hath now partly effected and in some sort over-mastred it A little beneath by Langport a proper market town the Rivers Ivel and Pedred running together make betweene them an Iland called Muchelney that is to say The great Iland wherein are to bee seene the defaced walles and ruines of an old Abbey built by King Athelstane as writers reporr This Pedred commonly named Parret hath his beginning in the verie edge or skirt of the shire southward and holding on a crooked and winding course thorow Crockhorne in the Saxon tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Pedderton to whom it gave the name sometime Pedridan the Roiall seat of King Ina â— which towne now adayes is of none account unlesse it be for the market and Faire there held which Henrie Daubeney obtained of King Henrie the Sixth at this place runneth into Ivel and robbeth him of his name when hee is come downe three miles Eastward and hath bidden farewell to Montacute so termed by the Earle of Moriton brother by the Mothers side to King William the Conquerour who built a Castle upon the verie hill top and at the foot thereof a Priorie because the said hill riseth up by little and little to a sharpe pâ—int for before time it was called Logoresburgh and Biscopeston As for the Castle it came to nothing many yeeres since the stones thereof being had away to the repairing of the Monasterie and other houses Upon the pitch of the said hill there was a Chapell afterwards set and dedicated unto Saint Michael built with arch-worke and an embowed roofe overhead all of stone right artificially to which for halfe a mile wel nere men ascended upon stone-staires which in their ascent fetched a compasse round about the hil But now that the Priorie and chapell both be pulled down the faire and goodly house which Sir Edward Philips Knight and the Kings Sargeant at Law built lately at the hill foote maketh a very beautifull shew This high place Mont-acute hath given surname to that right honourable family of Montacute which had their beginning of Dru the younger Out of which there were foure Earles of Sarisburie the last of them left one daughter onely Alice who by Richard Nevil pare Richard that renowned Earle of Warwick who kept such stirres and made all England to shake also Iohn Nevil Marquesse Montacute who were both slaine at Barnet field in the yeere 1472. Afterward King Henrie the Eighth conferred the title of Lord Montacute upon Henrie Poole sonne of Margaret daughter to George Duke of Clarence that came of the daughter of that Richard Nevill aforesaid Earle of Warwicke and when hee had so done straightwaies made him shorter by the head afterwards Queene Marie advanced Anthonie Browne whose Grandmother was a daughter of Iohn Nevill Marquesse Montacute to the title and honour of Vicount Montacute which his Grandchild Anthonie who succeeded him now honourably enjoyeth And here I must not forget neither Preston sometime the seat of Iohn Sturton younger sonne to the first Lord Sturton one of whose heires was married to Sidenham of Brimton thereby neither Odcombe adjoyning thereto as small a towne as it is seeing it had a Baron of the owne William de Briewer for so was his father named in the Norman-French because he was borne in an heath who being taken up in the new Forrest by King Henrie the Second in a hunting journey prooved a great man and gratious in the Court as whom King Richard the First highly favored as his minion and all the world embraced and loved grew unto a verie wealthy estate married Beatrix of Vannes widow to Reginald Earle of Cornwall and his daughters for that his sonne died without issue by their marriages brought great possessions to their husbands Breos Wake La-fert and Piercy Under this towne hard by lieth Stoke under Hamden where the Gornaies had their Castle and built a Colledge This familie de Gornaico commonly named Gornay was verie ancient and of good account descended from the same stocke out of which the Warrens Earles of Surrie and the Mortimers are sprung but in the fore-going age it failed and some of their lands descended by the Hamptons to the house of the Newtons Knights who willignly acknowledge themselves to bee come out of Wales and not long since to have beene named Caradocks Neither must I passe over in silence how Matthew Gournay a most famous warriour in the raigne of Edward the Third was buried heere who in the fourescore and sixteenth yeere of his age ended this life when as appeareth by his Epitaph he had fought at the siege of Algizer against the Saracens in the battels of Benamazin Scluse Cressie Ingenos Poictiers and Nazars in Spaine Then Pedred watereth Martocke a litle market Towne which in times past William of Boloigne King Stephens sonne gave unto Faramuse of Boloigne whose sole heire Sibyll was wedded to Ingelraine Fienes from whom descended the Fienes Barons of Dacre and Lords Say and Sele Parret from hence thorow the mire and moorish plaine countrey holding his course Northward passed by Langport a market Towne well frequented and Aulre a Village consisting of a few poore Cottages which seemeth to have beene a Towne of good account for when King Elfred had given the Danes such an overthrow in battell and by strait siege compelled them to yeeld so farre forth that they tooke an oath immediatly to depart out of his dominions and Godrus their King promised to become Christian as writeth Asserius at this very place he with great pompe was Godfather to the said Godrus at the sacred Font. Beneath this place from the West Parret receiveth into it the river Thone which springing farre of in the West part of this Countrey very neere unto Devonshire runneth thorow most rich and pleasant fields passing downe neere Wivelscomb assigned anciently to the Bishops of Bathe and by Wellington which in the time of King Edward the elder was a land of â—ix Manentes what time hee granted it together with Lediard that had twelve Manentes Hides unto the Bishop of Shirburne Now a prettie market Towne it is and graced most by the habitation there of Sir Iohn Popham For vertuous men and such as have so well deserved of their countrey are not to bee passed in silence a man of an ancient worshipfull house and withall a most upright Iusticer and of singular industry who being Lord chiefe Iustice of the Kings Bench administreth his office toward malefactours with such holesome and available severity that England hath beene beholden unto him a long time for a great part of her private peace and home-securitie For thence with a soft streame and gentle fall Thone runneth by Thonton commonly Taunton and giveth it his name A very fine and proper Towne this is indeed and most pleasantly seated in a word one of the eyes of this shire where Ina King
Alice his onely daughter being wedded unto Richard Nevill augmented his honour with the title of Earle of Salisburie who siding with the house of Yorke was in the battell fought at Wakefield taken prisoner and beheaded leaving to succeede him Richard his sonne Earle of Warwicke and Salisburie who delighting in dangers and troubles enwrapped his native countrey within new broiles of Civill warre wherein himselfe also left his life The one of his daughters named Isabell was married unto George Duke of Clarence brother to King Edward the Fourth and shee bare him a sonne called Edward Earle of Warwicke who being a very child and innocent was by King Henrie the Seventh beheaded like as his sister Margaret suffered the same death under King Henrie the Eighth An usuall pollicie and practise among suspicious Princes For the securitie of their own persons and their posteritie by one occasion or other that evermore are soone offered and as quickly pickt to make away or keepe under the next of their bloud Anne the other daughter of Richard Nevill Earle of Warwick and Salisburie became wife to Richard Duke of Glocester brother to King Edward the Fourth and brought him a sonne whom his uncle King Edward in the 17. of his reigne created Earle of Salisburie and Richard his father usurping the kingdome made Prince of Wales But he departed this life in his tender yeares about that time that his mother also died not without suspition of poison King Henry the Eighth afterward about the fifth yeare of his raigne in a full Parliament restored and enabled in bloud Margaret daughter to George Duke of Clarence to the name stile title honour and dignitie of Countesse of Salisburie as sister and heire to Edward late Earle of Warwick and Salisburie And about the 31. yeare of the said King she was attainted in Parliament with divers others and beheaded when she was 70. yeares old Since which time that title of honour was discontinued untill in the yeare of our Lord 1605. our Soveraigne Lord King Iames honored therewith S. Robert Cecill second sonne of that Nestor of ours William Cecill upon whom for his singular wisedome great employments in the affaires of State to the good of Prince and Countrey he had bestowed the honorable titles of Baron Cecill of Essendon and Vicount Cranburn Thus much of the Earles of Salisburie Lower still and not far from this Citie is scituate upon Avon Dunctone or Donketon a burrough as they say of great antiquitie and well knowne by reason of the house therein of Beavois of Southampton whom the people have enrolled in the number of their brave worthies for his valour commended so much in rhyme to posteritie This Salisburie is environed round about with open fields and plaines unlesse it be Eastward where lieth hard unto it Clarindon a very large and goodly parke passing fit for the keeping and feeding of wild beasts and adorned in times past with an house of the Kings Of which parke and of the twentie groves inclosed therein Master Michael Maschert Doctor of the Civill lawes hath prettily versified in this wise Nobilis est lucus cervis clausura saronam Propter a claro vertice nomen habet Viginti hinc nemorum partito limite boscis Ambitus est passus mille cuique suus A famous Parke for Stag and Hind neere Salisbury doth lie The name it hath of one faire downe or hill that mounts on hie Within the same stand xx groves enclos'd with severall bound Of which in compasse every one a mile containes in ground Famous is this Clarindon for that heere in the yeare 1164. was made a certaine recognition and record of the customes and liberties of the Kings of England before the Prelates and Peeres of the Kingdome for the avoiding discentions betweene the Clergie Iudges and Barons of the Realme which were called The Constitutions of Clarnidon Of the which so many as the Pope approved have beene set downe in the Tomes of the Councels the rest omitted albeit Thomas Becket then Archbishop of Canterburie and the rest of the Bishops approved them all Heereby is Jvy Church sometime a small Priory where as tradition runneth in our grandfathers remembrance was found a grave and therein a corps of twelve foote and not farre of a stocke of wood hollowed and the concave lined with lead with a booke therein of very thicke parchment all written with Capitall Roman letters But it had lien so long that when the leaves were touched they fouldred to dust S. Thomas Eliot who saw it judged it to be an Historie No doubt hee that so carefully laied it up hoped it should be found and discover somethings memorable to posteritie Toward the North about sixe miles from Salisburie in these plaines before named is to bee seeene a huge and monstrous piece of worke such as Cicero termeth Insanam substructionem For within the circuit of a Ditch there are erected in manner of a Crowne in three rankes or courses one within another certaine mightie and unwrought stones whereof some are 28. foote high and seven foote broad upon the heads of which others like overthwart pieces doe beare and rest crosse-wise with a small tenents and mortescis so as 〈◊〉 le frame seemeth to hang whereof wee call it Stonehenge like as our old 〈◊〉 â—â—rmed it for the greatnesse Chorea Gigantum The Giants Daunce The 〈…〉 whereof such as it is because it could not be so fitly expressed in 〈…〉 caused by the gravers helpe to bee portraied heere underneath as it 〈…〉 weatherbeaten and decaied A. Stones called Corsestones Weighing 12. tunne carrying in height 24. foote in breadth 7. foote in compasse 16. B. Stones named Cronetts of 6. or 7. tunne weight C. A place where mens bones are digged up Our countrie-men reckon this for one of our wonders and miracles And much they marvaile from whence such huge stones were brought considering that in all those quarters bordering thereupon there is hardly to be found any common stone at all for building as also by what meanes they were set up For mine owne part about these points I am not curiously to argue and dispute but rather to lament with much griefe that the Authors of so notable a monument are thus buried in oblivion Yet some there are that thinke them to bee no naturall stones hewne out of the rocke but artificially made of pure sand and by some glewie and unctuous matter knit and incorporate together like as those ancient Trophies or monuments of victorie which I have seene in Yorkshire And what marvaile Read we nor I pray you in Plinie that the sand or dust of Puteoli being covered over with water becommeth forthwith a very stone that the cesternes in Rome of sand digged out of the ground and the strongest kind of lime wrought together grow so hard that they seeme stones indeed and that Statues and images of marble chippings and small grit grow together so compact and firme
they call it a Fesse with a labell of seven as I have seene upon his seales After him succeeded Roger his sonne who bare Gules seven Mascles voided Or but with him that honour vanished and went away seeing he died without issue male For he married the eldest daughter and one of the coheires of Alan Lord of Galloway in Scotland by a former wife in right of whom he was Constable of Scotland He had by her three onely daughters the first married to William de Ferrariis Earle of Derbie the second to Alan de la Zouch the third to Comine Earle of Bucqhanan in Scotland A long time after Hugh le Dispencer having that title bestowed upon him for terme of his life by King Edward the second whose minion he was and only beloved felt together with his sonne what is the consequence of Princes extraordinary favours For both of them envied by most were by the furious rage of the people put cruelly to shamefull death And long it was after this that through the bounty of King Edward the Fourth Lewis of Bruges a Netherland Lord of Gruthuse Prince of Steinhuse c. Who had given him comfort and succour in the Netherlands when hee was fled his native countrey received this honour with Armes resembling those of Roger Quincy in these words Azur a dix Mascles D'or en orm d'un Canton de nostie propre Armes d' Engleterre cestsavour de Goul un Leopard passant d' or armeè d' azur All which after King Edwards death he yeilded up into the hands of Henrie the seventh But lately within our memorie King Edward the sixth honoured Sir William Pawlet Lord Treasurer of England Earle of Wilshire and Lord Saint Iohn of Basing with a new title of Marquesse of Winchester A man prudently pliable to times raised not sodainely but by degrees in Court excessive in vaste informous buildings temperate in all other things full of yeares for he lived nintie seven years and fruitfull in his generation for he saw one hundred and three issued from him by Elizabeth his wife daughter to Sir William Capell Knight And now his grand-child William enjoyeth the said honours For the Geographicall position of Winchester it hath beene observed by former ages to be in longitude two and twenty degrees and in latitude fiftie one From Winchester more Eastward the river Hamble at a great mouth emptieth it selfe into the Ocean Beda calleth it Homelea which as he writeth by the lands of the Intae entreth into Solente for so termeth he that frith our narrow sea that runneth betweene the Isle of Wight and the main land of Britain in which the tides at set houres rushing in with great violence out of the Ocean at both ends and so meeting one another in the midst seemed so strange a matter to our men in old time that they reckoned it among the wonders of Britaine Whereof read heere the very words of Beda The two tides of the Ocean which about Britaine breake out of the vast Northern Ocean daily encounter and fight one against another beyond the mouth of the river Homelea and when they have ended their conflict returne backe from whence they came and runne into the Ocean Into this Frith that little river also sheadeth it selfe which having his head neere Warnford passeth betweene the Forrests of Waltham where the Bishop of Winchester hath a goodly house and of Bere whereby is Wickham a mansion of that ancient family of Vuedal and then by Tichfield sometime a little monasterie founded by Petre de Rupibus Bishop of Winchester where the marriage was solemnized betweene King Henry the sixth and Margaret of Anjou and now the principall seate of the Lord Writheosleies Earles of South-hampton From thence forthwith the shore with curving crookes draweth it selfe in and the Island named Portesey maketh a great creeke within the more inward nooke or corner whereof sometimes flourished Port peris where by report Vespasian landed An haven towne which our Ancestours by a new name called Port-chester not of Porto the Saxon but of the port or haven For Ptolomee tearmeth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is THE GREAT HAVEN for the widenesse of it like as that Portus Magnus also in Africk as Plinie witnesseth And verily there remaineth yet a great Castle which hath a faire and spacious prospect into the haven underneath But when as the Ocean by with-drawing it selfe tooke away by little and little the commoditie of the haven the Inhabitants flitted from thence into the Island Portsey adjoyning which taketh in circuit much about fourteene miles being at every full sea floated round about with salt-waters out of which they boile salt and by a bridge that hath a fortresse adjoyning unto it is united to the Continent This Island Athelflede King Eadgars wife had given to the New monasterie of Winchester And in it at the very gullet or mouth where the sea entreth in our fore-fathers built a towne and thereupon named it Portsmouth that is the mouth of the haven A place alwaies in time of warre well frequented otherwise little resort there is to it as beeing more favourable and better affected to Mars and Neptune than to Mercurie that is to warre rather than to traffique A Church it hath of the old building and an Hospitall Gods house they call it founded by Peter de Rupibus Bishop of Winchester Fortified it was with a wall made of timber and the same well covered over with thicke bankes of earth fenced with a platforme also or mount of earth in times past on the North-east nere to the gate and two block-houses at the entry of the haven made of new hewen stone Which being by King Edward the fourth begunne King Henrie the seventh as the Inhabitants report did finish and strengthned the towne with a garrison But in our remembrance Queene ELIZABETH at her great cost and charges so armed it as one would say with new fortifications as that now there is nothing wanting that a man would require in a most strong and fenced place And of the garrison-souldiers some keepe watch and ward both night and day at the gates others upon the towre of the Church who by the ringing or sound of a bell give warning how many horse or foote are comming and by putting forth a banner shew from what quarter they come From hence as the shore fetcheth a compasse and windeth from Portes-bridge wee had the sight of Havant a little mercate towne and hard by it of Wablington a goodly faire house belonging some-times to the Earles of Salisbury but now to the family of the Cottons Knights Before which there lie two Islands the one greater named Haling the other lesse called Thorney of thornes there growing and both of them have their severall parish Church In many places along this shore of the sea-waters flowing up thither is made salt of a palish or greene colour the which by a certaine artificious devise
pulcherrima quid tibi gemma Pallet gemma tibi nec diadema nitet Deme tibi cultus cultum natura ministrat Non exornari forma beata potest Ornamenta cave nec quicquam luminis inde Accipis illa micant lumine clara tuo Non puduit modicas de magnis dicere laudes Nec pudeat Dominam te precor esse meam When Muses mine thy beauties rare faire Adeliza Queene Of England readie are to tell they starke astonied beene What booteth thee so beautifull gold-crowne or pretious stone Dimne is the Diademe to thee the gemne hath beautie none Away with trimme and gay attire nature attireth thee Thy lovely beautie naturall can never bett'red be All Ornaments beware from them no favour thou do'st take But they from thee their lustre have thou doest them lightsome make I shamed not on matters great to set small praises heere Bash not but deigne I pray to be my Soveraigne Ladie deere She after the Kings death matched in marriage with William de Albeney who taking part with Maud the Empresse against King Stephen and defending this Castle against him was in recompence of his good service by the saide Maude the Empresse and Ladie of Englishmen for this title she used created Earle of Arundell and her sonne King Henrie the Second gave the whole Rape of Arundell to that William To hold of him by the service of fourescore and foure Knights fees and one-halfe And to his sonne William King Richard the first granted in such words as these The Castle of Arundell with the whole Honor of Arundell and the Third penny of the Plees out of Sussex whereof he is Earle And when after the fifth Earle of this surname the issue male failed one of the sisters and heires of Hugh the fifth Earle was married to Sir Iohn Fitz-Alan Lord of Clun whose great grand sonne Richard For that he stood seised of the Castle Honour and Lordship of Arundell in his owne demesne as of Fee in regard of this his possession of the same Castle Honour and Seignorie without any other consideration or Creation to be an Earle was Earle of Arundell and the name state and honor of the Earle of Arundell c. Peaceably he enjoied as appeareth by a definitive judgement given in Parliament in the behalfe of Sir Iohn Fitz-Alan chalenging the Castle and tittle of Arundell by force of an entaile against Iohn Mowbray Duke of Norfolke the right Heire in the neerest degree Whereby it was gathered that the name state and dignitie of Earle was annexed to the Castle Honour and Seignorie of Arundell as it is to be seene in the Parliament Rolls of King Henry the Sixth out of which I have copied forth these notes word for word Of these Fitz-Alans Edmund second Earle sonne to Richard married the heire of the Earle of Surry and was beheaded through the malicious furie of Queene Isabell not lawfully convicted for that hee opposed himselfe in King Edward the Seconds behalfe against her wicked practises His sonne Richard petitioned in Parliament to be restored to bloud lands and goods for that his father was put to death not tried by his Peeres according to the law and great Charter of England neverthelesse whereas the attaindor of him was confirmed by Parliament hee was forced to amend his petition and upon the amendment thereof hee was restored by the Kings meere grace Richard his sonne as his grandfather died for his Soveraigne lost his life for banding against his Soveraigne King Richard the Second But Tho. his sonne more honourably ended his life serving King Henrie the Fifth valerously in France and leaving his sisters his heires generall Sir Iohn of Arundell Lord Maltravers his next cosin and heire male obtained of King Henrie the sixt the Earldome of Arundell as we even now declared and also was by the said King for his good service created Duke of Touraine Of the succeeding Earles I find nothing memorable Henrie Fitz Alan the eleventh and last Earle of that surname lived in our daies in great honor as you shall see After whom leaving no issue male Philip Howard his daughters sonne succeeded who not able to digest wrongs and hard measure offered unto him by the cunning sleights of some envious persons fell into the toile and net pitched for him and being brought into extreame perill of his life yeelded up his vitall breath in the Tower But his sonne Thomas a most honorable young man in whom a forward spirit and fervent love of vertue and glorie most beseeming his nobility and the same tempered with true courtesie shineth very apparently recovered his fathers dignities being restored by King Iames and Parliament authoritie Besides the Castle and the Earles Arundell hath nothing memorable For the Colledge built by the Earles which there flourished because the revenue or living is alienated and gone now falleth to decay Howbeit in the Church are some monuments of Earles there enterred but one above the rest right beautifull of Alabaster in which lieth in the mids of the Quire Earle Thomas and Beatrice his wife the daughter of Iohn King of Portugall Neither must I overpasse this Inscription so faire guilt set up heere in the Honor of Henrie Fitz-Alan the last Earle of this line because some there be whom liketh it well CONSECRATED TO VERTVE AND HONOVR THE MAGNANIMOVS AND VVORTHY KNIGHT VVHOSE PERSONAGE IS HERE SEENE AND VVHOSE BONES HERE VNDERNEATHLY ENTERRED VVAS BARLE OF THIS TERRITORIE ACCORDING TO HIS HOVSE AND LINAGE SVRNAMED FITZ ALAN LOKD MALTRAVERS CLVN AND OSVVALDESTRE PRINCIPAL HONOVRS STILED ALSO LORD AND BARON OF THAT MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE GARTER THE AVNCIENTEST COMPANION VVHILES HE LIVED OF WILLIAM EARLE OF ARVNDELL THE ONELY SONNE AND SVCCESSOR COMPARTNER ALSO OF ALL HIS VERTVES VVHO BEING OF THE PRIVY COVNSEL TO KING HENRIE THE EIGHT KING EDVVARD THE SIXT MARIE AND ELIZABETH KINGS AND QVEENES OF ENGLAND VVAS GOVERNOR ALSO OF THE TOVVNE OF CALES AND VVHAT TIME AS THE SAID KING HENRIE BESIEGED BVLLEN VVAS HIGH MARESCHAL OF HIS ARMY AND AFTER THAT LORD CHAMBERLAIN TO THE KING ALSO VVHEN EDVVARD HIS SONNE VVAS CROVVNED KING HE BARE THE OFFICE OF L. MARESCHAL OF THE KINGDOME AND VNTO HIM LIKE AS BEFORE VNTO HIS FATHER BECAME LORD CHAMBERLAINE MOREOVER IN THE REIGNE OF QVEENE MARIE DVRING THE TIME OF HER SOLEMNE CORONATION HE VVAS MADE LORD HIGH CONSTABLE AFTERVVARD STEVVARD OF HER ROIAL HOVSE AND PRESIDENT OF THE COVNCEL EVEN AS TO QVEENE ELIZABETH ALSO HE VVAS LIKEVVISE LORD HIGH STEVVARD OF HER HOVSHOLD THVS THIS MAN NOBLE BY HIS HIGH PARENTAGE MORE NOBLE FOR VVEL PERFORMING THE PVBLICKE OFFICES OF STATE â—OST NOBLE AND RENOVNED BOTH AT HOME AND ABROAD FLOVRISHING STIL IN HONOVR BROKEN VVITH TRAVEL MVCH VVORNE VVITH YEERES AFTER HE VVAS COME TO THE LXVIII OF HIS AGE AT LONDON THE XXV DAY OF FEBRVARY IN THE YEERE OF OVâ— SALVATION BY CHRIST M. D. LXXIX GODLY AND SVVEETLY SLEPT IN THE LORD IOHN LVMLEY BARON OF LVMLEY HIS MOST
against King Henry the Seaventh to his owne destruction for in the battell at Stoke he was quickly slaine to his fathers death also who for very griefe of heart ended his dayes and to the utter ruine of the whole family which together with them was in a sort extinguished and brought to nothing For his brother Edmund being Earle of Suffolke fled into Flanders began there to conspire and stir up rebellion against King Henry the Seaventh who albeit he feared him would seeme to favour him and as a Prince better contented with repentance than punishment freely pardoned him for sundry offences that he might winne him But after he was thus fled his estate was forfeited and the King never thought himselfe secure from his practises untill he had so farre prevailed with Philip Duke of Burgundy that he was delivered into his hands against the Law of hospitality toward strangers as some then gave out upon solemne promise in the word of a Prince that his life should be spared Neverthelesse he was kept close prisoner and after executed by King Henry the Eighth who thought himselfe not tied to his fathers promise what time as hee first minded to make warre upon France for feare least in his absence some troubles might bee raised at home in his behalfe yet his yonger brother S. Richard de la Pole a banished man in France usurped the title of Duke of Suffolke who being the last male to my knowledge of this house was slaine in the battell of Pavie wherein Francis the first king of France was taken prisoner in the yeer of our Lord 1524. fighting manfully among the thickest of his enemies For whom in consideration of his singular valour and high parentage the Duke of Burbon himselfe although hee was his enemy made a sumptuous funerall and honored the same with his presence in mourning blacke In the meane time king Henry the Eighth adorned Sir Charles Brandon unto whom he had given in marriage his owne sister Marie widdow and Dowager to Lewis the twelfth king of France with the title of Duke of Suffolke and granted to him all the Honours and Manours which Edmund Earle of Suffolke had forfeited After whom succeeded Henry his sonne a childe and after him his brother Charles who both died of the English swet upon one day in the yeere 1551. Then king Edward the Sixth honoured with that title Henry Grey Marquesse Dorset who had married Francis their sister but he enjoying the same but a small time lost his head in Queene Maryes dayes for complotting to make his daughter queen and was the last Duke of Suffolk From that time lay this title of Suffolke void untill that very lately king James advanced to that honour Thomas Lord Howard of Walden the second sonne of Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolke whom for his approved fidelity and vertue he also made his Lord Chamberlaine in his first entrie into the kingdome The Parishes in this County amount to the number of 575. NORFOLCIAE comitatus quem oliÌ„ ICENI Insederunt Centinens in Sc ovida Mercatoria XXVI Pagos et villas DCXXV â—na Cum Singulis hundrediâ—â—t fluminibus in codem Anâ—â—eri Christophere Saylon NORTH-FOLKE NORTH-FOLKE commonly Norfolke which is by interpretation people of the North lieth Norward of Suffolke from which it is divided by those two little Rivers which I spake of Ouse the least and Waveney running divers wayes on the East and North side the German Ocean which is plentifull of Fish beateth upon the shores with a mighty noise On the West the greater Ouse a River disporting himselfe with his manifold branches and divisions secludeth it from Cambridge-Shire It is a Region large and spacious and in manner all throughout a plaine champion unlesse it bee where there rise gently some pretty Hills passing rich exceeding full of Sheepe and stored with Conyes replenished likewise with a great number of populous Villages for beside twenty seven Mercat townes it is able to shew Villages and Country Townes 625 Watered with divers Rivers and Brookes and not altogether destitute of Woods The soyle according to the variety of places is of a divers nature Some where fat ranke and full of moisture as in Mershland and Flegg otherwhere but Westward especially leane light and sandy elsewhere standing upon clay and chalke But the goodnesse of the ground a man may collect by this whence Varro willeth us to gather it that the Inhabitants are of a passing good complexion to say nothing of their exceeding wily wits and the same right quicke in the insight of our common lawes in so much as it is counted as well now as in times past the onely Country for best breed of Lawyers so that even out of the meanest sort of the common people there may be found not a few who if there were nothing else to beare action or able to fetch matter enough of wrangling controversies even out of the very prickes titles and accents of the Law But least whiles I desire brevity I become long by these digressions which may distaste I will turne my penne from the people to the places and beginning at the South side runne over briefly those which are more memorable and of greater antiquity Upon the least Ouse where Thet a small brooke breaking out of Suffolke meeteth and runneth with him in a low ground was seated that ancient City SITOMAGUS which Antonine the Emperour maketh mention of corruptly in the Fragments of an old Choragraphicall table called SIMOMAGUS and SINOMAGUS now Thetford in the Saxon language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which remaineth part of the former name with the addition of the English word Ford. For like as Sitomagus in the Brittish tongue implieth a Citie by the river Sit which now is Thet for Magus as Plinie sheweth signified a City so Thetford in English betokeneth the Ford of Thet neither are these two names Sit and Thet much unlike in sound There are in it at this day but few Inhabitants although it be of a good bignesse but in times past it was very populous and beside other tokens of antiquity it hath still to bee seene a great Mount raised to a good height by mens hands fensed with a double rampier and as the report goeth fortified in ancient time with walles which was a Romane worke as some thinke or rather of the English Saxon Kings as others would have it under whom it flourished a long time But after it was sacked first by Suenus the Dane who in a rage set it on fire in the yeere 1004 and sixe yeers after being spoyled againe by the furious Danes it lost all the beauty and dignity that it had For the recovery whereof Bishop Arfast removed his Episcopall See from Elmham hither and Bishop William his successor did all he could to adorne and set it out so that under King Edward the Confessour there were counted in it 947. Burgesses and in William the Conquerours time 720. Mansions whereof 224. stood void
which King Henry the First gave unto the Church of Lincolne for amends of a losse when hee erected the Bishopricke of Ely taken out of the Diocesse of Lincolne as I have before shewed But where the River Nen entreth into this Shire it runneth fast by Elton the seat of the ancient Family of the Sapcots where is a private Chappell of singular workemanship and most artificiall glasse windowes erected by Lady Elizabeth Dinham the widow of Baron Fitz-warin married into the said Family But a little higher there stood a little City more ancient than all these neere unto Walmsford which Henry of Huntingdon calleth Caer Dorm and Dormeceaster upon the River Nen and reporteth to have beene utterly rased before his time This was doubtlesse that DUROBRIVAE that is The River passage that Antonine the Emperour speaketh of and now in the very same sense is called Dornford neere unto Chesterton which beside peeces of ancient Coine daily found in it sheweth apparant tokens of a City overthrowne For to it there leadeth directly from Huntingdon a Roman Portway and a little above Stilton which in times past was called Stichilton it is seene with an high banke and in an ancient Saxon Charter termed Ermingstreat This Street now runneth here through the middest of a foure square Fort the North side whereof was fensed with Wals all the other sides with a Rampire of earth onely Neere unto which were digged up not long since Cofins or Sepulchres of stone in the ground of R. Bevill of an ancient house in this Shire Some verily thinke that this City tooke up both bankes of the River and there bee of opinion that the little Village Câ—ster standing upon the other banke was parcell thereof Surely to this opinion of theirs maketh much the testimony of an ancient story which sheweth that there was a place by Nen called Dormund-caster in which when Kinneburga had built a little Monastery it began to be called first Kinneburge-caster and afterwards short Caster This Kinneburga the most Christian daughter of the Pagan King Penda and wife to Alfred King of the Northumbrians changed her Princely State into the service of Christ if I may use the words of an ancient Writer and governed this Monastery of her owne as Prioresse or mother of the Nunnes there Which afterwards about the yeare of Salvation 1010. by the furious Danes was made levell with the ground But where this River is ready to leave this County it passeth hard by an ancient house called Bottle-bridge so is it now termed short for Botolph-bridge which the Draitons and Lovets brought from R. Gimels by hereditary succession into the Family of the Shirleies And to this house adjoyneth Overton now corruptly called Orton which being by felony forfait and confiscate Neele Lovetoft redeemed againe of King John and the said Noeles sister and coheire being wedded unto Hubert alià s Robert de Brounford brought him children who assumed unto them the sirname of Lovetoft This County of Huntingdon when the English-Saxons Empire began now to decline had Siward an Earle by Office and not inheritance For as yet there were no Earles in England by inheritance but the Rulers of Provinces after the custome of that age were termed Earles with addition of the Earledome of this or that Province whereof they had the rule for the time as this Siward whiles he governed this County was called Earle of Huntingdon whereas afterwards being Ruler of Northumberland they named him Earle of Northumberland He had a sonne named Waldeof who under the Title of Earle had likewise the government of this Province standing in favour as he did with William the Conquerour whose Niece Judith by his sister of the mothers side hee had married but by him beheaded for entring into a conspiracy against him The eldest daughter of this Waldeof as William Gemiticensis reporteth Simon de Senlys or S. Liz tooke to wife together with the Earldome of Huntingdon and of her begat a sonne named Simon But after that the said Simon was dead David brother to Maud the Holy Queene of England who afterwards became King of Scots married his wife by whom hee had a sonne named Henry But in processe of time as fortune and Princes favour varied one while the Scots another while the Sent Lizes enjoyed this dignity First Henry the sonne of David aforesaid then Simon S. Liz sonne of Simon the first after him Malcolm King of Scots sonne to Earle Henry and after his death Simon Sent Liz the third who dying without issue William King of Scots and brother to Malcolm succeeded for so wrote he that then lived Raphe de Diceto in the yeare 1185. When Simon saith hee the sonne of Earle Simon was departed without children the King restored the Earldome of Huntingdon with the Pertinences unto William King of the Scots Then his brother David and Davids sonne John sirnamed Scot Earle of Chester who dying without issue and Alexander the third that had married the daughter of our King Henry the Third having for a time borne this Title the Scots by occasion of incident warres lost that honour and with it a very faire inheritance in England A good while after King Edward the Third created Sir William Clinton Earle of Huntingdon who dyed issuelesse And in his roome there was placed by King Richard the Second Guiseard of Engolisme a Gascoine who was his Governour in his minority and after his death succeeded Iohn Holland Iohn his sonne who was stiled Duke of Excester Earle of Huntingdon and Ivory Lord of Sparre Admirall of England and Ireland Lieutenant of Aquitane and Constable of the Towre of London and his sonne likewise Henry successively who were Dukes also of Excester This is that very same Henry Duke of Excester whom Philip Comines as himselfe witnesseth saw begging bare foote in the Low Countries whiles he stood firme and fast unto the house of Lancaster albeit he had married King Edward the Fourth his owne sister Then Thomas Grey who became afterward Marquesse Dorset a little while enjoyed that honour Also it is evident out of the Records that William Herbert Earle of Pembroch brought in againe the Charter of creation whereby his father was made Earle of Pembroch into the Chancery for to be cancelled and that King Edward the Fourth in the seventeenth of his Raigne created him Earle of Huntingdon at such time as he granted the Title of Pembroch to the Prince his sonne Afterward King Henry the Eighth conferred that honour upon George Lord Hastings after whom succeeded his sonne Francis and after him likewise his sonne Henry a right honourable Personage commended both for true Nobility and Piety But whereas hee dyed without issue his brother Sir George Hastings succeeded and after him his Grandchilde Henry by his sonne who at this day enjoyeth the said honour In this little Shire are numbered Parishes 78. CORITANI NOw must wee passe on to
