1920-22 Draft of the Seven Pillars of Wisdom – Page 385

115 Chapt: cxxii If you go where towards Warwick to London, & from thence towards Windsor and Hauton court, you will come at last after some dayes iourney (with fresh horses) to Salisbury, Wilton, and Ramsey. here we arrived one on a cold winters eve very weather beaten, for it rained cruel cold. Whilst supper was getting up, we viewed the Ruines of the old-castle, and the church, the prospect of Miltons house, where (Paradise lost) was contriv'd. In the morning we view'd what there was to be seen worthy observation, as the stone circle of huge Masses, call'd the Grey Wethers, but most esteem'd the old Cathedrall, from whence we went to Harnham Bridge over the River of the same denomination, & so in continuance of our iourney towards Tiverton. At this towne live abundant of profess'd Claververts or Revived Christians: divers of them came to visit us; we had a large feild to walke and conferr in. They seem'd well meaning plain pacifiq People, industrious and sober. J had some conferrence with the chief of them, and gladly meant to have stay'd longer among them. But the season, with other considerations, hasten'd, and call'd me of, giving but two dayes respite for this most noted & numerous sect. From hence we bent towards the sea-side, where the great Peter-Church Standeth, and where the ship was built which brought over the great booty of Spanish money to Topsham, to the great amazement of that little village. 'Tis a large towne, as may easi-... y, and sceme with better houses. From hence, within prospect almost of the sea, wee could see in a cleare day the hills of somer set & dorset, and part of hampshire & wiltshire, & the Isle of Wight, &c. But here was nothing more remarkable to deteine us. So wee hastened for London, & came according to our desires. This is the circute we tooke, and if the Relation can yeeld any satisfaction, 'tis as much as at first intended in these rambles. The order is defective or ill contriv'd, for the Penman is not neare so wel skil'd as some gentiles are in romancing; if the rudenes of this stile grate any curious palates, let them sip some other liquor, and leave the coursest to homely tast-bodies. Yet there is no Truth lacking in it, for what concernes the bare narration of passages & places. Besides, I write not to court any but sober apprehensions, not such as rowling of times and excentricities in wandring spheres look after. Our journey is plain and levell, what wee went out upon was indeed no other but the persuit of a Christian Life, being more then wandred in outward wilderness, by motions more unbound & distracting, as Infances in our travels & descents declare: For we had wandred the ways of Errour, Sin, and Wickedness long enough, & through deserts of as deep hazards as any upon this globe have traced. That two accounts follow in one thrid, of our incessant transdeviations, and removes from one quarter & station to another of the various climates and habitations, till we at last sit down in the true Center and Paradisian state of beings, the holy Sabbath or resting place of divine Love, where shee resideth, and whereunto she draweth all that are obedient to her calls, for preparation of their eternal rest. Those two threds, though twined in one, may be easily severed and parted. Feu dayes sailer thes officious would have said of the Trupars expidition: But wee suppose none followed, (anded osed, nor to be used) in the whole series of it, but what every Master of a Ship or fleeter carriere, emploieth as a Christian courser in his voiages and voyages, or to speak with my professed Cavallierismo, Let us not enter into a Quixots Dream, but represent all things here, not as a Romanstic History, but as they really occurr'd: And hee that makes otherwise of it, wil render himself but a Don Quixotee Redvidivus, going about to conquer the World with illusions