From London to Land's End, Page 5

laying all open for his deer. The same histories likewise record

  that two of his own blood and posterity, and particularly his

  immediate successor William Rufus, lost their lives in this forest-

  -one, viz., the said William Rufus, being shot with an arrow

  directed at a deer which the king and his company were hunting, and

  the arrow, glancing on a tree, changed his course, and struck the

  king full on the breast and killed him. This they relate as a just

  judgment of God on the cruel devastation made here by the

  Conqueror. Be it so or not, as Heaven pleases; but that the king

  was so killed is certain, and they show the tree on which the arrow

  glanced to this day. In King Charles II.'s time it was ordered to

  be surrounded with a pale; but as great part of the paling is down

  with age, whether the tree be really so old or not is to me a great

  question, the action being near seven hundred years ago.

  I cannot omit to mention here a proposal made a few years ago to

  the late Lord Treasurer Godolphin for re-peopling this forest,

  which for some reasons I can be more particular in than any man now

  left alive, because I had the honour to draw up the scheme and

  argue it before that noble lord and some others who were

  principally concerned at that time in bringing over--or, rather,

  providing for when they were come over--the poor inhabitants of the

  Palatinate, a thing in itself commendable, but, as it was managed,

  made scandalous to England and miserable to those poor people.

  Some persons being ordered by that noble lord above mentioned to

  consider of measures how the said poor people should be provided

  for, and whether they could be provided for or no without injury to

  the public, the answer was grounded upon this maxim--that the

  number of inhabitants is the wealth and strength of a kingdom,

  provided those inhabitants were such as by honest industry applied

  themselves to live by their labour, to whatsoever trades or

  employments they were brought up. In the next place, it was

  inquired what employments those poor people were brought up to. It

  was answered there were husbandmen and artificers of all sorts,

  upon which the proposal was as follows. New Forest, in Hampshire,

  was singled out to be the place:-

  Here it was proposed to draw a great square line containing four

  thousand acres of land, marking out two large highways or roads

  through the centre, crossing both ways, so that there should be a

  thousand acres in each division, exclusive of the land contained in

  the said cross-roads.

  Then it was proposed to since out twenty men and their families,

  who should be recommended as honest industrious men, expert in, or

  at least capable of being instructed in husbandry, curing and

  cultivating of land, breeding and feeding cattle, and the like. To

  each of these should be parcelled out, in equal distributions, two

  hundred acres of this land, so that the whole four thousand acres

  should be fully distributed to the said twenty families, for which

  they should have no rent to pay, and be liable to no taxes but such

  as provided for their own sick or poor, repairing their own roads,

  and the like. This exemption from rent and taxes to continue for

  twenty years, and then to pay each 50 pounds a year to the queen--

  that is to say, to the Crown.

  To each of these families, whom I would now call farmers, it was

  proposed to advance 200 pounds in ready money as a stock to set

  them to work; to furnish them with cattle, horses, cows, hogs, &c.;

  and to hire and pay labourers to inclose, clear, and cure the land,

  which it would be supposed the first year would not be so much to

  their advantage as afterwards, allowing them timber out of the

  forest to build themselves houses and barns, sheds and offices, as

  they should have occasion; also for carts, waggons, ploughs,

  harrows, and the like necessary things: care to be taken that the

  men and their families went to work forthwith according to the

  design.

  Thus twenty families would be immediately supplied and provided

  for, for there would be no doubt but these families, with so much

  land given them gratis, and so much money to work with, would live

  very well; but what would this do for the support of the rest, who

  were supposed to be, to every twenty farmers, forty or fifty

  families of other people (some of one trade, some of another), with

  women and children? To this it was answered that these twenty

  farmers would, by the consequence of their own settlements, provide

  for and employ such a proportion of others of their own people

  that, by thus providing for twenty families in a place, the whole

  number of Palatinates would have been provided for, had they been

  twenty thousand more in number than they were, and that without

  being any burden upon or injury to the people of England; on the

  contrary, they would have been an advantage and an addition of

  wealth and strength to the nation, and to the country in particular

  where they should be thus seated. For example:-

  As soon as the land was marked out, the farmers put in possession

  of it, and the money given them, they should be obliged to go to

  work, in order to their settlement. Suppose it, then, to be in the

  spring of the year, when such work was most proper. First, all

  hands would be required to fence and part off the land, and clear

  it of the timber or bushes, or whatever else was upon it which

  required to be removed. The first thing, therefore, which the

  farmer would do would be to single out from the rest of their

  number every one three servants--that is to say, two men and a

  maid; less could not answer the preparations they would be obliged

  to make, and yet work hard themselves also. By the help of these

  they would, with good management, soon get so much of their land

  cured, fenced-off, ploughed, and sowed as should yield them a

  sufficiency of corn and kitchen stuff the very first year, both for

  horse-meat, hog-meat, food for the family, and some to carry to

  market, too, by which to bring in money to go farther on, as above.

