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General Characteristics--The /Canterbury Stour/ and its Branches: Ashford and Jack Cade--Horton and Lyminge--Canterbury--Fordwich and Izaak Walton--Isle of Thanet--Minster. The /Lesser Stour/: "Bourne Ground"--Sandwich. The /Brede/. The /Rother/: Bodiam--Isle of Oxney--Winchelsea--Seaford. The /Cuckmere/: Alfriston and Lullington. /The Ouse/: St. Leonard's Forest--Fletching--Maresfield--Lewes. The /Adur/: Bramber--Shoreham. The /Arun/: Amberley--Arundel--Littlehampton. Hampshire Rivers--The /Arle/: The Meon District--Wickham and the Bishop-Builder--Titchfield. The /Itchen/: A Curious Example of Instinct--Alresford Pond--Cheriton--Tichborne--The Winnal Reaches--Winchester and Izaak Walton--St. Cross--St. Catherine's Hill--Southampton. The /Test/: Romsey and its Abbey. The /Beaulieu/: Beaulieu Abbey. The /Lymington/ and the /Medina/--The /Hampshire Avon/ and the /Stour/: Christchurch--Salisbury--Wimborne. The /Frome/: Dorchester--Mr. Hardy's Country--Poole Harbour 1

General Characteristics--Sources of the Devon Streams: Exmoor and Dartmoor. The /Otter/: Ottery Saint Mary and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Exmoor Streams:--The /Exe/: Its Source in The Chains--The Barle--The Batherm--Tiverton and Peter Blundell--Bickleigh Bridge and the "King of the Gipsies"--The Culm--Exeter--Countess Weir--Exmouth. The /Lyn/: Oareford--The Doone Country--Malmsmead--Watersmeet--Lyndale--Lynton and Lynmouth. Dartmoor Streams:--The /Teign/: Wallabrook--Chagford--Fingle Bridge--Chudleigh--The Bovey--Newton Abbot--Teignmouth. The /Dart/: Holne Chase--Buckfast Abbey--Dartington Hall--Totnes--The Lower Reaches--Dartmouth. The Tavy. The /Taw/: Oxenham and its Legend--Barnstaple--Lundy. The /Torridge/: The Okement--Great Torrington--Bideford--Hubbastone. The Avon, Erme, and Yealm. The /Plym/: Dewerstone--The Meavy and Plymouth Leat--Plympton St. Mary and Plympton Earl--The Three Towns 25

The Minor Streams of Cornwall--The /Tamar/: Woolley Barrows--Morwellham and Weir Head--Morwell Rocks--Harewood--Calstock--Cotehele--Pentillie--Confluence with the Tavy--Saltash--The Hamoaze. The /Fowey/: A Change of Name--St. Neot--Lostwithiel--Fowey. The /Fal/: Fenton Fal--Tregony--Truro--Tregothnan--Falmouth 54

The /Parret/: Its Source--Muchelney Abbey--The Tone and Taunton--Athelney Island and Alfred the Great--Sedgemoor--Bridgwater--Burnham. The /Lower Avon/: Escourt Park--Malmesbury--Chippenham--Melksham--Bradford-on-Avon--Bath--The Frome--Beau Nash--Bridges at Bath--The Abbey Church--Bristol--St. Mary Redcliffe and Chatterton--The Cathedral--"The Chasm"--Clifton Suspension Bridge--The Lower Reaches--Avonmouth 67

"The Notorious Hill of Plinlimmon"--The Stronghold of Owen Glendower--Llangurig--Rhayader Gwy--Llyn-Gwyn--The Elan, the Ithon, and the Yrfon--Llandrindod--Builth--Aberedw and the Last Prince of Wales--Hay--Clifford Castle and the Fair Rosamond--Hereford--The Lug--"The Wonder"--Ross and John Kyrle--Goodrich Castle--Coldwell Rocks--Symond's Yat--Monmouth--The Monnow, the Dore, and the Llonddu--Wordsworth's Great Ode--Tintern Abbey--The Wyndcliff--Chepstow--The Lower Reaches 124

The Black Mountains--Trecastle--The Gaer--Brecon--The Brecknock Beacons--Crickhowell--Abergavenny--Usk--Caerleon and the Arthurian Legend--Christchurch--Newport 149

