The Castle Keep, Oxford.
THE UPPER RIVER
CHAPTER ONE
Stripling Thames
Just where the Thames starts has always been a matter of argument, for several places have laid claim to the honour of holding the source of this great national possession.
About three miles south-west of Cirencester, and quite close to that ancient and famous highway the Ackman Street (or Bath fosseway), there is a meadow known as Trewsbury Mead, lying in a low part of the western Cotswolds, just where Wiltshire and Gloucestershire meet; and in this is situated what is commonly known as “Thames Head”—a spring which in winter bubbles forth from a hollow, but which in summer is so completely dried by the action of the Thames Head Pump, which drains the water from this and all other springs in the neighbourhood, that the cradle of the infant Thames is usually bone-dry for a couple of miles or more of its course. This spot is usually recognized as the beginning of the River.
Thames Head.
If, however, we consider that the source of a river is the point at greatest distance from the mouth we shall have to look elsewhere; for the famous “Seven Streams” at the foot of Leckhampton Hill, from which comes the brook later known as the River Churn, can claim the distinction of being a few more miles from the North Sea; and this distinction has frequently been recognized as sufficient to grant the claim to be the true commencement.