was once firme ground passing well husbanded with tillage and replenished with inhabitants but suddenly for their abominable buggery committed with beasts overflowne with waters and turned into a Lake The Almighty God saith Giraldus Creator of Nature judged this land privie to so filthy acts against Nature unworthy to hold not only the first inhabitants but any others for the time to come Howbeit this wickednesse the Irish Annales lay upon certaine Ilanders out of the Hebrides who being fled out of their owne Countrey lurked there Among the Lords in this tract Mac-Gwir was most noble and powerfull untill he overthrew himselfe and his state in the late rebellion And they that be of that Sept dwell on both sides yet so as that those beyond the Lake are reckoned of Ulster and they on this side of Conaght THE COUNTY MONAGHAN ALong the Lough-Erne on the East side stretcheth out the Countie Monaghan mounting aloft with hills well attired with woods but knowne by no towne at all unlesse it be Monaghan which imparted the name unto the whole country It is divided into five Baronies containeth Iriel Dartre Ferey Loughty which by authority of Parliament were for rebellion given away from the Mac-Mahons with the little territory Donemain which Queen Elizabeth bestowed upon Walter D'Evereux Earle of Essex Those Mac-Mahons that is if we interpret it out of the Irish language The Sons of Ursus or the Beare ruled here as tyrannicall Lords a long time and derive their Genealogy from Walter Fitz-Urse who imbrued his hands with the bloody murdering of Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury The most puissant of these after the manner of that nation tooke upon him to Lord it over the rest and by way of excellency was termed Mac-Mahon About which preheminence when as of late daies they of that Sept or Family were at most bitter debate by way of hard words open armes foule practises yea and close corruptions Sir William Fitz-William the Lord Deputy came hither among them and judicially convented Hugh-Roe Mac-Mahon whom he by his authority had set up in this Seigniory and being upon his triall condemned of treason caused him to be hanged and to the end that he might suppresse for ever both the name and soveraignty of Mac-Mahon he divided the territory betweene the kinred of the said Hugh and certaine Englishmen to have and to hold after the English tenure to them and theirs THE COUNTY ARMAGH ON the East side again lieth out in length the county of Armagh so as that it is compassed as it were about with the river Neury by East with the county of Louth by South and with the Black-water by North. A County as I have sundry times heard the Earle of Denshire Lord Lievtenant Generall say that for a most rich and battle soile passeth all other parts of Ireland insomuch as if any compost be laid upon it to make it more fruitfull it scorneth and disdaineth as one would say the same and becommeth barren The first place in it that we meet with is Fewes a little territory belonging to Turlogh Mac-Henry one of the family of O-Neale thicke set with woods and by reason of loughs and bogs unpassable Then have you Orry as scarce of woods where dwelleth O-Hanlan and the fort Mont-Norris built by Charles Baron Mont-joy when he was Lord Deputy and so named in honour of Sir Iohn Norris under whom he had served first and was trained in military discipline Eight miles from hence neere unto the river Kalin Armach maketh a poore shew
death of the said Justice of Ireland the Lord Roger Darcy with the assent of the Kings Ministers and others of the same land is placed in the office of Justice for the time Also the castles of Ley and Kylmehede are taken by the Irish and burnt in the moneth of April Item Lord Iohn Moris commeth chiefe Justice of Ireland the fifteenth day of May. Also the Irish of Ulster gave a great overthrow unto the English of Urgale wherin were slaine three hundred at the least in the moneth of June Also the said Lord Iohn Moris Justice of Ireland is discharged by the King of England from that office of Justiceship and the Lord Walter Bermingham set in the same office by the foresaid King and a little after the foresaid slaughter committed entreth with