of pompe for a gallant shew Verily of our Nation therâ be none that apply their mindes so seriously as they doe to husbandry which Columella termeth the neere cozin of Wisedome whether you respect their skill therein or their ability to beare the expences and their willing mind withall to take the paines Henry of Huntingdon before named calleth it a Village in his daies not unlovely and truly writeth that in times past it had been a noble City For to say nothing of Roman peeces of coine oftentimes there ploughed up nor of the distance in the old Itinerary the very signification of the name may probably prove that this was the very same City which Antonine the Emperor termed DUROLIPONTE amisse in stead of DUROSIPONTE For Durosi-ponte pardon me I pray you for changing one letter soundeth in the British tongue A bridge over the water Ose. And that this River is named indifferently and without distinction Vse Ise Ose and Ouse all men confesse But when this name was under the Danes quite abolished it began to be called Gormoncester of Gormon the Dane unto whom after agreement of peace King Aelfred granted these Provinces Hereto this old Verse giveth testimony Gormonis à castri nomine nomen habet Gormonchester at this howre Takes the name of Gormons Towre This is that Gormon of whom John Picus an old Author writeth in this wise King Aelfred conquered and subdued the Danes so that they gave what hostages hee would for assurance either to be packing out of the Land or else to become Christians Which thing also was effected For their King Guthrum whom they call Gormond with thirty of his Nobles and well neere all his people was baptized and adopted by Aelfred as his Sonne and by him named Athelstan Whereupon he remained heere and the Provinces of the East-English and of the Northumbrians were given to him that continuing in his allegiance under the Kings protection he might cherish and also maintain them as his inheritance which he had formerly overrun with spoile and robbery Neither would this be omitted that some also of those ancient Writers have termed this place Gumicester and Gumicastrum avoucheth withall that Machutus a Bishop had heere his Episcopall See And by the name of Gumicester King Henry the Third granted it to his sonne Edmund Earle of Lancaster Ouse making haste speedily from hence when he was about to enter into Cambridgeshire passeth through most delightsome medowes hard by a proper and faire towne which sometime in the English-Saxon tongue was called Slepe and now S. Ives of Ivo a Persian Bishop who as they write about the yeare of Christ 600. travailed through England preached diligently the Word of God and to this Towne wherein he left this life left also his name From whence notwithstanding shortly after the religious persons translated his body to Ramsey Abbay Turning aside from hence scarce three miles wee saw Somersham a faire dwelling house of late dayes belonging to the Bishops of Ely which Earle Brithnot in the yeare 991. gave to Ely Church and James Stanley the lavish and expencefull Bishop enlarged with new buildings A little above that most wealthy Abbay Ramsey was situate amiddest the Fennes where the Rivers become standing waters when they have once found a soft kinde of Soile The description of this place have here if it please you out of the private History of this Abbay Ramsey that is The Rams Isle on the West side for on other sides fennish grounds through which one cannot passe stretch out farre and wide is severed from the firme ground almost two bow-shots off by certaine uneven and quaggy miry plots Which place being wonâ in times past to receive gently within the bosome and brinkes thereof Vessels arriving there with milde gales of winde in a shallow River onely now through great labour and cost after the foule and dirty quagmires aforesaid were stopped up with heapes of wood gravell and stones together men may passe into on foote on the same side upon a dry causey and it lieth out in length almost two miles but spreadeth not all out so much in bredth which notwithstanding is beset round about with beautifull rowes of Alder-trees and reed plots that with fresh greene canes and streight bulrushes among make a faire and pleasant shew and before it was inhabited garnished and bedecked all over with many sorts of trees but of wilde Ashâs especially in great aboundance But now after longer tract of time part of these groves and woods being cut downe it is become arable ground of a very fat and plentifull mould for fruit rich pleasant for corne planted with gardens wealthy in pastures and in the Spring time the medowes arraied with pleasant flowers smile upon the beholders and the whole Island seemeth embroidered as it were with variety of gay colours Besides that it is compassed all about with Meres full of Eeles and pooles replenished with fish of many sorts and with fowle there bred and nourished Of which Meres one is called after the name of the Island Ramsey Mere farre excelling all the other waters adjoyning in beauty and fertility on that side where the Isle is counted bigger and the wood thicker flowing daintily by the sandy banke thereof yeeldeth a very delectable sight to behold in the very gulfes whereof by casting as well of great wide mashed nets as of other sorts by laying also of hookes baited and other instruments devised by fishers craft are caught oftentimes and drawne certaine Pikes of an huge and wonderfull bignesse which the Inhabitants call Hakeds and albeit the fowlers doe continually haunt the place and catch great store of young water-fowle yet there is abundance alwaies that remaineth untaken Furthermore that History sheweth at large how Ailwin a man of the bloud royall and for the speciall great authority and favour that hee had with the King sirnamed Healf-Koning that is Halfe King being admonished and mooved thereunto by a Fishers dreame built it how Oswald the Bishop furthered and enlarged it how Kings and others endowed it with so faire revenewes that for the maintenance of threescore Monkes it might dispend by the yeare seven thousand pounds of our English money But seeing it is now pulled downe and destroyed some may thinke I have already spoken overmuch thereof Yet hereto I will annexe out of the same Authour the Epitaph of Ailwins Tombe for that it exhibiteth unto us an unusuall and strange title of a Dignity HIC REQUIESCIT AILWINUS INCLITI REGIS EADGARI COGNATUS TOTIUS ANGLIAE ALDERMANNUS ET HUJUS SACRI COENOBII MIRACULOSUS FUNDATOR HERE RESTETH AILWIN COZIN TO THE NOBLE KING EADGAR ALDERMAN OF ALL ENGLAND AND OF THIS HOLY ABBAY THE MIRACULOUS FOUNDER From hence to Peterborough which is about ten miles off King Canutus because travailing that way and finding it very combersome by reason of swelling Brookes and sloughs with great cost and labour made a paved Causey which
againe Thus they performed in all their fights the nimble motion of horsemen and the firme stabilitie of footmen so ready with daily practise exercise that in the declivity of a steepe hill they could stay their horses in the very full cariere quickly turn short moderate their pace run along the beame or spire of the Chariot stand upon the yoke and harnesse of the horses yea and from thence whip in a trice into their chariots again But by the coÌming of Caesar to rescue them in so good time the Romans took heart afresh and the Britans stood still who having conceived good hope to free themselves for ever presuming upon the small number of the Roman forces together with the scarcitie of corne among them had assembled a great power and were come to the campe of Caesar. But he received them even before the campe with a battell put them to rout slew many of them and burnt their houses far and neare The same day came messengers from the Britans to Caesar intreating peace which they obtained upon condition that they should double the number of their hostages whom he commanded to be brought into Gaule And streight after because the Aequinox was at hand hee put to sea hoised saile from Britaine and brought all his ships safe unto the continent of France And thither two onely of all the States of Britaine sent hostages unto him the rest neglected it These exploits thus performed upon the relation of Caesars Letters the Senate decreed a solemne procession for the space of twentie daies although he gained nothing to himselfe nor to Rome but the glorie onely of an expedition enterprized The yeare next ensuing Caesar having gotten together a great fleet for what with ships for convoy of corne and victuals and what with other private vessels that every man had built for to serve his owne turne there was 800. saile and above and the same manned with five Legions and 2000. horsemen he launched from the port called Iccius and landed his forces in that part of the Isle where hee did the yeare before Neither was there an enemie to be seene in the place For albeit the Britans had beene there assembled with a great power yet terrified with so huge a number of ships they had secretly withdrawne themselves into the upland countrey Here Caesar encamped in a place convenient and left two cohorts and three hundred horsemen as a garrison or guard for his ships Himselfe having by night marched forward twelve miles espied the enemies who having gone forward as farre as to the river began to give battell but beaten backe by the cavallery they conveighed themselves into a wood and there lay hid as lodging in a place strongly fortified both by nature and mans hand But the Romans with a Testudo or targnet-roofe which they made and mount that they raised against their fortifications tooke the place and drave them out of the woods neither followed they them with any long pursuit for they were to fortifie the campe in that very place The next day Caesar divided his forces into three regiments and sent them out to pursue the Britaines but straightwaies called them back againe for that hee had intelligence by messengers of such a tempest at sea the night before that his navie was sore beaten run one against another and cast on shore And thereupon himselfe in person returned to the ships and with the labour of ten daies haled them all up to land and enclosed them and his campe together within one and the same fortification and so goeth to the place from whence he was returned Thither also had the Britaines assembled themselves with greater forces under the conduct of Cassivellaunus or Cassibelinus unto whom in a publike counsell of all the Britains the whole government and managing of the warre was committed whose cavallery and chariotiers together gave the Romanes a sharpe conflict in their march wherein many of both sides lost their lives But the Britans after some intermission of time whiles the Romans were busie in fortifying their campe charged fiercely upon those that kept ward before the campe unto whom when Caesar had sent for rescue two cohorts and those the principall and choysest of two legions they most boldly and with full resolution brake through the thickest of the enemies and from thence retired in safety The next morrow the Britans shewed themselves here and there in small companies from the hils but about noone they made an assault upon three legions and all the horsemen sent out for to forage yet beaten backe they were and a great number of them slaine Now by this time were all their auxiliarie forces that had met together departed neither encountred they afterward the Romans with their maine power Caesar then marched with his army to the river Thames and so to the confines of Cassivelaunus Vpon the farther banke of this river yea and under the water they had covertly stucke sharpe stakes and embattelled themselves with a great power But the Romans went and waded over with such violence notwithstanding they had but their heads cleere above the water that the enemy was not able to endure the charge but left the banke and betooke themselves to flight not skared as Polyaenus writeth at the sight of an Elephant with a turret upon his backe Cassivellaunus having now no courage to contend any longer retained onely foure thousand Charioters with him and observed the Romanes journeys and so often as their horsemen went foorth and straied out in the fields for forage or booty he sent out his chariots and kept them from ranging all abroad Meane while the Trinobantes submit themselves unto Caesar and intreated that he would defend Mandubratius whom Eutropius and Beda out of the Fragments of Suetonius now lost call Androgorius and our Britans Androgeus from the oppression of Cassivellaunus and send him unto them to be their soveraign Of them Caesar required and received forty hostages and corne for his army and therewith sent Mandubratius Then the Cenimagi Segontiaci Ancatites Bibroci aad Cassij following the example of the Trinobantes yeeld unto Caesar By whom he understood that Cassivellaunus his towne was not far off fortified with woods and bogs which as he assaulted in two severall places the Britans flung out at a back way but many of them in their flight were taken and put to the sword Whiles these things were a doing foure pety Kings that ruled Kent to wit Cingetorix Carvilius Taximagulus and Segonais by a mandate from Cassivellaunus did set upon the campe where the Romanes navy was kept but by a sally that the Romanes made they were driven backe and Cingetorix one of the said Kings was taken prisoner Then Cassivellaunus having received so many losses and troubled most of all with the revolt of the states sent Embassadour to Caesar by Conius of Arras tending unto him a surrendry Whereupon
against the watch-Towre of Britaine For no other place of this Iland looketh directly to Spaine Upon it there standeth now a little village named S. Buriens in old time Eglis Buriens that is The Church of Buriena or Beriena consecrated to Buriena a religious Irish woman For this nation alwaies honoured Irish Saints as tutelar patrons of their owne so all their Towns in manner they have consecrated unto them This village King Athelstan as the report goeth granted to be a priviledged place or Sanctuarie what time as he arrived as Conquerour out of the Iles of Sylly True it is that he built heere a Church and that under William the Conquerour there was heere a Colledge of Chanons unto whom the territorie adjoyning belonged Neere unto this in a place which they call Biscaw Woune are to bee seene nineteene stones set in a round circle distant every one about twelve foote from the other and in the very center there is one pitched far higher and greater than the rest This was some Trophee or monument of victorie erected by the Romans as probably may bee conjectured under the later Emperours or else by Athelstan the Saxon when he had subdued the Cornish-men and brought them under his dominion As the shore fetcheth a compasse by little and little from hence Southward it letteth in a bay or creeke of the Sea in manner of a Crescent which they call Mounts-bay wherein as the common speech goeth the Ocean by rushing with a violent force drowned the land Vpon this lieth Mousehole in the British tongue Port Inis that is The Haven of the Iland For which Henry of Ticis a Baron in his time and Lord of Alwerton and Tiwernel in this Country obtained of King Edward the First the grant to have a market there Likewise there is seated upon this Bay Pen-sans that is The Cape or Head of Saints or as some thinke Sands a prety market Towne within a little whereof is that famous stone Main-Amber which being a great Rock advanced upon some other of meaner size with so equall a counterpeize a man may stir with the push of his finger but to remove it quite out of his place a great number of men are not able as also Merkin that is Iupiters market because Thursday anciently dedicated to Iupiters is their market day a dangerous rode for ships And in the very angle and corner it selfe S. Michaels mount which gave name unto the foresaid Bay sometime called Dinsol as wee find in the booke of Landaffe the Inhabitants name it Careg Cowse that is The hoary Crag or Rock the Saxons ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is Michaels place as Master Laurence Noel a man of good note for his singular learning and who was the first in our age that brought into ure againe and revived the language of our ancestours the Saxons which through disuse lay sorlet and buried in oblivion hath well observed This Rocke is of a good height and craggy compassed round about with water so oft as it is floud but at every ebbe joyned to the main-land so that they say of it It is land and Iland twice a day For which cause Iohn Earle of Oxford not many yeeres ago presuming upon the strength of the place chose it for his chiefest defence when he raised war against King Edward the Fourth and valiantly held the same but with no good successe For his souldiers being assailed by the Kings forces straight waies yeelded In the very top heereof within the Fortresse there was a Chappell consecrated to S. Michael the Archangell where William Earle of Cornwall and Moriton who by the bounteous gift of King William the First had great lands large possessions in this tract built a Cell for one or two monks who avouched that S. Michael appeared in that mount which apparition or the like the Italians challenge to their hill Garganus and the Frenchmen likewise to their Michaels mount in Normandie At the foote of this mountaine within the memorie of our Fathers whiles men were digging up of tin they found Spear-heads axes and swords of brasse wrapped in linnen such as were sometimes found within the forrest Hercinia in Germanie and not long since in our Wales For evident it is by the monuments of ancient Writers that the Greeks the Cimbrians and Britans used brazen weapons although the wounds given with brasse bee lesse hurtfull as in which mettall there is a medicinable vertue to heale according as Macrobius reporteth out of Aristotle But happily that age was not so cunning in devising meanes to mischiefe and murthers as ours is In the rocks underneath as also along the shore every where breedeth the Pyrrhecorax a kind of crow with bill and feet red and not as Plinie thought proper to the Alpes onely This bird the inhabitants have found to be an Incendiarie and theevish beside For oftentimes it secretly conveieth fire-sticks setting their houses a fire and as closely filcheth and hideth little peeces of money In this place the countrey is most narrow and groweth as it were into an Isthmus for it is scarse foure miles over from hence to the Severn or upper sea A little above this mount there openeth a Creeke of good bredth called of the mount Mountsbay a most safe rode and harbour for ships when the South and Southeast winds are aloft and bluster at a mid ebbe and returne of the Sea six or seven fathom deepe More toward the East ariseth Godolcan hill right famous for plentifull veines of tin they call it now Godolphin but much more renowned in regard of the Lords thereof bearing the same name who with their vertues have equalled the ancientnesse of that house and linage But that name in the Cornish language came of A white Aegle and this family hath anciently borne for their armes in a shield Gules an Aegle displaied Argent betweene three Flower-deluces of the same id est Argent likewise in a shield Gules From S. Michaels mount Southward immediatly there is thrust forth a bi-land or demi-Ile at the very entrie whereof Heilston sheweth it selfe called in their country language Hellas by reason of the salt water flowing thereto a Towne of great resort for their priviledge of marking and coinage of tin Under which by the confluence and meeting of many waters there is made a lake two miles in length named Loo poole divided from the Sea by a narrow banke running betweene which whensoever it is by the violence of waves broken thorow a wonderfull roring of waters is heard far and neere all over the countrey adjoining And not far from thence there is to be seene a militarie fense or rampier of a large compasse built of stones heaped together and laid without mortar they call it in their tongue Earth of which sort there be others heere and there raised as I verily beleeve in the Danish warre Neither is it unlike to
prophane wretches hemmed him round about and getteth together divers and sundry weapons to kill him Which when their leader Thurkill saw a farre off he came quickly running and crying Doe not so in any wise I beseech you and heere with my whole heart I deliver unto you all my gold and silver and whatsoever I have heere or can by any meanes come by save my ship onely that yee would not sinne against the Lords annointed But this unbridled anger of his mates harder than yron and flint was nothing mollified with so gentle words and faire language of his but became pacified by shedding his innocent bloud which presently they altogether confounded and bleanded with Ox-heads stones as thicke as haile and billets hurled at him And to the memorie of this Saint Ealpheg is the Parish Church heere consecrated But now is the place of very great name by reason of the Kings house which Humfrey Duke of Glocester built and named Placence which also King Henrie the Seventh most sumptuously enlarged who adjoyned thereto a little house of observant Friers and finished that towre famous in Spanish fables which the said Duke of Glocester begun on an high hill from whence there is a most faire and pleasant prospect open to the river winding in and out and almost redoubling it selfe the greene meddowes and marshes underlying the Citie of London and the Countrie round about Which being now enlarged and beautified by the L. Henrie Howard Earle of Northampton Lord Privie Seale c. cannot but acknowledge him a well deserving benefactor But the greatest ornament by far that graced this Green-wich was our late Queene Elizabeth who heere most happily borne to see the light by the resplendent brightnesse of her royall vertue enlightned all England But as touching Green-wich have heere these verses of Leland the Antiquarian Poet Ecce ut jam niteat locus petitus Tanquam syderea domus cathedrae Quae fastigia picta quae fenestrae Quae turres vel ad astra se efferentes Quae porro viridaria ac perennes Fontes Flora sinum occupat venusta Fundens delicias nitentis horti Rerum commodus aestimator ille Râpae qui variis modis amoenae Nomen contulit eleganter aptum How glittereth now this place of great request Like to the seate of heavenly welkin hie With gallant tops with windowes of the best What towres that reach even to the starry skie What Orchards greene what springs ay-running by Faire Flora heere that in this creeke doth dwell Bestowes on it the flowers of garden gay To judge no doubt of things he knew full well Who gave this banke thus pleasant every way So fit a name as did the thing bewray Nothing else have I here to note but that for I would not have the remembrance of well deserving benefactors to miscarry William Lambard a godly good Gentleman built an Almeshouse here for the sustentation of poore persons which hee named The Colledge of Queene Elizabeths poore people and as the prying adversaries of our religion then observed was the first Protestant that built an Hospitall At the backe of this as ye turne out scarce three miles off standeth Eltham a retyring place likewise of the Kings but unholsomly by reason of the moate Anthony Becke Bishop of Durham and Patriarch of Ierusalem built this in a manner new and gave unto Queene Eleanor wife to King Edward the First after hee had craftily conveyed unto himselfe the inheritance of the Vescyes unto whom this place before belonged For that Bishop whom the last Baron of Vescy had made his foefie for trust of all his inheritance to the use of William Vescy his little base sonne dealt not so faithfully as he should with this orphane and ward of his but dispoiled him of Alnwick Castle this and other faire lands Beneath Greenwich the Thames having broken downe his bankes hath by his irruption surrounded and overwhelmed many acres of land For the inning whereof divers have as it were strugled with the waters now many yeares and yet with great workes and charges cannot overmaster the violence of the tides which the Chanons of Liesnes adjoyning kept sound and sweete land in their times This Abbey was founded 1179. by Lord Richard Lucie chiefe Iustice of England and by him dedicated to God and the memorie of Thomas of Canterburie whom hee so admired for his piety while other condemned him for pervicacie against his Prince as hee became here a devoted Chanon to him Heere in the marshes groweth plentifully the hearbe Cochlearia called by our Countrey men Scurvy-grasse which some Phisicians would have to be the same which Plinie calleth Britannica by which name I have already made mention thereof but heare what Plinie saith In Germany when as Germanicus Caesar had removed his campe forward beyond Rhene in the maritime tract there was one fountaine and no more of fresh water whereof if a man dranke within two yeares his teeth would fall out of his head and the joynts in his knees become loose and feeble Those diseases the Phisicians tearmed Stomacace and Sceletyrbe For remedie hereof there was found an hearbe called Brittannica holesome not onely for the sinewes and maladies of the mouth but also against the Squincie and stinging of serpents c. They of Frisia what way our campe lay shewed it unto our souldiours And I marvaile what should bee the cause of that name unlesse peradventure they that confine upon the Ocean dedicated the name thereof to Britaine as lying so nere vnto it But that most learned Hadrian Iunius in his booke named Nomenclator bringeth another reason of the name whom you may have recourse unto if you please For this word Britannica hath here diverted me a side from my course From thence the Thames being contained within his bankes meeteth with the river Darent which falling downe out of Suthrey runneth with a soft streame not farre from Seven-oke so called as men say of seven exceeding great Okes now cut downe which commendeth Sir William Sevenok an Alderman of London who being a foundling and brought up here and therefore so named built heere in gratefull remembrance an Hospitall and a schoole On the East side of it standeth Knoll so called for that it is seated upon a hill which Thomas Bourchier Archbishop of Canterbury purchasing of Sir William Fienes Lord Say and Seale adorned with a faire house and now lately Thomas Earle of Dorset Lord Treasurer hath fourbished and beautified the old worke with new chargeable additaments Darent then passeth by ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã now Otford a place famous in former ages for an overthrow and slaughter of the Danes which happened there in the yeare 1016. and lately by reason of the Kings house which William Warham Archbishop of Canterbury built for himselfe and his successours so sumptuously that for to avoid envie Cranmer who next succeeded him was constreined to exchange
is fenny and therefore impassable and it endeth nere to Cowlidge where the passage by reason of woods was more cumbersome And it was the limit as well of the Kingdome as of the Bishopricke of the East Angles Who was the author of so great a peece of worke it is uncertaine Some later writers say it was King Canutus the Dane whereas notwithstanding the said Abbo made mention of it who died before that Canutus obtained the Kingdome of England and the Saxon Chronicle where it relateth the rebellion of Athelwolph against King Edward the Elder calleth it simply Dyke and sheweth That King Edward laid waste whatsoever lieth betweene the Dyke and the river Ouse as farre as to the North Fennes also that Aethelwold the rebell and Eohric the Dane were at that time slaine there in battell But they who wrote since Canutus times termed it Saint Edmunds limit and Saint Edmunds Dyke and verily thinke that King Canutus cast it up who being most devoted to Saint Edmund the Martyr granted unto the religious Monkes of Saint Edmunds Bury for to make satisfaction for the wicked cruelty of Swan his father wrought upon them very great immunities even as farre as to this Dyke whence it is that William of Malmesbury in his booke Of Bishops writeth thus The Customers and Toll gatherers which in other places make foule worke and outrage without respect or difference of right and wrong there in humble manner on this side Saint Edmunds Dike surcease their quarrels and braules And certaine it is that these two fore-fences last named were called Saint Edmunds Dykes For Mathew Florilegus hath recorded that the said battell against Aethelwolph was fought betweene the two Dykes of Saint Edmund Nere unto Rech standeth Burwel a Castle in later times of the Lord Tiptoft which in those most troublesome times of King Stephen Geffrey Mandevill Earle of Essex who by violent invasion of other mens possessions lost much honour valiantly assaulted untill that being shot through the head with an arrow he delivered those countries from the feare they had stood in a long time Scarce two miles off stands Lanheath where for these many yeeres the Cottons right worshipfull Gentlemen of Knights degree have dwelt From which Wicken is not farre distant which came to the Family of the Peytons by a daughter and coheire of the Gernons about Edward the Thirds time as afterward Isleham descended to them by a coheire of Bernard in Henry the Sixth's time which Knightly Family of Peytons flowred out of the same Male-stocke whence the Vffords Earles of Suffolke descended as appeareth by their Coate-armour albeit they assumed the surname of Peyton according to the use of that age from their Manour of Peyton-hall in Boxford in the County of Suffolke Upon the same Dyke also is seated Kirtling called likewise Catlidge famous in these dayes by reason of the principall house of the Barons North since Queene Mary honoured Sir Edward North with that title for his wisedome but in times past it was famous for a Synode held there what time as the Clergy men were at hot strife among themselves about the celebration of the feast of Easter The higher and Northerly part of this Shire is wholly divided into river Isles and being distinguished by many Ditches Chanels and Draines with a pleasant greene hew all Summer time contenteth the eyes of the beholders but in Winter wholly in manner over-covered with water farther every way than a man is able to ken resembleth in some sort a very Sea They that inhabited this fennish Country and all the rest beside which from the edge and borders of Suffolke as farre as to Wainflet in Lincolne-shire conteineth threescore and eight miles and millions of acres lying in these foure Shires Cambridge Huntingdon North-hampton and Lincolne were in the Saxons time called Girvii that is as some interpret it Fen-men or Fen-dwellers A kind of people according to the nature of the place where they dwell rude uncivill and envious to all others whom they call Vpland-men who stalking on high upon stilts apply their mindes to grasing fishing and fowling The whole Region it selfe which in winter season and sometimes most part of the yeere is overflowed by the spreading waters of the rivers Ouse Grant Nen Welland Glene and Witham having not loades and sewers large enough to voide away But againe when their Streames are retired within their owne Channels it is so plenteous and ranke of a certaine fatte grosse and full hey which they call Lid that when they have mowen downe as much with the better as will serve their turnes they set fire on the rest and burne it in November that it may come up againe in great abundance At which time a man may see this Fennish and moyst Tract on a light flaming fire all over every way and wonder thereat Great plenty it hath besides of Turfe and Sedge for the maintenance of fire of reed also for to thatch their Houses yea and of Alders beside other watery Shrubbes But chiefly it bringeth forth exceeding store of willowes both naturally and also for that being planted by mans hand they have serv'd in good steed and often cut downe with their manifold increase and infinit number of heires to use Plinies word against the violent force of the waters rushing against the bankes Whereof also as well here as in other places there be baskets made which seeing the Britains call Bascades I for my part that I may note so much by the way do not understand the Poet Martiall in that Distichon unlesse hee meaneth these among the Presents and Gifts sent to and fro Barbara de pictis veni Bascauda Britannis Sed me jam mavult dicere Roma suam By barbarous name a Baskaud I from painted Britans came But now Rome faine would call me hers although I be the same Besides al this the herb ScordiuÌ which also is called Water GermaÌder groweth plentifully here hard by the ditches sides but as for these Fenny Ilands Foelix a writer of good antiquity hath depainted them forth in these words There is a Fen of exceeding great largenesse which beginning at the bankes of the river Gront arising somewhere with sedge plots in other places with blacke waters yeelding a duskish vapour with woods also among the Isles and having many winding turnes of the banke reacheth out in a very long tract from South to North-East as farre as to the Sea And the very same Fenne William a Monke of Crowland in the life of Guthlake hath thus described in verse Est apud Angligenas à Grontae flumine longo Orbe per anfractus stagnosos fluviales Circumfusapalus Orientalisque propinqua Littoribus Pelagi sese distendit ab Austro In longum versus Aquilonem gurgite tetro Morbosos pisces vegetans arundine densa Ventorum strepitus quasi quaedam verba susurrans A spatious Fenne in England lies from
Saint Peter and be yeelded up without delay for ever unto the Abbot and to the Monkes there serving God yet King William the Conquerour cancelled and made voide this Testament who reserving a great part of it to himselfe divided the rest betweene Countesse Iudith whose daughter was married to David King of Scots Robert Mallet Oger Gislebert of Gaunt Earle Hugh Aubrey the Clerk and others And unto Westminster first he left the Tithes afterwards the Church onely of Okeham and parcels thereunto appertaining This County hath not had many Earles The first Earle of Rutland was Edward the first begotten Sonne of Edmund of Langley Duke of Yorke created by King Richard the Second upon a singular favour that he cast unto him during his Fathers life and afterwards by the same King advanced to the honour of Duke of Aumarle This young man wickedly projected with others a practise to make away King Henry the Fourth and streight waies with like levity discovered the same But after his Fathers death being Duke of Yorke lost his life fighting couragiously amid the thickest troupes of his enemies in the battaile of Agincourt Long time after there succeeded in this Honour Edward the little young Sonne of Richard Duke of Yorke and he together with his Father during those deadly broiles of civill warre was slaine in the battaile fought at Wakefield Many yeeres after King Henry the Eighth raised up Sir Thomas Mannours to be Earle of Rutland who in right of his Grand-mother Aeleonor was possessed of a goodly and faire inheritance of the Barons Roos lying in the countries round about and elsewhere In his roome succeeded his Sonne Henry and after him likewise Edward his Sonne unto whom if I should say nothing else that commendation of the Poet was most aptly and truly appliable Nomen virtutibus aequat Nec sinit ingenium nobilitate premi His name so great with vertues good he matcheth equally Nor suffreth wit smuthring to lie under Nobility But he by over hasty and untimely death being received into Heaven left this dignity unto John his Brother who also departing this life within a while hath for his successor Roger his Sonne answerable in all points to his ancient and right noble parentage This small Shire hath Parish Churches 48. LINCOLNIAE Comitatus vbi olim insederunt CORITANI LINCOLNE-SHIRE VPon Rutland on the East side confineth the County of LINCOLNE called by the English-Saxons ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and by the Normans Nicol-shire after their comming into the Land with some transposition of letters but usually LINCOLNE-SHIRE A very large Country as reaching almost threescore miles in length and carrying in some places above thirty miles in bredth passing kinde for yeeld of Corne and feeding of Cattaile well furnished and set out with a great number of Townes and watered with many Rivers Upon the Eastside where it bendeth outward with a brow fetching a great compasse the German Ocean beateth on the shore Northward it recheth to Humber an arme of the sea on the West side it butteth upon Nottingham-shire and on the South it is severed from Northampton-shire by the River Welland This whole Shire is divided into three parts whereof one is called Holland a second Kesteven and the third Lindsey Holland which Ingulph termeth Holland lyeth to the sea and like unto that Holland in Germanie it is so throughly wet in most places with waters that a mans foote is ready to sinke into it and as one standeth upon it the ground will shake and quake under his feet and thence it may seeme to have taken the name unlesse a man would with Ingulph say that Holland is the right name and the same imposed upon it of Hay which our Progenitours broadly called Hoy. This part throughout beareth upon that ebbing and flowing arme of the Sea which Ptolomee calleth METARIS instead of Maltraith and wee at this day The Washes A very large arme this is and passing well knowne at every tide and high sea covered all over with water but when the sea ebbeth and the tide is past a man may passe over it as on dry land but yet not without danger Which King John learned with his losse For whilest he journied this way when he warred upon the rebellious Barons the waters suddenly brake in upon him so that at Fosse-dyke and Welstream he lost all his carriage and princely furniture as Matthew of Westminster writeth This Country which the Ocean hath laied to the land as the Inhabitants beleeve by sands heaped and cast together they it terme Silt is assailed on the one side with the said Ocean sea and in the other with a mighty confluence of waters from out of the higher countries in such sort that all the Winter quarter the people of the country are faine to keepe watch and ward continually and hardly with all the bankes and dammes that they make against the waters are able to defend themselves from the great violence and outrage thereof The ground bringeth forth but small store of corne but plenty of grasse and is replenished abundantly with fish and water-fowle The Soile throughout is so soft that they use their Horses unshod neither shall you meet so much as with a little stone there that hath not beene brought thither from other places neverthelesse there bee most beautifull Churches standing there built of foure square stone Certaine it is that the sea aforetime had entred farther up into the Country and that appeareth by those bankes formerly raised against the waterwaves then in-rushing which are now two miles off from the shore as also by the hils neere Sutterton which they call Salt-Hils But of fresh water there is exceeding great want in all places neither have they any at all but raine water and that in pits which if they be of any great depth presently become brackish if shallow they dry up as soone Neither are there Quicksands wanting which have a wonderfull force to draw to them and to hold fast as both Shepheards and their poore Sheepe also finde other whiles not without danger This Holland or Hoiland whether you will is divided into two parts The Lower and the Higher The Lower hath in it soule and slabby quavemires yea and most troublesome Fennes which the very Inhabitants themselves for all their stilts cannot stalke through And considering that it lieth very low and flat fenced it is of the one side against the Ocean on the other from those waters which overwhelme the upper part of the Isle of Ely with mighty piles and huge bankes opposed against the same Of which Southybanke is of greatest name which least it should have a breach made through it with that infinite masse of water that falleth from the South part when the Rivers swell and all is overflowne by inundation the people watch with great care and much feare as against a dangerous enemy And yet for the draining away of this water the neighbour Inhabitants at the common charges
furnace Now I should easily bee perswaded that such a sound may come of the sea water closely getting into the Rocke were it not the same continued as well when the sea ebbeth at a low water when the shore is bare as it doth at an high water when it is full sea Not unlike to this was the place which Clemens Alexandrinus maketh mention of in the seventh Booke of his Stromata in these words They that have written Histories doe say that in the Isle of Britaine there is a certaine hole or Cave under the bottome of an hill and on the toppe thereof a gaping chaune or chinck And whensoever the winde is gathered into that hole and tossed to and fro in the wombe or concavity thereof there is heard above a sound of Cymbals For the winde driven backe gives the stronger sound Beyond these Islands the Shire runneth directly Westward and giveth entrance and passage to one River upon which more within the Land standeth Cowbridge the Britans of the Stone-bridge call it Pont-van a Merdare Towne and the second of those three which Fitz Haimon the Conquerour kept for himselfe Now whereas Antonine the Emperour in this very Coast at the same distance from ISCA placed BOVIUM which also is corruptly read BOMIUM my conjecture liked me so well that I have beene of opinion this Towne was the said BOVIUM but seeing that three miles from hence there standeth Bovirion which fitly accordeth in sound with Bovium so love mee trueth I dare not seeke for BOVIUM elsewhere And that it is no strange and new thing that places should bee fitted with names from Kine and Oxen I report me to Bosphorus in Thracia Bovianum in Samnium and Bauli in Italie as it were Boalia if we may beleeve Symmachus But let this one argument serve for all fifteene miles from BOVIUM hath Antonine placed even with a Latine name the Towne NIDUM which although our Antiquaries have beene this great while a hunting after in vaine yet at the very same distance there sheweth it selfe Neath a Towne very well knowne retaining still the old name in manner whole and sound and heere at Laâtwit that is The Church of Iltut that joyneth close thereto are seene the foundations of many houses for it had divers Streets in old time A little from hence in the very bout well neere of the shore standeth Saint Donats Castle a faire Habitation of the ancient and notable Family of the Stradlings neere unto which were very lately digged up antique peeces of Romane money but those especially of the thirty Tyrants yea and some of Aemilianus and Marius which are seldome found The River Ogmor somewhat higher maketh himselfe way into the Sea falling downe from the mountaines by Coitie which belonged sometimes to the Turbevills afterwards to the Gamages and now to Sir Robert Sidney Vicount Lisle in right of his wife also by Ogmor Castle which came from the Family of London to the Dutchy of Lancaster Some few miles from hence there is a Well at Newton as Sir John Stradling a very learned Knight hath signified unto me a little Towne on the banke of the River Ogmor Westward an hundred paces well neere from Severn side in a sandy plaine The water thereof is none of the cleerest yet pure enough and good for use It never springeth and walmeth up to the brinke but by certaine staires folke goe downe into the Well At any flowing of the Sea in Summer time you shall hardly get up a dish full of water Whereas if you come anon when it ebbeth you may well lade up water with a good bigge bucket or paile The like instability remaineth also in Winter time saving that it is nothing so evident by reason of the Veines of water comming in from above by showres and otherwise Many of the Inhabitants thereabout men of good credite constantly avouched thus much unto me But I distrusting Fame that oftentime doth but prate went my selfe of late once or twice to the said Well For even then had I great desire to write thus much unto you When I was first come unto the place and had stayed the third part of an houre viewing and considering every thing while Severn surged and rose high and no body came thither to draw the water was fallen about three inches I goe my waies And not long after when I was returned againe I finde it to be risen a foote higher The compasse of this Well beneath within the walles is almost sixe foote Concerning which my Muse also enditeth this Dittie Te Nova-Villa fremens odioso murmure Nympha Inclamat Sabrina Soloque inimica propinquo Evomit infestas ructu violenter arenas Damna pari sentit vitinia sorte sedilla Fonticulum causata tuum Quem virgo legendo Littus ad amplexus vocitat latet ille vocatus Antro luctatur contra Namque astus utrique est Continuo motu refluus tamen ordine dispar Nympha fluit propiùs Fons defluit Illa recedit Isteredit Sic livor inest pugna perennis With troublous noise and roaring loud the Severn Nymph doth cry New-towne on thee and bearing spite unto the ground thereby Casts up and sends with violence maine drifts of hurtfull sand The neighbour parts feele equall losse by this her heavie hand But on thy little Well she laies the weight which she would woo And faine embrace as Virgin she along the shore doth goe Call'd though he be he lurkes in den and striveth hard againe For ebbe and flow continually by tides they keepe both twaine Yet diversly for as the Nymph doth rise the Spring doth fall Goe she backe he comes on in spite and fight continuall The like Fountaine Polybius reporteth to bee at Cadyz and this reason hee giveth thereof namely that the winde or aire when it is deprived of his wonted issues returneth within forth and so by shutting and stopping up the passages and veines of the Spring keepeth in the waters and contrariwise when the surface thereof is voide and empty of water the veines of the source or Spring are unstopped and set free and so the water then boileth up in great abundance From hence coasting along the shore you come within the sight of Kinefeage the Castle in old time of Fitz-Haimon himselfe also of Margan hard by the sea side sometime an Abbay founded by William Earle of Glocester but now the Habitation of the worshipfull Family of the Maunsells Knights Neere unto this Margan in the very toppe of an Hill called Mynyd Margan there is erected of exceeding hard grit a Monument or grave-stone foure foote long and one foote broad with an Inscription which whosoever shall happen to reade the ignorant common people dwelling thereabout give it out upon a credulous errour that hee shall bee sure to dye within a little while after Let the Reader therefore looke to himselfe if any dare reade it for let him assure himselfe that hee shall for
and Dukes of Cornwall as we may see in the Inquisitions When the Liver is past this Castle neere unto Saltash sometimes Esse the habitation in old times of the Valtorts and now a Towne well replenished with Merchants and endowed with many priviledges it runneth into the river Tamar the bound of the whole countrey where at the East-side Mont-Edgecombe the seat of that ancient family of the Edgecombs sited most pleasantly hath a prospect into an haven underneath it full of winding creekes Next unto which is Anthony a Towne memorable for the elegant building thereof as also for a fish poole that letteth in the Ocean and yeeldeth sea-fish for profit and pleasure both but more memorable it is for the Lord thereof Richard Carew who so maintaineth his place and estate left unto him by his ancestors as that in ornaments of vertues he surmounteth them Hitherto we have surveied the South coast now let us take a view of the Northern also The Northern-shore from the very lands end having for a great length huge banks of sand driven upon heapes against it shooteth out first to a Towne running into the sea with a long ridge like a tongue called S. Iies taking the name of one Iia an Irish woman that lived heere in great holinesse for ancieÌtly it was named Pendinas And from her the Bay underneath into which the little river Haile falleth hath likewise received the name for the Mariners call it S. Iies Bay As for the Towne it selfe it is now very small For the North west wind that playes the tyrant in this coast by drifts of sand hath so beaten upon it that from thence it is translated and removed From hence the countrey on both sides still Eastward waxeth broader and the Northern shore with a more crooked winding holdeth on North-east as far as Padstow neither all that way along hath it any thing savouring of antiquity save onely a Chappell built in the sands to the honor of S. Piran who being likewise an Irish Saint resteth heere entombed unto whose Sanctitie a certaine vaine writer in his childish folly hath ascribed this miracle that with three kine of his owne he fed ten Kings of Ireland and their armies eight dayes together also that hee raised from death to life both pigs and men Then farther from the shore is seated S. Columbs a little mercate Towne consecrated to the memoriall of Columba a right devout woman and a martyr not of Columban the Scot as now I am given to understand for certaine out of her life Neere unto which but more to the sea-ward Lhanheton sheweth it selfe the seat of the Arondels a familie of Knights degree who for their faire lands and large possessions were not long since called the Great Arondels In some places they are written in Latin De Hirundine and not amisse if my judgement be ought For Hirundo that is a Swallow is named Arondell in French and iâ a shield sables they beare for their armes six Swallowes argent Certes a very ancient and renowned house this is spreading far and neere the branches of their kinred and affinity unto the name and coat-armour whereof William Brito a Poet alluded when as he describeth a valiant warriour out of this familie flying as it were upon William of Bar a French noble man and assailing him about the yeere of our Lord 1170. in these termes Hirundelae velocior alite quae dat Hoc agnomen ei fert cujus in aegide signum Se rapit agminibus medijs clypeoque mâenti Quem sibi Guilielmus laeva praetenderat ulna Immergit validam praeacutae cuspidis hastam more swift than bird hight Arondell That giv's him name and in his shield of armes emblazoned well He rides amid the armed troupes and with his speare in rest The staffe was strong the point right sharpe runs full upon the brest Of Sir Guillaum and pierceth through his bright and glittering shield Which on left arme he for defence against him stoutly held Within a little hereof there is a double rampire intrenched upon the pitch of an hill with a causey leading thereto named Castellan Denis that is The Danes Campe because the Danes when they preyed upon the coasts of England encamped themselves there like as they did in other places of this tract Nor farre from hence the river Alan which also is called Camb-alan and Camel of the crooked windings reaches that it makes in his course for so Cam with them doth signifie runneth gently into the upper sea which river at the very mouth thereof hath Padstow a pretty market towne so called shorâ for Petroekstow as we read in the Histories of Saints of one Petrocch a Britan canonized a Saint by the people who spent his daies here in the service of God whereas before time it had the name of Loderic and Laffenac The site of this Town is very commodious for traffique in Ireland to which men may easily saile in foure and twentie houres And much beautified it is with faire and goodly houses adjoyning thereto in manner of a Castle built by N. Prideaux a Gentleman of ancient gentry in those West parts At the Spring-head of this river Alan standeth the little village Camelford otherwise Gaffelford Leland Judgeth it was in old time called Kamblan who writeth also That King Arthur our Hector was there slaine For as hee recordeth peeces of armour rings horse-harnesse of brasse are otherwhiles digged up and turned out of the ground by husbandmen and the common fame that continued so many ages together reporteth that there was a notable battell fought in this place There are also certaine verses in an unknowne Poet living in the middle time of Cambula flowing with bloud shed in a battell of Arthur against Mordred which I will not thinke much of my labour to put downe because they may seeme to have beene written in no bad Poeticall vaine Naturâm Cambula fontis Mutatam stupet esse sui transcendit inundans Sanguineus torrens ripas volvit in aequor Corpora caesorum plures natare videres Et petere aexilium quos undis vita reliquit Then Cambula was sore agast the nature chang'd to see Of his spring-head for now the streame by this time gan to bee All mixt with bloud which swelling high the banks doth overflow And carry downe the bodies slaine into the sea below There might one see how many a man that swum and helpe did crave Was lost among the billowes strong and water was their grave And in very deed not to deny this of Arthur I have read in Marianus that the Britans and Saxons fought in this place a bloudy battell in the yeere of our Lord 8â0 so that this may seeme a place consecrated unto Mars And if it be true that Arthur here died the same coast was destined unto him for his death as for his birth For on the shore hard by standeth Tindagium
differences semblably they did among us and began first at Edward the First his children But whither am I carried away from my purposed matter as forgetting my selfe in the delight I take of mine owne studie and profession When Cornwall was thus reverted unto the Crowne King Edward the Second who had received from his father faire lands and possessions here bestowed the title of Earle of Cornwall upon Piers Gaveston a Gascon who had ensnared his youth by the allurements of corrupt life But when as hee for corrupting the Prince and for other heinous crimes was by the Nobles intercepted and beheaded there succeeded him Iohn of Eltham a younger sonne of Edward the Second advanced thereto by his brother Edward the Third who dying young and without issue also Edward the Third erected Cornwall into a Dukedome and invested Edward his sonne a Prince most accomplished with martiall prowesse in the yeare of Christ 1336. Duke of Cornwall by a wreath on his head a Ring upon his finger and a silver verge Since which time that I may note so much under warrant of record let the skilfull Lawyers judge thereof the King of Englands eldest sonne is reputed Duke of Cornwall by birth and by vertue of a speciall Act the very first day of his nativitie is presumed and taken to be of full and perfect age so that he may sue that day for his liverie of the said Dukedome and ought by right to obtaine the same as well as if hee had beene full one and twentie yeares old and he hath his Royalties in certaine actions in Stannary matters in wracks at sea customes c. yea and divers ministers or officers assigned unto him for these and such like matters But more plainly and fully instructed are we in these points by Richard Carew of Anthony a Gentleman innobled no lesse in regard of his Parentage and descent than for his vertue and learning who hath published and perfected the description of this countrey more at large and not in a slight and meane manner whom I must needs acknowledge to have given me much light herein There be in this Countie Parishes 161. DEVONIAE Comitatus Vulgo Den Shyre quam olim DANMONII Populi Incoluerunt DENSHIRE THe neerer or hithermore region of the Danmonians that I speake of is now commonly called Denshire by the Cornish-Britaines Deuinan and by the Welsh Britaines Duffneint that is Low valleies for that the people dwell for the most part beneath in vales by the English Saxons Deven ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã whereof grew the Latine name Devonia and by that contraction which the vulgar people useth Denshire and not of the Danes as some smatterers of meane knowledge most stifly maintaine a countrey which as it extendeth it selfe both waies wider than Cornwall so is it harborous on either side with more commodious Havens no lesse inriched with tin mines especially West-ward garnished with pleasanter medowes sightly with greater store of woods and passing well replenished with Townes and buildings But the soile in some places againe is as leane and barren which not withstanding yieldeth fruit to the Husbandman plenteously so that he be skilfull in husbandry and both can take paines and be able withall to defray the cost Neither is there in all England almost any place where the ground requireth greater charges For in most parts thereof it groweth in manner barren if it be not overstrewed and mingled with a certaine sand from the Sea which is of great efficacie to procure fertilitie by quickning as it were and giving life unto the glebe and therefore in places far from the shore it is bought at a deare rate In describing of this region I will first travell over the West-side as the river Tamara runneth along and then the South coast which bordereth on the Ocean From whence by the Easterne bounds where it confineth upon Dorset Sommerset shires I will returne backe unto the Northern which is hemmed in with the Severne Sea Tamar which divideth these two shires first on this part receiveth into it from the East a rivelet called Lid which passeth by Coriton and K. Sidenham small townlets but which have given surnames to ancient and worshipfull families to Lidstow a little mercate Towne and Lidford now a small village but in ancient time a famous Towne which in the yeare 997. was most grievously shaken and dispoiled by the furious rage of the Danes which as it is written in that booke whereby William the First tooke the survey and value of England was not wont to be rated and asceased at any other time nor otherwise than London was That little river Lid here at the bridge gathered into a streight and pent in between rocks runneth downe amaine and holloweth the ground daily more and more so deepe that his water is not seene only a roaring noise is heard to the great wonder of those that passe over Beneath it Tamar receiveth Teave a little river on which Teavistok commonly called Tavistoke flourisheth a town in times past famous for the Abbey there which Ordulph the son of Ordgare Earle of Devonshire admonished by a vision from heaven built about the yeare of our Saviour Christ Dcccclxj. a place as William of Malmesburie describeth it Pleasant in regard of the groves standing so conveniently about it and of the plenteous fishing there for the handsome and uniforme building also of the Church for the sewers from the river passing downe along by the houses of office which runne with such a force of their owne that they carry away with them all the superfluitie they find Saint Rumon is much spoked of and lies as Bishop there There is to be seene also in the same Abbey the Sepulchre of that Ordgar before named and the huge bignesse of his sonnes tomb who was called Ordulph is thought to be a rare thing worth the sight for he was a man of a mighty stature giant like and of exceeding great strength as who was able to burst in sunder the bars of great gates and to stride over the rivelet there ten foote broad if ye list to believe the said William But scarcely had this Abbey stood thirty yeare after it was first founded when the Danes in their spoyling rage burnt it to the ground yet it flourished againe and by a laudable ordinance lectures therein were kept of our ancient language I meane the English Saxon tongue which continued even to our fathers daies for feare lest the said language a thing that now is well neere come to passe should be forgotten Tamar having thus received the Teave draweth now very neere unto his mouth where he and the river Plime together fall into the Ocean of which river the Towne adjoyning to it is called Plimmouth sometime named Sutton and seemeth to have consisted of two parts For we read in the Parliamentary Acts of Sutton Vautort and Sutton Prior because it belonged partly to the family of the
