University of Virginia Library

TO The Right Honourable Lords, Thomas Earle of Arundell and Surrey, Earle Marshall of England: Edward Lord Viscount Wimbleton: Henry Lord Viscount Fawlkland: and Sir Thomas Edmonds, Knight, Treasurer of the Kings Houshold: Lords of his Maiesties most Honourable Priuy Councell, and Commissioners for the Nauigation and fishing of the famous Riuers of Thames and Medway.

Right Noble Lords, with sorrow I beheld,
That which to write my duty hath compel'd,
And (from my pen) the Thames flow'd to the presse,
From thence it ebbes to you to finde redresse.
My Honourable Lord of Dorchester,
He truly noted in particular,
Dame Isis wrongs, and Thames great injuries,
For they were sad perspectiues to his eyes,
And had his Lordship liu'd his meaning was
To make the Riuer passable, to passe.
For then with noble care and diligence
He view'd the helps, and the impediments,
Which aid, or hinder passage vp and downe,
Twixt Oxford City, and braue Windsor towne;
Yet as I sometimes row'd and sometimes steer'd,
I view'd where well, where ill the way appeard;
And here I haue describ'd the way we went,
Commixing truth with honest merriment,
My threed-bare wit a mad wooll gathering goes,
To shew the things in verse I saw in prose;
And (Honourable Peeres) I humbly craue,
My artlesse lines may your acceptance haue,
Wishing each fault remou'd (which stands vnfit)
As soone as you can reade what I haue writ,
Desiring God to giue you high content
Here, and hereafter glory permanent.