Father Thames

or Old Father Thames. The Thames, so far as it belongs to London.

“Say, Father Thames, for thou hast seen

Full many a sprightly race

Disporting on thy margent green,

The paths of pleasure trace.”

Gray: Distant Prospect of Eton College.

The epithet is not uncommonly applied to other great rivers, especially those on which cities are built. The river is the father of the city, or the reason why the site was selected by the first settlers there.

“O Tiber, Father Tiber,

To whom the Romans pray.”

Macaulay: Lay of Horatius.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

Father Thames

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