redeem it at a price with Money In witness whereof there are many Horse-shooes nailed upon the Shire-hall door some of large size and ancient fashion Leicester-shire KIng Richard the third vid. Crouch-back Richard the Usurper who from the City of Leicester set forth in one day in great Pomp and in battel-aray to keep the Crown sure upon his own helmet in a sore fought field yielded both it and his life unto the Head and Hands of Henry of Richmond his Conquerour and the next day was brought back like a Hog naked and torn and with contempt without tears obscurely buryed in the Gray-Fryers in this City whose suppression hath suppressed the Plot place of his Grave and only the Stone-Chest wherein he was laid a drinking trough now for Horses in a common Inn retaineth the Memory of that great Monarchs Funeral And so did a Stone in the Church and Chappel of St. Maries inclose the Corps of the proud and pontifical Cardinal Wolsey who had prepared for himself a far more richer Monument Lutterworth Where the famous John Wickliffe Englands Morning-Star dispersed the clouds of all Papistical darkness by preaching the Gospel in that his charge and stile of his Pen so piercing in power that the Man of sin ever since hath been better known to the world Lincoln-shire THis Country affordeth great Plenty of Fowl and Fish exceeding any other in the Realm wherein at some times and season of the year hath been taken in Nets In August at one draught above three thousand Mallards and other Fowls of the like kind At Harlaxton was plowed up a brazen Vessel wherein was inclosed a Golden Helmet of an ancient fashion set with precious stones which was presented to Katherine of Spain Wife and Dowager to King Henry the eight At Bullingbrooke was King John poysoned by Simon a Monk of Sâ—â—nsted Abbey and of Queen Eleanor wife to King Edward the first the Mirrour of Wedlock and Love to the Commons who at Harby near Bullingbrooke his Birth place ended her life Nottingham-shire IN this Town are many strange Vaults hewed out of the Rocks and those under the Castle of an espâ—cial note one for the story of Christs passion engraven in the Walls and cut by the hand of David the second King of Scots whilst he was therein detained prisoner Another wherein the Lord Mortimer was surprized in the Non-age of King Edward the third ever since bearing the name of Mortimers Hole these have their stairs and several rooms made artificially even out of the Rocks as also in that Hill are dwelling Houses with winding stairs windows chimneys and room above room wrought all out of the same Rock Darby-shire THings of strange note are the hot water Springs bursting forth of the ground at Buxton where out of the Rock within the compass of eight yards nine Springs arise eight of them warm but the ninth very cold These run from under a fair square building of free stone and about threescore paces off receive another hot Spring from a well near unto which another very cold Spring bubled up daily experience sheweth they are good for the stomach and sinews and very pleasant to bathe the body in Not far thence is Elden hole the Waters that trickle from the top of that Cave which indeed is very spacious but of a low and narrow entrance do congeal into stone and hang as Ickles in the roof very white and somewhat Christal-like And seven miles thence upon a Mounted hill standeth a Castle under which there is a hole or Cave in the ground of a marvellous capacity which is commonly called the Devils Arse in the Peak Shrop-shire hath nothing remarkable The County Palatine of Chester CHeshire having been made a Principality by Richard the 2d and styled himself Prince of Chester King Henry the 3d. gave it to his eldest Son Prince Edward against whom Lewlin Prince of Wales gathered a mighty Band and with them did the Country much harm even unto the Cities gates With the like Skar Fiers it had oft times been afrighted which they lastly defenced with a Wall made of the Welsh mens heads on the South side of Dee in Hanbridge Chester in the days of King Edgar was in most flourishing Estate wherein he had the Homage of eight other Kings who rowed his Barge from St. Johns to his Pallace himself holding the Helm as their Supreme Lancashire BY the civil Wars of York and Lancaster was bred and brought forth that bloudy division and fatal strife of the Noble Houses which for many years together molested the peace and quiet of the Land and defiled the earth with bloud there were thirteen fields fought and three Kings of England one Prince of Wales twelve Dukes one Marquess eighteen Earls one Viscount and three and twenty Barons besides Knights and Gentlemen lost their lives in the same yet at last by the happy Marriage of Henry the seventh King of England next heir to the house of Lancaster with Elizabeth Daughter and heir to Edward the fourth of the house of York the White and red Roses were conjoyned in the happy uniting of those two divided Families York-shire HAlifax once called Horton and touching the alteration of the name this pretty story is related of it namely that a Clerk for so they call him being far in Love with a Maid and by no means either of long praises or large promises able to gain like affection at her hands when he saw his hopes frustrate and that he was not like to have his purpose of her turned