University of Virginia Library

IOHN TAYLORS LAST VOYAGE, AND ADVENTVRE performed from the twentieth of Iuly last 1641. to the tenth of September following.

Of famous Rivers, Brooks, Bournes, Rills, & Springs,
Of Deepes and Shallowes my invention Sings,
Of Rocks Impenetrable, fourds and Mills,
Of Stopps, and Weares, Shelves, Sands, and mighty Hills,
Of Navigable passages (Neglected)
Of Rivers spoyl'd, men begger'd and deiected.
Of Tame, of Isis, Seaverne, Wye and Teme
Lugge, Loden, Doyre, and Monnoes Pearly Streame,
Of these, of more than these, and of their Vses,
And of their miserable strange Abuses.
I truely treate, that men may note and see
What blessings Navigable Rivers bee,
And how that thousands are debar'd those blessings
By few mens Avaritious hard oppressings.
I also shew how those faults may be mended
And no man have just cause to be offended.
And with a paire of Oares (for that intent)
I once from London unto Lincolne went,
Whereas a passage seven miles was cut thorowe
From Lincolne into Trent, and to Gainsborowe;
That way I past, and into Humber past
To Hull, from thence to Owse, and Yorke at last,
Another Voyage to the West, againe
I (with a Wherry) past the raging Maine
From London to the Isle of Wight and thence
To Salisbury (with Time and Coynes expence)
Since when our gratious soveraigne did ordaine
The Viscount Dorchester to take the paine
To view what wrongs the River Thames did beare
I served then, and every Stoppe and Weare
And all impediments, I found I writ
And (hoping for amendment) printed it.
For care was taken, and true industrie
That from faire Oxfords University
To London I Annottomiz'd the flood
And shew'd it's qualities both bad and good.
Promise was made, Thames wrongs should bee reform'd
And some small helps were speedily perform'd
But yet not halfe is done that then was spoken
(All promises are either kept or broken)
For as a monument, of our disgraces
The Rivers too too fowle in many places.
I have describ'd heere many an injury
In three great Rivers, Severne, Thames, and Wye)
Besides two Rivers Avon, one makes speede
To Bristol, (and doth make it rich indeede.)
And would Bathe cure that Rivers great amisse
That City would be richer then it is,
But each man to himselfe beares private love
And no man will the generall griefe remove.
The other Avon Ruines past Gloster West
From Bristols Avon fifty miles at least,
It glides to Stretford Towne from Coventry
And into Severne falls at Tewxbury.
Of Rivers, many writers well have done
Grave Camden, Draytons Polyolbyon,
And painefull Speede, doth in his Mappes declare
Where all these Brookes and waters were and are,
But yet not any one have sought (but I)
To finde their wrongs, and shew some remedy.
I shew the meane neglect of Navigation
For few mens profit, publique lamentation,
To encrease some five or fixe mens Treasury
Whiles twenty thousand lives in misery,
From shore to shore brave Rivers are dam'd so
That not a woodden dish hath roome to go,
No not a hand breadth, but that all is stop'd
And from the poore man all reliefe is stop'd.
It is the goodnesse of our God to give
To us foure Elements, whereby we live:
Those Elements, Fire, Water, Ayre are nam'd
And Earth (of which althings are made and fram'd,
And all those blessings, the great God of Heaven
(Some more, some lesse to every man hath given.
By ayre and breath (and breath no man buy
Ayre serves all creatures in community)
And though earth yeeld materialls for the fire
Which many a sonne (by right) holds from his sire,
Yet sure me thinkes the water should be free
For passage, for all men of each degree.
And though the Rivers in proportions are
Shar'd thine, or mine, or this or that mans share,
Yet sure, when God gives water, boates to beare
It should not be stop'd up, with Mill or Weare.
And now my meaning plainer to disclose,
A little while I'le turne my Verse to Prose.