[This was written at Rydal Mount, as a token of affectionate respect for the memory of Milton. "I have determined," says he, in his preface to his _History of England_, "to bestow the telling over even of these reputed tales, be it for nothing else but in favour of our English Poets and Rhetoricians, who by their wit will know how to use them judiciously."--I.F.] One of the "Poems founded on the Affections." The extract given in the Fenwick note is not from the "preface," but from the first book of Milton's _History of England_.--ED. Where be the temples which,[41] in Britain's Isle, For his paternal Gods, the Trojan raised?[U] Gone like a morning dream, or like a pile Of clouds that in cerulean ether blazed! Ere Julius landed on her white-cliffed shore,[V] 5 They sank, delivered o'er To fatal dissolution; and, I ween, No vestige then was left that such had ever been. Nathless, a British record (long concealed In old Armorica, whose secret springs 10 No Gothic conqueror ever drank) revealed The marvellous[42] current of forgotten things;[W] How Brutus came, by oracles impelled, And Albion's giants quelled,[X] A brood whom no civility could melt, 15 "Who never tasted grace, and goodness ne'er had felt." By brave Corineus aided, he subdued,[Y] And rooted out the intolerable kind; And this too-long-polluted land[43] imbued With goodly[44] arts and usages refined; 20 Whence golden harvests, cities, warlike towers, And pleasure's sumptuous[45] bowers; Whence all the fixed[46] delights of house and home, Friendships[47] that will not break, and love that cannot roam.[Z] O, happy Britain! region all too fair 25 For self-delighting fancy[48] to endure That silence only should inhabit there, Wild beasts, or uncouth savages impure! But, intermingled with the generous seed, Grew[49] many a poisonous weed; 30 Thus fares it still with all that takes its birth From human care, or grows upon the breast of earth. Hence, and how soon! that war of vengeance waged By Guendolen against her faithless lord;[AA] Till she, in jealous fury unassuaged 35 Had slain his paramour with ruthless sword: Then, into Severn hideously defiled, She flung her[50] blameless child, Sabrina,--vowing that the stream should bear 39 That name through every age, her hatred to declare.[AB]