Commission into Ireland in the month of June Item unto the Lord Moris Fitz-Thomas Earle of Desmond the maintenance of peace for a certain time is granted by the King of England Which being granted upon the Vigill of the exaltation of the holy Crosse hee together with his wife and two sonnes take sea at the haven of Yoghal and crosseth over into England where he followeth the law hard and requireth instantly to have justice for the wrongs done unto him by Raulph Ufford late Lord Justice of Ireland above named Item unto the said Earle by commandement and order from the Lord King of England there are granted from his entrance into England twenty shillings a day and so day by day still is allowed for his expences Also the Lord Walter Bermingham Justice of Ireland and the Lord Moris Fitz-Thomas Earle of Kildare rose up in armes against O-Merda and his complices who burnt the Castle of Ley and Kilmehed and they with their forces valiantly set upon and invade him and his complices spoiling killing and burning in so much as the said O-Morda and his complices although at the first they had manfully and resolutely made resistance there with many thousands of the Irish after many wounds and a great slaughter committed were constrained in the end to yeeld and so they submitted to the Kings grace and mercy and betake themselves full and whole unto the said Earles devotion MCCCXLVII The Earle of Kildare with his Barons and Knights goeth unto the King of England in the moneth of May to aide him lying then at the siege of Caleys Also the towne of Caleys was by the inhabitants upon the fourth day of June rendred up into the King of Englands hands Item Walter Bonevile William Calfe William Welesley and many other noble Gentlemen and valiant Knights as well of England as of Ireland died of the sicknesse in Caleys Also Mac-Murgh to wit Donald Mac-Murgh the sonne of Donald Art Mac-Murgh King of Leinster upon the fifth day of June is treacherously slain by his own people More Moris Fitz-Thomas Earle of Kildare is by the King of England made Knight Also the towne called Monaghan with all the territorie adjoining is by the Irish burnt on the feast day of S. Stephen Martyr Item Dame Joane Fitz-Leoues sometime wife to the Lord Simon Genevile departed this life and is buried in the Covent Church of the Friers Preachers of Trim the second day of Aprill MCCCXLVIII And in the 22. yeere of King Edward the third reigned the first pestilence and most of all in Ireland which had begunne afore in other Countries Item in this yeere Walter Lord Bermingham Lord Justice of Ireland came into England and left Iohn Archer Prior of Kylmainon his Lievtenant in his roome And he returneth againe in the same yeere Justice as before and the King conferred upon the same Walter the Barony of Kenlys which is in Osserie because he led a great army against the Earle of Desmond with Raulfe Ufford as before is said which Barony belonged in times past unto the Lord Eustace Pover who was attainted and hanged at the castle of the Isle MCCCXLIX Lord Walter Bermingham the best Justice of Ireland that ever was gave up his office of Justiceship after whom succeeded the Lord Carew Knight and Baron both MCCCL. And in the 25. yeere of the foresaid King Edward Sir Thomas Rokesby Knight was made Lord Justice of Ireland Item Sir Walter Bermingham Knight Lord Bermingham that right good Justice sometime of Ireland died in the Even of S. Margaret Virgin in England MCCCLI Kenwrick Sherman sometime Maior of the Citie of Dublin died and was buried under the Belfray of the preaching Friers of the same City which Belfray and Steeple himselfe erected and glazed a window at the head of the Quire and caused the roofe of the Church to be made with many more good deeds In the same Covent he departed I say the sixth day of March and at his end he made his Will or Testament amounting to the value of three thousand Marks and bequeathed many good Legacies unto the Priests of the Church both religious and secular that were within twenty miles about the City MCCCLII Sir Robert Savage Knight began in Ulster to build new castles in divers places and upon his owne Manours who while he was a building said unto his sonne and heire