- <poem>
Besides, when shepherds and the swains prepare, Unto the brooks withal, their flocks of sheep; To wash their fleeces, and to make them fair [25. p. 196.]* In every pool and running water deep: The savour of the wool doth so impair The pleasant streams, and plunging that they keep,
As if that Lethe-flood ran everywhere Or bitter Doris intermingled were.
Or when land floods through long and sudden rain, Descending from the hills and higher ground, The sand and mud the crystal streams do stain, And make them rise above their wonted bound, To overflow the fields and neighbour plain: The fruitful soil and meadows fair are drowned;
The husbandman doth leese his grass and hay; The banks, their trees; and bridges borne away.
So when the leaves begin to fall apace And bough and branch are naked to be seen; While Nature doth her former work deface, Unclothing bush and tree of summer's green; Whose scattered spoils lie thick in every place As sands on shore or stars the poles between,
And top and bottom of the rivers fill: To Angle then I also think it ill.
All winds are hurtful, if too hard they blow: [26. p. 196.]* The worst of all is that out of the East, Whose nature makes the fish to biting slow And lets the pastime most of all the rest; The next that comes from countries clad with snow And Arctic pole, is not offensive least;
The Southern wind is counted best of all; Then that which riseth where the sun doth fall.
- <poem>
