| Poor sheep-hook and plain goad, she many times take, But yet the aged hill, immoderately doth rue moan; To please his amorous eye, whose like the world For, from her very youth, he (then an aged hill) none of these were the same) all Danes, had to do, and that with dominion in France, about this age; wherein it is further reported, that Robert earl of Paris (m), and in some sort a king 'twixt Charles and Rodulph, gave to certain Normans that had entered the land at Loire (they first entered there in 853) (n) all Little Bretagne and Nants; and this in 922, which agrees with that gift of the same tract to Rollo by Charles, little better than harshest discords. And so doth that of Rollo's being aided by the English king, and in league with him against the French, with another received truth: which is, that Charles was (by marriage with Edgith (0)| of the English king's loins) son-in law to Edward, and brother-in-law to Athelstan, in whose protection (p) here Lewis (afterward the sixth) was, while Rodulph of Burgundy held the crown. For that unmannerly homage also, spoken of to the fourth song by one of Rollo's knights, it is reported by Malmesbury and others, to be done by Rollo himself; and touching that Egidia, wife to Rollo, the judicious French historiographer, P. Emilius (from whom the Italian Polydore had many odd pieces of his best context) tells clearly, that she was daughter to Lothar king of Romans, {low, and given by his cousin Charles the Gross, to God-Or at the curl-fac'd bull, when venting he doth frey, king of the Normans, with Westrich (that is, Or at th' unhappy wags which let their cattle stray, Neustria) about 886, and imagines that the Nor- At nine-holes on the heath whilst they together man historians were deceived by equivocation of play, name, mistaking Charles the Simple for Charles the Gross, living near one time; as also, that they finding Egidia a king's daughter (being indeed Lothar's) supposed her Charles the Simple's. This makes me think also that of Godfrey and Rollo hath been like confusion of name. But both times, reigns and persons are so disturbed in the stories, that being insufficient to rectify the contrarieties, I leave you to the liberty of common report. (m) Frodoard. Presbyt. Annal. Franc. (n) Reicherspergens. (0) Oginia dicta P. Æmilio. (p) Membran. vetust. Cænob. Floriacens. edit. a P. Pithæo. POLY-OLBION. THE FOURTEENTH SONG. THE ARGUMENT. Her sundry strains the Muse to prove, Ar length, attain'd those lands that south of Se- All pleasure he forsakes; that at the full bagg'd cow, He never seems to smile; nor ever taketh keep Nor to the carter's tune in whistling to his team: The silent meads asleep; but, void of all delight, 2 ** Fond nymph, thy twisted curls, on which were And, till the weary Sun sunk down unto the west, Which when, most wilful nymph, thy chance shall Too late thou shalt repent thy small regard for In sundry works and trails, now shallow, and then [seat And men, first building towns, themselves did wisely Still in the bounteous vale: whose burden'd pasture bears The most abundant swathe, whose glebe such good. As to the weighty sheaf with scythe or sickle cut, Sinks him in his own sweat, which it but hardly There feed the herds of neat, by them the flocks of Seeking the scatt'red corn upon the ridges steep: Have nothing in the world upon their barren rocks, quite From every fertile place as rascals, that delight (Where full Pomona seems most plenteously to flow, [pride) And with her fruitery swells by Pershore, in her Amongst the batful meads on Severn's either side, To these their confluent floods, full bowls of perry Into the softer clay as eas'ly they do sink, brought: [fetch'd draught, | Pluck up their heavy feet, with lighter spirits, to Where, to each other's health past many a deepthink [toil, And many a sound carouse from friend to friend That autumn shall produce, to recompense their doth go. A rich and goodly crop from that unpleasant soil. And from that en ious foe whieh secks us to deprave, [clearly have, Though much against his will this good we We still are highly prais'd, and honour'd by his height, Thus whilst the mellowed earth with her own juice doth flow, For, who will us survey, their clear and judging Inflamed with excess the lusty pamper'd vale, In praise of her great self, thus frames her glorious tale; [said, "I doubt not but some vale enough for us hath | To answer them that most with baseness us upbraid; [utmost might, May see us thence at full: which else the searchThose high presumptuous hills, which bend their By reason that so flat and levelled we lie, U's only to deject, in their inveterate spite: Could never throughly view, ourselves nor could But I would have them think, that I (which am we show. "Yet more; what lofty hills to humble vallies And what high grace they have which near to us are plac'd, [brac'd the queen Of all the British vales, and