[ This formatting for online use is based on the 1885 edition. The previous editions contained more material. Some of this has been added with a note of the date.
1885 is implied where there is no date.
Sometimes where text, particularly prices, has been hard to read, a previous edition may have been used.
Note that the banks of the river are named by Charles Dickens in the traditional conventional way, facing the sea.
The Environment Agency have now gone against this and today use the opposite convention - SORRY! - ignorance of tradition ...]
THE objects aimed at in this book, which follows naturally on the Original Dictionary of London, have been to give practical information to oarsmen, anglers, yachtsmen,
and others directly interested in the river; to serve as a guide to the numerous strangers who annually visit the principal places on its banks;
to furnish a book of reference for residents; as well as to provide in a concise form a useful handbook for those connected with the port of London and its trade.
A Dictionary of the Thames which should include a Dictionary of London was obviously incompatible with the space at my disposal.
From Kew to Woolwich, therefore, it has been necessary to omit all matters not immediately connected with the river itself.
The favourite excursion from Oxford to London will be found fully dealt with under the head, "Trip from Oxford", which includes full
descriptions of locks, etc., and distances from place to place.
The numerous maps already in existence vary so much as to the latter point, that I have thought it best to adopt the measurements kindly given to me by the Thames Conservancy,
which are sufficiently accurate for all practical purposes.
For convenience of reference the guide to Oxford is divided into two parts, Oxford City and Oxford University.
Under the latter head will be found descriptions of the University buildings.
Since the book was first published, the trip from Cricklade to Oxford and a description of the principal places on the Thames above Oxford have also been added to its contents.
In conclusion, it is my pleasant duty to express my grateful thanks for the courteous readiness with which my applications for information and assistance have been responded to,
both by the authorities of the Trinity House and Thames Conservancy, as well as by the very numerous correspondents who have afforded me valuable assistance.
CHARLES DICKENS. [Junior]
Berkshire, on the right bank, from London 103¾ miles, from Oxford 7¾ miles.
A station on the Great Western Railway, from Paddington 60 miles.
The time occupied by the trains varies from one hour and three quarters upwards; the station is about twelve minutes' walk from the river.
Population, 6,506.
Soil gravel.
Abingdon is situated at the junction of the Ock with the Thames, and can boast very considerable antiquity.
It appears to have grown up round a great abbey which was founded here so far back as the 7th century, but it is probable that much of the early history of Abingdon
is entirely of a legendary kind and that litt1e is known about it with absolute certainty until the time of the Conquest.
The evidence of Domesday book goes to show that the abbey at that time was rich in landed property.
Desperate quarrels occurred between the monks and the citizens, and in 1327 a great part of the abbey was burnt in a riot in which the Mayor of Oxford and disorderly
students of that University took the part of the inhabitants of Abingdon.
The town gradually pricipally through its extensive cloth trade, but received a severe blow when the abbey was abolished in 1538 and its revenues diverted into other channels.
Another reason for the importance of the town in ancient days was the building of its bridge by John Huchyns and Geoffey Barbur in 1416.
In the reign ot Queen Mary, 1557 a Charter of Incorporation was granted to the town at the instigation of Sir John Mason an influential inhabitant,
and it has ever since been represented in Parliament, the original number of two members being now reduced to one.
The borough is now represented by Mr.John C.Clarke, a Liberal.
The number of voters on the register in 1878 was 890.
The town is governed by a mayor, four aldermen, and twelve councillors.
The principal business centre is the Market-place, with High-street, Stert-street, East St.Helen's-street, the Square, and Ock-street.
It is a clean, quiet little place - quiet even to the point of dulness - with many good houses both modern and ancient.
Among the latter may be instanced an excellent example of old timbering in a house in Stert-street.
Notwithstanding its apparent quiet a fair amount of trade is carried on in Abingdon, and one of its principal industries is that of the manufacture of ready-made clothing,
thus, oddly enough, carrying out the old traditions of the place, which, as Leland says at one time "stood by clothing".
The market-house stands on an open arcade of stone pillars with a timbered roof, and is the work of Inigo Jones.
Built in 1667, it was restored in 1853, and stands on the site of the famous old market cross which was destroyed by the Parliamentary General Waller in 1644.
A curious picture of the cross is on the outside of the south wall of Christ's Hospital,facing the river.
The abbey gateway still stands to the eastward of the market-place, and a little beyond it, on the right, are some very interesting remains
of the old abbey itself, now in the occupation of a brewer but readily accessible to visitors.
Here, at the extreme end of the yard, on the right, some crumbling steps with a time-worn wooden balustrade at the top lead to the abbot's apartments,
now used as lofts, in which are the remains of a fire-place, said to be of the time of Henry III., with capacious chimney,
some good windows, and well preserved poited archways to the doorways.
The roofs are lofty and the walls of immense thickness.
Underneath this room is a crypt, also unusually lofty, which is at present used for the storage of bitter ale.
The entrance to crypt is close to the backwater of the Thames and is shaded by some splendid chestnuts - for which indeed Abingdon is remarkable.
The upper windows facing the river at this point are in good preservation, and from a lane between the brewery and the abbey gateway, is
a very picturesque view of the great chimney above mentioned.
The church of St. Nicholas (which, at the time of writing, is in process of restoration) adjoins the abbey gateway and
will well repay a visit.
It contains a painted mural monument, with a carved stone base, reaching from the floor almost to the ceiling, dedicated to the memory of John Blacknall and
Jane his wife, "who both of them finished an happy course upon earth, and ended their days in peace on the 21st day of August, 1625."
They are represented by two figures in black kneeling on red and gilt cushions, she with her two children praying behind her; and the epitaph runs
as follows;
When once the lived on earth one bed did hold
Their bodies, which one minute turned to mould,
Being dead, one grave trusted with that prize,
Untill the trump doth sound and all must rise.
Here death struck even, yet did not part this paire,
But by this stroke they more united were
And what left they behind, you plainly see,
One oniy daughter, and their charity.
What though the first, by death's command did leave us,
The second we are sure will ne'er decieve us.
Blacknall was a great benefactor to the town and among his charities is a dole of forty seven loaves of bread,
which are distributed from his tomb every Sunday.
There is a small brass with an inscription
to the Bostock family (1669), some curious
old stained glass panes with an almost
undecipherable inscription, and an old
carved stone font.
The registers date back to 1558, are in splendid order, and
most carefully bound and preserved, and
contain many curious entries; among
others, the records of several civil marriages, after publication of the names
three times in the market, attested by
John Bolton and others, mayors of the
town in 1657.
The church has a tower
with a singular square turret attached,
and a good Norman doorway.
A much finer church is St. Helen's,
close to the river, the spire of which, with
its flying buttresses, is a landmark to this
portion of the Thames.
This really
handsome church has a nave and chancel
of equal breadth, and side aisles, with
timbered roof, good throughout and in
the nave and chancel very elaborate.
In
the north aisle the roof is still decorated
with curious paintings, many of which
are gradually but surely fading.
There
is a new carved marble font and modern
oak rood-screen, both of considerable
beauty.
Among the monuments is the
stone memorial in the north aisle to John
Roysse, the founder of the Abingdon
Grammar School, who died in 1571,
leaving express orders that the great
stone in his arbour in his London garden
should be the upper stone of his tomb at
Abingdon, round about which four-and-twenty pensioners should for ever kneel
on Sundays to receive alms; and with
further careful provision that "twelve pence in white bread, being good, sweet, and seasonable", should be distributed
every Sunday at his tomb, to twelve old
widows, "women or men", of whom
every one at the receipt thereof should
say, "The blessed Trinity upon John
Roysse's soul have mercy!
Another
stone monument, in the west of the north
aisle, bears the following inscription:
"This tombe is honord with the bones
of our pious benefactour, Richard Curtaine,
gent., a principall magistrate of this Corpa. [sic],
hee was buried July ye 18, Ano Dominy
1643";
and elsewhere on the tomb are
these lines, which at the time were no doubt considered to embody a quaint conceit:
Our Curtaine in this lower press,
Rests folded up in nature's dress.
At the foot of this tomb is a brass, with a
half-length figure in action of prayer,
Galfridus Barbur, 1417; and behind the
organ is another brass, nearly obliterated,
displaying a full-length female figure.
In the east of the south aisle is a curious
painting of the genealogical tree of W. Lee, 1637.
Mr.Lee was five times Mayor of
Abingdon, and "had in his lifetime issue
from his loins two hundred lacking but
three".
The organ displays a quaint wood-carving of King David, with gilded
harp and crown.
The tomb of Mrs.Elizabeth Hawkins, 1780, is a capital
example of what should be avoided in the way of monumental sculpture.
It is crowded with busts of fat naked children,
weeping tears of colossal size, and all the
usual devices and properties of the most
conventional stonemason.
The perpetrator of this work of genius was, it
appears, one Hickey, who was fortunate
enough to receive for it £400 under the
deceased lady's will.
In the churchyard of St. Helen's is a
row of almshouses in memory of Charles
Twitty, 1707, who gave £1,700 for building and endowing "an hospital for
maintayning in meate, drinke, and
apparrel, and all other necessarys of life
3 poor aged men, and the like number of
poor aged women".
Abutting on the churchyard also are the cloistered buildings of the charity of Christ's Hospital,
which was refounded in 1553 - having
been dissolved by Henry VIII. - at the
instance of Sir John Mason, who procured for it a charter from Edward VI.
Over the central porch of the hospital
are some curious old paintings, representing such subjects as the giving of
alms, the story of the Good Samaritan,
and other Scripture subjects, as well as a
portrait of Edward VI.
The picture of the old market cross has already been noticed.
The oak-panelled hall, which
is lighted by a lofty lantern, has several
odd pictures, among them one representing the building of Abingdon Bridge,
in memory of "Jefforye Barbur and John Howchion".
On the frame is inscribed :
"Frauncis Little, one of ye governors of
this hospital, gave this table, An. Dni. 1607."
and underneath the picture stands the table in question, a fine one of oak,
with curiously carved legs.
A portrait of
Edward VI. hangs, with several others,
in the hall; and there is also preserved
the original charter, which shows considerable signs of age.
The later portion
of the hospital buildings, which runs
parallel to the river, dates from 1718, and
it is just below this point that the waters
of the Ock and of the Wilts and Berks
Canal join the Thames.
At the north side of the town is the
Albert Park, presented to the town by
the trustees of Christ's Hospital in 1864.
It is well laid out and planted, and in it
stands a monument to the late Prince
Consort, with his statue in the robes of
the Garter.
Adjoining the park are the
new buildings of the grammar school,
founded by John Roysse in 1563.
The profligacy of John Roysse's son was the
immediate cause of the foundation of
Abingdon Grammar School.
It is said
that nothing but the universal estimation
in which men held his father, "as well
in the west country as also in Kent or
otherwise", saved the criminal from the
penalties of the law.
Roysse disinherited
him, and, after providing for his grandson and making certain other bequests,
bequeathed the residue of his fortune, directing that as it was endowed A.D.1563,
and in the 63rd year of its founder's life, it
should educate 63 boys for ever.
Thomas
Teesdale, the first scholar admitted into
this school, endowed an ushership in the
school, and left funds for purchasing
lands for the maintenance of fellows and
scholars from Abingdon school at Balliol
College, Oxford.
His trustees, however,
combined with Richard Wightwick to
found Pembroke College, Oxford, at which
college the school possesses five of the incorporated scholarships.
Of these one is
filled up annually, and two boys who have
been educated at the school for two years
are nominated as candidates.
Each
scholarship is of the value of £50 per
annum, with rooms rent free, and is tenable for five years.
The fees for boarders
under the age of 13 are £57, over 13, £63.
Hard by Roysse's school is Sir Gilbert
Scott's church of St. Michael, which serves
as a chapel-of-ease to St. Helen's.
The
street leading to the park from Ock-street
is by the side of the almshouses founded
by Benjamin Tompkins in 1733.
The angler should not be afraid of fishing near the town, as there are some excellent swims close by.
In Blake's Lock-pool there are barbel, chub, perch, &c,
and on the tow-path side, opposite Thrup,
just past the overfall, there is a swim of
considerable length, and full six feet deep,
reachable from the bank.
Banks.- Gillett & Co., The Square; London and County, Market-place.
Fairs.- First Monday in Lent, May 6,
June 20, July 1, September 19 and 30,
December 11.
Fire Engine.- Abbey-gateway.
Hotels.- "Crown and Thistle" (landing-stage at the "Nag's Head" );
"Lion", High-street;
"Queen's", Market-place (landing-stage at the "Anchor").
Market Day.- Monday.
Places of Worship.- St. Helen's,
St. Michael's, and St. Nicholas; and the
Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady and
St. Edmund.
There are also Baptist,
Independent, Primitive Methodist, and
Wesleyan Chapels in the town.
Police.- Borough, Abbey-gateway;
County, Bridge - street, close to the
bridge.
Postal Arrangements.- Post Office
(money order, savings bank, telegraph,
and insurance), Market-place.
Mails from London, 7, 10, and 11.30 a.m., 5 p.m.;
Sunday, 7 a.m. Mails for London,11.10 a.m., 1.55, 4.5, and 10 p.m.;
Sunday, 10 p.m.
Nearest Bridge, Ferry, Lock, and
Railway Station, Abingdon.
Nearest
Bridges, up, Oxford, 7¾ miles; down,
Sutton, 2 miles.
Locks, up, Sandford, 5 miles; down, Culham, 2 miles.
Fares to Paddington: 1st, 10/10, 18/3;
2nd, 8/2, 13/9 ; 3rd, 5/6.
Albert Bridge, a handsome new suspension bridge, crossing the river from
Albert-road, which skirts the west side of
Battersea Park to Cadogan Pier, and the
Chelsea Embankment.
It affords the
nearest means of communication between
the district about Clapham and South
Kensington.
Albert Bridge, Windsor Home Park.
An iron bridge of elegant design.
Connects Berkshire and Buckinghamshire,
crossing the river to the south of the park,
about half a mile below Datchet.
The Albert
Embankment, London, S.E., on the right
bank, from a point a little below Vauxhali
Bridge to Westminster Bridge.
The
carriage way diverges to the right after
leaving Lambeth Palace, and enters Westminster Bridge-road at the corner of Stangate; St.Thomas's Hospital, and a walk
for foot passengers only, occupying the
river frontage at this point.
Nearest Railway Stations, Vauxhall and Westminster Bridge; Omnibus Route,
Westminster Bridge-road; Steamboat
Pier, Lambeth.
Club-house, Public Hall, South-end.
Election by ballot; five members
form a quorum; one black ball in five
excludes.
Entrance fee for yacht owners,
£1 1s.; non-yacht owners, £2 1s.
; subscription, £2 2s.
Members residing beyond two miles from the club pay only
£1 1s.
Officers: Commodore, vice-commodore, rear commodore, hon.secretary.
The committee consists of the officers and
12 members, three to form a quorum.
Red ensign; burgee blue, with the arms of the county of Essex.
At a meeting of the Stewards and Committee of
Henley Regatta in April, 1879, the following definition of what constitutes an
amateur was adopted:
No person shall be considered an amateur oarsman or sculler -
First, who has ever competed in any open competition for a stake, money, or
entrance fee;
secondly, who has ever competed with or against a professional for
any prize; thirdly, who has ever taught,
pursued, or assisted in the practice of
athletic exercises of any kind as a means
of gaining a livelihood;
fourthly, who has
been employed in or about boats for
money or wages; fifthly, who is or has
been, by trade or employment for wages,
a mechanic, artisan, or labourer.
At a subsequent meeting it was resolved:
That the entry of any crew out of the United Kingdom must be accompanied by a declaration, made before a
notary public, with regard to the profession of each member of the crew, and
to the effect that he is a member of a
club duly established at least one year
before the day of entry; and that he has
never competed with or against a professional for any prize; has never taught,
pursued, nor assisted in the practice of
athletic exercises of any kind as a means
of gaining a livelihood; has never been
employed in or about boats for money or
wages; and is not, nor ever has been, by
trade or employment for wages, a mechanic, artisan, or labourer: and such
declaration must be certified by the
British Consul, or the mayor, or the chief
authority of the locality.
(See Great Western Railway and London and South Western Railway.)
Established 1878.
Subscriptions, rowing members,
£1 10s; coxswains, 10s.
; honorary members, £1 1s.
Entrance fee of £1 1s. may be remitted in certain cases.
Election by
ballot in general meeting; one black ball
in six excludes.
Colours, maroon, black, and light blue.
Boathouse, Maynards, Chiswick.
The following list of London Angling Clubs has been kindly furnished by Mr.W.H.Brougham, Secretary of the Thames Angling Preservation Society.
| East Central Association of United London Anglers, "Bald-Faced Stag", Worship-square, Finsbury. Secretary, Mr.R.Ghurney. Meet on the first Monday in each month. |
| West Central Association of London and Provincial Angling Societies, "Portman Arms", Great Quebec-street, Baker-street. Secretary, Mr.Tibbatts. Meet on the third Friday in each month at 9 o'clock. |
| Central Association of London Angling Clubs, "Star and Garter Hotel", St.Martin's-lane, Charing-cross. Secretary, Mr.S.Fitch, jun. Meet on the second Friday in each month at 9 o'clock. |
| Anglers' Benevolent Society, New Foresters' Hall, Clerkenwell-road, E.C. Secretary, Mr.R.Ghurney. |
| Acme, "Weavers' Arms"," Drisdale-street, Kingsland-road. |
| Acton the Square, "The Ferry Boat", Tottenham. |
| Acton, "George and Dragon", High-street, Acton. |
| Admiral Brothers, "Admiral Hotel", Francis-street, Woolwich. |
| Albert, "The Crown Coffee-House", Coronet-street, Old-street. |
| Albert Edward, "The Tile Kiln"," Tulleric-street, Hackney-road. |
| Alliance, "Clerkenwell Tavern"," Farringdon-road. |
| Alexandra, "Crown and Anchor", Cheshire-street, Bethnal Green. |
| Amicable Brothers, "Bald-Faced Stag", Worship-square, Finsbury. |
| Amicable Waltonians, "Horse and Groom", St.John-st, Clerkenwell. |
| Anchor and Hope, "William the Fourth", Canal Bridge, Old Kent-road. |
| Anglers' Pride, "Five Bells", Bermondsey-square, S.E. |
| Barbican, "White Bear"," St.John-street, Clerkenwell. |
| Battersea Friendly Anglers, "Queen's Hotel"," Queen's-road. |
| Battersea Piscatorial, "Queen's Head", York-road, Battersea. |
| Beresford, "Grove House Tavern"," Camberwell Grove. |
| Bermondsey Brothers, "Alscot Arms", Alscot-road, George-road, Bermondsey. |
| Bloomsbury Brothers, "Rose and Crown", Broad-street, Bloomsbury. |
| Bostonian, "Dalby Tavern", Dalby-street, Prince of Wales-road, Kentish Town. |
| Bow Bells, "Bow Bells", Bow-road, E. |
| Brothers Well Met, "Berkeley Castle", Rahere-street, Goswell-road. |
| Bridgewater Brothers, "Three Tuns", Bridgewater-gardens, Barbican. |
| Brentford, "Seven Stars", The Butts, Brentford. |
| Brunswick, "Brunswick Arms", Stamford-street, Blackfriars. |
| Buckland Angling Society, "Middlesex Arms", Clerkenwell-green. |
| Burdett, "Joiners' Arms", 118, Hackney-rd. |
| Cambridge Friendly, "Rent Day", Cambridge-street, Hyde Park-square. |
| Cadogan, "Prince of Wales", Exeter-street, Sloane-street, S.W. |
| Carlisle, Hall of Science Club and Institute, Old-street. |
| Canonbury, "Monmouth Arms", Haberdasher-street, Hoxton. |
| Cavendish, "Duke of York", Wenlock-street, City-road. |
| City of London, Codger's Hall, Bride-lane, Fleet-street, E.C. |
| Clapham Junction, "Lord Ranelagh", Verona-street. |
| Clerkenwell Amateurs, "George and Dragon", St.John-street, Clerkenwell. |
| Clerkenwell Piscatorial, "Horseshoe", Clerkenwell-close. |
| Convivial, "Bull and Bell", Ropemaker-street, Moorfields, City. |
| Cobden, Cobden Club, Landseer-terrace, Westbourne-park. |
| Critchfield, "Myddleton Arms", Queen's-road, Dalston. |
| Crescent, "Giraffe Tavern", Kensington-crescent, Kensington Park-road, W. |
| Crown, "Crown and Sceptre Tavern", Friendly-street, Deptford. |
| Crown Piscatorial, "Crown Tavern", Clerkenwell-green. |
| Dalston, "Hope", Holly-street,Dalston-lane. |
| De Beauvoir, "Lord Raglan", Southgate-road, Islington. |
| Duke of Norfolk, "Ledbury Arms", Led-bury-road, Bayswater. |
| Duke of Cornwall, "Duke of Cornwall", Dissmore-circus, Haverstock-hill. |
| Ealing Dean Convivial, "Green Man", Ealing Dean. |
| East London, "The Bell" Gracechurch-St. |
| Eden Piscatorials, "Queen's Head", Amelia-street, Walworth-road. |
| Edmonton and Tottenham, "Fountain", West Green-lane, Tottenham. |
| Eustonian "King's Head", Swinton-street, Gray's Inn-road. |
| Excelsior, "Lord Palmerston", Well-street, Hackney. |
| Foxley Anglers, "Foxley Arms Tavern", Elliott-road, Brixton. |
| Friendly Anglers, "Albion Tavern", Albion-street, Hyde Park. |
| Friendly Anglers, "Jacob's Well", New Inn-yard, Shoreditch. |
| Globe, "George the Third", Fonthill-road, Seven Sisters'-road. |
| Golden Barbel, "York Minster", Foley-street, Portland-road. |
| Golden Tench, "Somer's Town", Ossulton-street, Euston-road. |
| Good Intent, "The Crown", Church-street, Shoreditch. |
| Grafton, "King's Arms", Strutton-ground, Westminster. |
| Grange, "Earl of Derby", Grange-road, Bermondsey. |
| Great Northern Brothers, "Robin Hood", Southampton-street, Pentonville. |
| Gresham, "Mason's Hall Tavern", Basinghall-street, E.C. |
| Hampstead, "Cock and Crown", High-street, Hampstead. |
| Hammersmith Club, "Grove House", Hammersmith Broadway. |
| Hammersmith United, "Builders' Arms", Bridge-road. |
| Hand-in-Hand, "Queen's Head", Great Garden-street, Whitechapel, E. |
| Hearts of Oak, "The Dolphin", Church-street, Shoreditch. |
| Highbury, "Plimsoll Arms", St.Thomas-road, Finsbury-park. |
| Hoxton Brothers, "Cherry Tree", Kingsland-road. |
| Independent Jovial Anglers, "Waterman's Arms", Richmond. |
| Isledon Piscatorials, "Crown and Anchor", Cross-street, Islington. |
| Izaak Walton, "Old King John's Head", Mansfield-road, Kingsland-road. |
| Jolly Piscatorials, "Sugar Loaf", Great Queen-street, W. |
| Jovial, "Jolly Anglers", Whitecross-row, Richmond. |
| Junior Piscatorials, "Duke of Cornwall", South Island-place, Clapham-road. |
| Kenningtonians, "Durham Arms", Hazleford-road, Kennington Oval. |
| Kentish Brothers, "George and Dragon", Blackheath-hill. |
| Kentish Perseverance, "Corner Pin", Cold Bath, Greenwich. |
| Kenton, "Lord Palmerston", Well-street, Hackney. |
| Kingfishers, "Oliver Arms", Westbourne-terrace, Harrow-road. |
| Kingsland Brothers, "Mortimer Arms", Mortimer-road, De Beauvoir-town, N. |
| Knights of Knightsbridge, "Grove Tavern", Grove-place, Brompton, S.W. |
| Larkhall, "The Larkhall", Larkhall-lane, Clapham. |
| Limehouse Brothers, "Dunlop Lodge", 70, Samuel-street, Limehouse. |
| Little Independent, "Russell Arms", Bedford-street, Ampthill-square. |
| London and South-Western Railway, "Brunswick House", Nine Elms. |
| Marylebone, "Prince Albert", Sherborne-street, Blandford-square. |
| Metropolitan, "Rose Inn", Old Bailey. |
| Mortlake Piscatorial, "Queen's Head", Mortlake. |
| Nautilus, "British Lion", Central-street, St.Luke's. |
| Never Frets, "Crown and Shuttle", High-street, Shoreditch. |
| Nelson, Nelson Working Men's Club, 90, Dean-street, Soho. |
| New Globe, "The Albion", Bridge-road, Stratford. |
| New Walton and Cotton, "Drapers' Arms", Upper ?nsbury-street, N. |
| Nil Desperandum, "Pitt's Head", Tyssen-street, Bethnal Green-road. |
| Norfolk, "Norfolk Arms", Burwood-place, Edgware-road. |
| North-Eastern, "Shepherd and Flock", Little Bell alley, Moorgate-street. |
| North London, "Prince Albert", Hollingsworth-street, Holloway. |
| North-Western, "Lord Southampton", Southampton-road, Haverstock-hill. |
| Norton Folgate, "Rose and Crown", Fort-street, Spitalfields. |
| Odds-and-Evens, "The Albion", East-road, Hoxton. |
| Old Artillery Ground, "Alfred's Head", Brushfleld-street, Bishopsgate. |
| Original Alexandra, "Duke of Wellington", Three Colt-lane, Bethnal Green. |
| Original Clerkenwell Piscatorials, "White Hart", Aylesbury-street, Clerkenwell. |
| Pence, "Lord Palmerston", Maple-road, Penge. |
| Peckham Brothers, "Prince Albert", East Surrey-grove, Peckham. |
| Peckham Perseverance, "Eagles", 118, Trafalgar-road, Camberwell. |
| Perseverance, "The Perseverance", Pritchard's-row, Hackney-road. |
| Phoenix, "Tavistock Arms", Wellington-street, Oakley-square. |
| Piscatorial, The, "Ashley's Hotel", Henrietta-street, Covent Garden. |
| Piscatorial, "King's Arms", Tottenham Court-road. |
| Pike and Anchor, "Pike and Anchor Tavern", Ponder's-end. |
| Prince of Wales, "Victory", Newnham-street, John-street, Edgware-road. |
| Prince of Hesse, "The Prince of Hesse", Field Gate-street, Whitechapel, E. |
| Princess of Wales, "Westmoreland Arms", George-street, Manchester-square. |
| Queen's, "Black Bull", Silchester-road, Notting-hill. |
| Reform, "Jolly Coopers", Clerkenwell-close. |
| Richmond Piscatorial, "Station Hotel", Richmond, Surrey. |
| Rodney Piscatorials, "The Albion", Rodney-road, Walworth. |
| Royal George, "Hope Tavern", Tottenham Court-road. |
| Savoy Brothers, "Green Man", St.Martin's-lane, Charing Cross. |
| Second Surrey, "Queen's Head", Brandon-street, Walworth. |
| Silver Trout, "Star and Garter", St.Martin's-lane, Charing-cross. |
| Sir Hugh Myddelton, "Empress of Russia", St.John-street-road, Clerkenwell. |
| Society of Caxtonians, "Falcon Tavern", Gough-square. |
| Sociable Brothers, "The Princess", 237, Cambridge-road, Mile End. |
| Social Brothers, "Prince Regent", Dulwich-road, Herne-hill. |
| Sons of the Thames, "Green Man", Berwick-street, Oxford-street. |
| South Belgravia, "Telegraph", Regency-street, Westminster. |
| South-Eastern, "The George", George-street, Blackfriars-road, S.E. |
| South Kensington Piscatorial, "Coleherne Hotel", Richmond-rd, S.Kensington. |
| South London, "George and Dragon", 235, Camberwell-road. |
| South Essex, "The Elms", Leytonstone. |
| South Essex Piscatorial, "Victoria Dock Tavern", Canning Town. |
| South Hackney, "The Lamb", Wick-road, Hackney Wick. |
| Sportsman, "Lady Owen's Arms", Goswell road. |
| St.Alban's, "Royal George", Great New street, Kennington-road. |
| St.John, "Fox and French Horn", Clerkenwell-square. |
| St.John's Wood, "British Stores", New street, St.John's Wood. |
| St.Pancras Club, 2, Crescent-place, Burton crescent. |
| Stanley Anglers, "The Lord Stanley", Camden Park-road. |
| Star, "Champion Arms", Garnalt-place, near Sadler's Wells. |
| Stoke Newington, "Myddelton Arms", Mansfield-street, Kingsland. |
| Stepney, "Beehive", Rhodeswell-road, Stepney. |
| Suffolk, "Suffolk Arms", Boston-street, Hackney-road. |
| Surrey Piscatorials, "St.Paul's", Westmoreland-road, Walworth. |
| Sussex, "Sussex Arms", Grove-road, Holloway. |
| Three Pigeons, "Locomotive", Richmond. |
| True Waltonians, "White Horse", 80, Liverpool-road, Islington. |
| United Essex, "Dorset Arms", Leyton-road, Stratford New Town. |
| United Marlbro' Brothers, "Hercules Pillar", Greek-street, Soho. |
| United Society of Anglers, "Wellington", Shoreditch. |
| United Brothers, "Druid's Head Tavern", Broadway, Deptford. |
| Walthamstow, "Common Gate", Mark House-lane, Walthamstow. |
| Walton and Cotton, "Crown and Woolpack", St.John-street, Clerkenwell. |
| Waltonian, "Jew's Harp", Redhill-street, Regent's Park. |
| Walworth Waltonians, "St.Paul's Tavern", Westmoreland-road, Walworth. |
| Wellington, "Prince Regent", Beresford-street, Walworth. |
| West Ham Brothers, "Queen's Head", West Ham-lane, Stratford. |
| West Central, "Cross Keys", Theobald's-road, High Holborn. |
| West Green, "The Fountain", West Green-road, Tottenham. |
| West London, "Windsor Castle", King-street, Hammersmith. |
| Westbourne Park Piscatorial, "Pelican", All Saints'-road, Westbourne-park. |
| Woolwich Brothers, "Prince Regent", King-street, Woolwich. |
| Woolwich Invicta, "Golden Marine", Frances-street, Woolwich. |
| Woolwich Piscatorials, "Cricketers' Arms", Sand-street, Woolwich. |
"Arethusa" and "Chichester", Office, 25, Great Queen-street, W.C.
Two retired men-of-war, moored off
Greenhithe; are lent by the Government
to the Committee of the National Refuges
for homeless and destitute children, the
President of which is the Earl of Shaftesbury.
The Chichester was opened in
1866, and the Arethusa in 1874.
The
two ships are fitted to accommodate together 400 boys, who are entered from
fourteen to seventeen years of age, and
to train them for a sea life either in the
Royal Navy or merchant service.
The
ships are entirely supported by voluntary
contributions, and a visit to either of
them will afford ample proof that the
funds are administered carefully, and
with eminently satisfactory results.
Election by ballot in committee, one
black ball in six excludes.
Entrance fee,
10s.; subscription, active members,
£1 10s.; honorary members, 10s. 6d.
Boathouse, Biffen's, The Mall, Hammersmith.
Motto, Per ardua stabilis.
Colours, purple and white.
Rivers have
always been dear to the painters.
From
remote times intimate relations have subsisted between the Thames and the fine
arts; portrayers and illustrators of various kinds have long employed themselves
in studying, transcribing, and picturing
it, now from its banks, now while floating
upon its waters.
To Wenzel or WENCESLAUS HOLLAR, that "Bohemian of gentle birth", who, abandoning law for engraving,
acquired fame as the most accurate
delineator and technically perfect etcher
of his time, we owe certain of the earliest
and most precious representations of our
old city and its river.
Hollar is the
Pepys of etchers.
His simple fidelity, zealous painstaking, and keen observation
have preserved for us invaluable records
and presentments of the past; in his
plates London of two centuries ago, with
its streets and buildings, manners and
customs, costumes and characters, comes
vividly to life again.
It was in 1637 that
Hollar was first brought to England by
his patron, the art-loving Earl of Arundel.
Filling some indistinct office in his lordship's household, Hollar had liberty to
work for the London publishers, who
paid him but poor prices for his labours,
however.
His first view of the Thames
appears in his panoramic view of Greenwich, which he accomplished in the year
of his arrival in England, for Stent the
publisher, for the small sum of thirty
shillings.
For other of his performances
he is said to have been paid by time, at
the miserable rate of 4d. per hour; yet
so conscientious was he in this matter,
that he "carefully accounted for the
shortest interruptions, and deducted the
time so wasted."
The Great Fire of
1666 brought him employment.
He produced plans and views of London, showing the ravaged condition of the city.
Among his plates connected with the
Thames may be mentioned his view of
London from the top of Arundel House;
his views of London Bridge, the Tower,
Whitehall, Lambeth, Richmond, and Windsor.
The industrious artist executed nearly three thousand plates in all.
But he earned only a poor subsistence:
his arduous labours were wretchedly
remunerated.
During his last illness the
bailiffs took possession of his house and
furniture.
The dying man had to beg of
them as a favour that they would wait
until he was dead before they took away
the bed on which he was lying.
He was
buried in St.Margaret's, Westminster,
March 28th, 1677.
His engravings are,
of course, of various sizes.
His Bird's eye
View of London before the Fire, a work
of the year 1647, measures when put together over eight feet in length, and is
certainly one of the largest works of its
class in existence.
Hollar's view of London Bridge and
the Thames is of the time of Charles I.;
but there is extant an earlier
treatment of the subject by JOHN NORDEN, with a representation of the Lord
Mayor's procession of boats in 1603.
Norden was patronised by Lord Burleigh and his son, Lord Salisbury,
was a surveyor of the king's lands in
1614, and published an historical and
chorographical description of Middlesex
and Hertfordshire, with a frontispiece
and maps.
Other pictures of London
Bridge and the Thames are by VERTUE in
1747-8; by Boydell in 1751; and by WILLIAM JAMES about 1756, in the royal collection at Hampton Court.
James was the
pupil or assistant of Canaletto.
HOGARTH
has introduced a glimpse of the tumble-down houses on Old London Bridge
in the first scene of his picture drama of
Marriage a la Mode.
And Hogarth is
otherwise associated with the Thames.
Copies were first printed in 1782, on nine
folio pages, of the four or five days' peregrination accomplished by Hogarth and
his four friends, Tothall, Scott, Thornhill,
and Forrest, in the year 1732.
The
accompanying drawings were by Hogarth
himself, by his brother-in-law Thornhill,
and by Samuel Scott, a landscape and
marine painter of some eminence, who
had produced views of London Bridge,
the Custom House Quay, &c, and was
judged by Horace Walpole to be second
only to Vandevelde in sea-pieces, while
excelling him in variety of subjects and in
the treatment of buildings.
The tour of
the five friends was from Billingsgate to
Gravesend by boat, and then upon foot to Rochester and Chatham.
The excursionists afterwards proceeded to Upnor,
Sheerness, and Queenborough.
Returning by water to Billingsgate, they quitted
their boat for a wherry which carried them
through bridge, and landed them at
Somerset Water Gate, "whence", they
relate, "we walked altogether, and
arrived at the 'Bedford Arms', Covent
Garden, in the same good humour we
left it to set out on this very pleasant
expedition."
Nor is this the only trace
of the Thames to be found in Hogarth's
productions.
Two memorable points of
the river obtain illustration in one of the
series of twelve plates called, The Effects
of Industry and Idleness.
For the warning of Tom Idle, and as a hint at the
likely end of his profligate career, the
Thames waterman points out Execution-dock on the left bank of the Thames at
Wapping in the East, with tha dead
pirate hanging in chains.
By way of
retort the idle apprentice, with significant
gestures, invites the waterman's attention
to Cuckold's Point, formerly known as
Cuckold's Haven.
Hogarth was interred
in Chiswick churchyard, upon the river
bank.
Close by is the grave of LOUTHERBOURG, scene-painter and Royal Academician, for some years resident upon The
Mall, Hammersmith.
Antonio Canal, better known as CANALETTO, and often erroneously called Canaletti, came to England in 1746, when he
was about fifty, obtained much patronage
here and executed various views of London and the Thames.
He had practised
scene-painting, and was encouraged to
visit England by the success of his countryman, Amiconi; "but I think he did not
stay above two years", writes Walpole.
Mr.Ruskin reckons Canaletto "a little
and a bad painter"; his works, however,
have always been popular, perhaps because of his frank literalness, his clear
colouring, his firm design, his thorough
intelligibility.
Among his best pictures
may be considered his large views of the
Thames in the royal collection at Windsor,
lent by Her Majesty for Exhibition at
Burlington House in 1878.
The one
picture looks down stream towards St.
Paul's, with the Temple Gardens on
the left, and London Bridge in the distance.
The other picture looks up stream
towards Westminster, the Abbey and old
Westminster Bridge visible in the centre,
and the gardens of Northumberland
House in the foreground.
These are
very interesting records of the aspect of
the Thames in the last century.
In the
British Museum is preserved a valuable
drawing by Canaletto of York Stairs and
surrounding buildings in 1745.
The water
gate by Inigo Jones, at the end of Buckingham-street, now buried to the waist
in the Embankment-garden, is here shewn
at the river's edge, a genuine aid to embarking and disembarking.
The tall
wooden tower, once belonging to the York
Buildings Water Company, is also presented, with the large mansion at the
south-west corner of Buckingham-street
inhabited by Pepys, wherein during his
presidency of the Royal Society he entertained its members.
In the house at the
opposite corner sojourned Peter the Great
when he visited England for instruction
in shipbuilding.
At the top of the house replacing Pepys'
mansion dwelt ETTY the painter for many
years; he had previously occupied a studio
in Stangate-walk, Lambeth.
He was
wont to call his Buckingham-street chambers the York Hotel, for upon the site
had once stood York House or Palace;
moreover, the painter was a native of
York, and was often visited by friends and
relatives from that city.
He was chiefly
occupied in limning nude figures, "dances
of nymphs in [and out of] red and yellow
shawls"; but he exhibited a view of the
Thames at Chelsea, at the British Institution in 1843, and often expressed warmly
his sense of the beauty and picturesqueness of the river.
He wrote of his corner
house overlooking the Thames: "It is a
peaceful spot to be so near the middle of
the metropolis - quiet as the country with-
out its distance."
He wrote from Italy
that he "could not bear to desert old
father Thames; that he had an affection
for him."
He records Turner's judgment
that there is "finer scenery on its banks
than on any river in Italy."
Etty continues: "I love to watch its ebb and flow.
It has associations connected with life not
unedifying.
I like it, too, on another
score.
Looking from Lambeth to Westminster Abbey it is not unlike Venice."
On Tuesdays Etty kept open house in
Buckingham-street, regaling his friends
with tea, muffins, and toast, "with perhaps a petit verre of maraschino" to finish
the evening.
He saw more than one generation of artists assemble in his rooms overlooking the river.
To Fuseli (Flaxman,
Stothard, Constable, Hilton, succeeded
Maclise, Dyce, Herbert, &c., with Turner
as the connecting link between the two
eras.
"I remember", writes Mr. Charles
Collins, "his asking all of us students of
the Life school in St.Martin's-lane to tea
and supper.
The impression of his rooms
looking out over the river was delightful.
We enjoyed ourselves exceedingly, examining his sketches and studies, and
were made very welcome.
This was very
good-natured of him."
And Etty avowed
that he loved "every stick, hole, and
corner" of London, and that he had
enjoyed a quarter of a century's happiness
and peace in the house at the south-west
corner of Buckingham -street.
The name of TURNER is specially connected with the Thames.
His first picture exhibited at the Royal Academy in
1790 was a "View of the Archbishop's
Palace, Lambeth."
A few years later,
his address being Hand-court, Maiden-lane, his father's barber's-shop, he exhibited "Moonlight; a study at Mill-bank."
"On the banks of the Thames", writes his biographer, "Turner began his
art, on the banks of the Thames he lay
down to die."
It was probably Girtin
who taught him to love the river: Girtin
whose earlier studies had been upon the
picturesque shores of Lambeth and Westminster, and of whom Turner exclaimed,
"If Tom Girtin had lived, I should have starved."
Turner's most famous and poetic
picture connected with the Thames is his
"Fighting Temeraire" - the grand old
line-of-battle ship tugged by a diminutive
steamer to her last moorings at Deptford.
But his studies, drawings, and paintings
of the river are very numerous, such as
"Flounder-fishing near Battersea", and
"The Thames near Kingston", unpublished plates of the Liber Studiorum;
The Tower of London, Old London
Bridge, Westminster Bridge, The Thames
at Mortlake, Richmond-hill on the Prince
Regent's Birthday, Hampton Court, Abingdon from the Thames, &c.
He died
on the 19th December, 1851, aged 79, at
the humble little house at Chelsea, fronting the river, and within a few yards of
Cremorne Pier, to which he had some
time before retreated, morbidly concealing his movements, almost his existence,
from his friends, and even assuming a
fictitious name.
By the street-boys of
Chelsea he was called "Puggy Booth";
more respectable neighbours believed him
to be a retired admiral in reduced circumstances.
He was the most famous painter
of his age; he acquired a fortune of
£140,000, and was buried in St.Paul's;
but he chose to die away from his friends,
the occupant of a mean, ill-furnished
garret in the house of a stranger.
He
found genuine pleasure during his closing
days in climbing to the flat roof of the
little Chelsea cottage, and watching the
movement of the river, the glories of the
sky, the rising and setting of the sun.
Even to his last illness he was wont to
quit his bed at daybreak, wrapped in a
dressing-gown or blanket, to gaze at the
beauty of dawn, the flushing and paling
of the morning sky.
Pleasure, too, he
found at night in contemplating from the
same point of view the firework displays
of Vauxhall Gardens.
Looking east at
the scenery of the river he called it the
Dutch view; looking up-stream, to the
west, he called it the English view of the
Thames.
The weather was cloudy and
dark during the last days of his last illness,
and he pined to see the sun again.
A
little before his death, he was found prostrate on the floor; he had tried to creep
to the window, but his strength had completely failed him.
The sun shone forth
at last, filling the chamber of death with a
glory of light.
Mr.Thornbury writes:
"The day he died, nay, I believe the very
hour almost that he died, his landlady
wheeled Turner's chair to the window
that he might see the sunshine he had
loved so much, mantling the river, and
glowing on the sails of the passing boats."
Mr.Trimmer, the many years' friend of
the dead painter, relates how he had
often enjoyed long drives with Turner
upon the banks of the Thames, and had
watched him happily sketching the river
from various points of view.
At Somerset House in 1807, "Morning,
a view near Millbank", and "A scene
near Millbank", were the first pictures
ever exhibited by WILLIAM COLLINS, R.A.,
a delightful artist, famous for his rendering of natural effects, silvery lights, far
horizons, and long stretches of sandy
shore.
Millbank was a more picturesque
spot early in the century than it appears
at present.
Another Royal Academician
who has painted the Thames is Sir AUGUSTUS WALL CALLCOTT.
It was one of
Callcott's finest views of the Thames - he
had priced the picture at £200 only -
that Turner observed in the presence of
several patrons of the fine arts: "Had I
been deputed to set a value upon that
picture, I should have awarded a thousand
guineas."
To the Royal Academicians
and scene-painters, Stanfield and Roberts,
the Thames presented assured attractions.
One of STANFIELD's best pictures is his view
of "Tilbury Fort, Wind against Tide",
painted in 1849 for R.Stephenson, M.P.,
and engraved for the Art Union of London.
Stanfield had been a sailor; he had
served in the same ship with Douglas
Jerrold during the midshipman days of
that dramatist and satirist, and his early
apprenticeship to the sea induced the
accuracy of detail, and the characteristic
fidelity of his illustrations of nautical life,
his studies of wind and wave and cloud.
From 1861 to 1863, David ROBERTS was
much employed in picturing the Thames.
He had projected, indeed, a series of
illustrations of London viewed from the
river, but he did not live to complete his
plan.
He executed, however, very vigorous paintings of St.Paul's and the
Houses of Parliament, &c.
In later
years another excellent scenic artist, Mr.O'Connor, has exhibited certain interesting studies of the river, its bridges, and the
buildings upon its bank, notably of York
Gate as it appeared before it was sacrificed to the needs of the Embankment.
Other modern painters of the London
aspects of the Thames are Mr.WYLLIE and
Mr.Arthur SEVERN.
Mention should be
made also of a representative of the
famous Norwich school of art, George VINCENT, whose "View of the Thames"
reappeared in London at the exhibition
of works of the old masters, Burlington
House, 1878.
George CHAMBERS must
also be numbered among the scene-painters who have portrayed the Thames.
Like Stanfield, Chambers had been apprenticed to the sea; he served upon a
brig trading in the Mediterranean and
Baltic Seas.
Afterwards he painted
scenes at the Pavilion Theatre, and
assisted in producing the once famous
great panorama of London at the now
departed Colosseum in the Regent's Park.
The Thames tempts the painters now
by its rural aspects above the London
and suburban bridges, and now by the
picturesqueness of its Pool, crowded
with shipping, a very quickset hedge oi
masts and rigging, with ragged buildings
upon the shore, overhanging tavern bay-windows, ship-builders' yards, steaming
factories, smoking chimneys, soaring
warehouses, &c.
If the river has suggested to Mr.WHISTLER certain so-called
"nocturnes" not easily understood of
the multitude, or "harmonies of colour",
with ghostly suspension bridges looming
through fogs of blue-gray paint, it is to
the river's influence upon the same artist
we owe many most admirable works of
the etching needle illustrative of Thames
life, scenery, and character, at Wapping,
Putney, &c.
Mr.Seymour HADEN and
Mr.PROPERT have also accomplished exquisite etchings of the Thames, its busy
shores, and crowded vessels below bridge;
and M.TISSOT, with a Frenchman's keen
appreciation of the picturesquely quaint
has also found excellent occasions for his
genre painting in the Thames and the
boats and buildings upon its banks:
especially in the neighbourhood of Greenwich and Gravesend, where whitebait
dinners are eaten, and open windows
and balconies command grand views of
the water and of nautical life.
In its
more rural aspects, when its banks narrow, and it runs through meadow and
woodland, the Thames has been an object of study to numberless painters.
The sketchers and portrayers of Windsor
and Eton, Henley and Maidenhead, may
not be counted.
For Cookham and its
neighbourhood the late FREDERICK WALKER
and his followers may be said to have
rendered pictorial services such as Hook
has accomplished on behalf of the coast
of North Devon.
Certain of the best
pictures of Mr.GEORGE LESLIE owe much
of their charm to their backgrounds -
thoughtful and artistic studies of Thames
scenery, and the artist, in 1881, published
a handsome illustrated volume, called
"Our River".
Mr.VICAT COLE and Mr.KEELEY HALSWELLE are also conspicuous
amongst the best of the painters who
have sought much of their inspiration
in the pleasant reaches of the upper
Thames, and perhaps the varying beauties
of the river, in storm as well as in calm,
have never been more successfully caught
than by the last-named artist.
A bathing-place of the Eton
boys, rather more than half-a-mile below
Boveney Lock, railed off and provided
with ladders, &c.
The high ground is
known as Acropolis, and is used for the
purpose of taking running headers, in
which the Eton boys excel.
The ballastage and lastage of the river, and all the profits they
produced, belonged originally to the Lord
High Admiral of England; and the monopoly, as is the nature of monopolies,
simply resulted in the acquisition by its
fortunate proprietor of as much money
as possible, and so long as sufficient ballast could be economically and easily
dredged, the effect upon the channels of
the river was but little regarded.
In 1594
Lord High Admiral Lord Howard surrendered the privilege, stipulating that
the business should be entrusted to the
Trinity House, and by an Act of Elizabeth [I] that Corporation acquired the exclusive right of ballasting vessels in the
Thames from London Bridge to the sea,
and were empowered to devote the profits
to such purposes as they might deem fit.
Subsequent Acts confirmed the Trinity
House in their position with regard to
ballastage; but in 1853, when the Merchant Shipping Act was passed, the ballastage revenues became part of the Mercantile Marine Fund.
At that time, at
the instance of the late Prince Consort,
then Master of the Corporation, the work
of ballast-heaving was entrusted to it, and
a heaver's office was established for the
benefit of the men, where they could
attend for employment, and where they
could receive their wages without the intervention of the middle men by whom
they had been previously robbed.
Tbe
Ballast Act expired in 1866, and the
privilege of raising ballast ceased to be
the exclusive right of the Trinity House.
The brethren, however, empowered by
their various royal grants, still raise and
supply it, and at present the supply
of the river remains to a great extent in
their hands.
The surplus revenue is
funded for charitable purposes.
The Barbel, is so named from the
barbs or feelers which hang about its
mouth, although there are other fish -
notably the gudgeon - which have these
appendages.
Barbel fishing is a special
sport with many anglers, who go in pursuit of no other kind of fish; it is a powerful quarry to have at the end of fine tackle
in a rapid stream, and to ensure success
great pains and previous preparation are
employed to ensnare it.
The swims it
frequents are baited with quantities of
worms, greaves, carrion gentles, bran,
and bread, sunk with clay for some days,
nay, weeks previously; and then, when
they have been drawn together, a punt is
moored near the swim, and they are
mostly angled for with the leger, the barbel being a grovelling bottom frequenter.
They are very capricious in their feeding:
sometimes a whole season or seasons will
pass and very few be taken; at others it
is not unusual for a single rod in a day to
capture one hundredweight or more,
amongst which may be individual fish up
to 11 and 13 lbs.
They are occasionally
caught while fishing for roach, and if
so, they try the patience and skill of the
angler to the utmost, often an hour or
more being employed in playing them
before they succumb sufficiently to be
reached and secured by the landing-net.
The most simple mode of taking barbel
is with the leger.
This consists of a yard
of salmon gut, having four inches of gimp
between it and the running line, on which
is placed a perforated bullet or heavy
flat piece of lead, kept from slipping down
by a fixed shot.
The hook used should
be a No.1 to 3, with a long shank; the
bait, a well-scoured lob-worm; the hook
being entered at the head of the worm
and threaded all the way down, care being
taken not to pierce or break the skin.
Throw the bait out somewhat beyond
where your ground bait has been deposited ,
and draw it gently over it.
Keep the line
as taut as is possible without shifting
the lead, and keep it over your forefinger
of the hand that holds the rod, by which
means a bite, or "knock", as it is termed,
will become the more perceptible, and
when this is felt a second time, strike
immediately, and if quick enough, as the
barbel has a leathery mouth, there is
little chance of losing him other than by
unskilfulness, or the fish fouling itself
round snags or amid piles, which it will
at once attempt to make for if near.
If
the water is clear and the fish are shy,
surround the whole of the hook with a
ball of stiff ground-bait, letting a portion
of the worm hang out.
A more elegant
way of barbel fishing, practised on the
Trent, and of late years adopted on the
Thames, is with a "travelling float".
This float is fitted with a loop of wire at
both ends, without any cap or attachment
to the line, and is extremely useful where
the depth of water exceeds the length of
the rod.
A small piece of india-rubber
thread is tied into the line at the proper
depth by the means of two half-hitches;
this will easily pass through the rings on
the rod and yet rest on the small brass
loop fixed on the float, so that there is
no hindrance to the latter working properly at any required depth, and yet it
never interferes with the killing of a heavy
fish.
Sometimes a second piece of india-rubber thread is tied underneath the float
to prevent its falling unnecessarily low.
There is every advantage when striking
with a float fitted in this manner at the
end of a long swim, as the line slips
through the loops without dragging the
float along, consequently the blow is
sharper, more direct, and therefore quicker.
There is little doubt, however, that with
roach or dace tackle the sport is far more
exciting, for although you may lose two
fish out of three, while you do have the
fish captive they are not so handicapped
and checked by the lead of the leger;
and this should be done with a No.8 or
9 hook and with a good round gut line.
Single hair would prove useless, although
it is on record that barbel have been killed
by this fragile means.
It was thought until very recent years
that it was waste of time to try for barbel
while the river was in flood; but some of
the heaviest takes are now made by legering during these periods.
Indeed, during
the summer floods of 1879, very large
bags were thus made in the Windsor and
Datchet district; but it is more comfortable to wait until the waters are just beginning to subside and getting clear.
The
barbel is held in profound contempt as
an edible fish; but the Jews are said to
possess the secret of dressing them so as
to render them extremely acceptable.
It
is said that they either boil them in vinegar
and water, or if for the pan, merely scald
them first in this mixture, and then fry
them in cutlets in boiling oil.
The roe,
however, should be carefully avoided,
as it affects many people in a serious
manner.
Twenty-one years ago
the late Mr.H.Dodd, of the City Wharf,
New North-road, started a sailing-barge
match which has ever since been one of
the institutions of the river, and has had
great influence in bringing about many improvements in the build of barges and in
the smartness of their crews.
Mr.Dodd died April 27th, 1881, and left £5,000 to
the Fishmongers' Company, in trust to
invest the same and apply the income in
providing silver and gold cups for prizes
for sailing-barge races on the Thames,
and for the support and comfort of poor
barge or lightermen, so that the recipient
has not less than 1s. a day.
Few of the yacht races in the lower
reaches of the Thames excite so much
interest in so many people as does the
annual barge match, and when there
happens to be wind enough to display
the qualities of the boats, the barges can
show very nearly, if not quite, as good
sport as the yachtsmen.
The race in 1884 took place on the 3rd
of July, but, as was the case last year,
owing to the extreme lightness of the
wind, it was evident that the usual course
from Erith round the Nore and back
could not be accomplished; and it was
therefore decided that the distance should
be limited to a point beyond the Chapman Light instead.
The following was
the list of prizes and entries:
For the Topsails, not exceeding 55 tons
register, there were three prizes, consisting of a £21 silver cup, and £20 20s. for the crew of the winner;
a £15 silver cup, and £5 5s for the crew of the second barge;
a £10 silver cup, and £3 3s. for the hands in the third boat;
the crew of each losing barge, going the entire course, to receive 30s; in addition to which the
champion flag was presented to the winner by the committee:
Whimbrel, 49 tons, H.W.Martin, owner; S.Beadle, master.
Electric, 54 tons, E.J.Goldsmith, junior, owner; W.Bannister, master.
Atlantic, 54 tons, A.H.Keep, owner; J.Peartree, master.
Godwit, 54 tons, H.W.Martin, owner; F.Beadle, master.
R.A.Gibbons, 54 tons, Lighterage Company, Limited, owners; G.Lodge, master.
British Lion, 49 tons, S.Burford & Son, owners; W.Hammond, master.
For the Spritsail barges, not exceeding 50 tons, first prize, a silver cup, worth
£16, and £10 10s to the hands; second,
£10 silver cup, and £5 5s to the hands;
third, silver cup worth £7, and £3 3s to the hands; the crew of each losing
barge, going the entire course, to receive
3s
Kalulu, 35 tons, T.F.Wood, owner; H.Cory, master.
Shannon, 39 tons, Grays Chalk Quarries Company, owners; G.Tyler, master.
Louisa; 44 tons, Lighterage Company, Limited, owners; J.Cosey, master.
Bessie, 43 tons, G.Featherby, owner; J.Talbott, master.
The start was made at about half-past
ten o'clock; the timing at the finish
being as follows:
Topsails. hr min sec
Godwit (winner) 6 13 43
Whimbrel (2nd prize) 6 16 22
British Lion (3rd prize) 6 23 30
R.A.Gibbons, 6 34 1
Electric, 7 0 48
The Atlantic did not start, owing to an accident.
Spritsails:
Bessie (winner),6 36 25
J Louisa, 6 48 35
Kalulu, 7 18 30
Shannon, Not timed
Although the extension of
railway facilities in the country through
which runs the Upper Thames has very
considerably reduced the number of up-river barges, there are still many engaged
in the carrying trade.
That they are useful, may be taken for granted; that they
are possibly ornamental, may be a matter
of opinion; that they are a decided
nuisance when a string of them, under
the convoy of a vicious steam-tug, monopolises a lock for an hour or so, admits
of no doubt.
And the steam-tugs themselves are an abomination.
They are
driven along with a sublime disregard of
the interests of persons in punts and small
boats - in this respect resembling their
more distinguished relatives, the steam-launches- -and raise a wash which, one
would suppose, can be as little beneficial to the banks of the river as it is
to the peace of mind of anglers and
oarsmen.
Nor are the manners and
customs of their crews, or of their
associates the bargees, such as to
conduce to the comfort of riparian proprietors or of pleasure-seekers.
Practically, they seem to have things all their
own way, and to do and say just what
they like.
All that can be done is to give
them as wide a berth as possible, and to
be thankful, at all events, that there are
not more of them.
Down the river - from about Brentford
downwards that is - the barges occupy a
very different position; an immense
amount of the enormous goods traffic of
the Port of London being distributed by
their medium, and their numbers appearing to be steadily on the increase.
They
are of two kinds, sailing and dumb barges.
These latter are propelled by oars alone,
and drift up and down apparently at the
mercy of the tide.
The only use of the
long sweeps with which they are provided
is, in fact, to keep the barge straight, and
even this is difficult, if not impossible, in
a high wind.
They are quite incapable
of getting out of the way, or of keeping
any definite course, and as they bump
about among the shipping and get across
the bows of steamers, they are the very
type of blundering obstructiveness, and an
excellent example of how time is allowed
to be wasted in this country.
Crowds of
them hang about the entrances of the
docks and the piers where steamers are
unloaded, and the traffic of the river,
always excessive, is becoming absolutely
congested with them.
The books of the
Watermen's Company, in which all barges
solely engaged in the London traffic are
registered, showed in 1879 a total of
7,000, and about 1,000 additions are made
to the list every year.
The number of
barges leaving the London and St.Katharine's Docks, on an average, in 24 hours
is 100.
In the same time 165 leave the
East and West India Docks, 100 the
Victoria Docks, and 150 the Surrey Docks.
To these must be added the great crowd
of dumb barges which go from wharf to
wharf, and from ship to ship, without
entering the docks at all.
The consideration of these facts; a trip down the river
in a steamboat; and contemplation of the
miles and miles of wharves along both
banks, almost all of which are incessantly
receiving and sending out goods by dumb
barges; will satisfy any one that these
barges are a very large factor in the difficult problem of satisfactorily regulating
the traffic on the river.
And it is not only
that their numbers are enormous, and
their mode of progression slow, uncertain, and even dangerous to other vessels.
It is provided in the Conservancy bye-laws that every dumb barge shall have one
competent man on board, and that when
they exceed 50 tons they shall carry at least
two men.
The competent men, as has
been said, are in fact incapable of navigating their clumsy charges to any satisfactory result; but that is not all.
The
evidence of all sorts of river experts given
before the Traffic Committee is exceedingly unfavourable to the men.
Mr.A.C.Howard, district superintendent of
metropolitan police, gives them a singularly bad character.
"In navigating they are the most indifferent class of men on the river", he thinks.
Mr.Spicer, Trinity House pilot, is decidedly of opinion that
dumb barges are the greatest cause of
obstruction, and that they will very seldom
get out of the way, or even put themselves straight, when hailed to do so.
A great number of witnesses are of even a
more decided way of thinking.
"I invariably find the men in dumb barges neither obliging nor civil"
"If they only took a little pains, they would do what was necessary; but if you ask them
to put their head round, they generally
make some vulgar observation ...
they are uncivilised men like Greeks" - why
Greeks should be selected as the uncivilised type is not apparent -
"A very turbulent class of men";
"A very bad lot altogether";
"A rough and reckless class ... rough and disorderly";
"The conduct of some of them is so bad, that
it is enough to taint the character of the
whole of the watermen as a community";
"The state of things as regards the
licensed men could not be more unsatisfactory or worse than it is."
Certainly the licensing monopoly of the Watermen's
Company has not produced any affection
between the great body of lightermen and
the hands they are compelled to employ.
But graver charges even than churlishness or incompetency are brought against
the dumb bargemen.
It has been roundly
stated that their character for honesty is
not all that it should be: that, in renewing
licenses, the Watermen's Company concern themselves very little with a man's
personal character; that gross neglect of
duty is rarely punished by suspension.
The late chairman of the company, Mr.Elliott, directly contradicts these assertions.
If a man has been complained
against, he says, and his license has been
endorsed, it is not renewed; if a man
has committed a theft on the river his
license is cancelled, and never renewed.
Only one such case had come before the
court, and in that case the license was
"pointedly refused".
A letter subsequently written to the committee by the
solicitors for the Wharfingers' Association
of the Port of London is at direct issue
with Mr.Elliott.
If these gentlemen are
right and there seems to be little or no
doubt that they are, either the chairman
of the Watermen's Company was speaking without book, or the company itself
possesses a plentiful lack of information.
Say the solicitors: "The association
have in their possession a list of freemen
now employed on the river Thames who
are known to the police as having been
convicted of felony, and from such list it
appears that there are 42 watermen now
employed upon the river who have been
convicted, of whom seven have been
previously convicted, and that seven are
or have been under police supervision for
long terms."
Forty-two black sheep are
not many in so large a flock, but it would
be curious to know how they come to
have licenses, nor would the further information (for which the same firm asked,
in vain, on behalf of their clients) be
wholly devoid of interest - how many
licenses of lightermen had been suspended
in consequence of the felonious proceedings of their owners.
"No separate account", says Mr.Humpherus, sending
some statistics from the Watermen's
Company to the committee at an earlier
date, "has been kept of licenses which
have been suspended or endorsed, of
which there are but a few cases."
But the separate account might not be without
its public use for all that.
The monopoly of navigating, if the
term may be used in this connection, the
dumb barges is in the hands of licensed
freemen of the Watermen's Company,
although the second hand need not be a
freeman.
Freedom of the company may
be obtained by serving an apprenticeship
of five years.
But it by no means follows
that because a lad is apprenticed to the
water, he necessarily learns the business
of a waterman or lighterman.
It is said
that the steward's boy on board the unfortunate Princess Alice,
who was employed in the useful but not aquatic occupation of drawing corks, was a waterman's apprentice, and that two years'
cork-drawing would count towards the
number of years' service necessary to
qualify him as a lighterman, although it
would, perhaps, not help in getting his
license.
However this may be, and the
point seems to be doubtful, great complaints are made of the present system.
Mr.A.C.Scovell, representing the Wharfingers' Association of the Port of
London, explains its working by stating
that owners of lighters must employ a
freeman who is a licensed lighterman, or
a man who has served for two years, and
has obtained his license through that
service; and thinks that this restriction
unduly limits owners, and that any man
who has good personal character and
competency should be able to obtain
a license, as a matter of course, without
any reference to freedom of, or apprenticeship to, the Watermen's Company - very
much in the same way that a cabman
obtains his license.
Furthermore, he
thinks that the power of granting licenses
should be taken from the Watermen's
Company and handed over to the Conservancy.
There seems to be a very
general agreement among barge-owners
on this head, and the fact that the lightermen are only under the jurisdiction of the
Watermen's Company is undoubtedly
unsatisfactory to the masters.
The feeling that obtains in many quarters that
the authorities in Watermen's Hall are
inclined to be unduly tender to the men,
and to some extent prejudiced against
barge-owners, may or may not have
foundation in fact; but one thing is clear
- that there is a very strong impression
that the granting of licenses should be in
the hands of a public body and not of a
self-elected court such as the Watermen's,
and that the present mode of dealing with
delinquent watermen is eminently unsatisfactory.
Of course a good deal has
also been urged on the other side - there
never yet was a story that could not be
told both ways- but it is significant that
the Traffic Committee, an unusually
practical and competent body, after
hearing an immense mass of evidence,
entirely agree in their report with the
case urged against the present system.
They express their opinion that it was
proved "beyond reasonable doubt that
the monopoly of the Watermen's Company
has produced the evils usually due to
monopoly, and that it should be put an
end to", and adopt the most free-trade
line in dealing with lightermen's licenses.
Their recommendation is that the navigation of barges be thrown open altogether, without examination or other
preliminary ceremony, leaving owners of
barges, who will naturally have a wary
eye to their own interests, to employ
whom they will.
Furthermore, they
recommend the abolition of the judicial
functions of the Watermen's Company,
and suggest - and it would seem to the
lay mind that the suggestion is one which,
having been made, carries with it a kind
of astonishment that any other system
should ever have survived any Parliamentary inquiry - that the ordinary police-
courts should have jurisdiction over all
offences on the river.
Indeed, it is abundantly clear that the Watermen's Company
did not succeed, in the course of the
inquiry, in recommending themselves and
their system to the favourable consideration of the committee.
It is remarked
that many of the bye-laws of the company
are on the same subjects, and cover the
same ground, as those of the Conservancy;
and that it has been complained that, in
several cases, the bye-laws of the two
bodies clash seriously.
This being the
case, the committee add that they are of
opinion that there should be only one
body charged with the regulation of the
navigation of the river, and that that
body should be the Conservancy; unkindly adding the expression of their
opinion that the self-elected Watermen's
Company, "so far as they represent any
interest, represent only a section of barge-owners."
It naturally follows that it is
further proposed to take the registration
of barges out of the hands of the company, and what there will be for the
company to do if all these changes are
made, except to fold the said hands and
fall into a tranquil slumber, it is not easy
to see.
The proposed alterations would
bring some money into the coffers of the
Conservancy, where it is much wanted.
Under existing regulations dumb barges
pay nothing to the Conservancy.
The
dues payable to the Watermen's Company
are:
On first registration, if owned by a freeman, 10s; if owned by a non-freeman,
£1; and annually, if owned by a freeman, 2s 6d; if owned by a non-freeman,
5s.
It is proposed that the Conservancy
should charge 10s per annum per barge.
It is not necessary here to enter at
length into the controversy whether it is
desirable or practicable that the system of
dumb barges should be abolished altogether, and steam towing be rendered
compulsory, although it may be mentioned here that there are at present
about 50 tugs engaged in the barge-towing trade, and that many coal-barges are
already regularly towed.
The Traffic
Committee clearly lean to making steam-towing compulsory, but do not go so far
as to recommend it, except between London Bridge and the uppermost dock
entrances in Blackwall Reach.
The evidence of experts on this head is unusually
conflicting; for instance, the harbour-master is against compulsory towing,
while the deputy harbour-master is in its
favour; and probably the question is
hardly yet ripe for settlement.
One objection made by the supporters of the
present system may be set forth here, as
it gives a very good idea of the sort of
business which is undoubtedly facilitated
by the existence of the dumb barges.
It
is said, and said with an appearance of
great truth, that the greater part of the
trade of the Port of London is carried on
in a manner wholly inconsistent with any
system of towing numbers or trains of
barges together.
Goods taken from or to
any particular ship are not dealt with by
the dumb barges en bloc.
For export
they are sent from all sorts of places,
sometimes in barge loads, sometimes
different parcels are sent to different
ships in the same barge.
From the
home-coming ships parcels are sent
in one barge to numerous places.
The
dumb barge is, in fact, the carrier's
cart or Pickford's van of the river.
No
doubt it would be difficult, extremely
difficult - impossible, many people say -
to organise a system of running trains of
barges.
That it is impossible, anybodv
who knows the difficulty attending the
career of a "pick-up" goods train and the
elaborate system that has gradually grown
up to make that institution not only useful but necessary, would be very slow to
believe.
That the traffic of the river
must be somehow or other relieved is a
fact that no traveller, however indifferent,
can doubt; nor is it open to question
that the duty of undertaking the task,
which daily becomes more difficult, must
in the long run be undertaken by some
public body, whose constitution is not a
relic of obsolete usage, and whose work
will be done in the full light of day, with
the wholesome check of publicity, and
with a real sense of responsibility.
It is a singular fact, not unnoticed by
the committee, that whereas the men who
work in the dumb barges are very ill
spoken of in almost every quarter, an
excellent character is given to the men
who navigate the sailing barges lower
down the river.
These men have no
monopoly, and are exposed to free and
open competition.
They are, according
to the almost unanimous evidence of
skilled witnesses, pilots and so forth,
skilful and careful navigators, and have
gradually got into a custom of "give and
take" with the steamers, which greatly
facilitates the working of navigation rules.
Of course opinions differ here, too, and
Captain Woolcott, of the Peninsular and
Oriental service, complains that he has
suffered great inconvenience from sailing
barges - it must always be a trying business to get a steamer of 4,000 tons, like the
Pekin, down the Thames, and no doubt
bargee is sometimes cantankerous and
cross-grained- and suggested that the
sailing vessel, in such cases, as being
better under control, should give way.
As the result of this and similar suggestions it was recommended that if two
vessels, one of which is a sailing vessel
and the other a steam vessel, are proceeding in such directions as to involve risk
of collision, the steam vessel shall, if it is
safe and practicable for her to do so, keep
out of the way of the sailing vessel.
The sailing barge fleet has of late years
largely increased, and is still growing.
It numbers now nearly 3,000, and it is
stated that 100 such craft leave the
Medway every 24 hours.
They are fine,
handy vessels, much improved in many
respects latterly, and a rate of speed can
be got out of them which would surprise
most people whose only idea of a barge is
derived from some of the old-fashioned
tubs or the graceful dumb barge.
Sailing barges of 45 tons register pay a small
rate to the Conservancy, but the majority
are smaller than this.
A barge of 45 tons
register will carry some 100 tons of goods,
and is navigated by two men, who, if the
vessel comes from Rochester or there-abouts, need not be freemen of the
Watermen's Company.
Anybody, in
fact, may bring a barge from the Medway, but if the vessel start from Gravesend a freeman must be on board - an
anomaly which appears absurd.
Further,
a barge coming up and going through the
bridges is compelled, if it take a third
hand, to take a waterman, although all
the way from the Medway to London
Bridge she may have been sailed by
outsiders.
Vested interests are indeed
wonderful institutions, and singularly
tenacious of life!
The interests of barge-owners, both
sailing and dumb, are protected by the
Barge-Owners' Protection Society, which
was founded in the year 1865.
The
members pay an annual subscription of
30s for ten dumb or five sailing barges,
for which they receive legal advice from
the solicitor on all matters of detail connected with the carriage and transhipment of goods, their detention claims are
pressed, and their collision cases contested after they have been thoroughly
sifted by a committee of practical men.
The society numbers amongst its members the principal barge-owners of the
Thames and Medway, and has for some
years past averaged 350 cases of damage
annually.
The society is recognised as one
of the institutions of the river, and was
specially asked, through its secretary, to
send representatives to give evidence before the Thames Traffic Committee.
Its
office is at 9c, Lower Thames-street (and
see East and West India Docks).
On the right
bank of the Thames between Putney and
Mortlake, and a good place for a view of
the Oxford and Cambridge Boat-race.
Barnes-common, in actual extent 135
acres, 15 of which, however, are now
absorbed by the railway, is open and
airy, and villas are rising rapidly all
round it.
It is one of the best kept
commons round London, and, moreover,
marches with Wimbledon Common and
Putney Heath, so that the extent of open
ground immediately around is really very
large.
There is a capital terrace with
good houses fronting the river, and at
high water the view is pretty enough.
At certain states of the tide, however,
there is somewhat more mud on view
than is altogether desirable.
From
Waterloo (about 20 min.), 1st: 9d, 1/0d;
2nd: 7d, -/10; 3rd: 6d, 8d.
From Ludgate-hill (45 min.), 1st: 1/-, 1/6; 2nd: 10d, 1/3; 3rd, 8d, 1/-.
Nearest Bridge, Hammersmith.
Barnes and Mortlake Amateur Regatta was originally founded in 1852,
and has been held every year since without intermission.
The course is between
Maynard's boat-house at Strand-on-the-green and Barnes railway-bridge, a
distance of about one and a half mile,
and races are rowed up or down accord-
ing to the tide.
About £100 worth of
prizes is annually distributed, and for the
senior four-oared race there is a challenge-
cup, value £75.
Winners of the Challenge Cup:
1862 London Rowing Club.
1863 London Rowing Club.
1864 Kingston Rowing Club.
1865 Kingston Rowing Club.
1866 London Rowing Club.
1867 London Rowing Club.
1868 London Rowing Club.
1869 London Rowing Club.
1870 London Rowing Club.
1871 London Rowing Club.
1872 Thames Rowing Club.
1873 Thames Rowing Club.
1874 London Rowing Club.
1875 Thames Rowing Club.
1876 Thames Rowing Club.
1877 Thames Rowing Club.
1878 London Rowing Club.
1879 Thames Rowing Club.
1880 Thames Rowing Club.
1881 Thames Rowing Club.
1882 Not rowed, owing to the committee
having accepted the entry of the American Hillsdale Crew, and the Thames
and London Clubs therefore declining
to compete.
1883 London Rowing Club.
1884 Grove Park Rowing Club.
[Detailed results omitted - Regatta, July 26, 1884]
Junior Sculls (rowed up):
Eights (rowed up).
Junior Fours (rowed up).
The Fitzgerald Challenge Cup for Public School Fours (rowed down).
Senior Pairs (rowed down).
Local Fours (for the Committee Challenge Cup) (rowed down).
Senior Sculls (rowed down).
Senior Fours (Barnes Challenge Cup) (rowed down).
Basildon, Berkshire, on the right
bank, a small village, nearly midway
between Streatley and Pangbourne, and
standing a little distance back from the
river.
Population about 700.
On the hill
above, and somewhat to the south-west,,
is Basildon Park, with the mansion of
Charles Morrison, Esq., which contains
a fine collection of pictures and works
of art.
On the river-side, just above the
railway bridge, is the house known as the
"Grotto".
The church of St.Bartholomew, supposed to have been built in the
time of Edward II., consists of chancel
and nave, with a square tower and Gothic
porch.
Postal Arrangements:
Letters via Reading.
(Nearest money order and
telegraph office, Goring.)
Nearest Railway Station: Goring,
distant about 2 miles (which see).
Few things are pleasanter
on a hot day than a plunge into one of
the deep, quiet, shady pools in which the
Thames abounds.
Few things are more
exhilarating than to rise after a scientific
header in the rushing waters below some
such weir as that at Marlow.
And at
ordinary times, in ordinary seasons, and
with ordinary caution, the pleasure is one
almost entirely unaccompanied, to a
reasonably good swimmer, with any
amount of danger.
But it should always
be remembered that any sudden flood,
which involves the raising, perhaps some
miles away, of sluices and weir paddles,
may transform the usually safe bathing-place into what is practically nothing more
nor less than a death trap.
Furthermore,
it is well to remember that some of the
most deplorable bathing accidents on
record have happened to men with
experience on the river, and practised
swimmers to boot.
Many weirs fall into
absolute pits, and in many cases contain
the debris of old bridges, blocks of concrete, or stumps of sunken trees; and in
many cases again the eddies and whirl-pools in the rush of waters defy all calculation.
In quieter places another kind
of danger is presented by the weeds,
whose clinging embrace has proved fatal
to many a good swimmer.
It must not
be supposed from this recapitulation of
the dangers of river bathing, that it is intended here to discourage so laudable,
so health-giving a practice.
What is
aimed at is to insist, as strongly as possible, on the absolute necessity of caution,
and the desirability, when possible, of
consulting before the plunge some local
expert as to the condition of the water.
The melancholy fate of Mr.Argles, who
lost his life in August, 1879, in one of the
best known and most frequented bathing-places on the river - Odney Pool at Cookham - ought most strongly to point this
moral.
Canon Argles, after his son's
death, writing to the Times on the subject, said that a guide-book, which his
son had in his possession at the time of
the fatal accident, stated that there was "splendid bathing in Odney Weir".
And splendid bathing at Odney Weir, under
ordinary circumstances, there undoubtedly
is, as the writer, from many years' experience of its waters, can aver; but the
season of 1879 was in all respects exceptional, and there can be no doubt that
the suck of the stream, owing to the great
rush of water which it is impossible
accurately to gauge from the appearance
of the surface, developed some peculiar
source of danger unknown at quieter
times.
It is notorious to all rowing men
and habituis of the river that Sandford
Lasher has almost yearly demanded its
tale of victims, and it is almost inconceivable that people will continue year
after year to tempt fate in this and other
equally dangerous places.
It was originally intended to add to the
other information contained in this book,
which it is hoped will be of use to rowing
men, a list of the best and most convenient bathing-places between Oxford
and Teddington.
But a careful personal
inspection of the river, undertaken specially for the purposes of this article - an
inspection following a practical Thames
experience of over twenty years - led,
irresistibly, to the conclusion that so
great a responsibility was not lightly to
be undertaken.
The idea of giving such
a list was, therefore, reluctantly abandoned, and the Editor has thought it
more judicious, and even more practical,
simply to give the few words of caution
which are here set forth.
It is hardly credible, even taking into
consideration the difficulty of moving the
constituted authorities, that nowadays,
when the river is year by year growing in
popularity and attracting more and more
visitors, so little has ever been attempted
in the way of establishing safe and convenient bathing-places.
A few local clubs
and private houses have their own bathing-waters and bathing conveniences, properly kept in order and attended to; but,
for the general public, there is hardly one
that offers any attraction to the swimmer,
except the bathing sheds and ladders at
Solomon's Hatch, between Marsh Mill
and Henley.
It is not as if any great
outlay were required, or as if any serious
expense would be entailed by the maintenance of the simple buildings required,
or the provision of the needful attendance.
Enclosed baths are, no doubt,
here and there to be found, but in the
bright summer weather the temptation to
swim in comparatively open water is
almost irresistible, and, danger or no
danger, is sure to be yielded to.
That a
little care and public spirit on the part of
the governing bodies of the small towns
along the river, who reap in good seasons
so large a harvest from the boating and
excursion public, would not only be the
means of giving healthful enjoyment to
many and would save many valuable lives
is certain.
That, in the long run, it
would entail no loss of money admits of
little doubt.
From another point of view, the establishment of recognised public bathing-places would be a most valuable boon to
the boating parties, very often largely
consisting of ladies, who throng the river
in the summer months.
It is too often
the custom under the present absence of
system for the rowing man to cast his
flannels from him and to plunge into the
river, in puris naturalibus, oblivious or
careless of the fact that after the bath a
certain amount of drying becomes necessary.
There is no guarantee that the
reach selected for bathing, which may
have been perfectly empty a few minutes
before, may not be alive with boats while
the drying and dressing processes are
still in an incomplete state.
The establishment of properly sheltered and recognised bathing-places would go far to
prevent the compromising situations
which too frequently mar the pleasures of
a picnic or boating party.
No system, however good, will prevent the reckless and
shameless indecency which is too often
displayed by the roughs, gentle and simple,
who unhappily find their way to the
river as they do to all other places of
public resort.
This nuisance is, naturally,
greater in the neighbourhood of the more
populous towns, and in cases where the
local authorities, who undoubtedly have
power to interfere, are too supine to
adopt the simple expedient of summoning
the culprits before the magistrates, the
example of one town at least may be commended.
In this case a vigilance committee of the able-bodied residents took
the matter into their own hands, and by
the summary chastisement of some of the
sturdiest and most audacious offenders
very speedily worked a signal and permanent cure.
It is, perhaps, too much
to expect that the Thames Conservancy,
who have already so much work on their
hands, should, for the present at all
events, be able to give their attention to
this really very important subject; but
the Board, as at present constituted, has
already done so much, and has shown
itself so desirous of consulting the interests
of those who have pleasure on the river,
as well as of those who are there on business, that it may be hoped that from them
in the not distant future the desired reform
may come.<.p>
With the view of diminishing the number of deaths which annually occur from
incautious bathing, the following notice
is, by order of the Royal Humane Society,
issued by the secretary, and distributed
throughout the United Kingdom:
"Important to Bathers.
Avoid bathing within two hours after a meal.
Avoid bathing when exhausted by fatigue or from any
other cause.
Avoid bathing when the body is cooling after perspiration.
Avoid bathing altogether in the open air if,
after having been a short time in the
water, there is a sense of chilliness with
numbness of the hands and feet; but
bathe when the body is warm, provided
no time is lost in getting into the water.
Avoid chilling the body by sitting or
standing undressed on the banks or in
boats after having been in the water.
Avoid remaining too long in the water,
but leave the water immediately there is
the slightest feeling of chilliness.
The
vigorous and strong may bathe early in
the morning on an empty stomach.
The
young and those who are weak had
better bathe two or three hours after a
meal; the best time for such is from two
to three hours after breakfast."
The Lancet says:
"It is very generally
believed that the proper way to bathe is
to take a header into the sea, or, at least,
to immerse the whole body immediately.
Theoretically this may be done so far as
the most vigorous organisms are concerned, but it must not be forgotten that
a man may be perfectly healthy, and yet
not endowed with sufficient latent energy
to recover quickly from the 'shock' which
must in all cases be inflicted on the nerve centres by suddenly plunging the whole
surface of the skin, with its terminal
nervous twigs, into a cold bath.
For a
time, at least, the central activity must
be reduced in force, if not in form.
When, therefore, a man plunges, and
immediately afterwards strikes out to
swim, it is not only possible but probable
that he may become exhausted, and fail
from depression of energy, with cramp."
Battersea Bridge, an old decrepit
structure, almost as much out of date as
Putney Bridge, and about to be replaced
by a new and more commodious structure.
It connects Battersea with Chelsea.
Battersea Park, London, is on the
Surrey side of the river, and in the S.W. district.
One of the youngest of the
London parks, it is certainly one of the
prettiest.
The sub-tropical garden is emphatically one of the sights which no
visitor should fail to see, especially in the
latter part of the summer.
The park contains excellent drives, and is encircled by
a superior prepared ride.
There is every
accommodation for cricketers, and boating may be indulged in on the lake.
The park gates are in Albert-road,
Prince of Wales's -road, and Victoria-road, and the fine terrace-walk facing the
river is directly approached from the
steamboat pier.
The best way of
approaching Battersea from the west is
along the Grosvenor Road and over
Chelsea Suspension Bridge.
Nearest
Bridges: Chelsea, and Albert;
Steamboat
Pier and Railway Station: Battersea Park.
Beaconsfield Rowing Club, in connection with the Greenwich Conservative
Club.
Subscription for working members,
10s.
; members are elected by the executive.
Boat-house, Conservative Club
House, Greenwich.
Colours, red and
white.
"Bells of Ouseley": A tavern on
the Berks bank, at Old Windsor; about
a mile below the lock, and close to Beaumont Catholic College.
Good accommodation can be had, and the house is
noted for its ale.
The scenery here is
very pretty.
The nearest railway station
across the river is Wraysbury, Bucks;
and by road, Datchet; both on the
South-Western line, about an hour from
town.
Fares from Wraysbury to Waterloo: 1st, 3/6, 5/6; 2nd, 2/6, 3/9; 3rd,
1/9, 3/3
Fares from Datchet: 1st, 3/9,
5/6; 2nd, 2/9, 4/-; 3rd, 1/9.
Bensington, commonly called Benson,
a village on the left bank in Oxfordshire,
92 miles from London, 19½ miles from
Oxford.
Population, 1,259.
Soil, loam
and gravel.
This village, which was
originally called Besintone, appears at
one time to have been of some importance, but at present differs but little from
the numerous places of a similar character which are scattered about the valley
of the Thames.
The church of St.
Helen is of considerable age, but has
been extensively restored, and in parts,
indeed, entirely rebuilt.
With the exception of the fine arch which separates
the nave and chancel, there is little to
arrest the attention.
The following
curious epitaph will be found on a tablet
on the south wall:
The rest of the date was apparently never
completed.
Close by is a stone whence
brasses have been removed.
Heavy baskets of fish are often got near
here.
Inns: "Castle"; "White Hart".
Places of Worship: St.Helen's;
and Baptist, Methodist, and Wesleyan
Chapels, and a Free Church.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, savings bank, telegraph,
and insurance).
Mails from London, 7. 10am. 2. 10pm.
Sunday: 7 10am.
Mails for London, 11.45am., 6.55 pm;
Sunday: 11.30am.
Nearest Bridges, up, Shillingford 1¼ mile;
down, Wallingford 1¼ mile.
Locks: Bensington [Benson]; up,
up: Day's 4 miles;
down: Wallingford 1¼ mile.
Ferry: Mill Stream.
Railway Station: Wallingford.
Fares, Wallingford to Paddington:
1st: 11/-, 16/-;
2nd: 7/-, 12/-;
3rd: 4/7½.
No Sunday trains.
Billingsgate Market, in Thames-street, is about 300 yards east of London
Bridge, and adjoins the west side of the Custom House.
The derivation of its
name is matter of dispute.
All that is
certainly known is that the appropriation
of the site to the purpose of a fish-market
took place in the year 1699 a.d., and that
a fish-market it has remained ever since.
On the 27th of October, 1874, the first
stone was laid of the handsome building
which was to supersede the "elegant
Italian structure" of Mr.Bunning, which,
with its tall campanile, had long been
one of the most conspicuous shore marks
of the river below bridge.
The construction presented considerable difficulties, both from the necessity of carrying
it out without disturbance of the daily
business of the market, and from the
nature of the ground on which it had to
be built, and which required an immense
amount of preparation in the way of a
platform of solid concrete, 15 feet in thickness.
In 1877, however, the building
was completed, and on the 20th of July
of that year formally opened for business.
Its river facade still adheres more or less
to the Italian Gothic legend, but the campanile has disappeared, and the building
now presents a uniform frontage of two
lofty storeys, the centre portion being
thrown a little back.
The wings, which
are, perhaps, artistically speaking, somewhat small in proportion to the central
block, are occupied by taverns, at each of
which is a daily fish ordinary.
All along the front runs a broad floating stage, alongside of which come the
smaller craft by which the water-borne
fish are brought up the river, and which
vary in size and rig from the specially
built steamer of more than 200 tons
register, whose cargo has been collected
from the smacks of the North Sea, to the
little open barge in which cod or salmon
has been lightered from the big sea-going
ships in the docks of Victoria or Millwall.
The landing process begins every morning, summer and winter, at 5 a.m. when
the tolling of the big bell announces the
opening of the market, and a rush takes
place to secure the earliest sales.
The great hall in which the sales take
place, and which occupies the whole
ground-floor of the centre building, is let
off in 140 "stands" at a rate per week,
which, by the bye-laws of the market,
sanctioned by the Board of Trade, is not
to exceed 9d per superficial foot.
The
total weekly supply of the market averages by water 800 to 850 tons, and by
land as nearly as possible double that
amount, and the whole of this enormous
mass has to be carried on men's shoulders
from ship or machine to salesman's stall,
there to be disposed of in some four hours
or so, more or less.
The market is at its
height from 5 a.m. to about 9, by which
time the greater part of the morning
supply has been cleared off; but the
market remains nominally open until
3p.m.
Meanwhile, in the great dungeon-like
basement below the market, a somewhat
similar scene to that above is being enacted
with the day's supply of shell-fish.
The staff of the market includes about
eleven hundred licensed porters, besides
constables, detectives, clerks, &c.; and
the business, rough and riotous as it is,
is conducted, so far as the official personnel is concerned, with machine-like
precision and punctuality.
The utmost
care, too, is taken to ensure the most
scrupulous cleanliness throughout the
building.
(See Ornithology.)
Bisham, Berkshire, on the right bank,
within the Parliamentary borough of
Marlow, from London 57½ miles, from
Oxford 54 miles.
Population, 652.
Soil,
gravel and chalk.
Bisham is chiefly
celebrated for its abbey, the seat of G.H.Vansittart, Esq., which dates from the
time of King Stephen.
In 1338 it became a priory.
Subsequently it was
given by Henry VIII. to Anne of Cleves.
Queen Elizabeth once resided here, under
the charge of the Hobys, and appears to
have had a "good time".
In the abbey
were buried a great number of distinguished people- among them that Earl
of Salisbury who fought at Poictiers, and
Richard Nevile, the Kingmaker.
The
porch and great hall, which are portions
of the oldest part of the building, are exceedingly fine; and the drawing-room,
which contains a bay-window built specially for the Princess Elizabeth, is remarkable for some very good old stained glass.
There is a remarkable tapestry bed-chamber, with an entrance to a peculiarly
constructed secret room high up in the
wall; and on the ground-floor is a very
satisfactory ghost-room, which is said to
be haunted by the apparition of one of
the Ladies Hoby, who beat her little boy
to death for inking his copies, and is now
condemned to continual vain attempts to
wash her own hands in a ghostly basin,
which goes before her as she walks.
Unfortunately it is not clear whether anybody
has actually seen the ghost, but it is said
that, during a period of repairing, a number of blotted copy-books of the time to
which the legend refers were found
secreted in the room - evidence which, as
ghost stories go, is quite enough for all
practical purposes.
In Bisham Abbey
are several interesting portraits of the
Hoby family, to whom the house belonged from the time of Henry VIII. to
rather later than the middle of the
eighteenth century, and, of these, one,
which represents the Lady Hoby of the
legend with a deathly white face and
a head-dress very like that of the
kneeling female figure in the church,
which is described lower down, is a remarkably fine work.
Also, in the dining-
room is a very jovial portrait of a certain
Rev.Peregrine Hoby, who appears from
his complexion to have thoroughly
enjoyed the good things of this life.
This, and its companion portrait of the
Rev. gentleman's wife, both by Burslee,
are capital pictures.
A portrait of Sir
Francis Walsingham, over one of the
doors, will also repay inspection; and
the gem of the collection will be found
over the mantelpiece in the shape of a
brilliant portrait of Henrietta Maria, by
Van Dyck.
The church, the original name of which
is in doubt, is now called All Saints.
Almost all architectural features of interest were utterly destroyed, with the
exception of the Norman Tower, about
the beginning of the century.
The
chancel and south burial chapel were restored in early decorated style in 1849; the
north aisle was the gift of Colonel Owen
Williams, of Temple House, in 1878.
The church is most picturesquely situated
immediately on the bank of the river,
and should certainly be visited on account
of its remarkable group of magnificent
tombs.
These are in the south aisle.
The first and most elaborate is that of a
noble countess, who kneels in the act of
prayer, attired in ruff, stomacher, and
a most extraordinary head-dress surmounted by a coronet.
Opposite to her,
kneeling on a lower stool, is another
female coroneted figure, and behind are
five other kneeling figures, three female
and two male; the whole group is under
a canopy, supported by pillars, and the
monument is set forth with elaborate
carving and coloured coats-of-arms.
Beyond this is a less gorgeous, but much
more artistic monument to the brothers
Hoby.
They lie upon an altar-tomb,
two knightly figures with peaked beards
and in full armour.
They both recline
upon their left arms, and the one nearest
the spectator has his legs crossed
crusader-wise.
The date is 1566.
On
the tomb are several inscriptions.
Of
these may be quoted one which gives
concisely the history of the Hobys.
Two worthie knightes and Hobies both by name
Enclosed within this marble stone do rest
Philip the first in Cæsar's court hathe fame;
Such as tofore fewe legates like possest
A diepe discoursing heed, a noble breast
A courties passing, and a curteis knight
Zealous to God whose gospel he profest
When gretest stormes can dim the sacred light.
A happie man whom death hath nowe redeem'd
From care to loye that can not be esteem'd.
Thomas in Fraunce possest the Legate's place
And with such wisdome grew to guide the same,
As had increast great honour to his race
Ye sudein fate had not envied his fame,
Firme in God's truth, gentle, a faithful frend
Wel lern'd and languaged nature beside
Gave comely shape which made rueful his end
Since in his floure in Paris towne he died
Leaving with child behind his woful wief,
In forein land opprest with heapes of grief.
From part of which when she discharged was
By fall of teares that faithful wieves do sheed
The corpse with honour brought she to this place
Performing here all due unto the dead.
That doon this noble tombe she caused to make
And both these brethren closed within the same
A memory left here for vertue's sake
In spite of death to honour them with fame
Thus live they dead, and we lerne wel thereby
That ye and we and all the world must die. T.B.
Beyond the brothers Hoby is the tomb of
Margaret, wife of Sir Edward Hoby, who
died in 1605, oddly surmounted by an
obelisk with a swan at each of the base
angles.
The stained glass window, with
coats-of-arms of the Hoby family, in the
east of the south aisle is very curious.
In the nave is a fine brass with three full length figures to the memory of "John
Brinckhorst, sometime citizen and mercer
of London, and marchaunt adventurar",
and his two wives; only one date is given,
that of the death of one of the ladies in
1581.
A smaller brass has a single figure,
and is dated 1517; and one with inscription only, and dated 1525, records the
decease of one Gray "and Wylmott hys wyffe".
Hotel: "The Complete Angler", by Marlow Bridge.
Place of Worship: All Saints.
Postal Arrangements: Nearest
money order, telegraph, &c, office, Marlow.
Letters through Marlow.
Mails from London, 6.30am, 12.30pm.
Mails for London, 10.35am, 3.15 and 7.15pm.
Nearest Bridges, down, Marlow ½ mile; up, Henley 7½ miles.
Locks, down, Marlow ½ mile; up, Temple, 1 mile.
Ferry, Temple.
Rail: Station, Marlow.
Fares: Marlow to Paddington, 1st, 6/-, 9/11;
2nd, 4/6, 7/6; 3rd, 2/9½
Blackfriars Bridge is one of the
handsomest in London, and would have
a still better effect were not its appearance so seriously marred by the proximity
of its neighbour, the Alexandra (London
Chatham & Dover Railway) bridge.
It
was built in 1864-9, at a cost of £265,000,
from the designs of Mr.William Cubitt,
although those of Mr.Page, architect of
Westminster Bridge, had been selected
in the first instance.
It crosses the river
in five spans, the centre span being
185 feet.
The piers are of granite, surmounted by recesses resting on short
pillars of polished red Aberdeen granite,
and with ornamental stone parapets.
The parapet of the bridge itself is very
low, which, with the extreme shortness
of the ornamental pillars at the pier ends,
gives the whole structure rather a dwarfed
and stunted look; but the general outline
is bold and the ensemble rich, if perhaps
a trifle gaudy, especially when the gilding,
of which there is an unusual proportion,
has been freshly renewed.
Blackwall, on the left bank from
Orchard Wharf to the Isle of Dogs.
Here are the EAST INDIA DOCKS, where
the principal sailing ships trading from
the port of London load and discharge.
The visitor may in these docks inspect
long tiers of China tea-clippers - now
almost run off the line by fast steamers -
and the fine passenger ships trading to
the Australasian ports.
Adjoining the
docks is the spacious ship-building yard
of Messrs.Green, and farther down the
river are the TRINITY HOUSE head-quarters,
beyond which again are the ROYAL VICTORIA
AND ALBERT DOCKS.
There is a railway-station on the steamboat-pier [and see
Trinity Buoy Wharf).
Fares from
Fenchurch-street (17 min.), 1st, 6d, 10d;
2nd, 4d, 6d; trains run each way every
15 minutes.
Steamers from Westminster,
Charing-cross, Temple, and London
Bridge every ½ hour.
Fares, aft, 6d;
forward, 4d.
Omnibus from Bank of
England.
Blackwall Reach runs for rather
more than a mile from Greenwich to
Blackwall.
The East and West India
Docks are at Blackwall.
Bearings N. by E. and S. by W.
Bleak (The), or fresh-water sprat, is
a surface fish, affording great amusement
to young anglers; but they are a perfect
pest to the roach and dace fisher, as they
will bite at almost anything, seldom permitting the bait to descend to its allotted
depth without seizing it.
When thus
annoyed, a handful of bran thrown upon
the surface of the water will cause them
to follow it some way down the stream,
and keep them engaged for a long while,
when the same course may be repeated.
They are one of the best baits for spinning, from their resplendent silvery hue
flashing its transmitted light far through
the water.
They spawn in May or June,
and multiply very rapidly.
This fish
differs from the small dace by being
thinner and by a greenish hue on its
back, and its scales are not so firmly set,
coming off easily by handling, like the
sprat; the belly is of a most silvery white-
ness, the fins white.
A Conservancy bye-law
of 1869 runs as follows:
Any vessel being
on the upper river on the occasion of any
boat-race, regatta, public procession, or
launch of any vessel, or any other occasion
when large crowds assemble thereon, shall
not pass thereon so as to impede or interfere with the boat-race, regatta, procession or launch, or endanger the safety of
persons assembling on the river, or prevent the maintenance of order thereon;
and the master of every such vessel, on
any such occasion as aforesaid, shall
observe the directions of the officer of the
Conservators engaged in superintending
the execution of this bye-law; and if any
such master fails in any respect to comply
with the requirements of this bye-law, or
does anything in contravention thereof,
he shall be deemed guilty of an offence
against these bye-laws, and shall for every
such offence be liable to a penalty not exceeding £5.
Persons in charge of steamers, similarly offending, are liable to a penalty
of £20.
Boat Racing, Laws of, as settled
and approved by the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and the principal
boat clubs in London, on the 20th March,
1872.
1.
All boat races shall be started in
the following manner: The starter, on
being satisfied that the competitors are
ready, shall give the signal to start.
2.
If the starter considers the start
false, he shall at once recall the boats to
their stations; and any boat refusing to
start again shall be disqualified.
3.
Any boat not at its post at the time
specified shall be liable to be disqualified
by the umpire.
4.
The umpire may act as starter, as
he thinks fit; where he does not so act,
the starter shall be subject to the control
of the umpire.
5.
Each boat shall keep its own water
throughout the race, and any boat departing from its own water will do so at its
peril.
6.
A boat's own water is its straight
course, parallel with those of the other
competing boats, from the station assigned
to it at starting to the finish.
7.
The umpire shall be sole judge of
a boat's own water and proper course
during the race.
8.
No fouling whatever shall be allowed;
the boat committing a foul shall be disqualified.
9.
It shall be considered a foul when,
after the race has commenced, any competitor, by his oar, boat, or person, comes
in contact with the oar, boat, or person
of another competitor; unless, in the
opinion of the umpire, such contact is so
slight as not to influence the race.
10.
The umpire may, during the race,
caution any competitor when in danger
of committing a foul.
11.
The umpire, when appealed to,
shall decide all questions as to a foul.
12.
A claim of foul must be made to
the judge or the umpire by the competitor
himself before getting out of his boat.
13.
In case of a foul the umpire shall
have the power:
(a) To place the boats -
except the boat committing the foul,
which is disqualified - in the order in
which they come in;
(b) to order the boats
engaged in the race, other than the boat
committing the foul, to row over again
on the same or another day;
(c) to re-start the qualified boats from the place where
the foul was committed.
14.
Every boat shall abide by its
accidents.
15.
No boat shall be allowed to accompany a competitor for the purpose of directing his course or affording him other
assistance.
The boat receiving such
direction or assistance shall be disqualified
at the discretion of the umpire.
16.
The jurisdiction of the umpire extends over the race and all matters connected with it, from the time the race is
specified to start until its final termination,
and his decision in all cases shall be final
and without appeal.
17.
Any competitor refusing to abide
by the decision, or to follow the directions
of the umpire, shall be disqualified.
18.
The umpire, if he thinks proper,
may reserve his decision, provided that
in every case such decision be given on
the day of the race.
A comparison of the rates of charges of some
of the principal boatbuilders on the
Thames shows the price of racing-boats,
including oars, sliding-seats, &c, to
average as follows:
Eights, £60;
fours, £35;
pairs, £22;
and scullers' boats, £15.
