Our Armies in those times (neere through the world so dred)
Of our tall Yeomen were, and foot-men for the most;
Who (with their Bills, and Bowes) may confidently boast,
Our Leopards they so long and brauely did advance
Aboue the Flower-delice, euen in the hart of France.
O! thou thrice happy Shire, confined so to bee
Twixt two so famous Floods, as Mersey is, and Dee.
Thy Dee vpon the West from Wales doth thee divide:
Thy Mersey on the North, from the Lancastrian side,
Thy naturall sister Shire; and linkt vnto thee so,
That Lancashire along with Cheshire still doth goe.
As tow’rds the Derbian Peake, and Moreland (which doe draw
More mountainous and wild) the high-crown’d Shutlingslawe
And Molcop be thy Mounds, with those proud hills whence roue
The louely sister Brooks, the siluery Dane and Doue;
Cleere Doue, that makes to Trent; the other to the West.
But, in that famous Towne, most happy of the rest
(From which thou tak’st thy name) faire Chester, call’d of old
Carelegion; whilst proud Rome her conquests heere did hold
Of those her legions known the faithfull station then,
So stoutly held to tack by those neere North-Wales men;
Yet by her owne name had rather called bee,
As her the Britaine tearm’d, The Fortresse vpon Dee,
Then vainly shee would seeme a Miracle to stand,
Th’imaginary worke of some huge Giants hand:
Which if such euer were, Tradition tells not who.
But, backe awhile my Muse: to Weeuer let vs goe,
Which (with himselfe compar’d) each British flood doth scorne;
His fountaine and his fall, both Chesters rightly borne;
The Country in his course, that cleane through doth diuide,
Cut in two equall shares vpon his either side:
And, what the famous Flood farre more then that enriches,
The bracky Fountaines are, those two renowned Wyches,
The Nant-Wyche, and the North; whose either brynie Well,
For store and sorts of Salts, make Weeuer to excell.
Besides their generall vse, not had by him in vaine,
But in him selfe thereby doth holinesse retaine
Aboue his fellow Floods: whose healthfull vertues taught,
Hath of the Sea-gods oft, caus’d Weeuer to be sought.
For physick in their need and Thetis oft hath seene,
When by their wanton sports her Ner’ides haue beene
So sick, that Glaucus selfe hath failed in their cure:
Yet Weeuer, by his Salts, recouery durst assure.
And Amphitrite oft this Wisard Riuer led
Into her secret walks (the Depths profound and dread)
Of him (suppos’d so wise) the hid euents to knowe
Of things that were to come, as things done long agoe.
In which he had beene prou’d most exquisite to bee;
And bare his fame so farre, that oft twixt him and Dee,
Much strife there hath arose in their prophetick skill.
But to conclude his praise, our Weeuer heere doth will
The Muse, his sourse to sing; as how his course he steres:
Who from his naturall Spring, as from his neighboring Meres
Sufficiently supply’d, shootes forth his siluer breast,
As though he meant to take directly toward the East;
Vntill at length it proues he loytreth, but to play
Till Ashbrooke and the Lee o’re-take him on the way,
Which to his iourneys end him earnestly doe haste:
Till hauing got to Wyche, hee taking there a taste
Of her most sauory Salt, is by the sacred tuch,
Forc’t faster in his course, his motion quickned much
To North-Wyche: and at last, as hee approacheth neere,
Dane, Whelock drawes, then Crock, from that black ominous Mere,
Accounted one of those that Englands wonders make;
Of neighbours, Black-mere nam’d, of strangers, Breretons-Lake;
Whose property seemes farre from Reasons way to stand:
For, neere before his death that’s owner of the Land,
Shee sends vp stocks of trees, that on the top’doo float;
By which the world her first did for a wonder note.
His handmayd Howty next, to Weeuer holds her race:
When Peever with the helpe of Pickmere, make apace
To put-in with those streames his sacred steps that tread,
Into the mighty waste of Mersey him to lead.
Where, when the Riuers meet, with all their stately ,
Proud Mersey is so great in entring of the Maine,
As hee would make a shewe for Empery to stand,
And wrest the three-forkt Mace from out grym Neptunes hand;
To Cheshire highly bound for that his watry store,
As to the grosser Loughs on the Lancastrian shore.
From hence he getteth Goyt downe from her Peakish spring,
And Bollen, that along doth nimbler Birkin bring
From Maxfields mightie wildes, of whose shagg’d Sylums shee
Hath in the Rocks been woo’d, their Paramour to bee:
Who in the darksome holes, and Cauerns kept her long,
And that proud Forrest made a party to her wrong.
Yet could not all intreat the pretty Brooke stay;
Which to her sister streame, sweet Bollen, creeps away.
To whom, vpon their road shee pleasantly reports
The many mirthfull iests, and wanton woodish sports
In Maxfield they haue had; as of that Forrests fate:
Vntill they come at length, where Mersey for more state
Assuming broder banks, himselfe so proudly beares,
That at his sterne approach, extended Wyrrall feares,
That (what betwixt his floods of Mersey, and the Dee)
In very little time deuoured he might bee:
Out of the foaming surge till Hilbre lifts his head,
To let the fore-land see how richly he had sped.
