244 E. B. CEO FT ON THE EIVEE LEA BELOW HEETFOEB. 



Street, one of the principal Roman military roads, which here 

 crossed the valley. Half a mile to the southward is a " barrow " 

 supposed to mark a spot where the Danes defeated the citizens of 

 London, who marched to attack them by the said Ermine Street. 

 After frequent attempts to dispossess the Danes, King Alfred is 

 said to have constructed two forts lower down the valley, and to 

 have restrained the tides from flowing by means of a large dam at 

 Blackwall, and by dividing the course of the river at Waltham. 

 The Danish ships being stranded, their crews abandoned them, and 

 marched to the Q,uat Bridge on the Severn, whither they were 

 followed and completely overthrown by King Alfred. Leland 

 mentions in his ' Itinerary ' that when in the beginning of the 

 seventeenth century a new bridge was being built at Stanstead 

 Abbotts, fragments of ships were discovered in the bed of the 

 river. The Ermine Street crossed the Lea by a ford, a little 

 above "Ware, and in a field on the north bank, across which the 

 ancient roadway formerly went, have been found many Roman 

 coins, besides stone coffins, and coins of a much later date. This 

 field, now allotment-gardens, is called the Bury Field, and is sur- 

 mised to have been the burial-ground of the monks of Ware Priory. 



After passing through the grounds of the Priory, the Lea flows 

 through the pleasant busy town of Ware. The staple trade here is 

 maltmaking, and the many cowls form a curious and picturesque 

 feature in the landscape ; many barges trade from this place, con- 

 veying malt, bricks, and gravel to London, and returning laden 

 with barley, coals, or other merchandise. Before the New River 

 was formed the water from the Chadwell Spring used to flow into 

 the Lea near where the bridge is now built. Below the town is 

 a navigation-cut which rejoins the old bed of the stream near St. 

 Margarets. The portion of the river thus cut off is very beautiful 

 as it winds its sinuous way, fringed with pollard willows, through 

 the rich meadows. These are the waters which old Izaak Walton 

 loved so well and described so happily in his perfect pastoral, ' The 

 Complete Angler ; ' here he assisted at the destruction of that 

 " villainous vermin," the otter ; and here he caught that wonderful 

 chub — that chub with the white spot on his tail that we all wot of 

 so well. These waters are still famed for their fish, they are strictly 

 preserved, and with others in the neighbourhood are known as the 

 Amwell Magna Fishery. 



Opposite the confluence of the Ash (a stream which has already 

 been described in the ' Transactions ' of this Society) and the Lea, 

 is situated Amwell, one of the most picturesque villages in the 

 valley. Here is a copious spring (Emma's Well), the watei's of 

 which reinforce the New River, and here are the remains of veiy 

 considerable earthworks, surmised to be those made by King Alfred 

 during his campaign against the Danes. Nearly opposite, on the 

 left bank of the river, is a field called " Garrison Field," where 

 a quarter of a century ago a rampart could be traced; this is sup- 

 posed to be the site of Alfred's second fort. A barrow has recently 

 been discovered at Easneyc, which occupies a wooded prominence 



