of sea-_wormwoods_, _scurvy-grass_, _crithmum marinum_, _atriplex
marinum_, _&c._ of which we may expect a good account from Dr. Blair
of Boston; as also of many rare fishes caught hereabouts, _Raja_,
_needle-fish_, _star-fish_, &c. and of the _stickle-back_ oil is made
in very large quantities, the invention of the _Ichtyophagi_, Pliny
XV. 7. _Carum vulgare_, Caraway, grows plentifully in the pastures all
about Boston. _Sambucus foliis variegatis baccis albis_, Elder-tree
with gilded leaves and white berries, in Boston Fen-ends: a gilded
_ivy_ in Mr. Pacey’s garden. _Apium palustre Italicum_, Selery _vulgo
dictum_, in all the ditches of Holland. _Paronychia folio rutaceo_,
Rue-leaved whitlow-grass, on the north side of walls and houses. A
_barberry-tree_ without stones, in Alderchurch parish. _Asparagus
sylvestris_, wild asparagus, in Gorham wood, Whaplode. Many rare plants
in the east fen, such as _stratiotes azoides_, fresh water fengreen.
In the boggy grounds about Tattersall, _Trifolium palustre_, _ros
solis_, _virga aurea_, _myrtus brabantica_, _pinguicula_, _asphodelus_,
_adianthum aureum_. In the park, _androsæmum_, _tutsan_: in the ditches
hard by, _valeriana sylvestris_: in the heaths, many sorts of _erica_:
_solanum lethale_ about Cowhurn.
[Sidenote: +Kirton.+]
Pass we from Boston by Kirkton, famous for apples, denominated from its
fair church built by Alexander, that magnificent bishop of Lincoln,
after the manner of a cathedral with a transept. It has a handsome
tower standing upon four pillars in the middle of the cross, with a
noble ring of five large bells. I observe, this building is set upon
the ruins of a former church, part whereof is visible at the
west end: and in most of the churches in this country the same may be
discovered, from the different manner of the architecture; the most
ancient having small windows arched semicircularly; what is additional,
to be known by the pointed Gothic arches. This church is very neat both
within and without: upon the font is this inscription:
+ *Orate pro anima alani burton qui fontem istum fieri fec. a. d.
mccccii.*
Against the north wall is the monument of a person in armour, and round
it this inscription,
+ *Orate pro anima Iohannis de Meres.*
The family of the Meres has flourished much hereabouts.
[Illustration: _3·2ᵈ._
_Boston Cross_
_Stukeley delin_ _I Harris Sculp_]
[Illustration: _4·2ᵈ._
The Remains of Crowland Abby. 14. July. 1724._
_Stukeley del._ _I Harris Sculp_]
[Sidenote: +Crowland.+]
[Sidenote: TAB. IV.]
Upon the edge of Lincolnshire, in the middle of a vast fenny level,
Crowland is situate, memorable for its early religion and the ruins
of an opulent monastery, which still makes a considerable prospect.
The abbey presents a majestic view of ruins; founded a thousand years
ago, by Athelbald king of the Mercians, in a horrid silence of bogs
and thorns; made eminent for the holy retirement of his chaplain
Guthlac, who changed the gaieties of the court for the severities of
an anchorite. The king endowed it with a profuse hand, and all the
land for several miles round the church belonged to it. The foundation
is laid on piles of wood drove into the ground with gravel and sand,
and they have found several of them in tearing up the ruins of the
eastern part of the church; for what remains now is only part of the
west end; and of that only one corner in tolerable repair, which is
their parish-church at present. It is not difficult at this time to
distinguish part of the very first building of this church, from that
which was built by Ingulphus.[26] In the middle of the cross stood once
a lofty tower and a remarkably fine ring of bells, of which there is a
proverb in this country still remaining: one prodigiously great bell
was sacred to Guthlac: they are said to have been the first peal of
bells in the county, perhaps England.[27] From the foundation of this
tower to the west end, is somewhat left, but only the walls, pillars,
with passages or galleries at top, and stair-cases at the corners. The
roof, which was of Irish oak finely carved and gilt, fell down about
twenty years ago: you see pieces of it in every house. The pavement is
covered with shrubs for brass inscriptions, and people now at pleasure
dig up the monumental stones, and divide the holy shipwreck for their
private uses; so that, instead of one, most of the houses in the town
are become religious. The painted glass was broke by the soldiers in
the rebellion, for they made a garrison of the place. All the eastern
part of the body of the church is intirely razed to the foundation;
and the ashes as well as tombs of an infinite number of illustrious
personages, kings, abbots, lords, knights, &c. there hoping for repose,
are dispersed, to the irreparable damage of English history. The great
Waltheof, earl of Northumberland and Huntingdon, was one of the saints
here: he was beheaded by the Norman conqueror. The monastic buildings,
cloysters, hall, abbot’s lodgings,[28] and the like, which no doubt
were very fine, are absolutely demolished; no trace thereof left,
whereby their extent might be guessed at. In the north-west corner
of the church stands a strong tower with a very obtuse spire, and a
pleasant ring of small bells. Over the west gate are the images of
divers kings, abbots, &c. among the rest St. Guthlac with a whip and
knife, as always painted: they were cut in a soft kind of stone, and
drawn over in oil colour with gilding.
