of Woodstock his Daughter who was after remarried to Sir William Burchier called Earle of Ew And in our memorie King Edward the Sixth Honoured Walter D'Eureux the Lord Ferrars of Chartley descended by the Bourgchiers from the Bohuns with the title of Vicount Hereford whose Grand-sonne Walter Vicount Hereford Queene Elizabeth created afterwards Earle of Essex There are contained in this County Parishes 176. RADNOR Comitatus quem SILVRES Osim Incosuerunt RADNOR-SHIRE VPon Hereford-shire on the North-West joyneth Radnor-shire in the British tongue Sire Maiseveth in forme three square and the farther West it goeth the narrower still it groweth On the South-side the River Wy separateth it from Brecknock-shire and on the North part lieth Montgomery-shire The East and South parts thereof bee more fruitfull than the rest which lying uneven and rough with Mountaines is hardly bettered by painfull Husbandry yet it is stored well enough with Woods watered with running Rivers and in some places with standing Meres The East-side hath to beautifie it besides other Castles of the Lords Marchers now all buried well neere in their owne ruines Castle Paine built and so named of Paine a Norman and Castle Colwen which if I be not deceived was sometime called the Castle of Maud in Colewent For a very famous Castle that was and Robert de Todeney a great Noble man in the reigne of Edward the Second was Lord of it It is verily thought that it belonged aforetime to the Breoses Lords of Brechnoc and to have taken the name from Maude of Saint Valeric a very shrewd stout and malapert stomackfull woman wife to William Breos who discovered a rebellious minde against King John Which Castle being cast downe by the Welsh King Henry the Third in the yeere 1231. reedified strongly with stone and called it in despight of Lhewellin Prince of Wales Maugre Lhewellin But of especiall name is Radnor the principall Towne of the whole Shire in British Maiseveth faire built as the maner of that Country is with thatched houses In times past it was firmely fensed with a Wall and Castle but after that Owen Glendower dwy that notable Rebell had burnt it it began by little and little to decrease and grow to decay tasting of the same fortune that the mother thereof did before I meane Old Radnor called in British Maiseveth hean and for the high situation Pencrag which in the reigne of King John Rhese Ap Gruffin had set on fire If I should say that this Maiseveth or Radnor was that ancient Citie MAGI which Antonine the Emperour seemeth to call MAGNOS where as we finde in the booke of Notices the Commander of the Pacensian Regiment lay in garrison under the Lieutenant or Lord Generall of Britaine in the reigne of Theodosius the younger in mine owne opinion surely and perhaps in other mens conceit also I should not vary from the truth For we reade in Writers of the middle age of inhabitants of this coast called MAGESETAE also of Earles Masegetenses and Magesetenses and the distance if it be counted both from Gobannium or Abergevenny and also from Brangonium or Worcester differeth scarce an haire bredth from Antonines computation Scarce three miles Eastward from hence you see Prestaine in British Lhan Andre that is Saint Andrews Church which of a very little village within the memorie of our Grandfathers is by the meanes of Richard Martin Bishop of Saint Davids growne now to be so great a mercate Towne and faire withall that at this day it dammereth and dimmeth the light in some sort of Radnor From whence also scarce foure miles off stands Knighton a Towne able to match with Prestaine called in British as I have heard say Trebuclo in steed of Trefyclaudh of a famous ditch lying under it which Offa King of the Mercians with admirable worke and labour caused to be cast from Dee-Mouth unto Wy-Mouth by this Towne for the space of foureskore and ten miles to separate the Britans from his Englishmen whereupon in British it is called Claudh Offa that is Offaes ditch Concerning which John of Salisbury in his Policraticon writeth thus Harald ordained a law that what Welshmen soever should be found with a weapon on this side the limit which he had set them that is to say Offaes Dike he should have his right hand cut off by the Kings Officers When yee are past this place all the ground that lieth toward the West and South limits being for the most part barren leane and hungry is of the inhabitants called Melienith for that the Mountaines be of a yellowish colour Yet remaine there many footings as it were of Castles to be seene heere and there but especially Kevenles and Timbod which standing upon a sharpe poynted hill Lhewellin Prince of Wales overthrew in the yeere 1260. This Melienith reacheth as farre as to the River Wy which cutteth overthwart the West corner of this shire and being hindered in his streame with stones lying in his way upon a suddaine for want of ground to glide on hath a mighty and violent downefall whereupon the place is tearmed Raihader Gowy that is The fall or Fludgates of Wy And I cannot tell whether thereupon that British word Raihader the English men forged this name first for the whole shire and afterwards for the chiefe Towne By this Floudgate or fall of the water there was a Castle which Rhese Prince of Southwales as we reade repaired under King Richard the First Hard by there is in some sort a vast and wide wildernesse hideous after a sort to behold by reason of the turning and crooked by-waies and craggie Mountaines into which as the safest place of refuge Vortigern that pestilent wretch and bane of his native Country odious both to God and man and whose memory the Britains may wish damned withdrew himselfe when after he had called the Saxons into this Iland and in horrible incest married his owne daughter And heere he fell at length too too late into serious consideration of the greatnesse of his vile and wicked acts But by revenging fire from Heaven the flying dart of God above he was burnt with his Citie Caer Guortigern which he had heere built for his refuge And not farre from hence as if the place had been fatall not onely this Vortigern the last Monarch of British bloud but also Lhewellin the last Prince of Wales of the British race being forelaid was slaine by Adam Francton in the yeere of our Redemption 1282. Of the said Vortigern Ninnius nameth a little Country heere Guortiger-maur neither is that name as yet altogether lost but of the Ciâ—ie there remaineth no memory at all but our of writers Some are of opinion that Guthremion Castle arose out of the ruins and rubbish thereof which in the yeere 1201. the Welsh for malice they bare to Roger Lord Mortimer and in spight of him laid even with the ground Moreover this part of the Country was
by word of it Hengston downe well ywrought Is worth London deere ybought And it was an ordinarie place where every seven or eight yeere the Stannarie men of Cornwall and Denshire were wont in great frequencie to assemble together and to consult about their affaires At this hill in the yeere of savation DCCCXXXI the British Danmonij who calling the Danes to aid them of purpose to break into Devonshire that they might drive out the English from thence who alreadie possessed themselves of the countrey were pitiously defeated by King Egbert and slaine almost to the very last man Beneath it Tamar leaveth Halton the habitation of the Rouses anciently Lords of Little Modbery in Devonshire and running nigh unto Salt-Esse a prettie market Towne seated in the descent of an hill which hath a Major and certaine priviledges of their owne as I said erewhile it entertaineth the river Liver on which standeth that same Towne of Saint Germans whereof I spake before And now by this time spreading broader dischargeth it selfe into the Ocean making the haven which in the life of Saint Indractus is called Tamerworth after it hath severed Cornwall from Denshire For Athelstane the first English King that brought this countrey absolute under his dominion appointed this river to be the bound or limit between the Britans of Cornwal and his Englishmen after he had remooved the Britans out of Denshire as witnesseth William of Malmsburie who calleth it Tambra Whereupon Alexander Necham in his Praises of divine wisedome writeth thus Loegriae Tamaris divisor Cornubiaeque Indigenas ditat pinguibus Isiciis Tamar that Lhoegres doth divide from Cornwall in the west The neighbour-dwellers richly serves with Salmons of the best The place requireth here that I should say somewhat of the holy and devout virgin Ursula descended from hence as also of the eleven thousand British Virgins But such is the varietie of Writers whiles some report they suffered martyrdome under Gratian the Emperour about the yeare of our Lord CCCLXXXIII upon the coast of Germanie as they sailed to Armorica others by Attlia the Hun that scourge of God in the yeare CCCCL at Coline upon Rhene as they returned from Rome that with some it hath brought the truth of the History into suspition of a vaine fable And as touching that Constantine whom Gildas termeth a tyrannous whelpe of the uncleane Danmonian Lionesse as also of the Disforresting of all this country for before time it was reputed a Forrest let Historians speake for it is no part of my purpose As for the Earles none of British bloud are mentioned but onely Candorus called by others Cadocus who is accounted by late writers the last Earle of Cornwall of British race and as they which are skilfull in Heraldry have a tradition bare XV. Besaunts V. IIII. III. II. and I. in a shield Sable But of the Normans bloud the first Earle was Robert of Moriton halfe brother to William Conqueror by Herlotta their mother after whom succeeded William his sonne who when hee had sided with Robert of Normandie against Henry the First King of England being taken prisoner in battell lost both his libertie and his honours and at last turned Monke at Bermondsey Then Reginald a base sonne of Henrie the First by the daughter of Sir Robert Corber for that King plied getting children so lustfully as that hee was father of thirteene Bastards was placed in his roome This Reginald dying without issue male legitimate King Henry the Second having assigned unto his daughters certaine lands and Lordships reserved this Earledome to himselfe for the â—ehoore of his owne youngest sonne Iohn a child of nine yeares old upon whom his brother Richard the First conferred it afterwards with other Earledomes This Iohn afterward was crowned King of England and his second sonne Richard was by his brother King Henry the Third endowed with this honour and the Earledome of Poictou a Prince verily in those daies puissant in Gods service devout and religious in war right valiant for counsell sage and prudent who in Aquitaine fought battels with fortunate successe and shewed much valour and having made a voyage into the Holy Land enforced the Sarazens to make truce with him the Kingdome of Apulia offered unto him by the Pope he refused the troubles and tumults in England he often times composed and in the yeare of our Lord MCCLVIL by some of the Princes Electours of Germany was chosen King of the Romans and crowned at Aquisgrane whereupon as if he had made meanes thereto by money this verse was so riâ—e and currant every where Nummus ait pro me nubit Cornubia Romae For me my money saieth this Cornwall to Rome now wedded is For so well monied he was before that one who then lived hath put downe in writing that for ten yeares together hee might dispend one hundred markes a day But when as Germanie was all on a light fire with civil warres among competitors of the Empire he returned quickly into England where he departed this life and was interred in the famous Monastery of Hales which he had built a little after that his first begotten son Henry newly in his return from the Holy Land whiles he was at divine service devoutly occupied within a church at Viterbium in Italy was by Guy de Montfort son of Simon Montfort Earle of Leceister in revenge of his fathers death wickedly slaine Edmund therefore his second son succeeded in the Earledome of Cornwall who died without any lawfull issue and so his high and great estate of inheritance returned to King Edward the First as who was the next unto him in bloud and found as our Lawyers say his heire Whereas that Richard and Edmund his sonne Princes of the bloud Royall of England bare divers Armes from the Armes Royall of England to wit in a shield argent a Lyon rampant gules crowned or within a border sables Bezante I have with others oftentimes much marvelled at neither I assure you can I alleage any other reason but that they in this point imitated the house Royall of France for the manner of bearing Armes came from the French men unto us For the younger sonnes of the Kings of France even to the time wee now speake of bare other coats than the Kings themselves did as we may see in the family of Vermandois Dreux and Courtney and as Robert Duke of Burgundy brother to Henrie the First King of France tooke unto him the ancient shield of the Dukes of Burgundie so we may well thinke that this Richard having received the Earledome of Poictou from Henry the Third his brother assumed unto him that Lyon gules crowned which belonged to the Earles of Poictou before him as the French writers doe record and added thereto the border garnished with Besaunts out of the ancient coat of the Earles of Cornwall For so soone as the younger sonnes of the Kings of France began to beare the Armes of France with
answered for him at his Baptisme Then Ceadwalla King of the West-Saxons when the said Edelwalch was slaine and Aruandus the petty King of the Island made away annexed to it the Dominion and in a tragicall and lamentable massacre killed every mothers child almost of the inborne Inhabitants and the fourth part of the Isle to wit as much land as contained 300. Hides hee gave unto Bishop Wilfrid The first that instructed the Islanders in the knowledge of Christian religion But these matters Beda will informe you best writing as he doth in these words After then that Ceadwalla had obtained the kingdome of the Gevissi hee wonne also the Isle of Wight which unto that time had beene wholly given to Idolatrie and then endeavoured what he could to make a generall massacre and tragicall slaughter of all the native Inhabitants thereof and instead of them to plant there people of his owne province binding himselfe with a vow although he was not yet regenerate and become Christened and in case he wonne the Isle he would give unto God a fourth part both of it and also of the whole booty Which vow he so paied as that he offered this Isle unto Wilfrid the Bishop who being of his nation hapened then to come thither be present to the use and glory of God The measure of the same Island according to the English mens estimation is proportionable to one thousand and two hundred hides of land Whereupon the Bishop had possession given him of so much Land as rose to three hundred Hides But hee commended that portion which hee received unto one of his Clarkes named Bernwin and his sisters sonne he was giving unto him a priest named Hildila for to minister unto all that were desirous of salvation the word and laver of life Where I thinke it not good to passe over in silence how for the first fruits as one would say of those who of the same Isle were saved by their beleife two young children brethren of the Royall bloud to wit the sonnes of Arvandus King of the Isle were by the especiall favour of GOD crowned with martyrdome For when the enemies approached hard unto the Island these children slipt secretly out of the Isle and were remoâ—ved into the province next adjoyning where being brought to a place called Ad Lapidem when they had committed themselves upon trust to be hidden from the face of the King that was conquerour betraied they were and commanded to be killed Which when a certaine Abbat and Priest named Cynbreth heard who not farre from thence had his monasterie in a place named Reodford that is the Ford of reed hee came unto the King who then in those parts lay secretly at cure of those wounds which hee had received whiles hee fought in the Isle of Wight and requested of him that if there were no remedie but that the children must bee murthered they might yet bee first taught the Sacraments of Christian faith before their death The King granted his petition and hee then having catechised them in the word of truth and bathed them in the fount of salvation assured them of their entrance into the everlasting Kingdome of heaven And so within a while after when the executioner called instantly for them they joyfully suffered that temporall death of the body by which they made no doubt of their passe unto the eternall life of their soules In this order and manner therefore after all the Provinces of Britaine had embraced the faith of Christ the Isle of Wight also received the same in which notwithstanding for the calamitie and trouble of forraine subjection no man tooke the degree of Ministerie and See Episcopall before Daniell who at this day is the Bishop of the West Saxons and the Gevissj Thus much Beda From this time forward our writers for a great while have not one word of Wight unto the yeare of our Lord one thousand sixtie six in which Tostie Hing Haralds brother with certaine men of warre and Rovers ships out of Flanders in hatred of his brother invaded it and after he had compelled the Islanders to pay him tribute departed Some few yeares after as we read in the old booke of Cares broke Priorie which Master Robert Glover Somerset shewed me who carried as it were the Sunne light of ancient Genealogies and Pedigrees in his hand Like as saith this booke William the Bastard conquered England even so William Fitz Osbern his Mareschal and Earle of Hereford conquered the Isle of Wight and was the first Lord of Wight Long after this the Frenchmen in the yeare 1377. came suddenly at unawares under saile invaded and spoiled it and the same French in the yeare 1403. gave the like attempt but in vaine For valiantly they were drived from landing even as in our fathers daies when the French Gallies set one or two small cottages on fire and went their way As touching the Lords of this Isle after that William Fitz-Osbern was forth-with slaine in the warre of Flanders and his sonne Roger outlawed and driven unto exile it fell into the Kings hands and Henrie the First King of England gave it unto Richard Ridvers otherwise called Redvers and de Ripariis Earle of Denshire and withall the Fee or Inheritance of the Towne Christ-Church Where like as at Caresbroke that Richard built certaine Fortresses but Baldwin his sonne in the troublesome time of King Stephen when there were in England so many Tyrants as there were Lords of Forts and Castles who tooke upon them every one to stampe money and challenged other rights of Regall Majestie was by Stephen disseized and expelled from hence Howbeit his posteritie recovered their ancient right whose Genealogie wee have already put downe when wee treated of the Earles of Denshire But in the end Isabell widow to William de Fortibus Earle of Albemarle and Holdernesse sister and heire of Baldwin the last Earle of Devonshire of that house after much intreatie was overcome to make over by charter all her right and interest and to settle it upon King Edward the First with the Manours of Christ-Church and Fawkeshaul c. For foure thousand Markes Ever since which time the Kings of England held the Isle and Henry de Beauchamp Earle of Warwicke was by King Henrie the Sixth unto whom hee was most deere crowned King of Wight and afterwards nominated The first or principall Earle of all England But together with him this new and unusuall title died and vanished quite Afterwards Richard Widevile Earle Rivers was by King Edward the fourth stiled Lord of the Isle of Wight Sir Reginald Bray took it of King Henry the Seventh with whom he was most inward in Fee farme for a rent charg'd of three hundred markes yearely to be paid Also beside these Lords this Isle had a noble Familie named de Insula or Lisle out of which in the raigne of King Edward the Second one was summoned unto the Parliament by the
owne habitation For kings in those daies sat in Judgement place in their owne persons And they are indeed the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Judges Whose mouth as that Royall Writer saith shall not erre in Judgement But the foresaid Palace after it was burnt downe in the yeare of our Lord 1512. lay desolate and king Henry the Eighth translated shortly after the kings Seat from thence to an house not farre off which belonged but a while before to Cardinall Wolsey and is called White Hall This house is a Princely thing enclosed of the one side with a Parke that reacheth also to another house of the kings named S. James where anciently was a Spittle for Maiden Lepres built by king Henry the Eighth on the other side with the Tamis A certaine Poet termed the foresaid House according to the English name thereof Leucaeum in Latine as appeareth in these Verses Regale subintrant Leucaeum Reges dederant memorabile quondam Atria quae niveo candebant marmore nomen Quod Tamisis prima est cui gloria pascere cygnos Ledaeos ranco pronus subterluit aestu To Royall Palace Kings enter in sometime LEUCEUM hight This famous name those Courts it gave that shone with marble white Hard under it with low-sound streame Tamis downe apace doth glide A River feeding Swannes wherein he takes especiall pride Hard by neere unto the Mues so called for that it served to keepe Hawkes and now is become a most faire Stable for the kings horses there remaineth a monument in memoriall of that most pious and kinde Queene Aeleonor erected by the king Edward the First her most dearely beloved husband and certes the memory of her loving kindnesse shall remaine worthy to be consecrated to aeternity For shee the daughter of Ferdinand the Third king of Castile being given in marriage to Edward the first king of England accompanied him into the Holy Land where when as he was secretly forelaid and by a certaine Moore wounded with an envenomed sword and by all the remedies that Physitians could devise was not so much eased as afflicted shee tooke her to a cure strange I must needs say and never heard of before howbeit full of love and kinde affection For her Husbands wounds infected with the poison and which by reason of the malignity thereof could not bee closed and healed shee day by day licked with her tongue and sucked out the venemous humour which to her was a most sweet liquour By the vigour and strength whereof or to say more truely by vertue of a wives lovely fidelity she so drew unto her all the substance of the poison that the wounds being closed and cicatrized hee became perfectly healed and shee caught no harme at all What then can bee heard more rare what more admirable than this womans faithfull love That a wives tongue thus annointed as I may so say with faith and love to her Husband should from her well beloved draw those poisons which by an approved Physitian could not bee drawne and that which many and those right exquisite medicines effected not the love onely and piety of a Wife performed Thus much of Westminster joyntly with London although as I have said it is a City by it selfe and hath a severall jurisdiction from it because with continued buildings it so joyneth thereto that it may seeme to be one and the same City Moreover at the West end of the City other Suburbs runne a great way in length with goodly rowes of houses orderly ranged as namely Holborne or rather more truely Oldborne wherein stood anciently the first house of the Templers onely in the place now called Southampton house But now there stand certaine Innes or Colleges of Students in the Common Law and a City-habitation of the Bishops of Ely well beseeming Bishops to dwell in for which they are beholden to John de Hotham Bishop of Ely under king Edward the Third At the North side likewise there be Suburbs annexed to the City wherein Iordan Briset a man very wealthy and devout built an house for the Knights Hospitalers of Saint Iohn of Ierusalem which grew in time so great that it resembled a Palace and had in it a very faire Church and a Towre-steeple raised to a great height with so fine workemanship that while it stood it was a singular beauty and ornament to the City These Knights Hospitalers at their first institution about the yeare 1124. and long after were so lowly all the while they continued poore that their Governour was stiled Servant to the poore Servitours of the hospitall of Ierusalem like as the Master of the Templars who shortly after arose was termed The humble Minister of the poore Knights of the Temple This religious Order was instituted shortly after Geffery of Bollen had recovered Hierusalem The Brethren whereof ware a white Crosse upon their upper blacke Garment and by solemne Profession were bound to serve Pilgrimes and poore people in the Hospitall of Saint Iohn at Hierusalem and to secure the passages thither they charitably buried the dead they were continuall in prayer mortified themselves with watchings and fastings they were courteous and kinde to the poore whom they called their Masters and fed with white bread while themselves lived with browne and carried themselves with great austerity Whereby they purchased to themselves the love and liking of all sorts and through the bounty of good Princes and private persons admiring their piety and prowesse they rose from this low degree to so high an estate and great riches that after a sort they wallowed in wealth For they had about the yeare of our Lord 1240. within Christendome nineteene thousand Lordships or Manours like as the Templars nine thousand the Revenewes and rents whereof in England fell afterwards also to these Hospitalers And this Estate of theirs growne to so great an height made way for them to as great honours so as their Prior in England was reputed the Prime Baron of the Land and able with fulnesse and aboundance of all things to maintaine an honourable Port untill that King Henry the Eighth advised by them which respected their private profit gat their lands and livings into his owne hands like as hee did of the Monasteries also Albeit it was then declared that such religious places being of most pious intent consecrated to the Glory of God might have beene according to the Canons of the Church bestowed in exhibition and Almes for Gods Ministers releefe of the poore redemption of Captives and repairing of Churches Neere unto it where now is to be seene a sightly circuit of faire houses was the Charter-house founded by Sir Walter Many of Henault who with singular commendation served under King Edward the Third in the French warres and in that place heretofore was a most famous Cemitery or buriall place in which in a plague time at London were buried in the yeare 1349. more than 50000. persons a
