wote not whereabouts sée Marianus Scotus Wantsome Dour Rother Bilie Becke Limenus Aestus Buluerhithe Peuensete Ash. Burne Cucomarus Isis ni fallor Sturewell Plimus Soru Bimarus Arunus Burne Elin. Delus Racunus Emill Badunus forre Forten or Fordon Osterpoole Tichefield Hamelrish Southhampton Alresford Otter Stocke Bourne Ualopius Test. Eling Mineie Limen Bure Milis Auon Wilugh Nader becke Becquith brooke Chalkeburne Thrée towns decaied by changing one waie An holie conflict New Salisburie begun Sturus Cale Lidden Deuilis Iber. Blackewater This Stoure aboundeth with pike perch roch dace gudgeon and éeles Burne Poole Piddle Deuitâ—s Frome Ocus Silleie Minterne Cherne Luckford Séeke more for wilie brooke that goeth by west burie to Pole hauen Chesill Bride Nature hath set the mouth of this riuer in maner betwixt two hils so that a little cost would make an haueÌ„ there Simen Chare Buddle Axe Y are alià s Aâ—rte Sidde Seton Colie Sid. Autrie alià s Ottercie Tale. Exe. Barleie Done alià s Done stroke Woodburne Lomund or Simming Columbe Cride Forten Cliuus 〈◊〉 Teigne Crokerne Bouie Eidis Leman Aller Dart. Ashburne Buckeastlich Hartburne Awne Arme. See Hen. 7. pag. 792 793 794. Yaline Plim Plim Stoure alià s Catwater Taue or Tauie Lidde Trushell Core Thamar Arteie Kenseie Enian Liuer Sutton Low Polpir Fawie Glin. Lerinus Faw In the middle of this créeke was a cell of S. Ciret in an Islet longing sometime to Mountagew a priorie Comwhath Gallants of Foy or Fawy Austell Chare Fala S. Caie S. Feoks Milor Fala Leuine Milor Restronget S. Feoks S. Caie Trurie créeke Moran Graund pont S. Iustus S. Mawes Polwitherall Polpenrith Wike Gare. Mogun Penkestell Callous Cheilow Gilling Haile Curie Loo Simneie Lid. Bresan I le Haile Clowart Caine. Luggam S. Pirans creeke Carantocke Padstow Locus bufonis Alannus Eniam Carneseie Laine Pethrike Minner Dunmere Tredwie Boscastell Bede Lancels Ocus Tanridge Turrege Buckland Langtrée Were or Ware Taw. Bowmill Moulebraie Braie Doneham Paradine Orus The bredth of Deuonshire Cornewall Loch Durus Vacetus Williton Doddington Iuelus The seuen sisters Cade Parret Ill. Ilton Tone Chare or Care Peder Camington Brier Brier Leland writeth the first Brieuelus and the second Mellodunus or the Milton water Dulis Sowaie or Stowaie Cos. Milton Golafer Axe 2. The Chederbrooke driueth twelue miles within a quarter of a mile of his head Bane Artro Sâ—ttespill Cleueden Auon 3. Sturgion taken in Rochester water Cosham Were Westbirie vnder y e plaine neuer without a théefe or twaine Frome Nonneie Silling Swinford Swinford parteth Summerset Glocestershires in sunder Alderleie Douresleie Torworth Sauerne Brucham Clewdogh Bacho Dungum Lhoid Bigga Couine Carnon Taran Hawes Dulesse 2. Mule Lenlet Camalet Tate Lan Idlos Tanet Peuereie or Murnewie Auernie Mordant Simons becke Bederich Mele. Haberleie Terne * Sée Hen. 6. pag. 649. Roden Euerne Wenlocke or Rhe. Worfe Marbrooke Dowlesse Lempe Stoure Astleie Doure Sulwaie Tiber. Temde Clude Barfield Clun Owke Oneie Bow Warren Queneie and Strabroke Somergill Corue Ladwich Rhe. Langherne Auon 4. Swiuethus Souus Kinell Leame Stoure Arow Alne Pludor Vincâ—lus Piddle Chilus Leadon Strowd Newarne Wie mouth Guie alià s Wie Umber a fish onelie in the Wie Darnoll Elland Clardwen Ithan Dulesse Cluedoch Lamaron Hawie Yrwon Weuereie Dulasse Comarch Dulesse Dehon Edwie Machaweie Leuenni Euer Euerie Brennich Trufrin Dulesse Lug. Pinsell Kenbrooke Fromeie Loden aliás Acton Treske Gainar Garran Mona Elkon Eskill Hordwie Doure Dulesse Wormesbecke Trollie Elwie Trogie Dennie Iland in the middest of the Sauerne and likewise another litle one called Beuerage Wiske Uske Craie Sennie Camblas Brane yster Hodneie Tertarith Kinuricke Riangall Groini Cledoch vaur Fidan CledochvehaÌ„ Kebbie Geuenni Birthin Caer vske standeth on one side of Uske and Caerleon on the other but Caer vske by diuerse miles further into the land Elwie Auon Ebowith Serowie Romeneie Laie Dunelais Methcoid Pedware Laie Thawan Scilleie Barrie This Ile went fiftie yeares agone for x. pounds Come kidie Colhow Alen. Ogur Kensike Auon Neth Tauie Lochar Wandres Uendraith Uaur Uendraith Uehan Laie Barrie Aberthaw Kensan Ogur Wennie Garrow Leuennie Corug Kensig Margan Auon Neth Nethuehan Nethuaur Trangarth Meltaie Hepsaie Dulesse Cledoch Tauie Coilus Torch Ilston Lochar Amond Combwilie Morlais Lhu Burraie Dulesse Wandres Towie Trausnant Tothee Pescotter Brane Gutherijc Dulesse Morlais Modewie Cledoch Sawtheie Dulesse 2. Dulesse 3. Cothie Turche Rauelthie Gwilie Taue Dudderie Marlais Uennie Caire Carthkinnie Gow Gowen Gwair Brechnocke From Londie to Caldie thirtie miles Trewent Pennar Dugledu Cultell Gwilie Clotheie Dugledie Gwilie Gateholme I le Stockeholme I le Midland I le Gresholme S. Brides Iland A fort of dangerous rocks lieng on a row vpon the west end of Southwales called the Bishop his clerkes S. Dewie or Dauid aâ— one Saluach Portelais Alen. Portmaw Maw Pendwie Lannuehan Tredine Langunda Fischard Gwerne Gwerne Neuerne Teifie or Tine Miricke Landurch Bromis Matherne Dulas Grauelth Clethor Kerie Cheach Airon Bidder Arth. Ris alià s Wereie Istwith Redholl Salique Massalique Lerie Wie Romis Ho. Mawr Artro Farles Erke Soch Daron Edarne beck Conte Gegeine Torronnen Ogwine Auon Lannar Uehan Duegeuelth Téec Ligow Ormeshed Gele Maniton Cluedoch Elwie Fraw Linon Allo. Dée or Deua Trowerin Ruddoch Cleton Gristioneth Keriog Cluedoch Gwinrogh Alannus Beston The situation of y e monasterie of Bangor Wiuer Combrus Betleie Salop. Lée and Wuluarne Ashe Dane Bidle Whelocke Croco Piuereie Waterlesse Merseie Goite Frith Set. Tame Irwell Raeus or Rache Leland speaketh of the Corue water about Manchester but I know nothing of his course Yrke Medlocke Rache Beile Sprotton Sudleie Bradsha Walmesleie Gles Bolleiu brooke Birkin Mar. Bold Grundich Tarbocke Alt or Ast. Duglesse or Duiesse Tand or Skelinere Merton Yarrow Bagen Ribble Odder Calder Pidle Henburne Darwent Blackeburne Rodlesworth Sannocke Wire Calder 2. Plimpton Barton Brooke Skipton Coker Cowdar Lune Burdecke Breder Barrow Dent. Greteie Wennie Hinburne Rheburne Docker Kerie Sprota Ken. Winstar Winander Fosse Sparke Lew. Rawther Dodon Denocke Eske Mite Brenge Cander Dargwent Burthméere Grise Cokar Wire Elmus Croco Uanius Eden Helbecke Bellow Orne Moreton Dribecke Trowt becke Linenet Milburne Blincorne Ulse Marke Harteshop Paterdale Roden Glenkguin Loder Irding Terne Pultrose Cambocke Gillie Pedar alià s Logus Bruferth Wise after Leland Loder Aimote Dacor Deua Uala Leuen Lamford Eske Tomunt Kirsop Lidde Eske Leue. Long. Goile Heke Robinseie Forlan Tarbat Lean. Abir Arke Zefe Sell. Zord Owin Newisse Orne Lang. Drun Hew Brun. Kile Dowr Faro Nesse Herre Con. Glasse Maur. Urdall Fesse Calder Wifle Browre Clin. Twin Shin Sillan Carew Nesse Narding Spaie Downe Dée Eske Clacke Alon. Dune Kerie Cambell Cumer Tere. Man Torkesan Rosham Mussell Blene Twede Till Bromis Bobent Whitaker Warne Aile or Alne alià s Chaine Cocket Uswaie Ridlcie Yardop It may be Leland mistaketh Tickington water for one of these Lune wansbecke Font. Blithe Hartleie North Tine She le Ridde Shelop Cheslop 3. Burnes Shitlington Tine S.
of the hauen of Falamouth to the mouth of Lanie horne pill or créeke on the south side of the hauen is a mile and as I remember it goeth vp halfe a mile from the principall streame of the hauen From Lanihorne pill also is a place or point of sand about a mile waie of fortie acres or thereabout as a peninsula called Ardeuerauter As for the water or créeke that runneth into the south southeast part it is but a little thing of halfe a mile vp into the land and the créeke that hemmeth in this peninsula of both dooth seeme to be the greater From the mouth of the west creeke of this peninsula vnto saint Iustes creeke is foure miles or more In like maner from saint Iustes pill or créeke for both signifie one thing to saint Mawes creeke is a mile and a halfe and the point betwéene them both is called Pendinas The créeke of saint Mawes goeth vp a two miles by east northeast into the land and beside that it ebbeth and floweth so farre there is a mill driuen with a fresh créeke that resorteth to the same Halfe a mile from the head of this downeward to the hauen is a créeke in maner of a poole whereon is a mill also that grindeth with the tide And a mile beneath that on the south side entereth a créeke about halfe a mile into the countrie which is barred from the maine sea by a small sandie banke and another mile yet lower is an other little créekelet But how so euer these créekes doo run certeine it is that the bankes of them that belong to Fala are meruellouslie well woodded And hitherto Leland whose words I dare not alter for feare of corruption and alteration of his iudgement Being past Falmouth hauen therefore as it were a quarter of a mile beyond Arwennach maister Killegrewes place which standeth on the brimme or shore within Falmouth we came to a little hauen which ran vp betwéene two hilles but it was barred wherefore we could not learne whether it were serued with anie backe fresh water or not From thence we went by Polwitherall creeke parted into two armes then to the Polpenrith wherevnto a riueret falleth that riseth not farre from thence and so goeth to the maine streame of the hauen at the last whither the créeke resorteth about thrée miles and more from the mouth of the hauen and into which the water that goeth vnder Gare and Mogun bridges doo fall in one bottome as Leland hath reported Unto this hauen also repaireth the Penkestell the Callous the Cheilow and the Gilling although this latter lieth against saint Mawnons on the hither side hard without the hauen mouth if I haue doone aright For so motheaten mouldie rotten are those bookes of Leland which I haue and beside that his annotations are such and so confounded as no man can in a maner picke out anie sense from them by a leafe togither Wherefore I suppose that he dispersed and made his notes intricate of set purpose or else he was loth that anie man should easilie come to that knowledge by reading which he with his great charge no lesse trauell atteined vnto by experience Thus leauing Fala hauen as more troublesome for me to describe than profitable for seafaring men without good aduise to enter into we left the rocke on our left hand and came straight southwest to Helford hauen whose water commeth downe from Wréeke where is a confluence of two small rilles whereof that rill consisteth by Mawgan and Trelawarren and then it receiueth a rill on the north ripe from Constantine after whose confluence it goeth a maine vntill it come to the Ocean where the mouth is spoiled by sand comming from the tin-works See Leland in the life of S. Breaca Beneath this also is another rill comming from S. Martyrs by whose course and another ouer against it on the west side that falleth into the sea by Winniton all Menage is left almost in maner of an Iland From hence we go south to the Manacle point then southwest to Lisard and so north and by west to Predannocke points beyond which we méet with the fall of the said water that riseth in the edge of Menag and goeth into the sea by Melien on the north and Winniton on the south By north also of Winniton is the Curie water that runneth short of Magan and toucheth with the Ocean south of Pengwenian point From hence we sailed to the Loo mouth which some call Lopoole because it is narrower at the fall into the sea than it is betwéene the sea and Hailston It riseth aboue S. Sethians and comming downe by Wendron it hasteth to Hailston or Helston from whence onelie it is called Loo but betwéene Helston and the head men call it commonlie Cohor Of this riuer Leland saith thus The Lopoole is two miles in length and betwixt it and the maine Ocean is but a barre of sand that once in thrée or foure yéeres what by weight of the fresh water and working of the sea breaketh out at which time it maketh a wonderfull noise but soone after the mouth of it is barred vp againe At all other times the superfluitie of the water of Lopole which is full of trout and éele draineth out through the sandie barre into the open sea certes if this barre could alwaies be kept open it would make a goodlie hauen vp vnto Haileston towne where coinage of tin is also vsed as at Trurie and Lostwithiell for the quéenes aduantage Being passed the Loo I came to another water that descendeth without anie increase from Crowan by Simneie whose whole course is not aboue thrée miles in all Then going by the Cuddan point we entered the mounts Baie and going streight north leauing S. Michaels mount a little vpon the left hand we came to the Lid which rising short of Tewidnacke descendeth by Lidgenan and so into the sea Certes the course of these waters cannot be long sith in this verie place the breadth of land is not aboue foure miles and not more than fiue at the verie lands end There is also a rill east of Korugie and Guluall and another west of the same hard at hand and likewise the third east of Pensants and not a full quarter of a mile from the second south-southwest of Pensants also lieth the fourth that commeth from Sancrete ward by Newlin from whence going southwest out of the baie by Moushole I le that lieth south of Moushole towne we come to a water that entreth into the Ocean betwixt Remels Lamorleie point Trulie the one head thereof commeth from by west of Sancrete the other from by west of an hill that standeth betwéene them both and ioining aboue Remels it is not long yer they salute their grandame After this and before we come at Rosecastell there are two other créekes whereof one is called Boskennie that riseth south
of saint Buriens and an other somewhat longer than the first that issueth by west of the aforesaid towne wherein is to be noted that our cards made heretofore doo appoint S. Buriens to be at the very lands end of Cornewall but experience now teacheth vs that it commeth not néere the lands end by thrée miles This latter rill also is the last that I doo reade of on the south side and likewise on the west and north till we haue sailed to S. Ies baie which is full ten miles from the lands end or Bresan I le eastward rather more if you reckon to the fall of the Haile which lieth in the very middest and highest part of the baie of the same The soile also is verie hillie here as for saint Ies towne it is almost as I said a byland and yet is it well watered with sundrie rilles that come from those hilles vnto the same The Haile riseth in such maner and from so manie heads as I haue before said howbeit I will adde somewhat more vnto it for the benefit of my readers Certes the chéefe head of Haile riseth by west of Goodalfin hilles and going downe toward saint Erthes it receiueth the second and best of the other three rilles from Goodalfin towne finallie comming to saint Erthes and so vnto the maine baie it taketh in the Clowart water from Guimer south of Phelacke which hath two heads the said village standing directlie betwixt them both The Caine riseth southeast of Caineburne towne a mile and more from whence it goeth without increase by west of Gwethian and so into the sea west of Mara Darwaie From hence we coasted about the point left the baie till we came to a water that riseth of two heads from those hilles that lie by south of the same one of them also runneth by saint Uni another by Redreuth and méeting within a mile they fall into the Ocean beneath Luggam or Tuggan A mile and a halfe from this fall we come vnto another small rill and likewise two other créekes betwixt which the towne of saint Agnes standeth and likewise the fourth halfe a mile beyond the most easterlie of these whose head is almost thrée miles within the land in a towne called saint Alin. Thence going by the Manrocke and west of saint Piran in the sand we find a course of thrée miles and more from the head and hauing a forked branch the parts doo méet at west aboue saint Kibbard and so go into the sea I take this to be saint Pirans créeke for the next is Carantocke pill or créeke whose head is at Guswarth from whence it goeth vnto Trerise and soone after taking in a rill from by west it runneth into the sea coast of saint Carantakes Beyond this is another créeke that riseth aboue little saint Colan and goeth by lesse saint Columbe and east and by north hereof commeth downe one more whose head is almost south of the Nine stones going from thence to great saint Columbes it passeth by Lamberne and so into the sea S. Merous créeke is but a little one rising west of Padstow and falling in almost ouer against the Gull rocke Then turning betwéene the point and the blacke rocke we entred into Padstow hauen thrée miles lower than port Issec and a mile from port Gwin whose waters remaine next of all to be described The Alan ariseth flat east from the hauen mouth of Padstow well néere eight or nine miles about Dauidstone neere vnto which the Eniam also issueth that runneth into the Thamar Going therefore from hence it passeth to Camelford saint Aduen saint Bernard both Cornish saints and soone after receiueth a rill at northeast descending from Rowters hill Thence it goeth to Bliseland and Helham the first bridge of name that standeth vpon Alin Yer long also it taketh in one rill by south from Bodman another from saint Laurence the third by west of this and the fourth that commeth by Wethiell no one of them excéeding the course of thrée miles and all by south From hence it goeth toward Iglesaleward and there receiueth a water on the east side which commeth about two miles from saint Teath by Michelston saint Tuchoe saint Maben mo Cornish patrons and finallie south of Iglesall méeteth with the Alen that goeth from thence by S. Breaca to Woodbridge Hereabout I find that into our Alein or Alen there should fall two riuerets whereof the one is called Carneseie the other Laine and comming in the end to full notice of the matter I sée them to issue on seuerall sides beneath Woodbridge almost directlie the one against the other That which descendeth from northwest and riseth about saint Kew is named Carneseie as I heare the other that commeth in on the south-southwest banke hight Laine and noted by Leland to rise two miles aboue S. Esse But howsoeuer this matter standeth there are two other créekes on ech side also beneath these as Pethrike creeke and Minner créeke so called of the Cornish saints for that soile bred manie wherewith I finish the description of Alen or as some call it Dunmere and other Padstow water From Padstow hauen also they saile out full west to Waterford in Ireland There are likewise two rockes which lie in the east side of the hauen secretlie hidden at full sea as two pads in the straw whereof I thinke it taketh the name Yet I remember how I haue read that Padstow is a corrupted word for Adlestow and should signifie so much as Athelstani locus as it may well be For it is euident that they â—ad in time past sundrie charters of priuilege from Athelstane although at this present it be well stored with Irishmen But to our purpose Leland supposeth this riuer to be the same Camblan where Arthur fought his last and fatall conflict for to this daie men that doo eare the ground there doo oft plow vp bones of a large size and great store of armour or else it may be as I rather coniecture that the Romans had some field or Castra thereabout for not long since and in the remembrance of man a brasse pot full of Romane coine was found there as I haue often heard Being thus passed Padstow hauen and after we had gone three miles from hence we came to Portgwin a poore fisher towne where I find a brooke and a péere Then I came to Portissec alià s Cunilus two miles further and found there a brooke a péere and some succor for fisher boats Next of all vnto a brooke that ran from south east directlie north into the Sauerne sea and within halfe a mile of the same laie a great blacke rocke like an Iland From this water to Treuenni is about a mile where the paroch church is dedicated to saint Simphorian and in which paroch also Tintagell or Dundagie castell standeth which is a thing inerpugnable for the situation and would be
