by all But when the Nations from the North like violent tempests overflowed these South parts it became subject to the Scots For under the Emperours Honorius and Arcadius as wee read in Orosius it was inhabited as well as Ireland by the Scottish Nations and Ninnius hath written that one Biule a Scot was Lord of it But as the same writer recordeth the Scots were driven out of all the British countries and Ilands by Cuneda Grandfather of Maglocunus whom Gildas for the foule work that he made in these Ilands tearmed the Dragon of the Iles. After this Edwin King of Northumberland brought this Iland like as the foresaid Anglesey under the subjection of the English if we understand them both by the name of Menaviae as writers perswade us at which time it was reckoned an Iland of the Britans But when the North had sent abroad his brood the second time I meane the Normans Danes and Norwegians these Norwegians who with their manifold robberies and roveries did most hurt from the Northren sea tooke up their haunt into this Iland and the Hebrides and therein erected Lords and Petty Kings whose briefe history I will here put downe word for word out of an old Manuscript lest it should be utterly lost which is intituled The Chronicle of Man seeming to have been written by the Monks of the Abbey of Russin which was the principall place of religion in this Isle A CHRONICLE OF THE KINGS OF MAN ANno Domini MLXV Edward of blessed memory King of England departed this life after whom succeeded in the kingdome Harald the son of Godwin against whom Harald Harfager King of Norway came into the field and fought a battell at Stainford-bridge and the English obtaining the victory put them all to flight out of which chace Godred surnamed Crovan the son of Harald the black of Iseland came unto Godred the sonne of Syrric who then reigned in Man and by him was honourably received The same yeere William the BASTARD conquered England and Godred the sonne of Syrric died after whom succeeded his sonne Fingal MLXVI Godred Crovan assembled a great fleet and came to Man fought with the people of the land but was overcome and put to rout A second time hee rallied his forces and his fleet sailed into Man joined battell with the Manksmen was vanquished and driven out of the field A third time he gathered a great multitude together and by night arrived in the haven called Ramsa and hid three hundred men within a wood which stood upon the hanging hollow brow of an hill called Scacafel Now when the sunne was risen the Manksmen put their people in order of battell and with a violent charge encountred with Godred And when the fight was hot those three hundred men starting out of the ambush behind their backes began to foile the Manksmen and put them to the worst yea and forced them to flye Now when they saw themselves discomfited and no place for them of refuge to escape for the sea water comming in with the tide had filled the channell of Ramsa river and the enemies on the other side followed the chace hard they that then remained alive tooke up a pitifull cry and besought Godred to save their lives And he moved with compassion pittying their wofull calamity as who for a certain time had beene nursed and brought up among them sounded the retrait and forbad his hoast to pursue them any longer Goared the morrow after proposed this choice unto his owne army whether they would rather divide Man among themselves and therein dwell or only take the substance and pillage of the countrey and so returne unto their owne homes But they chose rather to wast and spoile the whole Iland and with the goods thereof to enrich themselves and so returne home But Godred himselfe with those few Ilanders that remained with him inhabited the South part of the Iland and granted to the remaines of the Manksmen the North part with this covenant and condition That none of them should at any time venture and presume to challenge any part of the land by right of inheritance Whereby it came to passe that even unto this day the whole Isle is the Kings domain alone and all the revenues thereof belonging unto the crown Godred then reduced Dublin and a great part of Leymistir under his subjection As for the Western Scottish he so over-awed them as that no man who built ship or cog-boat durst drive into it above three nailes Now he reigned 16. yeeres and died in the Iland that is called Yle He left behind him verily three sons Lagman Harald and Olave Lagman the eldest taking upon him the kingdome reigned seven yeeres And Harald his brother a great while rebelled against him but at length being taken prisoner by Lagman he had his members of generation cut off and his eyes plucked out of his head After this Lagman repenting himselfe that he had pulled out his brothers eyes gave over the kingdome of his owne accord and wearing the badge of the Lords Crosse took a journey to Jerusalem in which he died MLXXV. All the Nobles and Lords of the Islands hearing of the death of Lagman dispatched their Embassadors to Murecard O-Brien King of Ireland requesting that hee would send some industrious and worthy man of the blood royall to be their King untill Olave Godreds sonne came to full age The King very willingly yeelded to their requests and sent unto them one Dopnald the sonne of Tade warning and charging him to govern the kingdome which by right belonged unto another with all gentlenesse and modesty But he after he was come to the Crowne not weighing of the charge that his Lord and M. gave him abused his place and lorded with great tyranny and so committing many outrages and villanies reigned cruelly three yeers Then all the Princes of the Ilands agreed together in one conspiracy rose up against him and expelled him out of their coasts Who fled into Ireland and never looked them in the face after MLXXVII One Ingemund was sent from the King of Norway to take upon him the dominion of the Ilands and when he was come to the Isle Leodus he sent messengers to all the Nobles of the Ilands with a commandement that they should meet together and ordain him their King Mean while himselfe with his companions did nothing else but rob spoile make good cheere and banquet dishonour and abuse married wives defloure young maidens yea and give himselfe over to filthy pleasures and fleshly lusts But when tidings hereof came to the Nobles of the Ilands now assembled to make him King they were set on fire with furious wrath and sped themselves in all hast toward him and surprising him in the night burnt the house wherein hee was and with fire and sword made a quick dispatch of him and his company MXCVIII The Abbey of S. Mary at Cistertium or Cisteaux was founded Antioch was won by the Christians and a
extensum Quò latiùs volat Britanniae nomen CAMDENE augustior tantò tibi sacro Adorea in Memoriae exstabit altari Tam nominis cari est litasse regnorum Famae inclytasque protulisse virtutes Caspar Dornavius D. In Britanniam redivivam Ri. Parker Caio-Gonvil carmen congratulatorium SAlve gratae redis memoranda Britannia terris Quam juvat e tenebris exiliisse tuis Fallor an antiquo mutatus sistor in orbe Aut te dum relego secla priora lego Fallor an Arthuros Egbertos Cassibelinos Cerno redivivos ducere castra sua Fallor an hîc acies saevae certare solebant Hîc Offa hîc rigidus tendere Penda solet Festino nimium Quae qualia quantaque cerno Surgere sacra Deo moenia templa domus Quêis hic Normannis donari praedia legi Vnde sequens soboles nomen omen habet Sed quot cerno domus orbatas stirpe vetusta Heu quas dilapidant alea vina Venus Vt vidi ut dolui novus ut nunc sedibus hospes Diceret haec mea sunt ito coloni vetus Quis Genius talem veneranda Britannia nobis Esse velit reducem quo duce tanta refers Scilicet hoc debes Camdeno agnoscó parentem Et Genium cujus te tibi reddit amor Foelix ipse suo libro foelicior ipsa Praeconem talem laudis habere tuae Plus loquar an sileam video tantum instar in ipso Quas Musas vocitem sed mea musa sile Parcus amor loquitur major stupefactus adegit Mirari hoc tacitè nec scio solus opus In Britanniam à Guil. Camdene illustratam F. Aderb Carmen PIctus atrox Hebridas glacialem Scotus Hibernem Moverat Attacotus Vararim Saxoque Visurgim Conjunctis armis animisque excindere gentes Subruere eximias cumulatis cladibus urbes Atque Britannorum nomen demergere bellis Vt tamen emergant quae sunt immersa ruinis Et decus antiquum rediviva Britannia cernat Ecce vetustatem Camdenius eruit omnem Magnarum rerum scrutatus magna sepulchra Submovit cineres nigrantes dispulit umbras Inque prius retrò studiis se contulit aevum Contulit atque decus patriaeque sibique labore In antiquam Camdeni Britanniam H. N. L. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 PRisca Britannorum delevit nomina Tempus Antiquas urbes exitioque dedit Cuncta triumphato Camdenus tempore reddit Ingenio priscum restituitque decus Ingenio cedat Tempus cedatque vetustas Ingenium majus Tempore robur habet Ad eundem ERrabat quaerens Antiqua Britannia lumen At Camdene tuam vivit ut illa domum Invenit lumen mansit cupiensque poliri Hospes ait mihi sis qui mihi lumen eris I. W In praise of the Translator CAmden unto the learned did discover What Holland to the Whol-land doth recite Who can but read an English Author over May thereby reape much profit with delight Viewing the manners lawes rites situation Of his owne native soile explain'd so well With all can be desir'd of British Nation That now Great Britaine hath no Parralell So richly deck't that her faire beautious blaze By matchlesse Art of thine industrious spirit Adornes the World like Phoebus golden raies Thou and thy workes eternall fame doe merit Anagr. Thou Onli-homland-help in admiration Like that rare Phoenix cause of this translation THOMAS MERIELL Master of Arts. Sonne of the Translator WHat Camden wrote for profit and delight Of Brittish Isles of blessings which have store In Latian language for each learned sprite To reape such fruits as passe Peruvian ore This Holland hath at suit of learned Dame With paines transfus'd into our vulgar speach His care of common good deserves that fame Which unto late posteritie shall reach Wherefore all worthy wights which doe take pleasure To know the stories of their Country sweet Ought kindly to accept this so great treasure And yield those thankes to th' Author which are meet I like his Pen and judgement eke no lesse For making choice of such a Patronesse HENRY STANFORD Master of Arts. In honour of the Translator THe PEN unspoild though worne beyond a Pen The HAND unwearied though with toile opprest The HEAD diseas'd for ease of Englishmen Yet still hold out in motion heere doe rest They rest in motion restlesse nest is that Yet that 's the rest thy Pen thy Hand thy Head Deere HOLLAND hath which all untir'd translate The greatest Volumes greatest Braines have bred Life being so short as from the Birth to Beere Is but a span all times may well admire How so much may be onely written here Where toile makes that short life more soone expire Had I an Angels tongue or else a Pen Made of his Pinion might I judge of thee I should so speake and write that Gods and Men Should see a Miracle of thee through me For NATVRE workes but still to hold her state And for that worke alone neglecteth all But thy workes doe her power in thee abate For others good that 's supernaturall So th' art a Miracle of Men for Men Yet if this Miracle be thought untrue To thy good HEART from thy Head Hand and Pen Give what is right and then all is but due To count the Volumes most voluminous Which thou translated hast with care past care And Art past Art were but superfluous For all doe know them sith they famous are NATVRES great Secretarie thou didst teach To speake such English as though he be high In cloudy-matter English eies may reach His highest Pitch that tries the Eagles eie The Roman most renown'd Historian Trajans great MASTER◠Moralls boundlesse bookes Smooth Tranquill and the rugged Ammian Thou mad'st as smooth to speake as Venus lookes And for thy last but so it cannot be If life doe last for still thou wilt be doing Here is a WORKE translated now by thee For which we long the Learned have beene wooing In this through thee wee see as in a Glasse The wrinckled Face of grave ANTIQVITIE Thy passing Autor here himselfe doth passe Or'e whom thou raign'st while he doth subject lie Camden whose Fame nor Seas nor Lands can bound Yet they best know him farthest from our ken For English least doe know his voices sound Is made more famous by thy famous Pen For now the English knowes his worthinesse His Countrimen now see him as he is Before they at his vertue could but guesse And guesse by Artlesse Aimes that often misse Yet Man of Art behold for all this All How thou art subject that deseru'st to raigne In all mens loves to hate of great and small That to be learn'd alone take envious paine Who seeke for Knowledge onely to be knowne For who know most are knowne still most of all They deeme Wit Folly that to all is showne And Goodnesse Badnesse hold if generall Who knows the voice of Envy theirs doe know For Envy speakes but onely by their tongues Who being a devill speakes she cares not
Consular or Proconsular deputy but was counted Praesidialis and appropriate to the Caesars as being a prouince annexed unto the Roman Empire after the division of Provinces ordained by Augustus and had Propretors of their owne Afterwards when as Constantinus Maximus had set downe a new forme of Common-weale under a Prefect or Provost of Pretors degree of Gaule there was set over it a vicegerent and together with him in matters of war the Count or Earle of Britan an Earle or Count of the Saxony coast by Britan and a Duke or Generall of Britan besides Presidents Auditors or Receivers such others Moreover out of those 29. Legions which the Romans had appointed through their Imperial government three of them lay in garrison to restraine that Province to wit the second Legion Augusta the sixt Legion victrix the twentith victrix But this is meant of the time of Severus For before we learn out of Authors that other Legions there were and more in number And although Strabo writeth that there was neede of no more than one band of souldiers to the keeping of Britaine in subjection yet in the raigne of Claudius there were placed here the second Legion Augusta the ninth Legion Hispaniensis the fourteenth named Gemina Martia victrix Yea and about the time of Vespasian Josephus sheweth that foure Legions served in this Island Britaine saith hee is compassed about with the Ocean and almost as big as our world The Romans there inhabiting have brought it under their dominion and foure Legions doe keepe in subjection an Island peopled with so great a multitude And doubtlesse the standing guards and Camps of Legions and Roman souldiers were many times the Seminaries as it were and Seed-plots of Cities and townes as in other provinces so also in this our Britan. Thus was the yoke of subjection laid upon the Britans first by a garrison of souldiers which alwaies with terror were ready to command the Inhabitants afterwards by tribute and imposts and in that respect forced they were to have Publicans that is to say greedy cormorants and horsleeches who sucked their bloud confiscated their goods and exacted tributes in the name of the dead Neither were they permitted to use the ancient lawes of their country but magistrates were sent from the people of Rome with absolute power and commission to minister justice even in capital matters For Provinces had Propretors Lieutenants Presidents Pretors and Proconsuls Every citie also and State had their municipall magistrates The Pretor proclaimed yearely solemne sessions and Assizes at which he determined the waightier causes sitting aloft upon a high Tribunall seat and guarded with his Lictors about him proudly executed he his jurisdiction rods and whipping cheere were presented to the backs the axe and heading to the necks of the common people and every yeare they were forced to receive one new ruler or other allotted unto them Neither was this sufficient they maintained discord and disscention among them some also they favoured among the rest that they might have them to be the instruments of this their servitude This yoak of the Romans although it were grievous yet comfortable it proved and a saving health unto them for that healthsome light of Iesus Christ shone withall upon the Britans whereof more hereafter and the brightnesse of that most glorious Empire chased away all savage barbarisme from the Britans minds like as from other nations whom it had subdued For Rome as saith Rutilius Legiferis mundum complexa triumphis Foedere communi vivere cuncta facit Compassed the world with triumphs bringing lawes And all to live in common league doth cause And in another place speaking unto the same Rome most truly and in right elegant verses Fecisti patriam diversis