possibly give; and indeed so numerous are the colleges and halls, that
one can scarce get a tolerable idea of them in the three days I staid
here. The prospect of this place from Shotover hill is very inviting,
nor is our expectation frustrated when in the place. The bridge over
the Cherwel is a stately work, twice as broad as London bridge.
Magdalen college, the legacy of our countryman, William of Wainflet,
which he endowed with a princely hand, deservedly is thought one of the
noblest foundations in Europe: the old oak is still left, nigh which
he ordered it to be built. A vast tract of ground is inclosed with a
castellated wall for gardens. On the other side the river is a park
too, with long shady walks, but too near the water, wherein likewise
more resembling those of Academus by Athens. The chapel is large and
magnificent: the tower is a lofty strong work, in it a fine ring of
bells: the whimsical figures in the quadrangle, over the buttresses,
amuse the vulgar; they are the licentious inventions of the mason.
Over-against this is the physic garden, whose curiosities Mr. Bobart
showed us, and his own: since his death, its purpose is not so well
executed. Here are remarkably fine greens in all the gardens at Oxford,
especially in yew: the two piers here, with flower-pots on them,
are thought to exceed; but the two yew men (as one waggishly called
them) that guard the door, are ridiculous; the architecture of these
gates is, I suppose, of Inigo Jones: two _sphynges_ at the entrance
are properly placed: these are without the city walls. University
college has a new quadrangle built by legacy of Dr. Radcliffe; but
I think uniformity, in this and other structures in the university,
no sufficient reason for using the old manner of building. Queen’s
college over-against it is of a good taste, improved to its present
splendor under the auspices, and in great degree at the charge, of the
late Dr. Lancaster. The library, the hall, and chapel, are beautiful.
The old gatehouse has a pretty cieling over it of stone; they say it
was the chamber of Harry the Vth’s uncle and tutor. Behind it is New
college; a large chapel, a good visto to the garden, in which is a
pleasant mount: this was the foundation of William of Wickham, bishop
of Winchester: it stands in an angle of the old city walls. At All
Souls a new court is building, but in the anachronism of the Gothic
degenerate taste: the new library is a spacious room, the legacy of
colonel Coddrington: the chapel is very elegant; the altar, entirely
of marble, was made at the charge of George Clark, esq. one of the
fellows. Christ church, the magnificent work of cardinal Wolsey: the
stone cieling over the entrance to the hall is very pretty; the new
quadrangle, designed by the learned Dr. Aldrich, is beautiful. St.
John’s college has two handsome quadrangles, the portico’s built by
archbishop Laud: two fine statues, in brass, of king Charles I. and his
queen, probably designed by Inigo Jones. But it is impossible for me
to run through the whole of this splendid university, which I leave as
a fitter task for some of her own learned sons. The school is a large
building: the Bodleian library, an immense store-house of most valuable
books and manuscripts, the donation of archbishop Laud, the earl of
Pembroke, O. Cromwell, Selden, Digby, Bodley, and other great names:
over it is a spacious gallery, adorned with pictures of founders,
benefactors, and others, and with the antique marbles which were the
learned part of the inexhaustible collection of the earl of Arundel:
these have been illustrated with the accurate comments of Selden and
Prideaux. Here are some of the most valuable Greek monuments now in the
world. Over the porch, upon a handsome pedestal of black marble, stands
the brass effigies of the earl of Pembroke, their noble and generous
chancellor, given by the present earl: this was moulded by Rubens. Here
is likewise a very large collection of Greek, Roman, British, Saxon,
English, and other coins, presented by several hands. The divinity
schools, finished by Humphry the good duke of Gloucester, have a very
curious stone roof. The Ashmolean repository, beside some good books,
papers and MSS. of the founder, has a large collection of rarities in
antiquity, nature and art, &c. such as original pictures of famous men,
marbles of old Egyptian carving in figures and hieroglyphics, a fine
marble inscription in Arabic, which was over the door of a school at
Tangier; an Egyptian mummy, being a man dressed like _orus Apollo_;
the cradle of Henry VI. the hat of Bradshaw plaited with steel within,
under which he sat in judgment upon king Charles I. a vast fund of
precious and other stones, &c. which it is impossible to enumerate.
