WORTHIES SINCE THE TIME OF FULLER. 157 Gregory KING, draughtsman, herald, and political economist; died 1712. Dr. John LIGHTFOOT, learned divine, who assisted in the Polyglot Bible; born at Stoke-upon-Trent 1602; died 1675. R. MEADOWCROFT, divine, critic, and annotator on Milton; 1697. Thomas Moss, divine, author of the Beggar's Petition, and other poems; born about 1740; died 1808. Thomas NEWTON, bishop of Bristol, author of "Dissertations on the Prophecies;" born at Lichfield 1703; died 1782. Henry SALT, traveller in the East, and British consul in Egypt; born at Lichfield; died in Alexandria 1827. Rev. Stebbing SHAW, historian of his native county; born at Stone 1762; died 1802. Gilbert SHELDON, archbishop of Canterbury; born at Stanton 1598; died 1677. George SMALRIDGE, learned bishop of Bristol; born at Lichfield 1663; died 1719. Izaak WALTON, "honest Isaac," celebrated angler and amusing writer; born at Stafford 1593; died 1683. Josiah WEDGWOOD, improver of the manufacture of pottery; born 1731; died 1795. Samuel Pipe WOLFERSTAN, eminent antiquary; born at Statfold 1751; died 1820. William WOLLASTON, philosophical writer; born at Coton Clamford 1659. James WYATT, architect of the Pantheon, London, Beckford's Fonthill, &c.; born at Burton 1743; died 1813. The county of Stafford has been fortunate in its historians. So early as 1603, Mr. Sampson Erdeswicke, whom Camden styles "Venerabilis antiquitatis cultor maximus," made Collections for a topographical History of Staffordshire, which Dr. Fuller frequently cites in the course of this work. A portion of these were published in 1717, and the remainder in 1723. In 1820, the Rev. T. Harwood brought out an enlarged and greatly improved edition of Erdeswicke, of which another edition is now in preparation. Histories of the county have also been published by W. Tunnicliffe (1787); by the Rev. S. Shaw (1798 and 1802); and by W. Pitt (1817); besides the Natural History of Staffordshire, by Dr. Plott, which was published so early as 1686. Several local histories have also appeared at different times; as the Histories of Lichfield, by J. Jackson (1805), and by the Rev. T. Harwood (1806); of Eccleshall, by S. Pegge (1784); of Shenstone, by the Rev. H. Sanders (1794); Roby's Tamworth; the Rev. S. Shaw's Histories of Byshbury, Shenstone, the Three Ridwares, Tamworth, Walsall, &c.-ED. SUFFOLK. SUFFOLK hath Norfolk on the north, divided with the rivers of Little Ouse and Waveny; Cambridgeshire on the west; the German Ocean on the east; and Essex, parted with the river Stour, on the south thereof. From east to west it stretcheth forty-five miles, though the general breadth be but twenty, saving by the sea-side, where it runneth out more by the advantage of a corner. The air thereof generally is sweet, and by the best physicians* esteemed the best in England, often prescribing the receipt thereof to the consumptionish patients. I say generally sweet, there being a small parcel nigh the seaside not so excellent, which may seem left there by Nature, on purpose to advance the purity of the rest. NATURAL COMMODITIES. CHEESE. Most excellent are made herein, whereof the finest are very thin, as intended not for food but digestion. I remember, when living in Cambridge, the cheese of this county was preferred as the best. If any say that scholars' palates are incompetent judges, whose hungry appetites make coarse diet seem delicates unto them, let them know, that Pantaleon, the learned Dutch physician,† counted them equal at least with them of Parma in Italy. BUTTER. For quantity and quality this county doth excel, and venteth it at London and elsewhere. The child not yet come to and the old man who is past the use of teeth, eateth no softer, the poor man no cheaper (in this shire), the rich no wholesomer food, I mean in the morning. It was half of our Saviour's bill of fare in his infancy, " Butter and honey shall he eat." + It is of a cordial, or, I may say, antidotal nature. The story is well known of a wife which, desiring to be a widow, incorporated poison in the butter, whereon her husband had his principal repast. The poor man, finding himself strangely affected, Speed, in his Description of Suffolk. * † Camden's Britannia, in Suffolk. Isaiah vii. 15. repaired to a physician, who by some symptoms suspecting poison, demanded of his patient which was his chiefest diet. The sick man told him, that he fed most constantly on butter. "Eat butter still," returned the physician, "which hitherto hath saved your life:" for it corrected the poison, that neither the malignity thereof, nor the malice of the wife, could have their full operation. MANUFACTURES. CLOTHING. Here it will not be amiss to insert a passage which I meet with in an industrious antiquary, as relating to the present subject. "The manufacture of clothing in this county hath been much greater, and those of that trade far richer, I persuade myself, heretofore than in these times; or else the heirs and executors of the deceased were more careful that the testator's dead corpse should be interred in more decent manner, than they are now-adays; otherwise I should not find so many marbles richly inlaid with brass, to the memory of clothiers in foregoing ages, and not one in these later seasons. All the monuments in the church of Neyland, which bare any face of comeliness and antiquity, are erected to the memory of clothiers, and such as belong to that mystery." "* Some perchance would assign another reason, viz. because monuments formerly were conceived to conduce much to the happiness of the deceased (as bespeaking in their epitaphs the suffrages of the living in their behalf); which error is vanished away