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diff --git a/old/ttece10h.htm b/old/ttece10h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..415ae91 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/ttece10h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3700 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>Tour through the Eastern Counties of England, 1722</title> +</head> +<body> +<h2> +<a href="#startoftext">Tour through the Eastern Counties of England, 1722, by Daniel Defoe</a> +</h2> +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tour through the Eastern Counties of England +by Daniel Defoe +(#5 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 downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Tour through the Eastern Counties of England, 1722 + +Author: Daniel Defoe + +Release Date: July, 1997 [EBook #983] +[This file was first posted on July 10, 1997] +[Most recently updated: May 21, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII +</pre> +<p><a name="startoftext"></a></p> +<p>Transcribed by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div> +<h1>Tour through the Eastern Counties of England, 1722</h1> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div> +<p>I began my travels where I purpose to end them, viz., at the City +of London, and therefore my account of the city itself will come last, +that is to say, at the latter end of my southern progress; and as in +the course of this journey I shall have many occasions to call it a +circuit, if not a circle, so I chose to give it the title of circuits +in the plural, because I do not pretend to have travelled it all in +one journey, but in many, and some of them many times over; the better +to inform myself of everything I could find worth taking notice of.</p> +<p>I hope it will appear that I am not the less, but the more capable +of giving a full account of things, by how much the more deliberation +I have taken in the view of them, and by how much the oftener I have +had opportunity to see them.</p> +<p>I set out the 3rd of April, 1722, going first eastward, and took +what I think I may very honestly call a circuit in the very letter of +it; for I went down by the coast of the Thames through the Marshes or +Hundreds on the south side of the county of Essex, till I came to Malden, +Colchester, and Harwich, thence continuing on the coast of Suffolk to +Yarmouth; thence round by the edge of the sea, on the north and west +side of Norfolk, to Lynn, Wisbech, and the Wash; thence back again, +on the north side of Suffolk and Essex, to the west, ending it in Middlesex, +near the place where I began it, reserving the middle or centre of the +several counties to some little excursions, which I made by themselves.</p> +<p>Passing Bow Bridge, where the county of Essex begins, the first observation +I made was, that all the villages which may be called the neighbourhood +of the city of London on this, as well as on the other sides thereof, +which I shall speak to in their order; I say, all those villages are +increased in buildings to a strange degree, within the compass of about +twenty or thirty years past at the most.</p> +<p>The village of Stratford, the first in this county from London, is +not only increased, but, I believe, more than doubled in that time; +every vacancy filled up with new houses, and two little towns or hamlets, +as they may be called, on the forest side of the town entirely new, +namely Maryland Point and the Gravel Pits, one facing the road to Woodford +and Epping, and the other facing the road to Ilford; and as for the +hither part, it is almost joined to Bow, in spite of rivers, canals, +marshy grounds, &c. Nor is this increase of building the case +only in this and all the other villages round London; but the increase +of the value and rent of the houses formerly standing has, in that compass +of years above-mentioned, advanced to a very great degree, and I may +venture to say at least the fifth part; some think a third part, above +what they were before.</p> +<p>This is indeed most visible, speaking of Stratford in Essex; but +it is the same thing in proportion in other villages adjacent, especially +on the forest side; as at Low Leyton, Leytonstone, Walthamstow, Woodford, +Wanstead, and the towns of West Ham, Plaistow, Upton, etc. In +all which places, or near them (as the inhabitants say), above a thousand +new foundations have been erected, besides old houses repaired, all +since the Revolution; and this is not to be forgotten too, that this +increase is, generally speaking, of handsome, large houses, from £20 +a year to £60, very few under £20 a year; being chiefly +for the habitations of the richest citizens, such as either are able +to keep two houses, one in the country and one in the city; or for such +citizens as being rich, and having left off trade, live altogether in +these neighbouring villages, for the pleasure and health of the latter +part of their days.</p> +<p>The truth of this may at least appear, in that they tell me there +are no less than two hundred coaches kept by the inhabitants within +the circumference of these few villages named above, besides such as +are kept by accidental lodgers.</p> +<p>This increase of the inhabitants, and the cause of it, I shall enlarge +upon when I come to speak of the like in the counties of Middlesex, +Surrey, &c, where it is the same, only in a much greater degree. +But this I must take notice of here, that this increase causes those +villages to be much pleasanter and more sociable than formerly, for +now people go to them, not for retirement into the country, but for +good company; of which, that I may speak to the ladies as well as other +authors do, there are in these villages, nay, in all, three or four +excepted, excellent conversation, and a great deal of it, and that without +the mixture of assemblies, gaming-houses, and public foundations of +vice and debauchery; and particularly I find none of those incentives +kept up on this side the country.</p> +<p>Mr. Camden, and his learned continuator, Bishop Gibson, have ransacked +this country for its antiquities, and have left little unsearched; and +as it is not my present design to say much of what has been said already, +I shall touch very lightly where two such excellent antiquaries have +gone before me; except it be to add what may have been since discovered, +which as to these parts is only this: That there seems to be lately +found out in the bottom of the Marshes (generally called Hackney Marsh, +and beginning near about the place now called the Wick, between Old +Ford and the said Wick), the remains of a great stone causeway, which, +as it is supposed, was the highway, or great road from London into Essex, +and the same which goes now over the great bridge between Bow and Stratford.</p> +<p>That the great road lay this way, and that the great causeway landed +again just over the river, where now the Temple Mills stand, and passed +by Sir Thomas Hickes’s house at Ruckolls, all this is not doubted; +and that it was one of those famous highways made by the Romans there +is undoubted proof, by the several marks of Roman work, and by Roman +coins and other antiquities found there, some of which are said to be +deposited in the hands of the Rev. Mr. Strype, vicar of the parish of +Low Leyton.</p> +<p>From hence the great road passed up to Leytonstone, a place by some +known now as much by the sign of the “Green Man,” formerly +a lodge upon the edge of the forest; and crossing by Wanstead House, +formerly the dwelling of Sir Josiah Child, now of his son the Lord Castlemain +(of which hereafter), went over the same river which we now pass at +Ilford; and passing that part of the great forest which we now call +Hainault Forest, came into that which is now the great road, a little +on this side the Whalebone, a place on the road so called because the +rib-bone of a great whale, which was taken in the River Thames the same +year that Oliver Cromwell died, 1658, was fixed there for a monument +of that monstrous creature, it being at first about eight-and-twenty +feet long.</p> +<p>According to my first intention of effectually viewing the sea-coast +of these three counties, I went from Stratford to Barking, a large market-town, +but chiefly inhabited by fishermen, whose smacks ride in the Thames, +at the mouth of their river, from whence their fish is sent up to London +to the market at Billingsgate by small boats, of which I shall speak +by itself in my description of London.</p> +<p>One thing I cannot omit in the mention of these Barking fisher-smacks, +viz., that one of those fishermen, a very substantial and experienced +man, convinced me that all the pretences to bringing fish alive to London +market from the North Seas, and other remote places on the coast of +Great Britain, by the new-built sloops called fish-pools, have not been +able to do anything but what their fishing-smacks are able on the same +occasion to perform. These fishing-smacks are very useful vessels +to the public upon many occasions; as particularly, in time of war they +are used as press-smacks, running to all the northern and western coasts +to pick up seamen to man the navy, when any expedition is at hand that +requires a sudden equipment; at other times, being excellent sailors, +they are tenders to particular men of war; and on an expedition they +have been made use of as machines for the blowing up of fortified ports +and havens; as at Calais, St. Malo, and other places.</p> +<p>This parish of Barking is very large, and by the improvement of lands +taken in out of the Thames, and out of the river which runs by the town, +the tithes, as the townsmen assured me, are worth above £600 per +annum, including, small tithes. <i>Note</i>.—This parish +has two or three chapels of ease, viz., one at Ilford, and one on the +side of Hainault Forest, called New Chapel.</p> +<p>Sir Thomas Fanshaw, of an ancient Roman Catholic family, has a very +good estate in this parish. A little beyond the town, on the road +to Dagenham, stood a great house, ancient, and now almost fallen down, +where tradition says the Gunpowder Treason Plot was at first contrived, +and that all the first consultations about it were held there.</p> +<p>This side of the county is rather rich in land than in inhabitants, +occasioned chiefly by the unhealthiness of the air; for these low marsh +grounds, which, with all the south side of the county, have been saved +out of the River Thames, and out of the sea, where the river is wide +enough to be called so, begin here, or rather begin at West Ham, by +Stratford, and continue to extend themselves, from hence eastward, growing +wider and wider till we come beyond Tilbury, when the flat country lies +six, seven, or eight miles broad, and is justly said to be both unhealthy +and unpleasant.</p> +<p>However, the lands are rich, and, as is observable, it is very good +farming in the marshes, because the landlords let good pennyworths, +for it being a place where everybody cannot live, those that venture +it will have encouragement and indeed it is but reasonable they should.</p> +<p>Several little observations I made in this part of the county of +Essex.</p> +<p>1. We saw, passing from Barking to Dagenham, the famous breach, +made by an inundation of the Thames, which was so great as that it laid +near 5,000 acres of land under water, but which after near ten years +lying under water, and being several times blown up, has been at last +effectually stopped by the application of Captain Perry, the gentleman +who, for several years, had been employed in the Czar of Muscovy’s +works, at Veronitza, on the River Don. This breach appeared now +effectually made up, and they assured us that the new work, where the +breach was, is by much esteemed the strongest of all the sea walls in +that level.</p> +<p>2. It was observable that great part of the lands in these +levels, especially those on this side East Tilbury, are held by the +farmers, cow-keepers, and grazing butchers who live in and near London, +and that they are generally stocked (all the winter half year) with +large fat sheep, viz., Lincolnshire and Leicestershire wethers, which +they buy in Smithfield in September and October, when the Lincolnshire +and Leicestershire graziers sell off their stock, and are kept here +till Christmas, or Candlemas, or thereabouts; and though they are not +made at all fatter here than they were when bought in, yet the farmer +or butcher finds very good advantage in it, by the difference of the +price of mutton between Michaelmas, when it is cheapest, and Candlemas, +when it is dearest; this is what the butchers value themselves upon, +when they tell us at the market that it is right marsh-mutton.</p> +<p>3. In the bottom of these Marshes, and close to the edge of +the river, stands the strong fortress of Tilbury, called Tilbury Fort, +which may justly be looked upon as the key of the River Thames, and +consequently the key of the City of London. It is a regular fortification. +The design of it was a pentagon, but the water bastion, as it would +have been called, was never built. The plan was laid out by Sir +Martin Beckman, chief engineer to King Charles II., who also designed +the works at Sheerness. The esplanade of the fort is very large, +and the bastions the largest of any in England, the foundation is laid +so deep, and piles under that, driven down two an end of one another, +so far, till they were assured they were below the channel of the river, +and that the piles, which were shed with iron, entered into the solid +chalk rock adjoining to, or reaching from, the chalk hills on the other +side. These bastions settled considerably at first, as did also +part of the curtain, the great quantity of earth that was brought to +fill them up, necessarily, requiring to be made solid by time; but they +are now firm as the rocks of chalk which they came from, and the filling +up one of these bastions, as I have been told by good hands, cost the +Government £6,000, being filled with chalk rubbish fetched from +the chalk pits at Northfleet, just above Gravesend.</p> +<p>The work to the land side is complete; the bastions are faced with +brick. There is a double ditch, or moat, the innermost part of +which is 180 feet broad; there is a good counterscarp, and a covered +way marked out with ravelins and tenailles, but they are not raised +a second time after their first settling.</p> +<p>On the land side there are also two small redoubts of brick, but +of very little strength, for the chief strength of this fort on the +land side consists in this, that they are able to lay the whole level +under water, and so to make it impossible for an enemy to make any approaches +to the fort that way.</p> +<p>On the side next the river there is a very strong curtain, with a +noble gate called the Water Gate in the middle, and the ditch is palisadoed. +At the place where the water bastion was designed to be built, and which +by the plan should run wholly out into the river, so to flank the two +curtains of each side; I say, in the place where it should have been, +stands a high tower, which they tell us was built in Queen Elizabeth’s +time, and was called the Block House; the side next the water is vacant.</p> +<p>Before this curtain, above and below the said vacancy, is a platform +in the place of a counterscarp, on which are planted 106 pieces of cannon, +generally all of them carrying from twenty-four to forty-six pound ball; +a battery so terrible as well imports the consequence of that place; +besides which, there are smaller pieces planted between, and the bastions +and curtain also are planted with guns; so that they must be bold fellows +who will venture in the biggest ships the world has heard of to pass +such a battery, if the men appointed to serve the guns do their duty +like stout fellows, as becomes them.</p> +<p>The present government of this important place is under the prudent +administration of the Right Honourable the Lord Newbrugh.</p> +<p>From hence there is nothing for many miles together remarkable but +a continued level of unhealthy marshes, called the Three Hundreds, till +we come before Leigh, and to the mouth of the River Chelmer, and Blackwater. +These rivers united make a large firth, or inlet of the sea, which by +Mr. Camden is called <i>Idumanum</i> <i>Fluvium</i>; but by our fishermen +and seamen, who use it as a port, it is called Malden Water.</p> +<p>In this inlet of the sea is Osey, or Osyth Island, commonly called +Oosy Island, so well known by our London men of pleasure for the infinite +number of wild fowl, that is to say, duck, mallard, teal, and widgeon, +of which there are such vast flights, that they tell us the island, +namely the creek, seems covered with them at certain times of the year, +and they go from London on purpose for the pleasure of shooting; and, +indeed, often come home very well laden with game. But it must +be remembered too that those gentlemen who are such lovers of the sport, +and go so far for it, often return with an Essex ague on their backs, +which they find a heavier load than the fowls they have shot.</p> +<p>It is on this shore, and near this creek, that the greatest quantity +of fresh fish is caught which supplies not this country only, but London +markets also. On the shore, beginning a little below Candy Island, +or rather below Leigh Road, there lies a great shoal or sand called +the Black Tail, which runs out near three leagues into the sea due east; +at the end of it stands a pole or mast, set up by the Trinity House +men of London, whose business is to lay buoys and set up sea marks for +the direction of the sailors; this is called Shoe Beacon, from the point +of land where this sand begins, which is called Shoeburyness, and that +from the town of Shoebury, which stands by it. From this sand, +and on the edge of Shoebury, before it, or south west of it, all along, +to the mouth of Colchester water, the shore is full of shoals and sands, +with some deep channels between; all which are so full of fish, that +not only the Barking fishing-smacks come hither to fish, but the whole +shore is full of small fisher-boats in very great numbers, belonging +to the villages and towns on the coast, who come in every tide with +what they take; and selling the smaller fish in the country, send the +best and largest away upon horses, which go night and day to London +market.</p> +<p><i>N.B</i>.—I am the more particular in my remarks on this +place, because in the course of my travels the reader will meet with +the like in almost every place of note through the whole island, where +it will be seen how this whole kingdom, as well the people as the land, +and even the sea, in every part of it, are employed to furnish something, +and I may add, the best of everything, to supply the City of London +with provisions; I mean by provisions, corn, flesh, fish, butter, cheese, +salt, fuel, timber, etc., and clothes also; with everything necessary +for building, and furniture for their own use or for trade; of all which +in their order.</p> +<p>On this shore also are taken the best and nicest, though not the +largest, oysters in England; the spot from whence they have their common +appellation is a little bank called Woelfleet, scarce to be called an +island, in the mouth of the River Crouch, now called Crooksea Water; +but the chief place where the said oysters are now had is from Wyvenhoe +and the shores adjacent, whither they are brought by the fishermen, +who take them at the mouth of that they call Colchester water and about +the sand they call the Spits, and carry them up to Wyvenhoe, where they +are laid in beds or pits on the shore to feed, as they call it; and +then being barrelled up and carried to Colchester, which is but three +miles off, they are sent to London by land, and are from thence called +Colchester oysters.</p> +<p>The chief sort of other fish which they carry from this part of the +shore to London are soles, which they take sometimes exceeding large, +and yield a very good price at London market. Also sometimes middling +turbot, with whiting, codling and large flounders; the small fish, as +above, they sell in the country.</p> +<p>In the several creeks and openings, as above, on this shore there +are also other islands, but of no particular note, except Mersey, which +lies in the middle of the two openings between Malden Water and Colchester +Water; being of the most difficult access, so that it is thought a thousand +men well provided might keep possession of it against a great force, +whether by land or sea. On this account, and because if possessed +by an enemy it would shut up all the navigation and fishery on that +side, the Government formerly built a fort on the south-east point of +it; and generally in case of Dutch war, there is a strong body of troops +kept there to defend it.</p> +<p>At this place may be said to end what we call the Hundreds of Essex—that +is to say, the three Hundreds or divisions which include the marshy +country, viz., Barnstable Hundred, Rochford Hundred, and Dengy Hundred.</p> +<p>I have one remark more before I leave this damp part of the world, +and which I cannot omit on the women’s account, namely, that I +took notice of a strange decay of the sex here; insomuch that all along +this country it was very frequent to meet with men that had had from +five or six to fourteen or fifteen wives; nay, and some more. +And I was informed that in the marshes on the other side of the river +over against Candy Island there was a farmer who was then living with +the five-and-twentieth wife, and that his son, who was but about thirty-five +years old, had already had about fourteen. Indeed, this part of +the story I only had by report, though from good hands too; but the +other is well known and easy to be inquired into about Fobbing, Curringham, +Thundersly, Benfleet, Prittlewell, Wakering, Great Stambridge, Cricksea, +Burnham, Dengy, and other towns of the like situation. The reason, +as a merry fellow told me, who said he had had about a dozen and a half +of wives (though I found afterwards he fibbed a little) was this: That +they being bred in the marshes themselves and seasoned to the place, +did pretty well with it; but that they always went up into the hilly +country, or, to speak their own language, into the uplands for a wife. +That when they took the young lasses out of the wholesome and fresh +air they were healthy, fresh, and clear, and well; but when they came +out of their native air into the marshes among the fogs and damps, there +they presently changed their complexion, got an ague or two, and seldom +held it above half a year, or a year at most; “And then,” +said he, “we go to the uplands again and fetch another;” +so that marrying of wives was reckoned a kind of good farm to them. +It is true the fellow told this in a kind of drollery and mirth; but +the fact, for all that, is certainly true; and that they have abundance +of wives by that very means. Nor is it less true that the inhabitants +in these places do not hold it out, as in other countries, and as first +you seldom meet with very ancient people among the poor, as in other +places we do, so, take it one with another, not one-half of the inhabitants +are natives of the place; but such as from other countries or in other +parts of this country settle here for the advantage of good farms; for +which I appeal to any impartial inquiry, having myself examined into +it critically in several places.</p> +<p>From the marshes and low grounds being not able to travel without +many windings and indentures by reason of the creeks and waters, I came +up to the town of Malden, a noted market town situate at the conflux +or joining of two principal rivers in this county, the Chelm or Chelmer, +and the Blackwater, and where they enter into the sea. The channel, +as I have noted, is called by the sailors Malden Water, and is navigable +up to the town, where by that means is a great trade for carrying corn +by water to London; the county of Essex being (especially on all that +side) a great corn county.</p> +<p>When I have said this I think I have done Malden justice, and said +all of it that there is to be said, unless I should run into the old +story of its antiquity, and tell you it was a Roman colony in the time +of Vespasian, and that it was called Camolodunum. How the Britons, +under Queen Boadicea, in revenge for the Romans’ ill-usage of +her—for indeed they used her majesty ill—they stripped her +naked and whipped her publicly through their streets for some affront +she had given them. I say how for this she raised the Britons +round the country, overpowered, and cut in pieces the Tenth Legion, +killed above eighty thousand Romans, and destroyed the colony; but was +afterwards overthrown in a great battle, and sixty thousand Britons +slain. I say, unless I should enter into this story, I have nothing +more to say of Malden, and, as for that story, it is so fully related +by Mr. Camden in his history of the Romans in Britain at the beginning +of his “Britannia,” that I need only refer the reader to +it, and go on with my journey.</p> +<p>Being obliged to come thus far into the uplands, as above, I made +it my road to pass through Witham, a pleasant, well-situated market +town, in which, and in its neighbourhood, there are as many gentlemen +of good fortunes and families as I believe can be met with in so narrow +a compass in any of the three counties of which I make this circuit.</p> +<p>In the town of Witham dwells the Lord Pasely, oldest son of the Earl +of Abercorn of Ireland (a branch of the noble family of Hamilton, in +Scotland). His lordship has a small, but a neat, well-built new +house, and is finishing his gardens in such a manner as few in that +part of England will exceed them.</p> +<p>Nearer Chelmsford, hard by Boreham, lives the Lord Viscount Barrington, +who, though not born to the title, or estate, or name which he now possesses, +had the honour to be twice made heir to the estates of gentlemen not +at all related to him, at least, one of them, as is very much to his +honour, mentioned in his patent of creation. His name was Shute, +his father a linendraper in London, and served sheriff of the said city +in very troublesome times. He changed the name of Shute for that +of Barrington by an Act of Parliament obtained for that purpose, and +had the dignity of a baron of the kingdom conferred on him by the favour +of King George. His lordship is a Dissenter, and seems to love +retirement. He was a member of Parliament for the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed.</p> +<p>On the other side of Witham, at Fauburn, an ancient mansion house, +built by the Romans, lives Mr. Bullock, whose father married the daughter +of that eminent citizen, Sir Josiah Child, of Wanstead, by whom she +had three sons; the eldest enjoys the estate, which is considerable.</p> +<p>It is observable, that in this part of the country there are several +very considerable estates, purchased and now enjoyed by citizens of +London, merchants, and tradesmen, as Mr. Western, an iron merchant, +near Kelendon; Mr. Cresnor, a wholesale grocer, who was, a little before +he died, named for sheriff at Earl’s Coln; Mr. Olemus, a merchant +at Braintree; Mr. Westcomb, near Malden; Sir Thomas Webster at Copthall, +near Waltham; and several others.</p> +<p>I mention this to observe how the present increase of wealth in the +City of London spreads itself into the country, and plants families +and fortunes, who in another age will equal the families of the ancient +gentry, who perhaps were brought out. I shall take notice of this +in a general head, and when I have run through all the counties, collect +a list of the families of citizens and tradesmen thus established in +the several counties, especially round London.