226 Gleanings from the 



" The dreadful fifh, that hath deferv'd the name 

 Of Death, and like him lookes in dreadful hew ; 

 The griefly wafTerman, that makes his game 

 The flying mips with fwiftnefs to purfew ; 

 The horrible fea-fatyre, that doth mew 

 His fearefull face in time of greateft ftorme ; 

 Huge ziffius, whom mariners efchew 

 No leffe than rockes, as trauellers informe ; 

 And greedy rofmarines with vifages deforme : 



"All thefe and thoufand thoufands many more, 

 And more deformed monfters thoufand fold 

 With dreadfull noife and hollow rombling rore 

 Came rufhing, in the fomy waues enrold." 



Soon afterwards Spenfer's travellers fee the five 

 Sirens, as if he was determined that the fea fhould 

 hold wonders enough. Thefe were once " faire 

 Ladies," but now 



" Depriv'd 



Of their proud beau tie, and th' one moyity 

 Transform'd to fifh for their bold furquetry ; 

 But th' upper halfe their hew retained ftill, 

 And their fweet (kill in wonted melody." 



The laft line, however, is worthy for its fweetnefs 

 to compare with anything which even Milton wrote 

 on murk. 1 



From fabulous to the fifh of everyday-life is 

 an eafy ftep. Another poet of the Elizabethan 

 period mall fum up the ftore of fifh with which 

 Nature, niggardly in beftowing other charms, has 

 enriched Lincolnfhire. The German Ocean was 

 even in his time recognifed as the Mother of 

 Wealth : 



" What fifh can any more or Britifh fea-town fhew 

 That's eatable to us, that it doth not beftow 



1 Spenfer, <* Faerie gueenc," bk. ii. xii. 23, 31. 



