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.
3. In the bottom of these Marshes, and close to the edge of the
river, stands the strong fortress of Tilbury, called Tilbury Fort,
which may justly be looked upon as the key of the River Thames, and
consequently the key of the City of London. It is a regular
fortification. The design of it was a pentagon, but the water
bastion, as it would have been called, was never built.
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