This refers to a story then commonly received, that a Scythian horde at one time invaded and peopled a part of Britain. Milton, in his early Vacation Exercise, speaks of 'Humber loud that keeps the Scythian name,' in allusion to a story referred to by Spenser, and by Drayton in the Polyolbion, of a Scythian King Humber, who gave his name to the river. The story of the Scythian invasion (Scythian being the name applied to the inhabitants of Northern Asia) is given also by Sir William Temple in his Introduction to the History of England (Works, vol. iv. p. 508).