the earth which had lien covered many ages before was discovered Also the trunkes of trees standing in the very Sea that had aforetime been lopped on every side yea and the strokes of axes as if they had been given but yesterday were seene apparantly Yea and the earth shewed most blacke and the wood withall of the said trunkes like in all the points to Hebeny so as it seemed now no shore but a lopped grove as well empaired through the wonderfull changes of things either haply from the time of Noahs floud or long after but doubtlesse long agoe as worne by little and little and so swallowed up with the rage of the Sea getting alwaies more ground and washing the earth away Neither were these two lands severed here with any great Sea betweene as may appeare by a word that King William Rufus cast out who when he kenned Ireland from the rocks and cliffes of this Promontory said as we read in Giraldus that he could easily make a bridge with English Sips on which he might passe over the Sea on foote into Ireland A noble kinde of Falcons have their Airies here and breed in the Rocks which King Henry the Second as the same Giraldus writeth was wont to preferre before all others For of that kinde are those if the inhabitants thereby doe not deceive me which the skilfull Faulconers call Peregrines for they have that I may use no other words than the verses of Augustus Thuanus Esmerius that most excellent Pâ—et of our age in that golden booke entituled HIERACOSOPHIOY Depressus capitis vertex oblongique totâ— Corpore pennarum series pallentia crura Et graciles digiti ac sparsi naresque rotundae Head flat and low the plume in rewes along The body laid legges pale and wan are found With slender clawes and talons there among And those wide spread the bill is hooked round But from this Promontory as the land draweth backward the Sea with great violence and assault of waters inrusheth upon a little Region called Keimes which is reputed a Barony In it standeth First Fishgard so called in English of the taking of fish in British Abergwain that is the mouth of the River Gwain situate upon a steepe Cliffe where there is a very commodious harbour and rode for Ships then Newport at the foote of an high Mountaine by the River Neverns side in British Tref-draeth i. the Towne upon the sands and in Latine Records Novus Burgus which Martin of Tours built his posterity made an incorporation adorned with priviledges and set over it for governement a Portgreve and Bailive erected also for themselves a Castle over the Towne which was their principall seate Who founded likewise Saint Dogmales Abbay according to the order of Tours by the River Tivy low in a vale environed with hils unto which the Borrough adjoyning as many other Townes unto Monasteries is beholden for the originall thereof This Barony Martin of Tours first wrested out of the Welsh mens hands by force and armes from whose heires successively called Martins it came by marriage to the Barons of Audley who held it a long time untill that in the reigne of Henry the eighth William Owen that derived his pedigree from a daughter of Sir Nicholas Martin Knight after long suit in law for his right in the end obtained it and left it to his sonne George who being a singular lover of venerable antiquity hath informed me that in this Barony ouer and above three Borroughs Newport Fishgard and Saint Dogmaels there are twenty Knights fees and twenty sixe Parishes More inward upon the River Tivy aforesaid is Kilgarran which sheweth the reliques of a Castle built by Girald but being at this day reduced unto one onely street it is famous for nothing else but the most plentifull fishing of Salmon For there have you that notable Salmon Leap where the River from on high falleth downright and the Salmons from out of the Ocean coveting to come up further into the River when they meete with this obstacle in the way bend backe their taile to the mouth other whiles also to make a greater leap up hold fast their taile in the mouth and as they unloose themselves from such a circle they give a jerk as if a twig bended into a rondle were sudainely let goe and so with the admiration of the beholders mount and whip themselves aloft from beneath as Ausonius hath most elegantly written Nec te paniceo rutilantem viscere Salma Transierim latae cujus vaga verbera caudae Gurgite de medio summas reseruntur in undas Nor can I thee let passe all red within Salmon that art whose jerkes and friskes full oft From mids of streame and chanell deepe therein With broad taile flirt to floating waves aloft There have beene divers Earles of Pembroke out of sundry houses As for Arnulph of Montgomery who first wonne it and was afterwards outlawed and his Castellan Girald whom King Henry the First made afterward President over the whole Country I dare searcely affirme that they were Earles The first that was stiled Earle of Penbroke was Gilbert sirnamed Strongbow sonne of Gislebert de Clare in the time of King Stephen And hee left it unto his sonne Richard Strongbow the renowned Conquerour of Ireland who as Giraldus saith was descended ex clarâ Clarentium familiâ that is out of the noble Family of Clare or Clarence His onely daughter Isabell brought the same honour to her Husband William named Mareschall for that his Ancestours had beene by inheritance Mareschals of the Kings Palace a man most glorious both in warre and peace and Protector of the Kingdome in the minority of King Henry the Third Concerning whom this pithie Epitaph is extant in Rodburns Annales Sum quem Saturnum sibi sensit Hibernia Solem Anglia Mercurium Normannia Gallia Martem Whom Ireland once a Saturne found England a Sunne to be Whom Normandy a Mercurie and France Mars I am he After him his five sonnes were successively one after another Earles of Penbroke viz. William called The younger Richard who after hee had rebelled against King Henry the Third went into Ireland where hee was slaine in battaile Gilbert who in a Tournament at Ware was unhorsed and so killed Walter and Anselme who enjoyed the honour but a few dayes who every one dying in a short space without issue King Henry the Third invested in the honour of this Earledome William de Valentia of the house of Lusignian in Poicta his brother by the mother side who had to wife Joan the daughter of Gwarin de Mont-chensy by the daughter of the foresaid William Mareschall After William of Valence succeeded his sonne Aimar who under King Edward the First was Regent of Scotland whose eldest sister Elizabeth and one of his heires wedded unto John Lord Hastings brought this Dignity unto a new Family For Laurence Hastings his grandsonne Lord of Welshford and Abergevenny was made Earle of
or Band of the Exploratores with their Captaine kept their station heere under the dispose of the Generall of Britaine as appeareth for certaine out of the NOTICE of Provinces where it is named LAVATRES But whereas such Bathes as these were called also in Latine Lavacra some Criticke no doubt will pronounce that this place was named LAVATRAE in stead of LAVACRA yet would I rather have it take the name of a little river running neere by which as I heare say is called Laver. As for the later name Bowes considering the old Towne was heere burnt downe to the ground as the inhabitants with one voice doe report I would thinke it grew upon that occasion For that which is burnt with fire the Britans still at this day doe terme Boeth and by the same word the Suburbes of Chester beyond the River Dee which the Englishmen call Hanbridge the Britans or Welshmen name Treboeth that is The burnt Towne because in a tumult of the Welshmen it was consumed with fire Heere beginneth to rise that high hilly and solitary Country exposed to winde and raine which because it is stony is called in our native language Stane more All heere round about is nothing but a wilde Desert unlesse it bee an homely Hostelry or Inne in the very middest thereof called The Spitle on Stane more for to entertaine waifaring persons and neere to it is a fragment of a Crosse which wee call Rerecrosse the Scots Reicrosse as one would say The Kings Crosse. Which Crosse Hector Boetius the Scottish Writer recordeth to have beene erected as a meere stone confining England and Scotland what time as King William the Conquerour granted Cumberland unto the Scots on this condition that they should hold it of him as his Tenants and not attempt any thing prejudiciall or hurtfull to the Crowne of England And a little lower upon the Romanes high street there stood a little Fort of the Romans built foure square which at this day they call Maiden-Castle From whence as the borderers reported the said High way went with many windings in and out as farre as to Caer Vorran in Northumberland There have beene divers Earles of Richmond according as the Princes favour enclined and those out of divers families whom I will notwithstanding set downe as exactly and truely as I can in their right order The first Earles were out of the house of little Britaine in France whose descent is confusedly intricate amongst their owne Writers for that there were two principall Earles at once one of Haulte Britaine and another of Base Britaine for many yeeres and every one of their children had their part in Gavell kinde and were stiled Earles of Britaine without distinction But of these the first Earle of Richmond according to our Writers and Records was Alane sirnamed Feregaunt that is The Red sonne of Hoel Earle of Britaine descended from Hawise great Aunt to William Conquerour who gave this Country unto him by name of the lands of Earle Eadwin in Yorke-shire and withall bestowed his daughter upon him by whom he had no issue He built Richmond Castle as is before specified to defend himselfe from disinherited and outlawed Englishmen in those parts and dying left Britaine to his sonne Conan Le Grosse by a second wife But Alane the Blacke sonne of Eudo sonne of Geffrey Earle of Britaine and Hawise aforesaid succeeded in Richmond and he having no childe lest it to Stephen his brother This Stephen begat Alan sirnamed Le Savage his sonne and successour who assisted king Stephen against Maude the Empresse in the battaile at Lincolne and married Bertha one of the heires of Conan Le Grosse Earle of Hault Britaine by whom hee had Conan Le Petit Earle of both Britaine 's by hereditary right as well as of Richmond Hee by the assistance of King Henrie the Second of England dispossessed Endo Vicount of Porhoet his Father in Lawe who usurped the Title of Britaine in right of the said Bertha his Wife and ended his life leaving onely one daughter Constance by Margaret sister to Malcolne king of the Scots Geffrey third Sonne to King Henry the Second of England was advanced by his Father to the marriage of the said Constance whereby hee was Earle of Britaine and Richmond and begat of her Arthur who succeeded him and as the French write was made away by King Iohn his Unkle True it is indeed that for this cause the French called King Iohn into question as Duke of Normandy And notwithstanding he was absent and not heard once to plead neither confessing ought nor convicted yet by a definitive sentence they condemned him and awarded from him Normandy and his hereditary possessions in France Albeit himselfe had promised under safe conduct to appeare in personally at Paris there to make answere as touching the death of Arthur who as a Liege subject had bound himselfe by oath to bee true and loyall unto him and yet started backe from his allegeance raised a rebellion and was taken prisoner in battaile At which time this question was debated whether the Peeres of France might give judgement of a King annointed and therefore superiour considering that a greater dignity drowneth the lesser and now one and the same person was both King of England and Duke of Normandy But whither doe I digresse After Arthur these succeeded orderly in the Earldome of Richmond Guy Vicount of Thovars unto whom the foresaid Constance was secondly married Ranulph the third Earle of Chester the third husband of the said Constance Peter of Dreux descended from the bloud royall of France who wedded Alice the onely daughter of Constance by her husband abovenamed Guy Then upon dislike of the house of Britaine Peter of Savoy Unkle by the mothers side unto Eleonor the wife of king Henry the Third was made Earle of Richmond who for feare of the Nobles and Commons of England that murmured against strangers preferred to honours in England voluntarily surrendred up this Honour which was restored to Iohn Earle of Britaine sonne to Peter of Dreux After whom succeeded Iohn his sonne the first Duke of Britaine who wedded Beatrice daughter to Henry the Third King of England Whose sonne Arthur was Duke of Britaine and as some write Earle of Richmond Certes John of Britaine his younger brother immediately after the fathers death bare this honourable Title And he added unto the ancient Armes of Drewx with the Canton of Britaine the Lions of England in Bordeur Hee was Guardian of Scotland under King Edward the Second and there taken and detained prisoner for three yeeres space and dyed at length without issue in the Raigne of Edward the Third And John Duke of Britaine his nephew the sonne of Arthur succeeded in this Earledome After his decease without children when there was hote contention about the Dutchy of Britaine betweene John Earle of Montfort of the halfe bloud and Joane his brothers daughter and heire
England of the Kings Majesties Privie Counsell whom King James the sixth created Baron Brus of Kinlosse Thus much for the shore More inward where now standeth Bean Castle thought to bee BANATIA that Ptolomee mentioneth there was found in the yeere 1460. a vessell of marble artificially engraven and full of Roman coine Hard by is Nardin or Narne an hereditable Sherifdome of the Cambels of Lorne where there stood within a Biland a fortresse of a mightie heighth built with wonderfull bulwarks and in times past defended by the Danish forces against the Scottish A little off is Logh-Nesse a very great Lake as reaching out 23. miles in length the Water whereof is so warme that even in this cold and frozen climate it never freezeth from which by a verie small Isthim or partition of hils the Logh Lutea or Louthea which by Aber letteth it selfe forth into the West sea is divided Neere unto these Loghs there stood in old time two notable fortifications the one named Innernesse the other Innerlothea according to the names of the said Loghs Innernes hath for Sheriffe thereof by right of inheritance the Marquesse Huntly who is of great command hereabout But have here what M. Jonston hath written jointly of these two INNERNESSUS INNERLOTHEA Imperii veteris duo propugnacula quondam Primâ—que regali moenia structa manu Turribus oppositis adverso in limine spectat Haec Zephyrum Solis illa orientis equos Amnibus hinc atque hinc cincta utraque piscibus amnes Faecundi haec portu perpete tuta patet Haec fuit at jacet heu jam nunc sine nomine tellus Hospita quae Regum est hospita facta feris Altera spirat adhuc tenuis sufflamina vitae Quae dabit fati turbine victa manus Dic ubi nunc Carthago potens ubi Martia Roma Trojáque immensae ditis opes Asiae Quid mireris enim mortalia cedere fatis Corpora cùm videas oppida posse mori INNERNESSE AND INNERLOTHEA Two mightie forts and holds these were in ancient kingdomes daies The first wall'd fences as they say that hand of Kings did raise Affront with towres oppos'd they stand for one of them regards The Westerne winde but th' other looks the Sun-rising towards On both sides they their rivers have and rivers full of fish One hath an haven frequented aye and safe as heart can wish Such was it once but now alas to wast and desart fields Is turn'd and that which lodged Kings to wild beasts harbour yeelds The other yet draw's breath though deepe and shewes that it doth live But over match'd to destinie at length doth bucklers give What 's now become of Carthage great where is that martiall Rome Where Troy of wealthie Asia the riches all and some No marvaile now that mortall wights to death be subject why Because you plainly see that Townes and Cities great may dye Under the reigne of Robert Brus Thomas Randolph his sisters sonne who in his Countries behalfe undertooke exceeding great paines and most grievous quarrels was highly renowned by the title of Earle of Murray Under King Robert the Second John of Dunbarre tooke to wife the Kings daughter to make amends for her devirgination received this Earldome of Murray with her in marriage Under King James the second William Creichton Chancelour of the Realme and Archebald Douglas grew to great variance and eagre contention about this Earledome when as against the lawes and ancient customes Douglas who had married the younger daughter of James of Dunbar Earle of Murray was preferred to the Earldom before Creighton who had wedded the elder and that through the powerfull authoritie that William Earle Douglasse had with the King which was so great that he advanced not onely him to the Earldom of Murray but also another brother to the Earldome of Ormund and made two cousins of his Earles the one of Angus and the other of Morton But this greatnesse of his not to be trusted upon because it was excessive turned soone after to his owne confusion Under King James the fifth his own brother whom he appointed his Vicegerent in the government of the Kingdome enjoied this honour and within our remembrance James the base sonne of King James the fifth received this honour of Queene Mary his sister but he requited her basely when conspiring with some few of the Nobilitie he deposed her from her Royall estate and kingdome a foule president and prejudiciall to all Kings and Princes Which notwithstanding was revenged for shortly after hee was shot through with a bullet His onely daughter brought this title unto her husband Sir James Stewart of Downe who was also of the blood royall from the Dukes of Albany who being slain by his concurrents left his sonne James to succeed him in this honour LOQHUABRE WHatsoever beyond the Nesse bendeth to the West coast and adjoineth to the Lake Aber is thereupon called Loghuabre that is in the ancient tongue of the Britans The mouth of the Lakes as what lieth toward the North is commonly called Rosse Loqhuabre is full of fresh pastures and woods neither is without yron mines but not so free in yeeld of corne but for most fishfull pooles and rivers scarce inferiour to any country thereabout At Logh-Lothey Innerlothey fensed with a fort and well frequented with Merchants was of great name and importance in times past but being razed by the piracies and warres of Danes and Norwegians it hath lien for these many ages so forlet that there remaineth scarce any shew of it which those verses that I alledged even now doe imply Loqhuabre hath had so farre as I have read no Earles but about the yeere of our salvation 1050. there was a Thane over it of great fame and much spoken of named Banqhuo whom Macbeth the bastard when with murder bloodshed he had usurped the crowne being fearfull and suspicious caused to bee made away for that he had learned by a Prophesie of certaine wise women that his posteritie when the line of Macbeth was expired and extinct should one day obtaine the Kingdome and by a long successive descent reigne in Scotland Which verily hath fallen out accordingly For Fleanch the sonne of Banqhuo who unknowne in the darke escaped the traines laid for him â—led into Wales where for a time hee kept himselfe close and having taken to wife Nesta the daughter of Griffith ap Lewellin Prince of North-wales begat Walter who returning into Scotland with so great fame of his fortitude repressed the rebellion of the Ilanders and with as great wisdome managed the Kings revenewes in this tract that the King made him Seneschall whom they commonly call Stewart of the whole Kingdome of Scotland Whereupon this name of Office imposed the surname Stewart unto his posteritie who spreading throughout all parts of Scotland into a number of noble branches after many honours heaped upon them have flourished a long
againe unto the English For Edward who in regard of his holinesse was surnamed The Confessor the sonne of Etheldred by his second wife recovered the Crowne and royall Dignitie Now began England to take breath againe but soone after as saith the Poet Mores rebus cessêre secundis Prosperitie perverted manners The Priests were idle drowsie and unlearned the people given to riot and loose life they grew also through rest to be lither discipline lay as it were dead the commonwealth sick as one would say of an infinite sort of vices lay in consumption and pined away but pride above all whose waiting maid is destruction was come to a mightie head And as Gervasius Dorobornensis of that time speaketh They fell so fast to commit wickednesse that to be ignorant of any sinfull crimes was held to be a crime All which most evidently foreshewed destruction The Englishmen of those times as William of Malmesburie writeth went lightly appointed with their garments reaching but to the mid knee their heads shorne their beards shaven but the upper lip uncut where the mustaches grew continually wearing massie bracelets of gold about their armes carrying markes upon their skin pounced in of sundry colours The Clergie contenting themselves with triviall literature could scarsly back and hew out the words of the Sacrament THE NORMANS LIke as in ancient times out of that East coast of Germanie in respect of us which tendeth Northward the Franks first and then the Saxons grievously annoied both France Gaule and Britaine with their depredations so that in the end the one became Lords of Britaine the other of France even so in these later daies ensuing the Danes first and afterward the Normans succeeding in their place from out of the same coast did the like As if it were fatally given unto that tract by the dispose and providence of Almightie God to conceive still and often times to send out of her wombe nations to afflict France and Britaine yea and to establish new Kingdomes therein These Normans were so called of the Northerne quarter or climate from whence they came for Normans be nothing else but Men of the North in which sense also they are named Nordleudi that is a Northerne people for a mixt nation they were of the most valiant Norvegians Suedens and Danes In the time of Charles the Great they practised roving and piracie in such cruell manner about Frisia Belgia England Ireland and France that when the said Charles the Great saw their roving ships in the Mediterranean sea he shed teares abundantly and with a grievous deepe sigh said Heavie I am at the heart that in my life time they durst once come upon this coast and I foresee what mischiefe they will worke hereafter to my posteritie Yea and in the publique Processions and Letanies of Churches this afterwards was added to the rest From the race of Normans Good Lord deliver us They drave the French to that extremitie that King Charles the Bald was forced to give unto Hasting a Norman Arch-pirate the Earledome of Charters for to asswage the mans furie King Charles the Grosse granted unto Godfrey the Norman a part of Neustria with his daughter also in marriage But afterwards by force and armes they seated themselves neere unto the mouth of the river Sein in a country which before time was corruptly called Neustria because it had beene a parcell of Westrasia For so the writers of the middle time named that which the Germans used to call Westen-rijch that is the West-kingdome and doth comprise all that lieth betweene the rivers of Loyre and Seine Which tooke the name of Normandie afterwards of them as it were the region of Northerne men when King Charles the simple had confirmed it unto their Prince Rollo whose Godfather he was at his Baptisme to bee held in Fee by homage and withall bestowed upon him his daughter in marriage At which time as we reade in an old Manuscript belonging to the Monasterie of Angiers Charles surnamed Stultus gave Normandie to Rollo and his daughter Gista with it This Rollo daigned not to kisse the foote of Charles and when his friends about him admonished him to kisse the Kings foote as his homager for the receit of so great a benefit hee answered in the English tongue Ne se by God which they interpret thus NO BY GOD The King then and his Courtiers deriding him and corruptly repeating his speech called him Bigod whereupon the Normans be at this day called Bigodi Hence also peradventure it is that the Frenchmen even still use to call hypocrites and superstitious folke Bigod This Rollo who being baptised received therewith the name of Robert some writers report to have become a Christian but in shew and colour onely others upon good deliberation and in earnest and they adde moreover that hee was warned so to doe by God in a dreame which I pray you give me leave being a man for all this that doateth not upon dreames to relate without suspicion of vanitie from the credit of writers in those daies The report goeth that as he sailed he dreamed he saw himselfe fouly infected with the leprosie but when hee was washed once in a most cleare spring at the foot of an high hill hee recovered and was cleansed thereof and anon climbed up to the top of the said hill This Dreame when he reported a Christian that was a captive in the same ship with him interpreted it in this wise The Leprosie was the impious worship of Idol gods wherewith he was tainted that the spring betokned the holy Laver of Regeneration wherewith being once cleansed he should ascend up the hill that is attaine unto high honor and heaven it selfe This Rollo begat William surnamed Long-espee of the long sword which he used to weare and William begat Richard the first of that name Whose sonne and nephew by his son carrying both his name succeeded after him in the Duchie of Normandie but when Richard the third was dead without issue his brother Robert was Duke in his stead who of his concubine begat that William whom wee commonly name The Conquerour and the Bastard All these were every one for their noble acts atchieved both at home and abroad most renowned Princes Now whiles this William being of ripe yeares ruled Normandie Edward the holy surnamed CONFESSOR King of England and the last of the Saxons line departed out of this world unto his heavenly country to the great misse and losse of his people who being the sonne of Ladie Emma cosen to William and daughter to Richard the first of that name Duke of Normandie whiles hee remained in Normandie banished had promised unto him that he should succeed after him in the Crowne of England But Harold the sonne of Godwin and Great Master or Steward of King Edwards house usurped the Kingdome whom to dispossesse his brother Tosto of one side
any expedition set out either by sea or land it served in proportion to five hides It hath beene likewise from time to time much afflicted once spoiled and sore shaken by the furious outrages of the Danes in the yeare of our redemption 875. but most grievously by Suen the Dane in the yeare 1003. at which time by the treacherie of one Hugh a Norman Governor of the citie it was raced and ruined along from the East gate to the West And scarcely began it to flourish againe when William the Conquerour most straightly beleaguered it when the Citizens in the meane while thought it not sufficient to shut their gates against him but malapartly let flie taunts and flouts at him but when a piece of their wall fell downe by the speciall hand of God as the Historians of that age report they yielded immediatly thereupon At which time as we find in the said survey-booke of his The King had in this Citie three hundred houses it paid fifteene pounds by the yeare and fortie houses were destroyed after that the King came into England After this it was thrice besieged and yet it easily avoided all First by Hugh Courtney Earle of Denshire in that civill warre betweene the two houses of Lancaster and Yorke then by Perkin Warbecke that imaginarie counterfeit and pretended Prince who being a young man of a very base condition faining himselfe to be Richard Duke of Yorke the second sonne of King Edward the Fourth stirred up dangerous stirres against Henrie the Seventh thirdly by seditious Rebels of Cornwall in the yeare of Christ 1549 at which time the Citizens most grievously pinched though they were with scarcitie of all things continued neverthelesse in their faith and allegeance untill that Iohn Lord Russell raised the siege and delivered them But Excester received not so great damage at these enemies hands as it did by certaine dammes which they call Weares that Edward Courtney Earle of Denshire taking high displeasure against the Citizens made in the river Ex which stop the passage so that no vessell can come up to the Citie but since that time all merchandize is carried by land from Topesham three miles off And albeit it hath beene decreed by Act of Parliament to take away these Weares yet they continue there still Hereupon the little Towne adjoyning is call Weare being aforetime named Heneaton which was sometime the possession of Augustine de Baa from whom in right of inheritance it descended to Iohn Holland who in his signet which my selfe have seene bare a Lion rampant gardant among flowers de Lys. The civill government of this Citie is in the power of foure and twenty persons out of whom there is from yeare to yeare a Major elected who with foure Bailiffes ruleth heere the State As touching the Geographicall description of this place the old tables of Oxford have set downe the longitude thereof to bee nineteene degrees and eleven scruples the latitude fiftie degrees and fortie scruples or minutes This Citie that I may not omit so much hath had three Dukes For Richard the Second of that name King of England created Iohn Holland Earle of Huntingdon and his brother by the mothers side the first Duke of Excester whom Henrie the Fourth deposed from this dignitie and left unto him the name onely of Earle of Huntingdon and soone after for conspiracie against the King he lost both it and his life by the hatchet Some few yeares after Henry the Fifth set in his place Thomas Beaufort of the house of Lancaster and Earle of Dorset a right noble and worthy warriour When he was dead leaving no issue behind him John Holland sonne of that aforesaid John as heire unto his brother Richard who died without children and to his father both being restored to his bloud by the favour and bounty of King Henry the Sixth recovered his fathers honor and left the same to Henry his sonne who so long as the Lancastrians stood upright flourished in very much honor but afterwards when the family of Yorke was a float and had rule of all gave an example to teach men how ill trusting it is to great Fortunes For this was that same Henry Duke of Excester who albeit he had wedded King Edward the Fourth his sister was driven to such miserie that he was seene all tottered torne and barefooted to begge for his living in the Low countries And in the end after Barnet field fought wherein he bare himselfe valiantly against Edward the Fourth was no more seene untill his dead bodie as if he had perished by Shipwracke was cast upon the shore of Kent A good while after this Henry Courtney Earle of Denshire the sonne of Katharine daughter to King Edward the Fourth was advanced to the honour of Marquesse of Excester by Henry the Eighth and designed heire apparant But this Marquesse as well as the first Duke was by his high parentage cast into a great tempest of troubles wherein as a man subject to suspitions and desirous of a change in the State he was quickly overthrowne And among other matters because he had with money and counsell assisted Reginald Poole afterwards Cardinall then a fugitive practising with the Emperour and the Pope against his owne Country and the King who had now abrogated the Popes authoritie he was judicially arraigned and being condemned with some others lost his head But now of late by the favour of King Iames Thomas Cecill Lord Burleigh enjoyeth the title of Earle of Excester a right good man and the worthy sonne of so excellent a father being the eldest sonne of William Cecill Lord Burleigh high Treasurer of England whose wisedome for a long time was the support of peace and Englands happy quietnesse From Excester going to the very mouth of the River I find no monument of Antiquitie but Exminster sometime called Exanminster bequeathed by King Elfred to his younger sonne and Pouderham Castle built by Isabell de Ripariis the seat long time of that most noble family of the Courtneys Knights who being lineally descended from the stocke of the Earles of Denshire and allied by affinitie to most honorable houses flourish still at this day most worthy of their descent from so high Ancestors Under Pouderham Ken a pretty brooke entreth into Ex which riseth neere Holcombe where in a Parke is a faire place built by Sir Thomas Denis whose family fetcheth their first off-spring and surname from the Danes and were anciently written Le Dan Denis by which name the Cornish called the Danes But lower upon the very mouth of the river on the other banke side as the name it selfe doth testifie standeth Exanmouth knowne by nothing else but the name and for that some fishermen dwelt therein More Eastward Otterey that is The River of Otters or River-Dogs which we call Otters as may appeare by the signification of the word falleth into the sea which runneth hard under
which Elfgiva a most godly and devout Lady wife to Edmund that was King Aelfrids nephews sonne had erected and of ten parish Churches besides or there about But most famous in this place by occasion of a prety fable that our Historians doe report of Aquila prophecying here of the conversion or change of the Britaines Empire For some will have the bird Aquila that is an Eagle others a man so named to have foretold here that the British Empire after the Saxons and Normans should returne againe to the ancient Britaines and these men affirme and maintaine that this place is of greater antiquitie than Saturne himselfe whereas most certaine it is that it was first built by Alfred For the Historiographer of Malmesbury hath recorded that in his daies there was an old stone translated from the ruines of the wall into the Chapter house of the Names which had this Inscription ANNO DOMINICAE INCARNATIONIS AELFREDVS REX FECIT HANC VRBEM DCCC.LXXX REGNI SVI VIII That is In the yeare of the incarnation of our Lord King Aelfred built this Citie 880. of his raigne the eighth This Inscription I have the more willingly put down here for proofe of the Truth because in all the copies which I have seen it is wanting save only in that in the Librarie of the late Lord Burghley high Treasurer of England and I have beene informed that it continued there untill the time of King Henry the Eighth Yet the Inhabitants have a tradition that an old Citie stood upon the place which is called the Castle-Greene and by some Bolt-bury now a faire plaine so scited that as of one side it joyneth to the Towne so of another it is a strange sight to looke downe to the vale under it whereby in the West end of the old Chappell of S. Iohn as I heare now standeth a Roman Inscription reversed From thence the Stoure by Marnhill of which place L. Henry Howard brother of Thomas last Duke of Norfolke received of King Iames the title of Baron Howard of Mernhill before that he was created Earle of Northampton makes speed to Stourminster which is as much to say as the Monasterie or Minster upon Stoure A small towne this is standing somewhat with the lowest from which there is a stone bridge built reaching to Newton Castle where offreth it selfe to be seene a loftie mount cast up as they say to that heighth with great labour but of the Castle there remaineth nothing at all but onely the bare name Of these I have nothing of more antiquitie to say than this that King Aelfred bequeathed Stoureminster to a younger sonne of his Hard by at Silleston there rise two good great hilles the one named Hameldon the other Hodde and both of them fortified with a three fold Ditch and rampier And not far from thence but the very place I cannot precisely set downe stood Okeford the Capitall honour of the Baronie of Robert the sonne of Pagan commonly named Fitz-Payne who married the daughter of Guido de Brient who also in this West part enjoyed the honor of a Baron under King Edward the Third but for default of heire males of those Fitz-Paynes it came to the Poynings Barons likewise in those daies and at length by a daughter and heire of Poynings in the raigne of Henry the Sixth these Barons titles Fitz-Payne Brient and Poinings were conjoyned in the Percies Earles of Northumberland Howbeit within our fathers remembrance through the favour of King Henry the Eighth the title of Baron Poinings reflourished in Sir Thomas Poinings sonne of Sir Edward Poinings a martiall man and fruitfull father of much base brood but with him it soone vanished away as bastardly slips seldome take deepe root From hence Stoure passeth on by Brienston that is Brients towne where the Rogerses dwell an ancient family of Knights degree to Market Blandford which since in our time it chanced to be burnt downe arose againe built more elegantly and is better peopled with Inhabitants Then Stoure from thence by Tarrent where Richard Poer Bishop of Sarisbury founded a Cell for Virgins Votaries speedeth himselfe apace to that most ancient towne VINDOGLADIA where Antoninus maketh mention Which in the Saxons tongue is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commonly Winburne and of the Monasterie Wenburnminster and from hence to Dorcester are counted sixteene miles just so many as the Emperour Antonine in his Itinerarie reckoneth betweene Vindogladia and Durnovaria The name as I conjecture it taketh of the scituation because it is seated betweene two rivers for so in the British tongue Windugledy soundeth as much as betweene two Swords now that the Britaines by a peculiar phrase of their owne terme rivers Swords it appeareth by Aberdugledian the British name of Milford Haven which is as much to say as the mouth of two rivers for that two rivers named with them Gledian that is Swords runne into it The latter name also of this town seemeth to be set from Rivers For Winburn is compounded of Vin a parcell of the old name and the Saxon word Burne which among them betokeneth a river and by the addition thereof the Saxons were wont to name places standing upon rivers The very town it selfe is seated upon the piece of an hill large in compasse replenished with Inhabitants but few faire buildings In the Saxons time right famous it was and much frequented for no other cause I believe but for that in those daies there remained divers tokens of the Romans majestie In the yeare 713. Cuthburga sister to Ina King of the West-Saxons when upon a loathing wearinesse of wedlocke she had sued out a Divorce from her owne husband King of Northumberland built heere a Nunnerie which yeilded unto the injurie of time and fallen to decay there arose in the very place thereof a new Church with a faire Vault beneath under the quier and an high spire besides the Toure-steeple In which were placed Prebendaries in liew of those Nuns Over whom in our fathers daies Reginal Pole was Deane who afterwards being Cardinal and Archbishop of Canteburie over and above the nobilitie of his house for descended he was of the Royall bloud became highly renowned for pietie wisedome and eloquence King Etheldred a right good and vertuous Prince brother of Aelfred slaine in the battell at Wittingham against the Danes lieth enterred in this Church upon whose Tombe which not long since hath beene repaired this new Inscription is to be read IN HOC LOCO QVIESCIT CORPVS S. ETHELDREDI REGIS WEST SAXONVM MARTYRIS QVI ANNO DOMINI DCCC LXXII XXIII APRILIS PER MANVS DANORVM PAGANORVM OCCVBVIT That is Heere lieth at rest the bodie of Etheldred King of the West-Saxons Martyr who died in the yeare of our Lord 872. the 23. of April by the hands of the Danes Infidels Neere unto whom lieth entombed Gertrude Blunt Marchionesse of Excester daughter to William Lord Montjoy and
Under which betweene the confluences of Avon and Frome there is a plaine beset round about with trees yielding a most pleasant walking place South-east where no rivers are to guard it Robert the base sonne of King Henry the First whom they commonly name Robert Rufus and Consull of Glocester because he was Earle of Glocester built a large and strong Castle for the defence of this Citie and of a pious and devout affection appointed every tenth stone to the building of a Chappell neere unto the Priory of S. Iames which he likewise founded by the Citie side This Robert had to wife Mabile the onely daughter and heire of Robert Fitz-Hamon who held this towne by vassalage in Capite of King William Conquerour This Castle was scarcely built when King Stephen besieged it but with lost labour for he was compelled to raise his siege and depart and a few yeares after was imprisoned in the same giving thereby a testimony and proofe how uncertaine the chance of war is Beyond the river Frome which hath a bridge over it at Frome-gate there riseth an high hill with a steepe and crooked ascent so as it is painefull to goe up unto it From whence ye have a most faire and goodly prospect to the Citie and haven underneath This hill in the very top and pitch thereof spreadeth presently into a large greene and even plaine which in the midst is shadowed with a double row and course of trees and among them stands a pulpit of Stone and a Chapell wherein by report lieth enterred Iordan the companion of Augustine the Englishmens Apostle Now it is converted to a Schoole and on both sides to say nothing of the neate and fine houses of private men beautified it is with publike and stately buildings Of the one side was a Collegiat Church called Gaunts of the founder one Henry Gaunt Knight who relinquishing the world in this place betooke himselfe to the service of God but now through the bounty of Thomas Carr a wealthy Citizen converted to the keeping of Orphans on the other side directly over against it stand two Churches dedicated to S. Augustine the one which is the lesse a Parish-Church the other that is greater the Bishops Cathedrall Church endowed with sixe Prebendaries by King Henrie the Eighth the greatest part whereof is now destroied where the Colledge-gate workemanly built carrieth in the front this Inscription REX HENRICVS II. ET DOMINVS ROBERTVS FILIVS HARDINGI FILII REGIS DACIAE HVIVS MONASTERII PRIMI FVNDATORES EXTITERVNT That is King Henry the Second and Lord Robert the sonne of Harding the King of Denmarks sonne were the first founders of of this Monasterie This Robert called by the Normans Fitz-Harding descended of the bloud royall of Denmarke was an Alderman of Bristow of King Henry the Second so entirely beloved that by his meanes Maurice his sonne married the daughter of the Lord of Barkley Whereby his posteritie who flourished in great honor are unto this day called Barons of Barkley and some of them have beene buried in this Church From hence as Avon holdeth on his course there are on each side very high cliffes by nature set there as it were of purpose the one of them which on the East-side overlooketh the river beareth the name of S. Vincents rocke so full of Diamonds that a man may fill whole strikes or bushels of them These are not so much set by because they be so plentious For in bright and transparent colour they match the Indian Diamonds if they passe them not in hardnesse onely they are inferior to them but in that nature her self hath framed them pointed with sixe cornerd or foure cornerd smooth sides I thinke them therefore worthy to be had in greater admiration The other rock also on the West-side is likewise full of Diamonds which by the wonderfull skill and worke of nature are enclosed as young ones within the bowels of hollow and reddish flints for here is the earth of a red colour When Avon hath left these rocks behind him with full channell at length he disengorgeth himselfe into the Severn-sea Then remaineth now to reckon up the Earles and Dukes of this County The first Earle of Somerset by tradition was William de Mâ—hun or Moion who may seeme to be the very same whom Maude the Empresse in a charter whereby she created William de Mandevill Earle of Essex taketh as a witnesse under this name Comes W. de Moion Neither from that time meete we with any expresse and apparent mention of Earles of Somerset unlesse it be in these letters Patents of King Henrie the Third unto Peter de Mawley which that I may draw out the judgement of others I will heere set downe literally Know yee that we have received the homage of our well beloved Vncle William Earle of Sarisbury for all the lands that he holdeth of us principally for the County or Earledom of Somerset which we have given unto him with all appurtenances for his homage and service saving the royaltie to our selves and therefore we will command you that ye see he have full sesine of the foresaid Earledome and all the appurtinances therto and that ye entermeddle not in any thing from henceforth as touching the County or Earledome aforesaid c. And commandement is given to all Earles Barons Knights and Freeholders of the County of Somerset that unto the same Earle they doe fealtie and homage saving their faith and allegiance unto their soveraigne Lord the King and that from henceforth they be intentive and answerable unto him as their Lord. Whether by these words in the Patent he was Earle of Somerset as also of Denshire for of the same William he wrote likewise in the very same words unto Robert de Courtney I leave for other men to judge Under this King Henry the third as wee finde in a booke written in French which pertaineth to the house of the Mohuns Knights it is recorded that Pope Innocentius in a solemne feast ordained Reginald Mohun Earle de Ests that is as the Author doth interpret it Of Somerset by delivering unto him a golden consecrated rose and an yearely pension to be paied upon the high Altar of S. Pauls in London So that this Reginald may seeme to have beene not properly an Earle but an Apostolicall Earle For so were they termed in those daies who had their creation from the Bishop of Rome like as they were called Earles Imperiall whom the Emperor invested and such had power to institute Notaries and Scribes to legitimate such as were base borne c. under certaine conditions A long time after Iohn de Beaufort the base sonne of Iohn of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster by Katherine Swineford being made legitimate by King Richard the Second together with his brethren and sister with consent of the Parliament was preferred to the honor of Earle of Somerset and afterwards created Marquesse Dorset but soone after
