194 



IZAAK WALTONS ASSOCIATION WITH THE RIVER LEA. 



Continuing the journey with Venator, after Auceps had taken his 

 leave here, Walton would follow the road to Cheshunt, and passing 

 through Wormley and Broxbourne, would reach Hoddesdon to rest 

 at the appointed rendezvous, the "Thatched House," of which 

 Piscator says : " I know the Thatched House very well. I often 

 make it my resting place and taste a cup of ale there, for which 

 liquor that place is very remarkable." 



The ancient site of the " Thatched House," long since de- 



U /..n. 



Aud leZ Jcu//t 



^Ae- ^yna/cAecC (^yCou^e- 



molished, has been variously conjectured. The Rev. Moses Brown 

 in his third edition of "The Complete Angler," published in 1772, 

 supposed it to be seventeen miles from London on the Ware Road, 

 a thatched cottage once distinguished by the sign of the " Buffalo's 

 Head," standing at the further side of Hoddesdon on the left of the 

 road going to Ware, and this identification for want of better 

 information has been generally accepted by subsequent editors. 

 There is now, however, good reason to believe that this is a mistake. 

 Mr. R. B. Croft, of Ware, states^ that Mr. Charles Whitley, of 

 Hoddesdon, informed him that the " Thatched House " to which 

 Izaak Walton referred was situate in the centre of the town of Hod- 



4 " Trans. Hertfordshire Nat. Hist. Soc," vol ii., p. ii. 