Brecknock Beacons--The /Taff/: Taff Fawr and Taff Fechan--Cardiff Reservoirs--Merthyr--The Dowlais Steel and Iron Works--The Rhondda--Pontypridd--Castell Coch--Llandaff and its Cathedral--Cardiff and its Castle. The /Neath/: Ystradfellte--The Mellte and its Affluents--The Cwm Porth--Waterfalls and Cascades--The Sychnant--Pont Neath Vaughan--Neath and its Abbey--The Dulas and the Clydach. Swansea and its Docks--Morriston Castle--Swansea Castle--The Mumbles and Swansea Bay. The /Tawe/: Craig-y-Nos--Lly-Fan Fawr. The /Towy/: Ystradffin--Llandovery--Llandilo--Dynevor Castle--Carmarthen and Richard Steele--Carmarthen Bar. The /Taff/: Milford Haven--Carew Castle--Pembroke Castle--Monkton Priory--New Milford and Old Milford--Haverfordwest. The /Teifi/: Strata Florida Abbey--Newcastle Emlyn--Cenarth--Cardigan. The /Ystwith/: The Upper Waters--Aberystwith 159

A Modern River--Derivations--The Tame, the Goyt, and the Etherow--Stockport--Northenden--The Irwell and its Feeders--Manchester and Salford--The Ship Canal--Bridges over the Irwell--Ordsall--Eccles--Barton--Warburton--Irlam--Warrington-- Latchford--Runcorn and Widnes--The Weaver--Eastham Locks--Liverpool and its Growth--Its Docks and Quays--Birkenhead and its Shipbuilding Yards--New Brighton--Perch Rock Lighthouse 242

A Birthplace of Rivers--The /Ribble/: Ribblehead-- Horton-in-Ribblesdale--Survival of Old Traditions--Hellifield--The Hodder--Stonyhurst and its College--The Calder--Burnley--Towneley Hall--Preston--Its Development as a Port. The /Wyre/: Poulton-le-Fylde. The /Lune/: Kirkby Lonsdale--The Greta and the Wenning--Hornby Castle--Lancaster--Morecambe Bay--The Journey from Lancaster to Ulverston in Coaching Days--Shifting Sands. The /Kent/: Kentmere--Kendal. The Gilpin and the Winster. The /Rothay/ and the /Brathay/. Grasmere and Wordsworth--Rydal Water--Ambleside--Windermere. Troutbeck. Esthwaite Water. The /Leven/: Newby Bridge--The Estuary. The /Crake/: Coniston Water--Coniston Hall--Brantwood and Mr. Ruskin. The /Duddon/: Wordsworth's Sonnets. The /Esk/ and the /Irt/: Wastwater. The /Liza/: Ennerdale Water. The /Ehen/: Egremont Castle. The /Derwent/: The Vale of St. John's--The Greta and Keswick--The View from Castlerigg top--Derwentwater 271

Poetic Associations--Headstreams of the Ayrshire Rivers--"The Land of Burns"--The Ayr and the Doon--Sorn--Catrine--Ballochmyle-- Mossgiel--Mauchline--Barskimming--Coilsfield House and the Fail Water--The Coyl--Auchencruive--Craigie--Ayr--The Doon 328

Clydesdale and its Waters--"The Hill of Fire"--Douglasdale--"Castle Dangerous"--Bonnington Linn--Corra Linn and "Wallace's Tower"--Lanark--The Mouse Water--Stonebyres Linn--The Nethan and "Tillietudlem"--"The Orchard of Scotland"--Hamilton and its Palace--Cadzow Castle and its Associations--Bothwell Brig and Castle--Blantyre--Cambuslang--Rutherglen--Glasgow--The City and its History--The Quays, Docks, and Shipbuilding Yards--The Work of the Clyde Navigation Trust--Govan and Partick--The White Cart--Dumbarton Rock and Castle--The Leven Valley--Ben and Loch Lomond--Greenock--Gourock--The Firth at Eventide 342

PAGES

Distant View of Canterbury--Rivers of Kent and Sussex --Arundel Castle--Sandwich: The Old Bridge and Barbican--General View of Winchester--St. Catherine's Hill--Winchester Cathedral-- Southampton Docks--The Royal Pier, Southampton--Southampton from the Water--Romsey Abbey--Christchurch Abbey--Rivers of Hants and Dorset --A New Forest Stream--The Avon at Amesbury--Salisbury Cathedral--The Frome at Frampton Court--Dorchester from the Frome--Poole Harbour--Wimborne Minster 1-24

Bideford Bridge--Rivers of Devon --The Wear Water-- Exeter--Exmouth, from the Beacon--Watersmeet--Lynmouth and Lynton--"Clam" Bridge over the Wallabrook--Fingle Bridge-- Teignmouth--New Bridge--Buckfastleigh--Staverton--The Island, Totnes--Totnes--Dittisham--Mouth of the Dart--Barnstaple, from the South Walk--The Torridge near Torrington--The Plym from Cadaford Bridge--In Bickleigh Vale--Plympton Earl--The Hoe, Plymouth 25-53

