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diff --git a/old/lndle10.txt b/old/lndle10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2d4cd22 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/lndle10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3764 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of From London to Land's End by Defoe +#6 in our series by Daniel Defoe + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +This etext was prepared by David Price +ccx074@coventry.ac.uk, from the 1888 Cassell & Company edition. + + + + + +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 wry; 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 since 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 month +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 seen 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 duct 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. + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of From London to Land's End by Defoe + diff --git a/old/lndle10.zip b/old/lndle10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ae39d8e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/lndle10.zip |