alwayes called in plaine words Burg-water that is Walters burgh or Burgh-walter and as we may very probably conjecture of that Walter de Duaco or Doway who served under William Conqueror in his wars and received at his hands many faire mannors in this shire Neither carrieth it any other name in that grant or donation whereby Fulke Paynes Lord of Bampton passed the possession of the place over unto William Briwer to curry favour with him being so great a man and so gracious a favourite with King Richard the First This Williams sonne and bearing his name bettered this haven having obtained licence of King Iohn to fortifie a Castle built heere a Fortresse which now time hath wrought her will of and began a bridg which one Strivet a gentleman of Cornwall with infinite cost finished founded also the Hospitall of S. Iohn heere and Dunkeswell Abbay But when this William Briwer the younger left this life without issue in the partition of his heritage it fell to Margaret his sister in right of whose daughter that she had by William De la fort it came to the house of Cadurci or Chaworths and from it hereditarily to the Dukes of Lancaster as some lands heereabout by an other sister came to Breos bridge- and so by Cantalupe to Lord Zauch But the greatest honor that this place had was by the title of an Earldome that King Henrie the Eight adorned it withall what time as he created Henrie Doubeney Earle of Bridge-water whose sister Cecilie was married unto Iohn Bourchier the first Earle of Bath out of that house Beneath this some few miles off Parret voideth it selfe into the Severne sea at a wide mouth which as we said Ptolomee called Vzella aestuarium and some even at this day Evelmouth but the old English-Saxons ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã at which place as Marianus mine author writeth Ealstan Bishop of Shirburne about the yeere of Salvation 845. discomfited the Danish forces as they were stragling abroad At the same mouth where we saw Honispell an ancient Mannour of the Coganes men of great fame in the conquest of Ireland there meeteth it another river called of some Brius which ariseth out of that great and wide wood in the East-side of this shire which the Britans named Cort Maur the Saxons Selwood that is by Asserius interpretation The great wood but now not so great This river first visiteth Bruiton to which he leaveth his name a place memorable for that the Mohuns there entombed who built a religious house of the Fitz-Iames runneth a long way by small villages and encreased with some other brooks it watereth goodly grounds untill it meete with softer soile then and there it maketh certaine marshes and meres and when the waters rise environeth a large plot of ground as an Isle so called of old time in the British tongue the Isle of Aualon of Appulis afterwards named Inis Witrin that is The Glassy Isle like as in the Saxon Idiome the same sense ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and in Latin Gloscania Of which a Poet of good antiquity writeth thus Insula pomorum quae fortunata vocatur Ex re nomen habet quia per se singula profert Non opus est illi sâlcantibus arva colonis Omnis abest cultus nisi quem natura ministrat Vltró foecundas segetes producit herbas Nataque poma suis praetonso germine sylvis The Apple-Isle and Fortunate folke of the thing so call For of it selfe it bringeth forth corne Forage fruit and all There is no need of country clowns to plough and till the fields Nor seene is any husbandry but that which nature yeelds Of the owne accord there commeth up corne grasse and herbs good store Whole woods there be that apples beare if they be prun'd before In this Isle under a great hill rising in great height with a tower theron which they call the Tor flourished the famous Abbay of Glastenbury the beginning whereof is very ancient setched even from that Ioseph of Arimathaea who enterred the bodie of Iesus Christ and whom Philip the Apostle of the Gaules sent into Britaine for to preach Christ. For thus much both the most ancient records and monuments of this Monasterie testifie and also Patrick the Irish Apostle who lived there a Monke thirtie yeeres in an Epistle of his hath left to memorie Whereupon this place was by our Ancestors named The first land of God The first land of Saints in England The beginning and fountaine of all religion in England The tombe of Saints The mother of Saints The Church founded and built by the Lords Disciples Neither is there any cause why we should much doubt thereof sithence I have shewed before that the beames of Christian religion in the very infancie of the primitive Church were spred and shined upon this Iland yea and Freculphus Lexoviensis hath written that the said Philip conducted barbarous nations neere unto darknesse and bordering just upon the Ocean to the light of knowledge and port of faith But to our Monasterie and that out of Malmesburie his booke touching this matter When that old Cell or litle chappell which Ioseph had built by continuance of time was in the end decaied Devi Bishop of Saint Davids erected a new one in the same place which also in time falling to ruine twelve men comming out of the North part of Britaine repaired it and lastly King Ina who founded a schoole in Rome for the training up and instruction of English youth to the maintenance thereof as also for almes to be distributed at Rome had laid an imposition of Peter-pence upon every house thorowout his realme having demolished it built there a very faire and stately Church to Christ Peter and Paul and under the very highest coping thereof round about caused to bee written these verses Syderei montes speciosa cacumina Sion A Libano geminae flore comante cedri Caelorum portae lati duo lumina mundi Ore tonat Paulus fulgurat arce Petrus Inter Apostolicas radianti luce coronas Doctior hic monitis celsior ille gradu Corda per hunc hominum reserantur astra per illum Quos docet iste stylo suscipit ille polo. Pandit iter coeli hic dogmate clavibus alter Est via cui Paulus janua fida Petrus Hic Petra firma manens ille Architectus habetur Surgit in hijs templum quo placet ara Deo Anglia plaude lubens mittit tibi Roma salutem Fulgor Apostolicus Glasconiam irradiat A facie hostili duo propugnacula surgunt Quod fidei turres urbs caput orbis habet Haec pius egregio Rex Ina refertus amore Dona suo populo non moritura dedit Totus in affectu divae pietatis inhaereus Ecclesiaeque juges amplificavit opes Melchi-sedech noster meritó Rex atque Sacerdos Complevit verae religionis opus Publica jura regens celsa palatia servans Vnica Pontificum gloria norma
over-head right daintily which William Knight the Bishop and Wolman the Deane founded for the use of people resorting thither to the Market Thus much of the East-part of the towne In the West-side thereof I have seene the parish Church of Saint Cuthberts next unto which standeth an Hospitall founded by Nicolas Burwith Bishop for foure and twentie poore people Out of those Mendip or Mine-hils springeth the River Frome which running East-ward by Cole-pits before it hath held on a long course that way turneth North-ward and serveth in stead of a bound confining this shire and Gloceste-shire and passeth hard under Farley a Castle not long since of the Lord Hungerfords scituate upon a Rocke where Humfrey Bohun built sometime a Monkerie not farre from Philips Norton a greate Market-towne which tooke the name of a Church consecrate to Saint Philip. Lower than it Selwood whereof I spake erewhile spreadeth long and large a wood standing well and thicke of trees whereof the country round about adjoyning was named as Ethelward mine Author writeth Selwoodshire and a towne steepely seated thereby is yet called Frome Selwood which gaineth very much by the trade of cloathing From which Westward not full two miles there sheweth it selfe a Castle little though it be yet fine and trim consisting of foure round Turrets which being built by the Delamares and named thereupon Monney de la Mare from them came by way of inheritance to the Powlets And not farre from thence is Witham where King Henry the Third erected a Nunnerie which afterward was the first house and as it were mother to the Carthusians or Charter-house Monks in England as Hinton not far off neere Farley Castle was the second And now by this time Frome grown bigger by some rivelets issuing out of this wood joyneth with the noble river Avon which holding on a crooked course runneth anone to that ancient Citie which of the hote Bathes Ptolomee called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is Hote waters Antoninus AQVAE SOLIS that is The waters of the Sunne the Britaines Yr ennaint Twymin and Caer Badon the Saxons ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and of the concourse thither of diseased people Akmanchester that is The Citie of sickely folke Stephanus nameth it Badiza we at this day Bath and the Latinists commonly Bathonia Seated it is low in a plaine and the same not great environed round about with hills almost all of one height out of which certaine rilles of fresh river waters continually descend into the Citie to the great commoditie of the Citizens Within the Citie it selfe there bubble boile up three springs of hote water of a blewish or sea-colour sending up from them thin vapours and a kind of a strong sent withall by reason that the water is drilled and strained through veines of Brimstone and a clammy kind of earth called Bitumen Which springs are very medicinable and of great vertue to cure bodies over-charged and benummed as it were with corrupt humours For by their heat they procure sweat and subdue the rebellious stubbornnesse of the said humors Yet are not they wholesome at all houres For from eight of the clocke in the forenoone unto three after noone they are in manner skalding hote and doe worke and being thus troubled cast up from the bottome certaine filth during which time they are shut neither may any body goe into them untill by their sluces they clense themselves and rid away that filthinesse Of these three The Crosse Bath so called of a crosse standing upright in old time in the midst of it is of a very mild and temperate warmth and hath twelve seates of stone about the brinke or border thereof and is enclosed within a wall The second distant from this not fully 200. foot is much hotter whereupon it is termed Hote Bathe Adjoyning to these is a Spittle or Lazar house built by Reginald Bishop of Bath for the reliefe of poore diseased persons And those two are in the midst of a Street on the West-side of the Citie The third which is the greatest and after a sort in the very bosome and heart of the Citie is called the Kings Bath neere unto the Cathedrall Church walled also round about and fitted with 32. seates of arched worke wherein men and women may sit apart who when they enter in put upon their bodies linnen garments and have their guides Where the said Cathedrall Church now standeth there was in ancient time as the report goeth a Temple consecrated to Minerva Certes Solinus Polyhistor speaking no doubt of these hote Bathes saith thus In Britaine there are hot springs very daintily adorned and kept for mens use the patronesse of which fountaines is the Goddesse Minerva in whose Temple the perpetuall fire never turneth ashes and dead coales but when the fire beginneth to die it turnes into round masses of stone Howbeit Athenaeus writeth that all hote Bathes which naturally breake out of the bowels of the earth are sacred to Hercules And in very deede there is to bee seene in the walles of this Citie an ancient Image such as it is of Hercules grasping in his hand a Snake among other old monuments by the injurie of time now altogether defaced But that we may not contend about this matter let us grant if it be so thought good that Bathes were consecrated to Hercules and Minerva joyntly For the Greekes doe write that Pallas first ministred water unto Hercules for to bath him after he had atchieved his labours For my purpose it shall suffice if I be able to prove by the authoritie of Solinus who writeth that Pallas was the Patronesse of these Bathes this Citie to be the same which the Britans in their tongue called Caer Palladdur that is The Citie of Pallas-water or Vrbs Palladiae Aquae if a man turne it into Latine For the matter the name and signification doe most fitly agree The finding out of these Bathes our Fables attribute to the King of Britans Bleyden Cloyth that is Bleyden the Magician but with what probabilitie that I leave to others Plinie indeed affirmeth that the Britans in old time used the practice of magick with so great ceremonies that it seemed they taught it the Persians yet dare I not ascribe these Bathes to any art magicall Some of our writers when their minds were busied in other matters report Iulius Caesar to have beene the first finder of them But my opinion is that later it was ere the Romans had knowledge of them seeing Solinus is the first that hath made mention of them The English-Saxons about the 44. yeare after their comming into Britaine when they had broken league and covenant and kindled againe the coales of war which had already beene quenched besieged this Citie But when the warlike Arthur came upon them they tooke the hill named Mons Badânicus where when couragiously a long while they had fought it out to the uttermost a great number of them
South gates Ophiuchus enwrapped with a serpent two mens heads with curled haire within the cope of the wall a hare running and annexed thereto upon a stone in letters standing overthwart VLIA ILIA A naked man laying hand as it were upon a souldier within the battlement also of the wall two lying along kissing and clipping one another a footeman with a sword brandishing and bearing out his shield a footeman with a speare and upon a stone with letters standing overthwart III. VSA. IS VXSC. And Medusaes head with haires all Snakes Along the said river of Avon which now is heere the bound between this shire and Glocestershire upon the banke Westward we have a sight of Cainsham so name of one Keina a most devout and holy British virgine who as the credulous age before-time perswaded many transformed serpents into stones because there be found there in Stone quarries such strange workes of nature when she is disposed to disport herselfe For I have seene a stone brought from hence resembling a serpent winding round in manner of a wreath the head whereof being somewhat unperfect bare up in the Circumference thereof and the end of the taile tooke up the centre within But most of these are headlesse In the fields neere adjoyning and other places beside is found Percepier an hearbe peculiar unto England Bitter it is in taste and hath a biting sharpenesse withall it never groweth above a span high and commeth up all the yeare long of it selfe small leavy flowers of a greenish hew it beares without any stalke at all Which herbe mightily and speedily provoketh urine and of it the distilled water serveth for great use as P. Paena in his Animadversions or Commentaries of Plants hath noted Scarce five miles from this place the river Avon passeth through the midst of Bristow in Welch-British Caer oder Nant Badon that is The Citie Oder in the Vale of Badon In the Catalogue of ancient Cities Caer Brito In Saxon ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is A bright or shining place But such as have called it Venta Belgarum have deceived both themselves and others This Citie standing partly in Somerset and partly in Glocester-shires is not to be reputed belonging either to this or that having Magistrates of the owne by it selfe and being of it selfe entire and a County incorporate Scituate it is somewhat high betweene Avon and the little river Frome sufficiently defended with rivers and fortifications together For environed it was sometime with a double wall So faire to behold by reason of buildings as well publike as private that it is fully correspondent to the name of Bright stow With common Sewes or Sinks they call them Goutes so made to run under the ground for the conveiance and washing away of all filth that for cleanlinesse and holesomnesse a man would not desire more whereupon there is no use heere of carts so well furnished with all things necessarie for a mans life so populous and well inhabited withall that next after London and Yorke it may of all Cities in England justly challenge the chiefe place For the mutuall entercourse of trafficke and the commodious haven which admitteth in ships under saile into the very bosome of the Citie hath drawne people of many countries thither For the Avon so often as the Moone declineth downeward from the meridian point and passeth by the opposite line unto it so swelleth with the tide from the Ocean that it raiseth up the ships there riding and lying in the oze 11. or 12. elles afloat in water And the Citizens themselves are rich Merchants and trafficke all over Europe yea and make Voyages at sea so farre as into the most remote parts of America But when and by whom it was built it is hard to say Old it seemeth not to be for as much as in all those spoiles and sackages that the Danes made there is no mention of it in our Historians And verily mine opinion is that it first grew up to some name when the English-Saxons Empire was much declining seeing that it is no where named before the yeare of our Lord 1063 when Harold as Florentinus of Worcester writeth embarqued himselfe and his armie and put to sea from Bristow to Wales In the first yeares of the Normans Berton a mannor adjoyning And Bristow paid unto the King as we find in the booke of Domesday 110. markes of silver and the Burgers said that Bishop G. hath 33. markes and one marke of Gold After this Robert Bishop of Constance that plotted seditious practises against King William Rufus chose it for the seate-towne of the whole warre fortified it being then but a small Citie with that inner wall as I take it which at this day is in part standing But a few yeares after the circuit thereof was every way enlarged For on the South Radcliffe wherein there stood some small houses under the Citie side is by a stone bridge with houses on each hand built upon it more like a streete than a bridge joyned to the Citie enclosed within a wall and the Inhabitants thereof enfranchised Citizens yea hospitals in every quarter thereof for the benefit of poore people and faire Parish-Churches to the glorie of God were erected The most beautifull of all which by farre is S. Maries of Radcliffe without the walles into which there is a stately ascent upon many staires so large withall so finely and curiously wrought with an arched roofe over head of stone artificially embowed a steeple also of an exceeding height that all the Parish-Churches in England which hetherto I have seene in my judgement it surpasseth many degrees In it William Cannings the founder hath two faire monuments upon the one lieth his image portraied in an Aldermans roabe For five times he had beene Major of this Citie upon the other his image likewise in sacerdotall habite for that in this old age hee tooke the orders of priesthood and was Deane of that colledge which himselfe instituted at Westburie There is hard by another Church also which they call the Temple the lanterne or tower whereof when the bell rings shaketh to and fro so as it hath cloven and divided it selfe from the rest of the building and made such a chinke from the bottome to the top as it gapeth the bredth of three fingers and both shutteth and openeth whensoever the bell is rung And heere I must not overpasse in silence S. Stephens Church the tower steeple whereof being of a mightie heighth one Shipward alias Barstable a Citizen and Merchant within the memorie of our grandfathers right sumptuously and artificially built From the East-side also the North augmented it was with a number of edifices enclosed within a wall and fenced with the river Frome which having runne by the wall side gently falleth into the Avon and yieldeth a dainty harbour for ships with a wharfe convenient for the shipping and unlading of Merchandise in and out they call it the Kay
and exposed to the enemie King Henrie the Eighth began to strengthen it with forts for in that foreland or promontorie shooting farre into the sea From whence we have the shortest cut into the Isle of Wight hee built Hurst Castle which commandeth sea ward every way And more toward the East hee set up also another fortresse or blockhouse they name it Calshot Castle for Caldshore to defend the entrie of Southhampton Haven as more inwardly on the other are the two Castles of S. Andrew and Netly For heere the shores retiring as it were themselves a great way backe into the land and the Isle of Wight also butting full upon it doe make a very good harbour which Ptolomee calleth The mouth of the river Trisanton as I take it for Traith Anton that is Anton Bay For Ninnius an old writer giveth it almost the same name when he termeth it Trahannon mouth As for the river running into it at this day is called Test it was in the foregoing age as wee reade in the Saints lives named Terstan and in old time Ant or Anton as the townes standing upon it namely Ant port Andover and Hanton in some sort doe testifie So farre am I of pardon me from thinking that it tooke the name of one Hamon a Roman a name not used among Romans who should be there slaine And yet Geffrey of Monmouth telleth such a tale and a Poet likewise his follower who pretily maketh these verses of Hamon Ruit huc illucque ruentem Occupat Arviragus ejusque in margine ripae Amputat ense caput nomen tenet inde perempti Hammonis Portus longumque tenebit in aevum Whiles Hamon rusheth here and there within the thickest ranke Arviragus encountreth him and on the rivers banke With sword in hand strikes of his head the place of him thus slaine Thence forth is named Hamons-Haven and long shall so remaine But upon this Haven standeth South-hanpton a little Citie neeere unto which on the North-east there flourished in old time another of that name which may seeme to be Antonine his CLAVSENTVM by the distance of it as well on the one side from Ringwood as from Venta on the other And as Trisanton in the British language signifieth the Bay of Anton so Glausentum in the same tongue is as much as the Haven of Entum For I have heard that Claudh among the Britans is that which the Graecians call ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is a forced Haven made by digging and casting up the earth Now that this place was called Hanton and Henton no man needs to doubt seeing in that booke wherein King William the first made a survey of all England this whole shire is expressely named Hanscyre and in some places Hentscyre and the very towne it selfe for the South scituation of it Southâhanton What manner of towne that Clausentum was it is hard to say but seated it was in that place where the field is which now they call S. Maries and reached even to the Haven and may seeme also to have taken up the other banke or strand of the river For a little above at Bittern over against it Francis Mills a right honest gentleman there dwelling shewed unto me the rubbish old broken walls and trenches of an ancient castle which carrieth halfe a mile in compasse and at every tide is compassed for three parts of it with water a great breadth The Romane Emperors ancient coines now and then there digged up doe so evidently prove the antiquity thereof that if it were not the Castle of old Clausentum you would judge it to be one of those forts or fences which the Romans planted upon the South coast of the Ocean to represse as Gildas writeth the piracies and depredations of the Saxons When all became wasted by the Danish warres old Hanton also was left as a prey in the yeere of our Lord 980. to be sacked and rifled by them and King William the Conqueror in his time had in it but fourescore men and no more in his demaine But above 200. yeeres since when Edward the Third King of England and Philip Valois bustled for the very Kingdome of France it was fired by the French and burnt to the gound Out of the ashes whereof presently sprung the towne which now is to be seene but situate in a more commodious place betweene two rivers for number of houses and those faire built much renowned for rich Inhabitants concourse of merchants wealthy fenced round about with a double ditch strong wals and turrets standing thicke betweene and for defence of the Haven a right strong Castle it hath of square stone upon a Mount cast up to a great height built by King Richard the Second And afterward King Henrie the Sixt granted to the Major Balives and Burgesses that it should be a Countie by it selfe with other liberties Memorable is that of the most puissant Canutus King of England and of Denmarke by which he in this place repressed a flatterer who bare the King in hand that all things in the Realme were at his will and command He commanded saith Henrie of Huntingdon that his chaire should be set on the shore when the sea began to flow And then in the presence of many said he to the sea as it flowed Thou art part of my Dominion and the ground on which I sit is mine neither was there ever any that durst disobey my commandement and went away free and unpunished Wherefore I charge thee that thou come not upon my land neither that thou wet the clothes or body of thy Lord. But the sea according to his usuall course flowing still without any reverence of his person wet his feet Then he retiring backe said Let all the Inhabitants of the world know that vaine and frivolous is the power of Kings and that none is worthy the name of King but hee to whose command the heaven earth and sea by bond of an evelasting law are subject and obedient and never after that time set hee the crowne upon his head c. Of those two rivers betweene which this South anton standeth that in the West now called Test and in times past Anton as I suppose springing out of the forrest of Chate goeth first to Andover which in the Saxon language is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is The passage or Ferry over And where in the yeare of our salvation 893. Aetheldred King of England when the Danes harried and spoiled his Kingdome on every side to the end that hee might at length refresh and cherish his weakened and wearied countries with sure and quiet peace inserted into his owne familie by way of adoption Aulaf the Dane which not withstanding soone after tooke small or none effect For this great honour done to the barbabrous Dane could not reclaime and stay his minde from rapine and spoyling still From thence it runneth downe and receiveth from the East a brooke passing by Bullingdon in whose parish is a
Elizabeth a most gracious Ladie ninetie and foure yeares after having lived fully to the contentment of nature For 70. yeare old she was or much thereabout when it pleased God to call her out of this world was received into the sacred and coelestiall society A Prince above her âex of manly courage and high conceit who lively resembled as well the royall qualities of her Grandfather as she did his princely presence and countenance the Worlds love and joy of Britaine And so farre was she a woman though shee were from degenerating and growing unlike her noble Progenitors in that continued course of their vertues that if she surmounted them not surely she equalled them to the full Well posteritie may one day hereafter be so thankefull as to yield heereto a gracious credit neither doe I heere by way of flatterie set a false colour and glosse upon the truth that a Virgin for the space of fortie foure yeares so ruled the royall Scepter as that her subjects loved her enemies feared her and every one with admiration honored her a thing in all foregoing ages of rare example For whose death England throughout running all to teares amid mones and grones should have lien forlorne in most piteous case comfortlesse had not presently upon her departure out of this world the most mild and gracious King Iames on whom as the true and undoubted heire to her Crowne all mens minds were set and eies fixed with his sacred and bright beames shone unto us and thereby put us into most comfortable hope of endlesse joy Whom so long as we behold heere wee beleeve not that shee is deceased And why should we once say that she is deceased whose vertues live still immortall and the memoriall of whose name consecrated in mens hearts and in eternitie of times shall survive for ever Thus farre swelleth the Tamis with the accesse of the flowing tide of the sea about lx Italian miles by water from his mouth Neither to my knowledge is there any other river in all Europe that for so many miles within land feeleth the violence of the Ocean forcing and rushing in upon it and so driving backe and with-holding his waters to the exceeding great commodity of the inhabitants bordering thereupon Whither this commeth by reason that from hence he hath in manner no crooked turnings and winding reaches but with a more streight and direct channell carrieth his currant into the East as being for the most part restrained and kept in with higher bankes and dilating himselfe with a wider mouth than all other rivers lyeth more exposed and open to the Ocean which by that most swift whirling about of the coelestiall Spheres from East to West is forceably driven and carried that way as sometimes I have beene of opinion let Philosophers discusse unto whom I willingly leave these matters and such like to handle Yet some few verses as touching these places and this argument have heere out of the Marriage betweene Tame and Isis if haply they may content your taste A dextra nobis Richmondia Shena vetustis Celsa nitet sapiens namque hanc Richmondia dici Henricus voluit sibi quod retulisset honorem Et titulos Comitis Richmondia jure paterno Hectoris Edwardi sed deflet funera nostri Proh dolor hîc illi regimens libera cessit Corpore contempto sedes aditura supernas Quem si non subito rapuissent ferrea fata Aut te Valesiis rapuisset Gallia victor Aut tibi Valesios Then on the right hand Richmond stands a faire and stately thing So cal'd of us but Shene of old which name that prudent King Henry it gave because to him it brought in fathers right The Honor and the Stile whereby he Earle of Richmond hight But it of Edward King halas our Hector wailes the death Whose soule here freed from body which it scorn'd with vitall breath Departed hence right willingly in heaven to live for ay Whom had not cruell-sudden death untimely fetcht away He would by sword have thee bereft O France of Valois line Or them of thee And after a few verses set betweene Tamisis alternum sentit reditumque fugamque Huc reflui pelagi quoties vaga Cynthia pronos Octavâ librat coeli statione jugales Aut tenet oppositam varianti lumine plagam Plenior increscit celeremque recurrit in aestum Atque superbus ait concedant flumina nobis Nulla per Europae dotatas nomine terras Flumina tam longè sic certis legibus undas Alternas renovant nisi fratres Scaldis Albis Tamis heere by turnes alternative doth feele both ebbe and flow Of Sea by course of wandring Moone that rules tide heere below As oft as she with each eight point of heaven above doth meete Or holds the points full opposit as lights doe change and fleete He growes more full and sooner hath recourse to flowing tide And then in pride of heart he saith All rivers else beside Vaile unto me No streame so farre through Europe keepes againe His tide so just unlesse the Scheld and Elb my brethren twaine About foure miles from the Tamis within the Country Nonesuch a retiring place of the Princes putteth downe and surpasseth all other houses round about which the most magnificent Prince King Henry the Eighth in a very healthfull place called Cuddington before selected for his owne delight and ease and built with so great sumptuousnesse and rare workemanship that it aspireth to the very top of ostentation for shew so as a man may thinke that all the skill of Architecture is in this one piece of worke bestowed and heaped up together So many statues and lively images there are in every place so many wonders of absolute workemanship and workes seeming to contend with Romane antiquities that most worthily it may have and maintaine still this name that it hath of Nonesuch according as Leland hath written of it Hanc quia non habeant similem laudare Britanni Saepè solent Nullique parem cognomine dicunt The Britans oft are wont to praise this place For that through all The Realme they cannot shew the like and Nonesuch they it call As for the very house selfe so invironed it is about with Parkes full of Deere such daintie gardens and delicate orchards it hath such groves adorned with curious Arbors so pretty quarters beds and Alleys such walkes so shadowed with trees that Amenitie or Pleasantnesse it selfe may seeme to have chosen no other place but it where she might dwell together with healthfulnesse Yet Queene Mary made it over to Henry Fitz-Alan Earle of Arundell for other Lands and he when he had enlarged it with a Librarie passing well furnished and other new buildings passed over all his right when he died to the L. Lumley who for his part spared no cost that it might be truely answerable to the name and from him now is it returned againe by compositions and conveiances to the Crowne Neere hereunto
least any man should thinke that as the Comicall Poet saith I deale by way of close pilfering I willingly acknowledge him and deserve he doth no lesse to have beene my foundation and fountaine both of all well-neere that I shall say Time as yet hath not bereft this Region of the ancient name but as it was called CANTIVM by Cesar Strabo Diodorus Siculus Ptolomee and others so that Saxons named it as Ninnius witnesseth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is The countrey of the people inhabiting Cantium and wee Kent This name master Lambard deriveth from Caine which among the Britaines soundeth as much as a greene Bough because in old time it was shadowed with woods But it may be lawfull for mee to put in my conjecture whereas Britaine heere runneth out with a mightie nooke or corner into the East and I have observed that such a kind of nooke in Scotland is called Cantir Againe that the Inhabitants of another Angle in that part of the Island are by Ptolomee termed Cantae as also that the Cangani in Wales were possessed of another corner to say nothing of the Cantabri who likewise dwelt in an angle among the Celtiberians who as they came from one originall so likewise they were of the same language with our Britans I would guesse that the name was given by reason of the forme and scituation and so much the rather both for that our Frenchmen have used Canton for a Corner and that as it is probable from the old Language of the Gauls for it comes not from the Germane or Latine tongue which together with that old tongue be the mothers of this latter French tongue and also because this Countrey by all the old Geographers is called Angulus For it looketh full upon France with a huge Angle compassed with the aestuarie of Tamis and with the Ocean sea saving that Westward it hath Surrey and southward Sussex to confine upon it KENT THe Region which we call Kent extendeth it selfe in length from West to East fifty miles and from South to North 26. For scituation it is not uniforme as being more plaine toward the West and full of shady woods but higher Eastward by reason of hils mounting up with easie ascents The Inhabitants distinguish it as it lyeth South-east-ward from the Tamis into three plots or portions they call them steps or degrees the upper whereof lying upon Tamis they say is healthfull but not so wealthy the middle they account both healthfull and plentifull the lower they hold to bee wealthy but not healthy as which for a great part thereof is very moist yet it bringeth forth ranke grasse in great plenty Howbeit every where almost it is full of meadowes pastures and cornefields abounding wonderfully in apple-trees and cherrie-trees also which being brought out of Pontus into Italie in the 608. yeare after the foundation of Rome and in the 120. yeare after translated from thence into Britaine prosper heere exceeding well and take up many plots of land the trees being planted after a direct manner one against another by square most pleasant to behold It hath villages and townes standing exceeding thicke and well peopled safe rodes and sure harbours for ships with some veines of iron and marle but the aire is somewhat thicke and somewhere foggie by reason of vapours rising out of the waters At a word the revenues of the Inhabitants are greater both by the fertilitie of the soile and also by the neighbourhood of a great citie of a great river and the maine sea The same commendation of civilitie and courtesie which Cesar in old time gave the Inhabitants is yet of right due unto them that I may not speake of their warlike prowesse whereas a certaine Monke hath written How the Kentishmen so farre excelled that when our armies are ready to joyne battaile they of all Englishmen are worthily placed in the Front as being reputed the most valiant and resolute souldiers Which Iohn of Salisburie verifieth also in his Polycraticon For good desert saith he of that notable valour which Kent shewed so puissantly and patiently against the Danes it retaineth still unto these daies in all battailes the honour of the first and fore-ward yea and of the first conflict with the enemie In praise of whom William of Malmesbury hath likewise written thus The country people and towne-dwellers of Kent above all other Englishmen retaine still the resent of their ancient worthinesse And as they are more forward and readier to give honour and etertainment to others so they be more slow to take revenge upon others Cesar to speake briefly by way of Preface before I come to describe the particular places when he first attempted the conquest of our Island arrived at this countrey but being by the Kentish Britans kept from landing obtained the shore not without a fierce encounter When he made afterward his second voyage hither here likewise hee landed his armie and the Britaine 's with their horsemen and wagons encountred them couragiously but beeing soone by the Romans repulsed they withdrew themselves into the woods After this they skirmished sharpely with the Roman Cavallery in their march yet so as the Romans had every way the upper hand Also within a while after they charged the Romans againe and most resolutely brake through the midst of them and having slaine Laberius Durus Marshall of the field retired safe and the morrow after set upon the Foragers and victualers of the campe c. which I have briefly related before out of Cesars owne Commentaries At which time Cyngetorix Carvilius Taximagulus and Segonax were great Commanders of Kent whom he because he would be thought to have vanquished Kings termeth Kings whereas indeed they were but Lords of the countrey or Noble men of the better marke CANTIVM Quod nunc KENT But when the Romans were departed quite out of Britaine Vortigern who bare soveraigne rule in the greatest part of Britaine placed over Kent a Guorong that is to say a Vice Roy or Freed man under him and unwitting to him hee forthwith freely granted this region as Ninnius and William of Malmesbury write unto Hengist the Saxon for his daughter Rowens sake upon whom hee was exceedingly enamoured Hence it came that the first Saxon Kingdome erected in Britaine in the yeare of our Lord 456. was called by them ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is The Kingdome of the Kentishmen which after three hundred and twenty yeares when Baldred their last King was subdued fell to bee under the Dominion of the West Saxons to whom it continued subject untill the Normans Conquest For then if we may beleeve Thomas Spot the Monke for none of the more ancient Writers have recorded it the Yeomanrie of Kent at Swanes-comb a village this is where they say Suene the Dane sometime pitched his campe carrying before them in their hands every one a great greene bough representing a farre of a moving wood yeilded themselves
by his onely daughter to the Earles of Stafford who were afterward Dukes of Buckingham from them by attainder to the Crowne It hath in latter ages beene beholden to Sir Andrew Iude of London for a faire free-Schoole and to Iohn Wilford for a causey toward London Three miles directly South from hence in the very limit of Sussex and neere Frant I saw in a white-sandy ground divers vastie craggie stones of strange formes whereof two of the greatest stand so close together and yet severed with so straight a line as you would thinke they had beene sawed asunder and Nature when she reared these might seeme sportingly to have thought of a Sea But to returne to the River From Tunbridge Medway passeth by Haudelo from whence came that Iohn Haudelo who happily marrying the heire of the Lord Burnell had issue by her a sonne who was called Nicholas summoned to Parliament among the Barons by the name of Burnell Then Medway increased with another water called Twist which twisteth about and insulateth a large plot of good ground runneth on not farre from Mereworth where stands a faire Castle like house which from the Earles of Arundell came unto the Nevils Lords of Abergevennie and Le Despencer whose heire in the right line is Marie Ladie Fane unto whom and her heires King Iames in the first Parliament that he held restored gave and granted c. the name stile title honour and dignitie of Baronesse le Despencer that her heires successively should be Barons le Despencer for ever Now by this time Medway having received a rivelet that looseth it selfe under ground and riseth againe at Loose serving thirteene fulling-mills hastneth to Maidstone which seeing the Saxons called it Medwegston ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I beleeve verily it is the same VAGNIACAE which Antonine the Emperor mentioneth and Ninnius in his Catalogue of cities calleth corruply Caer Megwad for Medwag Neither verily doth the account of distance disagree From Noviomagus one way and Durobrovis another whereof I shall treat anone Under the latter Emperours as is to be seene in Peutegerus his table lately set out by M. Velserus it is named MADVS Thus as yeeres by litlte and little turne about so names likewise by little and little become changed A large faire and sweet towne this is and populous for the faire stone bridge it hath been beholding to the Archbishops of Canterbury Among whom to grace this place at the confluence of the waters Boniface of Savoy built a a small Colledge Iohn Vfford raised a palace for himselfe and successors which Simon Islip encreased and betweene them which it standeth in plight William Courtney erected a faire Collegiat Church in which he so great a Prelate and so high borne lieth lowly entombed One of the two common Gaoles or prisons of the whole County is here appointed And it hath beene endowed with sundrie priviledges by King Edward the sixt incorporated by the name of Major and Iurates all which in short time they lost by favouring rebels But Queene Elizabeth amply restored them and their Major whereas anciently they had a Portgreve for their head Magistrate This I note because this Greve is an ancient Saxon word and as yet among the Germans signifieth a Ruler as Markegrave Reingrave Landgrave c. Here a little beneath Maidstone Eastward a prety rivelet joyneth with Medway springing first at Leneham which towne by probable conjecture is the very same that Antonine the Emperour calleth DVROLENVM written amisse in some copies DVROLEVUM For Durolenum in the British language is as much to say as The water Lenum And besides the remaines of the name the distance also from DVROVENVM and DVROBROVIS proveth this to be Durolenum to say nothing of the scituation therof neere unto that high rode way of the Romans which in old time as Higden of Chester doth write led from Dover through the midst of Kent Hard by at Bocton Malherb hath dwelt a long time the family of the Wottons out of which in our remembrance flourished both Nicolas Wotton Doct. of the lawes who being of the Privy counsell to K. Henry the Eight K. Edward the sixth Q. Mary and Q. Elizabeth sent in Embassage nine times to forreine Princes and thrice chosen a Committè about peace between the English French and Scottish lived a goodly time and ran a long race in this life with great commendation of piety and wisedome and also Sir Edward Wotton whom for his approved wisedome in waightie affaires Q. Elizabeth made Controller of her house and K. Iames created Baron Wotton of Merlay Here under is Vlcomb anciently a mansioÌ of the family De sancto Leodegario corruptly called Sentleger Sellenger Motinden where Sir R. Rockesly descended from Kriol and Crevecur built a house who held lands at Seaton by serjeantie to be Vantrarius Regis when the K. goeth into Gascoin donec perusus fuerit pari solutarum pretii 4. d. which as they that understand Law Latin for I do not translate that he should be the Kings fore-foot-man until he had worn out a paire of shooes prized 4. d. Neither hath this river any other memorable thing nere to it but Leeds Castle built by the noble Crevequers who in ancient charters are named de Crevequer De crepito corde afterwards it was the unfortunate seat of Bartholomew L. Baldismer who perfidiously fortified it against K. EDVVARD the second who had freely given it him and after that payed the due price of his disloyaltie upon the gallowes The whole matter you may reade here if you list out of a briefe historie penned by Thomas de la More a gentleman that lived at the same time and which of late I did publish in print In the yeare 1521. Queene Isabel came to the Castle of Leeds about the feast of Saint Michael minding there to lodge all night but was not permitted to enter in The King offended hereat as taking it to be done in contempt of him called certaine of the neighbour inhabitants out of Essex and London and commanded them to lay siege unto the Castle Now there held the Castle at that time Bartholomew de Baldismer who having left therein his wife and sonnes was gone himselfe with the rest of the Barons to overthrow the Hughs de Spencer Meane-while when they that were inclosed within despaired of their lives the Barons with their associats came as farre as Kingston and by the mediation of the Bishops of Canterbury and London together with the Earle of Pembroch requested that the King would remove his siege promising to deliver up the Castle into the Kings hand after the next Parliament But the King considering well that the besieged could not long hold out nor make resistance being highly displeased angred at their coÌtumacy would not give eare to the Barons petitions And when they had turned their journey another way hee afterward forced the Castle with no
deliver up into his hands this Castle together with the well what time as he aspired to the Kingdome and after hee had settled his estate and affaires at London thought it good before all other things to fortifie this peece and to assigne faire lands in Kent unto Gentlemen to bee held in Castle-guard with this condition to be in readinesse with certaine numbers of men for defence of the same which service notwithstanding at this day is redeemed with a yearely paiment of money For when Sir Hubert de Burgh was Constable of this Castle to use the words of an old writer he weighed with himselfe that it was not safe for the Castle to have every moneth new warders for the Castle guard procured by the assent of the King and all that held of that Castle that every one should send for the ward of one moneth tenne shillings and that therewith certaine men elected and sworne as well horse as foote should be waged for to gard the Castle It is written that Phillip surnamed Augustus King of France when Lewis his sonne went about to gaine the Crowne of England had wonne certaine Cities and Forts and could not get this being manfully defended by the said Sir Hubert de Burgh said thus Verily my sonne hath not one foote of land in England untill he be Master of Dover Castle as beeing in very deed the strongest hold of all England and most commodious for the French Vpon the other cliffe which standeth over against it and beareth up his head in manner even with it are extant the remaines of a very ancient building One I know not upon what reason induced said it was Caesars Altar But Iohn Twin of Canterbury a learned old man who in his youth saw a great part thereof standing whole and entire assured me that it had beene a Watch-towre to give night light and direction to ships Like as there stood another opposite unto it at Bologne in France erected thereby the Romans and long after reedified by Charles the Great as Regino witnesseth in whom Phanum for Pharum is falsly read which at this day the French terme Tour de Order and the English The old man of Bullen Vnder this cliffe Henry the Eighth in our fathers daies with exceeding labour and 63000. pounds charges by pitching huge posts fast within the very sea and the same bound together with yron worke and heaping thereupon a deale of timber and stones brought up a mightie Pile which we call The Peere wherein the ships might more safely ride But the furious violence of the raging Ocean soone overcame the laudable endeavour of that puissant Prince and so the frame of this worke beaten continually upon with the waves became dis-joyned For the repaire whereof Queene Elizabeth laid out a great summe of money and the Authoritie of Parliament imposed upon every English ship that carry forth or bring in merchandise a certaine toll upon Tonneage for certaine yeares This Sea coast of Britaine is seperated from the Continent of Europe by a frete or streight where as some suppose the Seas brake in and made way betweene the lands Solinus calleth it Fretum Gallicum Tacitus and Ammianus Macellinus Fretum Oceani and Oceanum Fretalem Gratius the Poet Freta Morinum dubio refluentia ponto The narrow Seas on Bollen-coast that keepe uncertaine tides They of the Netherlands call it Dehofden of the two heads or promontories we the Narrow-sea and The strait of Calais as the Frenchmen Pas de Callais For this is the place as saith a Poet of our time gemini quà janua ponti Faucibus angustis latèque frementibus undis Gallorum Anglorumque vetat concurrere terras Where current of two seas In gullet streight wherein throughout their billowes rage and fret Keepes France and England so a part as though they never met The narrow sea as Marcellinus truly writeth swelleth at every tide with terrible high flouds and againe at the ebbe becommeth as flat as a plaine field if it be not raised with winds and counter seas betweene two risings of the moone it floweth twice and ebbeth as oft For as the Moone ascendeth toward the Meridian and is set againe under the Horizon in the just opposite point the Ocean heere swelleth mightily and the huge billowes rush upon the shores with so great a noise that the Poet might well say Rhutupináque littora fervent And Rhutup shore doth boile and billow and D. Paulinus where he speaketh of the County of Bulloigne which he termeth the utmost skirt of the world not without cause used these words Oceanum barbaris fluctibus frementem that is The Ocean raging and roaring with barbarous billowes Heere might arise a question beseeming a learned man that hath wit and time at will whether where this narrow sea runneth between France and Britaine now there was a narrow banke or necke of land that in times past conjoyned these regions and afterwards being broken either by the generall deluge or by rushing in of the waves or else by occasion of some earth-quake did let in the waters to make a through passage Verily as no man makes doubt that the face of the whole earth hath beene altered partly by the said deluge and partly by long continuance of time and other causes as also that Ilands by earthquakes or the shrinking back of waters were laid and joyned unto firme lands so most certainly it appeareth by authors of best credite that Ilands by reason of earthquakes and the breaking in of waters were severed disjoyned and rent from the Continent Whereupon Pythagoras in Ovid saith thus Vidi ego quod quondam fuerat solidissima tellus Esse fretum vidi factas ex aequore terras My selfe have seene maine ground sometime turned into sea and sand And seene I have againe the Sea became maine setled land Strabo gathering of things to come by those that are past concluded that such Isthmi neckes or narrow bankes of land both have beene and shall bee wrought and pierced through You see saith Seneca whole regions violently removed from their places and now to lie beyond the Sea which lay before bounding upon it and hard by You see there is separation made both of Countries and nations when as some part of nature is provoked of it selfe or when the mighty wind beateth strongly upon some sea the force whereof as in generall is wonderfull For although it rage but in part yet it is of the universall power that so it rageth Thus hath the sea rent Spaine from the Continent of Africke Thus by Deucalions floud so much spoken of by the greatest Poets was Sicilie out from Italy And hereupon Virgil wrote thus Haec loca vi quondam vasta convulsa ruinâ Tantum aevi longinqua valet mutare vetustas Dissiluisse ferunt cùm protinùs utraque tellus Vna foret venit medio vi pontus undis Hesperium Siculo latus abscidit arvaque urbes Littore diductas angusto interluit aestu
These lands whilom by violence of breach and ruines great Such change makes time and what is it that long time doth not eate A sunder fell men say where as they both in one did grow The Seas brake in by force and through the mids did overthrow Both townes and grounds And Italy forthwith from Sicily side Did cut and them with in-let streight doth still part and divide Plinie sheweth likewise of Isles that Cyprus was rent from Syria Eubaea from Baeotia Besbicus from Bythinia being parts before of the maine land But none of the old writers was ever able to avouch that Britaine was so severed from the Maine onely those verses of Virgil and Claudian before cited by me in the very first entrance into this worke together with the conjecture of Servius Honoratus doe insinuate so much And yet Dominicus Marius Niger and Master Iohn Twin a right learned man and whosoever he was that wrested these verses made of Scicilia unto Britaine are of this opinion Britannia quondam Gallorum pars una fuit sed pontus aestus Mutavere situm rupit confinia Nereus Victor abscissos interluit aequore montes Some time was Britannie A part of France But swelling tides on hie Have changed the site and Nereus he as Conquerour hath torne The confines quite and runnes betweene the cliffs a sounder worne Considering therefore that in this matter there is no assured ground upon certaine authoritie the learned by laying and comparing the like examples in such narrow Seas as this for searching out of the truth propose these and such like points duly to be weighed and considered First whether the nature of the soyle in both shores be the same which verily is found here to be even so For the shore of either side where the distance betweene is narrowest riseth up with loftie cliffes of the same matter as it were and colour so as they may seeme to have beene riven asunder Secondly How great the breadth is of the sea or streight Certes the streight heere is not much broader than either the streight of Gibraltar or of Scicily to wit twenty foure miles over so as at the first sight one would imagine that these lands were severed by the billowes of the raging counter-seas For that the land sunke downeward by earth-quakes I hardly dare thinke seeing that this our Northen climate of the world is seldome shaken with earth-quakes and those when they happen be never great Thirdly How deepe the streight is As the Streight of Sicilie is sounded in depth 80. paces so this of ours exceedeth not 25. fathom whereas the sea on both sides of it is much deeper Fourthly Of what nature the ground is in the bothoms stony sandy beachy or else oasy and muddy And whether there be beds or shelves of sand lying scattered in the said narrow sea I have learned of Sailers that there lieth but one banke and the same in the very mid-channell which at a low water is scarce 3. fathom deepe But within halfe a league to the South-ward it is 27. fathom deepe and to the North-ward 25. Lastly Whether any place in either of the two shores taketh name in the ancient language of a breach a plucking away division separation or such like as Rhegium which standeth upon the Sicilian Streight is named of the Greeke word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is to breake because in that place by the violent force of waves Sicilie was broken off from Italie But thinking as I doe heereof I can meet with none unlesse one would suppose that Vitsan upon the French shore had the name from Gwith which in the British tongue betokeneth a division or separation They that would have Britaine to have been the very continent of Gaule after that universall deluge argue from the wolves whereof there were many among us in old time like as at this day in Scotland and Ireland How say they could there be any of them in Ilands considering that all beasts and living creatures perished which were not in the Arke unlesse a long time after the earth had beene passable throughout and no Isles at all This question busied Saint Augustine but unto it he answereth thus Wolves and other beasts may bee thought to have swome over the sea unto Ilands yet onely to neere adjoyning Ilands as stags yearely for their reliefe and food swim out of Italy into Cicily But some Isles there be so far remote from maine lands that it is to be thought no beast could swim over If it should bee said men caught them and so brought them over with them it carrieth some credit that this might well have beene for the delight they had in hunting Although it cannot bee denied but by the commandement or permission of God even by the worke of Angels they might have beene transported But if so be they sprung out of the earth according to their first originall when as God said Let the earth bring forth a living soule then it appeareth much more evidently that all kind of living creatures were in the Arke not so much for the encrease and reparation of them as to figure out sundry Nations for the sacrament of the church in case the earth brought forth many creatures in those Ilands whereto they can not passe Thus Philosophizeth he Neither is any man able upon this argument to pronounce any thing more sufficiently and exquisitely For me it may suffice that I have propounded thereof let the Reader throughly waigh and examine it And hee that is able in this point to see deepest what is most true verily I will report him a man right skilfull and deepely quick-sighted On the other side in the Firme-land inhabited the MORINI so called in the ancient Gaules tongue as it were Maritimi sive Maris accolae men dwelling upon the Sea-coast or hard by the sea Their countrey is now termed Conto de Guines and Conte de Bolonois and had in old time two places of very great name to wit GESSORIACVM and ITIVM whence as Caesar hath recorded there was the best and most commodious passing out of Gaule or France into Britain and most Authors thinke it was that towne which now they call Callais But that famous and learned man Hospitalius Chancellour of France a very skilfull Antiquary avoucheth that Callais is no ancient towne but was only a small village such as the French-men terme Burgados untill that Philip Earle of Bolen walled it about not very many yeares before the English won it Neither is it red in any place that men tooke shipping there for Britaine before those times I thinke therefore that Itium is to bee sought some where else that is to say below at Vitsan neere unto Blacknesse which we call Whitsan the word sounding not much unlike to Itium For that all men crossed over out of this Iland thither and embarqued there to saile hither wee observed out of our owne histories in so much
