both of that City and County he died in 1640. This County is divided into 29 Hundreds wherein are 19 Market Towns and 248 Parish Churches It is in the Diocess of Bristol Elects 20 Parliament Men and gives the Title of Earl to Charles L. Sackvil who is also Earl of Middlesex as the Town of Dorchester doth the Title of Marquess to Henry L. Pierrepoint and Shaftesbury the Title of Earl to Anthony L. Ashley DVRHAM This Bishoprick hath Northumberland on the North divided by the Rivers Derwent and Tyne and Yorkshire on the South the German Ocean on the East Cumberland and Westmoreland on the West it abounds with Coals Lead and Iron near Darlington in this County whose waters are warm there are three Pits wonderful deep called Hell Kettles these are judged to come of an Earthquake which happened in 1179. For on Christmas day say our Chronicles at Oxenhall which is this place the ground heaved up aloft like a Tower and so continued all that day as it were immoveable till evening and then fell with so horrible a noise that it affrighted the Inhabitants thereabout and the Earth swallowing it up made in the same place three deep Pits it is reported that Bishop Tonstall put a Goose into one of these Pits having first given her a mark and the same Goose was found in the River Tees which if true these Kettles have passages under ground within the River Weer at Butterby near Durham in Summer Time their issues a salt reddish water which the Sun makes white and growing thick becomes Salt which the People thereabout always use In the Reign of William the Conqueror one Wolstan was Bishop of Durham whom upon Lanfranks reporting to be insufficient for the place for want of Learning the King commanded to put off his Pontifical Robes and to leave his Bishoprick when suddenly out of Divine Inspiration saith our Historian Wolston answered A better then you O King bestowed these Robes upon me and to him will I restore them and therewithal going to Edward the Confessors Shrine who had made him a Bishop and putting off his Robes he struck his Staff upon St. Edwards Monument which stuck so fast saith the Author in the Stone of it that by no strength it could be drawn forth till he pluckt it out himself which so terrified both Lanfrank and the King that they intreated him to take his Robes again and keep his Bishoprick When K. Edward the 3. was Victorious in France the Scots with David Bruce their King by the incitement of the French King invade England with an Army of Threescore and two Thousand Men and marched as far as Durham supposing that none but Priests and Shepheards were left at home because such a vast number were abroad upon Service but they found it otherwise for the Lords in the North as Gilbert Vmfrevile the Earl of Angus Henry Piercy Ralph Nevil William Dayncourt with the Archbishop of York the Bishop of Durham and others of the Clergy gathered such great Forces and ordered them so well that by the animation of Queen Philip who though big with Child rode in Person through the English Troops and with wise and gracious words incouraged them that they obtained a very signal Victory for meeting the Scots at Nevils Cross in this Bishoprick they utterly defeated their great Army and took David their King Prisoner with the Earls of Fife Menteith Murray Sutherland Dowglas the Archbishop of St. Andrews and others and slew fifteen thousand Scots who yet could not be charged for want of valour especially the King himself who had two Spears hanging in his body his leg desperately wounded with an Arrow his Sword and other weapons beaten out of his hand and yet disdaining to be taken Captive endeavoured by provoking language to induce the English to kill him and therefore when one John Copland Captain of Roxborough Castle advised him to yeild the King struck him so fiercely over the face with his Gauntlet as beat out two of his Teeth but since he could not force a death he must submit to be a Prisoner and was conveyed by Copland and eight of his Servants out of the Field the Queen retired to Newcastle to attend the event of the Battle and understanding that K. David was taken she sent Letters to the Captain to deliver up his Royal Prisoner which he refusing she sends over a complaint to K. Edward who ordered him to come to Calice where he made so discreet a defence that he was sent back and had 500 pound a year in Land given him in any place which he should chuse near his own dwelling with order to deliver up his Prisoner to the Queen which he did accordingly at York with such a modest and ingenious Apology as satisfied both the Queen and the Lords of the Council King David was committed Prisoner to the Tower and continued so eleven years and then was set at liberty upon condition to pay one hundred thousand Marks in ten years as a Ransom Cicely Nevil whose Fathers vast Estate afforded him a Mansion House for every week in the year cannot be here omitted as being the clearest instance of humane frail felicity she was youngest Daughter and Child to Ralph Earl of Westmoreland of which Family Raby in this Bishoprick was the chief Seat he had twenty one Children in all but she exceeded her Sisters in honour being married to Richard Duke of York she was blessed with three Sons each born in a several Kingdom Edward afterward K. Edward 4. born at Burdeaux in France George at Dublin in Ireland and Richard at Fotheringhay in England this was her happiness behold now her Miseries she saw her Husband killed in Battel George Duke of Clarence her second Son cruelly murdered in a Butt of Malmsey K. Edward her eldest Son cut off by his own intemperance in the prime of his years his two Sons butchered by their Uncle Crookbackt Richard who himself not long after was slain in the Battel of Bosworth she saw her own reputation publickly murdered at Pauls Cross by the procurement of her youngest Son Richard taxing his eldest Brother for Illegitimate and a Bastard and yet our Chronicles do not charge her with haughtiness in her good nor dejection in her ill Estate an argument of an even and steddy soul in all alterations indeed she lived to see Elizabeth her Grand-child married to K. Henry 7. but little comfort acrued to her by that conjunction the party of the Yorkists were so depressed by him she lived 35 years a Widdow and died in the 10 of Hen 7. 14â—5 and was buried by her Husband in the Collegiate Church of Fotheringay in Northamptonshire which Quire being demolished in King Henry 8. time their bodies lay in the Church-yard without any Monument till Q. Elizabeth coming thither in Progress gave order that they should be interred in the Church and two Tombs erected over them hereupon their Bodies wrapt in Lead were removed from their plain
Inscription alluding to the Mettal In Martins-Comb I long lay hid Obscure deprest with grossest Soil Debased much with mixed Lead Till Bulmer came whose skill and toil Reformed me so pure and clean As richer no where else is seen This County hath many commodious Havens for Ships among which Totnes was famous for Brutes first entrance if Geffry Monmouth say true and another Poet who writes thus of Brute The Gods did guide his Sail and Course The Winds were at command And Totnes was the happy shore Where first he came to land But it is more certain and withal more lamentable that the Danes first entred at Teignemouth to invade this Land about 787 unto whom Brightrick King of the West Saxons sent the Steward of his house to know their demands whom they villanously slew yet were they forced back to their Ships by the Inhabitants With more happy success hath Plimouth set forth men of renowned Fame and prevented the entrance of Invaders as in the Reign of that eternised Queen the Mirrour of Princes Elizabeth of everlasting memory for from this Port Sir Francis Drake that famous Knight and most valiant Sea Captain set forth to Sea in 1577 and entred into the Streights of Magellane and in Two Years and Ten Months through various changes of Fortune Divine Providence being his Guide and valour his Consort sailed round about the World of whom one writ thus Drake peragrati novit quem terminus orbis c. Drake whom the incompast World so fully knew Whom both the Poles of Heaven at once did view If Men are silent Stars and Sun will care To Register their Fellow-Traveller As he lived most part of his Time so he died and was buried at Sea when his Corps was cast out of the Ship one made this Tetrastick on him Though Romes Religion should in time return Drake none thy Body will ungrave again There is no fear Posterity should burn Those Bones which free from Fire in Sea remain And the Lord Charles Howard High Admiral did not only from Plimouth impeach the entrance of the proud Invincible Spanish Armado in 88. but with his Cannons marked them so as shewed who had had the handling of them as tokens of their own Shame and his immortal Honour The Commodities of this Shire consist much in Wool and Clothing Corn is likewise very plenteous as likewise Fish and Fowl The City of Exeter is the Shire Town environed with Ditches and strong Walls a mile and half in Circuit wherein are 15 Parish Churches and a Castle called Rugemont which commands the whole City and Country about it and hath a pleasant prospect into the Sea The River Lid by Lidford runs under ground the stream sinking so deep that it is altogether invisible but it supplies to the Ear what it denies to the Eye so great is the noise thereof In the Parish of North-Taun on near an House called Bath there is a Pit but in the Winter a Pool not maintained by any Spring but the fall of rain water and therefore commonly dry in Summer of which Pool it hath been observed saith Dr. Fuller that before the death or change of any Prince or some other strange accident of great importance or any Invasion or Insurrection it will though in a hot and dry season without any rain overflow its banks and so continue till that which it prognosticated be past and fulfilled and the Relater who published his book 1648. reports That it overflowed four times in 30 years past There is another thing in this County called the Hanging Stone being one of the bound stones which parteth Comb-Martin from the next Parish it took the name from a Theif who having stoln a Sheep and tyed it about his neck to carry it on his back rested himself a while upon this Stone which is about a foot high till the Sheep strugling slid over the Stone on the other side and so strangled the man which appeareth rather to be a Providence than a casualty in the just execution of a Malefactor We may add to these wonders the Gubbings which is a Scythia within England and they pure Heathens within this place lyeth nigh Brent Tor on the edge of Dartmoor it is reported that about 200 years ago two Strumpets being with Child fled thither to hide themselves to whom certain debauched Fellows resorted and that this was their Original they are a People who live by themselves exempt from all Authority Ecclesiastical and Civil they dwell in Cottages like Swine being rather holes than Houses having all in common and multiplied without Marriage into many Hundreds their Language is the dross of the dregs of the Devonshire Speech and the more learned a man is the less they can understand him during our Civil Wars no Souldiers were quartered among them for fear of being themselves quartered by them their Wealth consists of other mens Goods and they live by stealing the Sheep on the Moor and vain it is for any to search their Houses being a work beneath the pains of a Sheriff and above the Power of any Constable their swiftness is such that they will outrun many Horses they are so healthful that they outlive most men living in the ignorance of Luxury the extinguisher of life they hold together like Burs and if you offend one all will revenge his Quarrel In the year 959. Edgar one of the Saxon Kings of this Land hearing of the admirable beauty of Elfrida the only Daughter of Ordgarus Duke of Devonshire and Founder of Tavistock Abby in that County he sent his great Favourite Earl Ethelwold who could well judge of beauty to try the truth thereof with Commission that if he found her such as Fame reported he should bring her with him and he would make her his Queen the young Earl upon sight of the Lady was so surprized that he began to woe her for himself and had procured her Fathers good will in case he could obtain the Kings consent hereupon the Earl posted back to the King relating to him That the Lady was fair indeed but nothing answerable to the report that went of her yet desired the King that he might Marry her as being her Fathers Heir thereby to raise his Fortune The King consented and the Marriage was solemnized soon after the fame of her beauty began to spread more than before so that the King much doubting he had been abused resolved to try the truth himself and thereupon taking occasion to hunt in the Dukes Park came to his house whose coming Ethelwold suspecting acquainted his Wife with the wrong he had done both her and the King in disparaging her beauty and therefore to prevent the Kings displeasure intreated her by all manner of persuasions he could possibly use to cloth her self in such attire as might least set her forth but she resolving to be revenged and considering that now was the time to make the most of her beauty and longing to be a Queen would
