Sir Reginald Bray Who this St. George was we have now mentioned Mr. Sands in his Travels gives us the best account That he was a Cappadocian advanced in the Wars to the Dignity of a Tribune who afterward became a Soldier of Christ and is said in Lydda to have suffered Martyrdom under Dioclesian where stands a Temple built to his Honour as they say by a King of England which Church the Greeks have the Custody of and do shew a Skull therein which they affirm to be St. George's On this St. George's Day which is April 23. King Edward the Third that he might give to true Chivalry that Honour and ample Reward it deserves constituted first the most noble Order of the Garter appointing a select number of Twenty-six Persons of Honour to wear a blue Garter on their left Leg with this Motto in French * Evil be to him that evil thinks Hony soit qui maly pense and these he call'd Knights of the Garter Of this Order are and have been the most Puissant and Renown'd Princes in Christendom this Honour being deriv'd to them from the King of England who is the first and chief thereof but because the Occasion of the constitution of this most Noble Order as well as a List of the Persons that are Honoured therewith are given us already by Elias Ashmole Esq and others I shall not actum agere but rather declare who were the Principuli and had the Honour to stand Rank'd in the first Front of this Order and they are these who follow who being very Renowned in their Generation it is pity they should be Buried in the Grave of Oblivion 1. Edward the Third King of England 2. Edward the Prince of Wales 3. Henry Duke of Lancaster 4. Thomas Earl of Warwick 5. Captain de Bouch. 6. Ralph Earl of Stafford 7. William Mountague Earl of Salisbury 8. Roger Mortimer Earl of March 10. Sir John Lisle 11. Sir Bartholomew Burwash 12. Sir John Beauchamp 13. Sir Hugh Courtney 14. Sir Thomas Holland 15. Sir John Grey 16. Sir Richard Fitz-Simon 17. Sir Miles Stapleton 18. Sir Thomas Walle 19. Sir Hugh Wrothesley 20. Sir Neel Loring 21. Sir John Chandos 22. Sir James Audley 23. Sir Otho Holland 24. Sir Henry Eme. 25. Sir Zanchet D'Brigecoure 26. Sir Walter Paveley All these as likewise all other Knights of the Garter have their several Stalls allotted them in St. George's Chapel over which hang their Escutcheons and their Arms and when they are present they are all arrayed with Robes and Mantles peculiar to their Order and upon their day of admission to this Dignity which is usually on St. George's Day they are generally Installed either by themselves or their Proxies by the Prelate of the Garter which Office is setled upon the Bishop of Winchester and the Chancellour belonging to it is the Bishop of Salisbury On one side of the Church stand the Houses of the Dean and Prebendaries who are Twelve in number and on the other side an House not unlike the Graecian Prytaneum for the comfortable Maintenance of Twenty-six poor Knights who being all clad in long purple Gowns bearing the Badge of the Cross upon them are daily to be present Morning and Night at Divine Service Betwixt the two Courts ariseth up a high Mount on which is set a round Tower and hard by it riseth another lofty Pinnacle called Winchester Tower of William Wickam Bishop of Winchester whom King Edward the Third made Overseer of this Work when he Built the Castle There is a Rumour of a certain Inscription that was engraven by this Wickam upon the inner part of the Wall after the finishing of the Tower in these Words This made Wickam which bearing a dubious meaning some of the Courtiers that were his Enemies represented them in such a sense to the King as if he had arrogated to himself all the Glory and Magnificence of the Structure and so had eclipsed the King's Honour at which the King being incensed and rebuking him for the Fact he replied That he did not mean that he had made the Castle but that the Castle had made him having raised him from a mean and low Condition to the King's Favour and thereby to great Wealth and Dignity But before I leave this Bishop I cannot omit one very remarkable Story which I find Recorded of him by John de Pontoys in his History of the Bishops of Winchester how this Renowned Prelate discovered a notorious Cheat to Edward the Third put upon him by his own Queen Philippa for that John Duke of Lancaster who then went for his Son was never Born of that Queen but was really Supposititious which she still concealed for fear of the King's Anger but afterward a little before her Death she declared the whole Truth to this Bishop and commanded him to tell the King the whole Matter when he should find the most convenient Opportunity Mr. Wharton's Anglia Sacra pars prima p. 318. New-Windsor That which the Inhabitants call now New-Windsor standing South-West from the Castle began to flourish in the Reign of King Henry the Third and the Daughter hath now quite eclipsed the Glory and Honour of the Mother for 't is grown very Beautiful and Populous adorned with handsom Buildings and a regular Corporation and sends from thence constantly two Burgesses to the Parliament Aeton College There is one thing still more here which is remarkable opposite to Windsor on the other side of the River Thames a fair Bridge of Wood leads you on to Aeton where stands a famous College erected by that most Charitable Prince King Henry the Sixth in which besides a very honourable Allowance for the Provost there is a handsom Pension for Eight Fellows and a creditable Subsistence for Sixty Scholars who having received here the first Rudiments of Grammar and Rhetorick are afterwards translated to King's-College in Cambridge where they are certainly preferred according to their civil and studious Deportment Having satisfied our Curiosities with these pleasant Prospects we took our Farewell of the Muses Athenaeum as well as Mars his Cittadel and crossing again the River arrived at Colebrook Colebrook three or four Miles distant from this place so called from the River Cole which gently glides along through Bucks and Middlesex 't is parted into several Channels over which stand as many Bridges and by the several partitions of its Streams it encompasseth several little pretty Islands into which the Danes fled about the Year 894. whither King Alfred pursued them and endeavoured what he could to annoy them till at last for want of Provision he was enforced to quit that most advantageous Post We passed on from hence to Brentford Brentford which receives its name from the Rivolet Brent running by it Here in the Year 1016 Edmund Ironside did so overpower the Danes that they fled away very ingloriously being quite routed by him and leaving a great many Men slain behind them This
Town being a great thorough Fare for the Western Counties and lying near to London is enriched with a great Trade and the Market draws a considerable concourse of Citizens who flock hither on purpose to buy up such Commodities as it affords besides the River Thames running not far from it is very conducive to beautifie and enrich it whilst by that means all sorts of Goods are with great conveniency conveyed backward and forward thither Here met us some Friends who from thence conducted us back to the City where we again safely arrived after this divertive Perambulation The End of the Second Journey AN ACCOUNT OF Mr. BROME'S Three Years TRAVELS OVER England Scotland and Wales A Narrative of his Third Journey WE diverted our selves for some little time in the City but the Pleasures therein growing nauseating and irksom and the Rural Diversions more pleasing and delightful we resolved to undertake once more a Pilgrimage of a greater extent than any we had done before and the Vernal Season which then began to attire the Country in all its bravery did as mightily conduce to quicken our Resolutions in steering our Course about the Maritime Coasts of our Native Soil as in taking a view of that further part of the Continent to which before we had made no access Hereupon equipping our selves like provident Pilgrims with all things requisite for so great a Journey we set forward and having some Friends which accompanied us in our way our first Remove was into the County of Essex Essex a Country of as great Variety as Delight of a considerable compass and very fruitful 't is full of Woods and shady Groves enriched with all kind of Grain abounds with Saffron and is stocked with great Herds of Kine and Hogs hereupon the Rusticks have great plenty of Dairies and make Cheeses massy and ponderous the Gentry generally are courtly and affable and the Commonalty for the most part pretty well refined but for them who live in the Hundreds as they call that part of the County which lying more low and flat and near to the Sea is full of Marshes and Bogs they are Persons of so abject and sordid a Temper that they seem almost to have undergone poor Nebuchadnezzar's Fate and by conversing continually with the Beasts to have learn'd their Manners Rumford was our first Stage Rumford about ten Miles from London renowned for its great Market for all manner of Cattle but more especially celebrated for its Hogs and Calves After a little stop in this place we passed on through Burntwood and Ingerstone Burntwood and Ingerstone Towns of no great Note save one for its Free-School and both for their Markets and Hospitable Inns to Chelmsford a Town twenty-five Miles from the City where we took up our Quarters for one Night This Town stands in the Heart of the County Chelmsford being formerly called Chelmerford 't is situate betwixt two Rivers which meet here viz. Chelmer from the East and another from the South the name whereof if it be Can as some would have it we have no reason to doubt it was Old Canonium which Cambden tells us stood anciently in this place it was of old very famous for a small Religious House erected by Malcolme King of Scots and for its Church-Windows having the History of Christ and the Escutcheons of its noble Benefactors painted in them which were batter'd down by the Instigated Rabble in the late Rebellion but that which now renders it most Renowned is not only the Assizes which are held here twice a Year for the County but likewise its great Market for Corn which the Londoners coming down every Week take away in great quantities and the Vicinity of the Nobility and Gentry which lying round about it do very much enhance its Glory as well as promote its Trade But the Allurements of this place were too weak to detain us any longer than the Morning for no sooner did we discern the modest Blushes upon Aurora's Cheeks but we prepared our selves for the Farewel of our Friends where mutually embracing each other with some passionate Expressions of Kindness at our departure we left them to return to the City and they with a gale of good Wishes speeded us forward on our Journey No sooner were they departed from us but a Cloud of Sorrow overspread our Countenance and as if we had suffered an Eclipse of Friendship upon our Souls by their Separation from our Bodies we began to think that of all Evils which are incident to Humanity there is none that equals Privation upon which account we became for a while a little discomposed in our Thoughts till Witham Witham another Market Town about five Miles distant from Chelmsford Built as is supposed by King Edward the Senior presented us with some other Scenes of Pleasure and Diversion Colchester However our main drift being for Colchester we hastned to that place which was formerly called Kaer-Colden by the Britains but whether it took its Name from Colonia a Colony of the Romans being here planted or from the River Colne 't is not much material to enquire the several Coins which have been digged up here bearing all the Roman stamp do evince its Antiquity and whether Lucius Helena and Constantine the first Christian King Empress and Emperor in the World were Born here or no sure I am that the Inhabitants speak great things of her Father King Coel who built the Castle tho' others will have it Built by Edward Son of King Alfred and the Walls of the Town having erected a Statue for him in the midst of it which they preserve with great Reverence to perpetuate his Memory And 't is as certain that in remembrance of the Cross which his Daughter found here they give for their Arms a Cross engrailed betwixt two Crowns It suffered much of old from the Fury of the East-Saxons about the Year 921 as the Saxon Chronicle informs us who having taken it by Storm put all to the Sword except a few who by stealth crept away and saved themselves by flight and destroyed all its Fortresses and threw down its Walls but King Edward the Confessor came and Fortified it again and having repaired all its Breaches and strengthened it with a Garison it began by degrees to recover its Losses and retrieve its ancient Splendor and Comeliness for being pleasantly seated upon the Brow of a Hill which extends its self from East to West it quickly drew to it numerous Shoals of Inhabitants whereby its Buildings were enlarged and its Churches encreased to the number of 15 within the Walls and 1 without besides 2 Religious Houses an Abby built here A. D. 1096. by Eudo Steward to King Henry I. to the Honour of St. John Baptist for the use of the Benedictine Monks the first of that Order which was erected in England and another Priory saith the Notitia Monastica Founded A. D. 1110. by Eynulphus for Canons of the
Ruines of Churches and other Edifices declare it to have been of a very long standing its Condition was always mutable according to the mutability of Affairs betwixt the Britains and the Saxons and if it was the burying place of that great Man of Valour and prowess the Noble Britain Vortimer as is credibly reported then this hapned contrary to his own Command for he was desirous to be interred near the Sea Shore where he thought his very Ghost would be sufficient to Protect the Britains from all Saxon Invasions But however after his Death the Saxons got possession of it and fortified themselves on the South-side of the Hill about which time Paulinus having preached the Gospel in Lindsey was the first that converted Blecca the Governour hereof to the Christian Faith and erected a Church all of Stone-work some of the Ruines whereof remain to this Day Afterwards it was much impaired and depopulated by the Danes but in the Norman time it flourished so exceedingly that it became one of the most populous Cities of England King William the Conquerour strengthned it with a Castle and Remigius having translated hither the Bishops See from Dorchester a small Town which stood in the remotest corner of this Diocess erected upon the top of the Hill a large and sumptuous * His successor Robert Bloet â—ounded with him the Cathedral and endow'd the Dean and Chapter â—anner's Not. Monast Cathedral mounting up aloft with high Turrets and stately pyramids and dedicated to the Virgin Mary which afterward being defaced by Fire Alexander his Successor re-edified and beautified after a more glorious manner than before Nor indeed did the Bishops that succeeded him add less to its Beauty and Lustre and raised it to so great Magnificence and unconceivable Height that its starely Towers discover themselves at many Miles distance the Workmanship of the whole Fabrick is very curious and admirable and the carved Images on the Front of the West-end were such unimitable pieces of Art till some of them in our late unhappy broils were sacrificed to the fury of the Insolent Soldiery who committed a new Martyrdom upon the Saints in Effigie that they did even allure and ravish the Eyes of all Spectatour Nor was it less glorious without than beautified within for besides the Bell called Great Tom for which this Church is so famous being cast in the Year 1610 and of a larger Size than any Bell in the Kingdom 't is adorn'd with divers Monuments of very ancient Families for the Bowels of Queen Eleanor Wife to King Edward the First lie here interr'd in Copper and the Body of the Lady Catharine Swinford third Wife to John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster and Mother to the House of Somerset and of the Lady Joan her Daughter Second Wife to Ralph Nevil Earl of Westmorland besides many other Persons of great Note and Quality In the former Ages of the Church the Precincts of this Diocess were of so large an extent that the greatness hereof became even burdensom to it hereupon they were contracted into a narrower compass by some Princes of this Nation and though King Henry the Second took out of this the Diocess of Ely and King Henry the Eighth the Bishopricks of Peterborough and Oxford yet still it is reputed the greatest Diocess of England both for Jurisdiction and number of Shires there being no less than six Counties and One thousand two hundred forty seven Parish Churches as is generally computed belonging to it As for the Town though it flourished mightily for some Years together after the Norman Conquest by reason of a Staple for wooll and other Commodities setled here by King Edward the Third yet it met still with some Calamities or other which hindred its Growth and eclipsed its Grandeur for it had its share of Sufferings both by Fire and War in King Stephen's days about which time it seems though the King had at first been conquered and taken Prisoner yet he afterward entred into the City in Triumph with his Crown upon his Head to break the Citizens of a superstitious Opinion they held that no King could possibly enter into that City after such a manner but some great disaster or other would befal him but neither did it then or by the Barons wars afterwards sustain half the damages which of late Years it hath received from the devouring Hands of Time who hath wrought its downfal and from a rich and populous City hath reduced it almost to the lowest ebb of Fortune and of Fifty Churches which were all standing within one or two Centuries hath scarce left Fifteen so that the old Proverbial Rhymes which go currant amongst them seem so far to have something of verity in them Lincoln was and London is And York shall be The fairest City of the three Sure I am that this doth abundantly verifie the verses of the old Tragedian Sophocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Only the Gods cannot Times sickle feel Nothing can else withstand his Powerful Steel But though the City be gone to decay the Magistrates preserve their Authority and their ancient Charters and Privileges are not as yet involv'd in the same Fate with the Town which is governed by a Mayor and Aldermen and hath the Assizes held here where the Judges twice a Year determine all Suits and Controversies depending either in the City or the County and for provision it affords great Plenty for 't is replenished every Friday which is their chief Market Day with such variety of Fish and Fowl to be bought up at easy and cheap Rates that there is hardly the like to be met withal in any other City of England From this City we set forward for Barton Barton a small Town Situate upon the River Humber famous for the abundance of Puits Godwits Knots which are a sort of Bird so called say some from Canute the Dane who perhaps brought them hither first from Denmark and likewise for Dottrels a simple kind of Bird much given to imitation these Dottrels are caught by candle-light after this manner The Fowler stands before the Bird and if he puts out an Arm the Bird stretcheth out a Wing if he hold out his Head or set forward his Leg the Bird doth the like and imitates the Fowlers gesture so long till coming nearer and nearer by degrees at length throws his Net over him and so takes him Here we met with a convenient Passage to Ferry over into York-shire York-shire whereupon we took the first opportunity of Wind and Tide and sailed away for Hull which is about a League from the place on the other side of the River This County is the greatest in extent being parted into three Divisions which are called the West-Riding the East-Riding and North-Riding amongst which Providence hath so wisely distributed her Blessings that what one wants the other enjoys and makes a compensation for the Barrenness of one