Here is, beside, a choice apparatus of instruments for chymistry and
experimental philosophy under the direction of Mr. Whiteside. The
printing-house is a good building with a bold portico, but next the
schools disgraced with a wretched statue of my lord Clarendon. Between
these two last and the schools stands the Sheldonian theatre, the
first piece of architecture of Sir Christopher Wren, a spacious and
well-proportioned room: it is worth while to go upon the top of it,
to see the carpentry of the roof, and the fine prospect of the city
and country thence. Before Baliol college they showed us the stone in
the street which marks the place of the barbarous martyrdom of the
venerable archbishop Cranmer and bishop Ridley, then upon the banks of
the ditch without the walls of the city, which went along where the
theatre now stands. Beyond the river, amongst meadows encompassed with
rivulets, stood Oseney abbey, founded by Robert D’oyley 1129.[37] upon
the bridge is a tower called Friar Bacon’s Study, from that famous and
learned monk, who in dark ages had penetrated so far into the secrets
of nature. Oxford, no doubt, means no more than the passage over the
river Ox, Ouse, or Isis, which are equivalents. Over another bridge of
the Isis we went to see Ruleigh abbey, where some ruins and parcels
still remain, turned to a common brew-house: a disjointed stone in
a partition wall preserves this monumental inscription, *Elae de
Warwik comitissae viscera sunt hic*. This Ela was daughter of Wil.
Longspee earl of Salisbury, and wife of Thomas de Newburgh the last
earl of Warwick of that name: she died on Sunday the fifth of the ides
of February, 26 Ed. I. 1297. she gave lands to this abbey, and founded
a chapel here, as appears by an inscription dug up 1705. her body was
buried before the high altar at Oseney, her heart in this place. Of the
castle there is a square high tower remaining by the river side, and a
lofty mount or keep walled at top, with a stair-case going downward:
this seems to have been a very strong place, built by Robert de Oili in
the time of William the Conqueror. If there was a town here in Roman
times, it seems to have been in this quarter. The White-friars was a
royal palace; and near a green called Beaumonds, they showed us the
bottom of a tower upon the ground where the valiant Richard I. _Cœur
de lion_, was born. Without the town on all sides may be seen the
remains of the fortifications raised in the time of the civil wars.
It is in vain to pretend in this paper to enumerate the particular
remarkables of every college, which are eighteen in number, and seven
halls: these for beauty, grandeur, and endowment, no doubt, exceed any
thing: their chapels, halls, libraries, quadrangles, piazzas; their
gardens, walks, groves, and every thing, contribute to make the first
university in the world. As to the city, though the colleges make up
two thirds of it, and are continually eating it away, in buying whole
streets for enlargement; yet it is large, regular, and crouds itself
out proportionably: the streets are spacious, handsome, clean, and
strait; the whole place pleasant and healthful; the inhabitants genteel
and courteous: the churches are many and elegant enough, especially
Allhallows, a neat fabric of modern architecture, with a very handsome
spire. St. Peter’s in the east is venerable for its antiquity: the east
end by its fabric appears prior to the time of the Conquest.
Leaving this famous repository of learning, we saw on our left hand, on
the other side of the river, the last ruins of Godstow nunnery, placed
among the sweet meadows: here fair Rosamond, the beloved mistress of
Henry II. had a tomb remarkably fine; but before the dissolution,
scarce could her ashes rest, whose beauty was thought guilty even after
death.
[Sidenote: +Woodstock.+]
At Woodstock we saw part of the old palace, and her famous labyrinth,
which is since destroyed: her bathing-place, or well (as called) is
left, a quadrangular receptacle of most pure water, immediately flowing
from a little spring under the hill, and over-shadowed with trees:
near it some few ruins of walls and arches. King Ethelred called a
parliament here; it has been a royal seat from most ancient times:
Henry I. inclosed the park. A-cross this valley was a remarkably fine
echo, that would repeat a whole hexameter, but impaired by the removal
of these buildings. A stately bridge from hence now leads along the
grand approach to the present castle: one arch is above a hundred foot
diameter: a cascade of water falls from a great lake down some stone
steps into the canal that runs under it.