Scots and the Lord Darnly began to cool and their unkindness was fomented by one David Risio an Italian Musician and afterward the Queens Secretary who had often secret conference with her when the King might not be admitted this indignity the Lords about the King made him sensible of and thereupon his death was contrived and he was killed in an outer Chamber next the Queen she being then with Child and like by the affright to have miscarried the Earl of Murray base Son to K. James 5. and base Brother to the Queen was the chief instigator of this murther of the foulness of which Fact when the King was sensible he resolved to be revenged upon Murray who having notice thereof prevented it with causing the like to be done to him for soon after the King in a stormy tempestuous night was strangled in his Bed and then cast forth into the Garden and the House immediately blown up with Gunpowder the rumor of this murther being spread abroad common fame laid it upon Morton and Murray and their Confederates Morton and Murray lay it upon the Queen the King thus murthered the Queen was advised by them to Marry James Earl of Bothwell though he was the man that had acted the Murther but upon condition that above all things respect might be had to her young Son and that Bothwell might be legally quitted both from the bonds of his former Marriage and also of the Kings Murther hereupon it is plotted that Bothwell should be brought to the Bar and Morton being his advocate by the sentence of the Judges he is clearly acquitted and then by consent of some of the Nobility he is Married to the Queen being first made Duke of Orkney which bred a suspition in many that the Queen was conscious of the Murther which was the thing the Confederates aimed at by this Marriage for they by all means increased the suspition that they might have the better colour against her and so the very same men who absolved Bothwell and consented to the Marriage now take arms against her as a Delinquent in both forcing her Husband to flee and then seize upon the Queen whom clad in a very homely garment they thrust into Prison in Lochlevyn Queen Elizabeth hearing of it sends Sir Nicholas Throgmorton to expostulate the matter with them who alledged The Queen was subject to no Tribunal under Heaven That no Judge on Earth might call her in question c. They again opposed the peculiar right of that Kingdom and used Buchanans argument in his Treasonable Dialogue That in extraordinary Cases the People have power both to create and to depose their King They then persuaded her to resign the Kingdom which if she refused to do fairly they threatned to question her openly for her incontinent living for the Kings Murther for Tyranny so that through fear She resigned her Kingdom to her young Son James at that time scarce thirteen months old who was five days after anointed and Crowned King and she constituted Murray Vice-Roy during his Minority soon after some of Bothwells Servants were executed for the Kings Murther who cleared the Queen from being concerned in it The Queen having been 11 Months Prisoner afterward made her escape and raised Forces which being unexperienced were soon defeated by Murray whereupon she endeavoured to save her self by flight and travelled 60 Miles in one day and contrary to the advice of her Friends went with a few of her Attendants in a small Bark and landed at Wickington in Cumberland sending Letters to Q. Elizabeth that having made an escape from her insolent and rebellious Subjects she was now come into England upon certain hope of her approved Clemency and therefore humbly desiring that she might be forthwith admitted to her presence Q. Elizabeth sent her Letters of comfort and promised her aid defence according to the equity of her cause but denied her access since she was held guilty of many crimes giving command to have her brought to Carlile as a place of more safety Q. Mary then desired she might depart to some other Country but upon consultation most were of Opinion to have her detained as one taken by right of War and not to be dismissed till she had made satisfaction for assuming the Title of England and for the death of Darnly her Husband who was born one of the Queens Subjects After this many Conspiracies were made to set the Queen of Scots at Liberty The Pope sends out his Bull against Q. Elizabeth freeing her Subjects from all Allegiance to her and the Duke of Norfolk is beheaded upon her account These and many other contrivances and conspiracies seemed very much to indanger the Life of Q. Elizabeth and tended to the Invasion of England whereupon the better to provide for her safety a number of her Subjects the Earl of Leicester being the chief and others of all ranks and conditions enter into an Association wherein they declare That since by Her Majesties Life they and all other Her Majesties Subjects do enjoy inestimable benefit they do by this Writing make manifest their duty for the safety of their Sovereign Lady They then proceed And to that end we and every of us first calling to Witness the name of Almighty God do voluntarily and most willingly hind our selves every one of us to the other jointly and severally in the Band of one firm and Loyal Society and do hereby vow and promise by the Majesty of Almighty God that with our whole Powers Bodies Lives and Goods and with our Children and Servants we and every of us will faithfully serve and humbly obey our said Sovereign L.Q. Elizabeth against all States Dignities and Earthly Powers whatsoever and will as well with our joint and particular Forces during our Lives withstand offend and persue as well by force of Arms as by all other means of revenge all manner of Persons of what state soever they shall be who shall attempt against Her Royal Person c. to the utter extermination of them their Counsellours Aiders and Abettors And if any such wicked attempt against her most Royal Person shall be taken in hand and procured whereby any that have may or shall pretend Title to come to this Crown by the untimely death of Her Majesty so wickedly procured which God for his mercies sake forbid may be avenged we do not only bind our selves jointly and severally never to allow accept or favour any such pretended Successor by whom or for whom any such detestible Act shall be attempted or committed as unworthy of all Government in any Christian Realm or Common-Wealth And do also further vow and protest as we are most bound and that in the presence of the Eternal and Everlasting God to prosecute such Person and Persons to death with our joint or particular forces and to take the utmost revenge upon them that by any means we or any of us can devise and do or cause to be devised and
Nobles all due respect and the People amongst other blessings extreamly happy in this That they are Masters of their own purposes and have a strong hand in making their own Laws Of all the Seniories in the World saith P. Comines the French Historian the Realm of England is the Country where the Common-wealth is best governed the People least opprest and the fewest Houses and Buildings destroyed in Civil War It is a Country always most Temperate the Air is thick and much subject to winds rain and dark Clouds and therefore Gundamore the Spanish Ambassador here in K. James's his time bid the Spanish Post when he came to Spain commend him to the Sun for he had not seen him here a great while and in Spain he should be sure to find him The Ocean which beateth upon the Coast of this Island aboundeth with all manner of Fish and the Meadows and Pastures with Corn Cattle and all other necessaries a Spaniard boasting That they had excellent Oranges Lemmons and Olives growing in their Countrey which ours wanted Sir Roger Williams reply'd It is true said he they do not grow here yet all this is but sauce whereas we have dainty Veal and well fed Capons to eat with them with many other delicate Dishes worth the name of Victuals indeed There are more Parks Forrests and Chases in England than in all Christendom beside there are in no place of the World greater and larger Dogs than here which caused them to be most in request by the Romans both for their baitings in their Amphitheaters and in all other their huntings the English Cock is a bold and stout Fowl and will fight valiantly with his Adversary and presently crows when he obtains the Victory which seldom happens till death parts them There are 44 Shires and Counties in England every Shire consisting of so many Hundreds c. and every Hundred of a number of Burroughs Villages or Tythings c. But this may suffice by way of Preface the design of this small Tract being not to give a particular or exact description of every County and the Towns and Villages therein since that has been largely performed by Mr. Speed Mr. Blome and others but only to contract in a little volume and price the Natural and Artificial Curiosities and Rarities in England Scotland and Ireland with Remarks upon some famous Persons and Places as also an account of the Earthquakes Tempests Seiges Battels and other strange Accidents and Occurrences that have happened in each County whereby my Countrymen may observe that there is hardly any thing worth wondring at abroad in the world whereof Nature or Art hath not written a Copy in these Islands and therefore I shall not confine my self so much to methodize matters as to time as not to let slip any thing considerable and because I suppose most Men have a desire to read something of their own Country first I have according to the method of Dr. Fuller and others placed the Counties Alphabetically for the more ready finding of them and will therefore begin with BARKSHIRE whether so called from a striped or bark-bared Oak is uncertain is bounded by Wiltshire on the West Hamshire on the South Surry on the East Oxford and Buckinghamshire on the North thereof the air is temperate sweet and pleasant the soil plenteous of Corn Cattle Waters and Woods so that for profit and pleasure it gives place to none The most remarkable place in this County is Windsor Castle a most Princely Pallace both for strength and State and hath in it a Colledge for Learning a Chappel for Devotion and an Alms-house of decayed Gentlemen for Charity it is reported to have been built by K. Arthur and K. William the Conqueror was so desirous of it that by composition with the Abbot of Westminster whose then it was he made it to be the Kings Possession in this Castle the Victorious K. Edward 3. was born and herein after he had subdued the French and Scots he kept at one time John K. of France and David King of Scotland as his Prisoners after which he graced it with greater Majesty by instituting the Honourable Order of the Garter the Institution whereof some ascribe to a Garter occasionally falling from the Countess of Salisbury though others affirm the Garter was given in testimony of that Bond of Love and Affection wherewith the Knights and Fellows of it were to be bound severally one to another and all of them to the King nay some others make it yet more ancient relating that when K. Richard the 1. was at War against the Turks and Saracens in the Holy Land and that the tediousness thereof began to discourage his Soldiers he to quicken their Courage tyed about the Legs of several choice Knights a Garter or small Thong of Leather the only stuff he had at hand that as the Romans used to bestow Crowns and Garlands for encouragements so this might provoke them to stand together and fight valiantly for their King and for their honour K. Edward the Third found a Chapple erected in this Castle by K. Hen. 1. and other Princes with maintenance for eight Canons to whom he added a Dean 15 Canons more and 24 poor Impotent Knights and other Officers and Servants these were to pray for the good Estate of the Soveraign and Brethren of the most Noble Order the Soveraign and Knights had their particular Laws and Constitutions and K. Edward likewise appointed divers Ceremonies and distinct habits and St. George the pattern of Christian Fortitude is intituled to the Patronage of this Order and the beautiful Chappel in Windsor Castle where his day being April 23. is usually celebrated every year and new Knights commonly installed was consecrated by that King to his memory there are of this Order twenty six Knights of which the Kings of England are one and it is so much desired for its worthiness that 8 Emperors 21 Forreign Kings 23 Forreign Dukes and Princes besides divers Noblemen of other Countries have been Fellows of it The Ensign is a blew Garter buckled on the left Leg on which these words are imbroidered Honi soit qui mal y pense Evil to him that Evil thinks About their Necks they wear a blue Ribband at the end of which hangeth the Image of St. George the Hall of this Pallace is remarkable for greatness Winchester Tower for height and the Terrace on the Northside for pleasure but his present Majesty K. Charles the Second hath added such magnificence to it both within and without that now for Grandeur State and Pleasure it exceeds it may be any Paâ—lace of ever a Prince in Europe The Chappel is graced with the Bodies of King Henry 6. and K. Edward 4. those whom the whole Kingdom was too little to contain the one being of the House of Lancaster and the other of York lie now united in one mould with the branch of both these Houses K. Henry 8. who there lies interred
Miller that had been very active in that Rebellion who fearing the approach of the Marshal told a sturdy Fellow his Servant that he had occasion to go from home and if any man should inquire for the Miller he bid him say that himself was the Miller and had been so for 3 years before soon after the Provost came and called for the Miller when out comes the Servant and said he was the man the Provost demanded how long he had kept the Mill These 3 years answered the Servant the Provost then commanded his men to lay hold of him and hang him on the next Tree at this the Fellow cried out That he was not the Miller but the Millers Man Nay Sir said the Provost I will take you at your word and if thou beest the Miller thou art a busie Knave if thou beest not thou art a false lying Knave and however thou canst never do thy Master better service than to hang for him and so without more ado he was dispatched I will conclude the Remarks of this County with somewhat more Comical At the Dissolution of Abbeys K. Ken. 8. gave away large shares to almost every one that asked Amongst other Instances take this merry story It happened that two or three Gentlemen the Kings servants waited at the door where the King was to come out with a design to beg a large parcel of Abby Lands One Mr. John Champernoun another of his servants seeing them was very inquisitive to know their suit but they would not impart it to him in the mean time out comes the King they kneel down so doth Champernoun being assured by an implicit Faith that Courtiers beg nothing hurtful to themselves they present their Petition the King grants it they render him humble thanks so doth Mr. Champernoun afterward he requires his share they deny it he appeals to the King who avows that he meant they should have equal shares whereupon his Companions were forced to allot him the Priory of St. German in Cornwal valued at 243 pound a Year so that a dumb Beggar met with a blind Giver the one as little knowing what he asked as the other what he gave This County is divided into nine Hundreds wherein are 22 Market Towns and 161 Parish Churches It elects 44 Members to sit in Parliament and is in the Diocess of Exeter CUMBERLAND hath Scotland on the North Northumberland and Westmerland on the East Lancashire on the South and the Irish Sea on the West We read that King Edmund with the help of Leoline Prince of Wales wasted all Cumberland and having put out the Eyes of the 2 Sons of Dunmail King of that Province granted that Kingdom to Malcolm K. of Scots whereof their eldest Sons became Prefects King Edward the 1st dyed at Carlile in this County for intending to invade Scotland he raised a great Army which he ordered to attend him at this City but falling sick and being sensible it would be his death he commanded his Son afterward Edward 2. to be brought into his presence to whom he left many good Precepts and Admonitions exhorting him To be merciful just and courteous constant and true both in Word and Deed that he should be pitiful to those in misery that he should carry his bones with him about Scotland till he had subdued it and that he should send his Heart into the