TRAVELS OVER England Scotland and Wales GIVING A True and Exact Description of the Chiefest Cities Towns and Corporations Together With the Antiquities of divers other Places with the most Famous Cathedrals and other Eminent Structures of several Remarkable Caves and Wells with many other Divertive Passages never before Published By James Brome M. A. Recter of Cheriton in Kent and Chaplain to the Right Honourable the Earl of Romney The Design of the said Travels being for the Information of the two Eldest Sons of that Eminent Merchant Mr. Van-Ackar LONDON Printed for Abel Roper at the Black-Boy Rich. Basset at the Miter in Fleetstreet and Will. Turner at the Angel at Lincolns-Inn Back-Gate 1700. To the Honourable Sir Basil Dixwell Bar. A MEMBER of the Honourable House of Commons AND Governor of Dover-Castle c. Honoured Sir WHEN I first resolved to publish these Papers I could not be long in suspense to whom to Dedicate them They contain a short Account of our Own British Island and I know not better at whose Feet chiefly to prostrate them than where I found the brave old heroick English Spirit most eminently Predominant 'T is the unhappy Genius of some Grandees in this Age to affect nothing but what either appears in a Foreign Dress or comes fraught with new and unheard-of Rarities from abroad as if our English Soil was so barren in its Productions that it could not afford any thing to divert the Curious or it was altogether not worth the while to Contemplate herein the wonderful Works of Nature because they are nearer to our own Doors And yet as it is not very easie to discover many other Countries where Nature hath been more diffusive of her choisest Blessings than in our Own so likewise to point out any one Place where she hath beeen more liberal in dispersing various and delightful Objects than within the Confines of this flourishing Monarchy a Scheme of which I take here the boldness to present to your Honour Upon which account I could have wish'd that I had Pourtray'd the Features in a more exact conformity to the first Lineaments of Nature but however it may miscarry in the Draught perhaps there may be something which may not prove altogether Indivertive when your vacant Hours from greater and more important Affairs in the Government in one of the highest Orbs of which Your experienc'd Wisdom and Integrity have most deservedly placed You will give You leave to cast some few glances on it SIR I confess I ought justly to Apologize for prefixing Your Great Name before so mean a Trifle whose late signal Service to the Ancient and Worthy Corporation and Port of Dover will alone perpetuate it to succeeding Generations But when again I consider Your great Candour and Goodness Your generous Temper and obliging Deportment with which You are wont to Proselyte all who have the Honour of Your Acquaintance I am apt to Flatter my self that You will please to Pardon this bold Address and look upon it only as indeed it is a sincere Testimony for me how ready and officious I am to express my Gratitude for the manifold Favours conferr'd upon SIR Your most Faithful and Obliged Servant James Brome A PREFACE TO THE READER IT will not I presume be thought amiss to acquaint the Reader that these Papers had in all probability lain long buried in Dust and Obscurity had not some false Copies which by chance came lately to the true Author's notice stole Clandestinely into the World under the specious Title of Mr. Roger's Three Years Travels over England and Wales c. which are indeed so unadvisedly patch'd together so wretchedly Curtail'd so horribly Imperfect and abominably Erroneous that the right Author was obliged in his own Vindication to publish from his own true Manuscript which hath been formerly and of late perused by the Hands of some Learned Men a more Authentick Copy And though he cannot as yet discover this mysterious Cheat which has for some time walked in Darkness yet to discourage for the future all such unbecoming mercenary Attempts he resolved at last with himself by a more correct Edition to expose the Plagiarism and Dishonesty of such vile Pultroons and scandalous Undertakers which have appeared with such open and brazen-faced Effrontery And though indeed they have put on what false Disguise they can to Cheat the World and set off the Book with the most plausible Varnishes that thereby they might the better recommend it to the Reader yet there doth appear throughout the whole Series of it such horrible Blunders and impardonable Mistakes such silly Shiftings and Turnings both of Things and Places such crude Apologies for its Brevity and in short such a shameful Contexture of Ignorance and Impudence closely link'd together by that unlearned Fry To give but one notorious Instance here for all their placing Page 99. the Seven Wonders of the Peak in Lancashire instead of Darbyshire though there are divers other as gross Errours if it be worth while to rake into them as their false Transcribing or leaving out quite divers proper Names of great Significancy as also what chiefly related to the Latin Tongue that as such uncomely Features will easily discover the Spuriousness of the Brood so no Pen can be sharp enough to expose the Disingenuity and Baseness of such a viperous Generation Now such a seasonable Advertisement as this is being sufficient to caution the unwary Reader against all other previous Editions will become as just an Apology for the present Publication of these ensuing Papers which if so useful and diverting as the World is told under a false Vizor will now prove it is to be hoped more pleasing and acceptable in their own true native Colours For they will here meet with a more full and accurate Description though not of every individual Town and Place of Note within the Dominions of Great Britain yet with a true and impartial Account of most Cities and Towns Corporate with their famous Cathedrals and other eminent Structures of the most remarkable Havens and Rivers of divers curious Caves Wells and Mines with many other divertive Passages and historical Relations with several ancient Inscriptions Epitaphs and Observations which were yet never taken notice of by any English Topographer which being some Years ago Penned for the use of Two Young Gentlemen Sons to Mr. Van-Acker formerly an eminent Merchant in London whom the Author had the happiness to accompany in these Travels is now again Revised to make it the more consummate and inviting So that whosoever is disposed to Travel Abroad or to see which indeed is most necessary first and acquaint himself with the Rarities of Nature at Home may know hereby in what Parts of our Island to find them and for those who having already visited remoter Regions are so strangely enravished with the prospect of Foreign Varieties that they are hardly brought to believe any thing in their own Native Soil equal to such Discoveries
as they have made in other Countries this may be sufficient to inform them That there is not any thing worth our Wonder Abroad whereof Nature hath not written a Copy in our own Island And it cannot be too frequently observed that as Italy has Virgil's Grotto and the Sybil's Cave by Puteoli so England hath Ochy-Hole by Wells and Pool's by Buxton We have Baiae at the Bath the Alps in Wales the Spaw in Yorkshire Asphaltites at Pitchford in Shropshire the Pyramids at Stonehenge Pearls of Persia in Cornwall and Diamonds of India at St. Vincent's Rock Besides we have the 〈◊〉 of ancient and famous Castles and Garrisons Fortresses and Bulwarks Rampires and Trenches where as great Sieges have been made as remarkable Battels fought and as noble Atchievements performed as in any other Places in Europe which have been eminent for the Seats of War to which if we add divers Roman High-ways and Causeys with various Coins and Medals of great Antiquity variously dispersed about the Kingdom it will not stoop to any neighbouring Nation for such admirable Curiosities So that since England is not destitute of those many taking Things which all Travellers so passionately admire Abroad it is very incongruous to pretend to be acquainted with other Countries and to be Strangers to their own which is an Epitome of all other and which upon all these as well as other Accounts may very justly claim and challenge as a due Debt all those glorious Elogies which both Ancient and Modern Writers have conferred upon it And having thus briefly declar'd the main Design and Scope of this Narrative I shall neither Complement my Reader into its acceptance nor trouble my self to make any Harangue in Apologizing for its Contrivance for as for all Candid Persons I question not but their Censures will be as favourable as their Humours ingenuous And as for such snarling Criticks and carping Momus's of the Age who can sooner find a Fault than mend it I am sure most complemental Apologies will never work in them Candour or good Nature I shall therefore endeavour to Arm my self against all their Cavils with the excellent Advice of the wise Moralist Mimnermus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In English thus Attempt brave things then set your Heart at rest Let not the sensless Mob disturb your Breast If some speak ill on purpose for to teaze you Others will speak the best and let that please you J. B. AN ACCOUNT OF Mr. BROME'S Three Years TRAVELS OVER England Scotland and Wales A Narrative of his first Journey WHen the Spring had rendred the Roads passable and the Country was a fitting Entertainment for Travellers the Gentlemen whose Names I have given my self the Honour of Inserting in the Title were pleased to take me for their Companion in order to have a View of those Places which were under the same Government with the City from whence they set out and which it was not Improper to be acquainted with before they made a Visit to Nations more â—ote And since it is but natural for the Inhabitants of other Countries to be as inquisitive after our Scituation and Establishment as we are after Theirs we could not but endeavour to provide our selves with an Answer by the Knowledge of our own Country's Constitution before we had occasion to ask Questons in Relation to those of others As these were the Reasons which occasion'd our Journey so we took a time in which it was agreeable to make one The Season of the year push'd us forward and the delights which it afforded were motives enough to persuade us to take leave of the Glorious City of London which is Caput Gentis and an Epitome of England Middlesex We took our Journey through Middlesex a Country famous for its goodly Edifices as well wisely compacted together upon the pleasant Banks of Thames as likewise for divers stately and magnificent Palaces dispersed in several other parts thereof Uxbridge to Vxbridge anciently Woxbridge seated on the Colne which parts it from Buckinghamshire a Town Built of late times well stored with Inns and of a considerable length This was the place famous in the Year 1644. for a Treaty held betwixt King Charles the First and the Parliament where after several Debates by Commissioners on both sides the Treaty of Peace was unhappily broken off and ended in a Deluge of Blood which speedily over-ran this whole Nation Bucks From Vxbridge we came into the County of Bucks which might possibly receive its Denomination from its Fertility in Beech-Trees there being a Province in Germany called Buchonia for that very reason 'T is a Country rich in Pasture and so convenient for Grazing that the Inhabitants thereof do very much addict themselves to that Employment receiving great Advantages by the Vicinity of London where the Markets are very Encouraging the Prices being high and the Returns considerable Passing through Beconsfield Beconsfield and Wickam a Town better known in that it was formerly part of the Inheritance belonging to the Noble Family of the Schudamore's than for any thing at present of greater Consequence we arrived at Wickam or Wicomb situated above a pleasant Valley by which runs along a little Rivolet and perhaps from this situation it took its Name for Combe saith the Great Antiquary Mr. Somner in his Saxon Dictionary is a Valley enclosed on either side with Hills and Wick saith the same Author is the turning winding or hollowness of Water-banks or the curving reach of a River 'T is a Town for largeness and buildings not much inferiour to any throughout the Shire and hath a Mayor and Aldermen to govern and support it and is a place very much celebrated for the abundance of Bone-Lace usually made here which brings no small Advantage and Profit to its Inhabitants Having refresh'd our selves a while here we set forward for Oxfordshire Oxfordshire which being once entred into we could not sufficiently enough admire the pleasantness of the Soil for there it is that Ceres bestows her Gifts most liberally upon the laborious Husbandman there it is the Meadows are garnished with Flora's curious Embellishments and the great variety of Plants allure and invite the industrious Herbalist into a more strict Enquiry of their Names Natures and Properties There it is where the Hills adorned with shady Woods afford most delightsome Bowers to wearied Students whilst the Silver-stream'd Rivers with their gentle Murmurs nimbly coursing along by the humble Valleys do whet their Fancies and scrue up their Inventions to the highest pitch To confer upon them suitable Encomiums What more pleasant than Isis afterward called Thamisis which runs along the South-side and then branching it self out in several Veins gives heart to the Eastern part of the County till by a continued Circulation like that of the Blood after several Windings and Maeandrous Flexures it lodgeth at last again within it self What can be more diverting than the River Cherwell
a great Power to revenge her Injury she fought with her husband Locrine at New Troy or London and there slew him After this to execute her Revenge still in the highest degree she took the Lady Estrilde with her fair Daughter Sabrina and drowned them both in this River Travelling over this delightsome Region the first place of any Remark we arrived at was Cirencester alias Circiter * Cirencester It was called by the Britains Kaerceri Rudborn's Hist of Winchester which the River Corinus or Churne rising among the Wolds passeth by and giveth it its Name It appears to have been a place of great Antiquity and Renown from the old Roman Coins and Medals and divers Marble Engraven Stones which have been digged up hereabouts Nay a Judicious Antiquary Mr. Kennet has observed That this place seems to have been as well the first as the greatest of the Roman Stations which the Britains had before made a place of Strength and Confluence That this Corinium is by Ptolemy Recorded as the Metropolis or Chief City of the Dobuni and was after called Corinium Dohunorum The British Chronicles tell us further That this Town was burnt down being set on Fire by a company of Sparrows through an Invention devised by one Gurmund Certain it is the Inhabitants shew a Mount below the Town which they Report this Gurmund cast up which they corruptly call Grismund's Tower Grismund 's Tower It was a long time subject to the West Saxons afterward the Mercians got it into their Possession where it continued till the Establishment of the English Monarchy under which it sustained very great Calamities by the Incursion of the Danes and 't is probable that Gurmon the Dane whom some Historiographers call Guthrus and Gurmundus was a great Instrument to augment its Troubles and Oppressions However there are still some Remains to be seen of old Ruinated Walls and of an Abby built as some conjecture by the Saxons afterward much repaired or rather rebuilt by King Henry I 'T is now beautified with a very handsome Church having a high Spired Steeple and hath once a Week a Market and has formerly been Enriched with the Trade of Clothing though that with many other Privileges and Immunities they enjoyed are now impaired and gone to decay From hence coursing over the Wolds we came to the top of Burlipp-Hill Burlipp Hill where we had a Prospect of a very pleasant Vale the Hill is craggy steep and high from which descending by degrees and passing through a Way which was formerly paved with Stone and was undoubtedly one of the Roman high Ways which here crossed one another we came to Glocester Glocester called by Antiquaries Caer Gloyn which took its Name either of Claudius the Emperour or of the Beauty and Brightness thereof which the Britains call Gloyn though others call it Kaerclan 'T is a City well Seated and as well Inhabited and of a considerable Trade by reason of the River Severn over which it has a fair Bridge and being Navigable Boats of great Burden come up to the Key side loaded with several Commodities 'T is governed by a Mayor and Aldermen and is adorned with 12 Parish Churches besides the Cathedral And for the Strength of the Place it was formerly on the Landside encompassed with a strong Wall the standing Remains whereof shew what Force they have been of On the Southside it had a strong Castle of square Stone now fall'n to Ruine Craulin King of the West Saxons Conquered this City from the Britains about the year 570 and 300 years after it fell into the Hands of the Danes who miserably defaced it Soon after this Aldred Archbishop of York built the Cathedral to which belongs now a Dean and Six Prebendaries and it hath been much enlarged by the Charity of good Benefactors John Hanly and Thomas Early adding to it the Chapel of the Virgin Mary N. Morwent the Forefront being an excellent Fabrick G. Horton adjoyn'd to it the North-Cross part Abbot Trowcester a very fine Cloyster and Abbot Sebrok a high Four square Steeple As for the Southside it was repaired by the Free Offerings of the Inhabitants at the Sepulchre of Edward II. who lieth here Interred under a Monument of Alabaster and in the Quire under a wooden-painted Tomb lies Robert the Eldest Son of William the Conquerour who was deprived both of his Life and Kingdom by his Younger Brother Henry I. having his Eyes first put out at Cardiff-Castle and died thereafter 26 years Imprisonment Here likewise is the Monument of Lucius who is said to have been the first Christian King in England Now though by Bishop Burnet in his Travels we are told That there is a famous Chapel Erected to him as their Great Apostle near Coir a Town of the Grisons for the great Service he did to them in working their Conversion yet 't is most probable that he lies Interred here But how he came at first to be instructed in the Christian Faith we have the most probable Account given us by the most Learned Bishop Stillingfleet in his Antiquities of the British Churches which is this That King Lucius hearing of the Christian Doctrine either by the old British Christians such as Eluanus and Meduinus are supposed to have been or by some of M. Aurelius his Soldiers coming hither after the great Deliverance of the Roman Army by the Prayers of the Christians which had then lately happen'd and occasion'd great Discourse every where The Emperour himself as Tertullian saith giving the Account of it in his own Letters might upon this be very desirous to inform himself thoroughly about this Religion and there being then frequent Entercourse betwixt Rome and Britain by reason of the Colonies that were setled and the Governours and Soldiers passing to and fro he might send Eluanus and Meduinus to be fully instructed in this Religion and either the same Persons alone or two others with them called Fagâ—â—us and Dâ—â—â—ianus commonly coming into Britain might have so great Success as to Baptize King Lucius and many others and thereby inlarge the Christian Church here But to return from what we have made a little Digression the Pillars of this Church are of an extraordinary Thickness not to be Parallel'd in any Church of England But that which makes it most Remarkable is a curious piece of Architecture at the East-end of the Quire called The Whispering Place The Whispering Place 't is an Arch in the form of a Semicircle 30 yards in Circuit and so rare a Contrivance that if any Person stand at one end of it and Whisper never so softly he that lays his Ear to the other end will discover distinctly the Words he speaks A C D E F B is the Passage of the Voice or Whispering Place at A and B do the two Persons stand that Whisper to each other At D the middle of the Passage is a Door and Entrance into a Chapel with Window-Cases on each side
