4 tants of this .place. The Brittaines that thought it better to worke for their conquerors in a good land, then to have the freedom "to sterve in a cold and barren quarter, were by degrees fetcht away, and wasted in the civill broyles of these Roman lords, till the land, allmost depopulated, lay open to the incursions of every borderer, and were forc 'd to call a stout warlike people, the Saxons, out of Germany, to their assistance. These willingly came at their call, but were not so easily sent out againe, nor perswaded to lett their hosts inhabite with them, for they drove the Brittaines into the mountaines of "Vales, and seated themselves in those pleasant countries which from the ne 11• masters receiv'd a new name, and ever since retain'd it, being call'd England; on which the warlike Dane made many attempts, with various successe, but after about 2 or 300 yeares vaine contest, they were for ever driven out, with shame and losse, and the Saxon Heptarchie melted into a monarchie, which continued till the superstitious prince, who was sainted for his ungodly chastitie, left an emptie throne to him that could seize it. He who first set up his standard in it, could not hold it, but with his life left it againe for the Norman usurper, who partly by violence, partly by falshood, layd here the foundation of his monarchie, in the people's blood, in which it hath sworn about 500 ycares, till the flood that bore it was plow'd into such deepe furrows as had alhnost sunke the proud vessel!. Of those Saxons that remain'd subjects to the Norman conqueror, my father's famely descended; of those Normans that came in with him, my mother's was derived; both of them, as all the rest in England, contracting such affinity, by mutuall marriages, that the distinction remain'd but a short space; Normans and Saxons becoming one people, who by their vallom grewe terrible to all the neighbouring princes, and have not only bravely quitted themselves in their owne defence, but have shew'd abroad, how easily they could subdue the world; if they did not preferre the quiett enioyment of their owne part above the conquest of the whole.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=