ITER OXONIENSE. II.
Sed prior hæc hominis cura est cognoscere terram. Virg.
To Mr. JOHN HARDY of Nottingham.
IT is commonly remarked, that impressions of any sort made upon youthful minds last long; and, like a cut in the bark of tender sprigs, grow deeper and more apparent with advancing years.
Crescent illæ crescetis amores. Virg.
The many hours I have spent with you when I first began to cast my eyes upon the scenes of the world, and consider things about me, recur to my mind with pleasure. I should be ungrateful then, (to which my temper is most abhorrent) and I should deny myself a particular satisfaction, did I not acknowledge the remembrance of a friendship now mature: therefore to you I offer the earliest fruits of it, this small account of the first pleasurable journey I can reckon to myself, where I had opportunity for satisfying my growing curiosity. It is no wonder that your learning, your taste of antiquities, and all endearing qualities, made me fond of cultivating your acquaintance; and perhaps to you in great measure do I owe what may not be discommendable in amusements of the following kind, since our converse and our journeying sometimes together, to visit the remains of venerable antiquity, in my first years, gave me the love and incitement to such pursuits. I am not concerned to make an excuse for the meanness of this present: were it not juvenile, it would not be genuine. As when first with you, so since it has been my method, to put into writing what little remarks I made in travelling: at length I had collected so much, that with some drawings of places and things taken at the same time, it was judged not unworthy of publication: my consent was grounded upon hopes that by this means I might give some account of every part of my time, and that my own pleasures might not be altogether unuseful; especially thinking it was no hard task to equal somewhat of this sort lately done, and well received of the public. It is to be wished this branch of learning should revive among us, which has lain dormant since the great Camden; so that either in discoursing on it, or journeying, we might find some entertainment worthy of men of letters.
7
Croyland Bridge Lincolnshire.
W. Stukeley f. 1721. & Jonathan Sisson Mathematico, Conterraneo suo ut Amicitice pignus offert.
Stanford.
Passing the fenny counterscarps of Holland, we begin our journey at Stanford, which stands in a mild air and pleasant country abounding with noblemen’s seats. Many religious houses have been at Stanford, and once a college founded there, of which they boast much; but of all these things we expect shortly an exact and full account from the reverend Mr. Peck. About 1708, a brass seal was dug up, in the castle at Stanford, of Thomas bishop of Elphin in Ireland; in possession of Ralf Madyson, esq. Burghley, the earl of Exeter’s, is worth a traveller’s view: the rooms are finely painted by Seignior Varrio: abundance of curious pictures from Italy, collected by my lord’s grandfather. At St. Martin’s church are the monuments of that noble family.
Foderinghay.
Through a pleasant and woody country, we went to Foderinghay castle, situate on a branch of the river Nyne, overlooking the adjacent country and wide-extended meadows. The castle seems to have been very strong: there was a high mount, or keep, environed with a deep ditch: the space around it is guarded by a wall, double ditch, and the river: it is mostly demolished, and all the materials carried off. They pretend to show the ruins of the hall where Mary queen of Scots was beheaded. Some say king James I. ordered this fortress to be destroyed out of indignation: it was the seat of Edmund of Langley, duke of York, buried in the collegiate church here, a very neat building, founded by Edward duke of York, and here likewise interred: their monuments in the chancel (which was intirely demolished at the suppression) were restored by queen Elizabeth: the windows of the church are filled with very handsome painted glass, representing the images of cardinals, arch-bishops, abbots, &c. such as St. Denis with his head in his hand, St. Guthlac of Croyland, Richard Scrope arch-bishop of Canterbury, &c. these were saved in the late civil war, by the then minister of the parish, with a little money given to the soldiers that came to execute the harmless saints. We met with these uncouth verses upon the wall, showing the poetry of those times:
In festo Martyrii processus Martiniani,
Ecclesiæ prima fuit hujus petra locata,
Anno Christi primum centum ac mille
Cum deca quinta H. V. tunc imminente 2da.
On the north side of the church are the remains of the college, and the meadow under it retains its name: the steeple has an octagonal tower at the top, somewhat like that of Boston; at the bases of which are the images of bears and ragged staffs, cognisances (I suppose) of the founders; as the falcon and fetterlock often painted in the glass. They have a very ancient MS. book here, of the affairs of the parish. There is a school in the town, erected by Hen. VII. worth about 30l. per ann. over the door is wrote, Disce aut discede. A stone bridge over the river was built by queen Elizabeth anno 1555. shown by an inscription on the wall, a monument of the spite of the soldiers, who cut out with their swords, as they passed by, one line of it, God save the queen.
Oundale.
Oundale, or Avondale, is remarkable for a drumming well, much talked of by the superstitious vulgar: no doubt it is owing to the passage of the water, and air upon certain conditions, through the subterraneous chinks; for, as Virgil says, in his fine poem called Ætna,
Secta est omnis humus penitusque cavata latebris, &c.
and that it is done by intervals or pulses as it were, is but consentaneous to many of Nature’s operations. Here are two long bridges of stone. Louick church, on the side of a hill, is very fine, founded by John de Drayton, anno 1125: the windows are full of coats of arms. There is a picture of the founder in armour, on his knees, presenting his church to God: here is his monument, of the Veres too, and Staffords earls of Wiltshire, and others who intermarried with his family: there is a modern one of the late Dutchess of Norfolk, who was married, after her divorcement, to the present owner of the family seat, called Drayton house, Sir John Germayn, who has for the most part new-built it.
Boughton.
From hence we went to Boughton, the seat of the duke of Montagu, magnificent for building, painting and gardens: the stables are large and stately, well calculated for the designed grandeur of the house; for it is not yet finished: the hall is a very noble room: on the cieling is a convocation of the gods admirably painted, as are many suites of rooms and apartments, stair-cases, galleries, &c. beside the great numbers of portraits and other curious pictures, part of the furniture: the gardens contain fourscore and ten acres of ground, adorned with statues, flower-pots, urns of marble and metal, many very large basons, with variety of fountains playing, aviaries, reservoirs, fish-ponds, canals, admirable greens, wildernesses, terraces, &c. the cascade is very fine: a whole river, running through the length of the gardens, is diversified very agreeably to complete its beauty.
