They Tell Us The
Name Is Derived From The River Ottery, And That From The Multitude
Of Otters Found Always In That River, Which However, To Me, Seems
Fabulous.
Nor does there appear to be any such great number of
otters in that water, or in the county about, more than is usual in
other counties or in other parts of the county about them.
They
tell us they send twenty thousand hogsheads of cider hence every
year to London, and (which is still worse) that it is most of it
bought there by the merchants to mix with their wines--which, if
true, is not much to the reputation of the London vintners. But
that by-the-bye.
From hence we came to Exeter, a city famous for two things which we
seldom find unite in the same town--viz., that it is full of gentry
and good company, and yet full of trade and manufactures also. The
serge market held here every week is very well worth a stranger's
seeing, and next to the Brigg Market at Leeds, in Yorkshire, is the
greatest in England. The people assured me that at this market is
generally sold from sixty to seventy to eighty, and sometimes a
hundred, thousand pounds value in serges in a week. I think it is
kept on Mondays.
They have the River Esk here, a very considerable river, and
principal in the whole county; and within three miles, or
thereabouts, it receives ships of any ordinary burthen, the port
there being called Topsham.
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