Danescombe--Rivers of Cornwall --Tavistock New Bridge--Morwell Rocks--Cargreen--The Hamoaze, from Saltash--The Fal from Tolverne--Falmouth Harbour--Falmouth, from Flushing 54-66

The Isle of Athelney--The Parret and the Lower Avon --Taunton Church--Malmesbury Abbey--The Avon near Tetbury-- Bradford-on-Avon Church, from the North-East--The Avon at Bath-- View from North Parade Bridge, Bath--View from the old City Bridge, Bath--Bristol, from the Site of the old Drawbridge across the Harbour--Clifton Suspension Bridge 67-81

A Bend of the Wye--Views in the Lower Elan Valley--The Wye and the Usk --Pont-Hyll-Fan, in the Elan Valley--The Shaky Bridge, Llandrindod--The Wye Bridge and Hereford Cathedral--Goodrich Castle--Ross Church--Symond's Yat and the Ferry--Monmouth--The Monnow Bridge and Gate-house, Monmouth--Tintern Abbey, from the Wye--The Nave, Tintern Abbey--Gateway at Chepstow--Chepstow Castle--View from the Wyndcliff--Old Monastery on the Wye 124-148

Near the Source of the Usk, Talsarn-side--The Usk at Brecknock--Bit of the Roman Wall at Caerleon--Usk--Caerleon--Newport: The Bridge and Castle 149-158

The Brecknock Beacons, from the Taff--Llandaff Cathedral: The West Front; The Nave and Choir; The West and North Doors--Rivers of South Wales --The Bishop's Gateway, Llandaff--Cardiff Castle--St. Mary Street, Cardiff--The Drawing Room, Cardiff Castle--In the Vale of Neath--Neath Abbey--Outskirts of Neath--North Dock, Swansea--Morriston--The Mumbles--Carew Castle--Carmarthen Quay--Pembroke Castle and Monkton Priory--The Royal Dockyard, Pembroke Dock--Haverfordwest--Milford Haven--The Teifi at Kilgerran--Aberystwith 159-192

The Mersey at Stockport--The Mersey --Northenden--On the Irwell--Pendleton, from the Crescent--Manchester, from the Grammar School, showing the Cathedral, the Exchange, the Town Hall, etc. --Victoria and Blackfriars Bridges--Steamer passing through Trafford Road Swing Bridge--The Old and the Swing Aqueducts, Barton--The Irwell at Ordsall, with Worrall's Works--Runcorn Bridge--The Locks at Eastham--St. George's Landing-Stage, Liverpool--Swing Bridge over the Entrance to Stanley Dock, Liverpool--Liverpool, from Birkenhead--St. George's Hall and Lime Street, Liverpool--The Perch Rock Lighthouse 242-270

Stainforth Bridge--Towneley Hall, Burnley--Rivers of Lancashire and Lakeland --Preston, from the West--Lancaster-- Windermere--Rydal Water--Grasmere--Newby Bridge--Another Bit of the Leven--The Liza flowing into Ennerdale Water--The Liza at Gillerthwaite--Coniston Water--Ennerdale--The Greta between Threlkeld and Keswick--The Derwent, with Keswick in the Distance--The Derwent at Crosthwaite--Derwentwater and Skiddaw--Derwentwater from Scafell--The Cocker flowing from Crummock Lake--The Cocker at Kirkgate 271-300

The Annan, near Annan Town--The Eden, the Petteril, and the Caldew --Eden Hall--The Weir at Armathwaite--Wetheral Bridge--View from Brackenbank looking towards Cotehill--Cotehill Island--View from the Long Walk, Corby Castle--Rock Stairway to the Boathouse, Corby Castle--Greystoke Castle--Carlisle, looking East--Carlisle, looking West--Rivers flowing South into Solway Firth --The Esk, near Gilnockie--High Street, Dumfries--Lincluden Abbey--Drumlanrig Castle--Caerlaverock Castle--The Dee at Douglas Tongueland--The Cree at Newton Stewart 301-327

The Ayr above Muirkirk--Sorn--Rivers of Ayrshire -- Ballochmyle--The Ayr at Barskimming--Auchencruive--The Twa Brigs of Ayr--The Dam at Ayr--The Doon: The New and the Auld Brig--Ayrmouth 328-341

One of the Sources of the Clyde--The Clyde --Douglas Castle--Bonnington Linn--Corra Linn--Roman Bridge near Lanark-- Stonebyres Linn--Bothwell Castle--Glasgow University--The Broomielaw Landing-Stage--The Clyde at Glasgow--Partick--Paisley-- Dumbarton Rock--Loch Lomond--Greenock--Gourock 342-369

/Rivers of Great Britain./

THE SOUTHERN CHALK STREAMS.

