This Cross was erected by King Edward the first, in memory of his Wife Queen Eleanor, a renowned and vertuous Lady, Sister to Alphonsus King of Castile, Daughter to King Ferdinand the third, and only Child of Joan his second Wife, Daughter and Heir of John Earl of Ponthien. She accompanied her Husband to the Holy Land, in which Voyage, he being stabbed by a Saracen with a poysoned Dagger, when no Medicine could extract the poyson, she did it with her Tongue, licking daily, while her Husband slept, his rankling wounds, whereby they perfectly closed, and yet her self received no harm! So soveraign a medicine (said Speed) is a womans tongue, a∣nointed with the vertue of lovely affection. Pity it is, saith Mr. Fuller, such a pretty story should not be true, because then we might hear of one womans tongue that hath done good, whereas otherwise we have heard of a hundred womens tongues that have done hurt. However, no question she was a woman of excellent parts, to our Nation a loving Mother, and (saith Walsingham) the Column and Pillar, as it were, of the whole Realm. She dyed at Herdby in Lincolnshire, November 29, 1290, ha∣ving been King Edwards Wife 36 years, who erected to her honour these Crosses, as Statues, at Lincoln, Grantham, Stanford, Geddington, Northampton, Stony-Stratford, Dunstable, St. Albans, this at Waltham, and one at Westminster called Charing-cross; which last was by the Rump, that Maggot-end of a Parliament, pulled down; to such un∣certain periods come oftentimes the fairest Structures, as this which was built of Marble, and therefore the more subject to the covetous∣ness of avaritious hands. Thus, as John Taylor hath it,
Old Charing-Cross that lasted many lives, Is turn'd to Saltsellers and H••f••s of Knives.But this Cross at Waltham being not so rich, escaped ruine, though time hath made it something ruinous in respect of its former beauty and splendor. But enough of this Cross, lest I cross my Reader with the tediousness of the relation thereof.