WORCESTERSHIRE DESCRIBED BY A ROUNDHEAD.
In the Essex papers published three or four years ago the following description is given of this county and city, and also of Hereford: "On the 30th, Wharton writes again—'Worcestershire is a pleasant, fruitful, and rich country, abounding in corn, woods, pasture, hills, and valleys, every hedge and highway beset with fruit, but especially with pears, whereof they make that pleasant drink called perry, which they sell for a penny a quart, though better than ever you tasted at London. The city is more large than any I have seen since I left London; it abounds in outward things, but for the want of the Word the people perish. It is pleasantly seated, exceeding populous, and doubtless very rich, on the east bank of that famous river the Severn, the walls in a form of a triangle, the gates seven. There is a very stately Cathedral called St. Mary's, in which there are many stately monuments; amongst the rest, in the middle of the quire, is the monument of King John, all of white marble, with his picture thereon to the life. Sir, our army did little think ever to have seen Worcester, but the Providence of God hath brought us thither, and had it not, the city is so vile, resembles Sodom, and is the very emblem of Gomorrah, and doubtless it would have been worse than either Algiers or Malta—a very den of thieves, and a receptacle and refuge for all the hell-hounds of the country.' From Worcester, Essex sent a detachment under the Earl of Stamford to surprise Hereford, in which Nehemiah Wharton served. He states that they got into Hereford by telling the Mayor that Essex was at hand with all his army. 'The city is well situated on the Wye, environed with a strong wall, better than I have seen before, with five gates, and a strong stone bridge of six arches, surpassing Worcester. In this place there is the stateliest market-place in the kingdom, built with columns after the manner of the Exchange; the Minster every way exceeding Worcester; the city not so large; the inhabitants totally ignorant of the ways of God, and much addicted to drunkenness and other vices, but principally unto swearing, so that the children that have scarce learnt to speak, do universally swear stoutly. Many here speak Welsh. Sabbath-day, the time of morning prayer, we went to the Minster, where the pipes played, and the puppets sang so sweetly, that some of our soldiers could not forbear dancing in the holy quire; whereat the Baalists were sore displeased.'"