Holy Land with Sevenscore Knights and Thirty two thousand Pound of Silver which he had provided for that purpose lastly that upon pain of eternal damnation the said Money should not be expended upon any other use soon after which he died In the 17th Year of this Kings Reign the City of Carlile with the Abby and all the Houses belonging to the Friers Minors were consumed with fire In the Reign of Q. Elizabeth a rich Vein of most pure and native Brass was found at Keswrick in Cumberland which had lain neglected a long time In April 1651 about 5 a Clock in the Afternoon there was a general Earthquake in the Counties of Cumberland and Westmerland wherewith the People were so affrighted that many of them forsook their Houses and some Houses were so shaken that the Chimneys fell down Presently after the Scottish Army came into England to assist the Parliament it rained Blood which covered the Church and Church-Yard of Bencastle in this County At Salkelds upon the River Eden is a Trophy of Victory called by the Country People Long Meg and her Daughters they are 77 stones each of them 10 Foot high above ground and one of them is 15 Foot in height Skiddaw Hill riseth up with two mighty high Heads like Parnassus and beholds Scruffell hill in Anandale within Scotland there is a Rime that Skiddaw Lauvellin and Casticand Are the highest hills in all England These being two other Hills in this Tract according as Mists rise or fall upon these Heads the People thereby prognosticate of the change of Weather and therefore they sing If Skiddaw have a Cap Scruffell knows full well of that The Sea hath eaten a great part of the Land away upon the shores of these Western Shires and Trees are sometimes discovered when the Wind blows at low Water else they are covered over with Sands and the People thereabout say that they dig up Trees without boughs out of the mossy places in this Shire which they find by the direction of the Dew in Summer which they observe never falls on the ground under which they lie Some Emperick Chirurgions in Scotland take a journey to the Picts Wall the beginning of every Summer to gather vulnerary Plants which they say grow plentifully there and are very effectual being sown and planted by the Romans for Chirurgical Uses There is a small Burrough called Solway Frith under which within the very Frith or Bay the Inhabitants report the Engl sh and Scots fought with their Fleets at full Sea and also with their Horsemen and Footmen at the Ebb. This Province was accounted a Kingdom of itself and King Steven to purchase aid from the Scots confirmed it by gift to that Crown which Henry 2. claimed and regained from them since which many bickerings have happened between the two Nations in this Shire but none so fatal to the Scots as the Fight at Salome Moss where the Nobility disdaining to serve under their General Oliver Sinclare gave over the Battle and yielded themselves to the English which dishonour so deeply wounded the heart of K. James the 5. that he died for grief soon after There are many ruines of Castles Walls and Forts in this County with Altars and Inscriptions of their Captains and Collonels This County is not divided into Hundreds as the rest but therein are seated 9 Market Towns 58 Parish Churches and divers Chappels of ease It Elects 6 Parliament Men for the Counâ—y 2. Carlile 2. Cockermouth 2. and is in the Diocess of Chester and Carlile DERBY-SHIRE hath Yorkshire on the North Nottinghamshire on the East
Hell whom they devoutly worshipped as the preserver of their health Shaftsbury likewise wherein one Aquila either Man or Eagle is reported to have prophecied of future times In this City Edward son of Edgar who was murdered at Corf-Castle by his Step-Mother to make way for her own Son was buried In the Reign of K. Edward 2 the great Earl of Lancaster married a Lady from Camford in this County who was taken out of his house by one Richard Martin a deformed lame Dwarf who challenged her for his Wife alledging he had lain with her before the Earl married her whereupon the Lady was examined who voluntarily confessed it was all true and thereupon the ugly Fellow in her right claimed the Two Earldoms of Lincoln and Salisbury In the Fourth of this Kings Reign the Church of Middleton with all the Monuments were consumed with Lightning the Monks being at Mattens In the 22d of Edward 3. a Plague was brought from beyond Sea into the Towns and Villages of England on the Seacosts of Dorsetshire which raged so both there and in other parts of England that scarce the Tenth man was left alive in the Kingdom In 1506. King Philip sailing out of Germany to take possession of the Kingdom of Spain was driven by Tempest upon the Coasts of England and landed at Weymouth to refresh himself and was invited by Sir Tho. Trenchard a worthy Knight of that County to his House who immediately sent word to King Henry 7. of his Arrival who glad to have his Court honoured by so great a Prince sent the Earl of Arundel at present to wait upon him till himself should follow the Earl attended him with a gallant Troop of about 300 Horse and for more state came to him by Torch light upon this Message though K. Philip had many reasons to hasten his Journy yet not to distaste K. Henry he came Post to Windsor where after great and magnificent Entertainment K. Henry taking an opportunity when they were both in a private room laying his Hand civilly upon K. Philip's Arm said Sir you have been saved upon my Coast I hope you will not suffer me to wreck upon yours The King of Castile asking him what he meant I mean saith the King that hair-brain'd Fellow the Earl of Suffolk who being my Subject is protected in your Country and begins to play the Fool when all others are weary of it The King of Castile answered I had thought Sir your felicity had been above these thoughts but if it trouble you I will banish him K. Henry answered That his desire was to have him delivered to him with this the King of Castile a little confused said That can I not do with my honour Well then said the King the matter is at an end at last the King of Castile who much esteemed K. Henry composing his Countenance said Sir you shall have him but upon your honour you shall not take his Life I promise it upon my honour said K. Henry and he kept his promise for he was not put to death during all his Reign but yet he took such order that in the Reign of his Son K. Hen. 8. he had his Head cut off This Earl of Suffolk had lately gone over to Flanders to the Lady Margret K. Henry's sworn Enemy which made the King doubt of his Intentions The Earl was accordingly brought over and sent to the Tower and after K. Philip had received the Order of the Garter and Prince Henry that of the Golden Fleece the King of Castile departed home In the 26. of Q. Elizabeth 1558. at a place called Blackmore in the Parish of Armitage in this County a piece of ground containing 3 Acres removed from its place and went quite over another Close with the Trees and Fences thereon a great way off stopping up an High-way which led to Cerne the same Hedges inclosing it as before and the Trees standing very upright thereon onely one Oak of almost 20 Load fell down in the place from whence it removed there remained a great deep Pit In 1613. Aug. 7. The Town of Dorchester was utterly consumed with Fire which began in the house of a Tallow-Chandler and destroyed the whole Town save a few Houses near the Church and all their Wares and Goods to the value of Two Hundred Thousand Pounds yet no man perished therein In June 1653. a black Cloud was seen over the Town of Pool and soon after dissolved into a shower of Blood which fell warm upon mens hands some green leaves with those drops upon them were sent to London and seen by many The Forrest of the White Hart is in this County so called because in the Reign of Henry 3. the King came hither to hunt and having taken other Deer he spared a most beautiful and goodly white Heart which afterward Thomas de Lynd a Gentleman of this Country with others in his Company took and killed for which the King put a mulct or Fine upon him and the whole County and the very lands which they held pay even to this day every year by way of amercement a sum of Mony into the Exchequer which is called White Hart Silver My self saith Dr. Fuller have paid a share for the sauce who never tasted any of the meat so that it seems Kings Venison is sooner eaten than digested Mr. Ignatius Jordan was born at Lime Regis in this County and when he was young was sent to Exeter to be brought up a Merchant in this City having passed through the several inferiour Offices he at last came to be Mayor and was a Justice of Peace 24 years together yet his beginning was but very mean which he was always ready to acknowledg for when some threatned him with Law-suits and that they would not give over while he was worth a groat he cheerfully told them That he should be then but two pence poorer than when he came first to Exeter for said he I brought but six pence with me hither He would often say He wondred what rich men meant that they gave so little to the Poor and yet raked so much together for their Children do you not see said he what becomes of it and would reckon up divers examples of such as heaped up much for their Children and they in a short time consumed it all on the other side he spoke of such as had small beginnings and afterward became rich or of a competent Estate giving a particular instance of himself I came said he but with a groat or sixpence in my purse to this City had I had a shilling in my purse I had never been Mayor of Exeter In his Troubles in the Star Chamber when one told him he was sorry that the Lord Keeper was against him He answered I have a greater Lord Keeper than him the Lord is my Keeper I will not be afraid He was famous for Justice and Charity in his life and at his death left very large Legacies to the poor
Graves and their Coffins opened the Dutchess Cicely had about her Neck hanging in a Silver Ribbon a Pardon from Rome which penned in a fine Roman hand was as fair and fresh to be read as if it had been written but yesterday this Lady was a great Benefactress to Queens Colledge in Cambridge In former Ages the Bishops have had the Royalties of Princes over this County and the Inhabitants have pleaded the priviledge not to pass over the River of Tees or Tyne to serve in War whose charge as they alledged was to keep and defend the Corps of St. Cathbert their great adored Saint and therefore they called themselves The Holy Work Folks and the repute of this Cuthbert and his supposed defence against the Scots was such that several of our English Kings went in Devotion to his Tomb on Pilgrimage and gave large Possessions to his Church among others zealous Canutus the greatest of all came thither bare-footed and at Cuthberts Tomb both inlarged and confirmed their Liberties This County is not divided into Hundreds but Wakes which are 4 wherein are 118 Parishes and is in the Diocess of Durham It elects four Parliament Men 2 for the County and 2 for the City of Durham ESSEX hath Kent on the South divided by the River Thames Suffolk on the North severed by the River Stoure Cambridge Hertfordshire and Middlesex on the West the two latter for the most part parted by the River Ley and the Germane Ocean on the East this Shire produceth plenty of Saffron especially about Walden a fair Market Town which Saffron may seem to have coloured with the name thereof it hath also Oysters called Walfleet the best in esteem and are thought by Pliny to have been served in the Roman Kitchins likewise Cloths Stuffs Hops and is indeed a fair Country affording all things necessary to mans subsistence only the Air of the Eastern part is not accounted very healthful Those parts adjoining to the Sea are commonly called the Hundreds of Essex and are very fruitful in Cattle However the vulgar Wits of this County much astonish strangers with the stock of poor People in these parts affirming that they have Five Hundred Cows and Nine Hundred Sheep which are indeed but five Cows and nine Sheep in these Hundreds The chief City of account is Colchester built by Coilus the Brittish Prince 124 Years after Christ wherein saith Monmouth the first Christian King Empress and Emperour in the World were born that is his Son Lucius Helena and Constantine of which thus the Poet sings From Colchester there rose a Star The Rays whereof gave glorious Light Throughout the World in Climates far Great Constantine Rome's Emperour bright The most famous place for antiquity in this County is Camolodunum now Maldon which was the Royal Seat of Cunobolin King of the Trinobantes as by the Money therein minted appeareth about the time of our Saviours Birth which City Claudius afterward won from the Brittains and therein placed a Colony of Soldiers In the East Promontory of this County in the Reign of Richard 2. the Teeth of a Giant were found if they were not of an Elephant of a very great size and not far thence in the Reign of Q. Elizabeth more bones as monstruous were digged up The Monks have recorded that a Pilgrim was sent by St. John Baptist to K. Edward the Confessor with a Ring upon which account his house in this County was called Hav-a-ring but the Clergy in those times made no Conscience to invent fictions daily for their own advantage There were bones digged up at Ness near Harwich in this County which with their bigness and length amazed the Beholders I cannot see saith Dr. Fuller how such can maintain them to be the bones of men who must confess that according to the Proportion of the Doors and Roofs of ancient Building which we have either seen or read of if they were so big and tall they must go into their Houses stooping not to say creeping along except those who affirm it be as careless of their credit as the Traveller was who affirming he saw Bees as big as Dogs and yet their Hives were of our ordinary size and being demanded what shift they made to get in Nay said he what know I let them look to that More probable it is that these were bones of Elephants store whereof were brought over into England by the Emperour Claudius To these wonders it will not be amiss to adu the ensuing relation written by Mr Tho. Smith of Sewarstone near Waltham Abby a discreet person lately deceased Toward the latter end of Q. Elizabeth saith he I served Sir Edward Donny who lived in the Abby of Waltham Cross in Essex which at that time lay in ruinous heaps and Sir Edward beginning to re-edifie it one Tomkins his Gardiner being employed therein among other things discovered a fair Marble Stone which was the cover of a Tomb of the same Stone this cover being removed there appeared the Anatomy of a man therein the Bones only remaining in due order and none of them out of place and no other dust or filth whatsoever remaining in tâ—e Tomb having well observed it I told the Spectators that if they did but touch any part thereof it would fall in sunder which being tried happened accordingly for my part I am persuaded that as the Flesh and Entrails of this Anatomy to us became in visible so would the bones likewise have been in some longer time O what is man then which vanisheth thus away like the Smoak or a vapour and is no more seen Whosoever thou art that shall read this passage thou mayst find sufficient cause of humility It is generally conceived that this was the body of King Harold This County hath no Cathedral and the Churches therein cannot challenge to themselves any eminent Commendation but for private houses Essex will own no Shire her superiour whereof Three are most remarkable 1. Audly end built by the E. of Suffolk which without compare was one of the best Subjects Houses in the Nation yet is the Structure better than the standing thereof as being somewhat low on the one side 2. Newhall built by the Ratcliffs Earls of Sussex which is extream pleasant for the shady approach thereunto and for the Parks round about it 3. Copthal highly seated on an hill in the midst of a Park built by the Abbot of Waltham enlarged by Sir Thomas Heneage and others herein is a Gallery as well furnished and more proportionable than any in England In November 1639. there happened an Hurricano or Whirl-wind which entring in at the great East Window blew that down and carried some part thereof with the Picture of the L. Coventry singled from many more which hung on both sides untouched all the length of the Gallery being about 56 Yards out of the West Window which it threw down to the ground some observed the like Wind in other places about the same time as
