52 MIDDLESEX. 



Gloucester Kailway. It lies in a hollow, close to a 

 bridge over the Thames and Severn Canal, known as 

 Thames-head Bridge. The Churn, near its head, is 

 separated into two branches the one, which is rather 

 the longer of the two, and which some affirm to be the 

 true head, rises at Ullen Farm, about a mile west of 

 Seven Springs, the source of the other. Both rise near 

 the foot of Leckhampton Hill, about three miles south 

 of Cheltenham, and, uniting about a mile distant from 

 their respective sources, flow onward as one mighty river, 

 between Berks and Bucks, Middlesex and Surrey, Essex 

 and Kent, receiving the waters of numerous tributaries 

 on their way, and falling into the German Ocean, off the 

 two last-named counties. This river is scarcely less 

 famous for the number and variety of its fish than for its 

 romantic beauty and its mighty commerce; and I 

 shall now proceed to describe the principal places 

 that are chiefly resorted to for angling, without con- 

 fining myself within the limits of any particular 

 county. 



In the angler's map of the river Thames, compiled 

 by Nethercliff, Henley is the most distant place given, 

 and from that point I shall take my start. 



From Henley to Staines, then, which includes 

 Hambledon, Medmendham, Marlow, Cookham, Maiden- 

 head, and Datchet, the river abounds with ex- 

 cellent trout, pike, barbel, perch, roach, chub, and 

 almost all the smaller fish. The best barbel- fishing 

 will be found in the Greenland deeps, the Bisham 

 deeps, in the deeps below Cookham ferry, the deeps 

 off Taplow, at Amerton Bank, Monkey Island, and 

 the Staines deeps, which extend two hundred yards 

 from the bridge eastward. The best gudgeon-fishing 



