dwelleth whom we call in Latine Vicecomitem as one would say the Deputy of the Comes or Earl and in our tongue Sheriff It is his duty to gather the common moneys of the Prince in his County to collect and bring into the Exchequer all fines imposed even by distreining to be attendant upon the Judges and to execute their commandments to assemble and empanel the twelve men which in causes do enquire of the Fact and make relation thereof and give in their Verdict to the Judges for Judges with us sit upon the right onely of a cause and not upon the fact to see condemned persons executèd and to examine and determine certain smaller actions OF THE Several Counties IN ENGLAND CAmden begins with Cornwall and ends with Northumberland I shall mention the Counties of England rather according to the Letters of the Alphabet Barkshire IT is called in Latine Berkeria It is bounded upon the East with Surrey upon the North with the River of Thames from Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire upon the West with Wiltshire and upon the South with Hantshire Abbendune or Abington so called of the Abbay rather than of one Abben an Irish Eremite of the Abby there See Monasticon Anglicanum pag. 97. Farendon famous now for a Mercate there kept Wadley It is situate in a vale though not so fertile a soil as some vales afford yet a most commodious site wholsome in a delicious air a rich and pleasant seat Newbury as much as the Newburgh a fair Town well seated in a Champion plain Reading of the Brittish word Redin which signifieth Fearn that growing here plentifully excelleth all other Towns of this Shire in fair streets and goodly houses for wealth also of the Townsmen and their name in making of Cloath There is a very great Market Maidenhead so named of the superstitious worshipping of I wot not what British Maidens-Head Camd. Brit. Maidenhead or Maidenhith Hith in the old Saxon did signifie a Wharf Haven or Landing-place It had its name from the Wharf or Ferry belonging at that time to some neighbouring Nunnery or to some private Maidens dwelling thereabout who then received the profits of it So Queen-Hith in London took that appellation because the profits of the Wharf were anciently accounted for to the Queens of England Dr. Heylins Animadvers on the Church Hist. of Brit. lib. 1. p. 20. See Camden of Maiden-bradly in Wiltshire fol. 243. Windesore A Royal Castle and House of the Kings with the Town adjoyning A Princes Seat cannot have a more pleasant situation For from a high Hill that riseth with a gentle ascent it enjoyeth a most delightfull Prospect round about With the pleasantnesse of this place Princes were allured very often to retire themselves hither and here was Edward the Third that most puissant King borne who here built new out of the ground a most strong Castle in bignesse equal to a pretty City fortified with Ditches and Bulwarks made of stone and forthwith after he had subdued the French and Scots held at one and the self same time John King of France and David King of Scotland prisoners together in the same In this place King Edward the Third for to adorn Martial Prowesse with Honours the Guerdon of Vertue ordained the most Noble Order and Society of Knights whom he called Knights of the Garter who wear on their left Legge somewhat under the knee a Blew Garter with these golden Letters in French HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENS'E Shame to him that evil thinks and fasten the same with a Buckle of Gold as with the Band of a most inward Society in token of Concord and Unity that there might be among them a certain Consociation and Communion of Vertues Some attribute the original of it unto the Garter of the Queen or rather Joan Countesse of Salisbury a Lady of incomparable beauty which fell from her as she danced and the King took up from the floor for when a number of Nobles and Gentlemen standing by laughed thereat he made answer again That shortly it would come to passe that Garter should be in high honour and estimation This is the most common and most received report There is a Book entituled Catechismus ordinis Equitum Perifcelidis written long since by Belvaleti the Popes Nuncio here and published in the year 1631. by Bosquierus wherein the Authour makes an Allegory on the whole habit of the Order the Matter Colour Fashion Wearing to the very Girdle Dr. Heylins Antidotum Lincolniense Sect. 3. ch. 10. The mightiest Princes in Christendome reputed it amongst their greatest honour to be chosen and admitted into this Company and since the first Institution thereof there have been already received and enrolled into this Order which consisteth of six and twenty Knights two and twenty Kings or thereabout besides our Kings of England who are named Sovereigns thereof to speak nothing of Dukes and others of most high calling very many The Founders of the Order which in those dayes for stout courage and warlike Prowesse had few or no Peers and were in that regard advanced to that honour Edward the Third King of England Edward his eldest Sonne and Prince of Wales Henry Duke of Lancaster Thomas Beauchamp Earl of Warwick Peter Copit de la Bouche Ralph Earl of Stafford William de Montacute Earl of Sarisbury Roger Mortimer Earl of March John Lord Lisle Sir Bartholomew de Burgherst Sir John Beauchamp John Lord Mohun of Dunstere Sir Hugh Courtne Sir Thomas and Sir Otho Holland Sir