22 ESSEX ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY YEARS AGO.
From Gosfield our author proceeded to Bocking and Braintree, places "exceed-
ingly full of manufacturers, who work up fays in general and some druggets."
Between Braintree and Chelmsford he found the soil rich and fertile and the
country very pleasant, and noted the care with which the farmers drained the wet
lands. He adds that all the cart horses he saw from Sudbury to Chelmsford were
of a remarkably large size.
In the neighbourhood of Billericay he found the landscapes more admirable
than the system of husbandry. He remarks that the principal manure they use
in this district is chalk, which is fetched in waggons from "Graves" (no doubt
Grays), and costs, by the time it is carted home, 51/2d. or 6d. a bushel. His de-
scription of the view from Laindon Hill has already been quoted elsewhere.
More than once he mentions magnificent views in other districts, but appears to
have retained throughout his tour a slight preference for that at Laindon over all
its rivals. Thus we read, p. 106 :—
"From Frog-mill to Crickley-hill, which leads into Gloucester vale, the beauty
of landscape is great. Six miles from the former, from the top of a hill is seen to
the right a most prodigious prospect, over an extensive vale bounded by Chelten-
ham hills, which seem to tower quite to the clouds ; the inclosures appear in a
bottom under you, and are very distinct. On the whole, it is inferior only to that
amazing one of Billericay. All this country is full of the beauties of landscape ;
the romantic spots of Crickley-hill are exceedingly fine, or rather the whole forms
a complete piece of sublime nature, and is well worthy of attention from those
whose nerves will suffer them to relish those sorts of objects."
Another view near Bristol, and a third in Oxfordshire, are described as, upon the
whole, inferior to none but that near Billericay. The facts that he was born in
Suffolk and had farmed in Essex, partly explain his preference for Laindon, in
addition to the special charm given by its unexpected appearance after he had
traversed three counties, the weak points of whose scenery are their monotony and
the absence of extensive panoramic views. Besides, the hills bordering the Vale
of Gloucester, though by no means terrible or sublime, were yet probably deficient
(in the opinion of a man of the last century) in their want of the perfectly rounded,
soft, and voluptuous outlines of a country of Chalk and Tertiary rocks. No doubt
he would have agreed with White of Selborne that "there is somewhat peculiarly
sweet and amusing in the shapely figured aspect of chalk hills, in preference to
those of stone, which are rugged, broken, abrupt, and shapeless." While as an
agriculturist his bias may well have been in favour of a scene in which the most
barren spots afforded good pasturage, as compared with others in which heather-
clad wastes appeared.
Crossing the Thames at Tilbury he proceeded towards London, and thence
westward, but we cannot follow him in his travels through south-western England.
On his return to London he states that he scarcely stopped there, towns having
but little attraction for him, but took the Epping road to see the experimental
agriculture of Mr; Crockat. He then "viewed Wanstead House, the seat of the
Earl Tilney, which is a very magnificent place," he remarks, and "upon the
whole one of the noblest houses in England." It is compared with Houghton,
Holkham, Blenheim, and Wilton, which appear to him to be the finest mansions
he has seen in his tour. He decides that in point of beauty of architecture Holk-
ham and Wanstead rank first, but is not certain which of the five is the largest,
though the dimensions of the chief rooms of each are given in a tabular form. On
the whole Holkham appears to be the favourite.