R. B. CROFT — ON THE RIVER LEA BELOW HERTFORD. 245 



opposite Amwcll, but it lias not as yet been explored. The Lea 

 tlieu divides the parishes of Staiistead Abbotts and St. ]\Iargarets, 

 and arrives at the Rye House, now celebrated as a holiday resort 

 for Londoners, but formerly as the spot where, if a certain plot had 

 been successful, King Charles the Second would have been murdered. 

 Immediately below the llye House the Lea receives the waters of 

 the Stort, a river of such importance that I hope its history may 

 be made the subject of a separate memoir; but in the meantime 

 I will refer my readers to a very interesting account of it in 

 Chauucy's 'History of Hertfordshire ' (1700). 



Eelow this the scenery is very pleasing, the broad deep slowly- 

 running river, the pleasant meadows, the pollard willows, and the 

 Essex hills, on which Nazing Church forms a conspicuous land- 

 mark, unite to form a picture of pastoral beauty which for ages 

 past has given peace and quietness to the jaded Londoner who has 

 followed the example of good old Izaak Walton, and come here 

 a-fishing. At Dobbs Weir, the first weir below the confluence of 

 the Lea and Stort, a trout of 12lbs. 4ozs. was caught in 1881 ; 

 this is the largest Lea trout of which I have been able to obtain 

 authentic information. After passing Carthagena Weir and lock, 

 the river runs by Broxbourne Gardens, and here there is a beautiful 

 row of Lombardy poplars, which have happily not succumbed, as so 

 many of their species have, to the cold of recent winters. At Brox- 

 bourne Mill is a remarkably fine weeping willow, said to have been 

 brought as a sapling from the tomb of Napoleon at St. Helena. 

 Broxbourne Church on a slight eminence overlooks the river, which 

 wends its quiet way to King's Weir, where the navigation-cut 

 leaves the old river, which meanders pleasantly through the Govern- 

 ment property at Waltham, where are the gunpowder factories. 

 Here are large groves of walnut-trees, which were planted at the 

 beginning of the present century to provide wood for the miisket- 

 stocks of the army, though I believe that it has not been found 

 necessary to fell the timber for this purpose. Here also willows and 

 alders are cultivated for use in the manufacture of gunpowder. 



After passing numerous mills and magazines, the old river divides 

 into many branches, passing through the town of Waltham Abbey, 

 or Waltham Holy Cross. The navigation- cut, which leaves the bed 

 of the old river as before mentioned at King's AYeir, crosses one of 

 the branches thereof at the aqueduct-lock ; this branch, called the 

 Small Lea, flows parallel to the river on its right bank, and does 

 not rejoin it till some distance below Waltham. From the aque- 

 duct-lock to Waltham the barge-river passes through two locks, 

 and its chief interest lies on its left bank, which the old river 

 approaches more or less closely several times. 



The interesting town of Waltham Abbey is thus described by 

 Camden. " By Ley, in the English Saxon tongue Lyzean, there 

 stretcheth out a great way in length and breadth a Forest serving 

 for game, stored very full with deere, that for their bignesse, and 

 fatnesse withall, have the name above all other. In times past it 

 was called by way of excellency Foresta de Essex, now Waltham 



