noted as that of St. Thomas-e-Becket at Canterbury, and for little
else.
Near this place are the seats of the two allied families of the
Lord Viscount Townsend and Robert Walpole, Esq.; the latter at this
time one of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury and Minister of
State, and the former one of the principal Secretaries of State to
King George, of which again.
From hence we went to Lynn, another rich and populous thriving
port-town. It stands on more ground than the town of Yarmouth, and
has, I think, parishes, yet I cannot allow that it has more people
than Yarmouth, if so many. It is a beautiful, well built, and well
situated town, at the mouth of the River Ouse, and has this
particular attending it, which gives it a vast advantage in trade;
namely, that there is the greatest extent of inland navigation here
of any port in England, London excepted. The reason whereof is
this, that there are more navigable rivers empty themselves here
into the sea, including the washes, which are branches of the same
port, than at any one mouth of waters in England, except the Thames
and the Humber. By these navigable rivers, the merchants of Lynn
supply about six counties wholly, and three counties in part, with
their goods, especially wine and coals, viz., by the little Ouse,
they send their goods to Brandon and Thetford, by the Lake to
Mildenhall, Barton Mills, and St. Edmundsbury; by the River Grant
to Cambridge, by the great Ouse itself to Ely, to St. Ives, to St.
Neots, to Barford Bridge, and to Bedford; by the River Nyne to
Peterborough; by the drains and washes to Wisbeach, to Spalding,
Market Deeping, and Stamford; besides the several counties, into
which these goods are carried by land-carriage, from the places,
where the navigation of those rivers end; which has given rise to
this observation on the town of Lynn, that they bring in more coals
than any sea-port between London and Newcastle; and import more
wines than any port in England, except London and Bristol; their
trade to Norway and to the Baltic Sea is also great in proportion,
and of late years they have extended their trade farther to the
southward.
Here are more gentry, and consequently is more gaiety in this town
than in Yarmouth, or even in Norwich itself – the place abounding
in very good company.
The situation of this town renders it capable of being made very
strong, and in the late wars it was so; a line of fortification
being drawn round it at a distance from the walls; the ruins, or
rather remains of which works appear very fair to this day; nor
would it be a hard matter to restore the bastions, with the
ravelins, and counterscarp, upon any sudden emergency, to a good
state of defence: and that in a little time, a sufficient number of
workmen being employed, especially because they are able to fill
all their ditches with water from the sea, in such a manner as that
it cannot be drawn off.
There is in the market-place of this town a very fine statue of
King William on horseback, erected at the charge of the town. The
Ouse is mighty large and deep, close to the very town itself, and
ships of good burthen may come up to the quay; but there is no
bridge, the stream being too strong and the bottom moorish and
unsound; nor, for the same reason, is the anchorage computed the
best in the world; but there are good roads farther down.
They pass over here in boats into the fen country, and over the
famous washes into Lincolnshire, but the passage is very dangerous
and uneasy, and where passengers often miscarry and are lost; but
then it is usually on their venturing at improper times, and
without the guides, which if they would be persuaded not to do,
they would very rarely fail of going or coming safe.
From Lynn I bent my course to Downham, where is an ugly wooden
bridge over the Ouse; from whence we passed the fen country to
Wisbeach, but saw nothing that way to tempt our curiosity but deep