rivelet Over the bridge whereof when the Danes with rich spoiles passed as Aethelward writeth in battail-ray the West-Saxons and the Mercians received them with an hote battaile in Woodnesfield where three of their Pettie Kings were slaine namely Heatfden Cinvil and Inguar On the same shore not much beneath standeth Barkley in the Saxon-tongue ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of great name for a most strong Castle a Major who is the Head Magistrate and especially for the Lords thereof descended from Robert-Fitz-Harding to whom King Henry the second gave this place and Barkely Hearnes Out of this house are branched many Knights and Gentlemen of signall note and in the reigne of King Henry the seventh flourished William Lord Barkely who was honoured by King Edward the fourth with the stile of Viscount Barkely by King Richard the third with the honour of Earle of Nottingham in regard of his mother daughter of Thomas Moubray Duke of Norfolke and Earle of Nottingham and by King Henry the Seventh with the office of Marshall of England and dignity of Marquis Barkely But for that he died issuelesse these his titles died together with him If you be willing to know by what a crafty fetch Goodwin Earle of Kent a man most deeply pregnant in devising how to do injury got the possession of this place you may read these few lines out of Wal. Mapaeus who flourished 400. yeares ago and worth the reading believe me they are Barkley neere unto Severn is a towne of 500. pounds revenew In it there was a Nunnery and the Abbesse over these Nunnes was a Noble woman and a beautifull Earle Goodwin by a cunning and subtill wile desiring not her selfe but hers as he passed that way left with her a Nephew of his a very proper and beautifull young Gentleman pretending that hee was sickly untill he returned backe Him he had given this lesson that hee should keepe his bed and in no wise seeme to be recovered untill he had got both her and as many of the Nunnes as hee could with child as they came to visite him And to the end that the young man might obtaine their favour and his owne full purpose when they visited him the Earle gave unto him pretty rings and fine girdles to bestow for favours upon them and thereby to deceive them Hee therefore being willing entred into this course of libidinous pleasure for that the way downe to hell is easie was soone taught his lessons and wisely playeth the foole in that which seemed wise in his own conceit With him they were restant all those things that the foolish virgins could wish for beauty daintie delicates riches faire speech and carefull he was now to single them alone The Devill therefore thrust out Pallas brought in Venus and made the Church of our Saviour and his Saints an accursed Temple of all Idols and the Shrine a very stewes and so of pure Lambes hee made them foule shee-wolves and of pure virgins filthy harlots Now when many of their bellies bare out big and round this youth being by this time over wearied with conquest of pleasure getteth him gone and forthwith bringeth home againe unto his Lord and Master a victorious Ensigne worthy to have the reward of iniquitie and to speake plaine relateth what was done No sooner heard he this but he hieth him to the King enformeth him how the Lady Abbesse of Barkely and her Nuns were great with child and commonly prostitute to every one that would sendeth speciall messengers of purpose for enquirie heereof proveth all that he had said Hee beggeth Berkley of the King his Lord after the Nuns were thrust out and obtained it at his hands and he left it to his wife Gueda but because she her selfe so saith Doomes-day booke would eat nothing that came out of this Manour for that the Nunnery was destroied he purchased for her Vdecester that thereof she might live so long as she made her abode at Barkley Thus wee see a good and honest mind abhorreth whatsoever is evill gotten How King Edward the second being deposed from his Kingdome through the crafty complotting and practise of his wife was made away in the Castle heere by the wicked subtiltie of Adam Bishop of Hereford who wrote unto his keepers these few words without points betweene them Edwardum occidere nolite timere bonum est that by reason of their diverse sense and construction both they might commit the murther and he also cleanly excuse himselfe I had rather you should seeke in Historians than looke for at my hands Beneath this Barkley the little river Avon closely entereth into the Sea at the head whereof scarse eight miles from the waterside upon the hils neere Alderley a small towne there are found certaine stones resembling Coccles or Periwinckles and Oysters which whether they have beene sometimes living creatures or the gamesom sports of Nature I leave it to Philosophers that hunt after natures works But Fracastorius the principall Philosopher in this our age maketh no doubt but that they were living creatures engendred in the Sea and by waters brought to the mountaines For he affirmeth that mountaines were cast up by the Sea with the driving at first of sand into heapes and hillocks also that the sea flowed there where now hilles doe rise aloft and that as the said Sea retired the hilles also were discovered But this is out of my race TRAIECTVS that is The ferry whereof Antonine the Emperour maketh mention over against Abone where they were wont to passe over Severne salt water by boate was in times past as I guesse by the name at Oldbury which is by interpâeââtion The Old Burgh like as we doe ferry in these daies at Aust a little towne somewhat lower This in ancient times was called Aust clive for a great craggy cliffe it is endeed mounting up a great height And verily memorable is the thing which that Mapaeus whom I spake of writeth to have beene done in this place Edward the elder saith he Lay at Austclive and Leolin Prince of Wales at Bethesley now when Leolin would not come downe to parley nor crosse Severn Edward passeth over to Leolin whom when Leolin saw and knew who he was hee cast off his rich robe for hee had prepared himselfe to sit in judgement entred the water brest-high and clasping the boat with an embrace said Most wise and sage King thy humility hath overcome my insolency and thy wisedome triumphed over my folly Come get upon my necke which I have foole as I am lifted up against thee and so shalt thou enter into that land which thy benigne mildnesse hath made thine owne this day and after he had taken him upon his shoulders hee would needs have him sit upon his roabe aforesaid and so putting his owne hands joyntly into his did him homage Upon the same shore also is situate Thornebury where are to be seene the foundations brought up above ground
the East with Essex and the North with Cambridge-shire A rich country in corne fields pastures medows woods groves and cleere riverets And for ancient townes it may contend with the neighbours even for the best For there is scarsely another shire in all England that can shew more places of Antiquities in so small a compasse In the very limit thereof Northward where it boundeth upon Cambridge-shire standeth Roiston a towne well knowne but of no antiquity as being risen since the Normans daies For one Dame Roise a woman in that age of right great name whom some thinke to have been Countesse of Norfolke erected there about a Crosse in the high way which was thought in that age a pious worke to put passengers in minde of Christs passion whereupon this place was for many yeeres called Roises-Crosse untill that Eustach de Marc adjoined thereto a little Monastery in the honour of Thomas of Canterbury for then were Innes built and by little and little it grew to be a towne which in stead of Roises Crosse was called Roiston that is Roises towne unto which King Richard the First granted a Faire at certaine set times and a mercat Now it is very famous and passing much frequented for Malt For it is almost incredible how many buyers and sellers of corne how many Badgers yea and Corne-mongers or Regraters flocke hither weekely every mercat day and what a number of horses loden doe then fill the high waies on every side Over Roiston Southward is mounted Tharfield among the high hils an ancient habitation of the familie of Berners descended from Hugh de Berners unto whom in recompence of his valiant service in the Normans Conquest King William the Conquerour granted faire lands in Eversdon within the county of Cambridge And in so great worship and reputation flourished his posterity that Sir John Bourchier who married the right heire at common law of that familie being promoted by King Edward the Fourth to the honour of Baron tooke his addition thereof and was stiled Baron Bourchier of Berners and usually Lord Berners Upon this confineth Nucelles belonging in times past to the house of the Rochesters or Roffes but all the repute and glory that it hath arose from the inhabitants thereof afterwards namely the Barons of Scales descended out of Norfolke but yet the heires of Roffe For King Edward the First gave unto Sir Robert de Scales in regard of his valourous service in the Scotish warres certaine lands to the value in those daies of three hundred markes by the yeare and called him among the Barons to the Parliament Their Eschocheon Gules with sixe escallops argent is seene in many places They flourished unto King Edward the Fourth his daies at what time the only daughter and heire of this family was wedded vnto Sir Anthonie Widevile Earle Rivers whom being advanced by his owne glorious prowesse and the kings marriage with his sister the malicious hatred and envie of his enemies most vilanouslie overwrought and brought to utter destruction For King Richard the Third beheaded him innocent man as he was And when as she died without issue the inheritance was parted in King Henry the Sevenths time betweene Iohn Earle of Oxford who by the Howards and Sir William Tindale knight who by the Bigods of Felbridge were found next cousens and coheires The Manour of Barkway hereby appertained also to those Lords Scales a well knowne throughfare Beyond which is Barley that imparted surname to the ancient and well allied family of the Barleies and on this side Anestie which was not long since the inheritance of the house of Yorke and in elder times the Castle there was a nest of rebels wherefore Nicholas of Anesty Lord thereof was expresly commanded by King Henry the Third to demolish so much of it as was raised since the Barons warres against his Father King John But now time hath wholy rased it all To returne though disorderly East-ward is Ashwell as one would say The well or fountaine among the Ashes a Country towne of good bignesse and full of houses situate on a low ground in the very North edge of the shire where there is a source of springs bubling out of a stony banke overshadowed on every side with tall ashes from whence there floweth at certaine veines continually running such store of water that forthwith being gathered within banks it carrieth a streame able to drive a Mill and all of a sudden as it were groweth to a good big river Of these wels and ashes together as most certaine it is that the English-Saxons imposed this new name Ashwell so I have been sometime of this opinion that the ancient Britans who as Gildas witnesseth heaped divine honours upon hils rivers fountaines and groves from the very same thing and in the same sense called it Magiovinium and that it was the same which Antonine named MAGIONINIVM But time hath now discovered a more certaine truth neither am I ashamed to change mine opinion in this point seeing I take no pleasure at all in mine owne error And yet to prove the ancientnesse of this towne the large quadrant adjoyning enclosed with a trench and rampire maketh much which by the Romane peeces of coyne digged up there oftentimes sheweth whose worke it was and in that booke wherein above 500. yeeres since King William the Conquerour tooke the review and account of all the townes in England it is in plaine words tearmed a Burgh Southward we saw Merkat-Baldock situate upon a whitish soile wherein as also in Hitching hard by we read of no antiquity Then is there seated in a well-husbanded and good ground Wimondley an ancient and famous Lordship held by the most honourable tenure with us which our Lawyers terme Grand-Sergeanty namely that the Lord thereof should serve unto the Kings of England upon their Coronation day the first cup and be as it were the Kings Cup-bearer Which honorable office in regard of this Lordship certaine Noble Gentlemen called Fitz-Tek held in the beginning of the Normans reigne from whom by a daughter it came unto the Argentons These fetched their name and pedegree from David de Argenton a Norman and a martiall knight who under King William the Conquerour served in the wars and they in remembrance heereof gave for their armes Three Cups Argent in a shield Gueules But at last for want of issue male in King Henry the Sixth his daies Elizabeth Argenton the sole and entier inheritrice brought it unto her husband Sir William Allington knight with faire lands thereby and this dignity from whom Sir Giles Allington now the heire of this family is the seventh a young Gentleman right courteous and of a generous nature who I hope will give some new lustre by his vertues unto the ancient worship of his house Hard by and neere unto the roade high-way betweene Stevenhaugh and Knebworth the seat of the worshipfull house of the
ceciderunt lumina saevo Thousands of torments when he had endur'd for Christ his sake At length he dyed by dome thus given his head away to take The Tortor proudly did the feat but cleere he went not quite That holy Martyr lost his head this cruell wretch his sight In reproch of this Martyr and for the terrour of Christians as wee finde in an old Agon of his the Citizens of Verulam engraved his Martyrdome in a Marble stone and inserted the same in their walles But afterwards when the bloud of Martyrs had conquered Tyrants cruelty the Christians built a Church as Bede saith of wondrous workmanship in memoriall of him and Verulam carried with it so great an opinion of Religion that there in was holden a Synode or Councell in the yeere of the worlds Redemption 429. when as the Pelagian Heresie by meanes of Agricola sonne to the Bishop Severianus had budded forth a fresh into this Island and polluted the British Churches so as that to averre and maintaine the truth they sent for German Bishop of Auxerre and Lupus Bishop of Troies out of France who by refuting this heresie gained unto themselves a reverend account among the Britans but chiefly German who hath thorowout this Island many Churches dedicated to his memory And nere unto the ruined wals of this rased city there remaineth yet a Chappell bearing S. Germans name still although it be put to a prophane use in which place he openly out of the Pulpit preached Gods word as the ancient records of S. Albans church do testifie Which German as Constantius flourishing in that time writeth in his life commanded the Sepulchre of Saint Albane to bee opened and therein bestowed certaine Reliques of Saints that whom one heaven had received should also in one Sepulchre bee together lodged Thus much I note by the way that yee may observe and consider the fashions of that age Not long after the English Saxons wonne it but Uther the Britan firnamed for his serpentine wisedome Pendragon by a sore siege and a long recovered it After whose death it fell againe into their hands For we may easily gather out of Gildas words that the Saxons in his daies were possessed of this City God saith hee hath lighted unto us the most cleere Lamps of holy Saints the Sepulchres of whose bodies and places of their Martyrdome at this day were they not taken away by the woefull disseverance which the barbarous enemy hath wrought amongst us for our many grievous sinnes might kindle no small heat of divine charity in the mindes of the beholders Saint Albane of Verulam I meane c. When Verulam by these warres was utterly decaied Offa the most mighty King of the Mercians built just over against it about the yeere of our Lord 795. in a place which they called Holmehurst a very goodly and large Monastery in memory of Saint Alban or as wee reade in the very Charter thereof Unto our Lord Iesus Christ and S. Alban Martyr whose Reliques Gods grace hath revealed in hope of present prosperity and future happinesse and forthwith with the Monastery there rose a Towne which of him they call Saint Albans This King Offa and the succeeding Kings of England assigned unto it very faire and large possessions and obtained for it at the hands of the Bishops of Rome as ample priviledges which I will relate out of our Florilegus that yee may see the profuse liberality of Princes toward the Church Thus therefore writeth he Offa the most puissant King gave unto Saint Alban the Protomartyr that Towne of his ancient Demesne which standeth almost twenty miles from Verulam and is named Uneslaw with as much round about as the Kings written Deedes at this day doe witnesse that are to bee seene in the foresaid Monastery which Monastery is priviledged with so great liberty that it alone is quite from paying that Apostolicall custome and rent which is called Rom-scot whereas neither King nor Archbishop Bishop Abbat Prior nor any one in the Kingdome is freed from the payment thereof The Abbat also or monke appointed Archdeacon under him hath pontificall Jurisdiction over the Priests and Lay-men of all the possessions belonging to this Church so as he yeeldeth subjection to no Archbishop Bishop or Legate save only to the Pope of Rome This likewise is to be knowne that Offa the Magnificent King granted out of his Kingdome a set rent or imposition called Rom-scot to Saint Peters Vicar the Bishop of Rome and himselfe obtained of the said Bishop of Rome that the Church of Saint Alban the Protomartyr of the English nation might faithfully collect and being so collected reserve to their proper use the same Rom-scot throughout all the Province of Hertford in which the said Church standeth Whence it is that as the Church it selfe hath from the King all royall priviledges so the Abbot of that place for the time being hath all Pontificall ornaments Pope Hadrian also the fourth who was borne hard by Verulam granted this indulgence unto the Abbats of this Monasterie I speake the very words out of the Priviledge that as Saint Alban is distinctly knowne to be the Protomartyr of the English nation so the Abbat of this Monastery should at all times among other Abbats of England in degree of dignitie be reputed first and principall Neither left the Abbats ought undone that might serve either for use or ornament who filled up with earth a mighty large poole under Verulam which I spake of The name whereof yet remaineth still heere in a certaine street of the towne named Fish-poole-streete Neere unto which streete because certaine ankers were in our remembrance digged up divers have verily thought induced thereunto by a corrupt place in Gildas that the river Tamis sometimes had his course and chanell this way But of this Meere or Fish-poole have heere what an old Historian hath written Abbot Alfrike for a great peece of money purchased a large and deepe pond an evill neighbour and hurtfull to Saint Albans Church which was called Fish-poole appertaining to the Kings And the Kings officers and fishers molested the Abbay and burdened the Monkes thereby Out of which poole he the said Abbot in the end drained and derived the water and made it dry ground If I were disposed upon the report of the common people to reckon up what great store of Romane peeces of coine how many cast images of gold and silver how many vessels what a sort of modules or Chapiters of pillars and how many wonderfull things of antique worke have been digged up my words would not carry credit The thing is so incredible Yet take with you some few particulars thereof upon the credite of an ancient Historiographer Ealred the Abbot in the reigne of King Eadgar having searched for the ancient vaults under ground at Verulam overthrew all About the yeere of Christ 960. and stopped up all the waies with passages under ground which were strongly and
thing recorded to posterity by an inscription which continued there a long time engraven in Brasse On this North-West side likewise London hath other great Suburbs and there stood in old time a Watchtowre or military Forefense whence the place was of an Arabicke word called Barbacan and by the gift of King Edward the Third became the dwelling house of the Vffords from whom by the Willoughbies it came to Sir Pengrine Bertey Lord Willoughbey of Eresby a man noble and generous and one of Mars his broode Neither lesse Suburbs runne out on the North-East and East In the fields of which Suburbs whiles I was first writing these matters there were gotten out of the ground many urnes funerall vessels little Images and earthen pots wherein were small peeces of money coined by Claudius Nero Vespasian c. Glasse vials also and sundry small earthen vessels wherein some liquid substance remained which I would thinke to bee either of that sacred oblation of Wine and Milke which the ancient Romanes used when they burnt the dead or else those odoriferous liquours that Statius mentioneth Pharijque liquores Arsuram lavere comam And liquid baulmes from Aegypt-land that came Did wash his haire that ready was for flame This place the Romanes appointed to burne and bury dead bodies who according to the law of the xij Tables carried Coarses out of their Cities and enterred them by the high waies sides to put Passengers in minde that they are as those were subject to mortality Thus much of that part of the City which lieth to the Land Now for that side where the River runneth toward the South banke thereof the Citizens made a Bridge also over the Water reaching to that large Burrough of Southwarke whereof I have already spoken First of wood in that place where before time they used for passage a ferry boat in stead of a Bridge Afterwards under the Raigne of King John they built a new Bridge with admirable workmanship of stone hewen out of the Quarry upon 19. Arches beside the draw-bridge and so furnished it on both sides with passing faire houses joyning one to another in manner of a Street that for bignesse and beauty it may worthily carry away the prise from all the Bridges in Europe In this Burgh of Southwarke to speake onely of things memorable there stood sometime a famous Abbay of Monkes of Saint Benets Order called Bermondsey consecrated in times past unto our Saviour by Aldwin Childe Citizen of London also a stately house built by Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolke which having served his turne but a small time was shortly after pulled downe These are extant Saint Thomas Hospitall reedified or founded rather by the City of London for the sustenance of feeble and impotent persons The Priory of the blessed Virgin Mary called Saint Mary Over Rhe because it standeth beyond the River of Tamis in regard of London erected by William Pont del Arche a Norman for blacke Chanons The Bishops house of Winchester built by William Giffard Bishop for his Successours about the yeare of our Lord 1107. From which along the Tamis banke there runneth Westward a continued raunge of dwelling houses where within our fathers remembrance was the Bordello or Lupanarie for so the Latines terme those little roomes or secret chambers of harlots wherein they filthily prostituted their bodies to sale because they after the manner of ravening she-wolves catch hold of silly wretched men and plucke them into their holes But these were prohibited by King Henry the Eighth at which time England was growne to excessive lasciviousnesse and riot which in other Nations are continued for gaine under a specious shew of helping mans infirmity Neither of these Strumpets and brothel-houses doe I thinke that this place in our tongue tooke the name Stewes but of those Ponds or Stewes which are heere to feed Pikes and Tenches fat and to scowre them from the strong and muddy fennish taste Heere have I seene Pikes panches opened with a knife to shew their fatnesse and presently the wide gashes and wounds come together againe by the touch of Tenches and with their glutinous slime perfectly healed up Among these buildings there is a place in manner of a Theater for baiting of Beares and Buls with Dogges and certaine kenels appointed severally for Band-Dogges or Mastives which are of that strength and so sure of bit that three of them are able to take and hold downe a Beare and foure a Lion so that the Poet in old time reported truely of our Dogges in these words Taurorum fracturi colla Britanni The British Dogges are able well To breake the neckes of Buls so fell Like as he that said they were more fierce than the Dogges of Arcadian kinde which are thought to be engendred of Lions What time as the Bridge was thus made betweene London and this Burrough the City was not onely enlarged but also an excellent forme of Common wealth was therein ordained and the Citizens reduced into certaine distinct Corporations and Companies The whole City divided into six and twenty Wards and the Counsell of the City consisted of as many ancient men named of their age in our tongue Aldermen as one would say Senatours who each one have the overseeing and rule of his severall Ward and whereas in ancient time they had for their Head-Magistrate a Portreve that is a Governour of the City King Richard the First ordained two Ballives in stead of whom soone after King John granted them liberty to chuse by their voices yearely out of the twelve principall Companies a Major for their chiefe Magistrate also two Sheriffes whereof the one is called the Kings the other the Cities Sheriffe This forme of Common wealth being thus established it is incredible to tell how much London grew and groweth still in publike and also private buildings whiles all the Cities of England besides decrease For to say nothing of that beautifull peece of worke the Senatâ house named Guild Hall built by Sir Thomas Knowles Major Leaden Hall a large and goodly building erected by Simon Eire to bee a common Garner in time of dearth to pull downe the price of Corne the Merchants meeting place standing upon Pillars which the common people call the Burse and Queene Elizabeth with a solemne ceremony named The Royall Exchange for the use of Merchants and an ornament to the City set up by Sir Thomas Gresham Citizen and knight a magnificent worke verily whether you respect the modull of the building the resort of Merchants from all Nations thâther or the store of wares there Which Sir Thomas Gresham being withall an exceeding great lover of learning consecrated a most spacious house his owne habitation to the furtherance of learning and instituted there Professours of Divinity Law Physicke Astronomy Geometry and Musicke with liberall salaries and stipends to the end that London might be a place
not onely furnished with all sorts of Traffique but also with the liberall Arts and Sciences To passe over the House of the Society of the House commonly called the Stilyard as the Easterlings yard and the waters conveighed by pipes under the ground into all parts of the City and very goodly conducts or cisternes castellated to receive the same also the new conveyance of water devised by the skilfull travell of Peer Maurice a German who by meanes of a forcer or wheele with pipes placed at a certaine levell brought water of late out of the Tamis into a great part of the City To omit all these I say it is so adorned every where with Churches that RELIGION and GODLINESSE seem to have made choise of their residence herein For the Churches therein amount to the number of one hundred twenty and one more verily than Româ it selfe as great and holy as it is can shew Besides Hospitals for diseased persons it maintaineth also sixe hundred Orphane children or thereabout in Christs Church Hospitall and poore people upon contribution of Almes about 1240. c. A long time it would aske to discourse particularly of the good lawes and orders of the laudable government of the port and dignity of the Major and Aldermen of their forward service and loyalty to their Prince of the Citizens courtesie the faire building and costly furniture the breed of excellent and choise wits their gardens in the Suburbs full of dainty arbours and banqueting roomes stored also with strange herbes from forraigne countries of the multitude strength and furniture of their ships the incredible store of all sorts of Merchandise two hundred thousand broad-clothes beside other Anâwerp alone hath received from hence every yeare and of the superabundance of all things which belong to the furniture or necessity of mans life For right truly wrote that Hadrianus Iunius in his Philippeis Tectiâ opibúsque refertum Londinum si fas numeroso cive superbum Larga ubi foecundo rerum undat copia cornu Thicke built with houses London is with riches stuffed full Proud if we may so say of men that therein live and dwell Wherein most plenteous wise abound all things that tongue can tell And Iul. Scaliger in his Poem of Cities Vrbs animis numeróque potens râbore gentiâ For peoples courage numbers power it is a City strong And another Poet hath powred out these Verses also concerning London if you deigne to reade them LONDINUM gemino procurrit littore longè Aemula materna tollens sua lumina Troia Clementer surgente jugo dum teâdit in ortum Urbs peramaena situ coelóque solóque beata Urbs pietate potens numeroso cive superba Urbsque Britannorum quae digna BRITANNIA dici Haec nova doctrinis Lutetia mercibus Ormus Altera Roma viris Chrysaea secunda metallis Along both bankes out stretched farre the Citie LONDON lies Resembling much her mother Troie aloft she lifts her eies Whiles on a gentle rising hill she beareth toward East A City pleasant for her site in aire and soile much blest Religious and populous and hence she lookes on hie And well deserves for to be cal'd the Britans Britanie For learning new Lutetia Ormus for Traffique mich A second Rome for valiant men Chrysae for metals rich In this manner likewise versified Henry of Huntingdon in praise of London while King Stephen raigned about foure hundered yeares since Ibis in nostros dives Londonia versus Quae nos immemores non sinis esse tui Quando tuas arces tua moenia mente retracto Quae vidi videor cuncta videre mihi Famaâ loquax nat a loqui moritura silendo Laudibus crubait fingere falsa tuis Thou also shalt of Verses ours Rich London have thy part For why we cannot thee forget so great is thy desart When I thinke of thy stately Towres thy faire and spacious Wall Which I have seene me thinkes therewith I see no * lesse then all This pratling fame that 's borne to prate and talk'd she not would dye In all the praise that goes of thee hath bash'd to tell one lye Another Poet in like manner pleasantly played upon London in this sort Hac Urbs illa potens cui tres tria dona ministrant Bacchus Apollo Ceres pocula carmen ador Hac Urbs illa potens quam Iuno Minerva Diana Mercibus arce feris ditat adornat alit This is that City strong to which three gifts are given by three By Bacchus Ceres and Phoebus Wine Wheat and Poetree This place sterne Pallas Iuno Queene Diana Hunters-feer Adorn's enricheth and doth feed with towres with wares with deer But in a more grave note and serious stile a friend of mine and a praise worthy person Master Iohn Ionston Professor of Divinity in the Kings University of S. Andrewes URBS AUGUSTA cui coelúmque solúmque salúmque CuÃque favent cunctis cuncta elementa bonis Mitius haud usquà m coelum est uberrima Tellus Fundit inexhausti germina laeta soli Et pater Oceanus Tamisino gurgite mistus Convehit immensas totius orbis opes Regali cultu sedes clarissima Regum Gentis praesidium cor anima atque oculus Gens antiqua potens virtute robore belli Artium omnigenûm nobilitata opibus Singula contemplare animo attentúsque tuere Aut Orbem aut Orbis dixeris esse caput This City well AUGUSTA call'd to which a truth to say Aire Land Sea and all Elements shew favour every way The weather no where milder is the ground most rich to see Doth yeeld all fruits of fertile soile that never spent will bee And Ocean that with Tams streame his flowing tyde doth blend Conveis to it commodities all that the world can send The noble seat of Kings it is for port and roialty Of all the Realme the fence the heart the life and lightsome ey The people ancient valorous expert in chivalry Enriched with all sorts and meanes of Art and mysterie Take heedfull view of every thing and then say thus in briefe This either is a world it selfe or of the world the chiefe But of these and such like particulars Iohn Stowe Citizen of London and a famous Chronicler hath discoursed more at large and more exactly in that his Survey of London which he lately published Now will I take my leave of my deere native Country and bid London a diew after I have given this onely note that the Pole is here elevated fiftie one degrees and foure and thirty scruples and the Meridian distant from the farthest West-poynt three and twenty degrees and five and twenty scruples That the Fidicula symbolizing in nature with Venus and Mercurie is the Tropick starre which glanceth upon the Horizon but never setteth and the Dragons head is reputed by Astronomers to be the Verticall starre over head From London the Tamis watering Redcliff so called of the Red-cliffe a prety fine Towne and dwelling place of Sailers as
he fetcheth almost a round compasse with a great winding reach taketh into him the River Lea at the east bound of this Countie when it hath collected his divided streame and cherished fruitfull Marish-medowes Upon which there standeth nothing in this side worth the speaking of For neither Aedelmton hath ought to shew but the name derived of Nobility nor Waltham unlesse it be the Crosse erected there for the funerall pompe of Queene Aeleonor Wife to King Edward the First whereof also it tooke name Onely Enfeld a house of the Kings is here to be seene built by Sir Thomas Lovel knight of the order of the Garter and one of King Henry the Seventh his Privy Counsell and Durance neighbour thereunto a house of the Wrothes of ancient name in this Countie To Enfeld-house Enfeld-chace is hard adjoyning a place much renowned for hunting the possession in times past of the Magnavils Earles of Essex afterwards of the Bohuns who succeeded them and now it belongeth to the Duchie of Lancaster since the time that Henry the Fourth King of England espoused one of the daughters and coheires of Humfrey Bohun Earle of Hereford and Essex of that surname And there are yet to be seene in the middest well nere of this Chase the rubbish and ruines of an old house which the vulgar sort saith was the dwelling place of the Magnavils Earles of Essex As for the title of Midlesex the Kings of England have vouchsafed it to none neither Duke Marquis Earle or Baron In this County without the City of London are reckoned Parishes much about 73. Within the City Liberties and Suburbes 121. ESSEXIA COMITATVS QVEM olim TRINOBANTES tenuerunt Continens in se opida marcatoria xx Pagos et Villas ccccxiiii vna Cunt singulis hundredis et flu minibus in âodem ESSEX THE other part of the Trinobantes toward the East called in the English Saxon tongue ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in the Norman language Exssesa of the situation toward the East and the Saxons which inhabited it and commonly Essex is a Country large in compasse fruitfull full of Woods plentifull of Saffron and very wealthy encircled as it were on the one side with the maine Sea on the other with fishfull Rivers which also doe affoord their peculiar commodities in great abundance On the North side the River Stour divideth it from Suffolke on the East the Ocean windeth it selfe into it On the South part the Tamis being now growne great secludeth it from Kent like as in the West part the little River Ley from Midlesex and Stort or Stour the lesse which runneth into it from Hertfordshire In describing of this Country according to my methode begunne first I will speake of the memorable places by Ley and the Tamis afterwards of those that bee further within and upon the Sea-coast By Ley in the English Saxon Tongue ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã there stretcheth out a great way in length and breadth a Forest serving for game stored very full with Deere that for their bignesse and fatnesse withall have the name above all other In times past called it was by way of excellency Foresta de Essex now Waltham Forest of the towne Waltham in the Saxons speech ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã A wilde or wooddy habitation This standeth upon Ley where by dividing his Chanell hee maketh divers Eights or Islands and is not of any great Antiquity to make boast of For when the Kingdome of the Saxons beganne to decay one Tovie a man of great wealth and authority as wee reade in the private History of the place The Kings Staller that is Standerd bearer for the abundance of wilde beasts there first founded it and planted threescore and sixe indwellers therein After his death Athelstane his sonne quickly made a hand of all his goods and great estate and King Edward the Confessour gave this Towne to Harold Earle Goodwins sonne and streight wayes an Abbay was erected there the worke and Tombe both of the said Harold For he being crept up by the errour of men and his owne ambition to regall Dignity built this Abbay in honour of an Holy Crosse found farre Westward and brought hither as they write by miracle Heerein made he his prayers and vowes for victory when hee marched against Normans and being soone after slaine by them was by his mother who had with most suppliant suite craved and obtained at the Conquerours hands his Corps here entombed But now it hath a Baron namely Sir Edward Deny called lately unto that honour by King Iames his Writ Over this Towne upon the rising of an Hill standeth Copthall and yeeldeth a great way off a faire sight to seed mens eyes This was the habitation in times past of Fitz-Aucher and lately of Sir Thomas Heneage Knight who made it a very goodly and beautifull house Neere unto this River also was seated no doubt DUROLITUM a Towne of antique memory which the Emperour Antonine maketh mention of but in what place precisely I am not able to shew For the ancient places of this County I tell you once for all before hand lye hidden so enwrapped in obscurity that I who elsewhere could see somewhat heerein am heere more than dim-sighted But if I may give my guesse I would thinke that to have beene DUROLITUM which retaining still some marke of the old name is called at this day Leyton that is The Towne upon Ley like as Durolitum in the British Tongue signifieth The water Ley. A small Village it is in these daies inhabited in scattering wise five miles from London for which five through the carelesse negligence of transcribers is crept into Antonine xv That there was a common passage heere in times past over the River a place nigh unto it called Ouldfourd seemeth to proove in which when Queene Mawd wife to King Henry the First hardly escaped danger of drowning shee gave order that a little beneath at Stretford there should bee a Bridge made over the water There the River brancheth into three severall streames and most pleasantly watereth on every side the greene medowes wherein I saw the remaines of a little Monasterie which William Montfichet a Lord of great name of the Normans race built in the yeere of our Lord 1140. and forthwith Ley gathering it selfe againe into one chanell mildely dischargeth it selfe in the Tamis whereupon the place is called Leymouth The Tamis which is mightily by this time encreased doth violently carry away with him the streames of many waters hath a sight to speake onely of what is worth remembrance of Berking which Bede nameth Berecing a Nunnery founded by Erkenwald Bishop of London where Roding a little River entreth into the Tamis This running hard by many Villages imparteth his name unto them as Heigh Roding Eithorp Roding Leaden Roding c. of the which Leofwin a Nobleman gave one or two in times past to
were in amity and league founded every one in his owne Kingdome Cities named Caesareae in honour of Augustus What if I should say that CAESAROMAGUS did stand neere unto Brentwood would not a learned Reader laugh at me as one Soothsayer doth when he spieth another Certes no ground I have nor reason to strengthen this my conjecture from the distance thereof seeing the numbers of the miles in Antonine be most corruptly put downe which neverthelesse agree well enough with the distance from COLONIA and CANONIUM Neither can I helpe my selfe with any proofe by the situation of it upon the Roman high-way which in this enclosed country is no where to be seene Neither verily there remaineth heere so much as a shadow or any twinkling shew of the name CAESAROMAGUS unlesse it be and that is but very sclender in the name of an Hundred which of old time was called Ceasford and now Cheasford Hundred Surely as in some ancient Cities the names are a little altered and in others cleane changed so there be againe wherein one syllable or twaine at most bee remaining thus CAESARAUGUSTA in Spaine is now altered to be Saragosa CAESAROMAGUS in France hath lost the name cleane and is called Beavois and CAESAREA in Normandy now Cherburg hath but one syllable left of it But what meane I thus to trifle and to dwell in this point If in this quarter hereby there bee not CAESAROMAGUS let others seeke after it for me It passeth my wit I assure you to finde it out although I have diligently laid for to meet with it with net and toile both of eares and eies Beneath Brentwood I saw South-Okindon where dwelt the Bruins a Family as famous as any one in this Tract out of the two heires female whereof being many times married to sundry husbands Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolke the Tirels Berners Harlestones Heveninghams and others descended And of that house there be males yet remaining in South-hampton-shire Also Thorndon where Sir John Petre Knight raised a goodly faire house who now was by our Soveraigne King James created Baron Petre of Writtle That Thorndon was in times past the dwelling place of a worshipfull Family of Fitzlewis the last of which name if we may beleeve the common report by occasion that the house happened to be set on fire in the time of his wedding feast was pittiously himselfe therein burnt to death Burghsted and more short Bursted that is the place of a Burgh which name our forefathers used to give unto many places that were of greater antiquity This I once supposed to have been CAESAROMAGUS and what ever it was in old time it is at this day but a good country Towne neere unto Byliricay a Mercat towne of very good resort Likewise Ashdowne sometimes Assandun that is as Marian interpreteth it the Mount of Asses where long since a bloudy battaile was fought in which King Edmund sirnamed Ironside had at the beginning a good hand of the Danes and put them to rout but streight waies the fortune of the field turning about he was so defeited that he lost a great number of the English Nobility In memoriall of which battaile we reade that King Canutus the Dane built a Church afterward in that place what time as upon remorse and repentance for the bloud that he had shed hee erected Chappels in what part soever he had fought any field and shed Christian bloud Not farre from these is Ralegh a prety proper towne and it seemeth to be Raganeia in Domesday booke wherein is mention made of a Castle that Suenus heere built in which also we read thus There is one Parke and sixe Arpennes of Vineyard and it yeeldeth twenty Modij of wine if it take well Which I note the rather both for the French word Arpenn and also for the wine made in this Isle This Suenus was a man of great name and of noble birth the sonne of Robert sonne of Wiwarc but father to Robert of Essex whose son was that Sir Robert de Essex who in right of inheritance was the Kings Standard bearer and who for that in a light skirmish against the Welsh hee had not onely cast off his courage but also cast away his Standard being chalenged for treason vanquished in duell or combat and thereof thrust into a Cloystre forfeited a goodly patrimony and livelod which was confiscate to King Henry the Second and helped to fill his Coffers As for the Barony it lay dead from that time a great while in the Kings hands untill Sir Hubert de Burgh obtained it of King John Above this the shores retiring backe by little and little admit two creekes of the Ocean entring within them the one the neighbour inhabitants call Crouch the other Blackwater which in old time was named Pant. In the said Crouch by reason of the waters division there lie scattered foure Islands carrying a pleasant greene hew but by occasion of inundations growne to be morish and fenny among which these two bee of greatest name Wallot and Foulenesse that is The Promontory of Fowles which hath a Church also in it and when the sea is at the lowest ebbe a man may ride over to it Betweene these Creekes lieth Dengy Hundred in ancient times Dauncing passing plentifull in grasse and rich in Cattaile but Sheepe especially where all their doing is in making of Cheese and there shall ye have men take the womens office in hand and milke Ewes whence those huge thicke Cheeses are made that are vented and sould not onely into all parts of England but into forraigne nations also for the rusticall people labourers and handicraftes men to fill their bellies and feed upon The chiefe Towne heereof at this day is Dengy so called as the Inhabitants are perswaded of the Danes who gave name unto the whole Hundred Neere unto which is Tillingham given by Ethelbert the first Christian King of the English-Saxons unto the Church of Saint Paul in London and higher up to the North shore flourished sometimes a City of ancient Record which our forefathers called Ithancestre For Ralph Niger writeth thus out of S. Bede Bishop Chad baptized the East-Saxons neere to Maldon in the City of Ithancestre that stood upon the banke of the River Pant which runneth hard by Maldon in Dengy Province but now is that City drowned in the River Pant. To point out the place precisely I am not able but I nothing doubt that the River called Froshwell at this day was heeretofore named Pant seeing that one of the Springs thereof is called Pantswell and the Monkes of Coggeshall so termed it Doubtlesse this Ithancester was situate upon the utmost Promontory of this Dengy Hundred where in these daies standeth Saint Peters upon the wall For along this shore much a doe have the inhabitants to defend their grounds with forced bankes or walls against the violence of the Ocean ready to inrush upon them And I my selfe am partly of this
minde that this Ithancester was that OTHONA where a Band of the Fortenses with their Captaine in the declination of the Romane Empire kept their station or Guard under the Comes or Lieutenant of the Saxon-shore against the depredations of the Saxon Rovers For the altering of OTHONA to ITHANA is no hard straining and the situation thereof upon a Creeke into which many Rivers are discharged was for this purpose very fit and commodious and yet heere remaineth a huge ruine of a thicke Wall whereby many Romane Coines have beene found It seemeth not amisse to set downe how King Edward the Confessour graunted by a briefe Charter the keeping of this Hundred to Ranulph Peperking which I will willingly heere annex to the end that wee who sift every pricke and accent of the law may see the upright simplicity and plaine dealing of that age And thus goeth the tenour of it as it was taken forth of the Kings Records in the Exchequer but by often exemplifying and copying it out some words are mollified and made more familiar Iche Edward Koning Have given of my Forrest the keeping Of the Hundred of Chelmer and Dancing To Randolph Peperking and to his kindling With heorte and hinde doe and bocke Hare and Foxe Cat and Brocke Wild Fowell with his flocke Partrich Fesant hen and Fesant cocke With green and wilde stob and stocke To kepen and to yemen by all her might Both by day and eke by night And Hounds for to hold Good and swift and bolde Four Greahounds and six racches For Hare and Foxe and wild Cattes And therefore ich made him my booke Witnesse the Bishop Wolston And booke ylered many on And Swein of Essex our Brother And teken him many other And our Stiward Howelin That by sought me for him This was the plaine dealing trueth and simplicity of that age which used to make all their assurances whatsoever in a few lines and with a few gilt Crosses For before the comming in of the Normans as wee read in Ingulphus writings Obligatory were made firme with golden Crosses and other small signes or markes but the Normans began the making of such Bils and Obligations with a Print or Seale in wax set to with every ones speciall Signet under the expresse entituling of three or foure Witnesses Before time many houses and land thereto passed by grant and bargaine without script Charter or Deede onely with the Landlords sword or helmet with his horne or cup. Yea and many Tenements were demised with a spurre or horse-cury-combe with a bowe and some with an arrow In the Creeke of Blackwater which as I said closeth the North side of this Hundred and is stored with those dainty Oysters which wee call Walfleot Oysters their run two Rivers that water a great part of the Shire Chelmer and Froshwell The River Chelmer flowing out of the inner part of the country which is woody runneth downe first by Thaxted a little Mercate Towne seated very pleasantly upon an high rising hill also by Tiltey where Maurice Fitz-Gilbert founded in times past a small Abbay unto Estanues ad Turrim now Eston which noble Gentleman sirnamed De Lovaine inhabited as descended from Godfrey of Lovaine brother to Henry the Sixth of that name Duke of Brabant who being sent hither to keepe the Honor of Eye his posterity flourished among the Peeres of this Realme to the time of King Edward the Third when the heire generall was married into the house of Bourchier Thence it glideth downe to Dunmow of old time called Dunmawg and in the Tax booke of England Dunmaw a Towne pleasantly situate upon an hill with a prety gentle fall Where one Juga founded a Priory in the yeare 1111. But William Bainard of whom Juga held thus we finde it written in the private history of this Church the Village of little Dunmow by felony lost his Barony and King Henry the First gave it to Robert the sonne of Richard sonne to Gislebert Earle of Clare and to his heires with the honour of Bainards Castle in London which Robert at that time was King Henries Sewar These be the very words of the Author neither doe I thinke it lawfull for me to alter or reforme them otherwise than they are although there be in them some ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is a putting or mistaking of one time for another a thing that we meet with otherwhiles in the best Historiographers For there had not beene as then any Earle of Clare in the family of Clare Now let us for a while digresse and goe aside a little on either hand from the River Not farre from hence is Plaisy seated so called in French of Pleasing in times past named Estre the habitation both in the last yeeres of the English Saxons and also afterwards of the great Constables of England as witnesseth Ely booke At this towne the first William Mandevill Earle of Essex beganne a Castle and two Princes of great authority Thomas of Woodstocke Duke of Glocester and Earle of Essex who founded heere a College and Iohn Holland Earle of Huntingdon brother to King Richard the Second by the mothers side deprived of lost honorable title of Duke of Excester when they could not keepe a meane betweene froward stubbernesse and servile obsequiousnesse found thence their subversion For Thomas upon his rash and head-strong contumacy was on a sudden violently carryed from hence to Calice and there smothered and John for a seditious conspiracy was beheaded in this place by King Henry the Fourth that hee might seeme to have beene justly punished by way of satisfaction for the said Thomas of Woodstocke of whose death hee was thought to bee the principall practiser and procurer From thence passeth Chelmer downe not farre from Leez a little Abbay of old time founded by the Gernons which at this day is the chiefe seat of the Barons Rich who acknowledge themselves for this dignity beholden to Richard Rich a most wise and judicious person Lord Chancellor of England under King Edward the Sixth who in the first yeere of his raigne created him Baron Rich. A little beneath standeth Hatfield Peverell so denominated of Randulph Peverell the owner thereof who had to wife a Lady of incomparable beauty in those daies the daughter of Ingelricke a man of great nobility among the English-Saxons This Lady founded heere a College which now is in manner quite plucked downe and in a window of the Church whereof there remaineth still a small part lyeth entombed She bare unto her husband William Peverell Castellane of Dover Sir Payne Peverell Lord of Brun in the County of Cambridge and unto King William the Conquerour whose Paramore shee was William Peverell Lord of Nottingham But now returne we to Chelmer which by this time speedeth it selfe to Chelmerford commonly Chensford where by the distance of the place from CAMALODUNUM it may seeme that old CANONIUM sometimes stood This is a good bigge Towne situate in the
beasts being found have deceived very many hee passed over the Tamis and put to flight the Britans who upon the banke received and encountred him as he came toward them and wonne with ease this Camalodunum the Kings seat For which exploit after hee had named his sonne BRITANNICUS and beene himselfe oftentimes saluted Imperator within sixe moneths after he set first forth in his voyage returned to Rome But heereof have I have written before more at large neither list I to iterate the same in this place When Camalodunum was thus brought under the Romanes subjection Claudius planted a Colony there with a strong Band of old tried Souldiers and in memoriall heereof ordained peeces of money to bee stamped with this Inscription COL CAMALODUN Out of which it is gathered that this happened in the XII yeere of his Empire and in the yeere 52. after the Birth of Christ. And in regard of those old experienced souldiers of the fourteenth Legion called Gemina Martia Victrix whom Tacitus tearmeth the Subduers of Britaine brought thither and placed in it it was named COLONIA VICTRICENSIS and the Inhabitants Cives Romani that is Citizens of Rome in an old Inscription which I heere present to you CN MUNATIUS M. F. PAL AURELIUS BASSUS PROC AUG PRAEF FABR. RRAEF COH III. SAGITTARIORUM PRAEF COH ITERUM II. ASTURUM CENSITOR CIVIUM ROMANORUM COLONIAE VICTRICENSIS QUAE EST IN BRITANNIA CAMALODUNI c. A Colony if it may be materiall to know so much is A Company of men that be all brought into one certaine place built with houses to their hands which they are to have and hold by a certaine right For the most part old souldiers that had served long were brought to such a place both that themselves might be provided for and maintained and also be ready in all extremity to helpe against Rebels and enforme withall the Provincials in their duties by law required These Colonies also were of great estimation as being pety resemblances and images as it were of the City of Rome Moreover they had their peculiar Magistrates both superior and inferior Of which because others have written sufficiently I neede not to stand either upon them or such like points In this first Colony that the Romanes planted in Britaine there was a Temple built unto Divus Claudius Tacitus tearmeth it The Altar of eternall dominion Whereof Seneca maketh mention in his Play after this manner A small matter it is saith hee and not sufficient that Claudius hath a Temple in Britaine which the Barbarous Nation adoreth and prayeth unto as to a God There were Priests also elected in honour of him by name Sodales Augustales which under a shew of Religion lavishly consumed the Britans goods But after ten yeeres fortune turned her wheele and downe went this Colony For when those old souldiers brought into these territories which they had won exercised extreame cruelty upon these silly people the burning broiles of Warre which before were quenched brake out into flames with greater flashes The Britans under the leading of Bunduica who also is called Bâodicia by maine force sacked and set on fire this Colony lying unfortified and without all fence and within two daies wonne the said Temple whereinto the souldiers had thronged themselves The Ninth Legion comming to aide they put to flight and in one word slew of Roman Citizens and associates together threescore and tenne thousand This slaughter was foretold by many Prodigies The Image of Victory in this City was turned backeward and fallen downe In their Senate house strange noises were heard The Theater resounded with howlings and yellings Houses were seene under the water of Tamis and the Arme of the sea beneath it overflowed the bankes as red as blood to see to which now for what cause I know not wee call Blacke water like as Ptolomee termed it IDUMANUM aestuarium under which is couched a signification of Blacknesse for Ydâ in the British tongue soundeth as much as Blacke Yet out of the very embers the Romans raised it againe For Antonine the Emperour made mention of it many yeeres after Howbeit in the English Saxons government it is scarce mentioned Onely Marianus hath written that Edward the sonne of Aelfred repaired Maldun when it was sore shaken by the furious rage of the Danes and then fortified it with a Castle William the Norman Conquerour of England as we reade in his Commentary had in this Towne 180 houses in the tenure and occupation of Burgesses and 18. Mansions wasted But at this day for the number of the Inhabitants and the bignesse it is worthily counted one of the principall Townes in all Essex and in Records named The Burgh of Maldon It is a Haven commodious enough and for the bignesse very well inhabited being but one especiall street descending much about a mile in length Upon the ridge of an hill answerable to the termination of Dunum which signified an hilly and high situation wherein I saw nothing memorable unlesse I should mention two silly Churches a desolate place of White Friers and a small pile of Bricke built not long since by R. Darcy which name hath beene respective heereabout Hence passing downe over the brackish water divided into two streamlets by Highbridge I sought for an ancient place which Antonine the Emperour placed sixe miles from Camalodunum in the way toward Suffolke and called it AD ANSAM This I have thought to have beene some Bound belonging to the Colony of Camalodunum which resembled the fashion of Ansa that is The handle or eare of a pot For I had read in Siculus Flaccus The Territories lying to Colonies were limited with divers and sundry markes In the limits there were set up for bound-markes heere one thing and there another in one place little Images in another long earthen Vessels heere you should have little sword blades three square stones or Lozenges pointed and elsewhere according to Vitalis and Arcadius they were mere stones like flagons and small wine pipes why might not therefore a stone fashioned like the handle of a pot bee set for a bound Seeing that Antony according to his wonted manner called it Ad Ansam and not Ansae But how religiously and with what ceremoniall complements these bound-markes were in old time set I will by way of digression set downe heere out of the same Siculus Flaccus When they were to place their bound markes the very stones themselves they did set upon the firme ground hard by those places wherein they ment to pitch them fast in pittes or holes digged for the purpose they annointed them and with vailes and garlands bedecked them This done in those pits wherein they were to put them after sacrifice made and an unspotted beast killed upon burning firebrands covered over in the grave they dropped in bloud and thereupon they threw Frankincense and corne Hony combes also and wine with other things as the manner is to sacrifice unto