The prices of the other kinds of
boats vary considerably according to
length, material, fittings required, &c.;
but a pair-oared gig or skiff, built of deal
and mahogany, 22 feet long, plainly fitted,
and without any very high degree of
finish, with one pair oars, one pair sculls,
one boathook, two mats, cushion, back-rail, &c, complete, may be taken at
£23; if built of oak and mahogany, or
mahogany alone, at £25.
The charges
for hiring vary so much according to the
class of boat required, and many other
circumstances, that no useful list of prices
can be compiled.
Among the principal
yards for building or letting may be mentioned those of:
Messrs.Salter, Oxford;
Clasper, Oxford, and "The Feathers", Wandsworth;
Searle & Sons, Stangate, Lambeth, London, S.E.;
Phelps, Peters & Co., Unity Boat-house, Putney;
Biffen, Mall-road, Hammersmith;
Messum, Richmond;
Wheeler & Sons, Richmond;
and Tagg, Moulsey.
[For cost of railway
carriage of boats and canoes see RAILWAY Arrangements.]
The botany of the Thames
is perhaps better known than that of any
other English river.
The counties through
which it flows have been for the most part
fully investigated from a botanical point
of view, and the results of these investigations are familiar to those of scientific
tastes who are well acquainted with the
works in which these results are published.
But a general sketch of the more characteristic features of Thames botany may
be of interest to the general reader, and
this can best be gathered if we take a
glance at the plants to be found in certain
districts which are to a great extent
typical.
First of all, let us visit the Thames
somewhere about the middle of its course,
in the charming neighbourhood of Great
Marlow; which we may take as a type of
that large extent of river which is uninfluenced by tidal influx and beyond the
range of the metropolitan area.
Here
the banks of the river are crowded with
a wealth and variety and richness of
vegetation which is rarely to be met with
except in such situations.
We may pass
over such common though beautiful
waterside plants as the spiked purple
loosestrife (Lythrum Salicaria), the yellow
loosestrife (Lysimachia vulgaris), the
meadow-rue (Thalictrum flavum), the
water dropwort (Œnanthe crocata), the
yellow iris (Iris Pseudacorus), and the
elegant meadow-sweet (Spiræa Ulmaria);
but others demand a somewhat more
special notice.
The water-parsnip (Sium
latifolium), for example, is a striking
plant, with its parsnip-like leaves and tall
stems bearing umbels of white flowers,
and this may be found at intervals along
the banks as far as Richmond - in former
days it got as far as Chelsea.
The sweet-flag (Acorus Calamus) is a very abundant
Thames plant, getting up as far as
Twickenham, and frequent both by the
side of the main stream and of its tributaries; its flag-like leaves may be distinguished from the many somewhat similar
ones among which they grow by their
very generally wrinkled margins - an appearance due, we imagine, to the action
of some insect, and by their peculiar
but pleasant aromatic odour when
broken: although so frequent, there
seems good ground for believing that it
is not a native plant.
The flowering-rush (Butomus Umbellatus), with tall
stems surmounted by an umbel of six-parted pink flowers, is another conspicuous ornament of the Thames banks;
while in the early summer the white
blossoms of the large-flowered bitter-cress (Cardamine amara), made more
conspicuous by their purple stamens,
arrest attention.
In the still backwaters
of the river itself, we shall find besides
the ever beautiful white and yellow water-lilies, a plant which at first sight, from
its habit and the shape of its leaves,
might be taken for a near relation of the
latter of these; but if we examine its
numerous yellow flowers we shall see
that they differ in being all in one piece,
or what botanists call monopetalous, and
that they are bordered with an elegant
fringe.
This is the fringed buckbean
(Villarsia nymphæoides) , and is a very
characteristic Thames plant; it was recorded as such by Lobel in 1570, and was
formerly found as low down as Richmond,
though it does not now get below Walton.
The meadows by the Thames produce
many beautiful and rare plants; at the
head of these we may place two flowers
of early summer: the snowflake (Leucojum æstivum), which looks like an enlarged
snowdrop, bearing several flowers on
one stem, and the fritillary (Fritillaria
Meleagris).
The former of these grows
in various places along the river in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, at Newlock,
Sonning, Windsor, and about Reading,
where it is very abundant in the meadows
by the Loddon, and hence called "Loddon lilies".
The fritillary is a well-known
and conspicuous ornament of Christ
Church Meadows, Oxford; it also occurs
at Reading and in other places.
In the
mowing grass, before it is cut, we shall
find such handsome plants as the meadow
cranesbill (Geranium pratense), and the
clustered bell-flowers (Campanula glomerata), with the curious adder's-tongue
(Ophioglossum vulgatum), for which some
little search is necessary: in damp places
we shall come across the large red rattle
(Pedicularis palustris) and the marsh-stitch wort (Stellaria glauca).
The still ditches and shallow ponds near the river,
such as those at Cock Marsh near Cookham, contain the pretty frogbit (Hydrocharis Morsusranæ), with its three-petalled
white flowers, the beautiful water-violet
(Hottonia palustris), and the bladderwort
(Utricularia vulgaris), which escapes
notice save in the flowering season when
it puts up its stalks with their curiously-
shaped yellow flowers; the bladders on
its leaves are, however, as students of
Darwin will remember, its most remarkable feature, forming, as they do, small
insect-traps of most effectual construction.
A ramble in Quarry Wood, opposite
Marlow, will probably lead to the discovery of the curious bird's-nest (Monotropa Hypopitys), with wax-like leafless
stems and inflorescence; the pretty winter-green (Pyrola minor), the flowers of
which remind us of the lily of the valley;
the deadly nightshade (Atropa Belladonna); the brown withered-looking
bird's-nest orchis (Neottia Nidus-avis);
and, best of all, the rare military orchis
(Orchis militaris).
When we remember
that nearly all these and many more are
to be found in the immediate neighbourhood of the Thames at Great Marlow, we
shall see that the botany here is indeed full
of interest.
We will now come to another part of
the Thames within the tidal influence, and
glance at the plants to be found from
Teddington downwards, until London
effectually puts a stop to all riverside
vegetation.
Many of the characteristic
riverside plants hold their own, in a more
or less satisfactory way, up to Putney
and Wandsworth, such as marsh-marigold, meadow-sweet, purple loosestrife,
meadow-rue, water-dropwort, and the
like; but there is an absence of the great
variety of vegetation which greeted us at
our last peep at the Thames.
But there
are many plants to be met with which
interest the botanist, although to an ordinary observer they may be less striking.
One of these is the tawny balsam (Impatiens fulva), with thick green succulent
stems and reddish-orange balsam-like
flowers dangling from slender stalks.
Like the well-known American waterweed, this is a present to us from Brother
Jonathan, but is now so thoroughly at
home with us that none would suspect
its exotic origin.
"It almost certainly originated from the gardens of Albury
Park, Surrey.
A small stream, the Tillingbourne, flows through these gardens
and runs into the Wey above Guildford,
and this in time flows into the Thames a
little above Shepperton.
In this way the
seeds have been carried by the water current and by barges, &c, throughout
the Thames Valley district" ("Flora of
Middlesex").
It was first seen near
Albury in 1822, and has completely established itself in many places, while
plants may be met with here and there
any year between Putney and Richmond.
It may be worth while remarking that a
freshwater mussel (Dreissena polymorpha), which is supposed to have been
originally introduced from Russia on logs
of timber, has spread itself in England in
a similarly rapid manner.
It was first
noticed by Mr.J.de C.Sowerby in 1822
in the Commercial Docks, and is said to
have been found even in the supply-pipes
of the London water companies.
Another
foreigner may be found occasionally by
the Thames, but more abundantly in
fields and by road-sides at Kew, Richmond, and Mortlake; it is readily known
by its yellow disk with a few white ray
florets, the size of each flowerhead
scarcely exceeding that of the common
grounsel.
This is Galinsoga parviflora,
a Peruvian annual, which is supposed in
the first instance to have escaped from
Kew Gardens, and is now about the
commonest weed in the district.
A form
of the winter-cress, known to botanists as
Barbarea stricta, by no means a common
plant, may be found early in the season
on both sides of the river between Richmond and Isleworth.
Two rare bulrushes
(Scirpus triqueter and S. carinatus) are
abundant by the Thames about Putney;
they formerly extended along the river at
intervals as far as Limehouse and the Isle
of Dogs.
The white saxifrage (Saxifraga granulata) is very abundant by the
Thames about Kew and Chiswick; and
here too the pretty little ivy-leaved toadflax (Linaria Cymbalaria) makes itself at
home wherever it can find a footing on a
wall near the river; it grows, or grew until
lately, on one of the piles of Battersea
Bridge.
The bistort ( Polygonum Bistorta)
and white saxifrage still puts in an appearance in Battersea Park, where they were
very abundant ten years or so since.
The
fritillary, which used to be very abundant
in meadows between Mortlake and Kew,
has gradually died out, although it lingered until quite lately.
The Star of
Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellaium) is
abundant by the river between Kew and
Richmond, and Cardamine amara may
also be found there, as well as the balm
(Melissa officinalis), which is quite established.
Above Teddington we may notice
the Alexanders (Smyrnium Olusatrum) at
Hampton Court, under the wall by the
side of the river; the vervain (Verbena
officinalis) and wild sage (Salvia Verbenaca) also occur there; while the pretty
little autumnal squill (Scilla autumnalis)
grows on the sloping bank by the towing-
path between Hampton Court and Ditton
Ferry.
The walls, and wharves, and docks
being passed, the riverside begins again
to display something in the way of plants;
but now a new and potent factor appears
in the shape of the salt water, which makes
its way up with each tide, and materially
influences the flora .
We may regard the
neighbourhood of Purfleet as the district
where marine vegetation first puts in a
well-defined appearance; here we find
thrift (Armeria maritima), sea-plantain
(Plantago maritima), and such inconspicuous flowered, yet characteristic marine
plants as Suceda maritima, Salicornia
herbacea, Obione portulacoides, Atriplex
marina, and the like; besides such more
striking plants as two sea-lavenders (Statice Limonium and S. Bahusiensis), and
the Michaelmas-daisy (Aster Tripolium),
which gets considerably higher up, and
is found about Woolwich and Greenwich.
The Woolwich and Plumstead marshes
afford many plants of interest: in the
first rank of which must be placed the
great marsh sowthistle (Sonchus palustris),
one of the largest, as well as one of the
rarest of British plants.
The pretty snowflake, already mentioned among the
plants of the Upper Thames, is to be
found in the same locality, with scurvygrass (Cochlearia anglica), and such sea
plants as the sea-milkwort (Glaux maritima), Lactuca saligna, and the like.
One
of the rarest of British plants, a vetchling
(Lathyrus hirsutus), which is almost confined to the south of Essex, is, or was
lately, to be found at Hadleigh; while
an equally rare and much handsomer
species (L.
tuberosus), with much handsomer rose-coloured pea-like flowers,
occurs in Canvey Island, with several
other interesting plants.
At Southend,
as might be expected, the maritime flora
is in full force; and there is much to
interest the botanist.
Among the rarities
to be met with there upon the shore,
are various trefoils and medicks, Vicia
bithynica, Lathyras Aphaca, Bupleurum
tenuissimum, Inula crithmoides, the
horned poppy (Glaucium maritimum),
the sea-kale (Crambe maritima), and
many more.
A sketch like the above must of necessity be very incomplete; it may be well,
therefore, in conclusion, to enumerate
the principal works in which the botany
of the Thames, for certain districts, is
more or less exhaustively treated.
Middlesex, Surrey, and Essex boast complete
county floras; the first, by Messrs.Trimen
and Dyer, contains much information as
to the botany of the Thames in former
times; the second and third, by Messrs.Brewer and G.S.Gibson respectively, if
less exhaustive, are still very useful works.
A flora of Kent, which is greatly wanted
by British botanists, is in progress under
the authorship of Mr.F.J.Hanbury.
No complete floras exist of Berkshire or
Buckinghamshire; a paper on the plants
of the former county, bringing together
what has been recorded about them by
various authors, has been published in
"Transactions of the Newbury District
Field Club", by the writer of this notice.
Dr.De Crespigny's "New London
Flora", published in 1877, will be found
to contain a good deal of information
relating to Thames-side plants.
Bourne End, Bucks, on the left bank,
from London 53½ miles, from Oxford 58
miles, one of the scattered villages making
up the parish of Wooburn.
The little
river Wye, Wick, or Wyke, as it is
variously written, enters the Thames here.
Bourne End is a place of no importance,
except that it is a station on a branch of
the great Western Railway, 32 miles from
London, trains averaging about an hour.
It is the junction for Marlow.
Inns: "Railway" and "Old Red Lion".
Nearest Bridges: up, Marlow 3¼ miles;
down, Cookham 1¾ mile.
Locks: up, Marlow 3 miles;
down, Cookham 1¼ miles.
Ferry: Spade Oak.
Fares to Paddington: 1st, 5/3, 8/9;
2nd, 4/-, 6/9;
3rd, 2/6½.
Bray, Berkshire, a small village on the
right bank, about a mile from Maidenhead, 62¾ miles from Oxford, 48¾ miles from
London.
Population, 2,717.
The most
prominent object in the village from the
river is the fine old church, close to which
stands the vicarage, with trim gardens,
and smooth shaven lawns running down
to the river.
A profusion of fine trees
adds to the beauty of the view, and the
place is very happily situated at a beautiful
bend of the river.
It is not surprising
that the ancient vicar, so celebrated in
song, should have persistently determined
to live and die vicar of Bray.
For a
secluded and quietly beautiful place of
residence few more agreeable spots can
be found.
Visitors from the river can
land at the "George Inn", and travellers
walking down the bank on the Bucks side
can be ferried over to the same point on
hailing the opposite shore.
It would
seem at first sight that there was not
much for the visitor to see in the village
of Bray, but in fact the church, which is
as handsome within as it is without, will
well repay careful inspection; and Jesus
Hospital is also well worthy a visit, though,
as it lies a few minutes' walk inland, it is
generally overlooked by boating parties.
The church, dedicated to St.Michael,
dates back to the time of the first Edward,
and is a fine example of the early English
perpendicular style, with a fine square
flint tower.
It was entirely restored about
1860, and the ancient monuments and
brasses, in which it is unusually rich, have
been treated with reverent care.
Several
of the new corbels in the nave and chancel
are portraits: two very noticeable ones
on the right and left of the chancel are
those of the Rev.
Austen Leigh, the late
vicar, and the late Samuel Wilberforce,
bishop of Winchester, the latter an excellent likeness.
There are many curious
tablets on the walls, and the floor of the
church is almost entirely paved with
similar memorials.
One of the most curious
monuments is that of William Goddard,
founder of Jesus Hospital, of Philliberts who died 1609, and of Joyce Maunsell
his wife, died 1622.
This consists of two
painted half-length figures under canopied
niches, showing very vividly the costumes
of the period.
William's hands are
crossed upon the skull, which so frequently occurs in the monumental art of
this part of Berkshire, and his epitaph is
worth quoting.
It runs thus:
If what I was thou seekst to knowe,
Theis lynes my character shal showe;
Those benifitts that God me lent
With thanks I tooke and freely spent.
I scorned what plainesse could not gett,
And next to treason hated debt;
I loved not those thet stird up strife;
True to my freinde and to my wife:
The latter here by me I have;
We had one bed and have one grave
My honesty was such that I
When death came feard not to die.
Another odd epitaph inscribed on the
memorial brass of an old vicar of Bray
and his wife, probably of the time of James
I., runs:
When Oxford gave thee two degrees in art,
And love possest thee master of my heart;
Thy colledge fellowshipp thou lefst for mine,
And nought but deathe could seprate me fro thine.
Thirty-five yeares we livd'e in wedlocke bands,
Conjoined in our hearts as well as handes;
But death the bodies of best friendes divides,
And in the earth's close wombe their relyckes hides;
Yet here they are not lost but sowen, that they
May rise more glorious at the Judgment day.
Among the brasses are those of Arthur
Page, died 1610, and his wife Sessely,
died 1598; and that of William Laken, a
judge, dated 1475, on the south wall,
which was found obliterated by plaster
when the church was last restored.
There
is a curious brass with coloured coat-of-arms of William Smithe, 1594; and on
the floor of the south aisle is another,
without date, on which are the figures of
one Will.Smyth, and his wives Agneta
and Matilda.
It would seem from the
similarity of the heraldic devices that,
notwithstanding the difference of spelling,
both these gentlemen belonged to the
same branch of the great family of Smith.
On the south wall is the brass of Clement
Kelke, a cytycen of London, "a marchant
ventuer", 1593.
The crowning glory of
the Bray brasses is the well-known memorial of the Foxley family.
This depicts
Sir John Foxley and his two wives early
in the 14th century.
The figures are
under a triple canopy, a great part of
which has unfortunately disappeared.
The knight is in armour, with his feet on
a lion couchant, and the whole rests on a
column issuing from the back of a fox.
In its pristine perfection this must have
been a singularly fine example, even now
it is a somewhat unique specimen.
Another curious tablet is that to William
Norreys, of "Fifild in Bray" who died
1591.
The brass represents Norreys, his
wife, and numerous progeny, with his
arms and motto, "Faithfully serve"; and
the inscription informs us that he was
"Usher of the Parliament House and of
the most noble Order of the Garter, controller of the works of Windesor Castle and
parks there".
A curious little altar-table
is extant, used in the church in 1646, and
the carved stone font is of about the same
period.
In the vestry is preserved a
tattered, torn, and dog's-eared black
letter copy of Foxe's Book of Martyrs,
which was originally chained for public
perusal to a pillar in the church about the
time of Elizabeth, and was found when
the tower was restored.
Jesus Hospital - almshouses for forty
poor persons - with chapel and house for
resident parson, is a queer red-brick
quadrangle with yews and cypresses
trimmed in ancient style along its road
frontage, and surrounding an old-world
well-kept garden and an ancient pump,
which latter institution is apparently held
in great veneration by the alms-people.
Over the porch is a full-length statue of
the pious founder, on either side of which
are shields with the arms, on the left, of
William Goddard; on the right, of the
Fishmongers' Company, by whom the
charity is administered.
The erection of
the hospital commenced in 1623, and it
was completed in 1628.
The curious
alms-box, which stands in the porch,
dates back to 1635.
Hotel: "The George", by the river.
Place of Worship: St.Michael's.
Postal Arrangements: Money
order office and savings bank.
Nearest telegraph office: Maidenhead.
Mails from London: 6.30 and 11.30am;
Sunday: 6.30am
Mails for London: 9.40 and 11.36am and 7.40pm;
Sunday: 11.40am.
Nearest Bridges: up, Maidenhead 1¼ mile;
down: Windsor 5¾miles.
Locks:Bray; up, Boulter's 1¾ mile;
down: Boveney 3¾ miles.
Ferry: Bray.
Railway Station: Maidenhead.
Fares Maid, to Padd: 1st, 4/4, 7/6; 2nd, 3/4, 5/9; 3rd, 2/2½
Bream (The) is much more plentiful
in the Thames during recent years than
formerly.
It is a flat, bony fish generally,
repulsive from its sliminess, but yet has
its admirers, who fish for little else.
It is
mostly taken by legering with a lob-worm,
or the traveller in deep holes and in a
gentle current.
It spawns in May and is
in season from June to March.
There
are two sorts of bream - the golden and
the silver.
The former is a far superior
fish to the latter.
Brentford, Middlesex, on the left
bank, from London 13 miles, from Oxford
98½ miles, nearly opposite Kew; a station
on the London and South- Western Railway 10½ miles from Waterloo.
Trains
average 35 minutes.
There are alternative
routes to Ludgate (about 1 hour) and
Paddington (about 45 minutes).
Population, 11,091.
Soil, London clay.
Brentford has been described as a
tedious town
For dirty streets and white-legged
chickens known;
and although the chickens are no longer
a specialty, the streets are still open to
improvement.
The place, now divided
into Old and New Brentford, is in fact, a
bustling, busy, metropolitan water-side
district rather than a self-contained town,
and has the untidiness characteristic of
such places.
The river Brent enters the
Thames here, and at its mouth are the extensive docks of the Great Western Railway, where whole fleets of barges discharge
and take in cargoes.
Many important
manufactures are carried on in both parts
of the town.
The town-hall, the post-office, and other public buildings are in
New Brentford.
The church of Old
Brentford is dedicated to St.George, and
is a plain brick building of no great
antiquity, with an altar-piece by Zoffany,
who lived at Strand-on-the-Green, just
below Kew Bridge.
It is in contemplation to build a new church, and to this
end a site costing £2,200 has been secured.
The church of New Brentford is dedicated
to St.Lawrence, and, except the tower,
which is of great antiquity, dates from
about the middle of the last century.
St.
Paul's Church, Old Brentford, was built
in 1868.
Bank: London and County, High street.
Hotels: "Star and Garter"; "Kew Bridge Castle"; "New Brentford".
Market: Tuesday.
Places of Worship: St.George's; St.Lawrence; St.Paul's; and the Roman
Catholic Church of St.John the Evangelist.
Police: Station (T division, Metropolitan), High-street.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, savings bank, telegraph,
insurance).
Mails from London, 7 and 8am, 2.40, 6.45, and 8.20pm.
Sunday, over counter, 8 to 10 am.
Mails for London, 6.15 and 9.30am, 12.40, 3, 5, 8.15, and 9.50pm.
Sunday, 9pm.
Nearest Bridges, up, Richmond 2½ miles; down, Kew ½ mile.
Lock, up, Teddington, 5¼ miles.
Ferry and Railway Station, Brentford.
Fares to Waterloo or Ludgate: 1st, 1/-, 1/6; 2nd, -/10, 1/2; 3rd, -/8, 1/-.
To Paddington: 1st, 1/6, 2/3; 2nd, 1/2, 1/9; 3rd, -/10.
| Cricklade to Oxford | Miles from London | Miles from Folly Bridge, Oxford |
|---|---|---|
| Eisey(foot) | 1 | 42 |
| Castle Eaton | 4 | 39 |
| Hannington | 6 | 37 |
| Lechlade | 9½ | 33½ |
| St.John's | 10½ | 32½ |
| Radcot | 17 | 26 |
| Old Man's (foot) | 18 | 25 |
| Tadpole | 21 | 22 |
| Ten Foot (foot) | 22 | 21 |
| New | 28 | 15 |
| Langley's (or Ridges) Weir | 29 | 14 |
| Eynsham | 36 | 7 |
| Godstow | 40 | 3 |
| Osney | 42½ | ½ |
(And see Trip from Cricklade.)
| Oxford to Putney. | Miles from London | Miles from Oxford |
|---|---|---|
| Folly | 111½ | |
| Abingdon | 103¾ | 7¾ |
| Sutton | 101¾ | 9¾ |
| Clifton Hampden | 98½ | 13 |
| Day's Lock (foot) | 96 | 15½ |
| Shillingford | 93¼ | 18¾ |
| Wallingford | 89¼ | 21¼ |
| Streatley | 84¾ | 26¾ |
| Pangbourne | 80¾ | 30¾ |
| Caversham | 74½ | 37 |
| Sonning | 71¼ | 40¾ |
| Henley | 65 | 46½ |
| Marlow | 57 | 54½ |
| Cookham | 53 | 58½ |
| Maidenhead | 50 | 61½ |
| Windsor | 43 | 68½ |
| Victoria | 41½ | 70 |
| Albert | 40¼ | 71¼ |
| Staines | 35½ | 76 |
| Chertsey | 31¾ | 79¾ |
| Walton | 27½ | 84 |
| Hampton Court | 33¼ | 88¼ |
| Kingston | 20½ | 91 |
| Richmond | 15½ | 96 |
| Kew | 12½ | 99 |
| Hammersmith | 8½ | 103 |
| Putney | 7 | 104½ |
(And see Trip from Oxford.)
Below Putney:
Wandsworth, Battersea, Albert, Chelsea
(or Victoria), Vauxhall, Lambeth, West-
minster, Charing Cross (foot), Waterloo,
Blackfriars, Southwark, London (for
particulars see under their respective
headings).
Bugsby's Reach, about one mile long,
runs from Blackwall to the beginning of
Woolwich Reach.
The Lea enters the
Thames on the left bank by Bow Creek.
Bearings N.N.W. and S.S.E.
The following is a list of the
buoys between Gravesend and the Nore.
They are all under the management of
the Trinity House, and will be found
described under their respective headings:
NORTH SIDE -
Ovens, Gravesend Reach;
River Middle, Sea Reach;
East River Middle, Sea Reach;
Spit (off Leigh), Sea Reach;
West Shoebury, Sea Reach;
Middle Shoebury, Sea Reach.
SOUTH SIDE -
West Blyth, Sea Reach;
Middle Blyth, Sea Reach;
East Blyth, Sea Reach;
Yantlet, Sea Reach;
Jenkin, Sea Reach;
Nore Sand, Sea Reach;
Sheerness Middle, entrance to Sheerness;
Grain Spit, entrance to Sheerness.
The Ovens, Blyth, and Yantlet Buoys were transferred to the
Thames Conservancy in 1865, and were
re-transferred to the Trinity House in
1879.
Burcott, Oxfordshire, on the left bank,
rather more than a mile and half above
Day's Lock, is a hamlet of Dorchester of
no importance.
It receives letters through
Abingdon, Dorchester being the nearest
money order office and telegraph station.
Buscot, a village in Berkshire on the
right bank, about 31 miles from Oxford.
Soil, clay; population, 500.
Buscot is
only a small agricultural village, and,
with the exception of the fine estate of
Buscot House, contains nothing of any
interest but its old church of St.Mary,
with its rather low, square, embattled
tower.
The interior of the church is
plain, but a fine Norman arch divides the
nave and chancel; and there is a piscina
of apparently considerable antiquity.
Buscot church is further adorned by a
couple of mural monuments, dating from
the end of the eighteenth century, quite
in the taste of that period, and fitted with
the customary angels, fat boys, and generally hideous emblematical devices.
There
is a lock at the village, the second from
the source of the river, with a fall of
rather more than four feet in ordinary
seasons.
Postal Arrangements: Letters
through Lechlade.
Nearest Bridges: up, St.John's, about 2 miles;
down, Radcot about 5 miles;
Locks: up, St.John's about 2 miles;
down, Rushy 8½ miles.
Railway Station: Lech-
lade, distant about 2 miles {which see).
Camping Out is a form of entertainment which has lately come into
fashion, and is spoken of with much
enthusiasm by its devotees, among whom
may be numbered a proportion of ladies.
It is a little difficult to see the great enjoyment of sleeping in a tent when you can
get a bed, or of being exposed to the
mists and fogs which are so plentiful on
the river at night and in the early morning even in the summer.
It is not necessary to give any detailed advice on this
subject, as the enthusiast will probably
have imbibed the taste for camping from
an experienced friend, who will be able to
"show him all the ropes".
It may be
suggested that a good deal of the land on
the banks of the river is private property,
and that trespassing in private paddocks
and gardens, as is too often done, indiscriminate wood-cutting for fires, and
similar practices, should be avoided.
The
owner of one well-known and extremely
comfortable camping-ground has been,
we regret to say, compelled to close it
against campers owing to the ill return
so constantly made him for his courtesy.
This gentleman is a man of the world,
and not at all of a fidgety or touchy disposition; but when it came to cutting
down valuable ornamental shrubs, climbing garden walls, stealing fruit and eggs,
and surreptitiously milking cows at unholy
hours, it was felt that the line must be
drawn.
A lock-island is generally a good
place for a camp.
Tents should be
pitched a little distance from the water,
on rising ground if possible, and upon
no account under the shadow of overhanging trees.
It is well to be provided
with a sufficiency of reasonable comforts,
but the example of a party who were
once seen by the writer at Cookham, with
a servant in livery laying the table for
dinner, is not one to be followed.
Half
the fun of camping consists in doing
everything for oneself, and in the perfect
freedom from all conventional social
trammels which such a mode of existence
involves.
For cooking utensils, the cooking stoves sold at 93, Wigmore-street,
have been well spoken of.
An iron tripod,
with chain and hook to which to hang the
kettle or the saucepan, is very useful.
B.Edgington, of 2, Duke-street, London
Bridge, can be recommended for tents of
all kinds.
Canoe Club (Royal) Office, 11, Buckingham-street, Adelphi.
- The Royal
Canoe Club Boat-house is at Turk's,
Kingston-on-Thames.
T.G.F.Winser,
Sec.
The object of the club is to
improve canoes, promote canoeing, and
unite canoeists, by arranging and recording canoe voyages, by holding meetings
annually for business and bivouac, for
paddling and sailing, and for racing and
chasing in canoes over land and water.
Any gentleman nominated by two members is eligible.
Election is by ballot,
one black ball in five to exclude.
Entrance
fee, £2; subscription, £1.
Life members,;£ 10, without entrance fee.
Ladies
are also eligible for election.
Each member on election is required to send a carte
portrait of himself for insertion in the
club album.
The officers are commodore
(H.R.H. the Prince of Wales), captain,
two mates, purser, cook, and secretary.
The club ribbon is black, with crown and
club cipher embroidered in gold.
The
club burgee is blue, with crown and
cipher in white.
The principal sailing races of the Royal
Canoe Club take place on Hendon Lake
and at Teddington.
The regatta of 1884
was held on the Thames at Teddington,
on the 28th of Tune.
Canvey Island (Essex) is situated on
the Thames, about 12 miles below Graves
end, and is close to Hole Haven, or Holy-Haven, and not far from Thames Haven.
There is a very comfortable and unobtrusive inn, where boating men are
frequently accommodated with bed and
board.
The population of the island,
purely agricultural, is about 300.
The
very pretty little church is dedicated to
St.Katherine.
There is a coastguard
station on the island, and Benfleet station
is on the land side about three miles from
the water.
There is a fine shell bay and
beach, which nearly at all times of the
tide is a most pleasant walk close to the
sea.
Nearest Railway Station: Benfleet,
on the London, Tilbury, and Southend
Railway, about 1 hour 30 minutes from
London;
Steamboat-piers: Thames Haven and Southend.
Railway fares: Benfleet to London, 1st, 3/9, 6/3; 2nd, 2/10, 4/9;
3rd, 1/11, 3/10.
Carp are occasionally taken in the Thames whilst angling for roach, and they are only specially fished for at Teddington, where they are sometimes caught in considerable numbers.
Castle Eaton - A little village in
Wiltshire, on the right bank, about 39
miles from Oxford, with the small church
of St.Mary, chiefly noteworthy for a fine
old bell turret.
The river increases considerably in its volume and width about
here, and is spanned by a bridge.
Population about 320.
Postal Arrangements: Letters
through Fairford (the nearest money-order and telegraph office).
Nearest Bridges: up Eisey 3 miles;
down, Hannington.
Lock: down, St. John's about 6½miles.
Railway Station: Fairford 3 miles.
Fares to Paddington: 1st, 18/6, 27/6;
2nd, 12/-, 20/-; 3rd, 8/3½.
Causeway Stakes, also known as
Coway Stakes, in the bend of the river
half a mile above Walton Bridge; the
reputed scene of a battle between Cæsar's
legions and the Britons.
The river was
forded by the invader notwithstanding
that Cassivelaunus had planted the bank
and filled the river bed with sharp
stakes.
It is said that remains of these
stakes were to be seen in the river until
quite recently, but this tradition had
better not be accepted as a fact.
The
venerable Bede notes that these stakes
"are seen to this day about the thickness
of a man's thigh, stuck immovable, being
driven hard into the bottom of the river";
but it does not appear that the venerable
one himself had ocular demonstration of
the fact.
Caversham, Oxfordshire, on the left
bank; from London 74½ miles, from
Oxford 37 miles.
Population, 2,500.
Soil, chalk.
Caversham is, to all intents
and purposes, a suburb of Reading, with
which it is connected by an iron bridge.
The village is unimportant, but there are
many good houses in the neighbourhood.
Among the principal mansions is Caversham Park.
An omnibus runs to and
from the "Elephant Inn", Reading, and
the "Prince of Wales", Little End, via
Grey Friar's-road, Caversham Bridge,
and the New-road.
The Church of
St.Peter has lately undergone extensive
repairs and restorations.
It contains
some fine Norman work.
There is
also a Wesleyan Church at Lower
Caversham.
Inns: "Crown", on the Oxfordshire
side;
"White Hart", on the Berkshire
side, where boats can be left,
as well as at Causton's under the bridge.
Police: Station, Prospect-street.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, telegraph, and savings
bank).
Mails from London, 7am, 12
noon and 5pm; Sunday, 7am, Mails
for London, 8.25am, 1.50 and 7.30pm; Sunday, 1 pm There is a
pillar letter-box in the wall facing the bridge.
Nearest Bridge: Caversham;
up: Pangbourne 6¼ miles;
down: Sonning 3¼ miles.
Locks: up, Mapledurham 4 miles;
down, Caversham about ¾ mile.
Ferry: at "Roebuck".
Railway Station: Reading [which see for Fares).
The possession of the Wingfield Sculls, a challenge prize instituted in 1830, carries with it the
amateur Championship of the Thames.
The course was originally from Westminster to Putney.
In 1849 the long
course from Putney to Kew was selected.
Twelve years later the University course
between Putney and Mortlake was adopted, and the race has been rowed there
ever since.
In 1882 Mr.J.Lowndes,
the previous year's winner, resigned, and
on the 21st August, Mr.Alexander Payne,
of the Moulsey Boat Club, beat Mr.W.R.Grove, London R.C., after a good
race, in 27 min 35 sec
In 1884, the race fell to W.S.Unwin,
of Magdalen College, Oxford, who easily
beat his four opponents in the good time
of 24 min 12 secs.
WINNERS:
1830 J.H.Bayford; 1831 C.Lewis; 1832 A.A.Julius; 1833 C.Lewis; 1834 A.A.Julius;
1835 A.A.Julius; 1836 H.Wood; 1837 P.Colquhoun; 1838 H.Wood; 1839 H.Chapman;
1840 T.L.Jenkins; 1841 T.L.Jenkins; 1842 H.Chapman; 1843 H.Chapman; 1844 T.B.Bumpstead;
1845 H.Chapman; 1846 W.Russell; 1847 J.R.L.Walmisley; 1848 J.R.L.Walmisley; 1849 F.Playford;
1850 T.R.Bone; 1851 T.R.Bone; 1852 E.G.Peacock; 1853 J.Paine; 1854 H.H.Playford;
1855 A.A.Casamajor; 1856 A.A.Casamajor; 1857 A.A.Casamajor; 1858 A.A.Casamajor; 1859 A.A.Casamajor;
1860 A.A.Casamajor; 1861 E.D.Brickwood; 1862 W.B.Woodgate; 1863 J.E.Parker; 1864 W.B.Woodgate;
1865 C.B.Lawes; 1866 E.B.Michell; 1867 W.A.Woodgate; 1868 W.Stout; 1869 A.de L.Long;
1870 A.de L.Long; 1871 W.Faucus; 1872 C.C.Knollys; 1873 A.C.Dicker; 1874 A.C.Dicker;
1875 F.L.Playford; 1876 F.L.Playford; 1877 F.L.Plavford; 1878 F.L.Playford; 1879 F.L.Playford;
1880 A.Payne; 1881 J.Lowndes; 1882 A.Payne; 1883 J.Lowndes; 1884 W.S.Unwin.
Championship of the Thames(Professional) - The first race rowed
for the Championship of the Thames was
in 1831, C.Campbell being the first to
bear the title of Champion.
Up to 1865,
races for the Championship of the Thames
were very properly rowed on the Metropolitan water; but in 1866, when Hamill
came over and challenged Harry Kelley,
the title of the race became the Championship of the World, and the matches took
place indifferently at Putney and at
Newcastle.
In 1877 the race was actually
rowed on the Paramatta River, New
South Wales, and in the same year a
Challenge Cup was given by the proprietor of the Newcastle Daily Chronicle,
with the understanding that instead of
there being distinct Championships of
the Thames and Tyne, the two titles
should be merged into that of Champion
of England.
In 1878 J.Higgins succeeded in winning this cup a sufficient
number of times to enable him to claim it
as his own property.
In 1878, the Sportsman newspaper gave another cup, which
was first won by W.Elliott, and in 1879,
was taken to Canada by Hanlan, whose
property it finally became after his defeat
of Laycock at Putney, Feb.14, 1881.
In 1880 Hanlan beat Trickett very easily
over the Putney course, and proved himself fully worthy to rank among the best
of the Champions.
In April, 1882, he
beat R.W.Boyd on the Tyne, and a
month after again defeated Trickett on
the Thames, winning both races with the
most ridiculous ease.
No Championship
race on the Thames or Tyne occurred in
1883 or 1884.
(For Chart of Course see University Boat Race.)
The following List of Champions is reprinted by permission from the "Sportsman's Pocket Book".
| Date | Winner | Loser | Course | min sec |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1831 September 9 | C.Campbell | C.Williams | W to P | - |
| 1838 November 1 | C.Campbell | R.Coombes | W to P | - |
| 1846 August 19 | R.Coombes | C.Campbell | P to M | 26 15 |
| 1847 September 29 | R.Coombes | R.Newell | P to M | 23 46 |
| 1851 May 7 | R.Coombes | T.Mackinney | P to M | 26 05 |
| 1852 May 24 | T.Cole | R.Coombes | P to M | 25 15 |
| 1852 October 14 | T.Cole | R.Coombes | P to M | 23 35 |
| 1854 November 20 | J.A.Messenger | T.Cole | P to M | 24 30 |
| 1857 May 12 | H.Kelley | J.A.Messenger | P to M | 24 30 |
| 1859 September 29 | R.Chambers | H.Kelley | P to M | 25 25 |
| 1860 September 18 | R.Chambers | F.White | P to M | 23 15 |
| 1863 April 14 | R.Chambers | G.W.Everson | P to M | 25 27 |
| 1863 June 16 | R.Chambers | R.A.W.Green | P to M | 25 25 |
| 1865 August 8 | H.Kelley | R.Chambers | P to M | 23 26 |
| 1866 July 4 | H.Kelley | Hamill | Tyne | 33 29 |
| 1866 July 5 | H.Kelley | Hamill | Tyne | - |
| 1866 November 22 | R.Chambers | J.H.Sadler | P to M | 25 04 |
| 1867 May 6 | H.Kelley | R.Chambers | Tyne | 31 41 |
| 1868 November 17 | J.Renforth | H.Kelley | P to M | 23 15 |
| 1874 April 16 | J.H.Sadler | R.Bagnall | P to M | 24 15 |
| 1875 November 15 | J.H.Sadler | R.W.Boyd | P to M | 29 02 |
| 1876 June 27 | E.Trickett | J.H.Sadler | P to M | 24 35 |
| 1876 | A match was made between Trickett and Lumsden, but the latter forfeited. | |||
| 1876 June 29 | A match was made between Sadler and Higgins for the Championship, subject to the former beating Trickett; but after being defeated, Sadler forfeited. | |||
| 1877 May 28 | R.W.Boyd | J.Higgins | P to M | 29 00 |
| 1877 June 30 | Trickett beat Michael Rush for the Championship of the World, on the Paramatta River, New South Wales. | |||
| 1877 October 8 | J.Higgins | R.W.Boyd | P to M | 24 10 |
| 1878 January 14 | J.Higgins | R.W.Boyd | Tyne | foul |
| 1878 June 3 | J.Higgins | W.Elliott | P to M | 24 38 |
| 1878 September 17 | W.Elliott beat R.W.Boyd in final heat of race. | |||
| 1879 February 17 | W.Elliott | J.Higgins | Tyne | - |
| 1879 June 16 | Hanlan | W.Elliott | Tyne | - |
| 1880 November 15 | Hanlan | Trickett | P to M | 26 11 |
| 1881 February 14 | Hanlan | Laycock | P to M | 25 41 |
| 1882 April 3 | Hanlan | R.W.Boyd | Tyne | - |
| 1882 May 1 | Hanlan | Trickett | P to M | 27 58 |
Chapman Lighthouse is an iron screw-pile structure, painted red, built on Chapman Head, in Sea Reach.
It shows towards the eastward a red light over the sand called the River Middle, and a
white light in the safe channel;
to the westward its light is wholly white, and is designed to lead vessels clear of a danger called the Scar.
The piles have each a Mitchell's screw at the lower end, by means of which they were driven into the sand when the structure was built, in 1851.
Above the wash of the water, a six-sided chamber contains the accommodation for the keepers, two in number, which is
surmounted by a six-sided lantern, enclosing a Dioptric or Lenticular apparatus
of the second order, in the centre of which
is the source of light, a fountain lamp, with four concentric wicks burning colza oil.
The light since January, 1881, is occulting, disappearing twice in quick succession every half minute.
The total height of the building from base to vane is 74 feet, and the light is exhibited at an elevation of 40 feet above high water.
Three keepers are employed: two on duty and one on shore, and the relief is effected once a month, by a steamer from the
Trinity depot at Blackwall, so that each man serves two months at the lighthouse,
and has one month in three on shore.
Charing Cross (Foot) Bridge, runs
along and forms a portion of the Charing cross railway-bridge, and is approached
on the north side from Villiers-street, and
on the south side from Belvedere-road.
It is the shortest way for foot passengers
from Charing-cross and neighbourhood
to Waterloo Station.
Chelsea, S.W., on the left bank, once
a quiet village three miles from London,
is now a densely populated locality, and
lies between the Brompton-road and the
Thames, Sloane-street being its eastern
boundary, while its western boundary is
indeterminate, as it is still growing.
It
gives its name to a parliamentary borough,
which includes the Kensington and
Hammersmith parishes, and is now represented by Sir Charles Dilke and Mr.J.B.Firth, Liberals.
Chelsea contains a
great population of the working class.
Chelsea is Radical, while Kensington
may be looked upon as Conservative;
Hammersmith being a mixed parish.
the old parish church stands on the
embankment close to the river, and is
rich in associations ecclesiastical, historical, and literary.
The river front of
Chelsea has been greatly improved by
the embanking of Cheyne-walk and the
construction of the Chelsea Embankment; and the admirably designed red
brick houses in the Queen Anne style,
lately completed on the Cadogan estate,
are thoroughly in accordance with old
Chelsea traditions and associations.
The
principal public buildings are the Barracks, Chelsea Hospital, and the Military
Asylum.
The Gardens of the Apothecaries' Company are also well worth inspection.
NEAREST Railway Stations:
Sloane-square, Grosvenor-road, and Chelsea;
Omnibus Routes: Sloane-street, King's-road, and Fulham-road;
Steam-boat Piers: Cadogan Pier and Battersea Pier.
Chelsea Suspension Bridge is another work by the designer of Westminster Bridge, and leads from Victoria- road to the east of Battersea-park, to the
Chelsea Embankment and its continuation, the Grosvenor-road.
It was made
in Edinburgh, and set up in its present
position in 1858 at a cost of £80,000
Chertsey, Surrey, on the right bank,
from Oxford 79¾ miles, from London
31¾ miles.
A station on the London and
South Western Railway, about an hour
from London.
the station is ten minutes'
walk from the Town Hall, and twenty-five minutes' from Chertsey Bridge.
Flys
meet the trains.
Population, 7,760.
Chertsey is an old-fashioned country
town with a number of good houses and
a few shops of some importance in its
two principal thoroughfares, Windsor-street and Guildford-street, which runs at
right angles to Windsor-street, and leads
from the town-hall to the station.
There
is not much to be said in favour of the
architectural pretensions of the two
principal public buildings - the town-hall
and the church.
The town generally
may be described as quiet and dull, but
to make amends it is rich in interesting
historical associations.
Some remains of
Chertsey Abbey, in which the body of
Henry VI. was for a short time buried,
still exist, although it is harder every
day to conceive that so magnificent a
building as has been described could
have so utterly disappeared.
Near
Chertsey is St.Anne's Hill, a favourite
retreat of Charles James Fox; and in the
Porch House in Guildford-street died the
poet Cowley.
The room in which he
died is said to be still in existence,
although the porch which gave its name
to the house was removed in 1786.
Cowley's death here is recorded in an
inscription on the wall of the house,
which concludes with Pope's line:
Here the last accents flowed from Cowley's
tongue.
St.Anne's Hill has other recommendations besides its connection with the great
statesman, as the views from its summit
on both sides are singularly beautiful.
The country around, indeed, is almost
universally picturesque, being for the
most part hilly and well-wooded.
The
charming neighbourhoods of Virginia
Water and Sunningdale are within easy
reach, and these excursions may be
recommended to visitors.
Weybridgeand
the country surrounding are also worthy
of exploration.
Chertsey Bridge, which
connects Surrey and Middlesex, is of
stone, with seven arches, and near it,
on the right bank, is one of the most
interesting experimental establishments
on the river.
Here Mr.Forbes, so long
and so favourably known as an enthusiastic devotee of pisciculture, has brought
his arrangements for the hatching and
rearing of salmon trout and other fish to
a singular degree of completeness.
Mr.Forbes occasionally grants permission to
view these fish nurseries.
Sir William
Perkins's Endowed Schools were founded
in 1725 for the education of twenty-five
poor boys of the parish of Chertsey.
In
1736 Sir William Perkins built a similar
school for twenty-five poor girls.
The
original school buildings were in Windsor-street.
At his death in 1741, Sir William
left £3,000 for the support of the schools,
and in 1819 the fund had increased to
over £5,000.
It was then decided to
sell the old houses and buy a piece of
land at the west end of Chertsey, and
largely to extend the benefits of the
schools.
Subsequently the buildings were
again enlarged; the clothing which was
given to the children and certain special
gifts were abolished; and the whole of
the income is devoted to giving a sound
elementary education to between 500
and 600 children of Chertsey and neighbourhood.
The Chertsey District Horticultural Society, founded some fifteen
years ago, has, from small beginnings,
made rapid progress, and its shows are
now among the best in the home counties.
There is also a Chrysanthemum Society,
founded in 1876.
Among the other
public institutions is the Literary and
Scientific, the members of which have
the use of a reading-room, recreation-room, and a good library of 2,000 volumes.
The subscription is for non-members,
£1 1s.;
for general members, 10s. 6d.
per annum, 3s. per quarter;
library
members, 2s. 6d. per annum.
Of waterside features Chertsey has but few.
The
"Bridge House Hotel", the Chertsey
Rowing Club boat-house, and Messrs.Des Vigne's torpedo-launch manufactory
pretty well exhaust the list.
There is a convenient landing-place at the "Bridge House Hotel".
The coach from London
to Virginia Water changes horses at
Chertsey.
Roach swims in plenty; good angling
from bank.
From this to Shepperton is
fine jack water.
Banks: Ashby & Co., Old Bank, and
London and County, both in Guildford-St.
Fire: Station in the town.
Hotels: "the Bridge House", on the river;
"Crown", London-street.
Places of Worship: St.Peter's;
and Baptist, Congregational, and Wesleyan Chapels.
Police: station, East-street, some
distance from the town.
Postal Arrangements:
Post Office, Windsor-street, opposite the church
(money, savings bank, telegraph, insurance office).
Mails from London, 3.35 and 8.40am, 4.49pm
Mails for London, 9.35 and 11.35am, 3.20 and 8pm
Nearest Bridge, Station, and Lock: Chertsey.
Nearest Bridges: up, Staines 3¾ miles;
down, Walton 4½ miles.
Locks: up, Penton Hook 2 miles;
down, Shepperton 2 miles.
Ferry, Laleham.
Fares to Waterloo: 1st, 4/-, 5/6; 2nd,
3/-, 4/-; 3rd, 1/10, 3/4.
Chertsey Rowing Club.
Election
by ballot in general meeting; one black
ball in five excludes.
Subscription, 15s.; honorary members, £1 12s.; lads for coxswains, 5s.
Colours, black and white vertical stripes.
Boat-house, just below Chertsey Bridge, right bank.
Chiswick, London, S.W., on the
left bank.
A waterside suburb about 5
miles west of Hyde Park Corner, rapidly
being swallowed up by the advancing
tide of buildings.
Hogarth died here,
and is buried in the churchyard.
Rousseau also lived here, boarding at a little
grocer's shop.
The gardens of the Horticultural Society lie on the Turnham-green side.
Chiswick Church is situated
at the west-end of the pleasant riverside
walk known as the Mall; and just
opposite lies Chiswick Eyot, a well-known
landmark in champion and University
boat-races.
There is a ferry here from
the bottom of Chiswick-lane, in Middlesex, to Ferry-lane, leading to Barnes
Common, in Surrey.
Chiswick may be
reached by rail from Waterloo, Ludgate-hill, and Mansion House.
Chub (the) is a great favourite with
many anglers.
Leather-mouthed is he,
and for a while strong withal, when first
hooked.
But he is a very wary fish,
which sinks out of sight at even the
distant flight of a bird over his head.
From the fact of his desperate rush when
first feeling the barb, very strong tackle is
requisite to secure him, and yet that
tackle must be of the finest if you desire
to deceive him.
Chub spawn in April or
May, and the best season for them is from October throughout the winter months.
Indeed, they may be taken in great
numbers, and mostly of the largest size,
when the water is frozen, with only here
and there an open spot for the introduction of the lure.
In summer a fly
is the best method of catching him, and
a large black or red palmer thrown just
under the overhanging boughs and near
their submerged roots will be sure to be
attended with success, as in these places
the fish resort in, waiting to seize the
insects which fall from the branches.
A
cockchafer, grasshopper, small frog, or
beetle is another favourite bait which
may be introduced through an opening
of the foliage, while the fisher is concealed
from observation; the angler approaching
the spot with muffled tread, as the
slightest concussion on the bank is
sufficient to give the fish the alarm and
put him on his guard.
As it is difficult
when a fish is thus hooked to land him,
the following plan may be resorted to:
Take a number 8 or 9 hook whipped on
to about a yard of gut, on this place a
good-sized swan shot, twist this on the
end of your top joint until none of the
tackle hangs from it: now push your rod
quietly through a gap in the foliage,
unroll the portion of your line by a few
turns of the rod, and then let the bait
by the weight of the shot descend to the
surface of the water: when there move it
up and down to make a slight splash,
and to imitate the attempt of the bait to
escape from drowning.
If there be any
chub in the neighbourhood they will
presently rise to the surface, and after
taking a survey of the lure perhaps
hesitate to take it.
You will, however,
from your station command a view of your
victims, and if there be one chub larger
than the others you covet, offer the bait,
not to that one, but to the others, as if
from the accidental struggles of the
chaffer, &c, but do not let them take it.
Thus, after a while the chief of the lot
will get excited and suddenly make a
dash for it, and you have him.
You
must hold him with a strong grasp, relying upon your tackle, or he will dart for
the fastnesses of roots, &c, beneath the
bank.
When you have exhausted him,
go as low as you can on your hands and
knees, get the landing-net under him,
and draw him deftly out.
Having done
this you have but to untie the line from
the gut hook and wind up your line, now
free from incumbrance, through the
bushes.
Now try another place, leaving
this alone for a while, and thus in the
extent of a single meadow margined with
willows or elders you may continue to
take chub from sunrise until eve.
A very
deadly bait, introduced on the Thames
from the Trent, is the pipe-like pith from
the backbone of an ox, simply scalded
and slightly cut open.
Chub are brought
together after this bait by a sprinkling of
ox-brains which the fishermen chew and
blow out on the surface of the water from
their mouths.
But there is no occasion
to resort to this objectionable practice,
as the brains may be cut up and separated
on a piece of wood or plate, and filliped
off into the water with the point of the
knife.
A double hook is needed for this
mode, as the pith requires an extra
security, and the travelling float should
be used, as the fish are shy in coming
too near the punt, although this decidedly
novel treat is almost irresistible.
Large
chub are often taken while trolling or
spinning with the gudgeon or minnow,
and they will run at the small fry, such
as minnows, with great avidity when
well on the feed.
Their teeth are very
formidable, and are placed out of sight
in their throats, as are those of others of
their fresh-water congeners.
The chub
is of little value for the table, except in
hard frosty weather, when its flesh becomes firm and ceases to be woolly and
insipid.
If there are no obstructions
near the chub when first hooked you may
permit him to make his one desperate
rush; after that a little will subdue him.
Cleopatra's Needle stands on the
Victoria Embankment, left hand of the
river.
This famous monolith of red
granite, from Alexandria, originally stood
at Heliopolis, and was presented to this
country by Mehemet Ali in 1819.
No ministry was bold enough to face the
difficulty and expense of transporting it
across the Bay of Biscay, and for many
years it lay half-buried by sand at
Alexandria, at the foot of its still erect
sister, which, according to some people,
is the real original Cleopatra's Needle.
In the Alexandrian sand the English
obelisk would probably have remained
until the end of time (unless, indeed, the
British tourist had carried it away piece-meal in the form of relics) but for the
public spirit of the late Sir (then Mr.)
Erasmus Wilson and Mr.John Dixon,
the well-known civil engineer.
Mr.Wilson
put down £10,000 for the expenses of
transport, and Mr.Dixon undertook to
deliver the monument in the Thames for
that sum on the principle of "no cure, no pay" - no obelisk, no £10,000.
A cylinder boat was designed, in which the
needle was encased, and justified Mr.Dixon's expectations by making good
weather of it until it became unmanageable and untenantable in a heavy gale in
the Bay of Biscay.
Abandoned by the
steamer which had it in tow, after the
sacrifice of six lives in a last gallant
attempt to save the Cleopatra, few people
doubted that the needle would find its
last resting-place at the bottom of the
sea.
Fortunately a passing steamer succeeded in securing it, and towed it into
Ferrol, whence it was safely transferred
to its present site.
Much ingenuity was
shown in the machinery designed for its
erection, the difficulties of which will
readily be understood when it is stated
that the obelisk is over 68 feet in height,
and weighs 180 tons.
Nearest Steamboat Piers and Bridges, Waterloo and
Charing-cross; Railway Stations, Charing-cross (Dist.& S.E.); Omnibus Routes,
Waterloo Bridge and Strand.
Clewer, Berkshire, a village standing
on a creek of the Thames, just above
Windsor railway-bridge, and close to
Windsor race-course, which is in the
parish.
Clewer is notable for the number
of important mansions and seats in and
about it, and for the religious institutions
which have grown up around the churches,
principally under the auspices of the Rev.T.T.Carter.
The institutions attached
to St.Andrew's, the parish church, are
independent of the parish.
They are the
House of Mercy, in connection with the
London Church Penitentiary Association
(32, Sackville-street, W.), where about 80
female penitents are maintained under
the care of sisters of mercy, headed by a
warden.
Under the charge of the sisters
are also a Convalescent Hospital with
nearly 100 beds; an Orphanage; and
St.Andrew's Cottage, for ladies needing
rest.
Attached to St.Stephen's Church
is the Ladies' College, &c.
The parish
church is interesting, some parts of it
being very old, and dating back to Saxon
times.
It has a tablet to the memory of
Field Marshal Earl Harcourt.
The
churchyard is made unusually pleasant,
great care being taken of the graves, Her
Majesty the Queen setting an example in
bringing flowers.
Places of Worship: St.Andrew's
and St.Stephen's.
Postal Arrangements: Mails from
London, 7.10am, and 12.30pm
For London, 10.15am, and 5.45pm
Clifton Hampden, Oxfordshire, on
the left bank, 98½ miles from London, 13
miles from Oxford.
Population, 377.
Soil, chiefly gravel.
This picturesque little village is situated at the foot of a
bold bluff, which rises abruptly from the
somewhat flat country around.
The cliff
is surmounted by the church and vicarage,
and is clothed with luxuriant trees down
to the water's edge.
The village, a pretty
collection of old-fashioned cottages, all
of which are bright with flowers, does not
call in itself for more than a passing
notice.
It derives some importance from
the new red brick bridge with six pointed
arches, built by the lord of the manor in
place of the ferry which formerly existed
here, the towing-path crossing the river
at this point.
The toll for horses not
drawing vehicles is 1½d, and for foot
passengers, 1d.
The church, dedicated
to St.Michael and All Angels, formerly
a chapelry in connection with the Abbey
of Dorchester, was entirely restored in
1844 by the late Mr.G.H.Gibbs, and is
a very elaborate specimen of the work of
Sir Gilbert Scott.
It contains in the
north of the chancel a tomb with a recumbent portrait figure of the late Mr.Gibbs, and a most elaborate brass screen
with figures in bronze.
The reredos is a
somewhat bold work in mosaic, representing on either side the Prophets,
Evangelists, and Latin Doctors, and in
the centre the Last Supper.
The churchyard, from which a charming view extends
up and down the river, is, like the village,
ablaze with flowers, and is entered through
a handsome modern lych gate.
On the
Berkshire side, two or three minutes'
walk from the bridge, is the "Barley Mow Inn", one of the thatched, sile built,
old-fashioned resting-places which have
been almost improved out of existence by
the modern system of hotels.
The parlour
of the "Barley Mow" is a queer panelled
room, more like the cabin of a ship than
the coffee-room of an inn, and is of so
low a pitch as to still further favour the
illusion.
But although the house is primitive, and the entertainment unpretending,
it is a capital little inn of its class, and
may be recommended to boating men.
Inns: "the Barley Mow" (Berkshire
side); "Plough".
Place of Worship: St.Michael
and All Angels.
Postal Arrangements:
the nearest money order and telegraph offices
are at Dorchester and Abingdon.
Mails from London, 8am, and on Sundays.
Mails for London, 6pm; Sunday, 10.55am
Pillar-box at Burcott, cleared at 5.40pm
Nearest Bridges: Clifton Hampden; up, Sutton Bridges (Culham) 3¼ miles;
down, Shillingford, 5¼ miles (a foot-bridge
at Day's Lock 2½ miles).
Locks, up, Clifton ½ mile; down, Day's 2½ miles.
Railway Station, Culham.
Fares, Culham to Pad.: 1st, 10/-,
17/6; 2nd, 7/6, 13/-; 3rd, 5s.
Coaching: Riverside towns have not
been neglected in the recent revival of
coaching, and many pleasant views of
the river are afforded to travellers by "the
road".
Thus, the Guildford coach passes
through Kingston (fare, 45/6d.) and
Thames Ditton (5s).
The route of the "Old Times", Virginia Water coach, is
via Barnes, Richmond, Twickenham,
Hampton Court, Moulsey, Walton, Oatlands Park, Weybridge, and Chertsey,
thus taking in all the best views of the
river; the return fare for the whole distance being 17/6d.; intermediate fares
are also charged.
The Windsor coach
visits Barnes, Richmond, Twickenham,
Teddington, Hampton Court, Hampton,
and Staines, the return fare being 17s.6d.,
with various intermediate fares.
All information respecting these and
other coaches can at any time be obtained
of Mr.Banks, at the booking office,
Hatchett's Hotel, Piccadilly.
Coastguard: the Thames which is in the Harwich district is shared between the two divisions of Southend and Sheerness, the greater portion being under the former, which extends from Shoeburyness round by Tilbury and Gravesend to Cliffe Creek, beyond which the Sheerness division continues in the direction of the sea.
Conservators of the Thames, 41, Trinity Square, London, E.C.
The Conservators are a body constituted in 1857
by the Act 20 & 21 Vict.cap.147, which
was the result of a compromise between
the Crown and the Corporation of a suit
arising out of conflicting claims to the
bed of the river.
Under this Act the
Conservators consisted of twelve persons
representing various interests, and their
jurisdiction extended from Staines in
Middlesex to Yantlet Creek in Kent.
In
1864 considerable changes were made in
the Act, and six elective Conservators
were added; and by a further Act of
1866, the Conservancy of the Upper
Thames as far as Cricklade, in Wiltshire,
was vested in the Conservators, and five
Conservators were added, viz.: one appointed by the Board of Trade, and four
elected by persons on the upper river.
Acts passed in 1867, 1870, and 1878, further extended the scope of the Conservancy's duties.
Of the Conservators as
at present constituted, seven - the Lord
Mayor, two aldermen, and four common
councillors - represent the Citv; the Admiralty and Board of Trade 'have each
two nominations; the Trinity House is
represented by its deputy-master and one
nominee.
The elected Conservators represent the following interests: Owners
of shipping registered in London, two;
owners of lighters and steam tugs, two;
owners of river passenger steamers, one;
dock-owners and wharfingers, one; and
persons of the upper river, four.
Under
the Act of 1866 the remuneration of the
Conservators is fixed at £1800 per
annum, with a further addition of £700
from the upper river fund.
the principal matters to which the
rules and bye-laws of the Conservancy
apply, are the navigation of the river; the
lights to be carried by vessels; the regulation of the carriage of explosive substances, and of petroleum; the fisheries;
the regulating of boat races.
The bye-laws can always be had on application at
the London office.
(See Boat Races,
Fishing,
Lights,
Navigation.)
Cookham, Berkshire, on the right
bank; from London 53 miles, from Oxford 58½ miles.
A station on a branch
line of the Great Western Railway, about
an hour from Paddington.
An omnibus
meets the trains; the station is about
eight minutes from the river.
Population
(of village), 872.
Soil, chalk and gravel.
Cookham stands at the end of what is
popularly supposed to be the best part of
the Thames, and, together with Maidenhead, is probably better known to picnickers and London excursionists than
almost any other place on the river.
It
is immediately opposite the woods of
Hedsor, the seat of Lord Boston, and
just below the lock is the pretty Formosa
island on the right; and the magnificent
hanging woods of Cliveden on the left.
In the neighbourhood are many noble
mansions, Dropmore being immediately
behind Hedsor; White Place, formerly
the property of the Duke of Buckingham,
is in the meadow opposite Cliveden;
with many others still farther removed
from the river.
The grounds of both
Hedsor and (during the absence of the
family) of Cliveden are shown on application.
The conifers at Dropmore are
renowned, and the view from the ridge,
on which stands "Cliveden's proud alcove", is superb.
The church of Holy
Trinity - an ancient building with chancel,
nave, aisles, and a square tower (about
1500), contains some modern stained
glass windows, and an alabaster monument of the 16th century to the memory
of Arthor Babham and wife with a quaint
inscription.
There are also some good
brasses.
That to George Welder, dated
1616, is in the south aisle; there is one
dated 1615 in the north aisle with a
curious epitaph; another, mutilated, to
Richard Babham and wife (1527) on the
north wall of the north aisle; and under
an altar tomb in the chancel are the
figures of Robert Peck (an official of
Henry VI.) and wife, 1510.
In the north
aisle a brass with three full-length figures
has the inscription, "Pray for the souls
of William Andrew and John Monkeden
and Margaret; which William deceased
1506"; also in the north aisle is a brass
with full-length figure of John Babham -
the companion figure of his wife being
missing - with date 1458.
On the north
wall is a very good mural tablet to Sir
Isaac Pocock, by Flaxman (1808).
The
most interesting monument, however, to
many visitors to Cookham Church will be
that to the late lamented Frederick
Walker, A.R.A.
The marble mural
monument which records his untimely
death, and which is placed on the west
wall of the south aisle, bears a medallion
bust, a most admirable likeness.
Cookham Reach, when not searched by
the wind, is a safe resort for roach, for
which the swims are many about Spade
Oak, Bourne End, Hedsor, Cliveden, &c.
Fairs: May 16 and October 11.
Hotels: "Bell and the Dragon";
the "Ferry", on the river;
the "King's Arms.
'
Places of Worship: Holy Trinity,
and a Wesleyan chapel.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, savings bank, telegraph,
insurance).
Mails from London, 7am, 12.30pm; Sunday, 7am
Mails to London, 12.30 and 7.30p.m; Sunday, 7.15pm
Nearest Bridge, Lock, Ferry, and Railway Station: Cookham.
Nearest Bridges: up, Marlow 4 miles; down, Maidenhead 3 miles.
Locks: up, Marlow 3¼ miles; down, Boulter's 2½ miles.
Fares to Paddington: 1st, 5/-, 8/6; 2nd, 3/8, 6/3; 3rd, 2/3.
Cooper's Hill Boat Club (Royal
Indian Engineering College).
This boating club numbers between fifty and sixty
members.
In 1881 the club sent an eight
to Henley to compete for the Ladies'
Plate, an eight and a four to Kingston,
and a four to Reading.
In 1882 it was
unrepresented at Henley and Kingston,
but had a four at Reading.
The colours
are dark blue and yellow.
The boathouse, three-quarters of a mile from the
college, is on the left bank, opposite the
upper end of Magna Charta Island, about
600 yards below the "Bells of Ouseley."
Cooper's Hill College -the Royal Indian Engineering College - has been established under the orders of the Secretary
of State for India in Council, in view to
the education of Civil Engineers for the
service of Government in the Indian
Public Works Department; but it is open,
to the extent of the accommodation available, to all persons desirous of following
the course of study pursued there.
All
particulars as to admission, course of
study, appointments, etc., may be obtained of the Secretary at the College.
Corinthian Yacht Club: - Clubhouse, Erith.
The primary object of
the club is the encouragement of amateur yacht sailing.
The election is by
ballot in committee; three adverse votes
exclude.
The affairs of the club are administered by a commodore, vice-commodore, rear-commodore, hon. Treasurer,
secretary, and a committee of fifteen other
members, with power to increase their
number to twenty.
The club numbers
over 500 members.
In races of this club
no professional or paid hands are allowed
except in the largest class, i.e. over 20
tons.
None but members of the C.Y.C. are
to act as helmsmen in any race.
Entrance
fee, £2 2s; subscriptions, £1 1s
Burgee, blue, with laurel wreath in gold in the centre.
This reformatory training-ship of the School Ship Society is
anchored off Purfleet.
As a general rule
the committee do not admit boys unless
the three following conditions are satisfied:
1. That the boy be sentenced to not
less than three years' detention.
2. That he be not less than 13 years of
age nor more than 15.
3. That he be certified as sound and
healthy.
The comparative cost per head on ordinary maintenance and management is £23 5s 8d.
Funds are urgently needed, as "the amounts received on account of
the Treasury allowance and the county
and borough rates do little more than
suffice for the maintenance of the boys
and for the payments of the officers".
Visitors are requested not to go on
Saturday, which is cleaning day on board.
The Cornwall was once the Wellesley;
and was built in Bombay of teak in 1815,
and was the flagship of Sir W.Parker
and of Lord Dundonald.
Cricklade, Wiltshire, on the right
bank, distant from Oxford 43 miles.
Soil,
loam; population, about 2,000.
The
nearest railway station is Purton, about
4 miles off, an omnibus plying between
the station and the town.
The fast trains
from Paddington, distance 82 miles,
perform the journey in two hours and a
quarter, or thereabouts.
This is a
straggling and fairly picturesque little
place on the Thames and Severn and
North Wilts Canals, and it is here that
the Thames, at its junction with the
Churn, begins to assume the appearance
of a navigable river.
Though in itself a
small place, Cricklade is the centre of a
number of other parishes which have for
many years united in returning two Members to Parliament, the constituency at
the last general election numbering 7,473.
the present Members are Mr.M.H.N.Story Maskelyne (L.) and Sir Daniel
Gooch (C).
Cricklade is a pleasant
little town, clean and well-paved, but has
not been the scene of any particularly
remarkable events, since it shared the
fate of so many of the other Thames
towns and was plundered by the Danes
in 1015, and now contains few objects of
interest, except the church of St.Sampson, a very handsome building, with
chancel, nave, and side aisles, and a
remarkably good square embattled tower,
with parapet and four pinnacles.
This,
which is said to date from 1400, was built
of stone from the same quarries as
supplied the materials for the construction of Cirencester and Gloucester cathedrals, and which are now exhausted.
On
the north side of the tower are carved
a pair of reaping hooks and a pair of
shears, and above them a wheel projects.
A local legend says that these
objects refer to the three men who were
most concerned in building the tower -
a farmer, a tailor, and a clock-maker.
This, however, is more than doubtful,
seeing that whatever meaning may be
supposed to attach to the shears and the
reaping hooks, the wheel is simply a
Catherine wheel, and a very good one
too.
But the builders of the tower delighted in quaint and out-of-the-way
decoration, as is instanced in the walls
and beautifully groined roof of the interior.
Here, in addition to numerous
coats of arms - including, on the south
side, that of the Hungerford family, by
whom the tower was, in all probability,
built - are sculptured the aces of the four
suits of the pack of cards, the shears
again, two pairs of ladies' stays, and a
number of other quaint devices.
The
church, which contains some excellent
Early English windows and a very good
west window and door, was undoubtedly
the work of different periods, of which
three may distinctly be noted at the
flying buttress outside the east end, and
is both handsome and commodious.
Among the tablets on the floor is one in
memory of one Simon Wild, jun., 1710,
who is oddly enough said to have been
"in Jenis for singing, ringing, and
writing", and the tomb of Robert Jenner
informs the world that he "deceased
this life" in 1651.
There is an empty
niche in the north aisle to which it is
probable that a curious and much-defaced
stone figure, which lies by the side of the
path to the church, of right belongs;
although here again local tradition steps
in, and declares that the effigy in question
represents the mangled body of a man
who fell from the tower during its construction.
At the west end of the pretty
churchyard is a good old farmhouse, and
on the north-east side a picturesque
building dating from 1652, which, having
started in life as a school, afterwards
became a workhouse, and is now a school
again.
In the churchyard there is also a
fine old cross, which formerly stood in the
marketplace.
Another good cross stands
in the churchyard of St.Mary's at the
other end of the town.
This church,
though much smaller than St.Sampson's,
is architecturally interesting, notably by
reason of a Norman arch of the eleventh
century.
The town also contains Baptist,
Congregational, Wesleyan, and Methodist places of worship, and a Town Hall
capable of holding about 300 people.
Bank: the Gloucestershire Banking
Company.
Fire Engine: Church-street.
Market Day: third Tuesday in the
month.
Hotels: "White Hart" and "White Horse".
Places of Worship: St.Sampson's
and St.Mary's.
Police: the station is the last house
at the north end of the town, just across
the bridge over the Thames.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, savings bank, telegraph,
and insurance), High-street.
Mails from London: 3am, and 2.30pm
Mails for London, noon, and 9.45pm
Nearest Bridges: down, Eisey, for foot passengers, about a mile, and Castle
Eaton, about 4 miles.
Lock: St.John's, about 10½ miles.
Railway Station: Purton, 4 miles.
Omnibus: three times a day.
Fares to Paddington, 1st, 14/4, 25/-; 2nd, 10/9, 18/9; 3rd, 6/9
Crimps may be said to be practically
an extinct order of reptile.
Jack's ship
is now boarded on arrival at Gravesend
by the officers of the Board of Trade,
who provide him with a passage straight
home if he wishes it, and he is next
awaited in the dock by the employees of
the Sailors' Home.
If their regime does
not suit him, the private lodging-houses
he prefers are under the strictest sanitary
and police surveillance; and when his
money is out and he wants a ship, the
only means by which he can obtain one
is through the Shipping Office.
Finally,
if in spite of these tender surroundings
he contrives, as he still occasionally does
contrive, to procure his own ultimate
ejectment from some unlicensed den in
the minimum of clothing, and without
even the minimum of coin, he has still
the refuge of the "Straw House".
Thus
while blood-suckers of various breeds
still ply their trade with more or less
success at Jack's expense - a fact for
which Jack has assuredly nowadays no
one to thank but himself- the "crimp",
whose specialty it was, after having
sucked the blood, to dispose of the
carcase to some sea-going skipper in
want of a crew, has no longer any raison
d'etre, and has therefore practically ceased
to be.
Crowmarsh Giffard, sometimes called
Long Crowmarsh, Oxfordshire, on the
left bank opposite Wallingford, 90¾ miles
from London, 20¾ miles from Oxford.
Population about 350.
Soil, upper greensand.
Crowmarsh is a small village
joined to Wallingford, Berks, by a stone
bridge, and within the Parliamentary
borough of Wallingford.
The church,
St.Mary Magdalene, of great antiquity,
was built in the reign of King Stephen,
and consists of nave, chancel, and north
transept.
The western doorway is a fine
specimen of Norman work.
The old
west door of massive oak has been
recently removed and fitted to the vestry;
it still bears marks of the bullet-holes
which were made (it is said) during the
siege of Wallingford Castle at the time of
the Civil Wars.
In this parish is Howbery
Park; the old mansion (formerly the
seat of W.S.Blackstone, Esq., M.P.)
was burnt down a century ago.
It is
now rebuilt on same site, and owned by
H.B.Watkin Williams Wynn, Esq.
The rents of two acres of land in the
parish have from time immemorial been
applied to the repair of the church.
Fair: Horse fair, August 2.
Place of Worship: St.Mary Magdalene.
Postal Arrangements: Letters
through Wallingford, which is the nearest
money order, telegraph, and insurance
office.
Mails from London, 6.15am,
Mails for London, 7pm
Nearest Lock, Bridge, and Ferry: Wallingford.
Nearest Bridges, up,
Shillingford 2½ miles; down, Streatley 5¾ miles.
Locks: up, Bensington 1½ mile; down, Cleeve 5¼ miles.
Railway Station: Wallingford.
Fares, Wallingford to Paddington:
1st, 9/5, 16/-; 2nd, 7/-, 12/-; 3rd, 4/3.
The Crow Stone: An obelisk on the Essex bank, about a mile westward of Southend, marks the limit of the jurisdiction of the Thames Conservancy; an imaginary line being drawn across the river here to Yantlet Creek in Kent.
Cuckoo Weir: A bathing-place for
the junior boys of Eton College, the
water being of a convenient depth with
but little stream.
It leaves the river at
Upper Hope, a little distance below
Athens, and re-enters it again above the
Great Western Railway-bridge opposite
Clewer.
During the vacation the Royal
Humane Society of Eton and Windsor
keep a waterman here for the safety of
the bathing public.
Culham, Oxfordshire, on the left bank,
a portion of the parish being in Berkshire.
A station on the Great Western Railway,
56 miles from Paddington, trains take
from i1½ hour upwards; from London
101¾ miles, from Oxford 9¾ miles.
Population, about 600.
Soil, gravel.
The
station is 30 minutes' walk from the lock.
A small village 2 miles below Abingdon.
the green is a few minutes' walk from
the lock, the road passing by Culham
House and grounds, the wall of which
encloses a fine belt of trees.
The church
is at the western end of the green, and is
dedicated to St.Paul.
Little remains of
the original edifice, the church having
been rebuilt some 25 years ago.
The
square tower, however, which dates from
the first year of the last century, is still
standing; the register dates from 1650.
the sum of between £50 and £60 is
distributed annually in coal to the inhabitants, arising from the sale of some
common land on which the parish had
the right of cutting gorse.
The following
entry occurs in the parish register:
"Oct.10th, 1666. Collected for the poore of
London, disabled by a dismall and
lamentable fire, £1 3s 8d."
The training
college for schoolmasters, with school
attached, is about a mile from the railway-station.
This institution, capable
of accommodating nearly 100 students,
was founded by the late Right Rev.Samuel Wilberforce, when Bishop of
Oxford, for the purpose of training
young men as Church schoolmasters.
Seventy-five per cent, of the expenditure
is defrayed by Government grant.
Just below Culham Lock is a fine reach
for pike.
Sutton Mill-pool close by is
one of the deepest on the river, and when
a fish is laid hold of here it is generally
worth the taking.
In the wall of Culham House, and
immediately opposite the "Sow and
Pigs" Inn on the green - a good specimen
of modern reproduction of an old red-bricked and timbered building - is the
Post Office letter box, which is cleared
on week-days at 7.10pm, and on
Sundays at noon.
Letters arrive from
Abingdon, the nearest money order and
telegraph office, at 7am.
Inns: "Sow and Pigs", and "Railway Hotel " at the station.
Place of Worship: St.Paul's Church.
Nearest Bridge, Lock, and Railway Station: Culham.
Nearest Bridges: up, Abingdon 2 miles;
down, Clifton Hampden 3¼ miles.
Locks: up, Abingdon 2½ miles;
down, Clifton 3 miles.
FARES to Paddington: 1st, 9/11, 17/6;
2nd, 7/5, 13/-; 3rd, 4/8.
Cumnor, a very picturesque village in
Berkshire, on the right bank, about a
mile and a half from Bablock Hithe
Ferry, and distant from Oxford 4 miles
by road.
Population, about 1,000.
The
walk from Bablock Hithe to Cumnor is
very pretty, though rather steep - the
path past the cottage, immediately
opposite the ferry, should be taken - but
except from its association with Sir Walter
Scott's noble romance of "Kenilworth",
the village itself has little to recommend
it to the notice of passing travellers.
Cumnor House or Place has now entirely
disappeared, and except the tomb of Sir
Anthony Forster (Scott's Tony "Fire-the-Faggot") in the church, nothing
associated with the sad story of Amy
Robsart now remains in Cumnor.
The
Church of St.Michael (the keys of which
can be obtained at the post-office) is
charmingly situated, and consists of nave,
chancel, north aisle, and south transept,
with a plain square tower.
Inside it has
some handsome pointed arches, and on
the north wall of the chancel is the
sculptured stone altar-tomb of Sir Anthony
Forster, with brass of himself, his wife,
and his three children.
This monument
has a long and florid Latin inscription,
eulogising Sir Anthony and his lady in
the highest terms, and especially attribut-
ing to the gentleman the possession of
the highest Christian virtues in a very
unusual degree.
From this it would seem
to follow that, unless the writer of the
epitaph had even less regard for truth
than such gentry are usually credited
with, Sir Walter Scott's account of the
facts connected with the death of Amy
Robsart cannot be considered as in the
least degree historically correct.
The
church also contains an old chained Bible,
and on the south wall, on a brass, is the
following curious
Epitaph upon ye Death of James Welsh.
the body of James Welsh lyeth buryed here,
Who left this mortal life at fourscore yeare;
One thousand and six hundred twelve he dyed,
And for the poore did Christianly provide.
According to the talent God had lent,
Five poundes he gave of zeale and good intent;
the fruite makes knowne the nature of the tree,
Good life the Christian, even so was hee;
Whose tyme well spent unto his soul did gaine
The heavenly rest where holy saints remaine.
Yhis memory a loving wife unto her husband gave,
To show her heart remembers him, though death inclose his grave.
The gyfte he gave unto the poore she hath inlarged the same,
With five poundes added to his five, unto her Christian fame;
Hath placed them both to ye churchmen here, nowise to be delay'd,
But that yearly to the poor of Cumner be a mark of silver pay'd;
Which is the full apoynted rent of the whole beqveathed some,
And so for ever shall remaine untill the day of dome.
In Cumner, for the poore's releife, Margery Welsh doth will,
The charge of this, when she is deade, may be performed still.
The lady certainly got a thorough good advertisement for the money.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
in the village.
Nearest money order,
telegraph office, &c., Oxford.
Letters
through Oxford.
Nearest Railway Station, Oxford;
distant 4 miles {which see).
Water-parties and picnics at Nuneham,
or under the shade of Cliveden or Quarry
Woods, require at all times a good and
sufficient lunch to make the day go off in
a satisfactory manner, and the presence
of somebody who knows how to combine
ice, sugar, lemon, and "drinks" artistically, is an additional advantage.
A
judicious mixer is not at all out of place
on board a yacht on a hot day in the
lower reaches of the river, and the services
of such a benefactor to his species have
even been appreciated by stern and energetic members of rowing clubs during
compulsory pauses from the day's work
within the cool walls of a lock.
Not
much is wanted in the way of paraphernalia.
A very big jug or half-gallon
mug, and a lump of ice, are, in fact, all
the extras required.
The sugar and
lemon and the needful bottles take up
very little room, and may even be classed
as necessaries, and the skilful concocter
will want but little space and time to
produce any of the following "coolers",
which have borne the test of time and
experience with eminently satisfactory results.
The basis of all wholesome cups
is a brew of sugar and lemon-peel with a
little water - hot if you are ashore and
can get it conveniently, cold if you are in
a boat and far from a fire and kettle.
Only if the water be cold the lemon-peel
must soak a little longer than if hot water
be used.
The quantity of sugar must
vary, of course, in proportion to the
amount of sweetness in the wine or cider
to be used, and will also depend to some
extent on the taste and fancy of the mixer.
Four lumps of sugar to a bottle of fair
average claret will be about the mark,
and for a cup on this scale the following
should be the mode of procedure.
Take
four good-sized lumps of sugar and the
peel of half a lemon cut very thin.
Put
these into your jug or mug, and add
sufficient water (hot for choice) to cover
the sugar.
Let the sugar melt - if hot
water be used, cover the top of the jug
while the stewing is going on - and then
add a glass of sherry and half a glass of
brandy.
Put in as large a lump of ice
as circumstances will admit of, and
immediately add a bottle of claret and a
bottle and a half or two bottles of soda-water.
Then take out the lemon-peel,
insert a handful of borage, a sprig of fresh
mint, and a couple of thin slices of lemon,
stir and drink.
Some artists have a weakness for adding a piece of cucumber rind,
and the suggestion is not without merit.
Other mixers add liqueur, but, with a
reservation in favour of orange brandy,
this course is not to be recommended.
Good orange brandy may be safely used
instead of brandy pure and simple, but
curacoa, maraschino, and above all chartreuse, give a certain sickliness and flavour
of subsequent headache to the cup in
which they find a place.
A bottle of
lemonade and one of soda instead of the
two bottles of soda, have been occasionally used with success, and, especially if
the party consist largely of ladies, is a
pleasant change; but the best variation
in the original theme is to leave out the
brandy, decrease the quantity of sugar,
and add a bottle of champagne.
There
are very few better cups than this.
Cider,
champagne, or Moselle cups are made
on exactly the same principles as the
original claret cup, but the first will
generally require more sugar, while for
the others a couple of lumps will, as a
rule, be enough.
Almost any wine may
be made into a cup, as any vegetable can
be converted to the purposes of the salad
bowl, if the two cardinal principles of
always stirring your lemon-peel and sugar
first, and of always pouring your wine,
&c, on to the ice, and of not adding
your ice after the cup is mixed, be carefully kept in view.
Drinks poured on to
ice will keep their freshness for a much
longer time than those to which ice is
merely added.
Cocktails are easy to concoct with the
assistance of two metal cups with a
bevelled edge, to enable them to fit closely
together when required, and are, though
simple in principle, a very agreeable form
of refreshment at times.
Put into one of
your cups a piece of thin lemon-peel
about two or three inches long, a little
powdered white sugar, a dash of bitters
(Boker's is to be recommended in this
connection), and half a glass of gin,
whisky, or brandy, or a glass of sherry
or claret.
Fill up with small pieces or
shavings of ice, then fix on your other
cup and shake the mixture vigorously.
Remove the top cup, add a good squeeze
of lemon-juice, and rub the edge of your
cup with the same.
If you prefer it you
may turn the mixture into a wine-glass,
but it is better served, as Mr.Bob Sawyer
remarked, "in its native pewter".
Champagne makes a capital cocktail, but will
not stand the shaking up process, so
it is better, in this case, to shake up
the rest of the ingredients, and add
the champagne last.
Lemon, sugar, bitters, ice, as aforesaid, a glass of good
sherry, a spoonful of brandy, and the
yolk of an egg, all shaken well up
together, make an excellent restorative
after a hard day's work.
The addition
to the ordinary cocktail of a few sprigs of
fresh mint, and the imbibition of the
drink - which in this case may be advantageously made of rather more liberal
proportions - through a straw, may not
make a genuine American mint-julep,
but the result is refreshing if not orthodox.
Two or three strawberries or raspberries,
a slice of orange, or, indeed, a dash of
any fresh fruit, give additional charms to
either cocktail or julep.
Grogs are simple matters, and require
no advice until they reach the higher
branches, and become punches, at which
point the judicious mixer again comes
into play, to be a welcome guest of the
yachtsman in the chilly spring and summer weather often to be enjoyed off the
marshes of Kent and Essex.
The following will be found a very good punch
for a cold night, and if taken in sufficient
quantities, will excite no painful reminiscences in the morning.
Assuming
that the jug - it must be a jug, a bowl
is an abomination- is to contain four
good-sized tumblers, it will be well to
proceed as follows.
First ascertain that
the jug is perfectly clean and dry: yacht
stewards are not to be trusted in such matters any more than parlour maids.
Have the kettle on the fire before you - never to take boiling water on trust
should be the first maxim of the careful
punch-maker.
Into your jug put five
lumps of sugar and the peel of a lemon
cut thin.
Add a little boiling water, and
cover your jug with a plate.
While the
stewing is going on strain the juice of a
lemon through a piece of muslin, and in
five minutes add to the original foundation.
Then add of wineglasses full of
gin or whisky as many as you think
discreet, and fill up with boiling water
on the same principle.
Take out the
lemon-peel.
Swaddle your jug up in a
piece of thick flannel, carefully covering
the top, and let it stand before the fire,
or better still, in an oven if possible, for
half an hour.
It is a pleasant nightcap.
Some people add liqueur even here, but
that is a mistake to be carefully avoided.
The best jug for this punch is one of the
old-fashioned brown Uncle Toby sort.
If the drink be wanted cold, add a lump
of ice after the stewing, and proceed
afterwards as before, but with iced water,
and omitting the baking.
This recipe is
occasionally used for mixed punch, but
for that there is a much better plan.
Take a common earthenware painter's
pipkin, glazed inside, of about one large
tumbler capacity.
Put in three lumps of
sugar, about a third of the peel of a
lemon, a glass of old rum, and a glass
of brandy.
Set fire to the mixture, and
let it burn well for about two minutes, carefully stirring the while.
Then add the
juice of half a lemon, strained through
muslin, blow out the fire, and fill up with
boiling water.
Pour into a tumbler and
drink as soon as you can.
You will find
it hot and eminently comforting.
Prevention is better than cure, and this is
said to be a first-rate companion for a
cautious man in an aguish country such
as is to be found among the marshes
about the Lower Hope.
The mixture
is also agreeable as a cold refresher, iced
water being poured on the burnt mixture,
and a lump of ice being put in the
tumbler before the punch is poured in.
It is, of course, impossible to give
anything like an exhaustive list of the
numberless recipes which exist for cup
and punch making.
Many books exist
which afford information of more or less
value on the subject, and to them the
curious must be referred.
But for ordinary
purposes the above hints may not be
without use.
As has already been said,
they have successfully passed the ordeal
of practical experience.
The Dace, although commonly associated with the roach, varies much in
its habits and choice of food.
It is seldom
found in still waters, and delights in
clear, sharp, lively streams and gravelly
shoals, in the runs between weeds, or on
the shallows which terminate the deep
pools of mill-tails, weirs, or sluice gates.
They swim in schools, spawn in February
and March, and are in season from July
to February.
They usually go up to the
spawning grounds above Teddington
Weir in what are called shifts, and begin
about the middle of February.
The balls
of the ground-bait maybe made of pollard,
only thrown in much smaller than for
roach.
A little greaves chopped very
fine will add to the attraction; but
beware of over ground-baiting, or you
may surfeit the fish to the loss of your
sport.
Your hook may be rather larger
than that for roach, and tied on drawn
gut.
The best bait is a small red-worm,
gentles, caddis, paste, &c.
Fly-fishing
for dace is excellent practice.
If the
angler can take two out of three rises he
must be an adept, as the fish come at
the fly in a very mincing and touch-and-go manner.
The natural house-fly is an
attractive bait, but it requires care in
throwing the line to prevent it being
whipped off the hook.
The small black
palmer, the soldier, the black gnat, and
indeed almost any fly of delicate make
will be taken by the dace in summer.
Datchet, Buckinghamshire, on the
left bank, from London 41¼ miles, from
Oxford 70¼ miles; a station on the
Windsor branch of the South Western
Railway, 24 miles from Waterloo; trains
take about an hour.
Population, 1,100.
Soil, chiefly gravel.
A pleasantly and
prettily situated village, with good houses,
and agreeable neighbourhood, though
sometimes uncomfortably liable to floods.
It is sometimes called Datchet St.Helen's,
from the fact of there having been here
at one time a branch establishment of
the nunnery of St.Helen's, Bishopsgate.
The buildings themselves have entirely
disappeared, but the garden walls are
still standing.
Datchet Mead is a well-known place
for anglers, and is known to all the
world in connexion with certain disagreeable experiences of the immortal
Sir John Falstaff.
the parish church is dedicated to St.Mary the Virgin.
It was originally-
built about 1350, but nothing of the old
structure remains except the east wall
window of the chancel.
The present fine
building consists of nave, aisles, transept,
chancel, and organ chamber, and was
erected in 1860.
Nearly all the windows
are filled with stained glass.
Among the
charities of the village is Barker's Bridge
House Trust, which, under a scheme
sanctioned by the Charity Commissioners,
provides for the lighting of the village,
the maintenance of the foot-paths, landing-places, and similar works.
Ditton
Park, the seat of the Duke of Buccleuch,
is about half a mile from the church.
This is perhaps as good a reach as
any on the river for roach-fishing.
Anglers
are not permitted on the tow-path of the
Home Park.
Off the "Bells of Ouseley"
is a fine shallow for the fly, and is upon
a warm day literally alive with handsome
chub and dace.
Trolling and spinning
may be practised with success for jack
and perch right away down to Bell Weir
Lock, in the weir of which very handsome
trout are taken every season.
Inns: "Manor House" and "Royal Stag".
Places of Worship: St.Mary the
Virgin, and Baptist Chapel.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, savings bank, and telegraph).
Mails from London, 7.20am, 12.15pm
Mails for London, 10am, 3.50 and 7.05pm Sunday, 10am
Nearest Bridges, up, Victoria ¼ mile;
down, Albert ½ mile.
Locks, up, Romney 1¼ mile;
down, Old Windsor 1¾ mile.
Fares to Waterloo, 1st, 3/9, 5/6; 2nd,
2/9, 4/-; 3rd, 1/11.
Deptford Reach, about a mile long,
from the end of Limehouse Reach to
Greenwich Ferry.
Bearings S.S.E. and E.N.E.
Destitute Sailors' Asylum, 10, Well-street, E., known to mercantile Jack
as "the Straw House", was originally
established in the year 1827, since which
period it has been the means of dispensing shelter, food, and partial clothing,
together with medical advice when necessary, as also spiritual counsel to destitute sailors of all creeds and tongues.
the public cannot do better than refer any destitute sailor who may apply to
them for relief- or any tramp or mendicant professing to be a destitute sailor
- to the Destitute Sailors' Asylum, where,
if he be really a sailor, and really destitute, he will be sure of receiving a fortnight's maintenance, with the gift of
certain articles of clothing; while every
exertion will be made to get him a ship.
the directors very justly point out that
by communicating this fact to seamen in
real want, a much greater boon will be
conferred upon them than by pecuniary
relief, while the great evil of money-giving to mere impostors will be avoided.
Doggett's Coat and Badge - this
wager for young watermen out of their
time was instituted by Thomas Doggett,
the well-known actor at Drury-lane
theatre, at the first anniversary of the
accession to the throne of George I., August 1, 1715.
Doggett's prize was an
orange-coloured coat and silver badge,
on which were emblazoned the horse of
Hanover, and at his death he bequeathed
a sum of money to be devoted to further
prizes.
At present the Fishmongers'
Company, who administer Doggett's
trust, give £6 6s to the winner in addition to the coat and badge, the prizes
for the fourth, fifth, and sixth men respectively, £2 2s, £1 11s 6d, and £1 6s.
the second man receives £5 5s, and the
third £3 3s, derived from various sources.
The original conditions of the wager
were that the six competitors to whom it
was limited should be chosen by lot from
the whole body of men who should put
down their names as desirous of rowing.
This arrangement was, although not
until the lapse of a very great number of
years, deemed to be unfair, and would-be
competitors now row three trial heats
from Putney to Hammersmith, the first
and second in each heat being entitled to
row in the final, which takes place on
August 1st when not on a Sunday.
The course is against tide, from the
"Swan" at London Bridge, to the
"Swan" at Chelsea, when the current is
strongest, according to the original conditions, and when the race is really rowed
under these circumstances it is a "stiffish pull".
The race in 1884 resulted as follows:
Final Heat, August 1.
1. Charles Phelps, Putney
2. Alfred Thos. Redknap, Richmond
3. Charles Bowie, Richmond
4. Charles Bradshaw, Deptford
5. James Crick, Horsleydown
6. George Daniel Evans, Deptford
The following is a list of winners since
the introduction of trial heats:
1870 R.Harding, Blackwall.
1871 T.J.Mackinney, Richmond.
1872 T.G.Green, Hammersmith.
1873 H.Messum, Richmond.
1874 R.W.Burwood, Wapping.
1875 W.Phelps, Putney.
1876 C.T.Bulman, Shadwell.
1877 J.Tarryer, Rotherhithe.
1878 T.E.Taylor, Hermitage Stairs.
1879 H.Cordery, Putney
1880 W.J.Cobb, Putney.
1881 G.Claridge, Richmond.
1882 H.A.Audsley, Waterloo.
1883 James Lloyd, Wandsworth.
1884 Charles Phelps, Putney.
Dorchester, Oxfordshire, on the Thame, about a mile from its junction with
the Thames, which some people delight
to call, up to this point, the Isis, fondly
imagining that the name Tamesis is a
compound of Thame and Isis.
The
quaint conceit of Warton that
Beauteous Isis and her husband Thame,
With mingled waves for ever flow the same,
is probably to some extent responsible for
this delusion, a hallucination further encouraged by Drayton, who expresses the
same idea in somewhat more high-flown
language.
The Thame is not a comfortable river for boats, and visitors to
Dorchester from the river would do well
to leave their boats in charge of the
keeper of Day's Lock and to take the
footpath across the fields, some twenty
minutes' walk.
The path passes by some
interesting Roman remains called the
Dyke Hills, evidently portions of an extensive fortified camp which rested upon
the Thame at one extremity and the
Thames at the other, and being protected
by the rivers, then probably running
through much marsh land, must have
been of great natural as well as artificial
strength.
Dorchester, an unimportant village on
the Oxford coach road, is distant from
Oxford about eight miles, from London
fifty.
Population, 1,050.
Soil, alluvial.
It is somewhat surprising to find in so
small a village so fine a church as that of
St.Peter and St.Paul, Dorchester, but
in truth the village has a very ancient
ecclesiastical history.
So far back as 630
it is recorded that Birinus here baptized
Cynegils, the king of Wessex, of which
Dorchester was once the capital, and the
authority of the venerable Bede is adduced
to prove that the city called Dorcinca was
the seat of many fine churches.
These
are also mentioned by William of Malmesbury, but it would seem that shortly after
his time the line of bishops of Dorchester
came to an end, and that its ecclesiastical
brilliance rapidly waned.
In 1554 the
abbey church was bought by Richard
Bewforest for £140, and by him bequeathed to the parish.
The present
church is the building in question, and
represents the work of many architects.
The north wall of the nave and two
arches in the interior are probably part
of the old Saxon cathedral.
The rest of
the fabric has been built at subsequent
periods, as may easily be seen from the
different styles of architecture peculiar
to the successive periods down to the late
Tudor porch.
It was last restored,
although not completed, by Sir Gilbert
Scott, and is a most remarkable building.
Restoration is still in progress.
A number
of carved fragments of stone have been
collected from a house under repair in the
village, and are now in the church awaiting
the time when they can be again incorporated in the fabric.
A fine window
in the west front, now bricked in, might
advantageously be opened, but the fact
of the nave being closed by the tower
will always necessarily give a somewhat
sombre, not to say grim, appearance to
this part of the church.
The church is
entered on the south side from the handsome churchyard by a fine stone porch
with timbered roof, outside which, on the
left, is a mutilated cross, the head of which
has been restored.
The curious in such
matters may compare this cross with that
standing by the great yew in the churchyard at Iffley.
At the south-west angle of
the church opposite the cross is a buttress
with two canopied niches for statues.
On
the right of the entrance from the porch
is the font, a Norman work of lead, exhibiting the figures of the Apostles minus
Judas, in excellent preservation.
On
the south side is a chapel, or ante-church,
in which some singular carvings round
one of the pillars should be noticed, and
which is now used for the Sunday morning celebration and occasionally for other
services.
From here a pointed arch leads
into the south aisle, which contains at
the east end a lady-chapel, the altar in
which is a memorial to the late Bishop of
Winchester.
Here is a remarkably fine
groined roof, lofty and of the most
graceful proportions.
The roof of the
nave, which is also of magnificent proportions, is supported by beautiful
clustered columns.
In the lady-chapel
will be found four recumbent life-size
monumental figures, one of which represents a most truculent Crusader, lying in
a singular attitude, with legs crossed and
apparently in the act of drawing his sword.
If this figure be a portrait it is certain
that the sculptor did not flatter his
model.
The other three monuments are
of great antiquity, and one, that of a
knight in armour, said to be of the
Segrave family, is especially worthy of
careful inspection.
A tablet on the
floor of the lady-chapel in memory of
Thomas Day, who died in 1693, has
this curious epitaph:
Sweet Death he Came in Hast
& said his glass is run,
thou art ye man I say
See what thy God has done.
To the amateur of brasses it must be a
source of lasting regret that so few
remain of what must at one time have been
among the most magnificent specimens
in the country.
The church may be said
to be carpeted with their remains.
In the
lady-chapel is a small brass in fair preservation of Richard Bewforest and his wife,
and in the chancel is one of a bishop in
cope and with crozier with the inscription:
Here lyeth Sir Richard Bewfforeste.
I pray thee give his sowl good rest.
On
the south side of the chancel is a stone
which bears witness to the existence at
one time of a very important brass of a
full-length figure under a canopy with
much elaborate ornamentation, which
must have been fine indeed.
One of the
curious devices in this is reproduced on
the end of a carved oak seat in front of
the organ, also commemorating Sir
Richard Bewforest.
The sedilia and piscina in the chancel are elaborate in
design, and opposite to them on the
north side is the renowned Jesse window,
which is surely unique of its kind.
It is
in the form of a genealogical tree springing from the body of Jesse himself, and
bearing stone effigies of the line of David;
the crowning figure of our Lord has unfortunately been destroyed.
The stained
glass of the window itself works with the
design.
The window dates from the 14th
century.
Leaving the church by the west
door the path to the village passes under
a lych-gate, overshadowed by a glorious
chestnut.
Dorchester Church lies a little
out of the way of any but enthusiastic
sightseers, but should certainly be visited
if for the Jesse window alone.
The old Grammar School, endowed by
the Fettiplace family, no longer exists as
such, but has been converted, with the
approval of the Education Commissioners,
into a National School for boys.
The
building is supposed to have been a part
of the old monastery (probably the refectory), established by Alexander, Bishop
of Lincoln, in 1140.
The massive wall
of the south side of the building, the rude
but substantial beams and quaint, closed-up fire-places, bespeak its antiquity.
There is a Cottagers' Horticultural Society
in Dorchester, instituted in 1869, which
offers many prizes for competition at its
annual shows.
Day's Lock and Weir, as well as right
away down past the entrance to the
Thames, has in recent years risen in
estimation for the yield of fish.
Barbel,
jack, and perch are plentiful.
It is one
of the few places on the Thames in which
the angler is almost certain to get from
one to half-a-dozen fine tench in a day's
general fishing: this applies almost as
low as Shillingford.