John Gray of Codnor Sir Richard Fitz Simon Sir Miles Stapleton Sir Thomas Walle Sir Hugh Wrothesly Sir Neel Lorenge Sir John Chandos Sir James Audley Sir Henry Eswi◠Sir Sanchio Dampredicourt Sir Walter Pavely There is an honourable Family of Barons surnamed of Windsore Eaton is hereto adjoyned by a wooden Bridge over the Thames and in it a fair Colledge and a famous School of good literature founded and built by King Henry the Sixth wherein besides the Provost eight Fellows and the singing Choristers there are threescore Scholars instructed in Grammar and in due time preferred to the University of Cambridge It containeth twenty Hundreds twelve Market Towns and an hundred and forty Parishes Bedfordshire BEdford is the principal Town whereof the Shire also taketh name A Town to be commended more for the pleasant situation and antiquity thereof then for beauty or largenesse although a man may tell five Churches in it Hockley in the Hole so named of the miry way in Winter time very troublesome to travellers for the old Englishmen our Progenitors called deep mire Hock and Hocks Dunstable This Town seated in a Chalky ground well inhabited and full of Innes hath four streets answering to the four quarters of the world in every one of which there is a large Pond of standing water for the publique use of the Inhabitants It contains ten Market Towns an hundred and sixteen
large in compasse fruitfull full of Woods plentifull of Saffron and very wealthy encircled as it were on the one side with the main Sea on the other with Fish-full Rivers which also do afford their peculiar Commodities in great abundance The Air is temperate and pleasant only towards the waters somewhat aguish insomuch that in one Hundred they will ask a stranger merrily Whether the Bayliff of the Hundred hath yet arrested him Waltham Forest of the Town Waltham It was stored very full with Deer that for their bignesse and fatnesse withall have the name above all other Rochford it hath given name to an Hundred It is aguish Rumford the glory whereof dependeth on a Swine Mercat Brent-wood a Mercat Town Engerstone a Town of note for nothing else but the Mercat and Innes for travellers Chensford a good big Town situate in the heart of the Shire between two Rivers Of note onely for the Assizes Cogeshall a Mercate Town Maldon for the number of the Inhabitants and the bignesse it is worthily counted one of the principal Towns in all Essex and in Records named The Burgh of Maldon It is a Haven commodious enough and for the bignesse very well inhabited being but one especial street descending much about a mile in length upon the ridg of an Hill answerable to the termination of Dunum which signified an hilly and high situation Colchester a proper and fine Burrough well traded and pleasantly seated as being situate upon the brow of an Hill stretching out from West to East walled about beautified with several Churches some of which were lately demolished The Inhabitants affirm that Flavia Julia Helena the Mother of Constantine the Great was borne and bred there Harewich a most safe Road whence it hath the name The Town is not great but well peopled fortified by Art and Nature Walden of Saffron * called Saffron Walden among the fields looking merrily with most lovely Saffron A very good Mercat Town Here Sir Thomas Smith Secretary to Queen Elizabeth a wise and learned man was born Audley-end a magnificent House built by the Earl of Suffolk where there is a spacious and very broad Gallery Barrington-Hall where dwelleth that right ancient Family of the Baringtons Lees-Abbey now the Seat of the right Honourable Lord Rich Baron Lees and Earl of Warwick It contains twenty Hundreds one and twenty Market Towns and four hundred and fifteen Parishes Glocestershire ON the West-side butteth on Monmouthshire and Herefordshire on the North on Worcestershire on the East upon Warwickshire and Oxfordshire both on the South with Somersetshire A pleasant Countrey and fruitfull in Corn Wooll Apples and Pears and Severn full of Salmon Commonly through all Glocestershire there is good plenty of Corn Pasture and Wood saving in Coteswold where the great flocks of Sheep be and yet in some places there groweth fair Corn Lelands Itinerary Forest of Dean or Dean-Forest was wholly bespread with thick tall Wood It is between two navigable Rivers Wie and Severn It was a wonderfull thick Forest and in former ages so dark and terrible by reason of crooked and winding wayes as also the grisly shade therein that it made the Inhabitants more fierce and bolder to commit robberies Since that rich Mines of Iron were here found out those thick woods began to wax thinne by little and little Tewksbury It is a great and fair Town having three Bridges to passe over standing upon three Rivers famous for the best Mustard One may carry it in bals a long way Glocester the head City of this Shire It lieth stretched out in length over Severne on that side where it is not watered with the River it hath in some places a very strong Wall for defence A proper and fine City both for number of Churches and for the buildings Above the Quire in an Arch of this Church there is a Wall built in forme of a Semi-circle full of Corners with such an artificial devise that if a man speak with never so low a voice at the one part thereof and another lay his ear to the other being a good way distant he may also hear