in. THE COLE. THE W1NDRUSH. 33 



course. Its longest branch springs near Hampnet, a mile above 

 Northleach, where it crosses the great Fosse Way.' After leaving 

 Northleach it runs by Eastington, famous for fossils, flows by a 

 camp at Ladborough, crosses ( Akeman Street 11 ' at Sheep Bridge, 

 and passes by East Leach, Turville, and Southrop. Northleach, 

 the most interesting place on its course, has a large church with 

 some good sculpture, and several old buildings connected with its 

 former trade in woollens, and its existing grammar school. The 

 Leach, one of the smallest of the Cotswold ' rivers,' has nevertheless 

 its ' Seven Springs ' near Northleach, at a height of about 570 

 feet above the sea. May one fancy the name of the river to 

 contain the British element ' Llech,' slaty stone ? for such is often 

 the condition of the oolitic beds on the Cotswolds, though not 

 specially so near Northleach. 



The Cole. At Lechlade, the small river Cole, rising in many 

 branches from the chalk of Marlborough Downs and other strata 

 near Swindon and the White Horse Hill, enters the Thames on the 

 south side. The augmented main stream now continues its east- 

 ward course in a broad valley of Oxford clay, receiving few and 

 small affluents till the Windrush, one of its greatest branches, 

 brings a body of water from the extreme range of the Cotswolds. 



The Windrush. This river has several branches. What may be 

 called the main stream begins by three forks far up on the slopes 

 of the high ridge of Broadway and Stanway, beyond and much 

 higher than the sources of the Coin. One of these runs southward 

 from near Snow's Hill, by the open country of Ford and the woody 

 region of Temple- Guiting. At Guiting-Power it receives the united 

 current of several short streams, which spring about Bradwell's 

 Barn, Broadwater, and Rowell, and a small rill from Hawling. 

 From this beautiful and woody region it descends into the deep 

 glen of Naunton, and then emerging into an open valley, passes 

 by Hartford Bridge to the large village of Bourton, seated by the 

 bright and rippling water. Not far below Bourton, another branch 

 comes in, called the Dickler, which springs on the dry slopes of 

 Broadway Hill, in the midst of complicated hollows, where * Spring 

 Hill' and * Seven W T ells' mark the limited appearances of water. 



A few miles lower down, a ramified rivulet, which gathers 011 the 



h On the Ordnance Map this is called 'The Ikenild Roman Way.' 



D 



