DAGKNHAM liRKACH. 



157 



a better idea of this than any words of mine ; and are of interest to 

 us, to-day, assembled here : — 



" What the country below London would be without its river 

 embankments may easily be seen at Dagenham. Dagenham is 

 celebrated in the annals of the Thames engineers. It is here that 

 the skill and persistence of man in conflict with nature has been 

 tasked to the utmost in the endeavour to keep the river a captive. 

 Here at Dagenham (on the north bank of the river, and a little to 

 the south of the village) we may stand on an embankment which 

 rises to a height of forty feet above the low-water level of the river, 

 and prevents it from entirely changing its course. We might multi- 

 ply instances to show how largely the Thames of to-day is the gift of 

 civilisation rather than of nature — the creature as well as the servant 

 of man." P. 1 20. 









The Thames from Dagenham Bank, looking uf the River. 

 By /i . P. Leitch, after a sketch by Dr. Smiles. 



Again, in his recapitulation, he writes : — 



" In these, its declining years, the mighty creature has fallen 

 captive to man. With shrunken bulk, and in a narrower channel, 

 the Thames now winds an imprisoned course. Its vaster life and 

 meridian years were lived before human annals began." P. 148. 



With regard to the extent of these " walls," we must remember 

 that along its whole course the river is fed by inlets, creeks, and 

 streams, and, to secure these from the inflow of the highest spring 

 tides, the banks have had to be continued far up on either side, 

 until the higher ground is reached. In the early chronicles and 



