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CHAPTER XII.

Allington Castle.- Reminiscences of Sir Thomas Wyatt
the poet, and his Son. Maidstone. Tunbridge.-Pens-

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hurst, the seat of the Sidneys. Hever Castle. - Eden
Bridge. Conclusion.

Page 312

THE

THAMES AND ITS TRIBUTARIES.

CHAPTER I.

Ruins of Godstow Nunnery.- The Legends of Fair Rosamond. The Monks of Ensham. - Woodstock Park and its Memories. - Rosamond's Bower, Chaucer's House.

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His Description of Woodstock Park.

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- Queen Elizabeth's Verses while a Prisoner. - The Ghosts of Woodstock. Blenheim.

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ASSING from Oxford into Berkshire, and on through Botley, we follow the windings of the Thames for about two miles, by the by-road, till we ar

rive at Witham, the seat of the Earl of Abingdon, and so on to the ancient site of Godstow Nunnery, famous for its legendary and poetic associations. Who has not heard the touching story of "Fair Rosamond ?" a story upon which

VOL. II.

B

historians in later years have attempted to throw discredit, but which will ever hold its place in the popular heart. And here we are upon the scene of it. Here on this bank the "Rose of the World" passed the innocent years of her early girlhood; and here she was buried, with that insulting epitaph so well known

Hic jacet in tumba, Rosa Mundi, non Rosamunda;
Non redolet, sed olet, quæ redolere solet;

inscribed however in later years, when her royal lover, so faithful to her memory, was no

more.

How sweet are the lines of the neglected and almost unknown poet, Daniel, upon this subject! We quote his Complaint of Rosamond, premising, that the poet succeeded Spenser as Laureate, in the year 1599, soon after which the poem was published. After describing the grief of Henry II. on discovering the body of his beautiful mistress, he continues

Thus as these passions do him overwhelm,
He draws near to the body to behold it,
And as the vine married into the elm

With strict embraces so doth he enfold it.
And as he in his careful arms doth hold it,
Viewing the face that even Death commends,
On senseless lips millions of kisses spends.

"Pitiful mouth!" said he, "that living gavest

The sweetest comfort that my soul could wish,
O be it lawful now that dead thou havest

This sorrowing farewell of a dying kiss!
And you, fair eyes, containers of my bliss,
Motives of love, born to be matched never,
Entombed in your sweet circles, sleep for ever!

"Ah, how, methinks, I see, Death dallying seeks
To entertain itself in Love's sweet place,
Decayed roses of discoloured cheeks

Do yet retain the hues of former grace,
And ugly Death sits fair within her face,
Sweet remnants resting of vermilion red,
E'en Death itself might doubt that she were dead!

"Wonder of beauty! oh, receive these plaints,

These obsequies, the last that I shall make thee,
For now my soul that now already faints,

That loved thee living, dead will not forsake thee,
And hastes her speedy arms to overtake thee.
I'll meet my death and free myself thereby,
For, ah! what can he do, that cannot die?

"Yet, ere I die, thus much my soul doth vow
Revenge shall sweeten Death with ease of mind,

And I will cause posterity shall know

How fair thou wert above all womankind.

And after ages monuments shall find,
Showing thy beauty's title, not thy name,

Rose of the world! that sweeten'd so the same!"

The beauty of the quotation may plead excuse for its length, and some reader, perhaps unaware that such a poet as Daniel ever wrote,

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