30 Bath under West Saxon Dominion. 



The poem begins : — 



Wraetlic is thes weal Stan Stupendous is this wall of stone, 



wyrde gebraecon, fatally' shattered ! 



The strongholds are bursten, the work of giants decaying, 

 the roofs are fallen, the towers tottering, dwellings unroofed 

 and mouldering, masonry weather-marked, dismantled the 

 battlements, time-scarred, tempest-marred, undermined of 

 eld. 



Eorth grap hafath Earth's grasp holdeth 



waldend wyrhtan the mighty workmen 



forweorene geleorene worn away lorn away 



heard gripe hrusan in the hard grip of the grave 



oth hund cnea till a hundred ages 



wer theoda gewitan. of men-folk do pass. 



Oft thes wag gebad Oft this wall witnessed 



raeg har and read fah (weed-grown and lichen-spotted,) 



rice a2fter othrum one great man after another 



ofstonden under stormum taking shelter out of storms. 



How did the swift sledge-hammer flash and furiously come 

 down upon the rings when the sturdy artizan was rivetting 

 the wall with clamps so wondrously together. Bright were 

 the buildings, the bath-houses many, high-towered the pin- 

 nacles, frequent the war-clang, many the mead-halls, of 

 merriment full, till all was overturned by Fate the violent. 

 The walls crumbled widely ; dismal days came on ; death 

 swept off the valiant men ; the arsenals became ruinous 

 foundations ; decay sapped the burgh. Pitifully crouched 

 armies to earth. Therefore these halls are a dreary ruin, 

 and these pictured gables ; the rafter-framed roof sheddeth 

 its tiles ; the pavement is crushed with the ruin, it is broken 

 up in heaps ; where erewhile many a baron — 



