Upon this joyful day, some dainty chaplets twine: Some others chosen out, with fingers neat and fine, Brave anadems do make: some bauldricks up do bind: [sign'd Some, garlands; and to some the nosegays were asAs best their skill did serve. But for that Tame should be Still man-like as himself, therefore they will that he Should not be drest with flowers to gardens that belong, (His bride that better fit) but only such as sprung From the replenish'd meads, and fruitful pastures near. To sort which flowers, some sit; some making garlands were; The primrose placing first, because that in the spring Amongst those things of scent, there prick they in The cowslip then they couch, and th' oxlip, for her meet: The columbine amongst they sparingly do set, The daisy, over all those sundry sweets so thick, And for their scent not ill, they for this purpose Thus having told you how the bridegroom Tame was drest, I'll shew you how the bride, fair Isis, they invest; (So of his colour call'd, although a July-flower) With th' other of his kind, the speckled and the pale: [gale Then th' odoriferous pink, that sends forth such a these Some lavender they put, with rosemary and bays: Sweet marjoram, with her like, sweet basil rare for smell, [to tell: With many a flower, whose name were now too long And rarely with the rest, the goodly flour-de-lis. Thus for the nuptial hour, all fitted point-device, Whilst some still busied are in decking of the bride, Some others were again as seriously employ'd In strewing of those herbs, at bridals us'd that be; Which every where they throw with bounteous hands and free. [do fly, The healthful balm and mint, from their full laps The scentful camomile, the ven'rous costmary; They hot muscado oil with milder maudlin cast; Strong tansey, fennel cool, they prodigally waste: Clear hysop, and therewith the comfortable thyme, Germander with the rest, each thing then in her [flower, prime; As well of wholesome herbs, as every pleasant Which nature here produc'd, to fit this happy hour. Amongst these strewing kinds, some other wild that grow, As burnet, all abroad, and meadow-wort they throw. Thus all things falling out to every one's desire, The ceremonies done that marriage doth require, The bride and bridegroom set, and serv'd with sundry cates, And every other plac'd as fitted their estates; Amongst this confluence great, wise Charwell here was thought The fitt'st to cheer the guests; who thoroughly had been taught In all that could pertain to courtship, long agon, As coming from his sire, the fruitful Helidon, [towns He travelleth to Tames; where passing by those Of that rich country near, whereas the mirthful clowns, With tabor and the pipe, on holidays do use, Upon the may-pole green, to trample out their shoes: And having in his ears the deep and solemn rings, Which found him all the way, unto the learned springs, [meet, Where he his sovereign Ouze most happily doth And him, the thrice-three maids, Apollo's offspring, greet With all their sacred gifts; thus, expert being grown An alien be he born, or near to her own spring, tow'rs. Where is there haven found, or harbour, like that "But with our fame at home return we to proceed. In Britain here we find, our Severn, and our Tweed, The tripartited isle do generally divide, [side. To England, Scotland, Wales, as each doth keep her Trent cuts the land in two so equally, as tho' Nature it pointed-out, to our great Brute to shew How to his mighty sons the island he might share; A thousand of this kind, and nearer, I will spare; Where, if the state of floods at large I list to shew, I proudly could report how Pactolus doth throw Up grains of perfect gold; and of great Ganges tell, Which when full India's showers enforceth him to swell, [shore: Amongst his holts and hills, as on his way he makes, stream pursue Himself establish'd sees amidst his wat'ry realm, His much-lov'd Henly leaves, and prouder doth [view. His wood-nymph Windsor's seat, her lovely site to Whose most delightful face when once the river sees, Which shews herself attir'd in tall and stately trees, He in such earnest love with amorous gestures woes, That looking still at her, his way was like to lose; And wand'ring in and out, so wildly seems to go, As headlong he himself into her lap would throw. Him with the like desire the forest doth embrace, And with her presence strives her Tames as much to grace. No forest, of them all, so fit as she doth stand, When princes, for their sports, her pleasures will command; [seen, No wood-nymph as herself such troops had ever To that supremest place of the great English kings, The temple of St. George, whereas his honour'd THE XXVIII. SONG OF THE