14, whose

Forewarn'd them to desist, and off their purpose | Did much applaud her speech (as Haradon14, brake;

When in behalf of plains thus gloriously she spake: "Away 12 ye barb'rous woods; however ye be plac'd

On mountains or in dales, or happily be grac'd With floods, or marshy fells 13, with pasture, or with earth

By nature made to till, that by the yearly birth
The large-bay'd barn doth fill, yea though the
fruitfull'st ground.

For, in respect of plains, what pleasure can be found
In dark and sleepy shades? where mists and rotteu
fogs
[bogs,
Hang in the gloomy thicks, and make unstedfast
By dropping from the boughs, the o'er-grown trees

among,

With caterpillars kells, and dusky cobwebs hong. "The deadly screech-owl sits, in gloomy covert hid :

[bid
Whereas the smooth-brow'd plain, as liberally doth
The lark to leave her bow'r, and on her trembling
wing
[hymns to sing
In climbing up tow'rds Heaven, her high-pitcht
Unto the springing day; when 'gainst the Sun's arise
The early dawning strews the goodly eastern skies
With roses every where: who scarcely lifts his head
To view this upper world, but he his beams doth
spread

Upon the goodly plains; yet at his noonsted's height,
Doth scarcely pierce the brake with his far-shooting
sight.
[sheep:

head

Old Ambry still doth awe, and Bagden from his sted,
Surveying of the Vies, whose likings do allure
Both Ouldbry and Saint Ann; and they again
[aloof,

procure

Mount Marting-sall: and he those hills that stand
Those brothers Barbury and Badbury, whose proof
Adds much unto her praise) yet in most high dis-
dain

Plain
The forests take her words, and swear the prating
Grown old, began to doat: and Savernake so much
Is galled with her taunts (whom they so nearly
touch)

That she in spiteful terms defles her to her face;
And Aldburn with the rest, though being but a
chase,
[afloat

At worse than nought her sets: but Bradon all
When it was told to her set open such a throat,
That all the country rang. She calls her barren
jade,
[be made

Base quean, and rivel'd witch, and wish'd she could
But worthy of her hate, (which most of all her
grieves)

The basest beggar's bawd, a harbourer of thieves.
Then Peushain, and with her old Blackinoor (not
behind)
[wind,
Do wish that from the seas some sultry southern
The foul infectious damps and poison'd airs would
sweep,
[sheep.
And pour them on the Plain, to rot her and her
But whilst the sportive Muse delights her with

these things,

She strangely taken is with those delicious springs
Of Kennet rising here, and of the nobler stream
Of Isis, setting forth upon her way to Tame,

"The gentle shepherds here survey their gentler Amongst the bushy woods luxurious satyrs keep. To these brave sports of field, who with desire is won, To see his grey-hound course, his horse (in diet) run, His deep-inouth'd hound to hunt, his long-wing'd§. By Greeklade; whose great name yet vaunts

hawk to fly.

To these most noble sports his mind who doth apply,
Resorts unto the plains. And not a foughten field,
Where kingdoms rights bave lain upon the spear
and shield,
[phies high,
But plains have been the place; and all those tro-
That ancient times have rear'd to noble memory:
As, Stonendge, that to tell the British princes slain
By those false Saxons' fraud, here ever shall remain.
It was upon the plain of Mamre (to the fame

Of me and all our kind) whereas the angels came
To Abraham in his tent, and there with him did
feed;

an age,

To Sara his dear wife then promising the seed,
By whom all nations should so highly honour'd be,
In which the Son of God they in the flesh should see.
But forests, to your plague there soon will come
[rage.
In which all damned sins most vehemently shall
An age! what have I said? nay ages there shall rise,
So senseless of the good of their posterities,
That of your greatest groves they scarce shall leave
a tree,

(By which the harmless deer may after shelter'd be)
Their luxury and pride but only to maintain,
And for your long excess shall turn ye all to pain."
Thus ending; though some hills themselves that

that learned tongue,

[song; Where to Great Britain first the sacred Muses Which first were seated here, at Isis' bounteous head, [be spread; As telling that her fame should through the world. And tempted by this flood, to Oxford after came, There likewise to delight her bridegroom, lovely [adore,

Tame:

Whose beauty when they saw, so much they did That Greeklade they forsook, and would go back [source:

no more.

