As thine, which visits Windsor’s fam’d abodes.

If you are still refractory, and stand up for the panegyrists of the Po, I must call Denham in aid of my argument, and I hope you will have the taste and candour to acknowledge, that the following are, beyond comparison, the noblest lines that ever were written on a river.

My eye descending from the hill, surveys

Where Thames among the wanton vallies strays,

Thames, the most loved of all the Ocean’s sons,

By his old sire, to his embraces runs;

Hasting to pay his tribute to the sea,

Like mortal Life to meet Eternity.

Though with those streams he no resemblance hold,

Whose foam is amber, and their gravel gold;