Tour Through the Eastern Counties of England | Page 7

retirement. He was a member of Parliament for the town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed.
On the other side of Witham, at Fauburn, an ancient mansion house,
built by the Romans, lives Mr. Bullock, whose father married the
daughter of that eminent citizen, Sir Josiah Child, of Wanstead, by
whom she had three sons; the eldest enjoys the estate, which is
considerable.
It is observable, that in this part of the country there are several very
considerable estates, purchased and now enjoyed by citizens of London,
merchants, and tradesmen, as Mr. Western, an iron merchant, near
Kelendon; Mr. Cresnor, a wholesale grocer, who was, a little before he
died, named for sheriff at Earl's Coln; Mr. Olemus, a merchant at
Braintree; Mr. Westcomb, near Malden; Sir Thomas Webster at
Copthall, near Waltham; and several others.
I mention this to observe how the present increase of wealth in the City
of London spreads itself into the country, and plants families and
fortunes, who in another age will equal the families of the ancient
gentry, who perhaps were brought out. I shall take notice of this in a
general head, and when I have run through all the counties, collect a list

of the families of citizens and tradesmen thus established in the several
counties, especially round London.
The product of all this part of the country is corn, as that of the marshy
feeding grounds mentioned above is grass, where their chief business is
breeding of calves, which I need not say are the best and fattest, and the
largest veal in England, if not in the world; and, as an instance, I ate
part of a veal or calf, fed by the late Sir Josiah Child at Wanstead, the
loin of which weighed above thirty pounds, and the flesh exceeding
white and fat.
From hence I went on to Colchester. The story of Kill-Dane, which is
told of the town of Kelvedon, three miles from Witham, namely, that
this is the place where the massacre of the Danes was begun by the
women, and that therefore it was called Kill-Dane; I say of it, as we
generally say of improbable news, it wants confirmation. The true
name of the town is Kelvedon, and has been so for many hundred years.
Neither does Mr. Camden, or any other writer I meet with worth
naming, insist on this piece of empty tradition. The town is commonly
called Keldon.
Colchester is an ancient corporation. The town is large, very populous,
the streets fair and beautiful, and though it may not said to be finely
built, yet there are abundance of very good and well-built houses in it.
It still mourns in the ruins of a civil war; during which, or rather after
the heat of the war was over, it suffered a severe siege, which, the
garrison making a resolute defence, was turned into a blockade, in
which the garrison and inhabitants also suffered the utmost extremity of
hunger, and were at last obliged to surrender at discretion, when their
two chief officers, Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle, were shot to
death under the castle wall. The inhabitants had a tradition that no grass
would grow upon the spot where the blood of those two gallant
gentlemen was spilt, and they showed the place bare of grass for many
years; but whether for this reason I will not affirm. The story is now
dropped, and the grass, I suppose, grows there, as in other places.
However, the battered walls, the breaches in the turrets, and the ruined
churches, still remain, except that the church of St. Mary (where they
had the royal fort) is rebuilt; but the steeple, which was two-thirds
battered down, because the besieged had a large culverin upon it that
did much execution, remains still in that condition.

There is another church which bears the marks of those times, namely,
on the south side of the town, in the way to the Hythe, of which more
hereafter.
The lines of contravallation, with the forts built by the besiegers, and
which surrounded the whole town, remain very visible in many places;
but the chief of them are demolished.
The River Colne, which passes through this town, compasses it on the
north and east sides, and served in those times for a complete defence
on those sides. They have three bridges over it, one called North Bridge,
at the north gate, by which the road leads into Suffolk; one called East
Bridge, at the foot of the High Street, over which lies the road to
Harwich, and one at the Hythe, as above.
The river is navigable within three miles of the town for ships of large
burthen; a little lower it may receive even a royal navy; and up to that
part called the