From London to Land's End: and Two Letters from the "Journey through England by a Gentleman"Defoe, Daniel
History
From London to Land's End: and Two Letters from the "Journey through England by a Gentleman"
Defoe, Daniel
England -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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