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diff --git a/1149.txt b/1149.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a5d58b5 --- /dev/null +++ b/1149.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4215 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, From London to Land's End, by Daniel Defoe, +Edited by Henry Morley + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: From London to Land's End + and Two Letters from the "Journey through England by a Gentleman" + + +Author: Daniel Defoe + +Editor: Henry Morley + +Release Date: April 16, 2007 [eBook #1149] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM LONDON TO LAND'S END*** + + + +Transcribed from the 1888 Cassell & Company edition by David Price, email +ccx074@pglaf.org + + + + + +FROM +LONDON TO LAND'S END. + + +BY +DANIEL DEFOE. + +AND + +_Two Letters from the_ "_Journey through England by a Gentleman_." + +CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED: +LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK & MELBOURNE. +1888. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +At the end of this book there are a couple of letters from a volume of +the "Travels in England" which were not by Defoe, although resembling +Defoe's work so much in form and title, and so near to it in date of +publication, that a volume of one book is often found taking the place of +a volume of the other. A purchaser of Defoe's "Travels in England" has +therefore to take care that he is not buying one of the mixed sets. Each +of the two works describes England at the end of the first quarter of the +eighteenth century. Our added descriptions of Bath, and of the journey +by Chester to Holyhead, were published in 1722; Defoe's "Journey from +London to the Land's End" was published in 1724, and both writers help us +to compare the past with the present by their accounts of England as it +was in the days of George the First, more than a hundred and sixty years +ago. The days certainly are gone when, after a good haul of pilchards, +seventeen can be bought for a halfpenny, and two gentlemen and their +servant can have them broiled at a tavern and dine on them for three +farthings, dressing and all. In another of his journeys Defoe gives a +seaside tavern bill, in which the charges were ridiculously small for +everything except for bread. It was war time, and the bread was the most +costly item in the bill. + +In the earlier part of this account of the "Journey from London to the +Land's End," there is interest in the fresh memories of the rebuilding +and planting at Hampton Court by William III. and Queen Mary. The +passing away, and in opinion of that day the surpassing, of Wolsey's +palace there were none then to regret. + +A more characteristic feature in this letter will be found in the details +of a project which Defoe says he had himself advocated before the Lord- +Treasurer Godolphin, for the settlement of poor refugees from the +Palatinate upon land in the New Forest. Our friendly relations with the +Palatinate had begun with the marriage of James the First's eldest +daughter to the Elector Palatine, who brought on himself much trouble by +accepting the crown of Bohemia from the subjects of the Emperor Ferdinand +the Second. As a Protestant Prince allied by marriage to England, he +drew from England sympathies and ineffectual assistance. Many years +afterwards, during the war with France in Queen Anne's time, the allies +were unprosperous in 1707, and Marshal Villars was victorious upon the +Rhine. The pressure of public feeling on behalf of refugees from the +Palatinate did not last long enough for any action to be taken. But if +it had seemed well to the Government to accept the project advocated by +Defoe, we should have had a clearance of what is now the most beautiful +part of the New Forest, near Lyndhurst; and in place of the little area +that still preserves all the best features of forest land, we should have +had a town of Englishmen descended from the latest of the German +settlements upon our soil. Upon the political economy of Defoe's +project, and the accuracy of his calculations, and the more or less +resemblance of his scheme to the system of free grants of land in +unsettled regions beyond the sea, each reader will speculate in his own +way. + +There are interesting notes on the extent of the sheep farming upon the +Downs crossed in this journey. There is high praise of the ladies of +Dorsetshire. There are some pleasant notes upon dialect, including the +story, often quoted, of the schoolboy whom Defoe saw and heard reading +his Bible in class, and while following every word and line with his eye, +translating it as he went into his own way of speech. Thus he turned the +third verse of the fifth chapter of Solomon's Song, "I have put off my +coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile +them?" into "Chav a doffed my cooat; how shall I don't? Chav a washed my +veet; how shall I moil 'em?" This is a good example of intelligent +reading; for the boy took in the sense of the printed lines, and then +made it his own by giving homely utterance to what he understood. + +Defoe tells in this letter several tales of the shorefolk about the Great +Storm of November, 1703, recollection of which Addison used effectively +in the following year in his poem on the Battle of Blenheim. There was +the sweeping away of the first Eddystone Lighthouse, with the builder, +confident in its strength, who had desired to be in it some night when +the wind blew with unusual fury. There was the story also of the man and +two boys, in a ship laden with tin, blown out of Helford Haven, and of +their hairbreadth escape by counsel of one of the boys who ran the ship +through rocks into a narrow creek that he knew in the Isle of Wight. The +form of the coast has been changed so much since 1703 by the beat of many +storms, that it may be now impossible to know that little cove as the boy +knew it. It must have been at the back of the island. Were the storm +waves tossing then in Steephill Cove or Luccombe Chine? Does there +survive anywhere a tradition of that perilous landing? Probably not. +Wreck follows upon wreck, and memory of many tales of death and peril on +the rock-bound coast lie between us and the boy who took the helm when he +spied the well-known creek as the great storm was sweeping the ship on to +destruction. From the next year after that famous storm, Defoe gives a +memory of disaster seen by himself at Plymouth in the wreck of a little +fleet from Barbadoes. In another part of this letter he tells what he +had seen of a fight at sea between three French men-of-war and two +English with a convoy of two or three trading vessels. + +There will be found also in this letter a good story of a Cornish dog +taken from Carew's "Survey of Cornwall," which may pair with that of the +London dog who lately took a wounded fellow dog to hospital. + +The writer of this letter speaks of the civil war times as a friend of +monarchy, but when he tells of the landing of William III. at Torbay, he +suggests that the people had good reason for rejoicing, and throughout +the journey he takes note of a great inequality he finds in distribution +of the right of returning members to Parliament. It is evident that he +could propound a project for a Reform Bill, though he is careful so to +describe England as to avoid giving offence to Englishmen of any party. +The possibility of some change for the better here and there presents +itself; Defoe glances and passes on. His theme is England and the +English; he shows us, clearly and very simply, what he has seen of the +social life and manners of the people, of the features of the land +itself, and their relation to its industries; traces of the past, and +prospects of the future; shepherds, fishermen, merchants; catching of +salmon peel in mill-weirs, and catching of husbands at provincial +assemblies; with whatever else he found worth friendly observation. + +H. M. + + + + +FROM LONDON TO LAND'S END + + +Sir, + +I find so much left to speak of, and so many things to say in every part +of England, that my journey cannot be barren of intelligence which way +soever I turn; no, though I were to oblige myself to say nothing of +anything that had been spoken of before. + +I intended once to have gone due west this journey; but then I should +have been obliged to crowd my observations so close (to bring Hampton +Court, Windsor, Blenheim, Oxford, the Bath and Bristol all into one +letter; all those remarkable places lying in a line, as it were, in one +point of the compass) as to have made my letter too long, or my +observations too light and superficial, as others have done before me. + +This letter will divide the weighty task, and consequently make it sit +lighter on the memory, be pleasanter to the reader, and make my progress +the more regular: I shall therefore take in Hampton Court and Windsor in +this journey; the first at my setting out, and the last at my return, and +the rest as their situation demands. + +As I came down from Kingston, in my last circuit, by the south bank of +the Thames, on the Surrey side of the river; so I go up to Hampton Court +now on the north bank, and on the Middlesex side, which I mention, +because, as the sides of the country bordering on the river lie parallel, +so the beauty of the country, the pleasant situations, the glory of +innumerable fine buildings (noblemen's and gentlemen's houses, and +citizens' retreats), are so equal a match to what I had described on the +other side that one knows not which to give the preference to: but as I +must speak of them again, when I come to write of the county of +Middlesex, which I have now purposely omitted; so I pass them over here, +except the palace of Hampton only, which I mentioned in "Middlesex," for +the reasons above. + +Hampton Court lies on the north bank of the River Thames, about two small +miles from Kingston, and on the road from Staines to Kingston Bridge; so +that the road straightening the parks a little, they were obliged to part +the parks, and leave the Paddock and the great park part on the other +side the road--a testimony of that just regard that the kings of England +always had, and still have, to the common good, and to the service of the +country, that they would not interrupt the course of the road, or cause +the poor people to go out of the way of their business to or from the +markets and fairs, for any pleasure of their own whatsoever. + +The palace of Hampton Court was first founded and built from the ground +by that great statesman and favourite of King Henry VIII, Cardinal +Wolsey; and if it be a just observation anywhere, as is made from the +situation of the old abbeys and monasteries, the clergy were excellent +judges of the beauty and pleasantness of the country, and chose always to +plant in the best; I say, if it was a just observation in any case, it +was in this; for if there be a situation on the whole river between +Staines Bridge and Windsor Bridge pleasanter than another, it is this of +Hampton; close to the river, yet not offended by the rising of its waters +in floods or storms; near to the reflux of the tides, but not quite so +near as to be affected with any foulness of the water which the flowing +of the tides generally is the occasion of. The gardens extend almost to +the bank of the river, yet are never overflowed; nor are there any +marshes on either side the river to make the waters stagnate, or the air +unwholesome on that account. The river is high enough to be navigable, +and low enough to be a little pleasantly rapid; so that the stream looks +always cheerful, not slow and sleeping, like a pond. This keeps the +waters always clear and clean, the bottom in view, the fish playing and +in sight; and, in a word, it has everything that can make an inland (or, +as I may call it, a country) river pleasant and agreeable. + +I shall sing you no songs here of the river in the first person of a +water-nymph, a goddess, and I know not what, according to the humour of +the ancient poets; I shall talk nothing of the marriage of old Isis, the +male river, with the beautiful Thame, the female river (a whimsey as +simple as the subject was empty); but I shall speak of the river as +occasion presents, as it really is made glorious by the splendour of its +shores, gilded with noble palaces, strong fortifications, large +hospitals, and public buildings; with the greatest bridge, and the +greatest city in the world, made famous by the opulence of its merchants, +the increase and extensiveness of its commerce; by its invincible navies, +and by the innumerable fleets of ships sailing upon it to and from all +parts of the world. + +As I meet with the river upwards in my travels through the inland country +I shall speak of it, as it is the channel for conveying an infinite +quantity of provisions from remote counties to London, and enriching all +the counties again that lie near it by the return of wealth and trade +from the city; and in describing these things I expect both to inform and +divert my readers, and speak in a more masculine manner, more to the +dignity of the subject, and also more to their satisfaction, than I could +do any other way. + +There is little more to be said of the Thames relating to Hampton Court, +than that it adds by its neighbourhood to the pleasure of the situation; +for as to passing by water to and from London, though in summer it is +exceeding pleasant, yet the passage is a little too long to make it easy +to the ladies, especially to be crowded up in the small boats which +usually go upon the Thames for pleasure. + +The prince and princess, indeed, I remember came once down by water upon +the occasion of her Royal Highness's being great with child, and near her +time--so near that she was delivered within two or three days after. But +this passage being in the royal barges, with strength of oars, and the +day exceeding fine, the passage, I say, was made very pleasant, and still +the more so for being short. Again, this passage is all the way with the +stream, whereas in the common passage upwards great part of the way is +against the stream, which is slow and heavy. + +But be the going and coming how it will by water, it is an exceeding +pleasant passage by land, whether we go by the Surrey side or the +Middlesex side of the water, of which I shall say more in its place. + +The situation of Hampton Court being thus mentioned, and its founder, it +is to be mentioned next that it fell to the Crown in the forfeiture of +his Eminence the Cardinal, when the king seized his effects and estate, +by which this and Whitehall (another house of his own building also) came +to King Henry VIII. Two palaces fit for the kings of England, erected by +one cardinal, are standing monuments of the excessive pride as well as +the immense wealth of that prelate, who knew no bounds of his insolence +and ambition till he was overthrown at once by the displeasure of his +master. + +Whoever knew Hampton Court before it was begun to be rebuilt, or altered, +by the late King William, must acknowledge it was a very complete palace +before, and fit for a king; and though it might not, according to the +modern method of building or of gardening, pass for a thing exquisitely +fine, yet it had this remaining to itself, and perhaps peculiar--namely, +that it showed a situation exceedingly capable of improvement, and of +being made one of the most delightful palaces in Europe. + +This her Majesty Queen Mary was so sensible of, that, while the king had +ordered the pulling down the old apartments, and building it up in that +most beautiful form which we see them now appear in, her Majesty, +impatient of enjoying so agreeable a retreat, fixed upon a building +formerly made use of chiefly for landing from the river, and therefore +called the Water Galley, and here, as if she had been conscious that she +had but a few years to enjoy it, she ordered all the little neat curious +things to be done which suited her own conveniences, and made it the +pleasantest little thing within doors that could possibly be made, though +its situation being such as it could not be allowed to stand after the +great building was finished, we now see no remains of it. + +The queen had here her gallery of beauties, being the pictures at full- +length of the principal ladies attending upon her Majesty, or who were +frequently in her retinue; and this was the more beautiful sight because +the originals were all in being, and often to be compared with their +pictures. Her Majesty had here a fine apartment, with a set of lodgings +for her private retreat only, but most exquisitely furnished, +particularly a fine chintz bed, then a great curiosity; another of her +own work while in Holland, very magnificent, and several others; and here +was also her Majesty's fine collection of Delft ware, which indeed was +very large and fine; and here was also a vast stock of fine china ware, +the like whereof was not then to be seen in England; the long gallery, as +above, was filled with this china, and every other place where it could +be placed with advantage. + +The queen had here also a small bathing-room, made very fine, suited +either to hot or cold bathing, as the season should invite; also a dairy, +with all its conveniences, in which her Majesty took great delight. All +these things were finished with expedition, that here their Majesties +might repose while they saw the main building go forward. While this was +doing, the gardens were laid out, the plan of them devised by the king +himself, and especially the amendments and alterations were made by the +king or the queen's particular special command, or by both, for their +Majesties agreed so well in their fancy, and had both so good judgment in +the just proportions of things, which are the principal beauties of a +garden, that it may be said they both ordered everything that was done. + +Here the fine parcel of limes which form the semicircle on the south +front of the house by the iron gates, looking into the park, were by the +dexterous hand of the head gardener removed, after some of them had been +almost thirty years planted in other places, though not far off. I know +the King of France in the decoration of the gardens of Versailles had +oaks removed, which by their dimensions must have been above an hundred +years old, and yet were taken up with so much art, and by the strength of +such engines, by which such a monstrous quantity of earth was raised with +them, that the trees could not feel their remove--that is to say, their +growth was not at all hindered. This, I confess, makes the wonder much +the less in those trees at Hampton Court gardens; but the performance was +not the less difficult or nice, however, in these, and they thrive +perfectly well. + +While the gardens were thus laid out, the king also directed the laying +the pipes for the fountains and _jet-d'eaux_, and particularly the +dimensions of them, and what quantity of water they should cast up, and +increased the number of them after the first design. + +The ground on the side of the other front has received some alterations +since the taking down the Water Galley; but not that part immediately +next the lodgings. The orange-trees and fine Dutch bays are placed +within the arches of the building under the first floor; so that the +lower part of the house was all one as a greenhouse for sometime. Here +stand advanced, on two pedestals of stone, two marble vases or flower- +pots of most exquisite workmanship--the one done by an Englishman, and +the other by a German. It is hard to say which is the best performance, +though the doing of it was a kind of trial of skill between them; but it +gives us room, without any partiality, to say they were both masters of +their art. + +The _parterre_ on that side descends from the terrace-walk by steps, and +on the left a terrace goes down to the water-side, from which the garden +on the eastward front is overlooked, and gives a most pleasant prospect. + +The fine scrolls and _bordure_ of these gardens were at first edged with +box, but on the queen's disliking the smell those edgings were taken up, +but have since been planted again--at least, in many places--nothing +making so fair and regular an edging as box, or is so soon brought to its +perfection. + +On the north side of the house, where the gardens seemed to want +screening from the weather or the view of the chapel, and some part of +the old building required to be covered from the eye, the vacant ground, +which was large, is very happily cast into a wilderness, with a labyrinth +and _espaliers_ so high that they effectually take off all that part of +the old building which would have been offensive to the sight. This +labyrinth and wilderness is not only well designed, and completely +finished, but is perfectly well kept, and the _espaliers_ filled exactly +at bottom, to the very ground, and are led up to proportioned heights on +the top, so that nothing of that kind can be more beautiful. + +The house itself is every way answerable on the outside to the beautiful +prospect, and the two fronts are the largest and, beyond comparison, the +finest of the kind in England. The great stairs go up from the second +court of the palace on the right hand, and lead you to the south +prospect. + +I hinted in my last that King William brought into England the love of +fine paintings as well as that of fine gardens; and you have an example +of it in the cartoons, as they are called, being five pieces of such +paintings as, if you will believe men of nice judgment and great +travelling, are not to be matched in Europe. The stories are known, but +especially two of them--viz., that of St. Paul preaching on Mars Hill to +the self-wise Athenians, and that of St. Peter passing sentence of death +on Ananias--I say, these two strike the mind with the utmost surprise, +the passions are so drawn to the life; astonishment, terror, and death in +the face of Ananias, zeal and a sacred fire in the eyes of the blessed +Apostle, fright and surprise upon the countenances of the beholders in +the piece of Ananias; all these describe themselves so naturally that you +cannot but seem to discover something of the like passions, even in +seeing them. + +In the other there is the boldness and courage with which St. Paul +undertook to talk to a set of men who, he knew, despised all the world, +as thinking themselves able to teach them anything. In the audience +there is anticipating pride and conceit in some, a smile or fleer of +contempt in others, but a kind of sensible conviction, though crushed in +its beginning, on the faces of the rest; and all together appear +confounded, but have little to say, and know nothing at all of it; they +gravely put him off to hear him another time; all these are seen here in +the very dress of the face--that is, the very countenances which they +hold while they listen to the new doctrine which the Apostle preached to +a people at that time ignorant of it. + +The other of the cartoons are exceeding fine but I mention these as the +particular two which are most lively, which strike the fancy the soonest +at first view. It is reported, but with what truth I know not, that the +late French king offered an hundred thousand _louis d'ors_ for these +pictures; but this, I say, is but a report. The king brought a great +many other fine pieces to England, and with them the love of fine +paintings so universally spread itself among the nobility and persons of +figure all over the kingdom that it is incredible what collections have +been made by English gentlemen since that time, and how all Europe has +been rummaged, as we may say, for pictures to bring over hither, where +for twenty years they yielded the purchasers, such as collected them for +sale, immense profit. But the rates are abated since that, and we begin +to be glutted with the copies and frauds of the Dutch and Flemish +painters who have imposed grossly upon us. But to return to the palace +of Hampton Court. Queen Mary lived not to see it completely finished, +and her death, with the other difficulties of that reign, put a stop to +the works for some time till the king, reviving his good liking of the +place, set them to work again, and it was finished as we see it. But I +have been assured that had the peace continued, and the king lived to +enjoy the continuance of it, his Majesty had resolved to have pulled down +all the remains of the old building (such as the chapel and the large +court within the first gate), and to have built up the whole palace after +the manner of those two fronts already done. In these would have been an +entire set of rooms of state for the receiving and, if need had been, +lodging and entertaining any foreign prince with his retinue; also +offices for all the Secretaries of State, Lords of the Treasury, and of +Trade, to have repaired to for the despatch of such business as it might +be necessary to have done there upon the king's longer residence there +than ordinary; as also apartments for all the great officers of the +Household; so that had the house had two great squares added, as was +designed, there would have been no room to spare, or that would not have +been very well filled. But the king's death put an end to all these +things. + +Since the death of King William, Hampton Court seemed abandoned of its +patron. They have gotten a kind of proverbial saying relating to Hampton +Court, viz., that it has been generally chosen by every other prince +since it became a house of note. King Charles was the first that +delighted in it since Queen Elizabeth's time. As for the reigns before, +it was but newly forfeited to the Crown, and was not made a royal house +till King Charles I., who was not only a prince that delighted in country +retirements, but knew how to make choice of them by the beauty of their +situation, the goodness of the air, &c. He took great delight here, and, +had he lived to enjoy it in peace, had purposed to make it another thing +than it was. But we all know what took him off from that felicity, and +all others; and this house was at last made one of his prisons by his +rebellious subjects. + +His son, King Charles II., may well be said to have an aversion to the +place, for the reason just mentioned--namely, the treatment his royal +father met with there--and particularly that the rebel and murderer of +his father, Cromwell, afterwards possessed this palace, and revelled here +in the blood of the royal party, as he had done in that of his sovereign. +King Charles II. therefore chose Windsor, and bestowed a vast sum in +beautifying the castle there, and which brought it to the perfection we +see it in at this day--some few alterations excepted, done in the time of +King William. + +King William (for King James is not to be named as to his choice of +retired palaces, his delight running quite another way)--I say, King +William fixed upon Hampton Court, and it was in his reign that Hampton +Court put on new clothes, and, being dressed gay and glorious, made the +figure we now see it in. + +The late queen, taken up for part of her reign in her kind regards to the +prince her spouse, was obliged to reside where her care of his health +confined her, and in this case kept for the most part at Kensington, +where he died; but her Majesty always discovered her delight to be at +Windsor, where she chose the little house, as it was called, opposite to +the Castle, and took the air in her chaise in the parks and forest as she +saw occasion. + +Now Hampton Court, by the like alternative, is come into request again; +and we find his present Majesty, who is a good judge too of the +pleasantness and situation of a place of that kind, has taken Hampton +Court into his favour, and has made it much his choice for the summer's +retreat of the Court, and where they may best enjoy the diversions of the +season. When Hampton Court will find such another favourable juncture as +in King William's time, when the remainder of her ashes shall be swept +away, and her complete fabric, as designed by King William, shall be +finished, I cannot tell; but if ever that shall be, I know no palace in +Europe, Versailles excepted, which can come up to her, either for beauty +and magnificence, or for extent of building, and the ornaments attending +it. + +From Hampton Court I directed my course for a journey into the south-west +part of England; and to take up my beginning where I concluded my last, I +crossed to Chertsey on the Thames, a town I mentioned before; from +whence, crossing the Black Desert, as I called it, of Bagshot Heath, I +directed my course for