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diff --git a/983-0.txt b/983-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d6717a2 --- /dev/null +++ b/983-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4229 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Tour through the Eastern Counties of England, +1722, by Daniel Defoe + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + + + + +Title: Tour through the Eastern Counties of England, 1722 + + +Author: Daniel Defoe + + + +Release Date: February 8, 2015 [eBook #983] +[This file was first posted on July 10, 1997] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOUR THROUGH THE EASTERN COUNTIES +OF ENGLAND, 1722*** + + +Transcribed from the 1891 Cassell & Company edition by David Price, email +ccx074@pglaf.org + + CASSELL’S NATIONAL LIBRARY + + * * * * * + + + + + + TOUR + THROUGH THE + EASTERN COUNTIES OF + ENGLAND, 1722. + + + BY + DANIEL DEFOE. + + [Picture: Decorative graphic] + + CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED: + _LONDON_, _PARIS_, & _MELBOURNE_. + 1891. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +DEFOE’S “particular and diverting account of whatever is curious and +worth observation” in his native country, told in a series of letters, +was founded upon seventeen separate tours in the counties, and three +larger tours through the whole country. He said he had “viewed the north +part of England and the south part of Scotland five several times over,” +and he thought it worth while to note what he saw, because, “the fate of +things gives a new face to things; produces changes in low life, and +innumerable incidents; plants and supplants families; raises and sinks +towns; removes manufactures and trade; great towns decay and small towns +rise; new towns, new palaces, and new seats are built every day; great +rivers and good harbours dry up, and grow useless; again, new ports are +opened; brooks are made rivers; small rivers navigable pools, and +harbours are made where there were none before, and the like.” We are +endeavouring, by little books published from time to time in this +“National Library,” to secure some record of the changes in our land and +in our manners as a people, and of what was worth record in his day we +can wish for no better reporter than Defoe. + +Here, therefore, is Defoe’s first letter, which describes a Tour through +the Eastern Counties as they were in 1722. It opens his first volume, +published in 1724, which was entitled, “A Tour through the whole Island +of Great Britain, Divided into Circuits or Journies. Giving a Particular +and Diverting Account of whatever is Curious and worth Observation, viz., +I. A Description of the Principal Cities and Towns, their Situation, +Magnitude, Government, and Commerce. II. The Customs, Manners, Speech, +as also the Exercises, Diversions, and Employment of the People. III. +The Produce and Improvement of the Lands, the Trade and Manufactures. +IV. The Sea Ports and Fortifications, the Course of Rivers, and the +Inland Navigation. V. The Public Edifices, Seats and Palaces of the +Nobility and Gentry. With Useful Observations upon the Whole. +Particularly fitted for the Reading of such as Desire to Travel over the +Island. By a Gentleman.” The Second Volume of the Tour was published in +June, 1725; and the Third Volume, giving a Tour through Scotland with a +Map of Scotland by Mr. Moll, followed in August, 1726, completing the +record of what Defoe called “a tedious and very expensive five years’ +Travel.” However tedious the travel may have been, Defoe’s account of it +is anything but tedious reading. + +The change of times is in this letter vividly illustrated in this volume +by Defoe’s account of life as he found it in the undrained Essex marshes. +Life in them was so unhealthy that the land was cheap, men thus were +tempted to take fevers for grazing and corn-growing. They became fairly +acclimatised, but when they brought their wives in fresh and healthy from +the uplands the women sickened and perished so fast, that it was common +to find a man with his sixth or eighth wife, and Defoe was told of an old +farmer who was living with his twenty-fifth wife, and had a son about +thirty-five years old, who had been married to about fourteen wives. +Custom had even dulled the sense of this horrible state of things until +the frequent change of wives became a local joke. + +We have also a reminder in this volume of the traces and fresh memories +of Civil War in the account of the Siege of Colchester, which is a bit of +realisation such as no man could give better than Defoe. We may note +also the fulness of detail in his account of Ipswich, a town that he +first knew as a child of seven. He tells how it was once noted for +strong collier vessels built there, he maintains its honour and explains +its decay, while he makes various suggestions for the restoration of +prosperity, even to the hint that Ipswich would be a healthy and pleasant +place for persons to retire to who would live well upon slender means. +He writes, indeed, of Ipswich like a loyal townsman who had lived there +all his life. + +At Bury St. Edmunds Defoe tolls us how in a pathway between two churches +a barrister of good family attempted to assassinate his brother-in-law +whom he had invited with his wife and children to supper. On excuse of +visiting a neighbour he led him to the ambush of a hired assassin. They +left their victim for dead, horribly mangled on the head and face and +body with a hedgebill. He lived to bring them to justice, and was living +still when Defoe wrote. But the assassins had been condemned to death +“on the statute for defacing and dismembering, called the Coventry Act.” +This Tour also recalls the days when Bury was a place of fashionable +holiday resort. Defoe meditates upon the decline and fall of Dunwich, +tells of the coming and going of the swallows from our east coast, and of +innumerable swallows whom he