nothing to say to them, for I pretend not to such mysterious knowledge; but if they are true they must be done either by the holy angels, to whom God has appointed guardians and keepers of us, or else by the art of devils, whom God permits now and then to exert their powers in the lower world. But this is foreign to my purpose."
In a poem of Sir Philip Sidney's, on The Seven Wonders of England,[1] he mentions Bruerton's or Brereton's Lake as being one of them, and points out a likeness between its peculiar attributes and his own condition as a lover. The seventh wonder is of course the fair lady to whom the verses are addressed. Of the remaining five, which are of greater general interest, Drayton too takes cognizance. They are Stonehenge,[2] of which stones Sir Philip says, "no eye can count them just"; a fish[3] [pike], which may be vivisected, have its gall extracted, and be stitched up again without stoppage of vitality; the cavern of the Peak;[4] the petrifying properties of the earth at Apsley,[5] and barnacle geese[6] from "wooden bones and blood of pitch."
The Christmastide miracle, as it was esteemed, of the Glastonbury thorn, does not escape the notice of Drayton, who says that it is out of reverence to the place that
"Trees yet in winter bloom and bear their summer's green."[7]
The original stock is said to have been St. Joseph of Arimathaea's walking-stick, which budded on being stuck into the earth when he arrived on a mission to Avalon and rested on Wearyall Hill. In remarking on what Drayton relates of Glastonbury, the traditional burial-place of King Arthur, Selden refers to the belief[8] that this hero shall reign again, and cites Lydgate in support of it. "I don't
- ↑ May be seen in Arber's English Garner, vol. ii. p. 183.
- ↑ Pol. iii. [ii. 705]. In Selden's note on this passage he cites Gerald of Wales as saying, "Not one of the stones but is good for somewhat in physic."—[ii.717]. Selden's folk-lore is not unworthy of attention, but I cannot pay it due attention in these chapters.
- ↑ Pol. iii. [ii. 711]. At this reference far more than seven wonders are named.
- ↑ Pol. xxvi. [iii. 1176, &c.] The Peak claims seven wonders of her own.
- ↑ Pol. xxii. [iii. 1057].
- ↑ Pol. iii. [ii. 711], and Part II. of The Folk-Lore of Drayton.
- ↑ Pol. iii. [ii. 712].
- ↑ [iii. note, 723].
