CHAPTER VIII 



A DAY ON THE LEA 



SKETCH OF THE LEA FROM ITS SOURCE TO ITS MOUTH 

 IZAAK WALTON AT THATCHT-HOUSE AND HOD- 

 DESDON DR. JOHNSON AT LUTON HOO PANS- 

 HANGER OAK BLEAK HALL POLLUTION OF THE 

 RIVER OUR DAY'S FISHING 



" No life so happy and so pleasant as the life of a well- 

 governed angler ; for when the lawyer is swallowed up 

 with business, and the statesman is preventing or con- 

 triving plots, then we sit on cowslip banks, hear the birds 

 sing, and possess ourselves in as much quietness as these 

 silent silver streams which we now see glide so quietly by 

 us." IZAAK WALTON. 



[ND only a day; my first acquaint- 

 ance with that renowned stream. 

 I have been trying to trace on an 

 ordnance map the course of the 

 Lea from its mouth at Blackwall, where it joins 

 the Thames. From this point to its source I 



