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    From London to Land's End

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    marked out was exceeding large, near ten miles in circumference,

      and ended west upon the open Downs, in view of the town of

      Stockbridge.

      This house was afterwards settled, with a royal revenue also, as an

      appanage (established by Parliament) upon Prince George of Denmark

      for his life, in case he had out-lived the queen; but his Royal

      Highness dying before her Majesty, all hope of seeing this design

      perfected, or the house finished, is now vanished.

      I cannot omit that there are several public edifices in this city

      and in the neighbourhood, as the hospitals and the building

      adjoining near the east gate; and towards the north a piece of an

      old monastery undemolished, and which is still preserved to the

      religion, being the residence of some private Roman Catholic

      gentlemen, where they have an oratory, and, as they say, live still

      according to the rules of St. Benedict. This building is called

      Hide House; and as they live very usefully, and to the highest

      degree obliging among their neighbours, they meet with no

      obstruction or disturbance from anybody.

      Winchester is a place of no trade other than is naturally

      occasioned by the inhabitants of the city and neighbouring villages

      one with another. Here is no manufacture, no navigation; there was

      indeed an attempt to make the river navigable from Southampton, and

      it was once made practicable, but it never answered the expense so

      as to give encouragement to the undertakers.

      Here is a great deal of good company, and abundance of gentry being

      in the neighbourhood, it adds to the sociableness of the place.

      The clergy also here are, generally speaking, very rich and very

      numerous.

      As there is such good company, so they are gotten into that new-

      fashioned way of conversing by assemblies. I shall do no more than

      mention them here; they are pleasant and agreeable to the young

      peoples, and sometimes fatal to them, of which, in its place,

      Winchester has its share of the mirth. May it escape the ill-

      consequences!

      The hospital on the south of this city, at a mile distant on the

      road to Southampton, is worth notice. It is said to be founded by

      King William Rufus, but was not endowed or appointed till later

      times by Cardinal Beaufort. Every traveller that knocks at the

      door of this house in his way, and asks for it, claims the relief

      of a piece of white bread and a cup of beer, and this donation is

      still continued. A quantity of good beer is set apart every day to

      be given away, and what is left is distributed to other poor, but

      none of it kept to the next day.

      How the revenues of this hospital, which should maintain the master

      and thirty private gentlemen (whom they call Fellows, but ought to

      call Brothers), is now reduced to maintain only fourteen, while the

      master lives in a figure equal to the best gentleman in the

      country, would be well worth the inquiry of a proper visitor, if

      such can be named. It is a thing worthy of complaint when public

      charities, designed for the relief of the poor, are embezzled and

      depredated by the rich, and turned to the support of luxury and

      pride.

      From Winchester is about twenty-five miles, and over the most

      charming plains that can anywhere be seen (far, in my opinion,

      excelling the plains of Mecca), we come to Salisbury. The vast

      flocks of sheep which one everywhere sees upon these Downs, and the

      great number of those flocks, is a sight truly worth observation;

      it is ordinary for these flocks to contain from three thousand to

      five thousand in a flock, and several private farmers hereabouts

      have two or three such flocks.

      But it is more remarkable still how a great part of these Downs

      comes, by a new method of husbandry, to be not only made arable

      (which they never were in former days), but to bear excellent

      wheat, and great crops, too, though otherwise poor barren land, and

      never known to our ancestors to be capable of any such thing--nay,

      they would perhaps have laughed at any one that would have gone

      about to plough up the wild downs and hills where the sheep were

      wont to go. But experience has made the present age wiser and more

      skilful in husbandry; for by only folding the sheep upon the

      ploughed lands--those lands which otherwise are barren, and where

      the plough goes within three or four inches of the solid rock of

      chalk, are made fruitful and bear very good wheat, as well as rye

      and barley. I shall say more of this when I come to speak of the

      same practice farther in the country.

      This plain country continues in length from Winchester to Salisbury

      (twenty-five miles), from thence to Dorchester (twenty-two miles),

      thence to Weymouth (six miles); so that they lie near fifty miles

      in length and breadth; they reach also in some places thirty-five

      to forty miles. They who would make any practicable guess at the

      number of sheep usually fed on these Downs may take it from a

      calculation made, as I was told, at Dorchester, that there were six

      hundred thousand sheep fed within six miles of that town, measuring

      every way round and the town in the centre.

      As we passed this plain country, we saw a great many old camps, as

      well Roman as British, and several remains of the ancient

      inhabitants of this kingdom, and of their wars, battles,

      entrenchments, encampments, buildings, and other fortifications,

      which are indeed very agreeable to a traveller that has read

      anything of the history of the country. Old Sarum is as remarkable

      as any of these, where there is a double entrenchment, with a deep

      graff or ditch to either of them; the area about one hundred yards

      in diameter, taking in the whole crown of the hill, and thereby

      rendering the ascent very difficult. Near this there is one farm-

      house, which is all the remains I could see of any town in or near

      the place (for the encampment has no resemblance of a town), and

      yet this is called the borough of Old Sarum, and sends two members

      to Parliament. Whom those members can justly say they represent

      would be hard for them to answer.

