Britain, or A chorographicall description of the most flourishing kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the ilands adjoyning, out of the depth of antiquitie beautified vvith mappes of the severall shires of England: vvritten first in Latine by William Camden Clarenceux K. of A. Translated newly into English by Philémon Holland Doctour in Physick: finally, revised, amended, and enlarged with sundry additions by the said author.

[ A] BVCKINGHAM-SHIRE.

WHereas Buckingham-shire is given to bring forth Beech trees plentifully, which the English-Saxons in elder times called Bucken, it may seeme conjecturally that Buckingham the chiefe Towne, and so the whole shire tooke the name from Beech trees. For there is a Country in Germany bearing Beech trees, named Buchonia: and with us, a towne in Norfolke called [ B] Buckenham, fruitfull of Beech, as I have beene enformed. This shire carrying but a small bredth, runneth forth in length from the Tamis North-ward. On the South-side it looketh into Barke-shire, severed from it by the river Tamis: on the West, Oxford-shire; from the North it hath Northhampton-shire, and from the East first Bedford-shire, then Hertford-shire, and afterward Middle-sex. The Country generally is of a rich plentifull soile, and passing full of Inhabitants, who chiefly employ themselves in graizing of cattell. It is divided into two parts, whereof the one bending into the South and East, and ri∣sing into hills, they call Chilterne, in the English-Saxon tongue 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉: the other lying under it North-ward is named the Vale.

[ C] Chiltern got that name according to the very nature of the soile of Chalky marle,* 1.1 which the ancient English men termed Cylt or Chilt. For, all of it mounteth aloft with whitish hills, standing upon a mixt earth of Clay and Chalke clad with groves and woods, wherein is much Beech, and it was altogether unpassable in times past by reason of trees, untill that Leofstane Abbot of Saint Albans did cut them downe, be∣cause they yeelded a place of refuge for theeves. In it, where the Tamis glideth at the foote of those hills with a winding course,* 1.2 standeth Marlow, a prety towne of no meane credite taking name of the said Chalke commonly tearmed Marle: which being spred upon Corne ground eaten out of heart with long tillage, doth quicken the same againe, so as that after one yeeres rest it never lieth fallow, but yeeldeth [ D] againe unto the Husband-man his seed in plentifull measure.

Nere unto this, a rill sheaddeth it selfe in the Tamis, making way through low places,* 1.3 and where it turneth hath a towne upon it called High Wickham or Wicombe rather, which happily thereof tooke the name, considering that the German Saxons terme any winding reach of river and sea, a Wicke, and Combe a low Valle. And very many places wee meet withall in England named in that respect. This towne for largenesse and faire building is equall to the greatest townes in this shire, and in that it hath a Major for the Head-Magistrate worthily to bee preferred before the rest. About the time of the Normans comming in, Wigod of Wallengford was Lord both of the Burgh of Wicomb, and also of the Villa forinseca (I speake according to the Re∣cord [ E] of the ancient Inquisition) that is, The out Hamlet or Bery. After whose death King Henry the first laid it unto the Crowne. But King John at the length, divided the said Out Berry betweene Robert de Vi-pa••••t and Alane Basset. North off Wicomb moun∣teth up aloft the highest place of this Region, and thereof it retaineth still the Bri∣tish name Pen. For the head or eminent top of a thing is with them called Pen: and hence it is that the Pennine Alpes, the Ap••••nine and many Mountaines among us tooke their names. Nere unto this Wickham or Wicomb is Bradenham seated in a very com∣modious and wholsome place, which now is become the principall habitation of the Barons of Windesor: (concerning whom I have already spoken in Barke-shire) ever since that in the memory of our fathers William Lord Windesor seated himselfe here, [ F] whose father S. Andrew descended from the old stemme of ancient Barons, King Henry the Eighth dignified with the honour of Baron Windesor.

Tamis having entertained the said Ri•••• commeth downe with a rolling streame by Aelan,* 1.4 famous for a Colledge, the nour••e garden (as it were) or plant plot of good let∣ters, which that most vertuous and godly Prince K. Henry the Sixt, as I have already

