luscious and noxious is flattery!), with the astringency thereof causing an atrophy on consumption in the grain. His etymology was peculiar to himself who would have it termed mildew, because it grindeth the grain aforehand, making it to dwindle away almost to nothing.

It falleth (be it mist or dew) when corn is almost ripe for the sickle, and antedateth the harvest (not before it is welcome, but) before it is wished by the husbandman, grain being rather withered than ripened thereby. If, after the fall, a good rain or strong wind cometh, it washeth and wipeth it off, so that no mischief is done; otherwise the hot sun arising sealeth (to use the husbandman's phrase) the mildew upon the straw, and so intercepteth the nourishment betwixt the root and the ear, especially if it falleth not on the house (which is but another case, and hath another tunicle under it) but on the stripped straw near to the top of the stalk.

Grain growing under hedges (where the wind hath least power) is most subject thereunto; though wheat of all grain is most, bearded wheat of wheat is least, liable unto it: not that the haums thereof are spears to fright the mildew from it; but advantageous gutters, to slide it away the sooner, which sticketh on notted or pollard wheat.

Inland counties, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, &c. complain the least, maritime the most, of mildew; which insinuateth the vapours of the sea to be casual thereof. Some hold that, seeing it falls from the skies, earth hath no guard for heaven's blow, save prayer, which in this very case is prescribed by Solomon.* But others conceive, that human may be subordinate to spiritual means; to prevent, not the falling but the hurting of this dew in such a degree, and hopefully expect the remedy from the ingenuity of the next generation.

I am the rather confirmed in my hopes, because a help hath been found out against the smutting of wheat, at least wise in some good proportion; I say the smutting of wheat, which makes it a negro, as mildew makes it a dwarf; viz. by mingling the seed with lime, as your husbandmen will inform you.

And for my Vale to this county, I heartily desire, that either God would of his goodness spare the fruits of the earth from so hurtful a casualty, or put it into the minds of men (if it may stand with his will) to find out some defensitive, in some part, to abate the malignity thereof.

Kings viii, 37.

LONDON.

It is the second city in Christendom for greatness, and the first for good government. There is no civilized part of the world but it hath heard thereof, though many with this mistake, that they conceive London to be the country, and England but the city therein.

Some have suspected the declining of the lustre thereof, because of late it vergeth so much westward, increasing in buildings in Covent Garden, &c. But by their favour (to disprove their fear) it will be found to burnish round about, to every point of the compass, with new structures daily added there

unto.

It oweth its greatness, under God's divine providence, to the well-conditioned river of Thames, which doth not (as some tyrant rivers in Europe) abuse its strength in a destructive way, but employeth its greatness in goodness, to be beneficial to commerce, by the reciprocation of the tide therein. Hence it was that when king James, offended with the city, threatened to remove his court to another place, the Lord Mayor (boldly enough) returned, "that he might remove his court at his pleasure, but could not remove the river of Thames."

Erasmus will have London so called from Lindus, a city of Rhodes; averring a great resemblance betwixt the language and customs of the Britons and Grecians. But Mr. Camden (who no doubt knew of it) honoureth not this his etymology with the least mention thereof. As improbable, in my apprehension, is the deduction from Lud's-town,-town being a Saxon, no British termination. And that it was so termed from Lan Dian, a temple of Diana (standing where now St. Paul's doth), is most likely, in my opinion.

MANUFACTURES.

Natural Commodities are not to be expected to grow in this place, which is only the field of art, and shop-general of England; Cheapside being called the best garden only by metaphor; seeing otherwise nothing but stones are found therein. As for London Manufactures, they are so many, I shall certainly lose myself in this labyrinth, if offering to enter. In leaving, therefore, all intermediate inventions to others, I will only in

In his adage, Rhodü Sacrificium.

sist on the Needle and the Engine, as the least and greatest instruments employed therein.

NEEDLES.

The use hereof is right ancient, though sewing was before needles; for we read that our first parents made themselves aprons by sewing fig-leaves together,* either fastening them with some glutinous matter, or with some sharp thing joining them together.

A pin is a blind needle, a needle a pin with an eye. What nails do in solid, needles do in supple bodies, putting them together; only they remain not there formally, but virtually, in the thread which they leave behind them. It is the woman's pencil; and embroidery [vestis acu picta] is the master-piece thereof. I say embroidery, much used in former, neglected in our age, wherein modern gallants (affecting variety of suits) desire that their clothes should be known by them, and not, as our ancestors, they by their clothes, one suit of state serving them for several solemnities.

This industrious instrument, needle, quasi ne idle (as some will have it), maintaineth many millions. Yea, he who desireth a blessing on the plough and the needle (including that in the card and compass) comprehendeth most employments at home and abroad, by land and by sea.

All I will add is this: that the first fine Spanish needles in England were made in the reign of queen Mary, in Cheapside, by a negro; but such his envy, that he would teach his art to none; so that it died with him. More charitable was Elias Crowse, a German, who, coming over into England about the eighth of queen Elizabeth, first taught us the making of Spanish needles; and since we have taught ourselves the using of them.

THE ENGINE.