</p> +<p>The product of all this part of the country is corn, as that of the +marshy feeding grounds mentioned above is grass, where their chief business +is breeding of calves, which I need not say are the best and fattest, +and the largest veal in England, if not in the world; and, as an instance, +I ate part of a veal or calf, fed by the late Sir Josiah Child at Wanstead, +the loin of which weighed above thirty pounds, and the flesh exceeding +white and fat.</p> +<p>From hence I went on to Colchester. The story of Kill-Dane, +which is told of the town of Kelvedon, three miles from Witham, namely, +that this is the place where the massacre of the Danes was begun by +the women, and that therefore it was called Kill-Dane; I say of it, +as we generally say of improbable news, it wants confirmation. +The true name of the town is Kelvedon, and has been so for many hundred +years. Neither does Mr. Camden, or any other writer I meet with +worth naming, insist on this piece of empty tradition. The town +is commonly called Keldon.</p> +<p>Colchester is an ancient corporation. The town is large, very +populous, the streets fair and beautiful, and though it may not said +to be finely built, yet there are abundance of very good and well-built +houses in it. It still mourns in the ruins of a civil war; during +which, or rather after the heat of the war was over, it suffered a severe +siege, which, the garrison making a resolute defence, was turned into +a blockade, in which the garrison and inhabitants also suffered the +utmost extremity of hunger, and were at last obliged to surrender at +discretion, when their two chief officers, Sir Charles Lucas and Sir +George Lisle, were shot to death under the castle wall. The inhabitants +had a tradition that no grass would grow upon the spot where the blood +of those two gallant gentlemen was spilt, and they showed the place +bare of grass for many years; but whether for this reason I will not +affirm. The story is now dropped, and the grass, I suppose, grows +there, as in other places.</p> +<p>However, the battered walls, the breaches in the turrets, and the +ruined churches, still remain, except that the church of St. Mary (where +they had the royal fort) is rebuilt; but the steeple, which was two-thirds +battered down, because the besieged had a large culverin upon it that +did much execution, remains still in that condition.</p> +<p>There is another church which bears the marks of those times, namely, +on the south side of the town, in the way to the Hythe, of which more +hereafter.</p> +<p>The lines of contravallation, with the forts built by the besiegers, +and which surrounded the whole town, remain very visible in many places; +but the chief of them are demolished.</p> +<p>The River Colne, which passes through this town, compasses it on +the north and east sides, and served in those times for a complete defence +on those sides. They have three bridges over it, one called North +Bridge, at the north gate, by which the road leads into Suffolk; one +called East Bridge, at the foot of the High Street, over which lies +the road to Harwich, and one at the Hythe, as above.</p> +<p>The river is navigable within three miles of the town for ships of +large burthen; a little lower it may receive even a royal navy; and +up to that part called the Hythe, close to the houses, it is navigable +for hoys and small barques. This Hythe is a long street, passing +from west to east, on the south side of the town. At the west +end of it, there is a small intermission of the buildings, but not much; +and towards the river it is very populous (it may be called the Wapping +of Colchester). There is one church in that part of the town, +a large quay by the river, and a good custom-house.</p> +<p>The town may be said chiefly to subsist by the trade of making bays, +which is known over most of the trading parts of Europe by the name +of Colchester Bays, though indeed all the towns round carry on the same +trade—namely, Kelvedon, Witham, Coggeshall, Braintree, Bocking, +&c., and the whole county, large as it is, may be said to be employed, +and in part maintained, by the spinning of wool for the bay trade of +Colchester and its adjacent towns. The account of the siege, A.D. +1648, with a diary of the most remarkable passages, are as follows, +which I had from so good a hand as that I have no reason to question +its being a true relation.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>A Diary: Or, An Account Of The Siege And Blockade Of Colchester, +A.D. 1648.</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>On the 4th of June, we were alarmed in the town of Colchester that +the Lord Goring, the Lord Capel, and a body of two thousand of the loyal +party, who had been in arms in Kent, having left a great body of an +army in possession of Rochester Bridge, where they resolved to fight +the Lord Fairfax and the Parliament army, had given the said General +Fairfax the slip, and having passed the Thames at Greenwich, were come +to Stratford, and were advancing this way; upon which news, Sir Charles +Lucas, Sir George Lisle, Colonel Cook, and several gentlemen of the +loyal army, and all that had commissions from the king, with a gallant +appearance of gentlemen volunteers, drew together from all parts of +the country to join with them.</p> +<p>The 8th, we were further informed that they were advanced to Chelmsford, +to New Hall House, and to Witham; and the 9th some of the horse arrived +in the town, taking possession of the gates, and having engineers with +them, told us that General Goring had resolved to make this town his +headquarters, and would cause it to be well fortified. They also +caused the drums to beat for volunteers; and a good number of the poor +bay-weavers, and such-like people, wanting employment, enlisted; so +that they completed Sir Charles Lucas’s regiment, which was but +thin, to near eight hundred men.</p> +<p>On the 10th we had news that the Lord Fairfax, having beaten the +Royalists at Maidstone, and retaken Rochester, had passed the Thames +at Gravesend, though with great difficulty, and with some loss, and +was come to Horndon-on-the-Hill, in order to gain Colchester before +the Royalists; but that hearing Sir Charles Lucas had prevented him, +had ordered his rendezvous at Billerecay, and intended to possess the +pass at Malden on the 11th, where Sir Thomas Honnywood, with the county-trained +bands, was to be the same day.</p> +<p>The same evening the Lord Goring, with all his forces, making about +five thousand six hundred men, horse and foot, came to Colchester, and +encamping without the suburbs, under command of the cannon of St. Mary’s +fort, made disposition to fight the Parliament forces if they came up.</p> +<p>The 12th, the Lord Goring came into Colchester, viewed the fort in +St. Mary’s churchyard, ordered more cannon to be planted upon +it, posted two regiments in the suburbs without the head gate, let the +town know he would take them into his Majesty’s protection, and +that he would fight the enemy in that situation. The same evening +the Lord Fairfax, with a strong party of one thousand horse, came to +Lexden, at two small miles’ distance, expecting the rest of his +army there the same night.</p> +<p>The Lord Goring brought in prisoners the same day, Sir William Masham, +and several other gentlemen of the county, who were secured under a +strong guard; which the Parliament hearing, ordered twenty prisoners +of the royal party to be singled out, declaring, that they should be +used in the same manner as the Lord Goring used Sir William Masham, +and the gentlemen prisoners with him.</p> +<p>On the 13th, early in the morning, our spies brought intelligence +that the Lord Fairfax, all his forces being come up to him, was making +dispositions for a march, resolving to attack the Royalists in their +camp; upon which, the Lord Goring drew all his forces together, resolving +to fight. The engineers had offered the night before to entrench +his camp, and to draw a line round it in one night’s time, but +his lordship declined it, and now there was no time for it; whereupon +the general, Lord Goring, drew up his army in order of battle on both +sides the road, the horse in the open fields on the wings; the foot +were drawn up, one regiment in the road, one regiment on each side, +and two regiments for reserve in the suburb, just at the entrance of +the town, with a regiment of volunteers advanced as a forlorn hope, +and a regiment of horse at the head-gate, ready to support the reserve, +as occasion should require.</p> +<p>About nine in the morning we heard the enemy’s drums beat a +march, and in half an hour more their first troops appeared on the higher +grounds towards Lexden. Immediately the cannon from St. Mary’s +fired upon them, and put some troops of horse into confusion, doing +great execution, which, they not being able to shun it, made them quicken +their pace, fall on, when our cannon were obliged to cease firing, lest +we should hurt our own troops as well as the enemy. Soon after, +their foot appeared, and our cannon saluted them in like manner, and +killed them a great many men.</p> +<p>Their first line of foot was led up by Colonel Barkstead, and consisted +of three regiments of foot, making about 1,700 men, and these charged +our regiment in the lane, commanded by Sir George Lisle and Sir William +Campion. They fell on with great fury, and were received with +as much gallantry, and three times repulsed; nor could they break in +here, though the Lord Fairfax sent fresh men to support them, till the +Royalists’ horse, oppressed with numbers on the left, were obliged +to retire, and at last to come full gallop into the street, and so on +into the town. Nay, still the foot stood firm, and the volunteers, +being all gentlemen, kept their ground with the greatest resolution; +but the left wing being routed, as above, Sir William Campion was obliged +to make a front to the left, and lining the hedge with his musketeers, +made a stand with a body of pikes against the enemy’s horse, and +prevented them entering the lane. Here that gallant gentleman +was killed with a carabine shot; and after a very gallant resistance, +the horse on the right being also overpowered, the word was given to +retreat, which, however, was done in such good order, the regiments +of reserve standing drawn up at the end of the street, ready to receive +the enemy’s horse upon the points of their pikes, that the royal +troops came on in the openings between the regiments, and entered the +town with very little loss, and in very good order.</p> +<p>By this, however, those regiments of reserve were brought at last +to sustain the efforts of the enemy’s whole army, till being overpowered +by numbers they were put into disorder, and forced to get into the town +in the best manner they could; by which means near two hundred men were +killed or made prisoners.</p> +<p>Encouraged by this success the enemy pushed on, supposing they should +enter the town pell-mell with the rest; nor did the Royalists hinder +them, but let good part of Barkstead’s own regiment enter the +head-gate; but then sallying from St. Mary’s with a choice body +of foot on their left, and the horse rallying in the High Street, and +charging them again in the front, they were driven back quite into the +street of the suburb, and most of those that had so rashly entered were +cut in pieces.</p> +<p>Thus they were repulsed at the south entrance into the town; and +though they attempted to storm three times after that with great resolution, +yet they were as often beaten back, and that with great havoc of their +men; and the cannon from the fort all the while did execution upon those +who stood drawn up to support them; so that at last, seeing no good +to be done, they retreated, having small joy of their pretended victory.</p> +<p>They lost in this action Colonel Needham, who commanded a regiment +called the Tower Guards, and who fought very desperately; Captain Cox, +an old experienced horse officer, and several other officers of note, +with a great many private men, though, as they had the field, they concealed +their number, giving out that they lost but a hundred, when we were +assured they lost near a thousand men besides the wounded.</p> +<p>They took some of our men prisoners, occasioned by the regiment of +Colonel Farr, and two more sustaining the shock of their whole army, +to secure the retreat of the main body, as above.</p> +<p>The 14th, the Lord Fairfax finding he was not able to carry the town +by storm, without the formality of a siege, took his headquarters at +Lexden, and sent to London and to Suffolk for more forces; also he ordered +the trained bands to be raised and posted on the roads to prevent succours. +Notwithstanding which, divers gentlemen, with some assistance of men +and arms, found means to get into the town.</p> +<p>The very same night they began to break ground, and particularly +to raise a fort between Colchester and Lexden, to cover the general’s +quarter from the sallies from the town; for the Royalists having a good +body of horse, gave them no rest, but scoured the fields every day, +and falling all that were found straggling from their posts, and by +this means killed a great many.</p> +<p>The 17th, Sir Charles Lucas having been out with 1,200 horse, and +detaching parties toward the seaside, and towards Harwich, they brought +in a very great quantity of provisions, and abundance of sheep and black +cattle sufficient for the supply of the town for a considerable time; +and had not the Suffolk forces advanced over Cataway Bridge to prevent +it, a larger supply had been brought in that way; for now it appeared +plainly that the Lord Fairfax finding the garrison strong and resolute, +and that he was not in a condition to reduce them by force, at least +without the loss of much blood, had resolved to turn his siege into +a blockade, and reduce them by hunger; their troops being also wanted +to oppose several other parties, who had, in several parts of the kingdom, +taken arms for the king’s cause.</p> +<p>This same day General Fairfax sent in a trumpet to propose exchanging +prisoners, which the Lord Goring rejected, expecting a reinforcement +of troops, which were actually coming to him, and were to be at Linton +in Cambridgeshire as the next day.</p> +<p>The same day two ships brought in a quantity of corn and provisions +and fifty-six men from the shore of Kent with several gentlemen, who +all landed and came up to the town, and the greatest part of the corn +was with the utmost application unloaded the same night into some hoys, +which brought it up to the Hythe, being apprehensive of the Parliament’s +ships which lay at Harwich, who having intelligence of the said ships, +came the next day into the mouth of the river, and took the said two +ships and what corn was left in them. The besieged sent out a +party to help the ships, but having no boats they could not assist them.</p> +<p>18th. Sir Charles Lucas sent an answer about exchange of prisoners, +accepting the conditions offered, but the Parliament’s general +returned that he would not treat with Sir Charles, for that he (Sir +Charles) being his prisoner upon his parole of honour, and having appeared +in arms contrary to the rules of war, had forfeited his honour and faith, +and was not capable of command or trust in martial affairs. To +this Sir Charles sent back an answer, and his excuse for his breach +of his parole, but it was not accepted, nor would the Lord Fairfax enter +upon any treaty with him.</p> +<p>Upon this second message Sir William Masham and the Parliament Committee +and other gentlemen, who were prisoners in the town, sent a message +in writing under their hands to the Lord Fairfax, entreating him to +enter into a treaty for peace; but the Lord Fairfax returned, he could +take no notice of their request, as supposing it forced from them under +restraint; but that if the Lord Goring desired peace, he might write +to the Parliament, and he would cause his messenger to have a safe conduct +to carry his letter. There was a paper sent enclosed in this paper, +signed Capel, Norwich, Charles Lucas, but to that the general would +return no answer, because it was signed by Sir Charles for the reasons +above.</p> +<p>All this while the Lord Goring, finding the enemy strengthening themselves, +gave order for fortifying the town, and drawing lines in several places +to secure the entrance, as particularly without the east bridge, and +without the north gate and bridge, and to plant more cannon upon the +works; to which end some great guns were brought in from some ships +at Wivenhoe.</p> +<p>The same day, our men sallied out in three places, and attacked the +besiegers, first at their port, called Essex, then at their new works, +on the south of the town; a third party sallying at the east bridge, +brought in some booty from the Suffolk troops, having killed several +of their stragglers on the Harwich road. They also took a lieutenant +of horse prisoner, and brought him into the town.</p> +<p>19th. This day we had the unwelcome news that our friends at +Linton were defeated by the enemy, and Major Muschamp, a loyal gentleman, +killed.</p> +<p>The same night, our men gave the enemy alarm at their new Essex fort, +and thereby drew them out as if they would fight, till they brought +them within reach of the cannon of St. Mary’s, and then our men +retiring, the great guns let fly among them, and made them run. +Our men shouted after them. Several of them were killed on this +occasion, one shot having killed three horsemen in our fight.</p> +<p>20th. We now found the enemy, in order to a perfect blockade, +resolved to draw a line of circumvallation round the town; having received +a train of forty pieces of heavy cannon from the Tower of London.</p> +<p>This day the Parliament sent a messenger to their prisoners to know +how they fared, and how they were used; who returned word, that they +fared indifferent well, and were very civilly used, but that provisions +were scarce, and therefore dear.</p> +<p>This day a party of horse, with 300 foot, sallied out, and marched +as far as the fort on the Isle of Mersey, which they made a show of +attacking, to keep in the garrison. Meanwhile the rest took a +good number of cattle from the country, which they brought safe into +the town, with five waggons laden with corn. This was the last +they could bring in that way, the lines being soon finished on that +side.</p> +<p>This day the Lord Fairfax sent in a trumpet to the Earl of Norwich +and the Lord Goring, offering honourable conditions to them all, allowing +all the gentlemen their lives and arms, exemption from plunder, and +passes, if they desired to go beyond sea, and all the private men pardon, +and leave to go peaceably to their own dwellings. But the Lord +Goring and the rest of the gentlemen rejected it, and laughed at them, +upon which the Lord Fairfax made proclamation, that his men should give +the private soldiers in Colchester free leave to pass through their +camp, and go where they pleased without molestation, only leaving their +arms, but that the gentlemen should have no quarter. This was +a great loss to the Royalists, for now the men foreseeing the great +hardships they were like to suffer, began to slip away, and the Lord +Goring was obliged to forbid any to desert on pain of present death, +and to keep parties of horse continually patrolling to prevent them; +notwithstanding which many got away.</p> +<p>21st. The town desired the Lord Goring to give them leave to +send a message to Lord Fairfax, to desire they might have liberty to +carry on their trade and sell their bays and says, which Lord Goring +granted; but the enemy’s general returned, that they should have +considered that before they let the Royalists into the town; that to +desire a free trade from a town besieged was never heard of, or at least, +was such a motion, as was never yet granted; that, however, he would +give the bay-makers leave to bring their bays and says, and other goods, +once a week, or oftener, if they desire it, to Lexden Heath, where they +should have a free market, and might sell them or carry them back again, +if not sold, as they found occasion.</p> +<p>22nd. The besieged sallied out in the night with a strong party, +and disturbed the enemy in their works, and partly ruined one of their +forts, called Ewer’s Fort, where the besiegers were laying a bridge +over the River Colne. Also they sallied again at east bridge, +and faced the Suffolk troops, who were now declared enemies. These +brought in six-and-fifty good bullocks, and some cows, and they took +and killed several of the enemy.</p> +<p>23rd. The besiegers began to fire with their cannon from Essex +Fort, and from Barkstead’s Fort, which was built upon the Malden +road; and finding that the besieged had a party in Sir Harbottle Grimston’s +house, called, “The Fryery,” they fired at it with their +cannon, and battered it almost down, and then the soldiers set it on +fire.</p> +<p>This day upon the townsmen’s treaty for the freedom of the +bay trade, the Lord Fairfax sent a second offer of conditions to the +besieged, being the same as before, only excepting Lord Goring, Lord +Capel, Sir George Lisle, and Sir Charles Lucas.</p> +<p>This day we had news in the town that the Suffolk forces were advanced +to assist the besiegers, and that they began a fort called Fort Suffolk, +on the north side of the town, to shut up the Suffolk road towards Stratford. +This day the besieged sallied out at north bridge, attacked the out-guards +of the Suffolk men on Mile End Heath, and drove them into their fort +in the woods.</p> +<p>This day the Lord Fairfax sent a trumpet, complaining of chewed and +poisoned bullets being shot from the town, and threatening to give no +quarter if that practice was allowed; but Lord Goring returned answer, +with a protestation, that no such thing was done by his order or consent.</p> +<p>24th. They fired hard from their cannon against St. Mary’s +steeple, on which was planted a large culverin, which annoyed them even +in the general’s headquarters at Lexden. One of the best +gunners the garrison had was killed with a cannon bullet. This +night the besieged sallied towards Audly, on the Suffolk road, and brought +in some cattle.</p> +<p>25th. Lord Capel sent a trumpet to the Parliament-General, +but the rogue ran away, and came not back, nor sent any answer; whether +they received his message or not, was not known.</p> +<p>26th. This day having finished their new bridge, a party of +their troops passed that bridge, and took post on the hill over against +Mile End Church, where they built a fort, called Fothergall’s +Fort, and another on the east side of the road, called Rainsbro’s +Fort, so that the town was entirely shut in, on that side, and the Royalists +had no place free but over east bridge, which was afterwards cut off +by the enemy’s bringing their line from the Hythe within the river +to the stone causeway leading to the east bridge.</p> +<p>July 1st. From the 26th to the 1st, the besiegers continued +finishing their works, and by the 2nd the whole town was shut in; at +which the besiegers gave a general salvo from their cannon at all their +forts; but the besieged gave them a return, for they sallied out in +the night, attacked Barkstead’s fort, scarce finished, with such +fury, that they twice entered the work sword in hand, killed most part +of the defendants, and spoiled part of the forts cast up; but fresh +forces coming up, they retired with little loss, bringing eight prisoners, +and having slain, as they reported, above 100.</p> +<p>On the second, Lord Fairfax offered exchange for Sir William Masham +in particular, and afterwards for other prisoners, but the Lord Goring +refused.</p> +<p>5th. The besieged sallied with two regiments, supported by +some horse, at midnight; they were commanded by Sir George Lisle. +They fell on with such fury, that the enemy were put into confusion, +their works at east bridge ruined, and two pieces of cannon taken, Lieutenant +Colonel Sambrook, and several other officers, were killed, and our men +retired into the town, bringing the captain, two lieutenants, and about +fifty men with them prisoners into the town; but having no horse, we +could not bring off the cannon, but they spiked them, and made them +unfit for service.</p> +<p>From this time to the 11th, the besieged sallied almost every night, +being encouraged by their successes, and they constantly cut off some +of the enemy, but not without loss also on their own side.</p> +<p>About this time we received by a spy the bad news of defeating the +king’s friends almost in all parts of England, and particularly +several parties which had good wishes to our gentlemen, and intended +to relieve them.</p> +<p>Our batteries from St. Mary’s Fort and steeple, and from the +north bridge, greatly annoyed them, and killed most of their gunners +and firemen. One of the messengers who brought news to Lord Fairfax +of the defeat of one of the parties, in Kent, and the taking of Weymer +Castle, slipped into the town, and brought a letter to the Lord Goring, +and listed in the regiment of the Lord Capel’s horse.</p> +<p>14th. The besiegers attacked and took the Hythe Church, with +a small work the besieged had there, but the defenders retired in time; +some were taken prisoners in the church, but not in the fort; Sir Charles +Lucas’s horse was attacked by a great body of the besiegers; the +besieged defended themselves with good resolution for some time, but +a hand-grenade thrown in by the assailants, having fired the magazine, +the house was blown up, and most of the gallant defenders buried in +the ruins. This was a great blow to the Royalists, for it was +a very strong pass, and always well guarded.</p> +<p>15th. The Lord Fairfax sent offers of honourable conditions +to the soldiers of the garrison if they would surrender, or quit the +service; upon which the Lords Goring and Capel, and Sir Charles Lucas, +returned an answer signed by their hands, that it was not honourable +or agreeable to the usage of war to offer conditions separately to the +soldiers, exclusive of their officers, and therefore civilly desired +his lordship to send no more such messages or proposals, or if he did, +that he would not take it ill if they hanged up the messenger.</p> +<p>This evening all the gentlemen volunteers, with all the horse of +the garrison, with Sir Charles Lucas, Sir George Lisle, and Sir Bernard +Gascoigne at the head of them, resolved to break through the enemy, +and forcing a pass to advance into Suffolk by Nayland Bridge. +To this purpose they passed the river near Middle Mill; but their guides +having misled them the enemy took the alarm; upon which their guides, +and some pioneers which they had with them to open the hedges and level +the banks, for their passing to Boxted, all ran away, so the horse were +obliged to retreat, the enemy pretending to pursue, but thinking they +had retreated by the north bridge, they missed them; upon which being +enraged, they fired the suburbs without the bridge, and burned them +quite down.</p> +<p>18th. Some of the horse attempted to escape the same way, and +had the whole body been there as before, they had effected it; but there +being but two troops, they were obliged to retire. Now the town +began to be greatly distressed, provisions failing, and the townspeople, +which were numerous, being very uneasy, and no way of breaking through +being found practicable, the gentlemen would have joined in any attempt +wherein they might die gallantly with their swords in their hands, but +nothing presented; they often sallied and cut off many of the enemy, +but their numbers were continually supplied, and the besieged diminished; +their horse also sunk and became unfit for service, having very little +hay, and no corn, and at length they were forced to kill them for food; +so that they began to be in a very miserable condition, and the soldiers +deserted every day in great numbers, not being able to bear the want +of food, as being almost starved with hunger.