The long and strong backbone of the North Downs extends, roughly speaking, from Kent, by way of Dorking and Guildford, to the source of the Avon, north of Salisbury Plain; and the South Downs run parallel, more or less, through Sussex and Hants to the Dorset heights. From these green hills spring the streams which will be briefly traced from source to sea in this chapter. They are not rivers of first account in their aid to commerce; even the pair which combine in the formation of Southampton Water have never been reckoned in the nomenclature of dock or port. To the angler, however, some of these chalk streams are exceedingly precious--as they indeed ought to be, when a rental varying from fifty to a hundred pounds per mile per annum is gladly paid for the right of fishing with rod and line. Such choice preserves are stocked with trout of aristocratic quality, trout which can only be reared in streams issuing from the chalk; their water, when unpolluted by contact with towns, is crystal clear; and the beds of gravel and fine sand favour the growth of typical vegetation, which in its turn favours typical water insects and other food suitable for the highest class of non-migratory salmonidae.

Wholly different from such noisy, turbulent, masterful rivers as those which distinguish North Britain, these chalk streams enter into the very spirit of that sweet pastoral scenery which suggests repose, peace, and plenty. They maintain for the most part an even course, tranquilly flowing without fret or violence through level land, and pursuing their tireless journey seawards, unobstructed by the rugged rocks, obstinate boulders, and uneven beds which provoke your mountain-or moorland-born waters into thunderous roar, angry swirl, and headlong rapidity. For foam-flecked pools, and mighty leaps in romantic gorges, the South-country chalk stream offers forget-me-nots by the margin, and beds of flowers blossoming from its harmless depths. It is with rivers of this class we have now to deal, presenting such features as may be noticed within the limits which have been assigned to the present chapter.

Beginning, as the sun in its progress would have us do, from the east, we introduce the reader to the fair county of Kent. There are at least half-a-dozen Stours, great and small, in England; and though the stream with which we start is entirely Kentish , it is commonly distinguished by the name of the /Canterbury Stour/. There are others of its namesakes--one of which we shall meet with towards the end of our journey--of greater watershed, but there is no more interesting member of the family. As a rule, a river, with its tributaries, as seen on the map, offers the appearance of the root of a tree, with its branches gracefully following in a common direction towards the parent stream, on the principle that, as the main river ever has marching orders towards the ocean, all its feeders, in the same spirit, loyally join in a forward movement. Our Stour, however, is a notable exception. It assumes a respectable magnitude at Ashford, but near that town, and almost at right angles to the subsequent direction of the main stream, two distinct branches join issue. The main stream from Ashford to the Isle of Thanet runs almost due north-east; branch number one, that comes from the hills in the direction of Maidstone, travels to Ashford almost due south-west, and the other branch that rises north of Hythe flows in a diametrically opposite course. These little rivers are of equal length, and flow, in their unpretending fashion, through purely rural country.

The first-named of these branches rises near Lenham, which takes its name from a feeder of the great river of the northern watershed of the county. Visitors to the seat of the Dering family at Surrenden, where there have been Derings since the time of the Conqueror, and to Little Chart Church, will be, at the latter place, not far from what is regarded as the real source of the river Stour, but this brook must not be confounded with the Beult at Smarden, which belongs to the Medway. Our stream flows the other way, passing Cale Hill, Hothfield, and Godinton. Hereabouts--if there is anything in tradition--is the country of troublesome Jack Cade, who must have known a good deal about the river, for the story is that he was born at Ashford, and that the squire who had the honour of taking him into custody lived on the estate known in these days as Ripley Court Farm.

The entire course of the Stour is about forty-five miles, and its valley from Ashford to Canterbury is one of the loveliest features of a lovely county. Overlooking it is Eastwell Park, which for many years was the country-house of the Duke of Edinburgh. The valley of the Stour, seen from one of its higher knolls as on a chart, is not always so open as it is in this neighbourhood, though its narrowing means but the concentration of charming scenery, with wooded heights on the one side and open downs on the other. For a considerable distance the Stour follows the railway line, and at Wye, where there is one of the most lovely miniature racecourses in the kingdom, it is crossed by a bridge of five arches. Thenceforth, it is a notable trout stream, gradually widening until it forms the distinctive feature of the well-known meadows, with the square-towered cathedral always a prominent object of the landscape.

