Seeing England: Antiquaries, Travellers and Naturalists

Lakes.

THE SOUTH-EAST

I

Kent: William Lambarde (1536–1601)

Amongst the antiquarian writers of early modern descriptions of English counties, William Lambarde holds a special place as the author of the first such work to be published, A Perambulation of Kent. It was an immediate success, and for more than a century after its publication it was referred to by subsequent antiquaries as a model of its genre. It established a method for topological description and, combining this with historical accounts of places, was a clear example of the chorographical approach, which was the basis of antiquarian surveys for the next hundred and fifty years. While Lambarde’s abiding interest was Anglo-Saxon history and culture, he was by profession a lawyer, and, as might be expected, his view of the county was to some extent administrative, and to a more considerable extent historical.

Lambarde was born in London in October, 1536, and died in August, 1601, at his manor, Westcombe, in Greenwich, Kent, which he had inherited from his father in 1554.¹ He was admitted to Lincoln’s Inn in 1556, but was not called to the bar until 1567. This lengthy career development was no doubt due to his pursuit of Anglo-Saxon studies, which research he undertook with Laurence Nowell until the latter’s departure for France in 1567.² Lambarde’s first published work was Archaionomia, a collection of paraphrased Anglo-Saxon laws, in 1568. The idea for this work was probably Nowell’s originally, but it was Lambarde who did the bulk of the translating and writing. His next antiquarian work, not published in his lifetime, was entitled Alphabetical Description of the Chief Places of England and Wales. It was a collection of personal observations on places, together with transcripts taken from chronicles and ancient documents.

The first draft of A Perambulation of Kent was completed in 1570, but before submitting his work to print, Lambarde sought the services of a former sheriff of Kent, Thomas Wotton, as a first reader. While this suggests that he wanted to check the accuracy of his data, perhaps also he felt that his work would benefit from the support of a native of the county. As was the practice of the time, Lambarde circulated his manuscript amongst certain friends, one of whom was Matthew Parker, then Archbishop of Canterbury, who in 1573 brought it to the attention of Lord Burghley, the Lord Treasurer and chief adviser to Queen Elizabeth.³ Whatever encouragement Lambarde may have had, publication was nevertheless delayed further till 1576, perhaps because of personal circumstances during that time: Lambarde’s first wife died, and he founded an almshouse. But when the book appeared, it was well received, so much so that he brought out an expanded version in 1596, and, later, there were subsequent editions in the seventeenth century, and the second edition was reprinted, with a biography of the author, in 1826.

His subsequent antiquarian research was confined to legal topics. In 1581 he published Eirenarcha, or of the Office of Justices of the Peace, which was reprinted seven times between 1582 and 1610, the last three with additions. Archeion; or, a Commentary upon the High Courts of Justice in England, appeared in 1591. The official posts held and responsibilities taken on by Lambarde in the course of his career included: 1579, bencher of Lincoln’s Inn; 1579, Justice of the Peace for Kent; 1592, Master in Chancery; 1597, Keeper of the Records at the Rolls Chapel; 1597, trustee to Lord Cobham for the establishment of a college for the poor; and 1601, Keeper of the Records in the Tower. In this last capacity he had a private audience with Queen Elizabeth on 4 August, to present her with his new catalogue of the documents. It was in this meeting that Elizabeth famously referred to the recent conspiracy of the Earl of Essex with the remark, ‘I am Richard II, know ye not that?’⁴ The meeting was a high point of the antiquary’s career, the queen praising him as ‘good and Honest Lambarde’. It was just two weeks before his death.

Lambarde’s antiquarian interest is the first of many cases in which we will see a close association with a legal career. The collection of details about the past, especially with respect to the land and its administration, is of a forensic nature, and clearly leads to the development of resources invaluable for the pursuits both of litigation and constitutional interpretation. Moreover, Lambarde was a member of a circle of scholarly Elizabethan men with a Renaissance outlook. Together with Lawrence Nowell, and under the patronage of William Cecil, he planned the writing of descriptions of all the counties of the nation. Indeed, his original intention had been to write a topography of the whole of Great Britain, but, as he stated in his closing remarks at the end of the book, the composition of a survey of his own county had made him realise that a collaborative effort would be more realistic:

As touching the description of the residue of this Realme, finding by this one, how harde it will be for any one (and much more for my selfe) to accomplish it for all, I can but wish in like sort, that some one in each Shyre woulde make the enterprise for his owne Countrie, to the end that by joyning our Pennes, and conferring our labours (as it were, ex symbolo) we might at the last by the union of many partes and papers compact one whole and perfect bodie and booke of our English Topographie.⁵

By the time his book was to be published, he added to this remark, taking account of the fact that his friend William Camden was indeed proceeding on a such a project as he had envisaged.

