rill,

[fill,

There offereth all she hath, her mistress' banks to And all too little thinks that was on Darwin spent; From hence as she departs, in travelling to Trent, Back goes the active Muse, tow'rds Lancashire amain,

Where matter rests enough her vigour to maintain, And to the northern hills shall lead her on along, Which now must wholly be the subject of my song.

15 Darwin, of the British Doure Guin, which is white water.

road,

In great contention fell, (that mighty difference grew)

Which of those floods deserv'd to have the sovereign due; So that all future spleen, and quarrels to prevent, That likely was to rise about their long descent, Before the neighbouring nymphs their right they mean to plead,

And first thus for herself the lovely Erwell said: "Ye, lasses," quoth this flood, "have long and blindly err'd,

That Ribble before me, so falsely bave preferr'd, That am a native born, and my descent do bring From ancient gentry here, when Ribble from her

spring,

[rude An alien known to be, and from the mountains Of Yorkshire getting strength, here boldly dares

intrude

[fall, Upon my proper earth, and through her mighty Is not asham'd herself of Lancashire to call: Whereas of all the nymphs that carefully attend My mistress Mersey's state, there's none that doth [prefer,

transcend

My greatness with her grace, which doth me so That all is due to me, which doth belong to her. For though from Blackstonedge the Taume come tripping down,

And from that long-ridg'd rock, her father's high

renown,

Of Mersey thinks from me, the place alone to win, With my attending brooks, yet when I once come in, I out of count'nance quite do put the nymph, for note,

[float, As from my fountain I tow'rds mightier Mersey First Roch a dainty rill, from Roch-dale her dear dame, [name, Who honour'd with the half of her stern mother's Grows proud: yet glad herself into my banks to get,

Which Spodden from her spring, a pretty rivulet, As her attendant brings, when Irck adds to my store,

And Medlock to their much, by lending somewhat [more, At Manchester do meet, all kneeling to my state, Where brave I show myself; then with a prouder

gait,

[my fall, Lies full of turf, and marle, her unctuous mineral, Tow'rds Mersey making on, great Chatmosse at And blocks as black as pitch, (with boring augers found)

Thus chief of Mersey's train, away with her I run,
There at the general flood supposed to be drown'd.
When in her prosperous course she wat'reth War-
rington,
Play,
And her fair silver load in Le'rpoole down doth
A road none more renown'd in the Vergivian sea.
Ye lusty lasses then, in Lancashire that dwell,
For beauty that are said to bear away the bell,
Your country's hornpipe, ye so mincingly that
tread,

In all your mirthful songs, and merry meetings
As ye the egg-pye love, and apple cherry-red;
tell,

That Erwell every way doth Ribble far excel." Her well-disposed speech had Erwell scarcely

done,

But swift report therewith immediately doth run

To the Vergivian shores, among the mosses deep, Where Alt a neighbouring nymph for very joy doth weep,

That Symond's wood, from whence the flood assumes her spring,

Excited with the same, was loudly heard to ring; And over all the moors with shrill re-echoing sounds, [grounds, The drooping fogs to drive from those gross wat'ry Where those that toil for turf, with peating spades do find

Fish living in that earth (contrary to their kind) Which but that Pontus, and Heraclia likewise shows,

[flows, The like in their like earth, that with like moisture And that such fish as these, had not been likewise found,

Within far firmer earth, the Paphlagonian ground, A wonder of this isle, this well might have been thought. [wrought,

But Ribble that this while for her advantage Of what she had to say, doth well herself advise, And to brave Erwell's speech, she boldly thus replies:

"With that, whereby the most thou think'st me to disgrace,

That I an alien am, (not rightly of this place)
My greatest glory is, and Lancashire therefore,
To nature for my birth, beholding is the more;
That Yorkshire, which all shires for largeness doth
exceed,

A kingdom to be call'd, that well deserves (indeed) And not a fountain bath, that from her womb doth flow

more.

