"To all friends round the Wrekin."


LINCOLNSHIRE.--STAMFORD.

Doctrinæ studium, quod nunc viget ad vada Boum
Tempore venture celebrabitur ad vada Saxi.
Science that now o'er Oxford sheds her ray
Shall bless fair Stamford at some future day.
_Merlin._


STAFFORDSHIRE.

Or Trent who like some earth-born giant spreads
His thirsty arms along the indented meads.
_Milton._

And beauteous Trent that in himself enseams (fattens)
Both thirty sorts of fish and thirty sundry streams.
_Spenser._


BERKSHIRE.--ABINGDON.

(_From Piers Plowman's MSS. 1400._)

And there shall come a king and confess you religious,
And beat you as the Bible telleth, for breaking of your rule,
And then shall the Abbot of Abingdon and all his issue for ever