so have ever been But it invales itself, and on its either side Embroider his proud bank? whilst in lascivious [owe, In Breedon may be seen, being amorously em- Yet let them wisely note, in what excessive pride He with a pleased brow continually doth smile." A hill environed on every side with the vale of Eusham. Grew insolently proud; and doth upon him take Such state, as he would but small account to make Of Malvern, or of Mein. So that the wiser vale To his instruction turns the process of her tale. "T" avoid the greater's wrath, and shun the meaner's hate," Quoth he, "take my advice, abandon idle state; And by that way I go, do thou thy course contrive: [thrive. Give others leave to vaunt, and let us closely Whilst idly but for place the lofty mountaius toil, Let us have store of grain, and quantity of soil. To what end serve their tops (that seem to threat the sky) climb, But to be rent with storms? whilst we in safety lie. green, The grisled winter's snow upon their heads is seen. Of all the hills I know, let Mein thy pattern be: Who though his site be such as seems to equal thee, And destitute of nought that Arden him can yield, Nor of th' special grace of many a goodly field; Nor of dear Clifford's seat (the place of health and sport) Wich many a time hath been the Muses' quiet port; Of whom I well may say, as I may speak of thee ; Her long and zealous speech thus Eusham doth conclude: When straight the active Muse industriously pursu'd This noble country's praise, as matter still did rise. For Glo'ster in times past herself did highly prize, When in her pride of strength she nourish'd goodly vines, §. And oft her cares repress'd with her delicious wines. But now, th' all-cheering Sun the colder soil deceives, [southward leaves: §. And us (here towards the pole) still falling his want. So that the sullen Earth th' effect thereof doth prove; [move According to their books, who hold that he doth From his first zenith's point; the cause we feel [plant But of her vines depriv'd, now Glo'ster learns to The pear-tree every where: whose fruit she strains for juice, [duce That her pur'st perry is, which first she did proFrom Wor'stershire, and there is common as the fields; [yields. Which naturally that soil in most abundance But the laborious Muse, which still new work assays, [Severn plays Here sallieth through the slades, where beauteous Until that river gets her Glo'ster's wished sight: Where she her stream divides, that with the more delight [ous proud: She might behold the town, of which she's wond'rThen takes she in the Frome, then Cam, and next the Stroud, As thence upon her course she wantonly doth strain. Supposing then herself a sea-god by her train, She Neptune-like doth float upon the bracky marsh; [and harsh, Where, lest she should become too cumbersome Fair Micklewood (a nymph, long honour'd for a chase, [grace, Contending to have stood the high'st in Severn's Of any of the Dryads there bord'ring on her shore) With her cool amorous shades, and all her sylvan store, [powers, To please the goodly flood employs her utmost Supposing the proud nymph might like her woody bowers. [strong grew, But Severn (on her way) so large and headThat she the wood-nymph scorns, and Avou doth pursue; [crown'd, A river with no less than goodly King's-wood A forest and a flood by either's fame renown'd; And each with other's pride and beauty much bewitch'd ; [rich'd. Besides, with Bristol's state both wond'rously enWhich soon to Severn sent th' report of that fair road' [load (So burdened still with barks, as it would overGreat Neptune with the weight) whose fame so far doth ring; [ing, When as that mighty flood, most bravely flourishLike Thetis' goodly self majestically glides; Upon her spacious breast tossing the surgeful tides, To have the river see the state to which she grows, And how much to her queen the beauteous Avon owes. But, noble Muse, proceed immediately to tell How Eusham's fertile vale at first in liking fell With Cotswold, that great king of shepherds : whose proud site [delight, When that fair vale first saw, so nourish'd her That him she only lov'd: for wisely she behel! The beauties clean throughout that on his surface dwell'd: Of just and equal height two banks arising, which Grew poor (as it should seem) to make some valley rich: [height, Betwixt them thrusting out an elbow of such As shrouds the lower soil; which shadowed from the light, [day Shoots forth a little grove, that in the summer's Invites the flocks, for shade that to the covert stray. [tale, A hill there holds his head, as though it told a Or stooped to look down, or whisper with a vale; Where little purling winds like wantons seem to dally, [valley, And skip from bank to bank, from valley trip to Such sundry shapes of soil where nature doth devise, That she may rather seem fantastical, than wise. T'whom Sarum's plain gives place: tho' famous for her flocks, [locks, Yet