That The Great Road Lay This Way, And That The Great Causeway
Landed Again Just Over The River, Where Now
The Temple Mills stand,
and passed by Sir Thomas Hickes's house at Ruckolls, all this is
not doubted; and that
It was one of those famous highways made by
the Romans there is undoubted proof, by the several marks of Roman
work, and by Roman coins and other antiquities found there, some of
which are said to be deposited in the hands of the Rev. Mr. Strype,
vicar of the parish of Low Leyton.
From hence the great road passed up to Leytonstone, a place by some
known now as much by the sign of the "Green Man," formerly a lodge
upon the edge of the forest; and crossing by Wanstead House,
formerly the dwelling of Sir Josiah Child, now of his son the Lord
Castlemain (of which hereafter), went over the same river which we
now pass at Ilford; and passing that part of the great forest which
we now call Hainault Forest, came into that which is now the great
road, a little on this side the Whalebone, a place on the road so
called because the rib-bone of a great whale, which was taken in
the River Thames the same year that Oliver Cromwell died, 1658, was
fixed there for a monument of that monstrous creature, it being at
first about eight-and-twenty feet long.
According to my first intention of effectually viewing the sea-
coast of these three counties, I went from Stratford to Barking, a
large market-town, but chiefly inhabited by fishermen, whose smacks
ride in the Thames, at the mouth of their river, from whence their
fish is sent up to London to the market at Billingsgate by small
boats, of which I shall speak by itself in my description of
London.
One thing I cannot omit in the mention of these Barking fisher-
smacks, viz., that one of those fishermen, a very substantial and
experienced man, convinced me that all the pretences to bringing
fish alive to London market from the North Seas, and other remote
places on the coast of Great Britain, by the new-built sloops
called fish-pools, have not been able to do anything but what their
fishing-smacks are able on the same occasion to perform. These
fishing-smacks are very useful vessels to the public upon many
occasions; as particularly, in time of war they are used as press-
smacks, running to all the northern and western coasts to pick up
seamen to man the navy, when any expedition is at hand that
requires a sudden equipment; at other times, being excellent
sailors, they are tenders to particular men of war; and on an
expedition they have been made use of as machines for the blowing
up of fortified ports and havens; as at Calais, St. Malo, and other
places.
This parish of Barking is very large, and by the improvement of
lands taken in out of the Thames, and out of the river which runs
by the town, the tithes, as the townsmen assured me, are worth
above 600 pounds per annum, including, small tithes. Note.--This
parish has two or three chapels of ease, viz., one at Ilford, and
one on the side of Hainault Forest, called New Chapel.
Sir Thomas Fanshaw, of an ancient Roman Catholic family, has a very
good estate in this parish. A little beyond the town, on the road
to Dagenham, stood a great house, ancient, and now almost fallen
down, where tradition says the Gunpowder Treason Plot was at first
contrived, and that all the first consultations about it were held
there.
This side of the county is rather rich in land than in inhabitants,
occasioned chiefly by the unhealthiness of the air; for these low
marsh grounds, which, with all the south side of the county, have
been saved out of the River Thames, and out of the sea, where the
river is wide enough to be called so, begin here, or rather begin
at West Ham, by Stratford, and continue to extend themselves, from
hence eastward, growing wider and wider till we come beyond
Tilbury, when the flat country lies six, seven, or eight miles
broad, and is justly said to be both unhealthy and unpleasant.
However, the lands are rich, and, as is observable, it is very good
farming in the marshes, because the landlords let good pennyworths,
for it being a place where everybody cannot live, those that
venture it will have encouragement and indeed it is but reasonable
they should.
Several little observations I made in this part of the county of
Essex.
1. We saw, passing from Barking to Dagenham, the famous breach,
made by an inundation of the Thames, which was so great as that it
laid near 5,000 acres of land under water, but which after near ten
years lying under water, and being several times blown up, has been
at last effectually stopped by the application of Captain Perry,
the gentleman who, for several years, had been employed in the Czar
of Muscovy's works, at Veronitza, on the River Don. This breach
appeared now effectually made up, and they assured us that the new
work, where the breach was, is by much esteemed the strongest of
all the sea walls in that level.
2. It was observable that great part of the lands in these levels,
especially those on this side East Tilbury, are held by the
farmers, cow-keepers, and grazing butchers who live in and near
London, and that they are generally stocked (all the winter half
year) with large fat sheep, viz., Lincolnshire and Leicestershire
wethers, which they buy in Smithfield in September and October,
when the Lincolnshire and Leicestershire graziers sell off their
stock, and are kept here till Christmas, or Candlemas, or
thereabouts; and though they are not made at all fatter here than
they were when bought in, yet the farmer or butcher finds very good
advantage in it, by the difference of the price of mutton between
Michaelmas, when it is cheapest, and Candlemas, when it is dearest;
this is what the butchers value themselves upon, when they tell us
at the market that it is right marsh-mutton.
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