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seeing it is questionless that colonies anciently derived out of the Western Asia, Peloponnesus, Hellas, and those continents into the coast whence Brute came, transported the Greek with them) that profession of Grecians should make this so particular a name.

Ascrib'd to that high skill which learned Bladud brought.

You are now in Somersetshire. I doubt not but the true cause is that, which is ordinary of other hot springs; not the Sun's heat (saving the author's opinion, which hath warrant enough in others) or agitation of wind, as some will; but either passage through metallic, bituminous, and sulphurous veins, or rather a real subterranean fire, as Empedocles (x) first thought, and with most witty arguments (according to the poetical conceit of Typhon (y), buried in Prochyta; whereto Strabo refers the best baths in Italy) my learned and kind friend, Mr. Lydiat, that accurate chronologer, in his ingenious Philosophy, hath lately disputed. But, as the author tells you, some British vanity imputes it to Bladud's art, which in a very ancient fragment of rhymes (3) I found exprest: and if you can endure the language and fiction, you may read it, and then laugh at it.

Two tunne there beth of bras,
And other two imaked of glas.
Seve seats there buth inne
And ether thing imaked with ginne:
Quick brimston in them also,
With wild fier imaked thereto :
Sal gemmæ and sal petræ,
Sal armonak there is eke,
Sal albrod and sal alkine,
Sal gemmæ is minged with him,
Sal comin and sal almetre bright,
That borneth both day and night.
All this is in the tonne ido,
And other things many mo,
And borneth both night and day,
That never quench it ne may.

In vour welsprings the tonnes liggeth *,
As the philosophers us siggeth.
The hete within, the water without,

Maketh it hot ai about.

The two welsprings earneth mere,
And the other two beth inner clere.
There is maked full iwis

That king's bath icluped is.
The rich king Bladud

The king's sonne Lud,

And when he maked that bath hot,
And if him failed ought

Of that that should thereto,
Herkeneth what he would do,

From Bath to London he would flee,
And thulke day selfe againe bee,
And fetch that thereto bivel.
He was quicke, and swith fell

Tho the master was ded

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1 will as soon believe all this, as that St. Devi (a) or Julius Cæsar (6), (who never came near it) was author of it, or that he made knights of the Bath. They are not wanting which have durst say so. When on this point of earth he bends his greatest force.

From eight in the morning till three (within which time the sun-beams make their strongest angles of incidence) it purges itself (as boiling) of unclean excrements, nor then do any enter it; which the Muse here expresses in a fervent sympathy of love 'twixt the water and the Sun, and the more properly, because it had the name of Aquæ Solis (c).

With th' wonders of the isle that she should not be plac'd.

Wockey-hole (d) (so called, in my conceit, from poczd (e), which is the same with pic, signifying a hollow or creeky passage) in Mendip - hills, by Wells, for her spacious vaults, stony walls, creeping labyrinths, unimaginable cause of posture in the earth, and her neighbours' report (all which almost equal her to that grotta de la Sibylla(ƒ) in the Apennine of Marca Anconitana, and the Dutch song of little Daniel) might well wonder she had not place among her country wonders. One that seems to increase Samuel Beaulan upon Nennius, reckons thirteen by that name, but with vain and false reports (as that of the Bath to be both hot and cold, according to the desire of him that washes) and in some the author of Polychronicon follows him; neither speaking of this. But the last, and Henry of Huntingdon, reckon only four remarkable; the Peake, Stonehenge, Chedder-hole, and a hill out of which it rains, That wonder of human excellence, sir Philip Sidney, to fit his sonnet, makes six; and to fit that number conceitedly adds a froward but chaste lady for the seventh. And the author here tells you the chiefest.

-that Froom, for her disgrace, Since scarcely ever wash'd the coalsleck from her face.

Out of Mendip-hills Froom springeth, and through the coal-pits, after a short course eastward, turns upward to Bath's Avon. The fiction of her besmeared face happens the better, in that Froom, after our old mother language, signifies fair, as that paradoxal Becanus (g), in exposition of the Egyptian pyramis in Herodotus (h), would by notation teach us.

And Chedder, for mere grief, his teen he could not wreak.

Near Axbridge, Chedder-cliffs, rocky and vaulted, by continual distilling, is the fountain of a forcible stream (driving twelve mills within a mile's quarter of its head) which runs into Ax, derived out of Wockey,

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When not great Arthur's tomb, nor holy Joseph's grave.