writers doo report and from whence they came at the first into the aforsaid Ilands For my part I suppose with other that they came hither out of Sarmatia or Scythia for that nation hauing how alwaies an eie vnto the commodities of our countrie hath sent out manie companies to inuade and spoile the same It may be that some will gather those to be the Picts of whom Caesar saith that they stained their faces with wad and madder to the end they might appeare terrible and fearefull to their enimies and so inferre that the Picts were naturall Britans But it is one thing to staine the face onelie as the Britans did of whom Propertius saith Nunc etiam infectos demummutare Britannos And to paint the images and portrattures of beasts fish and foules ouer the whole bodie as the Picts did of whom Martial saith Barbara depictis veni Bascauda Britannis Certes the times of Samothes and Albion haue some likelie limitation and so we may gather of the comming in of Brute of Caesar the Saxons the Danes the Normans and finallie of the Flemmings who had the Rosse in Wales assigned vnto them 1066. after the drowning of their countrie But when first the Picts then the Scots should come ouer into our Iland as they were obscure people so the time of their arriuall is as far to me vnknowne Wherefore the resolution of this point must still remaine In tenebris This neuerthelesse is certeine that Maximus first Legate of Britaine and afterward emperour draue the Scots out of Britaine and compelled them to get habitation in Ireland the out Iles and the North part of the maine and finallie diuided their region betwéene the Britaines and the Picts He denounced warre also against the Irishmen for receiuing them into their land but they crauing the peace yéelded to subscribe that from thence-foorth they would not receiue any Scot into their dominions and so much the more for that they were pronounced enimies to the Romans and disturbers of the common peace and quietnesse of their prouinces here in England The Saxons became first acquainted with this I le by meanes of the piracie which they dailie practised vpon our coastes after they had once begun to aduenture themselues also vpon the seas thereby to seeke out more wealth than was now to be gotten in the West parts of the maine which they and their neighbours had alreadie spoiled in most lamentable and barbarous maner howbeit they neuer durst presume to inhabit in this Iland vntill they were sent for by Vortiger to serue him in his warres against the Picts and Scots after that the Romans had giuen vs ouer and lest vs wholie to our owne defense and regiment Being therefore come vnder Hengist in three bottoms or kéeles and in short time espieng the idle and negligent behauiour of the Britaines and fertilitie of our soile they were not a little inflamed to make a full conquest of such as at the first they came to aid and succour Herevpon also they fell by little and little to the winding in of greater numbers of their countrimen and neighbours with their wiues and children into this region so that within a while these new comlings began to molest the homelings and ceased not from time to time to continue their purpose vntill they had gotten possession of the whole or at the leastwise the greatest part of our countrie the Britons in the meane season being driuen either into Wales and Cornewall or altogither out of the Iland to séeke new habitations In like maner the Danes the next nation that succéeded came at the first onelie to pilfer and robbe vpon the frontiers of our Iland till that in the end being let in by the Welshmen or Britons through an earnest desire to be reuenged vpon the Saxons they no lesse plagued the one than the other their fréends than their aduersaries seeking by all meanes possible to establish themselues also in the sure possession of Britaine But such was their successe that they prospered not long in their deuise for so great was their lordlinesse crueltie and infatiable desire of riches beside their detestable abusing of chast matrons and yoong virgins whose husbands and parents were dailie inforced to become their drudges and slaues whilest they sat at home and fed like drone bées of the sweet of their trauell and labours that God I say would not suffer them to continue any while ouer vs but when he saw his time he remooued their yoke and gaue vs libertie as it were to breath vs thereby to see whether this his sharpe scourge could haue mooued vs to repentance and amendment of our lewd and sinfull liues or not But when no signe thereof appeared in our hearts he called in an other nation to vex vs I meane the Normans a people mixed with Danes and of whom it is worthilie doubted whether they were more hard and cruell to our countrimen than the Danes or more heauie and intollerable to our Iland than the Saxons or the Romans This nation came out of Newstria the people thereof were called Normans by the French bicause the Danes which subdued that region came out of the North parts of the world neuerthelesse I suppose that the ancient word Newstria is corrupted from West-rijc bicause that if you marke the situation it lieth opposite from Austria or Ost-rijc which is called the East region as Newstria is the Weast for Rijc in the old Scithian toong dooth signifie a region or kingdome as in Franc-rijc or Franc-reich Westsaxon-reich Ost saxon-reich Su-rijc Angel-rijc c is else to be séene But howsoeuer this falleth out these Normans or Danish French were dedlie aduersaries to the English Saxons first by meane of a quarell that grew betwéene them in the daies of Edward the Confessour at such time as the Earle of Bullen and William Duke of Normandie arriued in this land to visit him their freends such Normans I meane as came ouer with him and Emma his mother before him in the time of Canutus and Ethelred For the first footing that euer the French did set in this Iland sithence the time of Ethelbert Sigebert was with Emma which Ladie brought ouer a traine of French Gentlemen and Ladies with hir into England After hir also no small numbers of attendants came in with Edward the Confessour whome he preferred to the greatest offices in the realme in so much that one Robert a Norman became Archbishop of Canturburie whose preferment so much enhanced the minds of the French on the one side as their lordlie and outragious demeanour kindled the stomachs of the English nobilitie against them on the other insomuch that not long before the death of Emma the kings mother and vpon occasion of the brall hapning at Douer whereof I haue made sufficient mention in my Chronologie not regarding the report of the French authors in this behalfe who write altogither in the fauour of their Archbishop
Robert but following the authoritie of an English préest then liuing in the court the English Peeres began to shew their disliking in manifest maner Neuerthelesse the Normans so bewitched the king with their lieng and bosting Robert the Archbishop being the chéefe instrument of their practise that he beléeued them and therevpon vexed sundrie of the nobilitie amongst whom Earle Goodwijn of Kent was the chéefe a noble Gentleman and father in law to king Edward by the mariage of his daughter The matter also came to such issue against him that he was exiled and fiue of his sonnes with him wherevpon he goeth ouer the sea and soone after returning with his said sonnes they inuaded the land in sundrie places the father himselfe comming to London where when the kings power was readie to ioine with him in battell it vtterlie refused so to doo affirming plainelie that it should be méere follie for one Englishman to fight against another in the reuenge of Frenchmens quarels which answer entred so déeplie into the kings mind that he was contented to haue the matter heard and appointing commissioners for that purpose they concluded at the vpshot that all the French should depart out of England by a day few excepted whom the king should appoint and nominate By this means therfore Robert the Archbishop of secret counsell with the king was first exiled as principall abuser seducer of the king who goeth to Rome there complaineth to the Pope of his iniurie receiued by the English Howbeit as he returned home againe with no small hope of the readeption of his See he died in Normandie whereby he saued a killing Certes he was the first that euer tendered complaint out of England vnto Rome with him went William Bishop of London afterward reuoked and Vlfo of Lincolne who hardlie escaped the furie of the English nobilitie Some also went into Scotland and there held themselues expecting a better time And this is the true historie of the originall cause of the conquest of England by the French for after they were well beaten at Douer bicause of their insolent demeanour there shewed their harts neuer ceased to boile with a desire of reuenge that brake out into a flame so soone as their Robert possessed the primacie which being once obteined and to set his mischéefe intended abroch withall a contention was quicklie procured about certeine Kentish lands and controuersie kindled whether he or the Earle should haue most right vnto them The king held with the priest as with the church the nobilitie with the Earle In processe also of this businesse the Archbishop accused the Earle of high treason burdening him with the slaughter of Alfred the kings brother which was altogither false as appeareth by a treatise yet extant of that matter written by a chaplaine to king Edward the Confessour in the hands of Iohn Stow my verie fréend wherein he saith thus Alfredus incautè agens in aduentu suo in Angliam a Danis circumuentus occiditur He addeth moreouer that giuing out as he came through the countrie accompanied with his few proud Normans how his meaning was to recouer his right vnto the kingdome and supposing that all men would haue yéelded vnto him he fell into their hands whome Harald then king did send to apprehend him vpon the fame onelie of this report brought vnto his eares So that to be short after the king had made his pacification with the Earle the French I say were exiled the Quéene restored to his fauour whom he at the beginning of this broile had imprisoned at Wilton allowing hir but one onlie maid to wait vpon hir and the land reduced to hir former quietnesse which continued vntill the death of the king After which the Normans not forgetting their old grudge remembred still their quarell that in the end turned to their conquest of this Iland After which obteined they were so cruellie bent to our vtter subuersion and ouerthrow that in the beginning it was lesse reproch to be accounted a slaue than an Englishman or a drudge in anie filthie businesse than a Britaine insomuch that euerie French page was superiour to the greatest Peere and the losse of an Englishmans life but a pastime to such of them as contended in their brauerie who should giue the greatest strokes or wounds vnto their bodies when their toiling and drudgerie could not please them or satisfie their gréedie humors Yet such was our lot in those daies by the diuine appointed order that we must needs obey such as the Lord did set ouer vs and so much the rather for that all power to resist was vtterlie taken from vs and our armes made so weake and feeble that they were not now able to remooue the importable load of the enimie from our surburdened shoulders And this onelie I saie againe bicause we refused grace offered in time and would not heare when God by his Preachers did call vs so fauourablie vnto him Oh how miserable was the estate of our countrie vnder the French and Normans wherein the Brittish and English that remained could not be called to any function in the commonwealth no not so much as to be constables and headburowes in small villages except they could bring 2. or 3. Normans for suerties to the Lords of the soile for their good behauiour in their offices Oh what numbers of all degrées of English and Brittish were made slaues and bondmen and bought and sold as oxen in open market In so much that at the first comming the French bond were set free and those that afterward became bond were of our owne countrie and nation so that few or rather none of vs remained free without some note of bondage and seruitude to the French Hereby then we perceiue how from time to time this Iland hath not onelie béene a prey but as it were a common receptacle for strangers the naturall homelings or Britons being still cut shorter and shorter as I said before till in the end they came not onelie to be driuen into a corner of this region but in time also verie like vtterlie to haue beene extinguished For had not king Edward surnamed the saint in his time after greeuous wars made vpon them 1063. wherein Harald latelie made Earle of Oxenford sonne to Goodwin Earle of Kent and after king of England was his generall permitted the remnant of their women to ioine in mariage with the Englishmen when the most part of their husbands and male children were slaine with the sword it could not haue béene otherwise chosen but their whole race must needs haue susteined the vttermost confusion and thereby the memorie of the Britons vtterlie haue perished among vs. Thus we see how England hath six times beene subiect to the reproch of conquest And wheras the Scots séeme to challenge manie famous victories also ouer vs beside gréeuous impositions tributs dishonorable compositions it shall suffice for answer that they deale in
this as in the most part of their historie which is to seeke great honor by lieng great renowme by prating and craking Indeed they haue doone great mischéefe in this Iland with extreme crueltie but as for any conquest the first is yet to heare of Diuers other conquests also haue béene pretended by sundrie princes sithence the conquest onelie to the end that all pristinate lawes and tenures of possession might cease and they make a new disposition of all things at their owne pleasure As one by king Edw. the 3. but it tooke none effect Another by Henrie the 4. who neuerthelesse was at the last though hardlie drawne from the challenge by William Thorington then cheefe Iustice of England The third by Henrie the 7. who had some better shew of right but yet without effect And the last of all by Q. Marie as some of the papists gaue out and also would haue had hir to haue obtained but God also staied their malices and hir challenge But beside the six afore mentioned Huntingdon the old historiographer speaketh of a seuenth likelie as he saith to come one daie out of the North which is a wind that bloweth no man to good sith nothing is to be had in those parts but hunger much cold Sée more hereof in the historie of S. Albons and aforsaid author which lieth on the left side of the librarie belonging now to Paules for I regard no prophesies as one that doubteth from what spirit they doo procéed or who should be the author of them Whether it be likelie that any giants were and whether they inhabited in this I le or not Cap. 5. BEsides these aforesaid nations which haue crept as you haue heard into our Iland we read of sundrie giants that should inhabit here Which report as it is not altogither incredible sith the posterities of diuers princes were called by the name so vnto some mens eares it séemeth so strange a rehersall that for the same onelie cause they suspect the credit of our whole historie reiect it as a fable vnworthie to be read They also condemne the like in all other histories especiallie of the North where men are naturallie of greatest stature imagining all to be but fables that is written of Starcater Hartben Angrine Aruerode c of whom Saxo Iohannes Magnus and Olaus doo make mention whose bones doo yet remaine to be seene as rare miracles in nature Of these also some in their life time were able to lift vp as they write a vessell of liquor of 1000. weight or an horsse or an oxe cast it on their shoulders wherein their verie women haue beene likewise knowne to come néere vnto them and of the race of those men some were séene of no lesse strength in the 1500. of Grace wherein Olaus liued and wrote the same of his owne experience and knowledge Of the giant of Spaine that died of late yeares by a fall vpon the Alpes as he either went or came from Rome about the purchase of a dispensation to marrie with his kinswoman a woman also of much more than common stature there be men yet liuing and may liue long for age that can saie verie much euen by their owne knowledge Wherfore it appeareth by present experience that all is not absolutelie vntrue which is remembred of men of such giants For this cause therfore I haue now