  At the first entrance they were to have the tents allowed them to

  live in, which they then had from the Tower; but as soon as leisure

  and conveniences admitted, every farmer was obliged to begin to

  build him a farm-house, which he would do gradually, some and some,

  as he could spare time from his other works, and money from his

  little stock.

  In order to furnish himself with carts, waggons, ploughs, harrows,

  wheel-barrows, hurdles, and all such necessary utensils of

  husbandry, there would be an absolute necessity of wheelwrights or

  cartwrights, one at least to each division.

  Thus, by the way, there would be employed three servants to each

  farmer, that makes sixty persons.

  Four families of wheelwrights, one to each division--which, suppose

  five in a family, makes twenty persons. Suppose four head-

  carpenters, with each three men; and as at first all would be

  building together, they would to
every house building have at least

  one labourer. Four families of carpenters, five to each family,

  and three servants, is thirty-two persons; one labourer to each

  house building is twenty persons more.

  Thus here would be necessarily brought together in the very first

  of the work one hundred and thirty-two persons, besides the head-

  farmers, who at five also to each family are one hundred more; in

  all, two hundred and thirty-two.

  For the necessary supply of these with provisions, clothes,

  household stuff, &c. (for all should be done among themselves),

  first, they must have at least four butchers with their families

  (twenty persons), four shoemakers with their families and each

  shoemaker two journeymen (for every trade would increase the number

  of customers to every trade). This is twenty-eight persons more.

  They would then require a hatmaker, a glover, at least two

  ropemakers, four tailors, three weavers of woollen and three

  weavers of linen, two basket-makers, two common brewers, ten or

  twelve shop-keepers to furnish chandlery and grocery wares, and as

  many for drapery and mercery, over and above what they could work.

  This makes two-and-forty families more, each at five in a family,

  which, is two hundred and ten persons; all the labouring part of

  these must have at least two servants (the brewers more), which I

  cast up at forty more.

  Add to these two ministers, one clerk, one sexton or grave-digger,

  with their families, two physicians, three apothecaries, two

  surgeons (less there could not be, only that for the beginning it

  might be said the physicians should be surgeons, and I take them

  so); this is forty-five persons, besides servants; so that, in

  short--to omit many tradesmen more who would be wanted among them--

  there would necessarily and voluntarily follow to these twenty

  families of farmers at least six hundred more of their own people.

  It is no difficult thing to show that the ready money of 4,000

  pounds which the Government was to advance to those twenty farmers

  would employ and pay, and consequently subsist, all these numerous

  dependants in the works which must severally be done for them for

  the first year, after which the farmers would begin to receive

  their own money back again; for all these tradesmen must come to

  their own market to buy corn, flesh, milk, butter, cheese, bacon,

  &c., which after the first year the farmers, having no rent to pay,

  would have to spare sufficiently, and so take back their own money

  with advantage. I need not go on to mention how, by consequence

  provisions increasing and money circulating, this town should

  increase in a very little time.

  It was proposed also that for the encouragement of all the

  handicraftsmen and labouring poor who, either as servants or as

  labourers for day-work, assisted the farmers or other tradesmen,

  they should have every man three acres of ground given them, with

  leave to build cottages upon the same, the allotments to be upon

  the waste at the end of the cross-roads where they entered the

  town.

  In the centre of the square was laid out a circle of twelve acres

  of ground, to be cast into streets for inhabitants to build on as

  their ability would permit--all that would build to have ground

  gratis for twenty years, timber out of the forest, and convenient

  yards, gardens, and orchards allotted to every house.

  In the great streets near where they cross each other was to be

  built a handsome market-house, with a town-hall for parish or

  corporation business, doing justice and the like; also shambles;

  and in a handsome part of the ground mentioned to be laid out for

  streets, as near the centre as might be, was to be ground laid out

  for the building a church, which every man should either contribute

  to the building of in money, or give every tenth day of his time to

  assist in labouring at the building.

  I have omitted many tradesmen who would be wanted here, and would

  find a good livelihood among their country-folks only to get

  accidental work as day-men or labourers (of which such a town would

  constantly employ many), as also poor women for assistance in

  families (such as midwives, nurses, &c.).

  Adjacent to the town was to be a certain quantity of common-land

  for the benefit of the cottages, that the poor might have a few

  sheep or cows, as their circumstances required; and this to be

  appointed at the several ends of the town.

  There was a calculation made of what increase there would be, both

  of wealth and people, in twenty years in this town; what a vast

  consumption of provisions they would cause, more than the four

  thousand acres of land given them would produce, by which

  consumption and increase so much advantage would accrue to the

  public stock, and so many subjects be added to the many thousands

  of Great Britain, who in the next age would be all true-born

  Englishmen, and forget both the language and nation from whence

  they came. And it was in order to this that two ministers were

  appointed, one of which should officiate in English and the other

  in High Dutch, and withal to have them obliged by a law to teach

  all their children both to speak, read, and write the English

  language.