every syllable Cotswold it took its name of Woulds and Cotes that is Hils and Sheepfolds Here feed in great numbers flocks of Sheep long necked and square of bulk and bone by reason of the hilly and large situation of their pasturage whose Wooll being most fine and soft is had in passing great account among all Nations Barkly honoured with a Castle whereof the Lord Barklies are entituled Camden a Mercat Town well peopled and of good resort Near unto it standeth Weston where there is a fair House which maketh a goodly shew built by Ralph Sheldon for him and his posterity Hales in late time a most flourishing Abbey and deserving commendation for breeding up of Alexander of Hales a great Clerk and so deeply learned above all others in that subtil Divinity of the Schoolmen as he carried away the surname of Doctor Irrefr agabilis the Doctor ungain said as he that could not be gain-said Winchelcomb a great Town and well inhabited Cyrencester a famous Mercat Town both for Corn upon the Monday and for Wooll and Yarn on the Friday Bibery There is a spring under the side of a Hill which is so forcible that it serves to drive a Mill about a stones cast from it Strowd whence the name of Strowdwater where are multitudes of rich Clothiers fair building and famous also for dying of Cloaths by reason of the nature of the water It containeth thirty Hundreds two hundred and eighty Parishes Hantshire ON the West it hath Dorsetshire and Wiltshire on the South the Ocean to bound it on the East it joyneth to Sussex and Surrey and on the North it bordereth upon Barkshire A small Province it is fruitful in Corn rich in plenteous Pasture and for all commodities of sea most wealthy and happy Wools Cloathes and Iron are the general Commodities of this Shire Ringwood a well frequented Mercat Town New-Forest King William of Normandy pulled downe all the Townes Villages Houses and Churches farre and neare cast out the poore Inhabitants and when he had so done brought all within thirty miles compasse or thereabout into a Forest and Harbour for wilde Beasts Hurst-Castle commandeth Seaward every where South-hanton a Town populous rich and beautifull from whom the whole Shire deriveth her name Andover Winchester * in Latin Wintonia a City flourishing even in the Romans times It is indifferently well peopled and frequented having plenty of water by reason of the River conveyed divers wayes into it it containeth about a mile and half in circuit within the Wals which open at six Gates and have every one of them their Suburbs reaching forth without a good way It is adorned with magnificent Churches and a Bishops See There is a fair Colledge which William Wickham Bishop of this See built for a School out of which both for Church
of it they say is healthfull but not so wealthy the middle they account both healthfull and plentifull 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 Medows Pastures and Corn-fields abounding wonderfully in Apple-trees and Cherry-trees also the Trees are planted after a direct manner one against another by square most pleasant to behold It hath Villages and Towns exceeding thick and well peopled safe Rodes and sure Harbours for Ships with some veins of Iron and Marle but the Air is somewhat thick and somewhere foggy by reason of vapours arising out of the waters The Revenues of the Inhabitants are greater both by the fertility of the soil and also by the neighbourhood of a great City of a great River and the main Sea This County is enriched with two Cities and Bishops Seas strengthened with twenty seven Castles graced with four of the Kings Houses traded with four and twenty Market Towns and beautified with many stately Buildings Camden in Kent pag. 324. saith The Kentishmen had priviledge to leade the Van in all Battels for their valour shewed against the Danes Amongst our old English the Kentishmen had the honour due to them alwayes of being in the Vant-guard and those of Wiltshire with Cornwall and Devonshire in the Rere which they all might challenge by the continuall worth of their performance Mr. Seldens Preface to his Titles of Honour The Sueuians had anciently prerogative In omni expeditione Regis Teutonici exercitum praecedere primi committere Id. ib. The meaning of that common Proverb Kent and Christendome was that it was famous as Kent and famous as Christendom This was the first of the Kingdoms of the Heptarchy and no one County of England had a King of it self but this They are the most civilized people of the Nation It is plentifull of Fowl and Fish of all sorts Fertile Lands Fruit Grain Wood When William the Conquerour came in the Yeomanry of Kent at Suaves-comb carrying before them in their hands every one a great green Bough representing afarre off a moving Wood yeelded them unto William the Conquerour upon this condition that they might retain their ancient Customs unviolated and especially that which they call Gavelkind that is Give all kinne by which they are not so bound by Copy-hold Customarytenures or Tenant-right as in other parts of England but in manner every man is a Free-holder and hath some part of his own to live upon For Lands of this nature are equally divided among the Male children or if there be no Sonnes among the Daughters By vertue of this also they are at full age and enter upon their Inheritance when they come to be fifteen years old and it is lawfull for them to