The Present Government Of This Important Place Is Under The Prudent
Administration Of The Right Honourable The Lord Newbrugh.
From hence there is nothing for many miles together remarkable but
a continued level of unhealthy marshes, called the Three Hundreds,
till we come before Leigh, and to the mouth of the River Chelmer,
and Blackwater.
These rivers united make a large firth, or inlet
of the sea, which by Mr. Camden is called Idumanum Fluvium; but by
our fishermen and seamen, who use it as a port, it is called Malden
Water.
In this inlet of the sea is Osey, or Osyth Island, commonly called
Oosy Island, so well known by our London men of pleasure for the
infinite number of wild fowl, that is to say, duck, mallard, teal,
and widgeon, of which there are such vast flights, that they tell
us the island, namely the creek, seems covered with them at certain
times of the year, and they go from London on purpose for the
pleasure of shooting; and, indeed, often come home very well laden
with game. But it must be remembered too that those gentlemen who
are such lovers of the sport, and go so far for it, often return
with an Essex ague on their backs, which they find a heavier load
than the fowls they have shot.
It is on this shore, and near this creek, that the greatest
quantity of fresh fish is caught which supplies not this country
only, but London markets also. On the shore, beginning a little
below Candy Island, or rather below Leigh Road, there lies a great
shoal or sand called the Black Tail, which runs out near three
leagues into the sea due east; at the end of it stands a pole or
mast, set up by the Trinity House men of London, whose business is
to lay buoys and set up sea marks for the direction of the sailors;
this is called Shoe Beacon, from the point of land where this sand
begins, which is called Shoeburyness, and that from the town of
Shoebury, which stands by it. From this sand, and on the edge of
Shoebury, before it, or south west of it, all along, to the mouth
of Colchester water, the shore is full of shoals and sands, with
some deep channels between; all which are so full of fish, that not
only the Barking fishing-smacks come hither to fish, but the whole
shore is full of small fisher-boats in very great numbers,
belonging to the villages and towns on the coast, who come in every
tide with what they take; and selling the smaller fish in the
country, send the best and largest away upon horses, which go night
and day to London market.
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.
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