his cradle to his old age beholds the same still;
still, still the same, the same. Insomuch that
[3199]Rhasis, cont. lib. 1. Tract. 2. doth
not only commend, but enjoin travel, and such variety
of objects to a melancholy man, “and to lie
in diverse inns, to be drawn into several companies:”
Montaltus, cap. 36. and many neoterics are of
the same mind: Celsus adviseth him therefore
that will continue his health, to have varium vitae
genus, diversity of callings, occupations, to be
busied about, [3200] “sometimes to live in the
city, sometimes in the country; now to study or work,
to be intent, then again to hawk or hunt, swim, run,
ride, or exercise himself.” A good prospect
alone will ease melancholy, as Comesius contends,
lib. 2. c. 7. de Sale. The citizens of
[3201]Barcino, saith he, otherwise penned in, melancholy,
and stirring little abroad, are much delighted with
that pleasant prospect their city hath into the sea,
which like that of old Athens besides Aegina Salamina,
and many pleasant islands, had all the variety of
delicious objects: so are those Neapolitans and
inhabitants of Genoa, to see the ships, boats, and
passengers go by, out of their windows, their whole
cities being situated on the side of a hill, like
Pera by Constantinople, so that each house almost hath
a free prospect to the sea, as some part of London
to the Thames: or to have a free prospect all
over the city at once, as at Granada in Spain, and
Fez in Africa, the river running betwixt two declining
hills, the steepness causeth each house almost, as
well to oversee, as to be overseen of the rest.
Every country is full of such [3202]delightsome prospects,
as well within land, as by sea, as Hermon and [3203]Rama
in Palestina, Colalto in Italy, the top of Magetus,
or Acrocorinthus, that old decayed castle in Corinth,
from which Peloponessus, Greece, the Ionian and Aegean
seas were semel et simul at one view to be
taken. In Egypt the square top of the great pyramid,
three hundred yards in height, and so the Sultan’s
palace in Grand Cairo, the country being plain, hath
a marvellous fair prospect as well over Nilus, as
that great city, five Italian miles long, and two
broad, by the river side: from mount Sion in Jerusalem,
the Holy Land is of all sides to be seen: such
high places are infinite: with us those of the
best note are Glastonbury tower, Box Hill in Surrey,
Bever castle, Rodway Grange, [3204]Walsby in Lincolnshire,
where I lately received a real kindness, by the munificence
of the right honourable my noble lady and patroness,
the Lady Frances, countess dowager of Exeter:
and two amongst the rest, which I may not omit for
vicinity’s sake, Oldbury in the confines of
Warwickshire, where I have often looked about me with
great delight, at the foot of which hill [3205]I was
born: and Hanbury in Staffordshire, contiguous
to which is Falde, a pleasant village, and an ancient
patrimony belonging to our family, now in the possession