Hampshire or Hantshire, and particularly for +Basingstoke--that is to say, that a little before, I passed into the +great Western Road upon the heath, somewhat west of Bagshot, at a village +called Blackwater, and entered Hampshire, near Hartleroe. + +Before we reach Basingstoke, we get rid of that unpleasant country which +I so often call a desert, and enter into a pleasant fertile country, +enclosed and cultivated like the rest of England; and passing a village +or two we enter Basingstoke, in the midst of woods and pastures, rich and +fertile, and the country accordingly spread with the houses of the +nobility and gentry, as in other places. On the right hand, a little +before we come to the town, we pass at a small distance the famous +fortress, so it was then, of Basing, being a house belonging then to the +Marquis of Winchester, the great ancestor of the present family of the +Dukes of Bolton. + +This house, garrisoned by a resolute band of old soldiers, was a great +curb to the rebels of the Parliament party almost through that whole war; +till it was, after a vigorous defence, yielded to the conquerors by the +inevitable fate of things at that time. The old house is, indeed, +demolished but the successor of the family, the first Duke of Bolton, has +erected a very noble fabric in the same place, or near it, which, +however, is not equal to the magnificence which fame gives to the ancient +house, whose strength of building only, besides the outworks, withstood +the battery of cannon in several attacks, and repulsed the Roundheads +three or four times when they attempted to besiege it. It is incredible +what booty the garrison of this place picked up, lying as they did just +on the great Western Road, where they intercepted the carriers, plundered +the waggons, and suffered nothing to pass--to the great interruption of +the trade of the city of London. + +Basingstoke is a large populous market-town, has a good market for corn, +and lately within a very few years is fallen into a manufacture, viz., of +making druggets and shalloons, and such slight goods, which, however, +employs a good number of the poor people, and enables them to get their +bread, which knew not how to get it before. + +From hence the great Western Road goes on to Whitchurch and Andover, two +market-towns, and sending members to Parliament; at the last of which the +Downs, or open country, begins, which we in general, though falsely, call +Salisbury Plain. But my resolution being to take in my view what I had +passed by before, I was obliged to go off to the left hand, to Alresford +and Winchester. + +Alresford was a flourishing market-town, and remarkable for this--that +though it had no great trade, and particularly very little, if any, +manufactures, yet there was no collection in the town for the poor, nor +any poor low enough to take alms of the parish, which is what I do not +think can be said of any town in England besides. + +But this happy circumstance, which so distinguished Alresford from all +her neighbours, was brought to an end in the year ---, when by a sudden +and surprising fire the whole town, with both the church and the market- +house, was reduced to a heap of rubbish; and, except a few poor huts at +the remotest ends of the town, not a house left standing. The town is +since that very handsomely rebuilt, and the neighbouring gentlemen +contributed largely to the relief of the people, especially by sending in +timber towards their building; also their market-house is handsomely +built, but the church not yet, though we hear there is a fund raising +likewise for that. + +Here is a very large pond, or lake of water, kept up to a head by a +strong _batter d'eau_, or dam, which the people tell us was made by the +Romans; and that it is to this day part of the great Roman highway which +leads from Winchester to Alton, and, as it is supposed, went on to +London, though we nowhere see any remains of it, except between +Winchester and Alton, and chiefly between this town and Alton. + +Near this town, a little north-west, the Duke of Bolton has another seat, +which, though not large, is a very handsome beautiful palace, and the +gardens not only very exact, but very finely situate, the prospect and +vistas noble and great, and the whole very well kept. + +From hence, at the end of seven miles over the Downs, we come to the very +ancient city of Winchester; not only the great church (which is so famous +all over Europe, and has been so much talked of), but even the whole city +has at a distance the face of venerable, and looks ancient afar off; and +yet here are many modern buildings too, and some very handsome; as the +college schools, with the bishop's palace, built by Bishop Morley since +the late wars--the old palace of the bishop having been ruined by that +known church incendiary Sir William Waller and his crew of plunderers, +who, if my information is not wrong, as I believe it is not, destroyed +more monuments of the dead, and defaced more churches, than all the +Roundheads in England beside. + +This church, and the schools also are accurately described by several +writers, especially by the "Monasticon," where their antiquity and +original is fully set forth. The outside of the church is as plain and +coarse as if the founders had abhorred ornaments, or that William of +Wickham had been a Quaker, or at least a Quietist. There is neither +statue, nor a niche for a statue, to be seen on all the outside; no +carved work, no spires, towers, pinnacles, balustrades, or anything; but +mere walls, buttresses, windows, and coigns necessary to the support and +order of the building. It has no steeple, but a short tower covered +flat, as if the top of it had fallen down, and it had been covered in +haste to keep the rain out till they had time to build it up again. + +But the inside of the church has many very good things in it, and worth +observation; it was for some ages the burying-place of the English Saxon +kings, whose _reliques_, at the repair of the church, were collected by +Bishop Fox, and being put together into large wooden chests lined with +lead were again interred at the foot of the great wall in the choir, +three on one side, and three on the other, with an account whose bones +are in each chest. Whether the division of the _reliques_ might be +depended upon, has been doubted, but is not thought material, so that we +do but believe they are all there. + +The choir of the church appears very magnificent; the roof is very high, +and the Gothic work in the arched part is very fine, though very old; the +painting in the windows is admirably good, and easy to be distinguished +by those that understand those things: the steps ascending to the choir +make a very fine show, having the statues of King James and his son King +Charles, in copper, finely cast; the first on the right hand, and the +other on the left, as you go up to the choir. + +The choir is said to be the longest in England; and as the number of +prebendaries, canons, &c., are many, it required such a length. The +ornaments of the choir are the effects of the bounty of several bishops. +The fine altar (the noblest in England by much) was done by Bishop +Morley; the roof and the coat-of-arms of the Saxon and Norman kings were +done by Bishop Fox; and the fine throne for the bishop in the choir was +given by Bishop Mew in his lifetime; and it was well it was for if he had +ordered it by will, there is reason to believe it had never been +done--that reverend prelate, notwithstanding he enjoyed so rich a +bishopric, scarce leaving money enough behind him to pay for his coffin. + +There are a great many persons of rank buried in this church, besides the +Saxon kings mentioned above, and besides several of the most eminent +bishops of the See. Just under the altar lies a son of William the +Conqueror, without any monument; and behind the altar, under a very fine +and venerable monument, lies the famous Lord Treasurer Weston, late Earl +of Portland, Lord High Treasurer of England under King Charles I. His +effigy is in copper armour at full-length, with his head raised on three +cushions of the same, and is a very magnificent work. There is also a +very fine monument of Cardinal Beaufort in his cardinal's robes and hat. + +The monument of Sir John Cloberry is extraordinary, but more because it +puts strangers upon inquiring into his story than for anything wonderful +in the figure, it being cut in a modern dress (the habit gentlemen wore +in those times, which, being now so much out of fashion, appears mean +enough). But this gentleman's story is particular, being the person +solely entrusted with the secret of the restoration of King Charles II., +as the messenger that passed between General Monk on one hand, and Mr. +Montague and others entrusted by King Charles II. on the other hand; +which he managed so faithfully as to effect that memorable event, to +which England owes the felicity of all her happy days since that time; by +which faithful service Sir John Cloberry, then a private musketeer only, +raised himself to the honour of a knight, with the reward of a good +estate from the bounty of the king. + +Everybody that goes into this church, and reads what is to be read there, +will be told that the body of the church was built by the famous William +of Wickham; whose monument, intimating his fame, lies in the middle of +that part which was built at his expense. + +He was a courtier before a bishop; and, though he had no great share of +learning, he was a great promoter of it, and a lover of learned men. His +natural genius was much beyond his acquired parts, and his skill in +politics beyond his ecclesiastic knowledge. He is said to have put his +master, King Edward III., to whom he was Secretary of State, upon the two +great projects which made his reign so glorious, viz.:--First, upon +setting up his claim to the crown of France, and pushing that claim by +force of arms, which brought on the war with France, in which that prince +was three times victorious in battle. (2) Upon setting up, or +instituting the Order of the Garter; in which he (being before that made +Bishop of Winchester) obtained the honour for the Bishops of Winchester +of being always prelates of the Order, as an appendix to the bishopric; +and he himself was the first prelate of the Order, and the ensigns of +that honour are joined with his episcopal ornaments in the robing of his +effigy on the monument above. + +To the honour of this bishop, there are other foundations of his, as much +to his fame as that of this church, of which I shall speak in their +order; but particularly the college in this city, which is a noble +foundation indeed. The building consists of two large courts, in which +are the lodgings for the masters and scholars, and in the centre a very +noble chapel; beyond that, in the second court, are the schools, with a +large cloister beyond them, and some enclosures laid open for the +diversion of the scholars. There also is a great hall, where the +scholars dine. The funds for the support of this college are very +considerable; the masters live in a very good figure, and their +maintenance is sufficient to support it. They have all separate +dwellings in the house, and all possible conveniences appointed them. + +The scholars have exhibitions at a certain time of continuance here, if +they please to study in the new college at Oxford, built by the same +noble benefactor, of which I shall speak in its order. + +The clergy here live at large, and very handsomely, in the Close +belonging to the cathedral; where, besides the bishop's palace mentioned +above, are very good houses, and very handsomely built, for the +prebendaries, canons, and other dignitaries of this church. The Deanery +is a very pleasant dwelling, the gardens very large, and the river +running through them; but the floods in winter sometimes incommode the +gardens very much. + +This school has fully answered the end of the founder, who, though he was +no great scholar, resolved to erect a house for the making the ages to +come more learned than those that went before; and it has, I say, fully +answered the end, for many learned and great men have been raised here, +some of whom we shall have occasion to mention as we go on. + +Among the many private inscriptions in this church, we found one made by +Dr. Over, once an eminent physician in this city, on a mother and child, +who, being his patients, died together and were buried in the same grave, +and which intimate that one died of a fever, and the other of a dropsy: + + "Surrepuit natum Febris, matrem abstulit Hydrops, + Igne Prior Fatis, Altera cepit Aqua." + +As the city itself stands in a vale on the bank, and at the conjunction +of two small rivers, so the country rising every way, but just as the +course of the water keeps the valley open, you must necessarily, as you +go out of the gates, go uphill every way; but when once ascended, you +come to the most charming plains and most pleasant country of that kind +in England; which continues with very small intersections of rivers and +valleys for above fifty miles, as shall appear in the sequel of this +journey. + +At the west gate of this city was anciently a castle, known to be so by +the ruins more than by any extraordinary notice taken of it in history. +What they say of it, that the Saxon kings kept their court here, is +doubtful, and must be meant of the West Saxons only. And as to the tale +of King Arthur's Round Table, which they pretend was kept here for him +and his two dozen of knights (which table hangs up still, as a piece of +antiquity to the tune of twelve hundred years, and has, as they pretend, +the names of the said knights in Saxon characters, and yet such as no man +can read), all this story I see so little ground to give the least credit +to that I look upon it, and it shall please you, to be no better than a +fib. + +Where this castle stood, or whatever else it was (for some say there was +no castle there), the late King Charles II. marked out a very noble +design, which, had he lived, would certainly have made that part of the +country the Newmarket of the ages to come; for the country hereabout far +excels that of Newmarket Heath for all kinds of sport and diversion fit +for a prince, nobody can dispute. And as the design included a noble +palace (sufficient, like Windsor, for a summer residence of the whole +court), it would certainly have diverted the king from his cursory +journeys to Newmarket. + +The plan of this house has received several alterations, and as it is +never like to be finished, it is scarce worth recording the variety. The +building is begun, and the front next the city carried up to the roof and +covered, but the remainder is not begun. There was a street of houses +designed from the gate of the palace down to the town, but it was never +begun to be built; the park marked out was exceeding large, near ten +miles in circumference, and ended west upon the open Downs, in view of +the town of Stockbridge. + +This house was afterwards settled, with a royal revenue also, as an +appanage (established by Parliament) upon Prince George of Denmark for +his life, in case he had out-lived the queen; but his Royal Highness +dying before her Majesty, all hope of seeing this design perfected, or +the house finished, is now vanished. + +I cannot omit that there are several public edifices in this city and in +the neighbourhood, as the hospitals and the building adjoining near the +east gate; and towards the north a piece of an old monastery +undemolished, and which is still preserved to the religion, being the +residence of some private Roman Catholic gentlemen, where they have an +oratory, and, as they say, live still according to the rules of St. +Benedict. This building is called Hide House; and as they live very +usefully, and to the highest degree obliging among their neighbours, they +meet with no obstruction or disturbance from anybody. + +Winchester is a place of no trade other than is naturally occasioned by +the inhabitants of the city and neighbouring villages one with another. +Here is no manufacture, no navigation; there was indeed an attempt to +make the river navigable from Southampton, and it was once made +practicable, but it never answered the expense so as to give +encouragement to the undertakers. + +Here is a great deal of good company, and abundance of gentry being in +the neighbourhood, it adds to the sociableness of the place. The clergy +also here are, generally speaking, very rich and very numerous. + +As there is such good company, so they are gotten into that new-fashioned +way of conversing by assemblies. I shall do no more than mention them +here; they are pleasant and agreeable to the young peoples, and sometimes +fatal to them, of which, in its place, Winchester has its share of the +mirth. May it escape the ill-consequences! + +The hospital on the south of this city, at a mile distant on the road to +Southampton, is worth notice. It is said to be founded by King William +Rufus, but was not endowed or appointed till later times by Cardinal +Beaufort. Every traveller that knocks at the door of this house in his +way, and asks for it, claims the relief of a piece of white bread and a +cup of beer, and this donation is still continued. A quantity of good +beer is set apart every day to be given away, and what is left is +distributed to other poor, but none of it kept to the next day. + +How the revenues of this hospital, which should maintain the master and +thirty private gentlemen (whom they call Fellows, but ought to call +Brothers), is now reduced to maintain only fourteen, while the master +lives in a figure equal to the best gentleman in the country, would be +well worth the inquiry of a proper visitor, if such can be named. It is +a thing worthy of complaint when public charities, designed for the +relief of the poor, are embezzled and depredated by the rich, and turned +to the support of luxury and pride. + +From Winchester is about twenty-five miles, and over the most charming +plains that can anywhere be seen (far, in my opinion, excelling the +plains of Mecca), we come to Salisbury. The vast flocks of sheep which +one everywhere sees upon these Downs, and the great number of those +flocks, is a sight truly worth observation; it is ordinary for these +flocks to contain from three thousand to five thousand in a flock, and +several private farmers hereabouts have two or three such flocks. + +But it is more remarkable still how a great part of these Downs comes, by +a new method of husbandry, to be not only made arable (which they never +were in former days), but to bear excellent wheat, and great crops, too, +though otherwise poor barren land, and never known to our ancestors to be +capable of any such thing--nay, they would perhaps have laughed at any +one that would have gone about to plough up the wild downs and hills +where the sheep were wont to go. But experience has made the present age +wiser and more skilful in husbandry; for by only folding the sheep upon +the ploughed lands--those lands which otherwise are barren, and where the +plough goes within three or four inches of the solid rock of chalk, are +made fruitful and bear very good wheat, as well as rye and barley. I +shall say more of this when I come to speak of the same practice farther +in the country. + +This plain country continues in length from Winchester to Salisbury +(twenty-five miles), from thence to Dorchester (twenty-two miles), thence +to Weymouth (six miles); so that they lie near fifty miles in length and +breadth; they reach also in some places thirty-five to forty miles. They +who would make any practicable guess at the number of sheep usually fed +on these Downs may take it from a calculation made, as I was told, at +Dorchester, that there were six hundred thousand sheep fed within six +miles of that town, measuring every way round and the town in the centre. + +As we passed this plain country, we saw a great many old camps, as well +Roman as British, and several remains of the ancient inhabitants of this +kingdom, and of their wars, battles, entrenchments, encampments, +buildings, and other fortifications, which are indeed very agreeable to a +traveller that has read anything of the history of the country. Old +Sarum is as remarkable as any of these, where there is a double +entrenchment, with a deep graff or ditch to either of them; the area +about one hundred yards in diameter, taking in the whole crown of the +hill, and thereby rendering the ascent very difficult. Near this there +is one farm-house, which is all the remains I could see of any town in or +near the place (for the encampment has no resemblance of a town), and yet +this is called the borough of Old Sarum, and sends two members to +Parliament. Whom those members can justly say they represent would be +hard for them to answer. + +Some will have it that the old city of _Sorbiodunum_ or Salisbury stood +here, and was afterwards (for I know not what reasons) removed to the low +marshy grounds among the rivers, where it now stands. But as I see no +authority for it other than mere tradition, I believe my share of it, and +take it _ad referendum_. + +Salisbury itself is indeed a large and pleasant city, though I do not +think it at all the pleasanter for that which they boast so much +of--namely, the water running through the middle of every street--or that +it adds anything to the beauty of the place, but just the contrary; it +keeps the streets always dirty, full of wet and filth and weeds, even in +the middle of summer. + +The city is placed upon the confluence of two large rivers, the Avon and +the Willy, neither of them considerable rivers, but very large when +joined together, and yet larger when they receive a third river (viz., +the Naddir), which joins them near Clarendon Park, about three miles +below the city; then, with a deep channel and a current less rapid, they +run down to Christchurch, which is their port. And where they empty +themselves into the sea, from that town upwards towards Salisbury they +are made navigable to within two miles, and might be so quite into the +city, were it not for the strength of the stream. + +As the city of Winchester is a city without trade--that is to say, +without any particular manufactures--so this city of Salisbury and all +the county of Wilts, of which it is the capital, are full of a great +variety of manufactures, and those some of the most considerable in +England--namely, the clothing trade and the trade of flannels, druggets, +and several other sorts of manufactures, of which in their order. + +The city of Salisbury has two remarkable manufactures carried on in it, +and which employ the poor of great part of the country round--namely, +fine flannels, and long-cloths for the Turkey trade, called Salisbury +whites. The people of Salisbury are gay and rich, and have a flourishing +trade; and there is a great deal of good manners and good company among +them--I mean, among the citizens, besides what is found among the +gentlemen; for there are many good families in Salisbury besides the +citizens. + +This society has a great addition from the Close--that is to say, the +circle of ground walled in adjacent to the cathedral; in which the +families of the prebendaries and commons, and others of the clergy +belonging to the cathedral, have their houses, as is usual in all cities, +where there are cathedral churches. These are so considerable here, and +the place so large, that it is (as it is called in general) like another +city. + +The cathedral is famous for the height of its spire, which is without +exception the highest and the handsomest in England, being from the +ground 410 feet, and yet the walls so exceeding thin that at the upper +part of the spire, upon a view made by the late Sir Christopher Wren, the +wall was found to be less than five inches thick; upon which a +consultation was had whether the spire, or at least the upper part of it, +should be taken down, it being supposed to have received some damage by +the great storm in the year 1703; but it was resolved in the negative, +and Sir Christopher ordered it to be so strengthened with bands of iron +plates as has effectually secured it; and I have heard some of the best +architects say it is stronger now than when it was first built. + +They tell us here long stories of the great art used in laying the first +foundation of this church, the ground being marshy and wet, occasioned by +the channels of the rivers; that it was laid upon piles, according to +some, and upon woolpacks, according to others. But this is not supposed +by those who know that the whole country is one rock of chalk, even from +the tops of the highest hills to the bottom of the deepest rivers. + +They tell us this church was forty years a-building, and cost an immense +sum of money; but it must be acknowledged that the inside of the work is +not answerable in the decoration of things to the workmanship without. +The painting in the choir is mean, and more like the ordinary method of +common drawing-room or tavern painting than that of a church; the carving +is good, but very little of it; and it is rather a fine church than +finely set off. + +The ordinary boast of this building (that there were as many gates as +months, as many windows as days, as many marble pillars as hours in the +year) is now no recommendation at all. However, the mention of it must +be preserved:-- + + "As many days as in one year there be, + So many windows in one church we see; + As many marble pillars there appear + As there are hours throughout the fleeting year; + As many gates as moons one year do view: + Strange tale to tell, yet not more strange than true." + +There are, however, some very fine monuments in this church; particularly +one belonging to the noble family of Seymours, since Dukes of Somerset +(and ancestors of the present flourishing family), which on a most +melancholy occasion has been now lately opened again to receive the body +of the late Duchess of Somerset, the happy consort for almost forty years +of his Grace the present Duke, and only daughter and heiress of the +ancient and noble family of Percy, Earls of Northumberland, whose great +estate she brought into the family of Somerset, who now enjoy it. + +With her was buried at the same time her Grace's daughter the Marchioness +of Caermarthen (being married to the Marquis of Caermarthen, son and heir- +apparent to the Lord of Leeds), who died for grief at the loss of the +duchess her mother, and was buried with her; also her second son, the +Duke Percy Somerset, who died a few months before, and had been buried in +the Abbey church of Westminster, but was ordered to be removed and laid +here with the ancestors of his house. And I hear his Grace designs to +have a yet more magnificent monument erected in this cathedral for them, +just by the other which is there already. + +How the Dukes of Somerset came to quit this church for their +burying-place, and be laid in Westminster Abbey, that I know not; but it +is certain that the present Duke has chosen to have his family laid here +with their ancestors, and to that end has caused the corpse of his son, +the Lord Percy, as above, and one of his daughters, who had been buried +in the Abbey, to be removed and brought down to this vault, which lies in +that they call the Virgin Mary's Chapel, behind the altar. There is, as +above, a noble monument for a late Duke and Duchess of Somerset in the +place already, with their portraits at full-length, their heads lying +upon cushions, the whole perfectly well wrought in fine polished Italian +marble, and their sons kneeling by them. Those I suppose to be the +father of the great Duke of Somerset, uncle to King Edward IV.; but after +this the family lay in Westminster Abbey, where there is also a fine +monument for that very duke who was beheaded by Edward VI., and who was +the great patron of the Reformation. + +Among other monuments of noble men in this cathedral they show you one +that is very extraordinary, and to which there hangs a tale. There was +in the reign of Philip and Mary a very unhappy murder committed by the +then Lord Sturton, or Stourton, a family since extinct, but well known +till within a few years in that country. + +This Lord Stourton being guilty of the said murder, which also was +aggravated with very bad circumstances, could not obtain the usual grace +of the Crown (viz., to be beheaded), but Queen Mary positively ordered +that, like a common malefactor, he should die at the gallows. After he +was hanged, his friends desiring to have him buried at Salisbury, the +bishop would not consent