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.

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.

ments with the crest of the Bear and Ragged Staff. He was then suspected, by many of his jealous adversaries, to hatch an ambitious design to make himself absolute commander (as the lion is king of beasts) over the Low Countries. Whereupon some (foes to his faction, and friends to the Dutch freedom) wrote under his crest, set up in public places:

Ursa caret cauda, non queat esse Leo.

"The Bear he never can prevail

To Lion it, for lack of tail."

Nor is Ursa in the feminine merely placed to make the verse, but because naturalists observe in bears that the female is always the strongest.

This proverb is applied to such who, not content with their condition, aspire to what is above their worth to deserve, or power to achieve.

"He is true Coventry blue."]

It seems the best blues, so well fixed as not to fade, are dyed in Coventry. It is applied to such an one who is fidus Achates, a fast and faithful friend to those that employ him. Opposite hereunto is the Greek proverb,* Toυ Kaкoυ TρÉTTεTαι Xpws, Ignavi vertitur color, (a coward will change colour), either for fear or falsehood, when deserting those who placed confidence in him. As for those who apply this proverb to persons so habited in wickedness as past hope of amendment, under favour I conceive it a secondary and but abusive sense thereof.

PRINCES.

ANNE NEVILL, daughter and coheir to Richard Nevill earl of Warwick, was most probably born in Warwick Castle. She was afterward married, with a great portion and inheritance, to Edward prince of Wales, sole son to king Henry the Sixth; a prince, neither dying of disease, nor slain in battle, nor executed by justice, but barbarously butchered by Richard duke of Glou

cester.

Was it not then a daring piece of courtship in him, who had murdered her husband, to make love unto her in way of marriage? And was not his success strange in obtaining her, having no beauty to commend his person to her affection? Oh the impotency of the weaker sex, to resist the battery of a princely suitor, who afterwards became king by his own ambition! However, her life with him proved neither long nor fortunate.

It happened that there was the muttering of a marriage between Henry earl of Richmond and Elizabeth eldest daughter to -Edward the Fourth, so to unite the houses of Lancaster and York. To prevent this, king Richard the Third intended to marry the lady himself; so methodical he was in breaking the commandments of the second table. First, "Honour thy father

*

Plutarchus, in problemate, Cur polypus mutat colorem.

and mother, "when he procured his mother to be proclaimed a harlot, by a preacher at Paul's Cross. Secondly, "thou shalt not kill," when he murdered his nephews. Thirdly, "thou shalt not commit adultery," being now in pursuit of an incestuous copulation.

Say not that this match would nothing confirm his title, seeing formerly he had pronounced all the issue of king Edward the Fourth as illegitimate; for, first, that design was rather indeavoured than effected; most men remaining (notwithstanding this bastardizing attempt) well satisfied in the rightfulness of their extraction. Secondly, they should or should not be bastards, as it made for his present advantage; tyrants always driving that nail which will go, though it go cross to those which they have driven before. Lastly, if it did not help him, it would hinder the earl of Richmond, which made that usurper half wild till he was wedded.

But one thing withstood his desires. This Anne his queen was still alive, though daily quarrelled at, and complained of (her son being lately dead) for barren; and oh, what a loss would it be to nature itself, should her husband die without an heir unto his virtues! Well, this lady understanding that she was a burthen to her husband, for grief soon became a burthen to herself, and wasted away on a sudden. Some think she went her own pace to the grave, while others suspect a grain was given her, to quicken her in her journey to her long home; which happened anno Domini 1484.

EDWARD PLANTAGENET, son to George duke of Clarence, may pass for a prince, because the last male heir of that royal family. Yea, some of his foes feared, and more of his friends desired, that he might be king of England. His mother was Isabel, eldest daughter to Richard Nevill earl of Warwick; and he was born in Warwick castle.*

As his age increased, so the jealousy of the kings of England on him did increase, being kept close prisoner by king Edward the Fourth, closer by king Richard the Third, and closest by king Henry the Seventh. This last, being of a new lineage and surname, knew full well how this nation hankered after the name of Plantagenet; which as it did out-syllable Tudor in the mouths, so did it outvie it in the affections of the English. Hence was it that the earl was kept in so strict restraint, which made him very weak in his intellectuals; and no wonder, being so sequestered from human converse.

It happened, a marriage was now in debate betwixt prince Arthur and Catherine daughter to Ferdinand king of Spain; and the latter would not consent thereunto, until, to clear all titles, this Edward Plantagenet were taken out of the way. There* Mr. Dugdale, in his Illustrations of Warwickshire, in the Catalogue of the Earls thereof.