Chapter IV: Preface (4)

Next let us descend into the garden along the middle walk. In the parterres about the fountain stand four Greek statues very intire, bigger than the life, of most admirable art: they are dressed in matron-like robes, or outer garments, in most comely folds, yet cut so exquisitely, that the folds of the inner drapery appear, and the whole shape of the body, as if transparent: they cannot be sufficiently commended. Between them and the house on the south side, is that celebrated statue of Cicero intire, with his _sudarium_ in his right, and a scroll in his left hand: the sight of the eyes is cut hollow. I could not possibly excuse my self half a quarter of an hour’s serious view of this master-piece, frequently going round it: where so much seeming simplicity of the carver, has called forth all the fire of that divine genius that could make statues hear, as this artist has made them speak, and left an eternal monument of contention between him and the great orator: it grieved me to think it should stand a day longer in the open air. Answering to this on the left, is another statue of more robust shape and workmanship: his left hand holds a scroll, his right is laid in a passionate manner upon his breast: if sinewy muscles denote one that worked on the anvil, it may possibly be Demosthenes. The two next that correspond beyond the fountain, are Scipio Africanus and Asiaticus, in an heroic dress. Beyond, on each side the steps going down to the lower garden, are two _colossi_, Fabius Maximus the cunctator, and Archimides with a square in his hand. At each end of this cross-walk, or terrace, which terminates the middle or principal one, is built a handsome stone-work with niches and pediment supported with pilasters, contrived on purpose to receive other pieces: in that on the left hand, or north side, is the tomb of the famous Germanicus, adorned with carving of bas-relief: upon it two admirable busts of him and Agrippina his wife. Between these upon the tomb stands an altar-like pedestal with a small and ancient statue of Jupiter sitting. In the pediment over the arch is a curious piece of marble, whereon is raised the upper part of a man with his arms and hands extended, and the impression likewise of a foot: this I suppose the original standard of the Greek measure. Upon the _apex_ of the pediment is a fine statue of Apollo with the right arm naked, the other covered with a mantle: below the hips it ends in a _terminus_; so that it is an _Hermapollon_. In two niches here, are two large and curious trunks, as fine as the loquacious Pasquin or Marforio at Rome. Upon the two outermost pilasters are two other beautiful trunks. At the corner of this terrace is an altar. At the other end of this cross walk, under the stone-work is a marble chair with an inscription on the back of it, denoting that it belonged to the high-priest of Isis, as said; for it is obliterated: it is remarkably easy to sit on: the sides are embossed with winged _sphynges_. On each side of it are two sitting fragments. Upon the top of this stone-work is a very large and curious Greek statue of Pallas, coloss proportion, naked arms, a plumed helmet on her head, the Gorgonian _Ægis_ on her breast: the very marble is not without its terror.

We shall now pass through the house. The hall is a fine lofty room: in the niches are several statues; a Greek lady with her arms folded under the drapery, which with that of the under garment are perfectly seen through the robe; Caius Marius in a senatorial habit; Cupid asleep, leaning on his torch: M. Antony, a naked figure; all these as big as the life: over the chimney-piece, a little Hercules tearing the lion; seven bustos, an excellent one of Pindar; one said to be of Olympias, I fancied it Lucretia. By the great stairs, painted in _fresco_ by Sir James Thornhill, two bustos, one of the Grecian Venus. In niches upon the stairs, six statues as big as the life: Diana in a hunting-habit, a tuck’d-up coat, buskins of skins; a lady in Greek drapery; the Venus de Medicis; Paris with a mantle, the Phrygian bonnet, and odd stockings of the Dacian mode; (this is a statue of great antiquity;) a nymph with a long flowing garment tied under the breast, a fine turn of the body; a man, the right shoulder naked. In the little dining-room, over the chimney, an antique marble vase. In the green-house I saw these following: a Flora, the upper part lost; most inimitable drapery to show the naked, like the celebrated one at Rome: a coloss head of Apollo, from the collar bone to the crown of the head three foot; the body is said to lie among many more under Arundel house in London: the trunk of Camilla, both arms: a young Bacchus.