that he should be buried in the cathedral +unless, as a farther mark of infamy, his friends would submit to this +condition--viz., that the silken halter in which he was hanged should be +hanged up over his grave in the church as a monument of his crime; which +was accordingly done, and there it is to be seen to this day. + +The putting this halter up here was not so wonderful to me as it was that +the posterity of that lord, who remained in good rank some time after, +should never prevail to have that mark of infamy taken off from the +memory of their ancestor. + +There are several other monuments in this cathedral, as particularly of +two noblemen of ancient families in Scotland--one of the name of Hay, and +one of the name of Gordon; but they give us nothing of their history, so +that we must be content to say there they lie, and that is all. + +The cloister, and the chapter-house adjoining to the church, are the +finest here of any I have seen in England; the latter is octagon, or +eight-square, and is 150 feet in its circumference; the roof bearing all +upon one small marble pillar in the centre, which you may shake with your +hand; and it is hardly to be imagined it can be any great support to the +roof, which makes it the more curious (it is not indeed to be matched, I +believe, in Europe). + +From hence directing my course to the seaside in pursuit of my first +design--viz., of viewing the whole coast of England--I left the great +road and went down the east side of the river towards New Forest and +Lymington; and here I saw the ancient house and seat of Clarendon, the +mansion of the ancient family of Hide, ancestors of the great Earl of +Clarendon, and from whence his lordship was honoured with that title, or +the house erected into an honour in favour of his family. + +But this being a large county, and full of memorable branches of +antiquity and modern curiosity, I cannot quit my observations so soon. +But being happily fixed, by the favour of a particular friend, at so +beautiful a spot of ground as this of Clarendon Park, I made several +little excursions from hence to view the northern parts of this county--a +county so fruitful of wonders that, though I do not make antiquity my +chief search, yet I must not pass it over entirely, where so much of it, +and so well worth observation, is to be found, which would look as if I +either understood not the value of the study, or expected my readers +should be satisfied with a total omission of it. + +I have mentioned that this county is generally a vast continued body of +high chalky hills, whose tops spread themselves into fruitful and +pleasant downs and plains, upon which great flocks of sheep are fed, &c. +But the reader is desired to observe these hills and plains are most +beautifully intersected and cut through by the course of divers pleasant +and profitable rivers; in the course and near the banks of which there +always is a chain of fruitful meadows and rich pastures, and those +interspersed with innumerable pleasant towns, villages, and houses, and +among them many of considerable magnitude. So that, while you view the +downs, and think the country wild and uninhabited, yet when you come to +descend into these vales you are surprised with the most pleasant and +fertile country in England. + +There are no less than four of these rivers, which meet all together at +or near the city of Salisbury; especially the waters of three of them run +through the streets of the city--the Nadder and the Willy and the +Avon--and the course of these three lead us through the whole mountainous +part of the county. The two first join their waters at Wilton, the +shiretown, though a place of no great notice now; and these are the +waters which run through the canal and the gardens of Wilton House, the +seat of that ornament of nobility and learning, the Earl of Pembroke. + +One cannot be said to have seen anything that a man of curiosity would +think worth seeing in this county, and not have been at Wilton House; but +not the beautiful building, not the ancient trophy of a great family, not +the noble situation, not all the pleasures of the gardens, parks, +fountains, hare-warren, or of whatever is rare either in art or nature, +are equal to that yet more glorious sight of a noble princely palace +constantly filled with its noble and proper inhabitants. The lord and +proprietor, who is indeed a true patriarchal monarch, reigns here with an +authority agreeable to all his subjects (family); and his reign is made +agreeable, by his first practising the most exquisite government of +himself, and then guiding all under him by the rules of honour and +virtue, being also himself perfectly master of all the needful arts of +family government--I mean, needful to make that government both easy and +pleasant to those who are under it, and who therefore willingly, and by +choice, conform to it. + +Here an exalted genius is the instructor, a glorious example the guide, +and a gentle well-directed hand the governor and law-giver to the whole; +and the family, like a well-governed city, appears happy, flourishing, +and regular, groaning under no grievance, pleased with what they enjoy, +and enjoying everything which they ought to be pleased with. + +Nor is the blessing of this noble resident extended to the family only, +but even to all the country round, who in their degree feel the effects +of the general beneficence, and where the neighbourhood (however poor) +receive all the good they can expect, and are sure to have no injury or +oppression. + +The canal before the house lies parallel with the road, and receives into +it the whole river Willy, or at least is able to do so; it may, indeed, +be said that the river is made into a canal. When we come into the +courtyards before the house there are several pieces of antiquity to +entertain the curious, as particularly a noble column of porphyry, with a +marble statue of Venus on the top of it. In Italy, and especially at +Rome and Naples, we see a great variety of fine columns, and some of them +of excellent workmanship and antiquity; and at some of the courts of the +princes of Italy the like is seen, as especially at the court of +Florence; but in England I do not remember to have seen anything like +this, which, as they told me, is two-and-thirty feet high, and of +excellent workmanship, and that it came last from Candia, but formerly +from Alexandria. What may belong to the history of it any further, I +suppose is not known--at least, they could tell me no more of it who +showed it me. + +On the left of the court was formerly a large grotto and curious water- +works; and in a house, or shed, or part of the building, which opened +with two folding-doors, like a coach-house, a large equestrian statue of +one of the ancestors of the family in complete armour, as also another of +a Roman Emperor in brass. But the last time I had the curiosity to see +this house, I missed that part; so that I supposed they were removed. + +As the present Earl of Pembroke, the lord of this fine palace, is a +nobleman of great personal merit many other ways, so he is a man of +learning and reading beyond most men of his lordship's high rank in this +nation, if not in the world; and as his reading has made him a master of +antiquity, and judge of such pieces of antiquity as he has had +opportunity to meet with in his own travels and otherwise in the world, +so it has given him a love of the study, and made him a collector of +valuable things, as well in painting as in sculpture, and other +excellences of art, as also of nature; insomuch that Wilton House is now +a mere museum or a chamber of rarities, and we meet with several things +there which are to be found nowhere else in the world. + +As his lordship is a great collector of fine paintings, so I know no +nobleman's house in England so prepared, as if built on purpose, to +receive them; the largest and the finest pieces that can be imagined +extant in the world might have found a place here capable to receive +them. I say, they "might have found," as if they could not now, which is +in part true; for at present the whole house is so completely filled that +I see no room for any new piece to crowd in without displacing some other +fine piece that hung there before. As for the value of the piece that +might so offer to succeed the displaced, that the great judge of the +whole collection, the earl himself, must determine; and as his judgment +is perfectly good, the best picture would be sure to possess the place. +In a word, here is without doubt the best, if not the greatest, +collection of rarities and paintings that are to be seen together in any +one nobleman's or gentleman's house in England. The piece of our Saviour +washing His disciples' feet, which they show you in one of the first +rooms you go into, must be spoken of by everybody that has any knowledge +of painting, and is an admirable piece indeed. + +You ascend the great staircase at the upper end of the hall, which is +very large; at the foot of the staircase you have a Bacchus as large as +life, done in fine Peloponnesian marble, carrying a young Bacchus on his +arm, the young one eating grapes, and letting you see by his countenance +that he is pleased with the taste of them. Nothing can be done finer, or +more lively represent the thing intended--namely, the gust of the +appetite, which if it be not a passion, it is an affection which is as +much seen in the countenance, perhaps more than any other. One ought to +stop every two steps of this staircase, as we go up, to contemplate the +vast variety of pictures that cover the walls, and of some of the best +masters in Europe; and yet this is but an introduction to what is beyond +them. + +When you are entered the apartments, such variety seizes you every way +that you scarce know to which hand to turn yourself. First on one side +you see several rooms filled with paintings as before, all so curious, +and the variety such, that it is with reluctance that you can turn from +them; while looking another way you are called off by a vast collection +of busts and pieces of the greatest antiquity of the kind, both Greek and +Romans; among these there is one of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius in +basso-relievo. I never saw anything like what appears here, except in +the chamber of rarities at Munich in Bavaria. + +Passing these, you come into several large rooms, as if contrived for the +reception of the beautiful guests that take them up; one of these is near +seventy feet long, and the ceiling twenty-six feet high, with another +adjoining of the same height and breadth, but not so long. Those +together might be called the Great Gallery of Wilton, and might vie for +paintings with the Gallery of Luxembourg, in the Faubourg of Paris. + +These two rooms are filled with the family pieces of the house of +Herbert, most of them by Lilly or Vandyke; and one in particular outdoes +all that I ever met with, either at home or abroad; it is done, as was +the mode of painting at that time, after the manner of a family piece of +King Charles I., with his queen and children, which before the burning of +Whitehall I remember to hang at the east end of the Long Gallery in the +palace. + +This piece fills the farther end of the great room which I just now +mentioned; it contains the Earl of Montgomery, ancestor of the house of +Herbert (not then Earls of Pembroke) and his lady, sitting, and as big as +life; there are about them their own five sons and one daughter, and +their daughter-in-law, who was daughter of the Duke of Buckingham, +married to the elder Lord Herbert, their eldest son. It is enough to say +of this piece, it is worth the labour of any lover of art to go five +hundred miles to see it; and I am informed several gentlemen of quality +have come from France almost on purpose. It would be endless to describe +the whole set of the family pictures which take up this room, unless we +would enter into the roof-tree of the family, and set down a genealogical +line of the whole house. + +After we have seen this fine range of beauties--for such, indeed, they +are--far from being at an end of your surprise, you have three or four +rooms still upon the same floor, filled with wonders as before. Nothing +can be finer than the pictures themselves, nothing more surprising than +the number of them. At length you descend the back stairs, which are in +themselves large, though not like the other. However, not a +hand's-breadth is left to crowd a picture in of the smallest size; and +even the upper rooms, which might be called garrets, are not naked, but +have some very good pieces in them. + +Upon the whole, the genius of the noble collector may be seen in this +glorious collection, than which, take them together, there is not a finer +in any private hand in Europe, and in no hand at all in Britain, private +or public. + +The gardens are on the south of the house, and extend themselves beyond +the river, a branch of which runs through one part of them, and still +south of the gardens in the great park, which, extending beyond the vale, +mounts the hill opening at the last to the great down, which is properly +called, by way of distinction, Salisbury Plain, and leads from the city +of Salisbury to Shaftesbury. Here also his lordship has a hare-warren, +as it is called, though improperly. It has, indeed, been a sanctuary for +the hares for many years; but the gentlemen complain that it mars their +game, for that as soon as they put up a hare for their sport, if it be +anywhere within two or three miles, away she runs for the warren, and +there is an end of their pursuit; on the other hand, it makes all the +countrymen turn poachers, and destroy the hares by what means they can. +But this is a smaller matter, and of no great import one way or other. + +From this pleasant and agreeable day's work I returned to Clarendon, and +the next day took another short tour to the hills to see that celebrated +piece of antiquity, the wonderful Stonehenge, being six miles from +Salisbury, north, and upon the side of the River Avon, near the town of +Amesbury. It is needless that I should enter here into any part of the +dispute about which our learned antiquaries have so puzzled themselves +that several books (and one of them in folio) have been published about +it; some alleging it to be a heathen or pagan temple and altar, or place +of sacrifice, as Mr. Jones; others a monument or trophy of victory; +others a monument for the dead, as Mr. Aubrey, and the like. Again, some +will have it be British, some Danish, some Saxon, some Roman, and some, +before them all, Phoenician. + +I shall suppose it, as the majority of all writers do, to be a monument +for the dead, and the rather because men's bones have been frequently dug +up in the ground near them. The common opinion that no man could ever +count them, that a baker carried a basket of bread and laid a loaf upon +every stone, and yet never could make out the same number twice, this I +take as a mere country fiction, and a ridiculous one too. The reason why +they cannot easily be told is that many of them lie half or part buried +in the ground; and a piece here and a piece there only appearing above +the grass, it cannot be known easily which belong to one stone and which +to another, or which are separate stones, and which are joined +underground to one another; otherwise, as to those which appear, they are +easy to be told, and I have seen them told four times after one another, +beginning every time at a different place, and every time they amounted +to seventy-two in all; but then this was counting every piece of a stone +of bulk which appeared above the surface of the earth, and was not +evidently part of and adjoining to another, to be a distinct and separate +body or stone by itself. + +The form of this monument is not only described but delineated in most +authors, and, indeed, it is hard to know the first but by the last. The +figure was at first circular, and there were at least four rows or +circles within one another. The main stones were placed upright, and +they were joined on the top by cross-stones, laid from one to another, +and fastened with vast mortises and tenons. Length of time has so +decayed them that not only most of the cross-stones which lay on the top +are fallen down, but many of the upright also, notwithstanding the weight +of them is so prodigious great. How they came thither, or from whence +(no stones of that kind being now to be found in that part of England +near it) is still the mystery, for they are of such immense bulk that no +engines or carriages which we have in use in this age could stir them. + +Doubtless they had some method in former days in foreign countries, as +well as here, to move heavier weights than we find practicable now. How +else did Solomon's workmen build the battlement or additional wall to +support the precipice of Mount Moriah, on which the Temple was built, +which was all built of stones of Parian marble, each stone being forty +cubits long and fourteen cubits broad, and eight cubits high or thick, +which, reckoning each cubit at two feet and a half of our measure (as the +learned agree to do), was one hundred feet long, thirty-five feet broad, +and twenty feet thick? + +These stones at Stonehenge, as Mr. Camden describes them, and in which +others agree, were very large, though not so large--the upright stones +twenty-four feet high, seven feet broad, sixteen feet round, and weigh +twelve tons each; and the cross-stones on the top, which he calls +coronets, were six or seven tons. But this does not seem equal; for if +the cross-stones weighed six or seven tons, the others, as they appear +now, were at least five or six times as big, and must weigh in +proportion; and therefore I must think their judgment much nearer the +case who judge the upright stones at sixteen tons or thereabouts +(supposing them to stand a great way into the earth, as it is not doubted +but they do), and the coronets or cross-stones at about two tons, which +is very large too, and as much as their bulk can be thought to allow. + +Upon the whole, we must take them as our ancestors have done--namely, for +an erection or building so ancient that no history has handed down to us +the original. As we find it, then, uncertain, we must leave it so. It +is indeed a reverend piece of antiquity, and it is a great loss that the +true history of it is not known. But since it is not, I think the making +so many conjectures at the reality, when they know lots can but guess at +it, and, above all, the insisting so long and warmly on their private +opinions, is but amusing themselves and us with a doubt, which perhaps +lies the deeper for their search into it. + +The downs and plains in this part of England being so open, and the +surface so little subject to alteration, there are more remains of +antiquity to be seen upon them than in other places. For example, I +think they tell us there are three-and-fifty ancient encampments or +fortifications to be seen in this one county--some whereof are exceeding +plain to be seen; some of one form, some of another; some of one nation, +some of another--British, Danish, Saxon, Roman--as at Ebb Down, Burywood, +Oldburgh Hill, Cummerford, Roundway Down, St. Ann's Hill, Bratton Castle, +Clay Hill, Stournton Park, Whitecole Hill, Battlebury, Scrathbury, +Tanesbury, Frippsbury, Southbury Hill, Amesbury, Great Bodwin, Easterley, +Merdon, Aubery, Martenscil Hill, Barbury Castle, and many more. + +Also the barrows, as we all agree to call them, are very many in number +in this county, and very obvious, having suffered very little decay. +These are large hillocks of earth cast up, as the ancients agree, by the +soldiers over the bodies of their dead comrades slain in battle; several +hundreds of these are to be seen, especially in the north part of this +county, about Marlborough and the downs, from thence to St. Ann's Hill, +and even every way the downs are full of them. + +I have done with matters of antiquity for this county, unless you will +admit me to mention the famous Parliament in the reign of Henry II. held +at Clarendon, where I am now writing, and another intended to be held +there in Richard II.'s time, but prevented by the barons, being then up +in arms against the king. + +Near this place, at Farlo, was the birthplace of the late Sir Stephen +Fox, and where the town, sharing in his good fortune, shows several marks +of his bounty, as particularly the building a new church from the +foundation, and getting an Act of Parliament passed for making it +parochial, it being but a chapel-of-ease before to an adjoining parish. +Also Sir Stephen built and endowed an almshouse here for six poor women, +with a master and a free school. The master is to be a clergyman, and to +officiate in the church--that is to say, is to have the living, which, +including the school, is very sufficient. + +I am now to pursue my first design, and shall take the west part of +Wiltshire in my return, where are several things still to be taken notice +of, and some very well worth our stay. In the meantime I went on to +Langborough, a fine seat of my Lord Colerain, which is very well kept, +though the family, it seems, is not much in this country, having another +estate and dwelling at Tottenham High Cross, near London. + +From hence in my way to the seaside I came to New Forest, of which I have +said something already with relation to the great extent of ground which +lies waste, and in which there is so great a quantity of large timber, as +I have spoken of already. + +This waste and wild part of the country was, as some record, laid open +and waste for a forest and for game by that violent tyrant William the +Conqueror, and for which purpose he unpeopled the country, pulled down +the houses, and, which was worse, the churches of several parishes or +towns, and of abundance of villages, turning the poor people out of their +habitations and possessions, and laying all open for his deer. The same +histories likewise record that two of his own blood and posterity, and +particularly his immediate successor William Rufus, lost their lives in +this forest--one, viz., the said William Rufus, being shot with an arrow +directed at a deer which the king and his company were hunting, and the +arrow, glancing on a tree, changed his course, and struck the king full +on the breast and killed him. This they relate as a just judgment of God +on the cruel devastation made here by the Conqueror. Be it so or not, +as Heaven pleases; but that the king was so killed is certain, and they +show the tree on which the arrow glanced to this day. In King Charles +II.'s time it was ordered to be surrounded with a pale; but as great part +of the paling is down with age, whether the tree be really so old or not +is to me a great question, the action being near seven hundred years ago. + +I cannot omit to mention here a proposal made a few years ago to the late +Lord Treasurer Godolphin for re-peopling this forest, which for some +reasons I can be more particular in than any man now left alive, because +I had the honour to draw up the scheme and argue it before that noble +lord and some others who were principally concerned at that time in +bringing over--or, rather, providing for when they were come over--the +poor inhabitants of the Palatinate, a thing in itself commendable, but, +as it was managed, made scandalous to England and miserable to those poor +people. + +Some persons being ordered by that noble lord above mentioned to consider +of measures how the said poor people should be provided for, and whether +they could be provided for or no without injury to the public, the answer +was grounded upon this maxim--that the number of inhabitants is the +wealth and strength of a kingdom, provided those inhabitants were such as +by honest industry applied themselves to live by their labour, to +whatsoever trades or employments they were brought up. In the next +place, it was inquired what employments those poor people were brought up +to. It was answered there were husbandmen and artificers of all sorts, +upon which the proposal was as follows. New Forest, in Hampshire, was +singled out to be the place:-- + +Here it was proposed to draw a great square line containing four thousand +acres of land, marking out two large highways or roads through the +centre, crossing both ways, so that there should be a thousand acres in +each division, exclusive of the land contained in the said cross-roads. + +Then it was proposed to send out twenty men and their families, who +should be recommended as honest industrious men, expert in, or at least +capable of being instructed in husbandry, curing and cultivating of land, +breeding and feeding cattle, and the like. To each of these should be +parcelled out, in equal distributions, two hundred acres of this land, so +that the whole four thousand acres should be fully distributed to the +said twenty families, for which they should have no rent to pay, and be +liable to no taxes but such as provided for their own sick or poor, +repairing their own roads, and the like. This exemption from rent and +taxes to continue for twenty years, and then to pay each 50 pounds a year +to the queen--that is to say, to the Crown. + +To each of these families, whom I would now call farmers, it was proposed +to advance 200 pounds in ready money as a stock to set them to work; to +furnish them with cattle, horses, cows, hogs, &c.; and to hire and pay +labourers to inclose, clear, and cure the land, which it would be +supposed the first year would not be so much to their advantage as +afterwards, allowing them timber out of the forest to build themselves +houses and barns, sheds and offices, as they should have occasion; also +for carts, waggons, ploughs, harrows, and the like necessary things: care +to be taken that the men and their families went to work forthwith +according to the design. + +Thus twenty families would be immediately supplied and provided for, for +there would be no doubt but these families, with so much land given them +gratis, and so much money to work with, would live very well; but what +would this do for the support of the rest, who were supposed to be, to +every twenty farmers, forty or fifty families of other people (some of +one trade, some of another), with women and children? To this it was +answered that these twenty farmers would, by the consequence of their own +settlements, provide for and employ such a proportion of others of their +own people that, by thus providing for twenty families in a place, the +whole number of Palatinates would have been provided for, had they been +twenty thousand more in number than they were, and that without being any +burden upon or injury to the people of England; on the contrary, they +would have been an advantage and an addition of wealth and strength to +the nation, and to the country in particular where they should be thus +seated. For example:-- + +As soon as the land was marked out, the farmers put in possession of it, +and the money given them, they should be obliged to go to work, in order +to their settlement. Suppose it, then, to be in the spring of the year, +when such work was most proper. First, all hands would be required to +fence and part off the land, and clear it of the timber or bushes, or +whatever else was upon it which required to be removed. The first thing, +therefore, which the farmer would do would be to single out from the rest +of their number every one three servants--that is to say, two men and a +maid; less could not answer the preparations they would be obliged to +make, and yet work hard themselves also. By the help of these they +would, with good management, soon get so much of their land cured, fenced- +off, ploughed, and sowed as should yield them a sufficiency of corn and +kitchen stuff the very first year, both for horse-meat, hog-meat, food +for the family, and some to carry to market, too, by which to bring in +money to go farther on, as above. + +At the first entrance they were to have the tents allowed them to live +in, which they then had from the Tower; but as soon as leisure and +conveniences admitted, every farmer was obliged to begin to build him a +farm-house, which he would do gradually, some and some, as he could spare +time from his other works, and money from his little stock. + +In order to furnish himself with carts, waggons, ploughs, harrows, wheel- +barrows, hurdles, and all such necessary utensils of husbandry, there +would be an absolute necessity of wheelwrights or cartwrights, one at +least to each division. + +Thus, by the way, there would