Sir Henry Savage let us make strong walls about us lest happily the Irish come and take away our place destroy our kinred and people and so we shall be reproached of all Nations Then answered his sonne where ever there shall be valiant men there is a Castle and Fortresse too according to that saying The sonnes encamped that is to say valiant men are ordained for warre and therefore will I be among such hardy men and so shall I be in a castle and therewith said in his vulgar speech A castle of Bones is better than a castle of Stones Then his father in a fume and chafe gave over his worke and swore an oath that he would never build with stone and morter but keepe a good house and a very great family and retinew of servants about him but he prophesied withall that hereafter his sonnes and posterity should grieve and waile for it which indeed came to passe for the Irish destroyed all that country for default of castles MCCCLV And in the thirty yeere of the same King Sir Thomas Rokesby Knight went out of his office of Justice the sixe and twenty day of July after whom succeeded Moris Fitz-Thomas Earle of Desmund and continued in the office untill his death Item on the day of Saint Pauls conversion the same Lord Moris Fitz-Thomas died Justice of Ireland in the castle of Dublin not without great sorrow of his friends and kinsfolke and no lesse feare and trembling of all other Irish that loved peace First he was buried in the quire of the preaching Friers of Dublin and at last enterred in the Covent Church of the Friers Preachers of Traly This man was a righteous Justicer in that hee stucke not to hang up those of his owne blood for theft and rapine and misdemeanours even as soone as strangers
O OBrien 82 O-Brins 89 O-Cahan 114 O-Carell 69 O-Conor Dun 102.104 O-Donell 117 O-Hagan 109 O-Hanlon ibid. O-Kelly 103 Ogygia 62 O-Mahon 76 O-Maily 86 O-More ibid. O-Neale election 114.120 Earle of Tir-Oen 122 c. Oleron 232 O-Pharoll 97 O-Quin 131 O-Reyley 106 Orcades Isles 216. Earles 217 Ormond 82 O-Rorke 103 O-Swilivant 76 Ossery Earle 82 Ougans 88. O-Tooles 89 P PAlladius 67 Pearles 59 Pelagius an Arch-heriticke 111 Perot 103 Phelipot a good Patriot 224 Poers Barons of Curraghmore 79 Prestholm 20â— Preston 95 Professions hereditarie 141 Plonkets 94.95.96 Q QUeâ—nes County 86 R RHeban Baronets 86 Ridiculous conceit 75 Ringrom Baron 77 Roch. Baron 78 Roscomon County 103 Russell Lord Deputy 121 Rugge 63 S SAlmons 59.114 Savage 112 Saint Bernard 103 Saint Brigid 87 Saint Laurence Baron of Houth 94. Saint Michael 86 Saint Patrickes Sepulcher 110 Purgatory 116 Saint Owen 227 Saxons Islands 220 Scalmey 202 Serk 227 Scots 117 Shaving of Irish 107 Shires of Ireland 37 Shetland 219 Sidny Lord Deputy 97.121 Silly Isles 227 c. Slane Baron 95 Slego County 102 Small Island 201 Smyris a stone 225 Steward of Ireland 80 Spaniards in Ireland 75.77 Stanihurst a learned man 66 Steptholme 202 Stella Maria 230 Stockholme 202 Strongebow 69.87 Stukeley 94 Surley Boy 113 Sussex Earle Lord Deputy 121 T TAlbot 79 80 94 155 Tanistry 141 Thule 218 Three sisters 84 Tipperary County 82. Earle ibid. Tirconel County 115 Tirell 91 96 Tiroen County 114 Toam or Tuen Archbishopricke 100 Trimletstoun Baron 95 Twomond Earles 99 Tullo Vicount 85 c. c. f Turlogh Lenigh 115 Tutes 96 V VAlentia Baron 76 Verdon 97 Vernayle 155 Ufford 103 Vergivian Sea 61 Vescy 87 Vines why not in Britain 63 Ulster 104. Earles 117 Upper Ossery Baron 84 Uriaghts 114 Ushant 231 Ussher 94 Uske-bah 63 W WAlsh 91 Warren 86 132 Waterford County 79. Earles 80 Weisford County 88 West Meath County 96 Western Isles 215 White Knight 87 Wicklow 89 Wicker boates 59 Wolfmen 83 Y YDron Baronie 85 Ancient names of Places and Rivers in Ireland ARgita flu 117 Ausoba flu 99 Auteri 100 Birgus flu 84 Boreum Prom. 117 Birgantes or Brigantes 84 Buvinda flu 95 Cauci 90 Concaâ—i 98 Coriondi 77 Darnii neere Derrie 104.116 Daurona 78 Dunum 109 Duri flu 75 Eblana 91 Eblani 84 Erdini 106 Gangani 98 Hieron Prom. 89 Iberni 76 Iernus flu ibid. Isannium Prom. 109 Laberus 94 Libnius flu 91 Logia flu 116 Luceni 74 Macolicum 97 Menapia 89 Menapii 84 Medona flu 89 Nagnata 102.103 Nagnata ibid. Notium Prom. 76 Ovoca flu 90 Ravius flu 102 Rheba 8 