30 THE THAMES AWD ITS TRIBUTARY RIVERS. CHAP. 



in foliage. Such a scene in the midst of the dry Cotswold Hills 

 might justify the ' well-flowerings'' which still find examples in the 

 equally dry limestone district of Derbyshire. Thanks to ' natural 

 selection/ the springs ^remain as they used to be, but the beauty 

 <of the spot has been greatly altered by a flowery garden, a pretty 

 lake, and growing plantations, more adapted for gay parties from 

 Cheltenham than suited to the grand simplicity of one of the 

 venerable fountains of Father Thames. 



Standing near the Seven Wells, we look north-westward toward 

 the steep slopes of Leckhancpton, and north-eastward to the rival 

 height of Wistley, each of these prominent points being about 970 

 feet high. The Seven Wells spring at 650 feet, the Ullen Water 

 issues at about 7 feet. From each the dale continues by an 

 easy pass over to the drainage of the Chelt, the summits being 

 between 700 and 800 feet above the sea. 



The two streams unite at Cubberly, which boasts a church and 

 a ' court ; ' and the River Churn thus constituted runs southward 

 in a pleasant narrow valley (excavated into the upper lias clay), 

 by Cowley and Colesborne, where a few traces appear of a monastic 

 establishment. The valley now contracts, the sides are cliffy and 

 shaded by woods, and at intervals the higher grounds rise in great 

 beauty. Such is the course of the ' nimble-footed Churn/ by 

 Rendcombe Park and the village of North Cerney ; and so it 

 continues a romantic and beautiful water to Cirencester. Ciren- 

 cester was the head station of the great Cotswold tribe known as 

 the Dobuni (Aofiovvoi of Ptolemy), whose name perhaps indicates 

 the hilly country in which they resided. Walls two miles in 

 circumference, tessellated pavements, temples, amphitheatres, baths, 

 innumerable works of a*rt, all indicate a great and prosperous city, 

 not a stern camp for war. It was, perhaps, one of the earliest, 

 and certainly one of the greatest, of the Romano-British cities. 

 Passing through a flatter country to Cricklade, the Churn joins on 

 equal terms the stream from Thames Head already referred to. 

 The length of the Churn may be stated at twenty miles. 



The outrush of water from the Seven Wells, the beautiful source 

 of the Churn, constitutes at once a small rivulet, which issues from 

 the lower part of the oolite, and soon is found running over lias 

 clay. At Colesborne, in the autumn of 1849, Mr. Taunton found 

 the flow to be 420 feet in a minute. But below this point the 



