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page 264

Which, Bodine turned into Lat[h]ine thu[e]s:
Est etiam catuli species indagine clara,
Corpus huic breve, magnifico sed corpore digna,
Picta Britannorum gensillos effera bello
Nutrit, Agasaeos[ ] vocat, vilissima forma
Corporis, ut credas parasitos esse latrantes.
And may be Englished in this wise,
Stout hounds there [are] and those of Finders kind,
Of bodie small but doughtie for their deed:
The painted folke, fierce Britans as we find
Them Gasehounds call, for they with them doe bred.
In making, like house dogs, or at a word,
To lickerous curs that craven at our bord.
Claudian also, touching our Mastives writeth in this sort:
Magna[ ] taurorum fracturicolla Britanni.
And British mastives downe that puls,
Or breake the necks of sturdy bulls.
I have to[o] far digressed about dogges, yet hope a favourable pardon.
in this Citie, as are owne Historiagraphers doe report, in the time Romans, was that Constans the Monke, who by his father Constantine was first elected Caesar, and afterwards Augustus: that Constantine I say who upon hope of this name had assumed the Imperiall purple robe that is, usurped the Empire against Honorius. For, long since, (as Zosinus recordeth speaking of those times) as well in villages as in Cities, there were great colledges peopled (as it were) with Monks, who before time flying the light lived scattering heere and there among mountaines, woods and forrests all solitary by themselves whereof also they werre so called. Now, of this Colledge wherein the said Constans was, those old broken wals which are seene of that thicknesse and strength, at the West-gate of the Cathedrall church, may seeme to be the ruins and reliques. But this imperiall monke taken out from hence suffered soone after condigne punishment, both for his fathers ambition and also for the contempt of his confessed religion. During the Heptarchie of the Saxons this Citie albeit once or twice it suffered much calamity & miserie, yet it revived and recovered againe: yea and became the seat roiall of the West-Saxons Kings, adorned with magnificent Churches and a Bishops Sea: furnished likewise with six mint houses by King Athelstane. In the Normans time also it flourished very much, and in it was erected an office for keeping of all publicke records and evidences of the realme. In which prosperous estate it.continued a long time: but that once or twice it was defaced by misfortune of suddaine fires, and in the civill war betweene Stephen and Maud about the Kingdome of England, sacked by the unruly and insolent souldiers. Whereupon Necham our countriman who lived in that age, writeth thus:
Guintoniam titulis claram, gazisque repletam
Noverunt beterum tempora prisca patr[u]m.
Sed tam sacra fames auri, iam caecus habendi,
Urbibus egregijs parcere nescit amor.
Our ancestours knew Winchester sometimes a goodly towne,
In treasure rich and plentifull, in name, of great renowne.
But now, for hunger after gold our men so greedy are;
That even such Cities excellent, they know not how to spare.
But of these losses it recovered itself by the helpe of Edward the third who heere appointed the [mart] for woole and cloth, which we commonly call Staple; What was the [face] and outward [shew] of this Citie in these foregoing times, a man can hardly tell, considering that, as the said Necham writeth:
Flammis totres gens aliena dedit.
Hinc facies urbis toties mutata, dolorem
Praetendit, cas[ii]s nutia vera sui.

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