Fair: Easter Tuesday.
Inns: "Fleur de Lis", opposite the church,
and "White Hart", up the village.
Places of Worship: St.Peter and St.Paul (Abbey Church),
and Roman Catholic Church.
Post Office Arrangements:
Post Office (money order, savings bank, and
telegraph), near the church.
Mails from London, 7.30am, 2.45pm (to callers);
Sundays, 7.30 am.
Mails to London, 10.45am, 6.35pm; Sunday, 11.35am
Nearest Bridges: up, Clifton Hampden 2½ miles; down, Shillingford 2¾ miles.
Locks: Day's; up, Clifton 2¾ miles; down,
Bensington 4 miles.
Ferries: Shillingford and Day's Lock.
Railway Station, Cullham (which see for fares).
Methods of treatment
recommended by the Royal Humane
Society.
Directions for restoring the
apparently dead.
I. If from Drowning or other
Suffocation or Narcotic Poisoning.
Send immediately for medical assistance, blankets, and dry clothing, but
proceed to treat the patient instantly,
securing as much fresh air as possible.
The points to be aimed at are:
first, and immediately, the restoration of breathing;
and secondly, after breathing is restored,
the promotion of warmth and circulation.
The efforts to restore life must be persevered in until the arrival of medical
assistance, or until the pulse and breathing have ceased for at least an hour.
Treatment to Restore Natural Breathing.
Rule 1.
To maintain a Free Entrance of Air into the Windpipe.
Cleanse the mouth and nostrils; open the mouth;
draw forward the patient's tongue, and
keep it forward; an elastic band over
the tongue and under the chin will
answer this purpose.
Remove all tight
clothing from about the neck and chest.
Rule 2.
To adjust the Patient's Position.
Place the patient on his back on a flat
surface, inclined a little from the feet
upwards; raise and support the head
and shoulders on a small firm cushion
or folded article of dress placed under
the shoulder-blades.
Rule 3.
To imitate the Movements of Breathing.
Grasp the patient's arms just above the elbows, and draw the
arms gently and steadily upwards, until
they meet above the head (this is for
the purpose of drawing air into the
lungs), and keep the arms in that
position for two seconds.
Then turn
down the patient's arms, and press
them gently and firmly for two seconds
against the sides of the chest (this is
with the object of pressing air out of
the lungs.
Pressure on the breast-
bone will aid this).
Repeat these
measures alternately, deliberately, perseveringly, fifteen times in a minute,
until a spontaneous effort to respire is
perceived, immediately upon which
cease to imitate the movements of
breathing, and proceed to induce circulation and warmth (as below).
Should
a warm bath be procurable, the body
may be placed in it up to the neck,
continuing to imitate the movements of
breathing.
Raise the body in twenty
seconds in a sitting position, and dash
cold water against the chest and face,
and pass ammonia under the nose.
The patient should not be kept in the
warm bath longer than five or six
minutes.
But it is preferable that artificial respiration and friction of the
limbs and body with dry flannel or
cloths should be first had recourse to,
and that the warm bath should not be
employed till there is proof of respiration having been restored.
Rule 4.
To excite Inspiration.
During
the employment of the above method
excite the nostrils with smelling-salts,
or tickle the throat with a feather.
Rub
the chest and face briskly, and dash
cold and hot water alternately on
them.
Treatment after Natural Breathing has
been restored.
Rule 5.
To induce Circulation and
Warmth.
Wrap the patient in dry
blankets and commence rubbing the
limbs upwards, firmly and energetically.
The friction must be continued
under the blankets or over the dry
clothing.
Promote the warmth of the
body by the application of hot flannels,
bottles or bladders of hot water, heated
bricks, &c, to the pit of the stomach,
the armpits, between the thighs, and to
the soles of the feet.
On the restoration of life, when the power of swallowing has returned, a teaspoonful of
warm water, small quantities of wine,
warm brandy and water, or coffee,
should be given.
The patient should
be kept in bed, and a disposition to
sleep encouraged.
During reaction
large mustard plasters to the chest
and below the shoulders will greatly
relieve the distressed breathing.
II.
If from Intense Cold.
Rub the body with snow, ice, or cold water.
Restore warmth by slow degrees.
In
these accidents it is highly dangerous to
apply heat too early.
III.
If from Intoxication.
Lay
the individual on his side on a bed with
his head raised.
The patient should be
induced to vomit.
Stimulants should be
avoided.
IV.
If from Apoplexy or from Sunstroke.
Cold should be applied to
the head, which should be kept well
raised.
Tight clothing should be removed
from the neck and chest.
Stimulants should be avoided.
Appearances which generally indicate
Death.
There is no breathing or heart's
action; the eyelids are generally half-
closed; the pupils dilated; the jaws
clenched; the fingers semi-contracted;
the tongue appearing between the teeth,
and the mouth and nostrils are covered
with a frothy mucus.
Colour and pallor
of surface increases.
General Observations.
- On the restoration of life, a teaspoonful of warm water
should be given; and then, if the power
of swallowing be returned, small quantities of warm wine or weak brandy and
water, warm; the patient should be kept
in bed, and a disposition to sleep encouraged, except in cases of apoplexy,
intoxication, and coup-de-soleil.
Great
care is requisite to maintain the restored
vital actions, and at the same time to
prevent undue excitement.
The treatment recommended by the society is to
be persevered in for three or four hours.
It is an erroneous opinion that persons
are irrecoverable because life does not
soon make its appearance, as cases have
come under the notice of the society of a
successful result even after five hours'
perseverance; and it is absurd to suppose
that a body must not be meddled with
or removed without permission of a
coroner.
[The 1883 version is extensive]
East and West India Docks are
situated at Blackwall between the West
India Dock and Blackwall stations of the
London and Blackwall Railway.
The
former of these stations is the best for
persons having business at the general,
police, customs, wharfingers, or other
offices, or on board of vessels lying in the
greater part of the West India Import
Dock, the West India Export Dock, or
the South-West India Dock.
For those
at the eastern extremity of these docks,
the Millwall Junction station will be
found nearer, as also for the North London Railway Companies' Docks, the
Blackwall Basin, and the new dock in
course of formation by the Midland Railway Company, but not forming part of
the East and West India Dock Company's
system, and the extreme western extremity of the East India Import Dock.
For the South-West India Docks and
Basin, passengers should change at Millwall Junction; and, proceeding by tramcar, alight at South Dock station.
For
the East India Export Dock, the greater
part of the East India Import Dock, and
the East India Dock Basin, the best station
is that of Blackwall.
East Blyth Buoy - A 16 foot conical
buoy, made of iron, and painted with
black and white stripes.
It is situated in
Sea Reach, nearly opposite the Chapman
Light, on the edge of the Blyth Sand,
and marks a depth of water, at low water
spring tide, of 21 feet.
It is moored
with 18 fathoms of chain.
East Molesey, in Surrey, on the right
bank opposite Hampton Court, the Hampton Court railway-station being in the
parish.
The distance from London is
23¼ miles, from Oxford 88¼ miles.
Population, 2,500.
Soil, light and gravelly.
The village of Molesey is practically part
of Hampton Court, with which it is connected by an iron bridge, and is chiefly
interesting to excursionists from the point
of view of refreshments.
Here the Mole
empties itself into the Thames, and hard
by to the north-west is Molesey Hurst,
where Hampton Races take place.
The
old church of St.Mary, which was a
curious specimen of an old riverside
church, was partly destroyed by fire in
1863; the present church, consisting of
chancel, nave, and north aisle, was built
in 1865.
A good brass in memory of
Anthonie Standen, cupbearer to Lord
Darnley, father of James I., has been
preserved.
Near the church is an old
inn, "the Bell", which is said to have
been in the "good old times" much
patronised by highwaymen.
Hotels: "Castle" and "Prince of
Wales".
Places of Worship: St.Mary's, and
Wesleyan Chapel.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, savings bank, and telegraph).
Mails from London, 6.45 and 9.50am, 2.30 and 8pm; Sunday, 6.45am
Mails for London, 8.40 and 11.50am, 3.25 and 8pm; Sunday, 10am:
Nearest [Post office]: (See Hampton Court).
Fares: (See Hampton Court).
Eel-Pie Island - An Island of seven
acres off Twickenham, once in high repute
with picnic parties, but now rather out of
vogue.
The island is close to the Orleans
Club, and a fine view of Richmond Hill
is to be obtained from it.
Opposite,
almost entirely concealed by trees, is
Ham House, the seat of the Earls of
Dysart.
The river about here is inconveniently shallow at low tide, notwithstanding the persistent efforts of the
Conservators to maintain a channel by
dredging.
Nearest Post and Telegraph
Offices and Railway Station, Twickenham
(which see).
Eels have greatly fallen off in individual
size and collective numbers of late years
in the Thames, which is attributed to
the obstacles opposed to their carrying
out their natural habit of making for
the estuary to spawn, to gain which
they have to encounter the metropolitan sewage, concentrated by the
junction of the Crossness and Barking outfalls.
There is little doubt but
that here they are poisoned in the bad
water, in company with other migratory
fish that seek the ocean, and add to the
polluted character of the stream.
Formerly, when no such impediment retarded their course, they performed their
functions, and their young made their
way up the river in myriads, to populate
every ditch and tributary of the river
proper, and were seen in a black line on
either side of the river, the procession
reaching for miles.
Their appearance
was termed "eel-fair", and the inhabitants on the banks used to resort with
sieves and pails to bail them out without
interruption, and make a species of cake
of them by compression.
It is a moot
question whether the parent eels ever
returned to their old quarters.
Naturalists
aver that at the season of migration they
are endowed with a thicker skin than
common, probably to fit them for the
dangers they may have to encounter.
Dr.Gunther and other celebrated ichthyologists have long since determined the
eel to be oviparous- the apparent young
found occasionally in them having proved
to be parasitical worms.
Thus the eel
fishery of the Thames has greatly fallen
off, and those that are now caught in
small quantities by "weels",and wicker
baskets termed "pots", are either much
smaller in size or the grig species - a
much less worthy description of the
genus.
Lampreys and lamperns from
the same cause have almost entirely disappeared, and the same observation
applies to the smelt, which formerly came
up in vast shoals to spawn off Chiswick
and Strand-on-the-Green, driving, by their
ravenous nature and their mouths full of
formidable teeth, all other fish off the
grounds selected by them.
Special leave
to net smelts was formerly granted by the
Conservancy, as it required nets of a
smaller mesh, but this concession is rarely
sought for now by the fishermen, on
account of the almost entire absence of
these fish.
The supply of eels to the
metropolis and the hotels along the
Thames is mostly from Holland.
The
Dutch "busses" - very picturesque vessels
from Holland - may be seen any day off
Billingsgate at anchor, waiting with their
wells of eels upon the requirements of
the market.
The vitality of the eel is
proverbial, and the difficulty of depriving
it of life great; but if the eel be struck
upon the tail, in which is concealed a
lymphatic gland or "second heart", he
dies immediately.
Egham, Surrey - though not actually
on the bank, the parish of Egham impinges on the Thames, and is connected
with Middlesex by Staines Bridge; but
from the river the nearest approach is
from Bell Weir Lock, which is distant
from the post-office and church about
10 minutes' walk across the fields, the
pathway leaving the towing-path a few
yards below the "Anglers' Rest Hotel".
From the post-office to the railway-station
is about seven minutes' walk.
Flys meet
the trains.
It is a station on the South
Western Railway, 21 miles from Waterloo.
the average time of the railway journey
is about an hour.
Egham is a small
town in a pretty country, with many
large houses and parks surrounding it,
but offers in itself little special attraction.
It consists of a long street containing a
few decent shops.
North of the town is
Runnymede, and a race-meeting is held
on it annually; the course being an oval
flat, not quite two miles, with a straight
mile.
Egham Races have considerably
declined in interest and popularity of
late years.
At the back of the town is Cooper's
Hill, so well known in connection with Sir
John Denham's poem, which has been,
perhaps, as frequently quoted as any
copy of verses in the language, and has
obtained a certain popularity far beyond
its deserts.
It would seem that Somerville was poking his fun when he described
Denham as "a tuneful bard", and his
song as being "sublimely sweet".
Pope goes even farther, and speaking of
Cooper's Hill, which, by-the-bye with
rather a stretch of poetic license, he calls
a mountain, says:
Here his first lays majestic Denham sung.
Whatever the merits of Sir John Denham's
poem may be, however, there can be no
doubt of the beauty of the view from
Cooper's Hill, and the ascent of Pope's
"mountain" may be recommended to
all visitors to Egham.
At the present
time Cooper's Hill has become known as
the seat of the Royal Indian Engineering
College (see Cooper's Hill).
Among
the numerous pleasant excursions in the
neighbourhood is that to Virginia Water,
which is in this parish.
The church is a very plain brick building, with a rather mean little belfry, and
within is also very plain, with a small
chancel, nave, with pews and galleries.
Over the altar is a painting respecting
Elijah raising the widow's son, a good
work of R.Westall, R.A.
On the right
of the altar is a marble mural monument
in memory of G.Gostling, who died
1820, by Flaxman, R.A.
In this a classically draped mourning female figure leans
against the pedestal, surmounted by an
urn, and bearing a medallion bust of the
deceased.
On the other side of the
chancel this is balanced by a corresponding monument to Lydia Gostling,
with the difference that the female figure
is represented with an anchor presumably
intended for that of Hope.
Above the
monument to G.Gostling is a tablet,
with three figures in alto relievo, to other
members of the Gostling family, from
the chisel of E.H.Baily, R.A.
High on
the east wall, under the south gallery, is
a brass with four kneeling figures, and
the inscription:
"Anthonye Bond, gent. once cittezen and writer of the Court
Letter of London, 1576:
Christ is to me as lyef on earthe and death to me is gayne
Because I wish through him alone salvacione to obtayne
So bryttle is the state of man so soone it dothe decaye
So all the glory of this world must pas and fade away.
Close by is a tablet to the memory of
the Rev.T.Beighton, 45 years vicar of
Egham, who died 1771, with an epitaph
signed D.Garrick:
Near half an age, with every good man's praise,
Among his flock the shepherd pass'd his days;
the friend, the comfort, of the sick and poor,
Want never knock'd unheeded at his door.
Oft when his duty call'd, disease and pain
Strove to confine him, but they strove in vain:
All mourn his death, his virtues long they try'd,
they knew not how they lov'd him till he dy'd;
Peculiar blessings did his life attend,
He had no foe, and Camden was his friend.
The great little David's "Camden was his friend" has a considerable family
resemblance to the oft-quoted epitaph
which records how the deceased "was first cousin to Lady O'Looney and of
such is the kingdom of Heaven".
Dr.Johnson pronounced this to be the best
epitaph in the English language, but
then even Dr.Johnson was not always
right.
On the east wall, under the north
gallery, is a curious painted marble bust
of Thomas Foster, a justice of the Common Bench in the times of James I. and
Charles I. and II., afterwards of the
Queen's Bench.
The learned judge wears
a red tippet and a chain, and on his
flowing locks is a flat cap, presumably
the black cap.
He died in 1663, aged 74.
Hard by is a tablet to Richard Kellefet,
1595 "a most faithfull servant to hir
majestie, chief groome in hir removing
Garderobe of beddes and yeoman also of
her standing Garderobe of Richmount".
On the wall of the stairs to the north
gallery is a very good and interesting
monument to the two wives of Sir John
Denham, father of the poet: Cicile (for-
merly wife of Richard Kellefet), and
Ellenor, who died in childbed of a
daughter who was buried with her.
The
monument is of stone and marble, with
two three-quarter length female figures
in the centre.
One of these, Cicile, no
doubt, still wears widow's mourning;
while Lady Ellenor, who was married to
Sir John Denham when he was Chief
Justice in Ireland, is represented with a
child in her arms.
Below is an odd little
painted figure of a boy, possibly intended
for the poet himself.
In the churchyard
is an elevated granite grave, where a
Mrs.Pocock lies above ground, it is
said to ensure to her survivors some
property which was to be held by them
"so long as she should be above ground".
On the left of the road to Stroude is a
stone marking the old Roman road.
Strode's Charity, Egham, is an institution consisting of almshouses and school,
founded by Henry Strode, Esq., in the
year 1747, and liberally endowed by him
with landed property, of which he made
the Coopers' Company of London trustees.
The institution includes almshouses,
school, chapel, master's house, with
spacious lawn and gardens, and, opening
to the High-street, is one of the principal
ornaments of the thriving town of Egham.
The benefits of Strode's Charity are con-
fined to the parish.
Bank: Ashby & Co.
Dispensary: High-street.
Fair: May 29.
Hospital: Cottage Hospital, Egham-hill (eight beds).
Inns: "Angler's Rest", Bell Weir Lock;
"Catherine Wheel", High-street.
Places of Worship: St.John the
Baptist and St.Jude's Chapel of Ease;
and Congregational & Wesleyan Chapels.
Police: Station, Egham-hill.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, savings bank, telegraph,
and insurance), High-street, opposite
church.
Mails from London, 7 and 10.05am and 4.55pm; Sunday, 7am
Mails for London, 8.40 and 11am, 3.10 and 7.15pm; Sunday, 7.15pm
Nearest Bridges (from Bell Weir Lock), up, Albert 3½ miles; down, Staines
about 1 mile.
Locks: up, Old Windsor 3 miles: down, Penton Hook 2¾ miles.
Railway Station, Egham.
Fares to Waterloo: 1st, 3/8, 5\6; 2nd, 2/6, 4/-; 3rd, 1/9, 3/3.
Erith, Kent, on the right bank.
From
London 16½ miles.
A station on the
North Kent line 15½ miles from Charing
Cross; trains take about an hour.
The
straight road from the station to the river
is about 300 yards, and the pier is distant
ten minutes' walk.
A fly meets the trains.
Population, 8,289.
The soil is principally
gravel and chalk.
Erith is not a particularly interesting village, lying in the
bight between Erith Reach and Erith
Rands.
It faces the flat marshes of
Essex, but the country behind it is pretty
and well wooded, affording many pretty
walks in a pleasant part of Kent.
There
are few good houses in the old part of
the village, but a good deal of building,
principally of villas, has of late years been
going on above the station, and this is
the most desirable part of Erith for
residential purposes.
There is a small
pier which is occasionally used by the
steamboats, and an attempt at an esplanade and garden was at one time made,
by private enterprise, along the river bank
to the eastward, but it cannot be said
that the effort was crowned with success.
The principal importance of Erith, from
the river point of view, is that it is a
popular Thames yachting station, the
headquarters of the Erith and Corinthian
Yacht Clubs, and a favourite point for
starting sailing matches.
There is a public hall in Pier-road,
capable of seating over 600 persons, which
can be hired for balls, concerts, dramatic
and other entertainments, public meetings, &c.; terms for hire may be obtained
of the secretary.
The Avenue Hall is
in connection with the Congregational
Church, and is used for classes, lectures,
&c, having sitting room for about 200
persons.
There is also a Masonic Hall
(in the Pier-road), seating 250, which is
fully licensed for music, dancing, &c.;
the "Cornwallis " Lodge of Masons meets
here.
The parish church (St.John the Baptist) is noteworthy for its ancient tower,
now elaborately shored up, and for some
interesting monuments and brasses.
The
most important of the former is the monument of Chantrey to Lord Eardley and
the altar-tomb of the Countess of Shrewsbury (1568).
The brasses of John Aylmer
and his wife (1435), of John Mylner and
"Margaret and Benet his wyves" (1511),
and, earliest of all, that to the memory
of Roger Sender (1425), will interest the
antiquary.
The old steps to the rood-screen are curious.
In the Norman
chancel of this church took place the
meeting between the Barons and the
Commissioners of King John after the
grant of Magna Charta.
Bank: London and County.
Fire: the engine-house is in the
Avenue-road, not far from the pier.
Hospital: Cottage Hospital, Crayford-road. 8 beds.
With this is connected the Provident Dispensary, with
1,500 members.
Hotel: "Prince of Wales", Avenue-road.
Places of Worship: St.John the
Baptist, and Christ Church; the Roman
Catholic Church of St.Fidelis, and
Congregational, Baptist, Primitive Methodist, and Wesleyan Chapels.
Police-station: Bexley-road, near railway-station.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, savings bank, telegraph,
insurance), High-street.
Mails from London at 8 and 11.30am, 3.30 and 7pm,
and (Saturdays) 9.30pm. None on Sunday.
Mails for London at 8.40 and 11.20am, 4.55, 8.55, and 10.50pm; Sunday, 10.20pm
Fares to London (Charing-cross): 1st,
2/6, 3/9; 2nd, 1/10, 2/9; 3rd, 1/3, 2/3.
Erith Rands, a mile and a half in
length from Erith to Crayfordness at the
top of Long Reach.
There is a ferry from
Erith to Cold Harbour Point opposite.
The Rand Hill Shoal is in the middle of
the reach.
Bearings, E.S.E. and W.N.W.
Erith Reach runs for a mile and a
half from Halfway Reach to Erith.
Bearings, N.N.E. and S.S.W.
Erith Yacht Club, Headquarters,
Club House, Yacht Gypsy, Erith.
The
object of this club is the encouragement
of amateur yacht sailing.
It is managed
by commodore, vice-commodore, rear-commodore, treasurer, secretary, and a
committee of thirteen, all of whom are
elected in February.
Election is invested
in the committee.
Annual subscription,
£1 15s.
; entrance, £1 1s.
Yachts of 10
tons entered for club races must have the
Yacht Racing Association certificate of
measurement.
Yachts under 10 tons are
measured according to the R.T.Y.C. rule.
Burgee red, with red Maltese cross
on white shield.
Eton, Bucks, on the left bank, from
Oxford 68½ miles, from London 43 miles.
Population, 3,500.
But for its connection
with the greatest public school in England,
Eton is a place of but little importance.
In 1800, Mark Antony Porney bequeathed
funds for the education of 45 boys and 45
girls.
Porney's Institution is now combined with the National School for the
children of the parish of Eton and Eton
Wick.
There is also a charity called the
Eton Poor Estate, for apprenticing seven
or eight boys from the Free School in
each year.
Eton College should by all
means be seen.
The oldest portion of
the buildings dates from 1523, and com-
prises two quadrangles and the cloisters.
What is known as Upper School is on
the west, on an arcade by Sir Christopher
Wren; on the south is the chapel, a
beautiful building in the perpendicular
style, greatly resembling that at King's
College, Cambridge, to which Eton
College was affiliated by its founder,
King Henry VI.
The chapel and ante-chapel contain the tombs of many celebrated personages; a marble statue of
the founder, by Bacon; and monuments
to Provosts Goodall and Sir Thomas
Murray.
The glass in the east window
is by Willement.
There are two memorial windows to Etonians who perished
in the Crimea.
There are also a few
brasses dating from 1489.
The College
Library contains over 20,000 volumes,
and is strong in ancient MSS.
North of
the college are the extensive playing-
fields divided by Poet's Walk, and bordered by the Thames.
To describe the
manners and customs of Eton boys pro-
perly would occupy much more space
than could here be afforded.
Any one
desirous of knowing all about Eton
College should turn to the pages of Mr.Maxwell Lyte's admirable history published by Messrs.Macmillan.
A bright little book, called "A Day of My Life at
Eton", will also be found amusing and
instructive.
The following statement of fees, &c,
is given on the authority of "Cassell's
Educational Year Book", but with reference to collegers, it may be observed that,
in answer to a question, one of the officials
of the college writes: "The cost to the
parent of a colleger would be for school
expenses under £30.
The other expenses
are optional, and consist of tradesmen's
accounts for clothing, washing, &c.
At
an average, these expenses amount to
about £30, making about £60 in all."
As modified by recent statutes, the College Foundation will consist of provost,
head master, lower master, not under
seventy scholars and two chaplains.
The
endowment is said to be over £20,000
a year.
Foundationers or "Collegers":
about twelve vacancies a year.
Election
on last Monday in July.
Candidates
must be between twelve and fifteen.
For
permission to compete apply to the clerk
to the Governing Body.
Competitive
examination of candidates.
A Foundation
Scholarship is tenable till election next
following scholar's nineteenth birthday.
Foundation scholars are educated and
lodged in college during term at the
expense of the college; other expenses are
purely personal.
Oppidans ("Town
Boys"): admission, ten to fourteen.
Entrance examination determining boys'
places in school.
By fifteen, an Oppidan
must have reached the fourth form, and
by sixteen and a half the fifth form, except for reasons satisfactory to the head
master, and an Oppidan may remain in
school after nineteen, except for similar
special reasons.
Board and Fees: Oppidans may live with parents or guardians;
or they may, with special permission of
the Governing Body, obtained on written
application to the head master, lodge with
other persons.
Otherwise, they are lodged
and boarded in masters' houses, where
each boy is provided with a separate
room; two brothers may, on request of
parents or guardians, share the same
room.
Entrance fee (on admission to
the school) £10 10s.
Annual payment
to the School Fund, £24.
Board and
lodging in most houses, 100 guineas; in
a few £90 or 90 guineas.
Use of furniture, £2, a term.
Private classical tuition,
20 guineas a year.
These charges include
books, stationery, and the usual subscriptions.
Boys learning German or
Italian before reaching mid-division of
the fifth form pay £3 10s a term extra.
Other expenses are purely personal.
Scholarships and Exhibition:
I. Tenable at School.
As soon as funds permit, exhibitions worth £50 a year will be offered
to the competition of boys between fourteen and sixteen.
Tenable till election to foundation or till nineteen.
II. Tenable after leaving: "Newcastle" Scholarship,
£50 for three years, tenable at either University.
Two "Chamberlayne" Exhibitions, £50 for four years.
"Reynolds" Exhibitions, £48 for four years at Exeter College, Oxford.
"Berriman" Exhibition, and several others, with two postmasterships at Merton College, Oxford,
tenable for four years.
Vacant scholarships and exhibitions are decided annually
in July, by an examination of the hundred
highest boys in the school.
Three or
four scholarships at King's College, Cambridge, are open yearly to competition of
Foundationers and Oppidans alike.
Hotels: "Bridge House", "Christopher", and "Crown and Cushion".
Place of Worship: St.John the Evangelist.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, savings bank, telegraph).
Week-day mails from London, 7 and 10.30am, 2.30 and 6pm
Mails for London, 8.35 and 10.50am, 1.35, 3.50, 9.25pm; Sunday, 9.30pm
Nearest [Station]: (See Windsor).
Fares: (See Windsor).
Eton College Boat Club consists of
92 members.
The Monarch, ten oar,
Victory, and Prince of Wales, compose
the Upper boats; Britannia, Dreadnought, Thetis, Hibernia, St.George,
Alexandra, and Defiance the Lower
boats.
The Eton eight is chosen from
the best oars amongst these boats, and
enters at Henley for the Ladies' Plate,
and sometimes for the Grand Challenge
Cup.
Eton has won the Ladies' Plate
eight times.
The boating season commences with the 1st of March, and ends
with the end of the summer half.
Mr.C.Barclay is Captain of the Eton
College Boat Club for 1885.
Boat-houses
just above Windsor Bridge.
Colours of
the eight, light blue, white cap.
Eton Excelsior Boat Club.
Election is in general meeting; three black
balls in five exclude.
Entrance fee, 5s;
subscription, £1 10s, in three monthly
instalments; hon. members, 10s 6d.
Boat-house: Goodman's.
Colours, dark blue and amber.
Ewelme, a village in Oxfordshire
(excursion from Bensington 2 miles, or
from Wallingford 4 miles).
Population,
about 750.
The road to Ewelme from
Wallingford passes through Crowmarsh
and Bensington, and affords a pleasant
drive or walk along leafy roads, and
past many good houses.
Ewelme itself
is a very pretty little village in a hollow,
and gives its name to the hundred in
which it is situated, and is formed by the
combination of two words, one Norman
and the other Saxon, "Eau" and
"whelm", meaning "the outgush of
water", a beautifully clear stream of
water taking its rise near the church.
Chaucer, whose son owned the manor
by his marriage with Maud née Burghersh,
must frequently have been at Ewelme,
and he seems to have had this stream of
water in his mind, as also the name of
the place when he thus describes a brook;
In world is none more clear of hewe,
Its waters ever fresh and newe,
That whelmeth up in waves bright,
Its mountenance three fingers height.
The church stands on a hill, and is
approached from the road through an
old brick gateway, and through the
cloisters of the almshouses, picturesque
with their timbered brick walls, high red
roofs, and elaborate wood carvings.
A
flight of steep steps leads thence to the
west door of the church.
The church is of the perpendicular
period, and contains many monuments
of great beauty and interest.
Among these is the alabaster tomb of Alice,
Duchess of Suffolk, widow of the unfortunate Duke who was beheaded by a
skipper with a rusty sword on Dover
beach in Henry VI.'s reign.
This is
placed between the chancel and side
chapel of St.John, and is surrounded by
small full-length angels bearing heraldic
shields.
The effigy of the duchess reclines under a canopy, and below, in a
sort of crypt, is an ogglesome representation of a mouldering human body.
The
curious stone carvings above the tomb
are surmounted by pinnacles with angels
- four on each side.
The tomb of her
father, Thomas Chaucer, and his wife
Maud (whose sister Margaret was third
wife of John of Gaunt, and therefore
aunt by marriage of King Richard II.,
and by virtue of which alliance the royal
arms are displayed in many of the quarterings emblazoned upon the tomb) is on
the north side.
The two figures are on
an inlaid brass in fine preservation, he in
complete armour standing on a unicorn,
she on a lion rampant à queue fourchée,
the Burghersh device.
The church is
dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and the
side chapel, with its beautiful carved
walnut (or chestnut) roof, to St.John
the Baptist.
This south chapel and the
south aisle belong to the thirteen alms-men who inhabit the hospital, and receive
10s weekly with apartments.
The hospital is a venerable cloistered building,
adjoining the church, founded by the
Duke and Duchess of Suffolk, and endowed with valuable estates in Wilts,
Hants, and Bucks.
It is intended that
these shall form the basis of a grammar
school, when the property shall have
recovered from the improvident management of four centuries.
The Regius
Professor of Physic, Oxford, is, ex officio,
master of the hospital, with a council of
twelve other trustees, according to the
provisions of a scheme framed by the
Court of Chancery in i860.
The manor
house, when the Suffolk property was
escheated to the Crown, became a royal
residence in the reigns of Henry VIII.
and of Elizabeth.
A road overhanging
the common is still known as Queen
Elizabeth's Walk.
On the attainder ot
Edmund, Earl of Suffolk, in the reign of
Henry VIII., the advowson with the
manor passed into the possession of the
Crown.
James I., famed for inexpensive
acts of generosity, endowed the Regius
Professorship of Divinity in the University
of Oxford with the Rectory of Ewelme,
and entailed upon the parishioners for
two centuries and a half a series of dignified but non-resident rectors.
In 1871 a
short Act was passed in the House of
Commons, whereby the Rectory was
severed once more from the Professorship,
and opened out for the acceptance of any
Clergyman of the Church of England.
But the House of Lords took a more
restrictive view and made it tenable only
by members of the Oxford Convocation.
The church contains many brasses.
Among these may be mentioned that in
the St.John's Chapel, in front of the
altar, to Anne, wife of John ffroste, 1585;
that to Catherine Palmer, 1599, in the
north of the chancel; and that dedicated
to "Rodolpho Speiro, qui obiit, 1580",
which bears a coat of arms and Latin
epitaph, and will be found just within
the painted iron rood screen.
Of older
date still is one representing the figures
of a knight (once pursuivant at-arms to
King Henry Vlll.) and lady, dated 1518.
Fifteenth-century brasses are represented
by that of William Branwhait, a half-length in cope, &c., dated 1498; and one
in the extreme west of the south aisle,
dated 1454.
In the middle of the nave
is a brass of Samuel Brayle with inscription only, dated 1469; and in the north
aisle is another, with inscription to
Thomas Vernon, 1471.
Place of Worship: Church of the
Blessed Virgin.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order and savings bank) in the
village.
Mails, through Wallingford, arrive at 7.30am, and 2.30pm; dispatched at 6.30pm
Nearest Bridge, Lock, and Railway Station: Wallingford, 4 miles (which see).
Exmouth Training Ship, Grays Thurrock.
Commander, Captain Bourchier, R.N., formerly Captain-Superintendent of the Goliath.
(Office, 37, Norfolk Street, W.C.).
On the destruction by fire, in December, 1875, of the Goliath
training ship, which had been founded
and carried on by three out of the thirty
London Unions for about six years, the
managers of the Metropolitan Asylum
Board, at the request of the Local Government Board, undertook to provide and
manage a training ship, in the advantages
of which the whole of the metropolitan
unions and parishes were to be entitled
to participate, and towards the expenses
of which all now contribute.
The object
of the ship, which provides accommodation for 600 lads, is to take healthy and
otherwise suitable boys, from the ages of
12 to 15, from the Metropolitan Poor
Law schools, educate them, and train
them for service in either the Royal Navy,
Army, or mercantile marine.
Eynsham, Oxfordshire, on the left
bank, distant from Oxford about 7 miles,
a station on the Great Western Railway,
70 miles from Paddington, the time
occupied by the fast trains being about
2¼ hours.
Eynsham is a sufficiently uninteresting little town; situated on a hill,
about three-quarters of a mile from the
river, which is here spanned by a handsome bridge; and, except as a centre for
excursions, headquarters for anglers, or
a resting-place for oarsmen travelling
between Cricklade and Oxford, offers no
attraction to the visitor.
The church of
St.Leonard is an old stone building of
considerable size, with a square embattled
tower, and presents many varieties of
architecture to the examination of the
student.
The interior, which contains
several mural monuments and a brass of
1632, is chiefly remarkable for the arches
which divide the nave from the aisles.
there are also Baptist and Methodist
places of worship in the town.
The soil
is various, and the population about
2,200.
Fire: Engine opposite the church.
Hotels: "the Swan" and "Red Lion".
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, savings bank, and telegraph), opposite the church.
Mails from
London (via Oxford) 6.48am, 12.30pm
Mails for London, 10.40am, 9pm
Nearest Bridges, up, Langley's (or Ridge's Weir) foot, about 7 miles, and New
Bridge, a mile farther;
down, Godstow, 2½ miles.
Locks, up, Pinkhill, rather more
than a mile; down, Godstow, near the
bridge.
Ferry, Bablock Hithe, 3½ miles.
Fares: From Eynsham to Paddington, 1st, 12/8, 21/3; 2nd, 9/6, 16/-; 3rd, 5/10.
Falcon Rowing Club, Oxford:
Number of members not limited.
Election by ballot of general meeting, one
black ball in three excludes.
Members
proposed and seconded at one meeting
and balloted for at the next, except in
the boating season, when names of candidates are posted in the Barge for six clear
days before the meeting for election.
Headquarters, King's Arms Hotel.
Entrance fee, 2s 6d.; subscription, £1;
honorary members, 5s.
Colours, black,
blue, and yellow.
Fish Dinners: the typical fish
dinner of London is the extraordinary
entertainment offered at Greenwich -
perhaps the most curious repast ever
invented by the ingenuity of the most
imaginative hotel-keeper.
Many courses
of fish prepared in every conceivable way,
followed by ducks and peas, beans and
bacon, cutlets, and other viands, so
arranged as to stimulate a pleasing, if
somewhat expensive thirst, are washed
down at these Gargantuan feeds by the
choicest brands at the highest prices
known to civilisation.
The effect at the
moment is eminently delightful.
The
sensation experienced when the bill is
produced is not so pleasurable, and it
has been said that there is no "next
morning headache" like that which
follows a Greenwich dinner.
But there
is no doubt that a Greenwich dinner is a
very excellent thing in its way - especially
if you happen to be invited to dine by a
liberal friend, who knows how to order
it, and pay for it.
Only two houses can
be recommended for this kind of sport -
the "Trafalgar" and the "Ship".
It
may be noted that when the labours of
the session are over, the Ministers of the
Crown dine at the "Ship", and congratulate each other on their continued
existence in office.
A fish dinner of
quite a different class, at which eleven
kinds of fish, and a selection of joints
are included in the bill of fare, is served
twice a day - at 1 and 4 - at the "Three
Tuns Tavern", Billingsgate, at 2s.
But
although the price is low, and the accommodation a little rough, the dinner is
excellent.
Saturday afternoon during
the winter months, or in the very early
spring, may be specially recommended
for this excursion.
The flavour of the
old-fashioned tavern dinner and after-dinner entertainment still hangs about
Billingsgate.
A good fish dinner is also
to be had at Purfleet during the season.
Fishermen: the Editor of this Dictionary has been asked in so many
quarters to insert a list of trustworthy
fishermen at the various fishing-stations,
that the following list is given.
As the
Editor could not accept the responsibility
of himself recommending men, unless
personally known to him, the list has
been taken from the report of the
Thames Angling Preservation Society,
and has been kindly corrected by Mr.W.H.Brougham, the excellent secretary.
The names marked with an
asterisk are those of men employed
as bailiffs and under-bailiffs by the
Angling Associations of their respective
districts.
Bray: George Chapman.
Chertsey: W.Galloway, T.Taylor jun, J.Poulter, Jas.Haslett, and Henry Purss.
Datchet: George Keene, G.Bailey, and *James Hoar.
Goring and Streatley: *J.Rush, Bartholomew, J.Saunders, and E.Miles.
Halliford: T.Rosewell, T.Purdue, Edward Rosewell, and E.S.Rosewell.
Hampton: W.Benn and Son, J.Langshaw and Son.
Hampton Ct.and East Molesey: W.Milbourne, T.Davis, J.Smith, Thos.Watford, T.Wheeler, C.Stone, C.Davis, G.Martin, and T.Melbourne.
Henley: W.Parrott, Alfred Parrott, Edward Vaughan, E.Woodley, H.Allum, G.Jerome, F.Potter, and G.Hamilton.
Isleworth: W.Clark.
Kingston: John Johnson senior, John Johnson junior, B.Pope, E.Stevens, and J.Wilkies.
Laleham and Penton Hook: Alfred Harris, Frank Harris, William Harris, and G.Harris.
Maidenhead and Taplow: *H.Wilder, *J.Gill, and *G.Winn.
Marlow: Jas.Hatch, George White, *R.Shaw, *T.White, W.Shaw, *Jas.White, *H.Rockell, W.Thorpe, J.Sparkes, George Coster, and T.Barnes.
Moulsford: Frank Strange, Dawson, Cox, and Swadling.
Oxford: A.Beesley, P.Beesley, and D.Talboy.
Pangbourne: G.Ashley, W.Davidson, R.Albury, F.Albury,*T.Lovegrove, and J.Champ.
Reading: *R.Mills, *W.Clarke, *H.Knight, Oldway, W.Moss, and J.P.Hall.
Richmond: G.Howard, J.Bushnell, H.Howard, C.Brown, J.Brown, H.Wheeler, Job Brain, H.Mansell, and T.Young.
Shepperton: W.Rogerson, G.Rosewell, A.Purdue, F.Purdue, G.Purdue, and D.Hackett.
Sonning: *W.Hull, *E.S.Lockley, and J.James Bromley.
Staines: T.Fletcher, J.Keene, senr, I.Keene junr, Charles Hone, and J.Tims.
Sunbury: Thomas Stroud, Alfred Stroud, J.Stroud, and Edward Clarke and Sons.
Teddington: Alexander Kemp, Francis Kemp, T.Sawyer, Joseph Baldwin, B.Stevens, W.Baldwin, J.Stevens, C.Baldwin, and E.Cripps.
Thames Ditton and Long Ditton: E.Tagg, A.Tagg, B.Buttery, and H.C.Hammerton.
Twickenham: G.Coxen, John Coxen, S.Cole, J.Brand, H.Chamberlain, E.Finch, W.Francis, R.Coxen, S.Mesley, F.Coxen, C.Hennessey, R.Moffatt,
G.Chamberlain, and P.Hammerton.
Wallingford: Joseph Gulston, Cloudesley, T.Turner, and Wm.Moody.
Walton; Geo.Hone, George Rogerson, Samuel Rosewell, G.Hone jun, and R.Watford.
Wargrave: W, Wyatt, S.Crampton, F.Wyatt, T.King, and D.Brown.
Weybridge; M.House, and H.Curr.
Windsor: George Holland (Nottingham George), *James Grey, James Bunce, John Maisey, junior, Charles Kempster,
George Plumridge, Chas.Smith, Thomas Bunce, and George Smith.
Fishing: It may be well for the sake
of simplicity to divide the fisheries of the
Thames into three divisions:
1: From Isleworth down the river to the Nore;
2: From Isleworth upwards to the Staines
Stone; the termination westward of the
jurisdiction (including the first division)
of the Lord Mayor and Corporation of
the City of London;
3: From the Staines Stone to Oxford, familiarly
known as the Upper Thames waters.
[1]: The fisheries below Isleworth to the
Nore are open to the operation of the
net, regulated by certain rules and ordinances which are too long to quote here,
and which may be obtained at the office
of the Thames Conservatory.
These "rules, orders, and ordinances" were made law by Act of Parliament
in the year 1785, and being still in force,
will serve to show what was the condition
of the fishery at that period, and to contrast it with that of its present state.
Salmon have entirely ceased to enter its
waters.
Shad, once very plentiful, are
very rarely taken.
Smelts, which used
to come up to spawn as high as Chiswick
and Mortlake, and give profitable employment to the fishermen, are no longer seen
in sufficient numbers to pay for their
capture.
Flounders, common, and then
considered the finest in England, are
almost extinct; and what are taken seldom
exceed two or three inches in length.
Soles and plaice, with the banks covered
with the deposit of sewage by the outfalls
at Crossness and Barking, from thence far
down towards the Nore, have left their
once clean, gravelly beds and scowers;
and the fry of eels, which once margined
the flow from the ocean far into the
country with a wide and dark line on
either side of the river, termed "eel fair",
no longer attracts crowds down to the
river's banks with sieves, small mesh
nets, &c., to capture them in thousands
to make a peculiar kind of fish cake.
Lobsters were formerly sufficiently
numerous in the Thames to justify special
enactments, a fact not recognised at the
passing of the Cromer (Norfolk) and
South Coast Crab and Lobster Fisheries
Bills, which were supposed to be an
innovation of a novel character in ocean
legislation.
With regard to the then, and subsequent, presence of pike, jack, roach,
perch, dace, barbel, and gudgeon, the
following, from angling works, will be
sufficient to prove the lamentable degeneracy of the sport of angling in the
metropolitan district and its vicinity.
Salter, dating 1841, says:
"It was not unusual for an expert angler to carry
away upwards of twenty dozen of fine
smelts from the angling stations about
Blackwall.
I have often taken five or
six dozen before eight o'clock in the
morning."
He likewise recommends the
angler to fish under and about the starlings of Battersea, Westminster, and
Blackfriars bridges.
The writer of this
has fished for perch, roach, and smelts
from the starlings of the old London Bridge
and from a boat for perch, following the
tide, as low as Limehouse.
So common
was this practice, that a waterman in a
boat in the Pool used to draw attention
to the fact of his having live shrimps for
sale as bait by the ringing of a bell.
Crooked-lane was then thought to be
about the centre of the London angling
stations, which accounts for the congregation of fishing-tackle makers there,
which at one period amounted to 13 in
number.
A favourite pitch for roach was
"near the bed of rushes off Temple-gardens", another from Carey's floating-
bath near Westminster Bridge, and a
third was commanded by the low wall of
Cumberland-gardens, at the mouth of
"the pretty river Ephra", now, alas! a
ditch.
In fact, little or nothing appears
to now remain of the fishery of the tidal
waters but that of whitebait and shrimps.
But should the metropolitan sewage be
carried to the Maplin Sands, or to any
point free of contaminating the waters of
the Thames, there is every reason to
believe that its once abundance of fish
will return to its then purer waters.
With
some, the constant passage of steamboats
is assigned as an additional reason for
the absence of the salmon and other fish,
but as there are rivers equally frequented
by these vessels in which there appears
to be little, if any, falling off in the visits
of the salmon, shad, bass, &c, this
theory does not receive much attention.
The East and West India Docks and
the Commercial Docks near Deptford
were, within a comparatively recent date,
famous resorts for the anglers.
Permission to fish in the two former were considered a great favour, and the tickets
were signed by the governors and directors
of those companies; the latter was, by
payment, only granted by written application, after enquiries had been made in
reference to the respectability of the
applicant.
The perch in these docks
were particularly large and fine in flavour,
they obtaining great quantities of acceptable and fattening food from the discharge of the various vessels.
It is a
question now whether a fish could survive for an hour in the waters, so foul
and polluted are they.
Many of the fishermen have left the
river for other more profitable pursuits,
and there has scarcely been a youth
apprenticed to the calling of a fisherman
for the last few years.
When, however,
a flush of water has brought down the
fish from the preserved districts above
into the tidal way, unauthorised persons
have entered into netting, apparently
without the fear of the interference of the
authorities.
The result being that, in
the absence of supervision, the young
and fry of fish, particularly flounders, are
taken of less size than a crown piece, and
thus the chances of the revival of the
stock of these fish is considerably lessened.
During heavy and continuous floods,
such as prevailed in the autumn and
winter of 1878, and the spring and summer
of 1879, dace are met with in shoals as
low as Putney, and then, if they are not
immediately swept out with the net, the
angler from the tow-path, or the fly-fisher
wading in the shallows at low water, often
gets a dish of these fish (see Whitebait
and Sturgeon).
2: The middle waters or lower angling
districts of the Thames, which extend
from Isleworth to Staines Stone, above
Staines, and near Bell Weir, Egham, are
presided over and protected by a very
energetic body under the Conservancy
jurisdiction, called the Thames Angling
Preservation Society, with London offices
at 7, Ironmonger Lane, E.C.
The Committee, principally composed of practical
and experienced anglers, meet on the
first Tuesday in each month at three
o'clock; and the secretary, Mr.W.H.Brougham, is in attendance every Tuesday and Friday morning between the
hours of ten and twelve o'clock, and
oftener when necessary.
The society
dates from the year 1838.
Rules were
drawn up which may be obtained of the
secretary; water-bailiffs and watchers
were appointed at various stations between Richmond and Staines; and fence
months, during which angling was restricted, were ordained for trout, from the
10th September to the 31st March.
The
fence months for pike, jack, roach, dace,
chub, barbel, gudgeon, &c, are, under
the provisions of Mr.Mundella's Act, 41 &
42 Vict. chap.39, from the 15th March
to the 15th June inclusive.
The regulations for sizable fish are as follows:
pike or jack, 18 inches; trout, 16 inches;
barbel, 13 inches; chub, 10 inches; bream,
10 inches; carp, 10 inches; perch, 8 inches;
tench, 8 inches; grayling, 7 inches;
roach, 7 inches; flounders, 7 inches;
dace, 6 inches; rudd, 6 inches; gudgeon, 4 inches.
The measurement is
the extreme length of the fish.
All
persons taking fish of less size and
weight than those given above are liable
to a penalty of £5 for each offence.
The
powers given to the river-keepers are to
the following effect: "To enter any boat,
vessel, or craft of any fisherman or
dredgerman, or other person or persons
fishing or taking fish, or endeavouring
to take fish; and there to search for, take,
and seize all spawn, fry, brood of fish,
and unsizable, unwholesome, or unseasonable fish; and also all unlawful nets,
engines, and instruments for taking or
destroying fish as shall then be in any
such boat, vessel, or craft, in and upon
the river; and to take and seize on the
shore or shores adjoining to the said river
all unlawful nets, engines, and instruments for taking and destroying fish as
shall there be found."
The fish at present native to the waters
above Teddington are trout, pike, and
jack - the latter so named when pike are
under 31bs - perch, roach, dace, carp,
chub, barbel, tench, gudgeon, bleak,
bream, eels, minnows, pope, or ruff (all
of which see).
To those who would enter more fully
into the arcana of the art, we suggest
the careful perusal of Mr.Francis
Francis's "Book on Angling" (Longman
& Co.), and for yet more minute topographical information regarding the
swims, Greville Fennell's "Rail and Rod"
(Field Office), and "Book of the Roach"
(Longman & Co.).
The Fishmongers' Company have
built their hall appropriately on the north
bank of the Thames at London Bridge.
The building is large and imposing, without being able to lay claim to actual
beauty.
Inside, solid comfort rather
than elegance has been realised.
The
rooms are lofty and spacious, and the
great hall is rich in wood-carving and
armorial bearings.
In one of the rooms
is a capacious chair, made out of the
first pile that was driven in the construction of Old London Bridge.
The seat of
the chair is stone, part of the stone in
fact on which the pile rested, and, according to all accounts, these two interesting relics must have been under water
for upwards of six hundred and fifty
years.
Another curiosity on which the
Fishmongers set much store is the dagger
with which Sir W.Walworth, Lord
Mayor, slew Wat.Tyler.
There is the
usual collection of portraits of kings
and queens and benevolent liverymen,
amongst which may be mentioned
Beechey's portrait of Lord St.Vincent;
Mr.Wells's full-length portrait of Lord
Chancellor Hatherley in his robes of
office; and an exceedingly fine bust in
marble of General Garibaldi, who was a
freeman of the Company.
The bust is
the work of Signor Spertini, a Milanese
sculptor.
The Fishmongers used in
olden time to be the object of popular
rancour.
At one period they had to
appeal to the king for protection, and in
1382 Parliament enacted that no Fishmonger should be elected Lord Mayor.
Nowadays they are justly popular for
their works of charity and excellent
dinners.
Eighteen Exhibitions at the
Universities are in the hands of the
Fishmongers, and six presentations to
the Blue Coat School.
As a body the
Fishmongers profess Liberal opinions in
politics.
Many reasons have been
assigned for the frequency of floods
during late years, amongst these are the
multiplication of locks and weirs and the
inattention of those who have the management of these "stops" in not letting the
inundations pass at proper times and
seasons.
There may be some truth in
this, but anyone conversant with the
Thames cannot fail to be impressed with
the fact that the many mills on the
natural outlets of the river's flow have
much to answer for.
The mechanism of
these mills, particularly by the enlargement of their undershot wheels, permits
of their working much longer during
floods than formerly, and it is to the
interest of the millers to keep the water
as high as possible until it is nearly over
the axle, and then, of course, the power
becomes nil.
Then they may be careless
of consequences, as they can use steam
power, the larger mills having now shaft
and steam-engine room to resort to in
such emergency.
The floods below the locks and mills
have very greatly increased during recent
years.
But this was not so much the
case while Old London Bridge stood.
Our forefathers appear to have studied
most carefully this subject of inundations,
which we have evidenced in the building
of Old London Bridge.
This structure
served the threefold purposes of weirs,
mill-dams, and locks; the narrow arches
on the Southwark side were capable of
being closed by gates, and those on the
City side were blocked by the water works, which extended far into the river.
Thus the flow of water up-stream could
be regulated, as the bridge served all the
purposes for which it was designed.
(See
E.W.Cooke's etchings of Old London
Bridge; Lyson's "London", &c.)
This judicious obstruction to the flow occasioned a fall of from four to six feet of
water on the Pool side, the presence of
which at certain tides influenced the building of the present bridge with wide
arches, to the consequent occasion of an
influx of water, which, meeting an overflood of accumulates from above, causes
the inundations which are now so frequent at Lambeth and other low-lying
districts.
Under the Conservancy
bye-laws every steam vessel when the
steam is up, and well under way, shall in
all cases of fog use as a signal a steam
whistle, which shall be sounded at least
every three minutes,
(a) Sailing vessels when under way shall in like manner use
a fog horn.
(b) When at anchor all
vessels shall in like manner use a bell.
The penalty for breach of these bye-laws
is a sum not exceeding £5.
Foreign Cattle Market, Deptford -
for stock from infected countries, only
allowed to be landed on condition of
slaughter before removal.
It occupies
the site of the abandoned dockyard, and
is very inconveniently situated for its
present purpose, at an out-of-the-way
spot on the wrong side of the river; its
purchase by the Corporation in 1871
exciting a good deal of comment.
Formosa: the largest island on the
upper Thames, said to be about 50 acres
in extent; beautifully situated just below
Cookham Lock, opposite the Hedsor and
Cliveden woods.
On it stands a handsome house, built by the late Sir George
Young, with well laid out gardens and
pleasure grounds.
Nearest Railway Station, Lock, and Bridge at Cookham.
Fortifications, the first land defences above the Nore are at Sheerness,
where forts and batteries of considerable
power guard the entrance to the Medway, and where also further protection is
given by men-of-war and floating batteries.
At Cliffe, and on the Lower
Hope, is Cliffe Fort; Coal-house Fort is
a little higher up on the other side of the
river; and nearly opposite again, on the
Kentish side, Shorne Fort.
The three
last-mentioned are all important buildings, very strongly armed, and would
probably prove quite equal to the task
for which they are intended.
There are
batteries, earthworks, and other defences
at Gravesend and Tilbury, the real
strength of which is matter for conjecture.
Galleon's Reach runs nearly north
and south, rather over a mile from Woolwich to Tripcock Point. At the Woolwich end is a ferry.
Bearings N.E.½E., and S.W.½W.
General Steam Navigation Company, 80, Great Tower-street, E.C., and
14, Waterloo-place, S.W.
The steamers of the General Steam Navigation Company start from and arrive at Irongate
and St.Katharine's Wharf, close to the
Tower.
The Home Stations are Edinburgh, Hull, Yarmouth, Margate, and
Ramsgate.
The Foreign Stations are
Hamburg, Tonning, Harlingen, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Bordeaux,
Ostend, Boulogne, Havre, Charence,
Oporto, Genoa, Leghorn, Naples, Messina, and Palermo.
Through passenger
tickets are issued to Brussels, Liege, and
Cologne, via Ostend or Antwerp, and to
the Pyrenees and the south of France
and Spain, via Bordeaux.
The passenger service on the Hull, Yarmouth,
Margate and Ramsgate, Boulogne, and
Havre stations is suspended during the
winter months.
All information as to
fares, times of starting, &c, can be obtained at the London Offices.
Passengers
for Oporto or Italian ports are advised by
the company to take tickets at least 36
hours before the time of sailing.
Tickets
for inland Continental places, other than
Paris, must be purchased in advance, at
the chief office in Great Tower-street, City.
When vessels start at or before 8am,
or arrive very late at night, passengers
can embark on the previous evening, or
postpone their landing until a convenient
hour in the morning.
Stewards are not
allowed to take fees.
Passengers embarking or landing at London should note the
number on the badge of the porter who
carries the baggage.
The legal charge
for each package carried between cab and
ship is 2d.
The Company's Official Handbook says:
"Comfortable waiting and refreshment rooms have been established,
and placed under good and experienced
management."
Passengers about to embark should
proceed direct to Irongate and St.Katharine's Wharf, where the Company's
steamers start from, or a steam tender
conveys passengers and their luggage
from the wharf to the ship free of charge.
Vessels engaged in the Yarmouth, Margate, and Ramsgate special summer
service start from London Bridge Wharf.
The above paragraph does not, therefore,
apply to passengers by those vessels.
The tender leaves the wharf ten minutes
before the advertised time of sailing of
the ships.
Passengers arriving in the
Thames from Hamburg, Antwerp, and
Havre, between 8am, and 8pm, are
landed at Irongate and St.Katharine's
Wharf by a special tender, free of charge.
One hundredweight of personal luggage is allowed free of freight by the
Company's steamers.
Missing property
should be applied for at the chief office.
There is a left luggage office at Irongate
and St.Katharine's Wharf.
The nearest Railway Stations to the
London Bridge Wharf are Cannon-st
and London Br (South Eastern), Fenchurch-st (Great Eastern and North
London), and Mansion House (District).
The nearest Stations to Irongate and
St.Katharine's Wharf are Fenchurch-st
(Great Eastern and North Lon.) and
Mark-lane (Met.).
Geology of the Valley of the Thames
1. General Remarks:
The Thames may be conveniently divided
into three parts:
the upper, where the various streams of the Oolitic districts of
Gloster and Oxon combine to form the
Thames proper;
the middle, where the
river thus formed flows through the Chalk
and the Tertiary beds of the London Basin,
receiving further affluents from those
formations,
until it reaches the third and
final stage of a tidal stream, still of course,
with tributaries.
The broad valley in which the river
flows has also a triple character, fairly
agreeing with the above divisions of the
stream.
In the higher part its course is
cut through various beds of the Oolitic
Series, and as the dip of these is at a
greater angle than the fall of the river,
and generally in much the same direction,
higher and higher beds are successively
crossed in the downward course, until
those beds of the Cretaceous series below
the Chalk are in their turn cut through.
the middle part, beginning with the
narrower cut through the Chalk hills,
extends thence eastward across the wide
expanse of the Chalk, and of the over-lying Lower Tertiary beds, to the neighbourhood of London, the water slope
being still less than the dip.
The tidal
Thames crosses the same formation as
the last division, with some local differences; for owing to some gentle disturbances the Chalk is brought up in various
places, again to sink beneath the surface.
Accepting the above threefold division
of our chief river, we will notice the
geology of its valley, beginning with the
highest division, which, however, is
geologically the lowest.
It may be well
in the first place to give a general notion
of the formations that occur in the course
of the valley (using that term in a broad
sense) from its sources to its mouth, and
this may be seen at a glance from the
following table, in which the formations
are arranged according to age, the newest
at the top.
The letters "U", "M",and "L", show in which of the three suggested divisions of the valley (Upper,
Middle, and Lower) the various beds are
represented, and it will be seen that only
the alluvium and Drift occur throughout,
all the other beds being limited to one or
two of the divisions.
It will be convenient, therefore, to leave the notice of
these newer beds, which are separated by
a great gap from the rest, to the last.
Alluvium: Marshland; Mud, peat, &c.; U. M. L.
Drift: Valley Drift: Gravel, sand, and loam; U. M. L.
Glacial Drift: Boulder clay, gravel, and sand (?U.) M. L.
Older Tertiaries: Bagshot Beds: Sand, with more clayey beds in the middle part, and with local pebble-beds in the lower part; M. L.
London Clay; M. L.
Lower London Tertiaries:
1. Oldhaven and Blackheath Beds; pebble-beds and sand; L.
2. Woolwich and Reading Beds; clay, sand, and pebbles; M. L.
3.Thanet Beds; sand and loam; L.
Cretaceous Series: Chalk: White limestone, mostly soft, upper part with flints; M. L.
Upper Greensand: Soft sandstone and sand; U.
Gault: Bluish clay; U.
Lower Greensand: Sand, with occasional conglomerate, U.
Upper Oolites: Portland Beds: Limestone and sand; U.
Kimmeridge Clay; U.
Middle Oolites: Coralline Oolite: Limestone and sand; U.
Oxford Clay: U.
Lower Oolites: Cornbrash, Forest Mardle, and Great or Bath Oolite: Limestone; U.
Inferior Oolite: Limestone, with sand at the base.
Lias: Clay, with "marlstone" above the middle.
2. Upper Thames.
To a little
below Wallingford: With the
greater part of this division of the river
we are not now concerned: our journey
may begin at Oxford.
It may be noted,
however, that above this city all the
streams that make up the Thames have
their origin in, and their course over,
the great Liassic and Oolitic series,
excepting a few small streams from the
Chalk hills south-west of Faringdon,
forming the Cole.
The so-called "Thames
Head" is in the Great Oolite limestone,
and thence the main stream flows westward[?eastward] through a broad vale of Oxford
Clay, receiving many tributaries from the
north, but only the exceptional streams
above-noticed on the south.
The great
excess of affluents from the north is
probably owing to the more or less
southerly dip of the various divisions of
the Oolitic series, which consists of
alternations of clays and limestones (with
occasional beds of a more sandy nature).
This geological structure has brought
about the well-known features of the
district: the denudation, or wearing
away, of the harder limestones having
given rise to abrupt hills facing northwards, with gentle "dip-slopes" (or
slopes in the same direction as the dip)
southwards; whilst the softer and thicker
clays form open vales, through the chief
of which the main stream runs.
The
northerly tributaries, flowing in the same
direction as the beds dip, but at a less
angle, cut through the series, some, as
the Evenlode and the Cherwell, starting
in the Lias.
At Oxford the river turns southward,
and the valley is somewhat narrower,
being bounded both east and west by
prominent hills, formed of outlines of
Lower Cretaceous and Upper Oolitic
beds (Shotover and Cumnor hills), whilst
the lower part is still in the Middle
Oolites.
The lowest formation of these
last, the Oxford Clay, a deposit some
hundreds of feet thick and (from its
contained fossils) clearly of marine origin,
soon dips underground, near Iffley.
The
overlying Coralline Oolite, in places 100
feet thick, is divisible into two;
the lower part, or Calcareous Grit, consisting of
irregular beds of more or less calcareous
sand with occasional limestone;
whilst the higher, or Coral Rag, is a limestone in
great part made up of the remains of corals.
the Coralline Oolite in its turn dips
underground below Sandford, and the
river then crosses the vale formed by the
next overlying deposit, the Kimmeridge
Clay, but soon turns westward along
the foot of the range of hill from Nuneham Courtney to Culham, marked by
the beautiful wooded mass of Nuneham
Park.
This hill is the "escarpment" (or
bounding ridge) of the Lower Greensand,
which here rests on the Kimmeridge
Clay; the Portland Stone, which comes
between those formations in the large
outlier of Shotover and Cuddesdon,
being absent, from an unconformity or
irregularity of deposit.
At Culham the river turns south-eastward, the Kimmeridge Clay sinks, and
on the left side is the Lower Greensand
tract with a small patch of Gault, whilst
the last alone occurs on the right side.
the Lower Greensand is here a sand
often ferruginous and coarse, with sometimes a fine conglomerate, as in the
river-cliff at Clifton Hampden.
A few
fossils showing a marine origin have
been found in it, whilst those of the
Shotover outlier bear witness to local
fresh-water conditions.
At Culham,
owing to the overlap of the Gault, the
Lower Greensand is only a few feet thick,
and the two similar clays of the Gault
and Kimmeridge nearly come together.
Below Clifton Hampden the Lower
Greensand sinks beneath the surface,
when the river crosses the vale of the
Gault, receiving the Thame at Dorchester,
and runs at the foot of the Upper Greensand escarpment from Little Wittenham
to Bensington.
This formation consists
here of two parts: the lower, a soft
whitish and often calcareous sandstone,
which forms a marked, though small
feature in the landscape, rising sharply
from above the Gault; the upper, a
more or less clayey and calcareous Greensand, some twenty feet thick.
From
Bensington the Thames runs south across
the Upper Greensand for about three
miles, when it enters the boundary of
the Chalk.
3. Middle Thames.
From near
Wallingford to Richmond: the
Chalk in this district is divisible into two
main parts, the lower marked by an
absence of flints, whilst in the upper
these are generally common; the junction of the two being marked by a hard,
pale, cream-coloured bed a few feet
thick.
The great escarpment, the most
marked feature cut through by the
Thames, consists chiefly of the Lower
Chalk, the Upper Chalk coming on near
the top; but southwards nearly the whole
of the gently sloping plateau (a dip-slope)
is formed of the latter division, which is
only cut through in some of the valleys.
Thus, although the Lower Chalk is at
least as thick as the Upper, yet it crops
out over a much smaller area.
The total
thickness of the formation here may be
from 700 to 800 feet, which decreases to
650 under London (as proved by the few
deep wells that pass through it), and
then increases again eastward.
Of late
years the Chalk has been subdivided
into a number of zones, marked chiefly
by the general occurrence of certain
fossils, but partly also by their lithological characters.
Where the Thames cuts through the
great escarpment, it runs in a deep and
narrow valley, with sharp turfed slopes of
great beauty; and in its course through
the Chalk district it is usual to find, on
one side or other, a high sharp slope,
with the river at the foot.
The Lower Chalk gradually sinks, from
the dip being still at a greater angle than
the slope of the ground, but occurs in the
bottom of the valley nearly as far as
Pangbourne, when the Upper Chalk only
is to be seen, higher beds coming on in
succession lower down the course of the
river.
Below Pangbourne the right side
of the valley consists, in its upper part,
of a large Tertiary outlier (London Clay
and Reading Beds), separated only from
the main mass of those formations in the
town of Reading by the cutting out of
the valley of the Kennet.
Thence the
river turns north-eastward, and for a few
miles the escarpment of the above-named
Tertiary beds forms the greater part of
the right bank of the valley, the Chalk
being cut into only along the lower part;
the left side, on the other hand, consists
of a dip-slope of chalk, with some Tertiary
outliers on the high ground.
Near Sonning the Thames leaves the
direct course, along the foot of the
Tertiary escarpment (towards Maidenhead), and makes a sharp northerly turn,
somewhat against the direction of the
dip, to beyond Henley, and in consequence
of this the bottom part of the valley is
again cut down into the Lower Chalk.
From Remenham the river makes a
second sharp turn, when it flows east for
some miles to beyond Little Marlow,
and then a third, after which it flows
south to Bray, where it for the first
time runs over Tertiary beds.
The
above course, which may be roughly
described as three sides of a square,
seems really to follow the line of a former
Tertiary escarpment; for the two well-marked wooded hills between Wargrave
and Maidenhead (the gently conical form
of which can be clearly seen from so far
as Richmond) are parts of a large outlier,
now barely separated from the main mass
of the Tertiary beds at Ruscomb, and
there are also smaller outliers round about,
all of these being proofs of the former
extension of those beds over the Chalk.
In this tract there are fine examples of
river-cliffs, or slopes, notably on the right
bank from Wargrave to Henley, and
opposite Great Marlow, and on the left
bank from Hedsor to Taplow, including
the grand sweep of Cliveden.
Clothed,
sometimes only with evergreen turf, but
more generally with mighty masses of
beech, these great chalk-slopes form some
of the finest scenery in the south of England, their sharpness being set off by the
tranquil river at the base, and by the
level tract of marshland or the nearly
level spreads of gravel in the bottom of
the valley.
Below Maidenhead the character of
the valley changes: instead of the bold
features so common hitherto, we find
long gentle slopes, with broad tracts of
gravel along the bottom, often, indeed,
spreading some way up the less inclined
side.
The river has entered the Tertiary
district, and therefore, instead of having
cut a channel with high slopes, as in the
firmer chalk, it has made a broad vale
through the more yielding and more
easily denuded clays and sands.
At
Windsor, however, there is an exception
to this for nearly a mile, and an old
river-cliff, on which the castle stands,
rises sharply about 100 feet above the
plain on the north.
This is owing to an
uprise of the beds, whereby the Chalk
has been brought to a higher level than
it would otherwise have had, and its
denudation has resulted in the formation
of the usual feature.
Hence the river turns south-east, and
for a few miles the right bank of the
valley consists of the London Clay slope
of Windsor Park, crowned at the highest
part above Egham by Bagshot Sand.
The valley then broadens still more, and
is marked on the left side by the occurrence of a vast spread of gravel and loam,
from beneath which the London Clay
rises up northwards to the high ground
of Harrow, with its small outliers of
Bagshot Sand.
On the right side the
London Clay sinks, and that part of the
valley is formed of the more picturesque,
though often barren, slopes of the Bagshot Sand.
At Chertsey the river takes
a general easterly course, which it keeps
to Thames Ditton, before reaching which
place the London Clay again crops out;
and then it turns north, the right bank
of the valley being formed by the fine
wooded slope of London Clay (an old
river-cliff) along the western edge of
Richmond Park.
4. Lower Thames.
Below Richmond: We have now reached the point
where the river becomes tidal, though for
some way, of course, the rise and fall of
the tide is but slight.
From Richmond
the Thames again takes an easterly course,
which it then keeps throughout - that is
to say, in its general direction: as a matter
of detail the course is in a series of curves
from north to south in the plain of gravel
or of marsh, sometimes varied by a
straighter cut.
The higher parts of the
flanks of the valley, on both sides from
Richmond to London, are formed of
London Clay, with cappings of Bagshot
Sand at Hampstead and Highgate hills
on the north, and of gravel on the south.
the clay here reaches a thickness of
about 400 feet, with marine fossils
throughout.
The beds now rise slightly, until in the
far east of London the Lower London
Tertiaries crop out from beneath the
London Clay.
It is to be noted that
this set of beds reappears with a different
character from that shown in the neighbourhood of Reading, where the middle
division alone seems to occur, and consists of mottled clays and sands, some
fifty feet thick, and almost without a
trace of fossils.
Here on the other hand
we have nearly a full development of this
interesting triple series; the fine compact
thanet Sand, forty feet and more thick,
without fossils; the sand, pebbles, and
highly fossiliferous clays of the Woolwich
Beds, often crowded with well-preserved
shells of estuarine kinds, as may be well
seen in the large pits at Lewisham and
Charlton; and the sandy pebble beds of
Blackheath, sometimes with shells of
much the same kind as those of the
Woolwich Beds.
The Chalk, too, again
crops out, though only over small areas,
on the southern side from Deptford to
Woolwich.
This side has marked features
from Greenwich to Erith, caused by the
generally sharp denuded slope of the
Lower London Tertiaries, especially of
their highest division, the Blackheath
Beds, the top of which on the other hand
forms the plateau or terrace of Blackheath,
Plumstead Common, &c., above which the
London Clay rises to the mass of
Shooter's Hill.
Along the base of the
Tertiary hills there runs a fault, of comparatively small throw on the west near
Lewisham, but for the rest of its course
to Erith with a downthrow south of 100
feet or more, so that the pebble beds
which form the high plateau above-mentioned are found also in the bottom of
the valley.
On the north from London the valley
has a gentle slope, and along the lower
part there is a broad spread of gravel,
from between which the London Clay
rises to the high ground of Epping and
Hainault Forests and of Havering,
at which last place that formation is
capped by a small outlier of Bagshot
Beds, which occur in greater force farther
east at Brentwood, and consist in the
lower part of sand and in the upper of
pebble-beds just like those (older than
the London Clay) at Blackheath, &c.
Below Erith the Thames leaves the
Tertiary beds and the Chalk again rises
to the surface.
On the north it appears
at Purfleet, and forms the hill thence to
Grays thurrock, with small but well-marked outliers of Thanet Sand on the
top; whilst, from a local northerly dip, the
Tertiary beds come on above the Chalk in
the small tributary valley to the north;
and they then spread over the hill eastward to Little Thurrock, just east of
which place the Chalk sinks below the
surface to appear again for the last time
along the edge of the marsh at East
Tilbury.
Here the Lower London Tertiaries have an exceptionally broad outcrop (much hidden by gravel) to the
higher ground of Orsett, and are finally
lost sight of at Standford-le-Hope, beyond
which this side of the valley consists of
London Clay, capped by a mass of Bagshot Sand round Hadleigh, whence the
ground slopes gently eastward until at
Southend (where the river comes up to
the clay cliffs at high tide) and beyond is
a sheet of the gravel and brick-earth that
sinks farther east to the flats of Shoebury.
On the south below Erith, where the
Darent joins the Thames, the valley is in
chalk with a large Tertiary outlier above,
forming the wooded mass of Swanscomb
Park Hill, besides smaller outliers, the
most marked of which is Windmill Hill,
Gravesend.
In this neighbourhood there
are huge chalk-pits near the edge of the
marshes, as also on the opposite side at
Purfleet and Grays.
Round Higham the Tertiary beds crop
out from beneath the marsh, and at Cliffe
the Chalk rises up northwards from beneath these, is cut off sharply (as a river-
cliff) along the southern edge of the
marsh, and then finally sinks eastward at
Cooling.
The Tertiary beds here, therefore, lie in a slight trough.
The range
of hill south of the last two places, which
forms the boundary of the valley, is
formed of London Clay, from beneath
which crop out in succession, in the lower
grounds to the north, the Oldhaven Beds,
here thin and chiefly sand, the Woolwich
Beds, still with estuarine shells, and the
Thanet Sand.
These three divisions all
disappear beneath the surface on the
north of High Halstow, when the London
Clay hills with their patches of gravel
alone divide the valley of the Thames
from that of the Medway, the two joining
round the Isle of Grain; and the combined rivers then flow into the sea, with
the alluvial flats of Foulness, &c., on the
north, and on the south the cliffs of
Sheppey, which consist chiefly of London
Clay, but at the highest parts have a
capping of Bagshot Sand and gravel.
5. Newer Deposits:
Besides the
formations already noticed through which
the valley of the Thames has been cut,
and which succeed each other in almost
regular order, we find also a set of beds
of a much more irregular kind, lying
indifferently on any of the other formations, occurring at all levels in the valley,
and often hard to classify.
Of these beds
those known as "Glacial Drift" are the
oldest, and they get their name from
the fact that icy conditions must have
prevailed during the time at which they
were deposited.
On the high grounds near Oxford
there are gravels of uncertain age, but
certainly older than the gravels at lower
levels in the valley, and it is possible that
these (full of pebbles from rocks that are
found in the north) may be of Glacial
age, relics of a once wide-spread deposit
now mostly destroyed by denudation.
Again, on some of the chalk hills, as well
as on the outliers and high grounds of
the Tertiary beds, there are patches of
gravel that may also be of this age; indeed, in the case of the pebble-gravel (of
flint and quartz) that occurs in small
patches on some of the Tertiary hills (Ash-
ley, Bowsey, Hampstead, and Shooter's)
it seems likely that we have a still older
deposit, perhaps equivalent to that of like
character which comes between the Drift
and the Crag series in parts of Suffolk.
A large spread of gravel on the high
ground north of Windsor has been classed
as Glacial, what little evidence that there
is as to age pointing in that direction;
and it is possible that other masses at
much the same level on the southern side
of the river are of the same age.
Below London, on the Essex side of
the river, the bed which is the marked
characteristic of the Glacial Drift comes
(from the north where it is in force) to the
edge of some of the hill-tops.
This bed
is the well-known Boulder Clay: a bluish
clay full of stones, sometimes large
masses, but mostly small roughly-rounded
pieces of all kinds of rock, but here
chiefly of chalk, the surfaces of the stones
scratched in the same way as those of the
stones in the deposits of existing glaciers.
It is clear from the nature of the Boulder
Clay that it has been brought by ice from
the north; but in what form the ice did
this is a moot point amongst geologists:
some of whom will hear of nothing but a
vast mass of land ice, or great ice-sheet
as it is called; whilst others invoke a
fleet of countless bergs floating southwards from ice-capped northern lands;
and a third party swear by coast-ice.
It
is to be noted that the Boulder Clay, the
highest member of the Glacial Drift,
does not occur on the southern side of
the Thames, but ends off near the northern
side from London eastward.
The most important division of the
Drift, as far as the Thames Valley is concerned, is that known as Post-glacial,
by which is meant a set of gravels and
loams newer than the Glacial Drift of the
district.
Such deposits occur all along
the course of the river, and are of great
interest, from their yielding in places
bones of huge animals, of genera now
extinct in this country, such as elephant,
hippopotamus, and rhinoceros, associated
sometimes with flint implements made by
man.
From the shells of freshwater and
land species found, and from the disposition of the gravels and brick-earths in the
valley, it is clear that the beds have been
formed by the river, though under different
conditions from those we now see.
The
stream must have been more powerful to
transport the coarser material of the
gravel; and it is inferred that, at the
time these beds were formed, our island
was part of Europe, and the Thames a
tributary of a larger Rhine.
The land
was then at a higher level and the climate
colder, so that from the consequent
greater condensation of vapour there was
a greater rainfall, and therefore a greater
waterflow and a more swiftly-running
stream; sometimes, too, widespread
floods occurred, resulting in the deposit
of broad tracts of loam.
These gravels and loams are not confined to the present bottom of the valley,
but also occur in terraces at various
heights on its flanks.
These terraces are
old valley-bottoms; and after the deposition of the gravel of the highest (then the
bottom of the valley), the river has cut its
way deeper through its former bed, until,
a second period of comparative rest
having arrived, it has again deposited
gravel at a lower level - to be in its turn
cut through, and another still lower
deposit formed.
The succession of gravel-
flats at various levels may be well seen on
the right bank of the river between Cookham and Maidenhead, where the terraces
are well marked.
It is not until the Thames enters the
Tertiary district, near Maidenhead, that
this Valley Drift occurs over any large
area.
Where the valley is narrow, as in
the Chalk tract, there is small room for
the river-gravel; but where it broadens
out they spread far and wide, hiding the
formations below almost completely in
the lower grounds, and forming great
flats, as is the way with gravels.
Below
London again, on the southern side,
where the Chalk rises up, the gravel is
less extensive.
the best places to see the loam, or
brick earth, are at the great brick-yards
of Erith, Crayford, and Ilford, noted for
the number of bones and shells that have
been found in them.
The equally well-known pits at Grays are now for the most
part abandoned.
All the old parts of London are built
on these beds.
Forming a dry soil, but
with water easily accessible (flowing out,
indeed, in old times, in the many springs
whose names we still keep), these gravel-terraces gave our ancestors one of the
finest of sites, free from floods, and yet
close to a tidal stream, the water-way to
the world.
After the period of the river-gravels,
when the land had sunk somewhat, when
our island was separated from the mainland, and when the conditions approximated to those of the present time, the
smaller and more sluggish river became
unable to transport great quantities of
coarse material and to form gravel; its
enfeebled power was equal only to meandering in the bottom of its valley, cutting
a channel through the gravel thereof, and
depositing the layers of mud and silt of
the alluvial flats that fringe the stream in
most parts of its course.
In the upper and middle divisions of
the Thames, and in the higher part of
the lower division, these level tracts of
meadow and marsh are comparatively
narrow, and it is remarkable that this is
especially the case in the Tertiary district
above London, where the alluvium is
generally a mere narrow strip on one side
of the stream.
Below London, however, it is very
different, and on either side of the broad
river there are wide flats of rich pastureland, all some feet below high-water
mark, over which the water used to flow,
until ages ago it was embanked and kept
to its present channel.
In this broad
alluvial tract there is a most interesting
bed, rarely, however, to be seen, forming
the bottom of the alluvium.
It is a layer
of peat, with trunks and branches of
trees, known generally as "the submerged forest", and it gives evidence
that the last movement of the land was
one of slight depression, as the trees
could hardly have grown in their present
position, many feet below high-water
mark.
6. Formation of the Valley:
In
common with the valleys of our other
rivers, that of the Thames has been
formed by denudation: it has been cut
out by the slow, long-continued, ceaseless action of the river, ever tending to
deepen and widen its channel, aided
greatly by the action of rain on the
slopes, and in the limestone districts by
the solvent power of carbonated water.
There is no great gap or open fissure
formed by the giving way of the earth,
no sign of disruption or sudden violent
action.
That disturbances of the beds
have had some effect in the formation of
the valley is not however questioned, but
their effect has been merely to direct in
some cases the course which the denuding
agents should follow, by making a certain
course easier than any other.
Thus,
where the Thames cuts through the great
chalk range below Wallingford, there
are signs of some disturbance, for the
strike or general trend of the beds
changes from a direction about west to
east to one about south-west to north-east; but none the less has the valley
been formed by the cutting away of the
chalk.
Again, though from Greenwich
to Erith a fault, or fracture, with the
displacement of the beds occurs, and may
have greatly aided the erosive action of
the old river, yet none the less has that
part of the valley been formed by the
wearing and carrying away of a vast
mass of beds, hundreds of feet thick.
When we look across the wide valley
of our chief river, and realise the facts
that all the material which once filled it
has been slowly loosened and carried
away by actions like in kind to those
now going on around us, though to a
large extent, perhaps, greater in power,
and that this work has been done merely
in the very latest of the many great
geological periods, we may begin to have
a glimmering of the immensity of time
that must have been taken up by the
never-ceasing processes of denudation
and deposition that have built up the
successive sedimentary formations which
compose the greater part of our earth.
The destruction of rocks in one part has
yielded material for the formation of
newer rocks elsewhere; and these actions,
accompanied by upward and downward
movements in slow succession, have gone
on side by side for countless ages.
Godstow: Of the "house of Nunnes beside Oxford", as Stow calls it, in which
Fair Rosamond was buried, nothing now
remains but some ivy-covered walls and
its association with the story, or rather
the legend, of the lady who was certainly
no better than she should have been, but
who almost as certainly never had that
interview with Queen Eleanor and a
bowl and a dagger which was for so
many years accepted as an historical fact.
Travellers who wish to inspect the ruins
will find them on the Berkshire shore,
while those who are more interested in
refreshing the inner man will find a snug
little house on the opposite side of the
bridge.
At Godstow, which is 3½ miles
from Oxford, is a lock as well as a bridge.
Goring, Oxfordshire, on the left bank.
A station on the Great Western Railway,
45 miles from Paddington; trains take
about 1½ hours.
The station is a few
minutes' walk from the river.
From
London 85 miles, from Oxford 26½ miles.
Population, 926.
Soil, light, on gravel
and chalk.
Goring is a village situated
in a most picturesque part of the valley
of the Thames.
The scenery around is
deservedly admired.
It consists of gently
rising hills which recede from the river,
and are clothed with woods and cornfields.
The banks of the river are divided into
a succession of verdant meadows.
The
river, here crossed by a long wooden
bridge (toll 1d), is much resorted to in
the summer for fishing, and for picnic
parties.
This part of the valley of the
Thames, owing to the fertility of the soil
and its attractive features, has been settled
from the earliest times.
Traces of Roman
villas and utensils have been occasionally-
found in the neighbourhood.
The old
Roman road called "Icknild-street" is
believed to have crossed the Thames near
Goring.
The church, which is almost on
the banks of the river, and is dedicated
to St.Thomas a'Becket, is a very interesting structure.
It is supposed to
have been built in the reign of Henry II., and to have been enlarged in that of
King John.
It contains some interesting
specimens of Norman and Early English
architecture.
It was connected with an
Augustinian nunnery, traces of which
are found to the south and west of the
church.
There was a priory about two
miles north-east of the village, the remains of which are built into a farmhouse
called Elvingdon.
There are some excellent brasses in the church.
On the
right of the altar will be found four with
full-length male and female effigies attended by their three sons and five
daughters.
They are in excellent order,
and are probably of the time of Mary,
although they bear no date.
A full-length of a lady under a canopy in the
north-aisle is dated 1401, and an inscrip-
tion on a brass to Henry de Aldryngton,
between the nave and north aisle, bears
date 1375.
A charity school, maintained
by Alnutt's Charity, is at the extreme
east end of Goring parish, this part of
the parish is called Goring Heath.
Alnutt's Charity was founded by a gentleman of that name, and endowed by him
in 1724.
There are twelve houses or
rooms for almsmen, a school for twenty-seven boys from the parishes of Goring,
Checkenden, and South Stoke, and one
for girls.
The boys are clothed and
apprenticed by the Charity at the age of
fourteen.
A few boys and girls are admitted into the schools on the payment
of a weekly fee of 3d.
There is also an
almshouse in Goring village, founded by
Richard Lybbe, of Hardwick, in the
parish of Whitchurch, in the year 1714.
It admits four old men, two from Goring,
one from Checkenden, and one from
Whitchurch.
The range of the Chiltern
Hills commences with Goring.
There
are several beautiful and extensive views
in the parish, while the air is extremely
fresh and bracing.
The angling in the reaches of the sister
villages, Streatley and Goring, is at times
all that can be desired.
The fisher may
make his choice of waters, from the sharp
and swift to the slow and deep.
Pike,
perch, roach, dace, gudgeon, and eels
are abundant.
Inns: "the Miller of Mansfield",
"the Queen's Arms", "the Sloane
Hotel".
Places of Worship: St.Thomas a'Becket,and Lady Huntingdon's Chapel.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, savings bank, telegraph):
Mails from London, week days and Sundays, 7.05am, and 12.05pm
Mails for London, 9.50am, 7.30pm; Sundays, 5.40pm
Nearest Bridges: Goring; up, Wallingford 6 miles.
Locks: up, Cleeve ¾ mile. down, Whitchurch 4 miles.
Ferries: up, Moulsford 2 miles; down, Basildon 1½ mile.
Railway Station: Goring.
Fares to Paddington: 1st, 7/10, 14/-; 2nd, 5/11, 10/6; 3rd, 3/9.
Grain, Isle of: A grazing district,
bounded by the Thames and Medway,
and opposite Sheerness, which is about a
mile and a half distant.
An important
portion of the defences of the Thames
and Medway is furnished by the forts and
batteries on the island.
Being very difficult of access, the Isle of Grain is very
little visited, and, indeed, offers but scant
attraction.
The island is connected with
the North Kent Railway at Higham, the
terminus in the Isle of Grain being
Port Victoria (which see).
Grain Spit Buoy - A 6-foot can buoy, made of wood, and painted black.
It is situated on the Grain Spit, on the
Kentish side to the entrance to the Medway, and marks a depth of water, at low
water, spring tide, of 8 feet.
It is moored
with 6 fathom of chain.
The weight of
the sinker is 8 cwt.
The Grain Spit Buoy
belongs to the Trinity House.
Gravesend, Kent, on the right bank,
from London 27 miles.
A station on the
North Kent Railway, 24 miles from
Charing Cross.
Express trains take about
an hour.
The station is close to the
centre of the town, and about 10 minutes'
walk from the Town Pier.
Flys meet the
trains.
There is another route from
Tilbury to Fenchurch-street, by express
about 45 minutes.
Ferry steamers ply
between Tilbury station and the wharf in
West-street.
Population, 20,413.
Soil,
chalky.
Gravesend, anciently, according
Domesday Book, Gravesham, is, owing
to its position as the gateway of the port
of London, one of the most important
towns on the river.
All foreign-going
ships are compelled to stop here and
take on board pilots, and, on homeward voyage, Custom House officers.
The river here narrows to the width of
about half a mile, and the narrow
channel is day and night full of shipping of every class and description,
from the stately ironclad to the
fussy tug, from the clean-cut China
clipper to the picturesque if clumsy Dutch
galliot, and from the graceful schooner
yacht to the ungainly hay-barge.
The
shipping in the reach brings many
visitors to Gravesend, for although it is
no longer the custom, as it was extensively
some years ago, for emigrants and other
travellers to embark and disembark at
Gravesend, it is still a convenient place
for the last God-speed on the outward
voyage or the first welcome home.
It is
well to remark in this connection that the
Gravesend waterman is a personage in any
dealings with whom it is desirable to
keep the weather-eye open.
Fancy fares
are almost invariably demanded, and the
smallest opportunity of laying the blame of
the overcharge on the state of the weather
or of the water is taken the utmost advantage of.
There is, however, no reason
why there should be any real difficulty in
regard to this matter.
A table of fares,
with special regulations for luggage, is
issued by the Corporation of Gravesend,
and to it watermen are bound to adhere.
The list will be found at the end of this
article.
From the river Gravesend, unlike most riverside towns, presents an
attractive appearance.
The town rises
rapidly from the riverside to the hill
which is crowned with the well-known
windmill; and the cliffs towards Rosherville and Northfleet, and the well-wooded
rising ground towards Chalk and Cobham, "add greatly to the beauty of the view."
Gravesend has, since the days of
Elizabeth, been incorporated as a municipal borough, and the town is governed
by a mayor, six aldermen, and eighteen
councillors.
Courts of Quarter Session
are held here; the present Recorder is
Standish Grove Grady, Esq.
The Parliamentary borough was constituted by
the Act of 1867, and includes the parishes
of Gravesend and Milton and a portion
of Northfleet.
The number of voters on the
register in 1880 was 3,286.
The borough
is at present represented by Sir Sydney
Waterlow, a Liberal.
The principal streets
are High-street, Harmer-street, Wind-
mill-street, and the Milton and New
roads, some of which contain good
shops.
The most favourite residential
portions of the town are along the Milton-road, on the cliffs about Rosherville, and
at the streets at the back of the town,
which cluster about Windmill Hill and
lead into the open country.
The town-hall, where the business of
the municipality is transacted, and where
petty and quarter sessions are held, is a
handsome building in the High-street,
and behind it is the market-place extending to Queen-street.
There are four piers: the Rosherville,
just below the well-known gardens - this
is a landing-stage, and nothing more;
the ferryboat-pier in West-street; the
Town Pier, at the bottom of High-street
(toll for promenade 1d), which combines
the business of a steamboat-pier and
landing-stage, with a somewhat feeble
effort in the direction of bazaar keeping.
This pier is covered in, and is occasionally
utilised for amusements, as is also the
case with the Royal Terrace Pier, still
lower down the river, which stands in well-arranged grounds of its own (Toll, 2d).
Gravesend belongs to the Chatham
military district.
There are extensive
barracks in Wellington-street, Milton,
and a rifle range in Denton Marsh, on
the east of the town, which was for a
time closed, but which, after many difficulties and some litigation, has been
again restored to its original objects.
The forts at Tilbury, New Tavern Fort at
Gravesend, as well as Shorne Fort, are
included in the Gravesend district.
The
1st Administrative Brigade and the 1st
corps of that brigade of Kent Artillery
Volunteers have their headquarters in the
town.
The office of the Customs Department is close to the river at the bottom of
Harmer-street.
The pilot-station is at the
Terrace Pier, and the harbour-master's
office and that of the mercantile marine
are in Whitehall-place, where also are
the offices of the London and St.Katharine and Victoria Docks, that of
the East and West India Docks being in
Milton-place.
There is a theatre in the New-road,
which does not appear to be overburdened
with patronage, and the pretty and
attractive gardens at Rosherville are
mainly supported by excursionists (see
Rosherville Gardens).
The public
hall is in New-road, nearly opposite the
theatre, and contains, besides reading-room, club-room, and refreshment department, a large hall, which is available
for entertainments, lectures, &c.
The
assembly-room, in Harmer-street, can be
hired for one night at £3 3s, and for two
nights at £5 5s, including gas.
There is also a lecture-hall at Milton.
The free
library and reading-room is in Church-street.
The reading-room of the St.Andrew's Waterside Mission is at the
foot of the Town Pier, and is open on
week-days from 9 to 9, and on Sundays
from 2 to 6.
The Gravesend Club, which
has its quarters at the Nelson Hotel, New-road, numbers about seventy members.
Entrance, £1 1s; subscription, £1 1s.
Election is by ballot of members; one
black ball in ten excludes.
Gravesend is well supplied with schools,
and one of the handsomest buildings on
the hill above Milton is Milton Mount
College, an institution founded in 1870
by the Rev.Wm.Guest for the training
of the daughters of Congregational
ministers.
The college is intended to
give a high literary culture at low terms,
especially to those young ladies who purpose becoming teachers.
The school
depends for its support on subscriptions
as well as on the payments of pupils.
In
connection with the college is Milton
Congregational Church and Lecture
Hall, in which several societies in association with the church hold their
meetings.
At Gravesend are the headquarters of
the Nore Yacht Club at the New Falcon
Hotel; and of the New Thames Yacht
Club, who have a club-house at Clifton
Marine Parade; and most of the important races of the leading London yacht
clubs finish in Gravesend Reach.
Masonic lodges are held at the Town
Hall and at the Old Falcon Hotel.
Varchall's Charity: this trust is
shortly as follows: David Varchall, an
old inhabitant of Gravesend, by his will
dated 15th September, 1703, left certain
property lying by the waterside in trust,
after his wife's death, to raise out of the
rents £20 yearly, to be paid quarterly to
the master of the Free School (now the
National School) for ever to teach
twenty poor boys, of whom ten were
to be sent from Gravesend and ten
from Milton by the churchwardens and
parishioners of each parish.
Also to lay
out a sum of money to buy clothes for
these twenty poor boys, and to pay the
surplus to buy clothes for so many other
poor people in Gravesend and Milton,
as the respective churchwardens and
parishioners should think fit.
The rents
of the properties now yield a surplus
averaging about;£100 per annum, which
is divided equally between the parishes,
and about Christmas the Vestries examine
each applicant for clothes, and send a
list of approved persons to the clerk, who
gives them each a ticket authorising them
to receive, at any shop in their own
parish, useful clothing to the extent of
so many shillings; these are collected
and paid by the trustees.
There is a
notice appended to the ticket that if the
ticket be used for any other goods except
clothes (such as liquor, &c.) it will not be
paid.
By a decree in Chancery the
number of trustees is fixed at fourteen -
seven for each parish; five to be a
quorum.
Vacancies are to be filled up
by the trustees, but so that there be
never less than five trustees.
Pinnock's Charity: Henry Pinnock,
of Milton next Gravesend, gentleman,
by his will dated the 13th of August,
1624, gave and bequeathed unto the poor
people of the parishes of Gravesend and
Milton the sum of £3, to be distributed
indifferently, at the discretion of the
churchwardens and overseers of the said
parishes, without any other dole.
Likewise he gave and bequeathed unto the
churchwardens and overseers of the
parishes of Gravesend and Milton aforesaid, for ever, for the time being, certain
messuages or tenements with gardens in
Milton aforesaid; so that the said church-
wardens and overseers do term the said
messuages for ever by the name of "Saint
Thomas's Houses", and do for ever convert, take, employ, and keep the same
houses, with their appurtenances, to and
for the only use and behoof, and for the
better relief and maintenance of such
poor decayed people as shall from time
to time be or dwell in the said parishes,
and to no other use, intent, or purpose.
He further bequeathed unto the said
churchwardens and overseers two acres of
marsh ground, and other hereditaments
at Grays Thurrock, in Essex, to the only
use and stock of the said poor of Milton
and Gravesend, and to keep them at
work; and that the trustees shall, during
their natural lives, have the placing and
displacing of the ancient poor people,
into and out of the said houses.
There
are now ten tenements called "Saint Thomas's Houses", and four more are
in course of erection out of funds derived
from charitable legacies.
The present
poor people who are occupants number
37.
With a view of establishing a fund
for the endowment of the charity and in
memory of the late Prince Consort, a
fund was established in 1863 called "the
Albert Memorial Endowment Fund",
which now consists of nearly £1,400
Consols, the income of which is divided
equally between the inhabitants of the
houses.
The Orphans' Home, South-street,
West-square, London, and 35, Harmer-street, Gravesend, was opened in 1867
for 10 children.
There are now 214
orphans within its shelter - 65 in the
Branch Home, Harmer-street, Gravesend, the rest in the Parent Home, West-
square, London.
The Gravesend family
consists of the little ones and the delicate
ones of the flock, with a few older and
stronger girls to do the work of the
house.
There is no assured income,
and no funded property belonging to the
institution.
There are no managing
expenses; the services of the architect,
the legal adviser, the medical attendants,
the secretary, and superintendent, are all
given gratuitously; so that every penny
which is contributed to the Home goes
direct to the support of the children.
The average cost of each child's maintenance is £15 a year.
More than a
hundred orphans are awaiting their turn
for admission.
The Children's Home, Milton, for the
rescue and nurture of orphan and neglected children, is a certified industrial
school, providing accommodation for 150
boys.
In connection with the Children's
Home, Bonner-road, London; Edgworth,
Lancashire; and Hamilton, Canada.
Many pleasant excursions may be
made from Gravesend, some of the
prettiest country in the county lying
within easy reach.
The woods of Cobham should certainly be visited, especially
in the season when the rhododendron
thickets are in bloom.
But at all times
of the year the woods are beautiful.
Cobham Hall, the seat of the Earl of
Darnley, is an interesting Elizabethan
building, containing a fine picture
gallery and a very perfect gilded music-room attributed to Inigo Jones.
Cobham
church also presents many points of
interest.
Fine views are obtained on the
road from Gravesend to Rochester (7
miles) over Gad's Hill.
Maidstone is
about three-quarters of an hour from
Gravesend by the North Kent Railway,
and a little beyond Maidstone are the
celebrated Farleigh and Wateringbury
hop-gardens.
In the summer the steamer
can be taken to Southend or Sheerness,
from which latter point steamers run up
the Medway to Rochester and Chatham.
Banks: London and County, and
London and Provincial, both in High-street.
Fair: October 24th.
Fire: the Volunteer Brigade consists
of captain, superintendent, and ten members.
Three manual engines, two hand,
hose and reel.
Hydrants are fixed
throughout the town.
Fire-engines,
escapes, and fire-annihilators are kept at
the Town Hall.
Hotels: "Clarendon", "Falcon",
"Old Falcon", "Rosherville", all facing
the river.
Places of Worship: Christ Church, Milton next Gravesend;
Holy Trinity Church, Milton next Gravesend;
St.George's (parish church of Gravesend);
St.James's Church, London-road;
St.Mark's, Rosherville;
St.Peter and St.Paul (parish church of Milton);
the Roman Catholic Church of St.John's, Milton-road;
Waterside Mission, St.Andrew's;
Bethel (for sailors and watermen, Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes), West-street.
Gravesend also contains
Congregational, Free Church, Primitive
Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, and
Wesleyan Chapels, and a Jewish Synagogue.
Police: the station is at the Town Hall in High-street.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, savings bank, telegraph,
and insurance), 144 and 145, Milton-road.
Mails from London, 8am, 2.05, 5.10, and 10.45pm
Mails for London, 9.30am, 1, 4, 8, and 12pm
Receiving offices, 80, High-street, 38, New-road, 27, Wrotham-
road, and at Denton.
There is also a telegraph-station at the Terrace Pier.
Nearest Railway Station, Steamboat-pier and Ferry: Gravesend.
Fares to Charing Cross: 1st, 3/6, 4/6; 2nd, 2/8, 3/6; 3rd, 2/1, 3/-.
To Fenchurch-street (via Tilbury): 1st, 2/6, 3/9; 2nd, 1/11, 2/10; 3rd, 1/4, 2/-
| For one person | Exceeding one | |
| between Broadness Point and Gray's, and Lower Hope Point below Gravesend: Over the water directly, and to and from any steamboat, ship, or vessel, opposite, or near to any public plying place between Broadness Point and Grays, and Lower Hope Point aforesaid, both inclusive, one person | 1s | 6d. each |
|---|---|---|
| From the Town Quay to or from Gladdish's Wharf on the west, and to and from all steamboats, ships, vessels, and places lying and being between the same, and from the Town Quay to and from all steamboats, ships, vessels, and places lying and being between the same, one person | 1s. | 6d. each |
| From the Town Quay at Gravesend, westward, to or from any steamboat, ship, vessel, or place between it and:- | ||
| - the Red Lion Wharf | 1s 6d | 9d each |
| - Northfleet Creek | 2s 6d | 1s 3d each |
| - Broadness Point or Grays | 3s 6d | 1s 9d each |
| From the Town Quay at Gravesend, westward, to or from any steamboat, ship, vessel, or place between it and:- | ||
| - the Red Lion Wharf | 1s 6d | 9d each |
| - Northfleet Creek | 2s 6d | 1s 3d each |
| From the Town Quay at Gravesend, eastward, to and from any steamboat, ship, vessel, or place between it and:- | ||
| - Denton Mill | 1s 6d | 9d each |
| - Shorne Mead Battery | 2s 6d | 1s 3d each |
| - Coalhouse Point | 3s 6d | 1s 9d each |
| - Halfway Lower Hope | 5s 0d | 2s 6d each |
| - Lower Hope Point Battery | 6s 6d | 3s 3d each |
Watermen bringing the same passengers
or any of them back from any steamboat,
ship, vessel, or place, to be paid only one
half the fare above stated by such person
or persons for the back passage.