is hard by In that Church which I said was unfinished there is a small Chappell but all of wood whereinto on either side at a narrow and little Doore are such admitted as come with their Devotions and Offerings Small light there is in it and none other in manner but by tapers or wax-candles yeelding a most dainty and pleasant smell Nay if you looke into it you would say it were the Habitation of heavenly Saints indeed so bright shining it is all over with pretious Stones with Gold and Silver But within the memory of our fathers when King Henry the Eighth had set his minde and eye both upon the Riches and Possessions of Churches all this vanished quite away Touching Walsingham I have nothing else to say more but that the Family of the Walsinghams Knights as they will have it that curiously search after Genealogies fetched first their name and Originall from hence Out of which house flourished that Sir Francis Walsingham Secretary unto Queene Elizabeth a man as of deepe insight so also of as rare and painfull industry in the weightiest affaires of the Realme But hard by it at Houghton flourished sometime the noble Family of the Neirfords who by matching in marriage with Parnel de Vallibus who had about Holt Cley and elsewhere a goodly Inheritance was greatly enriched But now let us looke backe againe to the Shore Neere unto Walsingham Westward upon the Sea side was that ancient Towne BRANNODUNUM where when the Saxons first molested Britaine with their Invasions The Dalmatian Horsemen lay in Garrison under the Lieutenant of the Saxon Shore But now it is a country Village reteining nought but the remaines of that name and shewing a Trench and Rampire the neighbour Inhabitants call it the Castle that containeth within it a plot of ground much about eight Acres and is named Brancaster where peeces of Romane money are many times gotten out of the earth Very commodiously was there a Garrison planted in this place for at S. Edmunds Chappell neere adjoyning and Hunstanton built by that holy King Saint Edmund the coast draweth backe into the South and so admitteth a larger creeke for the Sea to enter into lying open for Pirats into which many Rivers also doe void themselves As for Hunstanton it is to be remembred in this regard if there were nothing else for that it hath beene the Habitation of the Family of Le Strange Knights by degree ever since that in the Raigne of Edward the Second Iohn Baron Le Strange of Knockin gave the same unto Hamon his younger Brother The catching of Hawkes and the plentifull fishing the Ieat and Amber also found oftentimes in this Shore I wittingly omit seeing that there is great store of these things else where along this Tract Yet Sharnborn in this Coast is not to be omitted both for that Foelix the Burgundian who brought these East Englishmen to the Christian Faith and state of perpetuall Felicity built in this place the second Church of Christians in this Country for the first he founded at Babingley where he landed as also because it is verily thought and that by the faithfull testimony of old deeds and evidences that an old Englishman Lord of this place before the comming of the Normans by vertue of sentence given judicially in open Court by William Conquerour himselfe recovered this Lordship against Warren unto whom the Conquerour had given it Which argument they enforce hard who would prove that the said William entred upon the Possession of England by Covenant and agreement and not by right of warre and Conquest The foresaid Creeke or Bay our Country men call the Washes Ptolomee termed it AESTUARIUM METARIS haply for Malthraith by which name the Britains called the like Frithes and Armes of the Sea in other places neither doth it signifie among them any other thing than an Arme of the Sea uncertainly changing the chanell such as this is Upon this where the River Ouse striveth forcibly against the Ocean standeth Linne peradventure so named of the waters broad spreading For that doth Lhyn import in the British tongue A large Towne this is encompassed with a deepe trench and wals for the most part thereof divided by two small Rivers that have fifteene bridges or thereabout over them and although it be of no great antiquity and not long since called Linnum Episcopi that is Bishops Linne because it appertained to the Bishops of Norwich untill King Henry the Eighth his daies for it had beginning out of the ruines of an elder Towne which stood over against it in Marshland and is at this day called Old Linne and Linnum Regis that is Kings Linne yet by reason of the safe Haven which yeeldeth most easie accesse for the number also of Merchants there dwelling and thither resorting for the faire and the goodly houses the wealth also of the townesmen it is doubtlesse the principall towne of this Shire except Norwich onely It hath likewise most large franchises and immunities which the Inhabitants bought with their owne bloud of King John whiles they tooke part with him and defended his quarrell who ordained there a Major and delivered unto them his owne sword to be carried before him yea and gave unto them a silver cup all gilt which they still doe keep These their liberties being afterwards lost they redeemed not without bloud also of King Henry the Third when siding with him and serving under his Banner they fought an unfortunate battaile against the outlawed Lords in the Isle of Ely as the booke of Ely and Mathew Paris doe both joyntly witnesse Over against Linne on the farther side of the River lieth Mershland a little moist mersh country as the name implieth divided and parted every where with ditches trenches and furrowes to draine and draw the waters away a soile standing upon a very rich and fertile mould and breeding abundance of cattell in so much as that in a place commonly called Tilneysmeth there feed much about 30000. sheepe but so subject to the beating and overflowing of the roaring maine Sea which very often breaketh teareth and troubleth it so grievously that hardly it can be holden off with chargeable wals and workes The places of greater note in this Mershland are these Walpole which the Lord of the place gave in times past unto the Church of Ely together with his sonne whom he had made a Monke there Wigenhall the possession of I. Howard in the Raigne of Edward the First whose Posterity spred and became a most honorable and noble Family whereof I have already spoken Tilney whence in old time the stocke of the Tilneys Knights tooke name and Saint Maries the seat of the ancient race of the Carvils Now have we passed along all the Sea-coast As for the inner part of the Country there are also very many Townes toward the West side but because they bee of later
memory I will briefly runne them over Neere to Linne upon an high hill standeth Rising-castle almost marchable to the Castle of Norwich the seat in times past of the Albineys afterwards of Robert de Monthault by one of the sisters and coheires of Hugh Albiney Earle of Arundell and at last the mansion place of the Mowbrays who as I have learned came out of the same house that the Albineys did But now after long languishings as it were by reason of old age the said Castle hath given up the ghost Below it is Castle-acre where was sometimes the habitation of the Earles of Warren in a Castle now halfe downe on a little Rivers side which carrying no name ariseth not farre from Godwicke a lucky good name where there stands a small house but greatly graced by the Lord thereof Sir Edward Coke Knight a man of rare endowments of nature and as in the Common lawes much practised so of deepe insight therein which all England both tooke knowledge of whiles hee discharged the function of Atturney Generall many yeares most learnedly and now acknowledgeth whiles being Lord Chiefe Justice of the Common Pleas he administreth justice as uprightly and judiciously Neither is he lesse to be remembred for that he loveth learning and hath well deserved of the present and succeeding ages by his learned labours This Riveret or brooke with a small streame and shallow water runneth Westward to Linne by Neirford that gave name to the Family of the Neirfords famous in times past and by Neirborrough where neere unto the house of the Spilmans knights upon a very high hill is to be seene a warlike Fort of passing great strength and of ancient worke so situated as it hath a very faire prospect into the Country about it After upon the said Brooke is seated Penteney a prety Abbay the ordinary buriall place in ancient time of the Noblemen and Gentlemen in this Tract Neere unto it lieth Wormegay commonly Wrongey which Reginald de Warren brother of William de Warren the second Earle of Surry had with his wife of whom as I have read the said Earle had the donation or Maritagium as they use to speake in the law phrase and by his sonnes daughter streightwayes it was transferred to the Bardolphs who being Barons of great nobility flourished a long time in honorable state and bare for their Armes Three Cinque-foiles or in a Shield Azâr The greatest part of whose Inheritance together with the Title came to Sir William Phellips and by his daughter passed away to the Vicount Beaumont More Eastward are seated Swaffham a Mercat Towne of good note sometime the Possession of the Earle of Richmond Ashele Manour by Tenure whereof the Hastings and Greies Lords of Ruthin had the charge of table clothes and linnen used at the solemne Coronation of the Kings of England North Elmham the Bishops See for a good time when as this Province was divided into two Dioceses Dereham wherein Withburga King Annas daughter was buried whom because shee was piously affected farre from all riotous excesse and wanton lightnesse our Ancestours accounted for a Saint Next unto which is Greshenhall and adjoyning thereto Elsing the possessions in ancient time of the Folliots men of great worth and Dignity which in right of dowry came by a daughter of Richard Folliot to Sir Hugh de Hastings descended out of the Family of Abergevenny and at length by the daughters and heires of Hastings the last Greshenhall aforesaid fell unto Sir Hamon le Strange of Hunstanton and Elsing unto William Browne the brother of Sir Antonie Browne the first Vicount Mount-acute In this quarter also is Ick-borrough which Talbot supposeth to have beene that ICIANI whereof Antonine speaketh Neither have I cause to write any more of these places And now I thinke it is good time to set downe the Earles and Dukes of Northfolke that I may proceed to Cambridgeshire William the Conquerour made one Raulph Governour of East-England that is to say of Norfolke Suffolke and Cambridgeshire who forthwith gaping as I said after an alteration and change in the State was dispossessed of that place After certaine yeares in the Raigne of Stephen Hugh Bigod was Earle of Norfolke For when peace was concluded betweene Stephen and Henry Duke of Anjou who became afterwards King Henry the second by expresse words it was provided that William King Stephens sonne should have the whole Earledome of Norfolke excepting among other things The third peny of that County whereof Hugh Bigod was Earle Whom notwithstanding King Henry the Second created Earle againe of the third peny of Norfolke and Norwich Who dying about the 27. yeare of Henry the Second Roger his sonne succeeded who for what cause I know not obtained at the hands of King Richard the first a new Charter of his creation Him succeeded his sonne Hugh who tooke to his wife Mawde the eldest daughter and one of the heires of William Marescall Earle of Pembroch By whom he had issue one sonne named Roger Earle of Norfolke and Marescall of England who at Tournament having his bones put out of joint died without issue and another called Hugh Bigod Lord chiefe Justice of England slaine in the battaile of Lewis whose sonne Roger succeeded his Uncle in the Earldome of Norfolke and dignity of Marescall but having incurred through his insolent contumacy the high displeasure of King Edward the First was compelled to passe away his honors and well neere his whole inheritance into the Kings hands to the use of Thomas of Brâtherton the Kings son whom he had begotten of his second wife Margaret sister to Philip the Faire King of France For thus reporteth the History out of the Library of Saint Austens in Canterbury In the yeare 1301. Roger Bigod Earle of Norfolke ordained King Edward to bee his heire and hee delivered into his hands the rod of the Marshals Office with this condition that if his wife brought him any children he should without all contradiction receive againe all from the King and hold it peaceably as before and the King gave unto him a 1000. pounds in money and a thousand pound land during his life together with the Marshalship and the Earldome But when he was departed this life without issue King Edward the Second honoured the said Thomas of Brotherton his brother according to the conveiance aforesaid with the Titles of Marshall and Earle of Norfolke Whose daughter Margaret called Marshallesse and Countesse of Norfolke wife to Iohn Lord Segrave king Richard the Second created in her absence Dutchesse of Norfolke for terme of life and the same day created Thomas Mowbray the daughters sonne of the said Margaret then Earle of Notingham the first Duke of Norfolke To him and his heires males unto whom he had likewise granted before the State and stile of Earle Marshall of England This is hee that before the king was challenged and accused by Henry of Lancaster Duke
of Hereford for uttering inconsiderately certaine reprochfull and derogatory words against the king And when they were to fight a combat at the very barre and entry of the Lists by the voice of an Herauld it was proclaimed in the kings name That both of them should be banished Lancaster for ten yeares and Mowbray for ever who afterwards ended his life at Venice leaving two sonnes behind him in England Of which Thomas Earle Marshall and of Nottingham for no other Title used hee was beheaded for seditious plotting against Henry of Lancaster who now had possessed himselfe of the Crowne by the name of King Henry the Fourth But his brother and heire John who through the favour of King Henry the Fifth was raised up and for certaine yeares after called onely Earle Marshall and of Nottingham at last in the very beginning of Henry the Sixth his Raigne By authority of Parliament and by vertue of the Patent granted by King Richard the Second was declared Duke of Norfolke as being the sonne of Thomas Duke of Norfolke his father and heire to Thomas his brother After him succeeded John his sonne who died in the first yeare of Edward the Fourth and after him likewise John his sonne who whiles his father lived was created by King Henry the Sixth Earle of Surry and of Warren Whose onely daughter Anne Richard Duke of Yorke the young sonne of King Edward the Fourth tooke to wife and together with her received of his father the Titles of Duke of Norfolke Earle Marshall Earle of Warren and Nottingham But after that he and his wife both were made away in their tender yeares Richard the Third King of England conferred this Title of the Duke of Norfolke and the dignity of Earle Marshall upon John Lord Howard who was found next cozen in bloud and one of the heires to the said Anne Dutchesse of Yorke and Norfolke as whose mother was one of the daughters of that first Thomas Mowbray Duke of Norfolke and who in the time of King Edward the Fourth was summoned a Baron to the Parliament This John lost his life at Bosworth field fighting valiantly in the quarrell of King Richard against King Henry the Seventh His sonne Thomas who being by King Richard the Third created Earle of Surry and by King Henry the Seventh made Lord Treasurer was by King Henry the Eighth restored to the Title of Duke of Norfolke and his sonne the same day created Earle of Surry after that by his conduct James the fourth King of the Scots was slaine and the Scottish power vanquished at Branxton In memoriall of which Victory the said King granted to him and his heires males for ever that they should beare in the midst of the Bend in the Howards Armes the whole halfe of the upper part of a Lion Geules pierced through the mouth with an arrow in the due colours of the Armes of the King of Scots I translate it verbatim out of the Patent After him succeeded his sonne Thomas as well in his honours as in the Office of Lord Treasurer of England and lived to the time of Queene Mary tossed to and fro betweene the reciprocall ebbes and flowes of fortune whose grand sonne Thomas by his sonne Henry the first of the English Nobility that did illustrate his high birth with the beauty of learning being attainted for purposing a marriage with Mary the Queene of Scots lost his life in the yeare of our Lord 1572. and was the last Duke of Norfolke Since which time his off-spring lay for a good while halfe dead but now watered and revived with the vitall dew of King James reflourisheth very freshly In this Province there be Parish Churches about 660. CAMBRIDGE Comitatus quem olim ICENI Insederunt CAMBRIDGE-SHIRE CAMBRIDGE-SHIRE called in the English-Saxon ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã lyeth more inward and stretched out in length Northward On the East it butteth upon Northfolke and Suffolke on the South upon the East-Saxons or Essexe and Hertfordshire on the West upon Bedford and Huntingdon shires and Northward upon Lincoln-shire being divided into two parts by the river Ouse which crosseth it over-thwart from West to East The lower and South-part is better manured and therefore more plentifull being some-what a plaine yet not altogether levell for the most part or all of it rather save onely where it bringeth forth saffron is laid out into corne fields and yeeldeth plentifully the best barly of which steeped in water and lying wet therein untill it spurt againe then after the said sprout is full come dried and parched over a Kill they make store of mault By venting and sending out whereof into the neighbor-countries the Inhabitants raise very great gaine The farther and Northerne part because it is Fennish ground by reason of the many flouds that the rivers cause and so dispersed into Islands is called The Isle of Ely a tract passing greene fresh and gay by reason of most plenteous pastures howbeit after a sort hollow by occasion of the water that in some places secretly entreth in yea and otherwhile when it overfloweth surroundeth most part of it Along the West side of the lower part runneth one of the two highwayes made by the Romans Ely booke calleth it Ermingstreet which passeth forth right to Hântingdon through Roiston that standeth in the very edge and entry of the Shire a towne well knowne yet but of late built whereof I have already spoken also by Caxton in times past the seate of the Barony of Stephen de Eschalâers and from whose Posterity in the reigne of King Henry the Third it descended to the Frevills and from them by the Burgoins to the Iermins Neither is Gamlinghay far distant from hence where dwelt the Avenells whose Inheritance came by marriage to the ancient Family of Saint George out of which there flourished many Knights since the time of King Henry the First at Hatley which of them is called Hatley Saint George Above Caxton before mentioned is Eltesley where was in elder Ages a Religious house of Holy Virgines among whom was celebrated the incertaine memory of Saint Pandionia the daughter of a Scottish King as the tradition is But long since they were translated to Hinchinbroke And againe above Eltesley was the Priory of Swasey founded for blacke Monkes by Alan la Zouch brother to the Vicount of Rohan in the Lesser Britaine and was the common Sepulture a long time for the Family of Zouch More Westward a little river runneth through the middle of this part which issuing downe out of Ashwel hastneth from South to North with many turnings to joyn it selfe with the Ouse running by Shengay where be the goodliest medows of this Shire a Commandery in old time of the Knights Templars which Shengay Sibyl the daughter of Roger Mont-gomery Earle of Shrewsbury and wife of I. de Raines gave unto them in the yeere 1130. nor farre from Burne Castle in ancient times the Barony of
his Successours by abridging the number of Monkes for from threescore and tenne they brought them downe to forty flowed with riches and wealth in great abundance even unto our time and their festivall and solemne Holydayes they celebrated with so sumptuous provision and stately pompe that they wonne the prayse and prize from all the Abbaies in England whereupon a Poet also in that age wrote these verses not unproperly Pravisis aliis Eliensia festa videre Est quasi praevisa nocte videre diem See after others Ely feasts and surely thou wilt say That having seene the night before thou seest now the day The Church likewise which now began for age and long continuance to decay they built up by litle and litle and brought it to that ample statelinesse which now it hath For large it is high and faire but somewhat defaced by reason of Noblemens and Bishops tombes not without most shamefull indignity are broken downe And now in stead of that great Covent of Monks there are established a Deane Prebendaries a Grammar schoole wherein 24. children are maintained and taught Foure speciall things there are about this Church that the Common people talke much of The Lanterne on the very toppe thereof just over the Quire supported with eight pillars and raised upon them right artificially by Iohn Hothum the Bishop Vnder the Church towards the North standeth Saint Maries Chappell a singular fine peece of worke built by Simon Montacute Bishop On the South side there is an huge heape of earth cast up round of a great heigth which they call the Mount having had a wind mill upon it And lastly a Vine bearing fruit in great plenty which now is withered and gone These 4. a Monk of this place in times past knit up within this Rhyme Haec sunt Eliae Lanterna Capella Mariae Atque molendinum Nec non dans vinea vinum These things you may at Ely see The Lanterne Chapell of Saint Marie A Winde-mill mounted up on hie A Vine-yard yeelding Wine yeerely As for Ely it selfe it is a small Cittie nor greatly to bee counted of either for beauty or frequency and resort as having an unwholsome Aire by reason of the Fens round about although it be seated somewhat higher Neere to it is Downham where the Bishop hath his retyring House with a Parke neere to Downham is Cowney the ancientest seat of the Family surnamed for their habitation heere L'isle and De Insula and first planted here by Nigellus the second Bishop of Ely their Allies in the time of King Henry the First as is set downe in a Lieger Booke of Ely Chateries or Cheaterich is not farre hence Westward were Alwena a devout woman founded a Nunnery upon a coppid ground encompassed with Fens while her husband founded Ramsey But higher Northward amidst the Fennes there stood another Abbay of very great name called Thorney of thornes and bushes that grow thicke about it but in times past Ankerige of Ankers or Eremites living there solitarily where as we finde in Peterborough booke Sexvulph a devout and religious man built a Monastery with little Cels for Eremits Which being afterwards by the Danes throwne downe Aetbelwold Bishop of Winchester that he might promote the Monasticall profession reedified stored it with Monkes and compassed it round about with trees The place as writeth William of Malmesbury Representeth a very Paradise for that in pleasure and delight it resembleth Heaven it selfe in the very Marishes bearing Trees that for their streight talnesse and the same without knots strive to touch the Stars a Plaine is there as even as the Sea which with greene grasse allureth the eye so smooth and level that if any walke along the fields they shall finde nothing to stumble at There is not the least parcell of ground that lies waste and void there Here shall you finde the earth rising somewhere for Apple trees there shall you have a field set with Vines which either creepe upon the ground or mount on high upon poles to support them A mutuall strife there is betweene nature and husbandry that what the one forgetteth the other might supply and produce What will be said of the faire and beautifull buildings which it is a wonder to see how the ground amid those Fens and Marishes so firme and sound doth beare with sure and stedfast foundations A wonderfull solitary place is there afforded to Monkes for quiet life that so much the more constantly settle their mindes upon Heavenly things for that they see men very seldome and so are they seene in their state more mortified and lower brought A wonder it is to have a Woman seene there if come men thither there is rejoycing as at so many Angels In a word I may truly say that this Island is an Hostell of Chastity an harbour of Honesty and a Schoole or Colledge of Divine Philosophie Touching Wisbich the Bishop of Elies Castle about 13. miles off situate among the fennes and rivers and made of late a prison to keepe the Papists in hold I have nothing else to say but that this towne together with Walepole was in old time given by the owner thereof unto the monastery of Ely what time as he consecrated Alwin his little son there to live a monkes life that King William the First built a Castle there when the outlawed Lords made rodes out of this fenny country and that in the yeere of our salvation 1236. when the Ocean being disquieted with violent windes for two dayes continually together had beaten upon the shore made an exceeding wide breach and overwhelmed both land and people But the Castle of bricke that now is seene there Iohn Morton Bishop of Ely built within the rememberance of our great grandfathers who also drew as streight as a line in this fenny country a ditch which they call the Newleame for better conveyance and carriage by water that by this meanes the towne being well frequented might gaine the more and grow to wealth Which fell out quite contrary For it standeth now in no great steed and the neighbour inhabitants complaine that the course of Nen into the Sea by Clowcrosse is by this meanes altogether hindred and stopped The first Earle of Cambridge that I can finde was William the brother of Ranulph Earle of Chester as wee read in a patent or instrument of Alexander Bishop of Lincolne bearing date in the yeere 1139. Afterwards those of the royall blood in Scotland that were Earles of Huntingdon wee may thinke to have beene Earles of Cambridge also For that it appeareth certainly out of the Records of the realme that David Earle of Huntingdon received the third penny of the County or Earledome of Cambridge Long time after King Edward the Third advanced Sir Iohn of Henault brother to William the third Earle of Holland and of Henault to this honour for the love of Queene Philip his wife who was cosin to the said Iohn For
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
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
of the country beganne to make a new chanell at Clowcrosse in the yeere 1599. Neere unto this banke aforesaid we saw Crowland which also is called Croyland a Towne of good note among the Fenne-people the name whereof soundeth as Ingulph the Abbat of this place interpreteth it as much as A raw and muddy Land A place as they write much haunted in times past with I wot not what sprites and fearefull apparitions before that Guthlake a right holy and devout man led there an Eremits life In whose memoriall Aethelbald King of the Mercians founded to the honour of God at his great charges in the yeere of our Salvation 716. an Abbay very famous both for opinion of the religious life of the Monkes and also for their wealth Concerning which take heere if you please these Verses of Foelix a Monke of good antiquity out of the life of Guthlake Nunc exercet ibi se munificentia Regis Et magnum templum magno molimine condit At cum tam mollis tam lubrica tam malè constans Fundamenta palus non ferret saxea palos Praecipit infigi quercino robore caesos Leucarúmque novem spacio rate fertur arena Inque solum mutatur humus suffultáque tali Cella basi multo stat consummata labore His bounty now the King doth there bestow An Abbay faire with much expense to reare But seeing that the waterish Fenne below Those ground-workes laid with stone uneath could beare So quaving soft and moist the Bases were He caused piles made of good heart of oke Pitch't downe to be with maine commanders stroke Then nine leagues off men sand in Barges brought Which once fast ramm'd by painfull workmans hand Of rotten earth good solid ground was wrought On which for aye such workes might firmely stand And thus by this devise of new plantation The Church stands firme and hath a sure foundation If I should exemplifie unto you out of that Monke the Devils of Crowland with their blabber lips fire-spitting mouthes rough and skaly visages beetle heads terrible teeth sharpe chins hoarse throats blacke skinnes crump-shoulders side and gor-bellies burning loines crooked and hawm'd legges long tailed buttockes and ugly mishapes which heeretofore walked and wandered up and downe in these places and very much troubled holy Guthlake and the Monkes you would laugh full merily and I might bee thought a simple sily-one full worthily Howbeit in regard of the admirable situation of this place so farre different from all others in England and considering the Abbay was so famous I am well content to dwell a while in the description of these particulars Amid most deepe Fennes and standing waters in a muddy and miry ground this Crowland lyeth so shut up and divided round about from all entrance that there is no accesse to it unlesse it bee on the North and East side and that by narrow Cawsies Seated it is for all the world if I may resemble great and small things together like unto Venice Three streets it hath and those severed one from another by water courses betweene planted thicke with willowes and raised upon piles or postes pitched and driven downe deepe into the standing waters having over them a triangle Bridge of admirable workmanship under which for to receive the fall of the waters meeting in one confluence the Inhabitants report there was a pit sunke of a mighty depth Now whereas beyond the Bridge in solum mutatur humus as that Monke said that is The mould is chaunged and is become firme and solid ground there stood in times past that famous Abbay and the same verily taking up but a small plot of ground about which all save where the Towne standeth is so rotten and moorish that a man may thrust a pole downe right thirty foote deepe and round about it every way is nothing but a plot of reeds and next unto the Church a place planted with Alders Howbeit the Towne is well enough peopled with Inhabitants who have their Cattaile a great way from the Towne and when they are to milke them they goe in little punts or boats that will carry but two a peece which they call Skerries yet the most gainfull trade they have is by taking fish and catching of water-foule and that is so great that in the moneth of August they will spread a net and at once draw three thousand Mallards and wilde Duckes and such like together and these pooles or watery plots of theirs they use to terme their Corne fields for they see no Corne growing in five miles any way In regard of this their taking of fish and fowle they paid yeerely in times past to the Abbat as now they doe to the King three hundred pounds of our money The private History of this Abbay I list not to relate seeing it is commonly extant and to be seene out of Ingulph now printed and published yet my minde serves me well briefely to record that which Peter of Bloys Vice-chancellour to King Henry the Second reported at large as touching the new building of this Abbay in the yeere of our Redemption 1112. to the end that by this one president wee may learne by what meanes and helpes so mighty so huge and so faire religious houses were raised and built up in those times Ioffrid the Abbat obtained of the Archbishops and Bishops in England An Indulgence for the third part of penance enjoyned for sinnes committed unto every one that helped forward so holy a worke With this Indulgence he sent out Monkes every way and all about to gather money wherewith when hee was now sufficiently furnished to the end that hee might have an happy beginning of this worke from some happy names of lucky presage hee solemnely appointed the day of Saint Perpetua and of Saint Felicity on which he would lay the first foundation At which day there came flocking in great numbers the Nobles the Prelates and Commons of all the Country thereabout After the celebration of Divine Service and Anthems sung in parts Abbat Ioffrid himselfe layed the first Corner stone Eastward then the Noble men and great persons every one in their degree couched their stones and upon the said stones some laid money others their sealed Deeds of lands Advousons of Churches of Tenths of their Sheepe and of the Tithes of their Churches of certaine measures of wheat and of a certaine number of Workemen as Masons and Quarriers whom they would pay The common sort again and towneships for their parts offered with chearefull devotion some money others one daies labour every moneth untill the worke were finished some the building of whole Pillars others of the bases to the said Pillars and others again to make certaine parts of the wals striving a vie who should doe most This done the Abbat after hee had in a solemne speech commended their devout bounty to so holy a worke granted unto every one of them the fraternity of his Abbay and the participation besides of all
Raigne of Edward the Third an University and publique profession of good learning beganne heere which the Inhabitants count no small credit unto them For when there was such hote debate and contention betweene the Northren and Southren Students at Oxford a great number of Scholers withdrew themselves hither but after a small while they returned upon the Kings Proclamation to Oxford and as they sodainely beganne so they ended as soone this new University And thenceforward provided it was by oth That no Student in Oxford should publiquely professe or reade at Stanford to the prejudice of Oxford Neverthelesse it flourished with fresh trading and merchandise untill the civill warre betweene the two houses of Lancaster and Yorke grew so hore that the Northren Souldiers breaking into the Towne destroyed all with fire and sword Neither could it ever since that time fully recover the ancient Dignity And yet now it is in good estate and the civill government thereof consisteth of an Alderman and foure and twenty Burgesses his brethren Beautified it is with seven Parish Churches or thereabout and sheweth an old Hospitall and that a very faire house founded by William Browne a Burgesse there besides another new one on this side the Bridge lately built by that Nestor of Britaine Sir William Cecill Baron Burghley what time as hee raised that stately and sumptuous house at Burghley whereof I have spoken already in Northampton-shire who lieth enterred here in a goodly and gorgeous Tombe within the Parish Church of Saint George a man to say nothing else of him who by course of nature and for his owne glory lived long enough but in regard of his Country died oversoone Although some tokens remaining of antiquity and the High-street made by the Romans which so soone as you are without the Towne leadeth you the direct way into the North may sufficiently shew that sometimes there was a Ferry or Waterfare heere Yet that this Towne should be that GAUSENNAE which Antonine the Emperour placeth not farre from hence the said tokens of Antiquity doe not affoord sufficient proofe But seeing that a mile from hence there is a little Village called Bridge-casterton which very name carryeth with it the marke of Antiquity where the River Guash or Wash crosseth the said High-street the affinity of this name Guash with Gausenna and the distance also making not against it hath made mee to thinke that Gausennae was it which now is called Bridge-casterton untill time bring truth to light If I should thinke that Stanford grew out of the ruines of this Towne and that this part of the Shire was named Kesteven of GAUSENNAE like as another part Lindsey of the City Lindum let this I pray you bee but mine opinion and judge yee thereof accordingly It is supposed that this Gausennae was overthrowne when as Henry Archdeacon of Huntingdon writeth the Picts and Scots had spoiled all the Country as farre as to Stanford where Hengist and his English-Saxons with their unwearied force and singular prowesse hindered the passage of those furious Nations so that after many of them were slaine and more taken prisoners the rest betooke themselves to flight But let us proceed to the rest On the East side of Kesteven which bendeth toward Hoiland as wee goe Northward these places stand in order First Deping that is to say as Ingulph interpreteth it Deepe Medow Where Richard de Rulos Chamberlaine to William Conquerour excluding the River Welland with raising up an high banke for that it often overflowed and building upon the said Banke many Tenements made a great Village This Deping or Deepe Medow was very fitly so called for the plaine lying under it and which taketh up in compasse many miles is of all this fenny Country the deepest and the very receptacle of most waters And that which a man would mervaile at it lyeth farre under the Chanell of the River Clen which being held in with forced bankes passeth by from out of the West Then have you Burne well knowne by occasion that King Edmund was crowned and the Wakes had a Castle there who obtained unto this Towne from King Edward the First the liberty of a Mercate More Eastward is Irnham a seat of the Barony in times past of Sir Andrew Lutterell Beyond it is Sempringham famous in these daies by reason of that passing faire house which Edward Lord Clinton afterwards Earle of Lincolne built but renowned in old time for the religious Order of the Gilbertines instituted by Gilbert Lord of the place for he a wonderfull man in custodia mulierum gratiae singularis that is of singular grace in taking charge of women in the yeere after Christs Nativity 1148. contrary to Justinians Constitutions which forbad Double Monasteries that is to say of men and women together howbeit well backed with the authority of Eugenius the third Bishop of Rome ordained a Sect consisting of men and women which so grew and encreased that himselfe laied the foundations of thirteene religious houses of this Order and whiles hee lived had in them 700. Gilbertine Brethren and eleven hundred Sisters but no honester than they should be if wee may beleeve Niele a scoffing Poet in those daies who wrote thus of them Harum sunt quadam steriles quaedam parientes Virgineóque tamen nomine cuncta tegunt Qua pastoralis baculi dotatur honore Illa quidem meliùs fertiliúsque parit Vix etiam quaevis sterilis reperitur in illis Donec eis aetas talia posse negat Some barren are of these some fruitfull be Yet they by name of Virgins cover all More fertile sure and better beareth she Who blest is once with croysier pastorall Now scarce of them is found one barren Doe Till age debarre whether they will or no. Then see you Folkingham which also is now a Lordship of the Clintons the Barony in times past of the Gaunts who were descended from Gilbert de Gaunt nephew to Baldwin Earle of Flaunders unto whom by the liberality of King William the Conquerour there fell great revenewes For thus we reade in an old manuscript Memorandum that with William Conquerour there came in one Gilbert de Gaunt unto whom the said William gave the Manour of Folkingham with all the Appertenances and the Honour thereunto belonging and they expelled a certaine woman named Dunmoch Of the said Gilbert came one Walter de Gaunt his sonne and heire and of the said Walter came Gilbert de Gaunt his sonne and heire also Robert de Gaunt a younger sonne And from the said Gilbert the sonne and heire came Alice his daughter and heire who was espoused to Earle Simon and shee gave many Tenements to religious men and dyed without heire of her owne body Then descended the inheritance to Robert de Gaunt aforesaid her unckle and of the foresaid Robert came Gilbert his sonne and heire and of the aforesaid came another Gilbert his sonne and heire and
Aelfred his brother humbly beseeching them to come and aide them that so they might give battaile to the fore-named Army which request they also easily obtained For those two brethren slacking no whit their promise having levied from all parts a mighty Army assembled their forces entred Mercia and seeking with one accord jointly to encounter the enemy come as farre as to Snottenga-ham And when the Painims keeping themselves within the defense of the Castle refused to give battaile and the Christians with all their force could not batter the Wall after peace concluded betweene the Paganes and Mercians those two brethren with their bands returned home But after this King Edward the elder built the Village Bridgeford just over against it and compassed the Towne about with a wall which now is fallen downe and yet the remaines thereof I have seene on the South side And within very few yeeres after in King Edward the Confessours time as wee reade in Domesday booke there were numbered in it one hundred and seventy three Burgesses and from the two Minters there were paid forty shillings to the King Also the water of Trent the Fosse dike and the way toward Yorke were warded and kept that if any man hindered the passage of vessels he was to make amends with the payment of foure pounds As for the Castle which now wee see it may bee well of great name in regard both of the Founder and the worthinesse also of the worke for William of Normandy built it to bridle the English and so strong it was as William of Newborough writeth as well by naturall situation as hand labour that it is held impregnable if it may have sufficient men to defend it unlesse it bee by famine Afterward also King Edward the Fourth bestowed great cost in the repairing of it and beautified it with faire buildings whereto King Richard also the Third set to his helping hand Neither for all the changes and alterations of times hath it undergone the common condition or destiny incident to such great Castles being never forced and wonne by assault Once was it in vaine besieged by Henry of Anjou at which time the souldiers lying in Garison set fire upon the buildings joyning unto it Once also it was suddenly surprised by Earle Robert de Ferrarijs in the Barons warre who spoiled the Inhabitants of all their goods The Castellanes report many stories of David King of the Scots prisoner in it and of Roger Mortimer Earle of March taken heere in a hollow secret passage under the ground who because he prised his faith and loyalty to his country lighter than Scotish gold and with a vaste minde designed other mischiefes was afterwards hanged Certes in the first base Court of the Castle wee went downe by many steps or staires with candle light into a Vault under the ground and certaine close roomes wrought out of the very rocke in the walles whereof are engraven the stories of Christs Passion and other things by the hand as they say of David the Second king of Scots who was there imprisoned But in the upper part of the Castle which riseth up aloft upon a rocke we came also by many staires into another Cave likewise under the ground which they call Mortimers Hole for that in it the foresaid Roger Mortimer lay hidden when as being guilty to himselfe of wickednesse he stood in feare of his life As for the position of Nottingham it seeth the North Pole elevated fifty three Degrees and hath the Meridian two and twenty Degrees and foureteene minutes distant from the utmost point of the West whence Geographers beginne to measure the Longitude From hence the Trent runneth with a milde streame and passeth forward by Holme called of the Lords thereof Holme Pierpount whose Family is both ancient and noble and out of which Robert Pierpount was summoned by King Edward the Third unto the high Court of Parliament among the Barons of the Kingdome unto Shelford where Ralph Hanselin founded a Priory and the Lords Bardolph had a mansion but now the seat of the worshipfull stocke of the Stanhopes knights whose state in this Tract hath growne great and their name renowned since they matched with an heire of Mallovell From whence he runneth downe with a rolling streame to Stoke a little Village but well knowne for no small overthrow and slaughter that there happened when Sir John de la pole Earle of Lincolne who being by King Richard the Third declared heire apparent to the Crowne seeing by the comming of king Henry the Seventh himselfe debarred of the hope of the Kingdome heere in behalfe of a counterfeit Prince rebelliously opposed himselfe against a lawfull king and so resolutely with his friends and followers lost his life Not farre from hence is Thurgarton where Sir Ralph D'eincourt founded a Priory and somewhat higher Southwell sheweth it selfe aloft with a Collegiat Church of Prebendaries consecrated to the blessed Virgin Mary a place not very faire in outward shew I must needs say but strong ancient and of great fame Which as they write Paulinus the First Archbishop of Yorke founded after he had baptised the Inhabitants of this Shire in the River Trent and so regenerated them to Christ. Since which time the Archbishops of Yorke have had here a very faire and stately Palace and three Parkes stored with Deere adjoyning thereto That this is the City which Bede calleth Tio-vul-Finga-cester I doe the more stedfastly beleeve because those things which he hath reported of Paulinus baptizing in the Trent neere unto Tio-vul-Finga-cester the private History of this Church constantly avoucheth to have beene done in this very place From thence out of the East Snite a little Brooke runneth into Trent which being but small and shallow watereth Langer a place of name in regard of the Tibetots or Tiptofts Lords thereof who afterwards became Earles of Worcester also Wiverton which from Heriz a worshipfull man long since in these parts came by the Brets and Caltostes unto the Chaworthes who fetch their name out of the Cadurci in France and derive their pedegree from the Lord of Walchervill Now doth Trent divide it selfe neere Averham or Aram an ancient habitation of the Suttons Gentlemen of respective worth and runneth hard under a good great Towne called Newark as one would say The new worke of the new Castle which Castle so fresh and of so beautifull building as Henry of Huntingdon termeth it Alexander that bountifull minded Bishop of Lincolne built which Prelate that I may use the words of an ancient Historian carrying a most brave and gallant minde builded both this Castle and another also with most profuse and lavish expense And because such manner of sumptuous buildings little became the gravity and dignity of a Bishop he to take away the envie and hard conceit of the world for such building and to expiate as it were the offence that grew thereby founded
as many Monasteries and filled them with religious Brethren Neverthelesse this vaine prodigality and lavish spending that was in a military Bishop was pursued afterwards with condigne punishment For King Stephen who laboured nothing more than to establish his tottering estate in his Kingdome by seizing into his hands all the strongest holds thereof brought this Prelate what with hard imprisoning and in a sort with famishing him to that passe that will'd hee nill'd he at length hee yeelded up unto him both this Castle and that other at Sleford in Lincolne-shire Neither is there any other memorable matter heere to be related but that King John finished in this place the most wearisome course of his troublesome life and King Edward the Sixth incorporated it of one Alderman and twelve Assistants From hence the River gathering himselfe againe into one Chanell runneth directly Northward beset on both sides with Villages neither affoordeth it any matter worth remembrance before it come to Littleborrough a little Towne in deed and truely answering to the name where as there is at this day a Ferry much used so there was in times past that Station whereof Antonine the Emperour once or twice made mention and which according to sundry Copies is called AGELOCUM or SEGELOCUM This Towne have I heretofore sought for in vaine about the Country adjoyning but now I am verily perswaded and assured that I have found it out both for that it standeth upon the old Port High-way and also because the field lying to it sheweth expresse tokens of Walles and besides affoordeth unto Ploughmen every day many peeces of the Roman Emperours Coine which because Swine many times rooting into the ground turne up with their snouts the country people call Swinespeniâs Who also according to their simple capacity are of opinion that their forefathers in times past fensed and mounded that field with a stone Wall against the water of Trent that useth in Winter time to overflow and make great flouds In the West part of this Shire which they tearme The Sand and where Erwash a little Riveret hieth apace into Trent Strelley in old time Strellegh sheweth it selfe a place that gave both sirname and habitation to the Family of the Strelleis commonly called Sturleyes Knights one of the most ancient Houses in all this Country More inward the Forest Shirewood which some expound by these Latine names Limpida Sylva that is A Shire or Cleere wood others Praclara Sylva in the same sence and signification in ancient times over-shadowed all the Country over with greene leaved branches and the boughs and armes of trees twisted one within another so implicated the Woods together that a man could scarcely goe alone in the beaten pathes But now the trees grow not so thicke yet hath it an infinite number of fallow Deere yea and Stagges with their stately branching heads feeding within it Some Townes also among which Mansfield carryeth away the name as maintaining a great Mercat passing well served and as well frequented The name of which Towne they that delineat the Pedegree of the Graves of the great family of Mansfield in Germany use as an argument to proove the same and set downe that the first Earle of Mansfield was one of King Arthurs Knights of the Round Table borne and bred at this Mansfield Indeed our Kings used in old time to retyre themselves hether for the love of hunting and that you may reade the very words out of an ancient Inquisition W. Fauconberge tenebat Manerium de Cukeney in hoc Comitatu in Sergientia per Servitium ferrandi Palsredum Regis quando Rex veniret ad Mansfield that is W. Fauconberge held the Manour of Cukeney in this County in Sergiency by service to shooe the Kings Palfrey when the King came to Mansfield And the hereditary Foresters or Keepers of this Forest of Shirewood were men in their times of high estimation viz. Sir Gerarde de Normanvile in the time of the Conquest the Cauzes and Birkins by whose heire it came to the Everinghams Of which Family Sir Adam Everingham was summoned to Parliaments in the Raignes of King Edward the Second and King Edward the Third At which time they were seated at Laxton anciently called Lexinton where also flourished a great Family so sirnamed whose heires were marryed into the Houses of Sutton of Averham and Markham Out of this Wood there spring many Riverets that runne into the Trent but Idle is thought to bee the chiefe upon which neere unto Idleton in the yeere 616. that felicity and prosperous successe which for a long time had accompanied Ethered that most puissant King of Northumberland was overtaken and forsooke him quite For whereas before time he had alwaies fought his battailes most fortunately heere fortune turning her wheele he was by Redwald King of the East Angles vanquished and slaine who in his roome made Edwin then banished from the Kingdome due unto him from his Ancesters Soveraigne Ruler over the Northumbers This little River Idle runneth downe not farre from Markham a Village verily but small to speake of yet gave it name to the Family of the Markhams which for worth and antiquity hath beene very notable being descended from one of the heires of Cressy and formerly from an heire of Lexinton as I lately shewed The greatest ornament of this Family was Sir John Markham who sitting Lord chiefe Justice of England guided the helme of Justice with so even an hand and so great equity a thing that I would have you to reade in the English Histories that his honour and glory shall never perish Six miles from it Westward is Workensop a Towne well knowne for the Liquorice that there groweth and prospereth passing well famous also for the Earle of Shrewsburies House which within our remembrance George Talbot Earle of Shrewsbury built with that magnificence as beseemeth so great an Earle and yet such as was not to be envied This Workensop from the Lovetofts first Lords thereof under the Normans Raigne descended by the Furnivalles and Nevil unto the L. Talbots with a very goodly inheritance Of which Lovetofts G. Lovetoft in the time of King Henry the First founded here an Abbay the ruines whereof I have seen toward the East side of the Towne amidst most pleasant and plentifull pastures and the West part of the Church standeth still passing faire to be seene with two towre steeples A little higher upon the same River I saw Blithe a famous Mercate Towne which Bulley or Busly a Noble man of the Normans blood fortified with a Castle but now the very rubbish thereof is hardly to bee seene time so consumeth all things But the Abbay there was founded by Roger Busly and Foulke De Lisieurs and this is the farthest Towne almost in Nottingham-shire Northward unlesse it bee Scroby a little Towne of the Archbishops of Yorke situate in the very confines and frontiers of York-shire William sirnamed
I chuse rather to reject them than heere to propound them According therefore to my purpose I will severally runne over those Provinces which after Ptolomees description the CORNAVII seeme to have possessed that is to say Warwick-shire Worcester-shire Stafford-shire Shrop-shire and Cheshire In which there remaineth no footing at this day of the name Cornavij although this name continued even untill the declining State of the Romane Empire For certaine Companies and Regiments of the CORNAVII served in pay under the later Emperours as wee may see in the Booke of Notitia Provinciarum WARWICI Comitatus a cor nauiis olim inha bitatus WARWICK-SHIRE THe County of WARVVICK which the old English Saxons as well as wee called WARVVICK-SHIRE being bounded on the East side with Northampton-shire Leicestershire and the Watling-street Way which I spake of on the South with Oxford-shire and Glocestershire on the West for the greatest part with Worcester-shire and on the North side with Stafford-shire is divided into two parts the Feldon and Woodland that is into a plaine Champian and a woody Country which parts the River Avon running crookedly from North-East to South-West doth after a sort sever one from the other The Feldon lyeth on this side Avon Southward a plaine Champian Countrey and being rich in Corne and greene grasse yeeldeth a right goodly and pleasant prospect to them that looke downe upon it from an Hill which they call Edge-hill Where this hill endeth nere unto Wormington we saw a round Fort or military fense cast up of a good bignesse which as others of that kinde wee may well thinke to have beene made for the present and not long to continue by occasion of some enemies that in times past were ready to invade those parts Of the redy Soile heere come the names of Rodway and Rodley yea and a great part of the very Vale is thereupon termed The Vale of Red-horse of the shape of an Horse cut out in a red hill by the Country people hard by Pillerton In this part the places worth naming are Shipston and Kinton the one in times past a Mercate of Sheepe the other of Kine whereupon they gat those names also Compton in the Hole so called for that it lyeth hidden in a Valley under the Hilles yet hath it delights and pleasures about it and from thence a noble Family hath taken the name out of which the most excellent Prince Queene Elizabeth advanced Sir Henry Compton to the honour of a Baron in the yeere of our Redemption 1572. Likewise Wormeleighton so highly commended and notorious for good Sheepe-pasture but now much more notable since that King James created that right worshipfull Sir Robert Spenser of whom I have already spoken Baron Spenser of Wormeleighton Moreover Shugbury where the stones called Astroites resembling little Starres are found which the Lords of the place sirnamed thereupon Shugbury have long shewed in their Coat Armour Southam a Mercate Towne well knowne as also Leamington so called of Leame a small Brooke that wandereth through this part of the Shire where there boyleth out a spring of salt water and Utrhindon now Long Ichingdon and Harbury Neither verily are these two places memorable for any other cause but for that Fremund sonne to King Offa was betwixt them villanously in times past slaine by those that forelayed him a man of great renowne and singular Piety to God ward unto whom nothing else procured envie and evill will but because in an unhappy time hee had by happy Conduct quelled the audacious Courage of his enemies Which Death of his notwithstanding turned to his greater Glorie For beeing buryed at his Fathers Palace now called Off-Church hee liveth yet unto Posterity as who beeing raunged in the Catalogue of our Saints hath among the multitude received Divine Honours and whose life is by an ancient Writer set out in a good Poeme out of which let it bee no offence to put downe these few Verses following touching the Murderer who upon an ambitious desire of a Kingdome slew him Non speraâs vivo Fremundo regis honore Optato se posse frui molitur in ejus Immeritam tacitò mortem gladióque profanus Irruit exerto servus Dominà jacentis Tale nihil veritum saevo caput amput at ictu Talis apud Wydford Fremendum palma coronat Dum simul sontes occîdit occidit insons Past hope whiles Fremund liv'd to speed of wished regalty All secret and unworthy meanes he plots to make him dye With naked sword prophane slave he assaileth cowardly His Lord unwares and as he lay beheads him cruelly At Wydford thus Prince Fremund did this glorious crowne attaine Whiles slaying guilty folke at once himselfe is guiltlesse slaine Thus much of the Feldon or Champion part which that ancient Fosse-way a thing that would not bee overpassed cutteth overthwart the ridge whereof is seene in pastures lying now out of the way neere unto Chesterton the habitation of that ancient Family of the Peitoes out of which was that William Peito a Franciscane Frier whom Paul the Fourth Pope of Rome of stomach to worke Cardinall Pole displeasure would you thinke these heavenly Wights were so wrathfull created though in vaine Cardinall and âegate of England having recalled Cardinall Pole to Rome before to bee accused and charged as suspected corrupt in Religion But Queene Mary albeit shee were most affectionately devoted to the Church of Rome interposed or rather opposed her selfe so that Peito was forbidden to enter into England and the power Legantine left entire and whole to Cardinall Pole Heere I wote not whether it would bee materiall to relate how in the Raigne of Edward the Fourth certaine Writers in Bookes of purpose penned made complaint of Covetousnesse how that she having assembled heere about flockes of Sheepe as a puissant power of armed forces besieged many Villages well peopled drave out the Husbandmen wonne the said Villages destroyed rased and depopulated them in such miserable sort heereabout that one of the said Writers a learned man in those daies cryed out with the Poet in these termes Quid facerent hostes capta crudeliùs urbe What could more cruelly be done By enemies to Cities wonne But nere unto the River Avon where carrying as yet but a small streame he closely entereth into this County first offereth it selfe Rugby having a Mercat in it standing chiefely of a number of Butchers Then Newenham Regis that is Kings Newenham standing upon the other side of the River where three fountaines walme out of the ground streined as it should seeme through a veine of Alum the water whereof carrying both colour and taste of milke is reported to cure the stone Certes it procureth urine abundantly greene wounds it quickly closeth up and healeth being drunke with salt it looseth and with sugar bindeth the belly After it Bagginton which had a Castle to it and belonged sometime to the Bagottes as noble a
