Dewsbury.
[Dee's divinity was Druidical. From the same superstition, some rivers
in Wales are still held to have the gift or virtue of prophecy.
Giraldus Cambrensis, who wrote in 1188, is the first who mentions Dee's
sanctity from the popular traditions. In Spenser, this river is the
haunt of magicians:
"Dee, which Britons long ygone
Did call DIVINE."
And Browne, in his _Britannia's Pastorals_, book ii. s. 5., says,
"Never more let HOLY Dee,
Ore other rivers brave," &c.
Much superstition was founded on the circumstance of its being the
ancient boundary between England and Wales; and Drayton, in his tenth
Song, having recited this part of its history, adds, that by changing
its fords it foretold good or evil, war or peace, dearth or plenty, to
either country. He then introduces the Dee, over which King Edgar had
been rowed by eight kings, relating to the story of Brutus. See more on
this subject in Warton's note to line 55. in Milton's _Lycidas_:
"Now yet where Deva spreads her wizard stream."
_Who was True Blue?_--In the churchyard of Little Brickhill, Bucks, is a
table monument bearing the following inscriptions:
"Here lieth y^e body of _True Blue_, who departed this life January y^e
17th, 1724-5, aged 57. Also y^e body of Eleanor, y^e wife of _True
Blue_, who departed this life January 21st, 1722-3, ageed (sic) 59."
Who was "True Blue?" If it were not for his wife Eleanor, one would take
him to be some kin to "Eclipse" or "Highflyer." Lysons makes no mention of
such a person; nor, I am assured by a friend who has made the search for
me, does Lipscomb; although another friend referred me there under the
conviction that he was not only named, but that his history was given. The
kind {589} of tombstone is sufficient to show that he was a person of some
property, and yet he has not only no "Esq." affixed to his name, but it is
without the prefix "Mr." One can scarcely doubt that the name is not a real
one. Browns, Blacks, Whites, and Greens there are in abundance, but nobody
ever heard of a "Blue;" nor, so far as I know, did anybody ever christen
his child "True." Yet what could have been the incidents of a life that
required the fiction to be carried even to the grave?