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Readings in English History Drawn from the Original Sources: Intended to Illustrate a Short History of England
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Historical SummaryThe following fragment of a poem, commonly calle The Ruined City, comes from Anglo-Saxon times, but it seems to refer to the ruins of the Roman city Aquæ Solis, the modern city of Bath. It is not hard to imagine the effect which the sight of such ruins falling into decay would have upon a barbarian, even if he were a barbarian conqueror.
COOK and TINKER, Translations from Old English Poetry, pp. 56–57; trans. by Chauncey B. Tinker. World History 24. The Ruined City
Wondrously wrought and fair its wall of stone, Shattered by Fate! The castles rent asunder, The work of giants moldered away!
Its roofs are breaking and falling; its towers crumble In ruin. Plundered those walls with grated doors — Their mortar white with frost.Its battered ramparts Are shorn away and ruined, all undermined By eating age. The mighty men that built it, Departed hence, undone by death, are held Fast in the earth’s embrace. Tight is the clutch Of the grave, while overhead of living men A hundred generations pass away.
The city wall
Long this red wall, now mossy gray, withstood, While kingdom followed kingdom in the land, Unshaken ’neath the storms of heaven — yet now Its towering gate hath fallen. . . .
Radiant the mead-halls in that city bright, Yea, many were its baths. High rose its wealth Of hornèd pinnacles, while loud within Was heard the joyous revelry of men — Till mighty Fate came with her sudden change!
Wide-wasting was the battle where they fell. Plague-laden days upon the city came; Death snatched away that mighty host of men. . . .
There in the olden time full many a thane, Shining with gold, all gloriously adorned, Haughty in heart, rejoiced when hot with wine; Upon him gleamed his armor, and he gazed On gold and silver and all precious gems; On riches and on wealth and treasured jewels, A radiant city in a kingdom wide.
The hot baths
There stood the courts of stone. Hot within, The stream flowed with its mighty surge. The wall Surrounded all with its bright bosom; there The baths stood, hot within its heart. . . .
Contents:
Chicago:
"24. The Ruined City," Readings in English History Drawn from the Original Sources: Intended to Illustrate a Short History of England in Readings in English History Drawn from the Original Sources: Intended to Illustrate a Short History of England, ed. Edward Potts Cheyney (1861-1947) (Boston: Ginn, 1935, 1922), 33–34. Original Sources, accessed July 15, 2025, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=KR9DVMEJHYMS3GJ.
MLA:
. "24. The Ruined City." Readings in English History Drawn from the Original Sources: Intended to Illustrate a Short History of England, in Readings in English History Drawn from the Original Sources: Intended to Illustrate a Short History of England, edited by Edward Potts Cheyney (1861-1947), Boston, Ginn, 1935, 1922, pp. 33–34. Original Sources. 15 Jul. 2025. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=KR9DVMEJHYMS3GJ.
Harvard:
, '24. The Ruined City' in Readings in English History Drawn from the Original Sources: Intended to Illustrate a Short History of England. cited in 1922, Readings in English History Drawn from the Original Sources: Intended to Illustrate a Short History of England, ed. , Ginn, 1935, Boston, pp.33–34. Original Sources, retrieved 15 July 2025, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=KR9DVMEJHYMS3GJ.
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