Within her spacious self, but that she can bestow; To Lancaster yet lends me Ribble, from her store, Which adds to my renown, and makes her bounty [slide, From Penigent's proud foot, as from my source I That mountain my proud sire, in height of all his pride, [flood: Takes pleasure in my course, as in his first-born And Ingleborow hill of that Olympian brood, With Pendle, of the north the highest hills that be, Do wistly me behold, and are beheld of me, These mountains make me proud, to gaze on me that stand: [land,

So Long-ridge, once arriv'd on the Lancastrian Salutes me, and with smiles, me to his soil invites, So have I many a flood, that forward me excites, As Hodder, that from home attends me from my spring; [doth bring Then Caldor, coming down from Blackstonedge, Me eas'ly on my way to Preston, the great'st town, [ing down, Wherewith my banks are blest; where at my goClear Darwen on along me to the sea doth drive, And in my spacious fall no sooner I arrive, But Savock to the north, from Longridge making way,

To this my greatness adds, when in my ample bay, Swart Dulas coming in, from Wiggin with her aids, [maids, Short Taud, and Dartow small, two little country (In those low wat'ry lands, and moory mosses

bred,

Do see me safely laid in mighty Neptune's bed; And cutting in my course, even through the very heart

Of this renowned shire, so equally it part,

As Nature should have said, 'Lo, thus I meant to do;

This flood divides this shire thus equally in two." Ye maids, the horn-pipe then, so mi ci gly that tread,

As ye the egg-pye love, and apple cherry red; In all your mirthful songs, and merry meetings tell,

That Ribble every way, your Erwell doth excel." Here ended she again, when Merton's moss and

mere,

With Ribble's sole reply so much revived were, That all the shores resound the river's good success, And wondrous joy there was all over Anderness2, Which straight convey'd the news into the upper land,

Where Pendle', 'Penigent', and Ingleborow' stand Like giants, and the rest do proudly overlook; Or Atlas-like as though they only undertook To underprop high Heaven, or the wide welkin dar'd, [spar'd; Who in their Ribble's praise (be sure) no speeches That the loud sounds from them down to the forests fell,

[as well To Bowland brave in state, and Wyorsdale which As any sylvan nymphs their beauteous scites may boast, [coast,

Whose echoes sent the same all round about the
That there was not a nymph to jollity inclin'd,
Or of the woody brood, or of the wat'ry kind,
But at their fingers' ends, they Ribble's song could

say,

And perfectly the note upon the bag pipe play. That Wyre, when once she knew how well these floods had sped, [spread) (When their report abroad in every place was It vex'd her very heart their eminence to see, Their equal (at the least) who thought herself to be, Determines at the last to Neptune's court to go, Before his ample state, with humbleness to show The wrong she had sustain'd by her proud sisters spite, [right; And off'ring them no wrong, to do her greatness Arising but a rill at first from Wyersdale's lap, Yet still receiving strength from her full mother's pap, [ply, As down to Seaward she, her curious course doth Takes Caldor coming in to bear her company. From Woolferag's cliffy foot, a hill to her at hand, [stand. By that fair forest known, within her verge to So Bowland from her breast sends Brock her to attend, As she a forest is, so likewise doth she send Her child, on Wyersdale's flood, the dainty Wyre to wait,

With her assisting rills, when Wyre is once replete : She in her crooked course to seaward softly slides, Where Pellin's mighty moss, and Merton's, on ber sides [doth crawl Their boggy breasts out-lay, and Skipton down To entertain this Wyre, attained to her fall: When whilst each wand'ring flood seem'd settled to admire,

First Erwell, Ribble then, and last of all this, Wyre,

That mighty wagers would have willingly been laid.

