4 By Stream and Sea. 



which for two miles and a half keeps boundary between 

 Herts and Middlesex, and which in the last fourteen miles 

 of its length mostly marks the border-line between Bucks 

 and Middlesex, as the Lea across the county marks the 

 border-line on the eastern side. 



Rising near historical Hatfield, the Colne soon begins to 

 receive additions right and left, its infancy being by this 

 reason much shorter in duration than that of most streams ; 

 very quickly 



" The struggling rill insensibly is grown 

 Into a brook of loud and stately march, 

 Cross'd ever and anon by plank and arch ; 

 And for like use, lo ! what might seem a zone 

 Chosen for ornament ; stone match'd with stone 

 In studied symmetry, with interspace 

 For the clear waters to pursue their race 

 Without restraint." 



One of the earlier branches of the Colne, the Verlam, is 

 considerably larger than itself, and this is the stream which 

 passes by Lord Bacon's Gorhambury and the ancient shrine 

 of St. Alban's. By Watford the Colne flows through flat 

 marshy meadows, overlooked by the London and North- 

 Western Railway, and busily peopled in winter-time by 

 grey plovers and many passing feathered visitants, and 

 touches the quiet old-fashioned town of Rickmansworth, 

 where we may find it convenient to halt at the head-quarters 

 of our Hertfordshire Valley. 



From this centre you may wander away into the woods 

 to the north, into Moor Park, once the habitation of Car- 

 dinal Wolsey, James Duke of Monmouth, and Lord Anson, 

 and now the country house of Lord Ebury ; or into Rick- 

 mansworth Park, where you may pass a long delightful 

 summer's day under the shade of grand avenues of trees, 



