The author walked the length of the Thames River in England from its source in rural Gloucestershire to the flood barrier in London. Along the way, solitude enhanced curiosity and big questions kept popping up. Where are all the annoying bugs? How could a clergyman afford a house this big? What is Coade stone? Does this river flood? Why were there so many monasteries? What actually is a cow? How did they get the obelisk here from Egypt? Tenacious scholarly study soon began to reveal the answers to these and other questions (twenty four in all), and it soon became clear that these insights...