文档介绍：From London to Land's End
From London to Land's
End
By Daniel Defoe
1
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 e 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
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