since the Reformation; all which being fully believed, weakeneth not the observation, but that Suffolk clothiers were wealthier in former than in our age. BUILDINGS. This county hath no Cathedral therein, and the parochial churches [generally fair] no one of transcendant eminency. But formerly it had so magnificent an abbey-church in Bury, the sun shined not on a fairer,† with three lesser churches waiting thereon in the same church-yard. Of these but two are extant at this day, and those right stately structures: "And if the servants we so much commend, What was the mistress whom they did attend ?" Here I meet with a passage that affected me with wonder, though I know not how the reader will resent it. It is avouched by all authors, that Mary, youngest sister to king Henry the Eighth, relict to Louis the Twelfth, king of France, afterwards • Weever's Funeral Monuments, page 770. But, married to Charles Brandon duke of Suffolk, died on Midsummer eve, 1533, and was buried in the abbey church in Bury. it seems, her corpse could not protect that church from demolishing, which in few years after was levelled to the ground. I read not that the body of this princess was removed to any other place; nor doth any monument here remain to her memory, though her king-brother and second husband -survived the destruction of that church. A strange thing! save that nothing was strange in those days of confusion. As for the town of Bury, it is sweetly seated and fairly built, especially since the year 1608; about which time it was lamentably defaced with a casual fire, though since God hath given them "beauty for ashes."* And may the following distich (set up therein) prove prophetical unto the place: Burgus ut antiquus violento corruit igne, Hic stet dum flammis terra polusque flagrent. Nor is the school a small ornament to this town, founded by king Edward the Sixth, being itself a corporation, now (as well as ever) flourishing under Mr. Stephens, the able master thereof. Amongst the many fair houses of the gentry in this county, Long Melford must not be forgotten, late the house of the countess Rivers, and the FIRST FRUITS of PLUNDERING in England; and Sommerley hall (nigh Yarmouth) belonging to the lady Wentworth, well answering the name thereof: for here Sommer is to be seen in the depth of winter in the pleasant walks, beset on both sides with fir-trees green all the year long, besides other curiosities. As for merchants' houses, Ipswich town (co-rival with some cities for neatness and greatness) affordeth many of equal handsomeness. "Suffolk milk."] PROVERBS. This was one of the staple commodities of the Land of Canaan, and certainly most wholesome for man's body, because of God's own choosing for his own people. No county in England affords better and sweeter of this kind, lying opposite to Holland in the Netherlands, where is the best dairy in Christendom, which mindeth me of a passage betwixt Spinola and Grave Maurice. The Spanish general being invited to an entertainment by the aforesaid prince at Breda (as I take it), when lemons and oranges were brought in for sauce at the first course, "What a brave country is my master's," quoth the Don, "affording this * Isaiah lxi. 3. fair fruit all the year long!" But when cream was brought up to close the feast, Grave Maurice returned, "What a brave country is ours, that yieldeth this fruit twice every day!" "Suffolk fair maids."] It seems the God of nature hath been bountiful in giving them beautiful complexions, which I am willing to believe so far forth as it fixeth not a comparative disparagement on the same sex in other counties. I hope they will labour to join gracious hearts to fair faces; otherwise, I am sure, there is a divine proverb of infallible truth, "As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion."* "Suffolk stiles."]. It is a measuring cast, whether this proverb pertaineth to Essex or this county; and I believe it belongeth to both, which being inclosed countries into petty quillets, abound with high stiles, troublesome to be clambered over. But the owners grudge not the pains in climbing them, sensible that such severals redound much to their own advantage. "You are in the highway to Needham."] Needham is a market-town in this county, well stocked (if I mistake not) with poor people; though I believe this in no degree did occasion the first denomination thereof. They are said to be in the highway to Needham who hasten to poverty. However, these fall under a distinction; some go, others are sent thither. Such as go embrace several ways; some, if poor, of idleness; if rich, of carelessness, or else of prodigality. Others are sent thither against their wills by the powerful oppression of such who either detain or devour their estates. And it is possible some may be sent thither by no default of their own, or visible cause from others, but merely from divine justice, insensibly dwindling their estates, chiefly for trial of their patience. Wherefore, so many ways leading to Needham from divers quarters, I mean from different causes; it is unjust to condemn all persons meeting there, under the censure of the same guiltiness. PRINCES. [AMP.] EDMUND MORTIMER, son to Roger Mortimer earl of March, grandchild of Edmund Mortimer earl of March, and of Philippa sole daughter of Lionel duke of Clarence, may pass with the charitable reader for a prince, since he paid so dear for the same, as will appear. I confess it impossible to fix his nativity with assurance (having not hitherto read record which reached it), the rather because of the vastness of his patrimony, and several habitations : any In England, Clare castle, with many other manors in |