Here left I (good Reader) when I first set foorth this Woorke: Since which time I finde my desire not a little served by Master Camdens Britannia: wherein, as he hath not onely farre exceeded whatsoever hath been formerly attempted in that kynd, but hath also passed the expectation of other men & even his own hope: So do I acknowledge it written to the great Honour of the realme with men abroad & to the singular delight of us all at home, having for mine own particular found my self thereby to have learned much even in that Shyre wherein I had endevoured to know most. Neverthelesse, being assured that the Inwardes of each place may best be knowen by such as reside therein, I can not but still encourage some one able man in each Shyre to undertake his owne, whereby both many good particularities will come to discoverie every where, and Master Camden him selfe may yet have greater choice wherewith to amplifie and enlarge the whole.

Thus Lambarde’s Perambulation of Kent and Camden’s Britannia could complement each other: the former, a model for a series of county studies written by dwellers in each county; the latter, a comprehensive view of the whole realm.

The emergence of such projects in Elizabethan England is not surprising. Italian and French humanists had long been writing chorographically about their countries’ historical monuments and the investigations of John Leland in England had shown that, even if it was no longer possible to believe that the founder of the nation was Brutus of Troy, there was nevertheless evidence of a distant and glorious past. A description of the country would be an affirmation of national identity based on the continuation of governance and laws, on the identification of antique origins and on the discovery of associations with the classical world. While Camden chose to give emphasis to Britain’s period as a Roman province, Lambarde was concerned with both Anglo-Saxon heritage and the present. The earlier work, Archaionomia, was a pioneering essay into Anglo-Saxon research, the significance of which was the affirmation of the antiquity and continuity of institutions since pre-conquest times. In particular, the English church could be shown to have preceded the Roman church in the nation.

The characterisation of his book as a Perambulation was apt, for it is a true chorography, in that description and history are called upon as the county is traversed topologically. The principal framework is place, and the ad hoc historical passages are incidental. This is not to say that the history is of secondary importance, but rather that it is called up in the narrative as a subsequence of location. Little of Lambarde’s history is specifically concerned with county families, so that genealogy and lineage are not prominent in this first of the county surveys in the manner which they assume in the mid-seventeenth century. Dealing firstly with the county as a whole, Lambarde gives a general description and history, with certain facts regarding administration, markets, and notable houses and institutions. He then begins his ‘perambulation’, taking the two sees of Canterbury and Rochester in turn and describing each of their important localities individually. In each of these descriptions, the main features of the place are outlined, together with relevant significant historical events or developments. Frequently these points are concerned with religious foundations, great houses, important historical figures or noteworthy royal charters, but they may also provide information about produce, for example that the Isle of Sheppey’s name derives from its abundance of sheep. Finally, in a section headed ‘The Customes of Kent’, is a discussion of the county’s unique system of land tenure, gavelkind, a topic of which the author had specialist knowledge.

In the text as a whole, Lambarde seems to have pursued as his main purpose the identification, mainly through historical accounts, of Kent as an individual county, and as a significant constituent part of the nation. It emerges principally as an administrative entity with a noble history. As for scenery and the ordinary people, there are only fleeting glimpses, yet it is nevertheless possible to sense that the author belongs this county, and has a love for it. The absence of landscape as a feature of the county suggests not that it was not noticed, nor even that it was not loved, but that it was, to sixteenth-century eyes, unremarkable. Unlike the crops, the churches, the traditions, it had no impact on the life of the people; it was simply there.

The first of the following extracts is from the general description of the county, which clearly provided guidance to later chorographical writers. He begins with a specification of the county’s location and size and a discussion of the etymology of its name. After stating how it is divided administratively, Lambarde then comments on the ‘air’ (we would now think of this more as the weather) and the ‘soil’, and then crops, stock, and other produce, and the rivers and the sea. Following this, but not included here, comes a discussion on the classes of people. These several headings under which a county could be characterised came to be used in many subsequent county descriptions. Lambarde had, of course, himself become a man of Kent, and there is a certain degree of pleasure evident as he undertakes the task of relating its features. The details of the various towns and parishes were based on the chorographical template which also became a model for county descriptions for decades to come. The extract dealing with Tenham is, however, a little different, and is offered as an example of the author describing the countryside. It was the special beauty of this part of the county, he explained, which provoked a departure from his usual approach.

The Estate of Kent

From A Perambulation of Kent, 1596, pp.8–12

Kent…, lying in the southeast region of this realme, hath on the North the river of Thamise, on the East the Sea, on the South the Sea and Sussex, and on the West Sussex and Surrey. It extendeth in length, from the West of the landes in Beckenham, called (I will not say, purposely hereof) Langley, where is the stile, as it were, over into Surrey, to the Ramsgate in the Isle of Thanet, about fiftie and three Myles: and reacheth in breadthe from the River Rother on the South of Newendene next Sussex, to the river of Thamise, at Nowrheade in the Isle of Greane, twentie sixe Miles, and somewhat more; And hath in circuit 160. Miles, or