</p> +<p>22nd. The Lord Fairfax offered again an exchange of prisoners, +but the Lord Goring rejected it, because they refused conditions to +the chief gentlemen of the garrison.</p> +<p>During this time, two troops of the Royal Horse sallied out in the +night, resolving to break out or die: the first rode up full gallop +to the enemy’s horse guards on the side of Malden road, and exchanged +their pistols with the advanced troops, and wheeling made as if they +would retire to the town; but finding they were not immediately pursued, +they wheeled about to the right, and passing another guard at a distance, +without being perfectly discovered, they went clean off, and passing +towards Tiptree Heath, and having good guides, they made their escape +towards Cambridgeshire, in which length of way they found means to disperse +without being attacked, and went every man his own way as fate directed; +nor did we hear that many of them were taken: they were led, as we are +informed, by Sir Bernard Gascoigne.</p> +<p>Upon these attempts of the horse to break out, the enemy built a +small fort in the meadow right against the ford in the river at the +Middle Mill, and once set that mill on fire, but it was extinguished +without much damage; however, the fort prevented any more attempts that +way.</p> +<p>22nd. The Parliament-General sent in a trumpet, to propose +again the exchange of prisoners, offering the Lord Capel’s son +for one, and Mr. Ashburnham for Sir William Masham; but the Lord Capel, +Lord Goring, and the rest of the loyal gentlemen rejected it; and Lord +Capel, in particular, sent the Lord Fairfax word it was inhuman to surprise +his son, who was not in arms, and offer him to insult a father’s +affection, but that he might murder his son if he pleased, he would +leave his blood to be revenged as Heaven should give opportunity; and +the Lord Goring sent word, that as they had reduced the king’s +servants to eat horseflesh, the prisoners should feed as they fed.</p> +<p>The enemy sent again to complain of the Royalists shooting poisoned +bullets, and sent two affidavits of it made by two deserters, swearing +it was done by the Lord Norwich’s direction; the generals in the +town returned under all their hands that they never gave any such command +or direction; that they disowned the practice; and that the fellows +who swore it were perjured before in running from their colours and +the service of their king, and ought not to be credited again; but they +added, that for shooting rough-cast slugs they must excuse them, as +things stood with them at that time.</p> +<p>About this time, a porter in a soldier’s habit got through +the enemy’s leaguer, and passing their out-guards in the dark, +got into the town, and brought letters from London, assuring the Royalists +that there were so many strong parties up in arms for the king, and +in so many places, that they would be very suddenly relieved. +This they caused to be read to the soldiers to encourage them; and particularly +it related to the rising of the Earl of Holland, and the Duke of Buckingham, +who with 500 horse were gotten together in arms about Kingston in Surrey; +but we had notice in a few days after that they were defeated, and the +Earl of Holland taken, who was afterwards beheaded.</p> +<p>26th. The enemy now began to batter the walls, and especially +on the west side, from St. Mary’s towards the north gate; and +we were assured they intended a storm; on which the engineers were directed +to make trenches behind the walls where the breaches should be made, +that in case of a storm they might meet with a warm reception. +Upon this, they gave over the design of storming. The Lord Goring +finding that the enemy had set the suburbs on fire right against the +Hythe, ordered the remaining houses, which were empty of inhabitants, +from whence their musketeer fired against the town, to be burned also.</p> +<p>31st. A body of foot sallied out at midnight, to discover what +the enemy were doing at a place where they thought a new fort raising; +they fell in among the workmen, and put them to flight, cut in pieces +several of the guard, and brought in the officer who commanded them +prisoner.</p> +<p>August 2nd. The town was now in a miserable condition: the +soldiers searched and rifled the houses of the inhabitants for victuals; +they had lived on horseflesh several weeks, and most of that also was +as lean as carrion, which not being well salted bred wens; and this +want of diet made the soldiers sickly, and many died of fluxes, yet +they boldly rejected all offers of surrender, unless with safety to +their offices. However, several hundreds got out, and either passed +the enemy’s guards, or surrendered to them and took passes.</p> +<p>7th. The townspeople became very uneasy to the soldiers, and +the mayor of the town, with the aldermen, waited upon the general, desiring +leave to send to the Lord Fairfax for leave to all the inhabitants to +come out of the town, that they might not perish, to which the Lord +Goring consented, but the Lord Fairfax refused them.</p> +<p>12th. The rabble got together in a vast crowd about the Lord +Goring’s quarters, clamouring for a surrender, and they did this +every evening, bringing women and children, who lay howling and crying +on the ground for bread; the soldiers beat off the men, but the women +and children would not stir, bidding the soldiers kill them, saying +they had rather be shot than be starved.</p> +<p>16th. The general, moved by the cries and distress of the poor +inhabitants, sent out a trumpet to the Parliament-General, demanding +leave to send to the Prince, who was with a fleet of nineteen men of +war in the mouth of the Thames, offering to surrender, if they were +not relieved in twenty days. The Lord Fairfax refused it, and +sent them word he would be in the town in person, and visit them in +less than twenty days, intimating that they were preparing for a storm. +Some tart messages and answers were exchanged on this occasion. +The Lord Goring sent word they were willing, in compassion to the poor +townspeople, and to save that effusion of blood, to surrender upon honourable +terms, but that as for the storming them, which was threatened, they +might come on when they thought fit, for that they (the Royalists) were +ready for them. This held to the 19th.</p> +<p>20th. The Lord Fairfax returned what he said was his last answer, +and should be the last offer of mercy. The conditions offered +were, that upon a peaceable surrender, all soldiers and officers under +the degree of a captain in commission should have their lives, be exempted +from plunder, and have passes to go to their respective dwellings. +All the captains and superior officers, with all the lords and gentlemen, +as well in commission as volunteers, to surrender prisoners at discretion, +only that they should not be plundered by the soldiers.</p> +<p>21st. The generals rejected those offers; and when the people +came about them again for bread, set open one of the gates, and bid +them go out to the enemy, which a great many did willingly; upon which +the Lord Goring ordered all the rest that came about his door to be +turned out after them. But when the people came to the Lord Fairfax’s +camp the out-guards were ordered to fire at them and drive them all +back again to the gate, which the Lord Goring seeing, he ordered them +to be received in again. And now, although the generals and soldiers +also were resolute to die with their swords in their hands rather than +yield, and had maturely resolved to abide a storm, yet the Mayor and +Aldermen having petitioned them as well as the inhabitants, being wearied +with the importunities of the distressed people, and pitying the deplorable +condition they were reduced to, they agreed to enter upon a treaty, +and accordingly sent out some officers to the Lord Fairfax, the Parliament-General, +to treat, and with them was sent two gentlemen of the prisoners upon +their parole to return.</p> +<p>Upon the return of the said messengers with the Lord Fairfax’s +terms, the Lord Goring, &c., sent out a letter declaring they would +die with their swords in their hands rather than yield without quarter +for life, and sent a paper of articles on which they were willing to +surrender. But in the very interim of this treaty news came that +the Scots army, under Duke Hamilton, which was entered into Lancashire, +and was joined by the Royalists in that country, making 21,000 men, +were entirely defeated. After this the Lord Fairfax would not +grant any abatement of articles—viz., to have all above lieutenants +surrender at mercy.</p> +<p>Upon this the Lord Goring and the General refused to submit again, +and proposed a general sally, and to break through or die, but found +upon preparing for it that the soldiers, who had their lives offered +them, declined it, fearing the gentlemen would escape, and they should +be left to the mercy of the Parliament soldiers; and that upon this +they began to mutiny and talk of surrendering the town and their officers +too. Things being brought to this pass, the Lords and General +laid aside that design, and found themselves obliged to submit; and +so the town was surrendered the 28th of August, 1648, upon conditions +as follows:-</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>The Lords and gentlemen all prisoners at mercy.</p> +<p>The common soldiers had passes to go home to their several dwellings, +but without arms, and an oath not to serve against the Parliament.</p> +<p>The town to be preserved from pillage, paying £14,000 ready +money.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>The same day a council of war being called about the prisoners of +war, it was resolved that the Lords should be left to the disposal of +the Parliament. That Sir Charles Lucas, Sir George Lisle, and +Sir Marmaduke Gascoigne should be shot to death, and the other officers +prisoners to remain in custody till further order.</p> +<p>The two first of the three gentlemen were shot to death, and the +third respited. Thus ended the siege of Colchester.</p> +<p>N.B.—Notwithstanding the number killed in the siege, and dead +of the flux, and other distempers occasioned by bad diet, which were +very many, and notwithstanding the number which deserted and escaped +in the time of their hardships, yet there remained at the time of the +surrender:</p> +<p>Earl of Norwich (Goring).<br />Lord Capell.<br />Lord Loughbro’.<br />11 +Knights.<br />9 Colonels.<br />8 Lieut.-Colonels.<br />9 Majors.<br />30 +Captains.<br />72 Lieutenants.<br />69 Ensigns.<br />183 Serjeants and +Corporals.<br />3,067 Private Soldiers.<br />65 Servants to the Lords +and General Officers and Gentlemen.<br />3,526 in all.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>The town of Colchester has been supposed to contain about 40,000 +people, including the out-villages which are within its liberty, of +which there are a great many—the liberty of the town being of +a great extent. One sad testimony of the town being so populous +is that they buried upwards of 5,259 people in the plague year, 1665. +But the town was severely visited indeed, even more in proportion than +any of its neighbours, or than the City of London.</p> +<p>The government of the town is by a mayor, high steward, a recorder +or his deputy, eleven aldermen, a chamberlain, a town clerk, assistants, +and eighteen common councilmen. Their high steward (this year, +1722) is Sir Isaac Rebow, a gentleman of a good family and known character, +who has generally for above thirty years been one of their representatives +in Parliament. He has a very good house at the entrance in at +the south, or head gate of the town, where he has had the honour several +times to lodge and entertain the late King William of glorious memory +in his returning from Holland by way of Harwich to London. Their +recorder is Earl Cowper, who has been twice Lord High Chancellor of +England. But his lordship not residing in those parts has put +in for his deputy,—Price, Esq., barrister-at-law, and who dwells +in the town. There are in Colchester eight churches besides those +which are damaged, and five meeting-houses, whereof two for Quakers, +besides a Dutch church and a French church.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>Public Edifices are -</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>1. Bay Hall, an ancient society kept up for ascertaining the +manufacture of bays, which are, or ought to be, all brought to this +hall to be viewed and sealed according to their goodness by the masters; +and to this practice has been owing the great reputation of the Colchester +bays in foreign markets, where to open the side of a bale and show the +seal has been enough to give the buyer a character of the value of the +goods without any further search; and so far as they abate the integrity +and exactness of their method, which I am told of late is much omitted; +I say, so far, that reputation will certainly abate in the markets they +go to, which are principally in Portugal and Italy. This corporation +is governed by a particular set of men who are called governors of the +Dutch Bay Hall. And in the same building is the Dutch church.</p> +<p>2. The guildhall of the town, called by them the moot hall, +to which is annexed the town gaol.</p> +<p>3. The workhouse, being lately enlarged, and to which belongs +a corporation or a body of the inhabitants, consisting of sixty persons +incorporated by Act of Parliament Anno 1698 for taking care of the poor. +They are incorporated by the name and title of the governor, deputy +governor, assistants, and guardians of the poor of the town of Colchester. +They are in number eight-and-forty, to whom are added the mayor and +aldermen for the time being, who are always guardians by the same charter. +These make the number of sixty, as above. There is also a grammar +free-school, with a good allowance to the master, who is chosen by the +town.</p> +<p>4. The castle of Colchester is now become only a monument showing +the antiquity of the place, it being built as the walls of the town +also are, with Roman bricks, and the Roman coins dug up here, and ploughed +up in the fields adjoining, confirm it. The inhabitants boast +much that Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, first Christian +Emperor of the Romans, was born there, and it may be so for aught we +know. I only observe what Mr. Camden says of the Castle of Colchester, +viz.: In the middle of this city stands a castle ready to fall with +age.</p> +<p>Though this castle has stood one hundred and twenty years from the +time Mr. Camden wrote that account, and it is not fallen yet, nor will +another hundred and twenty years, I believe, make it look one jot the +older. And it was observable that in the late siege of this town, +a common shot, which the besiegers made at this old castle, were so +far from making it fall, that they made little or no impression upon +it; for which reason, it seems, and because the garrison made no great +use of it against the besiegers, they fired no more at it.</p> +<p>There are two charity schools set up here, and carried on by a generous +subscription, with very good success.</p> +<p>The title of Colchester is in the family of Earl Rivers, and the +eldest son of that family is called Lord Colchester, though as I understand, +the title is not settled by the creation to the eldest son till he enjoys +the title of earl with it, but that the other is by the courtesy of +England; however, this I take <i>ad referendum</i>.</p> +<p>From Colchester I took another step down to the coast; the land running +out a great way into the sea, south and south-east makes that promontory +of land called the Naze, and well known to seamen using the northern +trade. Here one sees a sea open as an ocean without any opposite +shore, though it be no more than the mouth of the Thames. This +point called the Naze, and the north-east point of Kent, near Margate, +called the North Foreland, making what they call the mouth of the river +and the port of London, though it be here above sixty miles over.</p> +<p>At Walton-under-the-Naze they find on the shore copperas-stone in +great quantities; and there are several large works called copperas +houses, where they make it with great expense.</p> +<p>On this promontory is a new mark erected by the Trinity House men, +and at the public expense, being a round brick tower, near eighty feet +high. The sea gains so much upon the land here by the continual +winds at south-west, that within the memory of some of the inhabitants +there they have lost above thirty acres of land in one place.</p> +<p>From hence we go back into the county about four miles, because of +the creeks which lie between; and then turning east again come to Harwich, +on the utmost eastern point of this large country.</p> +<p>Harwich is a town so well known and so perfectly described by many +writers, I need say little of it. It is strong by situation, and +may be made more so by art. But it is many years since the Government +of England have had any occasion to fortify towns to the landward; it +is enough that the harbour or road, which is one of the best and securest +in England, is covered at the entrance by a strong fort and a battery +of guns to the seaward, just as at Tilbury, and which sufficiently defend +the mouth of the river. And there is a particular felicity in +this fortification, viz., that though the entrance or opening of the +river into the sea is very wide, especially at high-water, at least +two miles, if not three over; yet the Channel, which is deep, and in +which the ships must keep and come to the harbour, is narrow, and lies +only on the side of the fort, so that all the ships which come in or +go out must come close under the guns of the fort—that is to say, +under the command of their shot.</p> +<p>The fort is on the Suffolk side of the bay or entrance, but stands +so far into the sea upon the point of a sand or shoal, which runs out +toward the Essex side, as it were, laps over the mouth of that haven +like a blind to it; and our surveyors of the country affirm it to be +in the county of Essex. The making this place, which was formerly +no other than a sand in the sea, solid enough for the foundation of +so good a fortification, has not been done but by many years’ +labour, often repairs, and an infinite expense of money, but it is now +so firm that nothing of storms and high tides, or such things as make +the sea dangerous to these kind of works, can affect it.</p> +<p>The harbour is of a vast extent; for, as two rivers empty themselves +here, viz., Stour from Manningtree and the Orwell from Ipswich, the +channels of both are large and deep; and safe for all weathers; so where +they join they make a large bay or road able to receive the biggest +ships, and the greatest number that ever the world saw together; I mean +ships of war. In the old Dutch war great use has been made of +this harbour; and I have known that there has been one hundred sail +of men-of-war and their attendants and between three and four hundred +sail of collier ships all in this harbour at a time, and yet none of +them crowding or riding in danger of one another.</p> +<p>Harwich is known for being the port where the packet boats, between +England and Holland, go out and come in. The inhabitants are far +from being famed for good usage to strangers, but, on the contrary, +are blamed for being extravagant in their reckonings in the public-houses, +which has not a little encouraged the setting up of sloops, which they +now call passage boats, to Holland, to go directly from the River Thames; +this, though it may be something the longer passage, yet as they are +said to be more obliging to passengers and more reasonable in the expense, +and, as some say, also, the vessels are better sea boats, has been the +reason why so many passengers do not go or come by the way of Harwich +as formerly were wont to do; insomuch that the stage coaches between +this place and London, which ordinarily went twice or three times a +week, are now entirely laid down, and the passengers are left to hire +coaches on purpose, take post-horses, or hire horses to Colchester, +as they find most convenient.</p> +<p>The account of a petrifying quality in the earth here, though some +will have it to be in the water of a spring hard by, is very strange. +They boast that their town is walled and their streets paved with clay, +and yet that one is as strong and the other as clean as those that are +built or paved with stone. The fact is indeed true, for there +is a sort of clay in the cliff, between the town and the Beacon Hill +adjoining, which, when it falls down into the sea, where it is beaten +with the waves and the weather, turns gradually into stone. But +the chief reason assigned is from the water of a certain spring or well, +which, rising in the said cliff, runs down into the sea among those +pieces of clay, and petrifies them as it runs; and the force of the +sea often stirring, and perhaps turning, the lumps of clay, when storms +of wind may give force enough to the water, causes them to harden everywhere +alike; otherwise those which were not quite sunk in the water of the +spring would be petrified but in part. These stones are gathered +up to pave the streets and build the houses, and are indeed very hard. +It is also remarkable that some of them taken up before they are thoroughly +petrified will, upon breaking them, appear to be hard as a stone without +and soft as clay in the middle; whereas others that have lain a due +time shall be thorough stone to the centre, and as exceeding hard within +as without. The same spring is said to turn wood into iron. +But this I take to be no more or less than the quality, which, as I +mentioned of the shore at the Naze, is found to be in much of the stone +all along this shore, viz., of the copperas kind; and it is certain +that the copperas stone (so called) is found in all that cliff, and +even where the water of this spring has run; and I presume that those +who call the hardened pieces of wood, which they take out of this well +by the name of iron, never tried the quality of it with the fire or +hammer; if they had, perhaps they would have given some other account +of it.</p> +<p>On the promontory of land which they call Beacon Hill and which lies +beyond or behind the town towards the sea, there is a lighthouse to +give the ships directions in their sailing by as well as their coming +into the harbour in the night. I shall take notice of these again +all together when I come to speak of the Society of Trinity House, as +they are called, by whom they are all directed upon this coast.</p> +<p>This town was erected into a marquisate in honour of the truly glorious +family of Schomberg, the eldest son of Duke Schomberg, who landed with +King William, being styled Marquis of Harwich; but that family (in England, +at least) being extinct the title dies also.</p> +<p>Harwich is a town of hurry and business, not much of gaiety and pleasure; +yet the inhabitants seem warm in their nests, and some of them are very +wealthy. There are not many (if any) gentlemen or families of +note either in the town or very near it. They send two members +to Parliament; the present are Sir Peter Parker and Humphrey Parsons, +Esq.</p> +<p>And now being at the extremity of the county of Essex, of which I +have given you some view as to that side next the sea only, I shall +break off this part of my letter by telling you that I will take the +towns which lie more towards the centre of the county, in my return +by the north and west part only, that I may give you a few hints of +some towns which were near me in my route this way, and of which being +so well known there is but little to say.</p> +<p>On the road from London to Colchester, before I came into it at Witham, +lie four good market towns at equal distance from one another, namely, +Romford, noted for two markets, viz., one for calves and hogs, the other +for corn and other provisions, most, if not all, bought up for London +market. At the farther end of the town, in the middle of a stately +park, stood Guldy Hall, vulgarly Giddy Hall, an ancient seat of one +Coke, sometime Lord Mayor of London, but forfeited on some occasion +to the Crown. It is since pulled down to the ground, and there +now stands a noble stately fabric or mansion house, built upon the spot +by Sir John Eyles, a wealthy merchant of London, and chosen Sub-Governor +of the South Sea Company immediately after the ruin of the former Sub-Governor +and Directors, whose overthrow makes the history of these times famous.</p> +<p>Brentwood and Ingatestone, and even Chelmsford itself, have very +little to be said of them, but that they are large thoroughfare towns, +full of good inns, and chiefly maintained by the excessive multitude +of carriers and passengers which are constantly passing this way to +London with droves of cattle, provisions, and manufactures for London.</p> +<p>The last of these towns is indeed the county town, where the county +gaol is kept, and where the assizes are very often held; it stands on +the conflux of two rivers—the Chelmer, whence the town is called, +and the Cann.</p> +<p>At Lees, or Lee’s Priory, as some call it, is to be seen an +ancient house in the middle of a beautiful park, formerly the seat of +the late Duke of Manchester, but since the death of the duke it is sold +to the Duchess Dowager of Buckinghamshire, the present Duke of Manchester +retiring to his ancient family seat at Kimbolton in Huntingdonshire, +it being a much finer residence. His grace is lately married to +a daughter of the Duke of Montagu by a branch of the house of Marlborough.</p> +<p>Four market towns fill up the rest of this part of the country—Dunmow, +Braintree, Thaxted, and Coggeshall—all noted for the manufacture +of bays, as above, and for very little else, except I shall make the +ladies laugh at the famous old story of the Flitch of Bacon at Dunmow, +which is this:</p> +<p>One Robert Fitzwalter, a powerful baron in this county in the time +of Henry III., on some merry occasion, which is not preserved in the +rest of the story, instituted a custom in the priory here: That whatever +married man did not repent of his being married, or quarrel or differ +and dispute with his wife within a year and a day after his marriage, +and would swear to the truth of it, kneeling upon two hard pointed stones +in the churchyard, which stones he caused to be set up in the Priory +churchyard for that purpose, the prior and convent, and as many of the +town as would, to be present, such person should have a flitch of bacon.</p> +<p>I do not remember to have read that any one ever came to demand it; +nor do the people of the place pretend to say, of their own knowledge, +that they remember any that did so. A long time ago several did +demand it, as they say, but they know not who; neither is there any +record of it, nor do they tell us, if it were now to be demanded, who +is obliged to deliver the flitch of bacon, the priory being dissolved +and gone.</p> +<p>The forest of Epping and Hainault spreads a great part of this country +still. I shall speak again of the former in my return from this +circuit. Formerly, it is thought, these two forests took up all +the west and south part of the county; but particularly we are assured, +that it reached to the River Chelmer, and into Dengy Hundred, and from +thence again west to Epping and Waltham, where it continues to be a +forest still.</p> +<p>Probably this forest of Epping has been a wild or forest ever since +this island was inhabited, and may show us, in some parts of it, where +enclosures and tillage has not broken in upon it, what the face of this +island was before the Romans’ time; that is to say, before their +landing in Britain.