THE THAMES. 77 



HENLEY 



is reached by a branch of the Great Western Railway, the 

 distance from town, by rail, being 36 miles. The Perch- 

 fishing is remarkably good, some having been taken weighing 

 three pounds and a half and sometimes more. The Inns are. 

 the Angel and the Red Lion ; the fishermen K. and W. 

 Woodley, <fec. At Hambledon where there are two weirs 

 some good Trout are occasionally taken, there is also first-rate 

 Perch-fishing near Culham Court, from the grounds of which 

 the windings of the Thames are seen to great advantage, and 

 extensive views are obtained of the wood-crowned undulations 

 of the Chiltern Hills. Lower down the river is 



MEDMENHAM ABBEY. 



This was founded about the year 1 200, but the commissioners 

 appointed by Henry VIII. to enquire into the state of the 

 smaller monasteries found it in such a ruinous state that, the 

 monks having no objection to remove to a larger establishment, 

 it was appended to Bisham and suffered to linger on till it 

 perished altogether. The walls were afterwards strengthened 

 and it was converted into a dwelling, and so remained till the 

 middle of the eighteenth century, when Francis Dashwood, 

 Lord le Despencer resolved to found an order of monks in 

 accordance with the character of the times, chosen, not how- 

 ever from the poor and unlearned but from men of rank and 

 position, and literary fame, who took the name of Franciscans 

 from the Christian name of their superior. " Fay ce qve 

 voudras " was the motto inscribed over the door, where it is 

 still to be seen, and in accordance with it these monks did 

 what they pleased. The feelings of the neighbourhood were 

 at length so outraged by the practices of this "band of 

 brothers " that the society was suppressed. Every trace of 

 the Franciscans was afterwards carefully removed from the 

 walls, and the abbey is again a peaceful dwelling. The river 

 from this part to Cookham abounds with fine Chub, which 

 find capital retreats under the bushes which overhang the 

 river, which is of considerable width with strong beds of weeds 

 affording first-rate harbour for large Pike. At New Lock is 



