Possible Clues:

• Drink to excess, swallowing river in a manner of speaking?
• Artistic device
• Figure of speech — or pet (anag)
• Metonymy or synecdoche, e.g.
• Such a cable after a little tea might be figurative
• Figurative device
• Perhaps Rio brought up Ferguson's second figure of speech
• Tory or pleb? Not even a metaphor
• Left to head north then east in sort of metaphor?
• Image capturing fish in river? On the contrary