Selected quad for the lemma: end_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
end_n	island_n	lie_v	mile_n	1,249	5	9.6779	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

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

The people about this Country observe that when Hengsten top is capped with a cloud a shower followeth soon after The Country men in Cornwall are great eaters of Garlick for healths sake whence they call it there the Country mans Treacle The cement or morter of the walls of Tintogell Castle resist the fierceness of the weather better then the stones The Town of Bodmin is held a very unhealthfull place and the cause of it they say is for that it hath one street a mile in length running due East and West on the South side whereof it hath a great high hill that hides the Sun from it and their Back-houses as Kitchins Stables c. are climbed up to by steps and every great shower washeth the Sulledge of them through the houses into the streets and which is more their Conduit water runs through the Church yard It will not be a miss to add here out of our Authour an odde presage of the Cornish rebellion in the time of Edward the sixth which happened in this Town of Bodmin About a year before that rebellion the Scholars of Bodmin School grew into two factions the one as they call it for the old religion the other for the new and this quarrell was prosecuted with some eagerness sundry times till by an unhappy accident no other then the killing of a Calfe during the beardless conflict complaint was made to the Master and so the play ended Which presage is seconded with severall others of the like nature out of ancient modern history but to impercinent to our design and too tedious to be here related In Saint Cleeres parish in Cornwall there are upon a plain six or eight Stones such as are upon Salsbury plain which like them two will be mistaken in the telling so that when they are told over a gain they will be found over or under the first number A thing that happens no doubt meerIy by their confused standing There is a story that passes concerning Saint Kaines well in this County which is that whosoever drinks first of the water be it husband or vvife gets the mastery A fit fable for the vulgar to believe At Hall near Foy there is a Fagot vvhich is all one piece of vvood naturally grovvn so and it is wrapped about the middle vvith a bond and parted at ends into four sticks one of which sticks is subdivided into two others It was carefully preserved and painted over that it might keep the better for many years by the Earl of Devon being reckoned a fore-token of his progeny For his Estate saith Mr. C. is now come into the hands of four Cornish Gentlemen one of whose Estates is likewise divided between two Heirs An Earthen Pot was found many years ago near Foy gilded and graved with Letters in a great Stone Chest and full of a black Earth the Ashes 't is like of some ancient Roman In Lanhadron Park there grows an Oake that bears Leaves speckled with white and so doth another called Painters Oak in the Hundred of East It is certain saith our Author that divers ancient Families in England are pre-admonished of their end by Oaks bearing of strange leaves There are two Lakes not far asunder nor far from St. Agnes Hil in this shire whereof the one wil live and Fish thrive in but not in the other By Helford is a great Rock lying upon the ground and the top of it is hollow like the long half of an Egg. This they say holdeth water which ebbeth and floweth with the Sea And indeed saith Mr. C. when I came hither to see this curiosity the Tide was half gone and the Pit or hollowness half empty There is a Rock in this shire called Mainamber which is a very great one and yet so laid upon lesser Rocks that the push of a finger will sensibly move it to and fro but not all the strength which men can make can remove it from the place The Cliffs to the Westward of St. Jes in Cornwall have streaks of a glittering colour like Copper which shew as if there were a likelihood of finding Copper there An exceeding big Carcass of a man was found by Tinners digging at a Village near the Lands end called Trebegean Hitherto I have borrowed all I have written save onely my conjectures at the causes out of Mr. Carew's ingenious Book called The Survey of Cornwall published in the year 1602. What Cambden and others say over and above is as followeth The chief time of the swarming as one would say of Pilchards about the shores of Cornwall is from July to November at which time they are taken garbaged salted and hanged in the smoak laid up and pressed and so carryed away and sold in France and other Countreys In the Rocks at the Lands end at a low Water are found Veins of white Lead and brass At St. Michael's Mount at low ebbs one may see Roots of mighty Trees in the Sands which shews that there hath been overflowing of the sea upon this coast hereabout as it appeareth also to have been about Plymouth Haven and other places