The new palace is a vast and magnificent pile of building; a royal gift
to the high merit of the invincible duke of Marlborough; the lofty
hall is painted by Sir James Thornhill; the salon by la Guerre: the
rooms are finely enriched with marble chimney-pieces and furniture, but
more by the incomparable paintings: many of Rubens’s best and largest
pieces; that celebrated one of himself, his wife, and child, among
others; Vandyke’s king Charles I. upon a dun horse, of great value;
and the famous loves of the Gods, by Titian, a present from the king
of Sardinia. The gallery I admired beyond any thing I have seen, lined
with marble pilasters and whole pillars of one piece, supporting a most
costly and beautiful entablature, excellent for matter and workmanship:
the window frames of the same, and a basement of black marble quite
round. Before it is stretched out a most agreeable prospect of the fine
woods beyond the great valley: it is indeed of an admirable model:
this, and what is of the most elegant taste in the whole house, is of
the duchess’s own designing. The chapel is not yet finished, and which
I doubt not will be equal to the rest. The garden is a large plot of
ground taken out of the park, and may still be said to be part of it;
well contrived by sinking the outer wall into a foss, to give one a
view quite round, and take off the odious appearance of confinement
and limitation to the eye, and which quite spoils the pleasure and
intention of a garden: within, it is well adorned with walks, greens,
espaliers, and visto’s to diverse remarkable objects that offer
themselves in the circumjacent country. Over the pediment of this
front of the house is a curious busto in marble of the French king,
bigger than life, taken from the gate of the citadel of Tournay. The
orangery is a pretty room. At the entrance hither from the town, her
grace has erected a noble triumphal arch to the memory of the duke, and
has projected a vast obelisk to be set in the principal avenue in the
park, whereon is to be inscribed an account of his great actions and
ability in council, and in war. Near the gate is the house where our
famous Chaucer was born: methinks there was somewhat poetical in the
ground that first gave him birth, and produced these verses, which I
ask pardon for inserting, upon a subject which his genius only could be
equal to:
_Fame, like the optic artist, wont to swell
The object larger to the armed eye,
Sing on, and mighty Marlborough’s actions tell:
Secure from flattery in words abound,
And let thy trumpet diapasons sound;
Speak but enough of him, ’tis all reality._
[Sidenote: +Stunsfield+, Ro. _town_.]
Through the park we crossed again the Akeman-street, which runs all
along with a perfect ridge made of stone, dug every where near the
surface: it bears between north-east and east: it is a foot-path still
through the park with a stile, and a road beyond it by which it passes
to Stunsfield, where are marks of an intrenched work, once a Roman
station: and in the place they found (the 25th Jan. 1712.) a most
curious tesselated pavement, for bulk and beauty the most considerable
one we know of: it was a parallelogram of thirty-five foot long and
twenty foot wide, a noble room, and no doubt designed for feasting and
jollity: in one of the circular works was Bacchus represented in stones
properly coloured, with a tiger, a _thyrsus_ in his hand enwrapped with
vine leaves. This admirable curiosity deserved a better owner; for the
landlord and tenant quarreling about sharing the profits of showing
it, the latter maliciously tore it in pieces. When the earth was first
laid open upon its discovery, they found it covered a foot thick with
burnt wheat, barley and pease: so that we may guess upon some enemy’s
approach it was covered with those matters to prevent its being
injured, or was turned into a barn and burnt.
We crossed a foss called Grimesditch, the _vallum_ eastward: it goes by
Ditchley wood and house, which takes its name from it. Dr. Plot does
not sufficiently distinguish this from a Roman road: it was doubtless
some division of the ancient Britons: the country is all a rock of
rag-stone. Many good seats of the nobility hereabouts; Cornbury lord
Clarendon’s, Ditchley lord Litchfield’s, duke of Shrewsbury’s at
Hathorp, new built of stone very beautiful. Juniper grows plentifully
hereabouts. At Chadlington is a square Roman camp. At Enston is a
pretty curiosity in water-works, cascades falling down artificial rocks
overgrown with waterplants, chirping of birds imitated, many pipes of
water, secretly to dash the spectators, and fancies of that kind.
