excursions from hence to view the northern parts of this county--a
county so fruitful of wonders that, though I do not make antiquity my
chief search, yet I must not pass it over entirely, where so much of it,
and so well worth observation, is to be found, which would look as if I
either understood not the value of the study, or expected my readers
should be satisfied with a total omission of it.

I have mentioned that this county is generally a vast continued body of
high chalky hills, whose tops spread themselves into fruitful and
pleasant downs and plains, upon which great flocks of sheep are fed, &c.
But the reader is desired to observe these hills and plains are most
beautifully intersected and cut through by the course of divers pleasant
and profitable rivers; in the course and near the banks of which there
always is a chain of fruitful meadows and rich pastures, and those
interspersed with innumerable pleasant towns, villages, and houses, and
among them many of considerable magnitude. So that, while you view the
downs, and think the country wild and uninhabited, yet when you come to
descend into these vales you are surprised with the most pleasant and
fertile country in England.

There are no less than four of these rivers, which meet all together at
or near the city of Salisbury; especially the waters of three of them run
through the streets of the city--the Nadder and the Willy and the
Avon--and the course of these three lead us through the whole mountainous
part of the county. The two first join their waters at Wilton, the
shiretown, though a place of no great notice now; and these are the
waters which run through the canal and the gardens of Wilton House, the
seat of that ornament of nobility and learning, the Earl of Pembroke.

One cannot be said to have seen anything that a man of curiosity would
think worth seeing in this county, and not have been at Wilton House; but
not the beautiful building, not the ancient trophy of a great family, not
the noble situation, not all the pleasures of the gardens, parks,
fountains, hare-warren, or of whatever is rare either in art or nature,
are equal to that yet more glorious sight of a noble princely palace
constantly filled with its noble and proper inhabitants. The lord and
proprietor, who is indeed a true patriarchal monarch, reigns here with an
authority agreeable to all his subjects (family); and his reign is made
agreeable, by his first practising the most ex