The Visions of England | Page 4

as strong, and clear as summer air,?Blessing and blest of earth and sky, he glides:?Now on some rock-ridge rends his bosom fair,?And foams with cloudy wrath and hissing tides:?Then with full flood of level-gliding force,?His discord-blended melody murmurs low
Down the long seaward course:--?So through Time's mead, great River, greatly glide:?Whither, thou may'st not know:--but He, who knows, will guide.
St. 3 Sketches Prehistoric England. St. 4 Mile-paths; old English name for Roman roads. St. 5 Tree and flower; such are reported to have been naturalized in England by the Romans.--Northern ramparts; that of Agricola and Lollius Urbicus from Forth to Clyde, and the greater work of Hadrian and Severus between Tyne and Solway. St. 6, 7 The Arthurian legends,--now revivified for us by Tennyson's magnificent _Idylls of the King_,--form the visionary links in our history between the decline of the Roman power and the earlier days of the Saxon conquest. St. 9 Villagedom; Angles and Saxons seem at first to have burned the larger towns of the Romanized Britons and left them deserted, in favour of village-life. St. 11 Village-moot: Held on a little hill or round a sacred tree: 'the ealdermen spoke, groups of freemen stood round, clashing shields in applause, settling matters by loud shouts of Aye or Nay.' (J. R. Green, History of the English People). St. 12 Balder, the God of Light, like Adonis in the old Greek story, is a nature-myth, figuring the Sun, yearly dying in winter, and yearly restored to life. St. 13 Landeyda; Name of Danish banner: 'the desolation of the land.'
For further details upon points briefly noticed in this Prelude, readers are referred to Mr. J. R. Green's History, and to Mr. T. Wright's The Celt_, _The Roman_, and _The Saxon, as sources readily accessible.
THE FIRST AND LAST LAND
AT SENNEN
Thrice-blest, alone with Nature!--here, where gray
Belerium fronts the spray?Smiting the bastion'd crags through centuries flown,
While, 'neath the hissing surge,?Ocean sends up a deep, deep undertone,
As though his heavy chariot-wheels went round:
Nor is there other sound?Save from the abyss of air, a plaintive note,
The seabirds' calling cry,?As 'gainst the wind with well-poised weight they float,
Or on some white-fringed reef set up their post,
And sentinel the coast:--?Whilst, round each jutting cape, in pillar'd file,
The lichen-bearded rocks?Like hoary giants guard the sacred Isle.
--Happy, alone with Nature thus!--Yet here
Dim, primal man is near;--?The hawk-eyed eager traders, who of yore
Through long Biscayan waves?Star-steer'd adventurous from the Iberic shore
Or the Sidonian, with their fragrant freight
Oil-olive, fig, and date;?Jars of dark sunburnt wine, flax-woven robes,
Or Tyrian azure glass?Wavy with gold, and agate-banded globes:--
Changing for amber-knobs their Eastern ware
Or tin-sand silvery fair,?To temper brazen swords, or rim the shield
Of heroes, arm'd for fight:--?While the rough miners, wondering, gladly yield
The treasured ore; nor Alexander's name
Know, nor fair Helen's shame;?Or in his tent how Peleus' wrathful son
Looks toward the sea, nor heeds?The towers of still-unconquer'd Ilion.
Belerium; The name given to the Land's End by Diodorus, the Greek historical compiler. He describes the natives as hospitable and civilized. They mined tin, which was bought by traders and carried through Gaul to the south-east, and may, as suggested here, have been used in their armour by the warriors during the Homeric Siege of Troy.
PAULINUS AND EDWIN
627
The black-hair'd gaunt Paulinus
By ruddy Edwin stood:--?'Bow down, O King of Deira,
Before the holy Rood!?Cast forth thy demon idols,
And worship Christ our Lord!'?--But Edwin look'd and ponder'd,
And answer'd not a word.
Again the gaunt Paulinus
To ruddy Edwin spake:?'God offers life immortal
For His dear Son's own sake!?Wilt thou not hear his message
Who bears the Keys and Sword?'?--But Edwin look'd and ponder'd,
And answer'd not a word.
Rose then a sage old warrior;
Was five-score winters old;?Whose beard from chin to girdle
Like one long snow-wreath roll'd:--?'At Yule-time in our chamber
We sit in warmth and light,?While cavern-black around us
Lies the grim mouth of Night.
'Athwart the room a sparrow
Darts from the open door:?Within the happy hearth-light
One red flash,--and no more!?We see it born from darkness,
And into darkness go:--?So is our life, King Edwin!
Ah, that it should be so!
'But if this pale Paulinus
Have somewhat more to tell;?Some news of whence and whither,
And where the Soul may dwell:--?If on that outer darkness
The sun of Hope may shine;--?He makes life worth the living!
I take his God for mine!'
So spake the wise old warrior;
And all about him cried?'Paulinus' God hath conquer'd!
And he shall he our guide:--?For he makes life worth living,
Who brings this message plain,--?When our brief days are over,
That we shall live again.'
Paulinus was one of the four missionaries sent form Rome by Gregory the Great in 601. The marriage of Edwin, King of Northumbria, with Ethelburga, sister to Eadbald of Kent, opened Paulinus' way to northern England. Bede, born less than fifty years after, has given an admirable narrative of Edwin's conversion: which is very completely told in Bright's Early English Church History, B. IV.
Deira, (from old-Welsh deifr, waters), then