too sweet a morsel to return, being annexed to the Duchy of Lancaster. John of Gaunt built a fair castle there, walled on three sides by art, and the fourth by its natural steepness. DUDLEY CASTLE must not be forgotten, highly and pleasantly seated; and in the reign of king Edward the Sixth well built, and adorned by John Dudley duke of Northumberland, whereon a story worth the reporting doth depend. The aforesaid duke, deriving himself (how truly not yet decided) from a younger branch of the lord Dudley, thirsted after this castle, in regard of the name and the honourableness of the house, some having avouched that the barony is annexed to the lawful possession thereof, whether by purchase or descent.* Now finding John Sutton the lord Dudley (grandfather to the last baron) a weak man, exposed to some wants, and entangled with many debts, he, by the help of those money-merchants, wrought him out of his castle. So that the poor lord, turned out of doors, and left to the charity of his friends for subsistence, was commonly called the lord Quondam. But, after the execution of that duke, queen Mary, sympathizing with Edward the son of this poor lord (which Edward had married Katharine Bruges her maid of honour and sister to the lord Chandois), restored him to the lands and honour which justly belonged to his father. "In April,† Dove's flood Is worth a king's good."] PROVERBS. Dove, a river parting this and Derbyshire, when it overfloweth its banks in April, is the Nilus of Staffordshire, much battling the meadows thereof. But this river of Dove, as overflowing in April, feeds the meadows with fruitfulness; so in May and June chokes the sand grained with grit and gravel, to the great detriment of the owners thereof. "Wotton-under-Weaver, Where God came never."] It is time that this old profane proverb should die in men's mouths for ever. I confess, in common discourse, God is said to come to what he doth approve; to send to what he only permits; and neither to go nor send to what he doth dislike and forbid. But this distinction, it granted, will help nothing to the defending of this profane proverb, which it seems took its wicked original from the situation of Wotton, so covered with hills from the light of the sun, a dismal place, as report repre Mr. Dugdale, in his Illustration of Warwickshire, in the Catalogue of the Earls of Warwick.-F. † Camden's Britannia, in this county. Idem, ibidem. senteth it. But were there a place indeed where God came never, how many years' purchase would guilty consciences give for a small abode therein, thereby to escape Divine justice for their offences! SAINTS. Authors do as generally agree about a grand massacre committed by the Pagans under Dioclesian on the British Christians in the place where Lichfield now standeth: I say, they as generally agree in the fact, as they disagree in the number: some making them two hundred, others five, others seven. And one author (certainly he was no Millennary in his judgment) mounts them to just 999. Indeed many were martyred in those days, both in Britain and elsewhere, whose names and numbers are utterly unknown; so true is the expression of Gregory the Great, "Ipsi sancti martyres Deo numerabiles, nobis arenam multiplicati sunt, quia quot sint à nobis comprehendi non possunt: novit enim eos tantum ille, qui (ut habet Psalmus cxxvi.) numerat multitudinem stellarum, et omnibus eis nomina vocat.' دو ST. BERTELIN was a Briton of a noble birth, and led an eremitical life in the woods near Stafford,† anciently called Bethiney (contracted, it seems, for Bertiliney); something of solitariness still remaining in his memory, as being so alone, it hath no memorable particulars of his accounts to accompany it. WOLFADUS-RUFFINUS.-It was pity to part them, seeing they were "loving in their lives, and in their death they were not divided." They were sons to Wolferus, the Pagan king of Mercia and a tyrant to boot, who, hating Christianity, and finding these twins to profess privately to practise it, was so enraged, that nothing but their blood would quench his anger. Wolfadus was taken, and martyred at Stone in this county; whilst his younger (if not twin brother) Ruffinus came little more behind him at his death, than he started before him at his birth; seeking to hide himself in a woody place (where since the chapel of Burnweston hath been built§) was there by his Herod-father found out and murdered. They were by succeeding ages rewarded with reputation of saintship. This massacre happened anno domini CARDINALS. REGINALD POLE was born at Stoverton castle in this county, * In his 27th Homily in Evang. + Camden and Speed, their descriptions of this country. S Sampson Erdeswicke, MS. Wolfhere was king of Mercia from 659 to 675.-ED. 2 Sam. i. 23. anno 1500.* He was second son unto sir Richard Pole, knight of the Garter, and frater consobrinus† (a relation which I cannot make out in reference to him) to Henry the Seventh. His mother Margaret countess of Salisbury was niece to king Edward the Fourth, and daughter to George duke of Clarence. This Reginald was bred in Corpus Christi College in Oxford; preferred afterward dean of Exeter. King Henry the Eighth highly favoured and sent him beyond the seas, allowing him a large pension, to live in an equipage suitable to his birth and alliance. He studied at Padua, conversing there so much with the Patricians of Venice, that at last he degenerated into a perfect Italian; so that neither love to his country, nor gratitude to the king, nor sharp letters of his friends, nor fear to lose his present, nor hopes to get future preferments, could persuade him to return into England, but that his pensions were withdrawn from him. This made him apply his studies the more privately in a Venetian monastery, where he attained great credit, for his eloquence, learning, and good life. Such esteem foreign grandees had of his great judgment, that cardinal Sadolet, having written a large book in the praise of philosophy, submitted it wholly to his censure. Pole as highly commended the work, as he much admired that a cardinal of the church of Rome would conclude his old age with writing on such a subject,‡ applying unto him the verses of Virgil, Est in conspectu