said, first founded. And some few miles forward the river Cole entreth into Tamis, [ A] which running here betweene Buckinghamshire and Middlesexe giveth name unto the towne Colbroke:* 1.5 which was that PONTES, whereof Antonine the Emperour maketh mention, as the distance on both sides from Wallingford and London doth witnesse: Neither is there any other place else in the way that leadeth from Walling∣ford to London to which the name of Pontes, that is, Bridges, might be more fitly appli∣ed. For this Cole is here parted into foure channels, over which stand as many bridges for the commodity of passengers; whereof that it tooke this name, the very signifi∣cation of the word doth plainly shew. Like as Gephyrae a towne in Bo••etia, and ano∣ther Pontes in France, where the County of Ponthieu, our Tunbridg, and others are so called, of Bridges. This County of Ponthieu (to note so much by the way) descended [ B] to the Kings of England in the right of Aeleanor the wife of King Edward the First, who by her mothers right was sole and entire Heire of the same. Cole by these se∣verall partitions of his streames compasseth in certaine pleasant Ilands, into which the Danes fled in the yeere of our Lord 894. when Aelfred preassed hard upon them, and there by the benefit of the place defended themselves, untill the English for want of provisions were forced to breake up Siege and leave them. At this di∣vorce and division of the waters Eure or Ever a little Towne sheweth it selfe, which when K. Richard the First had given unto Sir Robert Fitz-Roger, Lord of Clavering, his younger sonnes of this place assumed their surname, to wit, Hugh, from whom the Barons of Eure; and Robert from whom the Family of Eure in Axolme is sprung [ C] and spred. Farther within Land, are these places, which I may not passe over, Burn∣ham better knowne by the Hodengs,* 1.6 Lord Huntercombs, and Scudamores, who were Lords thereof and of Beacons-field successively by inheritance, than by it selfe. Stoke Pogeis,* 1.7 so called of the Lords thereof in old time named de Pogeis, and from them hereditarily devolved upon the Hastings: of whose race Edward Baron Hastings of Loughborrow founded here an Hospitall for poore people, making himselfe one of their society, and his nephew by the brother Henry Earle of Huntingdon built a very faire house: and Fernham, the very same, if I bee not deceived, which was called Fernham Roiall:* 1.8 and which in times past, the Barons Furnivall held by service of finding their Soveraigne Lord the King upon the day of his Coronation a glove for his right [ D] hand, and to support the Kings right arme the same day all the while hee holdeth the rega•••• Verge or Scepter in his hand. From the Furnivalls it came by the daughter of Thomas Nevill, * 1.9 unto the Talbots Earles of Shrewsbury, who although by exchange they surrendred up this Manour unto King Henry the Eight, yet they reserved this ho∣nourable Office still to them and their Heires for ever.

This Cole carrieth downe with him another riveret also, which somewhat above from the West sheddeth it selfe into it: upon it we saw first Missenden, where stood a religious House that acknowledged the D'Ollies their founders and certaine Gentle∣men surnamed De Missenden their especiall benefactours upon a vow for escaping a ship-wracke.* 1.10 And then in the Vale Amersham,* 1.11 in the Saxon tongue 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 [ E] which vaunted it selfe not for faire buildings, nor multitude of inhabitants, but for their late Lord Fr••ncis Russe•••• Earle of Bedford, who being the expresse paterne of true Piety and noblenesse lived most dearely beloved of all good men. But the prin∣cipall seate of the Earles of Bedford is called Cheineis,* 1.12 standing more East-ward, where both Iohn the first Earle out of this Family, and that noble Francis his sonne lye entombed together.* 1.13 Unto which adjoyneth on the one side Latimers, (so na∣med of the Lords thereof, I meane those more ancient Barons Latimer) before time called Islehamsted, where Sir Edwin Sands Knight, who tooke to wife the onely daughter of the Baron Sands, dwelt, while he lived in a very faire house, and on the other Chesham Bois, where, and at Draiton Beauchamp the Family of Cheneis hath anci∣ently [ F] flourished.

From hence I passed scarse three miles North-ward, but I came to the ridge of Chilturne-hils, which divideth the whole region a crosse from the South-west to the North-east, passing by many villages and small townes, among which that of greatest

