From London to Land's End Read online

  From London to Land's End

  Sir,

  I find so much left to speak of, and so many things to say in every

  part of England, that my journey cannot be barren of intelligence

  which way soever I turn; no, though I were to oblige myself to say

  nothing of anything that had been spoken of before.

  I intended once to have gone due west this journey; but then I

  should have been obliged to crowd my observations so close (to

  bring Hampton Court, Windsor, Blenheim, Oxford, the Bath and

  Bristol all into one letter; all those remarkable places lying in a

  line, as it were, in one point of the compass) as to have made my

  letter too long, or my observations too light and superficial, as

  others have done before me.

  This letter will divide the weighty task, and consequently make it

  sit lighter on the memory, be pleasanter to the reader, and make my

  progress the more regular: I shall therefore take in Hampton Court

  and Windsor in this journey; the first at my setting out, and the

  last at my return, and the rest as their situation demands.

  As I came down from Kingston, in my last circuit, by the south bank

  of the Thames, on the Surrey side of the river; so I go up to

  Hampton Court now on the north bank, and on the Middlesex side,

  which I mention, because, as the sides of the country bordering on

  the river lie parallel, so the beauty of the country, the pleasant

  situations, the glory of innumerable fine buildings (noblemen's and

  gentlemen's houses, and citizens' retreats), are so equal a match

  to what I had described on the other side that one knows not which

  to give the preference to: but as I must speak of them again, when

  I come to write of the county of Middlesex, which I have now

  purposely omitted; so I pass them over here, except the palace of

  Hampton only, which I mentioned in "Middlesex," for the reasons

  above.

  Hampton Court lies on the north bank of the River Thames, about two

  small miles from Kingston, and on the road from Staines to Kingston

  Bridge; so that the road straightening the parks a little, they

  were obliged to part the parks, and leave the Paddock and the great

  park part on the other side the road--a testimony of that just

  regard that the kings of England always had, and still have, to the

  common good, and to the service of the country, that they would not

  interrupt the course of the road, or cause the poor people to go

  out of the way of their business to or from the markets and fairs,

  for any pleasure of their own whatsoever.

  The palace of Hampton Court was first founded and built from the

  ground by that great statesman and favourite of King Henry VIII,

  Cardinal Wolsey; and if it be a just observation anywhere, as is

  made from the situation of the old abbeys and monasteries, the

  clergy were excellent judges of the beauty and pleasantness of the

  country, and chose always to plant in the best; I say, if it was a

  just observation in any case, it was in this; for if there be a

  situation on the whole river between Staines Bridge and Windsor

  Bridge pleasanter than another, it is this of Hampton; close to the

  river, yet not offended by the rising of its waters in floods or

  storms; near to the reflux of the tides, but not quite so near as

  to be affected with any foulness of the water which the flowing of

  the tides generally is the occasion of. The gardens extend almost

  to the bank of the river, yet are never overflowed; nor are there

  any marshes on either side the river to make the waters stagnate,

  or the air unwholesome on that account. The river is high enough

  to be navigable, and low enough to be a little pleasantly rapid; so

  that the stream looks always cheerful, not slow and sleeping, like

  a pond. This keeps the waters always clear and clean, the bottom

  in view, the fish playing and in sight; and, in a word, it has

  everything that can make an inland (or, as I may call it, a

  country) river pleasant and agreeable.

  I shall sing you no songs here of the river in the first person of

  a water-nymph, a goddess, and I know not what, according to the

  humour of the ancient poets; I shall talk nothing of the marriage

  of old Isis, the male river, with the beautiful Thame, the female

  river (a whimsey as simple as the subject was empty); but I shall

  speak of the river as occasion presents, as it really is made

  glorious by the splendour of its shores, gilded with noble palaces,

  strong fortifications, large hospitals, and public buildings; with

  the greatest bridge, and the greatest city in the world, made

  famous by the opulence of its merchants, the increase and

  extensiveness of its commerce; by its invincible navies, and by the

  innumerable fleets of ships sailing upon it to and from all parts

  of the world.

  As I meet with the river upwards in my travels through the inland

  country I shall speak of it, as it is the channel for conveying an

  infinite quantity of provisions from remote counties to London, and

  enriching all the counties again that lie near it by the return of

  wealth and trade from the city; and in describing these things I

  expect both to inform and divert my readers, and speak in a more

  masculine manner, more to the dignity of the subject, and also more

  to their satisfaction, than I could do any other way.

  There is little more to be said of the Thames relating to Hampton

  Court, than that it adds by its neighbourhood to the pleasure of

  the situation; for as to passing by water to and from London,

  though in summer it is exceeding pleasant, yet the passage is a

  little too long to make it easy to the ladies, especially to be

  crowded up in the small boats which usually go upon the Thames for

  pleasure.