his love into rage and cut of the Maids head which being afterwards hung upon an Ewe tree common people counted it as an hallowed Relique till it was rotten And afterward such was the credulity of that time it maintained the opinion of reverence and Religion still for the people resorted thither on Pilgrimage and perswaded themselves that the little veins that spread out between the bark and body of the Ewe-tree like fine threds were the very hairs of the Maids head Hereupon it was called by this name Haligfax or Haly-fax that is Holy-hair Under Knaushrouh there is a Well called Dropping-well in which the Waters spring not out of the veins of the earth but distil and trickle down from the Rocks that hang over it it is of that vertue and efficacy that it turns Wood into Stone for what Wood soever is put into it will be shortly covered over with a stony bark and be turned into stone as hath been often observed St. Wilfrids Needle a place very famous in times past for the narrow hole in the close vaulted room under the ground by which womens honesties were wont to be tryed for such as were chaste pass through with much facility but as many as had plaid false were miraculously held fast and could not creep through The West Riding of York-shire THose Mountains near unto Richmond on the top whereof are found certain stones much like unto seawinkles Cockles and
was unsightly their necks was hung with Chains and Carkaneths their Arms wreathed with many Bracelets and over their side garments the Shag Rug Mantles purfled with a deep fringe of divers colours both Sexes accounting idleness their only liberty and ease their greatest riches In Warâ— they were forward and fought with Battle-axes whose bearers were called Galloglasses the common souldier but lightly armed who served with darts and sharp skeines their Trumpet was a Bag-pipe and word for encounter Pharroh which at the first Onset with great acclamation they uttered and he that did not was taken into the Air and carryed into the Vale of Kerry where transformed as they did believe he remained until he was hunted with hounds from thence to his home For the dying and dead they hired Women to mourn who expostulated with the sick why he would die and dead at his Funeral such out-crys were made such clapping of hands such howlings and gestures that one would think their sorrows unrecoverable holding the opinion of Pythagoras for their souls departed Their Diet in necessity was slender feeding upon Water-cresses Roots Mushrooms Shamroh Butter tempered with Oatmeal Milk Whey yea and raw fish the bloud being crushed out their use was also to let their Kine bloud which standing a while and coming to Jelly with Butter they did eat as a very good dish Out of the Description of the Civil Wars fought in England Wales and Ireland FRance felt the heavy hands of Edward and Henry our English Kings when the one of them at Poictiers took Prisoners John King of France and Philip Sirnamed the hardy his son the other Henry the fifth at Azincourt in a bloudy battel took and slew four thousand Princes Nobles Knights and Esquires even all the flower of France as their own writers have declared And at Paris the Crown of France was set upon Henry the 6 th his Head homage done unto him by the French that Kingdom made subject and their Flower deluces quartered with our Lions of England An enterprize remaining fresh in Memory of Philip date King of Spain against our Dread Soveraign Queen Elizabeth in the year 1588. attempting by his invincible Navy as he thought and so termed under the Conduct of the Duke of Medina Celi which with great Pride and Cruelty was intended against us arrived on our Coasts to Englands Invasion and Subversion had yet nevertheless here in the narrow Seas the one part of his Fleet discomfited taken and drowned and the other part forced to their great shame in poor Estate to make a fearful and miserable flight about the Coast of Ireland homeward so that of 158 great ships furnished for War came to their own Coast of Spain but few and those so torn and beaten by the English Canons that it was thought they were unserviceable for ever and eleven of their Ensigns or Banners prepared for Triumph and Pride in Conquest were contrariwise to their dishonour shewed at Pauls Cross and in other places of this Realm Out of the Description of the Turkish EMPIRE WE will take notice of their Religion how it is a meer Couzenage thrust upon the filly people by the impious subtilty of one Mahomet whose story is well worth our knowledge and may cause us to commiserate the desperate Estate of those ignorant yet perverse and bloudy Antichristians His place of Birth is questioned whether he were a Cirenick an Arabian or Persian it is not yet fully decided certain enough it is he was of base Parents his Father some say a Worshipper of Devils and his Mother a faithless Jew betwixt them they sent into the World a pernicious deceiver which none but two such Religions could have made up In the year 597. when he had been for a while thus instructed by his distracted Parents poverty and hope to improve his Fortunes perswaded him from his Native soil to live for another while among true professed Christians where he received so much knowledge of the Word and light of the Gospel as to pervert it to his destruction and ruine