alienate and make it over to any one either by Gift or by Sale without the Lords consent By this likewise the Sonne though their Parents were condemned for Felony or Murder succeeds them neverthelesse in such kind of Lands After this William the Conquerour that he might more firmly assure to himself Kent which is the very Key of England placed a Constable over Dover-Castle the most important Castle of England and according to the ancient order of the Romans made him also Lord Warden of the Cinque-Ports These be they Hastings Dover Hith Rumney and Sandwich unto which Winchelsey and Rie are joyned as principal Ports and other small Towns as Members Which because they are bound to serve in the Warres by Sea enjoy many great immunities they are free from paiment of Subsidies and from Wardship of their children as touching the body they are not sued in any Court but within their own Towns and of the Inhabitants therein such as they call Barons at the Coronation of Kings and Queens support the Canopies over them yea and have a Table by themselves that day spread and furnished on the Kings right hand And the Lord Warden himself who is alwayes one of the Nobility of most approved trust hath within his Jurisdiction the Authority of Chancellour and Admirall in very many cases and enjoyeth other rights besides Depe-ford a most famous Ship-dock where the Kings Ships are built and such as are decayed repaired there is also a good Store-house and an Incorporation ordained for the use of the Navy Green-wich that is the Green-Creek for the Creek of a River in the old English tongue was called Wic A place of very great name by reason of the Kings House there and because Queen Elizabeth was here borne Barclay the Scot in his Icon animorum commends Green-wich Tower for one of the best Prospects in Europe to see London on the one side the Thames Ships and pleasant Medows on the other Eltham a retiring place likewise of the Kings but unwholsome by reason of the Moor Seven-oke so called as men say of seven exceeding great Oaks now cut down Which commendeth Sir William Sevenok an Alderman of London who being a foundling and brought up here and therefore so named built herein gratefull remembrance an Hospital and a School Dartford upon the River Darent a great Mercat Town well frequented and well watered Graves-end so called as the Gereves-end that is the limit of the Gereve or Reve. A Town as well known as any other in England for the usual passage by water between it and London Henry the Eight raised two Block-houses here and two other opposite on Essex-side Tunbridge the Town of Bridges Maidstone the Shire Town a large fair sweet and populous Town Rochester may glory in her impregnable Fortification by the Navy Royal. Rochester signifies as much as Castrum in rupe the Camp or Station on the Rock All places ending in Chester arise from the ruines of the old Romane Castra Burt. Comment on Antoninus Itin. through Brit. The Island Shepey or the Isle of Sheep It feedeth mighty great Floks of Sheep it is plentifull in Corn but scarce of Woods containeth twenty one miles in compasse Queen-Borough-Castle King Edward the Third built it and so named it in honour of his Queen Tenham the Parent as it were of all the choise fruit Gardens and Orards of Kent and the most large and delightsome of them Thirty Parishes thereabout are replenished with Cherry-gardens and Orchards beautifully disposed in direct lines As for Orchards of Apples and Gardens of Cheries and those of most delicious and exquisite kinds that can be no part of the Realm that I know hath them either in such quantity and number or with such art and industry set and planted Lamb Perambulat of Kent Amongst these is Feversham very commodiously situate Reculver of name for the salt savoury Oisters there dregged and for a Minster The Oisters here do as farre surpasse those of Whitstaple as these do the rest of this Shire in savoury saltnesse Lamb Perambul of Kent Canterbury * the chief City of this County ancient and
once was a City of Truth a holy Mountain in regard of the Doctrine of truth and holinesse preached therein then certainly London may Insomuch that Foraigners Hungarians Germans Batavians others learn our Language and come over to this City that they may hear our Preachers and read our English Divines London-Bridge is an admirable Workmanship of stone hewen out of the Quarry upon nineteen Arches besides the Draw-bridge and is furnished on both sides with passing fair houses joyning one to another in manner of a street that for bignesse and beauty it may worthily carry away the prize from all the Bridges in Europe The whole City is divided into six and twenty Wards and the Councel of the City consisted of as many ancient men named of their age in our tongue Aldermen as one would say Senatours who each one have the over-seeing and rule of his several Ward The chief Magistrate is the Lord Maior and two Sheriffs whereof the one is called the Kings the other the Cities Sheriff In Henry the Sixths Reign Godfrey Bolein was Lord Maior of London being the Ancestor of two renowned and virtuous Queens of England Anne second wife to King Henry the Eighth and Elizabeth their Daughter through whose great vigilancy and providence the City stood so well guarded that the Kings peace was dutifully kept notwithstanding the great Lords of both the Factions Yorkists and Lancastrians