Itinerarium curiosum (centuria I) : $b or, an account of the antiquities, and remarkable curiosities in nature or art, observed in travels through Great BritainStukeley, William
History
Itinerarium curiosum (centuria I) : $b or, an account of the antiquities, and remarkable curiosities in nature or art, observed in travels through Great Britain
Stukeley, William
Great Britain -- Antiquities -- Early works to 1800; Great Britain -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800
In running over what few remarkables I have observed in this country, I
shall exclude Marsh-land, because in Norfolk, observing only that their
churches are very beautiful, numerous, large, and stately; that here
are, too, many such of the _tumuli_. You will indulge me the liberty
of giving the etymology of places all along: Cicero likes that method;
_Acad. Quæst._ 1. 8. _verborum explicatio probatur_, i. e. _qua de
causa quæque essent ita nominata quam etymologiam appellabant_: and
though there be often more of pleasant subtlety than reality in such
matters, yet it serves to find out and preserve some old words in a
language that otherwise are in danger of oblivion. I shall begin with
the Washes so much talked of, and so terrible to strangers, though
without much reason; if they take a guide, which is highly adviseable.
The meaning is this: they are the mouths of the river Welland, called
Fossdike Wash, and the river Ouse, called Cross-Keys Wash, running into
the sea, and inclosing this country almost round. _Wase Sax. lutum,
oose._ Twice in a day, six hours each time during the recess of the
tide, they are fordable and easy to be passed over: the intermediate
six hours they are covered with the flux of the ocean. Mr. Merret, of
Boston, son to Dr. Merret, has given a table in the Philos. Trans.
which I improved for the benefit of travellers, and is graven on a
handsome copperplate by my friend, Mr. John Redman: but I would have
passengers not to trust too far to the minutes in the table, because
at some times of the year the tides will anticipate a few minutes,
at others will be retarded, and at all times (not to say any thing
of the difference of clocks and watches) south-east winds make the
tides flow earlier than ordinary, north-west protract them; so that a
wise traveller, in this and all other cases, will take time and tide
by the forelock. Formerly people travelled what they call the Long
Wash, between Lynn and Boston, intirely upon the sands or skirts of
the ocean, but now quite disused and impracticable: there it was, that
king John lost all his carriages among the creeks and quicksands. The
memory of it is retained to this day, by the corner of a bank between
Cross-Keys Wash and Lynn, called now King’s Corner.
[Sidenote: +Lutton.+]
[Sidenote: +Sutton.+]
[Sidenote: TAB. XI.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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