they boyle untill it bee exceeding white And of this sea or Bay-salt and not of ours made out of salt springs is Saint Ambrose to bee understood when hee writeth thus Consider we those things which are usuall with many very grace-full namely how water is turned into salt of such hardnesse and soliditie that often-times it is hewed with axes This in the salts of Britaine is no wonder as which carrying a shew of strong marble doe shine and glitter againe with the whitenesse of the same mettall like unto snow and bee holesome to the bodie c. Farther within the land the MEANVARI dwelt whose countrey togither with the Isle of Wight Edilwalch King of the South Saxons received in token of Adoption from Wlpher King of Mercians Godfather unto him at the Font when he was baptized The habitations of these Meanvari scarce changing the name at this day is divided into three hundreds to wit Means-borow East-mean and West-mean and amongst them there mounteth up an high Hill environed in the top with a large rampier and they call it old Winchester at which by report there stood in old time a citie but now neither top nor toe as they say remaineth of it so as a man would quickly judge it to have beene a summer standing campe and nothing else Under this is Warnford seated where Adam de Portu a mightie man in this tract and of great wealth in the raigne of William the first reedified the Church a new as a couple of rude verses set fast upon the wall doe plainly shew Upon these more high into the land those SEGONTIACI who yeilded themselves unto Iulius Caesar had their seate toward the North limite of this shire in and about the hundred of Holeshot wherein are to bee seene Mercate Aultim which King Elfred bequeathed by his will unto the keeper of Leodre also Basingstoke a mercate towne well frequented upon the descent of an hill on the North side whereof standeth solitarie a very faire Chappell consecrated unto the holy Ghost by William the first Lord Sands who was buried there In the arched and embowed roofe whereof is to be seene the holy history of the Bible painted most artificially with lively portraicts and images representing the Prophets the Apostles and the Disciples of Christ. Beneath this Eastward lieth Basing a towne very well knowne by reason of the Lords bearing the name of it to wit Saint Iohn the Poinings and the Powlets For when Adam de Portu Lord of Basing matched in marriage with the daughter and heire of Roger de Aurevall whose wife was likewise daughter and heire to the right noble house of Saint Iohn William his sonne to doe honour unto that familie assumed to him the surname of Saint Iohn and they who lineally descended from him have still retained the same But when Edmund Saint Iohn departed out of this world without issue in King Edward the third his time his sister Margaret bettered the state of her husband Iohn Saint Philibert with the possessions of the Lord Saint Iohn And when she was dead without children Isabell the other sister wife unto Sir Luke Poinings bare unto him Thomas Lord of Basing whose Neice Constance by his sonne Hugh unto whom this fell for her childs part of Inheritance was wedded into the familie of the Powlets and she was great Grandmother to that Sir William Powlet who being made Baron Saint Iohn of Basing by King Henrie the Eighth and created by King Edward the Sixth first Earle of Wilshire and afterward Marquesse of Winchester and withall was Lord Treasurer of England having in a troublesome time runne through the highest honours fulfilled the course of nature with the satietie of this life and that in great prosperitie as a rare blessing among Courtiers after he had built a most sumptuous house heere for the spacious largenesse thereof admirable to the beholders untill for the great and chargeable reparations his successors pulled downe a good part of it But of him I have spoken before Neere unto this house the Vine sheweth it selfe a very faire place and Mansion house of the Baron Sands so named of the vines there which wee have had in Britaine since Probus the Emperours time rather for shade than fruit For hee permitted the Britaines and others to have vines The first of these Barons was Sir William Sands whom King Henrie the Eighth advanced to that dignitie being Lord Chamberlaine unto him and having much amended his estate by marrying Margerie Bray daughter and heire of Iohn Bray and cousin to Sir Reinold Bray a most worthy Knight of the Order of the Garter and a right noble Baneret whose Sonne Thomas Lord Sands was Grandfather to William L. Sands that now liveth Neighbouring hereunto is Odiam glorious in these daies for the Kings house there and famous for that David the Second King of Scots was there imprisoned a Burrough corporate belonging in times past to the Bishop of Winchester the fortresse whereof in the name of King John thirteene Englishmen for fifteene daies defended most valiantly and made good against Lewis of France who with his whole armie besieged and asted it very hotly A little above among these Segontiaci toward the North side of the countrey somtimes stood VINDONVM the chiefe citie of the Segontiaci which casting off his owne name hath taken the name of the Nation like as Luteria hath assumed unto it the name of the Parisians there inhabiting for called it was by the Britaines Caer Segonte that is to say the Citie of the Segontiaci And so Ninnius in his catalogue of cities named it wee at this day called it Silecester and Higden seemeth to clepe it of the Britaines Britenden that this was the ancient Vindonum I am induced to thinke by reason of the distance of Vindonum in Antoninus from Gallena or Guallenford and Venta or Winchester and the rather because betweene this Vindonum and Venta there is still to bee seene a causey or street-way Ninnius recordeth that it was built by Constantius the sonne of Constantine the Great and called sometime Murimintum haply for Muri-vindum that is the wals of Vindon For this word Mur borrowed from the provinciall language the Britaines retained still and V. the consonant they change oftentimes in their speech and writing into M. And to use the verie words of Asinnius though they seeme ridiculous the said Constantius sowed upon the soile of this citie three seedes that none should be poore that dwelt therein at any time Like as Dinocrates when Alexandria in Egypt was a building strewed it with meale or flower as Marcellinus writeth all the circular lines of the draught which being done by chance was taken for a fore-token that the citie should abound with al manner of victualls He reporteth also that Constantius died here and that his Sepulchre was to be seene at one of the gates as the Inscription
This Hubert was a man who unfainedly loved his Countrie amidst the stormes of frowning Fortune performed all duties to the utmost that his Countrey could require of a right good patriot Yet at length he fell in disgrace and was dispoyled of his dignities whereby this title slept and lay as dead untill the time of King Edward the Second Who bestowed it upon his younger brother Edmund of Woodstocke who being Tutor of his nephew Edward the Third falling into the tempest of false injurious and malignant envie was beheaded for that he never dissembled his naturall brotherly affection toward his brother deposed and went about when hee was God wot murthered before not knowing so much to enlarge him out of prison perswaded thereunto by such as covertly practised his destruction Hee had two sonnes Edmund and Iohn who were restored by Parliament to bloud and land shortly after And with all it was inacted that no Peere of the land or other that procured the death of the said Earle should bee empeached therefore than Mortimer Earle of March Sir Simon Beresford Iohn Matravers Baious and Iohn Devoroil So these his two sonnes succeeded in order and when they were both dead without issue their sister Ioane who survived them for her lovely beautie called The Faire maid of Kent brought this honour unto the house of the Hollands For Sir Thomas Holland her husband was stiled Earle of Kent and shee after married by dispensation to the Black Prince heire to him King Richard the Second Her sonne Sir Thomas Holland succeeded in that honourable title who died in the twentieth yeare of King Richard the Second Him againe there succeeded his two sonnes Thomas and Edmund Thomas who also was created Duke of Surry and forthwith for complotting a conspiracie against King Henry the Fourth lost his head leaving no child Edmunds his brother being Lord High Admirall of England was wounded at the assault of Saint Brieu in little Britan and died thereof in the yeare of Salvation 1408. leaving likewise no issue Now when this dignitie was expired in this family of the Hollands their glasse being runne out and the Patrimony parted among Edmund sisters King Edward the Fourth honoured with the title of the Earldome of Kent First Sir William Nevill Lord Fauconberg and after his death Edmund Lord Grey of Ruthin Hastings and Weisford and who had to succeed him George his sonne Hee of Anne Widevile his first wife begat Richard Earle of Kent who having wasted his inheritance ended therewith his daies issuelesse 1523. But the said George by his second wife Katherine daughter to William Herbert Earle of Pembrooke was father of Sir Henry Grey of Wrest knight whose grand-sonne Reginald by his sonne Henrie Queene Elizabeth in the yeare 1571. advanced to the Earledom of Kent And after his decease without issue his brother Henrie succeeded a right honourable personage and endued with the ornaments of true nobility This province hath parishes 398. DOBVNI HItherto we have walked over all those Countries that lie betweene the British Ocean of the one side and the Severne sea and river Thames on the other Now according to the order which wee have begun let us survey the rest throughout and passing over the said river returne to the head of Thames and the salt water of Severne and there view the DOBVNI who in ancient times inhabited those parts which now are termed Oxford-shire and Glocester-shire This their name I verily suppose came of Duffen a British word because the places where they planted themselves were for the most part low and lying under the hils whereupon the name became common to them all and verily from such a kind of site Bathieia in Troas Catabathmos in Africk and Deep-Dale in Britan tooke their names I am the more easily induced to believe this because I see that Dio in the very same signification hath named certaine people BODVNNI if the letters be not misplaced For Bodo or BODVN as Plinie saith in the ancient French tongue which I have proved before was the same that in the British language betokeneth Deepe Hence was it that the City Bodincomagus as he writeth became so called for that it stood where the river Po was deepest hence had the people Bodiontij that name who inhabited a deepe vale by the Lake of Lozanne and Geneva now called Val de Fontenay to say nothing of Bodotria the deepest Frith in all Britan. Concerning these Bodunj I have found in all my reading no matter of great antiquity save only that A. Plautius sent as Propraetor by Claudius into Britan received part of them upon their submission into his protection to wit those that were under Cattuellani for they held the region bordering upon them and as Dio hath recorded about the forty and foure yeare after Christ was borne placed a garrison over them But when the English Saxons reigned in Britan and the name of Dobuni was worne out some of these as also the people dwelling round about them were by a new English Saxons name called Wiccij but whereupon I dare scarce venture to guesse without craving leave of the Reader Yet if Wic in the Saxons tongue soundeth as much as the creeke or reach of a river and the Viguones a nation in Germanie are so called because they dwell neere unto the creekes or baies of the Sea and of rivers for so doth Beatus Rhenanus constantly affirme It will bee no absurditie if I derive our Wiccii from thence who inhabited round about the mouth of Severne which is very full of such Coves and small creekes and reaches GLOCESTRLAE Comitatus olim sedes DOBVNORUM GLOCESTER-SHIRE GLocester-shire in the Saxon tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was the chiefe seat of the Dobuni on the West-side butteth upon on Monmouth-shire and Hereford-shire on the North upon Worcester-shire on the East upon Warwick-shire Oxford-shire and Barck-shire on the South upon Wilt-shire and Somerset-shire both A pleasant countrey and a fruitfull stretching out in length from North-east unto South-west The part that lyeth more East-ward rising up in height with hils and wolds is called Cotteswold the middle part settleth downe low to a most fertile plaine and is watered with Severne that noble river which doth infuse life as it were into the soile That part which bendeth more Westward on the further side of Severne is all over be spread with woods But what meane I to busie my selfe herein William of Malmesbury will ease mee of this labour who fully gives high commendations to this countrey Have therefore what he writeth in his booke of Bishop The countrey saith he is called of the principall Citie The vale of Glocester the ground throughout yieldeth plentie of corne and bringeth forth abundance of fruits the one through the naturall goodnesse onely of the ground the other through diligent manuring and tillage in so much as it would provoke the laziest body that is to take paines
Surrey Iohn Holland Earle of Huntingdon late Duke of Excester Iohn Montacute Earle of Salisbury Thomas de Spenser Earle of Glocester and others who being by him dispoiled of their honors and maligning his usurpation conspired to take away his life and here by the townesmen intercepted were some of them slaine outright and others beheaded The river Churne when it hath left Circester behinde him six miles neere to Dounamveny an ancient seate of the Hungerfords joyneth with Isis. For ISIS commonly called Ouse that it might bee by originall of Glocester-shire hath his head there and with lively springs floweth out of the South border of this shire nere unto Torleton an upland Village not farre from that famous Port-way called the Fosse This is that Isis which afterwards entertaineth Tame and by a compound word is called Tamisis Soveraigne as it were of all the Britain Rivers in Britaine of which a man may well and truely say as ancient Writers did of Euphrates in the East part of the World that it doth both Sow and Water the best part of Britaine The poeticall description of whose Source or first head I have heere put downe out of a Poem entituled The Marriage of Tame and Isis which whether you admit or omit it skilleth but little Lanigeros quà lata greges Cotswaldia pascit Crescit in colles faciles visura Dobunos Haud procul à Fossa longo spelunca recessu Cernitur abrupti surgente crepidine clivi Cujus inauratis resplendent limina tophis Atria tegit ebur tectúmque Gagate Britanno Emicat alterno solidantur pumice postes Materiam sed vincit opus cedúntque labori Artifici tophus pumex ebur atque Gagates Pingitur hinc vitrei moder atrix Cynthia regni Passibus obliquis volventia sydera lustrans Oceano tellus conjuncta marita marito Illinc caelatur fraternáque flumina Ganges Nilus Amazonius tractúsque binominis Istri Vicini Rheni sed his intermicat auro Vellere Phrixaeâ— dives redimitáque spicis Clara triumphatis erecta BRITANNIA Gallis c. Vndoso hîc solio residet regnator aquarum ISIS fluminea qui majestate verendus Caeruleo gremio â—esupinat prodigus urnam Intonsos crines iâ—vis arundine cinctus Cornua cana liquâ—nt fluitantia lumina lymphis Dispergunt lucem propexa in pectore barba Tota madet toto distillant corpore guttae Et salientis aquae prorumpunt undique venae Pisciculi liquidis penetralibus undique ludunt Plurimus cygnus niveis argenteus alis Pervolitat circum c. Where Cotswald spred abroad doth lie and feed faire flocks of sheepe And Dobunes for to see in downes ariseth nothing steepe Within a nouke along not much the Fosse and it betweene Just at the rising of a banke upright a Cave is seene Whereof the entry glistereth with soft stones richly guilt The Haull is seel'd with Ivory the roufe aloft ybuilt Of Geat the best that Britaine yeelds The pillers very strong With Pumish laid each other course are raised all along The stuffe full faire yet Art doth it surpasse and to the feate Of Artisan give place the gold stones Yv'ry and Geat Heere painted is the Moone that rules the Sea like Chrystall Glasse As she through rolling Signes above with traverse course doth passe And there againe enchaced are both land and Ocean wide Conjoyn'd as man and wife in one with Rivers great beside Like brethren all as Ganges rich strange Nilus Tanais Yea and the course of Ister large which double named is Of Rhene also a neighbour streame And heere bedight in gold Among them glitt'reth Britanny with riches manifold Of golden fleece a Coronet of Wheat-eares she doth weare And for her triumph over France her head aloft doth reare c. In waving Throne heere sits the King of waters all and some ISIS who in that Majestie which Rivers doth become All rev'rend from his watchet lap powr's forth his streame amaine With weed and reed his haires tuckt up that grow both long and plaine His hoary hornes distilling runne with water stand his eyes And shoot from them a lustre farre his kembed beard likewise Downe to the brest wet-through doth reach his body drops againe All over and on every side breakes out some water veine In secret watrish room 's within the little fishes play And many a silver Swan besides his white wings doth display And flutter round about c. As touching the Earles of Glocester some there be who have thrust upon us one William Fitz-Eustace for the first Earle who this was I have not yet found and I verily beleeve hee is yet unborne But that which I have found I will not conceale from the Reader About the comming in of the Normans wee reade that one Bithricke an English Saxon was Lord of Glocester whom Maud wife to William Conquerour upon a secret rankor and hatred conceived against him for his contempt of her beauty for Bithrick had before time refused to marry her troubled and molested most maliciously And when shee had at length cast him in Prison Robert Fitz-Haimon Lord of Corboile in Normandy was by the King endowed with his possessions who in a battaile having received a wound with the push of a pike upon the temples of his head had his wits crackt therewith and survived a good while after as a man bestraught and madde His daughter Mabil whom others name Sibill Robert the base sonne of King Henry the First by the intercession of his father obtained for his wife but not before he had made him Earle of Glocester This is hee who is called commonly by Writers The Consull of Glocester A man of an haughty valorous minde and undaunted heart as any one in that age and who being never dejected with any adversity wanne great praise for his fidelity and worthy exploits in the behalfe of his sister Maude the Empresse against Stephen then usurping the Crowne of England This honourable Title left he unto his son William who dejected with comfortlesse griefe when death had deprived him of his onely son and heire assured his estate with his eldest daughter to Iohn son to King Henry the Second with certaine provisoes for his other daughters Yet his three daughters brought this Earldome into as many families For Iohn when he had obtained the Kingdome repudiated her upon pretenses as well that she was barren as that they were within prohibited degrees of consanguinity and reserving the Castle of Bristow to himselfe after some time passed over his repudiated wife with the Honor of Glocester to Geffrey Mandevil son of Geffrey Fitz Peter Earle of Essex for 20000. markes who thus over-marrying himselfe was greatly impoverished and wounded in Tournament died soone after issuelesse and she being remarried to Hubert of Burgh died immediately Then K. Iohn upon an exchange granted the Earldome of Glocester to Almary Earle of Eureux son to the eldest daughter of the foresaid E.
we may see in the Histories whether by celestiall influence or other hidden causes I leave to the learned But so farre as I could hitherto reade it did never set foote in England before that time Besides these places before named of great name and marke wee must not overpasse neither Melton Mowbray neere unto this Burton a Mercate Towne bearing name of the Mowbraies sometime Lords thereof wherein is nothing more worth the seeing than a faire Church nor Skeffington standing farther off which as it hath given name to a worshipfull Family so againe it hath received worship and credit from the same The River that watereth this part of the Shire is by the Inhabitants about it called the Wreken along which upon resemblance of the name I have sought VERNOMETUM but in vaine This Wreken gathereth a strong streame by many lively Brookes resorting unto it whereof one passeth by Wimondham an ancient habitation of a younger branch of the house of the Lords Barkleis well encreased by an heire of Dela-Laund and so on by Melton Mowbray before mentioned by Kirkby Bellers where there was a Priory having that addition of the Bellers a respective rich and noble Family in their time by Brokesby a seat now of the Villiers of an old Norman race and descended from an heire of Bellers which Brokesby imparted formerly the sirname to the Brokesbies of especiall antiquity in these parts Then the Wreken speedeth by Ratcliffe high mounted upon a cliffe and within few miles conjoyneth it selfe to Soar neere unto Mont-Soar-hill before mentioned Whatsoever of this Shire lieth beyond the Wreken Northward is not so frequently inhabited and part of it is called the Wold as being hilly without wood wherein Dalby a seat of the old Family of the Noels of whom I shall speake elsewhere and Waltham on the Wold a meane Mercat are most notable Through this part as I have beene enformed passeth the Fosse-way made by the Romans from Lewing Bridge by Segrave which gave sirname to the honourable Family often mentioned and the Lodge on the Wold toward the Vale of Bever but the Tract thereof as yet I know not This Shire hath beene more famous from time to time by reason of the Earles thereof have beene very renowned And seeing it had under the Saxons government Earles by inheritance I will first reckon them up in order as Thomas Talbot a skilfull Antiquary hath delivered me a note of them out of the kings Records In the time of Aethelbald King of the Mercians and in the yeere of our Redemption 716. Leofrick was Earle of Leicester whom there succeeded in direct line Algar the first Algar the second Leofrick the second Leofstane Leofrick the third buried in Coventry Algar the third who had issue two sonnes Aeadwin Earle of March Morkar Earle of Northumberland and a daughter named Lucy first married to Ivon Talboys of Anjou afterwards to Roger of Romara who begat of her William of Romara Earle of Lincolne Now when as the issue male of this Saxon Family failed and the name of the Saxons was troden as it were under foot Robert Beaumont a Norman Lord of Pont Audomar and Earle of Mellent after that Simon an officiary Earle of Leicester was dead obtained his Earledome in the yeere of our Lord 1102. at the bountifull hand of King Henry the First which Robert A man for skill and knowledge excellent faire spoken subtile wise and witty and by nature wily who while hee lived in high and glorious estate an other Earle carried away his wife from him whereupon in his old age being much troubled in minde he fell into deepe melancholy After him succeeded from father to sonne three Roberts the first sirnamed Bossu because hee was crook-backed who after he had rebelled against King Henry the First weary of his loose irregular life became a Chanon Regular the second sirnamed Blanch-maines of his lily-white-hands who sided with the young King against King Henry the Second and dyed in the expedition of King Richard the First to the Holy Land the third sirnamed Fitz-Parnell because his mother was Parnels daughter and one of the heires to Hugh Grant-maismill the last in whose right hee was Seneschall or Steward of England and died issuelesse in the time of King John A few yeeres after Simon Montfort descended from a base sonne of Robert King of France who had married the sister of Robert Fitz-Parnell enjoyed this honour But after that hee and his were expelled in the yeere 1200. as wholy devoted to the French Ranulph Earle of Chester attained unto this Dignity not in right of inheritance but by his Princes favour Howbeit afterwards Simon Montfort sonne of the foresaid Simon obtained this honour when Almarik his eldest brother surrendred up his right before King Henry the Third This Simon stood in so gracious favour with King Henry the Third that hee called him home againe out of France when he was banished heaped upon him great wealth admitted him unto the Earledome of Leicester granted to him the Stewardship of England and to honour him the more gave him his owne sister in marriage But hee thus over-heaped with honourable benefits when he had no meanes to requite them such is the perverse wilfulnesse of men beganne hatefully to maligne him yea and did most wickedly molest the good King having so well deserved making himselfe Ringleader to the rebellious Barons and with them raising horrible tempests of civill warre in which himselfe also at length was overthrowne and slaine As for his Honours and Possessions King Henry the Third gave and graunted them to Edmund his owne younger sonne Earle of Lancaster So afterward this honour lay as it were obscured among the Titles of the house of Lancaster and Mawde the daughter of Henry Duke of Lancaster being married to Henry Duke of Bavaria Earle of Henault Holland Zeland c. added unto his other Titles this of Earle of Leicester also For in the Charter dated the five and thirty yeere of King Edward the Third hee is in plaine termes stiled William Earle of Henhault and of Leicester yea and as we finde in the Inquisition made Anno 36. of the said King Edward the Third shee by the name of Dutchesse of Bavaria held the Castle Manour and Honour of Leicester After whose decease without issue that honour reverted to John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster who had wedded Blanch the other sister of Mawde From which time it became united to the House of Lancaster untill in our remembrance it reflourished in L. Robert Dudley who was by Queene Elizabeth girt with the sword of the Earledome of Leicester and extraordinarily favoured whereupon the States Generall of the united Provinces in their great troubles chose him triumphantly for their absolute Governour and soone after as contemptuously rejected him reserving all Soveraignty to themselves But after a short time he passed out of this transitory life
hidden within the net But these things I leave to their observation who either take pleasure earnestly to hunt after Natures workes or being borne to pamper the belly delight to send their estates downe the throat More Westward the River Trent also after he hath ended his long course is received into the Humber after it hath with his sandy banke bounded this shire from Fossedike hither having runne downe first not farre from Stow where Godive the wife of Earle Leofricke built a Monastery which for the low site that it hath under the hills Henry of Huntingdon saith to have beene founded Vnder the Promontory of Lincolne Then neere unto Knath now the habitation of Baron Willoughy of Parrham in times past of the family of the Barons Darcy who had very much encrease both in honor and also of possessions by the daughter and heire of the Meinills This Family of the Darcyes proceeded from another more ancient to wit from one whose name was Norman de Adrecy or Darcy de Nocton who flourished in high reputation under King Henry the Third and whose successours endowed with lands the little Nunnery at Alvingham in this County But this dignity is as it were extinct for that the last Norman in the right line which is more ancient left behinde him onely two sisters of which the one was married to Roger Pedwardine the other to Peter of Limbergh Then runneth the Trent downe to Gainesborrow a towne ennobled by reason of the Danes ships that lay there at rode and also for the death of Suene Tiugs-Kege a Danish Tyrant who after he had robbed and spoiled the country as Matthew of Westminster writeth being heere stabbed to death by an unknowne man suffered due punishment at length for his wickednesse and villany Many a yeere after this it became the possession of Sir William de Valence Earle of Pembroch who obtained for it of king Edward the First the liberty to keepe a Faire From which Earle by the Scottish Earles of Athol and the Piercies descended the Barons of Bourough who heere dwelt concerning whom I have written already in Surry In this part of the Shire stood long since the City Sidnacester which affoorded a See to the Bishops of this Tract who were called the Bishops of Lindifars But this City is now so farre out of all sight and knowledge that together with the name the very ruines also seeme to have perished for by all my curious enquiry I could learne nothing of it Neither must I overpasse that in this Quarter at Melwood there flourished the family of Saint Paul corruptly called Sampoll Knights which I alwaies thought to have beene of that ancient Castilion race of the Earles of Saint Paul in France But the Coat-Armour of Luxemburgh which they beare implieth that they are come out of France since that the said Castilion stocke of Saint Paul was by marriage implanted into that of Luxemburgh which happened two hundred yeeres since or thereabout Above this place the Rivers of Trent Idell and Dane doe so disport themselves with the division of their streames and Marishes caused by them and other Springs as they enclose within them the River-Island of Axelholme in the Saxon Tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a parcell of Lincolne-shire It carryeth in length from South to North ten miles and in breadth not past halfe so much The flat and lower part of it toward the Rivers is marish ground and bringeth forth an odoriferous kinde of shrub which they tearme Gall. It yeeldeth also Pets in the Mores and dead rootes of fir-wood which in burning give a ranke sweet savour There also have beene found great and long firre-trees while they digged for Pet both within the Isle and also without at Laâ—ghton upon Trent banke the old habitation of the family of D'alanson now contractly called Dalison The middle parts of this Isle where it riseth gently with some ascent is fruitefull and fertile and yeeldeth flax in great aboundance also the Alabaster stone and yet the same being not very solide but brittle is more meet for pargetting and plaister-worke than for other uses The chiefe Towne called in old time Axel is now named Axey whence by putting to the Saxon word Holme which they used for a River-Island the name no doubt was compounded But scarce deserveth it to bee called a Towne it is so scatteringly inhabited and yet it is able to shew the plot of ground where a Castle stood that was rased in the Barons warre and which belonged to the Mowbraies who at that time possessed a great part of the Isle In the yeere 1173. as writeth an old Chronographer Roger de Mowbray forsaking his Allegeance to the Elder King repaired the Castle at Kinard Ferry in the Isle of Axholme which had beene of old time destroyed Against whom a number of Lincoln-shire men making head when they had passed over the water in barges laid siege to the Castle forced the Constable thereof and all the souldiers to yeeld and overthrew the said Castle Somewhat higher is Botterwic the Lord whereof Sir Edmund Sheffeld King Edward the Sixth created the first Baron Sheffeld of Botherwic who for his country spent his life against the Rebels in Norfolke having begotten of Anne Vere the Earle of Oxfords daughter a sonne named John the second Baron and father to Edmund now Lord Sheffeld a right honourable Knight of the Garter President of the Councell established in the North. But more into the North I saw Burton Stather standing upon the other side of Trent whereof I have hetherto read nothing memorable This Shire glorieth in the Earles which have borne Title thereof After Egga who flourished in the yeere 710. and Morcar both Saxons and who were Earles by office onely William de Romara a Norman was the first Earle after the Conquest in whose roome being dead for neither his sonne whereas he died before his father nor his grand-child enjoied this title King Stephen placed Gilbert de Gaunt After whose decease Simon de Saint Lyz the younger the sonne of Earle Simon you reade the very words of Robert Montensis who lived about that time Wanting lands by the gracious gift of King Henry the Second tooke his onely daughter to wife with her his honour also After this Lewis of France who was by the seditious Barons brought into England girt a second Gilbert out of the Family de Gaunt with the sword of the Earldome of Lincolne but when the said Lewis was soone after expelled the land no man acknowledged him for Earle and himselfe of his owne accord relinquished that title Then Raulph the sixth Earle of Chester obtained this honour of King Henry the Third who a little before his death gave unto Hawise or Avis his sister the wife of Robert De Quincy by Charter the Earledome of Lincolne so farre forth as appertained unto him that shee might bee Countesse
place at this day is called Buxton well which being found by experience holsome for the stomach sinewes and the whole body George Earle of Shrewesbury lately beautified with buildings and so they are begunne againe to bee resorted unto by concourse of the greatest Gentlemen and of the Nobility At which time that most unfortunate Lady Mary Queene of Scots bad farewell unto Buxton with this Distichon by a little change of Caesars Verses concerning Feltria in this wise Buxtona a quae calidae celebrabere nomine lymphae Fortè mihi posthac non adeunda vale Buxton that of great name shalt be for hote and holsome baine Farewell for I perhaps shall not thee ever see againe But that these hote waters were knowne in old time The Port-way or High paved Street named Bath-gate reaching for seven miles together from hence unto Burgh a little Village doth manifestly shew Neere unto this Burgh there standeth upon the top of an hill an old Castle sometimes belonging to the Peverels called The Castle in the Peake and in Latin De Alto Pecco which King Edward the Third together with a Manour and an Honour gave unto his sonne John Duke of Lancaster what time as hee surrendered the Earledome of Richmond into the Kings hands Under which there is a Cave or hole within the ground called saving your reverence The Devils Arse that gapeth with a wide mouth and hath in it many turnings and retyring roomes wherein forsooth Gervase of Tilbury whether for wane of knowing trueth or upon a delight hee had in fabling hath written that a Shepheard saw a very wide and large Country with Riverets and Brookes running heere and there through it and huge Pooles of dead and standing waters Notwithstanding by reason of these and such like fables this Hole is reckoned for one of the wonders of England neither are there wanting the like tales of another Cave but especially of that which is called Elden Hole wherein there is nothing to bee wondred at but that it is of an huge widnesse exceeding steepe and of a mervailous depth But whosoever have written that there should bee certaine tunnels and breathing holes out of which windes doe issue they are much deceived Neither doe these Verses of Alexander Necham which hee wrote as touching the Mervailes of England agree to any of these two holes Est specus Aeolijs ventis obnoxia semper Impetus è gemino maximus ore venit Cogitur injectum velamen adire supernas Partes descensum impedit aura potens A Cave to strong Aeolian windes alwaies enthral'd there is From two-fold tunnell maine great blasts arise and never misse A cloth or garment cast therein by force aloft is sent A mighty breath or powrfull puffe doth hinder all descent But all the memorable matters in this high and rough stony little Country one hath comprised in these foure Verses Mira alto Pecco tria sunt barathrum specus antrum Commoda tot plumbum gramen ovile pecus Tot speciosa simul sunt Castrum Balnea Chatsworth Plura sed occurrunt quae speciosa minùs There are in High Peake Wonders three A deepe Hole Cave and Den Commodities as many bee Lead Grasse and Sheepe in pen. And Beauties three there are withall A Castle Bath Chatsworth With places more yet meet you shall That are of meaner worth To these Wonders may be added a wonderfull Well in the Peake Forest not farre from Buxtons which ordinarily ebbeth and floweth foure times in the space of one houre or thereabout keeping his just Tides and I know not whether Tideswell a Mercate Towne heereby hath his name thereof The Peverels who I have said before were Lords of Nottingham are also reported to have beene Lords of Darby Afterward King Richard the First gave and confirmed unto his brother John the Counties and Castles of Nottingham Lancaster Darby c. with the honours thereto belonging with the honour also of Peverell After him these were Earles of Derby out of the family of Ferrars so far as I am able to gather out of the Registers of Tutbury Merivall and Burton Monasteries William Ferrars sonne to the Daughter and heire of Peverell whom King John with his owne hand as we finde in an ancient Charter invested Earle of Darby William his sonne who bruised with a fall out of his Coach died in the yeere 1254. And this Williams sonne Robert who in the Civill Warre lost this Title and a great estate by forfeiture in such sort as that none of his posterity although they lived in great port and reputation were ever restored to that honor againe But most of this Roberts possessions K. Henry the Third passed over unto Edmund his owne younger son and King Edward the Third I write out of the very originall Record by authority and advise of the Parliament ordained Henry of Lancaster the sonne of Henry Earle of Lancaster Earle of Darby to him and his heires and withall assigned unto him a thousand markes yeerely during the life of his father Henry Earle of Lancaster From that time this Title was united to the line of Lancaster untill King Henry the Seventh bestowed the same upon Thomas Lord Stanley who before had wedded Margaret the Kings mother to him and the heires males of his body He had for his successour his Grandsonne Thomas begotten by George his sonne of Ioan the heire of the Lord Strange of Knocking this Thomas had by the sister of George Earle of Huntingdon Edward the third Earle of this Family highly commended for hospitality and affability who by the Lady Dorothy Daughter to the first Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolke begat Henry the fourth Earle efts-once honourably employed who left by Lady Margaret Daughter of Henry Earle of Cumberland Ferdinand and William successively Earles of Darby Ferdinand dyed in strange manner in the flower of his youth leaving by Margaret his Wife Daughter of Sir John Spenser of Althorp three Daughters Anne marryed to Grey Bruges Lord Chandos Francis Wife to Sir Iohn Egerton and Elizabeth Wife to Henry Earle of Huntingdon William the sixth Earle now enjoyeth that Honour having issue by Elizabeth Daughter to Edward late Earle of Oxford ANd thus much of the Counties of Nottingham and Darby of which they inhabited a part who in Bedes time were called Mercij Aquilonares that is The Northern Mercians for that they dwelt beyond the Trent Northward and they held as hee saith The land of seven thousand Families This County holdeth in it Parishes 106. CORNAVII HAving now travailed in order through the Countries of the ancient CORITANI I am to survey the Regions confining which in ancient time the people called CORNABII or CORNAVII inhabited The derivation or Etymologie of whose name let others sift out As for my selfe I could draw the force and signification of that word to this and that diversly but seeing none of them doth aptly answere to the nature of the place or disposition of the people