(But that these matters were with much discretion stay'd) [begun. Some broils about these brooks had surely been When Coker a coy nymph, that clearly seems to shun

All popular applause, who from her christal head, In Wyresdale, near where Wyre is by her fountain fed, [twin, That by their natural birth they seem (indeed) to Yet for her sister's pride she careth not à pin; Of none, and being help'd, she likewise helpeth none,

But to the Irish sea goes gently down alone Of any undisturb'd, till coming to her sound, Endanger'd by the sands, with many a lofty bound, She leaps against the tides, and cries to chrystal Lon, [the shire begun, The flood that names the town, from whence Her title first to take, and loudly tells the flood, "That if a little while she thus but trifling stood, These petty brooks would be before her still preferr'd." [ment heard, Which the long wand'ring Lon, with good adviseAs she comes ambling on from Westmoreland, where first

[nurs'd

Arising from her head, amongst the mountains
By many a pretty sprung, that hourly getting
strength,

Arriving in her course in Lancashire at length,
To Lonsdale shows herself, and lovingly doth play
With her dear daughter Dale, which her frim cheek
doth lay

To her clear mother's breast, as mincingly she
traces,

And oft embracing her, she oft again embraces, And on her darling smiles, with every little gale. When Lac the most lov'd child of this delicious Dale,

[spring. And Wemming on the way, present their either's Next them she Henbourne hath, and Robourne, which do bring

Their bounties in one bank, their mistress to prefer, That she with greater state may come to Lancaster, Of her which takes the name, which likewise to the shire,

The sovereign title lends, and eminency, where To give to this her town, what rightly doth belong, [her song, Of this most famous shire, our Lun thus frames her "First that most precious thing, and pleasing most to man,

Who from him (made of earth) immediately began, His she-self woman, which the goodliest of this isle This country hath brought forth, that much doth grace my style; [knowing were, Why should those ancients else, which so much When they the blazons gave to every several shire, Fair women as mine own, have titled due to me? Besides in all this isle, there no such cattle be, For largeness, horn and hair, as those of Lancashire;

So that from every part of England far and near, Men haunt her marts for store, as from her race to breed. [exceed,

And for the third, wherein she doth all shires Be those great race of hounds, the deepest mouth'd of all

the white.

Divided in itself, here for the garland stood; The right Lancastrian line, it from York's issue bore; [mets wore The red rose our brave badge, which in their helIn many a bloody field, at many a doubtful fight, Against the house of York, which bore for theirs [the Wye, "And for my self there's not the Tiry, nor Nor any of those nymphs that to the southward lie, For salmon me excels; and for this name of Lun', That I am christen'd by, the Britons it begun, Which fulness doth import, of waters still increase !" [doth cease,

To Neptune lowting low, when chrystal Lun And Conder coming in, conducts her by the hand, Till lastly she salute the point of Sunderland", And leaves our dainty Lun to Amphitrite's care.

So blyth and bonny now the lads and lasses are, That ever as anon the bag-pipe up doth blow, Cast in a gallant round about the hearth they go, And at each pause they kiss, was never seen such

rule

Then hey they cry for Lun, and hey for LancaThat one high hill was heard to tell it to his brother,

That instantly again to tell it to some other: From hill again to vale, from vale to hill it went, The high-lands they again, it to the lower sent, The mud-exhausted meres, and mosses deep among, [rung;

With the report thereof each road and harbour The sea-nymphs with their song, so great a coil do keep,

They cease not to resound it over all the deep,
And acted it cach day before the isle of Man,
Who like an empress sits in the Vergivian, [Pyle,
By her that hath the Calf", long Walney, and the
As hand-maids to attend on her their sovereign isle,
To whom, so many though the Hebrides do show,
Acknowledge, that to her they due subjection owe:
With corn and cattle stor'd, and what for hers is
good.
[berhood)

(That we nor Ireland need, nor scorn her neigh

Her midst with mountains set, of which, from

Sceafel's height,

A clear and perfect eye, the weather being bright, (Be Neptune's visage ne'er so terrible and stern) The Scotch, the Irish shores, and th' English may discern; [brings And what an empire can, the same this island Her pedigrees to show her right successive kings, Her chronicles and can as easily rehearse, And with all foreign parts to have had free commerce;

Her municipal laws and customs very old, Belonging to her state, which strongly she doth hold.