of Rome and religious men was not onely in his life time most grievously troubled but also one and forty yeeres after his death his dead Corps was cruelly handled being by warrant from the Councell of Siena turned out of his grave and openly burned Neither is it to be forgotten that neere to this Towne is a spring so cold that within a short time it turneth strawes and stickes into stones From that Bensford bridge the foresaid old High way goeth on to High-crosse so called for that thereabout stood sometime a Crosse in stead of which is erected now a very high post with props and supporters thereto The neighbours there dwelling reported unto me that the two principall High-waies of England did here cut one another overthwart and that there stood a most flourishing City there named Cleycester which had a Senate of Aldermen in it and that Cleybrooke almost a mile off was part of it also that on both sides of the way there lay under the furrowes of the corne fields great foundations and ground workes of foure square stone also that peeces of Roman money were very often turned up with the Plough although above the ground as the Poet saith Etiam ipsae periere ruinae that is Even the very ruines are perished and gone These presumptions together with the distance of this place from BANNAVENTA or Wedon which agreeth just and withall the said Bridge leading hitherward called Bensford are inducements unto me to thinke verily that the station BENNONES or VENONES was heere which Antonine the Emperour placeth next beyond BANNAVENTA especially seeing that Antonine sheweth how the way divided it selfe heere into two parts which also goeth commonly currant For Northeastward where the way lieth to Lincolne the Fosse way leadeth directly to RATAE and to VERNOMETUM of which I will speake anon and toward the Northwest Watlingstreet goeth as streight into Wales by MANVESSEDUM whereof I shall write in his due place in Warwick-shire Higher yet neere the same streetside standeth Hinkley which had for Lord of it Hugh Grantmaismill a Norman high Steward or Seneschall of England during the Raignes of king William Rufus and Henry the First The said Hugh had two daughters Parnell given in marriage to Robert Blanch-mains so called of his faire white hands Earle of Leicester together with the High-Stewardship of England and Alice wedded to Roger Bigot Verily at the East end of the Church there are to be seene Trenches and Rampires yea and a Mount cast up to an eminent height which the inhabitants say was Hughes Castle Three miles hence standeth Bosworth an ancient Mercat Towne which liberty together with the Faire S. Richard Harecourt obtained for it at the hands of king Edward the First Under this towne in our great grandfathers daies the kingdome of England lay hazarded upon the chance of one battaile For Henry Earle of Richmond with a small power encountred there in pitched field king Richard the Third who had by most wicked meanes usurped the kingdome and whiles he resolved to die the more valiantly fighting for the liberty of his country with his followers and friends the more happy successe he had and so overcame and slew the Usurper and then being with joyfull acclamations proclaimed King in the very mids of slaughtered bodies round about he freed England by his happy valour from the rule of a Tyrant and by his wisdome refreshed and setled it being sore disquieted with long civill dissentions Whereupon Bernard Andreas of Tholous a Poet living in those daies in an Ode dedicated unto King Henry the Seventh as touching the Rose his Devise writ these Verses such as they are Ecce nunc omnes posuere venti Murmuris praeter Zephyrum tepentem Hic Rosas nutrit nitidósque flores Veris amoeni Behold now all the windes are laid But Zephyrus that blowes full warme The Rose and faire spring-floures in mead He keepeth fresh and doth no harme Other memorable things there are none by this Street unlesse it bee Ashby de la Zouch that lyeth a good way off a most pleasant Lordship now of the Earles of Huntingdon but belonging in times past to the noble Family De la Zouch who descended from Alan Vicount of Rohan in Little Britaine and Constantia his wife daughter to Conan le Grosse Earle of Britaine and Maude his wife the naturall daughter of Henry the First Of this house Alane De la Zouch married one of the heires of Roger Quincy Earle of Winchester and in her right came to a faire inheritance in this Country But when hee had judicially sued John Earle of Warren who chose rather to try the Title by the sword point than by point of Law he was slaine by him even in Westminster Hall in the yeere of our Lord 1269. and some yeeres after the daughters and heires of his grand sonne transferred this inheritance by their marriages into the Families of the Saint Maures of Castle Cary and the Hollands Yet their father first bestowed this Ashby upon Sir Richard Mortimer of Richards Castle his cozin whose younger issue thereupon tooke the sirname of Zouch and were Lords of Ashby But from Eudo a younger sonne of Alane who was slaine in Westminster Hall the Lords Zouch of Harringworth branched out and have beene for many Descents Barons of the Realme Afterward in processe of time Ashby came to the Hastings who built a faire large and stately house there and Sir William Hastings procured unto the Towne the liberty of a Faire in the time of King Henry the Sixth Here I may not passe over the next neighbour Cole-Overton now a seat of the Beaumontes descended from Sir Thomas Beaumont Lord of Bachevill in Normandy brother to the first Vicount This place hath a Cole prefixed for the forename which Sir Thomas as some write was hee who was slaine manfully fighting at such time as the French recovered Paris from the English in the time of King Henry the Sixth This place of the pit-coles being of the nature of hardned Bitumen which are digged up to the profit of the Lord in so great a number that they serve sufficiently for fewell to the neighbour Dwellers round about farre and neere I said before that the River Soar did cut this Shire in the middle which springing not farre from this Street and encreased with many small rils and Brookes of running water going a long Northward with a gentle streame passeth under the West and North side of the cheife Towne or City of this County which in Writers is called Lege-Cestria Leogora Legeo cester and Leicester This Towne maketh an evident faire shew both of great antiquity and good building In the yeere 680. when Sexwulph at the commandement of King Etheldred divided the kingdome of the Mercians into Bishoprickes hee placed in this an Episcopall See and was himselfe the first Bishop that sat there but a few yeeres after when the See was translated to
Country two Barons of the Exchequer Sergeants at Law a Sheriffe and Attourney an Eschetour c. And the Inhabitants of the said County for the enjoying of their liberties were to pay at the change of every Owner of the said Earledome a summe of money about 3000. markes by the name of a Mize as the County of Flint being a parcell thereof about 2000. markes if I have not bin mis-informed This County containeth about 68. Parishes NOw have I superficially surveyed the Regions of the CORNAVII which together with the CORITANI DOBUNI and CATVELLANI made that Kingdome in the Saxons Heptarchie which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latine Writers Mercia of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an old English word that signified a Limite for all the other Kingdomes bordered and confined upon it This was the largest Kingdome by farre of all the rest begunne by Crida the Saxon about the yeere of our Lord 586. augmented by Penda who extended the Marches there of every way and within a while after instructed in Christian Religion But having come to the full period within the revolution of 250. yeeres fell at last into the Dominion of the West-Saxons after that the Danes had spoiled weakned and wasted it many yeeres in all manner of barbarous hostility SILURES I Thinke it now my best way before I treat of the other parts of England to digresse a while and turne a little aside toward Wales called in Latin Cambria or Wallia where the ancient Britans have yet their seat and abode neither shall I in so doing as I thinke digresse but directly follow the order of nature For it lieth adjacent to the CORNAVII and seemeth as it were of right and equity to demand that it may be spoken of in due course and place especially seeing the Britans or Welsh the inhabitants thereof enioy the same lawes and rights that we doe and have long since beene engraffed and incorporate with us into our Common-wealth WALES therefore which name comprised in times past before the Conquest the whole Countrey beyond Severn but afterward reached not so farre was when the Romanes ruled in Britaine inhabited by three sorts of people the SILURES DIMETAE and ORDOVICES For these held not onely the twelve Shires as they call them of Wales but those two also beyond Severn Hereford-shire and Monmouth-shire which have beene now long reckoned among the Counties of England And to beginne first with those that we first come unto and which lye next unto us the SILURES according to Ptolomees description inhabited those Regions which in Welsh are called by one name Deheubarth that is the Southpart and at this day by new names Hereford-shire Radnor-shire Brecknock-shire Monmouth-shire and Glamorgan-shire wherein are as yet some remaines also of the name SILURES As for the derivation of that name I have nothing that sorteth with the nature of the Nation But touching the originall of the people Tacitus ghesseth by their coloured faces their countenances their curled haire and their situation over against Spaine that they had their originall from the Spaniards But Florianus del campo a Spaniard flatly affirmeth it who troubleth and toileth himselfe exceedingly to finde the Silures in Spaine and thrusts upon us I know not what of Soloria and Siloria in Biscaie But to speake of the nature of these Silures they were a Nation very great for as wee may gather out of Plinie and Tacitus they seeme to have possessed all South-Wales fierce valiant given to warre impatient of servitude forward to adventure with a resolution the Romanes call it Pervicacia and who would not bee brought in either with faire meanes or soule in all and every of which qualities their Posterity have in no point as yet degenerated from their Ancestours When the Romanes upon an ambitious desire of rule did set upon them they trusting to the strength and prowesse of King Caratacus provoked also and exasperated with a word that Claudius the Emperour let fall who had said These were so to bee destroied and their name to bee extinguished as the Sugambri had beene rooted out aforetime annoied the Romanes with so dangerous a Warre by intercepting their Bands of auxiliary forces by putting to flight that Legion over which Marius Valens was Captaine and by wasting the lands of their Associates that P. Ostorious Propraetor of Britaine being tired with travaile and with the sense of these griefes and troubles gave up his ghost Veranius also Governour under Nero assailed them in vaine For whereas we reade in Tacitus illum modicis excursibus sylvas populatum esse that is That he made spoile and forraied the woods with small outrodes reade in lieu of Sylvas that is woods Siluras that is The Silures as our friend that most learned Lipsius doth and you shall reade aright Yet was not this Warre husht and finished before the time of Vespasian For then Iulius Frontinus subdued them by force and kept them under with Bands of Legionary Souldiers But whereas a Countriman of ours hath wrested this Verse of Iuvenal against Crispine to these SILURES magnâ qui voce solebat Vendere municipes fractâ de merce Siluros who with lowd voice was wont and knew full well Of broken ware his country fish the Sturgions for to sell. As though our Silures being taken prisoners were set to sale at Rome upon my credite he hath not attained to the right and proper sense of the Poet For by that word Siluros he that will reade the place and weigh it well shall easily perceive he spake of fishes and not of men HEREFORD-SHIRE THE County which we call HEREFORD-SHIRE and the Britans name Ereiâ—uc lying in compasse round as it were a Circle is bounded on the East side with Worcester and Glocester-shires on the South with Monmouth-shire on the West side with Radnor and Brecknor-shires and on the North with Shropshire This Country besides that it is right pleasant is for yeelding of Corne and feeding of Cattaile in all places most fruitfull and therewith passing well furnished with all things necessary for mans life In so much as it would scorne to come behinde any one Country throughout all England for fertility of Soile and therefore say that for three W.W.W. wheat wooll and water it yeeldeth to no Shire of England And verily it hath also diverse notable rivers namely Wye-Lug and Munow which after they have watered the most flowring meddowes and fruitfull corne fields at length meet together and in one chanell passe on to the Severn sea Munow springing out of Hatterell hilles which resembling a chaire doe rise aloft and sense this shire on the South-West as it descendeth downe first strugleth to passe through by the foote of the said hilles to BLESTIUM a towne which Antonine the Emperour so placeth that for situation and distance it can bee no other than that which standing by the side of this River is
extended it selfe in old time farre and wide everie way in these parts As for the places herein they are of no great account but the Earles thereof are very memorable Thomas a younger sonne of Rolland of Galloway was in his wives right Earle of Athol whose sonne Patricke was by the Bissets his concurrents murdered in feud at Hadington in his bed-chamber and forthwith the whole house wherein hee lodged burnt that it might be supposed he perished by casualtie of fire In the Earldome there succeeded David Hastings who had married the aunt by the mothers side of Patricke whose sonne that David surnamed of Strathbogie may seeme to be who a little after in the reigne of Henrie the third King of England being Earle of Athol married one of the daughters and heires of Richard base sonne to John King of England and had with her a verie goodly inheritance in England She bare unto him two sonnes John Earle of Athol who being of a variable disposition and untrustie was hanged up aloft on a gallowes fiftie foot high and David Earle of Athol unto whom by marriage with one of the daughters and heires of John Comin of Badzenoth by one of the heires of Aumar de Valence Earle of Penbroch there fell great lands and possessions His sonne David who under King Edward the second was otherwhiles amongst English Earles summoned to the Parliaments in England and under King Edward Balliol made Lord Lievtenant Generall of Scotland was vanquished by the valerous prowesse of Andrew de Murray and slaine in battaile within the Forrest of Kelblen in the yeere of our Lord 1335. And his sonne David left two young daughters only Elizabeth wedded unto Sir Thomas Percie from whom the Barons of Burrough are descended and Philip married to Sir Thomas Halsham an English Knight Then fell the title of Athol unto that Walter Stewart sonne to King Robert the second who cruelly murdered James the first King of Scotland and for this execrable crueltie suffered most condigne punishment accordingly in so much as Aeneas Sylvius Embassadour at that time in Scotland from Pope Eugenius the fourth gave out this speech That hee could not tell whether hee should give them greater commendations that revenged the Kings death or brand them with sharper censure of condemnation that distained themselves with so hainous a parricide After some few yeeres passed betweene this honour was granted unto John Stewart of the family of Lorne the sonne of James surnamed The Black Knight by Joan the widow of King James the first daughter to John Earle of Somerset and Niece to John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster whose posteritie at this day enjoy the same Tau bearing now a bigger streame by receiving Almund unto him holdeth on his course to Dunkelden adorned by King David with an Episcopall See Most writers grounding upon the signification of that word suppose it to be a towne of the Caledonians and interpret it The Mount or hill of Hazeles as who would have that name given unto it of the Hazel trees in the wood Caledonia From hence the Tau goeth forward by the carkasse of Berth a little desolate Citie remembring well enough what a great losse and calamitie hee brought upon it in times past when with an extraordinarie swelling flood hee surrounded all the fields layed the goodly standing corne along on the ground and carried headlong away with him this poore Citie with the Kings childe and infant in his cradle and the inhabitants therein In steed whereof in a more commodious place King William builded Perth which straightwaies became so wealthy that Necham who lived in that age versified of it in this manner Transis ample Tai per rura per oppida per Perth Regnum sustentant istius urbis opes By villages by townes by Perth thou runn'st great Tay amaine The riches of this Citie Perth doth all the realme sustaine But the posteritie ensuing called it of a Church founded in honour of Saint John Saint Iohns towne and the English whiles the warres were hot betweene the Bruses and the Balliols fortified it with great bulwarks which the Scots afterwards for the most part overthrew and dismantled it themselves Howbeit it is a proper pretie Citie pleasantly seated betweene two Greenes and for all that some of the Churches be destroyed yet a goodly shew it maketh ranged and set out in such an uniforme maner that in everie severall street almost there dwell severall artificers by themselves and the river Tau bringeth up with the tide sea commodities by lighters whereupon J. Jonston so often now by me cited writeth thus PERTHUM Propter aquas Tai liquidas amoena vineta Obtinet in medio regna superba solo Nobilium quondam regum clarissima sedes Pulchra situ pinguis germine dives agri Finitimis dat jura locis moremque modumque Huic dare laus illis haec meruisse dari Sola inter patrias incincta est moenibus urbes Hostibus assiduis ne vaga praeda foret Quanta virûm virtus dextrae quae praemia nôrunt Cimber Saxo ferox genus Hectoridum Felix laude novâ felix quoque laude vetustâ Perge recens priscum perpetuare decus PERTH Neere to the waters cleere of Tay and pleasant plaines all greene In middle ground betweene them stands Perth proudly like a Queene Of noble Kings the stately seat and palace once it was Faire for the site and rich with all for spring of corne and grasse To neighbour places all it doth lawes customes fashions give Her praise to give theirs to deserve the same for to receive Of all the Cities in these parts walled alone is she Lest she to foes continuall a scambling prey might be What Knights she bred and what rewards they won to knighthood due Danes Saxons fierce bold Britans eke the Trojans off-spring knew Happie for praises old happie for praises new of late New as thou art thine honour old strive to perpetuate And now of late King James the sixth hath erected it to the title of an Earldome having created James Baron Dromund Earle of Perth Unto Perth these places are neere neighbours Methven which Margaret an English Ladie widow unto King James the fourth purchased with readie money for her third husband Henrie Steward descended of the royall blood and for his heires and withall obtained of her sonne King James the fifth for him the dignitie of a Baron More beneath is Rethuen a castle of the Rethuens whose name is of damned memorie considering that the three states of the kingdome hath ordained that whosoever were of that name should forgoe the same and take unto them a new after that the Rethuens brethren in a most cursed and horrible conspiracie had complotted to murder their soveraigne King James the sixth who had created William their father Earle of Gourie and afterward beheaded him being lawfully convicted when he would insolently prescribe lawes to his soveraigne But of men
albeit it is the Archiepiscopall See and Metropolitane of the whole Iland The Irish talke much that it was so called of Queen Armacha but in mine opinion it is the very same that Bede nameth Dearmach and out of the Scottish or Irish language interpreteth it The field of Okes. But it was named Drumsailich before that Saint Patricke had built there a proper faire City for site forme quantity and compasse modelled out as hee saith by the appointment and direction of Angels That Patricke I say who being a Britan borne and Saint Martins sisters sonne named at his Baptisme Sucat was sold into Ireland where he became Heardman to King Miluc afterwards was named by Saint German whose disciple hee was Magonius as a Nurse-Father out of a British word and by Pope Caelestine Patricius as a Father of the Citizens and by him sent over to catechize Ireland in the Christian faith which notwithstanding some had received there before as wee may gather out of an old Synodall wherein is urged the testimony of Patricke himselfe against that tonsure or shaving of Priests which had beene used before his time in Ireland whereby they were shaven onely on the fore part of the head and not on the Crowne Which manner of shaving he seemeth by way of contempt to father upon a certaine Swineherd of King Lagerius the sonne of Nell and the writers of that age cried out that it was Simon Magus his shaving and not S. Peters In this place about the yeere of our salvation 610. Columbane built a most famous Monastery out of which very many Monasteries afterwards were propagated by his disciples both in Britain and in Ireland Of this Armach S. Bernard thus writeth In honour of S. Patrick the Apostle of Ireland who here by his life time ruled and after death rested it is the Archiepiscopall seat and Metropolitan City of all Ireland and of so venerable estimation in old time that not only Bishops and Priests but Kings also and Princes in generall were subject to the Metropolitane thereof in all obedience and he alone governed them all But through the divellish ambition of some mighty Potentates there was taken up a very bad custome that this holy See should be obtained and held in hereditary succession neither suffered they any to be Bishops but such as were of their owne Clan Tribe and Family Neither prevailed this execrable succession a little but continued this wicked manner for the space well neere of fifteen generations When in processe of time the Ecclesiasticall discipline in this Iland was growne loose so as in townes and cities there were translations and plurality of Bishops according to the will and pleasure of the Metropolitane for reformation of this abuse Iohn Papyrio a Cardinall was sent hither from Pope Eugenius the fourth as a namelesse writer then living wrote in these words In the yeere of our Lord 1142. Iohn Papyrio a Cardinall sent from Eugenius the fourth Bishop of Rome together with Christian Bishop of Lismore Legate of all Ireland came into Ireland The same Christian held a solemne Counsell in Mell at which were present all the Bishops Abbats Kings Dukes and Elders of Ireland By whose consent there were established foure Archbishopricks namely of Armach of Dublin of Cassile and Toam Wherein sate and ruled at the same time Gelasius Gregorius Donatus and Edanus and so the Cardinall bestowing his blessing upon the Clergie returned to Rome For before that time the Bishops of Ireland were wont to be consecrated by the Archbishops of Canterbury in regard of the Primacy which they had in Ireland This did the Citizens of Dublin acknowledge when they sent Gregory elect Bishop of Dublin unto Ralph Archbishop of Canterbury for to be consecrated by these words Antecessorum vestrorum Magisterio c. that is Unto the Magistracy of your Predecessors we willingly submitted our Prelats from which we remember that our Prelats have received their dignity Ecclesiasticall c. which appeareth for certain out of letters also bearing date of greater antiquity namely of Murchertach King of Ireland written unto Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury for the ordaining and enstalling of the Bishops of Dublin and of Waterford likewise of King Gothrich unto Lanfrank his predecessor in the behalfe of one Patrick a Bishop of Lanfrank also unto Therdeluac a King of Ireland unto whom he complaineth That the Irishmen forsake and leave at their pleasure their wedded wives without any canonicall cause and match with any others even such as be neere of kinne either to themselves or the said forsaken wives and if another man with like wickednesse hath cast off any wife her also rashly and hand over head they joine with by law of marriage or fornication rather an abuse worthy to be punished With which vices if this nation had not bin corrupted even unto these daies of ours both the right of lineall succession among them had been more certain and as well the gentry as the communalty had not embrued themselves so wickedly with the effusion of so much blood of their owne kinred about their inheritances and legitimation neither had they become so infamous in these respects among forraine nations But these matters are exorbitant of themselves and from my purpose Long had not that Archiepiscopall dignity and Primacy beene established when Vivian the Popes Legate confirmed the same againe so that their opinion may seeme to be worthy of discredit and refutation who affirme that the Archbishop of Armach had in regard of antiquity the priority and superiour place of the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Generall or Oecumenicall Councells whereas by the first institution hee is by many ages the latter Neither according to the antiquitie of places are the seats in Councels appointed But all Prelates of what degree soever they be sit among their Colleagues according to their owne ordination enstalling and promotion What time as that Vivian was Legate in Ireland Sir Iohn Curcy subdued Armach and made it subject to the English and yet did he no harme then but is reported to have beene very good and bountifull unto the Churchmen that served God there and he re-edified their Church which in our memory was fired and foulely defaced by the rebell Shan O Neale and the city withall so that they lost all the ancient beauty and glory and nothing remaineth at this day but very few small watled cottages with the ruinous walls of the Monastery Priory and Primates palace Among the Archbishops of this place there goes the greatest fame and name of S. Malachy the first that prohibited Priests marriage in Ireland a man in his time learned and devout and who tooke no lesse of the native barbarousnesse of that country than sea fishes saltnesse of the seas as saith S. Bernard who wrote his life at large also Richard Fitz-Ralfe commonly called Armachanus is of famous memory who turned the edge of his stile about the yeere 1355. against
of estate in the very entry of the place he in poore and foule array with a dejected countenance bewraying his forlorne estate falleth downe upon his knees and when hee had so kneeled a while the Lord Deputy signified unto him that hee should approach neerer whereupon he rose up and after he had stepped in lowly maner some few paces forward he kneeled downe againe and cast himselfe prostrate like a most humble suppliant He acknowledgeth his sinne to God and fault unto his most gracious Prince and soveraigne Lady Queene Elizabeth in whose royall clemency and mercy lay the onely hope that he had now remaining to whose pleasure he submitteth wholly and absolutely his life and whole estate He most demisely beseecheth that whose bountifull favour in times past and mighty power now of late he had felt and found he might now have experience of her mercifull lenity and that he might be for ever the example of her Princely clemency For neither was his age as yet so unserviceable nor his body so much disabled ne yet his courage so daunted but that by his valiant and faithfull service in her behalf he could expiate and make satisfaction for this most disloiall rebellion And yet to extenuate his crime he began to say that through the malicious envy of some he had bin very hardly and unreasonably deali with As he was enforcing this point further the Deputy interrupted him and cut off his speech and after a few words delivered with great authority which in a martiall man doth stand in stead of eloquence to this effect that there was no excuse to be made for so grievous and hainous a crime with few other words he commanded him to withdraw himselfe and the next day carried him away with him toward Dublin purposing to bring him from thence into England before Queene Elisabeth that shee might determine at her pleasure what to doe with him But in this meane time that most excellent Princesse a little after that she had intelligence that nothing might be wanting to the accomplishment of her glory how this rebellion was extinguished which had not a little disquieted her departed godly and peaceably out of this transitory life into the eternall Thus the warre of Ireland or the rebellion rather of the Earle of Tir-Oen begun upon private grudges and quarrels intermedled with ambition cherished at first by contempt and sparing of charges out of England spred over all Ireland under the colourable pretence of restoring libertie and Romish Religion continued by untoward emulation of the English and covetousnesse of the old souldiers protracted by the subtill wiles and fanied submissions of the Earle by the most cumbrous and disadvantageous difficulty of the countrey and by a desperate kinde of people saving themselves more by good footmanship than their valour confirmed through the light credulity of some and the secret favour of others that were in place of authority heartned with one or two fortunate encounters fed and somented with Spanish money and Spanish supplies in the eighth yeere after it first brake out under the happy direction of Queen Elisabeth of sacred memorie and the fortunate conduct of the Lord Deputy Sir Charles Blunt Baron of Mont-joy whom afterwards in regard hereof King Iames created Earle of Devonshire was most happily dispatched and firme peace as we hope for ever established THE MANERS OF THE IRISHRY BOTH OF OLD AND OF LATER TIMES THe place requireth now that I should adde somewhat of the manners of this people and that verily will I doe as touching their ancient behaviour out of ancient Historiographers and concerning the latter out of a moderne writer both learned and diligent who hath set downe these matters most exactly As concerning the Irish of ancient times when as they were as all other nations beside in this tract barbarous and savage thus much have old authors recorded Strabo in his fourth booke of Ireland saith I can deliver nothing for certaine but that the inhabitants thereof are more rude than the Britans as who both feed upon mans flesh and also devoure exceeding muth meat yea and they thinke it a point of honesty to eat the bodies of their dead parents and wantonly to have company not onely with other mens wives but even with their owne mothers and sisters Which things verily we relate so as having no witnesses hereof that be of sufficient credit Certes the report goes that the manner of the Scythians is to eat mans flesh and it is recorded of the Gaules Spaniards and many more besides that by occasion of urgent necessity and extremities of siege that they have done the same Pomponius Mela in his third book writeth thus The inhabitants are uncivill ignorant of all vertues and utterly voide of religion Solinus in the 24. chapter When they have atchieved any victory the blood of those that are slaine they first drinke and then besmeare their faces with it Right and wrong is all one with them A woman lying in childbed if she have at any time brought forth a man childe laieth the first meat she gives it upon her husbands sword and with the very point thereof putteth it softly into the infants mouth in hansell as it were of the nourishment it shall have hereafter and with certaine heathenish vowes wisheth That it may dye no otherwise than in warre and by the sword They that endevour to be more handsome and civill than the rest make their sword handles gay with the teeth of great Whales and such sea monsters for they be as white as Ivory And why the men take a principall pride and glory in the keeping of their weapons faire and bright But these fashions savour of greater antiquity Their conditions of the middle time Giraldus Cambrensis hath here and there treated of and out of him others But now for their later demeanour take them here with you out of that foresaid Moderne writer a studious and painefull man and that in his owne words who as I collect was named I. Good brought up in Oxford by profession and calling a Priest and who about the yeere of our Lord 1566. taught the Schoole at Limiricke But first I will briefely premise according to my promise made even now somewhat as touching the manner of the jurisdiction that is used among the meere Irish out of others Their great men and Potentates whose names have the fourth vowell O put before them as a mark of preheminence excellency as O-Neal O-Rork O-Donel c. and many of the rest to whose name Mac is prefixed have peculiar rights and priviledges of their owne whereby they domineere and Lord it most proudly and what with tributes exactions paiments and impositions upon their subjects for their souldiers Galloglasses Kernes and horsemen whom they are to finde and maintaine they so prey upon their goods and estates and oppresse them at their owne pleasure that the condition of all those which live under them is most miserable and