worthy and heroicall a Knight ORATE PRO ANIMA PRAENOBILIS DOMINI DOMINI JOANNIS TALBOTT QVONDAM COMITIS SALOPIAE DOMINI TALBOTT DOMINI FURNIVALL DOMINI VERDON DOMINI STRANGE DE BLACK-MERE ET MARESCALLI FRANCIAE QUI OBIIT IN BELLO APUD BURDEVVS VII IULII M. CCCC.LIII That is Pray for the Soule of the right Noble Lord Sir John Talbot sometimes Earle of Shrewsburie Lord Talbot Lord Furnivall Lord Verdon Lord Strange de Black-Mere and Mareshall of France Who died in the battaile at Burdews VII IULII M. CCCC LIII Unto this Family of the Talbots there accrued by marriage-right the inheritance of the Barons Le Strange of Blackmere who were surnamed Le Strange commonly and Extranei in Latine records for that they were strangers brought hether by King Henrie the Second and in short time their house was far propagated These of Blackmere were much inriched by an heire of W. de Albo-monasterio or this Whit-Church and also by one of the heires of John Lord Giffard of Brimsfield of ancient Nobility in Glocester-shire by the onely daughter of Walter Lord Clifford More Westward lieth Ellesmer a little territorie but rich and fruitfull which as the Chronologie of Chester testifieth King John gave with the Castle to Lhewellin Prince of North-Wales in marriage with Joane his base daughter Afterwards in the time of King Henry the Third it came to the Family of the Stranges But now it hath his Baron Sir Thomas Egerton a man whom for his singular wisdome and sincere equity Queene Elizabeth chose to be Lord Keeper of the great Seale and King Iames making him Lord Chancellour advanced to the highest Honour of the long roabe and withall adorned with the Honorable title of Baron of Ellesmer Now let us briefely adde somewhat of the Earles of Shrewsbury Roger de Belesmo otherwise Montgomery was created the first Earle of Shrewsbury by King William the Conquerour unto whom he allotted also the greatest part of this Shire After him succeeded first his eldest sonne Hugh slaine in Wales without issue Then Robert another of his sonnes a man outragiously cruell toward his owne sonnes and hostages whose eyes with his owne hands he plucked out and gelded But afterwards being convict of high Treason he was kept in perpetuall prison by King Henry the first and so suffered condigne punishment for his notorious wickednesse Then was his Earledome made over unto Queene Adeliza for her dowry Many ages after King Henry the Sixth in the 20. yeere of his reigne promoted to this honour Iohn Lord Talbot whom both Nature bred and his disposition inured unto warlike prowesse And in the 24. yeere of his reigne he bestowed moreover upon the same Iohn whom in the Patent he calleth Earle of Shrewsbery and of Weisford the title of Earle of Waterford the Barony of Dongarvan and the Seneschalsie or Stewardship of Ireland But when he was slaine at Castilion upon Dordon neere Burdeaux together with his younger sonne Sir John Talbot Vicount L'isle after he had foure and twenty yeeres together marched with victorious armes over a great part of France his sonne Iohn by the daughter and one of the heires of Sir Thomas Nevill Lord Furnivall succeeded who siding with the house of Lancaster was slaine fighting valorously in the forefront of the battaile of Northampton From him by a daughter of the Earle of Ormond came Iohn the third Earle of Shrewsbury and Sir Gilbert Talbot Captaine of Callis from whom the Talbots of Graston descended This third Iohn had by his wife Katherine daughter to H. Duke of Buckingham George the fourth Earle who served King Henry the Seventh valiantly and constantly at the battaile of Stoke And he by Anne his wife daughter of William Lord Hastings had Francis the fifth Earle who begat of Mary daughter to Thomas Lord Dacre of Gillesland George the sixth Earle aman of approoved fidelity in weighty affaires of State whose sonne Gilbert by his wife Gertrud daughter to Thomas Earle of Rutland the seventh Earle maintaineth at this day his place left unto him by his ancestours with right great honour and commendation for his vertues In this region there are Parishes much about 170. CESTRIAE Comitatus Romanis Legionibus-et Colonijis olim insignis vera et obseluta descriptio CHES-SHIRE THE fifth and last of those Countries which in old time the CORNAVII held is the County of CHESTER in the Saxons Tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commonly CHES-SHIRE and The County Palatine of Chester for that the Earles thereof had Royalties and princely Priviledges belonging to them and all the Inhabitants owed Allegeance and fealty to them as they did to the King As for this tearme Palatine that I may rehearse againe that which I have said before of this name was in times past common to all those who bare any Office in the Kings Court or Palace and in that age Comes Palatinus was a Title of Dignity conferred upon him who before was Palatinus with authority to heare and determine Causes in his owne Territory and as well his Nobles whom they called Barons as his Vassals were bound to repaire to the Palace of the said Count both to give him advise and also to give their attendance and furnish his Court with their presence This Country as William of Malmesbury saith Is scarce of Corne but especially of Wheat yet plentifull in Cattaile and fish Howbeit Ranulph the Monke of Chester affirmeth the contrary Whatsoever Malmesbury dreamd saith hee upon the relation of others it aboundeth with all kinde of victuals plenteous in Corne flesh fish and salmons especially of the very best it maintaineth trade with many commodities and maketh good returne For why in the Confines thereof it hath salt pits mines and metals And this moreover will I adde the grasse and fodder there is of that goodnesse and vertue that cheeses bee made heere in great number of a most pleasing and delicate taste such as all England againe affordeth not the like no though the best dayriwomen otherwise and skilfullest in cheese making be had from hence And whiles I am writing this I cannot chuse but mervaile by the way at that which Strabo writeth That in his time some Britans could not skill of making Cheese and that Plinie afterwards wondered That barbarous Nations who lived of milke either knew not or despised for so many ages the commodity of Cheese who otherwise had the feat of crudding it to a pleasant tartnesse and to fat buâ—yr Whereby it may be gathered that the devise of making Cheese came into Britaine from the Romans But howsoever this Region in fertility of soile commeth behinde many Countries in England yet hath it alwaies bred and reared more Gentry than the rest For you have not in all England againe any one Province beside that in old time either brought more valorous Gentlemen into the field or had more Families in it of Knights degree On the Southside it is hemmed
Shrop-shire adjoyning and held that I may note so much by the way the Hamelet of Lanton in chiefe as of the Honour of Montgomery by the service of giving to the King a barbdheaded Arrow whensoever he commeth into those parts to hunt in Cornedon Chace Lugg hasteneth now to Wy first by Hampton where that worthy Knight Sir Rouland Lenthal who being Maister of the Wardrobe unto King Henry the Fourth had married one of the heires of Thomas Earle of Arundell built a passing faire house which the Coningsberes men of good worship and great name in this tract have now a good long time inhabited then by Marden and Southton or Sutton of which twaine Sutton sheweth some small remaines of King Offaes Palace so infamous for the murdering of Ethelbert and Marden is counted famous for the Tombe of the said Ethelbert who had lien heere a long time without any glorious memoriall before that he was translated to Hereford Neere unto the place where Lugg and Wy meete together Eastward a hill which they call Marcley hill in the yeere of our redemption 1571. as though it had wakened upon the suddaine out of a deepe sleepe roused it selfe up and for the space of three daies together mooving and shewing it selfe as mighty and huge an heape as it was with roring noise in a fearefull sort and overturning all things that stood in the way advanced it selfe forward to the wonderous astonishment of the beholders by that kinde of Earthquake which as I deeme naturall Philosophers call Brasmatias And not farre from this hill toward the East also under Malvern hills which in this place bound the East part of this shire standeth Ledbury upon the River Ledden a Towne well knowne which Edwin the Saxon a man of great power gave unto the Church of Hereford being assuredly perswaded that by Saint Ethelberts intercession he was delivered from the Palsey Touching the Military fort on the next hill I need not to speake seeing that in this tract which was in the Marches and the ordinary fighting ground plot first betweene the Romanes and Britans afterwards betweene the Britains and the English such holds and entrenchments are to be seene in many places But Wy now carrying a full streame after it hath entertained Lugg runneth downe with more bendings and bowings first by Holm Lacy the feate of the ancient and noble Family of Scudamore unto which accrewed much more worship by marriage with an heire out of the race of Ewias in this shire and Huntercombe c. else where From hence passeth Wy downe betweene Rosse made a free Burrough by King Henry the Third now well knowne by reason of iron Smiths and Wilton over against it a most ancient Castle of the Greis whence so many worthy Barons of that name have drawne their originall This was built as men say by Hugh de Long-champ but upon publique and certaine credit of Records it appeareth that King John gave Wilton with the Castle to H. de Longchamp and that by marriage it fell to William Fitz-Hugh and likewise not long after to Reinold Grey in the daies of King Edward the first Now when Wy hath a little beneath saluted Goderick Castle which King John gave unto William Earle Mareschall and was afterward for a time the principall seate of the Talbots hee speedeth himselfe to Monmouth-shire and bids Hereford-shire farewell When the state of the English-Saxons was now more than declining to the downe-fall Ralph sonne to Walter Medantinus by Goda King Edward the Confessoursâ— sister governed this Countie as an Official Earle but the infamous for base cowardise was by William the Conquerour remooved and William Fitz-Osbern of Crepon a martiall Norman who had subdued the Isle of Wight and was neere allied to the Dukes of Normandy was substituted in his place When he was slaine in assistance of the Earle of Flanders his sonne Roger surnamed De Bretevill succeeded and soone after for conspiracie against the Conquerour was condemned to perpetuall prison and therein died leaving no lawfull issue Then King Stephen granted to Robert Le Bossu Earle of Leicester who had married Emme or Itta as some call her heire of Bretevill to use the words of the Graunt the Burrough of Hereford with the Castle and the whole County of Hereford but all in vaine For Maude the Empresse who contended with King Stephen for the Crowne advanced Miles the sonne of Walter Constable of Glocester unto this Honour and also graunted to him Constabulariam Curiae suae i. The Constableship of her Court whereupon his posteritie were Constables of England as the Marshalship was graunted at the first by the name of Magistratus Marescalsiae Curiaenostrae Howbeit Stephen afterwards stript him out of these Honours which he had received from her This Miles had five sonnes Roger Walter Henry William and Mahel men of especiall note who were cut off every one issuelesse by untimely death after they had all but William succeeded one another in their Fathers inheritance Unto Roger King Henry the Second among other things gave The Mote of Hereford with the whole Castle and the third peny issuing out of the revenewes of Plees of the whole County of Hereford whereof he made him Earle But after Roger was deceased the same King if wee may beleeve Robert Abbot De Monte kept the Earledome of Hereford to himselfe The eldest sister of these named Margaret was married to Humfrey Bohun the third of that name and his heires were high Constables of England namely Humfrey Bohun the Fourth Henry his sonne unto whom King Iohn graunted twenty pounds yeerely to be received out of the third penny of the County of Hereford whereof he made him Earle This Henry married the sister and heire of William Mandevill Earle of Essex and died in the fourth yeere of Henry the Third his reigne Humfrey the Fifth his sonne who was also Earle of Essex whose sonne Humfrey the Sixth of that forename died before his Father having first begotten Humfrey the Seventh by a daughter and one of the heires of William Breos Lord of Brecknock His sonne Humfrey the Eighth was slaine at Burrowbrig leaving by Elizabeth his wife daughter unto King Edward the First and the Earle of Hollands widow among other children namely Iohn Bohun Humfrey the Ninth both Earles of Hereford and Essex and dying without issue and William Earle of Northampton unto whom Elizabeth a daughter and one of the heires of Giles Lord Badlesmer bare Humfrey Bohun the Tenth and last of the Bohuns who was Earle of Hereford Essex and Northampton Constable besides of England who left two Daughters Aeleonor the Wife of Thomas of Woodstock Duke of Glocester and Mary wedded to Henry of Lancaster Earle of Darby who was created Duke of Hereford and afterwards Crowned King of England But after this Edward Stafford last Duke of Buckingham was stiled Earle of Hereford for that hee descended from Thomas
Penbroke by vertue of King Edward the Third his Brieffe The Copie whereof I thinke good to set downe heere that wee may see what was the right by heires generall in these honorary Titles Rex omnibus ad quos c. salutem The King to all unto whom c. Greeting Know yee that the good presage of circumspection and vertue which wee have conceived by the towardly youth and happy beginnings of our most welbeloved cozin Laurence Hastings induce us worthily to countenance him with our especiall grace and favour in those things which concerne the due preservation and maintenance of his honour Whereas therefore the inheritance of Aimar of Valence sometime Earle of Penbroke as hee was stiled deceased long since without heire begotten of his body hath beene devolved unto his sisters proportionably to be divided among them and their heires because we know for certaine that the foresaid Laurence who succeedeth the said Aimar in part of the inheritance is descended from the elder sister of Aimar aforesaid and so by the avouching of the learned with whom wee consulted about this matter the prerogative both of name and honour is due unto him We deeme it just and due that the same Laurence claiming his Title from the elder sister assume and have the name of Earle of Penbroke which the said Aimar had whiles he lived Which verily we as much as lyeth in us confirme ratifie and also approve unto him willing and granting that the said Laurence have and hold the prerogative and honour of Earle Palatine in those lands which hee holdeth of the said Aimars inheritance so fully and after the same manner as the same Aimar had and held them at the time of his death In witnesse the King at Mont-Martin the thirteenth day of October and in the thirteenth of our Raigne After Laurence succeeded his sonne John who being taken prisoner by the Spaniards in a battaile at sea and in the end ransomed died in France in the yeere 1375. After him followed his sonne John who in a running at Tilt at Woodstocke was slaine by Sir Iohn Saint Iohn casually in the yeere 1391. And it was observed that for five generations together in this Family I know not by what destiny the father never saw his sonne Now for default of his issue there fell very many possessions and faire revenewes into the Kings hands as our Lawyers use to speake and the Castle of Penbroke was granted unto Francis At-Court a Courtier in especiall great favour who thereupon was commonly called Lord of Pembroke Not long after Humfrey sonne to King Henry the Fourth before he was Duke of Glocester received this title of his brother King Henry the Fifth and before his death King Henry the Sixth granted the same in reversion a thing not before heard of to William de la Pole Earle of Suffolke after whose downefall the said King when hee had enabled Edmund of Hadham and Iasper of Hatfield the sonnes of Queene Katharin his mother to bee his lawfull halfe brethren created Iasper Earle of Penbroke and Edmund Earle of Richmond with preheminence to take place above all Earles For Kings have absolute authority in dispensing honours But King Edward the Fourth depriving Iasper of all his honours by attaindour and forfeiture gave the Title of Pembroke to Sir William Herbert for his good service against Iasper in Wales but hee shortly after lost his life at the battaile of Banbury Then succeeded his sonne bearing the same name whom King Edward the Fourth when hee had recovered the Kingdome invested in the Earledome of Huntingdon and bestowed the Title of Penbroke being surrendred upon his eldest sonne and heire Edward Prince of Wales A long time after King Henry the Eighth invested Anne Bollen to whom he was affianced Marchionesse of Pembroke with a mantle and Coronet in regard both of her Nobility and also her vertues for so runne the words of the Patent At length king Edward the Sixth adorned Sir William Herbert Lord of Caerdiffe with the Title of Earle of Penbroke after whom succeeded his sonne Henry who was Lord President of Wales under Queene Elizabeth And now his sonne William richly accomplished with all laudable endowments of body and minde enjoyeth the same Title This Family of the Herberts in these parts of Wales is honourable and of great antiquity As lineally propagated from Henry Fitz Herbert Chamberlaine to king Henry the First who married the said kings Paramor the mother of Reginald Earle of Cornwall as I was first enformed by Robert Glover a man passing skilfull in the study of Genealogies by whose untimely death that knowledge hath sustained a great losse There are in this Shire Parishes 145. CARDIGAN-SHIRE FRom Saint Davids Promontory the shore being driven backe aslope Eastward letteth in the Sea within a vast and crooked Bay upon which lyeth the third Region of the Dimetae in English called CARDIGAN-SHIRE in British Sire Aber-Tivi by old Latine Writers Ceretica if any man thinke of King Caratacus this may seeme a conjecture proceeding out of his owne braine and not grounded upon any certaine authority and yet wee reade that the worthy Caratacus so worthily renowned was the Soveraigne Ruler in these parts A plaine and champion Country it is Westward where it lyeth to the Sea as also on the South side where the River Tivie separateth it from Caermarden-shire But in the East and North sides which bound upon Brechnock and Montgomery-shires there is a continued range or ridge of hils that shoot along yeelding goodly pasture ground under which there be spread sundry large Pooles That in ancient times this Shire as the rest also of Wales was not planted and garnished with Cities but with little cottages it may bee gathered by that speech of their Prince Caratacus who being taken Prisoner when he had throughly viewed the glorious magnificence of Rome What meane you saith he when yee have these and such like stately buildings of your owne to covet our small cottages Howbeit the places heere of most Antiquity let us breifly view over The River Tivie which Ptolomee calleth TUEROBIUS but corruptly in stead of Dwr-Tivius that is The River Tivie issueth out of the Poole Lin-Tivy beneath the hils whereof I spake before first cumbred as it were with stones in the way and rumbling with a great noise without any chanell and so passeth through a very stony tract neere unto which at Rosse the Mountainers keepe the greatest Faire for cattaile in all those parts untill it come to Strat-fleur a Monastery long since of the Cluniack Monkes compassed about with hilles From thence being received within a chanell it runneth downe by Tregaron and Lhan-Devi-brevi built and so named in memoriall of David Bishop of Menevia where he in a frequent Synode refuted the Pelagian Heresie springing up againe in Britaine both by the holy Scriptures and also by a miracle while the earth whereon he stood as he preached arose
head Yet others are of opinion that this name arrived in this Island with the English out of Angloen in Denmarke the ancient seat of the English nation for there is a towne called Flemsburg and that the Englishmen from hence called it so like as the Gaules as Livie witnesseth tearmed Mediolanum that is Millan in Italiâ— after the name of Mediolanum in Gaule which they had left behinde them For there is a little village in this Promontory named Flamborrough where an other notable house of the Constables had anciently their seat which some doe derive from the Lacies Constables of Chester Beeing in these parts I could learne nothing for all the enquirie that I made as touching the bournes commonly called Vipseys which as Walter of Heminburgh hath recorded flow every other yeere out of blinde springs and runne with a forcible and violent streame toward the sea nere unto this Promontory Yet take here with you that which William Newbrigensis who was borne neare that place writeth of them Those famous waters which commonly are called Vipseys rise out of the earth from many sources not continually but every second yeere and being growne unto a great bourn runne downe by the lower grounds into the sea Which when they are dry it is a good signe for their breaking out and flowing is said to bee an infallible token portending some dearth to ensue From thence the shore is drawne in whereby there runneth forth into the sea a certaine shelfe or slang like unto an out-thrust tongue such as Englishmen in old time termed a File whereupon the little village there Filey tooke name and more within the land you see Flixton where in King Athelstanes time was built an Hospitall for the defence thus word for word it is recorded of way-faring people passing that way from Wolves least they should be devoured Whereby it appeareth for certaine that in those daies Wolves made foule worke in this Tract which now are no where to be seene in England no not in the very marches toward Scotland and yet within Scotland there be numbers of them in most places This little territory or Seigniory of Holdernesse King William the First gave to Drugh Buerer a Fleming upon whom also he had bestowed his Niece in marriage whom when hee had made away by poison and thereupon fled to save himselfe hee had to succeed him Stephen the sonne of Odo Lord of Aulbemarle in Normandy who was descended from the Earles of Champaigne whom King William the First because hee was his Nephew by the halfe sister of the mothers side as they write made Earle of Aulbemarle whose posterity in England retained the Title although Aulbemarle be a place in Normandy His successour was William sirnamed Le Grosse whose onely daughter Avis was marryed to three husbands one after another namely to William Magnavill Earle of Essex to Baldwine De Beton and William Forts or de Fortibus by this last husband onely shee had issue William who also had a sonne named William His onely daughter Avelin being the wedded wife of Edmund Crouchbacke Earle of Lancaster dyed without children And so as wee reade in the booke of Meaux Abbay for default of heires the Earldome of Aulbemarle and honour of Holdernesse were seized into the Kings hands Howbeit in the ages ensuing King Richard the Second created Thomas of Woodstocke his Unkle and afterwards Edward Plantagenet Earle of Rutland the Duke of Yorkes sonne Duke of Aulbemarle in his fathers life time likewise King Henry the Fourth made his owne sonne Thomas Duke of Clarence and Earle of Aulbemarle which Title King Henry the Sixth afterward added unto the stile of Richard Beauchamp Earle of Warwicke for the greater augmentation of his honour EBORACENSIS Comiâ—aâ—us pars Septentrionalis vulgo NORTH RIDING NORTH-RIDING SCarce two miles above Flamborrough-head beginneth the NORTH-RIDING or the North part of this Country which affronting the other parts and beginning at the Sea is stretched out Westward and carrieth a very long Tract with it though not so broad for threescore miles together even as farre as to Westmorland limited on the one side with Derwent and for a while with the River Ure on the other side with Tees running all along it which on the North Coast separateth it from the Bishopricke of Durrham And very fitly may this part bee divided into Blackamore Cliveland Northallverton-shire and Richmond-shire That which lyeth East and bendeth toward the Sea is called Blackamore that is The blacke moorish land For it is mountanous and craggy The Sea coast thereof hath Scarborrough Castle for the greatest ornament a very goodly and famous thing in old time called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is A Burgh upon the Scar or steepe Rocke The description whereof have heere out of William of Newburgh his History A Rocke of a wonderfull height and bignesse which by reason of steepe cragges and cliffes almost on every side is unaccessible beareth into the Sea wherewith it is all compassed about save onely a certaine streight in manner of a gullet which yeeldeth accesse and openeth into the West having in the toppe a very faire greene and large Plaine containing about threescore acres of ground or rather more a little Well also of fresh water springing out of a stony Rocke In the foresaid gullet or passage which a man shall have much adoe to ascend up unto standeth a stately and Princelike Towre and beneath the said passage beginneth the City or Towre spreading two sides South and North but having the sore part Westward and verily it is fensed afront with a wall of the owne but on the East fortified with the rocke of the Castle and both the sides thereof are watered with the Sea This place William Le Grosse Earle of Aulbemarle and Holdernesse viewing well and seeing it to bee a convenient plot for to build a Castle upon helping Nature forward with a very costly worke closed the whole plaine of the Rocke with a Wall and built a Towre in the very streight of the passage which being in processe of time fallen downe King Henry the Second caused to bee built in the same place a great and goodly Castle after hee had now brought under the Nobles of England who during the loose government of King Stephen had consumed the lands of the Crowne but especially amongst others that William abovesaid of Aulbemarle who had in this Tract ruled and reigned like a King and possessed himselfe of this place as his owne Touching the most project boldnesse of Thomas Stafford who to the end hee might overthrow himselfe with great attempts with a few Frenchmen surprised this Castle of a sudden in Queene Maries Raigne and held it for two daies together I neede not to speake ne yet of Sherleis a Gentleman of France who having accompanied him was judicially endited and convict of high treason albeit he was a forrainer because hee had done against
to yeeld much ground within their Confines yea and to render many Castles But this may suffice as touching Durham which I will take my leave of if you thinke good with a Distichon of Necham and an Hexastichon of John Jonston Arte sitúque loci munita Dunelmia salve Qua floret sancta religionis apex VEDRA ruens rapidis modò cursibus agmine leni Séque minor celebres suspicit urbe viros Quos dedit ipsa olim quorum tegit ossa sepulta Magnus ubi sacro marmore BEDA cubat Se jactant aliae vel religione vel armis Haec armis cluit haec religione potens Durham by art and site of place well fensed now farewell Where for devout Religion the Mitre doth excell The River Were that ranne most swift ere while with streame now soft And chanell lesse to famous men in towne lookes up aloft Whom once it bred and of whose bones in grave it is possest Where under sacred marble stone Great Beda now doth rest Of Armes or of Religion may other boast I grant For Armes and for Religion both this City makes her vaunt Concerning the Monkes that were cast out at the suppression of the Abbaies the twelve Prebendaries and two Arch-Deacons placed in this Church and the Priours name changed into the Dignity of a Deane I neede not to say any thing for they are yet in fresh memory And unwilling I am to remember how this Bishopricke was dissolved by a private Statute and all the possessions thereof given to Edward the Sixth when private greedinesse edged by Church-men did grinde the Church and withdrew much from God wherewith Christian Piety had formerly honoured God But Queene Mary repealed that Statute and restored the said Bishopricke with all the Possessions and Franchises thereof that God might enjoy his owne The Longitude of this City is 22. Degrees The Latitude 54. Degrees and 57. minutes Beneath Durham that I many not overpasse it standeth Eastward a very faire Hospitall which Hugh Pudsey that most wealthy Bishop and Earle of Northumberland so long as it was Being very indulgently compassionate to Lepres as Neubrigensis writeth built with coste I must needes say profuse enough but in some sort not so honest as who layed no small deall of other mens right so great was his power upon this devotion whiles hee thought much to disburse sufficient of his owne Howbeit hee assigned unto it revenewes to maintaine threescore and five Lepres besides Masse Priests From Durham Were carrieth his streame Northward with a more direct course by Finchdale where in the Reigne of King Henry the Second Goodrick a man of the ancient Christian simplicity and austerity wholly devoted to the service of God led a solitary life and ended his daies being buried in the same place wherein as that William of Neuborrow saith hee was wont either to lye prostrate whiles he prayed or to lay him downe when he was sicke Who with this his devout simplicity drew men into so great an admiration of him that R. brother unto that rich Bishop Hugh Pudsey built a Chappell in memoriall of him From thence Were passeth by Lumley Castle standing within a Parke the ancient seat of the Lumleies who descended from Liulph a man in this tract of right great Nobility in the time of King Edward the Confessour who marryed Aldgitha the daughter of Aldred Earle of Northumberland Of these Lumleies Marmaduke assumed unto him his mothers Coate of Armes in whose right hee was seized of a goodly inheritance of the Thwengs namely Argent of Fesse Gueles betweene three Poppinjaes Vert whereas the Lumleies before time had borne for their Armes Six Poppinjaes Argent in Gueles For she was the eldest daughter of Sir Marmaduke Thweng Lord of Kilton and one of the heires of Thomas Thweng her brother But Ralph sonne to the said Marmaduke was the first Baron Lumley created by King Richard the Second which honour John the ninth from him enjoyed in our daies a man most honourable for all the ornaments of true Nobility Just over against this place not farre from the other banke of the River standeth Chester upon the Street as one would say the Castle or little City by the Port way side the Saxons called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereupon I would deeme it to be CONDERCUM in which as the booke of Notices recordeth the first wing of the Astures in the Romanes time kept station and lay in Garison within the Line or precinct as that booke saith of the WALL For it is but a few miles distant from that famous WALL whereof I am to speake heereafter The Bishops of Lindifarre lived obscurely heere with the corps of Saint Cuthbert whiles the raging stormes of the Danes were up for the space of an hundred and thirteene yeeres In memory whereof when Egelricke Bishop of Durham layed the foundation of a new Church in that place he found such a mighty masse of money buried within the ground as is thought by the Romans that wallowing now in wealth he gave over his Bishopricke and being returned to Peterborrow whereof hee had beene Abbot before made causeies through the Fennes and raised other Workes not without exceeding great charges And a long time after Anthony Bec Bishop of Durham and Patriarch of Jerusalem erected heere a Collegiat Church a Deane and seven Prebends In which Church the Lord Lumley abovesaid placed and ranged in goodly order the Monuments of his Ancestours in a continued line of succession even from Liulph unto these our daies which he had either gotten together out of Monasteries that were subverted or caused to bee made a new And further within almost in the middest of the Triangle there is another little Village also knowne of late by reason of the College of a Deane and Prebendaries founded by that Antony Bec at Lanchester which I once thought to have beene LONGOVICUM a station of the Romanes But let us returne unto Were which now at length turneth his course Eastward and running beside Hilton a Castle of the Hiltons a Family of ancient Gentry venteth his waters with a vast mouth into the sea at Wiran-muth as Bede tearmeth it now named Monkes Were-mouth because it belonged to the Monkes Touching which mouth or out-let thus writeth William of Malmesbury This Were where hee entereth into the Sea entertaineth Shippes brought in with a faire Gale of Winde within the gentle and quiet bosome of his Out-let Both the Bankes whereof Benedict Bishop beautified with Churches and built Abbaies there one in the name of Saint Peter and the other of Saint Paul The painfull industry of this man hee will wonder at who shall reade his life for that hee brought hither great store of bookes and was the first man that ever procured Masons and Glasiers for windowes to come into England Five miles higher the River Tine doth also unlade it selfe which together with Derwent for a good way lineth out as it
the West twenty degrees and forty eight minutes in Longitude Whiles I looked round about from the top of the said castle hill to see the mouth of Lone that issueth it selfe into the sea a little lower Fornesse the other part of this shire appeared in sight which the sea hath after a sort violently rent apart from the rest For when as the shore did from hence shoote out a maine way into the West the Ocean as it were much displeased and angry hereat obstinately ceased not to flash and mangle it nay which is more hath with his fell flowing at boisterous tides devoured the shore and thereby maketh three wide creâ—kes or bayes namely Kent-sand at which the river Ken powreth it selfe forth Leven-sand and Dudden-sand betweene which two the land beareth out so much that thereupon it tooke the name For with us in our language For-nesse Foreland is all one with the Latine Promontorium anterius that is a Fore-promontory All this part unlesse it be hard by the sea side mounteth up aloft with high topped hils and huge fels standing thicke together which they tearme Forness-fells Among which the Britans lived safe a great while trusting upon these strong naturall fenses although the victorious English Saxons made way through all in the end For in the yeere 228. after there comming in I gather that the Britans had their abode here because Egfride King of Northumberland gave unto Holy Saint Cuthbert the land called Carthmell and all the Britans in it thus we finde written in his life and it is very well knowne that Carthmell is a part of this shire by Kentsand and a little towne in it retaineth yet the same name Wherein William Mareschall the elder Earle of Pembroch built a Priory and endowed it with living If you read in Ptolomee SETANTIORUM 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is The Setantians Mere as some Copies have and not Setantiorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is The Setantians Haven I durst boldly avouch that these Britans here were called SETANTII For among these mountaines the greatest standing water in all England now called Winander-mere in the English Saxon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 haply of his winding and turning in and out lieth stretched out for the space of ten miles or thereabout with crooked bankes and is all paved as it were with stone in the bottome in some places of wonderfull depth and breeding a peculiar kinde of fish found no where else which the inhabitants there by call A Chare And a little village standing hard by carrieth the name thereof In which Eathred King of Northumberland in the yeer of Christ 792. when he had by force fetched King Elfwolds sonnes out of Yorke flue them that by his owne wickednesse and their blood hee might secure the Kingdome to himselfe and his Betwixt this Mere and the river Dudden the promontory runneth out which wee commonly call Fornesse and hath the Iland Walney as a fore-fence or countremure lying along by it with a small arme of the sea betweene The gullet or entry into which is defended with a fort called the Pile of Fouldrey standing in the midst of the waves upon a rocke erected there by the Abbot of Fornesse in the first yeere of King Edward the third As for the Promontory it selfe there is nothing worth the sight in it unlesse it be the ruines of a monastery of Cistertian Monkes called Fornesse Abbey which Stephen Earle of Bullen afterwards King of England in the yeere of our redemption 1127. built in a place called sometimes Bekensgill or translated rather from Tulket in Andernesse Out of the Monkes whereof and from no place else as they themselves have reported the Bishops of the Isle of Man that lieth just over against were by an ancient custome wont to bee elected as having beene the mother as it were of many Monasteries in the said Man and in Ireland More Eastward standeth Aldingham an ancient hereditament belonging to the family of the Haveringtons or Harringtons unto whom it came from the Flemmings by the Cancefelds and whose inheritance descended by a daughter unto William Bonvill of Somersetshire and at last by him unto the Greies Marquesses of Dorset And somwhat higher is Ulverston in this regard not to bee passed over in silence for that King Edward the third gave a moity thereof unto Sir John Coupland a most brave warriour whom also he advanced to the dignity of a Banaret because in the battaile at Durham he took David the second King of the Scots prisoner But after his decease the same King granted it with other faire lands in this tract and the title also of Earle of Bedford unto Ingelram Lord Coucy of France as who had married his daughter Isabel and whose ancestours in right of Christiana Lindsey had great revenewes in England Touching the noble men which have borne the title of Lancaster there were in the first infancy of the Norman Empire three stiled Lords of the Honour of Lancaster namely Roger of Poictou the sonne of Roger Mont-gomery who was surnamed Pictavensis as William of Malmesbury writeth because hee had married a wife from out of Poictou in France But when he had by his perfidious disloyalty lost this honour William the sonne of King Stephen and Earle of Moriton and Warren had the same given unto him by his Father After whose death King Richard the first bestowed it upon his brother John who was afterward King of England For thus we read in an old History King Richard declared his singular love to his brother Iohn For beside Ireland and the Earledome of Moriton in Normandy he heaped upon him so many dignities in England that he was in maner a Tetrarch there Finally he conferred upon him Cornwall Lancaster Notingham Derby with the country adjoining and many more beside A good while after King Henry the third the sonne of John first advanced Edmund his second sonne called by some Crouth-backe to the title of Earle of Lancaster unto whom hee conveyed and made over the inheritances and honours of Simon Montfort Earle of Leicester Robert Ferrars Earle of Derby and John of Monmouth because they had risen and rebelliously born armes against him and he gave this Honor of Lancaster unto him in these words The Honour County Castle and Town of Lancaster with the Cow-pastures forrests of Wiresdale Lownsdale New castle under Lime the manour forrest and Castle of Pickering the manor of Scaleby the towne of Gomicester and the rents of the towne of Huntendon c. After hee the said Edmund had missed the kingdome of Sicily in which the Pope had invested him in vaine by a ring and not without ridiculous disgrace to the English nation caused in honour of him certaine peeces of gold to bee stamped with this title AIMUNDUS REX SICILIAE having first cunningly suckt a great masse of money from the credulous King in this regard This Edmund
the country lyeth the Barony of Gillesland a little region so encombred by reason of sudden rising brookes which they call Gilles that I would have deemed it tooke the name of them had I not read in a booke belonging to the Abbey of Lanercost that one Gill Fitz-Bueth who is called also Gilbert in a Charter of King Henry the second held it as Lord in old time of whom it is probable this name was rather given to it Through this Gillesland the wall of Severus that most famous monument of all Britaine runneth streight as it were by a line from Carlile Eastward by Stanwicks a little village by Scalby castle belonging in times past to the Tilliols sometimes a name in this tract of good worship and reputation from whom it came to the Pickerings then Cambec a small brooke runneth under the wall Neere unto which the Barons of Dacre built Askerton castle a little pile where the Governour of Gillesland whom they call Land-Sergeant had a ward Beneath the wall it conjoyneth it selfe with the river Irthing where standeth Irthington a chiefe Manour as they tearme it of this Barony of Gillesland And great ruins are here to be seen at Castle-steed Neere unto it is Brampton a little mercate towne which we suppose to bee BREMETURACUM at the very line and range of the wall for it is scarce a mile from the said wall where in times past lay the first Band of the Tungri out of Germanie in the declining state of the Romane Empire and a company of Armaturae under the generall of Britaine These were horsemen armed at all peeces But whether these Armatures were Duplar or Simplar it is doubtfull Duplar or Duple Armaturae they were called in those daies who had double allowances of corne Simplar that had but single Neither verily must I overpasse in silence that hard by Brampton there mounteth up an high hill fortified in the verie top with a trench they call it the Mote from which there is a faire prospect every way into the country Beneath this and by Castle-steeds like as at Trederman joining unto it were found these inscriptions exemplified for me by the hand of the right honourable Lord William Howard of Naworth third sonne unto Thomas late Duke of Norfolke a singular lover of venerable antiquitie and learned withall who in these parts in right of his wife a sister and one of the heires of the last Lord Dacre enjoieth faire possessions This stone also was found there in an old Hot-house wherein by ill fortune the name of the Emperours Lievtenant and Propretour of Britaine is worne out Neere to Brampton Gelt a riveret runneth downe by the banke whereof in a crag called Helbecke are read these antiquities wherein the words hang not well together erected as it seemeth by a Lievtenant of the second Legion Augusta under Agricola the Propraetour and others beside which the injurie of time hath envied us In the same rocke these words also are read written in a more moderne and newer letter OFFICIUM ROMANORUM This Gelt emptieth himselfe into the river Irthing which with a swift and angry streame holdeth his course by Naworth Castle belonging unto the Lord William Howard aforesaid who now repaireth it but lately to the Barons of Dacre of whom when the last died in his tender yeeres Leonard Dacre his Unkle who chose rather to try the title of inheritance with his Prince by force of armes than with his Nieces by wager of law seized into his hands this Castle and levied a band of rebels against his Prince whom the Lord of Hunsdon with the garrison souldiers of Berwick soone discomfited and put to flight in which conflict many were slaine but more ranne away amongst whom Leonard himselfe escaped But of him more in my Annales Neerer unto the wall beyond the river Irthing was lately found this faire votive altar erected to the Goddesse Nymphe of the Brigantes for the health of the Empresse Plautilla wife to M. Aurelius Antoninus Severus and the whole Imperiall family by M. Cocceius Nigrinus a Treasurer to the Emperour when Laetus was second time Consull with intricate connexion of letters which I read thus DEAE NYMPHAE BRIGantum QUOD VOVERAT PRO SALUTE PLAUTILIAE COnjugis INVICTAE DO Mini NOSTRI INVICTI IMP. M. AURE Lii SEVERI ANTONINI PII. FE Licis C AE Saris AU Gusti TOTIUSQUEDO MUS DIVINAE EJUS M. COCCEIUS NIGRINUS Questor AU Gusti Numini DEVOTUS LIBENS SUSCEPTUM Solvit LAETO II. Here by was the Priory of Lanercost founded by R. de Vaulx Lord of Gillesland and hard by the wall Burd Oswald Beneath which where that Picts wall passed over the river Irthing by an arched bridge was the station of the first band Aelia Dacica or of the Dacians the place is now named Willoford which the booke of Notice of Provinces and many altars bearing inscriptions to Iupiter Optimus Maximus reared by that Cohort here doe plentifully prove Of which I thought good to adde these unto the rest although time hath almost worne them out I. O. M. OH I. AEL DA C. C. A. GETA IRELSAVRNES I. O. M. CoH. I. AEL DAC C. P. STATU LoN GINUS TRIB PRO SALUTE D. N MAXjMIANO FOR CAE VA OAED LEG VI VIC P.F F. I. O. M. COHIAEL DAC TETRICIANORO C. P. LUTIC V S. DESIG NATUS TRIB I.O.M. COH I. AEL DAC GORD ANA. C. P EST I. O. M. H. I. AEL DAC C. PRAEE SI FLIUS FA S TRIB PETUO COS. The first Lord of Gillesland that hitherto I have read of was William Meschines the brother of Ralph Lord of Cumberland I meane not that William brother to Ranulph Earle of Chester from whom came Ranulph de Ruelent but the brother of Ralph yet could hee never wrest it wholly out of the Scots hands for Gill the sonne of Bueth held the greatest part of it by force and armes After his death King Henry the second gave it to Hubert de Vaulx or de Vallibus whose shield of Armes was Chequy Or Gueles His sonne Robert founded and endowed the Priory of Lanercost But the inheritance after a few yeeres was by marriage translated to the Moltons and from them by a daughter to Ranulph Lord Dacre whose line hath flourished unto our daies in very great honour Having now in some sort surveied the maritime coasts and more inward parts of Cumberland the side that lieth more Easterly being leane hungry and a wast remaineth to bee viewed and yet it sheweth nothing but the spring-head of South-Tine in a moorish place and an ancient Romane high-way eight ells broad paved with great stone commonly called Mayden Way which leadeth out of Westmorland and where the riveret Alon and the aforesaid South Tine meet together in one channell by the side of an hill of gentle descent there remaine yet the footings of a very great and ancient towne which was toward the North enclosed within a fourefold rampier
