The Fort Is On The Suffolk Side Of The Bay Or Entrance, But Stands
So Far Into The Sea Upon
The point of a sand or shoal, which runs
out toward the Essex side, as it were, laps over the
Mouth of that
haven like a blind to it; and our surveyors of the country affirm
it to be in the county of Essex. The making this place, which was
formerly no other than a sand in the sea, solid enough for the
foundation of so good a fortification, has not been done but by
many years' labour, often repairs, and an infinite expense of
money, but it is now so firm that nothing of storms and high tides,
or such things as make the sea dangerous to these kind of works,
can affect it.
The harbour is of a vast extent; for, as two rivers empty
themselves here, viz., Stour from Manningtree and the Orwell from
Ipswich, the channels of both are large and deep; and safe for all
weathers; so where they join they make a large bay or road able to
receive the biggest ships, and the greatest number that ever the
world saw together; I mean ships of war. In the old Dutch war
great use has been made of this harbour; and I have known that
there has been one hundred sail of men-of-war and their attendants
and between three and four hundred sail of collier ships all in
this harbour at a time, and yet none of them crowding or riding in
danger of one another.
Harwich is known for being the port where the packet boats, between
England and Holland, go out and come in. The inhabitants are far
from being famed for good usage to strangers, but, on the contrary,
are blamed for being extravagant in their reckonings in the public-
houses, which has not a little encouraged the setting up of sloops,
which they now call passage boats, to Holland, to go directly from
the River Thames; this, though it may be something the longer
passage, yet as they are said to be more obliging to passengers and
more reasonable in the expense, and, as some say, also, the vessels
are better sea boats, has been the reason why so many passengers do
not go or come by the way of Harwich as formerly were wont to do;
insomuch that the stage coaches between this place and London,
which ordinarily went twice or three times a week, are now entirely
laid down, and the passengers are left to hire coaches on purpose,
take post-horses, or hire horses to Colchester, as they find most
convenient.
The account of a petrifying quality in the earth here, though some
will have it to be in the water of a spring hard by, is very
strange. They boast that their town is walled and their streets
paved with clay, and yet that one is as strong and the other as
clean as those that are built or paved with stone.
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