Church hill weeping his fill." (Like
Besly.)

This is bad enough, but worse remains
behind.

"And after that a ship shall come sayling
up the Thames till it come against London,
and the master of the ship shall weepe, and
the marriners shall aske him why he weepeth,
seeing he hath made so good a voyage, and
he shall say, 'Ah! what a goodly city this
was; none in the world comparable to it;
and now there is scarce left any house that
can let us have drinke for our money!'"

I am sorry to be obliged to say with
Desdemona, "Oh, most lame and impotent
conclusion!" for this is the last of Ursula's
prophecies. Chorus, however, utters a part-
ing howl, after this fashion:

"Unhappy be hae that lives to see those dayse,
But happy are the dead Shipton's wife sayes
He the world old age this woman did foretell
Strange things shall hap, which in our times have fell."

The bad grammar of Chorus must be forgiven
for the sake of his mournful rhyme.

The work from whence the foregoing extracts
are taken, is a thin quarto of five or six
leaves, and bears the following title: "Mother
Shipton's Prophecies; with Three and XX
more, all most terrible and wonderfull.
Predicting strange alterations to befall this
climate of England. Contents: 1. of K.
Richard III. 2. Mr. Truswell, Recorder of
Lincolne. 3. Lillie's Prediction. 4. A
Prophesie alluding to the Scots' last invasion.
5. Ignatius his prophesie. 6. Mrs. White's
prophesie. 7. Old Sybilla's prophesie. 8.
Merlin's prophesies. 10. Mr. Brightman's.
11. Paulus Grebnerus Pro. 12. A prophesie
in old English metre. 13. Another antient
proph. 14. An other short but pithy. 15.
An other very obscure. 16. Saltmant his
predict. 17. A strange prophesie of an old
Welsh woman. 18. Bede's prophesie. 19.
William Ambrose. 20. Thomas of Astledowne.
22. Saunders his prediction. 23.
A prophesie of David, Cardinall of France,
&c." (A woodcut, to be described, fills up
the rest of the page, and then comes the
imprint, as follows:" London, printed by
T. P. for F. Coles, and are to be sold at his
shop at the signe of the Lambe in the Old
Baily, near the Sessions House. 1663.")

The frontispiece represents "The Pope
suppressed by H. 8." Henry sits on his
throne, with a drawn sword in his right
hand, receiving a copy of the Bible from
Cranmer, who, like the other personages
introduced, is labelled with his name. The
monarch's feet are both firmly set on the
body of Pope Clement the Seventh, who is
struggling on the dais, his triple crown
fallen off, and his hands outstretched. Bishop
Fisher and Cardinal Pole stand on either
side of him;the first stooping, with one hand
under the Pope's arm, and the other with a
hand on the Pope's body. Cromwell and
others are round the throne, and the foreground
is filled with despairing monks. But
the woodcut on the title-page is the curiosity.
Conspicuous in the centre there is a portrait
in profile of Mother Shipton herself, in an
attitude of prediction, with two fingers of the
left hand extended. She wears a black
gown and a white head-dress, like a man's
nightcap, the point thrown well to the rear
and curving upwards. Her dark hair straggles
wildly over her face, her nose and chin are
portentously hooked, and on her cheek is the
sign— a large wart— which it so much gladdened
the heart of Mathew Hopkins, the
witch-finder, to discover. She holds a stick
in her other hand, the top of which represents
the head of a bird with a very sinister
eye—probably the portrait of a familiar.
That there may be no mistaking her for any
of the celebrated beauties of the day—
Henry's wives amongst them—the word
Shipto is written in legible letters over her
head. But Ursula is not "alone in her glory."
She is the centre of a system, of which the
satellites are the Pope's head in a circle,
supported by demons in animal forms;
Cardinal Wolsey shut up in a castle, with a
companion who resembles Charles the First;
Henry the Eighth, apparently at the altar
with Anne Boleyn and another person; and,
more prominent than any except the prophetess
herself, the renowned Mr. Saltmarsh,
a prophet on his own hook. This gentleman
appears, with the exception of a cincture, in
the costume of Eden before the fall, and
stands under a grand canopy, the curtains of
which flow over his feet in ample folds; he
bears a flaming torch in one hand, and a
sealed book in the other. What Mr. Saltmarsh
did to merit posthumous fame may be
briefly told. During the period when Lord
Fairfax and the generals were at Windsor,
Mr. Saltmarsh, being moved by the Spirit,
went thither for the purpose of predicting all
manner of misfortunes. His omens do not
seem to have disturbed the parliamentary
leaders, who contented themselves with
asking after his health—a very pertinent
inquiry; and Mr. Saltmarsh wended his way
home again, having taken nothing by his
motion but an illness which carried him off
a few days afterwards. Fortunately for the
world, he died speechless.

So much for the most attractive part of
this book, which bears the signature of Mr.
I. O. Halliwell, the well-known archaeologist,
and was acquired by the Museum about four
years ago. It is marked as extremely
scarce, with an intimation that there is a
copy in the Pepysian Collection. The press-
mark is 8610. d. I may add that the Museum
contains, moreover, a Dutch translation of
the Prophecies, without the embellishments,
published at Gravenhogen in sixteen hundred
and sixty-seven. Besides the preceding, there
is also in the National Collection a Life of
Mother Shipton, under the title of
"Wonders!!! past, present, and to come, being the