[Sidenote: +Towcester+ Roman.]

Towcester is a pretty town, of Roman antiquity: through it in a strait line runs the Watling-street. Edward the elder built the mount called Berry hill when he fortified the town against the Danes. Roman coins have been oft found at this place.[34] The inhabitants here, both old and young, are very busy in a silken manufacture, and making of lace. This town has been ditched about on the west side; every where else guarded by the rivers.

[Sidenote: +Buckingham.+]

From hence we went through spacious woods to Buckingham. There was a castle before the Conquest, but now scarce to be known. The church is well built, particularly the chancel: they showed us a place called St. Rumbald’s shrine, where his coffin was taken up. St. John Baptist’s chapel, built, as said, by archbishop Becket, is now a free school. From this place we travelled upon a Roman road.

[Sidenote: +Alauna.+]

[Sidenote: TAB. V. VI. 2d Vol.]

Entering Oxfordshire, we saw on our right the park called Caversfield, which antiquaries say was the place where Allectus slew Carausius. This is near Bicester, which I visited big with expectation of finding somewhat considerable from a conflux of towns’ names that promised much. I observed Lawnton hard by, which seemed to confirm Mr. Baxter’s conjecture of Alauna hereabouts. Chesterton, Aldchester, and Wandlebury, were specious marks for enquiry; but I find they all depend upon Aldchester, where was the undoubted Alauna of Ravennas, mentioned thus in that valuable author. Next to London, Tamese, Branavis, Alauna; of all which I shall give an account in this journey.

_Stukeley delin._ _E. Kirkall sculp._]

_Stukeley del._ _E. Kirkall sculp._]

[Sidenote: +Akeman-street.+]

South of Bicester about a mile, two Roman roads cross one another at right angles, in the middle of a large and beautiful meadow; the Akeman-street running east and west, and another directly north and south: the first comes out of Buckinghamshire, I imagine from Fenny Stratford through Winslow; passes by here at Longford, over Bicester river, under the north side of Gravenhall hill; so proceeds by Aldchester, Kirklington, to Woodstock park, and so to Cirencester: the other crosses it at Aldchester, running directly through the middle of the city; then through the southern meadow belonging to Wandlebury, where it is visible enough to a nice eye, the grass being poor, and much abates of the verdure for its whole breadth: then entering a pasture, it is very plain, being elevated into a ridge of a hundred foot breadth, and two little ditches all along the sides: it leaves Marton on the east and Fencot, making fords over the brooks, paved with great broad stones its whole breadth; then proceeds the length of Ottmore, a spacious level, marsh or meadow, two or three miles together, where its ridge is plain, though broken by many sloughs; then through Beckly by the park wall; then under Shotover hill, and so, I suppose, passes the Thames at Sandford below Oxford. Northward from Alauna it proceeds through the northern meadow belonging to Chesterton and Bicester, where the stones it is composed of may be seen in the little ditches they have dug upon each side; then it enters the lane, and goes on the west side of Bicester town, at some little distance, and strait forwards on the east of Caverfield park by Stretton Audley, where many Roman coins have been found; and so to Radley by Buckingham, being now the great high road between the two towns, of which we may say, in the poet’s words,

_Scilicet hæc ævi stravit longinqua vetustas,
Heu nimis ex vero nunc ea strata jacent!_