Which Mersey cheeres so much, that with a smyling brow
He sawnes on both those Floods; their amorous armes that throw
About his goodly neck, and bar’d their swelling breasts:
On which whilst lull’d with ease, his pleased cheeke he rests,
The Naiades, sitting neere vpon the aged Rocks,
Are busied with their combes, to brayd his verdant locks,
Whilst in their crystall eyes he doth for Cupids looke:
But Delamere from them his fancie quickly tooke,
Who shewes herselfe all drest in most delicious flowers;
And sitting like a Queene, sees from her shady Bowers
The wanton Wood-Nymphs mixt with her light-footed Fawnes,
To lead the rurall routs about the goodly Lawnds,
As ouer Holt and Heath, as thorough Frith and Fell;
And oft at Barly-breake, and Prison-base, to tell
(In carrolds as they course) each other all the ioyes,
The passages, deceits, the sleights, the amorous toyes
The subtile Sea-Nymphs had, their Wyrralls loue to win.
But Weeuer now againe to warne them doth begin
To leaue these triuiall toyes, which inly hee did hate,
That neither them beseem’d, nor stood with his estate
(Beeing one that gaue him selfe industriously to know
What Monuments our Kings erected long agoe:
To which, the Flood himselfe so wholly did apply,
As though vpon his skill, the rest should all rely)
And bent himselfe to shewe, that yet the Britains bold,
Whom the laborious Muse so highly had extold,
Those later Saxon Kings exceld not in their d
eeds,
And therefore with their praise thus zealously proceeds;
Whilst, the celestiall Powers th’arriued time attend
When o’re this generall Ile the Britaines raigne should end,
And for the spoyling Pict heere prosp’rously had wrought,
Into th’afflicted Land which strong invasion brought,
And to that proud attempt, what yet his power might want,
The ill-disposed heauens, Brutes ofspring to supplant,
Their angry plagues downe-pour’d, insatiate in their waste
(Needs must they fall, whom heauen doth to destruction haste.)
And that which lastly came to consummate the rest,
Those prouder Saxon powers (which liberally they prest
Against th’invading Pict, of purpose hired in)
From those which payd them wage, the Iland soone did win;
And sooner ouerspred, beeing Masters of the Field;
Those, first for whom they fought, too impotent to wield,
A Land within it selfe that had so great a Foe;
And therefore thought it fit them wisely to bestow:
Which ouer Severne heere they in the Mountaines shut,
And some vpon that poynt of Cornwall forth they put.
Yet forced were they there their stations to defend.
Nor could our men permit the Britains to descend
From Ioue or Mars alone; but brought their blood as hie,
From Woden, by which name they stiled Mercurie.
Nor were the race of Brute, which ruled heere before,
More zealous to the Gods they brought vnto this shore
Then Hengists noble heyres; their Idols that to raise
Heere put their German names vpon our weekly daies.
These noble Saxons were a Nation hard and strong,
On sundry Lands and Seas, in warfare nuzzled long;
Affliction throughly knew; and in proud Fortunes spight,
Euen in the iawes of Death had dar’d her vtmost might:
Who vnder Hengist first, and Horsa, their braue Chiefes,
From Germany arriu’d, and with the strong reliefes
Of th’ Angles and the Iutes, them ready to supply,
Which anciently had beene of their affinitie,
By Scythia first sent out, which could not giue them meat,
Were forc’t to seeke a soyle wherein themselues to seat.
Them at the last on Dansk their lingring fortune draue,
Where Holst vnto their troups sufficient harbor gaue.
These with the Saxons went, and fortunatly wan:
Whose Captaine, Hengist, first a kingdome heere began
In Kent; where his great heires, ere other Princes rose
Of Saxonies descent, their fulness to oppose,
With swelling Humbers side their Empire did confine.
And of the rest, not least renowned of their Line,
Good Ethelbert of Kent, th’first christned English King,
To preach the faith of Christ, was first did hither bring
Wise Augustine the Monke, from holy Gregory sent.
This most religious King, with most deuout intent
That mightie Fane to Paule, in London did erect,
And priuiledges gaue, this Temple to protect.
His equall then in zeale, came Ercombert againe,
From that first christned King, the second in that raigne.
The gluttony then vs’d seuerely to suppresse,
And make men fit to prayer (much hindred by excesse)
That abstinence from flesh for forty dayes began,
Which by the name of Lent is knowne to euery man.
As mighty Hengist heere, by force of Armes had done,
So Ella comming in, soone from the Britaines wonne
The Countries neighboring Kent: which lying from the Maine,
Directly to the South did properly obtaine
The Southerne Saxons name; and not the last thereby
Amongst the other raignes which made the Heptarchy:
So in the high descent of that South-Saxon King,
We in the bead-roule heere of our religious bring
Wise Ethelwald: alone who Christian not became,
But willing that his folke should all receiue the name,
Saint Wilfrid (sent from Yorke) into his Realme receiu’d
(Whom the Northumbrian folke had of his See bereau’d)
And on the South of Thames, a seat did him afford,
By whom that people first receiu’d the sauing Word.
