dungeon, which is now said to be appropriately
decorated with skulls and other human bones, was formerly their
stronghold. At this weird mansion, within a few minutes' ride of the
metropolis, we will close our descriptive journey through Midland
England, and its mystic tale will recall that passage from the _Book of
Days_ which counsels--

"Doubtless there are no ghosts;
Yet somehow it is better not to move,
Lest cold hands seize upon us from behind."

IV.

THE RIVER THAMES AND LONDON.

The Thames Head--Cotswold Hills--Seven
Springs--Cirencester--Cheltenham--Sudeley
Castle--Chavenage--Shifford--Lechlade--Stanton Harcourt--Cumnor
Hall--Fair Rosamond--Godstow Nunnery--Oxford--Oxford
Colleges--Christ Church--Corpus Christi--Merton--Oriel--All
Souls--University--Queen's--Magdalen--Brasenose--New
College--Radcliffe Library--Bodleian
Library--Lincoln--Exeter--Wadham--Keble--Trinity--Balliol--St.
John's--Pembroke--Oxford Churches--Oxford Castle--Carfax
Conduit--Banbury--Broughton
Castle--Woodstock--Marlborough--Blenheim--Minster
Lovel--Bicester--Eynsham--Abingdon--Radley--Bacon, Rich, and
Holt--Clifton Hampden--Caversham--Reading--Maidenhead--Bisham
Abbey--Vicar of Bray--Eton College--Windsor Castle--Magna Charta
Island--Cowey Stakes--Ditton--Twickenham--London--Fire
Monument--St. Paul's Cathedral--Westminster Abbey--The
Tower--Lollards and Lambeth--Bow Church--St.
Bride's--Whitehall--Horse Guards--St. James Palace--Buckingham
Palace--Kensington Palace--Houses of Parliament--Hyde Park--Marble
Arch--Albert Memorial--South Kensington Museum--Royal
Exchange--Bank of England--Mansion House--Inns of Court--British
Museum--Some London Scenes--The Underground Railway--Holland
House--Greenwich--Tilbury Fort--The Thames Mouth.

THE THAMES HEAD.

[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