by Daniel Defoe
the reigns before, it was but newly forfeited to the Crown, and was
not made a royal house till King Charles I., who was not only a
prince that delighted in country retirements, but knew how to make
choice of them by the beauty of their situation, the goodness of
the air, &c. He took great delight here, and, had he lived to
enjoy it in peace, had purposed to make it another thing than it
was. But we all know what took him off from that felicity, and all
others; and this house was at last made one of his prisons by his
rebellious subjects.
His son, King Charles II., may well be said to have an aversion to
the place, for the reason just mentioned--namely, the treatment his
royal father met with there--and particularly that the rebel and
murderer of his father, Cromwell, afterwards possessed this palace,
and revelled here in the blood of the royal party, as he had done
in that of his sovereign. King Charles II. therefore chose
Windsor, and bestowed a vast sum in beautifying the castle there,
and which brought it to the perfection we see it in at this day--
some few alterations excepted, done in the time of King William.
King William (for King James is not to be named as to his choice of
retired palaces, his delight running quite another way)--I say,
King William fixed upon Hampton Court, and it was in his reign that
Hampton Court put on new clothes, and, being dressed gay and
glorious, made the figure we now see it in.
The late queen, taken up for part of her reign in her kind regards
to the prince her spouse, was obliged to reside where her care of
his health confined her, and in this case kept for the most part at
Kensington, where he died; but her Majesty always discovered her
delight to be at Windsor, where she chose the little house, as it
was called, opposite to the Castle, and took the air in her chaise
in the parks and forest as she saw occasion.
Now Hampton Court, by the like alternative, is come into request
again; and we find his present Majesty, who is a good judge too of
the pleasantness and situation of a place of that kind, has taken
Hampton Court into his favour, and has made it much his choice for
the summer's retreat of the Court, and where they may best enjoy
the diversions of the season. When Hampton Court will find such
another favourable juncture as in King William's time, when the
remainder of her ashes shall be swept away, and her complete
fabric, as designed by King William, shall be finished, I cannot
tell; but if ever that shall be, I know no palace in Europe,
Versailles excepted, which can come up to her, either for beauty
and magnificence, or for extent of building, and the ornaments
attending it.
From Hampton Court I directed my course for a journey into the
south-west part of England; and to take up my beginning where I
concluded my last, I crossed to Chertsey on the Thames, a town I
mentioned before; from whence, crossing the Black Desert, as I
called it, of Bagshot Heath, I directed my course for Hampshire or
Hantshire, and particularly for Basingstoke--that is to say, that a
little before, I passed into the great Western Road upon the heath,
somewhat west of Bagshot, at a village called Blackwater, and
entered Hampshire, near Hartleroe.
Before we reach Basingstoke, we get rid of that unpleasant country
which I so often call a desert, and enter into a pleasant fertile
country, enclosed and cultivated like the rest of England; and
passing a village or two we enter Basingstoke, in the midst of
woods and pastures, rich and fertile, and the country accordingly
spread with the houses of the nobility and gentry, as in other
places. On the right hand, a little before we come to the town, we
pass at a small distance the famous fortress, so it was then, of
Basing, being a house belonging then to the Marquis of Winchester,
the great ancestor of the present family of the Dukes of Bolton.
This house, garrisoned by a resolute band of old soldiers, was a
great curb to the rebels of the Parliament party almost through
that whole war; till it was, after a vigorous defence, yielded to
the conquerors by the inevitable fate of things at that time. The
old house is, indeed, demolished but the successor of the family,
the first Duke of Bolton, has erected a very noble fabric in the
same place, or near it, which, however, is not equal to the
magnificence which fame gives to the ancient house, whose strength
of building only, besides the outworks, withstood the battery of
cannon in several attacks, and repulsed the Roundheads three or
four times when they attempted to besiege it. It is incredible
what booty the garrison of this place picked up, lying as they did
just on the great Western Road, where they intercepted the
carriers, plundered the waggons, and suffered nothing to pass--to
the great interruption of the trade of the city of London,
Basingstoke is a large populous market-town, has a good market for
corn, and lately within a very few years is fallen into a
manufacture, viz., of making druggets and shalloons, and such
slight goods, which, however, employs a good number of the poor
people, and enables them to get their bread, which knew not how to
get it before.
From hence the great Western Road goes on to Whitchurch and
Andover, two market-towns, and sending members to Parliament; at
the last of which the Downs, or open country, begins, which we in
general, though falsely, call Salisbury Plain. But my resolution
being to take in my view what I had passed by before, I was obliged
to go off to the left hand, to Alresford and Winchester.
Alresford was a flourishing market-town, and remarkable for this--
that though it had no great trade, and particularly very little, if
any, manufactures, yet there was no collection in the town for the
poor, nor any poor low enough to take alms of the parish, which is
what I do not think can be said of any town in England besides.
