And, till the weary Sun sunk down unto the west, Thou still my object wast, thou once my only best. [pleasant springs, The time shall quickly come, thy groves and Where to the mirthful merle the warbling mavis sings,

[to burn; The painful labourer's hand shall stock the roots, The branch and body spent, yet could not serve his turn.

Which when, most wilful nymph, thy chance shall be to see,

me."

Too late thou shalt repent thy small regard for [doth ply, But Saltwarpe down from Wych his nimbler feet Great Severn to attend along to Tewksbury, With others to partake the joy that there is seen, When beauteous Avon comes unto her sovereign queen 3.

[attend, Here down from Eusham's vale, their greatness to Comes Swilliat Sweeping in, which Cotswold down doth send:

And Garran there arrives, the great recourse to

see.

[glee, Where thus together met, with most delightful The cheerful nymphs that haunt the valley rank and low

(Where full Pomona scems 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 brought: [fetch'd draught, Where, to each other's health past many a deepAnd many a sound carouse froin friend to friend doth go.

Thus whilst the mellowed earth with her own juice

doth flow,

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, Those high presumptuous hills, which bend their U's only to deject, in their inveterate spite: But I would have them think, that I (which am

the queen

Of all the British vales, and so have ever been
Since Gomer's giant-brood inhabited this isle,
And that of all the rest, myself may so enstile)
Against the highest hill dare put myself for place,
That ever threat'ned Heaven with the austerest
face.
[they forth
And for our praise, then thus; What fountain send
(That finds a river's name, though of the smallest
worth)

But it invales itself, and on its either side
Doth make those fruitful ineads, which with their

painted pride

Embroider his proud bank? whilst in lascivious

gyres

He swiftly sallieth out, and suddenly retires

3 Severn.

[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 goodly ears,

As to the weighty sheaf with scythe or sickle cut, When as his harden'd hand the labourer comes t● put, [wields:

Sinks him in his own sweat, which it but hardly And on the corn strew'd lands, then in the stubble fields,

There feed the herds of neat, by them the flocks of sheep,

Seeking the scatt'red corn upon the ridges steep: . And in the furrow by (where Ceres lies much spill'd) [ing fill'd, Th' unwieldy larding swine his maw then hav Lies wallowing in the mire, thence able scarce to rise. [despise When as those monstrous hills so much that us (The mountain, which forsooth the lowly valley mocks)

Have nothing in the world upon their barren rocks, But greedy clamb'ring goats, and conies, banish'd

quite

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 she, "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 mountains toil, Let us have store of grain, and quantity of soil. To what end serve their tops (that seem to threat the sky)

But to be rent with storms? whilst we in safety lie. Their rocks but barren be, and they which rashly climb, [time. Stand most in envy's sight, the fairest prey for And when the lowly vales are clad in summer's green,

The grisled winter's snow upon their heads is seen. Of all the bills 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)

Which many a time bath been the Muses' quiet port;
Yet brags not he of that, nor of himself esteems
The more for his fair site; but richer than he seems,
Clad in a gown of grass, so soft and wondrous warm,
As him the summer's heat, nor winter's cold can
harm.

Of whom I well may say, as I may speak of thee;
From either of your tops, that who beholdeth me,
To paradise may think a second he had found,
If any like the first were ever on the ground."

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 So that the sullen Earth th' effect thereof doth

his want.

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 [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,

assays,

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 Avon doth [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 be witch'd; [rich'd. Besides, with Bristol's state both wond'rously enWhich soon to Severn sent th' report of that fair 'road' [load

pursue;

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 beheld 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 thè 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

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 to
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; [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 :
A body long and large, the buttocks equal broad
As fit to undergo the full and weighty load.
And of the fleecy face, the flank doth nothing lack,
But every where is stor'd; the belly as the back.
The fair and goodly flock, the shepherd's only

pride,

side

As white as winter's snow, when from the river's [ing-day, He drives his new-wash'd sheep; or on the shearWhen as the lusty ram, with those rich spoils of May [so brave, 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 hath chanc'd that year the earliest.

lamb to bring,

In his gay baldric sits at his low grassy board, With flawns, curds, clouted cream, and country

dainties stor'd:

[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. Some roundelays do sing; the rest, the burthen But Cotswold, be this spoke to th' only praise of thee, [be,

do wear.

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 Cots-
wold's plain
[support
come likewise to
When, seeing the
[doth cast

At Leechlade linking hands,
The mother of great Thames.

resort,

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 [fall, Those floods, that into Thames out of our Cotswold And farth'st unto the north) bright Enload forth doth bear. [to hear For, though it had been long, at length she came 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, [flow, Where out of Blockley's banks so many fountains That clean throughout his soil proud Cotswold can-' not show [hills The like as though from far, his long and many There emptied all their veins, wherewith those founts he fills,

Which in the greatest drought so brimful still do float, [throat, Sent through the rifted rocks with such an open As though the cleves consum'd in humour; they So crystalline and cold, as hard'neth stick to stone. alone,

But whilst this while we talk, the far divulged fame

[name, Of this great bridal tower'd, in Phoebus' mighty Doth bid the Muse make haste, and to the bridehouse speed; [need. Of her attendance there lest they should stand in

And of her cares represt with her delicious wines.

In this tract of Gloucestershire (where to this day many places are styled vineyards) was of ancient time, among other fruits of a fertile soil, great store of vines, and more than in any other place of the kingdom. Now in many parts of this realm we have some: but what comes of them in 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

U

(a) Flav. Vopiscus in ejusd. vitâ,

(b) In Jul. Agricola,