</p> +<p>The constitution of this forest is best seen, I mean as to the antiquity +of it, by the merry grant of it from Edward the Confessor before the +Norman Conquest to Randolph Peperking, one of his favourites, who was +after called Peverell, and whose name remains still in several villages +in this county; as particularly that of Hatfield Peverell, in the road +from Chelmsford to Witham, which is supposed to be originally a park, +which they called a field in those days; and Hartfield may be as much +as to say a park for doer; for the stags were in those days called harts, +so that this was neither more nor less than Randolph Peperking’s +Hartfield—that is to say, Ralph Peverell’s deer-park.</p> +<p>N.B.—This Ralph Randolph, or Ralph Peverell (call him as you +please), had, it seems, a most beautiful lady to his wife, who was daughter +of Ingelrick, one of Edward the Confessor’s noblemen. He +had two sons by her—William Peverell, a famed soldier, and lord +or governor of Dover Castle, which he surrendered to William the Conqueror, +after the battle in Sussex, and Pain Peverell, his youngest, who was +lord of Cambridge. When the eldest son delivered up the castle, +the lady, his mother, above named, who was the celebrated beauty of +the age, was it seems there, and the Conqueror fell in love with her, +and whether by force or by consent, took her away, and she became his +mistress, or what else you please to call it. By her he had a +son, who was called William, after the Conqueror’s Christian name, +but retained the name of Peverell, and was afterwards created by the +Conqueror lord of Nottingham.</p> +<p>This lady afterwards, as is supposed, by way of penance for her yielding +to the Conqueror, founded a nunnery at the village of Hatfield Peverell, +mentioned above, and there she lies buried in the chapel of it, which +is now the parish church, where her memory is preserved by a tombstone +under one of the windows.</p> +<p>Thus we have several towns, where any ancient parks have been placed, +called by the name of Hatfield on that very account. As Hatfield +Broad Oak in this county, Bishop’s Hatfield in Hertfordshire, +and several others.</p> +<p>But I return to King Edward’s merry way, as I call it, of granting +this forest to this Ralph Peperking, which I find in the ancient records, +in the very words it was passed in, as follows. Take my explanations +with it for the sake of those that are not used to the ancient English:</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>The Grant in Old English.</p> +<p>IChe EDWARD Koning,<br />Have given of my Forrest the kepen of the +Hundred of <i>Chelmer</i> and <i>Dancing</i>.<br />To RANDOLPH PEPERKING,<br />And +to his kindling.<br />With Heorte and Hind, Doe and Bocke,<br />Hare +and Fox, Cat and Brock,<br />Wild Fowle with his Flock;<br />Patrich, +Pheasant Hen, and Pheasant Cock,<br />With green and wild Stub and Stock,<br />To +kepen and to yemen with all her might.<br />Both by Day, and eke by +Night;<br />And Hounds for to hold,<br />Good and Swift and Bold:<br />Four +Greyhound and six Raches,<br />For Hare and Fox, and Wild Cattes,<br />And +therefore Iche made him my Book.<br />Witness the Bishop of <i>Wolston</i>.<br />And +Booke ylrede many on,<br />And <i>Sweyne</i> of <i>Essex</i>, our Brother,<br />And +taken him many other<br />And our steward <i>Howlein</i>,<br />That +<i>By sought</i> me for him.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>The Explanation in Modern English</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>I Edward the king,<br />Have made ranger of my forest of Chelmsford +hundred and Deering hundred,<br />Ralph Peverell, for him and his heirs +for ever;<br />With both the red and fallow deer.<br />Hare and fox, +otter and badger;<br />Wild fowl of all sorts,<br />Partridges and pheasants,<br />Timber +and underwood roots and tops;<br />With power to preserve the forest,<br />And +watch it against deer-stealers and others:<br />With a right to keep +hounds of all sorts,<br />Four greyhounds and six terriers,<br />Harriers +and foxhounds, and other hounds.<br />And to this end I have registered +this my grant in the crown rolls or books;<br />To which the bishop +has set his hand as a witness for any one to read.<br />Also signed +by the king’s brother (or, as some think, the Chancellor Sweyn, +then Earl or Count of Essex).<br />He might call such other witnesses +to sign as he thought fit.<br />Also the king’s high steward was +a witness, at whose request this grant was obtained of the king.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>There are many gentlemen’s seats on this side the country, +and a great assembly set up at New Hall, near this town, much resorted +to by the neighbouring gentry. I shall next proceed to the county +of Suffolk, as my first design directed me to do.</p> +<p>From Harwich, therefore, having a mind to view the harbour, I sent +my horses round by Manningtree, where there is a timber bridge over +the Stour, called Cataway Bridge, and took a boat up the River Orwell +for Ipswich. A traveller will hardly understand me, especially +a seaman, when I speak of the River Stour and the River Orwell at Harwich, +for they know them by no other names than those of Manningtree water +and Ipswich water; so while I am on salt water, I must speak as those +who use the sea may understand me, and when I am up in the country among +the inland towns again, I shall call them out of their names no more.</p> +<p>It is twelve miles from Harwich up the water to Ipswich. Before +I come to the town, I must say something of it, because speaking of +the river requires it. In former times, that is to say, since +the writer of this remembers the place very well, and particularly just +before the late Dutch wars, Ipswich was a town of very good business; +particularly it was the greatest town in England for large colliers +or coal-ships employed between Newcastle and London. Also they +built the biggest ships and the best, for the said fetching of coals +of any that were employed in that trade. They built, also, there +so prodigious strong, that it was an ordinary thing for an Ipswich collier, +if no disaster happened to him, to reign (as seamen call it) forty or +fifty years, and more.</p> +<p>In the town of Ipswich the masters of these ships generally dwelt, +and there were, as they then told me, above a hundred sail of them, +belonging to the town at one time, the least of which carried fifteen +score, as they compute it, that is, 300 chaldron of coals; this was +about the year 1668 (when I first knew the place). This made the +town be at that time so populous, for those masters, as they had good +ships at sea, so they had large families who lived plentifully, and +in very good houses in the town, and several streets were chiefly inhabited +by such.</p> +<p>The loss or decay of this trade accounts for the present pretended +decay of the town of Ipswich, of which I shall speak more presently. +The ships wore out, the masters died off, the trade took a new turn; +Dutch flyboats taken in the war, and made free ships by Act of Parliament, +thrust themselves into the coal-trade for the interest of the captors, +such as the Yarmouth and London merchants, and others; and the Ipswich +men dropped gradually out of it, being discouraged by those Dutch flyboats. +These Dutch vessels, which cost nothing but the caption, were bought +cheap, carried great burthens, and the Ipswich building fell off for +want of price, and so the trade decayed, and the town with it. +I believe this will be owned for the true beginning of their decay, +if I must allow it to be called a decay.</p> +<p>But to return to my passage up the river. In the winter-time +those great collier ships, above-mentioned, are always laid up, as they +call it; that is to say, the coal trade abates at London, the citizens +are generally furnished, their stores taken in, and the demand is over; +so that the great ships, the northern seas and coast being also dangerous, +the nights long, and the voyage hazardous, go to sea no more, but lie +by, the ships are unrigged, the sails, etc., carried ashore, the top-masts +struck, and they ride moored in the river, under the advantages and +security of sound ground, and a high woody shore, where they lie as +safe as in a wet dock; and it was a very agreeable sight to see, perhaps +two hundred sail of ships, of all sizes, lie in that posture every winter. +All this while, which was usually from Michaelmas to Lady Day, the masters +lived calm and secure with their families in Ipswich; and enjoying plentifully, +what in the summer they got laboriously at sea, and this made the town +of Ipswich very populous in the winter; for as the masters, so most +of the men, especially their mates, boatswains, carpenters, etc., were +of the same place, and lived in their proportions, just as the masters +did; so that in the winter there might be perhaps a thousand men in +the town more than in the summer, and perhaps a greater number.</p> +<p>To justify what I advance here, that this town was formerly very +full of people, I ask leave to refer to the account of Mr. Camden, and +what it was in his time. His words are these:- “Ipswich +has a commodious harbour, has been fortified with a ditch and rampart, +has a great trade, and is very populous, being adorned with fourteen +churches, and large private buildings.” This confirms what +I have mentioned of the former state of this town; but the present state +is my proper work; I therefore return to my voyage up the river.</p> +<p>The sight of these ships thus laid up in the river, as I have said, +was very agreeable to me in my passage from Harwich, about five and +thirty years before the present journey; and it was in its proportion +equally melancholy to hear that there were now scarce forty sail of +good colliers that belonged to the whole town.</p> +<p>In a creek in this river, called Lavington Creek, we saw at low water +such shoals, or hills rather, of mussels, that great boats might have +loaded with them, and no miss have been made of them. Near this +creek, Sir Samuel Barnadiston had a very fine seat, as, also, a decoy +for wild ducks, and a very noble estate; but it is divided into many +branches since the death of the ancient possessor. But I proceed +to the town, which is the first in the county of Suffolk of any note +this way.</p> +<p>Ipswich is seated, at the distance of twelve miles from Harwich, +upon the edge of the river, which, taking a short turn to the west, +the town forms, there, a kind of semicircle, or half moon, upon the +bank of the river. It is very remarkable, that though ships of +500 ton may, upon a spring tide, come up very near this town, and many +ships of that burthen have been built there, yet the river is not navigable +any farther than the town itself, or but very little; no, not for the +smallest beats; nor does the tide, which rises sometimes thirteen or +fourteen feet, and gives them twenty-four feet water very near the town, +flow much farther up the river than the town, or not so much as to make +it worth speaking of.</p> +<p>He took little notice of the town, or at least of that part of Ipswich, +who published in his wild observations on it that ships of 200 ton are +built there. I affirm, that I have seen a ship of 400 ton launched +at the building-yard, close to the town; and I appeal to the Ipswich +colliers (those few that remain) belonging to this town, if several +of them carrying seventeen score of coals, which must be upward of 400 +ton, have not formerly been built here; but superficial observers must +be superficial writers, if they write at all; and to this day, at John’s +Ness, within a mile and a half of the town itself, ships of any burthen +may be built and launched even at neap tides.</p> +<p>I am much mistaken, too, if since the Revolution some very good ships +have not been built at this town, and particularly the <i>Melford</i> +or <i>Milford</i> galley, a ship of forty guns; as the <i>Greyhound</i> +frigate, a man-of-war of thirty-six to forty guns, was at John’s +Ness. But what is this towards lessening the town of Ipswich, +any more than it would be to say, they do not build men-of-war, or East +India ships, or ships of five hundred ton burden at St. Catherines, +or at Battle Bridge in the Thames? when we know that a mile or two lower, +viz., at Radcliffe, Limehouse, or Deptford, they build ships of a thousand +ton, and might build first-rate men-of-war too, if there was occasion; +and the like might be done in this river of Ipswich, within about two +or three miles of the town; so that it would not be at all an out-of-the-way +speaking to say, such a ship was built at Ipswich, any more than it +is to say, as they do, that the <i>Royal</i> <i>Prince</i>, the great +ship lately built for the South Sea Company, was London built, because +she was built at Limehouse.</p> +<p>And why then is not Ipswich capable of building and receiving the +greatest ships in the navy, seeing they may be built and brought up +again laden, within a mile and half of the town?</p> +<p>But the neighbourhood of London, which sucks the vitals of trade +in this island to itself, is the chief reason of any decay of business +in this place; and I shall, in the course of these observations, hint +at it, where many good seaports and large towns, though farther off +than Ipswich, and as well fitted for commerce, are yet swallowed up +by the immense indraft of trade to the City of London; and more decayed +beyond all comparison than Ipswich is supposed to be: as Southampton, +Weymouth, Dartmouth, and several others which I shall speak to in their +order; and if it be otherwise at this time, with some other towns, which +are lately increased in trade and navigation, wealth, and people, while +their neighbours decay, it is because they have some particular trade, +or accident to trade, which is a kind of nostrum to them, inseparable +to the place, and which fixes there by the nature of the thing; as the +herring-fishery to Yarmouth; the coal trade to Newcastle; the Leeds +clothing trade; the export of butter and lead, and the great corn trade +for Holland, is to Hull; the Virginia and West India trade at Liverpool; +the Irish trade at Bristol, and the like. Thus the war has brought +a flux of business and people, and consequently of wealth, to several +places, as well as to Portsmouth, Chatham, Plymouth, Falmouth, and others; +and were any wars like those, to continue twenty years with the Dutch, +or any nation whose fleets lay that way, as the Dutch do, it would be +the like perhaps at Ipswich in a few years, and at other places on the +same coast.</p> +<p>But at this present time an occasion offers to speak in favour of +this port; namely, the Greenland fishery, lately proposed to be carried +on by the South Sea Company. On which account I may freely advance +this, without any compliment to the town of Ipswich, no place in Britain +is equally qualified like Ipswich; whether we respect the cheapness +of building and fitting out their ships and shallops; also furnishing, +victualling, and providing them with all kinds of stores; convenience +for laying up the ships after the voyage, room for erecting their magazines, +warehouses, rope walks, cooperages, etc., on the easiest terms; and +especially for the noisome cookery, which attends the boiling their +blubber, which may be on this river (as it ought to be) remote from +any places of resort. Then their nearness to the market for the +oil when it is made, and which, above all, ought to be the chief thing +considered in that trade, the easiness of their putting out to sea when +they begin their voyage, in which the same wind that carries them from +the mouth of the haven, is fair to the very seas of Greenland.</p> +<p>I could say much more to this point if it were needful, and in few +words could easily prove, that Ipswich must have the preference of all +the port towns of Britain, for being the best centre of the Greenland +trade, if ever that trade fall into the management of such a people +as perfectly understand, and have a due honest regard to its being managed +with the best husbandry, and to the prosperity of the undertaking in +general. But whether we shall ever arrive at so happy a time as +to recover so useful a trade to our country, which our ancestors had +the honour to be the first undertakers of, and which has been lost only +through the indolence of others, and the increasing vigilance of our +neighbours, that is not my business here to dispute.</p> +<p>What I have said is only to let the world see what improvement this +town and port is capable of; I cannot think but that Providence, which +made nothing in vain, cannot have reserved so useful, so convenient +a port to lie vacant in the world, but that the time will some time +or other come (especially considering the improving temper of the present +age) when some peculiar beneficial business may be found out, to make +the port of Ipswich as useful to the world, and the town as flourishing, +as Nature has made it proper and capable to be.</p> +<p>As for the town, it is true, it is but thinly inhabited, in comparison +of the extent of it; but to say there are hardly any people to be seen +there, is far from being true in fact; and whoever thinks fit to look +into the churches and meeting-houses on a Sunday, or other public days, +will find there are very great numbers of people there. Or if +he thinks fit to view the market, and see how the large shambles, called +Cardinal Wolsey’s Butchery, are furnished with meat, and the rest +of the market stocked with other provisions, must acknowledge that it +is not for a few people that all those things are provided. A +person very curious, and on whose veracity I think I may depend, going +through the market in this town, told me, that he reckoned upwards of +six hundred country people on horseback and on foot, with baskets and +other carriage, who had all of them brought something or other to town +to sell, besides the butchers, and what came in carts and waggons.</p> +<p>It happened to be my lot to be once at this town at the time when +a very fine new ship, which was built there for some merchants of London, +was to be launched; and if I may give my guess at the numbers of people +which appeared on the shore, in the houses, and on the river, I believe +I am much within compass if I say there were 20,000 people to see it; +but this is only a guess, or they might come a great way to see the +sight, or the town may be declined farther since that. But a view +of the town is one of the surest rules for a gross estimate.</p> +<p>It is true here is no settled manufacture. The French refugees +when they first came over to England began a little to take to this +place, and some merchants attempted to set up a linen manufacture in +their favour; but it has not met with so much success as was expected, +and at present I find very little of it. The poor people are, +however, employed, as they are all over these counties, in spinning +wool for other towns where manufactures are settled.</p> +<p>The country round Ipswich, as are all the counties so near the coast, +is applied chiefly to corn, of which a very great quantity is continually +shipped off for London; and sometimes they load corn here for Holland, +especially if the market abroad is encouraging. They have twelve +parish churches in this town, with three or four meetings; but there +are not so many Quakers here as at Colchester, and no Anabaptists or +Antipoedo Baptists, that I could hear of—at least, there is no +meeting-house of that denomination. There is one meeting-house +for the Presbyterians, one for the Independents and one for the Quakers; +the first is as large and as fine a building of that kind as most on +this side of England, and the inside the best finished of any I have +seen, London not excepted; that for the Independents is a handsome new-built +building, but not so gay or so large as the other.</p> +<p>There is a great deal of very good company in this town, and though +there are not so many of the gentry here as at Bury, yet there are more +here than in any other town in the county; and I observed particularly +that the company you meet with here are generally persons well informed +of the world, and who have something very solid and entertaining in +their society. This may happen, perhaps, by their frequent conversing +with those who have been abroad, and by their having a remnant of gentlemen +and masters of ships among them who have seen more of the world than +the people of an inland town are likely to have seen. I take this +town to be one of the most agreeable places in England for families +who have lived well, but may have suffered in our late calamities of +stocks and bubbles, to retreat to, where they may live within their +own compass; and several things indeed recommend it to such:-</p> +<p>1. Good houses at very easy rents.</p> +<p>2. An airy, clean, and well-governed town.</p> +<p>3. Very agreeable and improving company almost of every kind.</p> +<p>4. A wonderful plenty of all manner of provisions, whether +flesh or fish, and very good of the kind.</p> +<p>5. Those provisions very cheap, so that a family may live cheaper +here than in any town in England of its bigness within such a small +distance from London.</p> +<p>6. Easy passage to London, either by land or water, the coach +going through to London in a day.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>The Lord Viscount Hereford has a very fine seat and park in this +town; the house indeed is old built, but very commodious; it is called +Christ Church, having been, as it is said, a priory or religious house +in former times. The green and park is a great addition to the +pleasantness of this town, the inhabitants being allowed to divert themselves +there with walking, bowling, etc.</p> +<p>The large spire steeple, which formerly stood upon that they call +the tower church, was blown down by a great storm of wind many years +ago, and in its a fall did much damage to the church.</p> +<p>The government of this town is by two bailiffs, as at Yarmouth. +Mr. Camden says they are chosen out of twelve burgesses called portmen, +and two justices out of twenty-four more. There has been lately +a very great struggle between the two parties for the choice of these +two magistrates, which had this amicable conclusion—namely, that +they chose one of either side; so that neither party having the victory, +it is to be hoped it may be a means to allay the heats and unneighbourly +feuds which such things breed in towns so large as this is. They +send two members to Parliament, whereof those at this time are Sir William +Thompson, Recorder of London, and Colonel Negus, Deputy Master of the +Horse to the king.</p> +<p>There are some things very curious to be seen here, however some +superficial writers have been ignorant of them. Dr. Beeston, an +eminent physician, began a few years ago a physic garden adjoining to +his house in this town; and as he is particularly curious, and, as I +was told, exquisitely skilled in botanic knowledge, so he has been not +only very diligent, but successful too, in making a collection of rare +and exotic plants, such as are scarce to be equalled in England.</p> +<p>One Mr. White, a surgeon, resides also in this town. But before +I speak of this gentleman, I must observe that I say nothing from personal +knowledge; though if I did, I have too good an opinion of his sense +to believe he would be pleased with being flattered or complimented +in print. But I must be true to matter of fact. This gentleman +has begun a collection or chamber of rarities, and with good success +too. I acknowledge I had not the opportunity of seeing them; but +I was told there are some things very curious in it, as particularly +a sea-horse carefully preserved, and perfect in all its parts; two Roman +urns full of ashes of human bodies, and supposed to be above 1,700 years +old; besides a great many valuable medals and ancient coins. My +friend who gave me this account, and of whom I think I may say he speaks +without bias, mentions this gentleman, Mr. White, with some warmth as +a very valuable person in his particular employ of a surgeon. +I only repeat his words. “Mr. White,” says he, “to +whom the whole town and country are greatly indebted and obliged to +pray for his life, is our most skilful surgeon.” These, +I say, are his own words, and I add nothing to them but this, that it +is happy for a town to have such a surgeon, as it is for a surgeon to +have such a character.</p> +<p>The country round Ipswich, as if qualified on purpose to accommodate +the town for building of ships, is an inexhaustible store-house of timber, +of which, now their trade of building ships is abated, they send very +great quantities to the king’s building-yards at Chatham, which +by water is so little a way that they often run to it from the mouth +of the river at Harwich in one tide.</p> +<p>From Ipswich I took a turn into the country to Hadleigh, principally +to satisfy my curiosity and see the place where that famous martyr and +pattern of charity and religious zeal in Queen Mary’s time, Dr. +Rowland Taylor, was put to death. The inhabitants, who have a +wonderful veneration for his memory, show the very place where the stake +which he was bound to was set up, and they have put a stone upon it +which nobody will remove; but it is a more lasting monument to him that +he lives in the hearts of the people—I say more lasting than a +tomb of marble would be, for the memory of that good man will certainly +never be out of the poor people’s minds as long as this island +shall retain the Protestant religion among them. How long that +may be, as things are going, and if the detestable conspiracy of the +Papists now on foot should succeed, I will not pretend to say.</p> +<p>A little to the left is Sudbury, which stands upon the River Stour, +mentioned above—a river which parts the counties of Suffolk and +Essex, and which is within these few years made navigable to this town, +though the navigation does not, it seems, answer the charge, at least +not to advantage.</p> +<p>I know nothing for which this town is remarkable, except for being +very populous and very poor. They have a great manufacture of +says and perpetuanas, and multitudes of poor people are employed in +working them; but the number of the poor is almost ready to eat up the +rich. However, this town sends two members to Parliament, though +it is under no form of government particularly to itself other than +as a village, the head magistrate whereof is a constable.</p> +<p>Near adjoining to it is a village called Long Melfort, and a very +long one it is, from which I suppose it had that addition to its name; +it is full of very good houses, and, as they told me, is richer, and +has more wealthy masters of the manufacture in it, than in Sudbury itself.</p> +<p>Here and in the neighbourhood are some ancient families of good note; +particularly here is a fine dwelling, the ancient seat of the Cordells, +whereof Sir William Cordell was Master of the Rolls in the time of Queen +Elizabeth; but the family is now extinct, the last heir, Sir John Cordell, +being killed by a fall from his horse, died unmarried, leaving three +sisters co-heiresses to a very noble estate, most of which, if not all, +is now centred on the only surviving sister, and with her in marriage +is given to Mr. Firebrass, eldest son of Sir Basil Firebrass, formerly +a flourishing merchant in London, but reduced by many disasters. +His family now rises by the good fortune of his son, who proves to be +a gentleman of very agreeable parts, and well esteemed in the country.