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 {hew 

 His fearefull face in time of greateft ftorme ; 

 Huge ziffius, whom mariners efchew 

 No lefle 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 beautie, and th* one moyity 

 Transform'd to fim for their bold furquetry ; 

 But th' upper halfe their hew retained flill, 

 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 mufic. 1 



From fabulous to the fifh of everyday-life is 

 an eafy ftep. Another poet of the Elizabethan 

 period mail fum up the ftore of fim 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 fim can any more or Britifti fea-town mew 

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



1 Spenfer, "Faerie Queenc," bk. ii. xii. 23, 31. 