gentibus unam Profuit injustis te dominante capi Dumque offers victis proprii consortia juris Vrbem fecisti quod prius orbis erat Thou hast of divers nations one entire country framed Happy it was for lawlesse folke that they by thee were tamed For offering use to them subdu'd of thine owne proper lore One civill state rhou mad'st of that which was wild world before For to say nothing of the rest of the Provinces the Romans having brought over Colonies hither and reduced the naturall inhabitants of the Island unto the societie of civill life by training them up in the liberall Arts and by sending them into Gaule for to learne perfectly the lawes of the Romans whereupon Juvenal Gallia causidicos docui facunda Britannos Gaule eloquent of Britans hath good pleading lawyers made governed them with their lawes and framed them to good manners and behaviour so as in their diet and apparell they were not inferior to any other Provinces they furnished them also with goodly houses and stately buildings in such sort that the reliques and rubbish of their ruines doe cause the beholders now exceedingly to admire the same and the common sort of people doe plainely say these Roman workes were made by Giants whom in the North parts they use to call in their vulgar tongue Eatons for Heathens if I be not deceived or Ethnicks Certes they are works of exceeding great admiration and sumptuous magnificence but especially the Picts wall whereof I will write more in due place and those Causeies throughout the whole land a wonderfull piece of worke what with dreining and drying up the meres in some places and what with casting up banks where low vallies were in others so â—ensed and paved with stone and withall of that breadth that they can well receive and with roome enough waines meeting one the other Now what manner of Causeies these were let Gallene tel you The waies quoth he Trajanus repaired by paving with stone or raising with bankes cast up such pieces of them as were moist and myrie by stocking up and ridding such as were rough and overgrowne with bushes and briers by making bridges over rivers that could not bee waded through where the way seemed longer then needed by cutting out another shorter if any where by reason of some steepe hill the passage were hard and uneasie by turning it aside through easier places now in case it were haunted with wild beasts or lay wast and deâ—ert by drawing it from thence thoough places inhabited and withall by laying levell all uneven and rugged grounds But now adaies these of ours being dismembred as it were and cut one piece from another in some places by reason that the country people digge out gravell from thence and scarcely to bee seene yet elsewhere leading through pastures and by-grounds out of the rode way the bankes are so high that evidently they shew themselves These causeies or Street-waies the Romans called Vias Consulares Regias Praetorias Militares Publicas cursus publicos and Actus as it is to be seene in Ulpian and Julius Frontinus Ammianus Marcellinus termeth them Aggeres itinerarios publicos Sidonius Apollinaris Aggeres and Tellures
artificially arched over head For they were the lurking holes of whores and theeves He levelled with the ground the ditches of the Citie and certaine dens into which malefactours fled as unto places of refuge But the whole tiles and stones which he found fit for building he layed aside Neere unto the banke they did light upon plankes of oke with nailes driven into them cemented with stone-pitch also the tackling and furniture of Ships as anchors halfe eaten with rust and ores of firre A little after he writeth Eadmer his successor went forward with the worke that Ealfred began and his pioners overthrew the foundations of a Pallace in the mids of the old Citie and in the hollow place of a wall as it were in a little closet they hapned upon bookes covered with oken boords and silken strings at them whereof one contained the life of Saint Albane written in the British tongue the rest the ceremonies of the Heathen When they opened the ground deeper they met with old tables of stone with tiles also and pillars likewise with pitchers and pots of earth made by Potters and Turners worke vessels moreover of glasse containing the ashes of the dead c. To conclude out of these remaines of Verulam Eadmer built a new Monasterie to Saint Albane Thus much for the antiquity and dignity of Verulam now haue also with you for an over-deale in the commendation of Verulam an Hexastich of Alexander Necham who 400. yeeres since was there borne Urbs infignis erat Verolamia plus operosae Arti naturae debuit illa minus Pendragon Arthuri patris haec obsessa laborem Septennem sprevit cive superba suo Hic est martyrii roseo decoratus honore Albanus civis inclyta Roma tuus The famous towne whilom cal'd Verolame To Nature ought lesse than to painfull art When Arthurs Syre Pendragon gainst it came With force of Armes to worke her peoples smart His seven yeeres siege did never daunt their heart Heere Alban gain'd the Crowne of Martyrdome Thy Citizen sometime ô noble Rome And in another passage Hic locus aetatis nostrae primordia novit Annos foelices latitiaeque dies Hic locus ingenuus pueriles imbuit annos Artibus nostrae laudis origo fuit Hic locus insignis magnósque creavit alumnos Foelix eximio Martyre gente situ Militat hîc Christo noctéque dieque labori Invigilans sancto religiosa cohors This is the place that knowledge tooke of my Nativity My happy yeeres my daies also of mirth and Jollity This place my childhood trained up in all Arts liberall And laid the ground-worke of my name and skill Poeticall This place great and renowned Clerkes into the world hath sent For Martyr blest for nation for site all excellent A troupe heere of Religious men serve Christ both night and day In holy warfare taking paines duly to watch and pray Verolamium at this day being turned into fields The towne of Saint Albans raised out of the ruins thereof flourisheth a faire towne and a large and the Church of that Monastery remaineth yet for bignesse beauty and antiquity to be had in admiration which when the Monkes were thrust out of it was by the Townes-men redeemed with the sum of 400. pounds of our money that it might not be laid even with the ground and so it became converted into a parish Church and hath in it a very goodly Font of solid brasse wherein the Kings children of Scotland were wont to be Baptized which Font Sir Richard Lea Knight Master of the Pioners brought as a spoile out of the Scottish warres and gave vnto the said Church with this lofty and arrogant inscription CUM LAETHIA OPPIDUM APUD SCOTOS NON IN CELEBRE ET EDINBURGUS PRIMARIA APUD EOS CIVITAS INCENDIO CONFLAGRARENT RICHARDUS LEUS EQUES AURATUS ME FLAMMIS EREPTUM AD ANGLOS PERDUXIT HUJUS EGO TANTI BENEFICII MEMOR NON NISI REGUM LIBEROS LAVARE SOLITUS NUNC MEAM OPERAM ETIAM INFIMIS ANGLORUM LIBENTER CONDIXI LEUS VICTOR SIC VOLUIT VALE ANNO DOMINI M.D.XLIII ET ANNO REGNI HENRICI OCTAVI XXXVI When Leeth a Towne of good account among the Scots and Edinbrough their chiefe Cittie were on fire Sir Richard Lea Knight saved me from burning and brought me into England And I being mindefull of this so great a benefit whereas before I was wont to serve for Baptising of none but Kings Children have now willingly offered my service even to the meanest of the English Nation Lea the victor would have it so Farewell In the yeere of our Lord M. D. XLIII and of the Reigne of King Henrie the Eighth XXXVI But to the matter As antiquitie consecrated this place to be an Altar of Religion so Mars also may seeme to have destined it for the very plot of bloudie battaile For to let other particulars goe by when England under the two houses of Lancaster and Yorke bereft as it were of vitall breath was ready through Ciuill Warre to sinke downe and fall in a sound the chiefe Captaines of both sides joyned battaile twise with reciprocall variety of fortune in the very Towne First Richard Duke of Yorke gave the Lancastrians heere a sore overthrow tooke King Henry the Sixth captive and slew many Honourable personages Foure yeeres after the Lancastrians under the conduct of Queene Margaret wonne heere the field put the house of Yorke to flight and restored the King to his former liberty About this towne that I may let passe the mount or fortification which the common sort useth to call Oister-hils and I take to have been the Campe of Ostorius the