which Scots at a low water when the tide was past used to passe over the river and fall to boot-haling But they would in no wise take Aeneas with them although hee intreated them very instantly no nor any woman albeit amongst them there were many both young maids and wives passing faire For they are perswaded verily that the enemies will doe them no hurt as who reckon whoredome no hurt nor evill at all So Aeneas remaines there alone with two servants and his Guide in company of an hundred women who sitting round in a ring with a good fire in the mids before them fell to hitchell and dresse hemp sate up all night without sleep and had a great deale of talk with his Interpreter When the night was far spent what with barking of dogs and gaggling of geese a mighty noise and outcry was made then all the women slipped forth divers waies his Guide also made shift to be gone and all was of an hurry as if the enemies had beene come But Aeneas thought it his best course to expect the event within his bed-chamber and that was a stable for feare lest if he had runne forth of dores knowing not the way he should become a prey and booty to him that should first meet him But see streightwaies the women returned with the Interpreter bring word all was well and that they were friends and not enemies were come thither There have been in this countrey certaine petty nations called Scovenburgenses and Fisburgingi but to point out precisely the very place of their abode in so great obscurity passeth my skill Neither can I define whether they were Danes or English But Florentius of Worcester published by the right honourable Lord William Howard writeth That when there was an assembly or Parliament holden at Oxenford Sigeferth and Morcar the worthier mightier ministers of the Scovenburgenses were secretly made away by Edrike Streona Also that Prince Edmund against his fathers will married Alfrith the wife of Sigefrith and having made a journey to the Fisburgings invaded Sigeferth his land and brought his people in subjection to him But let others inquire farther into these matters This region of North-humberland being brought under the English Saxons dominion by Osca Hengists brother and by his sonne Jebusa had first officiall governors under the fealty of the Kings of Kent After that when the kingdome of the Bernicii whom the Britans call Guir a Brinaich as it were Mountainers was erected that which reached from Tees to the Scottish Frith was the best part thereof and subject to the Kings of North-humberland who having finished their period whatsoever lay beyond Twede became Scottish and was counted Scotland Then Egbert King of the West-Saxons laied it to his owne kingdome when it was yeelded up to him Afterwards King Aelfred permitted the Danes to possesse it whom Athelstane some few yeeres after dispossessed and drave out yet after this the people set up Eilrick the Dane for their king whom King Ealdred forthwith displaced and expelled From which time forward this countrey had no more Kings over it but such as governed it were tearmed Earles Amongst whom these are reckoned up in order successively in our Histories Osulfe Oslake Edulph Walde of the elder Uchtred Adulph Alred Siward Tostie Edwin Morcar Osculph and that right valiant Siward who as he lived in armes so would he dye also armed Then his Earldome and these parts were given unto Tostie the brother of Earle Harold but the Earldomes of Northampton and Huntingdon with other lands of his were assigned to the noble Earle Walde of his sonne and heire These words of Ingulphus have I put downe because some deny that hee was Earle of Huntingdon And now will I adde moreover to the rest that which I have read in an old manuscript memoriall of this matter in the Librarie of Iohn Stow a right honest Citizen and diligent Antiquarie of the City of London Copso being made Earle of Northumberland by the gift of King William Conquerour expelled Osculph who notwithstanding within a few daies after slew him Then Osculph being runne through with a Javelin by a thiefe ended his life After this Gospatricke purchased the Earldome of the Conquerour who not long after deposed him from that honour and then succeeded after him Walde of Siwards sonne His fortune was to lose his head and in his roome was placed Walcher Bishop of Durham who like as Robert Comin his successour was slaine in a tumultuous commotion of the common people Afterwards Robert Mowbray attained to the same honour which hee soone lost through his owne perfidious treacherie when he devised to deprive King William Rufus of his royall estate and to advance Stephen Earle of Albemarle a sonne to the Conquerors sister thereunto Then K. Stephen made Henrie the sonne of David King of Scotland as wee read in the Poly Chronicon of Durham Earle of Northumberland whose sonne also William that afterwards was King of Scots writ himselfe William de Warrenna Earle of Northumberland for his mother was descended out of the familie of the Earles of Warren as appeareth out of the booke of Brinkburne Abbey After some few yeeres King Richard the first passed away this Earldome for a summe of money unto Hugh Pudsey Bishop of Durham for tearm of his life scoffing that he had made a young Earle of an old Bishop But when the said King was imprisoned by the Emperour in his returne out of the Holy-land and Hugh for his deliverie had contributed only 2000. pounds of silver which the King took not well at his hands because he was deemed to have performed but a little whom hee understood to have raised and gotten together a huge masse of money under pretence of his ransome and release he devested and deprived him of his Earldome After which time the title of the Barledome of Northumberland lay discontinued about an hundred and fourescore yeeres But at this day the family of the Percies enjoyeth the same which family being descended from the Earles of Brabant inherited together with the surname of Percie the possessions also of Percie ever since that Joscelin of Lovaine younger sonne of Godfrey Duke of Brabant the true issue of the Emperour Charles the Great by Gerberga the daughter of Charles a younger brother to Lothar the last King of France of the line of Charles tooke to wife Agnes the daughter and sole heire of William Percie of which William the great grandfather William Percie comming into England with King William the Conquerour was rewarded by him for his service with lands in Tatcaster Linton Normanby and other places Between this Agnes and Joscelin it was covenanted that hee should assume the name of Percies and retaine still unto him the ancient Armes of Brabant viz. A Lion azure which the Brabanters afterwards changed in a shield Or. The first Earle of Northhumberland out of this family was Henrie Percie begotten of Marie daughter
his Kingdome divers authors affirme to have granted by his Charter or Patent Ireland and England both unto the Church of Rome to be held of it ever after in fee and to have received it againe from the Church as a Feudatarie also to have bound his successours to pay three hundred Markes unto the Bishop of Rome But that most worthie and famous Sir Thomas Moore who tooke the Popes part even unto death affirmeth this to be false For hee writeth that the Romanists can shew no such grant that they never demanded the foresaid money and that the Kings of England never acknowledged it But by his leave as great a man as hee was the case stood otherwise as evidently appeareth by the Parliament Records the credit whereof cannot bee impugned For in an assembly of all the States of the Realme in the reigne of Edward the third the Lord Chancellour of England proposed and related that the Pope would judicially sue the King of England as well for the Homage as the tribute which was to be yeelded for England and Ireland to the performance whereof King Iohn in times past had obliged himselfe and his successours and of this point which hee put to question required their opinion The Bishops desired to have a day by them selves for to consult about this matter the Nobles likewise and the people or Communaltie The day after they all met and with one generall accord ordained and enacted That for asmuch as neither King Iohn nor any other King whatsoever could impose such servitude upon the Kingdome but with the common consent and assent of a Parliament which was not done and whatsoever he had passed was against his oath at his coronation by him in expresse words religiously taken before God Therefore in case the Pope should urge this matter they were most readie to the uttermost of their power to resist him resolutely with their bodies and goods They also who are skilfull in scanning and sifting everie pricke and tittle of the lawes cry out with one voice That the said Grant or Charter of King Iohn was voide in Law by that clause and reservation in the end thereof Saving unto us and our heires all our Rights Liberties and Regalities But this may seeme beside my text Ever since King Johns time the Kings of England were stiled Lords of Ireland untill that King Henrie the eighth in the memorie of our fathers was in a Parliament of Ireland by the States thereof declared King of Ireland because the name of Lord seemed in the judgement of certaine seditious persons nothing so sacred and full of majestie as the name of King This name and title of the Kingdome of Ireland were by the Popes authoritie what time as Queene Marie in the yeere 1555. had by her Embassadours in the name of the Kingdom of England tendred obedience unto the Pope Paul the fourth confirmed in these words To the laud and glorie of almightie God and his most glorious mother the Virgin Mary to the honour also of the whole Court of heaven and the exaltation of the Catholike faith as the humble request and suite made unto us by King Philip and Queen Marie about this matter wee with the advice of our brethren and of plenarie power Apostolicall by our Apostolicall authoritie erect for ever Ireland to bee a Kingdome and endow dignifie and exalt with the title dignitie honour faculties rights ensignes prerogatives preferments preeminencies royall and such as other Realmes of Christians have use and enjoy and may have use and enjoy for the times to come And seeing that I have hapned upon those Noblemens names who first of all English gave the attempt upon Ireland and most valiantly subdued it under the imperiall crowne of England lest I might seeme upon envie to deprive both them and their posteritie of this due and deserved glorie I will set them downe here out of the Chancerie of Ireland according as the title doth purport The names of them that came with Dermot Mac Morrog into Ireland Richard Strongbow Earle of Pembroch who by Eve the daughter of Morrog the Irish pettie King aforesaid had one only daughter and she brought unto William Mareschall the title of the Earldome of Pembroch with faire lands in Ireland and a goodly issue five sonnes who succeeded one another in a row all childlesse and as many daughters which enriched their husbands Hugh Bigod Earle of Norfolke Guarin Montchensey Gilbert Clare Earle of Glocester William Ferrars Earle of Derby and William Breose with children honours and possessions Robert Fitz-Stephen Harvey de Mont-Marish Maurice Prendergest Robert Barr. Meiler Meilerine Maurice Fitz-Girald Redmund nephew of Fitz-Stephen William Ferrand Miles de Cogan Richard de Cogan Gualter de Ridensford Gualter and sonnes of Maurice Fitz-Girald Alexander sonnes of Maurice Fitz-Girald William Notte Robert Fitz-Bernard Hugh Lacie William Fitz-Aldelm William Maccarell Humfrey Bohun Hugh de Gundevill Philip de Hasting Hugh Tirell David Walsh Robert Poer Osbert de Herloter William de Bendenges Adam de Gernez Philip de Breos Griffin nephew of Fitz-Stephen Raulfe Fitz-Stephen Walter de Barry Philip Walsh Adam de Hereford To whom may be added out of Giraldus Cambrensis Iohn Curcy Hugh Contilon Redmund Cantimore Redmund Fitz-Hugh Miles of S. Davids and others The Government of the Kingdome of Ireland EVer since that Ireland became subject unto England the Kings of England have sent over thither to manage the state of the Realme their Regents or Vice-gerents whom they tearmed in those writings or letters Patents of theirs whereby authoritie and jurisdiction is committed unto them first Keepers of Ireland then afterwards according as it pleased them Iustices of Ireland Lievtenants and Deputies Which authoritie and jurisdiction of theirs is very large ample and royall whereby they have power to make warre to conclude peace to bestow all Magistracies and Offices except a very few to pardon all crimes unlesse they be some of high treason to dub Knights c. These letters Patents when any one entreth upon this honourable place of government are publikely read and after a solemne oath taken in a set forme of words before the Chancellour the sword is delivered into his hands which is to be borne before him he is placed in a chaire of estate having standing by him the Chancellour of the Realme those of the Privie Councell the Peeres and Nobles of the kingdome with a King of Armes a Serjeant of Armes and other Officers of State And verily there is not looke throughout all Christendome againe any other Vice-Roy that commeth neerer unto the majestie of a King whether you respect his jurisdiction and authoritie or his traine furniture and provision There bee assistant unto him in counsell the Lord Chancellour of the Realm the Treasurer of the Kingdome and others of the Earles Bishops Barons and Judges which are of the Privie Councell For Ireland hath the very same degrees of States that England hath namely Earles Barons Knights
the English Limirick A Bishops See this is and a very famous mart towne of Mounster first forcibly won by Reimundo the Grosse an Englishman the sonne of William Girald afterwards burnt by Duvenald an Irish petty King of Thuetmond and then in processe of time Philip Breos an Englishman was enfeoffed in it King John fortified it with a castle At this day it is counted two townes The upper for so they call it wherein stand the Cathedrall Church and the castle hath two gates opening into it and each of them a faire bridge unto it of stone with bulwarkes and little draw bridges the one leading into the West the other into the East unto which the nether towne joineth fensed with a wall with a castle also thereto and a foregate at the entrance into it More into the East standeth Clan-William so named of the sept or kinred of William who came out of the family de Burgo the Irish call it Burke which dwelleth therein and out of which house Queene Elizabeth conferred upon William who slew Iames Fitz-Moris that tempestuous troubler of his country the title and honour of Baron of Castle-Conel where Richard the Red Earle of Ulster had strengthened a castle together with a yeerly pension as a reward of his valour and to his comfort and meed for the losse of his sonnes slaine in that encounter In the South part of this county is Kil-Mallo the second towne next to Limirick both for wealth and for number of inhabitants enclosed also with a wall about it likewise Adar a little towne in old time fortified standing upon the same river which streightwaies emptieth it selfe into Shanon hard unto which lieth Clan-Gibbon the Lord whereof Iohn Fitz-Girald called Iohn Oge Fitz-Iohn Fitz Gibbon and for the gray haires of his head The white Knight was attainted by Parliament for his wicked acts but his sonne through the clemency of Queene Elizabeth was restored to his full estate Of great note and name above the rest in this tract besides those Bourks Giraldines and Fitz-Giralds are the Laceys Browns Hurleys Chaceys Sapells and Pourcels all of the English race also the Mac-Shees Mac-Brien O-Brian c. of Irish breed THE COUNTY OF TIPPERARY THe county Tipperary Westward is bounded with Limirick-shire aforesaid and the river Shanon Eastward with the county of Kilkenny toward the South with the counties of Corke and Waterford and North with the territorie of the O-Carolls The South part is an exceeding fertile country and yeeldeth corne abundantly furnished also sufficiently with good and frequent buildings The West part of it the river Glason passeth through and watereth with a long course not farre from the banke whereof standeth Emely or Awne a Bishops See which hath beene in times past by report a City very populous and of great resort Through the midst of it runneth the noble river Shower or Swire which streaming out of Bladin hill speeding through the lower Ossery which by the bountifull favour of King Henry the eighth entituled the Butlers Earles of Ossery and through Thurles which honoureth them with the dignity of Vicounts first goeth unto Holy Crosse a right famous Abbey in times past whence the country also adjoining is commonly termed the Countie of the Holy Crosse of Tipperary and enjoieth certaine peculiar freedomes granted in honour of a piece of Christs crosse there sometimes preserved The whole world saith Saint Cyrill is full of peeces of this wood and yet by a continuall miracle as Paulinus saith it hath never beene impaired Thus were Christians perswaded in ancient times And incredible it is what a confluence there is even yet of people continually upon devotion hither as unto an holy place So firmely doth this nation persevere in the old Religion of their forefathers which the carelesse negligence of their Prelates and ignorance together hath beyond all measure encreased when as there be none to instruct and teach them otherwise Then Shour passeth beside Cassile beautified with an Archiepiscopall dignity by Engenius the third Bishop of Rome which had under it in times past many Bishops as Suffragans From thence runneth the river downe sprinkling Islands here and there in the way and fetcheth a compasse about Cahir Castle which out of the family of the Butlers hath a Baron advanced to that dignity by Queene Elizabeth but his sonne stained himselfe with perfidious disloialty and suffered for it when as the Castle was by the Earle of Essex taken in the yeere 1599. and himselfe cast into prison Then holding on his course by Clomell a mercate towne well frequented and fensed as also by Carick Mac-Griffin situate upon a rock whereof also it tooke name the habitation of the Earles of Ormond which together with the honour of Earle of Carrick King Edward the second granted unto Edmund Boteler or Butler it leaveth Tipperary behinde it and serveth in steed of a limit to confine the Counties of Waterford and Kilkenny Thus much of the places in the South side of this county As for that which lieth Northward leane it is and very barren peaking up with high tops of mountaines and twelve above the rest as it were hudled up together which they terme Phelemge Modona This part in Latin is called Ormondia in Irish Orwowon that is the Front of Mounster in English Ormond and most men name it very corruptly Wormewood All the name and glory whereof ariseth from the Earles of whom there hath beene a number since Iames Butler upon whom and his heires King Edward the third conferred this title of honour for terme of life with the Roialty also and other liberties with Knights fees in the county of Tipperary the which his posterity through the favour of the Kings of England still enjoy whence this County is reputed Palatine and he of some was stiled Earle of Tipperary The ancesters of this James were in old time the Butlers an honourable office of Ireland and from thence came this sirname Le Boteler or Butler imposed upon them and certaine it is that they were linked in most neere alliance unto St. Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury as who derive their descent from his sister and that after hee was murdered they were by King Henry the second removed into Ireland who supposed that hee should disburden himselfe of the worlds hatred for that fact in case he advanced the kinsfolkes and allies of the said Thomas to rich revenues and high honours The first Earle of Ormond in this family was James sonne to Edmund Earle of Carricke who wedded the daughter of Humfrey Bohun Earle of Hereford whom he had by a daughter of King Edward the first and here was his first step unto this honour Hereupon James his sonne by this marriage came to be commonly named among the people The noble Earle The fifth Earle of these named James that I may not stand particularly upon every one received
nations that every souldier remaining alive after a foughten field should carry his head-piece full of earth toward the making of their fellowes tombes that were slaine Although I am of opinion rather that this of Selburie was set there in stead of a limit if not by the Romans then certainly by the Saxons Like as that fosse called Wodensdike considering that betweene the Mercians and the West-Saxons there was much bickering in this Shire many a time about their Marches and both Boetius and the Grammaticall Writers have made mention of such Mounts raised for bounds Within one mile of Selburie is Aiburie an up-landish village built in an old Campe as it seemeth but of no large compasse for it is environed with a faire trench and hath foure gappes as gates in two of the which stand huge Stones as jambes but so rude that they seeme rather naturall than artificiall of which sort there are some other in the said village This River Kenet runneth at the first Eastward through certaine open fields out of which there stand up aloft every where stones like rockes and off them a little village there is called Rockley among which there breaketh out sometimes at unawares water in manner of a streame or sudden Land-flood reputed the messenger as it were and forerunner of a dearth and is by the rusticall people of the countrey called Hunger-borne From hence Kenet holdeth on his course to a towne bearing his name called of Antoninus CVNETIO and is placed from Verlucio twenty miles At which distance just from thence that ancient towne called by a new name Marleborow in old time Marleberge standeth upon this river Cunetio now Kenet stretching out East and West on the pendant of an hill Whether this name Marleborow came in latter ages of Marga which in our language we call Marle and use in stead of dung to manure our grounds I am not ready to affirme Certes it lieth neere a chaulkey hill which our Ancestours before they borrowed this name Chaulke of the Latine word Calx named Marle But the Etymologie thereof that Alexander Necham in his Booke of divine wisedome hath coined and drawne from Merlins Tombe as appeareth by this Distichon of his making is ridiculous Merlini tumulus tibi Merlebrigia nomen Fecit testis erit Anglica lingua mihi O Merlebridge towne of Merlins Tombe thou had'st thy name Our English tongue will testifie with me the same The fatall end of this towne Cunetio and the name together and the estate thereof with the ancient memorie also from the comming in of the Saxons unto the Normans time is utterly vanished and gone for in all this space betweene our histories doe not so much as once name it But in the age next ensuing wee reade that Iohn surnamed Sine terra that is Without Land who afterwards was King of England had a Castle heere which when hee revolted from his brother King Richard the First Hubert Archbishop of Canterburie tooke by force and which afterwards was most famous by reason of a Parliament there holden wherein by a generall consent of the States of the Kingdome there assembled a law passed for the appeasing of all tumults commonly called the Satute of Marleborow But now being daunted by time there remaineth an heape of rammell and rubbish witnessing the ruines thereof and some few reliques of the walles remaine within the compasse of a drie ditch and an Inne there is adjoyning thereto which in stead of the Castle hath the signe of a Castle hanging out at it The Inhabitants of the place have nothing to make greater shew of than in the Church of Preshut hard by of a Christning Font as it seemeth of Touchstone or of Obsidian stone in which by their report certaine Princes I wot not who were in times past baptized and made Christians Neither verily can I conceale that which I have read that every Burger heere admitted is by an old order and custome among them to present unto the Major a brace of hounds for the hare a couple of white Capons and a white Bull. On the same River and the same side thereof is seated Ramsburie a prettie village having nothing now to commend it but pleasant meadowes about it howsoever in old time famous it was for the Bishops See there who had this Shire for their Diocesse but that seate being by Herman the Eighth Bishop laid unto that of Shirburne and at length as I said before translated to Saliburie carried away with it all the name and reputation of this place because at Ramesburie there was never any Covent of Clerkes nor ought for their maintenance From the other side of the River more Eastward Littlecot sheweth it selfe not long since a seate of the Darels a place worthy to bee remembred for the late Lord thereof Sir Iohn Popham who being the chiefe Iudge in the Kings Bench executed justice as I have said already against malefactors to his high praise and commendation And heereby runneth the limit betweene this Shire and Berkshire Thus farre forth have we taken a slight view and survey of Wilshire which as wee find in the Domesday booke and worth the noting it is paide unto the King tenne pounds for an Hawke twentie shillings for a strong Steed for hey one hundred shillings and five ores now what kind a piece of money and of what kind that Ore was I wot not but out of a Register of Burton Monasterie I have observed thus much that twentie Ores are worth two Markes of silver This province can reckon out of divers and sundry houses but few Earles besides those of Salisburie whom I have named before for to omit Weolsthan before the Normans Conquest it had none to my knowledge unto King Richard the Second his daies who preferred William le Scrope to that one honour But this mans good fortunes stood and fell together with his Prince For when the one was deposed the other lost his head After whom within short time succeeded Iames Butler Earle of Ormund advanced to that dignitie by King Henrie the Sixth Howbeit when the Lancastrians were downe the wind and hee was attainted his estate forfeited and Iohn Stafford a younger sonne of Humfrey Duke of Buckingham by the favour of King Edward the Fourth received this title whose sonne Edward succeeded him and died without issue The same honour afterwards King Henrie the Eighth bestowed upon Henrie Stafford of the same house of Buckingham who having enjoyed it a little while departed likewise and left no children behind him In the end the favour of the said King brought it into the family of the Bullens for Thomas Bullen Vicount Rochfort Sonne to one of the Daughters and coheires of Thomas Butler Earle of Ormund hee created Earle of Wilshire whose Daughter Anne the King tooke to wife A marriage this was to her selfe and her brother unhappie and deadly to her Parents wofull but
which the unskilfull rurall people envie us the having Onely one was brought from hence to London which was to be seene in the gardens of the right honourable Sir William Cecill Lord Burghley and high Treasurer of England to wit MEMORIAE FL. VICTORINAE T. TAM VICTOR CONJUX POSVIT That this Tombe was erected for that Victorina which was called Mater Castrorum that is The mother of the Campe and who against Gallienus the Emperour excited in Gaule and Britaine the two Victorini her sonne and sonnes sonne Posthumus likewise Lollianus Marius and Tetricus Caesars I would not with others affirme Yet I have read that two of the VICTORS were in some place here in Britaine and those at one and the selfe-same time the one Maximus the Emperour his soone the other Praefectus Praetorio to the same Emperour of whom Saint Ambrose maketh mention in his Epistles but I dare avouch that neither of these twaine reared this monument for his wife As one high way or street of the Romans went straight from hence Southward to Winchester so there was another ran west-ward through Pamber Forrest very full of trees and other by-places now standing out of the way hard by Litchfield that is the field of dead bodies to the Forrest of Chute pleasant for coole shade of trees plentifull game in which the Hunters and Forresters themselves do wonder at the banke or ridge thereof so evident to be seene paved with stone but broken here and there More toward the North in the very edge and frontier of this Shire we saw Kings-Cleare a market towne in these daies well frequented the residence in times past of the Saxon Kings by it Fremantle in a parke where King Iohn much haunted also Sidmanton the habitation of the Kingsmils Knights and Burgh-Cleare scituate under an high hill in the top whereof a warlike rampire such as our countreymen called a Burgh hath a trench taking a great compasse about it from whence there being a faire and open prospect every way ever the countrey lying underneath there standeth a Beacon that by light burning fire the enemies comming may bee shewed to all the neighbour-Inhabitants round about And verily such watches or signals as this we terme in common speech Beacons of the old word Beacnian that is to shew by a signe and for these many hundred yeares they have beene in right great request and much used among us in some places by heaping up a deale of wood in others by barrels full of pitch fastened to the top of a mast or pole in the highest places of the countrey at which by night some doe evermore watch and in old time there were set horsemen as posts in many places whom our Ancestors called Hobelers who in the day time should give notice of the enemies approach This shire like as the rest which hitherto we have run over belonged to the west-Saxon Kings and when they had deposed Sigebert from his Kingdome for his tyrannie evill entreating and lewd managing of his province this countrey as Marianus writeth was assigned unto him least hee should seeme altogether a private person Whom notwithstanding afterward for his wicked deeds they likewise expelled from hence and so far was it off that this afflicted state of a King moved any man to take pitie of him that a Swine-heard in the end slew him in the wood Anderida where he had lurked and hidden himselfe This Shire can reckon but very few Earles besides those of Winchester which I have already named In the first time of the Normans Bogo or Beavose the English man who fought against the Normans in the battell at Cardiff in Wales is reputed to have beene Earle of South-hampton a man for warlike prowesse much renowned whom while the Monks laboured to set out with their fained fables they have obscured his doughtie deeds in greater darkenesse From which time unto the daies of K. Henry the Eight there was no Earle of South-hampton that I read of but he created William Fitz-williams descended from the daughter of Marquesse Montacute both Earle of South-hampton and also Admirall of England when he was now well stricken in yeares Who dying straight after without issue King Edward the Sixth in the first yeare of his raigne conferred the said honour upon Thomas Wriotheosley Lord Chancellor whose grand-child Henrie by his sonne Henrie enjoyeth the same at this day and in the prime and flowre of his age hath by good literature and militarie experience strengthned his honorable parentage that in riper yeares he might be more serviceable to his Prince and countrey There be found in this shire Parishes 253. and mercate townes 18. VECTA INSVLA ISLE OF WIGHT TO this Countie of South-hampton belongeth that Island which lieth out in length over against the midst of it South-ward called by the Romans in times past VECTA VECTIS and VICTESIS by Ptolomee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Britaines Guith by English-Saxons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For an Island they termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by us in these daies the Isle of Wight and the Whight by so small a streight running betweene anciently called Solent It is severed from the maine land that it may seeme to have beene conjoyned to it whereof that British name of it Guith which betokeneth a separation as Ninnius saith is thought to have beene given even as Sicilie also being broken off as it were and cut from Italie got the name from Secando the Latin word which signifieth cutting as the right learned Iulius Scaliger is of opinion Whereupon under correction alwaies of the Iudicious Criticks I would read in the sixt Quest. Naturall of Seneca thus Ab Italia Siciliaresecta that is Sicilie cut from Italie wheras it is commonly read there rejecta By this Vicinitie of Scite Affinitie of name we may well thinke this Vecta to be that Icta which as Diodorus Siculus writeth seemed at every tide to be an Island but when it was ebbe the ancient Britaines were wont that way to carry tinne thither by carts which should bee transported into France But yet I would not deeme it to be that MICTIS in Plinie which likewise commeth very neere unto VECTA For that in it there was plentie of tinne but in this of ours there is not to my knowledge any veine at all of mettall This Isle betweene East and West in ovall forme stretcheth out twentie miles in length and spreadeth in the midst where it is broadest twelve miles having the one side turning to the North and the other Southward The ground to say nothing of the sea exceeding full of fish consisteth of soile very fruitfull and is thankefull to the husbandman in so much as it doth affoord corne to be carried forth breeding every where store of conies hares partridges and phesants One little forrest it hath likewise and two parkes replenished with deere for game and hunting pleasure Through the midst thereof
in the North side to the river Tamis King Offa usurped and seized into his owne hands Neere unto it Northwest lieth Lee which by the daughter of a certaine worshipfull Knight surnamed thereupon de Lee fell to the familie of Besiles and thereof it came to bee called Besiles Lee and from that house in right of marriage to Richard Fetiplace whose Progenitor Thomas brought some honor to his posterity by matching with Beatrice the base daughter of Iohn the first King of Portugall and widdow to Gilbert Lord Talbot of whom they are descended But now let us returne Hard by Abendon Ocke a little river that runneth by the South side of the towne over which in times past Sir Iohn of Saint Helenes Knight built a bridge gently falleth into Isis This Ocke springeth in that vale of Whitehorse scarce a mile or two from Kingston-Lisle in olde time the possession of Warin de Insulâ or Lisle a noble Baron From whom when as Sir Iohn Talbot the younger sonne of that renowned warrior Iohn Earle of Shrewsburie was descended by his mother hee was created by King Henrie the Sixth Lord Lisle like as Warin de Insula in times past in regard of the possession of this place as if that dignity were annexed thereto and afterwards Vicount Lisle by a Patent without any such regard This title through the gratious favor of Kings flourished still in his posterity one after another successively For breifly to knit up their succession When Sir Thomas Talbot sonne of the said Iohn departed this life without issue beeing deadly shot into the mouth with an arrow in a skirmish defending his possessions against the Lord Barkley Sir Edward Grey who had married his sister received the same at the hands of King Richard the third and left it to Iohn his sonne and successour Whose onely daughter and heire King Henrie the Eighth assured to Sir Charles Brandon and thereupon created him Vicount Lisle But when as shee died in tender yeeres before the marriage was solemnized hee also relinquished that title Which King Henrie afterward bestowed upon Sir Arthur Plantagenet base sonne to King Edward the fourth Who had wedded Elizabeth sister to Sir Iohn Grey Vicount Lisle and widdow of Edmund Dudley And when hee deceased without heires male the said King honoured therewith Sir Iohn Dudley sonne of Edmund by the same Elizabeth Grey who in the time of King Edward the sixth was created Duke of Northumberland and afterward attainted by Queene Marie His sonne Sir Ambrose Dudley beeing restored in bloud was by Queene Elizabeth on one and the selfe same day created Lord Lisle and Earle of Warwicke who ended his life issuelesse And now lately Sir Robert Sidney his sisters sonne was honoured with the stile of Vicoun Lisle by King Iames who had before created him beeing Chamberlaine to the Queene his wife Baron Sidney of Pensherst Then runneth the river Ocke aforesaid betweene Pusey which they that are named de Pusey hold it yet by the horn from their ancestors as given unto them in ancient time by K. Canutus the Dane and the two Dencheworths the one and the other where flourished for a long time two noble and auncient houses to wit de Hide at the one and Fetiplace at the other which families may seeme to have sprung out of one and the same stocke considering they both beare one and the same coat of armes Then entertaineth Ock a namelesse river which issueth out of the same vale at Wantage called in the English Saxon tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where some time there was a Manour house of the Kings and the place wherein Aelfred that most noble and renowned King was borne and bred which at his death he bequeathed to Alfrith Long time after it became a mercate towne by the meanes and helpe of Sir Fulke Fitzwarin that most warlike Knight upon whom Roger Bigod Mareschall of England had bestowed it for his martiall prowesse and at this daie it acknowledgeth for Lords thereof the Bourchiers Earles of Bath descended from the race of the Fitzwarins of whose familie some were here buried Isis being departed once from Abbendon straight waies receiveth into it out of Oxfordshire the river Tame of which elsewhere and now by a compound word being called Tamisis first directeth his course to Sinodun an high hill and fenced with a deepe trench were stood for certaine in old time a fortresse of the Romanes for the ground being now broken up with the plough yeeldeth otherwhiles to the ploughmen store of Roman pieces of coine as tokens of antiquitie Under it at Bretwell there was a Castle if it were not that upon this hill which King Henry the Second wonne by force a little before that he made peace with King Stephen From hence Tamis holdeth on his way to the chiefe Citie in times past of the Attrebatians which Antonius termeth GALLEVA of Attrebats Ptolomee GALEVA but both of them through the carelessnesse of the Scriveners name it wrong for GALLENA and they likewise in their Greeke copies have thrust upon us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Gallena by transposition of letters I have thought it was so named in the British tongue as it were Guall hen that is The old rampier or fort Which name being still kept and Ford added thereto which is a shallow place in the river the Englishmen in old time called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we at this day shorter Wallengford In King Edward the Confessors time it was counted a Burgh and contained as we find in that Book wherein K. William the Frst tooke the Survey of all England two hundred threescore and sixteene Hages that is to say Houses yielding nine pounds de Gablo and those that dwelt there did the King service on horsebacke or by water Of those Hages eight were destroyed for the Castle In old time it was compassed about with walles which as men may see by their tract tooke up a mile in circuit It hath a Castle scituate upon the river very large I assure you and stately so fortitified in times past that the hope in it as impregnable and invincible made divers over-bold and stout For when England burned as a man may say in a generall flame of warres we read that it was by King Stephen belaied once or twise with sieges but all in vaine The greatnesse and magnificence thereof I much wondered at when I was young and removed thither from Oxford for a place it is now for the Students there of Christ Church to retire unto as having a double range of walles about it and being compassed round likewise with a duple rampier and ditch and in the midst of it there standeth a tower to keepe raised upon a mightie high mount in the steepe ascent whereof by steps we saw a Well of an exceeding depth The Inhabitants are verily perswaded that it