be employed three servants to each farmer, +that makes sixty persons. + +Four families of wheelwrights, one to each division--which, suppose five +in a family, makes twenty persons. Suppose four head-carpenters, with +each three men; and as at first all would be building together, they +would to every house building have at least one labourer. Four families +of carpenters, five to each family, and three servants, is thirty-two +persons; one labourer to each house building is twenty persons more. + +Thus here would be necessarily brought together in the very first of the +work one hundred and thirty-two persons, besides the head-farmers, who at +five also to each family are one hundred more; in all, two hundred and +thirty-two. + +For the necessary supply of these with provisions, clothes, household +stuff, &c. (for all should be done among themselves), first, they must +have at least four butchers with their families (twenty persons), four +shoemakers with their families and each shoemaker two journeymen (for +every trade would increase the number of customers to every trade). This +is twenty-eight persons more. + +They would then require a hatmaker, a glover, at least two ropemakers, +four tailors, three weavers of woollen and three weavers of linen, two +basket-makers, two common brewers, ten or twelve shop-keepers to furnish +chandlery and grocery wares, and as many for drapery and mercery, over +and above what they could work. This makes two-and-forty families more, +each at five in a family, which, is two hundred and ten persons; all the +labouring part of these must have at least two servants (the brewers +more), which I cast up at forty more. + +Add to these two ministers, one clerk, one sexton or grave-digger, with +their families, two physicians, three apothecaries, two surgeons (less +there could not be, only that for the beginning it might be said the +physicians should be surgeons, and I take them so); this is forty-five +persons, besides servants; so that, in short--to omit many tradesmen more +who would be wanted among them--there would necessarily and voluntarily +follow to these twenty families of farmers at least six hundred more of +their own people. + +It is no difficult thing to show that the ready money of 4,000 pounds +which the Government was to advance to those twenty farmers would employ +and pay, and consequently subsist, all these numerous dependants in the +works which must severally be done for them for the first year, after +which the farmers would begin to receive their own money back again; for +all these tradesmen must come to their own market to buy corn, flesh, +milk, butter, cheese, bacon, &c., which after the first year the farmers, +having no rent to pay, would have to spare sufficiently, and so take back +their own money with advantage. I need not go on to mention how, by +consequence provisions increasing and money circulating, this town should +increase in a very little time. + +It was proposed also that for the encouragement of all the handicraftsmen +and labouring poor who, either as servants or as labourers for day-work, +assisted the farmers or other tradesmen, they should have every man three +acres of ground given them, with leave to build cottages upon the same, +the allotments to be upon the waste at the end of the cross-roads where +they entered the town. + +In the centre of the square was laid out a circle of twelve acres of +ground, to be cast into streets for inhabitants to build on as their +ability would permit--all that would build to have ground gratis for +twenty years, timber out of the forest, and convenient yards, gardens, +and orchards allotted to every house. + +In the great streets near where they cross each other was to be built a +handsome market-house, with a town-hall for parish or corporation +business, doing justice and the like; also shambles; and in a handsome +part of the ground mentioned to be laid out for streets, as near the +centre as might be, was to be ground laid out for the building a church, +which every man should either contribute to the building of in money, or +give every tenth day of his time to assist in labouring at the building. + +I have omitted many tradesmen who would be wanted here, and would find a +good livelihood among their country-folks only to get accidental work as +day-men or labourers (of which such a town would constantly employ many), +as also poor women for assistance in families (such as midwives, nurses, +&c.). + +Adjacent to the town was to be a certain quantity of common-land for the +benefit of the cottages, that the poor might have a few sheep or cows, as +their circumstances required; and this to be appointed at the several +ends of the town. + +There was a calculation made of what increase there would be, both of +wealth and people, in twenty years in this town; what a vast consumption +of provisions they would cause, more than the four thousand acres of land +given them would produce, by which consumption and increase so much +advantage would accrue to the public stock, and so many subjects be added +to the many thousands of Great Britain, who in the next age would be all +true-born Englishmen, and forget both the language and nation from whence +they came. And it was in order to this that two ministers were +appointed, one of which should officiate in English and the other in High +Dutch, and withal to have them obliged by a law to teach all their +children both to speak, read, and write the English language. + +Upon their increase they would also want barbers and glaziers, painters +also, and plumbers; a windmill or two, and the millers and their +families; a fulling-mill and a cloth-worker; as also a master clothier or +two for making a manufacture among them for their own wear, and for +employing the women and children; a dyer or two for dyeing their +manufactures; and, which above all is not to be omitted, four families at +least of smiths, with every one two servants--considering that, besides +all the family work which continually employs a smith, all the shoeing of +horses, all the ironwork of ploughs, carts, waggons, harrows, &c., must +be wrought by them. There was no allowance made for inns and ale-houses, +seeing it would be frequent that those who kept public-houses of any sort +would likewise have some other employment to carry on. + +This was the scheme for settling the Palatinates, by which means twenty +families of farmers, handsomely set up and supported, would lay a +foundation, as I have said, for six or seven hundred of the rest of their +people; and as the land in New Forest is undoubtedly good, and capable of +improvement by such cultivation, so other wastes in England are to be +found as fruitful as that; and twenty such villages might have been +erected, the poor strangers maintained, and the nation evidently be +bettered by it. As to the money to be advanced, which in the case of +twenty such settlements, at 1,000 pounds each, would be 80,000 pounds, +two things were answered to it:-- + +1. That the annual rent to be received for all those lands after twenty +years would abundantly pay the public for the first disburses on the +scheme above, that rent being then to amount to 40,000 pounds per annum. + +2. More money than would have done this was expended, or rather thrown +away, upon them here, to keep them in suspense, and afterwards starve +them; sending them a-begging all over the nation, and shipping them off +to perish in other countries. Where the mistake lay is none of my +business to inquire. + +I reserved this account for this place, because I passed in this journey +over the very spot where the design was laid out--namely, near Lyndhurst, +in the road from Rumsey to Lymington, whither I now directed my course. + +Lymington is a little but populous seaport standing opposite to the Isle +of Wight, in the narrow part of the strait which ships sometimes pass +through in fair weather, called the Needles; and right against an ancient +town of that island called Yarmouth, and which, in distinction from the +great town of Yarmouth in Norfolk, is called South Yarmouth. This town +of Lymington is chiefly noted for making fine salt, which is indeed +excellent good; and from whence all these south parts of England are +supplied, as well by water as by land carriage; and sometimes, though not +often, they send salt to London, when, contrary winds having kept the +Northern fleets back, the price at London has been very high; but this is +very seldom and uncertain. Lymington sends two members to Parliament, +and this and her salt trade is all I can say to her; for though she is +very well situated as to the convenience of shipping I do not find they +have any foreign commerce, except it be what we call smuggling and +roguing; which, I may say, is the reigning commerce of all this part of +the English coast, from the mouth of the Thames to the Land's End of +Cornwall. + +From hence there are but few towns on the sea-coast west, though there +are several considerable rivers empty themselves into the sea; nor are +there any harbours or seaports of any note except Poole. As for +Christchurch, though it stands at the mouth of the Avon (which, as I have +said, comes down from Salisbury, and brings with it all the waters of the +south and east parts of Wiltshire, and receives also the Stour and +Piddle, two Dorsetshire rivers which bring with them all the waters of +the north part of Dorsetshire), yet it is a very inconsiderable poor +place, scarce worth seeing, and less worth mentioning in this account, +only that it sends two members to Parliament, which many poor towns in +this part of England do, as well as that. + +From hence I stepped up into the country north-west, to see the ancient +town of Wimborne, or Wimborneminster; there I found nothing remarkable +but the church, which is indeed a very great one, ancient, and yet very +well built, with a very firm, strong, square tower, considerably high; +but was, without doubt, much finer, when on the top of it stood a most +exquisite spire--finer and taller, if fame lies not, than that at +Salisbury, and by its situation in a plainer, flatter country visible, no +question, much farther; but this most beautiful ornament was blown down +by a sudden tempest of wind, as they tell us, in the year 1622. + +The church remains a venerable piece of antiquity, and has in it the +remains of a place once much more in request than it is now, for here are +the monuments of several noble families, and in particular of one king, +viz., King Etheldred, who was slain in battle by the Danes. He was a +prince famed for piety and religion, and, according to the zeal of these +times, was esteemed as a martyr, because, venturing his life against the +Danes, who were heathens, he died fighting for his religion and his +country. The inscription upon his grave is preserved, and has been +carefully repaired, so as to be easily read, and is as follows:-- + + "In hoc loco quiescit Corpus S. Etheldredi, Regis West Saxonum, + Martyris, qui Anno Dom. DCCCLXXII., xxiii Aprilis, per Manos Danorum + Paganorum Occubuit." + +In English thus:-- + + "Here rests the Body of Holy Etheldred, King of the West Saxons, and + Martyr, who fell by the Hands of the Pagan Danes in the Year of our + Lord 872, the 23rd of April." + +Here are also the monuments of the great Marchioness of Exeter, mother of +Edward Courtney, Earl of Devonshire, and last of the family of Courtneys +who enjoyed that honour; as also of John de Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, +and his wife, grandmother of King Henry VII., by her daughter Margaret, +Countess of Richmond. + +This last lady I mention because she was foundress of a very fine free +school, which has since been enlarged and had a new benefactress in Queen +Elizabeth, who has enlarged the stipend and annexed it to the foundation. +The famous Cardinal Pole was Dean of this church before his exaltation. + +Having said this of the church, I have said all that is worth naming of +the town; except that the inhabitants, who are many and poor, are chiefly +maintained by the manufacture of knitting stockings, which employs great +part indeed of the county of Dorset, of which this is the first town +eastward. + +South of this town, over a sandy, wild, and barren country, we came to +Poole, a considerable seaport, and indeed the most considerable in all +this part of England; for here I found some ships, some merchants, and +some trade; especially, here were a good number of ships fitted out every +year to the Newfoundland fishing, in which the Poole men were said to +have been particularly successful for many years past. + +The town sits in the bottom of a great bay or inlet of the sea, which, +entering at one narrow mouth, opens to a very great breadth within the +entrance, and comes up to the very shore of this town; it runs also west +up almost to the town of Wareham, a little below which it receives the +rivers Frome and Piddle, the two principal rivers of the county. + +This place is famous for the best and biggest oysters in all this part of +England, which the people of Poole pretend to be famous for pickling; and +they are barrelled up here, and sent not only to London, but to the West +Indies, and to Spain and Italy, and other parts. It is observed more +pearls are found in the Poole oysters, and larger, than in any other +oysters about England. + +As the entrance into this large bay is narrow, so it is made narrower by +an island, called Branksey, which, lying the very mouth of the passage, +divides it into two, and where there is an old castle, called Branksey +Castle, built to defend the entrance, and this strength was very great +advantage to the trade of this port in the time of the late war with +France. + +Wareham is a neat town and full of people, having a share of trade with +Poole itself; it shows the ruins of a large town, and, it is apparent, +has had eight churches, of which they have three remaining. + +South of Wareham, and between the bay I have mentioned and the sea, lies +a large tract of land which, being surrounded by the sea except on one +side, is called an island, though it is really what should be called a +peninsula. This tract of land is better inhabited than the sea-coast of +this west end of Dorsetshire generally is, and the manufacture of +stockings is carried on there also; it is called the Isle of Purbeck, and +has in the middle of it a large market-town, called Corfe, and from the +famous castle there the whole town is now called Corfe Castle; it is a +corporation, sending members to Parliament. + +This part of the country is eminent for vast quarries of stone, which is +cut out flat, and used in London in great quantities for paving +courtyards, alleys, avenues to houses, kitchens, footways on the sides of +the High Streets, and the like; and is very profitable to the place, as +also in the number of shipping employed in bringing it to London. There +are also several rocks of very good marble, only that the veins in the +stone are not black and white, as the Italian, but grey, red, and other +colours. + +From hence to Weymouth, which is 22 miles, we rode in view of the sea; +the country is open, and in some respects pleasant, but not like the +northern parts of the county, which are all fine carpet-ground, soft as +velvet, and the herbage sweet as garden herbs, which makes their sheep be +the best in England, if not in the world, and their wool fine to an +extreme. + +I cannot omit here a small adventure which was very surprising to me on +this journey; passing this plain country, we came to an open piece of +ground where a neighbouring gentleman had at a great expense laid out a +proper piece of land for a decoy, or duck-coy, as some call it. The +works were but newly done, the planting young, the ponds very large and +well made; but the proper places for shelter of the fowl not covered, the +trees not being grown, and men were still at work improving and enlarging +and planting on the adjoining heath or common. Near the decoy-keeper's +house were some places where young decoy ducks were hatched, or otherwise +kept to fit them for their work. To preserve them from vermin (polecats, +kites, and such like), they had set traps, as is usual in such cases, and +a gibbet by it, where abundance of such creatures as were taken were +hanged up for show. + +While the decoy-man was busy showing the new works, he was alarmed with a +great cry about this house for "Help! help!" and away he ran like the +wind, guessing, as we supposed, that something was catched in the trap. + +It was a good big boy, about thirteen or fourteen years old, that cried +out, for coming to the place he found a great fowl caught by the leg in +the trap, which yet was so strong and so outrageous that the boy going +too near him, he flew at him and frighted him, bit him, and beat him with +his wings, for he was too strong for the boy; as the master ran from the +decoy, so another manservant ran from the house, and finding a strange +creature fast in the trap, not knowing what it was, laid at him with a +great stick. The creature fought him a good while, but at length he +struck him an unlucky blow which quieted him; after this we all came up +to see what the matter, and found a monstrous eagle caught by the leg in +the trap, and killed by the fellow's cudgel, as above. + +When the master came to know what it was, and that his man had killed it, +he was ready to kill the fellow for his pains, for it was a noble +creature indeed, and would have been worth a great deal to the man to +have it shown about the country, or to have sold to any gentleman curious +in such things; but the eagle was dead, and there we left it. It is +probable this eagle had flown over the sea from France, either there or +at the Isle of Wight, where the channel is not so wide; for we do not +find that any eagles are known to breed in those parts of Britain. + +From hence we turned up to Dorchester, the county town, though not the +largest town in the county. Dorchester is indeed a pleasant agreeable +town to live in, and where I thought the people seemed less divided into +factions and parties than in other places; for though here are divisions, +and the people are not all of one mind, either as to religion or +politics, yet they did not seem to separate with so much animosity as in +other places. Here I saw the Church of England clergyman, and the +Dissenting minister or preacher drinking tea together, and conversing +with civility and good neighbourhood, like Catholic Christians and men of +a Catholic and extensive charity. The town is populous, though not +large; the streets broad, but the buildings old and low. However, there +is good company, and a good deal of it; and a man that coveted a retreat +in this world might as agreeably spend his time and as well in Dorchester +as in any town I know in England. + +The downs round this town are exceeding pleasant, and come up on, every +side, even to the very streets' end; and here it was that they told me +that there were six hundred thousand sheep fed on the downs within six +miles of the town--that is, six miles every way, which is twelve miles in +diameter, and thirty-six miles in circumference. This, I say, I was +told--I do not affirm it to be true; but when I viewed the country round, +I confess I could not but incline to believe it. + +It is observable of these sheep that they are exceeding fruitful, the +ewes generally bringing two lambs, and they are for that reason bought by +all the farmers through the east part of England, who come to Burford +Fair in this country to buy them, and carry them into Kent and Surrey +eastward, and into Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire and Oxfordshire +north; even our Banstead Downs in Surrey, so famed for good mutton, is +supplied from this place. The grass or herbage of these downs is full of +the sweetest and the most aromatic plants, such as nourish the sheep to a +strange degree; and the sheep's dung, again, nourishes that herbage to a +strange degree; so that the valleys are rendered extremely fruitful by +the washing of the water in hasty showers from off these hills. + +An eminent instance of this is seen at Amesbury, in Wiltshire, the next +county to this; for it is the same thing in proportion over this whole +county. I was told that at this town there was a meadow on the bank of +the River Avon, which runs thence to Salisbury, which was let for 12 +pounds a year per acre for the grass only. This I inquired particularly +after at the place, and was assured by the inhabitants, as one man, that +the fact was true, and was showed the meadows. The grass which grew on +them was such as grew to the length of ten or twelve feet, rising up to a +good height and then taking root again, and was of so rich a nature as to +answer very well such an extravagant rent. + +The reason they gave for this was the extraordinary richness of the soil, +made so, as above, by the falling or washing of the rains from the hills +adjacent, by which, though no other land thereabouts had such a kind of +grass, yet all other meadows and low grounds of the valley were extremely +rich in proportion. + +There are abundance of good families, and of very ancient lines in the +neighbourhood of this town of Dorchester, as the Napiers, the Courtneys, +Strangeways, Seymours, Banks, Tregonells, Sydenhams, and many others, +some of which have very great estates in the county, and in particular +Colonel Strangeways, Napier, and Courtney. The first of these is master +of the famous swannery or nursery of swans, the like of which, I believe, +is not in Europe. I wonder any man should pretend to travel over this +country, and pass by it, too, and then write his account and take no +notice of it. + +From Dorchester it is six miles to the seaside south, and the ocean in +view almost all the way. The first town you come to is Weymouth, or +Weymouth and Melcombe, two towns lying at the mouth of a little rivulet +which they call the Wey, but scarce claims the name of a river. However, +the entrance makes a very good though small harbour, and they are joined +by a wooden bridge; so that nothing but the harbour parts them; yet they +are separate corporations, and choose each of them two members of +Parliament, just as London and Southwark. + +Weymouth is a sweet, clean, agreeable town, considering its low +situation, and close to the sea; it is well built, and has a great many +good substantial merchants in it who drive a considerable trade, and have +a good number of ships belonging to the town. They carry on now, in time +of peace, a trade with France; but, besides this, they trade also to +Portugal, Spain, Newfoundland, and Virginia; and they have a large +correspondence also up in the country for the consumption of their +returns; especially the wine trade and the Newfoundland trade are +considerable here. + +Without the harbour is an old castle, called Sandfoot Castle; and over +against them, where there is a good road for ships to put in on occasions +of bad weather, is Portland Castle, and the road is called Portland Road. +While I was here once, there came a merchant-ship into that road called +Portland Road under a very hard storm of wind; she was homeward bound +from Oporto for London, laden with wines; and as she came in she made +signals of distress to the town, firing guns for help, and the like, as +is usual in such cases; it was in the dark of the night that the ship +came in, and, by the help of her own pilot, found her way into the road, +where she came to an anchor, but, as I say, fired guns for help. + +The venturous Weymouth men went off, even before it was light, with two +boats to see who she was, and what condition she was in; and found she +was come to an anchor, and had struck her topmasts; but that she had been +in bad weather, had lost an anchor and cable before, and had but one +cable to trust to, which did hold her, but was weak; and as the storm +continued to blow, they expected every hour to go on shore and split to +pieces. + +Upon this the Weymouth boats came back with such diligence that in less +than three hours they were on board them again with an anchor and cable, +which they immediately bent in its place, and let go to assist the other, +and thereby secured the ship. It is true that they took a good price of +the master for the help they gave him; for they made him draw a bill on +his owners at London for 12 pounds for the use of the anchor, cable, and +boat, besides some gratuities to the men. But they saved the ship and +cargo by it, and in three or four days the weather was calm, and he +proceeded on his voyage, returning the anchor and cable again; so that, +upon the whole, it was not so extravagant as at first I thought it to be. + +The Isle of Portland, on which the castle I mentioned stands, lies right +against this Port of Weymouth. Hence it is that our best and whitest +freestone comes, with which the Cathedral of St. Paul's, the Monument, +and all the public edifices in the City of London are chiefly built; and +it is wonderful, and well worth the observation of a traveller, to see +the quarries in the rocks from whence they are cut out, what stones, and +of what prodigious a size are cut out there. + +The island is indeed little more than one continued rock of freestone, +and the height of the land is such that from this island they see in +clear weather above half over the Channel to France, though the Channel +here is very broad. The sea off of this island, and especially to the +west of it, is counted the most dangerous part of the British Channel. +Due south, there is almost a continued disturbance in the waters, by +reason of what they call two tides meeting, which I take to be no more +than the sets of the currents from the French coast and from the English +shore meeting: this they call Portland Race; and several ships, not aware +of these currents, have been embayed to the west of Portland, and been +driven on shore on the beach (of which I shall speak presently), and +there lost. + +To prevent this danger, and guide the mariner in these distresses, they +have within these few months set up two lighthouses on the two points of +that island; and they had not been many months set up, with the +directions given to the public for their bearings, but we found three +outward-bound East India ships which were in distress in the night, in a +hard extreme gale of wind, were so directed by those lights that they +avoided going on shore by it, which, if the lights had not been there, +would inevitably happened to their destruction. + +This island, though seemingly miserable, and thinly inhabited, yet the +inhabitants being almost all stone-cutters, we found there were no very +poor people among them, and when they collected money for the re-building +St. Paul's, they got more in this island than in the great town of +Dorchester, as we were told. + +Though Portland stands a league off from the mainland of Britain, yet it +is almost joined by a prodigious riff of beach--that is to say, of small +stones cast up by the sea--which runs from the island so near the shore +of England that they ferry over with a boat and a rope, the water not +being above half a stone's-throw over; and the said riff of beach ending, +as it were, at that inlet of water, turns away west, and runs parallel +with the shore quite to Abbotsbury, which is a town about seven miles +beyond Weymouth. + +I name this for two reasons: first, to explain again what I said before +of ships being embayed and lost here. This is when ships coming from the +westward omit to keep a good offing, or are taken short by contrary +winds, and cannot weather the high land of Portland, but are driven +between Portland and the mainland. If they can come to an anchor, and +ride it out, well and good; and if not, they run on shore on that vast +beach and are lost without remedy. + +On the inside of this beach, and between it and the land, there is, as I +have said, an inlet of water which they ferry over, as above, to pass and +re-pass to and from Portland: this inlet opens at about two miles west, +and grows very broad, and makes a kind of lake within the land of a mile +and a half broad, and near three miles in length, the breadth unequal. At +the farthest end west of this water is a large duck-coy, and the verge of +the water well grown with wood, and proper groves of trees for cover for +the fowl: in the open lake, or broad part, is a continual assembly of +swans: here they live, feed, and breed, and the number of them is such +that, I believe, I did not see so few as 7,000 or 8,000. Here they are +protected, and here they