famous Lieutenant of Britaine the Abbats in a pious and devout intent erected a little Nunnery at Sopwell and Saint Julians Spittle for Lepres and another named Saint Mary de pree for diseased women neere unto which they had a great Mannour named Gorumbery where Sir Nicholas Bacon Lord Keeper of the Great Seale of England built an house beseeming his place and calling To this adjoyneth Redborn which is by interpretation Red-water and yet the water running thereby from Mergrate sometime a religious house now a seat of the Ferrers out of the house of Groby is no more red than is the Red-sea This Redborne in times past was a place renowned and resorted unto in regard of Amphibalus the Martyrs reliques heere found who instructed Saint Alban in the Christian faith and for Christs sake suffered death under Dioclesian At this day well knowne for that it is seated upon that common and Military high-way which we call Watlingstreet and hath hard by Wenmer called also Womer a brooke that never breaketh out and riseth but it foretelleth dearth and scarcity of corne or else some extremity of dangerous times as the vulgar people doe verily beleeve Nere unto this Redborn I have some reason to thinke that the Station Duro-Co-Brive stood whereof Antonine the Emperor maketh mention although the distance of
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 Scordiū which also is called Water Germāder 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
Castle named Humel before time into a Monastery called Finisheved Their issue male failed about two hundred yeares since but of their heires the eldest was wedded unto Sir Iohn Goldington the second to Sir Laurence Pabenham and the third to Sir William Bernak all right worthy Knights Heere also is to bee seene Apthorp the seat of a most worthy knight Sir Anthony Mildmay whose father Sir Walter Mildmay late one of Queene Elizabeths Privie Counsell for his vertue wisdome piety and bounty to learning and learned men by founding Emanuel College in Cambridge hath worthily deserved to bee registred among the best men in this our age Hard by standeth Thornhaugh sometimes belonging to the Family De Sancto Medardo contracted into Semarâ— and now to the right honorable Sir William Russell sonne to Francis Earle of Bedford descended from Semare whom King James for his vertues and faithfull service in Ireland whiles hee was Lord Deputy there advanced to the Dignity of Baron Russell of Thornhaugh Neither is the Towne Welledon to bee passed over in silence considering that it went in old time for a Barony which by Mawde the Daughter and heire of Geffrey de Ridell who together with King Henry the First his sonne was drowned did descend to Richard Basset sonne of Ralph Basset Lord Justice of England in whose race it continued unto King Henry the Fourth his dayes For then by the females it accrued to the Kneveis and Alesburies Welland being past Haringworth goeth to visit Colliweston where Lady Margaret Countesse of Richmond King Henry the Seaventh his mother built a goodly faire and stately house Under which the neighbour inhabitants use to digge great plenty of sclate stones for their buildings From whence Wittering Heath a plaine runneth out farre into the East wherein the people there dwelling report that the Danes long since were discomfited in a memorable battaile and put to flight Now by this time is Welland come to Burghley whereof the most prudent and right honorable Councellour Sir William Cecil Lord high Treasurer of England yea a singular treasure and supporter of the same received the Title of Baron Burghley for his great good deserts at the hands of Queene Elizabeth Which Title hee adorned with the lustre of his vertues and beautified this place with magnificent sumptuous buildings adjoyning thereto a large Parke encompassed about with a stone wall of a great circuite Beneath it there are ancient Quarries of stone at Bernack out of which the Abbayes of Peterburgh and of Ramsey were built For heere to write the very words out of the History of Ramsey The toyling strength of the Quarriers is often tried and held to worke yet ever still there remaineth worke for them behinde wherein they being refreshed betweene whiles with rest may bee exercised and kept in ure And thus wee reade in the Charter of king Edward the Confessour In consideration of foure thousand Eeles in Lent the Monkes of Ramsey shall have out of the Territory of Saint Peter so much square astiler stone as they need at Berneck and of rough building stone for wals at Burch Under Berneck that high-way made by the Romanes which the neighbour Inhabitants of the breadth that it carrieth call The forty foot-way from Caster to Stanford cutteth and divideth this Shire and is to bee seene with an high Causey especially by the little Wood of Bernack where it hath a Beacon set upon the very ridge and so runneth forth along by Burghley Park wall toward Stanford Some five miles hence Welland running downe by Maxey Castle belonging sometime to the noble house of Wake and by Peag-Kirk where in the Primitive Church of the English Nation Pega an holy woman who gave name to that place and sister of Saint Guthlak with other Nuns and devout virgins by their life and example gave good documents of piety and chastity commeth to the Fennes so often mentioned And for as much as the banke on the South side thereof is in many places neglected the River lieth sore upon the lands thereabout with great detriment and thus being put out of his owne Chanell that before time went by Spalding he entreth closely into Nen or Aufon and over-chargeth it exceedingly Now the lesse Avon which is the other of the limits as I said of this shire Northward but serveth for a limit onely about five or six miles in length breaking out of the ground at Avon-well by Naseby neere by the Spring-head of Welland runneth Westward by Suleby sometimes an Abbay of Black-Monkes and by Stanford upon Avon the habitation of the Caves Family out of which there is spread a notable off-spring with many branches in all that Tract adjoyning also by Lilborne the seate in times past of the Canvilles Which that it hath beene in old time a Mansion place or Station of the Romans I am induced to thinke by the site thereof hard by one of their Port-waies by the ancient Trenches there and a little piked hill cast up into which when of late dayes some digged in hope of old hid treasure in stead of gold they found coles And when this river being as yet but small is once gone under Dowbridge it leaveth Northampton-shire and entreth Warwick-shire By those coles digged forth from under the said hill what if I should conjecture that this hill was raised up for a limit or bound-marke seeing Siculus Flaccus writeth that either ashes or coles or pot-sherds or broken glasses or bones halfe burnt or lime or plaster were wont to be put under land-markes and limits and S. Augustine writeth thus of coles Is it not a wonderfull thing saith hee whereas considering Coles be so brickle that with the least blow they breake with the least crushing they are crushed yet no time bee it never so long conquereth them in so much as they that pitch Land-markes and limits were wont to couch them underneath to convince any litigious fellow whatsoever that should come never so long time after and avouch that a limit was not there pitched And so much the rather incline I to this my conjecture because they that have written of limits doe write that certaine hillockes or piles of earth which they termed Botontines were set in limits so that I suppose most of these mounts and round hils which we every where see and call Burrowes were for this purpose raised and that ashes coles pot-sherds c. may be found under them if they were digged downe a good depth into the earth The first Earle that this County had to my knowledge was Waldeof sonne of that warlike Siward who being also Earle of Huntingdon for his disloyall treachery unto William the Conquerour lost his head leaving two daughters onely behinde him by Iudith the Conquerours Niece by a sister of his mothers side Simon de Saint Liz being scornfully rejected by Iudith the mother for that hee was lame-legged married Mawd
