That her being a Widdow might be sufficient to restrain him to whom the King replied Whereas you say Madam that she is a Widdow and hath already Children by Gods blessed Lady I am a Batchellor and have some too and so each of us have a proof that none of us is like to be barren and he accordingly married her being the first of our Kings since the Conquest that married his own Subject yet was his love divided among three other of his Mistresses of whom he was wont to say The one was the fairest the other the merriest and the third the Holiest Harlot in England as being alwaies at her Beads in the Chappel when he sent for her to his Bed His Queen lived to see the death of her Husband murther of her two Sons restraint of her self and the rest of her Children so that she had more greatness than joy height than happiness by Marriage she finished Queens Colledge in Cambridge and died not long after At Fotheringay Castle in this County was acted the Tragedy of Mary Q. of Scots Mother to K. James in the 29 year of Q. Elizabeth 1587. This Mary was the Daughter and only lawfully begotten Child of James 5. and succeeded in her Cradle to the Throne she was promised in Marriage to King Edw. 6. of England but by the power of the Hamiltons carried into France and there married to Francis 2. King of France about which time Reformation in Religion began to be practised in Scotland as well as England for at the Preaching of John Knox and some other Ministers Images Altars and such things were defaced and it was further put into the heads of the Nobility That it pertained to them of their own Authority to take away Idolatry and by force reduce the Prince to the prescript of Laws whereupon there was presently bandying of the Lords of Scotland against the Queen Dowager and each of them sent for Aid she from France and the Lords from England but this was matter for Consultation it seemed a bad example for a Prince to give Aid to the Rebellious Subjects of another Prince on the other side it seemed no less than Impiety not to give Aid to Protestants of the same Religion but most of all it seemed meer madness to suffer enemies to be so near Neighbours and let the French nestle in Scotland who pretend Title to England upon such considerations it was resolved Queen Elizabeth should send them Aid and thereupon an Army of 6000 Foot and 1200 Horse were sent under the Duke of Norfolk and others who going into Scotland joined with the Lords where passed many light Skirmishes many Batteries and sometimes Assaults which growing tedious soon after ended in a Peace between France and England upon condition That neither the King of France nor the Queen of Scotland should thence forth use the Arms or Titles of England or Ireland and that both the English and French should depart out of Scotland and a general pardon should pass in Parliament for all that had been Actors in those Stirs The Peace was scarce concluded when Francis the young K. of France died and left Mary Qu. of Scots a Widdow soon after the House of Commons in Parliament humbly moved Queen Elizabeth to Marry who answered That she was already Married to the Kingdom of England and behold saith she the pledge of the Covenant with my Husband and therewith held out her Finger and shewed the Ring wherewith at her Coronation she gave her self in Wedlock to the Kingdom and if said she I keep my self to this Husband and take no other yet I doubt not but God will send you as good Kings as if they were born of me for as much as we see by dayly experience that the issue of the best Princes do often degenerate and for my self it will be sufficient that a Marble Stone declare that a Queen having reigned such a time lived and dyed a Virgin She had indeed many matches propounded to her to whom she gave Testimonies of her Princely favour but never pledges of nuptial Love about this time the Earl of Feria who had Married the Daughter of Sir William Dormer being denied leave of Queen Elizabeth for some of his Wives Friends to live in England he grew so inraged that he persuaded Pope Pius 4. to Excommunicate her as an Heretick and Usurper but the Pope pretending to great gentleness writ to her lovingly To return to the Vnity of the Catholick Church and made great offers if she would hearken to his Counsel particularly That he would recall the Sentence against her Mothers Marriage confirm the Book of Common-Prayer in English and permit the use of the Sacrament in both kinds but the Queen neither terrified with Feria's practices nor allured with the Popes great offers according to her Motto Semper eadem always the same persisted constant in her resolution to maintain that Religion which in her Conscience she was persuaded to be most agreeable to the Word of God and the practice of the