button to main menu  Drayton 1622, page 136
button title page
button start Lancashire
button previous page button next page
page 136:-
  Furness Fells
  Barnacle goose
  Walney Island
  Piel Island
  Duddon, River
  Leven, River
  Kent, River

As it malign'd the Rule which mighty Neptune bare,
Whose Fells to that grim god, most sterne and dreadfull are,
With Hills whose hanging browes, with Rockes about are bound,
Whose weighty feet stand fixt in that black beachy ground,
Whereas those scattered trees, which naturally partake,
The fatnesse of the soyle (in many a slimy Lake,
Their roots so deeply sok'd) send from their stocky bough,
A soft and sappy Gum, from which those Tree-geese grow,
Call'd Barnacles by us, which like a Jelly first
To the beholder seeme, then by the fluxture nurst,
Still great and greater thrive, untill you well may see
Them turn'd to perfect Fowles, when dropping from the tree
Into the Meery Pond, which under them doth lye,
Waxe ripe, and taking wing, away in flocks doe flye;
Which well our Ancients did among our Wonders place:
Besides by her strong Scite, she doth receave this grace,
Before her neighbouring Tracts, (which Fournesse well may vaunt)
That when the Saxons here their forces first did plant,
And from the Inner-land the ancient Britains drave,
To their distrest estate it no lesse succour gave,
Then the trans-Severn'd Hills, which their old stocke yet stores,
Which now we call the Welsh, or the Cornubian Shores,
What Countrey lets ye see those soyles within her Seat,
But shee in little hath, what it can shew in great.
As first without her selfe at Sea to make her strong,
(Yet how soe'r expos'd, doth still to her belong)
And fence her furthest poynt, from that rough Neptunes rage,
The Isle of Walney lyes, whose longitude doth swage
His fury when his waves, on Furnesse seeme to warre,
Whose crooked back is arm'd with many a rugged [star] scarre
Against his boystrous shocks, which this defensive Isle
Of Walney still assayle, that shee doth scorne the while,
Which to assist her hath the Pyle of Fouldra set,
And Fulney at her backe, a pretty Insuley,
Which all their forces bend, their Furnesse safe to keep:
But to his inner earth, divert we from the deepe,
Where those two mightie Meres, out-stretcht in length do wander,
The lesser Thurstan nam'd, the famouser Wynander,
So bounded with her Rocks, as Nature would descry,
By her how those great Seas Mediterranean lye.
To Sea-ward then she hath her sundry Sands agen,
As that of Dudden first, then Levin, lastly Ken,
Of three bright Naiades nam'd, as Dudden on the West,
That Cumberland cuts off from this Shire, doth invest
Those Sands with her proud Style, when Levin from the Fells,
Besides her naturall source, with the abundance swells,
[margin] Barnacles one of the British Wonders.
[margin - star] A scarre is a Rock.
Which
gazetteer links
button -- "Thurstan mere" -- Coniston Water
button -- "Dudden Sands" -- Duddon Sands
button -- "Dudden" -- Duddon, River
button -- "Fulney" -- Foulney Island
button -- Furness Fells
button -- "Furnesse" -- Furness
button -- "Levin" -- Leven, River
button -- "Pyle of Fouldra" -- Piel Island
button -- "Levin Sands" -- Ulverston Sands
button -- "Isle of Walney" -- Walney Island
button -- "Wynander mere" -- Windermere lake
button next page
button to main menu Lakes Guides menu.