The
above fares in all cases to include passengers' luggage or baggage, not exceeding fifty-six pounds for each passenger.
All beyond that weight to be paid for at
or after the rate of 6d. for each fifty-six pounds.
Watermen detained by passengers stopping at steamboats, ships,
wharves, and other places, to be paid for
time or distance, according to the rate
herein set forth respectively, at the option of the waterman.
For a full boat-load of passengers' luggage or baggage, the same fare as for
carrying eight passengers: for half a boatload, the same fare as four passengers.
Time for a pair of oars:
For the first hour, 2s; for the second hour, 1s; and for each succeeding hour, 1s.
For the day, the day to be computed from 7
o'clock in the morning to 5 o'clock in the
evening from Michaelmas Day to Lady
Day, and from 6 o'clock in the morning
to 8 o'clock in the evening, from Lady
Day to Michaelmas Day, 12s.
Gravesend Hackney Coach Fares to be affixed in a conspicuous position in the interior of every carriage licensed by the Urban Sanitary authority.
| By distance - From the Town Terrace, or Commercial Piers, to the North Kent Railway Station, or vice versa | 1s 0d |
|---|---|
| From the piers or railway station to Rosherville Gardens, or Pier, or Perry-street | 1s 6d |
| To Springhead | 2s 6d |
| From the King-street stand to the Denton boundary, or any place between the west side of Windmill and High streets, and south of the old Dover-road; or to the Rosherville boundary, or any place between Windmill and High- streets, and south of the Old road | 1s 6d |
| From the piers or railway-station into Old Dover-road, Constitution- crescent, Leith Park, West Hill, Shrubbery, South Hill, White Hill roads, or Old Sun-lane | 1s 6d |
| Except in the above cases, for any distance not exceeding one mile | 1s |
| for every additional half-mile, | 6d |
| Half back fare if the parties return in the same carriage. | |
| By time - Between 6am, and 10pm for every hour or any less time, from the time of hiring to the nearest stand after discharged | 2s 6d |
Half-fare additional may be charged
between 10pm and 6am, When more
than two persons may be and are carried,
6d. to be paid for every additional person
for the whole hiring.
Two children under
ten years of age to be counted as one
adult; a single child under ten free.
No
driver to carry more than six persons in
a carriage drawn by horses, or more than
two in one drawn by mules or asses.
Luggage free up to twenty-eight pounds;
over that weight, 2d. for every additional
fourteen pounds, or fractional part thereof.
Carriage drawn by a goat to carry only
three children under six years.
Gravesend Reach is about three
miles and a half in length, and runs from
Northfleet to Coal House Point.
The
first lighthouse of the Trinity House is
at Northfleet.
Bearings E.S.E. and W.N.W.
Grays Thurrock, a small town on the
left (Essex) bank, rather more than 23
miles from London Bridge; a station on
the London, Tilbury, and Southend Rail-
way, 20½ miles from London; the trains
average about three-quarters of an hour.
Population, exclusive of the training-ships,
about 4,000.
Light soil on chalk.
The
principal trade of Grays is in bricks, and,
especially, lime and cement.
The cruciform church is dedicated to
St.Peter and St.Paul.
It contains a
tablet to the memory of the schoolmaster
and boys of the training ship Goliath,
who were drowned during the fire which
destroyed that ship in 1876.
About a
century ago, Wm.Palmer, Esq., left
property in London, now amounting to
about £900 per annum, for the purposes
of education in Grays, and a few years
ago, at the cost of about £7,000, schools
were erected to accommodate 140 boys
and 75 girls, who obtain their education
at a small charge.
The training ships Exmouth and Shaftesbury {which see) are moored in the river off
Grays.
The former is under the Metropolitan Asylums Board, the latter under
the London School Board.
A new police-station was opened in 1880.
Bank: London and Provincial.
Hotels: "the King's Arms" and "The Railway".
Places of Worship: Church of St.Peter and St.Paul, Congregational
Church, and Chapels of the Primitive and United Methodist.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, savings bank, telegraph,
insurance).
Mails from London , 6.50 and 7.15am, 6pm;
Sundays, 9am,
For London, 12.10am, 4.45, and 9pm; Sundays, 4.30 and 9pm
Nearest Steamboat Pier: Rosherville about 3 miles, and Tilbury, a little lower
down on the Essex side;
Railway Station: Grays.
Fares to London: 1st, 2/3, 3/9; 2nd, 1/8, 2/10; 3rd, 1/1, 2/-.
Great Western Railway:
Horses and Carriages:
Horses and carriages
are conveyed to or from Windsor, Taplow,
Maidenhead, Bourne End, Great Marlow,
Henley, Reading, Pangbourne, Goring,
Wallingford, Abingdon, and Oxford, and
horses only to and from Cookham.
They
are conveyed by certain trains only, for
which see time-tables.
In no cases are
horses or carriages conveyed by trains
which run to or from Bishop's-road
Station, or to or from the Metropolitan
line.
The rates from Paddington to the
stations on the river are as under:
Previous intimation should be given to the station-master when horses or carriages are about to be sent, so that the necessary vehicles may be obtained and put in readiness by the time the horses or carriages are brought to the station.
Compartments Retained:
Compartments, in carriages of any class, are
reserved for families or parties of friends
who are desirous of travelling together.
Application should be made beforehand
to the superintendent of the line, or the
station-master at Paddington, as passengers cannot depend upon getting an
empty compartment after they arrive at
the station, if no previous notice has been
given.
The number of the party should
always be stated.
Cloak Rooms:
Passengers' luggage
can be deposited in the cloak rooms at
Paddington, Westbourne-park, and other
stations on the line.
The charge which
the company makes for warehousing
passengers' luggage, which has been, or
is about to be conveyed on the railway, is
2d for each package for any period not
exceeding three days, and 1d additional
per package for every day or part of a
day after three days.
Cheap Tickets for Picnic and
other Pleasure Parties: Between
May 1 and October 31 of every year, 1st,
2nd, and 3rd class return tickets at reduced fares are issued from all London
stations to bona fide pleasure or picnic
parties of not less than six 1st class, or
ten 2nd or 3rd class passengers.
The
tickets are available for use on the day of
issue only; they are not issued to London
in any case, nor from London to any
place more than thirty miles distant.
In order to obtain these tickets it is
necessary that application should be
made for them at least three clear days
before the excursion is proposed to be
made, and the letter of application must
specifically state that the party is exclusively a pleasure party, and give the
following information:
1. The probable number of the party.
2. The class of carriage for which the tickets are required.
3. The stations from and to which the party will travel.
4. The date of the proposed excursion, and the trains by which the party
intend to go and return.
The application may be addressed
either to the general manager, the superintendent of the line, the superintendent
of the London division (Paddington), or
the station-master at Paddington.
The
power of refusing any application is reserved; but if it be granted, a letter of
authority will be sent to the applicant,
on production of which at the booking-
office of the station from whence the party
travels the necessary tickets will be issued.
The fares are generally about a single
fare and a quarter.
From Paddington
to the undermentioned stations on the
Thames they are as under:
Anglers' Tickets:
Cheap 3rd class
return tickets to the undermentioned
stations are issued from all London
stations by all 3rd class trains to anglers
who are bond fide members of anglers'
clubs, and who produce their cards of
membership at the time of taking their
tickets.
The fares Irom Paddington are
as under:
Anglers' tickets are in all cases "return" tickets, and are available for three days.
Outside Porters for Transfer of Luggage:
Where two stations belonging to separate companies are adjacent to
each other, out-porters are appointed to
convey passengers' luggage from one
station to the other at fixed charges.
The Bishop's-road and Praed-street
Stations adjoin the Paddington Station,
and the authorised charge for the conveyance of luggage from one to the other
is 2d per package.
At Reading the stations of the Great
Western and South-Eastern Companies
adjoin.
The charges for the transfer
of luggage are:
Single packages: 2d
Two or more packages, not exceeding ½cwt. each 1d
Each package exceeding ½cwt. 2d
Large quantities, per ton 2/-
At Oxford transfer porters convey
luggage between the Great Western and
North Western Stations at fixed charges,
under the control of the station-masters.
The fares charged for through tickets
do not in any case include the conveyance
of luggage between the stations.
Cheap Saturday to Monday Tickets:
On Saturdays and Sundays
1st and 2nd class return tickets to
Windsor are issued at Paddington,
Kensington, Uxbridge-road, Westbourne-park, Aldgate, Bishopsgate, Moorgate-street, King's Cross, and stations on the
Metropolitan Railway between Aldgate
and Edgware-road inclusive; also from
Hammersmith, Shepherd's Bush, Latimer-road, and Notting-hill, available for
the return journey till the Monday following inclusive.
Fares from either of
the above-mentioned stations:
1st class: 4s 6d; 2nd class, 3s 6d
Similar tickets are also issued from Mansion House,
Charing Cross, Victoria, and all Stations
on the District Railway between Mansion
House and Hammersmith inclusive, also
from Kensington (High-street), West
Brompton and Walham Green, via
Ealing only, available for the same period
and at the same fares.
Similar tickets are also issued on Saturdays only from Victoria, Battersea,
Chelsea, and West Brompton, available
for return during the same period and at
the same fares.
On Saturdays and Sundays cheap 1st
and 2nd class return tickets to Henley
are issued at Paddington, Kensington,
Uxbridge-road, Westbourne-park, Hammersmith, Shepherd's Bush, Latimer-
road, and Notting-hill, available for the
return journey till the following Monday
inclusive.
Fares: 1st class, 7s 6d; 3rd, 5s
Also from Aldgate, Bishopsgate, Moorgate-street, King's Cross, and
stations on the Metropolitan Railway between Aldgate and Edgware-road, inclusive; and from Mansion House,
Blackfriars, Charing Cross, Victoria, and
all stations on the District Railway, between Mansion House and Gloucester-road inclusive; via Earl's Court and
Westbourne-park only.
Fares: 1st class, 8s; 2nd class, 5s 6d.
Tickets are also issued on Saturdays
only from Victoria, Battersea, Chelsea,
and West Brompton, available for return
during the same period.
Fares: 1st
class, 7s 6d; 2nd class, 5s.
These tickets must be used on the
down journey on the date of issue, but
are available for return journey by any
train on Sunday or Monday.
Boats and Canoes:
Boats and Canoes are conveyed at
the risk of the owner by passenger trains
at rates which may be obtained of the
station-masters.
In cases, however,
where the crew, not less than four in
number, travel with the boat, the charge
for the latter will be reduced one-third;
but in order to obtain this reduction
previous application must be made to
the superintendent of the line.
The reduction is made only one way
if the crew accompany the boat only one
way; but is made both ways if they
accompany the boat both going and
returning.
SEASON TICKET RATES
Cheap Day Excursions:
Cheap Day Excursion Tickets are issued by
certain specified trains, from May 1 to
October 31, to the following places from
Paddington, Westbourne-park, Kensington (Addison-road), Uxbridge-road,
West Brompton, Chelsea, and Battersea.
Also from Aldgate, Bishopsgate, Moor-
gate-street, Farringdon-street, and stations on the Metropolitan Railway
between Aldgate and Edgware-road
inclusive; and from Hammersmith,
Shepherd's Bush, Latimer-road, and
Notting-hill, there and back, in 3rd class
carriages, at the following fares:
Windsor: 2s 6d
Maidenhead: 3s
Taplow:3s
Cookham:3s 6d
Bourne End: 3s 6d
Great Marlow: 3s 6d
Henley: 3s 6d
Cheap Day Excursion Tickets are also
issued to Windsor, by through trains
via Ealing, from Mansion House and all
stations on the District Railway between
Mansion House and Ealing Common
inclusive, and from Kensington (High-
street) and stations between Putney
Bridge and West Brompton inclusive, at
the following fares:
From all Stations except Acton Green,
Mill Hill Park, and Ealing Common: 2s 6d
From Acton Green: 2s 3d
From Mill Hill Park, and Ealing Common: 2/-
Cheap Day Excursion Tickets to the
following places are also issued from the
Mansion House and all stations on the
District Railway between Mansion House
and Earl's Court inclusive, from Kensington (High-street) and stations between Putney Bridge and West Brompton
inclusive (via Earl's Court and Westbourne-park) at the following fares:
Maidenhead: 3s
Taplow: 3s
Cookham: 3s 6d
Bourne End: 3s 6d
Henley: 3s 6d
These tickets are only available by specified trains as shown on handbills,
copies of which may be had at Paddington, at any of the Great Western Stations
or Receiving Offices in London, and also
at the Metropolitan and District Railway
Stations.
Passengers must be careful to
note that if the cheap tickets are used by
any other than the specified trains, or if
the journey there and back be not completed in the one day, the full ordinary
fares will be charged.
Saloon Carriages:
Saloon carriages
constructed to carry about twenty-four
passengers (1st class only) may be retained for parties of not less than eight
passengers.
Application should be made
to the superintendent of the line, Paddington Station, some days before the
date on which the carriages will be required, as the number is limited, and in
the summer there is often a great demand
for them.
These carriages are not retained
for parties holding picnic or other tickets
issued at reduced rates.
Changing to and from the Metropolitan Line:
Passengers between the
Metropolitan line and the Great Western
Railway change either at Bishop's-road,
Praed-street, or Westbourne-park.
Some
of the main-line trains do not stop at
Westbourne-park, and therefore persons
not fully conversant with the time-table
will do well to change at Bishop's-road.
Westbourne-park is, however, more convenient for passengers coming from Hammersmith, Kensington, or the Western
suburbs served by the Metropolitan trains
running through that station, as the
change is made by simply walking from
one side of the platform to the other.
The Metropolitan and Metropolitan
District Extension is now completed, and
trains run round the Circle via Praed-street, Moorgate-street, Aldgate, Mansion
House, and High-street, Kensington.
Passengers for Paddington by those trains must
change at Praed-street Station.
Bishop's-road communicates with the Paddington
Station by means of a covered way; but
persons passing to and from the Praed-street Station must cross the street.
The authorised charge for conveying
luggage between Paddington and Bishop's-road or Praed-street is 2d per package,
irrespective of weight.
Private Broughams:
Broughams may be hired at the Paddington Station
at a fixed charge of for the first hour, 3s;
after the first hour, 2s 6d. per hour; or
at 1s 6d per mile if according to distance.
A note to the station-master will always
secure the attendance of as many carriages
as may be required on the arrival of the
train.
Private Omnibuses can also be hired.
For terms apply to the station-master.
Greenhithe, Kent, on the right bank
at the junction of Long and Fiddler's
Reaches, from London 21 miles.
A
station on the North Kent Railway 20
miles from Charing Cross; express trains
take about 45 minutes.
The station is 10
minutes' walk from the river at the Pier
Hotel, where there is a jetty (toll 1d)
recently erected in place of the old pier.
Population: 1,452.
Soil: gravel and chalk.
The Arethusa and Chichester training-ships for boys, and the Worcester, the
ship of the Thames Nautical Training College, are stationed here, and here also
are the headquarters of the Junior
Thames Yacht Club (all of which see).
Some considerable business is done by
the cement works in the neighbourhood,,
not altogether to the satisfaction of some
of the inhabitants, and many river pilots
and masters of vessels complain loudly of
the nuisance arising from the smoke of
the numerous chimneys.
The principal
mansion at Greenhithe is Ingress Abbey,
facing the river, which was formerly the
residence of Alderman Harmer, and was
constructed in part of stones from Old
London Bridge.
There are some good
houses at the back of the village on what
is known as the Terrace and in its neighbourhood.
A masonic lodge is held at
the Pier Hotel.
The church is a handsome modern building in the early
decorated style, picturesquely situated on
the London-road.
A short distance from
Greenhithe - approached either from the
London-road or by a footpath immediately
opposite the railway station, a few minutes'
walk - is Stone Church, a well-known landmark.
The church has been recently restored by Mr.Street, who is of opinion that
it was built by the same architect as Westminster Abbey.
They were certainly built
at the same time, and there are many
points of resemblance between them.
The chancel is remarkable for the great
beauty of the carving of the arch and of
the arcade on marble pillars which runs
round the walls, and which Mr.Street
pronounces to be "among the very best
sculpture of the age that we have in
this country".
Among other features of
interest are some ancient brasses.
The view from the churchyard is extensive; visitors should by no means
overlook the remarkably fine yew-tree
which stands near the west door of the
church.
There is a village club.
Subscription,
for working-men, 5s per annum, or
1s 6d per quarter; honorary members,
10s per annum, 3s per quarter.
Reading-room open from 6 to 10pm, except
Monday.
Smoking-room open daily
from 8am, to 10pm.
Library of 1,000 volumes.
Places of Worship: St.Mary the
Virgin, and Stone Church; the Roman
Catholic Church of Our Lady of Mount
Carmel; and Congregational and Wesleyan Chapels.
Fire: Volunteer Brigade: 2 officers and 11 men.
Hotels "The Pier", "The White Hart", both in High-street.
Police: No station; 2 constables live in the village.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, savings bank, telegraph,
and insurance), High-St.
Mails from
London at 8am, 12.40 and 6.30pm
Mails for London, 1.15 and 8.15pm
There is also a branch office on the Terrace.
Nearest Station and Ferry: Greenhithe.
Fares to London (Charing Cross):
1st, 3/3 4/ 6; 2nd, 2/6 3/6; 3rd, 1/8 2/9
Greenwich Hospital and Royal
Naval College, Greenwich, S.E:
Greenwich Hospital was founded by
William III. immediately after the death
of Queen Mary, his consort, and was
intended as a memorial of her virtues,
and of the great victory of La Hogue;
"a monument", as Macaulay says, "the
most superb that was ever erected to
any sovereign".
The building, a grand
specimen of classical architecture, and
one of Sir Christopher Wren's finest
designs, was originally intended as
an asylum for wounded and disabled
sailors, in whom Queen Mary was greatly
interested.
The first stone in the building
was laid in 1695, and ten years later forty-two seamen were admitted to the benefits
of the asylum.
This number in course
of time was increased to something like
three thousand; but in 1865 an Act of
Parliament was passed offering advantageous terms to such of the pensioners
as would leave, and in 1869 another Act
finally disestablished King William's
foundation.
When the Hospital was
occupied by the pensioners it became
one of the sights of London, and it is
possible that a too liberal distribution of
baksheesh on the part of the public may
have had something to do with the deterioration which was observable in the
manners and customs of the in-pensioners
during the later days of their existence.
Nowadays, although one of their chief
attractions exists no longer, Greenwich
Hospital and Park are still well worthy a
visit.
The Painted Hall contains some
fine pictures of sea-fights, and there are
some noteworthy statues of celebrated
sailors.
The most interesting of the
Greenwich sights, however, are the relics
of Nelson - notably the Trafalgar coat
and waistcoat.
The public are admitted
free.
From Cannon-street (17 min),
1st, 10d, 1/3; 2nd, -/8d, 1/-; 3rd, -/5d, -/8d.
Charing Cross, (27 min), 1st, 1/-, 1/6;
2nd, -/9d, 1/2; 3rd, -/6d, -/9d; also by steamboat from all piers.
Greenwich Reach runs between
Greenwich and the Isle of Dogs.
Bearings S.S.E. and E.N.E.
Grove Park Rowing Club, Chiswick.
Amateur: Election by ballot in committee, one "negative vote" in five to exclude.
Entrance fee, a £1 share in the Grove Park Boat-house Company (Lim.).
Subscription, £1 11s 6d.; honorary members, £1 1s.
Colours, red, black, and yellow. Club-house, Grove-park, Chiswick.
The Gudgeon: It is doubtful whether
this fish is so abundant in the river, or
that it reaches anything like the individual
size as formerly.
A gudgeon of the
present day of two ounces, or about seven
inches in length, is a monster fish.
They
swim in large shoals always close to the
bottom, and are taken with the same tackle
as that used for dace, excepting that the
hook should be almost of the smallest.
The best bait is a small portion of red
worm, sufficient to cover the hook and no
more; for if there is a portion hanging
down, it will be seized and nipped off by
this bold biter.
Fifteen to twenty dozen
may be caught by a single rod on a
favourable day.
The minnows here, however, as do the bleak in the roach and
dace swims, prove a great annoyance,
and as there appears to be no way to
get rid of them, their presence must be
put up with.
The bait should drag on
the ground, the float slightly kept in the
rear, that the bait may tilt, advance, and
present itself to the fish without the interference of the line.
They will bite in
the hottest weather and in the middle of
the day, when all other fish are lazy and
indisposed to feed.
Gudgeon fishing is
a favourite pursuit with ladies, who are
often more skilful in the capture than the
stronger sex.
Halfway Reach, nearly two miles
from Crossness - the Southern outfall - to
the top of Erith Reach.
Dagenham
Reach and Marsh are on the left (Essex)
bank.
On the other side are the extensive
Erith Marshes.
Bearings S.E.by E. and N.W. by W.
Halliford, Middlesex (and see Causeway Stakes) on the left bank, between
Shepperton and Walton; from London 28¾miles, from Oxford 82¾ miles.
Halliford -
generally known as Lower Halliford, there
being a so-called Upper Halliford in the
parish of Sunbury - is a hamlet much in
favour with anglers, with a fine view,
across the river, of Oatlands Park and the
Surrey hills.
An iron bridge connects the
counties of Middlesex and Surrey at
Halliford; the old brick bridge, with its
numerous arches, having succumbed some
years ago in a disastrous flood.
There is
no particular point calling for remark at
Halliford, except that it has a very comfortable and reasonable hotel in Stone's
well-known "Ship", which is largely used
by anglers and rowing men.
Shepperton
railway station is an easy fifteen minutes'
walk from the "Ship".
Punts now begin to thicken, and as
many may be counted in a mile as in
twenty above; yet roach are taken by the
five to twelve dozen in a day with a single
rod, and all the persistent angling appears to have no appreciable effect upon
their presence.
There is a Wesleyan Chapel in the village.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, telegraph, and savings
bank), about six minutes' walk to the left
from the river.
Mails from London, 7 and 10.40am, 6.20pm; Sunday, 7am
Mails for London, 9.10am, 2.00, 7.30, and 8.40pm; Sunday, 10.10pm
Nearest Bridges, up, Chertsey, 2¾miles; down, Walton 1 mile.
Locks, up, Shepperton 1¼mile; down, Sunbury, 2½miles.
Railway Station, Shepperton.
Fares, Shepperton to Waterloo, 1st, 3/-, 4/-; 2nd, 2/4, 3/-; 3rd, 1/6½, 2/6.
Hambleden, Bucks, on the left bank.
Population, 1,550. Soil, chalky.
The
diminutive village of Hambleden stands
some distance from the river, its waterside suburb, so to speak, being Mill End,
close to Hambleden Lock; from London
62¾ miles, from Oxford 48¾ miles.
There
is little inducement to walk the mile or
so, which separates this retired hamlet
from the river, although it is easy to
understand the attraction that Hambleden and its neighbourhood have for the
landscape painter.
The handsome old
church, approached through a good lychgate with two dormers, contains in the
north aisle an alabaster monument of Sir
Cope and Lady D'Oyley and their ten
children.
They are all in the usual kneeling posture, elaborately painted and gilded, the sons with the father, the daughters with the mother.
Some of the figures
bear skulls in their hands, probably to
intimate that they had died before the
erection of the monument.
Lady D'Oyley
was the sister of Quarles, of the "Emblems", to whom probably the epitaph to
his sister is to be attributed.
It runs
thus:
Would'st thou reader draw to life
the perfect copy of a wife,
Read on, then redeeme from shame
that lost that honourable name.
This dust was once in spirit a Jael,
Rebecca in grace, in heart an Abigail;
In works a Dorcas, to ye Church a Hanna
And to her spouse Susanna.
Prudently simple, providently wary
To th' world a Martha, and to Heaven a Mary.
the inscription to the memory of Sir Cope, who died in 1633, fifteen years after his wife, is still more gushing:
Cope D'Oyley, died 1633.
Ask not me who's buried here;
Goe ask the Commons, ask ye Sheire,
Goe ask ye Church; they'll tell thee who
As well as blubbered eyes can doe;
Goe ask ye Heraulds; Ask ye poore;
thine eares shall heare enough to ask no more
then, if thine eye bedewe this sacred urne
Each drop a pearle will turn
T' adorne his Tombe; or, if thou canst not vent
thou bringst more marble to his monument.
It is further recorded that "they lived
together in inviolated bands of holy wedlocke 22 yeares and multiplied themselves
into 5 sonnes and 5 daughters".
Close
by the D'Oyley tomb is a very old stone
coffin of unusual size, and in the vestry
is a magnificent - restored - old oak press
very richly carved with coats-of-arms,
dragons, figures, and devices innumerable.
In Hambleden parish, a little distance up the river, and with lawns extending to its bank, is Greenlands, the
seat of the Right Hon.W.H.Smith, M.P., concerning which Langley gives the following account:
"the earliest deeds relative to this
estate are from George Chowne to Robert
Shipwath, of an ancient family here, as
appears from several memorials in the
Church; from them it passed to a younger
branch of the Doyley family, who resided
here many years, as appears from various
evidences.
It was the jointure of Lady
Periam, wife of Sir Robert Doyley, afterwards married to Sir Henry Neville, and
lastly to Sir William Periam, knights.
She died May 3rd, 1621, and was buried
at Henley.
By her will it appears that the
bouse was of great extent and richly furnished.
Among many other charitable bequests, her ladyship left a farm called the
Borough, in this parish, to Archbishop
Laud, in trust, to be applied to some
college in Oxford, at his discretion.
His
Grace in consequence founded a fellowship and two scholarships in Balliol
College, but without any preference to
the Grammar School at Henley, also
endowed by Lady Periam, or to the
county of Bucks, in which the estate is
situated.
After Lady Periam's decease
the estate came to John, brother of Sir
Robert Doyley, and descended to his son,
Sir Cope Doyley, to whom there is a monument in Hambleden Church.
His eldest
son and heir, John Doyley, who resided
at Greenlands during the commencement
of the Great Rebellion, and was firmly
attached to the royal cause, had the misfortune to have his house converted into
a garrison."
In 1644 the house underwent a long siege at the hands of the
Parliamentary forces under Lord Essex.
He was succeeded by General Brown,
who planted batteries on the opposite
side of the river, which "made many
shot and much battered" the house, and
almost "beat it about the ears of the
garrison."
The garrison eventually surrendered to General Brown, but marched
out with all the honours of war.
The
present house bears little resemblance to
the former one; the situation is extremely
beautiful.
Thomas Chaucer, son of
Geoffrey Chaucer, the poet, died at an
estate here in 1434.
Hambleden Inns: "Flower Pot", Aston, across the river; "Stag and Huntsman", in the
village.
Places of Worship: St.Mary's, and
Congregational Chapel.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, savings bank, and telegraph
office).
Mails from London, 7.30am,
Mails for London, 6pm; Sunday, 10.45am,
Nearest Bridges, up, Henley 2¼ miles;
down, Marlow, 6 miles.
Locks, Hambleden; up, Marsh 3¼ miles; down, Hurley
3¾ miles.
Ferry: Aston.
Railway Station, Henley.
Fares from Henley to Paddington, 1st,
6/3, 10/9; 2nd, 4/8, 8/-; 3rd, 2/1 3/2[?]
Hammersmith, London, S.W:
On
the left bank, is chiefly remarkable on the
river for the Mall, just above the bridge,
which contains, besides some modern
houses, a few remnants of the Anne and
Georgian periods.
Below bridge the bank
is more commercial and less pleasing.
A
suspension bridge, with carriage road,
spans the river at this point, and was for
many years a favourite and cheap grand
stand on the University Boat-race day.
Regard for the public safety has induced
the authorities to close it during the race.
It is now (1885) being rebuilt.
At Hammersmith are the headquarters of a
number of rowing clubs, and Biffen's well known boat-house is on the Mall-road.
Nearest Railway Stations: District and Metropolitan, Broadway;
Omnibus Routes, Hammersmith, and Hammersmith and Barnes;
Steamboat Pier: Hammersmith.
Hampton, Middlesex, on the left
bank; from London 24¼ miles, from
Oxford 87¼ miles.
A station on the
Thames Valley Line of the London and
South Western Railway, 14½ miles from
Waterloo; trains average about forty-five
minutes.
Flys meet the trains.
The
station is about five minutes' walk from
the landing-stage.
Population, 3,915.
Soil, gravel.
Hampton is a small town
scattered over a considerable space; a
number of villas and houses of a similar
class having from time to time been added
to the original street or strand of Hampton.
The Cockney appellation 'Appy
'Ampton arises from the Hampton races
(which, in point of fact, do not take place
at Hampton at all, but at Molesey Hurst
on the other side of the river, and in
another county), which occur twice in the
year.
"All the fun of the fair" is to be
found at the June meeting, and the road
has quite a miniature Derby Day appearance.
The sport, however, is seldom
brilliant, a circumstance which makes
little difference to the holiday people,
who come out more for a picnic and "a
spree" than to enjoy the "sport of kings".
The course is a flat oval, about
a mile and a half.
The T.Y.C. is a little
over half a mile in length and quite
straight.
Amongst the notabilia of Hampton is
Garrick's Villa on the bank of the river,
opposite the island just past the church.
The house itself stands some little dis-
tance back, being separated from the
lawn which abuts on the river by the
high road, under which Garrick constructed a short tunnel.
On the lawn is
a summer-house, sometimes described as
a temple, which at one time contained
Roubiliac's statue to Shakespeare, afterwards removed to the hall of the British
Museum.
The Hampton Grammar School was
founded in 1556, reconstituted 1878, and
the buildings now stand near the railway-station.
The course of instruction includes all the usual branches of a liberal
education.
The fees are from 3½ to 4½ guineas per term, of which there are three
in the year; boys not resident in Hampton or Hampton Wick pay an entrance
fee of £2.
The head-master takes alimited number of boarders at £60 per
annum, exclusive of tuition fee.
The
assistant-masters also take boarders.
At Tangley Park, near Hampton, is
the Female Orphans' Home, the object
of which is to train children for domestic
service.
All children of the ages from
four to ten, who have lost both parents,
and have no relatives able to provide for
them, are eligible for admission.
There
is no election, but candidates are received
as vacancies occur.
The present number
is limited to 50.
The institution is
supported by subscriptions.
The register dates from 1512, but the
church itself is a comparatively modern
building, not by any means to be commended, having been built at a disastrous
architectural period.
Unpromising as is
its exterior it is not undeserving a visit,
there being some curious monuments
and epitaphs.
At the west end of the
church is a large marble monument,
unfortunately mutilated, representing in
life-size a Miss Susannah Thomas and
her mother.
In the western vestibule is
a very curious monument with a recumbent female figure, under a canopy,
bearing a singular resemblance to one of
the ladies in the children's Noah's arks.
The lady in question was Sibel, daughter
of John Hampden, wife to one of the
Penns, of Penn House, and nurse to
King Edward VI.
The following inscription records her history:
For here is brought to home the place of longe abode
Whose vertu guided hath her shippe into the quiet rode
A mirror of her time for vertues of the minde
A matrone such as in her dayes the like was hard to find
No plante of servile stocke, a Hampden by descent
Unto whose race 300 yeres hathe friendly fortune lent
To courte she called was to foster up a kinge
Whose helping hand long lingring sobes to speedie end did bring.
Two quenes that scepter bare gave credit to this dame
Full many yeres in court she dwelt without disgrac or blame
No house ne worldly wealthe on earthe she did regarde
Before eache joye yea and her life her prince's health preferd
Whose long and loyall love with skilful care to serve
Was such as did through heavenly help her prince's thanks deserve
Woulde God the ground were grafte with trees of suche delight
That idell braines of fruitfull plantes might find just caus to write
As I have plied my pen to praise this pen with all
Who lyeth entombed in this grave untill the trompe her call
This restinge place beholde no subject place to bale
To which perforce ye lokers on your fleetinge bodyes shall.
On the north-east, wall is a table to Robert
Terwhit, 1616, and in the north gallery
is a tablet to: David Garrick, nephew
of the great "Davy", with a weak inscription by Hannah More; and another
to the memory of Richard, son of George
Cumberland the dramatist.
On the east
wall is the monument of Edmond Pigeon,
yeoman of the jewel-house to King Henry
VIII., "by whose speciall command he
attended him at Bouloigne and continued
in that office under K.Edw.6, Queene
Mary and Q.Elizabeth, who made him
also clerke of her robes and wardrobes,
also of his son Nickolas who succeeded
him in both offices".
An epitaph on a
child, who died at the age of 13 months,
contains the following sweetly poetical
thought:
Sweet Babe - she tasted of Life's bitter cup,
Refused to drink the potion up !
But turned her little head aside,
Disgusted with the taste and died.
The organ in the church was the gift of
William IV.
The deeps here do not yield their roach
as formerly; still very fair baskets are
obtained in the swim opposite the church.
Fire: the engine is kept opposite the
"Red Lion Hotel".
Hotels: the "Red Lion", close to the river;
"Tagg's Hotel", on the island, about half a mile down, with good boat-houses.
Places of Worship: St.Mary's, and
Wesleyan Chapel.
Police: Metropolitan (T Division),
Station, New-street.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, savings bank, telegraph,
and insurance), corner of New-street.
Mails from London, 6.30 and 9am, 2.20
and 7.20pm; Sunday, 6.55am,
Mails for London, 9.50am, 12.30, 3.30 and 8.10pm; Sunday, no dispatch.
Nearest Bridge: up, Walton 3 miles; down, Molesey 1½ mile.
Locks: up, Sunbury 2 miles; down, Molesey 1 mile.
Ferry: Hampton.
Railway Station: Hampton.
Fares to Waterloo: 1st, 2/3, 2/9; 2nd, 1/9 2/3; 3rd 1/2 2/-
Hampton Court, Middlesex, on the
left bank; from London 23¼ miles, from
Oxford 88¼ miles.
A terminus on the
Hampton Court branch of the London
and South Western Railway, 15 miles
from Waterloo; the trains average about
45 minutes.
Flys meets the trains.
Hampton Court is a very small village,
which may be described as consisting of
a few good houses on and about the
green, and a number of taverns and tea-houses for the refreshment of the numerous
excursionists who are attracted to Hampton Court by the palace and park.
An
ugly iron bridge spans the river at this
point.
What is called the Hampton
Court railway-station is in fact in East
Molesey, on the Surrey side of the river.
Hampton Court is a great meet for
bicyclists, who gather here "in their thousands" on their great parade day in the
spring.
Fifteen minutes' walk from the station
on the Hampton Court-road, is Hope
Cottage, Lady Bourchier's Convalescent
Home.
Here five inmates are received
of the class of servants, needlewomen, or
tradespeople.
These pay 5s per week in
advance.
Ladies sending invalids pay
7s 6d per week.
Applications for beds
are to be made to the Convalescent Committee of the Charity Organisation Society,
15, Buckingham-street, London, W.C.
The chapel at Hampton Court Palace
is intended for the use of the residents in
the palace, but the public is also admitted
to divine service.
The services are: Sunday, 11am, 3.30pm;
Saints' Days, 11am; Wednesday and Friday, 10.30am;
During Lent and Advent, daily at 10.30am;
Holy Communion: Sunday, 8.30am, or after morning service; on
Saints' Days, after morning service.
There is a good organ in the chapel by Father Smith.
There are many ways of access to
Hampton Court.
Besides its own railway-station Teddington, Twickenham, Hampton, Kingston, and Richmond are all
more or less convenient.
Steamboats occasionally run up in the summer months
if there be sufficient water in the river.
the Thames Ditton, the Virginia Water,
and the Windsor coaches all pass through
Hampton Court: (See COACHING).
Hotels: "Castle" by the bridge,
Molesey side; "Greyhound" and "King's Arms", by the park entrance and Lion
Gate; "Mitre", by the bridge, Middlesex side.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
Mails for London, 8.45 and 11.55am, 3.30 and 8pm: Sundays, 10am
Nearest Bridges: up, Walton 4¾ miles; down, Kingston 3 miles.
Locks: up, Sunbury 3 miles; down, Teddington, 4½ miles.
Ferries: up, Hampton 1 mile;
down: Thames Ditton 1 mile.
Fares to Waterloo; 1st 2/-, 2/9; 2nd, 1/6, 2/-; 3rd, 1/2½, 1/10.
Hampton Court Palace, originally
founded by Cardinal Wolsey in 1515,
and by him presented to Henry VIII in 1526, in the same manner in which a
sop is presented to Cerberus, or a tub to a
whale, was for many years a favourite
royal residence.
Henry VIII., who added
considerably to Wolsey's buildings, passed
much of his time at Hampton Court.
Here Edward VI. was born and Jane
Seymour died, and here the king was
married to his sixth wife, Katharine Parr.
Edward VI. lived at Hampton Court
Palace, and Queen Mary and Philip of
Spain passed their honeymoon here, and
a grand Christmas supper in the Great
Hall is recorded as having taken place in
their reign.
Queen Elizabeth held high
state at Hampton Court, and in James
I.'s time the Palace was the scene of the
great conference between the Presbyterians and the Established Church.
It
was a favourite residence of Charles I.,
and after his execution passed into the
possession of Cromwell.
Charles II. and
James II. occasionally visited the Palace.
William III. and Mary made it almost
their permanent place of abode, and
greatly enlarged and improved it.
Their
immediate successors also lived at Hampton Court; its last royal occupant having
been George II.
Since that time a
portion of the building has been devoted
to the use of the public, and in other
portions suites of apartments are granted
to ladies and gentlemen favoured by the
Crown.
the Palace originally consisted of five
quadrangles and the Great Hall, which
was added by Henry VIII.
Two of
Wolsey's courts and the Great Hall
remain; the third, or Fountain Court,
was added by Sir Christopher Wren, to
whom is also due the eastern frontage,
which overlooks the gardens.
The Palace
has been well and completely restored,
and the Great Hall especially, which is
described below, has been very perfectly
done.
The state apartments are open to the
public free every day throughout the
year, except Fridays and Christmas Day.
the hours are 10am, to 6pm from
April 1 to September 30, and from 10am to 4pm during the remainder of
the year.
On Sundays they are not open
until 2pm the gardens are open until
8pm in summer, and at other times
till dusk.
An average of about 200,000
persons passes through the state rooms
annually.
In the two Exhibition years -
1851 and 1862 - the numbers were 350, 848
and 369,162 respectively.
The entrance to the building, coming
from the railway, is through barracks
immediately opposite the Mitre Hotel.
Passing out of the first court, a staircase
on the left, under the clock-tower (the
groined roof and Tudor rose of the gateway should be remarked), leads to the
Great Hall, a building of magnificent proportions,
especially remarkable for the lofty pitch
of its richly carved and decorated roof,
which is studded with the arms and blazons
of King Henry VIII., and for its elaborate
stained glass windows.
Of these the great
west window, which is over the minstrel
gallery, contains the arms, badges, and
cyphers of Henry VIII. and his wives,
whose pedigrees, with their arms, initials,
and badges, are set forth in alternate
windows.
The first on the south, or
right, looking from the minstrel gallery, is dedicated to Katharine of Aragon,
the third to Ann Boleyn, the fifth to
Jane Seymour, the eighth, on the opposite side, to Anne of Cleves, the tenth to
Katharine Howard, and the twelfth to
Katharine Parr; the seven intermediate
windows contain the heraldic badges of
Henry VIII.: the lion, portcullis, fleur de
lys, Tudor rose, red dragon of York, and
the white greyhound of Lancaster.
The
great east window also contains numerous arms and other heraldic devices, such
as those of Henry VII., Henry VIII.,
Edward III., Edward IV., &c.
At the
upper end of the Hall is a singularly
beautiful bay window with the arms and
cyphers of Henry VIII., Jane Seymour,
and Cardinal Wolsey.
From this end is the
best place to take a general survey of the
Hall, and hence the best idea is obtained
of its great size and perfect symmetry of
design.
For the information of the accurate people who are never satisfied with
general effects, but require to have everything reduced to figures, it may be noted
that the length of Wolsey's Great Hall is
106 feet, its width 40 feet, and height
60 feet.
The restorations and additions
to the stained glass, which have been
executed in admirable taste, are due to
Mr.Williment, and were completed about
forty years ago.
The Hall is at present
hung with some magnificent tapestry, representing the history of Abraham, bordered with many allegorical and other
figures and devices.
The series begins
on the left of the entrance, and each subject bears a descriptive legend in Latin.
The subject of each piece of tapestry is
sufficiently apparent to render a detailed
description unnecessary here.
Under the
minstrel gallery are several other pieces
of tapestry of allegorical design, one of
which represents the seven deadly sins
riding on animals supposed by the artist
to be appropriate.
Before leaving the
Hall it may be added that it has more
than once been used for theatrical purposes, and tradition even says that
Shakespeare's "King Henry VIII., or the
Fall of Wolsey", was here acted before
Queen Elizabeth, the author taking part
in the representation.
There appears,
however, to be no evidence to support this
legend.
In the Withdrawing Room,
sometimes called the Presence Chamber,
which opens out from the Hall, is a further collection of tapestries, the designs of
which are remarkable achievements in the
way of allegory, thus: - Chastity attended
by Lucretia, and Scipio Africanus (at
least, so say the experts) drives his
chariot over Sensuality; the Fates
triumph; Renown summons the illustrious dead, and in another place submits
to the influence of Time, the signs of the
Zodiac indulging in remarkable pranks
the while; and many similar eccentricities.
Obscured and dimmed by time,
these tapestries are still well worth careful
inspection.
Above the tapestries are some
graceful cartoons by Carlo Cignani.
Opposite the door is another handsome bay
window, in the recess of which is an indifferent marble Venus.
The ceiling is
panelled and adorned with pendants and
with badges of rose portcullis, &c, &c.
The mantelpiece is of handsome carved
oak, and bears a profile portrait of Wolsey.
It is a good instance of the value of
statistics in matters of this kind to record
that considerable difference of opinion
exists as to the dimensions of this room.
One authority gives its length at 62 feet,
and its height at 29 feet; another
(official) gives the length as - "about 70
feet", and the height "about 20 feet".
As neither authority has any hesitation
in setting the width down at 29 feet,
visitors may congratulate themselves that
on that point at least they are possessed
of accurate information.
Returning through the Great Hall, descending the
stairs, and turning to the left, we come
to the second court, the northern side of
which is occupied by the length of the
Hall.
Over the gateway at the western
end is the dial plate of an astronomical
clock, which was, if the date (1254[?])
be correct, one of the earliest public
clocks in the country.
The tower bears
the medallion busts of the Caesars in
terra-cotta, which, with those in the first
court, are the restored work of Lucca
della Robbia, and were given to Cardinal
Wolsey by Pope Leo X.
The eastern
side of the court was considerably restored
in the middle of the last century, and
this point marks the end of the principal remains of Wolsey's Palace.
The
eastern portion of the present building
was designed by Sir Christopher Wren,
who is also responsible for the Ionic
colonnade in the southern side of the
second court, a colonnade which might
or might not be worth looking at
elsewhere, but which here is as inappropriate as a modern chimney-pot hat would,
have been on the head of Wolsey himself.
The visitor entering at the door in the
south-east corner of the colonnade has
to deliver up stick and umbrella, parcel
and bag, preparatory to making the
passage of the picture galleries - an
arduous undertaking, which, it were well
to remark, once begun must be gone
through with, from the first room to the
last - and there are a great many of them
- no turning back is permitted.
None
of the attendants are allowed to receive a
fee.
Any articles left with the custodian
at the entrance to the galleries, not
claimed by closing hours, will be forwarded if the ticket and address are sent
to the superintendent, at the Palace.
After the transaction of the necessary
business at the foot of the staircase comes
the ascent of the King's Staircase,
which is fine in itself, and would perhaps
be finer if it were not for the sprawling
monstrosities and garish colouring of
that arch impostor, Antonio Verrio.
This
Neapolitan painter, whose introduction
to England is not the least of the merry
sins for which Charles II. has to answer,
is seen at his worst in Hampton Court
Palace, and perhaps the King's Staircase
gives as good a notion of his idea of art
as can anywhere be found.
The first
room of the two dozen or so devoted to
pictures, which are approached by the
King's Staircase,
is the Guard Chamber,
which is decorated with trophies of arms,
and contains two handsome wrought-iron
screens, the work of H.Shaw, of Nottingham, 1695.
Before proceeding to give
any hints as to the pictures best worthy
inspection, it should be stated that in
almost every case the description of the
picture and the name of the artist is
affixed to it, and that there is, therefore,
no absolute necessity for a catalogue.
Painted on each canvas is a number.
this is distinct from that of the catalogues, and is the private number affixed
by the surveyor of pictures to identify the
work under any changes.
It is here given
in brackets, after the wall number, as a
means of identification should the latter
be changed.
Considerable uncertainty
prevails as to the authorship of many of
the Hampton Court pictures.
The official
view is adopted here.
Throughout the
rooms are many valuable specimens of
the carved woodwork of Grinling Gibbons,
and admirers of blue and white china,
whether Delft or Oriental, will find good
examples in almost every room.
In the
Guard Chamber are 9 [15], a rather conventional view of the Colosseum at Rome,
Canaletto; and a quaintly humorous
portrait, 20 [4], of Queen Elizabeth's
porter, 1580, by Zucchero.
There are
also a number of battle pieces and
portraits in keeping with the character
of the room.
Immediately on the left of the doorway,
in the King's First Presence Chamber,
is a very weak picture of King William
III. landing at Torbay, 29 [25], in which
Sir G.Kneller has introduced Neptune
and other incongruous company.
A pair
of curious Dutch pictures are 38 [34],
King William III. embarking from
Holland, and 51 [48], his landing at
Brixham.
Number 62 [61] is an interesting picture full of detail, representing
King Charles II. taking leave of the
Dutch Court at the time of the Restoration.
Number 58 [241] is a very good
group of portraits of William, Duke of
Buckingham, and his family, by Honthorst.
Numbers 26 [22], 30 [26], 33 [29],
37 [33], 40 [37], 46 [43], 50 [47], and 53 [51] represent ladies of the Court of
William and Mary, by Kneller, known
as the Hampton Court beauties.
Other
Knellers in the room are of very unequal
merit.
The chandelier is of the time of
Queen Anne.
Here, 85 [87], are the fine equestrian portraits of Charles I., by Vandyck, and 90 [91], Queen Christina, consort of Philip IV., by Velasquez, a good example in excellent preservation; and also 72 [67], a Sculptor, by Leandro Bassano; 84 [158], a Venetian Senator, Pordenone 91 [159J, a Knight of Malta, an excellent Tintoretto; 98 [100], a large full-length of Christian IV., King of Denmark, by Van Somer; 103 [128], portrait of Giorgione, by himself; and 73 [136], a much-esteemed Diana and Actceon, by Giorgione, in which Actaeon wears a pantomime stag's head and court suit, and in which so many extraneous figures are introduced that Diana could not have bathed more publicly even at Margate.
Number 108 [53], a Portrait of a Man,
by Tintoretto; 119 [111], a portrait by
Titian, said to be, but probably not, that
of Ignatius Loyola; 117 [277], John de
Bellini, attributed to himself; 128 [125],
a full-length of Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, daughter of James I., by Honthorst;
131 [130], the Woman taken in Adultery,
Sebastiano Ricci; 138 [74], a Warrior in
Armour, ascribed to Savoldo; 144 [554],
a Concert, Lorenzo Lotto; 147 [134], a
Man's Head, Bassano; and 149 [68],
Alexander de Medicis, by Titian, are
among the principal pictures on the walls
of the Audience Chamber.
In the middle
of the room is a triptych for an altar, a
work of the highest interest, attributed,
perhaps doubtfully, to Lucas Van Leyden.
Whatever doubt there may be as to the
artist there can be none as to the merit of
the pictures.
The canopy of this room
is that of the throne on which sat James II,
when giving audience to the Pope's Nuncio.
The furniture and chandelier date from
William and Mary and Queen Anne.
The King's Drawing-room contains, among others, 154 [145], the Expulsion of Heresy, a portrait picture, by Paolo Veronese; 155 [333], the Duke of Richmond, by Van Somer; 158 [905], a good Giorgione, a portrait of a Venetian Gentleman; 164 [569], a Venus, ascribed to Titian, stated to be a "replica" of the celebrated picture at Florence, but looking much more like an indifferent copy; 174 [553], a Lady with Orrery and Dog, ascribed to Parmegiano; 180 [498], a Venetian Gentleman, by Bassano; and 182 [52], an Italian Lawyer, by Paris Bordone.
King William III.'s Bed-room.
In this room are the state bed of Queen
Charlotte, and the portraits of the Beauties
of Charles II.'s Court, by Sir Peter Lely,
which were formerly at Windsor.
The
fine marble mantelpiece and glass, and
the carving of the cornice and ornaments above the mantelpiece by Gibbons,
should be specially noticed.
Near the
head of the bed is a clock which requires winding but once a year, a ceremony which appears to have been omitted
on the last anniversary; and in a corner
is an odd old Tompion barometer.
The
ceiling, unhappily, has been painted by
Verrio in a manner calculated to disturb
the dreams of any but the stoutest heart.
Besides the Beauties is a delightful portrait, 186 [171], of the Princess Mary as
Diana, also by Sir P.Lely, and much
pleasanter to look upon than Charles's
leering, simpering favourites.
The numbers attached to the portraits of these
ladies are 185 [170], 195 [189
197 [191], 199 [193], 204 [198'
No.194 [188], Louise de Querouaille,
Duchess of Portsmouth, is by H.Gascar.
Here, again, Verrio has given reins to
his allegorical nightmares.
No.210 [741]
is a comic picture of men fighting with
bears, by Bassano; 212 [670], robbers,
in a cave, dividing their spoils, is like
many other Salvator Rosas.
contains a mirror so placed as to reflect
the whole suite of rooms.
Among the
pictures may be noted 225 [222], and 243
[229], by Bogdane.
containing 251 [247], a Holy Family after Raffaelo, by Giulio Romano; and 267 [417], Sophonisba, or Fair Rosamond - the choice of subject is elastic - attributed to Gaetano.
In the Queen's Gallery
will be found seven large and important
pieces of tapestry, after paintings by Le
Brun, 1690, representing incidents in the
history of Alexander the Great.
These
have suffered somewhat at the hands of
time, but deserve careful notice.
Here is the state bed of Queen Anne.
The ceiling is the work of Sir James
Thornhill, and among the pictures are
273 [459], the Queen of James I., by Van
Somer; 275 [462], St.Francis with the
Infant Jesus, Guido; 283 [461], a Princess of Brunswick, the painter of which
is not named; 301 [230], Judith with the
Head of Holofernes, by Guido; 306 [76],
a portrait of an Italian Lady with a singular taste in dress, by Parmegiano; and
307 [456], by Francesco Francia, St.John
baptizing Christ, a very fine example of
the master.
The Queen's Drawing-room
is the centre of the eastern front of Wren's
portion of Hampton Court Palace.
From
its windows is a beautiful view of the
gardens with three long avenues of trees
stretching away from the Palace towards
the river, Kingston Church closing the
vista on the left hand, and the canal and
fountain lending agreeable variety to the
centre.
On the ceiling Verrio has depicted Queen Anne in the character of
Justice.
The walls are hung with the
works of Sir Benjamin West.
The state canopy of Queen Mary still
hangs in this room, and among the pictures may be mentioned 326 [506], the
Duchess of Luneberg, Brunswick, Mytens;
327 [593], a portrait of Don Gusman,
another fine Mytens; 330 [457], Christian,
Duke of Brunswick, Honthorst; a doubtful Holbein, 331 [524], the Meeting of
Henry VIII. and the Emperor Maximilian; 335 [521], the Duke of Brunswick, Mytens; 340 [510], portraits of
Henry VIII. and his family, a work of
unusual interest and importance, Holbein;
342 [520] the Field of the Cloth of Gold,
also Holbein; 343 [525], Isabella of
Austria, Pourbus; 346 [780], Anne, Queen
of James I., Van Somer; and 349 [299],
a portrait of Queen Elizabeth, in a fancy
dress with remarkably fancy blue and
white shoes, crowning a stag with flowers.
On the right of the picture are three
mottoes, and a tablet on the left contains
the following lines:
The restless swallow fits my restless minde,
In still revivinge, still renewinge wronges;
Her just complaintes of cruelty unkinde
Are all the musique that my life prolonges.
With pensive thoughtes my weepinge stagg I crowne,
Whose melancholy tears my cares expresse;
His teares in sylence, and mysighes unknowne,
Are all the physicke that my harmes redresse,
My onely hope was in this goodly tree,
Which I did plant in love, bringe up in care;
But all in vaine, for now too late I see,
The sheles be mine, the kernels others are.
My musique may be plaintes, my physique teares,
If this be all the fruite my love-tree beares.
In the official catalogue this picture is
ascribed, hesitatingly, to L.de Heere.
On the frame, however, there is the name
of Zucchero.
The Public Dining-room is principally remarkable for two excellent
Gainsboroughs, 352 [747], Fisher the
Composer, and 353 [733J, Colonel St.
Leger (Handsome Jack); 355 [961], 358
[950] and 359 [960], are good examples
of Hoppner.
360 [951] is a curious picture,
by Home, of the King of Oude receiving
tribute.
Over the noble marble mantelpiece hangs 362 [155], the Nabob of
Arcot, G.Willison.
363 [936] is a portrait
of Friedrich von Gentz, by Sir Thomas
Lawrence; 395 [587], by Robert Walker,
is a portrait of himself; 369 [847], a
capital picture by Michael Wright, represents John Lacy, a comedian of the
time of Charles II., in three characters;
and 375 [944] is a portrait of Mrs.Delany,
by Opie.
In the left corner is the door
leading to the Queen's Chapel, &c., but
there are still three rooms approached by
the door near the window.
The principal pictures in these rooms
are 382 [421] and 382 [432]; respectively a
Jewish Rabbi and Dutch Lady, both
splendid Rembrandts; 389 [285], Portrait
of an Old Man, Quintin Matsys; 390
[464], Dogs, Snyders; 393 [249], Singing
by Candlelight, Honthorst; 397 [57], and
398 [437] Boys, Murillo; 407 [580, not 581, as described in the official catalogue],
Van Belchamp; 413 [516], Louis XVI.
of France, Greuze; 417 [984], Mdlle.de
Clermont, Greuze; and 429 [986], a portrait of Mdme.de Pompadour, a very
superior work by the same master.
From
these rooms visitors return through the
Public Dining-room, and pass through
the Queen's Private Chapel and Closet,
in which the pictures, principally of
flowers and birds, are of no great importance.
The next apartment is the Private Dining-room,
which looks out on to Fountain Court.
The state beds, with crimson trappings,
of William and Mary, which are preserved
in this room, and the smaller bed used
by George II., do not give a very lively
idea of the comforts enjoyed by royal
personages.
There is some particularly
good china here, and among other pictures,
a portrait of the Duchess of Brunswick,
sister to George III., 507 [603], by Angelica Kauffmann.
In the adjoining
closet is 507 [64], a curious picture, by
Fialetti, representing senators of Venice
in the Senate House.
In the Queen's Private Chamber are 512 [907], an unnamed Queen of Prussia, by an unnamed artist; 518 [619], Frederick, Prince of Wales, a smirking, highly-coloured portrait, by Vanloo; and 524 [787], a Labyrinth, the eccentric production of Tintoretto.
has a fine marble bust of a negro,
and portraits of four Doges of Venice,
by Fialetti, 526 [791 to 794].
531 [577],
is a humorous picture of a barrack-room,
by C.Troost.
George II.'s Private Chamber,
and the closet adjoining, lead to the
South Gallery,
where formerly Raffaelle's cartoons, now
at South Kensington, were exhibited.
This is a very long gallery, divided into
compartments, in the third of which is a
finely carved marble mantelpiece.
It
contains many pictures of great value
and merit.
The following is a list of
some of those to which the attention of
visitors is especially directed: 559 [513],
the Countess of Lennox, Holbein; 560
[667], Mary Queen of Scots, Zucchero;
563 [313], Henry VIII., Holbein; 572
[343], Countess of Derby, L.de Heere:
573 [344], Sir Geo.Carew, Holbein;
582 [908J, La Belle Gabrielle, by an
unnamed artist; 589 [275], a portrait of
a Youth, A.Durer; 593 [1085], 594 [331],
portraits of Erasmus, 597, [324], a
similar subject, 598 [330], all by Holbein;
600 [612], St.Christopher with Saints,
L.Cranach; 603 [323], Joannes Frobenius, printer; 606 [326], King Henry
VIII.; 608 [336], the painter's father
and mother, Holbein; 609 [989], Lazarus
Spinola, W.Kay; 610 [325], "A side-faced gentleman out of Cornwall", attributed to Holbein; 611 [401], St.
Jerome, after A.Durer; 613 [290], Sir
Francis Walsingham; 615 [270], Sir P.Carew, both by an unnamed artist;
616 [293], 619 [273], portraits of Queen
Elizabeth, the former by Zucchero,
the latter by Gerrard; 622 [347], a
charming portrait of a Lady, Sir A.More; 632 [316], Francis II. when a boy,
Janette; 633 [291], Philip II. of Spain,
Sir A.More; 642 [345], a companion
picture to 622, and an equally good work,
by the same artist; 644 [306], another
portrait of a Lady, Sir A.More; 657 [644],
Windsor Castle, Verdussen; 666 [329J,
an admirably humorous portrait of Henry
VIII.'s Jester, Will Somers, Holbein;
676 [234], a small whole-length of a Man,
F.Hals; 684 [825], a flower piece with
insects, Withoos; 704 [959], a wild boar
hunt, Snyders, full of life and vigour;
707 [588], Villiers, Duke of Buckingham,
C.Janssen; 710 [278], a portrait of
Raffaelle, attributed to himself; 763 [514],
James I., and 764 [591], his Queen, the
companion picture to it, both by Van
Somer; 765 [650], Elizabeth, Queen of
Bohemia, a daughter of James I., Derick;
and 707 [106], a Dutch Gentleman, Van
der Halst.
The Ante Room, adjoining the South Gallery - 780 [846],
a landscape, Oldenburg - leads to the
The Mantegna Gallery, so called from a set of paintings in distemper, on linen, 9 feet high, by Andrea
Mantegna.
They are nine in number,
797 [873 to 881], and represent the
triumphs of Julius Caesar.
Originally
purchased by Charles I., they were sold
by Parliament for £1,000, and subsequently repurchased by Charles II.
They are in a faded and damaged condition,
and it is difficult always to follow the
artist's intention.
In the same gallery is
798 [892], a quaint portrait of Sir Jeffrey
Hudson, by Mytens, And three pictures
by unnamed artists.
Of these, 793 [901],
is a portrait of Jane Shore, who is
described on the canvas as "Baker's
wife, mistris to a king"; 808 [899] represents "Schachner of Austria"; and 809
[958] is a Young Lady with a feather
fan.
On the Queen's Staircase
is an immense painting 810 [932], Honthorst, whereof, as is not uncommon with
allegorical works of the kind, the subject
appears to be in doubt.
According to
Horace Walpole, it is intended to represent Charles I. and his Queen as
Apollo and Diana receiving the Arts
and Sciences, the ceremony of introduction being performed by the Duke
of Buckingham, as Mercury.
Another
authority, also quoted in the official
guide, is of opinion that the royal personages are the King and Queen of
Bohemia in the clouds.
The judicious
visitor may select either of these interpretations, or indeed any other which may
seem good to him, but Honthorst, in any
case, cannot be congratulated on his work.
The Queen's Guard Chamber,
like the South Gallery, is divided into
compartments, noticeable in the second of
which are two most singular terminal
figures of beefeaters which serve as supporters to the mantelpiece.
Among the
pictures are 815 [967], 816 [966], 819
[970], 821 [965], portraits respectively of
Giulio Romano, Michael Angelo, Tintoretto, and P.del Vaga, by an unnamed
hand; 858 [902], is a portrait of a Man
with a watch in his hand, by Peter Van
Aelst.
From this chamber an ante-room
leads to
The Queen's Presence Chamber,
in which are numerous pictures of sea fights, &c, and two portions of timbers
from Nelson's Victory.
There are also a
series of views on the Thames, by James
and others, which should be interesting
to readers of this Dictionary.
They
are 883 [1043], Fleet Ditch, &c.
; 884
[1044], Old London Bridge; 885 [1045],
the Old Savoy Palace; 914 [1079], Greenwich Hospital, &c.; 918 [1016], a similar
subject; 920 [1024] the Tower; 921
[1023], old Somerset House and the
Temple; 922 [1026], the Temple again;
923 [1031], another view of the Savoy; and
925 [1032], Westminster Bridge, &c. &c.
This closes the list of apartments open to
the public.
The chapel is not visible
except on Sunday, when it is open for
divine service.
Returning from the Queen's Presence
Chamber to the Queen's Staircase, the
visitor again emerges into the Middle
Court; and, after reclaiming any property
which he may have left at the King's
Staircase entrance, proceeds by the
Fountain Court to the gardens, which
extend along the whole east front of the
building.
Should the visitor on leaving
the building wish to visit the famous
grape-vine, which is shown (admission,
1d) as one of the great attractions of
Hampton Court, he will turn to the
right; should he, on the other hand,
prefer to make direct for the Wilderness and the Maze, he will turn to the
left, passing the tennis-court on his way.
the price of admission to the Maze is 1d.
Some writers in treating of Hampton
Court give precise directions how to
traverse the paths of the Maze; but, as
the greater part of the fun consists in
losing your way, and in observing the
idiosyncracies of your fellow-creatures
who are in the same predicament, rather
than getting to the centre and out again
in "the shortest time on record", no clue
to the mystery is given here.
To many
people, perhaps, the greatest attraction
of Hampton Court will be found in its
beautiful gardens, which are unreservedly
thrown open to the public.
They are
tastefully laid out, and every year considerable ingenuity and skill are displayed
in the carpet-bedding devices, and other
floral adornments of the gardens, by Mr.Graham, the able superintendent.
The
lawns are always in perfect order, there
is abundance of shade from the yews and
other trees with which they are studded,
and seats have been distributed about
with no niggard hand.
There is not the
usual annoying restriction as to walking
on the grass, except as to the verge of
the flower beds, and it is pleasant to see
that the request, that the public will
protect what is intended for public enjoyment, is carefully respected.
The principal entrance on the north
is through the Lion Gates, opposite Bushey
Park.
Visitors who propose to go through
the galleries are recommended to enter
the palace by the barrack gateway, near
the bridge, already described.
The restrictions imposed by the regulations are few, and are dictated by obvious
considerations for the general convenience
and comfort both of the visitors and
residents in the palace.
The following
are the principal rules,
No smoking is
permitted in any part of the palace or
grounds.
No baskets or parcels are
allowed to be taken into the gardens.
No dogs are admitted.
Bath-chairs and
perambulators are allowed to residents
only.
Last, and not least, it is fortunately
provided that no public address may be
delivered.
The famous avenue of chestnuts in
Bushey Park leads from the Lion Gates of
Hampton Court Palace to Teddington,
and is one of the chief sights of the spring
season, when its grand old trees are
covered with their pyramids of blossom.
the fountain in the centre of the oval
pond, near the Hampton Court entrance,
is surmounted by a bronze statue of
Diana.
The Park contains, besides its
chestnuts, many fine elms and oaks, and
the hawthorns are almost as celebrated
as the chestnuts.
A herd of deer roam
in the park, adding greatly to its romantic character.
It is a favourite place
for picnics, and after inspection of
Hampton Court Palace the contents of
the reclaimed baskets and parcels are
freely discussed under the shady glades
of Bushey.
Hampton Wick, Middlesex, on the
left bank, about a mile east of Hampton
Court by road; from London 22 miles,
Oxford 89½ miles.
A station on the
Kingston branch of the London and
South Western Railway, 14½ miles from
Waterloo; the trains average about 45
minutes.
Population, 2,207.
Soil, gravel.
Hampton Wick is nowadays practically a
suburb of Kingston, with which it is connected by Kingston Bridge, and consists
to a large extent of pleasant villa residences.
Place of Worship: St.Mary's.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order and savings bank), High-
street.
Letters through Kingston.
Mails from London 6.45 and 9.15am, 2.15 and 7.30pm
Mails for London 9am, 12.10, 3.45, and 8.20pm
Nearest Bridges (from Kingston Bridge): up Hampton Court 3¼ miles;
down: Richmond 5 miles.
Locks: up, Molesey about 3½ miles; down, Teddington 2 miles.
Railway Station: Hampton Wick.
Fares to Waterloo (or Ludgate-hill):
1st, 2/, 2/6; 2nd, 1/6, 2/-; 3rd, 1/-, 1/8.
Harbour Masters, for carrying out the bye-laws of the Thames Conservancy, are appointed by that body: (See Conservators of the Thames).
Henley, Oxfordshire, on the left bank;
from London 64½ miles, from Oxford 47
miles.
The terminus of a branch on the
Great Western Railway, from an hour to
an hour and a half from Paddington.
Flys and omnibuses meet the trains.
The
station is close to the river, and about
five minutes' walk from the bridge.
Population, 4523.
Henley, the Mecca of the
rowing man and one of the most favourite
places of pilgrimage for anglers, is a comfortable, prosperous-looking town, set
down in a pleasant valley almost entirely
surrounded by well-wooded heights, and
is as good a place to stay at for the
tourist who takes no interest either in oars or rods, punts or wager-boats, as
can well be desired.
Both by river and
by road there are almost innumerable
excursions, and the walks either at the
back of the town or on the road to Marlow
across the river afford many charming
glimpses of some of the prettiest of the
Thames scenery.
The town itself is well
built with good broad streets, the principal
business centres being Hart-street, the
Market-place, and Bell-street, all of which
contain good shops.
The outskirts are
noticeable for a number of handsome
houses, especially towards the Fair Mile,
a fine avenue of trees which leads from
the north of the town.
Henley is under
the government of a high steward, a
mayor, ten aldermen, and sixteen burgesses.
The Town Hall is in the Market-place, and differs in no respect from the
usual type of buildings of its class in the
neighbourhood.
It contains two good
portraits, presented to the town by the
widow of Sir Godfrey Kneller; one of
George I., by Sir Godfrey himself, and
the other of the Earl of Macclesfield, the
first high steward of the town.
Lady
Kneller is buried with her parents at
Henley in the church.
The church of
St.Mary, whose lofty embattled tower is
a prominent landmark, as well from the
river as from the hills around, stands
close to the bridge.
It is a fine building,
with chancel, north chancel aisle, nave,
and aisles, and in the tower hangs a
remarkably good peal of bells.
A beautiful new west window and an entrance
screen of carved oak have been added,
and the space under the tower has been
formed into a beautiful Baptistery.
Under
the tower is the monument of Lady Elizabeth Periam: a semi-recumbent figure reclining on its right elbow, and dressed in
a ruff, stomacher, and hood.
In the right
hand is a Book of Hours.
Lady Elizabeth
died in 1621.
Behind the organ is a mural
monument, with a marble angel, in
memory of certain members of the Elmes
family from 1621 to 1720.
In the south
wall is a tablet with a long inscription to
the memory of General Dumouriez, who
died near Henley in 1823.
In the churchyard is the grave of Richard Jennings,
the master builder of St.Paul's Cathedral.
Along the sides of the churchyard stand
almshouses: four built by Mrs.Messenger, 1669, and rebuilt 1846; ten due to
Humphrey Newberry, 1664, rebuilt 1846;
and twelve endowed by John Longland,
Bishop of Lincoln (a native of Henley),
in 1547; these were rebuilt in 1830.
The
church of Holy Trinity is on the south
side of the town in the parish of Rotherfield Grays.
The living is a vicarage,
and the patron for the next turn is the
Bishop of Oxford.
The Congregational chapel here originated in 1662.
The first preacher was
the Rev.W.Brice, Fellow of Exeter
College, Oxford, rector of St.Mary's,
Henley, ejected by the Act of Uniformity.
The first pastor was Rev.John Gyles,
ejected from the vicarage of Lindridge.
The tablet of Mr.Gyles has the following quaint inscription:
Heaven's Pilgrim, pause you here,
And with many drop a teare
O'er John Gyles, from Heaven sent
To preach to men Christ's commandment.
Whose learning, utterance, and parts
Meekness and grace did win all hearts.
Him now you see translated thus
A dying witness to Christ's truth
Both taught and practised from his youth.
His race is run, he's glorified
this stone you see his dust doth hide.
Deceased 26 Aprill, 1683.
Rev.Humphrey Gainsborough, brother
of Gainsborough the painter, was a
minister of the chapel for upwards of
twenty-eight years.
He was a very
ingenious man; is supposed to have
been the discoverer of the separate
condenser for steam engines; constructed
a weighing-machine for the corporation
in 1776; made the road to the town over
White Hill; arranged and superintended
the construction of the arch and ruins
over Twyford-road, at the bottom of the
Happy Valley; constructed the locks
on the river near New Mills; and
made many curious clocks, dials, &c.
He was offered very good preferment
in the Established Church, but nothing
would induce him to leave his own
people, by whom he was greatly esteemed.
The Grammar School was
founded in 1604 by James I., and is
now managed under a scheme of the
Endowed Schools Commissioners.
It
prepares for the Universities, professions,
and public service.
Day boys pay £11
per annum, no extras; boarders, £40 to
£50, according to age.
The Blue Coat,
or Lower Grammar School, was founded
by Lady Elizabeth Periam in the reign of
James I., for the purpose of educating,
free of all cost, twenty boys of the town.
In the reign of George III. the school
was united with the Upper Grammar
School.
Three years ago it came under a
new scheme, and is now called the
"English School"; and although under
the same governing body as the Upper,
or Grammar School, is quite a separate
establishment, under its own masters, &c.
Twenty boys are still educated free of
cost, together with about forty others,
who pay a fee of £3 per annum each.
It was on a window at the "Red Lion" at Henley, that Shenstone wrote
the now hackneyed lines:
Whoe'er has travelled life's dull round,
Where'er his stages may have been,
May sigh to think he still has found
the warmest welcome at an inn.
The counties of Oxfordshire and Berkshire are united at Henley by a handsome
and convenient stone bridge of five arches
with stone balustrades.
The key-stones
of the centre arch represent respectively
Thames and Isis.
The Thames, which
looks down stream, is the conventional
bearded old Father Thames crowned with
bulrushes; and the Isis, looking up
stream, is, in allusion to the fabled
marriage of Thame and Isis, a female
head adorned with water plants.
These
works of art were executed by the Hon. Mrs. Damer, the daughter of General
Conway, who lived at Park Place, near
Henley.
They have, no doubt, considerable merit, but not so much as to
warrant the excessive admiration they
have sometimes evoked, and which probably would not have been expressed had
it not been for the extravagant eulogium
of Horace Walpole, the artist's cousin.
Among the notable houses in the neighbourhood of Henley is Park Place, on
the summit of the hill on the Berkshire
side.
Stonor Park, Henley Park, Phyllis
Court, Fawley Court, Greenlands, and
many other county houses, are either in
or near the parish.
Henley was once justly celebrated for its
pike, but is now scarcely worth the trouble
of fishing, except for roach and chub.
Banks: London and County, Market-place; Simonds and Co., Market-place.
Fairs: March 7, Holy Thursday, Trinity Thursday, and the Thursday after September 21.
Fire: Volunteer Fire Brigade; captain-lieutenant, two firemen, engineer,
and twenty pioneers; three manual engines and one fire-escape.
Hotels: "Angel", at the foot of the bridge; "Catherine Wheel", Hart-street;
"Red Lion", foot of the bridge; "Royal", facing the river near the railway-station.
Market Day: Thursday.
Places of Worship: Holy Trinity
(Rutherford Greys) and St.Mary's; and
Baptist, Congregational, and Wesleyan
Chapels, and a Friends' Meeting House.
Police: Station, West-street, by the side of the Town Hall.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, savings bank, telegraph,
and insurance), Market-place.
Mails from London, 7 and 11.30am, 6.45pm; Sunday, 7am,
Mails for London, 9.55am, 3.20, 7.50, and 8.15pm; Sunday, 8.15pm
Nearest Bridges: up, Sonning 6¼ miles; down, Marlow 8 miles.
Locks: up, Marsh 1 mile; down, Hambleden 2¼ miles.
Ferry: just below Bolney Court, ½ mile above Marsh Lock.
Railway Station: Henley.
Fares to Paddington: 1st, 6/3, 10/9;
2nd, 4/8, 8/-; 3rd, 2/1 3/2
Henley Rowing Club: the usual
amateur qualifications. Subscription, £1 1s.
Election is by ballot in committee, unless the captain, on private
notice being given by a member who objects to a candidate, shall direct the secretary to call a general meeting.
If the
committee proceed to election, one black
ball in three excludes.
The club was
established in 1830.
Colour, blue. Boat house, near the bridge.
Henley Royal Regatta: this, the
most important gathering of amateur
oarsmen in England, takes place usually
about the beginning of July, and almost
ranks with Ascot among the favourite
fashionable meetings of the season.
A
grand stand is provided, but the accommodation for visitors is not of the best.
One of the favourite points of view is
the "Red Lion" lawn, where, at the conclusion of the regatta on the second day,
the prizes are distributed, but by far the
most popular resort is the river itself.
Indeed, of late years, this has become so
much the case, and the river is so inconveniently crowded with steam launches,
house boats, skiffs, gigs, punts, dingeys,
canoes, and every other conceivable and
inconceivable variety of craft, that the
racing boats have sometimes the greatest
difficulty in threading a way through the
crowd.
In this connection some astonishment may be expressed at the supineness
of the executive, in regard to the important matter of regulating this annually
increasing picnic traffic.
As it was years
ago, so it seems to be now.
The racing
boats are always hampered to a more or
less inconvenient degree - sometimes even
to the point of disaster.
No doubt it is
extremely difficult to keep the course clear,
but certainly much more might be done
than at present.
As in the case with all
boat races, only a very small part of the
struggle can properly be seen, except by
the fortunate few in the umpire's boat, or
by the enthusiastic friends of the competitors who run up the tow-path with
the boats.
The course is a little over a mile and
a quarter in length, and the races are
rowed from Regatta Island, just below
Remenham, against the stream, to a
point opposite the "Red Lion", and just
below the bridge.
For the first mile the
course is very fair, but the river taking
a somewhat sharp turn at what is called
Poplar Point, gives a great advantage to
the boat with the inside or Berks station.
The only chance of equalising the stations
is when a high wind blows from the
other bank.
Under these circumstances
men on the Bucks station have the advantage of being sheltered by the bushes,
while their opponents out in the open are
struggling with the full force of wind and
wave.
The lead that the Bucks boat is
thus enabled to obtain, not unfrequently
neutralises the effect of the dreaded
corner.
Many attempts have been made
to improve matters by buoying and by
staking out the river with the object of
keeping the Berks boat well out in the
stream, but hitherto these ingenious
arrangements have met with but a very
moderate means of success.
It has even
been suggested that the race should be
started below the island, and that the
finish should be at Poplar Point.
But
as this would disestablish the bridge and
the lawn, its adoption is, to say the least
of it, doubtful.
Tthe principal races in the programme are:
the Grand Challenge Cup for eights,
and the Stewards' Challenge Cup for
fours,
both of which, subject to the
regulations of the Regatta Committee,
are open to all amateurs, and up to
twenty years ago, were frequently competed for by University crews.
The Thames Challenge Cup for eights,
the Wyfold Challenge Cup for fours,
the Silver Goblets for pairs,
the Diamond Challenge Sculls for scullers (the latter
the oldest race in the programme),
are also open races.
The Ladies' Challenge Plate for eights,
and the Visitors' Challenge Cup for fours
are confined to college and public school crews.
Subjoined is a list of winners of the
above prizes from the commencement of
the regatta to the present year: {these images 1882}
[NB start above Temple Island and finish at Bridge, 1885]
The Hope, or Lower Hope, runs
about three nautical miles, almost due
north and south, from Coal House Point,
about two miles below Gravesend, to the
Mucking Light at the beginning of Sea
Reach.
Both banks are here very flat
and marshy, the Mucking Flats being on
the left (Essex) and Cliffe Marsh on the
right (Kent).
Just beyond Coal House
Point is the Oven Spit and Ovens Buoy.
Bearings N.E. and S.W.
The Royal Humane Society, 4, Trafalgar Square,
London, was founded about a century
ago, to provide against the loss of life
arising from the many casualties annually
recurring with water, also for the purpose
of collecting and circulating the best
methods for the recovery of the apparently drowned or dead, for providing
suitable apparatus for the recovery of
those apparently drowned, and the bestowal of rewards on those persons who,
by their courage, activity, and presence of
mind, assist in preserving and restoring
life.
(See Drowning.)
Hurley, Berkshire, on the right bank;
from London 59 miles, from Oxford 52½
miles.
Population, 193.
Soil, chalk and
gravel.
A small village beautifully situated
in a charming country, but retiring so
coyly from the river as to afford little or
no indication of its existence to the casual
passer-by.
But the famous Lady Place
at Hurley made for itself a name in history;
and, although but little of the building
now remains it is not likely to be forgotten
so long as the graphic description of
Macaulay remains in evidence.
The church, dedicated to St.Mary the
Virgin, was consecrated in 1086, by
Osmund "the Good", Bishop of Sarum.
It was once the chapel of a Benedictine
monastery.
The old refectory of the
monastery still exists on the north side of
the church, and the monastic quadrangle
is on the same side.
There are several
plates on the north wall of the quadrangle
behind the church.
One runs as follows:
"the priory of St.Mary, Hurley, founded
in the reign of William the Conqueror by
Geoffrey de Mandeville and his wife
Lecelina, A.D. 1086. A cell to Westminster Abbey."
On another:
"King Edward the Confessor, principal founder
of Westminster Abbey, after the times of
King Sebert and King Offa."
The church
contains an antique stone font, and in
the vestry are two half-length stone figures.
Above the one is a scutcheon, under which
is an inscription:
"Richard Lovelace, sone of John Lovelace, Esquire, 1601."
Under the scutcheon which surmounts
the other is the inscription:
"Sir Richd. Lovelace, Knighted in ye Warrs."
No
date is filled in.
There are also in the
vestry paintings of Moses and Aaron.
On the floor of the nave are the remains
of some early brasses.
The principal fish at Hurley are pike
and chub, and there are perch in the deep
weir pool.
Places of Worship:-St.Mary the Virgin, and a school-chapel at Birchet's
Green.
Postal Arrangements: Letters through Marlow.
Pillar letter-box: cleared 10am, 6.30pm Sunday 9.30 am.
Nearest money order, telegraph, &c, office: Marlow.
Nearest Bridges:, up, Henley about 5¾ miles; down, Marlow 2¼ miles.
Locks: up, Hambleden 3¼ miles; down, Temple about ½ mile.
Ferry: Temple.
Railway Station: Marlow; but as Marlow is on a
branch line, Maidenhead is generally
preferred.
Fares from Marlow to Paddington
1st, 6/-, 9/1 1; 2nd, 4/6, 7/6; 3rd, 2/7J.
From Maidenhead to Paddington: 1st,
4/4, 7/6; 2nd, 3/3, 5/9; 3rd, 2/2½.
The Hurlingham Club, on the left bank
a short distance below Putney Bridge
the club is instituted for the purpose of
providing a ground for pigeon-shooting,
polo, lawn-tennis, &c, surrounded with
such accessories and so situated as to
render it an agreeable country resort, not
alone to those who take part in pigeon-shooting and polo, but also to their
families and friends.
The club consists,
at the time of revising this description of
it, of shooting, polo, and non-shooting
members.
Elected members pay an entrance fee of £15 15s, and an annual
subscription of £5 5s.
They are entitled
to all the privileges of the club, and to
admit two ladies without payment, and
may give orders of admission to as many
friends as they please, on payment.
The
non-shooting members, who are not
elected, pay an annual subscription of
£2 2s each, and are entitled to admit two
ladies without payment and to all the privileges of the club, except shooting and
polo-playing.
They may give orders of
admission to as many friends as they may
please, on payment only.
Every member
is entitled, by the payment of £1 1s extra
per annum, to give one additional order
for ladies only for free admission daily.
No person is eligible for admission who is
not received in general society.
The
committee elect by ballot, and the candidate balloted for shall be put up not
sooner than one week after he is proposed.
Five members must be present; if there
be one black ball he shall be considered
as not elected.
{in 1883 Dickens added:
The passage into law of Mr.Anderson's Cruelty to Animals Bill will probably very seriously alter the constitution and rules of Hurlingham.}
Iffley, called in Domesday Book Giftelei,
Oxfordshire, on the left bank, 110 miles
from London, 1½ miles from Oxford.
Population about 1,000. Soil, loam.
Iffley is noticeable chiefly for its old mill
on the river, and for its church, which is
one of the best specimens of Anglo-Norman
architecture now left to us in a building of
this size.
It is hardly necessary to visit
Iffley to see the mill.
It has been painted
in every kind of medium, and photographed in every sort of camera, till it
must be as familiar to most people as
Windsor Castle itself.
Rarely, indeed, is
there an exhibition of the Academy, or the
Dudley, or of any of the water-colour
societies, without at least one bit from
Iffley.
From the lock, the village is approached by a bridge over the weir, passing
through a gate at the mill.
This is kept
locked, and a toll is required from each
person of 1d.
About five minutes' walk
from the lock is the post-office, and about
200 yards to the right is the church, dedicated to St.Mary, which is known to have
been built prior to 1189, so that a tablet
on the outer north wall, dated 1659, which
elsewhere might lay claim to a decent antiquity, here appears to be even absurdly
juvenile.
The fine embattled tower rises
between the chancel and the nave, and is
in common with the rest of the church, in
singularly fine preservation.
Perhaps the
best point about the exterior is the west
front, which has a grand doorway with a
noble arch, enriched with carving, about
which there is even something Saracenic,
as is indeed the case with some of the
carved and fretted work of the interior.
The east bay of the chancel is as built by
Robert de Efteley, a prior of Kenilworth,
about 1270.
The ornamented piers and
capitals of the south and north doorways
and the chevron and sunflowers of the
tower arches in the interior, are very noteworthy.
The vaulted chancel roof is boldly
groined.
The building appears to be unusually narrow in proportion to its length.
Above the doorway at the west end is a
characteristic circular window.
The font
is large and massive, and is said to be
coeval with the church itself.
The windows
are of stained glass of no great interest,
except in so far that the west window
commemorates the author of "the Crescent and the Cross".
The churchyard
is famous for its yew, certainly one of
the finest old trees of that class in the
country, and which it requires no great
stretch of imagination to believe might
have been planted at a date not very
much later than the foundation of the
church itself.
Near it stands a monumental cross of ancient date, which has
recently been restored by Mr.G.Street,
R.A.
The rectory house, which abuts
on the churchyard, harmonises well with
its venerable neighbours.
The west side
contains some excellent perpendicular
work, and with the old Norman tower
behind it, and its garden sloping to the
river, forms one of the prettiest pictures
on the Thames.
The Manor House
(which overlooks the lock), though perhaps older by a century than the rectory,
has been altered and patched until scarcely
any traces of what it was remain.
Dr.Johnson visited this house with Boswell
on 11th June, 1784, when Dr.Nowell
resided there.
Boswell says:
"We were
well entertained and very happy at Dr.Nowell's, where was a very agreeable
company, and we drank 'Church and King' after dinner with true Tory cordiality."
The name of the village has,
it is said, been found spelt in eighty
different ways during the last 1,000 years.
Iffley lock is on the right bank of the
lasher, immediately on passing which the
lock comes into view, leaving the river a
little distance up stream.
The weir, on
which is the mill, has a very rapid stream,
and has a somewhat evil reputation for
accidents.
Some care, therefore, should
be exercised when waiting for the lock to
open.
The lock is of stone, in good repair except as to the gates.
A roller slip
has been recently added.
The fall is from
2½ to 3 feet.
Excellent dace-fishing with
the fly on the scowers and shallows from
Iffley Mill-tail to Rose Island, Kennington.
Inns: "Isis" (Grandpont on the river); "the Trees", in the village.
Place of Worship: St.Mary's.
Postal Arrangements: Mails from London, 6.23am, 2.05pm; Sundays, 6.23am
Mails for London, 6.20pm; Sundays, 3.19 pm
Nearest money order and telegraph office: Cowley.
Nearest Bridges, up, Oxford; down,
Abingdon about 7 miles.
Locks: Iffley; down, Sandford 1¾ miles.
Railway Stations: Oxford and Littlemore.
Fares, Oxford to Paddington: 1st,
11/-, 18/6; 2nd, 8/4, 14/-; 3rd, 5/7.
From
Littlemore the fares are a trifle lower.
Ilex Swimming Club:- this club
was founded in 1871, its members being
drawn from the ranks of amateur rowing,
yachting, canoe, cruising, athletic, and
football clubs.
It is managed bya presi-
dent, vice-president, captain, secretary,
and twelve committee men.
These officers
are all elective, with the exception of the
captaincy, which is annually swum for in
ILE-ISL
114
Thames.
Members are elected by ballot,
one black ball in five excluding.
The
subscription for active members is 10s.
per
annum, or £2 2s.
for life; non-active
members pay 5^.
per annum, or £1 is.
for
life.
The headquarters of the club are at
the Lambeth Baths, where most of its
races take place; colours, black and
crimson.
<
Isis: A name frequently given to the
Thames until it is joined by the Thame a
mile below Day's Lock, near Dorchester.
Camden thus derives the word Tamesis,
or Thames, from the junction of the
names of the two rivers.
This fanciful
derivation appears to have no foundation
in actual fact, but has been perpetuated
by the poets who have sung of the nuptials
of Thame and Isis;
"Beautiful Isis and her husband Thame",
Warton calls them.
In Julius Caesar's time the river was
known as Tamesis, and the Anglo-Saxon
name was Temese; very like the "Tamise ripe" of other days.
Whether Camden
considered that he had sufficient evidence
to justify Isis, or whether, misled by the
other river Thame, he merely invented the
derivation as the shortest way out of a
difficulty, is not quite clear.
Probably he followed Leland, as other
chroniclers in their turn followed him: a
sheep-like practice much in favour in such
cases, and productive of considerable confusion.
But as there can be no good
reason why a river for a portion of its
course should bear one name, and
presently change it for something quite
different, it seems desirable that, except
as a poetical conceit, the Isis legend
should be abandoned, and the river
throughout be called the Thames.
Isle of Dogs, on the left bank opposite
Greenwich: An uninviting title euphemistically derived from "Isle of Ducks", and applied to what was till lately about
the best imitation on a small scale of
the Great Dismal Swamp to be found
in England.
The place, it may be
observed en passant, was not until late
years an island at all, but simply a
peninsula jutting out into the river between Limehouse and Blackwall.
Just at the beginning of the present
century, however, the Corporation, which
had long been exercised by the demands
of enterprising engineers for permission to
put the river straight and take possession
of its old Scamandering bed for docks,
took heart of grace, and cut a canal through
the neck of the "unlucky Isle of Doggs",
as Master Pepys hath it, and so opened
a short cut for ships bound up or down
the river.
Apparently, however, the new
road was not found satisfactory, for it has
been long since closed and sold to the
West India Dock Company, who now
use it as a timber dock.
Nearest Steamboat Piers: Mill wall (west) and Cubitt Town (east).
Ferries: Ferry-street to Greenwich Pier, and north-east corner of Commercial Docks.
Railway Station: West India Dock; Omnibus Route: Blackwall.
Isleworth, Middlesex, on the left
bank; from London 15 miles, from Oxford
96½ miles.
A station on the South
Western Railway 12 miles from Waterloo.
Trains average about 40 minutes, or from
Ludgate-hill about an hour and a half.
Population, about 12,000. Soil, light.
Isleworth, known to Doomsday Book
as Ghistelworde, and called in Elizabeth's
time Thistleworth, is a place of some
antiquity; but is now generally known in
consequence of its market gardens, which
are very numerous and prolific.
Here,
also, are extensive flour mills, cement
works, &c.
Close to the little town is
Syon House, the seat of the Duke of
Northumberland.
It is a large, plain
mansion facing the river, and stands on
the site of a nunnery founded in the time
of Henry V.
In the natural course of
events the nunnery was dissolved by
Henry VIII.
It was given by Edward
VI too Seymour, Duke of Somerset, and
after several confiscations was finally
granted, in 1604, to the Earl of Northumberland, who built the present house.
The well-known Lion from Northumberland House, Strand, having retired from
public life, now takes his ease at Syon.
Half a mile above Syon House is the
Church Ferry, and another ferry is above
the eyots, half a mile nearer Richmond.
Among the local institutions are the
Isleworth and St.John's Working Men's
Clubs, and the Public Reading-room and
Library.
The subscription to the latter
is 5s annually, 1s 6d quarterly.
The
Reading-room is in South-street.
Opposite the Church Ferry is the Green School,
a red brick building, erected in 1861 by
the late Duchess of Northumberland.
This school is endowed to clothe and
educate 40 girls between the ages of seven
and fourteen.
The Blue Schools are for
girls and boys.
In addition to various
places of worship is a Roman Catholic
convent.
The list of charities and alms-houses is very extensive.
The parish church, All Saints, was
rebuilt in 1705, and restored in 1866.
It
is a fine building, with a remarkably
beautiful ivy-covered tower.
In it are
some good brasses, one of the 15th century, and one in front of the Duke of
Northumberland's pew to the memory of
Margaret Dely, who died 1561, having
been a nun at Syon when it was restored
to its original purposes by Queen Mary.
Fire: Volunteer Fire Brigade, Station-house-square.
Inns: " London Apprentice", Church-street; "Northumberland Arms", Brentford End; "Orange Tree", Mill Bridge.
Places of Worship: All Saints (parish), St.John the Baptist, and St.Mary's;
the Roman Catholic Church of St.Mary Immaculate and St.Bridget, and the Convent Chapels; also Congregational and
Wesleyan Chapels, and Friends' Meeting
House.
Police: Metropolitan (T Division), Station, Worple-road.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, savings bank, telegraph,
and insurance).
Mails from London, 7
and 9am, 2.30 and 6.45pm (Saturdays, 8.30pm) No Sunday delivery.
Mails for London, 6.15 and 9.45am, 12.45, 5.15, and 9.30pm; Sundays, 9pm
Nearest Bridges, up, Richmond about
½ mile; down, Kew about 2 miles.
Lock,
up, Teddington, 3J miles.
Ferries: Isleworth and Brentford.
Railway Station:
Isleworth.
Fares to Waterloo and Ludgate-hill:
1st, 1/2, 1/9; 2nd, 1/-, 1/6; 3rd, 10d, 1/4.
Jenkin Buoy: An 8-foot cylinder
buoy, made of iron, and painted with
black and white chequers.
It is situated
in Sea Reach, to the westward of the
Nore Sand, and marks a depth of water,
at low- water spring tide, of 21 feet.
It is
moored with 12 fathoms of chain.
The
Jenkin buoy belongs to the Trinity House.
Junior Kingston Rowing Club, Sun Hotel, Kingston: Election by ballot;
one black ball in three excludes. Entrance
fee, 5s; subscriptions, £1 1s.
Boathouse,
High-street, Kingston. Colours, black and gold.
Junior Thames Yacht Club, White
Hart Hotel, Greenhithe, and Royal Oak
Hotel, Ramsgate: the object of the
club is the encouragement of practical
amateur yachtsmen.
For this purpose
the crews of yachts in all sailing matches
must be amateurs, with the exception of
one paid hand in the 5-ton class, two
in the 10-ton class, and three in the 20-ton
class, such hands not to touch the tiller.
Yachts limited to 20 tons only are allowed
to take part in the club matches.
The
officers are commodore, vice commodore,
rear commodore, hon.Treasurer, secretary, and two auditors.
The committee
consists of twenty members, the flag-officers being ex-officio members.
Election by ballot of the club; one black ball
in three excludes.
Entrance fee, £1 is;
subscription, £1 1s.
Burgee, white, with
blue cross running through. Ensign red.
Kempsford: A village in Gloucestershire on the Thames and Severn Canal,
and not far from the Thames at Castle
Eaton, situated about 4½ miles from Lechlade and 6 from Cricklade.
Kempsford
is of no particular importance, but is
worth visiting for the very fine square
tower, with two noble windows, which
rises from the centre of the church of St.
Mary the Virgin.
The interior of the
church, though possessing many features
of architectural interest, is rather plain,
except for the roof of the tower, which
is very rich in colour, and for some good
stained glass.
In the chancel is a stone
altar tomb with figures considerably mutilated; and in the vestry, which is notable
for a good Norman arch, is a curious old
picture which apparently represents King
David, and was "the gift of Robert Pope,
London".
The population is about 1,000.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office in the village.
Letters through Fairford.
Mails arrive at 7.30am, and are despatched at 6.10pm
Nearest Railway Station: Fairford, distant about 3 miles.
Fares to Paddington, 1st, 18/6, 27/6; 2nd, 12/-, 20/-; 3rd, 8/3½
Kennington Island, sometimes called
Rose Island, opposite the little village of
Kennington in Berkshire, about 2½ miles
from Oxford.
Here is a good little inn,
"The Swan", to which is attached some
private fishing.
From the railway bridge,
just above, is a pleasant view of the
distant spires of Oxford.
Nearest Bridges, up, Oxford about
2½ miles; down, Abingdon about 5½ miles.
Locks: up, Iffley ½ mile; down, Sandford 1½ mile.
Railway Station: Littlemore.
Fares, Littlemore to Paddington: 1st, 10/9, 18/-; 2nd, 7/6, 12/6; 3rd, 5/2
Fares, from Paddington: 1st, 10/9, 18/-; 2nd, 7/6, 12/6; 3rd, 5/2.
Kensington Rowing Club: Headquarters, Biffen's, Hammersmith.
Election
by ballot, either at general or committee
meeting; two adverse votes at a committee, or four at a general meeting, excluding.
Entrance fee, 10s 6d; Subscription, 30s acting members; 21s honorary members.
Boathouse, Biffen's, Hammersmith. Colours, pink and black.
Kew, Surrey, on the right bank; from
London 12½ miles, from Oxford 99 miles.
Kew Bridge is a station on the South
Western Railway, 9¼ miles from Waterloo;
trains take about half an hour.
There is
another route to Ludgate-hill, trains,
average 1¼ hour.
The Kew Gardens
station is on the Surrey side, and is in
connection with most of the Metropolitan
Railway stations, via District, &c.
The
Kew Bridge station is on the Middlesex
side, the two counties being here connected by a stone bridge, where there is
also a steamboat pier.
Population, 1033. Soil, gravel.
Like most villages near London, Kew
is losing most of its distinctive features,
and but for the quaint old green with its
picturesque surroundings, there is little
to remind of the Kew of even twenty years
ago.
By the side of Kew Green is Cambridge Cottage, and near it an entrance
to the magnificent Botanical Gardens,
among the finest in the world.
Kew Gardens are not only among the
most favourite resorts of the London
holiday-maker, but have special value to
the botanist and horticulturist.
The
judicious expenditure of public money
has made the gardens and houses at
Kew almost unique among public institutions of the kind.
Here are to be seen
flourishing in an atmosphere of their own,
though in an uncongenial climate, the
most beautiful tropical palms, plants,
ferns, fern-trees, and cacti; and the
pleasure-grounds and arboretum contain
in endless and exhaustive profusion specimens of the flowers, shrubs, and trees
indigenous to Great Britain.
Attached
to the gardens is a valuable museum of
useful vegetable products.
The Gardens
are at present open free to the public every
day in the week, Sundays included, in the
afternoon; the morning hours being reserved for the necessary work of the
gardeners, curators, and a few favoured
students.
On Bank Holidays, however,
the Gardens are opened at 10am.
Kew Palace was built by Sir Hugh
Portman during the reign of James I.,
and is close to the gardens.
It is a plain
building of red brick, and, like many
other plain things and people, was high
in favour with George III. and Queen
Charlotte.
The Church of St.Anne was built in
1714, and enlarged in 1840.
It is chiefly
noteworthy for its graveyard, which contains the tombs of many celebrated men,
amongst them being Gainsborough and
Zoffany, the latter having been a resident
of Strand-on-the-Green just across the
river.
Gainsborough was not a resident
in the neighbourhood, but was buried
here by his own desire.
A brief inscription on the stone records Gainsborough's
death, and in the church is a tablet to his
memory, erected by E.M.Ward, R.A.
In Kew churchyard also lie Meyer the
painter, and Sir William Hooker, the late
director of the Botanic Gardens.
To the
east of the church is the mausoleum of
the late Duke of Cambridge.
The following curious epitaph is inscribed on a slab
at the entrance to the church:
Here lyeth the bodys of Robert and Ann Plaistow,
late of Tyso, near Edy Hill,
died August the 28, 1728.
At Tyso they were born and bred,
And in the same good lives they led
Until they came to marriage state,
Which was to them most fortunate.
Near sixty years of mortal life
They were a happy man and wife;
And being so by nature tied,
When one fell sick the other died,
And both together laid in dust
To wait the rising of the just.
They had six children, born and bred,
And five before them being dead,
Their only one surviving son
Hath caus'd this stone for to be done.
The foundation stone of the Queen's
Free School for boys and girls was laid
by William IV.; the Queen and Royal
Family, especially the Cambridge branch,
are liberal benefactors.
Inns: "Star and Garter", Middlesex side;
"Coach and Horses", "Greyhound", "Cumberland Arms", Kew-road;
"King's Arms", "Rose and Crown", the Green.
Place of Worship: St.Anne's.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, savings bank, and telegraph).
Mails from London, 7 and 8.30am, 2.20, 6.30, and 8.40pm; Sunday, 7.30am
Mails to London, 6.15, 9.40am, 12.50, 5.10, and 9.05pm; Sunday, 9.15pm
Nearest bridge: Kew; nearest Bridges: up, Richmond 3 miles; down, Hammersmith 4 miles.
Lock: up, Teddington about 6 miles.
Ferry: Kew, above the Eyots.
Railway Station: Kew.
Fares to Waterloo: 1st, 1/-, 1/6; 2nd, 9d, 1/2; 3rd, 8d, 1/-
Kew Gardens to Mansion House: 1st, 1/2, 1/9; 2nd, 1/-, 1/4; 3rd, 9d, 1/2.
Kingston, Surrey, on the right bank,
from London 20½ miles, from Oxford 91
miles.
A station (at Surbiton) on the
main line of the London and South Western Railway, 12 miles from Waterloo;
trains take about 25 minutes.
Kingston
station is connected, via Twickenham,
with the Windsor branch of the same
railway, and is also in communication
with the Metropolitan and North London systems.
Flys meet the trains.
the Guildford Coach (see Coaching)
passes through Kingston.
Population,
about 17,000.
The town is divided into
four wards, and is governed by a high
steward, mayor, eight aldermen, and
twenty-four councillors.
It is an assize
town; the present Recorder being William
Hardman, Esq.