was built by the Danes but I should rather judge that something was here erected by the Romans and afterwards rased by Saxons and Danes what time as Sueno the Dane ranging and roving this way spoiled and harried the countrey That it was at length reedified under King William the first we know assuredly by Domesday book seeing that it yeeldeth record as even now I noted of eight Hages or Houses destroyed for the Castle Yet William Gemeticensis makes no mention of this Castle when he writeth that William of Normandie having defeited Harold led his armie forthwith to this citie so he termeth it and after he had passed over the Tamis at the ford pitched his tents heere before hee came to London At which time Wigod an Englishman was Lord of Wallengford who had one onely daughter given in marriage to Robert D'Oyley of whom he begat Mawd his sole heire first wedded to Miles Crispin and after his death through the goodnesse and favour of K. Henrie the first married unto Brient called Fitz Count Who being brought up in warlike feates and taking part with Mawde the Empresse most manfully defended this Castle against King Stephen who had raised a fort just over against it at Craumesh and he made it good untill that peace so much wished of all England was concluded in this place and that most grievous dissention about the Crowne betweene K. Stephen and Henrie the Second ended For then the love of God tooke such place in the hearts of the said Brient and his wife that they cast of this fraile and transitorie world and devoted themselves in religious life unto Christ so was this Honour of Wallengford escheated into the Kings hand Which appeareth out of an old Inquisition in the Exchequer by these words To his most beloved Lords the King our soveraigne Lord his Iustices and Barons of the Exchequer the Constable of Wallengford sendeth greeting Know ye that I have made diligent enquiry by the Knights of my Bayliwicke according to a commandement of my Lord the King directed unto me by the Sheriffe and of the Inquisition thus made this is the summe Wigod of Wallengford held the honour of Wallengford in King Harolds time and afterwards in the daies of King William the First He had by his wife a certaine daughter whom he gave in marriage to Robert D'Oyly This Robert begat of her a daughter named Mawd who was his heire Miles Crispin espoused her and had with her the honour aforesaid of Wallengford After the decease of Miles our soveraigne Lord King Henrie the first bestowed the aforesaid Mawd upon Brient Fitz Count who both tooke themselves to a religious life and King Henrie the Second seized the honour into his hand c. Yet afterwards in the time of King Henrie the Third it belonged to the Earles of Chester and then to Richard King of the Romans and Earle of Cornwall who repaired it and unto his sonne Edmond who within the inner Court founded a Collegiate Chappell who dying without issue it fell againe to the Crowne and was annexed to the Dukedome of Cornwall since which time it hath by little and little decaied And verily about the time when that most mortall Plague which followed the conjunction of Saturne and Mars in Capricorne reigned hotely throughout all Europe in the yeare of our Lord 1348. This towne was so dispeopled by reason of continuall mortalitie there that whereas before time it was passing well Inhabited and had twelve Churches in it it can shew now no more than one or two But the cause of this desolation the Inhabitants lay rather upon the bridges of Abbindon and Dorchester whereby London portway was turned from thence From hence Southward the Tamis passeth most mildly betweene very rich and fertile fields on both sides by Moules-ford which K. Henrie the first gave unto Girald Fitz-Walter from whence the Noble family of the Carewes is descended To this house much lands honour and reputation accrewed in Ireland by descent and in England by matching in marriage with right noble families of the Mohuns Dinhams and others Not farre from hence is Aldworth where be certaine tombes and portraictures bigger than the ordinary proportion of men which thereupon the unlearned multitude keepes a wondering at as if they had been Giants whereas indeed they were but of certaine Knights of the Family de la Beche which heere had a Castle and is thought in the raigne of King Edward the Third to have beene extinguished for default of issue male And now at length Tamis meeteth with Kenet which River as I said ere-while watering the South part of this shire at his first entry when he hath left Wiltshire behind him runneth under Hungerford named in old time Ingleford Charnam-street a very small towne and seated in a moist place howbeit it hath given name and title to the honorable family of the Barons of Hungerford which was first raised to greatnesse by Walter Hungerford who under King Henrie the Fifth being Seneschall or Steward of the Kings house was for his warlike prowesse liberally rewarded by the said king and infeoffed in the Castle and Barony of Homet in Normandie To have and to hold unto him and his heires males by homage and service to find the Kings and his heires at the Castle of Roan one Launce with a Fox taile hanging downe thereat which pleasant conceit I thought not a misse to insert here among serious matters The same Walter in the raigne of Henrie the Sixth being high Treasurer of England and created withall Baron Hungerford as well by his singular wisedome as his marriage mith Katherine Peverell descended from the Moels and Courtneys mightily augmented his state His sonne Robert who wedded the daughter and heire of the Lord Botereaux enriched the same house verie much Sir Robert likewise his sonne who matched with Eleanor the daughter and heire of William Molines whereupon he was summoned among the Barons of the Realme by the name of Lord Molines and during the civill warre betweene the two houses of Lancaster and Yorke was beheaded at Newcastle advanced the name not a little His sonne Thomas slaine at Salisbury while his father was living left his onely daughter named Marie whom Edward Lord Hastings tooke to wife with a great and rich Inheritance But Walter brother to the said Thomas begat Edward Hungerford father of that Walter whom King Henrie the Eighth created Baron Hungerford of Heitesbury and condemned him afterwards for a crime not to be spoken of howbeit Queene Marie restored his children unto all his estate save onely the name and title of Barons Not farre from hence Southward is Widehay the seat for a long time of the Baron Saint Amand whose inheritance Gerard Braybrooke entred upon in right of his wife whose eldest Niece by his sonne Gerard named Elizabeth by her marriage brought the same unto William de Beauchamp who being summoned to
unto William the Conquerour upon this condition that they might retaine their ancient customes unviolated and especially that which they call Gavelkind that is Give all kinne by which they are not so bound by Copyhold customarie tenures or Tenant-right as in other parts of England but in manner every man is a free-holder and hath some part of his owne to live upon For lands of this nature are equally divided among the male children or if there be no sonnes among the daughters By vertue of this also they are at full age and enter upon their inheritance when they come to be fifteene yeares old and lawfull it is for them to alienate and make it over to any one either by gift or by sale without the Lords consent By this likewise the sonne though their parents were condemned for theft succeede them neverthelesse in such kind of Lands c. which I leave to Lawyers So that it is truely though not purely written in Latine in an old book thus The County of Kent avoucheth that this County ought by right to be free from such kind of grievance for it saith that this County was never conquered as the residue of England was but by concluding of a peace subjected themselves to the dominion of the Conquerour retaining to themselves all their liberties immunities and customes which they had and used before time After this William the Conquerour that hee might more firmely assure to himselfe Kent which is the very key of England placed a Constable over Dover Castle and according to the ancient order of the Romans made him also Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports And these bee they Hastings Dover Hith Rumney and Sandwich unto which Winchelsey and Rie are joyned as principall ports and other small townes as Members Which because they are bound to serve in the warres by sea enjoy many great immunities as who are free from payment of Subsidies and from Wardship of their children as touching the bodie neither are they sued in any court but within their owne townes and of the inhabitants therein such as they call Barons at the Coronation of Kings and Queenes support the Canopies over them yea and have a table by themselves that day spred and furnished on the Kings right hand c. And the Lord Warden himselfe who is alwaies one of the Nobilitie of most approved trust hath within his jurisdiction the authoritie of a Chancellour and Admirall in very many cases and enjoyeth other rights besides But now returne we to the places The Northside of this Country Tamis the soveraigne of all Rivers in Britaine runneth hard by as I have said before which having held on his course past Surrey forthwith being with a winding reach almost retired into himselfe doth there admit into his channell into the first limit of this shire Ravensburne a small water and of short course which riseth in Keston heath hard under the pitching of an ancient campe strange for the height of double rampiers and depth of double ditches of all that I have seene doubtlesse the worke of many Labouring hands Of what capacitie it was I could not discover for that the greatest part thereof is now severall and overgrowne with a thicket but verily great it was as may bee gathered by that which is apparent We may probably conjectture that it was a Roman Campe but I might seeme to rove if I should thinke it that Campe which Iulius Caesar pitched when the Britans gave him the last battaile with their whole forces and then having bad successe retired themselves and gave him leave to march to the Tamis side And yet certes Keston the name of the place seemeth to retaine a parcell of Kesars name for so the Britaine 's called him and not Caesar as wee doe As for the other small intrenchment not farre of by W. Wickham it was cast in fresh memory when old Sir Christopher Heydon a man then of great command in these parts trained the country people This water having passed by Bromeley a Mansion house of the Bishops of Rochester when it hath gathered strength the depth of his ford giveth name to Depe-ford a most famous Ship-docke where the Kings ships are built and such as be decaied repaired there also is a goodly Store-house and a Colledge as it were or incorporation ordained for the use of the navie The place was sometime called West-Greenwich and at the conquest of England fell to Cislebert Mamignot for his share whose Grand-child Walkelin defended Dover Castle against King Stephen and left behind him one onely daughter living who when her brother was dead by her marriage brought a rich inheritance called the Honor of Mamignot into the family of the Saies From hence the Tamis goeth to Green-wich that is the Greene Creeke for the creek of a river in the old English tongue was called Wic a place in times past famous for the Danish Fleet that lay there often at Rode and for the Danes crueltie shewed unto Ealpheg Archbishop of Canterbury whom in the yeare of our Lord a thousand and twelve they cruelly executed with most exquisite torments Whose death together with the cause thereof Ditmarus Mersepurgius who about the same time lived hath thus in the eighth booke of his Chronicles described I understood saith he by the relation of Sewald a pitifull deede and therefore memorable namely That the perfideous crew of Northman souldiours under Thurkil as yet their Captaine tooke that excellent prelate Archbishop of the Citie of Canterburie named Ealphâ—g with the rest and them after their wicked manner emprisoned and bound yea and put him to endure famine and unspeakeable paines This good man moved with humane frailtie promiseth unto them a summe of money and for the obtaining thereof did set downe a time betweene that if in this space he could not by some acceptable ransome escape this momentany death hee might yet in the meane while purge himselfe with many a groane to be offered as a lively sacrifice unto the Lord. But when all the time space appointed were come gone this greedy gulfe of Pirates called forth the servant of the Lord in threatning wise demands this tribute promised unto them to be spedily and out of hand paid Then he as a meeke Lamb Here am I quoth he ready to undergoe even for the love of Christ whatsoever ye presume now to doe against me that I may deserve to become an example of his servants And nothing am I troubled at this day And whereas I seeme unto you a lyer it is not mine owne will but great neede and povertie that hath done it This body of mine which in this exile I have loved overmuch I present as culpable unto you and I know it is in your power to doe with it what yee intend but my sinfull soule that regardeth not you I humbly commend to the Creator of all things As hee was thus speaking the whole rabble of these
PONTIFICE DIRECTVS ET A DEO OPERATIONE MIRACVLORVM SVFFVLTVS ET ETHELBERTHVM REGEM AC GENTEM ILLIVS AB IDOLORVM CVLTV AD FIDEM CHRISTI PERDVXIT ET COMPLETIS IN PACE DIEBVS OFFICII SVI DEFVNCTVS EST SEPTIMO KALENDAS IVNIAS EODEM REGE REGNANTE HERE RESTETH DAN AVGVSTINE THE FIRST ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY VVHO BEING IN TIMES PAST DIRECTED HITHER FROM BLESSED GREGORIE THE BISHOP OF ROME AND THROVGH THE VVORKING OF MIRACLES SVPPORTED BY GOD BOTH BROVGHT KING ETHELBERT AND HIS PEOPLE FROM IDOLATRY TO THE FAITH OF CHRIST AND ALSO AFTER THE DAIES OF HIS FVNCTION ACCOMPLISHED IN PEACE DIED THE SEVENTH DAY BEFORE THE KALENDS OF IVNE IN THE SAME KINGS REIGNE Together with him in the same porch were buried sixe Archbishops next succeeding and in memoriall of these seven namely Austen Laurence Mellitus Iustus Honorius Deus-dedit and Theodosius were these verses such as they are engraven there in marble SEPTEM SVNT ANGLIS PRIMATES ET PROTO PATRES SEPTEM RECTORES SEPTEM COELOQVE TRIONES SEPTEM CISTERNAE VITAE SEPTEMQVE LVCERNAE ET SEPTEM PALMAE REGNI SEPTEMQVE CORONAE SEPTEM SVNT STELLAE QUAS HAEC TENET AREA CELLAE Seven Patriarchs of England Primates seven Seven Rectors and seven Labourers in heaven Seven Cesternes pure of life seven Lamps of light Seven Palmes and of this Realme seven Crownes full bright Seven Starres are heere bestow'd in vault below I may not forget another Church neere unto this built as Bede saith by the Romans and consecrated to Saint Martin wherein before Austens comming Bertha wife to King Ethelbert descended from the bloud Royall of France was wont to frequent divine Christian service Concerning the Castle on the South side of the Citie the Bulwarks whereof now are decaied it maketh no shew of any great antiquity and there is no memorable thing thereof come to my knowledge but only that it was built by the Normans as touching the dignitie of the See of Canterburie which in times past carried a great State I will say nothing but this that as in former ages during the Roman Hierarchie the Archbishops of Canterbury were Primates of all Britaine Legates to the Pope and as Vrbane the second said The Patriarches as it were of another world so when the Popes authoritie was abrogated a decree passed in the Synode Anno 1534. that laying aside the said title they should bee stiled Primates and Metropolitanes of all England Which dignitie the right reverend Father in Christ D. Iohn Whitgift lately held who devoutly consecrated both his whole life to God all his painefull labours to the Church and in the yeare 1604. slept in the Lord a Prelate much missed of all good men After whom succeeded Doctor Richard Bancroft a man of singular courage and counsaile in establishing and supporting the state Ecclesiasticall For the Latitude of Canterbury the Pole Artick is elevated above the Horizon there fifty one degrees and sixteene minutes and the Longitude is reckoned to be foure and twenty degrees and fiftie one minutes Stour by this time having gathered his waters all into one streame runneth beside Hackington where Dame Lora Countesse of Leicester a most honourable Lady in those daies having abandoned all worldly pleasures sequestred her selfe from the world devoutly to serve God wholy Afore which time Baldwin Archbishop of Canterbury began a Church there in the honour of Saint Stephen and Thomas of Canterbury But being inhabited by the Bishop of Rome his authoritie for feare the same might prejudice the Monkes of Canterbury hee gave over the workes Howbeit ever since the name remained and the place is called Saint Stephens of which Sir Roger Manwood Knight L. cheife Baron of the Exchequer a man of exquisite knowledge in our common lawes unto whom for his bounteous liberalitie the poore inhabitants are much beholding was of late time a right great ornament and even so is his sonne at this day Sir Peter Manwood Knight of the Bath whom I cannot but mention when as he is a favourer of vertue and learning From thence Stour passeth by Fordich called the little Burough of Forewich in King William the Conquerours booke a place of note for excellent good trouts and so in former time to Stoure-mouth which it hath now forsaken a mile and more yet left and bequeathed his name to it But now by Stoure-mouth runneth a brooke which issuing our of Saint Eadburghs well at Liming where the daughter to King Ethelbert first of our nation tooke the veile while it seeketh the sea seeth Elham a mercate towne of which I have read nothing but that the Mannour was the inheritance of Iulian Leibourn a Ladie of great honour in her time who was mother of Laurence Hastings first Earle of Penbrooke of that surname and after wife to William Clinton Earle of Huntingdon Then it holdeth his course by divers villages which thereof receive the addition of Bourn as Bishops-bourn Hawles-bourn Patricks-bourn and Beakes-bourn This bourne is that river Stoure as Caesar calleth it as I have observed travailing lately in these parts which Caesar came unto when he had marched by night almost twelve Italian miles from the sea-coast and where hee had the first encounter in his second expedition into Britaine with the Britaines whom he drave into the woods where they had a place fortified both by nature and mens labour with a number of trees hewen downe and plashed to fore-close the entries But yet the Romans forced an entrie drave them out and there about encamped The place of campe as I heare is neare Hâ—rdes a place of ancien Gentlement of that surname descended from Esten grave Herengod and the Fitz-Bernards Belowe Stoure-mouth Stoure dividing his streame taketh two severall waies and leaving that name is called In-lade and Wantsume making the Isle of Tenet on the West and South side for on all other sides it is washed with the maine Sea This Iland Solinus named ATHANATON and in other copies THANATON the Britaines Iuis Ruhin as witnesseth Asserius happily for Rhutupin of Rhutupinae a Citie adjoining The English Saxons called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we Tenet All the Isle standeth upon a whitish maile full of goodly corne fields and being a right fertile soile carrieth in length eight miles and foure in breadth reckoned in old time to containe 600. Families in stead whereof it is corruptly read in Bede Milliarium Sexcentarum for Familiarum Sexcentarum But whereas Solinus writeth that there is not a snake creeping in this Isle and that the mould or earth carried from hence killeth snakes it is now proved to bee untrue That Etymologie therefore derived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is from the death of snakes falleth quite to the ground Here the English Saxons landed first here by the permission of Guortigern they first seated themselves here was their place of refuge and here Guortimor the Britaine made a great
the eldest Daughter and hee built Saint Andrewes Church and the Castle at Northampton After him succeeded his sonne Simon the second who a long time was in suite about his mothers possessions with David King of Scots his mothers second husband and having sided with King Stephen in the yeere of our Lord 1152. departed this life with this testimoniall that went of him A Youth full fraught with all unlawfull wickednesse and as full of all unseemely lewdnesse His sonne Simon the third having gone to law with the Scots for his right to the Earldome of Huntingdon wasted all his estate and through the gracious goodnesse of King Henry the Second married the Daughter and Heire of Gilbert de Gaunt Earle of Lincolne and in the end having recovered the Earledome of Huntingdon and disseized the Scots dyed childelesse in the yeare 1185. Whereas some have lately set downe Sir Richard Gobion to have beene Earle of Northampton afterward I finde no warrant thereof either in Record or History Onely I finde that Sir Hugh Gobion was a Ringleader in that rebellious rable which held Northampton against king Henry the Third and that the inheritance of his house came shortly after by marriage to Butler of Woodhall and Turpin c. But this is most certaine that King Edward the Third created William de Bohun a man of approved valour Earle of Northampton and when his elder brother Humfrey de Bohun Earle of Hereford and of Essex High Constable also of England was not sufficient in that warlike age to beare that charge of the Constable he made him also High Constable of England After him his sonne Humfrey succeeding in the Earledome of Northampton as also in the Earledomes of Hereford and of Essex for that his Unckle dyed with issue begat two Daughters the one bestowed in marriage upon Thomas of Woodstocke the youngest sonne of King Edward the Third the other upon Henry of Lancaster Duke of Hereford who afterwards attained to the Crowne by the name of King Henry the Fourth The Daughter of the said Thomas of Woodstocke brought by her marriage this Title of Northampton with others into the Family of the Staffords But when they afterwards had lost their honours and dignities King Edward the Sixth honoured Sir William Parr Earle of Essex a most accomplished Courtier with the Title of Marquesse of Northampton who within our remembrance ended this life issuelesse And while I was writing and perusing this Worke our most sacred Soveraigne King James in the yeere of our Salvation 1603. upon one and the same day advanced Lord Henry Howard brother to the last Duke of Norfolke a man of rare and excellent wit and sweet fluent eloquence singularly adorned also with the best sciences prudent in counsell and provident withall to the state of Baron Howard of Marnehill and the right honourable name title stile and Dignity of Earle of Northampton There belong unto this Shire Parishes 326. LECESTRIAE COMITATVS SIVE Leicestershyre PARS OLIM CORITANORVM LEICESTER-SHIRE ON the North side of Northampton-shire boundeth LEICESTER-SHIRE called in that Booke wherein William the Conquerour set downe his Survey of England Ledecester-shire a champian Country likewise throughout bearing corne in great plenty but for the most part without Woods It hath bordering upon it on the East side both Rutland-shire and Lincoln-shire on the North Nottingham and Derby-shires and Warwick-shire on the West For the high Rode way made by the Romanes called Watling-streat directly running along the West skirt separateth it from Warwick-shire and on the South side as I noted even now lyeth Northampton-shire Through the middle part thereof passeth the River Soar taking his way toward the Trent but over the East-part a little River called Wreke gently wandereth which at length findeth his way into the foresaid Soar On the South side where it is divided on the one hand with the River Avon the lesse and on the other with the River Welland we meet with nothing worth relation unlesse it be on Wellands banke whiles he is yet but small and newly come from his head with Haverburgh commonly called Harborrow a Towne most celebrate heereabout for a Faire of Cattaile there kept and as for Carleton as one would say the husband-mens Towne that is not farre from it wherein I wote not whether it be worth the relating all in manner that are borne whether it bee by a peculiar property of the Soile or the water or else by some other secret operation of nature have an ill favoured untunable and harsh manner of speech fetching their words with very much adoe deepe from out of the throat with a certaine kinde of wharling That Romane streete way aforesaid the causey whereof being in some other places quite worne and eaten away heere most evidently sheweth itselfe passeth on directly as it were by a streight line Northward through the West side of this Province The very tract of which street I my selfe diligently traced and followed even from the Tamis to Wales purposely to seeke out Townes of ancient memory laugh you will perhaps at this my painfull and expencefull diligence as vainly curious neither could I repose my trust upon a more faithfull guide for the finding out of those said townes which Antonine the Emperour specifieth in his Itinerary This Street-way being past Dowbridge where it leaveth Northampton-shire behinde it is interrupted first with the River Swift that is indeed but slow although the name import swiftnesse which it maketh good onely in the Winter moneths The Bridge over it now called Bransford and Bensford Bridge which heere conjoyned in times past this way having been of long time broken downe hath beene the cause that so famous a way for a great while was the lesse frequented but now at the common charge of the country it is repaired Upon this way lyeth of the one side Westward Cester-Over but it is in Warwick-shire a place worth the naming were it but in regard of the Lord thereof Sir Foulke Grevill a right worshipfull and worthy knight although the very name it selfe may witnesse the antiquity for our ancestours added this word Cester to no other places but only cities On the other side of the way Eastward hard by water Swift which springeth neere Knaptoft the seat of the Turpins a knightly house descended from an heire of the Gobions lieth Misterton belonging to the ancient family of the Poulteneis who tooke that name of Poulteney a place now decaied within the said Lordship Neere to it is Lutterworth a Mercate Towne the possession in times past of the Verdons which onely sheweth a faire Church which hath beene encreased by the Feldings of knights degree and ancient gentry in this Shire That famous John Wickliffe was sometime Parson of this Church a man of a singular polite and well wrought wit most conversant also in the holy Scripture who for that he had sharpened the neb of his pen against the Popes authority the Church
spirituall benefits in that Church as praiers blessings c. and so when he had entertained them with a very sumptuous feast hee gave them his blessing and dismissed them chearefully every man to his owne home But I will dwell no longer in this matter But hereby you may see how by small contributions great workes arose From Crowland there goeth a Cawsey planted on both sides with Willowes betweene the River Welland and the deepe Marishes Northward upon which two miles from Crowland I saw the fragment of a Piramis with this Inscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I SAY THAT SAINT GUTHLAKE THIS STONE HIS BOVND DOTH MAKE Higher yet upon the same River is seated Spalding enclosed round about with Riverets and draines a fairer Towne I assure you than a man would looke to finde in this Tract among such slabbes and water-plashes where Ivo Talbois whom Ingulph elsewhere calleth Earle of Anjou gave an ancient Cell to the Monkes of Angiers in France From hence as farre as to Deeping which is ten miles off Egelrick Abbat of Crowland afterwards Bishop of Durham made for the ease of travailers as saith Ingulphus through the middest of a vast Forest and of most deepe Fennes a sound causey of wood and sand after his owne name called Elrich-road which notwithstanding at this day is not to be seene In higher Hoiland that bendeth more into the North first we have in sight Kirkton so named of the Church which is passing faire and then where the River Witham hemnd in strongly with bankes on both sides runneth in a maine and full streame toward the sea flourisheth Boston more truely named Botolphs-towne For it carried that name from one Botolph a most holy and devout Saxon who at Icanhoe had a Monastery A famous Towne this is standing on both sides of the River Witham which hath over it a wooden bridge of a great height and well frequented by the meanes of a commodious haven unto it the Mercat place is faire and large and the Church maketh a goodly shew as well for the beautifull building as the greatnesse thereof the towre-steeple of it which riseth up to a mighty height doth as one would say salute passengers and travailers a great way off and giveth direction also to the sailers A lamentable overthrow it sustained in the Raigne of Edward the first For when bad and Ruffian-like behaviour rufled at that time over all England certaine military lusty fellowes having proclaimed heere a Justs or running at Tilt at a Faire time when there was much resort of people thither came apparelled in the habit of Monkes and Chanons set fire on the Towne in most places thereof brake in upon Merchants with sodaine violence tooke away many things by force burnt a great deale more in so much as our Historians write that as the ancient Writers record of Corinth when it was destroied molten gold and silver ran downe in a streame together The Ring-leader Robert Chamberlan after hee had confessed the act and what a shamefull deed had been committed was hanged yet could he not be wrought by any meanes to disclose his complices in this foule fault But happier times raised Boston againe out of the ashes and a staple for wooll here setled did very much enrich it and drew thither merchants of the Hanse Society who had here their Guild At this day it is for building faire and by good trade rich For the Inhabitants give themselves both to merchandise and also to grasing Nere unto this was the Barony de Croeun or de Credonio out of which family Alan de Croeun founded the Priory of Freston and at length Parnel heire of the family being twice married transferred no small inheritance first to the Longchamps which came to the Pedwardins and secondly to John Vaulx from whom the Barons Roos are descended Beyond it scarce six miles reacheth Holland all which Ivo Talboys of Anjo◠received at the bountifull hands of king William the Conqueror but Herward an English man of good hope and full of douty courage being sonne to Leofrick Lord of Brane or Burne not brooking his insolency when he saw his owne and his Country mens safety now endangered after he had received the cincture with a military Belt by Brann Abbat of Peterborough whose stomacke rose also against the Normans raised warre against him oftentimes put him to flight and at length carried him away captive and suffered him not to bee ransomed but with such conditions that he might be received into the Kings favour wherein he dyed his liege man For so deserved his valour which is alwayes commended even in a very enemy His Daughter being wedded to Hugh Enermeve Lord of Deping enjoyed his lands which afterwards as I understand was devolved upon the Family of Wake which being mightily enriched with the Possessions of the Estotevills was of right great honour in these parts untill the Raigne of Edward the Second for then by an heire Generall their inheritance came by right of marriage unto Edmund of Woodstocke youngest sonne to King Edward the First and Earle of Kent But of a younger sonne the ancient Family of the Wakes of Blisworth in Northampton-shire yet remaining is descended The second part of this Country commonly called Kesteven and by Aethelward an ancient Authour Ceostefnewood adjoyning to Hoiland on the West side is for aire farre more wholesome and for Soile no lesse fruitfull Greater this is and larger than the other yea and garnished every where with more faire Townes At the entry thereinto upon the river Welland standeth Stanford in the Saxon tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 built of rough stone whence it hath the name A Towne well peopled and of great resort endowed also with sundry immunities and walled about It gave Geld or Tribute as wee reade in Domesday Booke for twelve hundreds and an halfe in the army shipping and Danegeld and in it were sixe Wards What time as King Edward the elder fortified the South bankes of Rivers against the Danes breaking by force into the Land out of the North parts Marianus recordeth that hee built a very strong Castle just over against this Towne also on the South banke which now is called Stanford Baron yet there appeareth not any one token thereof at this day for that Castle which in time of the civill Warre Stephen strengthened against Henry of Anjou was within the Towne as both the generall report holdeth and the very plot also whereon it stood as yet remaining sheweth But soone after the said Henry being now King of England gave the whole Towne of Stanford which was in his Demaine excepting the fees or Feifs of the Barons and Knights of the same Towne unto Richard de Humez or Homets who was Constable to the King his Soveraigne Lord for his homage and service And the same afterwards held William Earle of Warren by the will and pleasure of King John Under the
both in France and the Low-countries Witham now approching neere unto the Sea entertaineth out of the North another small namelesse River at the spring head whereof standeth Bollingbroke Castle situate upon a low ground and built of a soft and crumbling stone by William de Romara Earle of Lincolne taken from Alice Lacey by King Edward the Second because she married against his will and ennobled in that it was the Birth-place of King Henry the Fourth who thereof was named Henry of Bollingbroke At which time it beganne to be reckoned among those Honorable Manours which are termed Honours And Witham after it hath received this Riveret having passed through Boston as I have said dischargeth it selfe at length into the German Sea From the mouth of Witham the shore shutteth forth with a mighty swelling bent into the German Sea as farre as to Humber a great Arme of the Sea being every where slashed and indented with many small Washes and places which the salt water breaketh into and hath but few Townes upon it because there be few Havens there and the shelves or barres of sand lie every where anenst the land Yet of these few Townes which take up this Coast some be memorable and Wainefleet especially if it were but for this cause onely that it bred William Wainfleet Bishop of Winchester a worthy Prelat founder of Mawdlen College in Oxford a man that singularly well deserved of learning Then Alford which for the Mercate is beholden to Lion Lord Welles who obtained for it this priviledge from King Henry the Sixth This Family of Welles was very ancient and honourable and the last of that name had to wife a daughter of King Edward the Fourth and being by King Henry the Seventh created Vicount Welles died having no issue But the inheritance by the Females came to the Willoughbeys Dimockes De la Launds Hoes and others More inward are Driby and Ormesby neighbour Townes which gave sirnames to two great families in their times from the Dribyes descended the elder Lords Cromwell now determined and from Ormesbyes the house of Skipwith still continuing After this ye have Louth a little Mercate Towne well frequented which had the name of Lud a small River that runneth under Cokerington the capitall place in times past of the Barony of Scoteney And then Grimsby which our Sabins or conceited persons dreaming what they list and following their owne fansies will have to be so called of one Grime a Merchant who for that hee had brought up a little foundling of the Danes royall blood named Haveloke when it had beene cast forth to perish or to take his lucke or fortune is much talked of together with Haveloke that lucky foster-childe of his who having beene first a skullen in the Kings kitchin and afterwards promoted to the marriage of the Kings daughter for his heroicall valour in feates of Armes and I wot not what worthy exploits A narration right well beseeming and meetest for them that take pleasure to passe out the long nights with telling of old wives tales But the honour and ornament of this place was the right reverend Doctour Whitgift late Archbishop of Canterbury a peerelesse Prelate for piety and learning in our daies Scarce six miles from hence more within the country there sheweth it selfe an ancient Castle which at this day is called Castor in the old English Saxons Tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Thong-caster in British Caer Egarry in both languages it is aptly named so of the thing to wit of an hide cut into peeces like as Byrsa that Castle or Citadell of the Carthaginians so well knowne For our Annales record that Hengist the Saxon after he had vanquished the Picts and Scots and received very large possessions in other places obtained also in this tract of Vortigern so much ground as hee could compasse round about with an Oxe hide cut out into very small laners that we call Thongs wherein he founded and built this Castle Whence it is that one who hath written in verse a Breviary of the British History turned Virgils verses in this maner AccepÃtque solum facti de nomine Thongum Taurino quantum poter at circundare tergo And ground he tooke which Thong he call'd when he did first begin As much as he a Bull hide cut could well enclose within From Grimsby the Shore draweth in with a great reach to make way for to admit Humber by Thornton a religious house in times past instituted for the Worship of God by William the Grosse Earle of Aumarle also by Barton where there is a very notable Ferry or passage over into York-shire Hard by Ankam a little muddy River and therefore full of Eeles emptieth it selfe into Humber neere unto the spring-head whereof is Merket-Rasin so called of a Mercate there well resorted unto Somewhat higher stands Angotby now corruptly called Osgodby belonging in times past to the family of Semarc from whom it descended hereditarily to the Airmins also Kelsay a Lordship in old time of the Hansards men of great name in this shire from whom in right of the wives it came to the family of the Ascoghs Knights But after this Ankam hath a bridge over it at Glanford a small Mercate Towne which the common people of the said bridge so commonly call Brigg that the true name is almost quite forgotten Next unto it within a Parke I saw Kettleby the seat of the worshipfull ancient family of the Tirwhits Knights descended from Grovil Oxenbridge and Echingham But in times past it was the habitation as a man may gather by the name of one Ketell which was in the time of the Saxons and Danes an usuall name For Bye in the English-Saxon language signifieth A dwelling place and Byan To dwell whence it is that so many places both elsewhere in England and heere especially in this Shire doe end in Bie All this Tract-over at certaine seasons good God what store of fowles to say nothing of fishes is heere to be found I meane not those vulgar birds which in other places are highly esteemed and beare a great price as Teales Quailes Woodcockes Phesants Partridges c. but such as we have no Latine names for the very delicate dainties indeed of service meates for the Demigods and greatly sought for by these that love the tooth so well I meane Puitts Godwitts Knotts that is to say Canutus or Knouts birds for out of Denmarke they are thought to fly thither Dotterels so named of their dotish foolishnesse which being a kinde of birds as it were of an apish kinde ready to imitate what they see done are caught by candle light according to fowlers gesture if he put forth an arme they also stretch out a wing sets he forward his legge or holdeth up his head they likewise doe theirs in briefe what ever the fowler doth the same also doth this foolish bird untill it bee
