Sir,
I find so much left to speak of, and so many things to say in every part
of England, that my journey cannot be barren of intelligence which way
soever I turn; no, though I were to oblige myself to say nothing of
anything that had been spoken of before.
I intended once to have gone due west this journey; but then I should
have been obliged to crowd my observations so close (to bring Hampton
Court, Windsor, Blenheim, Oxford, the Bath and Bristol all into one letter;
all those remarkable places lying in a line, as it were, in one point of the
compass) as to have made my letter too long, or my observations too light
and superficial, as others have done before me.
This letter will divide the weighty task, and consequently make it sit
lighter on the memory, be pleasanter to the reader, and make my progress
the more regular: I shall therefore take in Hampton Court and Windsor
in this journey; the first at my setting out, and the last at my return, and the
rest as their situation demands.