towers, well barred gates, and houses with threatening battlements
built on high, and provided with all requisite instruments of
defence. Its plains are spacious, its hills are pleasantly
situated, adapted for superior tillage, and its mountains are
admirably calculated for the alternate pasturage of cattle, where
flowers of various colours, trodden by the feet of man, give it
the appearance of a lovely picture. It is decked, like a man's
chosen bride, with divers jewels, with lucid fountains and abundant
brooks wandering over the snow white sands; with transparent
rivers, flowing in gentle murmurs, and offering a sweet pledge
of slumber[2] to those who recline upon their banks, whilst it
is irrigated by abundant lakes, which pour forth cool torrents
of refreshing water.

[1] The description of Britain is given in very nearly the same
terms, by Orosius, Bede, and others, but the numbers denoting
the length and breadth and other dimensions, are different in
almost every MS. Copy.

[2] "Soporem" in some MSS., "saporem" in others; it is difficult
from the turgidity and superabundance of the style to determine
which is the best meaning.


4. This island, stiff--necked and stubborn--minded, from the
time of its being first inhabited, ungratefully rebels, sometimes
against God, sometimes against her own citizens, and frequently
also, against foreign kings and their subjects. For what can
there either be, or be committed, more disgraceful or more
unrighteous in human affairs, than to refuse to show fear to God