were with so great Troops of followers lodged within and about the same In Edward the Thirds Reign Henry Picard Maior of London in one day sumptuously feasted four Kings Edward the Third King of England John King of France the King of Cyprus then arrived in England David King of Scots See the courage and piety of a Lord Maior in King James his time in Wilsons History of Great-Britain p. 106. The Merchants meeting place standing upon Pillars which the common people call the Burse and Queen Elizabeth with a solemn Ceremony named The Royal Exchange was set up by Sir Thomas Gresham Citizen and Knight a magnificent work whether you respect the Model of the building the resort of Merchants from all Nations thither or the store of wares there Which Sir Thomas Gresham being withall an exceeding great lover of Learning consecrated a most spacious house his own habitation to the furtherance of Learning and instituted the Professours of Divinity Law Physick Astronomy Geometry and Musick with liberal Salaries and Stipends to the end that London might be a place not only furnished with all kind of Traffick but also with the Liberal Arts and Sciences There is also a fair and goodly Library in Sion-Colledge containing an hundred twenty and one foot in length and above five and twenty foot in breadth In the Reign of King James Robert Earl of Salisbury caused to be erected a stately building in the Strand which upon Tuesday the tenth of April in the yeer 1609. was begun to be richly furnished with Wares and the next day after the King the Queen and Prince with many great Lords and Ladies came to see and then the King gave it the name of Britains Burse Westminster was called in times past Thorney of Thorns now Westminster of the West situation and the Monastery A City of it self having its peculiar Magistrates and Priviledges It is renowned for the Abbey Church the Hall of Justice and the Kings Palace This Church is famous especially by reason of the Inauguration and Sepulture of the Kings of England William the Conquerour and Matilda his wife were first crowned at Westminster and since them all other Kings and Queens of this Realm have been there crowned Stows Surveigh of London It is a Church of very fair Workmanship supported with sundry rows of Marble Pillars a peece of work that cost fifty yeers labour in building It was founded by King Edward the Confessour King Henry the Seventh for the Burial of himself and his children adjoyned thereto in the East end a Chappel of admirable elegancy Leland calleth it The wonder of the world all the curious and exquisite work that can be devised is there compacted It is reported That the Chappel cost ten thousand pound or as others say fourteen thousand pound There is a Collegiate Church and famous School Forty Scholars in their due time are preferred to the Universities Here are buried the Prince of English Poets Geffrey Chaucer as also he that for pregnant wit and an excellent gift in Poetry of all English Poets came neerest unto him Edmund Spenser Isaac Casaubone William Camden Clarenceux King of Arms Westminster-Hall is the greatest Hall in England and the very Praetorium or Hall of Justice In this are the Judicial Courts the Upper-Bench the Common-Pleas and the Chancery and in places neer thereabout the Starre-Chamber the Exchequer Court of Wards and Court of the Dutchy of Lancaster In which at certain set times we call them Terms Causes are yeerly heard and tried This Judgement Hall King Richard the Second built out of the ground as appeareth by his Arms engraven in the stone-work and many arched beams There are a hundred twenty and one Churches more than Rome it self can shew Redcliff so called of the Red cliff a pretty fine Town and dwelling place of Sailers Enfield-Chase a place much renowned for hunting In this County without the City of London are reckoned Parishes much about seventy three with the City Liberties and Suburbs an hundred twenty and one Monmouthshire IT is enclosed on the North-side with the River Munow that separateth it from Herefordshire on the East-side with Wye running between it and Glocestershire on the West with the River Remmey which severeth it from Glamorganshire and on the South with the Severn The East part is full of Grasse and Woods the West is somewhat hilly and stony yet not unthankfull to the Husbandman Monmouth the chief Town of the Shire Munow and Wye at their confluence do compasse it almost round about and give it the name On the North-side where it is not defended with the Rivers it was fortified with a wall and ditch In the midst of the Town hard by the Mercat place standeth a Castle which as it is thought John Baron of Monmouth built It was the Birth place of Henry the Fifth that triumpher over France and the second Ornament of the English Nation It glorieth also that Geffrey Ap Arthur or of Munmouth Compiler of the British History was born and bred there a man well skilled in Antiquities but as it seemeth not of antique credit so many toyes and tales he every where enterlaceth out of his owne brain as he was charged while he lived Chepstow a famous Town and of good resort situate upon the side of an Hill rising from the very River fortified round about with a Wall of a large circuit which includes within it both Fields and Orchards It hath a very spacious Castle situate over the River Strighall Castle it belongs to the