adjoyning And it is manifest that the sea hath devoured much Land upon the coast of Cornwall towards Silley Islands For between the Lands end and Silley the sea is all of an equal depth of about 40. or 60. fathom Water being about 30 Miles in length onely in the mid way there lyes a Rock called the Gulf. The cause of the devouring of this Land by the sea I conceive to be its being a Promontory lying open to the merciless stormes and weather and withall lying in a place where two currents meet and part I mean the Tide as it comes in and returns out of the Sleeve or narrow Seas and the Irish Seas and Seavern the rolling and force of the Sea being apt to carry before it all that stands in its vvay according to the proportion that its own strength bears to the yeeldingness of the object But the cause why the Gulf rock was not washed away with the rest is because it was of too stubborn a matter and too fast founded in the Earth Nor can I think but that the Silley Islands were once all parts of the main Land of England and the like I conceive of Heysant in France an Isle lying before the Promontory of Britain but severed by degrees each from other and all from the Continent by the means above-mentioned At Stratton in Cornwall grows the best Garlick in all the Countrey It may be old Mr. Chamond before spoken of owed part of the cause of his great age to his living so near the best Garlick the Countrey man's Treacle On the shore of this shire about 30. or 40. years ago was a huge Mass of Ambergrise found by a poor Fisherman a story very famous and frequent in the mouths of several persons of credit and quality DEVONSHIRE THE west of this Shire being that which borders upon Cornwall is stored with Tin Mines

its dead Advocate to defend it it also have a living Patron to afford it the influence of his countenance protection Which favour I most humbly beg of your Lordship both for my self and my book but withal your Pardon for my being so bold to beg it and for daring to prefixe your Noble name to the contemptible endeavours of My very good Lord Your Honours most faithful and ever devoted Servant and Chaplain J. CHILDREY The Preface to the READER THE designe of the ensuing Tract is to make it selfe useful satisfactory to all sorts of men For every man is either one of these three One of the Vulgar a Gentleman or a Schollar Or else to avoid cavilling he is both Gentleman and Schollar And First this Book is intended for the use of the Vulgar to teach them not to mis-believe or condemn for untruths all that seemes strange and above their wit to give a reason for who are the least able of all men to do it For here they may read as strange things and yet true as any of those reported or written by Travellers and reform their Judgements into so much Charity as to think that many Travellers do not make so much use of their Authority to lye as they might Not that I will undertake for the truth of all the Relations in Mandevile and other credulous Writers but so much may be said in their behalf that all is not as the most is that they have many Truths interserted with their fables and falshoods and some of them altogether as improbable as they Here are no stories told you of what is to be seen at the other end of the world but of things at home in your own Native Countrey at your own doors easily examinable with little travel lesscost and very little hazard This book doth not shew you a Telescope but a Mirror it goes not about to put a delightful cheat upon you with objects at ' a great distance but shews you your selves Next Iintend this Book for the service of the Gentry that they may see England is not void of those things which they admire abroad in their travels And that those ingenious Gentlemen whose occasions carry them into several Counties or who are otherwise disposed to see the sports of Nature about them may know by this Portable-book in what parts of what Counties to find them As Italy hath Virgils Grott and the Sybils Cave by Puteoli so England hath Okey-hole by Wells We have Baiae at Bath the Alpes in North-Wales Mount Baldus under the Picts Wall the Spaw in Yorkshire Euripus at Pool in Dorsetshire Gabij in Lincolnshire Asphaltites at Pitchford in Shropshire Harpasa in Cornwall the Pyramides at Burrowbriggs the Pearls of Persia on the shores of Westmorland the Diamonds of India on St. Vincents Rock And what is there worth wonder abroad in the world whereof Nature hath not written a Copy in our Iland I would have those that know other Countreys so well not to be strangers to their own which is a compendium of all others Lastly and chiefly My end is to serve the Commonwealth of Learning which much wants such Histories as this to be written and laid as a sure Foundation whereon to build those Axiomes that make us true Schollars and knowing men in Philosophy I have as nearly as I could followed the Precepts of my Master the Lord Bacon and by way of acknowledgement from whom I received my first light into this way have