WARWICKSHIRE.

WARWICKSHIRE hath Leicester and Northampton-shires on the east, Oxford and Gloucester-shires on the south, Worcester on the west, and Staffordshire on the north thereof. In form, at the first view, in a map, it doth pretend to some circularness; but attaineth no exactness therein, as extending thirtythree miles from north to south, though from east to west not distanced above twenty-six.

One said no less truly than merrily, "It is the heart, but not the core, of England;" having nothing coarse or choaky therein. The woodland part thereof may want what the fieldon affords; so that Warwickshire is defective in neither. As for the pleasure thereof, an author is bold to say, that from Edgehill one may behold it another Eden,* as Lot did the Plain of Jordan; but he might have put in, "It is not altogether so well watered."

NATURAL COMMODITIES.

SHEEP.

Most large for bone, flesh, and wool, in this county, especially about Worm Leighton. In this shire the complaint of J. Rous continueth and increaseth, that sheep turn cannibals, eating up men, houses, and towns; their pastures make such depopulation.

But, on the other side, it is pleaded for these enclosures, that they make houses the fewer in this county, and the more in the kingdom. How come buildings in great towns every day to increase (so that commonly tenants are in before tenements are ended) but that the poor are generally maintained by clothing, the staple-trade of the nation?

Indeed corn doth visibly employ the poor in the place where it groweth, by ploughing, sowing, mowing, inning, threshing: but wool invisibly maintaineth people at many miles' distance, by carding, spinning, weaving, dressing, dyeing it. However, an expedient might be so used betwixt tillage and pasturage, * J. Speed, in his Description of Warwickshire. † Genesis xiii. 10.

that Abel should not kill Cain, the shepherd undo the husbandman, but both subsist comfortably together.

ASH.

It is the prince (oak being allowed the king) of English timber, growing plentifully in the woodland part of this county. I confess it far short in sovereigness against serpents of the Italian ash, if true what Pliny reporteth (making affidavit thereof on his own experience, " Experti prodimus")* that a serpent, encircled with fire and boughs of ash, will, in this dilemma, put himself rather on the hazard of fire, than adventure on the fence of ashen boughs. It is also far inferior in toughness to the Spanish ash; and yet a stand of pikes made of English ash, and managed with Englishmen's arms, will do very well. But, to wave the warlike, and praise the peaceable use of the ash; it is excellent for plow-timber, besides many utensils within a family. Being cut down green, it burneth (a peculiar privilege of this wood) clear and bright, as if the sap thereof had a fire-feeding unctiousness therein. The fruit thereof is good in physic, whose keys are opening of obstructions arising from the spleen.

COAL.

Much hereof is digged up at Bedworth, which (in my measuring) of all coal-mines north of Thames, is the most southward, adding much to their price and owners' profit. The making such mines destroyeth much, but when made preserveth more timber. I am sorry to hear that those black Indies, both in quantity and quality, fall short of their former fruitfulness; and I wish they may recover their lost credit, being confident the earth there will bleed profit as plentifully as any, had the miners but the good hap to hit the right vein thereof.

As for MANAFACTURES in this county, some broad cloths are made in Coventry, and ten might be made for one, if the mystery thereof were vigorously pursued.

THE BUILDINGS.

Coventry, much beholding to the lady Godiva (who took order that her charity should not prejudice her modesty, when she purchased the privileges of this place) sheweth two fair churches close together. How clearly would they have shined, if set at competent distance! Whereas now, such their vicinity, that the Archangel eclipseth the Trinity.

SAINT MARY's in Warwick, a beautiful structure, owes its life to the monuments of the dead therein, most being earls of

Natural History, lib. xvi. cap. 13.

Warwick. Of these, that in the body of the church is the oldest, that in the chancel is the largest, that in the chapel (of gilt brass) the richest, that in the chapter-house (of Fulke lord Brook) the latest. Greatness may seem in some to be buried in the tomb of the earl of Leicester, and goodness in that of the earl of Warwick. Women are most delighted with the statue of the infant baron of Denbigh, and scholars most affected with the learned epitaph of Sir Thomas Puckering. In a word, so numerous is the church, with its appendences, as I am informed by my worthy friend the minister, that he can accommodate one clergyman, of all dignities and degrees, to repose them, in several chapels or vestries by themselves.

KENELWORTH, alias KENILWORTH.-It had the strength of a castle, and the beauty of a prince's court. Though most fair the porch, no danger of the castles running out thereat (like that of Mindus at the gate), as most proportionable to the rest of the fabric. I confess handsome is an improper epithet of a giant, yet neatness agreeth with the vastness of this structure. Some castles have been demolished for security, which I behold destroyed, se defendendo, without offence. Others demolished in the heat of the wars, which I look upon as castleslaughter. But I cannot excuse the destruction of this castle from wilful murder, being done in cold blood, since the end of the wars.

I am not stocked enough with charity to pity the ruiners thereof, if the materials of this castle answered not their expectation who destroyed it.

Pass we now from the preterperfect to the present tense, I mean, from what was once to what now is most magnificent, the castle of Warwick. It over-looketh the town, which is washed and swept by nature; so sweet, on a rising hill, is the situation thereof. The prospect of this castle is pleasant in itself, and far more to the present owner thereof, the right honourable Robert lord Brooke, seeing the windows look into lands mostly of his possession.

