ruins of the ancient seat of the family of Walpole, at Houghton,
about eight miles distant from Lynn, and on the north coast of
Norfolk, near the sea.
As the house is not yet finished, and when I passed by it was but
newly designed, it cannot be expected that I should be able to give
a particular description of what it will be. I can do little more
than mention that it appears already to be exceedingly magnificent,
and suitable to the genius of the great founder.
But a friend of mine, who lives in that county, has sent me the
following lines, which, as he says, are to be placed upon the
building, whether on the frieze of the cornice, or over the
portico, or on what part of the building, of that I am not as yet
certain. The inscription is as follows, viz.:-
“H. M. F.
“Fundamen ut essem Domus
In Agro Natali Extruendae,
Robertus ille Walpole
Quem nulla nesciet Posteritas:
Faxit Dues.
“Postquam Maturus Annis Dominus.
Diu Laetatus fuerit absoluta
Incolumem tueantur Incolames.
Ad Summam omnium Diem
Et nati natorum et qui nascentur ab illis.
Hic me Posuit.”
A second thing proper to be added here, by way of appendix, relates
to what I have mentioned of the Port of London, being bounded by
the Naze on the Essex shore, and the North Foreland on the Kentish
shore, which some people, guided by the present usage of the Custom
House, may pretend is not so, to answer such objectors. The true
state of that case stands thus:
“(1) The clause taken from the Act of Parliament establishing the
extent of the Port of London, and published in some of the books of
rates, is this:
“‘To prevent all future differences and disputes touching the
extent and limits of the Port of London, the said port is declared
to extend, and be accounted from the promontory or point called the
North Foreland in the Isle of Thanet, and from thence northward in
a right line to the point called the Naze, beyond the Gunfleet upon
the coast of Essex, and so continued westward throughout the river
Thames, and the several channels, streams, and rivers falling into
it, to London Bridge, saving the usual and known rights, liberties,
and privileges of the ports of Sandwich and Ipswich, and either of
them, and the known members thereof, and of the customers,
comptrollers, searchers, and their deputies, of and within the said
ports of Sandwich and Ipswich and the several creeks, harbours, and
havens to them, or either of them, respectively belonging, within
the counties of Kent and Essex.’
“II. Notwithstanding what is above written, the Port of London, as
in use since the said order, is understood to reach no farther than
Gravesend in Kent and Tilbury Point in Essex, and the ports of
Rochester, Milton, and Faversham belong to the port of Sandwich.
“In like manner the ports of Harwich, Colchester, Wivenhoe, Malden,
Leigh, etc., are said to be members of the port of Ipswich.”
This observation may suffice for what is needful to be said upon
the same subject when I may come to speak of the port of Sandwich
and its members and their privileges with respect to Rochester,
Milton, Faversham, etc., in my circuit through the county of Kent.