One that will otherwise the matter handle,

With glitt'ring swords, and not bell, book, and candle;
One that shall anathematise you worse,

Not to pronounce, but execute your curse.
He'll bring you Jeggery home to your door;
Instead of Bulls you'll hear his cannons roar;
And I make bold to tell you in the close,
Although no Popes, we'll make you kiss our toes.
An English monarch † (monsieur) no new thing,
Has sent his son to fetch him a French king;
If ye suspect, or scruple our report,
Enquire at Poictiers, Cressy, Agincourt, ‡
That place § never to be forgotten, where

The prisoners more than we that took them were:
The French shall know it too, as we advance,
'Tis we, not they, fight for the king ¶ of France.
Ye boast of gold and silver, and such stuff,
We'll bring you pockets for it sure enough.
And, if we meet ye on the foaming source,
We'll have a word or too of deep++ discourse.
A fig for France, or any that accords
With those low-country leather-apron lords.

**

THE CHARACTER OF HOLLAND.

London: Printed by T. Mabb for Robert Horn, at the Angel in Pope's-HeadAlley, 1665. Folio, containing eight Pages.

HOL

OLLAND, that scarce deserves the name of land,
As but th' off-scowring of the British sand;

And so much earth as was contributed

By English pilots, when they heav'd the lead;
Or what by th' ocean's slow alluvion fell
Of shipwreck'd cockle and the muscle shell;
This indigested vomit of the sea

Fell to the Dutch by just propriety.

Glad then, as miners that have found the ore,
They with mad labour fish'd the land to shore;
And div'd as desperately for each piece
Of earth, as if 't had been of ambergris;
Collecting anxiously small loads of clay,
Less than what building swallows bear away;
Or than those piles which sordid beetles roul
Transfusing into them their dunghill soul.

At which place the English have given the French total overthrows in battle. Because the King of Great Britain still maintains his title of King of France. ft Equivocally signifying both serious and on the sea; for the deep is the sea.

Agincourt. • The sea.

The Dutch,

How did they rivet with gigantick piles Thorough the center their new-catched miles: And to the stake a struggling country bound, Where barking waves still bait the forced ground; Building their wat'ry Babel far more high

To reach the sea, than those to scale the sky?

Yet still his claim the injur'd ocean lald,
And oft at leap-frog o'er their steeples play'd,
As if on purpose it on land had come
To shew them what's their Mare Liberum.
A daily deluge over them does boil:
The earth and water play at level-coil.
The fish oft-times the burgher dispossest,
And sat not as a meat, but as a guest:
And oft the Tritons and the sea-nymphs saw
Whole sholes of Dutch serv'd up for Cabillau.
Or, as they over the new level rang'd,
For pickled Herring, pickled Heeren chang'd.
Nature, it seem'd, asham'd of her mistake,
Would throw their land away at duck and drake.
Therefore necessity, that first made kings,
Something like government among them brings.
For as with pygmies, who best kills the crane;
Among the hungry, he that treasures grain;
Among the blind, the one-ey'd blinkard reigns;
So rules, among the drowned, he that drains.
Not who first sees the rising sun commands,
But who could first discern the rising lands,
Who best could know to pump an earth so leak,
Him they their lord and country's father speak.
To make a bank was a great plot of state,
Invent a shovel and be magistrate.

Hence some small dyke-grave, unperceiv'd, invades
The power, and grows as 't were a king of spades:
But for less envy some joint state endures,
Who look like a commission of the sewers.

For these half-anders, half wet, and half dry,
Nor bear strict service nor pure liberty.

'Tis probable religion after this

Came next in order, which they could not miss :
How could the Dutch but be converted, when
Th' apostles were so many fisher-men?
Beside, the waters of themselves did rise,
And, as their land, so them did re-baptise.
Though Herring for their God few voices mist,
And poor John to have been th' Evangelist.
Faith, that could never twins conceive before,
Never so fertile, spawn'd upon this shore:
More pregnant than their Marg'et, that laid down
For Hans-in-Kelder of a whole Hans-Town.

Sure, when religion did itself embark,
And from the east would westward steer its ark,
It struck; and, splitting on this unknown ground,
Each one thence pillag'd the first piece he found:
Hence Amsterdam-Turk-Christian-Pagan-Jew,
Staple of sects, and mint of schism grew;
That bank of conscience, where not one so strange
Opinion, but finds credit and exchange.

In vain for Catholicks ourselves we bear,
The universal church is only there.

Nor can civility there want for tillage,

Where wisely for their court they chose a village:
How fit a title clothes their governors!

Themselves the Hogs, as all their subjects Boors.
Let it suffice to give their country fame,
That it had one Civilis call'd by name,
Some fifteen-hundred and more years ago,
But, surely, never any that was so.

See but their mermaids, with their tails of fish
Reeking at church over the chafing-dish.

A vestal turf, enshrin'd in earthen ware,

Fumes through the loop-holes of a wooden square ;
Each to the temple with these altars tend
(But still do place it at her western end)

While the fat steam of female sacrifice

Fills the priest's nostrils, and puts out his eyes.

