MIDDLESEX. 5 1 



range of hills between Lutterworth and Harborough, 

 and divides this county from Leicestershire, Rutland, 

 and Northamptonshire, sinks into the fens below 

 Deeping, and reaching the port of Spalding, falls into 

 the ocean; the Witham, which rises about ten miles 

 north of Stamford, runs by Grantham to Lincoln, is 

 met by the Bain, flows on to Boston, after getting a 

 communication with the Trent, by means of a canal 

 seven miles in length, and falls into the Fosdyke Wash; 

 the Ancham, or Ancholme, a small river rising in the 

 Wolds, and navigable from Glandford Bridge to the 

 Humber; with the Glean, from Bourne, which joins the 

 Welland in the fens, all afford some good fishing, for 

 salmon, trout, perch, pike, tench, &c. The Ancham 

 is particularly celebrated for its eels, and the Witham 



for its pike. 



" Ancham eel, and Witham pike, 

 In all England is none li^e." 



XXII. MIDDLESEX. 



ONE of the great features of the metropolitan county is 

 "the noble Thames" 



" Thames, most loved of all the Ocean's sons 

 By his old sire," 



for the honour of whose parentage two streams contend 

 both rising from the southern slopes of the Cotswold 

 hills, but some sixteen miles apart. The source of one 

 of them is known as Thames-head^ that of the other as 

 Seven Springs, or the Churn. Thames-head is about 

 three miles south-west of Cirencester, and within sight 

 of the Tetbury-road station of the Great Western and 

 E 2 