taken vpon me to make this breefe discourse insuing as indeuouring therby to prooue that the opinion of giants is not altogither grounded vpon vaine and fabulous narrations inuented onelie to delight the cares of the hearers with the report of maruellous things but that there haue beene such men in déed as for their hugenesse of person haue resembled rather high towers than mortall men although their posterities are now consumed and their monstruous races vtterlie worne out of knowledge I doo not meane herein to dispute whether this name Gigas or Nephilim was giuen vnto them rather for their tyrannie and oppression of the people than for their greatnesse of bodie or large steps as Goropius would haue it for he denieth that euer men were greater than at this present or bicause their parents were not knowne for such in old time were called Terrae filij or whether the word Gigas dooth onlie signifie Indigenas or homelings borne in the land or not neither whether all men were of like quantitie in stature and farre more greater in old time than now they be and yet absolutelie I denie neither of these sith verie probable reasons may be brought for ech of them but especiallie the last rehearsed whose confirmation dependeth vpon the authorities of sundrie ancient writers who make diuers of noble race equall to the giants in strength and manhood and yet doo not giue the same name vnto them bicause their quarels were iust and commonlie taken in hand for defense of the oppressed Examples hereof we may take of Hercules and Antheus whose wrestling declareth that they were equall in stature stomach Such also was the courage of Antheus that being often ouercome and as it were vtterlie vanquished by the said Hercules yet if he did estsoones returne againe into his kingdome he foorthwith recouered his force returned and held Hercules tacke till he gat at the last betwéene him and home so cutting off the farther hope of the restitution of his armie and killing finallie his aduersarie in the field of which victorie Politian writeth thus Incaluere animis dura certare palaestra Neptuni quondà m filius atque Iouis Non certamen erant operoso ex aere lebetes Sed qui vel vitam vel ferat interitum Occidit Antaeus Ioue natum viuere fas est Estque magistra Pales Graecia non Lybia The like doo our histories report of Corineus and Gomagot peraduenture king of this I le who fought a combat hand to hand till one of them was slaine and yet for all this no man reputeth Hercules or Corineus for giants albeit that Hanuile in his Architrenion make the later to be 12. cubits in height which is full 18. foot if poeticall licence doo not take place in his report and assertion But sith I say againe it is not my purpose to stand vpon these points I passe ouer to speake any more of them And whereas also I might haue procéeded in such order that I should first set downe by manie circumstances whether any giants were then whether they were of such huge and incredible stature as the authours doo remember and finallie whether any of them haue beene in this our Iland or not I protest plainlie that my mind is not here bent to deale in any such maner but rather generallie to confirme and by sufficient authoritie that there haue beene such mightie men of stature and some of them also in Britaine which I will set downe onelie by sundrie examples whereby it shall fall out that neither our Iland nor any part of the maine
monke if a man should leane to one side without anie conference of the asseuerations of the other But herin as I take it there lurketh some scruple for beside that S. Peters church stood in the east end of the citie and that of Apollo in the west the word Cornehill a denomination giuen of late to speake of to one street may easilie be mistaken for Thorney For as the word Thorney proceedeth from the Saxons who called the west end of the citie by that name where Westminster now standeth bicause of the wildnesse and bushinesse of the soile so I doo not read of anie stréete in London called Cornehill before the conquest of the Normans Wherfore I hold with them which make Westminster to be the place where Lucius builded his church vpon the ruines of that Flamine 264. yeeres as Malmesburie saith before the comming of the Saxons and 411. before the arriuall of Augustine Read also his appendix in lib. 4. Pontif. where he noteth the time of the Saxons in the 449. of Grace and of Augustine in the 596. of Christ which is a manifest accompt though some copies haue 499. for the one but not without manifest corruption and error Thus became Britaine the first prouince that generallie receiued the faith and where the gospell was freelie preached without inhibition of hir prince Howbeit although that Lucius and his princes and great numbers of his people imbraced the word with gréedinesse yet was not the successe thereof either so vniuersall that all men beleeued at the first the securitie so great as that no persecution was to be feared from the Romane empire after his decease or the procéeding of the king so seuere as that he inforced any man by publike authoritie to forsake and relinquish his paganisme but onelie this fréedome was enioied that who so would become a christian in his time might without feare of his lawes professe the Gospell in whose testimonie if néed had béene I doubt not to affirme but that he would haue shed also his bloud as did his neece Emerita who being constant aboue the common sort of women refused not after his decease by fire to yeeld hir selfe to death as a swéet smelling sacrifice in the nostrels of the Lord beyond the sea in France The faith of Christ being thus planted in this Iland in the 177. after Christ and Faganus and Dinaw with the rest sent ouer from Rome in the 178. as you haue heard it came to passe in the third yeare of the Gospell receiued that Lucius did send againe to Eleutherus the bishop requiring that he might haue some breefe epitome of the order of discipline then vsed in the church For he well considered that as it auaileth litle to plant a costlie vineyard except it afterward be cherished kept in good order and such things as annoie dailie remooued from the same so after baptisme and entrance into religion it profiteth little to beare the name of christians except we doo walke in the spirit and haue such things as offend apparentlie corrected by seuere discipline For otherwise it will come to passe that the wéedes of vice and vicious liuing will so quicklie abound in vs that they will in the end choke vp the good séed sowne in our minds and either inforce vs to returne vnto our former wickednesse with déeper securitie than before or else to become meere Atheists which is a great deale woorse For this cause therefore did Lucius send to Rome the second time for a copie of such politike orders as were then vsed there in their regiment of the church But Eleutherus considering with himselfe how that all nations are not of like condition and therefore those constitutions that are beneficiall to one may now and then be preiudiciall to another and séeing also that beside the word no rites and orders can long continue or be so perfect in all points but that as time serueth they will require alteration he thought it best not to laie any more vpon the necks of the new conuerts of Britaine as yet than Christ and his apostles had alreadie set downe vnto all men In returning therefore his messengers he sent letters by them vnto Lucius and his Nobilitie dated in the consulships of Commodus and Vespronius wherein he told them that Christ had left sufficient order in the scriptures for the gouernment of his church alreadie in his word and not for that onlie but also for the regiment of his whole kingdome if he would submit himselfe to yéeld and follow that rule The epistle it selfe is partlie extant and partlie perished yet such as it is and as I haue faithfullie translated it out of sundrie verie ancient copies I doo deliuer it here to the end I will not defraud the reader of anie thing that may turne to the glorie of God and his commoditie in the historie of our nation You require of vs the Romane ordinances and thereto the statutes of the emperours to be sent ouer vnto you and which you desire to practise and put in vre within your realme and kingdome The Romane lawes and those of emperours we may eft soones reprooue but those of God can neuer be found fault withall You haue receiued of late through Gods mercie in the realme of Britaine the law and faith of Christ you haue with you both volumes of the scriptures out of them therefore by Gods grace and the councell of your realme take you a law and by that law through Gods sufferance rule your kingdome for you are Gods vicar in your owne realme as the roiall prophet saith The earth is the Lords and all that is therein the compasse of the world and they that dwell therein Againe Thou hast loued truth and hated iniquitie wherefore God euen thy God hath annointed thée with oile of gladnesse aboue thy fellowes And againe according to the saieng of the same prophet Oh God giue thy iudgement vnto the king thy iustice vnto the kings sonne The kings sons are the christian people flocke of the realme which are vnder your gouernance and liue continue in peace within your kingdome * The gospell saith As the hen gathereth hir chickens vnder hir wings so dooth the king his people Such as dwell in the kingdome of Britaine are yours whom if they be diuided you ought to gather into concord and vnitie to call them to the faith and law of Christ and to his sacred church to chearish and mainteine to rule also and gouerne them defending each of them from such as would doo them wrong and keeping them from the malice of such as be their enimies * Wo vnto the nation whose king is a child and whose princes rise vp earlie to banket and féed which is spoken not of a prince that is within age but of a prince that is become a child through follie sinne vnstedfastnesse of whom the prophet saith The bloudthirstie and deceitfull men
matrone of them all Howbeit when this procéeding of the Lord could also take no place and the shéepe of his pasture would receiue no wholesome fodder it pleased his maiestie to let them run on headlong from one iniquitie to another in somuch that after the doctrine of Pelagius it receiued that of Rome also brought in by Augustine and his monkes whereby it was to be seene how they fell from the truth into heresie and from one heresie still into another till at the last they were drowned altogither in the pits of error digged vp by Antichrist wels in deed that hold no water which notwithstanding to their followers séemed to be most sound doctrine and cisterns of liuing water to such as imbraced the same This Augustine after his arriuall conuerted the Saxons in déed from paganisme but as the prouerbe saith bringing them out of Gods blessing into the warme sunne he also imbued them with no lesse hurtfull superstition than they did know before for beside the onelie name of Christ and externall contempt of their pristinate idolatrie he taught them nothing at all but rather I saie made an exchange from grosse to subtill treacherie from open to secret idolatrie from the name of pagans to the bare title of christians thinking this sufficient for their soules health and the stablishment of his monachisme of which kind of profession the holie scriptures of God can in no wise like or allow But what cared he sith he got the great fish for which he did cast his hooke and so great was the fish that he caught in déed that within the space of 1000. yeares and lesse it deuoured the fourth part more of the best soile of the Iland which was wholie bestowed vpon his monkes other religious broodes that were hatched since his time as may hereafter appéere in the booke following where I intreate of cities townes c. In the meane season what successe his monkes had at Canturburie how oft they were spoiled by enimies their houses burned by casualtie and brethren consumed with pestilence I refer me to Gotcellius Houeden Geruase and the rest of their owne historiographers And so sore did the pestilence rage among them in the time of Celnothus in whose daics the preests clerks and monkes sang their seruice togither in the quire that of I wote not how manie there remained onelie fiue aliue which was a notable token of the furie and wrath of God conceiued and executed against that malignant generation It came also to passe at the last that men vsed to praie for helpe at the said Augustines tumble although afterward Thomas Becket a newer saint did not a little deface his glorie among which king Athelstane was one whome Elnothus the abbat staied so long in the place when he came thither to praie that his soldiours waiting for his comming and supposing the monkes to haue murdered him began to giue an assault and set fire vpon the house Whilest these things were thus in hand in the south part of Albion the Meates Picts and Caledoniens which lie beyond the Scotish sea receiued also the faith by preaching of such christian elders as aduentured thither dailie who trauelled not without great successe and increase of perfect godlines in that part of the I le Certes this prosperous attempt passed all mens expectation for that these nations were in those daies reputed wild sauage and more vnfaithfull and craftie than well-minded people as the wild Irish are in my time and such were they to saie the truth in déed as neither the sugred courtesie nor sharpe swords of the Romans could mollifie or restraine from their naturall furie or bring to anie good order For this cause also in the end the Romane emperours did vtterlie cast them off as an vnprofitable brutish vntameable nation and by an huge wall herafter to be described separated that rude companie from the more mild and ciuill portion This conuersion of the north parts fell out in the sixt yeare before the warres that Seuerus had in those quarters and 170. after the death of our sauiour Iesus Christ. From thenceforth also the christian religion continued still among them by the diligent care of their pastors and bishops after the vse of the churches of the south part of this Iland till the Romane shéepheard sought them out and found the meanes to pull them vnto him in like sort with his long staffe as he had done our countriemen whereby in the end he abolished the rites of the churches of Asia there also as Augustine had done alreadie in England and in stéed of the same did furnish it vp with those of his pontificall see although there was great contention and no lesse bloodshed made amongst them before it could be brought to passe as by the histories of both nations yet extant may be séene In the time of Coelestine bishop of Rome who saâ—e in the 423. of Christ one Paladius a Grecian borne to whome Cyrill wrote his dialog De adoratione in spiritu and sometime disciple to Iohn 24. bishop of Ierusalem came ouer from Rome into Britaine there to suppresse the Pelagian heresie which not a little molested the orthodoxes of that Iland And hauing doone much good in the extinguishing of the aforsaid opinion there he went at the last also into Scotland supposing no lesse but after he had trauelled somwhat in confutation of the Pelagians in those parts he should easilie persuade that crooked nation to admit and receiue the rites of the church of Rome as he would faine haue doone before-hand in the south But as Fastidius Priscus archbishop of London and his Suffragans resisted him here so did the Scotish prelates withstand him there also in this behalfe howbeit bicause of the authoritie of his commission grauitie of personage and the great gift which he had in the veine of pleasant persuasion whereby he drew the people after him as Orpheus did the stones with his harpe and Hercules such as heard him by his toong they had him not onelie then in great admiration but their successors also from time to time and euen now are contented and the rather also for that he came from Rome to take him for their chéefe apostle reckoning from his comming as from the faith receiued which was in the 431. yeare of Christ as the truth of their historie dooth verie well confirme Thus we see what religion hath from time to time beene receiued in this Iland how and when the faith of Christ came first into our countrie Howbeit as in processe of time it was ouershadowed and corrupted with the dreames and fantasticall imaginations of man so it dailie waxed woorse woorse till that it pleased God to restore the preaching of his gospell in our daies whereby the man of sinne is now openlie reuealed and the puritie of the word once againe brought to light to the finall ouerthrow of
