Notes 



Cotton celebrates his favourite river in his Wonders of the Peake, thus : 



The silver Dove (how pleasant is that name !) 



Runs through a -vale high-crested cliffs o'ershade 



(By her fair progress only pleasant made) , 



But tuith so swift a torrent in her course 



As spurs the nymph, flies from her native source 



To seek "what's there deny'd, the sun's toarm beams, 



And to embrace Trent' s prouder swelling streams. 



In this so craggy ill contrived a nook, 



Of this our little "world, this pretty brook, 



Alas I 'tis a/I the recompense I share 



For all the intemperances of t/ie air, 



Perpetual winter, endless solitude, 



Or the society of men so rude, 



That it is ten times worse. Thy murmurs, Dove 



Or humor of lovers : or men fall in love 



With thy bright beauties, and thy fair blue eyes 



Wound like the Parthian ivhile the Shooter flies. 



Of all fair Thetis' daughters none so bright, 



So pleasant none to taste, none to the sight 



None yields the gentle angler such delight : 



To 'which the bounty of her stream is such 



As only with a swift and transient touch 



T' enrich her sterile borders as she glides, 



And force sweet Jiowers from their marble sides. 



Cotton has this further praise of the Dove : 



Oh ! my beloved Nymph ! fair Dove, 

 Princess of Rivers, how I love 

 Upon thy jlowery banks to lie, 

 And view thy silver stream, 

 When gilded by a summer s beam, 

 And in it all thy "wanton fry 



Play ing at liberty ; 

 And with my Angle upon them, 



The all of treachery 

 I ever learn d to practise and to try ! B. 



Page 282. Know you whence this river Trent derives its name? Dray ton thus 

 gives the reason of the name " Trent." 



A more than usual power did in that name consist, 

 Which thirty doth import, by "which she thus divined, 

 There should be found in her of fishes thirty kind ; 

 And thirty abbeys great, in places fat and ranke, 

 Should in succeeding time be builded on her banke ; 

 And thirty severale streams from many a sundry -way, 

 Unto her greatness should their "watery tribute pay. 



It is probable that all these reasons for the name are wrong, and that it was 

 given to the river before the Latin word was known in Britain. B. 



Page 286. What's here the sign of a, bridge? The road from the "Dog and 



426 



