fitting them out, it being capable of containing eighty or a hundred fail, which may lie. very quiet here, being fheltered by the town from the weft and north winds, and by the hills from the eaft winds. The custom-houfe, a commodious elegant ftructure, joins to it. There is a navigation from hence farther up the Merfee, and that for fhips of burden too, as high almost as Warrington; and alfo up the fouth channel, which they call the river Weaver; but 'tis chiefly for two things, 1. For rock falt, which is dug out of the earth, both in this county and Chefhire, and fhipped off here in great quan tities, not only for Devonshire, Bristol, and other parts of Somerfelfhire, but round to London, Colchester, and several other places in the fouth of England, where it is diffolved in fea-water, then boiled up again into a ftronger and finer falt, and is then as good as that strong fort called falt upon falt, which the Dutch make of the St. Ube's falt, and with which they cure their herrings. They alfo fhip off great quantities of Cheshire cheese here. Manchester in the fame county, about 166 miles from London, ftands near the con. fluence of the Irk with the Irwell, not above three miles from the Merfee, and is fo much improved in this and the last century above its neighbours, that though it is not a.corporation, nor fends members to Parliament, yet, as an inland town, it has perhaps the best trade of any in these northern parts, and furpaffes all the towns hereabouts in buildings and numbers of people, manufactures, and its fpacious market-place and college. The fuftian manufacture, called Manchester cottons, for which it has been famous for almost one hundred and fifty years, has been very much improved of late by fome inventions of dying and printing; which, with the great variety of other manufactures, known by the name of Manchester goods, as ticking, tapes, filleting, and linen cloth, inrich not only the town, but the whole parish, and render the people induftrious. Above a hundred years ago, there were reckoned near twenty thoufand communicants in this town and parifh, fince which time the inhabitants are much more numerous in proportion to the increase of their trade. It may with propriety be ftiled the greatest mere village in England; for it is not fo much as a town ftrickly fpeaking, the highest magiftrate being a conftable or headborough; yet it is more populous than York, Norwich, or moft cities in England, and as big as two or three of the leffer ones put together for the people here, including thofe in the fuburbs on the other fide of the river, are reckoned at no lefs than fifty thousand; which is ten times the number of people that Preston has, and it is faid to return more money in one month than that does in fifteen. Here is not only a fpacious market-place, but a modern exchange. Here is an ancient, though a firm ftone-bridge over the Irwell, which is built exceeding high, because as the river comes from the mountainous part of the country, it rifes fometimes four or five yards in one night, and falls next day as fuddenly. For the space of three miles above the town, it has no less than fixty mills upon it. The weavers have looms here that work twenty-four laces at a time, an invention for which they are obliged to the Dutch. : Wolverhampton in Staffordshire, about 117 miles from London, was anciently called Hampton; and fo large a parish, that it was near thirty miles in compass, and contained feventeen great villages. A priory was formerly built here by King Edgar, as Sir William Dugdale fays, at the request of his dying fifter Wulfruna; and for this reafon the place was called Wulfrune's Hampton, which is fince corrupted to Wolverhampton: It stands upon high ground, and is a populous town, well built, and the ftreets well paved; but all the water the town is fupplied with, except what falls from the fkies, comes from four weak springs of different qualities, which go by the names of Pudding. well, well, Horfe-well, Washing-well, and Meat-well; all appropriated to their feveral uses. From the laft they fetch all the water which they ufe for boiling or brewing, in leather-budgets laid across a horfe, with a funnel at the top, by which they fill them; and to the other three wells they carry their tripe, horfes, and linen. To this fcarcity of water, and the high fituation of the place, is afcribed its healthy ftate, in fpite of the adjacent coal-mines; and it is faid the plague was hardly ever known here, but the fmall-pox often, which has been obferved to be an indication of the wholesomeness of the air. The chief manufacturers of this town are locksmiths, who are reckoned the mot expert of that trade in England. They are fo curious in this art, that they can contrive a lock fo, that if a fervant be fent into the clofet with the mafter-key, or their own, it will fhew how many times that fervant has gone in at any diftance of time, and how many times the lock has been fhot for a whole year, fome of them being made to discover five hundred or a thousand times. We are informed also, that a very fine lock was made in this town, fold for 20l. which had a set of chimes in it that would go at any hour the owner fhould think fit. N. B.-As for the city of London, its trade, &c. being fo extenfive, I fhall make it the fubject of the enfuing chapter.. CHAP. IV.