the eldest Daughter and hee built Saint Andrewes Church and the Castle at Northampton After him succeeded his sonne Simon the second who a long time was in suite about his mothers possessions with David King of Scots his mothers second husband and having sided with King Stephen in the yeere of our Lord 1152. departed this life with this testimoniall that went of him A Youth full fraught with all unlawfull wickednesse and as full of all unseemely lewdnesse His sonne Simon the third having gone to law with the Scots for his right to the Earldome of Huntingdon wasted all his estate and through the gracious goodnesse of King Henry the Second married the Daughter and Heire of Gilbert de Gaunt Earle of Lincolne and in the end having recovered the Earledome of Huntingdon and disseized the Scots dyed childelesse in the yeare 1185. Whereas some have lately set downe Sir Richard Gobion to have beene Earle of Northampton afterward I finde no warrant thereof either in Record or History Onely I finde that Sir Hugh Gobion was a Ringleader in that rebellious rable which held Northampton against king Henry the Third and that the inheritance of his house came shortly after by marriage to Butler of Woodhall and Turpin c. But this is most certaine that King Edward the Third created William de Bohun a man of approved valour Earle of Northampton and when his elder brother Humfrey de Bohun Earle of Hereford and of Essex High Constable also of England was not sufficient in that warlike age to beare that charge of the Constable he made him also High Constable of England After him his sonne Humfrey succeeding in the Earledome of Northampton as also in the Earledomes of Hereford and of Essex for that his Unckle dyed with issue begat two Daughters the one bestowed in marriage upon Thomas of Woodstocke the youngest sonne of King Edward the Third the other upon Henry of Lancaster Duke of Hereford who afterwards attained to the Crowne by the name of King Henry the Fourth The Daughter of the said Thomas of Woodstocke brought by her marriage this Title of Northampton with others into the Family of the Staffords But when they afterwards had lost their honours and dignities King Edward the Sixth honoured Sir William Parr Earle of Essex a most accomplished Courtier with the Title of Marquesse of Northampton who within our remembrance ended this life issuelesse And while I was writing and perusing this Worke our most sacred Soveraigne King James in the yeere of our Salvation 1603. upon one and the same day advanced Lord Henry Howard brother to the last Duke of Norfolke a man of rare and excellent wit and sweet fluent eloquence singularly adorned also with the best sciences prudent in counsell and provident withall to the state of Baron Howard of Marnehill and the right honourable name title stile and Dignity of Earle of Northampton There belong unto this Shire Parishes 326. LECESTRIAE COMITATVS SIVE Leicestershyre PARS OLIM CORITANORVM LEICESTER-SHIRE ON the North side of Northampton-shire boundeth LEICESTER-SHIRE called in that Booke wherein William the Conquerour set downe his Survey of England Ledecester-shire a champian Country likewise throughout bearing corne in great plenty but for the most part without Woods It hath bordering upon it on the East side both Rutland-shire and Lincoln-shire on the North Nottingham and Derby-shires and Warwick-shire on the West For the high Rode way made by the Romanes called Watling-streat directly running along the West skirt separateth it from Warwick-shire and on the South side as I noted even now lyeth Northampton-shire Through the middle part thereof passeth the River Soar taking his way toward the Trent but over the East-part a little River called Wreke gently wandereth which at length findeth his way into the foresaid Soar On the South side where it is divided on the one hand with the River Avon the lesse and on the other with the River Welland we meet with nothing worth relation unlesse it be on Wellands banke whiles he is yet but small and newly come from his head with Haverburgh commonly called Harborrow a Towne most celebrate heereabout for a Faire of Cattaile there kept and as for Carleton as one would say the husband-mens Towne that is not farre from it wherein I wote not whether it be worth the relating all in manner that are borne whether it bee by a peculiar property of the Soile or the water or else by some other secret operation of nature have an ill favoured untunable and harsh manner of speech fetching their words with very much adoe deepe from out of the throat with a certaine kinde of wharling That Romane streete way aforesaid the causey whereof being in some other places quite worne and eaten away heere most evidently sheweth itselfe passeth on directly as it were by a streight line Northward through the West side of this Province The very tract of which street I my selfe diligently traced and followed even from the Tamis to Wales purposely to seeke out Townes of ancient memory laugh you will perhaps at this my painfull and expencefull diligence as vainly curious neither could I repose my trust upon a more faithfull guide for the finding out of those said townes which Antonine the Emperour specifieth in his Itinerary This Street-way being past Dowbridge where it leaveth Northampton-shire behinde it is interrupted first with the River Swift that is indeed but slow although the name import swiftnesse which it maketh good onely in the Winter moneths The Bridge over it now called Bransford and Bensford Bridge which heere conjoyned in times past this way having been of long time broken downe hath beene the cause that so famous a way for a great while was the lesse frequented but now at the common charge of the country it is repaired Upon this way lyeth of the one side Westward Cester-Over but it is in Warwick-shire a place worth the naming were it but in regard of the Lord thereof Sir Foulke Grevill a right worshipfull and worthy knight although the very name it selfe may witnesse the antiquity for our ancestours added this word Cester to no other places but only cities On the other side of the way Eastward hard by water Swift which springeth neere Knaptoft the seat of the Turpins a knightly house descended from an heire of the Gobions lieth Misterton belonging to the ancient family of the Poulteneis who tooke that name of Poulteney a place now decaied within the said Lordship Neere to it is Lutterworth a Mercate Towne the possession in times past of the Verdons which onely sheweth a faire Church which hath beene encreased by the Feldings of knights degree and ancient gentry in this Shire That famous John Wickliffe was sometime Parson of this Church a man of a singular polite and well wrought wit most conversant also in the holy Scripture who for that he had sharpened the neb of his pen against the Popes authority the Church
last Baron of this race made it over as I have said already to Isabell Queene of England wife to King Edward the Second Howbeit the possession of the Castle was transferred afterward to the Stanleys now Earles of Darby Through the South part of this Shire lying beneath these places above named wandereth Aleâ— a little River neere unto which in an hill hard by Kilken a small village there is a Well The water whereof at certaine set times riseth and falleth after the manner of the Sea-tides Upon this Alen standeth Hope Castle in Welsh Caer-Gurle in which King Edward the First retired himselfe when the Welshmen had upon the sudden set upon his souldiers being out of array and where good milstones are wrought out of the rocke also Mold in Welsh Guid Cruc a Castle belonging in ancient time to the Barons of Monthault both which places shew many tokens of Antiquity Neere unto Hope a certaine Gardiner when I was first writing this worke digging somewhat deepe into the ground happened upon a very ancient peece of worke concerning which there grew many divers opinions of sundry men But hee that will with any diligence reade M. Vitruvius Pollio shall very well perceive it was nothing else but a Stouph or hote house begunne by the Romanes who as their riotous excesse grew together with their wealth used Bathes exceeding much In length it was five elns in breadth foure and about halfe an eln deepe enclosed with Walles of hard stone the paving layed with bricke pargetted with lime morter the arched roofe over it supported with small pillars made of bricke which roofe was of tiles pargetted over likewise very smoothe having holes heere and there through it wherein were placed certaine earthen pipes of Potters worke by which the heate was conveyed and so as hee saith Volvebant hypocausta vaporem that is the Stuples did send away