[Sidenote: +Chipping-norton.+]
Chipping-Norton must have been a great trading town by the number of
merchants, as they are there called, buried in the church under brasses
and inscriptions: others of alabaster: and the name of the place
signifies it, as our Cheapside, equivalent to market, to buying or
cheapening. There are marks of a castle by the church, which probably
was demolished in the time of king Stephen. Lord Arundel, beheaded in
the barons wars, lived in it: a place called the Vineyards near it.
Roman coins are frequently found here. The church is a good building of
a curious model, the south porch hexagonal, and a little roof over it
supported by a stone arch: under the choir is a charnel-house full of
the ruined rafters of mortality. A priory was here near Chapel on the
heath: the Talbot inn was religious: stories of subterraneous passages
thence to the priory. A well lately found in the ploughed fields at
Woodstock hill, a mile south of this place, and more such like in the
fields. Hereabouts they call camps _barrows_, meaning boroughs.
[Sidenote: +Rowldrich.+ Br. _temple_.]
Hence we rode to see Rowldrich stones, a very noble monument; the first
antiquity of this sort that I had seen, and from which I concluded
these works to be temples of the ancient Britons. I crave leave to
reserve its description for another work. In the clay upon these hills
they dig out _cornua ammonis_, small, but very prettily notched: they
are nothing but clay hardened in the shell. Further on, in Tadmerton
parish, we rode through a large round camp on the top of a hill doubly
intrenched, able to contain a great army. Bloxham has a very fine
church, the steeple of an odd make, but pretty enough. At Broughton
near Banbury is the seat of the lord Say and Seal.
[Sidenote: +Branavis.+]
[Sidenote: TAB. VIII. 2d Vol.]
Banbury was a Roman station, called _Branavis_. That master builder the
bishop of Lincoln, Alexander, built the castle anno 1125, I doubt not
but upon the Roman fortification: he enlarged it and built it after
the mode of those times, taking in a huge space of ground with a wall,
towers and ditch: within he made another work upon one side, where were
the lodgings, chapel, &c. A small part of the wall of this is only now
left, of good hewn stone; but the ditch went along the middle of the
adjacent street, and houses are built by the side of it, out of its
ruins, as people now alive remember: in the civil wars it received
new additional works, for there are plain remains of four bastions; a
brook running without them. Many Roman coins and antiquities have been
found here. There is an inn called the Altarstone inn, from an altar
which stood in a nich under the sign: this had a ram and fire carved
on it, as they say: part of the stone is still left: I imagine this
was originally a Roman altar: they tell us William the Conqueror lay
at this inn. The town is a large straggling place and dirty, though on
a rock with sufficient descent: one would think it was walled about in
most ancient times. Here are three gates, though of later make. The
tower of the church, they say, was much higher than at present: the
church is of great compass: three rows of pillars, but of too slender
a manner, which makes them all lean awry, and different ways: many
additions have been made to it: a touch-stone monument of the family
of Cope: other old monuments ruined. The bridge is long, consisting
of many arches. _Branau supercilium aquæ_ seems well to answer the
etymology of the Roman name, as Mr. Baxter has it: The stone of
this country is mixed with sand. Black gloves is a great manufacture
here. Kenric the West-Saxon king, anno 540, routed the Britons at this
place.
[Illustration: 8·2ᵈ. _Prospect of Banbury._ +Branavis.+ _13. Sept.
1724._
_Stukeley delin._ _E. Kirkall sculp._]
[Illustration: 9·2ᵈ. _Prospect of Warwick_ _July 7ᵗʰ. 1725_
_Stukeley del._ _Fletcher Sculp._
PRAESIDIUM]
We went over the vale of Red-horse and Edghill, which presents us with
a most extensive prospect, steep to the north: on the top of it, at
Warmleighton, is a large and strong intrenchment of a circular but
irregular form, said to be Danish by the inhabitants, but seemingly
more ancient and British. Descending the hill for a mile, we rode
through Radway, and over the field between it and Kyneton, where the
famous battle of Edghill was fought: we were shown some of the graves
of the slain. At Tellisford we crossed the Foss-way.
[Sidenote: +Præsidium.+ Warwick.]
[Sidenote: TAB. IX. 2d Vol.]