was the first Bishop here say the Annals of Worcecester Angl. Sacr. pars prima about the year 680 under the high Altar whereof lies the Body of King John wrapped in a Monk's Cowl which the Superstition of that time accounted Sacred and a very necessary Defensative against all evil Spirits Here is likewise to be seen the Tomb of Arthur Prince of Wales the eldest Son of Henry VII with divers Monuments belonging to the ancient Family of the Beauchamps It was formerly a Cloyster for Monks but King Henry VIII did substitute in their Room a Dean and Prebendaries and erected a free School for the Education of the Citizen's Children It hath suffered great Calamities by Fire being burnt down by the Danes about the year 104.1 after this by an unknown Casualty under the Reign of Henry I. and once again in King Stephen's days and sure I am it hath of later years fall'n into the Hands of some merciless Men who were as raging as the Flames and whose Fury was as unquenchable as the Fire it self Witness the grievous Pressures it groaned under for its Loyalty to the King in the year 1651 For here it was that after his long Exile King Charles the Second arrived with an Army of Scots and some English the 22. of August and by the Assistance of the Citizens beat but the Soldiers who kept it for the Common-wealth and being proclaimed by the Mayor that then was and Sheriffs King of England c. Nevertheless was attended with the same ill Fortune and Success which was at that time his chief Attendants and having but a small Army in comparison of the numberless number of Rebels that were poured in upon him was totally defeated at this City several of his Nobles Slain and took Prisoners the rest forced to fly for their Lives and himself constrain'd to make his Escape as privately as he could and to betake himself into a Wood in Staffordshire where hiding himself in the shady Boughs of a well-spread Oak he found more Pity and Security from Trees and Woods than from some of his own unnatural and bloody Subjects However this City is now again restored to its Lustre and like the Phoenix being revived out of its own Ashes is raised up to its Prestine Splendour and Magnificence Having sufficiently satisfied our selves with the Varieties of that City we came into the Confines of the Eastern part of Herefordshire Herefordshire which appeared very Rocky and Mountainous at the first but having passed those Rocky parts we began to find the Country more pleasant to the Eye for we discovered it to be a Fertile Soil the Valleys thick with Corn and the Meadows abounding with Grass and well watered with Rivers the Hills covered with Sheep and the Hedges full of Apple-Trees which bear a sort of Fruit called Redstreaks of which they make the best Syder in England In a word we found it according to the usual Report which is made of it to yield to no Country in this Nation for three W. W. W Wheat Wool and Water to which formerly might have been added Wood but that the Iron Works have since destroyed it very much and made it become less plentiful Passing through Bramyard a small Market-Town of no great Consequence Mereford we came to Hereford the chief City of this County which is situated almost in the middle of it and watered by two pleasant Rivers Wye and Lugg which by their happy Union not far from this place advance her Felicity and enrich her Soil Antiquaries are of Opinion That this City had its Rise from Ariconium which hath at this day no manner of Form of a Town as having been thrown down by an Earthquake only some do imagine it to have stood in a place which they now call Kenchester three Miles distant from this City Kenchester and they do build their Conjectures from the Ruines of old Walls which are there Conspicuous as likewise from some four-square paving Tiles and thick Bricks as well as several Roman Coins digged up thereabouts though now the place which they mention is all over-grown with Shrubs Bushes and Brambles We observed when we went to visit this place three or four Receptacles in an old piece of Ruin'd Wall in which the Owners had found some Urns which argues the place to have been of great Antiquity however her Sister Hereford which is now become Beautiful by the others Decay justly claims the Pre-eminence above all other Places within this County She is thought first to have shown her Head under the Saxon Heptarchy and is supposed to have received great Helps and Increase by Religion and the Martyrdom of Ethelbert King of the East Angles who when he Courted the Daughter of Offa King of the Mercians was treacherously put to Death by Quendred Offa's Wife Hereupon being Registred as a Martyr he had a Church built and Dedicated to him by Milfrid King of the Mercians A. D. 825. which after the Establishment of a Bishop's See in it grew to great Wealth and Honour through the Devout and Pious Liberality of the Mercians and then of the West Saxons and is thought never to have suffered any Misfortune untill Edward the Confessor's time when Griffith Prince of South Wales and Algarus having raised a Rebellion against King Edward and led away Captive Leofgarus the Bishop sacked the City and burnt the Cathedral Afterward the Normans at the East End of the Church by the River Wye built a strong Castle Fortified the City with a Wall and by the Trench near the Castle is a very fine Spring call'd St. Ethelbert's Well St. Ethelbert's Well famous formerly for Miracles to which no question but in that Superstitious Age there was a great Resort of the Lame and the Blind with their Vows and their Offerings the Sanctity of Waters being such a Devout Fancy among our Ancestors as has been truly observed by that Indefatigable Searcher into Antiquity the Ingenious Mr. White Kennet that after Ages were forced to restrain the horrid Superstition of Well-Worship by a Canon in a Council under Edgar and after this too by some other Episcopal Injunctions Within this City are four Parish Churches and Bishop Reinelme in the Reign of King Henry I. founded the Cathedral that now is being a beautiful and magnificent Structure adorned with divers Monuments of ancient Prelates and Abbots To this adjoyns divers Houses for the Dignitaries of the Church and a College for 12 Vicars who live after an Academical way under a Praefectus who presides over them and supplies them with all Necessaries to encourage their Attendance upon all Divine Offices So ready were our Ancestors to promote Learning and advance such Persons whose quick and acute Parts were eclipsed under mean and slender Fortunes The City is govern'd by a Mayor who is Annually sworn upon Michaelmas-Day 12 Aldermen a Recorder and divers Common-Council Men and by their Charter have Privileges for particular Companies and Societies
amongst themselves who have several distinct Halls and Petty-Laws Enacted for regulating and ordering their Affairs in Trade It hath three Markets a Week in which there is plenty of Corn and all other sorts of Provisions And finally it is observable That in the late Civil Wars it was never taken by the Rebels and though the Scotch Army came against it yet they found such hot Service without by the playing of the Ordinance from within that they were forced at last to Retreat Ingloriously Not far distant from this City stands an ancient House Rotheras belonging formerly to the Family of the Bodenhams since in the Possession of the Heirs of Mr. Van-Acker which is one of the most delightful and sweetest Seats in all this part of the County having a spacious Park before it the River Wye behind it pleasant Meadows on the one side and fruitful Tillage on the other and having had such great plenty of Apple-Trees belonging to it as we were credibly inform'd by those that knew it that take but one Apple from each Tree and it would make a Hogshead of Sider and the Country People there have a Proverb which goes currant amongst them Every one cannot live at Rotheras it having formerly been a place of too profuse Hospitality Having spent some time at Hereford and being now upon the Borders of Wales we resolved to make a visit to some parts of that Country To this purpose we Travelled into Monmouthshire Monmouthshire in some places very Fruitful and in others as Barren though Nature supplies those Defects by giving the Inhabitants great plenty of Iron which proves to them a very advantageous Commodity We found the ways near Monmouth very hard and rugged Monmouth and that Town to be environ'd with Hills on all sides the Ruins of its Wall and Castle argue its great Antiquity it hath a fair Church and Market-place with a Hall for the Assizes and Sessions 't is govern'd by a Mayor Recorder and Aldermen and the Inhabitants do generally speak both the Welsh and English Tongue They told us there of great Immunities and Privileges granted to them by the House of Lancaster but for nothing is it so much Renown'd as in that it was the Native place of Henry V. that dreadful Scourge of the French and glorious Pillar of the English Nation who Conquer'd Charles VI. King of France and maugre all the Scoffs and Affronts put upon him by the Dauphin as particularly when he sent him a Tun of Tennis-Balls in dirision of his Youth thinking him more fit to play with them than to manage Arms did at length toss such Iron Balls amongst them that the best Arms in France were not able to hold a Racket to return them Here likewise was born that famous British Historian Geoffrey Archdeacon of Monmouth who lived under King Stephen about the year 1150 of whom is made this Observation by the Learned Archdeacon of Carlisle in his English Historical Library that having a peculiar Fancy for Stories surmounting all ordinary Faith his History being Epitomiz'd by Ponticus Vitruvius an Italian is of a Complexion fitter for the Air of Italy than of England Hither they say do the Welsh Men come down in great crouds out of South Wales as they do likewise to Ludlow out of North Wales and make their Appeals upon divers Occasions and Commence their Suits which upon Court-days are very Numerous and Trivial for the Yeomanry are generally warm and litigious and make often good Work and Sport too for the Lawyers After we were pass'd this Town we found the Ways still more troublesom and uneasie and were entertained with no other Objects but what the stony Rocks and dangerous Cliffs the towring Mountains Vast high Mountains in Wales and craggy Precipices did afford us being covered with Flocks of Sheep or Herds of Goats or Multitudes of Oxen which they call Runts The Rusticks will tell you that upon the Black Mountain or near it are some Hills which are so high and whose Tops are so sharp that two Persons may stand upon two different Points thereof and discourse with one another and understand one another with great Facility although they must be forced to traverse a long Circuit of Ground before they can meet to embrace each other But though I will not answer for the Truth of this Story sure I am that there are many of those Mountains of so unconceivable a Height and so steep an Ascent that they seem to be as it were Nature's Stair-Cases by which we may climb up to some higher Regions and have an Entercourse and Correspondence with the Inhabitants of the Moon or converse more frequently and familiarly with the Aereal Daemons Having with much Difficulty scrambled over some of these Mountains we arrived at a Town in the furthermost part of this County which is called Chepstow Chepstow which signifies in the Saxon Language a Market or place of Trade this Town hath formerly been Fortified with Walls though more naturally with Rocks with which it is environ'd on all sides It is still remarkable for its Castle built as some affirm by Julius Caesar after he had conquer'd Britain which is strong and generally well guarded with a convenient Garison 'T is seated upon the Wye with a strong wooden Bridge over it near its fall into the Severn The Water flows here 11 or 12 Ells high at every Tide as likewise at Bristol an extraordinary proportion in comparison of most places besides on the English Shore The Lords hereof have antiently been Earls of Pembrook or Strighull so called from a Castle of that Name not far distant from this place the last of whom was Richard Sir-named Strong-bow from his Nervous Arms wherewith he could most dextrously use his Bow and was the first Champion that made an Inroad for the Normans into the Kingdom of Ireland Whilst we were in these parts we made the best Enquiries after South Wales South-Wales which we had not then an opportunity to travel over and from some of the Natives who were very Communicative and ready to make what discoveries they could of the Rarities of their own Country we made a shift to Collect this short Account Brecknockshire Brecknockshire is one of the most Mountainous Counties of all Wales but between its Mountains there are many fruitful Valleys it has four Market Towns amongst which Brecknock is the chief Brecknock Mounth-Denny Hill three Miles from which is a Hill called Mounth-Denny that hath its Top above the Clouds and if a Cloak Hat or the like be thrown from the Top of it it will as they Report never fall but be blown up again nor will any thing descend but Stones or the like Lynsavathan Mere. Two Miles East from the same place is a Mere called Lynsavathan which as the People dwelling there say was once a City but was swallowed up by an Earthquake and this Water or Lake succeeded in the place
They Report likewise that after a long Frost when the Ice of this Lake breaks it makes a fearful Noise like Thunder possibly because the Lake is encompass'd with high steep Hills which pen in the Sound and multiply it or else the Ground may be hollow underneath or near the Lake Levenny River Through this Lake runs a River called Levenny without mixtures of its Waters as may be perceived both by the Colour of the Water and also by the quantity of it because it is no greater afterward than when it entred the Lake Cadier Arthur Cadier Arthur or Arthur's Chair is a Hill so called on the Southside of this County from the Tops resembling the form of a Chair proportionate to the Dimensions of that great and mighty Person upon the Top whereof riseth a Spring as deep as a Well four-square having no Streams issuing from it and yet there are plenty of Trouts to be found therein Radnorshire in the East and South parts thereof is more fruitful than the rest Radnorshire but is uneven and rough with Mountains yet it is well stored with Woods watered with running Rivers and in some places with standing Pools the Air is cold and sharp because the Snow continues long unmelted under the shady Hills and hanging Rocks whereof there are many and upon the Borders of it which lies next to Herefordshire runs a long famous Ditch which Offa King of the Mercians with great Toil and Labour caused to be cast up from Deermouth to Wymouth for the space of 90 Miles to separate the Britains from the English There are in it four Market-Towns amongst which Radnor is the Principal Radnor being seated in a pleasant Valley near the River Somergil which runs at the foot of a Hill on the Top whereof stands the Ruines of an ancient Castle demolished by that notorious Rebel Owen Glendore Glamorganshire hath a temperate Air Glamorganshire and is generally the most pleasant part of all South Wales it is replenished with divers convenient Towns amongst which Cardiff Cardiff which stands near the Sea where Robert the Eldest Son of William the Conqueror died after a long Imprisonment is reputed the most Eminent a Mile above which stands also on the River Taff Landaff Landaff one of the four Episcopal Sees of Wales 'T is one of the most ancient Sees either in England or Wales claiming a direct Succession from the Arch-Bishops of Caer-leon upon Vske it is adorned with a Cathedral consecrated to St. Telran who was Bishop here which Church Germanus and Lupus French Bishops then Erected when they had suppressed the Pelagian Heresie preferring Dubritius a very devout Person to this Bishoprick unto whom Meurick a British Lord gave all the Lands which lie betwixt the two Rivers Taff and Elri * Mr. Wharton's Angl. Sacr. Pars Secunda p. 667. Minyd-Morgan Hill On the top of a certain Hill called Minyd-Morgan in this County is a Monument with a strange Character which the Dwellers thereabouts say if any Man read the same he will die shortly after The Springs by Newton Upon the River Ogmore and near unto Newton in a Sandy Plain about a hundred Paces from the Severn Springs a Well in which at full Sea in Summer-time can hardly any Water be took up but at the Ebb it bubleth up amain 't is most observable in Summer for in Winter the Ebbing and Flowing is nothing so evident because of the Veins of Water coming in by Showers or otherwise besides it is observed that this Spring never riseth up to the Spring or overfloweth and Polybius relates the same of a certain Well at Cadiz Clemens Alexandrinus saith That in Britain is a Cave under the bottom of a Hill and on the top of it a gaping Chink where when the Wind is gathered into that Hole and toss'd to fro in the Womb of it there is heard as it were a Musical sound like that of Cymbals It is not unlikely that he might point at the Cave at Aberbarry in this Shire Aberbarry Cave the Story agreeing very near with the Quality of this Cave It is mention'd by my Lord Bacon in his History of Winds to this effect That in a certain Rocky Cliff in which there are Holes if a Man lay his Ears to them he shall hear divers Noises and rumbling of Winds now these Noises Cambden saith are as well to be heard at the lowest Ebb as the highest Flood Carmarthenshire Carmarthenshire though a most Hilly Country yet it hath a wholsom Air and though the Soil be not very fruitful in Corn 't is well stored with Cattle and in some places yields good Pit-Coal for Fuel On the South side the Ocean hath with so great Violence encroached upon the Land that the Country seems to have shrunk back in a fright and withdrawn it self more inwardly for Security Carmarthen Carmarthen the chief place of it being a pretty distance from the Sea is situated between pleasant Meadows and Woods The Residence kept here by the Princes of South Wales made it anciently very Eminent and it became a Prey to the Normans in the Reign of William the Conqueror Near Carreg-Castle are many Caves of great wideness within the Ground now covered all over with green Swerd and Turf The Caves and VVell near Carreg-Castle wherein 't is probable the Multitude when unable to bear Arms when the Normans made their first Incursions into these parts hid themselves during the heat of the War where also is a Well that like the Sea Ebbs and Flows twice in 24 hours That Cardiganshire being a Hilly Maritime Country was not formerly planted Cardiganshire or garnished with Cities may be gathered from that Speech of their Prince Caratacus who being taken Prisoner by the Romans and carried to Rome when he had throughly viewed the Magnificence of that City What mean you saith he when you have such stately Buildings of your own to covet such poor and mean Cottages as ours are It s chief Town is Cardigan Cardigan pleasantly seated upon the Tivy near its fall into the Sea which River parts this County from Pembrokeshire and over it here is a Stone-Bridge supported by several Arches Pembrokeshire hath a good temperate Air Pembrokeshire considering it lies so near to Ireland the Inhabitants are now many of them Dutch Men and formerly as it appears from Giraldus Cambrensis they were like the Romans of old very skilful in Soothsaying by looking narrowly into the Entrails of Beasts and by their Manners and Language are so near akin to the English that upon this Account this Country is call'd Little England beyond Wales About Three hundred years ago it was reported That for five Generations the Father of the Family in the Earldom of Pembroke whose Names then were Hastings never saw his Son the Father dying always before the Son was Born At the time when Henry II. made his Abode in
the Structure consists in this That it hath as many Pillars as there are Hours in the Year and these not so closed but you may see the Interstices betwixt them and shake some that are of a lesser size as many Windows as there are Days in the Year and these very Artificially adorn'd and curiously painted to Admiration and as many Gates as there are Months all which are thus comprised in an ingenious Copy of Verses Mira canam Soles quot continet Annus in unà Tam numerosa ferunt aede fenestra micat Marmoreasque tenet fusas tot ab arte Columnas Comprensas horas quot vagus Annus habet Totque patent portae quot mensibus Annus abundat Res mira at verâ res celebrata fide In English thus How many Days in one whole Year there be So many Windows in one Church we see So many Marble Pillars there appear As there are Hours throughout the Fleeting Year So many Gates as Moons one Year doth view Strange Tale to tell yet not so strange as true And as the Church was then Re-edify'd so was the City much enlarg'd by which means since its Houses are grown stately its Guild-Hall for the use of the Mayor and Aldermen is beautiful its Churches are many and glorious its Streets by reason of divers Rivolets convey'd in Channels through the midst of them sweet and cleanly its Gardens delightful and fragrant and nothing wanting to please and gratifie either the Eye or Palate From hence we coursed over the Plains directly to Winchester Winchester which by Antiquaries has been call'd Venta Belgarum as Bristol was Venta Simenorum and amongst the Britains it had the Name likewise of Caer-Guent It was of great Repute amongst the Romans and no less famous in the time of the Saxons and flourished as greatly under the Power of the Normans till once or twice both Fire and Sword in an envious Emulation strove together to deface it but it is grown again since very fair and populous large and stately is computed within the Walls to be about a Mile in length is pleasantly seated in a Vale betwixt two Hills and hath six Gates which give Entrance into the City tho' it was much defaced in the late Civil Wars as likewise the Castle which formerly hath been accounted altogether impregnable This is the Castle that Mawd the Empress having held out after she had taken it a considerable time against King Stephen and after by a close Siege being in great danger to be Re-taken fearing by that means to fall into her Enemies Hand she secured her self by this cunning Stratagem she commanded it should be given out for a Truth that she was certainly dead and upon this order'd her self to be carried out upon a Bier as if she had been so indeed and by this means provided for her own safety Upon the Wall hereof hangs the Round Table so much talked of by the Vulgar and call'd King Arthur's Round Table whether this can justly claim so great Antiquity as is attributed to it I shall not undertake to determine yet certain it is that these very Tables are of a long standing for formerly after Justs and Turnaments when there happen'd to be any great Entertainments amongst the valiant Champions of the Nation it was usual for all such to sit round them Mr. Whartons Angl. Sacr pars prima p. 191. least any difference should arise amongst the Noblemen about Superiority of place About the middle of the City stands the Cathedral built by Kenelwalch King of the West Saxons who after the expulsion of Agilbert constituted Wine a Saxon born and ordain'd in France the first Bishop there and it hath been Dedicated to divers Patrons accordingly as it has been re-edified by different Benefactors viz. to Amphibalus St. Peter St. Swithin and now to the holy and undivided Trinity Here it was that Queen Emma upon the suspicion of Adultery by the trial of Fire Ordeal walking barefoot over nine hot Plough-shares without hurt ascribed this miraculous Proof of her Innocence to St. Swithin Patron of this Church and afterward in a grateful acknowledgment bestow'd great Donatives upon it It was always held in great Veneration by the Saxons because divers of their Kings were Interr'd in it and was call'd by them the old Monastery to distinguish it from the new one founded by Alured in which he placed a Fraternity of Presbyters who it seems by a great Miracle of the Cross speaking and disapproving their Order were all expell'd from thence by Dunstan Archbishop of Canterbury who substituted Monks in their Room These Monasteries were joyn'd so near to one another that it did often create a Disturbance at their Devotions and hence arose great Feuds and Contentions amongst the Brethren besides a great Current of Water running from the Western Gate of the City in divers Channels to this new Monastery did stagnate and so caus'd the Air to be foggy and unwholsom Hereupon the Church about two hundred years after it was built was Translated to the Northern part of the City which they call the Hide where by the Permission of King Henry I. the Monks built another fair and stately Monastery which in the space of a few years by the Treachery as some suppose of Henry Bishop of Winchester was reduc'd to Ashes In the Conflagration whereof 't is Storied That the rich Crucifix given by King Canutus who was buried here in the old Monastery saith the Saxon Chronicle in the year 1036 in the making of which was expended the Revenues of one whole year throughout this Kingdom was burnt likewise after which another Monastery was erected which continued till the Expulsion of Monks out of England in the Room of whom there have since been placed here a Dean and twelve Prebendaries The Church is now curiously adorn'd with Monuments of ancient Hero's and Bishops of this See William Wainfleet Founder of Magdalen-College in Oxford lies here Entomb'd with his Heart in his Hand and Cardinal Beaufort and Bishop Gardiner that bloody Scourge to the poor Protestants in Q. Mary's days who did so insatiably thirst for the Blood of Queen Elizabeth but was always cross'd in his most wicked Inclinations there lies also the Lord Weston Earl of Portland whose Monument is of Brass and by him his Father who lies in Marble here is likewise preserved the Chair of State in which Queen Mary was Married to King Philip and near to it lies Entomb'd the Countess of Exeter who was Godmother to King Charles II. and very remarkable is the Chappel of Bp. Fox where he now lies Founder of Corpus Christi-College in Oxford which he built for his own use together with his Study and Press for his Books all in one place in the Quire under a plain flat Marble Stone lies the Body of Will. Rufus This King receiv'd his mortal Wound as he was Hunting in the new Forest by Sir Walter Tyrrel who shooting at a Deer hit this