It is the headquarters
of the 47th Infantry Brigade Depot, and
the barracks are in King's-road; the district includes the 1st and 3rd regiments
Surrey Militia, the 1st and 2nd Administrative Battalions, and the 1st, 7th, and
12th corps of Surrey Volunteers, the latter
being the Kingston corps, with headquarters in Orchard-road.
The rifle range
- 600 yards - is near the cemetery.
Kingston, once called Kyningestun, was
a place of considerable importance in the
very early times of English history, having
been intimately connected with the Saxon
kings so far back as the ninth century
the ubiquitous Cæsar had, of course, already left his mark in the neighbourhood.
Many Roman remains and fragments of
camps have been found all about Kingston
and Wimbledon, and some writers prefer
to believe that the Romans, when in pursuit of Cassivelaunus, crossed the Thames
at Kingston, and not at Causeway or
Coway Stakes.
In 838, Kingston was
selected as the seat of the Great Council
or Wittenagemot, convened by King
Egbert, which his son Athelwolf, and
many bishops and nobles attended, the
president being Ceolnothus, Archbishop
of Canterbury.
The fact that the records
of this meeting, describing the town as
Kyningestun famosa illa locus does away
with the legend that the town derived its
name from the subsequent coronation of
Saxon kings on the stone in the market-place.
There is, however, no doubt that
such coronations did take place here, and
perhaps on the stone which is still preserved.
Leland says
"the townisch men have certen knowledge of a few kinges
crownid there afore the Conqueste".
The
names and dates of these "kinges", as recorded on the pedestal of the stone, are:
Eadweard: 902;
Adelstan: 924;
Eadmund: 943;
Eadwig: 955;
Eadweard: 975;
Ædelred:978;
{I, John Eade, editing this, feel we should not forget these Kings!}
A picturesque account of the crowning of
Adelstan will be found in Dean Hook's
"Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury".
The coronation of these kings at
Kingston appears to be sufficiently established.
Whether young Edwy, who
married his cousin Elgiva, and became,
with his unfortunate queen, the victim of
the cruelty and brutality of "Saint"
Dunstan and his friend Odo, Archbishop
of Canterbury - par nobile fratrum - was
crowned at Kingston is less certain.
The
story goes that the king withdrew early
from the rough coronation feast to seek the
society of Elgiva, and greatly excited the
wrath of the nobles.
Dunstan and Odo
were sent to bring the king back, and
forcibly dragged him from his apartments,
assailing the queen with foul and opprobrious epithets.
Unfortunately for poor
Elgiva, she had her revenge on Dunstan,
who was finally banished from the kingdom, and whose fall was bitterly avenged
by his friend Odo.
First branded with
hot irons to destroy the beauty which had
so much power over the young king, she
fell, at a later period, again into the hands of
Odo, and was cruelly put to death, the king
dying of a broken heart shortly afterwards.
In Domesday Book the town is called
Chingestune.
The townsmen received
their first and second municipal charters
from King John; that of 1209 is still
preserved.
Another charter in the possession of the corporation is one granted
by Henry III., in 1256, and subsequent
charters of Henry VI., 1441, James I.,
1603, Charles I., 1629, and finally, James
II., 1685, conferred various privileges on
the municipality and burgesses.
In 1264,
Henry III. took and destroyed Kingston
Castle, at that time the property of the
Earl of Gloucester.
For about sixty
years from the beginning of the fourteenth century the town was represented
ir Parliament.
During the great civil
war, Kingston was frequently occupied
by one or other of the contending parties,
and in 1648 Lord Francis Villiers was
killed here in a skirmish.
There is little in the present thriving
and busy town of Kingston to recall its
ancient history, unless it be the coronation stone, which has been set up and
fenced in by a gorgeous railing, close
to the Assize Courts.
The principal
business centre is the Market-place, in
the middle of which stands the Town
Hall, a modern building supported on
arches and columns, and displaying over
the southern entrance the inevitable
statue of Queen Anne, which formerly
adorned the old building.
The Council
Chamber, a handsome apartment, contains a full-length portrait of Queen Anne,
by Sir Godfrey Kneller; a drawing of
Kingston Bridge, by Edward Lapidge,
the architect; and some other pictures
of inferior merit.
The middle window
has eight very curious panes of painted
and stained glass, displaying armorial
bearings and mottoes, which are well
worth careful examination.
In the justices'
room is some good old oak carving,
formerly in the old Town Hall.
The bridge which connects Surrey and
Middlesex, is close to the Market-place.
It is a handsome stone structure of five
arches, was opened in 1828, and freed in
1870.
It affords very pleasant views
both up and down stream.
A little below
it is the railway-bridge, Kingston station
being close to the river.
Kingston has largely increased in
importance, owing to the growth of its
suburbs, Norbiton, Surbiton, and New
Maiden; the convenience of access from
London, and the pleasant surroundings
of the neighbourhood, having attracted
a large residential population.
Along
the riverside road the authorities of Surbiton have constructed and laid out
public walks and gardens, which extend
as far as the Water-works and Raven
Eyot and Boat-houses.
From Raven Eyot
to Surbiton railway-station is by Grove-
road, nearly opposite the Ferry, about
ten minutes' walk.
The Grammar School has been rebuilt,
and was opened January 30, 1878, for
one hundred boys, including boarders.
The building, and master's house adjoining, form a handsome block of buildings,
facing London-street.
The old school-room is the only part of the old buildings
left standing.
It was built as a chapel
(chantry), and dedicated to St.Mary
Magdalene, by Edward Lovekyn, A.D. 1305.
John Lovekyn, his heir, rebuilt
the chapel and house contiguous thereto,
and improved the foundation by the addition of another chaplain; he gave to the
new foundation considerable property in
Kingston, and houses in St.Michael's,
Crooked-lane, London, where he resided.
Leland says:
"He was a native of Kingston, and was Lord Mayer in 1347,
1357, 1364, and 1365.
He was buried in
St.Michael's Church, under a large raised
tomb, having the figures of himself and
his wife in alabaster - but this was destroyed
by the Great Fire of London".
The famous William Walworth was an apprentice of John Lovekyn, and he added
another chaplain to the foundation.
The
chapel was seized by Henry VIII., and
Queen Elizabeth converted it into a school,
A.D. 1561.
In March, 1873, a new scheme
for the management of the school, in
combination with several other charities,
was issued by the Endowed Schools
Commissioners, giving 10-24ths to the
Upper Grammar School, and 7-24ths to
Tiffins's School for Boys, and 7-24ths
to Tiffins's School for Girls, for lower
middle-class children.
The buildings for
Tiffins's School stand in the Fair-field.
The fees for the Upper or Grammar
School are 10 guineas per annum, and
for the other not less than £3 nor more
than £5.
The members for Mid-Surrey,
Sir H.W.Peek and Sir T.Lawrence,
have each given a scholarship for five
years, clearing school fees.
Scholarships
are to be given at Tiffins's for boys from
the National Schools, and at the Grammar
School for scholars from Tiffins's, and,
as the funds permit, from the Grammar
School to the Universities.
There are at Kingston, Surbiton, and
Norbiton a large number of institutions
of a charitable or public character.
Some
of these will be found under their proper
headings below.
Amongst the others
may be mentioned:
the Society for
Organising Charitable Relief and Repressing Mendicity {begging}, of which the Rev.F.M.Arnold is secretary;
Cleave's Almhouses, founded by William Cleave, 1665, for the
benefit of six poor men and six poor
women, single residents of Kingston,
being over sixty years of age - the Cleave
Foundation has been augmented by the
dividends of £1,000 three Per Cents,
bequeathed by John Tilsey in the reign
of Queen Anne;
the Children's Convalescent Institute, in connection with
the Metropolitan Institution at Walton-on-Thames, is at Kingston Hill, and contains
150 beds;
the Young Men's Reading Room, Brick-lane;
the Soup Kitchen, in connection with the Charity Organisation Society;
and the Workmen's Club and Institute, Fairfield-road.
There are also the Kingston and Surbiton Horticultural and Chrysanthemum Societies.
The parish church is dedicated to All
Saints, and stands close to the Market-place.
It is a plain brick building, with
a square tower, principally of flint and
rubble, which has been very lately restored.
Adjoining the old church once
stood the chapel of St.Mary, which is
said to have been the scene of the coronation of several of the Saxon kings, and
in which their effigies were preserved.
In 1729 this building fell, and the sexton
and another man were killed.
The sexton's daughter, who was working in a
grave at the time, was saved by the falling
of a portion of a column across the
opening of the grave.
The piece of stone,
inscribed "Life preserved, 1731" is still
to be seen in the church.
The present
building consists of nave, chancel, and
north and south aisles, the latter disfigured
by galleries.
The tower contains a good
peal of ten bells.
There are numerous
monuments.
Near the chancel is a
statue in white marble, by Chantrey: a
seated figure of the Countess of Liver-
pool, who died in June, 1821.
Close by,
under a canopy on the south wall, is the
altar tomb of Sir Anthony Benn, once
recorder of Kingston, who died in 1618.
Under the canopy lies the alabaster effigy
of the deceased, in his official robes.
Also against the south wall are several
monuments of the Davidson family, one
being a white marble figure, and another
a somewhat conventional mourning figure,
with urn and drapery.
There are signs
of numerous brasses, and a few still remain.
The best is that to the memory of
Robert Skern, and Joan his wife, which
is on the south wall.
It represents two
figures, some three feet in length, is
elaborately executed, and is of the fifteenth
century.
Another brass, with two kneel-
ing figures, is on a column near the north
entrance, and records the deaths of John
and Katherine Hertcombe, who died
respectively 1488 and 1487.
The brass to
Dr.Edmund Staunton's ten children has
the following curious inscription:
Another curious epitaph is that on a memorial stone of Thos.Hayward, 1665:
Earth to earth
Ashes on Ashes lye, on Ashes tread
Ashes engrav'd these words which Ashes read
Then what poore thing is Man when any gust
Can blow his Ashes to their elder dust?
More was intended but a wind did rise
And filled with Ashes both my Mouth and Eyes.
There are a vast number of other tablets,
some curious, in the church.
The other
churches in Kingston are St.John the
Evangelist, and St.John the Baptist.
The Congregational Church, Eden-street,
was founded in 1662, by the Rev.Richard
Mayo, Vicar of Kingston, who seceded
from the Established Church on the
passing of the Act of Uniformity.
Cabstands: Kingston and Surbiton
Railway stations, and Market-place.
Cab Fares: If by distance: Not exceeding one mile, 1s; exceeding one mile - for each mile or part of a mile, 1s.
If by time: For one hour or less, 2s 6d.; above one hour, for every 15 minutes, 8d.;
for any less period, 8d.
Extra payments,
whether hired by distance or by time:
For each package carried outside, 2d; for each person above two, 6d; for each child under 10 years, 3d;
by distance - waiting, for every 15 minutes complete, 8d.
Banks: London and County, Market-place; Shrubsole and Co., 11, Market-place.
Fair: Nov. 13.
Fire: Borough Fire and Escape Brigade, Church-street (steam-engine,
escape, &c.); Volunteer Steam Fire
Brigade, London-street (steam-engine, etc.).
Hotels: "Griffin", "Sun", "Wheatsheaf", all in Market-place.
Markets: Thursday and Saturday.
Places of Worship: All Saints
(parish church); St.John the Evangelist,
Springfield-road; St.Paul's, Kingston hill; and Baptist, Congregational,
Presbyterian, Primitive Methodist, and
Wesleyan Chapels, and Friends' Meeting-house.
Police: Station, London-street.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, savings bank, telegraph
and insurance), Eden-street.
Mails
from London, 6.30 and 9am, 4.30 and
7.30pm
Sunday, 6.30am, by letter-carrier; delivery over the counter, 8 to 10
am
Mails for London, 7.20 and 10am 12.30, 3, 4, 4.50, 8.30, and 10pm;
Sunday, 10 pm
Nearest Bridges: Kingston; up, Hampton Court about 3 miles; down, Richmond 5 miles.
Locks: up, Molesey, 3½ miles; down, Teddington 1¾ mile.
Ferry: Surbiton.
Railway Station: Surbiton and Kingston.
Fares, Kingston and Surbiton to Waterloo: 1st, 2/-, 2/6; 2nd, 1/6, 2/-; 3rd, 1/-, 1/8.
Kingston Amateur Regatta - Races in 1882. {1st edition}
Kingston Rowing Club: this club
consists of ordinary members and three
classes of life members.
Full members
are those who live within a radius of six
miles from the club boat-house, for any
period not less than one month during
the rowing season, or who row in any
races in club boats.
Half members are
those who live beyond a radius of six
miles from the club boat-house, or resident
members of the Universities of Oxford and
Cambridge and public schools.
Honorary
members shall be entitled to the use of
the club-room only.
Entrance fee for
full and half members, £1 1s; subscriptions, full members, £2 2s; half and
honorary members, £1 1s; life full members £15 15s; half, £8 8s; honorary,
£5 5s.
Election is by ballot in general,
meeting: one black ball in six excludes.
Boat-house, the Island, Surbiton.
The
Raven's Ait Company (Limited) are now
the proprietors of the island.
Colours,
scarlet and white, horizontal.
Laleham, Middlesex, on the left bank;
from London 33 miles; from Oxford 78½
miles.
Population, 566. Soil, gravel and brick earth.
A village rather more
than two miles from Staines, and about
a mile and a half from Chertsey, well
known for its ferry, where there is a long
shallow for the fly.
On the south side of
the river near the ferry-house is a Roman
camp, evidently intended to guard the
ford; while on the north side, about half
a mile from the river, there are still
traditions of another Cæsar's camp.
The
tract of meadow land on the south side
of the river, known as the Burway, used
to belong and pay rates to Laleham
parish, but on the occasion of Laleham
parish refusing to pay for the burial of the
body of a drowned man cast on shore on
the Burway, Chertsey parish buried the
corpse and claimed the rates, which it
has retained ever since.
The Earl of
Lucan owns a considerable quantity of
land in the neighbourhood, and claims as
his property a chapel on the north side of
the church.
The church, dedicated to
All Saints, contains some fine old Norman pillars and arches, some of which are
built in the south wall, showing that in
the old Norman time there was a south
aisle to the church.
This was cut off in
the decorated Gothic period, and windows
of that date inserted in the arches.
This
seems to point to the much greater comparative importance of villages on a great
waterway when the uplying parts were
heavily clothed with forest than when,
200 years later, the forests were to a large
extent cut down.
The tower is a brick
structure of George I.'s time.
In the
chancel is a large altar-piece of Our
Saviour and St.Peter on the sea, painted
by Harlowe during a stay in the village;
and on the south of the chancel is a
mural monument to Mrs.Hartwell, by
Chantrey, not a very favourable specimen
of the master.
In the churchyard at the
foot of the tower is an epitaph, date
1789, which offers a variation on the old-
fashioned "Affliction sore long time I bore":
Pain was my portion, physic was my food,
Groans my devotion, drugs did me no good,
Christ my physician knew which way was best
To ease my pain and set my soul at rest.
Inns:the "Feathers", and the "Horse Shoes".
Place of Worship: All Saints.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
near the church (money order and telegraph office).
Mails from London, 7am and 12 noon; Sunday, 7am,
Mails for London, 10.10am, and 6.40pm; Sunday, 10am.
Nearest Bridges: up, Staines 2½ miles; down, Chertsey 1 mile.
Locks: up, Penton Hook ½ mile; down, Chertsey 1¼ mile.
Ferry: Laleham.
Railway
Stations: Staines and Chertsey.
Fares from Staines: 1st, 3/3, 5/-; 2nd, 2/3, 3/6; 3rd, 1/7, 3/-.
From Chertsey, 1st, 4/-, 5/6; 2nd, 3/-, 4/-; 3rd, 1/10, 3/4.
Lambeth Bridge is perhaps, on the
whole, the ugliest ever built.
It was
also, when it was built, supposed to
be the cheapest.
It is a suspension
bridge of three spans, and one great
economy in its construction consists in
the use of wire cables in place of the
usual chains.
It connects Westminster
with Lambeth, where it lands close to
the Archbishop's Palace.
Leander Club: this old-established
rowing club (sometimes called the "Brilliants") consists of members and honorary members; the subscription for the
former is £2, 2s, for the latter £1 1s.
Members of the Universities of Oxford
and Cambridge are only liable to a subscription of 10s 6d per annum so long
as they are resident undergraduates.
The election of members is entrusted to
the committee.
Colours, red. Boat-house, Biffen's, Hammersmith.
Lechlade, Gloucestershire, on the left
bank, distant from Oxford 33 miles.
A
station on the Great Western Railway,
86 miles from Paddington, the time
occupied by the fast trains being about
2¾ hours.
The station is some little distance from the town, but an omnibus
meets the trains.
Population about 1,300.
Soil: loam; subsoil, gravel.
Lechlade
is situated a short distance below the
junction of the Thames with the Thames
and Severn Canal.
The river Lech here
falls into the Thames, which at Lechlade
first becomes navigable for practical purposes, and runs, except in very dry
seasons, in a goodly stream under the
handsome arch of the bridge.
Lechlade
is a pretty little place, with a sheep and
cattle market on the last Tuesday in
each month, but, except for its position
on the river, is not of any importance.
The ideas of its inhabitants on the subject of paving are, it may be
remarked, open to considerable exception.
Its church of St.Lawrence, which
was built by one Conrad Ney, the then
vicar, in the time of King Edward IV.,
is, with its tower and spire, a conspicuous
object in the landscape for many miles
round, and is a rather plain but handsome
building in the Gothic style.
It appears,
however, to have been somewhat severely
restored.
The most pretentious monument it contains is on the south wall of
the chancel, and consists of a medallion
of Mrs.Anne Simons (1769), to which
one of the fat and ugly naked boys, who
were so popular with the sculptors of that
period, is pointing; and in the east of
the south nave is a mural tablet with coats
of arms and two fat marble children, the
whole being dedicated to the memory of
certain members of the Coxeter family.
Nearly under this is an imperfect brass
and in the north nave are two more, one
of a male and another of a female figure,
in good preservation.
Lechlade is the point at which boats
may be taken for the trip down the river
(see Trip from Lechlade to Oxford), and
boats may either be sent from Salter's at
Oxford by van or by the Great Western
Railway Company, who make arrangements for conveying them from the station
to the river.
There is a good hotel in
the town (the "New Inn"), but boating
parties occasionally prefer to put up at
the "Trout Inn", at St.John's Bridge,
about half a mile down the stream, which
is also favourably spoken of, but of which
the Editor has no personal experience.
Banks: County of Gloucester Banking Company and Gloucestershire Banking Company.
Fire Engine: In the town.
Hotels: "New Inn", in the town; "Trout", St.John's Bridge, about half a mile off.
Market Day: Last Tuesday in each month.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, telegraph, savings bank,
and insurance) near the "New Inn".
Mails from London, 4.50am, and 1pm;
mails for London, 10am, and 8.45pm
Nearest Bridges: up, Hannington, 3 miles; down, St.John's, about half a mile.
Lock: down, St.John's, about half a mile, the first lock on the Thames.
Fares, from Lechlade to Paddington,
1st, 15/9, 26/3; 2nd, 11/7, 19/6; 3rd,
7/11½.
Legal Quays and Sufferance
Wharves are the places licensed for the
landing of goods in the Port of London;
the term "Sufferance" being taken from
the phraseology of the old writs, which
ran: "Suffer such and such persons" to
land or warehouse such and such articles.
The licences vary in respect of the particular articles which may be landed at
each place.
Leigh, Essex, on the left bank, from
London about 42 miles.
A station on
the London, Tilbury, and Southend
Railway, about one hour and a half from
Fenchurch- street.
Population: 1,688.
Soil: loam, clay, and gravel.
Leigh is a
picturesque fishing village situated on a
creek of the Thames, and of but little
importance.
Behind the village, which
is built close on to the river, rises a somewhat steep hill, on which are the church,
the post-office, and some few houses.
the church, which is dedicated to St.
Clement, is a large building in the perpendicular style, with a handsome and
lofty tower, which is a well-known landmark, and commands an extensive prospect.
It contains a few brasses, notably
that to Richard Hadock and wives (1453)
in the north aisle.
In the chancel is a
bust of Robert Salmon (died 1641),
curiously painted, and with an inscription
in Latin and English setting forth the
fact that he had restored the ancient art
of navigation, which had been almost
lost.
the church also contains an ancient
alms-box, with three massive locks, inscribed, "I pray you the pore remember."
Just below the church, on the way
to the river, are the school buildings.
Places of Worship: St.Clement's, and Wesleyan Chapel.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, savings bank, telegraph,
and insurance), half-way down the hill,
between the church and the village.
Mails from London 10.45am, Mails for London, 11.20am, and 7pm
Nearest Railway Station: Leigh;
Steamboat Pier and Ferry: Southend.
Fares to London: 1st, 4/1, 6/10; 2nd,
3/-, 5/-; 3rd, 2/1.
Lights to be carried by vessels under
the Conservancy bye-laws:
Every steam-vessel navigating the River Thames
(except as hereinafter provided) shall,
between sunset and sunrise, while under
way, exhibit the three following lights
of sufficient power to be distinctly visible
with a clear atmosphere on a dark night
at a distance of at least one mile, namely:
(a) At the foremast, or, if there be no
foremast, at the funnel, a bright white
light suspended at the height of not less
than ten feet from the deck, and so fixed
as to throw the light from right ahead to
two points abaft the beam on either side.
(b) On the starboard side, a green light
so fixed and fitted with an inboard screen
as to throw the light from direct ahead
to two points abaft the beam on the starboard side,
(c) On the port side, a red
light so fixed and fitted with an inboard
screen as to throw the light from direct
ahead to two points abaft the beam on
the port side,
(d) Provided, however, that
no passenger steam vessel whilst navigating the said river above London Bridge,
and when under way, shall be bound to
exhibit between sunset and sunrise any
other lights than two bright white lights,
one at her mast-head, and one at her
stem.
Steamers towing vessels shall,
between sunset and sunrise, exhibit, in
addition to the above-mentioned three
lights, a white light on the foremast or
funnel not less than four feet vertically
above the first-mentioned white light, of
the like power and similar to it in every
respect.
Every steam dredger moored
in the River Thames shall, between sunset and sunrise, exhibit three bright lights
from globular lanterns of not less than
eight inches in diameter, the said three
lights to be placed in a triangular form,
and to be of sufficient power to be distinctly visible with a clear atmosphere on a
dark night at a distance of at least one mile,
and to be placed not less than six feet
apart on the highest part of the framework
athwart ships.
All barges on the River
Thames above Putney Bridge, whether
navigated by sail, towed by steam or
horses, shall between sunset and sunrise,
while under way, exhibit in their bows or
on their masts a red light of sufficient
power to be distinctly visible with a
clear atmosphere On a dark night at a
distance of at least one mile.
(The
report of the committee appointed by
the Board of Trade to inquire into the
navigation of the Thames, which was
presented to both Houses in the summer
of 1879, recommended the abolition of
this clause, which the committee stated
"appears never to have been obeyed".)
All vessels under sail east of London
Bridge shall exhibit between sunset and
sunrise two lights, viz., a green light on
the starboard and a red light on the port
side, such lights to be visible on a dark
night with a clear atmosphere at a distance
of at least one mile.
Every person in
charge of a dumb-barge when under way
and not in tow shall, between sunset and
sunrise, when below or to the eastward
of a line drawn from the upper part of
Silvertown, in the county of Essex, to
Charlton Pier, in the county of Kent, have
a white light always ready, and exhibit
the same on the approach of any vessel.
The person in charge of the sternmost
or last of a line of barges, when being
towed, shall exhibit, between sunset and
sunrise, a white light from the stern of
his barge.
All vessels and barges, when
at anchor in the fairway of the river,
shall exhibit the usual riding light.
All
vessels, when employed to mark the
position of wrecks or other obstructions,
shall exhibit two bright lights placed
horizontally not less than six feet apart.
The penalty for breach of any of these
bye-laws is a sum not exceeding £5:
(And see RULE OF thE ROAD, and Steam Launches.)
Limehouse Reach extends from the
Lower Pool to the beginning of Deptford
Reach.
On the right bank are the Commercial Docks.
At the top of the Reach
are Limehouse and Shadwell churches.
Bearings N.N.E. and S.S.W.
Little Stoke: A ferry between Oxfordshire and Berkshire, nearly opposite the Berks county lunatic asylum, in the parish of Cholsey, and about one mile from Moulsford.
| LOCKS ABOVE OXFORD | ||
|---|---|---|
| Lock | miles from Cricklade, | miles from Oxford |
| St.John's | 10½ | 32½ |
| Buscot | 12½ | 30½ |
| Rushy | 20 | 23 |
| Pinkhill | 34½ | 8½ |
| Godstow | 39½ | 3½ |
| Osney | 42½ | ½ |
| BELOW OXFORD | ||
| Lock | miles from London, | miles from Oxford |
| Iffley | 110½ | 1 |
| Sandford | 108¾ | 2¾ |
| Abingdon | 104¼ | 7¼ |
| Culham | 101¾ | 9¾ |
| Clifton | 98¾ | 12¾ |
| Day's | 96 | 15½ |
| Bensington | 92 | 19½ |
| Wallingford | 90¼ | 21¼ |
| Cleeve | 85½ | 26 |
| Goring | 84¾ | 26¾ |
| Whitchurch | 80¾ | 30¾ |
| Mapledurham | 78½ | 33 |
| Caversham | 74¼ | 37¼ |
| Sonning | 71½ | 40 |
| Shiplake | 68¾ | 42¾ |
| Marsh | 66 | 45½ |
| Hambleden | 62¾ | 48¾ |
| Hurley | 59 | 52½ |
| Temple | 58½ | 53 |
| Marlow | 56¾ | 54¾ |
| Cookham | 52½ | 59 |
| Boulter's | 50½ | 59 |
| Bray | 48¼ | 63¼ |
| Boveney | 45 | 65½ |
| Romney | 42¾ | 68¾ |
| Old Windsor | 39¾ | 71¾ |
| Bell Weir | 36¾ | 74¾ |
| Penton Hook | 34 | 74½ |
| Chertsey | 32 | 79½ |
| Shepperton | 30 | 81½ |
| Sunbury | 26½ | 85 |
| Molesey | 23½ | 88 |
| Teddington | 18½ | 93 |
The length of the locks is about 130
feet, and a vessel of 16 feet beam can
pass through them as far as Oxford.
(And see Trip from Cricklade,
Trip from Oxford, and, for tolls, etc.,
Navigation, Upper Thames.)
Horses and carriages are conveyed to or
from Richmond, Twickenham, Teddington, Kingston, Shepperton, Staines,
Windsor, Virginia Water, Reading, Surbiton, Hampton Court, Walton, and
Chertsey.
They are conveyed by certain
trains only, for which see time-tables.
The rates from Waterloo to the stations on the river are as under:
Windsor and Datchet -
Nine months: 1st, £20; 2nd, £15; Two months: 1st £5 5s; 2nd, £3 17s 6d
One month: 1st £3; 2nd, £2 5s
Stations - Strawberry Hill to Fulwell - Nine months: 2nd, £11
Reading - Nine months: 1st £31; 2nd,£23 5s
Compartments, in carriages of any class, are
reserved for families or parties of friends
who are desirous of travelling together.
Application should be made beforehand
to the Traffic Superintendent, Waterloo
Station, as passengers cannot depend
upon getting an empty compartment
after they arrive at the station if no
previous notice has been given.
The
number of the party should always be
stated.
Passengers' luggage
may be deposited in the cloak rooms at
all stations.
The charge which the
company makes for warehousing passengers' luggage, which has been, or is about
to be conveyed on the railway is 2d for
each package for any period not exceeding two days, and 1d per package for
every day or part of a day after two days.
During the summer months first, second,
and third class return tickets, at a reduced fare, are issued, with certain limitations, at all the principal stations to
parties of not less than six first class, or
ten second or third class passengers
desirous of making pleasure excursions
to places on or adjacent to this railway.
The tickets will be available for return
the same day only, and parties can only
proceed and return by the trains which
stop at the stations where they wish to
join and leave the railway, and having
that class of carriage attached for which
they have taken tickets.
All persons
forming this party must travel by the
same train in bofh directions.
To obtain
these tickets application must be made
at any of the stations not less than three
clear days before the excursion, stating
the following particulars, viz.: that it
is exclusively a pleasure party; the
station from and to which tickets are
required; for what class of carriage; the
date of the proposed excursion; and the
probable number of the party.
The
power of refusing any application is
reserved.
These tickets will not be
issued by the London and South Western
Railway Company from or to London.
Cheap second
and third class return tickets to the undermentioned stations are issued from all
London Stations to anglers who are bona
fide members of anglers' clubs, and who
produce their cards of membership at
the time of taking their tickets.
The
fares from Waterloo are as under;
Where two stations belonging to separate companies are adjacent
to each other, out-porters are appointed
to convey luggage from one station to
the other at fixed charges.
The fares charged for through tickets
do not in any case include the conveyance
of luggage between the stations.
The men appointed to the duty are in
uniform, and the companies cannot control the charges made by any other
persons whom passengers may employ
to convey their luggage.
On Saturdays and Sundays
1st and 2nd class return tickets to Windsor are issued at Waterloo, Vauxhall,
Clapham Junction, Chelsea, and Kensington, available for the return journey
till the Monday following inclusive.
These tickets are also available to or
from Datchet.
Fares, from either of the
above-named stations: 1st class, 4s 6d; 2nd class, 3s 6d.
These are conveyed in the guard's van or on the roof
of a carriage at the rate of 2d per mile with a minimum charge of 5s.
If a carriage truck is required, the same charge
is made as for a private carriage; if two
trucks are required, a charge is made for
one private carriage with 50 per cent,
added.
In cases, however, where the
crew, not less than four in number, travel
with the boat, the charge for the latter
will be reduced one half; but in order to
obtain this reduction, previous application must be made to the superintendent
of the traffic, Waterloo Station, who will
send a written authority to the applicant,
to be produced when the tickets are
taken.
Cheap Day Excursion Tickets are issued by certain specified trains from May 1 to October 31, to the following places, from
Waterloo, Vauxhall, Clapham Junction,
Chelsea, Kensington (Addison-road), and
from Hammersmith, there and back, in
3rd class carriages, at the following
fares:
Windsor: 2s 6d. Twickenham: 1s 6d. Kingston: 1s 6d. Teddington: 1s 6d. Kew Bridge: 1/-
Also to Virginia Water and back: 1st class, 4s; 2nd, 3s
Passengers holding Windsor tickets can return from Virginia Water on payment of 6d each.
The trains by which these tickets are
available are published month by month
in the South Western Company's Book
of Time Tables.
Passengers must be
careful to note that if the cheap tickets
are used by any other than the specified
trains, or if the journey there and back
be not completed in the one day, the full
ordinary fares will be charged.
Saloon carriages constructed to carry about 10 passengers (ist class only) may be retained
for parties of not less than seven passengers.
Application should be made to the
superintendent of the traffic, Waterloo,
some days before the date on which the
carriages will be required, as the number
is limited, and in the summer there is
often a great demand for them.
These carriages are not retained for parties
holding picnic or other tickets issued at
reduced rates.
Broughams and private omnibuses may be hired at
the Waterloo Station at moderate charges.
A note to the station-master will always
secure the attendance of as many carriages as may be required on the arrival
of the train.
Season Tickets may be obtained at the Season Ticket
Office, No.114, Waterloo-road, S.E.; or
by letter to Mr.C.Harvey, Season Ticket Office.
A reduction is made of 10 per cent,
when two tickets, and of 15 per cent,
when three or more tickets are taken by
the same family residing in the same
house for the same period, but not as
lodgers (that is, commencing and expiring
on the same dates), and between the same
stations.
Children under three years of age,
accompanying adult passengers, no
charge; above three years and under
twelve, half-price by all trains.
London Bridge - built in 1824-27 from
the designs of John Rennie, architect
of Southwark and Waterloo Bridges,
partly by himself, partly on his death by
his son, Mr.J.Rennie.
Altogether some
eight or nine designs for London Bridge
were prepared by members of the Rennie
family.
The cost, from various causes,
was enormous, and a good deal of misapprehension seems to exist upon this
point; some authorities placing it at a
little under a million and a half, while
others give it at over two and a half millions.
It is built of granite in five arches;
the centre arch being 152 ft, the two
next 140 ft, and the two shore arches
130 ft each in span.
In order to facilitate
traffic, police-constables are stationed
along the middle of the roadway, and all
vehicles travelling at a walking pace only
are compelled to keep close to the curb.
There are still, however, frequent blocks,
and the bridge should be avoided as
much as possible, especially between 9
and 10am, and 4 and 6pm.
Seen from the river, it is the handsomest bridge in
London.
Nearest Railway Stations: Cannon-street and London Bridge;
Omnibus Routes: Cannon-street, King William-street, London Bridge, and Southwark-street.
The London Docks
belong to the same company as the St.
Katharine and Victoria Docks (which see),
and lie immediately to the eastward of
the former, from which they are divided
by Nightingale-lane, running from Upper
East Smithfield to Wapping High-street.
The best means of approach is, from the
west, by way of Aldgate and the Minories
to East Smithfield, or from the east, by
way of the Leman-street Station.
The
entrance is at the corner of Nightingale-lane, where East Smithfield and Upper
East Smithfield join.
London Hospital Rowing Club, Hammersmith:
Subscription: Effective members, 10s 6d; hon members, "not less than 10s 6d"
Candidates for membership shall become members on giving in their names and subscriptions to the
secretary.
Boat-house: Biffen's, Hammersmith. Colours: red and black stripe.
Badge: red and black oar, serpent and garter. Motto: Celer et certus.
London Rowing Club, Putney, was founded in 1856.
In 1869, for the purpose of borrowing funds for the
erection of a new boat-house, the
members formed themselves into the
London Boat-house Co., Limited,
which was duly incorporated in
January, 1870.
The new house was
opened in January, 1871, and some
additions were made to it in 1875.
The
sum expended was nearly £3,000, and
the money was raised by debentures,
some of which are drawn by lot for payment in each year.
The number of
members is upwards of 500.
The election of members is by ballot in
general meeting: one black ball in five
excludes.
Entrance £2, being the cost of
a share in the Boat-house Co., on which
there is no further liability.
Subscription,
£2 2s.
A payment of £15 15s at the
time of election, or of £7 17s 6d after
five years' membership, constitutes a life-membership.
The share reverts to the
company on resignation, forfeiture, or
expulsion of a member.
Sons, brothers,
or nephews of members may be elected
by ballot in general meeting under certain
restrictions as cadet members, but the
cadet member at the time of his election
must not be less than ten years of age,
and not more than sixteen; he must be
able to swim, and cadet membership
ceases at the age of eighteen.
Cadets
pay no subscriptions or entrance fee.
Boat-house: Putney. Colours, blue and white vertical stripes.
Members who have passed an examination, and have
qualified as "oarsmen", are also entitled
to wear a silver badge.
London Sailing Club: Club-house,
The Rutland Hotel, the Mall, Hammersmith.
The officers are Commodore, vice and rear-Commodores, Treasurer, and hon secretary, who with eight members constitute the committee both for sailing and
general purposes.
Election is by ballot
in general meeting: one black ball in four
excludes.
Entrance fee, 10s 6d. Subscription: owners of boats, £1 1s; non-owners, or honorary members, 10s 6d.
Burgee, blue with yellow dolphin.
Long Reach extends from Crayfordness to Greenhithe, 3 miles.
Purfleet,
with its powder magazines, the training-ship Cornwall, and its hotel, so well
known for fish dinners, is at the west of
the left (Essex) bank.
A ferry crosses
here to "Long Reach Tavern", a little
to the westward of which is Dartford
Creek, on the right (Kent) bank, at the
eastern extremity of the reach.
Stone
Church is a prominent object just before
arriving at Greenhithe.
Bearings, S.E. by S. and N.W. by W.
A village in Berkshire, on the right bank, 4 miles, S.E. from Abingdon.
Population: 629. Soil: gravel on gault clay, with upper green-sand.
The parish church, dedicated to St.
Mary the Virgin, is of mixed age, as
shown by the variety of its architecture.
The earliest portions are Norman and
Early English (decorated) of several
periods, and late perpendicular.
The
chancel, which is of the same period, is
divided from the nave by a good Norman
arch.
The chancel was originally Norman, as shown by a small round-headed
window and a piscina of the same date.
The remainder of the chancel is Early
English, as shown by one light lancet-windows; others are of the decorated
period.
The north and south aisles are
divided from the nave by piers and arches
of very Early English.
The font, standing
in the north aisle, is of lead, resting on a
base of stone.
It bears on it a row of
figures of a mitred bishop under an
arcade, holding a cross, and in the act of
blessing.
In a chapel to the south is a
small piscina, with the effigy of a cross-legged knight in full armour treading on
a serpent, with the figures of two angels
sculptured on the arch above him.
The
figure is only two feet in length, and is
thought to be of unique design.
The
tower is late perpendicular.
The south
porch is of the decorated period; the
barge board of elegant design.
Inns: "Plough", "Vine Cottage", "Three Poplars", "Machine Man's Inn".
Place of Worship: St.Mary the Virgin.
Police: A constable lives in the village.
Postal Arrangements: Nearest
money order and telegraph offices,
Abingdon and Dorchester.
Mail from
London, 8am, Mail to London, 5.35pm. Sunday, 10am.
Nearest Bridge: Clifton Hampden;
Lock: Clifton; Railway Station: Culham
(which see for Fares).
Magna Charta Island, a mile and a
half from Old Windsor Lock, near the
Middlesex bank, one of the most charming islands on the river, and of historical
interest as the scene of the little arrangement between King John and his barons,
which, as "every schoolboy knows", was
the foundation of the freedom of England.
In a cottage which stands on the island
is a stone on which it is said that
Magna Charta was signed.
The usual
uncertainty and vagueness which characterise all history step in even at what
ought to be so very simple a matter as
this.
Tradition undoubtedly assigns the
honour of being the scene of signature to
the island, but in the charter itself it is
said to be given at Runningmede, so that
it would seem to be doubtful whether the
finishing stroke was given to the palladium
of English liberties on this island itself,
or on Runnymede on the Surrey bank.
Mr. and Mrs.S.C.Hall, who give an excellent account of Magna Charta in their
delightful "Book of the Thames", express
a regret "that no monument marks the
spot at Runnymede where the rights and
liberties of the people of England were
maintained and secured, although several
attempts have been made to raise one
here".
The same page gives us the inscription on the stone on which the parchment is said to have been signed:
"Be it remembered that on this island, in June,
1215, King John of England signed the
Magna Charta, and in the year 1834 this
building was erected in commemoration
of that great event by George Simon Harcourt, Esq., lord of the manor, and then
high sheriff of the county."
Maidenhead, Berkshire, on the right
bank; from London 50 miles, from Oxford 61½ miles; a station on the Great
Western Railway 25 miles from Paddington; trains take from 35 to 80 minutes.
The station is twenty minutes' walk from
Bond's boat-house at the bridge, and about
five minutes from the town-hall.
Flys and
omnibuses meet the trains.
For boating
purposes or for visitors to the Orkney Arms
Hotel, Taplow station is somewhat nearer
and more convenient than Maidenhead.
The counties of Berks and Bucks are here
connected by a stone bridge of thirteen
arches, and the Great Western Railway
crosses the river a little below on a brick
bridge of two arches, designed by the late
Sir Isambard Brunei, and being remarkable as exhibiting the greatest span of
brick extant, as also for its acoustic peculiarities.
Population, 6,473.
Maidenhead
is a corporate town, governed by a high
steward, mayor, four aldermen, and twelve
councillors.
It consists mainly of two
Streets, High-street and Queen-street, and
is not very important or in itself attractive.
There are, however, many good houses
in the outskirts, more particularly along
the bank of the river between Maidenhead
Bridge and the Great Western Railway bridge, and between the bridge and Boulter's Lock, in which direction a little inland,
a new suburb of Maidenhead, known as
Ray Park, has sprung into existence.
The
Town Hall is in the High-street, as is
also the post-office.
The Church of
Saints Andrew and Mary is in the High-street, occupying the site of two older
churches, dates from 1826, and was
finished in 1878.
It affords in itself no
points of attraction.
Part of the vicar's
income is a Crown payment of "seven
marks" (£4 13s 4d), dating from the time
of Philip and Mary, in compliance with
the prayer of the inhabitants, who base
their application on the fact that their
chapel is distant from the mother churches
"too myles or nere thereaboutes, to
which yr sede subjects cannot at sundry
tymes in the yere, cum and make ther repaire, to here the divine service of
Allmyghty God, and to serve God there,
as of duty they are bounde to doe, by-
cause manie tymes thereof letted through
visytacion of sicknesse, women labringe
and travelinge in childbedd; and also
by cause the seid toune of Maydenhedd
is scituat in a loo contree, and very nere
adjoininge to the river Thamys, so that
the seid contre is, divers times in the
yere, so surrounded and overflowen with
water that yr Highnes seid subjects cannot passe goe nor travell to their seid
churches; by reson whereof the dutie of
yr seid subjects towards Allmyghtye God
hath been many times, agenst ther will,
left undon."
Allusion is then made to
the endowment, by John Husbonde,
"in
the time of Kinge Edward the thirde,
oon of yr Grace's noble progenitors, and
of whose worthie stock and most noble
lineage yr Maiesties bothe are discended
and linially comen", and to the loss of
this revenue by "ye dissolucion of ye
Priorye of Hurley", the petitioners plaintively adding, "Sithen wiche dissolucion
the pore inh'itants of the towne of
Maydenhedd have not hadd ther divine
service celebrated in the seyd chapell, as
accustomably heretofore they have hadd,
by cause they be not able to finde and
maintain a convenient prest to say
divine service in the seid chapell, to
the greete decay and hindraunce of
Godd's service and to the discoragement of yr faythfull subjects dwelling
in the seid toune."
Finally, coming to
the point, they implore their majesties
"to graunt an ordinarye pencion and
livinge to on honest and secular prest,
to celebrate divine service in the seid
chapell of Maydenhedd, for the ease of ye
pore inh'itants."
This petition is thought
by the Rev.C.G.Gorham (whose full
and learned account of this church will
be found in Vol. VI. of the "Collectanea Typographica et Genealogica") to have
been written in 1557.
The patronage of
the church was in the hands of the prior
of Hurley until the dissolution of the
monasteries, when it seems to have been
assumed by the inhabitants of the town,
until the Charter of Incorporation,
granted by Queen Elizabeth in 1582,
when the corporation assumed the right.
The advowson was sold by the corporation under the compulsory clause of the
Act for municipal reform, and purchased
by Mr.Fuller Maitland in 1838.
Mr.Gorham's opinion as to the etymology of
the name of the town is very clear.
He
derives it from "Maiden Hythe", "the
New Wharf", rejecting as absurd all
connection with the head of "one of
St.Ursula's virgins", or any other holy
person.
The present name first appears
about A.D.1300, previous to which date
the place is called Elington, Elyngton, or
South Elington.
The Sacrament plate
dates chiefly from 1657.
There are a
number of charitable funds in connection
with the church.
On the road to the
river are the almshouses, founded in 1659
by James Smyth, citizen and salter.
The Hambletonian Hall seats 2,000,
and may be hired at a cost of £2 2s.
per
night, including gas, piano, &c.
There
is a large swimming-bath attached.
Although Maidenhead itself has few
charms for the visitor, the country about
it, more particularly the woods of Cliveden and Hedsor, a short distance up the
river on the Bucks side, is charming indeed.
Between Maidenhead and Marlow
is, perhaps, the best known and the most
popular part of the river.
And its popularity is well deserved; for whether for
the angler, the artist, the oarsman, or
the simple tourist; whether for fishing,
picnicking, and it has been even whispered
"spooning", to say nothing of camping-out, there are few places in England to
beat the Cliveden Reach at Maidenhead
or Quarry Woods at Marlow.
The interests of anglers in Maidenhead,
Cookham, and Bray waters are attended
to by the Maidenhead, Cookham, and
Bray Angling Association [which see).
There are many and pleasant walks
and drives about Maidenhead to supplement the river excursions.
Among them
may be mentioned Burnham Beeches (4
miles), one of the grandest collection of
trees in England, and remarkably interesting for the varied growth of ferns
and mosses.
The Corporation of the
City of London has recently saved
Burnham Beeches from the hands of the
brick and mortar spoilers,continuing here
the good work commenced at Epping-Forest.
Hurley and Bisham are each
about 4½ miles from Maidenhead by
road, and Great Marlow is about 6 miles.
In the other direction Windsor is also
about 6 miles distant.
From Winter
Hill, near Cookham Dene, a distance of
about 4 miles, a grand view may be
obtained on a clear day.
Shorter walks
are those to Maidenhead Thicket, Cookham, and Bray.
Banks: London and County, High-street; Stephens, Blandy, and Co., High-street.
Fairs: Whit Wednesday, September 29, November 30.
Fire: Volunteer Brigade, Strength: Captain, deputy-captain, 3 first lieutenants, 3 second lieutenants, 2 engineers,
1 deputy-engineer, 18 pioneers, secretary, foreman of fire-escape, 3 manual-engines.
HOTELS: the "Bear", High-street; the "Ray Mead", near the river, above bridge; "Skindle's", across the Bridge, in
Bucks; the "Thames", Ray Park; the "White Hart", High-street.
Market Day: Wednesday.
Places of Worship: All Saints, Boyn Hill; St.Andrew and St, Mary, High-street; St.Luke's; the Roman
Catholic Church of St.Mary the Immaculate; and Baptist, Congregational,
Primitive Methodist, and Wesleyan Chapels.
Police: Borough police-station, Queen-street: county police - station, South-street.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, savings bank, telegraph,
and insurance), High-street.
Mails from London: 7 and 10.30am, 6.30pm; Sunday, 7am,
Mails to London: 10.30am, 12.45, 4.30 and 9.45pm; Sunday, 9.30pm
Nearest Bridges: Maidenhead; up, Cookham 3 miles; down, Windsor 7 miles.
Locks: up, Boulter's ½ mile; down, Bray 1¾ mile.
Railway Station: Maidenhead.
Fares to Paddington: 1st, 4/4d, 7/6d; 2nd, 3/4d, 5/9d; 3rd 2/2d.
Maidenhead, Cookham, and Bray Thames Angling Association - the
object of this association is the improvement of the fishery from the Shrubbery
to Monkey Island.
The annual subscription is £1 1s.
Water-bailiffs and watchers are appointed at the discretion
of the committee.
A large number of
fish, more especially trout, have been
turned into the river by the association.
The water-bailiffs are required to keep
live baits for the accommodation of
members free of charge (lob worms and
other baits to be paid for).
A reward of
10s is offered to anyone who shall give
sufficient information to any member of
the committee of any illegal fishing, or of
being in unlawful possession of fish during the close season, provided that it be
considered by the committee a fit case for
prosecution, and that if the persons so
prosecuted be convicted by the magistrates, the amount shall be doubled.
A
reward of £1 is offered to anyone capturing an otter in the waters under the
supervision of the association.
Maidenhead Rowing Club: Election by committee of thirteen: three black
balls exclude.
Subscription, £1 1s.
Members subscribing £l 1s and upwards may introduce a friend to the
privileges of the club, free for one week,
and for one month on payment of 5s; such friend not being resident in or within five miles of Maidenhead.
There is a
challenge cup for monthly competition. Colours, dark blue and primrose.
Mapledurham, Oxfordshire, on the
left bank; from London 78½ miles, from
Oxford 33 miles.
Population: 479. Soil: chalk.
The chief glory of this village is the
grand old Elizabethan Mapledurham
House, belonging to the Blount family,
of which Pope's Martha Blount was a
member.
The house, from the river, has
a somewhat conventual or monastic
appearance, and the principal front,
facing the park and not the river, is
approached by a magnificent avenue
of ancient elms.
A great old-fashioned
pair of iron gates afford access from
Mapledurham House to the churchyard,
in which, nestling amongst noble trees,
is the church of St.Margaret, which has
been extensively restored, and exhibits
some remarkable combinations of colour,
which might, perhaps, be described as
the barber's-pole style of decoration.
The greater part of the church, as well
as the roof of the chancel, is curiously
picked out with every variety of brilliant
colour, and the idea is still further carried
out by the font, which is painted red,
white, blue, and gold, and further exhibits
the real barber's pole blue and gilt stripes.
There is a handsome reredos, and
between the south aisle and the nave
is a grand monument of Sir Richard
Blount and his wife Elizabeth, with two
recumbent life-sized figures, the one in
armour, the other in ruff and farthingale.
A close inspection of this is
difficult, as it is jealously enclosed with
spiked iron railings.
Indeed, the whole
of the south aisle presents the curious
anomaly of being walled and railed off
from the rest of the church.
It is
claimed by the Blount family as a private
mortuary chapel, and is kept rigidly
locked and strictly private.
It is understood that the opinion of ecclesiastical
lawyers has been found favourable to
this exercise of power.
Just above Mapledurham is another
singularly fine mansion - Hardwick
House - where it is said that Charles I.
frequently indulged in his favourite
pastime of bowls, and if the royal martyr
had been as judicious in all matters as
he undoubtedly was when he selected
Hardwick for a playground, the course
of English history might have been
considerably changed.
Mapledurham Reach is celebrated for
its jack and perch, for the latter particularly.
The Caversham and Reading
fishermen generally make for this district.
Inn: "the Roebuck", on the Berkshire bank, about a mile below the lock.
There is a ferry here.
Places of Worship: St.Margaret;
Catholic: attached to Mapledurham House.
Postal Arrangements: Letters through Reading.
Letter-box in Vicarage wall cleared 6.30pm week-days, and noon on Sundays.
Nearest money order, telegraph, &c, offices: Caversham and Pangbourne.
Nearest Bridges: up, Whitchurch about 2 miles; down, Caversham 4 miles.
Locks: up, Whitchurch 2¼ miles; down: Caversham 4¼ miles.
Ferry: Purley.
Railway Station:
Pangbourne.
Fares, Pangbourne to Paddington;
1st, 7/4, 13/-; 2nd, 5/6, 9/6; 3rd, 3/8d.
Maplin Sands begin just to the eastward of Southend and extend to beyond
the Maplin Light.
They are on the north
side, and are well buoyed.
Hampton Court; Hampton Court Palace; Henley Regatta Course; London to Erith; Erith to Gravesend; Gravesend to Canvey Island; Canvey Island to the Nore; Reading; Oxford to Mongewell; Mongewell to Reading; Reading to Great Marlow; Great Marlow to Datchet; Datchet to Brentford; Kingston to London; Putney to Mortlake; Oxford Regatta Course; Windsor and Eton; Windsor Castle State Apartments; Windsor Castle.
Marine Board, Local: Office for examination of masters and mates, St. Katharine Dock House, Tower-hill: Nearest Railway Station, Cannon-street; Omnibus Route, Fenchurch-street.
Marine Society, Office, Bishopsgate-street-within.
Training ship, Warspite,
off Charlton Pier, Woolwich:
The report
of the society for 1881 gives the following
complete account of its history and progress.
The Marine Society owes its origin
to the sentiments of humanity and benevolence exerted on behalf of a number of
wretched and distressed boys, who were
in the spring of the year 1756 collected
together by that active magistrate, Sir John
Fielding, clothed at the expense of the
Duke of Bolton, and sent to serve on board
His Majesty's ship Barfleur, then under
His Grace's command.
The utility of
this humane design, in rescuing from
misery and reclaiming as many as possible
of this class of neglected youths from the
paths of idleness, and too probably of
infamy and perdition, was so obvious,
that the plan was immediately followed
up with the most active philanthropy by
a private gentleman (Mr.Walker, of
Lincoln's-inn), who had accidentally met
with those lads on their way to join the
Barfleur.
By subscription, which he
promoted, from three to four hundred
boys were in a short time clothed and
provided for in a profession most likely
to make them useful and creditable members of the community.
At a subsequent
meeting of merchants and shipowners in
June, 1756, Mr.Jonas Hanway, a merchant totally unconnected with the nobleman and both the gentlemen before-mentioned, proposed that they should
form themselves into a society to give
clothing to boys for the sea-service.
The
proposal being readily adopted, the Marine
Society was instituted; and eventually, in
the year 1772, incorporated by Act of
Parliament.
The boys selected for the
sea service are taken from the labouring
classes, the utterly destitute being the first
to be admitted.
No dishonest boys are
received.
Parish boys may be received to
fill vacancies on board the society's ship,
on payment of £4 4s.
No boys are received whose friends appear to be in a
capacity to fit them out for sea at their
own charge.
Various plans were at different times brought under the contemplation of the society for a more beneficial
arrangement as to some receptacle for the
objects of the charity, in which they might
be taken care of, and receive the benefit
of instruction, both religious and professional, until such time as they could be
properly provided for.
In the year 1786,
a proposition, originating with Alderman
Brook Watson, M.P., was adopted by
the society.
They first procured a merchant vessel, named the Beatty; this ship
having become decayed and worn out in
1799, application was made to the
Admiralty for the loan of a Government
ship.
The application was complied with,
and from that time the Lords Commissioners, in order to promote the views of
the Marine Society, have accommodated
them with one of Her Majesty's ships as a
training vessel for boys.
The Warspite, a
noble two-decker, formerly the Conqueror,
is the ship now lent to the society.
The
society holds in trust the following special
funds, devoted solely to the purposes for
which they were given or bequeathed:
1. Consols, £17,045, under the will
of William Hickes, Esq., of Hamburg,
for apprenticing poor boys and girls.
In
time of war the income of this fund is appropriated, with the general funds of the
society, in clothing and fitting out boys
for sea, rendering them thereby fit for
service in the Royal Navy.
2. Consols, £14,333 6s. 8d., ten thousand pounds of
this amount being the gift of the late
Isaac Hawkins, Esq.
The annual interest of this trust fund produces £430,
which is appropriated every year in the
month of June, in donations of £10 each
to forty-three widows of captains and
lieutenants in the Royal Navy.
The
Marine Society is also entrusted with the
payments of certain annuities to the
widows of the sufferers in the engagement of [] October, 1797, under
Admiral Lord Duncan, under rules and
regulations transmitted by the Chairman
of the Committee of Lloyd's Coffee House,
on the 15th of October, 1802.
Marlow, Great, Buckinghamshire,
on the left bank of the river, is a
terminus on the Bourne End and Marlow
branch of the Great Western Railway,
35½ miles from Paddington, the trains
averaging a little over an hour.
The
station is about five minutes' walk from
the bridge.
Fly and omnibus meet the
trains.
The distance from London is 57
miles, from Oxford 54½ miles.
Population,
4,701. Soil: flint, chalk, gravel, and
loam.
The name Marlow, or, as it is
called in Domesday Book, Merelaw, is
derived by Camden from "the chalk
commonly called marle", which he asserts
to be very plentiful here; a piece of
etymology derided by Langley in his
Hundred of Desborough, who derives
the name from a mere, or piece of standing water, which he supposes to have
been here in ancient times.
Langley,
who has strong and usually common sense views on these matters, derives the
name of Desborough Hundred from duo burgi - Wycomb and Marlow - quite repudiating Danesborough.
Marlow is a
very ancient manor, and appears from its
earliest history to have been connected
with royalty.
Before the Conquest it was
held by Algar, Earl of Mercia, from whose
son it was taken by William the Conqueror, and bestowed upon Queen
Matilda.
Later on it became, through
his wife, the property of Richard Nevil,
Earl of Warwick, the king-maker, who
was slain at Barnet, and is buried in
Bisham Abbey; later still it was granted
by Philip and Mary to Lord Paget of
Beaudesert, an extraordinary statesman,
who enjoyed the confidence of four succeeding sovereigns: an unusual tenure
he possibly owed to the practice of the
following precepts discovered in his
commonplace book:
Fly the courte,
Speke little,
Care less.
Devise nothing.
Never earnest,
In answer cold.
Lerne to spare;
Spend with measure,
Care for home.
Pray often.
Live better.
And die well.
Court Garden, which is on the left just
above the bridge, the last part of the
estate remaining in the Paget family, was
sold by Lord Uxbridge in 1758.
Marlow is a parliamentary constituency,
and returns one member to Parliament, the
present member being Major-Gen.Owen
Williams, of Temple, a Conservative.
The borough was first summoned to return
burgesses by Edward I. in 1299, the first
two burgesses whose names are recorded
being Richard le Mouner and Richard le
Veel; but from 1308 until 1622, when
the privilege was restored by Parliament,
no members were returned on "account
of the expence".
Since the time the Knight Templars
were at Bisham, the counties of Berks
and Bucks have been here united by
various bridges, the present suspension
bridge, which cost £20,000, having been
erected in 1835.
There is still in existence a writ for the repairs of the bridge
dated 27 Edward III., 1352, directed
probis hominibus villæ de Merlawe.
The bridge in more modern times has acquired
a certain notoriety in connection with a
"puppy pie", concerning which succulent
pastry there are various traditions: and
"Who ate the puppy pie under Marlow
Bridge?" is popularly supposed to be a
crushing retort to any bargee impertinence.
From Marlow Bridge, the view
up or down the river is hardly to be surpassed on the Thames.
Indeed, whether for fishing, boating,
holiday, or sketching purposes, there is
no more fascinating spot on the river
than Marlow.
From Bourne End to New
Lock - the backwater by Harleford
Manor House - the river teems at various
points with trout, pike, barbel, roach,
chub, perch, and gudgeon, a result
greatly attributable to the constant care of the Marlow Angling Association, and
the liberality of some of its individual
members, who have at their own expense
turned large numbers of trout and other
fish into the river.
For boating purposes,
the reaches from Cookham to Marlow
and from Marlow to Temple Hurley and
Medmenham, are excellently adapted,
and for camping-out purposes there is
no more favourite spot on the river than
the Quarry Woods below Marlow.
As
to its attractions for the artist, the numerous pictures that yearly appear on the
walls of the Academy and the Water
Colour Societies abundantly testify.
Boats
are taken care of by Haynes and R. Shaw,
under the bridge, and the numerous
hotels in the town afford excellent
accommodation for tourists of all
classes.
Ordinary boating parties will do
well to remember that it is unwise to rely
upon obtaining quarters at the well-known
"Complete Angler", near the bridge,
without considerable previous notice;
but great improvement has recently
taken place in the management here,
and much more space than of old has
been made available for dinners, etc.
The "Crown", at the end of the main
street, and five minutes' walk from the
river, is a comfortable, old-fashioned
house, with a first-rate billiard-room.
In the town itself there is little of interest;
the old quaint houses have nearly all given
place to staring brick or vulgar stucco
erections; the only really ancient remains
being a portion of a house in St.Peter's-street, known as the Deanery, with fine
old mullioned windows.
There are two
principal streets: High-street, leading up
from the river; and West-street, at right
angles to it.
In the latter is the house,
on which is now a tablet, in which Shelley
lived and was visited by Lord Byron.
Of
this period Mrs.Shelley says: "During
the year 1817 we were established at
Marlow, in Buckinghamshire.
Shelley's
choice of abode was fixed chiefly by this
town being at no great distance from
London, and its neighbourhood of the
Thames.
The poem, 'the Revolt of
Islam', was written in his boat, as it
floated under the beech groves of Bisham,
or during wanderings in the neighbouring
country."
At Remnantz, a house nearly
opposite to Shelley's, was for thirteen or
fourteen years the Royal Military College,
before it was removed to Sandhurst.
Seymour Court, Mr.Wethered's resi
dence, is asserted to have been the birth-place of Henry VIII.'s Jane Seymour,
but the honour is disputed by the family
seat of the Seymours in Wiltshire.
Harleyford House, the seat of Sir William
Clayton, is about two miles up the river.
The church, a modern structure of a
style of architecture variously described
as Late English or Modern Gothic, is ugly
without and bald within, although it
must at one time have been rich in brasses
and monuments, some of the former
dating from the latter end of the fourteenth
century.
Langley records several curious
entries in the church books, commencing
with one in 1592: "Paid for mendynge
the bells when the queen came to Bysham,
1s."
The loyalty of the bellringers appears to have outrun their discretion.
There are many entries for payments to
bellringers when the kings passed through
the town, in 1604, 1605, 1612, 1617, and
1647.
In 1608, among the church goods
are catalogued: Five pair of garters and bells,
Five coats and a fool's coat.
In 1650 appears the significant entry,
"For defacing of the king's arms, 1s";
and in 1651, "Paid to the painter for
setting up the State's arms, 16s."
The
Catholic church, in St.Peter's-street, one
of the elder Pugin's last works, was
opened in 1846; but, together with Holy
Trinity, a chapel of ease to the parish
church, will scarcely repay a visit.
Marlow has a literary and scientific institution, with a library and reading-room,
well supplied with books and newspapers.
Subscription: 1st class members, £1 1s per annum: 2nd, 10s; 3rd, 5s.
It also
possesses a Lawn-Tennis Club, a Choral
Society, and Cricket and Football Clubs.
A Cottager's Horticultural Show is held
every year, and there is a Lecture or Music
Room in St.Peter's-street.
The Maidenhead and Marlow Regatta is held
alternately at Marlow and Maidenhead,
and there is in addition an annual
town regatta.
The town is also privileged
to possess a Constitutional Association,
established for the modest purpose of
securing on an income of £76 per annum,
"the proper registration, as voters, of
all persons within the several parishes of
the borough who hold constitutional
principles; of resisting any movement
directed against the institutions of the
country; of defending the rights and
privileges of the people; and of promoting beneficial legislation in the spirit of
the Constitution."
The walks and excursions from Marlow
are varied and numerous.
Within easy
walking distance are Henley, Maidenhead, and the quaint and interesting
towns of High or Chipping Wycombe,
and Cookham.
Hurley and Medmenham are, as it were, next door.
Wycombe is well worth a visit, and its
church, All Saints, which dates from
1273, restored by Mr.Street at a cost of
£10,000, is one of the finest in the county,
and contains many brasses and memorials.
The Quarry Woods are within a ten
minutes' saunter of Marlow Bridge, and
offer in every direction the pleasantest and
most picturesque walks by the riverside,
or across the hill to Cookham Dene.
From Winter Hill, the extremity of the
woods in the Cookham direction, a view
as magnificent as it is extensive is to be
obtained, and includes the course of the
Thames from Henley to Maidenhead.
Bisbam Abbey and Church are close at
hand, and Mr.Borgnis's grounds at Highfield are a short mile from the town on
the Henley road.
Borlase's School, or, as it is more generally denominated, the Blue Coat School,
was founded by Sir William Borlase in
1624 for the education of twenty-four boys
- of whom three are chosen from Medenham, three from Little Marlow, and
eighteen from Great Marlow.
They are
each allowed £2 to apprentice them, but
this at the present day being insufficient
for the purpose is generally added to by
contribution of £8 or £12 from Loftin's
Charity - bequeathed by Benjamin Loftin
in 1759.
The education comprised reading, writing, and casting accounts.
Sir
William Borlase also made bequests for
founding a school for teaching twenty-four girls to knit, spin, or make bone lace,
and for establishing a house of correction.
The income being found insufficient for
its purpose the girls' school was some
years ago merged in the National and
Infants' Schools.
In order to increase
the public usefulness of Borlase's boys'
school, negotiations have been opened by
the feoffees with the Charity Commissioners, who propounded a scheme on
the following lines: Tuition fees are to be
not less than £3 or more than £5 per
year.
School to be unsectarian.
Education to comprise reading, writing,
arithmetic, geography, history, English
grammar, composition, and literature,
mathematics, Latin, at least one foreign
European language, natural science, drawing, drill, and vocal music.
This scheme
has since been elaborated, and the school
is of considerable importance as a middle-class Grammar School.
Bank: Stephens, Blandy, & Co.
Fair: October 29.
Fire: Volunteer Brigade: Superintendent, foreman, engineer, sub-engineer, hon.Treasurer, 9 firemen, and 5 reserve, Manual engine, next the "Crown".
Hotels and Inns: "Complete Angler" (by the river, in Bisham parish);
"Crown", up the town; "Fisherman's Retreat", "George and Dragon", "Railway".
Places of Worship: All Saints and Holy Trinity; the Roman Catholic Church of St.Peter's; and Congregational, Baptist, and Primitive Methodist
Chapels.
Police: Station in the town.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, savings bank, telegraph,
and insurance), West-street.
Mails from
London, 7.30 and 10.45am, 6.45pm; Sunday, 7.30am,
Mails for London,
9.40am, noon, and 3.40 and 7.50pm; Sunday, 7.50pm
Wall letter-box opposite the church, cleared 10.50am, 3.30 and 7.40pm; Sunday, 7.40pm;
Station wall box cleared 10.40am, and 7.40pm; Thames Lawn wall box cleared
8.25am, 10.45am, and 7.35pm
Nearest Bridges: up, Henley 8 miles; down, Cookham 3¾ miles.
Locks: up, Temple 1½ mile; down, Cookham 4 miles.
Ferry: Temple.
Railway Station: Marlow.
Fares to Paddington: 1st, 6/-, 9/11; 2nd, 4/6, 7/6; 3rd, 2/9½
Marlow (Great) Amateur Rowing Club:
Usual amateur qualification.
Donors of £10 10s and upwards are life
members, and all life members and annual subscribers of £2 2s and upwards
are vice-presidents. No subscription is less than 10s.
Election by ballot in committee, two black balls in five to
exclude.
The monthly challenge cup is competed for the last Wednesday in every
month.
The club, established in 1871, now numbers about ninety members.
Boat-house, Haynes's, Marlow Bridge; Club colours, cardinal.
[ Alternate years at Maidenhead and Marlow. In 1883 Dickens gave the 1882 Marlow results; In 1885, the 1884 Marlow results.
Here are shown the 1882 results which appeared under "Maidenhead and Marlow Regatta".]
Maidenhead and Marlow Regatta - Races in 1882, at Marlow July 8th.
Great Marlow Thames Angling Association:
the water held by the
association reaches from Temple Mills
to the "Shrubbery".
The annual subscription is £1 1s.
A head water-bailiff,
assistant bailiffs, and sub-assistant bailiffs
are appointed by the committee, who are
required to provide live bait for the members free of charge.
A reward of 10s is
offered to any one who shall give information of any poaching or illegal fishing
to the water-bailiff, provided that it be
considered by the committee a fit case for
prosecution; if the person prosecuted be
convicted the reward is doubled.
A reward of ios.
is offered for every dead
otter proved to have been caught between
the top of the reach immediately above
Temple Lock and the "Shrubbery".
The association has turned a very large
number of fish, more especially trout,
into the river, and to it Marlow owes
much of the enhanced reputation it now
enjoys among anglers.
Medmenham, Buckinghamshire, on
the left bank; a small village of about
350 inhabitants, from London 60½ miles,
from Oxford 51 miles, from Marlow,
the nearest railway-station, 3 miles by
road; chiefly notorious from its connection with the Medmenham Monks of
Francis Dashwood and John Wilkes.
there seems to be no doubt that considerable "high jinks" were indulged in
by this fraternity, and that they were not
altogether what is generally known as
respectable society.
But it is probable
that exaggeration has had much to do
with the records, or rather legends, of its
proceedings, as is always the case where
an affectation of mystery and secrecy is
maintained.
The monks of Medmenham,
sometimes politely called the Hell Fire
Club, lived at a time when drunkenness and
profanity were considered to be amongst
the gentlemanly virtues, and probably, as
a matter of fact, they were not very much
worse than other people.
The audacious
motto of the club may, perhaps, have- had
something to do with the holy horror
which it excited.
"Fay ce que voudras"
was not a good motto at a time when
doing as you pleased was about the last
thing that good old-fashioned Toryism
was likely to tolerate; and when amongst
the people who were to do as they liked
was the hated Wilkes, the prejudices of
respectability were certain to be even
further outraged.
"Fay ce que voudras",
as it appears over a doorway at the abbey,
has in these times quite a hospitable
look, and the invitation is readily accepted
by the scores and scores of picnic parties
who resort to Medmenham in the summer,
and whose innocent merrymaking is, at
all events, an improvement on Wilkes
and his monks, however much they may
have been libelled.
Medmenham Abbey,
as it stands at present, is, architecturally,
but a bogus affair, and, except an ancient
archway and a single pillar of the church,
there is little of the ancient abbey to be
found in the present edifice, but it stands
in so beautiful a position, and commands
such lovely views, that its artificial appearance will be readily forgiven.
Once
upon a time there was indeed a very
important monastery here, founded by
Hugh de Bolebec, to whom a charter was
given by King John in 1201.
The
monastery was originally colonised from
the Cistercian Abbey of Woburn in 1204,
but the Woburn monks did not seem able
to make much of it, and very shortly afterwards returned whence they had come.
In 1212 a second colonisation was effected
by Cistercian monks from Cisteaux in
the bishopric of Chalons, in France.
Their rules certainly would not have
suited Wilkes and his friends.
"They
neither wore skins, nor shirts, nor even
eat flesh, except in sickness; and abstained
from fish, eggs, milk, and cheese; they
lay upon straw beds in tunics and cowls;
they rose at midnight to prayers; they
spent the day in labour, reading, and
prayer; and in all their exercises observed
a continual silence."
This cheerful community held possession of the abbey for
several hundred years.
In the beginning
of the 16th century it was annexed
to the Abbey of Bristleham or Bisham,
on the opposite side of the river, and so
remained until the suppression of the
monasteries by Henry VIII.; and from
the report of the commissioners at
that time, the institution seems to have
fallen upon very evil days.
The clear
value was returned at £20 6s 2d.
"Monks", continues the report, "there
are two; and both desyring to go to
houses of religion; servants, none; bells,
&c, &c, worth £2 6s 2d; the house
wholly in ruin; the value of the moveable goods, £1 3s 8d; woods, none;
debts, none."
Whether the last item is
due to the care of the monks or to the
caution of the local tradespeople, may
remain an open question.
The most
distinguished of the real monks of Medmenham was John, who was elected
Abbot of Chertsey in 1261, and of whom
there is an interesting memorial in the
British Museum in the shape of his seal.
At one time the Abbot of Medmenham
was, ex officio, epistolar of the Order of
the Garter, and it was his duty to read
the epistle in the morning service on St.
George's Day at Windsor.
The church has been considerably
restored, but still presents traces of its
Norman origin.
There are more considerable portions Early English, but the
church must have been nearly rebuilt in
the days of the perpendicular style.
It
has chancel, nave, and square embattled
tower, and a good old carved oak pulpit.
Tthere are not many ancient monuments
in the church, but a brass remains in
memory of Richard Levyng and Alicia
his wife, bearing dates 1415 and 1419.
The church and post-office are five or six
minutes' walk from the river.
The principal mansion in the neighbourhood is Danesfield, the seat of C.R.Scott-Murray, Esq., which owes its name
to the time when the Danes, after seizing
and fortifying Shoebury, marched along
the river until they came to Boddington
in Gloucestershire.
The encampment
called the "Danes' Ditches" and the
"Horse-shoe Entrenchment", date, no doubt, from this campaign.
Attached to
the house is a fine chapel built by the
Pugins, containing some good pictures.
There are fine roach swims all the way
up this reach.
Hotel: the "Ferry Boat", adjoining the abbey.
Place of Worship: St.Peter's.
Postal Arrangements: Letters
through Marlow.
Nearest savings bank,
telegraph office, &c: Marlow.
Mails
from London, 7.40am, week-days and Sundays;
mails to London: 6.15pm; Sunday, 9.25am
Nearest Bridges: up, Henley 4½ miles;
down, Marlow 3½ miles.
Locks: up, Hambleden 2 miles; down, Hurley 1½ mile.
Ferry: Medmenham.
Railway
Station: Marlow.
Fares, Marlow to Paddington: 1st,
6/-, 9/11; 2nd, 4/6, 7/6; 3rd, 2/9½
Metropolitan Amateur Regatta, Putney.
This regatta, which was founded
in 1866, arose out of a challenge given
by the West London Rowing Club to
the London Rowing Club in the previous
year for a junior eight-oared match.
Other clubs connected with the then
existing Amateur Rowing Clubs Association joined in, and several crews started,
with the result that the final heat from
Putney to Chiswick Church was won by
the London Rowing Club Crew, the
Thames being second, and the West
London third.
The event was so successful that it was decided to establish an
annual regatta on the Putney water, and
a large amount being collected amongst
the members of the associated clubs and
others, valuable - perhaps even too valuable - challenge prizes were bought, and
the regatta was duly started under the
management of the association.
That
body, however, experienced the fate that
has befallen so many attempts at combination amongst amateur clubs, and
was in a short time dissolved.
Since then
the management of the regatta has been
in the hands of the London Rowing
Club, the members of which subscribe
and collect among their friends by far the
greater portion of the money required to
carry on the regatta, which takes place
on the first available tide after Henley,
when it is high water at about 5pm,
that is to say.
The course - about a mile and three-quarters - is from Putney to Hammersmith, or vice versa, according to the state
of the tide.
The winners of the challenge
cups are as follows:
Metropolitan Railway Rowing Club, Hammersmith:
Election: Either
majority at the general meeting on election of officers, or afterwards by the
officers.
Boat-house: Biffen's, Hammersmith. Colours, blue and violet.
Middle Blyth Buoy: A 16-ft. can
buoy, made of iron, and painted with
black and white stripes.
It is situated in
Sea Reach, a short distance below Thames
Haven, on the edge of the Blyth Sand,
and marks a depth of water, at low-water
spring tide, of 20 ft.
It is moored with
18 fathom of chain.
Millwall Docks (Office, 1, Railway-place, Fenchurch-street, E.G.) are situate on the Isle of Dogs, just south of the West India Docks, the access being by the Millwall Extension branch of the Blackwall Railway.
Minnows, stickleback, loach, and miller's thumb, are all found in the
Thames, and each used in turn for bait;
but they are rarely purposely fished for,
even by tyros, as there is such an abundance of choicer game.
When wanted in
quantities the cast-net is thrown, and they are taken in great numbers on the shallows and in the tributaries of the main river.
Missions to Seamen, 11, Buckingham-street, Strand, London:
The following are the objects and regulations of
the society: the object of the society is
the spiritual welfare of the seafaring
classes at home and abroad.
In pursuance
of this object, the society uses every means
consistent with the principles and received
practice of the Church of England.
The
operations of the society are, for the most
part, carried on afloat, and for this purpose its chaplains and scripture readers
are, as far as possible, provided with
vessels and boats for visiting the ships in
roadsteads, rivers, and harbours.
Molesey Regatta: the course is
about a mile, from a little above the
cherry-orchard to a flag-boat below
Garrick's Villa.
1882 results:
Mongewell, Oxfordshire, on the left
bank, about a mile from Wallingford, from
London 82½ miles, from Oxford 22 miles.
Population, 106. Soil, chalk.
A small
village, with church dedicated to St.John
the Baptist.
Mongewell Park, which
stands on the bank of the river here, is
one of the most charming residences on
the river.
Place of Worship: St.John the Baptist.
Postal Arrangements: Letters
through Wallingford, which is the nearest
money order office, &c.
Nearest Bridges, up, Wallingford ¾ mile; down, Streatley 5 miles.
Locks: up, Wallingford ¼ mile; down, Cleeve 4½ miles.
Ferry: Wallingford.
Railway
Station: Wallingford.
Fares, Wallingford to Paddington,
1st, 9/5, 16/-; 2nd, 7/-, 12/-; 3rd, 4/3.
No
Sunday trains.
Monkey Island is about half a mile
below Bray Lock, and owes its name to a
number of pictures of monkeys, engaged
in various human occupations, with which
the third Duke of Marlborough adorned
a fishing-lodge which he built upon the
island.
The pictures are sometimes attributed to a French artist named Clermont,
but in truth they are not sufficiently remarkable to make the question of their
authorship a matter of any importance.
Mrs.S.C.Hall's "Book of the Thames"
thus describes them:
"Although clever
in design they are of no great merit in
execution.
One of the best of these groups
represents two of the animals awkwardly
carrying home fish, the eels escaping from
the basket.
The most ludicrous scene
occupies the centre of the ceiling, and is
a burlesque on the triumph of Galatea;
even the Cupid attending her is represented as a winged monkey with fluttering
drapery, strewing flowers on the nymph,
who, with her attendant Tritons and sea-nymphs, are also represented as monkeys."
The house is now converted into an inn,
which is considerably used by anglers, oarsmen, and camping parties.
An outbuilding
- a sort of pavilion - which is sometimes
used as a billiard-room, has a carved
ceiling, which it is to be regretted is
being allowed to fall into decay.
The
accommodation is primitive and cheap.
There is excellent fishing all about this
neighbourhood, and an extremely rapid
stream runs past the island at all times.
There is a ferry from the island to the
Bucks bank.
Nearest Post Office, Bray [which see);
Telegraph Office, Taplow Station; Railway Station, Taplow.
Fares from Taplow to Paddington:
1st, 4/1, 7/-; 2nd, 3/1, 5/3; 3rd 2/-
Mortlake, London, S.W.: On the
right bank from a river point of view, is
chiefly noticeable as being the terminus
of the championship and University
boat-races.
From Waterloo (about 25
min.). 1st, 1/-, 1/6; 2nd, 10d, 1/3; 3rd, 8d, 1/-.
Nearest Bridge, Kew.
Moulsey Boat Club: Election by committee, who "have exclusive powers".
Subscription: Honorary members, £1 1s per annum; ordinary members, £2 2s per annum.
Boat-house: the Island. Colours, black and white vertical stripes.
Moulsford, Berkshire, on the right
bank, 87 miles from London, 24½ miles
from Oxford; a station on the Great
Western Railway, 47½ miles from Paddington; trains take 2 or 2½ hours.
Flys
can be hired at the Railway Tavern.
Population, 180. Soil, chalk.
A village
on the right bank, about 3½ miles from
Wallingford, principally known to boating men and anglers for the "Beetle and
Wedge Inn", and for the fact that the
trial eights of the Oxford University
Boat Club are rowed on the splendid
stretch of water which here affords, perhaps, the best course on the river.
There
is excellent perch fishing between the
islands near the bridge.
Moulsford
station and the Berks lunatic asylum are
in the adjoining parish of Cholsey.
The
church, St.John the Baptist, is of the
14th century, and was restored by Sir
Gilbert Scott in 1847.
It stands immediately on the bank of the river.
Inns: "Beetle and Wedge", on the river at the ferry;
Railway Tavern, close to the station.
Place of Worship: St.John's.
Postal Arrangements: Letters
through Wallingford.
Nearest money
order office, Cholsey; telegraph station,
Moulsford.
Nearest Bridges, up, Wallingford 3¾ miles; down, Streatley 2¼ miles.
Locks: up, Wallingford 3¼ miles; down, Cleeve 2 miles.
Ferries: Moulsford and Little Stoke.
Railway Station: Moulsford.
Fares to Paddington, 1st, 8/5, 14/6;
2nd, 6/3, 11/-; 3rd 4/2½
Mucking Flat Lighthouse, Sea
Reach: Built of iron upon a hollow pile
foundation.
A temporary light was first
exhibited from this position in October,
1849, and the present structure was built
in 1851.
It is painted black and white in
alternate horizontal bands, and is connected with the shore by a long footbridge, also built on piles and coloured
white.
The height of the light tower from
base to vane is 66 feet, and its central
lamp burns at 40 feet above high water.
The light is under occultation once in
every half minute, and the apparatus used
is lenticular, giving forth a white beam
with red sectors.
A fog bell is sounded
during foggy weather.
There are two
keepers employed in tending the station,
who, having their dwellings at hand, with
coals, light, and furniture provided for
them, and living with their families, have
a much more comfortable billet than their
neighbours at the Chapman lower down.
Naval Volunteers, Royal: Headquarters for drill, H.M.S. President, West
India Docks.
Armoury and boat-station,
H.M.S. Rainbow, off Somerset House.
Office, 35, Great George Street, Westminster
Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea.
Published in the London Gazette of
August 19, 1884.
Art 1.
In the following rules every
steam ship which is under sail and not
under steam is to be considered a sailing
ship; and every steam ship which is
under steam, whether under sail or
not, is to be considered a ship under
Steam.
Rules concerning Lights,
Art 2.
The lights mentioned in the
following Articles, numbered 3, 4, 5, 6,
7, 8, 9, 10, and 11, and no others, shall
be carried in all weathers from sunset
to sunrise.
Art 3.
A sea-going steam ship, when
under way shall carry:
(a) On or in front of the foremast, at a height above the
hull of not less than 20 feet, and if the
breadth of the ship exceeds 20 feet then
at a height above the hull not less than
such breadth, a bright white light, so
constructed as to show a uniform and
unbroken light over an arc of the horizon
of twenty points of the compass; so fixed
as to throw the light ten points on each
side of the ship, viz. from right ahead to
two points abaft the beam on either side;
and of such a character as to be visible
on a dark night, with a clear atmosphere,
at a distance of at least five miles,
(b) On the starboard side, a green light so
constructed as to show a uniform and
unbroken light over an arc of the horizon
of ten points of the compass; so fixed as
to throw the light from right ahead to
two points abaft the beam on the starboard side; and of such a character as to
be visible on a dark night, with a clear
atmosphere, at a distance of at least two
miles,
(c) On the port side, a red light,
so constructed as to show a uniform and
unbroken light over an arc of the horizon
of ten points of the compass; so fixed as
to throw the light from right ahead to
two points abaft the beam on the port
side; and of such a character as to be
visible on a dark night, with a clear
atmosphere, at a distance of at least two
miles,
(d) the said green and red side
lights shall be fitted with inboard screens
projecting at least 3 feet forward from the
light, so as to prevent these lights from
being seen across the bow.
Art 4.
A steam ship, when towing
another ship shall, in addition to her side
lights, carry two bright white lights in a
vertical line one over the other, not less
than 3 feet apart, so as to distinguish her
from other steam ships.
Each of these
lights shall be of the same construction
and character, and shall be carried in the
same position as the white light which
other steam ships are required to carry.
Art 5.
(a) A ship, whether a steamship or a sailing ship, which from any
accident is not under command, shall at
night carry, in the same position as the
white light which steamships are required
to carry, and, if a steamship, in place of
that light, three red lights in globular
lanterns, each not less than 10 inches in
diameter, in a vertical line one over the
other, not less than 3 feet apart, and
of such a character as to be visible on a
dark night, with a clear atmosphere, at a
distance of at least two miles; and shall
by day carry, in a vertical line one over
the other, not less than 3 feet apart,
in front of but not lower than her foremast head, three black balls or shapes,
each two feet in diameter.
(b) A ship, whether a steamship or a
sailing ship, employed in laying or in
picking up a telegraph cable, shall at
night carry in the same position as the
white light, which steamships are required to carry, and, if a steamship, in
place of that light, three lights in globular
lanterns each not less than 10 inches in
diameter, in a vertical line over one
another, not less than 6 feet apart; the
highest and lowest of these lights shall
be red, and the middle light shall be white,
and they shall be of such a character that
the red lights shall be visible at the same
distance as the white light.
By day she
shall carry, in a vertical line one over the
other, not less than 6 feet apart, in front
of but not lower than her foremast head,
three shapes not less than two feet in
diameter, of which the top and bottom
shall be globular in shape and red in
colour, and the middle one diamond in
shape and white.
(c) the ships referred to in this Article,
when not making any way through the
water, shall not carry the side lights, but
when making way shall carry them.
(d) the lights and shapes required to
be shown by this Article are to be taken
by other ships as signals that the ship
showing them is not under command, and
cannot, therefore, get out of the way.
The signals to be made by ships in
distress and requiring assistance are contained in Article 27.
Art 6.
A sailing ship under way, or
being towed, shall carry the same lights
as are provided by Article 3 for a steam
ship under way, with the exception of
the white light, which she shall never
carry.
Art 7.
Whenever, as in the case of
small vessels during bad weather, the
green and red side lights cannot be fixed,
these lights shall be kept on deck, on
their respective sides of the vessel, ready
for use: and shall, on the approach of or
to other vessels, be exhibited on their
respective sides in sufficient time to prevent collision, in such a manner as to
make them most visible, and so that the
green light shall not be seen on the port
side nor the red light on the starboard
side.
To make the use of these portable
lights more certain and easy, the lanterns
containing them shall each be painted
outside with the colour of the light they
respectively contain, and shall be provided with proper screens.
Art 8.
A ship, whether a steam ship
or a sailing ship, when at anchor, shall
carry, where it can best be seen, but at a
height not exceeding 20 feet above the
hull, a white light, in a globular lantern
of not less than 8 inches in diameter, and
so constructed as to show a clear uniform
and unbroken light visible all round the
horizon, at a distance of at least one mile.
Art 9.
A pilot vessel, when engaged
on her station on pilotage duty, shall not
carry the lights required for other vessels,
but shall carry a white light at the masthead, visible all round the horizon, and
shall also exhibit a flare-up light or flare-up lights at short intervals, which shall
never exceed fifteen minutes.
A pilot
vessel, when not engaged on her station
on pilotage duty, shall carry lights similar
to those of other ships.
Art 10.
Open boats and fishing vessels
of less than 20 tons net registered tonnage, when under way and when not
having their nets, trawls, dredges, or
lines in the water, shall not be obliged
to carry the coloured side lights; but
every such boat and vessel shall in lieu
thereof have ready at hand a lantern with
a green glass on the one side and a red
glass on the other side, and on approaching to or being approached by another
vessel such lantern shall be exhibited in
sufficient time to prevent collision, so that
the green light shall not be seen on the
port side nor the red light on the starboard side.
Art 11.
A ship which is being overtaken by another shall show from her
stern to such last-mentioned ship a white
light or a flare-up light.
Sound Signals for Fog, &c.
Art 12.
A steam ship shall be provided
with a steam whistle or other efficient Steam sound signal, so placed that the
sound may not be intercepted by any
obstructions, and with an efficient foghorn to be sounded by a bellows or other
mechanical means, and also with an efficient bell.
In all cases where the
regulations require a bell to be used, a
drum will be substituted on board
Turkish vessels.
A sailing ship shall be
provided with a similar fog-horn and bell.
In fog, mist, or falling snow, whether by
day or night, the signals described in this
Article shall be used as follows: that is
to say,
(a) A steam ship under way shall
make with her steam whistle, or other
steam sound signal, at intervals of not more
than two minutes, a prolonged blast.
(b) A sailing ship under way shall make
with her fog-horn, at intervals of not
more than two minutes, when on the
starboard tack one blast, when on the
port tack two blasts in succession, and
when with the wind abaft the beam three
blasts in succession,
(c) A steam ship
and a sailing ship when not under way
shall, at intervals of not more than two
minutes, ring the bell.
Speed of Ships to be moderate in Fog.
Art 13.
Every ship, whether a sailing
ship or steam ship, shall in a fog, mist,
or falling snow, go at a moderate speed.
Steering and Sailing Rules,
Art. 14.
When two sailing ships are
approaching one another, so as to involve
risk of collision, one of them shall keep
out of the way of the other as follows,
viz.:
(a) A ship which is running free
shall keep out of the way of a ship which
is close-hauled,
(b) A ship which is close-hauled on the port tack shall keep out of
the way of a ship which is close-hauled
on the starboard tack,
(c) When both
are running free with the wind on different
sides, the ship which has the wind on the
port side shall keep out of the way of the
other,
(d) When both are running free
with the wind on the same side, the ship
which is to windward shall keep out of
the way of the ship which is to leeward.
(e) A ship which has the wind aft shall
keep out of the way of the other ship.
Art. 15.
If two ships under steam are
meeting end on, or nearly end on, so as
to involve risk of collision, each shall
alter her course to starboard, so that
each may pass on the port side of the
other.
[this Article only applies to cases
where ships are meeting end on, or nearly
end on, in such a manner as to involve
risk of collision, and does not apply to
two ships which must, if both keep on
their respective courses, pass clear of each
other.
The only cases to which it does
apply are, when each of the two ships is
end on, or nearly end on, to the other; in
other words, to cases in which, by day,
each ship sees the masts of the other in a
line, or nearly in a line, with her own; and
by night, to cases in which each ship is in
such a position as to see both the side
lights of the other.
It does not apply by
day to cases in which a ship sees another
ahead crossing her own course; or by
night, to cases where the red light of one
ship is opposed to the red light of the
other, or where the green light of one
ship is opposed to the green light of the
other, or where a red light without a green
light, or a green light without a red light,
is seen ahead, or where both green and
red lights are seen anywhere but ahead.]
Art 16.
If two ships under steam are
crossing, so as to involve risk of collision,
the ship which has the other on her own
starboard side shall keep out of the way
of the other.
Art 17.
If two ships, one of which is a
sailing ship, and the other a steam ship,
are proceeding in such directions as to
involve risk of collision, the steam ship
shall keep out of the way of the sailing
ship.
Art 18.
Every steam ship when approaching another ship, so as to involve
risk of collision, shall slacken her speed
or stop and reverse, if necessary.
Art 19.
In taking any course authorised
or required by these regulations, a steam
ship under way may indicate that course
to any other ship which she has in sight
by the following signals on her steam
whistle, viz.:
One short blast to mean "I am directing my course to starboard."
Two short blasts to mean "I am directing my course to port."
Three short blasts to mean "I am going full speed astern."
The use of these signals is optional; but
if they are used, the course of the ship
must be in accordance with the signal
made.
Art 20.
Notwithstanding anything contained in any preceding Article, every
ship, whether a sailing ship or a steam ship, overtaking any other, shall keep out
of the way of the overtaken ship.
Art 21.
In narrow channels every
steam ship shall, when it is safe and
practicable, keep to that side of the
fairway or midchannel which lies on the
starboard side of such ship.
Art 22.
Where by the above rules one
of two ships is to keep out of the way,
the other shall keep her course.
Art 23.
In obeying and construing
these rules due regard shall be had to all
dangers of navigation; and to any special
circumstances which may render a departure from the above rules necessary in
order to avoid immediate danger.
No Ship under any Circumstances to
neglect proper Precautions.
Art 24.
Nothing in these rules shall
exonerate any ship, or the owner or
master, or crew thereof, from the consequences of any neglect to carry lights or
signals, or of any neglect to keep a proper
look-out, or of the neglect of any precaution which may be required by the
ordinary practice of seamen, or by the
special circumstances of the case.
Reservation of Rules for Harbours and Inland Navigation.
Art 25.
Nothing in these rules shall
interfere with the operation of a special
rule, duly made by local authority, relative to the navigation of any harbour,
river, or inland navigation.
Special Lights for Squadrons and Convoys.
Art 26.
Nothing in these rules shall
interfere with the operation of any special
rules made by the Government of any
nation with respect to additional station
and signal lights for two or more ships of
war or for ships sailing under convoy.
Art 27.
When a ship is in distress and
requires assistance from other ships or
from the shore, the following shall be the
signals to be used or displayed by her,
either together or separately, that is to say:
In the daytime -
(1) A gun fired at intervals of about a minute;
(2) the International Code signal of distress indicated by N C;
(3) the distant signal, consisting of a square flag, having either above or below
it a ball, or anything resembling a ball.
At night -
(1) A gun fired at intervals of about a minute;
(2) flames on the ship (as from a burning tar barrel, oil barrel, &c.)
(3) rockets or shells throwing stars of any colour or description, fired one at
a time, at short intervals.
All vessels navigating Gravesend Reach
are to keep to the northward of a line
defined by a skeleton beacon erected upon
the India Arms Wharf end on with the
high chimney of the Cement Works at
Northfleet; and all vessels intending to
anchor in the reach are to bring up to the
southward of that line.
A lantern is
placed on the above beacon which shows
(at night) a bright light to the northward
of the same line, and a red light to the
southward of it, over the anchorage
ground.
All vessels so anchoring and
remaining beyond a period of twenty-four hours are to be moored.
All barges, boats, lighters, and other
like craft navigating the river shall, when
under way, have at least one competent
man constantly on board for the navigation and management thereof, and all
such craft of above 50 tons burden shall,
when under way, have one man, in addition, on board, to assist in the navigation and management of the same, with
the following exceptions: When being
towed by a steam vessel, or when being
moved to and fro between any vessels or
places a distance not exceeding 200 yards;
and in case of non-compliance with this
present bye-law, the harbour-master may
take charge of and remove such craft to
such place as to such harbour-master
may seem fit, and the amount of the
charges and expenses of taking charge
thereof, and of such removal, shall be recoverable from the owner or owners, or
master thereof, to the use of the Conservators, as provided by the Thames Conservancy Act, 1857.
Any person committing any breach of, or in any way
infringing any of these bye-laws, is liable
to a penalty of £5.
On the Upper Thames no steamer is allowed, between Teddington
Lock and Cricklade, to run at such a speed
as to endanger any other boat or injure
the river bank.
No one is allowed to
ride or drive on the towing path, to
unload anything upon it, to place any
vessel on the shore in front of it, or to
take any stones, &c., from the banks.
No vessel must remain in any lock longer
than time enough to pass through, and if
she pass without paying toll, the amount
due can be demanded at any other lock
before admitting her.
No vessel - unless
in case of necessity, through strength of
current - is to be towed from the bank
otherwise than from a mast of sufficient
height to protect the banks, gates, &c.,
from injury.
There are very strict regulations against the pollution of the river
by sewage matter.
Tolls for cargo boats
are levied under the following regulations:
The following tolls, rates, or duties
shall be taken by the Conservators from
the owners, coast[cost?]-bearers, or chief boatmen of and for every vessel carrying a
cargo, and passing through any lock or
locks between Cricklade and Staines, or
vice versa, for the use of such lock or
locks according to the burthen or tonnage of such vessel, the measurement of
such burthen or tonnage to be limited as
in the 6th clause of the said Act 28th
George III. chap.
51, that is to say:
the sum of 2d per ton at every lock,
subject to such provisions as to the aggregate of tolls as hereinafter mentioned.
If the vessel in the downward voyage
shall pass through all the locks between
the undermentioned places, the aggregate
of such tolls per ton shall be as follows:
Per ton.
For all locks between:
Oxford and Abingdon inclusive: 6d
Oxford and Wallingford inclusive: 1s
Oxford and Pangbourne: 1s 6d
Oxford and Reading: 1s 9d
Oxford and Henley: 2s
Oxford and Marlow: 2s 6d
Oxford and Maidenhead: 2s 9d
Oxford and Windsor: 3s
Oxford and Staines: 3s 6d
If the vessel, in the upward voyage,
shall pass through all the locks between
the undermentioned places, the aggregate
of such tolls, per ton, shall be as follows:
Per ton.
To all locks between:
Staines and Windsor inclusive: 3d
Staines and Maidenhead inclusive: 6d
Staines and Marlow: 9d
Staines and Henley: 1s 3d
Staines and Reading: 1s 9d
Staines and Pangbourne: 2s
Staines and Wallingford: 2s 6d
Staines and Abingdon: 3s
Staines and Oxford: 3s 6d
Oxford and Cricklade: 2d per ton for each lock.
For timber in rafts -
the same rate per ton as is charged if
conveyed in vessels, there being 50
cubic feet in one ton.
The tolls for pleasure-boats are;
For every steam pleasure-boat and
passenger-steamer: 1s 6d
Class 1: For every sculling-boat, pair-oared row-boat and skiff, and for
every randan, canoe, punt, and dingey: 3d
Class 2: For every four-oared row-boat (other than boats enumerated
in Class 1) and sailing-boat: 6d
Class 3: For every row-boat shallop over four oars (other than boats
enumerated in Classes 1 and 2): 1s
For every house-boat under 50 feet in length: 1s 6d
For every house-boat over 50 feet in length: 2s 6d
the above charges to be for passing once
through, by, or over a lock, and returning
on the same day.
In lieu of the above tolls, pleasure
steamers or rowboats may be registered
on the payment to the Conservators of
the undermentioned sums, and shall, in
consideration of such payment, pass the
several locks free of any other charge,
from the 1st day of January to the 31st
day of December in each year.
For every steam pleasure-boat and
steam passenger-boat, not exceeding 35 feet in length: £5
Ditto above 35 feet in length, and not exceeding 45: £7 10s
Ditto exceeding 45 feet in length: £10
For every row-boat of Class 1: £2
For every row-boat or yacht of Class 2: £2 10s
For every row-boat of Class 3: £3
For every house-boat not exceeding 30 feet in length: £3
Ditto above 30 and not exceeding 50 feet in length: £5
Ditto exceeding 50 feet in length: £7 10s
In computing the tolls, every number
less than the entire numbers above stated
is to be charged as the entire number.
The above rates on Classes 1, 2, and 3
to be doubled if towed by horse or any
other animal.
The plate with the registered number
thereon is to be fastened on to the boat
for which it is issued, and is not transferable from one boat to another.
Any person committing any breach of,
or in any way infringing any of these
bye-laws, is liable to a penalty of £5.
The tolls for the Conservators' ferry-boats above Teddington-lock are:
For every horse not engaged in towing, taken across by ferry-boat, the sum of 3d,
For every carriage, waggon, cart, or other
vehicle, in addition to the toll on the horse 3d.
For every foot passenger 1d.
There is a long list of penalties for
infringements of these bye-laws, ranging
from £2 for bargemen stealing goods on
board to £100 for infraction of the laws
relating to sewage (and see Steam Launches.)
Neptune Rowing Club, Oxford:
the object of this club, which consists of
effective members, members, and honorary members, is to encourage amateur
rowing.
Effective members pay a subscription of £1, members one of 10s,
and honorary members not less than 5s.
The members elect; one black ball in four excludes.
Colours, orange, black
and red.
Headquarters, "three Cups"
Hotel, Queen Street, Oxford.
Newnham Murren, Oxfordshire, on
the left bank, about one mile from Wallingford Bridge, from London 89½ miles,
from Oxford 22 miles.
Population, 170. Soil, gravel.
The little church has a curiously carved oak pulpit, and a small
brass tablet representing Letitia Barnarde
and her four children, dated 1593.
Place of Worship: St.Mary's.
Postal Arrangements: Letters
through Wallingford, which is the nearest
money order office, &c.
Nearest Bridges: up, Wallingford 1 mile; down, Goring 5 miles.
Locks: up,
Wallingford ¼ mile; down, Cleeve 4¾ miles.
Ferry: Wallingford.
Railway
Station: Wallingford.
Fares, Wallingford to Paddington:
1st, 9/5, 16/-; 2nd, 7/-, 12/-; 3rd, 4/3.
No Sunday trains.
New Thames Yacht Club, Club-houses, Caledonian Hotel, Adelphi,
W.C., and Gravesend:
the object of the club is the encouragement of yacht
building and sailing on the river Thames;
and the funds of the club are appropriated,
after payment of the necessary expenses,
to the providing of prizes in money or
otherwise to be sailed for by yachts on
the river Thames.
The members elect,
and one black ball in five excludes.
The
club is managed by commodore, vice-commodore, rear-commodore, and treasurer, who are ex-officio members of
every committee, with a sailing committee
of fourteen, and a house committee of
six.
The entrance fee is £5 5s, and the
subscription £3 3s
The club burgee
is blue with gold phoenix; ensign, blue
with gold phoenix in fly.
