106 A DAY ON THE LEA 



can claim no personal acquaintance with it be- 

 yond the mile or two in which I fished on Bank 

 Holiday. Apart from fishing it must in its 

 pellucid days say in Izaak Walton's time 

 have been a most interesting river to explore. 

 Between Barking Creek and Lea Bridge, fol- 

 lowing it upwards or backwards, the river seems 

 to have three or four arms or branches ; then 

 becoming one stream it forms the boundary line 

 between Middlesex and Essex up to Waltham 

 Abbey; thence past Broxbourne to Roydon, 

 where it separates Hertfordshire and Essex. 

 From Roydon it makes a plunge into the very 

 heart of Hertfordshire (only it plunges the other 

 way). There the names of places most noted 

 on its route are Ware and Hertford, between 

 which towns it receives the waters of the Rib 

 and the Beane, and a little westward of Hert- 

 ford the river Mimram, or rather the little that 

 is left of it by the water company, flows into it. 

 From Hatfield we pursue it to Hide Mill and 

 to Luton in Bedfordshire, and so tracing it to 

 Houghton Regis I lose sight of it altogether. 

 I presume it is thereabouts that it takes its 

 rise. 



Besides its beautiful scenery, and its many 



