OXFORD: THE UPPER RIVER 193 



leaves, which in due time bears a fair white flower. 

 The seed is ripened under water, for, their flowering 

 over, the plants, now grown mature, descend to their 

 muddy bed. 



The upper river stops short of the town. Pure and 

 clean it comes, from its rising at Thames Head away 

 up in the Gloucester hills, past Tadpole Weir, and a 

 dozen other points of interest, to New Bridge, where 

 the Windrush has carved itself a sparkling mill pool 

 as it comes in from Witney Town. And so the river 

 runs on to beautiful Bablock Hythe, where is one of 

 the few remaining ferry-boats built large enough to 

 take over a team of horses, their waggon, and its load 

 of hay. At Pinkhill Weir, just below, is another, a 

 broader and truly magnificent pool. Many a noble 

 trout has been taken out of " Pingle " Pool, and many 

 a phantom minnow has been lost in its curling eddies, 

 for there are treacherous logs and moss-covered 

 boulders lying hidden there in places. When the 

 floods are out in winter over the broad flat meadows, 

 the ducks come there in some numbers ; and the old 

 lock-keeper will tell you the story of how he once 

 stalked five wild swans. And now past Eynsham the 

 river runs — Eynsham, which can boast the most 

 beautiful bridge, Shillingford's excepted, on all the 



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