given my Book the Title of BRITANNIA BACONICA and the rather because it will serve for a part of several Histories in his Lordships Catalogue at the end of his Novum Organon I have not at all m'dled with matter of Antiquity Pedigrees or the like those being copiously handled by several of our Countreymen already as the learned Cambden in his Britannia Mr. Dugdale in his Deseription of Warwickshire Mr. King in his Vale Royal Mr. Lambert in his Perambulation Mr. Philpot in his Villare Cantianum and others Only I ventured at the description of the Caves in Wiltshire because I find it mentioned by none of our Antiquaries I have here and there attempted to give the Causes of the Raritie I relate having the example of my Lord B. for my authority who in his Sylva Sylvarum hath the like excursions ever and anon into the AEtiology And though I cannot but confess that such kind of writing is a little too bold yet before the Histories of Art and Nature are compleatly done yet possibly I may in some hit upon the true Reason by chance and unless men were more forward then I see they are yet in collecting such Histories these kinds of confidences must be dispensed with Indeed had those men that have spent so much time pains in writing voluminous Comments on Arist. but labored as diligently in writing Cōments upon Nature with that self denial and indifferency which becoms ingenuity in the dark in trying to render a reason of such and such odd appearances in things though some of them had been but false Positions doubtless the Philosophical part of Learning would have been at a much better pass and Inquisition a great deal more happy and thriving then it is at this day The pest of Learning is that men first fancy Opinions and Axiomes to themselves and then by the help and art of Distinguishing wrest and fit particular Instances and Observations to them And this was the first original of Distinctions in the Schools they being meerly invented like the Astronomers Hypotheses to salve the Phaenomena of Aristotles oversights And hence likewise the impregnability of Sophistry which with its flanking distinctions will repel the strongest arguments that would prove that snow is white There are many of the other Rarities whose causes I could make bold with and purpose so to do so soon as I receive the censure of the Learned on what is already done and as they shall encourage or discourage me I shal proceed or desist For though I have much more to say yet any good and faithful advice shall perswade me to hold my peace I purpose also if God grant me life health and leisure to publish the Philosophical Rarities of the World so far as they are communicated to us from Geographers and Travellers having already made a considerableprogressin the work Which I believe will go a greater way in the advancement of Learning then is yet imagined and enable us to write more confident Comments on Nature and to draw up such Articlesagainst her as if she be examined upon them she will be forced to confess much more of her subtile wayes of cousenage then She hath yet told us of I have endeavoured to tell my tale as plainly as might be both that I might be understood of all and that I might not disfigure the face of Truth by daubing it over with the paint of Language Renatus des Cartes hath told us not without reasō how bardit is either

this black effect to something nearer 1348. viz. to the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in 1345. in 18. deg of Libra which Astrologers reckon the house of Saturn a Conjunction of greater importance and influence and so more likely to produce a greater effect And yet I would not be too bold to fasten it upon this Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter neither till further enquiry be made because other Conjunctions of Saturn and Jupiter in Libra have passed over more lightly Unless we wil say that there may be some particular venom about the 18th degree of Libra which other degrees of Libra father off are not infected with And indeed in the year 553. we are told by Alsted that there raged so horrid a plague at Constantinople that there died 5000. in a day and sometimes 10000. in a day which was not above two years after a conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in 19. degrees of Libra which happened 1551. Cambden takes notice that abundance of Fern grows about Reading a Plant that loves gravelly and sandy places such as that Countrey is all about SURREY THis County is commended for a healthful air the cause is its sandiness and being an Inland County Under Holmecastle standing upon a Hill of Grit or crumbling stone is a great Vault of Arched Work Architects tel us that Arched Work is the more firm by how much the greater weight lies upon it The River Mole runs above a mile under ground and at the place where it falls into the ground groweth abundance of Box naturally Inquiry might be made by Herbarists whether the Earth be not of the same nature and composition where the same