breed in abundance. We saw several of them upon +the wing, very high in the air, whence we supposed that they flew over +the riff of beach, which parts the lake from the sea, to feed on the +shores as they thought fit, and so came home again at their leisure. + +From this duck-coy west, the lake narrows, and at last almost closes, +till the beach joins the shore; and so Portland may be said, not to be an +island, but part of the continent. And now we came to Abbotsbury, a town +anciently famous for a great monastery, and now eminent for nothing but +its ruins. + +From hence we went on to Bridport, a pretty large corporation town on the +sea-shore, though without a harbour. Here we saw boats all the way on +the shore, fishing for mackerel, which they take in the easiest manner +imaginable; for they fix one end of the net to a pole set deep into the +sand, then, the net being in a boat, they row right out into the water +some length, then turn and row parallel with the shore, veering out the +net all the while, till they have let go all the net, except the line at +the end, and then the boat rows on shore, when the men, hauling the net +to the shore at both ends, bring to shore with it such fish as they +surrounded in the little way they rowed. This, at that time, proved to +be an incredible number, insomuch that the men could hardly draw them on +shore. As soon as the boats had brought their fish on shore we observed +a guard or watch placed on the shore in several places, who, we found, +had their eye, not on the fishermen, but on the country people who came +down to the shore to buy their fish; and very sharp we found they were, +and some that came with small carts were obliged to go back empty without +any fish. When we came to inquire into the particulars of this, we found +that these were officers placed on the shore by the justices and +magistrates of the towns about, who were ordered to prevent the country +farmers buying the mackerel to dung their land with them, which was +thought to be dangerous as to infection. In short, such was the plenty +of fish that year that the mackerel, the finest and largest I ever saw, +were sold at the seaside a hundred for a penny. + +From Bridport (a town in which we see nothing remarkable) we came to +Lyme, the town particularly made famous by the landing of the Duke of +Monmouth and his unfortunate troops in the time of King James II., of +which I need say nothing, the history of it being so recent in the memory +of so many living. + +This is a town of good figure, and has in it several eminent merchants +who carry on a considerable trade to France, Spain, Newfoundland, and the +Straits; and though they have neither creek or bay, road or river, they +have a good harbour, but it is such a one as is not in all Britain +besides, if there is such a one in any part of the world. + +It is a massy pile of building, consisting of high and thick walls of +stone, raised at first with all the methods that skill and art could +devise, but maintained now with very little difficulty. The walls are +raised in the main sea at a good distance from the shore; it consists of +one main and solid wall of stone, large enough for carts and carriages to +pass on the top, and to admit houses and warehouses to be built on it, so +that it is broad as a street. Opposite to this, but farther into the +sea, is another wall of the same workmanship, which crosses the end of +the first wall and comes about with a tail parallel to the first wall. + +Between the point of the first or main wall is the entrance into the +port, and the second or opposite wall, breaking the violence of the sea +from the entrance, the ships go into the basin as into a pier or harbour, +and ride there as secure as in a millpond or as in a wet dock. + +The townspeople have the benefit of this wonderful harbour, and it is +carefully kept in repair, as indeed it behoves them to do; but they could +give me nothing of the history of it, nor do they, as I could perceive, +know anything of the original of it, or who built it. It was lately +almost beaten down by a storm, but is repaired again. + +This work is called the Cobb. The Custom House officers have a lodge and +warehouse upon it, and there were several ships of very good force and +rich in value in the basin of it when I was there. It might be +strengthened with a fort, and the walls themselves are firm enough to +carry what guns they please to plant upon it; but they did not seem to +think it needful, and as the shore is convenient for batteries, they have +some guns planted in proper places, both for the defence of the Cobb and +the town also. + +This town is under the government of a mayor and aldermen, and may pass +for a place of wealth, considering the bigness of it. Here, we found, +the merchants began to trade in the pilchard-fishing, though not to so +considerable a degree as they do farther west--the pilchards seldom +coming up so high eastward as Portland, and not very often so high as +Lyme. + +It was in sight of these hills that Queen Elizabeth's fleet, under the +command of the Lord Howard of Effingham (then Admiral), began first to +engage in a close and resolved fight with the invincible Spanish Armada +in 1588, maintaining the fight, the Spaniards making eastward till they +came the length of Portland Race, where they gave it over--the Spaniards +having received considerable damage, and keeping then closer together. +Off of the same place was a desperate engagement in the year 1672 between +the English and Dutch, in which the Dutch were worsted and driven over to +the coast of France, and then glad to make home to refit and repair. + +While we stayed here some time viewing this town and coast, we had +opportunity to observe the pleasant way of conversation as it is managed +among the gentlemen of this county and their families, which are, without +reflection, some of the most polite and well-bred people in the isle of +Britain. As their hospitality is very great, and their bounty to the +poor remarkable, so their generous friendly way of living with, visiting, +and associating one with another is as hard to be described as it is +really to be admired; they seem to have a mutual confidence in and +friendship with one another, as if they were all relations; nor did I +observe the sharping, tricking temper which is too much crept in among +the gaming and horse-racing gentry in some parts of England to be so much +known among them any otherwise than to be abhorred; and yet they +sometimes play, too, and make matches and horse-races, as they see +occasion. + +The ladies here do not want the help of assemblies to assist in +matchmaking, or half-pay officers to run away with their daughters, which +the meetings called assemblies in some other parts of England are +recommended for. Here is no Bury Fair, where the women are scandalously +said to carry themselves to market, and where every night they meet at +the play or at the assembly for intrigue; and yet I observed that the +women do not seem to stick on hand so much in this country as in those +countries where those assemblies are so lately set up--the reason of +which, I cannot help saying, if my opinion may bear any weight, is that +the Dorsetshire ladies are equal in beauty, and may be superior in +reputation. In a word, their reputation seems here to be better kept, +guarded by better conduct, and managed with more prudence; and yet the +Dorsetshire ladies, I assure you, are not nuns; they do not go veiled +about streets, or hide themselves when visited; but a general freedom of +conversation--agreeable, mannerly, kind, and good--runs through the whole +body of the gentry of both sexes, mixed with the best of behaviour, and +yet governed by prudence and modesty such as I nowhere see better in all +my observation through the whole isle of Britain. In this little +interval also I visited some of the biggest towns in the north-west part +of this county, as Blandford--a town on the River Stour in the road +between Salisbury and Dorchester--a handsome well-built town, but chiefly +famous for making the finest bone-lace in England, and where they showed +me some so exquisitely fine as I think I never saw better in Flanders, +France, or Italy, and which they said they rated at above 30 pounds +sterling a yard; but I suppose there was not much of this to be had. But +it is most certain that they make exceeding rich lace in that county, +such as no part of England can equal. + +From thence I went west to Stourbridge, vulgarly called Strabridge. The +town and the country around is employed in the manufacture of stockings, +and which was once famous for making the finest, best, and highest-prize +knit stocking in England; but that trade now is much decayed by the +increase of the knitting-stocking engine or frame, which has destroyed +the hand-knitting trade for fine stockings through the whole kingdom, of +which I shall speak more in its place. + +From hence I came to Sherborne, a large and populous town, with one +collegiate or conventual church, and may properly claim to have more +inhabitants in it than any town in Dorsetshire, though it is neither the +county-town, nor does it send members to Parliament. The church is still +a reverend pile, and shows the face of great antiquity. Here begins the +Wiltshire medley clothing (though this town be in Dorsetshire), of which +I shall speak at large in its place, and therefore I omit any discourse +of it here. + +Shaftesbury is also on the edge of this county, adjoining to Wiltshire +and Dorsetshire, being fourteen miles from Salisbury, over that fine down +or carpet ground which they call particularly or properly Salisbury +Plain. It has neither house nor town in view all the way; and the road, +which often lies very broad and branches off insensibly, might easily +cause a traveller to lose his way. But there is a certain never-failing +assistance upon all these downs for telling a stranger his way, and that +is the number of shepherds feeding or keeping their vast flocks of sheep +which are everywhere in the way, and who with a very little pains a +traveller may always speak with. Nothing can be like it. The Arcadians' +plains, of which we read so much pastoral trumpery in the poets, could be +nothing to them. + +This Shaftesbury is now a sorry town upon the top of a high hill, which +closes the plain or downs, and whence Nature presents you a new scene or +prospect--viz., of Somerset and Wiltshire--where it is all enclosed, and +grown with woods, forests, and planted hedge-rows; the country rich, +fertile, and populous; the towns and houses standing thick and being +large and full of inhabitants, and those inhabitants fully employed in +the richest and most valuable manufacture in the world--viz., the English +clothing, as well the medley or mixed clothing as whites, as well for the +home trade as the foreign trade, of which I shall take leave to be very +particular in my return through the west and north part of Wiltshire in +the latter part of this work. + +In my return to my western progress, I passed some little part of +Somersetshire, as through Evil or Yeovil, upon the River Ivil, in going +to which we go down a long steep hill, which they call Babylon Hill, but +from what original I could find none of the country people to inform me. + +This Yeovil is a market-town of good resort; and some clothing is carried +on in and near it, but not much. Its main manufacture at this time is +making of gloves. + +It cannot pass my observation here that when we are come this length from +London the dialect of the English tongue, or the country way of +expressing themselves, is not easily understood--it is so strangely +altered. It is true that it is so in many parts of England besides, but +in none in so gross a degree as in this part. This way of boorish +country speech, as in Ireland it is called the "brogue" upon the tongue, +so here it is called "jouring;" and it is certain that though the tongue +be all mere natural English, yet those that are but a little acquainted +with them cannot understand one-half of what they say. It is not +possible to explain this fully by writing, because the difference is not +so much in the orthography of words as in the tone and diction--their +abridging the speech, "cham" for "I am," "chil" for "I will," "don" for +"put on," and "doff" for "put off," and the like. And I cannot omit a +short story here on this subject. Coming to a relation's house, who was +a school-master at Martock, in Somersetshire, I went into his school to +beg the boys a play-day, as is usual in such cases (I should have said, +to beg the master a play-day. But that by the way). Coming into the +school, I observed one of the lowest scholars was reading his lesson to +the usher, which lesson, it seems, was a chapter in the Bible. So I sat +down by the master till the boy had read out his chapter. I observed the +boy read a little oddly in the tone of the country, which made me the +more attentive, because on inquiry I found that the words were the same +and the orthography the same as in all our Bibles. I observed also the +boy read it out with his eyes still on the book and his head (like a mere +boy) moving from side to side as the lines reached cross the columns of +the book. His lesson was in the Canticles, v. 3 of chap. v. The words +these:--"I have put off my coat. How shall I put it on? I have washed +my feet. How shall I defile them?" + +The boy read thus, with his eyes, as I say, full on the text:--"Chav a +doffed my cooat. How shall I don't? Chav a washed my veet. How shall I +moil 'em?" + +How the dexterous dunce could form his month to express so readily the +words (which stood right printed in the book) in his country jargon, I +could not but admire. I shall add to this another piece as diverting, +which also happened in my knowledge at this very town of Yeovil, though +some years ago. + +There lived a good substantial family in the town not far from the "Angel +Inn"--a well-known house, which was then, and, I suppose, is still, the +chief inn of the town. This family had a dog which, among his other good +qualities for which they kept him (for he was a rare house-dog), had this +bad one--that he was a most notorious thief, but withal so cunning a dog, +and managed himself so warily, that he preserved a mighty good reputation +among the neighbourhood. As the family was well beloved in the town, so +was the dog. He was known to be a very useful servant to them, +especially in the night (when he was fierce as a lion; but in the day the +gentlest, lovingest creature that could be), and, as they said, all the +neighbours had a good word for this dog. + +It happened that the good wife or mistress at the "Angel Inn" had +frequently missed several pieces of meat out of the pail, as they say--or +powdering-tub, as we call it--and that some were very large pieces. It +is also to be observed the dog did not stay to eat what he took upon the +spot, in which case some pieces or bones or fragments might be left, and +so it might be discovered to be a dog; but he made cleaner work, and when +he fastened upon a piece of meat he was sure to carry it quite away to +such retreats as he knew he could be safe in, and so feast upon it at +leisure. + +It happened at last, as with most thieves it does, that the inn-keeper +was too cunning for him, and the poor dog was nabbed, taken in the fact, +and could make no defence. + +Having found the thief and got him in custody, the master of the house, a +good-humoured fellow, and loth to disoblige the dog's master by executing +the criminal, as the dog law directs, mitigates his sentence, and handled +him as follows:--First, taking out his knife, he cut off both his ears; +and then, bringing him to the threshold, he chopped off his tail. And +having thus effectually dishonoured the poor cur among his neighbours, he +tied a string about his neck, and a piece of paper to the string, +directed to his master, and with these witty West Country verses on it:-- + + "To my honoured master, --- Esq. + "Hail master a cham a' com hoam, + So cut as an ape, and tail have I noan, + For stealing of beef and pork out of the pail, + For thease they'v cut my ears, for th' wother my tail; + Nea measter, and us tell thee more nor that + And's come there again, my brains will be flat." + +I could give many more accounts of the different dialects of the people +of this country, in some of which they are really not to be understood; +but the particulars have little or no diversion in them. They carry it +such a length that we see their "jouring" speech even upon their +monuments and grave-stones; as, for example, even in some of the +churchyards of the city of Bristol I saw this excellent poetry after some +other lines:-- + + "And when that thou doest hear of thick, + Think of the glass that runneth quick." + +But I proceed into Devonshire. From Yeovil we came to Crookorn, thence +to Chard, and from thence into the same road I was in before at Honiton. + +This is a large and beautiful market-town, very populous and well built, +and is so very remarkably paved with small pebbles that on either side +the way a little channel is left shouldered up on the sides of it, so +that it holds a small stream of fine clear running water, with a little +square dipping-place left at every door; so that every family in the town +has a clear, clean running river (as it may be called) just at their own +door, and this so much finer, so much pleasanter, and agreeable to look +on than that at Salisbury (which they boast so much of), that, in my +opinion, there is no comparison. + +Here we see the first of the great serge manufacture of Devonshire--a +trade too great to be described in miniature, as it must be if I +undertake it here, and which takes up this whole county, which is the +largest and most populous in England, Yorkshire excepted (which ought to +be esteemed three counties, and is, indeed, divided as such into the +East, West, and North Riding). But Devonshire, one entire county, is so +full of great towns, and those towns so full of people, and those people +so universally employed in trade and manufactures, that not only it +cannot be equalled in England, but perhaps not in Europe. + +In my travel through Dorsetshire I ought to have observed that the +biggest towns in that county sent no members to Parliament, and that the +smallest did--that is to say that Sherborne, Blandford, Wimborneminster, +Stourminster, and several other towns choose no members; whereas +Weymouth, Melcombe, and Bridport were all burgess towns. But now we come +to Devonshire we find almost all the great towns, and some smaller, +choosing members also. It is true there are some large populous towns +that do not choose, but then there are so many that do, that the county +seems to have no injustice, for they send up six-and-twenty members. + +However, as I say above, there are several great towns which do not +choose Parliament men, of which Bideford is one, Crediton or Kirton +another, Ilfracombe a third; but, those excepted, the principal towns in +the county do all choose members of Parliament. + +Honiton is one of those, and may pass not only for a pleasant good town, +as before, but stands in the best and pleasantest part of the whole +county, and I cannot but recommend it to any gentlemen that travel this +road, that if they please to observe the prospect for half a mile till +their coming down the hill and to the entrance into Honiton, the view of +the country is the most beautiful landscape in the world--a mere +picture--and I do not remember the like in any one place in England. It +is observable that the market of this town was kept originally on the +Sunday, till it was changed by the direction of King John. + +From Honiton the country is exceeding pleasant still, and on the road +they have a beautiful prospect almost all the way to Exeter (which is +twelve miles). On the left-hand of this road lies that part of the +county which they call the South Hams, and which is famous for the best +cider in that part of England; also the town of St.-Mary-Ottery, commonly +called St. Mary Autree. They tell us the name is derived from the River +Ottery, and that from the multitude of otters found always in that river, +which however, to me, seems fabulous. Nor does there appear to be any +such great number of otters in that water, or in the county about, more +than is usual in other counties or in other parts of the county about +them. They tell us they send twenty thousand hogsheads of cider hence +every year to London, and (which is still worse) that it is most of it +bought there by the merchants to mix with their wines--which, if true, is +not much to the reputation of the London vintners. But that by-the-bye. + +From hence we came to Exeter, a city famous for two things which we +seldom find unite in the same town--viz., that it is full of gentry and +good company, and yet full of trade and manufactures also. The serge +market held here every week is very well worth a stranger's seeing, and +next to the Brigg Market at Leeds, in Yorkshire, is the greatest in +England. The people assured me that at this market is generally sold +from sixty to seventy to eighty, and sometimes a hundred, thousand pounds +value in serges in a week. I think it is kept on Mondays. + +They have the River Esk here, a very considerable river, and principal in +the whole county; and within three miles, or thereabouts, it receives +ships of any ordinary burthen, the port there being called Topsham. But +now by the application, and at the expense, of the citizens the channel +of the river is so widened, deepened, and cleansed from the shoal, which +would otherwise interrupt the navigation, that the ships come now quite +up to the city, and there with ease both deliver and take in their +lading. + +This city drives a very great correspondence with Holland, as also +directly to Portugal, Spain, and Italy--shipping off vast quantities of +their woollen manufactures especially to Holland, the Dutch giving very +large commissions here for the buying of serges perpetuans, and such +goods; which are made not only in and about Exeter, but at Crediton, +Honiton, Culliton, St.-Mary-Ottery, Newton Bushel, Ashburton, and +especially at Tiverton, Cullompton, Bampton, and all the north-east part +of the county--which part of the county is, as it may be said, fully +employed, the people made rich, and the poor that are properly so called +well subsisted and employed by it. + +Exeter is a large, rich, beautiful, populous, and was once a very strong +city; but as to the last, as the castle, the walls, and all the old works +are demolished, so, were they standing, the way of managing sieges and +attacks of towns is such now, and so altered from what it was in those +days, that Exeter in the utmost strength it could ever boast would not +now hold out five days open trenches--nay, would hardly put an army to +the trouble of opening trenches against it at all. This city was famous +in the late civil unnatural war for its loyalty to the king, and for +being a sanctuary to the queen, where her Majesty resided for some time, +and here she was delivered of a daughter, being the Princess Henrietta +Maria, of whom our histories give a particular account, so I need say no +more of it here. + +The cathedral church of this city is an ancient beauty, or, as it may be +said, it is beautiful for its antiquity; but it has been so fully and +often described that it would look like a mere copying from others to +mention it. There is a good library kept in it, in which are some +manuscripts, and particularly an old missal or mass-book, the leaves of +vellum, and famous for its most exquisite writing. + +This county, and this part of it in particular, has been famous for the +birth of several eminent men as well for learning as for arts and for +war, as particularly:-- + +1. Sir William Petre, who the learned Dr. Wake (now Archbishop of +Canterbury, and author of the Additions to Mr. Camden) says was Secretary +of State and Privy Councillor to King Henry VIII., Edward VI., Queen +Mary, and Queen Elizabeth, and seven times sent ambassador into foreign +countries. + +2. Sir Thomas Bodley, famous and of grateful memory to all learned men +and lovers of letters for his collecting and establishing the best +library in Britain, which is now at Oxford, and is called, after his +name, the Bodleian Library to this day. + +3. Also Sir Francis Drake, born at Plymouth. + +4. Sir Walter Raleigh. Of both those I need say nothing; fame publishes +their merit upon every mention of their names. + +5. That great patron of learning, Richard Hooker, author of the +"Ecclesiastical Polity," and of several other valuable pieces. + +6. Of Dr. Arthur Duck, a famed civilian, and well known by his works +among the learned advocates of Doctors' Commons. + +7. Dr. John Moreman, of Southold, famous for being the first clergyman +in England who ventured to teach his parishioners the Lord's Prayer, +Creed, and Ten Commandments in the English tongue, and reading them so +publicly in the parish church of Mayenhennet in this county, of which he +was vicar. + +8. Dr. John de Brampton, a man of great learning who flourished in the +reign of Henry VI., was famous for being the first that read Aristotle +publicly in the University of Cambridge, and for several learned books of +his writing, which are now lost. + +9. Peter Blundel, a clothier, who built the free school at Tiverton, and +endowed it very handsomely; of which in its place. + +10. Sir John Glanvill, a noted lawyer, and one of the Judges of the +Common Pleas. + +11. Sergeant Glanvill, his son; as great a lawyer as his father. + +12. Sir John Maynard, an eminent lawyer of later years; one of the +Commissioners of the Great Seal under King William III. All these three +were born at Tavistock. + +13. Sir Peter King, the present Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. +And many others. + +I shall take the north part of this county in my return from Cornwall; so +I must now lean to the south--that is to say, to the South Coast--for in +going on indeed we go south-west. + +About twenty-two miles from Exeter we go to Totnes, on the River Dart. +This is a very good town, of some trade; but has more gentlemen in it +than tradesmen of note. They have a very fine stone bridge here over the +river, which, being within seven or eight miles of the sea, is very +large; and the tide flows ten or twelve feet at the bridge. Here we had +the diversion of seeing them catch fish with the assistance of a dog. The +case is this:--On the south side of the river, and on a slip, or narrow +cut or channel made on purpose for a mill, there stands a corn-mill; the +mill-tail, or floor for the water below the wheels, is wharfed up on +either side with stone above high-water mark, and for above twenty or +thirty feet in length below it on that part of the river towards the sea; +at the end of this wharfing is a grating of wood, the cross-bars of which +stand bearing inward, sharp at the end, and pointing inward towards one +another, as the wires of a mouse-trap. + +When the tide flows up, the fish can with ease go in between the points +of these cross-bars, but the mill being shut down they can go no farther +upwards; and when the water ebbs again, they are left behind, not being +able to pass the points of the grating, as above, outwards; which, like a +mouse-trap, keeps them in, so that they are left at the bottom with about +a foot or a foot and a half of water. We were carried hither at low +water, where we saw about fifty or sixty small salmon, about seventeen to +twenty inches long, which the country people call salmon-peal; and to +catch these the person who went with us, who was our landlord at a great +inn next the bridge, put in a net on a hoop at the end of a pole, the +pole going cross the hoop (which we call in this country a shove-net). +The net being fixed at one end of the place, they put in a dog (who was +taught his trade beforehand) at the other end of the place, and he drives +all the fish into the net; so that, only holding the net still in its +place, the man took up two or three and thirty salmon-peal at the first +time. + +Of these we took six for our dinner, for which they asked a shilling +(viz., twopence a-piece); and for such fish, not at all bigger, and not +so fresh, I have seen six-and-sixpence each given at a London +fish-market, whither they are sometimes brought from Chichester by land +carriage. + +This excessive plenty of so good fish (and other provisions being +likewise very cheap in proportion) makes the town of Totnes a very good +place to live