Then Bradon gently brings forth Avon from her Which southward making soon in her most quiet course,

Recives the gentle Calne: when on her rising side,
First Blackmoor crowns her bank, as Peusham
with her pride
[the West)

Sets out her murmuring sholes, till (turning to
Her, Somerset receives, with all the bounties blest
That Nature can produce in that Bathonian spring,
Which from the sulph'ry mines her med'cinal force

doth bring;

[smell, As physic hath found out by colour, taste, and Which taught the world at first the virtue of that well; [ledge drew

What quickliest it could cure: which men of knowFrom that first mineral cause: but some that little knew

(Yet felt the great effects continually it wrought) S. Ascrib'd it to that skill, which Bladud hither brought,

14 Divers hills near and about Salisbury Plain.

Doth lend the lively springs their perdurable heat In passing through the veins, where matter doth not need;

[breed: Which in that minerous earth insep'rably doth | So Nature hath purvey'd, that during all her reign The baths their native power for ever shall retain: Where time that city built, which to her greater fame,

Preserving of that spring, participates her name ; The tutelage whereof (as those past worlds did please)

To whom didst thou commit that monument to
keep,
[sleep?
That suffereth with the dead their memory to
§. When not great Arthur's tomb, nor holy
Joseph's grave 27,

[save; From sacrilege had power their sacred bones to He who that God in man to his sepulchre brought, Or he which for the faith twelve famous battles fought.

What! did so many kings do honour to that place,
For avarice at last so vilely to deface?

The lean and hungry earth, the fat and marly mould,
Where sands be always hot, and where the clays
be cold;
[with want;
With plenty where they waste, some others touch'd
Here set, and there they sow; here prune and
there they plant.
[resort,
As Wiltshire is a place best pleas'd with that
Which spend away the time continually in sport;
So Somerset herself to profit doth apply,
As given all to gain, and thriving housewifery.
For, whereas in a land one doth consume and waste,
'Tis fit another be to gather in as fast:
Tois liketh moory plots, delights in sedgy bowers,
The grassy garlands loves, and oft attir'd with
flowers
[wool,
Of rank and mellow glebe; a swerd as soft as
With her complexion strong, a belly plump and full.
Thus whilst the active Muse strains out these
[teous springs
Clear Parret makes approach, with all those plen
Her fruitful banks that bless; by whose monarchal

various things,

For reverence, to that seat which had ascribed been, Trees yet in winter bloom 28, and bear their summer's green." [cast, This said, she many a sigh from her full stomach Which issued thro' her breast in many a boist'rous blast; [condole, And with such floods of tears her sorrows doth As into rivers turn within that darksome hole. Like sorrow for herself, this goodly isle doth try; §. Embrac'd by Selwood's son, her flood the lovely Bry, [was) On whom the Fates bestow'd (when he conceived She fortifies herself against that mighty day, He should be much belov'd of many a dainty lass; | Wherein her utmost power she should be forc'd to Who gives all leave to like, yet of them liketh try: But his affection sets on beauteous Avalon; [none, For, from the Druids' time there was a prophecy, Though many a plump-thigh'd moor, and full- That there should come a day (which now was near flank'd marsh do prove at hand [strand,

To force his chaste desires, so dainty of his love.
First Sedgmore 29 shows this flood, her bosom all
unbrac'd,

And casts her wanton arms about his slender waist:
Her lover to obtain, so amorous Audry secks:
And Gedney softly steals sweet kisses from his

cheeks.