fore-token of justice having the knot of white silke made in forme of a crosse with an hood upon their left shoulder But of these complements which my purpose was not to prosecute in particular this may bee thought sufficient if not superfluous Now as touching those Knights who simply without any addition bee called Knights and howsoever they are in order ranged last yet by institution they be first and of greatest Antiquitie For as the Romans a gowned nation gave unto them that were entring into mans estate a virile and plaine gowne without welt or gard even so the Germans our Ancestors bestowed upon their young men whom they judged meet for to manage armes armour and weapons Which Cornelius Tacitus will informe you of in these words of his The manner was not for any one to take armes in hand before the State allowed him as sufficient for Martiall service And then in the very assembly of Counsell either some one of the Princes or the father of the young man or one of his kinsfolke furnish him with a shield and a javelin This with them standeth in stead of a virile gowne this is the first honour done to youth before this they seeme to bee but part of a private house but now within a while members of the Common-weale And seeing that such military young men they termed in their language as we in ours Knechts from them I deeme the originall both of name and institution also ought to be fetched This was the first and most simple manner of creating a Knight this the Lombards this the Frankes this our countrymen all descended out of Germanie in old time used Paulus Diaconus reporteth thus among the Lombards This is the Custome that the Kings sonne dineth not with his father unlesse hee receive Armes before from some King of a forraine nation The Annals of France record that the Kings of the Franks gave armes unto their sonnes and to others and girded them with a sword yea and our Aelfred as William of Malmesburie witnesseth when he dubbed Athelstan his nephew Knight being a child of great hope gave him a scarlet mantle a belt or girdle set with precious stones and a Saxon-sword with a golden scabberd Afterwards when as religion had possessed mens minds so as that they thought nothing well fortunately done but what came from Church-men our Ancestors a little before the Normans comming received the Sword at their hands And this Ingulphus who lived in those daies sheweth in these words He that was to be cōsecrated unto lawfull warfare should the evening before with a contrite heart make confession of his sinnes unto the Bishop Abbat Monke or Priest and being absolved give himselfe to prayer and lodge all night in the Church and when hee was to heare divine service the morrow after offer his sword upon the Altar and after the Gospel the Priest was to pu◠the sword first hallowed upon the Knights neck with his Benediction and so when hee had heard Masse againe and received the Sacrament he became a lawfull Knight Neither grew this custome out of use streight waies under the Normans For John of Sarisburie writeth in his Polycraticon thus A solemne Custome was taken up and used that the very day when any one was to be honoured with the girdle of knighthood hee should solemnly goe to Church and by laying and offering his Sword upon the Altar vow himselfe as it were by making a solemne profession to the service of the Altar that is to say promise perpetuall service and obsequious dutie unto the Lord. Peter also of Blois writeth thus At this day young Knights and souldiers receive their Swords from the Altar that they might professe themselves Sonnes of the Church and to have taken the Sword for defence of the poore for punishment and revenge of malefactors and delivery of their Country But in processe of time saith he it is turned cleane contrary For in these daies since they are become adorned with the Knights cincture presently they arise against the Annointed of the Lord and rage upon the patrimonie of Christ crucified And as for this ceremonie that they would be girt with a Sword it may seeme no doubt to have proceeded from the militarie discipline of the Romans because as they denied it unlawfull to fight with their enemie before they were bound to their militarie oath by a drawn sword even so our Forefathers thought they might not go to warfare lawfully before they were by this ceremonie lawfully authorised according to which wee reade that William Rufus King of England was dubbed Knight by Lanfranke the Archbishop But this custome by little and little grew to disuse since the time that the Normans as Ingulphus writeth laughed and scorned at it and in a Synode at Westminster An. 1102. a Canon passed That no Abbats should dubbe Knights which some notwithstanding expound thus That Abbats should grant no lands of the Church to be held by Knights service or in Knights fee or service Afterwards Kings were wont to send their sonnes unto the neighbour Princes to receive Knighthood at their hands thus was our K. Henrie the Second sent unto David King of the Scots and Malcolme King of Scots unto our Henry the Second and our Edward the first unto the King of Castile to take of them Militarie or Virile armes for these termes and phrases they used in that age for the creation of a Knight Then it was also that besides the sword and girdle gilt spurres were added for more ornament whereupon at this day they are called in Latin Equites aurati Moreover they had the priviledge to weare use a signet for before they were dubbed knights as I gather out of Abendon Booke it was not lawfull to use a seale Which writing quoth he Richard Earle of Chester purposed to signe with the seale of his mother Ermentrud considering that all Letters which he directed for as yet he had not taken the Militarie girdle were made up and closed within his mothers signet In the age ensuing knights as it may be well collected were made by their wealth and state of living For they which had a great knights Fee that is if wee may beleeve old records 680. akers of land claimed as their right the ornaments and badges of knighthood Nay rather under Henry the Third they were compelled after a sort to be knights as many as in revenues of their lands might dispend fifteen pounds by the yeare so as now it seemed a title of burden rather than of honour In the yeare 1256. there went out an edict from the King by vertue whereof commandement was given proclamation made throughout the Realme that whosoever had fifteen pounds in land and above should be dight in his armes and endowed with knighthood to the end that England as well as Italie might be strengthned with Chivalrie and they that would not or were not able to maintaine the honour
any expedition set out either by sea or land it served in proportion to five hides It hath beene likewise from time to time much afflicted once spoiled and sore shaken by the furious outrages of the Danes in the yeare of our redemption 875. but most grievously by Suen the Dane in the yeare 1003. at which time by the treacherie of one Hugh a Norman Governor of the citie it was raced and ruined along from the East gate to the West And scarcely began it to flourish againe when William the Conquerour most straightly beleaguered it when the Citizens in the meane while thought it not sufficient to shut their gates against him but malapartly let flie taunts and flouts at him but when a piece of their wall fell downe by the speciall hand of God as the Historians of that age report they yielded immediatly thereupon At which time as we find in the said survey-booke of his The King had in this Citie three hundred houses it paid fifteene pounds by the yeare and fortie houses were destroyed after that the King came into England After this it was thrice besieged and yet it easily avoided all First by Hugh Courtney Earle of Denshire in that civill warre betweene the two houses of Lancaster and Yorke then by Perkin Warbecke that imaginarie counterfeit and pretended Prince who being a young man of a very base condition faining himselfe to be Richard Duke of Yorke the second sonne of King Edward the Fourth stirred up dangerous stirres against Henrie the Seventh thirdly by seditious Rebels of Cornwall in the yeare of Christ 1549 at which time the Citizens most grievously pinched though they were with scarcitie of all things continued neverthelesse in their faith and allegeance untill that Iohn Lord Russell raised the siege and delivered them But Excester received not so great damage at these enemies hands as it did by certaine dammes which they call Weares that Edward Courtney Earle of Denshire taking high displeasure against the Citizens made in the river Ex which stop the passage so that no vessell can come up to the Citie but since that time all merchandize is carried by land from Topesham three miles off And albeit it hath beene decreed by Act of Parliament to take away these Weares yet they continue there still Hereupon the little Towne adjoyning is call Weare being aforetime named Heneaton which was sometime the possession of Augustine de Baa from whom in right of inheritance it descended to Iohn Holland who in his signet which my selfe have seene bare a Lion rampant gardant among flowers de Lys. The civill government of this Citie is in the power of foure and twenty persons out of whom there is from yeare to yeare a Major elected who with foure Bailiffes ruleth heere the State As touching the Geographicall description of this place the old tables of Oxford have set downe the longitude thereof to bee nineteene degrees and eleven scruples the latitude fiftie degrees and fortie scruples or minutes This Citie that I may not omit so much hath had three Dukes For Richard the Second of that name King of England created Iohn Holland Earle of Huntingdon and his brother by the mothers side the first Duke of Excester whom Henrie the Fourth deposed from this dignitie and left unto him the name onely of Earle of Huntingdon and soone after for conspiracie against the King he lost both it and his life by the hatchet Some few yeares after Henry the Fifth set in his place Thomas Beaufort of the house of Lancaster and Earle of Dorset a right noble and worthy warriour When he was dead leaving no issue behind him John Holland sonne of that aforesaid John as heire unto his brother Richard who died without children and to his father both being restored to his bloud by the favour and bounty of King Henry the Sixth recovered his fathers honor and left the same to Henry his sonne who so long as the Lancastrians stood upright flourished in very much honor but afterwards when the family of Yorke was a float and had rule of all gave an example to teach men how ill trusting it is to great Fortunes For this was that same Henry Duke of Excester who albeit he had wedded King Edward the Fourth his sister was driven to such miserie that he was seene all tottered torne and barefooted to begge for his living in the Low countries And in the end after Barnet field fought wherein he bare himselfe valiantly against Edward the Fourth was no more seene untill his dead bodie as if he had perished by Shipwracke was cast upon the shore of Kent A good while after this Henry Courtney Earle of Denshire the sonne of Katharine daughter to King Edward the Fourth was advanced to the honour of Marquesse of Excester by Henry the Eighth and designed heire apparant But this Marquesse as well as the first Duke was by his high parentage cast into a great tempest of troubles wherein as a man subject to suspitions and desirous of a change in the State he was quickly overthrowne And among other matters because he had with money and counsell assisted Reginald Poole afterwards Cardinall then a fugitive practising with the Emperour and the Pope against his owne Country and the King who had now abrogated the Popes authoritie he was judicially arraigned and being condemned with some others lost his head But now of late by the favour of King Iames Thomas Cecill Lord Burleigh enjoyeth the title of Earle of Excester a right good man and the worthy sonne of so excellent a father being the eldest sonne of William Cecill Lord Burleigh high Treasurer of England whose wisedome for a long time was the support of peace and Englands happy quietnesse From Excester going to the very mouth of the River I find no monument of Antiquitie but Exminster sometime called Exanminster bequeathed by King Elfred to his younger sonne and Pouderham Castle built by Isabell de Ripariis the seat long time of that most noble family of the Courtneys Knights who being lineally descended from the stocke of the Earles of Denshire and allied by affinitie to most honorable houses flourish still at this day most worthy of their descent from so high Ancestors Under Pouderham Ken a pretty brooke entreth into Ex which riseth neere Holcombe where in a Parke is a faire place built by Sir Thomas Denis whose family fetcheth their first off-spring and surname from the Danes and were anciently written Le Dan Denis by which name the Cornish called the Danes But lower upon the very mouth of the river on the other banke side as the name it selfe doth testifie standeth Exanmouth knowne by nothing else but the name and for that some fishermen dwelt therein More Eastward Otterey that is The River of Otters or River-Dogs which we call Otters as may appeare by the signification of the word falleth into the sea which runneth hard under
hasteneth toward VERLVCIO a most antient towne whereof the Emperor Antonine maketh mention in his Itinerarie which having not quite lost the name is called Werminster compounded of that old name and the English Saxon word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a Monasterie In times past it enjoyed great immunities and freedomes For as wee reade in the Booke of King William the Great Nec geldavit nec hidata fuit that is It paid no tribute nor was rated by the Hide Now onely for a round Corn-market it is exceeding much frequented for hardly a man would believe what a mightie deale of Corne is weekely brought hither and quickly sold. But for remnants of Roman Antiquities I could discover none here onely on the East side are seene some trenches upon the hills and on the West a naturall round and high copt hill called Clay-hill Heere by beginneth North South and Eastward through the midst of the Shire the Plaines so wide and open that hardly a man can see from one side to another and doe limit the Horizon whereupon they are named The Plaines they are but rarely inhabited and had in late time a bad name for robberies there committed On the South side thereof there runne quietly two most still Rivers Willey-borne which Asserius nameth Guilou and Nadder commonly called Adder-bourne Wille-bourne rising at Werminster runneth neere Heitesburie or Hegtresburie an ancient mansion place of the Family of Hungerford but in the Church which hath beene Collegiate there is seene but one defaced monument of them The last Lord Hungerford created by King Henry the Eighth had his denomination of this place but enjoyed that honour a short while being condemned of a crime not to bee uttered Hence it hieth to Willy a Village some few miles distant over against it a very large warlike fence or hold and the same fortified with a deepe and duple Ditch the neighbour-dwellers call it Yanesburie Castle And by the forme and manner of making a man may easily know it was a Roman Campe. There are who verily thinke it was Vespasians Campe considering that hee being Lieutenant of the twentieth Legion under Claudius the Emperour subdued unto the Roman Empire two nations in this tract and they suppose that in the name Yanesburie there remaine some reliques still of Vespasians name Opposit to this on the other side the water is another lesse camp-place singly ditched called Dun-shat and about one mile and a halfe from Yanesburie another likewise with a single trench named Woldsbury I have noted the names as the country people tearme them that other may collect some matter thereby more than I can As for Nadder that springeth out of the South limit of the shire it creepeth with crooked windings like an Adder whereof it may seeme to have beene so called not farre from Wardour a proper fine Castle appertaining sometime to the Progenie surnamed Saint Martins But to say nothing of many owners betweene and amongst them of the Lord Brooke who repaired it and died at it now it belongeth to Thomas Arundell who being of late by King Iames created Baron Arundell of Wardour is worthy to be with praise remembred For that being a young Gentleman hee of a pious and godly mind undertaking a journey to serve in the warres against the Turkes sworne enemies of Christendome for his singular prowesse shewed at the winning of Strigonium in Hungarie deserved by honourable Charter from Rodolph the Second of that name Emperour to bee made a Count of the Empire the tenour of which Patent is thus For that hee had borne himselfe valiantly and manfully in the field and in assaults of Cities and Castles and shewing good proofe of valour in forcing of the water tower neere Strigonium tooke from the Turkes with his owne hand their Banner both himselfe and all and every one his children heires and issue whatsoever of both sexes descending from him lawfully either borne already or that ever shall from generation to generation bee borne wee have created made and named Counts and Countesses have endowed and adorned and with the title honour and dignitie of a Count imperiall Over against it lieth Hach a place at this day of small reckoning but which in the time of King Edward the First had his Lord Eustach de Hach summoned among the Peeres of the Realme for a Baron unto the high Court of Parliament And a few miles from thence is Hindon a quicke market and knowne for nothing else that I could see At the meeting of these two rivers Willey giveth his name to Wilton a place well watered and sometime the head towne of the whole Shire which thereof tooke the name In ancient times it was called Ellandunum for so we are enformed by the testimonie of old parchment records which have in expresse termes Weolsthan Earle of Ellandunum that is to say of Wilton and in another place that hee founded a little Monasterie at Ellandunum that is at Wilton By this name Ellan I am partly induced to thinke that this is the river Alan which Ptolomee mentioneth in this coast of the Countrey At this towne it was that in the yeare of our redemption 821. Egbert King of the West-Saxons obtained a victorie against Beor Wulf of Mercia but so mortall a battell it was to both parties that the river flowed commixt with the bloud of those who were allied in bloud and dissevered in faction At this towne also in the yeare of salvation 871. Aelfrid joyning battell with the Danes had the better hand at first but immediately the alternative fortune of war comming about hee was put to the worst and driven to retire In the Saxons time it flourished with the best in numbers of Inhabitants and King Eadgar as our Chronicles beare witnes beautified it with a Nunnery whereof he made his owne daughter Edith Prioresse But by the ancient Charter of Eadgar himselfe bearing date An. 874. it appeareth certainly to bee of more antiquitie For therein it is thus written The Monasterie which by King Edward my great Grandfathers Grandfather was founded in a well frequented and peopled place that by a knowne name is by the Inhabitants called Wilton And in the life of Saint Edward the Confessor we read thus Whiles S. Edward went in hand with the building of the Monasterie of S. Peter in Westminster Editha his wife began at Wilton where shee was brought up a Monastery princely built of stone in lieu of the Church made of timber following the Kings good affection with the like devotion of her owne And albeit Sueno the Dane spoiled this towne most grievously in the raging heate of hostilitie yet fell it not so greatly to decay untill the Bishops of Salisbury turned another way the common passage that lay before through it into the West countries For then by little and little it fell to ruine and is now as it were a small
runs a long tract or chaine of hils yeilding plentie of pasture and forrage for sheepe The wool of which next unto that of Lemster and Coteswold is estemed best and in speciall request with Clothiers whereby there groweth to the Inhabitants much gaine and profit The North part is all over greene with meddows pastures and woods the South side lieth wholly in manner bedecked with cornefields enclosed where at each end the sea on the North-side doth so inbosome encroach within it selfe that it maketh almost two Islands and verily so the Islanders call them namely Fresh-water Isle which looketh West and Binbrige Isle Eastward In Bedas daies it was counted to containe a thousand and two hundred Hides now it reckoneth upon 36. townes villages and Castles which for Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction belong to the Bishop of Winchester and for civill government to the County of South-hanton The Inhabitants of this Isle were wont merrily to make their boast that their case was happier than all others because they had neither hooded monks nor cavilling Lawyers nor yet crafty foxes The places of greater name be these Newport the principall mercate towne of the whole Isle called in times past Medena and Novus Burgus de Meden that is The new Burgh of Meden whereof the whole country is divided into East Meden and West Meden an ordering as to their scituation East or West either way Cacres-brooke an old Castle so clepid and clipped short for White garesburg is in the very heart and midst of the Isle taking the name of Whitgar the Saxon of whom more heereafter and of late magnificently reedified by the meanes of the Captaine unto which Castle there belonged very many Knights Fees and above all other places it hath heere the glory for antiquitie Brading another mercate Towne Newton and Yarmouth anciently called Eremue which have their Majors and send Burgesses to the Parliament This Yarmouth and Sharpâ—ore have Castles in them which together with Worsleys fort or Blockehouse so named of a worshipfull familie defend the Sea-shore at the Northwest Just over against it scarcely two miles off standeth Hurst a fortification of South-Hamptonshire scituate upon a little necke of land lying into the Sea Quarre where was founded a Nunnerie in the yeare of our Lord 1131 Gods-Hill in which Iohn Worsley erected a Schoole for the training up of young wits West-Cowe and East-Cowe that is now ruinous both which King Henry the Eighth built at the very entrie of New port and concerning them Leland wrote in this wise Covae fulmineae duae coruscant Haec casum colit ille Solis ortum Vectam quà Neoportus intrat altam Two Cowes full opposite there stand At West and East in all mens sight Then flashen fire from either hand Where Newport entreth Isle of Wight Also on the North-East side Sandham Castle furnished as the rest with great ordnance Neither are there wanting for the defence of this Isle naturall fences For encircled it is with a continuall ridge and raunge as it were of craggy clifts there are under the waters likewise hidden stones and every where there lie against it bankes and rockes perilous for sailers but the most dangerous of all the rest are the Needles so called because they are so sharpe and the Shingles which stand forth against the West angle of the Isle as also the Owers and Mixon that lie before the East Besides these The Brambles which are Shelves and perilous for Sailers in the North-coast Moreover if there be any place that seemeth open and meete for a landing place the same by an old order and custome among them is piled with strong stakes driven and pitched deepe into the ground But verily this Isle is neither with these rockes nor with those fortresses above said so well fenced as with the very Inhabitants themselves who naturally being most warlike bold and adventurous are through the diligence and care of the Captaine of the Isle confirmed so by continuall exercise in strength and militarie discipline that they exactly know before hand what accidents of service soever may happen in warre namely with their peeces to shoot point-blanke and not misse the marke to keepe their rankes to march orderly and in ray to cast their squadrons if need be close into a ring or to display and spred the same at large to take paines to runne and ride to endure both Sunne and dust and fully to performe whatsoever warfarre doth require Of these souldiers thus trained the Isle it selfe is able to bring forth into the field 4000. and at the instant of all assaies appointed there bee three thousand more of most expert and practised servitours out of Hampshire and two thousand beside out of Wilshire to bee ever prest and in readinesse for the defence of the Isle And to the end that all hostile forces whatsoever might bee withstood more speedily and with greater facilitie the whole countrey is divided into eleven parts and every of them hath their severall Centoner as one would say Centurion their Vintons also leaders as it were of twenty their great pieces of Ordnance their Sentinels and warders Who keepe watch and ward at the Beacons standing on the higher grounds their Posts also or runners whom by an old name growne almost out of use they terme still Hoblers who presently give intelligence of all occurrents to the Captaine and Governour of the Isle The first that brought it in subjection to the Romans was Vespatian whiles he served as a private person under Claudius Caesar For thus writeth Suetonius of him Vnder the Emperour Claudius by speciall favour of Narcissus he was sent into Germanie as Lieutenant of a Legion and from thence being remooved into Britaine he fought thirtie battailes with the enemie Two most mightie nations and above twentie townes together with the Isle of Wight lying next to the said Britaine hee subdued under the conduct partly of A. Plautius a Consular Lieutenant and in part of Claudius himselfe For which service he received triumphall ornaments and in short space two sacerdotall dignities c. At this Isle also the navie of Allectus after he had usurped the Imperiall dignitie in Britaine lying in espiall and ambush awaited the Romans comming against him who notwithstanding by the happy meanes of a mist passed by their enemies undescried gat to land and set fire on their owne ships that there might bee no refuge for them to escape unto by flight Lord Cerdic was the first English-Saxon that subdued it and he granted it unto Stuffa and Whitgar who joyntly togither slew well-neare all the British Inhabitants for few there were of them remaining in Whitgaraburge a towne so called of his name and now by contraction shortned into Caresbroke After Wolpher King of the Mercians reduced the Isle of Wight under his obedience and assigned it over to Edelwalch King of the South-Saxons together with the province of the Menvari what time as hee became his Godfather and
tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other lying under it North-ward is named the Vale. Chiltern got that name according to the very nature of the soile of Chalky marle which the ancient English men termed Cylt or Chilt For all of it mounteth aloft with whitish hills standing upon a mixt earth of Clay and Chalke clad with groves and woods wherein is much Beech and it was altogether unpassable in times past by reason of trees untill that Leofstane Abbot of Saint Albans did cut them downe because they yeelded a place of refuge for theeves In it where the Tamis glideth at the foote of those hills with a winding course standeth Marlow a prety towne of no meane credite taking name of the said Chalke commonly tearmed Marle which being spred upon Corne ground eaten out of heart with long tillage doth quicken the same againe so as that after one yeeres rest it never lieth fallow but yeeldeth againe unto the Husband-man his seed in plentifull measure Nere unto this a rill sheaddeth it selfe in the Tamis making way through low places and where it turneth hath a towne upon it called High Wickham or Wicombe rather which happily thereof tooke the name considering that the German Saxons terme any winding reach of river and sea a Wicke and Combe a low Valle. And very many places wee meet withall in England named in that respect This towne for largenesse and faire building is equall to the greatest townes in this shire and in that it hath a Major for the Head-Magistrate worthily to bee preferred before the rest About the time of the Normans comming in Wigod of Wallengford was Lord both of the Burgh of Wicomb and also of the Villa forinseca I speake according to the Record of the ancient Inquisition that is The out Hamlet or Bery After whose death King Henry the first laid it unto the Crowne But King John at the length divided the said Out Berry betweene Robert de Vi-paâ—â—t and Alane Basset North off Wicomb mounteth up aloft the highest place of this Region and thereof it retaineth still the British name Pen. For the head or eminent top of a thing is with them called Pen and hence it is that the Pennine Alpes the Apâ—â—nine and many Mountaines among us tooke their names Nere unto this Wickham or Wicomb is Bradenham seated in a very commodious and wholsome place which now is become the principall habitation of the Barons of Windesor concerning whom I have already spoken in Barke-shire ever since that in the memory of our fathers William Lord Windesor seated himselfe here whose father S. Andrew descended from the old stemme of ancient Barons King Henry the Eighth dignified with the honour of Baron Windesor Tamis having entertained the said Riâ—â— commeth downe with a rolling streame by Aelan famous for a Colledge the nourâ—e garden as it were or plant plot of good letters which that most vertuous and godly Prince K. Henry the Sixt as I have already said first founded And some few miles forward the river Cole entreth into Tamis which running here betweene Buckinghamshire and Middlesexe giveth name unto the towne Colbroke which was that PONTES whereof Antonine the Emperour maketh mention as the distance on both sides from Wallingford and London doth witnesse Neither is there any other place else in the way that leadeth from Wallingford to London to which the name of Pontes that is Bridges might be more fitly applied For this Cole is here parted into foure channels over which stand as many bridges for the commodity of passengers whereof that it tooke this name the very signification of the word doth plainly shew Like as Gephyrae a towne in Boâ—etia and another Pontes in France where the County of Ponthieu our Tunbridg and others are so called of Bridges This County of Ponthieu to note so much by the way descended to the Kings of England in the right of Aeleanor the wife of King Edward the First who by her mothers right was sole and entire Heire of the same Cole by these severall partitions of his streames compasseth in certaine pleasant Ilands into which the Danes fled in the yeere of our Lord 894. when Aelfred preassed hard upon them and there by the benefit of the place defended themselves untill the English for want of provisions were forced to breake up Siege and leave them At this divorce and division of the waters Eure or Ever a little Towne sheweth it selfe which when K. Richard the First had given unto Sir Robert Fitz-Roger Lord of Clavering his younger sonnes of this place assumed their surname to wit Hugh from whom the Barons of Eure and Robert from whom the Family of Eure in Axolme is sprung and spred Farther within Land are these places which I may not passe over Burnham better knowne by the Hodengs Lord Huntercombs and Scudamores who were Lords thereof and of Beacons-field successively by inheritance than by it selfe Stoke Pogeis so called of the Lords thereof in old time named de Pogeis and from them hereditarily devolved upon the Hastings of whose race Edward Baron Hastings of Loughborrow founded here an Hospitall for poore people making himselfe one of their society and his nephew by the brother Henry Earle of Huntingdon built a very faire house and Fernham the very same if I bee not deceived which was called Fernham Roiall and which in times past the Barons Furnivall held by service of finding their Soveraigne Lord the King upon the day of his Coronation a glove for his right hand and to support the Kings right arme the same day all the while hee holdeth the regaâ—â— Verge or Scepter in his hand From the Furnivalls it came by the daughter of Thomas Nevill unto the Talbots Earles of Shrewsbury who although by exchange they surrendred up this Manour unto King Henry the Eight yet they reserved this honourable Office still to them and their Heires for ever This Cole carrieth downe with him another riveret also which somewhat above from the West sheddeth it selfe into it upon it we saw first Missenden where stood a religious House that acknowledged the D'Ollies their founders and certaine Gentlemen surnamed De Missenden their especiall benefactours upon a vow for escaping a ship-wracke And then in the Vale Amersham in the Saxon tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which vaunted it selfe not for faire buildings nor multitude of inhabitants but for their late Lord Frâ—ncis Russeâ—â— Earle of Bedford who being the expresse paterne of true Piety and noblenesse lived most dearely beloved of all good men But the principall seate of the Earles of Bedford is called Cheineis standing more East-ward where both Iohn the first Earle out of this Family and that noble Francis his sonne lye entombed together Unto which adjoyneth on the one side Latimers so named of the Lords thereof I meane those more ancient Barons Latimer before time called Islehamsted where Sir Edwin Sands Knight who
Lancaster second son of K. Henry the third and his wife Aveline de fortibus Countesse of Albemarle William and Audomar of Valence of the family of Lusignian Earles of Pembroch Alphonsus Iohn and other children of King Edward the First Iohn of Eltham Earle of Cornwall son to K. Edward the second Thomas of Woodstocke Duke of Glocester the yongest son of K. Edward the third with other of his children Aeleanor daughter and heire of Humfrey Bohun Earle of Hereford and of Essex wife to Thomas of Woodstocke the yong daughter of Edward the fourth and K. Henry the seventh Henry a childe two months old son of K. Henry the eight Sophia the daughter of K. Iames who died as it were in the very first day-dawning of her age Phillippa Mohun Dutches of Yorke Lewis Vicount Robsert of Henault in right of his wife Lord Bourchier Anne the yong daughter and heire of Iohn Mowbray Duke of Norfolke promised in marriage unto Richard Duke of Yorke yonger son to K. Edward the fourth Sir Giles Daubency Lord Chamberlaine to king Henry the Seventh and his wife of the house of the Arundels in Cornwall I. Vicount Wells Francis Brandon Dutches of Suffolke Mary her daughter Margaret Douglasse Countesse of Lennox grandmother to Iames King of Britaine with Charles her son Winifrid Bruges Marchionesse of Winchester Anne Stanhop Dutches of Somerset and Iane her daughter Anne Cecill Countesse of Oxford daughter to the L. Burghley Lord high Treasurer of England with Mildred Burghley her mother Elizabeth Berkeley Countesse of Ormund Francis Sidney Countesse of Sussex Iames Butler Vicount Thurles son and heire to the Earle of Ormond Besides these Humfrey Lord Bourchier of Cromwall Sir Humfrey Bourchier son and heire to the Lord Bourchier of Berners both slaine at Bernet field Sir Nicholas Carew Baron Carew Baronesse Powisse T. Lord Wentworth Thomas Lord Wharton Iohn Lord Russell Sir T. Bromley Lord Chancellour of England Douglas Howard daughter and heire generall of H. Vicount Howard of Bindon wife to Sir Arthur Gorges Elizabeth daughter and heire of Edward Earle of Rutland wife to William Cecill Sir Iohn Puckering Lord Keeper of the great Seale of England Francis Howard Countesse of Hertford Henrie and George Cary the father and sonne Barons of Hunsdon both Lords Chamberlaines to Queene Elizabeth the heart of Anne Sophia the tender daughter of Christopher Harley Count Beaumont Embassadour from the king of France in England bestowed within a small guilt Urne over a Pyramid Sir Charles Blunt Earle of Devonshire Lord Lieutenant Generall of Ireland And whom in no wise wee must forget the Prince of English Poets Geoffry Chauer as also he that for pregnant wit and an excellent gift in Poetry of all English Poets came neerest unto him Edmund Spencer Beside many others of the Clergy and Gentlemen of quality There was also another College or Free-chapell hard by consisting of a Deane and twelve Chanons dedicated to Saint Stephen which King Edward the Third in his princely Magnificence repaired with curious workmanship and endowed with faire possessions so as he may seeme to have built it new what time as he had with his victories overrun and subdued al France recalling to minde as we read the Charter of the foundation and pondering in a due weight of devout consideration the exceeding benefits of Christ whereby of his owne sweet mercy and pity he preventeth us in all occasions delivering us although without all desert from sundry perils and defending us gloriously with his powerfull right hand against the violent assaults of our adversaries with victorious successes and in other tribulations and perplexities wherein wee have exceeding much beene encombred by comforting us and by applying and in-powering remedies upon us beyond all hope and expectation There was adjoyning hereto a Palace the ancient habitation of the Kings of England from the time of King Edward the Confessor which in the Raigne of king Henry the Eighth was burnt by casuall fire to the ground A very large stately and sumptuous Palace this was and in that age for building incomparable with a vawmurâ— and bulwarks for defence The remaines whereof are the Chamber wherein the King the Nobles with the Counsellers and Officers of State doe assemble at the high Court of Parliament and the next unto it wherein anciently they were wont to beginne the Parliaments knowne by the name of Saint Edwards painted chamber because the tradition holdeth that the said king Edward therein dyed But how sinfull an Act how bloudy how foule how hainous horrible hideous and odious both to God and man certaine brute and savage beasts in mens shape enterprised of late by the device of that Arch Traitour Robert Catesby with undermining and placing a mighty deale of gunpowder under these Edifices against their Prince their Country and all the States of the Kingdome and that under an abominable pretence of Religion my very heart quaketh to remember and mention nay amazed it is and astonied but to thinke onely into what inevitable darknesse confusion and wofull miseries they had suddenly in the twinckling of an eye plunged this most flourishing Realme and Common wealth But that which an ancient Poet in a smaller matter wrote we may in this with griefe of minde utter Excidat illa dies aevo nè postera credant Secula nos certè taceamus obruta multa Nocte tegi propriae patiamur crimina gentis That cursed day forgotten be no future age beleeve That this was true let us also at least wise now that live Conceale the same and suffer such Designes of our owne Nation Hidden to be and buried quite in darknesse of oblivion Adjoyning unto this is the Whitehall wherein at this day the Court of Requests is kept Beneath this is that Hall which of all other is the greatest and the very Praetorium or Hall of Justice for all England In this are the Judiciall Courts namely The Kings Bench the Common Pleas and The Chancery And in places neere thereabout The Star-Chamber the Exchequer Court of Ward and Court of the Dâ—teby of Lancaster c. In which at certaine set times wee call them Tearmes yearely causes are heard and tryed whereas before king Henry the Third his dayes the Court of common Law and principall Justice was unsetled and alwaies followed the kings Court But he in the Magna Charta made a law in these words Let not the Common Pleas folâ—ow our Court but bee holden in some certaine place Which notwithstanding some expound thus That the Common Pleas from thenceforth bee handled in a Court of the owne by it selfe a part and not in the Kings Bench as before This Judgement Hall which we now have king Richard the Second built out of the ground as appeareth by his Armes engraven in the stone-worke and many arched beames when he had plucked downe the former old Hall that king William Rufus in the same place had built before and made it his
heart of the Shire betweene two Rivers who as it were agreed heere to joyne both their streames together to wit Chelmer from the East and another from the South the name whereof if it be Can as some would have it we have no reason to doubt that this was CANONIUM Famous it was within the remembrance of our fathers in regard of a small religious house built by Malcome King of Scots now of note onely for the Assises for so they call those Courts of Iustice wherein twice a yeere the causes and controversies of the whole County are debated before the Judges It beganne to flourish when Maurice Bishop of London unto whom it belonged built the Bridges heere in the Raigne of Henry the First and turned London way thither which lay before through Writtle a Towne right well knowne for the largenesse of the Parish which King Henry the Third granted unto Robert Brus Lord of Anandale in Scotland whose wife was one of the heires of Iohn sirnamed Scot the last Earle of Chester for that hee would not have the Earldome of Chester to bee divided among the distaves and King Edward the Third when as the posterity of the Bruses forsooke their allegeance bestowed it upon Humfrey Bohun Earle of Hereford and of Essex But now of late when King Iames at his entrance to the Kingdome bestowed Baronies bountifully upon select persons hee created Sir Iohn Petre a right respective Knight Baron Petre of Writtle Whose father Sir William Petre a man of approoved wisdome and exquisite learning memorable not so much for those most honourable places and offices of State which hee bare as who was of the Privie Counsell to King Henry the Eighth King Edward the Sixth Queene Mary and Queene Elizabeth and sent oftentimes in Embassage to forreigne Princes as for that being bred and brought up in good learning he well deserved of learning in the University of Oxford and was both pitifull and bounteous to his poore neighbours about him and at Egerstone where he lyeth buryed Frosh-well the River more truely called Pant and neere to his mouth Black-water issuing out of a small spring about Radwinter that belonged to the Barons of Cobham after it hath gone a long course and seene nothing but Bocking a fat Parsonage it commeth to Cogeshall a Mercate Towne well knowne in times past for a Priory of Cluniacke Monkes built by King Stephen and the habitation of ancient Knights thence sirnamed De Cogeshall from whose heire generall marryed into the old family of Tirell there branched farre a faire propagation of the Tirells in this shire and elsewhere Then goeth on this water by Easterford some call it East-Sturford and leaving some mile of Whitham a faire through-faire and built by King Edward the elder in the yeere 914. which also afterward was of the Honour of Eustace Earle of Bollen meeteth at length with Chelmer Which now passing on whole in one chanell not farre from Danbury mounted upon an high Hill the habitation for a time of the family of the Darcies runneth hard by Woodham-walters the ancient seate of the Lords Fitz-Walters who being nobly descended were of a most ancient race derived from Robert the younger sonne of Richard sonne to Earle Gislebert but in the age more lately foregoing translated by a daughter into the stocke of the Ratcliffes who being advanced to the Earledome of Sussex dwell now a little from hence in New Hall a stately and sumptuous house This New Hall appertained sometime to the Butlers Earles of Ormond and then hereditarily to Sir Thomas Bollen Earle of Wiltshire of whom King Henry the Eighth getting it by way of Exchange enlarged it to his exceeding great charges and called it by a new name Beaulieu which for all that was never currant among the people After this Chelmer with other waters running with him being divided by a River-Island casting off that name and now being called of some Blacke-water and of others Pant saluteth that ancient Colony of the Romanes CAMALODUNUM which many hundred yeeres since adorned this shore Ptolomee tearmeth it CAMUDOLANUM Antonine CAMULODUNUM and CAMOLUDUNUM But Pliny Dio and an old marble stone induce us to beleeve that CAMALODUNUM is the right name In the seeking out of this City good God how dim-sighted have some been whereas it bewraied it selfe by the very name and situation and shewed it selfe cleerely to them that are halfe blinde A number have searched for it in the West part of this Isle as that good man who thought himselfe to carry as one would say the Sunne of Antiquity in his owne hand others in the furthest part of Scotland others wholly addicted in opinion to Leland affirmed it to bee Colchester when as the name scarce any whit maimed it is called at this day in stead of CAMALODUNUM Maldon in the Saxon Tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the greater part of the word remaining yet entire and in use Neither hath the expresse remaine of the name onely perswaded me to this but also the distance set downe in Pliny from Mona and the very situation in the ancient Itinerary Table doe affoord a most evident proofe thereof That this name was imposed upon CAMALODUNUM of the God CAMULUS I hardly dare imagine Howbeit that Mars was worshipped under this name Camulus both an old stone at Rome in the house of Collotians and Altars discovered with this Inscription CAMULO DEO SANCTO ET FORTISSIMO that is TO CAMULUS THE HOLY AND MOST MIGHTY GOD doe joyntly proove And in an antique Coine of Cunobellinus whose royall Palace this was as I have already said I have seene the portraict stamped of an head having an helmet on it also with a speare which may seeme to be that of Mars with these letters CAMV But seeing this peece of money is not now ready at hand to shew I exhibite here unto you other expresse portraicts of Cunobellinus his peeces which may be thought to have reference to this Camalodunum This Cunobelin governed this East part of the Isle in the time of Tiberius the Emperour and seemeth to have had three sonnes Admimus Togodumnus and Catacratus Admimus by his father banished was entertained by Caius Caligula the Emperour what time as he made his ridiculous expedition into Batavia that from thence he might blow and breath out the terrour of his owne person over into Britaine As for Togodumnus Aulus Plautius in a set battaile defeited and slew him and over Catacratus whom as I said he discomfited and put to flight hee rode ovant in pety triumph This is that Plautius who at the perswasion of C. Bericus the Britaine a banished man for there never want quarels one or other of Warre was the first after Iulius Caesar that attempted Britaine under Claudius whom Claudius himselfe having shipped over the Legions followed in person with the whole power of the Empire and with Elephants the bones of which
which his brother had begunne which through the helpe of his brother Aetheldred of Kineburga also and Kineswith his sisters being fully finished in the yeere of our Lord 633. hee consecrated unto Saint Peter endowed it with ample Revenewes and ordained Sexwulft a right godly and devout man who principally advised him to this worke the first Abbat thereof This Monastery flourished afterward and had the name and opinion in the world of great holinesse for the space of two hundered and foureteene yeeres or thereabout untill those most heavie and wofull times came of the Danes who made spoile and waste of all For then were the Monkes massacred and the Monastery quite overthrowne lay buryed as one would say many yeeres together in the owne rubbish and ruines At the last about the yeere of our Lord 960. Ethelwold Bishop of Winchester who wholy gave himselfe to the furtherance of monasticall profession began to reedifie it having the helping hand especially of King Eadgar and Adulph the Kings Chancellour who upon a pricke of conscience and deepe repentance for that hee and his wife together lying in bed asleepe had overlaid and smothred the little infant their onely sonne laid upon the reedifying of this monastery all the wealth he had and when it was thus rebuilt he became Abbat thereof From which time it was of high estimation and name partly for the great riches it had and in part for the large priviledges which it enjoyed although in the reigne of William the Conquerour Herward an Englishman being proclaimed traitour and outlawed made a rode out of the Isle of Ely and rifled it of all the riches that it had gathered together against whom Turold the Abbot erected the fort Mont-Turold Yet was it esteemed exceeding wealthy even unto our fathers daies when King Henry the Eighth thrust out the Monkes in all places alleaging that they declining from the ordinances which those holy and ancient Monkes held wasted in riot and excesse the goods of the Church which was the Patrimony and inheritance of the poore and in their places erected here a Bishopricke assigning thereunto this county and Rutland-shire for his Diocese and placed withall a Deane and certaine Prebendaries So that of a Monastery it became a Cathedrall Church which if you well consider the building is for the very antiquity thereof goodly to behold The forefront carieth a majesty with it and the Cloisters are very large in the glasse-windowes whereof is represented the history of Wolpher the founder with the succession of the Abbots Saint Maries Chappell is a goodly large building full of curirious worke and the quire faire wherein two as infortunate Queenes as any other Katherine of Spaine repudiated by King Henry the Eighth and Mary Queene of Scotland being enterred found rest and repose there from all their miseries Beneath Peterburgh the river Aufon or Nen which by this time is gone from his spring-head much about forty five miles and carrieth along with him all rils brookes and land flouds occasioned by raine that he hath taken into his chanels is divided sundry waies And finding no way to cary his streame by spreading his waters all abroad in winter time yea and other whiles most part of the yeere overfloweth all the plaine country so as it seemeth to be nothing but a vast sea lying even and levell with some few Islands that beare up their heads and appeare aboue the water The cause of such inundation the people inhabiting thereby alleage to be this for that of the three chanels or draines by which so great store of water was wont to be issued into the sea the first that went directly into the sea by Thorney Abbay and then a part by Clow Crosse and Crowland the second also by the trench cut out by Morton Bishop of Ely called the New leam and then by Wisbich have a long time been forlet and neglected and so the third which goeth downe by Horsey-bridge Witlesmer Ramsey-mere and Salters-load is not able to receive so much water whereby it breaketh forth with more violence upon the flats adjoyning And the country complaineth for trespasse done unto them as well by those that have not scoured the said draines as by them that have turned the same aside to their private uses and as the Reatines said some time so doe they That Nature herselfe hath well provided for mans use in that she hath given all rivers their courses and issues and as well their-inlets into the Sea as their heads and springs But thus much of this matter may seeme to some over-much In this place is the County least in breadth for betweene Nen and the River Welland the one limit on the North side there are scarce five miles Upon Welland which Aethelward an old writer called Weolod neere unto the spring head is Braibrock Castle built by Robert May aliàs De Braybroke a most inward minion of King John whose sonne Henry having married Christian Ledet an inheritrice of a great estate his eldest sonne adopted himselfe into the surname of the Ledet from one of whose Nieces by his sonne as I said before it came unto the Latimers and by them unto the Griphins whose inheritance now it is Neere unto it among the woods I saw some few reliques of a Monastery called in times past De Divisis and afterward Pipwell which William Buttevillein founded in the reigne of Henry the Second for Cistertian Monkes From thence might Rockingham bee seene were it not for the woods a Castle sometime of the Earles of Aumarle built by King William the Conqueror at what time it was a wast as we finde in his Domesday booke fortified with Rampier and Bulwarkes and a duple range of Battlements situate upon the side of an hill within a woody Forest which thereupon is named Rockingham Forest. After this it runneth beside Haringworth the seat in old time of the Cantlows and now of the Lord Zouch who descended from Eudo a younger sonne of Alan de la Zouch of Ashby De la Zouch have growne up to a right honourable Family of Barons whose honour and state was much augmented by marriage with one of the heires of Cantlow as also with an other of Baron Saint Maur who likewise drew his Pedegree from the heire of the Lord Zouch de Ashby and the Lovels Lords of Castel-Cary in Somersetshire Here also I saw Deane belonging in ancient times to the Deanes afterwards to the Tindals which place is worth the remembrance if it were but for this that it is now a proper and faire dwelling house of the Brudenells out of which Family Sir Edmund Brudenell late deceased was a passing great lover and admirer of venerable Antiquity The Family likewise of Engain which was both ancient and honourable had their seat hereby at Blatherwic where now the Staffords of knights degree inhabite who descended from Ralph the first Earle of Stafford and those Engaines changed their
but a rude heape of rubbish For in the yeere 1217. the Inhabitants of the Towne when after a long Siege they had wonne it rased it downe to the very ground as being the Devils nest and a Den of theeves robbers and rebels Somwhat higher on the other side of the River standeth Barrow where is digged lime commended above all other for the strong binding thereof After some few miles from thence Soar while hee seeketh Trent leaveth Leicester-shire a little above Cotes now the habitation of the Family of Skipwith originally descended out of York-shire and enriched many yeeres since with faire Possessions in Lincoln-shire by an heire of Ormesbie On the opposite banke of Soar standeth Lough-borrough a Mercate Towne which adorned one onely man with the name of Baron to witte Sir Edward Hastings and that in the Raigne of Queene Mary But when shee of whom he was most dearely loved departed this life hee taking a loathing to the World was not willing to live any longer to the World but wholy desirous to apply himselfe to Gods Service retired into that Hospitall which hee had erected at Stoke Pogeis in Buckingham-shire where with poore people hee lived to God and among them finished the course of his life devoutly in Christ. That this Lough-borrow is that Towne of the Kings named in the Saxon Tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which as Marianus saith Cuthwulph tooke from the Britans in the yeere of Christ 572. the neere affinity of the name may yeeld some proofe But now among all the Townes of this Shire it rightfully chalengeth the second place next unto Leicester whether a man either regard the bignesse or building thereof or the pleasant Woods about it For within very little of it the Forest of Charnwood or Charley stretcheth it selfe out a great way wherein is seene Beaumanour Parke which the Lords of Beaumont as I have heard fensed round about with a stone Wall These Beaumonts descended from a younger sonne of John County of Brene in France who for his high honour and true valour was preferred to marry the heire of the Kingdome of Jerusalem and with great pompe crowned King of Jerusalem in the yeere of our Lord 1248. Hence it is that wee see the Armes of Jerusalem so often quartered with those of Beaumont in sundry places of England Sir Henry Beaumont was the first that planted himselfe in England about the yeere 1308. who advanced to the marriage of an heire of Alexander Comine Earle of Boghan in Scotland whose mother was one of the heires of Roger Quincy Earle of Winchester entred upon a very goodly and faire inheritance and so a great Family was propagated from him Hee in the Raigne of Edward the Third for certaine yeeres was summoned to the Parliament by the name of Earle of Boghan and John Lord Beamont in the Raigne of Henry the Sixth was for a time Constable of England and the first to my knowledge that in England received at the Kings hands the state and Title of a Vicount But when William the last Vicount was dead without issue his sister was wedded to the Lord Lovell and the whole inheritance afterwards which was rich and great by attainder of Lovell fell into the hands of King Henry the Seventh In this North part we meete with nothing at all worth the naming unlesse it be a little religious house which Roise Verdon founded for Nunnes and called it Grace-Dieu now belonging to a younger house of the Beaumonts and where the Trent runneth hard by is Dunnington an ancient Castle built by the first Earles of Leicester which afterwards came to John Lacy Earle of Lincolne who procured unto it from King Edward the First the priviledge of keeping a Mercate and Faire But when as in that great proscription of the Barons under King Edward the Second the hereditaments of Thomas Earle of Lancaster and Alice Lacy his Wife were seised into the Kings hands and alienated in divers sorts the King enforced her to release this Manour unto Hugh Le Despenser the younger The East part of this Shire which is hilly and feedeth great numbers of Sheepe was adorned with two places of especiall note VERNOMETUM or VEROMETUM whereof Antonine the Emperour hath made mention and Burton-Lazers both in the ages fore-going of very great name and reputation VERNOMETUM which now hath lost the name seemeth to have stood for I dare not affirme it in that place which at this day men call Burrowhill and Erd-burrow For betweene VEROMETUM and RATAE according to Antonine his reckoning are twelve Italian miles and so many well neere there be from Leicester to this place The name Burrow also that it hath at this day came from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in the Saxon Tongue signifieth a place fortified and under it a Towne called Burrough belonging to an old Family of Gentlemen so sirnamed But that which maketh most for proofe in that very place there riseth up an hill with a steepe and upright ascent on every side but South Eastward in the top whereof appeare the expresse tokens of a Towne destroyed a duple Trench and the very Tract where the Wals went which enclosed about eighteene Acres of ground within At this day it is arable ground and is nothing so famous as in this that the youth dwelling round about were wont yeerely to exercise themselves in wrestling and other games in this place And out of the very name a man may conjecture that there stood there some great Temple of the Heathen Gods For VERNOMETUM in the ancient Gauls language which was the same that the old Britans tongue soundeth as much as A great Temple as Venantius Fortunatus in the first booke of his Songs plainly sheweth writing of Vernometum a Towne of Gaule in these Verses Nomine Vernometum voluit vocitare vetustas Quod quasi fanum ingens Gallica lingua sonat In elder time this place they term'd by name of VERNOMET Which sounds in language of the Gauls as much as Temple Great As for Burton sirnamed Lazers of Lazers for so they used to terme folke infected with the Elephantiasie or Leprosie was a rich Spittle-house or Hospitall under the Master whereof were in some sort all other small Spittles or Lazer-houses in England like as himselfe also was under the Master of the Lazers in Hierusalem It was founded in the first age of the Normans by a common contribution over all England and the Mowbraies especially did set to their helping hands At which time the Leprosie which the learned terme Elephantiasis because the skins of Lepres are like to that of Elephants in grievous manner by way of contagion ranne over all England For it is verily thought that this disease did then first creepe out of Aegypt into this Island which eft-once had spread it selfe into Europe first of all in Pompeius Magnus his dayes afterwards under Heraclius and at other times as