which should be prima as yet I do not read except it should be Anglesei and then saith Malmesburie well In like sort Propertius speaketh of a Meuania which he called Nebulosa but he meaneth it euidentlie of a little towne in Umbria where he was borne lib. 4. eleg De vrbe Rom. Wherfore there néedeth no vse of his authoritie This in the meane time is euident out of Orosius lib 1. capite 2. that Scots dwelled somtime in this I le as also in Ireland which Ethicus also affirmeth of his owne time and finallie confirmeth that the Scots and Irish were sometime one people It hath in length 24. miles and 8. in bredth and is in maner of like distance from Galloway in Scotland Ireland and Cumberland in England as Buchanan reporteth In this Iland also were some time 1300. families of which 960. were in the west halfe and the rest in the other But now through ioining house to house land to land a common plague and canker which will eat vp all if prouision be not made in time to withstand this mischéefe that number is halfe diminished and yet many of the rich inhabiters want roome and wote not how and where to bestowe themselues to their quiet contentations Certes this impediment groweth not by reason that men were greater in bodie than they haue béene in time past but onelie for that their insatiable desire of inlarging their priuate possessions increaseth still vpon them and will doo more except they be restrained but to returne to our purpose It was once spoiled by the Scots in the time of king Athelstane chéeflie by Anlafus in his flight from the bloudie battell wherein Constantine king of Scotland was ouercome secondlie by the Scots 1388. after it came to the possession of the English for in the beginning the kings of Scotland had this Iland vnder their dominion almost from their first arriuall in this Iland and as Beda saith till Edwine king of the Northumbers wan it from them and vnited it to his kingdome After the time of Edwine the Scots gat the possession thereof againe and held it till the Danes Norwaies wan it from them who also kept it but with much trouble almost 370. yeares vnder the gouernance of their viceroies whome the kings of Norwaie inuested vnto that honor till Alexander the third king of that name in Scotland recouered it from them with all the rest of those Iles that lie vpon the west coast called also Sodorenses in the daies of Magnus king of Norwaie And sithens that time the Scotish princes haue not ceased to giue lawes to such as dwelled there but also from time to time appointed such bishops as should exercise ecclesiasticall iurisdiction in the same till it was won from them by our princes and so vnited vnto the realme of England Finallie how after sundrie sales bargains and contracts of matrimonie for I read that William Scroope the kings Uicechamberleine did buy this I le and crowne thereof of the lord William Montacute earle of Sarum it came vnto the ancestours of the earles of Darbie who haue béene commonlie said to be kings of Man the discourse folowing shall more at large declare Giraldus noteth a contention betwéene the kings of England Ireland for the right of this Iland but in the end when by a comprâ—mise the triall of the matter was referred to the liues or deaths of such venemous wormes as should be brought into the same and it was found that they died not at all as the like doo in Ireland sentence passed with the king of England so he reteined the Iland But howsoeuer this matter standeth and whether anie such thing was done at all or not sure it is that the people of the said Ile were much giuen to witchcraft and sorcerie which they learned of the Scots a nation greatlie bent to that horible practise in somuch that their women would oftentimes sell wind to the mariners inclosed vnder certeine knots of thred with this iniunction that they which bought the same should for a great gale vndoo manie and for the lesse a fewer or smaller number The stature of the men and also fertilitie of this Iland are much commended and for the latter supposed verie néere to be equall with that of Anglesei in all commodities There are also these townes therein as they come now to my remembrance Rushen Dunglasse Holme towne S. Brids Bala cury the bishops house S. Mich. S. Andrew kirk Christ kirk Louel S. Mathees kirk S. Anne Pala sala kirk S. Marie kirk Concane kirk Malu and Home But of all these Rushen with the castell is the strongest It is also in recompense of the common want of wood indued with sundrie pretie waters as first of al the Burne rising in the northside of Warehill botoms and branching out by southwest of kirk S. An it séemeth to cut off a great part of the eastside thereof from the residue of that Iland From those hils also but of the south halfe commeth the Holme and Holmey by a towne of the same name in the verie mouth whereof lieth the Pile afore mentioned They haue also the Bala passing by Bala cury on the westside and the Rame on the north whose fall is named Ramesei hauen as I doo read in Chronicles There are moreouer sundrie great hils therein as that wherevpon S. Mathees standeth in the northeast part of the I le a parcell whereof commeth flat south betwéene kirk Louell and kirk Marie yéelding out of their botoms the water Bala whereof I spake before Beside these and well toward the south part of the I le I find the Warehils which are extended almost from the west coast ouertwhart vnto the Burne streame It hath also sundrie hauens as Ramsei hauen by north Laxam hauen by east Port Iris by southwest Port Home and Port Michell by west In like sort there are diuers Ilets annexed to the same as the Calfe of man on the south the Pile on the west and finallie S. Michels Ile in the gulfe called Ranoths waie in the east Moreouer the sheepe of this countrie are excéeding huge well woolled and their tailes of such greatnesse as is almost incredible In like sort their hogs are in maner monstrous They haue furthermore great store of barnacles bréeding vpon their coasts but yet not so great store as in Ireland and those as there also of old ships ores masts peeces of rotten timber as they saie and such putrified pitched stuffe as by wrecke hath happened to corrupt vpon that shore Howbeit neither the inhabitants of this I le nor yet of Ireland can readilie saie whether they be fish or flesh for although the religious there vsed to eat them as fish yet elsewhere some haue beene troubled for eating of them in times prohibited for heretikes and lollards For my part I haue béene verie desirous to vnderstand the vttermost of the bréeding of
of the Danish race And from thence vntill we came vnto the coast of Norffolke I saw no more Ilands Being therfore past S. Edmunds point we found a litle I le ouer against the fall of the water that commeth from Holkham likewise another ouer against the Claie before we came at Waburne hope the third also in Yarmouth riuer ouer against Bradwell a towne in low or little England whereof also I must néeds saie somewhat bicause it is in maner an Iland and as I gesse either hath béene or may be one for the brodest place of the strict land that leadeth to the same is little aboue a quarter of a mile which against the raging waues of the sea can make but small resistance Little England or low England therefore is about eight miles in length and foure in bredth verie well replenished with townes as Fristan Burgh castell Olton Flixton Lestoft Gunton Blundston Corton Lownd Ashebie Hoxton Belton Bradwell and Gorleston and beside this it is verie fruitfull and indued with all commodities Going forward from hence by the Estonnesse almost an Iland I saw a small parcell cut from the maine in Oxford hauen the Langerstone in Orwell mouth two péeces or Islets at Cattiwade bridge and then casting about vnto the Colne we beheld Merseie which is a pretie Iland well furnished with wood It was sometime a great receptacle for the Danes when they inuaded England howbeit at this present it hath beside two decaied blockehouses two parish churches of which one is called east Merseie the other west Merseie and both vnder the archdeacon of Colchester as parcell of his iurisdiction Foulenesse is an I le void of wood and yet well replenished with verie good grasse for neat and sheepe whereof the inhabitants haue great plentie there is also a parish church and albeit that it stand somewhat distant from the shore yet at a dead low water a man may as they saie ride thereto if he be skilfull of the causie it is vnder the iurisdiction of London And at this present master William Tabor bacheler of diuinitie and archdeacon of Essex hath it vnder his iurisdiction regiment by the surrender of maister Iohn Walker doctor also of diuinitie who liued at such time as I first attempted to commit this booke to the impression In Maldon water are in like sort thrée Ilands inuironed all with salt streames as saint Osithes Northeie and another after a mersh that beareth no name so far as I remember On the right hand also as we went toward the sea againe we saw Ramseie I le or rather a Peninsula or Biland likewise the Reie in which is a chappell of saint Peter And then coasting vpon the mouth of the Bourne we saw the Wallot Ile and his mates whereof two lie by east Wallot and the fourth is Foulnesse except I be deceiued for here my memorie faileth me on the one side and information on the other I meane concerning the placing of Foulenesse But to procéed After this and being entered into the Thames mouth I find no Iland of anie name except you accompt Rochford hundred for one whereof I haue no mind to intreat more than of Crowland Mersland Elie and the rest that are framed by the ouze Andredeseie in Trent so called of a church there dedicated to saint Andrew and Auon two noble riuers hereafter to be described sith I touch onelie those that are inuironed with the sea or salt water round about as we may see in the Canwaie Iles which some call marshes onelie and liken them to an ipocras bag some to a vice scrue or wide sléeue bicause they are verie small at the east end and large at west The salt rilles also that crosse the same doo so separat the one of them from the other that they resemble the slope course of the cutting part of a scrue or gimlet in verie perfect maner if a man doo imagine himselfe to looke downe from the top of the mast vpon them Betwéene these moreouer and the Leigh towne lieth another litle Ile or Holme whose name is to me vnknowne Certes I would haue gone to land and viewed these parcels as they laie or at the least haue sailed round about them by the whole hauen which may easilie be doone at an high water but for as much as a perrie of wind scarse comparable to the makerell gale whereof Iohn Anele of Calis one of the best seamen that England euer bred for his skill in the narow seas was woont to talke caught hold of our sailes caried vs forth the right waie toward London I could not tarie to sée what things were hereabouts Thus much therefore of our Ilands so much may well suffice where more cannot be had The description of the Thames and such riuers as fall into the same Cap. 11. HAuing as you haue séene attempted to set downe a full discourse of all the Ilands that are situat vpon the coast of Britaine and finding the successe not correspondent to mine intent it hath caused me somewhat to restreine my purpose in this description also of our riuers For whereas I intended at the first to haue written at large of the number situation names quantities townes villages castels mounteines fresh waters plashes or lakes salt waters and other commodities of the aforesaid Iles mine expectation of information from all parts of England was so deceiued in the end that I was fame at last onelie to leane to that which I knew my selfe either by reading or such other helpe as I had alreadie purchased and gotten of the same And euen so it happeneth in this my tractation of waters of whose heads courses length bredth depth of chanell for burden ebs flowings and falles I had thought to haue made a perfect description vnder the report also of an imagined course taken by them all But now for want of instruction which hath béene largelie promised slacklie perfourmed and other sudden and iniurious deniall of helpe voluntarilie offered without occasion giuen on my part I must needs content my selfe with such obseruations as I haue either obteined by mine owne experience or gathered from time to time out of other mens writings whereby the full discourse of the whole is vtterlie cut off and in steed of the same a mangled rehearsall of the residue set downe and left in memorie Wherefore I beséech your honour to pardon this imperfection and rudenesse of my labour which notwithstanding is not altogither in vaine sith my errors maie prooue a spurre vnto the better skilled either to correct or inlarge where occasion serueth or at the leastwise to take in hand a more absolute péece of worke as better direction shall incourage them thereto The entrance and beginning of euerie thing is the hardest and he that beginneth well hath atchiued halfe his purpose The ice my lord is broken and from hencefoorth it will be more easie for
riseth in a mounteine therby and goeth into the sea two miles aboue Duegeuelth Auon Duegeuelth is three miles aboue Conweie which rising in the mounteins a mile off goeth by it selfe into Meneie salt arme On the said shore also lieth Conweie and this riuer dooth run betwixt Penmaine Maur and Penmaine Uehan It riseth about three miles from Penmaclon hils which lie about sixtie miles from Conweie abbeie now dissolued out of a lake called Lin Conweie and on the north and west of this riuer standeth the towne of Conweie which taketh his name thereof This riuer which Ptolomie calleth Toesobius as I take it after the deriuation thereof from the head passeth on the west side by Spittieuan and Tiherio beneath which it taketh in a streame comming from the east out of Denbighshire deriued from thrée heads and of the greatest called Nag Soone after also another and then the third which commeth in from the west by Lanpen Mawr next of all the Leder on the same side which commeth by Dolathelan castell and aboue that from a Lin of the same denomination Beneath this and selfe hand lieth likewise the Ligow or Ligwie proceeding from two lakes that is the Mumber and the Ligow On the right hand as we still descend is the Coid then the Glin a little lower we méet with the Lin Gerioneth and after we be past another on the right side we come to the Perloid which commeth out of Lin Cowlid to the Ygan to the Idulin to the castell Water on the left then to the Melandider on the right without the sight of anie other till we come almost to Conweie where we find a notched streame comming from by west and called Guffen or Gyffin into the same by one chanell on the norrtheast side of the towne beneath Guffin or Gyffin and ouer against Lansanfraid in Denbighshire so farre as I now remember Some part of Carnaruonshire stretcheth also beyond Aber Conweie or the fall of Conweie it is called Ormeshed point wherein also is a rill whose fall into the sea is betwéene Penrin and Landright And thus we haue made an end of the chéefe waters which are to be found in this countie The next is a corner of Denbigh by which we doo as it were step ouer into Flintshire and whose first water is not great yet it commeth from south-southwest and falleth into the north or Irish sea called Virginium beneath Landilas as the next that commeth south from Bettas dooth the like thrée miles beneath Abergele and is not onelie called Gele as the name it selfe importeth but also noted to take his course through the Canges Hauing thus gone ouer the angle of Denbighshire that lieth betwéene those of Carnaruon and Flint we come next of all vnto Aber Cluide or the fall of Clotha or Glota which is a streame not to be shortlie intreated of It riseth among certeine hilles which lie not far distant from the confines of Merioneth and Denbighshires Southeast from his fall and hauing run foure or fiue miles from the head it commeth about to Darwen taking in the Maniton on the left hand and the Mespin on the right and soone after the third from by-west whose head is not farre from Gloucanocke Beneath Ruthen also it taketh in the Leueneie and after that another and the third all on the right hand and so holdeth on till it méet with the Cluedoch then with the Ystrade which passeth by Whitchurch on the left hand After which we come to the Whéeler on the right and so to his ioining with the Elwie which is beneath S. Asaphes a bishops sée that is inuironed with them both This Elwie riseth aboue Gwitherne beneath Lanuair taketh in the Alode which commeth from lin Alode by Lanfannan and ioineth with him fiue miles beneath Langrenew The Cluda therefore and the Elwie being met the confluence passeth on to the sea by Rutland castell where it taketh in the Sarne which commeth from by east and hath a course almost of sixteene miles From hence we tooke sea toward the Dée mouth and as we passed by the rest of the shore we saw the fall of a little brooke néere Basing Werke of another néere to Flint of the third at Yowleie castell which with his two armes in maner includeth it and the fourth beneath Hawarden hold which in like sort goeth round about the same from whence we came to the Dée where we landed and tooke vp our lodging in Chester In this place also it was no hard matter to deliuer set downe the names of such riuers and streames as are also to be found in Angleseie finding my selfe to haue some leasure and fit opportunitie for the same and imagining a iourneie thither also as vnto the other places mentioned in this description whither as yet it hath not béene my hap to trauell I thought it not amisse to take it also in hand and performe it after this maner Ferrieng therefore ouer out of Carnaruonshire to Beaumarise I went by land without crossing of anie riuer or streame worthie memorie till I came to the Brant which hath his fall not farre from the southest point of that Iland This Brant riseth farre vp in the land not farre from Lauredenell and holding on his course southward to Lanthoniell Uaall it goeth on to Bodoweruch Langainwen and so into the sea The next fall we came vnto was called Maltrath and it is producted by the confluence of two riuers the Geuennie and the Gint who ioine not farre from Langrestoll This also last rehearsed hath his head neere to Penmoneth the other being forked riseth in the hillie soile aboue Tregaion and Langwithlog so that part of the Iland obteineth no small commoditie and benefit by their passage Next vnto this we came vnto the Fraw whose head is neere to Langinewen and passage by Cap Maer after which it falleth into a lake from whence it goeth east of Aberfraw and so into the sea The next riuer hath no name to my knowledge yet hath it a longer course than that which I last described For it riseth two or thrée miles aboue Haneglosse and passing from thence to Treualghmaie after the descent of foure miles it falleth into the sea After this we came to an other which riseth more to Cap legan ferwie and falleth into the sea southeast of the little Iland which is called Ynis Wealt it is namelesse also as the other was and therefore hauing small delight to write thereof we passed ouer the salt créeke by a bridge into Cair Kibie which by the same is as it were cut from the maine Iland and in some respect not vnworthie to be taken for an I le In the north side therefore of Cair Kibie is a little rill or créeke but whether the water thereof be fresh or salt as yet I doo not remember This place being viewed I came backe againe by the aforesaid bridge into the