  Upon their increase they would also want barbers and glaziers,

  painters also, and plumbers; a windmill or two, and the millers and

  their families; a fulling-mill and a cloth-worker; as also a master

  clothier or two for making a manufacture among them for their own

  wear, and for employing the women and children; a dyer or two for

  dyeing their manufactures; and, which above all is not to be

  omitted, four families at least of smiths, with every one two

  servants--considering that, besides all the family work which

  continually employs a smith, all the shoeing of horses, all the

  ironwork of ploughs, carts, waggons, harrows, &c., must be wrought

  by them. There was no allowance made for inns and ale-houses,

  seeing it would be frequent that those who kept public-houses of

  any sort would likewise have some other employment to carry on.

  This was the scheme for settling the Palatinates, by which means

  twenty families of farmers, handsomely set up and supported, would

  lay a foundation, as I have said, for six or seven hundred of the

  rest of their people; and as the land in New Forest is undoubtedly

  good, and capable of improvement by such cultivation, so other

  wastes in England are to be found as fruitful as that; and twenty

  such villages might have been erected, the poor strangers

  maintained, and the nation evidently be bettered by it. As to the

  money to be advanced, which in the case of twenty such settlements,

  at 1,000 pounds each, would be 80,000 pounds, two things were

  answered to it:-

  1. That the annual rent to be received for all those lands after

  twenty years would abundantly pay the public for the first

  disburses on the scheme above, that rent being then to amount to

  40,000 pounds per annum.

&nb
sp; 2. More money than would have done this was expended, or rather

  thrown away, upon them here, to keep them in suspense, and

  afterwards starve them; sending them a-begging all over the nation,

  and shipping them off to perish in other countries. Where the

  mistake lay is none of my business to inquire.

  I reserved this account for this place, because I passed in this

  journey over the very spot where the design was laid out--namely,

  near Lyndhurst, in the road from Rumsey to Lymington, whither I now

  directed my course.

  Lymington is a little but populous seaport standing opposite to the

  Isle of Wight, in the narrow part of the strait which ships

  sometimes pass through in fair weather, called the Needles; and

  right against an ancient town of that island called Yarmouth, and

  which, in distinction from the great town of Yarmouth in Norfolk,

  is called South Yarmouth. This town of Lymington is chiefly noted

  for making fine salt, which is indeed excellent good; and from

  whence all these south parts of England are supplied, as well by

  water as by land carriage; and sometimes, though not often, they

  send salt to London, when, contrary winds having kept the Northern

  fleets back, the price at London has been very high; but this is

  very seldom and uncertain. Lymington sends two members to

  Parliament, and this and her salt trade is all I can say to her;

  for though she is very well situated as to the convenience of

  shipping I do not find they have any foreign commerce, except it be

  what we call smuggling and roguing; which, I may say, is the

  reigning commerce of all this part of the English coast, from the

  mouth of the Thames to the Land's End of Cornwall.

  From hence there are but few towns on the sea-coast west, though

  there are several considerable rivers empty themselves into the

  sea; nor are there any harbours or seaports of any note except

  Poole. As for Christchurch, though it stands at the mouth of the

  Avon (which, as I have said, comes down from Salisbury, and brings

  with it all the waters of the south and east parts of Wiltshire,

  and receives also the Stour and Piddle, two Dorsetshire rivers

  which bring with them all the waters of the north part of

  Dorsetshire), yet it is a very inconsiderable poor place, scarce

  worth seeing, and less worth mentioning in this account, only that

  it sends two members to Parliament, which many poor towns in this

  part of England do, as well as that.

  From hence I stepped up into the country north-west, to see the

  ancient town of Wimborne, or Wimborneminster; there I found nothing

  remarkable but the church, which is indeed a very great one,

  ancient, and yet very well built, with a very firm, strong, square

  tower, considerably high; but was, without doubt, much finer, when

  on the top of it stood a most exquisite spire--finer and taller, if

  fame lies not, than that at Salisbury, and by its situation in a

  plainer, flatter country visible, no question, much farther; but

  this most beautiful ornament was blown down by a sudden tempest of

  wind, as they tell us, in the year 1622.

  The church remains a venerable piece of antiquity, and has in it

  the remains of a place once much more in request than it is now,

  for here are the monuments of several noble families, and in

  particular of one king, viz., King Etheldred, who was slain in

  battle by the Danes. He was a prince famed for piety and religion,

  and, according to the zeal of these times, was esteemed as a

  martyr, because, venturing his life against the Danes, who were

  heathens, he died fighting for his religion and his country. The

  inscription upon his grave is preserved, and has been carefully

  repaired, so as to be easily read, and is as follows:-

  "In hoc loco quiescit Corpus S. Etheldredi, Regis West Saxonum,

  Martyris, qui Anno Dom. DCCCLXXII., xxiii Aprilis, per Manos

  Danorum Paganorum Occubuit."

  In English thus:-

  "Here rests the Body of Holy Etheldred, King of the West Saxons,