Oxford, though in stanza 25, by mention of the Cherwell, whose mouth is in the lower end of Oxford, the river is there the Isis.

And eke he somewhat seem'd to stoupe afore

With bowed backe, by reason of the lode
And auncient heavy burden which he bore
Of that faire city, wherein make abode
So many learned impes, that shoote abrode,
And with their braunches spred all Britany,
No lesse then do her elder sisters broode."

915

In Saxton's map the courses of the Isis near Oxford are shown more in a southeasterly than a southerly direction, as on the modern maps. Oxford is represented by a group of towers, and the effect of the whole is exactly that of a laboring back bent under the 'auncient heavy burden' of the 'faire city.' In stanza 28 Thames is crowned with towers, that is, with Troynovant or London. The idea is obviously classical, but is clearly illustrated in Saxton's way of indicating more important cities, by crowded clusters of towers arranged coronet-wise.16 His crown seems to mark him as the chief and king of the attendant English rivers (cf. st. 30), illustrating Camden's phrase, fluminum Britannicorum regnator' (ed. 1590, Gloucestershire, p. 281; cf. p. 173).

Thames is attended by many little rivers, which 'owe vassalage to him':

The chaulky Kenet, and the Thetis gray,

The morish Cole, and the soft sliding Breane,
The wanton Lee, that oft doth loose his way,

And the still Darent, in whose waters cleane

Ten thousand fishes play, and decke his pleasant streame."

These tributaries are named by Spenser in order of their occurrence on the course of the Thames toward the sea. 'Chaulky Kenet' is obviously the Kennet, which joins the Thames at Reading. Holinshed does not call it chalky, except to speak of its 'taking the Chalkburne rill withall' (1. 85). Camden, mentioning Marlborough on its upper waters, is not sure whether

it takes its name from marl: 'Marleborow, olim Marleberge. An hoc recentius factum fuerit nomen a Marga, quam Marle nostra lingua dicimus, non facile dixerim' (1590, Wiltshire, pp. 184, 5). In Holland's translation is added: 'Certes, it lieth neere a chaulkey hill, which our Ancestours before they borrowed this name Chaulke of the Latine word Calx, named Marle' (Wiltshire, p. 255).

'Thetis gray' is the least of all this group. It is the modern Wye, which meets the Thames from the north at Bourne End, near Hedsor. Harrison twice refers to it-once at I. 80: 'the Thetis commonlie called the Tide that commeth from Thetisford'; and again at 1. 86: 'It [Thames] meeteth with a brooke soone after that consisteth of the water of two rilles, whereof the one called the Use, riseth about west Wickham [mod. West Wycombe], out of one of the Chilterne hilles, and goeth from thence to east Wickham or high Wickham, a pretie market towne. The other named Higden, descendeth also from those mounteines but a mile beneath west Wickham, and joining both in one at the last, in the west end of east Wickham towne [High Wycombe], they go togither to Wooburne, Hedsor, & so into the Thames. Some call it the Tide; and that word doo I use in my former treatise.' Higden survives in the name of the village Hughendon, on the north branch of the little stream, but I find no name Thetisford on the modern map. Why Thetis is called 'gray' I do not know.

'Morish Cole' is the Colne, which meets Thames from the north at Staines. 'Morish' in Spenser means 'marshy,'18 and the epithet may well describe the Colne valley as it was in Spenser's time. In Leland's Itinerary (Ed. T. Smith 1. 105) Colne is called 'the moore water.'

'Soft sliding Breane' is probably the old Brane or modern Brent. Harrison says (1. 87): 'The next fall of water is at Sion [cf. modern Sion House], neere unto new Brainford, so that it issueth into the Thames between them both. This water is called Brane, that is in the Brittish toong (as Leland saith) a frog. It riseth about Edgeworth [Edgeware], and commeth from thence by Kingesburie, Twiford, Perivall, Hanwell, and Austerleie [Osterley].' Spenser may himself have observed that it is 'soft sliding.'

18 Cf. Vergil's Gnat 251; Ruins of Time 140; F. Q. V. x. 18, 4.

'Wanton Lee' is obvious. Though Holinshed does not speak of its wantonness, his long description (1. 87-9) supports Spenser's line. Saxton's, or any other map, makes his characterization even more evident. The river first flows generally southeast for some fifteen miles, then east and northeast about ten, to Ware, then, by a wide bend, to the southeast and south towards its mouth at Blackwall. Camden speaks of its hastening 'with a merry glee' to the Thames-Lea jam lætior ad Tamesim properat' (1590, Hertfordshire, p. 313).

Of 'still Darent' Camden says it 'runneth with a soft streame' (Kent, p. 328). Its course through Kent to the Thames near Dartford is fully described by Holinshed (p. 89), but neither he nor Camden speaks of its fish. This and the beauty of the country the poet had opportunity to observe for himself.

The 'stately Severne' (st. 30) needs no comment. Holinshed says that in many respects 'it commeth farre behind the Thames,' though in others 'it is nothing at all inferiour,' and calls it a 'noble streame' (1. 117). For the Humber see the comment on stanza 38.