In this County there be Parish Churches 158. WORCESTER-SHIRE THe second region of the ancient CORNAVII having now changed the name is called in Latine Wigorniensis Comitatus in the English Saxon tongue ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and now commonly of the principall Towne in it WORCESTER-SHIRE the inhabitants whereof together with those who joyning unto them round about in Bedes daies before that England was divided into Shires were termed Wiccii Which name if it were not given them of the river having so many windings which they dwell by for such turnings and curving reaches of a river the English Saxons as I have already said called Wic may seeme to have been derived of those Salt-pits that the old English-men in their language named Wiches For there be here very notable Salt-pits and many salt springs often times have been found which notwithstanding are stopped up because it was provided as we read that for the saving of woods salt should not be boyled but in certaine places Neither let it seeme strange that places have their names given them from Salt-pits considering that wee may meet with many such here and there in every Country and our Ancestors the Germans as Tacitus writeth had a religious perswasion and beliefe that such places approach neerest to Heaven and that mens prayers were no where sooner heard of the gods This County on which Warwick-shire confineth on the East Glocester-shire on the South bounded West-ward with Hereford-shire and Shrop-shire Northeast with Stafford shire to say all in one word hath so temperate an ayre and soile so favourable that for healthfulnesse and plenty it is not inferiour to their neighbour Countries and in one part for deinty Cheese surpasseth them yeelding such store of Peares as none other the like and albeit they are not so pleasing to these deinty and delicate mouthes yet out of their winish juice they make a bastard kinde of wine called Pyrry which they drinke very much although it be as other drinks of that kinde both cold and full of winde Neither is it if you respect waters lesse pleasant and commodious for in every place there be passing sweet rivers which affoord in great abundance the most delicate kinde of Fishes And to let those runne by that are of lesse account Severne that noble and renowned river carrieth his streame along through the middest of the shire from North to South and Avon that commeth downe out of Warwick-shire to meet with Severne watereth the South part thereof Severn first of all at his very entry passeth betweene Kidderminster and Beawdley This Beawdley worthily so called for the beautifull site thereof standeth most pleasantly upon the hanging of an hill and hovereth over the river on the West side of late daies well knowne for the admirable tallnesse of trees growing in the Forrest of Wyre adjoyning which now in a manner be all gone Whence our Poet and Antiquary Leland wrote thus Delicium rerum Bellus Locus undique floret Fronde coronatus Virianae tempora Sylvae Beawdley a fine and deinty thing is goodly to be seene All dight about with guirland fresh of Wire that Forest greene But now is this little Towne in speech and request onely for the pleasantnesse and beautie of it selfe and withall for the Kings house Tiken-hall which King Henry the Seventh built to be a retyring place for Prince Arthur at which time he graunted some liberties to Beawdley But farther from the river banke Eastward is Kidderminster over against it called also Kidelminster a faire Towne and hath a great Mercate of all commodities well frequented parted in twaine by the little River Stowre that runneth through it and the greatest ornaments now belonging thereto are first a passing beautifull Church wherein some of the worshipfull family of the Corkeseis lie buried and the goodly gallant house of the Blounts of knights degree descended from those of Kinlet but in old time this place was of most note for the Lords thereof the Bissets men in their time right honorable whose rich possessions being at length dismembred and divided among sisters came partly to the Barons of Abergevenny and in part to a Lazarhouse of women in Wilt-shire which one of the said sisters being her selfe infected with the Leprosie built for them that had the same disease and enriched it with her owne patrimony and childs part Afterwards it came to have a Baron for King Richard the Second created Sir Iohn Beauchamp Steward of his household Baron Beauchamp of Kidderminster by letters Patents and is accounted the first Baron so created But he soone after by the Barons who together with the Commons rose and contemning the Kings authority called as many as were most deere unto the King to give an account for their misgovernement of the Common-weale was with other right worthy persons in malice to the King condemned and beheaded Severne turning his course somewhat awry from thence saluteth Hertlebury a Castle of the Bishops of Worcester not far distant and goeth amaine to Holt Castle so called of a very thick wood there belonging sometime to the Abtots after to the Beauchamps who springing from William Beauchamp surnamed the Blinde Baron grew up afterwards to be a most honorable family the inheritance whereof descended at length to Gyse and Penyston from hence runneth Severne downe feeding such a number of fresh-water Lampries as that Nature may seeme in this place to have made a very pond or Stew for them such as the Romanes devised in ancient times when they grew lavish in riotous excesse These fishes we call Lampries of the Latin word Lampetra as one would say of licking the rocks are like to Eeles slippery and blackish howbeit beneath on their bellies somewhat blew on either side of their throates they receive and let in water at seven holes for that they want gils altogether Most commendable they are in the spring time as being then very sweet for in Summer the inner nerve or string which stands them insteed of a backe bone waxeth hard The Italians make them more delicate in tast by a speciall and peculiar seasoning For they take a Lamprie and in Malvesy kill it the mouth they close up with a nutmeg fill all the holes with as many cloves and when it is rolled up round putting thereto fillbard-nut kernels stamped crums of bread oile malvesey and spices they boyle it with great care and certaine turnings over a soft and temperate fire of coles in a frying pan But what have I to doe with such cookery and Apicius Beneath Holt Severne openeth his East banke to let in the river Salwarp comming a pace toward him This hath his first veines out of Lickey hill most eminent in the North part of this Shire neare unto which at Frankeley the family of the Litletons was planted by Iohn Litleton alià s Westcote the famous Lawyer Justice in the Kings Bench in the time of King Edward the
fourth to whose Treatise of Tenures the students of our Common Law are no lesse beholden than the Civilians to Iustinians Institutes But to returne This Salwarp which we speake of runneth downe by Bromesgrove a mercate towne not of the meanest reckoning and not far from Grafton the seat of a yonger family of the Talbots since King Henry the Seventh gave it to Sir Gilbert Talbot a yonger sonne of John the second Earle of Shrewsbury whom also for his martiall valour and singular wisdome he admitted into the society of the Order of the Garter and made Governor of Callis Then runneth Salwarp downe to Droitwich Durt-wich some terme it of the Salt pits and the wettish ground on which it standeth like as Hyetus in Bâetia tooke name of the durty situation where three fountaines yeelding plenty of water to make Salt of divided a sunder by a little brooke of fresh water passing betweene by a peculiar giât of nature spring out out of which most pure white Salt is boiled for sixe moneths every yeere to wit from Midsommer to Midwinter in many set fornaces round about Wherewith what a mighty deale of wood is consumed Fekenham Forest where trees grew sometime thicker and the woods round about if men hold their peace will by their thinnesse make manifest more and more But if I should write that the learned Canonist Richard de la Wich Bishop of Chichester here borne obtained with his fervent prayers these Salt springs out of the bowels of the earth I feare me least some might thinke me both over injurious to the providence of God and also too credulous of old wives traditions Yet were our ancestours in their pious devotion so hasty of beleefe that they did not onely give credit hereto yea and recorde it in their writings but in consideration heereof yeelded unto that Prelate in some sort divine honour when Pope Urban the Fourth had for his sanctity and sincere integrity of life canonized him a Saint But before that ever this Richard was borne Gervase of Tilbury wrote thus of these Salt springs though not altogether truely In the Bishopricke of Worcester there is a country towne not farre from the City named Wich in which at the foote of a certaine little hill there runneth a most fresh water in the banke whereof are seene a few pits or wels of a reasonable depth and their water is most salt When this water is boyled in Caudrons it becommeth thicke and turneth into passing white Salt and all the Province fetcheth and carrieth it for that betweene Christmas and the feast of S. Iohn Baptists Nativitie good the water floweth most Salt The rest of the yeere it runneth somewhat fresh and nothing good to make Salt and that which I take to be more wonderfull when this salt water is run sufficiently for the use of the Country scarcely overfloweth it to any waste Also when the time is once come of the saltnesse the same is nothing at all allaid for all the vicinity of the fresh river water neither is it found in any place neere unto the Sea Moreover in the very Kings booke which we call Domesday we read thus In Wich the King and Earle have eight salt pits which in the whole weeke wherein they boiled and wrought yeelded on the Friday sixteene Bullions Salwarp having now entertained a small brooke descending from Chedesley where anciently the family of Foliot flourished as afterward at Longdon maketh hast to Severne which hath not passed foure miles farther before he runs hard by WORCESTER the principall City of this Shire where he seemeth to passe with a flower streame as it were admiring and wondering thereat all the while he passeth by and worthy it is I assure you of admiration whether you respect either the antiquity or the beauty thereof Certes for antiquity the Emperour Antonine hath made mention of it under the name of BRANONIUM and Ptolomee in whom through the negligence of the transcribers it is misplaced under the name of BRANOGENIUM after which name the Britans call it yet Care Wrangon In the Catalogue of Ninnius it is named Caer Guorangon and Caer Guorcon the old English-Saxons afterward called it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã I dare not say of Wire that woody Forest which in old time stretched farre Since the Conquest the Latine writers named it Vigornia and Wigornia Which name Ioseph the Monke of Excester a right elegant Poet in those daies was one of the first that used if my memory faile me not I meane him that is published under the name of Cornelius Nepos in these his elegant verses unto Baldwin Archbishop of Canterbury In numerum jam crescit honor te tertia poscit Insula jam meminit Wigornia Cantia discit Romanus meditatur apex naufraga Petri Ductorem in mediis expectat cymba procellis A mitre third now waits for thee for still thine honour growes Thee Wigorne still remembereth now Canterbury knowes The See of Rome doth thinke of thee and Peters ship in feare Of wracke amid the boistrous stormes expects thee for to steare Probable it is that the Romanes built it what time as they planted cities at certaine spaces and distances along the East banke of Severne to keepe in the Britans beyond Severne like as they did in Germany on the South banke of Rhene to represse the incursions of the Germans It standeth in a place rising somewhat with a gentle ascent by the rivers side that hath a faire bridge with a tower over it proudly bearing it selfe in old time as I finde it written in an ancient Manuscript roule of the Romanes wall and even now also it is well and strongly walled But the fame and reputation that it now hath ariseth from the Inhabitants who are many in number courteous and wealthy by the trade of clothing from their faire and neat houses from the number also of Churches but most of all from the Bishops See which Sexwulph Bishop of the Mercians erected there in the yeere of Christ 680. having built a Cathedrall Church at the South side of the City which hath been often repaired and which the Bishops and Monkes by little and little have drawne out in length Westward almost to the very brinke of Severn Truly it is a passing faire and stately building adorned with the Monuments and Tombes of King Iohn Arthur Prince of Wales and divers of the Beauchamps and in these daies it is no lesse notable by the Deane and Chapter whom they call Prebendaries placed therein than it was in times past for the Monkes or the Cloister Priests For presently upon the first foundation like as in other religious houses of England married Priests were placed heere who carrying a long time a great opinion of holinesse governed the Churches untill that Danstane Archbishop of Canterbury had decreed in a Synode That from thence forward the religious men in England should live a
afterward this honor at the hands of King Henry the Fifth Who shortly after in the French war lost his life at the siege of Meaux in Brye leaving one onely daughter married to Sir Edward Nevill from whom descended the late Lords of Abergevenny Afterward King Henry the Sixth created John Tiptoft Earle of Worcester But when he presently taking part with King Edward the Fourth had applied himselfe in a preposterous obsequiousnesse to the humor of the said King and being made Constable of England plaied the part as it were of the butcher in the cruell execution of diverse men of qualitie himselfe when as King Henry the Sixth was now repossessed of the crowne came to the blocke Howbeit his sonne Edward recovered that honor when King Edward recovered his Kingdome But after that this Edward died without issue and the inheritance became divided among the sisters of the said John Tiptoft Earle of Worcester of whom one was married to the Lord Rooâ another to Sir Edmund Ingoldesthorpe and the third to the Lord Dudley Sir Charles Somerset base sonne to Henry Duke of Somerset Lord Herbert and Lord Chamberlaine to King Henry the Eighth was by him created Earle of Worcester After whom succeeded in lineall descent Henry William and Edward who now flourisheth and among other laudable parts of vertue and Nobility highly favoureth the studies of good literature There are in this Shire Parishes 152. STAFFORDIAE COMITATVS PARS olim Cornauiorum STAFFORD-SHIRE THE third Region of the old CORNAVII now called STAFFORD-SHIRE in the English Saxons Language ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Inhabitants whereof because they dwelt in the middest of England are in Bede termed Angli Mediterranei that is Midland Englishmen having on the East Warwick-shire and Darby-shire on the South side Worcester-shire and Westward Shropp-shire bordering upon it reacheth from South to North in forme of a Lozeng broader in the middest and growing narrower at the ends The North part is full of Hilles and so lesse fruitfull the middle being watered with the River Trent is more plentifull clad with Woods and embroidered gallantly with Corne fields and medowes as is the South part likewise which hath Coles also digged out of the earth and mines of Iron But whether more for their commodity or hinderance I leave to the Inhabitants who doe or shall best understand it In the South part in the very confines with Worcester-shire upon the River Stour standeth Stourton Castle sometimes belonging to the Earles of Warwicke the natall place of Cardinall Pole and then Dudley Castle towreth up upon an hill built and named so of one Dudo or Dodo an English Saxon about the yeere of our Salvation 700. In King William the Conquerours daies as we finde in his Domesday Booke William Fitz-Ausculph possessed it afterwards it fell to Noble men sirnamed Somery and by an heire generall of them to Sir Richard Sutton knight descended from the Suttons of Nottingham-shire whose Posterity commonly called from that time Lords of Dudley but summoned to Parliament first by King Henry the Sixth grew up to a right honourable Family Under this lyeth Pensueth Chace in former times better stored with game wherein are many Cole-pits in which as they reported to mee there continueth a fire begunne by a candle long since through the negligence of a grover or digger The smoke of this fire and sometime the flame is seene but the savour oftener smelt and other the like places were shewed unto mee not farre off North-West ward upon the Confines of Shropp-shire I saw Pateshull a seat of the Astleies descended from honourable Progenitours and Wrotesley an habitation of a Race of Gentlemen so sirnamed out of which Sir Hugh Wrotesley for his approoved valour was chosen by King Edward the Third Knight of the Garter at the first institution and so accounted one of the founders of the said honourable Order Next after this the memorable places that wee meet with in this Tract more inwardly are these Chellington a faire house and Manour of the ancient Family of the Giffards which in the Raigne of Henry the Second Peter Corbuchin gave to Peter Giffard upon whom also Richard Strongbow that Conquerour of Ireland bestowed in free gift Tachmelin and other Possessions in Ireland Theoten hall which is by interpretation The habitation of Heathens or Pagans at this day Tetnall embrued with Danish bloud in the yeere 911. by King Edward the Elder in a bloudy Battaile Ulfrunes Hampton so called of Wulfruna a most godly and devout woman who enriched the Towne called before simply Hampton with a religious House and for Wulfrunes Hampton it is corruptly called Wulver Hampton The greatest name and note whereof ariseth by the Church there annexed to the Warden or Deane and Prebendaries of Windsor Weadsbury in these dayes Weddsborrow fortified in old time by Aethelfled Lady of the Mercians and Walshall a Mercate Towne none of the meanest Neere unto which the River Tame carryeth his streame which rising not farre off for certaine miles wandereth through the East part of this Shire seeking after Trent neere unto Draiton Basset the seat of the Bassets who springing out from Turstan Lord of this place in the Raigne of Henry the First branched forth into a great and notable Family For from hence as from a stocke flourished the Bassets of Welleden of Wiccomb of Sapcot of Cheddle and others But of this of Draiton Raulph was the last who being a right renowned Baron had marryed the sister of John Montfort Duke of Britaine and in the Raigne of Richard the Second died without issue Then Tame passing through the Bridge at Falkesley over which an ancient high way of the Romanes went runneth hard under Tamworth in the Saxon Tongue ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Marianus calleth it Tamawordia a Towne so placed in the Confines of the two Shires that the one part which belonged sometime to the Marmions is counted of Warwick-shire the other which pertained to the Hastings of Stafford-shire As for the name it is taken from Tame the Riuer running beside it and of the English Saxon word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which signifieth a Barton Court or Ferme-house and also an Holme or River Island or any place environed with water seeing that Keyserwert and Bomelswert in Germanie betoken as much as Caesars Isle and Bomels Isle Whiles the Mercians Kingdome stood in state this was a place of their Kings resiance and as we finde in the Lieger Booke of Worcester a Towne of very great resort and passing well frequented Afterward when in the Danes Warre it was much decaied Aethelfled Lady of Mercia repaired and brought it againe to the former state also Edith King Eadgars Sister who refusing Marriage for the opinion that went of her for holinesse was registred in the roll of Saints founded heere a little house for Nunnes and veiled Virgins which after some yeeres was translated to
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
and separateth it from Darby-shire holding on his course in a Cleyish channell without any beds or shelves of mud through a soile consisting of the said Lime-stone from whence it sucketh out such fertilitie that in the very middest of Winter the Medowes on both the bankes sides carry a most pleasant and fresh greene hew but if it chance to swell above the bankes and overflow the Medowes in Aprill it battelleth them like another Nilus and maketh them so fruitfull that the inhabitants use commonly to chant this joyfull note In Aprill Doves flood Is worth a Kings good This river in twelve houres space useth so to rise that it harieth and carrieth away with it sheepe and other cattaile to the great terror of the people dwelling thereby but within the same time againe it falleth and returnes within his owne bankes whereas Trent being once up and over his bankes floweth upon the fields foure or five daies together but now come we to the rivers that run into it The first is Hans which being swallowed up under the ground breaketh up againe three miles off Then admitteth he the fellowship of the river Churnet who passeth by De-la-Cres Abbay built by Ranulph the third of that name Earle of Chester by Leike also a well knowne Mercat towne and by Aulton a Castle in times past belonging to the Barons Verdon who founded heere the Abbay of Croxden from whom by the Furnivals it descended to the Talbots Earles of Shrewsbury A little below runneth Teyn a small brooke into Dove which having his head not far from Cheddle the ancient seat of the Bassets who derive their pedegree from the Bassets of Draiton creepeth on in such a winding and crooked chanell that within one mile I was faine to passe over it foure times Neere unto it in Checkley Church-yard there stand three stones upright erected in maner of a Pyramides two of them have little images engraven upon them but that in the middest is highest The inhabitants report by tradition that a battaile was fought there betweene two hosts of which the one was armed the other unarmed and that in it were three Bishops slaine in memoriall of whom these stones were set up But what Historicall truth indeed lieth heerein enfolded I know not as yet As for Blith it hath in this Moreland Careswell a Castler situate upon it which Sir William Careswell built with great ponds having their heads made of square stones and Draicot which gave surname to a family of great antiquity in this County But Dove after it hath received Tine having a faire bridge made over it of most hard stone and defended with piles runneth under Vtcester in ' the Saxons tongue ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and Vttoxather situate upon the side of an hill with a gentle ascent a towne more rich in gay flowring medowes and in cattaile than faire built which before I saw it the name was so favourable to my conjecture I thought in vaine to have been the ancient ETOCETUM But now time hath taught me more certeinty After this when Dove is now come neerer unto Trent it visiteth Tutbury Castle in times past a large and stately thing which also is called Stutesbury and from an Alabaster hill top on which it stands threatneth as it were the whole country underneath It was built together with a little Monastery by Henry de Ferrars a Noble man of Normandy unto whom King William the First had given great lands and revenewes in this shire all which Robert de Ferrars Earle of Darby lost after he had revolted a second time from King Henry the Third For this Robert when after many troubles which he had raised in the Barons war hee was received into the Kings favour and had bound himselfe with a corporall oth in expresse and formall words that he would continue ever after loyall to his liege Lord yet was the man of such a stirring and restlesse spirit that to break and knap in peeces quite that fortune which he could not bend he put on armes against his Soveraigne and being at length taken prisoner that I may use the very words of the Record according to the forme of his obligation made this great forfeiture both of his fortunes and dignities There is in some place of this shire a lake if Alexander Necham deceive us not into which no wilde beast will in any wise enter but since the place is uncertaine and the thing it selfe more uncertaine I will onely put downe underneath these his verses before which he prefixed this Title De Lacu in Staffordia Rugitu Lacus est eventus praeco futuri Cujus aquis fera se credere nulla solet Instet odora canum virtus mors instet acerba Non tamen intrabit exagitata lacum Of a Lake in Stafford-shire A Lake there is that roreth loud whereby things are fore-showne The water whereof once to take wild beasts were never knowne Let hounds let death pursue apace them for to overtake For all this chase and hot pursuite none enter will the Lake Of another Poole or Lake also in this Country thus writeth Gervase of Tilbury in his Otia Imperialia unto Otho the fourth In the Bishopricke of Coventry and County of Stafford at the foot of an hill which the inborne people of the Country have named Mahull there is a water spread abroad in maner of a Meere in the territory of a Village which they tearme Magdalea In this Meere or Marsh there is a most cleere water and an infinite number of woods beside joyning one unto another which hath such an effectuall vertue in refreshing of bodies that so often as Hunters have chased Stagges and other Deere untill their Horses be tired if in the greatest heate of the scorching Sunne they taste of this water and offer it unto their Horses for to drinke they recover their strength of running againe which they had lost and become so fresh as one would thinke they had not run at all But whereabout this is I cannot yet learne by all my diligent inquiry As for the title of Stafford it remaineth ever since Robert de Stafford whom King William of Normandy enriched with great possessions even untill our time in his line and progeny A family as noble and ancient as any other but upon which fortune hath otherwhiles by turnes both frowned and fawned For first they were Barons of Stafford then five of them Earles of Stafford Ralfe created by King Edward the Third Earle of Stafford who married the heire of Sir Hugh Audley Earle of Glocester Hugh his sonne who died in Pilgrimage at Rhodes and his three sonnes successively Thomas and William both issuelesse and Edmund who married the daughter and heire of Thomas of Woodstock Duke of Buckingham Afterward three of them were Dukes of Buckingham and Earles of Stafford c. as is before shewed By the attainder of the last of them those so great inheritances
in with Shropp shire on the Eastside with Stafford-shire and Darby-shire on the North with Lancashire and on the West with Denbigh and Flint-shires Toward the North-West it runneth farre into the sea with a long cantle or Promontory which being enclosed within two Creekes receiveth the Ocean on both sides entring into the land into which two Creekes also all the Rivers of this Shire doe discharge themselves Into that Creeke which is more Westerne passeth the River Dee that divideth the country from Denbigh-shire into that on the Eastside both Wever which runneth through the mids of the Shire and Mersey also that parteth it from Lancashire issue themselves Neither see I any better way of describing this County than if I follow the very tracts of these Rivers For all the places of greatest note are situate by the sides of them But before I enter into any particular description I will first propose out of Lucian the Monke thus much in commendation of Ches-shire for he is a rare Author and lived a little after the Conquest If any man be desirous saith hee either fully or as neere as may bee to treat of the Inhabitants according to the disposition of their manners in respect of others that live in sundry places of the Realme They are found to bee partly different from the rest of English partly better and partly equall unto them But they seeme especially the best point to bee considered in generall triall of manners in feasting freindly at meat cheerefull in giving entertaiment liberall soone angry but not much and as soone pacified lavish in words impatient of servitude mercifull to the afflicted compassionate toward the poore kinde to their kinred spary of their labour void of dissimulation and doublenesse of heart nothing greedy in eating farre from dangerous practises yet by a certaine licentious liberty bold in borowing many times other mens goods They abound in Woods and pastures they are rich in flesh and Cattaile confining on the one side upon the Welsh Britans and by a long entercourse and transfusion of their manners for the most part like unto them This also is to be considered in what sort the Country of Chester enclosed upon one side with the limite of the Wood Lime by a certaine distinct priviledge from all other Englishmen is free and by the Indulgences of Kings and Excellencies of Earles hath beene wont in Assemblies of the people to attend upon the Earles sword rather than the Kings Crowne and within their precinct to heare and determine the greatest matters with more liberty Chester it selfe is a place of receit for the Irish a neighbour to the Welsh and plentifully served with Corne by the English Finely seated with Gates anciently built approoved in hard and dangerous difficulties In regard of the River and prospect of the eye together worthy according to the name to be called a City garded with watch of holy and religious men and through the mercy of our Saviour alwaies fensed and fortified with the mercifull assistance of the Almightie The River Dee called in Latin Deva in British Dyffyr-dwy that is the water of Dwy breeding very great plenty of Salmons ariseth out of two fountaines in Wales and thereof men thinke it tooke the name for Dwy in their tongue signifieth Two Yet others observing also the signification of the word interpret it Black-water others againe Gods water or Divine water But although Ausonius noteth that a Spring hallowed to the Gods was named Diuvona in the ancient Gaules tongue which was all one with the British and in old time all Rivers were reputed ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is Descending from Heaven yea and our Britans yeelded divine honour unto Rivers as Gildas writeth yet I see not why they should attribute Divinity to this River Dwy above all others The Thessalians as we reade gave to the River Paeneus divine honour for the pleasantnesse thereof the Scythians to Danubius for the largenesse the Germans to Rhene because it was counted a judge in the question of true and undefiled wedlocke But wherefore they should impose a divine name upon this River I see no reason as I said before unlesse peradventure because now and then it changed the Chanell and thereby foreshewed a sure token of Victory to the Inhabitants upon it when they were in hostility one with another according as it inclined more to this side or to that after it had left the Chanell for thus hath Giraldus Cambrensis recorded who in some sort beleeved it Or else because they observed that contrary to the wonted manner of other Rivers upon the fall of much raine it arose but little and so often as the South winde beateth long upon it it swelleth and extraordinarily overfloweth the grounds adjoyning Peradventure also the Christian Britans thought the water of this River to be holy For it is written that when they stood ready to joyne battaile with the English Saxons and had kissed the earth they dranke also very devoutly of this River in memoriall of Christs most sacred and pretious bloud But d ee which seemeth to rush rather than to run out of Wales no sooner is entred into Cheshire but he passeth more mildely with a slower streame by BONIUM in some written copies of Antonine BOVIUM a City that had been of great name in that age and afterward a famous Monastery Of the Chore or quire whereof it was called by the Britans Bon-chor and Banchor of the ancient English ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and Banchor and among many good and godly men it fostered and brought up as some write that most wicked Arch-heretick Pelagius who injuriously derogating from the grace of God troubled a long time the West Church with his pestiferous Doctrine Prosper Aquitanus in this Verse of his termeth him the British Adder or Land-snake Pestifero vomuit coluber sermone Britannus A British Snake with venemous tongue Hath vomited his poison strong Neither have I made mention of him for any other reason but because it is behoveable to each one to know vices and venims In this Monastery as saith Bede There was such a number of Monkes that being divided into seven portions which had every of them a severall head and Ruler over them yet every one of these had no fewer than three hundred men who were wont to live all of their handy labour Of whom Edilfred King of the Nordan-humbers slew 12. hundred because they had implored in their prayers Christs assistance for the Christian Britans against the English-Saxons then infidels The profession of this Monasticall life that I may digresse a little began when Pagan Tyrans enraged against Christians pursued them with bloudy persecutions For then good devout men that they might serve God in more safety and security withdrew themselves into the vast Wildernesses of Aegypt and not as the Painims are wont with open mouth to give it out for to enwrap themselves willingly in
the long traine and consequents of things as also whatsoever throughout the world hath beene done by all persons in all places and at all times and what ever hath beene all done may also bee avoided and taken heed of Which City having foure Gates from the foure cardinall Windes on the East side hath a prospect toward India on the West toward Ireland North-Eastward the greater Norway and Southward that streight and narrow Angle which divine severity by reason of civill and home-discords hath left unto the Britans Which long since by their bitter variance have caused the name of Britaine to bee changed into the name of England Over and beside Chester hath by Gods gift a River to enrich and adorne it the same faire and fishfull hard by the City Walles and on the South side a rode and harbour for shippes comming from Gascoine Spaine and Germany which with the helpe and direction of Christ by the labour and wisedome of Merchants repaire and refresh the heart of the City with many good things that wee being comforted every way by our Gods Grace may also drinke Wine often more frankely and plenteously because those Countries enjoy the fruite of the Vineyards aboundantlie Moreover the open Sea ceaseth not to visite it every day with a Tide which according as the broad shelves and barres of sands are opened or hidden by Tides and Ebbes incessantly is wont more or lesse either to send or exchange one thing or other and by his reciprocall Flow and returnes either to bring in or to carry out somewhat From the City North-Westward there shooteth out a languet of land or Promontory of the maine land into the Sea enclosed on the one side with Dee mouth on the other side with the River Mersey wee call it Wirall the Welsh Britans for that it is an Angle tearme it Kill-gury In old time it was all forest and not inhabited as the Dwellers report but King Edward the Third disforested it Yet now beset it is with Townes on every side howbeit more beholding to the Sea than to the Soile for the land beareth small plenty on Corne the water yeeldeth great store of fish At the entry into it on the South side standeth Shotwich a Castle of the Kings upon the salt water Upon the North standeth Hooten a Mannour which in King Richard the Second his time came to the Stanleies who fetch their Pedegree from Alane Silvestre upon whom Ranulph the first of that name Earle of Chester conferred the Bailly-wick of the Forest of Wirall by delivering unto him an horne Close unto this is Poole from whence the Lords of the place that have a long time flourished tooke their name and hard by it Stanlaw as the Monkes of that place interprete it A Stony hill where John Lacy Connestable of Chester founded a little Monastery which afterward by reason of inundations was translated to Whaley in Lancashire In the utmost brinke of this Promontory lieth a small hungry barren and sandy Isle called Il-bre which had sometime a little Cell of Monkes in it More within the Country and Eastward from Wirall you meet with a famous Forest named the Forest of Delamere the Foresters whereof by hereditary succâssion are the Dawns of Vtkimon descended of a worshipfull stocke from Ranulph de Kingleigh unto whom Ranulph the first Earle of Chester gave that Forestership to bee held by right of inheritance In this Forest Aedelfled the famous Mercian Lady built a little City called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is by interpretation Happy Towne which now having quite lost it selfe hath likewise lost that name and is but an heape of rubbish and rammell which they call The Chamber in the Forest. And about a mile or two from hence are to bee seene the ruines of Finborrow another Towne built by the same Lady Aedelfled Through the upper part of this Forest the River Wever runneth which ariseth out of a Poole in the South side of the Shire at Ridly the dwelling house of the worshipâull Family of the Egertons who flowered out of the Barons of Melpas as I have said Neere hereunto is Bunbury contractly so called for Boniface Bury for Saint Boniface was the Patron Saint there where the Egertous built a College for Priests Over against which is Beeston which gave sirname to an ancient family and where upon a steepe rising hill Beeston Castle towereth aloft with a turretted wall of a great circuit This Castle the last Ranulph Earle of Chester built whereof Leland our Countriman being rapt both with a Poeticall and Propheticall fury writeth thus Assyrio rediens victor Ranulphus ab orbe Hoc posuit Castrum terrorem gentibus olim Vicâuis patriaeque suae memorabile vallum Nunc licet indignas patiatur fracta ruinas Tempus erit quando rursus caput exeret altum Vatibus antiquis si fas mihi credere vati When Ranulph from Assyria return'd with victory As well the neighbour Nations to curbe and terrifie As for to sense his owne Country this famous Fort he rais'd Whilom a stately things but now the pride thereof is raz'd And yet though at this present time it be in meane estate With crackes and breaches much defac'd and fouly ruinate The day will come when it againe the head aloft shall heave If ancient Prophets I my selfe a Prophet may beleeve But to returne to the River Wever first holdeth his course Southward not farre from Woodhay where dwelt a long time that family of the Wilburhams knights in great reputation also by Bulkeley and Cholmondley which imparted their names to worshipfull houses of knights degree not farre off on the one hand from Baddeley the habitation in times past of the ancient Family de Praerijs of the other from Cumbermer in which William Malbedeng founded a little religious house Where this River commeth to the South limit of this Shire it passeth through low places wherein as also elsâwhere the people finde oftentimes and get out of the ground trees that have lien buried as it is thought there ever since Noahs floud But afterwards watering fruitfull fields he taketh to him out of the East a riveret by which standeth Wibbenbury so called of Wibba King of the Mercians Hard to it lie Hatherton the seat in old time of the Orbetes then of the Corbetts but now of the Smithes Dodinton the possession of the Delvesies Batherton of the Griphins Shavinton of the Wodenoths who by that name may seeme to have descended from the English Saxons beside the places of other famous Families wherewith this County every where aboundeth From thence runneth Wever downe by Nant-wich not farre from Middlewich and so to Northwich These are very famous Salt-wiches five or sixe miles distant asunder where brine or salt water is drawne out of Pittes which they powre not upon wood while it burneth as the ancient Gaules and Germans were wont to doe but boyle over the
Riveret aforesaid being past Brereton within a while after visiteth Middlewich neere unto his confluence with Dan where there bee two Welles of sale water parted one from the other by a small Brooke Sheatbes they call them the one stands not open but at certaine set times because folke willingly steale the Water thereof as beeing of greater vertue and efficacy From hence runneth Dan to Bostoke in times past Botestoc the ancient seat of the Family of the Bostokes Knights which by the marriage with Aâne onely Daughter of Raulph sonne of heire to Sir Adam Bostokes knight passed together with a very great livelode unto Sir John Savage Out of this ancient house of the Bostokes as out of a stocke sprung a goodly number of the same name in Ches-shire Shropp-shire Barkshire and elsewhere When as Dan now beneath Northwich that I spake of hath united his steame with Wever then Wever runneth forthright and taketh in from the East Pever that floweth hard by Pever and giveth it the name where that ancient notable Family of Meinilwarin commonly Manewaring is seated out of which Raulph married the daughter of Hugh Kevelioc Earle of Chester as appeareth by an old Charter in the custody of Ranulph the heire now of the samehouse From thence speedeth Wever by Winington which gave both habitation and name to the renowned family of the Winingtons and not farre from Merbury which being so called of a Mere under it conferred likewise the name upon that respective ancient Family of the Merburies Hence the River holdeth on his course neere unto Dutton the Inheritance of that great and worthy Family of Duttons who derive their descent from one Hudard allied to the Earles of Chester and who by an old order and custome have great authority over all the pipers fidlers and minstrels of this Province ever since that one of the Duttons a young Gentleman full of spirit and active withall having hastily gathered a tumultuary power of those kinde of people valiantly delivered Ranulph the last Earle of Chester from danger when hee was beset with Welsh enemies Neither must I passe over in silence Nether Whitley in this tract out of which came the Tuschetts or Towchetts who are now Barons Audley By this time Wever aforesaid flowing betweene Prodesham a Castle of ancient note and Clifton now Rock-Savage an house of the Savages new built who here by marriage attained to rich and faire revenewes entreth at length into Mersey mouth And this is so called of the River Mersey which running as a bounder betweene Ches-shire and Lancashire is there at length discharged into the Sea after it hath among other small townes of meaner note watered Stockport which had sometime a Baron of the Earles of Chester and Warburgton so named of S. Werburgh the habitation of a family thereof sirnamed but branched from the Duttons Hereby it entertaineth the River Bollin out of that spacious Forest of Maclesfield Upon this Bollin standeth Maclesfield one of the fairest Townes of this Country which gave name unto that Forest where T. Savage first Bishop of London and afterwards Archbishop of Yorke built a College wherein some of that Race of the Savages lye entombed also Dunham which from Sir Hamon of Masey by the Fittones and Venables descended hereditarily unto the Family of Booth From thence Mersey commeth to Thelwall before it bee farre past Knotsford that is Canutus his Foord which is divided into the upper and the nether also to Lee from whence there is a Family bearing the same sirname that is not onely of gentle bloud and of especiall note but also farre and fairely propagated into a number of branches As for Thelwall now it is an obscure Village but in times past a large Towne built by King Edward the elder and so called as Florilegus witnesseth of bodies of trees the boughes being cut off firmely fastened in the ground wherewith hee walled it round For the Saxons in their tongue called the Trunkes and bodies of Trees ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and a Wall as wee doe now At the very mouth of the River standeth Runkborne founded in the same age by Lady Edelflede commonly called Eâfled and brought now by the mutability of time to a few cotages This lady Edelfleda to tell you at once of whom I have oft made mention sister to K. Edward the elder and wife to Ethelred a peây King of the Mercians after her husbands death governed the Mercians in most dangerous and troublesome times for eight yeeres with high commendation touching whom these laudatory Verses in praise of her wee reade in the History of Henry of Huntingdon O Elfleda potens ô terror virgo virorum Victrix naturae nomine digna viri Te quo splendidior fieres natura puellam Te probitas fecit nomen habere viri Te mutare decet sed solam nomina sexus Tu regina potens Rexque trophaea parans Jam nec Caesarci tantum meruere triumphi Caesare splendidior virgo virago vale O mighty Elfled vigin pure that men do'st terrifie And nature passe right worthy thou in name man to be To grace thee more dame Nature once thee shap'd a maiden brave But vertue thee hath caused now the name of man to have It thee becomes but thee alone the name of Sex to change Of great Queenes and triumphant Kings thou standest in the range From Caesars triumphes for desert thou bear'st away the bell No Caesar ever was thy match Thus Manly-maide fare well Beneath Runckhorne somewhat within the Country Haulton the Towne and Castle both shew themselves which Hugh Lupus Earle of Chester gave unto Niel a Norman to be by tenure and service Constable of Chester by whose posterity through the variable change of times it is come unto the House of Lancaster Neither would this be overpassed in silence that William the said Nieles sonne founded the Abbay adjoyning at Norton which now appertaineth to the Broks of ancient descent Whether I should place in this Shire or elsewhere the CANGI an ancient Nation of Britans that have beene so much and so long sought for I have as long and as much doubted For continuance of time hath now so obscured them that hitherto by no footings they could be traced and found out And albeit Justus Lipsius that Flower of exquisite learning taketh mee for a Judge heerein I frankly confesse I know not what judgement to give and rather would I commend this office of judging to any other man than assume it to my selfe Yet neverthelesse if CEANGI and CANGI were the same as why not it may bee probable enough that they were seated in this tract For whiles I perused these my labours I understood by some of good credit that there were heere upon the very shore gotten out of the ground twenty sowes of lead long in forme but foure square On the upper part whereof in an hollow surface is to be read this
of the lands was fallen there was great competition for the title of Abergevenny argued in the High Court of Parliament in the second yeere of King James and their severall claimes debated seven severall daies by the learned Counsell of both parts before the Lords of the Parliament Yet when as the question of precise right in law was not sufficiently cleered but both of them in regard of the nobility and honor of their family were thought of every one right worthy of honorable title and whereas it appeared evidently by most certaine proofes that the title as well of the Barony of Abergevenny as of Le Despenser appertained hereditarily to this Family The Lords humbly and earnestly besought the King that both parties might be ennobled by way of restitution who graciously assented thereunto Hereupon the Lord Chancellour proposed unto the Lords first whether the heire male should have the title of Abergevenny or the heire female and the most voices carried it that the title of the Barony of Abergevenny should bee restored unto the heire male And when he propounded secondly whether the title of the Barony Le Despenser should bee restored unto the female they all with one accord gave their full consent Which being declared unto the King he confirmed their determination with his gracious approbation and royall assent Then was Edward Nevill by the Kings Writ called unto the Parliament by the name of Baron Abergavenney and in his Parliament Robes betweene two Barons as the manner is brought into the house and placed in his seat above the Baron Audley And at the very same time were the letters Patents read whereby the King restored erected preferred c. Mary Fane to the state degree title stile name honour and dignity of Baronesse Le-Despenser To have and to hold the foresaid state and unto the above named Mary and her heires and that her heires successively should bee Barons Le-Despenser c. And upon a new question mooved unto whether the Barony of Abergavenney or the Barony Le-Despenser the priority of place was due The Lords referred this point to the Commissioners for the Office of the Earle Mareschall of England who after mature deliberation and weighing of the matter gave definitive sentence for the Barony Le-Despenser set downe under their hands and signed with their seales which was read before the Lords of the Parliament and by order from them entered into the Journall Booke out of which I have summarily thus much exemplified John Hastings for I have no reason to passe it over in silence held this Castle by homage Wardship and marriage when it hapned as wee reade in the Inquisition and if there should chance any warre betweene the King of England and the Prince of Wales hee was to keepe the Country of Over-went at his owne charges in the best manner he can for his owne commodity the Kings behoofe and the Realme of Englands defense The second little City which Antonine named BURRIUM and setteth downe twelve miles from Gobannium standeth where the River Birthin and Uske meete in one streame The Britans at this day by transposing of the letters call it Brunebegy for Burenbegy and Caer Uske Giraldus tearmeth it Castrum Oscae that is The Castle of Uske and we Englishmen Uske At this day it can shew nothing but the ruines of a large and strong Castle situate most pleasantly betweene the River Uske and Oilwy a Riveret which beneath it runneth from the East by Ragland a faire house of the Earle of Worcesters built Castle-like The third City which Antonine nameth ISCA and LEGIO SECUNDA is on the other side of Uske twelve Italian miles just distant from BURRIUM as hee hath put it downe The Britans call it Caer Leon and Caer LEON ar Uske that is The City of the Legion upon Uske of the second Legion Augusta which also is called Britannica Secunda This Legion being ordained by the Emperour Augustus and translated by Claudius out of Germany into Britaine under the conduct of Vespasian being ready at his command when he aspired to bee Emperour and which procured the Legions in Britaine to take his part was heere at last placed in Garison by Julius Frontinus as it seemeth against the Silures How great this ISCA was in those dayes listen unto our Girald out of his Booke called Itinerarium Cambriae who thus describeth it out of the ruines It was an ancient and Authenticke City excellently well built in old time by the Romanes with bricke Walles Heere may a man see many footings of the antique nobility and dignity it had mighty and huge Palaces with golden pinacles in times past resembling the proud statelinesse of the Romanes for that it had beene found first by Romane Princes and beautified with goodly buildings There may you behold a giant-like Towre notable and brave baines the remaines of Temples and Theatres all compassed in with faire walles which are partly yet standing There may one finde in every place as well within the circuit of the Wall as without houses under ground water pipes and Vaults within the earth and that which you will count among all the rest worth observation you may see every where hoâe houses made wondrous artificially breathing forth heate very closely at certaine narrow Tunnels in the sides Heere lye enterred two noble Protomartyrs of greater Britaine and next after Alban and Amphibalus the very principall heere crowned with Martyrdome namely Julius and Aaron and both of them had in this City a goodly Church dedicated unto them For in antient times there had beene three passing faire Churches in this City One of Julius the Martyr beautified with a chaire of Nunnes devoted to the service of God A second founded in the name of blessed Aaron his companion and ennobled with an excellent Order of Chanons Amphibalus also the Teacher of Saint Alban and a faithfull informer of him unto faith was borne heere The site of the City is excellent upon the River Oske able to beare a prety Vessell at an high water from the Sea and the City is fairely furnished with woods and medowes heere it was that the Romane Embassadours repaired unto the famous Court of that great King Arthur Where Dubritius also resigned the Archiepiscopall honour unto David of Menevia when the Metropolitane See was translated from hence to Menevia Thus much out of Giraldus But for the avouching and confirming of the Antiquity of this place I thinke it not impertinent to adjoyne heere those antique Inscriptions lately digged forth of the ground which the right reverend Father in God Francis Godwin Bishop of Landaffe a passing great lover of venerable Antiquity and of all good Literature hath of his courtesie imparted unto me In the yeere 1602. in a medow adjoyning there was found by ditchers a certaine image of a personage girt and short trussed bearing a quiver but head hands and feet were broken off upon a pavement of square tile in checker