Geddington.
A mile off is Geddington, where in a trivium stands one of the stone crosses[31] built by king Edward I. in memory of his queen Eleanor, who died at Hareby near Bolingbroke, in Lincolnshire, 1291. It is formed upon a triangular model, of pretty Gothic architecture to suit its station. Her bowels were buried by the high altar in the Lady’s chapel of Lincoln minster; and in her journey thence to Westminster, where ever her herse rested, the king erected one of these magnificent crosses, as a monument of his great love: upon them are the arms of England, Castile, Leon and Poictou. These are the places, as far as I am at present informed, Lincoln, Grantham, Stamford,[32] Geddington, Northampton, Stony Stratford, Dunstable, St. Alban’s, Waltham, Cheapside over against Wood-street, Charing-cross. Near this place is Boughton, having a petrifying spring, which forms itself a canal of stone as it runs, consolidating the twigs, moss, and all adventitious bodies. We saw near the road a spring-head, with a statue of Moses in the middle of the water, belonging to Boughton house.
12
The West View of Waltham Cross 11 Jul. 1721.
Petro Le Neve Ar.
Norroy. tab. d.d.
Ws. Stukeley
Stukeley delin.
J. Harris Sculp.
Eltabona.Through Kettering we went to Northampton, the most elegant town in England: which, being wholly burnt down, is rebuilt with great regularity and beauty. There is a spacious square market-place, a fine assize-house of Corinthian architecture. Allhallow’s church is built after a pretty model, with a cupola and a noble portico before it of eight lofty Ionic columns: upon the balustrade a statue of king Charles II. There is an inscription of John Bailes, aged above 126: his sight, hearing and memory, intire; buried 1706. One of the old churches, St. Sepulchre’s, seems to have belonged to the Knights Hospitalers of St. John of Jerusalem, of a circular form: there has been another tacked to it of later date, with a choir and steeple, as to that at Cambridge of the same name and figure: another such I am told is at Guildford, which are all of this sort that I know of in England. I suspect these are the most ancient churches in England, and probably built in the later times of the Romans for Christian service, at least in the early Saxon reigns. Westward are the ruins of the castle, by the river side, built by Simon Silvanect I. earl of Northampton, who founded here likewise St. Andrew’s abbey: his son Simon Silvanect II. earl of Northampton and Huntingdon, founded St. Mary de Près abbey here about 1150. This probably is a Roman town arising from one of the forts built upon this river, as that great people proceeded northward in the conquest of the island; and being mentioned by Ravennas between Leicester and Stoney Stratford, it is very likely the Eltabona there, meaning ael, supercilium, and Avon, the river. Roman coins have been found on the other side the river: there are likewise the footsteps of the fortifications round the town, thrown up with bastions in the time of the civil wars. Under those on the south side, descending into a stone quarry which has abundance of intricate turnings, I saw a piece of oak wood, as big as both one’s hands, lie between the strata of solid stone: though petrified, the ligneous fibres when split would burn in a candle. I suppose it to have been lodged there in the deluge. A little way from the town, about Sprotton, are the pits where they dig up tobacco-pipe clay. Near Billing, about three miles from Northampton, not far from the earl of Twomond’s seat, was lately found a mine of copper, and coal, and marble, as they told me.
From Northampton, over the river, by a large stone bridge where is an old religious house, half a mile off in the London road, is another of queen Eleanor’s stone crosses, called Queen’s cross, with her images and arms. It stands on a hill in the open country upon eight steps, in form much like that of Waltham, of which I have given a print.TAB. XII. On the other side of the town, about three miles distance, is Holdenby house, which lies in noble ruins: here king Charles I. was kept prisoner. A little way off is Naseby,[33] where the bloody and fatal battle happened between his forces and those of the parliament, upon a fine plain where at present stands a windmill: the marks of several great holes appear, where the slain were buried. This town, as near as may be, is the navel of England. Near isGuildsborough. Roman Camp. Guildsborough, so named from a Roman camp of a square form, and deep ditch, called the Burrows. I was told of several more thereabouts, which I suppose those made in the time of Ostorius about the heads of the rivers here; which all together made a sort of fortification between the north and south parts of the kingdom, especially between the Avon and Severn. A long barrow at Pesford, called Longman’s hill. We saw Althorp, a curious seat of the earl of Sunderland’s, elegantly furnished: there is a fine gallery adorned with good pictures, and a noble library.
Eston.
My lord Lemster’s seat, now earl of Pomfret, near Towcester, is a stately building, and stands pleasantly, encompassed with good plantations of wood, visto’s and agreeable prospects. In the grand view to the back front, beyond the garden, is a large and long canal: in the house are several curious pictures; an original, of Sir Paul Ricot; of a pillar of Persepolis, one of those sixty foot high; Perseus loosing Andromeda, by Gioseppi Cari; a copy of Galatea, from Raphael: but what highly inhances the glory of this seat, is the vast number of Roman and Greek marbles, statues, busto’s, bas reliefs, &c. part of the most noble collection of the great earl of Arundel. My lord has it in his thoughts to build a large room, or gallery, to receive this invaluable treasure; at present they are for the most part exposed to the weather in the garden. I shall cursorily name them all with the haste of a traveller, though each single piece merits a serious view, and a long description.