of many Millions of souls In his first adventurous travels abroad he fell into the hands of theevish Saracens which sold him to a Jewish Merchant and he imployed him to drive his Camels through Egypt Syria Palestine and other forrain Countries where he still gathered farther instructions of that truth which he intended to abuse His wickedness first brake forth into fraud open Theft and Rapine and other sins of highest rank in which he continued and seduced others till the death of his Master and after marryed his Aged but rich Mistress He had means now to act his malicious purposes and wealth to countenance his exceeding Pride which would not be satisfied with a lower Ambition then to be called a Prophet of God This he began to practice by the Counsel of one Sergius a Monk who being cast out for Heresie from Constantinople betook himself into Arabia and joyned in with Mahomet to make up this mischief perfect see now their Juggling There wanted no craft betwixt them to make use of his worst actions to gull the simple For when by his debaucht drinking and gluttony he was fallen into an Epilepsie and in his fits lay Bear like grovelling and foaming upon the Earth as one without sense he pretended an Exta-like swoon wherein his soul was wrapped from his body in which he converst with Gabriel an Angel from Heaven To make this familiarity with God the more to be believed he had bred up a Dove to take her meat from his ear which he most blasphemously professed to be the Holy Ghost who in such times and in that shape infused the prophesies which he was to preach Lastly what they in their wicked fancies had conceived and meant to propagate they digested into a Volume and called it the Alcoran For this too they had a trick that it might seem to have been sent from Heaven into the hands of Mahomet and to this purpose he had himself fed up a tame Bull which by custom became so familliar that no sooner he heard the voice of his Master but he would straight run cast the head in his lap and use his wanton dalliance as with a Fellow Betwixt the horns of this Bull had he fastned the Alcoran and conveyed him into a by-place near where he had assembled the Multitude at a set time to expect a wonderful Miracle from Heaven that might confirm his Prophecy The Scene thus ordered on the sudden he lift up his voice and made a loud cry which no sooner the beast heard but he brake his way through the Press over-turned many of the Spectators which now stood at a gaze and gently laid his horns and book in the bosom of this false couzener which he with much ceremony and feigned Reverence received and in their presence opening the Volume began to interpret the chief of their Laws which for hereafter they were to observe Circumcision he allowed and with the
or fifty Rats and other means they used to destroy them but could not prevail finding them still to increase against them and continued with them till almost to the end of Captain Tuckers time who was then Governour but towards the end of his time it pleased God by what means it is not well known to take them away insomuch that Wild Cats and many Dogs that lived on them were famished Some have attributed this destruction of them to the encrease of Wild Cats some to one thing some to another though none could positively conclude this or that It remaineth then as we know God doth sometimes effect his will without subordinate and secondary causes and sometimes against them So we need not doubt but that in the speedy increase and spreading of these Vermine as also in the preservation of so many of them by such weak means as they then enjoyed and especially in the suddain removal of this great annoyance there was joyned with and besides the ordinary and manifest means a more immediate and secret work of God In the Sommer Islands THere is the Tortoys which they call a Turckle which having some affinity and resemblance with Fishes Beasts and Fowls They are in the shape of their body like a Crab-fish and have four fins they are as great as three or four men can carry the upper part of them is covered with a great shell which they call a Galley patch weighing about half a hundred weight the Flesh that cleaveth to the inside of this being Roasted against the Fier is excellent Meat almost like the Marrow of Beef but the shell it self harder then horn she hath also a shell on her belly not so hard but being boyled it becometh soft like the sinews or gristle of Beef and good Meat These live in the Sea spending the Spring time and part of Sommer about these Islands but the residue of the year is not known where They are like to Fowl in respect of smallness and fashion of their heads and necks which are wrinckled like a Turkies but white and not so sharp Billed They also breed their young of Eggs which thâ—y lay They resemble Beasts in that their flesh is like Veal but more hard and solid and they feed always upon grass growing at the bottom of the water neither can they abide any longer under water then they hold their breath which the old ones will do long but the young ones being chased to and fro cannot continue two Minutes without coming up to breathe Shortly after their first coming in the Male and Female couple which is there called Cooting this they continue some three days together during which time they will scarce