to lose his Life for Christ's sake At the stake he kneeled down and read the 51st Psalm then the Sheriff said to him Here is a Letter from the Queen if thou wilt recant thou shalt live otherwise thou shalt be burnt No quoth William I will never recant and so he was fastened to the stake He then said Good People pray for me while you see me alive adding Son of God shine upon me and the Sun immediately shone out of a thick Cloud so full in his face that he was forced to turn his head aside fire being kindled he lift up his Hand to Heaven saying Lord Lord receive my Spirit and so ended his Life in the Flames John Lawrence was burnt at Colchester whose Legs being lame with Irons and his Body weak with cruel usage he was carried to the Stake in a Chair and burnt therein at his burning many young Children being about the fire cried out to him Lord strengthen thy servant and keep thy Promise which was lookt on as a product of Divine Providence who out of the Mouths of Babes and Sucklings hath ordained strength Thomas Hawks Gentleman was first brought into trouble for refusing to baptise his Child after the Popish fashion This man going to the stake promised his Friends to give them some solemn Token of the clearness and comfort of his Conscience in performance whereof whilst his Body was burning he raised up himself and though having the sense yet having no fear of the Fire joyfully clapped his hands over his head to the Admiration of all the Beholders There was an Idol called the Rood of Dover-Court in this County to which multitudes of People went in Pilgrimage Divers zealous Protestants at Dedham being much troubled to see the Almighty so dishonoured by wicked Idolatry went from thence in a Frosty Moonshine Night 10 Miles to the place where the Idol was where they found the Church Doors open the Popish Clergy boasting the power of this Rood was such that no man could shut the doors of the Church where it stood These Persons taking the Image from the place where it stood carried it a quarter of a Mile off and there burnt it to ashes for which three of them were by the bloody Papists hanged in Chains In 1605. a great Porpus was taken at Westham in a little Creek alive a Mile and half within the Land and within a few days after a Whale came up the Thames whose lenght was seen divers times above Water and judged to exceed the largest Ship in the River but when she tasted the Fresh-Water and scented the Land she returned into the Sea This County contains 20 Hundreds 21 Market Towns and 415 Parish Churches It is in the Diocess of London and elects 8 Parliament men for the County 2. Colchester 2. Harwich 2. Malden 2. and gives the Title of Earl to Arthur L. Capel GLOCESTERSHIRE hath Worcester and Warwickshire on the North Oxford and Wiltshire on the East Somersetshire on the South Herefordshire with the River Wye on the West the River Severn runs through it and Malmsbury the old Historian thus describes it The ground of this Shire throughout saith he yieldeth plenty of Corn and bringeth forth abundance of Fruits the one only through the natural goodness of the ground the other by diligent manuring and tillage insomuch that it would provoke the most lazy Person to take pains Here you may see the High ways and common Lanes full of Apple-trees and Peer-trees not ingrafted by the industry of Mans hand but growing naturally of their own accord the ground itself is so inclined to bear fruit and those both in taste and beauty far exceeding others and will endure till a new supply come There is not any County in England so thick set with Vineyards as this is so plentiful of increase and so pleasant in taste the very Wines made thereof have no ill taste and are little inferiour to the French the Houses are innumerable the Churches very fair and the Towns standing very thick but that which addeth a greater glory to it is the River Severn than which there is not any in the Kingdom exceeds it for breadth of Channel swiftness of stream or for Fish better stored There is in it a daily rage and fury of the Waters which I know not whether to call a Gulf or Whirlpool of Waves raising up Sands from the bottom winding and driving them upon heaps and sometimes overflowing its banks roveth a great way on the bordering grounds and then returneth again into its usual Channel unhappy is the Vessel which it taketh full upon the side but the Watermen being aware of it when they see it coming turn their Vessels and cut through the midst of it and thereby avoid the danger Thus far he This encounter of the salt and fresh water as is supposed here mentioned is called in this Country the Higre and by some the Eagre for the keenness and fierceness thereof which is such that it is equally terrible with the flashings and noise to those that see and hear it much more to them who feel it of which there can be no reason rendered since the Thames where we find the same cause hath no such disturbance Hear how the Poets describe this Higre Vntil they be imbraced In Severns Soveraign Arms with whose tumultuous Waves Shut up in narrower bounds the Higre wildly raves And frights the stragling Flocks the Neighbouring shores o flie Afar as from the Main it comes with hideous cry And on the angry front the curled foam doth bring The Billows ' gainst the Banks when fiercely it doth fling Throws up the slimy Ouze and makes the scaly brood Leap madding to the Land affrighted from the flood O'returns the toyling Barge whose Steersman doth not launch And thrusts the furrowing beak into her dreadful paunch We read that in the 2. of King Richard 3. at that time when the Duke of Buckingham intended to pass with his Army over the Severn there was so great an Inundation of Water that men were drowned in their Beds Houses were overturned Children were carried about the Fields swimming in their Cradles and Beasts drowned even upon the Hills which rage of the Waters continued for the space of 10 days and is called to this day in those parts The Great Water In the 17 of Q. Elizabeth Feb. 24. being a hard frost after a flood which was not great there came down the River of Severn such a swarm of Flies and Beetles that they were judged to be above an 100 Quarters the Mills thereabout were dammed up with them for the space of 4 days and then were cleansed by digging them out with Shovels In 1607. a mighty West-wind which continued 16 hours brought the Sea into the Severn after a great rain and at a spring Tyde with such violence that the River began to overflow its banks from as far as the Mount in Cornwall along on both sides up into Somersetshire and
Glocestershire in some places the waters rose three foot in others 5 and 7 and in some Towns and Villages they rose higher than the tops of the Houses so that notwithstanding whatever course could be taken there were 80 Persons drowned besides much Cattle divers Churches and several Parishes overwhelmed thereby it did likewise a great deal of harm in Wales the damages being reckoned above 20 thousand pound In the year 755 Kenwulf King of the West Saxons giving himself up to all manner of Vice and Debauchery coming to Merton in this County to visit a Wench that he kept was there slain and buried at Winchester About the year 1020. Godwin the subtle Earl of Kent cast a covetous eye on the fair Nunnery of Berkly in Glocestershire and thus contrived it for himself he left there a handsome young man as seemingly sick for their Charity to recover the Abbess was a fair and noble Lady Godwin seeking not her but hers gives the young man charge so long to counterfeit till he had debauched the Abbess and as many of the Nuns besides as he could intice to his pleasure and left him withal Rings Jewels Girdles and such toys to give them still when they came to visit him the young man willing to undergo such a task so plaid his part that in a short time he got up most of their Bellies and when he had done told his Lord how he had sped the Earl goes instantly to Court tells the King that such a Nunnery was become a Bawdy House procures a Visitation gets them turned out and begs the Land for his own use At another time this Godwin had a mind to another rich Mannor in Sussex called Boscham and complemented it out of Robert Archbishop of Canterbury in this manner coming to the Archbishop he said Da mihi Basium that is Give me a buss or kiss an usual favour from such a Prelate the Archbishop answers Do tibi Basium I give thee a kiss and therewith kissed him upon which Godwin presently goes to Bascham and takes possession thereof and though here was neither any real intention in him that passed it away nor valuable consideration to him but a meer circumvention yet such was Godwins power and the Archbishops poorness of Spirit that he quietly enjoyed it these rich and ancient Mannors of Berkly and Boscham though distant ten miles asunder are both now met in the Right Honourable George Earl of Berkly as Heir Apparent thereof his Ancestors being long since possessed of them In the Reign of K. Edward 1. the Monastery of Glocester was burnt down to the ground In King Henry 8. time James Bainham Son to Sir Alexander Bainham of this County was burnt for professing the Gospel he was bred in Learning and had knowledge of the Greek and Latin Tongues of a virtuous disposition and Religious Conversation much addicted to Prayer and a diligent Reader of the Holy Scriptures he applied himself to the study of the Law wherein he was very merciful to his Clients ready to give Council to Widdows Fatherless and Afflicted without mony or reward at last he was suspected and complained of to Sir Tho. More then Lord Chancellor and being brought to his House at Chelsey Sir Thomas laboured with frowns and flatteries to withdraw him from the truth which not prevailing he caused him to be tied to a Tree in his Garden called by him the The Tree of Truth and then most cruelly scourged him to make him renounce his opinion this not succeeding Sir Thomas himself saw him cruelly racked in the Tower till he was lamed because he would not accuse some of his acquaintance nor discover where his Books lay then was his Wife Imprisoned and his Goods confiscated yet at last he was persuaded to abjure and solemnly carried a Torch and a Faggot in St. Pauls Church but hereby he rather exchanged than escaped fire feeling such a fire in his own Conscience that he could not be quiet till he had asked God and all the world forgiveness which he did 1st in the Protestant Congregation who met privately in a Ware-house in Bow-lane the next Lords day he went to St. Austins the next Parish Church to St. Pauls that the Antidote might be brought as near as he could conveniently to the place of his poyson where standing up in a Pew with an English New Testament in his hand he declared openly before all the People with abundance of Tears That he had denied God and prayed all the Congregation to believe him and to be warned by his fall not to do the like for said he if I should not return again to the Truth this Word of God holding up his New Testament would damn me both body and soul in the day of Judgement and therefore he intreated them all rather to dye presently than to do as he had done for he would not feel such an hell in his Conscience again for all the World After this he was soon apprehended again and cruelly handled by the Bishop of London putting him in the Stocks and whipping him barbarously for a fortnight together to force him again to recant but all in vain so that he was condemned to be burnt and being in the midst of the Flames which had half consumed his Arms and Legs he spake these words O ye Papists behold you look for Miracles and here now you may see a Miracle for in this Fire I feel no more pain than if I were in a bed of Down but it is to me as a bed of Roses There was in this County one William Dangerfield who with his Wife was imprisoned for the Protestant Faith and was so cruelly used by the Bishop that his legs were almost eaten off with the Irons after a while the Bishop sent for him and told him his Wife had recanted who was as well learned as he and therefore persuaded him to sign a Recantation which they brought having signed it they let him go to his Wife and shewing his Recantation her heart was ready to break crying out Alas Husband thus long we have continued one and hath Satan now so far prevailed with you as to cause you to break your Vow which you made to God in Baptism This so far prevailed with him that he repented of his Apostacy and not long after through the extream cruelty used to them they both dyed in Prison In 1575. Feb. 16. between 4 and 5 in the afternoon great Earthquakes happened in Glocester Worcester Hereford York Bristow and the parts adjacent which caused the People to run out of their Houses for fear they should have fallen on their heads in Tewksbury Bredon and other places the dishes fell off the shelves and books in mens studies fell down before them in Norton Chappel the People being at Prayers and feeling the ground move ran out for fear it should have fallen on their heads part of Rithing Castle fell down and likewise divers brick Chimnies in several Gentlemens Houses In
