[Illustration: THAMES HEAD.]
The river Thames is the largest and most important river in England, and
carries the greatest commerce in the world. From the Cotswold Hills in
Gloucestershire it flows to the eastward past London, and after a course
of two hundred and twenty miles empties into the North Sea. The
confluence of many small streams draining the Cotswolds makes the
Thames, but its traditional source, or "The Thames Head," is in
Trewsbury Mead, about three miles from Cirencester, and at an elevation
of three hundred and seventy-six feet above the sea-level. The waters of
the infant stream are at once pressed into service for pumping into the
higher levels of a canal, which pierces the Cotswolds by a long tunnel,
and connects the Thames with the Severn River, flowing along their
western base. It receives many tiny rivulets that swell its current,
until at Cricklade the most ambitious of these affluents joins it, and
even lays claim to be the original stream. This is the Churn, rising at
the "Seven Springs," about three miles from Cheltenham, and also on the
slope of the Cotswolds. The Churn claims the honor because it is twenty
miles long, while the Thames down to Cricklade measures only ten miles.
But they come together affectionately, and journey on through rich
meadows much like other streams, until the clear waters have acquired
sufficient dignity to turn a mill. Cirencester (pronounced Cisseter),
which thus has the honor of being a near neighbor of the Thames Head, is
an ancient town, occupying the site of the Roman city of Corinium, and
is known as the "metropolis of the Cotswolds." Here four great Roman
roads met, and among the many Roman remains it has is part of the ruins
of an amphitheatre. It was a famous stronghold before the Saxons came to
England, and Polydorus tells how one Gormund, an African prince, in the
dim ages of the past, besieged it for seven long years. Then he
bethought him that if he could only set fire to the thatched roofs of
the houses he could in the commotion that would follow force an
entrance. So he set his troops at work catching sparrows, and when many
were caught fastened combustibles under their tails and let them loose.
The poor birds flew straight to their nests under the thatches, set them
in a blaze, and while the people were busy putting out the fires Gormund
got into the town. In memory of this it was afterwards called the "City
of Sparrows." The Normans built a strong castle here, and Stephen
destroyed it. The castle was rebuilt, and suffered the usual fate in the
successive civil wars, and in the Revolution of 1688 the first bloodshed
was at Cirencester. It had a magnificent abbey, built for the Black
Canons in the twelfth century, and ruled by a mitred abbot who had a
seat in Parliament. A fine gateway of this abbey remains, and also the
beautiful church with its pretty tower. It is known now as the parish
church of St. John, and has been thoroughly restored. Within are the
monuments of the Bathurst family, whose seat at Oakley Park, near the
town, has some charming scenery. Pope's Seat, a favorite resort of the
poet, is also in the park. Cheltenham, near which is the "Seven
Springs," the source of the Churn, is a popular watering-place, with the
Earl of Eldon's seat at Stowell Park not far away. Here in 1864 a Roman
villa was discovered, which has been entirely excavated. It has twenty
chambers communicating with a long corridor, and there are several
elegant tessellated pavements, while the walls are still standing to a
height of four feet. Two temples have also been found in the immediate
neighborhood. Substantial buildings have been erected to protect these
precious remains from the weather.