This general word, communicable to all machines or instruments, use, in this city, hath confined to signify that which is used to quench scare-fires therein. One Mr. Jones, a merchant (living in Austin Friars), fetched the first form thereof from Neuremberg, and obtained a patent of king James, that none should be made without his approbation.

Two were begun but not finished, in his life-time, who died in the great plague, primo Caroli Primi; since which time, William Burroughs, city founder, now living in Lothbury, hath so completed this instrument, that his additions amount to a new invention, having made it more secure from breaking, and easy to be cleansed; so that, with the striking out of a wedge, it will cleanse itself, and be fit to work again in four minutes.

Since, the aforesaid party hath made about three score of these engines for city and country. The cooper, carpenter,

* Gen. iii. 7.

smith, founder, brazier, and turner, contribute their skills to the perfecting of it. Yet may the price thereof be compassed for thirty-five pounds.

It hath gained, because it hath saved, many pounds, and (which is invaluable) many lives of men, in this city.* The best (though not the biggest) was lately in the church of St. James, Clerkenwell, as hath many times been experimented. "A good musician makes a good instrument;" and it was a poor blue-cap (better known by his work than name) who played so well thereon, that (though not, with the left-handed Gibeonites, to hit the mark within a hair's breadth) he could hit within the scantling of a shilling. Since a newer at St. Bridget's church is a better; and no wonder if the younger out-active those who are more ancient. All wished this engine may be brought forth once a quarter, to be scoured, oiled, and trimmed, but not to be used. But if there be an occasion thereof, may it effectually perform that for which it was intended!

THE BUILDINGS.

ST. PAUL'S.

This is the only cathedral in Christendom dedicated solely to that Saint; great the pillars (little legs will bow under so big a body), and small the windows thereof; darkness in those days being conceived to raise devotion; besides, it made artificial lights to appear with the more solemnity. It may be called the Mother Church indeed, having one babe in her body, St. Faith's, and another in her arms, St. Gregory's. Surely such who repair to divine service in St. Faith may there be well minded of their mortality, being living people, surrounded with the antiperistasis of the dead both above and beneath them. For the present, I behold St. Paul's church as one struck with the dead palsy on one side, the east part and quoir thereof being quick and alive, well maintained and repaired, whilst the west part is ruinous and ready to fall down.† Little hopes it will be repaired in its old decays, which is decayed in its new reparations, and, being formerly an ornament, is now an eye-sore to the City; not to say unto the citizens in general, some being offended that it is in so bad, and others that it is in no worse, condition.

The repairing of this church was a worthy monument of the piety and charity of archbishop Laud; not only procuring the bounty of others, but expending his own estate thereon. We despair not but that his majesty's zeal, in commending this work to their care, will in due time meet with the forward bounty of the citizens. It is no sin to wish, that those who

In a very few years after this was written, the great Fire of London destroyed, indiscriminately, both engines and buildings.--ED.

† St. Paul's Cathedral was, soon after, among the dreadful ruins of the city.—ED.

have plundered the cloak and cover of St. Paul's (not left behind by, but) violently taken from him, might be compelled to make him a new one of their own cost; at leastwise to contribute more than ordinary proportions thereunto.

As for the parochial churches in London, they have all either cast their skins with the snake, or renewed their bills with the eagle, having at the least their fronts beautified, if not their bodies rebuilt; amongst which St. Clement's, Eastcheap, is not to be forgotten, the monument of the bounty of Baldwin Hamey, doctor in physic; so that what is written in a modest challenge to the papist, on the entry into the new-built church of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, may be inscribed on the rest: "Heus, Viator! anne bonis operibus effœtum est hoc seculum ?”

THE BRIDGE.

The middle thereof is properly in none, the two ends in two counties, Middlesex and Surrey. Such who only see it beneath, where it is a bridge, cannot suspect it should be a street; and such who behold it above, where it is a street, cannot believe it is a bridge. It was made with great cost, and is maintained with daily charge against the battery and assault of the tide. The sad riddle is generally known to all, which happened here some twenty years since, when a lamentable fire could not be quenched, because there was such store of water, hindering all access thereunto.

THE EXCHANGE.

This was built by Sir Thomas Gresham, Knight, anno Domini 1571, in imitation of that at Antwerp, but so that the copy exceedeth the original. Queen Elizabeth named it the Royal Burse; but it is commonly called the Exchange, or Change, because, by bargains driven there, wares are changed for wares, and wares for money, and money for money. Yet, because much of mutability is imported in the word Change, it may be a fit remembrancer to merchants meeting here, not to build their hopes of perpetuity on what is so subject to vicissitude and alteration. Well may this place be termed the Change, where poor men so soon become rich by good success, and rich men poor by losses and casualties unexpected!

THE TOWER.

This, to waive the fable of Julius Cæsar, was first founded by king William the Conqueror, finished by William Rufus, encompassed with a ditch by William Longcamp bishop of Ely, enlarged by king Henry the Third, fortified by king Edward the Fourth, beautified by king Richard the Third, repaired by king Henry the Eighth; since whose time no considerable addition thereunto. The mortar thereof (to make it, belike, the