</p> +<p>From this part of the country, I returned north-west by Lenham, to +visit St. Edmund’s Bury, a town of which other writers have talked +very largely, and perhaps a little too much. It is a town famed +for its pleasant situation and wholesome air, the Montpelier of Suffolk, +and perhaps of England. This must be attributed to the skill of +the monks of those times, who chose so beautiful a situation for the +seat of their retirement; and who built here the greatest and, in its +time, the most flourishing monastery in all these parts of England, +I mean the monastery of St. Edmund the Martyr. It was, if we believe +antiquity, a house of pleasure in more ancient times, or to speak more +properly, a court of some of the Saxon or East Angle kings; and, as +Mr. Camden says, was even then called a royal village, though it much +better merits that name now; it being the town of all this part of England, +in proportion to its bigness, most thronged with gentry, people of the +best fashion, and the most polite conversation. This beauty and +healthiness of its situation was no doubt the occasion which drew the +clergy to settle here, for they always chose the best places in the +country to build in, either for richness of soil, or for health and +pleasure in the situation of their religious houses.</p> +<p>For the like reason, I doubt not, they translated the bones of the +martyred king St. Edmund to this place; for it is a vulgar error to +say he was murdered here. His martyrdom, it is plain, was at Hoxon +or Henilsdon, near Harlston, on the Waveney, in the farthest northern +verge of the county; but Segebert, king of the East Angles, had built +a religions house in this pleasant rich part of the county; and as the +monks began to taste the pleasure of the place, they procured the body +of this saint to be removed hither, which soon increased the wealth +and revenues of their house, by the zeal of that day, in going on pilgrimage +to the shrine of the blessed St. Edmund.</p> +<p>We read, however, that after this the Danes, under King Sweno, over-running +this part of the country, destroyed this monastery and burnt it to the +ground, with the church and town. But see the turn religion gives +to things in the world; his son, King Canutus, at first a Pagan and +a tyrant, and the most cruel ravager of all that crew, coming to turn +Christian, and being touched in conscience for the soul of his father, +in having robbed God and his holy martyr St. Edmund, sacrilegiously +destroying the church, and plundering the monastery; I say, touched +with remorse, and, as the monks pretend, terrified with a vision of +St. Edmund appearing to him, he rebuilt the house, the church, and the +town also, and very much added to the wealth of the abbot and his fraternity, +offering his crown at the feet of St. Edmund, giving the house to the +monks, town and all; so that they were absolute lords of the town, and +governed it by their steward for many ages. He also gave them +a great many good lordships, which they enjoyed till the general suppression +of abbeys, in the time of Henry VIII.</p> +<p>But I am neither writing the history or searching the antiquity of +the abbey, or town; my business is the present state of the place.</p> +<p>The abbey is demolished; its ruins are all that is to be seen of +its glory: out of the old building, two very beautiful churches are +built, and serve the two parishes, into which the town is divided, and +they stand both in one churchyard. Here it was, in the path-way +between these two churches, that a tragical and almost unheard-of act +of barbarity was committed, which made the place less pleasant for some +time than it used to be, when Arundel Coke, Esq., a barrister-at-law, +of a very ancient family, attempted, with the assistance of a barbarous +assassin, to murder in cold blood, and in the arms of hospitality, Edward +Crisp, Esq., his brother-in-law, leading him out from his own house, +where he had invited him, his wife and children, to supper; I say, leading +him out in the night, on pretence of going to see some friend that was +known to them both; but in this churchyard, giving a signal to the assassin +he had hired, he attacked him with a hedge-bill, and cut him, as one +might say, almost in pieces; and when they did not doubt of his being +dead, they left him. His head and face was so mangled, that it +may be said to be next to a miracle that he was not quite killed: yet +so Providence directed for the exemplary punishment of the assassins, +that the gentleman recovered to detect them, who (though he outlived +the assault) were both executed as they deserved, and Mr. Crisp is yet +alive. They were condemned on the statute for defacing and dismembering, +called the Coventry Act.</p> +<p>But this accident does not at all lessen the pleasure and agreeable +delightful show of the town of Bury; it is crowded with nobility and +gentry, and all sorts of the most agreeable company; and as the company +invites, so there is the appearance of pleasure upon the very situation; +and they that live at Bury are supposed to live there for the sake of +it.</p> +<p>The Lord Jermin, afterwards Lord Dover, and, since his lordship’s +decease, Sir Robert Davers, enjoyed the most delicious seat of Rushbrook, +near this town.</p> +<p>The present members of Parliament for this place are Jermyn Davers +and James Reynolds, Esquires.</p> +<p>Mr. Harvey, afterwards created Lord Harvey, by King William, and +since that made Earl of Bristol by King George, lived many years in +this town, leaving a noble and pleasantly situated house in Lincolnshire, +for the more agreeable living on a spot so completely qualified for +a life of delight as this of Bury.</p> +<p>The Duke of Grafton, now Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, has also a stately +house at Euston, near this town, which he enjoys in right of his mother, +daughter to the Earl of Arlington, one of the chief ministers of State +in the reign of King Charles II., and who made the second letter in +the word “cabal,” a word formed by that famous satirist +Andrew Marvell, to represent the five heads of the politics of that +time, as the word “smectymnus” was on a former occasion.</p> +<p>I shall believe nothing so scandalous of the ladies of this town +and the country round it as a late writer insinuates. That the +ladies round the country appear mighty gay and agreeable at the time +of the fair in this town I acknowledge; one hardly sees such a show +in any part of the world; but to suggest they come hither, as to a market, +is so coarse a jest, that the gentlemen that wait on them hither (for +they rarely come but in good company) ought to resent and correct him +for it.</p> +<p>It is true, Bury Fair, like Bartholomew Fair, is a fair for diversion, +more than for trade; and it may be a fair for toys and for trinkets, +which the ladies may think fit to lay out some of their money in, as +they see occasion. But to judge from thence that the knights’ +daughters of Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, and Suffolk—that is to say, +for it cannot be understood any otherwise, the daughters of all the +gentry of the three counties—come hither to be picked up, is a +way of speaking I never before heard any author have the assurance to +make use of in print.</p> +<p>The assembly he justly commends for the bright appearance of the +beauties; but with a sting in the tail of this compliment, where he +says they seldom end without some considerable match or intrigue; and +yet he owns that during the fair these assemblies are held every night. +Now that these fine ladies go intriguing every night, and that too after +the comedy is done, which is after the fair and raffling is over for +the day, so that it must be very late. This is a terrible character +for the ladies of Bury, and intimates, in short, that most of them are +loose women, which is a horrid abuse upon the whole country.</p> +<p>Now, though I like not the assemblies at all, and shall in another +place give them something of their due, yet having the opportunity to +see the fair at Bury, and to see that there were, indeed, abundance +of the finest ladies, or as fine as any in Britain, yet I must own the +number of the ladies at the comedy, or at the assembly, is no way equal +to the number that are seen in the town, much less are they equal to +the whole body of the ladies in the three counties; and I must also +add, that though it is far from true that all that appear at the assembly +are there for matches or intrigues, yet I will venture to say that they +are not the worst of the ladies who stay away, neither are they the +fewest in number or the meanest in beauty, but just the contrary; and +I do not at all doubt, but that the scandalous liberty some take at +those assemblies will in time bring them out of credit with the virtuous +part of the sex here, as it has done already in Kent and other places, +and that those ladies who most value their reputation will be seen less +there than they have been; for though the institution of them has been +innocent and virtuous, the ill use of them, and the scandalous behaviour +of some people at them, will in time arm virtue against them, and they +will be laid down as they have been set up without much satisfaction.</p> +<p>But the beauty of this town consists in the number of gentry who +dwell in and near it, the polite conversation among them, the affluence +and plenty they live in, the sweet air they breathe in, and the pleasant +country they have to go abroad in.</p> +<p>Here is no manufacturing in this town, or but very little, except +spinning, the chief trade of the place depending upon the gentry who +live there, or near it, and who cannot fail to cause trade enough by +the expense of their families and equipages among the people of a county +town. They have but a very small river, or rather but a very small +branch of a small river, at this town, which runs from hence to Milden +Hall, on the edge of the fens. However, the town and gentlemen +about have been at the charge, or have so encouraged the engineer who +was at the charge, that they have made this river navigable to the said +Milden Hall, from whence there is a navigable dyke, called Milden Hall +Drain, which goes into the River Ouse, and so to Lynn; so that all their +coal and wine, iron, lead, and other heavy goods, are brought by water +from Lynn, or from London, by the way of Lynn, to the great ease of +the tradesmen.</p> +<p>This town is famous for two great events. One was that in the +year 1447, in the 25th year of Henry VI., a Parliament was held here.</p> +<p>The other was, that at the meeting of this Parliament, the great +Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, regent of the kingdom during the absence +of King Henry V. and the minority of Henry VI., and to his last hour +the safeguard of the whole nation, and darling of the people, was basely +murdered here; by whose death the gate was opened to that dreadful war +between the houses of Lancaster and York, which ended in the confusion +of that very race who are supposed to have contrived that murder.</p> +<p>From St. Edmund’s Bury I returned by Stowmarket and Needham +to Ipswich, that I might keep as near the coast as was proper to my +designed circuit or journey; and from Ipswich, to visit the sea again, +I went to Woodbridge, and from thence to Orford, on the sea side.</p> +<p>Woodbridge has nothing remarkable, but that it is a considerable +market for butter and corn to be exported to London; for now begins +that part which is ordinarily called High Suffolk, which, being a rich +soil, is for a long tract of ground wholly employed in dairies, and +they again famous for the best butter, and perhaps the worst cheese, +in England. The butter is barrelled, or often pickled up in small +casks, and sold, not in London only, but I have known a firkin of Suffolk +butter sent to the West Indies, and brought back to England again, and +has been perfectly good and sweet, as at first.</p> +<p>The port for the shipping off their Suffolk butter is chiefly Woodbridge, +which for that reason is full of corn factors and butter factors, some +of whom are very considerable merchants.</p> +<p>From hence, turning down to the shore, we see Orfordness, a noted +point of land for the guide of the colliers and coasters, and a good +shelter for them to ride under when a strong north-east wind blows and +makes a foul shore on the coast.</p> +<p>South of the Ness is Orford Haven, being the mouth of two little +rivers meeting together. It is a very good harbour for small vessels, +but not capable of receiving a ship of burden.</p> +<p>Orford was once a good town, but is decayed, and as it stands on +the land side of the river the sea daily throws up more land to it, +and falls off itself from it, as if it was resolved to disown the place, +and that it should be a seaport no longer.</p> +<p>A little farther lies Aldborough, as thriving, though without a port, +as the other is decaying, with a good river in the front of it.</p> +<p>There are some gentlemen’s seats up farther from the sea, but +very few upon the coast.</p> +<p>From Aldborough to Dunwich there are no towns of note; even this +town seems to be in danger of being swallowed up, for fame reports that +once they had fifty churches in the town; I saw but one left, and that +not half full of people.</p> +<p>This town is a testimony of the decay of public things, things of +the most durable nature; and as the old poet expresses it,</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>“By numerous examples we may see,<br />That towns and cities +die as well as we.”</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>The ruins of Carthage, of the great city of Jerusalem, or of ancient +Rome, are not at all wonderful to me. The ruins of Nineveh, which +are so entirety sunk as that it is doubtful where the city stood; the +ruins of Babylon, or the great Persepolis, and many capital cities, +which time and the change of monarchies have overthrown, these, I say, +are not at all wonderful, because being the capitals of great and flourishing +kingdoms, where those kingdoms were overthrown, the capital cities necessarily +fell with them; but for a private town, a seaport, and a town of commerce, +to decay, as it were, of itself (for we never read of Dunwich being +plundered or ruined by any disaster, at least, not of late years); this, +I must confess, seems owing to nothing but to the fate of things, by +which we see that towns, kings, countries, families, and persons, have +all their elevation, their medium, their declination, and even their +destruction in the womb of time, and the course of nature. It +is true, this town is manifestly decayed by the invasion of the waters, +and as other towns seem sufferers by the sea, or the tide withdrawing +from their ports, such as Orford, just now named, Winchelsea in Kent, +and the like, so this town is, as it were, eaten up by the sea, as above; +and the still encroaching ocean seems to threaten it with a fatal immersion +in a few years more.</p> +<p>Yet Dunwich, however ruined, retains some share of trade, as particularly +for the shipping of butter, cheese, and corn, which is so great a business +in this county, that it employs a great many people and ships also; +and this port lies right against the particular part of the county for +butter, as Framlingham, Halstead, etc. Also a very great quantity +of corn is bought up hereabout for the London market; for I shall still +touch that point how all the counties in England contribute something +towards the subsistence of the great city of London, of which the butter +here is a very considerable article; as also coarse cheese, which I +mentioned before, used chiefly for the king’s ships.</p> +<p>Hereabouts they begin to talk of herrings and the fishery; and we +find in the ancient records that this town, which was then equal to +a large city, paid, among other tribute to the government, fifty thousand +of herrings. Here also, and at Swole, or Southole, the next seaport, +they cure sprats in the same manner as they do herrings at Yarmouth; +that is to say, speaking in their own language, they make red sprats; +or to speak good English, they make sprats red.</p> +<p>It is remarkable that this town is now so much washed away by the +sea, that what little trade they have is carried on by Walderswick, +a little town near Swole, the vessels coming in there, because the ruins +of Dunwich make the shore there unsafe and uneasy to the boats; from +whence the northern coasting seamen a rude verse of their own using, +and I suppose of their own making, as follows,</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>“Swoul and Dunwich, and Walderswick,<br />All go in at one +lousie creek.”</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>This “lousie creek,” in short, is a little river at Swoul, +which our late famous atlas-maker calls a good harbour for ships, and +rendezvous of the royal navy; but that by-the-bye; the author, it seems, +knew no better.</p> +<p>From Dunwich we came to Southwold, the town above-named: this is +a small port town upon the coast, at the mouth of a little river called +the Blith. I found no business the people here were employed in +but the fishery, as above, for herrings and sprats, which they cure +by the help of smoke, as they do at Yarmouth.</p> +<p>There is but one church in this town, but it is a very large one +and well built, as most of the churches in this county are, and of impenetrable +flint; indeed, there is no occasion for its being so large, for staying +there one Sabbath day, I was surprised to see an extraordinary large +church, capable of receiving five or six thousand people, and but twenty-seven +in it besides the parson and the clerk; but at the same time the meeting-house +of the Dissenters was full to the very doors, having, as I guessed, +from six to eight hundred people in it.</p> +<p>This town is made famous for a very great engagement at sea, in the +year 1672, between the English and Dutch fleets, in the bay opposite +to the town, in which, not to be partial to ourselves, the English fleet +was worsted; and the brave Montague, Earl of Sandwich, Admiral under +the Duke of York, lost his life. The ship <i>Royal Prince</i>, +carrying one hundred guns, in which he was, and which was under him, +commanded by Sir Edward Spragg, was burnt, and several other ships lost, +and about six hundred seamen; part of those killed in the fight were, +as I was told, brought on shore here and buried in the churchyard of +this town, as others also were at Ipswich.</p> +<p>At this town in particular, and so at all the towns on this coast, +from Orfordness to Yarmouth, is the ordinary place where our summer +friends the swallows first land when they come to visit us; and here +they may be said to embark for their return, when they go back into +warmer climates; and as I think the following remark, though of so trifling +a circumstance, may be both instructing as well as diverting, it may +be very proper in this place. The case is this; I was some years +before at this place, at the latter end of the year, viz., about the +beginning of October, and lodging in a house that looked into the churchyard, +I observed in the evening, an unusual multitude of birds sitting on +the leads of the church. Curiosity led me to go nearer to see +what they were, and I found they were all swallows; that there was such +an infinite number that they covered the whole roof of the church, and +of several houses near, and perhaps might of more houses which I did +not see. This led me to inquire of a grave gentleman whom I saw +near me, what the meaning was of such a prodigious multitude of swallows +sitting there. “Oh, sir,” says he, turning towards +the sea, “you may see the reason; the wind is off sea.” +I did not seem fully informed by that expression, so he goes on, “I +perceive, sir,” says he, “you are a stranger to it; you +must then understand first, that this is the season of the year when +the swallows, their food here failing, begin to leave us, and return +to the country, wherever it be, from whence I suppose they came; and +this being the nearest to the coast of Holland, they come here to embark” +(this he said smiling a little); “and now, sir,” says he, +“the weather being too calm or the wind contrary, they are waiting +for a gale, for they are all wind-bound.”</p> +<p>This was more evident to me, when in the morning I found the wind +had come about to the north-west in the night, and there was not one +swallow to be seen of near a million, which I believe was there the +night before.</p> +<p>How those creatures know that this part of the Island of Great Britain +is the way to their home, or the way that they are to go; that this +very point is the nearest cut over, or even that the nearest cut is +best for them, that we must leave to the naturalists to determine, who +insist upon it that brutes cannot think.</p> +<p>Certain it is that the swallows neither come hither for warm weather +nor retire from cold; the thing is of quite another nature. They, +like the shoals of fish in the sea, pursue their prey; they are a voracious +creature, they feed flying; their food is found in the air, viz., the +insects, of which in our summer evenings, in damp and moist places, +the air is full. They come hither in the summer because our air +is fuller of fogs and damps than in other countries, and for that reason +feeds great quantities of insects. If the air be hot and dry the +gnats die of themselves, and even the swallows will be found famished +for want, and fall down dead out of the air, their food being taken +from them. In like manner, when cold weather comes in the insects +all die, and then of necessity the swallows quit us, and follow their +food wherever they go. This they do in the manner I have mentioned +above, for sometimes they are seen to go off in vast flights like a +cloud. And sometimes again, when the wind grows fair, they go +away a few and a few as they come, not staying at all upon the coast.</p> +<p>Note.—This passing and re-passing of the swallows is observed +nowhere so much, that I have heard of, or in but few other places, except +on this eastern coast, namely, from above Harwich to the east point +of Norfolk, called Winterton Ness, North, which is all right against +Holland. We know nothing of them any farther north, the passage +of the sea being, as I suppose, too broad from Flamborough Head and +the shore of Holderness in Yorkshire, etc.</p> +<p>I find very little remarkable on this side of Suffolk, but what is +on the sea-shore as above. The inland country is that which they +properly call High Suffolk, and is full of rich feeding grounds and +large farms, mostly employed in dairies for making the Suffolk butter +and cheese, of which I have spoken already. Among these rich grounds +stand some market towns, though not of very considerable note; such +as Framlingham, where was once a royal castle, to which Queen Mary retired +when the Northumberland faction, in behalf of the Lady Jane, endeavoured +to supplant her. And it was this part of Suffolk where the Gospellers, +as they were then called, preferred their loyalty to their religion, +and complimented the Popish line at expense of their share of the Reformation. +But they paid dear for it, and their successors have learned better +politics since.</p> +<p>In these parts are also several good market towns, some in this county +and some in the other, as Beccles, Bungay, Harlston, etc., all on the +edge of the River Waveney, which parts here the counties of Suffolk +and Norfolk. And here in a bye-place, and out of common remark, +lies the ancient town of Hoxon, famous for being the place where St. +Edmund was martyred, for whom so many cells and shrines have been set +up and monasteries built, and in honour of whom the famous monastery +of St. Edmundsbury, above mentioned, was founded, which most people +erroneously think was the place where the said murder was committed.</p> +<p>Besides the towns mentioned above, there are Halesworth, Saxmundham, +Debenham, Aye, or Eye, all standing in this eastern side of Suffolk, +in which, as I have said, the whole country is employed in dairies or +in feeding of cattle.</p> +<p>This part of England is also remarkable for being the first where +the feeding and fattening of cattle, both sheep as well as black cattle, +with turnips, was first practised in England, which is made a very great +part of the improvement of their lands to this day, and from whence +the practice is spread over most of the east and south parts of England +to the great enriching of the farmers and increase of fat cattle. +And though some have objected against the goodness of the flesh thus +fed with turnips, and have fancied it would taste of the root, yet upon +experience it is found that at market there is no difference, nor can +they that buy single out one joint of mutton from another by the taste. +So that the complaint which our nice palates at first made begins to +cease of itself, and a very great quantity of beef and mutton also is +brought every year and every week to London from this side of England, +and much more than was formerly known to be fed there.</p> +<p>I cannot omit, however little it may seem, that this county of Suffolk +is particularly famous for furnishing the City of London and all the +counties round with turkeys, and that it is thought there are more turkeys +bred in this county and the part of Norfolk that adjoins to it than +in all the rest of England, especially for sale, though this may be +reckoned, as I say above, but a trifling thing to take notice of in +these remarks; yet, as I have hinted, that I shall observe how London +is in general supplied with all its provisions from the whole body of +the nation, and how every part of the island is engaged in some degree +or other of that supply. On this account I could not omit it, +nor will it be found so inconsiderable an article as some may imagine, +if this be true, which I received an account of from a person living +on the place, viz., that they have counted three hundred droves of turkeys +(for they drive them all in droves on foot) pass in one season over +Stratford Bridge on the River Stour, which parts Suffolk from Essex, +about six miles from Colchester, on the road from Ipswich to London. +These droves, as they say, generally contain from three hundred to a +thousand each drove; so that one may suppose them to contain five hundred +one with another, which is one hundred and fifty thousand in all; and +yet this is one of the least passages, the numbers which travel by Newmarket +Heath and the open country and the forest, and also the numbers that +come by Sudbury and Clare being many more.</p> +<p>For the further supplies of the markets of London with poultry, of +which these countries particularly abound, they have within these few +years found it practicable to make the geese travel on foot too, as +well as the turkeys, and a prodigious number are brought up to London +in droves from the farthest parts of Norfolk; even from the fen country +about Lynn, Downham, Wisbech, and the Washes; as also from all the east +side of Norfolk and Suffolk, of whom it is very frequent now to meet +droves with a thousand, sometimes two thousand in a drove. They +begin to drive them generally in August, by which time the harvest is +almost over, and the geese may feed in the stubbles as they go. +Thus they hold on to the end of October, when the roads begin to be +too stiff and deep for their broad feet and short legs to march in.</p> +<p>Besides these methods of driving these creatures on foot, they have +of late also invented a new method of carriage, being carts formed on +purpose, with four stories or stages to put the creatures in one above +another, by which invention one cart will carry a very great number; +and for the smoother going they drive with two horses abreast, like +a coach, so quartering the road for the ease of the gentry that thus +ride. Changing horses, they travel night and day, so that they +bring the fowls seventy, eighty, or, one hundred miles in two days and +one night. The horses in this new-fashioned voiture go two abreast, +as above, but no perch below, as in a coach, but they are fastened together +by a piece of wood lying crosswise upon their necks, by which they are +kept even and together, and the driver sits on the top of the cart like +as in the public carriages for the army, etc.