This island, with the song of Lun is taken so, As she hath special cause before all other, who For her bituminous turf, squar'd from her mossy

ground,

And trees far under earth, (by daily digging found,) As for the store of oats, which her black glebe doth bear,

In every one of these resembling Lancashire,
To her she'll stoutly stick, as to her nearest kin,
And cries the day is ours, brave Lancashire doth
win.

But yet this isle of Man more seems not to rejoice
For Lancashire's good luck, nor with a louder
voice
[stern face,
To sound it to the shores; than Furnesse whose
With mountains set like warts, which nature as a
grace
Bestow'd upon this tract, whose brows do look so
stern,
[discern,
That when the nymphs of sea did first her front
Amazedly they fled, to Amphitrite's bower,
Her grim aspect to see, which seem'd to them so

sour,

At it malign'd the rule which mighty Neptune bare, [ful are, Whose fells to that grim god, most stern and dreadWith hills whose hanging brows, with rocks about are bound,

Whose weighty feet stand fix'd in that black beachy ground, [take, Whereas those scatter'd trees, which naturally parThe fatness of the soil (in many a slimy lake, Their roots so deeply soak'd) send from their stocky bough,

A soft and sappy gum, from which those tree-geese grow,

Call'd barnacles by us, which like a jelly first
To the beholder seem, then by the fluxure nurs'd,
Still great and greater thrive, untill you well may

see

[the tree Them turn'd to perfect fowls, when dropping from Into the merey pond, which under them doth lie, Wax ripe, and taking wing, away in flocks do fly; Which well our ancients did among our wonders place:

[grace,

Besides by her strong scite, she doth receive this Before her neighbouring tracts, (which Furnesse [plant,

well may vaunt) That when the Saxons here their forces first did And from the inner land the ancient Britons drave, To their distress'd estate it no less succour gave, Than the trans-Severn'd hills, which their old stock yet stores, [shores. Which now we call the Welsh, or the Cornubian

A mountain in the isle of Man.

keep:

But to his inner earth, divert we from the deep, Where those two mighty meres, out-stretch'd in length do wander,

The lesser Thurstan nam'd, the famouser Wynan-
der,
[descry,

So bounded with her rocks, as nature would
By her how those great seas Mediterranean lie.
To seaward then she hath her sundry sands again,
As that of Dudden first, then Levin, lastly Ken,
Of three bright Naiades nam'd, as Dudden on the
West,
[invest
That Cumberland cuts off from this shire, doth
Those sands with her proud style, when Levin from
the felle,
[swells,
Besides her natural source, with the abundance
Which those two mighty meres, upon her either side
Contribute by recourse, that out of very pride,
She leaves her ancient name, and Fosse herself
doth call,

Till coming to the sands, even almost at her fall,
On them her ancient style she liberally bestows.
Upon the east from these, clear Ken her beauty
shows,

[grace, From Kendal coming in, which she doth please to First with her famous type, then lastly in her race, Her name upon those sands doth liberally bequeath, Whereas the Muse a while may sit her down to breath,

[way,

And after walk along tow'rds Yorkshire on her On which she strongly hopes to get a noble day. "A scarr is a rock.

POLY-OLBION.

SONG THE TWENTY-EIGHTH.

THE ARGUMENT. Invention hence her compass steers, Towards York the most renown'd of shires, Makes the three Ridings in their stories, Each severally to show their glories. Ouse for her most lov'd city's sake, Doth her duke's title undertake; His floods then Humber welcomes in, And shows how first he did begin.