Warwick is situate on a rock, a fine new-built town, having been almost
wholly burnt down in 1694. The church and lofty tower is new built,
except the east end, which is old and very good work: there are a many
fine brass monuments of the earls of Warwick and others, as the earl of
Essex; many chapels and confessionaries, with other remains of ancient
superstition: in the chapter-house on the north side is a tomb of the
lord Brook. The castle stands upon the river Avon, over which is a
stone bridge with a dozen arches: across is a large stone-work dam,
where the water falls over it as a cascade, under the castle wall,
which is built on a rock forty foot above the water. It overlooks the
whole town and country, being delicately situate for pleasure and
strength, fenced with a deep mound and strong embattled double walls
and lofty towers: there are good apartments and lodgings next the
river, the residence of the lord Brook: on one side of the area is a
very high mount: we were shown the sword and other gigantic reliques
of Guy the famous earl of Warwick. The priory on the north-east side
of the town overlooks a pleasant woody vale: there are a great many
curious original pictures, by Vandike and other good hands, of kings,
queens, famous statesmen, persons of learning both at home and abroad.
A mile out of town, on the side of a hill, is a pretty retired cell,
called Guy-cliffe: in an old chapel there is a statue of Guy eight foot
high: the fence of the court is intire rock, in which are cut stables
and out-houses. We saw the rough cave where they say Guy died a hermit.
[Sidenote: +Coventry+.]
Coventry is a large old city: it was walled about: the gates are
yet standing. It is adorned with a fine and very large church and
beautiful spire a hundred yards high. There is another good church in
the same yard. The cross is a beautiful Gothic work, sixty six foot
high: in niches are the statues of the English kings. At the south end
of the town stands a tall spire by itself, part of the Grey Friers’
conventual church. The town-house is worth seeing: the windows filled
with painted glass of the images of the old earls, kings, &c. who have
been benefactors to the town. Here the famous lady Godiva redeemed the
privileges thereof almost at the expence of her modesty, the memory
whereof is preserved by an annual cavalcade. These verses are wrote in
the town-house.
_Auxiliis olim stetit alma Coventria regum
Dum fortuna fuit. Magnos colit hinc Edoardos
Henricosque suos, urbs non ingrata patronos.
Jamque adeo afflictis crescit spes altera rebus
Elizabetha tuis princeps mitissima sceptris.
Lætior illuxit nullo pax rege Britannis.
Ergo age diva tuis sis fœlix civibus usque,
Exuperans patrias & avitas æmula laudes._
_Princeps ille niger (niveis cui vertice pennis
Crista minax, victi regis cæsique Bohæmi
Exuviis) heros Edoardus magnus in armis,
Hic sedem posuit. Sic dicta est principis aula.
Hoc authore fuit libertas civibus aucta,
Muneribusque ornata suis, res publica crevit.
Hinc depicta, vides, passim sua penna per urbem
Testatur magni monumentum & pignus amoris._
_Labentes fatis (quid enim perdurat in ævum?)
Fortunas urbis tandem miseratus agrorum
Extendit fines, Northumbrius ille Johannes.
Cumque fuit bello dux invictissimus, armis
In mediis coluit pacis, vir providus, artes;
Exemploque suum vocat ad pia facta Robertum._
_Non tantum meruit Leofricus Cestrius olim
Nec conjux Godiva, pii dux fœmina facti.
Godiva ab turpi quæ lege coacta mariti
Fertur equo, diffusa comas nudata per urbem.
Asseruitque suos, culpent utcunque minores!
Vicit amor patriæ libertatisque cupido:
Quantum hodie patrem referens Leicestrius heros
Retro sublapsam qui nostram restituit rem,
Sustinet in pejus ruituram urbisque salutem.
I modo quo virtus te fert, sic itur ad astra.
Et quibus insistis fœlix, procede paternis
Auspiciis, maneatque tuos hæc cura nepotes._
Holbech, May 1712.
ITER CIMBRICUM. III.
——_quid virtus & quid sapientia possit
Utile proposuit nobis exemplar Ulyssem.