in the yeere 1588. leaving the fame onely of his greatnesse behinde him Within this Shire are 200. Parish Churches RVTLANDIAE Omnium in Anglia Comitatu um minimus Pars olim CORITANORVM RUTLAND-SHIRE RUTLAND in the old English Saxon tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is environed within Leicester-shire unlesse it be on the South-side where it lieth upon the river Welland and on the East-side where it butteth upon Lincoln-shire A Country nothing inferiour to Leicester-shire either in fruitfull qualitie of soile or pleasantnesse but in quantitie onely as being the least County of all England For lying in forme almost round like a circle it is in compasse so farre about as a light horseman will ride in one day Whence it is that the Inhabitants tell a tale of I wote not what king who should give to one Rut so much land as he could ride about in one day and that he forsooth rode about this shire within the time appointed and so had it given him and named it by his owne name Rutland But let such fables bee packing I would not have the trueth prejudiced with an extravagant tale And where as the earth in this shire is every where red and so red that even the sheepes fleeces are thereby coloured red whereas also the English-Saxons called Red in their tongue Roet and Rud may we not suppose that this Countrey was named Rutland as one would say a Redland For as saith the Poet. Conveniunt rebus nomina saepè suis. The names as often times we see With things themselves full well agree Now that places in all Nations have had their names of rednesse Rutlan Castle in Wales built on a shore of red earth Redbay Redhill Redland The Red Promontory The Red-Sea also betwixt Aegypt and Arabia Erytheia in Ionia and a number besides may proove most evidently So that there is no cause why we should give credit to fables in this behalfe As for this little County it may seeme to have beene ordained a Shire or County but of late daies For in King Edward the Confessors time it was counted a part of Northampton-shire and our Historiographers who wrote three hundred yeeres agoe and upward reckoned it not in the number of Shires Wash or Guash a little river which runneth from the West Eastward through the middle of it divideth it in twaine In the hithermore or South part riseth Uppingham upon an high ascent whence that name was imposed not memorable for any thing else but because it is counted a well frequented Mercat towne and hath for to shew a proper Schoole which together with another at Okeham R. Ihonson a Minister of Gods word in a good and laudable intent for the training up of children in good literature lately erected with the money he had gotten together by way of collection Under this standeth Drystoke which in no wise is to be passed over with silence considering it hath been the habitation from old time of a right ancient race of the Digbyes which I grieve to utter it but all men know it hath now caught a deepe steine by Sir Everard Digby drawne into that cursed crew who most horribly complotted with one divelish flash of hellish Gun-pouder to blow up both Prince and Country More Eastward upon the river Welland I saw nothing remarkeable unlesse it be Berohdon now Barodon which Thomas Beauchamp Earle of Warwicke held with South Leffingham now South Luffenham and other Hamelets by service to be the Kings Chamberlaine in the Exchequer On the further part beyond the river among the hils there spreadeth below a very pleasant and fruitfull vale named at this day The vale of Catmose happily of Coet maes which signifieth in the Brittish tongue a field full of woods In the middest whereof Okeham sheweth it selfe which by the like reason may seeme to have taken the name from Okes where hard by the Church which is large and faire remaine the crackt and decaying walls of an old Castle which Walkelin de Ferrariâ—s built in the first times of the Norman Kings And that it hath been the dwelling place of the Ferrars besides the credit of writers and generall report the great horse shoes which in times past that family gave in their armes fastned upon the gate and in the hall may sufficiently proove Afterwards it belonged to the Lords of Tatteshall But when King Richard the second had promoted Edward the Duke of Yorkes sonne to the Earledome of Rutland he gave unto him this Castle also But within our Fathers remembrance it befell unto Thomas Cromwel and was reputed the seat of his Baronie whom King Henry the Eighth advanced to the highest pitch of dignity and streightwaies when by his plotting and attempting of many matters he had cast himselfe into the tempestuous stormes of envy and displeasure bereft him on a sudden both of life and dignity Over against it Eastward there standeth Burley most daintily seated and overlooking the vale A stately and sumptuous house now of the Haringtons who by marrying the daughter and heire of Colepeper became Lords of so faire an inheritance that ever since they have flourished in these parts like as before time the Colepepers had done unto whom by N. Green the wealthy and goodly Livelod of the Bruses in part had descended As for those Bruses being men of the chiefe Nobility in England they were engraffed into the Roiall stocke and family of Scotland out of whom by Robert the eldest brother the race Roiall of Scotland are sprung-like as by Bernard the younger brother the Cottons of Connington in Huntingdon-shire of whom I have written already and these Haringtons In which regard and gracious respect King James advanced Sir Iohn Harington branched from that stem that the ancient Lords Harington to the title of Baron Harington of Exton a towne adjacent where he hath also an other faire house Moreover on the East side by the river Guash stands Brigcasterton whereof I will say more afterward and Rihall where when superstition had so bewitched our ancestours that the multitude of their pety Saints had well neere taken quite away the true God one Tibba a pety Saint or Goddesse reputed to bee the tutelar patronesse of Hauking was of Foulers and Faulkoners worshipped as a second Diana Essendon also is neere adjoyning the Lord whereof Sir Robert Cecil a good sonne of a right good father the strength and stay of our Common-wealth in his time was by King James created Baron Cecil of Essendon in the first yeere of his reigne This little County King Edward the Confessor by his last Will and Testament bequeathed unto his wife Eadith yet with this condition that after her death it should come to S. Peter of Westminster For these be the very words of the said Testament I will that after the death of Queene Eadith my wife ROTELAND with all the appertenances thereto be given to my Monastery of the most blessed
the Conquerour appointed over this Shire William Peverell his base sonne not with the Title of Earle but of Lord of Nottingham who had a sonne that dyed before his father and hee likewise had a sonne of the same name whom king Henry the Second disinherited for that he went about to poison Ranulph Earle of Chester Much about this time Robert de Ferrarijs who rifled and ransacked Nottingham in a Donation which he made unto the Church of Tuttesbury stiled himselfe thus Robertus Comes junior de Nottingham that is Robert the younger Earle of Nottingham But afterwards King Richard the First gave and confirmed unto his brother John the Earledome and Castle of Nottingham with all the Honour of Peverell Many yeeres after King Richard the Second honoured John Lord Mowbray with this Title of Earle of Nottingham who dying a young man without issue his brother Thomas succeeded after him He being by king Richard the Second created Earle Mareshall and Duke of Norfolke and soone after banished begat Thomas Earle Mareshall whom king Henry the Fourth beheaded and John Mowbray who as also his sonne and Nephew were likewise Dukes of Norfolke and Earles of Nottingham But when as their male issue failed and that Richard the young sonne of King Edward the Fourth being Duke of Yorke had borne this Title with others by his Wife the heire of the Mowbraies but a small while King Richard the Third honoured William Vicount Barkley descended from the Mowbraies with this Title of Earle of Nottingham and whereas hee dyed without issue king Henry the Eighth bestowed the same honour upon his illegitimate sonne H. Fitz Roy when hee created him Duke of Richmond but hee departed this life in the flower of his age leaving no childe Afterward this Title lay extinct untill in the yeere of our Lord 1597. Queene Elizabeth by solemne investiture adorned therewith Charles Lord Howard of Effingham and High Admirall of England descended from the Mowbraies in regard of his service as appeareth in the Charter of his Creation right valiantly and faithfully performed against the Spanish Armado in the yeere 1588. as also at the winning of Caliz in Spaine where he was Lord Generall of the forces by sea like as the Earle of Essex of those by land There are in this County Parish Churches 168. DARBY-SHIRE DARBY-SHIRE called in old English-Saxon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lieth close to Nottingham-shire Westward confining with Leicester-shire upon the Southside like as with Stafford-shire on the West and York-shire in the North resembling as it were the forme of a Triangle but not with equall sides For whereas about the point of it lying Southward it is scarce sixe miles broad it so enlargeth and spreadeth it selfe on both sides that where it looketh into the North it carrieth much about thirty miles in breadth The River Derwent that runneth along the middest of it divideth it after a sort in two parts which River breaking out of the North limit thereof and taking his course Southward sometimes with his blacke waters stained with the Soile and earth that it passeth by rumbleth downe apace into the Trent For Trent overthwarteth the said narrow point that I spake of lying Southward The East side and the South parts are well manured not unfruitfull and besides well stored with Parkes The West part beyond Derwent which they call the Peake being all of it hilly or a stony and craggy ground is more barraine howbeit rich in lead iron and coles which it yeeldeth plentifully and also feedeth Sheepe very commodiously In the South corner the first place worth the naming that offereth it selfe to sight is Greisely Castle more than broken downe which together with a little Monastery was founded in times past in honour of Saint George by the Greiseleies Lords thereof who fetching their descent from William the sonne of Sir Niele of Grieseley about the very Conquest of England by the Normans have flourished unto these dayes in great worship the which they have not a little augmented long since by marrying with the daughter and heire of the ancient family of Gasteneys Upon the River Dove which untill it entreth into Trent divideth this Country from Stafford-shire we meet with nothing in this Shire but small country Villages and Ashburne a Mercate towne where the house of the Cokains flourished a long time and Norbury where the right ancient family of the Fitz-Herberts have long inhabited out of which Sir Anthony Fitz-Herbert hath deserved passing well of the knowledge and profession of our Commons law Not farre from which is Shirley an ancient Lordship of the well renowned Family of the Shirleys who derive their pedegree from one Fulcher unto whom beside the antiquity of their house much honor and faire lands have accrued by marriage with the heires of the Breoses the Bassets of Brailesford the Stantons Lovets c. And heere stand round about many places which have given name and Habitation to worshipfull Families as Longford Bradburne Kniveton from whence came those Knivetons of Mercaston and Bradley of which house Saint Lo Kniveton is one to whose judicious and studious diligence I am deeply endebted also Keidelston where the Cursons dwelt as also at Crokhall But whether Sir Robert Curson knighted by King Henry the Seventh made a Baron of the Empire by Maximilian the Emperour in the yeere 1500. for his singular valour and thereupon by King Henry the Eigth made a Baron of England with a liberall pension assigned was descended from these Cursons I dare not affirme Heereby is Radborn where Sir John Chandos knight Lord of the place laid a goodly foundation of a great and stately house from whom by a daughter it came by hereditary succession unto the Poles who dwell heere at this day But these particularities I leave for him who hath undertaken the full description of this Shire But upon Trent so soon as ever he hath taken to him the river Dove is Repandunum to bee seene for so doe our History-writers call it the Saxons named it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we at this day Repton which from a great and faire Towne is become a poore small Village For in old time very famous it was by reason both of the buriall of Aethelbald that good King of the Mercians who through the treachery of his owne people lost his life and of the other Kings of Mercia as also for the unfortunate calamity of Burthred the last King of the Mercians who when hee had enjoyed his kingdome partly by way of entreaty and partly by meanes of bribery full twenty yeeres was heere deprived of his kingdome by the Danes or rather freed and exempted from the glittering misery of princely State and so became an example to teach men in how ticklish and slippery a place they stand which are underpropped onely with money Then not farre from Trent is Melborn a Castle of the Kings now decaying wherein John Duke of
Pollesworth by the Marmions of Normandie Lords heereof at what time they erected heere a Collegiat Church wherein are seene some of their Sepulchres and builded a faire Castle which from them by the Frevills came to the house of those Ferrars that descended from a younger brother of the Barons Ferrars of Groby Those Marmions as wee finde written were by inheritance the Kings Champions of England For whensoever any new king of England is crowned the heire of this Family was bound to ride armed in compleat harneis upon a barbd horse into the Kings hall and in a set forme of words challenge to combat with whosoever durst oppose himselfe against the kings right and Title And verily it appeareth upon Records that Alexander Frevill under king Edward the Third by the same service held this Castle Howbeit at the Coronation of king Richard the Second when Baldwin Frevill exhibited his petition for the same it was adjudged from this Family to Sir John Dimock his competitor descended also from Marmion as producing better Records and evidences At Falkesley Bridge aforesaid that I may retire a little that Romane High way Watling street of which I have already spoken and must often speak entreth into this Shire and cutting it through as it were by a streight line goeth Westward into Shropp-shire Which Streete I have I assure you throughly viewed and perused to finde out that ETOCETUM which Antonine the Emperour setteth downe for the next station from MANVESSEDUM or Mancester in Warwick-shire and surely by good happe I have now found it and freely confesse that heeretofore I was farre wide and quite out of the way For just at the same distance that Antonine setteth betweene MANVESSEDUM and ETOCETUM I lighted upon the carkasse of an old little Towne upon the said High way and scarce a mile Southward from Lichfield a Bishops See right well knowne The name of the place at this day is in our common language Wall of the Reliques of an old wall there remaining and taking up much about two acres of ground which they call Castle croft as one would say The Castle Field Over against which on the other side of the street the Inhabitants relate by a tradition from their forefathers that there stood an ancient Towne destroyed long before the Conquest And they shew the very place where by the maine foundation they ghesse the Temple there stood and with all they produce peeces of money coined by the Roman Emperours and found there as most certaine testimonies in this behalfe But that which maketh most for the proofe heereof from hence leadeth the Romane Way called Watling street with a faire apparent and continued causey in manner throughout untill it bee broken off with the River Penck and hath upon it a Stone-bridge at PENNOCRUCIUM so named of the River just at the same distance that Antonine setteth downe Which hath not yet laied away so much as the name for in steed of PENNOCRUCIUM it is now called Penck-ridge But at this day it is little better than a Village famous for an Horse-Faire which the Lord of the place Hugh Blunt obtained of King Edward the Second From hence that way hath nothing memorable upon it in this Shire but a little way off is Brewood a Mercate Towne where the Bishops of this Diocesse had an habitation before the Conquest and then neere unto Weston is a cleere Poole spread very broad by which that notable way holdeth on a direct course to Oken-Yate in Shrop-shire Now are wee to visite the middle part of this Shire which Trent watereth in the description whereof I purpose to follow the course and windings of the River from the very spring and head thereof as my best guide Trent that by his due right chalengeth to himselfe the third place among all the Rivers of England runneth out of two Fountaines being neere neighbours together in the North part of this shire among the moores Certaine unskilfull and idle headed have dreamed that it was so named of Trent a French word that signifieth Thirty and thereupon also have feigned that thirty Rivers runne into it and as many kindes of fishes live therein the names whereof the people dwelling thereby were wont to sing in an English rhyme neither make they doubt to ascribe that unto this Trent which the Hungarians avouch of their River Tibiscus namely that two parts of it are water and the third fish From his spring heads Trent trickleth downe first Southward fetching many a compasse not farre from New Castle under Lime so called of another more ancient Castle that flourished in times past hard by at Chesterton under Lime where I saw tottered and torne the walls of a Castle which by the gift of King John belonged first unto Ranulph Earle of Chester and afterwards by the bounteous favour of King Henry the Third unto the House of Lancaster Thence by Trent-ham sometime Tricing-ham a little Monastery of that holy virgin Saint Werburg of the bloud royall hee hasteneth to Stone a Mercate Towne which having the beginning in the Saxons time tooke that name of the Stones that our Ancestours after a solemne sort had cast on a heape to notifie the place where Wolpher that heathenish King of the Mercians most cruelly slew his two sonnes Wulfald and Rufin because they had taken upon them the profession of Christianity In which place when Posterity in memoriall of them had consecrated a little Church straight wayes there arose and grew up a Towne which of those stones had the name Stone given unto it as the History of Peterborrough hath recorded Beyond Stone runneth Trent mildly by Sandon the seat in times past of the Staffords most worthy Knights but lately by inheritance from them of Sampson Erdeswicke a very great lover and diligent searcher of venerable Antiquity and in this regard no lesse worthy of remembrance than for that he is directly in the male line descended from Sir Hugh Vernon Baron of Shipbroc the name being changed by the use of that age according to sundry habitations first into Holgrave and afterwards into Erdeswicke Heere Trent turneth his course aside Eastward and on the South hath Canocwood commonly called Cankwood spred farre and wide and at length entertaineth the River Sow which breaketh out in a hard Country neere Healy Castle built by the Barons of Aldalegh or Audley unto whom Hervey Lord Stafford gave that place like as Theobald Verdon gave Aldelegh it selfe This hath beene a Family of high respect and great honour and of the same stem out of which the Stanleies Earles of Darby derive their Descent Strange it is to reade what lands King Henry the Third confirmed unto Henry Audeley which were bestowed upon him by the bounty of the Peeres yea and private Gentlemen not only in England but also in Ireland where Hugh Lacy Earle of Vlster gave him lands with the Constableship of
Vlster So that doubtlesse he was either a man of rare vertue or a gracious favourite or a great Lawyer or else all jointly His posterity matched in marriage with the heires of the Lord Giffard of Brimsfield of Baron Martin Lord of Keimeis and Barstaple and a younger brother of this house with one of the heires of the Earle of Glocester and was by King Edward the Third created Earle of Glocester About which time James Lord Audley flourished in Chivalry who as the French write being grievously wounded in the battaile at Poitiers when the blacke Prince with many comfortable commendations had given him 400. Markes of yeerely revenewes he bestowed the same forthwith upon his foure Esquires who alwaies valiantly attended him and satisfied the Prince doubting that his gift was too little for so great service with this answer dutifully acknowledging his bounty It is meet that I doe well for them who deserved best of me These my Esquiers saved my life amidst my enemies And God be thanked my ancestours have left me sufficient revenewes to maintaine me in your service Whereupon the Prince approving this prudent liberality both confirmed his gift to his Esquires and assigned him moreover lands to the value of six hundred Markes yeerely But by his daughter one of the coheires to her brother the Title of Lord Audley came afterward to the Touchets and in them continueth Neither must I heere passe over in silence an house in this tract called Gerards Bromley both for the magnificence thereof and also because it is the principall seat of Sir Thomas Gerard whom King James in the first yeere of his Raigne created Baron Gerard of Gerards Bromley This Sow as it were a parallel river unto Trent runneth even with him and keeping an equall distance still from him by Chebsey which had in times past for Lords therof the Hastangs reputed among the prime Nobility in the time of King Edward the First not farre from Eccleshall the habitation of the Bishop of Lichfield and Ellenhall which was sometime the seat of the Noels a worshipfull house who founded heere a Monastery at Raunton and from whom it descended hereditarily to the Harcourts who being of the ancient Norman nobility flourished a long time in great dignity But yet of the male heires of the Noels there remaine still Sir Edward Noel of Dalby in Leicester-shire and the Noels of Wellesborow in Leicester-shire with others Then runneth Sow under Stafford in times past called Statford and before time Betheney where Bertelin reputed a very holy man led in ancient times an Eremits life in serving God And King Edward the Elder built on the South banke of the River a Castle in the yeere of Christ 914. What time as King William the Conquerour registred the Survey of all England as we reade in his Domesday Booke The King had in it only 18. Burgesses in his owne domaine and 20. Mansions of the honour of the Earle it paid for all customes nine pounds of deniers and had thirteene Chanons Prebendaries who held in franke Almoine and the King commanded a Castle to bee made which now is destroyed But then as now also it was the head Towne of the whole Shire howbeit the greatest credite and honor thereof came from Stafford Castle adjoyning which the Barons of Stafford of whose progeny were the Dukes of Buckingham built for their owne seat who procured of King John that it was made a Burrough with ample liberties caused it to be partly fensed with a Wall and erected a Priory of Blacke Chanons to the honour of Saint Thomas of Canterbury Beneath which the Riveret Penke which gave name to Pennocrucium or Penkridge whereof I have already spoken joyneth with that Sow aforesaid And neere unto the confluence of Sow and Trent standeth Ticks hall the dwelling place of the Astons a Family which for antiquity kinred and alliance is in these parts of great name Trent having harboured these rivers in his chanell passeth now through the mids of the Shire with a gentle streame taking a view of Chartley Castle standing two miles aside from the banke on the left hand which Castle came from Raulph Earle of Chester who built it unto the Ferrars by Agnes his sister whom William Ferrars Earle of Darby had marryed out of whose Race the Lords Ferrars of Chartley flourished and Anne the Daughter of the last of them brought this Honour as her dowry unto Sir Walter D'Eureux her husband from whom Robert D'Evereux Earle of Essex and Lord Ferrars of Chartley is lineally descended On the right side of the river about the same distance standeth most pleasantly among the woods Beaudesert the lodge in times past of the Bishops of Lichfield but now the house of the Lord Paget For Sir William Paget who for his approoved wisdome both at home and abroad stood in high favour with King Henry the Eight and King Edward the Sixth and obteined at their hands faire possessions was by the said K. Edward the Sixth created Lord Paget of Beaudesert He was that I may note so much out of his Epitaph Secretary and Privy Counsellour to King Henry the Eighth and appointed by his Testament Counsellour and aidor to King Edward the Sixth during his minority To whom he was Chauncellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster Controller of the house and by him made as I said Baron and knight of the Garter as by Queene Mary Lord Privy Seale Whose grandsonne William is now the fourth Baron Pagets and for his vertue and studies of the best arts is an honour to his house and in this respect deserveth to be honorably remembred From thence may you descrie Lichfield scarce foure miles from this right-side banke of Trent Bede calleth it Licidfeld which Rosse of Warwick interpreteth Cadaverum campus that is The field of dead bodies and reporteth that a number of Christians were there Martyred under the persecutor Dioclesian This City is low seated of a good largenesse and faire withall divided into two parts with a shallow poole of cleere water which parts notwithstanding joyne in one by the meanes of two bridges or causeies made over that have their sluces to let out the water The South part which is on the hither side is the greater consisting of divers streets hath in it the schoole and an hospitall of Saint John founded for reliefe of the poore The farther part is the lesse but beautified with a very goodly Cathedrall Church which being round about compassed with a faire wall castle-like and garnished beside with faire houses of Prebendaries and with the Bishops palace also doth mount upon high with three pyramids or spires of stone making an excellent shew and for elegant and proportionall building yeeldeth to few Cathedrall Churches In this place many ages past a Bishops See was established for in the 656. yeere after the Worlds redemption Oswie King of Northumberland having vanquished the Mercians as then
