HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS 7 



abbeys, besides affording glimpses into the inner life 

 of these establishments, which do not seem to have 

 been always abodes of peace and studious retirement, 

 give indications of the former areas of forest, woods 

 and mosses, or the positions of lakes now reduced 

 in size or effaced. Old Acts of Parliament, looked 

 at from our present point of view, are by no means 

 always repulsive reading. They have one great advan- 

 tage over their modern representatives in that they 

 are often commendably brief; and in their occasional 

 quaint local colouring, they afford material for interest- 

 ing comparison with existing topography. 



Among historical documents I include poems of all 

 kinds and ages. Our earliest English literature is 

 poetical ; and from the days of Caedmon down to our 

 own time, the typical characters of landscape have 

 found reflection in our national poetry. It is not 

 merely from what are called descriptive poems that 

 information of the kind required is to be gathered. 

 The wild border-ballad, full of the rough warfare of 

 the time, has a background of bare moorland, treacher- 

 ous moss-hags, and desolate hills, which can be com- 

 pared with the aspect of the same region to-day. The 

 gentler lyrics of a later time take their local colouring 

 from the glades and dells, the burns and pastures where 

 their scenes are laid. In the stately cadence of the 

 Faery Queen, among the visionary splendours of another 

 world, the rivers of England and Ireland are pictured, 

 each with its characters touched off as they appeared 

 in the days of Elizabeth. And in Drayton's quaint, 

 but somewhat tiresome Polyolbion, abundant material 

 is supplied for a comparison between the topography 