a waulming hote vapour And who would not thinke this was one of these kindes of worke which Giraldus wondered at especially in Isca writing thus as he did of the Romanes workes That saith hee which a man would judge among other things notable there may you see on every side Stouphs made with marveilous great skill breathing out heate closely at certaine holes in the sides and narrow tunnels Whose worke this was the tiles there did declare being imprinted with these words LEGIO XX. that is The twentieth Legion which as I have shewed already before abode at Chester scarce sixe miles a side from hence Neere unto this River Alen in a certaine streight set about with woods standeth Coles-hull Giraldus tearmeth it Carbonarium collem that is Coles Hill where when King Henry the Second had made preparation with as great care as ever any did to give Battaile unto the Welsh the English by reason of their disordered multitude drawing out their Battalions in their rankes and not ranged close in good array lost the Field and were defeited yea and the very Kings standerd was forsaken by Henry of Essex who in right of inheritance was Standerd-bearer to the Kings of England For which cause he being afterwards charged with treason and by his challenger overcome in combate had his goods confiscate and seized into the Kings hands and he displeased with himselfe for his cowardise put on a coule and became a Monke Another little parcell there is of this Shire on this side the River Dee dismembred as it were from this which the English call English Mailor Of this I treated in the County of Chester whiles I spake of Bangor and there is no reason to iterate the same heere which hath beene already spoken of before Neither doth it afford any thing in it worth the reporting unlesse it be Han-meere by ae Meres side whereof a right ancient and worshipfull Family there dwelling tooke their sirname The Earles of Chester as they skirmished by occasions and advantage of opportunity with the Welsh were the first Normans that brought this Country under their subjection whereupon wee reade in ancient Records The County of Flint appertaineth to the Dignity of the sword of Chester and the eldest sonnes of the K.K. of England were in old time stiled by the Title of Earles of Chester and of Flint But notwithstanding King Edward the First supposing it would bee very commodious both for the maintenance of his owne power and also to keepe under the Welsh held in his owne hands both this and all the sea Coast of Wales As for the in-land Countries he gave them to his Nobles as he thought good following herein the policie of the Emperour Augustus who undertooke himselfe to governe the Provinces that were strongest and lay outmost but permitted Proconsuls by lot to rule the rest Which he did in shew to defend the Empire but in very deed to have all the armes and martiall men under his owne command In this County of Flint there be Parishes in all 28. PRINCES OF WALES AS concerning the Princes of Wales of British bloud in ancient times you may reade in the Historie of Wales published in print For my part I thinke it requisite and pertinent to my intended purpose to set downe summarily those of latter daies descended from the Roiall line of England King Edward the First unto whom his Father King Henry the Third had graunted the Principalitie of Wales when hee had obtained the Crowne and Lhewellin Ap. Gryffith the last Prince of the British race was slaine and thereby the sinnewes as it were of the Principalitie were cut in the twelfth yeere of his Reigne united the same unto the Kingdome of England And the whole Province sware fealty and allegeance unto Edward of Caernarvon his Sonne whom he made Prince of Wales But King Edward the Second conferred not upon his Sonne Edward the title of Prince of Wales but onely the name of Earle of Chester and of Flint so farre as I ever could learne out of the Records and by that title summoned him to Parliament being then nine yeeres old King Edward the Third first Created his eldest Sonne Edward surnamed the Blacke Prince the Mirour of Chivalry being then Duke of Cornwall and Earle of Chester Prince of Wales by solemne investure with a cap of estate and Coronet set on his head a gold ring put upon his finger and a silver vierge delivered into his hand with the assent of the Parliament who in the very floure of his martiall glory was taken away by untimely death too too soone to the universall griefe of all England Afterwards King Edward the Third invested with the said honour Richard of Burdeaux the said Princes Sonne as heire apparent to the Crowne who was deposed from his Kingdome by King Henry the Fourth and having no issue was cruelly dispatched by violent death The said King Henry the Fourth at the formall request of the Lords and Commons bestowed this Principalitie with the title of Chester and Flint with
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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Severus foregirded and fenced Britain with a ditch from sea to sea And other later writers in this wise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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
bigge and large as that it may seeme to match with a city Neither went it for any other but a castle when King William Rufus having raised over against it a tower called Mal-voisin gave assault continually to Mowbray while hee rebelled and lurked there who at length privily stole away escaped by flight The greatest part of the beauty therof was lost long time after in the civill warre when Bressie the Norman redoubted souldier who sided with the house of Lancaster exercised his rage against it very outragiously Since then it hath beene sore beaten with time and the windes together which have blowne by drifts an incredible deale of sand of the sea into the fortresses Hereto adjoyneth Emildon sometime the Barony of John Le Viscont but Rametta the heire of that house sold away the possessions to Simon de Montfort Earle of Leicester In this was borne John Duns called Scotus because hee was descended of Scotish bloud who being brought up in Merton Colledge at Oxford became wonderfull well learned in Logicke and in that crabbed and intricate Divinity of those dayes yet as one still doubtfull and unresolved he did overcast the truth of religion with mists of obscurity And with so profound and admirable subtlety in a darke and rude stile hee wrote many workes that hee deserved the title of the Subtile Doctor and after his owne name erected a new sect of the Scotists But hee died pitifully being taken with an Apoplexy and overhastily buried for dead whiles upon returne of life nature though too late was about to discusse the violence of the disease and hee making meanes in vaine by a lamentable noise to call for helpe after he had a long time knocked his head against the grave stone dashed out his owne braines and at last yeelded up his vitall breath Whereupon a certain Italian wrote thus of him Quaecunque humani fuerant jurisque sacrati In dubium veniunt cuncta vocante Scoto Quid quod in dubium illius sit vita vocata Morte illum simili ludificante strophâ Quum non ante virum vitâ jugularit ademptâ Quà m vivus tumulo conditus ille foret All learning taught in humane books and couch'd in holy writ Dan Scotus darke and doubtfull made by subtlety of wit No marvaile that to doubtfull termes of life himselfe was brought Whiles with like wile and subtle tricke death on his body wrought When as her stroke to kill outright she would not him vouchsafe Untill the man a piteous case was buried quicke in grave That he was borne here in England I avouch it out of his owne manuscript works in the Library of Merton Colledge in Oxford and upon their faithfull testimony which conclude in this maner Explicit Lectura c. that is Thus endeth the Lecture of the subtle Doctor in the University of Paris Iohn Duns borne in a certaine little village or hamlet within the Parish of Emildon called Dunston in the county of Northumberland pertaining to the house of the scholars of Merton Hall in Oxford On this shore forward there is nothing to be seene worth relation but the Holy Island whereof I will write in due place untill a man come to the mouth of Twede which parteth England and Scotland a great way asunder and is called the East limit and thereupon our Necham thus writeth insinuating that the hither part of Scotland was called Pict-land