Cheshire

O thou thrice happy shire, confined so to be
Twixt two so famous floods as Mersey is and Dee.
Thy Dee upon the west from Wales doth thee divide;
Thy Mersey on the north, from the Lancastrian side,
Thy natural sister shire; and linked unto thee so,
That Lancashire along with Cheshire still doth go.
As towards the Derbian Peak, and Moreland (which do draw
More mountainous and wild) the high-crowned Shutlingslawe
And Molcop be thy mounds, with those proud hills whence rove
The lovely sister brooks, the silvery Dane and Dove;
Clear Dove, that makes to Trent; the other to the west.
But, in that famous town, most happy of the rest
(From which thou tak'st thy name), fair Chester, called of old
Carelegion; whilst proud Rome her conquests here did hold,
Of those her legions known the faithful station then,
So stoutly held to tack by those near North-Wales men;
Yet by her own right name had rather called be,
As her the Briton termed. The Fortress upon Dee,
Then vainly she would seem a miracle to stand,
The imaginary work of some huge giant's hand.