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ANNALS OF CORK.
these birds had also several encounters, making great sound and noise, and ever a.s they divided and retired themselves, the Crow or Raven was seen in the middest. But what slaughter was made they could not observe. BURNING OF CORK-See Council Book,p. 102. "A relation of the most lamentable burning of the Citie of Corke, in . , t~e We~t of Ireland, in the Provine~ of Mlmste~, by Thun~er and Light- BrT~!us. mng; With other most doleful and miSerable Accidents, which fell out the · 1 last of May, 1622, after the prodigious battle of the birds called stares, which fought strangely over and near that Citie the 12th and 14th of May, 1621, and it hath been reported to divers Right Honourable Persons. "TO THE OOURTEOUS READER. "CHRISTIAN READE.R-There was this last year, 1621, in October last, published a report of a wonderful battle fought betwixt certain birds called Stares or Starlings, at and near a Citie in Ireland called Corke, which was so strange and admirable an accident as the like hath very seldom or never been heard of or registered in any History in moderne or former ages. This report being so strange was of some cen- sured as an untrue and idle invention, of others, which understood, and by enquiry were resolved of the truth, it was imagined to prognosticate some strange and dread- ful accident to follow-as warres, plagues, or pestilence, with such like conjectures, sithence which time, namely, this last of May, 1622, the OMNIPOTENT MAJESTY of Heaven hath not only reproved their vanitie, who would not beleeve so strange a Relation, but hath further, by a most dreadful and lamentable demonstration of his power and Justice, resolved what that battell of Birds might or did prognosticate, wherein his justice in one respect may be feared ; and his mercy by so exem~lar a manifestation may be sought after in another. In what manner this battell of Birds was performed, is needles in this place to be repeated, because the relation is extant in print ; albeit, fitting for the reader to know, because he shall thereby understand how directly this dreadful and most terrible late Accident in Corke was prognosti- cated in the clamerous and cruel fight of the Stares, at and neare unto Corke, when the Stares began their fiery and furious fight at the East end of the Cittie ; the~ began the first original of the ruin of Corke. And as the birds proceeded in their fight, so did the Cittie of Corke consume by fire from Beaven; as it is more plainly delivered in the relation following, to which I leave thee. "A Relation of the Most Lamentable Burning of the Cittie of Corke, in theWest of Ireland, in the Province of Munster, by Thunder and Lightning. ) "The Cittie of Corke hath its beginnmg up on the side of an Hill, which descendeth easily into one wide and long street, the only principall and Chiefe street of the Cittie. At the first entrance there is a Oastle, called Shandon Castle, and almost over against it a Church built of stone, as the Castle is a kind of marble, of whicli the Country yieldeth store. The Cittie hath many houses built of the same stone, and covered with slate. But the greatest number of houses are built with Tymber, or mudde walls, and covered with Thatch. " This last of May, being the most pleasant and delightful moneth of the yeare, to take his farewell, ~ave it in the most aueful and terrible manner, the like seldome heard of or seen m any country, or hear of in a~y age, since the beginning of the world. The Citties of Sodome and Gomorrah were not more suddenly or more hor- ribly consumed with fire from Heaven than this Cittie of Corke was this last of May. Albeit I compare this Cittie with Sodome and Gomorrah, it is not in res_])ect of the sinnes, but in respect of the heavy hand of God shewed in like degree. To consume by fire from Heaven eyther of them, the sinnes of Sodome are by the Scriptures made knowne, which are, and ever will be known, by the names 9f the sinnes of Sodome. No question but the Cittie of Corke had her sinnes. . Otherwise the hand
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