The city called now Aldchester is a parcel of ploughed field, on the south side of the Akeman way, a mile at least south of Bicester: it stands in the middle of the meadow, which is very level, more especially stretching itself north and south of the city. I know not whether the ground which is the site of the city be naturally higher, or raised by the ruins and rubbish thereof: but, if any, this deserves to be called _urbs pratensis_. I can scarce believe that this meadow was so subject to inundations as now, at the time of setting the city here; and I never observed the like position elsewhere, when there is higher ground near enough: it may be thought rather a city of pleasure than strength. A very little way off to the east is Gravenhall hill, a copped hill curiously covered with wood and hedge-rows: beyond it is Berry hill, or vulgarly the Brill, guarded at top with one of their camps. A little brook comes from Chesterton, a mile off, and runs on the south side of the city; for between that and the Akeman way is it placed. When I came upon the spot, I soon found it by the prodigious blackness and richness of the earth, as they were ploughing; and this shows it to have been once in a very flourishing condition and populous; for the fund of nitrous particles and animal salts lodged in this earth are inexhaustible. The site of this city is a common, belonging to the inhabitants of Wandlebury, and every one has a certain little portion of it to plough up; whence we may well imagine the land is racked to the last extremity, and no great care taken in the management of it: yet it bears very good crops of wheat. As I traversed the spot, at every step I saw pieces of pots and vessels, of all sorts of coloured earth,[35] red, green, and some perfectly of blue clay, that came from Aynhoe: I picked up several parcels, thinking to have carried them away, till I perceived them strown very thick over the whole field, together with bits of bricks of all sorts: the husbandmen told me they frequently break their ploughs against foundations of hewn stone and brick; and we saw upon the spot many paving stones with a smooth face, and laid in a very good bed of gravel, till they draw them all up by degrees, when the plough chances to go a little deeper than ordinary. Infinite numbers of coins have been found, and dispersed over the adjacent villages without any regard; and after a shower of rain now, they say, sometimes they find them: I got two or three of Tetricus jun. &c. A good while ago, they dug up a glass urn full of ashes, laid in a cavity cut out of a stone: I went to see the stone, used as a pig-trough, at Wandlebury, in which office it has served ever since Dr. Plot’s time; for I find he mentions it, page 329: it is squarish, the cavity is roundish, nine inches deep, and a foot diameter; but the urn was broke and lost. I heard likewise, by enquiry, that they have found brass images, _lares_, and all sorts of antiquities, which I encouraged them to preserve for the future. This city was fenced with a bank and ditch quite round: it is a square of one thousand foot each side, standing upon the four cardinal points: the _vallum_ and ditch are sufficiently visible, though both have met with equal change; the _vallum_, from the plough, which levels it to a certain quantity every year; and the inundation of the meadow raises the ditch: these are most easily discernible at the corners, for there they are still pretty perfect, and so notoriously, that the country people tell you in those places were four towers to defend the city. This little brook, that runs on the southern ditch, encompassed the city quite round originally: the track of the way that passes the city in the middle from south to north, is still very high raised, and another street crossed it the contrary way in the middle, and so went eastward, meeting the Akeman in its way to Langford: these were the two principal streets, and doubtless there were others; and great foundations are known to be all around in the meadows, especially northward and eastward upon both sides the Akeman. On the west side of the city, a little distance from the ditch, is an artificial hill in the very middle of the meadow which they call the Castle hill, and is full of Roman bricks, stone, and foundations. I attentively considered this place: the circuit of it is very plain and definable; it was a square of two hundred foot: I guess it originally to have been some considerable building in the middle of an _area_, or court; whether a _pretorium_, or a temple, might probably be ascertained upon digging: the edge of the _area_ is very distinct upon the meadow, by the difference in the colour of the grass, the one gray, the other green; but the main body of the building reached not so far, but lies in a great heap of rubbish, much elevated, and of much less extent: before it, to the south, has been another _area_, paved with a bed of gravel, at least above a hundred foot broad: I doubt not but a curious person, that will be at the expence of digging this plot, would find it well worth his while. This is the sum of what I observed at the place: whether the present name be Alcester, as retaining any thing of the Latin, or Aldcester, signifying the old city, I dispute not; but think it has no manner of relation to Allectus that slew the brave Carausius. The name of Akeman way I am fit to think a vulgar error, as commonly imagined from going to the Bath:[36] more probably it is _ag maen_, the stony _agger_, or ridge; this is confirmed by the people calling the other road too, that goes north and south, by the same name, Akeman-street. There has been a religious house at Bicester near the church, a priory of St. Eadburg, founded by Gilbert Basset. This town is famous for excellent malt liquor, of a delicate taste and colour.

