16.

You land at Dover; shoals of people come,
And Kent alone now seems all Christendom.
The Cornish rebels (eight score summers since)
At black-heath fought against their lawful prince;
Which doleful place, with hateful treason stain'd,
Its credit now by loyalty regain'd.

17.

Great London the last station you did make;
You took not it, but London you did take.
And now no wonder men did silence break,

When Conduits did both French and Spanish speak.
Now at White-hall the guard, which you attends,
Keeps out your foes, God keep you from your friends!

18.

THE bells aloud did ring, for joy they felt;

Hereafter sacrilege shall not them melt.

And round about the streets the bonfires blaz'd.

With which New-lights fanatics were amaz'd.

The brandish'd swords this boon begg'd before death,

Once to be shewed, then buried in the sheath.

19.

The Spaniard, looking with a serious eye,

Was forc'd to trespass on his gravity.

Close to conceal his wondering he desir'd,

But all in vain, who openly admir'd.

The French, who thought the English mad in mind, Now fear too soon they may them sober find.

20.

The Germans seeing this your sudden power,
Freely confess'd another emperor.
The joyful Dane to heav'ns cast up his eyes,
Presuming suffering kings will sympathise.
The Hollanders (first in a sad suspense)
Hop'd that your mercy was their innocence.

21.

Long live our gracious CHARLES, second to none
In honour, who e'er sate upon the throne.

Be you above your ancestors renown'd,

Whose goodness wisely doth your greatness bound;

And, knowing that you may be what you would,
Are pleased to be only what you should.

22.

Europe's great arbitrator, in your choice
Is plac'd of Christendom the casting voice.
Hold you the scales in your judicious hand,
And when the equal beam shall doubtful stand,
As you are pleased to dispose one grain,
So falls or riseth either France or Spain.

23.

As Sheba's queen defective Fame accus'd,
Whose niggardly relations had abus'd
Th' abundant worth of Solomon, and told

Not half of what she after did behold:

The same your case, Fame hath not done you right;

Our ears are far out-acted by our sigh.

24.

Yourself's the ship return'd from foreign trading,
England's your port, experience the lading.
God is the pilot; and now, richly fraught,
Unto the port the ship is safely brought.
What's dear to you, is to your subjects cheap ;
You sow'd with pain what we with pleasure reap.

25.

The good-made laws by you are now made good,
The prince and people's right both understood:
Both being bank'd in their respective station,
No fear hereafter of an inundation.
Oppression, the king's evil, long endur'd,
By others caus'd, by you alone is cur'd.

And here my Muse craves her own Nunc dimittis, never to make verses more; and because she cannot write on a better, will not write on another occasion, but heartily pray in prose for the happiness of her lord and master. And now, having taken our Vale of verses, let us therewith take also our Farewell of Worcestershire.

THE FAREWELL.

I read in a good author* how the State of Lunenburg in Germany (whose chief revenues arise from the sale of salt) prohibited poor people the benefit thereof. Whereupon Divine Providence (offended that a monopoly was made of his mercy) stopped the flowing of those salt-springs for a time, till the poor were restored to their partage therein. I am not particularly instructed, what share the poor have in the salt of this shire, not knowing how their interest is stated therein: but I presume the concernments of the poor are well cared for, and all things equally ordered betwixt them and rich people, grounding my confidence on the long and large continuance of the salt-pits amongst them. All I will add is this; I shall pray that they may endeavour for spiritual-soul-savouriness, " that their speech may be always with grace seasoned."+

As for the loyal city of Worcester (which deserves a particular Farewell by itself), I heartily desire that God would be pleased to restore unto it the years which the locust, caterpillar, and palmer-worm, have devoured. And how quickly can he do it (as by infinite other ways, so) by blessing the clothing, the staple commodity in this county! not formerly omitted by me, but pretermitted till this occasion. Sure it is, that the finest (though this may seem a word of challenge) cloth of England is made at Worcester; and such, I believe, was that which Erasmus, that great critic (who knew fine cloth as well as pure * Fines Morison, in his Travels, p. 3. † Col. iv. 6.

In his Colloquy, intituled, « UxoR Μεμψίγαμος.

WORTHIES SINCE THE TIME OF FULLer.

389

Latin) calleth pannus Britannicus; Lempster wool (in the neighbouring county of Hereford) being here made into (pardon the prolepsis till it be dyed) the purest scarlet.

WORTHIES OF WORCESTERSHIRE WHO HAVE FLOURISHED SINCE THE TIME OF FULLER.

John BASKERVILLE, celebrated printer at Birmingham, improver of type-founding; born at Wolverley 1706; died 1755.