Henry the Second, in his expedition towards Ireland, entertained by the way in Wales with bardish songs, wherein he heard it affirmed, that in Glastenbury (made almost an isle by the river's embracements) Arthur was buried betwixt two pillars, gave commandment to Henry of Blois, then abbot, to make search for the corpse: which was found in a wooden coffin (Girald saith oaken, Leland thinks alder) some sixteen foot deep; but after they had digged nine foot, they found a stone (i), on whose lower side was fixt a leaden cross (crosses fixt upon the tombs of old Christians were in all places ordinary) with his name inscribed, and the letter side of it turned to the stone. He was then honoured with a sumptuous monument, and afterward the sculls of him and his wife Guinever were taken out (to remain as separate relics and spectacles) by Edward Longshanks and Eleanor. Of this, Girald, Leland, Prise, divers others (although Polydore make slight of it) have more copious testimony. The bards' songs suppose, that after the battle of Camlan, in Cornwal, where traitorous Mordred was slain, and Arthur wounded, Morgain le Fay, a great Elfin lady (supposed his near kinswoman) conveyed the body hither to cure it: which done, Arthur is to return (yet expected) to the rule of his country. Read these attributed to the best of the bards (k), expressing as much :

-Morgain suscepit honore,

Inque suis thalamis posuit super aurea regem
Fulcra, manuque sibi detexit vulnus honestâ
Inspexitque diù: tandemque redire salutem
Posse sibi dixit, si secum tempore longo
Esset, et ipsius vellet medicamine fungi.
Englished in metre for me thus by the author:

-Morgain with honour took,
And in a chair of state doth cause him to repose;
Then with a modest hand his wounds she doth un-
[to doubt:

close,

And having search'd them well, she bade him not He should in time be cur'd, if he would stay it out, And would the med'cine take that she to him would give.

F

Worthily famous was the abbey also from Joseph of Arimathea (that Evrxnpwr Bovλnts (0), as S. Mark calls him) here buried, which gives proof of Christianity in the isle before our Lucius. Hence, in a charter of liberties by Henry the Second to the abbey (made in presence of Heraclius, patriarch of Jerusalem, and others) I read, Olim à quibusdam mater sanctorum dicta est, aliis tumulus sanctorum (p), quam ab ipsis discipulis Domini edificatam, & ab ipso Domino dedicatam primò fuisse, venerabilis habet antiquorum authoritas." It goes for current truth, that a hawthorn thereby on Christmas-day always blossometh: which the author tells you in that, "Trees yet in winter," &c. You may cast this into the account of your greatest wonders.

Embrac'd by Selwood's son, her flood the lovely Bry.

Selwood sends forth Bry, which, after a winding course from Bruton, (so called of the river) through part of Sedgemore, and Andremore, comes to Glastenbury, and almost enisles it; thence to Gedney-moor, and out of Brent-marsh into Severn. The nearest neighbouring floods to Arthur's ancient

seat.

By South-cadbury is that Camelot; a hill of a mile compass at the top, four trenches circling it, and 'twixt every of them an earthen wall; the content of it, within, about twenty acres, full of ruins and relics of old buildings. Among Roman coins there found, and other works of antiquity, Stow speaks of a silver horseshoe there digged up in the memory of our fathers: Dii boni, saith Leland, quot hic profundissimarum fossarum? quot hic egesta terræ valla? quæ demùm præcipitia? atque ut paucis finiam, videtur mihi quidem esse & Artis & Naturæ miraculum (9). Antique report makes this one of Arthur's places of his round table, as the Muse here sings. But of this more in the next canto.

(0) Noble counsellor.

(p) It was called the mother and tomb of the saints

(9) "The workmanship of the ditches, walls, and strange steepness of them, makes it seem a wonder

The same also in effect, an excellent poet of his of art and nature." time thus singing it (/) :

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To keep the English part in awe.
There's heave and shove, and hold and draw;
That Severn can them scarce divide,
Till judgment may the cause decide.

And from the largest stream unto the lesser brook. Them to this wond'rous task they seriously betook. They curl their ivory fronts; and not the smallest [neck;

beck

But with white pebbles makes her tawdries for her Lay forth their amorous breasts unto the public view,

THIS while in Sabrin's court strong factions strange- Enameling the white with veins that were as blue;

ly grew,

Since Cornwal for her own, and as her proper due, Claim'd Lundy, which was said to Cambria to belong, [wrong: Who oft had sought redress for that her ancient But her inveterate foe, borne out by England's

might, (right) O'ersways her weaker pow'r; that (now in either's As Severni finds no flood so great, nor poorly mean, But that the natural spring (her force which doth maintain) [free From this or that she takes; so from this faction (Begun about this isle) not one was like to be.

