.

demands, I was delighted with the opportunity of testing it from an angler's standpoint, and, if possible, tasting its trout.

Having thus traced the Lea up to its source at Houghton Regis by the help of an ordnance map, I will now make a rapid descent, touching only a few places here and there which I find noted in "Rambles by Rivers," by James Thorne. From him I learn that the Lea rises at Houghton Regis, about a mile and a half north-east of Dunstable, in Bedfordshire, and entering Hertfordshire near Hide Mill proceeds in a south-easterly direction through Wheathampstead and Hatfield Park. At Luton, though it appears to be a very interesting little town, we can only stop to say that Dr. Johnson once visited Luton Hoo, and it was in the grounds there that Boswell proposed that he should walk. He replied:

"Don't let us fatigue ourselves. Why should we walk there? Here's a tree; let us get to the top of it."

A short distance from Hertford the Lea is joined by the lovely little stream which Thorne calls "The Maran ”—I know not which is the right title, this or Mimram.

Panshanger Park is, or was, renowned for a famous Oak. According to Arthur Young, in his "Survey of Herts," it was called the Great Oak in 1709. Strutt, in his "Silva Britannica," fol., 1822, says it contains one thousand feet of timber, and is nineteen feet in circumference at a yard from the ground. The trunk rises

from its roots with a graceful curve, and the main branches separate from it in a regular, yet varied but free manner. When clothed in the full luxuriance of its foliage, nothing in the shape of a tree can surpass the harmonious grandeur of its appearance. Here is an engraving of it reduced from Mr. Thorne's book.

I hope some one who reads the above account

will be able to tell me that this grand tree still flourishes in the twentieth century.

Between Hertford and Ware is the Chadwell Spring, the source of the New River. The little picture of it given below is taken from Mr. Thorne's book.

What is of more interest to me and to my

readers is the fact that the banks of the river Lea between Tottenham and Ware were the scenes of that inimitable book, "The Complete Angler," by Izaak Walton. It was indeed in pursuit of any scrap of information about Izaak Walton that I started on this literary pilgrimage down the river. I find a long dissertation on the character of the man, but not much about

CHAT SPRING AS 11 A A L'

readers is the fact that the Pas of the Lea totw Tottenham and Ware w scenes of that inanitab took, "The Cod, Angler," by Iz.. Waste. It was 1. Sat of any scrap of inmation abou. Izaak

that I started on esterary page des the r ver. I find a lon, dissertat, in on the cratacter of the man, but not much about