PRINCIPAL RIVERS IN ENGLAND. 141 



dlesex, and Essex, on one side, and Surrey and 

 Kent on the other, wedding itself to the Kentish 

 Medway in the verv jaws of the ocean. This 

 river is said to feel the violence and benefit of 

 the sea more than any other river in Europe, eb- 

 bing and flowing twice a day, more than sixty 

 miles. Sir John Denham has given so grand a 

 description of the Thames, in his Cooper' s-hill, 

 that I think the insertion of some part, cannot 

 prove unacceptible to the reader : 



My eye descending from the hill, surveys 

 Where Thames among the wanton vallies strays*.- 

 Thames, the most lov'd of all the ocean's sons 

 By his old Sire, to his embraces run, 

 Hasting to pay his tribute to the sea, 

 Like mortal lite to meet eternity ; 

 Tho' with those streams he no resemblance hold; 

 Whose foam is amber and their gravel gold : 

 His genuine and less guilty wealth t' explore, 

 Search not his bottom, but survey his shore ; 

 O'er which he kindly spreads his spacious wing, 

 And hatches plenty for the ensuing spring; 

 Nor then destroys it with too fond a stay, 

 Like mothers which their infants overlay : 

 Nor with a sudden and impetuous wave, 

 Like profuse kings, resumes the wealth he gave. 

 No unexpected inundations spoil 

 The mower's hopes, or mock the ploughman's toil; 

 But god-like his unweary'd bounty flows : 

 First loves to do, then loves the good he does. 

 Nor are his blessings to his banks confm'd, 

 But free and common as the sea or wind ; 

 When he, to boast or to disperse his stores, 

 Full of the tribute of his grateful shores, 

 Visits the world, and in his flying tow'rs- 

 Brings home to us, and rr/akes both Indies ours, 

 Finds wealth where 'tis, Bestows it where it wants, 

 Cities in deserts, woods In cities, plants. 

 So that to us no thing, no place, is strange, 

 \YUile his fair besom is the world's exchange. 



