Oh, all right. It was a bloke called James Thomson who made it for a masque called Alfred.
But for years I thought it was part of Purcell's King Arthur, though I realise now I was confusing it with "Fairest Isle" (Dryden).
Just as I thought Magna Carta was The Great Map (ref. cartography etc.) And only later discovered that there was another word for that, then - mappa, as in mappa mundi.
So a Carta is a charter, after all...
Who was it that came up with that pious truth about "a little learning"? Don't tell me, John. I know.
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