separate though a Boat come to them nor hardly when they are smitten Not long after the she Turckle comes up by night upon some sandy Bay and further up then the water useth to flow she digs a hole with her Fin in the sand some two foot deep and there coming up several nights lays her Eggs some half a bushel which are about the bigness of a Hens Egg and round as a Ball and â—â—ch time covers them with sand very curiously so that a Man shall hardly find the place These Eggs as it seems are afterwards hatched by the heat of the Sun and then by the providence of God the means as yet unknown are brought out of the Earth for they could never perceive that she returns any more to them and yet in likelihood they remain not long in the Earth after they are hatched because as is before said they cannot live without breathing Sometimes is seen the young ones no bigger then a Mans hand which some Fish will devour They grow slowly and seem to have a very long life they 'l sleep on the top of the Water and were wont to sleep often on the Land till the Country was peopled they will also live out of the Water some three weeks and that without Meat but mourn and pine away they are very witty Being on the Land turned upon their backs they can no more without some help or advantage recover themselves by which means when they come on shore to lay their Eggs they are easily taken as also they are when they are Cooting But otherwise they take them for the most part by night making a great light in a Boat to which they will sometimes swim and seldom shun so that a Man standing ready with a staffe in his hand at one end of which he hath a Socket wherein is an Iron less then a Mans finger four-square and sharp with a line fastned to it he striketh this Iron into the upper shell of the Turckle it strikes so fast that after she hath a little tyred her self by swimming to and fro she is taken by it They will live the head being cut off four and twenty hours so that if you cut the flesh with a knife or touch it it will tremble and shrink away There is no meat will keep longer either fresh or salt Out of the Description of Great Britain these Stories following are Remarkable and Pleasant BRitain seated in the Ocean hath her praises in honourable Eulogies That Britain is the Seas High Admiral and the Fortunate Island whose Air is more temperate then France whose Soil bringeth forth all Grain in abundance whose Seas produce Orient Pearl whose Fields are the seat of a Summer Queen her wildest parts free from wild Beasts and her chief City worthily named Augusta So as we may truly say with the Psalmist Our Lives are fallen in pleasant places Yea we have a fair Inheritance To the Praise of this Island are these following Verses England fierce Land Worlds Angle fertile Art Rich Isle thou needst no other Countries Mart Each other Country yet thy succour needs England Joyes Land be free and Joyous long Free Race free Grace free kind free Mind and Tongue Tet hands pass tongues for free and Glorious Deeds KENT DOver with the Castle is accounted by Mathew Paris the Monk the Lock and Key to the whole Realm of England fatal for the death of King Stephen and surrender of King John therein hapning An accident hapned in the year 1586. the fourth day of August in this County at Mottingham a Town 8 miles distant from London suddenly the ground began to sink and three great Elms thereon growing were carryed so deep into the bowels of the Earth that no part of them could any more be seen the hole left in compass fourscore yards about and a line of 50 fathams plummed into it doth find no bottom The City of Canterbury hath been honoured with the Presence and Coronations of King John and Queen Isabel his Wife with the Marriages of King Henry the third and of King Edward the first and with the Interments of Edward the Black Prince King Henry the fourth and of Queen Joan his Wife King Stephen and Maud his Queen was buryed at Feversham SUSSEX A Battel was fought
is found a hard stone which we term Emerill This stone is serviceable for many purposes and many Trades as Glasiers c. but especially for the Gold-smiths and Lapidaries to cut their precious stones Jersey THis Island is in length ten miles and in bredth six miles the whole circuit of the Island being thirty eight miles Pembroke-shire in this shire nothing remarkable Caermarden-shire IN the ruins of Carreg-Castle which stood mounted on a high hill under which many Vaults and spacious Caves far into the ground are seen wherein is thought the people unable to fight were therein secured in time of their Wars Where also is a Well that in this place twice in four and twenty hours ebbing and twice flowing resembleth the unstable Motions of the main Sea Glamorgan-shire THings of strange note that in a Rock or Cliff upon the Sea-side and Island of Barry lying near the South-east point of this Country is heard out of a little chink the noise as it were of Smiths at their work one while the blowing of Bellows to increase the heat then the stroaks of the hammer and sound of the Anvil sometimes the noise of the Grind-stone in grinding of Iron Tools then the hissing sparks of Steel-gads as they fly from their beating with the puffing noise of flames in a Furnace More Westward from hence upon the River Ogmore and near unto Newton in a sandy plain