[Sidenote: TAB. VII.]
[Sidenote: TAB. XI.]
Not far off the abbey eastward, upon a hillock, is the remnant of a
little stone cottage, called Anchor Church-house: here was a chapel
over the place where St. Guthlac lived a hermit, and where he was
buried.[29] Over-against the west end of the abbey is the famous
triangular bridge: it is too steep to be commonly rode over; horses and
carriages go under it: it is formed upon three segments of a circle
meeting in one point; they say each base stands in a different county.
The rivers Nyne and Welland here meet. On one side sits an image of
king Athelbald with a globe in his hand. St. Guthlake’s cross, between
Spalding and Crowland, near Brother-house and Cloot-bar, stands upon
the side of the bank, almost buried under earth: it is a boundary of
the church lands: of great antiquity.[30]
ITER OXONIENSE. II.
_Sed prior hæc hominis cura est cognoscere terram._ +Virg.+
_To Mr._ JOHN HARDY _of_ Nottingham.
It is commonly remarked, that impressions of any sort made upon
youthful minds last long; and, like a cut in the bark of tender sprigs,
grow deeper and more apparent with advancing years.
_Crescent illæ crescetis amores._ +Virg.+
The many hours I have spent with you when I first began to cast my eyes
upon the scenes of the world, and consider things about me, recur to my
mind with pleasure. I should be ungrateful then, (to which my temper
is most abhorrent) and I should deny myself a particular satisfaction,
did I not acknowledge the remembrance of a friendship now mature:
therefore to you I offer the earliest fruits of it, this small account
of the first pleasurable journey I can reckon to myself, where I had
opportunity for satisfying my growing curiosity. It is no wonder that
your learning, your taste of antiquities, and all endearing qualities,
made me fond of cultivating your acquaintance; and perhaps to you in
great measure do I owe what may not be discommendable in amusements of
the following kind, since our converse and our journeying sometimes
together, to visit the remains of venerable antiquity, in my first
years, gave me the love and incitement to such pursuits. I am not
concerned to make an excuse for the meanness of this present: were
it not juvenile, it would not be genuine. As when first with you, so
since it has been my method, to put into writing what little remarks I
made in travelling: at length I had collected so much, that with some
drawings of places and things taken at the same time, it was judged not
unworthy of publication: my consent was grounded upon hopes that by
this means I might give some account of every part of my time, and that
my own pleasures might not be altogether unuseful; especially thinking
it was no hard task to equal somewhat of this sort lately done, and
well received of the public. It is to be wished this branch of learning
should revive among us, which has lain dormant since the great Camden;
so that either in discoursing on it, or journeying, we might find some
entertainment worthy of men of letters.
[Illustration: 7 _Croyland Bridge Lincolnshire._
_W. Stukeley f. 1721. & Jonathan Sisson Mathematico, Conterraneo suo
ut Amicitice pignus offert._]
[Sidenote: +Stanford.+]
Passing the fenny counterscarps of Holland, we begin our journey at
Stanford, which stands in a mild air and pleasant country abounding
with noblemen’s seats. Many religious houses have been at Stanford,
and once a college founded there, of which they boast much; but of
all these things we expect shortly an exact and full account from the
reverend Mr. Peck. About 1708, a brass seal was dug up, in the castle
at Stanford, of Thomas bishop of Elphin in Ireland; in possession
of Ralf Madyson, esq. Burghley, the earl of Exeter’s, is worth a
traveller’s view: the rooms are finely painted by Seignior Varrio:
abundance of curious pictures from Italy, collected by my lord’s
grandfather. At St. Martin’s church are the monuments of that noble
family.