  The prince and princess, indeed, I remember came once down by water

  upon the occasion of her Royal Highness's being great with child,

  and near her time--so near that she was delivered within two or

  three days after. But this passage being in the royal barges, with

  strength of oars, and the day exceeding fine, the passage, I say,

  was made very pleasant, and still the more so for being short.

  Again, this passage is all the way with the stream, whereas in the

  common passage upwards great part of the way is against the stream,

  which is slow and heavy.

  But be the going and coming how it will by water, it is an

  exceeding pleasant passage by land, whether we go by the Surrey

  side or the Middlesex side of the water, of which I shall say more

  in its place.

  The situation of Hampton Court being thus mentioned, and its

  founder, it is to be mentioned next that it fell to the Crown in

  the forfeiture of his Eminence the Cardinal, when the king seized

  his effects and estate, by which this and Whitehall (another house

  of his own building also)
came to King Henry VIII. Two palaces fit

  for the kings of England, erected by one cardinal, are standing

  monuments of the excessive pride as well as the immense wealth of

  that prelate, who knew no bounds of his insolence and ambition till

  he was overthrown at once by the displeasure of his master.

  Whoever knew Hampton Court before it was begun to be rebuilt, or

  altered, by the late King William, must acknowledge it was a very

  complete palace before, and fit for a king; and though it might

  not, according to the modern method of building or of gardening,

  pass for a thing exquisitely fine, yet it had this remaining to

  itself, and perhaps peculiar--namely, that it showed a situation

  exceedingly capable of improvement, and of being made one of the

  most delightful palaces in Europe.

  This her Majesty Queen Mary was so sensible of, that, while the

  king had ordered the pulling down the old apartments, and building

  it up in that most beautiful form which we see them now appear in,

  her Majesty, impatient of enjoying so agreeable a retreat, fixed

  upon a building formerly made use of chiefly for landing from the

  river, and therefore called the Water Galley, and here, as if she

  had been conscious that she had but a few years to enjoy it, she

  ordered all the little neat curious things to be done which suited

  her own conveniences, and made it the pleasantest little thing

  within doors that could possibly be made, though its situation

  being such as it could not be allowed to stand after the great

  building was finished, we now see no remains of it.

  The queen had here her gallery of beauties, being the pictures at

  full-length of the principal ladies attending upon her Majesty, or

  who were frequently in her retinue; and this was the more beautiful

  sight because the originals were all in being, and often to be

  compared with their pictures. Her Majesty had here a fine

  apartment, with a set of lodgings for her private retreat only, but

  most exquisitely furnished, particularly a fine chintz bed, then a

  great curiosity; another of her own work while in Holland, very

  magnificent, and several others; and here was also her Majesty's

  fine collection of Delft ware, which indeed was very large and

  fine; and here was also a vast stock of fine china ware, the like

  whereof was not then to be seen in England; the long gallery, as

  above, was filled with this china, and every other place where it

  could be placed with advantage.

  The queen had here also a small bathing-room, made very fine,

  suited either to hot or cold bathing, as the season should invite;

  also a dairy, with all its conveniences, in which her Majesty took

  great delight. All these things were finished with expedition,

  that here their Majesties might repose while they saw the main

  building go forward. While this was doing, the gardens were laid

  out, the plan of them devised by the king himself, and especially

  the amendments and alterations were made by the king or the queen's

  particular special command, or by both, for their Majesties agreed

  so well in their fancy, and had both so good judgment in the just

  proportions of things, which are the principal beauties of a

  garden, that it may be said they both ordered everything that was

  done.

  Here the fine parcel of limes which form the semicircle on the

  south front of the house by the iron gates, looking into the park,

  were by the dexterous hand of the head gardener removed, after some

  of them had been almost thirty years planted in other places,

  though not far off. I know the King of France in the decoration of

  the gardens of Versailles had oaks removed, which by their

  dimensions must have been above an hundred years old, and yet were

  taken up with so much art, and by the strength of such engines, by

  which such a monstrous quantity of earth was raised with them, that

  the trees could not feel their remove--that is to say, their growth

  was not at all hindered. This, I confess, makes the wonder much

  the less in those trees at Hampton Court gardens; but the

  performance was not the less difficult or nice, however, in these,

  and they thrive perfectly well.

  While the gardens were thus laid out, the king also directed the

  laying the pipes for the fountains and JET-D'EAUX, and particularly

  the dimensions of them, and what quantity of water they should cast

  up, and increased the number of them after the first design.

  The ground on the side of the other front has received some

  alterations since the taking down the Water Galley; but not that

  part immediately next the lodgings. The orange-trees and fine

  Dutch bays are placed within the arches of the building under the

  first floor; so that the lower part of the house was all one as a

  greenhouse for sometime. Here stand advanced, on two pedestals of

  stone, two marble vases or flower-pots of most exquisite

  workmanship--the one done by an Englishman, and the other by a

  German. It is hard to say which is the best performance, though

  the doing of it was a kind of trial of skill between them; but it

  gives us room, without any partiality, to say they were both

  masters of their art.