grandeur persuaded her Husband that he came thither upon some treacherous design and therefore he with some of his Council contrived his destruction which some say was by causing him to fall into a deep Pit digged to that purpose under his Chair of State and that then being alone one Gimbert took and bound him and then struck off his Head which he presented to the King and Queen Thus was this Innocent Prince unjustly murdered but not without divine Vengeance following the Actors for the Queen Author of this Villany died in three months after and was so tormented in her sickness that she bit and tore her Tongue in pieces which had been the Instrument of this Barbarity and Offa at length being satisfied of the Kings Innocence and the heinousness of the Fact gave the 10th part of his Goods to the Church and according to the Devotion of that Age built the Abby of St. Albans and other Monasteries and went afterward to do Pennance at Rome where he gave to the Church of St. Peter a Penny from every House in his Dominions which were commonly called Romeshot or Peter-Pence and at last was transformed from a King to a Monk Thus the Almighty punished not only him and his Wife but the whole Land suffered for this horrid Murder in being made the Popes Vassals for the Clergy seldom parting with any thing they get the poor English were forced to pay this unjust Tax for many Hundred Years after Nay further the King and his Son also died within a year after this cruel Murder whereby that Kingdom was translated from the Mercians to the West-Saxons In the Reign of K. Henry 3. the Abbot of St. Albans ordered his Servant to fetch him a mans Wife in the Town with whom he pretended earnest business the Servant accordingly brought her to his Masters Chamber and then withdrawing the Abbot told her that her Cloaths were but very mean but if she would be ruled by him she should wear as good Cloaths as any Woman in the Parish and therewith began to be very brisk upon her and finding persuasions would not prevail endeavoured by force to debauch her but all in vain whereupon he kept her several days a Prisoner in his Chamber which her Husband having notice of fetches her from him and tells his Neighbours he will sue the Abbot for imprisoning his Wife which he hearing of prosecuted the poor man in the Ecclesiastical Court for defamation and thereby frighted him from any further proceedings Sir Thomas More though a virulent Papist reports a story of the like Nature That a poor man found a Priest over familiar with his Wife and because he told it abroad and had no Witnesses to prove it the Priest sued him in the Bishops Court and at length the Poor man under pain of being cursed and excommunicated was enjoined to stand up in the Church the next Sunday and say Mouth thou lyest accordingly having repeated what he had reported of the Priest he put his hand to his Mouth and said Mouth thou liest and then laying his hands on his Eyes he said But Eyes by the Mass ye lye not a whit In K. Henry the 7. time an Act was made to punish the incontinency of Priests and Francis Petrarch an Archdeacon thus Anatomizes the Roman Clergy which discovers the extream Chastity of the Popish Batchelors Here Venus with her wanton toys Is honoured with base Bawds and Boys Whoredom Adultery and Incest Are honoured here among the best And counted but for sports and plays Even with the Prelates of these days The Wife is ravisht from her Spouse And to the Sons of th' Church she bows The poor good man must leave the Town Such Ordinances are set down And when her Belly riseth high By Clergy-Men who with her lie The Husband must not dare complain But takes his Wife with Child again In the Reign of K. Hen. 6. 1454. the Duke of York raised a great Army of which the King having notice got considerable forces together and marched to St. Albans to whom the Duke and his Adherents came desiring the King to deliver such Persons whom they would name that they might be deservedly punished To whom the King taking Courage returns this resolute Answer That the Duke and his Accomplices were Traitors and that rather than he would deliver up any Lord then attending him he himself would that day live and dye in their quarrel and defence Whereupon the Duke and his Party went away dissatisfied and the Yorkists fell immediately upon the Kings Party in St. Albans and the Earl of Warwick breaking through a Garden a sharp Fight is immediately begun which ended with very great loss on the Kings side the Dukes of Somerset Buckingham and his Son the Earls of Northumberland Stafford and the L. Clifford being slain and buried at St Albans with above 5000 common Souldiers and the King himself unguarded is left in a poor thatcht house whither he retired from the danger of the Arrows The Duke of York having notice where he was goes with the Earls of Warwick and Salisbury who all three upon their knees present themselves to him making humble Petition for Pardon of what is past and now seeing the Duke of Somerset the common Enemy is slain they had what they aimed at To whom the King throughly affrighted said Let there be no more killing then and I will do what you would have me After which a Parliament was called wherein the Duke of York was made Protector of the Kings Person and of the Realm though the King were 35 years old This Battle of St. Albans was fought May 23. in the 33. Year of K. Henry's Reign wherein the King himself was shot in the Neck with an Arrow In 1461. another Battle was fought at St. Albans between the Earl of March Son to the Duke of York and King Henry the 6. his Queen for the Duke of York being slain at Wakefield his Son Edward E. of March afterward King Edward 4. getting his forces together beat the Queens Army at Mortimers Cross before which Battle it is said the Sun appeared to the Earl of March like three Suns and suddenly joined altogether in one for which it is thought he gave the Sun in its full brightness for his Badge or Cognizance The Queen in the mean time encouraged by the death of the Duke of York got some Northern Souldiers together and marched toward London and coming to St Albans the Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Warwick with the forces of the Earl of March King Henry himself being Prisoner among them encountred them where after a stout resistance the Queens Army routed the other of which about 2000 were slain after which the King Queen and the Prince her Son met joyfully together though their joy continued not long King Henry being deposed soon after and Edward Earl of March proclaimed King and all this by the assistance of the Citizens of London and their Wives who were
as some think which occasions vapours to break violently out of the Earth The Natives who dwell about these Meers are healthy and live long but strangers are subject to much sickness In the Year 1580. Sept. 23. at Fennystanton in this County one Agnes Wife to William Linsey was delivered of an ugly strange Monster with a black Face Mouth and Eyes like a Lion which was both Male and Female In 1584. there happened a strange thing at Spaldwick in this Shire Mr. Dorrington one of the Gentlemen Pensioners to Q. Elizabeth had a Horse which died suddenly and being opened to see the cause of his Death there was found in his heart a Worm of a wondrous form as it lay together in a kall or skin it resembled a Toad but being taken thence the shape was hard to be described the length of it divided into 80 Grains which spread from the Body like the branches of a Tree was from the snout to the end of the longest grain 17 Inches having 4 Issues in the grains from whence dropped a red Water the Body was 3 Inches and an half about the Collar being like that of a Mackrel this prodigious Worm crawling about to have got away was killed with a Dagger and being dried was shewed to many Honourable Persons as a great rarity We read that Henry Holland Duke of Exeter and E. of Huntington who married the Sister of K. Edward 4. was driven to such want that passing into Flanders Philip de Comines saith he saw him running on Foot and bare leg'd after the Duke of Burgundy's Train begging his Bread for God's sake whom the Duke of Burgundy at that time did not know though they had married two Sisters but hearing afterward who it was allotted him a small pension to maintain him till not long after he was found dead upon the shore of Dover and stripped all naked but how he came by his death could never by any inquiry be brought to light It is observed by Mr. Speed that the ancient Families of this County have been more outworn proportionably than in any other few now remaining whose Sir-names were eminent in the Reign of K. Hen. 8. the reason whereof may probably be because this Shire being generally Abby Lands after their dissolution many new purchasers planted themselves therein But Let 's not repine that Men and Names do die Since Stone-built Cities dead and ruin'd lie This County is divided into 4 Hundreds wherein are 6 Market Towns and 69 Parish Churches and is in the Diocess of Lincoln out of it are elected 4 Parliament men for the County 2. for Huntington 2. It gives the Title of Earl to Theophilus L. Hastings KENT in the Saxon Heptarchy was an entire Kingdom by itself an honour which no other County attained to it hath the Thames on the North the Sea on the East and South Sussex and Surrey on the West from East to West it is 53 Miles and from North to South 26. The upper part of it they say is healthful but not so wealthy the middle they account both healthful and wealthy the lower they hold to be wealthy but not healthy as which for a great part thereof is very moist It is every where almost full of Meadows Pastures and Corn fields abounding wonderfully in Apple-trees and Cherry-trees the Trees are planted after a very direct manner one against another by square most pleasant to behold It is plentiful of Fowl Fish and all sorts of grain It hath Villages and Towns exceeding thick and well peopled safe Roads and sure Harbours for Ships with some Veins of Iron and Marble The Air is somewhat thick and foggy by reason of Vapours arising out of the Waters This County hath 2 Cities and Bishops Seas was strengthened formerly with 27 Castles graced with 4 of the Kings Houses The Kentish People in Caesars time were accounted the civilest among the Brittains and had the Priviledge to lead the Van in all Battles for their valour shewed against the Danes and those of Cornwall Devonshire and Wiltshire the Rear They esteem themselves the first Christians since their King and People received the Christian Faith before any other of the Saxons in 596. yea and long before that time Kent received the Gospel for it is recorded that Lucius the first Christian Brittish King in this Island built a Church for the service of Christ at Dover endowing it with the Toll of that Haven They glory that they were never conquered but were compounded with by the Norman Conqueror of whom our English Poet writes thus Stout Kent this praise to thee doth of most right belong Thou never wast enslaved impatient wert of wrong Who when the Norman first with Pride and Horrour sway'd Threwst off the servile Yoak upon the English laid And with a Courage great most bravely didst restore That Liberty so long enjoy'd by thee before Not suffering foreign Laws should thy free Customs bind And thereby shewedst thy self o' th noble Saxon kind Of all the English Shires be thou sirnam'd the free And foremost ever placed when they shall marshall'd be Of their throwing off the Norman Yoke Mr. Sâ—â—den thus explains it When the Norman Conqueror had the day he came to Dover Castle the Look and Key of the Kingdom that he might with safety subdue Kent also a most strong and populous Province and secure himself from the Invasion of Enemies which when Stygand Archbishop of Canterbury and the Abbot of St. Austins who were the chief Lords and Governours of Kent understood they assembled the Commons and told them of the dangers of their Country the miseries of their Neighbours the Pride of the French and that the English till then were born free and the name of Villains or Bondsmen not heard among them but now slavery only attends us said he if we submit to the insolency of our Enemies And therefore these two Prelates offered to command them and to dye with them in the defence of their Freedom and Country whereby the People were so extreamly encouraged that they concluded to meet at a day appointed at Swanscomb two Miles West from Gravesend where being come accordingly and keeping themselves private in the Woods they waited the coming of William the Conqueror filling up all the way by which he was to pass with each of them a great green Bough in his hand whereby they might hide their number from being discovered and if occasion were fall upon the Normans the next day the Duke came by Swanscomb and was much amazed to see a Wood as it were marching toward him for being as he thought free from the Enemy he was now beset on all sides with Trees and knew not but all the other vast Woods thereabout were of the same nature neither had he leisure to avoid the danger for the Kentish men immediately enclosing his Army about displayed their Banners and throwing down their Branches at the sound of a Trumpet prepare their Bows and Arrows ready for