[Sidenote: +Foderinghay.+]
Through a pleasant and woody country, we went to Foderinghay castle,
situate on a branch of the river Nyne, overlooking the adjacent country
and wide-extended meadows. The castle seems to have been very strong:
there was a high mount, or keep, environed with a deep ditch: the
space around it is guarded by a wall, double ditch, and the river: it
is mostly demolished, and all the materials carried off. They pretend
to show the ruins of the hall where Mary queen of Scots was beheaded.
Some say king James I. ordered this fortress to be destroyed out of
indignation: it was the seat of Edmund of Langley, duke of York,
buried in the collegiate church here, a very neat building, founded by
Edward duke of York, and here likewise interred: their monuments in
the chancel (which was intirely demolished at the suppression) were
restored by queen Elizabeth: the windows of the church are filled with
very handsome painted glass, representing the images of cardinals,
arch-bishops, abbots, &c. such as St. Denis with his head in his hand,
St. Guthlac of Croyland, Richard Scrope arch-bishop of Canterbury, &c.
these were saved in the late civil war, by the then minister of the
parish, with a little money given to the soldiers that came to execute
the harmless saints. We met with these uncouth verses upon the wall,
showing the poetry of those times:
_In festo Martyrii processus Martiniani,
Ecclesiæ prima fuit hujus petra locata,
Anno Christi primum centum ac mille
Cum deca quinta H. V. tunc imminente 2ᵈᵃ._
On the north side of the church are the remains of the college, and the
meadow under it retains its name: the steeple has an octagonal tower
at the top, somewhat like that of Boston; at the bases of which are
the images of bears and ragged staffs, cognisances (I suppose) of the
founders; as the falcon and fetterlock often painted in the glass. They
have a very ancient MS. book here, of the affairs of the parish. There
is a school in the town, erected by Hen. VII. worth about 30l. per ann.
over the door is wrote, _Disce aut discede_. A stone bridge over the
river was built by queen Elizabeth anno 1555. shown by an inscription
on the wall, a monument of the spite of the soldiers, who cut out with
their swords, as they passed by, one line of it, _God save the queen_.
[Sidenote: +Oundale.+]
Oundale, or Avondale, is remarkable for a drumming well, much talked
of by the superstitious vulgar: no doubt it is owing to the passage of
the water, and air upon certain conditions, through the subterraneous
chinks; for, as Virgil says, in his fine poem called _Ætna_,
_Secta est omnis humus penitusque cavata latebris, &c._
and that it is done by intervals or pulses as it were, is but
consentaneous to many of Nature’s operations. Here are two long
bridges of stone. Louick church, on the side of a hill, is very fine,
founded by John de Drayton, anno 1125: the windows are full of coats
of arms. There is a picture of the founder in armour, on his knees,
presenting his church to God: here is his monument, of the Veres too,
and Staffords earls of Wiltshire, and others who intermarried with his
family: there is a modern one of the late Dutchess of Norfolk, who was
married, after her divorcement, to the present owner of the family
seat, called Drayton house, Sir John Germayn, who has for the most part
new-built it.
[Sidenote: +Boughton.+]
From hence we went to Boughton, the seat of the duke of Montagu,
magnificent for building, painting and gardens: the stables are large
and stately, well calculated for the designed grandeur of the house;
for it is not yet finished: the hall is a very noble room: on the
cieling is a convocation of the gods admirably painted, as are many
suites of rooms and apartments, stair-cases, galleries, &c. beside
the great numbers of portraits and other curious pictures, part of
the furniture: the gardens contain fourscore and ten acres of ground,
adorned with statues, flower-pots, urns of marble and metal, many very
large basons, with variety of fountains playing, aviaries, reservoirs,
fish-ponds, canals, admirable greens, wildernesses, terraces, &c. the
cascade is very fine: a whole river, running through the length of the
gardens, is diversified very agreeably to complete its beauty.
