Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber's Note
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This e-text is based on the 1891 edition of the book. Minor punctuation errors have been tacitly corrected. Inconsistencies in hyphenation and spelling, as well as the use of obsolete terms, such as 'humble bee', 'havock', etc., have been retained.

The following passages have been corrected or need to be commented:

# p. viii (List of Illustrations): 'Garrick's Weir'--> 'Garrick's
Villa'
# p. 35: 'pigstyes'--> 'pigsties'
# p. 49: 'Bathhurst'--> 'Bathurst'
# p. 107: 'probaby'--> 'probably'
# p. 291: 'lumber'--> 'number'
# p. 317: 'an all the seas'--> 'on all the seas'
'Manor of Pleasuance'--> 'Manor of Pleasaunce'
# p. 343: 'hnows'--> 'knows'
# p. 365: 'Jesus Hospital at Bray': page number added (146)

Italic text in the original version has been placed between underscores (_text_); passages in small caps have been symbolised by forward slashes (/small caps/). [oe] symbolises the corresponding ligature; the caret symbol (^) indicates subsequent superscript characters.

/Rivers of Great Britain:

The Thames, from Source to Sea./

RIVERS OF GREAT BRITAIN.

The Thames, from Source to Sea.

DESCRIPTIVE, HISTORICAL, PICTORIAL.

CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED:

_LONDON, PARIS & MELBOURNE_.

1891.

[ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.]

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

ABOVE OXFORD.--_By W. SENIOR._
PAGE

The Source of the Thames--Early Names of the River--Seven
Springs--Thames Head--The Churn and its Course--Thames and
Severn Canal--Cricklade--Castle Eaton--Inglesham--Fairford and
the Coln--Lechlade--The First Lock--Some Thames Flowers--Old
Buscot--Hart's Weir--Bird Life--Radcot Bridge--Eddying
Pools and Golden Shallows--Canal-like Reaches--Tadpole
Bridge--Bampton--Duxford Ferry--Canute's Country--The Windrush--The
Oldest Bridge--Old Father Thames--Disused Weir-pools--Bablock
Hythe, Stanton Harcourt, and Cumnor--Skinner's Weir and Pinkhill
Lock--Eynsham Weir, Bridge, and Cross--The Evenlode--Witham
Hill--Thames Angling--Godstow--King's Weir--Port Meadow--Folly
Bridge 1

CHAPTER II.

OXFORD TO ABINGDON.--_By D. MACCOLL._

Oxford, from the Upper River; the New Town--The Courses of the
River, from Medley Weir to Folly Bridge--The Houses of the
Regulars and Friars--The University and Parish Churches--The
Halls and Colleges of the Seculars, from the Thirteenth Century
to the Reformation--Jacobean Oxford--Classic Oxford--Convenient
Oxford--The Architectural Revival--The Undergraduate
Revival--The River below Folly Bridge, and the Invention
of Rowing--The Navigation Shape of the River--Floods--The
Barges--Iffley--Littlemore--Kennington--Radley--Sandford--Nuneham 33

CHAPTER III.

ABINGDON TO STREATLEY.--_By J. PENDEREL-BRODHURST._

Abingdon--The Abbey--St. Nicholas' Church--The Market
Cross--The Ancient Stone Cross--St. Helen's Church--Christ's
Hospital--Culham--First View of Wittenham Clump--Clifton
Hampden--The "Barley Mow"--A River-side Solitude--Day's Lock--Union
of the Thames and the Isis--Dorchester--The Abbey Church--Sinodun
Hill--Shillingford Bridge--Bensington--The Church--Crowmarsh
Giffard--Wallingford--Mongewell--Newton Murren--Moulsford--The
"Beetle and Wedge"--Cleeve Lock--Streatley 62

CHAPTER IV.

STREATLEY TO HENLEY.--_By W. SENIOR._

Streatley, the Artists' Mecca--Goring versus Streatley--Goring from
the Toll-gate--Streatley Mill--Weirs and Backwaters--Antiquity
of Streatley and Goring--Goring Church--Common Wood--Basildon
Ferry and Hart's Wood--A Thames Osier Farm--Whitchurch
Lock--Pangbourne--Hardwicke House and Mapledurham--Caversham
Bridge--Reading and its Abbey--A Divergence to the Kennet, with
calls at Marlborough, Hungerford, and Newbury--The Charms of
Sonning--"The Loddon slow, with verdant alders crowned"--St.
Patrick's Stream--Shiplake Weir--Wargrave and Bolney Court--Park
Place--Marsh Lock--Remarks on Thames Angling--The Approach to
Henley 85

CHAPTER V.

