Chronicles (1 of 6): The Description of BritaineHolinshed, Raphael
History
Chronicles (1 of 6): The Description of Britaine
Holinshed, Raphael
Great Britain -- History -- To 1485; Great Britain -- History -- Tudors, 1485-1603
Shetlands hereafter, I doo not meane to spend anie time about them as
yet.
There haue beene diuers that haue written of purpose, De insulis
Britanniæ, as Cæsar doth confesse. The like also may be seene by
Plutarch, who nameth one Demetrius a Britaine, that should set foorth an
exact treatise of each of them in order, and among other tell of
certeine desert Iles beyond Scotland dedicated to sundrie gods and
goddesses, but of one especiallie, where Briareus should hold Saturne
and manie other spirits fast bound with the chaines of an heauie sléepe,
as he heard, of which some die now and then, by meane wherof the aire
becommeth maruellouslie troubled, &c: as you may sée in Plutarch De
cessatione oraculorum, &c. But sith those bookes are now perished, and
the most of the said Ilands remaine vtterlie vnknowen, euen to our owne
selues (for who is able in our time to say where is Glota, Hiucrion,
Etta, Iduna, Armia, Æsarea, Barsa, Isiandium, Icdelis, Xantisma,
Indelis, Siata, Ga. Andros or Edros, Siambis, Xanthos, Ricnea, Menapia,
&c? whose names onelie are left in memorie by ancient writers, but I
saie their places not so much as heard of in our daies) I meane (God
willing) to set downe so manie of them with their commodities, as I doo
either know by Leland, or am otherwise instructed of by such as are of
credit. Herein also I will touch at large those that are most famous,
and breeflie passe ouer such as are obscure and vnknowen, making mine
entrance at the Thames mouth, and directing this imagined course (for I
neuer sailed it) by the south part of the Iland into the west. From
thence in like sort I will proceed into the north, & come about againe
by the east side into the fall of the aforesaid streame, where I will
strike saile, and safelie be set ashore, that haue often in this voiage
wanted water, but oftener béene set a ground, especiallie on the Scotish
side.
In beginning therefore, with such as lie in the mouth of the aforesaid
[Sidenote: Hoo.]
riuer, I must néeds passe by the How, which is not an Iland, and
therefore not within the compasse of my description at this time, but
almost an Iland, which parcels the Latins call Peninsulas, and I doo
english a Byland, vsing the word for such as a man may go into
drie-footed at the full sea, or on horssebacke at the low water without
anie boat or vessell: and such a one almost is Rochford hundred in Essex
also, yet not at this time to be spoken of, bicause not the sea onelie
but the fresh water also doth in maner enuiron it, and is the cheefe
occasion wherfore it is called an Iland. This How lieth between Cliffe
(in old time called Clouesho, to wit, Cliffe in How or in the hundred of
How) & the midwaie that goeth along by Rochester, of which hundred there
goeth an old prouerbe in rime after this maner:
He that rideth into the hundred of How,
Beside pilfering sea-men shall find durt ynow.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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