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fide up and down together by turns: or elfe trotting horfes, which are more convenient for men that bear arms; thefe, although they fet a little harder, go away readily, and lift up and fet down together the contrary feet on either fide. Here are alfo young colts of a good breed, that have not been well accustomed to the bridle; thefe fling about, and by mounting bravely fhew their mettle. Here are principal horfes, ftrong and well limbed. Here also are breast-horfes, perhaps race horses, fit to be joined by couples, very fair and handfome, and fleek about the ears, carry their necks aloft, being well fleshed, and round about the buttocks. In another part ftand the country people with cattle, and commodities of the field, large fwine, and kine with their udders ftrutting out, fair bodied oxen, and the woolly flock. There are also cart horses fit for the dray, or the plough, or the chariot and fome mares big with foal; together with others that have their wanton colts following them close at their fide.

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Concerning fhipping and merchandize.

To this city, merchants bring in wares by fhips from every nation under heaven. The Arabian fends his gold, the Sabean his frankincense and fpices, the Scythian, arms; oil of palms from the plentiful wood: Babylon her fat foil, and Nylus his precious ftones: the Seres fend purple garments; they of Norway and Ruffia, trouts, furs, and fables; and the French their wines.

Its antiquity and government. According to the report of chronicles, it is more ancient than the city of Rome; for both being defcended from the fame Trojan ftock: Brute builded this, before Remus and Romulus did the other. Whence fill it ufeth the fame ancient laws and common inftitutions. For this our city, like to that, is diftinguished by wards and feveral limits; it hath fheriffs every year, answerable to their con

fuls; it hath aldermen, enjoying the dignity of fenators, befide inferior magiftrates; it hath alfo common fewers and conveyances for waters in the streets. Concerning caufes in queftion, there are feveral places and courts for caufes deliberative, demonftrative, and judicial: upon their fet days alfo they have their commoncouncil and great affemblies.

The only plagues of London are immoderate drinking of idle fellows, and frequent fires.

Of Sports and paftimes.

Every Sunday in Lent, after dinner, a company of young men ride out into the fields on horfes which are fit for war, and principal runners: every one among them is taught to run the rounds with his horfe.

The citizens fons iffue out through the gates by troops, furnished with lances and warlike shields: the younger fort have their pikes not headed with iron, where they make a reprefentation of battle, and exercise a fkirmish. There refort to this exercife many courtiers, when the king lies near hand, and young ftriplings out of the families of barons and great perfons, which have not yet attained to the warlike girdle, to train and skirmish. Hope of victory inflames every one: the neighing and fierce horses beftir their joints, and chew their bridles, and cannot endure to stand still; at laft they begin their race, and then the young men divide their troops; fome labour to outftrip their leaders, and cannot reach them; others fling down their fellows, and get beyond

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broken by the blow, he is tumbled into the water, and his boat paffeth clear away but on either fide this target two fhips ftand in-ward, with many young men ready to take him up after he is funk, as foon as he appeareth again on the top of the water: the fpectators ftand upon the bridge, and in folars upon the river to behold these things, being prepared for laughter.

Upon the holidays all fummer, the youth is exercised in leaping, fhooting, wrestling, cafting of tones, and throwing of javelins fitted with loops for the purpose, which they strive to fling beyond the mark: they also use bucklers, like fighting men. As for the maidens, they have their exercise of dancing and tripping till moonlight.

In winter, almost every holiday before dinner, the foaming boars fight for their heads, and prepare with deadly tushes to be made bacon: or elfe fome lufty bulls or huge bears are baited with dogs.

When that great moor which washed Moorfields, at the north wall of the city, is frozen over, great companies of young men go to fport upon the ice, and bind to their fhoes, bones, as the legs of fome beasts, and hold ftakes in their hands, headed with fharp iron, which fometimes they ftrike against the ice, and thefe men go on with speed, as doth a bird in the air, or darts fhot from fome warlike engine: fometimes two men fet themselves at a distance, and run one against another, as it were at tilt, with these stakes, wherewith one or both parties are thrown down, not without fome hurt to their bodies; and after their fall, by reason of the violent motion, are carried a good diftance one from another; and wherefoever the ice doth touch their head,

it rubs off all the fkin and lays it bare; and if one fall upon his leg or arm, it is usually broken: but young men being greedy of honour and defirous of victory, do thus exercise themfelves in counterfeit battles, that they may bear the brunt more strongly when they come to it in good earneft.