[Sidenote: +Geddington.+]
A mile off is Geddington, where in a _trivium_ stands one of the stone
crosses[31] built by king Edward I. in memory of his queen Eleanor,
who died at Hareby near Bolingbroke, in Lincolnshire, 1291. It is
formed upon a triangular model, of pretty Gothic architecture to suit
its station. Her bowels were buried by the high altar in the Lady’s
chapel of Lincoln minster; and in her journey thence to Westminster,
where ever her herse rested, the king erected one of these magnificent
crosses, as a monument of his great love: upon them are the arms of
England, Castile, Leon and Poictou. These are the places, as far as I
am at present informed, Lincoln, Grantham, Stamford,[32] Geddington,
Northampton, Stony Stratford, Dunstable, St. Alban’s, Waltham,
Cheapside over against Wood-street, Charing-cross. Near this place is
Boughton, having a petrifying spring, which forms itself a canal of
stone as it runs, consolidating the twigs, moss, and all adventitious
bodies. We saw near the road a spring-head, with a statue of Moses in
the middle of the water, belonging to Boughton house.
[Illustration: 12 _The West View of_ Waltham Cross _11 Jul. 1721._
_Petro Le Neve Ar. Norroy. tab. d.d. Wˢ. Stukeley_
_Stukeley delin._ _J. Harris Sculp._]
[Sidenote: +Eltabona+]
Through Kettering we went to Northampton, the most elegant town
in England: which, being wholly burnt down, is rebuilt with great
regularity and beauty. There is a spacious square market-place, a fine
assize-house of Corinthian architecture. Allhallow’s church is built
after a pretty model, with a cupola and a noble portico before it of
eight lofty Ionic columns: upon the balustrade a statue of king Charles
II. There is an inscription of John Bailes, aged above 126: his sight,
hearing and memory, intire; buried 1706. One of the old churches, St.
Sepulchre’s, seems to have belonged to the Knights Hospitalers of St.
John of Jerusalem, of a circular form: there has been another tacked to
it of later date, with a choir and steeple, as to that at Cambridge of
the same name and figure: another such I am told is at Guildford, which
are all of this sort that I know of in England. I suspect these are
the most ancient churches in England, and probably built in the later
times of the Romans for Christian service, at least in the early Saxon
reigns. Westward are the ruins of the castle, by the river side, built
by Simon Silvanect I. earl of Northampton, who founded here likewise
St. Andrew’s abbey: his son Simon Silvanect II. earl of Northampton
and Huntingdon, founded St. Mary de Près abbey here about 1150. This
probably is a Roman town arising from one of the forts built upon
this river, as that great people proceeded northward in the conquest
of the island; and being mentioned by Ravennas between Leicester and
Stoney Stratford, it is very likely the Eltabona there, meaning _ael_,
_supercilium_, and Avon, the river. Roman coins have been found on
the other side the river: there are likewise the footsteps of the
fortifications round the town, thrown up with bastions in the time of
the civil wars. Under those on the south side, descending into a stone
quarry which has abundance of intricate turnings, I saw a piece of oak
wood, as big as both one’s hands, lie between the _strata_ of solid
stone: though petrified, the ligneous fibres when split would burn
in a candle. I suppose it to have been lodged there in the deluge. A
little way from the town, about Sprotton, are the pits where they dig
up tobacco-pipe clay. Near Billing, about three miles from Northampton,
not far from the earl of Twomond’s seat, was lately found a mine of
copper, and coal, and marble, as they told me.
[Sidenote: TAB. XII.]
[Sidenote: +Guildsborough.+ Roman _Camp_.]
From Northampton, over the river, by a large stone bridge where is an
old religious house, half a mile off in the London road, is another of
queen Eleanor’s stone crosses, called Queen’s cross, with her images
and arms. It stands on a hill in the open country upon eight steps, in
form much like that of Waltham, of which I have given a print. On the
other side of the town, about three miles distance, is Holdenby house,
which lies in noble ruins: here king Charles I. was kept prisoner.