HENLEY TO MAIDENHEAD.--_By the Rev. PROFESSOR BONNEY, F.R.S._

The Best Bit of the River--Henley--The Church--The "Red
Lion"--Shenstone's Lines--Henley Regatta--The First University
Boat-race--Fawley Court--Remenham--Hambledon Lock--Medmenham
Abbey and the Franciscans--Dissolution of the Order--Hurley--Lady
Place and its History--A Strange Presentiment--Bisham Abbey
and its Ghost--Bisham Church--Great Marlow--The Church and its
Curiosities--"Puppy Pie"--Quarry Woods--The Thames Swans and
the Vintners' Company--Cookham and Cliefden--Hedsor--Cliefden
Woods--The House--Raymead--The Approach to Maidenhead 113

CHAPTER VI.

MAIDENHEAD TO WINDSOR.--_By H. SCHÜTZ WILSON._

Maidenhead--Bray--Jesus Hospital--The Harbour of Refuge--Frederick
Walker--A Boat-race--Monkey Island--The River--Surley Hall--Boveney
Lock--Eton--Windsor--St. George's Chapel--The Castle--Mr. R. R.
Holmes--James I.--Surrey--The Merry Wives of Windsor 143

CHAPTER VII.

WINDSOR TO HAMPTON COURT.--_By GODFREY WORDSWORTH TURNER._

Leaving Windsor--Eton, its History and its Worthies--The College
Buildings--Windsor Park--The Long Walk--The Albert Bridge--Datchet
and Falstaff--Old Windsor--"Perdita's" Grave--The Tapestry
Works--The "Bells of Ouseley"--Riverside Inns--The Loves of
Harry and Anne Boleyn--Magna Charter Island--Runnymede--The
Poet of Cooper's Hill--Fish at Bell Weir--A Neglected
Dainty--Egham and Staines--John Emery--Penton Hook--Laleham--Dr.
Arnold--Chertsey--The Lock and Bridge--Albert Smith and his
Brother--Chertsey Abbey--Black Cherry Fair--Cowley the Poet--A
Scene from "Oliver Twist"--St. Ann's Hill--Weybridge--Oaklands
and the Grotto--Shepperton Lock and Ferry--Halliford--Walton--The
Scold's Bridle--Sunbury--Hampton--Moulsey Hurst and its Sporting
Associations--Hampton Court Bridge 161

CHAPTER VIII.

HAMPTON COURT TO RICHMOND.--_By J. PENDEREL-BRODHURST._

Hampton Court--Thames Ditton: The "Swan"--The
Church--Surbiton--Kingston: The Coronation
Stone--Teddington--Twickenham--Eel Pie Island--Petersham--Richmond
Park--Approach to Richmond 201

CHAPTER IX.

RICHMOND TO BATTERSEA.--_By the Rev. PROFESSOR BONNEY, F.R.S._

The River at Richmond--A Spot for a Holiday--The Old Palace
of Sheen--The Trumpeters' House--Old Sad Memories--Richmond
Green--The Church--Kean's Grave--Water Supply--The
Bridge--The Nunnery of Sion and Convent of Sheen--Sir
William Temple--Kew Observatory, Isleworth--Sion House and
its History--Kew Palace and the Georges--Kew Gardens--Kew
Green--Brentford--Mortlake--Barnes--Chiswick--The
Boat-race--Hammersmith--Putney--Barn Elms--Putney and Fulham--The
Bishops of London--Hurlingham--The Approach to a Great City 229

CHAPTER X.

BATTERSEA TO LONDON BRIDGE.--_By EDMUND OLLIER._

The Scene Changes--A City River--Battersea--Chelsea--The Old
Church--Sir T. More and Sir Hans Sloane--Cheyne Walk--Don Saltero's
Coffee-house and Thomas Carlyle--The Botanical Gardens--Chelsea
Hospital--The Pensioners--Battersea Park--The Suspension
Bridge--Vauxhall--Lambeth--The Church and Palace--Westminster
Palace and the Abbey--Its Foundation and History--Westminster
Hall--Westminster Bridge--The Victoria Embankment--York
Gate--Waterloo Bridge and Somerset House--The Temple--Blackfriars
Bridge--St. Paul's--Southwark Bridge--The Old Theatres--Cannon
Street Bridge--London Bridge and its Traffic 258

CHAPTER XI.

LONDON BRIDGE TO GRAVESEND.--_By AARON WATSON._

Hogarth's Water Frolic--Billingsgate--Salesmen's Cries--The Custom
House--Queen Elizabeth and the Customs--The Tower, and Tower
Hill--The Pool--The Docks--Ratcliff Highway--The Thames Tunnel--In
Rotherhithe--The Isle of Dogs--The Dock Labourer--Deptford and
Greenwich--Woolwich Reach and Dockyard--The _Warspite_ 288