in; especially for such as have large families and but +small estates. And many such are said to come into those parts on +purpose for saving money, and to live in proportion to their income. + +From hence we went still south about seven miles (all in view of this +river) to Dartmouth, a town of note, seated at the mouth of the River +Dart, and where it enters into the sea at a very narrow but safe +entrance. The opening into Dartmouth Harbour is not broad, but the +channel deep enough for the biggest ship in the Royal Navy. The sides of +the entrance are high-mounded with rocks, without which, just at the +first narrowing of the passage, stands a good strong fort without a +platform of guns, which commands the port. + +The narrow entrance is not much above half a mile, when it opens and +makes a basin or harbour able to receive 500 sail of ships of any size, +and where they may ride with the greatest safety, even as in a mill-pond +or wet dock. I had the curiosity here, with the assistance of a merchant +of the town, to go out to the mouth of the haven in a boat to see the +entrance, and castle or fort that commands it; and coming back with the +tide of flood, I observed some small fish to skip and play upon the +surface of the water, upon which I asked my friend what fish they were. +Immediately one of the rowers or seamen starts up in the boat, and, +throwing his arms abroad as if he had been bewitched, cries out as loud +as he could bawl, "A school! a school!" The word was taken to the shore +as hastily as it would have been on land if he had cried "Fire!" And by +that time we reached the quays the town was all in a kind of an uproar. + +The matter was that a great shoal--or, as they call it, a "school"--of +pilchards came swimming with the tide of flood, directly out of the sea +into the harbour. My friend whose boat we were in told me this was a +surprise which he would have been very glad of if he could but have had a +day or two's warning, for he might have taken 200 tons of them. And the +like was the case of other merchants in town; for, in short, nobody was +ready for them, except a small fishing-boat or two--one of which went out +into the middle of the harbour, and at two or three hauls took about +forty thousand of them. We sent our servant to the quay to buy some, who +for a halfpenny brought us seventeen, and, if he would have taken them, +might have had as many more for the same money. With these we went to +dinner; the cook at the inn broiled them for us, which is their way of +dressing them, with pepper and salt, which cost us about a farthing; so +that two of us and a servant dined--and at a tavern, too--for three +farthings, dressing and all. And this is the reason of telling the tale. +What drink--wine or beer--we had I do not remember; but, whatever it was, +that we paid for by itself. But for our food we really dined for three +farthings, and very well, too. Our friend treated us the next day with a +dish of large lobsters, and I being curious to know the value of such +things, and having freedom enough with him to inquire, I found that for +6d. or 8d. they bought as good lobsters there as would have cost in +London 3s. to 3s. 6d. each. + +In observing the coming in of those pilchards, as above, we found that +out at sea, in the offing, beyond the mouth of the harbour, there was a +whole army of porpoises, which, as they told us, pursued the pilchards, +and, it is probable, drove them into the harbour, as above. The school, +it seems, drove up the river a great way, even as high as Totnes Bridge, +as we heard afterwards; so that the country people who had boats and nets +catched as many as they knew what to do with, and perhaps lived upon +pilchards for several days. But as to the merchants and trade, their +coming was so sudden that it was no advantage to them. + +Round the west side of this basin or harbour, in a kind of a semicircle, +lies the town of Dartmouth, a very large and populous town, though but +meanly built, and standing on the side of a steep hill; yet the quay is +large, and the street before it spacious. Here are some very flourishing +merchants, who trade very prosperously, and to the most considerable +trading ports of Spain, Portugal, Italy, and the Plantations; but +especially they are great traders to Newfoundland, and from thence to +Spain and Italy, with fish; and they drive a good trade also in their own +fishery of pilchards, which is hereabouts carried on with the greatest +number of vessels of any port in the west, except Falmouth. + +A little to the southward of this town, and to the east of the port, is +Tor Bay, of which I know nothing proper to my observation, more than that +it is a very good road for ships, though sometimes (especially with a +southerly or south-east wind) ships have been obliged to quit the bay and +put out to sea, or run into Dartmouth for shelter. + +I suppose I need not mention that they had from the hilly part of this +town, and especially from the hills opposite to it, the noble prospect, +and at that time particularly delightful, of the Prince of Orange's fleet +when he came to that coast, and as they entered into Tor Bay to land--the +Prince and his army being in a fleet of about 600 sail of transport +ships, besides 50 sail of men-of-war of the line, all which, with a fair +wind and fine weather, came to an anchor there at once. + +This town, as most of the towns of Devonshire are, is full of Dissenters, +and a very large meeting-house they have here. How they act here with +respect to the great dispute about the doctrine of the Trinity, which has +caused such a breach among those people at Exeter and other parts of the +county, I cannot give any account of. This town sends two members to +Parliament. + +From hence we went to Plympton, a poor and thinly-inhabited town, though +blessed with the like privilege of sending members to the Parliament, of +which I have little more to say but that from thence the road lies to +Plymouth, distance about six miles. + +Plymouth is indeed a town of consideration, and of great importance to +the public. The situation of it between two very large inlets of the +sea, and in the bottom of a large bay, which is very remarkable for the +advantage of navigation. The Sound or Bay is compassed on every side +with hills, and the shore generally steep and rocky, though the anchorage +is good, and it is pretty safe riding. In the entrance to this bay lies +a large and most dangerous rock, which at high-water is covered, but at +low-tide lies bare, where many a good ship has been lost, even in the +view of safety, and many a ship's crew drowned in the night, before help +could be had for them. + +Upon this rock (which was called the Eddystone, from its situation) the +famous Mr. Winstanley undertook to build a lighthouse for the direction +of sailors, and with great art and expedition finished it; which +work--considering its height, the magnitude of its building, and the +little hold there was by which it was possible to fasten it to the +rock--stood to admiration, and bore out many a bitter storm. + +Mr. Winstanley often visited, and frequently strengthened, the building +by new works, and was so confident of its firmness and stability that he +usually said he only desired to be in it when a storm should happen; for +many people had told him it would certainly fall if it came to blow a +little harder than ordinary. + +But he happened at last to be in it once too often--namely, when that +dreadful tempest blew, November 27, 1703. This tempest began on the +Wednesday before, and blew with such violence, and shook the lighthouse +so much, that, as they told me there, Mr. Winstanley would fain have been +on shore, and made signals for help; but no boats durst go off to him; +and, to finish the tragedy, on the Friday, November 26, when the tempest +was so redoubled that it became a terror to the whole nation, the first +sight there seaward that the people of Plymouth were presented with in +the morning after the storm was the bare Eddystone, the lighthouse being +gone; in which Mr. Winstanley and all that were with him perished, and +were never seen or heard of since. But that which was a worse loss still +was that, a few days after, a merchant's ship called the _Winchelsea_, +homeward bound from Virginia, not knowing the Eddystone lighthouse was +down, for want of the light that should have been seen, run foul of the +rock itself, and was lost with all her lading and most of her men. But +there is now another light-house built on the same rock. + +What other disasters happened at the same time in the Sound and in the +roads about Plymouth is not my business; they are also published in other +books, to which I refer. + +One thing which I was a witness to on a former journey to this place, I +cannot omit. It was the next year after that great storm, and but a +little sooner in the year, being in August; I was at Plymouth, and +walking on the Hoo (which is a plain on the edge of the sea, looking to +the road), I observed the evening so serene, so calm, so bright, and the +sea so smooth, that a finer sight, I think, I never saw. There was very +little wind, but what was, seemed to be westerly; and about an hour +after, it blew a little breeze at south-west, with which wind there came +into the Sound that night and the next morning a fleet of fourteen sail +of ships from Barbadoes, richly laden for London. Having been long at +sea, most of the captains and passengers came on shore to refresh +themselves, as is usual after such tedious voyages; and the ships rode +all in the Sound on that side next to Catwater. As is customary upon +safe arriving to their native country, there was a general joy and +rejoicing both on board and on shore. + +The next day the wind began to freshen, especially in the afternoon, and +the sea to be disturbed, and very hard it blew at night; but all was well +for that time. But the night after, it blew a dreadful storm (not much +inferior, for the time it lasted, to the storm mentioned above which blew +down the lighthouse on the Eddystone). About mid-night the noise, +indeed, was very dreadful, what with the rearing of the sea and of the +wind, intermixed with the firing of guns for help from the ships, the +cries of the seamen and people on shore, and (which was worse) the cries +of those which were driven on shore by the tempest and dashed in pieces. +In a word, all the fleet except three, or thereabouts, were dashed to +pieces against the rocks and sunk in the sea, most of the men being +drowned. Those three who were saved, received so much damage that their +lading was almost all spoiled. One ship in the dark of the night, the +men not knowing where they were, run into Catwater, and run on shore +there; by which she was, however, saved from shipwreck, and the lives of +her crew were saved also. + +This was a melancholy morning indeed. Nothing was to be seen but wrecks +of the ships and a foaming, furious sea in that very place where they +rode all in joy and triumph but the evening before. The captains, +passengers, and officers who were, as I have said, gone on shore, between +the joy of saving their lives, and the affliction of having lost their +ships, their cargoes, and their friends, were objects indeed worth our +compassion and observation. And there was a great variety of the +passions to be observed in them--now lamenting their losses, their giving +thanks for their deliverance. Many of the passengers had lost their all, +and were, as they expressed themselves, "utterly undone." They were, I +say, now lamenting their losses with violent excesses of grief; then +giving thanks for their lives, and that they should be brought on shore, +as it were, on purpose to be saved from death; then again in tears for +such as were drowned. The various cases were indeed very affecting, and, +in many things, very instructing. + +As I say, Plymouth lies in the bottom of this Sound, in the centre +between the two waters, so there lies against it, in the same position, +an island, which they call St. Nicholas, on which there is a castle which +commands the entrance into Hamoaze, and indeed that also into Catwater in +some degree. In this island the famous General Lambert, one of +Cromwell's great agents or officers in the rebellion, was imprisoned for +life, and lived many years there. + +On the shore over against this island is the citadel of Plymouth, a small +but regular fortification, inaccessible by sea, but not exceeding strong +by land, except that they say the works are of a stone hard as marble, +and would not soon yield to the batteries of an enemy--but that is a +language our modern engineers now laugh at. + +The town stands above this, upon the same rock, and lies sloping on the +side of it, towards the east--the inlet of the sea which is called +Catwater, and which is a harbour capable of receiving any number of ships +and of any size, washing the eastern shore of the town, where they have a +kind of natural mole or haven, with a quay and all other conveniences for +bringing in vessels for loading and unloading; nor is the trade carried +on here inconsiderable in itself, or the number of merchants small. + +The other inlet of the sea, as I term it, is on the other side of the +town, and is called Hamoaze, being the mouth of the River Tamar, a +considerable river which parts the two counties of Devon and Cornwall. +Here (the war with France making it necessary that the ships of war +should have a retreat nearer hand than at Portsmouth) the late King +William ordered a wet dock--with yards, dry docks, launches, and +conveniences of all kinds for building and repairing of ships--to be +built; and with these followed necessarily the building of store-houses +and warehouses for the rigging, sails, naval and military stores, &c., of +such ships as may be appointed to be laid up there, as now several are; +with very handsome houses for the commissioners, clerks, and officers of +all kinds usual in the king's yards, to dwell in. It is, in short, now +become as complete an arsenal or yard for building and fitting men-of-war +as any the Government are masters of, and perhaps much more convenient +than some of them, though not so large. + +The building of these things, with the addition of rope-walks and mast- +yards, &c., as it brought abundance of trades-people and workmen to the +place, so they began by little and little to build houses on the lands +adjacent, till at length there appeared a very handsome street, spacious +and large, and as well inhabited; and so many houses are since added that +it is become a considerable town, and must of consequence in time draw +abundance of people from Plymouth itself. + +However, the town of Plymouth is, and will always be, a very considerable +town, while that excellent harbour makes it such a general port for the +receiving all the fleets of merchants' ships from the southward (as from +Spain, Italy, the West Indies, &c.), who generally make it the first port +to put in at for refreshment, or safety from either weather or enemies. + +The town is populous and wealthy, having, as above, several considerable +merchants and abundance of wealthy shopkeepers, whose trade depends upon +supplying the sea-faring people that upon so many occasions put into that +port. As for gentlemen--I mean, those that are such by family and birth +and way of living--it cannot be expected to find many such in a town +merely depending on trade, shipping, and sea-faring business; yet I found +here some men of value (persons of liberal education, general knowledge, +and excellent behaviour), whose society obliges me to say that a +gentleman might find very agreeable company in Plymouth. + +From Plymouth we pass the Tamar over a ferry to Saltash--a little, poor, +shattered town, the first we set foot on in the county of Cornwall. The +Tamar here is very wide, and the ferry-boats bad; so that I thought +myself well escaped when I got safe on shore in Cornwall. + +Saltash seems to be the ruins of a larger place; and we saw many houses, +as it were, falling down, and I doubt not but the mice and rats have +abandoned many more, as they say they will when they are likely to fall. +Yet this town is governed by a mayor and aldermen, has many privileges, +sends members to Parliament, takes toll of all vessels that pass the +river, and have the sole oyster-fishing in the whole river, which is +considerable. Mr. Carew, author of the "Survey of Cornwall," tells us a +strange story of a dog in this town, of whom it was observed that if they +gave him any large bone or piece of meat, he immediately went out of +doors with it, and after having disappeared for some time would return +again; upon which, after some time, they watched him, when, to their +great surprise, they found that the poor charitable creature carried what +he so got to an old decrepit mastiff, which lay in a nest that he had +made among the brakes a little way out of the town, and was blind, so +that he could not help himself; and there this creature fed him. He adds +also that on Sundays or holidays, when he found they made good cheer in +the house where he lived, he would go out and bring this old blind dog to +the door, and feed him there till he had enough, and then go with him +back to his habitation in the country again, and see him safe in. If +this story is true, it is very remarkable indeed; and I thought it worth +telling, because the author was a person who, they say, might be +credited. + +This town has a kind of jurisdiction upon the River Tamar down to the +mouth of the port, so that they claim anchorage of all small ships that +enter the river; their coroner sits upon all dead bodies that are found +drowned in the river and the like, but they make not much profit of them. +There is a good market here, and that is the best thing to be said of the +town; it is also very much increased since the number of the inhabitants +are increased at the new town, as I mentioned as near the dock at the +mouth of Hamoaze, for those people choose rather to go to Saltash to +market by water than to walk to Plymouth by land for their provisions. +Because, first, as they go in the town boat, the same boat brings home +what they buy, so that it is much less trouble; second, because +provisions are bought much cheaper at Saltash than at Plymouth. This, I +say, is like to be a very great advantage to the town of Saltash, and may +in time put a new face of wealth upon the place. + +They talk of some merchants beginning to trade here, and they have some +ships that use the Newfoundland fishery; but I could not hear of anything +considerable they do in it. There is no other considerable town up the +Tamar till we come to Launceston, the county town, which I shall take in +my return; so I turned west, keeping the south shore of the county to the +Land's End. + +From Saltash I went to Liskeard, about seven miles. This is a +considerable town, well built; has people of fashion in it, and a very +great market; it also sends two members to Parliament, and is one of the +five towns called Stannary Towns--that is to say, where the blocks of tin +are brought to the coinage; of which, by itself, this coinage of tin is +an article very much to the advantage of the towns where it is settled, +though the money paid goes another way. + +This town of Liskeard was once eminent, had a good castle, and a large +house, where the ancient Dukes of Cornwall kept their court in those +days; also it enjoyed several privileges, especially by the favour of the +Black Prince, who as Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall resided here. +And in return they say this town and the country round it raised a great +body of stout young fellows, who entered into his service and followed +his fortunes in his wars in France, as also in Spain. But these +buildings are so decayed that there are now scarce any of the ruins of +the castle or of the prince's court remaining. + +The only public edifices they have now to show are the guild or town +hall, on which there is a turret with a fine clock; a very good free +school, well provided; a very fine conduit in the market-place; an +ancient large church; and, which is something rare for the county of +Cornwall, a large, new-built meeting-house for the Dissenters, which I +name because they assured me there was but three more, and those very +inconsiderable, in all the county of Cornwall; whereas in Devonshire, +which is the next county, there are reckoned about seventy, some of which +are exceeding large and fine. + +This town is also remarkable for a very great trade in all manufactures +of leather, such as boots, shoes, gloves, purses, breaches, &c.; and some +spinning of late years is set up here, encouraged by the woollen +manufacturers of Devonshire. + +Between these two towns of Saltash and Liskeard is St. Germans, now a +village, decayed, and without any market, but the largest parish in the +whole county--in the bounds of which is contained, as they report, +seventeen villages, and the town of Saltash among them; for Saltash has +no parish church, it seems, of itself, but as a chapel-of-ease to St. +Germans. In the neighbourhood of these towns are many pleasant seats of +the Cornish gentry, who are indeed very numerous, though their estates +may not be so large as is usual in England; yet neither are they +despicable in that part; and in particular this may be said of them--that +as they generally live cheap, and are more at home than in other +counties, so they live more like gentlemen, and keep more within bounds +of their estates than the English generally do, take them all together. + +Add to this that they are the most sociable, generous, and to one another +the kindest, neighbours that are to be found; and as they generally live, +as we may say, together (for they are almost always at one another's +houses), so they generally intermarry among themselves, the gentlemen +seldom going out of the county for a wife, or the ladies for a husband; +from whence they say that proverb upon them was raised, viz., "That all +the Cornish gentlemen are cousins." + +On the hills north of Liskeard, and in the way between Liskeard and +Launceston, there are many tin-mines. And, as they told us, some of the +richest veins of that metal are found there that are in the whole +county--the metal, when cast at the blowing houses into blocks, being, as +above, carried to Liskeard to be coined. + +From Liskeard, in our course west, we are necessarily carried to the sea- +coast, because of the River Fowey or Fowath, which empties itself into +the sea at a very large mouth. And hereby this river rising in the +middle of the breadth of the county and running south, and the River +Camel rising not far from it and running north, with a like large +channel, the land from Bodmin to the western part of the county is almost +made an island and in a manner cut off from the eastern part--the +peninsula, or neck of land between, being not above twelve miles over. + +On this south side we came to Foy or Fowey, an ancient town, and formerly +very large--nay, not large only, but powerful and potent; for the Foyens, +as they were then called, were able to fit out large fleets, not only for +merchants' ships, but even of men-of-war; and with these not only fought +with, but several times vanquished and routed, the squadron of the Cinque +Ports men, who in those days were thought very powerful. + +Mr. Camden observes that the town of Foy quarters some part of the arms +of every one of those Cinque Ports with their own, intimating that they +had at several times trampled over them all. Certain it is they did +often beat them, and took their ships, and brought them as good prizes +into their haven of Foy; and carried it so high that they fitted out +their fleets against the French, and took several of their men-of-war +when they were at war with England, and enriched their town by the spoil +of their enemies. + +Edward IV. favoured them much; and because the French threatened them to +come up their river with a powerful navy to burn their town, he caused +two forts to be built at the public charge for security of the town and +river, which forts--at least, some show of them--remain there still. But +the same King Edward was some time after so disgusted at the townsmen for +officiously falling upon the French, after a truce was made and +proclaimed, that he effectually disarmed them, took away their whole +fleet, ships, tackle, apparel, and furniture; and since that time we do +not read of any of their naval exploits, nor that they ever recovered or +attempted to recover their strength at sea. However, Foy at this time is +a very fair town; it lies extended on the east side of the river for +above a mile, the buildings fair. And there are a great many flourishing +merchants in it, who have a great share in the fishing trade, especially +for pilchards, of which they take a great quantity hereabouts. In this +town is also a coinage for the tin, of which a great quantity is dug up +in the country north and west of the town. + +The River Fowey, which is very broad and deep here, was formerly +navigable by ships of good burthen as high as Lostwithiel--an ancient and +once a flourishing but now a decayed town; and as to trade and +navigation, quite destitute; which is occasioned by the river being +filled up with sands, which, some say, the tides drive up in stormy +weather from the sea; others say it is by sands washed from the +lead-mines in the hills; the last of which, by the way, I take to be a +mistake, the sand from the hills being not of quantity sufficient to fill +up the channel of a navigable river, and, if it had, might easily have +been stopped by the townspeople from falling into the river. But that +the sea has choked up the river with sand is not only probable, but true; +and there are other rivers which suffer in the like manner in this same +country. + +This town of Lostwithiel retains, however, several advantages which +support its figure--as, first, that it is one of the Coinage Towns, as I +call them; or Stannary Towns, as others call them; (2) the common gaol +for the whole Stannary is here, as are also the County Courts for the +whole county of Cornwall. + +There is a mock cavalcade kept up at this town, which is very remarkable. +The particulars, as they are related by Mr. Carew in his "Survey of +Cornwall," take as follows:-- + +"Upon Little Easter Sunday the freeholders of this town and manor, by +themselves or their deputies, did there assemble; amongst whom one (as it +fell to his lot by turn), bravely apparelled, gallantly mounted, with a +crown on his head, a sceptre in his hand, and a sword borne before him, +and dutifully attended by all the rest (also on horseback), rode through +the principal street to the church. The curate in his best beseen +solemnly received him at the churchyard stile, and conducted him to hear +divine service. After which he repaired, with the same pomp, to a house +provided for that purpose, made a feast to his attendants, kept the +table's-end himself, and was served with kneeling assay and all other +rights due to the estate of a prince; with which dinner the ceremony +ended, and every man returned home again. The pedigree of this usage is +derived from so many descents of ages that the cause and author outreach +the remembrance. Howbeit, these circumstances afford a conjecture that +it should betoken royalties appertaining to the honour of Cornwall." + +Behind Foy and nearer to the coast, at the mouth of a small river which +some call Lowe, though without any authority, there stand two towns +opposite to one another bearing the name of the River Looe--that is to +say, distinguished by the addition of East Looe and West Looe. These are +both good trading towns, and especially fishing towns; and, which is very +particular, are (like Weymouth and Melcombe, in Dorsetshire) separated +only by the creek or river, and yet each of them sends members to +Parliament. These towns are joined together by a very beautiful and +stately stone bridge having fifteen arches. + +East Looe was the ancienter corporation of the two, and for some ages ago +the greater and more considerable town; but now they tell us West Looe is +the richest, and has the most ships belonging to it. Were they put +together, they would make a very handsome seaport town. They have a +great fishing trade here, as well for supply of the country as for +merchandise, and the towns are not despisable. But as to sending four +members to the British Parliament (which is as many as the City of London +chooses), that, I confess, seems a little scandalous; but to