Canterbury has been so often described, for it is frequently the scene of great ceremonials , that a few sentences only are required as we muse by the riverside. But it is impossible to visit Canterbury without recalling its stirring and suggestive associations, and the distinction it had in times when other parts of the country were obscure. It was too near the water to escape the ravages of the sea-kings, who liked to land at Sheppey and Thanet, and it was more than once devastated by the Danes. In 1011 it was taken by storm amidst scenes of death and desolation during which the cathedral and monastery were burnt, the inhabitants slaughtered in masses, and women and children carried away into captivity. There is no need to re-tell the story of that different kind of landing, glorified by the arrival of St. Augustine and his missionaries. This also honoured the Isle of Thanet, which the Saxon chronicle mentions as the place of disembarkation of Hengist and Horsa on their heathen mission to Vortigern. The Stour in its terminal portion has probably become much cabined and confined since that period, when it must have been a broad estuary.

About two miles below Canterbury is the village of Fordwich, on the opposite bank of the Stour. As the tide in old days reached thither, it ranked as a Cinque Port. According to Izaak Walton, the old name of Fordwich was "Fordidge," and as such he immortalised it in the "Compleat Angler" as the home of the Fordidge trout, about which there was some mystery, until in the present century it was proved to be one of the migratory salmonidae. An occasional specimen is now found. This fish does now and then run into some of our south-east rivers, and no doubt at the time when the Thames was a salmon river and the waters were unpolluted, it was common in the Stour, which throughout is an excellent trout stream.

Below Canterbury, where the water becomes brackish and the conditions prosaic, the trout gives place to the ordinary coarse fish of our streams. Grove Ferry is one of the favourite holiday resorts of the citizens. At Sarr, a few miles from Fordwich, the ferry which now plies at Grove Ferry was formerly the means of communication with the Isle of Thanet. This historic island is formed by the Stour separating right and left, the arm to the north finding the sea a little east of the Reculvers; while the branch flowing in the opposite direction marks the boundary of the promontory which includes the watering-places of Ramsgate, Broadstairs, Margate, and Birchington, and has for the extreme tip of its snout the lonely North Foreland. This divergence, which, on a smaller scale, corresponds with the curious right-angled course of the brooks at the source, used to have a name of its own: it was called the Wantsum, with a well-known ford at St. Nicholas-at-Wade; and no doubt this channel was once an arm of the sea. The lesser Stour, of which something will presently be said, falls into the navigable portion of the parent river below Sarr. The lower branch runs through marshes by Minster, which is a deservedly popular village to tourists exploring Kent who are specially on the lookout for interesting relics of the past. King Egbert, one of the Christian kings of Kent, founded a nunnery here by way of atonement for the murder of a couple of princely cousins, and he agreed to endow it with as much land as a hind would cover in one course. The Danes had their will of the place. The restored church in its present form has a Norman nave, with Early English transepts and choir. Minster is a favourite ramble for seaside visitors to Ramsgate; it is well situated, and its high ground affords views of distant Canterbury, the ruins of Richborough Castle, the coast country about Deal, and a proper expanse of marsh. The Stour, when nearly opposite the point of coast where it eventually falls into the Straits of Dover, takes a turn to the east, calling, as it were, at the ancient town of Sandwich, and then proceeds due north to Pegwell Bay.

Rising somewhere near the source of the lower arm of Stour major, the /Lesser Stour/ is another charming Kentish trout stream. It flows through what may be designated bourne ground, as the names of many of its villages testify. The source is near Bishopsbourne Church, where the judicious Hooker, a native of the place, performed the duties of parish priest. There are also Patrixbourne, Bekesbourne, Nailbourne, and Littlebourne. The last named is well known to tourists, for the village has a traditional association with the monks of St. Augustine; here are an Early English church with monuments, and the park at Lee Priory where Sir Egerton Brydges worked his press; and within a quarter of an hour's walk is an old church formerly belonging to some of the Canterbury priors. On the banks of the stream at Bekesbourne are the remains of a palace of Archbishop Cranmer; and when the Parliamentarians, according to their custom, laid it under contribution, in their ransacking they discovered the Primate's will behind an old oak wainscoting. Wickham Breaux is another of the Lesser Stour villages, and all around are the fruit orchards and occasional hopfields which give a distinctive and agreeable character to the entire watershed. The Lesser Stour for a while runs parallel with its companion, which it joins at Stourmouth, to assist in outlining the Isle of Thanet, and mingling therefore with the current which goes the round of Sandwich to Pegwell Bay. It seems almost incredible that Sandwich was once a great port, but if a quiet hour be spent in what is left of it, the town will be found to repay careful inspection. The Barbican, as the old gateway tower is called, and the bridge indicate the haven in which refugees from France and the Low Countries found a safe home.