Prince unawares in the Breast of which he died immediately and was brought hither and buried in this place though afterwards they say his Bones were translated and put into the same Coffin with those of King Canutus At the West End of the Quire stand two Statues in Brass very curiously wrought the one of King James I. and the other of his Son King Charles I. of Blessed Memory but that which is most remarkable in this Cathedral is the rich and famous Monument of William of Wickham who from a mean Beginning by the Favour of Edward III. was created Bishop of Winchester and having after this run likewise through all the Grand Stages of Temporal Honour in this Kingdom though now and then the Wheel of Fortune turn'd very cross against him he by that means became no less a Benefactour to the Church than he still approved himself an Ornament to the State and to perpetuate his Name with the greater Glory to succeeding Generations he built in this City a College and liberally endow'd it for the Education of Youth and for a Seminary to New College in Oxford also founded by him and notwithstanding the great Expences he must needs have been at in Erecting two such large and noble Structures as these were he Re-built likewise the present Body of the Cathedral where his own Body lies Interr'd Nor did all this lessen his Charity or diminish his Hospitality for he fed both Rich and Poor as his Tomb Stone informs us and for all this died exceeding Rich and deceasing in the Reign of King Henry IV. when he was Fourscore years old he bequeathed great Legacies to Persons of all Degrees and gave something at his Death to every Church throughout his Diocess * See the Life of this Great and Worthy Prelate VVrote by Tho. Chandler Chancellour of Oxford Angl. Sacr. Pars a. p. 355. Here is one thing yet further not to be pass'd by in Silence That when King Alfred divided his Kingdom into Counties Hundreds and Tythings he had an Inquisition taken and digested into a Register call'd Dome-boc which was reposited in the Church of Winchester thence call'd Codex Wintoniensis a Model afterward followed by William the Conquerour in his Domes-Day Book which Mr. Kennet observes was for some time kept in the same Church But to return again into our Discourse relating to the City we find it not only to have attain'd a great Eminency for its Religious Houses for its pleasant Gardens for its Brooks and Meadows for its publick and private Edifices for its great Hall wherein the Assizes are usually held for the County of Southampton not to be parallell'd for length and breadth by any throughout this Nation except Westminster but likewise for the true and exact Rules of Equity and Justice which are follow'd and prescrib'd by its chief Magistrates and Governours and before we take our leaves of it we shall add for a Conclusion that as in the time of Athelstane King of the West Saxons that Invincible Hero Guy Earl of Warwick is reported in a single Combat to have slain Colobraild the Danish Giant in Hide-Mead near this City so Waltheof Earl of Northumberland being beheaded here without the Walls in the Reign of William the Conquerour is observ'd as the very first Example of Beheading in this Island Having took a sufficient Prospect of the great Curiosities of this place Surrey we advanc'd forward into Surrey q. d. South Rey from its Situation on the Southside of the Thames the Saxons calling that Rey which we term a River The Skirts of this County are noted for their Fruitfulness and the middle parts for their Barrenness which has occasion'd the saying That Surrey is like a course piece of Cloth with a fine List However in point of Health the middle parts have the advantage besides the Pleasure they yield by their Downs in Hunting and Horse-Races 'T is adorn'd is most places with very stately Palaces of Gentlemen and Merchants who by reason of the Parks well stor'd with Deer and the Rivers replenished with Fish have no Divertisement wanting to recreate their Bodies and gratifie their Senses The first Town of Note we ariv'd at here was Farnham Farnham receiving its Denomination very probably from the great quantity of Fern which grows thereabouts 'T is a Town of no very large Extent but situated in a wholsom Soil and a pleasant Air and for its further Accommodation hath the conveniencies of a Market for those Commodities which the Inhabitants mostly want Here it was that in the year 894 saith the Saxon Chronicle King Alfred routed a great Army of the Danes with a small Party taking from them a considerable Booty and putting them to flight to the River Colne in Essex After this when King Stephen gave a general Toleration for building Castles and Fortresses Henry his Brother then Bishop of Winchester built for himself in this place a magnificent Castle but proving in length a Nursery and Receptacle for Sedition and Rebellion King Henry III. quite demolish'd and pull'd it down though afterwards it was again Re-edified by the Bishops of Winchester to whom it peculiarly belongs and is at present a glorious Seat for the Prelates of that See Guilford Passing from hence through Guilford a Town of good Note seated on the River Wey consisting of three Parishes well frequented and full of fair Inns we observ'd here still the Ruines of a large old Castle near the River and have since learnt That the Saxon Kings had formerly a Royal Mansion here in whose times it was a place of a greater Extent Kingston Coming after this to Kingston a Market-Town of good Resort we were inform'd that it went anciently by the Name of Moreford but after that chang'd its Name to Kingston when it had the Honour to become a place for the Coronation of the Saxon Monarchs Athelstan Edwin and Ethelred being here Crown'd Kings upon an open Stage in the Market-place Richmond And now we began to draw near to our Journies end but calling in at Richmond heretofore call'd Sheen we found it still a Town of a considerable Account though perhaps no less in the Reign of King Edward III. who when he had lived sufficiently both to Glory and Nature died at this very place King Henry VII gave it the Name of Richmond from the Title he bore before he obtain'd the Crown of England and ended his Life here as did after him here likewise the most Glorious and Puissant Queen Elizabeth From hence pacing along by the Noble River Thames which is on both sides of it wonderfully graced with many pleasant Towns and Villages we arriv'd again in safety at the Renown'd Metropolis of England The End of the First Journey To the Right Worshipful George Elcock of Barham Esq One of His Majesty's Justices of the Peace for the County of Kent SIR THE great Civilities you are naturally inclined to shew all Travellers who have seen and
learnt so much abroad your self is a sufficient Encouragement to me to lay these Papers before you not doubting but that they will find a favourable Acceptance from so worthy a Friend whose experienced Candour and Ingenuity makes him so signally Eminent amongst all such who have themselves any true sparks of it What it was that moved me to publish this Itinerary as it will fully appear by the Preface I have prefixed so if I add further that the natural and congenite Propensity that is in Mankind to pay their Regards and shew what Service they can in their Stations and Capacities to their own Native Country in which as Lipsius elegantly expresseth it Infantia vagiit pueritia lusit juventus exercita educata est was the next motive I hope they will jointly be a sufficient Apology for this Topographical performance If I may flatter my self that it will any way gratifie your nice and curious Palate I shall not doubt but it will then find a powerful Advocate to plead for such Slips and Imperfections to which things of this nature may be unwillingly obnoxious however it will fully answer my design if it may be accepted of as a grateful Acknowledgment for the repeated Acts of Kindness conferred upon Your most Humble Servant James Brome AN ACCOUNT OF Mr. BROME'S Three Years TRAVELS OVER England Scotland and Wales A Narrative of his second Journey AFTER some few days respite and abode in London we began a new Progress and passing through Newington Totnam-High-Cross and Edmington Towns of good Note by reason of divers Gentlemen Merchants and rich Citizens that inhabit there we came to Waltham in Essex of which County I shall have occasion to speak more fully hereafter Waltham was of old a small Village Waltham in Essex or rather a desolate place beset with Woods and Briars which one Tovius in the declination of the Saxon Empire a great Courtier and a very wealthy and potent Man first Founded and planted there a Colony of some sixtysix Men afterwards he deceasing Athelstan his Son was deprived of his Patrimony and Edward the Confessor bestowed it upon Harold a great Favourite of his who having taken possession of it constituted in it a Church of Secular Canons and Dedicating it to the Honour of the Holy Cross made his Vows here in hopes of a Victory when he went to fight against William the Conqueror but Harold being slain and his Army quite routed by the Normans his Body was beg'd by his Mother of the Norman Duke and buried in this place After this the same Abby in the Reign of K. Henry II. was by the King's Command much enlarged and Regular Canons placed there to the number of Twenty-four and Dedicated to the Holy Cross and St. Lawrence saith the most Ingenious Mr. Tanner in his Notitia Monastica Richard I. still more augmented it and so did King Henry III. with Fairs and Markets appointing one Fair in the year to last for seven days together Hartfordshire We staid not long here and therefore were presently in Hartfordshire a County every where abounding with fertile Fields sat Pastures shady Groves and pleasant Rivolets and the first Town here of any Remark which presented it self to our View was Ware Ware which was built say Antiquaries by Edward the Senior King of the West Saxons about the year 914. 'T is watered by the River Ley and hath a great Market for all sorts of Grain it is populous and well inhabited by persons of very good Quality and lying in the great Road to London frequented constantly by persons of all degrees and although Hartford be the Eye of the County 't is now inferiour to this place since all Passages for Carriages being there obstructed during the Barons Wars were here freely opened to the great Advantage of this Town But the most remarkable thing in Ware is the New River or Aquaeduct convey'd above 20 Miles together in a continued Channel from this place to Islington from whence the Water thereof is dispersed in Pipes laid along in the Ground for that purpose into abundance of Streets Lanes Courts and Alleys of the City and Suburbs of London the happy Contrivance whereof all the Citizens have daily Experience and ought to Immortalize the Name of their Inventor Sir Hugh Middleton who bestow'd this most excellent Gift upon them and consummated this good Work so useful and beneficial to the City at his own proper Cost and Charges We lay here one Night in the company of some Friends Puckeridge and Barkway who came along hither with us for their Diversion but the next Morning taking a solemn farewell of them we set forward on our Journey and passing thro' Puckeridge and Barkway Towns of good Hospitality and Entertainment for Strangers we were quickly arriv'd within the Precincts of Cambridgeshire This is an extream pleasant open Country Cambridgeshire and a place of such Variety and Plenty that fruitful Geres with a smiling Countenance invites the Industrious Peasant to behold with Joy the Fruits of his Labour whilst she crowns his Industry with a plentiful Harvest and as if the Earth strove not to be behind hand with him in conferring other Largesses she in divers places makes some Annual Additions of another Crop by adorning the Fields with large Productions of Saffron by which great Profits do continually arise Besides here it is that the green Banks of murmuring Rivers and sunny Hills bedeck'd with diversity of Plants and Simples call forth the Students from their musing Cells and teach them Theory as well as Practice by diving into their Natures contemplating their Signatures and considering their Qualities and various Effects In a word here is nothing wanting for Profit or Delight and though the Northern parts of the County towards the Isle of Ely lying somewhat low are moist and Fenny yet that Defect is abundantly supply'd by the Plenty of Cattle Fish and Fowl bred in those Fenns and which makes the Air more healthy the gentle Gales which are frequently stirring drive away all thick Mists and Fogs which in some parts most annoy it and by this means it is become a fit Seat for the Muses to inhabit and we have no reason to complain of the Soil since our Wise Ancestors thought it good and convenient to plant a Colony of Learned Men here and place one of the Eyes of our Nation in this spot of Ground the famous and most glorious University of Cambridge which we could not in Honour pass by without a Visit Cambridge Cambridge was formerly call'd by the Britains Kaergrant and Grantbridge from a fair large Bridge made over the River Grant which is now call'd Cam from whence the Town it self receives its Name It is increased much by the Ruines of Grantchester sometimes a famous City situated a little above a Mile from this place and the Castle that is beyond the River the Ruines of which are still to be seen was built as
this most flourishing College I must not forget the Munificence of some late great Benefactors who by their generous Liberality to it have erected to themselves a more lasting and durable Monument than the Pyramids of Egypt or the Coloss at Rhodes The one was the Right Reverend and Learned Dr. Ward the late Bishop of Salisbury who hath founded here four new Scholarships of Ten Pounds a piece per Annum The other Noble Benefactors were the Honourable Sir John Finch Brother to the Earl of Nottingham sometime Ambassador in Turkey and Sir Thomas Bayns a Physician his Companion and Fellow-Traveller sometime here a Student who at their Death added to the College two more considerable Fellowships and Scholarships for the due encouragement of Learning and lie interred in the Chapel as a signal Testimony of that indissoluble Love and Affection they had always even to the very last for this Learned Society As far the Town of Cambridge it self it is governed by a Mayor who at the entrance into his Office takes a solemn Oath before the Vice-Chancellor to observe and conserve the Privileges Liberties and Customs of the University and as the Assizes for the County are for the most part kept here so 't is observable that one High Sheriff serves for both the Counties of Cambridge and Huntingdon which borders upon it The chief Market every Saturday supplies it well with Corn and plenty of other Provision But nothing is more remarkable nor advantageous to it than the great Fair annually kept within a Mile of it in September called by the name of Sturbridge Fair Sturbridge-Fair from whence it received its denomination is uncertain but this is most certain that of all Fairs or publick Marts in England 't is supposed the largest and best stored with all kind of Wares and Commodities which the Londoners take special care to import hither When you are within the Limits you would rather be ready to imagine your self in some great Town by the variety of Shops and multiplicity of Booths than in a wide open Field Now those Booths are always built for the time in which it lasts which is about a Fortnight Neither are you presented with Booths only upon the Land but with Booths upon the Water too there being particular contrivances in their Boats upon the River which runs hard by this place for Rooms and secret Retirements all covered above for the conveniency of Strangers which resort thither and indeed here is always a great concourse of People from all parts of the Nation Not far from this place appears aloft a certain ridge of Hills called Hog-magog-Hills Hog-magog Hills fortified of old by the Danes when they infested these Parts with a threefold Trench some part whereof is still to be seen Having paid our Devoirs and taken a review of that which affords so great Variety we at last took our farewell and bidding it adieu we betook our selves into its Neighbouring County of Huntingdon Huntingdonshire 't is a fruitful Country both for Corn and Grass towards the East it is waterish and fenny and hath formerly been well beset with Woods In the Reign of King Henry the Second it had a large Forest which he destroyed converting it to other uses 'T is watered by the pleasant Rivers Avon and Ouse which render it very fertile The first Village we arrived at in this County was Fenny-Stanton but found nothing observable till we came to Godmanchester Godmanchester a great Country Town and of as great a Name for Tillage situate in an open Ground of a light Mould and bending for the Sun Here have been observed more stout and lusty Husbandmen and more Ploughs agoing than in any Town besides in England for they make their boast that they have in former times receiv'd the Kings of England as they passed it their Progress this way with Ninescore Ploughs brought forth in a rustical kind of Pomp for a gallant Show Soon after King James the First came into England the Bayliffs of this Town presented him with Seventy Teem of Horses all traced to fair new Ploughs of which when His Majesty demanded the reason he was answered That it was their ancient Custom whensoever any King of England passed through their Town so to present him besides they added That they held their Lands by that Tenure being the King's Tenants His Majesty took it well and bad them make good use of their Ploughs being glad he was Landlord of so many good Husbandmen in one Town Antiquaries do affirm it to have been formerly a flourishing City and not only the old Roman Coins which have been digged up here do attest its Antiquity but its ancient denomination too It was formerly called Duroliponte corruptly for Durosiponte which in the British Language signifies a Bridge over the River Ouse but this Name being antiquated in the Saxons time it began to be called Gormoncester by Gormon the Dane for King Alfred having conquer'd the Danes who had made an Invasion into these Parts reduced them at last to these Conditions either forthwith to give him Pledges that they would immediately depart this Land or else that they would embrace the Christian Religion which latter Proposal being made choice of Guthrus or Gormundus the Danish King with Thirty more of his Nobility was Baptiz'd into the Christian Faith and their Prince adopted by Alfred for his Son who changing his Name to Athelstan appointed him his Station here and committed the Provinces of the East-Angles and Northumbers to his peculiar Charge And if it be likewise allowed that one Machutus was here Bishop when it was called Gumicastrum hou quantum mutatur 'T is certainly now reduced to a poor and despicable Condition to what it could then glory of in former Generations Huntingdon Huntingdon is about a Mile distant from this place and is the chief Town of the County situate upon the River Ouse over which stands a Bridge made of Stone which gives entrance into it the Houses are fair and the Streets large 't is adorn'd with Four Churches and had formerly a Benedictine Nunnery dedicated to St. James saith the Notitia Monastica and a Priory of Black Canons founded about the Year 1140 to the honour of St. Mary by Eustace de Luvetot some of the Ruins whereof are still to be seen Near the River upon a high Hill stands the remains of a Castle which was built about the Year of Christ 917 by Edward the Senior Afterwards David King of Scots waging War against King Stephen upon the account of Mawd the Empress who was his Neice this was surrendred upon some certain Conditions to the Scots King who did exceedingly beautifie and strengthen it by making strong Rampires and Fortifications about it but Henry the Second finding it in process of time a Cage only for Rebels and Ringleaders of Sedition at last quite demolished it and from the top of this Hill is a very pleasant Prospect for the space