Primitive Church Queen Mary after the death of her Husband went from France to Scotland and then sent Letters to Q. Elizabeth offering readily to enter into a League with her so she might by Authority of Parliament be declared her Successor which was but her Right to which Q. Elizabeth answered That though she would no way derogate from her Right yet she should be loth to endanger her own security and as it were to cover her own eyes with a grave cloth while she was alive The two Queens were indeed both of great Spirits Mary doubting Queen Elizabeth meant to frustrate her Succession and Elizabeth lest the Queen of Scots meant to hinder her Succession which created Jealousies and many unkind passages between them as by the sequel appears The Queen of Scots having a desire to Marry again Queen Elizabeth proposed the Earl of Leicester to her but she Married the Lord Darnly Son to the Earl of Lenox and thereupon the next Parliament again move Queen Elizabeth to marry to declare her Successor to the Crown some of them boldly arguing That Princes were bound to design a Successor and that in not doing it the Queen would shew her self no better than a Parricide and destroyer of her Country The Queen was contented to bear with words spoken in Parliament which out of it she would never have endured and commanded 30 of each House to appear before her to whom she said That she knew what danger hangeth over a Princes head when a Successor is once declared she knew that even Children themselves out of a hasty desire of bearing Rule had taken up Arms against their own Father and how could better be expected from Kindred And therefore though she had given them leave to debate the matter of Succession she bid them beware not to be injurious to their Princes patience After which they never made any further motion to her but now the love between the Queen of
at lawful distance But now he resolved to eat grass with Nebuchadnezzar till it pleased the Queen to restore his senses she being overjoyed with these Speeches Would to God said she his deeds would be answerable to his words he hath long tried my patience I must now make tryal of his Humility Upon which the Earl became so confident of the Queens favour that being denyed a Suit about farming sweet wines he conspired with others to seize her Person and which more alienated her affections than any thing else she heard he despised her Person and that he had said That the Queen was now old and decrepit and withered as well in mind as in body After this he made an Insurrection in London which not succeeding he was sent to the Tower and being arraigned together with the Earl of Southampton by his Peers was found guilty and Feb. 25. 1601. was to be the fatal day in the mean time divers Ministers were sent to comfort him The Queen now wavered in her self one while remembring former kindnesses she would not and then again she would have him die because of his stubborness in not asking her mercy and his openly saying That he could not live but she must perish So that she gave order for his death within the Tower where he spake to this Purpose My Lords and Christian Brethren who are present witnesses of my just punishment I confess to Gods Glory my self a most wretched Sinner and that my sins in number exceed the hairs of my head that good which I would have done I did not and the evil which I would not that did I for all which I beseech my Saviour Christ to be a Mediator but especially for this my last crying sin I beseech God Her Majesty and the State to forgive me and bless her with a prosperous Reign with a wise and understanding Heart to bless the Nobles and Ministers of the Church and State I likewise beseech you and all the world to have a charitable opinion of me foâ— my intention toward her Majesty whose death I protest I never intended nor any violence toward her Person I thank God I never was an Atheist in not believing the Scriptures nor a Papist to trust in my own merits but am assured to be saved by the merits and mercies of Jesus Christ my Saviour This Faith I was I brought up in and herein I am now ready to die beseeching you all to join your souls with me in Prayer that my soul may be lifted up by Faith above all earthly things and lastly I desire forgiveness of all the world even as freely as from my heart I forgive all the world And then kneeling down said I have been divers times in places of danger where death was neither so present nor so certain and yet even then I felt the weakness of my flesh and therefore now in this last and great conflict I desire the assistance of Gods Holy Spirit and so saith Mr. Speed with a most Heavenly Prayer and faithful constancy as if his soul had been already in heavenly fruition he laid himself on the block and spreading