</p> +<p>In this manner they hurry away the creatures alive, and infinite +numbers are thus carried to London every year. This method is +also particular for the carrying young turkeys or turkey poults in their +season, which are valuable, and yield a good price at market; as also +for live chickens in the dear seasons, of all which a very great number +are brought in this manner to London, and more prodigiously out of this +country than any other part of England, which is the reason of my speaking +of it here.</p> +<p>In this part, which we call High Suffolk, there are not so many families +of gentry or nobility placed as in the other side of the country. +But it is observed that though their seats are not so frequent here, +their estates are; and the pleasure of West Suffolk is much of it supported +by the wealth of High Suffolk, for the richness of the lands and application +of the people to all kinds of improvement is scarce credible; also the +farmers are so very considerable and their farms and dairies so large +that it is very frequent for a farmer to have £1,000 stock upon +his farm in cows only.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<h2>NORFOLK</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>From High Suffolk I passed the Waveney into Norfolk, near Schole +Inn. In my passage I saw at Redgrave (the seat of the family) +a most exquisite monument of Sir John Holt, Knight, late Lord Chief +Justice of the King’s Bench several years, and one of the most +eminent lawyers of his time. One of the heirs of the family is +now building a fine seat about a mile on the south side of Ipswich, +near the road.</p> +<p>The epitaph or inscription on this monument is as follows:-</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>M. S.<br />D. Johannis Holt, Equitis Aur.<br />Totius Anglioe in +Banco Regis<br />per 21 Annos continuos<br />Capitalis Justitiarii<br />Gulielmo +Regi Annoequr Reginae<br />Consiliarii perpetui:<br />Libertatis ac +Legum Anglicarum<br />Assertoris, Vindicis, Custodis,<br />Vigilis Acris +& intrepidi,<br />Rolandus Frater Uncius & Hoeres<br />Optime +de se Merito<br />posuit,<br />Die Martis Vto. 1709. Sublatus +est<br />ex Oculis nostris<br />Natus 30 Decembris, Anno 1642.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>When we come into Norfolk, we see a face of diligence spread over +the whole country; the vast manufactures carried on (in chief) by the +Norwich weavers employs all the country round in spinning yarn for them; +besides many thousand packs of yarn which they receive from other countries, +even from as far as Yorkshire and Westmoreland, of which I shall speak +in its place.</p> +<p>This side of Norfolk is very populous, and thronged with great and +spacious market-towns, more and larger than any other part of England +so far from London, except Devonshire, and the West Riding of Yorkshire; +for example, between the frontiers of Suffolk and the city of Norwich +on this side, which is not above 22 miles in breadth, are the following +market-towns, viz.:-</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>Thetford, Hingham, Harleston,<br />Diss, West Dereham, E. Dereham,<br />Harling, +Attleborough, Watton,<br />Bucknam, Windham, Loddon, etc.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>Most of these towns are very populous and large; but that which is +most remarkable is, that the whole country round them is so interspersed +with villages, and those villages so large, and so full of people, that +they are equal to market-towns in other countries; in a word, they render +this eastern part of Norfolk exceeding full of inhabitants.</p> +<p>An eminent weaver of Norwich gave me a scheme of their trade on this +occasion, by which, calculating from the number of looms at that time +employed in the city of Norwich only, besides those employed in other +towns in the same county, he made it appear very plain, that there were +120,000 people employed in the woollen and silk and wool manufactures +of that city only; not that the people all lived in the city, though +Norwich is a very large and populous city too: but, I say, they were +employed for spinning the yarn used for such goods as were all made +in that city. This account is curious enough, and very exact, +but it is too long for the compass of this work.</p> +<p>This shows the wonderful extent of the Norwich manufacture, or stuff-weaving +trade, by which so many thousands of families are maintained. +Their trade, indeed, felt a very sensible decay, and the cries of the +poor began to be very loud, when the wearing of painted calicoes was +grown to such a height in England, as was seen about two or three years +ago; but an Act of Parliament having been obtained, though not without +great struggle, in the years 1720 and 1721, for prohibiting the use +and wearing of calicoes, the stuff trade revived incredibly; and as +I passed this part of the country in the year 1723, the manufacturers +assured me that there was not, in all the eastern and middle part of +Norfolk, any hand unemployed, if they would work; and that the very +children, after four or five years of age, could every one earn their +own bread. But I return to speak of the villages and towns in +the rest of the county; I shall come to the city of Norwich by itself.</p> +<p>This throng of villages continues through all the east part of the +country, which is of the greatest extent, and where the manufacture +is chiefly carried on. If any part of it be waste and thin of +inhabitants, it is the west part, drawing a line from about Brand, or +Brandon, south, to Walsinghan, north. This part of the country +indeed is full of open plains, and somewhat sandy and barren, and feeds +great flocks of good sheep; but put it all together, the county of Norfolk +has the most people in the least tract of land of any county in England, +except about London, and Exon, and the West Riding of Yorkshire, as +above.</p> +<p>Add to this, that there is no single county in England, except as +above, that can boast of three towns so populous, so rich, and so famous +for trade and navigation, as in this county. By these three towns, +I mean the city of Norwich, the towns of Yarmouth and Lynn. Besides +that, it has several other seaports of very good trade, as Wisbech, +Wells, Burnham, Clye, etc.</p> +<p>Norwich is the capital of all the county, and the centre of all the +trade and manufactures which I have just mentioned; an ancient, large, +rich, and populous city. If a stranger was only to ride through +or view the city of Norwich for a day, he would have much more reason +to think there was a town without inhabitants, than there is really +to say so of Ipswich; but on the contrary if he was to view the city, +either on a Sabbath-day, or on any public occasion, he would wonder +where all the people could dwell, the multitude is so great. But +the case is this: the inhabitants being all busy at their manufactures, +dwell in their garrets at their looms, and in their combing shops (so +they call them), twisting-mills, and other work-houses, almost all the +works they are employed in being done within doors. There are +in this city thirty-two parishes besides the cathedral, and a great +many meeting-houses of Dissenters of all denominations. The public +edifices are chiefly the castle, ancient and decayed, and now for many +years past made use of for a gaol. The Duke of Norfolk’s +house was formerly kept well, and the gardens preserved for the pleasure +and diversion of the citizens, but since feeling too sensibly the sinking +circumstances of that once glorious family, who were the first peers +and hereditary earl-marshals of England.</p> +<p>The walls of this city are reckoned three miles in circumference, +taking in more ground than the City of London, but much of that ground +lying open in pasture-fields and gardens; nor does it seem to be, like +some ancient places, a decayed, declining town, and that the walls mark +out its ancient dimensions; for we do not see room to suppose that it +was ever larger or more populous than it is now. But the walls +seem to be placed as if they expected that the city would in time increase +sufficiently to fill them up with buildings.</p> +<p>The cathedral of this city is a fine fabric, and the spire steeple +very high and beautiful. It is not ancient, the bishop’s +see having been first at Thetford, from whence it was not translated +hither till the twelfth century. Yet the church has so many antiquities +in it, that our late great scholar and physician, Sir Thomas Brown, +thought it worth his while to write a whole book to collect the monuments +and inscriptions in this church, to which I refer the reader.</p> +<p>The River Yare runs through this city, and is navigable thus far +without the help of any art (that is to say, without locks or stops), +and being increased by other waters, passes afterwards through a long +tract of the richest meadows, and the largest, take them all together, +that are anywhere in England, lying for thirty miles in length, from +this city to Yarmouth, including the return of the said meadows on the +bank of the Waveney south, and on the River Thyrn north.</p> +<p>Here is one thing indeed strange in itself, and more so, in that +history seems to be quite ignorant of the occasion of it. The +River Waveney is a considerable river, and of a deep and full channel, +navigable for large barges as high as Beccles; it runs for a course +of about fifty miles, between the two counties of Suffolk and Norfolk, +as a boundary to both; and pushing on, though with a gentle stream, +towards the sea, no one would doubt, but, that when they see the river +growing broader and deeper, and going directly towards the sea, even +to the edge of the beach—that is to say, within a mile of the +main ocean—no stranger, I say, but would expect to see its entrance +into the sea at that place, and a noble harbour for ships at the mouth +of it; when on a sudden, the land rising high by the seaside, crosses +the head of the river, like a dam, checks the whole course of it, and +it returns, bending its course west, for two miles, or thereabouts; +and then turning north, through another long course of meadows (joining +to those just now mentioned) seeks out the River Yare, that it may join +its water with hers, and find their way to the sea together</p> +<p>Some of our historians tell a long, fabulous story of this river +being once open, and a famous harbour for ships belonging to a town +of Lowestoft adjoining; but that the town of Yarmouth envying the prosperity +of the said town of Lowestoft, made war upon them; and that after many +bloody battles, as well by sea as by land, they came at last to a decisive +action at sea with their respective fleets, and the victory fell to +the Yarmouth men, the Lowestoft fleet being overthrown and utterly destroyed; +and that upon this victory, the Yarmouth men either actually did stop +up the mouth of the said river, or obliged the vanquished Lowestoft +men to do it themselves, and bound them never to attempt to open it +again.</p> +<p>I believe my share of this story, and I recommend no more of it to +the reader; adding, that I see no authority for the relation, neither +do the relators agree either in the time of it, or in the particulars +of the fact; that is to say, in whose reign, or under what government +all this happened; in what year, and the like; so I satisfy myself with +transcribing the matter of fact, and then leave it as I find it.</p> +<p>In this vast tract of meadows are fed a prodigious number of black +cattle which are said to be fed up for the fattest beef, though not +the largest in England; and the quantity is so great, as that they not +only supply the city of Norwich, the town of Yarmouth, and county adjacent, +but send great quantities of them weekly in all the winter season to +London.</p> +<p>And this in particular is worthy remark, that the gross of all the +Scots cattle which come yearly into England are brought hither, being +brought to a small village lying north of the city of Norwich, called +St. Faith’s, where the Norfolk graziers go and buy them.</p> +<p>These Scots runts, so they call them, coming out of the cold and +barren mountains of the Highlands in Scotland, feed so eagerly on the +rich pasture in these marshes, that they thrive in an unusual manner, +and grow monstrously fat; and the beef is so delicious for taste, that +the inhabitants prefer them to the English cattle, which are much larger +and fairer to look at; and they may very well do so. Some have +told me, and I believe with good judgment, that there are above forty +thousand of these Scots cattle fed in this county every year, and most +of them in the said marshes between Norwich, Beccles, and Yarmouth.</p> +<p>Yarmouth is an ancient town, much older than Norwich; and at present, +though not standing on so much ground, yet better built; much more complete; +for number of inhabitants, not much inferior; and for wealth, trade, +and advantage of its situation, infinitely superior to Norwich.</p> +<p>It is placed on a peninsula between the River Yare and the sea; the +two last lying parallel to one another, and the town in the middle. +The river lies on the west side of the town, and being grown very large +and deep, by a conflux of all the rivers on this side the county, forms +the haven; and the town facing to the west also, and open to the river, +makes the finest quay in England, if not in Europe, not inferior even +to that of Marseilles itself.</p> +<p>The ships ride here so close, and, as it were, keeping up one another, +with their headfasts on shore, that for half a mile together they go +across the stream with their bowsprits over the land, their bows, or +heads touching the very wharf; so that one may walk from ship to ship +as on a floating bridge, all along by the shore-side. The quay +reaching from the drawbridge almost to the south gate, is so spacious +and wide, that in some places it is near one hundred yards from the +houses to the wharf. In this pleasant and agreeable range of houses +are some very magnificent buildings, and among the rest, the Custom +House and Town Hall, and some merchant’s houses, which look like +little palaces rather than the dwelling-houses of private men.</p> +<p>The greatest defect of this beautiful town seems to be that, though +it is very rich and increasing in wealth and trade, and consequently +in people, there is not room to enlarge the town by building, which +would be certainly done much more than it is, but that the river on +the land side prescribes them, except at the north end without the gate; +and even there the land is not very agreeable. But had they had +a larger space within the gates there would before now have been many +spacious streets of noble fine buildings erected, as we see is done +in some other thriving towns in England, as at Liverpool, Manchester, +Bristol, Frome, etc.</p> +<p>The quay and the harbour of this town during the fishing fair, as +they call it, which is every Michaelmas, one sees the land covered with +people, and the river with barques and boats, busy day and night landing +and carrying of the herrings, which they catch here in such prodigious +quantities, that it is incredible. I happened to be there during +their fishing fair, when I told in one tide 110 barques and fishing +vessels coming up the river all laden with herrings, and all taken the +night before; and this was besides what was brought on shore on the +Dean (that is the seaside of the town) by open boats, which they call +cobles, and which often bring in two or three last of fish at a time. +The barques often bring in ten last a piece.</p> +<p>This fishing fair begins on Michaelmas Day, and lasts all the month +of October, by which time the herrings draw off to sea, shoot their +spawn, and are no more fit for the merchant’s business—at +least, not those that are taken thereabouts.</p> +<p>The quantity of herrings that are caught in this season are diversely +accounted for. Some have said that the towns of Yarmouth and Lowestoft +only have taken 40,000 last in a season. I will not venture to +confirm that report; but this I have heard the merchants themselves +say, viz., that they have cured—that is to say, hanged and dried +in the smoke—40,000 barrels of merchantable red herrings in one +season, which is in itself (though far short of the other) yet a very +considerable article; and it is to be added that this is besides all +the herrings consumed in the country towns of both those populous counties +for thirty miles from the sea, whither very great quantities are carried +every tide during the whole season.</p> +<p>But this is only one branch of the great trade carried on in this +town. Another part of this commerce is in the exporting these +herrings after they are cured; and for this their merchants have a great +trade to Genoa, Leghorn, Naples, Messina, and Venice; as also to Spain +and Portugal, also exporting with their herring very great quantities +of worsted stuffs, and stuffs made of silk and worsted, camblets, etc., +the manufactures of the neighbouring city of Norwich and of the places +adjacent.</p> +<p>Besides this, they carry on a very considerable trade with Holland, +whose opposite neighbours they are; and a vast quantity of woollen manufactures +they export to the Dutch every year. Also they have a fishing +trade to the North Seas for white fish, which from the place are called +the North Sea cod.</p> +<p>They have also a considerable trade to Norway and to the Baltic, +from whence they bring back deals and fir timber, oaken plank, balks, +spars, oars, pitch, tar, hemp, flax, spruce canvas, and sail-cloth, +with all manner of naval stores, which they generally have a consumption +for in their own port, where they build a very great number of ships +every year, besides refitting and repairing the old.</p> +<p>Add to this the coal trade between Newcastle and the river of Thames, +in which they are so improved of late years that they have now a greater +share of it than any other town in England, and have quite worked the +Ipswich men out of it who had formerly the chief share of the colliery +in their hands.</p> +<p>For the carrying on all these trades they must have a very great +number of ships, either of their own or employed by them: and it may +in some measure be judged of by this that in the year 1697, I had an +account from the town register that there was then 1,123 sail of ships +using the sea and belonged to the town, besides such ships as the merchants +of Yarmouth might be concerned in, and be part owners of, belonging +to any other ports.</p> +<p>To all this I must add, without compliment to the town or to the +people, that the merchants, and even the generality of traders of Yarmouth, +have a very good reputation in trade as well abroad as at home for men +of fair and honourable dealing, punctual and just in their performing +their engagements and in discharging commissions; and their seamen, +as well masters as mariners, are justly esteemed among the ablest and +most expert navigators in England.</p> +<p>This town, however populous and large, was ever contained in one +parish, and had but one church; but within these two years they have +built another very fine church near the south end of the town. +The old church is dedicated to St. Nicholas, and was built by that famous +Bishop of Norwich, William Herbert, who flourished in the reign of William +II., and Henry I., William of Malmesbury, calls him <i>Vir Pecuniosus</i>; +he might have called him <i>Vir Pecuniosissimus</i>, considering the +times he lived in, and the works of charity and munificence which he +has left as witnesses of his immense riches; for he built the Cathedral +Church, the Priory for sixty monks, the Bishop’s Palace, and the +parish church of St. Leonard, all in Norwich; this great church at Yarmouth, +the Church of St. Margaret at Lynn, and of St. Mary at Elmham. +He removed the episcopal see from Thetford to Norwich, and instituted +the Cluniack Monks at Thetford, and gave them or built them a house. +This old church is very large, and has a high spire, which is a useful +sea-mark.</p> +<p>Here is one of the finest market-places and the best served with +provisions in England, London excepted; and the inhabitants are so multiplied +in a few years that they seem to want room in their town rather than +people to fill it, as I have observed above.</p> +<p>The streets are all exactly straight from north to south, with lanes +or alleys, which they call rows, crossing them in straight lines also +from east to west, so that it is the most regular built town in England, +and seems to have been built all at once; or that the dimensions of +the houses and extent of the streets were laid out by consent.</p> +<p>They have particular privileges in this town and a jurisdiction by +which they can try, condemn, and execute in especial cases without waiting +for a warrant from above; and this they exerted once very smartly in +executing a captain of one of the king’s ships of war in the reign +of King Charles II. for a murder committed in the street, the circumstance +of which did indeed call for justice; but some thought they would not +have ventured to exert their powers as they did. However, I never +heard that the Government resented it or blamed them for it.</p> +<p>It is also a very well-governed town, and I have nowhere in England +observed the Sabbath day so exactly kept, or the breach so continually +punished, as in this place, which I name to their honour.</p> +<p>Among all these regularities it is no wonder if we do not find abundance +of revelling, or that there is little encouragement to assemblies, plays, +and gaming meetings at Yarmouth as in some other places; and yet I do +not see that the ladies here come behind any of the neighbouring counties, +either in beauty, breeding, or behaviour; to which may be added too, +not at all to their disadvantage, that they generally go beyond them +in fortunes.</p> +<p>From Yarmouth I resolved to pursue my first design, viz., to view +the seaside on this coast, which is particularly famous for being one +of the most dangerous and most fatal to the sailors in all England—I +may say in all Britain—and the more so because of the great number +of ships which are continually going and coming this way in their passage +between London and all the northern coasts of Great Britain. Matters +of antiquity are not my inquiry, but principally observations on the +present state of things, and, if possible, to give such accounts of +things worthy of recording as have never been observed before; and this +leads me the more directly to mention the commerce and the navigation +when I come to towns upon the coast as what few writers have yet meddled +with.</p> +<p>The reason of the dangers of this particular coast are found in the +situation of the county and in the course of ships sailing this way, +which I shall describe as well as I can thus:- The shore from the mouth +of the River of Thames to Yarmouth Roads lies in a straight line from +SSE. <i>to</i> NNW., the land being on the W. or larboard side.</p> +<p>From Wintertonness, which is the utmost northerly point of land in +the county of Norfolk, and about four miles beyond Yarmouth, the shore +falls off for nearly sixty miles to the west, as far as Lynn and Boston, +till the shore of Lincolnshire tends north again for about sixty miles +more as far as the Humber, whence the coast of Yorkshire, or Holderness, +which is the east riding, shoots out again into the sea, to the Spurn +and to Flamborough Head, as far east, almost, as the shore of Norfolk +had given back at Winterton, making a very deep gulf or bay between +those two points of Winterton and the Spurn Head; so that the ships +going north are obliged to stretch away to sea from Wintertonness, and +leaving the sight of land in that deep bay which I have mentioned, that +reaches to Lynn and the shore of Lincolnshire, they go, I say, N. or +still NNW. to meet the shore of Holderness, which I said runs out into +the sea again at the Spurn; and the first land they make or desire to +make, is called as above, Flamborough Head, so that Wintertonness and +Flamborough Head are the two extremes of this course, there is, as I +said, the Spurn Head indeed between; but as it lies too far in towards +the Humber, they keep out to the north to avoid coming near it.</p> +<p>In like manner the ships which come from the north, leave the shore +at Flamborough Head, and stretch away SSE. for Yarmouth Roads; and they +first land they make is Wintertonness (as above). Now, the danger +of the place is this: if the ships coming from the north are taken with +a hard gale of wind from the SE., or from any point between NE. and +SE., so that they cannot, as the seamen call it, weather Wintertonness, +they are thereby kept within that deep bay; and if the wind blows hard, +are often in danger of running on shore upon the rocks about Cromer, +on the north coast of Norfolk, or stranding upon the flat shore between +Cromer and Wells; all the relief they have, is good ground tackle to +ride it out, which is very hard to do there, the sea coming very high +upon them; or if they cannot ride it out then, to run into the bottom +of the great bay I mentioned, to Lynn or Boston, which is a very difficult +and desperate push: so that sometimes in this distress whole fleets +have been lost here altogether.</p> +<p>The like is the danger to ships going northward, if after passing +by Winterton they are taken short with a north-east wind, and cannot +put back into the Roads, which very often happens, then they are driven +upon the same coast, and embayed just as the latter. The danger +on the north part of this bay is not the same, because if ships going +or coming should be taken short on this side Flamborough, there is the +river Humber open to them, and several good roads to have recourse to, +as Burlington Bay, Grimsby Road, and the Spurn Head, and others, where +they ride under shelter.</p> +<p>The dangers of this place being thus considered, it is no wonder, +that upon the shore beyond Yarmouth there are no less than four lighthouses +kept flaming every night, besides the lights at Castor, north of the +town, and at Goulston S., all of which are to direct the sailors to +keep a good offing in case of bad weather, and to prevent their running +into Cromer Bay, which the seamen call the devil’s throat.</p> +<p>As I went by land from Yarmouth northward, along the shore towards +Cromer aforesaid, and was not then fully master of the reason of these +things, I was surprised to see, in all the way from Winterton, that +the farmers and country people had scarce a barn, or a shed, or a stable, +nay, not the pales of their yards and gardens, not a hogstye, not a +necessary house, but what was built of old planks, beams, wales, and +timbers, etc., the wrecks of ships, and ruins of mariners’ and +merchants’ fortunes; and in some places were whole yards filled +and piled up very high with the same stuff laid up, as I supposed to +sell for the like building purposes, as there should he occasion.