JEAST GOSCOTE.] SEGRAVE. 4*7 rivers. But I am of opinion that these inconveniences marflies, in holes, obscure places, or' to the South and •will be mitigated, or easily corrected by good fires, as West, he utterly disproves: those winds are un- Leander Albertus reports of Venice, that graveolentia wholesome, putrifying, and make men subject to and fog ot the moors are sufficiently qualified by those diseases. The best building for health, according to innumerable smokes. Nay more, Thomas Philol. him, is in high places, and in an excellent prospect, Ravennas, a great physician, contends that the Ve- like that of in Oxfordshire (which place I netians are generally longer-lived than any city in must, honoris ergo, mention) is. lately and fairly built lS Europe, and live many of them 120 years. But it is in a good air, good prospect, good soil, both for profit not water simply that so much offends, as the (lime and pleasure, not so easily to be matched."—And, and noisome smells that accompany such overflowed speaking of extensive prospects, he fays, " With places, which is but at some few seasons after a flood, us those of the best note are, Glassonbury tower} and is sufficiently recompensed with sweet smells and Bever castle; Red way grange; Walsby in Lincoln- 3i{pe&s\n{umvner,VerpingetvariogemmantiapratacoIore, shire, where I received a real kindness by the munifi- and many other commodities of pleasure and profit; cence of the right honourable my noble lady and pa- or else may be corrected by the site, if it be some- troness, the lady Frances "countess dowager of Exeter: what remote from the water, as Lindley, Orton super r Aud two amongst the rest, which I may not omit for Montem , Drayton ~, or, a little more elevated, vicinity's fake, Oldbury in the confines of Warwick- though nearer, as Caucut3, as Amington4, Poles- 5 6 shire, where I have often looked about me with great worth , Weddington , (to insist in such places best to delight; at the foot of which hill 1 was born j" [in me known, upon the river of Anker in Warwick- 7 8 the margin is added, " at Lindley in Leicestershire, shire, Swarkston and Drakelow upon Trent ); or, the possession and dwelling-place of Ralph Burton, howsoever they be unseasonable in winter, or at some esq. my late-deceased lather;" who died March 17, times, they have their good use in summer. If so 1619-20;] "and Hanbury in Staffordshire,contiguous be that their means be so slender as they may not to which is Frtlde, a piealant village^ and an antient admit of any such variety, but must determine once patrimony belonging to our fami!y, now in the possession for all, and make one house serve for each ieason, I of my elder brother William Burton, esq."—Dr. Plot, know no men that have given better rules in this be- considering this article of calls him half, than our husbandry writers. Cato and Colu- " the observing Mr. Burton;" and quotes him twice l6. mella prescribe a good house to stand by a navigable In the chapter intituled, " Exercise rectified both of river, good highways, near lbme city, and in a good Body and Mind," he says: " But the most pleasing foil; but that is more for commodity than health. of all outward pastimes k deambulatio ptr amœna loca, The best soil commonly yields the worst air : a dry to make a pretty progress, a merry journey now and sandy plot is the fittest to build upon, and such as is then with some good companions, to visit friends, to rather hilly than plane, full of downs, a Cotswold fee cities, castles, towns; country, as being most commodious for hawking, hunting, wood, waters, and all manner of pleasures. Visere sape amnes nitidos, peramænaque Tempe; Perigort in France is barren, yet, by reason of the Et placidas summis seflari in montibus auras; excellency of the air, and such pleasures that it —to walk amongst orchards, gardens, bowers, and affords, much inhabited by the nobility; as are No- artificial wildernesses, green thickets, arches, groves, remberg in Germany, Toledo in Spain.' Our country- riliets, fountains, and such like pleasant places, like man Tusser will tell us so much, that the field one is that Antiochean Daphne, brooks, pools, fi(h-ponds, for profit, the woodland for pleasure and heahh ; ihe betwixt wood and water, in a fair meadow, by a river- one commonly a deep