divers though his too great Familiarity with the Queen his unpardonable Treachery to the King and his secret Services to David King of Scots were the chief having burnt the very Charters by which the Scotch King stood obliged to do Homage to the King of England and thereupon ensued a great War betwixt them for King David being spurred on by the French King invaded England and having made a great Inroad into the Northern Counties spoiling and burning all Places as he came along at length at Durham his Army was routed and himself taken Prisoner being first sent to the Tower afterwards committed to this Castle where during his Confinement he engraved upon the Walls of his Apartment the History of our Blessed Saviour's Death and Passion some of the Relicts of which are still there to be seen After Eleven Years Imprisonment he was restored again to his Kingdom by paying a good Ransom for his Liberty but before he returned he was one of the Four Kings that was nobly treated by Henry Picard a Vintner then Lord Mayor of London King Edward the Third John King of France and the King of Cyprus together with Edward the Black Prince all bearing him Company at the same Table This was about the Year 1358. But before I leave this Town I cannot but take notice of one thing more memorable in our Age this being the first place where King Charles the First set up his Royal Standard against the Rebels in the late unhappy Wars and when the King's Forces were forced to leave it the Castle was then quite demolished but of late it hath been curiously rebuilt beautified and furnished by his Grace the Duke of Newcastle Having pleasured our selves with the Antiquities of this Town we took Horse and went to visit the Well and ancient Chair of Robin Hood Robin Hood's Well and Chair in Sherwood Forest which is not far from hence within the Forest of Sherwood Being placed in the Chair we had a Cap which they say was his very formally put upon our Heads and having perform'd the usual Ceremonies befitting so great a Solemnity we receiv'd the freedom of the Chair and were incorporated into the Society of that Renowned Brotherhood But that we may not receive such Privileges without an honourable mentioning of the Persons that left them to Posterity know we must that the Patent was bequeathed to the inferiour Rangers of this Forest by Robin Hood and Little John honourable Personages indeed being the chief Lords of some most Renowned Robbers in the Reign of King Richard the First who descended from good Families as some averr but having wasted their Estates betook themselves afterward to such profligate Courses This same Robin Hood entertained One hundred tall Men all good Archers with the Spoil he daily made himself Master of upon whom Four hundred though very well accoutred to give Battel durst scarce make an Onset He suffered no Woman to be violated oppressed or any ways molested poor Mens Goods he spared and did relieve the necessitous very liberally with what he got from rich Carls and Misers he killed none willfully and by this means he did for a long time keep up the Order of his Knight Errants till King Richard issuing out a Proclamation to apprehend him it happened that he fell sick at a certain Benedictine Nunnery in Yorkshire called Kirkeley built by Reynerus Flandrensis to the Honour of the Blessed Virgin where being desirous to be let Blood he was betrayed and made bleed to Death Having for some short time pleased our selves with our new Fraternity we equipped again for a Journey and proceeded to find out new Adventures We travelled over the wide and desolate Forest of Sherwood for several Miles together but met with no place of any Note till we arrived at Alfretton Alfretton a Town within the Precincts of Darbyshire 't is a Market-Town and of considerable Antiquity being supposed first to have shewn its Head in the time of the Saxons and to have received its primary rise from the Noble and Heroick King Alfred The Inhabitants here as in divers other places of this County make a sort of Liquor which they call Ale which is very strong and nappy which as it hath been the old drink of England coming from the Danish word Oela so questionless in it self it is a very wholesom and sound sort of Drink and therefore however it pleased a Poet in the time of Henry the Third thus to descant on it Nescio quid monstrum Stygiae conforme paludi Cervisiam plerique vocant nil spissius illa Dum bibitur nil clarius est dum mingitur ergo Constat quod multas feces in ventre relinquit In English thus Of this strange Drink so like the Stygian Lake Men call it Ale I know not what to make Folk drink it thick and piss it very thin Therefore much Dregs must needs remain within I think it not amiss to invert a little his Stanza's in the Reign of King William the Third thus Nescio quid Stygiae monstrum conforme paludi Cervisiam plerique vocant nil spissius unquam Quam caput illius qui sic depinxerat unde Constat quod saeces quia non epota reliquit In English again thus They that will have our Ale so like the Lake Of Styx I know not what of them to make Their Skulls are thick nor can be rinsed clear If Ale ben't drank but dregs will still appear After a little pause we rode on two or three Miles further Darbyshire till we came into the edge of those wide and dangerous Moors which extend many Miles both in length and breadth throughout this County where being several Bogs and dangerous Rocks which do much annoy the Roads that lie through them and the Roads themselves very cross and irksom to Strangers we resolved to take a Guide to conduct us safe over them and the Guide we happened to make choice of was a plain but sensible Peasant going homeward with his Cart loaded with Stones the poor Man readily complied with our Proposals whereupon taking a Horse out of his own Team and leaving the rest to graze thereabouts till his return our Pilot began to steer forward As we rode along we became very inquisitive after the nature of the Soil and the modes of the Country of which our Guide gave us the best account which he could The Country saith he Eastward is fruitful and pleasant abounding with all sorts of Grain but more particularly with Barley which makes many of the Inhabitants considerable Maltsters but the Western into which we are now entring and is commonly called the Peak is Mountainous as you see and Rocky though Nature makes a sufficient amends for the Barrenness of the Soil by her hidden Treasures which are here frequently discovered It s length from North to South is about 30 Miles and its breadth about 20 and the Moors upon which we now are are of an unknown Longitude
akin to the famous Bell called Great Tom of Lincoln we went to view the Slitting Mills which slit Iron in sunder being but a small distance from this place but the noise was so terrible before we came at them that one would have thought the Clouds had been running Re-encounters and Jove with his Thunder-Claps had utterly prohibited us any further access and when we came near there was such flashes of Lightning such hot Vapours and Steams that we might justly conclude we were got within the Territories of Vulcan and that these were some of the Cyclopean Race who were here employed to hammer out their Livings with Fire and Smoke the Wheels of the Mill are put in motion by a current of Water that streams along by it the Hammers which are continually redoubling their strokes are ponderous and massy and the Men which are at work seem to be in no happier a Condition than they who dig at the Mines or tug at the Galleys for they work Night and Day after so indefatigable a manner that the very Heat preys upon their Bodies and shortens their Days the place was soon too hot for us and the noise too troublesom and therefore we journeyed on to visit more of the County The Country appear'd to us no less pleasant than its Neighbours Shropshire and is of a wholesom and temperate Air affording Health to the Inhabitants at all Seasons of the Year this was sufficiently verified in old Thomas Parr of Alderbury who lived 152 Years and saw no less than ten Reigns he was born here in 1483 in the Reign of Edward the Fourth and died in 1635 and lies buried at Westminster The Soil is generally fertile standing most upon a reddish Clay and yields plenty of Pit-Coals and Iron and has ever been in great repute for its populous Towns and Castles for bordering upon Wales the Noblemen here and Persons of Quality were very sollicitous to preserve themselves secure against any Incursions of the Welsh and hereupon they fortified their Houses to prevent all Dangers and this dividing England from Wales was call'd the Marches for the defence of which the Lords here and Gentlemen have enjoy'd formerly very great Privileges and Immunities but since the Union of these two Kingdoms as all Hostilities have ceased so their ancient Rights and Privileges are not now so much insisted on Here are found in divers parts of this County several large Elms and other Trees under Ground which have been supposed to lie there ever since the General Deluge they are so dry that being slit into small shivers they burn like Candles and are made use of sometimes by the poorer sort instead of the other Shrewsbury In the midst of the County upon the Banks of the Severne is seated upon a Hill the famous City of Shrewsbury by the Britains named Caerpengren by the Saxons called Scrobbesbirig and by the Normans Sloppesbury and Salop 't is almost surrounded with the River and strengthened with a large and broad Wall where in some places two or three may walk abreast and upon that part of it which looks towards Wales stands the Water-House in which is a Well many fathoms deep from which the Water drawn up there by Horses in great Buckets is conveyed by Pipes into all parts of the City there being convenient steps contrived from the bottom of the Ground to the top of the Well for the Beasts to go forward and backward from their accustom'd Labours Roger Montgomery in the Reign of William the Conqueror built on the North-side of it a strong Castle and founded here A. D. 1083. a Benedictine Abbey to the Honour of St. Peter and St. Paul Besides which here were likewise two Colleges of St. Mary and St. Chad. The School was Founded by the most Heroick Queen Elizabeth which being a fair and uniform Structure built of Free-stone is govern'd by a Master and two Ushers and well furnished with a useful Library As to the neatness of its Streets and Buildings it yields to few other Cities in England and for publick Devotion it has five Parish Churches two of which are beautified with lofty Spires the City is governed by a Mayor Recorder and two Sheriffs who live generally in great Repute and Grandeur and the three Market-Days which are here every Week cause a very great Concourse both of the Welsh and other Persons and occasions a considerable Trade in this place Near to which a sharp Battel was fought A. D. 1673. between Henry IV. and Henry Piercy Earl of Northumberland which place was called Battle-Field where the King erected a College of Secular Canons to the Honour of St. Mary Magdalen for the Honour of that Victory But I must not omit to speak of one thing more that in the Year 1551 the Sweating-Sickness which destroyed so many breaking forth first here dispersed it self at length over the whole Nation Passing from hence we rode through Stretton Stretton ten Miles distant from this City and there being three of them which join close to one another Little-Stretton Church-Stretton and All-Stretton the middlemost being a Market Town is of greatest Note But finding here nothing to detain us we made no stop till we arrived at Ludlow Ludlow the chief Town in this County 't is of greater Antiquity than Beauty situated by the River Corve defended by a Wall and Castle both built by Roger Earl of Montgomery When Robert de Belasme Earl of Shrewsbury and Son to Montgomery was taken Prisoner in his Rebellion against Henry the First the King then seised it after this it was given away from the Crown by Henry the Second and came into the Possession of the Lacys from thence to the Mortimers and at last it became the Inheritance of the Princes of Wales and by this means beginning to come into great Repute the Inhabitants erected here a very stately Church so that in a little time it excelled all its Neighbourhood Kenry Henry the Eighth instituting here the Council of the Marches Here was Young Edward the Fifth at the Death of his Father and here died Prince Arthur eldest Son of Henry the Seventh both being sent hither by their Fathers for the same end viz. by their Presence to satisfie and keep in order the unruly Welsh But before I leave this County I must not forget Pitchford Pitchford a Village very eminent for its Well of Pitch which though it be scumm'd off returns again and swims aloft upon the Surface of the Water Cambden is of Opinion that it is rather a Bituminous kind of Matter such as is in the Lake Asphaltites in Palestine or in a Fountain by the Hill Agragas in Sicily however the Inhabitants are said to make the same use of it which they do of Pitch but whether like that in Jewry it hath the same Balsamick Virtues of drawing out Corruption or healing Wounds or is of any efficacy against the Falling-Sickness I have yet met with none
Mart which in the Month of May holds constantly a Forthight which causing all kinds of Commodities to be brought hither is no less advantageous to the Town than commodious to the Neighbourhood who by this means may provide themselves of all Necessaries at a very reasonable Rate And for the better Government of the Town a Mayor was placed here by Queen Elizabeth which keeps the Town in a good Decorum and Order We removed our Quarters from this place to York which being the Metropolis of the County as well as the Ornament and Safe-guard of the Northern Regions is but one days Journey remote from it York York formerly stiled by the Britains Caer-Ebrank from King Ebrank the first Founder of it and Euerwick by the Saxons from the River Vre or Ouse is for its Magnificence very deservedly reputed the second City of England the situation of it is mighty pleasing and delightful and the Buildings both private and publick stately and beautiful 't is rich and populous glorious and honourable both in respect of its being governed by a Lord Mayor who moderates in all cases of temporal Affairs as also by an Arch-Bishop who is Chief Judge in all Spiritual Matters The River Ouse flowing with a gentle Stream from the North divides the City into two Parts which yet are conjoined by a strong Stone Bridge consisting of five Arches one of which is of so large a size that it contains twice the breadth of any of the other And round the City stands a thick and spacious Wall and as on the West side 't is fortified with a Wall and River together and a great Gate which is called Mikel Bar near to which is the Mount called the Old Bale raised and designed for a Fort by William Melton Arch-Bishop of this See so on the East side opposite to the Mount stands an ancient Castle built by William the Conqueror which is environ'd with a strong Wall and a deep Mote over which is a Draw-Bridge which gives entrance into it here is usually a small Garrison supplied by a Regiment of Soldiers which Quarters about the City and hath some great Guns and Ammunition suitable for the Defence of it Here are now but Seventeen Parish Churches though formerly there were Thirty and towards the North-East stands the Cathedral dedicated to St. Peter being one of the most magnificent and stately Fabricks in our native Soil near to which is the Prince's House called commonly the Mannor-House This Church was first Founded by Paulinus who converted Edwyn King of the Northumbers and his People to the Christian Faith about the Year 626. It was then a mean Oratory built only of Wood but as we are informed by the Saxon Chronicle the King constituting Paulinus the first Bishop of this See ordered him to build a more ample Structure of Stone but he dying before the whole was finished it was at last compleated by Oswald afterward according to the various Successes and Conquests of the Nation it flourished or decayed till the Reign of King Stephen when a sudden Fire breaking out in the City amongst other great Buildings consumed this too together with a noble Library founded at first here by Egbert Arch-Bishop of York from whence Alcuinus the Preceptor of Charles the Great and Founder of the University of Paris borrowed those Lights which have since glittered there a Library which was stiled by the Men of those Days the Cabinet of Arts and Closet of all the Liberal Sciences In this forlorn Condition it continued and lay buried in its Ashes till the Reign of Edward the First when John Roman Treasurer of the Church laid the Foundation * The Notitia Monastica informs us That Thomas the first Norman Arch-Bishop A. D. 1067. laid the Foundation of the stately Cathedral that now is for a new Superstructure which afterward by the Munificence of William Melton and John Thursby both Arch-Bishops hereof together with the liberal Contributions of divers Persons amongst the Nobility and Gentry especially of the Piercies and Vavasors which their Arms and Images at the West end of the Church pourtray'd the one with Timber in their Hands as finding it Timber the other with Stones as supplying it with Stone doth declare recovered its Lustre and Dignity that it hath now justly the Pre-eminence above all others and outvies all its Neighbours in Art and Stateliness As for the Windows which convey Light to the whole Fabrick they are very admirable for their Workmanship all the Panes of Glass being exquisitely painted and adorned with most curious Colours and in the East Window is pourtray'd to the Life the History of the Bible in very lively Representations The Isles of the Church are large and spacious the Pillars strong and uniform and the whole Body adorned with the Monuments of several Persons of Quality and Renown who have lived and died in these Parts amongst which is interred Mr. Swinborn the great Civilian who wrote concerning Wills and Testaments on whose Tomb this Epitaph is engraved Non viduae caruere viris non patre pupillus Dum stetit hic Patriae Virque Paterque suae At quod Swinburnus viduarum scripsit in usum Longius aeterno marmore vivet opus Scribere supremas hinc discat quisque tabellas Et cupiat qui sic vixit ut Ille mori The Superstructure above is made with great Raftures of Timber which are covered with Lead raised Spire-wise and upon one of the Turrets is placed a Lanthorn Seventy Foot square which discovers it self at a great distance to be a beautiful Ornament and there are 286 Steps which lead up to it The Quire is well Roof'd and curiously furnished with all decent Habiliments and the Chapter-House is as famous and remarkable being circular and one and twenty Yards Diameter raised by many Pillars and finished by an Arch or Concave on the top having no Column at all to support it in the middle and indeed 't is so glorious a place that it justly deserves the Character which is written upon the Roof of it in golden Characters Vt Rosa flos florum sie est domus ista domorum In the Vestry upon the left hand is a little Well of pure Water called St. Peter's-Well in the times of Popery supposed to have been of great Virtue and Efficacy in charming Evil Spirits and curing of Diseases but it may be his Holiness since the Extirpation of his Papal Authority in these Parts hath laid an interdict upon its healing Faculty since which time it hath ceased no doubt in Reverence to St. Peter's Successor from any such miraculous Operations The first Original of this Church's Metropolitanism was from Pope Honorius at which time it had not only a Superiority over Twelve Bishopricks in England but its Primacy was dilated over all the Bishops of Scotland too but in process of time Scotland having exempted it self from its Jurisdiction other places likewise did the same so that there are only now left