At the end of the side terrace in the garden, and near the house, stands an intire column of marble in two pieces, fluted, taken from among the ruins of the temple of Apollo at the isle of Delos, where many now lie: this is set upon a proper base and pedestal made purposely for it: the capital is unusual, but very beautiful, and seems perfectly to answer that description which Vitruvius gives us, IV. 1. of the origin of the Corinthian capital from the conceit of Callimachus, who was pleased with the appearance of a basket covered with a tile, and luckily set upon the middle of a root of acanthus, or brank ursin, which shot up its curled leaves around it in a delicate and tender manner: upon it stands a statue, the upper part naked. In the niches of that wall along the walk are several broken statues of goddesses, naked or in fine drapery, where the mind is divided between the pleasure of seeing what remains and the grief for what is lost. Upon the stairs that descend into the garden are a great many whole and broken statues, pieces of basso relievo, altars, urns, tombs, &c. such as the destruction of Troy, represented in the Trojan horse, the merriment of the Trojans, the slaughter of Priamus, Achilles driving his chariot with Hector tied to it: there is another bas-relief of a battle; a figure recumbent at dinner; two figures in procession, but covered over with moss; four figures, two with Phrygian bonnets; good pieces of cornice-work, with mouldings of ovolo’s, bead-moulds, &c. a tomb, the husband and wife with the son between; a piece of Bacchanalians; the end of a tomb, or vase; a mask and revelling figures; an horseman and footman engaging. Most of these antiquities seem of the highest Greek times. Before the steps upon pedestals are two Egyptian sphynges mitred, and two Muses sitting: other things thereabouts are a sea-horse in basso; a man carrying another; a capital of a pillar made of a horse’s head, with branches coming out of his mouth like them at Persepolis, a dog’s head on one angle, and lions on the other: upon it are busts and heads: over that is a portal of a monumental stone, with a woman and two children, the tomb of some player, with fine bassos of masks, the busto of the deceased; four Genii; two lions devouring horses, finely cut: over it a priestess by the side of a temple: eight round altars or pedestals adorned with bulls heads, festoons, &c. which stand upon the piers of the stairs: upon and about them are other antiquities, such as the bottom part of Scylla; three monsters like dogs devouring three men; a receiver for an urn. Cupid asleep lies upon this.
On the north side the front of the house, a tomb; another capital of a horse’s head, &c. over it a basso of Venus riding on a sea-horse, a Cupid driving; a lion over it; two Cupids, alto relievo: some busts over the windows; a young Nero, Faunus, &c.
At the south end of the house, on the ground, an old headless statue; upon the basement, a tomb of a boy wrought in channel-work, his busto in basso upon it: over the windows a small statue; a woman with a child in her arms; a tomb; another capital from the temple of Apollo at Delos; a Greek mask.
Next let us descend into the garden along the middle walk. In the parterres about the fountain stand four Greek statues very intire, bigger than the life, of most admirable art: they are dressed in matron-like robes, or outer garments, in most comely folds, yet cut so exquisitely, that the folds of the inner drapery appear, and the whole shape of the body, as if transparent: they cannot be sufficiently commended. Between them and the house on the south side, is that celebrated statue of Cicero intire, with his sudarium in his right, and a scroll in his left hand: the sight of the eyes is cut hollow. I could not possibly excuse my self half a quarter of an hour’s serious view of this master-piece, frequently going round it: where so much seeming simplicity of the carver, has called forth all the fire of that divine genius that could make statues hear, as this artist has made them speak, and left an eternal monument of contention between him and the great orator: it grieved me to think it should stand a day longer in the open air. Answering to this on the left, is another statue of more robust shape and workmanship: his left hand holds a scroll, his right is laid in a passionate manner upon his breast: if sinewy muscles denote one that worked on the anvil, it may possibly be Demosthenes. The two next that correspond beyond the fountain, are Scipio Africanus and Asiaticus, in an heroic dress. Beyond, on each side the steps going down to the lower garden, are two colossi, Fabius Maximus the cunctator, and Archimides with a square in his hand. At each end of this cross-walk, or terrace, which terminates the middle or principal one, is built a handsome stone-work with niches and pediment supported with pilasters, contrived on purpose to receive other pieces: in that on the left hand, or north side, is the tomb of the famous Germanicus, adorned with carving of bas-relief: upon it two admirable busts of him and Agrippina his wife. Between these upon the tomb stands an altar-like pedestal with a small and ancient statue of Jupiter sitting. In the pediment over the arch is a curious piece of marble, whereon is raised the upper part of a man with his arms and hands extended, and the impression likewise of a foot: this I suppose the original standard of the Greek measure. Upon the apex of the pediment is a fine statue of Apollo with the right arm naked, the other covered with a mantle: below the hips it ends in a terminus; so that it is an Hermapollon. In two niches here, are two large and curious trunks, as fine as the loquacious Pasquin or Marforio at Rome. Upon the two outermost pilasters are two other beautiful trunks. At the corner of this terrace is an altar. At the other end of this cross walk, under the stone-work is a marble chair with an inscription on the back of it, denoting that it belonged to the high-priest of Isis, as said; for it is obliterated: it is remarkably easy to sit on: the sides are embossed with winged sphynges. On each side of it are two sitting fragments. Upon the top of this stone-work is a very large and curious Greek statue of Pallas, coloss proportion, naked arms, a plumed helmet on her head, the Gorgonian Ægis on her breast: the very marble is not without its terror.
We shall now pass through the house. The hall is a fine lofty room: in the niches are several statues; a Greek lady with her arms folded under the drapery, which with that of the under garment are perfectly seen through the robe; Caius Marius in a senatorial habit; Cupid asleep, leaning on his torch: M. Antony, a naked figure; all these as big as the life: over the chimney-piece, a little Hercules tearing the lion; seven bustos, an excellent one of Pindar; one said to be of Olympias, I fancied it Lucretia. By the great stairs, painted in fresco by Sir James Thornhill, two bustos, one of the Grecian Venus. In niches upon the stairs, six statues as big as the life: Diana in a hunting-habit, a tuck’d-up coat, buskins of skins; a lady in Greek drapery; the Venus de Medicis; Paris with a mantle, the Phrygian bonnet, and odd stockings of the Dacian mode; (this is a statue of great antiquity;) a nymph with a long flowing garment tied under the breast, a fine turn of the body; a man, the right shoulder naked. In the little dining-room, over the chimney, an antique marble vase. In the green-house I saw these following: a Flora, the upper part lost; most inimitable drapery to show the naked, like the celebrated one at Rome: a coloss head of Apollo, from the collar bone to the crown of the head three foot; the body is said to lie among many more under Arundel house in London: the trunk of Camilla, both arms: a young Bacchus.
Towcester Roman.