THE Muse from Blackstonedge, no whit dismay'd at all, [to fall, With sight of the large shire, on which she was

[to be; To them that think themselves no simple shires But that wherein the world her greatness most may see,

And that which doth this shire before the rest prefer,
Is of so many floods, and great, that rise from her,
Except some silly few out of her verge that flow,
So near to other shires, that it is hard to know,
If that their springs be hers, or others them divide,
And those are only found upon her setting side.
Else be it noted well, remarkable to all,

That those from her that flow, in her together fall. Nor can small praise beseem so beauteous brooks as these,

For from all other nymphs these be the Naiades, In Amphitrite's bower, that princely places hold, To whom the orks of sea dare not to be so bold, As rudely once to touch, and wheresoe'er they come,

The Tritons with their trumps proclaim them public room. [to lead, Now whiles the Muse prepares these floods along The wide West-riding first, desires that she may plead [wins, The right that her belongs, which of the Muse she❘ When with the course of Don, thus she her tract begins. [bound my south, "Thou first of all my floods, whose banks do And off'rest up thy stream to mighty Humber's

mouth,

[a spray, Of yew', and climbing elm, that crown'd with many From thy clear fountain first through many a mead dost play, [begun, Till Rother, whence the name of Rotheram first At that her christ'ned town doth lose her in my Don, [doth drive, Which proud of her recourse, tow'rds Doncaster Her great'st and chiefest town, the name that doth derive [on her race, From Don's near bordering banks, when holding She dancing in and out, indenteth Hatfield Chase, Whose bravery hourly adds new honours to her bank:

When Sherwood sends her in slow Iddle, that made rank

With her profuse excess, she largely it bestows On Marshland, whose swoln womb with such abundance flows,

As that her batt'ning breast, her fatlings sooner feeds, [needs: And with more lavish waste, than oft the grazier Whose soil, as some report, that be her borderers note,

With th' water under earth undoubtedly doth float: For when the waters rise, it risen doth remain High whilst the floods are high, and when they fall again,

It falleth: but at last, when as my lively Don, Along by Marshland's side, her lusty course hath

The darling daughter born of lofty Penigent, Who from her father's foot, by Skipton down doth seud,

And leading thence to Leeds, that delicatest flood, Takes Caldor coming in by Wakefield, by whose force, [course; As from a lusty flood, much strengthen'd in her But Caldor as she comes, and greater still doth

wax,

And travelling along by heading-Halifax', Which Horton once was call'd, but of a virgin's

hair,

(A martyr that was made, for chastity, that there Was by her lover slain) being fast'ned to a tree: The people that would needs it should a relic be, It Halifax since namı'd, which in the northern

tongue,

Is holy hair: but thence as Caldor comes along, It chanc'd she in her course on Kirkbey' cast her eye, [lie, Where merry Robin Hood, that honest thief, doth Beholding fitly too before how Wakefield stood, She doth not only think of lusty Robin Hood, But of his merry man, the pindar of the town, Of Wakefield, George-a-Green, whose fames so far are blown,

For their so valiant fight, that every free man's song,

Can tell you of the same, quoth she, be-talk'd on long,

For ye were merry lads, and those were merry days; When Aire to Caldor calls, and bids her come her ways, [rill: Who likewise to her help, brings Hebden, a small Thus Aire holds on her course tow'rds Humber, till she fill

Her fall with all the wealth that Don can her afford, [stor'd." Quoth the West-riding, "Thus with rivers am I "Next guide I on my Wharfe, the great'st in

her degree,

And that I well may call the worthiest of the three, Who her full fountain takes from my waste western wild,

exit'd)

(Whence all but mountaineers, by nature are [her race, On Langstrethdale, and lights at th' entrance of When keeping on her course, along through Barden Chase, [bears her name; She watereth Wharfdale's breast, which proudly For by that time she's grown a flood of wondrous fame, [supply; When Washbrook with her wealth her mistress doth Thus Wharf in her brave course embracing Wetherby, [then,

Small Cock, a sullen brook comes to her succour Whose.banks receiv'd the blood of many thousand men, [call,

On sad Palm-Sunday slain, that Towton-field we Whose channel quite was chok'd with those that there did fall,

Beheading, which we call Halifax law, 3 Robin Hood's burying place. See to the twenty-second song.