clay, therefore noisome in win- side, to disport in some pleasant plain park, to run up a ter, and subject to bad highways ; the other a dry steep hill, or sit in a shady seat, must needs be a de- sand. Provision may be had elsewhere* and our lectable recreation. To take a boat in a pleasant towns are generally bigger in the woodland than the evening, and with music to row upon the wat. rs. To field one, more frequent and populous, and gentle- see some pageant or sight go b\, as at coronations, men more delight to dwell in such places. Surton weddings, and such iikelUemnities; iO!eean embassador Coldfield in Warwickshire (where I was once a gram- or a prince met, received, entertained, with maiks, mar scholar) may be a sufficient witness, which stands, shews, fireworks, &c. I he country has its recreations, as Camden notes, loco ingrato & Jlerili, but in an ex- May-games, feasts, wakes, and merry meetings. AU cellent air, and full of all manner of pleasures. seasons, almost all places, have their ieverai pastimes; Wadley 9 in Berkshire is situate in a vale, though not some in summer, some in winter; some abroad, some so fertile a foil as some vales afford, yet a most com- whhin. The ordinary recreations which we have in modious site, wholesome, in a delicious air, a rich winter, and in most solitary times busy our minds with, and pleasant seat. So Segrave in Leicestershire [which are cards, tables, and dice, shovel-board, chesse-play, town I am now bound to remember; for, I am now the philosophers game, small trunks, shuttle cock, incumbent of that rectory ; presented thereto by my billiards, music, masques, singing, dancing, ulegames, right honourable patron the Lord Berkeley10;] is sited frolicks, jests, riddles, catches, purposes, questions and in a champaign, at the edge of the Woulds, and commands, merry tales of errant knights, queens, lovers, more barren than the villages about it; yet no place lords, ladies, giants, dwarfs, thieves, cheaters, witches, likely yields a bettet air. And that fair house, Wol- fairies, goblins, friers, &c. Dancing, mafquing, mum- lerton" in Nottinghamshire, is much to be com- ming, stage-plays, howsoever they be heavily censured mended, though the tract be sandy and barren about by some severe Catos, yet, if opportunely aud soberly it, for making choice of such a place. ConstantineI2 used, may justly be approved ; to read, walk, and see praiseth mountains, hilly, steep places, above the maps and pictures, statues, old coins of several ions, rest by the sea-side, and such as look toward the in a fair gallery, artificial works, &c. Whosoever he North upon some great river; as Forniack "3 in Der- is, therefore, that is overrun with solitariness, or car- byshire on the Trent, environed with hills, open only ried away with a pleasing Melancholy and vain conceits, to the North, like Mount Edgemond in Cornwall, I can prescribe him no better than this of study, to which Mr. Carew J+ so much admires for an excellent compose himself to the learning of some art or science. feat; such as is the general site of Bohemia; jerenat Provided always that his malady proceed not from Boreasy the North wind clarifies. But near lakes or overmuch study; for, in such cafes, he adds fuel to the fire. Let him take heed he do not overstretch

I The possession of Robert Bradfhair, esq. 2 The seat of George Purefoy, esq. 3 Caldecote, then the possession of Wjlliam Purefoy, esq. afterwards sir Nathan Wnghte s, and now (1800) Mr. Salisbury's. • The feat of sir John Reppington, knt. s Sir Henry Goodiere's, lately deceased. * The dwelling-house of Humphrey Adderley, esq. 7 Sir John Harpur's, lately deceased. 8 Sir George Greseley's, knt. 9 The feat of George Purefoy, esq. 10 George lord Berkeley, who was of Christ Church, and probably had been under the tuition of Mr. Burton, presented him to .the rectory of Segrave after 1628, in which year the third edition of the Anatomy was published. II Sir Francis Willoughby's. tz Lib. ii. cap. de Agricultura. *3 The dwelling of sir Thomas Burdet, knight and baronet. *4 In his Survey of Cornwall, book z. *s By John Bancroft, U.D. my quondam tutor in Christ Church, ; now the right reverend lord bishop ps Oxford ; who built this house for himself and his successors. " Staffordshire, p. 39. VOL. III. 5 O ,. bis