SAME. Three shires at once this song assays, By various and unusual ways. Tow'rds Le'ster then her course she holds, Now scarcely on this tract the Muse had entrance made, Inclining to the south, but Bever's batning slade Receiveth her to guest, whose coming had too long Put off her rightful praise, when thus herself she sung, 'Three shires there are (quoth she) in me their Large Lincoln, Rutland rich, and th' north's eye Or what, or where they be, or howsoe'er inclin'd, Me Bever shall outbrave, that in my state do scorn, By any of them all (once) to be overborn, With theirs, do but compare the country where I lie, I challenge any vale, to shew me but that thing A roomth for any else, it is so fill'd with mine, From the Leicestrian fields, come on with me along, Hence wand'ring as the Muse delightfully beholds The beauty of the large, and goodly full-flock'd Oulds, She on the left hand leaves old Leicester, and flies, course At Sharnford, where at first her soft and gentle Because their native springs so nearly were ally'd, Thus with her handmaid Sence, the Soare doth eas❜ly slide By Leicester, where yet her ruins show her pride, Demolish'd many years, that of the great foundation Of her long buried walls, men hardly see the station; Yet of some pieces found, so sure the cement locks The stones, that they remain like perdurable rocks: Where whilst the lovely Soare, with many a dear embrace, Is solacing herself with this delightful place, The forest, which the name of that brave town doth bear, [hair, With many a goodly wreath, crowns her dishevel'd And in her gallant green, her lusty livery shows Herself to this fair flood, which mildly as she flows, Reciprocally likes her length and breadth to see, As also how she keeps her fertile purlues free: The herds of fallow deer she on the lawns doth feed, As having in herself to furnish every need. [take, But now since gentle Soare such leisure seems to The Muse in her behalf this strong defence doth make, [her so, Against the neighbour floods, for that which tax And her a channel call, because she is so slow. The cause is that she lies upon so low a flat, Where nature most of all befriended her in that, The longer to enjoy the good she doth possess: For had those (with such speed that forward seem to press) Who led from room to room amazed is to see And various as the sutes, so various the perfumes, Large galleries, where piece with piece doth seem to strive, Of pictures done to life, landskip, and perspective, Thence goodly gardens sees, where antique statues stand In stone and copper, cut by many a skilful hand; Where every thing to gaze, her more and more entices, Thinking at once she sees a thousand paradises, sight, (Of many a wood-god woo'd) her darling and deWhose beauty whilst that Soare is pausing to behold Clear Wreakin coming in, from Waltham on the Ould, Brings Eye, a pretty brook, to bear her silver train, Which on by Melton makes, and tripping o'er the plain, Here finding her surpriz'd with proud Mount-sorrel's sight, By quickening of her course, more eas❜ly doth invite Her to the goodly Trent, whereas she goes along By Loughborough, she thus of that fair forest sung. 'O Charnwood, be thou call'd the choicest of thy kind, The like in any place, what flood hath hapt to find? No tract in all this isle, the proudest let her be, Can shew a sylvan nymph, for beauty like to thee: The satyrs, and the fawns, by Dian set to keep Rough hills, and forest holts, were sadly seen to weep, When thy high-palmed harts, the sport of bows and hounds, By gripple borderers hands, were banished thy grounds. The Driades that were wont about thy lawns to rove, To trip from wood to wood, and scud from grove to grove, [rocks, On Sharpley that were seen, and Cadman's aged Against the rising sun, to braid their silver locks; And with the harmless Elves, on heathy Bardon's height, [night, By Cynthia's colder beams to play them night by Exil'd their sweet abode to poor bare commons fled, They with the oaks that liv'd, now with the oaks are dead. Who will describe to life, a forest, let him take Thy surface to himself, nor shall he need to make Another form at all, where oft in thee is found Fine sharp but easy hills, which reverently are crown'd [sheep With aged antique rocks, to which the goats and (To him that stands remote) do softly seem to creep, To gnaw the little shrubs, on their steep sides that grow; Upon whose other part, on some descending brow, As nature had therein ordain'd some sylvan power; On whom when thus the Soare had these high She easily slid away into her sovereign'Trent, Who having wander'd long, at length began to leave Hernative country's bounds, and kindly doth receive