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 Stvaii 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 been superseded by a bridge, but its memory is preserved in the 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.' 



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 L 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 passa/it, 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 



I See the etching of this Fishing House on the Lea by Percy Thomas, after Linnell, in my 

 edition of Walton's "Angler," ii., p. 48. 



