![]() There though it be far smaller than lower down, yet is it still a mighty great water, and it is then well 200 miles from the main sea. But one who should follow it up further & further would reach at last the place where it came forth from the mountains. ![]() Remembrance of deeds that have been done and things that have fallen, on some due cause, even so might it well be with the Sundering Flood, and whereas also I wot something of that cause I shall now presently show you the same.įor ye must know that all this welfare of the said mighty river was during that while that it flowed through the plain country anigh the city or the fertile pastures acres of hill and dale and down further to the north. Nevertheless as meseemeth that no name is given to any town or mountain or river causeless, but that men are moved to name all steads for a Nay oft they feasted and gibed and gabbed, for they loved their river much, and were proud of it wherefore they said it was no Sunderer but a uniter that it joined land to land and shore to shore that it had peopled the wilderness and made the waste places blossom, and that no highway for wheels & beasts in all the land was so full of blessings and joys and was their own wet Highway of the Flood. And it is no wonder, considering all that I have told concerning the wares and chatter that it bore up-country, though the folk of the city and its lands, (and the city-folk in special) knew no cause for this name. Now the name of this river was the Sundering Flood, and the city at the mouth thereof was called the City of the Sundering Flood. Richard, and the Holy Austin our Candle in the dark!) Yea and some were even bigger, so that the land was well furnished both of fisheries and water-ways. ![]() Other rivers moving no few fell into this main flood, and of them were some no lesser than the Thames is at Abingdon (where I, who gathered this tale, dwell in the House of the Black Canons blessed be St. The sea) yet was this great river a noble and wide-spreading water, and the down stream thereof not so heavy nor so fierce but that the barges and lesser keels might well spread their sails when the south-west blew, and fare on without beating of if the wind were fouler for them they that went forth to reach from shore to shore might be tracked up by the draught of horses and bullocks, and bear the wares of the merchants to many a cheaping. And moreover, where the tide failed, and there was no longer a flood to bear the sea-going keels up stream, (and that was hard on an hundred of miles from Thomas of India stepping over the gangway, and come to visit their uplandish Christmas and the Yule-feast of the field-abiders of mid-winter frost. And now it was like looking at a huge wood of barked and smoothened fir-trees when one saw the masts of the ships that lay in the said haven.īut up this river ran the flood of tide a long way, so that the biggest of dromonds and round-ships might fare up it, and oft they lay amid pleasant up country places, with their yards all but touching the windows of the husbandman’s stead, and their bow-sprits thrusting forth amongst the midderns and the routing swine, and querulous news and the uneasy lads and lasses sitting at high-mass of the Sunday in the grey village church, would see the tall masts dimly amidst the painted Saints of the aisle windows, and their minds would wander from the mass-hackled priest and the words and the gestures of him, and see to visions of far countries and outlandish folk, and some would be heart-smitten with that desire of wandering and looking on new things which so oft the sea-beat board, and the wind-strained pine bear with them to the dwellings of stay-at-homes: and to some it seemed as if, when they went from out the church they should fall in with St. It is told that there was once a mighty river which ran south into the sea and at the mouth thereof was a great and rich city which had been builded and had waxed and thriven because of the great and most excellent haven which the river aforesaid made where it fell into the sea.
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