Tour Through the Eastern Counties of England | Page 6

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.
When I have said this I think I have done Malden justice, and said all of
it that there is to be said, unless I should run into the old story of its
antiquity, and tell you it was a Roman colony in the time of Vespasian,
and that it was called Camolodunum. How the Britons, under Queen
Boadicea, in revenge for the Romans' ill-usage of her--for indeed they
used her majesty ill--they stripped her naked and whipped her publicly
through their streets for some affront she had given them. I say how for
this she raised the Britons round the country, overpowered, and cut in
pieces the Tenth Legion, killed above eighty thousand Romans, and
destroyed the colony; but was afterwards overthrown in a great battle,
and sixty thousand Britons slain. I say, unless I should enter into this
story, I have nothing more to say of Malden, and, as for that story, it is
so fully related by Mr. Camden in his history of the Romans in Britain
at the beginning of his "Britannia," that I need only refer the reader to it,
and go on with my journey.
Being obliged to come thus far into the uplands, as above, I made it my
road to pass through Witham, a pleasant, well-situated market town, in

which, and in its neighbourhood, there are as many gentlemen of good
fortunes and families as I believe can be met with in so narrow a
compass in any of the three counties of which I make this circuit.
In the town of Witham dwells the Lord Pasely, oldest son of the Earl of
Abercorn of Ireland (a branch of the noble family of Hamilton, in
Scotland). His lordship has a small, but a neat, well-built new house,
and is finishing his gardens in such a manner as few in that part of
England will exceed them.
Nearer Chelmsford, hard by Boreham, lives the Lord Viscount
Barrington, who, though not born to the title, or estate, or name which
he now possesses, had the honour to be twice made heir to the estates
of gentlemen not at all related to him, at least, one of them, as is very
much to his honour, mentioned in his patent of creation. His name was
Shute, his father a linendraper in London, and served sheriff of the said
city in very troublesome times. He changed the name of Shute for that
of Barrington by an Act of Parliament obtained for that purpose, and
had the dignity of a baron of the kingdom conferred on him by the
favour of King George. His lordship is a Dissenter, and seems to love