Towcester is a pretty town, of Roman antiquity: through it in a strait line runs the Watling-street. Edward the elder built the mount called Berry hill when he fortified the town against the Danes. Roman coins have been oft found at this place.[34] The inhabitants here, both old and young, are very busy in a silken manufacture, and making of lace. This town has been ditched about on the west side; every where else guarded by the rivers.
Buckingham.
From hence we went through spacious woods to Buckingham. There was a castle before the Conquest, but now scarce to be known. The church is well built, particularly the chancel: they showed us a place called St. Rumbald’s shrine, where his coffin was taken up. St. John Baptist’s chapel, built, as said, by archbishop Becket, is now a free school. From this place we travelled upon a Roman road.
Alauna.
Entering Oxfordshire, we saw on our right the park called Caversfield, which antiquaries say was the place where Allectus slew Carausius. TAB. V. VI. 2d Vol.This is near Bicester, which I visited big with expectation of finding somewhat considerable from a conflux of towns’ names that promised much. I observed Lawnton hard by, which seemed to confirm Mr. Baxter’s conjecture of Alauna hereabouts. Chesterton, Aldchester, and Wandlebury, were specious marks for enquiry; but I find they all depend upon Aldchester, where was the undoubted Alauna of Ravennas, mentioned thus in that valuable author. Next to London, Tamese, Branavis, Alauna; of all which I shall give an account in this journey.
5·2d.
Prospect of Aldchester near Bicester. Alauna.
Stukeley delin.
E. Kirkall sculp.
6·2d.
Alavna.
Stukeley del.
E. Kirkall sculp.
Akeman-street.South of Bicester about a mile, two Roman roads cross one another at right angles, in the middle of a large and beautiful meadow; the Akeman-street running east and west, and another directly north and south: the first comes out of Buckinghamshire, I imagine from Fenny Stratford through Winslow; passes by here at Longford, over Bicester river, under the north side of Gravenhall hill; so proceeds by Aldchester, Kirklington, to Woodstock park, and so to Cirencester: the other crosses it at Aldchester, running directly through the middle of the city; then through the southern meadow belonging to Wandlebury, where it is visible enough to a nice eye, the grass being poor, and much abates of the verdure for its whole breadth: then entering a pasture, it is very plain, being elevated into a ridge of a hundred foot breadth, and two little ditches all along the sides: it leaves Marton on the east and Fencot, making fords over the brooks, paved with great broad stones its whole breadth; then proceeds the length of Ottmore, a spacious level, marsh or meadow, two or three miles together, where its ridge is plain, though broken by many sloughs; then through Beckly by the park wall; then under Shotover hill, and so, I suppose, passes the Thames at Sandford below Oxford. Northward from Alauna it proceeds through the northern meadow belonging to Chesterton and Bicester, where the stones it is composed of may be seen in the little ditches they have dug upon each side; then it enters the lane, and goes on the west side of Bicester town, at some little distance, and strait forwards on the east of Caverfield park by Stretton Audley, where many Roman coins have been found; and so to Radley by Buckingham, being now the great high road between the two towns, of which we may say, in the poet’s words,
Scilicet hæc ævi stravit longinqua vetustas,
Heu nimis ex vero nunc ea strata jacent!
The city called now Aldchester is a parcel of ploughed field, on the south side of the Akeman way, a mile at least south of Bicester: it stands in the middle of the meadow, which is very level, more especially stretching itself north and south of the city. I know not whether the ground which is the site of the city be naturally higher, or raised by the ruins and rubbish thereof: but, if any, this deserves to be called urbs pratensis. I can scarce believe that this meadow was so subject to inundations as now, at the time of setting the city here; and I never observed the like position elsewhere, when there is higher ground near enough: it may be thought rather a city of pleasure than strength. A very little way off to the east is Gravenhall hill, a copped hill curiously covered with wood and hedge-rows: beyond it is Berry hill, or vulgarly the Brill, guarded at top with one of their camps. A little brook comes from Chesterton, a mile off, and runs on the south side of the city; for between that and the Akeman way is it placed. When I came upon the spot, I soon found it by the prodigious blackness and richness of the earth, as they were ploughing; and this shows it to have been once in a very flourishing condition and populous; for the fund of nitrous particles and animal salts lodged in this earth are inexhaustible. The site of this city is a common, belonging to the inhabitants of Wandlebury, and every one has a certain little portion of it to plough up; whence we may well imagine the land is racked to the last extremity, and no great care taken in the management of it: yet it bears very good crops of wheat. As I traversed the spot, at every step I saw pieces of pots and vessels, of all sorts of coloured earth,[35] red, green, and some perfectly of blue clay, that came from Aynhoe: I picked up several parcels, thinking to have carried them away, till I perceived them strown very thick over the whole field, together with bits of bricks of all sorts: the husbandmen told me they frequently break their ploughs against foundations of hewn stone and brick; and we saw upon the spot many paving stones with a smooth face, and laid in a very good bed of gravel, till they draw them all up by degrees, when the plough chances to go a little deeper than ordinary. Infinite numbers of coins have been found, and dispersed over the adjacent villages without any regard; and after a shower of rain now, they say, sometimes they find them: I got two or three of Tetricus jun. &c. A good while ago, they dug up a glass urn full of ashes, laid in a cavity cut out of a stone: I went to see the stone, used as a pig-trough, at Wandlebury, in which office it has served ever since Dr. Plot’s time; for I find he mentions it, page 329: it is squarish, the cavity is roundish, nine inches deep, and a foot diameter; but the urn was broke and lost. I heard likewise, by enquiry, that they have found brass images, lares, and all sorts of antiquities, which I encouraged them to preserve for the future. This city was fenced with a bank and ditch quite round: it is a square of one thousand foot each side, standing upon the four cardinal points: the vallum and ditch are sufficiently visible, though both have met with equal change; the vallum, from the plough, which levels it to a certain quantity every year; and the inundation of the meadow raises the ditch: these are most easily discernible at the corners, for there they are still pretty perfect, and so notoriously, that the country people tell you in those places were four towers to defend the city. This little brook, that runs on the southern ditch, encompassed the city quite round originally: the track of the way that passes the city in the middle from south to north, is still very high raised, and another street crossed it the contrary way in the middle, and so went eastward, meeting the Akeman in its way to Langford: these were the two principal streets, and doubtless there were others; and great foundations are known to be all around in the meadows, especially northward and eastward upon both sides the Akeman. On the west side of the city, a little distance from the ditch, is an artificial hill in the very middle of the meadow which they call the Castle hill, and is full of Roman bricks, stone, and foundations. I attentively considered this place: the circuit of it is very plain and definable; it was a square of two hundred foot: I guess it originally to have been some considerable building in the middle of an area, or court; whether a pretorium, or a temple, might probably be ascertained upon digging: the edge of the area is very distinct upon the meadow, by the difference in the colour of the grass, the one gray, the other green; but the main body of the building reached not so far, but lies in a great heap of rubbish, much elevated, and of much less extent: before it, to the south, has been another area, paved with a bed of gravel, at least above a hundred foot broad: I doubt not but a curious person, that will be at the expence of digging this plot, would find it well worth his while. This is the sum of what I observed at the place: whether the present name be Alcester, as retaining any thing of the Latin, or Aldcester, signifying the old city, I dispute not; but think it has no manner of relation to Allectus that slew the brave Carausius. The name of Akeman way I am fit to think a vulgar error, as commonly imagined from going to the Bath:[36] more probably it is ag maen, the stony agger, or ridge; this is confirmed by the people calling the other road too, that goes north and south, by the same name, Akeman-street. There has been a religious house at Bicester near the church, a priory of St. Eadburg, founded by Gilbert Basset. This town is famous for excellent malt liquor, of a delicate taste and colour.
