HENRY BRADSHAW.
Reading edition
Henry Bradshaw was born in the City of Chester, and bred a Benedictine Monk in the Monastery of St. Werburg; the Life of which Saint he wrote in Verse, as also (saith my Author) a no bad Chronicle, though following therein those Authors, who think it the greatest Glory of a Nation to fetch their Original from times out of mind. Take a Taste of his Poetry in what he wrote concerning the Original of the City of Chester, in these words;
The Founder of this City, as saith Polychronicon, Was Leon Gawer, a mighty strong Gyant, Which builded Caves and Dungeons many a one, No goodly Building, ne proper, ne pleasant. But King Leir, a Britain fine and valiant, Was Founder of Chester by pleasant Building, And was named Guer Leir by the King.
These Lines, considering the Age he lived in, (which Arnoldus Vion saith, was about the Year 1346.) may pass with some praise, but others say he flourished a Century of years afterwards, viz. 1513. which if so, they are hardly to be excused, Poetry being in that time much refined; but whensoever he lived, Bale saith, he was (the Diamond in the Ring) Pro ea ipsa ætate, admodum pius.