</p> +<p>About the year 1692 (I think it was that year) there was a melancholy +example of what I have said of this place: a fleet of 200 sail of light +colliers (so they call the ships bound northward empty to fetch coals +from Newcastle to London) went out of Yarmouth Roads with a fair wind, +to pursue their voyage, and were taken short with a storm of wind at +NE. after they were past Wintertonness, a few leagues; some of them, +whose masters were a little more wary than the rest, or perhaps, who +made a better judgment of things, or who were not so far out as the +rest, tacked, and put back in time, and got safe into the roads; but +the rest pushing on in hopes to keep out to sea, and weather it, were +by the violence of the storm driven back, when they were too far embayed +to weather Wintertonness as above, and so were forced to run west, everyone +shifting for themselves as well as they could; some run away for Lynn +Deeps, but few of them (the night being so dark) could find their way +in there; some, but very few, rode it out at a distance; the rest, being +above 140 sail, were all driven on shore and dashed to pieces, and very +few of the people on board were saved: at the very same unhappy juncture, +a fleet of laden ships were coming from the north, and being just crossing +the same bay, were forcibly driven into it, not able to weather the +Ness, and so were involved in the same ruin as the light fleet was; +also some coasting vessels laden with corn from Lynn and Wells, and +bound for Holland, were with the same unhappy luck just come out to +begin their voyage, and some of them lay at anchor; these also met with +the same misfortune, so that, in the whole, above 200 sail of ships, +and above a thousand people, perished in the disaster of that one miserable +night, very few escaping.</p> +<p>Cromer is a market town close to the shore of this dangerous coast. +I know nothing it is famous for (besides it being thus the terror of +the sailors) except good lobsters, which are taken on that coast in +great numbers and carried to Norwich, and in such quantities sometimes +too as to be conveyed by sea to London.</p> +<p>Farther within the land, and between this place and Norwich, are +several good market towns, and innumerable villages, all diligently +applying to the woollen manufacture, and the country is exceedingly +fruitful and fertile, as well in corn as in pastures; particularly, +which was very pleasant to see, the pheasants were in such great plenty +as to be seen in the stubbles like cocks and hens—a testimony +though, by the way, that the county had more tradesmen than gentlemen +in it; indeed, this part is so entirely given up to industry, that what +with the seafaring men on the one side, and the manufactures on the +other, we saw no idle hands here, but every man busy on the main affair +of life, that is to say, getting money; some of the principal of these +towns are:- Alsham, North Walsham, South Walsham, Worsted, Caston, Reepham, +Holt, Saxthorp, St. Faith’s, Blikling, and many others. +Near the last, Sir John Hobart, of an ancient family in this county, +has a noble seat, but old built. This is that St. Faith’s, +where the drovers bring their black cattle to sell to the Norfolk graziers, +as is observed above.</p> +<p>From Cromer we ride on the strand or open shore to Weyburn Hope, +the shore so flat that in some places the tide ebbs out near two miles. +From Weyburn west lies Clye, where there are large salt-works and very +good salt made, which is sold all over the county, and sometimes sent +to Holland and to the Baltic. From Clye we go to Masham and to +Wells, all towns on the coast, in each whereof there is a very considerable +trade carried on with Holland for corn, which that part of the county +is very full of. I say nothing of the great trade driven here +from Holland, back again to England, because I take it to be a trade +carried on with much less honesty than advantage, especially while the +clandestine trade, or the art of smuggling was so much in practice: +what it is now, is not to my present purpose.</p> +<p>Near this town lie The Seven Burnhams, as they are called, that is +to say, seven small towns, all called by the same name, and each employed +in the same trade of carrying corn to Holland, and bringing back,—etc.</p> +<p>From hence we turn to the south-west to Castle Rising, an old decayed +borough town, with perhaps not ten families in it, which yet (to the +scandal of our prescription right) sends two members to the British +Parliament, being as many as the City of Norwich itself or any town +in the kingdom, London excepted, can do.</p> +<p>On our left we see Walsingham, an ancient town, famous for the old +ruins of a monastery of note there, and the Shrine of our Lady, as noted +as that of St. Thomas-à-Becket at Canterbury, and for little +else.</p> +<p>Near this place are the seats of the two allied families of the Lord +Viscount Townsend and Robert Walpole, Esq.; the latter at this time +one of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury and Minister of State, +and the former one of the principal Secretaries of State to King George, +of which again.</p> +<p>From hence we went to Lynn, another rich and populous thriving port-town. +It stands on more ground than the town of Yarmouth, and has, I think, +parishes, yet I cannot allow that it has more people than Yarmouth, +if so many. It is a beautiful, well built, and well situated town, +at the mouth of the River Ouse, and has this particular attending it, +which gives it a vast advantage in trade; namely, that there is the +greatest extent of inland navigation here of any port in England, London +excepted. The reason whereof is this, that there are more navigable +rivers empty themselves here into the sea, including the washes, which +are branches of the same port, than at any one mouth of waters in England, +except the Thames and the Humber. By these navigable rivers, the +merchants of Lynn supply about six counties wholly, and three counties +in part, with their goods, especially wine and coals, viz., by the little +Ouse, they send their goods to Brandon and Thetford, by the Lake to +Mildenhall, Barton Mills, and St. Edmundsbury; by the River Grant to +Cambridge, by the great Ouse itself to Ely, to St. Ives, to St. Neots, +to Barford Bridge, and to Bedford; by the River Nyne to Peterborough; +by the drains and washes to Wisbeach, to Spalding, Market Deeping, and +Stamford; besides the several counties, into which these goods are carried +by land-carriage, from the places, where the navigation of those rivers +end; which has given rise to this observation on the town of Lynn, that +they bring in more coals than any sea-port between London and Newcastle; +and import more wines than any port in England, except London and Bristol; +their trade to Norway and to the Baltic Sea is also great in proportion, +and of late years they have extended their trade farther to the southward.</p> +<p>Here are more gentry, and consequently is more gaiety in this town +than in Yarmouth, or even in Norwich itself—the place abounding +in very good company.</p> +<p>The situation of this town renders it capable of being made very +strong, and in the late wars it was so; a line of fortification being +drawn round it at a distance from the walls; the ruins, or rather remains +of which works appear very fair to this day; nor would it be a hard +matter to restore the bastions, with the ravelins, and counterscarp, +upon any sudden emergency, to a good state of defence: and that in a +little time, a sufficient number of workmen being employed, especially +because they are able to fill all their ditches with water from the +sea, in such a manner as that it cannot be drawn off.</p> +<p>There is in the market-place of this town a very fine statue of King +William on horseback, erected at the charge of the town. The Ouse +is mighty large and deep, close to the very town itself, and ships of +good burthen may come up to the quay; but there is no bridge, the stream +being too strong and the bottom moorish and unsound; nor, for the same +reason, is the anchorage computed the best in the world; but there are +good roads farther down.</p> +<p>They pass over here in boats into the fen country, and over the famous +washes into Lincolnshire, but the passage is very dangerous and uneasy, +and where passengers often miscarry and are lost; but then it is usually +on their venturing at improper times, and without the guides, which +if they would be persuaded not to do, they would very rarely fail of +going or coming safe.</p> +<p>From Lynn I bent my course to Downham, where is an ugly wooden bridge +over the Ouse; from whence we passed the fen country to Wisbeach, but +saw nothing that way to tempt our curiosity but deep roads, innumerable +drains and dykes of water, all navigable, and a rich soil, the land +bearing a vast quantity of good hemp, but a base unwholesome air; so +we came back to Ely, whose cathedral, standing in a level flat country, +is seen far and wide, and of which town, when the minster, so they call +it, is described, everything remarkable is said that there is room to +say. And of the minster, this is the most remarkable thing that +I could hear it, namely, that some of it is so ancient, totters so much +with every gust of wind, looks so like a decay, and seems so near it, +that whenever it does fall, all that it is likely will be thought strange +in it will be that it did not fall a hundred years sooner.</p> +<p>From hence we came over the Ouse, and in a few miles to Newmarket. +In our way, near Snaybell, we saw a noble seat of the late Admiral Russell, +now Earl of Orford, a name made famous by the glorious victory obtained +under his command over the French fleet and the burning their ships +at La Hogue—a victory equal in glory to, and infinitely more glorious +to the English nation in particular, than that at Blenheim, and, above +all, more to the particular advantage of the confederacy, because it +so broke the heart of the naval power of France that they have not fully +recovered it to this day. But of this victory it must be said +it was owing to the haughty, rash, and insolent orders given by the +King of France to his admiral, viz., to fight the confederate fleet +wherever he found them, without leaving room for him to use due caution +if he found them too strong, which pride of France was doubtless a fate +upon them, and gave a cheap victory to the confederates, the French +coming down rashly, and with the most impolitic bravery, with about +five-and-forty sail to attack between seventy and eighty sail, by which +means they met their ruin. Whereas, had their own fleet been joined, +it might have cost more blood to have mastered them if it had been done +at all.</p> +<p>The situation of this house is low, and on the edge of the fen country, +but the building is very fine, the avenues noble, and the gardens perfectly +finished. The apartments also are rich, and I see nothing wanting +but a family and heirs to sustain the glory and inheritance of the illustrious +ancestor who raised it—<i>sed caret pedibus</i>; these are wanting.</p> +<p>Being come to Newmarket in the month of October, I had the opportunity +to see the horse races and a great concourse of the nobility and gentry, +as well from London as from all parts of England, but they were all +so intent, so eager, so busy upon the sharping part of the sport—their +wagers and bets—that to me they seemed just as so many horse-coursers +in Smithfield, descending (the greatest of them) from their high dignity +and quality to picking one another’s pockets, and biting one another +as much as possible, and that with such eagerness as that it might be +said they acted without respect to faith, honour, or good manners.</p> +<p>There was Mr. Frampton the oldest, and, as some say, the cunningest +jockey in England; one day he lost one thousand guineas, the next he +won two thousand; and so alternately he made as light of throwing away +five hundred or one thousand pounds at a time as other men do of their +pocket-money, and as perfectly calm, cheerful, and unconcerned when +he had lost one thousand pounds as when he had won it. On the +other side there was Sir R Fagg, of Sussex, of whom fame says he has +the most in him and the least to show for it (relating to jockeyship) +of any man there, yet he often carried the prize. His horses, +they said, were all cheats, how honest soever their master was, for +he scarce ever produced a horse but he looked like what he was not, +and was what nobody could expect him to be. If he was as light +as the wind, and could fly like a meteor, he was sure to look as clumsy, +and as dirty, and as much like a cart-horse as all the cunning of his +master and the grooms could make him, and just in this manner he beat +some of the greatest gamesters in the field.</p> +<p>I was so sick of the jockeying part that I left the crowd about the +posts and pleased myself with observing the horses: how the creatures +yielded to all the arts and managements of their masters; how they took +their airings in sport, and played with the daily heats which they ran +over the course before the grand day. But how, as knowing the +difference equally with their riders, would they exert their utmost +strength at the time of the race itself! And that to such an extremity +that one or two of them died in the stable when they came to be rubbed +after the first heat.</p> +<p>Here I fancied myself in the Circus Maximus at Rome seeing the ancient +games and the racings of the chariots and horsemen, and in this warmth +of my imagination I pleased and diverted myself more and in a more noble +manner than I could possibly do in the crowds of gentlemen at the weighing +and starting-posts and at their coming in, or at their meetings at the +coffee-houses and gaming-tables after the races were over, where there +was little or nothing to be seen but what was the subject of just reproach +to them and reproof from every wise man that looked upon them.</p> +<p>N.B.—Pray take it with you, as you go, you see no ladies at +Newmarket, except a few of the neighbouring gentlemen’s families, +who come in their coaches on any particular day to see a race, and so +go home again directly.</p> +<p>As I was pleasing myself with what was to be seen here, I went in +the intervals of the sport to see the fine seats of the gentlemen in +the neighbouring county, for this part of Suffolk, being an open champaign +country and a healthy air, is formed for pleasure and all kinds of country +diversion, Nature, as it were, inviting the gentlemen to visit her where +she was fully prepared to receive them, in conformity to which kind +summons they came, for the country is, as it were, covered with fine +palaces of the nobility and pleasant seats of the gentlemen.</p> +<p>The Earl of Orford’s house I have mentioned already; the next +is Euston Hall, the seat of the Duke of Grafton. It lies in the +open country towards the side of Norfolk, not far from Thetford, a place +capable of all that is pleasant and delightful in Nature, and improved +by art to every extreme that Nature is able to produce.</p> +<p>From thence I went to Rushbrook, formerly the seat of the noble family +of Jermyns, lately Lord Dover, and now of the house of Davers. +Here Nature, for the time I was there, drooped and veiled all the beauties +of which she once boasted, the family being in tears and the house shut +up, Sir Robert Davers, the head thereof, and knight of the shire for +the county of Suffolk, and who had married the eldest daughter of the +late Lord Dover, being just dead, and the corpse lying there in its +funeral form of ceremony, not yet buried. Yet all looked lovely +in their sorrow, and a numerous issue promising and grown up intimated +that the family of Davers would still flourish, and that the beauties +of Rushbrook, the mansion of the family, were not formed with so much +art in vain or to die with the present possessor.</p> +<p>After this we saw Brently, the seat of the Earl of Dysert, and the +ancient palace of my Lord Cornwallis, with several others of exquisite +situation, and adorned with the beauties both of art and Nature, so +that I think any traveller from abroad, who would desire to see how +the English gentry live, and what pleasures they enjoy, should come +into Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, and take but a light circuit among +the country seats of the gentlemen on this side only, and they would +be soon convinced that not France, no, not Italy itself, can outdo them +in proportion to the climate they lived in.</p> +<p>I had still the county of Cambridge to visit to complete this tour +of the eastern part of England, and of that I come now to speak.</p> +<p>We enter Cambridgeshire out of Suffolk, with all the advantage in +the world; the county beginning upon those pleasant and agreeable plains +called Newmarket Heath, where passing the Devil’s Ditch, which +has nothing worth notice but its name, and that but fabulous too, from +the hills called Gogmagog, we see a rich and pleasant vale westward, +covered with corn-fields, gentlemen’s seats, villages, and at +a distance, to crown all the rest, that ancient and truly famous town +and university of Cambridge, capital of the county, and receiving its +name from, if not, as some say, giving name to it; for if it be true +that the town takes its name of Cambridge from its bridge over the river +Cam, then certainly the shire or county, upon the division of England +into counties, had its name from the town, and Cambridgeshire signifies +no more or less than the county of which Cambridge is the capital town.</p> +<p>As my business is not to lay out the geographical situation of places, +I say nothing of the buttings and boundings of this county. It +lies on the edge of the great level, called by the people here the Fen +Country; and great part, if not all, the Isle of Ely lies in this county +and Norfolk. The rest of Cambridgeshire is almost wholly a corn +country, and of that corn five parts in six of all they sow is barley, +which is generally sold to Ware and Royston, and other great malting +towns in Hertfordshire, and is the fund from whence that vast quantity +of malt, called Hertfordshire malt, is made, which is esteemed the best +in England. As Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk are taken up in manufactures, +and famed for industry, this county has no manufacture at all; nor are +the poor, except the husbandmen, famed for anything so much as idleness +and sloth, to their scandal be it spoken. What the reason of it +is I know not.</p> +<p>It is scarce possible to talk of anything in Cambridgeshire but Cambridge +itself; whether it be that the county has so little worth speaking of +in it, or, that the town has so much, that I leave to others; however, +as I am making modern observations, not writing history, I shall look +into the county, as well as into the colleges, for what I have to say.</p> +<p>As I said, I first had a view of Cambridge from Gogmagog hills; I +am to add that there appears on the mountain that goes by this name, +an ancient camp or fortification, that lies on the top of the hill, +with a double, or rather treble, rampart and ditch, which most of our +writers say was neither Roman nor Saxon, but British. I am to +add that King James II. caused a spacious stable to be built in the +area of this camp for his running homes, and made old Mr. Frampton, +whom I mentioned above, master or inspector of them. The stables +remain still there, though they are not often made use of. As +we descended westward we saw the Fen country on our right, almost all +covered with water like a sea, the Michaelmas rains having been very +great that year, they had sent down great floods of water from the upland +countries, and those fens being, as may be very properly said, the sink +of no less than thirteen counties—that is to say, that all the +water, or most part of the water, of thirteen counties falls into them; +they are often thus overflowed. The rivers which thus empty themselves +into these fens, and which thus carry off the water, are the Cam or +Grant, the Great Ouse and Little Ouse, the Nene, the Welland, and the +river which runs from Bury to Milden Hall. The counties which +these rivers drain, as above, are as follows:-</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>Lincoln, Warwick, Norfolk,<br />* Cambridge, Oxford, Suffolk,<br />* +Huntingdon, Leicester, Essex,<br />* Bedford, * Northampton<br />Buckingham, +* Rutland.</p> +<p>Those marked with (*) empty all their waters this way, the rest but +in part.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>In a word, all the water of the middle part of England which does +not run into the Thames or the Trent, comes down into these fens.</p> +<p>In these fens are abundance of those admirable pieces of art called +decoys that is to say, places so adapted for the harbour and shelter +of wild fowl, and then furnished with a breed of those they call decoy +ducks, who are taught to allure and entice their kind to the places +they belong to, that it is incredible what quantities of wild fowl of +all sorts, duck, mallard, teal, widgeon, &c., they take in those +decoys every week during the season; it may, indeed, be guessed at a +little by this, that there is a decoy not far from Ely which pays to +the landlord, Sir Thomas Hare, £500 a year rent, besides the charge +of maintaining a great number of servants for the management; and from +which decoy alone, they assured me at St. Ives (a town on the Ouse, +where the fowl they took was always brought to be sent to London) that +they generally sent up three thousand couple a week.</p> +<p>There are more of these about Peterborough, who send the fowl up +twice a week in waggon-loads at a time, whose waggons before the late +Act of Parliament to regulate carriers I have seen drawn by ten and +twelve horses a-piece, they were laden so heavy.</p> +<p>As these fens appear covered with water, so I observed, too, that +they generally at this latter part of the year appear also covered with +fogs, so that when the downs and higher grounds of the adjacent country +were gilded with the beams of the sun, the Isle of Ely looked as if +wrapped up in blankets, and nothing to be seen but now and then the +lantern or cupola of Ely Minster.</p> +<p>One could hardly see this from the hills and not pity the many thousands +of families that were bound to or confined in those fogs, and had no +other breath to draw than what must be mixed with those vapours, and +that steam which so universally overspreads the country. But notwithstanding +this, the people, especially those that are used to it, live unconcerned, +and as healthy as other folks, except now and then an ague, which they +make light of, and there are great numbers of very ancient people among +them.</p> +<p>I now draw near to Cambridge, to which I fancy I look as if I was +afraid to come, having made so many circumlocutions beforehand; but +I must yet make another digression before I enter the town (for in my +way, and as I came in from Newmarket, about the beginning of September), +I cannot omit, that I came necessarily through Stourbridge Fair, which +was then in its height.</p> +<p>If it is a diversion worthy a book to treat of trifles, such as the +gaiety of Bury Fair, it cannot be very unpleasant, especially to the +trading part of the world, to say something of this fair, which is not +only the greatest in the whole nation, but in the world; nor, if I may +believe those who have seen the mall, is the fair at Leipzig in Saxony, +the mart at Frankfort-on-the-Main, or the fairs at Nuremberg, or Augsburg, +any way to compare to this fair at Stourbridge.</p> +<p>It is kept in a large corn-field, near Casterton, extending from +the side of the river Cam, towards the road, for about half a mile square.</p> +<p>If the husbandmen who rent the land, do not get their corn off before +a certain day in August, the fair-keepers may trample it under foot +and spoil it to build their booths, or tents, for all the fair is kept +in tents and booths. On the other hand, to balance that severity, +if the fair-keepers have not done their business of the fair, and removed +and cleared the field by another certain day in September, the ploughmen +may come in again, with plough and cart, and overthrow all, and trample +into the dirt; and as for the filth, dung, straw, etc. necessarily left +by the fair-keepers, the quantity of which is very great, it is the +farmers’ fees, and makes them full amends for the trampling, riding, +and carting upon, and hardening the ground.</p> +<p>It is impossible to describe all the parts and circumstances of this +fair exactly; the shops are placed in rows like streets, whereof one +is called Cheapside; and here, as in several other streets, are all +sorts of trades, who sell by retail, and who come principally from London +with their goods; scarce any trades are omitted—goldsmiths, toyshops, +brasiers, turners, milliners, haberdashers, hatters, mercers, drapers, +pewterers, china-warehouses, and in a word all trades that can be named +in London; with coffee-houses, taverns, brandy-shops, and eating-houses, +innumerable, and all in tents, and booths, as above.</p> +<p>This great street reaches from the road, which as I said goes from +Cambridge to Newmarket, turning short out of it to the right towards +the river, and holds in a line near half a mile quite down to the river-side: +in another street parallel with the road are like rows of booths, but +larger, and more intermingled with wholesale dealers; and one side, +passing out of this last street to the left hand, is a formal great +square, formed by the largest booths, built in that form, and which +they call the Duddery; whence the name is derived, and what its signification +is, I could never yet learn, though I made all possible search into +it. The area of this square is about 80 to 100 yards, where the +dealers have room before every booth to take down, and open their packs, +and to bring in waggons to load and unload.</p> +<p>This place is separated, and peculiar to the wholesale dealers in +the woollen manufacture. Here the booths or tents are of a vast +extent, have different apartments, and the quantities of goods they +bring are so great, that the insides of them look like another Blackwell +Hall, being as vast warehouses piled up with goods to the top. +In this Duddery, as I have been informed, there have been sold one hundred +thousand pounds worth of woollen manufactures in less than a week’s +time, besides the prodigious trade carried on here, by wholesale men, +from London, and all parts of England, who transact their business wholly +in their pocket-books, and meeting their chapmen from all parts, make +up their accounts, receive money chiefly in bills, and take orders: +These they say exceed by far the sales of goods actually brought to +the fair, and delivered in kind; it being frequent for the London wholesale +men to carry back orders from their dealers for ten thousand pounds’ +worth of goods a man, and some much more. This especially respects +those people, who deal in heavy goods, as wholesale grocers, salters, +brasiers, iron-merchants, wine-merchants, and the like; but does not +exclude the dealers in woollen manufactures, and especially in mercery +goods of all sorts, the dealers in which generally manage their business +in this manner.</p> +<p>Here are clothiers from Halifax, Leeds, Wakefield and Huddersfield +in Yorkshire, and from Rochdale, Bury, etc., in Lancashire, with vast +quantities of Yorkshire cloths, kerseys, pennistons, cottons, etc., +with all sorts of Manchester ware, fustiains, and things made of cotton +wool; of which the quantity is so great, that they told me there were +near a thousand horse-packs of such goods from that side of the country, +and these took up a side and half of the Duddery at least; also a part +of a street of booths were taken up with upholsterer’s ware, such +as tickings, sackings, kidderminster stuffs, blankets, rugs, quilts, +etc.</p> +<p>In the Duddery I saw one warehouse, or booth with six apartments +in it, all belonging to a dealer in Norwich stuffs only, and who, they +said, had there above twenty thousand pounds value in those goods, and +no other.</p> +<p>Western goods had their share here also, and several booths were +filled as full with serges, duroys, druggets, shalloons, cantaloons, +Devonshire kerseys, etc., from Exeter, Taunton, Bristol, and other parts +west, and some from London also.