192 IZAAK WALTON'S ASSOCIATION WITH THE RIVER LEA.
Tottenham was once noted for its village greens, most of which
have now been built over, but two may still be observed. Page
Green lies on the right at its commencement, where once stood the
"Seven Sisters," i.e., seven great elm trees growing in a circle,
which have given the name to Seven Sisters Road. In 1818, when
Robinson published his "History of Tottenham," they were con-
sidered to be upwards of 300 years old, and were fast going to
decay. Thirty years later their lifeless trunks were still standing ;
now all traces of them are gone.
Walton, of course, saw and no doubt admired these trees. On
quitting the Swan hostelry for the river side, he would pass along
Tottenham Hale, to the east of the High Cross, and would reach
the Lea at a point where there was then a ferry. This has since
been superseded by a bridge, but its memory is preserved in the
sign of the inn at its foot, The Ferry-boat, a fishing and boating
house, much resorted to in summer.1
On the opposite side of the Lea are now the reservoirs and
filtering beds of the East London Waterworks Company, commonly
known as the Tottenham Reservoirs, but really in Walthamstow.
The wayfarers on leaving Tottenham would pass through
Edmonton, and along Enfield Highway to Waltham Cross, which
received its name from the cross erected here by Edward I. to the
memory of his queen Eleanor. Only two other such crosses remain,
one at Geddington, the other at Northampton, that at Tottenham
(as already remarked) having no claim to be regarded as an
"Eleanor Cross." That at Waltham is by far the finest of the three.
It stands on the east of the main road, close to the "Falcon Inn,"
and at the corner of the road to Waltham Abbey, the burial place of
Harold. Of this wonderfully interesting place with its many historical
associations, standing as it did on the edge of the great forest of
Essex, afterwards known as the forest of Waltham, a great deal
might be noted en passant, but this would cause too great a
digression, and would lead us altogether away from Izaak Walton
and the Lea.
To the west of Waltham Cross lies "Theobalds," where Auceps
was to turn aside to see his mewed hawk. This, in Walton's day,
was a notable place, although its demolition had commenced a
year or two before "The Complete Angler" was written. Queen
1 See the etching of this Fishing House on the Lea by Percy Thomas, after Linne!], in my
edition of Walton's "Angler," ii., p. 48.