Qui domitor Trojæ, multorum providus urbes
Et mores hominum inspexit_—— +Hor.+
_To_ RICHARD MYDDLETON MASSEY
_of_ Wisbech, _M. D._
To you of right I inscribe this journey, to which your company and my
inclination to see somewhat of the world allured me. I had conceived
great notions of the old Britons betimes, and longed to hear at least
a language spoke soon after the deluge; and I then prided myself as
much as Cæsar formerly in making this small inroad into their country.
I willingly take this occasion of recognizing how I ought to esteem
it a happiness, that you chanced to be seated in a place so near that
of my nativity, and presented to me a subject of imitation, in all
the commendable qualifications that may conduce to the felicity and
ornament of life. Your deep insight into the _materia medica_, the
theory and practice of physic, your great knowledge of antiquities,
natural history, and all polite learning, and the excellence of your
hand in designing, were as so many spurs to me in my young years, when
we are most apt at imitation: and that the latter exercise of the pen
is of importance to all the others, is too notorious, and universally
allowed by all, to need any solemn proof. Who sees not that the defeats
and confusion in anatomy and botany, and every part of philosophy,
is owing to the want of drawing? when the innumerable labours of so
many ages are either lost to posterity, or imperfectly transmitted,
for that reason. How well does this range and distinguish ideas, and
imprint them in one’s own mind, as well as make them known to others?
It is not to be disputed but a person that understands it, sees much
farther into things than others: the beauties of art and nature are
open to him. Indeed every body is pleased with perfection and beauty,
though they know not why: as suppose that of a fine statue, they are
hugely delighted with it, though they understand not that it is owing
to the proper disposition and contrast of the limbs, to the attitude,
the grace of the posture, the expression of the action, the light and
shade, and a thousand other requisites, as well as the particular
delicacy and outline of the parts and members: and these things are
only to be learnt and gathered from Nature’s self, from copying and
observing it; for she is the grand exemplar of all fine strokes in
drawing; as Aristotle formed his Art of Poetry from the great genius
of Homer, and he from the force of Nature.
[Sidenote: +Grantham.+]
Grantham was certainly a Roman town. Burton in his Commentaries on
Antoninus’s Itinerary relates, that a great stone trough, covered with
a stone, was dug up there, full of Roman coins, p. 216.[38] The street
that runs on the east of the church is called Castle-street: between
it and the river have been dug up foundations of a castle, as they
say.[39] I have a piece of glass with enamel upon it, ground with an
engine; which is curious, and I take it for Roman: it was found in the
Grange garden. Here is a spacious church and fine spire, much noted:
it is a hundred yards high, equalled by another in this county, Louth,
besides the tower of Boston: under the south wall of this church are
two tomb-stones, said to be of the founders; one in old French, the
date only legible, 1362; the other, *hic jacent ricard de calceby et
margareta vx ejus m ccclxii*. On a stone in a wall in Church-lane
this inscription (the _orate pro anima_ seems to have been cut out by
order of some zealot) *Iohis Goldsmyth mercatoris de Grantham*, a
coat of arms, quarterly; in the sinister upper quarter a mullet. There
were many religious houses here, some reliques of them left: in one
just by the market-place is a very pretty little chapel, or oratory,
adorned with imagery. The Angel inn was once a commandery. Here is a
good free-school, erected by Richard Fox bishop of Winchester, where
Sir Isaac Newton received the first principles of literature, under
the famous William Walker then school-master.[40] Belvoir, the seat of
the dukes of Rutland, stands on a high hill with a very fine prospect:
you may see Nottingham castle and Lincoln minster, and all around you,
below, many towns and lordships the demesnes of this noble family. Here
is a perfect pattern of the true old English hospitality. In the fine
gallery are many ancient and modern family pictures and others; the
original one of king Charles I. as he sat at his trial. This place was
the possession of Robert de Totney,[41] a great man who came in with
William the Conqueror: he built a priory near it. I imagine originally
here was a Roman camp; for coins have been found about it.[42] Upon
the edge of Lincolnshire we visited the tombs of the duke of Rutland’s
family at Bottesworth, which are worth seeing.
[Sidenote: +Nottingham.+]
[Sidenote: TAB. XXXIX.]
[Sidenote: TAB. XXXVIII.]
[Sidenote: TAB. XIV.]