afterward Earl of Northumberland pretending to deliver to him the Keys of the Castle upon the top of a Spear ran him through the left Eye * Mowbray was for that reason called afterward Pearce-Eie of which he died immediately and so relieved the Town again from all Extremity and his Son Prince Edward coming hither to revenge his Father's Death met with the same fatal Doom After this in the Reign of King Henry the Second the English Forces behaved themselves so bravely that they took Prisoner William King of Scots and presented him as a Captive to their Victorious Prince having fortified this place with a strong Garrison and in the Reign of King Edward the Fourth the Scots coming against it with another Army were in hopes to have taken it but the English Army retreating as if they had deserted it by that means discouraged the Scots from any further Onsets who supposing it to have been a Stratagem of the English and that they had only retreated Scythico more the more easily to entrap them very fairly left it to the possession of those Persons in which at first they found it Bamborough Castle Ten Miles further upon the Sea stands the Castle of Bamborough called formerly Bebbanbur from Queen Bebba who gave it that name Some Writers say that it was built by King Ebrank others by Ida * Saxon Cron. A. D. 547. the first King of Northumberland who fenced it at first with great Stakes and Piles of Timber and afterwards with a Wall It was one of the Receptacles of Robert Mawbray Earl of Northumberland in his Rebellion against King William Rufus over against which the King plac'd a Fort to annoy him which it did so effectually that it forced him to desert it In the Reign of Edward the Fourth when the Scots invaded England in the behalf of Queen Margaret they took this Castle but were quickly dispossessed of it by the English Forces who recovered it again for the King's Service and delivered up the Governor Sir Ralph Grey to the King who was afterward executed for holding it out against his Sovereign but both its Beauty and Strength began visibly to decay during the Wars betwixt York and Lancaster and since that Time and Age have more prevailed against it than all the Attacks of its most furious Enemies for the Rampires are broken down and the Trenches filled up and there is little now remaining of that famous Fortress About a League from this Castle we saw Farne-Island Farne-Island being a little spot of Land inclosed with the Ocean and encircled about with craggy Cliffs which render it almost every where inaccessible Hither did St. Cuthbert about the Year 676 retire from Lindisfarne for Devotion desiring to sequester himself from the rest of the World where for nine Years together he lived a very solitary and religious Life till by the great importunity of King Eegfrid and Trumwine Bishop of the Picts who came hither to him for that very intent and purpose he was at last persuaded to remove to Hexham where he succeeded Bishop Eata in that See After two Years spent in this Bishoprick this Holy Man foreseeing his Death approaching betook himself again to this very Island where in the space of two Months through the Malignancy of his Distemper he at last breathed out his pious Soul on the 20th of March A. D. 687. We once resolved to visit this place but the unseasonableness of the Weather which happened at that time prohibited our Passage the Wind being so high and the Sea so rough that none of their small Cobble Boats durst venture off to Sea but we were inform'd that there was then but one House standing upon the Island and continually such flocks of wild Fowl who laid generally in that place that it was not possible to walk far upon it without treading upon some of their Eggs of which here the Fishermen make a considerable advantage by selling them abroad to the Neighbourhood they are of all sizes and colours we saw some that were much speckled about the bigness of Hens Eggs and some larger than the Eggs of our ordinary Turkeys and Geese but both were no less pleasing and grateful to the Palate As to the Air of this place whatever it was formerly it is now reputed very unhealthy subject to the Dysentery or Bloody Flux and other Diseases by reason of the frequent Fogs that happen here and 't is no less troubled with Tempests of Wind Storms of Rain and Rage of the Sea the Soil is barren and good for little but what is gotten from the Fowl and the Fish which swim in shoals round about it Berwick upon Tweed We coasted on for Berwick which is one of the strongest Holds in all Britain and is almost environed with the Sea and the River Tweed whence the Town took its name is not so well agreed upon as that 't is a large and populous Town well Built and strongly Fortified 't is situated betwixt the two great Kingdoms of England and Scotland and hereupon was always the first place they took care of whenever they began to be at open variance with each other and according to the various and inconstant Successes ef each Nation hath been held in possession by one and sometimes kept under the power of the other Before the Reign of Henry the Second we find little or nothing Recorded of it for William King of Scots being taken Prisoner by the English did first surrender it into King Henry's hands upon condition that unless by such a day he paid the Ransom that was demanded for his Liberty it should always belong to the Crown of England hereupon the King built a Castle to strengthen it all which was afterward released to the Scots by King Richard the First upon the payment of that Money which before had been promised Afterward King John upon a great distast he took against the Northumbers for doing homage to the Scotch King won it again and not many Years after when Baliol King of Scots had violated his Oath King Edward the First brought it under his Subjection yet within a while after when the Fortune of the War began to smile upon the Scots it was unawares surprized but in a few days the English regained it afterward in that loose Reign of Richard the Second it was betrayed to the Scots and for a long time after it was in vain besieged by the English Forces until King Edward the Third that most Puissant Prince came thundering against it and forced his entrance Notwithstanding in the Reign of Richard the Second the Castle was surprized by certain Scotch Robbers but they could not hold it long for the Earl of Northumberland in a few days dislodged them of their Fortress Scarce seven Years were over passed when the Scots recovered it again not by force but by Money for which cause the aforesaid Earl was Impeached of High Treason but he being a very politick Man
of the Country of March March and Lothien which lies upon the German Sea we came to Lothien called from the Picts formerly Pict-land shooting out along from March into the Scotish Sea and having many Hills in it and little Wood but for fruitful Corn-fields for courtesie and civility of Manners commanded by some above all other Countries of Scotland about the Year 873 Edgar King of England between whom and Kenneth the Third King of Scots there was a great knot of alliance against the Danes their common Enemies resigned up his right to him in this Country and to unite his Heart more firmly to him he gave unto him some mansion Houses in the way as Cambden observes out of Matthew Florilegus wherein both he and his successors in their coming to the Kings of England and in their return homeward might be lodged which unto the time of King Henry the Second continued in the Hands of the Scotch King The first Town of any consequence that offered it self unto us was Dunbar famous formerly for a strong Castle being the seat of the Earls of March afterwards Styled Earl of Dunbar Dunbar a fort many times won by the English and as oft recovered by the Scots And in the Reign of Edward the Third the Earls of Salisbury and Arundel came into Scotland with a great Army and besieged the Castle of Dunbar Two and twenty Weeks wherein at that time was black Agnes the Countess who defended the same with extraordinary Valour one time when the Engine called the Sow was brought by the English to play against the Castle she replyed merrily that unless England could keep her Sow better she would make her to cast her Pigs and indeed did at last force the Generals to retreat from that place The Town stands upon the Sea and hath been fenced in with a stone Wall of great strength though by the frequent batteries it hath of late Years received 't is much impaired and gone to decay the Houses here as generally in most Towns of Scotland are built with Stone and covered with Slate and they are well supplyed with provision by reason of a weekly Market which is held here The Inhabitants are governed by a Mayor and Aldermen and talk much of great losses and calamities they sustained in the late Civil Wars for in this place was that fatal battle fought betwixt Oliver Cromwel and the Scots wherein he routed and cut in pieces twenty thousand Scots with twelve thousand English Men and obtain'd so strange and signal a Victory that the very Thoughts of it do to this very Day still strike a terror into them when e'er they call that bloody Day to remembrance and think what great havock and Spoil was made amongst them by the Victorious success of the English forces Edenburgh Our next Quarters we took up at Edinburgh which is the Metropolis of Scotland and lies about twenty Miles distance from Dunbar The Irish Scots call this City Dun-eaden the Town Eaden or Eaden Hill and which no doubt is the same that Ptolomy calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the winged Castle for as Cambden observes Adain in the British Tongue signifies a Wing and Edenbourn a Word compounded out of the Saxon and British Language is nothing else but a Burgh with Wings 'T is situated high and extends above a Mile in length carrying half as much in breadth it consists of one fair and large Street with some few narrow lanes branching out of each side 't is environed on the East South and West with a strong Wall and upon the North strengthned with a Loch 'T is adorned with stately Stone buildings both private and publick some of which Houses are six or seven Stories high which have frequently as many different apartments and Shops where are many Families of various Trades and calling by reason of which 't is well throng'd with Inhabitants and is exceeding Populous which is the more occasioned by the neighborhood of Leith which is a commodious Haven for Ships and likewise because as 't is the seat of their Kings or Vice-Roys so 't is also the Oracle or Closet of the Laws and the Palace of Justice The King's Palace On the East side or near to the Monastery of St. Cross that was a Holy Rood is the King's Palace which was built by King David the First but being much ruinated and impaired in the late unhappy broils betwixt the two Kingdoms it hath been since enlarged and beautified and is now become a Stately and Magnificent structure And not far from this House within a pleasant Park adjoyning to it riseth a Hill with two Heads called of Arthur the Britain Arthur's Chair Arthur's Chair A little further stands the College Founded and Endowed by that most eminent Favourer of Learning the Wise and Learned King James the Sixth The College though afterward the Magistrates and Citizens of this place proved likewise very considerable Benefactors to it and upon their humble Address to the same Prince it was made an University A. D. 1580 but the Privileges hereof were not fully confirmed and throughly perfected till the Year 1582 and have been since the same with those of any other University in this Kingdom The Dignity of Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor doth reside in the Magistrates and Town Council of Edenburgh who are the only Patrons neither was the Dignity they say as yet ever conferred upon any simple Person The Persons endowed were a Principal or Warden a Professor of Divinity four Masters or Regent for so they are called of Philosophy a Professor or Regent of Humanity or Philology Since the first Foundation the Town hath added a Professor of Hebrew 1640 and the City of Edenburgh hath since added a Professor of Mathematicks The Library was founded by Clement Little one of the Officials or Comissaries for Edenburgh A. D. 1635. The Library since which time it is much increased both by donatives from the Citizens as also from the Scholars who are more in number than in any other College in the Kingdom and here were presented to our view two very great Rarities the one was a Tooth taken out of a great Scull being four Inches about and the other was a crooked Horn taken from a Gentlewoman of the City who was fifty Years old being eleven Inches long which grew under her right Ear and was cut out by an eminent Chirurgeon then living in the Town who presented it to the College Their Churches and Parliament Houses About the middle of the City stands the Cathedral which is now divided into six sermon Houses for which Service there are seven other Kirks set apart besides and not far from the Cathedral is the Parliament House whither we had the good Fortune to see all the flower of the Nobility then to pass in state attending Duke Lauderdale who was sent down High-Commissioner And indeed it was a very Glorious sight for they were all richly Accoutred
and as nobly attended with a splendid Retinue the Heralds of Arms and other Officers that went before were wonderful gay and finely habited and the Servants that attended were clad in the richest Liveries their Coaches drawn with six Horses as they went ratling along did dazle our Eyes with the splendour of their furniture and all the Nobles appeared in the greatest Pomp and Gallantry the Regalia which are the Sword of State the Scepter and the Crown were carried by three of the antientest of the Nobility and on each side the Honours were three Mace-Bearers bare headed a Noble-man bare headed with a Purse and in it the Lord High Commissioner's Commission then last of all the Lord High Commissioner with the Dukes and Marquesses on his Right and Left Hand it is ordered that there be no Shooting under the highest penalties that Day neither displaying of Ensigns nor beating of Drums during the whole Cavalcade The Officers of State not being Noblemen ride in their Gowns all the Members ride covered except those that carry the Honours and the highest Degree and the most Honourable of that degree rid last Nor is their grandeur disproportionate to their demeanour which is high and stately but courteous and obliging having all the additional helps of Education and Travel to render it accomplish'd for during their Minority there is generally great care taken to refine their Nature and emprove their Knowlege of which when they have attain'd a a competent measure in their own Country they betake themselves to foreign Nations to make a further progress therein where they do generally become so great proficients that at their return they are by this means fitted for all great Services and Honourable employments which their King or Country is pleased to commit to their care and fidelity and are thereby enabled to discharge them with great Honour and applause On the West side a most steep Rock mounteth up aloft to a great height every way save where it looks towards the City The Castle on which is placed a Castle built by Ebrank the Son of Mempitius as some Write though others by Cruthneus Camelon the first King of the Picts about 330 Years before the Birth of our Saviour 't is so strongly fortified both by art and Nature that it is accounted impregnable which the Britains called Myned Agned the Scots the Maiden Castle of certain young Maids of the Picts Royal Blood which were kept here in old time and which in truth may seem to have been that Castrum alatum or Castle with a Wing before spoken of In this Castle is one of the largest Canons in Great Britain called Roaring Megg which together with two tire of Ordinance besides planted upon the Wall can command the City and all the Plains thereabouts but most famous is it in that Queen Mary was brought to Bed here of a Son who was afterward Christened at Sterling and called James who at last became the Happy Uniter of the two Crowns and in that Chamber in which he was Born are written upon the Wall these following Verses in an old Scotch Character James 6. Scot. 1. England Laird Jesu Christ that crown it was with Thorns Preserve the Birth qubais badgir here is Borne And send hir Son Succession to Reign still Lange in this Realm if that it be thy will Al 's grant O Laird quhat ever of hir proceed Be to thy glory honour and praise so beed July 19. 1566. A little below the Castle is a Curious Structure built for an Hospital by Mr. Herriot The Hospital Jeweller to the aforementioned King James and endowed with very great Revenues for the use of poor Orphans and impotent and decrepit Persons but by the ruinous and desolate Condition it seem'd at that time to be falling into it became to us a very doleful Spectacle that so noble a heroick design of Charity should be so basely perverted to to other Evil Ends and purposes contrary to the Will and intention of the Donor The City is governed by a Lord-Provost who hath always a Retinue befitting his Grandeur and for the punishing delinquents there is a large Tolbooth Tolbooth for so they call a Prison or House of Correction where all Malefactors are kept in hold to satisfie the Law as their Offences shall require Within seven Miles round the City there are of Noble and Gentlemens Palaces Castles and strong-builded Towers and Stone houses as we were inform'd above an hundred and besides the Houses of the Nobility and Gentry within it here dwell several Merchants of great Credit and repute where because they have not the conveniency of an Exchange as in London they meet about Noon in the High-street from whence they adjourn to their Changes i. e. Taverns or other places where their business may require them to give their Attendance The Fortune of this City hath in former Ages been very variable and inconstant It s variable Changes sometime it was Subject to the Scots and another while to the English who inhabited the East parts of Scotland until it became wholly under the Scots Dominion about the Year 960 when the English being over-poured and quite oppressed by the Danes were enforced to quit all their interest here as unable to grapple with two such potent Enemies A Mile from the City lies Leith a most commodious Haven hard upon the River Leith Leith which when Dessry the Frenchman for the security of Edenburgh had fortified very strongly by reason of a great Concourse of People which after this Flocked hither in abundance in a short time from a mean Village it grew to be a large Town In the Reign of our King Henry the Eighth the Sufferings and Calamities both of it and its Neighbours were grievous and inexpressible being both Burnt and plundred by Sir John Dudly Viscount Lisle Lord High Admiral of England who came hither with a puissant Army and broke down the Peer burning every stick thereof and took away all the Scotch Ships that were fit to serve him which kind of Execution was done likewise at Dunbar afterward when Francis King of France had taken to Wife Mary Queen of Scots the Frenchmen who in hope and conceit had already devoured Scotland and began now to gape for England A. D. 1560. strengthned it again with new fortifications But Queen Elizabeth solicited by the Nobles who had embraced the Protestant Religion to side with them by her Wisdom and Prowess so effected the matter that the French were enforced to return into their own Country and all their fortifications were laid level with the Ground and Scotland hath ever since been freed from the French and Leith hath become a very opulent and flourishing Port for the Peer is now kept up in so good repair and the Haven so safe for Ships to ride in that here commonly lieth a great Fleet at anchor which come hither Richly laden with all sorts of Commodities After we had spent
Scruffel wotes full of that And there goes also this usual By-Word concerning the height as well of this Hill as of the other two Skiddaw Lanvellin and Casticand Are the highest Hills in all England Nay so liberal to it is Nature in the distribution of her largesses that she seems to have enriched it with every thing that may any way be conducible to Health as well as Wealth for here are such Varieties of vulnerary Plants which grow plentifully in these parts especially near to the Picts-Wall that in the beginning of Summer many Persons that are curious in these things come hither out of Scotland on purpose to Simple here are likewise upon the Sea-Coast very frequently discovered Trees at Low-water which have been covered with Sand and that in many other mossy places of the Shire they digg up Trees without boughs and that by the directions of the dew they say in Summer which they observe ne'er stands upon that Ground under which they lie At Carlile wee took up our first qaarters in this Province Carlile an ancient City very commodiously situated 't is guarded on the North side with the River Eden on the East with Peterial and on the West with Cawd and besides these Natural fences 't is fortified with a strong Wall with a Castle and a Cittadel the Fashion of it is long running out from West to East on the West side is the Castle of a large compass which King Richard the Third as appears by his Coat of Arms repaired and on the East the Cittadel built by Henry the Eighth In the middle almost of the City riseth on high the Cathedral Church being formerly a stately and Magnificent Structure adorned with rich Copes and other sacred Garments and Vessels and two Unicorns Horns of great Value which by an ancient custom were placed here upon the Altar but now deplores the want of part of its Body being ruined by a wicked War whilst it was only intended for a House of Prayer and Peace It was first founded by Walter Deputy of these parts for King William Rufus and by him dedicated to the Blessed Virgin but finished and endowed by King Henry the First out of the Wealth which the said Walter had amassed for that purpose The Romans and Britains called this place Lugoballum that is saith Cambden the fort by the Wall which Name it derived probably from that famous military vallum or Trench which stands apparent a little from the City and that it flourished exceedingly in the time of the Romans the famous mention of it in those Days and diverse remains of Antiquity which have been here frequently discovered do sufficiently attest After the departure of the Romans it suffered extreamly by the insolent outrages of the Scots and Picts and afterward being almost quite ruined by the Danes it lay about two hundred Years buried in its own Ashes until it began again to flourish under the government and by the favour of King William Rufus who as the Saxon Chronicle tells us A. D. 1092 coming hither with a great Army repaired the City and built the Castle driving from hence the Daulphin of France who had got too sure footing in some of those Northern parts and planted here a new Colony of Flemmings say some Historians whom presently upon better advice he removed into Wales and setled in their room a more useful plantation of Southern English-men After this here having been formerly