abroad his arms the appointed sign with three strokes his head was severed from his body for which the Executioner was in danger of his life at his return if he had not been secured by the Sheriff of this great Favourite Dr. Fuller concludes That his failings were neither so foul nor so many but that the Character of a right worthy man most justly belongs to his memory It is recorded that Walter E. of Essex his Father having wasted his Spirits with grief fell into a Dysentery whereof he dyed after he had requested such as stood by him That they would admonish his Son who was then scarce ten years old that he should alwaies propound and set before him the 36th year of his life as the utmost he should ever attain to which neither he nor his Father had gone beyond and his Son never reached to being beheaded in the 34th year of his Age so that his dying Father seemed not in vain to have admonished him as he did but to speak by Divine inspiration and suggestion Hereford is the chief City of this County seated amongst pleasant Meadows and Cornfields Lemster is another Town which hath the greatest fame for Wool which they call Lemster Oar of which Mr. Drayton thus writes Where lives the man so dull on Brittains furthest shore To whom did never sound the name of Lemster Oar That with the Silkworms web for smallness may compare Wherein the winder shews his Workmanship so rare So doth this Fleece excell all others in the Land Being neatly bottom'd up by natures careful hand This County is divided into 11 Hundreds wherein there are 8 Market Towns 176 Parish Churches and is in the Diocess of Hereford Out of it are elected 8 Parliament Men for the County 2. for Hereford 2. for Lemster 2. for Webly 2. and gives the Title of Earl to Leicester L. D' Eureux HVNTINGTONSHIRE is surrounded with Northampton Bedford and Cambridgeshires being small in extent hardly stretching 20 miles outright though measured to the most advantage it is good for Corn and Tillage and toward the East very plentiful for feeding Cattle Huntington is the chief Town of all the County called in their publick Seal Huntersdune The Hill or Down of Hunters and gives name to all the Shire Godmanchester is a very great Country Town and of as great repute for Tillage no place having more Ploughs or more stout Husbandmen for they boast that in former times they have received the Kings of England as they passed in their progress this way with ninescore Ploughs brought forth in a rustical kind of Pomp as a Gallant show when K. James came first into England the Bayliffs of this Town presented him with 70 Team of Horses all traced to fair new Ploughs to shew their Husbandry of which when the King demanded the reason they told him That it was their ancient Custom whensoever any King of England passed through their Town so to present him And added further That they held their Lands by that Tenure being the Kings Tenants The King was much pleased herewith bidding them use well their Ploughs and said he was glad he was Landlord of so many good Husbandmen in one Town St Ives is another Town in this County reported to be so named from Ivo a Persian Bishop who it 's said about the Year of Christ 6â—0 travelled through England Preaching diligently the Christian Religion and dying in this place left his name thereunto There are two little Springs at Ayleweston in this County the one fresh and the other somewhat brackish the latter they say is good for Scabs and Leprosie and the other for dim sights The Lake of Wittlesmere and other Meers near it in this Shire do sometimes rise tempestuously in calm and fair Weather and make Water-quakes by reason the ground near it is rotten and hollow
Scots and the Lord Darnly began to cool and their unkindness was fomented by one David Risio an Italian Musician and afterward the Queens Secretary who had often secret conference with her when the King might not be admitted this indignity the Lords about the King made him sensible of and thereupon his death was contrived and he was killed in an outer Chamber next the Queen she being then with Child and like by the affright to have miscarried the Earl of Murray base Son to K. James 5. and base Brother to the Queen was the chief instigator of this murther of the foulness of which Fact when the King was sensible he resolved to be revenged upon Murray who having notice thereof prevented it with causing the like to be done to him for soon after the King in a stormy tempestuous night was strangled in his Bed and then cast forth into the Garden and the House immediately blown up with Gunpowder the rumor of this murther being spread abroad common fame laid it upon Morton and Murray and their Confederates Morton and Murray lay it upon the Queen the King thus murthered the Queen was