French men of warre.
The towne towards the sea, is fenced with a garretted wall, against any sudden attempt of the enemy.
West-Loo mustereth an endowment with the like meanes, but in a meaner degree, and hath of late yeeres somewhat releeued his former pouerty.
Almost directly ouer against the barred hauen of Loo, extendeth S. Georges Iland, about halfe a mile in compasse, and plentifully stored with Conies. When the season of the yere yeeldeth oportunity, a great abundance of sundry sea-fowle breed upon the strond, where they lay, & hatch their egges, without care of building any nests: at which time, repairing thither, you shall see your head shadowed with a cloud of old ones, through their diuersified cries, witnessing their general dislike of your disturbance, [129] and your feete pestered with a large number of yong ones, some formerly, some newly, and some not yet disclosed; at which time (through the leaue and kindnesse of Master May, the owner) you may make and take your choyce. This Gent. Armes, are G, a Cheuron vary betweene three Crownes.
The middle market towne of this Hundred, is Liskerd. Les, in Cornish, is broad, and ker, is gone. Now, if I should say, that it is so called, because the widenesse of this Hundred, heere contracteth the traffike of the Inhabitants, you might well thinke I iested, neither dare I auow it in earnest. But whencesoever you deriue the name, hard it is, in regard of the antiquity, to deduce the towne and Castle from their first originall; and yet I will not ioyne hands with them who terme it Legio, as founded by the Romanes, vnlesse they can approue the same by a Romane faith.
Of later times, the Castle serued the Earle of Cornwall for one of his houses; but now, that later is worm-eaten out of date and vse. Coynages, Fayres, and markets, (as vitall spirits in a decayed bodie) keepe the inner partes of the towne aliue, while the ruyned skirtes accuse the iniurie of time, and the neglect of industrie.
S. Cleer parish, coasting Liskerd, brooketh his name by a more percing, then profitable ayre, which in those open wastes, scowreth away thrift, as well as sicknesse. Thither I rode, to take view of an antiquitie, called The other halfe stone; which I found to be thus: There are two moore stones, pitched in the ground, very neere together, the one of a more broade then thicke squarenesse, about 8. foote in height, resembling the ordinary spill of a Crosse, and somewhat curiously hewed, with diaper worke. The other commeth short of his fellowes length, by the better halfe, but, welneere, doubleth it in breadth, and thickenesse, and is likewise handsomely carued. They both are mortifed in the top, leauing a little edge at the one side, as to accommodate the placing of somewhat else thereupon. In this latter, are graued certaine letters, which I caused to be taken out, and haue here inserted, for abler capacities, then mine own, to interpret.
[image, approx d O n l E R T : R O 3 a U I T p R O a n l m a
where 'a' is a Greek alpha character]
Why this should be termed, The other halfe stone, I cannot resolue with my selfe, and you much lesse. Howbeit, I haltingly ayme, it may proceede from one of these respects; either, because it is the halfe of a monument, whose other part resteth elsewhere: or, for that it meaneth, after the Dutch phrase and their owne measure, a stone and halfe. For, in Dutch, Ander halb, (another halfe) importeth, One and a halfe, as Sesqui alter doth in Latine. It should seeme to be a bound stone: for some of the neighbours obserued to mee, that the [130] same limiteth iust the halfe way, betweene Excester and the lands ende, and is distant full fiftie myles from either.
Not farre hence, in an open plaine, are to be seene certaine stones, somewhat squared, and fastened about a foote deepe in the ground, of which, some sixe or eight stand vpright in proportionable distance: they are termed, The hurlers.