Because hawking and hunting are very laborious, much riding, and many dangers accompany them; but this is still and quiet: and if so be the angler catch no Fish, yet he hath a wholesome walk to the Brook side, pleasant shade, by the sweet silver streams; he hath good aire, and sweet smels of fine fresh meadow flowers, he hears the melodious harmony of Birds, he sees the Swans, Herons, Ducks, Water-horns, Cootes, &c. and many other fowle, with their brood, which he thinketh better then the noise of hounds, or blast of horns, and all the sport that they can make.

Many other sports and recreations there be, much in use, as Ringing, bowling, shooting, which Askam commends in a just volume, and hath in former times been injoyned by Statue, as a defensive exercise, and an honour to our Land, as well may witness our victories in France. Keel-pins, tronks, coits, pitching bars, hurling, wrestling, leaping, running, fencing, mustring, swimming, wasters, foiles, foot-ball, balown, quintan, &c. and many such, which are the common recreations of the country folks.

Riding of great horses, running at rings, tilts and turnaments, horse-races, wilde-goose chases, which are the disports of greater men, and good in themselves, though many Gentlemen by that means gallop quite out of their fortunes.

But the most pleasant of all outward pastimes, is that of Areteus, deambulatio per amœna loca, to make a pretty progress, a merry journey now and then with some good companions, to visit friends, see Cities, Castles, Towns,

Visere sæpe amnes nitidos, peramœnaque Tempe, Et placidas summis sectari in montibus auras.

To see the pleasant fields, the Crystall fountains, And take the gentle aire amongst the mountains.

To walk amongst Orchards, Gardens, Bowers, Mounts and Arbours, artificiall Wildernesses, green thickets, Arches, Groves, Lawns, Rivulets, Fountains and such like pleasant places, like that Antiochian Daphne, Brooks, Pooles, Fishponds, betwixt wood and water, in a fair meadow, by a river side, ubi variæ avium cantationes, florum colores, pratorum frutices, &c. to disport in some pleasant plain, park, run up a steep hill sometimes, or sit in a shady seat, must needs be a delectable recreation.

Hortus principis & domus ad delectationem facta, cum sylvâ, monte & piscinâ, vulgò La montagna: The Princes garden at Ferrara, Schottus highly magnifies, with the groves, mountains, ponds, for a delectable prospect, he was much affected with it; A Persian Paradise, or pleasant park, could not be more delectable in his sight. S. Bernard in the description of his Monastery, is almost ravished with the pleasures of it.

A sick man (saith he) sits upon a green bank, and when the dog-star parcheth the Plains, dries up rivers, he lies in a shadie bowre, Fronde sub arborea ferventia temperat astra, and feeds his eyes with variety of objects, hearbs, trees, to comfort his misery, he receives many delightsome smels, and fils his ears with that sweet and various harmony of Birdes: Good God (saith he) what a company of pleasures hast thou made for man?

He that should be admitted on a sudden to the sight of such a Palace as that of Escuriall in Spain, or to that which the Moores built at Granado, Fountenblewe in France, the Turkes gardens in his Seraglio, wherein all manner of Birds and beasts are kept for pleasure; Wolves, Bears, Lynces, Tygers, Lyons, Elephants, &c. or upon the banks of that Thracian Bosphorus: the Popes Belvedere in Rome as pleasing as those Horti pensiles in Babylon, or that Indian Kings delightsome garden in Ælian; or those famous gardens of the Lord Cantelow in France, could not choose, though he were never so ill apaid, but be much recreated for the time; or many of our Noblemens gardens at home.

To take a boat in a pleasant evening, and with musick to row upon the waters, which Plutarch so much applaudes, Elian admires upon the river Pineus: in those Thessalian fields, beset with green Bayes, where Birds so sweetly sing that passengers enchanted as it were with their heavenly musick, omnium laborum & curarum obliviscantur, forget forthwith all labours, care and grief: or in a Gundilo through the grand Canale in Venice, to see those goodly Palaces, must needs refresh and give content to a melancholy dull spirit.

