ABSTRACT
Having in this stage from Hounslow to Slough two leaders very unequal to each other, their traces were observed to be crossed and the coachman informed us that they by that means would enable the horses to draw better together. I doubt it much[.] The road about 16 Miles from town begins to be uncommonly interesting and the traveller may at a distance observe the venerable turrets of Windsor rearing their antique heads above the trees. From Slough[,] which is not more than a mile from Windsor[,] the Castle is fairly seen and casts strikes the spectator with wonder as he considers its magnificent and regal appearance and with astonishment as he considers the many laborious hours which have in different centuries been spent in its erection. Nothing can be more noble than the appearance of the two from from [sic] this road. Eton College immediately reminds the beholder (who has been accustomed to the sights and) who has ever gazed with delight on the magnificent Building at Kings College (Cambridge) of Kings College chapel, of which it seems to be a correct yet a smaller resemblance[.] [f. 3r] We could only observe on its top two of those lofty towers which are in general called by the name of the larger pepper boxes. The road from there [Windsor] to Marlow is very engaging. The Woods which crown the hill and skirt in all variety of forms the cornfields of which some have parted with their produce and some are ready to resign their produce[.] The Beautiful winding vallies and the winding streams all unite to produce the most pleasing sensations in the mind of a person, who is delighted with viewing the landscapes of nature. The view of Marlow from the hill opens most suddenly and beautifully[.] The Church[,] the Town[,] the river [Thames] winding along the valley from it, and the foreground to the
scene made by the wood hanging from the hills opposite to the town, are indescribably beautiful and the whole road to Henley is more like the picture which we form in our ideas when the Elysian Gardens are brought to the recollection[.] If any thing can Equal or if any thing can nearly approach the view of Marlow as a candidate for effect it is the View of Henley when you have just got halfway down the Hill between Lord Malmsburys1 Lodge and the Town[.]2
[f. 3v] [margin: Small ink sketch of ladder, annotated, remarkable good constructed high ladders broad and the wood stouter at the bottom and fine light and tapering towards the top]3
Most of the names of Villages or hamlets or Gentlemens houses are illspelt or wrong named no doubt as well as the names of the Inhabitants for we found great difficulty in understanding the sounds and many we could not make out and very few persons could spell the names to us when we requested them[.]
[f. 2v] [margin: August 1. Thermometer at 4 [o’clock]. 67 [August] 2. At 7 OClock Thermometer 60˝ 4]
[f. 4r] It reminds us of those views which one sometimes sees of places abroad, which are selected as most proper for beautiful landscapes. [Upon?] looking behind the hill has a good effect and the large patches of lavender about 20 Acres in all with their (dark) blue flowers form a variety to the landscape such as is hardly ever seen in this country[.]
Passing through Maidenhead at one Extremity of the town a Boy asked the Coachman whether Old Hodges was going up to Town today, ‘Yes you will see him presently’5 was the answer. And upon asking what the boy meant we were told that about half a year ago Old Hodges as he was driving along through the town whipped one of the boys who was playing at marbles in the middle of the street, he only just gave him one cut and told him to keep out of the way. However the whole of the party were exasperated at their companion being thus treated and they have ever since every day whenever he goes through the town been followed by all the boys who hallow and howl at him, calling him names as their ingenuity suggests to them Old Hog[,] O Hodge[,] etc[.] They have done it so long that he is teased to death by them, Thus it seems that like a parcel of hens they are initable6 and that boys may not be hurt with impunity. This shews to what a degree, a [spirit?] exists in the mind of the youth of this Kingdom [f. 4v blank] [f. 5r] who all take his part because they think him to have been injured. The crops looked remarkably fine all the way down to Oxford and the scattered fields of hops which were just in flower and had grown beyond the height of their poles and were twining round each other in all the gay luxuriance of prosperity was a sufficient proof that their buds were no longer in
danger from the detrimental fly [aphids]. For some miles between Marlow and Henley every turn of the road presented us with a view of hanging (beech) woods[,] hop grounds, and here and there a field of clover in little heaps reminded me of many a waistcoat whose pattern of various and well transfused spots has been probably originated from some idea of this sort. Nothing can exceed the windings of the river [Thames] at Henley for beauty and elegance[.] Had not we passed by the Lodge of Lord Harcourt1 before we come to the two rows of cottages which skirt the road, one would have been led, by the great appearance of neatness and comfort which they show, to imagine that the house1 of some22 nobleman, who consults the happiness and welfare of his labourers and of the poor, was situated very near. Every cottage had a garden and a stack [f. 5v Sketch of church among trees, ink, captioned] View near Oxford [f. 6r] of wood close adjoining to the house which they are probably allowed to pick up (out of the wood) or perhaps his lordships munificence allows them some proportion of wood according to the size of their families. The [borows?]3 of lofty trees on the sides of the road add to the comfort as well as to the beauty of the cottages, by the shelter they afford and by the liveliness of their foliage. The gardens were ornamented with flowers according to the taste of the owners or engaged with furnishing the common necessaries which the poor so seldom can obtain. In short from their appearance they seem to be models for any cottages which a gentleman might wish to have upon his estate both for their neatness and seeming convenience and comfort.