Anglos à Pictis sejungit limite certo Flumen quod Tuedam pristina lingua vocat The river Twede a certaine bound Divides * Pict-land from English ground This river breaking forth at a number of Springs out of the mountaines of Scotland wandereth a great while with many a crooked winding in and out among the ranke-riders and borderers to give them no worse tearme whose manner is as one saith to try their right by the swords point But when hee is come hard to a village called Carram waxing a great deale bigger by reason of many waters fallen unto him hee begins to distinguish the Confines of the Kingdomes And when hee hath watered Werke a Castle often assaulted by the Scottish belonging in times past to the Rosses and now to the Graies who by feats of armes have wonne much honour hee is encreased more with the streame of Till a river that hath two names For at the head which is in the innermore part of this country it is called Bramish and upon it standeth Bramton a little village very obscure and almost of no reckoning from whence it goeth Northward by Bengeley which together with Brampton it selfe with Broundum Rodam which hath given name to a stock in this tract of good note Edelingham c. was in King Henry the third his time the Barony of Patricke Earle of Dunbar who also as we read in the book of Inquisitions was Inborow and Outborow betweene England and Scotland that is to say if I mistake it not he was to allow and observe in this part the ingresse and egresse of those that travailed too and fro betweene both Realmes For Englishmen in ancient time called in their language an Entry and fore Court or Gatehouse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Higher somewhat standeth Chevelingham now called Chillingham hard by the river which like as Horton not farre distant from it had their Castles belonging to the Greies ever since that those two families of the Greies were conjoyned in one by marriage There lyeth neere unto it Wollover a Barony which King Henry the first gave to Robert Muschampe who bare Azure three Butterflies or Papilions Argent of whose race descended Robert who in Henry the third his reigne was reputed the mightiest Baron in these North parts But the inheritance was quickly dismembred and parted among the females one of whom was married unto the Earle of Stratherne in Scotland a second to Sir William de Huntercombe and a third to Odonell Ford. Then the river of Glen from out of the West augmenteth Till with his waters and nameth the vale that he runneth thorow Glendale Touching this little river Bede writeth thus Paulinus comming with the King and Queen into a Manour or house of the Kings called Ad-Gebrin at this day Yeverin abode with them 36. daies there emploied wholly in the catechizing and baptising during all which time he did nothing from morning but instruct the people resorting to him in the saving word of Christ and being thus instructed he baptised them to the forgivenesse of their sinnes in the river of Glen which was hard by This house was in the time of the succeeding Kings neglected and another made for it in a place called Melmin but at this day Melfeld Here within a little of Brum-ridge by Brumeford K. Athelstan fought a pitched field with Aulase the Dane Constantine K. of Scots and Eugenius or Owein Prince of Cumberland with so fortunate successe that this battaile was most famous farre
Constans Constantius brake out into this exclamation In winter time a thing that never was done before nor ever will be done again ye trampled under your oares the swelling and raging billowes of the British Ocean The waves of the sea unknown in a manner before times unto us then trembled and quaked and the Britans were terrified at the sudden presence of the Emperor What will ye more the verie elements yeelded themselves as conquered unto your valerous vertues The famous learned man Julius Scaliger in his Poeticalls affirmeth that Caurus the North-west winde ariseth and bloweth out of this British sea and that against the opinion of Lucan who wrote thus Primus ab Oceano caput exeris Atlantaeo Caure movens aestus From Ocean call'd Atlantick Caur thou first Thy head dost shew making seas fell and curst Certes in Ireland he keeps foule work and plaies the tyrant and Caesar writeth that a great part of the yeere he stands in this coast But whereas some write that in this our sea ships were first devised used I am not disposed to beleeve them But Plinie witnesseth that the Britans used small wicker vessels covered over with hides which at this day they tearm Corraghs and with Plinie accordeth Lucan who versifieth in this wise Primùm cana salix madefacto vimine parvam Texitur in puppim caesóque induta juvenco Vectoris patiens tumidum super emicat amnem Sic Venetus stagnante Pado fusoque Britannus Navigat Oceano At first wet twigges of willow grey that long in soake had laine And covered over close with hide of Oxe or Bullocke slaine But wrought before unto the forme of little barke or boat Used to carrie passengers the swelling streames afloat Thus over Po that river large sailes the Venetian And thus the Britan maketh way upon the spacious Ocean Semblably Solinus Polyhistor In the sea between Britain and Ireland they saile in wicker bottomes which they cover round about with Oxe hides And how long soever as the course holdeth so long the sailers forbeare food As for the commodities which this sea affordeth the warmth whereby it comforteth and cherisheth the earth the vapours wherewith it nourisheth the aire and bedeweth the fields touching also the great varietie of fishes that it breedeth as Salmons which Bede calleth Isicios as Plinie Esox Plaice Pungers Cods Hadocks Whitings Herrings Basse Maccarell Mullets Turbits Seales or Sea-calves Rochets Soles Pilchards Raifish or Scale Thornback Oisters Lobsters Crab-fish and an infinite number of others whereof it maintaineth and feedeth innumerable skuls and beds it is not materiall to speake they are so well knowne Yet the pearles are not to bee overpassed in silence which King Jubas reporteth to be shaped round and to swim in the British sea by flockes or swarmes in manner of bees following their Captaine and Leader And Marcellinus when he had spoken of the Persian and Indian pearles which kind of gemme saith he we are not ignorant to be engendred and gathered in the creekes of the British sea although they bee not of that beautie and worth Which although they be accounted by Plinie small ones and ill coloured yet Suetonius writeth that Caesar made his voiage into Britaine in hope of them and that they were of such bignesse as he took the peise of some of them by hand and dedicated a brest-plate made of them unto Venus Genitrix which he also witnessed by a subscription Origen likewise as touching these pearles writeth thus Sea-pearles such as be most notable are found among the Indians but the best are bred in the Red sea In the next place are those pearles which are taken in the British Ocean but of a third sort and inferiour in goodness not to those first only but also to these of the second degree are they that be found in Bosphorus neere Scythia And after a few lines But that kind which they say is gotten in Britain for the superficiall colour verily somwhat resembleth a golden hew but cloudie it is and troubled and for the lustre with the dimmest Furthermore our Venerable Bede writing of the Shell-fishes of this our sea Among them saith hee there be Muscles wherein they find enclosed oftentimes the best pearle of all colours of purple violet and greene but especially of bright white There be cochles also in exceeding great abundance wherewith they die a scarlet colour the most beautifull red hew whereof no heat of sunne nor injurie of raine is ever able to make pale but the older it is the fairer it sheweth And Tertullian reproving the lavish expence and superfluitie in his time If ambitious pride saith he may be maintained from the British or Indian seas there is a kind of shell-fish more pleasant in taste I say not than the purple fish or oister but than the very scallop it selfe This sea which generally is called MARE BRITANNICUM and OCEANUS CALEDONIUS according to the divers situation of places hath sundry and distinct names Eastward where it hath Germanie opposite unto it they call it the GERMAN sea Northward it is tearmed the Hyberborean sea which ancient writers reported untruely to be dead dull and heavie for the oare