[ A] note is Hamden, which gave name to an ancient and well spred Family in these parts. In the very East corner of these hils Ashridge a retiring house sometime of the kings standeth upon an ascent;* 1.14 where Edmund Earle of Cornewall sonne to Richard king of the Romans founded a religious house for a new Order of religious men in those daies, called * 1.15 Bon: Hommes by him first brought into England: Who professed the rule of S. Augustine, and were according to the manner of the Order of the Eremitans clad in skie coloured garments. From this ridge or edge of the Hils, there is a large prospect every way downe into the Vale beneath,* 1.16 which I said was the other part of the Shire. This almost throughout is a plaine Champion, standing likewise upon a clay-soile, stiffe, tough, and fruitfull; with pasture medowes most plentifull of grasse [ B] and fodder; feeding innumerable flockes of sheepe, whose soft and passing fine fleeces are in request even as farre as to the Turkish Nations in Asia. But it is all naked and bare of woods, unlesse it bee on the West side, where among others is Bernewood whose Forresters surnamed de Borstall were famous in former times. About this For∣rest the yeare after Christs Nativity 914. the Danes furiously raged: and then happily it was, that the ancient Burgh was destroied, whose antiquity Romane coined peeces of money there found doe testifie, which afterwards became the royall house of King Edward the Confessour:* 1.17 But now it is a Country Village, and in stead of Buri-Hill, they call it short, Brill. In this Vale although it be exceeding full of Townes and Villages, yet very few of them are memorable,* 1.18 and those either upon the River Tame or Vsa, [ C] that is, Ouse. Not far from Tame, which watereth the South part of the Vale, upon the rising of a prety hill standeth a faire Mercat Towne well occupied, and compas∣sed about with many most pleasant greene medowes and pastures, commonly called Ailesbury,* 1.19 of which, the whole Vale is termed the Vale of Ailesbury. The Engish-Sax∣ons called it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, when Cuthwulf the Saxon won it in the yeare of our Lord 572. For the Brittish name, whereby it was knowne before, in continuance of time is utterly lost. Famous it hath beene in times past especially for Ediths sake there foste∣red, who having obtained of her Father ••rewald this Towne for her Dowry, forth∣with by persuasion of the religious people bad the world and her husband farewell, and taking her selfe to the Vale for opinion of holinesse and devotion in that most [ D] pregnant and fruitfull age of Saints, became wonderfully renowned, even as farre as to working of miracles, together with her sister Eadburg: of whose name there is a little Towne among the Hils as yet called Eadburton. In the time of King William the Conquerour it was a Manour of the Kings: and certaine yard-lands were here given by the King, with this condition, that the Possessour or Holder thereof (marke ye nice and dainty ones) should finde 〈◊〉〈◊〉 for the Kings bed when the King came thither. In the Raigne of Edward the First, certaine Gentlemen named de Ailesbury, who bare for their Armes A••ure, a Crosse Argent, were by report (but I know not how truely) the Lords thereof; certaine it is, they were in those daies men of the better sort and of great good note, and such as by marriage with the daughter and [ E] heire of the Caihaignes (who were in times past Lords of Meddleton Caihaignes) came to a faire and goodly inheritance, which at last by heires generall came to the * 1.20 Chaworths, the Staffords of Gra••ton, &c. But now, the greatest name and reputati∣on that it hath is by grazing and feeding of Cattaile. Very much beholden also it is unto Justice Baldwin, who not onely adorned it with publique aedifices, but also made a passing faire causey to it (where the way was very deepe and cumbersome) for three miles or thereabout in length.

Heere round about in every side flockes of sheepe pasture most plenteously in mighty numbers, loden with fleeces, to the great gaine and commodity of their Masters especially at Quarendon,* 1.21 a Lordship belonging to Sir Henry Lee an honoura∣ble [ F] Knight of the Order of the Garter; Eythorp, which sometime was the Dinhams and now the Dorm••••s Knights, and also Winchindon appertaining to the Family of the Godwins Knights likewise, &c.

Lower wee meet with nothing memorable upon Tame, unlesse Cheardesley be (as many thinke it is) the place which was called in the Saxon-tongue Cerdick-flega, of

Cerdic the Saxon, who fought a very sharpe and bloudy battaile there with the Bri∣tans. [ A] Neere unto it standeth Credendon,* 1.22 now Crendon, which was the Capitall house belonging to the Honour of Giffard, for so were those lands termed which fell unto Walter Giffard at the Conquest of England, whose sonne the second Earle of Bucking∣ham and Ermingard his wife,* 1.23 built the Abbay of Noteley thereby in the yeare 1112. But his cozen Hugh de Bolebec, from whom by the females the Earles of Oxford are descended,* 1.24 held of him no small possessions in these parts. And the ruines of Bolebec Castle are seene hard by within the Parish of Whitchurch. Neere unto which is Ascot, the principall Mansion house of the Dormers from whence descended the Dutches of Feria in Spaine, and others of noble note.

