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LEWESDON HILL.
By stony weights; till happier hour arrive
To land it on the vacant beach unrisk'd.
To land it on the vacant beach unrisk'd.
But what is yonder [1]Hill, whose dusky brow
Wears, like a regal diadem, the round
Of antient battlements and ramparts high;
And frowns upon the vales? I know thee not.
Thou hast no name, no honourable note,
No chronicle of all thy warlike pride,
To testify what once thou wert, how great,
How glorious, and how fear'd. So perish all,
Wears, like a regal diadem, the round
Of antient battlements and ramparts high;
And frowns upon the vales? I know thee not.
Thou hast no name, no honourable note,
No chronicle of all thy warlike pride,
To testify what once thou wert, how great,
How glorious, and how fear'd. So perish all,
- ↑ 'Eggardon Hill is a very high hill, and gives name to the Hundred. Mr. Coker says it is uncertain whether it takes its name from Edgar, king of the West Saxons, or from Orgarus, Earl of Cornwall: and indeed this last derivation is the truest; there being little reason to doubt that it is the old Orgarestone. The camp on the brow of this hill is a large and strong fortification, and seems to be Roman.'—Hutchins's Dorset, Vol. I. p. 289; where there is an engraving of this camp. But Hutchins has misrepresented Mr. Coker, who indeed prefers the derivation from Orgar. His words are these: 'That it takes name from Edgar, the West Saxon king, I dare not affirm, having nothing to prove it but the nearnesse of the name. It better likes me to think this the place, which in Doomsday-book is called Orgareston, but whether it take name from Orgareus, Earl of Cornwall, I know not; though I think I should run into no great error to believe it. Coker's Survey of Dorsetshire, p. 26.
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