and in that respect not raised with winds and Tacitus beleeved it was so belike because as he writeth the Lands and Mountaines be rare which minister cause and matter of tempests and for that a deep masse of continuat sea is more slowly stirred to work and rage On the West side it is named OCEANUS DEUCALEDONIUS and VERGIVIUS both South and West from Ireland but all the way that it runneth between Britain and Ireland the HIBERNICUS that is Irish sea and by Sea-men at this day S. Georges Chanel And ancient writers have recorded that it rageth all the yeer long with surging billowes and counter seas and never is at rest nor navigable unlesse it be in some few summer daies But Southward where it interfloweth France and Britain it is properly called the BRITISH sea and by the common mariners the Chanel by English sailers the SLEEVE and in the same sense Le Manche in French because it groweth narrow in manner of a sleeve And this name of the BRITISH sea extended as farre as to Spaine as writeth Pomponius Mela being himselfe also a Spaniard where he reporteth that the Pyrene Mountain runneth forth into the BRITISH OCEAN Moreover there be certain Ilands which as it were for a shew Nature hath be sprinkled along these seas fewer toward the East and South parts but Westward and Northward more in number For there by their thick standing together they do after a sort garnish the sea yea and depaint it as it were with their colours in most pleasant sort But for as much as Ireland farre excelleth all the rest in regard of the greatnesse thereof and frequencie of resort thereto it requireth by due right that it should first be treated of HIBERNIA IRELAND IN the Vergivian sea
to embrace other mens riches who for Christs sake had forsaken their own And the Bishops of Britain seemed no lesse to have despised riches seeing they were so poore that they had nothing of their owne For as we read in Sulpitius Severus three Bishops of Britaine in the Councell holden at Rimine for want of their owne lived of the publick charges The English Saxons also in that age conflowed and resorted from all parts into Ireland as it were to the mart of good learning and hence it is that we read so often in our writers concerning holy men thus Such a one was sent over into Ireland for to be trained up in learning and in the life of Sulgen who flourished 600. yeeres agoe Exemplo patrum commotus amore legendi Ivit ad Hibernos sophiâ mirabile claros The fathers old he following for love to read good works Went unto Irish men who were O wonder famous Clarkes And from thence it may seeme our forefathers the ancient English learned the manner of framing their letters and of writing considering that they used the selfe same character which the Irish commonly use at this day And no cause have wee to marvaile that Ireland which now for the most part is rude halfe barbarous and altogether voide of any polite and exquisite literature was full of so devout godly good wits in that age wherein good letters throughout all Christendome lay neglected and halfe buried seeing that the divine providence of that most gracious and almightie ruler of the world soweth the seeds and bringeth forth the plants of sanctitie and good arts one whiles in one nation and other whiles in another as it were in garden beds and borders and that in sundry ages which being removed and translated hither and thither may by a new growth come up one under another prosper and bee preserved to his owne glory and the good of mankinde But the outrage of warres by little and little quenched these hot affections and studies of holinesse and good literature For in the yeere 644. after Christs nativitie Egfrid King of Northumberland with fire and sword made spoile and havocke of Ireland a nation most friendly unto England for which cause Bede chargeth him after a sort in most grave and important tearmes Afterward the Norwegians under the leading of Turgese their Captaine spoiled and wasted the countrey in most lamentable manner for the space of 30. yeeres But when he was once slaine by a train and ambush laid for him the inhabitants fell upon the Norwegians and made such a bloodie massacre of them that scarce any one survived to be a messenger of so great a slaughter These Norwegians were no doubt those Normans who as Rhegino saith in the time of Charles the great setting upon Ireland an Isle of the Scots were by the Scots put to flight After this the Oustmans as one would say Esterlings or Eastmen came out of the sea-coasts of Germanie into Ireland who having entred into certain Cities under the pretence of great trafficke in a short space raised a most dangerous warre About the very same time in manner Eadgar that most puissant King of England conquered also a great part of Ireland For thus we read in a certaine Charter of his Unto whom God of his gracious favour hath granted together with the Empire of England dominion over all the kingdomes of the Isles lying in the Ocean with their most stout and fierce Kings even as farre as to Norway yea and to subdue under the English Empire the greatest part of Ireland with her most noble Citie Dublin After these tempestuous forraine warres were allaied there followed a most grievous storme of civill dissention at home which made way for the English to conquer Ireland For Henrie the second King of England taking occasion and opportunitie by the privie dislikes heart-burnings and malicious emulations among the Irish Princes grew into a serious deliberation with the Nobles of England in the yeere of Salvation 1155. about the conquest of Ireland for the behoof of his brother William of Anjou But through the counsell of his mother Maude the Empresse this project was rejected unto another time Howbeit not many yeeres betweene Dermicius the son of Murchard Dermot Mac Morrog they call him who reigned over the East part of Ireland which in Latin is called Lagenia and commonly Leinster being for his tyrannie and lustfull leudnesse thrust out of his kingdome for hee had ravished the wife of O Rorke a pettie King of Meth obtained aide and forces of Henrie the second King of England to be restored into his kingdome againe and made a covenant with Richard Earle of Pembroch surnamed Strongbow of the house of Clare that he for his part should aide him in the recovering of his Kingdome and that himselfe would assure unto the Earle together with his daughter Eva the said Kingdome in succession after him Hereupon the said Earle having forthwith mustered up and raised an armie of Welsh and English together and joined unto him to accompanie him in the warres the Fitz-Giralds Fitz-Stephans and other Gentlemen out of England and Wales restored his father in law Dermot into his former Kingdome againe and within few yeeres gat by conquest so great a part of Ireland into his owne hands that his power became now suspected to the King of England who by proclamation and that with grievous menaces recalled home the said Earle and his followers out of Ireland and unlesse they obeyed without delay pronounced them traitours and their goods confiscate Whereupon the Earle granted unto the King by covenant and writing whatsoever he either inherited in right of his wife or won with his sword and as his tenant in vassailage received from him the Earldomes of Weisford Ossorie Caterlogh and Kildare with certain Castles Then King Henrie the second having gathered a power together in the yeere of Christ 1172. sailed over into Ireland and obtained the Princely title of soveraigne rule of the Iland For the States of Ireland passed over unto him all their rule and power namely Rothericke O Conor Dun that is The Browne Monarch of Ireland Dermot Mac Carti King of Corke Donald O Bren King of Limiâ—icke O Carell King of Uriel Macshaglin King of Ophaly O Rorke King of Meth O Neale King of Ulster with the rest of the Nobles and their people and the same under their Charters subscribed signed delivered and transmitted to Rome Which was ratified and confirmed moreover by a Patent of Pope Hadrian by a ring delivered unto him in token of his investiture and also by the authoritie of certaine Provinciall Synods This King Henrie afterward delivered up the Seigniorie of Ireland into the hands of his sonne Iohn which conveiance Pope Urban confirmed by his Bull and in testimonie of his confirmation sent him a Coronet of Peacocks feathers broided and embroidered with gold Whom after hee was once established in