Norbiton, a suburb of Kingston, to
the north-east, rapidly extending its rows
of villas and cottages towards the open
country in the neighbourhood of Wimbledon Common and Richmond Park, where
Jerry Abershaw and other knights of the
road once took toll from travellers.
It
is a railway station on the South Western,
and may also be reached by the Metropolitan line.
The walks about Norbiton
are numerous, and the scenery is very
pretty; the open commons being agreeably diversified with finely-timbered
woods.
At Norbiton is the Royal Cambridge Asylum for soldiers' widows, established in 1851, under the patronage
of the royal family, in memory of the
late Duke of Cambridge.
Widows of
non-commissioned officers and privates of
the Army, not under 50 years of age, are
eligible.
Each widow has a furnished
room and 7s weekly, besides a monthly
allowance of coals.
The funded income
of the charity is a little over £600, and
the estimated expenditure £2,300, the
balance being raised by subscriptions.
The Children's Convalescent Institution
is at Kingston Hill, and contains 150
beds.
The institution is open for inspection every day except Sunday.
The Children's Home for 22 girls is at 4, Park-
road-villas, Park-road.
Visitors can
inspect the Home on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday afternoons,
between 3 and 5. (And see Kingston.)
Places of Worship: St.John the Baptist, Kingston Vale; St.Peter's; and
Baptist Primitive Methodist, and Wesleyan Chapels.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, savings bank, telegraph).
Mails from London, 7 and 9.30am, 2.35 and 7.30pm; Sun. 7am,
Mails for London, 8.20 and 11.50am, 3.30, 4.55, 7.30, and 9pm
No London mail out on Sunday.
Fares to Waterloo: 2/-, 2/6; 2nd, 1/6,
2/-; 3rd, -/11, 1/8.
Nore Light, about 50 miles from
London Bridge.
The Nore light-ship is the
first sea light to be passed on leaving the
port of London.
It is the first in order
of seniority among its kind, for at this
station the first light-ship set afloat on
the coast of England was permanently
laid in the year 1730.
The original hull was that of a sloop,
with a large lantern at each end of a yard
laid across the mast.
An improvement in the method of illumination in 1825
rendered one lantern sufficient, incorporate with the mast, and showing a
"fixed" light.
In 1855 for purposes of
distinction, the light was made "revolving".
After seven years' service in
one commission, the ships are brought
into port for a thorough overhaul.
The
Nore lightship was built of wood at
Limehouse 40 years ago, and is 96 feet
long by 21 broad; her tonnage, 156;
hull, mast-head, and globe painted red,
and the name "Nore" in large white
letters on each broadside.
The hollow
globe at the mast-head, 6 feet in diameter,
made of bent laths, is characteristic of
such craft by day; it is never removed
unless when the ships are driven from
their stations.
About 10 feet below it
hangs the lantern, an octagonal glass
case, framed in copper, and fitting round
the mast like a great gem ring, housed
on deck by day, and hoisted as high up the
mast as the shrouds will permit by night.
On deck forward is a powerful windlass - a necessary provision for managing
the heavy cable, which is composed of
very short links; the iron if 1⅝ in thick,
and of sufficient length to veer out 100
fathoms if required.
On a netting attached
to the bumpkin (an apology for a bow sprit) is a sail neatly stowed ready for use
if required; and at the stern, furled close
to a jigger mast, is another sail.
These
are used in ordinary times to steady the
ship when it is blowing hard, or in case
of breaking adrift and being driven to
sea (which has never yet happened) they
would enable her to run to an anchorage.
Around the mast and fitting on to the
deck is a circular wooden chamber into
which the lantern is lowered in the daytime, affording convenience for cleaning
it and trimming the lamps.
Passing down to the lower deck is a
companion ladder, serving both for officers
and crew.
The latter are lodged forward,
and occupy all the 'tween deck space
from the mast to the bows of the ship.
Their hammocks, chests, and lockers are
along the sides of the berth, and a good
broad table down the middle, with a bench
seat at each side of it.
Amidships, near
the mast, is the cooking stove, a large
grate whose warmth must be particularly
acceptable in hard weather.
Close against
the mast is a clockwork machine, set in
motion by a descending weight, whose
office is to turn an iron spindle-rod laid
against the mast, and so contrived that
when the lantern is hoisted into its place
it sets the light revolving in the manner
to be presently described.
Immediately behind the mast, after
passing the companion ladder, a small
passage-way leads to the captain's cabin
and the store-rooms.
On the right, in
large lockers breast-high, the bread and
provisions are kept; on the left is the
principal store, where the oil, cotton wicks,
and spare lamps are deposited.
Here are
four or five cylindrical cisterns, each containing 100 gallons of colza oil, a bench,
and a set of bright copper measures, and
a black-board ruled into suitable spaces
for a record in chalk of the quantities
drawn off.
Two or three spare lamps and
reflectors hang from the beams, all ready
for use; and a trimming-tray, with scissors,
holders for wicks, and glass cylinders, and
other appliances used by the lamp-trimmer
when performing his daily task, lies here
in the place provided for it.
From the passage a door opens into the
stern cabin, a snug little den for the use
of the officer in command, neatly but
plainly furnished, with a library for the
use of the crew, the books of which circulate throughout the service.
Below this deck is the hold, in which
water tanks, spare cables, and some few
tons of ballast, keep the vessel steady.
The principal function for which a light-vessel is placed is, as the name implies,
the exhibition of a warning or a guiding
light at night.
To prevent confusion with
lamps or fires on shore or on board other
vessels, a distinguishing character is given
to the light, which, in the case of the
"Nore", is called the revolving half-minute character.
The effect to be produced is that a brilliant flash shall pass
before the eye of the observer every 30
seconds, which is accomplished in the following manner:
Argand lamps, fitted each within a
paraboloidal reflector, and slung upon
gimbal work to counteract the vessel's
rolling, are arranged in three groups of
three lamps each on a frame within the
lantern, and surrounding the mast.
The
property of this kind of reflector is that
it gathers all, or nearly all, the rays into
a parallel beam of light, and when in
position this beam is thrown towards the
horizon.
The three in a group are
cornered together with their rims in one
plane, like a triple-barrelled opera glass,
so that the blended beams of three lamps
reach the observer at the same time.
The
framework which carries the three groups
runs on wheels on a circular rail, and its
inner ring which encircles the mast is
cogged upon one edge.
When the lantern
is hoisted these cogs come into connection
with the cogged head of the iron spindle
laid beside the mast, which is kept turning by machinery below the deck, as
before explained, and sets the frame in
motion.
If there were only one group of
lamps the frame must revolve very fast
to bring the beam round in half a minute,
and the lamps would flare; but by placing three groups the speed is reduced to
one-third.
To put this description into
a homely shape: the sea-gull flying over
the lantern sees three bright spokes of a
wheel going slowly round and round,
while if he drops down on to the water
he will get a spoke in his eye every half-minute from sunset to sunrise.
From stem to stern, deck, lantern,
lamps, cabin, and utensils, are all kept
scrupulously clean and bright.
The crew
who are charged with this duty number
eleven in all, but only seven are on board
at one time, the master or mate, two
lamplighters, and four seamen.
Once a
month the relief steamer comes down
from Blackwall, brings the shoremen
back, and takes others away.
The
master and mate take month about, the
rest have two months on board to one on
shore.
Provisions and water are renewed
monthly by this vessel, and stores are
kept up to service requirements.
There
is plenty of work in keeping a look-out,
keeping all clean, especially the lantern,
lantern-glass, lamps, and reflectors, and
in keeping very neat and careful records
of the state of wind and weather, barometer, &c., and of the daily and nightly
expenditure of oil and stores.
The men
have, nevertheless, a good deal of leisure,
which some of them employ in mat-making, some in shoe-making, some in a
kind of cabinet work or in toy-making.
They live as a rule to a good age, and are
entitled to a pension when past work.
The cost of this vessel with apparatus
complete was £5000, and its maintenance
may be stated at £1200 a year.
A 7-ft. can-buoy,
made of wood, and painted with black
and white stripes.
It is situated in Sea
Reach, on the northern edge of the Nore
Sand, and marks a depth of water, at
low-water spring tide, of 16 feet. It is
moored with 10 fathom of chain.
The
Nore Sand Buoy belongs to the Trinity
House.
Nore Yacht Club, New Falcon
Hotel, Gravesend:
Object: To promote
yacht and naval architecture; to encourage amateur seamanship and yacht
racing in classes of 40 tons and under;
and to establish yachting accommodation
on metropolitan waters.
Officers: commodore, vice-commodore, rear-commodore, and honorary treasurer and secretary,
who, with twenty members, form the committee.
Election by ballot in
committee; nine votes must be recorded: one black ball in eight excludes.
Burgee,
light blue, dark blue cross through it,
gold anchor in centre, red ensign.
Northern Outfall, the Abbey Mills
Pumping Station, one of the curiosities
of modern civilisation, lies on the London,
Tilbury, and Southend Railway, between
Bromley-by-Bow and Plaistow.
For permission to view, apply to the Engineers'
Department, Metropolitan Board of
Works, Spring Gardens, S.W.
[There is an extensive description in the first edition.]
Northfleet, Kent, on the right bank,
between Northfleet Hope and Gravesend
Reach, 25 miles from London.
A station
on the North Kent Railway, about an
hour and a quarter from Charing Cross.
The station is close to the lower part of
the village.
Population, 6,416. Soil,
chalk.
Northfleet is a straggling village
on the side of a hill, on the summit of
which are the church and a quaint, old-fashioned, open, triangular space - probably once the village green - which is
known by the name of the Hill.
The
principal trade of Northfleet is in cement,
and some shipbuilding and repairing
are carried on by the river.
A prominent object both from the railway
and from the river is the college, built
and endowed in 1847 by John Huggens,
Esq., of Sittingbourne, for the benefit
of ladies and gentlemen in reduced
circumstances.
It consists of 50 superior almshouses, each of the inmates
receiving £1 per week.
A handsome
chapel forms part of the building.
In
addition to the 50 inmates, there are 40
out-pensioners who also receive £1 per
week.
Perhaps the most prominent object
in Northfleet is the Factory Club, a handsome building erected at the sole cost of
Mr.Bevan, of the firm of Knight, Bevan,
and Sturge, for the benefit of the working men of the village.
It is a large hall,
with galleries at either end, in which
1,000 persons can be accommodated, and
a number of rooms in the basement, with
wings at the back, one of which contains
the kitchen, offices, lavatories, &c., and
the other a billiard-room.
The building
itself is mainly erected of red and white
bricks, but relieved by columns in cement
of apparently mixed Italian and Corinthian
styles, in addition to which there are
facings and cornices of a similar material.
At each end of the building is a lofty
slated tower, with a flag-staff, and margined with handsome ironwork.
The
internal finishings of the large hall are
executed in pitch pine; underneath one
of the galleries is a bar, fitted up for the
supply of refreshments; and the whole
of the fittings, seats, and tables are also
of pitch pine.
From the towers a splendid view may be obtained, embracing
Southend and about twenty miles of
beautiful scenery.
The entrance fee is
1s 3d for Messrs.Knight's men, and
2s 9d for those not belonging to that
firm.
The subscription is 4d. per month.
The church of St.Botolph, approached
from the Hill, stands in a churchyard
full of weatherbeaten old tombstones of
all shapes and sizes.
Many crumbling
carvings and half-obliterated corbels on the
porch and older walls of the church attest
the antiquity of the structure, and on the
right-hand side of the porch the curious
may still discover the Rose of York or
Lancaster.
The tower, which was originally built to serve the purpose of a stronghold against the incursions of pirates
and river thieves, has been partly rebuilt.
The external flight of stairs leading to the tower is part of the original
building.
According to Mr.E.W.Godwin, F.S.A., the church in Norman
times belonged to the Archbishop of
Canterbury, until it was given to the
Priory of St.Andrew, Rochester, when it
was in some measure rebuilt.
The original Norman church has entirely disappeared, but traces of the re-building
are visible in the three westernmost arches
of the nave.
These probably belong to
the close of the 12th century.
The
present chancel would seem to have been
built about the middle of the 14th century.
The restoration of the chancel, under
Mr.Godwin's superintendence, was
finished in 1864.
The chancel possesses
one of the architectural rarities of England,
a 14th century rood screen beautifully
carved in oak, on which are heads of
Christ and his Apostles, much mutilated
by the Puritans.
There are some fine
brasses, notably one of Peter de Lacy,
rector in 1375, whose body lies in the
centre of the chancel, and others of
William Lye (1391), and of William
Rikhill and wife (1433).
The sedilia in
the chancel have been beautifully restored
and decorated; another set of sedilia
and piscina have been partially restored,
and will be found at the east end of the
south aisle.
The roof is of oak and has
been partly renovated; that in the chancel
was new in 1864.
The registers date
back to 1539.
The old parish church
iron-bound chest, with six locks, is evidently of great antiquity.
In the north
aisle is a curious canopied monument
displaying the bewigged marble effigies,
nearly if not quite life-size, of Richard
Crich and Esther his wife, "erected by
his sole executor".
Also in the north
aisle is the monument of Dr.Edward
Brown.
The doctor's will is sculptured
on the marble, and by it he leaves to his
"dear and loving wife sundry fields in
Northfleet, and the rent of the chalk, and
the profits of the cherries".
In the south
aisle is a monument tablet to Walter, son
of Robert, Lord Viscount Molesworth,
who died in 1773, his wife (1763), and his
daughters (1766 and 1772).
On the
general question of epitaphs it is said of
this Walter, son of Robert, in the inscription on the tablet to his memory,
"Never fond of monumental compliments he forbade any use of them in
regard to the carcases below."
Places of Worship: All Saints Perry-street and St.Botolph's (parish
church); the Roman Catholic Church of
Our Immaculate Mother and St.Joseph;
and Congregational, Primitive Methodist,
Wesleyan, and Wycliffe Congregational
Chapels.
Police: Station, High-street.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, telegraph, savings bank,
and insurance), the Hill.
Branch in
High-street.
Mails from London, 7.15
and 11.30am, 6.45pm
Mails to London, 10.30 and 11.30am, 2.15 and 8pm. Sundays 6.30pm
Nearest Railway Station: Northfleet;
Ferries: Greenhithe and Gravesend.
Fares to London: 1st, 3/6, 4/6; 2nd,
2/8, 3/6, 3rd, 1/10, 3/-.
Northfleet Hope runs from Grays
Thurrock to Northfleet, nearly north and
south, about a mile and a half.
There is
at the west side of the Hope a shoal
with as little as three feet of water in
places at low tide.
At Grays Thurrock
and at Northfleet there are very extensive
cement works, and at the former place
is moored the Exmouth training-ship.
Bearings N. and S.
Northfleet Light: this, the first of
the Trinity House lighthouses, is an iron
pillar-light illuminated by gas.
It was
transferred to the care of the Trinity
House by the Thames Conservancy in
1870.
North London Rowing Club, Hammersmith:
Election is by ballot in general meeting: one black ball in five
excludes.
Entrance fee, £1 1s, subscription, £1 10s.
Colours, dark blue and light blue vertical. Boat-house, Biffen's, Hammersmith.
North Stoke, Oxfordshire, on the left
bank, 2 miles from Wallingford (a station
on the Great Western Railway 51 miles
from Paddington), from London 88 miles,
from Oxford 23½ miles.
Population 187. Soil, chalk.
The church of St.Mary has
a good pointed arch between the nave
and chancel and another good arch at
the west end, filled up and spoiled by a
gallery.
Unlike most of its neighbours,
the church has not been touched by the
hand of the restorer, but it is high time
that it should be taken in hand.
At
present it has an almost pitiably bare and
barn-like look.
It is understood that the
delay in the restoration of the church is a
matter of finance.
Place of Worship: St.Mary's.
Postal Arrangements: Letters
through Wallingford.
Mail from London, 6.55am, Mail to London, 7.10pm,
No delivery or collection on Sunday.
Nearest money-order office, &c.: Wallingford.
NEAREST Bridges: up, Wallingford 2¼ miles;
down, Streatley 3½ miles.
Locks: up, Wallingford 2 miles; down, Cleeve 3 miles.
Ferry: Little Stoke.
Railway
Stations: Wallingford and Moulsford,
G.W.R.
Fares from Wallingford to Paddington: 1st, 9/5, 16/-; 2nd, 7/-, 12/-; 3rd, 4/5.
No Sunday trains.
From Moulsford to Paddington: 1st, 8/5, 14/6; 2nd, 6/3, 11/-; 3rd, 3/11½.
North Woolwich Gardens: On the
left bank of the river, adjacent to the
North Woolwich Station of the Great
Eastern Railway, about half an hour
from Fenchurch-street.
Almost the only
survivors of the open-air places of amusement which were once so numerous, are
now Rosherville and North Woolwich.
The latter, though by no means so
picturesque as the lofty and tree-crowned
crags of Rosherville, are prettily laid out,
and in the summer-time are a pleasant
enough place of resort.
A variety of
entertainments of the usual class are
given here during the season: in fine
weather the gardens are generally
thronged.
The price of admission is
6d, and the fares from Fenchurch-St.
are: 1st, 1/1, 1/7; 2nd, 10d, 1/3; 3rd,
7d, 11d.
Nuneham Courteney (Oxfordshire) [now spelt 'Courtenay'], a seat of the Harcourt family, is
one of the most delightful residences on
the Thames.
The house, which is fortunately free from the inconvenience of over
magnificence, is large and roomy, and
gardens and park are second to none on
the river's banks.
The property was
purchased in 1710 by Simon, first Viscount
Harcourt and Lord Chancellor, it is said
for £17,000.
The house was built by
him from designs by Leadbetter.
It consists of a central block, united to its two
wings by curved corridors, and from
almost all its windows commands beautiful views.
It is a perfect storehouse of
curiosities and relics, with a fine library
and many excellent pictures, and with
literary associations of special value,
Mason, Pope, Prior, Horace Walpole,
and many others having been frequent
visitors at Nuneham.
The library contains a most interesting and valuable
collection of autograph letters and family
documents; among the former being a
very curious letter from Lord Salisbury
after the Gunpowder Plot, which completely upsets the theory that the King
behaved with courage and presence of
mind on hearing of the threatened danger,
as it expressly states that James was not
told of the plot until all was safely over.
There is a strange and melancholy interest about a collection of letters of
George III., from his schoolboy days to
the time when his brain failed him, in
which the progressive steps of the fatal
malady can be clearly traced.
George III.
was on very intimate teams with General
Harcourt, and among the pictures now
at Nuneham are drawings by the King,
Queen Charlotte, and the Duke of York -
not very successful, it may be added, as
works of art.
Among the most remarkable pictures in the extensive collection
may be mentioned Sir J.Reynolds, by
himself, age 17; Michael Harcourt, by
Velasquez; a portrait of Sir Simon Harcourt, said to have been the first man
killed in the conflict between Charles I.
and the Parliament (fortunately for the
family, Sir Simon's widow married General
Waller, and so saved Stanton Harcourt
from confiscation); a portrait of Lady
Anne Finch, by Van Dyck; portraits of
Rousseau (from a bust taken after death)
and John Evelyn; a fine Sir Joshua (in
the drawing-room) of the Earl and
Countess and Hon.W.Harcourt.
In
the same room hangs a very noteworthy
Rubens, "the Two Lights", and another
laudscape by the same master; good
specimens of Ruysdael, Van der Neer,
and Van der Velde, and another
beautiful Reynolds, a portrait of a
Duchess of Gloucester.
In the octagon drawing-room, from the windows of
which the views are specially delightful,
are a portrait of Pope, by Kneller;
another of Mary Countess Harcourt, by
Opie; and a good Velasquez.
The
dining-room contains a boy with an asp, by Murillo; a landscape by Ruysdael, with figures by Wouvermans;
and a portrait of Georgiana Poyntz,
Countess Spencer, by Gainsborough.
This lady was the mother of the beautiful
Duchess of Devonshire, and alludes to
her daughter, in a letter now at Nuneham, as a lanky girl, with no pretensions
to good looks, but who hopes to have
something of a figure.
The family portraits in this room are very interesting;
one of Lady Harcourt, the wife of Sir
Robert Harcourt, is specially odd, from
its extraordinary costume.
Near it hangs
a portrait of Sir Robert himself, one of
Raleigh's men, who parted with hundreds
of broad acres to fit out an expedition to
Guiana, with no result but the subsequent
publication of a little book.
There is a
good portrait of Lady Anne Harcourt, by
Jackson, and a large picture of Simon,
Earl of Harcourt (the earldom was
granted by George II.), with his little
dog, by Hunter.
To this a curious bit of
family history is attached.
Lady Nuneham, the earl's daughter, who was staying in the house, was one night much
disturbed by a dream, in which she saw
her father lying dead in the kitchen at
four o'clock in the afternoon - Lord Harcourt being at the time in perfect health.
Lady Nuneham was so impressed with
the vividness with which the dream presented itself to her, that she was unable
to persuade herself that some disaster
was not impending, and confided her
fears to her husband, and subsequently
at breakfast to the rest of the family.
After breakfast the earl went out into the
park, for the purpose of marking trees,
and nothing further was seen or heard
of him until a labourer was attracted by
the violent barking of a dog to a well in
the grounds.
There he found the body
of the earl head downwards in the mud
at the bottom of the well, having, it was
supposed, overbalanced himself in an
attempt to rescue his little dog, who had
fallen in.
A stretcher was brought, and
the body taken into the house.
The
nearest room was the kitchen, and on the
dresser the corpse was laid - strange to
say, at exactly four o'clock in the afternoon !
The coincidence is, to say the least of it, very remarkable, and the story
is undoubtedly well authenticated.
In the small dining-room is a portrait
of Aubrey Vere, twentieth Earl of Oxford,
by Walker; a Salvator Rosa, "Ulysses
and Nausicaa"; and two portraits by
Reynolds of Simon Lord Harcourt and
his son, respecting which the family
accounts have the following curious entry;
"£24 10s paid Mr.Reynolds, the painter".
The library contains many
portraits valuable in themselves and for
their associations.
There are portraits
of Horace Walpole, Prior, Mason, and
Pope, all presented by themselves; a
portrait of Rowe; a good specimen of
Kneller; and a very fine portrait of
Milton as a youth, by Van der Gucht,
probably the earliest portrait of the poet
in existence.
The curiosities and relics,
whose name is legion, comprise the service of Sevres made for the great fete at
Ranelagh Gardens on the occasion of
the king's recovery in 1789, and given by
Marquis del Campo to Earl and Countess
Harcourt; a locket which once contained
a portion of the heart of Louis Quatorze,
brought from Paris, in 1793, by Lord
Harcourt; Rousseau's Tasso and pocketbook, with numerous papers and memoranda, given by his widow to Lord
Harcourt; a piece of glass from Stanton
Harcourt, on which Pope scratched,
"Finished here the Fifth Book of Homer"; Queen Charlotte's snuff-box,
still containing a little high-dried; her
majesty's box of rouge, &c.; a tiny
watch, given by the Queen of Bohemia,
daughter of James I., to Frederick Harcourt; a piece of Charles II.'s oak; and
a box said to be made from the tree
against which Sir Walter Tyrrell's arrow
glanced.
Strict belief in the latter article
is not considered absolutely necessary at
Nuneham.
There is also a curious piece
of 14th century needlework, and some
tapestry worked by Mary Queen of
Scots.
The gardens on the right of the house
were laid out by Mason in rather a formal
style, and abound in monuments and
tablets with somewhat pompous inscriptions, grottoes, and high hedges.
The
present owner has made great improvements, which have had the effect of
opening up fine views which were formerly shut out.
Beyond the gardens is
the old church (now closed), dedicated
to All Saints, which was built in 1764
by the second Lord Harcourt, and is
modelled on the design of an Early
Christian church.
On the left of the
house run for some distance along the
river's bank, and amidst most beautiful
trees, the walks constructed by Capability
Brown, where artfully-devised vistas, cut
through the foliage, afford lovely and
unexpected peeps of Oxford, Abingdon,
and Radley.
At what is known as
Whitehead's Oak, there is a particularly
fine view of Oxford, although it must be
confessed, from a landscape-painter's
point of view, Sandford Mill, with its
ugly chimney, is decidedly in the way.
On a knoll in this part of the park stands
Carfax Conduit, which was built by Otho
Nicholson in 1590, and being taken down
in 1787 to enlarge the High-street, Oxford, was presented by the University to
George Simon Earl Harcourt.
The village, which formerly stood near
the house, was removed to some distance
down the road by Earl Harcourt, who at
one time had an odd idea of improving
the villagers by the institution of orders
of merit, prizes of virtue, &c. &c.
It is scarcely necessary to add that the attempt
did not answer the sanguine expectations
of its promoter.
The population of the
village is 304.
The nearest railway station is Culham, a station on the
Great Western Railway, 56 miles from
Paddington.
Divine Service is celebrated
in the new church, close to the village
(which was consecrated on May 18th,
1880) on Sundays, Holy Days, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
The house is not
shown to casual visitors, but the park is,
owing to the kindness of Mr.E.W.Harcourt, M.P., its present owner, a
famous place for picnics and water-parties.
The regulations for admission
to the park are as follows: the season
for admission commences on the 1st of
May and ends on the 1st of September.
The days of admission are Tuesdays and
Thursdays only, by ticket.
Each ticket
admits ten persons to the lock and Carfax.
Tickets for private parties, giving admission to the gardens between the hours of
2 and 5, are granted for Tuesdays only.
Members of Oxford University and their
friends are admitted on Tuesdays and
Thursdays without tickets, but are required to inscribe their names in a book
kept for that purpose at the lock.
Tickets
can be had on application by letter from
F.Mair, Esq., Nuneham Courteney, Oxfordshire.
Dogs are not admitted, and
it is particularly requested that all broken
glass and other debris of picnic parties
may be carefully removed.
Accommodation for small parties can be had at the
lock cottages.
Fares to Paddington, see Culham.
Occidental Rowing Club, Hammersmith: Election by ballot of members,
not less than fifteen to vote, one blackball
in five to exclude.
Entrance fee, 10s 6d;
subscription, £1 10s.
Headquarters,
Biffen's, the Mall, Hammersmith. Colours, blue, black, and gold diagonals.
Ornithology: When the eye grows
weary of wood and water-meadow, of
lofty poplar and lowly pollard, it is pleasant to turn one's mind to the varied
incidents of bird-life which present themselves along the Thames, and which provide a fund of entertainment at all seasons
for lovers of nature.
Go where you will, and when you will,
to any spot upon the river bank, you
will hardly fail to discover some representative of the feathered tribe, whose actions
attract notice, whose habits are worth
observing.
To the naturalist, however, who would
attempt a sketch of the bird-life of the
Thames, two difficulties present themselves at the outset.
In the first place,
the district to be examined has no natural
boundaries; and in the second, a bird has
such perfect freedom of action, that its
presence or absence in any particular spot
may be a matter of the merest chance;
while the advent of an ornithologist to
observe and record that of the bird is a
still greater uncertainty.
Nevertheless, there are certain birds
which are characteristic of the river.
Some
are found only in summer, others only in
winter; while not a few of the rarer kinds,
although their visits to particular spots at
irregular intervals can only be regarded
as accidental, deserve at least a passing
notice whenever and wherever their occurrence has been satisfactorily ascertained.
Upon some such basis as this, a tolerably
long list of the birds of the Thames Valley
might be made out.
Foremost amongst the species which at
once attract attention are the Swans.
Although scarcely to be called wild birds,
they can yet hardly be termed domesticated.
It is true they have owners, but they are
never fed by them, nor are they ever driven
home.
Their home is the river, where they
have to forage for themselves, and where,
from their appearance, it would seem
that they do not fare badly.
Aquatic
plants, particularly the Anacharis alsinastrum, mollusca, and fish ova, form
their principal food, while at certain
favoured spots they pick up many a
morsel thrown to them by the passers-by.
Each family of swans on the river has
its own district, and if the limits of that
district are encroached upon by other
swans, a pursuit immediately takes place,
and the intruders are driven away.
Except in this instance, they appear to live
in a state of the most perfect harmony.
The male is very attentive to the female,
assists in making the nest, and when a
sudden rising of the river takes place,
joins her with great assiduity in raising
the nest sufficiently high to prevent the
eggs from being chilled by the action of
the water, though sometimes its rise is so
rapid that the whole nest is washed away
and destroyed.
Swans generally breed
in their third year.
Six or seven eggs are
laid, and incubation lasts six weeks,
during which time the male is in constant
attendance upon the female, occasionally
taking her place upon the eggs, or guarding her with jealous care, giving chase
and battle if necessary to every intruder.
The young when hatched, which is
generally about the end of May, are conducted to the water by their parents, and
are even said to be carried there; it is
certain that the cygnets are frequently
carried on the back of the female when
she is sailing about on the water, and by
raising one leg she assists them in getting
upon her back.
This habit has been not
unnoticed by Shakespeare, who wrote:
So doth the swan her downy cygnets save,
Keeping them prisoner underneath her wings.
Henry VI. Part I. Act v. sc. 3.
By the expression "underneath her
wings", we may understand under shelter,
of her wings, which she arches over her
back whereon the young are seated.
A full-grown male bird (technically
termed "cobb") would weigh about
40 lb and a female ("pen") 5 lb or
6 lb less, while a cygnet will run to 28 lb
or so, and it is about this weight, when
properly fattened, they are killed for
table.
Her Majesty usually has a score
or so fattening every year: [See Swan Upping.)
When the river is frozen, the swans
sometimes fare badly.
A waterman at
Kingston informed us that he once found
fourteen of these birds in a backwater,
with their feet frozen in the ice, and so
firmly held that they must have perished
from starvation if he had not rescued
them.
He took them all home and fed
them for some days, for which, in due
course, he was properly rewarded.
During severe winters, Wild Swans, or
Whoopers, occasionally visit the Thames,
but seldom make any stay, for their conspicuous size and colour at once attract
attention, and all the guns within reach
are directed towards them.
A wild swan
may always be known from a tame one
when within shot by the colour of its bill.
In the domesticated bird, the base of
the bill is black, with a large horny protuberance on the forehead, while the tip
of the bill is yellow; in the wild bird
these colours are reversed.
Wherever a thick bed of osiers, often fringed with the foliage of the purple loosestrife, affords concealment and a convenient nesting-place, we are sure to find a few Moorhens, their white flank feathers contrasting prettily with their dark bodies and green legs, as, scuttling in from mid-stream at our approach, they seek shelter amongst the dense undergrowth.
Dabchicks, or Little Grebes, are occasionally to be met with, but they are so uncommonly wary, and dive so quickly at the approach of an intruder, that we seldom get more than a momentary glimpse of them.
Nor do we often get very near to a
Heron, whose long neck and long legs
enable him to see over the tall rank
herbage in which he stands; and at the
first sign of danger he is off.
Early
morning, or twilight, is the time at which
to find herons by the riverside - that is, on
the Upper Thames.
Lower down, about
Barking or Rainham, these birds may
be met with at all times of the day in the
marshes adjoining the river, as well as in
the creeks and on the mud-flats around
Canvey Island.
There are several heronries in proximity to the Thames, from
which these birds come to fish.
In
Oxfordshire there is a small colony in
Far Wood, Southleigh, the seat of
Colonel Harcourt.
A pair or two used
to breed about Henley, but nowhere in
sufficient numbers to be worthy the
name of a heronry.
In Berkshire there
used to be two colonies in Windsor
Great Park, but we are not sure whether
they are still preserved.
At Coley Park,
near Reading, the seat of Mr.J.B.Monck, a pair of herons, about the year
1834, built their nest on the top of a fine
lime in the park, growing on a small
island close to the Holybrook, and not
far from the Kennet.
This pair having
brought off their young in safety, departed with them the following autumn;
but in January of the succeeding year
they all returned, and during the next
month they actively commenced founding
the colony, which has gone on gradually
increasing to the present time.
Mr.Monck was so well pleased with these
new visitors locating themselves in view
of the house, that he not only ordered
his servants to leave them unmolested,
but also inserted a clause to the same
effect in the lease of a neighbouring
tenant.
So numerous are the nests on
these trees from successive repairs and
additions during each succeeding year,
that many of them touch one another;
and such is the quantity of sticks heaped
together, that many of them are actually
a yard in height.
These nests remain
throughout the winter, and at a distance
look like a gigantic rookery.
Notwithstanding the contiguity of the two branch
railways to Newbury and Basingstoke
from Reading, which run within a short
distance of the heronry, the birds do not
seem to be in the least disturbed by the
change which has taken place in the
former quietude and seclusion of this
once retired spot.
About the year 1845
a few emigrants from the original stock
established themselves in some large
beech-trees in a wood about three miles
distant, and within half a mile of the
Thames.
In Buckinghamshire Sir W.Clayton
can boast of a heronry at Harleyford, and
a few years ago a pair of herons nested
in an oak at Fawley Court, not far from
Henley; but the young were taken, and
they deserted the spot.
In the metropolitan county there were
formerly two heronries - one at Uxbridge,
and another at Osterly Park, the seat of
Lord Jersey.
The last-named, however,
has ceased to exist, and, we believe, also
the former.
In Surrey there are, at least, two
heronries at no great, distance from the
Thames.
In Ashley Park, Walton-on-Thames, the seat of Sir Henry Fletcher,
the nests are built in some of the finest
fir-trees in the kingdom.
Mr.Jesse relates
that a young bird from this heronry,
having fallen out of the nest, was taken
away in the evening by a gentleman, who
carried it to his house at some miles'
distance, and turned it into a walled
garden that night.
The next morning
one of the old birds was seen to feed it,
and continued to do so until the young
one made its escape.
The parent bird
must have gone over a considerable extent
of ground in search of it.
There is a
second heronry in this county at Cobham
Park, the residence of Mr.Harvey
Coombe; and there was formerly another
at Oatlands, near Weybridge.
A large assemblage of herons takes
place at certain times of the year in Richmond Park, where as many as 50 or 60
have been counted at one time.
Sometimes they may be seen on the tops of
trees, and at others on the ground at a
distance from the ponds, appearing perfectly motionless till they are disturbed.
This assemblage is very curious.
There
seems to be no reason why they should
congregate and remain for so long a time
in the listless manner observed.
It is
seldom that one sees more than two or
three herons together in one place, except
at a heronry, and then only when they
are watching for their prey.
In Kent, at Cobham Hall, near Gravesend, the Earl of Darnley has an old
established heronry, which we visited
not long since.
Here about thirty nests
are built, chiefly on ash-trees, and the
birds always depart in the autumn, to
return again the following spring.
In the
same county there are heronries at Penshurst Park, and Chilham Park, near
Canterbury, the residence of Mr.Charles
Hardy.
At the last-named place as many
as eighty nests have been counted in close
proximity.
On the opposite side of the
river, in Essex, there is a colony of these
birds at Wanstead Park, the seat of Lord
Cowley.
Five-and-twenty years ago the
herons here tenanted some trees at a
different spot in the park.
They now
occupy some tall elms and wych-elms upon
an island in the largest sheet of water.
When we last visited the spot we estimated
that there were about thirty pairs nesting
here.
Farther inland, near Chelmsford,
is a heronry belonging to Sir John Tyrell.
Although 13 or 14 miles from the river in
a direct line, it is probable that most of
the herons which are seen about Canvey
Island, at the mouth of the Thames,
come from this heronry, as well as from
Wanstead and from Cobham Hall.
These birds travel great distances to and
from their feeding-grounds.
We have
met with them at times more than 20
miles away from home.
Several instances
have come to our knowledge of herons
having been caught with trimmers set for
pike, and the head-keeper at Hampton
Court Park once found one which was
caught by the beak in a vermin-trap.
Another fisher on the Thames, although a much smaller one, is the Kingfisher, one of the handsomest of British
birds, quite tropical, indeed, in his bright
blue and orange plumage.
These birds
frequent the backwaters of the Thames,
where the water is shallow and still, and
where they can easily see their tiny prey.
Occasionally, however, as we push our
boat noiselessly round a bend of the river,
we may see one sitting on an overhanging
bough or a drooping osier.
But he does
not stay long.
A flash of bright blue,
and away he speeds in a line so straight,
and at a pace so swift, that the eye can
scarcely follow him.
On some parts of the river, during the
summer months, kingfishers are not uncommon, especially after the nesting
season, when the young are on their
wing.
They then keep together in little
family parties; but later on, in autumn,
they migrate, and numbers go down to
the coast, where they maybe seen fishing
in the creeks and tidal harbours, as well
as in the numerous dykes which intersect
the marshes at the mouth of the river.
We once picked up a dead kingfisher,
which on examination we found to have
been choked by a stickleback, a spine of
which was firmly fixed across its gullet.
A similar accident not unfrequently happens to the dabchick or little grebe.
We
have seen many of these birds which had
died in their efforts to swallow a good-sized river bull-head, or "miller's thumb "
( Coitus gobio).
Where the ground is flat and soft by
the margin, Rooks and Peewits love to
feed; and during hard weather, especially,
these birds may sometimes be seen congregating in large numbers in the early
morning, before the traffic on the river
has commenced to disturb them.
Peewits
are much attached to their old haunts.
A large plantation was made in a part of
Richmond Park where these birds had for
many years been in the habit of breeding.
They continued to do so until the young
plants had attained sufficient height and
thickness, to exclude them from the
ground.
They have since continued to
lay their eggs near the same spot.
The
situation is a low-lying moist one, and
probably selected in consequence of the
grass being stronger there, and the young
in consequence more easily concealed.
As soon, however, as the young birds are
able to accompany them, the old birds
take them to higher grounds.
They run
as soon as they are hatched, but cannot
fly till they are nearly full-grown.
Although we have never observed the
Jackdaws come down to the river's brink
to feed with rooks, they may often be
seen with these birds in the meadows
adjoining.
They build in the holes of
pollards and old trees in the parks, and
with very little attempt either at conceal-
ment or security.
At the time of year
when the fallow deer is doffing his winter
coat to assume a new one, the jackdaw
finds it convenient to appropriate the
rejected materials, as the best he can
find, in sufficient quantity for the lining
of his nest, and his proceedings on the
occasion are characterised - in some individuals, at least - by a singular absence
of ceremony.
Not content with the scattered tufts, which with a little industry he
might collect from the trunks of trees,
the fences, or any other object against
which the deer has been rubbing himself,
he actually has the effrontery to tear off
fragments of the worn-out coat from the
person of the owner, the latter meanwhile
calmly watching the process of denudation
as if it really ministered to his comfort.
The same old trees that are tenanted
by jackdaws often give shelter to owls of
two species - the White or Barn Owl, and
the Tawny Owl.
When pulling up the
river during the still twilight of a summer
evening, we have not unfrequently observed a White Owl skimming low, with
noiseless flight, over the mead, now and
then dropping out of sight, and anon
reappearing as if unsuccessful in its
stoop.
At times the first indication we
have had of its proximity has been the
utterance of its unearthly "screech",
which has earned for it, amongst the
superstitious, the title of a bird of ill-omen.
When passing the overhanging
woods on various parts of the river, we
have heard the very different cry of the
Brown Owl.
This is a loud melancholy
"hoot", not always in the same key, and
taken up and answered by other individuals of the same species that happen
to be within call.
The effect is very fine
on a still summer evening, when the
swallows are dipping to roost amongst
the osier-beds, when most other birds are
at rest, and the great bats emerge from
their hiding-places, and dash wildly up
and down in pursuit of the late-flying
gnats.
As the boat drifts gently down
with the stream, a sudden splash, and a
widening circle, reveals the spot where a
moorhen or a dabchick has disappeared.
A low twittering of swallows is heard
from the osiers, as flock after flock settles
down for the night, while the hurried,
startling song of the reed-warbler bursts
forth at intervals from the gloom.
Then
the deep note of the brown owl chimes in
as a bass, and strikes the attentive listener
with a feeling akin to melancholy, but a
feeling, withal, of intense enjoyment.
Cowper has truly said:
There is in souls a sympathy with sounds,
And as the mind is pitched the ear is pleased.
At such times, during the summer evenings, another and a stranger bird may
be seen upon the wing.
This is the
Nightjar, a summer visitor.
At a little
distance, when flying away, it looks not
unlike a hawk or a cuckoo, its long wings
and tail, and slim figure, giving it this
resemblance.
But mark the character of
its flight.
It does not go far in a straight
line, like either of the birds we have
named.
It wheels and drops suddenly
with half-closed wings, recovers itself,
flies on, wheels and drops again; at
every stoop, we may be sure, catching
some incautious moth or beetle.
Its
evolutions are very curious, while its
monotonous jarring note, generally
uttered while the bird is perched, is so
remarkable as not to be forgotten when
once identified.
A "companion-in-arms" is the Spotted
Flycatcher, for he also wages war against
winged insects.
A small gray[sic] bird he is
- the young are spotted - generally to be
seen sitting upon a park fence or paling,
a low bough, or even a post along the
towing-path.
Motionless he sits for some,
seconds on his post of observation, then
suddenly sallying forth into the air, he
makes a raid upon the passing prey, and,
returning to the same resting-place, there
is one gnat less in his immediate neighbourhood.
Not unlike this little bird in size and
general appearance when seen at a little
distance is the Garden Warbler, another
summer visitant.
Its actions, however,
are very different.
It hunts about the
tree-tops for aphides, and may often be
seen upon overhanging boughs by the
riverside.
Its general colour is gray
above, silvery-white beneath.
It has a
sweet song, and a loud one for so small a
throat.
But in the matter of song, by common
consent, no bird can vie with the Nightingale, whose clear, liquid notes and inimitable trills have furnished a theme time
out of mind to poets and naturalists.
Wherever a wood or copse comes down
to the river, as at Nuneham, Whitchurch,
Shiplake, Marlow, Cliveden, and Datchet,
the song of the nightingale may be heard
during the months of April and May, not
only in the evening, but during the greater
part of the day, as the birds sit in some
leafy bower, shaded from the sun's rays.
The male birds arrive first, generally about
the 7th of April, and on the arrival of the
hens they pair and assist in building,
during which time, and during the time
the hens are sitting, they are in full song.
When the young are hatched, the males
leave off singing, and feed them.
Their
song usually ceases before the end of the
first week in June, but we have occasionally
heard a nightingale sing on throughout
June, a circumstance which we accounted
for by supposing that the nest had been
robbed, and that the cock was singing
while the hen hatched a second brood.
We have alluded to the song of the Reed-
Warbler, a very characteristic bird of the
Thames in summer-time.
It may be
distinguished from its congener the
Sedge- Warbler, which visits us at the
same period of the year, and is very
common along the Thames, by its being
a longer and slimmer bird, by the uniform colour of its head and back, and
by its note and different flight.
In
the sedge-warbler the most conspicuous
characters are a white line over the eye,
a darker back, and dark centres to the
wing feathers, with lighter margins.
The
note of the reed-warbler, as distinguished
from that of the sedge-warbler, may be
described as more of a song and less of a
chatter; clearer, less harsh, and more
sustained.
The nests and eggs of the
two species differ considerably.
The
nest of the sedge-warbler is placed on
the ground, formed of dry grass, and
lined with hair.
The eggs are yellowish-
brown.
The nest of the reed-warbler is
supported on reed stems, formed of the
seed branches of the reeds and long grass
coiled horizontally round with a little
wool, including the upright reeds in the
substance.
The eggs are greenish-white,
freckled with dark green and brown.
It
is in the nest of the latter bird that the
Cuckoo often deposits its egg, and
perhaps no bird along the Thames more
frequently acts the part of foster parent
to the young cuckoo, unless, perhaps,
the titlark.
Mr.Jesse states in his interesting "Gleanings" that young cuckoos
used frequently to be found in the titlarks'
nests in Richmond Park, both birds
abounding there.
We have repeatedly seen cuckoos visiting the reed-beds on the Thames, in
search apparently of a "procreant cradle".
About the time that the cuckoo sings
all day, the voice of the Turtle is heard
in the land, and a pleasant soft murmur
it is.
This bird may often be seen crossing the river, generally in pairs, on its
way to and from the woods, where it
builds its shallow flimsy nest, and lays its
two pearl-white eggs.
In the autumn it
frequents the stubbles and turnips in
little parties, and manifests unusual
cleverness in keeping out of gunshot.
During the month of May the meadows
by the riverside resound with the note of
the Landrail, or Corncrake, which is
heard not only all day, but often far into
the night.
The nest, with its prettily
blotched eggs, is not unfrequently cut
out by the mowers in the grass fields.
The Water-Rail is far less obtrusive, and its retired habits and stealthy gait cause it frequently to pass unobserved.
Wherever the bank shelves, and a
margin of soft ooze offers a tempting spot
whereon to rest and feed, we naturally
look for the Common Sandpiper, or
"Summer Snipe", as it is frequently
called.
So closely does the colour of its
back resemble the mud on which it walks,
that when perfectly still it is almost invisible.
Sometimes it will suffer a tolerably near approach, and then with a
shrill "Weet, weet, weet", will be off,
skimming low over the water, with a
jerky, pulsating beat of wing, which distinguishes it from all others of its kind.
Another species of sandpiper visits us
twice a year - namely, at the periods of
migration in spring and autumn.
This
is the Green Sandpiper ( Totanus ochropus).
It generally arrives during the
third or fourth week of April, stays a few
weeks, and then passes on towards the
north-east to breed in Norway, Sweden,
and Lapland.
Towards the middle of
July it appears with its fully-fledged
young, and remains about creeks, ditches,
and quiet, out-of-the-way ponds, until
far into the autumn, occasionally even
being met with here in winter.
It particularly affects the salt marshes at the
mouth of the river, frequenting the dykes
and mud-flats, where at ebb tide it seems
to get plenty of food.
This sandpiper
may be known from the last-named by its
larger size and darker colour, its white
rump, and different flight and note.
In the marshes at the mouth of the river,
and along shore at ebb-tide, may be seen
many other kinds of wading birds, each
of which has its characteristic flight and
actions, and its own peculiar note.
Amongst these may be named the Dunlin, or Ox-bird, sometimes also called
Sand-lark, and, erroneously, Stint - this
last name belonging properly to two of
our least sandpipers ( Tringa minuta and
Tringa Temminckii).
Then there is the
Redshank, whose musical yet melancholy
call may often be heard from the marshes
in spring; the Greenshank, a rarer visitant
in spring and autumn; and the Curlew.
A flock of Knots ( Tringa canutus)
may sometimes be seen in company with
the dunlins on the mud-flats, and occa-
sionally the rarer Curlew Sandpiper
( Tringa subarquath).
But of all the river birds to force themselves upon your notice in summer-time,
there are none like the Swallows, Martins, and Sand-Martins.
At certain
favoured spots they positively swarm,
and filling the air with life and motion,
seem to vie with one another in trying
how near they can approach without
touching you.
The swallows build under
the arches of many of the bridges; the
sand-martins here and there in the banks,
where these are high enough, and the
soil favourable for mining operations.
The latter birds, however, seem more
partial to sand-pits and to the artificial
banks formed by railway-cuttings.
A
sand-martin's nest, taken from a bank of
the Thames, was composed of a layer of
grasses, above which was a second layer
of swan's breast-feathers, so placed as to
curl over the eggs; the appearance forcibly reminding one of the calyx of a tulip,
or a white water-lily.
Although the hole
was damp, the platform of grass and
feathers formed a warm and dry receptacle
for the eggs, which were of a pearly
white, and six in number.
In August and September sand-martins
congregate in vast numbers on many
parts of the Thames.
We have seen
them perching in hundreds on the telegraph wires over the railway bridge at
Taplow.
In the second volume of his beautifully
illustrated work on the birds of Great
Britain, Mr.Gould has given a very
pleasing picture of a flight of sand-martins over the Thames, in referring to
which he says:
"those who have not
seen these vast assemblages, can form but
a faint conception of the sight; it must
be seen, and the myriads of their twittering voices heard, to be understood.
I
have frequently observed masses of these
birds collect high up in the air, and having
performed certain circular flights and
other evolutions, descend with a loud
rushing sound to the willow-beds like a
shower of stones - the willows upon
which they settle being completely covered
and bowed down by the united weight of
these little birds, which sit side by side for
the sake of warmth, and the occupation
of the least possible space.
If the night
be cold, and the morning ushered in by
frost, these little creatures suffer severely,
and hundreds may be found benumbed
by the sudden lowering of the temperature; in this case many of them die,
while others take warning, and with wonderful instinct wing their way southward
to the more congenial climates of Spain
and Africa."
Swifts, although not so numerous as
the last-mentioned birds, breed at several
places along the river, as at Maidenhead,
where Mr.Gould has taken the young
between June 28th and July 12th.
They
are late comers, and leave, as a rule, long
before the swallows and martins do.
The
swift was one of the birds particularly
noticed by Gilbert White during his visits
to London.
In his twenty-first letter to
Daines Barrington, he writes;
"In London, a party of Swifts frequents the tower,
playing and feeding over the river just
below the bridge; others haunt some of
the churches of the Borough next the fields,
but do not venture, like the House-martin,
into the close, crowded part of the town."
During the spring and autumn migration,
several species of Terns, or "Sea Swallows", as they are popularly termed, come
up the river from its mouth, and often
wander a considerable distance inland.
We have identified at various times, and
at different places, the Common Tern,
the Arctic Tern, the Lesser Tern, and the
Black Tern; and in June, 1869, we saw a
very beautiful specimen of the Sooty Tern
{Sterna fuliginosa), which had just been
shot on the Thames at Wallingford.
The
first flock of terns generally arrive during
the first week in May, and consist almost
entirely of old birds.
In August, young
as well as old birds are seen.
At night
we have seen them roosting upon boats
and upon posts projecting above the water
below high-water mark.
The flight of
all the terns is exceedingly graceful, and
there can hardly be a prettier sight, or
one more interesting to the ornithologist,
than a flock of these birds fishing in undisturbed enjoyment.
With the terns, also, come Gulls in
twos and threes, the commonest species
on the Thames above London being the
Black-headed Gull (oftener seen without
than with its dark hood) and the Kittiwake.
Below London may be seen the
Common Gull, the Herring Gull, in
all stages of plumage, and the
Great Black-backed Gull, which used
formerly to breed in the marshes at
the mouth of the Thames; but all these
birds ascend the river for some distance
during hard weather, or after a gale.
The
common gull has been seen and shot at
Hampton, and a great black-backed gull
was killed as high up as Putney during
a frost.
Sir Humphrey Davy says in his
"Salmonia" (p.193):
"I believe that the reason of this migration of sea-gulls
and other sea-birds to the land, is their
security of finding food.
They may be
observed at this time feeding greedily on
the earth-worms and larvae driven out of
the ground by severe floods, and the
fish on which they prey in severe weather
in the sea leave the surface when storms
prevail and go deeper."
Occasionally the rarer Little Gull
(Larus minutus) pays a visit to the
Thames, but the specimens which have
been procured have generally been immature birds.
It is worthy of remark
that the little gull was first noticed as a
British bird by Colonel Montagu, who
described a specimen which had been
shot on the Thames, near Chelsea.
Within the last twenty years, we have
noted the occurrence of eight or nine
individuals of this species in Blackwall
Reach, at Rainham, Grays, and Gravesend, besides two others that were shot
at Kingsbury Reservoir in August, 1871.
In September, 1862, we received an immature example of the still rarer Sabine's
Gull, which was shot on the Thames at
Blackwall.
So far, we have attempted to give some
idea of the characteristic birds which may
be met with on the river, both as residents and summer visitants.
In winter,
the avifauna changes.
It is true that
the residents may then still be met with,
although with some of these even (as for
instance the kingfisher) a partial migration takes place.
The Heron, the Moorhen, the Dabchick, are still there, and,
of course, our old friends the Swans.
But we miss the Swallows and the Reed-Warblers, the Flycatchers and Nightjars.
The Cuckoo is gone, and the song of the
Nightingale, Titlark, Blackcap, and Garden Warbler are all hushed.
The Grey
Wagtail has come to take the place of the
pretty yellow one, whose canary-coloured
breast was so conspicuous as it ran
amongst the cattle by the river in summer-time; and the former more sombre,
though no less elegant little bird may
be seen about the weirs in incessant
motion, with ever undulating tail.
Field-fares and Redwings in flocks pass over
with noisy twitterings, and in hard
weather alight upon the oozy margin of
the river at low water, to seek a sustenance which is elsewhere denied them.
The Hooded Crow, too, arrives as a
winter visitant, and at that season is some-times common in the marshes on both
sides of the river below London.
In
November, 1874, a hooded crow was
observed feeding on the lawn of the Inner
Temple Gardens.
Flocks of Linnets and
Lesser Redpolls may be seen careering
along the banks, and dropping down
amongst the weeds in search of food,
which consists chiefly of seeds and minute
beetles.
In company with them, at times,
are found Bramblings and Mealy Red-polls; the last-named, however (known
to the London birdcatchers as the Stony
Redpoll), is comparatively a rare bird,
and seldom more than four or five are
seen together at the same time.
Wherever
any alders fringe the river bank, the
Siskin in winter may often be found; and
the pretty "Snow-flake", or Snow-bunting,
arriving in flocks, contrives to pick up a
living in the riverside marshes until the
spring, when it disappears.
In company
with the last-named, the rarer Lapland-bunting is occasionally met with, but the
examples obtained from time to time have
almost invariably proved to be immature
birds.
Snipe, Duck, and Teal, although
regular winter visitants, and often to be
seen upon the wing at that season, are
never found in any number along the
Thames, in consequence of its being too
much disturbed by constant traffic.
They
undoubtedly visit the river by night, but,
as a rule, betake themselves during the
day to some quieter retreat, either in the
marshes, or in some preserve often at
considerable distance from the river, where
they can rest undisturbed until twilight.
Woodcocks are comparatively scarce,
that is, in the immediate vicinity of the
river, although a score of places might be
named in the neighbourhood of London,
even in the metropolis itself, where wood-cocks have been killed or caught.
A few
pairs occasionally remain to breed in the
metropolitan county.
Both eggs and
young have been found in the Hampstead
and Highgate Woods.
The last nest we
remember to have heard of was discovered
in a wood at Englefield Green, near
Staines.
Amongst the wild fowl which visit the
Thames in winter, beside Duck and Teal,
may be mentioned the Widgeon, the
Golden-eye, and the Pochard, and
occasionally the Tufted Duck.
Geese are
seen passing over in hard weather, but
seldom alight.
On Christmas Day, 1860,
however, a flock of about fifty White-fronted Geese alighted in a large field at
Friar's Place, Acton, and remained all
day, when some took their departure,
about twenty remaining for two or three
days longer.
On the 28th one was shot,
and the species then identified.
Meyer,
in his "Illustrations of British Birds and
their Eggs", mentions a white-fronted
goose which he shot on the Thames
near London, in February, 1846.
In
January, 1867, a small flock of white-fronted geese visited the Thames at
Surly, and during the last fifteen years
several specimens have been procured
near Eton, Windsor, and Datchet.
The
Grey-leg Goose has been killed on the
river at Cookham, and a Bernicle Goose
was shot some years since at Datchet.
The Red-throated Diver occasionally
appears on the river in winter.
We once
saw one which had been shot between
Richmond and Twickenham, nearly
opposite Eel-pie Island.
Several instances
have been recorded of the occurrence of
the Great Northern Diver on the Thames
in winter, examples having been procured
at King's Weir, near Oxford, at Pangbourne, and at Maidenhead.
An immature bird of this species, which was
found in a garden on Headington Hill,
near Oxford, after a remarkably stormy
night in October, was kept alive at the
Anatomy School for six weeks, and is
now preserved there.
Considering the number of observers
at Oxford, it is not surprising that we
should be made acquainted, not only
with all the commoner birds to be found
in that neighbourhood, but also with
many of the rarer ones.
Nor, for the
same reason, can it be wondered at that
a large proportion of rare species have
from time to time been detected in that
vicinity.
Some years ago a Honey Buzzard was
captured near Oxford in a singular manner.
This bird, which preys on wild bees, wasps,
and their larvae, had forced its head into
a hole in the ground after a wasp's nest,
and getting wedged in was seized by a
countryman before it could extricate itself.
Amongst other birds of prey, Montagu's
Harrier and the Eagle Owl are both
recorded to have been met with in the
neighbourhood.
Amongst the smaller
perching birds, perhaps the Pied Fly-catcher is one of the rarest which has
occurred at Oxford.
A Rose-coloured
Pastor, however, has been preserved,
which was shot near Oxford so far back
as the spring of 1837.
Ravens at one
time used to nest at no great distance
from the city, but we have not heard of
any young birds being found in that
neighbourhood since the year 1834, when
four were taken from one nest.
Amongst
the rarer shore birds may be noted the
Little Stint (Tringa minuta), and Temminck's Stint, both of which have been
observed near Oxford.
A pair of the
latter were shot on Port Meadow some
years back.
The Grey Phalarope does not usually
make its appearance until late in the year,
when it has assumed its winter plumage.
A specimen, however, in partial summer
dress was killed near Oxford, and brought
to one of the local bird-stuffers for preservation.
Amongst the rarer wild-fowl
killed in this locality may be noticed
Bewick's Swan, the Ferruginous Duck,
Smew (three of which, all males, were on
one occasion, in the month of January,
killed at one shot), and the Common and
Velvet Scoters.
The two last-named are
usually seen only in severe winters.
One
Christmas Eve a Scaup Duck was caught
in the basin in the quadrangle of Christ
Church, where it had settled in company
with two others; and some years later, in
the month of November, a Little Auk
was picked up in an exhausted state,
after a storm, in Christ Church Meadow.
The Sandwich Tern, rarely met with so
far inland, has once been shot near
Oxford in the month of August.
The Grebes, as already stated, are
generally met with on the river in winter.
A specimen of the Eared Grebe, however,
procured near Sandford in the month of
June, proved to be in full summer plumage.
At this point of the river a Guillemot was
once shot in October - an out-of-the-way
place for so sea-loving a species.
Fifty
years ago the Kite was not an uncommon
bird in Oxfordshire and Berkshire, and
might be seen almost any day by persons
taking a country walk; indeed, it used to
be observed sailing over the streets of
Oxford.
The last we remember to have
heard of in that direction was shot at
Abingdon in 1855.
A specimen of that very curious bird,
the Hoopoe, was killed at Wallingford
about the 18th June, 1867, a time of year
which indicates that the bird might have
remained to breed in the neighbourhood
if unmolested.
At this same spot, in
June, 1869, was shot one of the rarest of
British sea-birds, - the Sooty Tern (Sterna
fuliginosa).
It was brought to us for
inspection the following morning preparatory to its being skinned and preserved for the owner, Mr.Franklyn of
Wallingford.
In appearance it was intermediate in size between the Common
and Sandwich Terns; the bill, legs, and
toes black; the head, nape, and all the
upper surface of the body, sooty black;
the chin, breast, and under-parts pure
white; the tail long and considerably
forked.
At Pangbourne the Osprey has been
several times observed, and specimens
have been procured at Oxford, Nuneham,
Maidenhead, Cookham, Surly Hall, and
Laleham.
In September, 1866, a Grey
Phalarope was shot by a fisherman between Pangbourne and Whitchurch.
It
was in a plumage intermediate between
that of summer and winter, and was found
on examination to have its mouth full of
small flies and gnats.
Others have been
procured at Maidenhead and Windsor.
In the fine collection of British birds
belonging to Mr.
Frederick Bond, of
Staines, is a specimen of the White-bellied
or Alpine Swift, which was shot many
years ago at Reading, near which place
a short time previously a Glossy Ibis was
procured.
The latter bird was one of a
pair, and was preserved for the late Dr.
Lamb, of Newbury, whose collection was
subsequently passed to Dr.
Tomkins, of
Abingdon.
In this same collection were
two Red-breasted Mergansers, killed on
the river near Reading, together with a
Whimbrel procured close by at Sonning,
where half-a-dozen specimens of that
beautiful bird, the Avocet (Recitrvirostra
avocetta), were killed at one shot while
feeding at a small pond in the neighbour-
hood.
During a severe frost an Eider
Duck once came up the river as far as
Sonning, where it was killed.
The White-tailed Eagle has occurred
at Henley, where also have been procured
at various time, an immature Gyr-falcon,
a Black-winged Stilt, one of the rarest of
marsh birds, and a Fork-tailed Petrel.
At Fawley Court, some years back,
another White-tailed Eagle was taken, as
recorded by Yarrell in his "History of
British Birds"; and an Osprey, seen here
for several days in the autumn of 1858,
was subsequently shot at no great distance.
In January, 1864, a fine Bittern
was shot here, and another at Medmenham.
After a storm at sea many diving
birds, such as Guillemots, Razorbills,
Puffins, and Cormorants, are found cast
ashore dead, or in a dying condition, from
exhaustion and inability to procure food.
Others, driven inland by the gale, wander
sometimes a considerable distance from
the coast in search of a quiet resting-place
and food.
In this way only can we
account for the occasional appearance of
such birds on the river, often at a great
distance from the sea.
Some years ago
(1857) a fine cormorant, shot near Marlow
railway-bridge, was preserved for the
collection of Lord Boston, at Hedsor;
and others have been seen and killed at
different times at Pangbourne and Wraysbury.
In James I.'s time cormorants on the
Thames furnished a not uncommon sight,
but these were tame birds belonging to
the king, who went to considerable expense in procuring them, and having
them trained to fish, as in China.
His
Majesty took great delight in seeing them
at work, as he did also in watching his
otters, which were trained for a similar
purpose.
A "Master of the Cormorant "
was appointed, one John Wood, who, in
April, 1611, was paid £30 for his trouble
in "bringing up and training of certain
fowls called cormorants, and making of
them fit for the use of fishing".
In May
of the following year he was appointed
to travel into some of the furthest parts
of this realm for young cormorants, which
afterwards are to be made fit for His
Majesty's sport and recreation", and for
which he received another £30.
In 1618
the king had become so fascinated with
the sport, that he decided to build a house
and make some ponds for his cormorants,
ospreys, and otters at Westminster; and
for this purpose he leased off Lord
Danvers a piece of meadow ground, about
an acre and a quarter, lying in the Vine
Garden, near Westminster Abbey, at the
yearly rent of £7.
A brick building was
erected on this ground at a cost of £100,
and nine fish-ponds were dug, costing
altogether another £40.
These ponds
were stored with carp, tench, barbel,
roach, and dace (100 of each), and a
sluice of elm planking was made to bring
the water from the Thames.
The total
outlay incurred upon this, the first
Westminster Aquarium, was £286, for
which amount, in August, 1618, the king
gave an order upon the Treasury.
A
copy of this order, with the bill annexed,
will be found in the Appendix to the
Issues of the Exchequer temp. Jac. I.,
preserved in the Pell Office, and commonly called the Pell Records.
We
should be very curious to know what
success attended the efforts of Master
Wood to train the osprey.
We know,
from the relation of eye-witnesses, what
the cormorants could do (and still do in
the hands of a few amateurs to this day),
but we have not been able to find any
proof that ospreys may be trained to take
fish as are falcons to take game and
wild-fowl.
Although we can no longer say with
Goldsmith,
Along the glades a solitary guest
The hollow sounding bittern guards its nest,
We are enabled to include this fine species
amongst the rarer birds of the Thames
Valley, in consequence of its having been
met with occasionally, as at Fawley Court,
Medmenham, Maidenhead, Cookham,
and Windsor.
The Little Bittern, also,
has occurred at Maidenhead, Monkey-Island, and Surly Hall.
In severe winters
that beautiful little black and white duck,
the Smew, has been met with at Maidenhead, Monkey Island, Surly Hall, and
Boveney.
Occasionally this bird is captured in the nets of fishermen in the
Thames.
Two were taken alive in this
way in Bow Creek, but although abundantly supplied with food, refused all
sustenance, and died.
They had attained
the full adult plumage, but one of them
was without the elegant pendent crest.
t Cookham, some very interesting
birds have been met with from time to time,
amongst which may be mentioned, besides
those already noticed, the Great Grey
Shrike, Black Redstart, Cirl Bunting,
Ortolan, Reeve, Great Snipe, Sheldrake,
and Velvet Scoter.
That singular bird, the Night Heron,
has once been found upon the Upper
Thames, an immature example having
been captured many years ago at
Cliveden.
One of the rarest birds obtained in the
neighbourhood of Boveney is the Spur-winged Goose, which was shot during the
winter of 1858-59, by an Eton waterman
named John Haverly, near Boveney Weir,
and fell at Clewer Point.
It was preserved
by an Eton bird-stuffer, and ten years
later was still in the possession of Haverly,
who set great value upon it.
In the winter
of 1861 an Eared Grebe (the rarest of the
British grebes) was shot while swimming
on the Thames, close to Boveney Lock.
Mr.Vidler, of Clewer, has a stuffed
specimen of the Polish Swan, which he
shot on the river by Clewer Mill, during
the winter of 1854-55.
About the same
time and place, a Storm Petrel was
killed after several days' prevalence of high
winds.
Windsor is particularly noticeable in
the annals of Ornithology for the number
of large birds of prey which have been met
with in the neighbourhood, a circumstance
no doubt to be accounted for by the attractions of the great quantity of game
preserved in the royal parks and warrens.
A White-tailed Eagle, shot there in February, 1851, and exhibited in the Great
Exhibition of that year, was afterwards
presented by H.R.H. The late Prince Consort to the collection which was formed,
principally by the late Provost at Eton
College.
Another of these fine birds was
shot in the Great Park in December, 1856,
and two others (immature birds) near the
same spot in the autumn of 1865.
One
of these being only wounded on the wing
was taken alive, and lived for some time
in confinement, under the care of Mr.Cole, at the Sandpit Gate in the Park.
The Osprey, Peregrine, Buzzard, and
Honey Buzzard have all been shot and
trapped at various times in Windsor
Great Park, and a rarer visitor in the
shape of Tengmalm's Owl has twice been
shot by gamekeepers in Windsor Forest.
A Great Grey Shrike was killed close
to the river at Windsor in the winter of
1865-66, and a Hoopoe was seen in the
Great Park.
Two or three of the last named birds have been procured near
Eton.
At White Waltham, not far from Windsor, the rare Purple Heron, a native of
Southern Europe and Africa, was obtained
in September, 1861.
During the summer
of 1860, a pair of Pied Flycatchers nested
at Eton, where, some years later (1865),
two of those tiny little birds, the Fire-crested Wrens, were procured.
One
evening, during a strong gale of wind, a
strange-looking bird was seen fluttering
against a lamp at the corner of Brocas-lane,
Eton, and on being captured proved to
be a Fork-tailed Petrel.
We may notice
Staines Moor as a good place formerly
for Snipe, and occasionally Woodcock.
At Penton Hook, just below, the Great
Crested Grebe has been shot in winter;
the river is now too much disturbed to
admit of its remaining here in summer to
breed as formerly.
The Burgh-way, a tract of rough
meadow land at Laleham belonging to
the Earl of Lucan, in severe weather is
often the resort of Snipe and other migratory marsh birds.
Here, in the autumn
of 1858, two Spotted Crakes were shot.
The Oyster-catcher is not often found
far from the coast, but Yarrell states that
he has known this bird killed as high up
the Thames as Oatlands, near Shepperton,
which is at least fifty miles from the mouth
of the river.
At Sunbury one of the rarest
birds observed is the Little Owl ("the
Birds of Middlesex", p.21).
At this
spot we have observed the Black Tern in
autumn, and have seen two Water-Rails
which were shot there by Mr.J.H.Belfrage, in November, 1870.
Mr.Jesse has recorded the occurrence of that
singular marsh bird, the Ruff, in Bushey
Park ("Gleanings", 2nd series, p.281);
and close by, at Hampton, the Redshank,
the Bittern, and the Common Gull have
at different times been obtained.
At
Thames Ditton, in September, 1863, an
Osprey was shot by the lodge-keeper at
Ditton Park; and lower down, at Kingston, in January, 1869, a female Smew
was shot and brought to us for identification.
Another seen at the same time
was possibly the male.
In Richmond Park some pairs of Stock
Doves build in the holes of old oak-pollards every year.
The keepers always
take the young, which they say are excellent eating.
The Jackdaw, Cuckoo,
and Tawny Owl have been noticed as
haunting in their proper season this fine
domain.
Mr.Jesse, in his entertaining
"Gleanings", has recorded the appearance of the Bittern here.
At Chiswick we may note the occurrence of the Spotted Crake in the autumn
of 1862, and a Red-breasted Merganser,
which was killed on the river in the
winter of 1855.
During the summer of 1879 a pair of
Nightjars nested on Barnes Common.
At Hammersmith, in January, 1854, two
Red-breasted Mergansers were shot, one
of which we saw preserved some time
afterwards.
Another was killed during
severe weather just above Putney Bridge.
the Lesser-spotted Woodpecker has
been found nesting at Fulham.
In May,
1873, a pair built in an old poplar at
Mulgrave House, the residence of Vis-
count Ranelagh.
A Hoopoe, too, was
observed in the grounds of Mr.Sullivan,
at Fulham.
The description of the Ash-coloured
Harrier, given by Graves in the third
volume of his "British Ornithology",
was taken from a pair which were killed
in Battersea fields, about the middle of
May, 1812.
"The person who shot
them", he says, "was not able to find
their nest, though from their manner
there seemed no doubt of its being near
the spot."
The same author states that in his day
the Hen Harrier was not uncommon
about the marshes of Kent and Essex
bordering on London.
He often observed
them skimming over the fields on the side
of the Kent-road, called Rolls Meadows.
In 1821 a pair of Marsh Harriers, he
says, built their nest in an osier ground
near the Grand Surrey Canal, on the
Deptford-road.
It was placed on a
small hillock, just above the water's edge,
and contained five dusky-white eggs, two
of which were splashed with rust-coloured
spots at the larger end.
The hen bird was
shot from the nest, and being but slightly
wounded, lived in confinement for some
months.
In the "Zoological Journal" for
1825, the late Mr.Yarrell recorded the
fact that in November, 1824, a Grey Phalarope was shot while swimming on the
Thames near Battersea, where, some
years later, the same naturalist noticed
the occurrence of an immature specimen
of Richardson's Skua.
Graves mentions
a Golden Oriole, which, at the date of the
publication of his work, "was seen in the
neighbourhood of Little Chelsea for
some weeks, but eluded all attempts at
capture".
Amongst other rare birds seen and
obtained in the neighbourhood of Chelsea
may be mentioned the Little Crake, mentioned by Yarrell; the Eared Grebe,
which was found nesting in a pond on
Chelsea Common ("British Miscellany", p.19); and the Puffin, a specimen of
which was caught by a fisherman in
Chelsea Reach, and kept alive for some
days.
In Edwards's "Gleanings in Natural
History" (vol.I. p.228), mention is made
of a Little Owl (Athene noctua), which
came down the chimney of a house in
Lambeth: and Yarrell had in his collection a Ring Ouzel, which was caught
in a trap in a garden at South Lambeth.
Some years ago we remember seeing
in the shop of Messrs.Buffon and Wilson,
taxidermists, in the Strand, a live Water
Rail, which a boy had caught some days
previously in a half-starved condition on
the bank of the Thames, just opposite
Surrey-street.
This was before the Embankment was built.
In September,
1866 (a year noted for an extraordinary
immigration of Grey Phalaropes), we saw
one of these birds which had been shot
on the Thames near Waterloo Bridge,
and another killed off Blackwall, where
we have already noted the occurrence of
the rare Sabine's Gull.
In the autumn of
1862, an immature specimen of Richardson's Skua was brought to us, which had
been shot in Greenwich Reach.
In Bow
Creek, the Smew and the Fork-tailed
Petrel have been procured; and at Barking, the Great Snipe, and a curious cream-coloured variety of the Common Snipe.
At Rainham we have noted the appearance and capture of the Waxwing, the
Wood Sandpiper, and the Little Gull.
Dartford is celebrated in the annals
of ornithology as the locality where, in
April, 1773, Dr.Latham first discovered
the Dartford Warbler, till then unrecognised as a British bird.
Having communicated his discovery to Pennant, the
bird was described and figured by the
latter naturalist in the fourth edition of
his "British Zoology", in 1776.
Since
that time it has been found on many of
the commons and heaths of the southern
counties in England.
At Greenhithe the Common Skua has
been noted, and at Grays the Little Stint.
The Skua has also been seen off the
Chapman Light, where, in November,
1876, a fine pair of Avocets were shot.
In concluding this sketch of bird life on
the Thames, we cannot refrain from
noticing a beautiful little bird, which,
once characteristic of the river and its
great reed-beds, is now, it is feared,
extinct there.
We refer to the Bearded
Titmouse, of which Mr.Stevenson, in his
"Birds of Norfolk", has given so graphic
an account from observation of its habits
in that county.
When Graves published
the second edition of his "British Ornithology" in 1821, he wrote:
"the Bearded Titmouse is found in considerable abundance in the extensive tracts of reed-land
from Woolwich to Erith in Kent, and is
occasionally seen in the like situation in
various places adjacent to London.
We
have found it on the side of the Surrey
Canal, on Sydenham Common, also on
the roadside leading from Bermondsey to
Deptford, called Blue Anchor-lane, and
have seen it in numbers about Erith."
There can be little doubt that the cuttiug
down of the reed-beds, its favourite
haunts, and the reclamation and cultivation of the marshes, has gradually led to
its decrease, and, as it is feared, its final
extinction; no specimens of this bird
having been observed on the river for
many years past.
Ovens Buoy: A 20-foot conical buoy,
made of iron, and painted black.
It is
situated in Gravesend Reach, three miles
below Gravesend, at the edge of the Oven
Spit on the Essex (left) bank, and marks
a depth of water, at low-water spring tide,
of 9 feet.
It is moored with 15 fathoms
of chain.
This buoy has only been retransferred to the Trinity House recently,
having, in 1865, been transferred to the
Thames Conservancy.
Oxford City: From London in 111½ miles.
By rail from Paddington, 63 miles,
Population, 32,000.
Mr.John Richard
Green, in his "Stray Studies from England
and Italy", is hard upon the city of Oxford:
"To most Oxford men - indeed, to the
common visitor of Oxford - the town
seems a mere offshoot of the University;
its appearance is altogether modern ...
In all outer seeming, Oxford appears a
mere assemblage of indifferent streets
that have grown out of the needs of the
University, and the impression is heightened by its commercial unimportance ...
as a municipality it seems to exist
only by grace or usurpation of prior
University privileges ...
The peace of
the town is still but partially in the hands
of its magistrates, and the riotous student
is amenable only to University jurisdiction."
Mr.Green goes on to show, that
so far from the above being the fact,
Oxford had been a prosperous city hundreds of years before the foundation of
the University, and opines that its connection with the University
"has probably been its commercial ruin ...
The University found Oxford a busy, prosperous borough, and reduced it to a
cluster of lodging-houses."
It is certainly not given to the casual visitor to see anything of the commercial ruin of which
Mr.Green speaks.
The town has a
thriving and money-making air; even out
of term the streets, especially about Cornmarket-street and Carfax, are thronged,
and although the business done maybe
of a retail sort, there is no doubt plenty
of it.
Its modern appearance, however,
cannot be denied; and although its history is surpassed in importance and
romantic associations by that of few cities
in the empire, it is for its University surroundings that it presents the most attractive features for the tourist and sightseer.
Only a few ruins of the castle, which was
built by Robert D'Oilly after the Conquest,
and of the massive city walls remain.
Oxford City is only old in its annals.
Oxford is governed by a high steward,
mayor, recorder - W.H.Cooke, Esq. Q.C: sheriff, ten aldermen, and thirty
councillors.
It is a Parliamentary borough,
constituency, 6,134, and has returned
members to Parliament since the time of
Edward I., but is at present unrepresented.
It is the capital of the episcopal
see of Oxford; the original abbey at
Osney, which was at one time the cathedral, has long been destroyed, and the
present cathedral is Christ Church.
Oxford is an infantry brigade depot, is the
headquarters of the Oxfordshire Militia
and of the 1st (University) and 2nd
Administrative Battalions Oxfordshire
Rifle Volunteers.
The University boat-races attract many
visitors, especially in the spring, and the
great event of the year, which should be
attended by all who wish to see Oxford
from its best and brightest - but it must
be owned most expensive - side, is the
Encoenia or Commemoration of Founders
Com mem. as it is generally abbreviated.
The festivities of this function are spread
over almost a week, and include public
orations and recitations of prize exercises
in the Sheldonian, which is annually
filled by a crowd of ladies who, one
would think, must find the proceedings
dull; balls, garden parties, processions
of boats, picnics to Nuneham, excursions
to Blenheim, Godstow, and Woodstock,
flower-shows, interspersed with little dinners and breakfasts, the engineering of
which your Oxford Don well understands.
As the capital of an important agricultural district, Oxford is naturally selected
as the headquarters of many county
institutions.
Among them are the Oxfordshire Agricultural Society, established in
1811 to encourage the rearing and breeding of live stock, &c., and for organising
shows in various parts of the county; the
Oxfordshire Horticultural Society, established i830,a flourishing institution whose
objects are indicated by its name; the Charity Organisation Association, established
1844; and to take another point of view,
the Labourers' Union, an offshoot of
that which had its origin at Leamington.
The charities are numerous, the most
interesting and ancient being Cutler
Boulter's Charity; Stone's Hospital,
founded 1700 by the Rev.W.Stone,
Principal of New Inn Hall; and Richard
Wooten's Charity for 14 pensioners.
The Radcliffe Infirmary, founded by that
Dr.Radcliffe whose name occurs so often
in the annals of the University, opened
in 1770, has a weekly average of 112 beds
occupied, and treats, besides, a large
number of out-patients.
A Provident
Dispensary has been established within
the last two or three years with satisfactory results.
The Boys' and Girls'
Blue Coat Schools date respectively from
1710 and 1756, and educate about 110
children.
Naturally Oxford is the home
of numerous educational establishments,
of which the Diocesan Training College
for schoolmistresses deserves notice.
Very important and significant are the
Colleges for Ladies, founded under the
auspices of the Association for Promoting
the Higher Education of Women.
Following the example of Girton and Newnham at Cambridge, the Lady Margaret
Hall and Somerville Hall provide for
ladies such educational opportunities as
would qualify them for taking the University degree, if Alma Mater took as
much interest in the girls as she does in
the boys.
At Lady Margaret, or Lady's
Hall, the expense is about £75 per
annum, in addition to about £15 per
annum fees for instruction.
At Somerville Hall, the expenses are rather less.
The
terms correspond generally with those of
the University.
Full particulars in regard
to these novel and useful institutions may
be obtained, as to Lady Margaret Hail,
from Miss Wordsworth, the principal,
the Hon.Mrs.Talbot, Keble College, or
Mrs.A.H.Johnson, 22, Norham Gardens, Oxford; and as to Somerville Hall,
from the secretaries, the Hon.Mrs.Harcourt, Cowley Grange, Oxford, and Mrs.T.H.Ward, 5, Bradmore-road, Oxford,
or the Principal, Miss M.Shaw Lefevre.
The City Public Library of about 9,000
volumes is at present located in inconvenient quarters under the Town Hall.
The Masonic body musters strongly;
and there are two Masonic Halls, one in
Alfred-street, High-street, where three
lodges meet, and the other, that of the
Apollo University Lodge, in Frewen-court, Cornmarket-street.
Two political
clubs, the Conservative and the Reform
(entrance fee, £1 1s, subscription, £1 1s)
keep the fire of party politics alive and
there is also the Clarendon Club with
social and literary objects (entrance-fee,
£2 2s, subscription, £2 2s), admission
being by ballot, excluding black balls
being calculated in proportion to number
of voters.
There is also St.Catherine's
Club, Broad-street, founded in 1874 for
the benefit of the scholares non ascripti
of the University, and conducted by the
undergraduates themselves.
The ordinary
subscription is 15s per term.
A dinner
at a very reasonable price is served every
evening, and co-operative stores, etc.,
are connected with the club.
There is an extensive corn exchange,
county hall, and courts where the assizes
are held, and the county gaol, the city
prison having been lately dismantled.
The Town Hall in St.Aldate-street is a
spacious chamber, and has at the back
of the dais a quaint carving of the city
arms, dating from 1577.
In the council
chamber will be found numerous portraits, the most important being one of
the third Duke of Marlborough by Gainsborough.
Among others are portraits of
Queen Anne; Alderman Nixon, 1638, and
Joan his wife, principally noticeable for
her curious conical hat; Richard Hawkins,
Alderman, 1638; Sir Thomas White,
Alderman of London, "a worthy benefactor who gave unto the Cite of Oxford
and xxiii other cities and townes everie
23rd year one hundred and fiv poundes
for ever".
St.Mary the Virgin, the University
church in the High-street, is, with curious
twisted pillars, elaborately-decorated
facade, and beautiful spire, one of the
most prominent buildings in the city.
It was built under the superintendence
of Adam de Brome, almoner to Eleanor
of Castile, whose tomb is in the north
chantry.
On the south wall, under the
tower, is a brass, apparently to Edmund
Crofton, 1507, and over the door are
some very curious carvings.
The chancel
and nave are separated by an organ-screen
and loft.
The Lenten University Sermon
and Bampton Lectures are delivered
here.
In the south part of the nave is a
brass inscription to William Tillyard,
1587, Peter Pory, 1610, and Elizabeth
their wife, 1621.
The stained glass on
the south side of the nave is exceedingly
good.
By the reading-desk in the chancel,
covered by a mat, is a marble slab let
into the pavement, bearing the following
inscription: "In a vault of brick, at the
upper end of this quire, was buried Amy
Robsart, wife of Lord Robert Dudley,
K.G., on Sunday 22nd September, A.D. 1560."
St.Aldate's is dedicated to a
British Saint, who lived about 450, and
is supposed to have been originally
founded by the Britons.
Speed says it
was founded or restored about 1004.
It
subsequently belonged to the Priory of
St.Frideswide and to the Abbey of
Abingdon.
The present building is of
various dates and styles.
The oldest
remains - an arcade of five small circular-headed arches, apparently of Norman
work - were removed at the enlargement
in 1862 from the chancel to the east end
of the north chancel aisle.
A recess in
the north wall of the chancel, with a flat
pointed arch of later date, probably once
used as an Easter sepulchre, now contains
a good alabaster altar tomb to the memory
of John Noble, Principal of Broadgates
Hall (the original of Pembroke College),
who died 1522.
The north aisle, originally
called St.Saviour's Chapel, was built
in 1455 by Philip Polton, Archdeacon of
Gloucester.
The south aisle was built
early in the reign of Edward III. by Sir
John de Docklington, several times
Mayor of Oxford, and in its original state
must have been a fine specimen of
decorated work.
The old tower and
spire were of about the same date, but
being in a dangerous state were taken
down and rebuilt 1873-74.
During the
incumbency of the present rector more
than £6,000 have been expended under
the superintendence of Mr.J.T.Christopher, of Bloomsbury-square, London, in
the enlargement and restoration of the
church.
A number of brasses are in the
church, but, as is unfortunately the case
in too many of the Oxford churches, the
interior is so dark as to preclude the
possibility of deciphering the inscriptions.
The church possesses a fine old carved
font, supported at the foot by carved
monsters.
Hearne states that it was the
custom for the people of this parish to
eat sugar sops out of the font on Holy
Thursday.
The present sexton has a
lively recollection of hot rolls and butter
in his youth at Pembroke on the same date.
St.Mary Magdalen, between Balliol
and Cornmarket-street, is a very ancient
church, the original edifice dating from
before the Conquest, but has been rebuilt,
repaired, and restored from time to time
down to 1875, when the tower arch was
opened up.
It has a perpendicular
battlemented tower, partly built from
materials taken from Osney Abbey, on the
Cornmarket side of which will be observed
in a niche a small cunningly-wrought
stone effigy of St.Mary.
The north, or
martyr's aisle, was added by Sir Gilbert
Scott in 1841.
Here is the old oak door,
surmounted by carvings of Ridley, Latimer,
and Cranmer, which formerly stood in
the old city gaol, the Bocardo, at the
entrance to the cell in which the martyrs
were confined.
On the wall facing the
old font are one or two old brasses: one
to Jane Fitzherbert, 1574; another with
a kneeling figure to General Smithers,
1580.
Against the west wall of the south
aisle is a slab (1735) to the memory of
Francis Seely, late of the University of
Oxford, Barber and Periwig Maker,
"who, in the relation of a husband, a
father, or a friend, was equalled by few,
excelled by none".
A slab in the vestry
records in peculiar language the virtues
of Mrs.Elizabeth Baylie, "niece to yt
glorious Martyr and Asserter of the
Church of England, Dr.William Laud,
Arch-Bpp. of Cant".
Under the west window by the organ is a finely-carved
old oak-chest, called the Jewel Chest,
formerly used as a receptacle for the old
Catholic communion plate.
St.Michael, in Cornmarket-street, was
restored by Mr.Street in 1855, and has a
coloured marble altar-piece, his gift.
In
the lady-chapel on the north is an
elaborately-painted brass with kneeling
figures of Alderman Randolphus Flexney
and Catarina his wife, who died respectively in 1578 and 1567; close to
which will be found an extraordinary stone
carving of a man and a woman, apparently
having high jinks with a skeleton.
Here
also is a brass, "Joannis Pendarves",
1617, and a stone with an incised portrait,
dated 1603, of Walter Dotyn.
St.Peter's-in-the-East, by St.Edmund Hall, the
back of which runs along the churchyard,
is a very ancient church, dating probably
from the 12th century.
The crypt, sometimes called Grymbald's with its rows of
squat columns, is probably the oldest
part of the building.
A door is here
pointed out, in connection with which is
a Fair Rosamond legend.
The south
door, which is a unique specimen of
Norman work, and the groined roof of
the chancel with its appropriate chain
ornaments, should be noted.
The Petworth marble tomb to the memory of Sir
R. Atkinson, 1574, four times Mayor of
Oxford, is in the choir-room; but as it is
covered with a deal bookcase it is quite
impossible to say more of it.
On the
right of the entrance to the crypt is a
small but fine window.
The Catholic
church of St.Aloysius, St.Giles's-road-west, was opened in 1875, and is a lofty
though rather bare and cold building,
with a fine reredos and altar, the gift of
the Marquis of Bute.
Banks: Gillett and Co., 54, Cornmarket-street;
London and County, 121, High-street;
Oxford University and City, 119, St.Aldate-street;
Parsons, Thomson, and Co.
, High-street.
Fairs: May 3; Monday and Tuesday after St.Giles; Thursday before September 29.
Fire: Volunteer: Engine-house, New Inn Hall-street.
Hotels: "Clarendon", Cornmarket-street; "Mitre", High-street: "Randolph", corner of Beaumont-street;
"Roebuck", Cornmarket-street.
Infirmary: Radcliffe.
Markets: Every second Wednesday (cattle); Saturday (corn).
Places of Worship: Christ Church Cathedral; All Saints, Cowley; St.John; Holy Trinity; St.Ebbe's; Magdalen College Chapel;
New College Chapel; St.Aldate's; St.Barnabas; St.Clement's; St.Cross or Holywell; St.Ebbe's; St.Frideswides;
St.George the Martyr; St.Giles's; St.John the Baptist; St.John the Baptist (Summertown); St.Mary Magdalene;
St.Martin's (Carfax); St.Mary the Virgin; St.Michael's; St.Paul's; St.Peter's-in-the-East; St.Peter-le-Bailey;
St.Philip and St.James; and St.Thomas the Martyr.
The Roman Catholic Church of St.Aloysius, and numerous chapels
belonging to the Baptist, Congregational,
Independent, Methodist, Primitive Methodist, and Wesleyan bodies.
Police: Station, High-street; County Police Station, New-road.
Postal Arrangements: Post
Office (money order, savings bank, telegraph, and insurance), St.Aldate-street.
Mails from London, delivered at 6.30 and 9.30am, and 12.30 and 6.45pm; Sunday, 6.30am.
Mails for London, 8.25 and 11.15am, 3.20, 6.45, and 12pm; Sunday, 12pm
Nearest Bridges: Folly; down, Abingdon 7¾ miles.
Lock: down, Iffley about a mile.
Railway Station: Oxford.
Fares to Paddington or Euston-square,
1st, 11/-, 18/6; 2nd, 8/4, 14/-; 3rd, 5/3½.
Cab Fares, Distance:
Not exceeding a mile and a quarter, one person: 1s
For every additional person: 6d
For each succeeding half-mile: 6d
For every additional person: 6d
For every fifteen minutes' detention: 6d
Persons hiring by distance may return
to the place of hiring, or any portion of
the distance, on payment of one-half the
proper fare.
Time:
One or two persons, one hour; 2s 6d
For every additional person: 6d
For every additional fifteen minutes: 6d
For every additional person: 3d
If a carriage be hired by time, and the
driver cannot return to the nearest cabstand within the hour, half-hour, or such
other time for which he shall receive payment, he shall in such case be entitled to
charge one-half the proper fare for so
much time as may be necessary to enable
him to return to the nearest cab-stand.
Children being Passengers:
Infants carried in the arms or on the lap,
or one child not so carried, but under
seven years of age, and accompanied by
an adult, shall not be charged for as passengers; but every two children under
seven years of age, not so carried, shall
be charged for as one adult passenger.
Night Fares:
An additional half
fare, both by distance and time, shall be
paid for every fare or so much of every
fare as may be performed by any carriage
after twelve o'clock at night and before
six o'clock in the morning.
Luggage:
Luggage allowed not to exceed 112 lbs. in weight;
9d to be paid for every 112 lbs weight carried in excess
of the weight allowed.
Computation of Distance:
the distance travelled shall be computed from
the stand or place where the carriage may
be engaged or hired, and shall extend to
any distance not exceeding five miles
within the district to be computed from
the General Post Office aforesaid.
Distances:
(as given in the "Oxford Chronicle Railway Guide").
From the Great Western Railway
Station (down platform) to the following
places is one mile and a quarter:
To the south end of Magdalen Bridge,
To the Banbury-road, opposite Shrub-lands (north of Bevington-road).
To Plantation-road, Woodstock-road.
To Kingston-road, midway between Tackley-place and Farndon-road.
To Abingdon-road, near Whitehouse-lane.
From Oxford Post Office (St.Aldate-street) to the following places is one mile
and a quarter:
To Iffley-road, midway between Henley-street and Stanley-street.
To Cowley-road, about 20 yards short of
Divinity-walk (Local Board boundary).
To Woodstock-road, at the Small-Pox Hospital, about 230 yards north of
Rackham-lane.
To Abingdon-road, at Cold Harbour.
To Botley-road, 60 yards short of Seven Arches Bridge.
Oxford University: the following
is a brief account of the sights of Oxford
from the University point of view, and
with its assistance, and that of the accompanying map, it is hoped that visitors
will be able to see all there is to be seen
with the least expenditure of time and
labour.
Where chapels, &c, are not
open for public inspection at stated hours,
application should be made at the porter's
lodge of the college.
A small fee is expected, which will generally frank the
visitor to the hall, chapel, and library.
There are plenty of guides always hanging about the streets, especially in the
neighbourhood of the Sheldonian theatre,
whose charge is 1s per hour, but except
to point out the localities of buildings,
they are of little use.
All Souls' College, High-street,
was founded in 1437 by Archbishop
Chichele, its beginning having been as a
chantry where prayers might be said for
the souls of soldiers slain in the French
wars.
Above the entrance are statues of
Henry VI. and the founder, and a group
of figures in relief, variously said to represent the delivery of souls from purgatory,
and the resurrection of the dead.
The
first quadrangle is in much the same condition as it was in the founder's time.
The second quadrangle was built by
Hawksmoor, and is noticeable for its
twin towers, and a rather incongruous
sun-dial, said to be designed by Wren.
The chapel, which faces the visitor on
entering the first quadrangle from the
High-street, is open free daily from 12
to 1 and 2 to 4, except on Good Friday
and All Souls' Day.
It is approached
by a gateway with fine vaulted roof with
fan tracery, and is deservedly one of the
sights of Oxford.
The principal feature
is the reredos, which consists of a number
of statues and statuettes (for the most
part representing personages who fought
at the battle of Agincourt), some 135 in
all, in elaborate canopied niches, and a
group of the Crucifixion.
The principal
figures comprise a number of very dissimilar personages, such as, besides
a large collection of saints, the Duke
of York; John Talbot of Shrewsbury,
planting his flag under the walls of
Rouen; Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester;
Catherine of France; Thomas, Duke of
Clarence; John o' Gaunt; Margaret of
Anjou; Henry V; Cardinal Beaufort;
and Earl Bathurst, the donor of reredos,
and senior fellow of All Souls'.
The
reredos is the work of Mr.E.E.Geflowski.
The floor of the chancel is of great beauty.
In the ante-chapel are the tomb and bust
of Thomas Hoveden, 1614, and a few
brasses, one dated 1490, another 1461.
Eastward of the chapel is the hall, containing several busts, among others one
of Bishop Heber by Chantrey, and one
of the founder by Roubiliac, as well as
several portraits.
Among the curiosities
in the college is a very ancient salt-cellar
of silver-gilt, supported by an armed
figure, presented to the college by the
founder or one of his descendants.
The
north side of the second quadrangle is
occupied by the library, built with money
left by Colonel Codrington in the early
part of the last century.
In it is a
planetarium, a statue of Colonel Codrington, and a fine collection of books,
more especially of a legal character.
Sir
Christopher Wren's original designs for
the building of St.Paul's are also here.
One of the curious old customs, which
are one by one disappearing from the
Oxford of to-day, was annually celebrated
at All Souls'.
It was a tradition that
when the foundations of the college were
being prepared, a very large mallard
flew from one of the drains, and that
this circumstance gave rise to the adoption
of a mallard as the college crest.
On the
gaudy day or annual festival, a song and
chorus in honour of the mallard was
sung by the fellows; a verse of this song,
quoted by Shrimpton's local guide, is not
calculated to inspire one with much idea
of the versification of its author, or with
much regret at the custom of singing it
having fallen into desuetude.
The first
verse runs thus:
Griffin, bustard, turkey, capon,
Let other hungry mortals gape on:
And on the bones their stomach fall hard.
But let All Souls' men have their mallard.
Chorus.
Oh, by the blood of King Edward !
Oh, by the blood of King Edward !
It was a swapping, swapping mallard.
Ashmolean Museum, at the back of
the Sheldonian theatre, and hard by
Exeter College in Broad-street, was
founded by Elias Ashmole in 1679, from
which period the present edifice dates.
The collections here, although not large,
are of their kind good, and consist of
Chinese and Japanese curiosities, flint
implements, ancient pottery, arms,
daggers, Polynesian weapons, Esquimaux
and North American Indian objects, and
a variety of relics interesting no less from
their rarity than for their historical
associations.
Among the most notable
objects may be mentioned - starting from
the right on entering - some Burmese
and Malabar MSS., written on talipot
leaves; a fine old carved powder-flask;
Charles I.'s spurs; a mosaic portrait in
shells of Pope Leo XII.; the sword sent
by Leo X. to Henry VIII. with the title
of Defender of the Faith, with a crystal
handle highly wrought; King Alfred's
jewel, enamelled in gold, and bearing
the inscription in Saxon, "Alfred ordered
me to be made"; Queen Elizabeth's
watch and riding-boots; Charles II.'s
bellows; a glove which belonged to Mary
Queen of Scots; Henry VIII.'s hawking-glove; and Oliver Cromwell's watch.
The "Oxford Collection" comprises
a variety of implements, and of pieces of
pottery discovered in the town during
the process of excavations.
Descending
the staircase to the left there will be
found a number of clubs, arrows, patupatus, and other implements of war from
Tongataboo, Fiji, New Zealand, and
various parts of Polynesia, and on the
basement are the celebrated Arundel
Marbles.
In the museum is a portrait of
Ashmole, in a frame carved by Grinling
Gibbons.
The collection can be seen
daily.
Balliol College is in Broad-street
and Magdalen-street.
The date of the
foundation of Balliol by Sir John Balliol,
of Barnard Castle, Durham, the father
of John Balliol, King of Scotland, is
somewhat obscure.
The year was perhaps
1268.
The college has been practically
entirely rebuilt, a small portion only of
the older buildings now remaining, no
part of the college being older than 1431.
The south front, with the massive tower,
was built about 1870 by Waterhouse,
and ten years earlier the chapel was built
from designs by Butterfield, who here employed the red and white Gothic, which he
afterwards developed more fully at Keble.
The library and hall, which have been enlarged, are of older date than most of the
remainder of the college; on the west of
the Broad-street entrance is a very beautiful oriel window.
In the hall are some
portraits, and the library has a good collection of illuminated MSS.
Opposite
the door of the master's lodging in Broad-street are four small stones set crosswise,
and it is supposed that it was here that
Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer suffered
martyrdom.
It is scarcely necessary to
add that other authorities are quite certain
that the stones do not exactly mark the
actual scene of the auto-da-fé.
Bodleian Library: this famous
library, now one of the most important
in existence, was founded in 1598 by Sir
Thomas Bodley, at one time British
Minister to the Hague and elsewhere, who
died in 1612.
The library existing before
Bodley's time was founded by Humphrey
Duke of Gloucester, son of Henry IV.
But few remains of this existed when the
Bodleian was founded.
The library now
numbers over 400,000 volumes, and as it
can claim a copy of every work printed
in this country, and is constantly increased
by purchase, it is rapidly outgrowing the
space originally assigned to it, and is
overflowing into the neighbouring buildings.
That portion of the library which
is accessible to the public is situated over
the schools, which are between the Radcliffe and the Sheldonian theatre.
The
entrance is in the south-west corner of the
quad.
It is open from 9am, to 5pm
in April, May, June, July, and August;
from 9am, to 4pm in February, March,
September, and October; from 9am, to
3pm in January, November, and December.
The statutes require that intending
readers must bring a recommendation
from a Master of Arts.
The librarians,
however, must necessarily have taken the
M.A. degree, and are always glad to
grant admissions to bona fide students
who can satisfactorily show that they are
so.
If the sight-seeing visitor be not accompanied by a member of the University in academic dress an admission
fee of 3d is charged.
Some of the curiosities of the Bodleian are always exhibited
under glass cases, and are changed from
time to time.
It is not, therefore,
certain that any of those here mentioned
will be on view at any given time.
Among
them are the first book printed in the
English language by Caxton at Bruges
circa 1472; a Block Book, the Apocalypse,
to which the date 1440 is probably erroneously assigned; the declaration made
by the Duke of Monmouth on the
morning of his execution, with his signature and those of six bishops; a MS.
book in the handwriting of Queen Elizabeth, a New Year's gift to her brother
Edward; gloves worn by the Maiden
Queen when she visited the University in
1566; Wycliff's Bible, 1380; Gutenberg's
first Bible; Edward VI.'s exercise-book;
a psalter, with beautiful miniatures,
1340; some fine ivory carvings of the
9th century; and a list of illuminated
missals, MSS., Korans, autographs,.
&c, &c., to enumerate which would be
too long.
The Picture Gallery,
which also serves the purpose of a minor
museum, is approached by the stairs on
the left of the entrance to the library,
and contains books, portraits, medals,
models, seals, casts, ivories, busts, and
curiosities of every kind.
