district seems, indeed, to abound in springs, and in wet weather the level ground is probably freely intersected by brooklets, forming the stream which is the undoubted head of Isis, and which has been called the Thames from time immemorial. On the very threshold of our task we are confronted, indeed, with two sometime-disputed points which it will be necessary to clear away, or come to terms with, if we would proceed upon our voyage of some two hundred miles from source to Nore with a clear conscience. They relate, first, to the name of the river; and second, to the precise spot in the Cotswold country where it starts upon its wanderings. Neither of these controversial subjects shall, however, detain us long from an intimate acquaintance with the "mighty king of all the British rivers, superior to most in beauty, and to all in importance," setting forth on its career in humble smallness, gathering tranquil volume as it flows in succession through the fertile counties of Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey, Middlesex, Kent, and Essex, and finally delivering its full tribute to the Northern Ocean. What rare historical memories it evokes, what varieties of landscape it touches and creates, let the following lines describe:-- "The blood-stain'd scourge no tyrants wield, No groaning slaves enrich the field, But Health and Labour's willing train Crowns all thy banks with waving grain; With beauty decks thy sylvan shades, With livelier green invests thy glades; And grace, and bloom, and plenty pours On thy sweet meads and willowy shores. The field where herds unnumber'd rove, The laurell'd path, the beechen grove, The oak, in lonely grandeur free, Lord of the forest and the sea; The spreading plain, the cultured hill, The tranquil cot, the restless mill, The lonely hamlet, calm and still; The village spire, the busy town, The shelving bank, the rising down, The fisher's punt, the peasant's home, The woodland seat, the regal dome, In quick succession rise to charm The mind, with virtuous feelings warm; Till where thy widening current glides, To mingle with the turbid tides, Thy spacious breast displays unfurl'd The ensigns of th' assembled world." [Illustration: "THAMES HEAD."]