hardly doth she tithe our Coswold's wealthy Though Lemster him exceed for fineness of her ore, Yet quite he puts her down for his abundant store. A match so fit as he, contenting to her mind, Few vales (as I suppose) like Eusham happ'd to find: ? King's road. Nor any other wold, like Cotswold ever sped, So fair and rich a vale by fortuning to wed. He hath the goodly wool, and she the wealthy grain : [maintain. Through which they wisely seem their household 10 He hath pure wholesome air, and dainty crystal springs. To those delights of his, she daily profit brings : As to his large expense, she multiplies her heaps: Nor can his flocks devour th' abundance that she reaps 3 [grace. As th' one with what it hath, the other strove to And now, that every thing may in the proper place [breed Most aptly be contriv'd, the sheep our wold doth (The simplest though it seem) shall our description need, [doth speak: And shepherd-like, the Muse thus of that kind No brown, nor sullied black the face or legs doth streak, Like those of Moreland, Cank, or of the Cambrian hills, That lightly laden are: but Cotswold wisely fills Her with the whitest kind: whose brows so woolly be, As men in her fair sheep no emptiness should see. The staple deep and thick, through to the very grain, Most strongly keepeth out the violentest rain: As white as winter's snow, when from the river's His crooked horns hath crown'd; the bell-wether As none in all the flock they like themselves would have. [herd's king, But, Muse, return to tell how there the shepWhose flock hàth chanc'd that year the earliest lamb to bring, dainties stor'd: In his gay baldric sits at his low grassy board, With fawns, curds, clouted cream, and country [swain And whilst the bag-pipe plays, each lusty jocund Quaffs sillabubs in cans, to all upon the plain, And to their country girls, whose nosegays they [bear. do wear. Some roundelays do sing: the rest, the burthen But Cotswold, be this spoke to th' only praise of thee, [be, That thou of all the rest the chosen soil should'st Fair Isis to bring forth (the mother of great Thames) With whose delicious brooks, by whose immortal streams Her greatness is begun : so that our rivers' king, When he his long descent shall from his bel-sires bring, [by thee, Must needs (great pastures' prince!) derive his stem From kingly Cotswold's self, sprung of the third degree: [of yore, As th' old world's heroes wont, that in the times On Neptune, Jove, and Mars, themselves so highly bore. VOL. IV. But eas❜ly from her source as Isis gently dades ; Unto her present aid, down through the deeper slades, The nimbler-footed Churn, by Cisseter doth slide; And first at Greeklade gets pre-eminence to guide Queen Isis on her way, ere she receive her train, Clear Coln, and lively Leech, so down from Cotswold's plain [support come likewise to When, seeing the [doth cast From Cotswold Windrush scours, and with herself The train to overtake, and therefore hies her fast Through the Oxfordian fields; when (as the last of all Those floods, that into Thames out of our Cotswold [fall, And farth'st unto the north) bright Enload forth doth bear. For, though it had been long, at length she came [to hear That Isis was to Thame in wedlock to be ty'd: And therefore she prepar'd t' attend upon the bride; Expecting, at the feast, past ordinary grace. And being near of kin to that most springful place, Where out of Blockley's banks so many fountains [flow, That clean throughout his soil proud Cotswold can At Leechlade linking hands, The mother of great Thames. resort, not show The like: as though from far, his long and many [bills There emptied all their veins, wherewith those founts he fills, Which in the greatest drought so brimful still do float, Sent through the rifted rocks with such an open [throat, As though the cleves consum'd in humour; they alone, So crystalline and cold, as hard'neth stick to stone. But whilst this while we talk, the far divulged fame Of this great bridal tower'd, in Phoebus' mighty [name, Doth bid the Muse make haste, and to the bridehouse speed; Of her attendance there lest they should stand in [need. And of her cares represt with her delicious wines. day many places are styled vineyards) was of In this tract of Gloucestershire (where to this ancient time, among other fruits of a fertile soil, great store of vines, and more than in any other realm we have some: but what comes of them in place of the kingdom. Now in many parts of this the press is scarce worth respect. Long since, the emperor Probus (a), Et Gallis omnibus & Hispanis ac Britannis permisit ut vites haberent vinúmque conficerent. But Tacitus (b), before that, speak 4 | ing of this island, commends it with Solum præter | year, abridged into near his half by Copernicus, oleam vitémque & cætera callidioribus terris oriri those consequents foretold upon the change of sueta, patiens frugum, fœcundum. Long