The sports of England, which, perhaps, a curious stranger would be glad
to see, are horse-racing, hawking, and hunting; bowling,--at Marebone
and Putney he may see several persons of quality bowling, two or three
times a week all the summer; wrestling, in Lincoln's Inne Field every
evening all the summer; bear and bull-baiting, and sometimes prizes,
at the Bear-Garden; shooting in the long-bow and stob-ball, in Tothil
Fields; cudgel-playing, in several places in the country; and hurling,
in Cornwall. _London_.--See the East India House, and their
magazines; the Custom House; the Thames, by water, from London Bridge
to Deptford; and the King's Yard at Deptford; the sawing-windmill;
Tradescant's garden and closet; Sir James Morland's closet and
water-works; the iron mills at Wandsworth, four miles above London, upon
the Thames; or rather those in Sussex; Paradise by Hatton Garden; the
glass-house at the Savoy, and at Vauxhall. Eat fish in Fish Street,
especially lobsters, Colchester oysters, and a fresh cod's head. The
veal and beef are excellent good in London; the mutton better in several
counties in England. A venison pasty and a chine of beef are good
every where; and so are crammed capons and fat chickens. Railes and
heathpolts, ruffs, and reeves, are excellent meat wherever they can be
met with. Puddings of several sorts, and creams of several fashions,
both excellent; but they are seldom to be found, at least in their
perfection, at common eating-houses. Mango and saio are two sorts of
sauces brought from the East Indies. Bermuda oranges and potatoes,
both exceeding good in their kind. Chedder and Cheshire cheese.
Men excellent in their arts. Mr. Cox, in Long Acre, for all sorts
of dioptical glasses. Mr. Opheel, near the Savoy, for all sorts of
machines. Mr. ----, for a new invention he has, and teaches to copy all
sorts of pictures, plans, or to take prospects of places. The King's
gunsmith, at the Yard by Whitehall. Mr. Not, in the Pall Mall, for
binding of books. The Fire-eater. At an iron-monger's, near the
May-pole, in the Strand, is to be found a great variety of iron
instruments, and utensils of all kinds. At Bristol see the Hot-well;
St. George's Cave, where the Bristol diamonds are found; Ratcliff
Church; and at Kingwood, the coal-pits. Taste there Milford oysters,
marrow-puddings, cock-ale, metheglin, white and red-muggets, elvers,
sherry, sack (which, with sugar, is called Bristol milk,) and some
other wines, which, perhaps you will not drink so good at London. At
Gloucester observe the whispering place in the cathedral. At Oxford see
all the colleges, and their libraries; the schools and public library,
and the physic-garden. Buy there knives and gloves, especially white
kid-skin; and the cuts of all the colleges graved by Loggins. If you go
into the North, see the Peak in Derbyshire, described by Hobbes, in a
Latin poem, called "Mirabilia Pecci." Home-made drinks of England are
beer and ale, strong and small; those of most note, that are to be sold,
are Lambeth ale, Margaret ale, and Derby ale; Herefordshire cider,
perry, mede. There are also several sorts of compounded ales, as
cock-ale, wormwood-ale, lemon-ale, scurvygrass-ale, college-ale, &c.
These are to be had at Hercules Pillars, near the Temple; at the
Trumpet, and other houses in Sheer Lane, Bell Alley, and, as I remember,
at the English Tavern, near Charing Cross. Foreign drinks to be found in
England are all sorts of Spanish, Greek, Italian, Rhenish, and other
wines, which are to be got up and down at several taverns. Coffé, thé,
and chocolate, at coffeehouses. Mum at the mum houses and other places;
and molly, a drink of Barbadoes, by chance at some Barbadoes merchants'.
Punch, a compounded drink, on board some West India ships; and Turkish
sherbet amongst the merchants. Manufactures of cloth that will keep out
rain; flanel, knives, locks and keys; scabbards for swords; several
things wrought in steel, as little boxes, heads for canes, boots,
riding-whips, Rippon spurs, saddles, &c. At Nottingham dwells a man who
makes fans, hatbands, necklaces, and other things of glass, drawn out
into very small threads."
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SPIRIT OF THE
Public Journals.
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