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
one of them called Shepes Ile, the other Rat Ile; the first is but a
little plot lieng at the point of the Baie, before we come at the
Blockehouse which standeth north of the same, at the verie entrie into
Milford hauen vpon the eastside. By north also of Shepes Ile, and
betwéene it & Stacke rocke, which lieth in the verie middest of the
hauen, at another point is Rat Ile yet smaller than the former, but what
[Sidenote: Schalmey.]
commodities are to be found in them as yet I cannot tell. Schalmey the
greater and the lesse lie northwest of Milford hauen a good waie. They
belong both to the crowne, but are not inhabited, bicause they be so
[Sidenote: Schoncold.]
often spoiled with pirates. Schoncold Ile ioineth vnto great Schalmey,
and is bigger than it, onlie a passage for ships parteth them, whereby
they are supposed to be one: Leland noteth them to lie in Milford hauen.
Beside these also we found the Bateholme, Stockeholme, Midland, and
Gresholme Iles, and then doubling the Wellock point, we came into a
Baie, where we saw saint Brides Iland, and another in the Sound betwéene
Ramsey and the point, of all which Iles and such rocks as are offensiue
to mariners that passe by them, it may be my hap to speake more at large
hereafter.
[Sidenote: Limen or Ramsey.]
Limen (as Ptolomie calleth it) is situat ouer against S. Dauids in Wales
(wherevnto we must néeds come, after we be past another little one,
which some men doo call Gresholme) & lieth directlie west of Schalmey.
In a late map I find this Limen to be called in English Ramsey: Leland
also confirmeth the same, and I cannot learne more thereof, than that it
is much greater than anie of the other last mentioned (sithens I
described the Holmes) and for temporall iurisdiction a member of
Penbrookeshire, as it is vnto S. Dauids for matters concerning the
church. Leland in his commentaries of England lib. 8. saieth that it
contained thrée Ilets, whereof the bishop of S. Dauids is owner of the
greatest, but the chanter of S. Dauids claimeth the second, as the
archdeacon of Cairmarden dooth the third. And in these is verie
excellent pasture for sheepe and horses, but not for other horned beasts
which lacke their vpper téeth by nature (whose substance is conuerted
into the nourishment of their hornes) and therefore cannot bite so low.
[Sidenote: Mawr.]
Next vnto this Ile we came to Mawr, an Iland in the mouth of Mawr, scant
a bow shoot ouer, and enuironed at the low water with fresh, but at the
high with salt, and here also is excellent catching of herings.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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