that runneth thither from Dent towne beneath Sebbar they continue their course as one into the Burbecke from whence it is called Lune From hence it goeth to Burbon chappell where it taketh in another rill comming from by east then to Kirbie Lansdale and aboue Whittenton crosseth a brooke comming from the countie stone by Burros and soone after beneath Tunstall and Greteie which descending from about Ingelborow hill passeth by Twiselton Ingleton Thorneton Burton Wratton and néere Thurland castell toucheth finallie with the Lune which brancheth and soone after vniteth it selfe againe After this also it goeth on toward New parke and receiueth the Wennie and the Hinburne both in one chanell of which this riseth north of the crosse of Greteie and going by Benthams and Roberts hill aboue Wraie taketh in the Rheburne that riseth north of Wulfecrag After this confluence also aboue New parke it maketh his gate by Aughton Laughton Skirton Lancaster Excliffe Awcliffe Soddaie Orton and so into the sea Thus haue you both the descriptions of Lune make your conference or election at your pleasure for I am sworne to neither of them both The next fall is called Docker and peraduenture the same that Leland dooth call the Kerie which is not farre from Wharton where the rich Kitson was borne it riseth north of Docker towne and going by Barwtjc hall it is not increased before it come at the sea where it falleth into the Lune water at Lunesands Next of all we come to Bitham becke which riseth not far from Bitham towne and parke in the hilles where about are great numbers of goates kept and mainteined and by all likelihood resorteth in the end to Linsands Being past this we find a forked arme of the sea called Kensands into the first of which diuerse waters doo run in one chanell as it were from foure principall heads one of them comming from Grarrig hall another frō by west of Whinfield ioining with the first on the east side of Skelmere parke The third called Sprot or Sprota riseth at Sloddale commeth downe by west of Skelmer parke so that these two brookes haue the aforesaid parke betwéene them fall into the fourth east of Barneside not verie farre in sunder The fourth or last called Ken commeth from Kentmers side out of Ken moore in a poole of a mile compasse verie well stored with fish the head whereof as of all the baronie of Kendall is in Westmerland going to Stauelope it taketh in a rill from Chappleton Inges Then leauing Colnehead parke by east it passeth by Barneside to Kendall Helston Sigath Siggeswijc Leuenbridge Milnethorpe and so into the sea Certes this Ken is a pretie déepe riuer and yet not safelie to be aduentured vpon with boates and balingers by reason of rolling stones other huge substances that off annoie trouble the middest of the chanell there The other péece of the forked arme is called Winstar the hed wherof is aboue Winstar chappell going downe almost by Carpmaunsell Netherslake it is not long yer it fall into the sea or sands for all this coast a gulfe from the Ramside point to the Mealenasse is so pestered with sands that it is almost incredible to sée how they increase Those also which inuiron the Kenmouth are named Kensands but such as receiue the descent from the Fosse Winander and Sparke are called Leuesands as I find by sufficient testimonie The mouth or fall of the Dodon also is not farre from this impechment wherefore it is to be thought that these issues will yer long become verie noisome if not choked vp altogither The Winander water riseth about Cimbarlrasestones from whence it goeth to Cangridge where it maketh a méere then to Ambleside and taking in yer it come there two rilles on the left hand and one on the right that commeth by Clapergate it maketh as I take it the greatest méere or fresh water in England for I read it is ten miles in length Finallie comming to one small chanell aboue Newbridge it reacheth not aboue six miles yer fall into the sea There is in like sort a water called the Fosse that riseth néere vnto Arneside and Tillerthwates and goeth foorth by Grisdale Satrethwate Rusland Powbridge Bowth and so falleth with the Winander water into the maine sea On the west side of the Fosse also commeth another through Furnesse felles and from the hilles by north thereof which yer long making the Thurstan lake not far from Hollinhow and going by Bridge end in a narrow chanell passeth foorth by Nibthwaits Blareth Cowlton Sparke bridge and so into the sea Hauing passed the Leuen or Conisands or Conistonesands or Winander fall for all is one I come to the Lew which riseth at Cewike chappell and falleth into the sea beside Plumpton The Rawther descending out of low Furnesse hath two heads whereof one commeth from Penniton the other by Ulmerstone abbeie and ioining both in one chanell they hasten into the sea whither all waters direct their voiage Then come we to another rill southwest of Aldingham descending by Glaiston castell and likewise the fourth that riseth néere Lindell and running by Dawlton castell and Furnesse abbeie not farre from the Barrow head it falleth into the sea ouer against Waueie and Waueie chappell except mine aduertisements misleade me The Dodon which from the head is bound vnto Cumberland and Westmerland commeth from the Shire stone hill bottome and going by Blackehill Southwake S. Iohns Uffaie parke Broughton it falleth into the faltwater betwéene Kirbie and Mallum castell And thus are we now come vnto the Rauenglasse point and well entred into Cumberland countie Comming to Rauenglasse I find hard by the towne a water comming from two heads and both of them in lakes or pooles whereof one issueth out of Denocke or Deuenocke méere and is called Denocke water the other named Eske from Eske poole which runneth by Eskedale Dalegarth and soone after meeting with the Denocke betwéene Mawburthwate and Rauenglasse falleth into the sea On the other side of Rauenglasse also commeth the Mite brooke from Miterdale as I read Then find we another which commeth from the hils and at the first is forked but soone after making a lake they gather againe into a smaller chanell finallie meeting with the Brenge they fall into the sea at Carleton southeast as I wéene of Drig The Cander or as Leland nameth it the Calder commeth out of Copeland forrest by Cander Sellefield and so into the sea Then come we to Euer water descending out of a poole aboue Coswaldhow and thence going by Euerdale it crosseth a water from Arladon and after procéedeth to Egremond S. Iohns and taking in another rill from Hide it is not long yer it méeteth with the sea The next fall is at Moresbie whereof I haue no skill From thence therefore
the crowne Being risen it hasteth directlie to old Saling Brainctrée crossing a rillet by the waie comming from Raine blacke Notleie white Notleie Falkeburne Wittham and falleth into the Blackewater beneath Braxsted on the south Beside this the said Pant or Gwin receiueth the Chelme or Chelmer which ariseth also in Wimbech aforesaid where it hath two heads of which the one is not farre from Brodockes where master Thomas Wiseman esquier dwelleth the other nigh vnto a farme called Highams in the same paroch and ioining yer long in one chanell they hie them toward Thacsted vnder Prowds bridge méeting in the waie wish a rill comming from Boiton end whereby it is somewhat increased Being past Thacsted it goeth by Tilteie and soone after receiueth one rill which riseth on the north side of Lindsell falleth into the Chelmer by northeast at Tilteie aforesaid another coÌ„ming from south-southwest rising southeast from Lindsell at much Eiston From thence then holding on still with the course it goeth to Candfield the more Dunmow litle Dunmow Falsted Lies both Waltams Springfield and so to Chelmeresford Here vpon the south side I find the issue of a water that riseth fiue miles or thereabouts south and by west of the said towne from whence it goeth to Munasing Buttesburie there receiuing a rill from by west to Ingatstone Marget Inge Widford bridge Writtle bridge and so to Chelmeresford crossing also the second water that descendeth from Roxford south west of Writtle by the waie whereof let this suffice From hence the Chelmer goeth directlie toward Maldon by Badow Owting Woodham water Bilie and so to Blackwater northwest of Maldon receiuing neuerthelesse yer it come fullie thither a becke also that goeth from Lée parke to little Lées great Lées Hatfield Peuerell Owting and so into Blackwater whereof I spake before as Maldon streame dooth a rill from by south ouer against saint Osithes and also another by Bradwell After which the said streame growing also to be verie great passeth by the Tolshunts Tollesbie and so foorth into the maine sea néere vnto Merseie betwéene which fall and the place where Salute water entreth into the land Plautus abode the comming of Claudius sometime into Britaine when he being hardlie beeset did â—â—nd unto him for aid and spéedie succour who also being come did not onelie rescue his legat but in like manner wan Colchester and put it to the spoile if it be Camalodunum The Burne riseth somewhere about Ronwell and thence goeth to Hull bridge south Fambridge Kirke shot ferrie and so to Foulnesse And as this is the short course of that riuer so it brancheth and the south arme thereof receiueth a water comming from Haukewell to great Stanbridge and beneath Pakesham dooth méet by south with the said arme and so finish vp his course as we doo our voiage also about the coast of England Thus haue I finished the description of such riuers and streames as fall into the Ocean according to my purpose although not in so precise an order and manner of handling as I might if information promised had been accordinglie performed or others would if they had taken the like in hand But this will I saie of that which is here done that from the Solueie by west which parteth England Scotland on that side to the Twede which separateth the said kingdoms on the east if you go backeward contrarie to the course of my description you shall find it so exact as beside a verie few by-riuers you shall not need to vse anie further aduise for the finding and falles of the aforesaid streames For such hath beene my helpe of maister Sackfords cardes and conference with other men about these that I dare pronounce them to be perfect and exact Furthermore this I haue also to remember that in the courses of our streames I regard not so much to name the verie towne or church as the limits of the paroch And therefore if I saie it goeth by such a towne I thinke my dutie discharged if I hit vpon anie part or parcell of the paroch This also hath not a little troubled me I meane the euill writing of the names of manie townes and villages of which I haue noted some one man in the description of a riuer to write one towne two or thrée manner of waies whereby I was inforced to choose one at aduenture most commonlie that séemed the likeliest to be sound in mine opinion and iudgement Finallie whereas I minded to set downe an especiall chapter of ports and créeks lieng on ech coast of the English part of this Ile and had prouided the same in such wise as I iudged most conuenient it came to passe that the greater part of my labour was taken from me by stealth and therefore as discouraged to meddle with that argument I would haue giuen ouer to set downe anie thing therefore at all and so much the rather for that I sée it may prooue a spurre vnto further mischéefe as things come to passe in these daies Neuerthelesse because a little thereof is passed in the beginning of the booke I will set downe that parcell thereof which remaineth leauing the supplie of the rest either to my selfe hereafter if I may come by it or to some other that can better performe the same Of such ports and creeks as our sea-faring-men doo note for their benefit vpon the coasts of England Chap. 17. IT maie be that I haue in these former chapters omitted sundrie hauens to be found vpon the shore of England and some of them serued with backe waters through want of sound and sufficient information from such as haue written vnto me of the same In recompense whereof I haue thought good to adde this chapter of ports and creekes whereby so farre as to me is possible I shall make satisfaction of mine ouersights And albeit I cannot being too too much abused by some that haue béerest me of my notes in this behalfe bring my purpose to passe for all the whole coast of England round about from Berwike to the Solue yet I will not let to set downe so much as by good hap remaineth whereby my countriemen shall not altogither want that benefit hoping in time to recouer also the rest if God grant life and good successe thereto In Northumberland therefore we haue Berwike Holie Iland Bamborow Bedwell Donstanborow Cocket Iland Warkeworth Newbiggin Almow Blithes nuke and Tinmouth hauen In the bishoprijc Sonderland Stocketon Hartlepoole These In Yorkeshire Dapnam sands Steningreene Staies Runswike Robinhoods baie Whitbie Scarborow Fileie Flamborow Bricklington Horneseie becke Sister kirke Kelseie Cliffe Pattenton Holmes Kenningham Pall Hidon Hulbrige Beuerleie Hull Hasell Northferebie Bucke creeke Blacke cost Wrethell Howden In Lincolneshire Selbie Snepe Turnebrige Rodiffe Catebie Stockwith Torkeseie Gainsborow Southferebie Barton a good point Barrow a good hauen Skatermill a good port Penningham Stalingborow a good hauen Guimsbie a good port Clie
better hope in the beginning than of Bladudus and yet I read of none that made so ridiculous an end in like sort there hath not reigned anie monarch in this I le whose waies were more feared at the first than those of Dunwallon king Henrie the fift excepted and yet in the end he prooued such a prince as after his death there was in maner no subiect that did not lament his funerals And this onelie for his policie in gouernance seuere administration of iustice and prouident framing of his lawes and constitutions for the gouernment of his subiects His people also coueting to continue his name vnto posteritie intituled those his ordinances according to their maker calling them by the name of the lawes of Mulmutius which indured in execution among the Britons so long as our homelings had the dominion of this I le Afterward when the comeling Saxons had once obteined the superioritie of the kingdom the maiestie of those lawes fell for a time into such decaie that although Non penitùs cecidit tamen potuit cecidisse videri as Leland saith and the decrêes themselues had vtterlie perished in déed at the verie first brunt had they not beene preserued in Wales where they remained amongst there likes of the Britons not onlie vntill the comming of the Normans but euen vntill the time of Edward the first who obteining the souereigntie of that portion indeuoured verie earnestlie to extinguish those of Mulmutius and to establish his owne But as the Saxons at their first arriuall did what they could to abolish the British lawes so in processe of time they yéelded a little to relent not so much to abhorre and mislike of the lawes of Mulmutius as to receiue and imbrace the same especiallie at such time as the said Saxon princes entered into amitie with the British nobilitie and after that began to ioine in matrimonie with the British ladies as the British barons did with the Saxon frowes both by an especiall statute and decrée wherof in another treatise I haue made mention at large Héerof also it came to passe in the end that they were contented to make a choise and insert no small numbers of them into their owne volumes as may be gathered by those of Athelbert the great surnamed king of Kent Inas and Alfred kings of the west Saxons and diuerse other yet extant to be séene Such also was the lateward estimation of them that when anie of the Saxon princes went about to make new ordinances they caused those of Mulmutius which Gildas sometime translated into Latine to be first expounded vnto them and in this perusall if they found anie there alreadie framed that might serue their turnes they foorthwith reuiued the same and annexed them to their owne But in this dealing the diligence of Alfred is most of all to be commended who not onelie chose out the best but gathered togither all such whatsoeuer the said Mulmutius had made and then to the end they should lie no more in corners as forlorne bookes and vnknowne to the learned of his kingdome he caused them to be turned into the Saxon toong wherein they continued long after his decease As for the Normans who for a season neither regarded the British nor cared for the Saxon statutes they also at the first vtterlie misliked of them till at the last when they had well weied that one kind of regiment is not conuenient for all peoples and that no stranger being in a forren countrie newlie brought vnder obedience could make such equall ordinances as he might thereby gouerne his new common-wealth without some care trouble they fell in with such a desire to sée by what rule the state of the land was gouerned in time of the Saxons that hauing perused the same they not onelie commended their maner of regiment but also admitted a great part of their lawes now currant vnder the name of S. Edwards lawes and vsed as principles and grounds whereby they not onelie qualified the rigor of their owne and mitigated their almost intollerable burden of seruitude which they had latelie laid vpon the shoulders of the English but also left vs a greeat number of the old Mulmutian lawes whereof the most part are in vse to this daie as I said albeit that we know not certeinlie how to distinguish them from others that are in strength amongst vs. After Dunwallon the next lawgiuer was Martia whome Leland surnameth Proba and after him John Bale also who in his Centuries dooth iustlie confesse himselfe to haue béene holpen by the said Leland as I my selfe doo likewise for manie things conteined in this treatise Shée was wife vnto Gutteline king of the Britons and being made protectrix of the realme after hir husbands deceasse in the nonage of hir sonne and séeing manie things dailie to grow vp among hir people worthie reformation she deuised sundrie and those verie politike lawes for the gouernance of hir kingdome which hir subiects when she was dead and gone did name the Martian statutes Who turned them into Latine as yet I doo not read howbeit as I said before of the lawes of Mulmutius so the same Alfred caused those of this excellentlie well learned ladie whome diuerse commend also for hir great knowledge in the Gréeke toong to be turned into his owne language wherevpon it came to passe that they were dailie executed among his subiects afterward allowed of among the rest by the Normans and finallie remaine in vse in these our daies notwithstanding that we can not disseuer them also verie readilie from the other The seuenth alteration of lawes was practised by the Saxons for I ouerpasse the vse of the ciuill ordinances vsed in Rome finallie brought hither by the Romans yet in perfect notice among the Ciuilians of our countrie though neuer generallie nor fullie receiued by all the seuerall regions of this Iland Certes there are great numbers of these later which yet remaine in sound knowlege and are to be read being comprehended for the most part vnder the names of the Martian and the Saxon law Beside these also I read of the Dane law so that the people of middle England were ruled by the first the west Saxons by the second as Essex Norffolke Suffolke Cambridgeshire and part of Herfordshire were by the third of all the rest the most inequall and intollerable And as in these daies what soeuer the prince in publike assemblie commanded vpon the necessitie of his subiects or his owne voluntarie authoritie was counted for law so none of them had appointed anie certeine place wherevnto his people might repaire at fixed times for iustice but caused them to resort commonlie to their palaces where in proper person they would often determine their causes and so make shortest worke or else commit the same to the hearing of other and so dispatch them awaie Neither had they any house appointed to assemble in for the making of their ordinances as