The lesser Tame, and Mess, the Mess a dainty rill, Near Charnwood rising first, where she begins to fill Her banks, which all her course on both sides do abound With heath and ferny olds, and often gleaby ground, The other Sence, whose source doth rise not far from But Muse return at last, attend the princely Trent, Who straining on in state,the north's imperious flood, The third of England call'd,with many a daintywood, Being crown'd to Burton comes, to Needwood where she shows [flows, Herself in all her pomp; and as from thence she She takes into her train rich Dove, and Darwin clear, Darwin, whose font and fall are both in Derbyshire; And of those thirty floods, that wait the Trent upon, Doth stand without compare, the very paragon. Thus wand'ring at her will, as uncontroul'd she ranges, Her often varying form, as variously and changes. First Erwash, and then Lyne, sweet Sherwood sends her in ; Then looking wide, as one that newly wak'd had been, Saluted from the north, with Nottingham's proud height, So strongly is surpris'd, and taken with the sight, In which she sees herself above her neighbours As wrap'd with the delights, that her this prospect brings, In her peculiar praise, lo thus the river sings: 'What should I care at all, from what my name I take, That thirty doth import, that thirty rivers make; Is sovereign of us all that here in Britain be; Fetch her descent from Wales, from that proud mountain sprung, Plinillimon, whose praise is frequent them among, As of that princely maid, whose name she boasts to bear, [heir, Bright Sabrin, whom she holds as her undoubted Let these imperious floods draw down their long descent From these so famous stocks, and only say of Trent, That Mooreland's barren earth me first to light did [plexion'd spring bring, Which though she be but brown, my clear comGain'd with the nymphs such grace, that when I first did rise, The Naiades on my brim danc'd wanton hydagies, And on her spacious breast (with heaths that doth abound) Encircled my fair fount with many a lusty round: And of the British floods, though but the third I be, Yet Thames and Severn both in this come short of me For that I am the mere of England, that divides The north part from the south, on my so either sides, That reckoning how these tracts in compass be extent, [Trent ; Men bound them on the north, or on the south of Their banks are barren sands, if but compar'd with mine, [shine: Through my perspicuous breast, the pearly peebles I throw my crystal arms along the flow'ry vallies, Which lying sleek and smooth as any garden-alleys, Do give me leave to play, whilst they do court my stream, And crown mywinding banks with many an anadem: My silver-scaled sculls about my streams do sweep, Now in the shallow fords, now in the falling deep: So that of every kind, the new spawn'd numerous fry Seem in me as the sands that on my shore do lie. The barbell, than which fish a braver doth not swim, Nor greater for the ford within my spacious brim, Nor (newly taken) more the curious taste doth please; The greling, whose great spawn is big as any pease; The pearch with pricking fins, against the pike prepar'd, As nature had thereon bestow'd this stronger guard His daintiness to keep, (each curious palate's proof) From his vile ravenous foe: next him I name the ruffe, His very near ally, and both for scale and fin, The lusty salmon then, from Neptune's wat'ry realm, stream, Then being in his kind, in me his pleasure takes, (For whom the fisher then all other game forsakes) The lamprey, and his lesse, in Severn general be; The flounder smooth and flat, in other rivers caught, Perhaps in greater store, yet better are not thought: The dainty gudgeon, loche, the minnow, and the Since they but little are, I little need to speak [bleake, Of them, nor doth it fit me much of those to reck, Which every where are found in every little beck; Nor of the crayfish here, which creeps amongst my stones, From all the rest alone, whose shell is all his bones: For carp, the tench, and breame, my other store other lays, For she was let to know, that Soare had in her song So chanted Charnwood's worth, the rivers that along, Amongst the neighbouring nymphs there was no [her praise: But those which seem'd to sound of Charnwood, and Which Sherwood took to heart, and very much disdain'd, [tain'd (As one that had both long, and worthily mainThe title of the great'st and bravest of her kind) To fall so far below one wretchedly confin'd Within a furlong's space, to her large skirts compar'd: Wherefore she as a nymph that neither fear'd nor car'd For ought to her might chance, by others love or hate, With resolution arm'd against the power of fate, |