some deep channels between; all which are so full of fish, that not
only the Barking fishing-smacks come hither to fish, but the whole
shore is full of small fisher-boats in very great numbers,
belonging to the villages and towns on the coast, who come in every
tide with what they take; and selling the smaller fish in the
country, send the best and largest away upon horses, which go night
and day to London market.

N.B.--I am the more particular in my remarks on this place, because
in the course of my travels the reader will meet with the like in
almost every place of note through the whole island, where it will
be seen how this whole kingdom, as well the people as the land, and
even the sea, in every part of it, are employed to furnish
something, and I may add, the best of everything, to supply the
City of London with provisions; I mean by provisions, corn, flesh,
fish, butter, cheese, salt, fuel, timber, etc., and clothes also;
with everything necessary for building, and furniture for their own
use or for trade; of all which in their order.

On this shore also are taken the best and nicest, though not the
largest, oysters in England; the spot from whence they have their
common appellation is a little bank called Woelfleet, scarce to be
called an island, in the mouth of the River Crouch, now called
Crooksea Water; but the chief place where the said oysters are now
had is from Wyvenhoe and the shores adjacent, whither they are
brought by the fishermen, who take them at the mouth of that they
call Colchester water and about the sand they call the Spits, and
carry them up to Wyvenhoe, where they are laid in beds or pits on
the shore to feed, as they call it; and then being barrelled up and
carried to Colchester, which is but three miles off, they are sent