The Goring Gap in which the Thames divides the Berkshire Downs from the Chiltern Hills
The Grotto (Ilam House), Left bank
1811: The Grotto -
The Grotto, 1811
1884: The Grotto, Dredge -
The Grotto, Dredge, 1884
© Oxfordshire County Council Photographic Archive; D2510951a
1881: George Leslie, "Our River" -
... the house called the
Grotto must be quite familiar to any one who has travelled on the Great Western
line. The house is not very grottoish,
or grotesque, but it is a long comfortable white building (recently enlarged)
in a perfect situation, with finely timbered grounds, sloping steeply to the
water. A walk along the river bank,
beneath the trees, is the place of all others I should choose for a prowl on a
fine moonlight night, if I ever became a ghost with walking propensities.
The high ground upon which the Grotto stands
runs into the famous Streatley Hill, which forms such a landmark hereabouts,
with its little tufts of juniper and numerous flocks of sheep scattered on its
sides.
The Goring Gap
Aerial Views of Streatley & Goring -
And when you're here, I'm told that you
Should mount the hill and see the view;
And gaze and wonder, if you'd do
Its merits most completely:
The air is clear, the day is fine,
The prospect is, I know, divine
But most distinctly I decline
To climb the hill at Streatley !
But from the Hill, I understand
You gaze across rich pasture-land;
And fancy you see Oxford and
P'raps Wallingford and Wheatley:
Upon the winding Thames you gaze,
And, though the view's beyond all praise,
I'd rather much sit here and laze
Than scale the Hill at Streatley !
[ The complete poem by Ashby Sterry is quoted below Goring Lock. ]
1793: View towards Bassilden from Streatley Hill, Boydell Bassilden is Basilden Ferry, just below Gatehampton Railway Bridge
View towards Bassilden, from Streatley Hill. June 1, 1793.
J. Farington R.A. delt. J.C. Stadler sculpt.
(Published) by J. & J. Boydell, Shakespeare Gally. Pall
Mall & (No. 90) Cheapside (London)
1793: Streatley & Goring, Boydell's History of the Thames -
Streatley and Goring. June 1, 1793. J. Farington R.A. delt. J.C. Stadler sculpt.
by J. & J. Boydell, Shakespeare Gally. Pall Mall & (No. 90)
Cheapside.
Streatley, Havell's Picturesque Views of the Thames
1903: Goring and Streatley, Henry Taunt
Goring and Streatley, Henry Taunt, 1903
© Oxfordshire County Council Photographic Archive; HT9035
We've just a little shed at the bottom of our garden