ge for the better here and there presents
itself; Defoe glances and passes on. His theme is England and the
English; he shows us, clearly and very simply, what he has seen of the
social life and manners of the people, of the features of the land
itself, and their relation to its industries; traces of the past, and
prospects of the future; shepherds, fishermen, merchants; catching of
salmon peel in mill-weirs, and catching of husbands at provincial
assemblies; with whatever else he found worth friendly observation.

H. M.

FROM LONDON TO LAND'S END

Sir,

I find so much left to speak of, and so many things to say in every part
of England, that my journey cannot be barren of intelligence which way
soever I turn; no, though I were to oblige myself to say nothing of
anything that had been spoken of before.

I intended once to have gone due west this journey; but then I should
have been obliged to crowd my observations so close (to bring Hampton
Court, Windsor, Blenheim, Oxford, the Bath and Bristol all into one
letter; all those remarkable places lying in a line, as it were, in one
point of the compass) as to have made my letter too long, or my
observations too light and superficial, as others have done before me.

This letter will divide the weighty task, and consequently make it sit
lighter on the memory, be pleasanter to the reader, and make my progress
the more regular: I shall therefore take in Hampton Court and Windsor in
this journey; the first at my setting out, and the last at my return, and
the rest as their situation demands.

As I came down from Kingston, in my last circuit, by the south bank of
the Thames, on the Surrey side of the river; so I go up to Hampton Court
now on the north bank, and on the Middlesex side, which I mention,
because, as the sides of the country bordering on the river lie parallel,
so the beauty of the country, the pleasant situations, the glory of
innumerable fine buildings (noblemen's and gentlemen's houses, and
citizens' retreats), are so equal a match to what I had described on the
other side that one knows not which to give the preference to: but as I
must speak of them again, when I come to write of the county of
Middlesex, which I have now purposely omitted; so I pass them over here,
except the palace of Hampton only, which I mentioned in "Middlesex," for
the reasons above.

Hampton Court lies on the north bank of the River Thames, about two small
miles from King