since eccentrics (g) out of one sign into another, the Probus, England had its vineyards also and some equinoctial precession, and such like; as others store of wine, as appears by that in Domesday, may their conversion of a planet's state into forUnus & parcus & VI. arpenni vinea (that is, tunate, opprest, or combust, by measuring or between five and six acres; arpent in French sig-missing their 16 scruples of Cazimi, their orbes nifying a content of ground of a hundred rods moities, and such curiosities. Neither can you square, every rod eighteen foot) & reddit XX. salve the effect of this declination, by the Sun's modios vini, si benè procedit, being recorded (c) much nearer approach to the Earth, upon that of a place by Raleigh, in Essex. This was under decrease of his eccentricity which Copernicus and William I. and since him in time of Henry I. his followers have published. For, admitting that much wine was made here in Gloucestershire (d) were true, yet judicial astrology relies more upon That now the isle enjoys not frequency of this bene aspect and beams falling on us with angles (which fit, as in old time, whether it be through the soil's are much altered by this change of obliquity in old age, and so like a woman growing sterile (as in the zodiac) than distance of every singular star another kind Tremellius (e) many hundred years from the Earth. But indeed, upon mistaking the since thought) or by reason of the Earth's change poles' altitude, and other errour in fobservation, of place, as upon difference in astronomical ob- Copernicus (h) was deceived, and in this present servations Stadius guess'd, or that some part of age the Sun's eccentricity (in Ptolemy, being the singular influence, whereon astrology hangs most, 24th of the eccentric's semidiameter, divided of inferior qualities, is altered by that slow course into 60) hath been found (i) between the 27 and (yet of great power in alteration of Heaven's sys-28 P. which is far greater than that in Copernicus, tem) of the eighth sphere (or precession of the erroneously making it but near the 31. But this is aquinoctial) or by reason of industry wanting in too heavenly a language for the common reader; the husbandman, I leave it to others' examina- and perhaps too late I leave it. tion. still falling southward leaves. jus generis sexcenta. (h) Cui, hoc nomine, gravitèr minitatus est Jul. Scalig. exercitat. 90. sect. 2. (i) Tycho Brahe in Progymnasm. POLY-OLBION. THE FIFTEENTH SONG. THE ARGUMENT. The guests here to the bride-house bie. (g) Cardan. ad 2. Tetrabibl. & de Varietat. Rer. 2. qui prophanè nimium, à motibus octavæ He alludes to the difference of the zodiac's ob- sphæræ, is scilicet, quos circa cɔ D ccc. contrario liquity from what it was of old. For, in Ptolemy's velut fieri modo supponit sacrosanctæ religionis time, about 1460 years since the utmost declina-mutationem ineptè simul & impiè prædixit, & hution of the Sun in the first of Cancer (where she is nearest to our vertical point) was 23 gr. and about 52 minut. Since that Albategni (about Charlemain's time) observed it some 15 scruples less after him near 1000 year of Christ) Arzachel found it 23 gr. 34 scr. and in this later age John of Coningsburg, and Copernicus (f), brought it to 23 gr. 28 scrup. which concords also with the Prutenic account, and as many as thence traduce their ephemerides. So that (by this calculation) about 24 minutes the Sun comes not so near our zenith, as it did in Ptolemy's time. But in truth (for in these things I account that truth, which is warranted by most accurate observation; and those learned mathematicians, by admitting of parallax and refractions, deceived themselves and posterity) the declination in this age is 23 gr. 31 scrup. and as that noble Dane, and most honoured restorer of astronomical motions, Tycho Brahe, taught us: which, although it be greater than that of Copernicus and his followers; yet is much less than what is in Ptolemy, and by two scruples different from Arzachel's, so justifying the author's conceit, supposing the cause of our climate's not now producing wines, to be the Sun's declination from us, which for every scruple answers in Earth, about one of our miles; but a far more large distance in the celestial globe. I can as well maintain this high fetched cause, being upon difference of Now fame had through this isle divulg'd in every so few minutes in one of the slowest motions (and we see that greatest effects are always attributed to them, as upon the old conceit of the Platonic (c) Cambd. in Trinobantibus. hath Sets her son (Thame) forth, brave as May, Who, deck'd up, tow'rds his bride is gone. At Oxford all the Muses meet her, ear, The long-expected day of marriage to be near, That Isis, Cotswold's heir, long woo'd, was lastly [tern's son. won, And instantly should wed with Thame, old Chil Thame arises in the vale of Aylsbury, at the foot of the Chiltern |