140
THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
Henry VIII. when at this place, pursuing his favourite private amusement
(please interpret lightly), respecting which latter Fuller, the last Abbot of
Waltham, and Church historian, sneeringly refers to the monarch to whom
he surrendered his estates, saying, 'Waltham bells told no tales when the
king came there.' "
Waltham Abbey was reached a few minutes after 7 o'clock, and there a
number of the party went ashore for the train ; the remainder continued the
journey in the barge to Enfield Lock, where carriages awaited them, and they
closed an exceedingly delightful day by driving towards the Forest
villages, dropping members at cross roads convenient to their homes.
Our chatty author, Mr. Bramley, continued his narrative to include the Lower
Lea, which the Club ascended on a previous voyage ; and having quoted so
largely from his paper, we may allow him to finish the story :—
" Below Waltham, most places on the Lea are familiar in your mouths
as household words—Rammey Marsh, Newman s Weir, Enfield Lock,
Enefelde (so named from its being situated among fields) ; Tottenham, one of
the places where the corpse of Queen Eleanor rested, and in memory of which
a cross was erected.5 The famous cross of wood, covered with lead, as it
existed in the time of our great master -Izaak Walton—and at which he at
times rested when journeying to the River Lea in pursuit of his favourite
pleasure, is described by him as a 'sweet shady arbour, interwoven of wood-
bine, sweetbriar, jessamine, and myrtle,' where he used to refresh himself, and
drink 'sack, milk, oranges and sugar, which, all put together, make a drink
like nectar ; indeed, too good for any but us anglers.' Some anglers have
enlarged upon this practice, and added other sweets. The river runs on by
Clapton, Bow, Hackney, and Stratford (the old river), to discharge, via Bow
Creek, into the Thames near the Isle of Dogs—so named from the dog
kennels of Henry VIII. being placed on that small isle, north of the river
opposite the King's palace at Greenwich, from which palace the barking of
the dogs was sometimes audible. The other entrance to the Thames is at
Limehouse, by the New Cut made in 1767.
" We have traversed a great portion of the stream at those parts which
our great master so frequently visited and referred to with so much tender-
ness. However interesting may be the events connected with past history in
relation to this river, there are none which appeal to our hearts with greater
force than the fact that Izaak Walton's classic work, The Compleat Angler,
records in charmingly simple language numerous visits to its waters made by
that dear old fellow, who trudged many weary miles to its banks before steam
engines or steamboats were known, and when even the means of being helped
partly on the road by horse or any kind of vehicle must have been practically
non-existent. This is a paper, not on Walton, but on the stream frequented
by him. That the prince of anglers, and the greatest of angling authors,
should have fished the Lea so persistently, and described it so affectionately
in his happy dialogues, has given fame to the stream, and justifies, I submit,
the choice of title to this paper—' Walton's Favourite River.' "
5 This is a popular error ; Tottenham Cross was one of the wayside crosses once so
common in England. See J. E. Harting, "Izaak Walton's Association with the River Lea,"
n Essex Naturalist, viii., pp. 186-198, where a picture of the Cross is given.
[The publication of several Reports of Meetings is unavoidably deferred
until the next part.]