CHAPTER III. 



THE THAMES AND ITS TRIBUTARY RIVERS. 



' Tamesis fluviorum omnium, qui Britanniam alluunt, facile princeps mihi in 

 mentem venit.' LELAND, Prsefatio in Cygn. Cant. 



TAMESIS, the first of the British rivers noticed in Roman story, 

 received its name from the people settled on its banks before the 

 invasion of Caesar. The first part of the name is found in the 

 descriptive title of many British rivers, as Tame, Teme, Tamar, 

 Thame ; the second part seems to mean merely ' water/ as Ouse, 

 Esk, Usk, Wisk, Axe, Exe. The right to the designation will not 

 be disputed by one who has seen the valley under water for many 

 miles during a season of flood. 



Such are the elements of Tamesis. How they came to be com- 

 bined is answered by a rather obvious popular etymology, which 

 unites the names, as nature has joined the streams, of the Thame 

 from Buckinghamshire and the Isis from Gloucestershire. Ac- 

 cording to this explanation, the name of Thames must have been 

 originally restricted to the lower parts of the river, below the con- 

 fluence of the Thame, and the name of Isis should be the ordinary 

 title for the main stream above Oxford. It is certainly so called 

 by many authors both of general repute and local knowledge. 

 Leland, who after studying at Cambridge removed to All Souls, 

 Oxford, in his Itinerary calls the well-known spring three miles 

 west of Cirencester in the parish of Kemble, the 'very head of 

 Isis/ he also says 'the head of Isis in Cotteswolde riseth about 

 a mile on this side Tetbyrie/ How carefully he had explored the 

 river, appears by the following words in the Prsefatio in Cygn. 

 Cant. : ' Hujus ego aliquando, vel ab ipsis fontibus, ripas, sinus, 

 anfractus, divortia, meandros, denique et mediamneis insulas omneis, 

 curiosissime illustravi, et memorise commendavi/ 



