The Description of Britain

Front Cover
J. White, 1809 - 293 pages
 

Selected pages

Other editions - View all

Popular passages

Page 13 - This counsel pleased : the godlike Hector sprung Swift from his seat ; his clanging armour rung. The chief's example follow'd by his train, Each quits his car, and issues on the plain. By orders strict the charioteers enjoin'd, Compel the coursers to their ranks behind. The forces part in five distinguish'd bands, And all obey their several chiefs
Page 19 - Ditisque profundi 455 pallida regna petunt : regit idem spiritus artus orbe alio : longae — canitis si cognita — vitae mors media est.
Page xxi - The hope of meeting with discoveries as great in the Roman, British, and Saxon history as he has given us concerning the preceding period, induced me to examine the work. But my expectations were greatly disappointed. The learned scholar and the deep antiquarian I found sunk into an ignorant novice, sometimes the copier of Huntingdon, but generally the transcriber of Geoffrey. Deprived of his Roman guides, Richard showed himself as ignorant and as injudicious as any of his illiterate contemporaries...
Page 26 - You too, ye bards ! whom sacred raptures fire, To chant your heroes to your country's lyre ; Who consecrate, in your immortal strain, . Brave patriot souls, in righteous battle slain, . , , Securely now the tuneful task renew, And noblest themes in deathless songs pursue.
Page xxi - Ann. 1348, in two parts. The first contains the period from the coming of the Saxons to the death of Harold, and is preserved in the public library of the University of Cambridge, Ff. i. 28. Whitaker, the historian of Manchester, thus speaks of it...
Page 21 - Nascitur ibi plumbum album in mediterraneis regionibus, in maritimis ferrum ; sed ejus exigua est copia : aere utuntur importato.
Page 116 - Forest, is again seen at Stretton on the borders of Warwickshire, from whence it is easily traced to Birmingham and over the Lickey to Droitwich.
Page 26 - The druids now, while arms are heard no more, Old mysteries and barbarous rites restore, A tribe who singular religion love, And haunt the lonely coverts of the grove. To these, and these of all mankind alone, The gods are sure revealed or sure unknown. If dying mortals...
Page xx - Lytlington, as appears from the rolls of the abbey ; and his name occurs in various documents of that establishment in the years 1387, 1397, and 1399. He devoted his leisure hours to the study of British and Anglo-Saxon history and antiquities, in which he made such proficiency that he is said to have been' honoured with the name of the Historiographer.
Page 117 - Blythburgh, to the banks of the Yar. In Lincolnshire are two branches, one running clearly from Tattersal, by Horncastle, Ludford, Strinton, Caistor, and Somerby, and a second nearer to the coast from Lowth towards Brocklesby, and both tending to the passage of the Humber, not far from Barton. Also along the principal part of the coast through Yorkshire, Durham, and Northumberland. On the western side of the...

Bibliographic information