night before the Fight which was this Jack of Norfolk be not too bold For Dickon thy Master is bought and sold Yet notwithstanding this warning this noble Duke continued firm to K. Richard and lost his Life in his quarrel The whole number slain in this Battle on K. Richard's side was about 1000 Persons Sir Wm. Catesby one of the chief Counsellors of K. Richard with divers others were two days after beheaded at Leicester This Battle was fought Aug. 20. 1485. continuing a little above two hours The Earl Knighted several persons in the Field and then kneeling down he rendred hearty Thanks to Almighty God for the Victory he had obtained and commanded all the wounded men to be cured whereat the People rejoycing clapt their hands and cried K. Henry K. Henry of which joy Sir W. Stanly taking opportunity he took the Crown of K. Richard which was found among the spoils in the Field and set it on the Earls Head as though he had been elected King by the voice of the People The Body of K. Richard after he was slain was script and left naked to the very skin not so much as a rag being left about him to cover his nakedness and being taken up was trussed behind a pursivant at Arms his Head and Arms hanging on one side the Horse and his Legs on the other thus all besmeared with Blood and dirt he was brought to the Gray Friars Church in Leicester and there for some time lay a miserable spectacle and afterward with small Funeral Pomp was there buried But K. Henry 7. afterward caused a Tomb to be set over the place with his Picture in Alabaster which at the suppression of that Monastery was utterly defaced since when his Grave overgrown with Nettles and Weeds is not to be found only the stone Chest wherein his Corps lay is now made a drinking Trough for Horses at a common Inn in Leicester and retaineth only the memory of this Monarchs greatness but his body is reported to have been carried out of the City and contemptuously laid under the end of Bow-Bridge near that Town it is likewise said that upon this Bridg there stood a stone of some height against which K. Richard as he passed toward Bosworth by chance struck his spur which a Witch or wise Woman observing she should say That where his spur struck his head should be broken as they say it was when he was brought back dead He lived 37 years and reigned two years and two months it is memorable that this Sir William Stanly who so seasonably saved K. Henries life and set the Crown on his head was about 11 years after upon pretence of some dangerous words beheaded at Tower-hill by order of the same King Henry Mr. Wanly writes that in St. Martins Church in Leicester there is this very remarkable Epitaph to be seen Here lies the body of John Heyrick of this Parish who died 1589. aged 76 years who lived with his Wife Mary in one House full 62 years and had issue by her 5 Sons and seven Daughters and in all that time never buried Man Woman nor Child though they were somtime 20 in Houshold the said Mary lived to 97 years and died 1611. She did see before her departure of her Children and Childrens Children and their Children to the number of 142. Matthew Paris relates of a Maid in Leicestershire who being exactly watched was found in seven years together neither to eat nor drink but only that on Sundays she received the Sacrament and yet continued fat and good liking which if true we may well believe that in the Resurrection our life may be maintained without meat or drink About Lutterworth in Leicestershire a Miller had murdered one in his Mill and privately buried him in a ground hard by this Miller removed into another Country and there lived a long space till at last guided by the Providence of God for the manifestation of his Justice he returned unto that place to visit some of his Friends while he was there the Miller who now had the Mill had occasion to dig deep in that very place where he found the Carkass of a man this known it pleased God to put it into their hearts to remember a Neighbour of theirs who 20 years before was suddenly missed and since that time not heard of and bethinking themselves who was then Miller of that Mill behold he was ready in Town not having been there for many years before this man was suspected thereupon examined without much ado confessed the Fact was accordingly executed for the same In 1660. Sep. 3. near Worthington in this County there happened a dreadful Whirlwind which tore up a great Tree by the Roots casting it four or five yards from the place rent off the great limbs of an Apple-Tree and threw down a House in the Street the Chappel was much shaken and the Chancel in danger of falling then it passed on with great force and noise to Worthington Hall where it overturned five Bay of Barn-building and a Gate-house it blew down a stack of Chimnies and hurried a man into the Garden who by catching hold of a Tree stayed himself at another Town it rent a House where a woman and three Children were miraculously preserved to which it brought a great Log of Wood no body knew from whence it carried away a Hive of Bees and a load of Thorns which could not be heard of and turned up 20 Load of Wood by the roots this whirlwind ran about three miles in length and not above 20 yards in breadth some said there were flames of fire seen in it Upon the 24. of January following between six and seven a clock at night there was a very great Earthquake in most parts of Leicestershire which came at first like a noise in the Air at great distance it shook the Houses very much and in some places men could hardly stand without holding the continuance thereof was about a quarter of an hour Near Lutterworth is a spring so cold that in a short time it turneth straw and sticks into stone John Wickliff was sometime Parson of Lutterworth Church a man of singular and polite wit and much conversant in the Scripture his bones were afterward taken up and burnt by the Papists Sir Robert Belknap Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in K. Richard 2. time was of this County and that K. having a design to destroy certain Lords sent for the Judges to Nottingham where the Kings many questions were in fine resolved into this Whether he might by his Regal Power revoke what was acted in Parliament to this all the Judges Sir William Skipwith alone excepted answered Affirmatively and subscribed it though this Belknap did it unwillingly as foreseeing the danger and putting to his Seal said these words There wants nothing now but an Hurdle an Horse and an Halter to carry me where I may suffer the death I deserve for if I had not
died about the midst of the Reign of King James In 1614. Such great Inundations of Water happened in Lincolnshire and the parts adjacent that the Sea entred 12 miles into the Land I have a Letter by me saith Mr. Clerk dated July 7. 1606. written by one Mr. Bovy to a Minister in London where he thus writes Touching News you shall understand that Mr. Sherwood hath received a Letter from Mr. Arthur Hildersham which containeth this following Narrative That at Brampton in the Parish of Torksey near Gainsborough in Lincolnshire an Ash-Tree shaketh both in the Body and Boughs thereof and there proceeds from thence sighs and groans like those of a man troubled in his sleep as if it felt some sensible torment Many have climbed to the top thereof where they heard the groans more plainly than they could below One among the rest being atop spoke to the Tree but presently came down much astonished and lay groveling on the Earth Speechless for 3 hours and then reviving said Brampton Brampton thou are much bound to pray The Author of this News is one Mr. Vaughan a Minister who was there present and heard and saw these Passages and told Mr. Hildersham of it The Earl of Lincoln caused one of the Arms of the Ash to be lopped off and a hole to be bored into the Body and then was the sound or hollow voice heard more audibly than before but in a kind of Speech which they could not comprehend nor understand In 1666. Oct. 13. there was an extraordinary and dreadful Storm of Thunder in Lincolnshire accompanied with Hailstones much bigger than Pigeons and some as large as Pullets Eggs immediately after there followed a terrible storm and Tempest attended with a very unusual noise and with such violence that at Welborn it threw most of the Houses to the ground brake down some and tore up other Trees by the Roots scattering abroad much Corn and Hay but by Divine Providence only one Boy was killed in that Town It went thence to Willingore the next Town overthrowing some houses and killing 2 Children with the fall it fell so violently on the Church of the next Town to this that it presently dashed the Spire Steeple to pieces and rent the Stone and Timberwork of the Church so violently that but a little of the Wall and only the Body of the Steeple was left standing it threw down many Houses Trees and out-houses in this Town as well as in two others far distant It was observed to move only in a channel or small breadth and if it had been considerably broader could not but have ruined a great part of the Country to some that saw it at a distance before it came near them it had the appearance of Fire and was by some observed to move in a kind of circle though at the same time it kept its general course along It passed also through Nottinghamshire some of the Hailstones being measured were 9 Inches about this Whirl-Wind extended above 60 Yards in breadth In the Forrest of Sherwood it broke down and overthrew at least 1000 Trees it brake one short off in the Body which was three Foot in Diameter it overthrew divers Wind Mills some Boats in the River and in one Town consisting of 50 Houses it left but 7 standing The same Evening over Derby Town and some other places there appeared a fiery Sword hanging in the Air over them The Thursday after in the Evening there were strange Fires seen hanging over Nottingham Town sinsomuch that some of the Inhabitants coming homeward from a Country Market thought the Town to be on Fire in three several places these Informations saith Mr. Clerk I had from Eye-Witnesses worthy of Credit About April 26. 1661. at Spalding Bourne and several other places in Lincolnshire it rained Wheat some grains whereof were very thin and hollow but others of a more firm substance and would grind into fine flower several Pecks of it were taken up out of Church Leads and other houses that were leaded several Inhabitants who were Eye-Witnesses brought up a considerable quantity to London There is a Proverb in this Country As mad as the baiting Bull of Stamford the Original whereof was thus occasioned William Earl of Warren Lord of this Town in the time of King John standing upon the Castle Walls of Stamford saw two Bulls fighting for a Cow in the Meadow till all the Butchers Dogs great and small pursued one of the Bulls being mad with noise and multitude quite through the Town this sight so pleased the Earl that he gave all those Fields called the Castle Meadows where first the Bull-duel began for a common to the Butchers of the Town after the first grass was eaten upon condition they find a Mad Bull the day 6 weeks before Christmas-day for the continuance of the sport every year some think that the men must be as mad as the Bull who can take delight in so dangerous a pastime whereby Gods providence more than mans care is to be observed that no more mischief is done The Horrid Murther of K. EDWARD 2. Pa. 78. The Dreadfull Tempest in Devonshire Pa. 55. The County of Lincoln hath three Divisions wherein are 30 Hundreds and hath in it 35 Market Towns 630 Parish Churches and is in the Diocess of Lincoln It elects 12 Parliament men and gives the Title of Earl to Edward Lord Clinton as Stamford doth to Henry Lord Gray MIDDLESEX hath Hartfordshire on the North Buckinghamshire on the West Essex parted with the Ley on the East Kent and Surrey severed by the Thames on the South The Air is generally very healthful especially about Highgate where the expert Inhabitants report That divers who have been long visited with sickness not curable by Physick have in short time recovered by that sweet salutary Air The Soil is very fruitful pleasantly beautified on all sides with sumptuous Houses and pretty Towns Harrow-Hill is the highest in all this County under which there lie a long way together Southward exceeding rich and fruitful Fields especially about Heston a small Village which yieldeth such fine flower for Manchet that the Kings Bread was formerly made thereof and therefore Q. Eliz. received no Composition Money from the Villages thereabout but took her Wheat in kind for her own Pastry and Bakehouse Hampton Court a Royal Pallace and the neatest of all the Kings Houses is in this Shire it is a Work of admirable magnificence a City rather in shew than the Pallace of a Prince for stately Port and gorgeous Building saith Weaver not inferiour to any in Europe It was built out of the ground by that Pompous Prelate Cardinal Woolsey in ostentation of his Riches one so magnificent in his expences that whosoever considers his House-building would admire that he had any thing for his House-keeping or House-furnishing He bestowed this on K. Hen. 8. who for the greater grace thereof erected it to be an honour Princes having Power to confer dignities
he was justly punished for his Treachery K. Stephen had only one Son named Eustace a Prince of much blossoming valour as being cut off at 18 years of Age some say by drowning and others by a stranger Accident but strange Relations must not alwaies be rejected for though many of them be forged yet some no doubt are true and who knows but it may be of this kind which some writers relate of this Prince That being at the Abby of Bury in the Diocess of Norwich and denyed some money he demanded he presently in a rage went forth and set the Cornfields belonging to the Abby on fire but afterward sitting down to Dinner at the first morsel of bread he put into his mouth he fell into a fit of madness and in that fit dyed certainly the Persons of Princes are for more observation than ordinary People and as they make Examples so they are sometimes made Examples In the 11th of K. Hen. 2. there was so great an Earthquake in Norfolk and some other Counties that it overthrew many who stood upon their feet and made the Bells towl in the Steeples In his 18th Year the Cathedral Church at Norwich with the Houses thereto belonging was burnt and the Monks dispersed In the Reign of K. Richard 1. a Jew being turned Christian at Lynn in Norfolk he was persecuted by those of his own Nation and assaulted in the street who thereupon flying to a Church hard by was followed thither also and the Church assaulted which the People of the Town seeing in defence of the new Christian they fell upon the Jews of whom they slew a great number and after pillaged their Houses By this Example the Jews were assaulted in other places and vast multitudes of them massacred and some of them being blocked up in a Castle at York cut the Throats of their Wives and Children and cast them over the Walls on the Christians Heads and then burnt the Castle and themselves neither could this Sedition be stayed till the King sent his Chancellour the Bishop of Ely with force of Arms to punish the offenders In the 5th of Hen 5. a great part of the City of Norwich was burnt and all the Houses of the Friers Preachers where two of the Friers themselves were burnt in the flames In the 2d of Edward 6. 