The following curious list may amuse some of your readers. I met with it
among the host of panegyrical verses prefixed to Master Tom Coryate's
_Crudities_, published in 1611. Even in those days it will be admitted that
the English were rather fond of such things, and glorious Will himself
bears testimony to the fact. (See _Tempest_, Act II. Sc. 2.) The hexameter
verses are anonymous; perhaps one of your well-read antiquaries may be able
to assign to them the author, and be disposed to annotate them. I would
particularly ask when was Drake's ship broken up, and is there any date on
the chair[1] made from the wood, which is now to be seen at the Bodleian
Library, Oxford?
"Why doe the rude vulgar so hastily post in a madnesse
To gaze at trifles, and toyes not worthy the viewing?
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And thinke them happy, when may be shew'd for a penny
The Fleet-streete Mandrakes, that heavenly motion of Eltham,
Westminster Monuments, and Guildhall huge Corinaeus,
That horne of Windsor (of an Unicorne very likely),
The cave of Merlin, the skirts of Old Tom a Lincolne,
King John's sword at Linne, with the cup the Fraternity drinke in,
The tombe of Beauchampe, and sword of Sir Guy a Warwicke,
The great long Dutchman, and roaring Marget a Barwicke,
The mummied Princes, and Caesar's wine yet i' Dover,
Saint James his ginney-hens, the Cassawarway[2] moreover,
The Beaver i' the Parke (strange Beast as e'er any man saw),
Downe-shearing Willowes with teeth as sharpe as a hand-saw,
The lance of John a Gaunt, and Brandon's still i' the Tower,
The fall of Ninive, with Norwich built in an hower.
King Henries slip-shoes, the sword of valiant Edward,
The Coventry Boares-shield, and fire-workes seen but to bedward,
Drake's ship at Detford, King Richard's bed-sted i' Leyster,
The White Hall Whale-bones, the silver Bason i' Chester;
The live-caught Dog-fish, the Wolfe, and Harry the Lyon,
Hunks of the Beare Garden to be feared, if he be nigh on.
All these are nothing, were a thousand more to be scanned,
(Coryate) unto thy shoes so artificially tanned."
In explanation of the last line, Tom went no less than 900 miles on one
pair of soles, and on his return he hung up these remarkable shoes for a
memorial in Odcombe Church, Somersetshire, where they remained till 1702.
Another "penny" sight was a trip to the top of St. Paul's. (See Dekker's
_Gul's Horne Book_, 1609.)