14 FROM WHALEY AND DODD 3 OCTOBER 1735 OS and very good seat of Samuel Sandys Esqr.7 Three miles from that is Westwood,8 the seat of Sir Herbert Packington,0 a knight of high renown in the camps of Cupid. It is a very old house, built more in the Chinese taste than the English, but situated in the midst of a most delightful wood. In the park is a most noble lake of above 100 acres of water; but how dreadful is it to think that these may perhaps ere long by the turn of a die Permutare dominos et cedere in altera jura.10 In our way from Worcester to Bridgnorth we came through Hartle- bury, the palace of the bishop of Worcester,11 to whom we were in troduced, being very desirous of the pleasure of seeing so great and good a prelate to whose virtue and resolution we in some measure owe our present happy establishment.12 From thence we went to Bridgenorth, a large corporation town situated on the banks of the Severn; it is built on a rock, the sides of which being excavated in many places afford little snug houses . . .I3 [Tro]glodytes of this . . . to Parliament . . . almost the whole town belongs to Watkyn Williams Wynn.1* Seven miles more brought us on Tuesday night to this town, which in its situation exceeds all towns I ever saw or read of. It stands on a gently rising hill, and the Severn almost quite surrounds it, on whose banks are most agreeable walks, on which I doubt not but you have often walked in imagination with Melinda and Silvia.15 And now dear Sir (as I have been writing a long hour by Shrewsbury clock)16 I suppose you are sufficiently tired with this long winded and insipid narration, from which (were I inclined to be more im-
7. (1695-1770), cr. (1743) Bn Sandys; Oxford, 1690; Bp of Lichfield and Coven M.P. try, 1699; Bp of Worcester, 1717. 8. Westwood Park, near Droitwich, 12. Hough had successfully withstood Worcs. Originally built as a hunting lodge James II's illegal attempts to oust him in the late sixteenth century, it became from the presidency of Magdalen College, the seat of the Pakington family in the Oxford. mid-seventeenth century, when various 13. 'Piece cut out [of the MS], carrying additions to the house were made ('West- with it a part of the text on the opposite wood Park, Worcestershire,' Country Life side' (Toynbee). 1902, xii. 688-97). 14. Sir Watkin Williams (after 1719, 9. Sir Herbert Perrott Pakington (ca Williams Wynn) (?i693-i74g), 3d Bt, 1740; 1701-48), 5th Bt, 1727; M.P. M.P. 10. Permutet dominos et cedat in altera 15. Characters (cousins) in Farquhar's jura: 'changes owners and passes under The Recruiting Officer, 1706. the power of another' (Horace, Epistles 16. Falstaff 'fought a long hour by II. ii. 174). Shrewsbury clock' (1 Henry IV V. iv. 151). 11. John Hough (1651-1743), Bp of