Vegetables grow naturally Near Non-such is a Vein of Potters Earth much commended of which Crueibles are made for melting of Gold c. The rising of a Bourn or stream near Croydon as the common people hold presageth death as the Plague and it hath been observed to fall out so The rising of Bourns in places where they run not alwayes we have before proved to be caused by great wet years which according to HYpocrates observation are generally the most sickly and if they prove hot as wel as wet because heat and moisture are the great disposers to putrifaction they prove also malignant and for the most part pestilential And the reason why the using of this Bourn doth not always presage the Plague is because all wet years do not presage hot It is observed that few or no Rivers do ebb and flow so far up from the Sea as the River of Thames which flows up as high as Richmond in this Shire The reason of which is very plain depending chiefly upon two very great causes The first is the coming in of the flood at both ends of this Island that is from the Westward by the Cape of Cornwall and from the Northward by the North end of Scotland which as our Books of Navigation tell us meet at a Rock called the Galloper which lyes right against the mouth of the River of Thames between it and the coast of Holland and Flanders about the mid-way with very great noise and rippling Now the two floods as I said meeting here must needs hinder the course of each other and by consequence make the Sea swell much in this place and so easily discharge it self by a strong flood into the neighboring River of Thames lying so conveniently for its reception The other cause is the motion of the Earth from West to East whibh carrying the banks of the Thames along towards the place where the mouth of it was but now must needs as it were draw the Water into it by leaving it behind And peradventure upon enquiry it will be found that the floods run more strongly for this reason up into those Rivers that discharge themselves into the sea on the East side of a great Iland or Continent then those on the West side and that where there are Currents or Streams that run thwart on upon a shore they beat more violently in calm weather upon Eastern then Western shores But whether this be the reason why on the East side of the Continents of Asia Africa and America there be many more small Islands then on the Western side of those Continents for so our Maps inform us witness Japan the Philippine Islands the Moluccos the Maldivae the two Javas Sumatra Madagascar c. on the Eastern side of Asia and Africk and the great swarm of Islands called the Summer Islands to which we may ad those vast shoulds on the coast of Brasil on the Eastern side of America or whether it be from the constant Intra-tropical Eastwind that galls the Lee-shores and hath in long process of time carved them so curiously into Islands is hard to say at present but must be left to a more through disquisition The Waters of Ebbesham in this shire are very famous and much frequented for their Medicinal virtue and purging by siege These Waters without doubt receive their Tincture from some Mineral-Mass that lurks in the neighboring-hills it may be under Banstead-Downs and that the bowels of the earth hereabout are pregnant of some such matter seeming by that Crucible-Clay mentioned but now found about Non-such which as I am told blushes something like Terra Lemnia in some places It is reported that on the hills by Farneham are Snake-stones to be found of the form but not of the colour of those at Alderley in Glocestershire SUSSEX THis is a Maritine County and therefore no wonder it affords plenty of Fish and Sea-Fowl The Soil is rich the Land low and the Ways deep It was anciently in a manner an entire Wood being part of the great Wood Andradswald which was 120. miles long and 30. miles broad In this County are many Iron Mines but the Iron here made is more brittle then Spanish Iron Also Here they make Glass but it is neither very good nor very clear The place at Battel where the fatal battle was fought between William the Conqueror and Harold looks of a reddish colour after rain I cannot think it to be the Conquerors Livery that it still wears No doubt that was worn out long since both colour and Cloath unless that kind of ground be more retentive of stains then others or hath better luck then the places where the great Battels of our late Warres have been sought where no signs remain at all of the Tragedies acted there Certainly it is nothing but the natural colour of the earth which it had before that Battel for all men know that in several parts of England the earth is more then reddish as in some places of the Weald of Kent and particularly at a place in the lower side of the Parish of Sutton-Valence The Downs in Sussex by the sea-coast because they stand upon a fat Chalk or Marle are abundantly fertile of Corn. Downs generally are barren because eit her they were ab initio of a hungry Clay or else if