1549 a dangerous Rebellion broke forth in Norfolk about Grievances for Inclosures The Rebels had got one Ket a Tanner to be their Leader who with others encouraged them to pull down Inclosures and in short time they grew to a Body of 20000 so that the Sheriff of Norfolk commanding them in the Kings name to depart or else he would proclaim them Traitors he had been certainly slain had not his Horse been too swift for them they furnished themselves with Arms and Artillery and for their better security they fortified themselves upon Monshold hill near St. Leonards hill by Norwich where they carried a face as it were of Justice and Religion for they had one Convers an Idle Fellow for their Chaplain who morning and evening read solemn Prayers to them also Sermons they had often and as for Justice they ordained a Seat of Judgment in an old Tree whose Canopy was the Cope of Heaven in this Tree sate the Tanner as Chancellour and chief Judge giving out Warrants in the Kings name and as his Deputy committed many Persons of Quality to Prison he was assisted by two chosen men of every hundred among them from whom Commissions were sent to bring in to them Powder Shot Victuals and all things necessary and here such as had exceeded their Commission were ordered to be imprisoned so that this Tree was called The Oak of Reformation whence likewise some Sermons were delivered to the People and once by the Reverend Dr. Parker which had like to have cost him his Life and now beginning to grow to a height they presented certain Complaints to the King requiring he would send an Herald to give them satisfaction the King though he took it for a great Indignity to have such base Fellows capitulate with him yet framing himself to the time he returned this answer That in October following he would call a Parliament wherein their Complaints should he heard and all their Grievances redressed requiring theâ— in the mean time to lay down their Arms and return to their houses and thereupon granting them a general pardon But this was so far from satisfying the Seditious that thereupon they first assaulted the City of Norwich took it and made the Mayor attend them as their servant and then returned again to their Station at Moushold Soon after the Marquess of Northampton the L. Sheffeild with several other Lords 1500 Horse and a small Band of Italians were sent against them whom the Seditious so stoutly opposed that much mischief was done on both sides the L. Sheffeild falling with his Horse into a Ditch was taken Prisoner and as he pulled off his Helmet to make himself known he was struck down dead by a Butcher so that the Marquess with his Forces not prevailing the Earl of Warwick was sent with 6000 Foot and 1500 Horse and many other Persons of Quality When the Earl approached the Camp of the Rebels he sent a Herald offering them the Kings Pardon if they would disband which they were so far from accepting that a lewd Boy turned up his naked Breech toward the Herald and bid him kiss it upon this many skirmishes passed between the Earl and them with loss sometimes of one side and sometimes of another at last they came to a Battle where the Rebels placed in the Front all the Gentlemen they had taken Prisoners designing they should first be slain of whom yet very few were hurt but of the Rebels above 2000 were killed and now once again the Earl of Warwick offered them pardon but for all their losses they continued obstinate at last the Earl sent to know if they would entertain their Pardon if he should come in Person and assure them of it this moved them much and they answered That they knew him to be so honourable that from himself they would embrace it whereupon he went to them and causing their Pardon to be read again he confirmed it by his words so effectually that they all cast away their Arms and with one voice cried God save K. Edward The day following Robert Ket the Tanner and Arch-Rebel was taken and hanged in Chains upon the Castle of Norwich and William Ket the younger was hanged upon the high Steeple of Wimondham and 9 of the other principal Rebels were hanged upon the Oak of Reformation and thus ended the Sedition in Norfolk the day of the defeat of the Rebels being a long time after observed as a Festival by the Citizens of Norwich with no less joy than the Jews did when they escaped the sword of wicked Haman In 1578. the 20 of Q. Elizabeth Matthew Hamond of Hitherset 3 miles from Norwich Plow-Wright for
That her being a Widdow might be sufficient to restrain him to whom the King replied Whereas you say Madam that she is a Widdow and hath already Children by Gods blessed Lady I am a Batchellor and have some too and so each of us have a proof that none of us is like to be barren and he accordingly married her being the first of our Kings since the Conquest that married his own Subject yet was his love divided among three other of his Mistresses of whom he was wont to say The one was the fairest the other the merriest and the third the Holiest Harlot in England as being alwaies at her Beads in the Chappel when he sent for her to his Bed His Queen lived to see the death of her Husband murther of her two Sons restraint of her self and the rest of her Children so that she had more greatness than joy height than happiness by Marriage she finished Queens Colledge in Cambridge and died not long after At Fotheringay Castle in this County was acted the Tragedy of Mary Q. of Scots Mother to K. James in the 29 year of Q. Elizabeth 1587. This Mary was the Daughter and only lawfully begotten Child of James 5. and succeeded in her Cradle to the Throne she was promised in Marriage to King Edw. 6. of England but by the power of the Hamiltons carried into France and there married to Francis 2. King of France about which time Reformation in Religion began to be practised in Scotland as well as England for at the Preaching of John Knox and some other Ministers Images Altars and such things were defaced and it was further put into the heads of the Nobility That it pertained to them of their own Authority to take away Idolatry and by force reduce the Prince to the prescript of Laws whereupon there was presently bandying of the Lords of Scotland against the Queen Dowager and each of them sent for Aid she from France and the Lords from England but this was matter for Consultation it seemed a bad example for a Prince to give Aid to the Rebellious Subjects of another Prince on the other side it seemed no less than Impiety not to give Aid to Protestants of the same Religion but most of all it seemed meer madness to suffer enemies to be so near Neighbours and let the French nestle in Scotland who pretend Title to England upon such considerations it was resolved Queen Elizabeth should send them Aid and thereupon an Army of 6000 Foot and 1200 Horse were sent under the Duke of Norfolk and others who going into Scotland joined with the Lords where passed many light Skirmishes many Batteries and sometimes Assaults which growing tedious soon after ended in a Peace between France and England upon condition That neither the King of France nor the Queen of Scotland should thence forth use the Arms or Titles of England or Ireland and that both the English and French should depart out of Scotland and a general pardon should pass in Parliament for all that had been Actors in those Stirs The Peace was scarce concluded when Francis the young K. of France died and left Mary Qu. of Scots a Widdow soon after the House of Commons in Parliament humbly moved Queen Elizabeth to Marry who answered That she was already Married to the Kingdom of England and behold saith she the pledge of the Covenant with my Husband and therewith held out her Finger and shewed the Ring wherewith at her Coronation she gave her self in Wedlock to the Kingdom and if said she I keep my self to this Husband and take no other yet I doubt not but God will send you as good Kings as if they were born of me for as much as we see by dayly experience that the issue of the best Princes do often degenerate and for my self it will be sufficient that a Marble Stone declare that a Queen having reigned such a time lived and dyed a Virgin She had indeed many matches propounded to her to whom she gave Testimonies of her Princely favour but never pledges of nuptial Love about this time the Earl of Feria who had Married the Daughter of Sir William Dormer being denied leave of Queen Elizabeth for some of his Wives Friends to live in England he grew so inraged that he persuaded Pope Pius 4. to Excommunicate her as an Heretick and Usurper but the Pope pretending to great gentleness writ to her lovingly To return to the Vnity of the Catholick Church and made great offers if she would hearken to his Counsel particularly That he would recall the Sentence against her Mothers Marriage confirm the Book of Common-Prayer in English and permit the use of the Sacrament in both kinds but the Queen neither terrified with Feria's practices nor allured with the Popes great offers according to her Motto Semper eadem always the same persisted constant in her resolution to maintain that Religion which in her Conscience she was persuaded to be most agreeable to the Word of God and the practice of the Primitive Church Queen Mary after the death of her Husband went from France to Scotland and then sent Letters to Q. Elizabeth offering readily to enter into a League with her so she might by Authority of Parliament be declared her Successor which was but her Right to which Q. Elizabeth answered That though she would no way derogate from her Right yet she should be loth to endanger her own security and as it were to cover her own eyes with a grave cloth while she was alive The two Queens were indeed both of great Spirits Mary doubting Queen Elizabeth meant to frustrate her Succession and Elizabeth lest the Queen of Scots meant to hinder her Succession which created Jealousies and many unkind passages between them as by the sequel appears The Queen of Scots having a desire to Marry again Queen Elizabeth proposed the Earl of Leicester to her but she Married the Lord Darnly Son to the Earl of Lenox and thereupon the next Parliament again move Queen Elizabeth to marry to declare her Successor to the Crown some of them boldly arguing That Princes were bound to design a Successor and that in not doing it the Queen would shew her self no better than a Parricide and destroyer of her Country The Queen was contented to bear with words spoken in Parliament which out of it she would never have endured and commanded 30 of each House to appear before her to whom she said That she knew what danger hangeth over a Princes head when a Successor is once declared she knew that even Children themselves out of a hasty desire of bearing Rule had taken up Arms against their own Father and how could better be expected from Kindred And therefore though she had given them leave to debate the matter of Succession she bid them beware not to be injurious to their Princes patience After which they never made any further motion to her but now the love between the Queen of
done for their utter overthrow and extirpation and to the better Corroboration of this our Loyal Band and Association we do also testify by this writing that we do confirm the contents hereof by our Oaths corporally taken upon the holy Evangelists with this express condition that no one of us shall for any respect of Persons or causes for fear or reward separate our selves from this Association or fail in the prosecution thereof during our lives upon pain of being by the rest of us prosecuted and supprest as perjured Persons and as publick Enemies to God our Queen and to our native Country To which punishment and pains we do voluntarily submit our selves and every of us without benefit of any colour or pretence In Witness of all which Premises to be inviolably kept we do to this writing put our Hands and Seals and shall be most ready to accept and admit any others hereafter into this Society and Association The Queen of Scots presently apprehending that this Association was entred into her destruction offers to enter into it herself it permitted to which Q. Elizabeth seemed inclining but it was alledged by her Enemies That the Queen could be no longer in safety if the Q. of Scots were set at liberty that the Reformed Religion lay a bleeding if Papists were admitted into the Court Walls c. In the succeeding Parliament this Association was universally approved and enacted in this form That 24 or more of the Queens Privy Council and Peers of the Realm should be selected and authorized under the great Seal of England to make enquiry of all such Persons as shall attempt to invade the Kingdom or raise Rebellion shall attempt any thing else against the Q's Person for whomsoever and by whomsoever that layeth any claim to the Crown of Eng. and that Person for whom and by whom they shall attempt any such thing shall be altogether incapable of the Crown c. The next Year a dangerous conspiracy was discovered against the Queen for one John Savage by the seducement of Dr. Gifford was persuaded it was meritorious to take away the Lives of Princes excommunicate who thereupon vowed to kill Q. Elizabeth but to make the Queen and her Council secure at the same time they writ a Book exhorting the Papists in England to attempt nothing against their Prince and to use only the Christian Weapons Tears Prayers Watching and Fasting Babington and several other Gentlemen were in this Plot to whom he shewed Letters which he received from the Q of Scots and her Closets being broke open a number of Letters were found from foreign parts offering her their service and 60 Alphabets of private Characters Fourteen of the Conspirators were executed for this Treason and great consultations were held about the Q. of Scots and at last it was concluded to proceed against her by the aforementioned Law whereupon divers Lords are authorized by the Queens Letters to enquire and by vertue of that Law to pass Sentence against all such as raised Rebellion invaded the Kingdom or attempted any violence against the Queen who Oct. 11. went to Fotheringay Castle where Q. Mary was prisoner and the next day the Queens Letters were delivered her which having with a settled Countenance read she said It seems strange to me that the Queen should lay her Command upon me to hold up my hand at the Bar as though I were a Subject â—â—eing I am an absolute Queen no less than her self and especially that I should be tryed by the English Laws It was at last plainly told her by the Chancellor and Treasurer That â—f she refused to answer to such Crimes as should be objected they would then proceed against her though she were absent Being brought at last with much ado to consent the Commissioners came together in the Presence Chamber and the Queen of Scots being come the Chancellor spake thus to her That the Queen had appointed these Commissioners to hear what she could answer to the Crimes laid to her charge assuring her that nothing would be cause of more Joy to the Queen than to hear that she had proved her self innocent Upon which she rising up said That although being an absolute Prince she could not be compelled to appear before them yet to manifest her Innocence she was now content to appear Then one of the Commissioners opened her Crimes shewing that by the Confessions of Babington Ballard Savage and also Nave and Curle her own Secretaries she was privy to their Treasons and consented to the Invasion of England and destruction of the Queen To which she answered that Letters might be counterfeited her Secretaries might be corrupted the rest in hope of life might be drawn to confessions which were not true In this she stood peremptorily that she never consented to attempt any thing against the Queens Person though for her own delivery she confest she did design it and at last requested That she might be heard in full Parliament or before the Queen her self But this request prevailed not for Oct. 25. at the Star-Chamber at Westminster the Commissioners met again and pronounced Sentence against her confirming by their Seals and Subscriptions That after the first of June in the 27th year of Queen Elizabeth divers matters were compassed and imagined in the Kingdom by Anthony Babington and others with the privity of Mary Queen of Scots pretending Title to the Crown of England tending to the hurt death and destruction of the Royal Person of our said Soveraign Lady the Queen A few days after a Parliament began where the Peers of the Kingdom unanimously presented a Petition that for the safety of the Queen themselves and their Posterity the Sentence against Mary Q. of Scotâ— might according to Law be published putting her iâ— mind of the fearful Examples of Gods Judgments in Scripture upon Saul for sparing K. Agag and upon Ahad for not putting â— Benhadad to death The House of Commons likewise enforced this request a while after the Queen at last replied to this effect I protest my chief desire hath been that for your security and my own safety some other way might be devised than that which is now propounded but since it is now evident and certain that my safety without her destruction is in a most deplorable State I am most grievously afflicted that I who have pardoned so many Rebels have neglected so many Treasons either by silence or connivence should now at last exercise cruelty upon a Prince so nearly allied to me As for your Petition I beseech you to rest in an answer without an answer If I say I will not grant your Petition I shall haply say what I meant not if I should say I will grant it then cast I my self into destruction headlong whose safety you do so earnestly desire and that I know you in your VVisdoms would not I should do After this the Queen upon much sollicitation sealed Letters for executing the Sentence but was in much