Many citizens take delight in birds, as fparrow-hawks, gofs-hawks, and fuch like, and in dogs to hunt in the woody ground. The citizens have authority to hunt in Middlefex, Hertfordshire, all the Chilterns, and in Kent, as far as Gray-water.

Natives of London.

The city of London hath brought forth fome who have fubdued many kingdoms, and the empire of Rome to themselves; and many others, who, being lords of this world, were deified in another.

And in the times of Chriftianity it brought forth the noble emperor Conftantine, who gave the city of Rome and all the imperial arms to God, and to St. Peter, and Silvester the pope, whose stirrup he refused not to hold, and pleafed rather to be called defender of the holy Roman church, than emperor of the world. And left the peace of our lord the pope fhould fuffer any disturbance by the noife of fecular affairs, he left the city, and bestowed it on the pope, and founded the city of Conftantinople for his own habitation. London alfo in thefe latter times hath brought forth famous and magnificent princes: Maud the emprefs, king Henry the third, and Thomas the archbishop, a glori ous martyr of Chrift, than whom no man was more innocent, or more devoted to the general good of the Latin world.

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A Geographical Account of HINDOOSTAN, or INDIA: With a neat and accurate MAP of the SOUTHERN PART of that extenfive Country.

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HE geography of Hindooftan has hitherto been very imperfectly understood by the European writers; and it feems to have been referved for major Rennell, late furveyor general of Bengal, to give a more perfect idea of it than had ever been obtained before. His excellent Map of Hindooftan, with his Memoir of that Map, entitles him to an exalted rank among the men of fcience, who have the moft largely contributed to the extenfion of our geographical knowledge.

• Hindooftan,' fays this indefatigable geographer, has, by the people of modern Europe, been understood to mean the tract fituated between the rivers Ganges and Indus, on the east and weft; the Thibetian and Tartarian mountains, on the north; and the fea, on the fouth. But, ftrictly fpeaking, the extent of Hindooftan is much more circumfcribed, than those limits convey an idea of; and the name ought to be applied only to that part of the above tract, which lies to the north of the parallels of 21° or 22°. The Nerbudda river is, indeed, the reputed fouthern boundary of Hindooftan, as far as it goes; and the fouthern frontiers of Bengal and Bahar compose the remainder of it. The countries on the fouth of this line, according to the Indian geogra phers, go under the general name of Deccan, and comprife nearly one half of the tract generally known by the name of the Mogul empire. But, as the term Hindooftan has been applied, in a lax fenfe, to this whole empire, may be necessary to diftinguish the northern part of it by the name of Hindooftan Proper..

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This tract (of which we shall give a map in a future number) has, indeed, the Indus, and the mountains of Thibet and Tartary, for its western

and northern boundaries: but the Ganges,' continues major Rennell, was improperly applied as an eastern boundary; as it interfects, in its course, fome of the richest provinces of the empire; while the Burrampooter, which is much nearer the mark, as an eastern boundary, was utterly unknown. In this circumfcribed state, the extent of Hindooftan Proper is about equal to France, Germany, Bohemia, Hungary, Switzerland, Italy, and the Low Countries, collectively; and the Deccan and Peninfula are about equal to the British Islands, Spain, and Turkey in Europe. I have here called the tract which lies on the fouth of the Kistna river, the Peninfula, in conformity to general practice, although its form does by no means warrant it. The term Deccan, which fignifies the South, is applied (as before-faid) in its most extenfive fignification, to the whole region that lies on the fouth of Hindooftan Proper. I apprehend, however, that, in its proper and limited fenfe, it means only the countries fituated between Hindooftan Proper, the Carnatic, the Western Sea, and Oriffa; that is, the provinces of Candeish, Dowlatabad, Vifiapour, Golconda, and the western part of Berar.

The term India, by which this country, as far it was known, is dif tinguished in the earliest Greek hiftorians, appears to be derived from Hind, the name given to it by the ancient Perfians; through whom, doubtlefs, the knowledge both of the country and its name was transmitted to the Greeks. We have the strongest affurances from Mr. Wilkins, that no fuch words as Hindoo or Hindooftan, are to be found in the Sanfcrit dictionary *. It appears, that the people, among whom the Sanfcrit language

*See the Notes on the Heetopades, or Fables, fcrit (or Sanfcreet) by Mr. Wilkins, page 332.

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