and aboue fortie 656 hoies 100 but of hulkes catches fisherboats and craiers it lieth not in me to deliuer the iust account sith they are hardlie to come by Of these also there are some of the quéenes maiesties subiects that haue two or three some foure or six and as I heard of late one man whose name I suppresse for modesties sake hath bene knowne not long since to haue had sixtéene or seuentéene and emploied them wholie to the wafting in and out of our merchants whereby he hath reaped no small commoditie and gaine I might take occasion to tell of the notable and difficult voiages made into strange countries by Englishmen and of their dailie successe there but as these things are nothing incident to my purpose so I surcease to speake of them Onelie this will I ad to the end all men shall vnderstand somewhat of the great masses of treasure dailie emploied vpon our nauie how there are few of those ships of the first and second sort that being apparelled and made readie to sale are not woorth one thousand pounds or thrée thousand ducats at the least if they should presentlie be sold. What shall we thinke then of the greater but especiallie of the nauie roiall of which some one vessell is woorth two of the other as the ship wrights haue often told me It is possible that some couetous person hearing this report will either not credit it at all or suppose monie so emploied to be nothing profitable to the queenes coffers as a good husband said once when he hard there should be prouision made for armor wishing the quéenes monie to be rather laid out to some spéedier returne of gaine vnto hir grace bicause the realme saith he is in case good enough and so peraduenture he thought But if as by store of armour for the defense of the countrie he had likewise vnderstanded that the good kéeping of the sea is the safegard of our land he would haue altered his censure and soone giuen ouer his iudgement For in times past when our nation made small account of nauigation how soone did the Romans then the Saxons last of all the Danes inuade this Iland whose crueltie in the end inforced our countrumen as it were euen against their wils to prouide for ships from other places and build at home of their owne whereby their enimies were offentimes distressed But most of all were the Normans therein to be commended For in a short processe of time after the conquest of this Iland and good consider at ion had for the well kéeping of the same they supposed nothing more commodious for the defense of the countrie than the maintenance of a strong nauie which they spéedilie prouided mainteined and thereby reaped in the end their wished securitie wherewith before their times this Iland was neuer acquainted Before the comming of the Romans I doo not read that we had anie ships at all except a few made of wicker and couered with buffle hides like vnto the which there are some to be seene at this present in Scotland as I heare although there be a little I wote not well what difference betwéene them Of the same also Solinus speaketh so far as I remember neuerthelesse it may be gathered by his words how the vpper parts of them aboue the water onelie were framed of the said wickers and that the Britons did vse to fast all the whiles they went to the sea in them but whether it were doone for policie or superstition as yet I doo not read In the beginning of the Saxons regiment we had some ships also but as their number and mould was litle and nothing to the purpose so Egbert was the first prince that euer throughlie began to know this necessitie of a nauie and vse the seruice thereof in the defense of his countrie After him also other princes as Alfred Edgar Ethelred c indeuoured more and more to store themselues at the full with ships of all quantities but chieflie Edgar for he prouided a nauie of 1600 aliàs 3600 saile which he diuided into foure parts and sent them to abide vpon foure sundrie coasts of the land to keepe the same from pirats Next vnto him and worthie to be remembred is Etheldred who made a law that euerie man holding 310 hidelands should find a ship furnished to serue him in the warres Howbeit and as I said before when all their name was at the greatest it was not comparable for force and sure building to that which afterward the Normans prouided neither that of the Normans anie thing like to the same that is to be séene now in these our daies For the iourneies also of our ships you shall vnderstand that a well builded vessell will run or saile commonlie thrée hundred leagues or nine hundred miles in a wéeke or peraduenture some will go 2200 leagues in six wéekes and an halfe And suerlie if their lading be readie against they come thither there be of them that will be here at the west Indies home againe in twelue or thirteene wéekes from Colchester although the said Indies be eight hundred leagues from the cape or point of Cornewall as I haue beene informed This also I vnderstand by report of some trauellers that if anie of our vessels happen to make a voiage to Hispaniola or new Spaine called in time past Quinquezia and Haiti and lieth betwéene the north tropike and the equator after they haue once touched at the Canaries which are eight daies sailing or two hundred and fiftie leages from S. Lucas de Barameda in Spaine they will be there in thirtie or fourtie dates home againe in Cornewall in other eight wéekes which is a goodlie matter beside the safetie and quietnesse in the passage But more of this elsewhere Of faires and markets Chap. 18. THere are as I take it few great townes in England that haue not their wéekelie markets one or more granted from the prince in which all maner of prouision for houshold is to be bought and sold for ease and benefit of the countrie round about Wherby as it cōmeth to passe that no buier shall make anie great iourneie in the purueiance of his necessities so no occupier shall haue occasion to trauell far off with his commodities except it be to séeke for the highest prices which commonlie are néere vnto great cities where round and spéediest vtterance is alwaies to be had And as these haue béene in times past erected for the benefit of the realme so are they in many places too too much abused for the reliefe and ease of the buier is not so much intended in them as the benefit of the seller Neither are the magistrats for the most part as men loth to displease their neighbours for their one yeares dignitie so carefull in their offices as of right and dutie they should bée For in most of these markets neither assises of bread nor orders for goodnesse and swéetnesse of graine and
faile in the time of Richard de la Wich bishop of Chichester and that afterwards by his intercession it was restored to the profit of the old course such is the superstition of the people in remembrance whereof or peraduenture for the zeale which the Wich men and salters did beare vnto Richard de la Wich their countriman they vsed of late times on his daie which commeth once in the yeare to hang this salt spring or well about with tapistrie and to haue sundrie games drinkings and foolish reuels at it But to procéed There be a great number of salt cotes about this well wherein the salt water is sodden in leads and brought to the perfection of pure white salt The other two salt springs be on the left side of the riuer a pretie waie lower than the first and as I found at the verie end of the towne At these also be diuerse fornaces to make salt but the profit and plentie of these two are nothing comparable to the gaine that riseth by the greatest I asked of a salter how manie fornaces they had at all the three springs and he numbred them to eightéene score that is thrée hundred and sixtie saieng how euerie one of them paied yearelie six shillings and eight pence to the king The truth is that of old they had liberties giuen vnto them for thrée hundred fornaces or more and therevpon they giue a fee farme or Vectigal of one hundred pounds yearelie Certes the pension is as it was but the number of fornaces is now increased to foure hundred There was of late search made for another salt spring there abouts by the meanes of one Newport a gentleman dwelling at the Wich and the place where it was appéereth as dooth also the wood and timber which was set about it to kéepe vp the earth from falling into the same But this pit was not since occupied whether it were for lacke of plentie of the salt spring or for letting or hindering of the profit of the other three Me thinke that if wood and sale of salt would serue they might dig and find more salt springs about the Wich than thrée but there is somewhat else in the wind For I heard that of late yeares a salt spring was found in an other quarter of Worcestershire but it grew to be without anie vse sith the Wich men haue such a priuilege that they alone in those quarters shall haue the making of salt The pits be so set about with gutters that the salt water is easilie turned to euerie mans house and at Mantwich verie manie troughs go ouer the riuer for the commoditie of such as dwell on the other side of the same They séeth also their salt water in fornaces of lead and lade out the salt some in cases of wicker through which the water draineth and the salt remaineth There be also two or thrée but verie little salt springs at Dertwitch in a low bottome where salt is sometime made Of late also a mile from Cumbremere abbaie a peece of an hill did sinke and in the same pit rose a spring of salt water where the abbat began to make salt but the men of the citie compounded with the abbat couent that there should be none made there whereby the pit was suffered to go to losse And although it yéelded salt water still of it selfe yet it was spoiled at the last and filled vp with filth The Wich men vse the cōmoditie of their salt springs in drawing and decocting the water of them onlie by six moneths in the yeare that is from Midsummer to Christmas as I gesse to mainteine the price of salt or for sauing of wood which I thinke to be their principall reason For making of salt is a great and notable destruction of wood and shall be greater hereafter except some prouision be made for the better increase of firing The lacke of wood also is alreadie perceiued in places néere the Wich for whereas they vsed to buie and take their wood neere vnto their occupiengs those woonted springs are now decaied and they be inforced to seeke their wood so far as Worcester towne and all the parts about Brenisgraue Alchirch and Alcester I asked a salter how much wood he supposed yearelie to be spent at these fornaces and he answered that by estimation there was consumed about six thousand load and it was round pole wood for the most which is easie to be cleft and handsomelie riuen in péeces The people that are about the fornace are verie ill coloured and the iust rate of euerie fornace is to make foure loads of salt yearelie and to euerie load goeth fiue or six quarters as they make their accounts If the fornace men make more in one fornace than foure loads it is as it is said imploied to their owne auaile And thus much hath Leland left in memorie of our white salt who in an other booke not now in my hands hath touched the making also of baie salt in some part of our countrie But sith that booke is deliuered againe to the owner the tractation of baie salt can not be framed in anie order bicause my memorie will not serue to shew the true maner and the place It shall suffice therfore to haue giuen such notice of it to the end the reader may know that aswell the baie as white are wrought and made in England and more white also vpon the west coast toward Scotland in Essex and else where out of the salt water betwéene Wire and Cokermouth which commonlie is of like price with our wheat Finallie hauing thus intermedled our artificiall salt with our minerals let vs giue ouer and go in hand with such mettals as are growing here in England Of our accompt of time hir parts Chap. 14. AS Libra is As or Assis to the Romans for their weight and the foot in standard measure so in our accompt of the parts of time we take the daie consisting of foure and twentie houres to be the greatest of the least and least of the greatest whereby we keepe our reckoning for of the houre to saie the truth the most ancient Romans Greeks nor Hebrues had anie vse sith they reckoned by watches and whereof also Censorinus cap. 19. sheweth a reason wherefore they were neglected For my part I doo not sée anie great difference vsed in the obseruation of time hir parts betwéene our owne any other forren nation wherfore I shall not néed to stand long on this matter Howbeit to the end our exact order herein shall appéere vnto all men I will set downe some short rehearsall thereof and that in so briefe manner as vnto me is possible As for our astronomicall practises I meane not to meddle with them sith their course is vniformelie obserued ouer all Our common order therefore is to begin at the minut which conteineth part of an houre as at the smallest part of time knowne vnto the people notwithstanding that in
souldiers secretlie in a wood and there to remaine in couert till the morning that Brute should come foorth and giue a charge vpon the enimies wherewith Corineus should breake foorth and assaile the Galles on the backes This policie was put in practise and tooke such effect as the deuisers themselues wished for the Galles being sharplie assailed on the front by Brute and his companie were now with the sudden comming of Corineus who set vpon them behind on their backes brought into such a feare that incontinentlie they tooke them to flight whom the Troians egerlie pursued making no small slaughter of them as they did ouertake them In this battell Brute lost manie of his men and amongst other one of his nephues named Turinus after he had shewed maruellous proofe of his manhood Of him as some haue written the foresaid citie of Tours tooke the name and was called Turonium because the said Turinus was there buried Andrew Theuet affirmeth the contrarie and mainteineth that one Taurus the nephue of Haniball was the first that inclosed it about with a pale of wood as the maner of those daies was of fensing their townes in the yeare of the world 3374. and before the birth of our sauiour 197. But to our matter concerning Brute who after he had obteined so famous a victorie albeit there was good cause for him to reioise yet it sore troubled him to consider that his numbers dailie decaied and his enimies still increased and grew stronger wherevpon resting doubtfull what to doo whether to procéed against the Galles or returne to his ships to séeke the Ile that was appointed him by oracle at length he chose the surest and best way as he tooke it and as it proued For whilest greater part of his armie was yet left aliue and that the victorie remained on his side he drew to his nauie and lading his ships with excéeding great store of riches which his people had got abroad in the countrie he tooke the seas againe After a few daies sailing they landed at the hauen now called Totnesse the yeare of the world 2850 after the destruction of Troy 66 after the deliuerance of the Israelites from the captiuitie of Babylon 397 almost ended in the 18 yeare of the reigne of Tineas king of Babylon 13 of Melanthus king of Athens before the building of Rome 368 which was before the natiuitie of our Sauior Christ 1116 almost ended and before the reigne of Alexander the great 783. Brute discouereth the commodities of this Iland mightie giants withstand him Gogmagog and Corineus wrestle together at a place beside Douer he buildeth the citie of Trinouant now termed London calleth this Iland by the name of Britaine and diuideth it into three parts among his three sonnes The fourth Chapter WHEN Brute had entred this land immediatlie after his arriuall as writers doo record he searched the countrie from side to side and from end to end finding it in most places verie fertile and plentious of wood and grasse and full of pleasant springs and faire riuers As he thus trauelled to discouer the state and commodities of the Iland he was encountred by diuers strong and mightie giants whome he destroied and slue or rather subdued with all such other people as he found in the Iland which were more in number than by report of some authors it should appeare there were Among these giants as Geffrey of Monmouth writeth there was one of passing strength and great estimation named Gogmagog with whome Brute caused Corineus to wrestle at a place beside Douer where it chanced that the giant brake a rib in the side of Corineus while they stroue to claspe and the one to ouerthrow the other wherewith Corineus being sore chafed and stirred to wrath did so double his force that he got the vpper hand of the giant and cast him downe headlong from one of the rocks there not farre from Douer and so dispatched him by reason whereof the place was named long after The fall or leape of Gogmagog but afterward it was called The fall of Douer For this valiant déed and other the like seruices first and last atchiued Brute gaue vnto Corineus the whole countrie of Cornwall To be briefe after that Brute had destroied such as stood against him and brought such people vnder his subiection as he found in the I le and searched the land from the one end to the other he was desirous to build a citie that the same might be the seate roiall of his empire or kingdome Wherevpon he chose a plot of ground lieng on the north side of the riuer of Thames which by good consideration séemed to be most pleasant and conuenient for any great multitude of inhabitants aswell for holsomnesse of aire goodnesse of soile plentie of woods and commoditie of the riuer seruing as well to bring in as to carrie out all kinds of merchandize and things necessarie for the gaine store and vse of them that there should inhabit Here therefore he began to build and lay the foundation of a citie in the tenth or as other thinke in the second yeare after his arriuall which he named saith Gal. Mon. Troinouant or as Hum. Llhoyd saith Troinewith that is new Troy in remembrance of that noble citie of Troy from whence he and his people were for the greater part descended When Brutus had builded this citie and brought the Iland fullie vnder his subiection he by the aduise of his nobles commanded this Ile which before hight Albion to be called Britaine and the inhabitants Britons after his name for a perpetuall memorie that he was the first bringer of them into the land In this meane while also he had by his wife .iij. sonnes the first named Locrinus or Locrine the second Cambris or Camber and the third Albanactus or Albanact Now when the time of his death drew néere to the first he betooke the gouernment of that part of the land nowe knowne by the name of England so that the same was long after called Loegria or Logiers of the said Locrinus To the second he appointed the countrie of Wales which of him was first named Cambria diuided from Loegria by the riuer of Seuerne To his third sonne Albanact he deliuered all the north part of the I le afterward called Albania after the name of the said Albanact which portion of the said Ile lieth beyond the Humber northward Thus when Brutus had diuided the I le of Britaine as before is mentioned into 3. parts and had gouerned the same by the space of 15. yeares he died in the 24 yeare after his arriuall as Harison noteth and was buried at Troinouant or London although the place of his said buriall there be now growne out of memorie Of Locrine the eldest sonne of Brute of Albanact his yoongest sonne and his death of Madan Mempricius Ebranke Brute Greenesheeld Leill Ludhurdibras Baldud and Leir the nine rulers of