From Hythe to the ancient and always interesting town of Rye, stretches the Royal Military Canal; the first stream to claim attention is the /Brede/, though it is scarcely entitled to river rank. It takes its rise a few miles from Battle, and its course is held to have been the old channel of the Rother, near Winchelsea. The "Groaning Bridge" is on the Brede, and it was on this spot that the Oxenbridge ogre of ancient legend was said to have been disposed of once for all by being divided across the middle with a wooden saw.

The railway crosses the Rother by a stone bridge, then comes Rye Harbour, and at a distance of two miles, set upon a hill so that it cannot be hid, is the old-world borough of Winchelsea, which the sea has left high and dry, though it had been the abode of great kings, and the witness of battles by sea and land. At Hastings the Downs supply sufficient rivulet-power to maintain glen, waterfall, and dripping well, for sea-side visitors. Following the coast-line to Seaford, the quiet and unpretending watering place which was once a Cinque Port, and which returned members to Parliament until it was disfranchised by the Reform Act, a short walk over the Downs brings the tourist to the pretty broken country of East and West Dean.

The stream crossed by Exceat Bridge is the /Cuckmere/, of which it need only be said that it has ceased to be a feature of importance to shipping people. It is worth while, nevertheless, to follow it up from the reaches where barges still find resting-place. At Alfriston British, Roman, and Saxon coins have been found; there is a rare sixteenth-century inn, supposed to have been built as a house of call for Canterbury pilgrims, a market cross, a church on the plan of a Greek cross, sometimes designated "the cathedral of the South Downs," a parish register dating from 1512--possibly the oldest in England--and a half-timbered rectory of still earlier date. There is some doubt as to which is now the smallest church in Great Britain, but the claim has been made for Lullington, which is on the slope of Cuckmere vale. In rambling by this little river the tourist will make acquaintance with the South Downs free and unadulterated. The Cuckmere flows into the sea about two miles from Seaford, having escaped through the opening which takes the name of Birling Gap.

Within an area of four square miles, and almost in touch with St. Leonard's Forest, three important Sussex streams take their rise--the Ouse, Adur, and Arun. This was the centre of the ancient iron industry of Sussex, and the position would not have been possible without water supply for the hammer ponds. The /Ouse/ is crossed by the London and Brighton Railway a little north-west of Lindfield. The river afterwards winds round the well-wooded seat of the Earl of Sheffield; and at Fletching Common, hard by, the baronial army spent the night before fighting the battle of Lewes. Gibbon the historian was buried in the church, which is noted also for an ancient rood screen and the mausoleum of the Neville family. Maresfield, where the furnaces and forges of the old Sussex iron-masters clustered thick, retains vast expanses of the cinder and slag they created centuries ago. It is beautified by the trees of Ashdown Forest, and sends a tributary to the Ouse; another tributary presently arrives from Buxted, where the first cast cannon ever seen in Europe was made in 1543.

The Ouse is the river of the pleasant county town of Lewes. This rare old town, on its chalk hill, with downs surrounding it, and with the Ouse, on whose right bank it is spread, adding to its attractions, ranks in interest with Chester and Durham. The great battle which was fought on May 14th, 1264, is the event of which the local historians are most proud. As we have seen, it was at Fletching Common that De Montfort encamped his soldiers, and thence he sent a couple of bishops the day before the battle on a fruitless errand to the king, who was quartered at the priory. The most sanguinary slaughter appears to have taken place south of the town, where the Ouse was crossed by a bridge; and the river with its marshy flats assisted in the destruction, for many knights were discovered after the battle stuck in the swamp, "sitting on their horses, in complete armour, and with drawn swords in their lifeless hands." The Ouse cannot be said to be picturesque; at Lewes it has long lost the sparkle which characterised it in the forest outskirts; but from any elevated point of Lewes Castle, notably the western keep, the easy stream may be seen as it is about to disappear between the hills. The disestablished locks between Cuckfield and Lewes indicate a brisk bygone barge traffic. Early in the present century the river was navigable for barges of forty tons burden for ten miles without interruption, and thence beyond Lindfield in the Hayward's Heath country. In early times it was probably a broad estuary extending to Lewes itself, and at some time found an outlet to the sea at Seaford, three miles to the east. This, however, is very ancient history, for the river was brought back to its present channel in the sixteenth century.

Shoreham, the humble and dull attendant upon Brighton, has an advantage over the great watering-place--which is streamless--in being situated on a river. It is not a beautiful place, but it has something of a harbour, in which you may find port in a storm, and it has a bridge across the /Adur/. This river comes down from openings in the hills, having passed through pretty country, with such villages as Bramber and Steyning. The source of the Adur on the borders of St. Leonard's Forest has been previously mentioned; but there are at least two other rills that have an equal claim. From Henfield the river runs south, through pasture land, and, as we have seen, winds past Bramber, supposed to be the Portus Adurni of the Romans. There is very little of the castle left, and that is almost hidden by trees. At New Shoreham the Adur turns eastward, and runs for a while parallel with the seashore.