There was the speedy Tamar, which devides

The Cornish and the Devonish confines;

Through both whose borders swiftly downe it glides,
And meeting Plim, to Plimmouth thence declines:
And Dart, nigh chockt with sand of tinny mines.10

"The river Tamara, now Tamar,' says Camden, 'shewing his head heere not farre from the northern shore, taketh his course with a swift running streame southward' (Cornwall, p. 196). Both he and Harrison (1. 104) speak of it as the boundary between Devonshire and Cornwall.20 Neither describes it as joining the Plim; indeed, Harrison makes clear the contrary. Spenser, in a hurried glance at the map, may have confused the Plim and the Tavy, which meets with the Tamar in the upper reaches of Plymouth Bay, or he may have thought of the narrow bay as the Plim River above Plymouth. Saxton's map favors such an error. More likely, however, Spenser is here careless, as in stanzas 25 and 34.

This fact and the following inaccuracy are noted by Dr. Harper, pp. 12, 17.

Of the Dart Holinshed says: 'Of it selfe moreover this water is verie swift, and thorough occasion of tin-workes whereby it passeth, it carrieth much sand to Totnesse bridge [near its mouth], and so choketh the depth of the river downeward, that the haven it selfe is almost spoiled by the same' (I. 103),21

But Avon marched in more stately path,

Proud of his adamants, with which he shines
And glisters wide, as als' of wondrous Bath,

And Bristow faire, which on his waves he builded hath.

Holinshed calls the Avon 'a goodlie water, and growne to be verie famous by sundrie occasions' (1. 115), and Camden writes of the noble river Avon: which holding a crooked course, runneth anon to that ancient City which of the hote Bathes. . . we at this day [call] Bath' (Somerset, p. 233). Then follow long descriptions of the glories of Bath and Bristol (pp. 233-9). As the Avon leaves Bristol, 'there are on ech side very high cliffes... the one of them which on the East-side overlooketh the river beareth the name S. Vincent's rock, so full of Diamants [adamantum adeo fœcunda, p. 173], that a man may fill whole strikes or bushels of them. These are not so much set by, because they be so plenteous. For in bright and transparent colour they match the Indian diamants, if they passe them not: in hardnesse onely they are inferior to them; but in that nature her selfe hath framed them pointed with six cornered or foure cornered smooth sides; I thinke them therefore worthy to be had in greater admiration. The other rocke also on the Westside is likewise full of Diamants [adamantum est ferax, p. 172]. which by the wonderfull skill and worke of nature, are enclosed as young ones within the bowels of hollow and reddish flints.' Camden is speaking of the valley-walls underneath Clifton Downs, a suburb of Bristol. In Saxton's map of Somerset both Bath and Bristol are shown by clusters of towers rising from the line of the river.

21

And there came Stoure with terrible aspect,

Bearing his sixe deformed heads on hye,

That doth his course through Blandford plains direct,
And washeth Winborne meades in season drye.23

Quoted by Dr. Harper, pp. 12-14.

22 St. 31.

23 St. 32.

This is the Stour in Dorset. Harrison describes it (I. 98) as a verie faire streame,' and says: 'It riseth of six heads," whereof three lie on the north side of the parke at Sturton within the pale, the other rise without the parke; & of this river the towne and baronie of Sturton dooth take his name as I gesse, for except my memorie do too much faile me, the lord Sturton giveth the six heads of the said water in his armes.' He was right: the arms of Baron Mowbray, Segrave, and Stourton, are to-day 'quarterly of six; Ist sable, a bend or, between six. fountains. When Spenser describes Stour 'with terrible. aspect, Bearing his sixe deformed heads on hye,' he may be framing a heraldic compliment to the then Lord Stourton.26 Or more likely Stour's 'terrible aspect,' as Joyce suggests, is another instance of Spenser's fondness for etymology in proper names. The word 'stour,' meaning variously 'struggle,' 'agony,' 'paroxysm,' 'terrifying menace,' is a favorite of Spenser's; he uses it more than fifty times.

27

By Blandford plains, which are not especially mentioned in either Holinshed or Camden, Spenser may mean the broad open country, four or five miles above Blandford, traversed by the Stour, the Cale, and the Lydden; or more likely the region just below Blandford, where the valley spreads into a wide plain towards Wimborne Minster, Spenser's Winborne. Leland remarks that 'the soile about Winburn Minstre self is very good for corne, grass and woodde."

24

128

Next him went Wylibourne with passage slye,
That of his wylinesse his name doth take,

And of him selfe doth name the shire thereby."

Quoted by Dr. Harper, p. 12.

Debrett's Peerage, s. v. Mowbray. The six springs which form the northern sources of the Stour are all now within Stourton Park (Baedeker, Great Britain, 1906, p. III). The modern map shows a string of little ponds lying in the park, along what is called Six Wells Bottom. This was Edward, ninth baron, who married Frances, daughter of Sir Thomas Tresham. He was of no eminence, but his father was one of the peers who sat at the trial of Mary Queen of Scots. His grandfather had been hanged for murder.

27

Joyce cites Tygris fierce' (IV. xi. 20. 9), Wylibourne and Mole (IV. xi. 32), Trent (IV. xi. 35. 8), Stour, and among the Irish rivers 'sad Trowis' (41. 7), 'balefull Oure' (44. 5), and 'false Bregog' (VII. vi. 40. 4). Perhaps one may add Wharf, Dee, and Humber; see below.