report that he builded thrée temples one to Mars at Perth in Scotland another to Mercurie at Bangor and the third to Apollo in Cornewall Of Riuallus Gurgustius Sysillius Iago and Kinimacus rulers of Britaine by succession and of the accidents coincident with their times The seuenth Chapter RIuallus the sonne of Cunedag began to reigne ouer the Britaines in the yeare of the world 3203 before the building of Rome 15 Ioathan as then being king of Iuda and Phacea king of Israel This Riuall gouerned the Iland in great welth and prosperitie In his time it rained bloud by the space of thrée daies togither after which raine ensued such an excéeding number and multitude of flies so noisome and contagious that much people died by reason thereof When he had reigned 46 yeares he died and was buried at Caerbranke now called Yorke In the time of this Riuals reigne was the citie of Rome builded after concordance of most part of writers Perdix also a wizard and a learned astrologian florished and writ his prophesies and Herene also GUrgustius the son of the before named Riuall began to gouerne the Britaines in the yeare after the creation of the world 3249 and after the first foundation of Rome 33 Ezechias reigning in Iuda This Gurgustius in the chronicle of England is called Gorbodian the sonne of Reignold he reigned 37 yeares then departing this life was buried at Caerbranke now called Yorke by his father SYsillius or after some writers Syluius the brother of Gurgustius was chosen to haue the gouernance of Britaine in the yere of the world 3287 and after the building of Rome 71 Manasses still reigning in Iuda This Sysillius in the English chronicle is named Secill He reigned 49 yeares and then died and was buried at Carbadon now called Bath IAgo or Lago the cousin of Gurgustius as next inheritor to Sysillius tooke vpon him the gouernement of Britaine in the yeare of the world 3336 and after the building of Rome 120 in whose time the citie of Ierusalem was taken by Nabuchodonozar and the king of Iuda Mathania otherwise called Zedechias being slaine This Iago or Lago died without issue when he had reigned 28 yeares and was buried at Yorke KInimacus or Kinmarus the sonne of Sysillius as some write or rather the brother of Iago began to gouerne the land of Britain in the yere of the world 3364 and after the building of Rome 148 the Iewes as then being in the third yeare of their captiuitie of Babylon This Kinimacus departed this life after he had reigned 54 yeares and was buried at Yorke Of Gorbodug and his two sonnes Ferrex and Porrex one brother killeth another the mother slaieth hir sonne and how Britaine by ciuill warres for lacke of issue legitimate to the gouernment of a monarchie became a pentarchie the end of Brutes line The eight Chapter GOrbodug the sonne of Kinimacus began his reigne ouer the Britains in the yeare after the creation of the world 3418 from the building of the citie of Rome 202 the 58 of the Iews captiuitie at Babylon This Gorbodug by most likelihood to bring histories to accord should reigne about the tearme of 62 yeares and then departing this world was buried at London leauing after him two sonnes Ferrex and Porrex or after some writers Ferreus and Porreus FErrex with Porrex his brother began iointlie to rule ouer the Britaines in the yeare of the world 3476 after the building of Rome 260 at which time the people of Rome forsooke their citie in their rebellious mood These two brethren continued for a time in good friendship and amitie till at length through couetousnesse and desire of greater dominion prouoked by flatterers they fell at variance and discord whereby Ferrex was constreined to flée into Gallia and there purchased aid of a great duke called Gunhardus or Suardus and so returned into Britaine thinking to preuaile and obteine the dominion of the whole Iland But his brother Porrex was readie to receiue him with battell after he was landed in the which battell Ferrex was slaine with the more part of his people The English chronicle saith that Porrex was he that fled into France at his returne was slaine and that Ferrex suruiued But Geffrey of Monmouth Polychronicon are of a contrarie opinion Matthew Westmonasteriensis writeth that Porrex deuising waies to kill Ferrex atchiued his purpose and slue him But whether of them so euer suruiued the mother of them was so highlie offended for the death of him that was slaine whom the most intierlie loued that setting apart all motherlie affection she found the meanes to enter the chamber 〈◊〉 him that suruiued in the night season and as he slept the with the helpe of his maidens slue him and cut him into small péeces as the writers doo affirme Such was the end of these two brethren after they had reigned by the space of foure to fiue yeares After this followed a troublous season full of cruell warre and seditious discord wherby and in the end 〈◊〉 for the space of fiftie yeares the monarchie or sole gouernement of the Iland became 〈…〉 that is it was diuided betwixt fiue kings or rulers till Dunwallon of Cornewall ouercame them all Thus the line of Brute according to the report of most writers tooke an end for after the death of the two foresaid brethren no rightfull inheritor was left aliue to succéed them in the kingdome The names of these fiue kings are found in certeine old pedegrées and although the same be much corrupted in diuers copies yet these vnder named are the most agréeable But of these fiue kings or dukes the English chronicle alloweth Cloton king of Cornewall for most rightfull heires There appeareth noâ— any 〈◊〉 certeine by report of ancient author how long this variance continue 〈◊〉 amongst the Britains 〈◊〉 but as some say it lasted for the space of 51 yeres coniectyring so much by 〈…〉 recorded in Polychron who saith 〈…〉 till the beginning of the reigne of Dunwallon Mulmucius who began to gouerne 〈◊〉 the time that Brute first entred Britaine about the space of 703 thrée yeares ¶ Here ye must note that there is difference amongst writers about the suppâ—tation and account of these yeares Insomuch that some making their reckoning after certeine writers and finding the same to varie aboue thrée C. yeares are brought into further doubt of the truth at the whole historie but whereas other haue by â—aligent search tried out the continuance of euerie gouernors reigne and reduced the same to a likelihood of some conformitie I haue thought best to follow the same leauing the credit thereof with the first authors The pentarchie 1 Rudacus 2 Clotenus 3 Pinnor 4 Staterus 5 Yewan king of Wales Cornewall Loegria Albania Northumberland The end of the second Booke THE THIRD BOOKE of the Historie of England Of Mulmucius the first king of Britaine who was crowned with
In this meane while bishop Wilfride being dead one Acca that was his chapline was made bishop of Hexham The said Wilfride had béene bishop by the space of 45 yéeres but he liued a long time in exile For first being archbishop of Yorke and exercising his iurisdiction ouer all the north parts he was after banished by king Egbert and againe restored to the sée of Hexham in the second yeere of king Alfride and within fiue yéeres after eftsoones banished by the same Alfride and the second time restored by his successor king Osredzin the fourth yéere of whose reigne being the yéere after the incarnation of our Sauiour 709 he departed this life and was buried at Rippon Moreouer after Iohn the archbishop of Yorke had resigned one Wilfride surnamed the second was made archbishop of that sée which Wilfride was chapline to the said Iohn and gouerned that sée by the space of fiftéene yéeres and then died About the yéere of our Lord 710 that abbat Adrian which came into this land with Theodore the archbishop of Canturburie as before ye haue heard departed this life about 39 yeeres after his comming thither Also Inas the king of Westsaxons about the 20 yeere of his reigne diuided the prouince of the Westsaxons into two bishops sées whereas before they had but one Daniell was ordeined to gouerne the one of those sees being placed at Winchester hauing vnder him Sussex Southerie and Hamshire And Aldhelme was appointed to Shireburne hauing vnder him Barkeshire Wiltshire Sommersetshire Dorsetshire Deuonshire and Cornwall This Aldhelme was a learned man and was first made abbat of Malmesburie in the yéere of our Lord 675 by Eleutherius then bishop of the Westsaxons by whose diligence that abbeie was greatlie aduanced being afore that time founded by one Medulfe a Scotish man but of so small reuenues afore Aldhelms time that the moonks were scarse able to liue thereon Also the same Aldhelme was a great furtherer vnto king Inas in the building of Glastenburie Ethelard the coosen of king Inas to whome the same Inas resigned his kingdome began to gouerne the Westsaxons in the yéere of our Lord 728 or rather 27 which was in the 11 yéere of the emperor Leo Isaurus in the second yeere of Theodorus king of France and about the 8 or 9 yéere of Mordacke king of the Scots In the first yéere of Ethelards reigne he was disquieted with ciuill warre which one Oswald a noble man descended of the roiall bloud of the Westsaxon kings procured against him but in the end when he perceiued that the kings power was too strong for him he fled out of the countrie leauing it thereby in rest In the yéere 729 in the moneth of Ianuarie there appeered two comets or blasing starres verie terrible to behold the one rising in the morning before the rising of the sunne and the other after the setting thereof so that the one came before the breake of the day and the other before the closing of the night stretching foorth their flerie brands toward the north and they appeered thus euerie morning and euening for the space of a fortnight togither mâ—nacing as it were some great destruction or common mishap to follow The Saxacens shortlie after entred France and were ouerthrowne Finallie when king Ethelard had reigned the terme of fouretéene yeeres currant he departed this life NOw when Wichtred king of Kent had gouerned the Kentishmen by the space of 33 yéeres with great commendation for the good orders which he caused to be obserued amongst them as well concerning matters ecclesiasticall as temporall he departed this life leauing behind him thrée sonnes who successiuelie reigned as heires to him one after another that is to say Edbert 23 yéeres Ethelbert 11 yeeres currant and Alrike 34 yéeres the which three princes following the steps of their father in the obseruance of politike orders commendable lawes vsed for the more part their fathers good lucke and fortune except that in Ethelberts time the citie of Canturburie was burned by casuall fire and Alrike lost a battell against them of Mercia whereby the glorie of their times was somewhat blemished for so it came to passe that whatsoeuer chanced euill was kept still in memorie and the good haps that came forward were soone forgotten and put out of remembrance In the yéere of our Lord 731 Betrwald archbishop of Canturburie departed this life in the fift ides of Ianuarie after he had gouerned that see by the space of 27 yéeres 6 moneths and 14 daies in â—hose place the same yéere one Tacwine was ordeined archbishop that before was a priest in the monasterie of Bruidon within the prouince of Mercia He was consecrated in the citie of Canturburie by the reuerend fathers Daniell bishop of Winchester Ingwald bishop of London Aldwin bishop of Lichfield and Aldwulfe bishop of Rochester the tenth day of Iune being sundaie ¶ As touching the state of the English church for ecclesiasticall gouernours certeine it is that the same was as hereafter followeth The prouince of Canturburie was gouerned touching the ecclesiasticall state by archbishop Tacwine and bishop Aldwulfe The prouince of the Eastsaxons by bishop Ingwald The prouince of Eastangles by bishop Eadbertus and Hadulacus the one kéeping his see at Elsham and the other at Dunwich The prouince of the Westsaxons was gouerned by the foresaid Daniell and by Forthere who succéeded next after Aldhelme in the sée of Shereburne This Forthere in the yéere of our Lord 738 left his bishoprike and went to Rome in companie of the quéene of the Westsaxons Many as well kings as bishops noble and vnnoble priests and laiemen togither with women vsed to make such iournies thither in those daies The prouince of Mercia was ruled by the foresaid Aldwine bishop of Lichfield and one bishop Walstod holding his sée at Herford gouerned those people that inhabited beyond the riuer of Sauerne toward the west The prouince of Wiccies that is Worcester one Wilfride gouerned The Southsaxons and the I le of Wight were vnder the bishop of Winchester In the prouince of the Northumbers were foure bishops that is to say Wilfride archbishop of Yorke Edilwald bishop of Lindifferne Acca bishop of Hexham and Pecthelmus bishop of Whiterne otherwise called Candida Casa he was the first that gouerned that church after the same was made a bishops sée And thus stood the state of the English church for ecclesiasticall gouernors in that season And as for temporall gouernement king Ceolvulfe had the souereigne dominion ouer all the Northumbers but all the prouinces on the southside of Humber with their kings and rulers were subiect vnto Edilbald or Ethelbald king of Mercia The nation of the Picts were in league with the English men and gladlie became partakers of the catholike faith and veritie of the vniuersall church Those Scots which inhabited Britaine contenting themselues with their owne bounds went
