DAGENHAM BREACH. 157
a better idea of this than any words of mine ; and are of interest to
us, to-day, assembled here :—
" What the country below London would be without its river
embankments may easily be seen at Dagenham. Dagenham is
celebrated in the annals of the Thames engineers. It is here that
the skill and persistence of man in conflict with nature has been
tasked to the utmost in the endeavour to keep the river a captive.
Here at Dagenham (on the north bank of the river, and a little to
the south of the village) we may stand on an embankment which
rises to a height of forty feet above the low-water level of the river,
and prevents it from entirely changing its course. We might multi-
ply instances to show how largely the Thames of to-day is the gift of
civilisation rather than of nature—the creature as well as the servant
of man." P. 120.
The Thames from Dagenham Bank, looking up the River
By X. P. Leitch, after a sketch by Dr. Smiles.
Again, in his recapitulation, he writes :—
"In these, its declining years, the mighty creature has fallen
captive to man. With shrunken bulk, and in a narrower channel,
the Thames now winds an imprisoned course. Its vaster life and
meridian years were lived before human annals began." P. 148.
With regard to the extent of these "walls," we must remember
that along its whole course the river is fed by inlets, creeks, and
streams, and, to secure these from the inflow of the highest spring
tides, the banks have had to be continued far up on either side,
until the higher ground is reached. In the early chronicles and