saw one day waiting for a favourable wind on +the roofs of the church and houses at Southwold. We read of the coming +up to London of the Norfolk turkeys on foot, in droves of from three +hundred to a thousand, and so many droves that by one route alone, and +that not the most crowded—over Stratford Bridge—a hundred and forty +thousand birds travelled to London between August and October. + +In Norwich, Defoe was less interested than in Ipswich; but of Yarmouth +his account is full, and the frequency of wrecks on the east coast, +especially about Cromer Bay, which seamen called the Devil’s Throat, is +illustrated by the fact that in all the way from Winterton towards Cromer +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 hog sty, but +what was built of old planks, beams, wales, and timbers, etc., the wrecks +of ships, and ruins of mariners’ and merchants’ fortunes.” + +Defoe saw the races at Newmarket, where he was “sick of the jockeying +part.” He went also to Bury Fair, of which he gives a full description, +and at Cambridge he paid honour to the University. + +There was another Tour told in letters so near to Defoe’s in date and +form that the first or second volume of one work is often sold with the +second or first volume of the other. The book not by Defoe was entitled +“A Journey through England in Familiar Letters from a Gentleman” here to +his friend abroad, in two vols., 1722, with a third volume on Scotland in +1726. All editions published after Defoe’s death in 1731 have matter +added by others. The addition of new matter began with the novelist +Samuel Richardson in 1732. + +Some time afterwards there were changes announced as “by a gentleman of +eminence in the literary world.” + + H. M. + + + + +TOUR THROUGH THE EASTERN COUNTIES OF ENGLAND, 1722. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. _Note_.—This parish has two or three chapels of +ease, viz., one at Ilford, and one on the side of Hainault Forest, called +New Chapel. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Several little observations I made in this part of the county of Essex. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +The present government of this important place is under the prudent +administration of the Right Honourable the Lord Newbrugh. + +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 _Idumanum Fluvium_; but by our fishermen and seamen, who +use it as a port, it is called Malden Water. + +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. + +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. + +_N.B._—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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + +A DIARY: +OR, AN ACCOUNT OF THE SIEGE AND BLOCKADE OF COLCHESTER, A.D. 1648. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +On the second, Lord Fairfax offered exchange for Sir William Masham in +particular, and afterwards for other prisoners, but the Lord Goring +refused. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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:— + + The Lords and gentlemen all prisoners at mercy. + + The common soldiers had passes to go home to their several dwellings, + but without arms, and an oath not to serve against the Parliament. + + The town to be preserved from pillage, paying £14,000 ready money. + +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. + +The two first of the three gentlemen were shot to death, and the third +respited. Thus ended the siege of Colchester. + +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: + +Earl of Norwich (Goring). +Lord Capell. +Lord Loughbro’. + 11 Knights. + 9 Colonels. + 8 Lieut.-Colonels. + 9 Majors. + 30 Captains. + 72 Lieutenants. + 69 Ensigns. + 183 Serjeants and Corporals. + 3,067 Private Soldiers. + 65 Servants to the Lords and General Officers and Gentlemen. + 3,526 in all. + +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. + +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. + + _Public Edifices are_— + +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. + +2. The guildhall of the town, called by them the moot hall, to which is +annexed the town gaol. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +There are two charity schools set up here, and carried on by a generous +subscription, with very good success. + +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 _ad referendum_. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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: + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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: + +_The_ GRANT _in_ OLD ENGLISH. _The Explanation in Modern + English_. +IChe EDWARD Koning, I Edward the king, +Have given of my Forrest the Have made ranger of my forest of +kepen of the Hundred of _Chelmer_ Chelmsford hundred and Deering +and _Dancing_. hundred, +To RANDOLPH PEPERKING, Ralph Peverell, for him and his +And to his kindling. heirs for ever; +With Heorte and Hind, Doe and With both the red and fallow +Bocke, deer. +Hare and Fox, Cat and Brock, Hare and fox, otter and badger; +Wild Fowle with his Flock; Wild fowl of all sorts, +Patrich, Pheasant Hen, and Partridges and pheasants, +Pheasant Cock, +With green and wild Stub and Timber and underwood roots and +Stock, tops; +To kepen and to yemen with all With power to preserve the +her might. forest, +Both by Day, and eke by Night; And watch it against + deer-stealers and others: +And Hounds for to hold, With a right to keep hounds of +Good and Swift and Bold: all sorts, +Four Greyhound and six Raches, Four greyhounds and six terriers, +For Hare and Fox, and Wild Harriers and foxhounds, and other +Cattes, hounds. +And therefore Iche made him my And to this end I have registered +Book. this my grant in the crown rolls + or books; +Witness the Bishop of _Wolston_. To which the bishop has set his +And Booke ylrede many on, hand as a witness for any one to + read. +And _Sweyne_ of _Essex_, our Also signed by the king’s brother +Brother, (or, as some think, the + Chancellor Sweyn, then Earl or + Count of Essex). +And taken him many other He might call such other + witnesses to sign as he thought + fit. +And our steward _Howlein_, Also the king’s high steward was +That _By sought_ me for him. a witness, at whose request this + grant was obtained of the king. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +I am much mistaken, too, if since the Revolution some very good ships +have not been built at this town, and particularly the _Melford_ or +_Milford_ galley, a ship of forty guns; as the _Greyhound_ 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 _Royal +Prince_, the great ship lately built for the South Sea Company, was +London built, because she was built at Limehouse. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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:— + + 1. Good houses at very easy rents. + + 2. An airy, clean, and well-governed town. + + 3. Very agreeable and improving company almost of every kind. + + 4. A wonderful plenty of all manner of provisions, whether flesh or + fish, and very good of the kind. + + 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. + + 6. Easy passage to London, either by land or water, the coach going + through to London in a day. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +The present members of Parliament for this place are Jermyn Davers and +James Reynolds, Esquires. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +There are some gentlemen’s seats up farther from the sea, but very few +upon the coast. + +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. + +This town is a testimony of the decay of public things, things of the +most durable nature; and as the old poet expresses it, + + “By numerous examples we may see, + That towns and cities die as well as we.” + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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, + + “Swoul and Dunwich, and Walderswick, + All go in at one lousie creek.” + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _Royal Prince_, 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. + +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.” + +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. + +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. + +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. + +_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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + +NORFOLK. + + +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. + +The epitaph or inscription on this monument is as follows:— + + M. S. + D. Johannis Holt, _Equitis Aur_. + _Totius Angliæ in Banco Regis_ + _per_ 21 _Annos continuos_ + Capitalis Justitiarii + _Gulielmo Regi Annæqur Reginæ_ + _Consiliarii perpetui_: + _Libertatis ac Legum Anglicarum_ + _Assertoris_, _Vindicis_, _Custodis_, + _Vigilis Acris & intrepidi_, + _Rolandus Frater Uncius & Hæres_ + _Optime de se Merito_ + _posuit_, + _Die Martis Vto_. 1709. _Sublatus est_ + _ex Oculis nostris_ + _Natus_ 30 _Decembris_, _Anno_ 1642. + +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. + +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.:— + +Thetford, Hingham, Harleston, +Diss, West Dereham, E. Dereham, +Harling, Attleborough, Watton, +Bucknam, Windham, Loddon, etc. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 _Vir Pecuniosus_; he might +have called him _Vir Pecuniosissimus_, 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. +_to_ NNW., the land being on the W. or larboard side. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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—_sed caret pedibus_; these are +wanting. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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:— + +Lincoln, Warwick, Norfolk, +* Cambridge, Oxford, Suffolk, +* Huntingdon, Leicester, Essex, +* Bedford, * Northampton +Buckingham, * Rutland. + + Those marked with (*) empty all their waters this way, the rest but in + part. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +The buyers of this wool are chiefly indeed the manufacturers of Norfolk +and Suffolk and Essex, and it is a prodigious quantity they buy. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 +_Harold Infelix_. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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, _Infelix_, and let all the rest sleep among things that +are the fittest to be forgotten. + +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. + +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, + + Sir, your most humble + and obedient servant. + + + +APPENDIX. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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.:— + + “H. M. P. + + “_Fundamen ut essem Domûs_ + _In Agro Natali Extruendæ_, + Robertus ille Walpole + Quem nulla nesciet Posteritas: + + _Faxit Dues_. + + “_Postquam Maturus Annis Dominus_. + _Diu Lætatus fuerit absolutâ_ + _Incolumem tueantur Incolames_. + _Ad Summam omnium Diem_ + _Et nati natorum et qui nascentur ab illis_. + + _Hic me Posuit_.” + +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: + +“(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: + +“‘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.’ + +“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. + +“In like manner the ports of Harwich, Colchester, Wivenhoe, Malden, +Leigh, etc., are said to be members of the port of Ipswich.” + +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. + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOUR THROUGH THE EASTERN COUNTIES OF +ENGLAND, 1722*** + + +******* This file should be named 983-0.txt or 983-0.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/9/8/983 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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