We will conclude the buildings of this county, with the beautiful CROSS of COVENTRY; a reformed cross (or standard rather) without any cross thereon, being a master-piece, all for ornament, nothing for superstition; so that the most curious hath just cause to commend, the most conscientious to allow, none to condemn it.

It was begun 1541, the 33d, and finished 1544, the 36th of king Henry the Eighth, at the sole cost of Sir William Hollis, lord mayor of London, great grandfather to the right honourable the earl of Clare.

• Mr. Vernour.

THE WONDERS.

At Leamington, within two miles of Warwick, there issue out (within a stride) of the womb of the earth two twin-springs, as different in taste and operation, as Esau and Jacob in disposition, the one salt, the other fresh. Thus the meanest countryman doth plainly see the effects, whilst it would pose a consultation of philosophers to assign the true cause thereof.

To this permanent let me enjoy a transient wonder, which was some fifty years since. The situation of Coventry is well known, on a rising hill, having no river near it, save a small brook, over which generally one may make a bridge with a stride. Now here happened such an inundation, on Friday April the seventeenth, 1607 (attested under the seal of the city, in the mayoralty of Henry Sewel) as was equally admirable:

1. In coming about eight o'clock in the morning, no considerable rain preceding, which might suggest the least suspicion thereof.

2. In continuance, for the space of three hours, wherein it overflowed more than two hundred and fifty dwelling houses, to the great damage of the inhabitants.

3. In departure, or vanishing rather; sinking as suddenly as it did rise.

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Thus what the Scripture saith of wind, was then true of the water, One cannot tell whence it came nor whither it went."* Leaving others to inquire into the second and subordinate, I will content myself with admiring the Supreme cause, observed by the Psalmist, "He turneth a wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into water-springs."+

MEDICINAL WATERS.

At Newnham Regis there is a spring, the water whereof drunk with salt looseneth, with sugar bindeth, the body. It is also very sovereign against ulcers, impostumes, and the stone. This last I commend to the reader's choice observation: the same author affirmeth that it turneth sticks into stone, and that he himself was an eye-witness thereof. Now, how it should dissolve the stone in the body of a man, and yet turn wood into stone, I leave to such who are Naturæ à sanctioribus consiliis, at their next meeting at their council-table to discuss and decide.

PROVERBS.

"He is the Black Bear of Arden."]

Arden is a forest, anciently occupying all the wood-land part of this county. By the Black Bear is meant Guy Beauchamp earl of Warwick, who (besides the allusion to his crest) was † Psalm cvii, 35.

* John iii. 8.

Speed, in his Description of Warwickshire.

grim of person and surly of resolution; for, when this bear had gotten Pierce Gavistone (that monkey and minion of king Edward the Second) into his chambers, he caused his death at a hill within two miles of Warwick, notwithstanding all opposition to the contrary. The proverb is appliable to those who are not terriculamenta but terrores, no fancy-formed bug-bears, but such as carry fear and fright to others about them.

"As bold as Beauchamp."]

Some will say the concurrence of these two B. B. did much help the proverb; and I think (as in others of the same kind) they did nothing hinder it. However, this quality could not be fixed on any name with more truth. If it be demanded, what Beauchamp is chiefly meant, amongst the many of that surname, earls of Warwick? The answer of mutinous people is true in this case, one and all: 1. William; 2. Guy; 3. Thomas; 4. Thomas; 5. Richard; 6. Henry.

Such a series there was, of successive undauntedness in that noble family. But, if a better may be allowed amongst the best and a bolder amongst the boldest, I conceive that Thomas, the first of that name, gave the chief occasion to this proverb, of whom we read it thus reported in our Chronicles:* "At Hogges in Normandy, in the year of our Lord 1346, being there in safety arrived with Edward the Third, this Thomas, leaping over ship-board, was the first man who went on land, seconded by one esquire and six archers, being mounted on a silly palfrey, which the sudden accident of the business first offered to hand; with this company he did fight against one hundred armed men; and, in hostile manner, overthrew every one which withstood him; and so, at one shock, with his seven assistants, he slew sixty Normans, removed all resistance, and gave means to the whole fleet to land the army in safety.

The heirs male of this name are long since extinct, though some, deriving themselves from the heirs general, are extant at this day.

"The bear wants a tail, and cannot be a lion."]

Nature hath cut off the tail of the bear close at the rump, which is very strong and long in a lion; for a great part of the lion's strength consists in his tail, wherewith (when angry) he useth to flap and beat himself, to raise his rage therewith to the height, so to render himself more fierce and furious. If any ask why this proverb is placed in Warwickshire? let them take the ensuing story for their satisfaction:

Robert Dudley earl of Leicester derived his pedigree from the ancient earls of Warwick, on which title he gave their crest, the Bear and Ragged Staff; and when he was governor of the Low Countries, with the high title of his Excellency, disusing his own coat of the green lion with two tails, he signed all instru

⚫ Out of which it is observed by Mr. Mills, in his Catalogue of Honour, p. 804, and Mr. Dugdale, in his Earls of Warwick.