Rhobogdii 115 Rhobogdium Prom. 116 Rigia 97 Rigia altera 116 Senus flu 97 Velabri 76 Vennicuium Prom. 117 Vennicnii 115.117 Vidua flu 117 Vinderus flu 112 Vodiae 77 Voluntii 104 Ancient names of the Isles adjacent to Britaine ACmodae 220 Amnitum See Samnitum insulae 231 Adros called also Andium 203 Axantos See Uxantisa 231 Barsa 227 Bergae 218 Birchanis 221 Caesarea 224 Cassiterides 227 Caunos 222 Dumna 216 Ebudae 215 Ebuda prima 216 Ebuda secunda ibid. Evodia 214 Electridae 220 Epidium 215 Edri 203 Fortunate Islands 217 Glessariae 220 Glotta 22.214 Hebrides 215 Hesperides 228 Ieta 223 Limnos 203 Liga 227 Lisia ibid. Mictis haply Vectis 223 Menavia 203 205 Mona 203 Monaeda ibid. Mula or Maleos 215 Nerigon 218 Nessiada 231 Ocetâ—â— 216 Orcades ibid. Pomona ibid. Ricina or Ricluna 215 Sanitum insulae 231 Sarnia 225 Saxonum insulae 221 Sena 231 Siambis ibid. Siade 227 Sicdelis ibid. Silimnus 203 Silinae 227 Tanatos 222 Thule 218 Toliapis 222 Vecta or Vectis 223 Venetica insulae 231 Vindelis Old Winchelsey Uliarus 232 Uxantisa 231 FINIS Fromispicii explicatio * Lady beth 〈◊〉 Mothe◠〈…〉 now 〈◊〉 Georgâ— Berklâ— See in KENT * Scutula â—hlongae * Bipenni See the Annotations of Sir Hen. Savilâ— knight upon this place in Tâ—cituâ— The Panegyricke Oration pronounced unto CoÌ„stantius and untruly entituled unto Maximian â—e natura Deorum lib. 2. Probus in Virgilij Gâ—â—gie * Aries * Gemini * Taurus * Bootes otherwise called Arctophylax * Vsually grow in hotter counries Zosimus Eustachius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Panegyrie to Constantius Panegyriâ— to Constantius Fortunate Islands In his Commentaries upon Lycophron 1344. The first Inhabitants and reason of the Name * Aquitaine Brute * Vrbem Turonum In the yeare of the world 2855. Before the Nativitie of Christ 1108. Censorium The Fabulous Time or Age. At this day called Nether-lands or Low countries of Germanie He flourished in the yeare 1440. * Epist. 44. Descript. Cambriae c. 7. Bretanus Livius Augustinus dâ— Civitate Dei lib. 3. cap. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Or Nations Origen lib. 9. cap. 2. Gen. cap. 9. 〈◊〉 Cimerii Cumeri c. * i. Welch men * or Welch Lib. 8. cap. 3. Phil. Melanct. Ad Sexium Pompeium Berosus Censure upon Berosus * Now France * Now Frenchmen THE NAME De Proconsul * Aâ—x Forcatulus out of the Annales of France * Now Castri or Salona 1235. Morimarusa * That is Welch * The Scite Erasmus Michael of Navigation * Or Candie * Now Barbarie * Where now are Holland Zeland Flanders Brabant Gelderland Cleve * France Britaines in Gaule * Britannos yet in some Copies of Plinie wee reade Briannos * Of Europe Religion Druidae * About Chartres The Doctrine of the Druidaâ— found in Britaine An Oke also in the British or Welch tongue is called Derw Lib. 16. cap. 4. Saronidae Dry. Barâ—â— * Welchmen * That is their descent from Pluto Their Republique or common wealth * Cassibelinus Their Manners * Old wives tales Ambacti Brachae Language I have made use in these words of William Salisburies Glossarie and another old Manuscript Divona * That is Welchmen Taraniâ— Hesus Teutates Tewsday 〈◊〉 Tuisday Lib. 1. Dusii Lenâ—â— Gaessatae Gessi Gessum Caterva Cateia Gessa Trimarcia Thireos Cetos Rheda Rhediad Eporedia Covinus Essedum Circius Penninum Apenninus Armorica Bauchadae Vargae Lib. 4. Epist. 6. Allobroges Glastum Woad Isatis Viâ—rum an herbe Lutteum in Caesar. Pomponius Mela corrected Coâ—cus Brachae Lainae Bardus Bardocuculluâ— Brance Pempedula Petoritum Guvia Betulla Dercoma Ratiâ— Scovies Vetonica Marga. Gliscomarga Tripetia Candetum Becco Galba Bulga Soldurij * Vowing to die and live one with another Planarat Taxea Sithum Cervisia Ale a drinke The Terminations or Ends of places Names 〈◊〉 Lipsius de Pronuntiâ—tione pag. 96. * Garumna * Arar Rhodanus Rhosâ—e * Montagnes de avergne or Cevennae Gebennae * Mile and halfe Leuca Stony Strond or stonie field Morini * Arles Arâ—late * Cadenaâ— in Quercy or Yooldun Vxellodunum Dunum * That is an Harpe Cytharistes Epist. 4. * Little Tartaria or Perocopsca The British Tongue Giraldus in his Topography of Wales * Welchmen Albion Britanniâ— Vide Ioseph Scalig in Caâ—ul The shape or pourtraicture of Britaine De morbis