These Sussex rivers which are projected from the neighbourhood of St. Leonard's Forest can scarcely be considered as akin to the pure, bright chalk stream which was described at the commencement of this chapter; and the most important of the trio, the /Arun/, does not in this respect differ from its fellows. Something more than passing glimpses of it are obtained from the carriage windows by the railway traveller as he speeds through the imposing scenery around Arundel. It is navigable for an unusual distance, and whatever beauty it possesses it owes to its surroundings. Of late years the river has become the Mecca of members of the London angling clubs, who charter special trains and invade the districts by hundreds on Sundays. The first stopping-place of any account from this point of view is Pulborough, the site of an old Roman settlement, with traces of camp and buildings, which will not, however, be found on Arun-side, but at Hardham and elsewhere. Amberley was rescued from oblivion, and from the desertion enforced upon it by neighbouring marshes, by the railway; and the scenery between it and Arundel has always been prized and worked at by artists. Swanbourne Mill as a picture is probably familiar to many who have never entered the county.

The splendidly kept castle at Arundel has not been dwarfed by the cathedral-like Roman Catholic church built by the Duke of Norfolk, and dedicated to St. Philip Neri. Even now it looks like the splendid stronghold that it was, and the most venerable in the land that it is, on its commanding terminal of swelling down, with the stream from the Weald narrowing between the hills through its beautiful valley, to the characteristic marsh flats beyond. The river hence to the sea does not call for admiration or comment, save that there is a remnant of a priory at Tortington, a point of view from which Arundel with its castle-crowned heights looks its best. Littlehampton, four miles from Arundel, is better known as a port of departure for steamships than as a watering-place competing with the pleasure resorts in more favoured situations on the coast.

Hampshire is a well-watered county, and classic ground for that new school of anglers who are classified as "dry-fly" men. The masters thereof graduated on the Itchen and the Test, most famous of all South-country chalk streams, and honourably mentioned in angling literature. To know that a man is a successful fisher upon either is tantamount to a certificate of the highest skill. The Hampshire rivers, other than these celebrated feeders of the Southampton water, are few, and modest in character. There is, it is true, a small trout stream at Fareham, a busy little seaport which owes its standing to its proximity to Portsmouth Harbour, and its attractions as a district abounding in country seats to the rampart of Portsdown Hill, affording at once protection from the north and opportunity for overlooking the Solent and the Isle of Wight. Less than three miles west, across the peninsula that sustains Gosport, is a considerable stream, little known outside the county, but an ever-present delight to the villages through which it lightly flows to the eastern shore of Southampton water. This is the Arle, or Titchfield river.

In its course of some score of miles the /Arle/ takes its share in a diversity of scenery of a soothing rather than romantic character. Rising in the South Downs, it begins by mingling with village and hamlet life in a sequestered valley; then it proceeds through an open forest country, and becomes navigable at Titchfield. The source of the stream is but a few miles west of Petersfield, but it begins with a sweep to the north and a loop round a southerly point, passing so much in the Meon district that it is often marked on the maps by that name, which was probably its only one in the past. Meonware was a Pictish province when there was a king of the South Saxons, and Saint Wilfrid preached Christianity to the British heathen. Indeed a portion of Corhampton Church, across the stream, is ascribed to that prelate. Wickham, most beautifully situated on the Arle, is celebrated as the birthplace of William of Wykeham, the great bishop-builder. Warton the poet lived his last days at Wickham, and died there in the first year of the century.

The /Itchen/, as next in order on our westward progress, must receive first consideration, though it is the smaller of the streams which pay tribute to the Solent at Calshot Castle. The Itchen and the Test have many things in common: they both rise out of the chalk downs which stretch from the Stour in Kent, through Hants, to the confines of Wilts; they both give Southampton importance; they are both salmon rivers, but to so unimportant a degree that they have never yet been considered worthy of governance by a Board of Conservators; and they have the distinction of being the only salmon rivers in England that may be fished without a rod licence. But these rivers are so distinct in one characteristic that they may be quoted as evidence of almost miraculous instinct. The salmon of the Test hold no communion with those of the Itchen; no fisherman acquainted with the rivers would be likely to mistake the one for the other; yet, while the Itchen fish, on return from the salt water, unerringly turn to the right, and pass the Docks on their way to Woodmill, the salmon of the Test swim straight ahead, and pause not till they reach their own river beyond the furthest of the western suburbs of Southampton.

