Identifier: topographicalsur02robe (find matches)
Title: A topographical survey of the great road from London to Bath and Bristol. : With historical and descriptive accounts of the country, towns, villages, and gentlemen's seats on and adjacent to it...
Year: 1792 (1790s)
Authors: Robertson, Archibald
Subjects:
Publisher: London: : Printed for the author... and William Faden...
Contributing Library: Boston Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Public Library

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
cuted under the direc- SURVEY OF THE GREAT ROAD FROM tion of Mr. Earns; and the house is amplysupplied with water by a very small en-gine, constructed by the ingenious Messrs.Braith waits, of London. Being now on the verge of SalisburvPlain, the most extensive and extraordinaryspot of the kind in England, which has somuch attracted the observation of the cu-rious, I cannot here pass it unnoticed,thoughit rather goes beyond my prescribed limits. Over these wilds, stretching far beyondthe reach of sight, wander vast flocks ofsheep, with their solitary shepherds; thesole tenants of the plain, except the bus-tard, the wheatear, and a few other loversof the desert. The soil of this uncultivated waste is saidto be good, producing wild burnet; andfine grasses, excellent for sheep. Its edgesare fertilized by folding the flocks upon theland when ploughed, and yield abundantcrops of rye, barley, and wheat.—Ruins ofRoman, Saxon, and Danish monuments, liescattered through these districts; among
Text Appearing After Image:
LONDON TO BATH AND BRISTOL. 93 which the famed Stonehenge rises the mostdistinguished. Dyer, in his enumeration of the spotspeculiarly adapted to sheep, gives a strikingsketch of this plain, and its great relick: •Such the spacious plain Of Sarum, spread like oceans boundless round;Where solitary Stonehenge, grey with moss,Ruin of ages, nods. fleece. STONEHENGE. Stonehenge has exercised the conjecturesof no less than eight writers, since Camden.By whom it was built, or for what pur-poses, our antiquaries widely differ in opi-nion. In the Itinerary of Leland it is not men-tioned. Inigo Jones, full of architecturalideas, conceited it to be a Tuscan templeof Coelum, or Terminus, built by the Ro-mans. His son-in-law, Charleton, con-tended for its being Danish.—Mr. Aubreywas the first who supposed it to be a 94 SURVEY OF THE GREAT ROAD FROM Druidical temple; with this idea Mr. Tolandconcurred. Dr. Stukeley by accurate ad-measurements confirmed it; and Mr. Woodof Bath supported this opi

Note About Images