7·2d.
Stukeley delin.
E. Kirkall sculp.
Prospect of Tame. Tamese. 14 Sept. 1724.
From hence we journeyed by Aynhoe, where is a vein of stiff clay, exceeding blue: at Souldern is a curious barrow, neatly turned like a bell, small and high; I believe it Celtic. Then climbing for a long while together, we ascended Bury-hill Ro. camp.Bury hill, a village upon the highest copped mountain in the country: it is vulgarly called the Brill, as Mr. Camden takes notice: this has a vast prospect over Bernwood, Ottmore, and the whole country, bounded only by the superior Chiltern, seven miles off, which hence has a most notable aspect, and ends insensibly at the eastern and western horizon, diminishing regularly all the way: at the top of the Brill, by the church, I saw parcels of the old Roman camp, which has been modernised with additional bastions in the civil wars. Before the Conquest, here was a palace of Edward the Confessor. Much Roman coin has been found hereabout.
Tamese.
TAB. VII. 2d Vol.
Below here, two or three miles off, stands Tamese, now Tame, upon the side of a meadow; a pleasant town, consisting of one long and broad street, running north-east and south-west: behind lie the smiling arable fields: it is almost encompassed with rivulets. This was called a burg in the time of Edward the elder, anno 921, who besieged the Danes here, and took the burg, or castle. I saw infinite quantities of the cornu ammonis, a foot and half or two foot diameter, laid in the roads among rubble stone to mend them: all the quarries hereabouts abound with them of all dimensions. Here is a fine large church in form of a cross: in it many brasses and old monuments: some I transcribed.
Thome de Grey filii Roberti dni. de Grey Retherfeld militis obiit anno dni. millesimo ccc. Another thus.
O certyn deth that now hast overthrowe
Richard Quatremayns squier and Sibil his wyf that ly her now full lowe
That with rial prinses of councel was true and wise famed
To Richard duke of Yorke and after with his sone king Edward IIII named
That founded in the chyrche of Tame a chantrye six pore men and a fraternity
In the worship of St. Christofere to be relieved in perpetuitye
They that of their almys for their sowles a pater noster and ave devoutly wul seye
Of holy fadurs is granted them pardun of days xl alway.
Which Richard and Sibil out of this world passed in the yer of our lord M. cccclx. upon their sowles jhu have mercy amen. Another thus.
Orate pro animabus Galfredi Dormer mercatoris Stapile ville Calis & Margere & Alicie uxoris ejus qui quidem Galfridus ob. 9 Mar. 1502. quorum animabus propicietur deus amen. There are the images of twenty-five children upon this stone.
John lord Williams of Tame baronet, baron of Tame, ob. 14 Oct. 1559.
Here lyeth Sir John Clerk of Northweston knight which tuke Lovys of Orleance duke of Longuevill and marquis of Rotelin prysoner at the journy of Bomy by Tyrvain the xvi day of August in the v yer of the reign of the noble and victorious king Henry viii. which John decesed the v day of April 1539.
There is an abbot (I suppose) in stone in the church wall of the south transept within side: near the church are the ruins of a priory built by Alexander bishop of Lincoln. At Notely, not far off, is another. A pot of Roman money was found at Sherburn in this neighbourhood last year.
Islip.
Islip is memorable for the birth of Edward the Confessor. The font which stood in the king’s chapel, as still called, where he was baptised, is removed: but that font in Dr. Plot seems not of such antiquity. There are some remains of an ancient palace.
Oxford.