This Lundy is a nymph to idle toys inclin'd; And, all on pleasure set, doth wholly give her mind To see upon her shores her fowl and conies fed, §. And wantonly to hatch the birds of Ganymede. Of traffic or return she never taketh care; Not provident of pelf, as many islands are:

A lusty black-brow'd girl, with forehead broad and high,

That often had bewitch'd the sea-gods with her eye. Of all the inlaid isles her sovereign Severn keeps, That bathe their amorous breasts within her secret deeps [seem, (To love her Barry much and Scilly though she The Flat-holm and the Steep as likewise to esteem) This noblest British nymph 3 yet likes her Lundy best,

2

[rest.

And to great Neptune's grace prefers before her Thus, Cambria to her right that would herself

restore,

And rather than to lose Loëgria', looks for more. The nymphs of either part, whom passion doth invade, [dissuade : To trial straight will go, though Neptune should But of the weaker sex, the most part full of spleen, And only wanting strength to wreak their angry teen, For skill their challenge make, which every one profest,

And in the learned arts (of knowledges the best, And to th' heroic spirit most pleasing under sky) Sweet Music, rightly match'd with heavenly Poesy, In which they all exceed and in this kind alone They conquerors vow to be, or lastly overthrown.

Which when fair Sabrin saw (as she is wond'rous wise)

And that it were in vain them better to advise, Sith this contention sprang from countries like ally'd,

Each moor, each marsh, each mead, preparing rich array

To set their rivers forth against this general day. 'Mongst forests, hills, and floods, was ne'er such beave and shove,

Since Albion wielded arms against the son of Jove. When as the English part, their courage to declare,

Them to th' appointed place immediately prepare. A troop of stately nymphs proud Avon with her brings, [springs')

(As she that hath the charge of wise Minerva's From Mendip tripping down, about the tinny mine. And Ax*, no less employ'd about this great design,

Leads forth a lusty rout; when Bry*, with all her throng, [long)

(With very madness swoln, that she had stay'd so Comes from the boggy mears and queachy fens [show]

below:

That Parret (highly pleas'd to see the gallant Set out with such a train as bore so great a sway, The soil but scarcely serves to give her hugeness [with pearl,

way.

Then the Devonian Taw, from Dertmore deckt Unto the conflict comes with her that gallant girl §. Clear Towridge, whom they fear'd would have estrang'd her fall: [all, Whose coming, lastly, bred such courage in them As drew down many a nymph from the Cornubian shore, [ore. That paint their goodly breasts with sundry sorts of The British, that this while had stood a view to take

[make, What, to her utmost power, the public foe could But slightly weigh their strength: for, by her natural kind,

As still the Briton bears a brave and noble mind; So, trusting to their skill, and goodness of their

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That she would not be found t' incline to either To mighty Neptune sues to have his free consent Due trial they might make: when he incontinent His Tritons sendeth out the challenge to proclaim. No sooner that divulg'd in his so dreadful name, But such a shout was sent from every neighb'ring spring,

[ring:

That the report was heard through all his court to

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by pow'r.

[to lay,

S. Yet hardly upon Powse they dare their hopes For that she hath commerce with England every day; [respect; Nor Ross; for that too much she aliens doth And following them, foregoes her ancient dialect. The Venedotian floods, that ancient Britons were, The mountains kept them back, and shut them in [much worth, But Brecknock, long time known a country of Unto this conflict brings her goodly fountains forth.

the rear:

Albion, Neptune's son, warred with Hercules. 7 The baths.

* All these rivers you may see in the 3d song. • Floods of North-Wales.

For almost not a brook of Morgany, nor Gwent, But from her fruitful womb doth fetch their high descent.

For Brecan, was a prince once fortunate and great, (Who dying, lent his name to that his nobler seat) With twice twelve daughters blest, by one and only wife:

Who for their beauties rare, and sanctity of life,
To rivers were transform'd; whose pureness doth
declare

How excellent they were, by being what they are:
Who dying virgins all, and rivers now by fate,
To tell their former love to the unmarried state,
To Severn shape their course, which now their form
doth bear;

E'er she was made a flood, a virgin as they were.
And from the seas with fear they still do tly:
So much they yet delight in maiden company.
Then most renowned Wales, thou famous ancient
place,
[race,

Which still hast been the nurse of all the British
Since Nature thee denies that purple-cluster'd vine,
Which others' temples chafes with fragrant spark-
ling wine;