by allegiance they were bound to serue and obeie By reason hereof the Danes without resistance grew into greater power amongst them whilest the inhabitants were still put in feare each day more than other and euerie late gotten victorie by the enimies by the increase of prisoners ministred occasion of some other conquest to follow Euen about the beginning of Ethelreds reigne there arriued vpon the English coasts an huge armie of the Danes vnder the conduct of two renowmed capteins Hungar and Ubbs men of maruellous strength and valiancie but both of them passing cruell of nature They lay all the winter season in 〈◊〉 compounding with them of the 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 vpon certeine conditions sparing 〈◊〉 a tune to shew their for as for quietnesse sake In the socond yéere of king Eâ—helâ—ed the said capteine came with their armies into Yorkshire finding the country vnprouided of necessarie defense bicause of the ciuill discord that reigned aniong the Northumbers the which had latelie expelled king Osbright that had the gouernement of those parts and placed one Ella in his roome howbeit now they were constreined to reuoke him home againe and sought to accord him and Ella But it was long yer that might be brought to passe notwithstanding yet at length they were mae friends by reason of this inuasion attempted by forren enimies and then raising their powers they came to Yorke where the Danes hauing wasted the countrie euen to the riuer of Tine were lodged The English host entring the citie began to fight with the Danes by reason whereof a fore battell insued betwixt them but in the end the two kings Osbright and Ella were slaine and a great number of the Northumbers what within the citie and what without lost their liues at that time the residue were constreined to take truce with the Danes This battell was fought the 21 day of Maâ—ch being in â—ent on the Friday before Palmsunday in the yere 657. ¶ Some haue written otherwise of this battell reporting that the Northumbers calling home king Osbright whome before they had banished incountred with the Danes in the field without the walles of Yorke but they were easilie beaten backe and chased into the citie the which by the Danes pursuing the victorie was set on fier and burnt togither with the king and people that were fled into it for succour How soeuer it came about certeine it is that the Danes got the victorie and now hauing subdued the Northumbers appointed one Egbert so reigne ouer them as king vnder their protection which Egbert reigned in that sort six yeares ouer those which inhabited beyond the riuer of Tine In the same yeare Adelstane bishop of Shireborne departed this life hauing gouerned that sée the terme of 50 yeares This Adelstane was a man of high wisedome and one that had borne no small rule in the kingdome of the Westsaxons as hereby it may be coniectured that when king Ethelwulfe returned from Rome he would not suffer him to be admitted king because he had doone in certeine points contrarie to the ordinances and lawes of the same kingdome wherevpon by this bishops means Ethelbald the sonne of the same king Ethelwulfe was established king and so continued till by agréement the kingdome was diuided betwixt them as before is mentioned Finallie he greatlie inriched the sée of Shireborne and yet though he was feruentlie set on couetousnesse he was neuerthelesse verie free and liberall in gifts which contrarie eâ—tremities so ill matched though in him the time wherein he liued being considered they might seeme somewhat tollerable yet simplie in truth they were vtterlie repugnant to the law of the spirit which biddeth that none should doo euill that good may come thereof Against which precept because Adelstane could not but offend in the heat of his couetousnes which is termed the root of all mischiefe though he was excéeding bountifull and large in distributing the wealth he had gréedilie gotten togither he must néeds incur reprehension But this is so much the lesse to be imputed vnto him as a fault by how much he was ignorant what by the rule of equitie and conscience was requirable in a christian man or one of his vocation Burthred king of Mercia with aid beseegeth the Danes in Notingham Basâ—reeg and Halden two Danish kings with their powers 〈◊〉 the Westsaxâ—â—â— they are incountred by 〈◊〉 earâ—e of Baâ—kâ—shire King 〈◊〉 giueth them and their cheefe guide a sore 〈◊〉 what Polydor Virgil recorder touching one 〈◊〉 king of the Danes and the warres that Ethelred had with them his death Edmuisd king of Eastangles giueth battell to the Danes he yeeldeth himselfe and for christian religion sake is by them most cruellie murthered the kingdome of the Eastangles endeth Guthran a Dane gouerneth the whole countrie K. Osbright rauisheth the wife of one Bearne a noble man a bloodie battell insueth therevpon wherein Osbright and Ella are slaine The twelft Chapter IN the yeare following that is to say in the third yéere of Ethelreds reigne he with his brother Alured went to aid Burthred king of Mercia against the two foresaid Danish capteines Hungar and Ubba the which were entred into Mercia and had woon the towne for the winter season Wherevpon the foresaid Ethelred and Burthred with their powers came to Notingham and besieged the Danes within it The Danes perceiuing themselues in danger made suite for a truce abstinence from war which they obtenred and then departed backe to Yorke where they sâ—â—urned the most part of all that yeare In the sixt yeare of king Ethelreds reigne a new armie of great force and power came into the countrie of the Westsaxons vnder two leaders or kings of the Danes Basréeg and Halden They lodged at Reding with their maine armie and within thrée daies after the earle of Berrockshire Edelwulfe fought at Englefield with two earles of those Danes vanquished them and slue the one of those earles whose name was Sidroc After this king Ethelred and his brother Alured came with a great host vnto Reading and there gaue battell vnto the armie of Danes so that an huge number of people died on both parts but the Danes had the victorie After this also king Ethelred and his brother Alured fought againe with those Danes at Aschdon where the armies on both sides were diuided into two parts so that the two Danish kings lead the one part of their armie certeine of their earles lead the other part Likewise on the English side king Ethelred was placed with one part of the host against the Danish kings and Alured with the other part was appointed to incounter with the earles Herevpon they being on both parts readie to giue battell the euening comming on caused them to deferre it till the morow And so earlie in the morning when the armies should ioine king Ethelred stated in his tent the heare diuine seruice whilest his brother vpon a
quicklie into arâ—â—ie began to charge them againe afresh and so hauing them at that aduantage they slue them downe on euerie side The Englishmen on the other part fought sore and though their king was beaten downe among them and slaine yet were they loth to flée or giue ouer so sharpe was the battell that duke William himselfe had thrée horsses slaine vnder him that day and not without great danger of his person Some of the Englishmen got them to the height of an hill and beate backe the Normans that forced themselues to win the hill of them so that it was long yer the Normans could preuaile being oftentimes driuen downe into the botome of the vallie beneath At length the Englishmen perceiuing themselues to be ouermatched and beaten downe on euerie side and therevnto greatlie discouraged with slaughter of their king began first to giue ground and after to scatter and to run away so that well was he that might then escape by flight When they had fought the most part of all that saturday the Normans followed the chase with such eger rashnesse that a great number of them falling with their horsses and armour into a blind ditch shadowed with reed and sedges which grew therein were smouldered and pressed to death yer they could be succoured or get anie reliefe The next day the Normans fell to gathering in the spoile of the field burieng also the dead bodies of their people that were slaine at the battell giuing licence in semblable manner to the Englishmen to doo the like Of the death of Harold diuerse report diuerslie in so much that Girald Cambrensis saith that after king Harold had receiued manie wounds and lost his left eie he fled from the field vnto the citie of Westchester and liued there long after an holie life as an anchoret in the cell of S. Iames fast by S. Iohns church and there made a godlie end But the saieng of Girald Cambren in that point is not to be credited bicause of the vnlikelihood of the thing it selfe and also generall consent of other writers who affirme vniuersallie that he was killed in the battell first being striken thorough the left eie by the scull into the braine with an arrow wherevpon falling from his horsse to the ground he was slaine in that place after he had reigned nine moneths and nine daies as Floriacensis dooth report He was a man of a comelie stature and of a hawtie courage albeit that for his valiancie he was highlie renowmed and honored of all men yet through his pride and ambition he lost the harts of manie There were slaine in this battell besides king Harold and his two brethren Girth and Leofrike what on the one side and on the other aboue twentie thousand men The bodie of king Harold being found among other slaine in the field was buried at Waltham within the monasterie of the holie crosse which he before had founded and indowed to the behoofe of such canons as he had placed there with faire possessions Uerelie as some old writers haue reported there was nothing in this man to be in anie wise dispraised if his ambitious mind could haue beene staied from coueting the kingdome and that he could haue béene contented to haue liued as subiect Among other manifest proofes of his high valiancie this is remembred of him that being sent against the Welshmen as before is partlie mentioned knowing their readie nimblenesse in seruice and how with their light armed men they were accustomed to annoie and distresse those that should assaile them he likewise to match them prepared light armed men for the purpose so being furnished with such bands of nimble men and light souldiers entered vpon the mounteins of Snowdon and there remained amongst the enimies for the space of two yéeres He sore afflicted the Welsh nation tooke their kings and sent their heads vnto the king that sent him about his businesse and proceeding in such rigorous maner as might mooue the hearers to lament and pitie the case he caused all the male kind that might be met with to be miserablie slaine and so with the edge of his swoord he brought the countrie to quiet and withall made this lawe that if anie Welshman from thencefoorth should presume to passe the limits ouer Offas ditch with anie weapon about him he should lose his right hand To conclude by the valiant conduct of this chieftaine the Welshmen were them so sore brought vnder than in maner the whole nation might séeme to faile and to be almost vtterlie destroied And therefore by permission of the king of England the women of Wales ioined themselues in marriage with Englishmen Finallie héereby the bloud of the Saxons ceassed to reigne in England after they had continued possession of the same from the first comming of Hengist which was about the yéere of our Sauiour 450 or 449 vntill that present yeere of king Harolds death which chanced in the yéere 1069. So that from the beginning of Hengist his reigne vnto Harolds death are reckoned 916 yéeres or after some 617 as by the supputation of the time will easilie appeere By all the which time there reigned kings of the Saxons bloud within this land except that for the space of twentie yéeres and somewhat more the Danes had the dominion of the realme in their possession for there are reckoned from the beginning of K. Swaines reigne which was the first Dane that gouerned England vnto the last yéere of K. Hardicnute the last Dane that ruled heere 28 yéeres in which meane space Egelred recouering the kingdome reigned 2 yéeres then after him his sonne Edmund Ironside continued in the rule one yéere so that the Danes had the whole possession of the land but 25 yéeres in all Touching this alteration and others incident to this Iland read a short aduertisement annexed by waie of conclusion to this historie comprising a short summarie of the most notable conquests of this countrie one after an other by distances of times successiuelie The rule of this realme by Gods prouidence allotted to duke William his descent from Rollo the first duke of Normandie downewards to his particular linage he was base begotten vpon the bodie of Arlete duke Roberts concubine a pleasant speech of hirs to duke Robert on a time when he was to haue the vse of hir person a conclusion introductorie for the sequele of the chronicle from the said duke of Normandies coronation c with a summarie of the notable conquests of this Iland The twelfe Chapter NOw forsomuch as it pleased God by his hid and secret iudgement so to dispose the realme of England and in such wise as that the gouernance therof should fall after this maner into the hands of William duke of Normandie I haue thought good before I enter further into this historie being now come to the conquest of the realme
Egfrid king of Mercia Eadbert king of Northumberland 758 Simon Dun. Hen. Hunt Edilwâ—ld king of Northumberland Simon Dun. Henr. Hunt Simon Dun. 764 Moonks licenced to drinke wine Wil. Malm. Altred began his reigne in the yeare 765 aâ— Sim. Dun. saith Hent Hunt Matt. West Ethelbert H. Hunt Iohn Cap. graue Matth. West and others Ethelbert king of Eastangles The saieng of king Ethelbert Tokens of mishap to follow The innocent mistrustfull of no euill Iohn Capgr Winnebert Sim. Dun. saith 771. Offa conquereth Eastangles Alfreda a nun Beda Matth. West H. Hunt Friswide a virgine Kinewulf Hon. Hunt 756 Simon Dun. saith 755. The Britains vanquished Kinewulfe slaine by conspirators Simon Dun. H. Hunt Eccle. hist Magd. 786 H. Hunt Legats from the pope Twentie articles which the legats had to propone Nuns concubines Curtailing of horsses 764 Sim. Dum. saith 780. Simon Dun. Ouid. lib. 2. de artam He began his reigne Anno. 779 as saith Simon Dun. and reigned â—at ten yéeres 788 Matth. West Simon Dun. 792 Sim. Dunel 800 Britricus Hen. Hunt Matt. West saith 787. Simon Dun. saith 786. Egbert banished A strange woonder Matt. West Wil. Malm. Hen. Hunt Danes Famin war signified Ran. Cest. lib. 5. cap 25. Brightrike departed this life Ethelburgâ— hir conditions and wicked nature A decrée of the kings of the Westsaxons against their wiues The end of Ethelburga Simon Dun. Wil. Malm. Kenulfe The archbishops sée restored to Canturburie The king of Kent taken prisoner Kentilfs liberalitie towards church men which was not forgotten by them in their histories Osred 788 Wil. Malâ— Matth. West Hen. Hunt Simon Dun. Duke Ardell taken and wounded 791 Holie â—ant Ardulfe 796 Walalege 799 The English â—en afflicted 〈…〉 This chanced in the yeere of our â—â—ord 790. as Simon Dun. saith The Danes inuade Northumberland The Danes vanquished This was in anno 794. as Simon Dun. saith Edelbert Lambert Egbert receiued as king of Westsaxons His linege Egbert 802 as Simon Dunel and M. W. hath noted but 801. Simon Dun. Hen. Hunt Bernulf king of Mercia A battell fought at Ellendon Egbert wan the victorie Wil. Malm. 826 Alstan 〈◊〉 of Shireborn a warrior The coÌ„quests of the Westsaxons Hent Hunt Bernulfe king of Mercia slaine Simon Dun. These men the Cornish men as is to be supposed King Egbert inuadeth Northumberland The Northumbers such mit themselues to king Egbert 〈◊〉 Northwales and the citie of Chester conquered by Egbert The name of this 〈◊〉 when 〈◊〉 changed The Danes The Englishmen discomfited by Danes Simon Dun. H. Hunt Matth. West 834 Danes and Welshmen vanquished 836 Matth. West Egbert departeth this life 837 Matth. West Wil. Malm. The end of the kingdome of Kent 827 The end of the kingdome of Essex Matt. Westm. 821 The wickednes of Quendred King Kenelm murthered Sée legendae aured fol. 〈◊〉 in the life of S. Kenelme Ceolwulfe K. of Mercia 823 Matt. Westm. 728 828 Ethelwulfus Henrie Hunt Marth West Wil. Malm. Foure especiall destructions of this land Simon Dun. Hen. Hunt The Danes sought the distruction of this land How long the persecution of the Danes lasted Will. Malmâ— Two notable bishops in Ethelwults daies Simon Dut. Hen. Hunt Danes discomfited Matth. West Englishmen put to flight They are eftsoones vanquished Carrum The Danes wan the victorrie in battell Danes are quished Simon Dun. 851 〈…〉 The Danes 〈◊〉 vanquished Danes ouercome by sea The Deuonshiremen vanquish the Danes Simon Dun. 852 Great slaughâ—â—â— Danes 〈…〉 The Saxons schoole King Ethelwulfs liberalitie to churches Will. Malmes Simon Dun. Manâ—usae The ladie Iudith Wil. Malm. 857 Onelie Westsex saith Mart. Westm. and Sim. Dunel saith that Ethelbright had Sussex also and so dooth H. Hunt Matth. Paris * De quo Sedulius in car pasch Iohn Castor Simon Dun Matt. Parker A kings son and heire a bishop Bertwolfe of Mercia Matth. West saith the daughter Ranulf Cest. Iohn Capgraue Ethelbald and Ethelbright 857 The vnlawful mariage of Ethelbald Wil. Malm. Hen. Hunt Winchester destroied by Danes Danes vanquished Ethelred 867 Foure yéeres six moneths saith Harison Wil. Malm. Ethelred fought with the Danes nine times is one yéere The kings of Mercia and Northumberland neglect their duties The Danes grow in pursance Hungâ—r and Ubbâ— Hen. Hunt King Osbright deposed and Eâ—la placed Osbright and Ella kings of Northumberland slaine It must be vpon the 10 â—alends of Aprill or else it well not concâ—rre with Palmsunday See Mat. West Yorke burnt by Danes The commendation of Adelstan bishop of Shirborne Bishop Adelstan couetous Hen. Hâ—nt Burthred king of Mercia Danes besieged in Notingham Basreeg and Halden Edelwulfe erlâ— of Barkshire fought at Englefield with the Danes The Danes wan the victorie at Reading The Danes discomfited A battell at Merton He was bishop of Shireborne as Matt. West saith Polyd. Virg. Iuarus Danes put to flight Agnerus and Hubba Winborne abbeie Agnerus Fabian 870 Edmund K. of the Eastangles Framingham castell King Edward shot to death Egleseon Wil. Malâ— Eastangles without a gouernour Guthruns Dane king of Eastangles Polychron Caxton Alured or Alfred 871. as Mat. West Sâ—â— Dunelmen doo note it Hent Hunt Sâ—â—ed persecuted by Danes Matt. Westm. The Danes obteine the victorie The Danes wintered at London 〈◊〉 Repâ—on Burthred king of Mercia 875 The Danes went into Northumberland The Danes at Cambridge 876 The Danes tooke an oth Hen. Hunt The Danes went to Excester Hent Hunt 877 Polydor. Hubba slaine The victorie doubtfull Abington The Danes and Englishmen fight néer to Abington Uncerteine victorie Thus farre Polydor. Ran. Higd. A peace agreed vpon The Danes soiourned at London Ann. 876 â—aith Simon Dâ—n 30 yéeres after this he was baptised King Alured driuen to his shifts Edlingsey A vision if it be true King 〈◊〉 disguiseth himselfe Polydor. Fabian Henâ— Hunt 87â— 878 Matth. Weâ—â— Simon Dun Athelney Edantâ—â—e This battell should séeme the same that Polydor speaketh of fought at Abingdon Polychron Iohn Pike Gurthrun or Gurmond baptised and named Adelstan is made king of Eastangle Gurmo Hen. Hunt 878 87â— Simon Dun. Matth. West Rochester besieged 885 889 London recouered out of the hands of the Danes Wil. Malm. Ethelfleda Colwolphus Limer now Rother Andredeslegia A castell built at Appledore 893 Simon Dun. At Milton Hasting the capteine of the Danes besieged He receiueth an oth Beanfield saith M. West This enterprise was atchiued by Etheldred duke of Mercia in the absence of the king as Matth. West hath noted Excester besieged Seuerne Chester taken by Danes Great famine Hen. Hunt The water of Luie now Lée Hen. Hunt The Londoners victors against the Danes Quathbridge or Wakebridge The Danish armie diuided into parts The death of king Alfred His issue Elfleda The notable saieng of Elfleda Will. Malâ—â— King Alfred his lawes Foundation of monasteâ—â—â— 895 Polydor. The vniuersitie of Oxford erected The vertuous zeale of Alured to bring his people to an honest trade of life He is persuaded by his mother to applie himselfe to learning