Oxford requires a more elaborate description than a stranger can possibly give; and indeed so numerous are the colleges and halls, that one can scarce get a tolerable idea of them in the three days I staid here. The prospect of this place from Shotover hill is very inviting, nor is our expectation frustrated when in the place. The bridge over the Cherwel is a stately work, twice as broad as London bridge. Magdalen college, the legacy of our countryman, William of Wainflet, which he endowed with a princely hand, deservedly is thought one of the noblest foundations in Europe: the old oak is still left, nigh which he ordered it to be built. A vast tract of ground is inclosed with a castellated wall for gardens. On the other side the river is a park too, with long shady walks, but too near the water, wherein likewise more resembling those of Academus by Athens. The chapel is large and magnificent: the tower is a lofty strong work, in it a fine ring of bells: the whimsical figures in the quadrangle, over the buttresses, amuse the vulgar; they are the licentious inventions of the mason. Over-against this is the physic garden, whose curiosities Mr. Bobart showed us, and his own: since his death, its purpose is not so well executed. Here are remarkably fine greens in all the gardens at Oxford, especially in yew: the two piers here, with flower-pots on them, are thought to exceed; but the two yew men (as one waggishly called them) that guard the door, are ridiculous; the architecture of these gates is, I suppose, of Inigo Jones: two sphynges at the entrance are properly placed: these are without the city walls. University college has a new quadrangle built by legacy of Dr. Radcliffe; but I think uniformity, in this and other structures in the university, no sufficient reason for using the old manner of building. Queen’s college over-against it is of a good taste, improved to its present splendor under the auspices, and in great degree at the charge, of the late Dr. Lancaster. The library, the hall, and chapel, are beautiful. The old gatehouse has a pretty cieling over it of stone; they say it was the chamber of Harry the Vth’s uncle and tutor. Behind it is New college; a large chapel, a good visto to the garden, in which is a pleasant mount: this was the foundation of William of Wickham, bishop of Winchester: it stands in an angle of the old city walls. At All Souls a new court is building, but in the anachronism of the Gothic degenerate taste: the new library is a spacious room, the legacy of colonel Coddrington: the chapel is very elegant; the altar, entirely of marble, was made at the charge of George Clark, esq. one of the fellows. Christ church, the magnificent work of cardinal Wolsey: the stone cieling over the entrance to the hall is very pretty; the new quadrangle, designed by the learned Dr. Aldrich, is beautiful. St. John’s college has two handsome quadrangles, the portico’s built by archbishop Laud: two fine statues, in brass, of king Charles I. and his queen, probably designed by Inigo Jones. But it is impossible for me to run through the whole of this splendid university, which I leave as a fitter task for some of her own learned sons. The school is a large building: the Bodleian library, an immense store-house of most valuable books and manuscripts, the donation of archbishop Laud, the earl of Pembroke, O. Cromwell, Selden, Digby, Bodley, and other great names: over it is a spacious gallery, adorned with pictures of founders, benefactors, and others, and with the antique marbles which were the learned part of the inexhaustible collection of the earl of Arundel: these have been illustrated with the accurate comments of Selden and Prideaux. Here are some of the most valuable Greek monuments now in the world. Over the porch, upon a handsome pedestal of black marble, stands the brass effigies of the earl of Pembroke, their noble and generous chancellor, given by the present earl: this was moulded by Rubens. Here is likewise a very large collection of Greek, Roman, British, Saxon, English, and other coins, presented by several hands. The divinity schools, finished by Humphry the good duke of Gloucester, have a very curious stone roof. The Ashmolean repository, beside some good books, papers and MSS. of the founder, has a large collection of rarities in antiquity, nature and art, &c. such as original pictures of famous men, marbles of old Egyptian carving in figures and hieroglyphics, a fine marble inscription in Arabic, which was over the door of a school at Tangier; an Egyptian mummy, being a man dressed like orus Apollo; the cradle of Henry VI. the hat of Bradshaw plaited with steel within, under which he sat in judgment upon king Charles I. a vast fund of precious and other stones, &c. which it is impossible to enumerate. Here is, beside, a choice apparatus of instruments for chymistry and experimental philosophy under the direction of Mr. Whiteside. The printing-house is a good building with a bold portico, but next the schools disgraced with a wretched statue of my lord Clarendon. Between these two last and the schools stands the Sheldonian theatre, the first piece of architecture of Sir Christopher Wren, a spacious and well-proportioned room: it is worth while to go upon the top of it, to see the carpentry of the roof, and the fine prospect of the city and country thence. Before Baliol college they showed us the stone in the street which marks the place of the barbarous martyrdom of the venerable archbishop Cranmer and bishop Ridley, then upon the banks of the ditch without the walls of the city, which went along where the theatre now stands. Beyond the river, amongst meadows encompassed with rivulets, stood Oseney abbey, founded by Robert D’oyley 1129.[37] upon the bridge is a tower called Friar Bacon’s Study, from that famous and learned monk, who in dark ages had penetrated so far into the secrets of nature. Oxford, no doubt, means no more than the passage over the river Ox, Ouse, or Isis, which are equivalents. Over another bridge of the Isis we went to see Ruleigh abbey, where some ruins and parcels still remain, turned to a common brew-house: a disjointed stone in a partition wall preserves this monumental inscription, Elae de Warwik comitissae viscera sunt hic. This Ela was daughter of Wil. Longspee earl of Salisbury, and wife of Thomas de Newburgh the last earl of Warwick of that name: she died on Sunday the fifth of the ides of February, 26 Ed. I. 1297. she gave lands to this abbey, and founded a chapel here, as appears by an inscription dug up 1705. her body was buried before the high altar at Oseney, her heart in this place. Of the castle there is a square high tower remaining by the river side, and a lofty mount or keep walled at top, with a stair-case going downward: this seems to have been a very strong place, built by Robert de Oili in the time of William the Conqueror. If there was a town here in Roman times, it seems to have been in this quarter. The White-friars was a royal palace; and near a green called Beaumonds, they showed us the bottom of a tower upon the ground where the valiant Richard I. Cœur de lion, was born. Without the town on all sides may be seen the remains of the fortifications raised in the time of the civil wars. It is in vain to pretend in this paper to enumerate the particular remarkables of every college, which are eighteen in number, and seven halls: these for beauty, grandeur, and endowment, no doubt, exceed any thing: their chapels, halls, libraries, quadrangles, piazzas; their gardens, walks, groves, and every thing, contribute to make the first university in the world. As to the city, though the colleges make up two thirds of it, and are continually eating it away, in buying whole streets for enlargement; yet it is large, regular, and crouds itself out proportionably: the streets are spacious, handsome, clean, and strait; the whole place pleasant and healthful; the inhabitants genteel and courteous: the churches are many and elegant enough, especially Allhallows, a neat fabric of modern architecture, with a very handsome spire. St. Peter’s in the east is venerable for its antiquity: the east end by its fabric appears prior to the time of the Conquest.
Leaving this famous repository of learning, we saw on our left hand, on the other side of the river, the last ruins of Godstow nunnery, placed among the sweet meadows: here fair Rosamond, the beloved mistress of Henry II. had a tomb remarkably fine; but before the dissolution, scarce could her ashes rest, whose beauty was thought guilty even after death.
