It is a woodsere country, abounding much with sowre
and austere plants, as sorrel, &c. which makes their humours sowre,
and fixes their spirits. In Malmesbury Hundred, &c. (ye wett clayy
parts) there have ever been reputed witches.
On the downes, sc. the south part, where 'tis all upon tillage, and
where the shepherds labour hard, their flesh is hard, their bodies
strong: being weary after hard labour, they have not leisure to read
and contemplate of religion, but goe to bed to their rest, to rise
betime the next morning to their labour.
----- "redit labor actus in orbem
Agricolae."-VIRGIL, ECLOG.
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The astrologers and historians write that the ascendant as of Oxford
is Capricornus, whose lord is Saturn, a religious planet, and patron
of religious men. If it be so, surely this influence runnes all along
through North Wilts, the vale of Glocestershire, and Somersetshire. In
all changes of religions they are more zealous than other; where in
the time of the Rome-Catholique religion there were more and better
churches and religious houses founded than any other part of England
could shew, they are now the greatest fanaticks, even to spirituall
madness: e. g. the multitude of enthusiastes. Capt. Stokes, in his
"Wiltshire Rant, "printed about 1650, recites ye strangest
extravagancies of religion that were ever heard of since the time of
the Gnosticks. The rich wett soile makes them hypochondricall.
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