Or to see the inner rooms of a fair-built and sumptuous edifice, as that of the Persian Kings so much renowned by Diodorus and Curtius, in which all was almost beaten gold, chaires, stooles, thrones, tabernacles, and pillars of gold, plane trees, and vines of gold, grapes of precious stones, all the other ornaments of pure gold,

Fulget gemma floris, & jaspide fulva supellex, Strata micant Tyrio——

With sweet odours and perfumes, generous wines, opiparous fare, &c. besides the gallantest young men, the fairest Virgins, puellæ scitulæ ministrantes, the rarest beauties the world could afford, and those set out with costly and curious attires, ad stuporem usque; spectantium, with exquisite musick, as in Trimaltions house, in every chamber, sweet voices ever sounding day and night, incomparabilis luxus, all delights and pleasures in each kinde which to please the senses could possibly be devised or had, convivæ coronati, delitiis ebrii, &c.

Telemachus in Homer is brought in as one ravished almost, at the sight of that magnificent Palace, and rich furniture of Menelaus, when he beheld

Æris fulgorem & resonantia tecta corusco Auro, atque electro nitido, sectoque elephanto, Argentoque simul. Talis Jovis ardua sedes, Aulaque cœlicolûm stellans splendescit Olympo.

Such glittering of gold and brightest brass to shine, Cleer amber, silver pure, and Ivory so fine: Jupiters lofty palace where the Gods do dwell, Was even such a one, and did it not excell.

It will laxare animos, refresh the soule of man to see fair-built cities, streets, Theaters, Temples, Obelisks, &c. The Temple of Jerusalem was so fairly built of white marble, with so many pyramids covered with gold; tectumque; templi fulvo coruscans auro, nimio suo fulgore obcæcabat oculos itinerantium, was so glorious, and so glistered afar off, that the spectators might not well abide the sight of it. But the inner parts were all so curiously set out with Cedar, Gold, Jewels, &c. as he said of Cleopatras palace in Egypt,

——Crassumque; trabes absconderat aurum,

That the beholders were amazed. What so pleasant as to see some Pageant or sight go by, as at Coronations, Weddings, and such like solemnities, to see an Embassador or a Prince met, received, entertained with Masks, Shewes, Fireworks, &c.

To see two Kings fight in single combat, as Porus and Alexander; Canutus and Edmond Ironside; Scanderbeg and Ferat Bassa the Turke; when not honour alone but life it self is at stake, as the Poet of Hector,

——nec enim pro tergore Tauri, Pro bove nec Certamen erat, quæ præmia Cursus Esse solent, sed pro magni vitâque; animâque;——Hectoris.

To behold a battle fought, like that of Crescy, or Agencourt, or Poictiers, quâ nescio (saith Frossard) an vetustas ullam proferre possit clariorem. To see one of Cæsars triumphs in old Rome revived, or the like.

To bee present at an Interview, as that famous of Henry the 8th, and Francis the first, so much renowned all over Europe; ubi tanto apparatu (saith Hubertus Vellius) tamque triumphali pompâ ambo reges cum eorum conjugibus coiere, ut nulla unquam ætas tam celebria festa viderit aut audierit, no age ever saw the like.

So infinitely pleasant are such shews, to the sight of which often times they will come hundreths of miles, give any mony for a place, and remember many years after with singular delight. Bodine, when he was Embassador in England, said he saw the Noblemen go in their Robes to the Parliament house, summâ cum jucunditate vidimus, he was much affected with the sight of it.

Pomponius Columna, saith Jovius in his life, saw 13. Frenchmen, and so many Italians, once fight for a whole Army: Quod jucundissimum spectaculum in vita dicit suâ, the pleasantest sight that ever he saw in his life. Who would not have been affected with such a spectacle?