Usa or Ouse, in times past Isa, and the second Isis, which with a soft and still streame [ B] passeth through the North part of this Province arising in Northampton-shire, and presently from his head, when being yet but small he closely entereth into this Shire, runneth beside Bittlesden,* 1.25 which Robert de Mapertshall Lord of the place gave unto Osbert de Clinton Chamberlaine to King Henry the First a powerfull Courtier, that he might not be punished as a Fellon for stealing away one of the Kings Hounds. But he restored it unto him againe with a cozin of his in marriage: yet lost he the same in the hot broile of the civill war under King Stephen;* 1.26 and Ernald Bois by way of a benefit and courtesie received it at the hands of Robert Earle of Leicester: And hee in the yeare of Christ 1127. founded there a little Monastery for the Cistertien Monks. Then Ouse saluteth Buckingham the Shire Towne, which, as Marian saith, King Ed∣ward [ C] the * 1.27 elder in the yeare of our Lord 915. fortified with a Rampire and Sconces on both bankes, against the Invasions and assaults of the Danes. Yet was it of no great name, as it may seeme, in the first age of the Normans, seeing that in the Raigne of King Edward the Confessour, (as we read in William Conquerours Domesday booke) it discharged it selfe for one Hide and no more, and had but six and twenty Burgesses. As for the Towne it is seated upon a low ground, but the River Ouse, very commodious for Mils encircleth it about save onely on the North side. The Castle standing in the middest raised upon an hill cast up, whereof no Reliques in manner are now to bee seene, divideth the Towne as it were in twaine. The greater part of the Towne bea∣reth North, wherein standeth the Towne-house, the other toward the South is the [ D] lesse, wherein is the Church, and that of no great antiquity: but in it was the Shrine of S. Rumald a child, who being borne in Kings-Sutton a Village thereby was canonized by our forefathers for a childe-Saint, and much famed with many miracles.

From hence Ouse hasteneth faire and softly into the North, and more Eastward from the River,* 1.28 neere unto the woods, ye have a sight of Whaddon, the habitation in times past of the Giffords, who were by Inheritance keepers of Whaddon Chase under the Earle of Vlster: and from whom it came to the Pigots, who passed it away by saile and alienation. There standeth now a house of the warlike Family of the Greys, Barons of Wilton,* 1.29 who held the Manour neere adjoyning named Acton, by Ser∣jeanty of keeping one Gerfalcon of their Soveraigne Lord the King. Whereupon that Fa∣mily [ E] of the Greys hath for their Badge or Cognisance a Falcon Sejant upon a Glove.

Not farre from hence is Thor••ton an habitation of the Tirelles, and Saulden, where is a faire and lovely house built by Sir Iohn Fortescue a right honourable knight and deeply learned withall, who for his wisdome was Chauncellor of the Exchequer and Dutchy of Lancaster, and of the Privie Counsell to Queene Elizabeth, and king Iames. On the other side of the River and not farre from the banke stand neighbour-like, Stow a house of the Family of Temple, Leckhamsted an habitation of the Green∣waies, Lillinstone likewise the seat of the ancient Family De-Hairell, commonly called Dairell; and Luffeld, where in times past was founded a Monastery by Robert Earle of Leicester: but by reason that the Monkes were all consumed with the plague, the [ F] house was utterly left desolate. Somewhat higher, on the South side of the River upon the very banke, standeth Stony-Stratford, a Towne of all the rest most frequen∣ted, named so of Stones, The Street way, and a Fourd: For, the houses are built of a cer∣taine rough stone which is digged forth in great abundance at Caversham hard by,

[ A] and it standeth upon the publike Street commonly called Watlingstreet, which was a Militarie high way made by the Romanes, and is evidently to be seene yet beyond the Towne with the banke or causey thereof, and hath a fourd but now nothing sha∣low, and hardly passable. The Towne is of good bignesse, and sheweth two Chur∣ches, and in the mids a Crosse, though it be none of the fairest, erected in memoriall of Queene Aeleonor of Spaine, wife to Edward the First with the Armes of England, Castile and Leon, &c. also of the Earldome of Ponthieu, whereof she was heire: And where sometimes there had been a Fourd, the River Ous•• hath a stone bridge over it, which keepeth in the River that was wont, when it swelled with winter flouds, to breake out and overflow the fields with great violence. But upon the banke of the [ B] other side which riseth somewhat higher the Towne sometime stood, as the in∣habitants themselves report. And there hard by, is Pasham, a place so called of pas∣sing over the River, so that it may seeme in times past to have been that passage, which King Edward the Elder kept against the Danes, whiles he fortified Torcester: But this passage or Ferry became quite forlet after that the Bridge was built at Stony-Stratford. Now if I should guesse that LACTORODVM, which Antonine the Em∣perour mentioneth stood heere; beside the situation upon the Militarie Highway of the Romanes, and the distance from other places, the signification also of the olde name LACTORODVM fetched out of the British language,* 1.30 maketh for me and favoureth my conjecture. Which name accordeth passing well with this new Eng∣lish [ C] name. For, both names in both languages were imposed of Stone, and Fourd. From hence Ouse runneth hard by Wolverton anciently Woluerington the seat of an ancient familie so surnamed:* 1.31 whose lands are named in Records, The Baronie of Wul∣verington, from whom it came to the house of the Longvilles of ancient descent in these parts: and by Newport Painell which tooke that name of Sir Fulcoà Painell the Lord thereof, and was from him devolved to the Barons Someries of Dudley, who heere had their Castle. Then, by Terringham, (which gave both name and habitati∣on to a worshipfull house and of great antiquity) it goeth to Oulney a meetly good mercate towne. This farre and a little further reacheth the County of Bucking∣ham by Vse the limit and bound thereof.