clawbackes BRITANNICUS even when the Britans would have elected an Emperour against him And then it may seeme was this Statue of his set up when he prizing himselfe more than a man proceeded to that folly that he gave commandement he should be called The Romane Hercules Iupiters sonne For hee was portraied in the habite of Hercules and his right hand armed with a club under which there lay as I have heard such a mangled Inscription as this broken heere and there with voide places betweene the draught whereof was badly taken out and before I came hither was utterly spoiled CAESARI AUGUSTO MARCI AURELII FILIO SEN IONIS AMPLISSIMI VENTS PIUS This was to be seene in Nappa an house built with turrets and the chiefe seat of the Medcalfs thought to be at this day the greatest family for multitude of the same name in all England for I have heard that Sir Christopher Medcalfe knight and the top of this kinred beeing of late high-Sheriffe of the shire accompanied with three hundred men of the same house all on horsback and in a livery met and received the Justices of Assizes and so brought them to Yorke From hence runneth Vre downe a maine full of Creifishes ever since Sir Christopher Medcalfe in our remembrance brought that kinde of fish hither out of the South part of England and betweene two rockes whereof the place is named Att-scarre it runneth head long downe not far from Bolton a stately Castle the ancient seat of the Barons Scrops and which Richard Lord le Scrope and Chancellour of England under king Richard the Second built with exceeding great coste and now bending his course Eastward commeth to Midelham the honour whereof as wee reade in the Genealogie or Pedegree of the Nevils Alan Earle of Richmond bestowed upon his younger brother Rinebald with all the lands which before their comming belonged to Gilpatrick the Dane His nephew by his sonne Raulph named Robert Fitz-Raulph had all Wentsedale also by gift of Conan Earle of Britaine and of Richmond and at Midleham raised a most strong Castle His sonne Ranulph erected a little Abbay for Chanons at Coverham called now short Corham in Coverdale whose sonne Raulph had a daughter named Mary who being wedded to Robert Lord Nevill with this marriage translated this very faire and large inheritance as her portion into the family of Nevils Which Robert Nevill having had many children by his wife was taken in adultery unknowne and by the husband of the adulteresse being for revenge berest of his genitours shortly after dyed with extremity of paine Then Ure after it hath passed a few miles forward watereth Iervis or Iorvalle Abbay of Cistertians founded first at Fo rs and after translated hither by Stephen Earle of Britaine and Richmond but now wholly ruinated and after that Masham which was the possession of the Scropes of Masham who as they sprung from the stocke of the Scropes of Bolton so they were by marriages ingraffed againe into the same On the other side of this River but more inward standeth Snath the principall house of the Barons Latimer who derived their noble descent from George Nevill younger sonne of Raulph Nevill the first Earle of Westmorland and he received this Title of honour from king Henry the Sixth when as the ancienter house of the Latimers expired in a female and so by a continued succession they have flourished unto these our daies when for default of male issue of the last Baron Latimer that goodly and rich inheritance was divided among his daughters marryed into the families of the Percies Cecils D'anvers and Cornwallis Neither are there any other places in this part of the shire worth the naming that Ure runneth by unlesse it bee Tanfeld the habitation in times past of the Gernegans knights from whom it descended to the Marmions the last of whom left for his heire Amice second wife to John Lord Grey of Rotherfeld by whom he had two sonnes John that assumed the sirname of Marmion and died issuelesse and Robert who left behinde him one onely daughter and sole heire Elizabeth wife to Sir Henry Fitz-Hugh a noble Baron After this Ure entertaineth the River Swale so called as Th. Spot writeth of his swiftnesse selfe into it with a maine and violent streame which Swale runneth downe Eastward out of the West Mountaines also scarce five miles above the head of Ure a River reputed very sacred amongst the ancient English for that in it when the English Saxons first embraced Christianity there were in one day baptized with festivall joy by Paulinus the Archbishop of Yorke above tenne thousand men besides women and little children This Swale passeth downe along an open Vale of good largenesse which of it is called Swal-dale having good plenty of grasse but as great want of wood first by Marrick where there stood an Abbay built by the Askes men in old time of great name also by Mask a place full of lead ore Then runneth it through Richmond the chiefe towne of the Country having but a small circuit of walles but yet by reason of the Suburbs lying out in length at three Gates well peopled and frequented Which Alan the first Earle thereof built reposing small trust in Gilling a place or Manour house of his hard by to withstand the violence of the Danes and English whom the Normans had despoiled of their inheritance and hee adorned it with this name as one would say The rich Mount he fensed it with a wall and a most strong Castle which being set upon a rocke from an high looketh downe to Swale that with a mighty rumbling noise rusheth rather than runneth among the stones For the said house or Manour place of Gilling was more holy in regard of devout religion than sure and strong for any fortification it had ever since that therein Beda calleth it Gethling Oswy King of Northumberland being entertained guest-wise was by his hoste forelaid and murthered for the expiation whereof the said Monastery was built highly accounted of among our ancestours More Northward Ravenswath Castle sheweth it selfe compassed with a good large wall but now fallen which was the seat of the Barons named Fitz-Hugh extracted from the ancient line of the English Nation who were Lords of the place before the Normans Conquest and lived in great name unto King Henry the Seventh his daies enriched with faire possessions by marriage with the heires of the noble houses of Furneaux and Marmion which came at last by the females unto the Fienes Lords Dacres in the South and to the Parrs Three miles beneath Richmond Swale runneth by that ancient City which Ptolomee and Antonine call CATURACTONIUM and CATARRACTON but Bede Catarractan and in another place the Village neere unto Catarracta whereupon I suppose it had the name of Catarracta that is a Fludfall or water-fall considering hard by there
have beene discovered lying along So that it may be thought when the ground lay neglected and the chanels were not skoured in those open and flat Valleies for riverets and Brookes to passe away but the water-lades stopped up either through negligence or depopulation that then all the grounds that lay lower than others became such boggy plots as we call Mosses or else standing Meeres Which if it bee true wee neede not mervaile that so many trees in the like places every where throughout England but in this shire especially lie overwhelmed and as it were buried For when their rootes were loosened through over much moisture the trees could not chuse but fall and in such soft ground sinke and bee quite swallowed up They that dwell thereabouts assay and try with poles and spits where they lie hidden and when they light upon them marke the place digge them out and use them for fire wood For they burne cleere and give light as well as torch wood which haply is by reason of a bituminous and clammy fat earth wherein they lye whence the common sort take them for Firres which notwithstanding Caesar denieth to have growne in Britaine I know it is an opinion currant with the most that these trees overturned with the force of waters have lien ever since Noahs Floud when the World was drowned and so much the rather because they are elsewhere digged out of very high places and yet they deny not but those high grounds are very marish and waterish Such mighty trees also are found oftentimes in Holland a Country of Germany which the learned men there suppose were either undermined by waves working into the shore or by windes driven forward and brought unto those lower and moist places where they setled and sunke downe But let the curious company of Philosophers search into these matters to whom I commend them and to their further inquirie whether there are not Subterranean trees growing under earth as well as plants and other Creatures After Chatmosse Holcroft sheweth it selfe which as it afforded the seat so it gave the name also to that right ancient family of the Holcrofts whose estate in old time was much amended by marriage with one of the heires of Culchit a place seated hard by which Gilbert de Culchit held Of the Fee of Almaricke Butler as hee himselfe did of the Earle of Ferrars in King Henry the Third his time Whose eldest daughter and heire when Richard Fitz-Hugh of Hindley had married he assumed to himselfe the name of Culchith like as his brother Thomas who wedded the second daughter was of the possession called Holcroft another also by the same reason was named de Peasfalong and a fourth de Riseley Which I note that the Reader may understand how our Ancestours as they were in other things constant and grave so in leaving and taking up names out of their possessions they were as vaine and variable as might bee But even in other parts of England also this was in old time a thing in usuall practise Heere lie there round about every way little Townes which as throughout this whole County and Cheshire and other Northren parts as they imparted their names to worshipfull houses so they to have their Lords even unto these daies men of the very same name with them As for example Aston of Aston Atherton of Atherton Tillesley of Tillesley Standish of Standish Bold of Bold Hesket of Hesket Worthington of Worthington Torbec of Torbec c. And an endlesse peece of worke it were to name them one by one neither is it any part of my purpose to reckon up all families of name and worship but to take a view and survey of the more ancient places And as vertue and wealth laied the foundations of these and such like Families in these North Countries and elsewhere that I may speake it once for all and provident moderation with simplicity standing contented with their owne estate both preserved and encreased them So in the South part of England riotous expense and superfluity usurious contracts voluptuous and vicious life together with indirect courses and crafty dealings have in short space utterly overthrowne most flourishing houses in so much as men complaine that the offspring of the ancient Gentry hath now a long time faded But Families as plants have their times of encreasing and decreasing I and overpassing this will follow on with the course of Mersey which now by this time runneth downe by Warrington a Towne knowne by reason of the Lords thereof sirnamed Butlers who obtained of King Edward the First the liberty of a Mercate for it From which Northward Winwicke is not farre distant a place among other fat Benefices of England of greatest name in the upmost part of the Church whereof are read these rude Verses engraven in an old Character concerning King Oswald Hic locus Oswalde quondam placuit tibi valde Northanhumbrorum fuer as Rex nuncque Polorum Regna tenes loco passus Marcelde vocato This place sometime thee pleased well Oswald King thou hadst beene once of Northumberland Thou sufferedst in a place Marcelde call'd Thy Kingdome now is heaven that aye doth stand From Warrington the River Mâ—rsey spreading abroad and straightwaies drawing in himselfe againe with a wide and open outlet very commodious for merchandise entreth into the Irish Sea where Litherpoole called in the elder ages 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commonly Lirpoole is seated so named as it is thought of the water spreading it selfe in manner of a Poole whence there is a convenient passage over into Ireland and much frequented and in that respect more notorious than for any Antiquity For there is no mention extant thereof any where in ancient Writers but that Roger of Poictiers who was Lord as they spake in those dayes of the Honour of Lancaster built a Castle heere Whereof the worthy family of the Molineaux Knights have had the custody now a long time whose chiefe seat is hard by at Sefion which the said Roger of Poictiers gave unto Vivian de Molineaux shortly after the first entry of the Normans For all that Territory betweene the two Rivers Ribel and Mersey the same Roger held as appeareth evidently by the authenticall Record of Domesday booke Neere unto Seston Alt a little River seeketh a way into the Sea and when hee hath found it giveth name to a small Village Attmouth standing by and hath Ferneby neere unto it wherein the moist and mossie soile turffes are digged up which serve the inhabitants for fewell and candle light Under the said turfes there is a certaine dead and blackish water upon which there swimmeth I wot not what unctuous matter and in it swimme little fishes that are caught by the diggers of turfe So that wee may say there bee fishes digged heere out of the earth no lesse than about Heraclea and Tiâ—s in Pontus And no mervaile seeing that in such watery places fishes otherwhiles
seeking for moisture get under the ground and men goe a fishing with spades But that in Paphlagonia many and those good fishes are gotten by digging in places nothing watery there is some secret and peculiar reason thereof in Nature and pleasantly wrote Seneca Why should not fishes enter and passe into the land if we passe over the Sea From hence the open shore shooteth out with a great bent and more within land from the sea standeth Ormeskirke a mercate towne well knowne by reason of the sepulture there of the Stanleys Earles of Derby whose chiefe seat Latham is hard by a stately house which they have enlarged continually ever since King Henry the Fourth his dayes what time Sir John Stanley knight father to John Lord deputy of Ireland descended of the same stemme whence the Barons de Audley married the daughter and heire of Sir Thomas Latham a right noble knight who brought to him for her dowrie this faire inheritance with many other possessions And from that time have the Stanleys planted their seat heere of whom Thomas the sonne of Thomas Lord Stanley was by King Henry the seventh created Earle of Derby and had issue by Eleonor Nevill daughter to the Earle of Salisbury George Lord Strange for he had wedded Joan the onely daughter and heire of John Baron Le Strange of Knockin who dying in his fathers life time begat a sonne named Thomas the second Earle of Derby unto whom Anne the daughter of Edward Lord Hastings bare Edward the third Earle of Derby who begat of Dorothea daughter of Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolke Henry the fourth Earle who married Margaret daughter of Henry Clifford Earle of Cumberland mother unto Ferdinando the fifth Earle lately deceased and to William now the sixth Earle who succeeded his brother but I forget my selfe now when as I have formerly remembred as much Duglesse a riveret creepeth and stealeth along quietly by this place neere unto which our noble Arthur as Ninnius writeth put the Saxons to flight in a memorable battaile At the head hereof standeth the towne Wiggin called in ancient times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which name I have nothing else to say but that in Lancashire they call buildings and houses Biggins neither of the towne but that it is faire and a Corporation also with a Maior and Burgesses and the parson of the Church as I have learned is Lord of the towne Hard by it Holland sheweth it selfe out of a younger brother whereof that most noble and renowned race of the Hollands Earles of Kent and Dukes also of Surry and Excester fetched both their originall and their sirname But the daughter and heire of the eldest brother who flourished here in knights degree being in the end married into the house of the Lovels brought unto them an addition of possessions with her Armes viz. in a shield Azure florete Argent a Lion rampant gardant Arg. Neere unto the mouth of Duglesse is Merton a very great large poole which emptieth it selfe into this river and then streight waies meeteth with the river Ribell neare his out-let for this is the next river after Mersey that runneth into the sea and hath not yet lost quite his former ancient name for Ptolomee calleth the salt water or arme of the sea here BELLISAMA and we Ribell perhaps by addition of the Saxon word Rhe unto it that signifieth a River This river comming with a quicke and hasty streame out of the hils in Yorke-shire taketh his course first Southward by three exceeding high mountaines Ingleborow hill at the spring head which I wondered at to see how it ascendeth as it were by degrees with a huge and mighty ridge Westward and at the farthest end mounteth up into the aire as if an other hill were set upon the head of it Penigent haply so called of his whitish snowy top for so Pengwin signifieth in the british tongue and he riseth aloft with an huge bulke howbeit not altogether so high as the other But when Ribell commeth into Lancashire for those two stand in Yorke-shire Pendle-hill advanceth it selfe up to the skie with a lofty head and in the very top thereof bringeth forth a peculiar plant which as though it came out of the clowdes they tearme Clowdes-bery But this mountaine is most notorious for the harme that it did not long since to the country lying beneath it by reason of a mighty deale of water gushing out of it as also for an infallible prognostication of raine so often as the top thereof is covered with a mist. Of these hils I have made mention the more willingly both because they are the highest in our Apennine whence commeth this vulgar Rhime Ingleborow Pendle and Penigent Are the highest hils betweene Scotland and Trent As also that the reader may understand as I said before why the highest Alpes were called of the old Gaules Penninae and why the very top of the hils named Pennum and Apennini were of them so tearmed For Pen in the British tongue signifieth the tops of hils By an out corner or parcel of Pendle hill standeth Clithero castle built by the Lacies neere unto Ribell and a neighbour unto it Whaley in the Saxon tongue Walalez famous for the monastery that the said Lacies founded which was translated from Stanlaw in Cheshire hither in the yeere 1296. where in the yeere 798. duke Wade unfortunately gave battaile to Ardulph King of Northumberland at Billangho which is more short called Langho This Ribell no sooner turneth into the West but imparteth his name to a small towne which in our age is called Riblechester where are digged up from time to time so many monuments of Romane antiquity statues peeces of coyn Pillars Piedestals Chapters of pillars heathen altars Marble-stones and inscriptions that the inhabitants may seeme not without cause to have this hobling rhyme so rise in their mouthes It is written upon a wall in Rome Ribchester was as rich as any towne in Christendome And the port high wayes came directly hither raiâ—ed up with eminent cause is one from Yorke another out of the North through Bowland-Forrest a spacious peece of ground which as yet is most evidently to be seene for many miles together But the country folke have so disfigured the inscriptions that although I did see many yet could I scarce read one or two of them At Salesbury hall an house of that ancient family of the Talbots standing neere by I saw the base or foot of a pillar with this inscription DEO MARTI ET VICTORIAE DD. AUGG. ET CC NN In a wall neare unto it there is another great stone infixed shewing in the fore-part Cupid and another little image out of the backe-side or reverse whereof this was exemplified for me but the inscription carrieth no sense with it which because it troubled me a long time I will set down here underneath to see what
of the river Annan which lost all the glorie and beautie it had by the English warre in the reigne of Edward the sixth In this territorie the Ionstons are men of greatest name a kinred even bred to warre betweene whom and the Maxwels there hath beene professed an open enmitie over long even to deadly feud and blood-shed which Maxwels by right from their ancestours have the rule of this Seneschalsie for so it is accounted This vale Eadgar King of Scots after hee was restored to his kingdome by auxiliarie forces out of England gave in consideration and reward of good service unto Robert Bruse or Brus Lord of Cliveland in Yorke-shire who with the good favour of the King bestowed it upon Robert his younger sonne when himselfe would not serve the King of Scots in his warres From him flowered the Bruses Lords of Annandale of whom Robert Brus married Isabel the daughter of William King of Scots by the daughter of Robert Avenall his sonne likewise Robert the third of the name wedded the daughter of David Earle of Huntington and of Gariosh whose sonne Robert surname The Noble when the issue of Alexander the third King of Scots sailed challenged in his mothers right the Kingdome of Scotland before Edward the first King of England as the direct and superiour Lord of the Kingdome of Scotland so the English give it out or an honourable Arbitratour for to say the Scots as being neerer in proximitie in degree and blood to King Alexander the third and Margaret daughter to the King of Norway although bee were the sonne by a second sister who soon after resigning up his own right granted and gave over to his son Robert Brus Earle of Carrick and to his heires I speak out of the verie originall all the right and claime which he had or might have to the Kingdome of Scotland But the action and suit went with John Balliol who sued for his right us descended of the eldest sister although in a degree farther off and sentence was given in these words For that the person more remote in the second degree descending in the first line is to bee preferred before a nâ—â—erer in a second line in the succession of an inheritance that cannot be parted How beit the said Robert sonne to the Earle of Carrick by his own vertue at length recovered the Kingdome unto himself and established it to his posteritie A Prince who as he flourished notably in regard of the glorious ornaments of his noble acts so he triumphed as happily with invincible fortitude and courage over fortune that so often crossed him NIDISDALL CLose unto Annandale on the West side lyeth NIDISDALE suficiently with corne-fields and pastures so named of the river Nid which in Ptolomee is wrongly written NOBIUS for NODIUS or NIDIUS of which name there bee other rivers in Britaine full of shallow foords and muddie shelves like as this NID is also It springeth out of the Lake Logh-Cure by which flourished CORDA a towne of the Selgova He taketh his course first by Sauqhuera Castle of the Creightons who a long time kept a great port as enjoying the dignitie of the Barons of Sauqhuer and the authoritie besides of hereditarie Sheriffs of Nidisdale then by Morton which gave title of Earle to some of the family of Douglas out of which others of that surname have their mansion and abiding at Drumlanrig by the same river neere unto the mouth whereof standeth Danfreys betweene two hills the most flourishing towne of this tract which hath to shew also an old Castle in it famous for making of woollen clothes and remarkable for the murder of John Commin the mightiest man for manred and retinew in all Scotland whom Roberts Brus for feare he should foreclose his way to the kingdome ranne quite through with his sword in the Church and soon obtained his pardon from the Pope for committing that murder in a sacred place Neerer unto the mouth Solway a little village retaineth still somewhat of the old name of Selgova Upon the verie mouth is situate Caer Laverock which Prolomee I supposed called CARBANTORIGUM accounted an imprenable sort when King Edward the first accompanied with the floure of English Nobilitie besieged and hardly wonne it but now it is a weake dwelling house of the Barons of Maxwell who being men of an ancient and noble linage were a long time Wardens of these West matches and of late advanced by marriage with the daughter one of the heires of the Earle of Morton whereby John Lord Maxwell was declared Earle of Morson as also by the daughter and heire of Hereis Lord Toricles whom I a younger sonne took to wife and obtained by the title of Baron Hereis Moreover in this vale by the Lake side lyeth Glencarn whence the Cunninghams of whom I am to write more in place convenient bare a long time the title of Earle This Nidisdale together with Annandale nourisheth a warlike kind of men who have beene infamous for robberies and depredations for they dwell upon Solway Frish a fourdable arme of the sea at low waters through which they made many times outrodes into England for to fetch in booties and in which the inhabitants thereabout on both sides with pleasant pastime and delightfull sight on horse-backe with speares hunt Salmons whereof there is abundance What manner of cattailestealers these be that inhabite these vales in the marches of both kingdomes John Lesley himselfe a Scottish man and Bishop of Rosse will tell you in these words They go forth in the night by troops out of there own borders through desart by-waies and many winding crankes All the day time they refresh their burses and recreate their owne strength in lurking places appointed before band until they be come thither as length in the dark night where they would be When they have laid hold of a bootie back again they returne home likewise by night through blinde waies onely and fetching many a compasse about The more skilfull any leader or guide is to passe through those wild desarts crooked turnings and steep downe-falls in the thickest mists and deepest darknesse hee is held in greaâ—â—ter reputation as one of an excelling wit And so craftie and 〈◊〉 these are that seldome or never they forgo their bootie and suffer it to be taken out of their hands unlesse it happen otherwhiles that they be caught by their adversaries following continually after and tracing them directly by their footing according as quick-senting Slugh-bounds doe lead them But say they be taken so faire spoken they are and eloquen so manie sugred words they have at will sweetly to plead for them that they are able to move the Iudges and adversaries both he they never so austere and severe if not to mercie yet to admiration amd some commiseration withall NOVANTES GALLOWAY FRom Nidisdale as you goe on Westward the NOVANTES inhabited in the vales all that tract which