thereof For in this tenour runne the very words of the Charter She likewise bestowed it upon John de Lacy Constable of Chester and the heires whom hee should beget of the body of Margaret her daughter This John had issue Edmund who dying before his mother left this honour for Henry his sonne to enjoy who was the last Earle of that line For when his sonnes were taken away by untimely death and he had but one little daughter onely remaining alive named Alice hee affianced her being but nine yeeres old to Thomas the sonne of Edmund Earle of Lancaster with this condition That if he should fortune to dye without heires of her body or if they happened to dye without heires of their bodies his Castles Lordships c. should in Remainder come to the heires of Edmund Earle of Lancaster for ever But the said Alice had no childe at all by her husband Thomas But when Thomas her husband was beheaded shee that by her light behaviour had not a little steined her good name tooke Sir Eubul le Strange with whom she had lived before time too familiarly for her husband without the assent and privity of her Soveraigne who being hereat highly offended seised her possessions into his owne hands Yet both Sir Eubul Strange and Sir Hugh Frene her third husband are in some Records named Earles of Lincolne After Alice now very aged was departed this life without issue Henry Earle of Lancaster Nephew to Edmund aforesaid by his second sonne entred upon her large and faire patrimony by vertue of that conveiance which I spake of before and from that time it accrued to the House of Lancaster Howbeit the Kings of England at their pleasure have bestowed the name and honour of Earles of Lincolne as King Edward the Fourth gave it to Sir John De la Pole and King Henry the Eighth to Henry Brandon both the Sonnes of the Dukes of Suffolke who both ended this life without Issue the first slaine in the battaile at Stoke and the other taken away by the sweating sicknesse Afterward Queene Elizabeth promoted Edward Baron Clinton Lord high Admirall of England to the said honour which his sonne Henry enjoyeth at this day There are in this Shire Parishes much about 630. NOTINGAMIAE Comitatus olim pars CORITANORVM NOTTINGHAM-SHIRE VPon the West side of Lincolne-shire confineth the County of NOTTINGHAM in the English Saxon tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in English Nottingham-shire being farre lesse in quantity limited Northward with York-shire Westward with Darby-shire and in some parts with York-shire and on the South side with Leicester-shire The South and East part thereof are made more fruitfull by the noble and famous River Trent with other Riverets resorting unto it The West part is taken up with the Forest of Shirewood which stretcheth out a great way This part because it is sandy the Inhabitants tearme The Sand the other for that it is Clayish they call the Clay and so have divided their Country into these two parts The River Trent in the old English Saxon tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some Antiquaries of small note and account have called Triginta in Latine for the affinity of the French word Trent that signifieth that number Triginta that is thirty having gone a long journey so soone as hee is entred into this Shire and hath recepto Souro flumine ex agro Leicestrensi taking in the River Soure from the field of Leicester runne by Steanford where I have learned there be many tokens remaining of old antiquity and peeces of Roman money oftentimes found and then by Clifton which hath given both habitation and sirname also to the ancient family of the Cliftons much enriched by one of the heires of Cressy taketh in from the West the little River Lin which rising neere unto Newsted that is New place where sometime King Henry the Second founded a small Abbay and which is now the dwelling house of the ancient Family of the Burons descended from Ralph de Buron who at the first comming in of the Normans flourished in great state both in this Countrey and also in Lancashire runneth hard by Wallaton rich in veines of cole where Sir Francis Willoughby a Knight nobly descended from the Greis Marquesse Dorset in our daies built out of the ground with great charges upon a vaine ostentation of his wealth a stately house with artificiall workemanship standing bleakely but offering a very goodly prospect to the beholders farre and neere Then runneth it by Linton or Lenton much frequented and famous in old time for the Abbay there of the Holy Trinity founded by William Peverell the base sonne of King William the Conquerour but now all the fame is onely for a Faire there kept Where on the other banke at the very meeting well neere of Lin and Trent the principall Towne that hath given name unto the Shire is seated upon the side of an hill now called Nottingham by softning the old name a little for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so the English Saxons named it of certaine caves and passages under the ground which in old time they hewed and wrought hollow under those huge and steepe cliffes which are on the South side hanging over the little River Lin for places of receit and refuge yea and for habitations And thereupon Asserius interpreteth this Saxon word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine Speluncarum domum that is An house of Dennes or Caves and in the British Tui ogo bauc which signifieth the very selfe same The Towne for the naturall site thereof is right pleasant as where on the one hand lye faire and large Medowes by the Rivers side on the other rise hils with a gentle and easie ascent and is plentifully provided of all things beside necessary for mans life On the one side Shirewood yeeldeth store of wood to maintaine fire although many use for that purpose stinking pit cole digged forth of the ground on the other Trent serveth it aboundantly with fish And hence hath beene taken up this od barbarous Verse Limpida sylva focum Triginta dat mihi piscem Shire-wood yeelds me fuell for fire As Trent yeelds fish what I require At a word for largenesse for building for three faire Churches a passing spacious and beautifull Mercat place and a most strong Castle it maketh a goodly shew The said Castle is mounted upon an huge and steepe worke on the West side of the City in which place it is thought that Castle stood in times past upon whose strength the Danes presuming held out against the Siege of Aethered and Aelfrid so long untill they frustrate of their purpose brake up their Siege trussed up bagge and baggage and dislodged For when the Danes had taken this Castle Burthred King of the Mercians as mine Authour Asserius writeth and the Mercians addresse their messengers to Aethered King of the West Saxons and to
the Conquerour appointed over this Shire William Peverell his base sonne not with the Title of Earle but of Lord of Nottingham who had a sonne that dyed before his father and hee likewise had a sonne of the same name whom king Henry the Second disinherited for that he went about to poison Ranulph Earle of Chester Much about this time Robert de Ferrarijs who rifled and ransacked Nottingham in a Donation which he made unto the Church of Tuttesbury stiled himselfe thus Robertus Comes junior de Nottingham that is Robert the younger Earle of Nottingham But afterwards King Richard the First gave and confirmed unto his brother John the Earledome and Castle of Nottingham with all the Honour of Peverell Many yeeres after King Richard the Second honoured John Lord Mowbray with this Title of Earle of Nottingham who dying a young man without issue his brother Thomas succeeded after him He being by king Richard the Second created Earle Mareshall and Duke of Norfolke and soone after banished begat Thomas Earle Mareshall whom king Henry the Fourth beheaded and John Mowbray who as also his sonne and Nephew were likewise Dukes of Norfolke and Earles of Nottingham But when as their male issue failed and that Richard the young sonne of King Edward the Fourth being Duke of Yorke had borne this Title with others by his Wife the heire of the Mowbraies but a small while King Richard the Third honoured William Vicount Barkley descended from the Mowbraies with this Title of Earle of Nottingham and whereas hee dyed without issue king Henry the Eighth bestowed the same honour upon his illegitimate sonne H. Fitz Roy when hee created him Duke of Richmond but hee departed this life in the flower of his age leaving no childe Afterward this Title lay extinct untill in the yeere of our Lord 1597. Queene Elizabeth by solemne investiture adorned therewith Charles Lord Howard of Effingham and High Admirall of England descended from the Mowbraies in regard of his service as appeareth in the Charter of his Creation right valiantly and faithfully performed against the Spanish Armado in the yeere 1588. as also at the winning of Caliz in Spaine where he was Lord Generall of the forces by sea like as the Earle of Essex of those by land There are in this County Parish Churches 168. DARBY-SHIRE DARBY-SHIRE called in old English-Saxon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lieth close to Nottingham-shire Westward confining with Leicester-shire upon the Southside like as with Stafford-shire on the West and York-shire in the North resembling as it were the forme of a Triangle but not with equall sides For whereas about the point of it lying Southward it is scarce sixe miles broad it so enlargeth and spreadeth it selfe on both sides that where it looketh into the North it carrieth much about thirty miles in breadth The River Derwent that runneth along the middest of it divideth it after a sort in two parts which River breaking out of the North limit thereof and taking his course Southward sometimes with his blacke waters stained with the Soile and earth that it passeth by rumbleth downe apace into the Trent For Trent overthwarteth the said narrow point that I spake of lying Southward The East side and the South parts are well manured not unfruitfull and besides well stored with Parkes The West part beyond Derwent which they call the Peake being all of it hilly or a stony and craggy ground is more barraine howbeit rich in lead iron and coles which it yeeldeth plentifully and also feedeth Sheepe very commodiously In the South corner the first place worth the naming that offereth it selfe to sight is Greisely Castle more than broken downe which together with a little Monastery was founded in times past in honour of Saint George by the Greiseleies Lords thereof who fetching their descent from William the sonne of Sir Niele of Grieseley about the very Conquest of England by the Normans have flourished unto these dayes in great worship the which they have not a little augmented long since by marrying with the daughter and heire of the ancient family of Gasteneys Upon the River Dove which untill it entreth into Trent divideth this Country from Stafford-shire we meet with nothing in this Shire but small country Villages and Ashburne a Mercate towne where the house of the Cokains flourished a long time and Norbury where the right ancient family of the Fitz-Herberts have long inhabited out of which Sir Anthony Fitz-Herbert hath deserved passing well of the knowledge and profession of our Commons law Not farre from which is Shirley an ancient Lordship of the well renowned Family of the Shirleys who derive their pedegree from one Fulcher unto whom beside the antiquity of their house much honor and faire lands have accrued by marriage with the heires of the Breoses the Bassets of Brailesford the Stantons Lovets c. And heere stand round about many places which have given name and Habitation to worshipfull Families as Longford Bradburne Kniveton from whence came those Knivetons of Mercaston and Bradley of which house Saint Lo Kniveton is one to whose judicious and studious diligence I am deeply endebted also Keidelston where the Cursons dwelt as also at Crokhall But whether Sir Robert Curson knighted by King Henry the Seventh made a Baron of the Empire by Maximilian the Emperour in the yeere 1500. for his singular valour and thereupon by King Henry the Eigth made a Baron of England with a liberall pension assigned was descended from these Cursons I dare not affirme Heereby is Radborn where Sir John Chandos knight Lord of the place laid a goodly foundation of a great and stately house from whom by a daughter it came by hereditary succession unto the Poles who dwell heere at this day But these particularities I leave for him who hath undertaken the full description of this Shire But upon Trent so soon as ever he hath taken to him the river Dove is Repandunum to bee seene for so doe our History-writers call it the Saxons named it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we at this day Repton which from a great and faire Towne is become a poore small Village For in old time very famous it was by reason both of the buriall of Aethelbald that good King of the Mercians who through the treachery of his owne people lost his life and of the other Kings of Mercia as also for the unfortunate calamity of Burthred the last King of the Mercians who when hee had enjoyed his kingdome partly by way of entreaty and partly by meanes of bribery full twenty yeeres was heere deprived of his kingdome by the Danes or rather freed and exempted from the glittering misery of princely State and so became an example to teach men in how ticklish and slippery a place they stand which are underpropped onely with money Then not farre from Trent is Melborn a Castle of the Kings now decaying wherein John Duke of
Vlster So that doubtlesse he was either a man of rare vertue or a gracious favourite or a great Lawyer or else all jointly His posterity matched in marriage with the heires of the Lord Giffard of Brimsfield of Baron Martin Lord of Keimeis and Barstaple and a younger brother of this house with one of the heires of the Earle of Glocester and was by King Edward the Third created Earle of Glocester About which time James Lord Audley flourished in Chivalry who as the French write being grievously wounded in the battaile at Poitiers when the blacke Prince with many comfortable commendations had given him 400. Markes of yeerely revenewes he bestowed the same forthwith upon his foure Esquires who alwaies valiantly attended him and satisfied the Prince doubting that his gift was too little for so great service with this answer dutifully acknowledging his bounty It is meet that I doe well for them who deserved best of me These my Esquiers saved my life amidst my enemies And God be thanked my ancestours have left me sufficient revenewes to maintaine me in your service Whereupon the Prince approving this prudent liberality both confirmed his gift to his Esquires and assigned him moreover lands to the value of six hundred Markes yeerely But by his daughter one of the coheires to her brother the Title of Lord Audley came afterward to the Touchets and in them continueth Neither must I heere passe over in silence an house in this tract called Gerards Bromley both for the magnificence thereof and also because it is the principall seat of Sir Thomas Gerard whom King James in the first yeere of his Raigne created Baron Gerard of Gerards Bromley This Sow as it were a parallel river unto Trent runneth even with him and keeping an equall distance still from him by Chebsey which had in times past for Lords therof the Hastangs reputed among the prime Nobility in the time of King Edward the First not farre from Eccleshall the habitation of the Bishop of Lichfield and Ellenhall which was sometime the seat of the Noels a worshipfull house who founded heere a Monastery at Raunton and from whom it descended hereditarily to the Harcourts who being of the ancient Norman nobility flourished a long time in great dignity But yet of the male heires of the Noels there remaine still Sir Edward Noel of Dalby in Leicester-shire and the Noels of Wellesborow in Leicester-shire with others Then runneth Sow under Stafford in times past called Statford and before time Betheney where Bertelin reputed a very holy man led in ancient times an Eremits life in serving God And King Edward the Elder built on the South banke of the River a Castle in the yeere of Christ 914. What time as King William the Conquerour registred the Survey of all England as we reade in his Domesday Booke The King had in it only 18. Burgesses in his owne domaine and 20. Mansions of the honour of the Earle it paid for all customes nine pounds of deniers and had thirteene Chanons Prebendaries who held in franke Almoine and the King commanded a Castle to bee made which now is destroyed But then as now also it was the head Towne of the whole Shire howbeit the greatest credite and honor thereof came from Stafford Castle adjoyning which the Barons of Stafford of whose progeny were the Dukes of Buckingham built for their owne seat who procured of King John that it was made a Burrough with ample liberties caused it to be partly fensed with a Wall and erected a Priory of Blacke Chanons to the honour of Saint Thomas of Canterbury Beneath which the Riveret Penke which gave name to Pennocrucium or Penkridge whereof I have already spoken joyneth with that Sow aforesaid And neere unto the confluence of Sow and Trent standeth Ticks hall the dwelling place of the Astons a Family which for antiquity kinred and alliance is in these parts of great name Trent having harboured these rivers in his chanell passeth now through the mids of the Shire with a gentle streame taking a view of Chartley Castle standing two miles aside from the banke on the left hand which Castle came from Raulph Earle of Chester who built it unto the Ferrars by Agnes his sister whom William Ferrars Earle of Darby had marryed out of whose Race the Lords Ferrars of Chartley flourished and Anne the Daughter of the last of them brought this Honour as her dowry unto Sir Walter D'Eureux her husband from whom Robert D'Evereux Earle of Essex and Lord Ferrars of Chartley is lineally descended On the right side of the river about the same distance standeth most pleasantly among the woods Beaudesert the lodge in times past of the Bishops of Lichfield but now the house of the Lord Paget For Sir William Paget who for his approoved wisdome both at home and abroad stood in high favour with King Henry the Eight and King Edward the Sixth and obteined at their hands faire possessions was by the said K. Edward the Sixth created Lord Paget of Beaudesert He was that I may note so much out of his Epitaph Secretary and Privy Counsellour to King Henry the Eighth and appointed by his Testament Counsellour and aidor to King Edward the Sixth during his minority To whom he was Chauncellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster Controller of the house and by him made as I said Baron and knight of the Garter as by Queene Mary Lord Privy Seale Whose grandsonne William is now the fourth Baron Pagets and for his vertue and studies of the best arts is an honour to his house and in this respect deserveth to be honorably remembred From thence may you descrie Lichfield scarce foure miles from this right-side banke of Trent Bede calleth it Licidfeld which Rosse of Warwick interpreteth Cadaverum campus that is The field of dead bodies and reporteth that a number of Christians were there Martyred under the persecutor Dioclesian This City is low seated of a good largenesse and faire withall divided into two parts with a shallow poole of cleere water which parts notwithstanding joyne in one by the meanes of two bridges or causeies made over that have their sluces to let out the water The South part which is on the hither side is the greater consisting of divers streets hath in it the schoole and an hospitall of Saint John founded for reliefe of the poore The farther part is the lesse but beautified with a very goodly Cathedrall Church which being round about compassed with a faire wall castle-like and garnished beside with faire houses of Prebendaries and with the Bishops palace also doth mount upon high with three pyramids or spires of stone making an excellent shew and for elegant and proportionall building yeeldeth to few Cathedrall Churches In this place many ages past a Bishops See was established for in the 656. yeere after the Worlds redemption Oswie King of Northumberland having vanquished the Mercians as then
Romane high-way goeth straight into the West by Whinfield a large Parke shaded with trees hard by BROVONIACUM standing twentie Italian miles or seventeene English miles from VERTERAE as Antonine hath set it who also hath called it Brovocum like as the book of Notices Broconiacum which specifieth that a companie or band of Defensors had here their abode The beautie and buildings of this towne although time hath consumed yet the name remaineth almost untouched for we call it Brogham Here the river Eimot flowing out of a great lake for a good space dividing this shire from Cumberland receiveth the river Loder into it neere unto the spring head whereof hard by Shape in times past Hepe a little monasterie built by Thomas the sonne of Gospatrick sonne of Orms there is a Well or Fountaine which after the manner of Euripus ebbeth and floweth many times in a day also there be huge stones in forme of Pyramides some 9. foot high and fourteene foot thick ranged directly as it were in a row for a mile in length with equall distance almost betweene which may seeme to have beene pitched and erected for to continue the memoriall of some act there atchieved but what the same was by the injurie of time it is quite forgotten Hard by Loder there is a place bearing the same name which like as Stricland neere unto it hath imparted their names to families of ancient gentrie and worship Somewhat above where Loder and Eimot meet in one chanell in the yeere of our Lord 1602. there was a stone gotten out of the ground erected in the honour of Constantine the Great with these words IMP. C. VAL. CONSTANTINO PIENT AUG When Eimot hath served a good while for a limit betweene this shire and Cumberland neere unto Isan-parles a rocke full well knowne unto the neighbour inhabitants whereunto nature hath left difficult passage and there framed sundry caves and thosefull of winding crankes a place of safe refuge in time of danger hee lodgeth himselfe after some few miles both with his owne streame and with the waters of other rivers also in Eden so soone as he hath entertained Blencarne a brook that boundeth this county on Cumberland side Neere unto which I have heard there be the strange ruines of an old Castle the people call them the hanging walls of Marcantoniby that is of Marke Antony as they would have it As for such as have borne the title of Westmorland the first Lord to my knowledge was Robert de Vipont who bare Guels sixe Annulets Or in his coat armour For King John gave unto him the balliwicke and revenues of Westmorland by the service of foure Knights whereupon the Cliffords his successors untill our daies held the office of the Sherifdome of Westmorland For Robert de Vipont the last of that name left behind him only two daughters Isabel wife to Roger Lord Clifford and Idonea married unto Sir Roger Leybourne Long time after K. Richard the second created Ralph Nevill of Raby the first Earle of Westmorland a man of the greatest and most ancient birth of English nobility as descended from Ucthred Earl of Northumberland whose heires successively by his former wife Margaret daughter to the Earle of Stafford flourished in that honour untill that Charles by his wilfull stomack and wicked conspiracy casting off his allegeance to Q. Elizabeth and covering treason under the mantle of religion most shamefully dishonoured that most noble house and foully steined his owne reputation by actuall rebellion in the yeere 1599. Whereupon hee fled into the Low countries led a miserable life and died as miserably The said first Earle to note so much incidently by his second wife Catharine daughter to John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster had so faire issue and the name of Nevill thereby so greatly multiplied that almost at one and the same time there flourished out beside the Earle of Westmorland an Earle of Salisbury an Earle of Warwicke an Earle of Kent Marquesse Montacute a Duke of Bedford Lord Latimer and Lord Abergevenny all Nevils In this shire are conteined Parishes 26. CVMBRIA Sive CVMBERLANDIA Quae olim pars Brigantum CUMBER-LAND WEstward Northward from Westmorland lieth CUMBERLAND the utmost region this way of the realme of England as that which on the North side boundeth upon Scotland on the South side and the West the Irish sea beateth upon it and Eastward above Westmorland it butteth upon Northumberland It tooke the name of the inhabitants who were the true and naturall Britans and called themselves in their owne language Kumbri and Kambri For the Histories testifie that the Britans remained here a long time maugre the English Saxons howsoever they stormed thereat yea and Marianus himselfe recordeth as much who tearmed this countrey Cumbrorum terram that is Thâ— land of the Cumbri or Britans to say nothing of the places that everie where here beare British names as Caer-Luel Caer-dronoc Pen-rith Pen-rodoc c. which most evidently declare the same and as cleerly prove mine assertion The country although it be somewhat with the coldest as lying farre North and seemeth as rough by reason of hills yet for the varietie thereof it smileth upon the beholders and giveth contentment to as many as travaile it For after the rockes bunching out the mountaines standing thicke together rich of metall mines and betweene them great meeres stored with all kindes of wilde foule you come to prettie hills good for pastorage and well replenished with flockes of sheepe beneath which againe you meet with goodly plaines spreading out a great way yeelding come sufficiently Besides all this the Ocean driving and dashing upon the shore affoordeth plentie of excellent good fish and upbraideth as it were the inhabitants thereabouts with their negligence for that they practise fishing no more than they doe The South part of this shire is called Copeland and Coupland for that it beareth up the head aloft with sharpe edged and pointed hills which the Britans tearme Copa or as others would have it named Copeland as one would say Coperland of rich mines of copper therein In this part at the very mouth of the river Duden whereby it is severed apart from Lancashire standeth Millum Castle belonging to the ancient house of the Hodlestones from whence as the shore fetcheth about with a bent Northward two rivers very commodiously enclose within them Ravenglasse a station or roade for ships where also as I have learned were to be â—eene Roman inscriptions some will have it called in old time Aven-glasse as one would say the blew river and they talke much of King Eueling that here had his Court and royall palace One of these rivers named Eske springeth up at the foot of Hard-knot an high steepe mountaine in the top whereof were discovered of late huge stones and foundations of a castle not without great wonder considering it is so steep and upright that one can hardly ascend up to it
the Fresian sea and the Scottish sea and the Eulogium Morwiridh Upon this after you be past Tantallon are seated first North-Berwick a famous place sometime for an house there of religious Virgins and then Dyrlton which belonged in times past to the notable family of the Haliburtous and now to S. Tho. Ereskin Captain of the guard whom James K. of great Britain for his happy valour in preserving him against the traiterous attempts of Gowrye first created Baron of Dirlton and afterward advanced him to the honourable title of Vicount Felton making him the first Vicount that ever was in Scotland Against these places there lyeth in the sea not far from the shore the Iland Bas which riseth up as it were all one craggy rocke and the same upright and steep on every side yet hath it a Block-house belonging to it a fountaine also and pastures but it is so hollowed with the waves working upon it that it is almost pierced thorough What a multitude of sea-foules and especially of those geese which they call Scouts and Soland geese flocke hither at their times for by report their number is such that in a cleere day they take away the sunnes light what a sort of fishes they bring for as the speech goeth a hundred garrison souldiers that here lay for defence of the place fed upon no other meat but the fresh fish that they brought in what a quantity of stickes and little twigges they get together for the building of their nests so that by their meanes the inhabitants are abundantly provided of fewell for their fire what a mighty gaine groweth by their feathers and oyle the report thereof is so incredible that no man scarcely would beleeve it but he that had seene it Then as the shore draweth backe Seton sheweth it selfe which seemeth to have taken that name of the situation by the sea side and to have imparted the same unto a right noble house of the Setons branched out of an English family and from the daughter of King Robert Brus out of which the Marquesse Huntley Robert Earle of Wentoun Alexander Earle of Dunfirmling advanced to honors by K. James the sixth are propagated After this the river Eske dischargeth it selfe into this Frith when it hath runne by Borthwic which hath Barons surnamed according to that name and those deriving their pedegree out of Hungary by Newbottle that is The new building sometimes a faire monasterie now the Barony of Sir Mark Ker by Dalkeith a very pleasant habitation of the late Earles of Morton and Musselborrow hard under which in the yeere of our Lord 1547. when Sir Edward Seimor Duke of Somerset with an army royall had entred Scotland to claime and challenge the keeping of a covenant made concerning a marriage betweene Marie Queene of Scotland and Edward the sixth King of England there happened the heaviest day that ever fell to the adventurous youth of the most noble families in all Scotland who there lost their lives Here I must not over-passe in silence this Inscription which John Napier a learned man hath in his Commentaries upon the Apocalyps recorded to have beene here digged up and which the right learned Knight Sir Peter Young teacher and trainer of King James the sixth in his youth hath in this wise more truely copied forth APOLLINI GRANNO Q. LUSIUS SABINIA NUS PROC AUG V. S.S.L.V.M Who this Apollo Granus might bee and whence hee should have this name not one to my knowledge of our grave Senate of Antiquaries hitherto could ever tell But if I might be allowed from out of the lowest bench to speak what I think I would say that Apollo Granus amongst the Romans was the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Apollo with long haire amongst the Greekes for Isidor calleth the long haire of the Gothes Grannos But here I may seem to wander out of my way and therefore will returne to it Lower yet and neere unto the Scotish Forth is seated EDENBUROUGH which the Irish Scots call Dun Eaden that is the towne Eaden or Eden Hill and which no doubt is the very same that Ptolomee named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is The Winged Castle for Adain in the British tongue signifieth a wing and Edenborrow a word compounded out of the British and Saxon language is nothing else but The Burgh with wings From Wings therefore wee must fetch the reason of the name and fetched it may be if you thinke good either from the Companies of Horsemen which are called Wings or else from those Wings in Architecture which the great Master builders tearme Pâ—eromaâ—â— that is as Vetruvius sheweth two Wallâ— so rising up in heigth as that they resemble a shew of Wings which for that a certaine City of Cyprus wanted it was called in old time as wee read in the Geographers Aptera that is Without Wings But if any man beleeve that the name was derived from Ebrâ—â—k a Britaine or from Heth a Picâ— good leave have he for me I will not confront them with this my conjecture This Citie in regard of the high situation of the holsome are and plentifull soile and many Noble mens towred houses built round about it watered also with cleere springing fountaines reaching from East to West a mile out in length and carrying halfe as much in bredth is worthily counted the chiefe Citie of the whole Kingdome strongly walled adorned with houses as well publike as private well peopled and frequented by reason of the opportunity from the sea which the neighbour haven at Leth affordeth And as it is the seat of the Kings so is it the oracle also or closet of the Lawes and the very Palace of Justice For the high Courts of Parliament are here for the most part holden for the enacting or repealing of Lawes also the Session and the Court of the Kings Justice and of the Commissariat whereof I have spoken already are here settled and kept On the East side hard unto the Monastery of Saint Crosse or Holy ruide is the Kings palace which King David the first built over which within a Parke stored with game riseth an hill with two heads called of Arthur the Britaine Arthurs Chaire On the West side a most steepe rocke mounteth up aloft to a stately heigth every way save onely where it looketh toward the City on which is placed a Castle with many a towre in it so strong that it is counted impregnable which the Britans called Castle Myned Agneâ— the Scots The Maidens Castle and the Virgins Castle of certaine young maidens of the Picts royall blood who were kept there in old time and which may seeme in truth to have beene that Castrum Alatum or Castle with AVVING abovesaid How Edenborrow in the alternative fortune of warres was subject one while to the Scots and another while to the English who inhabited this East part of Scotland untill
stranger chance Here haply may he thinke he hath a sight againe of France What drew this place from thence their wit and spirit hot trow yee Or rather had the same at first by native propertie Now where the shore turneth inward a front Northward hard by the salt water of Tau there flourished in old time two goodly Abbyes Balmerinoch built by Queene Ermengard wife to King William daughter of Vicount Beaumont in France But lately King James of great Britaine advanced Sir Iames Elphinston to the honour of Baron Balmerinoch and Lundoris founded among the woods by David Earle of Huntington and at this day the Baronie of Sir Patrick Lesley betweene which standeth Banbrich the habitation of the Earle of Rothes strongly built castle wise But as touching the townes of Fife planted along the sea side have here now if it please you these verses of Master Ionston Oppida sic toto sunt sparsa in littore ut unum Dixeris inque uno plurima juncta eadem Littore quot curvo Forthae volvuntur arenae Quotque undis refluo tunditur orasalo Penè tot hîc cernas instratum puppibus aequor Urbibus crebris penè tot ora hominum Cuncta operis intenta domus foeda otia nescit Sedula cura domi sedula curaforis Quae maria quas non terras animosa juventus Ah! fragili fidens audet adire trabe Auxit opes virtus virtuti dura pericla Iuncta etiam lucro damna fuere suo Quae fecêre viris animos cultumque dedêre Magnanimis prosunt damna pericla labor Who sees how thicke townes stand upon this coast will say anone They are but one and yet the same all joyned in that one How many sands on crooked shore of Forth are cast by tides Or billowes at the seas returne beat hard upon bankes sides So many ships well neere you may here see to saile or ride And in those townes so thicke almost as many folke abide In everie house they ply their worke no idle drones they are Busie at home with diligence busie abroad with care What seas or lands are there to which a voiage for to make In brittle barkes will not their youth courageous undertake By valour be they growne to wealth yet valour meet with paines And perils too some losses too have they had with their gaines These things have made them valiant civill withall and courteous Losse perill painfull toile availe all such as be magnanimous The Governour of this province like as of all the rest in this Kingdome was in times past a Thane that is in the old English tongue The Kings Minister as it is also at this day in the Danish language but Malcolm Canmore made Macduffe who before was Thane of Fife the first hereditarie Earle of Fife and in consideration of his good desert and singular service done unto him granted that his posteritie should have the honour to place the King when hee is to be crowned in his chaire to lead the Vant-guard in the Kings armie and if any of them should happen by casualty to kill either Gentleman or Commoner to buy it out with a peece of money And not farre from Lundoris there is to bee seene a Crosse of stone which standing for a limit betweene Fife and Strathern had an inscription of barbarous verses and a certain priviledge of Sanctuarie that any Man-slaier allied to Macduffe Earle of Fife within the ninth degree if he came unto this Crosse and gave nine kine with an heiâ—er should bee quit of manslaughter When his posteritie lost this title I could never yet find but it appeareth out of the Records of the kingdome that K. David the second gave unto William Ramsey this Earldome with all and everie the immunities and law which is called Clan-Mac-Duffe and received it is for certaine that the linage of the Wemesies and Douglasse yea and that great kinred Clan-Hatan the chiefe whereof is Mac-Intoskech descended from them And the most learned I. Skerne Clerke of the Kings Register of Scotland hath taught mee in his significations of words that Isabel daughter and heire to Duncane Earle of Fife granted upon certaine conditions unto Robert the third King of the Scots for the use and behoofe of Robert Stewart Earle of Menteith the Earldome of Fife who being afterwards Duke of Albanie and affecting the Kingdome with cruell ambition caused David the Kings eldest son to be most pitifully famished to death which is highest extremitie of all miserie But his son Murdac suffered due punishment for the wickednesse both of his father and his owne sonnes being put to death by King James the first for their violent oppressions and a decree passed that the Earldome of Fife should be united unto the Crown for ever But the authoritie of the Sheriffe of Fife belongeth in right of inheritance to the Earle of Rothes STRATHERN AS farre as to the river Tau which boundeth Fife on the North-side Iulius Agricola the best Propretour of Britaine under Domitian the worst Emperour marched with victorious armes in the third yeere of his warlike expeditions having wasted and spoiled the nations hitherto Neere the out-let of Tau the notable river Ern intermingleth his waters with Tau which river beginning out of a Lake or Loch of the same name bestoweth his owne name upon the countrey through which he runneth For it is called Straith Ern which in the ancient tongue of the Britans signifieth the Vale along Ern. The banke of this Ern is beautified with Drimein Castle belonging to the family of the Barons of Dromund advanced to highest honours ever since that King Robert Stewart the third took to him a wife out of that linage For the women of this race have for their singular beautie and well favoured sweet countenance won the prize from all others insomuch as they have beene the Kings most amiable paramours Upon the same banke Tulibardin Castle sheweth it selfe aloft but with greater jollitie since that by the propitious favour of King James the sixth Sir Iohn Murray Baron of Tulibardin was raised to the honour and estate of Earle of Tulibardin Upon the other bank more beneath Duplin Castle the habitation of the Barons Oliphant reporteth yet what an overthrow the like to which was never before the Englishmen that came to aide King Edward Balliol gave there unto the Scots insomuch as the English writers in that time doe write that they won this victorie not by mans hand but by the power of God and the Scottish writers relate how that out of the family of the Lindeseies there were slaine in the field fourescore persons and that the name of the Haies had bin quite extinguished but that the chiefe of that house left his wife behind him great with child Not farre from it standeth Innermeth well knowne by reason of the Lords thereof the Stewarts out of the family of Lorn Inch-Chafra that is in the old Scottish
way to convey their small vessels over it by land Which I hope a man may sooner beleeve than that the Argonauts laid their great ship Argos upon their shoulders and so carried it along with them five hundred miles from Aemonia unto the shores of Thessalia LORN SOmewhat higher toward the North lyeth LORN bearing the best kinde of barley in great plentie and divided with Leaue a vast and huge lake by which standeth Berogomum a castle in which sometime was kept the Court of Justice or Session and not farre from it Dunstafag that is Stephens Mount the Kings house in times past above which Logh Aber a Lake insinuating it selfe from out of the Westerne sea windeth it selfe so farre within land that it had conflowed together with Nesse another Lake running into the East sea but that certaine mountaines betweene kept them with a verie little partition asunder The chiefest place of name in this tract is Tarbar in Logh Kinkeran where King James the fourth ordained a Justice and Sheriffe to administer justice unto the Inhabitants of the out Islands These countries and those beyond them in the yeere of our Lords Incarnation 655. the Picts held whom Bede calleth the Northern Picts where hee reporteth that in the said yeere Columbane a Priest and Abbat famous for his Monkish profession and life came out of Ireland into Britaine to instruct these in Christian religion that by meanes of the high rough ridges of the mountaines were sequestred from the Southerne countries of the Picts and that they in lieu of a reward allowed unto him the Iland Hii over against them now called I-Comb-Kill of which more in place convenient The Lords of Lorna in the age aforegoing were the Stewarts but now by reason of a female their heire the Earles of Argile who use this title in their honourable stile BRAID ALBIN or ALBANY MOre inwardly where the uninhabitable loftie and rugged ridges of the Mountaine Grampius begin a little to slope and settle downeward is seated BRAID-ALBIN that is The highest part of Scotland for they that are the true and right Scots indeed call Scotland in their mother tongue Albin like as that part where it mounteth up highest Drum Albin that is the Ridge of Scotland But in an old booke it is read Brun Albin where wee finde this written Fergus filius Eric c. that is Fergus the sonne of Eric was the first of the seed or line of Chonare that entred upon the Kingdome of Albanie from Brun-Albain unto the Irish sea and Inch-Gall And after him the Kings descended from the seed or race of Fergus reigned in Brun-Albain or Brunhere unto Alpin the sonne of Eochall But this Albanie is better knowne for the Dukes thereof than for any good gifts that the soile yeeldeth The first Duke of Albanie that I read of was Robert Earle of Fife whom his brother King Robert the third of that name advanced to that honour yet he ungratefull person that he was pricked on with the spirit of ambition famished to death his sonne David that was heire to the crown But the punishment due for this wicked fact which himselfe by the long-sufferance of God felt not his son Mordac the second Duke of Albanie suffered most grievously being condemned for treason and beheaded when hee had seene his two sonnes the day before executed in the same manner The third Duke of Albanie was Alexander second sonne to King James the second who being Regent of the Kingdome Earle of March Marr and Garioth Lord of Annandale and of Man was by his own brother King James the third outlawed and after hee had beene turmoiled with many troubles in the end as hee stood by to behold a Justs and Tourneament in Paris chanced to bee wounded with a peece of a shattered launce and so died His sonne John the fourth Duke of Albanie Regent likewise and made Tutour to King James the fifth taking contentment in the pleasant delights of the French Court after hee had wedded there the daughter and one of the heires of John Earle of Auverne and Lauragveze died there without issue Whom in a respective reverence to the bloud royall of the Scots Francis the first King of France gave thus much honour unto as that hee allowed him place betweene the Archbishop of Langres and the Duke of Alenson Peeres of France After his death there was no Duke of Albanie untill that Queene Marie in our memorie conferred this title upon Henrie Lord Darly whom within some few daies after shee made her husband like as King James the sixth granted the same unto his owne second sonne Charles being an Infant who is now Duke of Yorke There inhabite these regions a kinde of people rude warlike readie to fight querulous and mischievous they bee commonly tearmed High-landmen who being in deed the right progenie of the ancient Scots speak Irish call themselves Albinich their bodies be firmely made and well compact able withall and strong nimble of foot high minded inbread and nuzzeled in warlike exercises or robberies rather and upon a deadly feud and hatred most forward and desperate to take revenge They goe attired Irish-like in stript or streaked mantles of divers colours wearing thicke and long glibbes of haire living by hunting fishing fowling and stealing In the warre their armour is an head-peece or Morion of iron and an habergeon or coat of maile their weapons bee bowes barbed or hooked arrowes and broad backe-swords and being divided by certaine families or kinreds which they terme Clannes they commit such cruell outrages what with robbing spoiling and killing that their savage crueltie hath forced a law to bee enacted whereby it is lawfull That if any person out of any one Clanne or kinred of theirs hath trespassed ought and done harme whosoever of that Clanne or linage chance to bee taken he shall either make amends for the harmes or else suffer death for it when as the whole Clan commonly beareth feud for any hurt received by any one member thereof by execution of lawes order of justice or otherwise PERTHIA OR PERTH Sheriffdome OUt of the very bosome of Mountaines of Albany Tau the greatest river of all Scotland issueth and first runneth amaine through the fields untill that spreading broad into a lake full of Islands hee restraineth and keepeth in his course Then gathering himselfe narrow within his bankes into a channell and watering Perth a large plentifull and rich countrey he taketh in unto him Amund a small river comming out of Athol This Athol that I may digresse a little out of my way is infamous for witches and wicked women the countrey otherwise fertile enough hath vallies bespread with forrests namely where that WOOD CALEDONIA dreadfull to see to for the sundrie turnings and windings in and out therein for the hideous horrour of dark shades for the burrowes and dennes of wild bulls with thicke manes whereof I made mention heretofore