Major John BERNARDI, Jacobite, brave adventurer, imprisoned by the decree of six parliaments, under four sovereigns, for forty years; born at Evesham 1657; died 1736.

Thomas BLOUNT, miscellaneous writer, author on Manorial Tenures; born at Bordesley 1618; died 1679.

William BOWLES, divine and poet; born at Hagley; died 1705.

Samuel BUTLER, author of the satirical poem of "Hudibras ;" born at Strensham 1612; died 1680.

William DERHAM, philosopher, divine, and author; born at Stoulton 1657; died 1735.

George HOOPER, bishop of Bath and Wells, orientalist, and learned author; born at Grimley 1640; died 1727.

William HOPKINS, divine, linguist, and antiquary; born at Evesham 1647; died 1700.

William HUSKISSON, statesman; born at Birts Morton 1770; (accidentally killed at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester railway 1830.)

George Lord LYTTELTON, statesman, historian, and poet, and patron of learned men; born at Hagley 1709; died 1773.

Dr. Treadway Russel NASH, divine, antiquary, and historian of the county, and annotator on Hudibras; born at Clerkenleap in Kempsey 1725; died 1811.

William PRICE, orientalist; born at Worcester; died 1830. Henry SAVAGE, divine and topographer; born at Eldersfield; died 1672.

Edmund SMITH, surnamed "Rag Smith," from the carelessness of his dress; scholar, critic, and poet, friend of Steele and Addison; born 1668; died 1709.

William SMITH, divine, author, and translator; born at Worcester 1711; died 1787.

John SOMERS, lord chancellor, statesman and author; born at Worcester 1650 or 1652; died 1716.

John WALL, physician, who discovered the medicinal pro perties of the Malvern springs, &c.; born at Powick 1708; died 1776.

William WALSH, M. P. critic and poet; born at Abberley 1663; died 1710.

Topography is deeply indebted to the labours of the Rev. Dr. Treadway Nash for his valuable Collections for the History of Worcestershire, which were published in 2 vols. folio in 1781. The original collectors were Thomas Habing. don and his son William; and the MSS of both, augmented by those of Dr. Thomas and Bp. Lyttleton, having been bequeathed to the Society of Antiquaries, Dr. Nash was indulged, in 1774, with the unreserved use of them for the purpose of publication.

Of the City and Cathedral of Worcester, there have been various publications, by different authors; viz. by Mr. Thos. Abingdon (1717); by the Rev. Dr. Thomas (1737); and by Valentine Green (1796); and in 1829 a small 12mo vol. was published anonymously. In 1794, appeared the Rev. W. Tindal's History of Evesham, and Mr. J. Payton's History of Dudley Castle and Priory; to which may be added the Rev. J. Barrett's Description of Malvern.-ED.

YORKSHIRE.

YORKSHIRE hath the bishopric of Durham and Westmorland on the north; Lancashire and a snip of Cheshire on the west; Derby, Nottingham, and Lincolnshire (divided by the Humber) on the south; and the German ocean on the east thereof. It extendeth (without any angular advantages) unto a square of fourscore and ten miles, adequate in all dimensions unto the dukedom of Wirtemburg in Germany. Yea, on due consideration I am confident that all the Seven United Provinces cannot present such a square of solid continent, without any sea interposed.

One may call and justify this to be the best shire of England, and that not by the help of the general catachresis of good for great (a good blow, good piece, &c.) but in the proper acceptation thereof. If in Tully's Orations (all being excellent) that is adjudged "optima quæ longissima," (the best which is the longest), then, by the same proportion, this shire (partaking in goodness alike with others) must be allowed the best; seeing Devonshire itself, the next in largeness, wisely sensible of the visible inequality betwixt them, quits all claims of co-rivality (as a case desperate), and acknowledgeth this as paramount in greatness.

Indeed, though other counties have more of the warm sun, this hath as much as any of God's [temporal] blessings. So that let a surveyor set his centre at Pontefract or thereabouts, and take thence the circumference of twenty miles, he there will meet with a tract of ground not exceeded for any, nor equalled for the goodness and plenty of some commodities. I would term it the garden of England, save because it is so far from the Mansion-house, I mean, the city of London; insomuch that such sullen dispositions, who do not desire to go thither only because of the great distance, the same if settled there would nor desire to come thence, such the delight and pleasure therein.

Most true it is, that when king Henry the Eighth, anno 1548, made his progress to York, doctor Tonstall, bishop of Durham, then attending on him, shewed the king a valley (being then some few miles north of Doncaster), which the