From Hampstead Heath the Flete doth run

a tributary at Gospel Oak then seeks to join it

and doth entwine at Camden Town and so combine,

a matrimonial columbine at Pancras Church.

At Battle Bridge it come besmirched by pestilence

 from the west at Woburn Place a stream comes in,

near Charterhouse another rill through city fields

doth merge and so a veritable rush begins.

 

At Saffron Hill where crime is rife an inn resides,

vile , nefarious full of sin, whence pigs and dogs

do tumble down towards the Thames with indecent haste

and many's the gent who joins the flow as it sings its song

cantering under bridge and street there goes the Flete!

 

'til finally in slow design as Venice seems

the Flete forgets its past with all its little streams,

enters in to Father Thames who doth provide

the trade of London carried on the London tide.

 

Of late the Fleet runs with little allure,

it runs in a pipe,

naught but a sewer.