The Thames Head--Cotswold Hills--Seven Springs--Cirencester--Cheltenham--Sudeley Castle--Chavenage--Shifford--Lechlade--Stanton Harcourt--Cumnor Hall--Fair Rosamond--Godstow Nunnery--Oxford--Oxford Colleges--Christ Church--Corpus Christi--Merton--Oriel--All Souls--University--Queen's--Magdalen--Brasenose--New College--Radcliffe Library--Bodleian Library--Lincoln--Exeter--Wadham--Keble--Trinity--Balliol--St. John's--Pembroke--Oxford Churches--Oxford Castle--Carfax Conduit--Banbury--Broughton Castle--Woodstock--Marlborough--Blenheim--Minster Lovel--Bicester--Eynsham--Abingdon--Radley--Bacon, Rich, and Holt--Clifton Hampden--Caversham--Reading--Maidenhead--Bisham Abbey--Vicar of Bray--Eton College--Windsor Castle--Magna Charta Island--Cowey Stakes--Ditton--Twickenham--London--Fire Monument--St. Paul's Cathedral--Westminster Abbey--The Tower--Lollards and Lambeth--Bow Church--St. Bride's--Whitehall--Horse Guards--St. James Palace--Buckingham Palace--Kensington Palace--Houses of Parliament--Hyde Park--Marble Arch--Albert Memorial--South Kensington Museum--Royal Exchange--Bank of England--Mansion House--Inns of Court--British Museum--Some London Scenes--The Underground Railway--Holland House--Greenwich--Tilbury Fort--The Thames Mouth. THE THAMES HEAD. [Illustration: THAMES HEAD.] The river Thames is the largest and most important river in England, and carries the greatest commerce in the world. From the Cotswold Hills in Gloucestershire it flows to the eastward past London, and after a course of two hundred and twenty miles empties into the North Sea. The confluence of many small streams draining the Cotswolds makes the Thames, but its traditional source, or "The Thames Head," is in Trewsbury Mead, about three miles from Cirencester, and at an elevation of three hundred and seventy-six feet above the sea-level. The waters of the infant stream are at once pressed into service for pumping into the higher levels of a canal, which pierces the Cotswolds by a long tunnel, and connects the Thames with the Severn River, flowing along their western base. It receives many tiny rivulets that swell its current, until at Cricklade the most ambitious of these affluents joins it, and even lays claim to be the original stream. This is the Churn, rising at the "Seven Springs," about three miles from Cheltenham, and also on the slope of the Cotswolds. The Churn claims the honor because it is twenty miles long, while the Thames down to Cricklade measures only ten miles. But they come together affectionately, and journey on through rich meadows much like other streams, until the clear waters have acquired sufficient dignity to turn a mill. Cirencester (pronounced Cisseter), which thus has the honor of being a near neighbor of the Thames Head, is an ancient town, occupying the site of the Roman city of Corinium, and