Source: Welbeck Abbey: RCHM xxix vi 81-82
Title: Portland Manuscripts
Date: 20 April 1725
Place: Ware
At 2 o'clock in the afternoon [10 April 1725] we left Ware and came to Wimpole in five hours; where we stayed until Tuesday, April 20, on which day at 7 o'clock in the morning I attended my Lord Oxford in the coach from Wimpole towards the North, together with John Morley of Halstead, esquire, who came within few days after my Lord to Wimpole. The servants and the horses that set out with us were as follows:
Servants
| 1. Samuel Hopkins, groom of the chamber |
| 2. Edward Vaughan |
| 3. George Wailer, coachman |
| 4. Thomas Kettlewell, pad groom |
| 5. William Pluckrose, under groom |
| 6. William Nicholls, groom's boy |
| 7. William Waller, cook |
| 8. William Hewit, postilion |
| 9. Samuel Jackson, the sumpter man |
| 10. Thoreby, Mr Morley's servant |
Horses
| 6. Coach horses, two of them geldings |
| 7. Bumper, led for my Lord |
| 8. Monkey, a pad led for my Lord |
| 9. Buckskins, ditto, left at Welbeck |
| 10. A little pad mare |
| 11. Morton, pad for T. T. |
| 12. Hopkins' horse |
| 13. Frank's horse, Vaughan's |
| 14. Miller, the sumpter-horse |
| 15. Ball, Jackson's horse |
| 16. The Brampton, one-eyed pad, Kettlewell's |
| 17. Mr Morley's grey mare, Thoreby's |
We got into the Great Northern road at Coombe Grove, and went on directly through Caxton and Huntingdon, and were at the Bell at Stilton (where we baited) at half-past one, which is computed 20 miles, but as measured by the wheel instrument was 27 miles 20 poles. This place has gained great fame and reputation for its cheese, but if one were to judge by what they produced to us (and I presume they brought the best that the town affords in its present state), it is by no means deserving of that high repute, though an extravagant apologist might very properly cry it up for food for the Gods, for I verily think few human stomachs would care to devour it.
Notes:
- The Portland Manuscripts are from the Duke of Portland's estate and family archive. This travel journal was written at the time of the second Earl of Oxford, although clearly not by him.
- A sumpter-horse is a pack-horse.
- A pad-horse is an easy-paced horse for riding on the road.
- to bait: to take refreshments while on a journey
- William Pluckrose could be the son of William and Mary Pluckrose (née Tommerlin) who was christened at Great Berkhamstead on 13 December 1691. The Earl of Oxford had estates at Berkhamstead.
