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.
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.
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