Vpstarts and Aliens and had procured laudable Statutes Yea these turbulent Nobles went farther and it was contrived by the Bishops saith M. VVestminst That 24 persons should be chosen to have the whole Administration of the Kingdom and to appoint yearly all Officers reserving only to the King the highest places in publick Meetings and salutations of honour in publick Places And to inforce these Articles they were strongly armed and provided with Forces so that the King and Prince Edward were compelled to swear to these Oxford Provisions as they were called for fear of perpetual Imprisonment the Lords having published a Proclamation That whosoever resisted them should be put to death Then the Peers and Prelates rook their Corporal Oaths to be true to the King and that they would all stand to the Trial of their Peers the Lords soon after required VVilliam de Valence the Kings half-Brother to deliver up a Castle to them which he swearing he would not do the E. of Leicester and the rest answered That they would either have his Castle or his Head The People seemed wholly theirs which so heightened the Barons that when Henry Son to the King of â—lmain refused the confederacy or to take the Oath without his Fathers consent they boldly told him That if his Father himself did not hold with the Baronage of England he should not have a furrow of Earth among them These hot proceedings made all the Frenchmen about the King run from Oxford into France yea Richard King of the Romans the Kings Brother coming to see the King and his Countrey the Barons grew suspicious of him and therefore required him to take the following Oath Hear all men I Richard E. of Cornwall swear upon the holy Gospels to be faithful and forward to reform with you the Kingdom of England hitherto by the counsel of wicked men too much deformed and I will be an effectual coadjutor to expel the Rebels and Troublers of the Realm from out of the same This Oath will I observe upon pain to forfeit all the Lands I have in England These proceedings were too hot to hold for a while after the Earls of Leicester and Glocester two of the chiefest Confederates falling at debate among themselves the King took the advantage thereof and in a little time recovered his former Power and Authority But from hence we may observe that the Popish Nobility Clergy nor Laity have not at all times been so very Loyal to their Princes as they would now make the ignorant believe In the 20. Year of his Reign a Scholar of Oxford endeavouring to kill the King in his Camber at Woodstoock was taken and afterward pulled to pieces with wild Horses In 1400. a Conspiracy was contrived against K. Hen. 4. in the first Year of his Reign in the house of the Abbot of Westminster who was a kind of a Book-Statesman but better read in the Politicks of Aristotle than Solomon who remembring some words of K. Henry when he was only Earl of Derby That Princes had too little and Religious men too much and fearing lest now being King he should put his words into Act he thought it better to use preventing Physick before hand than to stand to the hazard of curing it afterward and thereupon invited to his House several discontented Lords as the Duke of Exeter the Duke of Surrey the Duke of Aumerle E. of Salisbury E. of Glocester Bishop of Carlile Maudlin one of K. Richard 2. Chaplains and several other Knights and Gentlemen who after Dinner conferring together and communicating their disaffections to each other against K. Henry they resolved at last to take away his Life and contrived this way to do it They would publish a solemn Justs or Turnament to be held at Oxford at a day appointed to which the King was to be invited to honour it with his presence and there while all men were intent upon the sport they would have him murthered This Plot was resolved on Oaths of secrecy were taken and solemn Indentures for performing the agreed conditions were signed sealed and delivered The Justs are proclaimed the King is invited and promiseth to come secrecy on all hands is kept most firmly to the very day But though all other kept Counsel yet Providence would not for it happened that as the Duke of Aumerle was riding to the Lords at Oxford against the day appointed he took it in his way to go visit his Father the Duke of York and having in his bosom the Indenture of Conspiracy his Father as they sate at dinner chanced to spy it and asked what it was to whom his Son answering It was nothing that any way concerned him By St. George saith the Father but I will see it and therewithal snatching it from him read it and then with great fierceness spake thus to him I see Traitor that idleness hath made thee so wanton and mutinous that thou playest with thy Faith and Allegiance as Children do with sticks thou hast been once already faithless to K. Richard 2. now again art false to K. Henry and art never quiet thou knowest that in open Parliament I became Surety and Pledge for thy Allegiance both in Body and Goods and can neither thy Duty nor my Desert restrain thee from seeking my destruction In faith but I will rather help forward thine And commanding his Horses to be made ready he with all speed rid to the King to Windsor but his Son knowing his danger rid instantly another way and came to the Court before him where locking the Gates and taking the Keys from the Porter pretending some special reason he went up to the King and falling on his Knees asked his Pardon the King demanding for what Offence he then discovered the whole Plot which he had scarce done when his Father came rapping at the Court Gates and coming to the King shewed him the Indenture of Confederacy which he had taken from his Son This amazed the King and thereupon laying aside the seeing of the Justing of others in jest takes care that he be not justled out of the Throne in earnest In the mean time the confederate Lords being ready at Oxford and hearing nothing of the Duke of Aumerle nor seeing any preparation for the Kings coming they were certainly persuaded their Treason was discovered upon which considering their case was desperate they apparel Magdalen who was like K. Richard 2. in Royal Robes and published that he was escaped out of Prison next they dispatch Messengers to require assistance from the King of France and then set forward against K. Henry at Windsor but he being gone to London they could not agree what measures to take and coming to Cicester the Bailiff of the Town couragiously set upon them and with the assistance of the Townsmen beat their forces killing the Duke of Surrey and the E. of Salisbury and taking divers Prisoners above 30 Lords Knights and Gentlemen with Magdalen the Counterfeit being sent to Oxford to
Covent of Monks came forth to meet him but at the same instant there happened a great Fire so that as his Corps before so now his Hearse was forsaken of all men every one running to quench the Fire That done they return and carry the Corps to the Church The Funeral Sermon being ended and the stone Coffin set in the Earth in the Chancel as the body was ready to he laid therein there stood up one Anselm and forbid the Burial alledging that that very place was the floor of his Fathers House which this dead King had violently taken from him to build this Church upon Therefore said he I challenge this ground and in the name of God forbid that the Body of this Oppressor and dispoyler be covered with the Earth of mine Inheritance They were therefore forced to compound with him for an hundred pounds now was the body to be laid in that stone Coffin but the Tomb proved too little for the Corps so that pressing it down to gain an entrance the Belly not bowelled brake and sent forth such an intolerable stink among the Assistants at the Funeral that all the Gums and Spices suming in their Censers could not relieve them but all in great amazement hastened away leaving only a Monk or two to shuffle up the Burial which they performed with all possible hast and so got to their Cells yet was not this the last of those Troubles that the Corps of this great Prince met with but some years after at such time as Caen was taken by the French his Tomb was rifled his bones thrown out and some of them by private Soldiers brought as far as England again so that if we consider his many troubles in life and after his death we may well think that notwithstanding all his greatness a very mean man could hardly be persuaded to change Fortunes with him In his Tomb there was found a plate of Brass whereon this Epitaph was Ingraven He that the sturdy Normans rul'd and or'e the English reign'd And stoutly won and strongly kept what so he had obtain'd And did his valiant Enemies by force bring under awe And made them under his Command live subject to his Law This great King William lieth here intomb'd in little Grave So great a Lord so small a House sufficeth him to have Sussex is divided into six Rapes wherein are 65 Hundreds 16 Market Towns 312 Parish Churches and is in the Diocess of Chichester It abounds much in cast Iron elects 20 Parliament men gives the Title of Earl to Thomas L. Leonard Married to Ann Filz-Roy eldest Daughter to the Dutchess of Cleaveland WARWICKSHIRE hath Leicester and Northampton shires on the East Oxford and Glocestershires on the South Worcester on the West and Staffordshire on the North thereof it hath a very good air and soil wanting nothing for the pleasure or profit of man and yieldeth plenty of Corn especially The Vale of the Red Horse so called from the shape of a Horse cut out in a red hill by the Inhabitants thereabout it abounds also in Malt Iron Wood and Wool It hath many fair Towns and some of them hardly to be matcht in England the chiefest whereof is Coventry so called a Tribus Conventibus from the three Covents that were in it commodiously seated and has been fortified with very strong walls with 13 stately Gates and 18 Towers for defence a little River runs through it many fair and beautiful Houses are therein among which there rise up on high two Churches of rare Workmanship in the midst is the Cross or Pillar of Stone of very curious and costly Architecture The Citizens of this Town having in former Ages highly offended their great Lord Leofrick had their Priviledges seized upon and themselves oppressed with many heavy burdens and Taxes But his Wife the Lady Godiva pitying their condition continually interceeded with her Lord for their Release and Freedom and that with such importunity that it could hardly be determined which was greatest his hatred or her love at last the Earl being overcome with her continual intercessions he granted her desire but upon such a condition as he thought she would never perform which was that she would ride stark naked through Coventry at noon-day from one end to the other though thiâ— was very hard for a modest Lady yet however she thankfully accepted his Grant and stripping her self oâ— all her Attire let loose the large and beautiful Tresseâ— of her Hair which on every side so covered her nakedâ— Body that no part thereof was uncivil to be seen whereby she redeemed their former Liberties and freedâ— them from their grievous Impositions Warwick is the next Town of Account and Commerce in this Shire it standeth over the River Avoâ— upon a steep and high Rock and all the Passages to it are wrought out of the very stone the River on the Southside is checked with a most sumptuous and stately Castle standing high upon a Rock invironed with a strong wall whereon is a noble Gatehouse and three high strong Towers called Caesars Tower Guyes Tower and the Iron Tower in all which are very fine Lodgings and a great Bulwark There are two fair Churches iâ— the Town and it is adorned with handsome Houses which the Poet thus describes A place of strength and health in the same Fort You would conceive a Castle and a Court The Orchards Gardens Rivers and the Air May with the Trenches Rampires Walls compare It seems no Art no Force can intercept it As if a Lover built a Soldier kept it Twelve miles hence is Alcester a very Ancient Market Town which formerly was much bigger probably it was a Garrison of the Romans since in Plowing and digging many ancient Copper pieces of Mony are found to this day one of which saith Mr. Clark of Vespasians with Judea Capta or Judea Conquered upon it I have by me He proceeds When I was Rector there about 1638. my Neighbour whose Housewas next the Church-yard being about to dig a Celler I lent him one of my men to assist him who digging about four foot deep they met with two Urns or Earthen Pots not far asunder in one there was nothing but Ashes in the other were Medals set edg-long as full as it could be thrust my man judging it to be only that Copper Mony which they find so oft about the Town set it carelesly upon the Ground by him and the Town consisting of Knitters some of them coming to see the work picked out some pieces of this Money at last one brought in a piece to me which upon Trial I found to be silver and thereupon sent for the Pot into my house and being loth to break the Pot with the help of a Chisel I got all out of it in the midst thereof I found 16 pieces of Gold as bright as if they had been lately put in and about 800 pieces of Silver and yet no two alike and the latest of them