e shepe & catle lived vnder it, &
fedd in the places where they laie, vpon soche grasse as they cold come
by. Vpon the xj{th} also of that moneth, the Thames did rise so highe,
after the dissolution of this snow, that westminster hall was drowned, &
moche fishe left there in the pallace yard when the water returned to her
Channell, for who so list, to gather vp....

_Plagues of Locusts or Grasshoppers, and Mice._

1583. Great harme done in England in diuerse shires, by locustes, or
"grashoppers" as we call them, which deuoured the grasse, & consumed the
pastures & medowes in very pitifull maner: soche great nombers of crowes
also do come into those partes to fede vpon those creatures, that they
tread downe & trample the rest, I meane, whatsoeuer the locust had left
vntouched. Not long before, if not about this time, also some places of
the hundredes in Essex were no lesse annoyed with mise, as report then
went, which did gret hurt to corne & the fruites of the erth, till an
infinite nomber of Owles were assembled into those partes, which consumed
them all to nothing. Certes the report is true; but I am not sure whether
it was in this, or the yere before or after this, for I did not enter the
note when it was first sent vnto me, the lettre being cast aside, & not
hard of after the receipt.

_Stafford's Conspiracy._[247]

1586. Another Conspiracy is detected vpon Newyeres daie, wherein the death
of our Queene is ones againe intended, by Stafford & other, at the receipt
of her Newyeres giftes; but, as God hath taken vpon him the defence of his
owne cause, so hath he, in extraordinary maner, from time to time
preserued her Majestie, his servant, from the treason & traiterous
practizes of her aduersaries, & wonderfully bewraied their diuises./

_A Star in the Moon. A wet Summer in Autumn._

1587. A Sterre is sene in the bodie of the mone vpon the _____ of Marche,
whereat many men merueiled, & not without cause, for it stode directly
betwene the pointes of her hornes, the mone being chaunged, not passing 5
or 6 daies before; & in the later end of the Crabbe after this, also there
insued a very moyst & wet somer, wherby moche haie was lost, & harvest in
the begining grew to be very troublesome. There followed also a like
Autumn; by meanes wherof, shepe & moche other cattell died in abundant
maner in most places of our Iland,[248] wherby the residew grew to be very
dere ... ("a reasonable good haruest for corne."--_S