Or what a spectacle the skipper gross,

A Water-Hercules, Butter-Coloss,

Tunn'd up with all their several towns of beer;

When, stagg'ring upon some land, Snick and Sneer,

They try, like statuaries, if they can

Cut out each other's Athos to a man;

And carve in their large bodies, where they please,
The arms of the United Provinces.

Vainly did this slap-dragon fury hope

With sober English valour c'er to cope;

Not though they prim'd their barbarous morning's draught
With powder, and with pipes of brandy fraught;
Yet Rupert, Sandwich, and of all, the Duke,
The Duke has made their sea-sick courage puke,
Like the three comets sent from heaven down,
With fiery flails, to swinge th' ungrateful clown.

OBSERVATIONS

BOTH HISTORICAL AND MORAL UPON THE

BURNING of LONDON, September, 1666.

With an Account of the Losses.

And a most remarkable Parallel between London and Moscow, both as to the Plague and Fire.

Also an Essay touching the Easterly Wind.

Written by Way of Narrative, for Satisfaction of the present and future Ages.

By REGE SINCERA.

London, Printed by Thomas Ratcliffe, and are to be sold by Robert Pawlet, at the Bible in Chancery-Lane, 1667.

Quarto, containing Thirty-eight Pages.

MANY have written concerning this memorable Fire of London in 1666. But, I presume, they, that read this, will agree, that none has done it with more conciseness, impartiality, and perspicuity.

In the first place, The Author delivers the plain historical fact, without any exaggeration or foreign insinuations, and then enquires, Who has done it? In which enquiry, he endeavours to shew, that it was a punishment sent by a good and wise God upon the City, for just, wise, and good causes.

Thirdly, Enquiring what hath done it? He endeavours to prove, that this was the greatest fire that ever happened upon the earth, since the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah, and shews, at a moderate computation, that the loss amounted to, at least, 7,335,000 pounds. To which, by way of consolation, he adds an account of the greatness of the City of Moscow, and its visitation first with a raging plague, and in the year following with a consuming fire, contrived by the Tartars, who pursued the Czar to that City, and setting fire to it on all sides, which not only burnt the houses and stuff, but destroyed 200,000 people also in its flames, in less than four hours time.

Fourthly, He expatiates on the praise of this City of London, and then endeavours to find out the cause and accidents by which this fire was kindled and promoted; and concludes with some proper reflections on the reason and time of this conflagration,

To his much honoured and respected Friend, John Buller, Esq, a worthy Member of the honourable House of Commons. SIR,

HIS little treatise having lain dormant in a corner of my desk

Teres since tres berth (which was three weeks after the fire) hath got at last so much strength as to walk abroad. The reason of its long repose was, that I expected when some more pregnant

wit and better pen would have undertaken this task, which is altogether out of my profession and employment. But, finding that hitherto all that hath been written concerning it, as to the narrative of its beginning, progress, and ending, hath been thought de fective, I have given it leave to shew itself abroad, with observations thereon, under your honourable name, as well to avoid the malignancy of censure, as to testify unto the world how much I am

Your humble and affectionate servant,

Rege Sincera.

BEFORE we proceed any further in the examination of so lamentable and dismal a subject, we have thought fitting, for the curiosity of those that shall read these lines, and for the satisfaction of posterity, in whose hands it may chance to come, to set down the true and naked narrative of the fact as it did happen, and as it hath been printed by the consent of his majesty, and of the publick authority, that the reader, being made certain of the truth of the accident, may the more willingly proceed to the examination of those observations we have made upon it.

Whitehall, September 8.

On the second instant, at one of the clock in the morning, there happened to break out a sad and deplorable fire in Pudding-Lane, near New-Fish-Street; which falling out that hour of the night, and in a quarter of the town (so close built with wooden pitched houses) spread itself so far before day, and with such distraction to the inhabitants and neighbours, that care was not taken for the timely preventing the further diffusion of it, by pulling down houses, as it ought to have been; so that this lamentable fire, in a short time, became too big to be mastered by the engines, or working near it. It fell out most unhappily too, that a violent easterly wind fomented it, and kept it burning all that day, and the night following spread itself up to Grace-church-street, and downwards from Cannon-street, to the water-side, as far as the Three-Cranes in the Vintry.

The people, in all parts about it, distracted by the vastness of it, and their particular care to carry away their goods, many attempts were made to prevent the spreading of it, by pulling down houses, and making great intervals; but all in vain, the fire seizing upon the timber and rubbish, and so continuing itself even through those spaces, and raging in a bright flame all Monday and Tuesday, notwithstanding his Majesty's own, and his Royal Highness's indefatigable and personal pains to apply all possible remedies to prevent it, calling upon, and helping the people with their guards, and a great number of nobility and gentry unwcariedly assisting therein; for which they were requited with a thousand blessings from the poor distressed people. By the favour of God, the wind slackened a little on Tuesday night, and the flames meeting with