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
Furthermore, the said riuer floweth and filleth all his chanels twise in
the daie and night, that is in euerie twelue houres once; and this
ebbing & flowing, holdeth on for the space of seauentie miles, within
the maine land: the streame or tide being alwaies highest at London,
when the moone dooth exactlie touch the northeast and south or west
points of the heauens, of which one is visible, the other vnder the
earth, and not subiect to our sight. These tides also differ in their
times, each one comming latter than other, by so manie minuts as passe
yer the reuolution and naturall course of the heauens doo reduce, and
bring about the said planet vnto those hir former places: whereby the 36
[Sidenote: The iust dist[=a]ce betwéene one tide and another.]
common difference betwéene one tide and another, is found to consist of
twentie foure minuts, which wanteth but twelue of an whole houre in
foure and twentie, as experience dooth confirme. In like sort we sée by
dailie triall, that each tide is not of equall heigth and greatnesse:
for at the full and change of the moone we haue the greatest flouds, and
such is their ordinarie course, that as they diminish from their changes
and fuls, vnto the first and last quarters; so afterwards they increase
againe, vntill they come to the full and change. Sometimes also they
rise so high (if the wind be at the north or northeast, which bringeth
in the water with more vehemencie, bicause the tide which filleth the
chanell, commeth from Scotland ward) that the Thames ouerfloweth hir
banks néere vnto London: which hapneth especiallie in the fuls and
changes of Januarie and Februarie, wherein the lower grounds are of
custome soonest drowned. This order of flowing in like sort is
perpetuall, so that when the moone is vpon the southwest and north of
points, then is the water by London at the highest: neither doo the
tides alter, except some rough winds out of the west or southwest doo
[Sidenote: The streame oft checked in hir entrance into the land.]
kéepe backe and checke the streame in his entrance, as the east and
northeast do hasten the comming in thereof, or else some other
extraordinarie occasion, put by the ordinarie course of the northerne
seas, which fill the said riuer by their naturall returne and flowing.
And that both these doo happen eft among, I refer me to such as haue not
sildome obserued it, as also the sensible chopping in of thrée or foure
tides in one naturall daie, wherof the vnskilfull doo descant manie
things.
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