a Covent of Monks and a Nunnery built by St. Cuthbert A. D. 686. which were both destroyed by the Danes King Henry the First established here the Episcopal See * A. D. 1135. saith Mr. Wharton Ang. Sacr. Tom. 1. P. 699. and made Athulph Priory of St. Oswalds his Confessor Bishop hereof and endowed it with many Honours and emoluments in the successive Reigns of our Kings it was Subject to great casualties and misfortunes the Scots won it from King Stephen and King Henry the Second recovered it again in the Reign of Edward the First the City and Priory with all the Houses belonging to it were consum'd by Fire and a little after King Edward the Second came to the Crown all the Northern parts from Carlile to York fell under the subjection of the Scots at which time our Chronicles tell us that the English by their faint-heartedness grew so Vile and Despicable that three Scots durst venture upon an hundred English when a hundred English durst hardly encounter with three Scots but under victorious King Edward the Third the Englishmen pluck'd up their Spirits and recovered their ancient Valour enforcing the Scots to quit all their strong holds and retire back again to their own Territories and Dominions nevertheless this City with the parts adjacent were frequently pestered by Scotch Invasions till the happy Union of the two Crowns since which time it is grown more Populous and opulent being governed by a Mayor and having the Assizes and Sessions held here for that County Salkelds We rode away from Carlile by Salkelds upon the River Eden where is a trophy of Victory as is supposed called by the Country People Long Megg ' and her Daughters being seventy seven Stones each of them ten Foot high above Ground and one of them viz. Long Megg fifteen Foot to Penreth Penreth which is saith Cambden if you interpret it out of the Brittish Language the Red-head or Hill for the Soil and the Stones are here generally of a reddish Colour but commonly called Perith sixteen Miles distant from this City This Town is but small in compass but great in Trade fortified on the West-side with a Castle of the King 's which in the Reign of King Henry the Sixth was repaired out of the Ruines of a Roman Fort not far from it called Maburg adorned with a spatious Church and large Market-place where there is an Edifice of Timber for the use of such as resort hither to Market garnished with Bears at a ragged Staff which was the device of the Earls of Warwick it belonged in times past to the Bishops of Durham but the Patriarch Bech taking two much State upon him and carrying himself with more haughtiness than became him did hereby so displease King Edward the First that he took from him Werth in Tevidail Perith and the Church of Simondburn But for the commodious use of this town William Strickland Bishop of Carlile descended from an ancient Race in this tract at his own proper charge caused a Channel for a Water-course to be made out of Peteril which near unto the Bank had Plumpton Park a large plat of Ground which the Kings of England had appointed as a Chase for wild Beasts to range in but King Henry the Eighth disparked it and converted it into a better Habitation for Men it lying near to the Marches where the Realms of England and Scotland confine one upon another Not far from this Town begins the County of Westmorland Westmorland being one of the worst
Countries in England and taking its Name both from its Situation and the great number of Moors in it 'T is likewise a Hilly Country two ridges of high Hills crossing it as far as Cumberland which besides their Northern Situation sharpen the Air and make it less Subject to Fogs and Vapours then many other Counties by reason of which the People are free from strange and infectious Diseases being healthful and living generally to great Ages but in the Southern parts of it it is more fruitful and pleasant In this County near the River Lowther Piramidal Stones near the Lowther is a Spring that Ebbs and Flows many times in a Day and in the same place there are huge Pyramidal Stones some nine Foot high and thirteen Foot thick pitched directly in a row for a Mile together Cataracks near Kendale and placed at equal distances from each other and in the River Ken near Kendale are two Cataracks or Water-falls where the Waters descend with a great and mighty noise and when that which standeth North from the Neighbours living between them sounds clearer and lowder than the other they certainly look for fair or foul Weather to follow but when that on the South-side doth so they look for Foggs and Showers of Rain Appleby We arrived at Appleby a Town in this County memorable for its Antiquity and Situation having formerly been a Roman Station and standing very pleasantly being almost encompassed with the River Eden over which it has a Stone Bridge but so slenderly inhabited and the Buildings so mean that all the Beauty of it lies in one mean Street which riseth with a gentle ascent in the upper part whereof stands the Castle and in the nether end the Church and by it a School which Robert Langton and Miles Spencer Doctors of Law founded for the advancement of Learning That this Castle was surprized by William King of Scots a little before himself was taken Prisoner at Alnwick our Chronicle-inform us but King John having afterwards recovered it from the Scots bestowed it out of his Princely Favour upon Robert Vipon for some singular services he had done to him and the State Burgh under Stanemoor Six Miles further lies Burgh commonly called Burgh under Stanemoor which though now but a poor small Village was in all probability the place where stood the antient Town Vertera in which in the declining Age of the Roman Empire the Band of the Directores kept their Station which Opinion is the more likely becase the distance thereof from Levatra or Bows on the one side and Brovonacum or Appleby on the other being reduced to Italian Miles do exactly agree with Antonines Computation as Cambden observes out of his Itinerary and further for that the High-street of the Romans as is yet evidently apparent by the Ridges thereof leads this way directly to Brovonacum or Appleby But besides this there is nothing here remarkable at all excepting only that in the beginning of the Norman government the Northern English conspired here first against William the Conquerour and that the most Heroick King Edward the First died here of a Dysentery A. D. 1307. and was buried at Westminster When we were past Burgh we began to climb that hilly and solitary Country exposed to Wind and Weather Stanemoor which because 't is all Rocky and Stony is called in the Northern Dialect Stanemoor and here round about us we beheld nothing but a rough wide mountainous Desart save only a poor homely Hostelry rather than an Inn in the very midst thereof called the Spittle on Stanemoor to entertain Travellers and near to it a Fragment of a Cross which we call Rere-Cross Rere-Cross and the Scots Re-Cross i. e. the King 's Cross which formerly served as a Land-mark betwixt the two Kingdoms the same being erected upon a Peace concluded between William the Conquerour and Malcolm King of Scots with the Arms of England on the South-side and those of Scotland on the North and a little lower upon the Roman High-way stood a small Fort built four-square which they called the Maiden Castle from whence as the Borderers reported the said High-way went with many Windings in and out as far as to Carevorran in Northumberland After we had made a shift to scramble over these Mountains we found a little Village on the other side called Bows Bows the same which I observed before Antonine calls Levatra in which was formerly a small Castle belonging to the Earls of Richmond where in was a certain Custom called Thorough Toll and their Jus furcarum i. e. power to hang c. Through this place lies the Road to Richmond Richmond the chief Town hereabouts encompassed with a Wall out of which are three Gates now well peopled and frequented It was built upon the Norman Conquest by Alan Earl of Bretagne who reposing small trust in Gilling a place or manner of his own hard by to withstand the Violence of the Danes and English whom the Normans had despoiled of their Inheritance fenced it with a Wall and a Castle which standing upon a Rock looks down upon the Swale over which it has a Stone bridge which River was reputed Sacred by the ancient English for that Paulinus the first Arch-Bishop of York Baptized in it in one Day above Ten thousand Men besides Women and Children and then gave it the Name of Richmond as a place of Strength and Beauty Here is held a great Market to the benefit of the Country who expose to Sale great quantities of Stockings which being bought up at cheap Rates are afterwards sent into other parts of the Nation This Town gives name to five Wapentakes or Hundreds within its Jurisdiction from hence called Richmond-shire Richmondshire a wild and hilly tract of Ground but yielding good Grass in some places the Hills are stored with Lead Coals and Copper and on the tops or surface thereof are found many times Stones like Sea Winkles Cockles Muscles and other Fish which saith Cambden are either natural or else are the Relicts of Noah's Flood petrified Orosius speaks as much of Oysters of Stone found upon Hills far from the Sea which have been eaten in hollow by the Water in all likelyhood these stone Fishes are of the same kind which some Naturalists have discovered at Alderby in Glocester-shire and I my self have since taken up upon the high Cliffs near Folk-stone in Kent which I shall describe more particularly when I come to speak of that place But to return on our way out of Richmond-shire we made an entrance into the West-Riding of York-shire where we were first saluted by Rippon Rippon situated upon the River Vre which divides the North and West-Riding and is full of Crea-Fishes the breed whereof as they say was brought out of the South parts by Sir Christopher Medcalfe It received all its Dignity and ancient renown from a Monastery built here A. D. 660. by Wilfrid Arch Bishop
of the bottom of the Hill Pennigent doth as it were sport it self with winding in and out as if it were doubtful whether it should return back to its Spring-head or run on still to the Sea Skipton we came to Skipton in Craven a Country so rough and unpleasant with craggy Stones hanging Rocks and rugged Ways that it seems to have derived its very name from Cragg which in the British Language doth signifie a Stone in the midst hereof in a low bottom stands Skipton lying hid and enclosed about with steep Hills and precipices not unlike Latium in Italy which Varro supposeth to have been so called because it lieth close under the Apennine and the Alps the Town for the bigness of it and manner of its buildings is Fair enough being more especially beautified with a Castle which belongs to the Earldom of Pembrook in the Reign of Edward the Second it underwent the same dismal calamities from the Scots which the Neighbouring parts at the same time suffered A little further upon the edge of this County at Giggleswick which is not far distant from Settle Settle a small Market Town we rode by a little Spring rising under a Hill The ebbing and flowing Well and Robinhood's Mill by Giggleswick which ebbs and flows several times in an Hour it flows about a quarter of a yard high and at ebb falls again so low that it is scarce an inch deep with Water and on the other side of this Hill is heard a clacking noise such as is made by a Mill which is caused as is supposed by some current of Water which creeping under Ground falls down upon the Rocks and this the Country people call Robin-Hood's Mill. We arrived quickly from hence within Lancashire commonly called Lonkashire Lankashire and the county Palatine of Lancaster because it gives a Title to a Count Palatine * Famous for the four Henries the 4th 5th 6th and 7th Kings of England derived from John Gaunt Duke of Lancaster The Air hereof is thin and piercing not troubled with gross mists or foggs which makes that People healthy strong and long-liv'd the Soil differs much in nature and situation some parts being Hilly and others flat and of these some being fruitful some mossy and others moorish the Champain Country for the most part good for Wheat and Barly and that which lies at the bottom of the Hill yields the best of Oats yet it breeds great number of Cattel that are of a huge proportion and have goodly Heads and large spread Horns and for Fish and Fowl here is great abundance particularly in Winander Meer Winander Meer which is ten Miles long and four broad and has such a clear pebly bottom that the common saying amongst them is that it is all paved with Stone besides Trouts Pikes c. there is one most dainty Fish called a Char not to be found elsewhere except in Vlles Water Ulles Lake another Lake upon the borders of Cumberland and that two principally in Lent at which time some zealous Romanists will tell you that they more freely come to Net than at any other season for afterward they scond and are not easily taken Besides all this the Country abounds with Flax to make Linnen with Turfs and pit Coal for fuel and with Quarries of good Stone for building and in some boggy places are digged up Trees which will burn clear and give light like touch-wood Here are three great Hills not far distant asunder seeming to be as high as the clouds Ingleborow Penigent and Pendle which are Ingleborow Penigent and Pendle on the top of which grows a peculiar Plant called Cloudsberry as though it came out of the Clouds this Hill formerly did the Country much harm by reason of an extraordinary deal of Water gushing out of it and is now famous for an infallible sign of Rain whensoever the top of it is covered with a mist and by reason of the excessive height for which they are all three celebrated there is this Proverbial Rhime goes currant amongst them Ingleborow Pendle and Penigent Are the highest Hills betwixt Scotland and Trent Lancaster Lancaster is the chief Town of the County of no large extent but very sweet and clean fortified with a Castle which is made use of for the Assizes and adorned with one large Church both which are situated upon a high Hill from whence is a pleasant prospect into the adjacent Fields which are delicately enriched with the best of Earths Tapestry and are watred by the Christal streams of the River Lone which pays here a petty tribute before it posts away to do homage to the Ocean in the descent and sides of the Hill where it is steepest hard by the Stone-Bridge which hath five Arches hangs an ancient piece of Wall called Wery-wall supposed to have been some ancient Work of the Romans by reason of several Roman Coins which have been found hereabouts the grants and privileges which have been conferred upon this Town by the Kings of this Realm have been very great and considerable and King John and Edward the Third have ever been esteemed two of its principal Benefactours From hence the great Road led us directly through Garstange Garstange a small market Town noted chiefly for a great Fair held here every Year in the beginning of July to Preston Preston being a delightful place well peopled with the more wealthy and gentile sort situate upon the Ribble with a fair Stone Bridge over it the same is honoured with the Court of Chancery and the Offices of Justice for Lancaster as a County Palatine and not far from it stands Ribchester Ribchester supposed to be the ancient Bremetonacum counted in its flourishing times the richest Town in Christendome about which have been digged up so many pieces of Roman Antiquity that one may conclude it from thence to have been a place of great account in the time of the Romans Passing after this through Wigan another Market Town and Corporation Wigan well known by reason of the great Trade for Coverlids Rugs Blankets and other sorts of Bedding which is made there Leverpool we came to Leverpool a Sea Port Town situated at the Mersey's-mouth where it affords a safe Harbour for Ships and a convenient passage for Ireland for its denfence it hath on the South side a Castle built by King John and on the West side a Tower upon the River being a stately and strong piece of Building We ferried over from thence into Cheshire Cheshire which lies opposite to it on the other side of the River This shire is a County Palatine and the Earls hereof have formerly had such Royalties and Privileges belonging to them that all the Inhabitants have Sworn fealty and allegiance to them as to their King the Air of it is so healthy that the People are generally long-liv'd and the Irish vapours rising from the Irish Sea do
times past full of Woods and Timber but instead thereof it yieldeth now plenty of Corn Sheep and Cattel the Air is reasonably Healthful save only a little Aguish at some time and in some places by reason of the Fogs that do arise from the Sea It yieldeth also great store of Millstones and Grindstones and in some places a sort of Earth of which they make Alum and Copperas but more especially it affords such plenty of Wheat it is deservedly entitled the Mother of Wales In Caernarvanshire the Air is sharp and piercing and in it are the highest Hills in Wales Caernarvanshire for which reason 't is justly called the English Alps on some of which the Snow lies long and on others all the Year long hard crusted together In the Pool called Lin-paris there is The Pool Lin-paris as 't is reported a kind of Fish called Torroch having a red Belly which is no were else to be seen but here 'T is affirmed likewise that on some of the high Hills of this Shire are too Meres one of which produceth Fish which have but one Eye and in the other is a movable and floating Island which as soon as any Person treads on it presently falls into a moving posture Snowdown-Hills Snowdown Hills although they have always Snow lying upon them yet they are exceeding Rank with Grass insomuch that they are become a Proverb amongst the Welshmen That those Mountains will yield sufficient Pasture for all the Cattel in VVales And 't is certain that there are Pools and standing Waters upon the top of these Mountains and they are so coated with a snowy Crust that lies on them that if a Man doth but lightly set his Foot upon the top of them he shall perceive the Earth to stir for several Foot from him which probably might occasion the story of the floating Island before mentioned Penmaen-Mour i. e. The great stony Head Penmaen-Mour is an exceeding high and steep Rock which hangeth over the Sea when it is Flood affordeth a very narrow way for Passengers having on the one side huge Stones over their Heads as if they were ready to fall upon them and on the other side the raging Ocean lying of a wonderful depth under it but after a Man hath passed over this together with Penmean-Lythan the less stony Head he shall come to an open broad Plain that reacheth as far as the River Conway in which are bred a sort of Shell-Fish which being conceived of an Heavenly Dew as is conjectured bring forth Pearl Bangor Within this County is Banchor q. Penchor so called a Choro pulchro being a Bishop's See the Church was dedicated to Daniel Bishop hereof but that which is now standing is but a mean Structure for Owen Glendover who designed to have utterly destroyed all the Cities in Wales set it on Fire because the Inhabitants of this Place chose rather to side with the King of England than with him hereupon the ancient Church being defaced Henry Dean Bishop hereof did afterward repair it about the Reign of Henry the VIIth But that which is most observable was the famous British Monastery of this place where as the learned Bishop Stillingfleet hath observed Men were bred up to Learning and Devotion together and so more resembling our Colleges than the Aegyptian Monasteries where Men were brought up to Ignorance and Labour as much as to Devotion The Right Reverend Bishop Floyd in his Historical Account of Church Government in Great Britain tells us farther out of Bede that here were above Two thousand Persons together in seven Colleges of which none had fewer than Three hundred Monks in it This we may believe by what we see saith another Historian that writ Four hundred Years after Bede's time we see saith he so many half ruined Walls of Churches so many windings of Porticos so great a heap of Ruins as you shall scarce meet with elsewhere by which Account it seems in its flourishing State to have been not much less than one of our Universities at this Day How Twelve hundred innocent Monks of this Place though the Saxon Chronicle mentions but Two hundred who came along with their Army by Fasting and Prayer to intercede with Heaven for its prosperous Success were all cruelly put to Death by Ethelfrid King of Northumberland A. D. 607. at the Instigation of Ethelbert King of Kent is too Tragical a Story to insist long upon but that Austen the Monk was the first Spring of this fatal Tragedy moving Ethelbert to it as he did Ethelfrid there are not only strong Suspicions saith the Learned Dr. Cade in his Discourse concerning Ancient Church-Government but the thing is expresly affirmed by several Historians of no inconsiderable Credit and Antiquity In Denbighshire the Air is cold Denbighshire but very wholesom and the Snow lies long upon the Hills which resemble the Battlements of Walls and upon the top of Moilenny-Hill Moilenny-Hill which is one of the largest in this Shire is a Spring of clear Water In this County is VVrexham Wrexham a Market Town distant about Fifteen Miles from Holy-VVell and much admired for the Steeple of its Collegiate Church being a curious Fabrick contrived according to the most exact Draught and Model of Architecture and no where to be parallelled in those Parts for Workmanship of which taking a transient view we passed on again through Shrewsbury and the Strettons to Wigmore Strettons Wigmore which lies within the Confines of Herefordshire where are the Ruins of a Castle built by Edward the Senior and fortified by VVilliam Earl of Hereford from whom the Mortimers who were afterwards Earls of March did lineally descend That this Castle was formerly an Asylum or Sanctuary is generally reported by such as live near it who will tell you that whatsoever Malefactors fled hither for Refuge and could but get his Hand within the Ringle of the Gate secured himself from the Hands of Justice which indentical wreathed Ring of Iron they shewed us upon a Door of one of the Inns in the Town A. D. 1100. Ralph de Mortimer founded here a little College for Secular Canons which was 1197 changed into a Priory and endowed with more Lands by his Son Hugh Mortimer who removed hither the Black Canons from Scobbedon there placed by Oliver de Merlymond his Steward it was commended to the Patronage of St. James A. D. 921. a great Pagan Host of the East-Angles and Mercians came against this Place which the Saxon Chronicle calls Wigingamere but were beaten off from it by the Valour of its Inhabitants only with the loss of some Cattel which they took away with them Three Miles from Wigmore in the Road to Hereford is Mortimer's-Cross Mortimer's-Cross being a Way where four Roads meet so called from Mortimer Earl of March Son to Richard Duke of York betwixt whom and King Henry the Sixth's Friends and Allies was fought a bloody and terrible