Some of the
most notable of the latter are Sir Thomas
Bodley's chest, with most intricate
arrangement of locks; Queen Elizabeth's
fruit trenchers; a chair made from the
timbers of Sir Francis Drake's ship; the
chair of Fortesque, Chancellor of the
University in the time of Queen Elizabeth; and Guy Fawkes's lantern, as to
the authenticity of which perhaps it is
not unreasonable to express a doubt.
On one of the walls is the following
humorous admonition:
"Touch what you like with your eyes,
but do not see with your fingers."
Botanic Gardens, opposite Magdalen College, formerly the Jews' cemetery,
and, when first opened, called the Physic
Gardens.
Founded by Earl Danby, early
in the 17th century, for the improvement
of the faculty of medicine.
The gardens
are entered by a characteristic gateway,
designed by Inigo Jones, ornamented
with statues of Charles I. and II.
They
are of considerable extent, and are a
pleasant lounge, though perhaps more
generally interesting to the botanist than
to the mere pleasure-seeker.
There is
a remarkably pleasant walk along the
Cherwell.
The buildings on the right of
the entrance contain the herbarium,
lecture-room, &c.
The collection of
dried plants is remarkably complete.
On
the left of the gateway are the Professors'
dwellings, in which there is an excellent
library, particularly rich in books of the
16th and 17th centuries.
The greenhouses are not impressive, but contain a
fine collection of aquatic and succulent
plants.
Entrance is free.
Brasenose College, to the westward of the square in which stands the
Radcliffe Library, was founded by Bishop
Smith, of Lincoln, and Sir Richard
Sutton of Prestbury, 1512.
Over the
entrance gateway are statues of the
Virgin and Child and two saints, and
just above the door is the immense
brazen nose from which the college is
sometimes erroneously supposed to take
its name.
The real derivation is said to
have been a corruption of Brasenhas or
Brewery of King Alfred, but it may fairly
be supposed that there is not much more
reason in this derivation than in the other.
The first quadrangle contains the hall
with a few portraits.
In the middle of it
is a group of sculpture, respecting which
the authorities are at variance; some
asserting that it was intended for Cain
killing Abel, while the other side avers
that the group represents Samson slaying a Philistine.
One thing is very
certain, that the sculpture itself is entirely
devoid of merit.
The passage to the
left leads into the second quad, where is
the chapel, chiefly remarkable for its roof.
There is also a good lectern.
Two
clergymen of curiously different temperaments and literary style were trained at
Brasenose, Bishop Heber and the Rev.R.H.Barham of the "Ingoldsby Legends".
Christ Church, the largest of all the
Oxford colleges, but known as "the
House", was founded by Cardinal Wolsey
in 1525, and was originally intended to
be called Cardinal's College.
On the fall
of Wolsey the college was seized, and
the foundation suspended by King
Henry VIII., who re-established it in
1532.
In 1546 the see of Oxford was
removed from Osney, and the church of
St.Frideswide, in connection with the
college, became the cathedral, and to the
whole was given the name Christ Church.
The principal entrance is in Aldate-street,
under the gateway of the tower in which
hangs the bell known as Great Tom.
The tower was part of Wolsey's design,
but was left unfinished by him, and was
completed by Sir Christopher Wren in
1682.
"Tom" originally came from
Osney Abbey, and has been more than
once re-cast.
He is one of the largest
bells in England, and weighs 17,000 lbs.
Every night at closing time, ten minutes
past nine, Tom tolls 101 times, that
having been the original number of the
students.
The great quadrangle is generally known as Tom Quad, and is of
imposing dimensions, although the effect
is a little bare.
Should the contemplated
cloisters (part of the original design) ever
be built, the effect of the quad will be
greatly enhanced.
In the north-east
corner are the dean's apartments, and in
the south-east a gateway, under a statue
of Wolsey, in the tower leads to a staircase with a beautiful fan roof springing
from a single pillar - a noticeable architectural triumph, even in a city so rich in
such matters as Oxford.
This staircase
leads to the hall, the finest refectory in
Oxford, and perhaps in the world.
It
has a grandly-carved oak roof, with
pendants, &c., and at the upper end two
splendid bay windows, somewhat similar
in character to those at Hampton Court
Palace.
The walls are adorned with a
number of interesting portraits by Holbein, Zucchero, Lely, Lawrence, Janssen,
Hoppner, Van Dyck, Kneller, Hogarth,
Reynolds, Gainsborough, and other
masters.
All the pictures bear labels
with the names of the originals and of
the painters.
The hall was used on the
occasions of several royal visits for
theatrical performances, and in it King
Charles I. held a parliament.
At the
bottom of the hall stairs is the great
kitchen, which is said to be the oldest
part of the building.
Nearly opposite the principal entrance
to Tom Quad is the entrance to the
cathedral, which is also the chapel of the
college.
It was founded on the remains of
the church of the convent of St.Frideswide, a more or less mythical heroine of
the middle of the eighth century.
It was
consecrated in 1180.
The tower contained ten bells from Osney Abbey, which,
in consequence of some doubts as to the
safety of the cathedral spire, now hang
in the tower over the hall.
It is said by
Warton that Dr.Johnson was moved to
very Johnsonian wrath on viewing some
of the Osney remains which had been
moved to Christ Church.
The verger
will be found in the cathedral from 11 to
1 and from 2.30 to 4.<30, except on Sunday,
and at other times at Meadow Gate.
No
fees are permitted.
The cathedral consists of choir, nave, aisles, and transepts,
and is generally Norman in character.
The roof of the choir, with its elaborate
fan tracery and groining, which is particularly noticeable; the oak pulpit; the
carved wood and iron-work in the choir,
and its inlaid pavements; together with
its new bishop's throne of carved walnut
with a medallion portrait of the late
Bishop Wilberforce, are all well worth
careful inspection.
There are a few
brasses in the church, one in the north west dated 1602, one in the south east
with the date 1587.
North of the choir
are two aisles, the first the Lady or Latin
Chapel, and the second the Dean's or
St.Frideswide's Chapel.
The Latin
chapel was built 1346 by Lady Montacute,
the donor to the college of Christ Church
Meadows.
Her tomb is between the two
chapels to the eastward.
On it reposes a
full-length figure of the lady, the costume,
especially the head-dress, being very interesting.
In niches around the tomb
are figures of her children.
Next to Lady
Montacute, and to the westward, is the
tomb of Prior Guymand, said to be of the
middle of the 12th century, with effigy of
the prior under a highly ornamented
canopy.
Farther still to the westward is
the tomb of Sir George Nowers, who died
in 1425.
The figure of Sir George is
clothed in armour.
At the foot of this
tomb is the tablet to the memory of
Burton, the author of the "Anatomy of
Melancholy".
The inscription, written
by himself, says:
Paucis notus, paucioribus ignotus
Hie jacet
Democritus junior
Cui vitam dedit et mortem
Melancholia
Obiit VIII ID JAN A.C MDCXXXIX.
To the extreme east, beyond the tomb
of Lady Montacute, is what is called the
shrine of St.Frideswide.
It dates from
1480, and is a richly ornamented wooden
structure, raised upon a tomb.
It is
supposed to have been in fact the
chamber of the keeper of the shrine,
which was at one time in high repute
with the gift-bearing faithful.
In St.
Frideswide's Chapel will be found some
good carved oakwork, and some old
stained glass windows.
In the south
aisle is a curious mural monument in
memory of Sir W.Brouncker and wife,
1645-1649.
They are represented sitting
with their elbows leaning on a table, on
which stands a skull, the prolonged contemplation of which, no doubt, has produced the dejected appearance for which
the faces of the figures are remarkable.
In the south transept is a window made
up of fragments of old stained glass.
In
the centre of it is a representation of the
murder of A'Becket, the hole which will
be observed in the glass is where the head
of the martyr was punched out by an
unappreciative Cromwellite.
In the north
west is a remarkable window, signed
Abraham Linge, dated 163-, the last
figure undecipherable.
There is a vast
number of slabs and mural tablets,
amongst which may be mentioned those
of Dean Aldrich and Bishop Tanner.
In the north corner of Tom Quad is
a gateway and passage leading to Peckwater Quad, so-called from its having
been built on the site of the inn kept by
certain Peckweather, once Mayor of
Oxford.
It was rebuilt from designs by
Dean Aldrich, except as regards the
library side in 1795.
The library is on
the south side.
The entrance hall contains a fine statue of Dean Cyril Jackson,
by Chantrev, and several busts of Christ
Church worthies and others.
The lower
storey is used as a picture gallery, and
contains a collection of unequal merit.
The pictures, all of which are labelled
with subject and name of painter, contain examples of Tintoretto, Holbein,
Titian, Paolo Veronese, Botticelli, Parmegiano, Van Eyck, Velasquez, Carlo
Maratti, Spagnoietto, and others.
There
is a sketch for a fan-mount by Guido, and
a singular picture of a butcher's shop
by A.Caracci, the butcher and his
assistants being caricatures of the artist
and of some members of his family
against whom he had a grudge.
The
visitor, descending the stairs to the
library, is faced by a marble bust of Proserpina, by Hiram Power, and in a niche
on the right is a full-length statue of
John Locke, by Rysbrach.
From the
window on the landing is a splendid view
of the cathedral.
The library is a fine
room, with curious plaster decorations on
the walls and ceiling; the woodwork is of
Norwegian oak.
The library contains
many treasures, including a letter from
Charles II., signed Sunderland, expelling
John Locke from his studentship at
Christ Church for misdemeanour; and
an illuminated lectionary for the use of
Wolsey, said to be the last in this style
executed in England.
On the right,
leaving the library, is Canterbury Quad, in
which noble undergraduates are usually
quartered, and where a large gateway in
the classic style leads to Oriel, Corpus,
and Merton.
The new buildings of Christ
Church are in the south, facing the
meadows and the river.
Clarendon Building, at the back of
the schools, was originally built for the
printing-office of the University in 1713,
from the profits of the sale of Lord
Clarendon's "History of the Rebellion".
It is at present used for various offices by
the governing body of the University.
The present printing-office stands to the
northward of Worcester College.
Corpus Christi College is at the
back of Christ Church, at the corner of
King-street.
It was founded in 1516 by
Richard Fox, Bishop of Winchester.
the quadrangle, which is approached
through a gateway with good vaulted
roof, contains a curious cylindrical sun-
dial with perpetual calendar, bearing on
the summit the arms of the University, of
Henry VII., as well as of the founder,
and his friend, Bishop Oldham.
The
pelican over the college gateway, and its
companion owl, also commemorate the
founder and his friend.
A description of
the sun-dial is in the library, which contains also Fox's set of the Aldine Classics,
and many other ancient books and MSS.
Here also is the University chest or cista,
an iron chest only accessible by several
keys, kept by the Vice-Chancellor, the
Dean of Christ Church, the President of
Corpus, and other heads of houses.
The
founder is commemorated by some fine
plate and a crozier preserved in the
college.
The hall is a fine room adorned
with portraits, and in the chapel is an
altar-piece by Rubens.
Divinity School, in the same quadrangle as the entrance to the Bodleian, is
particularly noticeable for the extreme
beauty of its stone roof, with elaborate
groining, tracery, and pendants.
The
arms of Duke Humphrey of Gloucester
are in the centre of the roof, and those of
other benefactors are interspersed with
scriptural monograms.
The ancient disputation pulpits are still preserved, and
stand in either side of the school.
The
Divinity School has historical interest.
It was here in 1555 that Bishops Ridley
and Latimer were tried a fortnight before
their martyrdom; and when Parliament
sat at Oxford in 1625 to avoid the Plague,
the Divinity School was assigned to the
use of the House of Commons.
It afterwards fell upon evil days, and was for
some time used as a storehouse for corn,
but even this was not so bad as the fate
that had befallen it at the time of Edward VI., when it was used as a pig-market.
In the Convocation House,
which leads from the school, is a good
roof, and pictures of Lords Eldon and
Stowell, by Owen.
The oak panelling in
the building is attributed to Wren.
Exeter College, Turl-street, founded
in 1314 by Walter de Stapleton, Bishop
of Exeter and Lord High Treasurer, is
entered by a fine tower gateway with
heavy bosses, and has been almost entirely
rebuilt at one period or another.
The first
quadrangle contains both the hall and the
chapel.
The hall possesses a fine open
timber roof, and portraits of the founder,
Charles I., Archbishops Seckerand Selden,
and one of Dr.Prideaux, who from a
scullion in the college rose to be rector of
it, Bishop of Worcester, and - greater
dignity of all, perhaps, in University
esteem - Regius Professor of Divinity.
The elaborate oak screen appears to have
been painted and varnished, and spoiled,
by some spick-and-span paint-loving Goth.
The chapel, rebuilt about twenty years
ago from designs by Sir Gilbert Scott,
has an apse, with fine Salviati mosaics,
and some good modern stained glass win-
dows.
On the floor of the nave are three
brasses, dated 1624, 1627, and 1636, to the
memory of three children of the Dr.Prideaux above-mentioned.
The chapel, with
its high pitched roof and small but graceful
spire, is considered to be a masterpiece of
Gothic architecture.
The library fronts
towards the Fellows' Garden, and is a
modern Gothic building also by Scott.
Here will be found Henry VII.'s fine
illuminated Mass-book, and a number of
other rare and interesting works.
At the
bottom of the garden is a large chestnut
tree, overshadowing Brasenose-lane and
Heber's rooms in that college, whence it
is called Heber's tree; and another
curiosity is Dr.Kennicot's fig-tree, concerning which some curious stories may
be gleaned by the inquisitive visitor.
Hertford College, facing the
Bodleian and New College-lane, has only
recently acquired its present name.
The
college was first founded as Hart Hall at
the end of the 13th century.
In 1740,
Hart Hall was transformed into Hertford
College, by Dr.Newton, of Christ Church.
The college did not flourish, and some
few years after the death of Dr.Newton
it was found impossible to induce any
qualified person to become principal.
In
1822 Magdalen Hall was transferred to
the buildings of Hertford College after
the old Magdalen Hall had been destroyed
by fire, and in 1874 tne foundation was
incorporated under the name of Hertford
College.
From the sightseer's point of
view, the college calls for no comment.
Jesus College, Turl-street, opposite
Exeter, was founded in 1571 by Dr.Price,
treasurer of St.David's, though Queen
Elizabeth, who contributed to the expense,
is more generally recognised in that
capacity.
Jesus was originally intended
for Welshmen, a rule that has been departed from, but is commemorated in
some quaint lines in an old pamphlet,
two of which run:
Hugo Preesh built this Collesh for Jesus Creesh,
and the Welsh geesh,
Who love a peesch of toasted cheesh- here it ish.
In the first quadrangle are the chapel,
hall, and library.
The chapel, which was
restored in 1864, is on the right.
Over
the entrance door, carved in stone, is
the motto "Ascendat oratio, descendat
gratia."
Beyond a good east window
the chapel has little to detain the visitor.
In the hall is a fine Jacobean screen and
a good bay window.
On the walls are
some portraits: Charles I. by Vandyck;
Charles II.; Sir Leoline Jenkins, a slab
to whose memory is on the floor of the
chancel in the chapel; Nash, the architect,
by Sir Thomas Lawrence; and Queen
Elizabeth, a bust of whom will be found
over the mantelpiece.
The library contains some curious Welsh MSS., and in
the bursary is an enormous punch-bowl,
holding ten gallons, while the ladle carries
half a pint.
Keble College, nearly opposite the
new University Museum in the parks
and in Keble-road, which runs out of
St.Giles's.
This, the youngest, and in
many respects the most remarkable, of
the Oxford colleges, was erected in
1868-70, in memory of the Rev.John
Keble, the author of "the Christian
Year".
A sum of £50,000 was subscribed
for the site and collegiate buildings, and
the execution of the work was entrusted
to Mr.Butterfield.
The general intention
of the foundation is to provide university
education for young men whose means
do not enable them to prosecute their
studies at the older and more expensive
colleges, and is supposed to be especially
adapted to the requirements of divinity
students, although it is not confined to
them.
At the same time it is stated in a
somewhat deprecatory manner, that "it
is not to be in any invidious sense a poor
man's college, though it will be possible
to live there on a smaller income than
elsewhere".
The present buildings are
only a portion of the scheme intended to
be carried out, and as Keble has already
become very popular, it is probable that
the proposed extensions will not be long
delayed.
The style of architecture
adopted is that decorated Gothic of the
13th century which involves lavish use
of many coloured bricks and stone dressings, which has been by 19th century
Goths playfully but irreverently described
as the striped and mottled or "Zebra"
order.
Opinions vary greatly as to the
general effects attained, but there can
be no doubt that a certain restless and
uneasy feeling is produced upon the
spectator by the want of repose and tone
inseparable from this peculiar style of
colouring.
And if this feeling is produced
by the exterior of the buildings, it is intensified a thousandfold in the interior of the
chapel.
In this magnificent building,
which was erected at the cost of W.Gibbs,
Esq., of Tynesfield, and is crowded with
mosaic and other decorations of the most
elaborate kind, there is actually - it is not
too much to say - no single point to
which the eye can turn for relief or calm.
The design and execution of the mosaics
are both, no doubt, admirable, and under
other circumstances their effect would
probably be very pleasing; but it is impossible in Keble Chapel to get away
from a certain feverish sense of unrest,
and a consciousness that the place is
overloaded with ornament, and decoration and colour.
The mosaics, according
to the explanation on a tablet in the
vestibule, are intended to illustrate "after
the manner of the 'Christian Year'", the
successive dealings of God with His
Church, patriarchal, Jewish, and Christian.
The chapel is open from 10 to
noon, and from 2 to 4 in winter, and from
2 to 5.30 in summer.
It is always closed
between noon and 2 o'clock.
The chapel
attendant is strictly forbidden to receive
gratuities.
The hall is a handsomely
proportioned building, in strict consonance with the rest of the college, and in
the library hangs Holman Hunt's famous
picture, "the Light of the World",
which curiously symbolises many of the
ways of thought and peculiarities of doctrine of the more enthusiastic admirers of
Keble and of Keble College.
Lincoln College, Turl-street, next
to Exeter and opposite to Jesus, founded
in 1427 by Richard Flemyng, Bishop of
Lincoln.
The south quadrangle was
added by Bishop Rotherham in 1479.
The entrance from Turl-street is by a
tower gateway with groined roof, and to
the east of the first quadrangle is the
hall, the exterior of which remains nearly
in its pristine state; the interior was
remodelled in 1701.
It is a plain room
with varnished screen and panelling, and
contains a few pictures.
The chapel was
built in 1629 by Archbishop Williams.
It is wainscoted with cedar, and the
heavy roof and screen are of the same
wood.
The seats are surmounted by a
number of carved figures which are said to
be the work of Grinling Gibbons: there
is some remarkable stained glass in the
windows, of which that in the east is particularly fine.
The glass was brought from
Italy by Archbishop Williams, and is said
to be at least 500 years old.
It appears
from the date (1631) on the glass itself to
have been placed in the chapel at that
date, In the inner quadrangle is a
luxuriant vine, said to be cultivated in
consequence of the heart of Bishop
Rotherham having been so touched by a
sermon preached by Dr.Tristoppe, the
rector, from the text, "Behold and visit
this vine", that he was moved to build
the second quadrangle.
One of the
principal names associated with Lincoln
is that of John Wesley, who was a fellow
of Lincoln in 1726.
Magdalen College, at the end of
High-street, was founded in 1457 by
William of Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester, on the site of an ancient hospital
of St.John the Baptist, which afforded
rest and refreshment to the pilgrims to
the shrine of St.Frideswide.
The pilgrims' wicket is still recognisable by
persons who possess faith and a lively
imagination.
The foundation-stone of
the new college was laid in 1474.
If any
one thing can be said to be the best in
such a wonderful collection of combined
architectural and natural beauties as is
presented by Oxford, Magdalen College
has certainly the right to the first place.
Its situation is perfect, its buildings are
most beautiful and interesting, and among
all the spires of Oxford there is not one
so graceful as the tower of Magdalen.
The college is entered by a small door
at the right of a gateway, designed by
Pugin as late as 1844, and the condition
to which the stone has been reduced in 35
years is conclusive proof, if proof were
needed, of the unfitness for its purpose of
the material generally selected for the
buildings in the University.
Opposite the
entrance is the west window of the chapel.
,
and in the south-west corner is a stone
pulpit, from which, on St, John the
Baptist's Day, a sermon was preached,
the court being decorated with boughs
and rushes to represent the wilderness.
On the opposite side of the court, in the
gate-house, is the grand oriel window of
what is known as the Founder's Chamber.
On the left of the court are the president's
apartments.
From the small court near
the stone pulpit is a very good view of the
tower.
The principal quadrangle is of the
time of the founder, and is one of the few
cloistered quads in Oxford.
Above the
cloisters are a number of grotesque
figures of sandstone, which were erected
in honour of a visit of James I., and are
in the maddest style of emblematical art.
Some idea of the peculiar notions of the
sculptor may be gleaned from the fact
that the figure of a hippopotamus, carrying his young upon his shoulders, is supposed to be the "emblem of a good tutor
or fellow of a college, who is set to watch
over the youth of a society, and by whose
prudence they are to be led through the
dangers of their first entrance into the
world".
The strange wild fowl, by which
the artist has endeavoured to represent
sins and vices, defy description.
To the
north of the great quadrangle is the new
building erected in 1733, and remarkable
for the ingenuity of the architect in designing a building which should be in all
respects out of keeping with the ancient
and beautiful portions of the college.
There is some compensation in the gardens, and the water-walk along the
Cherwell, just beyond the gardens, is
most beautiful.
The walk to the left is
named after Addison.
The hall is remarkable for its oak wainscot, and contains portraits of many distinguished
men, alumni or benefactors of Magdalen,
among others the founder; Cardinal
Wolsey, who built the tower; Cardinal
Pole; Dean Colet; Prince Rupert; Dr.Sacheverell; Dr.Hammond; and Addison.
The chapel has an entrance in the
first court, and in the archway leading to
the first quadrangle.
It is open daily
from 11 to 12.30.
The ante-chapel contains some brasses, one of W.Grey, 1605;
above this is a tomb with bust of W.Langton, 1626; and on the opposite side
is a similar monument, with the date 1589.
It is, however, owing to the dark colouring of the great west window, difficult to
discern objects in the ante-chapel with
any degree of accuracy.
The chapel
itself is remarkable for its elaborate carved
stalls and sconces.
The altar and the
stone screen of the organ should be observed.
Before the altar is a modern
brass to the memory of Dr.Routh, the
late president, who died in his 100th year.
On the north of the altar is a small oratory,
with groined roof, in which is the tomb
of the founder's father, Richard Patten,
removed from Waynflete.
It is an altar
tomb with recumbent figure, at the head
of which sits the diminutive effigy supposed to be that of the founder himself.
At 5 o'clock on May morning the choristers
of the college ascend the tower and sing
a Latin hymn.
Attached to [Magadalen] college is Magdalen
School, also founded by William of
Waynflete.
Boys, not being choristers
of the college, are admitted between the
ages of nine and fifteen after passing a
preliminary examination.
The total
ordinary fixed payment for day boys is
£21 4s 6d per annum, or £7 1s 6d per
term.
Extra subjects are not obligatory.
There are sixteen choristers of Magdalen
College educated at the school, with
free board, lodging, and instruction in
ordinary subjects.
Their school subscriptions and weekly allowance are fixed
at £3 3s a year.
The charge for boarders,
with the head and other masters, is fixed
at £94 10s per annum, exclusive of
tuition fee, but including weekly allowance and general subscriptions, such as
cricket, boating, &c.
There is a Head
Master's Exhibition of £30 per annum
for three years, tenable at either University
if the holder obtain an open scholarship
or exhibition.
Ten exhibitions of £22 1s a year each are given in the school.
Martyrs' Memorial, St.Giles's,
opposite Balliol College and Beaumont-street, was designed by Sir Gilbert Scott
on the lines of the Eleanor crosses, and
erected at a cost of £5,000.
It is 73
feet in height.
The statues of Bishops
Latimer, Ridley, and Cranmer are by Weekes.
Merton College, King-street, was
founded by Walter de Merton, Lord
Chancellor and Bishop of Rochester,
1264, and was originally established at
Maiden and Merton, in Surrey.
It was
subsequently removed to Oxford as an endowment for scholars "qui non religiosi viverent".
The principal quadrangle is
entered through a gateway, over which
are figures of the founder and Henry III.,
and a singular piece of sculpture representing the founder in full canonicals
presenting a book to the Lamb in the
wilderness.
Apes, unicorns, and other
unusual animals figure in the composition,
in which also is St.John the Baptist.
One
of the entrances to the library quadrangle
is under the treasury, with its high-pitched
fire-proof ashlar roof.
The library will
well repay a visit, and its oak screen,
ancient settles and tables, and tiled floor,
give a good idea of the old-fashioned
homes of learning; and the illusion is all
the more perfect, as specimens of the old
style of attaching books to their shelves
by chains are still exhibited.
The library
is rich in curious books and MSS, including a magnificent copy of Caxton's
Chaucer, with richly illuminated borders.
The principal features of the chapel,
which is the parish church of St.John
the Baptist, are its massive tower and
great east window, with Catherine wheel
and rich tracery.
The gurgoyles and
corbels are remarkably quaint.
The ante-chapel and tower date from the beginning
of the 15th century.
The tower has been
recently restored, and the floor of the
bellringers' chamber has been removed
to an open gallery constructed for them,
so that the whole of the arches and
fine oak roof are fully exposed to view
from below.
In the ante-chapel is the
mural monument of Sir Henry Savile,
a former warden and provost of Eton
(died 1621), which is ornamented with
odd devices emblematic of his fame as a
traveller, and views of Merton and Eton.
On the other side of the organ is the
monument of Sir Thomas Bodley, the
founder of the Bodleian Library, who died
1612; and on the opposite wall is the
monument to Bishop Patteson, by T.Woolner, R.A.
The ante-chapel contains
the remains of ancient brasses, one 1310,
and in the south is a fine piscina.
In the
chapel itself are two superb brasses; one
on the south of the choir of Henry Sever,
warden in 1471, in cope and full canonicals; that in the north bearing the effigies
of John Bloxham, warden, 1387, and John
Whytton, his friend, 1420, side by side
under a Gothic canopy.
The fine brass
lectern is inscribed "Orate pro anima magistri Johannis Martok", and is of the
15th century.
The altar-piece is attributed
to Tintoretto.
The very fine sedilia formed
part of the original building.
The glass
in the great east window is modern, but
there is some very old stained glass in the
side and west windows.
Music School: In the same quadrangle as the Divinity School is the
scene of examination for musical degrees.
Here will be found portraits of Dr.Croft,
Henry Lawes, Lord Crewe, Dr.Child,
Thomas Blegrave, Dr.Boyce, Dr.Burney, Handel, and John Bull.
Round the latter is painted the following legend:
The Bull by force
In field doth Raigne,
But Bull by skill
Good will doth Gayne.
New College, New College-lane,
founded, and for the most part built, by
William of Wykeham, the first stone
having been laid 1380.
The entrance to
the college is not very promising; but the
quadrangle, which is approached through
a gateway surmounted by statues of the
Virgin, the founder, and an angel, is
most striking.
On the left is the chapel,
the restoration of which was completed
in October, 1879.
One of the principal
features is Sir Gilbert Scott's fine roof,
the carved angels being especially remarkable.
The west window is from the
design of Sir Joshua Reynolds.
The
ante-chapel, witn its two beautiful pillars,
is separated from the chapel by the carved
oak organ-loft and splendid organ.
The
stalls and reredos are new.
Among the
objects of interest in the chapel are the
sedilia on the south side, and the founder's
crozier in a niche in the north wall.
The
cloisters and gardens of New are singularly fine, and the ironwork between the
garden and the second quad is well worth
attention.
Oriel College, opposite Corpus and
the Canterbury Quadrangle entrance to
Christ Church, was founded by Adam de
Brome and Edward II. in 1326.
The
origin of the name Oriel is very doubtful.
It is said that the building which originally stood here was a monastery of Le
Oriole, but it does not seem that the
authority for this statement is to be
relied on.
The buildings of Oriel are
not so remarkable as those of many
other colleges, but are very picturesque,
and present an appearance of greater
age than they can in fact lay claim
to.
Entering from Oriel-street, the
chapel and hall are on the opposite
side of the quadrangle.
In the centre
of the block of buildings stand three
statues, of Edward II., Edward III.,
and the Virgin Mary.
The chapel
is plain, and there is little of interest in the hall except its excellent roof
and a few portraits.
The college possesses, among other rare plate, a cup of
Edward II., and one of Bishop Carpenter, 1476.
The common room contains
a picture by Vasari, but is most interesting from its associations connected with
the days of the early activity of such men
as John Henry Newman, Keble, Arnold,
Wilberforce, and Pusey.
The library has
been rebuilt, and is of comparatively
modern date (1788).
Indeed, none of
the buildings are older than 1620.
Pembroke College, founded in 1624
by Thomas Tesdale and named after the
then Chancellor of the University, in St.
Aldate-street, is entered by a very fine
gateway, with a handsome oriel.
It
consists of two quadrangles.
The hall,
which was built in 1848, has a good roof.
The founder's arms decorate the windows,
and on the walls are a few portraits,
including Charles I. and the inevitable
Queen Anne, and one of Dr. Johnson,
who was a servitor of the college, by Sir
Joshua.
Pembroke appears not to despise conviviality, for in the hall is the
strange apparition of a piano, and it is
whispered that the social glee is occasionally here indulged in.
The chapel is a
plain, unpretentious building of no interest, architectural or otherwise.
In the
library is a bust of Johnson by Bacon,
and a few of his college exercises are
here treasured.
The college possesses a
small collection of plate, including some
17th century cups and a handsome
chalice.
Queen's College, High-street, was
founded in 1431 by Robert de Eglesfield,
Chaplain to Queen Philippa.
The present
buildings are comparatively modern, being
the work of Wren and Hawksmoor, and
dating from 1714.
The first quadrangle
is entered under a cupola containing
the statue of Caroline, the consort of
George II.
The buildings are plain,
and of no particular interest.
The
chapel is chiefly remarkable for its
windows and marble pillars.
The
hall, like all Christopher Wren's rooms,
is of fine proportions, and has a lofty
arched roof.
On the walls are portraits
and armorial bearings of the founder
and benefactors to the college, including
several kings and queens.
The procession of the Boar's Head is an annual
custom at Queen's on Christmas Day,
and is carried out with much pomp and
antique ceremony.
There is another
odd custom on New Year's Day, when
the Bursar presents to each guest a
needle and thread with the words: "Take
this and be thrifty".
With that love of
far-fetched derivation, which appears to
be indigenous to Oxford, this custom is
said to be a punning allusion to the
name of the founder.
But the most
abandoned writer of burlesques, the
most case-hardened perpetrator of japes,
would scarcely be bold enough to derive
Eglesfield from aiguille and fil.
In the
library, which is close to the hall, and
was first started in 1691, Queen's College
has an excellent collection of standard
works in almost all departments of
literature.
Among the curiosities of
Queen's are the ancient drinking horn,
presented by Queen Philippa; the cocoa-nut cup of Provost Bost (1503); and the
brasses of Robert de Eglesfield and Dr.Langton (1518).
Radcliffe Library is the circular
building at the back of St.Mary's Church
and in the centre of the square in which
are the schools of Brasenose and All
Souls' Colleges.
The fine building, now
known as the Camera Bodleiana, was
formerly the home of the Radcliffe
Library, and was founded by Dr.Radcliffe, a great benefactor of the University,
who left a sum of £40,000 for the erection
of the building, and certain annuities for
the purchase of books and the payment
of a librarian.
The domed hall is now
used as a supplementary reading-room
of the Bodleian, and is appropriated to
periodicals and books of the last four
years.
It is open from 10am, to 10pm
for those who have the entrée.
St.Edmund Hall, New College-lane, opposite Queen's, consists of one small quadrangle, and is not particularly attractive to sightseers, except for its magnificent wistaria, which covers the outside of the walls, and is the finest in England.
St.John's College, St.Giles's-street,
was grafted in 1555 on to the previous
foundation of Archbishop Chichele, by
Sir Thomas White, Lord Mayor of London, as the outcome, or so it is said,
of a dream, in which he was warned to
build a college for the education of youth
in religion and learning.
The college is
fronted by a row of elms and terrace walk.
The front and a portion of the
first quadrangle are parts of Archbishop
Chichele's original structure, St.Bernard's;
but the hall in the latter is a plain
modernised structure, which it is proposed
to replace by a new building.
It contains an elaborate mantelpiece and a
number of portraits, including that of the
founder; Archbishop Laud, a benefactor
to the college; Archbishop Juxon; Sir
Walter Raleigh; George III., in his
coronation robes; Sir William Paddy,
surgeon to James I.; and many others of
inferior interest.
The chapel, built in
1630, and restored by Blore, in 1843,
contains some monuments of importance.
The founder and Archbishop Laud are
buried beneath the altar.
Under the
east window of the ante-chapel, the roof
of which is worthy of notice, is an altar
tomb, with recumbent figure, to Dr.Baylie, president of the college in the
time of Charles I.There is a monumental urn, said to contain the heart of
Dr.Rawlinson, with the inscription,
"Ubi thesaurus ibi cor", and a monument, with the laconic epitaph "Praevit"
and in the wall, left of the entrance, are
some old brasses, dated 1571, 1577, and
1578; many old mural monuments; and
a stone figure, kneeling, of Richard Latewan, 1603.
Through a fine vaulted
passage, with richly-traced roof, we reach
the inner quadrangle, partly designed by
Inigo Jones, and built at the expense of
Archbishop Laud.
The gate towers are
ornamented with bronze statues by Fanelli
of Charles I. and Henrietta Maria.
The
southern and eastern sides of this court
are taken up by the library, which contains much to occupy the visitor, and
deserves a lengthened inspection.
Here
Laud entertained his royal master, and
a play, written and acted by members of
St.John's, was presented for His Majesty's
entertainment.
In the library will be
found the red skull-cap in which Laud
was executed, his MS. diary, and a
crozier, found, built in the wall, in repairing the President's lodgings, which
is presumed to have belonged to that
prelate.
There is a splendid copy of
Caxton's Chaucer, some fine old Bibles
and Psalters, a fine 13th century MS Bestiarium, and, peculiarly interesting to
ladies, some magnificent 15th century
embroidered vestments, banners, and an
altar-cloth, unique specimens of ancient
needlework.
The eastern wing of the
library, Laud's wing, affords fine views of
the extensive gardens (five acres), which
are perhaps the most beautiful in Oxford.
From the gardens, Laud's wing of the
library presents a most picturesque appearance, with its gables and oriels, King
Charles I.'s window being a prominent
feature.
Sheldonian theatre, between the
schools and Broad-street, was built by
Gilbert Sheldon, Archbishop of Canterbury, and opened in 1669.
The architect
was Sir Christopher Wren.
This handsome hall is used for the Encoenia, or
annual commemoration of founders, when
prize competitions are recited and honorary degrees conferred amidst the freely
expressed comments of the undergraduates
who occupy the upper gallery.
The
ceiling is the work of one Streater, sergeant-painter to Charles I, whose artistic
views and execution are very much on a
par with those of Verrio.
From the top
of the building an excellent view of
Oxford is obtained.
A small fee is expected by the custodian, who will take
visitors to the upper regions.
Trinity College, standing a little
back from Broad-street, next to Balliol,
was originally founded by the Priors of
Durham at the end of the 13th century.
Sir Thomas Pope founded a new college
on the ruins of the old college of Durham
in 1554.
The entrance is under the tower,
which adjoins the chapel.
These buildings were erected by Dr.Bathurst in the
last years of the 17th century, and are in
the classical styles.
The chapel contains
a fine alabaster tomb with recumbent
figures of the founder and his wife.
It is
particularly noteworthy for the extremely
beautiful carved screen and altar-piece in
cedar and lime, unusually fine specimens
of the work of Grinling Gibbons.
The
plain panels are of oak.
The library
contains many rare works, and some
ancient stained glass.
Among the curiosities of Trinity is a large chalice brought
from St.Alban's Abbey.
The library
possesses a few portraits.
The library
and hall are not shown to casual visitors,
an introduction from a Fellow being
necessary.
The gardens are extensive,
and celebrated for a beautiful lime-tree
avenue.
University College, the oldest in
Oxford, on the south side of the High-street, nearly opposite All Souls', was
not founded by King Alfred, as has been
frequently asserted.
The real founder
appears to have been William of Durham,
and the period the early part of the 13th
century.
The first statutes date from
1280.
The present buildings extend
along the street a distance of 260 feet,
with two courts and two towered gateways.
The first stone was laid in 1634.
Over the gateway leading into the west
quad is, on the outside, a statue of
Queen Anne, and on the inside one of
James II.; the statues over the eastern
gateway are those of Queen Mary and
Dr.Radcliffe.
The hall contains an extensive fire-place, designed from a tomb
in Ely Cathedral, in the centre of which
is a medallion marble bust of King Alfred.
The walls are hung with portraits of
Archbishop Potter; Bishop Bancroft;
Dr.Radcliffe; Sir Roger Newdigate;
Lord Eldon; and Lord Stowell, by
Hoppner; Sir Thomas Lawrence, and
others.
The hall has been several times
altered and restored, and was lengthened
in 1860, and has been provided with new
oak doors.
The library dates from about
the same period as the last alteration to
the hall, and was designed by Sir Gilbert
Scott.
It contains two colossal statues,
exhibited in the Exhibition of 1862, of
Lords Eldon and Stowell.
These were
intended for Westminster Abbey, but were
rejected on account of their size.
The
chapel was remodelled in 1862 by Sir
Gilbert Scott, when the roof and east
window were added.
There is some fine
stained glass by Van Linge; A carved
altar-piece by Grinling Gibbons, that
formerly stood in the chapel, is now to be
found in the bursary.
In the ante-chapel,
on the north wall, is a monument by
Flaxman to Nathan Wetherell, formerly
master, who died in 1807.
Here is also
another monument by Flaxman representing Sir W.Jones, once a fellow,
engaged in the study of the Indian Vedas,
which two Brahmins expound to him.
There is also a stained-glass window given
by Dr.Radcliffe.
University Galleries, in Taylor's
Buildings, corner of St.Giles's and Beaumont-street.
The University Galleries
were erected partly from a legacy bequeathed by Dr.Francis Randolph.
They
comprise galleries for ancient and modern
sculpture, including the original models
for the works of Sir Francis Chantrey,
which are on the ground floor; rooms
for collections of drawings by Michael
Angelo and Raffaelle; and a large gallery
for paintings.
The entrance is from Beaumont-street.
The galleries are open daily
from 12 to 4, except at intervals, of which
due notice is given.
Application for permission to copy must be made to the
keeper of the galleries.
The Ruskin
School of Drawing is open during term.
Visitors can see it on Monday and Thursday from 2 to 4, and on Wednesday and
Saturday from 12 to 4, and during class
hours on personal application to Mr.Macdonald.
In the ante-room is a portrait of Lady Betty Paulet, wife of Sir
Thomas Pope, founder of Trinity College,
attributed to Mytens; some sketches by
Professor Ruskin; and a view of Sheerness by J.M.W.Turner.
In the room
to the right are ten drawings by Turner,
executed for the Oxford University
Almanack; a number of sketches presented by Professor Ruskin; and the
Eldon Art Library.
In the gallery which
contains the Raffaelle and Michael Angelo
drawings, which are of the greatest art
value, is a copy, supposed to be by Giulio
Romano, of the School of Athens fresco,
by Raffaelle, in the Vatican.
The picture
gallery contains a number of works of
varying merit.
Among them will be found
some curious specimens of the earlier
masters of the Florentine school; scenes
from the life of Caesar Aretino; an upright landscape with cattle, Gainsborough;
horses with figures hunting, G.Morland;
landscape, R. Wilson; a small landscape,
John Constable; two fine Sir Joshuas,
one a portrait of Mrs.Meyrick, the other
James Paine, architect, and his son;
Hogarth's sketch for the Enraged Musician; the Flute Player, Caraveggio; a
Sea-shore, Willarts; the Village Surgeon,
Teniers; Pilgrimage of Roman Virgins,
Fillipo Lippi.There are also examples of,
or attributed to, Van Dyck, Fra Angelico,
Opie, Snyders, Zoffany, Canaletto, Andrea
del Sarto, and Paolo Veronese.
Among
the pictures attributed to Canaletto are
views of Chelsea, Greenwich, Lambeth,
and the Temple Gardens.
Wadham College, Park-road, opposite the gardens of Trinity College, was
founded in 1613 by Nicholas Wadham,
on the site of a monastery of the Austin
or Augustine Friars.
Wadham did not
live to see the completion of his work,
which was eventually carried out by his
widow Dorothy.
The buildings are
Gothic.
The entrance gate is under a
square tower with a handsome window,
and in the quadrangle on the eastern
side are the chapel and hall.
The hall
has a fine though rather heavy open
timber roof, and a good oak screen of
curious design.
The portraits of Nicholas
and Dorothy Wadham hang with others
on the walls, amongst them being a portrait of Dr.Wright, the first warden.
Tradition has it that it was the foundress's intention to marry Dr.Wright,
and to take up her quarters with him in
the warden's lodge.
Whether or no Dr.Wright was a consenting party to this
arrangement, and obtained the office of
warden under condition that he took the
lady as one of the fixtures, does not very
clearly appear.
After his appointment
he certainly preferred to remain single.
Whether it was a case of breach of
promise, or only of misplaced confidence,
the spretae injuria forniae asserted itself,
and it was made a condition that the
warden should be henceforth a bachelor.
It was not until the beginning of the
present century that this restriction was
abolished, although it is on record that
Oliver Cromwell, who had a way of his
own of dealing with pious founders and
statutes which were not to his liking,
granted a special dispensation to Dr.Wilkins, one of the founders of the
Royal Society, the warden in his time,
whose portrait will be found in the hall.
The chapel is a remarkably fine building,
and is particularly noticeable for its old
stained glass, the work of Bernard van
Ling in the year 1622, as is shown by
the date on the great east window.
The
glass for this and other windows in the
chapel, was made in the precincts of the
college, and the ovens, &c, used in its
manufacture were destroyed but a few
years ago.
In the ante-chapel is the
good marble tomb of Sir John Portman,
with date 1624.
The garden of Wadham,
though not so extensive as the pleasaunces
of many other colleges, is very prettily
designed and laid out, and contains
numerous fine trees, among which the
cedars are prominent.
Worcester College, facing the end
of Beaumont-street, was founded in 1714
by Sir Thomas Cookes, on the site of
Gloucester Hall, a Benedictine establish-
ment dating from 1283.
The principal
attraction to visitors at Worcester will
undoubtedly be the gardens, which are of
considerable size, and contain a fine sheet
of water apparently well stocked with fish,
including, according to local tradition,
pike of that abnormal size only obtained
in waters where fishing is prohibited.
Here during Commemoration is held the
Flower Show.
The hall is a fine room,
and is surrounded by oak panelling with
the armorial bearings and names of
members who subscribed towards its
erection.
The mantelpiece is of an
elaborate character.
The chapel is gorgeously decorated with mediaeval groups
on dead-gold ground, and the roof is
richly ornamented in similar style, the
whole after a design by Mr.Burges.
The
fine tesselated marble pavement contains
portraits of King Alfred, Bede, and many
saints, including St.Oswald, St.Boniface,
St.Gregory, &c.
In the language of an
ecclesiological critic, Worcester Chapel is
one of the richest interiors in the University, and one of the finest examples of
the Renaissance in England.
Pangbourne, Berkshire, on the right
bank.
A station on the Great Western
Railway 41½ miles from Padding ton; fast
trains take about 85 minutes.
The
station is three minutes' walk from the
river at the Swan Hotel; from London
80¾ miles, from Oxford 30¾ miles.
Population, 757. Soil, gravel and chalk.
Pangbourne is a small village not particularly noticeable in itself but charmingly
situated, and one of the most favourite
angling resorts on the river.
The view
from the path below the "Swan" along
the weir is very characteristic, vying even
with the peculiarly Thames-like scenery at
Streatley, and the reaches both above and
below are full of tranquil beauty.
A long
wooden bridge of much the same character
as that which connects Goring and Streatley crosses the river just below
Pangbourne to Whitchurch, and hence
again the pleasant up-river scenery is
seen at its best.
Pangbourne has something of a history of its own, although
there is now little in the way of antiquities as evidence of it.
It is mentioned in
Domesday Book as having been held by
one Miles Crispin, and the manor and
church subsequently came into the possession of the Abbey of Reading.
After
passing through several hands it was
granted by Queen Elizabeth to the cofferer of her household.
Bere Court, the
manor-house of Pangbourne, is mentioned by Leland as "a fair manor place" that had belonged to the abbots
of Reading.
It is now the property of
the Breedon family, many of whose monuments are to be seen in the parish church,
which is dedicated to St.James the Less.
In 1865 the old church was in so sad a
state of dilapidation that it was taken
down, and the present church erected on
its site.
The red brick tower, of date
1718, which contains six first-rate bells,
was left standing.
The present building
is of some architectural pretensions, and
is remarkable for a fine arch, springing
from clustered columns which divides the
nave and chancel, and for an extremely
good oak pulpit carved in arabesques,
and said to be of the time of Elizabeth.
In the south aisle is a mural monument,
date 1658, to three sisters, the daughters
of Sir John Suckling, controller to the
household of Charles I.The finest monument in the church will be found near the
organ, and is that of Sir John Davis, at
one time the occupant of Bere Court,
who was knighted at the taking of Cales,
in Spain, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth,
and who died in 1625.
The monument
is of considerable size, and exhibits the
full-length recumbent figure of the knight
with his two wives beneath an elaborate
canopy surmounted by a skull.
In niches
below are too odd little kneeling figures.
The effigies of Sir John and the two
ladies are in good preservation, but the
rest of the monument, which is of chalk,
is, unfortunately, in a somewhat cracked
and chippy state.
The registers date
from the middle of the 16th century, and
in the tower room hangs a decaying
parchment, apparently a will of one of
the early benefactors of the parish.
In 1685, John Breedon bequeathed
"for the encouragement of the inhabitants of the parish Pangbourne aforesaid,
especially those of a poorer sort of them
to bring up and educate their children in
good learning", half an acre of land and
a building" 100 feet in length and 15
feet in breadth" for a school-house and
habitation for schoolmaster.
A sum of
£40 per annum was also left as an endowment, of which £25 per annum were
to be paid "for the livelihood and support
of a good schoolmaster to live and inhabit in the said house ... which
schoolmaster shall, from time to time be
obliged diligently to teach and instruct
freely and without charge the youth,
male children or boys of the parish of
Pangbourne, especially of the poorer sort
of them, not exceeding 12 in number at
one time".
the remaining £15 per
annum were ordered to be employed towards apprenticing "once in every two or
three years such and so many of the said
youth or boys so taught as aforesaid".
The pools at Pangbourne used to be
famous for their trout, supposed to be
bred in the little river Pang close by; but
this is of the past.
There are shoals of other freshwater fish.
Hotels: "Elephant and Castle" and " George", both in village; "Swan", by the river.
Places of Worship: St.James the Great, and a Congregational Church.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
in village, six minutes from river (money
order, savings bank, telegraph, and
insurance).
Mails from London, 7am, 12 noon, 5.10pm; Sunday, 7am
Mails for London, 9.50am, 3 and 7pm; Sunday, 7pm
Nearest Bridges: Whitchurch; up, Streatley 4 miles; down, Caversham 6¼ miles.
Locks: Whitchurch; up, Goring about 4 miles; down, Mapledurham 2¼ miles.
Ferry: Basildon.
Railway Station: Pangbourne G.W.R. [?]
Fares to Paddington: 1st, 7/4, 13/-;
2nd, 5/6, 9/6; 3rd, 3/5½
| COUNTIES | ||
|---|---|---|
| Berks | Col. Loyd-Lindsay, V.C. C. | 8,601 |
| P. Wroughton, C. | ||
| J. Walter. I | ||
| Bucks | Sir R. B. Harvey, C. | 8,114 |
| Hon. R. Carington, L. | ||
| Hon.T. Fremantle, C. | ||
| Essex, South | T. C. Baring, C. | 11,950 |
| W. T. Makins, C. | ||
| Gloucestershire, East | Rt. Hon. Sir M. Hicks-Beach, C. | 8,579 |
| J. R. Yorke, C. | ||
| Kent, East | A. Douglas, C. | 13,169 |
| E. L. Pemberton, C. | ||
| Kent, Mid | Sir W. Hart Dyke, C. | 8,763 |
| Hon. J. S. G-Hardy, C. | ||
| Kent, West | Sir C. H. Mills, C. | 14,873 |
| Viscount Lewisham, C. | ||
| Middlesex | Rt. Hon. Lord G. Hamilton, C. | 30,707 |
| O. E. Coope, C. | ||
| Oxfordshire | Lieut Col. J. S. North, C. | 7,495 |
| W. C. Cartwright, L. | ||
| Col. E. W. Harcourt, C. | ||
| Surrey, Mid | Sir T. Lawrence, C. | 20,433 |
| Sir J. W. Ellis, Bart., C. | ||
| Surrey, West | Right Hon. G. Cubitt, C. | 7,779 |
| Hon. W. S. F. Brodrick, C. | ||
| Oxford University | Rt. Hon. J. R. Mowbray, C. | 5,033 |
| J. G.Talbot, C. | ||
| Wilts, North | W. H. Long, C. | 7,249 |
| G. T. S. Estcourt, C. | ||
| BOROUGHS | ||
| Abingdon | J. C. Clarke, L. | 890 |
| Chelsea | Sir C. Dilke, L. | 90,951 |
| J. B. Firth, L. | ||
| Cricklade | N. S. Maskelyne, L. | 7,473 |
| Sir Daniel Gooch, C. | ||
| Gravesend | Sir S. H. Waterlow, L. | 3,256 |
| Greenwich | T. W. Boord, C. | 22,161 |
| Baron de Worms, C. | ||
| Lambeth | Ald. Sir J. C. Lawrence, Bt., L. | |
| Ald. W. M'Arthur, L. | ||
| London, City | Ald. Cotton, C. | 20,042 |
| R. N. Fowler, C. | ||
| Rt. Hon. J. G. Hubbard, C. | ||
| Ald. W. Lawrence, L. | ||
| Marlow | Col. O. Williams, C. | 941 |
| Oxford City | (Vacant.) | 6,193 |
| Reading | Rt. Hon. G. J. Shaw Lefevre, L. | 5,107 |
| G. Palmer, L. | ||
| Southwark | Arthur Cohen, Q.C., L. | 23,472 |
| Professor Thorold Rogers, L. | ||
| Tower Hamlets | Professor Bryce, L. | 41,042 |
| C.T. Ritchie, C. | ||
| Wallingford | P. Ralli, L. | 1,226 |
| Westminster | Rt. Hon. W. H. Smith, C. | 21,081 |
| Lord Algernon Percy, C. | ||
| Windsor, New | R. Richardson-Gardner, C. | 2,122 |
The perch, which is par excellence a "breakfast fish", is almost equal
to the pike in boldness and voracity, and
bites at some periods at almost every kind
of bait; indeed, anything moving in the
water will attract its attention if it does
not satisfy its appetite.
It has been known
to seize leaden plummets, naked hooks,
and even the eyes of its fellows, and indeed its own, and is taken with the most
primitive tackle.
Its hogback and formidable array of spines render no other
description necessary.
They spawn in
April, and are in season from May till
March, but they are more than usually
gamesome and on the feed from September till February.
They swim in shoals,
several dozen being often taken from the
same spot.
The morning and evening
are the best times.
The rod should be
rather stiff, the line of almost any kind if
strong enough, the hook about No.5 and the bottom gut full a yard in length;
a float is necessary when still-fishing.
Minnows, live fresh or salt water shrimps,
brandling, and red worms, small gudgeon
or dace, and many other baits have their
attractions in turn, for perch are at times
most capricious in this respect.
On one
day they will refect on worms, the next
take nothing but minnows, and so on.
When you have a bite, avoid striking
violently, as the fish has a tender mouth,
which necessitates your giving it a little
time, but not too much, as it will swallow
the hook and cause trouble and needless
cruelty in extracting it.
It may be well
here to say that all fish intended to be
retained should be killed immediately, as
it not only greatly improves the firmness
and flavour of the flesh, but prevents
giving needless pain.
A few pieces of
worm thrown in occasionally will help to
keep them together.
In fishing for perch with a worm, a No.5 or 6 hook tied on single gut may be
used, and the bait allowed to swim within
an inch or two of the bottom, drawing it
here and there and gently up and down
occasionally.
This action will make the
perch, not sufficiently eager for bait, fancy
that they are about to lose it; and often
the largest of the school will dart at it
even when it is near the top of the water
and take it.
If you bait with a minnow
or small gudgeon, the hook, a No.4,
should be placed through the root of the
back fin, or through the lip, unless the
presence of small jack are suspected, in
which case the former snap plan is better,
as it gives a chance of striking the fish
before the hook has passed down its
mouth sufficiently far to jeopardise the
gut, and, as a sportsman, the life of the
jack being spared it may be returned to
the water.
The paternoster is most resorted to by
professed perch fishers.
It is made by
taking a yard of stout gut, with a perforated bullet or pear-shaped lead at the
bottom end.
On to this line, at about
18 inches apart, are threaded two or three
conical pieces of ivory or perforated shot,
with their sides flattened to permit of a
hog's bristle of three inches long being
looped tightly round them; to the end of
these bristles hooks are whipped.
The
shots are kept in their place by a small
fixed shot on the line below and above
them, but are not so close as to prevent
the perforated ones from rotating round
the line, with the hooks baited with
numerous small gudgeon, stone loach, or
worms.
Some use gut instead of hogs'
bristles, but the latter have a decided
advantage, as no length of time will
soak them and make them bag, and
consequently hang on to the main line.
With this line no float is required, as
the lead is either permitted to be on the
bottom while the line is kept tight between it and the rod, or it is used to
sink and rise amongst weeds and such
places as the perch are known to frequent.
In this way as many perch as you have
hooks may be on the line at the same
time.
But beware of losing a fish, for
the instant one escapes he makes a dash
for other districts, and the whole of his
companions generally rush after him.
If
a float is used with a paternoster, a hook
should be substituted for the lead, and
the line shotted elsewhere.
Very many
large perch are taken by spinning either
the spoon or the dead bait, and the trailing a lob-worm at the bottom, weighted
with a small bullet, in some waters and
seasons is a very killing mode.
The late Mr.Jesse, who was prolific in
expedients, used to practise a novel
method of ground-baiting for perch.
His receipt was: Procure a large glass
bottle, such as may be seen in the windows
of chemists' shops: the clearer the glass
the better.
Fill this bottle with river
water, and put into it a quantity of live
minnows; cover the top with a piece of
gauze or perforated parchment, tie a
strong cord round the neck of the bottle
so prepared, and sink it near a pile in
the river, or in a deep hole near the bank.
This should be done early in the morning or late in the evening, when no one is
about to witness the operation; conceal
the cord, and leave the bottle for two
days; at the end of that time drop a
paternoster baited with live minnows by
the side of the bottle, and the angler may
be sure of excellent sport, as the sight of
the minnows in the bottle will have
attracted numerous perch to the spot.
Thames perch of late years seldom exceed
2 lb in weight, but occasionally one of
3 lb.> or 3½ lb will fall to the rod.
Maidenhead, Cookham, Mapledurham, Walton,
Egham Weir, and indeed all the quiet
portions of mill pools in which old timber
is present, are the certain haunts of perch;
this fish being passionately fond of the
fresh-water shrimp and other insects
which breed in the vegetation growing on
rotting wood.
Petersham, Surrey, on the right bank,
a small village at the foot of Richmond
Hill.
Population, 683. Soil, sand and
gravel.
Here was once Petersham Lodge,
which was some years ago pulled down
and the grounds thrown into Richmond
Park, including the Mount, where, according to some chroniclers, Henry VI II.
stood to see the signal for the execution of
Anne Boleyn.
There must be some mistake as to this matter, for other lovers of
tradition assert that the king awaited the
signal at Ankerwycke; while we have it
on the unimpeachable authority of Mr.Harrison Ainsworth that the king waited
the firing of the signal gun in company
with Heme the Hunter in Windsor
Forest.
At Petersham is Ham House, the property of the Earl of Dysart, a rather
gloomy mansion jealously surrounded by
trees.
It contains many rare and valuable portraits and pictures, and is in
itself curious.
The church is a very small red-brick
building with brick tower, and is said to
date from 1505, though almost the only
portion bearing any signs of age is the
diminutive chancel.
This was originally
a chapel attached to the priory of Merton.
In it were discovered by the late Sir
Gilbert Scott a window of the 13th century and an oak roof, the remains of the
church as remodelled in 1505.
In the
chancel is a fine marble tomb, reaching
from the floor to the ceiling, to the
memory of some members of the Cole
family.
There are three recumbent life-size figures each leaning on its right
elbow.
Mrs.Cole wears a ruff and curious poke head-dress of the period, which
appears to be 1624.
Over George Cole
and his wife Francisca is an arch with
carved cherubs smiling down upon them
and upon the child which reposes underneath them, and which may be either a
boy or a girl, according to fancy.
Opposite to this interesting monument is a
marble mural tablet, with the chronic
skull at the base, and with the usual
accompanying cherubs and a profuse
display of armorial bearings to Sir
Thomas Jenner, who married Anne Poe,
only daughter and heiress of James
Poe, whose father, Leonard Poe, Doctor
of Physicke, was physician to Queen
Elizabeth, King James, and Charles I.
Sir Thomas Jenner was Recorder of
London, and afterwards Baron of the
Exchequer and Justice of "ye Comon Pleas".
He died in 1706-1707.
Facing
the pulpit on the right is a marble tablet
erected by the Hudson's Bay Company
to Captain Vancouver, the North Pacific explorer, who is buried in the
churchyard, which also contains the
tomb of the Duchess of Lauderdale.
The
picturesque almshouses for the reception
of six inmates were built with money left
by a lady who desired her name to remain unknown.
A handsome school for
the children of the village was built in
Richmond Park by the late Earl Russell.
At Petersham is Sudbrook Park, the well-known hydropathic establishment of Dr.Lane.
Inn: "the Dysart Arms", opposite Richmond Park Gate.
Places of Worship: St.Peter's, and a Wesleyan Chapel.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, savings bank, telegraph,
and insurance).
Mails from London: 7 and 9am, 2.30 and 7.25pm
For London: 8.30 and 11.25am, 4.20 and 8.20pm
Nearest Bridges: Richmond; up, Kingston 4½ miles; down, Kew 2¼ miles.
Lock: up, Teddington 3 miles.
Ferries: Petersham and Isleworth.
Nearest Railway Station: Richmond
(which see for Fares).
Petroleum: the carriage of petroleum on the Thames is subject to the
following bye-laws, under the Petroleum
Act, 1871:
1. No ship or vessel laden
either wholly or in part with petroleum,
rock oil, Rangoon oil, Burrnah oil, or oil
made from petroleum, coal, schist, shale,
peat, or other bituminous substance, or
any products of petroleum, or of any
of the above-mentioned oils, which said
oils, or products of oils, when tested in
manner set forth in Schedule I to "the
Petroleum Act, 1871", give off an inflammable vapour at a temperature of less
than 100 degrees of Fahrenheit's thermometer, shall, for any purpose whatever,
be navigated, lie in, or be moored, and no
part of the cargo shall be discharged
from any such ship or vessel in any part
of the River Thames above or westward of Thames Haven; and all such
ships or vessels, whilst laden as aforesaid, shall, when moored or anchored, lie
singly and apart from each other, with a
clear space of not less than 100 feet of
water separating them.
2. The cargoes
of such ships or vessels may be discharged
below Thames Haven into covered barges
constructed of iron, and licensed for the
purpose by the Conservators of the River
Thames, but whilst so employed the
barges shall be towed during daylight
only to their places of destination, and
no fires or lights shall be used on board
them.
The Picnic: the favourite resort of
pleasure-seekers near Ankerwycke House,
just below Magna Charta Island {which
see).
In the grounds of Ankerwycke are
a small portion of the ruins of the old
priory, in the pleasure-grounds of which
Henry VIII. used to meet Anne Boleyn,
and some splendid timber, particularly a
yew near the old ruins, computed by Dr.Lardner in the "Arboretum Britannicum"
to be 2000 years old.
For railway fares
to Wraysbury, the nearest station, see
"Bells of Ouseley".
On the general subject of pleasure
excursions it may be suggested that it is
only courteous to ask permission, even
for a picnic.
A riparian proprietor writes
to us: "I never refuse such permission.
But it is no uncommon thing to have
twelve to twenty parties in a day, who
land without ceremony, intrude into the
most private parts of the grounds, light
fires, destroy trees, and leave the place
littered all over with paper, boxes, straw,
bottles, empty tins, and débris.
People
trespass from the river in a way that they
would never think of doing off the highway."
Pike: Although pike fishing is permitted as early as June, the legitimate
anglers leave their pursuit until October
and quit it at the end of January.
In
June these fish are seldom in good condition, give little sport, and the number
thus deducts very considerably from the
sport which would be had later in the
season when their flesh is firm and they
are full of dash and pluck.
The best bait
for pike is a large gudgeon, either alive or
dead, but it will at times take almost anything; perch with the back fin removed,
roach, dace, frogs, birds, eels, &c.
If
you fish for pike with a live-bait, snap
tackle, or spinning, it should always be
with the hooks attached to gimp, in consequence of the several rows of sharp
teeth with which the pike is armed, and
which enable it to bite gut in two.
The
whipping of the hooks should likewise be
bound round with fine wire, as the teeth
of the fish are likely to fray the silk
whipping and thus many a good fish is
lost.
Live-baiting, if from the bank, requires
the addition of a kettle of gudgeon, with a
few roach and dace, a heavier rod and line
than those used for spinning, and a good-sized float with a hole down the middle,
through which the running line is passed
and fastened with a wooden peg.
A swivel
on the line will permit the bait to swim
here and there without incessantly twisting the float.
The bait may be either
attached by the lip with a No.3, 4, or 5
hook; in which case, after the bait has
been seized, the pike must be allowed to
run as far as he will and have time to
gorge the bait, so that the hook may find
some better attachment than its bony
jaws, and every care must be taken not
to check him, for which purpose the line
should be paid out freely; or the hook
may be inserted in the back fin of the
bait, and you may then strike at once, as
the pike invariably takes the bait cross-
wise in its mouth before turning its head
downwards to gorge it.
The lip method
has its advantages when the pike are
ravenous, as the bait lives longer; but
the snap plan must be resorted to when
the fish are fastidious, and only take,
play with, and drop the bait.
There are
many descriptions of snap and live-bait
hooks which may be seen at any tackle
makers.
One, however, of the most
simple kind, which is used partly by
spinning and partly by trolling, is merely
composed of a triangle hook, the gimp
being passed through the vent of a dead fish
and out of the mouth; one of the three
hooks being inserted near the tail to give
it a slight turning motion when the bait
is sunk and drawn up again.
This
method is very deadly, and the prey
seldom escapes after laying hold of
the bait.
The old and still common
style of trolling for pike is what is
termed the dead gorge, and most effective when the water is encumbered by
weeds.
The gorge is a double hook on
twisted brass wire, loaded above the
shanks with lead.
The hooks are set
with their barbs at right angles, more or
less rank, according to the size of the
pike you are in pursuit of.
This is affixed
to a foot of gimp, with a loop at the
extreme end.
This loop is taken up by
your baiting needle, the point inserted in
the mouth of the bait, and brought out
at the extreme end of the fish, exactly in
the centre of the fork of the tail, and
drawn up until the hooks are on either
side of the fish's mouth; a piece of silk
should be then tied round the tail to
keep the wire firm and in its place.
Some
anglers supplement a length of gimp
with swivels between the line and the
gorge hook, but this is not needed.
The
rod for trolling may be the same as for
live-baiting.
Much time may be saved
by previously preparing both spinning
and gorge baits, and keeping them in a
tin box with bran; but if the bait is
gudgeon they cannot be used too fresh,
their flesh being somewhat tender, and
they are liable to burst, in which condition
no pike will touch them unless extremely
ravenous.
Pilot Station, Gravesend: The
pilot-station at Gravesend is the chief
rendezvous of all the various classes of
men licensed to conduct ships into and
out of the River Thames.
This station
represents the point of division between
the functions of river and sea pilotage.
The outward-bounder, after being brought
from the docks under the care of a river-licensed man, lands him, and comes
under the charge of a man whose license
qualifies him to take her to sea.
The
inward-bound reverse the process.
The pilotage of the River Thames is
now wholly under the management of the
Trinity House of London.
Until 1853
their authority as respects vessels hailing
to or from the southward was divided
with the fellowship of the Cinque Ports,
but now the two bodies are consolidated.
The Trinity House licenses pilots from
Gravesend outwards to the northward,
who give up charge at Orfordness, or
southward as far as Dungeness, and vice
versa, besides certifying special qualifications for particular coasts, British or
foreign, towards which a Thames pilot
may have occasion to go.
To obtain a sea-license a candidate
must not be more than thirty-five years of
age, and must have served at sea three
years as mate or master in a square rigged ship.
Applicants thus far approved
are put upon the register, and as vacancies
occur come forward for examination as to
their knowledge of the coast and channels,
the depths of water, tides, dangers, sea-marks, &c.
The Elder Brethren of the
Trinity House are the examiners, the
nature of whose duties in buoyage and
beaconage, and marine surveying, affords
exactly the kind of experience required
for such a task.
The examination passed,
the license under seal of that corporation
is granted, and the newly-made pilot,
having first paid his fee of admission,
goes to Gravesend and takes his turn as
a Channel or sea pilot.
A license for the river is obtained in a
manner somewhat similar, except that
there are several classes of qualifications,
each securing a particular kind of license.
The highest class enables the holder to
insist on the acceptance of his services, to
the exclusion of one of an inferior grade,
in any vessel not exempted from compulsory pilotage.
Another class has
authority to conduct passenger steamships passing inward or outward on
coasting or on short foreign voyages;
while a third class is employed solely in
ships which, though not compelled by
law to employ a pilot, prefer to do so.
The remuneration of the pilots,
whether above or below Gravesend, is
dependent upon the distance piloted, and
the draft of water in feet of the vessel,
subject to a deduction when steam has
been employed.
The sea-pilots may not
take less than the legal rate, but some of
the river-pilots may make their own
bargain.
They work in rotation according to turn, but if a pilot is chosen by
any shipowner for a particular ship, his
name is taken off the turn list until he has
fulfilled his selective engagement, when
he comes on turn again at the bottom of
the roll.
There are two waiting-rooms on
the Terrace Pier, and two steam-launches
in attendance, the one on the sea, the
other on the river division, the expenses
of which are defrayed by a fund to which
the men subscribe.
Those who go seaward have to be landed from their ships
by local boatmen.
The whole number of pilots holding
licenses for the River Thames is about
500, of whom 200 are exclusively for
service above Gravesend.
The Piscatorial Society, established 1836, the largest and most influential society of the kind in London.
Headquarters, Ashley's Hotel, Henrietta-street, Covent Garden, London, W.C.
"The objects of this society being to
meet their friends and associates in social
conversation and harmony (religion and
politics being totally excluded), and to
encourage fair angling."
Part of the
funds are appropriated in giving prizes,
and in forming a museum and a collection
of works on angling.
"The election shall
depend on the decision of the society by
ballot, one black ball in four to exclude."
The name of the candidate must first be
submitted to the committee for approval.
Entrance fee, 10s 6d; subscription,
£1 1s.
A sum of money is voted annually,
to be divided into prizes by the committee, as they may think advisable.
Ten competitions for various fish also
take place at various intervals during the
year for the greatest weight, subject to
the rules for size of fish.
It is the secretary's duty fairly to insert the names
and weights of all fish taken, with full
particulars, in a book kept for that purpose, and every Monday evening to read
the weight of fish caught by each member,
and to lay the book of the same on the
table.
Any member refusing to give the
locale where the fish were taken, and the
name and address of the fisherman, if
required by the committee, shall not be
allowed to take any prize for the same.
Members are only permitted to weigh fish
caught by themselves with rod and line.
Only two rods are allowed.
The attendant
is not to angle for, strike, or play the
fish, but merely land the same.
The
museum contains many specimens of
large and rare fish.
The Society's exhibit
of specimens at the Norwich Fisheries
Exhibition gained the 1st prize of £15
and silver medal.
The library is well
stocked with books, both ancient and
modern, and the members have the
privilege of borrowing a volume any
Monday evening and retaining the same
a week.
The total value of prizes offered in
1881 was as follows: Given by the club,
£14; private prizes, £82 18s 6d.
Perhaps the finest poetical mention of the Thames is in Spenser's " Prothalamion", in which the poet records how he
Walked forth to ease my payne
Along the shoare of silver streaming Temmes;
Whose rutty Bancke the which his River nemmes
Was paynted all with variable flowers;
And all the meades adorned with daintie gemmes
Fit to deck maydens' bowres
And crown their paramours
Against the Bridall day which is not long:
Sweete Temmes! runne softly, till I end my song !
But let us begin at the beginning.
The
poetical memories of the Thames commence with the Tower.
All the tragic
pathos of mediaeval English history is
concentrated within the precincts of this
gloomy pile: alike a palace, a prison,
and a place of martyrdom, where the
gay, the brave, the noble, and the innocent, as well as the guilty, have paid the
penalty of pre-eminence, in a time when
pre-eminence was always dangerous and
too often fatal.
In close contiguity are three spots
of classic ground, hallowed by associa-
tion with the lives and labours of three
great poets, one of them the greatest
that the world ever saw.
The first is the
Custom House, the second the church
of St.Saviour's, South wark, and the third
Bankside.
The Custom House may seem in our
day a very prosaic place.
But this locality, unromantic, dull, tame, and eminently statistical as it may appear to the
unliterary mind, is sacred to literature
and to the name of Geoffrey Chaucer,
the father of English poetry, the author
of the "Canterbury Tales" and the
"Romaunt of the Rose", who was the
first that ever filled the office of Controller of Customs in England.
Let it
not be supposed, however, that Chaucer
received the lucrative post of controller
because he was a great poet.
In those
days as in ours great poets did not receive
honours or rewards from the State on
account of their poetic genius, and it is
highly probable - inasmuch as his works
were unprinted - that his contemporaries
knew nothing about them, not even the
king who showed him favour.
Chaucer
was not a struggling man of genius, for
if he had been he might have struggled
and died, unlamented and unknown, but
he had the good fortune to be royally
connected.
He married the sister of the
wife of John of Gaunt, the 'f time-
honoured Lancaster " of Shakespeare,
and mounted into office from the van-
tage-ground of his family relationship.
Nearly opposite, on the Surrey side of
the river, the handsome tower of St.
Saviour's suggests the memory of John
Gower, another poet of that early period,
the author of the " Confessio Amantis".
He erected the tower, and some say the
church, at his own expense in the reign
of Edward III. It is not known that any
other poet, unless it were Voltaire three
centuries later, ever built or endowed a
church, or had the means to do so.
The circumstances led to the following
epigram:
This church was rebuilt by Gower the rhymer,
Who in Richard's gay court was a fortunate climber;
Should anyone start 'tis but right he should know it,
This wight was a lawyer as well as a poet !
Gower was very successful in his profession, and became Attorney-General,
and afterwards a Judge of the Court of
King's Bench.
He amassed a considerable fortune, which he invested profitably
in land, and was, according to tradition,
the ancestor of the noble family of the
Gowers, Earls and Marquises of Stafford.
Bankside, overshadowed by the world renowned brewery of Barclay & Perkins,
and occupied on the river front by warehouses and receptacles of old iron, is as
dingy, mean, unromantic, and squalid a
spot as London affords, but is, nevertheless, sacred to the memories of Shakespeare and his contemporaries.
Here
stood the Globe Theatre, where his immortal works were produced, and in the
management of which he gained not only
fame, of which he was singularly careless,
but fortune, which he certainly prized,
and which enabled him to end his days
as a prosperous and respected gentleman in his native Warwickshire.
The
Thames at that time was a pure and limpid river, the haunt of salmon and other
edible fish, unpolluted to any appreciable
extent by the abominations of the town,
and bearing on the pleasant summer afternoons upon its clear bosom the pleasure
barges and wherries of the young, the rich,
the noble, the fashionable, and the beautiful, bound for the Globe.
And not alone
the memories of Shakespeare, but of Ben
Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher, Massinger, Marlow, and other scarcely inferior
dramatists cling to the hallowed ground.
To these great spirits of the past may be
added William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, poet himself and the associate of
poets, and the gay and gallant Lord
Southampton, Shakespeare's best and
most liberal friend.
Auguste Barbier, a modern French poet, describes the Thames as seen from London Bridge in the gloomiest colours.
Un fleuve tout houleux
Roulant sa vase noire en détours sinueux
Et rappelant l'effroi des ondes infernales;
De gigantesque pont aux piles colossales.
...
Une marée infecte, et toujours avec l'onde
Apportant, remportant les richesses du monde.
...
Puis un ciel tourmenté, nuage sur nuage
Le soleil comme un mort, le drap sur le visage.
Ou parfois dans les flots d'un air empoisonné
Montrant comme un miroir sur front tout charbonné.
[ Editor's translation:
A stormy river
Rolling its black slime in sinuous turn
And recalling the dread of hellish waves
From gigantic bridge to colossal piers.
...
A foul tide and wave upon wave
Bringing and taking the riches of the world
...
Then a tormented sky, cloud upon cloud
The sun like a corpse, sheet over face
Sometimes gusts of poisoned air
Showing a blackened face in the mirror. ]
This powerful description, if it does not
owe its inspiration to indigestion, must
have been due to the mingled influences
of rain and fog and wintry weather.
If
the poet had stood upon London Bridge
in the early hours of a clear summer
morning he would have beheld a panorama
of surpassing loveliness, and have dipped
his descriptive pen in light instead of in
darkness, and acknowledged the reality,
opposed though it be to French tradition,
that London, if not quite so beautiful as
Paris, has attractions of its own, independent of its vastness, that in some respects
not even Paris can surpass.
It is impossible to pass under Waterloo Bridge - an edifice that the great sculptor, Canova, so admired that he declared it was worth making a voyage from the Antipodes only to look at it - without remembering the poetical halo that Thomas Hood has thrown around it by his immortal poem, "The Bridge of Sighs".
Richmond, and beautiful Richmond
Park, one of the favourite resorts of
Londoners when they make holiday, are
closely associated with the life and labours
of James Thomson, author of the almost
forgotten series of poems, "The Seasons",
and the national anthem of "Rule Britannia", not heard in our day so
frequently as in the last generation.
Here
he lived and died, a prosperous and contented gentleman, and here he was buried.
The latter fact is celebrated by some
beautiful lines of his brother poet Collins,
the author of the famous "Ode to the
Passions".
An American poet, traveller, and diplo-
matist, the late Bayard Taylor, was taken
on his first visit to England to dine at
the "Star and Garter" (the old original
"Star and Garter", the retreat of King
Louis Philippe and his family after his
flight from Paris in 1848, since destroyed
by fire), and from all he had heard and
read expected to find the view from Richmond Hill surpassingly beautiful.
He
admired the silvery winding and meanderings of the Thames, as seen from the
gardens of the hotel, but on the whole
he experienced a feeling of disappointment with the over-vaunted charm of the
landscape.
"It is fine, no doubt, but it
sadly wants clearing!" He spoke in this
respect not as a poet, but as a backwoodsman, whose first thought in America
when he sees a vast expanse of what he
calls "timber" is to cut it down, to facilitate the operations of the plough.
The popular song, "The Lass of Richmond Hill", which has been a favourite
of the English people for three-quarters
of a century, is supposed to have been
inspired by admiration of some fair unknown who resided on the Terrace.
It
has been ascribed to the Prince of Wales,
afterwards George IV., who, however,
was quite innocent of its perpetration.
The music was the composition of Hook,
the father of Theodore Hook, the celebrated novelist; and the poetry, which
scarcely deserves the name, except in a
country where unfortunately any doggrel
passes muster for a song, was written,
according to the authority of Sir Henry
Bishop, by one Upton, who wrote
many scores of similar effusions for
the once popular open-air concerts at
Vauxhall Gardens.
There have been
many controversies to determine, if possible, whether Richmond in Surrey or
Richmond in Yorkshire were the abode of
the real or possibly fabulous beauty of the
song; but the probability is that there
was no such person except in the fancy
of Mr.Upton.
The genius loci of Twickenham, on the
opposite side of the river, is Alexander
Pope.
In this village he lived and died,
and constructed at his villa - which has
long since disappeared - the grotto, still
existing, which goes by his name.
The original "Pope's Villa", which the
poet Rogers in after times desired to purchase and to occupy, was demolished by
Lady Howe, who erected a more commodious villa on its site, which in its turn
disappeared to make room for the present
structure.
Many comments were made
on the occasion, and many accusations of
Vandalism and want of reverence were
hurled at the head of Lady Howe; but
as she spared the grotto, the removal of
the house was in due time forgiven her.
A willow once overhung the Thames
from Pope's garden, but the relic-hunters
in the course of time so chipped and cut
and lopped the tree - in admiration, not
of the tree, but of the poet - that its
vitality was destroyed.
It was cut down,
and converted most probably into snuff
boxes - in the not very remote days when
the use of snuff was almost universal.
The grotto was erected about the year
1715.
"Being", as Dr.
Johnson says in
his "Lives of the Poets", "under the
necessity of making a subterranean passage to a garden on the other side of the
road, he adorned it with fossils, and
dignified it with the name of a grotto; a
place of silence and retreat, from which
he endeavoured to persuade himself and
his friends that cares and passions could
be excluded."
His principal friends at
this time were Lords Bolingbroke and
Marchmont, who, like Pope himself, were
by far too sensible to imagine that cares
and passions could be excluded from a
spot on earth, except
The pleasant fosse, six feet by twain,
Impervious to all grief,
which, until cremation becomes the law
of sepulture, must be the final dwelling-
place of all humanity.
Pope intended to inscribe on the walls
of his grotto the following lines which he
wrote for the purpose.
Though included
in his works they do not appear to have
ever been set forth in the place for which
they were intended.
Thou who shalt stop where Thames' translucent wave
Shines, a broad mirror, through the shady cave,
Where lingering drops from mineral roofs distil,
And pointed crystals break the sparkling rill !
Unpolish'd gems no ray of pride bestow,
And latent metals innocently glow.
Approach! great Nature studiously behold,
And eye the mint, without a wish for gold !
Approach! but awful. Lo! the Egerian grot
Where, nobly pensive, St.John sat and thought,
Where British sighs from dying Wyndham stole,
And the bright flame was shot through Marchmont's soul,
Let such, such only, tread this sacred floor,
Who dare to love their country and be poor.
Strawberry Hill, the abode of Horace Walpole, author of "The Castle of Otranto", and in our day the favourite residence of the late Countess of Walde- grave, daughter of John Braham, one of the most celebrated of English vocalists, must be mentioned among the places on the banks of the Thames that recall pleasant memories of literature and song.
Hampton Court, so closely associated with the history of England during the reigns of Henry VIII. and his successors up to the time of William and Mary, belongs also to the history of English poetry, if it were only for the episode of the Earl of Surrey and the fair Geraldine Surrey's romantic love for the beautiful Geraldine was a tradition, founded on his poetry, until the supposed facts on which it rested were for the first time investigated by the author of "The Thames and its Tributaries", and found to be mythical.
Chertsey was long the residence of
Abraham Cowley, a poet very celebrated
in the time of Charles II., who called
himself "the melancholy", and who
was called by his contemporaries the
"divine" and the "incomparable".
An
inscription on a house in the little town
records the fact that here he lived and
died.
His popularity was great in his
lifetime, his name was upon everybody's
lips, and it was predicted by his fond
admirers that his fame would last as
long as the English language.
Cowley's poems, though seldom read in our
day, and scarcely known except to literary
antiquaries, contain many epigrammatic
lines and expressions, which speakers
and writers in search of apt but unfamiliar and unhackneyed quotations
would do well to study.
The late Sir
Robert Peel, in one of his greatest
speeches on the subject of Free Trade
and the Repeal of the Corn Laws, unearthed from the obscurity in which it
lay hidden in Cowley's works, a magnificent passage in deprecation of civil war.
By this passage Cowley is best known
at the present time.
Come the eleventh plague rather than this should be;
Come rather sink us in the sea.
Come pestilence and mow us down;
Come God's sword rather than our own.
In all the pangs we felt before
We groaned, we sighed, we wept- we never blushed before.
Charles II., true to the character so
well bestowed upon him of "never doing a wise thing, nor ever saying a foolish one", neglected Cowley, and broke his
repeated promises to him during his life,
but said, on the news of his death reaching him, "that Mr.Cowley had not left
a better man behind him in England".
And this was the poet's reward - not
worth having even had it not been
posthumous!
Cooper's Hill, near Egham, has been celebrated in verse by Sir John Denham, in a poem which received the praise of Alexander Pope.
The sequestered scenes,
The bow'ry mazes and surrounding greens
On Thames's banks, while fragrant breezes fill,
And where the Muses sport on Cooper's Hill.
On Cooper's Hill eternal wreaths shall grow,
While lasts the mountain or while Thames shall flow !
Here his first lays majestic Denham sung.
Sir John Denham, the author of this
once well-known poem, resided in the
parish of Egham, and was made sheriff
of Surrey in 1642.
He was afterwards
governor of Farnham Castle for the
Royalists in the time of the Civil Wars.
A devoted adherent of the House of
Stuart, he retired with the Royal Family
into France after the execution of Charles
I., and at the Restoration, more fortunate
than many who ruined themselves for the
king, he obtained honours, with profits attached to them
as a reward for his fidelity.
Denham's poem was written at Oxford
in 1643, whither he had retired after he
resigned the governorship of Farnham
Castle.
Its success was so great, that
the cynics of the time spread abroad a
report that the author had not written it
himself, but had bought it of some name-
less curate for £4>0.
He outlived the
calumny by many years, disproving it,
moreover, by his other writings.
Until Pope took up the pen, no poem
produced in England excited so much
immediate popularity as "Cooper's
Hill".
But fame in literature was easily
obtained in those days, when authors
were few.
Even the critics who maligned
the man for political reasons lauded the
work as one of the happiest efforts of the
natural, even while affecting to believe
that its nominal was not its real author.
Denham's description of the Thames is
still popular:
My eye, descending from this hill, surveys,
Where Thames among the wanton valleys strays,
Thames, the most lov'd of all the ocean's sons
By his old sire to his embraces runs,
Hasting to pay his tribute to the sea
Like mortal life to meet eternity.
Though with those streams he no resemblance hold,
Whose form is amber and their gravel gold,
His genuine and less guilty wealth t'explore,
Search not his bottom but survey his shore,
O'er which he kindly spreads his spacious wing,
And hatches plenty for th'ensuing spring;
Nor then destroys it with too fond a stay
Like mothers who their infants overlay:
Nor with a sudden and impetuous wave,
Like profuse kings, resumes the wealth he gave.
No unexpected inundations spoil
The mower's hopes, nor mock the ploughman's toil;
But godlike his unwearied bounty flows;
First loves to do, then loves the good he does.
Nor are his blessings to his banks confined,
But free and common as the sea or wind;
When he, to boast or to dispense his stores
Full of the tributes of his grateful shores,
Visits the world, and in his flying towers
Brings home to us, and makes both Indies ours;
Finds wealth where 'tis, and bestows it where it wants,
Cities in deserts, woods in cities plants;
So that to us no thing, no place is strange,
While his fair bosom is the world's exchange.
Datchet, Eton, and Windsor are as
redolent of poetry and romance as they
are famous in history.
Datchet Mead,
which is known by name at least wherever Shakespeare is read as the scene where
the "Merry Wives of Windsor" played
their scurvy trick, and inflicted the well
deserved punishment upon the too fat,
too amorous, too confident, too villainous,
and too agreeable Sir John Falstaff,
thrown "hissing hot" into the cool surge
from the buck-basket, where he was
coiled up amid the dirty linen, "like a
piece of butcher's offal in a barrow".
Eton suggests the beautiful lines of the
poet Gray, one of the few Englishmen
of letters who have written too little,
"On a Distant View of Eton College".
This poem has found its way into every
collection of the "Beauties of English
Poetry", and suggested to Thomas Hood
a parody - à propos of a Clapham school
- which is scarcely less admirable in its
own peculiar vein than its unsurpassable
original.
Windsor Castle, so closely associated
with the lives and fortunes, the loves, the
sorrows, and the deaths of the sovereigns
of England, was the scene of a romantic
incident, not recorded in English history,
in the career of a King of Scotland, the
first of the Stuart line who bore the name
of James, who was not only an enlightened sovereign, but an amiable and
accomplished man, and a poet of no
mean order.
His history in connection with Windsor
Castle is a romance of true love - and of
a true love, whose course ran smoothly to
its close - a contradiction, possibly rare,
to the authoritative judgment of Shakespeare in a contrary sense.
His old and
sorrow-stricken father, King Robert III.,
grieving for the loss of one son, the Duke
of Rothsay, whose sad fate is so final)
told by Sir Walter Scott in his "Fair
Maid of Perth", and dreading that his
youngest darling, and only surviving son,
James, then eleven years old, might share
a similar fate, thought it advisable to
send him out of Scotland.
A governor
being provided, the young prince was
sent to finish his education in France;
but the vessel in which the heir of
Scotland was embarked had sailed
no farther than Flamborough Head
when it was attacked by an English
cruiser, and all on board were taken
prisoners.
Some say that the capture
was made when the young prince and
suite landed to refresh themselves at
Flamborough, where they had been driven
by stress of weather.
However this may
be, Henry IV. of England, although a
truce subsisted at the time between
England and Scotland, resolved to detain
the royal child as a hostage for the future
good behaviour of his troublesome neighbour.
So overjoyed was that grim warrior
at his good fortune, that he relaxed so
far as to give utterance to a pleasantry.
"His father was sending him to learn
French", quoth he; "by my troth he
might as well have sent him to me! I am
an excellent French scholar myself, and
will see to his instruction."
And he kept his word.
The young prince was provided
with the best masters and made rapid
progress in every polite accomplishment;
but his loss broke his father's heart.
It
needed not that last calamity to embitter
the days of King Robert: he never held
up his head again, but pined away and
died about a year afterwards.
But the
captive himself, with the exception of the
loss of liberty, had nothing to complain
of.
Every luxury was his, and every indulgence.
He became well versed in all
the literature of his age, and grew up an
excellent musician, a sweet poet, and
expert in all the manly accomplishments
that befitted a prince.
He studied
Chaucer, then recently deceased, and
made him his model, and produced
poems little inferior to those of his master.
In the "Quair", or "book", written
shortly before his return to Scotland,
he informs the world in elegant rhymes
how he passed his time in captivity, and
how he fell in love with the beautiful
Lady Jane Beaufort as she was walking
with her maid in the gardens of Windsor
Castle.
The royal poet, after pathetically
lamenting that he was doomed to be a
captive while the birds were free, continues:
And therewith cast I down my eyes again
Whereas I saw, walking under the tower
Full secretly, new coning her to pleyne
The fairest and the freshest younge flower
That ever I saw, methought, before that hour,
At which sudden abate, anon astart,
The blood of all my body to my heart !
...
My wittis all
Were so o'ercome with pleasure and delight;
And then eft soon I leaned it out again,
And saw her walk, that very womanlie
With no wight more, but only women twaine,
Then 'gan I study in myself and sayn,
"Ah, sweet! are ye a worldly creature,
Or heavenly thing in likeness of our nature?"
He then describes, in elegant, though partly obsolete, language, her golden hair and rich attire, adorned with fretwork of "perlis white" with many a diamond, emerald, and sapphire:
And on her head a chaplet fresh of hue,
With plumes partly red and white and blue;
And above all, ...
... as well he wot
Beauty enough to make a world to doat !
This fair creature was the daughter
of John, Earl of Somerset, and grand daughter of John of Gaunt; and
although we have no record of their
courtship, there is every reason to believe
that she looked with a favourable eye
upon the handsome and accomplished
prince, then doubly a captive.
In the
year 1428 negotiations were commenced
by Murdoch, Regent of Scotland, for the
liberation of the king, and Henry V.
agreed with but little difficulty.
The
sum of £40,000 was stipulated to be
paid by Scotland, not as a ransom - it
was a disagreeable word- but as compensation for the maintenance and education of the prince; and it was further
agreed that he should marry some lady
of the royal blood of England, as a bond
of peace and goodwill between the two
countries.
The heart of James must
have leaped for joy within him at the
latter proposal.
He accepted it with
eagerness, and named the Lady Jane
Beaufort as the object of his choice.
The
lady on her part was quite as willing,
and their nuptials were celebrated with
great pomp, first at Windsor, and afterwards at London, the bride receiving for
her portion a sum of £10,000.
She was
a most faithful and attached wife, and
during the many cares, anxieties, and
troubles that beset the path of her
royal partner on his return into his
own disturbed dominions, was always
the affectionate friend, the kind adviser,
and chief comfort of her lord.
The
king was himself murdered by a conspiracy of noblemen - noble by title, but
not by nature, Overwhelmed by superior
numbers he took refuge with his wife in
an inner apartment of the palace, and
when the assailants, thirsting for his
blood, battered at the closed door, she
placed her arm in the place of the bolt
which had snapped under their heavy
blows, and with that beautiful weak limb
managed to keep them at bay for a few
moments.
Her heroism was in vain:
the tender and loving arm was shattered,
and her husband and lover was slaughtered
at her feet.
Windsor Park has one great poetical association, that of Heme the Hunter, in "The Merry Wives of Windsor"; and the old tree, still standing and cared for in its decrepitude, and which is known by the name of Heme's Oak, is the supposed scene of one of the tricks played off on Sir John Falstaff in Shakespeare's immortal comedy.
Binfield, within the bounds of the
forest, was once very generally supposed
to have been the birthplace of Pope; but
Mr.Lysons stated on the authority of
Dr.Wilson, rector of the parish, that
the young poet was in his sixth year
when he first came to reside there with
his parents, and it has been ascertained
beyond doubt that he was born in London.
It was at Binfield, however, that
he composed his "Windsor Forest".
Upon one of the trees in a neighbouring
enclosure, under which it is supposed he
was fond of musing, is cut into the bark
the inscription, "Here Pope sung".
In the immediate neighbourhood of
Windsor are two villages, celebrated in
English poetry and song - Stoke Pogis
and Bray.
Stoke Pogis is considered on
sufficient authority to be the scene of
Gray's beautiful and renowned "Elegy
in a Country Churchyard", than which
no poem in the language has been more
generally admired and more frequently
quoted, and which will never lose its
place in English anthology.
Bray -
though the distinction has been questioned on behalf of another Bray near
Dublin - is generally believed to have
been the abode of the renowned Vicar,
who changed his religion from the
Roman Catholic to the Protestant,
and from the Protestant back again
to the Catholic, and was prepared to do
so any number of times upon the sole
condition, that, come what might, and
do what he might, he should continue to
be Vicar of Bray; or, in the words of the
well-known chorus:
And this is law I will maintain
Unto my dying day, sir,
That whatsoever king shail reign
I'll still be Vicar of Bray, sir.
Only doubtful tradition has preserved
the name of the time-serving ecclesiastic,
who loved his revenue so much better
than his convictions; but the fine-stirring
old English melody to which the shameless confession is sung, and which has
since been wedded to many other songs
more worthy of its beauty, will preserve
his reputation, though his name has long
since sunk into hopeless oblivion.
Among the poets whose names and
works are associated with the scenery and
traditions of the Thames may be mentioned Dr.
Johnson, the lexicographer,
and hero of Boswell's inimitable biography; Charles Dibdin, the author of
the best sea-songs in the English language; Taylor, known as the "Water
Poet", whose contributions to literature
have sunk into deserved oblivion; and
Drayton, author of the "Polyolbion", a
rhymed discourse on all the rivers of
England.
Johnson had such a reverence
for Queen Elizabeth, that he expressed
in his poem on London a vehement desire to disembark at Greenwich, in order
that he might "kiss the sacred earth"
where the great queen was born.
Dibdin's allusions to the Thames watermen
and sailors are frequent and well known.
Drayton's works are no longer read except by poetical antiquaries.
Except in respect of carrying
out their patrolling work in boats instead
of on foot, the Thames Police, or more
correctly speaking under the present arrangement, the Thames Division of the
Metropolitan Police, differs but little from
the other divisions of the force.
Its headquarter station is at Wapping, a little
above the entrance of the old Thames
Tunnel, now a station of the East London
Railway, and has a pleasant look-out over
the river, just at the junction between the
Upper and Lower Pool.
It is at present
under the command of Superintendent
George Steed, who has under him 44 inspectors, 4 sergeants, and 124 constables;
the latter being of a somewhat amphibious
type, as is designated by their uniform,
wherein the tight blue tunic is superseded
by a blue double-breasted jacket, and the
helmet by a hard glazed hat such as, were it
not carried on the nape of the neck, might
impart an additional polish to the forehead
of Captain Cuttle himself.
Both night
and day several boats patrol the river in
different parts; a fresh boat starting from
the station-hard every two hours to relieve
the one whose watch is up.
Each boat
contains an inspector and two men, the
latter of whom do the rowing, and a careful system of supervision is maintained
by which the passing of each boat is
checked at varying points.
Two steam
launches are also employed.
An important portion of the duties of
the Thames division consists in searching
for and dealing with the bodies of suicides,
murdered persons, and persons accidentally drowned.
The dragging process is
only carried on for one tide, after which
it is considered that the missing body
will pretty certainly have been carried out
of reach, and it occasionally happens that
a corpse will drift into a hole and be
covered over before it becomes sufficiently
buoyant to rise.
Should it be eventually
recovered, it is first photographed and
then preserved as long as possible for
identification, not at the station, but at
the parish dead-house, following in these
respects the regular course pursued with
respect to all corpses found by the police
in any part of the town, as well as the
bodies of all insensible persons so found
who may die before identification.
When
ultimately buried on the coroner's order,
the clothes are preserved by the parish
authorities, but are only shown to those
who bring with them a police order to
that effect.
The return of the number of persons
arrested and convictions obtained by
detectives attached to this division is
rather curious.
Up to 1875 there appear
to have been no detectives attached to
the division.
In that year three were
allotted to it, increased in 1877 to four;
the number of arrests, however, which
began in 1875 with 107 dropped in 1876
to 88, and fell again, notwithstanding the
addition of the fourth detective, to 73 in
1877, whilst the convictions obtained fell
from 70 to 57, and thence to 48.
This
does not appear to have arisen from any
general decrease of crime in the neighbourhood; the K division which holds
the bank of the river at Stepney, the L
and M which patrol the southern bank at
Lambeth and Southwark, and the R
which performs the waterside duties of
Greenwich, exhibiting for the most part
rather an increase than otherwise, and in
no case a similar continuous decrease.
The apparent discrepancy, however, is no
doubt susceptible of explanation.
The
division is one of the most hardly worked,
and by far the most exposed to privation
of any in the force, the night-guard rowing, especially in the storms and fogs of
winter, being exceedingly trying.
The Pool, the most striking and
characteristic feature of the river, extends
from below London Bridge to a little
above the Regent's Canal.
It is divided
into the Upper and the Lower Pool, the
point of division being the headquarter
station of the Thames Police at Wapping,
a few hundred yards above the old Thames
Tunnel, now part of the East London
Railway.
By the bye-laws of the Thames
Conservancy Board the minimum free
navigable passage to be kept "as far as
practicable" for vessels passing up and
down the river through that portion of
the Upper Pool which extends from London Bridge to Irongate Stairs, on the
lower side of the Tower, is 200 feet.
At
this point commence the premises of the
General Steam Navigation Company,
which occupy the whole of Irongate and
the adjoining St.Katharine's Wharf, and
the large sea-going steamers starting from
which constitute one of the most important features of the home traffic of the river.
The minimum navigable passage is therefore extended here to 300 feet, at which
width it continues as far as Barking Creek,
about three miles and a half below Woolwich, on the opposite side of the river.
The average number of vessels lying in
the Upper Pool is about 55, with an
average registered tonnage of about 200
tons; in the Lower Pool about 70, with
an average registered tonnage of about
150 tons.
These numbers apply only to
vessels discharging in the river.
There
are a great many ships that discharge in
the river below the Pool; the average is
about 32, with an average registered tonnage of about 150 tons, besides all the
coal-laden vessels that discharge in Cory's
hulks in Bugsby's Reach.
The Pope or Ruff differs very little
in its shape, food, and haunts from the
perch, except that the bands are absent
which characterise the latter.
It is likewise of a more yellowish hue, and while
partaking of the contour and spinal dorsal
fin of the perch has somewhat the appearance in the body of the gudgeon.
For
this reason many have supposed it to be
a cross or hybrid of those fish.
It is very
prevalent at times in the Thames; and
while its presence and voraciousness is
looked upon as a perfect nuisance by the
scientific sportsman, it is a great favourite
from the same cause with the youths who
first essay their powers of fish capture.
The greediness of the pope is proverbial,
and it is seldom that one is caught without the necessity of an operation to extract the hook from far down in its intestines.
It is said, likewise, and experience
appears to warrant the impression, that
when the pope is on the feed it is very
difficult to get perch or other fish to take
the hook.
This may arise from a restless
pugnaciousness on its part when food is
present to be contested for.
The flesh is
sapid and wholesome, and a fry is not to
be despised, although it is not so firm a
fish as the perch.
Almost unnoticed except by Kentish men, and by those
chiefly who inhabit the district of the
Isle of Grain, the Hundred of Hoo, and
the country generally in the neighbourhood of the Medway estuary, a railway
branching from the South-Eastern line,
or rather from its tributary, the North
Kent, at Higham, five miles east of
Gravesend, has been made to the southern
side of the Yantlet Creek, nearly opposite
Queenborough, including a maritime
station and wharf, which, by permission
of Her Majesty the Queen, has been
named Port Victoria, was in 1884 celebrated by a visit from London; a large
party of gentlemen interested in the
development of the new and important
scheme having started for that purpose
from Cannon-street.
The distance is
thirty-eight miles, the new line being
thirteen miles long, and its terminus less
than two miles from the mouth of the
Medway.
At Port Victoria, as the
terminus is called, will be established, by
the South-Eastern Railway, a port which
will open a new and shortened route to
the Continent, and which will greatly
assist the American traffic of such vessels
as those belonging to the Monarch line
of the Royal Exchange Steam Shipping
Company, the National line, and other
great steamship companies requiring
deep-water anchorage.
Fares to Charing Cross; 1st, 7/3, 10/9; 2nd, 5/2, 7/9; 3rd, 3/-, 5/6.
