84 Charles G. Osgood, 



And next to him the Nene downe softly slid; 

 And bounteous Trent, that in him selfe enseames 

 Both thirty sorts of fish and thirty sundry streames.*' 



The well-known course- of the Nene is described in detail in 

 Holinshed from its source above Northampton to Peterborough, 

 Wisbech, and its mouth in the Wash. Harrison speaks of its 

 dissipation into many branches 'among the fennes and medowes, 

 not possible almost to be numbred' (i. 172), thus sliding softly- 

 down, as Spenser has it. 



In Holinshed the 'bounteous Trent' is 'one of the most excel- 

 lent rivers in the land, not onlie for store of samon, sturgeon, 

 and sundrie other kinds of delicate fish wherewith it dooth 

 abound, but also for that it is increased with so manie waters, 

 as for that onelie cause it may be compared either with the Ouze 

 or Saverne' (i. 162).*^ Spenser's intimation of the meaning of 



Alexander Neckam's De Naturis Rertim, cap. 174 (ed. T. Wright, Rolls 

 Series, no. 34) ' 'Juxta vaticinium etiam Merlini, viguit ad Vada Boum 

 Sapientia tempore suo ad Hibernise partes transitura.' Cf. the Animad- 

 versiones of Thomas Caius, who defends the seniority of Oxford 

 (Hearne, T. Caii VindicicB, 2. 337). Brian Twyne, in his Antiquitatis 

 Academice Oxoniensis Apologia, Oxford, 1608, reviews the 'trite' subject 

 (Bk. 2, pp. 148-50). He cites Neckam's words, and then a sermon on 

 the text Prov. 9. i, doubtfully ascribed to Bonaventura ('in sermone 

 scholastico Theologicae facultatis in studio Parisiensi'), which in turn 

 cites Rabanus and a 'vita Dionysii Areopagitse' to the effect that 

 'secundum vaticinium Merlini vigebant studia in Anglia tempore suo ad 

 partes Hybernise transitura ad vada saxa' (italics mine). I do not find 

 this in Rabanus or any vita of Dionysius, or among the Sermones of 

 Bonaventura, authentic or doubtful.. Whatever 'ad vada saxa' means, it 

 is evident that under the influence of the migration to Stamford in 

 Edward Ill's reign, the statement of Neckam is undergoing revision, 

 since Twyne says (p. 150) : 'Prseter illud vero, est et aliud, Merlinii 

 nomen prse se ferens existimatur, de translatione literarum Oxoniensium 

 ab Oxonia Stanfordiam, usque vaticinium; quod sic habet: 



Doctrinse studium, quod nunc viget ad vada Boum 



Tempore venturo (vel ut alii recitant) 



Ante finem Ssecli, celebrabitur ad vada Saxi.' 



But Twyne suspects that it is not a genuine prophecy of Merlin, as it 

 is found in no ancient or trustworthy author. It is clear, however, that 

 it could not have escaped Spenser in his antiquarian reading or con- 

 versation. 



"St. 35. 



" Quoted by Dr. Harper, p. 13. 



