SWINE MARKET,
formerly Parchment Lane; which may afford interest to the mind tho’ not to the eye; for the reflective Traveller will not regard as unimportant the humble dwellings of those Manufacturers whose industry supplies the commercial wealth of the nation.
From this street we arrive at a spot still called the
EAST-GATES,
tho the gates of the ancient town were,
some years ago, taken down to render the passage more commodious. In the massy wood of these gates were found balls of a large size, which probably had lodged there ever since the assault made upon the town by king Charles’s forces in 1695, when according to a note in the pocket-book of one Simmonds, a quarter-master in the King’s army, which is now preserved in the Harleian library, “Col. Bard’s Tertia fell on with scaling ladders, some near a flanker, and others scaled the horne work before the draw-bridge on the east side.”
We now advance along the
HIGH-STREET,
observing on the right hand, about half way up, a lofty hexagon turret, whose top is glaz’d for the purpose of a prospect
seat. It bears on the inside, marks of considerable antiquity, and is a remain of the mansion of Henry Earl of Huntingdon, called Lord’s Place. It has a winding stair-case of stone, with a small apartment on each story, and is now modernized with an outward coating of brick.