But this happy circumstance, which so distinguished Alresford from
all her neighbours, was brought to an end in the year -, when by a
sudden and surprising fire the whole town, with both the church and
the market-house, was reduced to a heap of rubbish; and, except a
few poor huts at the remotest ends of the town, not a house left
standing. The town is since that very handsomely rebuilt, and the
neighbouring gentlemen contributed largely to the relief of the
people, especially by sending in timber towards their building;
also their market-house is handsomely built, but the church not
yet, though we hear there is a fund raising likewise for that.
Here is a very large pond, or lake of water, kept up to a head by a
strong BATTER D'EAU, or dam, which the people tell us was made by
the Romans; and that it is to this day part of the great Roman
highway which leads from Winchester to Alton, and, as it is
supposed, went on to London, though we nowhere see any remains of
it, except between Winchester and Alton, and chiefly bet
ween this
town and Alton.
Near this town, a little north-west, the Duke of Bolton has another
seat, which, though not large, is a very handsome beautiful palace,
and the gardens not only very exact, but very finely situate, the
prospect and vistas noble and great, and the whole very well kept.
From hence, at the end of seven miles over the Downs, we come to
the very ancient city of Winchester; not only the great church
(which is so famous all over Europe, and has been so much talked
of), but even the whole city has at a distance the face of
venerable, and looks ancient afar off; and yet here are many modern
buildings too, and some very handsome; as the college schools, with
the bishop's palace, built by Bishop Morley since the late wars--
the old palace of the bishop having been ruined by that known
church incendiary Sir William Waller and his crew of plunderers,
who, if my information is not wrong, as I believe it is not,
destroyed more monuments of the dead, and defaced more churches,
than all the Roundheads in England beside.
This church, and the schools also are accurately described by
several writers, especially by the "Monasticon," where their
antiquity and original is fully set forth. The outside of the
church is as plain and coarse as if the founders had abhorred
ornaments, or that William of Wickham had been a Quaker, or at
least a Quietist. There is neither statue, nor a niche for a
statue, to be seen on all the outside; no carved work, no spires,
towers, pinnacles, balustrades, or anything; but mere walls,
buttresses, windows, and coigns necessary to the support and order
of the building. It has no steeple, but a short tower covered
flat, as if the top of it had fallen down, and it had been covered
in haste to keep the rain out till they had time to build it up
again.
But the inside of the church has many very good things in it, and
worth observation; it was for some ages the burying-place of the
English Saxon kings, whose RELIQUES, at the repair of the church,
were collected by Bishop Fox, and being put together into large
wooden chests lined with lead were again interred at the foot of
the great wall in the choir, three on one side, and three on the
other, with an account whose bones are in each chest. Whether the
division of the RELIQUES might be depended upon, has been doubted,
but is not thought material, so that we do but believe they are all
there.
The choir of the church appears very magnificent; the roof is very
high, and the Gothic work in the arched part is very fine, though
very old; the painting in the windows is admirably good, and easy
to be distinguished by those that understand those things: the
steps ascending to the choir make a very fine show, having the
statues of King James and his son King Charles, in copper, finely
cast; the first on the right hand, and the other on the left, as
you go up to the choir.
The choir is said to be the longest in England; and as the number
of prebendaries, canons, &c., are many, it required such a length.
The ornaments of the choir are the effects of the bounty of several
bishops. The fine altar (the noblest in England by much) was done
by Bishop Morley; the roof and the coat-of-arms of the Saxon and
Norman kings were done by Bishop Fox; and the fine throne for the
bishop in the choir was given by Bishop Mew in his lifetime; and it
was well it was for if he had ordered it by will, there is reason
to believe it had never been done--that reverend prelate,
notwithstanding he enjoyed so rich a bishopric, scarce leaving
money enough behind him to pay for his coffin.
There are a great many persons of rank buried in this church,
besides the Saxon kings mentioned above, and besides several of the
most eminent bishops of the See. Just under the altar lies a son
of William the Conqueror, without any monument; and behind the
altar, under a very fine and venerable monument, lies the famous
Lord Treasurer Weston, late Earl of Portland, Lord High Treasurer
of England under King Charles I. His effigy is in copper armour at
full-length, with his head raised on three cushions of the same,
and is a very magnificent work. There is also a very fine monument
of Cardinal Beaufort in his cardinal's robes and hat.
The monument of Sir John Cloberry is extraordinary, but more
because it puts strangers upon inquiring into his story than for
anything wonderful in the figure, it being cut in a modern dress
(the habit gentlemen wore in those times, which, being now so much
out of fashion, appears mean enough). But this gentleman's story
is particular, being the person solely entrusted with the secret of
the restoration of King Charles II., as the messenger that passed
between General Monk on one hand, and Mr. Montague and others
entrusted by King Charles II. on the other hand; which he managed
so faithfully as to effect that memorable event, to which England
owes the felicity of all her happy days since that time; by which
faithful service Sir John Cloberry, then a private musketeer only,
raised himself to the honour of a knight, with the reward of a good
estate from the bounty of the king.
