196 THE_ COMPLETE ANGLER. [part i. 



Nottingham, Lincoln, Leicester, and York, augmenteth the turbu- 

 lent current of Humber, the most violent stream of all the isle. 

 This Humber is not, to say truth, a distinct river having a spring- 

 head of his own^ but it is rather the mouth or cestuariuin of divers 

 rivers here confluent and meeting together, namely, your Derwent, 

 and especially of Ouse and Trent; and, as the Danow, having 

 received into its channel the river Dravus, Savus, Tibiscus, and 

 divers other, changeth his name into this of Humberabus, as the 

 old geographers call it. 



4. Medway, a Kentish river, famous for harbouring the royal 

 navy. 



5. Tweed, the north-east bound of England ; on whose, 

 northern banks is seated the strong and impregnable town' of 

 Berwick. 



6. Tyne, famous for Newcastle, and her inexhaustible coal- 

 pits.* These, and the rest of principal note, are thus comprehended 

 in one of Mr Drayton's Sonnets: — 



Our floods' queen, Thames, for ships and swans is crown'd ; 



And stately Severn for her shore is prais'd ; 

 The crystal Trent, for fords and fish renown'd ; 



And Avon's fame to Albion's cliffs is rais'd. 



Carlegion Chester vaunts her holy Dee.; 



York many wonders of her Ouse can tell ; 

 The Peak, her Dove, whose banks so fertile be. 



And Kent will say her Medway doth excel : 



Cotswold commends her Isis to the Tame ; 



Our northern borders boast of Tweed's fair flood ; 

 Our westernrparts extol their Willy's fame, 



And the old Lea brags of the Danish blood. f 



* It is unnecessary to give here such a description and history of the rivers of this 

 kingdom as some readers would wish for. They may, however, find a great variety of 

 curious and useful learning on the subject in Selden's Notes on the Polyolbio?i. — H. 



t ** LEE /lu. Ly5an, Saxon. Luy, Mar. \_forsan Marcellinus], Lea, Polydoro. 

 The name of the water which (runnyn betwene Ware and London) devydethe, for a 

 great part of the way, Essex and Hertfordshyre. It begynnethe near a place called , 

 Whitchurche ; and from thence, passinge by Hertford, Ware, and Waltham, openethe 

 into the Thamise at Ham in Essex ; wheare the place is, at this day, called Lee Moutke. 

 It hathe, of longe tyme, borne vessells from London, 20 myles towarde the head ; for, in 

 tyme of Kinge Alfrede, the Danes entered Leymouthe, and fortified, at a place adjoyn- 

 inge to this ryver, 20 myles from London ; where, by fortune, king Alfrede passinge by, 

 espied that the channell of the ryver might be in such sorte weakened, that they should 

 want water to returne withe their shippes : he caused therefore the water to be abated by 

 two greate trenches, and settinge the Londoners upon theim, he made theim batteil ; 

 ■wherein they lost four of their captaines, and a great nomber of their common souldiers ; 

 the rest flyinge into the castle which the^ had builte. Not longe after, they^weare so 

 pressed that they forsoke all, and lefte their shippes as a pray to the Londoners ; which 

 breakinge some, and burninge other, conveyed the rest to London. This castle, for the 

 distance, might seme Hertforde; but it was some other upon that banke, which had no 

 longe continuance ; for Edward the elder, and son of this Alfrede, builded Hertforde 

 not longe after." — Vide Ijaxdh^.x^^^ Dictionarium Topograpkicum^ voce LEE. Dray- 

 ton's Polyolbion, Song the Twelfth, and the first note thereon. Other authors, who 

 confirm this fact, also add, that for the purpose aforesaid he opened the mouth of the 

 river. See Sir William Dugdale's History 0/ the embanking and draining the Fejts^ 

 and Sir John SpeUnan's Li/e of iElfred the Great, published by Hearne, in 8vo, 1709 ; 