One takes him by the hand, entreating him to stay;)
Another plucks him back, when he would fain away?
But, having caught at length, whom long he did

pursue,

Is so entranc'd with love, her goodly parts to view,
That alt'ring quite his shape, to her he doth appear,
And casts his crystal self into an ample meer;
But for his greater growth when needs he must de-
part,
[heart)
And forc'd to leave his love (tho' with a heavy
As he his back doth turn, and his departing out,
The batt'ning marshy Brent environs him about;
But loathing her embrace, away in haste he flings,
And in the Severn sea surrounds his plenteous
springs.
[thou dwell,

But, dallying in this place so long, why dost
So many sundry things here having yet to tell?
Occasion calls the Muse her pinions to prepare,
Which (striking with the wind the vast and open
air)
[roves,
Now in the fenny heaths, then in the champains
Now measures out this plain, and then surveys
[mound,

those groves; The batful pastures fenc'd, and most with quickset The sundry sorts of soil, diverity of ground; Where ploughmen cleanse the earth of rubbish, weed, and filth, [tilth; And give the fallow lands their seasons and their Where best for breeding horse, where cattle fitt'st to keep, [sheep: Which good for bearing corn, which pasturing for

27 Joseph of Arimathea.

28 The wondrous tree at Glastenbury.
39 Fruitful moors upon the banks of the Bry.
VOL. IV.

sway

By all fore-running signs) that on the eastern
If Parret 30 stood not fast upon the English side,
They all should be supprest: and by the British
pride

In cunning over-come; for why, impartial fate
(Yet constant always to the Britons' crazed state)
Forbade they yet should fall, by whom she meant

to show

[owe

How much the present age, and after-times should
Unto the line of Brute. Clear Parret therefore press'd
Her tributary streams, and wholly her address'd
Against the antient foe; first, calling to her aid
Two rivers of one name ", which seem as tho' they
stay'd
[take:
Their empress as she went, her either hand that
The first upon the right, as from her source, doth

make

Large Muchelney an isle, and unto Ivel lends
Her hardly-rendered name : that on her left, de-
scends
[that forest born,
From Neroch's neighbouring woods; which, of
Her rival's proffer'd grace opprobriously doth scorn.
She by her wand'ring course doth Athelney in-isle,
And for the greater state, herself she doth instile
§. The nearest neighbouring flood to Arthur's an-
tient seat,
[so great.
Which made the Britons' name thro' all the world
Like Camelot, what place was ever yet renown'd?
Where, as at Caerleon oft, he kept the table round,
Most famous for the sports at Pentecost so long,
From whence all knightly deeds, and brave
achievements sprung.

As some soft-sliding rill, which from a lesser bead
(Yet in his going forth, by many a fountain fed)
Extends itself at length unto a goodly stream:
So, almost thro' the world his fame flow from this
realm;
[wrong,
That justly I may charg those ancient bards of
So idly to neglect his glory in their song:

30 A supposed prophesy upon Parret.

21 Ivel;

nated,

from which the town Ivel is denomi

fail me not) or that which the Jews (i) are not ashamed to affirm of a stone, with which king Og, at one throw from his head, purposed to have crushed all the Israelites, had not a lapwing strangely peckt such a hole through it, that it fell on his shoulders, and by miracle his upperteeth, suddenly extended, kept it there fast from motion. It is possible they may be of some such earthy dust as that of Puzzolo, and by Etna, which cast into water turns stony, as Pliny after Strabo of them and other like remembers. And for certain I find it reported (k), that in Caernarvon, upon Snowdon hills, is a stone (which miraculously, somewhat more than sixty years since, raised itself out of a lake at the hill's foot) equalling a large house in greatness, and supposed not moveable by a thousand yoke of oxen. for the form of bringing them, your opinion may take freedom. That great one, which Hercules (1) is wondered at for the carriage, was but a cartload (m), which he left for a monument in Otranto, of Italy and except Geffrey of Monmouth, with some which follow him, scarce any affirm or speak of it, nor Nennius, nor Malmesbury; the first living somewhat near the supposed time.

Betwixt the Mercian rule and the West-Saxons' reign.