As likewise from the loynes of Erchinwin (who rais’d
Th’East-Saxons kingdome first) braue Sebert may be prais’d:
Which, as that King of Kent, had with such cost and state
Built Paules; his Greatness so (this King to imitate)
Began the goodly Church of Westminster to reare:
The Primer English Kings so truly zealous were.
Then Sebba of his seed, that did them all surpasse,
Who fitter for a shryne then for a scepter was,
(Aboue the power of flesh, his appetite to sterue
That his desired Christ he strictly might obserue)
Euen in his height of life, in health, in body strong,
Perswaded with his Queene, a Lady faire and young,
To separate themselues, and in a sole estate,
After religious sort themselues to dedicate.
Whose Nephew Vffa next, inflam’d with his high praise
(Enriching that proud Fane his Grandsire first did raise)
Abandoned the world he found so full of strife,
And after liu’d in Rome a strict religious life.
Nor these our Princes heere, of that pure Saxon straine,
Which tooke vnto themselues each one their seuerall raigne,
For their so godly deeds, deserued greater fame
Then th’ Angles their Allies, that hither with them came;
Who sharing-out themselues a kingdome in the East,
With th’Easterne Angles name their circuit did invest,
By Vffa in that part so happily begun:
Whose successors the Crowne for martyrdome haue won
From all before or since that euer suffred heere;
Redwalds religious sonnes: who for their Sauiour deere,
By cruell heathenish hands vnmercifully slaine,
Amongst vs euer-more remembred shall remaine,
And in the roule of Saints must haue a speciall roome,
Where Derwald to all times with Erpenwald shall come.
When in that way they went, next Sebert them succeeds,
Scarce seconded againe for sanctimonious deeds:
Who for a priuate life when he his rule resign’d,
And to his Cloyster long had strictly him confin’d,
A Corslet for his Cowle was glad againe to take
His Country to defend (for his religions sake)
Against proud Penda, com’n with all his Pagan power,
Those christned Angles then of purpose to deuour:
And suffring with his folke, by Penda’s heathenish pride,
As hee a Saint had liu’d, a constant Martyr dy’d.
When, after it fell out, that Offa had not long
Held that by cruell force, which Penda got by wrong,
Adopting for his heire young Edmond, brought him in,
Euen at what time the Danes this Iland sought to win:
Who christned soone became, and as religious growne
As those most heathenish were who set him on his throne,
Did expiate in that place his predecessors guilt,
Which so much Christian blood so cruelly had spilt.
For, taken by the Danes, who did all tortures try,
His Sauiour Iesus Christ to force him to deny;
First beating him with bats, but no advantage got,
His body full of shafts then cruelly they shot;
&nb
sp; The constant martyr’d King, a Saint thus iustly crown’d.
To whom euen in that place, that Monument renown’d
Those after-Ages built to his eternall fame.
What English hath not heard Saint Edmonds Buries name?
As of those Angles heere, so from their loynes againe,
Whose hands hew’d out their way to the West-Sexian raigne
(From Kenrick, or that claime from Cerdick to descend)
A partnership in fame great Ina might pretend
With any King since first the Saxons came to shore.
Of all those christned heere, who highlier did adore
The God-head, then that man? or more that man? or more that did apply
His power t’advance the Church in true sincerity?
Great Glastenbury then so wondrously decay’d,
Whose old foundation first the ancient Britains lay’d,
He gloriously rebuilt, enriching it with plate,
And many a sumptuous Cope, to vses consecrate:
Ordayning godly lawes for gouerning this Land,
Of all the Saxon Kings the Solon hee shall stand.
From Otta (borne with him who did this Ile invade)
And had a conquest first of the Northumbrians made,
And tributarie long of mightier Hengist held,
Till Ida (after borne) the Kentish power expeld,
And absolutely sate on the Dierian seat,
But afterward resign’d to Ethelfrid the Great:
An Army into Wales who for invasion led,
At Chester and in fight their forces vanquished;
Into their vtter spoyle, then publique way to make,
The long Religious house of goodly Bangor brake,
And slew a thousand Monks, as they deuoutly pray’d.
For which his cruell spoyle vpon the Christians made
(Though with the iust consent of Christian Saxons slaine)
His blood, the hethenish hands of Redwald did distaine.
That murtherers issue next, this kingdome were cxil’d:
And Edwyn tooke the rule; a Prince as iust and mild
As th’other faithlesse were: nor could time euer bring
In all the seauen-fold rule an absoluter King;
And more t’aduance the fayth, his vtmost power that lent:
Who reordained Yorke a Bishops gouernment;
And so much lov’d the poore, that in the waies of trade,
Where Fountaines fitly were, hee Iron dishes made,
And fastned them with chaynes the way farer to ease,
And the poore Pilgrims thirst, there resting, to appease.
As Mercia, mongst the rest, sought not the least to raise
The sauing Christian fayth, nor merits humbler praise.
Nor those that from the stem of Saxon Creda came
Michael Drayton- Collected Poetical Works Page 94