it at this day which Sir Rhise ap Thomas that warlike Knight who assisted Henry the Seventh when he gat the Crowne and was by him right worthily admitted unto the Society of the Knights of the Garter renewed whereas before time it was named Elmelin Which name if the Englishmen gave unto it of Elme-trees their conjecture is not to bee rejected who will have it to bee that LOVENTIUM of the DIMETAE whereof Ptolomee maketh mention For the Britans call Elmes Llwiffen But seeing I can finde by no record in Histories which if the Normans first wrested this Country out of the hands of the Princes of Wales I am to proceed now orderly to the description of Pembroch-shire It hath Parishes 87. PENBROK Comitatus olim Pars DEMETARVM PENBROKE-SHIRE THE Sea now retyring Southward and with a mighty compasse and sundry Bayes incurving the shores presseth on every side upon the County of PENBROKE commonly called PENBROKE-SHIRE which in the old Bookes is named The lawfull County of Pembroch and of some West-Wales unlesse it be in the East side where Caermarden-shire and on the North where a part of Cardigan-shire boundeth upon it A Country plentifull in Corne stored with Cattaile and full of marle and such kinde of fatty earth to make the ground fertile and not destitute of pit cole This Land as saith Giraldus is apt to beare Wheat plentifully served with sea-fish and saleable wine and that which is farre above the rest by reason that Ireland confineth so neere upon it of a very temperate and wholsome aire First and formost upon the shore descending Southward Tenby a proper fine Towne well governed by a Major and strongly walled toward the Land looketh downe into the sea from a dry cliffe very famous because it is a commodious road for ships and for abundance also of fish there taken whereupon in the British tongue it is called Tenby-y-Piscoid and hath for Magistrates a Major and a Bailiffe From thence the shore giving backe Westward sheweth the Reliques of Manober Castle which Giraldus calleth The Mansion of Pyrhus in whose time as himselfe writeth It was notably fortified with Towres and Bulwarkes having on the West side a large Haven and on the North-West and North under the very walles an excellent fish-poole goodly to behold as well for the beauty thereof as the depth of the water From hence runneth the shore along not many miles continuate but at length the land shrinketh backe on both sides giving place unto the sea which encroching upon it a great way maketh the Haven which the Englishmen call Milford Haven than which there is not another in all Europe more noble or safer such variety it hath of nouked Bayes and so many coves and creekes for harbour of ships wherewith the bankes are on every side indented and that I may use the Poets words Hic exarmatum terris cingentibus aequor Clauditur placidam discit servare quietem The Sea disarmed heere of windes within high banke and hill Enclosed is and learnes thereby to be both calme and still For to make use of the Mariners words and their distinct termes there are reckoned within it 16. Creekes 5. Baies and 13. Rodes knowne every one by their severall names Neither is this Haven famous for the secure safenesse thereof more than for the arrivall therein of King Henry the Seuenth a Prince of most happy memory who from hence gave forth unto England then hopelesse the first signall to hope well and raise it selfe up when as now it had long languished in civill miseries and domesticall calamities within it selfe Upon the innermore and East Creeke of this Haven in the most pleasant Country of all Wales standeth Penbroke the Shire-towne one direct street upon a long narrow point all rocke and a forked arme of Milford Haven ebbing and flowing close to the Towne walles on both sides It hath a Castle but now ruinate and two Parish Churches within the wals and is incorporate of a Major Bailiffes and Burgesses But heare Giraldus who thus describeth it A tongue of the sea shooting forth of Milford Haven in the forked end encloseth the principall towne of the whole Country and chiefe place of Dimetia seated upon the ridge of a certaine craggy and long shaped Rocke And therefore the Britans called it Penbro which signifieth as much as a head of the Sea and wee in our tongue Penbroke Arnulph of Montgomery brother to Robert Earle of Shrewsbury first in the time of King Henry the First fortified this place with a Castle a very weake and slender thing God wote of stakes and turfes which afterwards he returning into England delivered unto Girald of Windsor his Constable and Captaine to bee kept with a Garison of few Souldiers and immediately the Welshmen of all South Wales laid siege unto the said Castle But such resistance made Girald and his company more upon a resolute courage than with any forcible strength that they missed of their purpose and dislodged Afterwards the said Girald fortified both Towne and Castle from whence hee invaded the Country round about it farre and neere and at length that as well his owne estate as theirs that were his followers and dependants might the better grow to greatnesse in these parts he tooke to wife Nesta sister to Gruffin the Prince of whom he begat a goodly faire Progeny by the which as saith that Giraldus who descended from him The Englishmen both kept still the Sea Coasts of South Wales and wonne also the walles of Ireland For all those noble families of Giralds or Giraldines in Ireland whom they call Fitz Girald fetch their descent from the said Girald In regard of the tenure of this Castle and Towne of the Castle and Towne likewise of Tinbigh of the Grange of Kings Wood of the Commot of Croytarath and of the Manors of Castle Martin and Tregoire Reinold Grey at the Coronation of King Henry the Fourth made suite to carry the second sword but in vaine For answere was made that those Castles and Possessions were in the Kings hands as Pembroke Towne still is Upon another Creeke also of this haven Carew Castle sheweth it selfe which gave both name and originall to the notable Family de Carew who avouch themselves to have beene called aforetime de Montgomery and have beene perswaded that they are descended from that Arnulph de Montgomery of whom I spake erewhile Into this Haven there discharge themselves with their out-lets joyned almost in one two rivers which the Britans tearme Gledawh that is if you interpret it Swords whereupon themselves use to tearme it Aber du gledhaw that is The out-let of two swords Hard by the more Easterly of them standeth Slebach a Commandery in times past of Saint Johns Knights of Jerusalem which with other lands Wizo and Walter his sonne gave in old time unto that holy Order of Knighthood that they might serve as Gods Knights
part of the Shire Nature hath loftily areared it up farre and neere with Mountaines standing thicke one by another as if she would here have compacted the joynts of this Island within the bowels of the earth and made this part thereof a most sure place of refuge for the Britans in time of adversitie For there are so many roughes and Rocks so many vales full of Woods with Pooles heere and there crossing over them lying in the way betweene that no Armie nay not so much as those that are lightly appoynted can finde passage A man may truely if he please terme these Mountaines the British Alpes for besides that they are the greatest of the whole Island they are no lesse steepe also with cragged and rent Rockes on every side than the Alpes of Italie yea and all of them compasse one Mountaine round about which over-topping the rest so towreth up with his head aloft in the aire as he may seeme not to threaten the Skie but to thrust his head up into Heaven And yet harbour they the Snow for all the yeere long they be hory with Snow or rather with an hardened crust of many Snowes felted together Whence it is that all these hilles are in British by one name termed Craig Eriry in English Snow-don which in both languages sound as much as Snowie Mountaines like as Niphates in Armenia and Imaus in Scythia tooke their names as Plinie witnesseth of Snow Neverthelesse so ranke are they with grasse that it is a very common speech among the Welsh That the Mountaines Eriry will yeeld sufficient pasture for all the Cattaile in Wales if they were put upon them together Concerning the two Meares on the toppe of these in the one of which floreth a wandring Island and in the other is found great store of Fishes but having all of them but one eye a peece I will say nothing left I might seeme to foster fables although some confident upon the authoritie of Giraldus have beleeved it for a veritie Yet certaine it is that there be in the very toppe of these Mountaines Pooles in deed and standing Waters whereupon Gervase of Tilbury in his Booke entituled Otia Imperialia writeth thus In the Land of Wales within the bounds of great Britain there be high Hilles that haue laied their foundations upon most hard Rockes and in the toppe thereof the earth is crusted over with such a coate of waterish moisture that wheresoever a man doe but lightly set his foote he shall perceive the ground to stirre the length of a stones cast from him whereupon when the enemies came the Welsh with their agility and nimblenesse lightly leaping over the boggy ground either avoide the enemies assaults or to their losse resolutely expect their forces These Mountainers John Salisbury in his Polycraticon by a new forged Latine name termed Nivicollinos that is Snow-down inhabitants of whom in King Henry the Second his daies he wrote thus The Snow-downe Britans make inrodes and being now come out of their Caves and lurking holes of the Woods enlarge their borders possesse the plaines of the Noble men and whiles themselves looke on they assault they winne and overthrow them or else keepe the same to their owne behoofe because our youth which is so daintily brought up and loves to be house-birds and to live lazie in the shade being borne onely to devoure the fruits of the earth and to fill the belly sleepes untill it be broad day light c. But come wee downe now from the Mountaines into the Champion Plaines which because we finde no where else but by the Sea side it may suffice to coast only along the shore The Promontory which I said before shooteth out toward the South-west is in Ptolomee called according to the diversitie of copies CANGANUM JANGANUM and LANGANUM Which is the truest name I know not but LANGANUM it may seeme considering that the inhabitants name it at this day Lhein which runneth forth with a narrow and even by-land having larger and more open fields than the rest of the Country and the same yeelding Barley most plenteously Two little Townes it sheweth and no more that are memorable Farther within upon the Creeke is Pullhely that is that Salt Meare or Poole more outward by the Irish Sea hat beateth upon the other side of the Bi-land is Nevin a Village having a Merket kept in it wherein the Nobility of England in the yeere of our Lord 1284. in a Triumph over the Welsh did celebrate the memory of Arthur the great as Florilegus writeth with Iustes Turnaments and festivall pompe If any other Townes flourished here then were they destroied when Hugh Earle of Chester Robert of Rudland and Guarin of Salop entring into this Country first of all the Normans so wasted this Promontory that for the space of seven whole yeeres it lay dispeopled and desolate From Nevin the shore pointed and endented with one or two elbowes lying out into the sea tendeth Northward and then turning afront North-east by a narrow sea or Frith they call it Menai it serveth the Isle Anglesey from the firme land Upon this straight or narrow sea stood SEGONTIUM a City which Antonine the Emperour maketh mention of some reliques of the walles I saw neere unto a little Church built in honour of Saint Pulblicius It tooke the name of a River running by the side of it which yet at this day is called Seiont and issueth out of the Poole Lin-Peru In which there is a kinde of fish peculiar to that water and seene no where else called by the dwellers there Tor-coch of the belly that is somewhat red Now seeing that in an ancient copie of Ptolomee SETANTIORUM PORTUS is here placed which according to other copies is set farther off if I should reade in stead of it SEGONTIORUM PORTUS that is the Haven of the Segontians and say it stood upon the mouth of this River I should perhaps aime at the truth if not yet should I obtaine pardon for my conjecture of a courteous Reader This Citie Ninnius called Caer Custenith and hee that wrote the life of Gruffin the Sonne of Conan recordeth that Hugh Earle of Chester built a Castle in Hean Caer Custenith that is as the Latine Interpreter translâteth it in the auncient Citie of Constantine the Emperour And Matthew of Westminster writeth but let him make it good if he can that the bodie of Constantius Father to Constantine the Great was here found in the yeere of our Lord 1283. and honourably bestowed in the Church of the new Citie by the commandement of King Edward the First Who out of the ruines of this Towne at the same time raised the Citie Caer-narvon somewhat higher upon the Rivers mouth so as that on the West and North-sides it is watered therewith Which as it was called Caer-narvon because it standeth right ouer against the Island Mona for so much
some places Barley in others Wheat but generally throughout Rye with twenty fold encrease and better and afterwards foure or five Crops together of Otes In the Confines of this Shire and Denbigh-shire where the hilles grow more flat and plaine with a softer fall and an easier descent downe into the Vale in the very gullet and entry thereof the Romanes placed a little City named VARIS which Antonine the Emperour placeth nineteene miles from CONOVIUM This without any maime of the name is called at this day Bod-Vari that is Mansion Vari and the next little hill hard by which the inhabitants thereabout commonly call Moyly Gaer that is The Mountaine of the City sheweth the footings of a City indeed that hath beene destroyed But what the name should signifie it appeareth not I for my part have beene of opinion elsewhere that Varia in the old British language signified a Passage and accordingly have interpreted these words Durnovaria and Isannaevaria The passage of a water and the passage of Isanna And for this opinion of mine maketh well the situation of VARIS in that place where onely there lyeth open an easie passage betwixt the hilles And not three miles from hence standeth Caer-wisk the name whereof although it maketh some shew of Antiquity yet found I nothing ancient there nor worth the observation Beneath this VARIS or Bodvari in the vale glideth Cluid and streightwayes Elwy a little Rivereâ conjoyneth it selfe with it where there is a Bishops See This place the Britans call according to the River Llan-Elwy the Englishmen of Asaph the Patron thereof Saint Asaph And the Historiographers Asaphensis Neither is the Towne for any beauty it hath nor the Church for building or bravery memorable yet something would be said of it in regard of Antiquity For about the yeere of our Redemption 560. Kentigern Bishop of Glasco being fled hither out of Scotland placed heere a Bishops See and erected a Monastery having gathered together sixe hundred threescore and three in a religious brotherhood Whereof three hundred being unlearned did give themselves to husbandry and as many moe to worke and labour within the Monastery the rest to Divine Service Whom hee divided so by Covents that some of them should continually give attendance in the Church to the scervie of God But when he returned into Scotland he ordain'd Asaph a most godly and upright man Governor over this Monastery of whom it tooke the name which now it hath The Bishop of this See hath under his Jurisdiction about 128. Parishes the Ecclesiasticall Benefices whereof were wont to bee bestowed when the See was voide by the Archbishop of Canterbury without interruption untill the time of King Henry the Eighth and that by his Archiepiscopall right which now is counted a Regality For so we reade in the History of Canterbury Above this Ruthlan taking the name of the ruddy and red banke of Câuid on which it stands maketh a good shew with a Castle but now almost consumed by very age Lhewellin Ap Sisil Prince of Wales first built it and Robert sirnamed de Ruthland Nephew of Hugh Earle of Chester was the first that by force wonne it from the Welsh as being Captaine Lieutenant to the said Hugh who fortified it with new workes and bulwarkes Afterward as Rob. Abbat de Monte hath written King Henry the Second when hee had repaired this Castle gave it unto Hugh Beauchamp Beneath this Cluid streightwayes emptieth it selfe into the Sea And albeit the Valley at the very mouth seemeth to carry a lower levell and to lye under the Sea yet the water never overfloweth into the Vale but as it were by a naturall obstacle staâeth within the very brinkes of the shore not without the exceeding great admiration of Gods Providence From hence the shore tending by little and little Eastward shooteth forward first by Disart Castle so called because it was situate on the rising of a cliffe or as some would have it as it were Desert then by Basing werke which also King Henry the Second granted unto Hugh Beauchamp Beneath this wee saw the little Towne Haly-well as one would say holy well where there is that fountaine frequented by Pilgrimes for the memoriall of the Christian Virgin Winefride ravished there perforce and beheaded by a Tyranne as also for the mosse there growing of a most sweet and pleasant smell Out of which Well there gusheth forth a Brooke among stones which represent bloudy spottes upon them and it carryeth so violent a streame that presently it is able to drive a mill Over the very Well there standeth a Chappell built of stone right curiously wrought whereunto adjoyneth a little Church in a window whereof is portrayed and set out the History of the said Winefride how her head was cut off and set on againe by Saint Bennâ Neere unto this place in the time of Giraldus who yet knew not this Well There was as himselfe writeth a rich Veine and gainefull Mine of silver where men in seeking after silver pierced and pried into the very bowels of the Earth This part of the Country because it smileth so pleasantly upon the beholders with a beautifull shew and was long since subject unto Englishmen the Welsh named Teg-Engle that is Faire England But whereas one hath tearmed it Tegenia and thought that the Igeni there planted themselves take heede I advise you that you be not overhasty to beleeve him Certes the name of the Iceni wrong put downe here deceived the good man Then upon the shore you may see Flint Castle which King Henry the Second beganne and King Edward the First finished and it gave the name unto this Shire where King Richard the Second circumvented by them who should have beene most trusty was cunningly induced to renounce the Crowne as unable for certaine defects to rule and was delivered into the hands of Henry of Lancaster Duke of Hereford who soone after claimed the Kingdome and Crowne being then voide by his cession as his inheritance descended from King Henry the Third and to this his devised claime the Parliament assented and hee was established in the Kingdome After Flint by the East border of the Shire neere to Chesshire standeth Hawarden commonly called Harden-Castle not farre from the shore out of which when David Lhewellins brother had led away prisoner Roger Clifford Iustice of Wales hee raised thereby a most bloudy Warre against himselfe and his people wherein the Princedome of the Welsh Nation was utterly overthrowne But this Castle anciently holden by the Seneschalship of the Earles of Chester was the seat of the Barons de Mount-hauls who grew up to a most honourable family and gave for their Armes in A Shield Azure a Lion rampant Argent and bettered their dignity and estate by marriage with Cecily one of the coheires of Hugh D'Albeney Earle of Arundell But in the end for default of male issue Robert the
County of YORKE in the Saxon Tongue ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã commonly YORKE-SHIRE the greatest Shire by farre of all England is thought to bee in a temperate measure fruitfull If in one place there bee stony and sandy barraine ground in another place there are for it Corne-fields as rich and fruitfull if it bee voide and destitute of Woods heere you shall finde it shadowed there with most thicke Forests so providently useth Nature such a temperature that the whole Countrey may seeme by reason also of that variety more gracefull and delectable Where it bendeth Westward it is bounded with the Hilles I spake of from Lancashire and Westmorland On the North side it hath the Bishopricke of Durham which the River Tees with a continued course separateth from it On the East side the Germaine Sea lieth sore upon it and the South side is enclosed first with Cheshire and Darby-shire then with Nottingham-shire and after with Lincoln-shire where that famous arme of the Sea Humber floweth betweene into which all the Rivers well neere that water this shire empty themselves as it were into their common receptacle This whole Shire is divided into three parts which according to three Quarters of the world are called The West-Riding The East-Riding and The North-Riding West-Riding for a good while is compassed in with the River Ouse with the bound of Lancashire and with the South limits of the shire and beareth toward the West and South East-Riding looketh to the Sunne-rising and the Ocean which together with the River Derwent encloseth it North-Riding reacheth Northward hemmed in as it were with the River Tees with Derwent and a long race of the River Ouse In that West part out of the Westerne Mountaines or Hilles in the Confines issue many Rivers which Ouse alone entertaineth every one and carryeth them all with him unto Humber Neither can I see any fitter way to describe this part than to follow the streames of Done Calder Are Wherse Nid and Ouse which springing out of these Hilles are the Rivers of most account and runne by places likewise of greatest importance The River Danus commonly called Don and Dune so termed as it should seeme for that it is carried in a chanell somewhat flat shallow and low by the ground for so much signifieth Dan in the British language after it hath saluted Wortley which gave sirname to a worshipfull Family as also Wentworth hard by whence beside other Gentlemen as well in this Country as elsewhere the Barons of Wentworth have derived both their originall and name runneth first by Sheafield a Towne of great name like as other small Townes adjoyning for the Smithes therein considering there bee many iron Mines thereabout fortified also with a strong and ancient Castle which in right line descended from the Lovetofts the Lords Furnivall and Thomas Lord Nevill of Furnivall unto the Talbots Earles of Shrewesbury From thence Don clad with alders and other trees goeth to Rotheram which glorieth in Thomas Rotheram sometime Archbishop of Yorke a wise man bearing the name of the Towne being borne therein and a singular benefactor thereunto who founded and endowed there a College with three Schooles in it to teach children writing Grammar and Musicke which the greedy iniquity of these our times hath already swallowed Then looketh it up to Connisborrow or Conines-borrough an ancient Castle in the British tongue Caer Conan seated upon a Rocke into which what time as Aurelius Ambrosius had so discomfited and scattered the English Saxons at Maisbelly that they tooke them to their heeles and fled every man the next way hee could finde Hengest their Captaine retired himselfe for safety and few daies after brought his men forth to battaile before the Captaine against the Britans that pursued him where hee fought a bloudy field to him and his For a great number of men were there cut in peeces and the Britans having intercepted him chopt off his head if wee may beleeve the British History rather than the English-Saxon Chronicles which report that he being outworne with travell and labour died in peace But this Coningsborough in latter ages was the possession of the Earles of Warren Afterwards hee runneth under Sprotburg the ancient seat of that ancient family of the Fitz-Williams Knights who are most honourably allied and of kin to the noblest houses of England and from whom descended Sir William Fitz-Williams Earle of Southampton in our fathers remembrance and Sir William Fitz-Williams late Lord Deputy of Ireland But in processe of time this is fallen to the Copleys like as Elmesly with other possessions of theirs in this Tract are come by right of inheritance to the Savils From hence Done running with a divided streame hard to an old towne giveth it his owne name which we at this day call Dan-castre the Scots Don-Castle the Saxons Dona ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Ninius Caer Daun but Antonine the Emperour DANUM like as the booke of Notices which hath recorded that the Captaine of the Crispinian Horsemen lay there in Garison under the Generall of Britaine This about the yeere of our Lord 759. was so burnt with fire from heaven and lay so buried under the owne ruines that it could scarce breath againe A large plot it sheweth yet where a Citadell stood which men thinke was then consumed with fire in which place I saw the Church of S. Georges a faire Church and the onely Church they have in the Towne Beneath this Towne Southward scarce five miles off is Tickhill which I am not willing to omit an old towne fensed with as old a Castle large enough but having onely a single Wall about it and with an high Mount whereon standeth a round Keepe It carryed in old time such a Dignity with it that the Manours and Lords belonging thereto were called The Honour of Tickhill In the Raigne of Henry the First Roger Busly held the possession thereof Afterwards the Earles of Ewe in Normandy were long since Lords of it by the gift of King Stephen Then King Richard the First gave it unto John his brother In the Barons Warre Robert de Vipont deteined it for himselfe which that hee should deliver unto the Earle of Ewe King Henry the Third put into his hands the Castle of Carleol and the County But when the King of France would not restore unto the English againe their possessions in France the King of England retained it unto himselfe when as John Earle of Ewe in the right of Alice his great Grandmother claimed of King Edward the First restitution thereof At length Richard the Second King of England liberally gave it unto John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster But now by this time Done that often riseth heere and overfloweth the fields gathering his divided waters into one streame againe when he hath for a while runne in one Chanell through Hatfeld Chace where there is great
game and hunting of red Deere being divided eft-soone speedeth himselfe on the one hand to Idel a River in Nottingham-shire on the other to Are that hee and they together may fall into Humber In which very place there are environed with these rivers Diche-marcâ and Marshland little Mersh Countries or River-Islands rather taking up in circuit much about fifteene miles most plentifull of greene grasse passing good for feeding of Cattaile and on every side garnished as it were with prety Townes Yet some of the Inhabitants are of opinion that the land there is hollow and hanging yea and that as the waters rise the same also is heaved up a thing that Pomponius Mela hath written concerning Antrum an Isle in France But among those Beakes and Brookes that convey their streames hither I must not overpasse Went which floweth out of a standing Poole neere unto Nosthill where sometime stood an Abbay consecrated to Oswald both a King and a Saint which A. Confessour to King Henry the First reedified But since the dissolution it hath beene the dwelling house of the Gargraves Knights of especiall good respect Calder springing in the very Confines of Lancashire runneth along certaine Townes of no account among which at Gretland in the top of an Hill whereunto there is no ascent but of one side was digged up this Votive Altar erected as it should seeme to the tutelar God of the whole State of the Brigants which Altar was to bee seene at Bradley in the house of the right worshipfull Sir John Savill Knight Baron of the Exchequer but now among Sir Robert Cottons Antiquities On the other side DUI CI. BRIG ET NUM AUGG. T. AUR. AURELIAN US DD PRO SE ET SUIS S. M. A. G. S. ANTONINO III. ET GET COSS. That is To the God of the whole Communalty and state of the Brigantes and to the sacred Majesty of the Augusti Titus Aurelius Aurelianus hath dedicated for himselfe and his The letters that bee last of all passe my skill altogether When Antonine the third time and Geta were Consuls Now whether that DUI be God whom the Britans now call Diw or a peculiar locall God or Genius of the Brigantes I leave for to be discussed by them that are better learned Like as the soules are divided and distributed among them that are borne saith Symmachus even so are Fatall Genij among Nations And the divine minde allotteth sundry keepers and Guardians to particular Countries For thus they were in old time perswaded in their Divinity and thus they beleeved And to say nothing of forraine Nations whose History is very full of such peculiar and locall Gods the Britans had in that part which now is called ESSEX ANDATES in Cumberland BELLO-TUCADRUS in Northumberland VITERINUS and MOGONTUS as shall appeare more evidently out of those Inscriptions which I will set downe in due place Servius Honoratus likewise hath well and truely observed that these Locall or Topick Gods doe never passe unto other Countries But to returne unto the River Calder which when by the comming in of other waters hee is growne bigge and carryeth a fuller streame hath a faire Bridge over it at Eland neere unto which at Grimscarre were brickes found with this Inscription COH IIII. BRE For the Romanes flourishing in military prowesse in great wisedome and policie exercised both their Legions and Cohorts in time of peace to withstand Idlenesse by casting of ditches making of High-waies baking of brickes building of Bridges c. Calder afterward among the very Hilles leaveth on the left hand Halifax a most famous Towne lying from West to East upon the steepe descent of an Hill And not many ages since tooke it this name whereas before time it was called Horton as some of the Inhabitants doe report who tell this prety story also touching the alteration of the name A certaine Clerke as they call him was farre in love with a maiden who when hee might not have his purpose of her for all the faire meanes and enticements hee could use his love being turned unto rage vilanous Wretch that hee was cut off the Maides head which being hung afterwards upon an Eugh tree the common people counted as an hallowed Relique untill it was rotten yea and they came devoutly to visit it and every one gathered and carryed away with him a branch or sprig of the said tree But after the tree was bare and nothing left but the very stocke such was the credulity of that time it maintained the opinion of reverence and Religion still For the people were perswaded that the little veines that are stretched out and spred betweene the barke and body of the Eugh tree in manner of haires or fine threads were the very haires indeed of the Virgins head Hereupon they that dwelt thereabout repaired on Pilgrimage hither and such resort there was unto it that Horton being but a little Village before grew up to a great Towne and was called by a new name Halig-Fax or Hali-fex that is Holy haire For the Englishmen dwelling beyond Trent called the haire of the head Fax Whence also there is a Family in this Country of Gentlemen named Faire-fax of the faire bush of their haire They therefore which by resemblance of the name gather this to bee Ptolomees Olicana bee farre deceived Now this place is become famous as well among the multitude by reason of a Law there whereby they behead streightwaies whosoever are taken stealing as also amongst the learned for they report that Joannes de Sacro Bosco the Author of the Sphaere was here borne yet more famous it is for the greatnesse of the Parish which reckoneth in it eleven Chappels whereof two be Parish-Chappels and to the number of twelve thousand people therein So that the Inhabitants are wont to give out that this Parish of theirs maintaineth more men and women than other living creatures of what kinde soever Whereas you shall see elsewhere in England in the most fruitfull and fertile places many thousands of Sheepe and very few men as if folke had given place to flockes of Sheepe and heards of Neat or else were devoured of them Moreover the industry of the Inhabitants heere is admirable who in a barraine Soile wherein there is no commodious nay scarce any dwelling and living at all have so come up and flourished by Clothing a trade which they tooke to not above threescore and tenne yeeres agoe at the farthest that they greatly enrich their owne estates and winne the praise from all their neighbours yea and have proved the saying to be true That barraine places give a good edge to industrie and that hence it is that Norinberg in Germanie Venice and Genua in Italie and Limoges in France situate all in barraine places are become right flourishing Cities Sixe miles from hence and not farre from the right side of the River Calder neere unto Almond-bury a little Towne standing upon an
were erected unto them We worship saith he The heads of great Rivers and the sudden breaking forth of an huge River out of an hidden and secret place hath Altars consecrated unto it Againe All waters as Servius Honoratus saith had their severall Nymphs to take the rule and protection of them Moreover in a Wall of the Church is fastened this broken and unperfect Inscription RUM CAES. AUG ANTONINI ET VERI JOVI DILECTI CAECILIUS PRAEF COH But in the very Church it selfe whiles I sought diligently for monuments of Romane Antiquity I found nothing but the Image in stone all armed of Sir Adam Midleton who seemeth to have flourished under King Edward the First and whose posterity remaineth yet in the Country heereby at Stubbam More beneath standeth Otley a Towne of the Archbishops of Yorke but it hath nothing memorable unlesse it bee one high and hard craggy cliffe called Chevin under which it is situate For the ridge of an hill the Britans terme Chevin whence I may conjecture that that continued ridge of mountaines in France where in old time they spake the same language that Britans did was called Gevenna and Gebenna After this Wherf runneth hard by with his bankes on both sides reared up and consisting of that Limestone which maketh grounds fat and fertile where I saw Harewood Castle of good strength which by the alteration of times hath often changed his Lords Long since it belonged to the Curcies but by Alice an inheritrice it came to Warin Fitz-Gerold who had taken her to wife whose daughter Margerie and one of his heires being endowed with a very great estate of living was first married unto Baldwin de Ripariis the Earles sonne of Devon-shire who dyed before his father afterwards to Folque de Brent by the beneficiall favour of King John for his approved service in pilling polling and spoiling most cruelly But when at length Isabell de Ripariis Countesse of Devon-shire departed this life without issue This Castle fell unto Robert de L'isle the sonne of Warin as unto her cozin in bloud and one of her heires in the end by those of Aldborrough it descended to the âithers as I am enformed by Francis Thinn who very diligently and judiciously hath a long time hunted after Pedigree antiquities Neither is Gawthorp adjoyning hereby to be concealed in silence when as the ancient Family of Gascoignes descended out of Gascoigne in France as it seemeth hath made it famous both with their vertue and Antiquity From hence runneth Wherf hard by Wetherby a Mercate Towne of good note which hath no antiquity at all to shew but a place only beneath it they call it usually now Saint Helens Fourd where the high Roman street crossed over the river From thence he passeth downe by Tadcaster a very little towne yet I cannot but thinke as well by the distance from other places as by the nature of the soile and by the name that it was CALCARIA For it is about nine Italian miles from Yorke according as Antonine hath set CALCARIA Also the limestone which is the very soader and binder of all morter and hardly elsewhere in this tract to be found heere is digged up in great plenty and vented as farre as to Yorke and the whole Country bordering round about for use in building Considering then that the said Lime was by the Britans and Saxons in old time and is by the Northren Englishmen called after the Roman name Calc For that imperious City Rome imposed not their yoke onely but their language also upon the subdued Nations seeing also that in the Code of Theodosius those bee tearmed Calcarienses who are the burners of limestone it may not seeme absurd if the Etymology of the name be fetched from Calx that is Chalke or Lime even as Chalcis of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is brasse Ammon of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is Sand Pteleon of ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is Elmes and Calcaria a City of Cliveland haply of Calx that is Lime tooke their names especially seeing that Bede calleth it also Calca-cester Where he reporteth that Heina the first woman in this Country that put on the Vaile and religious habite of a Nunne retyred her selfe apart to this City and therein made her abode Moreover an Hill neere to the Towne is called Kelc-bar in which there lieth couched somewhat of the ancient name Neither are there other arguments wanting to prove the antiquity thereof For to say nothing how it is situate upon a port high way there be peeces of the Roman Emperours money oftentimes digged up and the tokens of the Trenches and Bankes that compassed it about the plot also where an old Castle stood yet remaining out of the reliques whereof not many yeeres agoe was a Bridge built which when Wherf is once passed under he becommeth more still and so gently intermingleth his water with Ouse And verily a thing it is in my judgement to be wondered at That Wherf being encreased with so many waters in Summer time runneth so shallow under this Bridge that one comming hither about Midsommer when he saw it pretily and merrily versified thus Nil Tadcaster habet Musis vel carmine dignum Praeter magnificè structum sine flumine pontem Nought hath Tadcaster worth my Muse and that my verse deserv's Unlesse a faire Bridge stately built the which no river serv's But had he come in Winter time he should have seene the Bridge so great as it was scarce able to receive so much water But naturall Philosophers know full well that both Welles and rivers according to the seasons and the heat or cold without or within do decrease or encrease accordingly Whereupon in his returne he finding here durt for dust and full currant water under the Bridge recanted with these verses Quae Tadcaster erat sine flumine pulvere plena Nunc habet immensum fluvium pro pulvere lutum Somewhat higher Nid a muddy river runneth downe well beset with woods on either side out of the bottome of Craven hils first by Niderdale a vale unto which it giveth name and from thence carrieth his streame by Rippley a Mercate Towne where the Inglebeys a Family of great antiquity flourished in good reputation Afterwards with his deepe chanell hee fenseth Gnaresburg commonly called Knarsborow Castle situate upon a most ragged and rough Rocke whence also it hath the name which Serle de Burgh Unkle by the fathers side to Eustace Vescy built as the tradition holdeth Afterward it became the seate of the Estoteviles and now is counted part of the lands belonging to the Dutchy of Lancaster Under it there is a well in which the waters spring not up out of the veines of the earth but distill and trickle downe dropping from the rockes hanging over it whence they call it Dropping well into which what wood soever is put
head Yet others are of opinion that this name arrived in this Island with the English out of Angloen in Denmarke the ancient seat of the English nation for there is a towne called Flemsburg and that the Englishmen from hence called it so like as the Gaules as Livie witnesseth tearmed Mediolanum that is Millan in Italiâ after the name of Mediolanum in Gaule which they had left behinde them For there is a little village in this Promontory named Flamborrough where an other notable house of the Constables had anciently their seat which some doe derive from the Lacies Constables of Chester Beeing in these parts I could learne nothing for all the enquirie that I made as touching the bournes commonly called Vipseys which as Walter of Heminburgh hath recorded flow every other yeere out of blinde springs and runne with a forcible and violent streame toward the sea nere unto this Promontory Yet take here with you that which William Newbrigensis who was borne neare that place writeth of them Those famous waters which commonly are called Vipseys rise out of the earth from many sources not continually but every second yeere and being growne unto a great bourn runne downe by the lower grounds into the sea Which when they are dry it is a good signe for their breaking out and flowing is said to bee an infallible token portending some dearth to ensue From thence the shore is drawne in whereby there runneth forth into the sea a certaine shelfe or slang like unto an out-thrust tongue such as Englishmen in old time termed a File whereupon the little village there Filey tooke name and more within the land you see Flixton where in King Athelstanes time was built an Hospitall for the defence thus word for word it is recorded of way-faring people passing that way from Wolves least they should be devoured Whereby it appeareth for certaine that in those daies Wolves made foule worke in this Tract which now are no where to be seene in England no not in the very marches toward Scotland and yet within Scotland there be numbers of them in most places This little territory or Seigniory of Holdernesse King William the First gave to Drugh Buerer a Fleming upon whom also he had bestowed his Niece in marriage whom when hee had made away by poison and thereupon fled to save himselfe hee had to succeed him Stephen the sonne of Odo Lord of Aulbemarle in Normandy who was descended from the Earles of Champaigne whom King William the First because hee was his Nephew by the halfe sister of the mothers side as they write made Earle of Aulbemarle whose posterity in England retained the Title although Aulbemarle be a place in Normandy His successour was William sirnamed Le Grosse whose onely daughter Avis was marryed to three husbands one after another namely to William Magnavill Earle of Essex to Baldwine De Beton and William Forts or de Fortibus by this last husband onely shee had issue William who also had a sonne named William His onely daughter Avelin being the wedded wife of Edmund Crouchbacke Earle of Lancaster dyed without children And so as wee reade in the booke of Meaux Abbay for default of heires the Earldome of Aulbemarle and honour of Holdernesse were seized into the Kings hands Howbeit in the ages ensuing King Richard the Second created Thomas of Woodstocke his Unkle and afterwards Edward Plantagenet Earle of Rutland the Duke of Yorkes sonne Duke of Aulbemarle in his fathers life time likewise King Henry the Fourth made his owne sonne Thomas Duke of Clarence and Earle of Aulbemarle which Title King Henry the Sixth afterward added unto the stile of Richard Beauchamp Earle of Warwicke for the greater augmentation of his honour EBORACENSIS Comiâaâus pars Septentrionalis vulgo NORTH RIDING NORTH-RIDING SCarce two miles above Flamborrough-head beginneth the NORTH-RIDING or the North part of this Country which affronting the other parts and beginning at the Sea is stretched out Westward and carrieth a very long Tract with it though not so broad for threescore miles together even as farre as to Westmorland limited on the one side with Derwent and for a while with the River Ure on the other side with Tees running all along it which on the North Coast separateth it from the Bishopricke of Durrham And very fitly may this part bee divided into Blackamore Cliveland Northallverton-shire and Richmond-shire That which lyeth East and bendeth toward the Sea is called Blackamore that is The blacke moorish land For it is mountanous and craggy The Sea coast thereof hath Scarborrough Castle for the greatest ornament a very goodly and famous thing in old time called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is A Burgh upon the Scar or steepe Rocke The description whereof have heere out of William of Newburgh his History A Rocke of a wonderfull height and bignesse which by reason of steepe cragges and cliffes almost on every side is unaccessible beareth into the Sea wherewith it is all compassed about save onely a certaine streight in manner of a gullet which yeeldeth accesse and openeth into the West having in the toppe a very faire greene and large Plaine containing about threescore acres of ground or rather more a little Well also of fresh water springing out of a stony Rocke In the foresaid gullet or passage which a man shall have much adoe to ascend up unto standeth a stately and Princelike Towre and beneath the said passage beginneth the City or Towre spreading two sides South and North but having the sore part Westward and verily it is fensed afront with a wall of the owne but on the East fortified with the rocke of the Castle and both the sides thereof are watered with the Sea This place William Le Grosse Earle of Aulbemarle and Holdernesse viewing well and seeing it to bee a convenient plot for to build a Castle upon helping Nature forward with a very costly worke closed the whole plaine of the Rocke with a Wall and built a Towre in the very streight of the passage which being in processe of time fallen downe King Henry the Second caused to bee built in the same place a great and goodly Castle after hee had now brought under the Nobles of England who during the loose government of King Stephen had consumed the lands of the Crowne but especially amongst others that William abovesaid of Aulbemarle who had in this Tract ruled and reigned like a King and possessed himselfe of this place as his owne Touching the most project boldnesse of Thomas Stafford who to the end hee might overthrow himselfe with great attempts with a few Frenchmen surprised this Castle of a sudden in Queene Maries Raigne and held it for two daies together I neede not to speake ne yet of Sherleis a Gentleman of France who having accompanied him was judicially endited and convict of high treason albeit he was a forrainer because hee had done against
change of one letter termed it Moult-grave by which name although the reason thereof be not so well knowne the world takes knowledge of it This Peter de Mololacu commonly called Mauley that I may in this point satisfie the curious borne in Poictou in France marryed the onely daughter of Robert de Turnham in the Raigne of King Richard the First in whose right he entred upon a very great inheritance heere after whom succeeded in order seven Peters called Lords Mauley who give for their Armes A Bend Sables in an Eschocheon Or. But when the seventh dyed issuelesse this the Manours of Dancaster Bainton Bridesalle c. were parted by the sisters betweene the families of the Salvains and Bigots Neere unto this place as elsewhere in this shore is found blacke Amber or Geate Some take it to be Gagates which in old time they held to be one of the rare gems and precious stones It groweth among the cliffes and rockes where they chinke and gape asunder Before it be polished it is of a reddish and rusty colour but after it bee once polished it becommeth as saith Solinus as a Gemme of a bright radiant blacke colour Touching which Rhemnius Palamon out of Dionysius Afer thus versifieth Praefulget nigro splendore Gagates Hic lapis ardescens austro perfusâs aquarum Ast oleo perdens flammas mirabile visu Attritus rapit hic teneras seu succina frândes The Geat is blacke and shineth passing bright Which Stone in water dipt and drencht takes fire and burneth light In oile a wonder for to see the flame is quickly done And like to Amber rub it hard small stickes it catcheth soone And Marbodaeus in his little booke of precious stones Nascitur in Lycia lapis prope gemma Gagates Sed genus eximium foecunda Britannia mittit Lucidus niger est levis lavissimuâ idem Vicinas paleas trabit attritu calefactus Ardet aqua lotus restinguitur unctus olivo Geat is a Stone and Gemme well nere that men in Lycia finde But fruitfull Britan yeelds the best simply of all that kinde Of colour blacke yet bright it is most smoothe and light withall Well rubbed and enchaul'd thereby thin strawes and fescues small That are neere hand it drawes thereto it burnes in water drencht Annoint the same with fatty oile the flame streigthwaies is quencht Heare also what Solinus saith In Britaine there is great store of Gagates or Geat and an excellent stone it is If you demand the colour it is a bright radiant blacke if the quality it is in manner nothing weighty If the nature it burneth in water and is quenched with oile if the vertue being made hote with rubbing it holdeth such things as are applied thereto From Whitby the shore gives backe Westward by which lyeth Cliveland taking that name as it seemeth of steepe bankes which in our language wee call Cliffes for there runne all along the side thereof cliffie hilles at the foote of which the country spreadeth into a Plaine full of fertile fields Upon the shore Sken grave a little Village is much benefited by taking great store of fish where also by report was caught a Sea-man about 70. yeeres since that for certaine daies together fed of raw fishes but espying his opportunity escaped away unto his proper element againe Whensoever the windes are laied and that upon still weather the sea is most calme and the water lieth as one would say levell and plaine without any noise there is heard heere many times on a sudden a great way off as it were an horrible and a fearefull groning at which time the fishermen dare not launch out farre into the deepe as beleeving according to their shallow reach that the Ocean is a fell and cruell beast and being then very hungry desireth greedily in that sort to devoure mens bodies Beneath Sken-grave is situate Kilton Castle within a Parke which belonged sometime to the habitation of the Thwengs whose patrimony descended to the Barons of Lumley Hilton and Daubeneie And there joyneth almost close unto it Skelton Castle appertaining to the ancient family of the Barons Brus who derive their descent from Robert Brus the Norman The said Robert had two sonnes Adam Lord of Skelton and Robert of Anan-dale in Scotland from whom is descended the royall stem of Scotland But Peter Brus the fifth Lord of Skelton died without issue and left his sisters to inherite namely Agnes wife to Walter Falconberg Lucie wedded to Marmaduke Thweng of whom is come the Baron Lumley Margaret married to Robert Ros and Laderina to John Belle-eau men in that age of honourable reputation The heires successively of Walter Falconberg flourished a long time but in the end by a female the possessions came to Sir William Nevill who was a redoubted Knight for martiall prowesse and by King Edward the Fourth advanced to the title of Earle of Kent And his daughters were bestowed in marriage upon Sir John Cogniers N. Bedhowing and R. Strangwaies Neere unto Hunt-cliffe and not farre from the shore there appeare aloft at a vale water certaine Rockes about which the fishes that wee call Seales short as some thinke for Sea-veales meete together in droves to sleepe and sunne themselves and upon that rocke which is next unto the shore there lieth one as it were to keepe the Centinell and as any man approcheth neere he either by throwing downe a big stone or by tumbling himselfe into the water with a great noise giveth a signall to the rest to looke unto themselves and get into the water Most affraid they bee of men against whom when they chase them they being destitute of water fling backeward with their hinder feete a cloud as it were of sand and gravell stones yea and often times drive them away For women they care not so much and therefore whosoever would take them use to bee clad in womens apparell In the same coast are found stones some of yellowish others of a reddish colour and some againe with a rough cast crust over them of a certaine salt matter which by their smell and taste make shew of Coperose Nitre and Brimstone and also great store of Marquesites in colour resembling brasse Hard by at Huntly Nabb the shore that lay for a great way in length open riseth now up with craggy rockes at the rootes wherof there lie scattering here and there stones of divers bignesse so artificially by nature shaped round in maner of a Globe that one would take them to be big bullets made by the turners hand for shot to bee discharged out of great ordinance In which if you breake them are found stony serpents enwrapped round like a wreath but most of them are headles Then see you from thence Wilton Castle sometime the Bulmers and above it at Dobham the river Tees voideth into the Sea after it hath lodged sundry rivers and at the last one that is namelesse beside Yare
a mercate towne well knowne which river watereth Stokesley a little mercate towne likewise that hath a long time appertained to the Noble family of Eure. Beneath which places Wharton Castle belonging in times past to the Barons Menill and Harlsey to the family of Hotham and afterward to Stragwaies now wrestle with old age and hardly hold up their heads The mouth of Tees aforesaid suspected in times past of sailers is now found to be a sure road and harbour and to give direction for safe accesse and entrance unto it there are erected on both sides thereof within our remembrance high turrets with light Foure miles from this Tees mouth standeth Gisburgh on high now a small towne but whiles it stood in flourishing estate it was right glorious for a very faire and rich Abbay built by Robert de Brus Lord of the place about the yeere of our Salvation 1119 and for the common buriall place of all the gentry and nobility in this tract which also brought forth Walter de Heminford no unlearned Historiographer This verily is a passing good place and may well for pleasantnesse delightsome variety and rare gifts of Nature contend with Puteoli in Italy which in regard of healthy situation it also farre excelleth The aire is mollified and made more mild by the mountaines seated betweene it and what way the sea yeeldeth a cold and winterly disposition the soile fruitfull and plenteous in grasse affordeth delectable floures a great part of the yeere and richly aboundeth with vaines of metall and Alum-earth of sundry colours but especially of ocher and murray likewise of iron out of which they have now begunne to try very good Alum and Coperose Which with learned skill and cunning not many yeeres since Sir Thomas Chalâner Knight a learned searcher into natures workes and unto whose charge our most high and mightie King hath committed his son Prince Henry the lovely joy and delight of Brittaine first discovered by observing that the leaves of trees were of a more weak greene colour here than in other places that the oakes had their rootes spreading broad but very eb within the ground the which had much strength but small store of sappe that the earth standing upon clay and being of divers colours whitish yellowish and blew was never frozen and in a cleere night glittered in the pathes like unto glasse Not farre off Onusbery or Rosebery Topping mounteth up a mighty height and maketh a goodly shew a farre off serving unto sailers for a marke of direction and to the neighbour inhabitants for a prognostication For so often as the head thereof hath his cloudy cap on lightly there followeth raine whereupon they have a Proverbiall Rhime when Rosebery Topping weares a cap Let Cliveland then beware a clap Neere unto the top of it out of an huge rocke there floweth a spring of water medicinable for diseased eies and from hence there is a most goodly and pleasant prospect downe into the vallies below lying a great way about to the hils full of grasse greene meddowes delightsome pastures fruitfull corne fields riverets stored with fish the river Tees mouth full of rodes and harbours the ground plaine and open without danger of inundation and into the sea with ships therein under saile Beneath it standeth Kildale a Castle of the Percies Earles of Northumberland and more Eastward Danby which from Brus also by the Thwengs came unto the Baron Latimers from whose heire descended the Willoughbeies Barons of Brooke But this Danby with other possessions was sold to the Nevills of which family Sir George Nevill was by King Henry the sixth called among the Barons to the Parliaments under the name of Lord Latimer in whose progenie and posterity this dignity hath continued unto our daies There remaineth nothing else heere for me to note but that the Barons Meinill held certaine lands in this shire of the Archbishops of Canterbury and for the same the Coigniers Strangwaies and Darcies descended from them are bound to performe certaine service to the said Archbishops And whereas the King of England by his Prerogative shall have the Wardship these bee the very words of the Praerogative of all their lands who hold of him in chiefe by Knights service of which themselves as tenants shall be seized in their Demesne as of Fae the day whereon they die of whomsoever they held by the like service so that themselves notwithstanding hold of the King any tenement of the ancient demesne of the Crowne unto the full and lawfull age of the heire Yet are excepted these Fees and others of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Durrham betweene Tine and Tees c. so that they may have the Wardship of such lands although elsewhere they held of the King Farther within the country among the mountaines of Blaca amore there offereth it selfe besides wandering beakes and violent swift brookes which challenge the vallies every where as their owne to passe through no memorable thing unlesse it be Pickering a good bigge towne belonging to the Dutchy of Lancaster situate upon an hill and fortified with an old Castle unto which a number of small villages lying there round about doe appertaine whereupon the country adjoyning is commonly called Pickering Lith The Libertie of Pickering and Forest of Pickering the which King Henry the Third gave unto his younger sonne Edmund Earle of Lancaster Wherein neere unto the river Darwent standeth Atton that gave name unto the right noble family of the Attons Knights descended from the Lords Vescy the inheritance of which family was by the daughters parted betweene Edward Saint Iohn the Evers and the Coigniers Now from Edward Saint Iohn a great portion thereof came by a daughter to Henrie Bromflet Which Henrie verily was summoned to the High court of Parliament by these expresse termes elsewhere not to be found in Summons Our Will is that both yee and your heires males of your body lawfully issuing be Barons of Vescy Afterwards that title passed away by a daughter to the Cliffords On the otherside foure miles from Pickering neere unto Dow a swift running riveret lieth Kirkby-Morside hard unto the hilles whereof it had that name a Market towne not of the meanest reckoning and the possession sometime of the Estotevilles Behind these Westward Rhidal lieth low a goodly pleasant and plentifull vale adorned with three and twenty Parish-churches through the mids wherof runneth the river Rhie A place as saith William of Newburrough wast desolate and full of horrour before that Walter Espec had granted it to the Monkes of the Cluniak order and founded there an Abbay In this vale is Elmesly seated which if I deceive not my selfe Bede called Vlmetum where that Robert called de Rosse surnamed Fursan built a Castle nere unto which the river Recall hideth it selfe under the ground More beneath hard by the river side standeth Riton an ancient possession of the ancient familie of the Percihaies commonly