advised by them to Marry James Earl of Bothwell though he was the man that had acted the Murther but upon condition that above all things respect might be had to her young Son and that Bothwell might be legally quitted both from the bonds of his former Marriage and also of the Kings Murther hereupon it is plotted that Bothwell should be brought to the Bar and Morton being his advocate by the sentence of the Judges he is clearly acquitted and then by consent of some of the Nobility he is Married to the Queen being first made Duke of Orkney which bred a suspition in many that the Queen was conscious of the Murther which was the thing the Confederates aimed at by this Marriage for they by all means increased the suspition that they might have the better colour against her and so the very same men who absolved Bothwell and consented to the Marriage now take arms against her as a Delinquent in both forcing her Husband to flee and then seize upon the Queen whom clad in a very homely garment they thrust into Prison in Lochlevyn Queen Elizabeth hearing of it sends Sir Nicholas Throgmorton to expostulate the matter with them who alledged The Queen was subject to no Tribunal under Heaven That no Judge on Earth might call her in question c. They again opposed the peculiar right of that Kingdom and used Buchanans argument in his Treasonable Dialogue That in extraordinary Cases the People have power both to create and to depose their King They then persuaded her to resign the Kingdom which if she refused to do fairly they threatned to question her openly for her incontinent living for the Kings Murther for Tyranny so that through fear She resigned her Kingdom to her young Son James at that time scarce thirteen months old who was five days after anointed and Crowned King and she constituted Murray Vice-Roy during his Minority soon after some of Bothwells Servants were executed for the Kings Murther who cleared the Queen from being concerned in it The Queen having been 11 Months Prisoner afterward made her escape and raised Forces which being unexperienced were soon defeated by Murray whereupon she endeavoured to save her self by flight and travelled 60 Miles in one day and contrary to the advice of her Friends went with a few of her Attendants in a small Bark and landed at Wickington in Cumberland sending Letters to Q. Elizabeth that having made an escape from her insolent and rebellious Subjects she was now come into England upon certain hope of her approved Clemency and therefore humbly desiring that she might be forthwith admitted to her presence Q. Elizabeth sent her Letters of comfort and promised her aid defence according to the equity of her cause but denied her access since she was held guilty of many crimes giving command to have her brought to Carlile as a place of more safety Q. Mary then desired she might depart to some other Country but upon consultation most were of Opinion to have her detained as one taken by right of War and not to be dismissed till she had made satisfaction for assuming the Title of England and for the death of Darnly her Husband who was born one of the Queens Subjects After this many Conspiracies were made to set the Queen of Scots at Liberty The Pope sends out his Bull against Q. Elizabeth freeing her Subjects from all Allegiance to her and the Duke of Norfolk is beheaded upon her account These and many other contrivances and conspiracies seemed very much to indanger the Life of Q. Elizabeth and tended to the Invasion of England whereupon the better to provide for her safety a number of her Subjects the Earl of Leicester being the chief and others of all ranks and conditions enter into an Association wherein they declare That since by Her Majesties Life they and all other Her Majesties Subjects do enjoy inestimable benefit they do by this Writing make manifest their duty for the safety of their Sovereign Lady They then proceed And to that end we and every of us first calling to Witness the name of Almighty God do voluntarily and most willingly hind our selves every one of us to the other jointly and severally in the Band of one firm and Loyal Society and do hereby vow and promise by the Majesty of Almighty God that with our whole Powers Bodies Lives and Goods and with our Children and Servants we and every of us will faithfully serve and humbly obey our said Sovereign L.Q. Elizabeth against all States Dignities and Earthly Powers whatsoever and will as well with our joint and particular Forces during our Lives withstand offend and persue as well by force of Arms as by all other means of revenge all manner of Persons of what state soever they shall be who shall attempt against Her Royal Person c. to the utter extermination of them their Counsellours Aiders and Abettors And if