Albany Reach

Above Thames Ditton Island

River Mole (& Ember)

Left bank below Hampton Court Bridge

Edmund Spencer -

Mole that like a Mousling mole doth make His way still underground, till the Thames he overtake.

Robert Bloomfield -

Where the Mole still glides, dwells peace, and peace is wealth to me.

1859: The Thames, Mr & Mrs Hall

The first object that attracts our notice is the junction of the "silent Mole" with the waters of the Thames. This tributary, itself produced by the union of a numerous series of small streams and brooks, some of which rise in Sussex, and others in Surrey, assumes the importance of a river near Reigate, in the latter county, from whence its course lies in a north-westerly direction. Winding amidst the lovely scenery of central Surrey, the Mole flows on past Dorking, Leatherhead, and Cobham; and then, taking its leave of bold hills and rich woods and ancestral mansions, it hastens through the flat region of the Moulseys towards the Thames. Much has been written, both in poetry and prose, upon the Mole, and many are the landscapes that other artists besides Witherington have painted near its tranquil waters. As late as the times of the lordly builder of Hampton Court, known as the "Emlay", this river has both changed its name and acquired its celebrity, from the singular circumstances that attend its career in the neighbourhood of Box Hill and Norbury Park, Here the bed of the stream is composed of a very porous earth, in which, at some little depth below the surface, many cavernous hollows are supposed to have been formed. In ordinary seasons the supply of water is sufficient, as well to fill these hidden recesses as to maintain the stream itself at its ordinary level; not so, however, in any time of drought; then the stream fails, and for some distance the channel is dry, with the exception of here and there a standing pool. Near the bridge at Thorncroft the ground again becomes solid, and here accordingly the exhausted river rises in a strong spring, and resumes its original condition. As will be readily supposed, this singular interruption to the course of the Mole gave rise, at early periods, to a variety of marvellous legends. Old Camden does not fail to give his version of the wonder, and, according to him, the Mole at Box Hill absolutely leaves the surface of the earth for a while in order to traverse a dark and subterraneous channel, arched out for its reception, and for some hidden purpose, by the great engineer, Nature. We may add, that at Wey-pool, in the "porous" region, the river has hollowed out a basin about thirty feet in diameter, in which the curious process of its absorption may be observed.

WOLSEY'S TOWER

On the banks of the Mole there is yet a remnant of Wolsey's palace, "his palace of Esher-Place", to which he retired after "losing the favour" of King Henry, who had despoiled him of all his possessions, leaving him nothing — compelling him to beg from the monks at Leicester Abbey even

A little earth for charity!

William Wainfleet, who held the see of Winchester from 1447 to 1486, built a stately mansion of red brick on the borders of the Mole, and it became the episcopal residence. It was repaired and partially rebuilt by "the o'er-great cardinal"; and of this erection the gatehouse yet remains, a striking object on the banks of the pleasant river.
Milton speaks of the

Sullen Mole that runeth underneath;

Pope of the

Sullen Mole that hides his diving flood

And Drayton pictures the Thames hastening to soft dalliance with the Mole, — when he is reproved by his parents, Thame and Isis, who desire him, in preference, to mate with the Medway —

But Thames would hardly on: oft turning back, to show
From his much-loved Mole how loth he was to go.