So thinks our antiquary and light of this king. dom; that, to be a limit of those two ancient states, sometime divided by Avon, which falls into Severn, Wansdike crossing the shire westward over the pla was first cast up. Wodensdike, the old name, is supposed from Woden; of no less (if not greater) esteem to the Saxons, than Arsaces, Pelops, Cadmus, and other such to their posterity; but so that, i guess, it went but for their greatest god Mercury (he is called rather Wonden from Win, that is, gain, by (n) Lipsius) as the German and English antiquities discover. And very likely, when this limit was made, that in honour of him being by name president of ways, and by his office of heraldship pacifex, i. e. peacemaker, as an old stamp titles him, they called it Wodensdike; as not only the Greeks (0) had their Εἶμαι εἰνόδιοι τετραγλωχίνες (statues erected) for limits and direction of ways; and the Latins their Terminus, but the ancient Jews also, as upon interpretation of 75 (p) in the Proverbs, i. e. into an heap of Mercury, (in the vulgar) for a heap of stones in that sense, Goropins in his hieroglyphics affirms, somewhat boldly deriving Mercury from Merc, which signifies a limit in his and our tongue, and so fits this place in name and nature. Stonehenge and it not improperly contend, being several works of two several nations anciently hateful to each other; Britons and Saxons.

To hear two crystal floods to court her, which apply.

Willibourne (by the old name the author calls her Willy) derived from near Selwood by War

(1) Apud Munster. ad Deuter. 3. If among them there be a whetstone, let the Jew have it.

(k) Powel ad lib. 2. cap. 5. Girald. itinerarii. (4) Aristot. rig! luvy. ancoμ. (1) ̔Αμαζαίος. (n) Ad Germ. Tacit. Woden or Wonden. (0) Inmunrall, Sax. Mercury, Adam Bremens, cap.5. And hence Irmingstreate. Pausan. sæpius, & Theocrit. íò, xer. (p) Proverb. 26, v. 8.

mister, with her creeky passage crossing to Wilton, naming both that town and the shire, and on the other side Avon taking her course out of Savernak, by Marlborow, through the shire southward, washing Ambresbury and the Salisburies, (new Salisbury being her episcopal city) both watering the plain, and furnished with these reasons, are fitly thus personated, striving to endear themselves in her love: and, prosecuting this fiction, the Muse thus adds:.

How that Bath's Avon wax'd imperious through her fame.

Divers rivers of that name have we; but two of eminent note in Wiltshire: one is next before showed you, which falls through Dorset into the ocean; the other here mentioned hath her head in the edge of Glocester: åd with her snaky course visiting Malmesbury, Chippenham, BradSomerset, passes Bath, and casts herself into the ford, and divers towns of slight note, turns into (whose proportionate example is a special elegancy Severn at Bristol. This compendious coutention for the expressing of diversity, as in the pastorals of Theocritus and Virgil) is aptly concluded with that point of ancient politic observation (g), that "Outward common fear is the surest band of friendship."

To Greeklake, whose great name yet vaunts that leamed tongue.

The history of Oxford in the proctors' book, and certain old verses'(), kept somewhere in this tract, affirm, that with Brute can.e hither certain Greek philosophers, from whose nan.e and profession here it was thus called, and as an university afterward translated to Oxford (upon like notation a company of physicians retiring to Lechlade (s) in this shire, gave that its title, as J Rous adds in his story to Henry the Seventh.) But Godwin, and a very old anonymus cited by Br. Twine, refer it to Theodore of Tarsus, in Cilicia, (made archbishop of Canterbury by pope Vitalian, under Egbert, king of Kent) very skilful in both tongues, and an extraordinary restorer of learning to the English Saxons. That he had (among other) Greek schools, is certain by Bede's affirmation, that some of his scholars understood both Greek and Latin as their mother language. Richard of the Vies () will that Penda, king of Mercland, first deduced a colony of Cambridg-mea hither, and calls it Crekelade, as other Kirklade, with variety of names: but I suspect all, as well for omission of it in the best authorities, as also that the name is so different in itself. Grecolade was never honoured with Greek schools, as the ignorant multitude think, saith Leland (u), affirmning it should be rather Croclade, Lechelade, or Lathlade. Nor methinks (of all) stands it with the British story, making the tongue then a kind of Greck (a matter, that way reasonable enough,

(4) In Thucydid. & Liv.

() Leland. ad cyg cant. in Iside.
() i. e. The physicians' lake.

(1) Apud Cai de antiq. Cantabrig. lib. 2. & Cod. Nig. Cantabr. apud aut. assert, antiq. Oxon.

(u) Ad Cyg. Cant. in Iside & Isid. vad Curvus Græcus sermo Britannicus. Galfred. Monumeth. lib. 1.