Mother Shipton was an English prophetess who lived in Yorkshire, from the late 15th to mid 16th century. She is possibly the single most famous post-classical soothsayer after Nostradamus, and has him beat in that rather than writing in enigmatic quatrains of Middle French, she wrote in open, rolling rhymed verse that reminds me a little bit of Dr. Seuss. The character Agnes Nutter in Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's Good Omens is a parody of Mother Shipton.
Some selections from her work:
And now a word, in uncouth rhyme
Of what shall be in future time.
Then upside down the world shall be
And gold found at the root of tree
All England's sons that plough the land
Shall oft be seen with book in hand.
The poor shall now great wisdom know
Great houses stand in far-flung vale
All covered o'er with snow and hail.
A carriage without horse will go
Disaster fill the world with woe
In London, Primrose Hill shall be
In centre hold a Bishop's See
Around the world men's thoughts will fly
Quick as the twinkling of an eye.
And water shall great wonders do
How strange. And yet it shall come true.
Through towering hills proud men shall ride
No horse or ass move by his side.
Beneath the water, men shall walk
Shall ride, shall sleep, shall even talk.
And in the air men shall be seen
In white and black and even green.
A great man then, shall come and go
For prophecy declares it so.
In water, iron, then shall float
As easy as a wooden boat
Gold shall be seen in stream and stone
In land that is yet unknown.
...
For in those wondrous far off days
The women shall adopt a craze
To dress like men, and trousers wear
And to cut off their locks of hair.
They'll ride astride with brazen brow
As witches do on broomstick now.
And roaring monsters with man atop
Does seem to eat the verdant crop
And men shall fly as birds do now
And give away the horse and plough.
There'll be a sign for all to see
Be sure that it will certain be.
Then love shall die and marriage cease
And nations wane as babes decrease
And wives shall fondle cats and dogs
And men live much the same as hogs.
In nineteen hundred and twenty six
Build houses light of straw and sticks.
For then shall mighty wars be planned
And fire and sword shall sweep the land.