It is needless to describe a
punt beyond the fact that it has at one
end an acclivity with cross-bars of wood
resembling steps; a well to hold fish
alive, about one third from the other
end; the bottom perfectly flat, and the
sides bevelled slightly outwards.
The
punt is worked by a pole, of a length
according to the depth of water met
with, and heavier at the bottom than the
top.
The puntsman starts generally from
the head of the punt, taking the pole
about its middle, and, poising it upright,
permits it to slip through his hands until
it touches the bottom of the stream.
He
then walks or runs back towards the well,
giving a final push, which imparts an
impetus to the punt which allows of
the puntsman again taking his place at
the head of the punt without losing
way.
One great necessity for good punting is that the pole should never touch
the side of the punt unless it is required
to give it a turn or new direction.
If it
is to be turned to the right (the man
being at work on the left side) he need
not quit the head of the punt, but simply
incline the pole to a more obtuse angle
and direct the head towards the course
he desires.
Suppose, however, he wishes
to go to the left, he, instead of lifting his
pole over the heads of the occupants to
the jeopardy of their hats, walks down to
the well, and pressing the pole close to
the bevelled side of the punt turns the.
head of it towards the left.
A good
puntsman starts on one side and keeps
there, and it is marvellous how, even
against the force of a heavy mill or weir,
stream, they can stem the current and
never deviate from a straight line.
It
should be borne in mind by amateurs
who trust themselves in weir pools without a practised hand that the back surface
stream will draw a punt under the fall,
and if presence of mind deserts its
occupiers, but a few seconds is sufficient
to fill and swamp the punt, an accident
that may be attended with fatal consequences.
Punting matches are occasionally held upon the Thames, prizes
awarded, and the winner holds the
honourable distinction of champion.
Purfleet, on the left bank, in Essex,
about 18½ miles from London Bridge.
Population, exclusive of the garrison and
of the training-ship Cornwall, 150.
Soil,
light and sandy on chalk.
Purfleet, a
hamlet of West Thurrock, is a station on
the London, Tilbury, and Southend Railway; the average time of the trains is
about three-quarters of an hour.
It is a
pretty village, with some picturesque
chalk hills pleasantly wooded, and with a
fine view down Long Reach towards
Greenhithe and the Kentish hills.
Opposite is Dartford Creek, and there
is a ferry from Purfleet to "Long Reach
Tavern" on the opposite bank.
A large
stock of gunpowder is stored in the
Government magazines here.
Below the
village is moored the training-ship Cornwall.
The principal attraction which
Purfleet has to offer to visitors is the
"Royal Hotel", which has of late years
acquired a considerable reputation for
fish-dinners.
Hotel: "The Royal".
Nearest Steamboat Piers: Rosherville,
about 8 miles, and Tilbury, a little farther
on;
Ferry: Purfleet
Railway Station: Purfleet.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, savings bank, and telegraph).
Mails from London, 7 and 8.30am, and 7pm
Mails for London, 12.35 and 9.50pm
Fares to London: 1st, 1/11, 3/2; 2nd, 1/5, 2/4; 3rd, -/11, 1/10.
Purley, Berkshire, stands about half
a mile from the river; the church, close
to which is a ferry, being on the right
bank; from London 78 miles, from Oxford
33½ miles, and most delightfully situated
in a clearing among the fine trees of
Purley Park, with a pretty avenue leading to the village.
Population, about
200. Soil, gravelly.
The church is
modern, with the exception of the tower,
and contains some good Norman remains.
The scutcheon on the south of the tower,
with the date 1626, bears the arms of the
Bolingbroke family.
Place of Worship: St.Mary's.
Postal Arrangements: Letters
through Reading.
Mails from London, 6.15am,
Mails for London, 7.30pm
Pangbourne is the nearest money-order
office and telegraph station.
Nearest Bridges: up, Pangbourne 2½ miles; down, Caversham 3¼ miles.
Locks: up, Mapledurham ½ mile; down,
Caversham 4 miles.
Ferry: Purley.
Railway Station: Pangbourne, G.W.R.
Fares: Pangbourne to Paddington:
1st: 7/4, 13/-; 2nd, 5/6, 9/6; 3rd, 3/8.
Putney, on the right bank, rather
more than 7 miles from London, is a
considerable suburb grafted on to an
old-fashioned High-street and water
frontage.
It is the headquarters of
London rowing, and during the fortnight
before the University Boat-race and the
period of the Volunteer encampment at
Wimbledon is a very lively and bustling
place.
At other times there is little
to attract any but rowing men.
A
most inconvenient, and even dangerous,
bridge (now being rebuilt) connects Putney
with Fulham, and a little above is an aqueduct of singularly unprepossessing exterior.
Putney is a station on the London
and South Western Railway, about twenty
minutes from London, and is a stopping
place for steamers in the summer.
Omnibuses run from the City, via the Strand
and Piccadilly, to the Fulham end of
Putney Bridge.
Fares: 1st, 9d, 1/-; 2nd, 7d, 10d; 3rd, 5d, 8d.
Radley (St.Peter's College),
near Abingdon, in the county of Berks,
was opened by the Rev.Dr.Sewell, of
Exeter College, Oxford, on June 9, 1847.
It is situated on rising ground within
easy distance of the Thames, 4½ miles
from Oxford, and about a mile from the
Radley station on the Great Western
Railway.
The design of the college is
to give a thorough public school education to boys of the upper classes on the
principles of the Church of England, and
boys are admitted between the ages of
10 and 15.
Each boy is assigned to the
special care of one of the masters, who
is called his social tutor, and who is entrusted with a general supervision over
his progress and welfare.
The gymnasium is made a special feature.
The
Sewell Scholarships were founded in
memory of the late Dr.Sewell, value
£55 per annum.
Scholars are elected
every second or third year.
Four Entrance Scholarships (value £50, £50, £30, and
£20 respectively) are filled up each year,
and are open to boys who were under 14
on the 1st of January preceding the examination.
The entrance scholarships
are tenable for four years.
The other
scholarships are: one founded by Sir
Walter C.James, Bart., for boys under
18, value £30; two in memory of the
late Rev.W.Beedon Heathcote, formerly
warden, for boys under 17 and 18 respectively, value £20 each (one for
classics and one for mathematics); one,
founded by the late W.Gibbs, Esq., for
boys under 16, value £20.
All these
scholarships are tenable for one year
only.
There is an entrance fee (for boys
over 12) of £10 10s, and the college fees
vary from about £105 to £126 per
annum.
Railway Station: Radley.
Fares to Paddington: 1st, 10/4, 18/-; 2nd, 7/9,
13/6; 3rd, 5/2
Radley Boat Club is composed of
students at St.Peter's College, Radley, in
Berkshire, and is consequently a private
club.
Its training course is from Abingdon Lasher to Nuneham Island, and the
club annually puts on an eight for the
Ladies' Plate at Henley Regatta. Boathouse at Sandford Lock.
Colours, red
and white. Flag, white with red Maltese
cross.
Ranelagh Club, Barn Elms, on the
right bank: On much the same principles
as the Hurlingham.
Entrance fee, £10 10s.
,
and annual subscription, £5 5s.
Members
are entitled to admit two ladies with free
passes, and may give vouchers of admission on payment to as many friends
as they please.
The price of admission
to members' friends is 10s, except on
such day as the committee may appoint,
when it is raised to 20s
No person is
eligible for membership who is not received
in general society.
The election is in
the hands of the committee.
At least
five members must vote, and one black
ball in five excludes.
Reading, Berkshire, a short distance
from right bank of the Thames at its
junction with the Kennet; a station on
the Great Western Railway, main line,
the junction of the Hungerford and
Basingstoke branches of the Great Western Railway, and a terminus of the
South Eastern (Reigate branch), and also
of the South Western (Staines, Wokingham, and Reading branch).
The stations
are about ten minutes' walk from the
river at Caversham Bridge, and about
five minutes' walk from the market-place.
Flys and omnibuses from the hotels meet
the trains.
Distance from London 74½
miles, from Oxford 37 miles.
The trains
on the Great Western Railway average
about an hour from Paddington; from
Waterloo about an hour and three quarters; and from Charing Cross three
hours or more.
Population, 38,400.
Death rate, 18 per 1,000.
Soil, chalk
and gravel.
There is a good and constant
supply of water from the waterworks, and
a system of main drainage with an irrigation farm about two miles from the
borough.
Reading can lay claim to great
antiquity, and is the most important and
flourishing town in the county of Berkshire.
It is a parliamentary municipal borough
returning two members - at present Mr.Shaw-Lefevre and Mr.George Palmer,
both Liberals.
It is a well-built town
with fine broad streets and many
excellent shops, and is evidently well
cared for, although it is understood
that the various improvements which
have been carried out by the corporation, and the general cost of local
government, have raised the burdens on
the ratepayers to an inconvenient if not
excessive amount.
There are some very
good houses in the Bath-road and near
Coley-avenue.
Many descriptions of
business flourish in Reading besides that
which naturally arises from its being the
chief town of a large agricultural district,
and for the accommodation of which the
town is provided with a spacious corn
exchange connected by an arcade with
the market-place.
There are extensive
iron foundries and engine works, breweries,
&c, but perhaps the staples of the town
- Reading, it may be added, is said to
have contained 140 clothiers in the 15th
century - which are now best known are
biscuits and seeds: the manufactory of
Messrs.Huntley & Palmer, and the seed
nurseries, &c, of Messrs.Sutton & Sons,
being known all over the world.
The
corporation consists of a high steward,
mayor, six aldermen, and eighteen town
councillors.
It is an assize town; the
present recorder is J.O.Grifits, Esq., Q.C.
The municipal buildings face the
east end of Friar-street, and date from
1875; a portion of the old building,
renovated in 1780, is still standing.
Besides the offices of the town clerk, medical
officer of health, public analyst, inspector
of nuisances, &c., the building contains a
public hall capable of seating 700, which
can be hired for balls, concerts, &c, and
a spacious and convenient council-chamber adorned with several curious and
interesting portraits, amongst which the
most noteworthy are those of Sir Thomas
White, Lord Mayor of London (1566);
John Kendrick, a well-known benefactor
of Reading (1624); Richard Aldworth,
founder of the Blue Coat School here
(1646); Gustavus Adolphus, King of
Sweden, a very fine head; Archbishop
Laud, a native of the town, presented by
Archdeacon Mews (1667); and an admirable full-length of Queen Elizabeth, which
is hung above the mantelpiece over a
shield in stone sculptured with the arms
of the borough; the heads of good Queen
Bess herself and of four of her maids of
honour.
There is also a posthumous
portrait of one of the most distinguished
sons of Reading, Sir Thomas Noon
Talfourd, in his judicial robes.
The town (which figured in Domesday
Book as Readings) has been the scene of
many memorable historical events.
So
far back as 871 the Danes managed to
bring their war-ships up the Thames as
far as the Kennet, and made Reading
their base of operations for their campaign in Wessex.
Parliament, driven
from London by plague, down to Queen
Elizabeth's time frequently sat at Reading, and the same cause drove the lawyers
to the town in 1625, when all the law
courts came here from Westminster.
Some of the most important events in its
records occurred in 1643, when it suffered
severely during the siege by the Parliamentary troops under the Earl of Essex,
and later, in 1688, when the Prince
of Orange defeated the king's troops.
Among the buildings which suffered most
at the hands of the Roundheads was St.
Giles's Church, but the chief sufferer
was the famous old Benedictine Abbey,
founded in 1121 by Henry I.
What was
begun by Cromwell's cannon was completed by the ravages of time and of
depredators, who carried away wholesale
stone and other material to be used for
building purposes elsewhere, until nothing now remains of this once magnificent building but a few half-ruined arches
and enormous walls of flint and rubble.
There is no monument in or near the
ruins to show that King Henry I. was
buried there, or that Maude, daughter of
Henry I., wife of Henry IV., Emperor
of Germany, and mother of our Henry
II., was also buried in the abbey grounds
with great pomp.
Royal marriages of
great importance took place in the abbey,
John of Gaunt being there married to
Blanche of the Plantagenets, and here
also the marriage of Henry IV. to Lady
Grey was announced.
Some part of
the walls, which are said to have been
eight feet thick, were used nearly a century ago by General Conway and employed in building a bridge between
Henley and Wargrave, near the general's
residence at Park Place.
The old gateway has been rebuilt, and serves as the
headquarters of the Royal Berks Volunteers.
The abbey ruins are best approached from the prettily-laid-out Forbury Gardens, adjacent to which are the
extensive assize courts, the county gaol
being beyond the abbey ruins to the eastward.
A handsome esplanade, planted
with trees, runs from the foot of the abbey
along one face of the gaol wall which over-
looks the Kennet.
Among the many churches in Reading,
two at least are well worth a visit: those
of St.Lawrence, corner of Friar-street,
near the market-place, and of St.Mary,
Minster-street.
The former is of the
flint and stone so common in the architecture of this part of the country, and
has a square tower with turrets, and is a
handsome building in the perpendicular
style.
Among the brasses are those of
Edward Butler and his wife (1585), of
John Kent and his wife, and of W.Barton (1538).
In the south aisle is a
curious painted monument of John
Blagrave, dressed in cloak and ruff, and
holding a quadrant and globe.
Two
skulls support the monument, and on
each side of the tablet is a plump gilt
cherub.
The inscription runs, "Johannes
Blagravus totus mathematicus cum matre
sepultus".
A figure in marble, kneeling
at a prie-dieu, commemorates the death
in 1636 of Martha, wife of Charles Hamley,
and the ruff and extraordinarily large hat
of the figure challenge attention.
Another
interesting memorial is the stained-glass
window in three compartments, situated
in the south side of the chancel, and inscribed: "Memorial to Charles Lamb:
Henry and Rachel, children of T.N.Talfourd: erected 1848."
The handsome
church of St.Mary is remarkable for its
curious chequered tower (1551), surmounted with pinnacles added in 1624 by John
Kendrick, whose name occurs so frequently in the annals of Reading.
The
church, which is said to have been originally built with portions of the abbey
ruins, was carefully restored fifteen years
ago.
It has a fine old oak roof, and contains many objects of interest.
Of these
may be mentioned a black and gold monument to William Kendrick and his wife
(1635), with a strange profusion of gilded
skulls by way of ornament.
The ancient
alms-box (1627) inscribed "Remember
the poore, and God will bless thee and
thy store", and a smaller box at the entrance
to the vestry, are curious.
In the vestry
itself are some 15th-century brasses of
no very great importance, and an odd
list of charitable gifts to the parish,
beginning with a benefaction of alms houses and money from "John of the
Larder".
In the choir-room is an oil
picture which, before the restoration of
the church, hung over the altar, and
which is attributed to one of the Caracci.
In the chancel hang the tattered colours
of the 66th (Berkshire) Regiment.
The
ancient screen of carved wood over the
western entrance should not be overlooked.
One of the handsomest churches
in Reading, recently restored, is that of
St.Giles, Horn-street, which, however,
contains now no brasses or monuments
calling for special notice.
A curious
epitaph which exists in the churchyard
runs as follows:
He was -
But words are wanting to say what:
Say what is kind !
And he was that.
The parish registers date from 1564,
the churchwardens' accounts from 1518.
Grey Friars' Church, Friar-street, is a
stately 15th-century edifice with some
fine windows.
It was originally built by
the Grey Friars on the site granted by
the Abbot of Reading.
Falling into
decay, it stood roofless for 200 years,
the side aisles being used as cells of the
town Bridewell.
In 1861 it was restored
by the late Archdeacon Phelps.
Reading is the headquarters of the
41st Infantry Brigade Depot, of the
Royal Berks Militia, and of the 1st
Berkshire Rifle Volunteers.
In Friar-street there is a theatre and
an Athenaeum Institution, with reading room and library (subscription, £1 1s per
annum; less for shorter periods).
The
free library and reading-rooms, with
subscription reading-room and library
attached, and with an evening college
in connection, are in West-street.
The
terms for the subscription library are
2s 6d per quarter, for the subscription
reading-room a like amount; for the two
combined, 4s.
The Government School
of Art and Science, in connection with
South Kensington, is situated in Castle-street.
The classes meet morning and
evening, and full particulars can be
obtained of the honorary secretary.
The
Victoria Hall seats 400 to 500 people,
and may be hired for lectures, &c.
The Charity Organisation Society, established to investigate and report upon
alleged cases of want, to dispense
charity, and to repress mendicity and
fraud, has its offices in Carey-street.
There is a Servants' Training Institution
intended for girls of good character, who
are admitted between the ages of 13 and
15, the payment for each being 10£ per
annum.
The School of Industry was
founded 1802 by Lady Cadogan for the
education of 32 poor girls, who are partly
clothed at the expense of the school.
Among the charitable institutions may be
mentioned St.Mary's Home for Girls,
Baker-street, a penitentiary receiving 20
inmates.
Two lodges of craft masons (Union
414, Grey Friars 1101), and one of mark
master masons (Leopold 235), as well as
a Royal Arch Chapter, are held in the
Masonic Hall, which is used solely for
masonic purposes.
There are numerous schools in Reading,
the most important of which is that known
as the Reading School, which has succeeded the old grammar school, formerly
so well known in connection with Dr.Valpy, and the buildings of which were
opened in 1871.
The subjects of instruction are divided into the classical and
modern sides.
The school-fees are, for
boys under fourteen, £10 per annum;
between fourteen and sixteen, £15 per
annum; above sixteen, £20 per annum.
An inclusive fee of £4 4s for instruction
in French, German, and drawing, and
for the use of gymnasium and library, is
paid by all boys.
Boarders are received
by the head master, and by two other
masters; boys under fourteen pay £67 4s;
above fourteen, £78 15s, including board,
laundress, and the school-fees above set
forth .
There are certain entrance scholarships both for day pupils and boarders,
and three Appleton Scholarships for day
pupils.
Ten scholarships at St.John's
College, Oxford, each of the value of
£100 per annum, and tenable for five
years, will, as soon as vacated by the
present holders of fellowships into which
they have for the time been converted,
be awarded to boys from Reading School.
The Blue Coat School, Reading, was
founded by Richard Aldworth, late of the
parish of St.Mary Magdalen, in Milk-street,
London, Esquire, and a native of Reading.
By his will dated 1646 he bequeathed
money and other property in trust, the
income from which was to be spent yearly
for certain pious and charitable uses, one
of which was to pay for the education and
bringing up of twenty poor male children,
being the children of honest, religious
poor men of the town of Reading, to and
for their meat, drink, and clothing.
These
twenty children were to be boarded and
lodged in the master's dwelling-house,
and to be dieted and clothed similarly to
the children in Christ's Hospital in London.
Since the above date several other
bequests have been made for the purpose
of increasing the number of boys to be
maintained in Mr.Aldworth's School.
The number of boys at present maintained
in the school is forty-four.
The boys are
elected by the trustees every year in the
month of January; the successful candidates remain in the school about three
years.
The education is such as is given
in English commercial schools.
The
boys, on leaving the school, are generally
apprenticed.
The school appears to be
greatly valued, and the candidates for
election every year far exceed the number
of vacancies.
The present school premises were purchased about the year 1852,
and are situated in one of the most healthy
parts of the town.
An omnibus runs at intervals to Caversham, fare 2d.
The tramway starts from
the barracks, Oxford-road, and runs
through Broad-street, King-street, and
King's-road, to the cemetery at Erleigh;
distance about 2¼ miles; fare, any distance, 2d.
Cars run about every twelve
minutes.
Being situated on so many lines of rail,
as well as on the river, Reading affords
excellent headquarters for the excursionist.
It is surrounded in all directions
by a beautiful country.
Down the river
are Sonning, 3½ miles, and Henley, 9½
miles, the latter of which also is easily
reached by railway; and up stream are
the delightful reaches of Mapledurham,
3½ miles, and Pangbourne, 5½ miles (also
on the Great Western Railway).
Inland,
within easy reach, are Bradfield; Whiteknights; Strathfieldsaye; Englefield;
Three Mile Cross, on the Basingstoke-road - the "Our Village" of Miss Mitford
- near Swallowfield, the seat of Sir George Russell; Shinfleld; Aldermaston;
and, in another direction, Windsor.
Banks: London and County, Market-place; J. and C.Simmonds & Co., King-street, and Market-place; Stephens,
Blandy, & Co., Market-place.
Fairs: February 2, May 1, July 25, September 21, October 21.
Fire: (Volunteer) Engine-house, Friar-street; (Police) Star-lane; (County)
Mill-lane.
Hospital: Royal Berkshire Hospital, London-road.
Hotels: "Great Western", close to station; "Queen's", Friar-street;
"Ship", Duke-street.
Market Day: Saturday. Monday for cattle.
Places of Worship: All Saints;
Christ Church, Whitley; Grey Friars,
Friar-street; Grey Friars, North-street;
St.Giles's, Southampton-street; St.
John's; St.Lawrence, Market-place;
St.Luke's, Erleigh-road; St.Mary's,
Minster-street; St.Saviour's; and St.
Stephen's.
The Roman Catholic Church
of St.James, Abbey Ruins; the Episcopalian Church of St.Mary; Friends'
Meeting House; numerous chapels of
the Baptist, Congregational, Indepen-
dent, Methodist, and Wesleyan Bodies;
the Unitarian (Free) Church, London-road, and Presbyterian (Church of England); Church of St.Andrew, London-road.
Police: Borough Police-station, High-bridge, London-street; County
Police-station, Abbey-street.
Postal Arrangements: Post
Office (money order, savings bank, tele-
graph, insurance), 99, Broad-street.
Town receiving offices: Brunswick-hill,
Castle-street, Duke-street, London-road,
London-street, New-town, Oxford-read,
Queen's-road, Redlands, Spring-gardens,
the Barracks.
These are all insurance
offices, and there is a telegraph office at
the London-street branch.
Mails from
London, 7 and 8.30am, 3 and 6.45pm; Sundays, 7am,
Mails for London, 2, 9.30, and 10.30am, 12.45, 2.30, 3.30, 4, 7.30, and 8.30pm; Sundays, 2am
Nearest Bridges: Caversham; up, Pangbourne 6¼ miles; down, Sonning 3¾ miles.
Locks: Caversham: up, Whitchurch, 6¼ miles; down, Sonning 3½ miles.
Railway Station: Reading.
Fares to Paddington, Waterloo, or
Charing Cross: 1st, 6/3, 11/8; 2nd, 4/8,
8/3; 3rd, 3/4
Reading Amateur Regatta takes place usually about the end of July, over the excellent course from the Fisheries, down stream to a point above Caversham Bridge, a distance of about a mile and one furlong.
Reading Abbey Boating Club:
A branch of a large club for young men,
founded in Reading in 1872. Subscription, 10s; for honorary members, 5s.
Boat-house at Caversham. Colours, red
and blue, with arms of Reading Abbey.
Reading and District Angling
Association, for the protection and improvement of that portion of the Thames
between Goring Lock and Shiplake Lock.
Annual subscription not less than 10s 6d.
A reward of £1 is offered to any person
who shall give information to any member
of the committee, or bailiff, of any illegal
netting or night poaching, provided that
it be considered by the committee a fit
case for prosecution; and that the
person prosecuted be convicted by the
magistrates.
A reward of pound;1 is offered
for infringement of the "Upper Thames
(Fishery) Bye-laws of 1869", or the Freshwater Fisheries Act of 1878, provided it
lead to the conviction of the offender;
and a similar reward for killing an otter
within the district protected by the Association, or on the Kennet or Loddon
within ten miles of the Thames.
Reading Rowing Club, Upper Ship
Hotel.
Election by committee.
Entrance
fee, 5s; subscription, rowing members,
£1 1s; honorary members, 10s 6d.
Boat-house at Caversham Bridge. Colours, dark blue and white diagonal.
Remenham, Berkshire, on the right
bank, is connected with Oxfordshire by
Henley Bridge.
Population, 533. Soil,
loam; sub-soil, gravel and chalk.
Remenham extends for some distance along
the river.
Park Place, which is so conspicuous a feature in the scenery above
Henley, is in the parish of Remenham
Hill, and the church is almost opposite
Fawley Court, about a mile down the
river from Henley.
Remenham Farm,
close to the church, is one of the first landmarks in the Henley Regatta course.
The
church, which is close to the river, has
been recently restored; but the chancel
apse, which is both ancient and curious,
remains in very much its pristine state.
The windows are all of stained glass, and
are mostly memorials of recent date, and
two good brasses are preserved on the
west wall: the one of Thomas Maryet,
of "Remneham", 1591, has the figure of
a man in armour, the face of which has
been destroyed, and the other of John
Newman, "hujus ecclesiæ quondam pastorus", who died in 1622, represents the
reverend gentleman in full canonicals.
A niche in the vestry contains an antique
decapitated stone statuette.
Lord Palmerston resided during many
of his early days at Woodlands in this
parish.
Place of Worship: St.Nicholas.
Postal Arrangements: Letters through Henley at 7am, Letters for
London, through Henley, at 6.30pm;
Sundays at noon.
The nearest money
order, telegraph, &c., office: is Henley.
Nearest Bridges from Remenham Farm - up, Henley about 1 mile; down,
Marlow 7 miles.
Locks: up, Marsh 2 miles; down, Hambledon 1¼ mile.
Ferry: Aston.
Railway Station: Henley, G.W.R.
Fares, Henley to Paddington: 1st,
6/3, 10/9; 2nd, 4/8, 8/-; 3rd, 2/11½
Richmond, Surrey, on the right bank
from London 15½ miles, from Oxford 96
miles.
A station on the Windsor branch
of the London and South Western Railway, 9¾ miles from Waterloo; average
duration of journey rather less than ½ hour.
Richmond is also in communication with
Ludgate-hill (from 1 hour to 1½ hour);
Mansion House (about ¾ hour); Broad-street (about 1 hour); and Aldgate (1
hour).
Steamboats occasionally run to
Richmond in the summer.
Population,
15,110. Soil: clay, sand, and gravel.
Richmond, one of the most favourite
excursions of Londoners of all classes,
received its present name from Henry
VII., having been previously called
Sheen, which name still survives at East
Sheen, one of the entrances to Richmond
Park.
For a long period Sheen was
a royal residence.
The first three
Edwards resided there.
The third, unable to bear the associations of the
place after it had been the scene of
the death of his wife, dismantled it, but
Henry V. restored it, and also founded a
great monastery of Carthusians, and a
grand tournament at Henry VII.'s manor
of Richmond is now on record.
Henry
VIII. also occasionally visited the Surrey
palace, and at one time lent it to Wolsey.
Queen Elizabeth was imprisoned at Richmond, where she afterwards frequently
resided, and where she died.
Part of
Charles I.'s troubled life was passed here.
The palace stood on the spot now known
as the Green, and has long since disappeared.
From a small village Richmond has
rapidly grown into a considerable town,
and building is still actively carried on.
Its convenient distance from London,
beautiful and healthy situation, and
pleasant neighbourhood, all combine to
make it attractive to those who have
daily business in town, and still want a
certain amount of fresh air, while the
railway facilities have been greatly in-
creased and improved of late years.
Houses, therefore, of all classes, from the
mansion to the cottage, have been lately
springing up in all directions.
The
principal business streets are George-street and Hill-street; the principal
residential portion of the town being
about the hill.
Nothing in the neighbourhood of London is better known or
more delightful than the view from
Richmond Hill and Terrace, and when
Sir Walter Scott described it as an unrivalled landscape, he was hardly saying
too much.
At the top of the hill is the
Great Park, some eight miles in circumference, and affording an infinite variety
of delightful walks and drives.
There
are entrances from Richmond Hill, East
Sheen, Roehampton, Wimbledon, and
Kingston.
Cabs are not admitted.
Angling in the Pen Ponds only by special
permission.
The view of Richmond Hill
and town from the river, here crossed by
a stone bridge of five arches, is extremely
good.
The Richmond Theatre, once very
popular and associated with many great
names - notably with that of Edmund
Kean - is on the Green; but in regard
to public amusements generally Richmond
is practically a London suburb, and the
Waterloo Station is too near the great
theatrical district about the Strand to
give the Richmond Theatre a very
brilliant chance.
There is a parochial
library of about 3,000 volumes and
reading-room at 2, The Quadrant.
The
subscription is 6s per annum, or 2s per
quarter, with 6d entrance fee.
Entertainments and lectures are given in the
winter months.
The Richmond Piscatorial Society has been recently established ,
with headquarters at the "Station Hotel".
"
The Associated Home Company has been
started at Richmond with the object of
providing "a private home, freed by a
joint system of board and service from
the burdens and troubles of isolated
housekeeping".
A handsome mansion
on Richmond Hill has been secured, and
board with service is charged £2 2s per
week.
Rooms are from 10s 6d, to £2 2s per week.
The church is of the hideous red brick
usual hereabouts, but unpromising as it
appears from a cursory view, it contains
many monuments of note.
Here was
buried Edmund Kean, and a tablet to his
memory, with a medallion portrait, has
been erected.
Here also the poet Thomson was interred, and a brass in the west
of the north aisle tells us: "The Earl of
Buchan, unwilling that so good a man
and sweet a poet should be without a
memorial, has denoted the place of his
interment for the satisfaction of his admirers in the year of our Lord 1792."
In the chancel on the right is a mural monument, with two principal and seven subsidiary kneeling figures in stone or alabaster,
to Lady Dorothie Wright, 1631,
and an early brass to Robert Cotton,
"officer of the remooving wardroppe of
ye beddes to Queene Marie".
On the
left is a monument with kneeling figures
to Lady Margaret Chudleigh, 1628; and
a tablet with two marble full-length angels,
by E.H.Baily, R.A., to Samuel Paynter,
who died in 1844.
In the south aisle is
a monument by Flaxman, a full-length
marble figure of a female, apparently
leaning on a pillar letter-box, to Mrs.Barbara Lowther, 1805.
This was erected
by the Duchess of Bolton, Mrs.Lowther's
sister.
In the south gallery is a mural monument, surmounted by a bust, to Robert
Lewes, who appears to have been a barrister.
This bears an odd Latin epitaph,
commencing "Eheu viator siste gradum paulisper", and ending "Abi viator et cave posthac Litiges".
As Cook's local guide observes, Robert Lewes "was
such a great lover of peace and quietness,
that when a contention arose in his body
between life and death, he immediately
gave up the ghost to end the dispute".
The remaining churches are modern
erections of no special attractiveness.
On
Richmond Hill is the Wesleyan Theological Institution for the training of
ministers.
There are almshouses for over
seventy poor people, of which Hickey's
Almshouses are said to have an income of
more than £1,000 a year.
Many celebrated names besides those
connected with the church of St.Mary
Magdalen are associated with Richmond.
Dean Swift lived in a house on the site of
the old monastery, and Thomson, the
poet, lived and died in the house now
used as the Richmond Hospital.
The
matron's sitting-room was occupied by
him, and is still called Thomson's Room.
Banks: London and County, George-street; London and Provincial, Hill-street.
Fire: Engine-station, The Square.
Hospital: The Richmond Hospital.
Hotels and Inns: "Greyhound", "King's Head", "Star and Garter",
"Station", "Talbot", "Three Pigeons".
Places of Worship: Hickey's Alms houses Chapel; Holy Trinity Church;
St.John's; St.Mary Magdalen (parish);
and St.Matthias; the Roman Catholic
Church of St.Elizabeth; and Baptist,
Congregational, Independent, Presbyterian, Primitive Methodist, and Wesleyan
Chapels.
Police: Metropolitan (V Division), Station, George-street.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, savings' bank, telegraph,
insurance), George-street.
Mails from London, 6.30 and 8.30am, 1.50, 3.50, 6.50, and 9pm.
No delivery on Sunday, but letters are delivered on Saturday at 9pm
Mails for London, 6.15 and 9.35am, 12.50, 3.05, 5.15, 9.15, and 10pm; Sunday, 8.30pm
Nearest Bridges: Richmond; up, Kingston 5 miles; down, Kew 3 miles.
Lock: up, Teddington, 3 miles.
Ferries: Petersham and Isleworth.
Fares to Waterloo, 1st, 1/3, 2/-; 2nd,
1/- 1/6; 3rd, 9d, 1/3.
To Broad-street,
1st, 1/6, 2/3; 2nd, 1/2, 1/8; 3rd, 1/-, 1/6.
To Ludgate-hill or Mansion House, 1st, 1/6, 2/3; 2nd, 1/3, 1/9; 3rd, 1/-, 1/6.
To the Tower, 1st, 1/8, 2/6; 2nd, 1/4, 1/11; 3rd, 11d, 1/8
An 8 foot can buoy, made of wood, and painted black.
It is situated in Sea Reach, on the Leigh
Middle Sand, to the westward of Southend Light, and marks fourteen feet of
water at low-water spring tide.
It is
moored with twelve fathoms of chain.
This buoy belongs to the Trinity House,
An 8 foot convex-bottomed conical buoy, surmounted by staff and diamond, made of
iron, and painted black with white rings.
It is situated in Sea Reach, to the eastward of the Leigh Middle Sand, and
marks twenty-three feet of water at low water spring tide.
It is moored with
twelve fathom of chain. This buoy
belongs to the Trinity House.
Rivers Purification Association,
Limited, 232, Gresham House, E.C.
The objects of this association are to
assist towns and sanitary authorities to
comply with the requirements of the
Rivers Pollution Prevention Act, and to
undertake the work of sewage purification
for town and sanitary authorities.
The Roach "is a deserved favourite
with the London angler, and when in
season a plucky fish, and with fine tackle
affords very exciting sport.
Great skill
is necessary in their capture, although a
notion exists among many that it is an
easy fish to hook, if not to land.
Yet
this idea probably arises from a limited
experience of some small and confined
pond in which food is scarce, and those
who entertain it have but to try their
skill in a large river to prove how false is
the assumption.
Roach spawn about
the middle of May, but the period varies
greatly in different localities, and even in
the same river, as that of the Thames.
Its prime season is in October and November, beginning to feed well in September, when their vegetable food fails
them by the weeds turning sour".
("Book of the Roach", Longman and Co.)
The
rod should be light and somewhat pliant,
and of bamboo; the line, either gut or
single hair; hook No.11 or 12; baits (if
float-fishing with tight line), pastes,
gentles, or red worms; when the water
is coloured the float should be suited to
the water you are fishing.
If you can
well command the swim there should not
be more than eighteen inches between
the float and the top of the rod, the latter
being always kept over the float if possible.
With a tight line the bait may be
within an inch of the bottom, but if with
running or travelling it should just touch
it, tripping over the pebbly bottom as is
natural to substances carried along by
the current.
Ground bait for roach is
necessary.
This is made by the crumb
of bread dipped in warm water and then
kneaded up with coarse bran or pollard,
and sunk in the swim in balls squeezed
hard with a stone in them, or clay mixed
with them to sink them.
If a good swim is
once found the angler should never desert
it, as his constant visits and baiting will
eventually bring the fish to the spot in
expectation of a repetition of the refection.
In the autumn roach retire to the deeps,
in the summer they are found in about
three feet of water.
A light hand is
necessary in striking the roach.
Their
individual weight in our river seldom
exceeds 1½ lb or 2 lb, although very
exceptionable individual fish up to 3 lb were caught during the autumn of 1879.
Very many handsome trays of roach
were got in the lower districts as far down
as Putney during the season of 1879.
The
fish ran very large for the Thames, 1 lb and 1½ lb fish not being uncommon.
These fish travel down stream with the
up-country water and floods; as soon as
these subside, and the "bad water" from
below assumes its supremacy of volume,
the fish head back again into the Richmond and Twickenham districts out of
reach of the nets, which are unceasingly
at work to the east of Isleworth.
Romney Island, a narrow island
rather more than half a mile long, just
below Windsor Bridge, and extending to
the playing fields of Eton College.
At
its upper extremity is The Cobbler, a
long point projecting into the stream.
The cut to Romney Lock is on the
right; the weir, where there is a bathing
place of the Eton masters, is on the
left.
These popular and well-conducted gardens are on
the high road to the west of Gravesend,
and can be reached direct from the
steamboat pier.
The admission is 6d,
and there is a constant succession of
amusement throughout the day; dancing
on the circular platform from 2 o'clock to
11 being a special and favourite feature.
Besides the tea and shrimps so dear to
the heart of the Gravesend excursionist,
other refreshments of a more substantial
and stimulating character can be obtained at very reasonable rates.
The
extent of the grounds, which are tastefully
laid out and produce abundance of
flowers, is about 20 acres.
There is a
conservatory about 200 feet long, a bijou
theatre, a maze, museum, "baronial
hall", occasionally used for dancing, but
more often for purposes of refreshment.
There is a very good fernery and a bear-pit, and some 10 miles of walks are held
out as additional inducements to the excursion public.
The peculiar situation
of Rosherville - it being an old chalk
quarry - has lent itself admirably to the
landscape gardener's art, and the result
is a really pretty and remarkable diversified garden, in which it is quite feasible
to pass that "Happy Day" which in the
advertisements is always coupled with
the name of Rosherville.
For railway
and steamboat arrangements, see Gravesend and Steamboats.
| The following are the principal Rowing Clubs on the river, with their headquarters and colours, information as to which has been received from the various officers. They will be found described under their respective headings: | ||
|---|---|---|
| Name of Club | Headquarters | Colours |
| Anglian Boat Club | Chiswick | Marone, black, and light blue |
| Ariadne Boat Club | Hammersmith | Purple and white |
| [Beanconsfield Rowing Club | Greenwich | ] |
| Chertsey Rowing Club | Chertsey | Black, white vertical stripes |
| Cooper's Hill Boat Club | Chertsey | Dark blue and yellow |
| Eton College Boat Club (the eight) | Eton | Light blue, white cap |
| Eton Excelsior Rowing Club | Eton | Dark blue and amber |
| Falcon Boat Club | Oxford | Black, blue, and yellow |
| Grove Park Rowing Club | Chiswick | Red, black, and yellow |
| Henley Boat Club | Henley | Blue |
| Kensington Rowing Club | Hammersmith | Pink and black |
| Kingston Rowing Club | Kingston | Scarlet and white horizontal |
| Kingston Junior Rowing Club | Kingston | Black, gold vertical stripes |
| Leander Club | Hammersmith | Red |
| London Rowing Club | Putney | Blue, white vertical stripes |
| London Hospital Rowing Club | Hammersmith | Red and black stripe |
| Lower Thames Rowing Club | Greenwich | Black and light blue |
| Maidenhead Rowing Club | Maidenhead | Dark blue and primrose |
| Marlow Rowing Club | Marlow | Cardinal |
| Metropolitan Railway Rowing Club | Hammersmith | Blue and violet |
| Moulsey Boat Club | Molesey | Black, white vertical stripes |
| Neptune Rowing Club | Oxford | Orange, black, and red |
| North London Rowing Club | Hammersmith | Dark blue and light blue vertical |
| Occidental Rowing Club | Hammersmith | Blue, black, and gold diagonals |
| Oxford University Boat Club (the eight) | Oxford | Dark blue |
| Radley Boat Club | Radley | Red and white |
| Reading Abbey Boat Club | [Reading] | Red and blue, with arms of Reading Abbey |
| Reading Rowing Club | Reading | Dark blue, white diagonals |
| Staines Rowing Club | [] | Red and black |
| Thames Rowing Club | Putney | Red, white, and black |
| Twickenham Rowing Club | Dark blue, crimson horizontal stripe | |
| Vesta Rowing Club | Crimson, black stripes oblique | |
| Waldegrave Rowing Club | Twickenham | Black and gold |
| West London Rowing Club | Scarlet and white stripes | |
Royal Harwich Yacht Club:
Headquarters, Harwich.
Entrance fee,
£1 1s; subscription, £1 1s.
Burgee
blue, with lion rampant or; ensign blue,
with lion rampant or.
Royal London Yacht Club, 22,
Regent-street, London, S.W:
The object
of this club is the improvement of yacht
building and the encouragement of yacht
sailing.
The election is by ballot of the
committee; one black ball in four excludes.
The officers are commodore, vice-commodore, rear-commodore, and cup bearer.
The general affairs of the club
are managed by a committee consisting
of the flag-officers, cup-bearer, and not
exceeding twenty four members, of whom
three shall form a quorum.
A branch of
the club has been established at Cowes.
Entrance fee, £5 5s; subscription, £4 4s.
,
to either house of the club, and £6 6s
to both.
Burgee blue, with crown over
City arms; ensign blue, with crown over
City arms in the fly.
Royal Thames Yacht Club, 7, Albemarle-street:
The object of the club
is the encouragement of yacht building
and sailing on the River Thames, and
the funds are appropriated, after payment
of necessary current expenses, to the
purchase of prizes to be sailed for.
The
officers are a commodore, vice-commodore, rear-commodore, three trustees,
secretary, cup-bearer, and three auditors;
the commodore, vice-commodore, rear-commodore, and trustees are ex-officio
members of all committees.
The secretary is a paid officer.
The subscriptions
are, for members who have joined the
club prior to the 1st May, 1874, £5 5s;
for members admitted after the above
date, £7 7s, except in the case of a
candidate owning, on being elected a
member, a yacht of or exceeding the
lowest tonnage classed in the club matches,
whose subscription shall be £5 5s.
The
entrance fee is £21, except in the case of
yacht owners, who only pay £15 15s.
The election is by ballot in committee,
eight members form a quorum, and one
black ball in four excludes.
The general
committee of management consists of
twenty-one members, exclusive of the
ex-officio members, five to form a quorum.
The ensign and burgee of the club are
thus defined by Rule 21: The club flag
shall be the blue ensign of Her Majesty's
fleet agreeably to a warrant dated 24th
July, 1848, granted to the club by the
Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty;
the burgee shall be blue with a white
cross, and a red crown in the centre; the
hoist of the ensign to be two thirds of
the length, the burgee to be always hoisted
with the club ensign.
Sailors' Home, Well-street, E.
was originally founded in 1828 by Captain
R. J. Elliott, R.N., Admiral G.C.Gambier, and Lieut.R.Justice, R.N., who,
in the previous year, had successfully
started the Destitute Sailors' Asylum.
St.Clement's Reach, sometimes called Fiddler's Reach, runs from Greenhithe to Grays Thurrock, about a mile
and three quarters.
Opposite Greenhithe
on the Essex bank is Stoneness Beacon,
and opposite the so-called Black Shelf,
west of Grays Thurrock, is Broadness.
The tide runs very strongly round this
point.
On the north of the reach is West
Thurrock.
Bearings E.N.E. and W.S.W.
St.Katharine Docks, belonging to
the same company as the London and
Victoria Docks, adjoin the east side of
the Tower, from which they are separated
only by Little Tower-hill, running from
the Minories to Irongate Stairs.
They
are best reached from the west from
Aldgate Station down the Minories to the
entrance in Upper East Smithfield, or
from the east by the Leman-street Station
of the Blackwall Railway.
There may be more causes
than one to which the entire absence of
salmon from the Thames are attributable,
but pollutions alone would sufficiently
account for their absence.
Mr.Buckland,
in his "Familiar History of British
Fisheries", says: "I feel more and more
certain every day that purity of water is
the principal element of a good salmon
fishery; if, therefore, stinking water is
allowed to go into the river, the fish will
perceive the fact when he may be possibly
miles down the river.
A foxhound can
smell the scent of the fox on the ground,
even although the fox may have passed
over the ground a considerable time
before.
We ourselves can smell weeds
being burnt in a field at a very great
distance.
Just so the salmon may receive
cognisance of a town sewer, or tar water,
or the dirty water from sheep washing,
for a long distance down the river.
His
instinct will teach him there is danger
ahead, and he is very likely to fall back
again, and small blame to him."
Yet, strange to say, Mr.Buckland has introduced countless numbers of the young of
salmon during the last twenty years past,
and that at a period when the Thames
during its history was never so before
polluted.
Abominations which have
existed since the suppression of the
cesspool system are in themselves sufficient to have occasioned this change,
and to have caused so susceptible a fish
as the salmon to turn from the waters
as a fitting breeding ground; and when
it is considered that the filth of the entire
metropolitan area, so enormously increased in extent of late years, now
forms a concentrated flow at Barking
and Crossness, any expectation that the
salmon fisheries will ever revive is in the
highest degree problematical, if not
altogether beyond reason.
Indeed, long
before pollutions did not exist, and weirs
(one cause assigned by many) did not
prevail, and the water at Old London
Bridge was considered sufficiently pure for
the requirements of domestic purposes, the
takes of salmon were few and far between.
In confirmation of this statement it
may be of interest to refer back to the
time when salmon and salmon-fry were
taken in the Thames, and their gradual
exodus from the river.
There is an
allusion in a work in the British Museum
to a stew or fish-pond then still existing
(time 1655) in the residence of one Sir
Richard Constable, a mercer, on old
London Bridge.
The house had originally been a chapel dedicated to St.
Thomas A'Becket, and the stew - a large
square grated opening in the starling of
the bridge - was reached by a long winding stair leading to a dark vaulted
chamber.
The writer says:"Whatever
luxuries in the salmon way the monks
used to have, there is but one caught now
and then; they have for the most part
gone long ago, poisoned out by the sad
nuisances the people throw into the river.
It is well known that salmon will not
pass through any water in the slightest
degree impregnated with blood, and that
malicious persons have succeeded in
turning shoals of spawning fish back to
the sea by the mere act of throwing the
entrails of a sheep into a pool en route to
the upper waters of a river."
In The British Spy, September 27th,
1735:
"On Saturday afternoon, in the
reach between Limehouse and Deptford,
a fisherman caught in a common net
a large salmon, which he immediately
sold to a gentleman passing for two
guineas.
When the buyer landed
at Deptford it was alive, and 34 in.
long and 15 in. round.
The fisherman
that rowed, seeing so large a fish in
the net, had the presence of mind to
jump over, and holding by the boat's
gunnel, with one hand, threw the fish in
with the other, fearing the net would
break."
In 1784 The London Chronicle of April
13 says:
"A salmon which weighed near
30 lb. was taken off one of the starlings
of London Bridge by two watermen, who
saw it leap out of the water at low-water
mark, and immediately put off in their
boat."
In the same journal on May 26,
1766:
"Yesterday was caught in the
Thames a salmon of a most extraordinary
size; it weighed 51½ lb, measured from
eye to fork 4 ft 5in, and round the
middle 2 ft 4 in".
Faulkner, in his "History of Fulham",
1813, writes:
"The salmon caught here
are highly esteemed, and sell from 5s to
12s per pound.
Only one was caught
here during the last season.
They have
abandoned the Thames since the opening
of the docks."
The price here would
tend to show their scarcity.
From observations taken at Boulter's
Lock and Pool, above Maidenhead, until
comparatively recent years the first lock
and weir then on the Thames, by the
Rev. George Venables, from 1794 to 1821,
a period of twenty-eight years, there were
483 salmon only, of an aggregate weight
of 7,346 lb, or about an individual
average of 12 lb weight, taken in the
nets.
Before, however, the notion of coaxing
these fish again up the Thames was looked
upon as chimerical, fish passes were
erected at Teddington and Sunbury
Weirs.
But it is true these helps to
migration were built in such a way that
no fish whatever, such as dace that congregated in the breeding season, and were
trying to surmount the barriers to their
progress up stream, were ever seen to
take advantage of the help thus afforded
to them.
There is no record extant which alludes
to the taking of salmon by the fly as
in other salmon rivers where they were
and are still plentiful.
But the fry or
young of salmon, called "skeggers",
were caught in vast numbers in this way,
more particularly on the shallows between
Laleham and Staines.
One of the Harris
family of fishermen, who worked the ferry
at Laleham, used to put his rod in a hole
in the stern of his boat with two artificial
flies on his line with a small gentle, and
thus allowed his tackle to fish for itself
as he rowed to and fro from either side,
taking off his fish upon landing.
In this
way he was known to catch many dozen
of these fish throughout the day, as at
that period little was known of the startling
changes salmon undergo from their babyhood to maturity, and these skeggers have
since been proved indubitably to be the
youthful produce of the parent salmon.
Sandford, Oxfordshire, on the left
bank, 108¾ miles from London, 2¾ miles
from Oxford.
Population, 348. Soil,
heavy clay.
Sandford is a village nestling
in a well-wooded country, its most picturesque portion lying in a dip at the back
of the churchyard, where is an old farmhouse, dating from the beginning of the
17th century, which deserves attention.
A walk of about seven minutes from the
river leads to the church, which was
originally founded in the time of William
the Norman, and which has been twice
extensively restored within the last thirty
years, the last time in 1864.
A memorial
of a former restorer exists in the shape of
a tablet over the porch, bearing the
following inscription:
"Condidit me Dnina Eliza Isham Anno Gratiæ 1652.
Porticus patronæ.
Thanks to thy charitie religiose dame,
Wch found mee old, and made mee new againe."
Within the church is a mural monument
to one William Powell, dated 1661, and
adorned with the cherubs and skull so dear
to the monumental designer of that period.
On the east wall is an elaborate carving in
a somewhat defaced condition, which is
said to represent the Assumption of the
Virgin.
This interesting specimen of
16th-century art was found buried in the
churchyard, where it had probably been
concealed from the spoiler.
The church
stands in a quaint little walled churchyard,
containing very ancient grave-stones, and
made bright and cheerful with standard
roses along the main pathway.
From
one side of it is a view of the old farm-
house and of some fine trees, which,
together, make a picture such as Creswick delighted to paint.
Abutting on the churchyard at the west end are the schools,
built in 1860 and 1868; and opposite are
the village shop and post-office.
A Preceptory of Knights Templars
was founded in Sandford by Queen
Maud, which latterly fell into the possession of the Knights Hospitallers.
The pool here is good for pike and
perch, and where the water is quiet,
heavy bags of roach may be made in the
season, particularly during September
and October, when the aquatic vegetation upon which the fish feed becomes
sour and unpalatable.
All the way down
below Nuneham good swims may be
found for roach and gudgeon, while
under the overhanging trees of Nuneham
Park very handsome chub lie in wait for
the insects that breed and fall from the
foliage.
Inn: The "King's Arms".
Place of Worship: St.Andrew's.
Postal Arrangements: Mails from
London, from 6.45 to 9; same on Sunday.
Mails for London, 5.45pm; Sunday, 2.45pm
Nearest telegraph office, Cowley.
Nearest Bridges, up, Folly Bridge,
Oxford 2¾ miles; down, Abingdon 5
miles.
Locks: up, Iffley 1¾ mile; down, Abingdon 4½ miles.
Railway Station: Littlemore, near Oxford.
FARES, from Littlemore to Paddington: 1st, 10/9, 18/-; 2nd, 7/6, 12/6;
3rd, 5/-.
Seamen's Christian Friend Society. Office, 237, Commercial-road, E.;
Institution, 215 and 216, St.George-street.
Seamen's Hospital Society (late
Dreadnought), Greenwich: This excellent institution owed its origin to the
funds subscribed in 1817 and 1818 for the
temporary relief of distressed seamen.
In 1821 the hospital was established on
board the Grampus, a 50-gun ship, at
Greenwich.
More accommodation being
required, the Grampus, in 1830, was exchanged for the Dreadnought, 104 guns.
In 1857, this vessel having become very
unhealthy, was replaced by the Caledonia,
120 guns, which then took the name of
the old Dreadnought.
Although much
good was done in these floating hospitals, the drawbacks inseparable from
ship-life were found to be serious.
Questions of ventilation, of light, of quiet, and
of access, became, at last, so pressing
that the committee of the society were
only too glad to take the opportunity of
the vacation of Greenwich Hospital by
the pensioners and to move their patients
ashore in April, 1870.
The Seamen's
Hospital Dispensary, near the London
Docks, was opened in October, 1880, as
an out-patient department of the hospital, and is free to bona-fide sailors of all
nations.
Sea Reach runs east and west front
the Mucking to the Nore, being about
12 nautical miles.
The banks are, for
the most part, flat and shoaly, with
hills rising behind, and the river here
rapidly widens.
On the north (Essex)
side of Sea Reach, approaching the Nore,
are Canvey Island; the Chapman Light;
the Leigh Middle, with its two buoys;
Southend; and the West and Middle
Shoebury buoys, at the edge of the
Maplin Sands.
On the South (Kent)
is the Blyth Sand, extending some six
nautical miles, with three buoys; the
Yantlet Middle with its buoy; the Jenkin
Buoy; and the Nore Sand and buoy.
A
little distance above the Nore the Medway enters the Thames at Sheerness, the
Sheerness Middle and Grain Spit being
marked by buoys.
Bearings E.S.E. and W.N.W.
The industrial School ship of the London School Board
has been stationed at Grays since July,
1878, and is certified for 350 inmates, 70
of whom may be Roman Catholics.
The
boys are sent to the Shaftesbury by two
justices, or a stipendiary magistrate in the
metropolis, and are children whose cases
come under the provisions of Sections 14
and 16 of the Industrial Schools Act,
1866.
A child may also be sent to an
industrial school under Section 12 of the
"Elementary Education Act of 1876",
where an attendance order has not been
complied with, and where the parent
satisfies the court that he has used all
reasonable efforts to compel the child to
attend school.
Sheerness, Kent, on the right bank,
at the mouth of the river, from London
about 46 miles.
A station on the Sittingbourne branch of the London, Chatham,
and Dover Railway; about two hours
from London.
The station is five
minutes' walk from the steamboat-pier,
and about twenty minutes' walk from the
post-office.
Population, 13,956. Soil,
London Basin with sand.
Sheerness is
a fortified dockyard and garrison town,
barring the mouth of the Medway, and
the fortifications are of considerable importance and mount a large number of
heavy guns.
The dockyard is only of
secondary importance, owing to the fact
of its basins being too small to accommodate the large iron ships of the present
time.
Vessels of a smaller class are
repaired and fitted, and wooden ships are
occasionally built.
In Sheerness Dockyard is the only naval barrack in England.
It has accommodation for 1000 men.
The
visitor who is desirous of seeing what an
English dockyard of the first class is
like should take a steamer to Chatham.
Admission to Sheerness Dockyard is
easily obtained - the only requisite being
that the name of the visitor should be
inscribed in a book at the principal
entrance.
Casual visitors, however, not
being allowed to enter the workshops,
practically miss the most interesting
part of the show.
For more extended
facilities, application should be made to
the Captain-Superintendent.
The older
part of the town, which is in fact Sheerness
proper, and which contains the dockyard,
railway station, &c, is known as Bluetown, and has been supplemented of late
years by three suburbs known as Miletown, Bankstown, and Marinetown, the
three being generically known as Sheerness-on-Sea.
It appears to have been
the intention of Sir Edward Banks - who
founded Bankstown, and whose private
residence has since been converted into
the "Royal Hotel" - and of the land
societies who are responsible for the
erection of Marinetown, to found a
watering-place in emulation of Southend
over the way.
The effort, however well
intended, has not been crowned with a
brilliant success.
There is a long and
well-built sea-wall, which, as to its frontage, is trim and orderly enough; but the
back of the embankment, which presents
itself to the view of Marinetown, is but
an untidy and shabby piece of work.
The shingly beach affords good bathing.
There are bathing-machines and a
swimming-bath, available for gentlemen,
at all times of the tide.
Miletown contains one building of
great interest to the Wesleyan connection.
The chapel in Hope-street was
built and used by the Rev.John Wesley,
the founder of the great Wesleyan community.
It is a wooden edifice, and 40
years ago was removed from Bluetown
to its present site.
There is a handsome building at the
corner of Trinity-road, known as the
Victoria Hall, containing accommodation
for concerts, theatrical, and other enter-
tainments, and capable of seating about
1,200.
The Literary Institute, with
reading-room and smoking-room (admission 1d), occupies a portion of the upper
floor.
The institute has a library of about
2,500 volumes.
A similar institution, for
the benefit of the garrison, is situated
close to the entrance to the Royal
Artillery Barracks, and is a building containing, on the ground floor, a large room
for games, &c, where bagatelle-boards,
dominoes, &c., are provided.
At one end
of this room there is a refreshment bar, at
which refreshments, except intoxicating
liquors, may be obtained.
On the upper
floor is a large reading-room, with newspapers and periodicals.
This room is
also fitted up as a theatre, and here
theatrical representations take place, as
well as concerts and penny-readings, by
officers, non-commissioned officers, and
men.
There is a library of 1,800 volumes
of history, biography, fiction, &c.
There
are quarters for the librarian in the
building, and adjacent to it is the fives
court, gymnasium, and quoit-ground.
The whole is managed under the regulations laid down for the purpose in the
Queen's Regulations and Orders for the
Army.
A Freemasons' lodge meets in the
Victoria-buildings.
The 13th Kent
Artillery Volunteers have their head-
quarters at Sheerness.
Steamers run daily in the summer to
Chatham, Rochester, and Southend.
Sheppey Cliffs are worth a visit, and
there are some curious little villages in
the island; otherwise the excursionist
must at present rely on the train which
joins the main London, Chatham, and
Dover Railway at Sittingbourne, and
affords ready access to the Kentish coast,
&c.
The line from Higham across the
Isle of Grain gives Sheerness another
convenient route to London.
Bank: London and County, High-street, Bluetown.
Hotels: "Fountain", Blue-town, close to pier and station; "Royal", Banks-town.
Market Day: Saturday.
Places of Worship: Dockyard
Chapel, Holy Trinity, and St.Paul's
(parish church); the Roman Catholic
Church of St.Henry and St.Elizabeth,
and Catholic Apostolic Church; Baptist,
Bible Christian, Congregational, Primitive Methodist, and Wesleyan Chapels.
Police Station: Railway-road, close to station .
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, savings bank, telegraph,
and insurance): Head office, High-street, Mile-town;
Branches in High-street, Blue-town, and Redan-place, Marine-town.
The Blue-town and Marine-town branches also transact insurance business.
Mails from London at 7 and 10.30am, 7pm
Mails for London at 7.50 and 10.45am, and 2.30, 7.20, and 8.20pm.
On Sundays, 7am from London, and 6.10pm for London.
Nearest Bridge: Rochester;
Station and Ferry: Sheerness.
Fares to Victoria, Holborn Viaduct,
and Ludgate: 1st, 8/-, 12/-; 2nd, 6/-, 9/-;
3rd, 3/6, 6/-.
Fares to Charing Cross: The same.
An 8-foot,
convex-bottomed, conical buoy, made of
iron, and painted black, and surmounted
with staff and globe. It is situated at
the edge of the Middle Ground Shoal, at
the entrance to the Medway, and marks
a depth of water, at low-water spring
tide, of 20 feet.
It is moored with 10
fathom of chain. The Sheerness Middle
Buoy belongs to the Trinity House.
Shepperton, Middlesex, on the left
bank, from London 30 miles, from Oxford
81½ miles, a terminus on a branch of the
South Western Railway, 19 miles from
Waterloo; train takes about one hour.
Flys meet the trains.
Population, 1,126.
Soil, gravel.
A small village with some
good houses and offering plenty of fishing,
but calling for no description or remark.
The station is an easy fifteen minutes'
walk from the river, close to which are
the church and the post-office.
The present church, perfectly cruciform,
with tower at west end, was built, 1614,
out of the débris of a former church
standing over the Thames and built on
piles (many wills being still extant leaving
legacies to add piles to its foundation).
On dit a flood of the Thames washed
down the former edifice; its only memorial
is in a picture painted in 1548 by Anthony
Vander Wyngrede of the Palace at Oatlands, now in the Bodleian Library,
Oxford, where the church stands with
spire in the distant bend of the Thames.
The arches, windows, and sepulchral
slabs in the present church came from
the former; the brick tower being added
by the rector, L.Atterbury, brother to
the well-known Bishop of Rochester, in 1710;
the five bells being new in 1877.
The learned Grocyn, the correspondent
and friend of Erasmus, was rector in
1504, and entertained that reformer in the
rectory, still standing.
The rectory, a
beautiful and unique oak-built house,
some 400 years old, is deceptive to a
casual observer, looking like a brick house,
with two wings, twenty-one windows in
front, and surrounded by gardens.
Less
than 100 years ago the oak house was
covered with mathematical tiles to keep
out damp, and the interior was modernised
to suit modern requirements, but without
altering the ground plan or original structure, which are still apparent to an architect's eye.
The late squire of the village
was a well-known man, William Schaw
Lindsay, M.P. for Sunderland, and in
early youth a cabin-boy in a Liverpool East Indiaman.
His tomb is in
the village cemetery.
A tomb in the churchyard, nearly illegible, is very curious, dedicated to the memory of a negro and his wife by Sir Pat.Blake, Bart., of Langham, Suffolk:
Benjamin and Cotto Blake,
from the Isle of Colombo.
Go to Mauritania, Reader,
learn duty of an Ethiopian,
and know that virtue
inhabiteth skins of other colours than
thine own.
In the churchyard, also, is that rarest of all black swans, a pretty and graceful epitaph, which well deserves quotation:
Long night succeeds thy little day,
O ! blighted blossom, can it be
That this grey stone and grassy clay
Have closed our anxious care of thee ?
The half-formed words of liveliest thought
That spoke a mind beyond thy years,
The song, the dance, by nature taught,
The sunny smiles, the transient tears.
The symmetry of face and form,
The eye with light and life replete,
The little heart so fondly warm,
The voice so musically sweet;
These lost to hope, in memory yet
Around the hearts that loved thee cling,
Shadowing with long and vain regret
The too fair promise of thy spring.
The grave is that of Margaret Love Peacock, a child of three years old, who died in 1826.
There is good fishing about Shepperton
and Halliford.
Hotel: "The Anchor".
Place of Worship: St.Nicholas.
Postal Arrangements: (The Post
Office is now called Upper Shepperton).
Mails from London, 7 and 11am, 6.45pm; Sunday, 7am
Mails for London, 8.55am, 1.50, 7.15, and 8.25pm; Sunday, 10am
The nearest money order office is Shepperton.
Telegraph-
office at the Shepperton post-office.
Nearest Bridges: up, Chertsey 1¾ mile; down, Walton 2½ miles.
Locks: Shepperton; up, Chertsey 2 miles; down,
Sunbury 3½ miles.
Ferry and Railway
Station: Shepperton.
Fares to Waterloo: 1st, 3/-, 4/-; 2nd,
2 /4, 3/-; 3rd, 1/6, 2 / 6
The Isle of Sheppey on the north coast
of Kent, about 11 miles long and 4 broad,
is bounded on the north and west by the
Thames and Medway, and on the south
by the Swale.
The principal places in
the island are Sheerness and Queenborough.
The Sheppey oyster fishery is
of considerable importance, and its headquarters are at Cheyney Rock House.
Shillingford Bridge spans the river
with three stone arches, and connects
Oxfordshire and Berkshire about 2½ miles
above Wallingford.
On the Berkshire
side is the "Swan Inn", where rowing
or picnic parties will find comfortable
accommodation.
Shiplake, Oxfordshire, on the left
bank, from London 68¾ miles, from
Oxford, 42¾ miles.
A station on the
Henley branch of the Great Western
Railway, about an hour to an hour and
a half to Paddington by fast trains.
Population, 586. Soil, gravel and chalk.
Shiplake is a village pleasantly planted
on the riverside, its prettiest portion
being on the chalk hill which overhangs
the river just above the lock.
The church
is dedicated to St.Peter and St.Paul,
and was re-opened in 1870, after restoration, during which a chancel was added,
and the peal of bells completed.
The
stained-glass windows are very ancient,
having originally been in the Abbey of
St.Bertin, at St.Omer.
Grainger, author
of the "Biographical History of England",
was vicar of Shiplake, and died in 1766,
while officiating at the Holy Communion.
There is a fine bust of Mr. Plowden in
the church over his memorial-stone.
Mr.Plowden formerly lived at Shiplake
Court, which was pulled down in 1801;
remains of its terraced garden sloping to
the river are still to be seen near the chalkpit.
In this church Alfred Tennyson
was married.
The fine old deer-park and
mansion called Crowsley Park, the seat
of Major Baskerville, lord of the manor,
and The Coppice, the seat of the Rt.Hon.Sir Robert Phillimore, are in this parish;
also Holmwood, and Shiplake House.
The vicarage was rebuilt by the present
vicar in 1868.
The Loddon, Pope's
Lodona, enters the Thames just below
Shiplake Lock.
Place of Worship: St.Peter and
St.Paul.
Postal Arrangements: Letters
through Henley.
Mails from London,
8am, in winter, and 7.30am, in summer.
The letter-box at Church Lane is cleared at 6.40pm, and on Sundays at 11.40am;
that at Binfield Heath at 6.15pm, and on Sundays at 11.15am,
The nearest money-order, &c, office is at Henley.
Nearest Bridges: Up, Sonning, 2½ miles; down, Henley 3¾ miles.
Locks: Shiplake; up, Sonning 2¾ miles; down, Marsh 2¾ miles.
Ferries: Wargrave and Shiplake.
Railway Station: Shiplake.
Fares to Paddington, 1st, 6/-, 10/-;
2nd, 4/6, 7/6; 3rd, 2/10.
Shipping Office, 133, E.India Dock-road, established under the Board of Trade in 1851 as a medium of communication between owners and seamen, all engagements between whom in the port of London must by law be made through it Hours, 10am, to 4pm.
Shoebury, a small village six miles
from Southend by road, important only
on account of its artillery barrack, and
the big gun ranges across the Maplin
Sands at Shoeburyness.
Here some of
the most important experiments in connection with the rapid development of
modern ordnance have taken place, and
here annually in August assemble the
Artillery Volunteers, to go through much
harder work, and to compete for much
less valuable prizes, than their more
fortunate and fashionable brethren of the
rifle at Wimbledon.
Except to those
actually interested in gunnery, or as a
drive on a summer afternoon from Southend, there is no reason to recommend a
visit to Shoebury.
Shoebury Middle Buoy, an 8 foot
cylinder buoy, made of iron, and painted
black.
It is situated about a mile and a
half to the eastward of the West Shoebury Buoy, and marks 27 feet of water at
low- water spring tide.
It is moored with
10 fathom of chain. The Shoebury buoys
belong to the Trinity House.
Shoebury West Buoy, an 8 foot
cylinder buoy, made of iron and painted
black.
It is situated on the north side of
Sea Reach, to the eastward of Southend
Pier, on the edge of the Maplin Sands, and
marks 24 feet of water at low-water spring
tide. It is moored with 12 fathom of
chain.
There are upwards of 100 sailing decked boats
employed in trawling for shrimps in the
Leigh (Essex) district, and some dozen
row-boats.
The row-boats are likewise
employed here in the search for cockles,
and line-fishing for bait for larger fish.
Fish under 7in are liable to be seized.
Each sailing-boat is generally worked by
two men and a boy.
There is but little
whelk or mussel fishing.
The visitor
may see beds of these at low water round
towards Southend, but they are brought
from afar and laid down principally for
bait, notices being posted againt their removal.
The cockles are found on the
flats when the tide is very low, and the
fishermen know where to dig for them,
as they leave a peculiar mark on the
surface.
Cockles are not allowed to be
taken within the jurisdiction of the Conservancy until they are fit for the market
- about 1¼in from the front of the shell
to the nib athwart the back of it; less
than this are termed brood.
No oyster spat falls about Leigh, but a few oysters
are laid down on private grounds.
Shrimps are caught in a long bag net
stretched on a beam, which when sunk
scrapes the ground as the boat sails on,
and compels the shrimps to enter it.
These trawls are seldom down more
than half-an-hour, and sometimes but
a few minutes.
When the trawl is
raised on to the deck, the weeds are
first "culled" out and the shrimps are
thrown with shovels against almost
upright wire sieves and of different calibres; the larger ones are thus separated,
and the very small shrimps thrown overboard - at least, they ought to be; but
many of them are killed in the trawl.
In
the winter time the bars of the sieves are
closer together, as shrimps are always
smaller in August, September, and October, and then the familiar hand-nets by
wading are mostly used.
The shrimping
grounds extend from the mouth of the
Thames nearly to Sheerness and Herne
Bay, a distance of 35 miles.
It is the
opinion of the fishermen that the supply
of shrimps, despite the tons that are daily
sent up to the metropolis, is as great as
ever.
But it is only the West End fishmongers and the principal hotels at Leigh,
Gravesend, &c., that can secure the finest
and largest, some of which, the brown
shrimp particularly, are of a size to
astonish those who only see the shrimp
on stalls or hawked about in baskets.
There is an assistant river-keeper, whose
duty it is to examine the nets, and if the
meshes are under the proper size either
to seize them or report them to the Conservancy.
The Leigh men ought not to
fish farther up the Thames than Hope
Point.
There is no whitebait fishing at
Leigh, but there are dabs (flounders) and
a few soles; the bass and the grey mullet
occasionally visit the mouth of the Thames,
as do the shad, but in nothing like the
shoals which formerly gave names to
certain districts below London Bridge.
The picking of shrimps is an art alone
acquired by practice.
The fishmongers
who thus prepare them for sauce may be
seen to remove the shells of these "Undine of the waters " with marvellous
rapidity.
This is done by first a pressure
upon the tail with the thumb-nail, and at
the same time a twist which severs the
principal scale on the back; a second
movement strips the whole of the scales
off the shrimp, and, presto ! the flesh is
intact and free from incumbrance.
This,
however, can only be done when the
shrimps are perfectly fresh; if they are
dry and have been twice boiled, the process is tedious, and then they should not
be eaten by persons of weak stomachs.
Sonning, Berkshire, on the right bank,
from London 71¼ miles, from Oxford 40¼
miles.
Population, 465. Soil, gravel.
A pleasantly-situated village, with an
ancient brick bridge across the river, from
which two delightfully dissimilar views
are to be enjoyed.
Looking up stream,
the river which is here narrowed by
islands covered with osiers and pollard
willows, and shut in at the bend by the
noble forest trees of Holme Park, presents
the appearance of a placid lake.
The
contrast of colour between the bright
light greens of the foreground trees, the
richer tints of the grassy meadow in the
middle distance, and the dark, almost
sombre masses of the towering chestnuts in
the background, form a picture not easily
forgotten.
Looking down stream, an entirely different scene presents itself.
The
river takes its sinuous course between low
banks, its passage through the long open
plain being marked here and there with
pollards and osier-beds, and the background filled with the amphitheatre of
wooded heights above Henley.
Little
indication of the character of the village
is obtained from the river, but a few
minutes' walk inland will disclose as pretty
a little place as can well be desired, containing many excellent houses, evidently
well looked after and cared for, and with
good old-fashioned gardens.
Sonning is
not without literary associations, as the
"Peter Plymley Letters" of Sydney Smith
were written in a cottage in the village.
The church, whose gray square embattled
tower adds greatly to the charm of the
up-river view from the bridge, is well
worth a lengthened visit, containing as it
does great wealth of interesting monuments and brasses, besides presenting in
itself many notable architectural features.
On the north side is a good old porch of
elaborate design, over which is an image of
St.Andrew; and some curious iron
clamps on the belfry door bear the old
bell inscription: "Deum laudo, vivos
voco, mortuos ploro"
The Sonning peal
of bells has long been celebrated, and
a curious entry in the archives of the
Ancient Society of College Youths records
their victory in a competition for a two handled silver cup, the inscription on
which says: "This cup, the gift of Mr.Peter Bluck, of Sonning, in the county
of Berks, was adjudged to the Society of
College Youths for the superior style in
which they rang ten hundred and eight
bob major in a contest with the Oxford
and Farnham Societies, at the above
parish church, on Monday, Aug. 4th,
1783."
The church contains nave, chancel, and aisles; the north chancel aisle
being specially remarkable for the beautiful carving with which it is enriched.
The handsome altar of recent date is also
elaborately decorated with sculpture,
the font is modern, as is its lofty carved
oak tabernacle covering, both probably
dating from the restoration of the church
in 1853.
On the west wall of the south
aisle is a handsome marble monument
with brasses, to the memory of various
members of the family of Palmer of Home
Park.
In the south aisle is a painted
marble monument, dated 1630, to Katharine, Lady Lidcott, who kneels at a
prie-dieu, a good specimen of this kind
of work, and in striking contrast to a
pretentious and conventional monument
hard by, the work of R. Westmacott,
jun., and erected to the memory of W.Barker, who died 1758.
In a chapel
divided from the south aisle by an oak
screen, is a kind of mortuary chapel,
almost entirely allotted to monuments of
the Barker family, which is now, however, nearly wholly occupied by the
organ.
It also contained a ponderous
slab, supported by four chubby marble
angels, and surmounted by two marble
pickle-jars of colossal size, the whole
being in honour of one Sir Thomas Rich
and his son, who died respectively 1667
and 1613.
This now stands at the west
end of the church under the tower.
Under the east window was a very old
monument (now removed to the south wall,
close to the Barker monument), depicting
the kneeling figures of three knights in
armour, and three ladies, with a certain
grotesqueness in the character of the
faces.
The inscription is unfortunately
undecipherable, only sufficient remaining
to show that it was of a poetical character.
Lord Stowell is among the
celebrities who are buried at Sonning.
The brasses in this church comprise
many full-length figures of members of
the Barker family, dating from the middle
of the 16th century, one of which, to
Anne Staverton, daughter and "sole
heire" of William Barker, who died
1585, has the following quaint inscrip-
tion:
A frend unto the widdoo, fatherles, sycke and poore,
A comforte and a suckour contynened she ever more.
Hard by is an unusually good brass in
memory of Laurentius Ffyton, who is
represented in armour, each corner of the
brass bearing an elaborate coat of arms:
the date is 1434.
In the neighbourhood
is a brass to William Barker and Anne
his wife, with the following quaint inscription:
Here lyeth the corps of William Barker, Esquire in bowelle of this grave
Whose dayes by all mens doome deserve a longer life to have.
You widowes wayle his losse and orphanes, wythe his lyffe
You dearly want his wysdomes skyll, whose causes are at stryffe.
Nor you allone lament, your frynde's untymely ffate,
His Ann doth morne amonge the most, who least maye misse her mate
Ann, spronge of Stowghton's stocke, an ancient progeny
She wyth her chyldren wayle this chaunce, and doleffull destenye.
Yet this bothe we and all have mostlye to rejoice
His faithe and fraudles hart hathe wonne the people's voyce
His bodie in this soile and earthlye fear doth lye,
His ffame in ayre, his ghost for ay doth yve alofte the skye.
An odd epitaph on Elizabeth Chute,
a child of the tenderest years, deserves
quotation:
What Beauty wold have lovely stild
What manners sweete what nature mild,
What wonder perfect all were fild
Vpon Reccord in this one child
And till the comming of the Soule
To call the flesh, we keepe ye Roule.
There are two curious tablets in the wall
by the vestry door, dated 1533 and 1605;
and the vestry, which is screened from the
north aisle by a somewhat similar oak
screen to that on the opposite side of the
church, contains a fine old carved oak chair
and table, the latter much resembling
that in the hall of Christ's Hospital at
Abingdon.
There is a fine view from the
top of the church tower.
Sir Thomas
Rich, the lord of the manor, left some
years ago £20 per annum for the free
instruction of forty poor boys, and they
were taught in the master's cottage until
the erection of the new schoolroom by
the late Robert Palmer, Esq., of Holme
Park.
Here is a splendid stretch of jack water,
well looked after. Barbel, roach, &c,
plentiful.
An omnibus runs daily between Sonning and Reading, leaving the "Peacock" Inn, Broad-street, Reading, at
3am, 12 noon, and 4pm, returning
from Sonning at 10am, 2 and 7pm;
the journey occupies about an hour.
Hotels: The "French Horn" on the Oxfordshire side, rebuilt in 1883;
the "White Hart", on the Berkshire bank;
the "Bull", just through the churchyard.
Place of Worship: St.Andrew's.
Police: A constable lives in the village.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office, five minutes from river (money
order, savings bank, and telegraph office).
Mails from London 7.10am, and 12.15pm; Sunday, 7.10am,
Mails for London, 6.50 and 10.30pm; Sunday, 12.30pm
Nearest Bridges: Sonning; up, Caversham, 3¼ miles; down, Henley 6¼ miles.
Locks: Sonning; up, Caversham about 3 miles; Shiplake 2½ miles.
Ferry: Wargrave.
Railway Station: Twyford, G.W.R.
Fares, Twyford to Padd: 1st, 5/6,
9/3; 2nd, 4/2, 7/-; 3rd, 2/9½.
The Source of the Thames: As is
the case with many other respectable
rivers, there is some little doubt as to
what is the actual source of the Thames.
Some authorities have regarded a river
called the Churn, which has its rise at a
place called Seven Springs, a short
distance from Cheltenham, as the real
source of the Thames; but others, including such writers as Leland, Stow,
and Camden, give the distinction to
Thames Head near Cirencester.
Between
Thames Head and Cricklade, however,
where the Churn and the stream from
Thames Head amalgamate, the river is
a small matter enough, and it is not
advisable to take boat even at this point,
as the stream, though navigable for small
boats, is still very narrow - in dry seasons
inconveniently so.
Southend, Essex, on the left bank at
the mouth of the Thames, from London
about 43 miles.
A station on the London,
Tilbury, and Southend Railway, about
1 hour 45 minutes by ordinary trains, and
1 hour 10 minutes by fast trains, from
Fenchurch-street.
The station is 5 minutes' walk from the Terrace; flys meet
the trains.
Population, about 5,000.
Soil, clay and gravel.
The West of London, at least, has for
many years had a very erroneous idea of
this pretty little town.
It has been looked
upon as a sort of Whitechapel-on-Sea,
and comic writers have lost no opportunity of making capital out of the
cockneyism and vulgarity which they have
assumed to be particularly rampant in
Southend.
It will be a surprise, therefore, to most visitors to find a clean,
quiet, well-built, well-arranged, and old-fashioned watering-place, with most of
the advantages, and with comparatively
few of the drawbacks to be found in many
more pretentious places.
It is no doubt
true that Southend is a favourite place
for excursionists, and that 'Arry occasionally descends upon the place in his
thousands, but he confines himself for
the most part to the old town, which is by
the side of the river (or sea, as the natives
prefer to call it), where he finds every
accommodation in the way of taverns,
cheap dinners, ninepenny teas, oysters in
the season (which here appears to be
July), the toothsome cockle, and the
succulent whelk, and it is scarcely necesary to add, the domestic shrimp and
"crease".
'Arry is also to be found on
the pier, where, arrayed in rainbow
tweeds, he delights in fishing for dabs,
and endeavouring to persuade himself
that the telescope which he is always
eager to borrow is of the smallest assistance to him.
The beach, too, is a
favourite place for excursionists, and
the bathing-machines are extensively
patronised.
That the strict rules of
decency are not observed so well as could
be wished, is unfortunately not peculiar
to Southend.
As to these matters, English
arrangements are almost universally bad,
and Southend is no better and no worse
than its more aristocratic rivals.
But the
bulk of the excursionists to Southend are
the children who come down in large and
happy parties in charge of schoolmaster
or parson, for "a day in the country",
and whose enjoyment of the place, and
of the unwonted fresh air - for Southend
air is fresh and invigorating - is of itself
a pleasure to watch.
Even in the fullest
and most lively part of the season, and in
the very crisis of a big excursionists' day,
that part of Southend on the cliff from
the Royal Hotel to St.John's College, is
as quiet and decorous as the Lees at
Folkestone.
Indeed, the front of Cliff
Town is remarkably like the Lees in the
earlier days of Folkestone as a watering-
place.
Along the front of Royal-terrace,
and extending to the sea-wall below, is
the Shrubbery (admission 2d)
This
pleasant and shady retreat is an exceedingly good instance of how much can be
effected with a piece of waste cliff by a
little expert landscape gardening.
A local
and enthusiastic writer thus describes the
Shrubbery, not without a touch of gush:
"Here are many cool grots, fairy dells,
and leafy bowers, where one may enjoy
the latest novel from Mudie's, or the
enchanting aspect seaward, to be seen
through the leafy apertures formed by
the surrounding trees.
During the gloaming the promenade is crowded by the
elite, who have assembled to listen to the
bewitching notes of the nightingale."
This is, perhaps, too poetical a description, but there can be no doubt that the
Shrubbery is a great addition to the
attractions of the town, and that its
views of Sheerness, the Kentish Hills,
and the varying stream of traffic that
ebbs and flows past Southend are both
cheerful and picturesque.
In addition to
the Old Town and Cliff Town, Southend
has two other suburbs, the Park Estate
at the back of Cliff Town, and Porter's
Town some little distance eastward of
the railway-station.
The new portions
of the town are in nearly all cases well
planned and carefully laid out.
Prittlewell, an ancient village, of which, in fact,
Southend is only a hamlet, is distant a
mile and a half inland.
The church at
Prittlewell is large and handsome, mainly
perpendicular, but containing remains of
much earlier work.
The tower is considered to be one of the finest in the
county.
One of the great institutions of Southend is the pier, one of the longest, if not
the longest in England.
The tide receding for nearly a mile has necessitated
the extension of the pier to a distance of
a mile and a quarter.
A tramway runs
the entire length, and the tram-cars would
be even more useful than they are if
more frequent journeys were made.
The
fare each way is 3d.
The pier toll is 1d
Southend Pier not only enjoys the distinction of being one of the longest piers
extant, but affords accommodation to perhaps the smallest music-hall and stage
ever seen.
During the season concerts
take place within its canvas walls in the
afternoon and evening.
The public hall in Alexandra-street is a
convenient building, seating upwards of
500, and provided with a stage and all
appliances for theatrical performances.
St.Stephen's Convalescent Home, in
connection with St.Stephen's, Poplar,
was opened in 1876 for the accommodation
of 8 or 10 respectable women or children,
at a charge of 8s to 10s per week.
The Milton Hall Convent is a Home for
poor old and infirm people and orphan
and incurable children.
It is supported
by voluntary contributions of money and
food, and is a branch of the Hammersmith Institution of the Sisters of Nazareth.
A masonic lodge (Priory, 1,000) meets at
the Middleton Hotel close by the station.
The country about Southend is somewhat flat, but is well wooded, and affords
many good walks and drives.
Leigh
(which see), 4 miles; Shoebury (which see)>
5 miles; Hadleigh, 6 miles; and Rayleigh, 8 miles, are favourite land excursions, while steamers run via Sheerness,
to Chatham and Rochester, a pleasant
trip of about two hours.
There is one
drawback to Southend, and, in truth, a
somewhat serious one.
The service of
trains is by no means all that it should
be, and the arrangements generally at
the squalid Fenchurch-street station are
simply deplorable.
The fares are certainly
low, but little else can be said in favour
of the line.
Bank:Sparrow, Tuffnell, and Co., High-street.
Hotels: "Royal", facing the sea;
"Hope", Old Town; " Ship", Old Town;
"Middleton", close to railway station.
Places of Worship: All Saints, Porter's Town; St.John the Baptist
(parish church); and St.Mary the Virgin,
Prittlewell; the Roman Catholic Church
of Our Lady and St.Helen, Empress;
Trinity, Reformed Church of England;
and r Baptist, Congregational, Independent, Methodist, and Wesleyan Chapels.
Police: Station, Alexandra-street.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, savings bank, telegraph, and
insurance), Alexandra-street.
Mails from London, 7 and 9.15am, and 6.45pm
Mails for London, 8.35 and 11.05am, and 1.35 and 7pm, Sunday, 6.30pm
The Receiving Houses at Marine-parade, Park-street, and Porter's Town are cleared
a quarter of an hour earlier.
Nearest Railway, Steamboat Pier,
and Ferry: (steamer to Sheerness in sum-
mer), Southend.
Fares to Fenchurch-street, 1st, 4/4,
7/-; 2nd, 3/- 5/-; 3rd, 2/2, 4/4.
Southern Outfall Sewer, situate at
Crossness Point, about two miles across
the marshes from Abbey Wood Station,
North Kent line.
Intending visitors will
do well before taking their tickets to
ascertain at what time their train will
arrive, as the officials do not consider it
necessary in issuing them to give any
warning when the necessary change of
trains at Woolwich Arsenal happens to
involve a delay at that comfortable station
of an hour and a half or so.
Permission
to view may be obtained at the Engineers'
Department, Metropolitan Board of
Works, Spring Gardens, S.W.
South Stoke, sometimes called Stoke
Abbas, Oxfordshire, on the left bank,
opposite Moulsford - a station on the
Great Western Railway 48 miles from
Paddington, from London 87 miles, from
Oxford 24½ miles.
Population (including
Woodcote), 761. Soil, chiefly chalk.
The
Church of St.Andrew was restored and
thoroughly repaired in 1858, and calls
for no particular notice.
The school, now
under a Board, was endowed with twenty
acres of land left by the Rev.Griffith
Higgs, D.D., 1659, for the purpose.
Among other charities are the following: Dr.Higgs also left £5 per annum
for ever, in 1659, to be given annually to
the poor; £3 to be given to six poor
families "of South Stoke below the Hill",
and £2 to six of "Woodcote".
This
charity is called "the doctor's gift".
Augustine Knapp, in 1602, left 20s a
year for the poor.
Henry Parslow, in
1675, left a great coat to one poor man
of South Stoke, and to two poor men of
Woodcote, to be given yearly.
A sum of
£300 (three per cents) was recently left
by Mr.W.Claxson, for the poor of
Woodcote only.
Places of Worship: St.Andrew's;
and St.Leonard's, Woodcote.
Postal Arrangements: Letters
through Wallingford.
Mail from London, 7.30a.m
Mail for London, 5.15pm
Nearest money-order, savings bank, and
telegraph office, Goring; insurance, &c,
Wallingford.
Nearest Bridges: up, Wallingford 3¾ miles; down, Streatley, 2¼ miles.
Locks: up, [Wallingford 3¼ miles]; down, Cleeve 2 miles.
Ferries: Moulsford and Little Stoke.
Railway Stations: Goring and Moulsford, G.W.R.
Fares, Goring to Paddington, 1st,
7/10, 14/-; 2nd, 5/11, 10/6; 3rd, 3/9.
Moulsford to Paddington: 1st, 8/5, 14/6;
2nd, 6/3, 11/-; 3rd, 3/11.
Southwark Bridge has of late years
been much improved by the introduction
of a little colour into the painting of its
ironwork arches, which were formerly all
in solemn black, and had a very heavy
appearance.
The credit of being the
handsomest iron bridge across the river
rests between it and Blackfriars Bridge;
and on the whole, though the latter is
the more gorgeous, the former is perhaps
the more striking.
The length is 708 ft,
or little more than half that of Waterloo.
The arches, three in number, rest on
stone piers; the centre arch having a
span of 402 ft: the longest ever attempted until the adoption of the tubular
principle - and the two shore arches
210 ft each.
From the inconvenience
of its approaches this handsome bridge
has been from the first comparatively
valueless.
Spit Buoy: A 6-foot can-buoy, made
of wood, and painted black.
It is situated
in Sea Reach, off Leigh, and inside
Southend Pier to the westward.
It marks
6 feet of water at low-water spring tide. It is moored with 6 fathom of chain.
This buoy belongs to the Trinity House.
Staines, Middlesex, on the left bank,
from Oxford 76 miles; from London 35½
miles.
A station on the London and
South Western Railway, about 19 miles
from Waterloo; trains take about 45
minutes.
The station is 10 minutes' walk
from the Angel Hotel in the centre of the
town; flys meet the trains.
Population,
about 5,000. Soil alluvial and gravel.
Staines is a clean, well-built, comfortable
and quiet little town, offering but few
points of general interest.
The river is here crossed by a handsome stone bridge
of three arches, designed by Rennie.
The parish church, St.Mary's, is situated
near the river, at the end of Church-street, and is a modern erection of no
particular interest save that the red brick
tower, which was built in 1631, is the
work of Inigo Jones, as is recorded on a
stone let into the wall in 1791, and bearing the names of the then churchwardens,
"Walter Molt and Daniel Endorb".
About a hundred yards to the left on
leaving the churchyard is Duncroft, a
good specimen of Elizabethan architecture, quaintly gabled and mullioned,
standing in a pleasaunce remarkable for
the beauty of its trees and shrubs.
The
house is sometimes attributed to an
earlier period, and there is even a popular
superstition that it was once a palace of
King John.
This, of course, is out of
the question, although it may well be that
the site was formally occupied by a royal
residence.
Local tradition has it that in
this house or its predecessor the king
slept on the night before Magna Charta
was signed.
There is an annual regatta
of a local character under the auspices of
the tradesmen of the town.
A masonic
lodge meets at the Angel Hotel.
The 44th
Company, 7th Administrative Battalion
Middlesex R.V., have their headquarters
in Thames-street.
The Mechanics' Institute and Reading Room is in Church-street.
The subscription for honorary
members is £1 1s per annum; for ordinary
members 2s per quarter, and the admission fee for casual visitors is 1d per diem.
Among the summer excitements are the
daily visits of the coach, which here
changes horses, on its way to and from
Windsor; but it must be confessed that
the town is not strong in amusements.
Little of Staines is at present to be seen
from the river, and that little is not
interesting.
The handsome Town Hall,
the funds for the erection of which
gradually accrued from a Town Hall
Improvement Rate, is a great acquisition
to the town itself, but unfortunately turns
its back upon the river, the banks of
which, except for an embanked wall and
terrace at this point, still present the uninviting and untidy prospect which is so
usual with Thames-side towns.
On approaching Staines from Bell
Weir Lock, a channel to the left beyond
the gas-works on the right bank leads to
Tims's boat-house and landing-stage (ten
minutes from the "Angel", via Church-street), where boats can be housed or
hired, and where are kept the Royal
Humane Society's drags and life-buoys.
Here, also, is a ladies' swimming-bath;
subscription, 10s per annum; single bath, 4d;
Lower down, past the bridge, is the
Club landing-stage, and farther still, near
the railway-bridge, is the comfortable
"Packhorse Hotel", with a convenient
landing-stage, excellent boat-house, and
good accommodation for oarsmen.
A
footpath immediately opposite the "Pack-horse" leads to the station (nine minutes):
the High-street is distant four minutes'
walk.
There is also a landing-stage and
boat-house at the "Swan Hotel" (the
headquarters ot the Staines Rowing Club)
on the right bank.
The fishing at Staines is very uncertain;
good takes are sometimes made, but
these are the exception.
Penton Hook,
lower down, is a perfect trout preserve.
Bank: Ashby and Co. High-street.
Fire: Brigade under Local Board:
Captain, first officer, second officer, and
engineer, nine gentlemen, and four
working-men. Engine-house, Church-street.
Hotels: "Angel", "Railway", and "Packhorse" by the river.
Places of Worship: St.Mary's
(parish); St.Peter's Mission, Edghill-road; Friends' Meeting House, and
Baptist Congregational and Wesleyan
Chapels.
Police: Station, London-road.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
(money order, savings bank, telegraph,
insurance office), High-street.
Mails from London, 7 and 9.45am, 4.30 and 5.45pm; Sunday, 7am,
Mails for London, 9.35 and 11.05am, 4.30 and 8.30pm; Sunday, 7.50pm
Nearest Bridges: Staines; up, Albert, 4¾ miles; down, Chertsey, 3¾ miles.
Locks: up, Bell Weir, 1¼ mile; down, Penton Hook, 1½ mile.
Ferry: Laleham.
Railway Station: Staines.
Fares to London: 1st, 3/3, 5/-; 2nd,
2/3, 3/6; 3rd, 1/7, 3/-
Staines Rowing Club: Subscription,
10/6.
Colours, red and black.
Boat-
house, "Swan Hotel", near Staines
Bridge (right bank).
Stanton Harcourt, a village in Oxfordshire, about two miles from Bablock
Hithe Ferry, is distinguished in county
history as the manor of the Harcourt
family, to whom it was granted in the
time of Henry I., and who resided here
until late in the 17th century, when they
removed to Nuneham Courtney.
To
students of English literature Stanton
Harcourt is still more interesting as
having been frequently visited by Pope,
who finished the translation of the fifth
book of "Homer" in the study which
was allotted to his use by the Harcourt
of that time - a circumstance which he
recorded with a diamond on one of the
panes of the window, a curious and
interesting autograph still preserved at
Nuneham Courtney.
Of the old manor house little now remains, except the
tower, on the second floor of which
Pope's study still exists, the view from
it over the surrounding country being
very charming.
The kitchen of the old
house also remains, and is almost unique,
there being, it is said, but one other of
the period in England.
It is of enormous
size, with prodigious arrangements for
furnaces, but without a chimney, the
smoke being allowed to escape by an
ingenious arrangement of loopholes and
shutters in the lofty roof.
The present
pretty house is built upon the site of the
old lodge.
The village itself is very
charming, and possesses a remarkably
handsome church with chancel, nave,
transepts, and a fine square tower, at the
north-east corner of which is a tourelle.
There is excellent Norman work in the
building, and some remarkably good
windows, &c., of the Early English
period.
A fine old piscina in the chancel
and the old rood screen are also interesting.
On the south of the chancel is the
private chapel of the Harcourt family,
containing four altar tombs with recum-
bent figures representing distinguished
members of the family, among them Sir
Robert Harcourt, in plate armour and the
mantle of the Garter, who died in 1490;
another Sir Robert Harcourt, who fought
at Bosworth; George Simon, Earl Harcourt, who died in 1809; and Archbishop
Harcourt, dated 1847.
The chapel also
contains a brass memorial tablet to members of the family, the list beginning with
"Bernard the Dane", 876.
In the south
of the church is a curious marble mural
monument, with half-length figures holding skulls, of Philip Harcourt and his
wife, 1688, and a passable statue of Field
Marshal Harcourt, 1830.
Noticeable
also is a large marble mural tablet with
two allegorical female figures as supports.
Two well-preserved brasses will be found
on the chancel floor, and in the chancel
is an altar-tomb with a painted recumbent
female figure; and another, which probably also at one time had a figure under
its canopy.
Among the minor celebrities
of Stanton Harcourt are John Hewitt and
Sarah Drew, two virtuous villagers, who,
just before the day fixed for their marriage,
in 1717, were struck dead together by
lightning.
This incident greatly exercised the sentimental feelings of Lady
Mary Wortley Montague and Mr.Pope.
The lovers are buried in Stanton Harcourt
churchyard, and on the south side of the
church is a tablet bearing the following
epitaph from the pen of Pope himself,
whose genius would appear to have somewhat deserted him during its composition:
Think not by rigorous judgment seized
A pair so faithful could expire;
Victims so pure Heaven saw well pleas'd,
And snatch'd them in celestial fire.
Live well and fear no sudden fate;
When God calls virtue to the grave,
Alike 'tis justice soon or late,
Mercy alike to kill and save.
Virtue unmoved can hear the call,
And face the flash that melts the ball.
Some half-mile from Stanton Harcourt
are two large stones called the "Devil's
Quoits", which are said, on doubtful
authority, to have been set up to commemorate a great battle fought in 614
between the Britons and the Saxons under
that Cynegil who was subsequently baptized by Birinus at Dorchester.
The soil of Stanton Harcourt is gravel,
and the population of the village numbers
between 600 and 700.
Postal Arrangements: Post Office
in the village (nearest money order,
savings bank, and telegraph office, Eynsham).
Nearest Railway Station, Eynsham,
about 3 miles (which see).
Steamboats: The following particulars have been kindly furnished for our
edition of 1885 by Mr.Edgar Shand, the
General Manager of the London Steamboat Co., Limited, Adelaide-buildings,
London Bridge.
Price List of Boats for Private
Excursion Parties: The prices include pier dues, except at Blackwall,
North Woolwich, all piers below except
Rosherville Pier, Woolwich, and Teddington Lock dues.
The Down River Boats, from Westminster to Gravesend or Rosherville, vary in their carrying capacity from the Alexandra, which can take 1048 passengers,
to the Swzvift, with 332.
For the boats
carrying over 1000 passengers, the charge
for any day except Saturday, Sunday,
or Monday, is £50, and on Mondays
and Saturdays £55.
The next class (900 passengers) £40 and £45;
the next (610 to 640 passengers) £30 and £35;
the next (546) £20 and £25;
the next
(454) £18 and £20;
the next (417 to 437)
£16 and £18;
and the smallest (332 to
405) £14 and £15.
The boats are licensed to carry a
smaller number of persons between
Westminster and Southend or Sheerness, their carrying capacity and prices
being as follows:
556 passengers, any day except Saturday, Sunday, or Monday £55; Mondays and Saturdays, £60;
563 £55 and £60;
477, £45 and £50;
329 to 344, £35 and £40;
291, £25 and
£30;
250, £21 and £25;
203 to 221,
£18 and £20;
Below 200, £17 and
£18.
Between London Bridge and Clacton-on-Sea, the price on any day except
Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, is, up
to 439 passengers, £65, and below 300,
£50.
Up River Boats:From Chelsea or
London Bridge to Gravesend or Rosherville, the prices are, for any day except
Saturday, Sunday, or Monday,
up to
453 passengers, £16, and on Mondays
and Saturdays £18;
between 351 and
372 passengers, £14 and £15;
and
between 322 and 345, £10 and £11
For the same sized boats the charges
are, between Chelsea or London Bridge
and Woolwich, £12, £11, and £10;
between London Bridge and Kew or
Richmond, £14, £13, and £12;
and
between London Bridge and Hampton
Court, £18.
Special Notice: N.B.
Above Gravesend, children not in arms count as
adults; below that station, two children under twelve count as one adult.
Parties
engaging boats are informed that they
will be held responsible for any fine or
other penalty for which the Company may
be held liable for any infringement of this
notice.
No vessels will be let for excursions on
Sundays, General Holidays, or days of
Sailing or Rowing Matches, except by
special agreement.
No vessel will be
allowed to leave Sheerness after 4.30pm;
Gravesend after 6.30pm; Woolwich
or Greenwich after 7.30pm; Kew after
6.30pm; Hampton after 5.
30pm
Parties engaging a boat are also informed that tickets are not allowed to be
sold on or near the piers, either before or
on the day of the Excursion, nor for
Rowing Matches.
Rowing Matches:
To accompany
Match in afternoon from London to
Erith with 200 passengers, £11;
Greenwich or Woolwich to Erith only, with
200 passengers, £11.
If required for excursion after Match, £12.
Putney to Mortlake from London Bridge, £10;
if the boat proceeds to Kew, £13, including
landing; or to Richmond, £14.
The
numbers to be limited to 200 on any one
boat.
List of Piers and Places at which
the Company's Steamboats Call.
Hampton Court: For the Palace and Bushey-park.
Teddington Lock and Petersham.
Richmond: For hill, park, and boating.
Kew: Gardens.
Hammersmith: Metropolitan & District Railway.
Putney: for Fulham( Metropolitan Railway Station).
Chelsea and Cadogan: For Exhibition.
Battersea Park
Battersea Park (Railway Pier): For Albert Palace and London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway.
Pimlico:For Victoria.
Millbank: Penitentiary.
Lambeth: For Kennington-road, Princess-street, the Palace, and St.Thomas's Hospital
Westminster: For Parliament Houses, District Railway, Abbey, Parks, and Public Offices.
Charing Cross: For Charing Cross, Regent-street, St.Martin's-lane, Pall Mall, and Oxford-street.
>Waterloo:
Temple: For Strand, Chancery-lan