about an hundred paces from Severn there springeth a Well though not of the clearest water whereat the flowing and fulness of the Sea can hardly any water be gotten but at the ebb and fall of the Tide it walloweth up a main And upon the same shore more North and by West on the top of a hill called Minyd-Margan is erected a Monument inscribed with a strange Character and as strange a conceit held thereof by the by-dwellers whose opinions are possessed that if any Man read the same he shall shortly after dye Monmouth OUr King Henry the V the great Triumpher over France was born in Monmouth Brecknock-shire THe Welshmen relate of a Prince named Brechavius the Father of an holy off-spring whose twenty four Daughters were all of them Saints From the top of a Hill in Welsh called Mounch-devuy or Cadier Arthur if any man from the North-east Rock cast their Cloaks Hats and Staves notwithstanding will never fall but with the Air and wind return back and blow up neither will any descend from that Cliff being so cast unless it be stone or some Metalline substance affirming the cause to be the Clouds which are seen to rack much lower than the top of that hill As strange a tale is told of the Mâ—â—y Llynsavathan two Miles East from Brecâ—nock which at the breaking of her frozen Ice maketh a fearful sound like unto Thunder In which place as is reported sometimes stood a fair City which was swallowed up in an Earthquake and resigned her Stone-walls unto this deep and broad water Radnor-shire NEar Knigton a Market Town is Offaes Ditch which runs along by the Mountain which was a bound set to separate the Welsh from the English A Law was made that it should be present death for the Welsh to pass over the same Cardigan-shire IN Tyui the Beaver hath been found a Creature living both by land and water whose stones the Physicians hold in great price His fore-feet are like unto a Dogs but the hinder whole skinned as is the Goose like Oars giving him swift motion in swiming his tail broad and Gristly he useth a stern wherewith on the sudden he can divert his swift floating course Mount-Gomery-shire nothing there remarkable Merioneth-shire HIlls there are so high as it is affirmed by one that shepherds upon their tops falling at odds in the Morning and challenging the field for fight before they can come together to try out the Quarrel the day will be spent and the heat of their fury shut up with their sleep Denbigh-shire THis is worth observing both for Admiration and Antiquity that in the Parish of Llan-sunan within this County there is a place compass cut out of the main Rock by mans hand in the side of a stony hill wherein there be four and twenty seats to sit in some less some bigger where Children and young men coming to seek their Cattel use to sit and to have their sports And at this day they commonly call it King Arthurs Round Table Flint-shire THis Country hath many shallow Rivers in it but none of fame and note but d ee and Cluyde How he it there is a Spring not far from Rudland Castle of great report and antiquity which is termed Holy-well and is commonly called St. Winefrids Well of whom antiquity thus reporteth that Winefrid a Christian Virgin very fair and vertuous was doted upon by a young lustful Prince or Lord of the Country who not being able to rule his head-strong affections having many times in vain attempted and tryed her chastity both by rich Gifts and large Promises could not by any means obtain his desires he therefore in a place of advantage suddenly surprized and ravished her weak yet resisting body After the deed done the cruel Tyrant to stop her crys and acclamations slew her and cut off her head out of which place did suddenly arise a Spring that continueth to this day carrying from the Fountain such a forcible stream and currant as the like is not found in Christendom Over the head of the Spring there is built a Chappel of Free-stone with Pillars curiously wrought and ingraved in the Chancel whereof and Glass window the Picture of the Virgin is drawn together with the Memorial of her life and death To this Fountain Pilgrims are accustomed to repair in their zealous but blind devotion and divers others resort to Bathe in holding firmly that the water is of much vertue There be many Red stones in the bottom of this Well and much green Moss growing upon the sides the superstition of the people holding that these Red spots in the stones were drops of the Ladies bloud which all the water in the Spring can never wash away and that the Moss about the Wall was her hair which though some of it be given to every stranger that comes yet it never wasteth But howsoever this be carryed for truth by the Tradition of time the Moss it self smells exceeding sweet Carnaervon-shire KIng Edward the second was born at Carnaervon in a Tower of the Castle he was the first Prince of Wales of the English Line There are in this shire two Pools called the Mears the one of which produceth great store of fish but all having only one eye and in the other there is a moveable Island which as soon as a man treadeth on it forthwith floateth a great way off whereby the Welsh are said to have often escaped and deluded their Enemies assailing them Anglesea-Island THe length of this Island is twenty miles in bredth seventeen miles the whole circumference amounting