whom, is +none of my business to inquire. + +Passing from hence, and ferrying over Foy River or the River Foweth (call +it as you please), we come into a large country without many towns in it +of note, but very well furnished with gentlemen's seats, and a little +higher up with tin-works. + +The sea making several deep bays here, they who travel by land are +obliged to go higher into the country to pass above the water, especially +at Trewardreth Bay, which lies very broad, above ten miles within the +country, which passing at Trewardreth (a town of no great note, though +the bay takes its name from it), the next inlet of the sea is the famous +firth or inlet called Falmouth Haven. It is certainly, next to Milford +Haven in South Wales, the fairest and best road for shipping that is in +the whole isle of Britain, whether be considered the depth of water for +above twenty miles within land; the safety of riding, sheltered from all +kind of winds or storms; the good anchorage; and the many creeks, all +navigable, where ships may run in and be safe; so that the like is +nowhere to be found. + +There are six or seven very considerable places upon this haven and the +rivers from it--viz., Grampound, Tregony, Truro, Penryn, Falmouth, St. +Maws, and Pendennis. The three first of these send members to +Parliament. The town of Falmouth, as big as all the three, and richer +than ten of them, sends none; which imports no more than this--that +Falmouth itself is not of so great antiquity as to its rising as those +other towns are; and yet the whole haven takes its name from Falmouth, +too, unless, as some think, the town took its name from the haven, which, +however, they give no authority to suggest. + +St. Maws and Pendennis are two fortifications placed at the points or +entrance of this haven, opposite to one another, though not with a +communication or view; they are very strong--the first principally by +sea, having a good platform of guns pointing athwart the Channel, and +planted on a level with the water. But Pendennis Castle is strong by +land as well as by water, is regularly fortified, has good out-works, and +generally a strong garrison. St. Maws, otherwise called St. Mary's, has +a town annexed to the castle, and is a borough sending members to the +Parliament. Pendennis is a mere fortress, though there are some +habitations in it, too, and some at a small distance near the seaside, +but not of any great consideration. + +The town of Falmouth is by much the richest and best trading town in this +county, though not so ancient as its neighbour town of Truro; and indeed +is in some things obliged to acknowledge the seigniority--namely, that in +the corporation of Truro the person whom they choose to be their Mayor of +Truro is also Mayor of Falmouth of course. How the jurisdiction is +managed is an account too long for this place. The Truro-men also +receive several duties collected in Falmouth, particularly wharfage for +the merchandises landed or shipped off; but let these advantages be what +they will, the town of Falmouth has gotten the trade--at least, the best +part of it--from the other, which is chiefly owing to the situation. For +that Falmouth lying upon the sea, but within the entrance, ships of the +greatest burthen come up to the very quays, and the whole Royal Navy +might ride safely in the road; whereas the town of Truro lying far +within, and at the mouth of two fresh rivers, is not navigable for +vessels of above 150 tons or thereabouts. + +Some have suggested that the original of Falmouth was the having so large +a quay, and so good a depth of water at it. The merchants of Truro +formerly used it for the place of lading and unlading their ships, as the +merchants of Exeter did at Topsham; and this is the more probable in +that, as above, the wharfage of those landing-places is still the +property of the corporation of Truro. + +But let this be as it will, the trade is now in a manner wholly gone to +Falmouth, the trade at Truro being now chiefly (if not only) for the +shipping off of block tin and copper ore, the latter being lately found +in large quantities in some of the mountains between Truro and St. +Michael's, and which is much improved since the several mills are erected +at Bristol and other parts for the manufactures of battery ware, as it is +called (brass), or which is made out of English copper, most of it dug +in these parts--the ore itself ago being found very rich and good. + +Falmouth is well built, has abundance of shipping belonging to it, is +full of rich merchants, and has a flourishing and increasing trade. I +say "increasing," because by the late setting up the English packets +between this port and Lisbon, there is a new commerce between Portugal +and this town carried on to a very great value. + +It is true, part of this trade was founded in a clandestine commerce +carried on by the said packets at Lisbon, where, being the king's ships, +and claiming the privilege of not being searched or visited by the Custom +House officers, they found means to carry off great quantities of British +manufactures, which they sold on board to the Portuguese merchants, and +they conveyed them on shore, as it is supposed, without paying custom. + +But the Government there getting intelligence of it, and complaint being +made in England also, where it was found to be very prejudicial to the +fair merchant, that trade has been effectually stopped. But the Falmouth +merchants, having by this means gotten a taste of the Portuguese trade, +have maintained it ever since in ships of their own. These packets bring +over such vast quantities of gold in specie, either in _moidores_ (which +is the Portugal coin) or in bars of gold, that I am very credibly +informed the carrier from Falmouth brought by land from thence to London +at one time, in the month of January, 1722, or near it, eighty thousand +_moidores_ in gold, which came from Lisbon in the packet-boats for +account of the merchants at London, and that it was attended with a guard +of twelve horsemen well armed, for which the said carrier had half per +cent. for his hazard. + +This is a specimen of the Portugal trade, and how considerable it is in +itself, as well as how advantageous to England; but as that is not to the +present case, I proceed. The Custom House for all the towns in this +port, and the head collector, is established at this town, where the +duties (including the other ports) is very considerable. Here is also a +very great fishing for pilchards; and the merchants for Falmouth have the +chief stroke in that gainful trade. + +Truro is, however, a very considerable town, too. It stands up the water +north and by east from Falmouth, in the utmost extended branch of the +Avon, in the middle between the conflux of two rivers, which, though not +of any long course, have a very good appearance for a port, and make it +large wharf between them in the front of the town. And the water here +makes a good port for small ships, though it be at the influx, but not +for ships of burthen. This is the particular town where the Lord-Warden +of the Stannaries always holds his famous Parliament of miners, and for +stamping of tin. The town is well built, but shows that it has been much +fuller, both of houses and inhabitants, than it is now; nor will it +probably ever rise while the town of Falmouth stands where it does, and +while the trade is settled in it as it is. There are at least three +churches in it, but no Dissenters' meeting-house that I could hear of. + +Tregony is upon the same water north-east from Falmouth--distance about +fifteen miles from it--but is a town of very little trade; nor, indeed, +have any of the towns, so far within the shore, notwithstanding the +benefit of the water, any considerable trade but what is carried on under +the merchants of Falmouth or Truro. The chief thing that is to be said +of this town is that it sends members to Parliament, as does also +Grampound, a market-town; and Burro', about four miles farther up the +water. This place, indeed, has a claim to antiquity, and is an appendix +to the Duchy of Cornwall, of which it holds at a fee farm rent and pays +to the Prince of Wales as duke 10 pounds 11s. 1d. per annum. It has no +parish church, but only a chapel-of-ease to an adjacent parish. + +Penryn is up the same branch of the Avon as Falmouth, but stands four +miles higher towards the west; yet ships come to it of as great a size as +can come to Truro itself. It is a very pleasant, agreeable town, and for +that reason has many merchants in it, who would perhaps otherwise live at +Falmouth. The chief commerce of these towns, as to their sea-affairs, is +the pilchards and Newfoundland fishing, which is very profitable to them +all. It had formerly a conventual church, with a chantry and a religious +house (a cell to Kirton); but they are all demolished, and scarce the +ruins of them distinguishable enough to know one part from another. + +Quitting Falmouth Haven from Penryn West, we came to Helston, about seven +miles, and stands upon the little River Cober, which, however, admits the +sea so into its bosom as to make a tolerable good harbour for ships a +little below the town. It is the fifth town allowed for the coining tin, +and several of the ships called tin-ships are laden here. + +This town is large and populous, and has four spacious streets, a +handsome church, and a good trade. This town also sends members to +Parliament. Beyond this is a market-town, though of no resort for trade, +called Market Jew. It lies, indeed, on the seaside, but has no harbour +or safe road for shipping. + +At Helford is a small but good harbour between Falmouth and this port, +where many times the tin-ships go in to load for London; also here are a +good number of fishing vessels for the pilchard trade, and abundance of +skilful fishermen. It was from this town that in the great storm which +happened November 27, 1703, a ship laden with tin was blown out to sea +and driven to the Isle of Wight in seven hours, having on board only one +man and two boys. The story is as follows:-- + +"The beginning of the storm there lay a ship laden with tin in Helford +Haven, about two leagues and a half west of Falmouth. The tin was taken +on board at a place called Guague Wharf, five or six miles up the river, +and the vessel was come down to Helford in order to pursue her voyage to +London. + +"About eight o'clock in the evening the commander, whose name was Anthony +Jenkins, went on board with his mate to see that everything was safe, and +to give orders, but went both on shore again, leaving only a man and two +boys on board, not apprehending any danger, they being in safe harbour. +However, he ordered them that if it should blow hard they should carry +out the small bower anchor, and so to moor the ship by two anchors, and +then giving what other orders he thought to be needful, he went ashore, +as above. + +"About nine o'clock, the wind beginning to blow harder, they carried out +the anchor, according to the master's order; but the wind increasing +about ten, the ship began to drive, so they carried out their best bower, +which, having a good new cable, brought the ship up. The storm still +increasing, they let go the kedge anchor; so that they then rode by four +anchors ahead, which were all they had. + +"But between eleven and twelve o'clock the wind came about west and by +south, and blew in so violent and terrible a manner that, though they +rode under the lee of a high shore, yet the ship was driven from all her +anchors, and about midnight drove quite out of the harbour (the opening +of the harbour lying due east and west) into the open sea, the men having +neither anchor or cable or boat to help themselves. + +"In this dreadful condition (they driving, I say, out of the harbour) +their first and chief care was to go clear of the rocks which lie on +either side the harbour's mouth, and which they performed pretty well. +Then, seeing no remedy, they consulted what to do next. They could carry +no sail at first--no, not a knot; nor do anything but run away afore it. +The only thing they had to think on was to keep her out at sea as far as +they could, for fear of a point of land called the Dead Man's Head, which +lies to the eastward of Falmouth Haven; and then, if they could escape +the land, thought to run in for Plymouth next morning, so, if possible, +to save their lives. + +"In this frighted condition they drove away at a prodigious rate, having +sometimes the bonnet of their foresail a little out, but the yard lowered +almost to the deck--sometimes the ship almost under water, and sometimes +above, keeping still in the offing, for fear of the land, till they might +see daylight. But when the day broke they found they were to think no +more of Plymouth, for they were far enough beyond it; and the first land +they made was Peverel Point, being the southernmost land of the Isle of +Purbeck, in Dorsetshire, and a little to the westward of the Isle of +Wight; so that now they were in a terrible consternation, and driving +still at a prodigious rate. By seven o'clock they found themselves +broadside of the Isle of Wight. + +"Here they consulted again what to do to save their lives. One of the +boys was for running her into the Downs; but the man objected that, +having no anchor or cable nor boat to go on shore with, and the storm +blowing off shore in the Downs, they should be inevitably blown off and +lost upon the unfortunate Goodwin--which, it seems, the man had been on +once before and narrowly escaped. + +"Now came the last consultation for their lives. The other of the boys +said he had been in a certain creek in the Isle of Wight, where, between +the rocks, he knew there was room to run the ship in, and at least to +save their lives, and that he saw the place just that moment; so he +desired the man to let him have the helm, and he would do his best and +venture it. The man gave him the helm, and he stood directly in among +the rocks, the people standing on the shore thinking they were mad, and +that they would in a few minutes be dashed in a thousand pieces. + +"But when they came nearer, and the people found they steered as if they +knew the place, they made signals to them to direct them as well as they +could, and the young bold fellow run her into a small cove, where she +stuck fast, as it were, between the rocks on both sides, there being but +just room enough for the breadth of the ship. The ship indeed, giving +two or three knocks, staved and sunk, but the man and the two youths +jumped ashore and were safe; and the lading, being tin, was afterwards +secured. + +"N.B.--The merchants very well rewarded the three sailors, especially the +lad that ran her into that place." + +Penzance is the farthest town of any note west, being 254 miles from +London, and within about ten miles of the promontory called the Land's +End; so that this promontory is from London 264 miles, or thereabouts. +This town of Penzance is a place of good business, well built and +populous, has a good trade, and a great many ships belonging to it, +notwithstanding it is so remote. Here are also a great many good +families of gentlemen, though in this utmost angle of the nation; and, +which is yet more strange, the veins of lead, tin, and copper ore are +said to be seen even to the utmost extent of land at low-water mark, and +in the very sea--so rich, so valuable, a treasure is contained in these +parts of Great Britain, though they are supposed to be so poor, because +so very remote from London, which is the centre of our wealth. + +Between this town and St. Burien, a town midway between it and the Land's +End, stands a circle of great stones, not unlike those at Stonehenge, in +Wiltshire, with one bigger than the rest in the middle. They stand about +twelve feet asunder, but have no inscription; neither does tradition +offer to leave any part of their history upon record, as whether it was a +trophy or a monument of burial, or an altar for worship, or what else; so +that all that can be learned of them is that here they are. The parish +where they stand is called Boscawone, from whence the ancient and +honourable family of Boscawen derive their names. + +Near Penzance, but open to the sea, is that gulf they call Mount's Bay; +named so from a high hill standing in the water, which they call St. +Michael's Mount: the seamen call it only the Cornish Mount. It has been +fortified, though the situation of it makes it so difficult of access +that, like the Bass in Scotland, there needs no fortification; like the +Bass, too, it was once made a prison for prisoners of State, but now it +is wholly neglected. There is a very good road here for shipping, which +makes the town of Penzance be a place of good resort. + +A little up in the county towards the north-west is Godolchan, which +though a hill, rather than a town, gives name to the noble and ancient +family of Godolphin; and nearer on the northern coast is Royalton, which +since the late Sydney Godolphin, Esq., a younger brother of the family, +was created Earl of Godolphin, gave title of Lord to his eldest son, who +was called Lord Royalton during the life of his father. This place also +is infinitely rich in tin-mines. + +I am now at my journey's end. As to the islands of Scilly, which lie +beyond the Land's End, I shall say something of them presently. I must +now return _sur mes pas_, as the French call it; though not literally so, +for I shall not come back the same way I went. But as I have coasted the +south shore to the Land's End, I shall come back by the north coast, and +my observations in my return will furnish very well materials for another +letter. + + + +APPENDIX TO LAND'S END. + + +I have ended this account at the utmost extent of the island of Great +Britain west, without visiting those excrescences of the island, as I +think I may call them--viz., the rocks of Scilly; of which what is most +famous is their infamy or reproach; namely, how many good ships are +almost continually dashed in pieces there, and how many brave lives lost, +in spite of the mariners' best skill, or the lighthouses' and other sea- +marks' best notice. + +These islands lie so in the middle between the two vast openings of the +north and south narrow seas (or, as the sailors call them, the Bristol +Channel, and The Channel--so called by way of eminence) that it cannot, +or perhaps never will, be avoided but that several ships in the dark of +the night and in stress of weather, may, by being out in their +reckonings, or other unavoidable accidents, mistake; and if they do, they +are sure, as the sailors call it, to run "bump ashore" upon Scilly, where +they find no quarter among the breakers, but are beat to pieces without +any possibility of escape. + +One can hardly mention the Bishop and his Clerks, as they are called, or +the rocks of Scilly, without letting fall a tear to the memory of Sir +Cloudesley Shovel and all the gallant spirits that were with him, at one +blow and without a moment's warning dashed into a state of +immortality--the admiral, with three men-of-war, and all their men +(running upon these rocks right afore the wind, and in a dark night) +being lost there, and not a man saved. But all our annals and histories +are full of this, so I need say no more. + +They tell us of eleven sail of merchant-ships homeward bound, and richly +laden from the southward, who had the like fate in the same place a great +many years ago; and that some of them coming from Spain, and having a +great quantity of bullion or pieces of eight on board, the money +frequently drives on shore still, and that in good quantities, especially +after stormy weather. + +This may be the reason why, as we observed during our short stay here, +several mornings after it had blown something hard in the night, the +sands were covered with country people running to and fro to see if the +sea had cast up anything of value. This the seamen call "going +a-shoring;" and it seems they do often find good purchase. Sometimes +also dead bodies are cast up here, the consequence of shipwrecks among +those fatal rocks and islands; as also broken pieces of ships, casks, +chests, and almost everything that will float or roll on shore by the +surges of the sea. + +Nor is it seldom that the voracious country people scuffle and fight +about the right to what they find, and that in a desperate manner; so +that this part of Cornwall may truly be said to be inhabited by a fierce +and ravenous people. For they are so greedy, and eager for the prey, +that they are charged with strange, bloody, and cruel dealings, even +sometimes with one another; but especially with poor distressed seamen +when they come on shore by force of a tempest, and seek help for their +lives, and where they find the rooks themselves not more merciless than +the people who range about them for their prey. + +Here, also, as a farther testimony of the immense riches which have been +lost at several times upon this coast, we found several engineers and +projectors--some with one sort of diving engine, and some with another; +some claiming such a wreck, and some such-and-such others; where they +alleged they were assured there were great quantities of money; and +strange unprecedented ways were used by them to come at it: some, I say, +with one kind of engine, and some another; and though we thought several +of them very strange impracticable methods, yet I was assured by the +country people that they had done wonders with them under water, and that +some of them had taken up things of great weight and in a great depth of +water. Others had split open the wrecks they had found in a manner one +would have thought not possible to be done so far under water, and had +taken out things from the very holds of the ships. But we could not +learn that they had come at any pieces of eight, which was the thing they +seemed most to aim at and depend upon; at least, they had not found any +great quantity, as they said they expected. + +However, we left them as busy as we found them, and far from being +discouraged; and if half the golden mountains, or silver mountains +either, which they promise themselves should appear, they will be very +well paid for their labour. + +From the tops of the hills on this extremity of the land you may see out +into that they call the Chops of the Channel, which, as it is the +greatest inlet of commerce, and the most frequented by merchant-ships of +any place in the world, so one seldom looks out to seaward but something +new presents--that is to say, of ships passing or repassing, either on +the great or lesser Channel. + +Upon a former accidental journey into this part of the country, during +the war with France, it was with a mixture of pleasure and horror that we +saw from the hills at the Lizard, which is the southern-most point of +this land, an obstinate fight between three French men-of-war and two +English, with a privateer and three merchant-ships in their company. The +English had the misfortune, not only to be fewer ships of war in number, +but of less force; so that while the two biggest French ships engaged the +English, the third in the meantime took the two merchant-ships and went +off with them. As to the picaroon or privateer, she was able to do +little in the matter, not daring to come so near the men-of-war as to +take a broadside, which her thin sides would not have been able to bear, +but would have sent her to the bottom at once; so that the English men-of- +war had no assistance from her, nor could she prevent the taking the two +merchant-ships. Yet we observed that the English captains managed their +fight so well, and their seamen behaved so briskly, that in about three +hours both the Frenchmen stood off, and, being sufficiently banged, let +us see that they had no more stomach to fight; after which the +English--having damage enough, too, no doubt--stood away to the eastward, +as we supposed, to refit. + +This point of the Lizard, which runs out to the southward, and the other +promontory mentioned above, make the two angles--or horns, as they are +called--from whence it is supposed this county received its first name of +Cornwall, or, as Mr. Camden says, _Cornubia_ in the Latin, and in the +British "Kernaw," as running out in two vastly extended horns. And +indeed it seems as if Nature had formed this situation for the direction +of mariners, as foreknowing of what importance it should be, and how in +future ages these seas should be thus thronged with merchant-ships, the +protection of whose wealth, and the safety of the people navigating them, +was so much her early care that she stretched out the land so very many +ways, and extended the points and promontories so far and in so many +different places into the sea, that the land might be more easily +discovered at a due distance, which way soever the ships should come. + +Nor is the Lizard Point less useful (though not so far west) than the +other, which is more properly called the Land's End; but if we may credit +our mariners, it is more frequently first discovered from the sea. For +as our mariners, knowing by the soundings when they are in the mouth of +the Channel, do then most naturally stand to the southward, to avoid +mistaking the Channel, and to shun the Severn Sea or Bristol Channel, but +still more to avoid running upon Scilly and the rocks about it, as is +observed before--I say, as they carefully keep to the southward till they +think they are fair with the Channel, and then stand to the northward +again, or north-east, to make the land, this is the reason why the Lizard +is, generally speaking, the first land they make, and not the Land's End. + +Then having made the Lizard, they either (first) run in for Falmouth, +which is the next port, if they are taken short with easterly winds, or +are in want of provisions and refreshment, or have anything out of order, +so that they care not to keep the sea; or (secondly) stand away for the +Ram Head and Plymouth Sound; or (thirdly) keep an offing to run up the +Channel. + +So that the Lizard is the general guide, and of more use in these cases +than the other point, and is therefore the land which the ships choose to +make first; for then also they are sure that they are past Scilly and all +the dangers of that part of the island. + +Nature has fortified this part of the island of Britain in a strange +manner, and so, as is worth a traveller's observation, as if she knew the +force and violence of the mighty ocean which beats upon it; and which, +indeed, if the land was not made firm in proportion, could not withstand, +but would have been washed away long ago. + +First, there are the islands of Scilly and the rocks about them; these +are placed like out-works to resist the first assaults of this enemy, and +so break the force of it, as the piles (or starlings, as they are called) +are placed before the solid stonework of London Bridge to fence off the +force either of the water or ice, or anything else that might be +dangerous to the work. + +Then there are a vast number of sunk rocks (so the seamen call them), +besides such as are visible and above water, which gradually lessen the +quantity of water that would otherwise lie with an infinite weight and +force upon the land. It is observed that these rocks lie under water for +a great way off into the sea on every side the said two horns or points +of land, so breaking the force of the water, and, as above, lessening the +weight of it. + +But besides this the whole _terra firma_, or body of the land which makes +this part of the isle of Britain, seems to be one solid rock, as if it +was formed by Nature to resist the otherwise irresistible power of the +ocean. And, indeed, if one was to observe with what fury the sea comes +on sometimes against the shore here, especially at the Lizard Point, +where there are but few, if any, out-works, as I call them, to resist it; +how high the waves come rolling forward, storming on the neck of one +another (particularly when the wind blows off sea), one would wonder that +even the strongest rocks themselves should be able to resist and repel +them. But, as I said, the country seems to be, as it were, one great +body of stone, and prepared so on purpose. + +And yet, as if all this was not enough, Nature has provided another +strong fence, and that is, that these vast rocks are, as it were, +cemented together by the solid and weighty ore of tin and copper, +especially the last, which is plentifully found upon the very outmost +edge of the land, and with which the stones may be said to be soldered +together, lest the force of the sea should separate and disjoint