having obtained leave of King Etheldred gave unto the Church of Durham and Hugh Pudsey adorned it with a faire Church and other edifices In this Towne field are three pittes of a wonderfull depth the common people tearme them Hell-Kettles because the water in them by the Antiperistasis or reverberation of the cold aire striking thereupon waxeth hote The wiser sort and men of better judgement doe thinke they came by the sinking downe of the ground swallowed up in some earth-quake and that by a good probable reason For thus we reade in the Chronicles of Tinmouth In the yeere of our Lord 1179. on Christmas day at Oxenhall in the Territory of Derlington within the Bishopricke of Durham the ground heaved it selfe up aloft like unto an high Towre and so continued all that day as it were unmoveable untill the evening and then fell with so horrible a noise that it made all the neighbour dwellers afraide and the earth swallowed it up and made in the same place a deepe pit which is there to bee seene for a testimony unto this day That these Pittes have passages under the ground Bishop Cuthbert Tonstall first observed by finding that Goose in the River Tees which he for the better triall and experience of these Pits had marked and let downe into them Beyond Derlington Tees hath no Townes of any great account standing upon it but gliding along the skirtes of greene fields and by country Villages winding in and out as he passeth at length dischargeth himselfe at a large mouth into the Ocean whence the base or bothom of the Triangle aforesaid towards the Sea beginneth From hence the shore coasteth Northward holding on entire still save that it is interrupted with one or two little Brookes and no more neere unto Gretham where Robert Bishop of Durham having the Manour given freely unto him by Sir Peter de Montfort founded a goodly Hospitall Next unto it is Claxton which gave name unto a Family of good and ancient note in this Tract whereof I have beene the more willing to make mention because of the same house was T. Claxton an affectionate lover of venerable Antiquity From thence the shore shooteth forth into the Sea with one onely Promontory scarce seven miles above Tees mouth on which standeth very commodiously Hartlepoole a good Towne of trade and a safe harbour for shipping Bede seemeth to call it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which Henry of Huntingdon interpreteth The Harts or Stagges Island where hee writeth that Heiu a religious woman founded a Monastery in times past If Heorteu bee not rather the name of that little Territory which the Booke of Dâresme seemeth to implie and in another place calleth Heortnesse because it lyeth out somewhat farre into the Sea From this for fifteene miles together the shore being in no place broken off but heere and there embroidered as it were and garnished with Townes smileth pleasantly upon those that saile that way untill it openeth it selfe to make roome for the River VEDRA for so Ptolomee calleth that which Bede nameth Wirus the Saxons ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and we Were This river first groweth into one out of three riverets Burden-hop Wel-hop and Kel-hop in the utmost part of this Country Westward which when they are joyned in one chanell is called by one name Were and speedeth into the East by vast moores and heathes by great Parkes of the Bishops and by Witton a little Castle or pile belonging to the Lords Evers who are Noblemen in this Country of great antiquity as descended from the Lords of Clavering and Warkworth as also from the Vescyes and the Attons by Daughters renowned for their martiall prowesse which Scotland may well witnesse For King Edward the First gave unto them for their valiant service Kettnes a little Towne in Scotland and King Henry the Eighth within our fathers remembrance honoured them in that respect with the Title of Barons Then Were after a few miles taketh into him from the South Gaunlesse a Riveret where at the very meeting of them both together there standeth upon an high hill Aukland so called of Okes like as Sarron in Greece which sheweth an house of the Bishops stately built with Turrets by Antony Bec and withall a beautifull Bridge made by Walter Skirlaw a Bishop of Durham about the yeere 1400. who also enlarged this house and built the Bridge over Tees at Yare From hence Were turneth his course Northward that he might water this shire the longer and then forthwith looketh up to the remaines of an ancient City not now a dying but dead many yeeres agoe standing on the brow of an hill which Antonine the Emperour called VINOVIUM Ptolomee BINOVIUM in whom it is so thrust out of his owne place and set as it were in another Climate that it would for ever have lien hid had not Antonine pointed at it with his finger Wee call it at this day Binchester and it hath in it a very few houses yet it is very well knowne to them that dwell thereabout both by reason of the heapes of rubbish and the reliques of walles yet to be seene as also for peeces of Romane Coine often digged up there which they call Binchester Penies yea and for the Inscriptions of the Romanes amongst which I happened of late when I was there upon an Altar with this Inscription DE AB MATRIB Q. LO CL. QUIN TIANUS COS V. S. L. M. Another stone also was heere lately gotten out of the ground but defaced with voide places where the letters were worne out which notwithstanding if one beheld it wishly seemeth to shew this Inscription TRIB COHOR I. CARTOV MARTI VICTORI GENIO LOCI ET BONO EVENTUI Neither have I read any thing else of it but that an old booke maketh mention how the Earles of Northumberland long since plucked away this with other Villages from the Church what time as that accursed and unsatiable hunger after Gold swallowed up also the sacred patrimony of the Church On the other banke of Were among the mounting Hilles appeareth Branspeth Castle which the Bulmers built and the daughter of Sir Bertram Bulmer coupled in marriage unto Geffrey Nevill adjoyned with other great Possessions unto the Family of the Nevills Within a while after Were runneth downe much troubled and hindered in his Course with many great Stones apparent above the water which unlesse the River doe rise and swell with great store of raine are never over covered and upon which a thing that happeneth not elsewhere if yee powre water and temper it a little with them it sucketh in a saltish quality Nay that which more is at Butterby a little Village when the River in Summer time is very ebbe and shallow there issueth out of those stones a certaine salt reddish water which by the heat of the Sunne waxeth so white and withall groweth to a thicke substance that
the opinion of other men is of it SEOESAM ROLNASON OSALVEDN AL. Q. Q. SAR BREVENM BEDIANIS ANTONI US MEG VI. IC DOMU ELITER For mine owne part I can make nothing else thereof but that most of these words were the British names of places adjoining In the yeere 1603. when I went a second time to see this place I hapned upon the greatest and fairest Altar that ever I saw dedicated to the Mother Goddesses by a Captain of the Asturians with this inscription DEISMATRIBVS M. INGENVIVS ASIATICVS DEC AL. AST SS LL. M. Concerning these DEABUS or DEIS MATRIBUS that is Mothers Goddesses what they were I cannot finde out with all my searching for in the volumes of Inscriptions gathered through the world save in another Altar besides found among us they are not mentioned as farre as I remember Onely I read that Enguium a little towne in Sicily was ennobled for the presence of the MOTHER GODDESSES wherein were shewed certaine speares and brazen helmets which Metio and Ulysses consecrated to those Goddesses Another little Altar I saw there cast out among rubbish stone with this inscription PACIFE RO MARTI ELEGAUR BA POS UIT EX VO TO So small a one this was that it may seeme to have beene some poore mans little altar to carry with him to and fro serving only to burne and offer incense or salt and meale upon it whereas that other was farre bigger and made for to sacrifice and offer greater beasts upon it In these altars the posterity no doubt imitated Noah even after they had fallen away and revolted from the true worship of God Neither erected they altars to their Gods onely but also unto their Emperours by way of servile flattery with this impious title NUMINI MAIESTATIQUE EORUM that is unto their GOD-HEAD and Majesty Unto these they kneeled in humble maner these they clasped about and embraced as they prayed before these they tooke their oathes and in one word in these and in their sacrifices consisted the maine substance of all their religion so farre forth that whosoever had no altar of their owne they were thought verily to have no religion nor to acknowledge any God at all Moreover very lately and but the other day a stone was digged up here wherein was engraven the naked portract or image of a man on horse-backe without saddle without bridle with both hands seeming to launce his speare and ready to ride over a naked man lying downe along at his foot who holdeth before I wot not what foure square peece Betweene the horse and him that lieth along are these letters D.M. and under him so lying are read these words CAL. SARMATA All the letters beside which were many are so worne out and gone that they could not be read neither list I to guesse any farther what they were That ALA SARMATARUM that is a wing of Sarmatian horsemen abode in this place it may seeme as well by that former inscription as by this that many yeeres before was found hard by HIS TERRIS TEGITUR AEL MATRONA QU VIX AN. XXVIII M. II. D. VIII ET M. JULIUS MAXIMUS FIL. VIX AN. VI. M. III. D. XX. ET CAM PANIA DUBBA MATER VIX AN. L. JULIUS MAXIMUS ALAE SAR CONJUX CONJUGI INCOMPARABILI ET FILIO PATRI PIENTIS SIMO ET SOCERAE TENA CISSIMAE MEMORIAE P. But hence have wee no light at all toward the finding out of the ancient name of this place which now is in question unlesse it hath now and then changed the name which otherwhiles usually happeneth For in this place Ptolomy hath set RIGODUNUM if for RIBODUNUM the name is not altogether unlike to Ribbechester and just at this distance from Mancunium that is Manchester that is to say 18. miles off doth Antonine place COCCIM which also in some copies we read GOCCIUM But when the flourishing fortune of this City having runne the full and fatall period was faded either by warre or earthquake as the common sort doe think somewhat lower where Ribell suffereth the violence of the flowing tides of the Sea and is called of the Geographer BELLISAMA AESTUARIUM that is the salt-salt-water BELLISAMA neare unto Peneworth where in the Conquerors reigne there was a little castle as appeareth by the Records of the said King out of the fall of Riblechester arose in steed of it her daughter Preston a great and for these Countries a faire town well inhabited so called of religious men for in our speech the name soundeth as much as Priests towne Beneath this Ribell Derwen a rill commeth in with his water and the first mercate towne that hee watereth is Blacke-borne so called of the Blacke-water which towne belonging in times past to the Lacies gave name unto Blackburne-shire a little territory adjoining from thence it runneth by Houghton-towre which communicated the name unto a notable family that long time dwelt in it and by Waleton which William Lord of Lancaster King Stephens sonne gave unto Walter de Walton and afterward it was the possession of the ancient race of the Langtons who descended from the said Waltons But now let us returne The said Preston whereof I spake is by the common people called Preston in Andernesse for Acmundes-nesse for so the English Saxons tearmed this part of the shire which lying between the two rivers Ribel and Cocar stretcheth out with a promontory in manner of a nose which afterwards they also called Acmundernesse Wherein were no more but 16. villages inhabited in King William the Conquerors time the rest lay wast as we read in Doomes-day booke and Roger of Poictiers held the same But afterwards it belonged to Theobald Walter from whom the Bottelers of Ireland derive their beginning for thus wee read in a Charter of K. Richard the first Know yee that wee have given and by this present Charter confirmed unto Theobald Walter for his homage and service Agmondernesse full and whole with all the appertenences c. This part yeeldeth plenty of oates but not so apt to beare barly Howbeit it is full of fresh pastures especially to the sea side where it is partly Champion ground and thereupon it seemeth that a good part of it is called The File for the Field and yet in the Kings Rolls it goeth under the Latine name LIMA that is a File namely that Smithes toole or instrument wherewith Iron or any other thing is smoothed But because elsewhere it is marish ground they hold it not very wholsome Wie a little river speedily cutting over this part commeth rolling downe out of Wierdale a very solitary place and runneth by Grenhaugh Castle which Thomas Stanley the first Earle of Derby out of this family built what time as hee stood in feare of certaine out-lawed Gentlemen of this shire whose possessions King Henry the seventh had freely given unto him For many an assault they gave him and other
Carlile had was Sir Andrew de Harcla whom King Edward the second created Earle that I may speake out of the very originall instrument of his Creation for his laudable good service performed against Thomas Earle of Lancaster and other his abetters in vanquishing the Kings enemies and disloiall subjects in delivering them up into the Kings hands when they were vanquished giât with a sword and created Earle under the honour and name of the Earle of Carlile Who notwithstanding proved a wretched Traitour himselfe unthankfull and disloyally false both to his Prince and country and being afterwards apprehended was with shame and reproach paied duly for the desert of his perfidious ingratitude degraded in this maner first by cutting off his spurres with an hatchet afterwards disgirded of his military Belt then dispoiled of his shooes and gantlets last of all and was drawne hanged beheaded and quartered As for the position of Carlile the Meridian is distant from the utmost line of the West 21. degrees and 31. minutes and elevation of the North pole 54. degrees and 55. minutes and so with these encomiasticall verses of M. I. Ionston Ibid Carlile adue CARLEOLUM Romanis quondam statio tutissima signis Ultimaque Ausonidum meta labosque Ducum Especula laiè vicinos prospicit agros Hic ciet pugnas arcet inde metus Gens acri ingenio studiis asperrima belli Doctaque bellaci fig ere tela manu Scotorum Reges quondam tenuere beati Nunc iterum priscis additur imperiis Quid Romane putas extrema hîc limina mundi Mundum retrò alium surgere nonne vides Sit vidisse satis docuit nam Scotica virtus Immensis animis hîc posuisse modum CARLILE Unto the Romane legions sometimes the surest Station The farthest bound and Captaines toile of that victorious nation From prospect high farre all abroad it lookes to neighbour fields Hence fight and skirmish it maintaines and thence all danger shields People quicke witted fierce in field in martiall feats well seene Expert likewise right skilfully to fight with weapons keene Whilom the Kings of Scots it held whiles their state stood upright And once againe to ancient crowne it now reverts by right What Romane Cesar thinkest thou the world hath here an end And seest thou not another world behind doth yet extend Well maist thou see this and no more for Scotish valour taught Such haughty mindes to gage themselves and here to make default If you now crosse over the river Eden you may see hard by the banke Rowcliffe a little castle erected not long since by the Lords de Dacres for the defence of their Tenants And above it the two rivers Eske and Leven running jointly together enter at one out-gate into the Solway Frith As for Eske he rumbleth down out of Scotland and for certaine miles together confesseth himselfe to bee within the English dominion and entertaineth the river Kirsop where the English and Scottish parted asunder of late not by waters but by mutuall feare one of another having made passing good proofe on both sides of their great valour and prowesse Neere this river Kirsop where is now seene by Nether-By a little village with a few cottages in it where are such strange and great ruines of an ancient City and the name of Eske running before it doth sound so neare that wee may imagine AESICA stood there wherein the Tribune of the first band of the Astures kept watch and ward in old time against the Northren enemies But now dwelleth here the chiefe of the Grayhams family very famous among the Borderers for their martiall disposition and in a wall of his house this Romane inscription is set up in memoriall of Hadrian the Emperour by the Legion surnamed Augusta Secunda IMP. CAES. TRA. HADRIANO AUG LEG II. AUG F. But where the River Lidd and Eske conjoine their streames there was sometimes as I have heard Liddel castle and the Barony of the Estotevils who held lands in Cornage which Earle Ranulph as I read in an old Inquisition gave unto Turgill Brundas But from Estotevill it came hereditarily unto the Wakes and by them unto the Earles of Kent of the blood roiall And John Earle of Kent granted it unto King Edward the third and King Richard the second unto John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster Beyond this river Eske the land for certaine miles together is accounted English ground wherein Solom Mosse became very famous by reason especially of so many of the Scottish Nobility taken there prisoners in the yeere 1543. What time as the Scottish resolute to set upon Sir Thomas Wharton Lord warden of the English marches so soone as they understood that their King had committed the command of the army to Oliver Sincler whom they disdained they conceived such indignation thereat that with their owne shame and losse breaking their arraies in tumultuous manner they made a generall confusion of all which the English beholding from the higher ground forthwith charged violently upon them and put them to flight many they took prisoners who flinging away their weapons yeelded themselves after some few souldiers on both sides slaine into the hands of the English and of the borderers Presently whereupon James the fifth King of Scots was so disjected that weary of his life he died for very sorrow The land thereabout is called Batable ground as one would say Litigious because the English and the Scottish have litigiously contended about it For the inhabitants on both sides as borderers in all other parts are a military kind of men nimble wily alwaies in readines for any service yea and by reason of often skirmishes passing well experienced Leven the other river whereof I spake springing in the limit just of both kingdomes runneth by no memorable place unlesse it be Beucastle as they commonly call it a Castle of the Kings which standing in a wild and solitary country hath beene defended onely by a ward of souldiers But this in publicke records is written Bueth-castle so that the name may seeme to have come from that Bueth who about King Henry the first his dayes after a sort ruled all in this tract Certaine it is that in the reigne of Edward the third it was the patrimony of Sir John of Strivelin a Baron who married the daughter and one of the heires of Adam of Swinborne In the Church now much decaied there is layed for a grave-stone this old inscription translated thither from some other place LEG II. AUG FECIT In the Church-yard there is erected a Crosse about 20. foot high all of one entire foure square stone very artificially cut and engraven but the letters are so worn and gone that they cannot be read But whereas the Crosse is chequy in that manner as the shield of Armes belonging to the family of Vaulx sometime Lords in this tract we may well thinke that it was erected by them More into the South and farther within
did cast a ditch or trench crosse over the Iland from sea to sea within it also he built a wall with turrets and bulwarkes Which afterwards he calleth Fossam Severiam that is Severs fosse or ditch like as we read in the most ancient Annales of the English-Saxons ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is Severus foregirded and fenced Britain with a ditch from sea to sea And other later writers in this wise ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is Severus in Britain made and finished a wall of turfes or a rampier from sea to sea William of Malmesburie likewise nameth it a famous and most notorious trench In which very place two hundred yeeres after or much thereabout a wall of stone was set up whereof I am to speake anon Whereas Eutropius hath set downe the length of it to be 35. miles Victor 32. and other Authors 132. I suppose some faults have crept into the numbers For the Iland is not so broad in that place although a man should take the measure of the wall as it stood winding in and out rising also and falling here and there Nay if one should reduce it into Italian miles he should find little above fourescore as Spartianus hath truely reckoned them Some few yeeres after this Munition as it seemes was forlet Howbeit when Alexander Severus the Emperour as we read in Lampridius had once given unto the Captaines and souldiers of the marches those grounds and lands which were won from the enemies so that they should be their proprietie if their heires served as souldiers and that they should never returne to any private men supposing they would goe to the wars more willingly and take the better care if they should defend their owne peculiar possessions Note these words well I pray you for hence may be deduced either a kind of Feudum or the beginning of Feuds After this the Romans marching beyond the wall and building themselves stations within the out-land and barbarian soile fortifying also and furnishing them accordingly enlarged the limits of the Roman Empire againe as farre as to Edenborough Frith Neverthelesse the savage and barbarous people never ceasing to assaile them upon advantages drave them backe now and then as farre as to Severus Trench Dioclesian the Emperour had a provident eye to these limits under whom when as the whole command in Britaine was committed unto Carausius for that he was reputed the fitter man to warre against these warlike nations he did set up againe the fore-fense betweene Dunbritton Frith and Edenborough Frith as I will shew in place convenient The first that ever had blame for neglecting these limits was Constantine the Great for thus writeth Zosimus Whereas the Roman Empire by the providence of Dioclesian was in the utmost marches thereof every where surely fensed with Townes Castles and Burghs and all their military companies made their abode in them it was impossible for the barbarous nations to passe in but they were so met withall at every turne by forces there set to repell them backe Constantine abolishing this munition of Garrisons placed the greater part of the souldiers whom hee had removed from out of the marches in townes that had no need of Garrisons and defence So hee left the marches open to the inrodes of barbarous nations without garrisons and pestered the Cities that were at peace and quiet with a sort of souldiers whereby most of them are now already become desolate and the souldiers themselves addicted to Theatricall sports and pleasures grew by his meanes deboshed To conclude and simply to speake in one word he it was that gave the first cause and beginning that the state of the Empire runneth to wrecke and ruine The Countrey that lay betweene these enclosures or fore-fenses Teodosius father unto Theodosius the Emperour recovered he re-edified and repaired the Cities strengthened the garrison castles and the limits with such watch and ward and fortications yea and when he had recovered the Province restored it to the ancient estate in such wise as that it had a lawfull Governour by it selfe and was afterward in honour of Valentinian the Emperour called VALENTIA Theodosius also his sonne having now by his own vertue attained unto the Imperiall Majestie had a provident care of these limits and gave commandement that the Master of the Offices should yeere by yeer give advice and advertisement unto the Emperour how all things went with the souldiers and in what sort the charge of castles holds and fore-fenses was performed But when the Roman Empire began once to decay apparently and the Picts together with the Scots breaking through the wall of Turfes by Edenborrow-frith cruelly wasted and over-ranne these parts the Roman legion sent to aid the Britans under the leading of Gallio of Ravenna after they had driven away and quite removed the Barbarians being now called backe againe for the defence of France exhorted the Britans these be the very words of Gildas and Bede to make a wall overthwart the Iland between the two seas which might serve for a defence to keep off the enemies and so returned home with great triumph But the Ilanders fall to building of a wall as they were willed not so much with stone as with turfes considering they had no workman to bring up so great a piece of work and so they did set up one good for nothing Which as Gildas saith being made by the rude and unskilfull common multitude without any one to give direction not so much of stone as of turfe served them in no stead As touching the place where this wall was made Bede proceedeth to write in this maner They raised it betweene the two friths or armes of the sea for the space of many miles that where the fense of water failed there by the help of a rampier they might defend the borders from the invasion of enemies And such a fore-fense reaching a great length secured Assyria from the inrodes of forraine nations as Ammianus Marcellinus writeth And the Seres at this day as we read in Osorius fortifie their vales and plaine champion with walls that they might thereby shelter and defend themselves from the violent incursions of the Scythians Of which worke there made saith Bede that is to say of a most broad and high rampier a man may see the expresse and certaine remaines to this day which beginneth almost two miles from a Monastery called Abercurving Eastward at a place named in the Picts language Penvahel in the English tongue Penveltun and reaching Westward endeth neere the Citie Alcluid But the former enemies no sooner perceived that the Roman souldiers were returned but presently sailing thither by water breake through the bounds into the marches kill and slay all before them and whatever stood in their way they went downe with it under foot they over-trample it as if it had bin standing corne ready for harvest Whereupon Embassadours were dispatched againe to Rome making piteous moan and with
it was in old time it passeth my wit to find out seeing that amongst all the stations mentioned along the range of the Wall there is not one commeth neere to it in name neither have wee any light out of inscriptions to lead us thereunto What ever it was sure the wall thereby was both strongest and highest by farre for scarce a furlong or two from hence upon a good high hill there remaineth as yet some of it to be seene fifteen foot high and nine foot thicke built on both sides with foure square ashler stone although Bede reporteth it was not above twelve foot in heighth From hence the wall goeth forward more aslope by Iuerton Forsten and Chester in the Wall neere to Busie-Gap a place infamous for theeving and robbing where stood some Castles Chesters they call them as I have heard but I could not with safetie take the full survey of it for the ranke-robbers thereabout As for Chester the neighbours told us that it was a very great building so that we may well think it to have been that second station of the Dalmatians which is called in the old booke of Notice MAGNA where this inscriptions was found upon an ancient altar PRO SALUTE DESIDIENI AE LIANI PRAE ET SUA S. POSUIT VOT AO SOLVIT LIBE NS TUSCO ET BAS SO COSS. This broken and imperfect altar likewise brought from thence wee read at Melkrig where now women beat their buckes on it DEAE SURI AE SUB CALP UR NIO AG ICOLA LEG AUG PR PR A. LICINIUS LEMENS PRAEF III. A. IOR Which if I were able to read thus would I willingly read it and the draught of the letters maketh well for it Deae Suriae sub Calphurnio Agricola Legato Augusti Propraetore Licinius Clemens Praefectus that is Unto the goddesse Suria under Calphurnius Agricola Lievtenant of Augustus and Propraetor Licinius Clemens the Captaine This Calphurnius Agricola was sent by Antoninus Philosophus against the Britans what time as there was likely to be warre in Britain about the yeere of Christ 170. At which time some Cohort under his command erected this Altar unto THE GODDESSE SURIA whom with a turreted crown on her head and a Tabber in her hand was set in a coach drawn with Lions as Lucian sheweth at large in his Narration of the goddesse Suria Which goddesse also Nero albeit he contemned all religion especially worshipped for a time and soone after so aviled and despised that he defiled her with his urine From hence wee saw Willyâotes-wicke the seat of a respected family of the Ridleyes and hard by it the river Alon tunning with a surging streame and rise of waters into Tine namely when both the Alons are met together in one channell By the Easterne of the two Alons there is to bee seene a towne now called Old-towne but what the old name was will not easily be found Now to the wall againe The next station upon the wall beyond Busie-gap is called Seaven-shale the name whereof if any man would thinke with mee to come from the wing Saviniana or Sabiniana I might the more confidently say that it was that HUNNUM where the Notice of Provinces reporteth the wing Sabiniana kept watch and ward Then beyond Carraw and Walton stands Walwick which some conjecturally would have to be GALLANA in Antonine in all which places there be evident remaines of old fortifications Here there runneth through the wall North Tine which being now come downe amaine out of the mountaines in the marches of England and Scotland first as hee passeth Eastward watereth Tindale a place taking the name of him and in the end receiving into his bosome the river Rhead which springing out of Readsquire a steep mountaine where oftentimes was the True-place that is a place of parley and conference for the East marches for the LL. Wardens of the East marches to both Kingdomes were wont here to decide matters and controversies betweene the borderers giveth his owne name to a dale too too voide of inhabitants by reason of depredations Both these dales breed notable light horse-men and both of them have their hils hard by so boggy and standing with water in the top that no horsemen are able to ride through them whereupon and that is wonderfull there be many very great heapes of stone called Lawes which the neighbour inhabitants be verily perswaded were in old time cast up and layd together in remembrance of some there slaine In both of them also there bee many ruinous remaines of old Castles In Tindale are Whitchester Delaley Tarset sometimes belonging to the Comins In Rheadsdale are Rochester Green-chester Rutchester and some others whose ancient names are abolished and lost by the injury of long time But seeing that at Rochester which standeth neerer into the head of Rhead in the brow of a rocky high mountaine that overlooketh the countrey underneath a great way whence it seemeth to have taken this new name there hath beene found an antique altar among the rubbish of an old castle with this inscription D. R. S. DVPL N. EXPLOR BREMEN ARAM. INSITVERVNT N EIVS C CAEP CHARITINO TRIB VSLM May wee not hence ghesse that BREMENIUM for which there hath beene made so long and great search was here whereof Ptolomee hath made mention in this very siâe and position of the country and from which Antonine the Emperor beginneth the first journey of Britaine as from the utmost limit of the Romane Province in Britaine at that time And the limits or bounds of a Dominion were seas great rivers Mountaines Desert lands and unpassable such as be in this tract Trenches also with their rampires walls mounds of trees cut downe or plashed and Castles especially built in places more suspected and dangerous than others to all which there are to bee seene remaines here every where about Certes when the Barbarous nations after they had broken through the wall of Antoninus Pius in Scotland harried all over the countrey and laid all wast before them and the wall of Hadrian lay neglected unto the time of Severus wee may well thinke that even here was set downe the limit of the Romane Empire and that from hence the old Itinerary which goes about under the name of Antoninus began thus A limite that is From the Bound As for that which is set to it id est A vallo that is From the wall or rampier may seeme a glosse put downe by the transcribers considering that BREMENIUM is foureteene miles Northward distant from the said wall unlesse it may seeme to have been one of those out Field-stations which as I said even now were placed within the Barbarians ground beyond the Wall Scarce five miles from old BREMENIUM Southward standeth Otterburne where there was a field most valiantly fought betweene the Scottish and English in which the victory waved alternatively too and fro three or foure times and fell
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 nââerer 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 greaââter reputation as one of an excelling wit And so craftie and ãâã 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
stranger chance Here haply may he thinke he hath a sight againe of France What drew this place from thence their wit and spirit hot trow yee Or rather had the same at first by native propertie Now where the shore turneth inward a front Northward hard by the salt water of Tau there flourished in old time two goodly Abbyes Balmerinoch built by Queene Ermengard wife to King William daughter of Vicount Beaumont in France But lately King James of great Britaine advanced Sir Iames Elphinston to the honour of Baron Balmerinoch and Lundoris founded among the woods by David Earle of Huntington and at this day the Baronie of Sir Patrick Lesley betweene which standeth Banbrich the habitation of the Earle of Rothes strongly built castle wise But as touching the townes of Fife planted along the sea side have here now if it please you these verses of Master Ionston Oppida sic toto sunt sparsa in littore ut unum Dixeris inque uno plurima juncta eadem Littore quot curvo Forthae volvuntur arenae Quotque undis refluo tunditur orasalo Penè tot hîc cernas instratum puppibus aequor Urbibus crebris penè tot ora hominum Cuncta operis intenta domus foeda otia nescit Sedula cura domi sedula curaforis Quae maria quas non terras animosa juventus Ah! fragili fidens audet adire trabe Auxit opes virtus virtuti dura pericla Iuncta etiam lucro damna fuere suo Quae fecêre viris animos cultumque dedêre Magnanimis prosunt damna pericla labor Who sees how thicke townes stand upon this coast will say anone They are but one and yet the same all joyned in that one How many sands on crooked shore of Forth are cast by tides Or billowes at the seas returne beat hard upon bankes sides So many ships well neere you may here see to saile or ride And in those townes so thicke almost as many folke abide In everie house they ply their worke no idle drones they are Busie at home with diligence busie abroad with care What seas or lands are there to which a voiage for to make In brittle barkes will not their youth courageous undertake By valour be they growne to wealth yet valour meet with paines And perils too some losses too have they had with their gaines These things have made them valiant civill withall and courteous Losse perill painfull toile availe all such as be magnanimous The Governour of this province like as of all the rest in this Kingdome was in times past a Thane that is in the old English tongue The Kings Minister as it is also at this day in the Danish language but Malcolm Canmore made Macduffe who before was Thane of Fife the first hereditarie Earle of Fife and in consideration of his good desert and singular service done unto him granted that his posteritie should have the honour to place the King when hee is to be crowned in his chaire to lead the Vant-guard in the Kings armie and if any of them should happen by casualty to kill either Gentleman or Commoner to buy it out with a peece of money And not farre from Lundoris there is to bee seene a Crosse of stone which standing for a limit betweene Fife and Strathern had an inscription of barbarous verses and a certain priviledge of Sanctuarie that any Man-slaier allied to Macduffe Earle of Fife within the ninth degree if he came unto this Crosse and gave nine kine with an heiâer should bee quit of manslaughter When his posteritie lost this title I could never yet find but it appeareth out of the Records of the kingdome that K. David the second gave unto William Ramsey this Earldome with all and everie the immunities and law which is called Clan-Mac-Duffe and received it is for certaine that the linage of the Wemesies and Douglasse yea and that great kinred Clan-Hatan the chiefe whereof is Mac-Intoskech descended from them And the most learned I. Skerne Clerke of the Kings Register of Scotland hath taught mee in his significations of words that Isabel daughter and heire to Duncane Earle of Fife granted upon certaine conditions unto Robert the third King of the Scots for the use and behoofe of Robert Stewart Earle of Menteith the Earldome of Fife who being afterwards Duke of Albanie and affecting the Kingdome with cruell ambition caused David the Kings eldest son to be most pitifully famished to death which is highest extremitie of all miserie But his son Murdac suffered due punishment for the wickednesse both of his father and his owne sonnes being put to death by King James the first for their violent oppressions and a decree passed that the Earldome of Fife should be united unto the Crown for ever But the authoritie of the Sheriffe of Fife belongeth in right of inheritance to the Earle of Rothes STRATHERN AS farre as to the river Tau which boundeth Fife on the North-side Iulius Agricola the best Propretour of Britaine under Domitian the worst Emperour marched with victorious armes in the third yeere of his warlike expeditions having wasted and spoiled the nations hitherto Neere the out-let of Tau the notable river Ern intermingleth his waters with Tau which river beginning out of a Lake or Loch of the same name bestoweth his owne name upon the countrey through which he runneth For it is called Straith Ern which in the ancient tongue of the Britans signifieth the Vale along Ern. The banke of this Ern is beautified with Drimein Castle belonging to the family of the Barons of Dromund advanced to highest honours ever since that King Robert Stewart the third took to him a wife out of that linage For the women of this race have for their singular beautie and well favoured sweet countenance won the prize from all others insomuch as they have beene the Kings most amiable paramours Upon the same banke Tulibardin Castle sheweth it selfe aloft but with greater jollitie since that by the propitious favour of King James the sixth Sir Iohn Murray Baron of Tulibardin was raised to the honour and estate of Earle of Tulibardin Upon the other bank more beneath Duplin Castle the habitation of the Barons Oliphant reporteth yet what an overthrow the like to which was never before the Englishmen that came to aide King Edward Balliol gave there unto the Scots insomuch as the English writers in that time doe write that they won this victorie not by mans hand but by the power of God and the Scottish writers relate how that out of the family of the Lindeseies there were slaine in the field fourescore persons and that the name of the Haies had bin quite extinguished but that the chiefe of that house left his wife behind him great with child Not farre from it standeth Innermeth well knowne by reason of the Lords thereof the Stewarts out of the family of Lorn Inch-Chafra that is in the old Scottish
of youth and is called New Aberdon The other beyond it named Old Aberdon is most famous for the taking of Salmons But J. Ionston a native hereof in these his verses depainteth Aberdon thus ABERDONIA Ad Boream porrecta jugis obsessa superbis Inter connatas eminet una Deas Mitior algentes Phoebus sic temperat auras Non aestum ut rabidum frigora nec metuas Faecundo ditat Neptunus gurgite amnes Piscosi gemmis alter adauget opes Candida mens frons laeta hilaris gratissima tellus Hospitibus morum cultus ubique decens Nobilitas antiqua opibus subnixa vetustis Martiaque invicto pectore corda gerens Iustitiae domus studiorum mater honoris Ingenio ars certant artibus ingenia Omnia ei cedunt meritos genetricis honores Pingere non ulla Ars ingeniumvè valet Beset with loftie tops of hills and Northward lying spread Among her sister-townes alone she beareth up her head The warme sun-beames such temper give to sharpnesse of the aire That neither scorching heat you need nor pinching cold to feare The sea the fishfull rivers eke with plenteous gulfes and streames Make this place rich and one of them enriches it with gemmes Plain-hearted men of lightsome lookes and cheerfull passing kind To strangers decent everie thing and neat you shall there finde Their noble gentrie ancient their livings ancient were And their demesnes undaunted hearts and martiall mindes they beare The Justice Hall as mother kinde she honours due doth daigne Professions all art strives with wit and wit with arts againe All short of her But praises all of this my genitresse That she deserves no wit nor art is able to expresse It is almost incredible what abundance of Salmons as well these rivers as others also in Scotland on both sides of the realme doe breed This fish was altogether unknowne unto Plinie unlesse it were that Esox of the Rhene but in this North part of Europe passing well known shining and glittering as he saith with his red bowels In Autumne they engender within little rivers and in shallow places for the most part what time they cast their spawne and cover it over with sand and then are they so poore and leane that they seeme to have nothing else in a manner but their small bones Of that spawn in the spring next following there comes a frie of render little fishes which making toward the sea in a small time grow to their full bignesse and in returning backe againe to seeke for the rivers wherein they were bred they strive and struggle against the streame and looke whatsoever lyeth in their way to hinder their passage with a jerke of their taile and a certaine leape whence haply they had their name Salmons to the wonder of the beholders they nimbly whip over and keepe themselves within these rivers of theirs untill they breed During which time it is enacted by law they should not bee caught namely from the feast of the Assumption of our Ladie to the feast of Saint Andrew in winter And it should seeme they were reputed among the greatest commodities of Scotland when likewise it was ordained that they should not be sold unto Englishmen but for English gold and no other contentation But these matters I leave for others To come now unto the Earles of Marre In the reigne of Alexander the third William Earle of Marre is named among those that were sore offended and displeased with the King Whiles David Brus reigned Donald Earle of Marre Protector of the Kingdome was before the battaile at Dyplin murdered in his bed by Edward Balliol and the Englishmen that came to aide him whose daughter Isabel King Robert Brus tooke to be his former wife on whom he begat Marjorie mother to Robert Stewart King of Scots Under the same David there is mention also made of Thomas Earle of Marre who was banished in the yeere 1361. Likewise in the reign of Robert the third Alexander Stewart is named Earle of Marre who in the battell at Harley against the Ilanders lost his life in the yeer 1411. In the daies of King James the first we read in Scoto-Chronicon thus Alexander Earle of Marre died in the yeere 1435. the base son of Alexander Stewart Earle of Bucquan sonne to Robert the second King of Scots after whom as being a bastard the King succeeded in the inheritance John the second sonne of King James the second afterwards bare this title who being convict for attempting by art magicke to take away the King his brothers life was let blood to death And after him Robert Cockeran was promoted from a Mason to this dignitie by King James the third and soon after hanged by the Nobilitie Since which time this honourable title was discontinued untill that Queen Marie adorned therewith James her bastard brother and not long after when it was found that by ancient right the title of Earle of Marre appertained to John Lord Ereskin in lieu of Marre she conferred upon him the honour of Earle Murray and created Iohn Ereskin a man of ancient and noble birth Earle of Marre whose sonne bearing the same Christian name now enjoieth also the same dignity and is in both realmes one of the Kings Privie Councell BUCHANIA OR BUQUHAN THe TAIZALI mentioned by Ptolomee in ancient times inhabited where now Buquhan in Latin Boghania and Buchania above the river Done beareth forth toward the German sea Some derive this latter name a Bobus that is From Oxen and Kine whereas notwithstanding the ground serveth better to feed sheepe whose woole is highly commended Albeit the rivers in this coast everie where breed great store of Salmons yet doe they never enter into the river Ratra as Buchanan hath recorded Neither let it be offensive if I cite his testimonie although his bookes by authoritie of Parliament in the yeere 1584. were forbidden because many things in them contained are to be dashed out Who also hath written That on the banke of Ratra there is a cave neere unto Stangs Castle the nature whereof seemeth not to be passed over The water distilling by drops out of a naturall vault presently turneth into Pyramidall stones and were not the said cave or hole otherwhiles rid and cleansed by mans labour the whole space as far as up to the vault would in short time be filled therewith Now the stone thus engendred is of a middle nature betweene yee and hard stone for it is brittle and easie to crumble neither groweth it ever to the soliditie and hardnesse of marble Concerning those Claik-geese which some with much admiration have beleeved to grow out of trees both upon this shore elsewhere and when they be ripe to fall downe into the sea it is scarce worth the labour to mention them That there be little birds engendred of old and rotten keeles of ships they can beare witnesse who saw that ship wherein Francis Drake sailed about the world
dwelling place of the Earle of Twomond tooke denomination as also the whole tract of it called the county of Clare The places of greater note and name than the rest are Kilfennerag and Killaloe or Laon the Bishops seat This in the Roman Provinciall is tearmed Episcopatus Ladensis where there stands a rocke in the mid channell of the river Shannon from which the water rusheth downe a maine with a great fall and noise and by standing thus in the way as a bar hindreth the river that it can carry vessels no further which if it were cut down or a draine made about it the river were able to bring up vessels much higher to the great commodity of all the neighbour inhabitants Not far from the banke of Shannon is seated Bunraty for which Sir Robert Muscegros obtained from King Henry the third the liberâie of a Mercate and Faire and when he had fortified it with a castle gave it at length unto King Edward the first who granted both this towne and the whole territory unto Richard Clare aforesaid And seven miles from thence appeareth Clare the principall towne at a Creeke flowing up out of Shannon full of Islands and these twaine are the onely mercate townes here and those but small ones Most of the English who were in times past brought hither to inhabite are either rooted out or become degenerate and growne Irish but they who carry the whole sway here at this day be of the Irish blood as Mac-Nemors Mac-Mahon O-loughton and the mightiest by far of all other the O-Briens descended from the ancient Potentates or Kings of Conaght or as themselves give it forth from the Monarchs of Ireland Of these Morogh O-Brien was the first Earle of Twomond created by King Henry the eighth for terme of life and after him to Donough his brothers sonne and his heires who at the same time being made Baron of Ibarcan succeeded in the Earldome and was slain by his brother Sir Donel O-Brien Connagher O-Brien Donaghs son was the third Earle and father to Donaugh now the fourth Earle who hath shewed singular good proofe of his faithfull loialty and courageous valour unto his Prince and countrey in most dangerous times to his singular commendation THE COUNTY OF GALLWAY THe county of GALLWAY meereth South upon Clare West upon the Ocean North upon the county Maio and East upon the river Shannon A land very thankefull unto the industrious husbandman and no lesse profitable unto the Shepheard The West shore endented in with small in-lets and out-lets or armes of the sea hath a border all along of greene Ilands and rugged rockes set orderly as it were in a row among which foure Ilands called Arran make a Barony and many a foolish fable goes of them as if they were the Ilands of the living wherein none doe dye also Inis Ceath well knowne in times past by reason of the Monastery of Colman a devout Saint founded for Scots and Englishmen and Inis-Bouind which Bede interpreteth out of the Scottish tongue to signifie The Isle of white Heifers whereas it is a meere British word But the Englishmen soone forsooke the Monastery when the Scots and they could not well agree together Further within lieth a Lake called Logh-Corbes where Ptolomee placeth the river AUSOBA spreading out twenty miles or thereabout in length and three or foure in bredth being navigable and garnished with 300. petty Ilands full of grasse and bearing Pine-trees which Lake when it reacheth neere the sea growing narrow into a river runneth under Gallway in the Irish tongue Galliue named so or else I cannot tell of the Gallaeci in Spaine the very principall city of this Province and which would thinke hardly to be reckoned the third in Ireland Surely a very proper and faire City it is built almost round and in manner tower-like of entry and some stone and hath beside to set it out a Bishops See and withall through the benefit of the haven and rode abovesaid under it being well frequented with merchants hath easie and gainfull trafficke by exchange of rich commodities both by sea and land Not full foure miles from hence standeth Knoc-toe that is the hill of Axes under which that noble Girald Fitz-Girald Earle of Kildare and by times for the space of three and thirty yeeres Lord Deputie of Ireland discomfited and put to flight after a bloody overthrow the greatest rabble of rebels that ever was seen before in Ireland raised and gathered together by William Burk O-Bren Mac-Nomare and O-Carrall Not farre from hence Eastward standeth Aterith in which remaine some footings of the name of AUTERI commonly called Athenry enclosed round about with a wall of great circuit but slenderly inhabited It glorieth much of that warlike Baron thereof Iohn de Birmingham an Englishman out of which family the Earle of Louth descended but these Birminghams of Aterith being now as it were degenerate into barbarous Irishry scarce acknowledge themselves to have beene English originally The septs or kinreds of the Irish here that be of the better sort are O Kelleis O Maiden O Flairts Mac Dervis c. Clan-Ricard that is The sonnes kinred or Tube of Richard or the land of Richards sonnes confineth upon these and lieth to this county The name it tooke after the Irish manner from one Richard of an English family called de Burgh that became afterwards of most high renowne and name in this tract and out of which King Henry the eighth created Ulick Burgh Earle of Clan-Ricard whose eldest sonne carrieth the title of Baron Dun-Kellin His sonne Richard was the second Earle whose children begotten of sundry wives stirred up many troubles to the griefe of their father the overthrow of their owne country and themselves After Richard who died an old man succeeded his sonne Ulick the third Earle and father to Richard the fourth Earle now living whose fast fidelity and singular fortitude hath to his great praise evidently appeared when the English and their whole estates in Ireland were in greatest danger In this territory is the Archbishops See of Toam unto which in old time many Bishops were subject but at this day the Bishopricks of Anagchony Duae and Maio are annexed unto it The Bishoprick likewise of Kilmacough which in the old Provinciall unlesse the name be corrupt is not mentioned as also of Clonfert are seated in this part and as I have heard united to the See of Toam THE COUNTY OF MAIO THe county Maio on which the Westerne Ocean beateth lies bounded South with the county of Galway East with the county Roscoman and North with the county of Slego A fertile country and a pleasant abundantly rich in cattell Deere Hawkes and plenty of hony taking the name of Maio a little city with a Bishops See in it which in the Roman Provinciall is called Mageo But that Episcopall seat is now annexed to the Metropolitane of
certaine number of cowes and hawkes yeerely c. THE COUNTIE OF COLRAN BEyond the Glynnes West standeth Krine which now they call the county COLRAN of the principall towne therein It lieth between the river Ban and Lough-foile and confineth South upon the county of Tir-Oen This Ban a passing faire river as Giraldus saith which the name also witnesseth rising out of the mountaines of Mourn in the county of Downe carrieth himselfe and his name into Lough Eaugh or Lough-Sidney a large Lake which name for all that after thirty miles or thereabout for of so great length that Lake is esteemed to be at his going forth in the end he resumeth againe at Tome castle and being beset and shadowed along the sides with woods by Glancolkein where by reason of thick woods and unpassable bogges there is the safest place of refuge for the Scottish Ilanders and the rebels and which the English felt who pursued Surley Boy whiles hee lurked here carrying a proud streame entreth into the sea breeding Salmons in abundance above any other river in all Europe because as some think it passeth all the rest for cleerenesse in the which kinde of water Salmons take speciall delight In this part the O Cahans were of greatest authoritie the principall person of which family O Cahan is thought to be one of the greatest of those Potentates or Uraights as they terme them that ought service unto O Neal the Tyrant of Ulster as who in that barbarous election of O Neal which with as barbarous ceremonies is solemnized in the open aire upon an high hill performeth this honourable service forsooth as to fling a shooe over the head of the elected O Neal. Howbeit he is not of power sufficient to restrain the Scottish Ilanders who to save charges at home every yeere in Summer time flocke hither out of those hungry and barren Ilands where is nothing but beggery to get their living ready upon every occasion and opportunity to maintain rebellions insomuch as provided it hath been by law under paine of high treason that no person call them into Ireland nor give them lodging or entertainment But this county with other confining is escheated to the King who gratiously purposing a civill plantation of those unreformed and waste parts is pleased to distribute the said lands to his civill subjects and the city of London hath undertaken to plant Colonies here THE COUNTIE OF TIR-OEN BEneath Colran lieth Southward the county of TIR-OEN in old books named also Tir-Eogain that is if a man interpret it The land of Eugenius which name the Irish have contracted into Eogain and Oen. This is altogether upland from the sea divided towards the sunnes setting by the river Liffer from Tir-Conell toward the rising with the Logh Eaugh from the county of Antrim and Southward with the Blackwater which in Irish they call Aven More that is The great water from the county of Armagh A country though rough and rugged yet fruitfull and very large as which lieth out threescore miles in length and thirty in bredth divided by the mountaines called Sliew Gallen into the Upper Tir-Oen Northward and the Nether Southward In it are first Cloghar a Bishopricke and that a slender one then Dunganon the chiefe habitation of the Earles which through the favour of King Henry the eighth gave the title of Baron unto Matthew sonne to the first Earle of Tir-Oen And verily this is an house fairer built than commonly they bee in this county but hath beene oftentimes by the Lords themselves defaced with fire because it should not be burnt by the enemy also Ublogahell where O-Neal that most proudly ruleth and oppresseth Ulster was wont to be inaugurated after that barbarous manner and tradition of the countrey and the fort at Black-water on the river More which hath sustained the variable changes and chances of warre whiles there was no other way into this countrey being the place of refuge for the rebels but now it is neglect ever since there was found another Ford more below at which on both sides of the river Charles Lord Mount-joy Deputy erected new Sconces when with hot warre hee pursued the rebels in these parts Who likewise at the same time raised another garrison for t called by his owne name Mont-joy at the Lake Eaugh Logh Sidney in honour of Henry Sidney souldiers now terme it which encloseth the West side of this shire and is made or much encreased by the river Bann as I have said Surely this is a goodly and beautifull Lake passing fishfull and very large as stretching out thirty miles or thereabout as the Poet saith Dulci mentitur Nârea fluctu Fresh water though it bee A sea folke thinke they see And considering the variety of shew upon the bankes the shady groves the meadowes alwaies greene the fertile corne fields if they be well manured the bending and hanging hills and the rills running into it fashioned and shaped for pleasure and profit even by Nature her selfe who seemeth as it were to be very angry with the inhabitants there by for suffering all to grow wild and barbarous through their lazie lithernesse In the upper Tir-Oen stands Straban a Castle well knowne wherein dwelt in our daies Turlogh Leinigh of the sept of O-Neals who after the death of Shan O-Neal as I shall shew anon by election of the people attained to the dignity of O-Neal also some other Piles and fortresses of smaller reckoning the which like as else where in this Iland be no more but towers with narrow loope-holes rather than windowes unto which adjoine Hauls made of turfes and roofed over head with thatch having unto them belonging large Courts or yards fensed round about with ditches and hedges of rough bushes for defence of their cattell against Cow-stealers But if this county have any name or glory at all it is wholly from the Lords thereof who have ruled here as Kings or Tyrants rather of whom there were two Earles of Tir-Oen namely Con O-Neale and Hugh his nephew by his son Matthew But of these I will speake more at large by and by when I am to treat of the Earles and Lords of Ulster THE COUNTIE OF DONEGALL OR TIR-CONELL ALL that remaineth now behind in Ulster toward the North and South was possessed in ancient times by the ROBOGDII and VENNICNII but at this day it is called the County of DONEGALL or TIR-CONELL that is as some interpret it The land of Cornelius or as others The Land of Conall and in truth Marianus plainly nameth it Conallea The county is all in a maner champian and full of havens as bounded with the sea on the North and West sides beating upon it and dis-joined on the East from Tir-Oen with the river Liffer and from Conaght with the Lake Erne Liffer neere unto his spring head enlargeth his stream and spreadeth abroad into a Lake wherein appeareth above the water an Island and in