world for fishfull streame renown'd Refresheth all the neighbour fields that lye about it round But Glascow beautie is to Cluyd and grace to countries nye And by the streames that flow from thence all places fructifie Along the hithermore banke of Cluid yeth the Baronie of Reinfraw so called of the principall towne which may seeme to bee RANDVARA in Ptolomee by the river Cathcart that hath the Baron of Cathcart dwelling upon it carrying the same surname and of ancient nobilitie neere unto which for this little province can shew a goodly breed of nobilitie there border Cruikston the seat in times past of the Lords of Darley from whom by right of marriage it came to the Earles of Lennox whence Henrie the Father of King James the sixth was called Lord Darly Halkead the habitation of the Barons of Ros descended originally from English blood as who fetch their pedegree from that Robert Ros of Warke who long since left England and came under the alleageance of the King of Scots Pasley sometimes a famous Monasterie founded by Alexander the second of that name high Steward of Scotland which for a gorgeous Church and rich furniture was inferiour to few but now by the beneficiall favour of King James the sixth it yeeldeth both dwelling place and title of Baron to Lord Claud Hamilton a younger sonne of Duke Chasteu Herald and Sempill the Lord whereof Baron Sempill by ancient right is Sheriffe of this Baronie But the title of Baron of Reinfraw by a peculiar priviledge doth appertaine unto the Prince of Scotland LENNOX ALong the other banke of Cluyd above Glascow runneth forth Levinia or LENNOX Northward among a number of hills close couched one by another having that name of the river Levin which Ptolomee calleth LELANONIUS and runneth into Cluyd out of Logh Lomund which spreadeth it selfe here under the mountaines twenty miles long and eight miles broad passing well stored with varietie of fish but most especially with a peculiar fish that is to be found no where else they call it Pollac as also with Ilands concerning which manie fables have beene forged and those riâ—e among the common people As touching an Iland here that floateth and waveth too and fro I list not to make question thereof For what should let but that a lighter bodie and spongeous withall in manner of a pumice stone may swimme above the water and Plinie writeth how in the Lake Vadimon there be Ilands full of grasse and covered over with rushes and reeds that float up and downe But I leave it unto them that dwell neerer unto this place and better know the nature of this Lake whether this old Distichon of our Necham be true or no Ditatur fluviis Albania saxea ligna Dat Lomund multa frigiditate potens With rivers Scotland is enrich'd and Lomund there a Lake So cold of nature is that stickes it quickly stones doth make Round about the edge of this Lake there bee fishers cottages but nothing else memorable unlesse it be Kilmoronoc a proper fine house of the Earles of Cassiles on the East side of it which hath a most pleasant prospect into the said Lake But at the confluence where Levin emptieth it selfe out of the Lake into Cluyd standeth the old Citie called Al-Cluyd Bede noteth that it signified in whose language I know not as much as The rocke Cluyd True it is that Ar-Cluyd signifieth in the British tongue upon Cluyd or upon the rocke and Cluyd in ancient English sounded the same that a Rocke The succeeding posteritie called this place Dunbritton that is The Britans towne and corruptly by a certaine transposition of letters Dunbarton because the Britans held it longest against the Scots Picts and Saxons For it is the strongest of all the castles in Scotland by naturall situation towring upon a rough craggie and two-headed rocke at the verie meeting of the rivers in a greene plaine In one of the tops or heads abovesaid there standeth up a loftie watch-tower or Keep on the other which is the lower there are sundrie strong bulwarks Betweene these two tops on the North side it hath one onely ascent by which hardly one by one can passe up and that with a labour by grees or steps cut out aslope travers the rocke In steed of ditches on the West side serveth the river Levin on the South Cluyd and on the East a boggie flat which at everie tide is wholly covered over with waters and on the North side the verie upright steepenesse of the place is a most sufficient defence Certain remaines of the Britans presuming of the naturall strength of this place and their owne manhood who as Gildas writeth gat themselves a place of refuge in high mountaines and hills steep and naturally fensed as it were with rampires and ditches in most thick woods and forrests in rockes also of the sea stood out and defended themselves here after the Romans departure for three hundred yeeres in the midst of their enemies For in Bedes time as himself writeth it was the best fortified citie of the Britans But in the yeere 756. Eadbert King of Northumberland and Oeng King of the Picts with their joint forces enclosed it round about by siege and brought it to such a desperate extremitie that it was rendred unto them by composition Of this place the territorie round about it is called the Sherifdome of Dunbarton and hath had the Earles of Lennox this long time for their Sheriffes by birth-right and inheritance As touching the Earles of Lennox themselves to omit those of more ancient and obscure times there was one Duncane Earle of Lennox in the reigne of Robert the second who died and left none but daughters behinde him Of whom one was married to Alan Steward descended from Robert a younger sonne of Walter the second of that name High Steward of Scotland and brother likewise to Alexander Steward the second from whom the noblest and royall race of Scotland hath beene propagated This surname Steward was given unto that most noble family in regard of the honourable office of the Stewardshippe of the kingdome as who had the charge of the Kings revenues The said Alan had issue John Earle of Lennox and Robert Captain of that companie of Scottishmen at Armes which Charles the sixth K. of France first instituted in lieu of some recompence unto the Scottish nation which by their valour had deserved passing well of the kingdom of France who also by the same Prince for his vertues sake was endowed with the Seigniorie of Aubigny in Auvergne John had a sonne named Matthew Earle of Lennox who wedded the daughter of James Hamilton by Marion daughter to King James the second on whom he begat John Earle of Lennox hee taking armes to deliver King James the fifth out of the hands of the Douglasses and the Hamiltons was slaine by the Earle of Arran his Unkle on the mothers side This John was
father to Matthew Earle of Lennox who having sustained sundrie troubles in France and Scotland found fortune more friendly to him in England through the favour of King Henrie the eighth considering that hee bestowed upon him in marriage his Neice with faire lands By the meanes of this happie marriage were brought into the world Henrie and Charles Henrie by Marie Queene of Scots had issue JAMES the sixth King of Britain by the propitious grace of the eternall God borne in a most auspicate and lucky houre to knit and unite in one bodie of an Empire the whole Island of Britaine divided as well in it selfe as it was heretofore from the rest of the world and as we hope and pray to lay a most sure foundation of an everlasting securitie for our heires and the posteritie As for Charles he had issue one onely daughter Arbella who above her sexe hath so embraced the studies of the best literature that therein shee hath profited and proceeded with singular commendation and is comparable with the excellent Ladies of old time When Charles was dead after that the Earledome of Lennox whereof he stood enfeoffed was revoked by Parliamentarie authoritie in the yeere of our Lord 1579. and his Unkle by the fathers side Robert Bishop of Cathanes had some while enjoyed this title in lieu whereof he received at the Kings hands the honour of the Earle of March King James the sixth conferred the honourable title of Duke of Lennox upon Esme Steward sonne to John Lord D'Aubigny younger brother to Mathew aforesaid Earle of Lennox which Lodowic Esme his son at this day honourably enjoieth For since the time of Charles the sixth there were of this line Lords of Aubigny in France the said Robert before named and Bernard or Eberard under Charles the eighth Lewis the twelfth who is commended with great praise unto posteritie by P. Iovius for his noble acts most valerously exploited in the warre of Naples a most firme and trustie companion of King Henrie the seventh when he entred into England Who used for his Emprese or devise a Lion betweene buckles with this Mot DISTANTIA JUNGIT for that by his meanes the Kingdomes of France and of Scotland severed and dis-joined so farre in distance were by a straighter league of friendship conjoyned like as Robert Steward Lord D'Aubigny of the same race who was Marshall of France under King Lewis the eleventh for the same cause used the royall Armes of France with buckles Or in a border Gueules which the Earles and Dukes of Lennox have ever since borne quarterly with the Armes of Steward STIRLING Sheriffdome UPon Lennox North-eastward bordereth the territorie of STERLING so named of the principall towne therein for fruitfull soile and numbers of Gentlemen in it second to no province of Scotland Here is that narrow land or streight by which Dunbritton Frith and Edenborrough Frith that I may use the termes of this our age piercing farre into the land out of the West and East Seas are divided asunder that they meet not the one with the other Which thing Iulius Agricola who marched hitherto and beyond first observed and fortified this space betweene with garrisons so as all the part of Britaine in this side was then in possession of the Romans and the enemies removed and driven as it were into another Island in so much as Tacitus judged right truely There was no other bound or limit of Britaine to bee sought for Neither verily in the time ensuing did either the VALOUR of Armies or the GLORIE of the Romane name which scarcely could be stayed set out the marches of the Empire in this part of the world farther although with inâ—odes they other whiles molested and endammaged them But after this glorious expedition of Agricola when himselfe was called backe Britaine as faith Tacitus became for-let neither was the possession kept still thus farre for the Caledonian Britans drave the Romans backe as farre as to the river Tine in so much as Hadrian who came into Britaine in person about the fortieth yeere after and reformed many things in it went no farther forward but gave commandement that the GOD TERMINUS which was wont to give ground unto none should retire backward out of this place like as in the East on this side Euphrates Hence it is that S. Augustine wrote in this wise God TERMINUS who gave not place to Iupiter yeelded unto the will of Hadrianus yeelded to the rashnesse of Iulian yeelded to the necessitie of Iovian In so much as Hadrian had enough to doe for to make a wall of turfe between the rivers Tine and Esk well neere an hundred miles Southward on this side Edenborrough Frith But Antoninus Pius who being adopted by Hadrian bare his name stiled thereupon TITUS AELIUS HADRIANUS ANTONINUS PIUS under the conduct of Lollius Urbicus whom he had sent hither Lievtenant repelled the Northern enemies backe againe beyond BODOTRIA or Edenborrough Forth and that by raising another wall of turfe namely besides that of Hadrianus as Capitolinus writeth Which wall that it was reared in this verie place whereof I now speake and not by Severus as it is commonly thought I will produce no other witnesses than two ancient Inscriptions digged up here of which the one fastned in the wall of an house at Cader sheweth how the second Legion Augusta set up the wall for the space of three miles and more the other now in the house of the Earle Marshall at Dunotyr which implieth that a band of the twentieth Legion Victrix raised the said wall three miles long But see here the verie inscriptions themselves as Servatius Riheley a Gentleman of Silesia who curiously travailed these countries copied them out for mee IMP. CAESARI T. AELIO HADRIANO ANTONINO AUG PIO P. P. VEXILLATIO LEG XX. VAL. VIC F. PER. MIL. P. III. IMP. CAES. TIT. IO AELIO HADRIANO ANTON AUG PIO PP LEG II. AUG PER. M. P. III. D. CIXVIS At Cadir where this latter inscription is extant there is another stone also erected by the second Legion Augusta wherein within a Laurell garland supported by two little images resembling victorie are these letters LEG II AVG. FEC And in a village called Miniabruch out of a Ministers house there was removed this inscription into a Gentlemans house which is there new built out of the ground D. M. C. JULI MARCELLINI PRAEF COH I. HAMIOR But when the Northerne nations in the reigne of Commodus having passed once over this wall had made much wast and spoile in the countrey the Emperour Severus as I have alreadie said repaired this wall of Hadrian Howbeit afterwards the Romans brought eftsoones the countrey lying betweene under their subjection For Ninius hath recorded that Carausius under Diocletian strengthened this wall another time and fortified it with seven castles Lastly the Romanes fensed this place when Theodosius the younger was Emperour under the conduct of Gallio of Ravenna Now saith Bede they
at the hands of King Henry the sixth the title and honour of Earle of Wiltshire to him and to the heires of his body who being Lord Deputy of Ireland as divers others of this race and Lord Treasurer of England standing attainted by King Edward the fourth was straight waies apprehended and beheaded but his brethren John and Thomas likewise proclaimed traytors kept themselves close out of the way John died at Jerusalem without issue Thomas through the speciall favour of King Henry the seventh was in the end restored to his blood who departed this life in the yeere 1515. leaving behinde him two daughters Anne married to Sir Iames de sancto Leodegano called commonly Sellenger and Margaret unto Sir William Bollein who bare unto him Sir Tho. Bollein whom King Henry the eighth created first Viscount Rochfort afterwards Earle of Wiltshire and of Ormond and afterward took Anne Bollein his daughter to wife who brought forth for England Queene Elizabeth a Prince of most happy memory and with all thankfulnesse to be alwaies remembred by the English and Irish. When Thomas Bollein was dead leaving no issue male Sir Pierce Butler a man of great power in Ireland descended of the Earles race whom Henry the eighth had before time created Earle of Osserie attained also to the title of Ormond and left the same unto his sonne James who had issue by the daughter and heire of James Earle of Desmond a sonne named Thomas Earle of Ormond now living whose faith and loyaltie hath been passing well tried and approved in many troubles and dangerous affaires who also hath joined in marriage his only daughter unto Theobald Butler his brothers son whom King James hath advanced lately to the title of Vicount Tullo Whereas some of the Irish and such as would be thought worthy of credit doe affirme that certaine men in this tract are yeerely turned into Wolves surely I suppose it be a meere fable unlesse haply through that malicious humour of predominant unkind Melancholy they be possessed with the malady that the Physicians call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which raiseth and engendereth such like phantasies as that they imagine themselves to bee transformed into Wolves Neither dare I otherwise affirme of those metamorphosed Lycaones in Liveland concerning whom many Writers deliver many and marvellous reports Thus farre as touching the Province of Mounster for the government whereof Queene Elizabeth when shee bethought herselfe most wisely politickly and princely which way she might procure the good and wealth of Ireland ordained a Lord President to be the reformer and punisher of inconsiderate rashnesse the director also and moderator of duty together with one Assistant two learned Lawyers and a Secretary and the first President that shee made was Sir Warham S. Leger Knight a man of great experience in Irish affaires LAGENIA or LEINSTER THe second part of Ireland which the inhabitants call Leighnigh the Britans Lein the English Leinster and Latine writers Lagenia and in the ancient lives of the Saints Lagen lieth all of it on the Sea-side Eastward bounded toward Mounster with the river Neor which notwithstanding in many places it passeth beyond on Connaght side for a good space with Shanon and toward Meath with the peculiar knowne limits The Countrey is fertile and fruitfull the aire most milde and temperate and the people there inhabiting come neerest of all other to the gentle disposition and civill conversation of England their neighbour Iland from whence they are for the most part descended In Ptolomees dayes therein were seated the BRIGANTES MENAPII CAUCI and BLANI and peradventure from these Blani are derived and contracted these later and moderne names Lein Leinigh and Leinster But now it is divided into the Counties of Kilkenny Caterlogh Queenes County Kings County Kildare Weisford and Dublin to say nothing of Wicklo and Fernes which either be already or else are to be laid thereto BRIGANTES or BIRGANTES THe BRIGANTES seeme to have planted themselves betweene the mouth of the river and the confluence of Neor and Barrow which in Ptolomee is called BRIGUS Now because there was an ancient City of the Brigantes in Spaine named BRIGANTIA Florianus del Campo laboureth tooth and naile to fetch these BRIGANTES out of his owne countrey Spaine But if such a conjecture may take place others might with as great probality derive them from the Brigantes of Britaine a nation both neere and also exceeding populous But if that be true which I finde in certaine copies that this people were called BIRGANTES both hee and the other have missed the marke For that these tooke their denomination of the river BIRGUS about which they doe inhabite the very name is almost sufficient to perswade us These BRIGANTES or BIRGANTES whether you will dwelt in the Counties of Kilkenny Ossery and Caterlogh watered all with the river BIRGUS THE COUNTIE OF KILKENNY THe Countie of Kilkenny is bounded West with the countie of Tipperary East with the counties of Weisford and Caterlogh South with the countie of Waterford North with Queenes Countie and Northwest with upper Osserie A countrey that with townes and castles on every side maketh a very goodly shew and for plenty of all things surpasseth the rest Neere unto Osserie the mighty and huge mountaines Sleiew Bloemy which Giraldus calleth Bladinae Montes with their rising toppes mount up to a wonderfull heigth out of the bowels whereof as from their mothers wombe issue the rivers Shour aforenamed Neor and Barrow which running downe in severall chanels before they enter into the Ocean joine hand in hand all together whereupon they in old time tearmed them The three sisters The Neor commonly called also Neure runneth in manner through the midst of Kilkenny county and when it is passed with a forward course by the upper Osserie the first Baron whereof was Barnabas Fitz-Patrick promoted to that honor by King Edward the sixth and hath watered many fortresses on both sides floweth beside Kilkenny which is as much to say as the Cell or Church of Canic which for the sanctimony of his solitary life in this country was highly renowned a proper faire and wealthy Burrough towne this is and far excelling all other midland Boroughs in this Iland divided into the Irish towne and the English towne The Irish towne is as it were the Suburbs and hath in it the said Canicks Church which both gave name unto it and now also affordeth a See unto the Bishop of Osserie But the English towne is nothing so ancient built as I have read by Ranulph the third Earle of Chester and fortified with a wall on the West side by Robert Talbot a Nobleman and with a castle by the Butlers And sure it is that in the division of lands between the daughters of William Mareschal Earle of Penbroch it fell unto the third daughter whom Gilbert Clare Earle of Glocester married Somewhat beneath the same Neore standeth a little walled towne named in English Thomas Towne
in Irish Bala-Mac-Andan that is The towne of Antonies sonne For it tooke both names of the founder Thomas Fitz-Anthonie an Englishman who flourished under King Henry the third whose heires are yet acknowledged the Lords thereof Beneath this towne the river Callan voideth his streame into Neore upon which standeth the third Burrough or incorporate towne of this county bearing the same name Callan Like as Inise-Teog which is the fourth The family of Butlers hath spread and branched farre and wide throughout this County men that with much honour bare a great port and for their worth and vertues were adorned with the titles of Earles of Carick Ormond Wiltshire in England and of Ossorie as is before said and at this day there remaine of their line beside the Earle of Ormond Vicount Thurles and Knight of the Order of Saint George Vicount Montgarret Vicount Tullo the Barons of Dunboyn and of Cahir a goodly race also and progenie of Noble Gentlemen The rest of the Gentry in this Tract that are of better birth and parentage be likewise of English descent as the Graces Walshes Lovells Foresters Shortels Blanch-felds or Blanchevelstons Drilanas Comerfords c. THE COUNTY OF CATERLOGH THe County of CATERLOGH by contraction Carlogh toward the Sunne rising adjoineth to the County of Kilkenny wholly in manner situate betweene the rivers Barrow and Slane of a fertile soile and shaded well with woods hath two townes in it of better note and importance than the rest both standing upon the West banke of Barrow namely Caterlogh which Leonel Duke of Clarence began to wall and Bellingham a most renowned Lord Deputy fortified with a castle Also Leighlin called in Latine Lechlinia where there was an Episcopall Chaire now united to the See of Fernes These townes have both of them their wards or garrisons and Constables over them And whereas the greatest part of this County belonged in right of inheritance unto the Howards Dukes of Norfolke who by the Earles of Warren drew their descent from the eldest daughter of William Mareschall Earle of Penbroch King Henry the eighth by a generall consent of the States of the Realme tooke unto himselfe both from them and also from other Noblemen yea and from Monasteries in England all their lands and possessions in Ireland for that the Lords thereof by neglecting in their absence their owne private estates carelesly brought therewith the publike state into danger as is already shewed From hence Barrow passeth through the Baronie Ydron which by right belonged to the Carews for Sir John Carew an English Knight died seised thereof in the time of King Edward the third and which Peter Carew within our memorie recovered as it were by a writ of remitter after it had been unlawfully usurped and a long time in the occupation of unjust detainers Upon the river Slane appeareth Tullo memorable in this regard that King James hath lately honoured Theobald Butler the Earle of Ormonds brothers sonne with the title of Vicount Tullo The Cavanaghs dwell a great many of them every way hereabouts who being descended from Dovenald a younger sonne as they say the Bastard of Dermot the last King of Leinster are spred and branched out into a very great sept or linage a warlike generation renowned for their good horse-manship and who as yet though they bee exceeding poore beare themselves in spirit answerable to their ancient nobilitie But being at deadly feud amongst themselves for I wot not what man-slaughters which many yeeres agoe they committed one upon another they daily work their owne mischiefe by mutuall wrongs and hurts When as the English had set some of these to oversee and mannage the possessions they had in this part of Ireland about King Edward the seconds time they by little and little usurped the whole country unto themselves and assumed the name of O-Mores and taking into their societie the Toles and Brenes by little and little disseized the English of all the territorie betweene Caterlogh and the Irish sea Among these is the confluence of Neore and Barrow which after they have travailed in a joint streame some few miles from hence in one channell present both their name and their waters unto their eldest sister the Shour which straightwaies is swallowed up at a mouth full of rockes within the gulfe of the Ocean where on the left hand there shooteth out a little promontorie with a narrow necke that sheweth a prettie high tower unto the sailers erected by the merchants of Rosse what time they were in their prosperity for their direction and safer arrivall at the rivers mouth QUEENES COUNTIE ABove Caterlogh toward the North-west there spreadeth out a little country full of woods and bogs named in Irish Lease and QUEENES Countie in English which Queene Mary ordained to be a Countie by Commission given unto Thomas Ratcliffe Earle of Sussex then Lord Deputie who reduced it into the tearmes of civill order and governement whence it is that the chiefe towne thereof is called Mary-Burgh where certaine garrison souldiers with their Seneschall keep ward and have much adoe to defend themselves against the O-Mores who beare themselves as the ancient Lords thereof against Mac-Gilpatric the O-Dempsies and others a mischievous and tumultuous kind of people who daily practise and plot all they can to annoy the English and to shake off the yoke of lawes For to subdue this wilde and hostile part of the countrey at the first entrie of the English thither Meilere was sent For whom Hugh Lacie governour of Ireland erected one Castle at Tahmelio like as a second at Obowy a third likewise upon the river Barrow and a fourth at Norrach But among the rest he fortified Donemaws an ancient Castle standing in the most plentifull part of the territorie which came hereditarily unto the Breoses Lords of Brecknocke by Eua the younger daughter of William Mareschall Earle of Pembroch and what way as Barrow which rising out of Slew Blomey hills Westward runneth solitarie alone amongst the woods he visiteth that ancient RHEBA mentioned by Ptolomee which keeping the name still intire is called at this day Rheban but insteed of a citie it is altogether as one saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is A citie citilesse or The remaines of that which was a citie even a few little cottages with a fortresse Notwithstanding it giveth the title of a Baronet unto that Nobleman Nicholas of Saint Michael the Lord thereof who is commonly called the Baronet of Rheban KINGS COUNTIE LIke as the Queenes Countie aforesaid was so named in honour of Queene Marie so the territorie bordering next unto it Northward divided with Barrow running betweene and called in times past Offalie was in honour of Philip King of Spaine her husband tearmed Kings Countie and the principall towne in it Philips Towne where is placed a Seneschall with a ward and divers Gentlemen of English blood are here planted
on every side but his enterprise was made frustrate through the valour of the souldiers there in garrison and William Sarfield Maior of Dublin who went forth against him with the very floure of choice Citizens Howbeit the neighbour Countries round about he harried and spoiled in all manner of hostility Then Sir Henry Sidney the Deputy to restraine and bridle the boldnesse of the man came himselfe in person with an army into the field against him and by politicke forecast sent before Edward Randolph an old approved and renowned Coronell with seven ensignes of foot-men and a cornet of horsemen by sea into the North side of Ireland who encamped at Derry by Logh-foil that he might charge upon the backe of the Rebels Which hee fearing came thither speedily with all the power and forces that hee had to remove him But Randolph in a pitcht field gave him battell and there manfully fighting with honour lost his life in his Countries service but gave him withall such an overthrow that never after he was able to make head againe and being elsewhere in light skirmishes foiled and by little and little forsaken of his owne followers hee was minded with an halter tyed about his necke humbly to beseech the Lord Deputy his protection and mercy But being by his Secretarie perswaded first to try the friendship of the Scots who under the conduct of Alexander Oge that is the younger held their standing Summer Campe in Claneboy having sent before hand Surley Boy Alexanders brother whom hee had kept prisoner a long time to prepare the way hee came unto them with the wife of O-Donell whom hee kept was kindely welcommed and admitted with some few into a tent where after they had beene in their cups they brake out into a brawle about Iames Mac-Conell Alexanders brother whom Shan had slaine and also about the honesty of Iames his sister whom Shan had married and cast off by which time Alexander Oge and his brother Mac-Gillaspic being hot set upon revenge after a signall given with their drawn swords set upon Shan and with many a wound hacked and hewed him to death whereby the Province recovered after grievous oppressions and warre the benefits of wished peace Within a while after a Parliament was holden at Dublin where by the authority of all the States of the Realme there assembled Shan was attainted and all the Seigniories lands and goods which hee and his followers had were invested in Queene Elizabeth her heires and successours And a law was enacted that from that day forward no man should assume unto him the name and title of O-Neale And yet shortly after Turlogh Leinigh a brothers sonne of Con-Mor O-Neale aforesaid tooke it upon him by a popular election being a man farre stept in yeeres and therefore more calme and quiet and so much the rather because hee stood in feare of Shan O-Neals sonnes and Hugh Baron of Dunganon the sonne of Matthew although he had given unto the said Hugh his daughter in marriage whom hee notwithstanding quickly after did cast off and repudiate taking another wife This Turlogh being most obsequious and dutifull unto the Queene of England put the English to no trouble at all but hee molested O-Donell his neighbour and the Scots of the Ilands and in an encounter slew Alexander Oge who had killed Shan O-Neale Hugh the sonne of Matthew commonly called Baron of Dunganon who had lived a long time one while concealed in his owne countrey other whiles in England in the retinue of Noble men began now to put himselfe forth and to raise himself out of that obscure condition when Elizabeth had given him command of a company of horsemen in the warre against the Earle of Desmond then in rebellion and assigned to him a pension of a thousand Markes by the yeere In that warre hee acquitted himselfe valiantly in all places against the rebells and at length exhibited a supplication in the Parliament house That by vertue of letters patents granted unto his Grandfather by King Henry the eighth he might be admitted to the title and place of the Earle of Tir-Oen and settled in his ancestours inheritance The title and place of Earle of Tir-Oen was presently granted but as touching the inheritance considering that upon the forfaiture and attainture of Shan O-Neale the Kings of England were invested therein the matter was referred unto Queene Elizabeth who most bountifully granted the same to him for his faithfull service performed and to be performed Yet so as that the country should be first surveied and laied out into severall divisions one or two places fit for garisons reserved and namely the fort at Blackwater that good order might be taken for the maintenance of the sons of Shan and Turlogh and that he should not be permitted to have any authority at all against the noblemen his neighbours without the county of Tir-Oen These conditions he most willingly accepted and rendred very great thanks accordingly promising to perform whatsoever he was able with diligence authority study and endevour in regard of so great benefits received and verily he failed not in his promise nor omitted any duty that might be expected from a most loiall subject A body he had able to endure travell watching and fasting his industry was singular his courage in warre great and answerable to the most important affaires good skill he had in martiall feats and a profound wit and deep reach to dissemble and carry his businesse closely in so much as even then some there were who gave this prediction of him That he was born either to the exceeding good or as great hurt of Ireland And such proofes he made of his valour and fidelity that Turlogh Leinigh at the Queenes intercession resigned up unto him his government upon certaine conditions After whose decease he usurped unto himselfe the title of O-Neal which by law was a capitall crime but excused himselfe colourably because others should not enter upon the farre and promised solemnely to renounce it quite yet laboured hee most earnestly that hee might not be urged thereunto by any oath Not long after when that most puissant Armada of Spaine which had in vaine given the attempt upon England was put to flight many ships in their returne homeward were cast away and lost in the Vergivian sea and many of the Spaniards after shipwracke were cast on shore some of whom Tir-Oen is reported to have entertained and lodged yea and to have consulted and complotted with them about entring into a secret confederacy with the King of Spaine For which practice Hugh Ne Gaveloc that is to say Hugh in the fetters sirnamed so because he had been kept so long in fetters a base sonne of Shan O-Neal informed against him and that upon no light but pregnant presumptions whom the Earle afterward intercepted and commanded to bee strangled but hardly could he finde any one that for the reverent regard of the O-Neals blood would lay