Woodstock.
At Woodstock we saw part of the old palace, and her famous labyrinth, which is since destroyed: her bathing-place, or well (as called) is left, a quadrangular receptacle of most pure water, immediately flowing from a little spring under the hill, and over-shadowed with trees: near it some few ruins of walls and arches. King Ethelred called a parliament here; it has been a royal seat from most ancient times: Henry I. inclosed the park. A-cross this valley was a remarkably fine echo, that would repeat a whole hexameter, but impaired by the removal of these buildings. A stately bridge from hence now leads along the grand approach to the present castle: one arch is above a hundred foot diameter: a cascade of water falls from a great lake down some stone steps into the canal that runs under it.
The new palace is a vast and magnificent pile of building; a royal gift to the high merit of the invincible duke of Marlborough; the lofty hall is painted by Sir James Thornhill; the salon by la Guerre: the rooms are finely enriched with marble chimney-pieces and furniture, but more by the incomparable paintings: many of Rubens’s best and largest pieces; that celebrated one of himself, his wife, and child, among others; Vandyke’s king Charles I. upon a dun horse, of great value; and the famous loves of the Gods, by Titian, a present from the king of Sardinia. The gallery I admired beyond any thing I have seen, lined with marble pilasters and whole pillars of one piece, supporting a most costly and beautiful entablature, excellent for matter and workmanship: the window frames of the same, and a basement of black marble quite round. Before it is stretched out a most agreeable prospect of the fine woods beyond the great valley: it is indeed of an admirable model: this, and what is of the most elegant taste in the whole house, is of the duchess’s own designing. The chapel is not yet finished, and which I doubt not will be equal to the rest. The garden is a large plot of ground taken out of the park, and may still be said to be part of it; well contrived by sinking the outer wall into a foss, to give one a view quite round, and take off the odious appearance of confinement and limitation to the eye, and which quite spoils the pleasure and intention of a garden: within, it is well adorned with walks, greens, espaliers, and visto’s to diremarkable objects that offer themselves in the circumjacent country. Over the pediment of this front of the house is a curious busto in marble of the French king, bigger than life, taken from the gate of the citadel of Tournay. The orangery is a pretty room. At the entrance hither from the town, her grace has erected a noble triumphal arch to the memory of the duke, and has projected a vast obelisk to be set in the principal avenue in the park, whereon is to be inscribed an account of his great actions and ability in council, and in war. Near the gate is the house where our famous Chaucer was born: methinks there was somewhat poetical in the ground that first gave him birth, and produced these verses, which I ask pardon for inserting, upon a subject which his genius only could be equal to:
Fame, like the optic artist, wont to swell
The object larger to the armed eye,
Sing on, and mighty Marlborough’s actions tell:
Secure from flattery in words abound,
And let thy trumpet diapasons sound;
Speak but enough of him, ’tis all reality.
Through the park we crossed again the Akeman-street, which runs all along with a perfect ridge made of stone, dug every where near the surface: it bears between north-east and east: it is a foot-path still through the park with a stile, and a road beyond it by which it passes to Stunsfield, Ro. town.Stunsfield, where are marks of an intrenched work, once a Roman station: and in the place they found (the 25th Jan. 1712.) a most curious tesselated pavement, for bulk and beauty the most considerable one we know of: it was a parallelogram of thirty-five foot long and twenty foot wide, a noble room, and no doubt designed for feasting and jollity: in one of the circular works was Bacchus represented in stones properly coloured, with a tiger, a thyrsus in his hand enwrapped with vine leaves. This admirable curiosity deserved a better owner; for the landlord and tenant quarreling about sharing the profits of showing it, the latter maliciously tore it in pieces. When the earth was first laid open upon its discovery, they found it covered a foot thick with burnt wheat, barley and pease: so that we may guess upon some enemy’s approach it was covered with those matters to prevent its being injured, or was turned into a barn and burnt.
We crossed a foss called Grimesditch, the vallum eastward: it goes by Ditchley wood and house, which takes its name from it. Dr. Plot does not sufficiently distinguish this from a Roman road: it was doubtless some division of the ancient Britons: the country is all a rock of rag-stone. Many good seats of the nobility hereabouts; Cornbury lord Clarendon’s, Ditchley lord Litchfield’s, duke of Shrewsbury’s at Hathorp, new built of stone very beautiful. Juniper grows plentifully hereabouts. At Chadlington is a square Roman camp. At Enston is a pretty curiosity in water-works, cascades falling down artificial rocks overgrown with waterplants, chirping of birds imitated, many pipes of water, secretly to dash the spectators, and fancies of that kind.
Chipping-norton.
Chipping-Norton must have been a great trading town by the number of merchants, as they are there called, buried in the church under brasses and inscriptions: others of alabaster: and the name of the place signifies it, as our Cheapside, equivalent to market, to buying or cheapening. There are marks of a castle by the church, which probably was demolished in the time of king Stephen. Lord Arundel, beheaded in the barons wars, lived in it: a place called the Vineyards near it. Roman coins are frequently found here. The church is a good building of a curious model, the south porch hexagonal, and a little roof over it supported by a stone arch: under the choir is a charnel-house full of the ruined rafters of mortality. A priory was here near Chapel on the heath: the Talbot inn was religious: stories of subterraneous passages thence to the priory. A well lately found in the ploughed fields at Woodstock hill, a mile south of this place, and more such like in the fields. Hereabouts they call camps barrows, meaning boroughs.
Rowldrich. Br. temple.
Hence we rode to see Rowldrich stones, a very noble monument; the first antiquity of this sort that I had seen, and from which I concluded these works to be temples of the ancient Britons. I crave leave to reserve its description for another work. In the clay upon these hills they dig out cornua ammonis, small, but very prettily notched: they are nothing but clay hardened in the shell. Further on, in Tadmerton parish, we rode through a large round camp on the top of a hill doubly intrenched, able to contain a great army. Bloxham has a very fine church, the steeple of an odd make, but pretty enough. At Broughton near Banbury is the seat of the lord Say and Seal.