Tenedos notissima fumâ Insula, dives opum, Priami dum regna manebant, Much fam'd when Priam's kingdom was in pride, These far-fetched lines he thus brought home to the cardinal, that though philosophy had been in high esteem whilst paganism was in the prime thereof, yet was it but a bad harbour for an aged Christian to cast his anchor therein. It was not long before he was made deacon-cardinal, by the title of St. Mary in Cosmedin, by Pope Paul the Third, who sent him on many fruitless and dangerous embassies to the emperor and the French king, to incite them to war against king Henry the Eighth. Afterwards he retired himself to Viterbo in Italy, where his house was observed the sanctuary of Lutherans, and he himself became a racking, but no thorough-paced Protestant; insomuch that, being appointed one of three presidents of the council of Trent, he endeavoured (but in vain) to have justification determined by faith alone. During his living at Viterbo, he carried not himself so cautiously, but that he was taxed for begetting a base child, which Camden's Britannia, in English, in Staffordshire. Idem, p. 345. Pasquil* published in Latin and Italian verses, affixed in the season of liberty on his lawless pillar. This Pasquil is an author eminent on many accounts. First, for his self-concealment, being "noscens omnia, et notus nemini." Secondly, for his intelligence, who can display the deeds of midnight at high noon, as if he hid himself in the holes of their bed-staves, knowing who were cardinals' children better than they knew their fathers. Thirdly, for his impartial boldness. He was made all of tongue and teeth, biting whatever he touched, and it bled whatever he bit; yea, as if a General Council and Pasquil were only above the Pope, he would not stick to tell where he trod his holy sandals awry. Fourthly, for his longevity, having lived (or rather lasted) in Rome some hundreds of years; whereby he appears no particular person, but a successive corporation of satirists. Lastly, for his impunity, escaping the Inquisition; whereof some assign this reason, because hereby the court of Rome comes to know her faults, or rather to know that their faults are known; which makes Pasquil's converts (if not more honest) more wary in their behaviour. This defamation made not such an impression on Pole's credit, but that, after the death of Paul the Third, he was at midnight, in the conclave, chosen to succeed him. Pole refused it, because he would not have his choice a deed of darkness, appearing therein not perfectly Italianated, in not taking preferment when tendered; and the cardinals beheld his refusal as a deed of dulness. Next day, expecting a re-election, he found new morning new minds; and, Pole being reprobated, Julius the Third, his professed enemy, was chosen in his place. Yet afterwards he became "alterius orbis Papa," when made archbishop of Canterbury by queen Mary. He was a person free from passion, whom none could anger out of his ordinary temper. His youthful books were full of the flowers of rhetoric; whilst the withered stalks are only found in the writings of his old age, so dry their style, and dull their conceit. He died a few hours after queen Mary, November the 17th, anno 1558. PRELATES. EDMUND STAFFORD was brother to Ralph first earl of Stafford, and consequentially must be son to Edmund baron Stafford. His nativity is rationally with most probability placed in this county, wherein his father (though landed every where) had his prime seat, and largest revenues. He was by king Richard the Second preferred bishop of Exeter; and under king Henry the Fourth, for a time, was chancellor of England. I meet with an author who doth make him bishop first of Rochester, then of Exeter, and lastly of York.‡ Antiquit. Brit. in Vità Poli, p. 348. + Bishop Godwin, in the Bishops of Exeter. Mr. Philpot, in his Catalogue of Lord Chancellors, p. 53. But of the first and last altum silentium in bishop Godwin, whom I rather believe. He was a benefactor to Stapleton's-Inn in Oxford, on a three-fold account, viz. 1. Of Credit; first calling it Exeter College, whereby he put an obligation on the bishop of that see, favourably to reflect thereon. 2. Of Profit; adding two fellowships unto it, and settling lands to maintain them. 3. Of Safety; which consisteth in good statutes, which here he wisely altered and amended. He sat in his see twenty-four years; and, dying 1419, was buried under an alabaster tomb in his own cathedral. WILLIAM DUDLEY, son of John Dudley, the eighth baron Dudley, of Dudley castle in this county, was by his parents designed for a scholar, and bred in University College in Oxford, whence he was preferred to be dean of Windsor, and afterwards was for six years bishop of Durham.* He died anno 1483, at London, and lies buried in Westminster on the south side of St. Nicholas Chapel. EDMUND AUDLEY, son to the lord Audley of Heyley in this county, whose surname was Touchet. I am informed by my worthy friend, that skilful antiquary Mr. Thomas Barlow of Oxford, that this Edmund in one and the same instrument writeth himself both Audley and Touchet. He was bred in the university of Oxford; and, in process of time, he built the choir of Saint Mary's therein anew on his own charge, adorning it organis hydraulicis, which, I think, imports no more than a musical organ. He was preferred bishop, first of Rochester, then of Hereford, and at last of Salisbury. He died at Ramsbury, August 23, 1624; and is buried in his own cathedral, on the south side of the altar, in a chapel of excellent artifice of his own erection. Not meeting with any bishops born in this county SINCE THE REFORMATION, let us proceed. LAWYERS. 1 Sir THOMAS LITTLETON, Knight.-Reader I have seriously and often perused his life, as written by Sir Edward Coke; yet, not being satisfied of the certainty of his nativity, am resolved to divide his character betwixt this county and Worcestershire. He was son to Thomas Westcote, esq. and Elizabeth Littleton his wife; whose mother being daughter and heir of Thomas Littleton, esq. and bringing to her husband a great inheritance, indented with him before marriage, that • Godwin, in the Bishops of Durham. + Bishop Godwin, in the Bishops of Sarum. |