_Stukeley delin._ _E. Kirkall Sculp._]

[Sidenote: +Bury-hill+ Ro. _camp_.]

From hence we journeyed by Aynhoe, where is a vein of stiff clay, exceeding blue: at Souldern is a curious barrow, neatly turned like a bell, small and high; I believe it Celtic. Then climbing for a long while together, we ascended Bury hill, a village upon the highest copped mountain in the country: it is vulgarly called the Brill, as Mr. Camden takes notice: this has a vast prospect over Bernwood, Ottmore, and the whole country, bounded only by the superior Chiltern, seven miles off, which hence has a most notable aspect, and ends insensibly at the eastern and western horizon, diminishing regularly all the way: at the top of the Brill, by the church, I saw parcels of the old Roman camp, which has been modernised with additional bastions in the civil wars. Before the Conquest, here was a palace of Edward the Confessor. Much Roman coin has been found hereabout.

[Sidenote: +Tamese.+]

[Sidenote: TAB. VII. 2d Vol.]

Below here, two or three miles off, stands Tamese, now Tame, upon the side of a meadow; a pleasant town, consisting of one long and broad street, running north-east and south-west: behind lie the smiling arable fields: it is almost encompassed with rivulets. This was called a _burg_ in the time of Edward the elder, anno 921, who besieged the Danes here, and took the burg, or castle. I saw infinite quantities of the _cornu ammonis_, a foot and half or two foot diameter, laid in the roads among rubble stone to mend them: all the quarries hereabouts abound with them of all dimensions. Here is a fine large church in form of a cross: in it many brasses and old monuments: some I transcribed.

_Thome de Grey filii Roberti dni. de Grey Retherfeld militis obiit anno dni. millesimo_ ccc. Another thus.

O certyn deth that now hast overthrowe
Richard Quatremayns squier and Sibil his wyf that ly her now full
lowe
That with rial prinses of councel was true and wise famed
To Richard duke of Yorke and after with his sone king Edward IIII
named
That founded in the chyrche of Tame a chantrye six pore men and a
fraternity
In the worship of St. Christofere to be relieved in perpetuitye
They that of their almys for their sowles a _pater noster_ and
_ave_ devoutly wul seye
Of holy fadurs is granted them pardun of days xl alway.

Which Richard and Sibil out of this world passed in the yer of our lord M. cccclx. upon their sowles jhu have mercy amen. Another thus.

_Orate pro animabus Galfredi Dormer mercatoris Stapile ville Calis & Margere & Alicie uxoris ejus qui quidem Galfridus ob. 9 Mar. 1502. quorum_ _animabus propicietur deus amen._ There are the images of twenty-five children upon this stone.

John lord Williams of Tame baronet, baron of Tame, ob. 14 Oct. 1559.

Here lyeth Sir John Clerk of Northweston knight which tuke Lovys of Orleance duke of Longuevill and marquis of Rotelin prysoner at the journy of Bomy by Tyrvain the xvi day of August in the v yer of the reign of the noble and victorious king Henry viii. which John decesed the v day of April 1539.

There is an abbot (I suppose) in stone in the church wall of the south transept within side: near the church are the ruins of a priory built by Alexander bishop of Lincoln. At Notely, not far off, is another. A pot of Roman money was found at Sherburn in this neighbourhood last year.

[Sidenote: +Islip.+]

Islip is memorable for the birth of Edward the Confessor. The font which stood in the king’s chapel, as still called, where he was baptised, is removed: but that font in Dr. Plot seems not of such antiquity. There are some remains of an ancient palace.

[Sidenote: +Oxford.+]

Oxford requires a more elaborate description than a stranger can 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.

_Stukeley delin._ _E. Kirkall sculp._]

_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.

_Rudera Coloniæ Troglodyticæ juxta. Nottingham._

_Lin flu._]

_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.+]

Beyond Derby, along the Ricning way is Burton upon the Trent, where is a bridge of thirty-seven arches. Here was an old abbey: they are pulling down the ruins to build a new church.

[Sidenote: +Derventio.+]

[Sidenote: TAB. LXXXVI.]