standing in a docke neere the Tamis to the outside of the keele whereof a number of such little birds without life and feathers stuck close Yet would I gladly thinke that the generation of these birds was not out of the logges of wood but from the very Ocean which the Poets tearmed the Father of all things A mightie masse likewise of Amber as bigge as the bodie of an horse was not many yeeres since cast upon this shore The learned call it Succinum Glessum and Chryso-Electrum and Sotacus supposed that it was a certaine juice or liquor which distilleth out of trees in Britain and runneth downe into the sea and is therein hardned Tacitus also was of the same opinion when he wrote thus I can verily beleeve that like as there be trees in the secret and inward parts of the East which sweat out frankincense and balme so in the Ilands and other countries of the West there bee woods and groves of a more fattie and firme substance which melting by the hot beames of the Sunne approching so neere runneth into the sea hard by and by force of tempest floateth up to the shores against it But Serapio and the Philosophers of later times write that it ariseth out of a certain clammie and bituminous earth under the sea and by the sea side and that the billowes and tempests cast up part thereof a land and fishes devoure the rest But I digresse extravagantly I will into my way againe and since I acknowledge my fault let my confession purchase pardon In the reigne of King Alexander the second Alexander Comin rose up to the honour of Earle of Buquhan who married the daughter and one of the heires of Roger de Quincie Earle of Winchester in England and his Niece by a sonne brought the same title unto Henrie de Beaumont her husband for he in King Edward the third his daies had his place in the Parliament of England by the name of Earl of Buquhan Afterwards Alexander Stewart sonne to King Robert the second was Earle of this place unto whom succeeded John a younger sonne of Robert Duke of Albanie who arriving in France with seven thousand Scottishmen to aide Charles the seventh King of France bare himselfe valiantly and performed singular good service against the Englishmen and that with so great commendation as having victoriously slaine Thomas Duke of Clarence brother to Henrie the fifth King of England at Baugie and discomfited the English he was made Constable of France But in the third yeere following when the fortune of warre turned hee with other most valiant Knights to wit Archibald Douglasse Earle of Wigton and Duke of Touraine c. was vanquished at Vernoil by the English and there slain Whom notwithstanding as that Poet said aeternum memorabit Gallia cives Grata suos titulos quae dedit tumulos France thankfully will ay recount as citizens of her owne On whom both titles glorious and tombes she hath bestowne Certes whereas under the K.K. Charles the sixth and seventh France was preserved and Aquitain recovered by thrusting out the English the Frenchmen cannot chuse but acknowledge themselves much beholden to the fidelitie and fortitude of the Scottish But afterwards King James the first gave the Earldome of Buquhan unto George of Dunbar moved thereto upon pitie and commiseration because hee had deprived him before of the Earldom of March by authority of Parliament for his fathers crime and not long after James the sonne of James Stewart of Lorn surnamed the Black Knight whom he had by Q. Joan sister to the Duke of Somerset and widdow to King James the first obtained this honour and left it to his posteritie but for default not long since of heires male it came by a daughter married to Robert Douglas a younger brother of Douglas of Lochlevin to the family of the Douglasses From Buquhan as the shore bendeth backward and turneth full into the North lieth Boena and Bamff a small Sherifdome also Ajuza a little territorie of no especiall account and Rothamay castle the dwelling place of the Barons of Salton surnamed Abernethy Beneath these lieth Strath-bolgy that is the vale by Bolgy the habitation in times past of the Earls of Athol who of it assumed their surname but now the principall seat of Marquesse Huntly For this title K. James the sixth conferred upon George Gordon Earle Huntly Lord Gordon and Badzeneth a man of great honour and reputation for his ancient noblenesse of birth and the multitude of his dependants and followers whose ancesters descended from the Setons by Parliamentarie authoritie took the name of Gordon when as Sir Alexander Seton had taken to wife the daughter of Sir Iohn Gordon Knight by whom he had a large and rich inheritance and received the honour of the Earle of Huntly at the hands of King James the second in the yeere 1449. MORAVIA or MURRAY THe VACOMAGI remembred by Ptolomee anciently inhabited on the further side of Crantz-baine-mountain which as it were in a continued range by hills hanging one by another driveth out his ridge with many a winding as far as to Murray frith where now lieth Murray in Latin Moravia celebrated for the fertilitie pleasant site and commoditie of fruitfull trees By this Province Spey a famous river maketh his issue into the sea wherein he lodgeth when hee hath watered Rothes Castle whence the family of the Lesleys tooke the title of Earle ever since that K. James the second conferred the honour of Earle of Rothes upon Sir George Lesley Concerning this Spey our Poet Necham hath thus written Spey loca mutantis praeceps agitator arenae Inconstans certas nescit habere vias Officium lintris corbis subit hunc regit audax Cursus labentis nauta fluenta sequens Spey raising heaps of sand amaine that shift oft times their place Inconstant he doth change eftsoones and keeps no certaine race A panier serves here for a boat some ventrous swaine it guides Who followeth still the rivers course while downe the streame it glides The river LOXA mentioned by Ptolomee which now is called Losse hideth himselfe in the sea hard by neere unto which Elgina appeareth in which and in Forres adjoining I. of Dunbar of Cumnock descended from the stock of the Earles of March hath his jurisdiction as Sheriff by inheritance But where it is now readie to enter into the sea he findeth a more plaine and soft soile and spreadeth abroad into a Meere full of swans wherein the herbe Olorina plentifully groweth hee hath Spiny Castle standing upon it whereof now the first Baron is Alexander of the linage of the Lindseys like as Kinlosse also a neighbour by sometime a famous Monasterie some call it Kill-flos of certaine flowers miraculously there springing up on a sudden when the carkase of King Duff murdred and hidden in the same place was found hath also for the Lord thereof Edward Brus M. of the Rolls in
the Citie of Burdeaux with other Cities lying round about it which by the sedition of the Frenchmen had been at any time alienated from Edward King of England were restored unto him againe upon St. Andrewes even by the industrie of the L. Hastings MCCCIII The Earle of Ulster to wit Richard Bourk and Sir Eustace Pover entred Scotland with a puissant armie but after that the Earle himselfe had first made thirtie three Knights in the Castle of Dublin hee passed over into Scotland to aide the King of England Item Gerald the sonne and heire of Sir Iohn Fitz-Thomas departed out of this world In the same yeere Pope Boniface excommunicated the King and Queene of France and their children Hee renewed also all the priviledges granted at any time unto the Universitie of Paris and straight after the Pope was taken prisoner and kept as it were in prison three whole daies And soone after the Pope died likewise the Countesse of Ulster deceased Also Wulfrane Wellesly and Sir Robert Percivell were slaine the 11. day before the Calends of November MCCCIIII A great part of Dublin was burnt to wit the Bridge street with a good part of the Key and the Church of the Friers Preachers and the Church of the Monks with no small part of the Monasterie about the Ides of June to wit on the Feast day of S. Medard Also the first stone of the Friers Preachers Quire in Dublin was laid by Eustace Lord Pover on the Feast of S. Agatha Virgin Likewise after the Feast of the Purification of the blessed Virgin Marie the King of France invaded Flanders againe in proper person with a puissant armie Then bare he himselfe bravely in the war and fought manfully so long untill two or three horses of service were slaine under him but at last he lost his cap that under his helmet was put upon his head which the Flemings taking up carried by way of scornfull derision upon a lance as a banner and in all the famous Faires of Flanders put it out at the high window of some place or stately house like the signe of an Inne or Taverne and shewed it in token of victorie MCCCV Jordan Comyn with his complices slew Moritagh O-Conghir King of Offalie and Calwagh his whole brother and certain others in the Court of Sir Piers Brymgeham at Carrick in Carbrey likewise Sir Gilbert Sutton Seneschal of Weisford was slaine by the Irish neere unto a village or House of Haymund Grace which Haymund verily in the said skirmish manfully carried himselfe but stoutly escaped Item in Scotland the Lord Robert Brus Earle of Carricke forgetting his oath made to the King of England slew Sir John Rede Comyn within the cloisture of the Friers Minors of Dunfrese and soone after caused himselfe to be crowned King of Scotland by the hands of two Bishops to wit of S. Andrewes and of Glasco in the towne of Scone to the confusion of himselfe and of many others MCCCVI A great discomfiture was made in Offaly neere unto the Castle of Gesbill on the Ides of Aprill upon O-Conghor by O-Dympcies in which was slaine O-Dympcey Leader of the Regans with a great traine accompanying him Also O-Brene King of Towmond died Item Donald Oge Mac Carthy slew Donald Ruff that is the Red King of Desmund Item a lamentable defeature fell upon the part of Piers Brymegham the fourth day before the Calends of May in the Marches of Meth. Item Balymore in Leinster was burnt by the Irish where at the same time Henry Calfe was slaine and there arose war betweene the English and the Irish in Leinster for which cause there was assembled a great armie from divers parts of Ireland to bridle the malice of the Irish in Leinster in which expedition Sir Tho. Mandevil Knight and a brave warriour had a great conflict with the Irish neere to Clenfell in which conflict he behaved himselfe valiantly untill his horse of service was slaine and won much praise and honour by saving many a man and himselfe also Item M. Thomas Cantock Chancellour of Ireland was consecrated Bishop of Ymelasen in the Church of the holy Trinitie at Dublin with great honour at whose consecration were present the Elders of all Ireland where there was so sumptuous and so great a feast made first unto the rich and afterwards to the poore as the like had never been heard of before in Ireland Item Richard Feringes Archbishop of Dublindied in the Vigile of Saint Luke after whom succeeded Master Richard Haverings who occupied the Archbishoprick almost five yeeres by Apostolicall dispensation Who also resigned up his Archbishoprick after whom succeeded John Leth. The occasion and cause of his giving over as the Arch-deacon of Dublin of good memorie his Nephew hath reported was this for that one night hee dreamed that a certaine Monster heavier than the whole world stood eminently aloft upon his brest from the weight whereof he chose rather to be delivered than alone to have all the goods of the world but when he wakened hee thought with himselfe this was nothing else but the Church of Dublin the fruits whereof hee received and tooke no paines for the same As soone as hee could therefore he came unto the Lord the Pope of whom hee was much beloved and there renounced and gave over the Archbishopricke For hee had as the same Archdeacon avouched fatter benefices and livings than the Archbishopricke came unto Item Edward King of England in the feast of Pentecost that is Whitsontide made Edward his son Knight in London at which feast were dubbed about 400. Knights and the said Edward of Caernarvan newly knighted made threescore Knights of those abovesaid and kept his feast in London at the New Temple and his father gave unto him the Dutchy of Aquitaine Item the same yeere in the feast of Saint Potentiana the Bishop of Winchester and the Bishop of Worcester by commandement from the Lord the Pope excommunicated Robert Brus the pretended King of Scotland and his confederates for the death of Iohn Rede Comyn In the same yeere upon S. Boniface his day Aumarde Valence Earle of Pembroch and Lord Guy Earle ............ slew many Scots and the Lord Robert Brus was defeated without the town of S. Iohns And the same yeere about the feast of the Nativitie of St. Iohn Baptist King Edward went toward Scotland by water from Newarke to Lincolne Item the same yeere the Earle of Asceles and the Lord Simon Freysell and the Countesse of Carricke the pretended Queene of Scotland daughter of the Earle of Ulster were taken prisoners The Earle of Asceles and the Lord Simon Freysell were first torne and mangled As for the Countesse she remained with the King in great honour but the rest died miserably in Scotland Item about the feast of the Purification of the blessed Virgin Marie two brethren of Robert Brus professing pyracie went out of their gallies a land to prey and were taken with sixteen Scots besides and those two themselves
them have very goodly houses also adjoyning to the Church and all these buildings stand within the close wall severed from the Citie As the Bishop was busied about erecting of Gods house the Citizens likewise for their parts did their best to found the Citie they established their civill government derived rilles and servers of waters into every street and cast a deepe ditch all along that side on which it is not fenced with the running river having obtained licence of Simon the Bishop thus to strengthen and fortifie the same And in such sort grew up this new Salisburie by little an little out of the ruines of old Sorbiodunum that so soone as they by the Kings warrant had turned hither the high-way that leadeth into the West parts it became the second Citie in all this tract passing well inhabited and frequented plentifull of all things especially of fish adorned with a very stately market place wherein standeth their common Hall of timber worke a very beautifull edifice But nothing is there whereof it may so much boast as of Iohn Iowell not long since Bishop there a wonderfull great and deepe Divine a most stout and earnest maintainer of our reformed religion against the adversaries by his learned books Old Sorbiodunum from thence forward decaied more and more and in the raigne of King Henrie the Seventh became utterly desolate so as at this day there remaineth onely a towre or two of the Castle which notwithstanding a long time after the departure of the townesmen from thence was the dwelling house of the Earles of Salisburie and about which in King Edward the Thirds time there arose a memorable controversie and suite For Robert Bishop of Salisburie stirred Milliam Mont acute Earle of Salisburie by vertue of a processe which our Lawyers terme Breve de Recto that is A writ of right for this Castle and hee made answer that hee would defend his right by combat Whereupon at a day appointed the Bishop â—rought forth his champion to the railes or bars of the Lists clâ—d in a white garment reaching downe to his mid-leg upon which he had a mandilian or cassocke garnished with the Bishops Armes at whose heeles followed a Knight carrying a staffe and a page with a shield Immediately after the Earle brought in by the hand his owne champion also arraied in the like apparell accompanied with two Knights bearing white staves Now when these Champions were to enter the Lists commanded they were to withdraw themselves aside that their weapons of both parts might be viewed and they searched whether they had any Amulers or Enchantments about them But all on a suddaine unlooked for came the Kings precept to reprive and defer the matter to a further day that the King might loose thereby none of his right Meane while they grew to this composition That the Earle for the summe of 2500. markes paied and received should yield up all his title and interest in the Castle to the Bishop and his successors for ever This Salisburie had long agoe Earles of that name whose pedigree I will derive somewhat farther off and more truly out of the short reports of Lacock Historie William Conqueror of his bounty liberalitie assigned unto Gualter de Evereaux Earle of Rosmar in Normandie faire lands and large possessions in this shire which he left unto Edward named de Sarisburia a younger sonne borne in England like as to Walter his eldest sonne other lands in Normandie with the Title of Earle of Rosmar whose issue within a while after was extinct That Edward of Sarisburie aforesaid flourished in the twentieth yeere of the Conquerours reigne and is often times barely named in the Indiciarie booke of England without the title of Earle His sonne Walter built a a little monasterie at Bradenstocke and there in his old age tooke him to the habit of a Canon or Regular priest after he had first begotten his sonne Patricke the first Earle of Salisburie upon Sibil de Cadurcis This Patricke I say the first Earle in his returne from his pilgrimage at S. Iames of compostella in Spain in the yeere of our Lord 1169. being slaine by one Guy of Lusigniam left William his sonne to succeede who died in King Richard the first his time His onely daughter Ela through the favour of the said King Richard was married to William Long Espee surnamed so of a long sword that he did usually weare a base sonne of King Henrie the second and her marriage honoured him with the title of Earle and her owne coat of Armes be Azur adorned with sixe Lions Ceux This William had a sonne named likewise William Long-Espee against whom King Henrie the Third conceiving great displeasure for that without licence obtained he was gone to serve in the holy land taking the crosse as they termed it upon him took from him both the title of Earle and also the Castle of Salisburie But he holding still his purpose went into Egypt with S. Lewis King of France and neere unto Damiata which the Christians had wonne carrying a brave and valorous minde fighting manfully among the thickkest troops of his enemies died an honorable and glorious death a little before that holy King was unfortunately taken prisoner His sonne named likewise William lived without the title of Earle and begat one onely daughter Margaret who neverthelesse being reputed Countresse of Salisburie became the wife of Henry Lacy Earle of Lincoln unto whom she bare one only daughter Alice wedded to Thomas Earle of Lancaster Who being attainted King Edward the Second seized upon those possessions which she had granted and demised unto her husband out of which King Edward the Third gave way unto Willam Mont-acute Trowbridg Winterbourn Ambresburie and other Lordships in these words So fully and wholly as the Progenitours of Margaret Countesse of Salisbury at any time held the same And even then hee preferred the said William Mont-acute to be Earle of Salisburie and by the cincture of a sword invested him in the said Earledome This William became Lord of the Isle of Mann and begat two sonnes William who succeeded in his Fathers honour and died without issue having unhappily slaine his onely sonne while he trained him at Tilting and Iohn a Knight who died before his brother leaving behind him a sonne named Iohn Earle of Salisburie whom hee had by Margaret daughter and heire of Thomas de Mont-Hermer who being of an unconstant and changeable nature and plotting the destruction of King Henrie the Fourth was in the yeare of our Lord 1400. killed at Chichester and attainted afterwards of high treason Howbeit his sonne Thomas was fully restored a man worthy to be ranged with the bravest Captaines and Commanders whether you respect paines taking in his affaires industrie in action or expedition in dispatch who lying at the siege before Orleance in France was with a bullet levelled out of a great piece of Ordnance wounded in the yeare 1428. and thereof died
sitten since Wina whom the said Kenelwalch ordained the first Bishop there Many Bishops some renowned for their wealth and honourable port and some for holinesse of life But among other Saint Swithin continueth yet of greatest fame not so much for his sanctitie as for the raine which usually falleth about the Feast of his translation in Iuly by reason the Sunne then Cosmically with Praesepe and Aselli noted by ancient writers to be rainie constellations and not for his weeping or other weeping Saints Margaret the Virgine and Mary Magdalen whose feasts are shortly after as some superstitiously-credulous have believed This by the way pardon me I pray you for I digresse licentiously Thus Bishops of Winchester have beene anciently by a certaine peculiar prerogative that they have Chancellours to the Archbishop of Canterbury and for long time now Prelates to the order of the Garter and they have from time to time to their great cost reedified the Church and by name Edington and Walkelin but Wickham especially who built all the West part thereof downe from the quire after a new kind of worke I assure you most sumptuously In the midst of which building is to be seene his owne tombe of decent modestie betweene two pillars And these Bishops have ever and anon consecrated it to new Patrons and Saints as to Saint Amphibalus Saint Peter Saint Swithin and last of all to the holy Trinitie by which name it is knowne at this day The English Saxons also had this Church in great honour for the sepulture of certaine Saints and Kings there whose bones Richard Fox the Bishop gathered and shrining them in certaine little gilded coffers placed them orderly with their severall Inscriptions in the top of that wall which encloseth the upper part of the quire and they called it in times past 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is The old Minster for difference from another more lately built which was named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is The new Minster which Elfred founded and for the building of houses of office belonging to the same purchase of the Bishop a plot of ground and for every foot of it paid him downe a marke after the publike weight This monasterie as also that other the older was built for married Priests who afterwards upon I know not what miracle of a Crosse that spoke and disliked their marriage were thrust out by Dunstane Archbishop of Canterbury and Monkes put in their place The walls of these two monasteries stood so neere and close together that the voices of those that sung in the one troubled the chaunting of the other whereupon there arose grudge and heart-burning betweene these Monkes which afterwards brake out into open enmities By occasion whereof and because at this new monasterie there gathered and stood much water which from the Westerne gate came downe thither along the current of the streets and cast forth from it an unwholsome aire the Minster Church two hundred yeares after the first foundation of it was removed into the Suburbs of the citie on the North part which they call Hide Where by the permission of King Henry the First the Monks built a most stately and beautifull monasterie which a few yeares after by the craftie practice of Henrie de Blois Bishoppe of Winchester as the private historie of this place witnesseth was pitiously burnt In which fire that Crosse also was consumed which Canutus the Dane gave and upon which as old writings beare record he bestowed as much as his owne yeares revenewes of all England came unto The monasterie neverthelesse was raised up againe and grew by little and little to wonderfull greatnesse as the very ruines thereof even at this day doe shew untill that generall subversion and finall period of our monasteries For then was this monasterie demolished and into that other of the holy Trinitie which is the Cathedrall Church when the monkes were thrust out were brought in their stead a Deane twelve Prebendaries and there placed At the East side of this Cathedrall Church standeth the Bishops palace called Wolvesey a right goodly thing and sumptuous which being towred and compassed almost round with the streame of a prety river reacheth even to the Citie walls and in the South-suburbes just over against it beholdeth a faire Colledge which William Wickham Bishop of this See the greatest father and Patron of all Englishmen of good literature and whose praise for ever to the worlds end will continue built for a Schoole and thereto dedicated it out of which both for Church and Common-wealth there riseth a most plentiful increase of right learned men For in this Colledge one warden ten fellowes two Schoole-masters and threescore and ten schollers with divers others are plentifully maintained There have beene also in this Citie other faire and goodly buildings for very many were here consecrated to religion which I list not now to recount since time and avarice hath made an end of them Onely that Nunnery or monasterie of vailed Virgins which Elfwida the wife of King Elfred founded I will not overpasse seeing it was a most famous thing as the remainder of it now doth shew and for that out of it King Henrie the First tooke to wife Mawde the daughter of Malcolne King of Scots by whom the Royall bloud of the ancient Kings of England became united to the Normans and he therefore wonne much love of the English nation For neiphew shee was in the second degree of descent unto Edmund Iron-side by his sonne Edward the Banished A woman as adorned with all other vertues meet for a Queene so especially inflamed with an incredible love of true pietie and godlinesse Whereupon was this Tetrastich made in her commendation Prospera non laetam fecêre nec asperae tristem Aspera risus ei prospera terror erant Non decor effecit fragilem non sceptra superbam Sola potens humilis sola pudica decens No prosp'rous state did make her glad Nor adverse chances made her sad If fortune frown'd she then did smile If fortune frown'd she feard the while If beauty tempted she yet said nay No pride she tooke in scepters sway Shee onely high her selfe debas'd A lady onely faire and chast Concerning Sir Guy of Warwick of whom there goe so many prety tales who in single fight overcame here that Danish giant and Golias Colbrand and of Waltheof Earle of Huntingdon that was here beheaded where afterwards stood Saint Giles chappell as also of that excellent Hospital of Saint Crosse there adjoyning founded by Henry of Blois bother to King Stephen and Bishop of this City and augmented by Henry Beauford Cardinall I need not to speake seeing every man may read of them in the common Chronicles As touching the Earles of Winchester to say nothing of Clyto the Saxon whom the Normans deprived of his ancient honour King Iohn created Saier Quincy Earle of Winchester who used for his armes a military belt
time and from out of them three hundred yeeres agoe and thirtie Robert Stewart by Marjorie his mother daughter to King Robert Brus obtained the Kingdome of Scotland and now lately James Stewart of that name the sixth King of Scots by Margaret his great grandmother daughter to King Henrie the seventh the divine power of that most high and almightie Ruler of the world so disposing is ascended with the generall applause of all nations to the height of Monarchicall majestie over all Britaine and the Isles adjacent ROSSIA THe Province ROSSE so called by an old Scottish word which some interpret to be a Promontorie others a Biland was inhabited by the people named CANTAE which terme in effect implieth as much in the time of Ptolomee This extendeth it selfe so wide and large that it reacheth from the one sea to the other What way it beareth upon the Vergivian or Western Ocean by reason of huge swelling mountaines advancing their heads aloft and many woods among them it is full of stagges roe buckes fallow Deere and wilde foule but where it butteth upon the German sea it is more lovely bedect with corne fields and pastures and withall much more civill In the very first entrance into it Ardmanoch no small territorie whereof the second sonnes of the Kings of Scotland beare the title riseth up with high mountaines that are most trustie preservers of snow As touching their height some have reported unto me strange wonders and yet the ancient Geometers have written that neither the depth of sea nor height of hills exceed by the plumbe line ten stadia that is one mile and a quarter Which notwithstanding they that have beheld Tenariffe amongst the Canarie Ilands which is fifteene leagues high and sailed withall the Ocean neere unto them will in no wise admit for truth In this part standeth Lovet Castle and the Baronie of the worthy family of the Frasers whom for their singular good service for the Scottish kingdome King James the second accepted into the ranke of Barons and whom the Clan-Ranalds a most bloodie generation in a quarrell and braule between them had wholly destroied every mothers sonne but that by the providence of God fourescore of the principall persons of this family left their wives at home all great with child who being delivered of so many sonnes renewed the house and multiplied the name againe But at Nesse mouth there flourished sometimes Chanonrie so called of a rich Colledge of Chanons whiles the Ecclesiasticall state stood in prosperitie in which there is erected a See for the Bishop of Rosse Hard by is placed Cromartie where Urqhuart a Gentleman of noble birth by hereditarie right from his ancestours ministreth justice as Sheriffe to this Sheriffdome and this is so commodious and safe an harbour for any fleet be it never so great that both Sailers and Geographers name it PORTUS-SALUTIS that is The Haven of safetie Above it is LITTUS ALTUM whereof Ptolomee maketh mention called now as it seemeth Tarbarth for there indeed the shore riseth to a great height enclosed on the one side with Cromer a most secure and safe haven and on the other with CELNIUS now Killian the river and thus much of the places toward the East Ocean Into the west sea the river LONGUS mentioned in Ptolomee at this day named Lough Longus runneth then the CERONES anciently dwelt where now is Assinshire a countrey much mangled with many inlets and armes of the sea in bosoming it selfe with manifold commodities As for the Earls of Rosse it is full of difficulty to set them down in order successively out of writers About foure hundred yeers past we read that Ferqhuard flourished enjoied this title But for default of issue male it came by a daughter to Walter Lesley who for his noble feats of armes courageously atchieved under Lewis the Emperour was worthily named The Noble Knight he begat Alexander Earle of Rosse and a daughter married unto Donald Lord of the Islands Hebrides This Alexander had issue one onely daughter who made over by her deed all her owne title and right unto Robert Duke of Albany whereat the said Donald of the Islands being highly enchafed and repining stiled himselfe in the reigne of James the third King of the Islands and Earle of Rosse having with fire and sword laied waste his native country far neere At length the said K. James the third by authoritie of Parliament in the yeere 1476. annexed the Earldome of Rosse to the crowne so as it might not be lawfull for his successours to alienate by any meanes from the crowne either the Earldome it selfe or any parcell thereof or by any device to grant the same unto any person save onely to the Kings second sonnes lawfully borne whence it is that Charles the Kings second sonne Duke of York at this day holdeth an enjoieth the title of Earle of Rosse SUTHERLAND BEyond Rosse Sutherland looketh toward the East Ocean a land more meet to breed cattell than to beare corne wherein there be hills of white marble a wonderfull thing in this so cold a climate but of no use almost considering excesse in building and that vain ostentation of riches is not yet reached to these remote regions Here is Dunrobin a castle of very great name the principall seat of the ancient Earles of Sutherland descended if I be not deceived out of the family of Murray Among whom one William under King Robert Brus is most famous who married the sister of the whole blood to K. David and had by her a son whom the said David declared heire apparant of the crown and compelled his Nobles to sweare unto him alleageance but he within a little after departed without issue and the Earldome in the end came by a daughter and heire hereditarily unto A. Gordon one of the line of the Earles of Huntly CATHANES HIgher lieth CATHANES butting full upon the said East sea bending inward with a number of creakes and compasses which the waves as it were indent In which dwelt in Ptolomees time the CATINI but written falsly in some copies CARINI among whom the selfe same Ptolomee placeth the river Ila which may seem to be the Wifle at this day The inhabitants of this province raised their greatest gaine and revenues by grazing and raising of cattell and by fishing The chiefe castle therein is called Girnego in which the Earls of Catnesse for the most part make their abode The Bishops sea is in Dornock a little meane town otherwise where also King James the fourth appointed the Sheriffe of Catnesse to reside or else at Wik as occasions should require for the administration of justice The Earles of Catnesse in ancient times were also Earles of the Orcades but at last they became distinct and by the eldest daughter of one Malise given in marriage to William Seincler the Kings Pantler his heires successively came to be Earls of Catnesse
and doe still enjoy the same honour STRATH-NANERN THe utmost and farthest coast of all Britaine which with the front of the shore looketh full against the North point and hath the midst of the greater Beares taile which as Cardan was of opinion causeth translations of Empires just over head was inhabited as wee may see in Ptolomee by the CORNABII among whom he placeth the river NABEUS which names are of so neere affinitie that the nation may seeme to have drawne their denomination from the river that they dwelt by neither doth the moderne name Strath-Navera which signifieth the Valley by Navern jarre altogether in sound from them The country it selfe is for the soile nothing fertile and by reason of the sharpe and cold aire lesse inhabited and thereupon sore haunted and annoied with most cruell wolves Which in such violent rage not only set upon cattell to the exceeding great dammage of the inhabitants but also assaile men with great danger and not in this tract onely but in many other parts likewise of Scotland in so much as by vertue of an act of Parliament the Sheriffes and inhabitants in every countrey are commanded to goe forth thrice a yeere a hunting for to destroy the wolves and their whelpes But if in this so Northerly a countrey this be any comfort to speak of it hath of all Britain again the shortest night and the longest day For by reason of the position of heaven here distant from the Aequinoctiall line 59. degrees and fortie minutes the longest day containeth 18. houres and 25. scruples and the shortest night not above five houres and 45. scruples So that the Panegyrist is not true in this who made report in times past That the sunne in manner setteth not at all but passeth by and lightly glanceth upon the Horizon haply relying upon this authoritie of Tacitus for that the extreme points and plaine levels of the earth with their shade so low raised up no darknesse at all But more truely Plinie according to true reason where hee treateth of the longest dayes according to the inclination of the sunnes circle to the Horison The longest daies saith he in Italy are 15. houres in Britaine 17. where the light nights doe prove that undoubtedly by experience which reason forceth credibly that in Midsummer daies when the sunne approacheth neer to the Pole of the world the places of the earth under the Pole have day 6. months though the light having but a narrow compasse the night contrariwise when he is farre remote in middle winter In this utmost tract which Ptolomee extendeth out farre East whereas indeed it beareth full North for which Roger Bacon in his Geography taxed him long since where Tacitus said That an huge and enorme space of ground running still forward to the farthest point groweth narrow like a wedge There run out three Promontories mentioned by the old writers namely BERUBIUM now called Urdehead neere to Bernswale a village VIRVEDRUM now Dunsby otherwise named Duncansby which is thought to be the most remote promontorie of Britain ORCAS now named Howburn which Ptolomee setteth over against the Islands Orcades as the utmost of them all this also in Ptolomee is called TARVEDRUM and TARVISIUM and so named if my conjecture faile me not because it is the farthest end of Britaine for Tarvus in the British tongue hath a certaine signification of ending With which I accordingly will end this booke purposing to speake of the out-Isles Orcades Hebudes or Hebrides and of Shetland in their due place THus have I briefly run over Scotland and verily more briefly than the worth of so great a kingdom requireth neither doubt I but that some one or other will set it forth more at large and depaint it as I said with a more flourishing pensill in greater certainty and upon better knowledge when as our most mighty Monarch now openeth those remote places hitherto fore-closed from us Meane while if I have at any time dropt asleepe for the most watchfull may sometimes bee taken napping or if some errour in this unknowne tract hath misled mee from the truth as nothing is more rife and easie than errour I hope the courteous Reader will pardon it upon my acknowledgment and of his kindnesse recalling me from errour direct me in the right way to the truth HIBERNIAE IRELAND Anglis YVERDON BRITANNIS ERIN inâ—elis IERNA Orphaeo Arist. IRIS Diodoro Siculo IVVERNA Iuuelalj IOYERNIA Ptol. IRELAND AND THE SMALLER ILANDS IN THE BRITISH OCEAN THE BRITISH OCEAN NOw have I rather passed over than throughly surveied all BRITAIN namely those two most flourishing Kingdomes ENGLAND and SCOTLAND And whereas I am now to crosse the seas for IRELAND and the rest of the Isles if I premise some few lines touching the British sea I hope it shal not seem a crooked course or an extravagaÌ„t digression BRITAIN is encompassed round about with the vast open and main Ocean which ebbeth and floweth so violently with main tides that as Pytheas of Marsiles hath reported it swelleth 80. cubits about Britaine and St. Basile hath tearmed it Mare Magnum c. The great sea and dreadfull to Sailers yea and S. Ambrose wrote thus of it The great sea not adventured on by sailers nor attempted by Mariners is that which with a roaring and surging current environeth Britaine and reacheth into far remote parts and so hidden out of sight as that the fables have not yet come hither Certes this sea sometimes overfloweth the fields adjoining otherwhiles again it retireth leaveth all bare and that I may use the words of Plinie by reason of this open largenesse it feeleth more effectually the force and influence of the Moone exercising her power thereupon without impeachment and it floweth alwaies up within the land with such violence that it doth not onely drive back the streames of rivers but also either overtaketh and surpriseth beasts of the land or else leaveth behind it those of the sea For there have bin seen in everie age to the great astonishment of the beholders so many and so huge Seamonsters left on dry land on our shore that Horace sang this note not without good cause Belluosus qui remotis Obstrepit Oceanus Britannis The Ocean of sea-monsters fraight with store Upon the Britans farre remote doth roare And Juvenal in the like tune Quanto Delphino Balaena Britannica major As much as Whales full huge that use to breed In British Sea the Dolphins doe exceed And so great an adventure and exploit it was thought but to crosse only this our sea that Libanius the Grecian sophister in a Panegyâ—icall oration unto Constantinus Chlorus cried out in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is This voiage into Britain seemed comparable to the greatest triumph And Julius Firmicus not that famous Astrologer but another that was a Christian in a little treatise of the errour of profane religions written unto the Emperours