</p> +<p>But all this is still outdone at least in show, by two articles, +which are the peculiars of this fair, and do not begin till the other +part of the fair, that is to say for the woollen manufacture begins +to draw to a close. These are the wool and the hops; as for the +hops, there is scarce any price fixed for hops in England, till they +know how they sell at Stourbridge fair; the quantity that appears in +the fair is indeed prodigious, and they, as it were, possess a large +part of the field on which the fair is kept to themselves; they are +brought directly from Chelmsford in Essex, from Canterbury and Maidstone +in Kent, and from Farnham in Surrey, besides what are brought from London, +the growth of those and other places.</p> +<p>Enquiring why this fair should be thus, of all other places in England, +the centre of that trade; and so great a quantity of so bulky a commodity +be carried thither so far; I was answered by one thoroughly acquainted +with that matter thus: the hops, said he, for this part of England, +grow principally in the two counties of Surrey and Kent, with an exception +only to the town of Chelmsford in Essex, and there are very few planted +anywhere else.</p> +<p>There are indeed in the west of England some quantities growing: +as at Wilton, near Salisbury; at Hereford and Broomsgrove, near Wales, +and the like; but the quantity is inconsiderable, and the places remote, +so that none of them come to London.</p> +<p>As to the north of England, they formerly used but few hops there, +their drink being chiefly pale smooth ale, which required no hops, and +consequently they planted no hops in all that part of England, north +of the Trent; nor did I ever see one acre of hop-ground planted beyond +Trent in my observation; but as for some years past, they not only brew +great quantities of beer in the north, but also use hops in the brewing +their ale much more than they did before; so they all come south of +Trent to buy their hops; and here being quantities brought, it is great +part of their back carriage into Yorkshire, and Northamptonshire, Derbyshire, +Lancashire, and all these counties; nay, of late, since the Union, even +to Scotland itself; for I must not omit here also to mention, that the +river Grant, or Cam, which runs close by the north-west side of the +fair in its way from Cambridge to Ely, is navigable, and that by this +means, all heavy goods are brought even to the fair-field, by water +carriage from London and other parts; first to the port of Lynn, and +then in barges up the Ouse, from the Ouse into the Cam, and so, as I +say, to the very edge of the fair.</p> +<p>In like manner great quantities of heavy goods, and the hops among +the rest, are sent from the fair to Lynn by water, and shipped there +for the Humber, to Hull, York, etc., and for Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and +by Newcastle, even to Scotland itself. Now as there is still no +planting of hops in the north, though a great consumption, and the consumption +increasing daily, this, says my friend, is one reason why at Stourbridge +fair there is so great a demand for the hops. He added, that besides +this, there were very few hops, if any worth naming, growing in all +the counties even on this side Trent, which were above forty miles from +London; those counties depending on Stourbridge fair for their supply, +so the counties of Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridge, Huntingdon, Northampton, +Lincoln, Leicester, Rutland, and even to Stafford, Warwick, and Worcestershire, +bought most if not all of their hops at Stourbridge fair.</p> +<p>These are the reasons why so great a quantity of hops are seen at +this fair, as that it is incredible, considering, too, how remote from +this fair the growth of them is as above.</p> +<p>This is likewise a testimony of the prodigious resort of the trading +people of all parts of England to this fair; the quantity of hops that +have been sold at one of these fairs is diversely reported, and some +affirm it to be so great, that I dare not copy after them; but without +doubt it is a surprising account, especially in a cheap year.</p> +<p>The next article brought thither is wool, and this of several sorts, +but principally fleece wool, out of Lincolnshire, where the longest +staple is found; the sheep of those countries being of the largest breed.</p> +<p>The buyers of this wool are chiefly indeed the manufacturers of Norfolk +and Suffolk and Essex, and it is a prodigious quantity they buy.</p> +<p>Here I saw what I have not observed in any other county of England, +namely, a pocket of wool. This seems to be first called so in +mockery, this pocket being so big, that it loads a whole waggon, and +reaches beyond the most extreme parts of it hanging over both before +and behind, and these ordinarily weigh a ton or twenty-five hundredweight +of wool, all in one bag.</p> +<p>The quantity of wool only, which has been sold at this place at one +fair, has been said to amount to fifty or sixty thousand pounds in value, +some say a great deal more.</p> +<p>By these articles a stranger may make some guess at the immense trade +carried on at this place; what prodigious quantities of goods are bought +and sold here, and what a confluence of people are seen here from all +parts of England.</p> +<p>I might go on here to speak of several other sorts of English manufactures +which are brought hither to be sold; as all sorts of wrought-iron and +brass-ware from Birmingham; edged tools, knives, etc., from Sheffield; +glass wares and stockings from Nottingham and Leicester; and an infinite +throng of other things of smaller value every morning.</p> +<p>To attend this fair, and the prodigious conflux of people which come +to it, there are sometimes no less than fifty hackney coaches which +come from London, and ply night and morning to carry the people to and +from Cambridge; for there the gross of the people lodge; nay, which +is still more strange, there are wherries brought from London on waggons +to ply upon the little river Cam, and to row people up and down from +the town, and from the fair as occasion presents.</p> +<p>It is not to be wondered at, if the town of Cambridge cannot receive, +or entertain the numbers of people that come to this fair; not Cambridge +only, but all the towns round are full; nay, the very barns and stables +are turned into inns, and made as fit as they can to lodge the meaner +sort of people: as for the people in the fair, they all universally +eat, drink, and sleep in their booths and tents; and the said booths +are so intermingled with taverns, coffee-houses, drinking-houses, eating-houses, +cook-shops, etc., and all in tents too; and so many butchers and higglers +from all the neighbouring counties come into the fair every morning +with beef, mutton, fowls, butter, bread, cheese, eggs, and such things, +and go with them from tent to tent, from door to door, that there is +no want of any provisions of any kind, either dressed or undressed.</p> +<p>In a word, the fair is like a well-fortified city, and there is the +least disorder and confusion I believe, that can be seen anywhere with +so great a concourse of people.</p> +<p>Towards the latter end of the fair, and when the great hurry of wholesale +business begins to be over, the gentry come in from all parts of the +county round; and though they come for their diversion, yet it is not +a little money they lay out, which generally falls to the share of the +retailers, such as toy-shops, goldsmiths, braziers, ironmongers, turners, +milliners, mercers, etc., and some loose coins they reserve for the +puppet shows, drolls, rope-dancers, and such like, of which there is +no want, though not considerable like the rest. The last day of +the fair is the horse-fair, where the whole is closed with both horse +and foot races, to divert the meaner sort of people only, for nothing +considerable is offered of that kind. Thus ends the whole fair, +and in less than a week more, there is scarce any sign left that there +has been such a thing there, except by the heaps of dung and straw and +other rubbish which is left behind, trod into the earth, and which is +as good as a summer’s fallow for dunging the land; and as I have +said above, pays the husbandman well for the use of it.</p> +<p>I should have mentioned that here is a court of justice always open, +and held every day in a shed built on purpose in the fair; this is for +keeping the peace, and deciding controversies in matters deriving from +the business of the fair. The magistrates of the town of Cambridge +are judges in this court, as being in their jurisdiction, or they holding +it by special privilege: here they determine matters in a summary way, +as is practised in those we call Pye Powder Courts in other places, +or as a Court of Conscience; and they have a final authority without +appeal.</p> +<p>I come now to the town and university of Cambridge; I say the town +and university, for though they are blended together in the situation, +and the colleges, halls, and houses for literature are promiscuously +scattered up and down among the other parts, and some even among the +meanest of the other buildings, as Magdalene College over the bridge +is in particular; yet they are all incorporated together by the name +of the university, and are governed apart and distinct from the town +which they are so intermixed with.</p> +<p>As their authority is distinct from the town, so are their privileges, +customs, and government; they choose representatives, or members of +Parliament for themselves, and the town does the like for themselves, +also apart.</p> +<p>The town is governed by a mayor and aldermen; the university by a +chancellor, and vice-chancellor, etc. Though their dwellings are +mixed, and seem a little confused, their authority is not so; in some +cases the vice-chancellor may concern himself in the town, as in searching +houses for the scholars at improper hours, removing scandalous women, +and the like.</p> +<p>But as the colleges are many, and the gentlemen entertained in them +are a very great number, the trade of the town very much depends upon +them, and the tradesmen may justly be said to get their bread by the +colleges; and this is the surest hold the university may be said to +have of the townsmen, and by which they secure the dependence of the +town upon them, and consequently their submission.</p> +<p>I remember some years ago a brewer, who being very rich and popular +in the town, and one of their magistrates, had in several things so +much opposed the university, and insulted their vice-chancellor, or +other heads of houses, that in short the university having no other +way to exert themselves, and show their resentment, they made a bye-law +or order among themselves, that for the future they would not trade +with him; and that none of the colleges, halls, etc., would take any +more beer of him; and what followed? The man indeed braved it +out a while, but when he found he could not obtain a revocation of the +order, he was fain to leave off his brewhouse, and if I remember right, +quitted the town.</p> +<p>Thus I say, interest gives them authority; and there are abundance +of reasons why the town should not disoblige the university, as there +are some also on the other hand, why the university should not differ +to any extremity with the town; nor, such is their prudence, do they +let any disputes between them run up to any extremities if they can +avoid it. As for society; to any man who is a lover of learning, +or of learned men, here is the most agreeable under heaven; nor is there +any want of mirth and good company of other kinds; but it is to the +honour of the university to say, that the governors so well understand +their office, and the governed their duty, that here is very little +encouragement given to those seminaries of crime, the assemblies, which +are so much boasted of in other places.</p> +<p>Again, as dancing, gaming, intriguing are the three principal articles +which recommend those assemblies; and that generally the time for carrying +on affairs of this kind is the night, and sometimes all night, a time +as unseasonable as scandalous; add to this, that the orders of the university +admit no such excesses; I therefore say, as this is the case, it is +to the honour of the whole body of the university that no encouragement +is given to them here.</p> +<p>As to the antiquity of the university in this town, the originals +and founders of the several colleges, their revenues, laws, government, +and governors, they are so effectually and so largely treated of by +other authors, and are so foreign to the familiar design of these letters, +that I refer my readers to Mr. Camden’s “Britannia” +and the author of the “Antiquities of Cambridge,” and other +such learned writers, by whom they may be fully informed.</p> +<p>The present Vice-Chancellor is Dr. Snape, formerly Master of Eaton +School near Windsor, and famous for his dispute with, and evident advantage +over, the late Bishop of Bangor in the time of his government; the dispute +between the University and the Master of Trinity College has been brought +to a head so as to employ the pens of the learned on both sides, but +at last prosecuted in a judicial way so as to deprive Dr. Bentley of +all his dignities and offices in the university; but the doctor flying +to the royal protection, the university is under a writ of mandamus, +to show cause why they do not restore the doctor again, to which it +seems they demur, and that demur has not, that we hear, been argued, +at least when these sheets were sent to the press. What will be +the issue time must show.</p> +<p>From Cambridge the road lies north-west on the edge of the fens to +Huntingdon, where it joins the great north road. On this side +it is all an agreeable corn country as above, adorned with several seats +of gentlemen; but the chief is the noble house, seat, or mansion of +Wimple or Wimple Hall, formerly built at a vast expense by the late +Earl of Radnor, adorned with all the natural beauties of situation, +and to which was added all the most exquisite contrivances which the +best heads could invent to make it artificially as well as naturally +pleasant.</p> +<p>However, the fate of the Radnor family so directing, it was bought +with the whole estate about it by the late Duke of Newcastle, in a partition +of whose immense estate it fell to the Right Honourable the Lord Harley, +son and heir-apparent of the present Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, in +right of the Lady Harriet Cavendish, only daughter of the said Duke +of Newcastle, who is married to his lordship, and brought him this estate +and many other, sufficient to denominate her the richest heiress in +Great Britain.</p> +<p>Here his lordship resides, and has already so recommended himself +to this county as to be by a great majority chosen Knight of the Shire +for the county of Cambridge.</p> +<p>From Cambridge, my design obliging me, and the direct road in part +concurring, I came back through the west part of the county of Essex, +and at Saffron Walden I saw the ruins of the once largest and most magnificent +pile in all this part of England—viz., Audley End—built +by, and decaying with, the noble Dukes and Earls of Suffolk.</p> +<p>A little north of this part of the country rises the River Stour, +which for a course of fifty miles or more parts the two counties of +Suffolk and Essex, passing through or near Haveril, Clare, Cavendish, +Halsted, Sudbury, Bowers, Nayland, Stretford, Dedham, Manningtree, and +into the sea at Harwich, assisting by its waters to make one of the +best harbours for shipping that is in Great Britain—I mean Orwell +Haven or Harwich, of which I have spoken largely already.</p> +<p>As we came on this side we saw at a distance Braintree and Bocking, +two towns, large, rich, and populous, and made so originally by the +bay trade, of which I have spoken at large at Colchester, and which +flourishes still among them.</p> +<p>The manor of Braintree I found descended by purchase to the name +of Olmeus, the son of a London merchant of the same name, making good +what I had observed before, of the great number of such who have purchased +estates in this county.</p> +<p>Near this town is Felsted, a small place, but noted for a free school +of an ancient foundation, for many years under the mastership of the +late Rev. Mr. Lydiat, and brought by him to the meridian of its reputation. +It is now supplied, and that very worthily, by the Rev. Mr. Hutchins.</p> +<p>Near to this is the Priory of Lees, a delicious seat of the late +Dukes of Manchester, but sold by the present Duke to the Duchess Dowager +of Bucks, his Grace the Duke of Manchester removing to his yet finer +seat of Kimbolton in Northamptonshire, the ancient mansion of the family. +From hence keeping the London Road I came to Chelmsford, mentioned before, +and Ingerstone, five miles west, which I mention again, because in the +parish church of this town are to be seen the ancient monuments of the +noble family of Petre, whose seat and large estate lie in the neighbourhood, +and whose whole family, by a constant series of beneficent actions to +the poor, and bounty upon all charitable occasions, have gained an affectionate +esteem through all that part of the country such as no prejudice of +religion could wear out, or perhaps ever may; and I must confess, I +think, need not, for good and great actions command our respect, let +the opinions of the persons be otherwise what they will.</p> +<p>From hence we crossed the country to the great forest, called Epping +Forest, reaching almost to London. The country on that side of +Essex is called the Roodings, I suppose, because there are no less than +ten towns almost together, called by the name of Roding, and is famous +for good land, good malt, and dirty roads; the latter indeed in the +winter are scarce passable for horse or man. In the midst of this +we see Chipping Onger, Hatfield Broad Oak, Epping, and many forest towns, +famed as I have said for husbandry and good malt, but of no other note. +On the south side of the county is Waltham Abbey; the ruins of the abbey +remain, and though antiquity is not my proper business, I could not +but observe that King Harold, slain in the great battle in Sussex against +William the Conqueror, lies buried here; his body being begged by his +mother, the Conqueror allowed it to be carried hither; but no monument +was, as I can find, built for him, only a flat gravestone, on which +was engraven <i>Harold</i> <i>Infelix.</i></p> +<p>From hence I came over the forest again—that is to say, over +the lower or western part of it, where it is spangled with fine villages, +and these villages filled with fine seats, most of them built by the +citizens of London, as I observed before, but the lustre of them seems +to be entirely swallowed up in the magnificent palace of the Lord Castlemain, +whose father, Sir Josiah Child, as it were, prepared it in his life +for the design of his son, though altogether unforeseen, by adding to +the advantage of its situation innumerable rows of trees, planted in +curious order for avenues and vistas to the house, all leading up to +the place where the old house stood, as to a centre.</p> +<p>In the place adjoining, his lordship, while he was yet Sir Richard +Child only, and some years before he began the foundation of his new +house, laid out the most delicious, as well as most spacious, pieces +of ground for gardens that is to be seen in all this part of England. +The greenhouse is an excellent building, fit to entertain a prince; +it is furnished with stoves and artificial places for heat from an apartment +in which is a bagnio and other conveniences, which render it both useful +and pleasant. And these gardens have been so the just admiration +of the world, that it has been the general diversion of the citizens +to go out to see them, till the crowds grew too great, and his lordship +was obliged to restrain his servants from showing them, except on one +or two days in a week only.</p> +<p>The house is built since these gardens have been finished. +The building is all of Portland stone in the front, which makes it look +extremely glorious and magnificent at a distance, it being the particular +property of that stone (except in the streets of London, where it is +tainted and tinged with the smoke of the city) to grow whiter and whiter +the longer it stands in the open air.</p> +<p>As the front of the house opens to a long row of trees, reaching +to the great road at Leightonstone, so the back face, or front (if that +be proper), respects the gardens, and, with an easy descent, lands you +upon the terrace, from whence is a most beautiful prospect to the river, +which is all formed into canals and openings to answer the views from +above and beyond the river; the walks and wildernesses go on to such +a distance, and in such a manner up the hill, as they before went down, +that the sight is lost in the woods adjoining, and it looks all like +one planted garden as far as the eye can see.</p> +<p>I shall cover as much as possible the melancholy part of a story +which touches too sensibly many, if not most, of the great and flourishing +families in England. Pity and matter of grief is it to think that +families, by estate able to appear in such a glorious posture as this, +should ever be vulnerable by so mean a disaster as that of stock-jobbing. +But the general infatuation of the day is a plea for it, so that men +are not now blamed on that account. South Sea was a general possession, +and if my Lord Castlemain was wounded by that arrow shot in the dark +it was a misfortune. But it is so much a happiness that it was +not a mortal wound, as it was to some men who once seemed as much out +of the reach of it. And that blow, be it what it will, is not +remembered for joy of the escape, for we see this noble family, by prudence +and management, rise out of all that cloud, if it may be allowed such +a name, and shining in the same full lustre as before.</p> +<p>This cannot be said of some other families in this county, whose +fine parks and new-built palaces are fallen under forfeitures and alienations +by the misfortunes of the times and by the ruin of their masters’ +fortunes in that South Sea deluge.</p> +<p>But I desire to throw a veil over these things as they come in my +way; it is enough that we write upon them, as was written upon King +Harold’s tomb at Waltham Abbey, <i>Infelix</i>, and let all the +rest sleep among things that are the fittest to be forgotten.</p> +<p>From my Lord Castlemain’s, house and the rest of the fine dwellings +on that side of the forest, for there are several very good houses at +Wanstead, only that they seem all swallowed up in the lustre of his +lordship’s palace, I say, from thence, I went south, towards the +great road over that part of the forest called the Flats, where we see +a very beautiful but retired and rural seat of Mr. Lethulier’s, +eldest son of the late Sir John Lethulier, of Lusum, in Kent, of whose +family I shall speak when I come on that side.</p> +<p>By this turn I came necessarily on to Stratford, where I set out. +And thus having finished my first circuit, I conclude my first letter, +and am,</p> +<p>Sir, your most humble and obedient servant.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<h2>APPENDIX</h2> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines2"><br /><br /></div> +<p>Whoever travels, as I do, over England, and writes the account of +his observations, will, as I noted before, always leave something, altering +or undertaking by such a growing improving nation as this, or something +to discover in a nation where so much is hid, sufficient to employ the +pens of those that come after him, or to add by way of appendix to what +he has already observed.</p> +<p>This is my case with respect to the particulars which follow: (1) +Since these sheets were in the press, a noble palace of Mr. Walpole’s, +at present First Commissioner of the Treasury, Privy-counsellor, etc., +to King George, is, as it were, risen out of the ruins of the ancient +seat of the family of Walpole, at Houghton, about eight miles distant +from Lynn, and on the north coast of Norfolk, near the sea.</p> +<p>As the house is not yet finished, and when I passed by it was but +newly designed, it cannot be expected that I should be able to give +a particular description of what it will be. I can do little more +than mention that it appears already to be exceedingly magnificent, +and suitable to the genius of the great founder.</p> +<p>But a friend of mine, who lives in that county, has sent me the following +lines, which, as he says, are to be placed upon the building, whether +on the frieze of the cornice, or over the portico, or on what part of +the building, of that I am not as yet certain. The inscription +is as follows, viz.:-</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>“H. M. F.</p> +<p>“Fundamen ut essem Domûs<br />In Agro Natali Extruendae,<br />Robertus +ille Walpole<br />Quem nulla nesciet Posteritas:</p> +<p>Faxit Dues.</p> +<p>“Postquam Maturus Annis Dominus.<br />Diu Laetatus fuerit absolutâ<br />Incolumem +tueantur Incolames.<br />Ad Summam omnium Diem<br />Et nati natorum +et qui nascentur ab illis.</p> +<p>Hic me Posuit.”</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines1"><br /></div> +<p>A second thing proper to be added here, by way of appendix, relates +to what I have mentioned of the Port of London, being bounded by the +Naze on the Essex shore, and the North Foreland on the Kentish shore, +which some people, guided by the present usage of the Custom House, +may pretend is not so, to answer such objectors. The true state +of that case stands thus:</p> +<p>“(1) The clause taken from the Act of Parliament establishing +the extent of the Port of London, and published in some of the books +of rates, is this:</p> +<p>“‘To prevent all future differences and disputes touching +the extent and limits of the Port of London, the said port is declared +to extend, and be accounted from the promontory or point called the +North Foreland in the Isle of Thanet, and from thence northward in a +right line to the point called the Naze, beyond the Gunfleet upon the +coast of Essex, and so continued westward throughout the river Thames, +and the several channels, streams, and rivers falling into it, to London +Bridge, saving the usual and known rights, liberties, and privileges +of the ports of Sandwich and Ipswich, and either of them, and the known +members thereof, and of the customers, comptrollers, searchers, and +their deputies, of and within the said ports of Sandwich and Ipswich +and the several creeks, harbours, and havens to them, or either of them, +respectively belonging, within the counties of Kent and Essex.’</p> +<p>“II. Notwithstanding what is above written, the Port +of London, as in use since the said order, is understood to reach no +farther than Gravesend in Kent and Tilbury Point in Essex, and the ports +of Rochester, Milton, and Faversham belong to the port of Sandwich.</p> +<p>“In like manner the ports of Harwich, Colchester, Wivenhoe, +Malden, Leigh, etc., are said to be members of the port of Ipswich.”</p> +<p>This observation may suffice for what is needful to be said upon +the same subject when I may come to speak of the port of Sandwich and +its members and their privileges with respect to Rochester, Milton, +Faversham, etc., in my circuit through the county of Kent.</p> +<div class="GutenbergBlankLines3"><br /><br /><br /></div> +<p>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, TOUR THROUGH THE EASTERN COUNTIES ***</p> +<pre> + +******This file should be named ttece10h.htm or ttece10h.zip****** +Corrected EDITIONS of our EBooks get a new NUMBER, ttece11h.htm +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, ttece10ah.htm + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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