with Gylly Cavinelagh Obugill and Mac-Derley King of Oresgael with the principall men of Kineoil Conail And many of the army of the said Justice were drowned as they passed over the water of Fin Northward and among them in the rescuing of a prey there were slaine Atarmanudaboge Sir W. Brit Sherif of Conacth and the young knight his brother And afterward the said army spoiled the country and left the Seigniorie of Kineoil Conail to Rory O-Coner for that time There was another expedition also by the said Justice into Tirconnell and great spoiles made and O-Canamayu was expelled out of Kenoilgain he left the territory of Kenail Conail with Gorry Mac-Donald O-Donnel There was another expedition also by the said Justice into Tireogaine against O-Neale but he gave pledges for the preservation of his countrey There was another expedition by the said Justice in Leinster against the Irishry whom he pitifully outraged and spoiled their land In another expedition also the said Justice destroied Kenoilgain and all Ulster in despite of O-Neale tarrying three nights at Tullaghoge MCCXLIII Hugh Lacy Earle of Ulster died and is buried at Crag-fergous in the covent of the Friers Minours leaving a daughter his heire whom Walter Burk who was Earle of Ulster espoused In the same yeere died Lord Girald Fitz-Moris and Richard Burk MCCXLVI An earthquake over all the West about 9. of the clocke MCCXLVIII Sir John Fitz-Gefferey knight came Lord Justice into Ireland MCCL. Lewis King of France and William Long Espee with many other are taken prisoners by the Saracens In Ireland Maccanewey a sonne of Beliol was slaine in Leys as he well deserved MCCLI. The Lord Henry Lacie was borne Likewise upon Christmas day Alexander King of Scotland a childe eleven yeeres old espoused at Yorke Margaret the King of Englands daughter MCCLV Alan de la Zouch is made Lord Justice and commeth into Ireland MCCLVII The Lord Moris or Maurice Fitz-Gerald deceaseth MCCLIX Stephen Long Espee commeth Lord Justice of Ireland The Greene castle in Ulster is throwne downe Likewise William Dene is made Lord Justice of Ireland MCCLXI The Lord John Fitz-Thomas and the Lord Maurice his son are slaine in Desmund by Mac-Karthy likewise William Dene Lord Justice of Ireland dejected after whom succeeded in the same yeere Sir Richard Capell MCCLXII Richard Clare Earle of Glocester died Item Martin Maundevile left this life the morrow after Saint Bennets day MCCLXIV Maurice Fitz Gerald and Maurice Fitz Maurice took prisoners Rich. Capell the Lord Theobald Botiller and the Lord John Cogan at Tristel-Dermot MCCLXVII David Barrie is made Lord Justice of Ireland MCCLXVIII Comin Maurice Fitz Maurice is drowned Item Lord Robert Ufford is made Lord Justice of Ireland MCCLXIX The castle of Roscomon is founded Richard of Excester is made Lord Justice MCCLXX The Lord James Audeley came Lord Justice into Ireland MCCLXXI Henry the Kings sonne of Almain is slaine in the Court of Rome The same yeere reigned the plague famine and the sword and most in Meth. Item Nicholas de Verdon and his brother John are slain Walter Burk or de Burgo Earle of Ulster died MCCLXXII The Lord James Audeley Justice of Ireland was killed with a fall from his horse in Twomond after whom succeeded Lord Maurice Fitz-Maurice in the office of chiefe Justice MCCLXXIII The Lord Geffrey Genevile returned out of the holy land and is made Justice of Ireland MCCLXXIV Edward the sonne of King Henrie by the hands of Robert Kelwarby a Frier of the order of Preaching Friers and Archbishop of Canterburie upon S. Magnus the Martyrs day in the Church of Westminster was anointed K. of England and crowned in the presence of the Lords and Nobles of all England whose protestation and oath was in this forme I Edward son and heire to King Henrie professe protest and promise before God and his Angels from this time forward to keep without respect the law justice and peace unto the holy Church of God and the people subject unto me so far forth as we can devise by the counsell of our liege and loiall ministers also to exhibite condigne and canonicall honour unto the Bishops of Gods Church to preserve inviolably whatsoever hath bin bestowed by Emperors and Kings upon the Church committed unto them and to yeeld due honour unto Abbats the Lords vessels according to the advise of our lieges c. So help me God and the holy Gospels of the Lord. In the same yeer died the Lord Iohn Verdon likewise the Lord Thomas Clare came into Ireland Item William Fitz-Roger Prior of the Hospitalers with many others are taken prisoners at Glyndelory and more there slaine MCCLXXV The castle of Roscoman is erected againe In the same yeere Moydagh was taken prisoner at Norragh by Sir Walter Faunte MCCLXXVI Robert Ufford is made Lord Justice of Ireland the second time Geffrey Genevile gave place and departed MCCLXXVII O-Brene is slaine MCCLXXVIII The Lord David Barry died Likewise the Lord John Cogan MCCLXXIX The Lord Robert Ufford entred into England and appointed in his roome Frier Robert Fulborne Bishop of Waterford in whose time the money was changed likewise the Round table was holden at Kenilworth by the Lord Roger Mortimer MCCLXXX Robert Ufford returned out of England Lord Justice as before Also the wife of Robert Ufford deceased MCCLXXXI Adam Cusack the younger slew William Barret and many others in Connaght Item Frier Stephen Fulborne is made Justice of Ireland Item the Lord Robert Ufford returned into England MCCLXXXII Moritagh and Arte Mac-Murgh his brother are slaine at Arclowe on the Even of Saint Marie Maudlen Likewise the Lord Roger Mortimer died MCCLXXXIII The citie of Dublin was in part burnt and the Belfray of Saint Trinitie Church in Dublin the third day before the Nones of Januarie MCCLXXXIIII The castle of Ley was taken and burnt by the Potentates or Lords of Offaly the morrow after Saint Barnabe the Apostle his day Alphonsus the Kings sonne twelve yeeres old changed his life MCCLXXXV The Lord Theobald Botiller died the sixth day before the Kalends of October in the castle of Arclowe and was buried there in the covent of the Friers preachers Item Girald Fitz-Maurice was taken prisoner by his own Irish in Offalie and Richard Petit and Saint Doget with many other and a great overthrow was given at Rathode with much slaughter MCCLXXXVI Norragh and Arstoll with other townes were one after another continually burnt by Philip Stanton the 16. day before the Calends of December In these daies Alianor Queen of England mother of King Edward tooke the mantle and the ring at Ambresburie upon the day of Saint Thomas his translation having her dower in the kingdome of England confirmed by the Pope to be possessed for ever Likewise Calwagh is taken prisoner at Kildare The Lord Thomas Clare departed this life MCCLXXXVII Stephen Fulborn Archbishop of Tuam died after whom there succeeded in the office of Lord chiefe Justice for a time John
the Lord the Pope From the one side and the other were sent certaine messengers to the Court of Rome but whiles King Edward abode in Flanders William Walleis by the common counsell of the Scots came with a great armie to the bridge of Strivelin and gave battle unto John Earle Warren in which battell on both sides many were slaine and many drowned But the Englishmen were discomfited and defeated Upon which exploit all the Scots at once arose and made an insurrection as well Earls as Barons against the King of England And there fell discord betweene the King of England and Roger Bigod Earle Mareschall but soone after they were agreed And Saint Lewis a Frier minor sonne of the King of Sicily and Archbishop of Colein died Also the sonne and heire of the King de Maliagro that is of the Majoricke Ilands instituted the order of the Friers minors at the information of Saint Lewis who said Goe and doe so Item in Ireland Leghlin with other townes was burnt by the Irish of Slemergi Item Calwagh O-Hanlan and Yneg Mac-Mahon are slaine in Urgale MCCXCVIII Pope Boniface the fourth the morrow after the Feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul after all tumults were appeased ordained and confirmed a peace betweene the King of England and the King of France with certaine conditions that after followed Item Edward King of England set forth with an armie againe into Scotland for to subdue the Scots under his dominion Item there were slaine in the same expedition about the feast of Saint Marie Maudlen many thousands of the Scots at Fawkirk The sunne the same day appeared as red as bloud over all Ireland so long as the battell continued at Fawkirke aforesaid Item about the same time the Lord King of England feoffed his Knights in the Earldomes and Baronies of the Scots that were slaine More in Ireland peace and concord was concluded between the Earle of Ulster and Lord John Fitz-Thomas about the feast of the Apostles Simon and Iude. Also on the morrow after the feast of the 7. Saints sleepers the sun-beames were changed almost into the colour of bloud even from the morning so that all men that saw it wondred thereat Moreover there died Sir Thomas Fitz-Maurice Knight and Sir Robert Bigod sometime Lord chiefe Justice of the Bench. Item in the Citie Artha as also in Reathe in the parts of Italie whiles Pope Boniface abode there at the same time there happened so great an Earthquake that towres and palaces fell downe to the ground The Pope also with his Cardinals fled from the Citie much affrighted Item upon the feast of the Epiphany that is Twelfe day there was an earthquake though not so violent in England from Canterburie as farre as to Hampton MCCXCIX Lord Theobald Botiller the younger departed this life in the Manour de Turby the second day before the Ides of May whose corps was conveied toward Weydeney that is Weney in the countie of Limeric the sixth day before the Calends of June Item Edward King of England tooke to wife the Ladie Margaret sister to the noble King of France in the Church of the holy Trinitie in Canterburie about the feast of the holy Trinitie Item the Soldan of Babylon was defeated with a great armie of Saracens by Cassian King of the Tartars MCCXCIX The day after the feast of the Purification of the blessed Virgin Marie there was an infinite number of the Saracens horsemen slaine besides the footmen who were likewise innumerable Item in the same yeere there was a battell or fight of dogges in Burgundie at Genelon castle and the number of the dogges was 3000. and everie one killed another so that no dogge escaped alive but one alone Item the same yeere many Irishmen came to trouble and molest the Lord Theobald Verdon to the Castle of Roch before the feast of the Annuntiation MCCC The Pollard money is forbidden in England and Ireland Also in the Autumne Edward King of England entred Scotland with a power of armed men but at the commandement of Pope Boniface hee was stayed and he sent solemne messengers unto the Court of Rome excusing himself of doing any injurie Item Thomas the Kings sonne of England was the last day of May born at Brotherton of Margaret sister to the King of France Item Edward Earle of Cornwall died without leaving behind an heire of his owne bodie and was enterred in the Abbey of Hales MCCCI. Edward King of England entred into Scotland with an armie unto whom failed over sea Sir John Wogan Justice of Ireland and Sir John Fitz-Thomas Peter Bermingham and many others to aide the King of England Also a great part of the Citie Dublin was burnt together with the Church of Saint Warburga on S. Columbs day at night More Sir Geffrey Genevil espoused the daughter of Sir John Montefort and Sir John Mortimer espoused the daughter and heire of Sir Peter Genevil And the Lord Theobald Verdon espoused the daughter of the Lord Roger Mortimer At the same time the men of Leinster made warre in winter burning the towne of Wykynlo and Rathdon with others but they escaped not unpunished because the more part of their sustenance was burnt up and their cattell lost by depredation and the same Irish had beene utterly almost consumed but that the seditious dissention of certaine Englishmen was an hinderance thereto Item a defeature and slaughter was made by the Toolans upon a small companie assembled of the Brenies in which were slaine almost three hundred robbers Item Walter Power wasted a great part of Mounster burning many ferme houses MCCCII There died the ladie Margaret wife to Sir John Wogan Justice of Ireland the third day before the Ides of April and in the week following Maud Lacy wife to Sir Geffery Genevil died also Edward Botiller recovered the manour de S. Bosco with the pertenances from Sir Richard Ferenges Archbishop of Dublin by a concord made between them in the Kings bench after the feast of S. Hilarie Item the Flemings gave an overthrow at Courteray in Flanders unto the army of the French the Wednesday after the feast of the Translation of S. Thomas wherein were slaine the Earle of Arthois the Earle of Aumarle the Earle of Hue Ralph Neel Constable of France Guy Nevil Mareschal of France the sonne of the Earle of Hennaund Godfrey Brabant with his sonne William Fenys and his son Iames S. Paul lost his hand and fortie Baronets lost their lives that day with Knights Esquires and others sans number Item the tenths of all Ecclesiasticall benefices in England and Ireland were exacted by Boniface the Pope for 3. yeeres as a Subsidie to the Church of Rome against the King of Aragon Also upon the day of the Circumcision Sir Hugh Lacie raised booties from Hugh Vernail In the same yeere Robert Brus then Earle of Carrick espoused the daughter of Sir Richard Bourk Earle of Ulster Item Edward Botiller espoused the daughter of Sir Iohn Fitz-Thomas also
were torne and tormented at Carlele the rest hanged upon jebbits Item upon St. Patricks day there was taken prisoner in Ireland Mac-Nochi with his two sonnes neere unto New castle by Thomas Sueterby and there Lorran Oboni a most strong thiefe was beheaded MCCCVII The third day preceding the Calends of Aprill was Marcord Ballagh beheaded neere unto Marton by Sir David Caunton a doughtie Knight and soon after was Adam Dan slaine Also a defeature and bloodie slaughter fell upon the English in Connaght by Oscheles on Philip and Iacob the Apostles day Item the preading Brigants of Offaly pulled down the Castle of Cashill and upon the Vigill of the translation of Saint Thomas they burnt the towne of Ly and besieged the Castle but soone after they were removed by Iohn Fitz-Thomas and Edward Botiller Item Edward King of England departed this life after whom succeeded in the kingdome his sonne Edward who most solemnly buried his father at Westminster with great reverence and honour Item the Lord Edward the younger took to wife the Ladie Isabel daughter of the French King in St. Maries Church at Bologne and shortly after they were both crowned in the Church of Westminster Item the Templars in the parts beyond sea being condemned as it was said of a certaine heresie were apprehended and imprisoned by the Popes Mandat In England likewise they were all taken the morrow after the feast of the Epiphany Also in Ireland they were arrested the morrow after the feast of the Purification and laid up in prison MCCCVIII The second day before the Ides of April died Sir Peter or Piers Bermingham a noble vanquisher of the Irish. Item on the fourth day before the Ides of May was burnt the Castle of Kenir and certaine warders in it slaine by William Mac-Balthor and Cnygnismi Othothiles and his abetters More on the sixt day preceding the Ides of June Lord Iohn Wogan Justice of Ireland was defeated with his armie neere Glyndelory where were slaine Iohn called Hogelyn Iohn Northon Iohn Breton with many other Also the sixteenth day going before the Calends of July were burnt Dolovan Tobyr and other townes and villages bordering upon them by the foresaid malefactors Item in England shortly after was holden a great Parliament at London wherein arose a dissension and in manner a mortall conflict betweene the King and the Barons occasioned by Piers Gaveston who was banished out of the kingdome of England the morrow after the feast of Saint John Baptist his Nativitie and he passed over sea into Ireland about the feast of the Saints Quirita and Julita together with his wife and sister the Countesse of Glocester and came to Dublin with great pomp and there made his abode Moreover William Mac-Baltor a strong thiefe and an Incendiarie was condemned and had judgement in the Court of the Lord the King in Dublin before the chiefe Justice Lord John Wogan upon the twelfth day preceding the Calends of September and was drawne at horses tailes unto the gallowes and there hanged according to his deserts Item in the same yeere there was erected a certaine cisterne of marble to receive water from the conduict head in the Citie of Dublin such an one as never was there before by the dispose and providence of Master John Decer then Maior of the Citie of Dublin who of his owne money defraied the charges for the building thereof and the same John a little before the time caused a certaine bridge to be made beyond the river Aven-Liffy neere unto the Priorie of St. Wolstan also the Chappell of Saint Maâ—ie to the Friers Minours and there lieth he buried the Chappell likewise of Saint Marie to the Hospitall of Saint Johns in Dublin c. Item the same John Decer was very beneficiall to the Covent of the Friers Preachers in Dublin to wit in making one Columne of stone in the Church and giving one great broad altar-stone with the ornaments thereto belonging More upon the sixth day of the weeke hee entertained the Friers and tabled them at his owne charges thus say Elders to the younger in regard of charitie More in the Autumne Lord Iohn Wogan sailed over the sea unto the Parliament of England in whose place the Lord William Burke was made Custos of Ireland Item the same yeere in the Vigill of Simon and Jude the Apostles day the Lord Roger Mortimer arrived in Ireland with his wedded wife the right heire of Meth the daughter of the Lord Peter sonne of Sir Gefferie Genevil they entred I say into Ireland and took seisin of Meth Sir Gefferie Genevil yeelding unto them and entring into the order of the Friers Preachers at Trym the morrow after the day of St. Edward the Archbishop Also Dermot Odympoy was slaine at Tully by the servants of Sir Peter or Piers Gaveston More Richard Burgo or Burk Earle of Ulster kept a great feast at Whitsontide in Trym and dubbed Walter Lacie and Hugh Lacie Knights And on the even of the Assumption the Earle of Ulster came against Piers Gaveston Earle of Cornwall at Tradag And at the same time he went backe againe and tooke his passage into Scotland Item in the same yeere Maud the Earle of Ulsters daughter sailed over into England to contract marriage with the Earle of Glocester and soone after within one moneth the Earle and she espoused one the other Also Maurice Caunton slew Richard Talon and the Roches killed the foresaid Maurice Item Sir David Caunton is hanged at Dublin Item Odo the sonne of Catholl O-Conghir slew Odo O-Conghir King of Connaght Item Athi is burnt by the Irish. MCCCIX Piers Gaveston subdued the O-Brynnes Irishmen and re-edified the new Castle of Mackingham and the Castle of Kemny he cut downe and cleansed the Pas betweene Kemny Castle and Glyndelaugh mawgre the Irish and so departed and offered in the Church of Saint Kimny The same yeere Lord Piers Gaveston passed the seas over into England on the Vigil of S. John Baptists Nativitie Item the wife of the Earle of Ulsters sonne daughter unto the Earle of Glocester upon the 15. day of October arrived in Ireland Also on Christmas even the Earle of Ulster returned out of England and landed at the Port of Tradagh More on the feast of the purification of the blessed Virgin Mary Sir John Bonevile neere unto the towne of Arstoll was slain by Sir Arnold Pover and his complices and buried at Athy in the Church of the Friers Preachers Item a Parliament was held at Kilkenny in the Outas of the purification of the blessed Virgin Mary by the Earle of Ulster and John Wogan Lord Justice of Ireland and other Lords wherein was appeased great discord risen betweene certaine Lords of Ireland and many Provisoes in maner of Statutes were ordained commodious and profitable to the land of Ireland if they had been observed Item shortly after that time returned Sir Edmund Botiller out of England who there at London was before Knighted Item there crossed the
and chastised the Irish very well MCCCLVI And in the one and thirty yeere of the foresaid King Sir Thomas Rokesby was made the second time Justice of Ireland who tamed the Irish very well and paied as well for the victuals he tooke saying I will eat and drinke out of Treen vessels and yet pay both gold and silver for my food and apparel yea and for my pensioners about me The same yeere died that Sir Thomas Justice of Ireland within the Castle of Kilka MCCCLVII Also in the two and thirty yeere of the same Kings raigne Sir Almarick de Saint Aimund was made chiefe Justice of Ireland and entred into it At this very time began a great controversie between Master Richard Fitz-Ralfe Archbishop of Armagh and the foure Orders of the begging Friers but in the end the Friers got the mastery and by the Popes meanes caused the Archbishop of Armagh to hold his peace MCCCLVIII In the 33. yeere of the same King Sir Almarick Sir Amund chiefe Justice of Ireland passed over into England MCCCLIX In the 34. yeere of the same King Iames Botiller Earle of Ormond was made chiefe Justice of Ireland Item the Lady Ioan Burke Countesse of Kildare departed this life on St. Georges day and was buried in the Church of the Friers Minors of Kildare neere unto her husband the Lord Thomas Fitz-Iohn Earle of Kildare MCCCLX And in the 35. of the foresaid King died Master Richard Fitz-Ralfe Archbishop of Armagh in Hanault the sixteenth day of December whose bones were conveied into Ireland by the reverend father Stephen Bishop of Meth to be bestowed in S. Nicolas Church at Dundalk where he was born But doubted it is whether they were his bones or some other mans Item Sir Robert Savage a doughty knight dwelling in Ulster departed this life who with a few Englishmen slew of the Irish three thousand neere unto Antrim but before that he went forth to that battell he tooke order that there should be given unto every Englishman one good draught or pot of wine or ale whereof hee had a number of hogsheads and barrels full and the rest he saved against the comming of his friends he caused also to be killed sheepe oxen tame foule crammed fat wilde foule and for venison red Deere that they might bee dressed and made ready for such as returned winners out of the field whosoever they were And he was wont to say a shame it were if guests should come and not finde what to eate and drinke But when it pleased God to give the English victorie he invited them all to supper and they rejoiced with thanksgiving and himselfe said I give God thanks For better it is thus to keep it than to let it run forth upon the ground as some gave me counsell Buried he was in the covent Church of the preaching Friers of Coulrath neere to the river of Banne Also the Earle of Ormond Lord Justice of Ireland entred England in whose place Moris Fitz-Thomas Earle of Kildare was made Lord Justice of Ireland by this Charter and Commission as appeareth Omnibus ad quos c. that is To all whom these letters shall come unto Greeting Know ye that we have committed to our sweet and faithfull subject Moris Earle of Kildare the office of our L. Justice of our land of Ireland and our land of Ireland with the Castle and all pertenances thereto to keep and governe so long as it shall please us and to receive at our Exchequer in Dublin yeerely so long as hee shall remaine in that office five hundred pounds for which he shall keep that office and land and he shall be himselfe one of the twenty men in armes whom he shall finde with as many horses armed continually during our foresaid commission In witnesse whereof c. Given by the hands of our beloved in Christ Frier Thomas Burgey Prior of the Hospitall of S. John of Ierusalem in Ireland our Chancellour of Ireland at Dublin the thirtieth day of March and of our reigne the thirty five yeere Also Iames Botiller Earle of Ormond came again out of England Lord Justice of Ireland as before unto whom the Earle of Kildare resigned up the office of Justiceship MCCCLXI Leonell Earle of Ulster in right of his wives inheritance and being the Kings sonne of England came into Ireland as the Kings Lievtenant and arrived at Dublin the eighth day of September being the feast of the blessed Virgins nativitie bringing his second wife Elizabeth daughter and heire of the Lord William Burke Earle of Ulster In the same yeere was the second pestilence There died in England Henry Duke of Lancaster the Earle of March the Earle of Northampton Also on the sixth day of January Mons Doncref a Citizen of Dublin was buried in the Churchyard of the Friers Preachers of the same City unto which covent or brotherhood he gave forty pounds toward the glazing of their Church Item there departed out of this life the Lady Ioan Fleming wife to the Lord Geffery Trevers and the Lady Margaret Bermingham wife to the Lord Robert Preston on the Vigill of St. Margaret and were buried in the Covent Church of the preaching Friers of Tredagh Also the Lord Walter Bermingham the younger died on S. Laurence day who divided his inheritance between his sisters the one part thereof the foresaid Preston had for his share Item the foresaid Lord Leonell after hee was entred into Ireland and had rested some few daies made warre upon O-Brynne and proclaimed throughout his army that no man borne in Ireland should come neere unto his campe and an hundred of his owne Pensioners were slaine Leonell seeing this forthwith reduced the whole people as well of England as of Ireland into one and so hee prospered and strucke many battailes round about in all places with the Irish by the helpe of God and the people of Ireland Hee made also many Knights of English and Irish and among them Robert Preston Robert Holiwood Thomas Talbot Walter Cusacke Iames de La Hide Iohn Ash or de Fraxius Patricke and Robert Ash or de Fraxius and many besides Also he removed the Exchequer from Dublin to Carlagh and gave five hundred pounds to the walling of that towne Item on the feast of Saint Maur Abbat there rose a mighty wind that shooke and overthrew pinnacles battlements chimneys and other things higher than the rest trees without number divers Steeples and namely the Steeple of the Preaching Friers MCCCLXII Also in the 36. yeere of the same King the Church of St. Patricke in Dublin through negligence was set on fire and burnt the eighth of Aprill MCCCLXIV And in the 38. yeere of the foresaid King the Lord Leonel Earle of Ulster entred England the 22. of Aprill and left his Deputy-Justice of Ireland the Earle of Ormond and the same Leonell Duke of Clarence returned the eighth of December MCCCLXV Also in the 39. yeere of the said King the same Leonell Duke of Clarence