any such wicked attempt against her most Royal Person shall be taken in hand and procured whereby any that have may or shall pretend Title to come to this Crown by the untimely death of Her Majesty so wickedly procured which God for his mercies sake forbid may be avenged we do not only bind our selves jointly and severally never to allow accept or favour any such pretended Successor by whom or for whom any such detestible Act shall be attempted or committed as unworthy of all Government in any Christian Realm or Common-Wealth And do also further vow and protest as we are most bound and that in the presence of the Eternal and Everlasting God to prosecute such Person and Persons to death with our joint or particular forces and to take the utmost revenge upon them that by any means we or any of us can devise and do or cause to be devised and
done for their utter overthrow and extirpation and to the better Corroboration of this our Loyal Band and Association we do also testify by this writing that we do confirm the contents hereof by our Oaths corporally taken upon the holy Evangelists with this express condition that no one of us shall for any respect of Persons or causes for fear or reward separate our selves from this Association or fail in the prosecution thereof during our lives upon pain of being by the rest of us prosecuted and supprest as perjured Persons and as publick Enemies to God our Queen and to our native Country To which punishment and pains we do voluntarily submit our selves and every of us without benefit of any colour or pretence In Witness of all which Premises to be inviolably kept we do to this writing put our Hands and Seals and shall be most ready to accept and admit any others hereafter into this Society and Association The Queen of Scots presently apprehending that this Association was entred into her destruction offers to enter into it herself it permitted to which Q. Elizabeth seemed inclining but it was alledged by her Enemies That the Queen could be no longer in safety if the Q. of Scots were set at liberty that the Reformed Religion lay a bleeding if Papists were admitted into the Court Walls c. In the succeeding Parliament this Association was universally approved and enacted in this form That 24 or more of the Queens Privy Council and Peers of the Realm should be selected and authorized under the great Seal of England to make enquiry of all such Persons as shall attempt to invade the Kingdom or raise Rebellion shall attempt any thing else against the Q's Person for whomsoever and by whomsoever that layeth any claim to the Crown of Eng. and that Person for whom and by whom they shall attempt any such thing shall be altogether incapable of the Crown c. The next Year a dangerous conspiracy was discovered against the Queen for one John Savage by the seducement of Dr. Gifford was persuaded it was meritorious to take away the Lives of Princes excommunicate who thereupon vowed to kill Q. Elizabeth but to make the Queen and her Council secure at the same time they writ a Book exhorting the Papists in England to attempt nothing against their Prince and to use only the Christian Weapons Tears Prayers Watching and Fasting Babington and several other Gentlemen were in this Plot to whom he shewed Letters which he received from the Q of Scots and her Closets being broke open a number of Letters were found from foreign parts offering her their service and 60 Alphabets of private Characters Fourteen of the Conspirators were executed for this Treason and great consultations were held about the Q. of Scots and at last it was concluded to proceed against her by the aforementioned Law whereupon divers Lords are authorized by the Queens Letters to enquire and by vertue of that Law to pass Sentence against all such as raised Rebellion invaded the Kingdom or attempted any violence against the Queen who Oct. 11. went to Fotheringay Castle where Q. Mary was prisoner and the next day the Queens Letters were delivered her which having with a settled Countenance read she said It seems strange to me that the Queen should lay her Command upon me to hold up my hand at the Bar as though I were a Subject â—â—eing I am an absolute Queen no less than her self and especially that I should be tryed by the English Laws It was at last plainly told her by the Chancellor and Treasurer That â—f she refused to answer to such Crimes as should be objected they would then proceed against her though she were absent Being brought at last with much ado to consent the Commissioners came together in the Presence Chamber and the Queen of Scots being come the Chancellor spake thus to her That the Queen had appointed these Commissioners to hear what she could answer to the Crimes laid to her charge assuring her that