  The PARTERRE on that side descends from the terrace-walk by steps,

  and on the left a terrace goes down to the water-side, from which

  the garden on the eastward front is overlooked, and gives a most

  pleasant prospect.

  The fine scrolls and BORDURE of these gardens were at first edged

  with box, but on the queen's disliking the smell those edgings were

  taken up, but have since been planted again--at least, in many

  places--nothing making so fair and regular an edging as box, or is

  so soon brought to its perfection.

  On the north side of the house, where the gardens seemed to want

  screening from the weather or the view of the chapel, and some part

  of the old building required to be covered from the eye, the vacant

  ground, which was large, is very happily cast into a wilderness,

  with a labyrinth and ESPALIERS so high that they effectually take

  off all that part of the old building which would have been

  offensive to the sight. This labyrinth and wilderness is not only

  well designed, and completely finished, but is perfectly well kept,

  and the ESPALIERS filled exactly at bottom, to the very ground, and

  are led up to proportioned heights on the top, so that nothing of

  that kind can be more beautiful.

  The house itself is every way answerable on the outside to the

  beautiful prospect, and the two fronts are the largest and, beyond

  comparison, the finest of the kind in England. The great stairs go

  up from the second court of the palace on the right hand, and lead

  you to the south prospect.

  I hinted in my last that King William brought into England the love

  of fine paintings as well as that of fine gardens; and you have an

  example of it in the cartoons, as they are called, being five

  pieces of such paintings as, if you will believe men of nice

  judgment and great travelling, are not to be
matched in Europe.

  The stories are known, but especially two of them--viz., that of

  St. Paul preaching on Mars Hill to the self-wise Athenians, and

  that of St. Peter passing sentence of death on Ananias--I say,

  these two strike the mind with the utmost surprise, the passions

  are so drawn to the life; astonishment, terror, and death in the

  face of Ananias, zeal and a sacred fire in the eyes of the blessed

  Apostle, fright and surprise upon the countenances of the beholders

  in the piece of Ananias; all these describe themselves so naturally

  that you cannot but seem to discover something of the like

  passions, even in seeing them.

  In the other there is the boldness and courage with which St. Paul

  undertook to talk to a set of men who, he knew, despised all the

  world, as thinking themselves able to teach them anything. In the

  audience there is anticipating pride and conceit in some, a smile

  or fleer of contempt in others, but a kind of sensible conviction,

  though crushed in its beginning, on the faces of the rest; and all

  together appear confounded, but have little to say, and know

  nothing at all of it; they gravely put him off to hear him another

  time; all these are seen here in the very dress of the face--that

  is, the very countenances which they hold while they listen to the

  new doctrine which the Apostle preached to a people at that time

  ignorant of it.

  The other of the cartoons are exceeding fine but I mention these as

  the particular two which are most lively, which strike the fancy

  the soonest at first view. It is reported, but with what truth I

  know not, that the late French king offered an hundred thousand

  LOUIS D'ORS for these pictures; but this, I say, is but a report.

  The king brought a great many other fine pieces to England, and

  with them the love of fine paintings so universally spread itself

  among the nobility and persons of figure all over the kingdom that

  it is incredible what collections have been made by English

  gentlemen since that time, and how all Europe has been rummaged, as

  we may say, for pictures to bring over hither, where for twenty

  years they yielded the purchasers, such as collected them for sale,

  immense profit. But the rates are abated since that, and we begin

  to be glutted with the copies and frauds of the Dutch and Flemish

  painters who have imposed grossly upon us. But to return to the

  palace of Hampton Court. Queen Mary lived not to see it completely

  finished, and her death, with the other difficulties of that reign,

  put a stop to the works for some time till the king, reviving his

  good liking of the place, set them to work again, and it was

  finished as we see it. But I have been assured that had the peace

  continued, and the king lived to enjoy the continuance of it, his

  Majesty had resolved to have pulled down all the remains of the old

  building (such as the chapel and the large court within the first

  gate), and to have built up the whole palace after the manner of

  those two fronts already done. In these would have been an entire

  set of rooms of state for the receiving and, if need had been,

  lodging and entertaining any foreign prince with his retinue; also

  offices for all the Secretaries of State, Lords of the Treasury,

  and of Trade, to have repaired to for the despatch of such business

  as it might be necessary to have done there upon the king's longer

  residence there than ordinary; as also apartments for all the great

  officers of the Household; so that had the house had two great

  squares added, as was designed, there would have been no room to

  spare, or that would not have been very well filled. But the

  king's death put an end to all these things.

  Since the death of King William, Hampton Court seemed abandoned of

  its patron. They have gotten a kind of proverbial saying relating

  to Hampton Court, viz., that it has been generally chosen by every

  other prince since it became a house of note. King Charles was the

  first that delighted in it since Queen Elizabeth's time. As for