-Containing a Defcription of the City of London; both in regard to its Extent, Buildings, Government, Trade, &c. LONDON, the capital of the kingdom of England, taken in its largest extent, comprehends the cities of London and Westminster, with their respective suburbs, and the borough of Southwark, with the buildings contiguous thereto on the fouth fide of the river, both on the east and weft fides of the bridge. The length thereof, if we measure it in a direct line from Hyde-park gate, on the weft fide of Grofvenor-fquare, to the furtheft buildings that are contiguous in Limehoufe, that is, from weft to eaft, is very near five miles in a direct line; but if we take in the turnings and windings of the streets, it cannot be less than fix miles. The breadth in many places from north to fouth is about two miles and a half, but in others not above a mile and a half; the circumference of the whole being about fixteen miles. The fituation next the river is hilly, and in fome places very steep; but the streets are for the most part upon a level, and the principal of them no where to be paralleled for their length, breadth, beauty, and regularity of the buildings, any more than the fpacious and magnificent fquares with which this city abounds. As to the dimenfions of the city, within the walls, I find that the late wall on the land fide from the Tower in the east, to the mouth of Fleet-ditch in the weft, was two miles wanting ten poles; and the line along the Thames, where there has been no walls for many hundred years, if ever, contains from the Tower in the eaft, to the mouth of the fame ditch in the weft, a mile and forty poles; which added to the circuit of the wall, on the land fide, makes in the whole three miles thirty poles; and as it is of an irregular figure, narrow at each end, and the broadeft part not half the length of it, the content of the ground within the walls upon the most accurate furvey, does not contain more than three hundred and eighty acres; which is not a third part of the contents of our extensive city of Lifbon: but then this must be remembered, Lisbon contains a great quantity of arable and wafte ground within its walls, whereas London is one continued pile of buildings. The city gates are at this day eight, befides posterns, VOL. II. G viz. viz. 1. Aldgate; 2, Bifhopfgate; 3. Moorgate; 4. Cripplegate; 5. Alderfgate; 6. Newgate; 7. Ludgate; and, 8. The Bridgegate. 1. Aldgate, or Ealdgate, in the eaft, is of great antiquity, even as old as the days of King Edgar who mentions it in a charter to the knights of Knighton-Guild. Upon the top of it, to the eastward, is placed a golden fphere; and on the upper battlements, the figures of two foldiers as centinels: beneath, in a large fquare, King James 1. is reprefented standing in gilt armour, at whofe feet are a lion and unicorn, both couchant, the first the supporter of England, and the other for Scotland. On the west side of the gate is the figure of fortune, finely gilded and carved, with a profperous fail over her head, standing on a globe, overlooking the city. Beneath it, is the King's arms, with the usual motto, Dieu et mon droit, and under it, Vivat rex. A little lower, on one fide, is the figure of a woman, being the emblem of peace, with a dove in one hand, and a gilded wreath or garland in the other; and on the other fide is the figure of charity, with a child at her breast, and another in her hand; and over the arch of the gate is this infcription, viz. Senatus populufque Iondinenfis fecit, 1609, and under it, Humphrey Weld, Mayor; in whofe mayoralty it was finished. 2. Bishopfgate, which stands north-weft of Aldgate, is fuppofed to have been built by fome bishop about the year 1200. It was afterwards feveral times repaired by the merchants of the Hanfe Towns, on account of the confirmation of their privileges in this city. The figures of the two bishops on the north fide are pretty much defaced, as are the city-arms engraven on the fouth fide of it. 3. Alderfgate, the ancient north gate of the city, ftands to the weftward of Bishopfgate. On the north, or out-fide of it, is the figure of King James I. on horseback, whò entered the city at this gate when he came from Scotland, on his acceffion to the throne of England. Over the head of this figure are the arms of England, Scotland and Ireland; and on one fide the image of the prophet Jeremy, with this text engraved, "Then shall enter into the gates of this city, kings and princes fitting on the "throne of David, riding on chariots and on horfes, they and their princes, the men "of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerufalem *." And on the other fide, the figure of the prophet Samuel, with the following paffage," And Samuel faid unto all Ifrael, "Behold, I have hearkened unto your voice in all that you have faid unto me, and “have made a king over you t." On the fouth, or infide of the gate, is the effigy of King James I. fitting on his throne in his robes. 4. Newgate, fo called from its being built later than the other principal gates, is fituated on the north west corner of the city, faid to be erected in the reign of Henry I. or King Stephen, when the way through Ludgate was interrupted by enlarging the cathedral of St. Paul's and the church-yard about it. This gate hath been the county-jail for Middlefex, at least five hundred years. The weft, or outside of the gate is adorned with three ranges of pilafters and their entablements of the Tufcan order. Over the loweft, is a circular pediment, and above it the King's arms. The intercolumns are four niches, and as many figures in them, well carved, and large as the life. The east, or infide of the gate, is adorned with a range of pilafters with entablements as the other, and in three niches are the figures of juftice, mercy, and truth, with this infcription, viz. "This part of Newgate was begun to be repaired in the mayoralty of Sir "James Campel, Knight, anno 1630, and finifhed in the mayoralty of Sir Robert "Ducie, Bart. anno 1631; and being damnified by the fire in 1666, it was repaired "in the mayoralty of Sir George Waterman, anno 1672.” • Jer. xvii. 25, t1 Sam. xxii. 1, 5. Ludgate, |