nothing would be cause of more Joy to the Queen than to hear that she had proved her self innocent Upon which she rising up said That although being an absolute Prince she could not be compelled to appear before them yet to manifest her Innocence she was now content to appear Then one of the Commissioners opened her Crimes shewing that by the Confessions of Babington Ballard Savage and also Nave and Curle her own Secretaries she was privy to their Treasons and consented to the Invasion of England and destruction of the Queen To which she answered that Letters might be counterfeited her Secretaries might be corrupted the rest in hope of life might be drawn to confessions which were not true In this she stood peremptorily that she never consented to attempt any thing against the Queens Person though for her own delivery she confest she did design it and at last requested That she might be heard in full Parliament or before the Queen her self But this request prevailed not for Oct. 25. at the Star-Chamber at Westminster the Commissioners met again and pronounced Sentence against her confirming by their Seals and Subscriptions That after the first of June in the 27th year of Queen Elizabeth divers matters were compassed and imagined in the Kingdom by Anthony Babington and others with the privity of Mary Queen of Scots pretending Title to the Crown of England tending to the hurt death and destruction of the Royal Person of our said Soveraign Lady the Queen A few days after a Parliament began where the Peers of the Kingdom unanimously presented a Petition that for the safety of the Queen themselves and their Posterity the Sentence against Mary Q. of Scotâ— might according to Law be published putting her iâ— mind of the fearful Examples of Gods Judgments in Scripture upon Saul for sparing K. Agag and upon Ahad for not putting â— Benhadad to death The House of Commons likewise enforced this request a while after the Queen at last replied to this effect I protest my chief desire hath been that for your security and my own safety some other way might be devised than that which is now propounded but since it is now evident and certain that my safety without her destruction is in a most deplorable State I am most grievously afflicted that I who have pardoned so many Rebels have neglected so many Treasons either by silence or connivence should now at last exercise cruelty upon a Prince so nearly allied to me As for your Petition I beseech you to rest in an answer without an answer If I say I will not grant your Petition I shall haply say what I meant not if I should say I will grant it then cast I my self into destruction headlong whose safety you do so earnestly desire and that I know you in your VVisdoms would not I should do After this the Queen upon much sollicitation sealed Letters for executing the Sentence but was in much
hill where they had another full view of them and could distinguish their Horses to be of several Colours as white grey black c. and that they marched in 3 Companies and betwixt every Division they had 2 Horse colours flying but as they drew toward them they still marched from them so that they could not come nearer than 100 Yards they asked a man who was thatching a House all that day which they judged the Horsemen went by whether he saw all those Souldiers which marched by who said that he saw none neither was there any Tract of the Horses to be seen that night nor the next morning so that they concluded it to be a wonderful Apparition and deposed the Truth of these particulars before the Lord Herbert and several other Justices of the Peace of this County at the same time a Woman coming from Bishops Castle over the same Common fell off her Horse being much terrified with the sight of a blazing Star which she and 6 men with her saw sometimes white and sometimes red with a Tail like an Arrow which seemed to hang just over their heads from Bishops Mount to this common being 3 miles and the People of the house where the Woman fell when they came out saw the Star also The Moor or March near Chepstow in Monmouthshire suffered great loss in 1606. by the River Severn overflowing its banks and drowning many Cattle and some People and overthrowing divers Houses Merlin Prophecied That when a stout Prince with a freckled Face should pass over a Ford called Rydpencarn in a River called Nantpencarn the Welch should be conquered and therfore when K. Hen. 2. who was freckle faced passed over it the Welchmen remembring this Prophecy through too much credulity submitted themselves and it may be the King thinking their hearts might fail them chose to go over this Ford to facilitate his Conquests In the Reign of K. Henry 1. by the breaking in of the Sea a great part of Flanders was drowned whereupon