them, +and so break in upon these fortifications of the island to destroy its +chief security. + +This is certain--that there is a more than ordinary quantity of tin, +copper, and lead also placed by the Great Director of Nature in these +very remote angles (and, as I have said above, the ore is found upon the +very surface of the rocks a good way into the sea); and that it does not +only lie, as it were, upon or between the stones among the earth (which +in that case might be washed from it by the sea), but that it is even +blended or mixed in with the stones themselves, that the stones must be +split into pieces to come at it. By this mixture the rocks are made +infinitely weighty and solid, and thereby still the more qualified to +repel the force of the sea. + +Upon this remote part of the island we saw great numbers of that famous +kind of crows which is known by the name of the Cornish cough or chough +(so the country people call them). They are the same kind which are +found in Switzerland among the Alps, and which Pliny pretended were +peculiar to those mountains, and calls the _pyrrhocorax_. The body is +black; the legs, feet, and bill of a deep yellow, almost to a red. I +could not find that it was affected for any good quality it had, nor is +the flesh good to eat, for it feeds much on fish and carrion; it is +counted little better than a kite, for it is of ravenous quality, and is +very mischievous. It will steal and carry away anything it finds about +the house that is not too heavy, though not fit for its food--as knives, +forks, spoons, and linen cloths, or whatever it can fly away with; +sometimes they say it has stolen bits of firebrands, or lighted candles, +and lodged them in the stacks of corn and the thatch of barns and houses, +and set them on fire; but this I only had by oral tradition. + +I might take up many sheets in describing the valuable curiosities of +this little Chersonese or Neck Land, called the Land's End, in which +there lies an immense treasure and many things worth notice (I mean, +besides those to be found upon the surface), but I am too near the end of +this letter. If I have opportunity I shall take notice of some part of +what I omit here in my return by the northern shore of the county. + + + + +TWO LETTERS +FROM THE "JOURNEY THROUGH ENGLAND BY A GENTLEMAN." + + +_Published in_ 1722, _but not by Defoe_. + + + +BATH IN 1722. + + +_Bath_. + +SIR, + +The Bath lies very low, is but a small city, but very compact, and one +can hardly imagine it could accommodate near the company that frequents +it at least three parts of the year. I have been told of 8,000 families +there at a time--some for the benefit of drinking its hot waters, others +for bathing, and others for diversion and pleasure (of which, I must say, +it affords more than any public place of that kind in Europe). + +I told you in my former letters that Epsom and Tunbridge do not allow +visiting (the companies there meet only on the walks); but here visits +are received and returned, assemblies and balls are given, and parties at +play in most houses every night, to which one Mr. Nash hath for many +years contributed very much. This gentleman is by custom a sort of +master of ceremonies of the place; he is not of any birth nor estate, but +by a good address and assurance ingratiates himself into the good graces +of the ladies and the best company in the place, and is director of all +their parties of pleasure. He wears good clothes, is always affluent of +money, plays very much, and whatever he may get in private, yet in public +he always seems to lose. The town have been for many years so sensible +of the service he does them that they ring the bells generally at his +arrival in town, and, it is thought, pay him a yearly contribution for +his support. + +In the morning early the company of both sexes meet at the Pump (in a +great hall enrailed), to drink the waters and saunter about till prayer- +time, or divert themselves by looking on those that are bathing in the +bath. Most of the company go to church in the morning in dishabille, and +then go home to dress for the walks before dinner. The walks are behind +the church, spacious and well shaded, planted round with shops filled +with everything that contributes to pleasure, and at the end a noble room +for gaming, from whence there are hanging-stairs to a pretty garden for +everybody that pays for the time they stay, to walk in. + +I have often wondered that the physicians of these places prescribe +gaming to their patients, in order to keep their minds free from business +and thought, that their waters on an undisturbed mind may have the +greater effect, when indeed one cross-throw at play must sour a man's +blood more than ten glasses of water will sweeten, especially for such +great sums as they throw for every day at Bath. + +The King and Queen's Baths, which have a communication with one another, +are the baths which people of common rank go into promiscuously; and +indeed everybody, except the first quality. The way of going into them +is very comical: a chair with a couple of chairmen come to your bedside +(lie in what storey you will), and there strip you, and give you their +dress without your shift, and wrapping you up in blankets carry you to +the bath. + +When you enter the bath, the water seems very warm; and the heat much +increases as you go into the Queen's Bath, where the great spring rises. +On a column erected over the spring is an inscription of the first finder- +out of these springs, in the following words: that "Bladud, the son of +Lud, found them three hundred years before Christ." The smoke and slime +of the waters, the promiscuous multitude of the people in the bath, with +nothing but their heads and hands above water, with the height of the +walls that environ the bath, gave me a lively idea of several pictures I +had seen, of Angelo's in Italy of Purgatory, with heads and hands +uplifted in the midst of smoke, just as they are here. After bathing, +you are carried home in your chair, in the same manner you came. + +The Cross Bath, which is used by the people of the first quality, was +beautified and inclosed for the convenience of the late King James's +queen, who after the priests and physicians had been at work to procure a +male successor to the throne of Great Britain, the Sacrament exposed in +all the Roman Catholic countries, and for that end a sanctified smock +sent from the Virgin Mary at Loretto, the queen was ordered to go to Bath +and prepare herself, and the king to make a progress through the western +counties and join her there. On his arrival at Bath, the next day after +his conjunction with the queen, the Earl of Melfort (then Secretary of +State for Scotland) erected a fine prophetic monument in the middle of +the Bath, as an everlasting monument of that conjunction. I call it +"prophetic," because nine months after a Prince of Wales was born. This +monument is still entire and handsome, only some of the inscriptions on +the pillar were erased in King William's time. The angels attending the +Holy Ghost as He descends, the Eucharist, the Pillar, and all the +ornaments are of fine marble, and must have cost that earl a great deal +of money. He was second son to Drummond, Earl of Perth, in North +Britain; and was Deputy Governor of the Castle of Edinburgh when the Duke +and Duchess of York came to Scotland, in King Charles the Second's time. +He was a handsome gentleman, with a good address, and went into all the +measures of that court, and at all their balls generally danced with the +duchess; who, on their accession to the throne, sent for him up to +London, made him Secretary of State for Scotland, created him Earl of +Melfort, and Knight of the Order of St. Andrew. His elder brother was +also made Chancellor and Governor of Scotland. And on King James's +abdication, as the two brothers followed the king's fortunes, the Earl of +Perth was made governor to the young prince; and Melfort was created a +duke, had the Garter, and was a great man in France to his dying day. + +There is another bath for lepers. + +The cathedral church is small but well lighted. There are abundance of +little monuments in it of people who come there for their health, but +meet with their death. + +These waters have a wonderful influence on barren ladies, who often prove +with child even in their husbands' absence; who must not come near them +till their bodies are prepared. + +Everything looks gay and serene here; it is plentiful and cheap. Only +the taverns do not much improve, for it is a place of universal sobriety. +To be drunk at Bath is as scandalous as mad. Common women are not to be +met with here so much as at Tunbridge and Epsom. Whether it is the +distance from London, or that the gentlemen fly at the highest game, I +cannot tell; besides, everything that passes here is known on the walks, +and the characters of persons. + +In three hours one arrives from Bath at Bristol, a large, opulent, and +fine city; but, notwithstanding its nearness, by the different manners of +the people seems to be another country. Instead of that politeness and +gaiety which you see at Bath, here is nothing but hurry--carts driving +along with merchandises, and people running about with cloudy looks and +busy faces. When I came to the Exchange I was surprised to see it +planted round with stone pillars, with broad boss-plates on them like sun- +dials, and coats-of-arms with inscriptions on every plate. + +They told me that these pillars were erected by eminent merchants for the +benefit of writing and despatching their affairs on them, as on tables; +and at 'Change time the merchants take each their stands by their +pillars, that masters of ships and owners may know where to find them. + +Coffee-houses and taverns lie round the 'Change, just as at London; and +the Bristol milk, which is Spanish sherry (nowhere so good as here), is +plentifully drunk. + +The city of Bristol is situated much like Verona, in Italy. A river runs +through almost the middle of it, on which there is a fine stone bridge. +The quay may be made the finest, largest, and longest in the world by +pulling down an old house or two. Behind the quay is a very noble +square, as large as that of Soho in London, in which is kept the Custom +House; and most of the eminent merchants who keep their coaches reside +here. The cathedral is on the other side of the river, on the top of the +hill, and is the meanest I have seen in England. But the square or green +adjoining to it has several fine houses, and makes by its situation, in +my opinion, much the pleasantest part of the town. There are some +churches in the city finer than the cathedral, and your merchants have +their little country-seats in the adjacent eminences; of which that of +Mr. Southwell hath a very commanding prospect, both of the city, the +River Severn, and the shipping that lies below. + +There are hot springs near Bristol that are also very much frequented, +and are reckoned to be better than the Bath for some distempers. + +A traveller when he comes to the Bath must never fail of seeing +Badminton, belonging to the Dukes of Beaufort; nor Longleat, belonging to +my Lord Weymouth. They are both within a few miles of the Bath. King +William, when he took Badminton in his way from Ireland, told the duke +that he was not surprised at his not coming to court, having so sumptuous +a palace to keep a court of his own in. And indeed the apartments are +inferior to few royal palaces. The parks are large, and enclosed with a +stone wall; and that duke, whom I described to you in my letter from +Windsor, lived up to the grandeur of a sovereign prince. His grandson, +who was also Knight of the Garter, made a great figure in the reign of +Queen Anne. The family, which is a natural branch of the house of +Lancaster, have always distinguished themselves of the Tory side. The +present duke is under age. + +Longleat, though an old seat, is very beautiful and large; and the +gardens and avenue, being full-grown, are very beautiful and well kept. +It cost the late Lord Weymouth a good revenue in hospitality to such +strangers as came from Bath to see it. + +The biggest and most regular house in England was built near Bristol by +the late Lord Stawell; but it being judged by his heirs to be too big for +the estate, they are pulling it down and selling the materials. + +As the weather grows good, I shall proceed through South Wales to +Chester, from whence you shall soon hear from me, who am without reserve, +sir, your most humble, &c. + + + +FROM CHESTER TO HOLYHEAD. + + +_Chester_. + +SIR, + +I crossed the Severn at the ferry of Ash, about ten miles above Bristol, +and got to Monmouth to dinner through a rugged, indifferent country. It +is a pitiful old town, and hath nothing remarkable in it; and from thence +through a fat fertile country I got to the city of Hereford at night. + +Hereford is the dirtiest old city I have seen in England, yet pretty +large; the streets are irregular and the houses old, and its cathedral a +reverend old pile, but not beautiful; the niches of the walls of the +church are adorned with the figures of its bishops as big as the life, in +a cumbent posture, with the year of their interments newly painted over. +Some of them are in the twelve hundredth year of Christ. Here they drink +nothing but cider, which is very cheap and very good; and the very hedges +in the country are planted with apple-trees. About three miles from +Hereford in my road to Ludlow I saw a fine old seat called Hampton Court, +belonging to my Lord Coningsby. The plantations on rising grounds round +it give an august splendour to the house, which consists of an oval court +with suitable offices, not unlike an house belonging to the Duke of +Somerset near London; and from thence in a few hours I arrived at Ludlow, +the capital of South Wales, and where the Princes of Wales formerly, and +since them the Presidents of Wales, kept their courts. + +Ludlow is one of the neatest, clean, pretty towns in England. The street +by which you enter the town is spacious, with handsome houses +sash-windowed on each side, which leads you by an ascent to the castle on +the left of the top of the hill, and the church on the right, from whence +there runs also another handsome street. The castle hath a very +commanding prospect of the adjacent country; the offices in the outer +court are falling down, and a great part of the court is turned into a +bowling-green; but the royal apartments in the castle, with some old +velvet furniture and a sword of state, are still left. There is also a +neat little chapel; but the vanity of the Welsh gentry when they were +made councillors has spoiled it by adorning it with their names and arms, +of which it is full. + +A small expense would still make this castle a habitable and beautiful +place, lying high, and overlooking a fine country; there is also a fine +prospect from the churchyard, and the church is very neat. I saw +abundance of pretty ladies here, and well dressed, who came from the +adjacent counties, for the convenience and cheapness of boarding. +Provisions of all sorts are extremely plentiful and cheap here, and very +good company. + +I stayed some days here, to make an excursion into South Wales and know a +little of the manners of the country, as I design to do at Chester for +North Wales. The gentry are very numerous, exceedingly civil to +strangers, if you don't come to purchase and make your abode amongst +them. They live much like Gascoynes--affecting their own language, +valuing themselves much on the antiquity of their families, and are proud +of making entertainments. + +The Duke of Powis, of the name of Herbert, hath a noble seat near this +town, but I was not at it; the family followed King James's fortunes to +France, and I suppose the seat lies neglected. From Ludlow in a short +day's riding through a champaign country I arrived at the town of +Shrewsbury. + +Shrewsbury stands upon an eminence, encircled by the Severn like a horse- +shoe; the streets are large, and the houses well built. My Lord Newport, +son to the Earl of Bradford, hath a handsome palace, with hanging gardens +down to the river; as also Mr. Kinnaston, and some other gentlemen. There +is a good town-house, and the most coffee-houses round it that ever I saw +in any town; but when you come into them, they are but ale-houses (only +they think that the name of coffee-house gives a better air). King +Charles would have made them a city, but they chose rather to remain a +corporation, as they are, for which they were called the "proud +Salopians." There is a great deal of good company in this town, for the +convenience of cheapness; and there are assemblies and balls for the +young ladies once a week. The Earl of Bradford and several others have +handsome seats near it; from hence I came to Wrexham, in Wales, a +beautiful market-town; the church is the beautifullest country church in +England, and surpasses some cathedrals. I counted fifty-two statues as +big as the life in the steeple or tower, which is built after the manner +of your Dutch steeples, and as high as any there. I was there on a +market-day, and was particularly pleased to see the Welsh ladies come to +market in their laced hats, their own hair hanging round their shoulders, +and blue and scarlet cloaks like our Amazons--some of them with a +greyhound in a string in their hands. + +Whitchurch, near it, hath a fine church, built by the Earl of Bridgwater; +and so to Chester, an ancient and large city, with a commanding castle. +The city consists of four large streets, which make an exact cross, with +the town-house and Exchange in the middle; but you don't walk the streets +here, but in galleries up one pair of stairs, which keeps you from the +rain in winter, and sun in summer; and the houses and shops, with +gardens, go all off these galleries, which they call rows. The city is +walled round, and the wall so firmly paved that it gives you an agreeable +prospect of the country and river, as you walk upon it. The churches are +very neat, and the cathedral an august old pile; there is an ancient +monument of an Emperor of Germany, with assemblies every week. While I +continued at Chester, I made an excursion into North Wales, and went into +Denbigh, the capital of that country, where are the remains of a very +great and old castle, as is also at Flint, the capital of Flintshire. +These castles were the frontier garrisons of Wales before it came under +the subjection of England. The country is mountainous, and full of iron +and lead works; and here they begin to differ from the English both in +language and dress. + +From Flint, along the seaside, in three hours I arrived at the famous +cold bath called St. Winifred's Well; and the town from thence called +Holywell is a pretty large well-built village, in the middle of a grove, +in a bottom between, two hills. The well is in the foot of one of the +hills, and spouts out about the bigness of a barrel at once, with such +force that it turns three or four mills before it falls into the sea. The +well where you bathe is floored with stone surrounded with pillars, on +which stands a neat little chapel dedicated to St. Winifred, but now +turned into a Protestant school. However, to supply the loss of this +chapel, the Roman Catholics have chapels erected almost in every inn for +the devotion of the pilgrims that flock hither from all the Popish parts +of England. The water, you may imagine, is very cold, coming from the +bowels of an iron mountain, and never having met with the influence of +the sun till it runs from the well. + +The legend of St. Winifred is too long and ridiculous for a letter; I +leave you to Dr. Fleetwood (when Bishop of St. Asaph) for its +description. I will only tell you, in two words, that this St. Winifred +was a beautiful damsel that lived on the top of the hill; that a prince +of the country fell deeply in love with her; that coming one day when her +parents were abroad, and she resisting his passion, turned into rage, and +as she was flying from him cut off her head, which rolled down the hill +with her body, and at the place where it stopped gushed out this well of +water. But there was also a good hermit that lived at the bottom of the +hill, who immediately claps her head to her body, and by the force of the +water and his prayers she recovered, and lived to perform many miracles +for many years after. They give you her printed litanies at the well. +And I observed the Roman Catholics in their prayers, not with eyes lifted +up to heaven, but intent upon the water, as if it were the real blood of +St. Winifred that was to wash them clean from all their sins. + +In every inn you meet with a priest, habited like country gentlemen, and +very good companions. At the "Cross Keys," where I lodged, there was one +that had been marked out to me, to whom I was particularly civil at +supper; but finding by my conversation I was none of them, he drank and +swore like a dragoon, on purpose, as I imagine, to disguise himself. From +Holywell in two hours I came to a handsome seat of Sir John Conway's at +Redland, and next day to Conway. + +I do not know any place in Europe that would make a finer landscape in a +picture than Conway at a mile's distance. It lies on the side of a hill, +on the banks of an arm of the sea about the breadth of the Thames at +London, and within two little miles of the sea, over which we ferry to go +to the town. + +The town is walled round, with thirty watch-towers at proper distances on +the walls; and the castle with its towers, being very white, makes an +august show at a distance, being surrounded with little hills on both +sides of the bay or river, covered with wood. But when you cross the +ferry and come into the town, there is nothing but poverty and misery. +The castle is a heap of rubbish uncovered, and these towers on the walls +only standing vestiges of what Wales was when they had a prince of their +own. + +They speak all Welsh here, and if a stranger should lose his way in this +county of Carnarvon, it is ten to one if he meets with any one that has +English enough to set him right. The people are also naturally very +surly, and even if they understand English, if you ask them a question +their answer is, "Dame Salsenach," or "I cannot speak Saxon or English." +Their Bibles and prayer-books are all printed in Welsh in our character; +so that an Englishman can read their language, although he doth not +understand a word of it. It hath a great resemblance of the Bas-Bretons, +but they retain the letter and character as well as language, as the +Scots and Highlanders do. + +They retain several Popish customs in North Wales, for on Sunday (after +morning service) the whole parish go to football till the afternoon +service begins, and then they go to the ale-house and play at all manner +of games (which ale-house is often kept by the parson, for their livings +are very small). + +They have also offerings at funerals, which is one of the greatest +perquisites the parson hath. When the body is deposited in the church +during the service for the dead, every person invited to the burial lays +a piece of money upon the altar to defray the dead person's charges to +the other world, which, after the ceremony is over, the parson puts in +his pocket. From Conway, through the mountainous country of Carnarvon, I +passed the famous mountain of Penmaen-Mawr, so dreadfully related by +passengers travelling to Ireland. It is a road cut out of the side of +the rock, seven feet wide; the sea lies perpendicularly down, about forty +fathoms on one side, and the mountain is about the same height above it +on the other side. It looks dismal, but not at all dangerous, for there +is now a wall breast-high along the precipice. However, there is an ale- +house at the bottom of the hill on the other side, with this inscription, +"Now your fright is over, take a dram." From hence I proceeded to a +little town called Bangor, where there is a cathedral such as may be +expected in Wales; and from thence to Carnarvon, the capital of the +county. Here are the vestiges of a large old castle, where one of the +Henrys, King of England, was born; as was another at Monmouth, in South +Wales. For the Welsh were so hard to be reconciled to their union with +England at first, it was thought policy to send our queens to lie-in +there, to make our princes Welshmen born, and that way ingratiate the +inhabitants to their subjection to a prince born in their own country. +And for that reason our kings to this day wear a leek (the badge of +Wales) on St. David's Day, the patron of this country; as they do the +Order of the Thistle on St. Andrew's Day, the patron of Scotland. + +Carnarvon is a pretty little town, situated in the bottom of a bay, and +might be a place of good trade, if the country afforded a consumption. + +The sea flows quite round from Bangor to Carnarvon Bay, which separates +Anglesea from the rest of Wales, and makes it an island. Beaumaris, the +capital of the island, hath been a flourishing town; there are still two +very good streets, and the remains of a very large castle. The Lord +Bulkeley hath a noble ancient seat planted with trees on the side of the +hill above the town, from whence one hath a fine prospect of the bay and +adjacent country; the church is very handsome, and there are some fine +ancient monuments of that family and some Knights Templars in it. The +family of Bulkeley keep in their family a large silver goblet, with which +they entertain their friends, with an inscription round relating to the +royal family when in distress, which is often remembered by the +neighbouring gentry, whose affections run very much that way all over +Wales. + +I went from hence to Glengauny, the ancient residence of Owen Tudor, but +now belongs to the Bulkeleys, and to be sold. It is a good old house, +and I believe never was larger. There is a vulgar error in this country +that Owen Tudor was married to a Queen of England, and that the house of +York took that surname from him; whereas the Queen of England that was +married to him was a daughter of the King of France and dowager of +England, and had no relation to the Crown; he had indeed two daughters by +her, that were married into English noble families--to one of which Henry +VII. was related. But Owen Tudor was neither of the blood of the Princes +of Wales himself, nor gave descent to that of the English. He was a +private gentleman, of about 3,000 pounds a year, who came to seek his +fortune at the English court, and the queen fell in love with him. + +I was invited to a cock-match some miles from Glengauny, where were above +forty gentlemen, most of them of the names of Owen, Parry, and Griffith; +they fought near twenty battles, and every battle a cock was killed. +Their cocks are doubtless the finest in the world; and the gentlemen, +after they were a little heated with liquor, were as warm as their cocks. +A great deal of bustle and noise grew by degrees after dinner was over; +but their scolding was all in Welsh, and civilities in English. We had a +very great dinner; and the house (called The College) where we dined was +built very comically; it is four storeys high, built on the side of a +hill, and the stable is in the garret. There is a broad stone staircase +on the outside of the house, by which you enter into the several +apartments. The kitchen is at the bottom of the hill, a bedchamber above +that, the parlour (where we dined) is the third storey, and on the top of +the hill is the stable. + +From hence I stepped over to Holyhead, where the packet-boats arrive from +Ireland. It is a straggling, confused heap of thatched houses built on +rocks; yet within doors there are in several of them very good +accommodation for passengers, both in lodging and diet. + +The packet-boats from Dublin arrive thrice a week, and are larger than +those to Holland and France, fitted with all conveniences for passengers; +and indeed St. George's Channel requires large ships in winter, the wind +being generally very boisterous in these narrow seas. + +On my return to Chester I passed over the mountain called Penmaen Ross, +where I saw plainly a part of Ireland, Scotland, England, and the Isle of +Man all at once. + +* * * * * + +Printed by Cassell & Company, Limited, La Belle Sauvage, London, E.C. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM LONDON TO LAND'S END*** + + +******* This file should be named 1149.txt or 1149.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/1/4/1149 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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