[33.] Holland is now known as The Netherlands. The sovereign is the
young queen Wilhelmina, who began to reign in 1898.
[34.] Rampire, a dam or dike.
[35.] From opulence that springs. Holland was a great commercial power
during the seventh [Transcriber's note: should probably be
"seventeenth"] century; then her commerce dwindled, and after 1713 she
was of small political importance. Of course the poet's description is
greatly exaggerated.
[36.] Dull as their lakes. The Netherlands can at present boast of
four public universities.
[37.] Belgic sires. _Belgae_ was the name given to the early
inhabitants of Holland and certain regions near that country.
[38.] Lawns, cleared places in a wood; not cultivated grassland near a
house, as now.
[39.] Arcadian pride. Arcadia is an inland country in Greece, often
mentioned by poets as a place of ideal beauty.
[40.] Famed Hydaspis. The river Jhelum, or Jhelam, in India, about
which many fabulous stories used to be told. One was, that its sands
were of gold.
[41.] The self-dependent lordlings. Probably in no country in the
world have the nobility been so popular as in England. It has been
said that an Englishman "dearly loves a lord.
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