Branavis.
TAB. VIII. 2d Vol.
Banbury was a Roman station, called Branavis. That master builder the bishop of Lincoln, Alexander, built the castle anno 1125, I doubt not but upon the Roman fortification: he enlarged it and built it after the mode of those times, taking in a huge space of ground with a wall, towers and ditch: within he made another work upon one side, where were the lodgings, chapel, &c. A small part of the wall of this is only now left, of good hewn stone; but the ditch went along the middle of the adjacent street, and houses are built by the side of it, out of its ruins, as people now alive remember: in the civil wars it received new additional works, for there are plain remains of four bastions; a brook running without them. Many Roman coins and antiquities have been found here. There is an inn called the Altarstone inn, from an altar which stood in a nich under the sign: this had a ram and fire carved on it, as they say: part of the stone is still left: I imagine this was originally a Roman altar: they tell us William the Conqueror lay at this inn. The town is a large straggling place and dirty, though on a rock with sufficient descent: one would think it was walled about in most ancient times. Here are three gates, though of later make. The tower of the church, they say, was much higher than at present: the church is of great compass: three rows of pillars, but of too slender a manner, which makes them all lean awry, and different ways: many additions have been made to it: a touch-stone monument of the family of Cope: other old monuments ruined. The bridge is long, consisting of many arches. Branau supercilium aquæ seems well to answer the etymology of the Roman name, as Mr. Baxter has it: The stone of this country is mixed with sand. Black gloves is a great manufacture here. Kenric the West-Saxon king, anno 540, routed the Britons at this place.
8·2d.
Prospect of Banbury. Branavis. 13. Sept. 1724.
Stukeley delin.
E. Kirkall sculp.
9·2d.
Prospect of Warwick July 7th. 1725
Stukeley del.
Fletcher Sculp.
PRAESIDIUM
We went over the vale of Red-horse and Edghill, which presents us with a most extensive prospect, steep to the north: on the top of it, at Warmleighton, is a large and strong intrenchment of a circular but irregular form, said to be Danish by the inhabitants, but seemingly more ancient and British. Descending the hill for a mile, we rode through Radway, and over the field between it and Kyneton, where the famous battle of Edghill was fought: we were shown some of the graves of the slain. At Tellisford we crossed the Foss-way.
Præsidium. Warwick.
Warwick is situate on a rock, a fine new-built town, having been almost wholly burnt down in 1694. The church and lofty tower is new built, except the east end, which is old and very good work: there are a many fine brass monuments of the earls of Warwick and others, as the earl of Essex; TAB. IX. 2d Vol.many chapels and confessionaries, with other remains of ancient superstition: in the chapter-house on the north side is a tomb of the lord Brook. The castle stands upon the river Avon, over which is a stone bridge with a dozen arches: across is a large stone-work dam, where the water falls over it as a cascade, under the castle wall, which is built on a rock forty foot above the water. It overlooks the whole town and country, being delicately situate for pleasure and strength, fenced with a deep mound and strong embattled double walls and lofty towers: there are good apartments and lodgings next the river, the residence of the lord Brook: on one side of the area is a very high mount: we were shown the sword and other gigantic reliques of Guy the famous earl of Warwick. The priory on the north-east side of the town overlooks a pleasant woody vale: there are a great many curious original pictures, by Vandike and other good hands, of kings, queens, famous statesmen, persons of learning both at home and abroad. A mile out of town, on the side of a hill, is a pretty retired cell, called Guy-cliffe: in an old chapel there is a statue of Guy eight foot high: the fence of the court is intire rock, in which are cut stables and out-houses. We saw the rough cave where they say Guy died a hermit.
Coventry.
Coventry is a large old city: it was walled about: the gates are yet standing. It is adorned with a fine and very large church and beautiful spire a hundred yards high. There is another good church in the same yard. The cross is a beautiful Gothic work, sixty six foot high: in niches are the statues of the English kings. At the south end of the town stands a tall spire by itself, part of the Grey Friers’ conventual church. The town-house is worth seeing: the windows filled with painted glass of the images of the old earls, kings, &c. who have been benefactors to the town. Here the famous lady Godiva redeemed the privileges thereof almost at the expence of her modesty, the memory whereof is preserved by an annual cavalcade. These verses are wrote in the town-house.
Auxiliis olim stetit alma Coventria regum
Dum fortuna fuit. Magnos colit hinc Edoardos
Henricosque suos, urbs non ingrata patronos.
Jamque adeo afflictis crescit spes altera rebus
Elizabetha tuis princeps mitissima sceptris.
Lætior illuxit nullo pax rege Britannis.
Ergo age diva tuis sis fœlix civibus usque,
Exuperans patrias & avitas æmula laudes.
Princeps ille niger (niveis cui vertice pennis
Crista minax, victi regis cæsique Bohæmi
Exuviis) heros Edoardus magnus in armis,
Hic sedem posuit. Sic dicta est principis aula.
Hoc authore fuit libertas civibus aucta,
Muneribusque ornata suis, res publica crevit.
Hinc depicta, vides, passim sua penna per urbem
Testatur magni monumentum & pignus amoris.
Labentes fatis (quid enim perdurat in ævum?)
Fortunas urbis tandem miseratus agrorum
Extendit fines, Northumbrius ille Johannes.
Cumque fuit bello dux invictissimus, armis
In mediis coluit pacis, vir providus, artes;
Exemploque suum vocat ad pia facta Robertum.
Non tantum meruit Leofricus Cestrius olim
Nec conjux Godiva, pii dux fœmina facti.
Godiva ab turpi quæ lege coacta mariti
Fertur equo, diffusa comas nudata per urbem.
Asseruitque suos, culpent utcunque minores!
Vicit amor patriæ libertatisque cupido:
Quantum hodie patrem referens Leicestrius heros
Retro sublapsam qui nostram restituit rem,
Sustinet in pejus ruituram urbisque salutem.
I modo quo virtus te fert, sic itur ad astra.
Et quibus insistis fœlix, procede paternis
Auspiciis, maneatque tuos hæc cura nepotes.
Holbech, May 1712.