dismal Calamity in the Reign of King Richard the First Seffrid the Second Bishop of that name restored it once more to its primitive Lustre and Grandeur since which the City began mightily to flourish and had been much more considerable than it now is had but the Haven proved more commodious which lies a little too far distant from it it is walled about in a circular Form the Lavant a pretty River running hard by it on the South and West sides It consists of five or six Parishes and the Buildings are indifferently neat and uniform four Gates it hath opening to the four Quarters of the World from whence the Streets lead directly and cross themselves in the midst where the Market is kept and where Bishop Read erected a fair Stone Market-House supported with Pillars round about as for the Castle that stood not far from North-Gate it was in times past the ancient habitation of the Earls of Arundel who hereupon Stiled themselves Earls of Chichester but afterward it was converted into a House of Franciscan Fryars The Cathedral is not large but very curious and beautiful having a spire Steeple of Stone which riseth up a great height and an high Tower standing near to the West Door which was built by R. Rinan as they say when he was forbidden to erect a Castle at Aplederham his Habitation hard by of those Stones which he had provided before for that Castle In the South cross Isle of the Church was formerly on the one side artificially pourtrayed and depainted the History of the Church's Foundation with the Images of the Kings of England on the other the Images of the Bishops as well of Selsey as Chichester at the Charge of Bishop Shirborne who greatly adorned and beautified the Church and every where for his Impress set these Motto's Credite Operibus i. e. Trust Men according to their Deeds and again Dilexi decorem domus tuae Domine i. e. I have loved O Lord the Beauty of thy House But all these in the late Confusions were unhappily defac'd and there is little now remaining but the memory of them We went from hence to Amberley-Castle Amberly Castle which is about twelve Miles from Chichester higher into the Countrey it was built by VVilliam Read Bishop of Chichester in the Reign of Edward the Third for the use of his Successors but then leased out to the worthy Family of the Butlers who were the Inhabitants at that time We staid here for the space of a Week where we were generously entertained with great Courtesy and Civility and there we had a full account given us of the nature of the Country which by a more particular survey we found afterward very true Sussex for the Soil is for the most part rich and the Ways deep the Downs by the Sea side standing upon a fat Chalk or Marle are abundantly fertile in Corn the middle tract garnished with Meadows Pastures Corn-fields Groves and Iron Mines the North side shaded with Wood and here ran along part of that great Wood which was called by the ancients Andedsleage by which without question saith the Learned Bishop Stillingfleet is meant that vast Wood which beginning in Kent ran through Sussex into Hampshire called by the Britains Coid Andred by the Saxons Andred and Andreswald from whence as Mr. Somner observes Andreswald Wood. that part of Kent where the Wood stood is called the VVeald and Lambert averrs that no Monuments of Antiquity are to be met with in the VVeald either of Kent or Sussex Historians farther tell us that this Wood was formerly reputed 120 Miles long and 30 Miles broad where Sigebert King of the VVest-Saxons being deposed from his Royal Throne was Stabbed by a Swineherd But though the Company was most obliging and the Place no less divertive yet having not compleated our designed Journey we took a solemn leave of our Courteous Friends and retreated towards the Sea-coast to Arundel Arundel a Town situate on the brow of a Hill of special Note for its Castle once of great fame and strength but far more famous for the Lords or Earls hereof to which Castle by an ancient Privilege the Title of an Earldom is annexed so that whosoever is possessed of the Castle and Mannor is ipso facto Earl of Arundel without any Creation wherein it is singular from the rest of England Lewes We proceeded on to Lewes which for frequency of People and its goodly Structure is reputed the principal Town of the County and therefore here generally the Assizes are held for this Countrey if not at East-Greenstead the remoteness of Chichester from the City of London being probably one reason why they are not kept there This Town is seated upon a rising almost of every side but that it hath been Walled there are apparent Symptoms Southward it hath under it a great Suburb called Southover and beyond the River another Eastward called Cliff because 't is under a chalky Hill and hath six Parishes well inhabited In the time of the Saxons when King Athelstan made a law for Coining of Money he appointed two Coiners for this Place VVilliam VVarren the first Earl of Surrey built a large Castle in the highest ground for the most part with Flint and Chalk and in the bottom of Southover A. D. 1078. he founded to the Memory of St. Pancrace an Abbey which he replenished with Cluniack Monks which since the dissolution fell into the possession of the Earls of Dorset But most memorable is this place for a mortal and bloody Battel fought here between King Henry the Third and the Barons in which the prosperous beginning of the Battel on the Kings side was the overthrow of his Forces for whilst Prince Edward his Son breaking by force through certain of the Barons Troops carelesly persued the Enemy over far as making sure account of the Victory the Barons having reinforced themselves and giving a fresh charge so discomfited and put to Flight the Kings Army that they constrained the King to accept of unequal conditions of peace and to deliver up his Son with others whom they Demanded into their Hands A. D. 1264. See the Ingenious Mr. Kennet's Paroch Antiq p. 262. We passed away from thence by Seaford which is in the liberty of the Cinque-Ports a small Fishing Town built of Stone and Slate and defended with a convenient Fort to Bourn a place very Famous for its Wheat-ears which are a sort of Birds in Summer very palatable and delicious and so Fat that they dissolve in the Mouth like Jelly and this lead us through Pevensey Marsh which hath formerly most undoubtedly been overflowed by the Sea to the Town of * Pevensey called by the Britains Cair-Pensavelcott and by others Penvessel c. Mr. Somner's Roman Ports and Forts c. p 104. Pevensey Famous for the Ruines of an old large Castle but more for the landing of William Duke of Normandy with 900 Sail of Ships for the
return into England sickned and dyed here July the 6th A. D. 1325 so likewise that this Town gave Birth to some Persons of the worthy Family of the Harveys especially to that Noble 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Father of Phisitians the Learned Dr. Harvey who made the first discovery of the Circulation of the Blood by the munificence of which charitable Fratermity was erected a Free-School to the great benefit of the Town to which is allotted a very handsome allowance as also a comfortable Pension to be annually distributed amongst the poor of the Parish and to the end that all things may be fully Executed according to the first Charitable design there are appointed diverse Feoffees in trust to supervise herein who are Men of the best Condition and quality in that part of the County Near this Town upon the Cliffs we met with some Stones of diverse Shapes and Figures very strange and wonderful some resemble a Muscle but are a great deal bigger than they others were like a Kernel of an Almond large and somwhat roundish which are Streaked and crankled like a Cockle-shell but of a more dusky colour others we found somewhat bigger than a Hazlenut and some much less which are like a Cockle too but are as smooth and as black as Jet some we discovered which were wreath'd and intorted like Screws of smaller and larger dimensions others which resemble Cock-spurs being sharp at the end and in every respect shaped like unto them but as smooth and of the same colour with our ordinary Flint-stone others which are form'd like Quills cleer as Amber some we observed whose lower parts seem to be effigiated into diverse little Feet bearing a resemblance to those that are visible in some little creeping insects others altogether resemble Snakes * See Mr John Ray Fellow of the Royal Society concerning Serpent Stones and Petrified Shells P. 113.114 c. of his Topographical observations Printed 1673. with Heads which the VVhitbay Stones are without having a perfect Spina running as it were all along their Back from Head to Tail with little ridges like Ribs on both sides in the form almost of a Roman S. Now tho' the solidity of all these Stones without any Cavity which is visible amongst them may be sufficient to convince any Man that they are by no means petrifications but natural and such as they were always from the Creation though how they came to put on such strange and uncommon Figures is a secret not to be unravelled yet certainly since there are diverse real and natural Shells of Fishes too which are to be found upon these Cliffs as likewise have been gathered upon Mountains particularly in Richmondshire before mentioned far enough remote from the Sea of diverse magnitudes shapes and colours sure in all probability the latter must needs have been left there upon the ebb of the Deluge since otherwise there can hardly be any other satisfactory account given how such Shells should happen to be carried to such Mountainous places From Folk-stone for five or six Miles together is a continued Chain of chalky Hills standing in a row hanging jointly one to another about the middle whereof is a Catarackt of Water which coming a great way as is supposed under Ground and falling down from the Cliffs speeds away to Sea going usually by the name of Lyddals Spout and along these Cliffs grow abundance of that excellent sallad Lydal Spout which they call Samphire These Cliffs I say continue without the least interruption till they are parted by Dover which is seated betwixt two high Cliffs Dover lying opposite to each other on the one whereof stands the Castle a place formerly of that strength and importance that it is Styled by Antiquaries the Key and Lock the Bar and Spar of England and was ever reputed so mightily conducive to the facilitating the Conquest of this Nation by getting it into Possession that Philip King of France told his Son Lewis that notwithstanding he had obtained many signal Victories in this Island and won several Forts and strong holds therein yet he had not one Foot in England till he was Master of Dover Castle Which though some are of Opinion was founded by Arviragus a King of the Britains yet Mr. Somner is very possitive against those who would have it built by Julius Caesar whose abode in Britain was too short for so vast an undertaking however whether the ancient Church belonging to this Castle was built by Lucius our first Christian King or not Mr. Somner is again pretty well assured that as here was formerly placed a Roman Garrison so the Square Tower in the middle between the Body and the Chancel fitted with holes on all parts for speculation was formerly a Roman Specula or Watch-Tower and he farther observes out of Tuine that that which at this Day they call the Devils Drop being a mouldring ruinous heap of Masonrey on the opposite Hill on the other side of the Town was the remains of a Roman Pharos or Structure of theirs intended for the placing of Night lights to secure their Passage otherwise very perillous who should put into this Port by Night On this Hill in a Tenterected for that purpose was that Noble Ceremony performed of Inaugurating the Right Honourable Henry Earl of Romney into that great and Weighty Office of Constable of Dover Castle and Lord Warden of the Cinque-Ports June 1. 1694 being there waited upon by the Barons Mayors Baliffs and Jurats of the Cinque-Ports two ancient Towns and their Members with diverse other Persons of great Quality who attended that Solemnity Below the Castle is placed a strong Fort and on the other Cliff opposite to it is erected another both which Block-Houses are for the defence of the Haven or Peer which of late Years hath been almost choaked and quite Stopped up by a huge quantity of Beach thrown into it by the Sea however by reason of a ready and speedy passage to Callice in France to which some will fain have England to have been formerly united by an Isthmus there is daily in times of peace a great concourse of Foreigners who frequent it The Town being one of the Cinque-Ports of which Folk-stone is a Limb and governed by a Mayor and Jurats is of a good large extent being above a Mile in length from * Artclff Fort. Artcliff Fort to the farther end of Bigginstreet but 't is nothing so Populous nor so well Inhabited as formerly 't is adorned with two Churches and a commodious Market place which is well replenished every Saturday with all necessary Provision of which there is brought great supplies constantly out of the Country and for the Victualling the Kings Ships there is a large Store-House from whence Provisions are conveyed to the Navy But I must not omit farther to observe that in this Town was formerly a House belonging to that ancient order of the Knights Templars wherein was Sealed the submission
in a Book Printed for that purpose A. D. 1640. I shall not undertake to pourtray that in a contracted Landskip which hath been before represented to the Publick with so great applause but refer those who are so curious as to desire a more particular Account of this City to that most ingenious Person who hath pencilled out every part and Limb thereof with great exactness and accuracy only one thing I must not omit that of late a Marble Monument hath been erected in St. Margaret's Church Canterbury in Honour of Mr. Somner who lies there interred by his own Widow who afterward Married to Mr. Hannington Vicar of Elam in Kent upon which is engraven this ingenious Epitaph H. S. E. Gulielmus Somnerus Cantuariensis Saxonicam Literaturam Civitatis Cantuariae Historiam Tenebris utramque involutam Illustravit Cantii Antiquitates meditantem Fatum intercepit Officium Erga Deum pietate severa Erga Homines probitate simplici Erga Principem fide periculosa Erga Patriam scriptis immortalibus Indicavit Ita Mores Antiquos Studium Antiquitatis efformat Cantuariae Natus est Martii 30. 1606. Cantuariae Omnem aetatem egit Cantuariae Obiit Martii 30. 1669. Feversham Passing from hence through Feversham a Town pretty large and well inhabited famous formerly for its Abby erected here by King Stephen wherein himself his Queen and Eustace his Son were buried the next place of consequence that was obvious in the Road was Sedingbourn Sedingbourn which being a great thorough-fare is well furnished with Inns a Town of which there are two things more principally Recorded the one is that in the Year 1232 Henry Bishop of Rochester as Mr. Philpott hath collected it out of some old Monkish Writers came with much exultation out of Sedingbourn Church and desired the People to express their joy because on that day by the efficacious Prayers of the Church Richard the First formerly King of England and many others were most certainly ransomed from the Flames of Purgatory The other that in the same Church was a Monument of Sir Richard Lovelace inlayed richly with Brass who was an eminent Soldier in his time and Marshal of Calice under Henry the Eighth with his Portraiture affixed in Brass which the Injuries of Time and the Impiety of Sacrilegious Mechanicks have utterly defaced In the Neighbourhood of Sedingbourn is Newington Newington which though but a small Village hath afforded some worthy Remarks of Antiquity for not many Years ago there were digged up Roman Urns not far distant from the High-way or Common Road it being agreeable to Roman Practice to inter in those Places where their Monuments might be obvious almost to every Eye Memorials of themselves and Memento's of Mortality to living Passengers whom the Epitaphs of great Ones did beg to stay and look upon them From hence the Road brought us directly to Chatham Chatham where the repair of the Parish Church and new Buildings of the Steeple commend the Religious Care and Cost of King Charles the First 's Commissioners and Officers of the Royal Navy in the Year 1635 but the Arsenals Store-Houses and Ship-Docks erected by the same most incomparable Prince are so magnificent and universally useful that they are become a principal Pillar of the Nations support and afford variety of Employment by the Manufacture of Cordage as also the Careening and Building of Ships Contiguous to Capham is Rochester Rochester a City which in Elder times was as eminent for its Antiquity as it was for its Strength and Grandeur and had not those violent impressions which the rough Hand of War made upon it Demolished its bulk and bereaved it of its Beauty it peradventure might have been registred at this Day in the Inventory of the principal Cities of this Nation but so great and dismal Calamities did frequently attend it that the Fury of the Elements seemed to enter into a Corrivalship or Competition with the Fury of Enemies for its Ruine and the Fire and Sword were joint Confederates to destroy it nevertheless maugre all these Casualties by the Favour of Princes and their Royal Munificence it recovered all its Losses and survives in Splendor In the Year 1225 by the indulgent Bounty of King Henry the Third it was invested with a Wall and that this Fortification might be of the greater importance it was secured or fenced with a Ditch it was governed by a Port-Reeve until King Edward the Fourth in the second Year of his Reign raised it to a higher Dignity and decreed by his Royal Grant that it should henceforth be under the Jurisdiction of a Mayor and Twelve Aldermen and to this Monarch doth the City owe much of its present Felicity The goodly Skeleton of the Castle which yet courts the Eye of the Beholder to the admiration of its former strength acknowledgeth for its most eminent Benefactor if not Founder Odo Bishop of Baicux and Earl of Kent half Brother to William the Conqueror which Fortress he afterward breaking forth into open Rebellion against his Nephew Rufus did seize but was quickly dispossessed by the vigorous Expedition of his Prince and enforced immediately to depart the Kingdom After this when the Dauphin was invited into England by the Seditious Barons to wrest the Kingdom from K. John their native Sovereign the Dauphin uniting their strength with his made such a furious Onset on the Castle that like a Tempest which beats down all before it he carried it by Assault the like had been atchieved by Simon Montford Earl of Leicester when he raised an Insurrection against King Henry the Third had not that Prince arrived most opportunely and by a successful Encounter wrested both Earl Warren who had so resolutely maintained it and that likewise from the Impressions of his Fury since which time there hath been little of moment acted in this Place tho it is worth taking notice of what Mr. Philpott hath observed farther concerning it that there being much Land in this County held thereof whose Tenure is perfectly Castle-guard upon the day prefixed for the discharging the quit Rents relating to it there is a Banner displayed and hung out antiently it was on the Castle Wall and all those who are Tenants to this Mannor and are in default by their Non-appearance and do not discharge their accustomary Duties and Services the penalty imposed upon their neglect is that the return of every Tide of the adjacent River Medway which finds them absent doubles their Service or Quit-Rents The Cathedral which the Bishoprick of Rochester united to it was founded and established by that pious Monarch Ethelbert King of Kent and the first Bishop to whom was entrusted the Pastoral Staff or Crosier by Austen the Apostle of the Saxons was Justus who being sent over hither as an Adjutant to Austen in the Propagation of Christianity about the Year 601 Angl. Sacr. Tom. 1. p. 329. was afterward ordained Bishop of this See A. D. 604. much about that time