The tributaries are inconsiderable; but it is a land of innumerable watercourses, and of carriers, kept in action for the flooding of the pastures. Hence the meads are found in a perpetual freshness of "living green," and the verdant pastures in the late spring are magnificent with their marsh-marigolds and cuckoo flowers marking the lines of the meadow trenches, while the hedges and coppices are a dream of May blossom. Noble country houses are set back on the slopes, real old-fashioned farmhouses and thatched cottages are embowered in every variety of foliage, and the background is frequently filled in by gently ranging upland clothed with the softest herbage. Here a village with its mill, and there a hamlet with its homely old church, mark the stages of the crystal clear river, every foot of which is the treasured preserve of some wealthy angler. There are golden trout upon the gravel, and in the deeps, while the shallows, many of which have been fords from time immemorial, are open to the eye of the wayfarer who quietly pauses on the rustic bridges to watch the spotted denizens as they cruise and poise.

At Cheriton the Royalists received a crushing blow on the March day when Lords Hopton and Forth led their army of 10,000 men against an equal force of Waller's Roundheads. The engagement was fatal to the Royal cause, and it gave Winchester and its fort to the Parliamentarians. Of Tichborne this generation heard somewhat in the seventies, and the notorious trials brought for many years an increase of visitors, who would interrupt the discourse upon Sir Roger de Tychborne, and the Tychborne Dole founded by the Lady Mabell , with questions about the Claimant and the lost Sir Roger. Martyr's Worthy, King's Worthy, and Abbot's Worthy are within sound of the sonorous Cathedral bells; and after these villages are the loved Winnal reaches of the stream, one of them sadly marred by the Didcot and Newbury Railway, which, within the last few years, has been opened with a station south of the town. The Nun's Walk is to the right as you follow the Itchen downwards, often over planks half-hidden in sedges. Sleek cattle graze in the water-meads; beyond them is the clustering city and its Cathedral, which at a distance resembles nothing so much as a long low-lying building that has yet to be finished, the squat tower seeming a mere commencement. The bye-streams, of which there are several, meet at the bottom of the town, and the strong, rapid, concentrated current has much mill work to do before it recovers perfect freedom.

Izaak Walton lived a while at Winchester, in the declining years of his long and--who can doubt?--tranquil life. He had friends among the bishops and clergy, and wrote the lives of contemporary divines. So he came to Winchester, where a room was kept for him in the Bishop's Palace, and in this city he died on December 15th, 1683. His grave is in the Cathedral, marked by a black marble slab, and within the last few years a memorial statue has been placed in one of the niches of the newly-erected screen.

The ancient hospital of St. Cross is one of the best-known features of the Itchen in the neighbourhood of Winchester, but there are charming country-seats along the whole remaining course--fair homes of English gentlemen, planted above the grass land whence the evening mists of summer rise to shroud the winding stream and far-stretching water-meads, and adorned with smooth-shaven lawns intersected by gravel-walks, winding amidst shrubberies and parterres to the sedgy banks of the silently gliding river. But St. Cross is unique with its gateway tower and porter's hutch, where the wayfarer may even now make the vagrant's claim for dole of beer and bread, the former no longer brewed on the spot, and for its own sake not worth the trouble often taken by sentimental visitors to obtain it. Fine old elms surround the venerable home of the brethren of this cloistered retreat; the river flows close to its foundations; and, facing you across the stream, rises the bold rounded steep surmounted by the clump of beech-trees on St. Catherine's Hill. The speculative builder, however, has long been pushing his outworks towards this breezy eminence where the Wykeham College boys of past generations trooped to their sports.

The Itchen as it narrows to serve the South Stoneham water-wheels loses much of its beauty, and is finally, after its course of twenty-five miles, abruptly stopped at the flour-mill. Through artificial outlets it tumbles into the tideway, and becomes at a bound subject to the ebb and flow of the Solent. Southampton, after a temporary depression due to the withdrawal of the Peninsular and Oriental Company to other headquarters, has launched out into renewed enterprise; great docks have been added, and the extension is likely to continue in the future. Queen Victoria opened the Empress Docks in 1890; the graving docks were the next scheme, and in 1893 the new American line of steamers began to run. In 1833 her Majesty, then the Princess Victoria, opened the Royal Pier, which was rebuilt in 1892 and re-opened by the Duke of Connaught; and from it and other vantage points commanding views are to be had of the estuary, and of the New Forest on the further side. To meet this vigorous revival of commercial development, the suburbs have pushed out in all directions, and the estuary of the Itchen, from the Salmon Pool at South Stoneham to the Docks, is now bordered by modern dwellings, and presents an appearance of life in marked contrast to the dreariness of a quarter of a century ago.

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