[ D] The first Earle of Buckingham,* 1.32 so farre as hitherto I could observe, was Walter surnamed Giffard, sonne to Osbern de Bolebec, a man of great name and reputation among the Normans: Who in a Charter of King Henrie the First is cited among the witnesses thereto by the name of Earle of Buckingham. After him followed his sonne bearing the same name, who in the booke of Abbingdon Abbay is called Earle Walter the younger, and died issuelesse in the yeere 1164. Afterward in the reigne of Henry the Second, that famous Richard Strangbow Earle of Pembroch called Con∣querour of Ireland, who derived his descent from the sister and heir of Walter Giffard the second, in certaine publique instruments bare this title. Then for a long time after lay this title as it were out of use and quite lost, untill that in the yeere 1377. [ E] King Richard the Second conferred this honor upon his Unkle Thomas of Woodstock, of whom I have already spoken among the Dukes of Glocester. Of this Thamas his daughter married unto Edmund Earle of Stafford was borne Humfrey Earle of Staf∣ford, created Duke of Buckingham, with an invidious precedence before all Dukes of England by King Henry the Sixt, in whose quarrell he spent his life, fighting most valiantly in the battaile at Northampton. After him succeeded his Graund∣child Henry, by his Sonne Humfrey, who made way for King Richard the Third the usurper unto the Kingdome, and streightwaies practised to depose him: for that he would not restore unto him the inheritance of the Bohuns by hereditarie right be∣longing unto him: but hee being intercepted lost his head for it: and found (but [ F] all too late) that Tyrants very often hew downe the staires and steps whereby they ascended: His sonne Edward being restored againe through speciall favour of King Henry the Seventh, by the wicked slights and practises of Cardinall Wolsey fell into disgrace with King Henry the Eighth, and being condemned of high treason, for that

among other matters hee had consulted with a Wizard about succession of the [ A] Crowne, was beheaded, a noble man exceeding much missed and lamented of good men. Which when the Emperour Charles the fifth heard, he said, as (it is written in his life) That a Butchers dogge had devoured the fairest Bucke in all England: alluding to the name Buckingham, and the said Cardinall who was a Butchers sonne. Ever since which time the splendour of this most noble family hath so decaied and faded, that there remaineth to their posterity the bare title onely of Barons of Stafford, whereas they were stiled before, Dukes of Buckingham, Earles of Staf∣ford, Hereford, Northampton, and Perth; Lords of Brecknock, Kimbalton, and Tunbridge.

There are reckoned in this small Shire Parishes 185.

[illustration]

[illustration]

[illustration]

BEDFORD Comitatus olim pars CATHIFVCLANORVM

Notes

• * 1.1

  Chiltern.
• * 1.2

  Marlow.
• * 1.3

  Wickham.
• * 1.4

  See in Ba¦shire.
• * 1.5

  Colbroke. Pontes.
• * 1.6

  Burnham.
• * 1.7

  Stoke Pogeis.
• * 1.8

  Fernham▪ Roiall.
• * 1.9

  The booke of Fines.
• * 1.10

  I. Rosse.
• * 1.11

  Amersham.
• * 1.12

  Cheneys.
• * 1.13

  Latimers.
• * 1.14

  Asheridg••••
• * 1.15

  Good-men.
• * 1.16

  The Vale.
• * 1.17

  Brill.
• * 1.18

  Or Isa.
• * 1.19

  Ailesbury.
• * 1.20

  De Cadur∣cis.
• * 1.21

  Quarendon.
• * 1.22

  Crendon.
• * 1.23

  Notesly.
• * 1.24

  Vi••ounts Bolebec.
• * 1.25

  Bittlesden. The Register of the Abbay.
• * 1.26

  De Bosco.
• * 1.27

  Before the Conquest.
• * 1.28

  Whaddon.
• * 1.29

  Barons Grey of Wilton.
• * 1.30

  Lactorodum.
• * 1.31

  Leach in the British tongue signifieth stones, Rid and Ryd a Fourd. Wolverton. Newport Paynell.
• * 1.32

  Earles of Buckingham.