He has a very good
house at the entrance in at the south, or head gate of the town,
where he has had the honour several times to lodge and entertain
the late King William of glorious memory in his returning from
Holland by way of Harwich to London. Their recorder is Earl
Cowper, who has been twice Lord High Chancellor of England. But
his lordship not residing in those parts has put in for his
deputy,--Price, Esq., barrister-at-law, and who dwells in the town.
There are in Colchester eight churches besides those which are
damaged, and five meeting-houses, whereof two for Quakers, besides
a Dutch church and a French church.
Public Edifices are -
1. Bay Hall, an ancient society kept up for ascertaining the
manufacture of bays, which are, or ought to be, all brought to this
hall to be viewed and sealed according to their goodness by the
masters; and to this practice has been owing the great reputation
of the Colchester bays in foreign markets, where to open the side
of a bale and show the seal has been enough to give the buyer a
character of the value of the goods without any further search; and
so far as they abate the integrity and exactness of their method,
which I am told of late is much omitted; I say, so far, that
reputation will certainly abate in the markets they go to, which
are principally in Portugal and Italy. This corporation is
governed by a particular set of men who are called governors of the
Dutch Bay Hall.
Pages:
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55