well neere in Ireland which the Rebells had fortified and blocked up with pallisadoes and fences with stakes pitched into the ground with hurdles joyned together and stones in the midst and turfes of earth betwixt the hills woods and bogges quite overthwart on both sides with great skill and greater industry yea and manned the place with a number of souldiers Besides these difficulties in his way the weather also was passing rigorous by reason of much raine that fell continually for certaine daies together whereby the rivers swelling high and overflowing their banks were altogether unpassable But when the waters were fallen the English courageously brake through those pallisadoes or senses aforesaid and having beaten backe their enemies and overcome all difficulties the Lord Deputy placed a garrison eight miles from Armagh for at Armagh the Rebells had eaten up and consumed all which in memory of Sir Iohn Norris under whom he had his first rudiments in the profession of Armes he commanded to be called Mount-Norris over which he made Captaine E. Blany a stout and valiant Gentleman who afterwards in this part like as Sir Henry Docwra in the other troubled the Rebells sore and withall kept them forcibly in awe In his returne that I may passe over with silence the skuffling skirmishes which happened every day the Rebells in the passe neere unto Carlingford where they had stopped up the way in a memorable overthrow were discomfited and put to fearefull flight Some few daies after the Lord Deputy because hee would lose no time entred in the very middest of winter the Glynnes that is the vallies in Leinster a secure receptacle of Rebells where having wasted the countrey he brought Donell Spanioh Phelim Mac-Feogh and that tumultuous and pernicious Sept of the O Tools unto submission and tooke hostages of them Afterward hee went as farre as Fereall and drave Tirell the most approved warriour of all the Rebells out of his own holds or as they call it Fastnesses a place full of bogges and beset thicke with bushes into Ulster Now by this time by fetching many a compasse was he come victorious in every place as farre as to the frontier of Ulster which he entred and first having slaine the two sonnes of Ever Mac Cowley he laied the territory of Fernes wast and sent out Sir Richard Morison to spoile the Fues In Breany he placed a garrison by the conduct of Sir Oliver Lambard and turning downe to Tredagh hee received into his protection and mercy such of the principall Rebels as submitted themselves namely Turlogh Mac-Henry a great man and Potentate in Fues Ever Mac Cowly O-Hanlan who glorieth in this that by inheritance hee is Standard-bearer to the Kings of Ulster and many of the Mac-Mahons and O-Realies who delivered up for hostages their dearest friends and kinsfolke The spring now approaching before all the forces were assembled and come together the Lord Deputy marcheth to Moyery where by cutting down the woods he made the way passable and there erected a fort out of Lecall he expelled the Mac-Genisses who usurped lands there and reduced all the Rebels fortresses and holds about Armagh to his obedience Armagh also he fortified with a garrison And so farre went he forward that hee removed the Earle from Black-water who had very artificially encamped himselfe there and purposed somewhat lower to set up a sort About which time many signified unto him by letters for certainty that which he had heard before bruited by a common rumour still more and more encreased namely that the Sparniards were arrived in Mounster So that now he was of necessity to desist and give over this prosecution in Ulster and Ireland was to be defended not so much from inward rebellion as from forraine enemies And yet lest what he had already recovered should be lost againe after he had strengthened the garrisons he speedily posteth into Mounster journeying continually with one or two companies of horse commanding the Captaines of the footmen to follow hard after For whiles he was earnestly busied about the warre in Ulster the Earle and his assiociates the Rebels of Mounsters by their Agents a certaine Spaniard elect Archbishop of Dublin by the Pope the Bishop of Clonfort the Bishop of Killaloe and Archer a Jesuite had obtained at length with praying intreating and earnest beseeching at the King of Spaines hand that succour should bee sent into Mounster to the Rebels under the conduct of Don John D' Aquila upon assured hope conceived that all Mounster would shortly revolt and the titular Earle of Desmond and Florens Mac-Carty joyne great aides unto them But Sir George Carew the Lord President of Mounster had providently before intercepted them and sent them over into England Thus D' Aquila arrived at Kinsale in Mounster with two thousand Spaniards old souldiers and certaine Irish fugitives the last day of October and straightwaies having published a writing wherein hee gloriously stileth himselfe with this title MASTER Generall and Captaine of the Catholick King in the warre of God for holding and keeping the Faith in Ireland endevoureth to make the world beleeve That Queene Elizabeth by the definitive sentences of the Popes was deprived of her kingdomes and her subjects absolved and freed from their oath of allegeance and that hee and his men were come to deliver them out of the devils clawes and the English tyrannie And verily with this goodly pretence he drew a number of lewd and wicked persons to band and side with him The Lord Deputie having gathered together all the Companies of souldiers that he could prepareth himselfe to the siege and Sir Richard Levison the Vice-Admirall sent out of England with one or two of the Queenes ships to impeach all accesse fore-closeth the haven The English when they had now encamped themselves began from land and sea to thunder with their ordnance upon the towne and more straightly to beleaguer it round about which siege notwithstanding was by and by not so forcibly urged for that on the one side Levison with the sea souldiers was sent before against two thousand Spaniards newly landed at Bere-haven Baltimor and Castle Haven of whose ships hee sunke five on the other side the President of Mounster at the same time was dispatched with certaine troupes to get the start of O-Donell who was now approaching that hee should not joyne with that new supplie of the Spaniards But hee when as now all the Country was over frozen had by speedie journeyes in the night through blind by-waies gotten to those Spaniards newly arrived and was not so much as once seene Some few daies after the Earle of Tir-Oen also himselfe came with O-Rork Raimund Burk Mac-Mahon Randall Mac-Surley Tirell the Baron of Lixnaw and the most select and choice of all the Rebels unto whom when Alphonso O Campo the leader of the new-come Spaniards had joyned his forces they mustered themselves sixe thousand footmen and five hundred horse strong in a confident hope of victory
a peace was renewed there betweene the Earle of Ulster and the Lord Moris Fitz-Thomas the said Lords with the Kings Counsel ordained there that the Kings peace should be fully kept so that every Nobleman and Chieftaine should keep in his owne sept retinew and servants and the said Earle of Ulster made a great feast in the Castle of Dublin and the Lord Moris Fitz-Thomas the morrow after kept a great feast within the Church of St. Patrick in Dublin and Frier Roger Outlaw Justice of Ireland feasted likewise upon the third day at Kylmaynon and so they departed The same yeere on the Virgill of St. Barnabee the Apostle Sir John Bermingham Earle of Louth was slaine at Balybragan in Urgal by those of Urgal and with him Peter Bermingham the said Earles legitimate and whole brother also Robert Bermingham the same Earles putative brother Sir John Bermingham the son of his brother Richard Lord of Anry William Finne Bermingham the Unkles sonne by the mothers side of the foresaid Lord of Anry Simon Bermingham the same Williams sonne Thomas Bermingham the son of Robert of Conaght Peter Bermingham the sonne of Iames of Conaght Henry Bermingham of Conaght and Richard Talbot of Malaghide a valiant man at armes and two hundred with them whose names are not knowne Item after the foresaid slaughter the Lord Simon Genevile his men invaded the country of Carbry for to spoile and harry them in regard of their robberies and manslaughters committed many times in Meth but before the said invasion they of Carbry arose and slew of the said Simons men threescore and sixteen Also the same yeere on the morrow after holy Trinitie Sunday there came to Dublin John Gernon and Roger Gernon his brother in the behalfe of those of Urgal and made humble request that they might stand to be tried at the Common Law And on Tuesday which was the morrow after the feast of St. John Baptist John and Roger hearing that the Lord William Bermingham was comming departed out of Dublin The same yeere on the Vigill of St. Laurence the Lord Thomas Botiller went with a great power into the parts of Ardnorwith and there encountred the said Lord Thomas Williams Mac-Goghgan with his forces and there was the said L. Thomas to the great losse of the land of Ireland with him were killed the Lord John Ledewich Roger Ledewich Thomas Ledewich John Nangle Meiler Petit Simon Petit David Nangle Sir John Waringer James Terel Nicholas White William Freines Peter Kent John White and together with them one hundred and forty men whose names are unknowne And on the tuesday next before the feast of St. Bartholomew the body of the said Lord Thomas Botiller was conveied to Dublin and bestowed in the house of the preaching Friers but as yet not buried and the sunday next ensuing the feast of the beheading of St. Iohn Baptist the said Lord Thomas his corps was very honourably carried through the city and enterred in the Church of the preaching Friers and the wife of the said Lord John that day made a feast In the same yeere John Lord Dracy came Justice of Ireland the second time and the said Lord John espoused the Lady Joan de Burk Countesse of Kildare the third day of July at Maynoth Item Philip Stanton is slaine Also Henry Lord Traham is treacherously taken in his owne house at Kilbego by Richard the sonne of Philip Onolan More the Lord Iames Botiller Earle of Ormond burnt Foghird against Onolan for the foresaid Henries sake brother of Botiller The same yeere on wednesday next after the feast of the Ascension of the blessed Virgin Mary John Lord Darcy Justice of Ireland went toward the parts of Newcastle of Mac-Kingham and Wikelow against the O-Brynns and the monday following certain of Lawles were slaine and many wounded and namely Robert Locam was hurt and of the Irish the better sort were slaine many likewise wounded and the rest fled But Murkad O-Brynne yeelded himselfe an hostage together with his son unkle and unkles sonne and they were brought to the castle of Dublin But afterwards delivered for other hostages the better sort of their sept and kin The same yeere the Lord Justice namely the Lord John Darcy and those of the Kings Counsell in Ireland about the feast of the Circumcision of our Lord charged the Lord Moris Fitz-Thomas of Desmund that himselfe should come into the field with his forces for to vanquish the Kings enemies giving him to understand that their soveraigne Lord the King would provide for to defray the charges of him and of his army and the said Moris came with his power and Briene O-Brene was in his company and their army consisted of ten thousand men and the said Lord Moris advanced with his army first against the O-Nolanes vanquished them gat a great bootie and wasted their lands with fire and the O-Nolanes fled and afterwards delivered hostages who were sent unto the castle of Dublin And afterwards the said Lord Moris made a journy against the O-Morches who did put in their hostages for to keepe the Kings peace The same time the castle of Ley which O-dympcy had won and kept was rendred up to the said Moris The same yeere after the Epiphany of our Lord Donald Arts Mac-Murgh made an escape out of the castle of Dublin by a cord which one Adam Nangle had bought for him which Adam afterwards was drawne and hanged MCCCXXX Mighty winds were up in divers places about the feast daies of St. Katherine S. Nicolas and of the Nativitie of our Lord by which wind part of the wall of a certain house fell downe and killed the wife of Sir Miles Verdon with his daughter on S. Nicolas even such winds as the like were never seene in Ireland Item there was such an inundation of the water of Boyn as never had been known before by which flood all the bridges as well of stone as of timber standing over the said water were utterly cast downe unlesse it were Babe bridge The water also carried away divers mills and did much hurt to the Friers Minors of Trym and Tredagh in breaking down their houses The same yeere about the feast of S. John Baptist there began a great dearth of corne in Ireland and continued untill Michaelmas Item a cranoc of wheat was sold for 20. shillings also a cranoc of oats for eight shillings and one cranoc of peason beanes and of barly for 8. shillings And this dearth hapned by occasion of abundance of raine so that much of the standing corne could not be reaped before the feast of St. Michael The same yeere the English of Meth made a slaughter of the Irish to wit of Mac-Goghigans people about Lent neere unto Loghynerthy whereupon the said Mac-Goghigan in anger burnt in those parts 25. small villages and sacked them which the English seeing gathered themselves together against him and of his men slew one hundred and among whom were slaine three Lords sons of
third day of February Also in the parts of Ireland the frost was so vehement that Aven-Liffie the river of Dublin was so frozen that very many danced and leaped upon the Ice of the said river they played at foot-ball and ran courses there yea and they made fires of wood and of turfe upon the same Ice and broyled herrings thereupon This Ice lasted very many dayes And as for the snow also in the parts of Ireland that accompanied the same frost a man need not speake any more seeing it was knowne to lye on such a wonderfull depth This hard time of weather continued from the second day of December unto the tenth day of February the like season was never heard of before especially in Ireland MCCCXXXIX All Ireland was generally up in armes Item an exceeding great slaughter there was of the Irish and a number of them drowned even 1200. at the least by the meanes of the Lord Moris Fitz-Thomas Earle of Desmond and the rest of the Geraldines in the parts of Kernige Item the Lord Moris Fitz-Nicolas Lord of Kernige was apprehended and imprisoned by the Lord Moris Fitz-Thomas Earle of Desmond and died in prison being put to strait diet for that he openly went out and rebelled with the said Irish against the Lord King of England and against the Lord Earle Item a number of the O. Dymcies and other Irish were killed and drowned in the water of Barrow by the English and the hot pursuit of the Earle of Kildare Also a great booty of cattell of sundry sorts and such a booty as had not been seen in the parts of Leinster by the said Lord Thomas Bishop of Hereford and Justice of Ireland and with the helpe of the English of that country was taken from the Irish in the parts of Odrone in the end of February MCCCXL The said Bishop of Hereford and Justice of Ireland being sent for by the King returned into England the tenth day of Aprill leaving in his place Frier Roger Outlaw Priour of Kylmaynon Also this Sir Roger Lord Priour of Kylmainon Justice and Chancellour of the said land died the thirteenth day of February Item the King of England granted by his letters patents unto Iohn Darcy the office of Lord Justice of Ireland for terme of life MCCCXLI Sir John Moris Knight came Lord Justice of Ireland in the moneth of May as Lievtenant unto Iohn Darcy in the foresaid land Item this wondrous prodigie following and such as in our age had not been heard of before hapned in the county of Leinster where a certain waifaring man as he travelled in the Kings high way found a paire of gloves fit as he thought for his owne turne which as he drew upon his hands forthwith instead of a mans voice and speech he kept a strange and marvellous barking like unto a dogge and from that present the elder folke and full growne yea and women too throughout the same county barked like bigge dogges but the children and little ones waughed as small whelpes This plague continued with some 18. daies with others a whole moneth and with some for two yeeres Yea this foresaid contagious malady entred also into the neighbour shires and forced the people in like manner to barke Also the King of England revoked all those gifts and grants that by him or his father had bin conferred by any meanes upon any persons whatsoever in Ireland were they liberties lands or other goods for which revocation great displeasure and discontent arose in the land and so the land of Ireland was at the point to have beene lost for ever out of the King of Englands hand Item by the Kings Councell there was ordained a generall Parliament of Ireland in the moneth of October To the same Parliament Moris Fitz-Thomas Earle of Desmond came not Before which time there was never knowne so notable and manifest a division in Ireland between those that were English by birth and English in blood The Maiors besides of the Kings cities in the same land together with all the better sort of the Nobility and Gentry of the said land with one consent upon mature deliberation and counsell had among other their conclusions decreed and appointed a common Parliament at Kilkenny in November to the utility and profit both of the King and the land before named without asking any counsell at all of the Lord Justice and the Kings officers aforesaid in this behalfe Now the Lord Justice and the rest of the Kings Ministers in no wise presumed to come unto the same Parliament at Kilkenny The Elders therefore of the land aforesaid together with the Ancients and Maiors of the cities agreed and ordained as touching solemne Embassadours to be sent with all speed unto the King of England about relieving the State of the land and to complaine of his Ministers in Ireland as touching their unequall and unjust regiment of the same and that from thenceforth they neither could nor would endure the realme of Ireland to be ruled by his Ministers as it had wont to be And particularly they make complaint of the foresaid Ministers by way of these Questions Imprimis How a land full of warres could be governed by him that was unskilfull in warre Secondly how a Minister or Officer of the Kings should in a short time grow to so great wealth Thirdly how it came to passe that the King was never the richer for Ireland MCCCXLII The eleventh day of October when the moone was eleven dayes old there were seen by many men at Dublin 2. moones in the firmament well and early before day The one was according to the course of nature in the West and appeared bright the other to the quantity of a round loafe appeared in the East casting but a meane and slender light MCCCXLIII St. Thomas street in Dublin was casually burnt with fire upon the feast of S. Valentine Martyr Item the 13. day of July the Lord Ralph Ufford with his wife the Countesse of Ulster came Lord chiefe Justice of Ireland Upon whose entring the faire weather changed sodainly into a distemperature of the aire and from that time there ensued great store of raine with such abundance of tempestuous stormes untill his dying day None of his predecessours in the times past was with griefe be it spoken comparable unto him For this Justicer bearing the office of Justice-ship became an oppressor of the people of Ireland a robber of the goods both of Clergy and Laity of rich and poore alike a defrauder of many under the colour of doing good not observing the rights of the Church nor keeping the lawes of the kingdome offering wrongs to the naturall inhabitants ministring justice to few or none and altogether distrusting some few onely excepted the inborne dwellers in the land These things did hee still and attempted the like misled by the counsell and perswasion of his wife Item the said Justice entring into Ulster in the moneth of March through a Pas called Emerdullan
per ultima serpit Mersit rege satos occidit orbis honos Whiles Normans after victories of Noble Frenchmen won Make saile for England God himselfe withstood them all anon For as the rough and surging waves they cut with brittle barke He brought upon the troubled sea thicke fogges and weather darke Whiles sailers then in coasts unknowne were driven and hal'd astray Upon blind rockes their ships were split and quickly cast away Thus when salt water entred in and upmost hatches caught Drown'd was that royall progeny worlds honour came to naught More Westward certaine Ilands affront France yet under the Crowne of England and first of all upon the coast of Normandy or the Lexobii whom our Britans or Welshmen tearme Lettaw as one would say Littorales that is Coast-men lieth Alderney which in the Records is named Aurney Aureney and Aurigney so that it may seeme to be that ARICA which in Antonine according to the King of Spaines copie is reckoned among the Isles of the British sea Others hold it to be that EBODIA or EVODIA whereof Paulus Diaconus only hath made mention who had small skill of this coast which he placeth thirty miles from the shore of Seine and telleth of a rumbling roaring noise of waters falling into a gulfe or Charybdis that is heard a far off This Alderney lieth in the chiefe trade of all shipping passing from the Easterne parts to the West three leagues distant from the coast of Normandy thirty from the nearest part of England extended from South East to the North West and containeth about eight miles in circuit the South shore consisting of high cliffes The aire is healthfull the soile sufficiently rich full of fresh pastures and corn-fields yet the inhabitants poore through a custome of parting their lands into small parcells by Gavelkind The towne is situate well neere in the midst of the Isle having a parish Church and about 80. families with an harbour called Crabbic some mile off On the East side there is an ancient fort and a dwelling house built at the charge of the Chamberlans for the fee farme of the Isle was granted by Queene Elizabeth to G. Chamberlane son to Sir Leonard Chamberlane of Shirburne in Oxfordshire when he recovered it from the French And under this fort the sand with violent drifts from the Northwest overlaied the land so that now it serveth thereabout most for conies I know not whether I were best to relate of a Giants tooth one of the grinders which was found in this Iland of that bigge size that it equalled a mans fist seeing Saint Augustine writeth of one that himselfe saw so bigge that if it were cut in small peeces to the proportion of our teeth it seemed it might have made an hundred of them Hence Westward there runneth out a craggy ridge of rockes which have their severall eddies and therefore feared of the Mariners who tearme them Casquettes Out of one of the which properly named Casquet there gusheth a most sweet spring of fresh water to the great comfort of the Iland-fishermen beating up and downe hereabout At these to remember incidently that the memorie of a well-deserving Patriot may not perish the fleet which Iohn Philipot Citizen of London set forth and manned at his owne private charges had a glorious victorie over a rabble of Pirates who impeached all trafficke taking their Captaine and fifteene Spanish ships that consorted with them Which worthy man also maintained 1000. souldiers at his owne pay for defence of the Realme against the French who sore infested the Southern coast in the beginning of the reigne of King Richard the second to omit his great loanes to the King and other good and laudable offices to his country Under these lieth Southward CAESAREA whereof Antonine hath written scarce twelve miles distant from Alderney which name the Frenchmen now have clipped so short as the Spaniards have CAESAR AUGUSTA in Spaine for they call it Gearzey like as Cherburgh for Caesarisburgus and Saragose for Caesar augusta Gregorius Turonensis calleth it the Iland of the sea that lieth to the City Constantia where hee reporteth how Pratextatus Bishop of Roan was confined hither like as Papirius Massonius tearmeth it the Isle of the coast of Constantia because it butteth just upon the ancient city Constantia which may seeme in Ammianus to be named CASTRA CONSTANTIA and in the foregoing ages Moritonium For Robert Montensis writeth thus Comes Moritonii id est Constantiarum if that be not a glosse of the transcriber For Moritonium which now is Mortaigne is farther distant from the sea This Isle is thirty miles or thereabout in compasse fenced with rockes and shelves which are shallow places dangerous for such as saile that way The ground is fertile enough bearing plenty of sundry sorts of corne and breeding cattaile of divers kindes but sheepe especially and most of them with faire heads carrying foure hornes a peece The aire is very wholsome and healthy not subject to any other diseases but agues in September which thereupon they tearme Settembers so that there is no being for Physicians here And for that it is scarce of fuell in steed of fire wood they use a kind of Sea weed which they call Uraic deemed to be that Fucus marinus which Plinie mentioneth and groweth every where about in craggy Ilands and on rockes most plenteously This being dried at the fire serveth for to burne with the ashes whereof as it were with Marle and the fat of the earth they dung commonly their fields and fallows and thereby make them very battle fruitfull Neither are they permitted to gather it but in the spring and summer season and then upon certaine daies appointed by the Magistrate At which time with a certaine festivall mirth they repaire in numbers from all parts to the shore with their carres as also to the rockes neere unto them they speed themselves a vie with their fisher-boats But whatsoever of this kind the sea casteth up the poore may gather for their owne use The inward parts of the Isle gently rise and swell up with pretty hills under which lye pleasant vallies watered with riverets and planted with fruitfull trees but apple trees especially of which they make a kind of drinke Well stored it is with farme places and villages having within it twelve Parishes and furnished on every side with creekes and commodious rodes among which the safest is that in the South part of the Isle betweene the two little townes Saint Hilaries and Saint Albans which harbour hath also a little Iland belonging to it fortified with a garison having no way of accesse unto it wherein by report Saint Hilarie Bishop of Poictiers after he had beene banished hither was enterred For the towne dedicated to his name just over against this Iland is accounted the principall towne both in regard of the mercate and trafficke there as also of the Court of Justice which is
the French Gallies gave the attempt to invade it but with the losse of many of his men had the foile and desisted from his enterprise As touching the Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction they were under the Bishop of Constance in Normandy untill that hee in our remembrance refused to abjure the Popes authority in England as our Bishops doe Since which time they were by Queene Elizabeth severed from the Diocesse of Constance and united for ever to the Diocesse of Winchester so as the Bishop of Winchester and his successours execute every thing appertaining to the Episcopall jurisdiction yet their Ecclesiasticall discipline is conformable to the Church of Geneva which the French Ministers have brought in As for the civill customes of these Ilands I could now note some of them out of the Kings records namely How King Iohn instituted twelve Coroners sworn to keepe the pleas and rights belonging to the Crowne and granted for the security of the Ilanders that the Bailiffe henceforth by advice of the Coroners might plead without writ of a new disseisin made within the yeere of the death of any ancestours and predecessours within a yeere of dowry likewise within a yeere c. Moreover that the said Iuries may not delay their judgements beyond the tearme of one yeere likewise that in Customes and other things they should be dealt withall as naturall inborn inhabitants and not as strangers or forrainers But these points I think good to leave unto others who may search more curiously into particulars Generally the customes of Normandy take place here in most cases Touching Serke a little Iland that lieth betweene these above named walled about as it were with mighty steepe rockes in which I. de S. Owen of Iarsey whose antiquity of descent some avouch I know not upon what credit and authority from before Saint Owens time by commission from Queene Elizabeth and for his owne commodity as the report goeth made a plantation whereas before time it lay desolate As touching Iethow which for the use of the Governour of Garnsey serveth in steed of a parke to feed cattell to keepe Deere conies and phesants as also touching Arme which being larger than the other was first a solitary place for Regular Chanons and after for the Franciscan Friers seeing they are not mentioned by the old writers I have no reason to speake much of them After these upon the same coast LIGA whereof Antonine maketh mention shooteth up his head which retaineth the name still and is now called Ligon Then lye there spread and scattered seven Ilands termed by Antonine SIADAE of the number for Saith in the British tongue betokeneth seven which the Frenchmen at this day terme Le set Isles And I suppose these Siades to be corruptly called Hiadatae by Strabo for from these as hee saith it is not a daies sailing into the Iland of Britaine From these SIADAE to BARSA whereof Antonine also hath made mention there is the distance of seven furlongs The Frenchmen call it the Isle de Bas and the English Basepole For the Britans tearme that Bas which is shallow and the Mariners by sounding finde the sea in this place to bee more ebbe and shallow as which lieth not above seven or eight fathomes deepe whereas along all the shore beside the sea carrieth 12.18 and twenty fathoms of water as we may see in their Hydrographicall cards Howbeit betweene these Ilands and Foy in Cornwall this our British sea as Mariners have observed is of a mighty depth which they measure to be in the channell fifty eight fathoms deepe or thereabout From hence I will now cut over to the coasts of our owne Britaine and keeping along the shore as I passe by Ideston Moushole and Longships which be rather infamous and dangerous rocks than Ilands at the very utmost point of Cornwall lieth Antonines LISIA now called of them that dwell thereby Lethowsow but of others The Gulfe seene onely at a low water when the tide is returned I take this to be that Lisia which ancient writers doe mention because Lis as I have heard among our Britans in Wales signifieth the same For Lisâ soundeth as much as to make a noise with a great rumbling or roaring such as commonly we heare in Whirlepits and in that place the current or tide of the Ocean striveth amaine with a mighty noise both Northward and Eastward to get out as being restrained and pent in betweene Cornwall and the Ilands which Antonine calleth SIGDELES Sulpitius Severus SILLINAE Solinus SILURES Englishmen Silly the low country Sea-men Sorlings and the ancient Greeke writers tearme HESPERIDES and CASSITERIDES For Dionisius Alexandrinuâ named them Hesperides of their Westerne situation in these verses ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Which Priscian translated thus Sed summam contra Sacram cognomine dicunt Quam caput Europae sunt stanni pondere plenae Hesperides populus tenuit quas fortis Iberi Which may be englished thus Now just beneath that Isle which Sacred High And head of Europe men are wont to call The Ilands nam'd Hesperides do lie And those well stor'd with Tin a rich metall But would ye know the people then note well The glorious wealthy Spaniards therein dwell These also Festus Avienus in his poeme entituled Orae Maritimae that is The sea coasts called Ostrymnides touching which he inserted these verses as they are found in the Paris edition and the notes upon the same In quo insulae sese exerunt Oestrymnides Laxe jacentes metallo divites Stanni at que plumbi multa vis his gentis est Superbus animus efficax solertia Negotiandi cura jugis omnibus Nolusque cumbis turbidum late fretum Et belluosi gurgitem Oceani secant Non hi carinas quippe pinu texere Facere morem non abiete ut usus est Curvant phasello sed rei ad miraculum Navigia junctis semper aptant pellibus Corioque vastum saepe per currunt salum Wherein the Isles Oestrymnides doe spread And shew themselves broad lying all about In metals rich as well of tin as lead The people strong their stomacks high and stout Active and quicke fresh merchants all throughout No troublous waves in Frith or Ocean maine Of monsters full with ships cut they in twaine For why no skill at all have they to frame Of Pine tree keels for barke or gallion Nor know they how to make oares to the same Of fyrre or maple wood where sailes are none As others use But which is wonder one Of stitched hides they all their vessels make And oft through sea in leather voiage take Like vessels unto which were used in this our sea in the yeere of salvation 914. For we read of certaine devout men that in a Carab or carogh made of two tanned hides onely and an halfe sailed out of Ireland into Cornwall Afterwards also of the said Ilands the
same Avienus wrote thus Tartesiisque in terminos Oestrymnidum Negotiandi mos erat Carthaginiâ Etiam colonis Those of Tartessus eke as well As they in Carthage towne that dwell Were wont to trade for merchandise To skirts of Isles Oestrymnides Other Greeke writers tearmed these Cassiterides of Tinne like as Strabo nameth a certaine place among the Drangi in Asia CASSITERON of Tinn and Stephanus in his booke of Cities reporteth out of Dionysius that a certaine Iland in the Indian sea was called CASSITERIA of Tinne As for that MICTIS which Pliny citeth out of Timaeus to bee sixe dayes sailing inward from Britaine and to yeeld Mines of white lead that it should be one of these I dare scarcely affirme Yet am I not igrant that the most learned Hermolaus Barbarus read it in manuscript books Mitteris for Mictis and doth read for Mitteris Cartiteris But that I should avouch these to be those CASSITERIDES so often sought for the authority of the ancient writers their site and the mines of Tinne are motives to perswade me Full opposite unto the Artabri saith Strabo over against which the West parts of Britain doe lye appeare those Ilands Northward which they call Cassiterides placed after a sort in the same clime with Britaine And in another place The sea between Spaine and the Cassiterides is broader than that which lieth between the Cassiterides and Britain The Cassiterides look toward the coast of Celtiberia saith Solinus And Diodorus Siculus in the Ilands next unto the Spanish sea which of Tinne are called Cassiterides Also Eustathius There be ten Islands called Cassiterides lying close together Northward Now seeing these Isles of Silly are opposite unto the Artabri that is Gallitia in Spaine seeing they bend directly North from them seeing they are placed in the same clime with Britaine seeing they looke toward the coast of Celtiberia seeing they are dis-joined by a farre broader sea from Spaine than from Britaine seeing they are next unto the Spanish sea seeing they lye hard one by another toward the North and ten onely of them bee of any good account namely Saint Maries Annoth Agnes Sampson Silly Brefer Rusco or Trescaw Saint Helens Saint Martins and Arthur and that which is most materiall seeing they have veines of Tinne as no other Iland hath beside them in this tract and considering that two of the lesse sort to wit Minan Witham and Minuisisand may seeme to have taken their names of Mines I would rather think these to be CASSITERIDES than either the Azores which beare too far West or Cisarga with Olivarius that lieth in maner close unto Spaine or even Britain it selfe with Ortelius considering there were many Cassiterides and Dionysius Alexandrinus after he had treated of the Cassiterides writeth of Britaine apart by it selfe If any man by reason of the number deny these to be CASSITERIDES for that they be more than ten let him also number the Haebudes and the Orcades and if after the account taken he finde neither more nor fewer with Ptolomee than five Haebudes and 30. Orcades let him search in any other place but where they are now extant and with all his searching by reckoning of the numbers I know for certaine he shall not easily finde them But the ancient writers had no certaine knowledge of these most remote parts and Ilands of the earth in that age no more than wee in these daies of the Isles in the Streights of Magellane and the whole tract of New Guiney And that Herodotus had no knowledge of these it is no marvell for himselfe confesseth that hee knew nothing for certaine to make report of the farthest parts of Europe But lead was brought first from hence into Greece Lead saith Plinie in his eight Booke and in the Chapter of the first Inventours of things Midacritus first brought out of the Island Cassitiris But as touching these Islands listen what Strabo saith in his third Booke of Geography toward the end The Ilands Cassiterides be in number ten neere one unto another situate in the deepe sea Northward from the haven of the Artabri One of them is desert the rest are inhabited by men wearing blacke garments clad in side-coats reaching downe to their ankles girt about the breast and going with staves like unto the Furies in Tragedies They live of their cattell straggling and wandring after a sort as having no certaine abiding place Metall mines they have of tinne and of lead in lieu whereof and of skins and furres they receive by exchange from the Merchants earthen vessels salt and brasen workes At the beginning the Phoenicians only traded thither from Gades and concealed from others this their navigation But when the Romanes followed a certaine Master of a shippe that they themselves might learne this trafficke of merchandise he upon a spitefull envie ran his ship for the nonce upon the sands and after hee had brought them that followed after into the same danger of destruction himselfe escaped the shipwracke and out of the common Treasury received the worth of the commodities and wares that he lost Howbeit the Romans after they had tryed many times learned at length the voiage hither Afterwards Publius Crassus when hee had sailed thither and seene how they digged not very deepe in these Mines and that the people were lovers of peace and lived quietly desirous also to saile upon the sea he shewed the feat thereof to as many as were willing to learne although they were to saile a greater sea than that which reacheth from thence to Britain But to discourse no farther whether these were the ancient Cassiterides or no and to returne to Silly There bee about an hundred forty and five Ilands carrying this name all clad with grasse or covered with a greenish mosse besides many hideous rockes and great craggy stones raising head above water situate as it were in a circle round eight leagues from the lands end or utmost point of Cornewall West-South-West Some of them yeeld sufficient store of corne but all of them have abundance of conies cranes swannes herons and other sea-foule The greatest of them all is that which tooke the name of Saint Marie having a towne so named and is about eight miles in compasse offereth a good harbour to Saylers in a sandie Bay wherein they may anchor at sixe seven and eight fathom but in the entry lye some rockes on either side It hath had anciently a castle which hath yeelded to the force of time But for the same Queene Elizabeth in the yeere 1593. when the Spaniards called in by the Leaguers of France began to nestle in little Britain built a new castle with faire and strong ravelines and named the same Stella Maria in respect both of the ravelines which resemble the raies of a starre and the name of the Isle for defence whereof shee there placed a garrison under the command of Sir Francis Godolphin Doubtlesse these are those Ilands which as Solinus writeth a
therupon de Alfreton of whom the second named Robert the sonne of Ranulph built in the most remote angle and nouke of this shire the little Abbay De Bello capite commonly called Beau-chiefe but a few yeeres after for default of heires males the Family of Chaworth and the Lathams in Lancashire possessed their inheritance by two daughters These bare for their Armes Two Cheveroâs as they tearme them Or in a Shield Azur which very same Coat the Musards that is The doubters and delaiers who were called Barons of Staveley in this County changing the colours onely gave who during the Raigne of King Edward the First had an end in Sir Nicholas Musard and his eldest sister was married to Ancher Freschevill whose posterity flourisheth heere still at this day Higher yet in the very East frontier of this County upon a rough and a craggy Soile standeth Hardwic which gave name to a Family in which possessed the same out of which descended Lady Elizabeth Countesse of Shrewesbury who beganne to build there two goodly houses joyning in manner one to the other which by reason of their lofty situation shew themselves a farre off to be seene and yeeld a very goodly prospect This now giveth the Title of Baron to Sir William Cavendish her second sonne whom King James of late hath honoured with the honour of Baron Cavendish of Hardwic More inward in the Country is seated Chester-field in Scardale that is in a Dale compassed in with cragges and rockes For such rockes the Englishmen were wont to tearme Scarres Both the new name it selfe and the ruines of the old Walles doe proove that this Chester-field was of good antiquity but the ancient name thereof is by continuance of time worne out and quite lost King John made it a free Burrough when he gave it to William Briewer his especiall favourite In Writers it is famous only by occasion of the warre betwixt King Henry the Third and his Barons wherein Robert Ferrars the last Earle of Darby of that name being taken prisoner and deprived of his honour by authority of the Parliament lived afterwards as a private man and his posterity flourished with the Title onely of Barons Hard to this Chesterfield Westward lyeth Walton which from the Bretons came hereditarily by Loudham to the Foliambs men of great name in this Tract and Eastward Sutton where the Leaks held a long time a worshipfull port in Knights degree A little from hence is Bolsover an ancient Castle situate somewhat with the highest which belonged to the Hastings Lords of Abergavenney in right of exchange with King Henry the Third who being altogether unwilling that the Earledome of Chester unto whom this Castle had appertained should bee divided and bestowed among distaves assigned here and there other possessions unto the sisters of Iohn Scot the last Earle The West part beyond Derwent which throughout riseth high and peaketh up with hils and mountaines whence in old time it was called in the old English tongue Peac-lond and is at this day haply for that cause named the Peake for that word among us signifieth to appeare aloft is severed from Stafford-shire by the Dove a most swift and cleere River of which I shall speake hereafter This part although in some place it hath craggy rough and bare scarres and cragges yet by reason that under the upper crust of the earth there is limestone which supplyeth a batling fruitfull slugh or humour there be in it greene grassie hils and vales which bring forth full oates and feed safely both droves of greater beasts and also many flockes of sheepe For there is no more danger now from Wolves which in times past were hurtfull and noisome to this Country and for the chasing away and taking of which some there were that held lands heere at Wormehill who thereupon were sirnamed Wolve-hunt as appeareth plainely in the Records of the Kingdome But so plentifull it is of lead that the Alchymists who condemne the Planets as convict of some crime unto the metall mines have upon a ridiculous errour written that Saturne whom they make the Lord and Dominatour of lead is liberally affected to England in granting lead but displeased with France to which he hath denied the same And verily I thinke that Pliny spake of this Country when hee said this In Britaine in the very crust of the ground without any deepe mining is gotten so great store of lead that there is a law expressely made of purpose forbidding men to make more than to a certaine stint For in these mountaines fertile lead stones are daily digged up in great aboundance which upon the hill tops lying open to the West winde neere unto Creach and Workes-Worth which heereupon tooke name of the lead-workes when the Westerne winde beginnes to blow which winde of all others they have by experience found to hold longest they melt with mighty great fires of wood into lead in troughes or trenches wich they digge of purpose for it to runne into and so make it up into Sowes Neither onely lead but Stibium also called in the Apothecaries shops Antimonium is heere found by it selfe in veines which minerall the women of Greece used in old time to colour their eye-browes with whereupon the Poet Ion in Greeke tearmeth it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Milstones likewise are heere hewed out as also grinde-stones and whetstones to give an edge unto iron tooles and sometimes in these mines or quarries is found a certaine white Fluor for such stones comming out of Mines that be like unto precious stones learned minerall men call Fluores which for all the world resembleth Christall Besides Workes-worth lately mentioned we meet with never another place worth the remembrance unlesse it be Haddon by the River Wie the seat for many yeeres together of the Vernons who as they were very ancient so they became no lesse renowned in these parts in so much as Sir George Vernon knight who lived in our time for his magnificent port that hee carried the open house that hee kept and his commendable hospitality gat the name among the multitude of a Pety King in the Peake By his Daughters and heires a goodly and great Inheritance was transferred unto Sir John Mannours sonne of Thomas Earle of Rutland and to Sir Thomas Stanley sonne of Edward Earle of Darby There adjoyneth unto this Bakewell upon the same Riveret which among these hils maketh it selfe way into Derwent This was by the Saxons called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And Marianus writeth that King Edward the Elder erected there a Burrough Now whether it borrowed this name or no of the hote waters which the ancient Englishmen as also the Germans in their language tearmed Bade and Baden whence came Baden in Germany and Buda in Hungary I know not Certes at the spring-head of Wie not farre from hence there rise and walme up nine fountaines of hote waters the
place at this day is called Buxton well which being found by experience holsome for the stomach sinewes and the whole body George Earle of Shrewesbury lately beautified with buildings and so they are begunne againe to bee resorted unto by concourse of the greatest Gentlemen and of the Nobility At which time that most unfortunate Lady Mary Queene of Scots bad farewell unto Buxton with this Distichon by a little change of Caesars Verses concerning Feltria in this wise Buxtona a quae calidae celebrabere nomine lymphae Fortè mihi posthac non adeunda vale Buxton that of great name shalt be for hote and holsome baine Farewell for I perhaps shall not thee ever see againe But that these hote waters were knowne in old time The Port-way or High paved Street named Bath-gate reaching for seven miles together from hence unto Burgh a little Village doth manifestly shew Neere unto this Burgh there standeth upon the top of an hill an old Castle sometimes belonging to the Peverels called The Castle in the Peake and in Latin De Alto Pecco which King Edward the Third together with a Manour and an Honour gave unto his sonne John Duke of Lancaster what time as hee surrendered the Earledome of Richmond into the Kings hands Under which there is a Cave or hole within the ground called saving your reverence The Devils Arse that gapeth with a wide mouth and hath in it many turnings and retyring roomes wherein forsooth Gervase of Tilbury whether for wane of knowing trueth or upon a delight hee had in fabling hath written that a Shepheard saw a very wide and large Country with Riverets and Brookes running heere and there through it and huge Pooles of dead and standing waters Notwithstanding by reason of these and such like fables this Hole is reckoned for one of the wonders of England neither are there wanting the like tales of another Cave but especially of that which is called Elden Hole wherein there is nothing to bee wondred at but that it is of an huge widnesse exceeding steepe and of a mervailous depth But whosoever have written that there should bee certaine tunnels and breathing holes out of which windes doe issue they are much deceived Neither doe these Verses of Alexander Necham which hee wrote as touching the Mervailes of England agree to any of these two holes Est specus Aeolijs ventis obnoxia semper Impetus è gemino maximus ore venit Cogitur injectum velamen adire supernas Partes descensum impedit aura potens A Cave to strong Aeolian windes alwaies enthral'd there is From two-fold tunnell maine great blasts arise and never misse A cloth or garment cast therein by force aloft is sent A mighty breath or powrfull puffe doth hinder all descent But all the memorable matters in this high and rough stony little Country one hath comprised in these foure Verses Mira alto Pecco tria sunt barathrum specus antrum Commoda tot plumbum gramen ovile pecus Tot speciosa simul sunt Castrum Balnea Chatsworth Plura sed occurrunt quae speciosa minùs There are in High Peake Wonders three A deepe Hole Cave and Den Commodities as many bee Lead Grasse and Sheepe in pen. And Beauties three there are withall A Castle Bath Chatsworth With places more yet meet you shall That are of meaner worth To these Wonders may be added a wonderfull Well in the Peake Forest not farre from Buxtons which ordinarily ebbeth and floweth foure times in the space of one houre or thereabout keeping his just Tides and I know not whether Tideswell a Mercate Towne heereby hath his name thereof The Peverels who I have said before were Lords of Nottingham are also reported to have beene Lords of Darby Afterward King Richard the First gave and confirmed unto his brother John the Counties and Castles of Nottingham Lancaster Darby c. with the honours thereto belonging with the honour also of Peverell After him these were Earles of Derby out of the family of Ferrars so far as I am able to gather out of the Registers of Tutbury Merivall and Burton Monasteries William Ferrars sonne to the Daughter and heire of Peverell whom King John with his owne hand as we finde in an ancient Charter invested Earle of Darby William his sonne who bruised with a fall out of his Coach died in the yeere 1254. And this Williams sonne Robert who in the Civill Warre lost this Title and a great estate by forfeiture in such sort as that none of his posterity although they lived in great port and reputation were ever restored to that honor againe But most of this Roberts possessions K. Henry the Third passed over unto Edmund his owne younger son and King Edward the Third I write out of the very originall Record by authority and advise of the Parliament ordained Henry of Lancaster the sonne of Henry Earle of Lancaster Earle of Darby to him and his heires and withall assigned unto him a thousand markes yeerely during the life of his father Henry Earle of Lancaster From that time this Title was united to the line of Lancaster untill King Henry the Seventh bestowed the same upon Thomas Lord Stanley who before had wedded Margaret the Kings mother to him and the heires males of his body He had for his successour his Grandsonne Thomas begotten by George his sonne of Ioan the heire of the Lord Strange of Knocking this Thomas had by the sister of George Earle of Huntingdon Edward the third Earle of this Family highly commended for hospitality and affability who by the Lady Dorothy Daughter to the first Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolke begat Henry the fourth Earle efts-once honourably employed who left by Lady Margaret Daughter of Henry Earle of Cumberland Ferdinand and William successively Earles of Darby Ferdinand dyed in strange manner in the flower of his youth leaving by Margaret his Wife Daughter of Sir John Spenser of Althorp three Daughters Anne marryed to Grey Bruges Lord Chandos Francis Wife to Sir Iohn Egerton and Elizabeth Wife to Henry Earle of Huntingdon William the sixth Earle now enjoyeth that Honour having issue by Elizabeth Daughter to Edward late Earle of Oxford ANd thus much of the Counties of Nottingham and Darby of which they inhabited a part who in Bedes time were called Mercij Aquilonares that is The Northern Mercians for that they dwelt beyond the Trent Northward and they held as hee saith The land of seven thousand Families This County holdeth in it Parishes 106. CORNAVII HAving now travailed in order through the Countries of the ancient CORITANI I am to survey the Regions confining which in ancient time the people called CORNABII or CORNAVII inhabited The derivation or Etymologie of whose name let others sift out As for my selfe I could draw the force and signification of that word to this and that diversly but seeing none of them doth aptly answere to the nature of the place or disposition of the people
it became wholly under the Scots dominion about the yeere of our salvation 960. what time the English Empire sore shaken with the Danish wars lay as it were gasping and dying How also as an old booke Of the division of Scotland in the Library of the right honourable Lord Burghley late high Treasurer of England sheweth Whiles Indulph reigned the town of Eden was voided and abandoned to the Scots unto this present day as what variable changes of reciprocall fortune it hath felt from time to time the Historiographers doe relate and out of them ye are to be enformed Meane while read if you please these verses of that most worthy man Master I. Jonston in praise of Edenborrow Monte sub acclivi Zephyri procurrit in auras Hinc arx celsa illinc Regia clara nitet Inter utramque patet sublimibus ardua tectis Urbs armis animis clara frequensque viris Nobile Scotorum caput pars maxima regni Penè etiam gentis integra regna suae Rarae artes opes quod mens optaverit aut hîc Invenias aut non Scotia tota dabit Compositum hîc populum videas sanctum que Senatum Sanctáque cum puro lumine jura Dei An quisquam Arctoi extremo in limite mundi Aut haec aut paria his cernere posse putet Dic hospes postquà m externas lustraveris urbes Haec cernens oculis credis an ipse tuis Under the rising of an hill Westward there shoots one way A castle high on th' other side the Kings house gorgeous gay Betweene them both the citie stands tall buildings shew it well For armes for courage much renown'd much people therein dwell The Scots head citie large and faire the kingdomes greatest part Nay even the nations kingdome whole well neere by just desart Rare arts and riches what ones minde can wish is therein found Or else it will not gotten be throughout all Scottish ground A civill people here a man may see a Senate grave Gods holy lawes with purest light of Preachers here ye have In parts remote of Northren clime would any person weene That ever these or such like things might possibly be seene Say Travailer now after that thou forraine towne hast knowne Beholding this beleevest thou these eyes that are thine owne A mile from hence lyeth Leth a most commodious haven hard upon the river Leth which when Dessey the Frenchman for the securitie of Edenborrow had fortified by reason of manie men repairing thither within a short time from a meane village it grew to be a bigge towne Againe when Francis the second King of France had taken to wife Marie the Queene of Scots the Frenchmen who in hope and conceit had already devoured Scotland and began now to gape for England in the yeere 1560. strengthened it with more fortifications But Elizabeth Queene of England solicited by the Nobles of Scotland that embraced the reformed religion to side with them by her puissance and wisdome effected that both they returned into France and these their fortifications were laied levell with the ground and Scotland ever since hath been freed from the French Where this Forth groweth more and more narrow it had in the middest of it the citie Caer-Guidi as Bede noteth which now may seeme to be the Island named Inch-Keith Whether this were that VICTORIA which Ptolomee mentioneth I will not stand to prove although a man may beleeve that the Romans turned this Guidh into Victoria as well as the Isle Guith or Wight into Victesis or Vecta certes seeing both these Islands bee dissevered from the shore the same reason of the name will hold well in both languages For Ninius hath taught us that Guith in the British tongue betokeneth a separation More within upon the same Forth is situate Abercorn in Bedes time a famous Monasterie which now by the gracious favour of King James the sixth giveth unto James Hamilton the title of the Earle of Abercorn And fast beside it standeth Blacknesse Castle and beneath it Southward the ancient citie LINDUM whereof Ptolomee maketh mention which the better learned as yet call Linlithquo commonly Lithquo beautified and set out with a verie faire house of the Kings a goodly Church and a fishfull lake of which lake it may seeme to have assumed that name for Lin as I have already shewed in the British tongue soundeth as much as a Lake A Sheriffe it had in times past by inheritance out of the family of the Hamiltons of Peyle and now in our dayes it hath for the first Earle Sir Alexander Levingston whom King James the sixth raised from the dignitie of a Baron wherein his Ancestours had flourished a long time to the honour of an Earle like as within a while after he promoted Mark Ker Baron of Newbottle aforesaid to the title of Earle of Lothien SELGOVAE BEneath the GADENI toward the South and West where now are the small territories of Lidesdale Eusdale Eskdale Annandale and Nidesdale so called of little rivers running through them which all lose themselves in Solway Frith dwelt in ancient times the SELGOVAE the reliques of whose name seeme unto mee whether unto others I know not to remaine in that name Solway In Lidesdale there riseth aloft Armitage so called because it was in times past dedicated to a solitarie life now it is a very strong Castle which belonged to the Hepburns who draw their originall from a certaine Englishman a prisoner whom the Earle of March for delivering him out of a danger greatly enriched These were Earles of Bothwell and a long time by the right of inheritance Admirals of Scotland But by a filter of James Earle of Bothwel the last of the Hepburns married unto John Prior of Coldingham base sonne to King James the fifth who begat too too many bastards the title and inheritance both came unto his son Hard by is Brakensey the habitation of the warlike family of Baclugh surnamed Scot beside many little piles or sorts of militarie men everie where In Eusdale I would deeme by the affinite of the name that old UZBLLUM mentioned by Ptolomee stood by the river Euse. In Eskdale some are of opinion that the HORESTI dwelt into whose borders Iulius Agricola when he had subdued the Britans inhabiting this tract brought the Roman armie especially if we read Horesci in stead of Horesti For Ar-Esc in the British tongue betokeneth a place by the river Eske As for Aesica in Eskdale I have spoken of it before in England and there is no cause wherefore I should iterate the same ANNANDALE UNto this on the West side adjoyneth ANNANDALE that is The vale by the river Annan into which the accesse by land is very difficult The places of greater note herein are these a castle by Lough-Mahan three parts whereof are environed with water and strongly walled and the towne Annandale at the very mouth almost