194 OXFORD: THE UPPER RIVER 



upper Thames. Old Dick Treadwell (pronounced 

 Treddle), the tollgate-keeper, is worth a visit in 

 himself. He is an enthusiast on the fiddle, as his 

 father was before him ; he remembers how his father 

 once took him into Oxford to hear the " head fiddler 

 that ever lived," and how his father told him that this 

 wonderful performer got as much as "two pun a 

 night ! " Ah, you may wonder, but his father told 

 him, so he knows it must be right. A curious camp- 

 like prominence looks down upon the bridge, and 

 round the shoulder of the hill lie the great woods 

 that stretch away to Witham without a break. On the 

 left the meadows widen back, and Cassington spire 

 and Yarnton tower stand out sharp in the sunlight. 

 Presently a turn of the stream brings distant Oxford 

 into view. But Oxford is five miles further yet, and 

 the river has many a long reach to pass, and an island 

 where the otters eat their dinner, a bed of flowering- 

 rush where the swans nest. King's Weir, and Godstow 

 Abbey, and more long reaches before it comes to 

 Medley Lock and ends as the upper river. 



This, then, is a bird's-eye view of the upper 

 river. It is early yet ; we will take a dingey at 

 Bossom's and spend a day up stream. Before 

 evening ("Vincent's" derision notwithstanding) you 



