Heaven (that hath placed this island to give law
To balance Europe, and her states to awe,)
In this conjunction doth on Britain smile,
The greatest leader, and the greatest isle!
Whether this portion of the world were rent,
By the rude ocean, from the continent,
Or thus created; it was sure designed
To be the sacred refuge of mankind.
To My Lord Protector. E. WALLER.
This England never did, nor never shall,
Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror.
King John, Act v. Sc. 7. SHAKESPEARE.
A land of settled government,
A land of just and old renown,
Where freedom broadens slowly down,
From precedent to precedent:
Where faction seldom gathers head:
But, by degrees to fulness wrought,
The strength of some diffusive thought
Hath time and space to work and spread.
The Land of Lands. A. TENNYSON.
Broad-based upon her people's will,
And compassed by the inviolate sea.
To the Queen. A. TENNYSON.
SCOTLAND.
O Caledonia! stern and wild.
Meet nurse for a poetic child!
Land of brown heath and shaggy wood,
Land of the mountain and the flood.
Land of my sires! what mortal hand
Can e'er untie the filial band,
That knits me to thy rugged strand!
Lay of the Last Minstrel, Canto VI. SIR W. SCOTT.
Hear, Land o' Cakes and brither Scots
Frae Maiden Kirk to Johnny Groat's.
On Capt. Grose's Peregrinations Thro' Scotland. R. BURNS.
HOLLAND.
As when the sea breaks o'er its bounds,
And overflows the level grounds,
Those banks and dams that, like a screen
Did keep it out, now keep it in.
Hudibras. S. BUTLER.