They Send Two
Members To Parliament; The Present Are Sir Peter Parker And
Humphrey Parsons, Esq.
And now being at the extremity of the county of Essex, of which I
have given you some view
As to that side next the sea only, I shall
break off this part of my letter by telling you that I will take
the towns which lie more towards the centre of the county, in my
return by the north and west part only, that I may give you a few
hints of some towns which were near me in my route this way, and of
which being so well known there is but little to say.
On the road from London to Colchester, before I came into it at
Witham, lie four good market towns at equal distance from one
another, namely, Romford, noted for two markets, viz., one for
calves and hogs, the other for corn and other provisions, most, if
not all, bought up for London market. At the farther end of the
town, in the middle of a stately park, stood Guldy Hall, vulgarly
Giddy Hall, an ancient seat of one Coke, sometime Lord Mayor of
London, but forfeited on some occasion to the Crown. It is since
pulled down to the ground, and there now stands a noble stately
fabric or mansion house, built upon the spot by Sir John Eyles, a
wealthy merchant of London, and chosen Sub-Governor of the South
Sea Company immediately after the ruin of the former Sub-Governor
and Directors, whose overthrow makes the history of these times
famous.
Brentwood and Ingatestone, and even Chelmsford itself, have very
little to be said of them, but that they are large thoroughfare
towns, full of good inns, and chiefly maintained by the excessive
multitude of carriers and passengers which are constantly passing
this way to London with droves of cattle, provisions, and
manufactures for London.
The last of these towns is indeed the county town, where the county
gaol is kept, and where the assizes are very often held; it stands
on the conflux of two rivers--the Chelmer, whence the town is
called, and the Cann.
At Lees, or Lee's Priory, as some call it, is to be seen an ancient
house in the middle of a beautiful park, formerly the seat of the
late Duke of Manchester, but since the death of the duke it is sold
to the Duchess Dowager of Buckinghamshire, the present Duke of
Manchester retiring to his ancient family seat at Kimbolton in
Huntingdonshire, it being a much finer residence. His grace is
lately married to a daughter of the Duke of Montagu by a branch of
the house of Marlborough.
Four market towns fill up the rest of this part of the country--
Dunmow, Braintree, Thaxted, and Coggeshall--all noted for the
manufacture of bays, as above, and for very little else, except I
shall make the ladies laugh at the famous old story of the Flitch
of Bacon at Dunmow, which is this:
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