Nottingham we arrived at after crossing the Roman road called Foss:
it is a pleasant and beautiful town. They have a great manufacture
here for stockings, which they weave in looms from the invention of
a neighbouring clergyman. Their ale is highly valued for softness
and pleasant taste: the cellars in the town are hewn out of
the rock two or three story deep, to fourscore steps sometimes. The
castle is a goodly building on a high perpendicular rock; seems to
have been modelled after some of Inigo Jones’s draughts: many good
pictures there: it commands a vast prospect. The south side of the
rock is altogether inaccessible: a winding stair-case along it to the
bottom, which they call Mortimer’s hole: there are vast subterraneous
grottos cut underneath. St. Mary’s church is a fine old lightsome
building, with a good ring of eight bells. We saw Mr. Hurst’s gardens,
late Pierpoint’s, which are very pretty; in the middle a copy of the
Dalmatian slave in metal. One may easily guess Nottingham to have
been an ancient town of the Britons: as soon as they had proper tools
they fell to work upon the rocks, which every where offer themselves
so commodiously to make houses in; and I doubt not that here was a
considerable collection of colonies of this sort: that which I have
described in Plate 39. will give us an idea of them; it is in the duke
of Newcastle’s park. What is visible at present is not of so old a date
as their time; yet I see no doubt but that it is formed upon theirs:
this is a ledge of perpendicular rock hewn out into a church, houses,
chambers, dove-houses, &c. The church is like those in the rocks at
Bethlehem and other places in the Holy Land: the altar is natural
rock, and there has been painting upon the wall; a steeple, I suppose,
where a bell hung, and regular pillars. The river here winding about
makes a fortification to it; for it comes to both ends of the cliff,
leaving a plain before the middle. The way to it was by gates cut out
of the rock, and with oblique entrance for more safety. Without is a
plain with three niches, which I fancy their place of judicature, or
the like: there is regularity in it, and seems to resemble that square
called the Temple in the Pictish castle, Plate 38. in Scotland. The
wild _cherry-tree_ grows upon this place, and many curious plants,
_liver-worts_, _lychnis sylvester_. 9. _clus. ruta muraria_, _rosa
pimpinellæ folio odorata_, _capillus veneris_, _umbilicus veneris_.
Between this and the castle is an hermitage of like workmanship. The
butchers shambles is an old edifice built for a granary. Clifton near
here is a good seat, with pretty gardens and a noble prospect: in the
church are many old brasses of the family of this name. Three miles
from Nottingham is Woolaton hall, the seat of my lord Middleton;
which is a good piece of old building: there is a pretty summer-house
panelled and cieled with looking-glass, which produces a pleasant
effect: underneath is a water-house with grotesque work of shells, &c.
A little beyond, in the road, upon the brow of the hill, is a high
rugged piece of rock, called Hemlock-stone, seen at a good distance:
probably it is the remains of a quarry dug from around it. Beyond this
we entered Derbyshire. There are some few ruins of Dale abbey seated
in a valley, and the east end of the choir over-grown with ivy: the
mullions of the windows are knocked out (I suppose for sake of the
iron:) it is overlooked by a near and high hill covered with oaks. In
the ascent, out of the rock is cut a cell, or little oratory, called
the Hermitage: on one side the door and windows, at the east end, a
square altar and a step up to it of the same quarry, little niches cut
in the wall, and a bench to sit on all round.
[Illustration: 39 BRYTTISH.
_Rudera Coloniæ Troglodyticæ juxta. Nottingham._
_Lin flu._]
[Illustration: 38 +Pictish+
_Caves of Hawthornden, Scotland._
_Stukeley delin._ _I. Harris sculp._]
[Sidenote: +Derby.+]
Derby has five churches; the tower of one is very fine. The new-erected
silk manufacture is a remarkable curiosity: the house is of a vast
bulk, five or six stories high: the whole furniture is one machine
turned by a single water-wheel, which communicates its power through
the whole, and actuates no less than 97–746 several wheels or motions,
and still employs three or four hundred hands to over-look and act
in concert with it. Mr. Loom the owner brought the design of it from
Italy.[43] The waters that run here, whether from the lead mines or
coal, are apt to cause the _bronchocele_ in the fair sex.
[Sidenote: +Burton.+]