And the still Darent, in whose waters cleane Ten thousand fishes play and decke his pleasant
30 Then came his neighbour flouds which nigh him
And water all the English soile throughout;
They all on him this day attended well,
And with meet service waited him about;
Ne none disdained low to him to lout1:
No, not the stately Severne grudg'd at all,
Ne storming Humber, though he looked stout;
But both him honor'd as their principall,
And let their swelling waters low before him fall.
31 There was the speedy Tamar, which devides
The Cornish and the Devonish confines;
Through both whose borders swiftly downe it glides,
And, meeting Plim, to Plimmouth thence declines:
And Dart, nigh chockt with sands of tinny mines:
But Avon marched in more stately path,
Proud of his adamants 2 with which he shines
And glisters wide, as als of wondrous Bath,
And Bristow faire, which on his waves he builded hath.
32 And there came Stoure with terrible aspéct,
Bearing his sixe deformed heads on hye,
That doth his course through Blandford plains di
And washeth Winborne meades in season drye.
2 Adamants, Bristol diamonds.
Next him went Wylibourne with passage slye,
That of his wylinesse his name doth take,
And of himselfe doth name the shire thereby: And Mole, that like a nousling1 mole doth make His way still under ground till Thamis he overtake.
33 Then came the Rother, decked all with woods
Like a wood-god, and flowing fast to Rhy;
And Sture, that parteth with his pleasant floods
The easterne Saxons from the southerne ny,
And Clare and Harwitch both doth beautify:
Him follow'd Yar, soft washing Norwitch wall,
And with him brought a present ioyfully
Of his owne fish unto their festivall,
Whose like none else could shew, the which they ruffins call.
34 Next these the plenteous Ouse came far from land,
By many a city and by many a towne,
And many rivers taking under-hand
Into his waters, as he passeth downe,
The Cle, the Were, the Grant, the Sture, the Rowne,
Thence doth by Huntingdon and Cambridge flit,
My mother Cambridge, whom as with a crowne
He doth adorne, and is adorn'd of it
With many a gentle muse and many a learned wit.
85 And after him the fatall Welland went,
That, if old sawes prove true, (which God forbid!) 1 Nousling, burrowing (making its way with its nozle).
XXXV. 2.- Old sawes.] A pretended prophecy of Merlin.
Shall drowne all Holland with his excrement, And shall see Stamford, though now homely hid, Then shine in learning more then ever did Cambridge or Oxford, Englands goodly beames. And next to him the Nene downe softly slid; And bounteous Trent, that in himselfe enseames1 Both thirty sorts of fish and thirty sundry streames.
36 Next these came Tyne, along whose stony bancke
That Romaine monarch built a brasen wall,
Which mote the feebled Britons strongly flancke
Against the Picts that swarmed over all,
Which yet thereof Gualsever they doe call:
And Twede, the limit betwixt Logris land 3
And Albany and Eden, though but small,
Yet often stainde with bloud of many a band
Of Scots and English both, that tyned on his strand,
37 Then came those sixe sad brethren, like forlorne,
That whilome were, as antique fathers tell,
Sixe valiant knights, of one faire nymphe yborne,
Which did in noble deedes of armes excell,
And wonned there where now Yorke people dwell; Still Ure, swift Werfe, and Oze the most of might,
1 Enseames, incloses.
2 Gualsever, wall of Severus. 8 Logris land, England.
XXXV. 3. - Holland.] "The Welland rises in Rutlandshire, and, passing by Stamford, runs into Lincolnshire, and empties it self into the sea near the southeast part of the county, which is called Holland.". CHURCH.
High Swale, unquiet Nide, and troublous Skell; All whom a Scythian king, that Humber hight, Slew cruelly, and in the river drowned quight.
88 But past not long, ere Brutus warlicke sonne
Locrinus them aveng'd, and the same date1
Which the proud Humber unto them had donne,
By equall dome2 repayd on his owne pate:
For in the selfe same river, where he late
Had drenched them, he drowned him againe ;
And nam'd the river of his wretched fate;
Whose bad condition yet it doth retaine,
Oft tossed with his stormes which therein still remaine.
39 These after came the stony shallow Lone,
That to old Loncaster his name doth lend:
And following Dee, which Britons long ygone
Did call divine, that doth by Chester tend;
And Conway, which out of his streame doth send
Plenty of pearles to decke his dames withall;
And Lindus, that his pikes doth most commend,
Of which the auncient Lincolne men doe call:
All these together marched toward Proteus hall.
40 Ne thence the Irishe rivers absent were:
Sith no lesse famous then the rest they bee,
And ioyne in neighbourhood of kingdome nere,
Why should they not likewise in love agree,
And ioy likewise this solemne day to see?
1 Date, debt.
2 Dome, doom.
8 Drenched, drowned
4 Condition, quality.
They saw it all, and present were in place; Though I them all, according1 their degree, Cannot recount, nor tell their hidden race, Nor read the salvage cuntreis thorough which they pace.
11 There was the Liffy, rolling downe the lea;
The sandy Slane, the stony Aubrian ;
The spacious Shenan, spreading like a sea;
The pleasant Boyne; the fishy fruitfull Ban;
Swift Awniduff, which of the English man
Is cal'de Blacke-water; and the Liffar deep;
Sad Trowis, that once his people over-ran;
Strong Allo, tombling from Slewlogher steep;
And Mulla mine, whose waves I whilom taught to
weep.
12 And there the three renowmed brethren were,
Which that great gyant Blomius begot
Of the faire nimph Rheüsa wandring there:
One day, as she to shunne the season whot
Under Slewbloome in shady grove was got,
This gyant found her and by force deflowr'd;
Whereof conceiving, she in time forth brought
These three faire sons, which, being thenceforth
powrd,
In three great rivers ran, and many countreis scowrd.
1 According, according to.
"Sometimes Spenser confounds the Blackwater with the Allo, which 'ast river does not run near Slieve-logher mountains." Smith, Hist. of Cork, II. 256. — The Mulla is the Awbeg. C.
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