And being now in hand to write thy glorious praise,
Fill me a bowl of meath, my working spirit to raise:
And e'er seven books have end, I'll strike so high
a string,
[I sing;
Thy bards shall stand amaz'd with wonder, whilst
That Taliessen, once which made the rivers

dance,
[trance,
And in his rapture rais'd the mountains from their |
Shall tremble at my verse, rebounding from the
skies;
[in he lies.
Which like an earthquake shakes the tomb where-
First our triumphing Muse of sprightly Usk shall
tell,

And what to every nymph attending her, befel:
Which Cray and Camlas first for pages doth retain,
With whom the next in place comes in the tripping
Brean,
[clear;
With Isker, and with her comes Hodny fine and
Of Brecknock best belov'd, the sovereign of the
shire:

And Grony, at an inch, waits on her mistress' heels.
But ent ring (at the last) the Monumethian fields,
Small Fidan, with Cledaugh, increase her goodly
Menie,

[geny.

Short Kebby, and the brook that christ'neth Aber-
With all her wat'ry train, when now at last she

came

meet her;

Unto that happy town which bears her only name",
Bright Birthin, with her friend, fair Olwy, kindly
[to greet her;
Which for her present haste, have scarcely time
But earnest on her way, she needsly will be gone:
So much she longs to see the ancient Caerleon.
When Avon cometh in, than which amongst them
A finer is not found betwixt her head and fall. [all,
Then Ebwith, and with her slides Srowy, which
forelay
[sea.
Her progress, and for Usk keep entrance to the
When Munno, all this while, that (for her own
behoof)
[aloof,

From this their great recourse had strangely stood

Glamorgan and Monmouthshires.

10 A supposed metamorphosis of Breean's daugh

ters.

"Monmouth.

Made proud by Monmouth's name appointed her
by fate,

Of all the rest herein observed special state.
For once the bards foretold she should produce a
king",
(bring,
Which everlasting praise to her great name should
Who by his conquering sword should all the land
surprise,
[lies:

Which 'twixt the Penmenmaur 13 and the Pyreni
She therefore is allow'd her leisure; and by her
They win the goodly Wye, whom strongly she doth
stir
[deny'd,
Her powerful help to lend: which else she had
| Because herself so oft to England she ally'd :
But b'ing by Munno made for Wales, away she
[throws
Which when as Throggy sees, herself she headlong
luto the wat'ry throng, with many another rill,
Repairing to the Welch, their number up to till.
That Remny, when she saw these gallant nymphs
of Gwent,

goes,

On this appointed match were all so hotly bent,
Where she of ancient time had parted, as a mound,
The Monumethian fields and Glamorganian ground,
Entreats the Taff along, as gray as any glass:
With whom clear Cunno comes, a lusty Cambrian
lass:

Then Elwy, and with her Ewenny holds her way,
And Ogmore, that would yet be there as soon as
they,

By Avon called in: when nimbler Neath anon
(To all the neighbouring nymphs for her rare beau-
ties known;

[hath
Besides her double head, to help her stream that
Her handmaids, Melta sweet, clear Hepsey, and
Tagrath)
[Cledaugh,
From Brecknock forth doth break; then Dulas and
By Morgany do drive her through her watry
saugh 16;
[power:
With Tawy, taking part t' assist the Cambrian
§. Then Lhu and Logor, given to strengthen them
by Gower.

'Mongst whom, some bards there were, that in their sacred rage

Recorded the descents, and acts of every age. Some with their nimbler joints that struck the warbling string;

In fingering some unskill'd, but only us❜d to sing
Unto the others' harp: of which you both might
find

Great plenty, and of both excelling in their kind,
§. That at the Stethva oft obtain’d a victor's praise,
Had won the silver harp, and worn Apollo's bays:
Whose verses they deduc'd from those first golden
times,

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Se varying still their moods, observing yet in all
Their quantities, their rests, their ceasures metrical:
For to that sacred skill they most themselves apply;
Addicted from their births so much to poësy,
That in the mountains those who scarce have seen
a book,
[took.
Most skilfully will make 1, as though from art they
And as Loegria spares not any thing of worth,
That any way might set her goodly rivers forth;
As stones by nature cut from the Cornubian strond;
Her Dertmore sends them pearl; Rock-vincent,
diamond:

So Cambria, of her nymphs especial care will have;
For Conway sends them pearl to make them
wond'rous brave;
[rare,
The sacred virgin's well ", her moss most sweet and
Against infectious damps for pomander to wear:
And Goldcliff20 of his ore in plenteous sort allows,
To spangle their attires, and deck their amorous
brows.
[priz'd,
And lastly, holy Dee (whose pray'rs were highly
As one in heavenly things devoutly exercis'd:
Who, changing "1 of his fords, by divination had
Foretold the neighbouring folk of fortune good or

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bad)

In their intended course sith needs they will proceed,
His benediction sends in way of happy speed.
And tho' there were such haste unto this long-
look'd hour,

Yet let they not to call upon th' eternal pow'r.
For, who will have his work his wished end to win,
Let him with hearty pray'r religiously begin.
Wherefore the English part, with full devout intent,
In meet and godly sort to Glastenbury sent,
Beseeching of the saints in Avalon that were,
There off'ring at their tombs for every one a tear,
§. And humbly to St. George their country's patron

pray,

To prosper their design now in this mighty day.

The Britons, like de vout, their messengers direct To David, that he would their ancient right protect. "Mongst Hatterill's lofty hills, that with the clouds are crown'd, [round, The valley Ewias 22 lies, immur'd so deep and As they below that see the mountains rise so high, Might think the straggling herds were grazing in

the sky:

Which in it such a shape of solitude doth bear,
As Nature at the first appointed it for pray'r:
Where, in an aged cell, with moss and ivy grown,
In which not to this day the Sun hath ever shone,
That reverend British saint in zealous ages past,
To contemplation liv'd; and did so truly fast,
As he did only drink what crystal Hodney yields,
And fed upon the leeks he gather'd in the fields.
In memory of whom, in the revolving year
The Welchmen on his day that sacred herb do

wear:

[crave, Where, of that holy man, as humbly they do That in their just defence they might his furth'rance have. [fore,

Thus either, well prepar'd the other's power beConveniently b'ing plac'd upon their equal shore;

18 A word, used by the ancients, signifying to versify.

19 Saint Winifrid's well.

20 A glist'ring rock in Monmouthshire.

21 See the eighth song.

22 In Monmouthshire.

The Britons, to whose lot the onset doth belong,
Give signal to the foe for silence to their song.
To tell each various strain and turning of their

rhymes,

[climbs, How this in compass falls, or that in sharpness (As where they rest and rise, how take it one from As every several chord hath a peculiar tone) [one, Even memory herself, though striving, would conie short:

But the material things, Muse, help me to report. As first, t' affront the foe, in th' ancient Britons' right, [knight; With Arthur they begin, their most renowned The richness of the arms their well-made worthy" wore,

The temper of his sword (the try'd Escalabour) The bigness and the length of Rone, his noble spear; [could bear; With Pridwin his great shield, and what the proof His baudric how adorn'd with stones of wond'rous price,

§. The sacred virgin's shape he bore for his device; These monuments of worth, the ancient Britons [but too long.

song.

Now, doubting lest these things might hold them His wars they took to task; the land then over-laid With those proud German pow'rs: when, calling to his aid

His kinsman Howel, brought from Britany the less, Their armies they unite, both swearing to suppress The Saxon, here that sought through conquest all On whom he chane'd to light at Lincoln: where [the plain Each-where from side to side lay scatter'd with the dead. [fled,

to gain.

And when the conquer'd foe, that from the conflict
Betook them to the woods, he never left them there,
Until the British earth he forc'd them to forswear.
And as his actions rose, so raise they still their vein
In words, whose weight best suit a sublimated
[that day,

strain.

§. They sung how he, himself at Badon bore When at the glorious gole his British sceptre lay: Two days together how the battle strongly stood: Pendragon's worthy son, who waded there in

blood,

[hand, Three hundred Saxons slew with his own valiant And (after call'd, the Pict and Irish to with

stand)

How he, by force of arms Albania over-ran, Pursuing of the Pict beyond mount Caledon : There strongly shut them up whom stoutly he subdu'd.

How Gillamore again to Ireland he pursu'd, So oft as he presum'd the envious Pict to aid: And having slain the king, the country waste he laid. [forth

To Goth-land how again this conqu❜ror maketh With his so prosp'rous pow'rs into the farthest

north:

Where, Ireland first he won, and Orkney after got.

By deadly dint of sword did Ricoll there defeat: To Norway sailing next with his dear nephew Lot, And having plac'd the prince on that Norwegian seat, [trol:

How this courageous king did Denmark then conThat scarcely there was found a country to the pole

23 Arthur, one of the nine worthies. 24 King Arthur.

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