N.B.--I Am The More Particular In My Remarks On This Place, Because
In The Course Of My Travels
The reader will meet with the like in
almost every place of note through the whole island, where it will
Be seen how this whole kingdom, as well the people as the land, and
even the sea, in every part of it, are employed to furnish
something, and I may add, the best of everything, to supply the
City of London with provisions; I mean by provisions, corn, flesh,
fish, butter, cheese, salt, fuel, timber, etc., and clothes also;
with everything necessary for building, and furniture for their own
use or for trade; of all which in their order.
On this shore also are taken the best and nicest, though not the
largest, oysters in England; the spot from whence they have their
common appellation is a little bank called Woelfleet, scarce to be
called an island, in the mouth of the River Crouch, now called
Crooksea Water; but the chief place where the said oysters are now
had is from Wyvenhoe and the shores adjacent, whither they are
brought by the fishermen, who take them at the mouth of that they
call Colchester water and about the sand they call the Spits, and
carry them up to Wyvenhoe, where they are laid in beds or pits on
the shore to feed, as they call it; and then being barrelled up and
carried to Colchester, which is but three miles off, they are sent
to London by land, and are from thence called Colchester oysters.
The chief sort of other fish which they carry from this part of the
shore to London are soles, which they take sometimes exceeding
large, and yield a very good price at London market. Also
sometimes middling turbot, with whiting, codling and large
flounders; the small fish, as above, they sell in the country.
In the several creeks and openings, as above, on this shore there
are also other islands, but of no particular note, except Mersey,
which lies in the middle of the two openings between Malden Water
and Colchester Water; being of the most difficult access, so that
it is thought a thousand men well provided might keep possession of
it against a great force, whether by land or sea. On this account,
and because if possessed by an enemy it would shut up all the
navigation and fishery on that side, the Government formerly built
a fort on the south-east point of it; and generally in case of
Dutch war, there is a strong body of troops kept there to defend
it.
At this place may be said to end what we call the Hundreds of
Essex--that is to say, the three Hundreds or divisions which
include the marshy country, viz., Barnstable Hundred, Rochford
Hundred, and Dengy Hundred.
I have one remark more before I leave this damp part of the world,
and which I cannot omit on the women's account, namely, that I took
notice of a strange decay of the sex here; insomuch that all along
this country it was very frequent to meet with men that had had
from five or six to fourteen or fifteen wives; nay, and some more.
And I was informed that in the marshes on the other side of the
river over against Candy Island there was a farmer who was then
living with the five-and-twentieth wife, and that his son, who was
but about thirty-five years old, had already had about fourteen.
Indeed, this part of the story I only had by report, though from
good hands too; but the other is well known and easy to be inquired
into about Fobbing, Curringham, Thundersly, Benfleet, Prittlewell,
Wakering, Great Stambridge, Cricksea, Burnham, Dengy, and other
towns of the like situation. The reason, as a merry fellow told
me, who said he had had about a dozen and a half of wives (though I
found afterwards he fibbed a little) was this: That they being
bred in the marshes themselves and seasoned to the place, did
pretty well with it; but that they always went up into the hilly
country, or, to speak their own language, into the uplands for a
wife. That when they took the young lasses out of the wholesome
and fresh air they were healthy, fresh, and clear, and well; but
when they came out of their native air into the marshes among the
fogs and damps, there they presently changed their complexion, got
an ague or two, and seldom held it above half a year, or a year at
most; "And then," said he, "we go to the uplands again and fetch
another;" so that marrying of wives was reckoned a kind of good
farm to them. It is true the fellow told this in a kind of
drollery and mirth; but the fact, for all that, is certainly true;
and that they have abundance of wives by that very means. Nor is
it less true that the inhabitants in these places do not hold it
out, as in other countries, and as first you seldom meet with very
ancient people among the poor, as in other places we do, so, take
it one with another, not one-half of the inhabitants are natives of
the place; but such as from other countries or in other parts of
this country settle here for the advantage of good farms; for which
I appeal to any impartial inquiry, having myself examined into it
critically in several places.
From the marshes and low grounds being not able to travel without
many windings and indentures by reason of the creeks and waters, I
came up to the town of Malden, a noted market town situate at the
conflux or joining of two principal rivers in this county, the
Chelm or Chelmer, and the Blackwater, and where they enter into the
sea. The channel, as I have noted, is called by the sailors Malden
Water, and is navigable up to the town, where by that means is a
great trade for carrying corn by water to London; the county of
Essex being (especially on all that side) a great corn county.
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