      Some will have it that the old city of SORBIODUNUM or Salisbury

      stood here, and was afterwards (for I know not what reasons)

      removed to the low marshy grounds among the rivers, where it now

      stands. But as I see no authority for it other than mere

      tradition, I believe my share of it, and take it AD REFERENDUM.

      Salisbury itself is indeed a large and pleasant city, though I do

      not think it at all the pleasanter for that which they boast so

      much of--namely, the water running through the middle of every

      street--or that it adds anything to the beauty of the place, but

      just the contrary; it keeps the streets always dirty, full of wet

      and filth and weeds, even in the middle of summer.

      The city is placed upon the confluence of two large rivers, the

      Avon and the Willy, neither of them considerable rivers, but very

      large when joined together, and yet larger when they receive a

      third river (viz., the Naddir), which
    joins them near Clarendon

      Park, about three miles below the city; then, with a deep channel

      and a current less rapid, they run down to Christchurch, which is

      their port. And where they empty themselves into the sea, from

      that town upwards towards Salisbury they are made navigable to

      within two miles, and might be so quite into the city, were it not

      for the strength of the stream.

      As the city of Winchester is a city without trade--that is to say,

      without any particular manufactures--so this city of Salisbury and

      all the county of Wilts, of which it is the capital, are full of a

      great variety of manufactures, and those some of the most

      considerable in England--namely, the clothing trade and the trade

      of flannels, druggets, and several other sorts of manufactures, of

      which in their order.

      The city of Salisbury has two remarkable manufactures carried on in

      it, and which employ the poor of great part of the country round--

      namely, fine flannels, and long-cloths for the Turkey trade, called

      Salisbury whites. The people of Salisbury are gay and rich, and

      have a flourishing trade; and there is a great deal of good manners

      and good company among them--I mean, among the citizens, besides

      what is found among the gentlemen; for there are many good families

      in Salisbury besides the citizens.

      This society has a great addition from the Close--that is to say,

      the circle of ground walled in adjacent to the cathedral; in which

      the families of the prebendaries and commons, and others of the

      clergy belonging to the cathedral, have their houses, as is usual

      in all cities, where there are cathedral churches. These are so

      considerable here, and the place so large, that it is (as it is

      called in general) like another city.

      The cathedral is famous for the height of its spire, which is

      without exception the highest and the handsomest in England, being

      from the ground 410 feet, and yet the walls so exceeding thin that

      at the upper part of the spire, upon a view made by the late Sir

      Christopher Wren, the wall was found to be less than five inches

      thick; upon which a consultation was had whether the spire, or at

      least the upper part of it, should be taken down, it being supposed

      to have received some damage by the great storm in the year 1703;

      but it was resolved in the negative, and Sir Christopher ordered it

      to be so strengthened with bands of iron plates as has effectually

      secured it; and I have heard some of the best architects say it is

      stronger now than when it was first built.

      They tell us here long stories of the great art used in laying the

      first foundation of this church, the ground being marshy and wet,

      occasioned by the channels of the rivers; that it was laid upon

      piles, according to some, and upon woolpacks, according to others.

      But this is not supposed by those who know that the whole country

      is one rock of chalk, even from the tops of the highest hills to

      the bottom of the deepest rivers.

      They tell us this church was forty years a-building, and cost an

      immense sum of money; but it must be acknowledged that the inside

      of the work is not answerable in the decoration of things to the

      workmanship without. The painting in the choir is mean, and more

      like the ordinary method of common drawing-room or tavern painting

      than that of a church; the carving is good, but very little of it;

      and it is rather a fine church than finely set off.

      The ordinary boast of this building (that there were as many gates

      as months, as many windows as days, as many marble pillars as hours

      in the year) is now no recommendation at all. However, the mention

      of it must be preserved:-

      "As many days as in one year there be,

      So many windows in one church we see;

      As many marble pillars there appear

      As there are hours throughout the fleeting year;

      As many gates as moons one year do view:

      Strange tale to tell, yet not more strange than true."

      There are, however, some very fine monuments in this church;

      particularly one belonging to the noble family of Seymours, since

      Dukes of Somerset (and ancestors of the present flourishing

      family), which on a most melancholy occasion has been now lately

      opened again to receive the body of the late Duchess of Somerset,

      the happy consort for almost forty years of his Grace the present

      Duke, and only daughter and heiress of the ancient and noble family

      of Percy, Earls of Northumberland, whose great estate she brought

      into the family of Somerset, who now enjoy it.

      With her was buried at the same time her Grace's daughter the

      Marchioness of Caermarthen (being married to the Marquis of

      Caermarthen, son and heir-apparent to the Lord of Leeds), who died

      for grief at the loss of the duchess her mother, and was buried

      with her; also her second son, the Duke Percy Somerset, who died a

      few months before, and had been buried in the Abbey church of

      Westminster, but was ordered to be removed and laid here with the

      ancestors of his house. And I hear his Grace designs to have a yet

      more magnificent monument erected in this cathedral for them, just

      by the other which is there already.