Everybody that goes into this church, and reads what is to be read
there, will be told that the body of the church was built by the
famous William of Wickham; whose monument, intimating his fame,
lies in the middle of that part which was built at his expense.
He was a courtier before a bishop; and, though he had no great
share of learning, he was a great promoter of it, and a lover of
learned men. His natural genius was much beyond his acquired
parts, and his skill in politics beyond his ecclesiastic knowledge.
He is said to have put his master, King Edward III., to whom he was
Secretary of State, upon the two great projects which made his
reign so glorious, viz.:- First, upon setting up his claim to the
crown of France, and pushing that claim by force of arms, which
brought on the war with France, in which that prince was three
times victorious in battle. (2) Upon setting up, or instituting
the Order of the Garter; in which he (being before that made Bishop
of Winchester) obtained the honour for the Bishops of Winchester of
being always prelates of the Order, as an appendix to the
bishopric; and he himself was the first prelate of the Order, and
the ensigns of that honour are joined with his episcopal ornaments
in the robing of his effigy on the monument above.
To the honour of this bishop, there are other foundations of his,
as much to his fame as that of this church, of which I shall speak
in their order; but particularly the college in this city, which is
a noble foundation indeed. The building consists of two large
courts, in which are the lodgings for the masters and scholars, and
in the centre a very noble chapel; beyond that, in the second
court, are the schools, with a large cloister beyond them, and some
enclosures laid
open for the diversion of the scholars. There also
is a great hall, where the scholars dine. The funds for the
support of this college are very considerable; the masters live in
a very good figure, and their maintenance is sufficient to support
it. They have all separate dwellings in the house, and all
possible conveniences appointed them.
The scholars have exhibitions at a certain time of continuance
here, if they please to study in the new college at Oxford, built
by the same noble benefactor, of which I shall speak in its order.
The clergy here live at large, and very handsomely, in the Close
belonging to the cathedral; where, besides the bishop's palace
mentioned above, are very good houses, and very handsomely built,
for the prebendaries, canons, and other dignitaries of this church.
The Deanery is a very pleasant dwelling, the gardens very large,
and the river running through them; but the floods in winter
sometimes incommode the gardens very much.
This school has fully answered the end of the founder, who, though
he was no great scholar, resolved to erect a house for the making
the ages to come more learned than those that went before; and it
has, I say, fully answered the end, for many learned and great men
have been raised here, some of whom we shall have occasion to
mention as we go on.
Among the many private inscriptions in this church, we found one
made by Dr. Over, once an eminent physician in this city, on a
mother and child, who, being his patients, died together and were
buried in the same grave, and which intimate that one died of a
fever, and the other of a dropsy:
"Surrepuit natum Febris, matrem abstulit Hydrops,
Igne Prior Fatis, Altera cepit Aqua."
As the city itself stands in a vale on the bank, and at the
conjunction of two small rivers, so the country rising every way,
but just as the course of the water keeps the valley open, you must
necessarily, as you go out of the gates, go uphill every wry; but
when once ascended, you come to the most charming plains and most
pleasant country of that kind in England; which continues with very
small intersections of rivers and valleys for above fifty miles, as
shall appear in the sequel of this journey.
At the west gate of this city was anciently a castle, known to be
so by the ruins more than by any extraordinary notice taken of it
in history. What they say of it, that the Saxon kings kept their
court here, is doubtful, and must be meant of the West Saxons only.
And as to the tale of King Arthur's Round Table, which they pretend
was kept here for him and his two dozen of knights (which table
hangs up still, as a piece of antiquity to the tune of twelve
hundred years, and has, as they pretend, the names of the said
knights in Saxon characters, and yet such as no man can read), all
this story I see so little ground to give the least credit to that
I look upon it, and it shall please you, to be no better than a
fib.
Where this castle stood, or whatever else it was (for some say
there was no castle there), the late King Charles II. marked out a
very noble design, which, had he lived, would certainly have made
that part of the country the Newmarket of the ages to come; for the
country hereabout far excels that of Newmarket Heath for all kinds
of sport and diversion fit for a prince, nobody can dispute. And
as the design included a noble palace (sufficient, like Windsor,
for a summer residence of the whole court), it would certainly have
diverted the king from his cursory journeys to Newmarket.
The plan of this house has received several alterations, and as it
is never like to be finished, it is scarce worth recording the
variety. The building is begun, and the front next the city
carried up to the roof and covered, but the remainder is not begun.
There was a street of houses designed from the gate of the palace
down to the town, but it was never begun to be built; the park