A little way off is Naseby,[33] where the bloody and fatal battle
happened between his forces and those of the parliament, upon a fine
plain where at present stands a windmill: the marks of several great
holes appear, where the slain were buried. This town, as near as may
be, is the navel of England. Near is Guildsborough, so named from a
Roman camp of a square form, and deep ditch, called the Burrows. I
was told of several more thereabouts, which I suppose those made in
the time of Ostorius about the heads of the rivers here; which all
together made a sort of fortification between the north and south parts
of the kingdom, especially between the Avon and Severn. A long barrow
at Pesford, called Longman’s hill. We saw Althorp, a curious seat of
the earl of Sunderland’s, elegantly furnished: there is a fine gallery
adorned with good pictures, and a noble library.
[Sidenote: +Eston.+]
My lord Lemster’s seat, now earl of Pomfret, near Towcester, is
a stately building, and stands pleasantly, encompassed with good
plantations of wood, visto’s and agreeable prospects. In the grand view
to the back front, beyond the garden, is a large and long canal: in the
house are several curious pictures; an original, of Sir Paul Ricot; of
a pillar of Persepolis, one of those sixty foot high; Perseus loosing
Andromeda, by Gioseppi Cari; a copy of Galatea, from Raphael: but what
highly inhances the glory of this seat, is the vast number of Roman
and Greek marbles, statues, busto’s, bas reliefs, &c. part of the most
noble collection of the great earl of Arundel. My lord has it in his
thoughts to build a large room, or gallery, to receive this invaluable
treasure; at present they are for the most part exposed to the weather
in the garden. I shall cursorily name them all with the haste of a
traveller, though each single piece merits a serious view, and a long
description.
At the end of the side terrace in the garden, and near the house,
stands an intire column of marble in two pieces, fluted, taken from
among the ruins of the temple of Apollo at the isle of Delos, where
many now lie: this is set upon a proper base and pedestal made
purposely for it: the capital is unusual, but very beautiful, and
seems perfectly to answer that description which Vitruvius gives us,
IV. 1. of the origin of the Corinthian capital from the conceit of
Callimachus, who was pleased with the appearance of a basket covered
with a tile, and luckily set upon the middle of a root of _acanthus_,
or _brank ursin_, which shot up its curled leaves around it in a
delicate and tender manner: upon it stands a statue, the upper part
naked. In the niches of that wall along the walk are several broken
statues of goddesses, naked or in fine drapery, where the mind is
divided between the pleasure of seeing what remains and the grief for
what is lost. Upon the stairs that descend into the garden are a great
many whole and broken statues, pieces of _basso relievo_, altars, urns,
tombs, &c. such as the destruction of Troy, represented in the Trojan
horse, the merriment of the Trojans, the slaughter of Priamus, Achilles
driving his chariot with Hector tied to it: there is another bas-relief
of a battle; a figure recumbent at dinner; two figures in procession,
but covered over with moss; four figures, two with Phrygian bonnets;
good pieces of cornice-work, with mouldings of ovolo’s, bead-moulds,
&c. a tomb, the husband and wife with the son between; a piece of
Bacchanalians; the end of a tomb, or vase; a mask and revelling
figures; an horseman and footman engaging. Most of these antiquities
seem of the highest Greek times. Before the steps upon pedestals are
two Egyptian _sphynges_ mitred, and two Muses sitting: other things
thereabouts are a sea-horse in basso; a man carrying another; a capital
of a pillar made of a horse’s head, with branches coming out of his
mouth like them at Persepolis, a dog’s head on one angle, and lions
on the other: upon it are busts and heads: over that is a portal of
a monumental stone, with a woman and two children, the tomb of some
player, with fine bassos of masks, the busto of the deceased; four
Genii; two lions devouring horses, finely cut: over it a priestess by
the side of a temple: eight round altars or pedestals adorned with
bulls heads, festoons, &c. which stand upon the piers of the stairs:
upon and about them are other antiquities, such as the bottom part of
Scylla; three monsters like dogs devouring three men; a receiver for an
urn. Cupid asleep lies upon this.
On the north side the front of the house, a tomb; another capital of
a horse’s head, &c. over it a basso of Venus riding on a sea-horse, a
Cupid driving; a lion over it; two Cupids, _alto relievo_: some busts
over the windows; a young Nero, Faunus, &c.
At the south end of the house, on the ground, an old headless statue;
upon the basement, a tomb of a boy wrought in channel-work, his busto
in basso upon it: over the windows a small statue; a woman with a child
in her arms; a tomb; another capital from the temple of Apollo at
Delos; a Greek mask.