      How the Dukes of Somerset came to quit this church for their

      burying-place, and be laid in Westminster Abbey, that I know not;

      but it is certain that the present Duke has chosen to have his

      family laid here with their ancestors, and to that end has caused

      the corpse of his son, the Lord Percy, as above, and one of his

      daughters, who had been buried in the Abbey, to be removed and

      brought down to this vault, which lies in that they call the Virgin

      Mary's Chapel, behind the altar. There is, as above, a noble

      monument for a late Duke and Duchess of Somerset in the place

      already, with their portraits at full-length, their heads lying

      upon cushions, the whole perfectly well wrought in fine polished

      Italian marble, and their sons kneeling by them. Those I suppose

      to be the father of the great Duke of Somerset, uncle to King

      Edward IV.; but after this the family lay in Westminster Abbey,

      where there is also a fine monument for that very duke who was

      beheaded by Edward VI., and who was the great patron of the

      Reformation.

      Among other monuments of noble men in this cathedral they show you

      one that is very extraordinary, and to which there hangs a tale.

      There was in the reign of Philip and Mary a very unhappy murder

      committed by the then Lord Sturton, or Stourton, a family since

      extinct, but well known till within a few years in that country.

      This Lord Stourton being guilty of the said murder, which also was

      aggravated with very bad circumstances, could not obtain the usual

      grace of the Crown (viz., to be beheaded), but Queen Mary

      positively ordered that, like a common malefactor, he should die at

      the gallows. After he was hanged, his friends desiring to have him

      buried at Salisbury, the bishop would not consent that he should be

      buried in the cathedral unless, as a farther mark of infamy, his
    r />
      friends would submit to this condition--viz., that the silken

      halter in which he was hanged should be hanged up over his grave in

      the church as a monument of his crime; which was accordingly done,

      and there it is to be seen to this day.

      The putting this halter up here was not so wonderful to me as it

      was that the posterity of that lord, who remained in good rank some

      time after, should never prevail to have that mark of infamy taken

      off from the memory of their ancestor.

      There are several other monuments in this cathedral, as

      particularly of two noblemen of ancient families in Scotland--one

      of the name of Hay, and one of the name of Gordon; but they give us

      nothing of their history, so that we must be content to say there

      they lie, and that is all.

      The cloister, and the chapter-house adjoining to the church, are

      the finest here of any I have seen in England; the latter is

      octagon, or eight-square, and is 150 feet in its circumference; the

      roof bearing all upon one small marble pillar in the centre, which

      you may shake with your hand; and it is hardly to be imagined it

      can be any great support to the roof, which makes it the more

      curious (it is not indeed to be matched, I believe, in Europe).

      From hence directing my course to the seaside in pursuit of my

      first design--viz., of viewing the whole coast of England--I left

      the great road and went down the east side of the river towards New

      Forest and Lymington; and here I saw the ancient house and seat of

      Clarendon, the mansion of the ancient family of Hide, ancestors of

      the great Earl of Clarendon, and from whence his lordship was

      honoured with that title, or the house erected into an honour in

      favour of his family.

      But this being a large county, and full of memorable branches of

      antiquity and modern curiosity, I cannot quit my observations so

      soon. But being happily fixed, by the favour of a particular

      friend, at so beautiful a spot of ground as this of Clarendon Park,

      I made several little excursions from hence to view the northern

      parts of this county--a county so fruitful of wonders that, though

      I do not make antiquity my chief search, yet I must not pass it

      over entirely, where so much of it, and so well worth observation,

      is to be found, which would look as if I either understood not the

      value of the study, or expected my readers should be satisfied with

      a total omission of it.

      I have mentioned that this county is generally a vast continued

      body of high chalky hills, whose tops spread themselves into

      fruitful and pleasant downs and plains, upon which great flocks of

      sheep are fed, &c. But the reader is desired to observe these

      hills and plains are most beautifully intersected and cut through

      by the course of divers pleasant and profitable rivers; in the

      course and near the banks of which there always is a chain of

      fruitful meadows and rich pastures, and those interspersed with

      innumerable pleasant towns, villages, and houses, and among them

      many of considerable magnitude. So that, while you view the downs,

      and think the country wild and uninhabited, yet when you come to

      descend into these vales you are surprised with the most pleasant

      and fertile country in England.

      There are no less than four of these rivers, which meet all

      together at or near the city of Salisbury; especially the waters of

      three of them run through the streets of the city--the Nadder and

      the Willy and the Avon--and the course of these three lead us

      through the whole mountainous part of the county. The two first

      join their waters at Wilton, the shiretown, though a place of no

      great notice now; and these are the waters which run through the

      canal and the gardens of Wilton House, the seat of that ornament of

      nobility and learning, the Earl of Pembroke.

      One cannot be said to have seen anything that a man of curiosity

      would think worth seeing in this county, and not have been at

      Wilton House; but not the beautiful building, not the ancient

     
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