Set The Thames On Fire Meaning

(idiomatic) To achieve something amazing; to do something which brings great public acclaim.

Example: 1816, Jane Austen, Persuasion, Borders Classics 2007, p. 27:
  The baronet will never set the Thames on fire, but there seems no harm in him.
1925, GK Chesterton, ‘The Ultimate Ultimatum of the League of the Long Bow’, The Collected Works, Ignatius Press 2005, p. 402:
  Do you remember when you jumped into the water after the flowers? I fancy it was then you really set the Thames on fire.
1985, Tom Waits, ‘Anywhere I Lay My Head’:
  My head is spinning round / my heart is in my shoes, yeah / I went and set the Thames on fire, oh / now I must come back down.