a great number of Flemings petitioned the King for some place to inhabit in who accordingly assigned them Pembrokeshire in Wales where their posterity continue to this day when King Hen. 2 was at St. Davids in this County and from thence in a clear day discovered the Coasts of Ireland in a huffing Bravado he said I with my Ships am able to make a Bridg thither if it be no farther Which Speech of his being related to Murchard K. of Lemster in Ireland he asked whether he did not say He would do with the help of God and when it was answered that he made no mention of God he chearfully said Then I fear him the less since he trusted more to himself than to the help of God The same K. Henry returning out of Ireland arrived at St. Davids where being told That the Conqueror of Ireland returning that way should die upon a stone called Lech-laver near the Church-Yard he thereupon before a multitude of People passed over it and reproving the Welchmen said Now who will hereafter credit that Lyar Merlin Radnor hath a sharp and cold Air because of the Snow lying long unmelted under the shady Hills and hanging Rocks whereof there are many In the Reign of K. William the Conqueror upon the Sea shore in Wales was found the Body of Gawen Sisters Son to Arthur the great King of the Brittains reported to be 14 Foot in length In 1662. July 2. were seen above 100 Porpusses together near Newport which seemed very strange and prodigious to the Inhabitants In these 13 Shires which I have cursorily run over there are reckoned 1 Chase 13 Forrests 36 Parks 230 Rivers 100 Bridges 4 Cities 55 Market Towns and 41 Castles of old Erection 4 Bishopricks St. Asaph Bangor St. Davids and Llandaff and 1016 Parish Churches it elects 30 Parliament Men Anglesey gives the Title of Earl to Arthur L. Annesly Brecknock to James L. Butler who is also D. of Ormond Cardigan to Thomas L. Brudenel Caernarvon to Charles L. Dormer Denby to William L. Feilding Glamorgan to Henry L. Somerset who is Marquess of Worcester Pembroke to Philip L. Herbert who is likewise Earl of Montgomery Monmouth the Title of Duke to James Fitz-Roy and Radnor the Title of Earl to John L. Roberâ—s SCOTLAND THis Kingdom is separated from England by the Rivers Tweed and Solway and the Cheviot Hills reaching from one River to the other on the South It hath on the East the German Ocean on the North the Isles of Orkney and the Deucalidonian Sea and Ireland on the West It is a fair and spacious Country 480 miles in length but in breadth much less no place being 60 miles from the Sea It is divided into Highland and Lowland the People of the Highland living on the Western parts of Scotland have some Civility but those In the out Isles are very barbarous The Lowlanders are in disposition and language much like the English Scotland is far more barren than England the chief Commodities are course Cloths Freezes Fish Hides Lead Oar c. The principal Rivers are Forth Cluyde and Tay all Navigable There are two Universities St. Andrews and Aberdeen and 2 Archbishops and 12 Bishops The Nobility and Gentry are great Affecters of Learning and therefore do not only frequent their own Universities but travel into Forreign parts for improvement It is divided into 34 Shires or Counties the Regal City thereof is Edenburgh seated in Lothian where is the Royal Pallace it consists principally of one Street about a mile long into which run many Lanes so that the whole compass may be about three miles It is strengthned by a Castle that Commands the Town Scot. was once Inhabited by 2 Populous Nations the Scots and Picts till after long Wars the Scots prevailing they utterly extinguished not only the Kingdom but the name of Picts Most memorable was that Fortification drawn from Abercorn upon the Frith of Edenburgh to the Frith of Dumbritton opening upon the West Sea where Julius Agricola set the limits of the Roman Empire at this place began the great Wood Calidonia famous for the wild white Bulls bred therein with Manes like Lyons thick and curled so fierce and cruel by Nature and so hateful to Mankind that they abhorred whatever was handlâ—d or breathed on by them The Cattle in Scotland are small but many Fish so plentiful that in some place men on Horseback hunt Salmons with Spears The Islands belonging to it are the Western the Orkney and the Shetlands in number above 300 They have infinite numbers of Barnacles or Soland Geese so that they even darken the light of the Sun these Geese are most plentiful about the Bass near Edenburgh and hither they bring an incredible number of Fishes and withal such abundance of sticks and little twigs to build their Nests that the People are very plentifully provided of Fewel who also make great gain of their Feathers and Oyl There have been great disputes among