Of watery Neptune.”
The popular strain of Thomson’s “Rule Britannia” gives an emphatic assertion of Britain’s naval greatness. No poet, however, has so celebrated the floating bulwarks of Britain, and the “Hearts of Oak” who man them, as Campbell. His marvellously spirit-stirring lyric, “Ye Mariners of England,”[3] has no rival in its intense patriotism.
In conclusion, suffice it that for a considerable time the claim of England’s sovereignty of the seas, so far as it includes special homage to our flag, or anything resembling a judicial supremacy over the ships of other nations, within the limits of the narrow (or any other) seas, has been a dead letter. But we can well afford to dispense with what was at best a somewhat questionable sort of shadowy honour, for we know that we yet retain the substantial maritime supremacy which alone enables us to rank as the foremost nation of the world—
“Mistress, at least while Providence shall please,
And trident-bearing Queen of the wide seas!”
to quote the noble lines of the patriotic and Christian poet, Cowper. Well will it be for us to constantly bear in mind the vital truth that the same great poet proclaimed:—
“They trust in navies, and their navies fail:
God’s curse can cast away ten thousand sail!”
SPURS, BATTLE OF THE.—Henry VIII of England landed in France, July, 1513, and soon gathered an army of 30,000 men. He was shortly after joined by the Emperor Maximilian, with a well-appointed army of horse and foot. They laid siege to Terouenne, which they invested with an army of 50,000 men; and the Duc de Longueville advancing to its relief was signally defeated. The French were everywhere routed in the battle. This battle of Guinnegate was called the Battle of the Spurs, because the French made more use of their spurs than their swords. Fought 18th, August, 1513.